Cut it out! We're Blushing!

Rod -

Something strange is going on here. If I add up all these places you've seen, women you've been involved with, ups and downs at G21, plus the family drama, my arithmetic places you at 73 years old, yet you're still in your 40s.

You sure are cramming a lot into those years!

Dan VanDeMortel


From Meredith T., No City Provided, USA:

The writing in My Glass House is excellent. The description of your time in Cairo made me feel like I was there.


From Douglas McDaniel, Newton, MA, USA:

Ed,

If you are soliciting opinions about the Freemasons, prepare to get so much info and disinfo, you'll never get to the bottom of it. They are designed that way, as circles within circles of intrigue. Like a really big corporation that gets a lot of work from the Pentagon. In the 20th century, Freemasonry sort of muted into a pretentious kind of Lions Club, a toothless shrub. But its ancestry, at least going back the French and American Revolutions, is extremely tree-like in significance. The gnosticism and free-associative spirit of the Enlightenment made the secretive organization the perfect place to spread revolutionary ideas. And there was a lot of anti-mason sentiment afterword, but the horse had already left the barn, so to speak.

Since sacred architecture was the main ideal, they were hackers of their day, reinventing the social order much like hackers reinvent and spread ideas around the Net, except back then it was more inefficient, and to press delete meant you had to pay someone to run the guillotine. I suppose that's a bizarre statement, but if you look in history at such things as the French Revolution's inner-circle, The Council of the Twenty-Two, or the American version, based in Boston, the Committee for Public Safety, you will find a revolutionary instruction manual. Lots of noise, from both the left and the right, has been committed to this growing body of information about the so-called masonic conspiracy. One excellent book, "The Temple of the Lodge," by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, does a great job of connecting the Knights of Templar to the Scottish Rite, which then spread as Freemasonry in England and so on. A very responsible, scholarly work in a land of wacko theories.

What surprised me about your story was the anti-Italian connection. I suppose that Jacques DeMolay was burned at the stake by the agents of Rome, and so Freemasonry has always had a gripe with Catholicism. In fact, that may be the whole reason for the revolutionary bent of the organization in the 18th century. But there must be plenty of Italians with freemason connections. There was a big scandal in the late 1970s and early 1980s about the P-2 Lodge in Italy, one of the best known witch hunts for masons in the past 30 years. The left wing made a lot of it in those days.

Mostly, though, the masons have morphed into something more pervasive in our culture. The guys with the rings and handshakes are just sentimental shriners now. The real Illuminati are running the Web, and vice versa. Grade 1: AOL; Grade 2: WWW; Grade 3: G21.net (and places like this); and so on...

Douglas McDaniel


ED CANTARELLA RESPONDS:
Dear Doug:

I understand more of their organization and their alleged history then I let on....I was hoping for some interesting feedback......wondering if anyone will whip out the supposed connections back to the Hassishins {spelling not even close], an ancient order of assassins from what is now known as Iraq, who did all their work while very stoned on - Hashish. Bidis and other burnables: alot of "sinful" behaviour involves a highly social aspect, "don't bogart that joint, my friend". LOL

Thanks again for responding,
Ed Cantarella


From Richard R., Berlin, GERMANY:

I have been meaning to write in to your Webzine for weeks now to compliment you on the excellent personal reporting being done by Mr. Rendt Gorter on the devastation of Chechnya. I have enjoyed hearing about this conflict from the point of view of an Aid worker and hope you will continue to devote space to such important and unreported stories from outside of the normal United States of America areas of concern.

Great Work!
Richard R.

Subject: Unbound - "Sailin Shoes"

Dear Rod:

Apparently thinking about "people groups" has some common threads running through it. I backed out of my class reunion at the last minute because I wasn't sure that I wanted to see many of the people who would be there. Unlike yours,my high school was racial balanced(almost 50/50,white vs.blackwith a few percentage points going to the "other" grouping); however, the reigning "nerds" had their little clique which I thoroughly despised. I couldn't bring myself to face the same people who:(a) never invited me(or my bro - *salutorion* for his class) to join the National Honor Society, even though I had the grades and curriculeum(and drama and orchestra);(b) kept me from being involved with both the student press and student council; and(c) are the ones who set up the reunions. Maybe it's a "Fraternity" thing; then again, maybe a lot of it has to do with the arrogance, the hubris, the ignorance that comes out of groups formed to seperate the "In Crowd" from the out crowd.(Remember that old song,"I'm in with the In Crowd..."?)

Now, not meant to piss you off or anything, but...One disturbing,reoccurring "thread", that keeps popping up in this "Unbound", is your implication/impression that you were smarter and more talented than most of your fellow classmates - many of whom may have felt the same way about themselves. It sounds like you got more than a healthy portion of "fame and notariety" while you were there - maybe too much. Actually, many schools will not allow the same student to head more than one "representative" position, because they want other individuals to have opportunities and it's not mentally healthy for the students(both the winners and the losers). Is there any possiblity that a portion of the student body and/or teaching body acquiesced to your leadership in the different organizations, in an attempt to seem liberated in their thinking, because of your minority status? Being part of the "In Crowd" requires support of other's in the "Crowd", just because they are part of "the crowd" - reciprocity. Were you really ready to reciprocate, delegate and allow someone else to "shine", even if it meant you had to step back from the limelight? Or were you disturbing the "In Crowd's" paradigm and pattern of reciprocity and member support? * Mutual admiration societies are not common among adolescents.*

Avoidance of Looming sexual involvement: hmmmm? Just say no.

Fraternally(and hopefully not about to go flying through the air like "burnt [wheat]toast"),
EC


From Ed Cantarella, Pontiac, MI, USA:

SUBJECT: Valiant Valya

I am thankful for writers such as Rendt, bringing us these sights into what is happenig on the other side of Mother Earth. May God be with them.

EC


Mikael B., (No City Provided,) USA:

I really enjoy G21, and have been reading off and on for over a year... One thing that struck me particularly this time---the article on the Freemasons. Personally, I have been doing quite a bit of research on the Masons, as well as other secret societies. The tone of your article was very well thought out and executed, and I like how you ended it up with the emotion of, "They might be great, but boomer is a jerk", because that really does seem to be the case. It is very true that in recent years the Masons have opened up their membership ranks, and the only requisite now is a belief in a higher power--but not specifically any one higher supereme being. I am refreshed to see an objective take at a most interesting subject.

Mikael B.


Alexis R., Fort Worth, TX, USA:

Dear Rod,

Like many others who write in, I think you do a great job at the G21 of bringing us readers consistently interesting and varied stories from regions of the world we might not hear about. I love the fact that you have writers from places like Eastern Europe and India who bring us new perspectives on the life of the world.

But there's something I don't get which your last few weeks have brought more and more to my attention: What is Kevin Carey's "Day One" about exactly? Is he just your in-house pontificator or something?

Two: Why do you run a horoscope at all? It doesn't seem to fit.

Three: Why is "Recommended *Daily* Requirement" only updated three times a week?

I, for one, find these inconsistences troubling. Thanks for listening.

Alexis R.

AND your favorite e-mails from The World's Mailbox

Please take a minute of your time and check this site out http://www.lincslinks.com/index1.htm then click on the "PLEASE HELP" link.

We need your help. It will only take a minute or so and it won't cost you a cent. This is not a mlm or business opportunity or anything like that. Please take a minute of your busy day and go to our help page. We desperately need your help. And please tell your friends about our situation. We would be so thankful.

Thank you for your time.
Esther


From Ric W., Austin, TX, USA:

Hey, y'all. First The Hunger Site, then the Rainforest, and now Big Cats. That's the order of my business right after I log on. What a great use for this commercially driven medium. Love on ya.

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From John H., (No City Provided,) USA:

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.

Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

What kind of men were they?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists.

Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

These were not wild-eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians.

They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Rutledge, and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr. noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart.

Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.

Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution.

Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged: "For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

They gave you and me a free and independent America. The history books never told you a lot about what happened in the Revolutionary War. We didn't fight just the British. We were British subjects at that time and we fought our own government!

Some of us take these liberties so much for granted, but we shouldn't.

So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the price they paid.

I hope you will show your support by please sending this and sharing this with as many people as you can. It's time we get the word out that patriotism is NOT a sin, and the Fourth of July has more to it than beer, picnics, and baseball games.

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