A Child Saint to Divert the Catholic Youth?

Earlier this month, on the day of the canonization of Carlo Acutis (referred to as the "patron saint of the Internet," "God's Influencer" and the "first millennial saint") I questioned and in fact had a debate with Grok (AI) on the Acutis canonization. I asked: "Don't saints have to have performed miracles?" I was leery of the fact that the child saint had never actually performed any miracles in life. I believe the liberal/woke Pope Francis relaxed/downgraded the requirements while he was in power and Acutis's so-called "miracles" occurred after death. So, he created websites documenting miracles, but does that make him saint material? Acutis, at 15, after all, didn't have enough time to have been faced with the many challenges life brings to most saints, which cause them to question their faith.

Maybe it's inconceivable to some, but I compared the idea of Elvis Presley as having been far more deserving of canonization since he influenced generations the world over and brought more people to God/Jesus than almost anyone who ever lived. Most people don't know that the only Grammy award Elvis ever won was for his gospel music. Well, he wasn't a Catholic, and only Catholics are allowed to be sainted. Nonetheless, arguably, Elvis performed many miracles on earth. He was a humble, sweet man - he inspired, he was generous, he crossed the Color Line and did more to help society respect Black people in the Deep South than almost anyone. He was deeply devoted to God/Jesus every day of his life, in spite of his worldly struggles. His miracles were palpable.

"Elvis bridged racial divides in a segregated era - breaking barriers and inspiring unity..."

I truly believe the Catholic Church is trying to make Acutis into some kind of an icon to refill their dwindling coffers as well as their shrinking attendance due to all their scandals. Selecting an American Pope (though Leo seems to be more Peruvian) is one way (a nod to President Trump). Canonizing a 15-year-old Internet genius is another. But they're lowering their standards (a trend that began with far-left Pope Francis) out of desperation. In fact, they should be raising the standards of their moral authority by addressing the pedophile priest scandals head on instead of continuing to brush them aside.

Grok's comeback was surprisingly naive and/or seemingly in the tank for the Catholic Church, yet they denied it. Grok seemed unaware of the untold sums of money the Catholic Church will generate because of the child saint through merchandising, film, media and more...? This decision is a "hep" "solution" due to Carlo's modern appeal - handsome teen, youth/beauty... technology (which tends to distract humans from searching for the God within), i.e., there are already two films about Carlo.

When I think of a "real" Saint, I remember Saint Bernadette Soubirous/ Sainte Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes.... or Mother Teresa (1910–1997) who lived 87 years, dedicating over six decades to serving the poorest of the poor in Kolkata, India, through the Missionaries of Charity. I tend not to agree with sainting someone who created Internet databases.

The pedophile priest "crisis" (costing the church over $3 billion in U.S. settlements alone) has more than eroded trust in the Catholic Church. The child saint could be a way of diverting the focus to a "positive, youthful figure" - albeit dead from Leukemia. Meanwhile, there are still no "abuse reforms." I always remember this incredible documentary which details just how the Catholic Church continues to sweep this terrible scandal aside - Pope after Pope... "Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God." Watch it and weep.

America's Modern-Day Gandhi Never Silenced

Iryna Zarutska, a young, Ukrainian refugee, came to America to pursue her dreams. Last month, she rode a train in North Carolina to her brutal death. The media hid the story because it was about a career criminal Black man murdering a white woman in cold blood - not their chosen narrative. It was the most horrifying video we'd seen of daily life in the U.S. We quickly came to learn that the monster was roaming free because of a BLM/DEI low-IQ activist judge who was soft on crime and had released him in spite of being a career criminal. That poor girl was stabbed to death surrounded by at least three Black onlookers who did nothing to help her! Turning Point CEO, Charlie Kirk, posted on X that it was "100% necessary to politicize the senseless murder" because politics were to blame for the crime. The post was Kirk's last before he, too, was assassinated two days later.

On September 10th, one day before the 24th anniversary of 9/11, the Conservative movement - and the world - lost their modern-day Gandhi at the tender age of 31. Charlie Kirk was assassinated because of the very ideologies polluting young minds - the youth of America he embraced, taught, counseled, inspired. Now 9/10 will forever commemorate the end of an exemplary life - gone in a flash, snuffed out by the very evil he devoted his life to expose.

I've worked in media for over 25 years. My business moves along with the ebb and flow of the news cycle. In all these years, I don't ever remember feeling as though everything came to a standstill (since 9/11/01) as it did the afternoon of Charlie's assassination. It was horrifying to see the fatal shot - LIVE on the Internet, without warning. In two days, we witnessed two humans being murdered LIVE on the World Wide Web for all the world to see (a la "Network"). It made me sick and awfully sad.

The world quickly began to realize that this was no ordinary event. We knew almost at once that Charlie had become the martyr of open debate in America - that his death may be God's way of reminding us to get along with our detractors - "love thine enemies," as Jesus said. Legions of not only MAGA are crying, me included... as the dark souls, evil demons, surround us all... and it hurts. Ghoulish, soulless, lost youth await the shadow demons to lead them into hell. Much of the media, like a cancer, struck back harshly and tried their usual tricks... but something had changed. Their celebration of this cold-blooded murder backfired in short shrift.

I watched a wise young man on TV named Skyler Baird who had been very near to Charlie as he was murdered. He cried and said, through his tears, "We are children of God. We ARE love. We are loved by God." That was Charlie's message. I kept remembering the scene in the movie, "Ghost" where the demonic shadow creatures drag bad people to hell. Those who are celebrating the assassination of Charlie are like the demons in that film. It's so frightening to think how ubiquitous they are.

Charlie - like John Lennon and Gandhi before him - underestimated his fame AND the evil threats in his midst. I wish he'd had better security. But the indoctrinated young man who ended the life of this good man is the Mark David Chapman of our time - a psychotic, delusional, brainwashed loner. Justice will be swift and thorough, and we should all pray for his soul and for his family and pastor who made a very tough choice by turning him in.

I, like so many others, have been in shock since 9/10. After all, we witnessed the assassination of a young man LIVE on all platforms. But I believe God awakened us all, so we are able to receive the Lord's message LOUD AND CLEAR that Charlie conveyed with every breath of his young life. Charlie, the happy warrior for Christ - now, a martyr - would be so glad to know that his message - that it's time to let love rule, come together, conquer hatred/the demonic forces - is finally sinking in. And now the sadness in the air can only be overtaken by God's love.

Words cannot express how in the space of a few days, the world has shifted on its axis... and suddenly, we're all aware of the force of God's LOVE... and the demons have been exposed to the LIGHT. This bright light shining from one devoted young American man is the final straw, the showdown, the last of the tolerance of evil from crazed ideologies disseminated by politicians and others who are out to destroy America and all of our values. It is Charlie's "Turning Point" that has exposed the darkest of the hellish underbelly that has lowered America's standards.

Charlie Kirk was not a politician, but, like Mahatma Gandhi, was unflinching in his shrewd adherence to his faith, principles and nonviolent approach. He was not an artist, but, like John Lennon, his anthem was about peace, family, love... and freedom from the status quo. His goodness and example of how to engage in intelligent discourse and debate transcends generations and all demographics everywhere. He has truly touched our hearts - by simply speaking the TRUTH.

I believe America's Gandhi, Charlie Kirk, is a man deserving of sainthood. He is the great martyr of open debate in America. And his death may be God's way of reminding us to get along with our detractors... love thine enemies. His grieving widow, Erika spoke so resolute and fierce: "My husband's voice will remain, and it will ring out louder and more clearly than ever. And his wisdom will endure."

Starship

This song is dedicated to Elon Musk and my wonderful friends, The Sharps, at SpaceX who are making dreams come true every day.

[LISTEN HERE]

STARSHIP

1. I am an astral soul from beyond the great unknown

but I’m just learning how to fly---

Face the approaching whirlwind, driven by the storm

So many miles-- above the sky

I’ve got a legion of missions left, I know---

Let me rise, blast off and go!---

______________________________________

[CHORUS]

Starship fly me away--- [fly me away]

Rest my spirit on a new shore

Help me find my way

Through the universal door---

______________________________________

2. Humanity's divided on the planet Earth

tossed upon the swelling tide---

I do believe it is a time for a rebirth

where we can reach the other side

I’ve got a legion of missions left, I know---

Let me rise, blast off and go!---

[CHORUS]

______________________________________

3. Though we have free will, we know there’s no escape

Life after life, we live and die---

to relive a single day, we tread forgotten paths

the destined goal is just too high---

I’ve got a legion of missions left, I know---

Let me rise, blast off and go!---

[CHORUS]

Once and forever, the dark may turn to night

But there’s always silver light

ON THE EVERLASTING ASTRAL FLIGHT!---

Ghosts in a Time Machine

[LISTEN HERE]

Ghosts in a Time Machine

Intro: Aha-- aahh--- (x4) [rhythmic force] 

Sea island cotton on plantation

The enslaved lived in damnation

Call to worship the creation

And it was a transformation /

Freedmen through the tribulation

waiting for emancipation

lived so long for activation

As the War destroyed the nation

[REFRAIN:] Gullah ghosts, anointed people... led by Spirit

__________________________________________________

[CHORUS]

Ghosts... in a time machine... Bring it back, bring it back (rep)

They're witnesses to transformation

in the conscience of the nation

They whisper through the old oak trees

They're voices of eternity---

__________________________________________________

And another generation,

the Gullah made their declaration

Sense and sound, a cultivation

howlin' in their congregation

Freedom was a celebration

Cut the chains of indignation

- the end of pain and devastation,

liberty of concentration

[REFRAIN:] Gullah ghosts, anointed people... led by Spirit

[CHORUS]

To open up the conversation

It was their determination

to bring forth peaceful integration

(and) such high art imagination

...of no more discrimination

And, glory be, their liberation

They knew it was an obligation

to teach their children of salvation

[REFRAIN:] Gullah ghosts, anointed people... led by Spirit

Ghosts... in a time machine... Bring it back, bring it back (rep)

They're voices of eternity---

My Lost Chicago

MY LOST CHICAGO

[LISTEN HERE]

[nod to Frank Sinatra's "Chicago" theme]

Ooo-- Ooo--

Chicago, Chicago-- da-da-da-da-da-da / da-da-da-da-

Chicago, Chicago-- da-da-da-da / da-da-da-da- Ah---- 

1. Once upon a time so long ago

I had a home outside Chicago

In Second City, it snowed and snowed---

Now it's broken--- oh--- oh--

My old--- lost--- Chicago-- mm---

2. Buddy's still playing his blues licks

Came across Route 66, ooh--

from the South side that I fled

so many years ago--- oh--- oh--

My cold--- lost--- Chicago-- mm---

[BRIDGE:]

Sweet memories of snowy avenues

Where they played the Delta blues

[Blues riff:]

The Windy City's howlin' in my soul

it rages on, it's taken its toll

All of my life it's stayed with me

the bustlin' folk and the blues city - ooh----

____________________________________

[REFRAIN:]

Chicago-- Oh--- I miss--- my-- sweet home---

I miss--- my-- sweet home--- ooh---

[Repeat intro theme]

3. Haunted by-- Lake Michigan haze

frozen nights and windy days

In Old Town I sang at the 'Earl'

I was-- a-- young, creative girl--

in my--- lost--- Chicago-- mm----

[REFRAIN]

Hymn #9 - "I Can't Put it into Words"

LISTEN HERE

On August 20, 1977, NASA launched the Voyager 2 spaceship on a one-way ticket to oblivion. Three weeks later, its sister craft, Voyager 1, blasted off with the same destination. Their mission for the first dozen years or so, as they cruised through the solar system, was to gather data from the planets. Their goal for the next 60,000 years or so, as they leave us far behind, is to carry a message in a bottle to the stars. 

Alongside an array of high-tech cameras, infrared instruments, and a large parabolic radio antenna, each Voyager bears a stylus, a phonograph record, and directions for playing it. This record is made of copper and plated in gold, created to last forever, to offer an audio and visual slide show of all things Earthly. This is who we are, it says. Or were. 

And at the very end, summing up the power and the pathos of everything that went before, are two singular pieces of music by two singular men who couldn’t have been more different. One was a deaf German whose song was recorded by a string quartet in a professional studio. The other was a blind Texan who played his song on a cheap guitar in a Dallas hotel room. The German is Ludwig van Beethoven.

Leading into it is a song recorded and played by a twentieth-century street musician, Blind Willie Johnson. The song is “Dark Was the Night—Cold Was the Ground,” a largely wordless hymn built around the yearning cries of Johnson’s slide guitar and the moans and melodies of his voice. More... The Soul of a Man.

I can only hope and pray that my version did Blind Willie Johnson's masterpiece justice.  It haunts me and yet fills me with an intense joy that is hard to put into words.

Just as Lonesome as Can Be (Lonesome Blues)

 

[LISTEN HERE]

Just as Lonesome as Can Be (Lonesome Blues)

Darkness hovers at the edge of town

I'm so lonesome and there's no one around

Just a shotgun shack

and an old dirt-floor juke from the past

Shake Rag down in Tupelo, yeah

on the railway by the poor folks' shacks

There ain't no train on them broken tracks

No one to save me, no one to stand by me

I'm just as lonely - as lonely as can be

[CHORUS:]

Gotta get gone, gone, gone, gone

as far away as I can see---

So I jumped that long, black train

and rode off to my destiny

I am forgotten, no one knows I am alive

Nobody cares if I live or die

I'm just as lonesome, as lonesome as can be---

[CHORUS]

[BRIDGE:]

Heartbreak is no mystery

haunts like a dream just out of reach

"No" has been a gift; can't want for nothin' left to lose--- yeah--

I've been rejected since I was born

I am invisible and lovelorn, (so I've...)

[CHORUS]

The Color Line

THE COLOR LINE

[LISTEN HERE]

1. My Lord, he is sharing a secret -

belief in equality of man

No, we must never forget

or we'll stumble in the dark where we began

 

2. Hold on to the dream and surrender

to a life that was planned by the Divine

Just try to remember  

What the world was like without the color line-- whoa---

 

[CHORUS:]

Let's not draw--- any lines

Let us stay--- color blind

Tear down, tear down the color line-- whoa---

 

[BRIDGE]

"How do you know what I can see

until you can look through my eyes?"

Don't you see me prayin' on my knees?

Crying is a thin disguise

Hold me, I'm trembling so

I sing the blues to love my foe [rep]   whoa //

 

3. My love, I feel you so near me

But I'm swimming in the sins of my past

You can't catch my fall when I'm weakened

I know that this love may never last -- whoa---

 

[CHORUS:] 

Let's not draw--- any lines

Let us stay--- color blind

Tear down, tear down the color line-- whoa---

...so I am no longer blind [rep]

Redemption

 

REDEMPTION [I Won't Comply]

[LISTEN HERE]

1. 2020's gone, now we're paying the price

The innocent were the biggest sacrifice

covered faces muzzled and masked

by an evil mandate the people never asked (for)

            No- no- no--

2. Rainbow pills at an all-time high

Thinking not for themselves, they believed the lie

(but) many with sense saw the plan to control

I was not willing to sell my soul, oh, no---

 

[CHORUS:]  

No, no, no!  I won't comply (rep)   

[BU Vox: I Am American! A free American!]

- not EVER - to the BIG LIE

 

3. Shut down, lockdown, take away our rights

There are no heroes when a brave man fights

Submit to the shot though it's not a vax

while the frontline heroes were given the axe, oh, no---

 

4. Cower and bow to tyrannical rule

wicked enforcers were evil and cruel

Their laws were meant for 'we, not thee'

No truth for the church or the family--- oo--

[CHORUS]

[BRIDGE:]

(The) well-orchestrated plan brought the lame to one knee

The truth is it was crimes against humanity---

"Just as I Am" without one plea, yeah-- yeah--

Amen, brother, I am free! (rep)

Freedom is life, so I'm leaving behind

their senseless rules they forced us to mind----

But God and Constitution are never wrong

 

[CHORUS]

 

This is redemption-- (rep)

I am redeemed!

I Am That I Am ('His Master's Voice')

[LISTEN HERE]

1. "I am that I am"

said 'His Master's Voice'

where there is music in the air--

and the sweet, sweet sounds

on the wings of a dove

is what I'll be singin' in the rounds

[CHORUS:]

Oh, the grief, it tries men's souls 

the harder the burden, more glorious

The triumph comes on a mountain of gold

The story of salvation is told [repeat]

2. Mystic chords

in the tracks of time

(loving) angels everywhere--

and the heavenly presence

united by the sky

I'll be singin' when I die (when I die)

[SOLO] ooh--- aah---

3. The Rock is in my soul

and the preachers preach

a voice that is still unknown--

but a new life is mine

I can stop all of my cryin'

grateful to God that I have grown

[CHORUS]

[Spoken:] I am that I am

There is music in the air

and the sweet--- sweet sounds

is what I'll be singin' in the rounds--- oh--- mmm---