Activism works
and various post-election, apolitical musings
If you’ll remember, Jesse Boyd is the North Carolina preacher who went on an across-the-country walk, east to west, carrying the cross and the flag and a double-barrel Derringer which landed him in trouble when he fell afoul of some nasty locals in SW Montana. My friend Bart Lambert sent out a notice on our Paleocon Vanguard Signal group. “Hey y’all. Jesse Boyd’s in Missoula and I’m heading up to see him tonight. Who’s in?”
Jesse didn’t want to make us drive all the way to Missoula, and we didn’t want to make him drive all the way to mid-valley, so we met in halfway Lolo, where the E/W Highway 12 from panhandle Idaho meets the N/S 93 (which also runs to Idaho going south).
This was a Friday night and on Tuesday Jesse would find out if his case would proceed to court or be dismissed. Considering the amount of jail-time he faced if convicted, good ol’ Jesse didn’t seem flustered at all. He was cool and steady, and full of positive energy and optimism, with that down-home, North Carolina speaking style that makes him a great raconteur. For the full story as it stood until mid-July, see my in-person interview with Jesse from the Bitterroot.
Well, that Tuesday came and went and Praise the Lord, they dropped the case. I must do another interview with him to get the whole story down, which is epic. Bart and Jerry kept saying, “This needs to be a book! This needs to be a documentary!”
I hope it’ll be a BBR documentary, but for now, suffice to say that Jesse fought hard and wasn’t about to plea deal his way out of this ordeal, or compromise in any way. There are all kinds of twists to the plot and shady undertakings that are part of this story. Jesse proved that through faith and grit you can overcome the bad guys. Also, he never fails to mention the good people he met along the way and is very grateful for all the work his new friends did for him. Here I want to especially thank my airplane-mechanic buddy Steve Bell for reaching out to Jesse and securing the July interview, and Bart Lambert who was in attendance at the interview, and inspired by Jesse’s saga, took it upon himself to put in many hours organizing a letter-writing campaign which put the authorities on notice that the whole thing was on the radar and under a microscope. This story is not over as Jesse plans to (begin NC-country accent) “not just let bygones be bygones and let these shady characters off the hook after what they did to my family.”
One big takeaway- we are not helpless. Activism works!
My digital woes continue. I really need a tech team to get this operation off the ground, especially for help in getting the web page and all-important socials off the ground :P
-Learn it yourself, Shumway! That’s how other small-timers do it.
-I know, but I’m getting slow. I can’t even figure out how to make a simple Wordpress webpage, and I used to know! It’s either getting more complicated, or I’m getting dumber, or both.
I feel like I did when Big Joe sold me his fancy Panasonic Lumix FX2900B-turbocam with Scorpion V micro-adjustment-nodule trovolloper. “Make sure you study the user’s guide. It’s only 220 pages!”
-Where’s the point and shoot button? Can I just focus on content, already?
I’m going to recruit a little help around here. The Saturday men’s breakfast is a veritable brain trust and some of those guys will be able to help me.
Meanwhile, I’ve been kicked off Instagram:
“Integrity?….mislead and deceive?…harm to the community??” I HAVEN’T EVEN POSTED ANYTHING YET, YOU CRETINS!
Pastor John and Miss Lorraine invited Kenny and I to dinner the other night. After dinner dialogue:
D- Pastor, between the rental car problems in Europe, my credit card which seems to be on the fritz, and all the digital annoyances, and the fact that all of this is hitting me just as I want to open up BBR, I start to wonder if I’m under some sort of demonic attack.
PJ- Oh, absolutely. If you’re going to be in this business, the closer you get to getting the truth out, the harder the devil will attack.
After dinner, as we were driving home in the moonlight, Kenny said, “If there are demonic attacks, like in the horror movies and stuff, do you think they happen more in the city or the country?”
-Well, there’s more people in the city. Are you saying total attacks or per capita?
-per capita.
I looked out into the dark and cold at the spooky, empty road with the moon shining through the clouds (pic) and said, -per capita it’s probably about the same. Plenty of evil in both the city and the country.
-I think it’s higher in the city.
-Why’s that?
-I think demons attack the troubled-minded. And the traffic in the city drives a lot of people nuts. Look at this road. It makes you feel calm driving down it all alone.
He had a point.
The congregation at Valley Fellowship, up until recently, has been lacking in youthfulness, but lately more younger folks have been showing up. Pastor John’s interactive, speak the truth and don’t fret about the consequences approach is gaining in popularity. One young woman has been coming in with her 7-yr. old son. I’m ambivalent about kids attending fellowship but my friends in Germany never leave out the children, no matter what the age, and it seems to work for them. The few kids in our church squirm a bit but seem to do all right. The 7-yr. old mentioned above manages to comfortably pass the time focusing on his coloring and childrens books, while always keeping an ear open to the dialogue between the pastor and the congregation. What’s hilarious is his occasional interjections following a statement by the pastor or another adult in the room. He has the sense to be sparing in his blurtings; like an expert jokester at the party, he doesn’t overdo it. I don’t think he has any idea what’s being discussed; he’s not paying attention to content, just voice inflection and nuance. He likes to chime in at the right moment with something he thinks fits the conversation. And he doesn’t even look up when he blurts something out; he just keeps his head down, coloring or fiddling around with whatever is his main focus.
Pastor John: And wouldn’t that be something we’d expect from the Pharisees?
Kid: Yep!
…..
Pastor John: Isn’t it interesting that Paul would repeat that sentiment in Ephesians?
Kid: Yes, it is.
…..
Pastor John: And so we should celebrate this fact.
Frank (in congregation): Amen to that, Pastor!
Kid: Amen!
John: I seem to have an ‘amen corner’ here.
church laugh
…..
but my favorite was last Sunday, when Pastor John asked a question that stumped the congregation- at least nobody was quick with an answer. But the kid didn’t miss a beat. I think the answer the Pastor wanted was something to the effect that we’d receive grace, or understanding, or something positive in any case.
Pastor John: And so what will happen to you then?
Congregation: ……….
Kid (after 1.2 seconds): You die!
louder church laugh
The pond season ended last week. Ponds are starting to freeze and working in that environment is hard on the hands, let alone your equipment. Our super-duper weed remover boat works fine in summer, but in winter parts can freeze and pieces of metal on the gears can sheer. Here’s a critter who got caught up in the conveyor belt of the weed boat in early fall:
The ponds with the most muck are the ones with the most overhanging limbs- dropping leaves and dead branches year after year. On this pond, after years of neglect, the owner finally decided to do something about it and she had us significantly cut back the brush on the banks, get out all the dead limbs and get all the weed growth out of the pond. Here we remove what leaves we can with the floaty net so they don’t end up contributing to the muck layer below:
It’s football season. Kenny’s never been to a high-school football game in America, so I’m hoping to get him out to a Friday-night game soon. The all-American tradition!
I had some time at lunch to watch a few plays at the local high school JV game. There’s only one dominant school in the valley here, and it’s not the Victor Pirates. They were getting pushed around a bit by the visitors, but on this play they had a nice chance.
Lastly, I’d seen a bull moose three times up in Glacier National Park, but only a cow down here in the Bitterroot. So I was surprised to see this big guy along the road a couple days ago. He’s making the rounds up and down the mid-valley area, between 93 and Eastside Highway.
