[roses of sharon]

http://www.constitution.org/col/jrb/00420_jrb_fedsoc.htm

“A Whiter Shade of Pale”

Speech of Janice Rogers Brown

April 20, 2000, Thursday

I will close with a story I like a lot. It’s a true story. It happened on June 10, 1990. A British Airways jet bound for Malaga, Spain, took off from Birmingham, England. It was expected to be a routine flight. As the jet climbed through the 23,000-foot level, there was a loud bang; the cockpit windshield directly in front of the captain blew out. The sudden decompression sucked Captain Lancaster out of his seatbelt and into the hole left by the windscreen. A steward who happened to be in the cockpit managed to snag the captain’s feet as he hurtled past. Another steward rushed onto the flight deck, strapped himself into the captain’s chair and, helped by other members of the crew, clung with all his strength to the captain. The slipstream was so fierce, they were unable to drag the pilot back into the plane. His clothing was ripped from his body. With Lancaster plastered against the nose of the jet, the co-pilot donned an oxygen mask and flew the plane to Southampton —approximately 15 minutes away — and landed safely. The captain had a fractured elbow, wrist and thumb; a mild case of frostbite, but was otherwise unharmed.

We find ourselves, like the captain, in a situation that is hopeless but not yet desperate. The arcs of history, culture, philosophy, and science all seem to be converging on this temporal instant. Familiar arrangements are coming apart; valuable things are torn from our hands, snatched away by the decompression of our fragile ark of culture. But, it is too soon to despair. The collapse of the old system may be the crucible of a new vision. We must get a grip on what we can and hold on. Hold on with all the energy and imagination and ferocity we possess. Hold on even while we accept the darkness. We know not what miracles may happen; what heroic possibilities exist. We may be only moments away from a new dawn.

[P.O.E.]

q.v., “That Hideous Strength”, by C.S. Lewis

[Fred Hayek]

Janice Rogers Brown is a Godly woman who belongs on the Supreme Court.

[WOSG]

Excellent speech.

[Crolis]

That’s a great speech. :)

[wastoute]

I have been posting for months that our hope is in the new dawn that will rise from these ashes. What our gummint is doing is self destructing. Just hold on and survive the "decompression" (great analogy, by the way). Unsustainable means just that. IMHO the faster things crash and burn the sooner we get to rebuild on the old foundation. It is gonna be rough sledding, though.

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[diji]

BM - Speech of Janice Rogers Brown