At the inspiration of Kay
Green and follow-through of Mishawaka Mayor Dave Wood, the dedication of a
Safe Haven Baby Box in honor of Michelle Green Ellenberger took place on
December 18, 2024 at Mishawaka Fire Station #2.
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| Kay Green and family |
I provide photos of the
special occasion.
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| Mariah of Safe Haven Baby Boxes |
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| What the box looks like from inside |
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| Outside |
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| This was the 300th baby box dedicated which was created by Safe Haven Baby Boxes |
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| The blessing |
From Luke chapter 1...
the angel
said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You
will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the
Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father
David, 33 and he will reign
over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
You know, there’s that
pretty Christmas song “ Mary Did You Know”.
I bet she did. I bet the
angel Gabriel told her much more than the Gospel writer recorded.
I think her response to
each question in the song was…
“Yes, the angel Gabriel
told me.”
Imagine Joseph and Mary, ordered by Rome on the journey to fulfill the census requirements of Rome as they expect a
birth.
Imagine the Wise Men, guided by a star, on
their journey to establish good foreign relations with a new King.
Imagine the shepherds,
invited by angels, on their journey to behold their new King in a setting where they would not feel out of
place such as in a palace, but fully at home and at ease.
This Advent, leading to
Christmas, are you on a journey to discover Jesus?
As you fulfil some contemporary bureaucratic
requirements do you anticipate the birth of Jesus in your heart?
Do you bring gifts to
establish a good relationship with you king. What are those gifts?
Do you feel excitement and ease in the presence of Jesus as did the shepherds?
We all should.
These next few days let
us prepare the way of Jesus toward our hearts.
And on Christmas day let
us excitedly witness the birth of peace, restoration, and forgiveness in our hearts and in the contemporary world.
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| archives.gov |
This coming Sunday, December 15, is “Bill
of Rights” Day. I take it as an opportunity to highlight the importance of the Declaration
of Independence, the Constitution, and yes, the Bill of Rights which is
comprised of the first ten amendments to our Constitution.
These documents are not trivial, or casual
historical documents detached from our lives today. They provide the fundamental
social contract by which we all get along as a nation. Whether it be the right
to religious belief, political opinion, trial by a jury of peers, recognition
of intellectual property (copyright and patent), or many other protections
explicit in the Constitution or derived from the Constitution by Congress or
Supreme Court, these collective documents are as important to us as citizens as
the New Testament is to Christians. Or as other venerated texts to other religious
groups.
On December 15, take a moment
to recognize that your right to your conscience, speech, religion, business or
trade is enabled by these documents. Take a moment to know that these
documents, long held, upheld, and respected, deserve much more than perfunctory
“lip service” from the citizenry, they deserve a commitment from the citizenry
to safeguard them and thereby continue to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic
Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and
secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.
To be witness to the importance of these documents, I invite you to
watch a video of the Transfer of the founding documents from the Captiol to the
National Archives which took place on December 13, 1952.
The first part of the video shows what a big protective and ceremonial deal
it was to make this transfer. The first part of the video is silent except for
the sound os static from old film. Later, President Truman gives words of accolade
for the documents.
The video is found at this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6Dc54HYd-Q&t=258s
Ever a student of
historical documents and speeches, I today seek to celebrate a complete
sentence of the Gettysburg Address, and hopefully clarify what I think to be
common grammatical misunderstanding.
The sentence I wish to
address follows…
“It is rather for us to
be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these
honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the
last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead
shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new
birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the
people, shall not perish from the earth.”
It appears to me that
Lincoln was suggesting that those present at that event should consider
themselves dedicated to the ideal of a new birth of freedom for the nation.
Earlier in the speech Lincoln referenced the Declaration of Independence with the
sentence “all men are created equal”. That is the ideal and aspiration to which
those gathered there that day, and by extension we. are dedicated.
May we honor, not only
Lincoln, but also those that “gave the last full measure of devotion” by
devoting ourselves to their cause.
Now, on to what many may
feel to be grammatical nit-pickyness…
The sentence contains
eighty-one words, nine commas (if I have not miscounted), and one period.
Having been literarily
reared on Charles Dickens who often used one hundred words and multiple types
of punctuation within one sentence, and here Lincoln with eighty-one words and
nine commas, I become perplexed at a cultural, and academic tendency to make
sentences uninteresting, and less than fully informative by imposing a limitation
on the number of words and a malnutrition of punctuation!
But, to become yet more
exacting about punctuation, please attend to the following clarification…
I have heard many people reference the Gettysburg
Address while speaking about government. Please note that the final few words
read “and that government of the people, by the people, for the people,
shall not perish from the earth.”
Please acknowledge that
there is not a comma directly following the word “government”.
Many people speak the
phrase, incorrectly, as “and that government, of the people, by the people, and
for the people”
Allow me to separate the
phrases as I believe Lincoln intended, at least from the transcription from the
National Archives…
And that government of
the people (no comma, “government of the people” is
the intended phrase).
By the people
For the people
Shall not perish from the
earth
Again, it may seem a bit fussy,
however, those who find value in the correct use of the comma should appreciate
my grammatical discovery.