THIS IS A TRIBUTE TO OUTSTANDING
20TH AND 21ST
CENTURY AMERICANS and OTHERS!
Pastor Ken "Hutch" Hutcherson
Pastor Ken Hutcherson of Antioch Bible Church in Kirkland, Wash., died 12/18/2013 after battling cancer for more than a decade.
Hutcherson, known as “Hutch” to his friends, led a remarkable life that began in the South during the era of segregation.
“I was born in Anniston, Alabama, in the 50s and had to fight for my equality most of my life,” he wrote in a piece for TheBlaze. “You see, there were many who thought I should be treated like a second-class citizen, drink from a different water fountain, sit in the back of the bus, be counted as three-quarters of a person, go to a different school, eat and sit in the black section of restaurants, use a different bathroom; you know, be separate but equal. Then came Dr. Martin Luther King and all that started to change and praise God! I became a Christian in 1969.” Hutcherson was a middle linebacker for the Seahawks, Dallas Cowboys and San Diego Chargers before turning his talents to the ministry.
In a piece he wrote for The Blaze he said, You see, there were many who thought I should be treated like a second class citizen, drink from a different water fountain, sit in the back of the bus, be counted as three-quarters of a person, go to a different school, eat and sit in the black section of restaurants, use a different bathroom; you know, be separate but equal. Then came Dr. Martin Luther King and all that started to change and praise God! I became a Christian in 1969. Today, I find myself again being put in that same category as a second class citizen, and I am not going to have that same fight.
I did not become a Christian to live the 50s and 60s all over a second time. Muslims have more rights and freedom of religion than I do as a Christian. Tell a Muslim he can’t pray at school or at the airport or downtown when prayer time is called for, and see what happens. Tell a Muslim cleric serving as a chaplain in our brilliant military that he has to marry a same-sex couple, and see what happens. Some of you are saying “what is that about?” Well hold on to your hat, there is more to come.
Even after receiving his cancer diagnosis 13 years ago, he didn’t slow down. “I’ve had cancer for 13 years and I have been condemned to die for five,” “Cancer is one of the greatest things that ever happened to me.” “What cancer has done is given me an absolute focus on Jesus Christ, my Lord and savior.” His fight for Christ, America and the Constitution will live on. RIP Hutch!
His remarkable story was even turned into a television show on TheBlaze TV called “Hutch,” which his wife described as a “profound gift” for their family. The show followed Hutch in his daily life and centered around a letter he was writing to his children.
Hutcherson, known as “Hutch” to his friends, led a remarkable life that began in the South during the era of segregation.
“I was born in Anniston, Alabama, in the 50s and had to fight for my equality most of my life,” he wrote in a piece for TheBlaze. “You see, there were many who thought I should be treated like a second-class citizen, drink from a different water fountain, sit in the back of the bus, be counted as three-quarters of a person, go to a different school, eat and sit in the black section of restaurants, use a different bathroom; you know, be separate but equal. Then came Dr. Martin Luther King and all that started to change and praise God! I became a Christian in 1969.” Hutcherson was a middle linebacker for the Seahawks, Dallas Cowboys and San Diego Chargers before turning his talents to the ministry.
In a piece he wrote for The Blaze he said, You see, there were many who thought I should be treated like a second class citizen, drink from a different water fountain, sit in the back of the bus, be counted as three-quarters of a person, go to a different school, eat and sit in the black section of restaurants, use a different bathroom; you know, be separate but equal. Then came Dr. Martin Luther King and all that started to change and praise God! I became a Christian in 1969. Today, I find myself again being put in that same category as a second class citizen, and I am not going to have that same fight.
I did not become a Christian to live the 50s and 60s all over a second time. Muslims have more rights and freedom of religion than I do as a Christian. Tell a Muslim he can’t pray at school or at the airport or downtown when prayer time is called for, and see what happens. Tell a Muslim cleric serving as a chaplain in our brilliant military that he has to marry a same-sex couple, and see what happens. Some of you are saying “what is that about?” Well hold on to your hat, there is more to come.
Even after receiving his cancer diagnosis 13 years ago, he didn’t slow down. “I’ve had cancer for 13 years and I have been condemned to die for five,” “Cancer is one of the greatest things that ever happened to me.” “What cancer has done is given me an absolute focus on Jesus Christ, my Lord and savior.” His fight for Christ, America and the Constitution will live on. RIP Hutch!
His remarkable story was even turned into a television show on TheBlaze TV called “Hutch,” which his wife described as a “profound gift” for their family. The show followed Hutch in his daily life and centered around a letter he was writing to his children.
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BLESS THE LADY PLUMMER - IRENA SENDLER - Warsaw, Poland 5 February 1910 – 12 May 2008
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During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She was actually a nurse. She had an ulterior motive. Irena smuggled Jewish infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried. She also carried a burlap sack in the back of her truck, for larger kids.
Irena kept a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers, of course, wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking which covered the kids/infants noises. During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 + kids/infants. Ultimately, she was caught, however, and the Nazi's broke both of her legs and arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she had smuggled out, in a glass jar that she buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived and tried to reunite the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted. |
Also please consider this a Memorial to the six million Jews, 20
million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were
murdered, raped, massacred, burned, starved and humiliated!
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VINCE FLYNN
NEW YORK, JUNE 19, 2013-Vince Flynn, the bestselling author of the Mitch Rapp thriller series died early this morning after a long battle with prostate cancer. He was 47.
The fifth of seven children, Vince Flynn was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on April 6, 1966. He graduated from the Saint Thomas Academy in 1984, and the University of St. Thomas with a degree in economics in 1988. After college he went to work for Kraft General Foods where he was an account and sales marketing specialist.
In 1990 Vince Flynn left Kraft to accept an aviation candidate slot with the United States Marine Corps. However, one week before leaving for Officers Candidate School, he was medically disqualified from the Marine Aviation Program, due to several concussions and convulsive seizures he suffered as a child following a car accident. While trying to obtain a medical waiver for his condition, he started thinking about writing a book, an unusual choice for Flynn since he had been diagnosed with dyslexia in grade school and had struggled with reading and writing all his life.
Having been turned down by the Marine Corps, Flynn returned to the work force and took a job with United Properties, a commercial real estate company in the Twin Cities. During his spare time he worked on an idea he had for a book. After two years with United Properties he decided to devote himself full time to writing: he quit his job, moved to Colorado, and began working full time on what would eventually become his first novel, Term Limits.
While writing Term Limits, Flynn supported himself by bartending at night. After five years and more than sixty rejection letters, he decided to self-publish, which was not as common at that time as it is today. Term Limits went to number one in the Twin Cities area, and within a week Flynn had an agent and garnered a two-book deal with Emily Bestler of Pocket Books, a Simon & Schuster imprint.
First Published by Pocket Books in 1997, Term Limits was a New York Times bestseller in paperback. Since then, his books became perennial bestsellers in hardcover, paperback, and electronic editions, and since the publication of Protect and Defend in 2007, have regularly been #1 New York Times bestsellers. Flynn’s novels have been praised for their extensive research and prescient warnings about the rise of Islamic Radical Fundamentalism and terrorism. His books have been read by current and former presidents, foreign heads of state, and intelligence professionals around the world, and are admired for their verisimilitude and imagination: one high-ranking CIA official told his staff, “I want you to read Flynn's books and start thinking about how we can more effectively wage this war on terror.”
Works by Flynn include American Assassin, Kill Shot, Transfer of Power, The Third Option, Separation of Power, Executive Power, Memorial Day, Consent to Kill, Act of Treason, Extreme Measures, Pursuit of Honor, The Last Man and Term Limits (not part of the Mitch Rapp series). Motion picture rights to Flynn’s character Mitch Rapp have been optioned by CBS Films with the intention of making a character-based, action-thriller movie franchise.
“It has been our distinct honor to publish Vince Flynn for the entire length of his career,” said Carolyn Reidy, President and Chief Executive Officer of Simon & Schuster, Inc. “As good as Vince was on the page - and he gave millions of readers countless hours of pleasure - he was even more engaging in person. He had a truly unique ability to make everyone - from those of us at Simon & Schuster who were fortunate to be part of his publication, to booksellers and retailers around the nation, and most of all, his readers, with whom he had a very close relationship - feel as if we were on his team and sharing in his life and his success. Yes, we will miss the Mitch Rapp stories that are classic modern thrillers, but we will miss Vince even more.”
Vince Flynn is survived by his wife Lysa Flynn, and three children.
EDITOR'S NOTE: I cannot recommend these books highly enough. Term Limits his first, written in 1997, when reading it you would think it was written today.
The fifth of seven children, Vince Flynn was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on April 6, 1966. He graduated from the Saint Thomas Academy in 1984, and the University of St. Thomas with a degree in economics in 1988. After college he went to work for Kraft General Foods where he was an account and sales marketing specialist.
In 1990 Vince Flynn left Kraft to accept an aviation candidate slot with the United States Marine Corps. However, one week before leaving for Officers Candidate School, he was medically disqualified from the Marine Aviation Program, due to several concussions and convulsive seizures he suffered as a child following a car accident. While trying to obtain a medical waiver for his condition, he started thinking about writing a book, an unusual choice for Flynn since he had been diagnosed with dyslexia in grade school and had struggled with reading and writing all his life.
Having been turned down by the Marine Corps, Flynn returned to the work force and took a job with United Properties, a commercial real estate company in the Twin Cities. During his spare time he worked on an idea he had for a book. After two years with United Properties he decided to devote himself full time to writing: he quit his job, moved to Colorado, and began working full time on what would eventually become his first novel, Term Limits.
While writing Term Limits, Flynn supported himself by bartending at night. After five years and more than sixty rejection letters, he decided to self-publish, which was not as common at that time as it is today. Term Limits went to number one in the Twin Cities area, and within a week Flynn had an agent and garnered a two-book deal with Emily Bestler of Pocket Books, a Simon & Schuster imprint.
First Published by Pocket Books in 1997, Term Limits was a New York Times bestseller in paperback. Since then, his books became perennial bestsellers in hardcover, paperback, and electronic editions, and since the publication of Protect and Defend in 2007, have regularly been #1 New York Times bestsellers. Flynn’s novels have been praised for their extensive research and prescient warnings about the rise of Islamic Radical Fundamentalism and terrorism. His books have been read by current and former presidents, foreign heads of state, and intelligence professionals around the world, and are admired for their verisimilitude and imagination: one high-ranking CIA official told his staff, “I want you to read Flynn's books and start thinking about how we can more effectively wage this war on terror.”
Works by Flynn include American Assassin, Kill Shot, Transfer of Power, The Third Option, Separation of Power, Executive Power, Memorial Day, Consent to Kill, Act of Treason, Extreme Measures, Pursuit of Honor, The Last Man and Term Limits (not part of the Mitch Rapp series). Motion picture rights to Flynn’s character Mitch Rapp have been optioned by CBS Films with the intention of making a character-based, action-thriller movie franchise.
“It has been our distinct honor to publish Vince Flynn for the entire length of his career,” said Carolyn Reidy, President and Chief Executive Officer of Simon & Schuster, Inc. “As good as Vince was on the page - and he gave millions of readers countless hours of pleasure - he was even more engaging in person. He had a truly unique ability to make everyone - from those of us at Simon & Schuster who were fortunate to be part of his publication, to booksellers and retailers around the nation, and most of all, his readers, with whom he had a very close relationship - feel as if we were on his team and sharing in his life and his success. Yes, we will miss the Mitch Rapp stories that are classic modern thrillers, but we will miss Vince even more.”
Vince Flynn is survived by his wife Lysa Flynn, and three children.
EDITOR'S NOTE: I cannot recommend these books highly enough. Term Limits his first, written in 1997, when reading it you would think it was written today.
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Tibor Rubin
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Tibor Rubin is a Holocaust survivor and an American soldier awarded with the highest military honor, the Congressional Medal of Honor, for his service in the Korean War.
On September 23, 2005, 76-year old Rubin was finally awarded the nation's highest military accolade for gallantry in combat - the Congressional Medal of Honor. The Medal of Honor is awarded to those who displayed “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life, above and beyond the call of duty, in actual combat against an enemy armed force.” Rubin was the 18th Jewish recipient of the Medal of Honor since it was created during the Civil War by President Lincoln. It took 55 years for Rubin's heroic actions to be honored by the country after finally breaking through the wall of government bureaucracy and prejudice towards minorites who fought in World War II and the Korean War. Rubin's story is none the less amazing for the wait. Rubin, known as "Tibi" or "Ted," was born in a Hungarian shtetl called Paszto. At age 13, his family was rounded up by the Nazis, and he was sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. Rubin survived, but his parents and his two sisters perished in the camp. |
When Mauthausen was liberated by Allied troops, Rubin, then 15, swore that he would repay his liberators by going to the United States and fighting against the Germans . "I was going to go to the U.S. and join the U.S. army to show my appreciation ... It was my wish to fight alongside them," Rubin said. In 1948, Rubin made it to the United
States and tried
to enlist in the U.S. Army only to be turned
away because he failed the English test. He finally
passed the exam in 1950 and was sent to fight on the
frontlines of the Korean War.
At one point in the war, his company
needed to find a route to retreat from their positions, so Rubin single-handedly
defended a hill for 24 hours and held off scores of
North Korean troops. This feat alone was enough to earn
him four recommendations for the Medal of Honor and
numerous other military awards. However,
Rubin's commander - First Sgt. Artice Watson - who was described
by many of Rubin's fellow soldiers as a "vicious anti-Semite"
and often volunteered Rubin to go on
the most dangerous
patrol missions, ignored the orders to
put through the paperwork to allow Rubin to receive the coveted Medal
of Honor.
Some of the men in Rubin’s company were present when Watson refused to put through the order and they believe he did this because Rubin was Jewish. “I believe in my heart that First Sgt. Watson would have jeopardized his own safety rather than assist in any way whatsoever in the awarding of the medal to a person of Jewish descent,” wrote Cpl. Harold Speakman in a notarized affidavit.
In October 1950, Rubin and the survivors of his company were captured by the Koreans and placed into a POW camp. At the risk of being executed if caught, nearly every night Rubin would sneak out of the camp to get food for the desperate GIs. His acts of bravery and compassion kept between 35-40 soldiers alive until they were finally set free.
“He (Rubin) did many good deeds, which he told us were ‘mitzvahs’ in the Jewish tradition . . . He was a very religious Jew, and helping his fellow men was the most important thing to him,” said Sgt. Leo Cormier Jr., a fellow prisoner.
In the 1980s, nearly 30 years after he had been discharged, Rubin's army friends began protesting the Army's inaction and unfilled promises to recognize Rubin's bravery. The issue quickly reached members of Congress. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) introduced a special bill on Rubin’s behalf in 1988. Former Rep. Robert Dornan (R-Calif.) pleaded for recognition of his constituent. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) and former Rep. Benjamin Gilman (R-N.Y.) harassed the Pentagon and government agencies to act. The U.S. Army was forced to reexamine their discrimination policies towards awarding minorities during World War II and the Korean War.
The “Leonard Kravitz Jewish War Veterans Act” was passed in 2001 by Congress to aid in the recognition of minority fighters. Kravitz, the uncle and namesake of rock musician Lenny Kravitz, was killed manning his lone machine gun against attacking Chinese troops during the Korean War, allowing the rest of his platoon to retreat in safety. Kravitz was recommended for the Medal of Honor, but was downgraded to a lower decoration because of military prejudices.
Rubin jokes, “It would have been nice if they had given me the medal when I was a young handsome man,” mused Rubin. “It would have opened a lot of doors.” Now, top military officers will have to call him "Sir" and "Mister," and even five-star generals have to give him a customary salute. Tradition requires that the President will stand when Rubin enters a room. Rubin wanted to receive official recognition for his "Jewish brothers and sisters," and to prove to Americans that there was a "a little shmuck from Hungary, who fought for their beloved country. Now, it’s Mister Shmuck, the hero.”
Some of the men in Rubin’s company were present when Watson refused to put through the order and they believe he did this because Rubin was Jewish. “I believe in my heart that First Sgt. Watson would have jeopardized his own safety rather than assist in any way whatsoever in the awarding of the medal to a person of Jewish descent,” wrote Cpl. Harold Speakman in a notarized affidavit.
In October 1950, Rubin and the survivors of his company were captured by the Koreans and placed into a POW camp. At the risk of being executed if caught, nearly every night Rubin would sneak out of the camp to get food for the desperate GIs. His acts of bravery and compassion kept between 35-40 soldiers alive until they were finally set free.
“He (Rubin) did many good deeds, which he told us were ‘mitzvahs’ in the Jewish tradition . . . He was a very religious Jew, and helping his fellow men was the most important thing to him,” said Sgt. Leo Cormier Jr., a fellow prisoner.
In the 1980s, nearly 30 years after he had been discharged, Rubin's army friends began protesting the Army's inaction and unfilled promises to recognize Rubin's bravery. The issue quickly reached members of Congress. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) introduced a special bill on Rubin’s behalf in 1988. Former Rep. Robert Dornan (R-Calif.) pleaded for recognition of his constituent. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) and former Rep. Benjamin Gilman (R-N.Y.) harassed the Pentagon and government agencies to act. The U.S. Army was forced to reexamine their discrimination policies towards awarding minorities during World War II and the Korean War.
The “Leonard Kravitz Jewish War Veterans Act” was passed in 2001 by Congress to aid in the recognition of minority fighters. Kravitz, the uncle and namesake of rock musician Lenny Kravitz, was killed manning his lone machine gun against attacking Chinese troops during the Korean War, allowing the rest of his platoon to retreat in safety. Kravitz was recommended for the Medal of Honor, but was downgraded to a lower decoration because of military prejudices.
Rubin jokes, “It would have been nice if they had given me the medal when I was a young handsome man,” mused Rubin. “It would have opened a lot of doors.” Now, top military officers will have to call him "Sir" and "Mister," and even five-star generals have to give him a customary salute. Tradition requires that the President will stand when Rubin enters a room. Rubin wanted to receive official recognition for his "Jewish brothers and sisters," and to prove to Americans that there was a "a little shmuck from Hungary, who fought for their beloved country. Now, it’s Mister Shmuck, the hero.”
