Chamblee54

PG was looking through his archives, and found a post about abortion protests. He was driving to work one day, and suddenly there were hundreds of people wearing red tee shirts. Operation Rescue/Operation Save America was having a convention in Atlanta. As their website says. “Will you heed the call and allow God to move through you this summer as the Church once again stands for Truth at the very gates of hell?” Atlanta does get hot in July. However, “gates of hell” is not a very nice thing to call your host city.
Part of the economy here is based on meetings and conventions. This does bring a lot of money into our fair city. The flip side is, residents are the captive audience for a lot of loud people. Mostly, people just go on about their business, until the vulgar idiots take their credit cards back home.
During his years with Redo Blue, PG saw lots of abortion protests on the way to work. For some reason, abortion facilites were frequently located near blueprint companies. Seeing pictures of mutilated fetuses does not get your day off to a good start.
Does this vulgar spectacle save any babies? PG has severe doubts. The politicians who rant about abortion enjoy the distraction from their ethical challenges. The “faith” that these activities build, for the believers, should be balanced against the alienation they produce in the innocent passerby.
One motto of OR/OSA is “Jesus is the standard”. Few  abortion protesters are the result of virgin birth.
While preparing this post, PG clicked on two links in the original article. One lady organized counter protests to the fetus wavers. In the past four years, she married her boyfriend, and had a baby.
The other link is a doozie. Within hours of the tragedy in Colorado, there was a video, Massacre in Colorado – The Reason Why. The devil made him do it, and Jesus can make him stop.
At the moment, little is known about the motivations for the shooting spree. It is possible that Jesus worshipers influenced the young man. Maybe he got grossed out by abortion protesters once too often.
There was another post from four years ago that is worth a second look. It is about the Olympics, and Afghanistan. This time sixteen years ago, the Atlanta Olympics were going on. Afghanistan was a forgotten country, except to heroin merchants. Today, the war there goes on, and on, and on. BHO apparently has not gotten enough revenge for 911. The drone warfare in Stan Land makes Colorado midnight movies look like a Sunday School picnic.
Afghanistan stays in the news. A major source of opiates, Afghanistan is one of the wildest places on earth. Guarding the historic trade routes between Europe and India, The Hindu Kush is home to some of the fiercest soldiers on the planet.
In 1979, the Soviet Union decided that it wanted a war with Afghanistan This conflict lasted ten years, and the Mighty Soviets lost. This was during the Cold War,and the United States wanted to do everything it could to hurt the Soviets The Afghani forces fighting the Soviets received much aid from the United States, which was very helpful in its ultimate success.
The defeat in Afghanistan was a factor in the dismantling of the Soviet Union. Soon, the rebel factions began to fight each other for the right to rule the country, using the weapons given them by the United States. Eventually the Taliban won, and set up shop. On September 11, 2001, The United States was attacked. Credit for the attack was given to Al Queda, which was based in Afghanistan To avenge this attack, Afghanistan was invaded by the United States. We are still there.
This feature is not about the wisdom of attacking a fierce people, for the purpose of revenge. It is not about the future of our occupation there, or in neighboring Iraq. It is about the Olympics. In 1996 Atlanta hosted the Olympics. On the last day of the games, the Men’s Marathon was run.
The Marathon course went out Peachtree from downtown, and turned around near the end of the 23 Oglethorpe busline. This was in front of the funeral home. It then turned right, and went down Lanier Drive beside Oglethorpe University. It went down the street a couple of blocks, turned around in front of Oglethorpe Presbyterian Church (a former employer of PG), and went back to Peachtree. The runners turned right, and ran to the Olympic Stadium.
Being a slack person, PG had not gotten tickets to an Olympic events. The Marathon was a free event, and was walking distance from his residence. When he got there, there was an instant community assembled along the course. A remarkable event was almost over, and this was all PG was going to see! The fact that it is more than many others saw was little comfort.
PG walked alongside the course, and crossed Lanier Drive. This is important to the rest of the story. The runners were a bit of an anticlimax. A pack of men in track uniforms, with the leaders in a bunch at the start. They ran past, went to the end of the course, down Lanier Drive, and hustled down Peachtree to the end of the race.
After the second appearance of the bulk of the runners, PG was ready to go. However, there was a glitch. One runner was way behind the rest of the pack, PG could not cross Lanier Drive until this runner had gone by, and the course was opened for pedestrian traffic.
The last runner was from Afghanistan After a few minutes, he appeared. He had a large bandage on one leg, which apparently had been injured. He finished the race.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.