Jeff Gill
"Why don't we know about these stories?" – Glenn Beck
___
This week was going to be a clever essay about how the idea of an
Islamic community center with a prayer room on Broadway might go over
better than a Chinese restaurant. Seriously, I don't know how some
people have so much spare time that they can worry about there being
excessive scents of ginger and soy sauce in the air along Granville's
main drag.
Yes, I've actually heard someone say "I don't know if I want a
Chinese restaurant downtown."
Would you rather smell more Aqua Velva and chicken gravy scent? Is a
Sharper Image store more in keeping with our cultural traditions? (Is
there still a Sharper Image? Nope.)
But then Glenn Beck started picking on me.
OK, not me, but on anyone who studies and interprets the Newark
Earthworks, and particularly the so-called "Holy Stones." Apparently,
according to Mr. Beck, we've been hiding stuff by explaining it all
wrong, which is to say not showing how the mounds in this area are
clearly influenced by Egyptian and Hebrew writing, ideas, and design.
Of course, one of his key "blackboard" points is that a particular
recurring dimension is exactly (EXACTLY!!!) 606 feet, which is the
side of the Giza pyramid, aka an Egyptian "stade," which is a cool
looking word. He used it a great deal.
Mind you, having walked the Octagon and Observatory Circle as much as
many golfers out there, I can tell you foot by foot, as well as from
multiple surveys and as any child with a mapping program from Google
or Bing could show, the dimension he's saying is exactly (EXACTLY!!!)
the same as an Egyptian stade is 1052 feet.
That's not very exact, if you ask me. Which Glenn Beck did not.
Glenn Beck has his own sources, but when he says his purpose is to
reveal history that "the Smithsonian, science, government, and
commerce colluded to erase," I will admit he's striking close to
home. When he's talking about the Newark Holy Stones, Dr. Brad Lepper
of the Ohio Historical Society and yours truly are the main writers
and presenters on the subject. Stephen Williams of Harvard and Ken
Feder of Connecticut State have published books that address the Holy
Stones, but they largely cite . . . well, me and Brad.
So if anyone is erasing history relating to the Holy Stones, that'd
be us.
Beck continues, "The history that has been erased in our nation and,
in particular, with the Native Americans, happened because it didn't
fit the story they created – manifest destiny. It only works if the
Indians were savages. And they had to have savages for commerce and
government to expand. The ancient artifacts prove otherwise. Why
aren't we looking into those?" (Wed., Aug. 18, 2010 broadcast)
We've been looking into them, and we have a story to tell – and have
been telling it to anyone who will listen. OHS's own magazine, Brad
did a talk at the Granville Library a few months ago, we teamed up to
present to the Denison faculty a few years ago, and were both
mentioned in a story in "Der Spiegel" about the same time.
I could go on.
Brad and I are happy to say it all again, and I'll offer an outline
in my next column. For now, I have to say, having been personally in
the vortex of the spin cycle, the grain of salt I'll take with
anything Mr. Beck says now is about the size of one of those blocks
people set out for the deer.
And for what it's worth, I think the mosque absolutely should be
built, just as soon as the Port Authority quits jerking around the
Greek Orthodox church crushed on 9-11, whose land was taken and who's
being "encouraged" to accept a site around the corner and away from
where they'd been the last 91 years.
If the church and the new tower and the memorial were done and
dedicated, I doubt we'd hear much about the Islamic center. That's
the contrast that has plenty of people of good will not feeling good
about this development. It's not the fault of the Moslem group, and
it's a shame they're taking heat more accurately aimed at the public
officials who have so poorly handled the last ten years around the site.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and supply preacher around
central Ohio; tell him about what Glenn Beck has said about you at
knapsack77@gmail.com or follow Knapsack @Twitter.
No comments:
Post a Comment