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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Another historical perspective – <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span lang=EN>Even former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a close Trump confidante and advisor, compared Trump favorably with Jackson.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span lang=EN>"This is like Andrew Jackson's victory. This is the people beating the establishment. And that's how he [Donald Trump] posited right from the beginning, the people are rising up against a government they find to be dysfunctional. And yes, it's a defeat for the Democrats, but this is a defeat for some Republicans too," he told MSNBC.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span lang=EN>Old Hickory. The hero of the Battle of New Orleans. The champion of the common man. Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, seventh President of the United States, from 1829 to 1837. Father of both the Democratic Party and, arguably, the father of modern politics. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span lang=EN>Let's start with the hair. We all know Jackson’s face from the $20 bill. But take a look at that big unruly shock of hair. It was red (at least till he got old).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span lang=EN>Jackson was extremely controversial, charismatic, combative, quick-tempered, unpredictable, showy, and self-publicising. A genius at marketing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span lang=EN>Despite his own great wealth, he championed the grievances of “the little man,” the ordinary farmer and mechanic, against what he called “the aristocracy of the few” — the established political elite of the east coast cities.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span lang=EN>This elite was personified for Jackson by his rival, John Quincy Adams, a cosmopolitan diplomat and, as the son of President John Adams, a member of a political dynasty.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span lang=EN>Jackson shocked and overthrew establishment politics after coming to power in 1828.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>And permitted the ethnic cleansing of First Americans in the Trail of Tears and the Trail of Death.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> OE [mailto:oe-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net] <b>On Behalf Of </b>via OE<br><b>Sent:</b> Sunday, November 20, 2016 10:42 AM<br><b>To:</b> oe@lists.wedgeblade.net<br><b>Subject:</b> [Oe List ...] A Thea-logians perspective (Thea=Goddess)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><h1 style='mso-margin-top-alt:3.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:23.65pt'><span style='font-size:17.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#111111;letter-spacing:-.75pt'>The Divided States of America – Will We, as a Nation, Continue to Stand? by Michele Stopera Freyhauf<o:p></o:p></span></h1><p class=postmetadata style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:13.1pt;outline: none'><span class=byline><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#111111;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:.75pt'>BY </span></span><span class=author><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#111111;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:.75pt'><a href="https://feminismandreligion.com/author/msfreyhauf/" title="View all posts by Michele Stopera Freyhauf"><span style='color:#290EAF;text-decoration:none'>MICHELE STOPERA FREYHAUF</span></a></span></span><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#111111;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:.75pt'> <em><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>on</span></em> <a href="https://feminismandreligion.com/2016/11/20/the-divided-states-of-america-will-we-as-a-nation-continue-to-stand-by-michele-stopera-freyhauf/" title="12:01 am"><span style='color:#290EAF;text-decoration:none'>NOVEMBER 20, 2016</span></a> • <span class=commentcount>( <a href="https://feminismandreligion.com/2016/11/20/the-divided-states-of-america-will-we-as-a-nation-continue-to-stand-by-michele-stopera-freyhauf/#comments"><span style='color:#290EAF;text-decoration:none'>2</span></a> )</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div id="pd_rating_holder_4531809_post_28978"><div id="pd_rate_4531809_post_28978"><div style='margin-right:.75pt;outline: none;cursor:pointer;background-repeat:initial;background-attachment:initial;background-origin: initial;background-clip: initial;background-color:initial;background-size: 32px 48px !important;background-position-x:0%;background-position-y:0%;float:left' id="PDRTJS_4531809_post_28978_stars_1"><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-right:.75pt;outline: none;cursor:pointer;background-repeat:initial;background-attachment:initial;background-origin: initial;background-clip: initial;background-color:initial;background-size: 32px 48px !important;background-position-x:0%;background-position-y:0%;float:left' id="PDRTJS_4531809_post_28978_stars_2"><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-right:.75pt;outline: none;cursor:pointer;background-repeat:initial;background-attachment:initial;background-origin: initial;background-clip: initial;background-color:initial;background-size: 32px 48px !important;background-position-x:0%;background-position-y:0%;float:left' id="PDRTJS_4531809_post_28978_stars_3"><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-right:.75pt;outline: none;cursor:pointer;background-repeat:initial;background-attachment:initial;background-origin: initial;background-clip: initial;background-color:initial;background-size: 32px 48px !important;background-position-x:0%;background-position-y:0%;float:left' id="PDRTJS_4531809_post_28978_stars_4"><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-right:.75pt;outline: none;cursor:pointer;background-repeat:initial;background-attachment:initial;background-origin: initial;background-clip: initial;background-color:initial;background-size: 32px 48px !important;background-position-x:0%;background-position-y:0%;float:left' id="PDRTJS_4531809_post_28978_stars_5"><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><div id="PDRTJS_4531809_post_28978_msg"><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>1 Vote<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal style='outline: none'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><br style='outline: none'><br><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:11.25pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:17.45pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><img border=0 width=229 height=229 id="_x0000_i1025" src="https://feminismandreligion.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/15036682_10154709860681591_8947505383481702342_n.jpg?w=229&h=229" alt="15036682_10154709860681591_8947505383481702342_n">If you are like me, you are still reeling from the election results in the United States – trying to make sense of it, while at the same time going through the steps of mourning. As I write this, it is difficult to call our country United – because it is anything but. In reality, we have become the Divided States of America – and worse, we have had friendships lost and detachments with relatives over this election. And I guess I could say, what’s even worse – we learned about the bigotry and viewpoints of people we used to consider friends or even learned this about family members, even spouses.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:11.25pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:17.45pt;outline: none'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>When one mourns, it is to cope, heal, and to express the loss of love. However, I think we should stop or never approach the final stage of acceptance; rather, I think we need to be vigilant.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:17.45pt;outline: none'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>Back in the early 1930s, there was a person considered to be powerful and charismatic, and much like Trump, beyond reproach. Hungering for change, a promise was made to the disenfranchised for a better life and to make the country glorious (or great). Even with losing about <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007671"><span style='color:#290EAF;text-decoration:none'>2 million votes from the previous election in July 1932</span></a> (a number that ironically is the estimated spread of popular votes Hillary won over her opponent), a coalition with Conservatives was made in January 1933, a man named Adolf Hitler was named Chancellor – head of the German Government – the proclaimed savior of a nation. Racism and authoritarian ideas, basic freedoms were abolished, forcing parties into goals, abolishing trade unions – the world saw the move from democracy to a dictatorship and the loss of privacy and use of terror used to achieve goals became the new norm.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:11.25pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:17.45pt;outline: none'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>Am I trying to be an alarmist, no, but I am calling for vigilance. Part of the work I do requires me to read Nazi Era unclassified briefings, which often include government briefings, letters of victims, and correspondence between different businesses. As I read through these documents, my mind continues to move back to the election. The fear, the desperation, and the destruction – you gain an insight from primary source documents that help you experience the fear of the oppressed. There are so many similarities between that election and Hilter’s rise to power, that we must stay vigilant.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:11.25pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:17.45pt;outline: none'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>So here we sit, a divided nation that has blamed racial divide on our first African American<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style='margin-left:16.5pt;margin-top:15.0pt;margin-bottom:7.5pt;outline: none;box-sizing: border-box;max-width: 100%;float:right' id="attachment_29001"><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;background:#EFEFEF'><i><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'><img border=0 width=275 height=155 id="_x0000_i1026" src="https://feminismandreligion.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/maxresdefault.jpg?w=275&h=155" alt=maxresdefault><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class=wp-caption-text align=center style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:18.6pt;background:#EFEFEF'><i><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8he0pcJZL9s" target="_blank"><span style='color:#290EAF;text-decoration:none'>Click here to link to the original picture</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></i></p></div><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:11.25pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:17.45pt;outline: none'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>President, as well as a congress that has denied the President the ability to fulfill an almost 1-year vacancy in the Supreme Court, played bipartisan games giving the illusion that Obamacare and other policies were substandard and denying that they were bastardized by bipartisan disagreements and politics. Then there are interference of the FBI, voter fraud allegations and lost ballots, the appointment of power-mongering racist career politicians that seem to remain at the bottom of that drained swamp that we have heard so much about, and the blatant allegations of fraud and wrongdoing – all of which continue to be ignored and overlooked. Some will go so far as to say that this is for the betterment of the country. I don’t have to tell you that I adamantly disagree – this country, before the election tore it apart, was already great – and we were in a time of measurable growth – the first time in a long time.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:11.25pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:17.45pt;outline: none'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>The “reality show” rhetoric with a string of already broken promises have been discounted and justified as a means to an end. We as a nation stand abhorrently divided – and that is a problem. We have racial violence and religious bigotry spilling into our elementary schools, universities, churches, and communities. We have parades by the KKK, interference with foreign governments, and the rhetoric of registries, walls, and camps – is this really the State of our Union? We must never forget that at one time, in a not so distant past, it was our differences that united us – that is what made (or makes) our country great. It was our quest to have a safe space to practice or not practice our faith; celebrate the traditions of our homeland while learning about others; in this, the United States of America, differences were welcome and embraced.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:11.25pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:17.45pt;outline: none'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>We need to recall Mark 3:25: “and if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.” In other words, for the country to move forward, we must find a way to come together, heal, and be united so that the history of the 1930’s does not repeat itself. We need to be a better stronger nation – leaving the world better for the next generation. With someone who does not believe in global warming and feels that since we have nuclear weapons, why not use them – will there even be a world left for my children and grandchildren?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:17.45pt;outline: none'><strong><i><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>Michele Stopera Freyhauf</span></i></strong><em><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'> is a Ph.D. Candidate in the <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/theology.religion/staff/profile/?id=12638" target="_blank"><span style='color:#290EAF;text-decoration:none'>Department of Theology and Religious Studies</span></a> and a Member of the Centre for Catholic Studies at Durham University as well as an Instructor at John Carroll University’s <a href="http://sites.jcu.edu/trs/pages/faculty/" target="_blank"><span style='color:#290EAF;text-decoration:none'>Department of Theology and Religious Studies</span></a>. Her research and areas of focus for the classroom, lecture, and publication are Religion, Cultural Identity and Memory Studies, Forced Migration and Exile, Cultural Heritage and Human Rights, Biblical Archaeology, Provenance of Antiquities and Art (including Nazi-Era Looting) and international dialogue surrounding the protection, conservation, and education of cultural heritage. Michele has an M. A. in Theology and Religious Studies from John Carroll University, and did post-graduate work at the University of Akron in the area of History of Religion, Gender, and Sexuality. She is also the student representative on the Board for Eastern Great Lakes Biblical Society (EGLBS). Michele is the 2015 recipient of the <a href="http://www.asor.org/fellowships/macallister-previous.html" target="_blank"><span style='color:#290EAF;text-decoration:none'>P. E. MacAllister Excavation Fellowship</span></a> where she participated in the <a href="http://www.unomaha.edu/international-studies-and-programs/bethsaida/index.php" target="_blank"><span style='color:#290EAF;text-decoration:none'>Bethsaida Archaeology Project</span></a>. Michele is a feminist scholar, activist, and author of several articles including “H</span></em><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><a href="http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/june-2011/article/hagia-sophia-political-and-religious-symbolism-in-stones-and-spolia"><em><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#290EAF;text-decoration:none'>agia Sophia: Political and Religious Symbolism in Stones and Spolia</span></em></a><em><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>” and lectured during the Commission for the Status of Women at the United Nations (2013 and 2014). She also wrote “The Catholic Church and Social Media: Embracing [Fighting] a Feminist Ideological Theo-Ethical Discourse and Discursive Activism” that appears in </span></em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Feminism-Religion-21st-Century-Technology/dp/0415831938/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417029988&sr=1-1&keywords=feminism+and+religion+in+the+21st+century&pebp=1417030155843"><em><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#290EAF;text-decoration:none'>Feminism and Religion in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century: Technology, Dialogue, and Expanding Borders</span></em></a><em><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>, edited by Gina Messina-Dysert and Rosemary Radford Ruether. Michele can be followed on Twitter </span></em><a href="https://feminismandreligion.wordpress.com/mentions/msfreyhauf/"><span class=mentions-prefix><i><span style='color:#290EAF;text-decoration:none'>@</span></i></span><em><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#290EAF;text-decoration:none'>msfreyhauf</span></em></a><em><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> and @biblicalfem. Her website can be accessed <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/theology.religion/staff/profile/?id=12638"><span style='color:#290EAF;text-decoration:none'>here</span></a> and is visible on other social media sites like LinkedIn and Google+.</span></em><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></body></html>