Posted: August 4, 2022 --- by Post Commander, Carl "Chris" Christophersen

 

The following (in red) is taken from Page 10 of a book entitled "The 1619 Project", as can be read by members in the "Members Only" section of this website. 

 

Before the abolition of the international slave trade, more than four hundred thousand (400,000) of those twelve (12) million enslaved Africans transported to the Americas would be sold into this land. Those individuals and their descendants transformed the North American colonies into of the most successful in the British Empire. Through backbreaking labor, they cleared territory across the Southeast. They taught the colonists to grow rice and inoculate them against smallpox. After the American Revolution, they grew and picked cotton that, at the height of slavery, became the nation’s most valuable export, accounting for half of American goods sold abroad and more than two-thirds of the world’s supply.

 

They helped build the forced labor camps, otherwise known as plantations of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, sprawling properties that today attract tens of thousands of visitors from across the globe captivated by the history of the world’s greatest democracy. They laid the foundations of the White House and the Capitol, even cast with their own unfree hands the Statue of Freedom atop the Capitol dome. They lugged the heavy wooden ties of the railroads that crisscrossed the South and carried the cotton picked by enslaved laborers to textile mills in the North, fueling the country’s Industrial Revolution.

 

They built vast fortunes for white people in the North and the South --- at one time, the second-richest man in the nation was a Rhode Island ‘slave trader’. Profits from the Black people’s stolen labor helped the young nation pay off its war debts and financed some of the most prestigious universities. The relentless buying, selling, insuring, and financing of their bodies and the products of their forced labor would help make Wall Street a thriving banking, insurance, and trading sector, and New York City a financial capital of the world.

                                                                                      #         #         #

 

 

Posted: July 25, 2022 --- by Post Commander, Carl "Chris" Christophersen

 

In case you were wondering --- 

 

There is no mention of God in the Constitution of the United States which includes all the Amendments.

 

The word "Religion” is only mentioned once in the 1^st Amendment.

 

           Amendment 1: Freedom, Petitions, Assembly (1791)

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for redress of grievances.

 

Reportedly, the author of the 1st draft of the Constitution, James Madison, purposely did not mention "God", much like he did not mention the word "Slave", to avoid contention --- since besides breaking from King George of Great Britain and placating the anti-slavery movement in the North, there were also Americans who were fleeing religious persecution in Europe.

 

The separation of Church and State was prominent & vital in the mind of James Madison.

                                                                           #         #         #

                                                   

 

 

Posted: July 21, 2022 --- by Post Commander, Carl "Chris" Christophersen

 

[Excerpts from my review of the book entitled "The 1610 Project" in the "Members Only" section.]

 

Chapter 1 --- Democracy

  

Page 9 --- In August 1619, just twelve (12) years after the English settled Jamestown, Virginia, one year before the Puritans landed at Plymouth, and some 157 years before English colonists here decided they wanted to form their own country, the Jamestown colonists bought twenty to thirty (20-30) enslaved Africans from English pirates.

 

 

Page 10 --- Those men and women who came ashore on that August day mark the beginning of slavery in the thirteen (13) colonies that would become the United States of America. 

                                                              #      #      #

 

 

 

Posted: June 8, 2022 --- by Post Commander, Carl "Chris" Christophersen

 

This Car Show is a fundraiser for the Northshore Veterans Memorial maintenance fund. It is the idea of a member of VFW Post 3348 in Shoreline. The Color Guard and Security will be handled by the U.S. Volunteers – Joint Services Command, 103^rd BCT partially composed of, and commanded by, members of VFW Post 3348.

                                                                   #      #      #

                                                                                                          

 

 

 

Posted: May 5, 2022 --- by Post Commander, Carl "Chris" Christophersen

 

The VFW Dept of Washington Surgeon, Drew James, on the far left, installed the new 2022-2023 officers for Blackburn Aurora VFW Post 3348 at our meeting last night.

 

  

This is just after Drew handed the gavel back to Post Commander Chris Christophersen. All these photos & other photos went onto our Post Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/www.vfw3348.org/ where you can see these photos in full size.

                          ==============================

 

We had a good discussion in preparation for our Memorial Day Buddy Poppy event to be on Fri-Sat, May 27-28 when our Post members will be at 3 local stores: Central Market, Shoreline Fred Meyer and Thrashers Corner Fred Meyer in Bothell.

 

  

To set the stage for our Buddy Poppy discussion, at the request of Commander Christophersen, newly initiated member, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Lisa Nenno, read "The Story of the Buddy Poppy” which includes the poem "Flanders Fields” about the inspiring site of wild red poppies growing between the hastily dug graves of recently fallen soldiers from the 2^nd Battle of Ypres in Belgium in 1915.

 

With VFW Post 3348 garnering another new member last night, we were informed that our Post was now 100% on membership and would be awarded All-State status for 2021-2022.

                                                                      #       #       #