Back to Egypt

“Hell has been described as a pocket edition of Chicago”.

Ashley Montagu "The American Way Of Life," 1967

With the advent of the Chicago teacher’s strike this week, I got to wondering…Does anything good ever come out of Chicago?  This is the land of Al Capone…where the term “Chicago Politics” is synonymous with sleazy and corrupt.  It is also now the reigning murder capital of the world with an average of more than one murder per day (433 in 2011 to be exact).  August was the deadliest month of 2012 with 55 homicides.  Fatal stabbings were up 78% over 2011.  Remember Mayor Rahm Emmanuel’s recent statement? “Chik-Fil-A values are not Chicago values”.  Interestingly, that was one of the few times he actually spoke the truth.    

If Gordon Gekko, the fictional character who epitomized the phrase “Greed is Good”, was handing out awards--then surely Chicago teachers would be top contenders.  These teachers earn an average pay of $76,000 in a city where the average citizen earns approximately $45,000 a year.  These highly paid employees only work 9 months a year and the Chicago student drop out/failure rate is 40%-50%.  So much for performance based employment.  When offered a $400 million dollar deal with a 16% pay raise to go back to work—they refused.  Of course, Mayor Rahm Emmanuel’s own children currently attend an expensive private school--the same school once attended by Sasha & Malia Obama.  One might wonder how the beleaguered Chicago populace can tolerate such duplicity from their leaders.  They talk out of both sides of their mouth—propping up the failing public school system, but only for YOUR kids.  THEIR kids will attend someplace else, of course.  But for Chicago, this is just another typical Thursday in “The Windy City”—a town with more than just weather related bluster.

(Bloggers Note:  As of this blog date, the city and the teachers union have supposedly reached “an agreement in principle” which is almost too funny for words.  Chicago politics juxtaposed against “principles” is an oxymoron.  It will be interesting to see how it plays out.)

Now, out of sheer curiosity, I decided to study the origin of the name “Chicago”.  After all, it’s a strange word for a strange town.  What I uncovered actually rocked me back on my heels.     

Chicago is named after the American Indian word “Shikaakwa” or “Checagou” or “Checaguar” which in the language of the native Pottawatomi Indians means “wild leek” or “wild onion” or “wild garlic”.  It also has a secondary meaning of “striped skunk”.  The area, therefore, got its name due to the intense smell of rotting marshland onions which were just below the surface of the undeveloped land way back when.  Truly, (to paraphrase Shakespeare’s Hamlet) “something is rotten in Chicago.” 
 

This information alone may give you reason to pause and reflect.  Of course, we are all well aware that our current President emanated from the cauldron of Chicago Politics.  But…as with everything lately…I like to check with “The Ultimate Wikipedia”—The Holy Bible.

Now…you might not expect me to find anything.  I certainly didn’t really expect to find anything either.  However, I got a truly shocking, jaw-dropping correlation when I input a Google search for “onions, garlic and leeks” and “striped skunk” in the Bible.  Now what are the chances of that happening?  Who would seriously believe that these two oddities would pop up as Biblical references?   

Here’s the really strange thing:  onions, garlic and leeks didn’t come up in SEPARATE places throughout the Bible…I guess that could be possible but peculiar, as one might imagine.  They came up in ONE SPECIFIC Bible verse!  The verse refers to a statement made by the children of Israel.  Pharaoh had released them from bondage and they were in the desert on their way to The Promised Land.  Apparently, the joy of freedom began to wear off and they began complaining to Moses that they wanted to go back to Egypt.  Here’s what they said:

We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost--also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic.

~Numbers 11:5

Wow--Sounds an awful lot like the whiny American public, wouldn’t you say?  GIVE US THE FREE STUFF.  We want to trade our “Freedom for Freebies”.   Never mind the chains and slavery.  We want to go back to bondage!  We want tyranny!  

I bet I could stop here and you might be pretty astonished.  However, we are not finished with our scripture lesson for the day--Back to the “striped skunk”.  The striped skunk used to be called “Enfant du Diable” by French Canadian trappers or “Child of the Devil”.  When searching the Bible for a “striped skunk” reference, two Hebrew words were referenced: “tzebua” and “zevoa”.  Neither of them really has a great English translation.  From my research, the closest explanation would be a “howling creature” or “hyena” or “jackal”.  Some sort of feral animal that smells, and prowls at night preying on the weak, lame and aging population of the animal kingdom.  Lovely.  “So far--no good” from Chicago.  

Finally, the Pottowatomi Indians (the Indian language where the name Chicago is derived from), are the SAME people who were indigenous to the Kansas town where the terrorist organization known as “The Weather Underground” was formed.  Remember Obama pal Bill Ayers, the terrorist bomber? This is also the very same region where Obama’s grandparents and mother came from before they moved to Hawaii. 

The Weather Underground’s terrorist manifesto slogan was “a little spark can start a prairie fire”. Their “little spark” was in reference to the terrorist bombs they utilized to incite Marxism.    

One last thing—I looked up the meaning of Pottowatomi. 

Translation: “People of the place of the Fire” or

—Hell on Earth.

Creepy…Just sayin’. 

Jesus said:  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives”.

~Luke 4:18

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude, than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!"

~Samuel Adams (American Founding Father)

Please join us in the Grassroots movement National Day of Repentance:

www.dayofrepentance.org
In honor of our Judeo-Christian heritage, Americans will pray and fast from Sunset on 9/25/12 through Nightfall on 9/26/12. This will also kick off 40 days of prayer until the 11/6/2012 election:
40 Days to Save America
http://www.visionamericaaction.us/