Thanksgiving Thoughts

You may have heard of this book, or seen it used in videos or websites before. Author David Smith shrinks the world's population of more than 6.6 billion people down to a village of 100, and, with all the human ratios existing in the world still remaining, shows what this village would look like. Here is what he says:

• 61 would be Asian

• 11 would be European
• 13 would be from the Western Hemisphere
• 14 would be African
• 32 would be Christian
• 52 would be non‐Christian
• 16 are non‐religious
• 10 people have over half the entire world’s wealth
• 50 would suffer from malnutrition
• 20 are severely undernourished
• 30 always have enough to eat
• 73 people are over the age of 15 and 64 of them can read at least a little, but 17 cannot read at all. More males are taught to read than females.
• 1 person will die this year
• The average life expectancy is 63 years old
• 3 babies will be born this year

The following is an anonymous interpretation of these statistics:


Think of it this way. If you live in a good home, have plenty to eat and can read, you are a member of a very select group. And if you have a good house, food, can read and have a computer you are among the very elite. If you woke up this morning with more health than illness… you are more fortunate than the million who will not survive this week. If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation… you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.


If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death… you are fortunate; more than three billion people in the world can’t. If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep... you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace… you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy. If your parents are still alive and married… you are very rare, even in the United States.

If you can read this message, you are more fortunate than over one billion people in the world who cannot read at all.


It is so important that we, the blessed citizens of the United States of America, understand and remember that we are NOT in the world's majority. Not as Caucasians, not as Christians, not as well-fed and healthy, not as highly educated, and certainly not as free people.  And, as such, it is our responsibility to take care of the others. Luke 12:48 spells it out for us:

But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. (NIV)

God gives us more than we need so that we have enough to give to others. It's that simple. I am thankful to the Lord for all he has bestowed upon me and my family, and I promise to be ever mindful of my responsibilities.

Happy Thanksgiving!



For more information on "If the World Were a Village" by David Smith, please visit his website at http://www.mapping.com/village.html.

Thoughts about "The Lost JFK Tapes: The Assassination"

National Geographic channel is showing "The Lost JFK Tapes: The Assassination."  The two-hour documentary is a compilation of radio and television footage from the day Kennedy was killed, and the following four days. It is assembled in real-time, so the viewer can watch the events unfold, beginning with the President's trip to Ft. Worth.  The show is absolutely riveting. I experienced a feeling of dread as I watched the motorcade leave Love Field, and proceed through downtown Dallas.  I knew what fate awaited the President and the country, and I found myself glued to the television. The footage illustrates the chaos surrounding the assassination and it really is quite remarkable.

Here are some observations about the documentary:

• The prevalence of smoking: it seemed as if everyone smoked.  The newsmen smoked on camera, people lit up inside at a banquet, cigarettes hung precariously from reporters' lips, while they squinted one eye against the smoke and furiously scrawled their notes. 

• The people swarming the hospital entrance where the President had been taken, the reporters, the newscasters, were all men.  A sea of men in suits.

•  The news director that was on the air that day looked terrible. But, in his defense, he didn't have makeup on, and the picture was in black and white.  His hands were shaking and he was out of breath. I'm sure he smoked.

• At a breakfast function that morning in Ft. Worth, the President was presented with a hat. He would not put it on, even though people in the crowd called out, "Put it on!" I guess he didn't want to mess his hair up.

• Johnson's code name was "Volunteer."

• There was a car full of Secret Service men right behind the limo in which the President and Mrs. Kennedy rode. It was practically touching the bumper of the limo. Agents were also running along beside the car.  Policemen were stationed on building rooftops. Yet, Lee Harvey Oswald managed to shoot the President from the fifth floor of a building, using a 4x scope. 

• The man, woman and two small children that have been shown lying in the grass as the limo sped away were later interviewed on television. They were right beside the car when the shooting occurred, and it is a wonder one of them wasn't shot, as well.  I have never read anything about them. I wonder where they are now, or whatever became of them. What did those two little boys think? 

• There is footage of the police discovering the rifle in the depository. I was shocked to see the detective pick the rifle up with bare hands. It was fingerprinted right there, at the scene.  It was carried out of the building by a detective, not bagged or anything.

• The rifle was ordered from a catalog and cost $12.78.

• Jackie called for Last Rites to be administered to the President. Two priests came to the hospital, and one was interviewed later. He said that when he arrived, the sheet was pulled up over the President's face, and he pulled it down enough to anoint him.  The President was already dead, and Jackie was worried that the Rites hadn't been given in time. She asked the priest about it, and he said that he was confident the soul had not yet left the body. I believe the priest was the first one to say that the President was dead.

• The scene at the hospital was repeated days later, when Lee Harvey Oswald was taken to the exact same entrance, dying from a gunshot wound.  

• It is no wonder conspiracy theories abound.  It is rather hard to believe that Oswald was surrounded by policemen and Secret Service agents, yet Jack Ruby just walked right up to him and shot him.  The reporters are heard talking about the security, and the concern that Oswald might be attacked.  Someone, a police officer, perhaps, says that there was no way Ruby was simply angry because of the assassination; Ruby shot Oswald to seal his lips.  

• The newscaster narrating the perp walk and the shooting kept referring to Oswald as, "Harvey Lee Oswald."

• Jackie Kennedy was perhaps the most gracious, classy woman on the planet at that time. She was unbelievably composed throughout the ordeal, and I don't know if people have ever really appreciated her performance. I never did.

There is much more, but suffice it to say, this is TV worth watching. An excellent documentary.