Johny Joe Hold: Fireside Chat #1

[Johny Joe Hold]

A Warm Good Evening to my Freehold Friends,

This is an opportunity to invoke a great leader of the past, Franklin Roosevelt. He had Fireside Chats with the voters back then, and, its time we do the same. I will be having these chats with you from time to time during the campaign. If the Lord allows me to win, perhaps we can continue them into the future.

In these chats, I want to bring up topics that I've been thinking about. Then, I want to hear back from you.

Today, I'm thinking about an old custom that goes back forever in our Christian heritage, table grace. I feel this custom is slipping away from us.

"What does this have to do with the position of Mayor?" you might rightly ask. I would say this. Whether or not you say grace before meals in your own home is not the business of the Mayor or your City's government. That is between you and God--and--of course, your Pastor. But, saying table grace in Freehold's restrurants, well, that is an entirely different matter.

You see, restrurants are licensed by the City. A Health Code officer stops in to see that the way food is prepared meets the requirements of the City's laws. So, I've been thinking recently about this: Let's address our spiritual health. With slight revisions, our health codes could be expanded to require, not only that the food be prepared in a healthy manner, but that we all say a healthy table grace before we eat it.

How would we do this? Would servers be trained in appropriate table grace? Would there be a hot line where other diners could call when the see a violation? Let's chat about it.

Thanks. And God Bless You.

Johny Joe Hold, Candidate for Mayor

[C. Reconstruction]

Re: Johny Joe Hold: Fireside Chat #1

This idea has merits. Once I am mayor, and you are in place as my Secretary of State this will be one of your first actions.

Join the C. Reconstruction group for a God centered future!

[Johny Joe Hold]

Re: Johny Joe Hold: Fireside Chat #1

This idea has merits. Once I am mayor, and you are in place as my Secretary of State this will be one of your first actions.

I would be pleased to serve in your Administration.
JJH

[Samuel Coleridge]

Re: Johny Joe Hold: Fireside Chat #1

This is an opportunity to invoke a great leader of the past, Franklin Roosevelt.

Are you sure you belong in Freehold, Mr. Hold? If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed it.

A fundamentalist conservative called FDR great..

[Alfred King]

Re: Johny Joe Hold: Fireside Chat #1

I would be pleased to serve in your Administration.

Does this mean you will now leave the mayoral elections?

[Johny Joe Hold]

Re: Johny Joe Hold: Fireside Chat #1

Mr. Coleridge and Mr. King, I enjoyed those posts. What fun it is to make good-natured pokes at each other.

I wish our thread, here, could return to the serious topic of table prayer. Don't you both agree it would be a blessing if we could walk into any restaurant in Freehold and see people with their heads bowed in prayer? Maybe if all of us who are candidates endorsed restaurant table prayer together it would influence the public's behavior. You just never know.

For myself, I feel the Lord's call to keep on discussing the idea of putting a requirement for restaurant table prayer into the City's health codes.

[Beaux McManus]

Re: Johny Joe Hold: Fireside Chat #1

Hello, as many of you know, I, Beaux McManus, am also a candidate for Mayor...as is Mr. Hold (who still has not taken a stand about a fabricated article that was planted about me in a shoddy Des Moines newspaper today, by the way. It would seem he was too busy feathering his own nest by cribbing techniques from dead leaders of the past to reach out a helping hand to a wronged, innocent, living person in the present.)

Be that as it may, I am not in favor of enforcing grace being said at table, because each resident is dictated by their own, personal connection to a Higher Power (or not) and should follow their instincts accordingly.

We may live in a fascist dictatorship NOW in Freehold, but the election of a new Mayor opens the door to a new time, when people may live free from fear. Obviously, many people will want to say grace before a public meal. Others, for their own reasons, will not. Maybe they will feel like it tomorrow, or next month, who knows? Maybe their God told them to shut up for a day of quiet reflection...we really have no way of knowing.

For those reasons, I would encourage everyone to keep their eyes on their own plate.

Thank you.

[Miss Cassandra]

Re: Johny Joe Hold: Fireside Chat #1

I do say grace before meals, sort of. We have a short ceremony to thank Mother Earth for providing us so bountiful with her rich blessings. We must remember that we live in balance with the spiritual and physical realms of nature, and never should forget what our place is in the great complexity of this reality.

To do this ritual, we stand up, hold each other's hands, and sing one of the primary Songs of Nature, like the Song of the Wind or the Song of the Rain. While we do that, we slowly dance around the table three times. Then we finish with the Horned Hunter's blessing over all people in the restaurant, greeting all people with the appropriate handsign.

Would that satisfy your new "spiritual health laws?"

[Alfred King]

Re: Johny Joe Hold: Fireside Chat #1

Obviously, many people will want to say grace before a public meal. Others, for their own reasons, will not. Maybe they will feel like it tomorrow, or next month, who knows? Maybe their God told them to shut up for a day of quiet reflection...we really have no way of knowing.

I fully agree with you on this.

[Johny Joe Hold]

Re: Johny Joe Hold: Fireside Chat #1

I do say grace before meals, sort of. We have a short ceremony to thank Mother Earth for providing us so bountiful with her rich blessings. We must remember that we live in balance with the spiritual and physical realms of nature, and never should forget what our place is in the great complexity of this reality.

Would that satisfy your new "spiritual health laws?"

Miss Casandra--I'm sure your understand that a Wiccan prayer would not comply with my proposed "spiritual health laws". That is because they contribute to bad health, not good health. Let me explain.

If you look around Freehold, you see mostly healthy people. You might see a little too much, shall we say, heft, but healthy. The majority of people in Freehold are also fundamentalist Christians. So there you have a scientific link between being Christian and health.

That is why, then, our health codes that apply to restaurant licenses must include Christian prayer before meals.

Thank you for this opportunity to discuss this important issue.
Johny Joe Hold

[Johny Joe Hold]

Re: Johny Joe Hold: Fireside Chat #1

Be that as it may, I am not in favor of enforcing grace being said at table, because each resident is dictated by their own, personal connection to a Higher Power (or not) and should follow their instincts accordingly.

Mr. McManus--Thank you for bring attention to what seems to be the biggest problem we have in Freehold, and for the matter, in the United States. That is the concept of each person following their own "instincts".

The concept you are talking about is actually one of communism. Each of us would like someone to take care of us--so we wouldn't have to work. That is why our "instincts" are to embrace communism.

But a thinking person links together freedom and Jesus. They are inseparable. We need laws which bring them together at every opportunity. One opportunity is in a licensed restaurant. Praising God while breaking bread together puts us one step closer to total freedom and a glorious eternity.

All the best to you, my Mayorial Candidate Colleague. I know we will be visiting again along the campaign trail.

Johny Joe Hold

[Miss Cassandra]

Re: Johny Joe Hold: Fireside Chat #1

Miss Casandra--I'm sure your understand that a Wiccan prayer would not comply with my proposed "spiritual health laws". That is because they contribute to bad health, not good health. Let me explain.

If you look around Freehold, you see mostly healthy people. You might see a little too much, shall we say, heft, but healthy. The majority of people in Freehold are also fundamentalist Christians. So there you have a scientific link between being Christian and health.

That is why, then, our health codes that apply to restaurant licenses must include Christian prayer before meals.

Thank you for this opportunity to discuss this important issue.
Johny Joe Hold

Well, life in the forest is good for your health as well, you know. Do you know that, during the Witch Hunts, we have few problems staying well ahead of the people that pursue us? And they are men, while we are women. Scientifically speaking, this proves that the wiccan ceremony is better for your health than the christian prayer.

So there you have it, if you want to be consistent, you will have to make the wiccan ceremony obligatory, instead of the christian prayer.

[Rev. M. Rodimer]

Re: Johny Joe Hold: Fireside Chat #1

Well, life in the forest is good for your health as well, you know. Do you know that, during the Witch Hunts, we have few problems staying well ahead of the people that pursue us? And they are men, while we are women. Scientifically speaking, this proves that the wiccan ceremony is better for your health than the christian prayer.

So there you have it, if you want to be consistent, you will have to make the wiccan ceremony obligatory, instead of the christian prayer.

The Wicced ritual leads to being hunted like a dog and lit on fire.

How exactly is that better for your health?

[BelieverInGod]

Re: Johny Joe Hold: Fireside Chat #1

The Wicced ritual leads to being hunted like a dog and lit on fire.

How exactly is that better for your health?

Instead of hunting them like dogs, why aren't you hunting them WITH dogs?

[Pastor Ezekiel]

Re: Johny Joe Hold: Fireside Chat #1

Instead of hunting them like dogs, why aren't you hunting them WITH dogs?

This is why we don't bring you ladies on our witch hunts every Autumn.