PEACEKEEPING? NOT ANYMORE

Regardless of ones political affiliations, the conclusion is:  Ours is the country it is today because of the Liberal Party's dominance over both the political landscape and Canada's agenda for nearly 70 years of the last century.

The policies, the legislation, the vision advanced and practiced by the 'natural governing party' of the 20th Century defined Canadians as peace loving, tolerant, multicultural, bilingual, charitable, socially responsible people within a prosperous nation.

So why is the current government of Prime Minister Harper turning us away from our present and our future in what appears to be a truly transformative shift in character and value - A root-and-branch supplanting of one kind of country for another - as someone recently described the apparent transformation?

In a comment this weekend in 'The Globe And Mail,' political activist Gerald Caplan warns to be afraid of the "new" Canada being invented by Mr. Harper and his associates. Perhaps it's worth noting that Mr. Caplan in 1985 was appointed by another Conservative Prime-Minister, Brian Mulroney, to co-chair (with Florian Sauvageau) a Federal Task Force on Canadian Broadcasting Policy which ultimately led to the Broadcasting Act of 1988. (I digress!) - Of the current Conservative leader, Caplan concludes: "It's in the nature of true believers and ideologues to believe that any means to their sacred ends are justified...It's also typical of such people that they're often motivated by unfathomable resentment and anger, a compulsion not just to better but to destroy their adversaries."

From the session of Parliament just ended there's at least anecdotal evidence on several fronts of the government's efforts to create a Conservative mythology as opposed to a Liberal mythology - Instead of peacekeepers, we're now warriors; the "royal" prefix has been restored to the military; Canada's embassies must now feature portraits of The Queen; the list is long and growing but it seems to suggest a very deliberate and calculated attempt to re-shape Canadian symbolism, nationalism and values back to those cherished by the mid-war generation of which John Diefenbaker was a prominent member. And, more importantly to ignore Canada's evolution as an independent country with an identity of its own.

Some critics see the government's crime and justice initiatives, the changes at the Wheat Board and to the Long-Gun registry, our planned massive military spending and other recent legislated initiatives as borrowed elements of the "Tea Party" revolution from the United-States, and the hard right Republican "destroy the enemy politics" now so prevalent as the American Presidential campaign gets under way.

In the 2010 best seller "Harperland," author Lawrence Martin portrays a leader firmly in control of his political agenda, and a man..."who goes to extraordinary lengths to see it implemented." - In a new book due out next spring -"Warrior Nation: Rebranding Canada in a Fearful Age" co-authors Ian McKay and Jamie Swift of Queen's University take the notion several steps further arguing that: "The Harper government is operating very much like a regime mounting and ideological crusade to rebrand the country."  A crusade that Mr. Swift has told the 'National Post' involves the "dismantling" of institutions which interfere with values such as the Puritan work ethic and respect for authority.

Maybe Gerald Caplan is right: "Be very afraid: Stephen Harper is inventing a new Canada" - I don't like it!

GUNS OF AUTUMN

When Canada's Parliamentary session resumes in September, Mr. Harper's majority Conservatives will eliminate the national long-gun registry despite ongoing opposition from the country's police officers and their superiors.

To be fair former Toronto Police Chief and subsequent Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police, Julian Fantino, doesn't necessarily agree with his former colleagues in uniform. Perhaps, as some have suggested, Mr. Fantino's conversion has more to do with his 2010 election as a Tory Member of Parliament from Vaughan, Ontario followed by his subsequent recent elevation to Associate Minister of Defence than for any waining support for former comrades in arms...I digress.

Be that as it may, it's south of the border in the United States that the problem is far more acute and a frequent source of frustration and irritation for Canadian authorities forced to deal with the ever increasing flow of illegal handguns (by every means possible) into our country.

That is in keeping with President Barack Obama's stance on gun issues since taking office: Once outspoken earlier in his political career in favour of tougher gun measures, the President has tread carefully since the election of 2008, almost never raising the topic except when asked and offering only tepid support for measures he once embraced; for instance re-enacting a ban on assault weapons.

In fact now six months after a Member of Congress was shot in the head in Arizona the President's administration still hasn't taken any new steps on gun violence even though that's exactly what Mr. Obama called for during a nationwide address in the immediate wake of the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Gifford. A significant measure uppermost to anti gun violence supporters is closing the "gun-show loophole" which allows private sellers to sell firearms at gun shows and elsewhere without conducting background checks. As a result, activist groups say that 40% of gun sales in the United-States are conducted without mandatory background checks. These are frequently the weapons used in heinous crimes in the United-States, or having found there way illegally across the northern border, far too frequently here as well in Canada.

To make a bad situation worse across the U.S., states have been increasingly allowing people who have lost their "firearms rights" because of mental illness to petition to have them restored. More than 20 State Legislatures have passed restoration laws since 2008 when Mr. Obama's Presidential election sparked fears that national measures might follow to tighten or eliminate rights contained in the second amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The intent of these new state laws is to enable people to regain the right to buy and own firearms if it's determined they are no longer a threat to public safety. The main problem is that low level courts such as those that handle small-claims and traffic infractions have been entrusted with enforcing the legislation. There Judges are (for the most part) giving the petitioners the benefit of the doubt.

With opposition from gun-rights group, increasingly hostile legislation from many state governments, an election year approaching, and attention focused on a faltering economy and few prospects for any action from Congress; the silence from Mr. Obama's administration is likely to draw little attention and even less criticism.

BE AFRAID; MAYBE EVEN VERY AFRAID

There's unrelenting talk of a spring Federal election in Canada's capital. It's generally anticipated that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's national budget which is expected by mid-March will set the tone for the political discourse leading into a national election.

The general expectation is that "security" will play a significant role in setting the stage for any heated battle for the hearts and minds of the Canadian electorate. It may boil down to a clearly defined three pronged agenda.

The Prime-Minister's visit with President Barack Obama a week ago has already established the benchmark for a debate over "perimeter security": A plan which critics complain could see Canada sacrifice some measure of its sovereignty in order to soften American border restrictions imposed over the threat of cross-border terrorism.

The Flaherty budget itself is expected to offer a road map for Canada's long range "economic security" in the face of the country's spending deficit and mounting national debt. The turmoil since the economic crisis began has not only erased Canada's pre-2008 annual national surplus of close to $15-Billion, but the deficit for the current fiscal year could top $50-Billion.

As defined by the Federal Government, "personal security" too is to be included as a part of the lead-up to a potential election in the spring. the ruling Conservative Government is intensifying it's multi-billion dollar get-tough on crime agenda with currently close to twenty proposed crime and justice bills winding their way through Parliament. Some estimates predict this energized crime policy will cost billions of dollars and significantly increase the prison population. Parliament's budget officer has predicted the crackdown on crime will mean additional expenditures of $2-Billion just to build more prisons.

If adopted by Parliament, the various get-tough-on-crime measures would be implemented despite a 33-year low in Canada's national crime rate. Faced with a looming election the Liberals in opposition have already signalled they are prepared to take this fight over crime directly to Canadians. Just a few days ago Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said one of the proposed Tory measures..."isn't tough on crime, it's dumb on crime."

Measures already implemented in a 3-year-old $400-million plan to put more policemen on the streets of the country have reduced the incidents-per-officer ratio for Canadian police officers to 32. Meaning that each of the country's 69,000 police officers handles an average of just 32 cases per year, the lowest ratio in close to 50 years. But nationally, police operating costs have double to $12.5 Billion / year in just the last 25 years.

In other countries and at other times crime statistics have been used irresponsibly or even misused to argue in support of get tough on crime agendas. Some experts caution that there is frequently little correlation between building more jails, or putting more policemen on the streets and a falling crime rate.

SIEGE MENTALITY

An outcry this week as debate in Canada's Parliament revealed the staggering Billion Dollar cost of securing the G-8 and G-20 Summit sites next month in southern Ontario.

From every account, the cost of providing security at the two locations: Toronto and Huntsville, June 25-26-27, is the most expensive of "any" summit meeting in history.

Although several summits have been held since the September 11, 2001 calamities in New York and on the Pentagon; the Government of Prime-Minister Stephen Harper cites the terrorist attacks of nine years ago as a primary reason for the unprecedented cost of securing the area and facilities where the heads of the world's most powerful economies will be meeting.

Digressing briefly - In as much as Canada can claim credit for the creation of the G-20 in the late 1990's by the then Minister of Finance, Paul Martin...It's thanks only to the Government of U.S. President Gerald Ford that our country secured a seat at the creation of the G-6 Group of nations at the Paris Summit of 1975.

In North America at least, there is an ongoing palpable vitriolic sense of paranoia and fear created in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001. Each subsequent misguided effort to execute a strike against the American homeland, no matter how minor the attempt or consequences, has only fueled further the apprehensive tensions.

Canada's right of centre Conservative Government, elected in January 2006, seems increasingly to be getting drawn into the same vortex. The unprecedented security measures which will cripple Canada's largest city for three days late next month are only a most recent manifestation. More than 200 American military conscientious objectors to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan await deportation from Canada this summer. The same nation which welcomed thousands of "draft dodgers" during the Viet Nam era.

The political climate here, and to a far greater extent in the United-States, somewhat reflects the Cold War era when many Americans dug backyard fallout shelters. There is in essence a free-floating anxiety in the heart of American suburbia. Worrisome examples include the "open carry" gun debate. So far, 35 American states allow residents to roam openly with guns, while another 12 allow it through permits. Some estimates indicate that "open carry" has as many as 30,000 followers. There are 196 million guns in the United-States. Gun politics in Canada is contentious, but there are at least two groups which actively promote the freedom to openly carry weapons at will: "Right To Keep And Bear Arms" is based in Ottawa; and "Canada Carry" is based in St. Constant on the outskirts of Montreal.

The Canadian government's decision to spend a Billion Dollars securing the two Ontario summit sites next month reflects a perception that ours are fearful times. Some - Perhaps many, in fact - fear that "the end is near!" Doomsday claims are being fueled by recent earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, terrorism and predictions of the world's end in 2012 when the ancient Mayan calendar is said to end. In several American states companies are taking money for what they promise will be comfortable "Armageddon" proof bunkers. Promoters of a company called "Vivos" claim to have so far collected deposits on about half of the 132 spaces in an underground bunker they're building under the Mojave Desert in California: $50,000 gets buyers a bunk in a 4-person room - Atrium, gym, jail, and cafeteria meals included. Similar projects are being developed in Oregon and in Kansas where underground $1.75 Million condos are planned.

NOT CRAZY - THESE ARE FEARFUL TIME: When everything is added-up; spending a Billion Dollars on security at the Ontario Summits is just one extreme manifestation of the feverish siege mentality gripping the early decades of the 21st Century. It's still quite unclear if or how this "fever" will break. Hopefully it will before the "open carry" proponents get to carry their weapons into the doomsday bunkers.

ACCIDENTS: HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY AND TV REALITY

In the forty-eight contiguous United States, there is only one place where one has to go south to get to Canada: Detroit, Michigan.

Wither Detroit - Once the fourth largest city of the United-States, it now barely reaches the top 12. When music producer, Berry Gordy (now aged 80), moved Motown Records to Los Angeles in 1972; he took along its soul. Lest I digress: White North America's love affair with Motown Music is a direct result of the legendary Music Director at CKLW Radio in Windsor, Rosalie Tromblay, who programmed the tunes on the station.

It is in fact much more than the City of Windsor and the residents of southwestern Ontario who share a cultural bond of sorts with Detroit. Back in the seventies, a consortium of Canadian cable companies, called CanCom, started picking-up the signals of Detroit's major network affiliate television stations for re-broadcast across Canada. Now called Shaw Satellite Services, the company is the major supplier of U.S. television signals across Canada. Close to two generations later, Canadian television audiences in every province view and share in the trials, tribulations, corruption, murders - In short the ups and downs, warts included, of daily life in the auto capital of the world.

And...there has been plenty to see: Just recently when police burst into a home in search of a murder suspect; an officer accidentally shot and killed a 7-year-old child. Her death is now raising serious questions of ethics and morality about reality television programs. A crew from the reality series: "The First 48" which airs on A&E, last week was tagging along and filming when police raided the home where Aiyana Stanley-Jones was killed. Her death shines a critical spotlight on the growing number of reality programs that focus on police activity. Some critics claim police behave differently when cameras are watching.

Authors and experts on violence and murder say quite possibly officers become more aggressive and confrontational in the presence of television cameras. One observation is clear: Cities, including Memphis, Tennessee and Dallas, Texas no longer allow filming because it created a perception that the cities..."were overrun with crime". - A perception that Detroit has battled for decades.

Quoted in a related article by the Associated Press; the author of: "The Peep Diaries - How We're Learning To Love Watching Ourselves And Our Neighbors (sic)"; Hal Niedzviecki, claims that having a reality camera crew along on a police raid contributes to a culture that reduces everything to mere entertainment..."Somebody's accidental death, somebody's drug problem, somebody wins the lottery - it's all equally entertaining."

History, geography, the economy haven't always been kind to life in Detroit. Reality television it seems may not be kinder in death.

NOT IMMUNE TO THE GUN CULTURE

I opined recently about the growth of extreme right-wing radical para-military groups in the United-States. So-called "Patriots", some of whom advocate the overthrown of their Federal Government. (See: "Uncle Sam's Shameful Little Problem" - March 7/10).

As is far too frequently captured in our own national headlines: Sadly, Canadians are not immune from the ravages of a growing gun culture. The source of these weapons is most often traced right back to the United-States.

From St. Stephen, New Brunswick to Surrey, British-Columbia the dozens of land-based border crossings that dot our countryside have become an increasingly frequent source for the transfer of illegal weapons across the international border. Hand-guns and other nefarious weapons purchased from legitimate and / or shady dealers and sellers in the U.S. and transferred illegally into Canada.

Thanks to a number of well armed suburban gangs, drug traffickers and others of questionable mental stability; Canada's rank as 44th on the world's list of (per-capita) murders is on the rise...and in some of the most unlikely communities. Although Canada's rate per 100,000 of population is still a somewhat respectable 1.8 murders...the suburban community of Mission / Abbotsford, British Columbia, smack on the American border, last year posted a rate of 4.7 murders (per 100,000) and grabbed the dubious title of Canada's murder capital. Lest I digress: A mantle held since 1990 by the City of Winnipeg, which surely the Manitoba Capital was not unhappy to pass along westward.

Quick comparisons: The national average of the United-States is 7.4 murders per 100,000 people of population. The City of New Orleans averages 25 murders per 100,000 - Twice Detroit's rate of 12.5. A disgraceful testament no doubt to the ready, easy and legal availability of hand-guns and other assault weapons and their ammunition on the streets of every American community.

Obviously...thankfully; though Abbotsford B.C. still has a way to go. This is somehow not the kind of race decent communities aspire to lead nor to win. In the Abbotsford case, they would surely just sooner be recognized for their other title: Raspberry Capital of Canada.

CRYING-OUT FOR AN INQUEST

Although the long legal process has just barely begun; at some point (sooner rather than later) Ontario's Chief Coroner will be compelled to call an inquest to probe the circumstances surrounding the murder of Ottawa Constable Eric Czapnik.

The police community is generally very protective of its own. It was though clearly obvious this week when in an unrelated matter, Ottawa's Police Chief, Vern White testified that he..."has no usefulness" for an officer convicted of a crime; that his message was directed at the RCMP's botched multiple efforts to unload Officer Kevin Gregson who is now accused in Czapnik's murder.

In the wake of the Constable's massive funeral last week, the union which represents Ottawa Police Officers went on the record to demand an inquest into what was an obviously preventable incident. It is likely to be a probe the RCMP may resist fearing another black mark against the sullied reputation it has acquired beginning (perhaps) with the case of Maher Arar; the Mayerthorpe, Alberta murders; the very public turfing of Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli; and the death of Robert Dzikanski at Vancouver's airport just to highlight the most sensational.

If the Polish Community here and abroad was angered by Mr. Dzickanski's treatment; it was deeply saddened by Constable Czapnik's murder...and it appears the RCMP is the constant in both instances.

At a late December news conference, Ottawa Chief Vern White observed that the accused, disgraced RCMP officer Kevin Gregson, was clearly out to "to kill a cop" on December 28 by wearing two RCMP issued bullet-proof vests, and carrying several other police paraphenalia before slashing (unprovoked) Constable Czapnik's neck in the early morning hours of the 29th.

Gregson was suspended from, but still an RCMP Officer despite a criminal conviction in Saskatchewan; an order "to quit the force", and violating a court order by attempting to meet with the current Commisionner, William Elliott by going to Mr. Elliott's private residence. Can't you just fire incompetants any more? It seems to me at least that the RCMP, as any citizen would, had a certain responsibility to report Officer Gregson's irratic (and as it turned-out dangerous) behaviour to the local police department.

That's why Constable Eric Czapnik's murder demands an inquest!

WAR'S LASTING LEGACY

The clamor over assessing blame for the chaos of the H1N1 Flu immunization efforts has dimmed media's attention to the war effort in Afghanistan. Though sadly the recent deaths of two more Canadian military personnel has not erased the Afghan issue from coverage in the national dailies and the network newscasts.

Canada's grim total of war dead inches ever so closely to 140, and the number of injured Canadians exceeds over 500. Astounding numbers considering our rotational commitment of troops on the ground in Afghanistan has never exceeded 2,500 soldiers. On a per capita basis, Canadian casualties in the war are the worse of any of the NATO partners.

Amidst frequent American media reminders that he was elected on promises to bring home the troops from America's two war fronts (Iraq / Afghanistan) President Obama hesitates, mulls and dithers about complying with requests from his military commanders to send in as many as 40,000 additional troops. Any substantial growth in America's commitment to Afghanistan will intensify pressure on Canadian authorities to soften our firm resolve to "get out of there" by the end of February 2011. Politicians, including Prime-Minister Harper and the Minister of Defence, Peter MacKay, have already hinted that somehow we'll remain committed to the Afghan war though not in a combat role. Despite dwindling public support for the mission, They appear to argue somewhat differently than the firm position in the Parliamentary debates which led to extending the deployment to 2011 in the first place.

At whatever point and on whatever terms Canada finally calls it quits on Afghanistan its legacy will extend far beyond the generation of young men and women who have served the effort. Entering the annual solemn week of remembrance which will culminate with the tributes that mark the November 11th end of the "War to End All Wars", Canadians can ponder Great Britain's grim legacy of recent military commitments in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Iraq, and (like us) Afghanistan: - A report prepared by the National Association of Probation Officers of the United-Kingdom confirms that 10% of Britain's prison population (8,500 prisoners) are veterans of the country's recent war deployments. The alarming report notes further that in total, about 20,000 veterans most of whom suffer from chronic alcohol or drug related problems; and many with post-traumatic stress disorder are in prison, on parole or on probation.

The stress, fatigue and mental anguish of those involved directly in war's theatre are real, long lasting and frequently debilitating. Fifteen active-duty members of the Canadian military took their own lives in 2008 versus 11 confirmed suicides in 2007. The real numbers are higher because our country does not track suicides among Canadian military reservists though they too serve 6 month rotations in southern Afghanistan.

It's seems ironic that Canada's Justice Minister, Rob Nicholson, advocates increased penalties and longer jail terms for chronic criminals when there is compelling evidence that down the road, perhaps too soon, a substantial number of Canada's prison population could be made-up of the men and women the nation first sent to serve a failing overseas war effort.

THE VERDICT

Back in early May students of the dark side of Ottawa politics salivated over two salacious simultaneous headline grabbing local court proceedings. (See: "WHEN EGOS OBFUSCATE", May 4, 09). - Who would have thunk their denouement would be simulcast?

After almost twenty years on Canadian soil, Karl Heinz Schreiber has been extradited to, and now jailed in Germany on charges of bribery and tax evasion stemming back as early as the 1980's. Several of the charges are related to pay-offs from Europe's aircraft manufacturer Airbus Industries, something most Canadians know too much (or too little) about. Although he has traded the safety and security of his Ottawa Rockcliff home for a German jail cell, I suspect that we have not heard the last of Mr. Schreiber.

Meantime I think that I will actually miss the rascal. Whatever the opinion, he was tenacious in his accusations that a former Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney, had been less than forthcoming about the truth of their relationship. It may have taken him twenty years of dogged and often misguided (if not misguiding) efforts, but we now know from Mr. Mulroney's own mouth that Schreiber had been right all along. Yet another blow against Mulroney's tattered reputation. We take little comfort from the fact that had it known earlier, the Government would probably not have been as forthcoming in forking-over $2-million in compensation to Mulroney for sullying his legacy over the so-called Airbus scandal.

As to the court's other matter: Astute observers of Ottawa's judicial scene (surely an oxymoron), believe that the city's Mayor, Larry O'Brien, will be exonerated on Wednesday when Ontario's Associate Chief Justice, Douglas Cunningham, delivers his much anticipated verdict on charges of influence peddling. O'Brien will walk away a free man...er...okay - In Larry's case he'll "swagger" away - because the Crown failed to convince "beyond a Shadow of a doubt" on the counts of criminal influence peddling. There is little doubt heading into the fall 2006 Mayoralty campaign that O'Brien tried his damned best to rid himself of the city's second "right of centre" candidate, Terry Kilrea. He eventually succeeded, but there is no smoking gun evidence that he did so in a criminal way. Fortunately for us all, our judicial system demands more than conjecture, misunderstandings, winks and nudges.

City leaders have in place contingency plans to replace Mr. O'Brien in the unlikely event that he is pronounced guilty on Wednesday and thereby stripped forever of holding elected political office in Ontario. Justice Cunningham has reached his conclusion and will in fact deliver the verdict one week earlier than first scheduled. Perhaps he too just wants to walk away from this imbroglio.

Down at City Hall, ironically just across the yard from the Courthouse, O'Brien's return will signal an all too familiar return of the conflict of inflated egos between the "left" and "right" of centre elected councillors some of whom already plan to run against and unseat O'Brien in the fall 2010 election, less than 14 months away. At its very best the municipal administration in the nation's capital is dysfunctional. Never any more than during Mayor O'Brien's tenure to the city's highest elected office.

The judicial verdict may exonerate Larry O'Brien on Wednesday. Though through his absence since the end of April, the knives at City Hall have clearly sharpened and the tumult of his first 2 1/2 years in office may foreshadow the misery that waits till electors post the final verdict in October of 2010.

PRAISE GOD AND PASS THE AMMUNITION

A little-noticed report from just about a year ago concludes that as many as 80% of on-duty police officers in Canada access the country's on-line "gun-registry" to check for weapons while responding to 9-1-1 calls.

However mixed messages from Prime-Minister Stephen Harper's Government since it was first elected in January 2006 have both confused the country's gun-owners and jeopardized the integrity of the program. Perhaps putting front-line police officers at even greater risk.

The issue is that one of the first matters of legislative business tabled by the Conservatives in 2006 was/is a still un-debated law to scrap the Federal Gun Registry...and in the intervening years the same Government has extended until 2010 an amnesty which aims at coaxing gun owners into renewing their licences - It waives licence fees and provides liability protection for those who comply with the law. Yes! The same law that the Tories want to scrap. Go figure!

And figuring (I guess) is what gun-owners have been doing...The result is that more than 25% have just given-up renewing expired licences. About 20,000 this year so far of the 73,000 licences set to expire. In total last year (2008), 66,000 out of about 300,000 permits that ran-out. Obviously as more firearms owners opt-out of licensing because they take the Government on its word that it will dismantle the registry, the system becomes less and less dependable for front-line police officers rushing to 9-1-1 calls.

Critics claim that is why the Tories chose the backwaters of August 2008, when politicians were away in their ridings to table the survey of Police Officers in an empty House of Commons. The report supports the high-rate of police use of the online registry during service calls, and is really central to the battle of the last three years over the amnesty, between supporters of the gun registry and Prime Minister Harper's red-neck charged "political statements" to dismantle the program.

Perhaps because they fear political reprisals of one form or another, one big surprise is that neither representatives of the Canadian Police Association, and/nor the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police is prepared to comment on the survey of their own front-line policemen. Though to be fair the Police Chiefs say they continue to support the gun-registry.

Perhaps what these groups need is the backbone of a gun-toting evangelistic charismatic leader like Louisville, Kentucky Pentecostal Pastor, Kenneth Pagano. The Reverend Pagano recently asked his flock to bring their handguns to the New Bethel Church for a celebration of America's "Second Amendment". About 200 of the "converted" converged in the church's sanctuary on June 27 to hear the message of Pastor Pagano's - "Open Carry Celebration" - "If it were not for a deep-seated belief in the right to bear arms, this country (The USA) would not be here today" - The Reverend said, drawing hearty applause and exclamations of "Amen!"

J-E-S-U-S !!!