Classmate NEWS
Classmate NEWS:
January, 2017, photo/news clipping from Bill Mehaffey:
Vacation Bible School - Mt. Lebanon News June 22, 1950
Cub Scouts Skit: Bill Mehaffey, Bill Berg, Carl Yeager, Bob Stone, John Weaver
I live in Paris.
For many Americans “the trip to France” involves enjoying food, drink, scenery and perhaps a bit of history.
As of last Wednesday, coming to France means heavily armed police, guards in front of many schools and places of worship, suspicion of hidden Kalashnikovs. Racism, backlash.
People gathered: yes, they gathered in historical numbers, after a slaughter the likes of which the country had not known since 1961. They needed to be together, to talk, to try and understand. To say “no”
The press has its say as well. Not always productive.
But let me give you some numbers, just for fun: in France, of a population of 66 million people, 7,5% are Muslims. One of the largest populations in Europe.
10, 5% of the active population is unemployed. Among the Muslim population, the rate is 17, 5%.
22, 7 % young French under 25 are jobless. In the Muslim population, the percentage is double…..
So what happens to these “immigrés”? They live in drab suburbs, piled in thirty story subsidized housing, with little parental care. They roam the streets and leave school before any sort of diploma is obtained. No past, no present, no future.
The French educational system turns out an extremely well prepared …. elite.
Gradually, they start dealing drugs, stealing, doing time in prison, coming out and starting over again.
They are pushed into a ghetto where the rest of the population looks upon them with suspicion and hostility. The extreme right is flourishing here right now. To make things even better, a book by Michel Houllebecq appeared last Wednesday , setting the scenario of the arrival of an integrist president in France. This has not improved the general atmosphere. Promotion of his book has come to a halt.
One day, someone - in prison, on the internet or via their country of origin ( although most are born in France and are French citizens )– describes in glowing terms the djihad. Aside from the 72 virgins awaiting them as martyrs, they are told a better life awaits them, they will mean something, and they are warriors. They will become heroes. People will admire them . They are taken in hand, although they have no idea what the Koran is about, and often can barely read.And, little by little, we arrive at the Kouachi brothers, and Koulibali. Aimless drifters that someone, somewhere has managed to push into the current of the Shariah.
We were graduated from one of the finest high schools in the country. We received a solid education. If there is one lesson to be learned from this abject massacre, perhaps it is that learning is the basis for tolerant cohabitation in a civilized society. A proverb says that if you want to help for a day, plant rice, for a year plant a tree and for life teach reading.
Mount Lebanon High School gave us a great gift for life.
It is something for which to be grateful.
www.legacyintl.org
Thank you,