Thursday, February 10, 2011

What are those buildings?

A few people who don't live in Charleston (I won't embarrass them by naming them...) have asked what all the buildings are at the top of this page...

Charleston is known as "The Holy City" because of the large number of churches located in the city. It is also known for the number of world-class concert pipe organs housed in many of those churches.

So, I will identify them...from left to right and coincidentally downtown to uptown...

First Baptist Church...............................................[Wicks Organ]
First (Scots) Presbyterian Church.......................[Ontko Organ]
St. Michaels Church..................[Ontko/Kenneth Jones Organ]
Cathedral of St. John the Baptist (Catholic)...[Bedient Organ]
The French Huguenot Church.................[Henry Erben Organ]
The Unitarian Church ....................................[Johannus Organ]
St. Johns Lutheran Church................................[Schantz Organ]
St. Mary's Catholic Church.................................[Jardine Organ]
Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim..................................[Ontko Organ]
Grace Episcopal Church.......................................[Reuter Organ]
St. Matthews Lutheran Church...........................[Austin Organ]
Cathedral of St.Luke & St. Paul (Episcopal).........[Kney Organ]

This list comprises about 20% of the churches on the lower peninsula. With all those pipe organs it can get a tad noisy downtown on Sunday mornings, but God does not appear to mind...

Olivia

'Jus doin' the Charleston

Overheard on Facebook...

Victor on Facebook remarked:

"...honestly, i don't think government is necessary.the rich should be the ones to dole out the cash to help the poor."

‎@Victor from me -

"Thats how it used to be. The rich had big homes, private railway cars, held big and lavish parties, etc. But it was understood that they also had obligations.

A good example is Andrew Carnegie. He was a tyrant when it came to business. He is reputed to have said "Power is my ability to say 'No' to you and make it stick."

He made lots of money.

He also donated entire libraries to communities which couldn't afford them, and pipe organs to churches and municipal auditoria.

Nobody made him do it - it came with the territory and was expected.

But anymore the rich are interested in doing one thing: getting richer. They have no sense of social obligation.

Is it so surprising that the government has taken over the charitable work once done by millionaires? But they do it to curry favor with the masses and get re-elected by virtue of how many promises they can make of a chicken in every pot (except mine and other vegetarians) and two cars in every garage (are we supposed to stack them?), only to break them after the election.

People have come to expect government charity as their due. (They dont call those programs 'entitlements' for nothing...)

There are going to be abuses in all levels of society; we the people are the ones who must ultimately decide which abuses we will tolerate. And which freedoms we may be forced to give up as a result.

I think we need a government which will deliver the mail on time and defend our interests and our borders, leaving the charitable work to the private sector. And if that counts for having a duplex in Fool's Paradise, well, call the moving company...

Olivia

Jus' doin' the Charleston