A LONG-LIVED FASCINATION WITH MEXICO: A MEMOIR

PREFACE

It was the year in which I was rapidly moving from eleven to twelve years of age. Mrs.Corbett, my sixth-grade teacher, was astonished when I emerged victorious in our elementary school's sixth-grade history bee.  My success meant that I was eligible to compete in a city-wide radio history contest, which would pit me against the sixth-grade winners from five other elementary schools.  The prospect of being on Poplar Bluff's only radio station at the time made for even more anticipation on my part.

Mrs. Corbett was eager for a win for Kinyon Elementary School.  Her enthusiasm, in fact, exceeded my own; and, consequently, she sequestered me for the next several weeks to pour over history books in Kinyon's small library, while my classmates continued to labor on in math, science and English.  As I much preferred history to other subjects, my isolation in the library was not an unwelcome development.

Finally, the day of reckoning arrived.  I nervously presented myself, along with five other sixth-grade winners, in the studios of radio station KWOC.  To my history-saturated mind, the preliminary questions fired at us by announcer and moderator Jerry Higley seemed fairly undemanding, and my nerves quickly settled down.

Midway in the hour-long contest, however, the complexity of the questions began to increase.  My heart sank when I saw a girl from Mark Twain Elementary, whom I thought was one of the brightest contestants, bow out on a question concerning John Quincy Adams' drafting of the Monroe Doctrine.  Immediately following her departure, I was queried about President Theodore Roosevelt's role in the building of the Panama Canal and somehow uttered the correct answer.  At that point, I began to sense the possibility of going the distance.

At the five-minute mark, it had come down to the representative of the sixth-graders of Williamson-Kennedy Elementary School and myself.  Finally, as onlookers and the radio audience were caught up in the tenseness of the moment, the entire contest hinged on the person of John Rolfe and the cultivation of tobacco.  My adversary drew a blank.  There it was.  The championship was mine for the taking.

Happily, from a trip into Arkansas, I recalled one of my father's employees there pulling from his shirt pocket a pack of cigarettes which carried the John Rolfe label.  And that was all I needed to come up with the prize-winning answer.  I had won and, in doing so, had fulfilled Mrs. Corbett's hope for a victory for good old Kinyon Elementary School!

With no little parental pride, my father came to the conclusion that I should be rewarded with a family trip that would expose me to various and sundry historical sites.  Since our family's American origins lay in Virginia, he suggested a trek to the East Coast, with stopovers at Williamsburg and Richmond, as well as visits to battlefields which had been frequented by our Confederate ancestors.  However, because during the previous summer a good friend's cousin from Texas had been visiting Poplar Bluff and could not desist from constantly extolling the praises of Travis, Bowie, Crockett, the Alamo and innumerable Texas Rangers, I interjected that perhaps we should travel instead to Texas and also see a bit of Mexico.  My father acquiesced, and we began making plans to make tracks for the Lone Star State and the Republic of Mexico during my next Christmas vacation.  Little did I know then that our trip would permanently alter my view of the world and of history in general.

YES, VIRGINIA, THERE IS SUCH A THING AS SHARIAH LAW!

The Johnnies-come-lately in Hollywood have apparently just recently come to the realization that there is something called Shariah law;  hence, their attention grabbing demonstrations against the Sultan of Brunei and his comfy little hotel in California.

Certainly, attention directed against the ruling family in oil-rich Brunei is fully warranted, for the group of hypocritical  libertines who rule there is known for personally contravening  many of the rigid Islamic strictures prescribed by Shariah Law for the Muslim faithful, while forcing its authoritarianism on the common folk.  But, hey, let's don't stop with the playboy sultan and his Hollywood hostelry!  There are much bigger fish to fry, and many of them have dug deep burrows in the American economy.

Prince Waleed bin-Talal from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for example, is a high-roller of some renown, and his stakes in the United States are worth billions.  Yet, he represents a nation where the Koran is the constitution and Shariah is the code of law.  Maybe Prince Wally is worth a demonstration or two as well.

Having lived under Shariah law in Saudi Arabia for more than six years, I am more than a little familiar with its provisions.  Those of what formerly would have been considered of unorthodox sexual proclivities are officially subject to the death penalty.  Adultery is punishable by death, and apostates under Shariah may also experience the ultimate punishment.  Blaspheming Islam may result in severe lashing, as may indulging in the consumption of alcoholic beverages. For those Americans still believing in the pablum that Islam is just another "religion of peace," I dare them to try to find a church or synagogue functioning in a country with a Shariah-based law code.

Unfortunately, too many Americans have been nurtured with myths about Islam.  And many are so intellectually lazy that most knowledge outside their popular-culture-drenched lives totally escapes them.  Incredibly, too many souls still believe that Ben-Ghazi is a mafioso.

At last count, there were about 9 million Muslims residing in the United States.  I often ask myself how many of those when they first reached the shores of America kissed the ground and shouted,"Thank Allah, we have finally arrived in the land of separation of powers and the First Amendment!"  Not many, I would presume.  No, their numbers indubitably include excessive numbers who dream of a Shariah paradise and who have no appreciation for our Constitution.

When living in Saudi Arabia, I had no idea of asserting my own American values emphasizing freedom of expression and religion.  I tried to be a model expatriate, respecting as best I could the prevailing culture. As a Christian, I worshiped secretly with others so as not to openly offend Islam By the same token, as an American, I expect those coming to my country to honor its founding principles. 

Hopefully, those Hollywood hustlers who have finally discovered something called Shariah will continue to let the word go out that Shariah law is violently opposed to American values!  Don't you think it's about time?

Deo Vindice!

God bless America and Texas!