It’s (Not) The End of the World as We Know It

Originally appeared in “Rising to the Challenge: The Campaign for Johns Hopkins“

“‘Apocalypse’ is something a lot of people have walked right by, but never seen,” says Krieger School professor and historian Stuart “Bill” Leslie of the psychedelic mural that envelops Levering Hall’s second floor. But it’s emerging from the shadows after a recent restoration of the artwork, originally painted in 1969 by acclaimed muralist Robert Hieronimus, PhD.

Funding for the “Apocalypse” facelift was provided by the Joseph and Harvey Meyerhoff Family Charitable Funds, Johns Hopkins University, and Zohara Hieronimus. Bob Hieronimus oversaw the project, which was carried out by a team of graduate students from the Maryland Institute College of Art and Hopkins. The restoration ensures that this thought-provoking conduit to a part of Hopkins history lives on for future generations.

The “Apocalypse” story begins more than a decade before Hieronimus began painting the mural. In 1953, Chester Wickwire arrived to lead Johns Hopkins’ branch of the YMCA, headquartered in Levering Hall. A social activist deeply engaged in Baltimore’s civil rights movement, Wickwire didn’t distinguish between his work in the community and his post at Hopkins. He brought speakers, artists, and musicians to perform for and spark debate among students on Levering’s second floor, first nicknamed the “Room at the Top” and, later, “Chester’s Place” in Wickwire’s honor.

“That was the one place on campus where students could really talk” about issues ranging from race relations to women’s rights to the Vietnam War, Leslie says. Wickwire sought an artist who could provide artwork that complemented his vision for Levering, and he found one very close to home.

“Hieronimus was active in local civil rights causes, and that appealed to Wickwire and what he was trying to create,” says Ella Rogers-Fett, a Krieger School senior and history major who spent much of last summer researching Wickwire’s papers. “The mural would be a fusion of the 1960s and 1970s art scene with a political conscience.”

Over the course of several months, Hieronimus created the mural. Originally slated to cover just one wall, the mural grew to cover the entire room, including its doors, the ceiling, and the stairwell. “Apocalypse” tells the story of human history in a dizzying array of colors and symbols drawn from mythology and diverse religions.

Learn about Hieronimus’ favorite parts of the mural, and what they mean, in his own words.

Rogers-Fett visited the mural for the first time as part of Leslie’s winter Intersession course in 2015 and says she and many of her classmates were inspired upon learning about the mural’s relationship to a history of student activism at Hopkins. That inspiration resulted in a petition her fellow students started to encourage Hopkins to divest itself from carbon-related stocks to reduce its environmental impact. Recently, Rogers-Fett visited the mural space for a meeting of social justice groups organized by the Center for Social Concern, a division of Homewood Student Affairs.

“I like the idea that student activists of today are meeting there to advance important issues,” says Rogers-Fett, who serves as a co-director of the student-run Sexual Assault Resource Unit. “We’re continuing the spirit of ‘Apocalypse.'”

Hieronimus, who calls the mural his “favorite, hardest, best, and deepest work,” insists that “Apocalypse” isn’t a depiction of the apocalypse as it’s described in the Book of Revelation.

“It’s not the end of the world. It’s the end of a cycle” of civilization rising, falling, then rising again, he says.

“It’s a Homewood campus landmark,” says Justin Williams, a senior lecturer in the Whiting School’s Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering. Williams has worked with Hieronimus to restore several of the artist’s murals around Baltimore, including “Apocalypse.” “It’s a destination site for anyone who is interested in mural art, symbolism, and the history of the university.”

Leslie, who has been tasked with writing a new history of the university, says that, more than anything else, “Apocalypse” represents a call to action. For that reason, he plans to include it in his book.

“‘Apocalypse’ is a challenging space. Bob meant for this mural to make people uncomfortable,” Leslie says. “He meant for people to think about how a university isn’t just labs and seminars and exams. The mural is deliberately provocative, and in some ways, it’s more provocative now than it was then.”

Learn more about Apocalypse and the history of social activism at Hopkins during Leslie’s Alumni Weekend talk on April 8.

 

 

Rising with Dr. Bob
Seeing ‘Apocalypse’ through the artist’s eyes

Originally appeared in “Rising to the Challenge: The Campaign for Johns Hopkins“

Rising recently spoke with acclaimed Baltimore muralist Robert “Dr. Bob” Hieronimus, PhD, and he shared many thoughts about his favorite parts of the “Apocalypse” mural. Below, learn more about this must-see attraction on the university’s Homewood campus in the artist’s own words.

Take a virtual tour of “Apocalypse”

The Corporate Eagle

The eagle is the focus of the central wall of the entire mural. This wall was the original commission, and the message is that the great promise of American civilization is dying. The democratic republic envisioned by our founding fathers and mothers has been displaced by a corporate oligarchy.

I chose the eagle to represent the United States because it is one of America’s most common symbols. Look closely inside the body of this American eagle, however, and you’ll see that the “right wing” is cracked and the body is made up of the names of some of the worst offenders of the corporate state. Corporations claim to be citizens of the republic, but they want only the benefits of citizenship, not the responsibility. They do not have to abide by the laws as citizens do, and when corporations commit crimes, they immediately stop talking about citizenship and instead become “artificial legal entities.”

We must remember, it’s not the corporations committing the crimes, it’s the employees and management making these decisions. Three of the brand names whose crimes were so offensive they earned a credit line in “Apocalypse” for contributing to the death of the American eagle are Chiquita (at the original painting, known as United Fruit Company), General Electric, and Exxon (at the original painting, known as Esso).

The Statue of Liberty, or the Whore of Babylon?

The cracked “right wing” of the American eagle is swallowing a distressed Statue of Liberty, which is on fire and sinking under a flood of water. This is some obvious symbolism I used in 1968 to say that our cherished liberties that we identify as part of “being an American” are being eroded. But there is a new focused attack on the Statue of Liberty, with critics going so far as to call her the Whore of Babylon. Fundamentalist preachers, like John Benefiel quoted here, have said things like: “That is a demonic idol right there in New York harbor. …We don’t get liberty from a false goddess, folks. We get our liberty from Jesus Christ, and that Statue of Liberty in no way glorifies Jesus Christ. …we practice idolatry in America in ways we don’t even recognize.”

Because these claims seem so extremist, and almost silly, to the American media, the underreporting on this growing movement means we have ignored this fundamentalist mindset at our peril. Rather than vilify the Statue of Liberty because she is a goddess, Americans need to embrace her. The American civilization would not be in decline if we could operate from a sense of partnership instead of domination, as demonstrated by the goddess-worshiping cultures of which the Statue of Liberty is today’s best-known descendent. (For more on the symbolism of the statue, look for the forthcoming book, “The Secret Life of Lady Liberty: Goddess of the New World,” which I co-authored with Laura E. Cortner.)

The Black Man/People of Color

Witnessing the demise of the Statue of Liberty is a dark outline of a human figure with an outstretched arm reaching for the torch. The most obvious interpretation of this figure is a black man, or an African American, who is trying to save the torch of enlightenment held by Lady Liberty. Today, rather than a black man, I would call this a person of color, in an attempt to encompass all non-white groups experiencing racism in common.

Rather than the old patriarchy currently in control, it is these suppressed classes of women, the working poor, African Americans, and Native Americans who will rise up to save the liberties that we hold dear in the pursuit of happiness for the whole of humanity. Before it was too late, I was trying to wake us up to the fact that the America that we all thought we knew, the nation we were proud to be a part of as responsible for the democratic republic center of self-government, was no longer free. The virtuous and enlightened citizen counted on as the driving force for a successful nation by our founding fathers and mothers has been transformed into a mindless consumer feeding the economy as if it is a monster that must be fed for us to feel successful.

UFOs

I included two types of UFOs in the “Apocalypse” mural and repeated them in several places as a symbol for the higher consciousness available to us from cosmic sources. While it’s still true that any politician who dares to state anything favorable about UFO research risks losing their credibility or office, it’s no longer possible to dismiss the phenomena with the claim that they are only witnessed by farmers in the middle of nowhere. Leslie Kean’s 2011 book, called “UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go On the Record,” has a foreword written by John Podesta, a chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and a counselor to President Barack Obama. Another book, “Unidentified: The UFO Phenomenon: How World Governments Have Conspired to Conceal Humanity’s Biggest Secret,” is written by Robert Salas. The 1964 U.S. Air Force Academy graduate witnessed a UFO incident that included the deactivation of nuclear missiles under his control while serving at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. Despite this, America’s corporate oligarchy prefers to stick its head in the sand and try to retain the illusion of complete control.

See UFOs above the arched entrance to the main room at the top of the stairwell; in a V formation by the Aquarius corner; in the rear of the main room, between the Scorpio corner and the moon; and in the fireplace section that frames the Sphinx and the Pyramids at Giza (pictured here, above the back of the Sphinx).

Cyclic History

The main theme of “Apocalypse” is that history is not linear but cyclical. We are not at the pinnacle of human accomplishment, getting better and better all the time. The truth is that the civilizations rise and fall, and ours is not the first advanced civilization on this planet. An influential book for me during the original design of the Apocalypse was by a former MIT professor of the history of science, Giorgio de Santillana, called “Hamlet’s Mill: An Essay on Myth and the Frame of Time.” It documents more than 200 myths from 30 ancient cultures that the authors linked to astronomical phenomena. Specifically, the book claims these myths were passing along an ancient knowledge about the precession of the Equinox, a phenomena that occurs every 25,920 years. The stairwell portion of the mural starts with the legendary civilization of Lemuria in the Pacific region, and then turns to the civilization of Atlantis in the Atlantic region, leading the viewer into the main room and the flowering of the Egyptian and Judeo-Christian civilizations. Turning the corner, we end up back on the main wall with the dying eagle from the prophecy as I’ve seen it in my dreams about the American civilization.

Fixed Signs

The astrological theme I used in “Apocalypse” is the repeated use of the four fixed signs of the Zodiac: Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. They are called fixed signs because their role in the Zodiac is to preserve tradition. Taurus is an earth element that focuses on the accumulation of materials and possessions, and is oriented to the here and now. Leo is a fire element, highly artistic and powerfully expressive. Scorpio is a water element, and its role strengthens the feelings and emotions, making them permanent.

Aquarius is an air element focused on objectivity, communication, and permanent, lifetime friendships. I repeated motifs of these fixed signs in five areas of the mural to lend stability to the ever-changing elements depicted throughout “Apocalypse.” I wanted to stabilize and preserve the idea that, even with the coming changes, the outcome will be positive, such as a rebirth of the democratic republic!

See the fixed signs in the stairwell, over the head of the Sphinx; the Atlantis temple on the landing between the staircases; in each corner of the main room (two of these, Scorpio, right, and Aquarius, left, are pictured); the fireplace section that frames the Sphinx and the Pyramids at Giza; and the alcove to the right of the fireplace.

We the People

By dedicating this mural “to people,” I’m calling all to assume the mantle of responsibility as “Earth People.” Thomas Jefferson famously put it in 1787 that “God forbid we should be another 20 years without such a rebellion. … what country can preserve its liberties, if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?” In other words: Freedom isn’t free. Without the constant participation of the citizens, those in power will be corrupted by the highest paying special interests. In today’s jargon, “We the People” are the 99 percent. The message of the “Apocalypse” is that Jefferson was right: We need a revolution to return the power to the people. If the wealth gap between the one percent corporate powers and the rest of us is not challenged and righted, then a greater and more destructive revolution will be the consequence.

An “Apocalypse” Playlist

The mural was originally designed during the late 1960s, an era of student activism unlike any other, and Hopkins students were right there on the front lines bringing about changes in civil rights and peace activism. I can still hear the music that was playing while I painted away, like “Time Has Come Today” by The Chambers Brothers and “People Got to Be Free” by The Rascals. “White Room” by Cream always takes me right back to those days, as I transformed a formerly white room into one full of meaning. Here are a few others I remember listening to:

• “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” by The Fifth Dimension
• “Hair” by The Cowsills
• “Touch Me” by The Doors
• “Atlantis” by Donovan
• “Something” by The Beatles
• “Sunshine of Your Love” by Cream
• “A Beautiful Morning” by The Rascals
• “Light My Fire” by Jose Feliciano
• “Summertime Blues” by Blue Cheer
• “Hurdy Gurdy Man” by Donovan
• “(You Keep Me) Hangin’ On” by Vanilla Fudge
• “Revolution” by The Beatles
• “Piece of My Heart” by Big Brother and the Holding Company

Want to learn even more about “Apocalypse” and its restoration? Check out this newsletter Dr. Bob provided for his fans and social media followers.

 

 

Astrological Update from Rosemary Clark
interviewed by Dr. Zohara Hieronimus, DHL, February 25, 2018

Zohara Hieronimus: Welcome to 21st Century Radio! I’m Dr. Zohara Hieronimus. Laura Cortner is our Executive Producer and Anita Brockington runs our board. Our guest this hour, Rosemary Clark, is a world renowned astrologer and founder of AstroLogic a counseling service in Charlottesville, Virginia. Rosemary is as well an independent scholar and interpreter of Egypt’s sacred traditions. Her continuing study of the Egyptian religious and metaphysical legacy encompasses a 40 year background of historical research, Mid-East travel and the development of a repertoire of unique talents in the recreation of Egypt’s sacred skills and astronomy, temple ceremony and arcane rituals. Joining us quarterly this past year we’ve been able to look at the cosmological forces as in astrological patterns at work and what manifests as physical events, trends and what to look for down line. She has been accurate in predicting the Mueller indictments, the stock market correction, and will share her own predictions regarding the NRA and its place in American society in the future. Given that we are living through the influences of the worst president in U.S. history, it’s important to appreciate how easy it is to predict his imbalances, ethical and intellectual ignorance and the cruelty in his nature that is revealed in his comments and actions. Now ranked by both Republican and Democratic scholars as the worst president in U.S. history, tonight we will look once again at DT’s astrological chart, the United States’ chart and how it’s all relative to a variety of current events. Thank you so much for joining us again Rosemary!

Rosemary Clark: I am so glad to be here at this very compelling time.

ZH: You know I notice that you and I, and people may not know this, we set up these interviews months in advance and the last time you joined me was after the horrible KKK white supremacist march in Charlottesville, where you live…

RC: Right.

ZH: And now you’re here after the horrific shootings at Marjorie Stoneman Douglass High School in Parkland, Florida on Valentine’s Day: February 14th, 2018. So I don’t know what it is that you and I have going on here, but obviously it is prescient.

RC: Well, at critical times we always want to rise to the occasion with the knowledge that we’ve cultivated to try to find our way through it, to cope with it and to hopefully prevent these kinds of conditions developing in the future.

ZH: So why don’t we start there? It’s certainly a mainframe concern for all of us nationwide. What was happening on February 14th, 2018?

RC: Well, in the chart of the U.S. we had a very critical Mars transit. And it was affecting not only the U.S. chart, but it was affecting those at the moment of the shooting, who lived in Parkland, Florida. Because the U.S. horoscope has 12 degrees of Sagittarius rising and 12 degrees Mars was in the event hitting both Parkland and the U.S.

ZH: Wow.

RC: So you know it was the right place, but we want to look at, you know, the person who was responsible for all of this. I suggest that listeners if they are interested in checking on people who commit these sorts of atrocities, the booking documents in Parkland, Florida for Nikolas Jacob Cruz was published and he was born September 24th 1998. So he was not part of the post-millennial group who were affected by his aggression. He was apart from this group and that I think was a factor, because this is a very powerful group, if I may digress.

ZH: Yes, please do…

RC: On those young people, who have impressed all of us, so very much in the last week, with their activism, with their articulate expression of their grief and their anger, and what to do about it. Now these children are coming of age this year. They are turning 18. Eighteen years ago was the great conjunction, another stellium or grouping of planets in May of 2000, where we had all the visible planets: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn in their 20 year conjunction cycle and these children were born, they’re 17, they’re turning 18 now, with this signature. Now going back to U.S. history, since the inception of our country, every 20 years we have a Jupiter-Saturn conjunction, which the ancients followed and used for predicting cultural changes, economic development, land expansion, and other effects for the groups of people and generations that were past, present and to come. So it’s particularly affected the U.S. with the death of a president, who takes office during these Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions that occur every 20 years, going back to 1820, in fact. So we call the people who were born during these cycles, the generational changers, the movers and the shakers and if you just look back at 1920, 1940, 1960, 1980, and now 2000, we’ve got a new group coming of age who are going to be the movers and the shakers and they’re going to be voting for the first time this year. And the only regrettable thing that we of course understand about what their future is going to be is that they are going to be so much molded by this tragedy that they’re experiencing. However, in the end, I do believe that what we call them, the “Post-Millennials” or “Gen Z” as some social scientists are calling them (I don’t want to go with Gen X, Y, and Z) but really they are most effectively the movers and changers of the new millennium.

ZH: When they were born…

RC: So looking at their signatures, we can see that now is the time as they’re coming of age that they’re going to be creating some significant changes in concert not only with the conjunction that they carry, but conjunctions that are coming up in 2020. They are quite amazing.

ZH: Well before we get to that, before we get to the 2020, Rosemary, before we get to the 2020, I want to come back to this Post-Millennial generation. When they were born, was their Pluto in Sagittarius?

RC: Let’s see. Yes it was.

ZH: Right so and now…

RC: And it was at 12 degrees of Sagittarius going back to the rising sign of the U.S.

ZH: So now explain to our audience, what that means while I have a sensibility of it from my years doing astrology. Explain what we see when a whole… because you can kind of get the temperament of a generation by where their Pluto is when that whole generation is born. Like we the Baby Boomers were born primarily with Pluto in Leo. So we experimented with change in family structure and individuation and the individual themselves and the group coming together in that way to make a powerful leadership shift, which we did. And now, this generation with Pluto in Sagittarius when they were born, tells us what about this entire generation?

RC: Well, the sky is the limit. The archer is pointing to the spiritual destination of humanity. And the half man, half horse is grounded in the reality of Earth experience, but also nature, and yet is morally pointing toward and aiming for the spiritual aspect of life. And again, the U.S. has the 12th degree of Sagittarius rising; so these children were born with Pluto at 12 degrees of Sagittarius

ZH: Fascinating.

RC: Their connection to the founding of our country, which is July 4th, 1776, is personal as well as social and governmental and generational. So they have a particular connection to our country. And again when this shooting began, Mars was at 12 degrees of Sagittarius.

ZH: Unbelievable.

RC: It’s all interconnected. Unfortunately, you know Mars does represent aggression. It can represent war, murder, guns and so forth, but it’s also defensive. It’s also protective. There’s another face to each of these powers that we deal with in astrology and obviously this group of people is going to go for, in their Sagittarian striving, the other side of Mars.

ZH: And the beautiful thing for me about the Sagittarian influence is that there is nothing diminished by the physical world in the sense, because one is looking so far ahead and yet standing in the present. Sagittarians always seem to be the ones that come up with very kind of unique perspectives about things that everybody else almost has gotten stuck in and they can simply shift a single little speck and go, but wait look at where the arrow is going. And it might not be to a target per se, it might be shooting into the air.

RC: As also Kahlil Gibran said, you know, “you are the bow and the children are the arrow.” But Sagittarius also tells us that there is a melding of the human and the divine. You know, Earth and Sky that the archer can achieve.

ZH: Well, you know I think for all of us both as parents and grandparents watching these youth coming of age stand up and call BS for what it is, is just heartening. The tragedy of course is that it’s come out of such loss and you know just so much loss of life.

RC: Yes.

ZH: And so much trauma.

RC: I am reminded also of what the great British astrologer, Charles Harvey, told me once, how children and their grandparents, how close they are, because if you take a coin and you press it into clay, you wind up with a sunken relief, but if you add more clay into that you wind up with a raised relief and so that’s how children and their grandparents are. There’s a generation that skipped. And so we of the Baby Boom generation are looking at these Post-Millennials and saying “Yes, they’re going to finish the job.”

ZH: Yes. Yes and for all of us who have been activists it’s very liberating. I have to say that. Not to say that the hardship and the loss is anything anybody would want as a reason for this birth, but that’s how life often times works — is it’s out of our losses and suffering that some of the greatest beautiful things on Earth are created and we see that in non-profits nationwide, that have come out of so many individuals’ hardships and losses. And they turn into such a gift for others. So we are going to take a break and when we come back and then you had started moving towards and we should continue that discussion I think about this Jupiter Saturn continuation — another cycle of it in 2020, is it?

RC: Yes, but there’s a few things that are coming up sooner that are going to…

ZH: Oh good, well, then let’s do that. I would like to get up to date on the Russia connection for Trump and the Mueller investigation, because you predicted exactly what is unfolding well in advance of when you know commentators were saying “oh this might happen” you made it very clear this is going to happen. And it’s going to happen on his watch. So we’ll be right back. If you are just joining us and you have an interest in current events not so much from a political perspective, but an astrological one, I think you’ll find as many of us do worldwide, who work with astrology, is that it helps bring some semblance of order to appreciating why things manifest the way in which they do on Earth. Our guest is Rosemary Clark. You can learn more about her wonderful work at her website: www.TempleHarakhte.org. That’s TempleHarakhte.org

— — —

ZH: Welcome back to 21st Century Radio! Rosemary Clark, a world renowned astrologer and founder of AstroLogic, a counseling service in Charlottesville, Virginia is with us and we’re looking at the Astrological realities that affect how things manifest in the world and in particularly in the United States itself. So Rosemary the last time we got together, we talked a lot about Pluto and the Pluto factor and what’s going on and when will it end and what can we expect. So maybe you can step back a bit. Tell us what’s been going on and when it will shift.

RC: Well, when the U.S. was formed, Pluto was at the 27th degree of Capricorn. Right now after its cycle of 248 years is close to completing. It’s going to return to that place and it’s now at 20 degrees of Capricorn; so we can expect that in 2020, it is going to return to where it was at our inauguration. Now, what does Pluto represent? It is the furthest planet known in our Solar System and astrologically it has always represented the reins of power and the inevitable forces that we all have to contend with as mortals. It’s money, sexuality, death, the powers that be and on its constructive side it’s regeneration, renewal, transition to higher levels — I don’t like to say higher levels of consciousness, but higher levels of existence and evolution, truly, is under the purview of Pluto. Now again it was in the horoscope of the U.S. in 1776 at 27 degrees of Capricorn and it’s closely approaching in its 248 year cycle, a return. This is always in any planetary return back to its place for the initial event that there’s going to be a shift and an evolution so to speak of that planet’s influence. So what can we expect? Well, in astrology, a Pluto return we rarely see except in certain cultures or civilizations so we can really only speculate where it’s going to be affecting the U.S. but it’s going to be exactly four years from this month, February 20th 2022 and we can expect a regeneration in our government institutions. That’s probably certain. And I think that there may be some revisions to our Constitution, that is also an indication, because Pluto falls in the Second House of banking and assets in the U.S. horoscope, there’s going to be a transition to a different economic system. Capitalism, in a sense, is going to recede and there may be a different form of money, banking and trade that’s going to be instituted.

ZH: So…

RC: Those are the essentials as I see it.

ZH: And when you look at these major shifts and you say something like that, I’m sure there’s some people in the audience going “oh my god, what’s going to happen to the stock market? What’s going to happen to my retirement fund?” Does it look like it’s Earth shaking in that way? Or that there’s a continuity when you look at the other planetary aspects for that time period that it would be beneficial?

RC: Where Pluto is concerned, it’s always slow change. It’s never sudden disruption or all kinds of you know very, very difficult mind boggling disruptive kinds of conditions. No, we are already seeing the influence of this. Ever since Pluto went into Capricorn in 2008, it was November 26th of 2008, and wasn’t that within a month of the big recession?

ZH: Yes.

RC: Okay, so then it lasts until 2024, so this is how long, in my view, it’s going to take to really not only pull out of those recessional conditions, but also to revise and renew our economic structure and our institutions that these sorts of events are not going to threaten again. It’s a renewal, a regeneration. I don’t think it’s going to affect anyone’s retirement account and there’s not going to be any big losses, except to those who, let’s say, were really greedy and tried to exploit the chaotic conditions that made 2008 happen. The one thing that worries me is this Bitcoin phenomenon, because the concept I think is what eventually on a global scale is going to replace our paper money.

ZH: Yes, the currency.

RC: But it’s not going to be even in the form that it is now. It’s nascent right now. It really is the very beginning.

ZH: Interesting. All right so there are some other major things happening and the ongoing investigation, I don’t know why the President keeps saying “no collusion.” Collusion is irrelevant. You know it’s not even a legal term for anything prosecutorial, conspiracy is. Collusion is an expression of how people behave and their behavior, but it has no legal import. So I don’t know why he keeps chanting “no collusion.” Well who cares?

RC: Yes, right.

ZH: It’s fascinating to me that the entire public and much of the media keep repeating the same thing but if you listen to anybody who ever really understands the law, they’ll tell you it’s a meaningless term.

RC: Yes it is. And as far as Trump’s horoscope is concerned, well we saw last year what factors were at play in making him President and we also took a pretty hard look at his personality and what characteristics have created this very volatile person. He was born at a Full Moon, an exact Full Moon with the Moon in late Sagittarius opposite a Gemini Sun. And that very puffed up ego, the last degree of Leo rising. And so it’s a combination of Full Moon and a real strong emphasis with Mars in Leo right on the horizon of the birth that we have an aggressive, bullying type of volatile person. Now this is not to say that anyone else born that day is going to share these qualities to this degree. It really is the person’s environment and heredity in terms of the direct influences of the parents (not the genetic) that shape the direction that these planetary influences are going to go in forming the person’s character. And so for him I think it was probably the worst combination of mother, father kinds of influences that pushed the Leo rising into the bullying aspect and the volatility, the anxiety that seems to guide his every moment of existence with this Full Moon.

ZH: Yes and with Mars in Scorpio [in the 3rd House] at birth, it’s combative at home. And it’s interesting when you look at his progressed chart as you were kind enough to send me that now his Mars is in Leo in the 12th house which means it’s no longer at home, it’s affecting the entire world.

RC: Yes, and so what’s happening with him right now that in my view is really very dangerous is that the planet Uranus, which represents great disruption and unforeseen events is moving very close to that Mars and the Ascendant that I just spoke of. Now this, first off, represents a person’s physical condition. Our rising sign not only tells others how we act and describes our appearance, but it’s also the physical constitution, our health. And I have seen people befall some really dangerous health conditions and accidents when the Ascendant is involved. Uranus is very powerful, very compelling. It can knock a person down.

ZH: And sudden.

RC: We’ve got this happening within weeks when the aspect becomes exact. It’s going on right now. Which leads me to believe that this is a tremendous stress on him: the Russia investigation as well as the departure of so many staff in the White House and the number of Congress people who are moving away from him in influence and in approval. So this is isolating him and Uranus is going to create either some very difficult and dangerous health conditions or he’s just going to flip out, frankly. Uranus can create deviations in our behavior and so there’s some considerable amount of speculation here given that Uranus is very hard to predict. It depends on the person, the personality. And this is not looking good as far as physical condition is concerned. But there’s something else that is also coming up that is equally as dangerous. I mentioned he was born at the Full Moon. Sun in Gemini directly opposite the moon in Sagittarius. Those two have moved almost 180 degrees away so that they are now on the horizon of his horoscope. They’re touching again personality, relationships with other people, close relationships with family. And so I would say that there is some danger, not only to him, but to family members. Could it be Jared? Could it be Ivanka? Could it be that family members are implicated in the difficulties that he is currently facing? This is quite possible.

ZH: It’s extraordinary when you, if anyone in the audience doesn’t hear what I hear, which is how one can really look ahead and look at not only the temperament of a person, but an institution, a country. You can look at patterns. And you know that it used to be that most world leaders had good astrologers who counseled them. Reagan had an astrologer. Many great world leaders have had astrologers. Hitler had an astrologer and the only time he ignored their advice was the invasion into Russia and of course he paid that price. Thankfully.

RC: But the Royal family is also known, all of them use astrologers. I just read a forecast by a British astrologer who was consulted by Catherine. And you know they have always, Diana Princess of Wales, and now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, they’re all consulting astrologers and in Europe, astrology is a rather accepted way to plan and to look ahead for people. It’s only in the U.S., which I think is perhaps part of the Puritan background, that astrology is denigrated and it of course, it’s been picked up by our so-called scientific institutions as well. Nevertheless, there are many people around the world: India, China, Africa –who also use astrology for their planning and their understanding of personality, events, even choice of marriage partners.

ZH: Yes maybe one time we should do the chart of North Korea and its leadership to get a better handle on that. But for tonight we’re going to take our last break. And then when we come back, I want, if you don’t mind, to take a little bit of time to look at the NRA, because as we all know now there is a collision course that is really dramatic and important and I have great hope that good things will come out of this. We’ll be right back. Our guest is Rosemary Clark. If you want to follow up with her work, go to www.TempleHarakhte.org. We’ll be right back.

— — —

ZH: Welcome back to 21st Century Radio! If you’re just joining us, Rosemary Clark is with us, she’s a renowned astrologer worldwide and founder of Astro Logic, again you can learn about her work and stay up to date with her astrological counseling as well. www.TempleHarakhte.org. So I mentioned and we’ll just do it very quickly, because there’s some other things that we probably should spend more time on and the NRA, we will have more time in the future, but talk to us a bit about the NRA chart, given that they were founded as you pointed out to me, November 17th 1871.

RC: Yes and I’d like to just shift back to the U.S. chart, because this pertains to it. Right now Mars is at 18 degrees of Sagittarius. In the U.S. chart Mars is at 21 of Gemini directly opposite. So the transit of Mars right now is going to, in March 3rd, next week oppose the natal Mars of the U.S. What that means is there is definitely going to be a showdown about guns. Because Mars is concerned with aggression, protection, and all of those forces that are concerned with the well being of people. Now if we look at the NRA chart there’s some really interesting things going on with that, too. Its founding as you mentioned November of 1871, was a time when Saturn was at 7 degrees of Capricorn. Right now, this moment, Saturn is at 7 degrees of Capricorn. It is experiencing, as all of us do, a Saturn Return. In the case of the NRA, it’s the 5th time that this has happened. And looking back at the history of this organization, which was founded as a marksmanship training club, there have been all sorts of involutions to its main mission and it always takes place during a Saturn return, every 29 and a half years. Now looking back in 1934, this organization first formed its lobby for Congress. Then in 1965, Congress instituted a form of gun control. In 1994, Congress instituted the ban on semi-automatic weapons. So right now, in its 5th Saturn Return, this organization is either going to undergo a revision of its mission once more or it’s going to disband. Because Saturn does represent the dissolution of an existing status quo as well. It’s either purge or die. And that’s what Saturn is doing to this organization right now. I am sure that the loss of the corporate support that they have enjoyed and so many members rethinking the value of their membership is having a very serious effect and will for the next 9 months on this organization. It’s going to be different by the end of this year, December 2018, then it is now. There’s another transit that’s affecting it, which is Jupiter. And Jupiter is in all that wide open happy sort of Santa Claus endowment, that sometimes in astrology we think of as this sort of influence. It’s also the judiciary and the ways that laws are imposed for the well being and the betterment of society. That is at 23 degrees of Scorpio right now, our transiting Jupiter. The Sun sign of the NRA is 24 degrees of Scorpio. So here we have another shift in the mission, the face of this organization and it is inevitable, I promise you all. Because the U.S. chart is also promoting it, with Mars facing Mars saying enough of the violence, enough of the murder, and a change in the way we perceive protection and aggression, offense and defense in our society.

ZH: Amazing! Thank you so much for that. And we will keep an eye on that the next time we’re together, we’ll start keeping some tags on these updated realities. Now there’s some other big things coming up and I don’t want to miss that chance to hear from you about Saturn in Capricorn, Jupiter in Sagittarius, and Neptune in Pisces.

RC: Well, that is going to happen between… Last year actually it started in December, a few months ago, December 20th of 2017, up until March of 2025. We have these planets in places of the Zodiac where there’s going to be some benefit at least and less stress. Jupiter moves into Sagittarius from Scorpio, November of this year. And it’s going to last for a whole year until December of 2019. That I can assure everyone who is concerned about economics is going to institute some growth. Because Jupiter in his natural sign is certainly going to promote better judgment in investment and in corporate growth and job growth especially. Then we’re going to have Saturn moving in Capricorn since December of last year into December of 2020 and this is going to promote more security and stability. Saturn in his natural sign also ensures that leadership is going to have a moral footing and some goals that are tangible rather than let’s say ideological, idealistic. And of course we have had Neptune in Pisces since 2012 in February, and that’s going to last until 2025. This I see as a period of spiritual and moral resolution. It’s weeding out all the dirt and the crud that we as human beings tend to accumulate in our brains, in our spirits, and have to purge also periodically. So this I think is definitely more ideological and idealistic as an influence. So the best time for life changes, personal, is going to be next year 2019, when all three of these outer major planets, Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune are going to be in their ruling signs, as we say in astrology. They’re signs of strength. They’re signs of stability, where we can depend on the decisions that we make in those realms are going to see results.

ZH: Boy am I looking forward to 2019. (laughter) Come on you can’t get here soon enough! So there’s another cycle and I know we don’t have much time and all of these, ladies and gentleman, you have to appreciate what Rosemary’s able to do, which is to condense encyclopedic amounts of information into very cogent understandings of the impact that they have and literally on any one of these things that we have touched on you could spend hours on, but we don’t have that kind of time right now. So let’s look at this, you had mentioned earlier in the program that we are moving towards 2020, what some people and you have called a great mutation, another cycle hit of Jupiter and Saturn.

RC: Well, this is every 20 years these two planets come together and they have, for the last 200 years in the U.S., made conjunctions in Earth signs. There was a couple of exceptions when Reagan was elected president and began his administration in 1980 and also in 2000, which was another odd one and we had the results of that with Bush as the President instead of Gore. So what’s going to happen in 2020 is there’s going to be a Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in Aquarius. And for the next 200 years those conjunctions that occur every 20 years will be in Air signs. So that’s why it’s called a mutation. It’s going to move from Earth signs, which represent nature and land, the environment, government, and it’s going to move into Air, which is more to do with spirit, education, and the growth of knowledge. And I think it’s going to be interplanetary travel. We’re talking about the next 200 years, not tomorrow.

ZH: Right, right well you’re not alone in thinking that. I mean every futurist talks about the future of human experience being rather intergalactic and certainly those of us in 21st Century Radio has made a special showcasing for 30 plus years of our alien connections. Though I don’t like to call them “alien,” that’s somehow or other foreign, but off-Earth societies. And when they all talk now about terra-forming Mars, Nikola Tesla always said that much of his knowledge came from Mars and Martians and people thought: you’re ridiculous, but he was telling the truth.

RC: I think we’re going to get very close to at least planning and visioning that kind of experience by 2020. 2020 is when with this shift in the Jupiter-Saturn cycle, that marks the movement of social and economic and political institutions into new dimensions and that’s when it’s going to start and I’m glad to say that it’s going to be these Post-Millennials that besides lobbying for the protection of themselves and society, they’re also going to really project into the future in their Pluto in Sagittarian way what is possible for human beings to do.

ZH: Yes, and I think I was going to say you know you see that in their… just their refusal to accept the status quo of things that have been wrong. I mean they have absolutely no hesitancy to say things that most adults would be fearful to utter and also that comes with youth, which is something so beautiful as an elder watching youth’s, you know, sense of immortality almost, because that’s how you feel when you are that age.

RC: There’s one other item that I noticed in the U.S. chart. The Sun Sign of the U.S. is 13 degrees of Cancer. And that is where the star Sirius is. The ancients looked at Sirius as the harbinger of the new, the bringer of light. It was personified as the great mother, as Isis, and in Ancient Egypt it was the beginning of the sacred year. Now there is no coincidence that our founders chose July 4th or wound up on July 4th inaugurating our nation, because with the Sun passing over that sacred star of the ancients of the last 5,000 years, we know it really put into action a New Order of the Ages, since that star represents the beginning of a new epoch. Now, January 17th of next year 2019, Saturn in Capricorn is going to transit an opposition to our U.S. Sun. I looked at that and I thought, as head of state, the Sun represents in a horoscope, there is going to be a demise, a dissolution, a dissipation of what we know of now. So somebody who’s up there as head of state is certainly not going to be playing that role by January of 2019.

ZH: Fascinating. You know each time you join us, sometimes I get emails afterwards “you guys are ridiculous” and then they come back (and say) “oh my God, you were right.” So I think the beauty and I want to thank you for not only your knowledge, but the wise way in which you integrate it for most people who aren’t astrologers, don’t know what these terms necessarily mean, but I myself as a broadcaster and as a sort of weekend astrologer let’s call it that way, amateur astrologer, I deeply appreciate what you bring to it Rosemary. So we look forward to your rejoining us and thank you again for a remarkable hour in so many important ways for all of us.

RC: I’m happy to share what I know and humbly know so that others can look to the future with some optimism.

ZH: Amen to that. Thank you so much.

— — —

Listen to this interview on our audio archive page.

Transcription by Meg Bowen.

AMERICA’S MAD DASH TO IRRELEVANCE: PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN 2012

By Joseph J. Honick

 

Read More Joe Hoenick America’s Mad Dash To Irrelevance: Presidential Campaign 2012 Talk About Entitlements Peace Promises of Ahmadinejad and Hitler To Obama And Romney: Start Acting Presidential A Vote Is Only The Beginnning Of Democracy Dangers Of Irrelevance America In The World Can America Really Afford Peace?: The Unspoken Question HATE, HYPOCRISY AND MOB JUSTICE IN FLORIDA THE CHINESE MUST BE LAUGHING BIG Santorum Gone? Don’t Bet On It! A Nation at War: Where’s the Music? India and Bribery and ‘Progressive’ Media Hypocrisy OCCUPY IS A FAILURE November Fools’ Day Can America Really Afford Peace? The Unspoken Question Bottom Lines and Bottomless Pits Welcome to Theater of the Absurd: AARP Board a Tougher Entry Than Congress or the Presidency COMMENTARY: The United Nations of Hypocrisy, Part II WHERE’S HILLARY? WHERE’S THE CABINET? WILL A REAL WORLD LEADER PLEASE STAND? WHAT TO BELIEVE WITH OUR NEW WAR? WOULD OBAMA HAVE ‘INTERVENED’ AGAINST HITLER? THE ‘OTHER’ BURDEN FOR OUR CHILDREN, GRANDCHILDREN WHERE IS THE SHAME? WHERE IS THE COMMENT? TROOPS’ MENTAL HEALTH IS OFF THE NATION’S RADAR WILL WE STILL LOVE PARADES? LIMBAUGH IS RIGHT COMMENTARY: Palin’s lack of control demonstrates why she is not presidential class

 

It was about four years ago that I raised the specter of irrelevance consuming the U.S., the bastion of hope and freedom in the world, but also a nation consumed by the human and material costs of two unwinnable wars and the onset of domestic economic recession. I noted that we are often at our most vulnerable and confused during presidential election campaigns.

Nothing has changed that concern.

What has indeed multiplied the reality of our diminished standing is not so much the expected reality of the campaign but its embarrassing vulgarity. The “curtain call” for that campaign that saw Republicans taking the majority of the House of Representatives and a relatively small Democratic majority in the Senate was the post mortem declaration of political war against the sitting president by the two Republican leaders of the two Houses. What was absent was a similar declaration those Republican leaders wanted to work with the sitting president to secure the future.

Now as the nation is faced with a presidential campaign whose costs run to an estimated $5.6 billion and still more tons for local and state campaigns, the rest of the world looks on in bewilderment.

Every four years, we get a chance to headline candidates who could focus on means to reestablish confidence in America’s role as world leaders. Unfortunately, President Obama has not only had to deal with a Republican campaign that began two years ago but the realities of his own limited influence here and abroad. His long ago designated opponent, a one-term state governor and business consultant, George Romney, has presented little that affords confidence but also raises questions as to what influences stand behind his efforts.

In short, and in the words of an old, sad song : “Is this all there is, my friend?”
In the process, and in the eyes of much of the world, we are in a mad dash to irrelevance, shielded only by our power.

What can and must be done?

For openers, there is a need to “cleanse” the process by which we choose the most powerful individual in the world to occupy the most powerful office in the world. Three immediate steps could be taken if the warring political parties could place the nation before their political interests:

1. Limit the campaign period to 90 days following the nominating conventions.

2. Eliminate any funding for political conventions by the Federal Election Commission.

3. Provide public financing of equal portions for both major political candidates, and prohibit any other funding following nominating conventions.

Would this create a perfect world? Of course not. It would evoke the screams of special interest groups, public relations firms and others who make tons on the campaigns that these steps would frustrate the First Amendment of the Constitution.

And I am clearly aware of the Constitutional election prescriptions that exist, but I also recall that same document permitted Prohibition and some other oddities until logic prevailed for change.

Those steps would, however, expose those who have little interest in the good of the country and want only to manipulate the very freedoms guaranteed in that document.

Until such steps are taken, or others that might be still more productive, our descent into irrelevance around the world will only be hastened, as other powers continue to assert themselves.

So what stands in the way of change? It is the same two ingredients that always impeded progress: lack of courage and leadership.

* * *

Joseph J. Honick is president of GMA International in Bainbridge Island, Wash, writes for many publications and can be reached at joehonick@gmail.com

WHERE IS THE SHAME? WHERE IS THE COMMENT?

By Joseph J. Honick

Read More Joe Hoenick America’s Mad Dash To Irrelevance: Presidential Campaign 2012 Talk About Entitlements Peace Promises of Ahmadinejad and Hitler To Obama And Romney: Start Acting Presidential A Vote Is Only The Beginnning Of Democracy Dangers Of Irrelevance America In The World Can America Really Afford Peace?: The Unspoken Question HATE, HYPOCRISY AND MOB JUSTICE IN FLORIDA THE CHINESE MUST BE LAUGHING BIG Santorum Gone? Don’t Bet On It! A Nation at War: Where’s the Music? India and Bribery and ‘Progressive’ Media Hypocrisy OCCUPY IS A FAILURE November Fools’ Day Can America Really Afford Peace? The Unspoken Question Bottom Lines and Bottomless Pits Welcome to Theater of the Absurd: AARP Board a Tougher Entry Than Congress or the Presidency COMMENTARY: The United Nations of Hypocrisy, Part II WHERE’S HILLARY? WHERE’S THE CABINET? WILL A REAL WORLD LEADER PLEASE STAND? WHAT TO BELIEVE WITH OUR NEW WAR? WOULD OBAMA HAVE ‘INTERVENED’ AGAINST HITLER? THE ‘OTHER’ BURDEN FOR OUR CHILDREN, GRANDCHILDREN WHERE IS THE SHAME? WHERE IS THE COMMENT? TROOPS’ MENTAL HEALTH IS OFF THE NATION’S RADAR WILL WE STILL LOVE PARADES? LIMBAUGH IS RIGHT COMMENTARY: Palin’s lack of control demonstrates why she is not presidential class

Without a blink, blush or the most modest sense of shame, the U.N.General Assembly has named seven nations with horrible human rights records to the Human Rights Council.

Missing also is any modest comment from the U.S. as countries like Libya, Malaysia, Mauritania, Uganda, Thailand, Mauritania and Qatarare named to this important body.

While human rights organizations around the world have voiced their challenges and criticism, such commentary has bounced off the virtually impenetrable sense of decency in this organization formed to protect the innocent.

This is the same organization that can manifest a long list of nasty resolutions against Israel but can find a fit for murderous states on the Human Rights Council.

The other seven nations named to the Council are Maldives, Ecuador,Guatemala, Spain, Switzerland, Moldova and Poland.In naming Libya, despite its shameless record over just the Pan Am disaster and the admitted involvement of the nation’s dictator, the U.N. also overlooked Gadaffi’s most recent “Little Green Book” which denounces representative government as worse than useless. I found a copy of this piece of expensively prepared piece of”literature” recently in the Library of the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., where I am a longtime member. In a curious twist, I am proud to see free speech even of this sort finding its way to such place.

The real points are how and why such nations can be accorded such standing and dignity so incongruously without much of anything coming from the United States, if only from a diplomat on station at the U.N.As the late and great Adalai Stevenson once intoned: “Where is the outrage?” in dealing with another piece of hypocrisy many years ago. It is not necessary to recite the human rights records of the seven nations mentioned here. The wonderful world of Google can supply the details. What remains, however, is the rapid fire ability of this body to create expensive investigations, resolutions and heavy media assaults should Israel commit an offense that may or may not have been justified.And this U.N. record of hypocrisy has a long life of evidence and events from the date of Israel’s admission and independence that brought massive assaults by U.N. members who claim they supported peaceful settlement of disputes. It has extended through a history of one-sided reviews of atrocities, some of even recent vintage and with only the most modest commentary from the United States administration.So now, as these seven nations of humanitarian ill repute are accorded the dignity of these new appointments, the U.S. President prepares new pressures on Israel to climb on board the unenforceable and fuzzy nuclear reduction agreement, forced to this position by nations like Saudi Arabia and its consortium of allies who have feasted on American lives and financial commitment in their defense without offering the slightest compensation of any kind.adly or worse, the United Nations has become little more than anti-U.S. and anti Israel operation with a massive budget for propaganda, with little commentary to the contrary from the White House.

Having worked hard for the election of President Obama, whose candidacy was in stark and hopeful contrast to the likes of Sara Palin and the unfortunate nice guy John McCain, disappointment begins to emerge along with confusion and the worry about how and what other swill make of these decisions. Indeed: Where is the shame? Where is the outrage?

* * *

Joseph J. Honick is an international consultant to business and government and writes for many publications.. Honick can be reached at joehonick@gmail.com.

Jan. 12, 2011 PUBLLISHED NATONALLY

LIMBAUGH IS RIGHT

By Joseph J. Honick© Read More Joe Hoenick America’s Mad Dash To Irrelevance: Presidential Campaign 2012 Talk About Entitlements Peace Promises of Ahmadinejad and Hitler To Obama And Romney: Start Acting Presidential A Vote Is Only The Beginnning Of Democracy Dangers Of Irrelevance America In The World Can America Really Afford Peace?: The Unspoken Question HATE, HYPOCRISY AND MOB JUSTICE IN FLORIDA THE CHINESE MUST BE LAUGHING BIG Santorum Gone? Don’t Bet On It! A Nation at War: Where’s the Music? India and Bribery and ‘Progressive’ Media Hypocrisy OCCUPY IS A FAILURE November Fools’ Day Can America Really Afford Peace? The Unspoken Question Bottom Lines and Bottomless Pits Welcome to Theater of the Absurd: AARP Board a Tougher Entry Than Congress or the Presidency COMMENTARY: The United Nations of Hypocrisy, Part II WHERE’S HILLARY? WHERE’S THE CABINET? WILL A REAL WORLD LEADER PLEASE STAND? WHAT TO BELIEVE WITH OUR NEW WAR? WOULD OBAMA HAVE ‘INTERVENED’ AGAINST HITLER? THE ‘OTHER’ BURDEN FOR OUR CHILDREN, GRANDCHILDREN WHERE IS THE SHAME? WHERE IS THE COMMENT? TROOPS’ MENTAL HEALTH IS OFF THE NATION’S RADAR WILL WE STILL LOVE PARADES? LIMBAUGH IS RIGHT COMMENTARY: Palin’s lack of control demonstrates why she is not presidential class Not so very long ago, when faced with some criticism, Rush Limbaugh responded with “Words mean things,” to suggest people should be careful with how they use the language. With the brutal attack on Jan. 8 that killed several innocents in Tucson, wounded others and left Congresswoman Gabby Giffords in critical condition, Limbaugh’s, Palin’s and Beck’s storms of character assassinating words have confirmed the claim that “words mean things.” Beck and Palin have been earning big money from Fox News to sell a variety of nasty accusations of the President of the United States or making lowly, not lofty, assertions about anyone and everyone who might support slowing down a questionable war or providing healthcare. Of course, neither Limbaugh nor Beck have done a lick of public service when their age and experience might have made it possible. But, “words meaning things,” Limbaugh campaigned for misusers of drugs to be put in jail until he was found out himself and had all sorts of lame excuses. But that didn’t stop Rush from calling a young GI on duty in Iraq a “phony soldier” when the kid criticized that war. Beck has spent all kinds of time trying to prove the President was and remains ineligible to hold the office, helping to inflame those who also resent a black person or one of mixed heritage from serving in the White House. Even a lame-brain like Beck must assuredly know that service in the United States Senate does not happen without numerous clearances once there in order to vote or review any number of documents.  Thus there are sufficient records to show where Obama came to life. Sarah Palin as well has prided herself as a hunter, gun slinger and generally tough lady.  Of course, when a documentary was made to show her prowess with a weapon that even had sights for distance, not only did she not know how to reload, but missed a huge and beautiful elk at least once. Now she proclaims that the use of the tragedy in Tucson could help politicos to make things dangerous for our children and grandchildren. And so today, as a young lady Member of Congress, elected to a third term, was shot down by someone who, however, mentally fragile, was a target of those words that darned well mean things.  About all that Palin could immediately muster was the fact the young man read the Communist Manifesto.  Well, golly, most of us who have studied  politics and history in college have also read that book, along with “Mein Kampf” and scores of other books in our efforts to understand those kinds of people and what nurtured their development.  In fact, some of us also read a nasty anti-Semitic volume titled “The International Jew” by none other than a well known fellow decorated by Adolph Hitler for his support of the Nazi regime … that fellow was Henry Ford! Many months ago, in several  articles, I tried to call attention to not only the unrest arising from millions of American who felt left out of everything as the economy nosedived, homes epidemically foreclosed and not much promise of improvement … but also ignored by those proclaiming their patriotic support of two seemingly endless conflicts in the Middle East.  Worse for America, outstanding major media abroad like The Financial Times, have devoted large space to what not only the January 8 even in Tucson means but the run of assaults on political figures, innocent civilians and others implies for the nation that has posed as the leader of the world. Unlike the Becks, Limbaughs and Palins, millions of Americans committed themselves to public and military service in times of need and emergency. While Palin did do some duty in the governor’s office in Alaska, the fact is she also quit in mid-stream for reasons yet to be explained as she was selected by Sen. John McCain in the run for the White House. But, if Palin and partners believe they are being unfairly tarnished by their own inflammatory actions and rhetoric, perhaps they should have asked Giffords, who lies in very critical condition in Tucson’s University Hospital, why her Republican opponent found it effective to pose in dark glasses with a machine gun in hand. Lest anyone think this commentary avoids those of the other extremes, do not be misled.  Extremism is wrong, no matter where it comes from. However, when one extreme promotes solutions at the end of a gun, there is a difference. * * * Joseph J. Honick is an international consultant to business and government and writes for many publications. Honick can be reached at joehonick@gmail.com.

 

TROOPS’ MENTAL HEALTH
IS OFF THE NATION’S RADAR

By Joseph J. Honick
– A Guest on 21st Century Radio shows

Read More Joe Hoenick America’s Mad Dash To Irrelevance: Presidential Campaign 2012 Talk About Entitlements Peace Promises of Ahmadinejad and Hitler To Obama And Romney: Start Acting Presidential A Vote Is Only The Beginnning Of Democracy Dangers Of Irrelevance America In The World Can America Really Afford Peace?: The Unspoken Question HATE, HYPOCRISY AND MOB JUSTICE IN FLORIDA THE CHINESE MUST BE LAUGHING BIG Santorum Gone? Don’t Bet On It! A Nation at War: Where’s the Music? India and Bribery and ‘Progressive’ Media Hypocrisy OCCUPY IS A FAILURE November Fools’ Day Can America Really Afford Peace? The Unspoken Question Bottom Lines and Bottomless Pits Welcome to Theater of the Absurd: AARP Board a Tougher Entry Than Congress or the Presidency COMMENTARY: The United Nations of Hypocrisy, Part II WHERE’S HILLARY? WHERE’S THE CABINET? WILL A REAL WORLD LEADER PLEASE STAND? WHAT TO BELIEVE WITH OUR NEW WAR? WOULD OBAMA HAVE ‘INTERVENED’ AGAINST HITLER? THE ‘OTHER’ BURDEN FOR OUR CHILDREN, GRANDCHILDREN WHERE IS THE SHAME? WHERE IS THE COMMENT? TROOPS’ MENTAL HEALTH IS OFF THE NATION’S RADAR WILL WE STILL LOVE PARADES? LIMBAUGH IS RIGHT COMMENTARY: Palin’s lack of control demonstrates why she is not presidential class

There were 160 active-duty Army suicides in the year from Oct. 1,
2008, to Sept. 30, 2009, according to a Pentagon report released July
29. Then a headline on the New York Times August 1 front page tells
us: “Afghan strategy has fresh focus: targeted killing.”

And, by the way, men (and women, too), after you have done targeted
killing, be sure to be nice to your family and neighbors when you get
home … if you do.

If you think this madness is something new, think again. Seven years
ago, the Baltimore Sun published an article titled: “Army’s Suicide
Rate Has Outside Experts Alarmed.”

Military big wigs and armchair wizards assert they will have to look
into this pattern!

Look into it? Has it not occurred to them until now that – whatever
one thinks of these endless conflicts into which we have delivered our
men and women – the deployments and redeployments from home and
family, the driving pressures to annihilate people and property, and
all the rest naturally have taken their toll on even grizzled military
veterans in ways we cannot imagine.

Even if we supported this mindless war without end, we cannot
countenance the idea there are hardly any ways to rotate troops in any
logical way. Why? There is no draft to bring eligible citizens

If there were still a draft, it is doubtful even an apathetic public
would have accepted a conflict for which there is no declared national
commitment, even though we have spent more than a billion dollars on
private PR firms literally to hype the war at home and abroad.

And we have no draft because the late President Richard Nixon was
persuaded to sign a law creating the all-volunteer armed forces, thus
dividing the American society into a military and civilian population.

Now we have come full and disastrous circle where, if you add each
year’s statistics, hundreds of young men have taken their own lives,
and the folks who sent them to war are at a loss to figure out why.

Compounding this alarming reality are the orders now to make damned
sure every kill is strategic – but do kill – and when relieved, just

Well, on that score we have found that returning veterans, thousands
of them with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, are poorly treated if at
all and often take out their problems on the very people they yearned
to see again. Or they take their own lives as they are not competent
to handle civilian existence again.

And so we return to the kind of newscast blip noted at the beginning
of this piece. There are no political candidates voicing even the
slightest concern over these issues in this pivotal election year.

Given the unusual economic realities of war and recession at the same
time, it is doubtful many will take up the plights of men and women
who have been sacrificed for the cloudiest of reasons.

For those of us who have been in the military and seen many not
return, we know there is a need for two things: fast and critical
change of policy, and an apathetic public to rise up against the
terrible realities confronting our men and women in combat.

A couple of years ago I wrote an impassioned piece about the need to

I wish our government showed it felt the same way.

* * *

Joseph J. Honick is an international consultant to business and
government and writes for many publications, including www.HuntingtonNews.net. Honick can be reached at joehonick@gmail.com

NOVEMBER FOOLS’ DAY

By Joseph J. Honick

Read More Joe Hoenick America’s Mad Dash To Irrelevance: Presidential Campaign 2012 Talk About Entitlements Peace Promises of Ahmadinejad and Hitler To Obama And Romney: Start Acting Presidential A Vote Is Only The Beginnning Of Democracy Dangers Of Irrelevance America In The World Can America Really Afford Peace?: The Unspoken Question HATE, HYPOCRISY AND MOB JUSTICE IN FLORIDA THE CHINESE MUST BE LAUGHING BIG Santorum Gone? Don’t Bet On It! A Nation at War: Where’s the Music? India and Bribery and ‘Progressive’ Media Hypocrisy OCCUPY IS A FAILURE November Fools’ Day Can America Really Afford Peace? The Unspoken Question Bottom Lines and Bottomless Pits Welcome to Theater of the Absurd: AARP Board a Tougher Entry Than Congress or the Presidency COMMENTARY: The United Nations of Hypocrisy, Part II WHERE’S HILLARY? WHERE’S THE CABINET? WILL A REAL WORLD LEADER PLEASE STAND? WHAT TO BELIEVE WITH OUR NEW WAR? WOULD OBAMA HAVE ‘INTERVENED’ AGAINST HITLER? THE ‘OTHER’ BURDEN FOR OUR CHILDREN, GRANDCHILDREN WHERE IS THE SHAME? WHERE IS THE COMMENT? TROOPS’ MENTAL HEALTH IS OFF THE NATION’S RADAR WILL WE STILL LOVE PARADES? LIMBAUGH IS RIGHT COMMENTARY: Palin’s lack of control demonstrates why she is not presidential class

Oct. 12, 2011

Without a blink, blush or the most modest sense of shame, the U.N.General Assembly has named seven nations with horrible human rights records to the Human Rights Council.

Missing also is any modest comment from the U.S. as countries like Libya, Malaysia, Mauritania, Uganda, Thailand, Mauritania and Qatarare named to this important body.

While human rights organizations around the world have voiced their challenges and criticism, such commentary has bounced off the virtually impenetrable sense of decency in this organization formed to protect the innocent.

This is the same organization that can manifest a long list of nasty resolutions against Israel but can find a fit for murderous states on the Human Rights Council.

The other seven nations named to the Council are Maldives, Ecuador,Guatemala, Spain, Switzerland, Moldova and Poland.In naming Libya, despite its shameless record over just the Pan Am disaster and the admitted involvement of the nation’s dictator, the U.N. also overlooked Gadaffi’s most recent “Little Green Book” which denounces representative government as worse than useless. I found a copy of this piece of expensively prepared piece of”literature” recently in the Library of the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., where I am a longtime member. In a curious twist, I am proud to see free speech even of this sort finding its way to such place.

The real points are how and why such nations can be accorded such standing and dignity so incongruously without much of anything coming from the United States, if only from a diplomat on station at the U.N.As the late and great Adalai Stevenson once intoned: “Where is the outrage?” in dealing with another piece of hypocrisy many years ago. It is not necessary to recite the human rights records of the seven nations mentioned here. The wonderful world of Google can supply the details. What remains, however, is the rapid fire ability of this body to create expensive investigations, resolutions and heavy media assaults should Israel commit an offense that may or may not have been justified.And this U.N. record of hypocrisy has a long life of evidence and events from the date of Israel’s admission and independence that brought massive assaults by U.N. members who claim they supported peaceful settlement of disputes. It has extended through a history of one-sided reviews of atrocities, some of even recent vintage and with only the most modest commentary from the United States administration.So now, as these seven nations of humanitarian ill repute are accorded the dignity of these new appointments, the U.S. President prepares new pressures on Israel to climb on board the unenforceable and fuzzy nuclear reduction agreement, forced to this position by nations like Saudi Arabia and its consortium of allies who have feasted on American lives and financial commitment in their defense without offering the slightest compensation of any kind.adly or worse, the United Nations has become little more than anti-U.S. and anti Israel operation with a massive budget for propaganda, with little commentary to the contrary from the White House.

Having worked hard for the election of President Obama, whose candidacy was in stark and hopeful contrast to the likes of Sara Palin and the unfortunate nice guy John McCain, disappointment begins to emerge along with confusion and the worry about how and what other swill make of these decisions. Indeed: Where is the shame? Where is the outrage?

* * *

Joseph J. Honick is an international consultant to business and government and writes for many publications.. Honick can be reached at joehonick@gmail.com.

Welcome to Theater of the Absurd: AARP Board a Tougher Entry Than Congress or the Presidency

Monday, August 1, 2011

Joseph J. Honick

Read More Joe Hoenick America’s Mad Dash To Irrelevance: Presidential Campaign 2012 Talk About Entitlements Peace Promises of Ahmadinejad and Hitler To Obama And Romney: Start Acting Presidential A Vote Is Only The Beginnning Of Democracy Dangers Of Irrelevance America In The World Can America Really Afford Peace?: The Unspoken Question HATE, HYPOCRISY AND MOB JUSTICE IN FLORIDA THE CHINESE MUST BE LAUGHING BIG Santorum Gone? Don’t Bet On It! A Nation at War: Where’s the Music? India and Bribery and ‘Progressive’ Media Hypocrisy OCCUPY IS A FAILURE November Fools’ Day Can America Really Afford Peace? The Unspoken Question Bottom Lines and Bottomless Pits Welcome to Theater of the Absurd: AARP Board a Tougher Entry Than Congress or the Presidency COMMENTARY: The United Nations of Hypocrisy, Part II WHERE’S HILLARY? WHERE’S THE CABINET? WILL A REAL WORLD LEADER PLEASE STAND? WHAT TO BELIEVE WITH OUR NEW WAR? WOULD OBAMA HAVE ‘INTERVENED’ AGAINST HITLER? THE ‘OTHER’ BURDEN FOR OUR CHILDREN, GRANDCHILDREN WHERE IS THE SHAME? WHERE IS THE COMMENT? TROOPS’ MENTAL HEALTH IS OFF THE NATION’S RADAR WILL WE STILL LOVE PARADES? LIMBAUGH IS RIGHT COMMENTARY: Palin’s lack of control demonstrates why she is not presidential class

They kind of snickered — no, they actually scoffed — when I suggested and wrote that we should get a Constitutional amendment that would permit the retention of a consortium of executive search firms to find good candidates for the presidency of the United States so that we as the selection committee could vote without regard to political party.  After all, isn’t that the logical course taken by major corporations in need of a CEO?  Aren’t we a major corporation?

Then the current version of the Theater of the Absurd came about with the playground version of immature kids called Democrats and Republicans, only this time they’re playing with a whole country and with us who pay the bills they’re playing with.

Authorities say absurd drama subverts logic.  It relishes the unexpected and the logically impossible.  According to Sigmund Freud, “there is a feeling of freedom we can enjoy when we are able to abandon the straitjacket of logic.”

Is that not how we might characterize what has been going on with whatever you call it between the warring parties in Washington?

Perhaps that idea of using “head hunters” to find good candidates for the White House might also be extended to both Houses of the United States Congress.

Think of the savings in campaign fund raising, printing of ballots and all the rest of the absurd stuff that seems to inundate political campaigns.

Of course one would have to contend with the rest of the absurdity that would go with such moves.  For example, there would be the folding of political campaign consultant offices; it would be tougher for broadcast and print pundits to “ pundit”, and there would be the massive job dislocation that could result from the PR firm and other media hangers on.

Despite the absurdity of this kind of proposal,  would it be any more preposterous than what we have?

The fact is it is more difficult just to be considered for the Board of Directors of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) than to qualify for Congress and the Presidency where the minimal requirements deal pretty much age minimums, residency and similar easy stuff.

 To apply just to be considered for the AARP Board of Directors, there are questions as to race or ethnicity, age range and agreement to stand for intensive investigations.  That is just to be qualified for presentation to the membership.  Asked about those requests, the office of the AARP Corporate Secretary told me “if the committee were to present a homogeneous slate of candidates-of similar ages, ethnicity and gender – they risk having the slate rejected by the Board and having to start the nominations process over again.”

 The anonymous writer of the Corporate Secretary Office asserted further:  “The AARP Board oversees a budget in excess of a billion dollars and a workforce of some 2,000 individuals across the United States. Each finalist candidate for the Board is asked to consent to a background check conducted by an executive research firm retained by AARP, to include criminal, background and reference checks as well as public records checks……The screening has resulted in elimination of potential candidates, based on adverse information found in the background check,”

Given the size of our multi-trillion dollar budget and much larger employment, perhaps our own Constitution needs some review to make it just as tough even to be considered for national leadership,

Meanwhile, welcome to The Theater of the Absurd….with ALL of its consequences!

Joseph J. Honick is an international consultant to business and government and writes for many publications, He can be reached at joehonick@gmail.com

© Joseph J. Honick

John Coates Tribute

by Dr. Bob Hieronimus

author of Inside the Yellow Submarine

One of the most important and beloved co-creators of the Beatles Yellow Submarine film has passed away: John Coates, who served as what would be today be called Line Producer on the film, though his screen credit was listed as production supervisor. Coates passed away on the 17th of September 2012 at the age of 85, as reported here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19634351

https://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/john-coates-1921-2012-69973.html.

I first interviewed John Coates in 1993 for my book about the making of the Yellow Submarine film. We first met in person in 1997 and these photos here were all taken during that gathering and mini-reunion of subbers in London on August 19th, 1997. You can see we were having a rollicking good time that day!

John Coates Hugging Bob Hieronimus at mini-Yellow Sub Reunion in London August 19, 1997	John Coates Reunites with Maggie Button, Who Worked Trace and Paint on Yellow Submarine
John Coates raising in the air his new Yellow Submarine wristwatch just given to him as a gift by Dr. Bob Hieronimus 8/19/97.	Cheers John! John Coates sharing in wine and good fellowship at a mini Yellow Submarine reunion gathered by TVC to meet author Bob Hieronimus in London August 19, 1997.

These meetings blossomed into the 30th anniversary party for the Yellow Submarine that Hieronimus & Co. hosted along with TVC in 1998. We rented the BBC Maida Vale studios, and that was when Apple Corps requested our permission to send a camera crew where they captured all the interviews they used as DVD extras on the revised version of the film they released in 1999. We were pleased to return to Liverpool that year for the full red carpet treatment given to the co-creators for their work on this film at the premiere of this first restoration – long overdue credit.

Following are some excerpts from my many interviews with John Coates, some of which can be found in my book, Inside the Yellow Submarine: The Making of the Beatles Animated Classic, available at 21stCenturyRadio.com here.

FIRST A LITTLE BIO AND BACKGROUND ON JOHN COATES AND HIS TVC COMPANY

As the effective moving force behind TVC London, John Coates’ bio and list of producing credits is nearly identical to that of TVC. He began his career at the Rank Organisation 1948/1955, where he joined as a trainee studying exhibition, production and distribution. He than worked within the international distribution arm of the company in the Far East and Spain. He worked behind the scenes for Associated Redifusion 1955/1957 helping to set up the company at the beginning of Commercial Television in England as assistant to the Controller of Programmes. In 1957 he helped form the original company, TV Cartoons, Ltd. where he continued to work until his death. In the beginning he acted as producer and business director until 1979. He then became the majority shareholder and managing director, and acted as producer on all their productions listed in Inside the Yellow Submarine.

TV Cartoons or TVC London was formed by George Dunning in 1957 and he immediately gathered as his partners several people who would have enormous impact on Yellow Submarine. The following is excerpted from TVC’s own “Potted History.”

1957-1966: TV commercials and shorts – two British Academy Awards in 1962 and 1964; 1966-1968 The Beatles Series, ABC-TV. 1967-1968: The Yellow Submarine; A Shot in the Dark; Canada is My Piano. 1968-1978: TV Commercials and Shorts. 1978-1979: The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe. 1980-1981: Two sequences of Heavy Metal for Columbia Pictures. 1982: Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman – nominated for an Oscar, won the British Academy Award for the best children’s film and won many other awards including the European Prix Jeunnesse. 1986-1987: Raymond Briggs’ When the Wind Blows – with a title song from David Bowie and performances by Sir John Mill and Dame Peggy Ashcroft, winning at the Chicago Film Festival and best Feature Film at Annecy. 1988-1989: John Burningham’s Granpa – with Peter Ustinov as the voice of Granpa and Sara Brightman singing the theme song, winning the Prix Jeunesse in 1990. 1991: Raymond Briggs’ Father Christmas voiced by Mel Smith, winning the best TV Film Award at the Annecy Film Festival. 1993: Six half hours of The World of Peter Rabbit & Friends, winning awards in Chicago, Portugal and two CableACE awards in Los Angeles. 1995: Three more half-hours of The World of Peter Rabbit & Friends; Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows. 1996: William Horwood’s The Willows in Winter; Posy Simmonds’ Famous Fred, winning a British Academy Award, the Grand Prix at the Annecy Animation Festival and was Oscar nominated in 1998; Raymond Briggs’ The Bear, winning a Peabody Award for Excellence, Best Children’s Film at BAR, Best Television Film at Annecy ’99 and many other awards.

Since George Dunning passed away in 1979, John Coates continued the tradition of excellence as the managing director of TVC. Norman D. Kauffman who served as “tea boy” on Yellow Submarine became company director, until his own retirement several years ago.

A FIRST-HAND ACCOUNT OF THE KIDNAPPING OF YELLOW SUBMARINE

John was perhaps the most beloved of the co-creators on Yellow Submarine, and one of my favorite stories really demonstrates the loyalty that the crew felt for him. In the middle of production on Yellow Sub, there was a brewing dispute between the American producers and the British producers, and at one point the future of the independence for TVC studios was threatened. Several of the more daring on the crew decided they needed some ­collateral to make their point, and they stealthily moved in one night to abscond with several reels of finished negatives and artwork to match. They kept the film safe from “the suits” and succeeded in keeping the film under the control of the artists. Here’s how John Coates described to me in 1998 how it went down:

Bob Hieronimus: I remember when were sitting at the Italian place eating last year and you described to me how you guys snuck into the studio at night. Is that how it happened?

John Coates: First of all, we decided to take the two cut negs out of Rank’s laboratories, the film laboratories.

Bob Hieronimus: The cut negatives?

John Coates: The cut negatives. I phoned up the night supervisor. We knew all the people at Ranks. The film was in the name of TV Cartoons Limited, so I said we’re coming down at midnight to remove these negs and we drove down and removed the negs. The next night we, with our wives, went into the Soho Square premises sent the night supervisor, trace and paint, who was on the night shift, and her girls home. And it’s funny, that lady is an Australian lady who appeared in London last week, or was it just before Christmas? Just before Christmas. We hadn’t seen her since the Yellow Submarine. That girl I was sort of fond of, actually, and still has got nice legs, Norman says (laughter). Maggie Geddes. And she came to see us, and we all went out for a drink, and she was remembering — because I remember when I sent her home that night they had a deadline to meet in the morning for scenes ready for camera, and she just burst into tears and said, “Well, we wont’ be able to do it!” I said, “Don’t worry, Maggie, just don’t worry. Go home. Take everybody home.” And once they’d gone we then got all the art work from those two sequences that matched the neg cut and carried them down box by box by box right through the night and loaded up these two little minivans that our wives had. In those days there were mini vans because there was no tax on them. And both our wives had mini vans. George had a very nice house in Pembroke Square, which is sort of West London, Kensington Way, and so we loaded all the boxes. They filled two mini vans exactly, and we drove them down and put the boxes in his basement, and then we all went off to one of the hotels in London, which was open all night, and had breakfast. It would be about 5:00 in the morning. A bacon and eggs breakfast.

Bob Hieronimus: Oh, I wish I had one of those now. What happened that day? Did you work that day?

John Coates: Yes. Everything in the morning was back to normal.

Bob Hieronimus: Back to normal. So nobody knew what had happened.

John Coates: Yes, only those people who wondered why they’d been sent home that night. Norman got shouted at by Abe Goodman because the stuff wasn’t ready in the morning.

Bob Hieronimus: But they didn’t suspect? Abe Goodman and Al Brodax had no suspicions?

John Coates: No, no.

Bob Hieronimus: It was a moment of great genius on your part, guys.

John Coates: They couldn’t have done any – I mean if we wanted to be really beastly, you know, a third of the film was not there and not easily replaced.

Bob Hieronimus: I’m so glad you guys moved so quickly. I’m afraid in today’s time period people would sit around and wonder if they should do something. At least that’s what would happen over here. They would spend a week and a half in committees trying to determine whether they should do something. By then it would be all over.

FALLOUT FROM THE CHALLENGE TO AUTHORITY

The retribution for the artists’ rebellion would follow, however. Most noticeably, in the diminished on-screen credits given to John Coates and TV Cartoons.

John Coates: On all our films, I have a minimum of administrative people. I like to think all the money goes up on the screen. And so I worked quite hard actually, nights, and days, and weekends. They didn’t have that term in those days, but nowadays they have this thing called a Line Producer, which is very much the hands-on of a live action film putting together, wheeling and dealing. And I suppose really that was my job on the Yellow Submarine. I was a Line Producer on it. I think it says “in charge of production” or something like that but Al [Brodax] didn’t want to give me credit at all.

Bob Hieronimus: He didn’t want to give you a credit at all?

John Coates: No.

Bob Hieronimus: Gee whiz, John. How can the guy live with himself? That’s unbelievable.

John Coates: I know. That’s true, too, you know. I can’t believe it either. He didn’t want TVC’s name on there, and so some credits became sort of a compromise with TV Cartoons and mine together. I can’t remember how the wording goes to be honest. No, he didn’t.

YELLOW SUBMARINE ALMOST BANKRUPTED TV CARTOONS

The constantly swelling staff of extra painters and tracers hired to help speed the film to its 11-month deadline cost a bit more money than anticipated. John Coates says TVC had to come up with an extra £25,000 out of its own pockets and limped across the finish line to celebrate its critical success while on the verge of bankruptcy. Sadly, after having been fired up artistically with the enthusiasm of Yellow Submarine, the TVC team was forced to return to the world of advertising commercials to restore its solvency.

George Dunning, the Director of the film told John Canemaker in “One Has To Live,” Animafilm, No.3, pp. 32-39, that “the film made money left and right. But it didn’t for TVC and very nearly bust us. That’s a very long and very bitter story. We had a really nasty time of it. We went over the budget, not a large amount over. The producer people through King Features organized to take over the company. We learned an awful lot. Very bitter situation. After it was all over it got smoothed down. We repaired our relationship with King Features. But the whole thing was very sour.”

George Martin, Beatles producer and Music Director on the film told me in 1995: “John Coates is a very wise man. They had a deadline to meet, they had bills to pay, which they were finding more and more difficult to meet because they were having to engage new artists all the time. They had to increase the animation staff in order to cope with the deadline. The production had to be stepped up and they just ran out of money. I don’t think they ever made any money out of it. I don’t think George Dunning ever made any money.

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE, JOHN. WE’LL MISS YOU!

In closing this sendoff tribute to the spirit of John Coates, I share his answer to the question I asked all the 40+ co-creators of Yellow Submarine I have interviewed: “How did the Yellow Submarine change your life?”

John’s answer was “Well, I fell in love with somebody working on it, and went off with her. She did change my life. I’ve been together with her for over 30 years now. How’s that?”

In other words, Brother John, “All You Need Is Love”. How’s that? We join the rest of the crew of Yellow Submarine, and countless other animation fans of your other films in raising a toast to you. We all love you, John Coates!

UPDATE:

From Bob Balser, co-director of animation on the film, to Dr. Bob Hieronimus

Dear Dr. Bob,

Lovely tribute! So many times he mentioned to us how much he appreciated all you have done for “Yellow Submarine” Yes, we’ll all miss him – Bob is very saddened. He was a very special person, in all ways.

Love to all,
Cima & Bob Balser

 

See our other exclusive articles on Yellow Submarine and order my book at our Yellow Submarine page at 21stCenturyRadio.com.

Thank you letter from John Coates to Bob Hieronimus 1993 after gifting him with his first Corgi collectible Yellow Submarine model.