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THOUGHTS FROM DAD
[ 7/4/00 ] [ 7/13/00 ] [ 7/27/00
] [ 9/7/00 ]
Part 1
7/4/00
First, this was
not a surprise to me and a few others who knew him. I have sensed that Jo
was headed for an event in his life. I've been writing songs for three months
that for the most part, have been a vision of this thing coming. When I
got the call, I knew it had arrived. I was also immediately positive that
this was the hand of Spirit at work. This was not just a random act of violence,
it was destined to happen. We've all seen the movies and TV shows, and read
about people who have had "near death experiences". I, myself,
had a different, yet similar experience about ten years ago. Jonah is having
that experience right now. Truthfully, I have only had fleeting thoughts
that he would not survive this. Not only recover fully, but beyond. I believe
where he is at this moment is a place where he is absorbing wondrous things.
He will have the choice to stay or return. As I believe this event will
be an instrument for a greater good, I also believe that the greatest good
will be served by his return, not by his martyrdom. Thus, I believe that
he will indeed return to us.
I've done much soul searching and tried to find
a way to forgive those who did this horrible thing. I can forgive them spiritually,
but they have a price to pay. Because of the incredible brutality of this
as well as the other crime, Kathy and I have asked the city attorney to
prosecute them to the full extent of the law, no deals. I can forgive them,
but I can't help put them back on the streets to do this again. Spirit and
the courts can take over from here.
To continue this thought, I ask you to look into
your hearts and ask yourself why we let our world produce these senseless
acts of violence. It's easy to watch from a distance and say it's "them",
we wouldn't do such a thing, that there's an element in our society that
is just plain bad. But where does bad begin. It begins with acceptance perhaps.
When someone isn't accepted, they create defense mechanisms that can create
a higher level of unacceptance, and it all just escalates. This violence
is the result of our willingness to not get involved. Involved with our
children, our neighborhoods, our world. The dark side feeds on our fear,
have no fear. We have a fear of putting ourselves at risk, to stand up and
be counted. I would ask that we all learn from this event, it could have
been one of us, it could have been one of your children. I believe I am
active in attempting to influence thought in this world for the better,
but I know I can do more, and will. Look into your heart, can you do more.
Can we all do more. I believe that Jonah was chosen to be the focal point
of this event. If it had been someone who was not known, it may have pasted
as business/crime as usual. Hardly noticed. That's not going to happen.
This has already impacted thousands of lives, and thousands more to come.
Please ad your energy to it. We have been given an opportunity, what will
we make of it?
We have already received a great out pouring of
love and support and we thank you all for that. For now, Kathy and I, and
all those who love Jonah ask for your continued thoughts and prayers, and
action in the world that surrounds you. Just as before,
Jonah WILL be delivered from the belly of the whale.
Jonah's Dad
Mark Anderson
[ 7/4/00 ] [ 7/13/00 ] [ 7/27/00
] [ 9/7/00 ]
Part 2
7/13/00
There's some negative stuff I think you should
know, before the other stuff.
The brothers who attacked Jonah
had their bond hearing today. We had hoped the Judge would have revoked
bond, which would have assured that they would not hit the streets till
their trial. Especially, because we had found out that the man who they
had previously attacked, had not shown up at any of the trial proceeding
yet. We feel he may be afraid of testifying for fear of the brothers or
their friends. The city attorney's office is going to step up their efforts
to get him into court. Today, the judge set bail at $150,000 for each brother.
Their grandparents have money, and are backing their grand kids all the
way. They don't believe these guys did any of this, and that the cops are
just picking on them. I guess they've been thinking that since the brothers
started breaking windows in the neighborhood at age 6. They have a long
history with the police since that time. Apparently, the grandfather has
fired the lawyer who was handling the case for them, and is going to hire
the top criminal lawyer in St.Louis to get them off. We can only hope that
he will be unsuccessful. One of the really tough things we learn in this
world is, the Law and Justice are not always the same thing. I know this
will anger alot of people, especially Jonah's friends in St.Louis. Please
remember that we, his parents and those closest to him, believe this event
is about stopping the violence. You can't blame the grandparents too much
for blinding themselves to this situation. They probably care a great deal
for their grand kids, and indeed may rely on them for things. Both Kathy
and I are willing to let the court and Spirit deal with it, please be with
us on this. Don't hate, don't want revenge, don't even think negative thoughts.
Keep the love coming, that's what has real power. Just believe, whatever
the outcome, it will be the correct outcome.
The profoundness of this event just keeps growing.
Since the web site went up, we've received so many letters not only offering
prayers for our son, but also about how this event has impacted lives, and
various healings that some people have experienced in their lives at this
same time. Just one example, we know of a woman, who knows Jonah, whose
husband had abandoned her and her kids years ago. He had not made any contact
for over a decade, (I think I got the time frame correct.), but he tried
to reach his family over this last week. He has no idea at all about what's
happened to Jonah. Coincidence? Don't think so.
You wouldn't believe how many (and I don't have
time right now to tell you) coincidences have surrounded Jonah's event.
There's more to this than coincidence. I encourage you to share anything
that this event has done to effect your life, any personal healings, any
change in consciousness, anything out of the ordinary you've experienced
by knowing about all this. Please go to the message board to let everyone
know what's up with you.
I hope what I'm about to write doesn't get to weird
for anyone. If it does, chalk it up to the ravings of an old fart who has
gone senile. I believe in reincarnation. That we come to this planet as
spirit in an earth-suit. We come for a couple of reasons. First, Lucifer's
legacy to us is that we must work our way back to perfection. It takes a
number of life times to work all that out. We've all been bad and we've
all been good, and all combinations of that through many lives. We have
to balance or correct ourselves by what many call Karma. The more life times,
the more perfection you can attain. Most of us are the good guys and getting
better all the time. The bad guys are maybe Spirits with fewer life experiences,
lower on the spiritual evolutionary tree. But the bad guys serve a different
purpose also. We get a more profound meaning perhaps, of what good is by
having something to measure it against. Without this nasty ingredient, we
might all progress much slower. The worse the crime against humanity, the
greater the opportunity for us to gain spiritually, if we choose to. How,
in what way, to what degree are we willing to take personal responsibility
in our world. When something bad happens we're effected. It's an opportunity
to make a decision about where we stand and what we believe. Each of us
IS involved, and you are, by just reading this. We can take a Karmic step
here. How much are we willing to let this event effect us. We can choose
the size of our involvement, our Karmic step. The size of that step can
be the degree to which this will impact us and what action we actually take.
Second, I believe we come here on a mission. We've
all been given something special to do to impact our world. Usually, we
can figure out what it is. What do you like to do better than anything else?
That's probably it. How much time do you spend doing that?
Third, I also believe that we live in the War of
Armegedon, and have been for some time. Read the papers, watch the news.
Looks like war to me, spiritual war. It's my belief, that spirits who haven't
needed to reincarnate for a long time have been waiting to come back now,
for the big one. These are the great warriors of love and understanding.
Or I should say, YOU are great warriors of that. These great Spirits are
not necessarily the ones who govern over us, or captains of industry, or
movie/rock stars. Although, some could be. The warriors are us, common people,
no platform other than the opportunities that are placed before us everyday.
We do our work one on one with everyone we come in contact with. Normally,
that would be fine, but now we're at war, a deeper commitment is needed.
Can we extend our selves beyond, and even further. Make a friend of your
enemy, stand up and holler when you know something is wrong, don't be silent,
don't let it ride. Don't be intimidated, don't be afraid. Take personal
responsibility, don't wait for someone else to do it.
We are the ones who must take action in this world.
We are the greatest Spirits to walk the planet. There's nothing beyond our
abilities.
My friend Brooke uses the phrase, "Random
Acts of Kindness". Think about it. We could use a whole bunch of that
in this world.
[ 7/4/00 ] [ 7/13/00 ] [ 7/27/00
] [ 9/7/00 ]
Part 3
7/27/00
There was an unusual thing that happened on the
Wednesday of multiple miracles. Jonah's wheelchair is made of stainless
steel, plastic, rubber, and nylon. None of which conducts electricity to
the best of my knowledge. The floors of the rehab center are linoleum, no
carpet. In the morning, when he was in the chair, and only when he was in
it, if you touched the chair you got a real jolt of static electricity.
I'm not sure about the stainless steel being a conductor, but it was the
plastic hand grips that gave the charge when you touched them. There's no
way that should have happened. No one could explain it, several of us experienced
it. The jolt was large enough, that you could actually see the spark. But
only when he was in the chair, otherwise nothing. It was gone by noon. That's
one for Art Bell!
[ 7/4/00 ] [ 7/13/00 ] [ 7/27/00
] [ 9/7/00 ]
Part 4
9/7/00
It seems like we've been waiting for a very long
time to see Jonah really back in the real world, not just visiting it. Now,
he'll be visiting the hospital. So how ready is he? His recovery is not
over. My guess is he will be in the process for several months still. He's
going to be supervised for quite a while yet. We, his family, are about
to become his therapists as much as the hospital staff. The changes in him
are going to be much more subtile. It's going to be harder to recognize
his progress. It's not like before, when he opened his eyes or stood up.
The milestones will be a lot tougher to see from here on. I get the feeling
that I'll be with him some afternoon, and it will just dawn on me, he's
totally back. Then this whole drama will have been played out. There won't
be a web site telling you about his progress. I was just wondering when
that might be. And after some thought, I think it will be, when Jonah starts
to run this site himself. At that point, this all will become something
else.
The most important thing that had come into his
life before the attack, was his computer. He has a brand new HP that I'd
love to have, tons better that mine. He still hasn't had the chance to sit
down with it. It was his intention at that time to spread his art using
this marvelous tool. A whole new world was about to open to him. Jo's gotten
a bit tired of the staving artist thing. He will probably always do graffiti,
but he's always been able to stretch his art in other ways when the opportunities
arose. He was at the point where he was determined to earn his way as an
artist, not just think or dream about it. I think the next big milestone
that will be very recognizable, the final one, will be when he takes charge
of his life again by earning a living. Taking care of himself.
I've always believed that Jonah was chosen for
this event. That the event was Spirit's way of bringing our attention to
something that's very wrong with our world. I think that's happened. To
what degree, as I've said above, is the degree to which we take action to
stop the violence in our world. But, Jonah's going to get something out
of this too. In 1991, I experienced a different, but similar near death
experience. I can tell you with complete confidence, that when one experiences
this, one is left with a profound understanding of how much time is available
in your life. You stop counting your life in years, you count in minutes.
Nothing is more valuable than time. You tend to intensify your use of it.
Because you've cheated death temporarily, the rest of your life becomes
a very precious gift. Jonah has, like most of us have, wasted a lot of time
in his life, up to this point. I fully expect that is over forever. I believe
he will eventually surge back into the world with a new found urgency that
will last the rest of his life. I know he will create wonderful things for
us all to see. What? When? How? Still to be determined.
