My name is Shannon Thomas Casebeer. I’ve written several manuscripts, and I’m looking for a reputable Literary Agent.

 Shannon Thomas Casebeer

URGENT! How the hell did we get here?

How the hell did we get here? I can tell you exactly. This will take a few moments. I appreciate your patience. As a child, back in the 1950s, I contracted Polio and became very ill. During an extended stay at Kaiser Hospital in Vallejo, California, I prayed as only a terrified child can pray. I prayed and prayed and prayed. Eventually, tests determined that I was free of symptoms and free to go home. From that day forward I’ve been a person of faith.

For over forty years I’ve faithfully attended church services. I served for a time as a deacon. I was a door greeter for twenty years.

One day, following church services, my children questioned whether I was a Christian. I was amazed and horrified and asked what had prompted this question. I was told that their youth minister had informed his class that the phrase “Christian Democrat” was an oxymoron, because one could not be both a Christian and a Democrat.

Many of you will remember Billy Graham. In 1981, Billy Graham was interviewed by parade magazine. I’ll provide a link. Its essential to the survival of our democracy that everyone read it.

Did Billy Graham Warn Against Mixing Religion and Politics? | Snopes.com

 

In the interview, Reverend Graham says the following.  “I want to preserve the purity of the Gospel and the freedom of religion in America. I don't want to see religious bigotry in any form. Liberals organized in the '60s, and conservatives certainly have a right to organize in the '80s, but it would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it.”

 

From that time to this, what Reverend Graham calls the hard right has led a crusade to demonize women’s reproductive rights and any deviation from a strict and Puritanical view of sexuality.  Since that time, many churches have adopted these views and they’ve been preached passionately from the pulpit. As a result, Reverend Graham’s concerns have come to fruition. To a large extent, Democrats and those who support America’s celebrated principles of liberty and justice for all are no longer welcome in fundamentalist churches, and those who consider themselves people of faith (or evangelicals) feel compelled as a matter of faith to vote for conservative Republicans and to demonize and shun those who do not. This has led to discord and polarization rarely previously seen in America, and a portion of our media has exacerbated this for purely financial reasons and is largely responsible for the unrest and antigovernment sentiment.

 

As we speak, a former president is charged with several state and federal crimes. Over the months ahead, The United States of America and its legal/judicial system will determine his guilt or innocence. In the meantime, he has called upon the hard right and his evangelical converts to subvert and overturn our legal system and the previous election. Democracy and our republic itself are threatened by these unprecedented and unconscionable efforts.

 

As we begin the 2024 election process, the marriage of religious fundamentalists and the political right, which Reverend Graham feared and warned us against has swelled to proportions which not only threaten a peaceful election process, but the very survival of our society, our democracy, and our republic.

 

As a person of faith and a proud American, I urge each of you to take a long, hard look at your chosen media. Consider widening your viewing habits to include less partisan and less insurgent content. Encourage your ministers to hold worship services once again rather than GOP rallies. And heed Reverend Graham’s impassioned warning before it’s too late.

 

Let me know if you read this, and please feel free to share. SC  

 

 

 

 

Billy Graham shared these concerns in 1981, and you will never read anything more timely, prophetic, and relevant to our current crisis. SC

 

As people of faith, we’re cautioned against hating anyone. But there are groups in our society today whose ideologies are a clear and present danger to truth, justice, freedom, and the American way.

As people of faith, we’re cautioned against hating anyone. But there are groups in our society today whose ideologies are a clear and present danger to truth, justice, freedom, and the American way. We all know who they are. They are well on their way to undoing the progress of the last fifty years. While I struggle against hating anyone, I detest those ideologies. SC

Coffee On the Canna Mire, I’m looking for a Literary Agent to assist in publishing this blog and several additional manuscripts.

Greetings to my friends in Singapore! I'd love to hear from you.

QUERY, first draft, first page, new manuscript, Coffee on The Canna mire

 

COFFEE ON THE CANNA MIRE

Essays, Quotes, & Anecdotes

 By S. T. Casebeer

June 4, 2023

INVITATION

 

Much like the proverbial box of assorted chocolates, Coffee on The Canna Mire is a sampler of my vast and varied literary confections, and you’re right; you never know what you’ll get. But, if you enjoy this book, you’ll love the others. The canna mire is my happy place; its where I go to escape the talons of time, enhance my perspective, widen my horizons, contemplate the cosmos, and ponder incomprehensible possibilities. For me, it’s a little like Brer Rabbit’s briar patch. There’s no other place where I’m entirely lucid and comfortable. 

Littlethicket is my name for several acres of old growth pines which shade, shelter, and encircle a small, woodland pond that nestles peacefully into our wooded sanctuary in the Missouri Ozarks. The little watering hole was bladed out back in the 1940s as a resource for wildlife and livestock which make their home on or around our 120-acre homestead which shares its woodland border with an eight-thousand-acre wildlife management area. My family acquired the property in 1978.

Through the years the little pond has achieved what among its kind would be considered an advanced age, as the ebb and flow of seasons and cycles has deposited within its shaded shores rich deposits of decaying leaves and silt to a depth of several feet, thus reducing the water’s depth to about neck deep on a good-sized Whitetail.

Outside of our annual hay crops, our property is no longer home to farming activity and the grazing of livestock, but local fauna graces the quiet solitude of the sparkling resource with frequent visits from their homes in the deep woods. Deer, turkey, black bear, raccoon, bobcats, skunks, great blue heron, and an occasional mountain lion scatter their padded prints along its muddy banks. Bull frogs join in a chorus of booming voices, announcing their romantic intentions, snapping turtles lurk in the shallows, awaiting the arrival of an unwary snack, and Northern water snakes slither and undulate over the sheltering root wads and among the shaded nooks. 

Some years ago, I began dredging channels through the accumulation of thick, gooey mire and using the mud to create miniature islands and peninsulas. These I have naturalized and landscaped with the addition of rocks, stumps, logs, and numerous varieties of flowering shrubs and wildflowers. What was once a barren and unsightly mudflat in now home to luxurious water garden which provides home to a rich landscape of lilacs, clematis, coneflowers, weigelia, berry vines, and a multitude of vibrant lilies.  Whenever possible, I begin my day with some quiet time. Daybreak is extravagantly peaceful at Littlethicket. The solitude is a balm for my soul. The first rays of dawn are freshened and filtered by the evergreens. Mists rise from the pond’s mirrorlike surface, and the air is heavy with the fragrances of pine boughs, wildflowers, and the enchanting breath of the deep, dark woods. Mornings are my favorite time of day, and I frequently take my coffee on the canna mire.

Having achieved an age at which I have now met my obligations to the trials and tribulations of the work force, except for a healthy regimen of spousal assignments and the time-honored duties of a compliant mate, my time is much my own. Having tried my hand at all variety of hobbies and found most to be bottomless pits of unrewarding expenditures, I’ve found that creative writing can be a source of endless diversion and considerable gratification, and furthermore, words are cheap.

Thus, bolstered by my singular sagacity and unique perspective, I’ve set out to address the ebb and flow of societal distress and dysfunction by singlehandedly salving the world’s myriad ills. Good luck, right! My quiet time on the canna mire frequently provides opportunity for musing over the events of the day and penning my personal judgments and candid opinions. You’re welcome to join me. Here, for your edification, are several years’ worth of literary cacophonies which spontaneously ensued while taking my coffee on the canna mire.  SC