Bram Jurcksen
IN A NUTSHELL
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COMMENTARY
CURRENT EVENTS
Maria Corina Machado, Venezuela's opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laurate addresses possible military conflict with U.S.
Maria Corina Machado
my Journey
I'm a history buff and a thirteenth-generation American whose family history on the North American continent dates back to the middle sixteen-hundreds, one hundred seventy-five years prior to the American revolution. Studying American history, world history, this history, or that history is interesting, but studying your own family's history is fascinating and addicting.
My GREAT, GREAT, GREAT, GREAT, GREAT, GREAT, GREAT, GREAT, GREAT GRANDFATHER, MATHEW BARTON (2nd generation) was charged and ordered to appear in court on two counts of “breach of the sabbath” and “riding from town to town on the Lord’s days”, He failed to appear. In July of 1673, he was presented and charged for “not frequenting the public worship of God” and again failed to appear. The same charge was brought again a year later in July of 1674. The disposition of these crimes I have not yet learned and probably never will.
June 3, 2003, on Liberty Island under the Statue of Liberty, my boyfriend of two years presented me with a platinum wedding band and proposed a lifetime commitment. I tearfully accepted his proposal and, on that day, prior to legalized same sex marriage and without religious sacrament or civil licensure we declared ourselves wedlocked.
Twenty years later an aortic dissection of the heart unexpectedly took his life, I went into shock. Losing my best friend and partner caused so much distress that my grief was inconsolable. My grief was so deep that I considered taking my own life. I couldn't fathom the thought of living without him, I still can't. Only by sharing his lose with his mother, brother and sisters have gotten me through and keeps me going.
