(Melchizedek Communique, MC111309) Is last week's Fort Hood carnage an eerie repeat of the John Brown (image shown) raid on Harpers Ferry?

In the time of Millard Fillmore, there had been peace and prosperity. During his presidency, Fillmore's ability to truly hear all sides helped resolve intense differences between North and South. [1]

After he left office, in little more than a year, the situation was still tender. In April of 1854, Savannah, Georgia Mayor John E. Ward, in a speech welcoming Fillmore to his city, referred to the fearful clouds so recently blown away and advised they were "of too recent date to be discussed without arousing passions which on this occasion should be hushed to rest." [1]

Fillmore carefully responded he had acted during his recent administration "with the sole view of restoring the harmony of the country which gave me birth." [1]

It was like walking on eggshells at the time! One feared to say much of anything, the divisive passions were so intense!

This year is the 150th anniversary of the controversial John Brown raid on Harpers Ferry. Many believe that was the spark which lit the Civil War. Similarly now, with a tinderbox of incendiary passions, the nation is bitterly divided. All it would take would be some sort of John Brown incident.

On November 7, 2009, Melchizedek Communique reported on an alleged temper fit thrown by President Barack Obama at the White House. According to the Globe, a weekly tabloid newspaper, First Lady Michelle Obama, in attendance at an inner-circle oval office confab, burst into tears when the normally friendly Obama snarled, "What the hell is going on? Why do people hate me?" (See Melchizedek Communique, MC110709. http://www.shout.net/~bigred/mc110709.html)

For fear of "eggshells," Melchizedek Communique did not include at the time the Globe's further allegation that Obama also stormed, "You people aren't doing your jobs. Get it right or get another job!" [2]

Today comes news that White House counsel Greg Craig will be announcing his resignation. [3]

For weeks prior to its November 9, 2009 issue, Globe had been reporting on an alleged "enemies list" prepared by Obama and said to target "conservative broadcasters, show business right wingers and Republican politicians." Subsequently, the news has come that CNN's Lou Dobbs is quitting his nightly show.

Of course, with all the hostile rhetoric emanating from certain broadcast realms it is understandable if President Obama has snapped. But still, perhaps Obama can take a lesson from Millard Fillmore who endured such spewings during his presidency yet managed to keep his eyes on the larger purpose of preventing the nation from disintegrating.

After his time as president had ended, the peace and prosperity of Millard Fillmore about-faced into the renewed divisiveness of the Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan administrations. By 1859, after the John Brown raid, things quickly became bad indeed!

How bad? "Challenges and name calling were common. Some senators and representatives were armed with weapons when they attended legislative sessions. Spectators were accused of carrying weapons in the galleries." A "shooting fray" almost occurred in the Congress itself. A midnight session of the House of Representatives witnessed a brawl between ten or so congressmen in which blows were exchanged and a spittoon was used as a weapon. [1]

Now, exactly 150 years and even almost to the month after the John Brown raid on Harpers Ferry comes the alleged Nidal Malik Hasan carnage at Fort Hood, Texas. "History does not repeat, but it rhymes," said Will Rogers. Is Major Hasan the John Brown of our time? Does this incident mark disintegration in the near future?

Millard Fillmore deplored the John Brown terror-causing incident, calling it a lamentable tragedy and a foolish invasion of Virginia by a fanatic. [1] Is Major Hasan any less of a fanatic than was John Brown?

President Fillmore, like Abraham Lincoln eleven years later, sought to preserve the Union above all else. Let us hope and pray that President Obama, like Fillmore and Lincoln, can "reach deep inside himself" and find some oasis of calm.

------- Notes -------
[1] Millard Fillmore, by Robert J. Scarry. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., Inc., 2001
[2] "Obama Explodes!" Globe, November 9, 2009
[3] "Official: Craig to step down as White House lawyer", by Jennifer Loven. AP, November 13, 2009