Disneyland Gets Ready for a Grand Re-opening

In the early 1950s, while on an outing with his two daughters to Los Angeles’s Griffith Park, Walt Disney had an inspiration to create a family-friendly theme park that would be unique in its array of attractions.

Thirty-five miles south of his movie studio in Anaheim was where Disney happened upon the perfect location for his latest brainchild.

He was able to arrange the financing, which included a portion of his own money, and dreams quickly began to materialize. The designers and animators who would work on the project would ultimately come to be known as the “Imagineers.”

Disneyland opened its gates in July of 1955, with a kick-off ceremony that lit up TV screens across America for 70 million people.

Zooming over to 2021, a sign that times may be getting better in the Golden State is the upcoming re-opening of the “Happiest Place on Earth.”

The entertainment industry giant was dealt a severe blow by the lockdown, with its theme parks and resort businesses taking the hardest hits.

While Walt Disney World in Florida and other Disney parks have already re-opened, the iconic California theme park that launched the others has been a literal ghost town for over a year.

Employees and fans galore have been anxiously waiting to hear when California’s major theme parks would be brought back to life. Well, there’s a date now.

The Disneyland Resort, which includes Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park, are set to re-open at the end of April. Unfortunately, everything is going to look wildly different from the pre-COVID Disneyland.

In order to comply with governmental requirements, Disney will manage attendance through a new theme park reservation system, which will require that all guests book dates in advance.

Masks for guests over the age of 2 and requisite social distancing will also be a part of the re-opening plan.

One huge wrench in the works is that initially only California residents will be allowed admission.

While Disneyland could have technically re-opened on April 1, plenty of lead time was needed to re-train the approximate 10,000 cast members who will be returning to work.

Challenges are still presenting themselves, but there doesn’t seem to be anything on the near horizon that would be insurmountable.

A long list of health and safety rules exists, which must be adhered to. There is a reduced number of guests that are going to be admitted at any given time. And Disneyland will only be able to re-open at a maximum capacity of 15 percent, which is a lower percentage than the 25 percent capacity of Florida’s Walt Disney World. This is expected to significantly impact the park’s attractions, shops, and dining venues.

Bob Iger recently spoke out about the theme park’s upcoming re-debut.

He told Deadline that “there’s something so symbolic about Disneyland reopening.”

Iger is right about the symbolism, especially when it comes to the Disney brand, which has traditionally been associated with optimism.

The former Disney CEO noted the pivot that Disney had made during the lockdown, with its newfound emphasis on its streaming platform, Disney+.

“When COVID hit, we at least had something to turn to, and I think it kept the company vibrant because there was a beacon of hope,” Iger said.

To its credit, Disney is now moving to instill a sense of optimism and hope within its own ranks as well as the Southern California community.

Shrugging off the unprecedented adversity of the last year, the company is not only re-opening, but it has just announced plans to expand the Disneyland Resort, with new attractions and multi-use areas.

On the west side of the Disneyland Resort, the existing theme parks of Disneyland and California Adventure will be expanded under a game-changing project dubbed “DisneylandForward.”

According to the project’s website, inspiration for new attractions could be based on “Frozen,” “Tangled,” “Peter Pan,” “Zootopia,” “Tron,” and “Toy Story Land.”

The DisneylandForward plan may take as much as two years to come to fruition, because the company is seeking to modify development approvals that it received from the city of Anaheim back in the 1990s.

Disney has made it a point to emphasize that the company is not seeking any public funding for the expansion, which is predicted to add thousands of new jobs to the beleaguered Southern California economy.

It’s pretty much everyone’s hope that this signals things are going to be moving closer and closer to normal.

This, no doubt, will be music to Mickey Mouse’s ears.

California Bill Flies in the Face of James Madison

James Madison was a giant of a man.

Born on a Virginia tobacco plantation in March of 1751, he was the eldest boy in a family of twelve children.

Being smaller of stature and suffering from ill health, he would be unable to see battle during The Revolutionary War. But fight for his country he would in more ways than he could ever have imagined.

Young Madison attended the College of New Jersey, which would eventually become more famously known as Princeton University. At the time, the institution was actually an evangelical seminary.

A protégé of sorts, he studied directly under the tutelage of the college president, Reverend John Witherspoon. This would be where young Madison would develop an untold appreciation for individual rights, limited government, and, most importantly, the freedom to worship.

Reverend Witherspoon was attune to the importance of the development of an internal moral sense, an ethical compass, if you will, which he viewed as being instilled in all human beings by God.

As destiny would have it, Reverend Witherspoon would not only influence young Madison, but he himself would go on to be the only active clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence.

One time during his travels in Virginia, Madison came across a jail in which a group of Baptist preachers were being detained. The ministers had been arrested as a result of their open expression of their religious beliefs.

Madison was so deeply affected by the injustice he had witnessed, he rushed off a prayer request to his friend William Bradford “for Liberty and Conscience to revive among us.” The experience would further spur him on to become a fierce advocate of religious liberty.

He expressed his passion for religious freedom in his involvement with the new constitution that was being written for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Strengthening a clause that was written by George Mason, he transformed the language of the text from a government grant to an inalienable right.

Over the next decade Madison would be involved in various other religious liberty battles. And in 1785, he would pen one of the most powerful defenses of religious liberty ever written, the “Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments.”

After the Constitution, as Madison wrote it, was ratified by Congress in 1788 and came into effect in 1789, many leaders wanted to add additional material containing the fundamental rights with which government could not interfere. However, the Constitution itself specifies that the adding of such material can only be done through amendments.

Madison initially opposed the idea of putting additional amendments into the Constitution. As the author of the Constitution, he considered his work so complete that no additional amendments were thought to be needed.

He and his colleagues believed that the Constitution placed enough limits on government, via the separation of powers, to safeguard individual rights.

Madison was also concerned that listing some freedoms in amendments, but not others, would lead government officials to believe that they could do whatever was not explicitly forbidden by the document.

It was providential that Madison had a friendship and political alliance with Thomas Jefferson. He actually served as the third president’s secretary of state.

Jefferson had written a series of letters from Paris, France, attempting to persuade his friend to change his mind about the Bill of Rights. Madison did eventually come to believe that amendments setting forth our rights might impress upon the nation the importance of placing limitations on state power.

Madison became the point man for the Bill of Rights, taking on the mantle not only of drafting the amendments, but of also shepherding the founding document through the legislative process. Drawing on Mason’s Virginia Declaration of Rights and Britain’s Magna Carta, he wrote the Bill of Rights and presented it to Congress in June of 1789.

The Bill of Rights, which of course includes our cherished First Amendment, was ratified on December 15, 1791.

Among myriad other amazing accomplishments, Madison served as secretary of state in the Jefferson administration. Then following in the presidential footsteps of his friend, he became the fourth president of the United States in March of 1809 and served until March of 1817.

President Madison would be cut to the core if he were here to witness what is currently being proposed in California – a bill that would actually dismiss from service those members of law enforcement who hold certain religious and/or political beliefs.

Under the pretext of seeking the elimination of “hate speech,” the proposed law would virtually place the government in the position of denying police officers the ability to be employed or to remain employed, based on their Christian beliefs and/or conservative principles.

The legislation’s name is a misleading one, the California Law Enforcement Accountability Reform Act. It would require law enforcement agencies to determine if potential hires are guilty of thought crimes. It would also allow existing officers, who are subjectively determined to hold incorrect or unapproved beliefs, to be fired.

The California Assembly Public Safety Committee is scheduled to consider the piece of legislation on April 6. But its language is so broad and ambiguous it stands as a textbook violation of the protections of religious liberty and freedom of speech, which are engraved in the First Amendment.

While our First Amendment rights weren’t specifically enumerated in the original text of the Constitution, Madison ensured that the rights would be enshrined within the amendment process.

He authored the inspired words of the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Read it and weep California. Madison is.

Down the Path to a One World Religion

The Bishop of Rome recently held a historic meeting with the chief figure in Shia Islam, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

One phrase was repeatedly used in press reports to describe the coming together of the Pope and Sistani; that being, “interfaith dialogue.”

Interfaith dialogue is an organized effort to engage in a discussion of beliefs, along with a sharing of religious and/or cultural-community oriented practices, which takes place between people of differing faiths.

The goal of such a dialogue is to break down barriers between adherents of differing faiths, and once accomplished purportedly leads to world peace.

Any attempt to persuade others to one’s religious way of thinking, i.e., evangelization, is an unwelcome guest in the interfaith dialogue arena.

In a very real way, it is seemingly a prerequisite that those involved in interfaith activities must first embrace the notion that no single religion could possibly lay claim to the “truth.”

A religious ideology that asserts this sort of exclusivity with regard to truth is considered to be an obstacle to the attainment of harmony in the world.

With this in mind, participants in interfaith dialogue must come to the discussion table with an open mind toward the acceptance of so-called multiple truths, as well as an openness with regard to the welcoming of multiple means of worshipping a deity or deities.

So who wouldn’t want world peace?

Well, it’s not what it appears to be.

Back in early 2019, an interfaith agreement was signed by Pope Francis and a different Muslim leader, the Sunni Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Ahmed el-Tayeb.

Their meeting produced a written document that states the “diversity of religions” that exist in the world were “willed by God.”

The implication is that the hundreds of different religions in the world are all equally acceptable to the Creator of the Universe. Millions would beg to differ.

In 2016 a video released by the Vatican appears to similarly indicate that different religions are all just assorted paths to God. In the footage, the Pontiff expresses that although faiths may be “seeking God or meeting God in different ways,” we are all “children of God.”

Interfaith dialogue denies one crucially important reality; that being, there are incompatible fundamental distinctions between the deeply held beliefs of differing religions throughout the world.

Because of this fact, it is impossible for religions to be combined or somehow blended together, without suffering the loss of the vital integrity of the respective faiths.

In order to pursue the goals of interfaith dialogue, participants must act as though such differences do not exist. They must also accept and espouse that contradictory beliefs can be reconciled.

Other thorny issues have arisen, which pose additional problems for the interfaith movement. There are so-called faith entities that have adopted the practice of worshipping an anti-deity or deities; in other words, they are involved in occult beliefs and practices.

They, too, would like to be part of the movement. Don Frew provides an example.

Frew is a Wiccan Elder and a high priest of a coven in Berkeley, California. He has been involved in interfaith work for more than 30 years. He has served on the Board of the Berkeley Area Interfaith Council and is also a National Interfaith Representative for one of the largest and oldest Wiccan organizations.

Obviously, for those of the Jewish and Christian faiths, there could never be a reconciling of their beliefs with an organization such as Frew’s.

It is literally the First of the Ten Commandments: No other gods before me. That pretty much ends the discussion on multiple truths.

The bottom line is that the interfaith movement is a deceptive one. Its supposed goal is peace, but its hidden motive is to blend faiths together into a one world religion.

A one world religion would do away with the centuries-old religious tenets of millions. It would also be at odds with a belief system that is written on the hearts of human beings around the globe. And it totally conflicts with the essence of our souls to believe what we choose to believe.

In the context of this so-called interfaith dialogue, these fundamental principles are non-negotiable.

A Wonderful ‘Color-sighted’ World

I met brilliant arranger-conductor-composer Benjamin Wright in my studio work stint at the legendary Chess Records in Chicago.

More than words can adequately express, Ben taught me about harmony, both in music and in life.

Ben is all joy, the kind of person that lights up a room, a session, or a stage. A brother and a friend, he helped me land the dream gig of a lifetime, touring with The Temptations as their piano man.

Being on the road is a mind, heart, and soul expanding experience. Wouldn’t trade it for all the platinum records on Berry Gordy’s wall.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the discussion that’s been taking place in the nation about race. I don’t believe it is at all representative of the way most people in our country feel, the experiences most people have had, or the direction most people want to go.

While it has wrenched my heart, it has also jogged my memory and caused me to reflect on some of my own experiences.

In sharing with you and you with me, I hope it might help us all get back to actually embracing the essence of our uniqueness and delighting in our differences.

On one Temps excursion, we were heading to a venue in their old stomping grounds, about a half-hour outside of Motor City. We could hardly contain the excitement during the flight over.

After landing in Detroit, we boarded the motor coach, which made its way over to the concert hall. Stars out of the coach first, then my band mates and I gathered up our gear.

We all began heading over for the sound check, unaware of the danger that was waiting for us up ahead.

It would be at this moment that I would learn that racism is a failing of the soul; one that most often arises from a past wound suffered but not tended to with the love that is needed to heal.

Words came hurling straight at me. A few of them I’d never heard before. Still, I understood enough of what was being spewed for it to cut me to the core.

In addition to words, weapons were flashed. It was clear that all of our lives were in danger. That’s when my Temptations family encircled me.

“Back off,” David yelled.

My brave brothers hurled a barrage of other words right back at the would-be attackers, only with a fierceness that would win-out. Forever grateful.

There have been tons of political, academic, and media talk lately, relating to the color of our skin.

In an effort to try and eradicate racism from the face of the earth, we used to have an ideal that we adhered to, which was summed up in the applicable self-explanatory phrase “color-blindness.”

All were admonished to never judge someone on the color of his or her skin but instead look to the content of the person’s character.

However, there is an insidious fringe movement afoot to foment the opposite; that is, to judge an individual precisely because of the color of his or her skin (in this case, white skin). But the movement is not stopping at mere judgment. It is working ferociously to incite hatred.

Most tragic of all, this fringe movement is making headway, and it is all happening quite rapidly. Its precepts are being embraced by political leaders, corporations, government-private partnerships, and the far-left media, among other segments of the culture.

In reliving the Temptations story that I retold above, I came to the understanding that my brothers and I weren’t color-blind at all.

Instead I think we were “color-sighted,” meaning we were fully aware that we were born of different races. We not only didn’t care, we literally saw in each other the unique and beautiful way that God had designed us. And we loved it, and each other.

In getting to know each other at deeper levels, we solidified the bonds of friendship by wondering, admiring, appreciating, and sometimes even laughing about the racial distinctions that our Creator had fashioned. Guess that’s what comes from rooming together, eating together, playing together, worshipping together, and making music together.

A color-sighted world just might make for a truly wonderful world.

Things about Rush that I’ll Miss the Most

I lost a dear friend two days ago. This is the way so many of us feel.

I heard Rush Limbaugh’s debut show and was hooked from the start.

Unique doesn’t begin to describe the sound coming out of my car’s AM radio. It was bold minus the fear, brilliant minus the stuffy, and uplifting minus the sermonizing.

While challenging me to think outside the Drive-by Media box, El Rushbo helped me to sort out my own worldview, solidify my positions, and formulate original ones.

As a student of the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies, the Doctor of Democracy was at my side each day to coach, prod, and affirm me in my own personal Relentless Pursuit of the Truth.

A Real Man, he showed me that you can sit in a Prestigious Attila the Hun Chair yet still remain a Harmless Lovable Little Fuzzball at heart.

A Living Legend, he modeled for me how to handle adversity with grace, transforming obstacles into advantages with a wave of our Father’s hand.

A Way of Life, he provided me with the inspiration to always look for the next hill to climb and to always strive to make the next dream come true.

The All Around Nice Guy would routinely tap into his boyish mischievous side, making sure that I would enjoy every minute of the three hours he shared each day.

America’s Truth Detector taught me how to absorb a potshot and return the favor with a nerf ball that would bring a foe to his or her knees.

When The Most Dangerous Man in America took to the Golden EIB Microphone, he made it safer for me to express my beliefs, attitudes, and opinions, knowing that the attacks would come, but so would the victories.

Maha Rushie stood by the two greatest presidents of my lifetime, Ronaldus Magnus and Donald J. Trump, heralding them when others were reluctant, and never missing a chance to stick up for friends and champion his and my heroes.

In my 33-year-long joyride with America’s Anchorman, I had more fun than one human being should be allowed to have.

Miss you my friend. May God’s peace be with you till we meet again at the EIB Mansion in the Sky that was made just for you.

A ‘Casablanca’ Valentine’s Day

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, a lot of us are still scrambling to find that gift for our special someone that conveys the love that is in our hearts.

Many have already learned, especially with the times that we are living through, that take-out dinner and a streamed movie can make for a simply spectacular night.

You’re on your own with the take-out, but as for the movie, I’ve looked at a number of lists that rank Hollywood’s greatest love stories. Titles almost invariably include the 1942 classic “Casablanca,” with the film oftentimes topping the list.

Many movie buffs view this film as close to perfection as cinema can be. The producers of “Casablanca” hit a trifecta – the perfect cast, director, and script. It was a box-office smash and a three-time Academy Award winner.

Two of world’s best known movie critics placed it at the very top of the “best films ever” list.

The late Roger Ebert noted that “Casablanca” is “probably on more lists of the greatest films of all time than any other single title…”

And Leonard Maltin gives it a rating of “the best Hollywood movie of all time.”

The film grew in popularity over the decades, and several attempts were made to do a remake or sequel. But none ever made it to completion. Thankfully, filmmakers chose to leave it in its original exquisite state.

The plot and setting were designed to be current for the times.

Filmed during World War II, American expatriate Rick (played by Humphrey Bogart) finds himself having to choose between spending his life with his true love Ilsa (played by Ingrid Bergman) or coming to the aid of her war hero-husband Victor (played by Paul Henreid).

Victor is a Czech resistance leader, who is attempting to escape from Nazi-occupied Casablanca. He desperately wants to continue his valiant fight against the Third Reich.

The times are as challenging as they can be. As Ilsa wistfully puts it, “With the whole world crumbling, we pick this time to fall in love.”

Rick’s love for Ilsa is epic. He first fell in love with her when they were in Paris, and he longed to make her his wife. While preparing to escape together from the city during the Battle of France, Ilsa suddenly leaves him without giving him any reason or explanation. Rick leaves Paris with an ache in his heart, but also with a giant chip on his shoulder.

As those of you who have seen it know, the story doesn’t end here. I’ll leave the rest for you to savor on the screen. Here’s a hint, though, without any spoiler alert needed. Love triumphs.

So how do we define love?

Well, we all know it when we feel it. Love makes us so happy that we radiate. And we aren’t able to keep it a secret, because everybody knows what we’re feeling. They can see it in our eyes or in our smiles or in our spirits. And before you know it everyone present is feeling the same thing.

We all know when love is real and when it isn’t. It’s the best feeling in the world when it comes right back at us. And the worst feeling in the world when it doesn’t.

We all know that love takes different forms across time and relationships. And we know it is never static. It is either growing or diminishing. Those who are blessed in life get to experience the ever growing love of family and friends from birth to life’s end.

Staying on the Valentine’s Day theme, I want to talk more about love itself.

I believe there is such a thing as true love; that is, love in its deepest purest form. At its core, I think true love looks the same no matter how old we are or what the relationship is.

When we feel true love for people, we try to be patient with them especially when they’re messing up and kind to them even when they’re not kind to us.

When good things come their way, we don’t feel jealous but instead feel happy for them.

We resist bragging even though it sometimes makes us feel good about ourselves, because we know it almost always make them feel bad about themselves. Same with acting like we’re somehow above them.

When someone does us wrong, we try not to get mad, or go silent on them, or hold grudges, or bring it back up again and again every time they do something else wrong, because we know how bad it makes us feel when the shoe is on the other foot. And we don’t want them to ever feel bad.

Just like with “Casablanca,” a lot of you already know the rest of the true love story too.

Music to Crossover Artists’ Ears

Music is the soundtrack of our lives. Or so it’s been said.

But there really is something to it.

Music makes us happy when we’re feeling low. Dance when we didn’t know we could. Rest when there’s no way to sleep. Try when we’ve already given up. Laugh when we feel like screaming. And cry when the tears have run dry.

For a lot of us the music soundtrack has been cradle lullabies, toddler rhymes, grade school chants, high school musicals, college choirs, graduation themes, heartache tunes, romance ballads, wedding marches…Then it starts all over again.

The soundtrack of our lives is typically personalized for each of us, i.e., it takes on different forms for individuals and societal groups. In the music business, this is what the industry calls “genres.” Grammys are handed out in the different genres, or categories, by the droves.

There is one category of music that started out rather small, and in relative terms, not that long ago. It slowly grew in popularity and at one point seemed to take off like a race car.

The official category is Christian Music. In contrast to the musical and vocal performances that were heard in the traditional hymns of the past, contemporary Christian Music has a style that, aside from the lyrics, is many times indistinguishable from Billboard’s Pop, Rock, or Country categories.

Christian Music grew from a folk rock fringe type of music in the 1960s to become a major genre, which has been embraced by a huge segment of the population that is seeking positive-oriented music as well as lyric content that sets forth faith expressions and timeless truths.

“Crossover” is a term used in the music business to describe a performer or song that appeals to two or more types of audiences that represent two or more types of musical genres.

A Christian Music performer is catapulted into the arena of crossover artist when he or she starts out being marketed to Christian-oriented outlets and venues, but additionally finds that sales of recordings are selling in other mainstream markets as well.

The reverse may sometimes also come to fruition. An artist who starts out as a mainstream pop performer, but whose music and/or lyrics contain themes that Christians can relate to, may also find a newfound audience in one or more crossover categories.

Amy Grant was one of the earlier Christian artists to make the leap into crossover. In the 1980s and 1990s, Grant segued from a sole Christian audience to an additional pop music audience as well.

In 2001 a little known Christian performer named Katy Hudson released an album to Christian outlets, but the recording didn’t quite lead to the desired success. Crossover magic happened when Katy Hudson changed her marketing strategy, and her name, to Katy Perry.

Carrie Underwood became a mainstream success after winning the 2005 fourth season of “American Idol.” She highlighted her Christian faith in many of her recordings, including “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” “Temporary Home,” and “Something in the Water.” In 2020, Underwood released a faith-filled Christmas album titled “My Gift” that added to her crossover credentials.

Other notable Christian crossover artists from country music ranks include Alan Jackson, Alison Krauss, Rascal Flatts, and Brooks & Dunn.

The notion of the Christian crossover artist reached unprecedented heights rather recently with the popularity and success of two super star level artists: Lauren Daigle and Kanye West.

Two-time Grammy Award winner and multi-platinum selling Christian music artist Daigle is a consummate crossover, having expanded her audience from her original Christian fans to the world of mainstream pop.

Daigle’s single “You Say” experienced record-breaking success on the Christian and Pop Billboard charts. The song held the number one position for all of 2020, its second straight year, and is the longest-running No. 1 title ever to appear on the weekly Hot Christian Songs chart.

For the last three years in a row Billboard has named Daigle the Top Christian Artist.

Then there’s Kanye. He’s not only one of the best-selling artists of all time, he’s among the most critically acclaimed artists in the whole world. Winner of twenty-one Grammy Awards, Kanye has earned praise from music critics, industry peers, cultural figures, and fans from Hip-Hop to Christian.

Kanye’s song “Follow God” placed second on the 2020 Billboard Hot Christian Songs list. His album “Jesus Is King” landed number two on the Top Christian Albums year-end chart. He was the leading Christian male artist of 2020, according to Billboard, as well as the year’s top Gospel Artist. His album simultaneously placed high on multiple charts.

Kanye is best known as a super star rapper, but over the course of his career he didn’t shy away from featuring his Christian beliefs. After his song “Jesus Walks” became a hit, he was quoted in the New York Times on the nature of his faith.

“I will say that I’m spiritual. I have accepted Jesus as my Savior. And I will say that I fall short every day,” Kanye shared.

During a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show, he was asked by Kimmel if he would consider himself to be a Christian music artist, now that he had committed himself fully to Christianity.

Kanye replied in a way that may have been thought provoking for the host and viewing audience as well.

“I’m just a Christian everything,” he said.