Hey Everyone -

Starting out the morning on a different note here on the blog. While most people will probably blog about “Super Tuesday” (personally, I was happy to see a good response for Huckabee, and hope he’d be on the ticket with McCain) … we’re having a little political/patriotism news here locally in Brunswick, GA.

Gary Hudgins of the local “Carl Gregory” car dealership has been in the local news the last few days. It seems as if our Glynn County Commissioners passed some ordinance about how many “flags” or “signs” you can fly. Gary was cited for having too many flags on display at his dealership. Rather than cave in and pay the fine, he’s defying this ordinance and has now adorned EVERY CAR on his lot with an American flag.

According to the Brunswick News (article) (photo courtesy of Michael Hall/The Brunswick News), Gary has been getting non-stop calls and visits from veterans expressing their gratitude and has numerous laywers offering their services to defend him in the Glynn County Magistrate court for free.

From what I can read, the ordinance was written to clean up some of the sloppy advertising – signs, balloons, flags, etc., that become excessive and don’t have a good appearance.

Personally, I don’t think they can try to enforce this. C’mon, it’s the American Flag – it’s “Ole’ Glory” herself. Seems like this could quickly become a constitutional issue – I dunno. But as for me, I’d throw my support to Mr. Hudgins. When I see all those flags, I don’t think of it as a gimmick .. I think of a guy who loves his country.

So, it seems that on every corner of Brunswick and St. Simons are these “Single? Go to *%&%& Dating.Com” el-cheap0 signs stuck in the ground …. yet, we’re going to fine this honorable veteran who served his country in the Navy for 3 years for displaying “American flags” on the cars at his dealership? They are not laying on the ground, they are not soaking in the rain … they are flying proud.

I’m reminded of an incredibly powerful song on the “Worship Again” album by Michael W. Smith about our wonderful flag, “There She Stands”. I was privileged to hear this song “first hand” before it ever hit the shelves … I was in Nashville finishing up production and mastering with Hank Williams at MasterMix … “Smitty” (Michael W. Smith) had just had “Worship Again” mastered by Hank, and it was sitting there on the desk. Hand written “Michael W. Smith – There She Stands/Worship Again” before our eyes, Hank said “you wanna hear it”, and played this tune in all it’s glory over what could be one of the finest audio systems in one of the world’s most premier mastering facilities. I couldn’t hold back the tears … it was recently after 9/11 … it was so powerful.

So take a listen to “There She Stands” (below) and then comment … what do you think of this ordinance?

[See post to listen to audio at www.fredmckinnon.com]

Inspired? Agree? Disagree? Let’s talk about it!
Fred

Hey ya’ll

Hope you’re doing well. I’ve spent the last few days messing around with the live “program tape” of the Worship Under the Stars concert. I dumped it into Apple’s “IMovie HD” program and added some titles, music video text, etc. Then, I saved some clips of individual songs and thought folks may enjoy getting a sneak peak.

It’s important to say that the quality here isn’t that great – this is the live video mix, and there has been no color correction or editing done. Also, the audio is the “live mix” from the house PA – again, no overdubs or editing. The final CD/DVD product (pre-order it!) will be much higher quality!

Here are a few “stills” taken from the video – to watch the videos, visit the Worship Under the Stars – Media” page.

GO TO VIDEOS

For the Kingdom,
FRED

Hey Ya’ll -

Down here on St. Simons Island, we’ve felt like we have been in a major flood the last couple of days. It’s been raining off and on quite a bit – and with several passes of really STRONG rain, we had lots of local flooding.

Brooke, the secretary at our church, called to tell us that a Wed PM rehearsal had been cancelled due to severe flooding, and that is wasn’t really safe to go out there to the church. So what did I do? Jump in the Explorer and go check it out (isn’t that REALLY what SUV’s are for?) Of course, on my return trip, a power line and tree had fallen over the road in front of Christ Church and I had to sit there w/ the police for about 40 minutes until Georgia Power showed up to move the power line off the road!

Here are some pics that I took w/ my camera phone … not great clarity or resolution, but you can get the idea … there was a LOT of water!

Pic #1:
Frederica Road between Christ Church, Wesley Methodist, and CRCSSI

Pic #2:
Same picture, but with car … the car is coming out of the shallow part … it entered from Wesley’s driveway, and the water was up to the headlights!

Pic #3:
Entrance to Fort Frederica … anyone got a boat?

Pic #4:
Christian Renewal Church, SSI – Parking Lot

Looks like more rain today, but hopefully we’ll see the sunshine again soon!

For the Kingdom,
Fred