Colin Powell (1937 – 2021)

Colin Powell died yesterday. The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Statf better known as the U.S. Secretary of State who gave credence in a 2003 United Nations address to false claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, leading to the second major war resulting from the September 2001 attacks designed to terrorize the United States and the world, was 84. An Associated Press obituary by Robert Burns, Eric Tucker and Eileen Putman, headlined “Colin Powell dies, trailblazing general was stained by Iraq,” is HERE.

Powell was the first black chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the first black U.S. Secretary of State, serving in those positions during the administrations of presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, respectively.

–   –   –

Betsy Dovydenas to Speak on Deception by Cult Leader

“LENOX — Painter and author Betsy Dovydenas will discuss her just-published book, ‘In Case You Want to Know How I Got Brainwashed,’ this Saturday at Shakespeare & Company’s New Spruce Theatre,” begins a story in today’s Berkshire Eagle under the headline “Author to describe subjugation by a cult leader.” The entire Eagle account is HERE for subscribers.

In the mid-1980s, under the influence of the Rev. Carl Stevens Jr., Dovydenas donated $6.5 million to The Bible Speaks. A federal bankruptcy judge ordered the pastor to repay her the entire sum, but the award was reduced on appeal to $5.5 million. The Shakespeare & Company theater festival now occupies the former Bible Speaks campus, which was once that of a boys’ boarding school.

A Wikipedia entry of the legal case “In re The Bible Speaks,” is HERE. An amazon.com description of the book, If You Want to Know How I Got Brainwashed: Story and Paintings, is HERE.

“In more than 200 monoprints with narrative text, she tells the story of being tricked, sweet-talked, coaxed, manipulated, conned, coerced and exploited,” the Amazon text reads in part. “In short, she was brainwashed.”

— Mark Channing Miller