Columnists

Jail Breaking Attempt Is Frustrated – What is believed to be an attempt to escape, on the part of three young men in the county jail, charged with murder, was uncovered. Two revolvers were picked up in the jail yard, together with 78 cartridges, which were wrapped in two handkerchiefs. They bore the appearance of having been tossed over the yard wall by outside confederates. The weapons were picked up by Leonard Slaughter, a prisoner, and he turned them over to Sheriff McLaughlin. Suspecting that there might be an attempt to break jail, the sheriff conducted a rigid search of all the cells where the prisoners were confined. In the mattress on the cot occupied by Mike Turano, one of the three charged with the murder [of Burns Lyon], a rope 19 feet in length, looped at one end, was found. It is the theory of the sheriff that Turano and his pals had planned to use the revolvers in shooting their way out of the jail, and the rope was adaptable to scaling the yard wall, which is about eighteen feet high. The closest watch is being maintained on the suspected murderers as a result of these finds.

Dimock – The new addition to the school building was started Monday, when the first ground was broken by men with teams, who contributed their work toward helping along the plan of enlarging and bettering the school building. In order to maintain a four-year high school, it was necessary to build an addition, as the building, in its present state, is only large enough for a three-year high school. J.A. Tingley has kindly contributed nearly an acre of land, thus helping the new project along. Mr. Whipple, of Laceyville, was present to oversee the work.

Alford – Joe Smith and wife attended the KKK parade and fireworks at Dalton, Saturday night.

Montrose – A good-sized audience greeted the Blanton Male Quartet, of Denmark, SC, at the Library. The quartet blended most harmoniously in rendering Negro melodies and spirituals. This group is well-known to F.R. Cope, president of the library. [His family was instrumental in supporting the Penn School at St. Helena's Island, SC, now a National Historic Landmark.] ALSO Frank Everson and G.L. Tompkins, of Harford, driving a horse, went to Dimock on Saturday to attend the camp meeting. They made Montrose in three hours – slow for an auto, but stepping right along for a horse. Twenty-five years ago the boys would have said, "By George, she's a stepper." ALSO Ambrose S. Payne, Montrose's veteran painter, has been adding to the number of Montrose's white homes, having just completed painting the residences of Fred W. Hart and Mrs. Annie Jenkins, on Grow Avenue. Mr. Payne's sons, Stewart and Bruce, are now both swinging the bushes with their father.

Hallstead – Two automobiles dropped off the ferry during the weekend. The proprietor, C.R. Stone, claims that the accidents in both cases were due to faulty brakes and inexperienced drivers. Saturday afternoon a car containing two men, two women and two children, dropped into the drink, but other than wetting the occupants and giving them a fright, no damage was done. The car slid off when the ferry got under way, dropping off the "apron." Sunday morning an unlicensed driver allowed his car to slip off, when the ferry started up, and the brakes on his car failed to hold.

Susquehanna – Hon. George A. Post, of New York, is making his annual visit to his old hometown. Mr. Post was mayor of Susquehanna and represented this district in Congress. He spent the day about town, renewing old acquaintances.

Springville – Hugh C. Lott, of the Pennsylvania Department of Forestry, whose headquarters are at Pottsville, came up to spend the weekend with his mother, Mrs. E.W. Lott.

Rush – Mrs. Mabel Rose, of Texas, is visiting her father, S.B. McCain.

Forest City – Just as the constant drop of water will wear away a stone, so the constant traffic, combined with the work of the elements, will destroy the smoothness of a dirt road, no matter how well built, if no attention is given it. The state road from Forest City to Herrick this spring was a joy to the users and road foreman, Curtis, took pardonable pride in it. The grueling traffic, with the heavy rains, has, however, worn it down. No more smooth cushiony ride.

Whence Came The Name "Keystone" – The Philadelphia Evening Telegraph writes: "We notice a foolish error giving the rounds of the press regarding the appellation "The Keystone State" and how Pennsylvania came to be so called. It would be an endless task to attempt to correct all the stupid mistakes made by newspapers, but this error concerns Pennsylvanians direct. The name was derived from the circumstance that Pennsylvania cast the deciding vote on the question of America's independence. The delegations from all the colonies, except one member from Pennsylvania, had voted and it was equally divided. Upon this single vote, then depended the entire question of issuing the Declaration of Independence. The name of the delegate upon whom so much depended was John Morton, and it is a name that should never be forgotten. John Morton voted "Aye" and the deed was done. Thus Pennsylvania, by giving the casting vote, settled that question and from that circumstance she received the name of "The Keystone State" – the thirteenth state – the block of the arch.

Don't forget, you can read back issues of "100 Years Ago" on the Susquehanna County Historical Society's website, www.susqcohistsoc.org.

Douglas Mackey was a person active on Twitter leading up to the 2016 election. Mackey used an alias on Twitter – Ricky Vaughn, the hard-throwing pitcher known as "Wild Thing" in the motion picture "Major League." On his Twitter account, Mackey used a profile picture of the Charlie Sheen character from the movie, but instead of a Cleveland Indians' hat, Mackey replaced it with a "Make America Great Again Hat."

In the months leading up to the 2020 election, Mackey made hundreds of posts each day on his Twitter account, which he conceded were aimed at creating anger and anxiety for the supporters of Hillary Clinton. Mackey acknowledged that he was a "troll" and many of his posts were outrageous, offensive and silly. But Mackey also participated in different forums with other political content producers where various strategies for the 2020 election were discussed. In one of those forums, some of the users suggested creating memes or posts that would encourage Hillary Clinton supporters to "vote by phone" through a text message vote. While this was discussed in some of the forums that Mackey was known to frequent, there was no evidence that Mackey ever made any such posts.

On November 1, 2016, Mackey tweeted a post that told people to avoid the line by voting at home – and instructed them to simply text "Hillary" to a specific number. Shortly thereafter, Mackey then posted a similar meme with the same instructions in Spanish. On November 2, 2016, Mackey then retweeted a post relating to encouraging those wishing to vote for Hillary to do so by text message.

On January 22, 2021, more than 4 years after the posts, Mackey was charged with violating Section 241 of Title 18 of the United States Code, which made it unlawful "for two or more persons" to "conspire to injure, oppress, threaten or intimidate any person . . . in their free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or the laws of the United States." The government contended that Mackey conspired with other persons on the internet to "oppress" the right to vote by posting memes that indicated Hillary Clinton supporters could stay home and vote by text message. The case was heard in the Eastern District of New York, where Mackey was convicted and sentenced to serve seven months in prison. Mackey filed an appeal contending that there was insufficient evidence to prove that he conspired with anyone to oppress voting rights.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals noted that Section 241 only makes it unlawful to conspire with other people to oppress voting rights, i.e., doing so as a single individual does not violate Section 241. In this case, the government conceded that it had no communications between Mackey and any third parties planning to use fake memes to "oppress" voting activity. Rather, the government had relied upon Mackey's association with various private social media groups where the idea was discussed. But the government was largely unable to show that Mackey was privy to any of these discussions aside from perhaps seeing a few random messages. The Second Circuit explained: "Here, the conduct at issue, posting text-to-vote memes similar to others circulating publicly online – does not in isolation show awareness of, much less knowing participation in, a conspiracy. The government does not contend that Mackey downloaded the memes from [the site where the other conspirators congregated] but argues that the inspiration to do so came from discussion in the War Room [another site where users had been strategizing on using such messaging to suppress voter turnout]. This is possibly true. But the inference is speculative and the government relies largely on conjecture to rule out the alternative scenario: that Mackey's conduct was independent of any knowledge in the War Room in the two weeks before his text-to-vote tweets, despite having actively participated in the group in the past. Moreover, there were over 600 messages coming in per day in the War Room and only 12 posts related to the alleged conspiracy, two of which were sent within one minute of each other and the other 10 within a 20-minute period."

The problem with the government's case is that they could not prove that Mackey had ever even seen the alleged conspiratorial tweets – and it was just as probable that he did not (or perhaps even more so given the volume of postings on in the War Room). To prove a conspiracy, the government needed to demonstrate that Mackey entered into an agreement with other people to oppress voting through the vote-by-text memes. The Second Circuit concluded that the evidence was simply too speculative and reversed Mackey's conviction. Mackey had already served his jail sentence – but the conviction would be removed from his criminal record.

If you are a little confused, think of it this way. If you saw the vote-by-text meme on Twitter and reposted it to your feed, and the government went through your browser history to find that you had occasionally visited sites that occasionally espoused theories relative to suppressing voting, you would be in the same position as Mackey, i.e., the government could charge you because you must have viewed some of the voter suppression theories while browsing and you unilaterally decided the "join the conspiracy." Weak tea is an understatement – and the Second Circuit said so.

Good day dear hearts, I love you. Over the past several weeks I have been preaching and writing about living intentionally and going a little deeper to living intentionally with the mind of Christ. Some of this column may be repetitive to last week's column, nevertheless this is important for us to understand. What is the mind of Christ? Philippians 2:5-8 shows Christ's mindset, which is one of deep humility. "He made himself of no reputation" and became obedient, even to death on a cross.

Last week I preached on living intentionally with the mind of Christ and some key and crucial elements to our faith came up that we should dig a little deeper into. Let's start off with the words of Jesus I shared with my congregation last week in John 5:24, "Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and not be judged but has crossed over from death to life." Those words of Jesus have echoed for generations, for centuries and billions throughout history have accepted this while billions have rejected this. Those words are the crux, the very foundation of our faith. And when I say foundation, it is one that every Christian Church stands on whether they are a denomination or not. The Salvation of Jesus Christ, offered through Him to us makes us all brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.

There are several key elements to our faith all churches share and it's all part of the Good News. Let's start off with living eternally. Jesus said in vs. 24, "those who believe has eternal life." These words are in the present tense, now. When we accept Christ's salvation, our eternal life begins at that moment. We're already participating in the life of the age to come. That when the time comes, we will all be like-minded in Christ and live in peace and harmony with God forever. Eternal life is quality, not just quantity. Not merely living forever, but living in deep, unbroken relationship with God. Eternal life is God's own life shared with us, which is full of love, peace, grace and purpose.

What are the end times? "The End Times" is the term used to describe the final chapter of human history as foretold in the Bible. It's a period when God brings creation to its fulfillment. In other words, the end of God's plan for creation. It's not just about doom and destruction; it's about transition, judgement and ultimately renewal. The End Times gives us hope beyond the chaos of the world we live in today. It points to restoration, a new heaven and a new earth, where sorrow and death are no more. It's a call to live intentionally, with eyes fixed on eternal purpose. The idea that the End Times began with Jesus' ascension is rooted in the understanding that His departure marked the beginning of the church age, a period in which we await the return of Jesus and live in the light of His resurrection and reign. Many scholars and pastors note that the last days began when Jesus ascended and the Spirit was poured out.

When is the last day of the End Times? When does that day come when God comes to judge the living and the dead? Jesus tells us in the Bible that no one knows when that time is except God the Father. But when it happens it will come suddenly. You will find Jesus' Words in chapter Matthew chapters 24-25. Hear these subtle words from Jesus in Matthew 24:40-42, "Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. Therefore, keep watch because you do not know on what day your Lord will come." This is our Christian belief, this is what we are taught from the Bible. From this moment until the moment Jesus returns and you accept God's salvation through Jesus Christ, you will have eternal life and not be judged. This is not my opinion, these are not my words. I quoted the very words of Jesus I wrote of early in this column, "whoever hears my Word and believes Him who has sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life." This is the foundation we stand on. And if we are right, we want you to be with us eternally. If we were wrong, we lost nothing, but if you guessed wrong, we will be talking the consequences of that in part 2 next week. God Bless.

Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for being with us in the circumstances and changes in our lives. While we don't have the control to change, let us surrender to you and let your peace wash over us. Father, we ask your blessing upon our little town. Send your Spirit and touch the broken-hearted, give peace to the sick, bless the poor.

Join with us at our complementary dinner, Southwestern Stuffed Zucchini, Waldorf Salad and dessert at the church Saturday, August 23rd 11:30am to 1:00pm.

Contact me anytime. Pastor Vince Chiaramonte, 570-853-3988, Susquehanna Christian Community Church, 1361 Main Street, clearmountain2158@gmail.