Breaking News: Notre Dame Cathedral on fire!

Notre Dame Cathedral in better times

A major fire has broken out at the medieval Notre-Dame Cathedral in central Paris on Monday afternoon, leading firefighters to clear the area around one of the city's most visited landmarks.

Very sad news for devout religious, art lovers, and historians.

There's a massive fire in the Paris Notre Dame Cathedral this afternoon. It happened on the most holiest week in the Catholic Church, Jesus' last days on earth before being killed by religious fanatics and Roman authorities.

The authorities have anticipated a massive loss of historic ecclesiastical art, precious relics in its treasury, and numerous artwork inside the cathedral.

The cathedral has been the symbol of Paris for centuries before it was displaced by the Eiffel Tower.  

Much of  Parisian history had taken place in Notre Dame Cathedral.  Mary Queen of Scots was married there.  Napoleon was crowned emperor in the early nineteenth century.  It was the historic heart of French kings and has survived both world wars, the French Revolution, the Napoleonic revolution, and so much more.

In literature and movies, Notre Dame has been the subject of Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, was made into a popular animated movie by Disney back in 1996.

Several versions of the Hunchback of Notre Dame were made into movies for decades besides the popular Disney classic in 1996.

The roof of Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral collapsed as a massive fire ripped through the structure on Monday, days before Easter.

As of Monday afternoon, the spire of the cathedral had fallen, and the fire had spread to one of its rectangular towers. 

Paris Mayor Anne Hildago and firefighters warned people to stay away from the area. There have been no confirmed deaths, according to Paris police, while a French government official said no injuries had yet been reported. Four hundred firefighters are working to put out the blaze, according to the Ministry of the Interior for France.

NBC News tweets on the fire at the cathedral:

NBC News

✔@NBCNews

 · 1h

Replying to @NBCNews

Notre Dame's spire has collapsed in the fire. http://nbcnews.to/2DcYrJs 

Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris engulfed in flames

The city's fire department said a major operation was underway.

nbcnews.com

NBC News

✔@NBCNews

WATCH: Notre Dame's spire collapses into the flames, video from witness Nicolas Marang shows. http://nbcnews.to/2DcYrJs  pic.twitter.com/gHhwMrRYmS

1,300

2:12 PM - Apr 15, 2019

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The area surrounding the cathedral, Paris’ Ile de la Cite, is in the process of being evacuated, according to Reuters.

No injuries were reported in the early stages of the blaze. It was not immediately clear what had caused the fire, while local media reported that police in the city were treating it as an accident. The Paris Prosecutor’s office announced that it has started an inquiry into the fire.

Major relics may be lost in the fire.  The most prominent is the Crown of Thorns.  Others were connected to the relics of French King Saint Louis such as his hair shirt.  Numerous jewels and religious artwork inside the cathedral are said to be lost in the fire.

Here's a tweet from Andrew Curry:

Andrew Curry

✔@andrewcurryla

wow. Let's hope such an iconic and historic building can survive this fire. #NotreDame #notredamefire #notredamecathedral #paris #france

76

1:53 PM - Apr 15, 2019

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Emergency services also attempted to salvage the artwork stored in the cathedral, which had been undergoing renovations.

Here's a list of important relics:

Crown of Thorns
Piece of a Cross
Hair Shirt of St. Louis

14th and 15th century religious statues are endangered as well.

It's very sad that 800 years of art and religious history is being erased before our eyes.  History books and photos that preserved the memories of Notre Dame for art lovers and religious devotees forever.

Before I conclude this post, I'd like to share a favorite of mine:

BREAKING: GAY MARRIAGE LEGAL IN THE U.S.!

Anthony Kennedy joined the liberal justices Steven Breyer, Elena Kagan, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Sonia Sotomayor in an extremely historical decision. The gay marriage bans in states like Ohio, Kentucky, Florida and Texas are gone. The United States Supreme Court ruled, gay marriage the law of the land.

A HUGE DAY IN AMERICA FOR OUR FRIENDS IN THE LGBT COMMUNITY! THE SUPREME COURT RULED THAT THE STATE BANS ON GAY MARRIAGE ARE ILLEGAL.

GAY MARRIAGE AND GAY ADOPTION ARE NOW LEGAL IN THE UNITED STATES.

HISTORY HAS BEEN MADE IN THE COUNTRY.

THE ROBERTS COURT FINALLY WENT IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION!

A big day in the Supreme Court. The legality of marriage is now equal for all.

In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled that all state mandated gay marriage bans are discriminatory.

Win for the LGBT community.

The decision is a historic victory for gay rights activists who have fought for years in the lower courts. Thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia already recognize marriage equality. The remaining 13 states ban these unions, even as public support has reached record levels nationwide.

The justices found that under the 14th Amendment, states must issues marriage licenses to same-sex couples and recognize same-sex unions that were legally performed in other states.

The lead plaintiff in Obergefell v. Hodges is Ohio resident Jim Obergefell, who wanted to be listed as the surviving spouse on his husband's death certificate. In 2013, Obergefell married his partner of two decades, John Arthur, who suffered from ALS. Arthur passed away in October of that year, three months after the couple filed their lawsuit.

Obergefell was joined by several dozen other gay plaintiffs from Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee who were fighting both to be able to marry and to have their marriage recognized in every state in the country.

Family matters. The Supreme Court made a historical decision on gay marriage.

The country's views of same-sex marriage have transformed since 2004, when Massachusetts became the first state to allow gay couples to wed. In 2013, the Supreme Court began chipping away at the country's legacy of discrimination against same-sex couples when it struck down part of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which prevented same-sex couples whose marriages were recognized by their home state from receiving the hundreds of benefits available to other married couples under federal law.

President Barack Obama became the first sitting president to support marriage equality when he came out in favor of it in 2012, the same year that the Democratic Party made it part of its platform for the first time. The Republican Party and its slate of 2016 presidential aspirants, however, remain opposed to same-sex marriage. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) support a constitutional amendment protecting states that want to ban marriage equality.

Some conservatives have advocated for a civil disobedience effort against a Supreme Court decision in favor of same-sex marriage. However, officials in red states told The Huffington Post recently that they are prepared to implement the decision, going so far as to ready gender-neutral marriage licenses and set later office hours. Gerard Rickhoff, who oversees marriage licenses in Bexar County, Texas, said that if same-sex couples are discriminated against elsewhere in the state, "Just get in your car and come on down the highway. You'll be embraced here."

Thrilled #SCOTUS has recognized the right to marriage for all Americans, regardless of who they love pic.twitter.com/4RgesBbnkJ

— Rosa DeLauro (@rosadelauro) June 26, 2015

RT @MTV: It’s Official: #SCOTUS Has Ruled In Favor Of Nationwide Marriage Equality: http://t.co/icYmMd5Kzg pic.twitter.com/N6AwfkvEcS

— Charlamagne Tha God (@cthagod) June 26, 2015

.@sarahkateellis and @antigonerising are celebrating today's #SCOTUS ruling with Kate and Thomas! pic.twitter.com/itHVitigzP

— GLAAD (@glaad) June 26, 2015

To all the conservative bigots who tried to stop today from happening. #SCOTUS pic.twitter.com/yk36RZSLnu

— Matt Morgan (@Matt7022) June 26, 2015

Engraved on #SCOTUS is ‘equal justice under the law.’ Today’s historic ruling upholds this pledge of equality for all! #LoveCantWait

— Rep. Robert J. Dold (@RepDold) June 26, 2015

President Barack Obama will be heading to Charleston soon but before he goes, he may deliver a speech on the court decision.

The Racism and Bigotry of LA Clippers Donald Sterling- SMH!

I can't let this one pass!

My take:

This guy is absolutely racist and bigoted, yet he had a Black girlfriend.  Racist white men want to have their cake and eat it too.  They also insist Black women to assimilate to their white male supremacist culture. That won't work because some Black women aren't giving up Blackness and Black culture. At the same time, those men denigrate Black men and women, telling them that they're "inferior" and have no rights bound to respect.

I wish some of my Black sisters in the "BWE" movment talk about this one.  How can one be with a man that is a racist and have one's sanity intact?  

That's white male privilege at work.  Entitled to have women of all races and be racist and hateful at the same time.  That proves Kristen Maye's and many other Black womens' viewpoint about racism in interracial relationships.  That painful history of Whites and Blacks along with Whites not giving up their "White Privilege" status and contemporary racism.

#whitemaleprivilege Banging a Black woman yet hating Black people and culture.
— Stephanie Baldwin (@Reynawomyn) April 26, 2014

Joe Biden: You're Spinning Mr. Ryan!

Martha Raddatz moderates the vice presidential debate with Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) and Vice President Joe Biden. They take on issues such as the economy, foreign policy, the war in Afghanistan, the culture war and their running mates. 

The Vice Presidential Debate in Danville, Kentucky goes to Team Obama. Vice President Joe Biden, in my opinion gaffed and scrambled over the points, but still delivered the hits to Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin).

After a week of discouragement, out of the blue comes President Barack Obama's right hand man to clean up the mess. The vice presidential debate was spectacular. Congressman Ryan did really well. I was amazed that Ryan kept up his Fox News/Drudge/WorldNetDaily talking points without batting an eyelash. Of course, he defended his own budget plan! Of course, the one Romney refuses to endorse himself.

I thought the congressman would clobber Vice President Biden after much of the scrutiny was handed down on the president for his lackluster performance. That lackluster performance gave Republican nominee, the perennial candidate Mitt Romney as boost and he's either tied or leading in some of the polls. The president's failure has eroded his electoral college lead. It landed a handful of easily blue states into toss up! The president has 257 to Mitt Romney 206. The states are so close and Mitt Romney has slight lead in likely voters against President Obama's lead in registered voters. Early voting is hurting Romney. But when the returns come forth, we'll see how it goes!

Things missed in this debate:

Infrastructure
Education
Environment/Global Warming
Voting ID Laws

But the debate host Martha Raddatz was criticized by the conservative serial agitators such as The Drudge Report, The Daily Caller and Breitbart News. The conservatives were frustrated over a report that the president attended Raddatz's first wedding when he was then president of the Harvard Review.

Jim Lehrer was criticized by the liberal serial agitators such as The Huffington Post and Talking Point Memo because he allowed Romney to interrupt the president and Lehrer constantly.

Now it's Fox News and conservatives complaining about the vice president interrupting Congressman Ryan during the debate.

Vice President Biden nailed the congressman on Romney's 47% comments and licking their chops over the Benghazi tragedy. The vice president also nailed the congressman on his participation in legislation that allocated the job approval of Congress at historical lows.

We're not even done with this. Conservatives are screaming that the debate went to the congressman and the  vice president was arrogant.

But who cares what they say. Here's one thing that shut them up!

EARLY VOTING

If you vote early, you hurt Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney can't get the motivation of early voters. That's probably why the president leads in registered voters. If Romney fails at carrying Ohio or Florida, he loses.

Republican governors John Kasich of Ohio and Rick Scott of Florida are determined to eliminate early voting. They know that this is an advantage to the president.

So do something about this!

VOTE.

Help elect Barack Obama as the President Of the United States.

Malcolm X: Afro-American History (January 1964)

Image by Okinawa Soba via Flickr

Malcolm X: Afro-American History (January 1964)

Another thing that you will find is that those who go to other places usually think of themselves as a minority. If you’ll notice, in all of their struggling, programming or even crying or demanding, they even refer to themselves as a minority, and they use a minority approach. By a minority they mean that they are lesser than something else, or they are outnumbered, or the odds are against them – and this is the approach that they use in their argument, in their demand, in their negotiation. But when you find those of us who have been following the nationalistic thinking that prevails in Harlem, we don’t think of ourselves as a minority, because we don’t think of ourselves just within the context of the American stage or the American scene, in which we would be a minority. We think of things worldly, or as the world is; we think of our part in the world, and we look upon ourselves not as a dark minority on the white American stage, but rather we look upon ourselves as a part of the dark majority who now prevail on the world stage. And when you think like this automatically, when you realize you are part of the majority, you approach your problem as if odds are on your side rather than odds are against you. You approach demanding rather than using the begging approach. And this is one of the things that is frightening the white man. As long as the black man in America thinks of himself as a minority, as an underdog, he can’t shout but so loud; or if he does shout, he shouts loudly only to the degree that the power structure encourages him to. He never gets irresponsible. He never goes beyond what the power structure thinks is the right voice to shout in. But when you begin to connect yourself on the world stage with the whole of dark mankind, and you see that you’re the majority and this majority is waking up and rising up and becoming strong, then when you deal with this man, you don’t deal with him like he’s your boss or he’s better than you or stronger than you. You put him right where he belongs. When you realize that he’s a minority, that his time is running out, you approach him like that, you approach him like one who used to be strong but is now getting weak, who used to be in a position to retaliate against you but now is not in that position anymore.

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AP declares Barack Obama winner of Democratic Nomination

The Associated Press has proclaimed Barack Obama the winner of the Democratic Nomination for the Presidency! Congratulations to Barack Obama on making AMERICAN history. Watch the AP Report by clicking the link below:

http://www.letstalkhonestly.com/blacknewsblackviews.html