Would you vote to convict accused witches without evidence today?

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
November 4, 2022

I am an Independent voter, just like the majority of people in this country, and have witnessed too much to remain silent. To me, being silent is the same thing as those who chose to remain silent while people were accused of witchcraft in Salem. Now I'm wondering if some of the people in this country would vote to convict people accused of witchcraft without evidence today.

"Over the course of the following decade, the residents of Salem had come to the realization that the witch trials had been a mistake and that innocent people may have been executed.
Although they still believed in witches and believed witches may have invaded Salem, they had doubts that so many people could have been guilty of the crime." Rebecca Beatrice Brooks, The Witchcraft Trial of Reverend George Burroughs

If you read the account of the trial of Burroughs, what you see, over and over again, is "I believed" when witnesses gave their testimony. What someone believes is not always what can be proven. Once someone was accused of witchcraft, the only way to prove their innocence was if their execution was successful or not. The theory was that real witches would survive, and then they would be killed.

22-year-old Elizabeth Johnson was not executed after being charged with witchcraft. She was the last to be vindicated this year, 329 years later because she did not have children and no one was fighting to prove her innocence and clear her name.

"We will never be able to change what happened to victims like Elizabeth but at the very least can set the record straight," DiZoglio said. NPR After 329 years, a woman accused of being a witch in Salem has been exonerated

These trials and wild accusations resulted in the Bill Of Rights the rest of us live with,

More than 300 years later, the Salem witch trials testify to the way fear can ruin lives of innocent people and the importance of due process in protecting individuals against false accusations. Some of those who insisted in 1787 that a Bill of Rights was necessary for the ratification of the Constitution undoubtedly knew about the treatment of the “Salem witches” and how they had been deprived of the rights to which they should have been entitled under English common law. With the Bill of Rights in place, interpretations of the First Amendment consistently ruled that slander and defamation were not protected by the Constitution. Salem Witch Trials By Elizabeth R. Purdy

Right now we see people running for office claiming the 2020 election was "stolen" because it is what they say they believe. They have no evidence such a thing happened. Courts presented claims, but courts demand evidence of a crime being committed, and what someone says they believe, is not enough to file charges against anyone. No one can prove what they say they believe actually happened.

Yet these same people are running for office. Many of them are already saying if they lose, then the election was stolen from them. It hasn't even happened yet, but, that doesn't matter to them at all. What does that say about other members of their own party that may be on the same ballot and actually win their votes?

Supporters of former President Trump say they "believe" the election was stolen, but no evidence was ever given. People in Salem said they "believed" the accused were guilty, but again, no evidence was provided. No one can "prove" what someone says they believe is true or not and that is why evidence is required. It is ironic that he is claiming that all the court cases against him are a "witch hunt" and nothing more, but the courts required evidence to move forward and allow charges to be filed against him.

If they claim a crime was committed but don't have proof, do you really want to put them in charge of the laws for all of us? We may be accustomed to political commercials lying to us. (I usually yell liar at the TV) We may be accustomed to politicians lying to us. What none of us should ever be accustomed to is when they say what they "believe" to win their primary and then deny they said it when they want the votes from the rest of us. It's all on video! That's proof of what they said and proof of what they lie about now.

Don Bolduc is like the accusers. CNN has the video up on this.

“Guess what? We have furries and fuzzies in classrooms,” Bolduc told the crowd. “They lick themselves, they’re cats. When they don’t like something, they hiss – people walk down the hallway and jump out,” he said, as a hissing sound could be heard.

Bolduc claimed the 2022 election was stolen until he won the GOP primary.

Don Bolduc, the Republican Senate nominee in New Hampshire, changed his position as he faces a tough fall race, saying the 2020 presidential election “was not stolen.”

People like him were responsible for thousands of people attacking the Capitol, demanding the hanging of Vice President Pence and Speaker Of The House Nancy Pelosi, because they "believed" the election was stolen. False claims caused the deaths of innocent people in Salem. False claims now, because of people like Bolduc, can cause the death of our country by eliminating the only voice we have, OUR ABILITY TO VOTE FOR WHAT AND WHO AND WHAT WE BELIEVE IS WORTH FIGHTING FOR!

The loudest voices do not speak for the rest of us!

Kathie Costos
June 25, 2022

I woke up this morning in a country I no longer recognize. Every time I heard a pro-birth person say they "believe" life begins at conception, all I could think about was when others believed they were the only Godly people in Salem. Everyone else, not believing or acting like they decided they should, was subjected to accusations, imprisonment, trials, and often, death.

Today on PTSD Patrol I posted SCOTUS: Salem Witch Craft Trials 2.0 It was because the ruling from the Supreme Court eliminating the rights of females to decide what they choose is right for them, was so vital, that the right to choose was the first sentence of the 1st Amendment to the Consitution.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;

In other words, even back then, people were supposed to have the freedom to make their own choices. While this was written, women had very little choice over much at all. SCOTUS ruled against the 1st Amendment by the ruling based on religious reasons and not medical ones. 

The pro-birth movement kept screaming that life began at conception but the Bible does not agree with that. There is a lot that some people believe, but that is their choice. The problem came when they wanted to enforce their rights while making everyone else surrender their own rights.

That is what happened during the Witch Craft Trials. Pilgrims came here for various reasons but one of them was religious freedom. They turned around in the next generation and used it against 200 people and putting 20 of them to death.

You can read more on the link to the post but it was because of this, that I wanted to make sure people knew, this was one of the reasons why I felt it was necessary to write The Lost Son Alive Again and Stranger Angels Among Us. I had to rewrite them because the loudest voices in this country are pushing people away from God.

Over 90% of the people I helped during the last 40 years, said they believed in God, and most believed in Jesus, but none of them attended church. I had to reassure them that Jesus didn't attend a church building either. As a matter of fact, He wasn't free to preach in a Temple either. He prayed and preached outside most of the time. Then I had to reassure them that they could reach God all on their own with a direct line of communication from their soul directly to the One that sent it into their body the second they were born.

Why was that important? Because spiritual healing is vital in healing what other humans do to us. It is vital when a health issue or natural disaster causes PTSD along with everything else. If they understand what PTSD is, then they will go for help. When they understand it, they go for mental health help and the healing begins. Add in spiritual help and there is greater healing.

The National Center for PTSD even approves it! Are you going to go if you think it is all about what the zealots, haters, and corrupters of Christianity have delivered? I wouldn't. The thing is, it doesn't matter what you believe spiritually because the power is in feeding your soul. 

If you believe in God as a Christian, then please understand that the people with the loudest voices do not speak for the rest of us! If you don't believe as a Christian, then please still seek spiritual healing from people of groups who believe as you do. PTSD isn't a Christian thing. It's a survivor thing! 

what we know is not all that can be seen

Wounded Times

Kathie Costos

April 5, 2022

Fox News' viewers can change their attitudes with exposure to CNN on MSNBC shows that what we think, is always based on what we know. The problem is, what we know is not all that can be seen. And that is usually the reason why things don't change for the better. 

The research was conducted by Political scientists David Broockman of Stanford University and Joshua Kalla of Yale University. What they found is that people only know what the source of their information tells them. We live in a time when we want to learn the easy way, the quickest way and all too often, we learn based on what we already think. If we are not curious, we do not search for answers. We stopped reading manuals as soon as we were able to find a video on YouTube about how to do what we want to do. What this research shows is, when people have a different source of information, they begin to realize that what they know, is not always what is real.

Part of what’s interesting about the study is that it captured not just the difference between CNN’s and Fox News’ ideological outlooks, but also their differing commitments to sharing certain facts. Most notably, CNN was more likely to offer factual information that reflected more poorly on Donald Trump — and the Fox viewers who switched realized this: Participants who switched were less likely to agree that “if Donald Trump did something bad, Fox News would discuss it.”

This happens all the time. It happened with COVID. How many times have you had conversations with people who said COVID was a hoax and did not want to believe any facts? I know it happened a lot of times with me when I was shopping and people would ask me why I was wearing a mask, as if I was the stupid one. I'd look at them and think they were selfish and ingorant. I wore one because I didn't want to infect anyone else if I had been exposed to it, including my husband. I didn't want to be faced with living with regret that I did not do something so simple to protect him. The study shows where COVID deniers got their information from.

The switchers were more likely to care about Covid, learn different information about current events and feel more negatively toward Trump and the GOP. This isn’t to say the experiment revolutionized people’s worldviews. The Fox News viewers who switched to CNN generally continued to hold perspectives that accord with a right-wing media diet and worldview, and the experiment didn’t change whom they’d vote for. Even so, it's still striking that it took just four weeks for some of them to shift in some attitudes and observations of facts.

When I wrote part 2 of The Lost Son, Alive Again, this was the topic of the book. Chris and his friends wanted to help people see the truth because all they knew were lies. Chris didn't just battle ignorance of #PTSD, he battled the ignorance of people thinking they mattered more than anyone else. He showed how evil people were outnumbered by people doing good.

Read ALIVE AGAIN and learn how to fight to get people to see what they have not seen.

 

The Lost Son and Me

Wounded Times

Kathie Costos

February 23, 2022

When I created this image of me, I was trying for something that looked more like an elf. It didn't work but I got a big kick out of it and decided to keep it. It made the point I was trying to make, that although my wrinkles, scars on my face, bags under my eyes and graying hair, make me appear to be mean, I am far from it. The thing is, people who know me, know what I am all about, and know my character, don't need convincing about that. Only strangers do.

When I wrote The Lost Son, people in my life saw parts of me in the main character. Christopher Papadopoulos is mostly the male version of me.

The scars on his body were reminders of what he survived but the scars in his soul were reminders of why he didn’t want to anymore. Chris Papadopoulos was tired of waiting for his life to get better while he grew more bitter. Tired of paying the price for covering suffering while working as a report for an LA newspaper. Tired of the seven years he survived the bomb blast that ripped through his body while covering the war in Afghanistan. Tired of watching all he had erode like the fire escape from his window.

Seven years was long enough. He sat on his bed with a gun in his hand while a war between hope and despair kept him from lifting the gun to his head. He gave up and went to the bar figuring that if he got drunk enough, he wouldn’t have to think about anything much longer.

Chris thought everyone he knew burned down the bridges between them and him. He couldn’t see he was the one with all the matches and his friends were trying to find the firehose. Chris was dismissing the fact he had PTSD. He was right about one thing. Seven years was too long for him to be suffering instead of healing, but God had other plans for him. That night, Chris was sent on a mission to save himself and millions of others when he discovered a secretive society changing the world one soul at a time.

This is for the "churchless" children of God so you will know, that miracles do not come from a church, but they come from God.

Like Chris, I survived an attempted murder when my first husband came home from work one night and decided to beat me. He almost killed me. He stalked me, just like Chris's wife did to him.

Chris wanted to become a Priest in the Greek Orthodox church, so did I but, as a female, that was never going to happen. Later in life I was told I missed my calling and should have converted to another denomination they would let me preach. I became a Chaplain instead. My church does not support women in ministry, so I felt as if there is no place for me there.

Chris didn't know he had #PTSD and thought he would just get over it. I thought the same thing too. After all, I had devoted 40 years of research, writing and helping other people discover how much power they did have and nothing to be ashamed of as survivors of whatever caused it. The problem is, just like Chris, I turned it into a contest that I didn't want to win. So many others over the years, had it a lot worse than I had it. My panic attacks, mood swings, flashbacks and nightmares, only came to life when I heard the sound of a muscle car, because that was what my ex-husband drove. 

Like Chris never read anything about someone like himself, I never read anything about anyone like me. I survived over 10 events beginning at the age of 5. I saw two therapists and neither of them diagnosed PTSD. I dismissed what I was going through because it didn't happen all the time and did not rob me of a good, happy life.

Chris wanted to become a reporter. I always wanted to be a writer. When Chris started to heal he began to write a book to help others heal too. He wanted them to be able to read about people just like them so they would know they were not alone and their lives could be better. I wanted the same thing and tried through three other books, over 700 videos and countless articles on this site, as well as others. I wanted to tell the truth as much as I wanted to offer hope.

Chris spent 7 years regretting he survived because he thought everyone he knew walked away from him and God sent the suffering to him. On September 13, 2019, seven years after a bomb blast changed his life and caused the nightmarish series of events, he decided his suffering should end. So did God, but God disagreed on how that should happen.

In 13 days, he was led out of the darkness he had been living with, to enlighten the world of what was possible when miracles walk in the door, when he least expected them. Within 6 months, he wrote a book about miracles workers in a secret society of Chaplains and a miracle worker named Mandy living in a cabin in Gabriel New Hampshire. As for me, I wrote 3 books in 6 months because I prayed for a new way to say what I've been saying for 40 years. No one should choose to stay in darkness when the road has been cleared to make it into the light of God's love, even without a church.

Most of the people I helped all these years, believe in God and Jesus, but no longer felt they belonged in a church where they would be accepted. These books are for people like me. It is important that they see what is in the Bible and the beauty of it without feeling as if someone wants to beat them over the head with the Bible they refuse to read, instead of emulating what Jesus said His followers should actually be.

The books are on Amazon, Kindle and Paperback

New Books To Help Churchless Children Of God Heal PTSD

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
November 17, 2021 

By the summer, it was getting more and more difficult to find anything new to say about #PTSD. After all, next year will be 40 years after I started. I was feeling pretty hopeless about helping anyone new, especially when the increase of people suffering showed no signs of going down. I mean, there is only so much a person can do. I needed a miracle to be able to say what needed to be said in a new way. 

The books I wrote are for other "churchless" children of God, like me. I don't go to church anymore, so I couldn't go into any kind of building, other than my own home. Considering that Jesus didn't have a church, early Christian prayed outside or in their own homes, I knew God could hear me no matter where I was, with them as examples. I prayed for a way to do it and put it into God's hands.

What came next was the story of The Lost Son based on the Parable.

The Parable of the Lost Son

11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

When we survive the events that cause Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, no matter what caused it, we often turn away from God. When you live your life trying to do the right thing, for the right reason, and end up subjected to what happened, it is human nature to wonder why it happened to you. I know I did, each and every time. There were ten of them for me. The thing that made surviving them different for me, was while I lost faith in myself, I didn't lose it when it came to God.

That faith helped heal me but it did not mean I was totally resilient. I had a rare form of it that was linked to my ex-husband. I suffered for decades until I found out he passed away and couldn't hurt me anymore. The only thing I had to fear was the dark side trying to pull me back in and stop me from walking in the light of God's love.

As I said, I prayed for a new way to say something that wasn't new. I thought I'd be writing one book but God had other plans for me too and gave me two books to write at the same time. 

Having faith in God and Jesus, does not mean we have to be perfect. The Lost Son and Alive Again are written in the language we all use as adults. In other words, there is swearing going on. They involved adult situations, including drinking alcohol and using drugs to stop feeling anything. The list of causes covers most of them. By the end of both books, God's love won!

The Lost Son begins on September 13, 2019 and ends in 2020. Alive Again begins on September 13, 2021. The events are in Salem, MA and fictional town of Gabriel, New Hampshire. The number 13 plays an important part of both books but you'll have to read them to discover why that is. 

Iraq veteran proves he violated probation on Facebook

Judge: Marine violated terms of release
Salem News
BY JULIE MANGANIS
STAFF WRITER
May 7, 2013

DANVERS — A Salem District Court judge has found “clear and convincing” evidence that Marine recruiter Matthew Fairbanks repeatedly violated the terms of his release in a pending assault and battery and weapons case, including failing to surrender an AK-47 to police.

Because of that, Judge Robert Brennan concluded that Fairbanks “poses a substantial risk of danger to the community” and ordered that he now be held without bail until trial.

Fairbanks, 23, an Iraq War veteran whose family has said may be suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, was living in the Endicott Greens apartment complex on Route 1 in January when police were called because of a disturbance in his apartment.

Fairbanks allegedly ripped a toilet out of a wall during the altercation with his 52-year-old father, and then used it to assault the older man, according to police. Officers subsequently found guns and other weapons in the apartment and in Fairbanks’ car.

Then, last month, police and probation officers learned that Fairbanks had posted a photo of himself on Facebook laughing and holding an AK-47 with a caption that said, “So then the judge says to me, he says, you will surrender all your firearms.”
read more here

Homeless man restores place to pray in Salem MA

Grotto's glory emerges: Homeless man helps restore long-neglected Virgin Mary statue

By Chris Cassidy
Staff writer


SALEM — The last Mass at St. Mary's Italian Church was celebrated five years ago. The basement is now a thrift store. The rectory has been turned into apartments for the homeless.

Sandwiched in between the two is a grotto with a statue of the Virgin Mary tucked behind a small patch of grass — one of the few remaining symbols of this former parish once made up of working-class Italian immigrants.

"The grotto was reflective of the traditions that that little Italian community had," said Joe Piemonte, a longtime parishioner whose great uncle, Tony Della Monica, designed the grotto years ago. "With the church being (closed), we weren't sure whether the grotto would even remain."

A few months ago, Paul Sumares was walking down Margin Street and noticed overgrown vines shielding the grotto from sight. A 2-foot pile of dirt had filled in the tiny pond. The pipes for what was once a calming waterfall had broken.

So Sumares and Jean Dion went to work, clearing brush, pulling back vines and restoring the old waterfall.

"At first, we just wanted to clean it up," Sumares said.

Sumares never attended a single Mass at St. Mary's and until January had only visited Salem a few times. He lives and receives services at the Salem Mission, the homeless shelter that bought the property after the church closed.
go here for more
http://www.salemnews.com/punews/local_story_204000307.html

Mother in cancer case lost custody of older child

Mother in cancer case lost custody of older child

By Chris Cassidy and Julie Manganis
Staff writers


SALEM — The Salem mother charged with failing to give her 8-year-old son his cancer medications has a history of involvement with the Department of Social Services and police and lost custody of an older child, officials confirmed yesterday.

Kristen Anne LaBrie, 36, is also the mother of a 16-year-old child, her lawyer, Kevin James, said during her arraignment Monday on a child endangerment charge.

The older child was removed from LaBrie's custody at the request of DSS several years ago and now lives with a relative, a DSS spokeswoman confirmed yesterday. Allison Goodwin said she could not go into details of the earlier case and could not comment on why the older child was removed.

LaBrie has pleaded not guilty in the current case and is free on personal recognizance. Her lawyer has said she denies the charges.

LaBrie is accused of failing to give her son Jeremy Fraser his chemotherapy at home and canceling appointments for hospital treatments for his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Prosecutors allege that as a result Jeremy's condition has declined and is now terminal.

Police and prosecutors have not offered a motive and say they've never seen a case like this one.

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speechless.