Am I Crazy?

It is the unexpecteds of life that cause most of our problems, our unhappiness. If life were perfect we would all be healthy, wealthy and wise. We cannot predict everything, but each year there are things we should be able to predict. There have been hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes...sickness, death, epidemics. Haiti,half of the island of Hispaniola, has always been a problem ever since the French were in control. Right at our back door, having set down millions in largess, many missionaries and others seeking to bring some relief to this nation, the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. The Western world should have had the foresight to prepare for a disaster such as the one which struck this week. Did Katrina not teach us anything? From the time that Life magazine showed us pictures of the despicable reign of Papa Doc Duvalier, his son, and the subsequent police state tyranny, we have known that Haiti is a basket case of tyranny and tropical obsolescence.

The Dominican Republic, the other half of the island, is progressive, but Haiti is a cauldron of political and economic suicide. I will never understand, why America with all of it's “do gooder” groups (Red Cross, Salvation Army, Religious Denominations) does not stay constantly prepared for taking over in such a disaster. Like Katrina and FEMA, even the Middle East, one would think that these disasters had never happened before. Each time, it seems to be a matter of “what are we going to do?” It is the same way with hurricanes here on the East coast. Each time one strikes, it is as if such has never happened before. When such a catastrophic disaster happens as with New Orleans and Port Au Prince, planes and ships should be immediately ready to go to the rescue along with people specifically trained for such humanitarian relief. The only country I know that stays prepared is Cuba. Cuba always has an excess of doctors and nurses, on the ready, to go to these places. How much would it cost us to have cranes, earth-moving equipment, rescue personnel, on the ready, to go to these places of disaster (and they will always come in spite of our best efforts, in spite of our prayers and supplications).

The first question I plan to ask God about His sovereignty, His omnipotence, His omniscience, His omnipresence in the world He created and ultimately controls: why people, such as the people of Haiti who have had so little and suffered so much, must be hit with these disasters? I will probably get the same answer I have always gotten when asking God about my blindness...why me, why not cut me some slack...why is it that some days everything I touch falls on the floor? (It is amazing how much glass one can get up from something that breaks on the floor) I have always gotten the same answer, “You can handle it”. So it is with these disasters. I have experienced the tragedy of Italy's Pompeii, Krakatau of Java, 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. We can be sure that “into every life some rain must fall” (as sung by Ella Fitzgerald) that there will always be national catastrophes.

Am I crazy? Just as individuals should prepare for the unexpecteds, so should nations. As with the earthquake in Pakistan, as was the flood in India in 2009 when 200 died. The expected ½ million deaths in Port-Au-Prince, like Katrina, will just be a matter of news for a few days. For those who suffer, lives will be changed forever.

Am I crazy, should not these wizards of Wall Street, the financial management experts, have foreseen and warned all investors that trees do not grow to the clouds in the so-called dot com securities, investments bubble?

Am I crazy, or should these corrupt financial cultures of Fanny Mae, Freddie Mac, and other vehicles of distortion in the real estate market have not forewarned that it is impossible to give loans to people who have nothing...in many cases not even a job...putting them in a house they could not afford...and then expecting them to make payments? Surely, a man with enough intelligence to build a house, to use a fold-up ruler, a power saw, to know a 10 penny from a 20 penny nail, should know that the country cannot pay off a construction, real estate bubble!

Am I crazy, or should not the bankers, who ultimately control the world, know that a man with no business experience at all, President rafter, 2x4 Obama, cannot bailout, sellout, build-out, an economy where, if you are in a hole, you stop digging? When it takes the entire gross national product just to pay the interest on the national debt, all should know that the bubble of Obama's economic chaos is unrecoverable.

Am I crazy, or have we not learned that our schools are a national disgrace? A promiscuous, spoiled, society, has little work ethic. It takes illegals from Mexico to show our citizens how to work, how to get to work on time, how to show family values by sending part of their pay home, how to show appreciation for employment.

Am I crazy, or are sharp young men still reading self development books? (Think and Grow Rich, Power of Positive Thinking, The Richest Man in Babylon, How to Win Friends and Influence People, etc) Even to a young man who tells me he wants to be a doctor or lawyer, I say, learn to kiss tail, learn to act like a fool, to be the dumbest in your class; you, like most, will just be a government employee. This is the next great bubble, to get a government-subsidized job with perks, bonuses, and slave mentality.

King Solomon, the world's wisest and wealthiest man said, “he that hath knowledge spareth his words”. (Proverbs 17:27) We have learned, above all, to be politically correct. Whatever the government tells you to do, do the exact opposite. Unless I am completely crazy, your survival depends on you being a good slave.