Big I Little U

#29

Among my 5,000 first edition books, which may seem strange for a blind man to possess, but as I told a CIA agent one time 'I just like to feel them and know that so much knowledge is in the world and that it is appreciated by others who went through the trauma of the research and correcting, to leave for mankind the knowledge which so few appreciate.'  One book, written in 1890 by Dr. George Augustus Lofton, entitled Character Sketches, contains a sermon entitled 'Big I, Little U' If one lives long enough you will discover that the beginnings of the decline and failure of every individual political party, every nation, is the sin of pride. The deadly sins, pride, anger, lust, greed, gluttony, laziness, and envy all lead to the detriment of character but none as quickly as pride.

One of the survivors of the Titanic, the 882 foot long 'unsinkable' British ocean liner which sank in the icy North Atlantic in April 14, 1912. This passenger, a child at the time, said before her death that the ship was a testimony to man's arrogance. A deck hand on the ship stated before its first voyage 'that God himself could not sink this ship'. The maker of the movie 'Titanic' knows that the Titanic lay on the bottom of the ocean 12,450 feet.

Many on Wall Street and evidently many in our nation's capital in Washington DC are so possessed by the pride of their own accomplishments that they do not think the most powerful nation on Earth is sinkable. But when you consider a national debt of 10 trillion (Now 14 trillion in 2010, this is 10 with 12 zeros). Certainly we are not so insane or so arrogant that we cannot realize the consequences of such depth. After Michelangelo finished his famous marble sculpture of Moses, he was so arrogant that he hit the statue with his hammer and said 'speak'. Pharaoh was so arrogant in his attempt to keep possession of the Israelite that the miracles of God did not affect him.  Josef Stalin's daughter reported, after her father's death, that even though he had been a Bible scholar that on his deathbed he was still shaking his fist at the ceiling cursing God as he died.  This 5'4 inch dictator, mostly responsible for the death of 26 million of his fellow Russians, reportedly had no empathy whatsoever for wheelchair bound FDR at their various meetings such as Yalter. 

In the American experience, next to slavery, the greatest shame of this nation is it's treatment of disabled veterans and handicapped citizens. General Colin Powell stated at a Republican convention, some years ago, 'we have removed the word shame from our vocabulary'.

Born in poverty, attending public schools with children who were as poor as myself, attending church and other activities with hard working poor people, I was not exposed to the arrogance or pride of wealthy people until I went to college and came into contact with their sons. It did not take me long to realize that I was not considered 'one of them'.  People of wealth and influence always have the advantage even in the military service were equality and non discrimination should be unquestioned. I found that political influence was always more important than money or intellect. How many poor students do you know without influence or money, have been appointed to a military academy?  My very first military assignment orders were changed because a young, good looking, prestigious university doctor had the political influence to get my assignment instead of his. And so I got the worse assignment and perhaps I am still paying the price.  I went to Normandy for the 25th anniversary of that invasion, I stood in that cemetery. I stood in the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial (where 17,202 are buried) I have no complaints about anything concerning military service.

Over 50 years ago I saw my wife attempt everything possible to be accepted by the blue bloods of a southern town.  We both had graduate degrees from outstanding universities, my wife was an accomplished pianist, I was 'young man of the year' active in all civic endeavors. We were never received well on any level by those in the city who thought their genes were superior. It made no difference how polite they would appear in public, you always knew that ,in their social country clubs, the exclusive parties in their inherited family homes, their puppeteering of politicians, and even their church (those brazen enough to attend)  They had that well inherited attitude ' Big I, Little you' It always amazed me that the Jewish community, who were so liberal in their thinking, and philanthropy almost always maintained beach houses on very exclusive beaches. I was never in a college fraternity house until a military officer invited me to attend a college football game with him at Tuscaloosa. The ' Big I, little u'  attitude persisted there as it had in every other aspect of my life.  I do not want to appear as a victim or tester of sour grapes. I tremble at the very thought that these people know neither the love of God or the love of their fellow man.

Once, at a highly specialized medical meeting, one old doctor made this statement 'When I have a hard case, I pray about it.; I will never forget all the smart, overly intelligent, young Jewish doctors sitting around me snickering. 'Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall' (Prov. 16:18). Mark Twain, perhaps America's greatest humorist said,'Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.'