Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley

Buried with him in the floor of the National Cathedral, Washington DC, the deceptions of WWII, as known by Secretary of War Cordell Hull. He knew that FDR knew about the planned bombing of Pearl Harbor, and why the railroad tracks leading to the Nazi death chambers were not bombed, which would have saved the lives of so many Jews.

Many know about the planned assassination of JFK, and LBJ's participation in it...Billy Saul Estes, Bobby Baker, gold-fiat money crisis, many know that the Oklahoma City Murrah building bombing did not make mathematical sense, but a man by the name of Timothy McVeigh paid with his life. As he walked down the hall to the death chamber the words above (Ivictus), at his request, were read to him. Most death penalty victims want Holy Scripture read to them as they face death.

Americans are suffering from a disease which I call “ambiguous idiopathy virus”. We want ambivalence, vagueness, a sense of dreaming that everything is going to come out alright. We just do not want to face the truth, political, physical, spiritual. The truth is the truth whether anyone believes it or not. We are not the masters of our soul, the holiness of God prevails. He is holy, and He expects us, made in His image, to be holy. Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. (1 Peter 1:16, Leviticus 19:2)

We are supposed to be conquered, conquered by the blessed blood of Jesus Christ. There is nothing good about us, we will throw our crowns before His throne, every knee will bow. Faith is 90% courage, you cannot understand the New Testament until you understand and firmly believe the book of Genesis. There are some words that should only be used to describe God; awesome, the only word that can really describe the holiness of God, the greatness of Genesis creation.

Wall Street and Madison Avenue want you to believe that “things” bring happiness. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (1 John 2:15) There is nothing at Starbucks that excites me, I have never been in one. There is nothing in Tiffany's on Fifth Avenue, NYC, that excites me.

It is time for all of us, including those who sit on padded pews in houses of worship, to get excited about important things. I am excited to think that my sins have been forgiven, and that one day soon, this old, totally blind man will be able to see again. (Dr. Morris, totally blind for 40 years, a 100% disabled, service-connected, medical officer veteran of the Korean War)

The most dangerous four letter word in our vocabulary: DEBT. America and it's people are drowning in debt, our parents and grandparents were content to live in small houses, two or three rooms. If greatly blessed, a bathroom. Before 1900s, the President of the United States went to an outhouse, every time I take a shower, I thank God for a good bath because my ancestors never enjoyed a good bath. Until 1950, most Americans in rural areas used an outhouse. In this town where I live, and in most eastern North Carolina towns, the owner of the cotton mills (Davis, Borden, Bladenboro), did not have inside plumbing for their workers, plants or housing. But, the hard working people of America were not in debt, the elitest political tyrants, and industrial owners are forever in debt for their slave master tactics, cruelty and deception. Many of us know that heaven is real and hell is hot, was the power and money of the Presidency or anything else on this earth worth the deception that they not only brought on others, but themselves.

Was the deception of the Bay of Tonkin, the lives lost in Vietnam, worth what LBJ received from his years as President. I remember Leontyne Price, Metropolitan opera, singing “Precious Lord, take my hand” at LBJ's funeral in 1973. I never had any use for Billy Graham since his participation in that funeral, since he knew the truth about LBJ. But it is not just Presidents or wanna be Presidents, our society is drunk with the thought of “me, myself, and I.”

At the ancestral home of both of my parents, in each dining room, a long bench on one side of the table. Chairs were too expensive for children. I well remember sitting between two uncles on that bench, I thought I was grown up. More important, the entire family ate together, shared their blessing together at the table. There was no reason to impress anyone, God knows all. The humble Americans know that God is the master of the soul...decided before the very foundation of the world. There is nothing in God's Word about retirement...we just keep working, living epistles for His glory. The J. Geil's Band had a famous song “Be Careful (What You Do)”.