#1865 Sedition and Machinations

#1865

Sedition and Machinations

"America" Bebe Winans

     My country, ' tis of thee,
     Sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing;
     Land where my fathers died,
     Land of the pilgrims' pride,
     From every mountainside let freedom ring!

I can't shake the chill in my bones, my country turning to ash.  Actor Gene Wilder, who died yesterday, great movie actor-wonderful movies said,  "I like the show but I don't like show business."  This old blind veteran, talking with many citizens my age, especially veterans, "We love our country but despise it's government." 

Right now, we are going through the worst scene one can imagine when a democratic republic elects a president.  At 86, I remember F.D.R., Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43, and I try not to think about Obama.  We know that Clinton is a crook, that Trump is scary.  Who can do the worst?  We must begin by calculating consequences.  Forget the camouflage of political correctness, a lying-conniving news media, power brokers, and opinion molders...mostly at universities and places where they should know better...who long ago sold their souls to the devil.  Forget the camouflage of costumes, men in suits-degrees hanging on their walls, whores to the highest bidder:  God's superstars, god-like voyeurs whose self anointed omniscience has come at such a great cost.  I find that most politicians were just interneting fraternity boys, hounds of sports, chasers of small white balls, not knowing how tough it is and was to serve in the military.

Such a great nation-such a powerful country we have achieved so much, come so far.  This world traveler has covered every continent; enjoyed talking with people.  Years ago, all surely had nothing but praise for America, did not even recognize our warts.

Solitude and squalor are the parents of violence.  The Feds cruised and crushed to pile people in big cities, where violence festers.  This year, twenty first century, 459 human-beings killed in the city of the Chicago.  American lives are controlled by laws and restrictions, permits and license.  Yet, pet foods dangerous with pesticides, just one important life saving drug, epi pen (epinephrine) doubles in price, one year.  We are not prepared for cyber attacks, loss of the electric grid.  One sweet lady said to me, "If the terrorists cause me to lose my electric power I will just go to McDonald's." 

This writer was raised on a large farm where his father and his father were raised before him.  We had hundreds of acres of just woodland.  I so remember, far from our house, deep in the woods, there was one ancient oak tree, so large, so healthy, such a great canopy.  I will never understand why my father decided to cut down that tree.  This was before the time of power saws, perhaps he was waiting for his oldest son to help him cut it down with a cross cut saw.  Now you cut down any tree by looking at the top and seeing which side contains more limbs, with your ax, you put your slash-opening on that side for the tree to fall.  Then, starting on the opposite side you saw the tree down.  It took a long time.  We harvested much oak wood to heat the house.  We used pine wood for the kitchen wood cook stove.  Our nation, so large-so proud-so developed now being cut down.

There are three types of work, people who make things, people who buy and sell things, and those who are just involved in the logistics-statistics of the other two.  Reading American history and me living a large part of it, it is almost impossible to believe that this nation, so totally different has made such great accomplishments physically, socially, spiritually.  Most of you have good eyes-ears-sensitivity, can't you understand what is happening?

My one son played football in high school, he is now a PhD seminary professor after having served on the SBC foreign mission field.  After returning home from the mission field, he wanted his two sons, my only two grandchildren to go to a real-live football game.  They went to a Memphis, TN large high school game.  One team, from a Christian school was playing a large secular high school.  He and his sons sat with the fans of the Christian school, on the other side of the field were the secular high school fans, he said, "You could not believe the difference in attitudes-voices-language coming from the secular side of the field."  All those Christian fans, those who used acceptable English-grammar-attitudes were embarrassed by what came across the field.

In the kaleidoscope of liberty, most of us just want opportunity.  We resent the attitude of welfare.  We claim the tried and true attitude of work-worth-worship.  Work is the highest form of worship and the human-being is anxious to demonstrate his worth in his work.  Americans sent most Christian missionaries to the world, built great universities and libraries, established great educational and scientific foundations.  Some of the greatest  names in our history, men and women who gave away fortunes, men and women who worked and studied for years to bring great discoveries to the world.  We are truly a great super power...a great oak tree.  Our sustenance like that of the great tree is gained from the elements God placed in the good earth that we must have.  Either from the plants feasting on the elements or animals feasting on the plants.  We believe that God is not ready to give up on America.

#1864 Between the Lines

#1864

Between the Lines

"Welcome to My World"  Jim Reeves

     Welcome to my world
     Won't you come on in?
     Miracles, I guess
     Still happen now and then

     Step into my heart
     Leave your cares behind
     Welcome to my world
     Built with you in mind

It is so important to learn early in life, as we observe the multitalented, multi-featured, fellow human-beings around us, attempt to understand the thoughts and actions of others.  Each person has his own experiences, feelings, mind history.  We can never know the baggage that our fellow man carries around.  Native Americans are very different from most of us, our Puritan ancestors, even the more recent arrivals of immigrants, were and are very different from us...each has a heritage of their own.

In recent years, governments have been besieged by some "do-gooders" who want the statues-memorials of those with whom they do not agree, taken down or destroyed.  One UK university, Oxford, wants the statue of Cecil Rhodes taken down, even though this one man gave so much money towards education...the same group wants the statue of David Livingston taken down because they are not Christian believers.  In Rome, there is the statue of an emperor, hailed as a hero by Romans, people who would never consider the thousands that perished at his whim.  We will never know the mental guidelines of other people, great or small.  In communist China and Taiwan (Ancient Formosa), this world-traveler was stupefied at the antiquarian Chinese relics transported to Taiwan (filling caves) by dictators, Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kai-shek retreating to that island, as one hundred million coolies were slaughtered in the Communist Revolution.  They considered things (ancient art, ancient parchments, etc) more important than their human-being subjects.  Even the town where I live, an old southern port city, so many of our historical "prize" buildings, constructed by black, slave labor.  In between some intricate brain functioning, how long will it be between historical preservation and social experimentation BEFORE the same caustic "do-gooders" will want these buildings torn down?  They already have a thorn in their flesh about any flag with which they do not agree.   Most of these people think that history started the day they were born.  There is no recluse for objectivity in the liberal-socialistic mind, no room for compromise between the lines.

Most evangelicals cannot understand Roman Catholic traditions...bowing to a statue-transubstantiation.  The Catholic cannot understand the anointing of the Buddhist with saffron on the forehead.  The Buddhist cannot understand the ashes on the Catholic forehead. Perhaps the most evident between the lines thought process in the human mind, traditions-holidays-religious security.

The most complex creation of creator God, the complex brain of man.  How does some DNA transfer from one generation to another enabling descendents a superior ability to carve wood or stone?  One human-being to have the hand-eye coordination to marvelously play an instrument, to intricately use a scalpel in surgery while, there are those whose minds between the lines of good and evil result in rage-robbery-rape.  And then, there are those who possess the intangibles...abilities in dancing, weaving, engineering.

In Africa, wealth is determined not by what a person possesses but by what he gives away.  We are surrounded by grabbers and givers, governed and rebellient. 

The talking box, a costumed world has convinced many that advertisements are real.  People don't live as depicted, between the lines in TV sitcoms.  Food does not look like that in the pictures of gourmet magazines.  We lie to keep from hurting someone's feelings.   Don't be more specific in lying than necessary, this is what we consume with political correctness.  You can deodorize-glamorize anything-rage-robbery by politicians-reasoning of the business man.

He may be trimming hedges next door.  She may sit next to you on a plane.  Even your family, friends, associates, may hide their inner conflicts, their jostlings between the lines.  JUST REMEMBER, WE ALL HAVE THEM.  The theme of the entire bible is God.  Some use God to beat us up, some use God for that ever present ever lasting arm.  Not one can understand or measure God.  Bildad's last words to Job, "You are a worm."

This blind writer cannot throw away all his thoughts of integrity, not believing the justice of God.  The words come to me over and over again, do not seek wisdom in your own eyes. (Proverbs 3:7)  Wisdom is beyond understanding.  The time honed image of yourself, keep between the lines.  Not all of us can put things in mental trash cans where they belong, escape with cover up-witticisms- just laughing at everything.

The greatest news of the universe, not that you love God but that God loves you.

#1864 Between the Lines

#1864

Between the Lines

"Welcome to My World"  Jim Reeves

     Welcome to my world
     Won't you come on in?
     Miracles, I guess
     Still happen now and then

     Step into my heart
     Leave your cares behind
     Welcome to my world
     Built with you in mind

It is so important to learn early in life, as we observe the multitalented, multi-featured, fellow human-beings around us, attempt to understand the thoughts and actions of others.  Each person has his own experiences, feelings, mind history.  We can never know the baggage that our fellow man carries around.  Native Americans are very different from most of us, our Puritan ancestors, even the more recent arrivals of immigrants, were and are very different from us...each has a heritage of their own.

In recent years, governments have been besieged by some "do-gooders" who want the statues-memorials of those with whom they do not agree, taken down or destroyed.  One UK university, Oxford, wants the statue of Cecil Rhodes taken down, even though this one man gave so much money towards education...the same group wants the statue of David Livingston taken down because they are not Christian believers.  In Rome, there is the statue of an emperor, hailed as a hero by Romans, people who would never consider the thousands that perished at his whim.  We will never know the mental guidelines of other people, great or small.  In communist China and Taiwan (Ancient Formosa), this world-traveler was stupefied at the antiquarian Chinese relics transported to Taiwan (filling caves) by dictators, Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kai-shek retreating to that island, as one hundred million coolies were slaughtered in the Communist Revolution.  They considered things (ancient art, ancient parchments, etc) more important than their human-being subjects.  Even the town where I live, an old southern port city, so many of our historical "prize" buildings, constructed by black, slave labor.  In between some intricate brain functioning, how long will it be between historical preservation and social experimentation BEFORE the same caustic "do-gooders" will want these buildings torn down?  They already have a thorn in their flesh about any flag with which they do not agree.   Most of these people think that history started the day they were born.  There is no recluse for objectivity in the liberal-socialistic mind, no room for compromise between the lines.

Most evangelicals cannot understand Roman Catholic traditions...bowing to a statue-transubstantiation.  The Catholic cannot understand the anointing of the Buddhist with saffron on the forehead.  The Buddhist cannot understand the ashes on the Catholic forehead. Perhaps the most evident between the lines thought process in the human mind, traditions-holidays-religious security.

The most complex creation of creator God, the complex brain of man.  How does some DNA transfer from one generation to another enabling descendents a superior ability to carve wood or stone?  One human-being to have the hand-eye coordination to marvelously play an instrument, to intricately use a scalpel in surgery while, there are those whose minds between the lines of good and evil result in rage-robbery-rape.  And then, there are those who possess the intangibles...abilities in dancing, weaving, engineering.

In Africa, wealth is determined not by what a person possesses but by what he gives away.  We are surrounded by grabbers and givers, governed and rebellient. 

The talking box, a costumed world has convinced many that advertisements are real.  People don't live as depicted, between the lines in TV sitcoms.  Food does not look like that in the pictures of gourmet magazines.  We lie to keep from hurting someone's feelings.   Don't be more specific in lying than necessary, this is what we consume with political correctness.  You can deodorize-glamorize anything-rage-robbery by politicians-reasoning of the business man.

He may be trimming hedges next door.  She may sit next to you on a plane.  Even your family, friends, associates, may hide their inner conflicts, their jostlings between the lines.  JUST REMEMBER, WE ALL HAVE THEM.  The theme of the entire bible is God.  Some use God to beat us up, some use God for that ever present ever lasting arm.  Not one can understand or measure God.  Bildad's last words to Job, "You are a worm."

This blind writer cannot throw away all his thoughts of integrity, not believing the justice of God.  The words come to me over and over again, do not seek wisdom in your own eyes. (Proverbs 3:7)  Wisdom is beyond understanding.  The time honed image of yourself, keep between the lines.  Not all of us can put things in mental trash cans where they belong, escape with cover up-witticisms- just laughing at everything.

The greatest news of the universe, not that you love God but that God loves you.

#1863 Shifting the Gear Forward, Not Reverse

#1863

Shifting the Gear Forward, Not Reverse

"And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."  (Galatians 6:9)

The character of Satan is the character of a sinful world.  A lie and false promise is in the character of every sin.  The world has never learned that Satan pays off in counterfeit.

God help any man who has never worked hard and fallen into bed tired.  You either work or you steal...you steal from those who work.  Work-worth-worship.  The mantra of the "new" America, get as much as possible and give as little as possible.  Every job is worship.  Everyone cannot be an executive, everyone cannot be an airline pilot, everyone cannot be a doctor or a lawyer.  In the vestibules of eternity, when God chose we mere mortals for life...put the idea of your father with that of your mother...creating only you...there is only one you.  He may have chosen you for very mediocre work, there is nothing wrong with janitorial work, make sure you clean the corners.  God must have really loved the poor and insignificant, he made so many of us.  I am convinced that God really loves farmers...men and women who had the patience to put seed in the ground and wait for them to sprout-grow and produce a harvest.  I used to watch my Aunt Lizzie crochet one loop at the time, the final product was in her brain...the final product, each of us, was in the mind of God.  There is nothing wrong with hard labor-sweat-calluses.  The friends of Jesus must have had rough hands...most of the disciples, fishermen.  The women whom he visited such as Mary and Martha, tough hands from housework.  Twenty-first century Americans, the strain of many men's hands, just swinging a golf club: the abuse of many female hands, just the shuffling of playing cards.

This old, blind veteran would like to have seen his parents before they were put in the ground.  I asked the mortician to put my hand on each of their hands...hands that had never had a manicure, never knew anything but hard work and hard times. I could not help but think, as I felt each of those lifeless hands, the life they had lived; not what they had not done for me but what they had done for me. 

Like this writer, 86, there are still people in America who remember America going forward, not backwards.  Going forward in decency-morality.  There was a time when students went to school for education, not entertainment and indoctrination.  There was a time when students went to the university for advanced learning, not just to internet and seek an easy way out of life.  There was a time when the brightest were engaged in actual research: foundations, professional schools seeking better lives for everyone not just caressing politicians in order to get their hands deeper into the pockets of government.  Lobbying is a twentieth-century creation, before lobbyist we depended on the good sense of decent government officials. 

Anger is rarely useful.  I will not dwell on the past, perhaps it was not as great as we often remember.  It is not bad that we have a bottomless ocean of technology.  It was not particularly great to have only one telephone in a huge community...just a light bulb dangling down from the ceiling.  A family depending on the smokehouse-washhouse- outhouse.  Every time I take a shower, I think of my ancestors who never had a decent bath.  My ancestors, my parents, even my country of fifty years ago was moving and looking forward to the future...glad to escape the hardships of the past.

Now, we have present day rage.  In the movie Animal House, as has always been the plight of human nature, Satan on one side was saying "do this" and one's angel on the other side was saying "don't do that."  Lack of self-control has resulted even in anger management specialist.  Many have explosive disorders (anger out of control) medication is always the last resort.

31863

Recently, we have watched Trump rallies, masses of hostile people...most at the end of their rope.  The more protestors you have in a crowd, THE MORE YOU ARE CONVINCED YOU ARE RIGHT. 

With debt and debtors, you have people and nations who are just faking it.  Enough debt and you can live like a prince...house, car, clubs, entertainment.  Our nation has faked out the rest of the world via debt.  Ninety-nine percent of Americans just plod along, it is the one percent, politicians-bureaucrats-dollar manipulators that are in control.  We are angry because they control us, we are slaves to their decadence-extravagance.  Angry protesters want to live like the "rich and famous" they have been sold this since babies on the talking box...every advertisement...every politician's promise.

I remember a cousin talking to members of my family about the expenses of her wedding and honeymoon.  My maternal grandmother, respected, living in the best house in the community, having raised nine children said, "I picked cotton the day after I was married."  I so remember one of my uncles returning from WWII, few new cars, they were so expensive, (and remember enlisted men drew twenty-one dollars a month in service during WWII) the car he drove, the engine smoked so badly my aunt and his new child rode in the back seat. 

A nation, a people, setting the standards for living around the globe, even though we are the youngest.  On my many trips around the world, travelling every continent-passport stamped in 157 countries.  There was a time when everyone admired America.  The world has become weary in our well doing.  Almost every scientific accomplishment credited to America, every accomplishment making life better but, with our technology-drones-robots-artificial intelligence, we have brought misery to so many, and they realize it and many of our own citizens know about it...everyone is angry, protesting.

#1862

Eye Wash

The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision. - Helen Keller

If you can still feel pain you are alive.  At 86, I well remember that in my youth very few people, born and raised in America did not have a foundation of biblical and constitutional principles.  I feel nothing but pain, this old-blind veteran is so hurt when he hears daily the heresies of treason about this country.  Worse, the perverts came out the closets and the Christians went in.  There was a time when the Christian church would have stood boldly, put on the whole armor of God (Eph 6) against the communist philosophy that has become embedded in every area of American life...media, education, financial, even spiritual.  The church, most community leaders, power brokers, opinion molders many of whom might not be Christian would stand as a wall against the liberals and perverts who have the desire to eliminate gender and decency from our lives....using bathrooms (toilets) as a mixer.  Can you believe that some school systems refuse to use the terms boys and girls?  Can you believe that some educators-financiers want same sex or unisex bathrooms in their places of business (Target stores)?  Can you believe that the words man or men have been taken out of the verbiage in some reputable places?  We thought for a while that Democrats, Sanders-Clinton just wanted to take away our guns...they want to take away your food, if you do not dance to the tune which they play.  It should pain every thinking American that we have lost it all, our republic-freedom-privacy-security without a shot being fired from a foreign power.  Still the most popular president, Abraham Lincoln, a man doused in principles, "I don't fear what will happen to America from without but I do fear what will happen from within."

Many years ago, your writer was speaking before a conference of the Southern Baptist Convention.  The talking box had not become as addictive as today (TV-computer) I said then,  and I have not changed my mind, "If Satan had wanted to design something that would make people, especially children, just as mean as possible, he would have designed a television set."  Satan has perfected the eye wash of degradation and sin.  On television, living color,  he has made evil acceptable and beautiful.  The eye is the window of the soul and our souls have been tranquilized and stupefied by images.

In the military, when an officer with high rank was going to make a personal evaluation of our facilities we called it eye wash, the cleaning and preparing, the painting and fixing wanting the "brass" to think this is the way we performed all the time.  I have often said to CEO's from different industries, especially the fast food industry, go out an inspect your franchises don't let them know you are coming they will prepare with much eye wash.  Go in as a customer, watch what is going on, do some snooping in corners-backrooms-especially bathrooms.  American commerce was built on one principle, the owner, the one who had put in his hard work-taking all the risks, was always in charge, almost always on the premises.  In the restaurants built by hard-working mostly minority Americans the owner was usually at the cash register, so he knew what went in and what went out.  So he could look around and predict his future.  Any business, if the customer, the one paying the bill, does not enjoy his experience with you, he will not return.  Business is not a flash in the pan affair...no matter how much eye wash.  It is always good to patch and paint but certain basics in any business must always be pushed.  Rat poison is mostly cornmeal, just a pinch of arsenic, just enough to kill the rat.  We are learning the affects of very small life, the virus, microscopic, the virus transported by a mosquito can cause death.  We must never forget the small things, life-liberty, the pursuit of happiness, honesty-integrity, family, these are not just religious principles but principles which the most base individual can understand. 

You can put lipstick on a sow and she will still wallow in the mud.  The crudest sinner still has an appreciation for beauty and uprightness.  The common prostitute can paint and prepare with eye wash of every type (make-up, clothing, hair dye) but she is still a prostitute and she knows what she is. 

I was walking to church one Sunday morning, about six blocks through the business area (downtown church).  A woman sitting on a stoop outside a cafe-bar, waiting for it to open, (now I was suited up carrying my bible, there was no mistaking "my eye wash") she stopped me and asked me for a dollar, which I gave to her.   At lunch, a lady asked me, why I gave her the dollar.  I said, "Now she knew her condition, I have just left a large church, where most of the people there, do not know theirs...they are just trying to attract God with eye wash."  Hoping that the overpaid pastor might say something pleasing to God, the choir might perform well, their perfumed-powdered-painted pew warmers might perform well.  Maybe the smoke from Christian cigarettes does not get into God's eyes, maybe the language and costumes of Christians (not that different from the party-goers at the nightclubs) will not bother the sensitivity of God, maybe the lack of disabled-disenfranchised-depressed on the pews will not bother anyone.

General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, after he was saved, left the eye washed security of  his Methodist church to go into the highways and byways following the great commission of our lord.  When he brought in the sick and distraught, the despairing and the depressed, the ugly and indifferent...people without funds or family background, his fellow church members began to complain, they did not like smelly, broken, unsaved people, the very people for whom Jesus died.  So the Salvation Army was born and it spread around the world.  Once, at Christmas, he wanted to greet the citadels around the world...did not want to spend much money.  He sent a telegram with just one word, "others".

#1861 Resilience, Flying Upright

#1861

Resilience, Flying Upright

"Straighten Up And Fly Right" by Robbie Williams

            Straighten up and fly right
            Straighten up and stay right
            Straighten up and fly right
            Cool down, papa, don't you blow your top.

One of the greatest features of human nature, the resilience of the human spirit.  I must give a drop of hope in a barrel filled with the unconcern of the world.  The world continues to turn on its gilded axis of indifference. 

Your writer, in the solitary confinement of blindness, never ceases to be amazed at the ignorance which surrounds us.  I love talk shows and I have found that most people enjoy talk shows.  There is nothing as melodious as the variety of human voices.  I have been on so many talk shows that every where I go, someone will say, "You are the blind doctor who I hear on the radio."

The thing that bothers me most about people who call in to talk shows, and I listen to them across the country, around the world, many have just enough sense to dial the phone.  Some want to quote scripture and they have no idea about the location of the scripture: book-chapter-verse.  Some want to be so smart in their political views. One host asked a caller recently who was blasting Congress, "Who is your Congress person?"  The man did not know the name of the person who represented him in Congress.  Christians are often God's worst enemies.  They make such a poor impression before the world and before non-believers.  I went through the phase in my life where I wanted to give my business, seek professional help from Christians.  So many Christians ride a religious merry-go-round, wearing their supposed-often pretended faith on their sleeves.  I found that those of faith were more often than not the weakest in their abilities.  It is good to have a Christian lawyer but it is better to have a superior lawyer, even if he is an unbeliever (one who has the experience, grit-guts to challenge).  It is good to have a Christian doctor, but it is better to have a superior doctor (one who has the experience, expertise to be on top of things).  Those with the gravitas of preparation, the long suffering of dedication, are sometimes those who have not experienced the pull or call of Jehovah God.

Most of us are slaves to mediocrity, either too lazy or afraid to climb to the heights we are capable.  It is so much easier to just waste away in the valley, instead of reaching for the mountain peak.  It is easier yet, not to reach the lofty plateau from which we can reach down and pull others up: in our physical, economic, or spiritual life.  The Christian church has stalled, many died because of "card signers", raised in church, yet not convicted in faith...never repentant, always playing games with God.

Human-beings, for better or worse, are social animals.  The handshake is often just a drawn sword.  Even the hands of many believers are like feeling a wounded bird...no life-vitality.  Our slavery further extends to survival in our lifestyle, we don't realize that we are just victims of government, enslaved to bureaucracy.  My uncle's grandfather told him about the slave market in Fayetteville, NC before the Civil War...how human-beings were bought-sold-traded simply because of the color of their skin.  At least, black slaves wanted freedom.  Modern Americans, though resilient, do not have the resolve-intelligence to even know they are slaves.  Most of us are engrossed in acts of defiance...defiant against the enslavement of government by politicians and bureaucrats.  We are not even defiant about injustice...it is much better to just roll with the punches, not rock the boat.  Jews of the old testament were content to just keep the 613 laws, those in the early church could not understand grace...did not choose liberty in Christ.  The essence of Christianity is the spirit of grace and resilience within us.  Available to every human-being, succulent to liberty-desiring the freedom in Christ.  Available to each of us a relationship with the one who threw the stars into space.  The knowledge of the power-grace-mercy available to a child of God should instill that spirit of resilience.  As God reminds me, each and every day of my life, "I am all you need."  With such a measure of confidence we can face anything, can always move-fly upright.

#1860 Raincoat on a Peg

#1860 Open my eyes that I may see Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me; Place in my hands the wonderful key That shall unclasp and set me free. - Hymn Open My Eyes Raincoat On A Peg

Americans have become overwhelmed with the pleasure of bad news.  Even at the Olympics, when we think of Olympians as having worked hard, planned-prayed-instilled with discipline, much enthusiasm for winners erased by the foolishness of losers.  On any highway in this nation or any nation, in any night club or "dive" in this nation or any nation, you can find "drunken" night clubbers who have the irascibility to kick in a door and do damage to a public "toilet".

One of the first things I learned, in leasing real estate to businesses accommodating the public, the "trashing" of bathrooms.  You can take a person from a respectable-reputable home, pour in some liquor or other drug and he or she will act like an animal.  Since the bathroom gives a little privacy, they will act like a lower animal out of control on the mirror or other bathroom equipment.  I can say without fear of contradiction, I spent more money as a landlord in bathroom repairs "public places" than any other areas of rental property. 

Americans should be ashamed when confronted with such behavior from Olympians...true or exaggerated.  But, why not Olympians, are we not embarrassed enough by the behavior of millennials?   Did not the baby boomers embarrass we old folks enough with their gay pride parades, gay agenda, politically correct everything?  Truth is truth whether anyone believes it or not and, most young people do not want truth, just lies.  These are the ones who cheer lying politicians such as the Clintons-Sanders-Hollywood Potentates when they make their political convention speeches.  To the uninitiated everything is obscure, if you don't like truth, even beauty, just throw mud at it, just lie about decency.  We want integrity on our terms.  We want God in our image.  Even at the church house, your house, we want God like an old rain coat...just hanging on a peg by the door.  YOU JUST USE IT WHEN YOU  NEED IT.  Discipline-decency is no longer a way of life.  As the advertisement for black colleges states "the mind is a terrible thing to waste."  Most of us harbor things in the mind which never escape...otherwise, why education.  From primary school, from Sunday school, from every experience in life imbedded in our mind (the human mind, the greatest of God's creation).  We hold onto matters-things-items from which we cannot escape.  Especially for the sighted, and sight and intelligence are totally intertwined, we have visual images from which we cannot escape.

I wish I could forget visual images that trouble my mind every day of my  life.  I cannot erase them.  Many times I have talked about what I saw (and I did have some eye sight at one time) at the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan.  I cannot forget the migrants-refugees fleeing the country, attempting to get across the border.  The adults were carrying on their backs sacks containing their belongings, their small children standing around them on icy roads barefooted.  Do we think for one minute that these children  have forgotten the fright of their lives, the plight of their families, the horrors of warfare?

This old, blind veteran, son of Eastern North Carolina, raised in poverty on a dirt road without power-phone-water lines, chosen by God to escape the heat and sweat of his "raising".  Blessed to have jumped through the hoops of education and the military service.  I lived through the rigors-offenses of racial segregation.  As a doctor, two of my best friends were black doctors.  One in the military service, a brilliant medical officer raised in the Mississippi delta.  The other, a black doctor in private practice, Goldsboro, NC.  He mostly had a practice of black patients, he was loved beyond description.  After the civil rights struggles of the 60's, he said to me, "The white people may think that the black minorities will just take their new acceptance at the schoolhouse-courthouse-'outhouse' in stride.  Simply because they can now go to the same water fountain, bathroom, or school will not "magically" erase their years of segregation."

When he died, I got to the funeral too late to sit with the honorary pallbearers, I squeezed into the rear of the huge black-packed church where the funeral was held...the caroling banging out the sad notes, the great choir, the beautiful casket, carried on the shoulders through the church by six black men in black suits wearing white gloves.  He received all the words due a real man of his service to a community, family, church but the thought plundered my mind how he was rejected by most of the people outside this great oedipus.  Even today, black doctors have their own groups, black men their own fraternities.  (NC Association of Black Cardiologists and Black Free Masons)  I understand that black athletes at predominately white universities, separated, ride in their own bus. 

The study of psychology has blossomed in my lifetime, everyone is looking for an easy way to cure mind problems.  My patients who were addicted to alcohol-prescription drugs-comfort foods were all attempting to escape something.  The first time I was in Russia, my travelling companion, a professional writer-reporter from New York City, said to me, "I have never seen so much public drunkeness...it is worse than the Bowery in Manhattan."  I said, "If we had to live in this godforsaken place, we would probably escape by staying drunk also."  Even pastors instead of presenting the great position...one who is able to heal everything, send his people to the psychologist.  Physicians-psychologists-politicians make the psychiatrists rich.  As we Army doctors found with MKUltra (mind-control), tranquilizers and other chemicals that have made Big Pharma rich mental health is a statistic.  One never recovers from poverty.  One never recovers from sexual abuse.  It will take many generations for the disenfranchised, the disabled, the debauched to recover from shameful treatment.  The politician can put on this raincoat and go out among us when it is convenient and talk his concern, the pastor can put on his raincoat when it is convenient and preach his concern as he lives the easy life, the physician can put on his raincoat and enjoy prestige as he thrives on pill hill, we can all put on our raincoat of prayer and belief in tough times but the creator of the mind knows every stain and smear.

We are not stuck where we start, whether poverty or segregation.  To live the Christian life is not easy, just tough.  The only cure for a sick mind is a well mind...rebirth...new man...the holy spirit of God through Jesus Christ now inhabiting you.   The born again Christian, new creation, is seen through God's spectacles as Jesus.

1859 Holy Homework

Holy Homework

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. - Ephisians 6:12

I try to avoid mirrors these days.  Not that I can see myself in the mirror but I rather hate for the mirror to see me.  The estate planners call old people like me, in the autumn of their years.

I offer up to God, just as I have done with my blindness, my age, and anything God can use at this time in my life.  I offer up my pain, my loneliness.  I must remind myself everyday of my life of the sufficiency of God.  In old age, doing holy homework we know that family, associates, neighbors, are not always there.  God whispers to me in these times of disappointment, "I am all you need."  Remember, King Saul threw a javelin at his own son,  Jonathon.  Almost daily, we hear about some mother or father killing their child, driving a car into a lake with children in the car or leaving a child in a car to cook.  When I was in school, we were embarrassed to even discuss abortion.  It was inconceivable that a mother would kill her own child in her own body and yet, America, 21st century, more black babies are killed in the mother than are given birth by a mother.  When this army medical officer worked in the emergency room of a hospital and there was a terrible wound, I would say to the victim "This is not going to be a picnic."  My anatomy professor, Dr. Rafalko, would say, "Men, women are much tougher than we are...can stand much more pain.  The human race would have disappeared long ago otherwise."

Every mother, every father is directly responsible for how you present God to your child.  The greatest child abuse, especially among evangelicals, pushing your child to "join the church."  Like infant baptism, too many children are "persuaded" into something which they do not understand.  The best lie of Satan and the "world", the indifference of your fellow man not realizing that every child is different.  God only had to say it one time, "Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it." - Proverbs 22:16.  Look it says, child not children.  It makes no difference how many children put their feet under your table, each child is different.  This writer  has two grandsons, each very different though raised by the same wonderful parents.

And, it is so important that parents realize that a child's relationship with God is different.  Before we had the baptistery in the church we would go to the fish pond for baptizing, the solemnity crashed when two of my young cousins, who were to be baptized, took the  urge, jumped in the pond and began swimming around before the preacher and the others went into the water.  Another form of child abuse, in the training process, trying to be a friend instead of a father but, perhaps the worst of all child abuse, and we see it over and over attempting to fulfill your life's ambitions...what you wanted-what you desired, in your child instead of allowing your child to travel his own pathway.

In the military, so obvious, the difference in attitudes-passions between those who wanted to be there and those forced to be there, the difference in the draftees and volunteers.  So it is at the church house, the courthouse, the schoolhouse, the attitudes of those concerned and serious about their jobs compared to those who just, in some way, got a position.

It is so easy to ascertain, the person with a real conversion-belief system, one great Christian said, "I left the church because it was my parents' belief system.  I thought I had become an atheist, but then God got his hands on me and the faith, action based on belief-sustained by confidence, I have now, is mine."  So many Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses leave those religions because their children's knowledge is a product of a parents desires.  Christian faith like patriotism, is only refreshed by the nutrition of conviction. 

My seminary professor's son takes seminary students to Japan each year in a Southern Baptist missions program, he finds just as I found on my several trips to Japan that the Japanese people have no time or talent for religion.  Their own Shinto shrines go unkempt.

This is the difference we find with other false religions, such as the false religion of the Middle East.  When will we learn that Muslims, historically, has been a belief in hatred...not just Christians-Jews-Buddhist but mostly of one another.  Thousands of fellow Muslims were killed in the Iran and Iraq wars of the late 20th century.  The wars in Southern Sudan have been going on for three years.  I have been to these places; these countries are so poor and do not have the technology to build a bicycle.  Where are they getting all these munitions-warfare equipment?  Is it to the benefit of capitalistic countries that these undeveloped nations are killing one another?  From Bamiyan in Afghanistan to Morocco, every place in between I can tell you without fear of contradiction that these people do not have a clue about what is going on.  They are just victims of international power.  During WWII, North Africa, the axis and allied armies were bogged down because of weather.  In between those two huge fighting forces, Arabs came out and began to sell fresh eggs to each side.  Making money, other family members began to sell handy crafts to each side.  When will the power brokers of the world learn, as this writer discovered traveling the world, most people, made in the image of God, just want to survive, to be left to their own self determination.

#1858 Dinosaurs and Mermaids

Dinosaurs and Mermaids

“The Enemy wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in the fact, without being any more (or less) or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another. The Enemy wants him, in the end, to be so free from any bias in his own favour that he can rejoice in his own talents as frankly and gratefully as in his neighbor's talents--or in a sunrise, an elephant, or a waterfall.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

Each species survives because of it's own instincts.  We are so glad we can take life one day at the time...not knowing what the future holds.

Elvis Presley died 39 years ago today on August 16, 1977.  We older folks remember exactly what we were doing on certain days.  This 86-year-old blind-veteran remembers what I was doing when President Roosevelt died, when President Kennedy died.  I remember as if yesterday, at 11-years of age, what I was doing when I heard the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor.  I remember what I was doing when Elvis died.

My first thoughts were of a young man, piling into an old car with other young men, base fiddle strapped to the top of the car, all with instruments heading out for a Saturday night gig.  I was a student in Memphis, TN living in one of those old, antebellum mansions that had been converted into small low-rent apartments on Washington Avenue near the medical units and hospitals of the University of TN.  I was one of the poor students, living among other poor white people and Elvis' family lived in an apartment near mine.  This was my first vision of Elvis Presley.  Later, he would first be entombed in the mausoleum (Forest Hills) of the cemetery where I worked, attempting to get through school, selling pre-need cemetery property.  Near the White Haven area of the city was the  columned-mansion which would later become Graceland and where he and his family are now buried.  Elvis makes more money dead than when he was alive...such is his fame.

I have written about selling collectibles online.  I advertise that I buy collectibles.  One lady called me, she was desperate for money for surgery, she said, "I have a large Elvis collection, would you be interested?"

My driver drove me in my car to a large, mobile home housing project.  The woman's home was full of Elvis memorabilia.  She said, "Elvis has been my life but if I am going to live I must have surgery, I must have money."  We came to an agreement about what I would pay for her collection.  She said, "You are an answer to prayer.  This is all I own, all I have to sell."

GUILT IS THE CURSE OF THOSE WHO CARE.  I first felt some guilt about buying the collection of a desperate woman.  Innocence can only be lost, cannot be taken.  We are all innocent in doing what we have to do...she, raising money for her care, me, making a living.  I stopped being judgmental, many years ago, as I witnessed the desperation of human-beings around the world...survival.  This world-traveler, hotels and living accommodations, third-world countries...I could get very judgmental about prostitutes hanging out in hotel lobbies-fathers attempting to sell their daughters to "Rich Americans".  In Thailand, both in large cities and smaller places, there were hotels with showcase type windows, where standing and looking in you could pick out your female or male sexual interest.  The girls were dressed in gowns, THEIR way of making a living.  It tortures every synapse of my neural system to even consider what it must be like for one human-being to desperately sell herself or himself to another.  I can think of nothing more degrading than to sell the most personal-private part of your body to another person.  I heard one man, in a city with a disaster, his home destroyed-his family lost say, "I know people get over these things but I don't know how." 

Most Americans, even my family-friends-associates do not have a clue, have no idea of what I am talking about, or what the opinion media molders are talking about when they bring you to the reality of the real world...how most of the world lives.

We mere mortals, have no idea of what knowledge is hidden from us.  Do you think that the prophets-physicians-pastors-poets of history could have foreseen the 21st century world...a world of metal tubes flying at tremendous speed through the skies carrying people to destinations:  A world of individuals talking to other individuals any place in the world on a small instrument held in their hand: A world where wars are fought, one nation against another totally impersonal, using complex chips that regulate robots and drones.  One nation can bring destruction on another almost, without the frailty of human emotion becoming involved.

I stood in that harbor in Copenhagen, Denmark where the product of someone's imagination, a mermaid is depicted in sculpture.  We all read about dinosaurs, I will never forget, at sunset, watching huge kangaroos, their long necks, crossing the road.  Imagination or reality, Elvis' music that makes old women dream, power-plays among elitist, the most complex organism know to man, the mind of genus homo (the mind of man) is still God's greatest miracle in the universe.  It makes the speed of light, molecular formulas involved in the Periodic Table, magnetism of electrical circuits, the careful design of every snowflake that has ever fallen, all these things seem like nothing compared to the mind of God, who can understand and perhaps appreciate them?

#1857 Saints and Olympians

#1857

Saints vs Olympians

God, give us men!

GOD, give us men! A time like this demands

Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;

Men whom the lust of office does not kill;

Men whom the spoils of office can not buy;

Men who possess opinions and a will;

Men who have honor; men who will not lie;

Men who can stand before a demagogue

And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!

Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog

In public duty, and in private thinking;

For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,

Their large professions and their little deeds,

Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps,

Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps.

Josiah Gilbert Holland

The most common comment I get about what I write, "Thank you for saying and putting in print what I think."  Your writer must get his thinking right, also.  It all starts in the mind. 

I have found that most people think history started the day they were born. 99% of those who have lived throughout history never receive any recognition.  It is only the wierdos-bizzare who get the attention.  The worse things get, the more we are supposed to lower ourselves to accommodate our feelings about weirdos.  One person's mediocrity is another persons paradise.

This week, great news-breathless talking heads, a 19-year-old man attempting to climb the Trump Tower to deliver a message to Donald J. Trump.  This is a very dangerous way to deliver a message to anyone...climbing up the steep 60 floor Trump Tower.  Think of the money involved with New York police attempting to keep this "fool" from killing himself and perhaps others.  He got his 15 minutes of fame.  Gave even more free publicity to Mr. Trump. 

Sending messages, the logistics of communication, has always been a complex procedure.  The American Indians used smoke signals.  Every southern plantation had a large bell.  This writer still remembers the one cent postcard.  I am amazed that even children carry around telephones in their pockets, a hand-held instrument with more technology than the module that landed on the moon.  When I was a child, there was only one telephone in the entire community for many miles around.  The phone was at my cousin's country store.  In all my years of university education, military service, I never had a single telephone call from home.  Telephones were used in an emergency.  I will always support the US Postal Service and the US Public School System.  My mother told me that as a young bride, when I was a baby born on a dirt road where there were no power-phone-water lines often only two vehicles would go down the road during the day...the public school bus and the mailman.  Alexis de Tocqueville who wrote about early Americans "1840" was amazed that mail was delivered even into the western frontiers.  Such a pity that today's young people know so little about history...they do not study God's word nor the many available history books.

A senior student from the local university here "UNCW" was driving the car of this blind-veteran, I said to this educated young-man, "I think we should stop for some lunch."  I further said to him, "Can you even imagine what it was like for our ancestors to have crossed the plains on covered wagons and what they did when they got hungry?"  I know you will think I am lying but here is what he said, "I am sure they stopped at a McDonald's."  I could not help but laugh after I had fainted.  Can you even imagine a caravan of covered wagons pulling under the golden arches?

We glamorize criminals, spend tremendous tax dollars to house and diagnose them.  God never appointed a committee, always dealt with the real man or real woman. There is only one you...in the eons of history, only one person with your voice, your fingerprints, your flecks in the iris of your eyes.  Until you learn to live powerfully, you cannot learn to die boldly.  Too many of us have chosen the low roads in life, 1/4th of all adults in New York City have the herpes virus.  We are bombarded every day with the challenge that "black lives matter" in this same New York City, 3/4th of all black babies are aborted-killed. 

Our ears have been "challenged", and those of you with eye sight have watched the Rio Summer Olympics such competition by young-spirited athletes is wonderful.  God's word talks about the necessity for playing.  Ancient writers, Socrates-Plato-Aristotle talked about athletic training...the sacrifice involved in preparation.  God talked to us about the race, winning the race.  I kept hearing the athletes talking about how winning was all-consuming.  One does not become an Olympian without discipline. In the athletic competition, in the race, discipline determines destination. 

If discipline is important with Olympians, a very physical challenge, should not discipline-sacrifice-an all-consuming mental activity become just as important in our spiritual life.  I am convinced, I know without the shadow of a doubt that the saints who have gone on before us were just as convicted, convinced, concerned with their grace of faith.  The importance of their salvation, as any Olympian.  We are all called to be saints, thank God, I have known some in my long-interesting life.

Every 18 minutes someone dies in America from an overdose of a prescription or non-prescription drug.  Most opiate overdoses.  Too many of our fellow citizens are looking for an escape, an escape from the challenges of just living.  When I was young, they looked for the escape in the bottom of a bottle or a methadone clinic "another form of addiction".  Saints or Olympians, it all comes down to strength of mind.

Mankind's greatest enemies, Satan's greatest captives, not the disabled, not the poor, not the slow learners but Satan's greatest captives the intelligent, the wealthy, the powerful, the opinion molders.  The politicians, the powerful need to know, stolen water is not sweeter.  Even God's elect must repent.  Remember, those of you who are so broadminded-so tolerant-so liberal, when secularism takes over you will be able to show your testimony to Christ only inside a building...your family affections only in your home.   Guilt is the curse of those who care, Christianity has always been 90% courage...we Christians are so afraid we are going to offend someone by showing our Christianity.  We must learn that this is not a one dimensional world.  Saints and Olympians understand history, what it means to fail, the joy of winning.

#1856 On Stage

On Stage

Saint Michael Archangel,
defend us in battle,
be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil;
may God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host,
by the power of God, cast into hell
Satan and all the evil spirits
who prowl through the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.

In our country community where the schoolhouse and the church house were the chief interests in our lives, before the time of power lines certainly television and radio which could not have been imagined, this was 80 years ago, I heard one old man in our community say, "My greatest enjoyment in life is going out to the schoolhouse and seeing the young children here in our community dressed up in crepe paper pretending to be flowers-animals-make-believe creatures I  know that their minds are working."

And so it is, with all of us mere mortals our brains are wired to pretend, to have imagination and, it's not just America's children I have seen children, beautiful creatures of many skin colors making many language sounds, all over the world, pretending and imagining as they played with one another we are supposed to be made in the image of God.  Words are important God spoke and nothingness became somethingness why cannot family members-neighbors-nations talk to one another and solve problems.  Today, we observe the 71st anniversary of our nation dropping an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki.  Just think, 70,000 human-beings evaporated in just a few seconds.  Most of these people had nothing to do with warfare and the whole idea of killing 250,000 people in two cities was totally unnecessary.  Japan was already defeated there was just some pretention going on both sides.  A few words from either side could have saved so many lives...life, God's greatest creation.  So, August 1945, America stopped pretending, US lost all decency, the Christian message, and we were at one time a Christian nation it is better to have evil done to you that to do evil: it is better to be robbed than to be a robber.

This writer has two biological brothers we put our feet under the same eating table in our wonderful parents home.  I have lived here in my  house for over 40 years neither of these two brothers, both younger than me, their wives or their children, have ever been in this house.  They got mad with me about something many years ago and I doubt that either one of them could tell you what it was about.  I certainly do not know.  But, at least, they do not pretend about anything they just decided to leave me out of their lives AND, God told me to forgive but he did not tell me to forget.

In this new bizarro age in which we live, with the gay agenda, with the insanity of same sex marriage, the lunacy of transgendered bathrooms AT LEAST, most homosexuals have left the closet, are out in the open, brave enough, to no longer pretend to be something they are not.  In my youth, gay people had to pretend about everything and most gay people, with whom I have talked, had a very low opinion of church people because Christians did not have the courage to live the Christian life.  They were just pretending, also.  Yet, the Christians condemned the gay lifestyle it seems that everyone, white-black-gay-straight-educated-ignorant-rich-poor-young-old-etc,etc everyone just pretending.  Old people color hair, use plastic surgery to remove age lines, spend a tremendous amount of money for every type chemical-substance to imbibe or rub on attempting to look-act young.  Youth, will lie-cheat-steal in order to gain the sophistication of the elderly.  Young people will risk jail to use a fake id card for entrance to some clubs.  Most young people spend their college years, interneting instead of getting a good education because they are convinced that it is who you know, not what you know that will bring you success.  "Success for most young people means money, clubs, electronic toys, moving in the right circles, etc."

I think so much of this pretending, the attitude of fooling others started with Dale Carnegie and his book "How to Win Friends and Influence People".  He told us right up front, that truth does not matter what matters is reaching your goal, whatever it takes.  Remember the communist myth, "the end justifies the means".

The criminal defense lawyer will dress up his criminal client for an appearance before a courthouse jury.  He does not want his criminal client to look like a criminal:  clothing-designed haircut: looking acting acceptable will help convince a jury.  One federal judge said that the accused court criminal will have his pastor make an appearance for him.

There are still a few places left in this world where you cannot pretend, you must be real. This old-blind veteran has been listening to the Olympics.  Olympians cannot pretend they must be real. And so it in warfare, warriors must be real, on the front lines you cannot pretend to be brave there are no air conditioned fox-holes on the front lines.  "Christian warriors" want comfortable-air conditioned fox-holes.  Christian patriots are just pretending when they tell you they want to win the world to Christ and to liberty.

Holiness is goodness.  The French author, Alexis de Tocqueville ,who visited America and wrote about America in 1840, about the time of the birth of my great-grandfathers, said that America was great because America was good.  America is no longer good, and most Americans, including this American, just spoiled and rotten.  There is no pride, orneriness, judgementalism, and all the other rotten sins among my family-associates-neighbors-etc, I HAVE IT ALL.  As the Apostle Paul said, "I am chief of sinners" 1 Timothy 1:15.  How dare we call ourselves Christian: CHRIST-LIKE.  We have all been busy pretending, smiling at sin, chucking at abuse, tolerating every satanic bleb on the screen.  It is time for all of us to leave the stage and get real.

Dr. T.R. Morris
Lt. Col USA Retired
Blind/Dictated
Visit my blog at http://carolinahedgehog.blogspot.com/

Facebook: http://www.DrThomasMorris.com
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(910)-251-6218
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(Dr. Morris is a totally blind 100% disabled service connected veteran, 8 around the world trips, passport stamped in 157 countries)

#1853 Caustic Tone

Caustic Tone

"The Lord does whatever pleases Him--in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths!" Psalm 135:5-6 

It should fill us with joy, that God's infinite wisdom guides the affairs of the world! 

Many of its events are shrouded in darkness and mystery, and inextricable confusion sometimes seems to reign. 

Often wickedness prevails, and God seems to have forgotten the creatures that He has made. 

Our own path through life is dark and devious, and beset with difficulties and dangers.

How full of consolation is the doctrine, that infinite wisdom directs every event, brings order out of confusion, and light out of darkness--and, to those who love God, His infinite wisdom causes all things, whatever their present aspect and apparent tendency is, to work together for good!

"We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose!" Romans 8:28

           

            The longest border in the world between two nations. The 5000 mile border  between Canada and the USA.  There are few guards and unlike the southern border there is much freedom back and forth across the Canadian border. 

            According to the oxford English dictionary, the name Jesus is the  most abused "curse word" in the English language.  We who know Christ the holiness of Jesus our savior, CRINGE every time we hear someone take our lord's name in vain.  These ignorant people have no idea of what they are doing and we have all suffered the rudeness of giving someone that "Puritan" stare.

            I learned long ago, in listening to wild parties going on in houses near me that one of the first exclamations you would hear from some female "oh my God" she probably knew very little about God and had no idea of the danger involved using his name recklessly.  Like boundaries between nations, every person, for a show of education and "class", is nothing else, should watch their use of the tone.  We see the trouble politicians get themselves in with a lack of control of the tone.

            Words mean something, the human being is blessed with the ability to communicate with words.  I must admit that I have always had a very caustic tone...knew how to use words...knew how to tell someone off.  At age 86, I am rapidly learning to control my tone because I well know that I said things I could never take back "you cannot unring a bell".