A Saturday Experience

#1743

06/06/15

This was sent to the Pastor of Wesley Memorial Methodist Church, and to the Methodist Bishop, who is interested in all Methodist churches.

Perhaps this experience is indicative, of what has happened in the Christian church, what has happened with scouting, what has happened with just mere values.

Domestic Extremists

This commentary, my server will send it around the country, is written just for me, no one else. If someone else decides to read it, fine, perhaps you have had some of the same thoughts.

I understand those who do not bow at the alter of the Patriot Act, do not yield to the searching by homeland security, the indignities of TSA (Travel Security Administration) are considered domestic extremists, particularly those who are veterans, those who have had anything to do with the tea party movement, those who support candidates on the right. These organizations are not concerned with security, only control.

So often, I wonder if those of you who are sighted have any idea of what a blind person endures every moment of his life. I am convinced that most people think I am blind only when they see me out in public; the fact that I act normal, talk normal, dress normal, have been able to carry on my life, in spite of my disability. I live alone, big house, many rooms, I carry on a very active business and professional existence. In my condition, I pay more taxes to the government than I ever thought I would make in income. There are some things that I simply cannot do for myself, drive my car, read an abundance of mail, keep up with my various business accounts, I even have my driver check my tie, shirt, socks. You would be amazed how many times someone has spoken about my mismatched socks, mismatched shirt and tie. I often wonder if they could do as well.

This week, I put some ketchup on my ice cream, I thought it was chocolate syrup. I often put something in the microwave from the freezer and have no earthly idea what I have cooked for my food. There are days that everything I touch falls on the floor. Just imagine everything you do sighted, the difficulty if blind. This is the story of just one veteran, there are millions of us. Millions of disabled people (largest minority), your government spends billions for veteran's care, care for the disabled, but most of these funds never reach those for which intended. These funds are eaten up by the corrupt bureaucrats and politicians who are supposed to handle such, even have oversight. I have been able to make my way, with the help of almighty God, alone.

As I can assure you, without fear of contradiction, and as most disabled people have told me, your family care the least. If the only help I get, any encouragement in my life, came from my family, or even friends, I would be in very bad condition. And, tragedy of tragedies, most of these people believe themselves to be Christ-like, I suppose I have said it a thousand times, from the platform as well as in writing, if every “Christian” were just like me, what kind of world would this world be?

Not since the Civil War, has America been in the condition that it is in today, imploding from within. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln said, “I do not fear America being threatened from without, only from within.”

The main danger now, rather than 100 or 150 years ago, we no longer recognize the difference between good and evil, mostly indifference toward both, whether media, education, politics, or even spiritual values. It was reported this week that the average child texts, I understand this is something that you do on the cell phone, over 120 times a day. I understand that many children just text one another, their parents, instead of speaking to them on the phone. In one year's time, time spent on the internet has doubled to 13 hours a week, time spent watching television has remained about the same, 6 hours a day. We have a country, and indeed a world, technology has become our god...we depend on technology, likewise cleverly, slowly, government has made citizens completely dependent on government. Who needs God when you have government supplying your every need, making every decision for you?

Even in the Declaration of Independence, we have a President who always leaves out the phrase “endowed by our creator.” Our ancestors, forged in fire, Washington, Adams, Lincoln, Patrick Henry, knew the cost of freedom. From hard work, both with hands and books, Americans have built the greatest nation in human history, strange after building such so many are anxious to destroy it, but that which can be built can be rebuilt, restored. A culture that can make a mess of anything and everything, has even made a mess of Christmas. The media, your neighbors, think you are crazy unless you jump to act crazy on “Black Friday.” People expect you to send them a Christmas card if they send one to you...expect you to put decorations in and around your house like everyone else. They want you to feel strange if you do not jump through the hurdles, dictated for Christmas, like the media and society dictates everything else.

Some of my neighbors came to me, telling me I should put decorations in my windows, a wreath on my front door, like the rest of the people on the street. These same people do not realize how difficult it is for me to find my front door, live a simple life without decorations, which I cannot see. These same people, in the spirit of Christmas, have never done one thing for this blind veteran at Christmas. In fact, I will give $1000 cash to anyone who can show that any church, civic group, veteran's organization, government services group has ever done anything at Christmas or any other time. Talk is cheap, and I am not saying that every disabled citizen has been met with such obtuse indifference, but from those I know, I am the rule not the exception.

One of my blind friends, who died a few years ago, born blind, only child, lived alone most of her life, told me that no one at any holiday had ever been to her house. Once, when her mother died, one church brought some food to her house. She died alone, and was quietly buried by the funeral home, but I am sure that if I, or Catherine Vasalou, this blind, intelligent female friend were to have gone to the airport to take a trip, TSA would put us through the ringer, like everyone else. Catherine owned her own home, left to her by her deceased parents. She contributed to the world through her intellectual skills, she talked frequently on every national talk show, Larry King, Sally Jesse Raphael, etc. She, like this writer would be called a domestic extremist.

Life has become a masquerade party, full of pretension. At the airport, when real busy, everyone is just waved through, Christmas has become a mockery, “Me! Me! Me!”, “My party, my gifts, my pleasures.” Nothing about the One who was born in borrowed stable, buried in a borrowed tomb. We get so excited about political victories, spiritual, feel-good-ism, several friends who have been assistants to congress people have told me that it makes no difference who wins an election, federal, state or local. The same bureaucrats are there, still running everything. One said to me, “I said to this newly elected congressman, 'you think you won an election, you are just a puppet for us, we pull the strings. Like a new Christian, nothing changes. Like a new bride, reality soon takes over.'”

Good Morning, Lord

Most people do not realize that the largest city in South America is Sao Paulo, Brazil, larger than New York City. I was staying in a hotel in Sao Paulo, not far from the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida, first dedicated by Pope Saint Pius X in 1908, then again by Pope John Paul II in 1980. A Catholic Priest, talking with me at the hotel, he so wanted me to go to the shrine and wash my blind eyes for healing. I said, “father, I have more faith than you do, if God wanted me healed he could do it anytime, anywhere, it is not necessary for me to go to the shrine, but I do not blame you or any other Catholic for doing so.”

I truly believe in divine healing, I believed for years that God would restore my sight, I kept putting in drops, praying everyday. Then, one day, Dr. Catherine Oxyner said, “Tom, you are wasting your time, there is nothing there, no retinas, nothing.” But, even now, omnipotent, omniscient, sovereign God could restore retinas, IF He chose.

So often, someone asks, “which is the most beautiful part of the world?” In all my world travels, I saw very little, only listened intently to the description of others. I know that the Arctic is a vast area of 4.5 million square miles of ice, and so is the Antarctic, I know that the Sahara, the Gobi, other deserts I have visited are many miles of sand. I can well visualize the mountains of Switzerland, Afghanistan, these places were for me to visit, others to enjoy by sight.

All beauty is not visual, not spectacular color, spectacular design, a lady I had known for many years, brought her husband's grandmother to me as a patient. She was 94 years of age, black-dressed down to her ankles, her Sunday hat. I well remember her husband Mr. Gurly, who always attended the revival meetings at our church. Everyone said the revival did not start until brother Gurly got there. He sat on the front row, and would praise God throughout the service. The Gurlys had 10 sons, all well-known athletes, they had many grandchildren, all well-known athletes. But, most of all, their family were devout Christians, the backbone of their Pentecostal church. The daughter said, “doctor, let me tell you about this week. I looked outside and this lady was playing basketball with her great grandchildren, they were in a paved parking area in our backyard where a basketball goal is erected. She was teaching them how to dribble and throw a goal.” I said, “can anything be more beautiful? Could there be a more beautiful memory in the minds of those children? Their great grandmother, always in a long dress, still blessed to show them how to play basketball as she had her sons and grandsons.”

We have the mistaken information from those who bombard our senses daily, that beauty consists of things. Most people have too many things: children, too many toys, young people, too many clothes, older men, too many electronics. Is it necessary to have athletic shoes with names, jeans with names, purses with names?

260,000 babies are born each year from in-vitro fertilization, 70% of babies are born in homes without a father. There is nothing more beautiful on earth than the family, god established it, father, mother, children. Stress causes 95% of all illness, almost all depression formulates ages 5-15, the years of puberty. Afflicted, conflicted, so necessary for children to have parents during puberty. Encounters, emotions, problems both inherited and acquired.

We live in a world of great beauty, but believers are going to a place of beauty beyond description. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. (1 Corinthians 2:9, Isaiah 64:4) You will notice that this scripture is found in both the Old and New Testament, found in capital letters because so few times the same scripture is found in both. What a consolation.

We hear about airport searches, this was going on in Dark Africa, years ago. I was stripped and searched as I got on the plane in Rwanda, anxious to leave the country. Women passengers got on the plane in shock, having been violated in every way. To get their mind off the ordeal, I said, “I really enjoyed it, I started to go back a second time.” This got their mind off the awful ordeal and brought their wrath on me. I said, “you are alive, you are leaving this hellhole, think of the women and girls who will endure this type cruelty as long as they live...embarrassment, violation of privacy, insensitivity.” Everyday of your life, when you say “good morning Lord“, be thankful for any beauty left in this world, the beauty of life, the beauty of children and old people, the beauty of kindness, the beauty of your redemption.

As we approach this Thanksgiving season, listen to the Thanksgiving hymn and rejoice that such is written forever. For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven. (Psalm 119:89)

For the beauty of the earth
For the glory of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies.
Lord of all, to Thee we raise,
This our hymn of grateful praise.
Orby Shipley

Today's Blessing (Catherine, Rest In Peace)

Its been two years now since the death of my friend Catherine Vasalou. Catherine was totally blind, and just like this writer...one of our main interests was calling into “talk radio shows’’. Catherine was extremely well informed, very feisty, like Helen Keller and other blind notables she knew the isolation and discrimination toward other blind citizens. Catherine had never seen anything, she was born blind, attended the North Carolina School for the Blind, graduated from East Carolina University and did graduate work at UNC - Chapel Hill.

She returned home to Wilmington to care for her aging parents, which she did until they died. At the same time, she was responsible for both her parents and their home. She worked as a full time medical transcriptions at the two local hospitals. The only time I ever met Catherine, even though we talked on phone daily, was when my driver took me by her house and we took her for a ride in my 13th Cadillac. She had told me how much she wanted to ride in a Cadillac. My driver at the time was a black lady who knew exactly how to treat her and we stopped on the way to buy some strawberries and other things I knew she liked. She enjoyed listing to Rev. Sprouse on the radio. So, with her in the front with my driver, we drove down to his church, so my driver could describe the church to her, and then drove down to my beach house, so my driver could describe the beautiful home on the ocean. She called me later and said, “this was the nicest thing that ever has happened to me”.

Catherine had no living relatives, and the public had, in general, completely ignored this remarkable, wonderful woman of unusual intellect. She called radio talk shows all over the country, including Larry King, she would also often do trivia contests. I asked her one time, “in all the years you have been blind in this city how many times has anyone or group done anything for you?” She said, “when my mother died, one church group brought some food and a business where my mother worked helped pay her burial costs.” Catherine’s father was Greek, had migrated to this country and served in WWII. She told me at length how she taught him English. But, after her parents had died, no one else she knew visited her, except a cousin.

Catherine discovered that she had terminal cancer. She passed away in a nursing home but she told me ahead of time that there was a burial space next to her parents and that the funeral home had instructions to just bury her without announcements or services. She said, “the world has ignored me this long and I do not want any one to remember me in death.” This writer feels very much the same way, and has left similar instructions ‘out of sight, out of mind’. Most disabled citizens are ignored by family, friends and the public. Catherine said that at her own mother’s burial, a graveside service, the funeral director got everyone else into their vehicles and left her sitting alone by the grave, since she couldn’t see what was happening. Some people don’t realize a blind person cannot see what’s going on, she’d been forgotten.

Since I had been able to see as a young person, before the war, she would ask me to describe snakes and frogs, also buildings in town that never been described to her before. She had a seeing eye dog, Alma, while in college and one car load of young people hit her and the dog in the street one day and never stopped. It killed the dog, but she survived, and of course, law enforcement did nothing. The Commission for the Blind, the Department of Aging, never did anything to help her. She was completely crippled with arthritis. She continued to care for herself and her home even though she had to crawl up and down the steps. She had had rehabilitation training at the school for the blind, but since this totally blind veteran has never had one minute of rehabilitation training, she told me many ideas about laundry and preparing food.

One matter that bothered her her entire life and which was so indicative of the discrimination of minorities, such as the disabled, is the fact that like the public schools, the schools for the blind were already segregated. The black blind students were kept at a the school in Garner and the white blind students were kept in a school in Raleigh. It was always a mystery to Catherine that the black blind students were brought to the campus of the white blind school to do the yard work, raking leaves and so forth. Now we know this is true because it has been substantiated by black, blind adults who were at these schools as children.

The worst part of her life was that people in this town took advantage of her. She had a reverse mortgage on her house which had been left to her though her mother and grandmother but often had bad money problems. Trying to get the oil burner repaired, she told me of how one jeweler in town robbed her of her mother’s jewelry. A former mayor, who deals in antiques and pawn shops, robbed her of family furniture ,including an old photo of herself in an old curved glass frame. She hired one painter to paint the patio table and four chairs for which he charged her $476 and I estimated that he used three cans of white spray paint. Because of my intervention, he refunded her $300. Another “professing Christian” charged a unnecessary amount to re-tile her kitchen floor. These are just some of the things she told me about, and I’m sure there are many, many more.

As a small child, she had one brother, Billy, who fell in a pot of boiling water while her mother was doing the family wash (with which we older people are familiar). There she was, blind, the mother trying to get the two year old out the wash pot and her mother said, “you will have to stay with him while I go to the highway to stop traffic and get help.” She said she has never gotten his screams out of her mind or the feeling of his small body in the tiny coffin. Catherine was a small, overweight but very independent woman whose time on this earth was mostly a sad, isolated experience, but unlike many who ignored her, she had a great Christian faith. I’m sure she is in a much better place at this time.

Blindness - 200th Anniversary of Braille (Repost)

#20

Yesterday, January 4th, was the 200th anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille born in France in 1809. Most citizens do not realize that the largest minority in the world are the disabled, over 38 million in the USA alone. Braille brought to the blind person the ability to communicate long before publications, radio, TV, etc. A blind person, such as your writer, can actually ride on an elevator. The Royal Society for Blindness in England, largely because of one member of Parliament who is blind, is attempting to assist the poorest African countries in helping their blind citizens who desperately need help. In Helen Keller's 1904 book ' the first book on Hitler's burn list in 1933'  she states that 'no sighted person can understand the isolation of blindness.' Active in the Blind Veterans Association for many years ' I am a totally blind, 100% disabled, service connected Korean conflict veteran' I am told that young warriors returning from present day eastern conflicts are not concerned about Veteran's benefits but only want to return to war and do more.

Blind judge JA Cathy director of the NC Department of the Blind for many years, told me, USA veterans get worst care or rehabilitation of any disabled veteran. This veteran never had one minute of rehabilitation and waited 30 years for a housing security instrument. When we hear the inconceivable language and actions of an Illinois governor the incomprehensible evil of Chicago type politicians or even the elevation of NC politicians to places of leadership 'New Hanover County Rep. in prison for corruption, State senator an embarrassment and insult to all tax paying citizens.' We calculate that citizenship means little 'and that character doe not determine destination'.

Duke Hospital is the favorite treatment facility for the Saudi Royal Family. Yesterday's papers reported that one of the Saudi royals is at Duke with its usually entourage of armed guards and servants. Money is never scarce with the Saudi royals so they bring planeloads of assistants for royal treatment. Many years ago the entourage arrived while i was taking treatment at Duke Hospital on an outpatient basis, staying at a hotel across the street, convenient to the VA. . I, a decorated veteran, was thrown out of the hotel, so the Saudi entourage could occupy the entire hotel. In these days of 'change' have we forgotten how easily the serpent 'Satan' beguiled Eve. As we see our country and everything that patriotic Americans at one time supported now turned upside down.

Count Your Blessings (Repost)

#12

Addition by Dr. Morris: My parents were reared in homes that had survived the Civil war, just two miles form one another. Both houses are still standing today, still in the family, old, beautiful wood framed houses painted white, in groves of big trees.

The church, built in 1874, both sides: great grandparents, grandparents, parents, all raised in the same church. I have been blind for a long time, but I can still hear the singing at that old church, “Count your blessings”. There were years in which the crops dried up in the fields, others they drowned in the fields, old folks died, young people died of disease or accidents. There were wars, hard times, but they still sang, “Count Your Blessings, named them one by one.”

I am convinced that God wanted me to see as much of the world as possible before I became totally blind. He did not want me to complain about my blindness, the poverty in which I was reared, the bad start my relatives and so many other people had in life. We are not stuck where we start. God wanted me to see the real poverty of the world, poverty not only in things, but in ideas, and efforts in spiritual expression. He wanted me to see the pyramids, not only in Egypt, but in Mexico and South America...wanted me to see temples, cathedrals, mosques, brush arbors, the museums in communist countries which had once been churches, the areas in the holy lands where Christ actually walked.

One can never understand blindness, I tell people to not even try it. I honestly believe that most people I know think that there times that I can see. Because I am able to take care of myself: food, clothing, business, etc. Believe me, nothing about blindness is easy...nor deafness, nor crippled body, nor crippled mind.

We do not have much record of Christ dealing with perfect people, rather the blind, the lame, sinners, and those making an effort to follow Him. He preached himself, He was either the world's greatest fraud, or He was who He said He was: the Way, the Truth, the Life. In spite of everything, God wants us to trust Him, as did His Son, Jesus Christ, and He will do the rest.

There was a blind girl who hated herself because she was blind. She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always there for her. She told her boyfriend, 'If I could only see the world, I will marry you.'

One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the bandages came off, she was able to see everything, including her boyfriend. He asked her, 'Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?' The girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was blind. The sight of his closed eyelids shocked her. She hadn't expected that. The thought of looking at them the rest of her life led her to refuse to marry him.

Her boyfriend left in tears and days later wrote a note to her saying: 'Take good care of your eyes, my dear, for before they were yours, they were mine.'

This is how the human brain often works when our status changes. Only a very few remember what life was like before, and who was always by their side in the most painful situations.

World Wide Wrestling

#555

Traveling the world, I have had many interesting airline experiences. Not being able to see, then as now, it was a matter of hearing. In Berlin, back of me, there was quite a commotion. I asked the flight attendant, “what is wrong”. She said, “the man said he must sit next to the window although he had been assigned an aisle seat because he needs fresh air.” Again, crossing the Atlantic, an elderly lady was up and down the aisle telling everyone she wanted to get off the plane. I told the attendant, “please let her off, we have enough people in America without her”. In Hawaii, returning from across the Pacific, I was taken into a private office by the FBI, and searched. Someone had reported to them that I was an obviously rich man traveling with a lot of money on me. I told the officers, “I hope you can find the money”. The thing that stopped them, going through my wallet, was my military I.D. The officer said, “you are an Army Lieutenant Colonel?” This stopped everything and they began to apologize. I said, “I don't want to hear a word of it. You could have saved yourselves and me this type embarrassment.”

This week, a mother in Shelbyville, Tennessee put her adopted son...an orphan from Russia, on a plane with a note, sending him back to Russia. She had gone through the time and expense to travel to Russia to adopt a child but when this six year old boy did not turn out as she wished, like anything else at a store she may have purchased, she thought there was a return policy...a trial period. Like going to a pet store and picking out a dog, when you get the dog home, you can always find someone to give the dog discipline lessons...dog training. Few children...fewer animals, are perfect. Many mothers have found that their children's innate genetic qualities of the husband's family. It is a matter of dealing with the situation...the essence of motherhood. Many features go into determining the quality of a diamond.

I was in Vatican City one time, standing around in St. Peter's square listening for the midnight Mass over the loudspeaker. A priest with a Roman collar walked up and said, “I have a ticket down at the front, I don't feel well, and I would like for you to have my seat”.

A friend told me he was standing outside Radio City in New York, the Beatles were making an appearance there, and the place was jam packed, including the streets on the outside. A stranger walked up to him and said, “I have a ticket on the inside but I have just received an urgent call to go to the hospital, you can have my seat”. Hastily, he went in, so thrilled with this once in a lifetime experience. When he got in he realized he had left his keys locked in his car. The experience was ruined because throughout the performance he was trying to surmise how he was going to get into his car and return home, wrestling with the thrill of the performance and the disdain of him doing something so foolish as to lock his keys in his car.

Life is wrestling match, you wrestle against good and evil every day you live. “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].” (Eph 6:12)

So much of the wrestling mortals go through is completely unnecessary. Most of us are blessed with a sound mind...able to solve problems. Think of those who have died from conflict...those forever disabled and enslaved by conflict. I speak as a totally blind, 100% disabled, service connected, medical officer, veteran. Don't even try to imagine what it is like to live every moment of your life, for over 40 years, in darkness. Some days, it seems like everything I touch falls on the floor...then it is a matter of getting down and trying to find it...or I spill something...or I get turned around somewhere. Just the matter of sweeping off your front walk, I can get turned around, hard to find my way back into the house. I keep radios on all over the house to give me direction. I heard Dr. Helen Robinson, University of Chicago, totally blind say, “if only I had enough vision to get from one room to another”. I have been fortunate enough to wrestle with the world, airports, hotels, restaurants, non English speaking people, in travel, so that I could return, write and speak about the world from a blind man's point of view. I have thousands of photographs made by a blind man with cameras. (I have been on 8 trips around the world, passport stamped in 157 countries at least once, most countries several times.) I learned years ago that most people don't care. Most people don't care that 11 million were killed in WWI or 50 million were killed in WWII. Not just military combatants, but millions of innocent women and children.

We ask, why did God allow this? He is in control. You should ask, why did God allow his only begotten son to go to the cross and suffer for the sins of the world? Why does God allow the most innocent of life to be killed, 53 million abortions since 1973 (3,000 a day, 1,452 black babies)?

I will never forget two “radio talk show experiences”. One, a black woman who lived on Castle Street, Wilmington NC, called a local talk show. She said, “I'm here in my house so sick. I'm old, I have buried all of my family. I need some help. People have told me to trust in God. THE ONLY GOD I HAVE EVER KNOWN IS A WHITE MAN'S GOD”. Again, a white woman called from Brunswick County, NC. She said, “I have finally gotten off the bed and gotten to a phone. I need help. I have been here desperately ill for days, my husband has been dead for three days here in the bed with me.” She said, “evidently someone has tried to check on us. They just come and knock at the door”. She said, “I have no feeling in my arms or legs. I have not walked in years. I have rolled over to the phone. I must have some help”.

Observing cultures all over the world, there are three things important to each life, your life purpose, your relationship with God, your relationship with family, and your relationship with others. Even Princess Diana, spectacular in every way...wealth, notoriety, power, at her life's end had the three purposes that the above black woman and white woman had. With Princess Diana, there was endless servants, money and family members. With many of us, as well as human beings around the world there is no family, often unconcerned others, only a relationship with God. He has told us, that he will never leave us nor forsake us. (Hbr 13:15) This should be of great consolation, particularly to all who live alone. We are in a world, wrestling with the world, remember this, those women in distress did get to a telephone and they did get help. Perhaps, it may be a situation such as Catherine Johnson, the black woman living in a drug infested area of Atlanta. This 92 year old black woman attempting to hold on to her only possession, her house, a drug addictive culture having grown up around her. Someone cruelly informed the police that her house was a center of drug operations. The Atlanta police came up and kicked in her door. This bed ridden, aged woman, trying to protect herself, did get off one shot but these uninformed, bully, police thugs did put 39 shots into her.

The world has changed completely in my lifetime and I predict it will not get any better.

Many think our everyday existence very mundane. I watched the great Sphinx at the great Pyramid in Egypt at Giza, at one time, nearly covered with sand. Our lives can be slowly covered. “And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.” (Mar 4:19)

Incrementally, we become unconcerned. Like a child with a supply of quarters in an arcade, we just go from one interest to another. We had rather wrestle with a game machine than the real challenges of life.

Procrastination

In 1950, a film was produced from the 1948 book Cheaper by the Dozen. The film starred Clifton Webb, an efficiency expert, who, with his wife, demonstrated to the world and their 12 children the importance of doing everything on time and in order. I barely remember the movie. I was in college at the time, but after my blindness many ideas from the movie have helped me in my discipline to maintain a routine and efficiency, which is absolutely necessary for the survival of a blind person.

After 50 years of the daily routine and challenges of life, I still find that the people I hire to work for me never fully realize the plight of those not sighted. They younger they are, the worse they are.

One black woman, who I liked very much and who really needed a job worked for me and never really understood that she could not move things around. Once anything at all is moved, it is lost forever, unless I accidentally knock it over. I can't begin to tell you how many times an employee (and I have 5 at present) will pick up the mail which comes to the house and just lay it down somewhere, anywhere. Of course they expect me to see it and find it. I do not see one thing, cannot even tell if a light is on in the room. Different people have different bizarre neurological occurrences with any blindness or any disability. Mine has always been a sudden awakening with the appearance of fire in the room. I no longer have any retina; the optic nerve heads, as far as we can tell, are completely gone. However, there is enough neurological tissue which is triggered in some manner to with some strange brain synapse that with a sudden awakening, will seem as if there is fire all around. This is truly a frightening experience because the one thing a blind person fears most is a house fire and being unable to escape. This brings on the subject of procrastination, efficiency, discipline and routine.

Over the years, owning many businesses, it is necessary to have total discipline and routine for your life. Thank God, I came from a home with parents who were totally disciplined, almost obsessive compulsive, in their lifestyle and who knew the value of conservatism and efficiency in everything. My ancestors were all governed by the convictions of God's laws. They got up early, went to bed early, worked hard all day and in every way were very productive and accomplished in their lives. I am convinced that they were in good health until their final event which took them out of this world, because every day of their life they always had a siesta (short nap) after lunch. They knew that rest was as important as work, and they knew that work was honorable. As far as I know, not one family member has ever depended on government welfare for anything.

During the great depression with Roosevelt's obscene Agricultural Stabilization Program, when the Gestapo democrat troops of Roosevelt tried to stabilize all areas of agriculture by cutting down perfectly good crops for acreage control, by killing perfectly good animals for animal husbandry control, when government regulations were just getting a start in enslaving the lives of citizens who heretofore had been free, I think my parents did take a few of the dollars (and they were few, $2 or $3 per family), which was called “parity”. In the urban areas cheese, lard, and apples were passed out. Those who think they are seeing some hard times in the beginning of this present great depression (and I believe it will get much worse because of the incredible national debt which can never be paid). There can be incredible suffering.

The stupidity of the news media is beyond comprehension. Any time there is a “dead cat bounce” anywhere, such as recently there was some positive news from Europe and it was decided here that the recession was over, we forget that we have a national debt in the trillions, that the entire world debt is 100 trillion, and that the entire world production (our GNP) is only 55 trillion. The entire world is in a state of recession and the Eugenics crowd (Rockefeller, Ford Foundations, the Bilderbergers and the Illuminati) think the solution is population control as we rapidly move toward the 7 billion figure.

When the Titanic was sinking in the North Atlantic 100 years ago (a ship which the ship builders said before it left South Hampton on it's maiden voyage that God could not sink), as it was going down one officer would walk around and say, “It is only sinking 4 inches an hour now, so relax it probably is not going to sink anymore, because previously it was sinking 10 inches an hour.” But we all know that the ship is on the bottom of the Atlantic, The last survivor, a small baby at the time, just died. The only thing worthwhile from that ship now is some memorabilia and a movie. Books are already being written about the demise of this once great republic, a country which we thought was too large and too powerful to sink.

Some things never change. Books have been written about a positive attitude: Positively Thinking and Think and Growing Rich. Discipline is a mortar that holds life together. The most important matter in life is not to procrastinate, not put things off. Someone has said that the world's largest nation is procrastination.

1. Life is much shorter than you think when you are young. Character determines destination. Do not procrastinate about building character. Your character and your reputation will follow you your entire life. Careless things will come back to haunt you. God will forgive your sins and when He forgives, He forgets. He does not allow you to forget because if He allowed you to forget your sins, you might forget your ABC's, also.
2. Saving money. Money is something you cannot procrastinate about. While it is true that our treasure is in heaven, it is fundamental that we save, put aside, after our tithes and gifts to God, a certain amount of our income. You cannot invest money you have spent, and you can only make money with money. A certain amount of money needs to be spent on expendables; food clothing, housing, etc.. But, in buying anything else consider its resale value. Geography is the most important consideration in buying real estate, residential or commercial. I had rather have a small house in a prosperous section of town then have a large house in a declining area of town. I had rather have an expensive second hand suit then a cheap new suit. I will comb second hand furniture stores to find furniture made of real wood, with real hardware that I can refurbish and refinish knowing that it is much more valuable then new stuff made of synthetic wood. One furniture manufacturer (Kemp Furniture) told me that he could make plywood to take on the appearance of any type of expensive wood. The greatest lasting fortunes have been made by hard working, entrepreneurs, who slowly invested, keeping careful control over repairs and rental incidentals. The Wall street crowd is just a bunch of crooks, like Madoff's assistant said, “Everyone knew what was going on, but no one would say anything.” From the world's financial centers to the world's political capitols, there are so many skeletons in so many closets that most just assume the 'monkey see monkey do' attitude; see nothing, say nothing, hear nothing.
3. Do not procrastinate about your health. You can pacify your pagan desires with addictive behavior such as drugs (alcohol is a drug), smoking (both tobacco and the other stuff from which 500,000 die each year), over-eating (50% of the population is diabetic). Most Americans dig there graves with a fork. I have traveled the world (157 countries), and America is the only country where you see fat people. Heart attack, cancer and stroke are the big killers. All can be prevented by being careful about what you put in the gullet. Cancer will not grow in an alkaline body. Leave off sugar and salt, and the greatest poison of all, artificial sweeteners. The soil is so completely depleted of nutrients (it takes 20 carrots now to get the nutrition of a carrot of 50 years ago), that it is totally necessary to take supplements. The average life span of an American is 78 years. The average life span of some one who lives in Africa is 40 years. There is no reason why anyone should be sick if you eat correctly, exercise daily, and practice good hygiene. Think everyday of how many hand rails and door knobs you touch. Next to the air you breathe which came out of someone else's nostrils and the fingers on the ends of your arms is the firewall protecting you from disaster.
4. Do not procrastinate about exercise. The early years of this republic our people were hard working, rural dwellers. Even in urban areas, it was necessary to work hard. We have become a lazy people, a service oriented society. Children, seeing that their parents chief interest in life is watching the trash on television (average TV time 6 hours a day), see their visual space, their world get smaller as their bottoms become larger (most children become near sighted early in life). The term “couch potato” describes all ages. As we become victims, not only of the world, flesh and the devil, but the confining, restricted interior world of TV, computers, and the cell phone. Everyone jokes about we old folks walking several miles to school, but we did. We also walked to church. It did not kill us to climb stairs (escalators and elevators were unknown until the 20th century). Now, if one has to go further then a few blocks, it is necessary to ride in a car, taxi or bus. Most exercise machines are just used for coat racks, and the school playgrounds and ball fields have become parking lots for the students old enough to have a drivers license. The over indulged and spoiled generation which should be trim and healthy, has become fat and debilitated by parents who were the worshipers of Dr. Spock, who promoted a permissive society. Few know that Dr. Spock apologized for writing that book (50 million copies in 59 translations) before he died. It is the permissive generation that has allowed the poison of pornography (more pornography outlets than McDonald restaurants in the USA), the patronage of fast food, the imbecilic attachment to the computer, the forfeiture of every principal that we hold dear in our republic and in most religions.

It is perfectly natural for anyone to procrastinate. Everyone objects to change. We procrastinate about changing doctors, lawyers, even employees, when we know we should. We tolerate mediocrity because it is easier to, because everyone has the idea that things could get worse. Cemeteries are full of people who should have changed doctors. Appeals courts dockets are backed up with cases of clients who should have changed lawyers. Many businesses would have flourished that floundered because of phlegmatic employees. I learned early as an employer that you are far better off to go through the throws of employee change, than to persist and procrastinate with one who will never be an asset anywhere. The most serious disease of procrastination is failing to prepare for the unexpected. The priest and prophets and even financial advisors do not know anymore then you know. It is the unexpected events in life for which we must prepare. The most dangerous procrastination is that of our eternal future. Do not procrastinate; prepare for a very certain eternity. When I was a child, before the bombardment of minds with televisions and other advertisements, one would ride down the highway and see signs for Burma Shave. Then there would be a sign which said, “Prepare to meet God.” Don't procrastinate in this preparation.

Money in the Bank

This week, President Obama spoke before the AMA holding their annual convention in Chicago. The AMA represents only about a third of the practicing doctors in the United States. Most of this third are liberal democrats, medical school faculty members, and those who have for many years promoted the idea of social medical care, rather than personal medical care. The esteem with which most doctors are held by the public results from the grandeur of personal medical care. A care which has given the profession gratuity of the public, bordering on righteousness. In fact, some doctors have been treated like god to the extent that they believe they are god. The problem is that all this self adornment in no way relieves suffering.

It was not until I opened my practice, and I did practice for a while, in spite of my military disability, because with that...as with everything else in my life... I had the determination that I could accomplish things beyond the realm of possibility. When it reached the place that it was necessary for a nurse to stand over me constantly and watch everything I did, just in case I made a wrong move, I knew it was time to “hang up the shingle” and do other things. I had a large practice, and have already forgotten more than most doctors know. For a period of time, I was just there training others to do the work, while giving these patients who had built this large practice, the assurance that I was around.

One young doctor practicing with me said one time, “I wish these people thought as much of me as they do of you.” I said, “When you have been as good to them as I have been, they will think the sun rises in your backyard also.” Eighty percent of health care is psychological, and your attitude, your genuineness in each regardless of their station in life always is a predictor of progress. I am sorry to report to you that most of the stability of love between doctor and patient has disappeared in this time of assembly line care. When the entire system revolves around seeing as many, as quickly as possible, and depending mostly on technicians to do the actual work. I am sorry to report to you that the Veteran's Administration is the most inept health care system in the nation, and if the socialized health care system is built on the model of the VA system, there will be more problems than one can even imagine.

I am sorry to report to you that most government agencies and commissions responsible for health care are negligent and unreliable. I speak from a variety of experiences, both as a practitioner and as a patient. For instance, as a totally blind, 100% disabled service-connected veteran of the Korean Conflict for over forty years, I challenge anyone to prove that the North Carolina State Commission for the Blind has ever been to my house, but once, and has never done anything for me as of this date. On talk radio, I have offered one thousand dollars to anyone who can show that this commission, or any church, any civic club, any veteran's group, has ever done anything for this veteran.

After thirty years, at a VA hospital, I was given a “talking watch.” (Julia Roberts, not the movie star, a representative for the blind was amazed that I did not have such a utilitarian help or a security system including fire control for my house) For thirty years, I had placed cement blocks at the exit doors of my house to assist the locks, in case of break-ins. This would at least give me time to get help by phone. Now, if the VA, the Blind Commission, Social Services, Lion's Club, or any of these other “do-gooder” organizations had made any attempt to assist this one citizen, such would have been discovered.

If iron rusts what do you expect gold to do? If these highly paid bureaucrats and political appointees to these commissions are not capable of such care for a ranking officer and one of my profession, what happens to those who are more “meek”? Many blind and disabled, having heard me on national radio talk shows as an advocate of veterans and the disabled, have told me that they resist making any complaint because they and their family depend on the small pension and other aid given, and are afraid such will be cut off, and they will be left even more destitute.

For eight years, as a struggling,poor university student from the depths of poverty, I not only worked at night while in school, but sold books door-to-door in the summer, covering all of eastern North Carolina. I have written about these experiences (The Life of a Bible Salesman) in many publications. The education I received in learning to deal with God's greatest creation, the “salt-of-the-earth” people in their homes, and in their fields.

In Bladen County, near White Lake, the very area where John Henry White, black republican Congressmen who represented this area of eastern NC in Washington until 1900, was born on a turpentine plantation. I came upon a small white house with the usual front porch and on the porch was a black man who I learned was a WW2 veteran bilaterally paralyzed (one side totally paralyzed). The wounds received in battle, the paralytic condition, had led to blindness in one eye and because of the “sympathizing disease” crossed into the other, had become totally blind...both paralyzed and blind.

As he told me, his wife had deserted him for another man during the war, leaving his mother, with whom he now lived, with two daughters. The two daughters were now in the child-bearing age, and indeed several children were playing around the yard (his grandchildren). He said, “I get a VA disability check every month, but I never see any of the money because my mother and two daughters live off the money, and they feel I am 'blessed just to have a roof over my head', and whatever 'crumbs' they will feed me. My mother and two daughters do not work at all, except some housekeeping jobs at White Lake during the summer. It is my disability check which keeps them in food, “booze”, and puts gasoline in their cars. When I get so sick I am almost dead, they may take me to the VA hospital in Fayetteville. I sit here on the porch day after day, just praying for death knowing that my country has deserted me even though I was willing to defend it.”

Years later, having become more acquainted with warfare, veteran's activity, government responsibilities, and even being a victim of such myself, I wrote to Judge Cathey, Chairman of the State Blind Commission, whom I had met at one time, remembering this man on that porch in that county. I do not know whether anything was done about the condition or not. Some years ago, I brought these same conditions, as well as my personal experience, and the conditions of the blind and veterans to the attention of a current Commission Chairman, a man by the name of Deluca, who is reportedly a lawyer.

He became quite irate that I would challenge him about the work of the Commission and the fact that I had written many letters to legislators. I am sad to report to you that my letters to members of the legislature, my attempts to clarify and rectify problems affecting the blind and the disabled in this state have not been well-received. To the best of my knowledge, nothing has improved. The question is, a tremendous amount of money is appropriated, but what happens to it?

Some years ago on the radio, a woman, Cathryn Vasalou, now dead, blind from birth, spending her early life at the School for the Blind in Raleigh, told about the blind children from the Black School for the Blind, located in Garner. They would be taken to the White School for the Blind to rake the leaves on the grounds and do the cleaning around the school, instead of the white blind children doing their own. The hostess for the radio talk show could not believe these words, but a blind lady (Katie) who I understand is a retired school teacher called and said that she was a blind student at the Garner facility at the time and that the situation was certainly true.

In the American Experience, next to slavery, the greatest shame of this nation is its treatment of disabled veterans and handicapped citizens.

Supposedly, THE MONEY HAS ALWAYS BEEN IN THE BANK FOR THIS GREAT NATION to pay the social workers, veteran's administration (particularly the Blind Veteran's Administration) the State Commission for the Blind, charities such as civic clubs (Lions, whose mission is blindness), churches, philanthropists, and even concerned citizens to make life a little easier or at least livable for those who in most instances from no fault of their own find themselves, chosen of God, “to share in the fellowship of His suffering.” (Philippians 3:10)