Zwieback

It was my first trip to Germany, not that long after WWII and the Korean conflict. At the time I still had some vision in the left eye. West Berlin was well under restoration, even then on the Ku'damm (Kurfurstendamm) there were beautiful stores, prosperous-appearing people. The great Kaiser Wilhelm Cathedral was still in ruins (now, a memorial), but they had built the great Europa Center. At the hotel, I met an American Jewish couple from Minneapolis, who had survived Auschwitz, both still had their numbers tattooed on their arms. They were sent to the Nazi prison camp as children in 1938, so they were both about my age. The one thing that has always amazed me about people who had undergone such horrendous treatment...they could still laugh. He was in the wholesale plumbing business, manufacturing garbage disposals, and they had been very successful.

They asked me to go to East Germany with them, where they had been reared as children. This was the first time I went through Checkpoint Charlie, even though I went through it several times. I still have not forgotten the growling dogs on leashes, the mirrors looking under the vehicle. The vehicle and driver checked totally before we were allowed to proceed, as if someone would want to escape from West Germany to East Germany.

It was like black and white: West Berlin so prosperous, rebuilding; East Berlin still so destitute and destroyed. As the driver went down one street, this couple began to weep. She said, “this is the street on which we lived as children”. This was their first homecoming. After another block or two she began to shriek, there was an old lady on the street, walking with a cane. She said, “there is my aunt Sarah. I thought she was dead.” They got out of the car and I have never known such sobbing and hugging. The aunt had been to the store to buy Zwieback bread, she insisted that I eat a piece of the bread.

I remember Zwieback bread because my parents, probably from their European heritage, bought Zwieback for their children to eat when young, teething. The couple had lost contact with the aunt because in the craziness of Communism there was no way to investigate anything. The miracle: that the aunt still live closed by and just happened to be on the street at that particular time.

In everything, even in dealing with Nazism, Communism, the Holocaust...the mercies of the Lord endure forever (Psalm 118) This Psalm, 118, is exactly half way through the Bible, everything in God's Word on either side of this Psalm proves that the mercies of the Lord endure forever.

Another year, I met the same couple in South America, Rio de Janiero at the time of Carnival, I went with them to visit a friend from Auschwitz living in Rio, an artist/canvas-painter, I purchased two paintings from him, which I have since sold. As they told me, over and over, of the horrors of Auschwitz where most of their families were killed, they often quoted the words of Malcolm Muggeridge, “human life is always sacred.”

Life is a matter of looking back. Looking back, we know that many “so-called” facts in science and history were wrong, but at the time it was the only knowledge they had. Looking back, Jews, even American Jews, understand the ambitions of Nazism, just as the Jews, following the orders of Joshua (he, following the orders of God) marched around the fortress city of Jericho, they had no idea what they were doing. They learned that you trust...to obey is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22).

Looking back, we will see that “homeland security” began in Nazi Germany. Every time you go through inspections, scanning, remember that it began in Nazi Germany. The poisons from chem-trails in the air, fluoride in your drinking water, leeching toxins from plastics, your lack of ozone which purifies the earth, totalitarianism, it all began in Nazi Germany. Safety is not the absence of danger, but the presence of God. You can always look backwards and see the hand of God.

In my youth, our country church, and even the churches in the city, were the refueling stations for the soul...Sunday best, the mantle of the God. Looking back, only a mental midget would say that things have changed for the better, only for the worst, life on the farm or in the city, school, college, the church. Colleges counting numbers instead of making numbers count, in most churches you do not even see a Christian cross, political life is a matter of compromise, you do what the big boys want or you are sacrificed...the monetary fund official accused of rape, the big boys were finished with him (him wanting to become the president of France) as well as Schwarzenegger, as well as bin Laden, as well as Gaddafi.

In every Marian apparition, whether Lourdes (1858), Fatima (1917), Guadalupe (1531), and all the others, it was always peasants who had the vision. The church verified the supernatural, and millions visit the sights every year. We know about the miracles at Lourdes and yet there are over 200 tourist traps lining the roads, selling everything imaginable, even a Virgin Mary cigarette lighter. Looking backward, we know that God moves in mysterious ways; His wonders to performs. (Hymn, William Cowper)

Dialogue

At a time when the perimeters of every airport should be under surveillance, when checked baggage and packages should be scanned or sniffed by a bomb-seeking dog, at a time when Americans are put through scanners like radiated meats and perverts roam their hands around in your clothing. We understand the importance of dialogue, talking to one another.

I have been through many checkpoints in my life of travel, the most famous, Checkpoint Charley, dividing east and west Berlin. How well I remember the dogs, the mirrors, as they looked under vehicles. Of course, the inspections were on the east German side, no one from west Germany, west Berlin were trying to get into the east German, Russian-controlled side, where communism has made a once beautiful city and country a place of wanton desolation.

The story is told of a West German going to work in east Germany, each day passing through Checkpoint Charley. Each day he had a wheelbarrow with a bail of hay. One day a guard said, “I know you are smuggling something.” He and the other guards began to search the hay, “you might as well tell us what you are smuggling.” The west German said, “wheelbarrows.”

Over and over we have seen lives and industries ruined, such as the airline industry ruined because of our failure to communicate. My grandfather was the last farmer to sign Mr. Roosevelt's soil conservation and crop control, local farm legislation, legislation which controlled all farming operations on the family farm, acreage, livestock, marketing. He said, “it is like putting a noose around a farmers neck.” From then until now, worsening with every socialized control, American farming is disappearing. 70% of all produce is now shipped into America from other countries.

About 50 years ago, because of conflicts affecting the Christian church, the Catholic church and the Jewish community, I became active in the National Conference of Christians and Jews, (now the National Conference for Community and Justice), started in 1927 by Supreme Court justice Charles Evans Hughes. Because every religion is interrelated historically, Judeo/Christian, Judeo/Catholic, Judeo/Islamic, all from the same beginnings. It was founded in response to anti-denominational furor around Al Smith was running for President, the conference tried to reach all areas of discrimination, particularly that affecting the disabled, the poor, and those generally disenfranchised because of class.

America is supposed to be a society of equality and justice, but Roosevelt, influenced by such communists as his vice President Henry Wallace, his Chief of Staff Harry Hopkins, Supreme Court appointments such as Hugo Black (member of the KKK), increased discrimination and lack of justice at one of the worst times in American history, the Great Depression. Today, we have a greater need for dialogue than ever before, never has the clamor about things with which we might personally disagree been greater. We seem unable to compromise, even listen, because of the noise of controversy.

I remember in the city of Hong Kong, the noisiest city of the world, how quiet it was to go into a Buddhist temple. I remember how quiet a plane becomes just before touchdown. In a country of the big band sound, fireworks, the constant insane beat and lyrics from radios tuned to low-life radio stations which abound from cars at every traffic light.

The world's attempt to show solace and sadness at times of personal community grief, the effort not to offend anyone at a graduation, this matter of a “moment of silence”. Only one who is blind misses the joy of sight, only one who is crippled misses the thrill of walking. Only one who is deaf really appreciates sound, from the first breath of the new born child, sound. We like sound, because then we know the world is alive. Our blessed Lord said, “he that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” (Matthew 11:15) At Pentecost, 50 days after our Lord's Resurrection, there should have been more hearing and less talking (tongues). I believe that God wants to hear our petitions, praises, please.

At a recent university graduation, the serenity was ruined by a moment of silence, instead of vocally pleading with God for guidance. Yesterday, Mr. Obama had a moment of silence, concerning the Saturday massacre. He being a Sunni Muslim, as Colonel Kadafi has said, “Obama is strict Muslim, he probably does not want to offend the Christians, Catholics, and other cults of America by participating in a prayer service.” We know that academics, politicians, pragmatists, look upon prayer as a moral superstition. But you will find very few, only those who are truly self-destructive, who do not believe in God. God in the spirit of man is as natural as breathing. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Romans 1:28-32)

If there has ever been a time when voices should be raised heavenward, seeking the mercies of God, it is now. We have been silent too long. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. (Psalm 2:12)

X-Rated Checkpoint Charlie

The most famous security checkpoint in the world was on the Berlin Wall separating East and West Berlin. I went through Checkpoint Charlie twice before the wall was torn down. The East Germans were so paranoid because of their Russian indoctrination, no one in their right mind would want to escape to East Germany, the bleak Communist poverty everywhere. Most escapees those trying to escape, east to west, going through I remember the sniffing dogs, the long mirrors use to look under vehicles.

I well remember my first airplane flight, during the time of propeller-driven planes, those who flew, back then, were well-dressed, treated royally by the airline. Like the transatlantic luxury liners years before air flight, passengers used steamer trunks, and were treated like royalty by the shipping lines.

Starting in my youth, we have seen a gradual, certain incremental lowering of all privacy, fascination with sex, voyeurism, and those who do not mind exposing themselves...in general, sexuality and insensitivity converging to today's airport. There has never been any fascination with the sexuality of old people, disabled people, fat people, ugly people, it has all been a matter of the sexual promiscuity and attractiveness of youth. The screen magazines, such stars as Lana Turner in a sweater, a fascination with breasts, then came Dolly Parton. Fortunes have been made from nudity in such magazines as Playboy, and such homosexual magazines such as Playgirl. I understand Playgirl offered $250,000 to both Michael Jordan and Prince Charles to publish a picture of them in the raw, since the news was out that they were both well-endowed. It is a matter of the loss of privacy, intimacy, the violation of sexuality, which has been so offensive in cases of rape and pedophilia.

Fortunes have been made from the pornography industry. On the backstreets of almost any town were “porno shops”, then came private booths where porno films could be viewed. These stores have since disappeared because the best of any type porno is now found in your own living room via the internet. Sections of some cities such as Times Square, Manhattan, were filled with sex movie houses along with the female prostitution and gay bathhouses, all usually converging together, agenda of the gay-communist-pagan taking over America and the world. Now, instead of a child waiting until the age of 18 to enter a porno store, it all starts early, boys, girls, housewives, every age, every social ladder, every academic background. All thinking that it is done in secrecy, that no one will find out.

We became slowly but surely adapted to the takeover of our privacy for the sake of security in bag searching. This was all a hoax, particularly in America. In traveling the world, my camera bag was actually searched, my checked baggage searched. I always carried a large bag of pens, cigarette lighters and such, to give away to those who I photographed, etc. Such was actually found by foreign airlines, the captain would have me pick up this contraband at the end of the flight. I once bought 12 pearl-handled steak knifes at a shop in New York City. I thought, in my camera bag, they will be found, but I can pick them up at the end of the flight. As usual, my bag went right through the so-called X-ray machine, and the attendants, talking to one another, never noticed a thing. I tried the same with a .22 caliber revolver, in the same camera bag, which I transported from North Carolina to New York City. I had promised the doorman in my condo apartment building a revolver, with which to defend his family. Nothing found, nothing said.

I talked about these incidents on the radio. If the local sheriff had any interest in security on airlines, he would have investigated to see which day I flew and who was on security.

35,000 feet in the air, no one questions the need for safety, it is unsafe enough just to be flying in this germ-laden cylinder. Most diseases are rampant because of the air we breathe, the air coming from someone else's nose to mine. The face triangle is the area most associated with disease and disease prevention, the mouth and nose. The nostrils have cilia which filter out much debris, the mucosa of the nostrils have cilia which become erect, sensitive to all particles, only the genital areas of the body have such cilia. It is microbiology entering the body through the air we breathe from the nose and mouth, into the lungs, distributed throughout the body, contagions, which cause most of our diseases. Nothing is more unhealthy than air flight.

I landed on the French island of Reunion in the Indian ocean, a stop-over for most airlines. Because of the nudity at the swimming pool, I stayed clear of most social activity. I noticed that all the airline crews were frolicking, partying, drinking until the early hours of the morning. A member of the hotel staff said to me, “it is always that way. You could not hire me to get on a plane which they fly.” I think most airline personnel, in spite of the splendid uniforms of the captain and his crew, know the dissipation of their lifestyle and professional work.

The derangement of accepted morals affecting society have culminated and converged at the airport. When Cosmopolitan magazine would publish the nude centerfold photographs of John Davidson, Jim Brown, or Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown. Why did we not think that society has gone in to an eclipse of degeneracy? We have become a perverse society, staging our perversion on the innocence of children, the chastity of women, the sissification of men. Only degenerates find enjoyment in fondling the genitalia of anyone: same-sex, opposite sex, and certainly that of children. Now, as an answer to prayer, the voyeurs, perpetrators of immorality, insensitive pagans are members of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Who cares if your privacy is violated, your body radiated?

It bothered me more that an animal's privacy was degraded in the sex act of reproduction, than gay Arnold Schwarzenegger in bodybuilding poses, or Vanessa Williams showing off her “stuff” in a centerfold. It has all lead to where we are now. I leave you with the following advice: “Don't Fly. Deny. Don't Buy. Don't Comply. Just Occupy Until He Comes.”

Adventures of War

Checkpoint Charlie was located in the wall dividing East and West Berlin.  The Berlin Wall was 96 miles long, dividing the Eastern-Russian section of Germany from the Allied-Western section of Germany. Checkpoint Charlie was an opening made famous by movies and the media, because it was a symbol of the Cold War. In going from the western side to the eastern side through Checkpoint Charlie, I was amazed at the security measures involved. There were dogs sniffing everything, large mirrors were put under the vehicles to make sure people or contraband was not being moved, everything was searched. The amazing thing, no one from the western side would possibly want to escape to the eastern side and escape from the eastern side to the western side was extremely rare.

Before the division of the city, these people, speaking the same language, enjoying the same history and culture, had fought together under Hitler. It was almost unthinkable that those captured and aligned on the eastern side with the Russians, where life was a bleak struggle for existence would “synapse” with the Russians against their countrymen on the western side of the wall. (Perhaps this was the case of the Stockholm syndrome, where captives become friends with the captors). Western Berlin, not that long after WWII, was one of the most prosperous places I have encountered, in spite of the damage of warfare. Of course, since the “tearing down” of the Wall in more modern history, after a time of cultural problems, the East and West Germans have formed a good union.

King Arthur, a legendary British leader, led the defense of England against the Saxon invasion. In one great battle, hundreds of men were lined up on Arthur’s side ready to go to battle, a short distance opposite, the Saxons were lined up ready for battle. Two front lines of healthy, well armed men who had no knowledge of one another, yet ready to kill each other with the command of their leader. Arthur, seeing the futility of such action, as well as the “waste of war” decided to have a meeting with the opposing commander. Sitting together with their aides, they had worked out a peaceable solution to their problem. When a poisonous snake attacked one of the aides, the aide took his sword to kill the snake. The sun reflecting off the sword was interpreted by both sides as the signal for war, a tremendous battle ensued and only four men of all the hundreds survived, hundreds were dead for no apparent reason.

There will be few survivors after a nuclear blast. All it will take is one deranged person near a switch on a nuclear silo, a coup d’éta in a third world country with nuclear weapons such as Pakistan. A nuclear cloud from just one weapon, and there are thousands, can wipe out civilization.

From ancient history to modern times, there have only been three years in the history of man when a war was not taking place. During the past 500 years, England has been to war 75 times, France has been to war 63 times and Russia 62 times. There was only 21 years between WWI and WWII. During that time, over 4,000 peace treaties were signed.  It cost America $20,000 dollars for each opposing person killed in WWI, it cost America $200,000 dollars for each person killed in WWII. Can one even imagine what it is costing today for each person killed on the opposing side? And can one even think how much it is costing America for each of our finest killed, as well as the thousands who are wounded and must be cared for, for life?

During WWI, one newspaper had the following headline, “Great Battle Fought, Only One Man Killed.” It was only one man for the country, but it was a father, a husband, and a son for one family and a valued member of one community. The grief of such a loss, although only one, was almost unbearable for this one man’s four children, this one man’s wife, and this one man’s parents. Such is war. Many live with war everyday of their life, the blind, the amputee, the mentally inflicted.

You wear your uniform proudly, but you never recover from military service. In a VA hospital, I saw a large sign, “We honor our veterans”. Any veteran who has had the experience of the ineptness and callus service at a VA facility knows, that like the advertisements on TV and radio concerning veterans, that it is just so much talk, and talk is cheap. The only truth from any of these Public Service Announcements: “Freedom is not free.”

War has always been romanticized. In European history, very much like a family dispute, very few people realized that, WWI when England was at war with Germany, Queen Victoria’s grandson was the Kaiser of Germany. Conglomerate corporations on both sides, continued to do business with one another. People of wealth in countries at war just travel to expensive resorts in nations not at war and just “sit the whole thing out”. It has always been the sons of the disenfranchised who have paid the price of war.

Hypocrisy has always been a way of life. Military orders can be changed with the right political influence. I still remember the very handsome, articulate, wealthy, young doctor who had the political influence to get his orders changed so he got my assignment and I got his. In war, as in everything else, it is not what you know, but who you know.

I employed a housekeeper for a long time, a black woman, member of a large black church, she amazed me with details of church activity, the most gruesome. The pastor felt it was his obligation to visit the “widows” and other single women in the church and extend to them sexual attention.

Perversion has become glorified, particularly among young people. The glorification and acceptance of homosexuality, same-sex marriage, increased popularity of a president who did not hide his perversion, has led the entire nation down the path of promiscuity, permissive parenting, and total anti-Christian behavior. The everyday chant and dance, “anything goes” and so has gone the integrity of a blessed nation.

In 1949, a reporter asked Dr. Albert Einstein, “What is the future of nuclear energy?” He said, “If we are still around, ask me in 20 years.” The great preacher Dr. R.G. Lee said, “Most people want to live, but we have produced a generation intent on death.”