Carnations

I have always been interested in politics, probably because my ancestors, who had founded Morristown, New Jersey, were some of the few Republicans in the community. In fact, my family were the only Republicans in the community; hard working, law-abiding, “hard-shell” Christians, who had no interest in the Democrat, secular-humanist philosophy, only the Judeo-Christian way of life. God, family country. Until this very day, July 4, 2009, I can say without fear of contradiction that most of the Democrats I have known in a long, active life were and are hypocrites. They do a lot of talking about love of country and love of God, but when the “rubber meets the road”, it is just talk. Like most of my black friends, particularly black preachers, they vote the D more than the C (Democrat rather than Christian). Just look at their devotion to President Obama; their insanity over Michael Jackson. The fact that they will never discuss with you the PLURALITY of black men in prison, the PLURALITY of black abortions, the PLURALITY of black school failures, and the PLURALITY of black fatherless homes is the reason that this 13% of the population has reversed the cry of racism and is apt to cause much more bitterness as tax dollars become much more demanded.

The first Governor I can remember, as a very small child, was a hero of my father's, who wanted me to meet him, Governor Clyde Hoey. Hoey, sitting in his limousine in the city of Wilson with a large white carnation on his lapel. This distinguished gentleman, corporate lawyer as well as Bible scholar, always wore a fresh carnation. I was in the hospital at Duke University on that Sunday morning at 9:15, when Governor William B. Umstead died. Lieutenant Governor Luther Hodges was not notified until he had gotten home from church. Governor Hodges always wore a fresh carnation in his lapel.

I was active in a large Baptist church in Memphis (Bellevue Baptist) where the ushers always wore fresh carnations in their lapels. I protested this extravagance, refused to wear one of the carnations because I felt that God's money could be better spent and so the situation changed. I have always resented families and friends who purchase great wreaths of carnations that the dead could not see or smell, when, in most cases, nothing, not even a kind word had been given to the deceased in life. At my demise, and I realize we are all just one breath away from eternity, I want no service, no memorials of any type, because anyone who wants to do anything for me has certainly had the chance while I so sorely needed it while alive. (Totally blind for nearly 40 years, living alone, depending on others.)

I say without fear of contradiction that I have lived more frugally than anyone can imagine so that I could give to God's work in awards, scholarships, etc. I can certainly say without fear of contradiction, that most people who resent me, do so for that reason. In a family, those who give the most are resented the most. And, there is nothing more damaging to God than a thankless child. “How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!” (Shakespeare's King Lear)

How well I remember, as if yesterday, speaking at a youth conference at the Southern Baptist Convention, in the early 50s and I said, “If Satan had wanted to design something to make people just as mean as possible, he would have designed a TV set.” Is there anyone who will disagree with that assessment now?

Much of the sorriness of today's children, comes from the sorriness of their parents. They all grew up members of the Dr. Spock generation. Dr. Spock sold 50 million books translated into 39 languages telling parents that they should be permissive with their children; that they might damage their children's psyche if they disciplined and trained their child. Few realize that before Dr. Spock died, he apologized for writing his book and admitted that he was wrong. (Few doctors would mind admitting wrong after collecting for the sales of 50 million books.)

John J. Parker, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (1925-58), observed: “The purpose of a state Constitution is two-fold: (1) to protect the rights of the individual from encroachment by the State; and (2) to provide a framework of government for the State and its subdivisions. It is not the function of a Constitution to deal with temporary conditions, but to lay down general principles of government which must be observed amid changing conditions. It follows, then, that a Constitution should not contain elaborate legislative provisions, but should lay down briefly and clearly fundamental principles upon which government shall proceed, leaving it to the people's representatives to apply these principles through legislation to conditions as they arise.” The constitution of the great state of North Carolina, like the constitution of most states, is bereft of any power anymore, because the crooked state politicians have joined the crooked national politicians at the federal trough.
I am still amazed that my parents, as poor as we were, subscribed to a newspaper, which was delivered every day. I became a political addict reading everything about the political system of this country: Drew Pearson, Roland Giduz, J. Marse Grant, Eleanor Roosevelt and the Under the Dome section from Raleigh. Incomprehensible then, as is now, particularly, when I would go to the state capital during legislative sessions and witness the Democrats, totally in charge of everything, (not one black, not one woman, not one republican) keeping eastern North Carolina in abject slavery, but depending entirely on their Democrat lock-step vote to stay in power.

Eastern North Carolina highways 95-301 to the ocean, was known for poor dirt roads (only two or three paved highways in the entire eastern part of the state: Highway 70 from Raleigh to Morehead City, two lane), deprived schools particularly the segregated black schools, tenant farmers hijacked by elitist tobacco warehouse men, cotton mill workers hijacked by elitist wealthy families and Jewish merchants without loyalty to the rich or poor who summered in wonderful homes on the segregated beaches where blacks were not allowed to even put their feet in the water, but never let news-people forget their gifts to the universities and other charities. Frank Porter Graham, UNC-CH, Hollis Edens, Duke University, John D. Messick, ECU, Josephus Daniels, Editor News & Observer, Henry Belk, Editor Goldsboro News Argus, all such great Christians, all such great Democrats, would not even peep over the color barrier to allow a black student onto a state supported university campus.

Even more hideous, the “bifocal Yankees”, who through the upper part of their glasses, from up north, hypocritically criticized the south for the racial and slavery principles towards both black and white, when they moved down and started looking though the lower part of their glasses, up close, instead of assisting those of us who wanted to make a change of the life of the poor in the eastern part of the state just climbed into the box with the Democrat hypocrites. You cannot lift a box while standing in it. You have to be on the outside of the box in order to lift the box, in order to make a movement of any type.
Like Tom Pearsall, and his Pearsall Plan, to make changes in education in North Carolina, like my friend, Governor Terry Sanford, who sent many of us to New York City trying to entice industry to eastern North Carolina, where there was a wealth of everything required for industry, his only interest in the unyielding poverty, both black and white in eastern North Carolina was just their Democrat vote. Like the other Democrat governors who for the past 100 years have been in power (Hunt, Broughton, Moore, etc.) the fresh carnations, eating off of gold plates, expensive food served by prison trustees was only for them and their ilk. Not those who have planted and nourished the flowers which they have picked.

Like roadkill, the poor Democrats, the poor Republicans, the hard-working sweating, tax-paying citizens, of predominately eastern part of the state have been satisfied with table scraps. It always amazed me that people from eastern North Carolina, with good eyes, with a few brain cells still functioning, could not see that the tax money of the state was being spent in Piedmont and western North Carolina where politicians had Republican competition. Do the pastors, do the teachers, do the parents of eastern North Carolina both black and white, rich and poor, learned and unlearned, actually think that God is as blind as they are and that the inequality existing in this state is not duly scored?