A Chorus Line

#445

A Chorus Line was a long running Broadway play. I remember that it was in a theater next to Shubert Alley. Blind, when walking alone, I had to have certain land marks and Shubert Alley was my land mark for most theaters. The play involved a group of girls, mostly black, auditioning for a part in a Broadway play on a large, vacant stage with just the choreographer. Each one had a story to tell of being sexually molested as a child, or some other horrific experience, on their way up the ladder to performing in a Broadway play. Always, as with most of us who do not fit into the norm of the talented sophisticate, whether disabled or disowned, we know the hypocrisy of other people, particularly fair-weather friends, faulty family members and, certainly, the pretending found in most churches and schools. Ill treatment is as old as mankind. The first two brothers born into the world, born to parents without navels, one killed the other.

The “costume of compassion” has been placed on society in many forms. It is usually just a veneer, easily recognized, easily penetrated. Senator Reid showed his true feelings towards black people just as much as another Democrat, Margaret Sanger (founder of Planned Parenthood), when she referred to blacks as “weeds”. 80% of all Planned Parenthood abortion clinics are found in black neighborhoods, targeted for black abortions. I will never understand why and how blacks can vote, in lock step, for Democrats when they know, just as well as I know, that white Democrats have a superior feeling towards them. Surely they have heard Hillary and Bill Clinton imitate them in speech patterns which, I am told by people in Arkansas, got Bill many white votes. One of the outstanding university officials, sitting in my house, told me in all sincerity that he believed, “George W. Bush had been coached to speak like a redneck.” Such is the “chorus line” of politicians.

In the fragmented Christian world, the black church is the first victim. My first experience in a black service was as a student in Memphis when I attended black services and learned the art of “hooping”, “squawling”, and other methodical, mystical pseudo-voodoo characteristics the black brought over from Africa and which have been used in the black churches since. Blacks have survived slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination, but their ancient methods of worship still persist. If you listen to a service, you will find the use of drums, or hitting a note on the organ every few seconds, to instill within the audience a medium of activity strange to those who like quiet worship. The holy dance, the use of hand cymbals, modulation of speech and music, is peculiar to most black churches, although some of this activity exists in the white Pentecostal denominations. Obama is very familiar with this type worship but he has tried to separate himself from the black worship service. The frenzy and emotion is the “gravy” of the black experience, along with the “meat” of the sermon. This is the art form our black ancestors brought over with slavery. This is their “chorus line”.


Attending many civic club meetings, speaking at some, I found it was usually a group of concerned men who come together to sing, eat, burp and then go home. This is the “chorus line” of the service community, and I was one of them for many years.

My last civic club meeting, I was asked by a local member of the local Lion's Club to speak. I had been turning down all speaking engagements for many years, it's just too much of a hassle, but he would not give up so I told him I would speak on the comparison of the North and South Poles. As always in travels, I used one camera for slides just in case of this. So, I had some beautiful slides of both the Arctic and Antarctic. My assistant, an older woman, helped me prepare my slide projector for the presentation. We selected the slides which she thought were most beautiful. She described each one to me and gave the ones I would use in the projector a number. I memorized the number along with the photograph. So, when he came to take me to the downtown restaurant location where the Lions met, I told him all he would have to do is just give me the number.

I have seen a pride of lions in Africa, laying, always sleeping with their feet in the air. This Lion's Club was almost as unconcerned about their speaker. Although I like good food as well as anyone, I told them to bring me just a sandwich and cup of coffee because I did not like to entertain people who get a kick from watching a blind person eat. I remember how I was dressed, a beautiful light tan suit and beautiful tie, and I believe I made a most impressive presentation. I wound it up by saying, “I want to express my appreciation for your interest in the blind. The photographs you have seen today, at the top and bottom of the world, were made by a blind man. Your speaker is totally blind, spending many years preparing to take care of the eyes of the public. His message to you, 'There are none so blind as those who will not see and who do not appreciate the greatest gift God gave other than life itself.'”

When I returned to the house, my excited assistant said, “Oh, I know they were all so happy over your presentation.” I said, “Never again.” I said to her, “Would you believe that an organization of men dedicated to helping the blind would not even show one minute of gratitude to a totally blind, 100% disabled, service connected, medical officer veteran?” I said ,”Not one walked up and said, 'We thank you, you are an inspiration to us.'” I have been asked to speak many other times to civic clubs but I give the same answer always, “No.” The games people play are not only at the churchhouse, the courthouse, the schoolhouse, the civic clubhouse, or your house. It will be interesting to see how these game play in the “chorus line” when we are asked to give our credentials at final inspection by the Creator of the Universe. The soul is the only thing we possess that will never die (John 11:26).

For the disabled, for the disenfranchised, for those in despair over conditions in this world, there are 8,885 promises in God's word and, so far, he has kept every promise. His greatest, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hbr 13:5).