Shame

#457



I attended the Republican Nation Convention at the Cow Palace in San Francisco in 1964 when that great American, Barry Goldwater, was nominated for President. Of course, like Barabbas (thief released because the people preferred Christ to die on the cross instead), the deceived voters chose the mafia type figure, Lyndon Johnson, for President...a man who went to Washington poor but left Washington with $53 million.

At another Republican convention, General Colin Powell said that the word "shame" is a lost word in most vocabularies. Once a people of character, the American people no longer are shamed by anything. A candidate for President, a candidate for Vice President, the U.S. Senator from North Carolina (famed, crooked, rich, lawyer John Edwards) finally admits fathering a child by one of his campaign workers. Just as shameful, he and his lawyer wife went before the cameras, after she learned she had cancer, and vowed together to keep on the fight for a "better America". Reverend Jesse Jackson had no shame admitting to fathering a child by one of his staff. Mr. Tiger Woods, now in sex rehabilitation, seems to have no problems with his many mistresses. (I wonder what sex rehabilitation treatment consists? Probably, schmoozing with fat, ugly females to cure his attraction to women). Reverend Al Sharpton, minister of the Gospel, seemed not to be at all shamed by Tiger's adultery. In his news conference, he was upset because Tiger was not attracted to "black girls".

“Shame”, as well as “concern”, are two lost words in the vocabulary of most citizens. Otherwise, we would be much more careful in the voting booth, selecting school teachers, hiring church pastors, parenting children. There was a time when mothers would fall over in shame at a daughter dressed like a hooker, decorated with tattoos and body piercings. There was a time when a father would be shamed by a son arrested for illegal drug activity, dressed like a male prostitute, and afraid to climb a ladder to help repair his house.

A sign at the entrance to Auschwitz death camp read, "Work makes you free". This is the last sign millions of Jews saw before extermination in the death camp. Leaving an airport in India I will never forget a sign on the highway, "Be nice to your tax collector, he is your friend". Can one even imagine the shame of this sign in poverty stricken India, where the average pay for the working class is just a few dollars a day? Most of the poverty of the world is below the 30th parallel. Africa, ravished by unbelievable poverty (I have traveled through the 42 countries of the African continent many times), lends itself to migration North. Since Italy is the nearest European country to Africa, many strive for Italy. The Pope, this week, visited the oldest synagogue in Europe, in Rome, where poverty suppressed Judaism for centuries. The 15,000 Jews and a gulag once surrounded by walls where the gates were closed at night. Only twice in history has a Pope gone inside a synagogue. I was at the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. One wall contains the “Righteous Among the Nations”, where gentiles who assisted the Jews in the WWII holocaust are listed. On another wall, a wall of shame, are listed the names of gentiles who assisted the Nazis during the WWII Holocaust. Pope Pius XII is on the wall of shame. Every Jew, every American, most Catholics, knows that it is a shame that the Catholic Church, knowing what was going on in Hitler's Germany, did not do more. Antisemitism grew out of the Catholic church. Why was not the Italian dictator, (war partnership with Hitler) Benito Mussolini, never excommunicated from the Catholic church even though he was married to his mistress before his death in Saint Peters?

Shame comes in many colors; no one can understand how and why. Over my long life of employing people on whom I must depend, treating them as well as I know how to treat anyone, so much thievery goes on in my house. One young man, just out of the US Navy, after leaving my employment, had seen some change in a bag in the console of my car. He came back and broke into my car. I would gladly have given him the change rather than pay for the repair.

A totally blind friend, blind from birth, living alone, aged with arthritis, still trying to take care of herself, actually crawling up and down the stair steps (not one government agency doing anything, she was able to hire one person to come in once a week to bring groceries to her), hired a man to come and paint her patio table and 4 chairs. He charged her $369. I'm sure he used at least 2 cans of white spray paint. To the uninitiated everything is obscure. She knew nothing about fair pricing...called me and asked me if he did not charge her too much. I said to her, “Call him and tell him to bring back $250 of your money and if he does not, tell him I will take out a warrant on him myself.” Another construction man charged her a ridiculous amount to re-tile her kitchen floor...these things go on all the time. I still remember the piece of crap...a used typewriter...that a typewriter company sold my parents for use at our church. The older I have become the more I am convinced that some people are born without a conscience. We are taught that, "God loves everyone, red, yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight", I find much righteous conflict with that!

Before President Obama left on his trip to China, a Chinese lawyer appealed to him about the forced abortions in China. After the Obama China visit, the lawyer's wife and children were thrown into a Chinese prison simply because this Chinese father refused to quell behind the iron fisted enslavement of communist death culture practices and, like a real man, attempt the salvation of lives...even in this God forsaken country. You can be sure that the shame of America, the country's President, did nothing and said nothing about human rights in China.