Police State

After my father died, a farm, barns, houses full of memories from several generations, I asked about my father's ancient banjo acquired from his grandfather, who died in 1912. I understand his grandfather, bed ridden for a year before death, would pluck at the banjo singing old hymns, my father would do much of the same. I still have my mother's piano in my house, but would have liked to have his banjo.

Later, I got the story, the black shoeshine boy in the barbershop where my father worked on weekends, was given the banjo. My father had taken a tremendous interest in him, he asked him how much he was paid for each shoeshine, I believe at the time it was 50 cents. He told him that he wanted him to give 10% of everything he makes each week to his church, and he wanted him to put 10% of his money each week in an account at the bank. I understand that later, the young boy was one of the wealthiest men in the city, like my father, he had learned the power of compound interest.

My mother and sister had kept all the dolls she received at Christmas in a trunk because they wanted to keep them nice. Like the banjo, when my sister looked for the dolls, they were gone. He had given all the dolls to children in the community, who, as he told someone, enjoyed playing with them. They were not for keeping, they were for using and playing.

Americans have been asleep, incrementally, their freedoms eroded. Like the famous frogs in a pot, heat slowly turned up, then comes Obama, who really turns up the heat, boiling water, sirens, the half cooked frogs have jumped out of the pot. Now they realize that they were being cremated. Has the thought occurred to you, yet?

I have been to most of the police states in the world: USSR, China, Yugoslavia, Middle Eastern, African, etc. Two women from Zimbabwe told me that it was all over before they realized what Robert Mugabe had done to them. I spent a week in the Seychelles Islands, a total police state, the most vicious law enforcement since Hitler's SS troops. The people were scared to death, none had ever known freedom, all lived or died at the behest of the government. Since these islands are an environmental paradise (Indian Ocean), beautiful wildlife (bird island, an island devoted entirely to birds), the inmates (citizens) were assigned work at the tourist hotels, I never saw one native woman or child smile the entire time I was there. The male employees had been beaten and so intimidated that were more like robots, much like the working man in America.

Life is for living, in my lifetime, I have seen life change from light into darkness. So little time and it is taken up just in survival. People have underestimated the dark side. Not knowing what they have lost until it is gone. There is a mystical union between heaven and earth. In the autonomic nervous system (fight or flight) attempt at survival, even Christians have forgotten that they have power beyond their imagination available: power that raised Lazarus from the dead, power that gave blind Bartimaeus sight, the same power that enabled a nation to cross a river and a sea on dry land...the power of God.

The mystical union becomes so apparent in communion with Christ at his table. The communion service should be more real to you than a stained glass window, reading of holy scripture to an anthem, prayer to a church supper. Many think that God moves because of a men's club, a woman's circle, a youth group, God desires the petitions. If you are fasting, praying, giving without it being an infusion of the holy spirit in your life, then you are still on the dark side. If you do not do so because it gives you joy, then something is very wrong and you are still on the dark side.

The Bible is silent about many things. Many things are “none of our business”, there is some mystery about heaven. Since there is no marrying or giving in marriage, I envision heaven has a place of sublime oneness and intimacy. Just as no disappointment about companions, no disappointment about family or friends who did not make it.

The soul and spirit are synonyms, we are who we are because of an invisible, weightless soul. Much is made of the dead body, but most at the funeral have no idea about death or the transition: last breath here, first breath there. We are accustomed to a world of pretending, not knowing the difference in the apostle's creed and the pledge of allegiance, not knowing the difference in the sights and sounds of this earth to the eternal security of eternal life. Like the people in the churches of revelation, lukewarm or just dead...country clubs or morgues with a steeple?

Almost as bad as the choice we have made with the dark side of the church, the dark side of democracy. Our ancestors wanted the government to leave them alone, having escaped the tyranny of a ruthless king. Their descendants want the government involved in every area of their life, telling them what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. While, at the same time, paying a large part of their hard-earned income for “nanny state guards”. If we were in prison, our food, our shelter, healthcare, entertainment, all would be furnished, free of charge. As disillusioned prisoners of the state, it is our responsibility to provide our own shelter, food, clothing, education, and then give most of our leftover money to the government for them to use for their friends and relatives.

We have the best politicians money can buy, the best government that money can buy, you deserve the government you have. I live in a county where the people actually voted for an increase in taxes...so totally misinformed, so gullible. BP gave more money to Obama than any other contributors, BP controls the world's oil supply, and subsequently, the world's money supply. BP, a foreign corporation, actually controls much of our government. Much of the blame can be laid at the conference table of British Petroleum, the floor of the ocean is not stable. The knew the instability of the ocean floor, the chasms of oil and gas under the floor, the oil and gas pollution of the sea water resulting in chemical reactions which caused chemical burns to plant life, disease to fish and animal life, and much like ground water, crossing pasture land of manure or leaking old sewer pipes propelling sewage into groundwater, a happening of ecological and environmental disaster.

Don't tell me you are a Christian, you are a patriot, if you support a political party which promotes abortion and homosexuality. If you are Democrat, and support Democrats, when will you awaken?