Emmanuel Luis

On January 15, 2009, a US Airway flight 1549 made an emergency landing in the Hudson river, in New York City. 155 passengers were safely evacuated from the plane, not one loss of life, not one injury. Photos have appeared online showing the plane going down with much debate about the visibility of the “everlasting arms of God” easing the plane down into the river. Certainly, God was involved, but it is proffered as artistic enhancement about the photo.

For over 20 years, I maintained a co-op apartment which I owned in Manhattan, using it when there, usually about one week each month, mostly as a launching pad for my many trips abroad. It was a very nice place, a friend who had studied interior design in NY had decorated the apartment for me, which was wonderfully located so that I could walk to most places I needed to go. I could ride a bus to other places, and by counting the bus stops, could keep up with my travel. Never once, in all those years did I venture into a subway. A blind person has enough trouble getting around above ground and criminals in NY do not mind robbing a disabled person anymore then a healthy one.

Since my life in the south was so isolated and since all my business arrangements with real estate and other things could be taken care of by one of my assistants, I traveled back and forth to Manhattan and my maintenance in both places was of no great consequence. I kept clothes in both places, but as I’ve told so many, it becomes difficult trying to remember the placement of a jar of mayonnaise and other food articles in the refrigerator or cupboards of two or three houses since in the south, I have both a town house and a beach house. 

Among the many interesting experiences, and the many interesting people I met in Manhattan, some quite famous, such as United Nations personnel.  I was in walking distance, not only of the theatre district, and I have “play bills” from over 250 Broadway plays which I enjoyed, I was within walking distance to several well known churches, Fifth Ave Presbyterian, which I attended most, St Thomas Episcopalian and Calvary Baptist on west 57th Street, where the famous preacher Dr. Donald R. Hubbard was pastor, the church which was established in 1847, still had a marvelous message, wonderful music, etc.

I have found in visiting churches abroad, and even in this nation's large cities, disabled people are more welcomed than in a place that you have lived your entire life. One Sunday at Calvary, a young man came over and sat next to me and introduced himself as Emmanuel Luis. At the end of the service, he told me he would like to talk with me, that he had noticed me as a blind man for several Sundays, and I was the first blind person he had ever met. We walked outside, down the street to a small park and sat on a bench and I heard a story which has changed my life completely. This was in the early 80’s and after many years, I have lost contact with him, I took him to a coffee shop for lunch, met and talked with him many times. (I have learned over the years to never invite anyone to my house who I do not know really well. No one can even imagine how much has disappeared from my house by hiring someone just to clean the house, as well as the risk I take in being alone with someone who I do not know very well)

Emmanuel was from Port-au-Prince Haiti, while still a small child, in the inconceivable morass of chaos that goes on in that poor country, where killing is a normal activity everyday, where life expectancy is 51 years. And where, because of the corruption of police and politics, the people who have historically lived in absolute poverty ever since the French enslaved them, are rich if they have one meal a day. The average income in Haiti is 250 dollars a year. The manner of killing in Haiti, as in Rwanda, Congo and other places in Africa, is the machete. I can think of no more horrible death then being chopped up by a machete. At least if you are blown apart by a suicide bombing, as in Israel and Iraq, it is over very quickly.

A group of killers had come into his home, he was about 5 years of age, about 16 years before I met him, killed everyone including his mother and siblings.  When the police came to investigate, at the request of a neighbor, they had brought the back hoe to dig a hole to put the bodies in. But, one observant police officer noticed that Emmanuel moved an arm and he said, “this one is not dead”. Emmanuel was taken to a hospital run by Catholics, and he survived.

A long story, reared in a Catholic facility, a very bright high school graduate, he was brought to America by a Catholic organization sponsored by the Knights of Columbus. Extremely bright, he had studied at City College and worked part time at Macy’s. His inquiring mind had made him a very astute Bible scholar which is something unusual with Catholic young men. From his study and memorizing and meditating on the scriptures, he could not reconcile the Rosary, confessions to a priest, and the communion service as is believed by Catholics. He had a most remarkable knowledge of God’s word. I would refer to a scripture in a certain epistle and he would immediately recite the entire chapter.

He met someone at the store who invited him to services at Calvary, where he found what he was searching for. He found that his repentance, once for all, his baptism, once for all, his acceptance of grace through faith and his membership with this church was all sufficient for his spiritual needs. Of course, like most young people who live in NY, he had financial needs. I introduced him to the “thrift shop” where I bought my clothes (At the time, just off 1st Ave almost under the 57th bridge a shop sponsored by “Planned Parenthood”, an organization which I despise, but it did have good buys in clothing and other items of interest to me, such as prints, old books and old dishes.  I had discovered the place accidentally in looking for a shoe repair shop.) He was amazed to find large vats of clothing, shirts, etc, which were almost like new. (I personally do not own one shirt that costs over 25 cents. Every article of clothing that I own, suits, jackets, ties, etc, comes from such a place. It must have been 25 years since I bought anything new to wear except for a pair of athletic shoes which I bought online.)

He had become interested in a young woman in the church who I met and who I evaluated as being more interested in his good looks and intellectual capacity then anything else. It did not take me long to ascertain that like, most young women in NY, she was just “playing church” and had found she was more secure in meeting a man in a church situation than the “bar scene” type situation.

There was a fast food restaurant not far from my apartment and I would meet him there for a meal and often he would accompany me to a performance such as “Radio City Music Hall“. He needed a father figure in his life, he needed someone with whom he could talk about many things, he needed guidance and, since, he did not have one relative in America ,his only contacts, since he had left the security of the catholic regimen, was a few people at the church and at work.

His brilliant mind yearned for academic excellence and I encouraged him to continue at City College where he could get the professional standing he would have to gain for this world. I further told him, that he had been fortunate to keep his sanity from the horrors of Haiti and to have escaped the disaster of the western world. My great fear with him, as with so many young men, is the central, sexual drive of youth. I encouraged him to differentiate between love and lust. I explained to him, in great detail, the lifelong trauma of a marriage disaster. If I had only known beforehand what I learned much later, my life would have been a different experience  Staying in New York as little as I did, I was unable to give him the counseling and life experience he was gaining the very hard way.

His empathy for me was greater than any I have experienced from anyone in my life, family or otherwise. The world famous “Light house for the Blind” was on E 59th Street just a few blocks from my house on E 56th Street. At that time, all of my vision in my right eye had been gone since the war but I still had a shadow in the left eye.( Small island of active retina)   He was amazed that the place treated me so causally.  I told him about the experience I had already been through at the New York University School of Optometry and how casually they had treated me even though I had known Dr. Alden Haffner, the Dean of the school.  He learned, just as I have learned, the money and facilities raised through the largess of the taxpayer or philanthropist goes into the pockets of the individuals fortunate enough to have a job at those places.

Any Hippocratic oath or other expected mercy for needy people falls through the cracks of hypocrisy as they prefer the opulent extravagance of their own lifestyle. If money solved problems in the field of experimentation most diseases and disabilities would have been conquered long ago. There are too many people living too well on money given for research for most of these researchers to be concerned with those in need. Just as Eve was beguiled by Satan, money has a beguiling effect on those equipped to provide help. Just as the French enslaved the people of Haiti and they are still living in enslavement, we are seeing enslavement here by the greedy who have little compassion for the needy.

I sold my property in Manhattan in 1986, shortly after my last around the world trip. By letter, I continued to hear from Emmanuel and he often spoke of coming south. He had finished his business degree at City College and was making plans to do graduate work at Columbia. His zeal for the Lord, his still bringing questions of theology to my attention was as intense as when he and I talked together. If we only had cell phones at that time I could have had daily contact with him. My salvation is the only thing in which I am totally secure, but if he were not totally redeemed and completely straight in his attitude toward life, I have never known one with who I have had more confidence.

I told him, over and over, to recite these two versus every morning of his life: The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. (Psalm 27:1-2)

(This commentary was written years ago, before the Port-au-Prince earthquake)