At one time, many years ago, some travel magazines labeled this writer as the world's most traveled man, certainly the most traveled blind man. My passport has been stamped in 157 countries, in 8 around-the-world trips, such a variety as London and Hong Kong by train...crossing Russia and the Gobi. It was not easy, but younger, I had the energy and ambition to do it. I truly believe God wanted me to experience the smells and sounds of the world, every continent, so I could more easily accept my total blindness, which I have offered to him as my sacrifice.
I carried with me five cameras, many rolls of film. Back then, the digital camera was a part of someone's future imagination. I spent much money on pictures, slides, memories which I thought, at the time, would be of value to someone. I found, as this should be no surprise to anyone, that most people do not care about the pictures of the world, my accounts of conditions of the world, or about anything else that does not pertain to them. As one of my friends, a friend of an astronaut said, “most people are interested in themselves...as the world closes in on them.” They can get all they want from their 'idol' which they worship in their living room, the best pictures and sounds on television...even church services. I had thought the population of this country would be interested in my accounts of the geopolitical activities of communist countries, and communist people.
Several trips through Russia, China, Burma, several African police state nations, I can tell you, without fear of contradiction, America is rapidly becoming a totalitarian, collectivist, socialist society. From the media, from academia, from industry, America is projecting the theme of the communist John Dewey, the “end justifies the means.” Burma, now called the Union of Myanmar, is perhaps the most classic totalitarian country. I have never been to Cuba, which I understand is a classic communist text.
Arriving in Rangoon, the airport, I could not understand the smell, awful beyond anything one can imagine. As a young doctor, coming into contact with patients, my most difficult adjustment was human odor. I understand the decaying animal body is the worse odor in the world, but, in the airport in Rangoon, Burma, there was an odor which would cause the strongest, most stable individual to get weak. It came from the public latrines, most communist countries will not spend the necessary funds for disinfectants and cleaning. I took the train from Rangoon to Mandalay, and the train stations had the same odor. I noticed this odor in every communist nation, every police state, after so much government bureaucracy and degradation, after so much government corruption and collapse, the people simply do not care. They have lost their humanity, their ideas of self-worth, decency, most are just in the attitude/mode of survival.
This morning, again, the subject of our conversation at the breakfast table at McDonalds was “decency”. There is a group of older men who eat together at a local McDonalds in the morning, I usually join them, along with my driver, about two mornings to the week. About one week ago, the men's bathroom in this McDonalds clogged up, I understand the smell and the inconvenience is atrocious. The problem discussed was that all had called the local health department, and nothing had been done. Since I am a cleanliness radical, if my driver tells me about unsanitary conditions anywhere, I usually call the health department. There is nothing more deadly than filth, whether at a Katrina disaster, whether with millions of eggs, whether with infections in a hospital or nursing home, or in a public restaurant serving food to the public.
Of course, as I have written many times, even in a time of depression, when jobs are scarce, when incompetence could be easily replaced, most employees of government agencies, in particular, are just “going through the motions.” They have all learned to answer the phone politely, put you on hold as despicable music or advertisements insult you, and then take your name and number, because usually those who could actually do something about a problem are never available.
Even if you personally know responsible individuals (bureaucrats or elected politicians), they have been instructed to always leave the epic retort, “he is in a meeting”, or the more delicate word, “conference”. I have told many of my friends who own companies, or who are in responsible positions in companies, “try calling your office, disguise your voice, don't let them know who you are, and learn the truth about how your clients are treated.” It is bad enough in the private sector, but an impossible situation in the public sector. As in every communist society, with controls and lack of concern, they just don't care.
Even if you write a congressman or senator, each has fifty assistants, the elected one will never see the letter. They have prearranged and approved generic letters to go out about everything, the computer just coughs one out. Letters I receive from elected officials, even to a totally blind, 100% disabled, service-connected veteran who has given his eyes to their country, are not treated any better than a prisoner in the local jail. More money is spent on the prisoner than on the veteran, the prisoner's vote counts just as much as the veteran's. The politician just wants the veteran, the common citizen to just keep working and paying taxes, “don't bother me with anything.” And so it is with the public health service, when enough people die from something, they might get interested, might have a recall, might actually investigate or hand out a citation.
Years ago, the restaurant chain Hardees headquarters was in Rocky Mount, NC. The C.E.O. Leonard Rawles owned a home on the local beach, near my beach home. I was a large Hardees stockholder, on the beach one day, I said to him, “if the big wheels at your headquarters would get off their big behinds and go to the franchises, unannounced, acting as a regular customer, and observe what goes on there, your bottom line would improve tremendously.” My gripe with the military, I was a field grade officer, inspecting and being inspected, inspection notices were always sent ahead of time, the military spends much time with “eyewash” and other things preparing for an inspection, much as a lawyer prepares for a case in court. The only effective inspections are done on the spot, without notice, a surprise to everyone.
My life has been one long monsoon, I hear people talk about the problems of recession. I was born during the Great Depression, and I have never known anything else, never known what it is to be unconcerned about things, not conservative about everything. It must be nice to be a liberal, “eat, drink, and be merry”, “spend and spree”, “don't worry about tomorrow”, “worriers die young”.
You become a cynic, cynical about politics, hypocrisy in church and state. My main sinful problem is that I am too serious, stay too busy, I have never had a boring moment in my life. I get short with people who take up my valuable time, in person and particularly on the telephone. I am very rude to telemarketers, my shortness with people is not Christian, these callers are just trying to make a living, they do not know that I am busy.
With total blindness, everything is difficult. A few days ago, I was trying to get in my backdoor, trying to save every second of time, I try to have my door key out before I get out of the car. A wood frame had fallen over and partially blocked the door, I was trying to squeeze through the opening when my cell phone rang in my pocket. I tried to answer my phone halfway through the opening, it was a sales pitch. I said, “get off my phone, don't ever call me again.” Does this sound Christian, does this sound American? Are we all caught up in the warts and scars brought on by the socioeconomic strife of living in a hectic society which is crushing us. Perhaps this the reason that public health officials do not act when the public's health is involved. Perhaps this is the reason no one holds anyone responsible. With government as with commerce, only interested in the bottom line, regardless of warts and scars.
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