Drinking From the Corrupted Cup

I remember, as if it were yesterday, in another commentary I described my first office, upstairs over a shoe store, space which I had redeveloped at my expense in order to have a cheap rent.

I always arrived at the office before anyone else, made sure the heat was on, everything comfortable. This gave me time to go through the mail before the first appointment. I heard a strange noise on the stair steps, as if someone dragging up the steps, I went out in the hallway and looked down the steps and a large black woman was slowly dragging herself up the steps. When she got in the office, winded from climbing the stairs, she appeared to be about sixty, overweight, her much abused Sunday hat on. her clothing rather tattered, cotton stockings, torn shoes.

As an eye doctor, I knew that the eyes are the windows of the soul, hers were sad and downcast. She said, “Doctor, Ms. Elmore who worked for you told me to come and see you. So I caught the bus from LaGrange (a small town about ten miles east).” She said, “ a friend met me at the bus station and brought me to your office. I buried my husband yesterday, he grieved himself to death, because of the loss of our only child. Our son Darrell went to war in Vietnam, he had graduated from high school and this was his way of getting a college education, which he wanted more than anything in the world. Now they tell us that he is MIA. I have here the last letter I ever received from him, we had a letter from the army, and I wrote my congressman, but no one seems to know about anything. I understand that if he had been killed his body would have been brought home, but we have had nothing. I just get the run-around every where I go, trying to get answer. My friend told me that you were a high ranking army officer and that you could probably help me.“

I got my pad and made notes, PFC Darrell Carlson Martin, his mother Ms. Loretta Martin, his service number, unit, everything I felt I would need for communication. When she left, there was a renewed vitality in her eyes, her eyes which had been so dead, had come alive, just from her experience with me. In the meantime, my secretary had come in and listened to the conversation, she told her, “if anything can be done, the doctor can do it.” Of course, there was not much I could do. I went to the veteran's office, located in a brick building behind the court house, and talked with the veteran's officer. I wrote the congressman from her district, Senator John East, whom I knew very well, and one or two other contacts in Washington. I would write her, sending her copies of all my correspondence, giving her encouragement, but as we know, so many MIAs have never been accounted for, to her or anyone else. She had told me, “he loved his unit, he would not run off from anything, and his commander had told me that he was an exemplary soldier.” As far as I know, she never heard anything from anyone, never received any compensation. This is the usual story involving sons of the poor, those without political pull.

I think of this type thing every time I experience drinking from the corrupt cup of government...so much money spent just lining the pockets of those who worked for government and even more treasonous, money sent to other governments such as Israel and Egypt. We are told that $12 billion goes to Egypt every year, tainted money, to keep Egypt from aggravating Israel who also gets $12 billion a year. We know that this money goes to the tyrants in power, not to the people who need it. At tree tops in Kenya, Africa, I had dinner once with the chief United Nations representative for Africa, I asked him how much of the largess from private and national sources funneled to Africa ever arrives at the villages of the people who really need it.

I said,”I have seen the poverty in the villages, and this has been a burning question in my mind.” He said, “about 2% of the money sent to Africa from UN sources, US government, humanitarian efforts, actual reach the people who need it.” He said,”first, you have to pay off the corrupt leaders of a country just to go in and talk with them about it. Then they appoint members of their family to distribute the money...any left after they take out their part.” He said, “it is a corrupt mess, but we do what we can.”

I often spend weekends at my beach house on the ocean. On the way there, my driver and I stop and McDonalds for lunch, returning we usually stop at Hardees. In this world of immediate gratification, fast food, etc. I find that in order to save some money on the food, to get it in a hurry, you must, if you are willing, put up with dirty tables. Even though I am totally blind, it bothers me beyond words to explain to sit down at a table in a fast food place which is sticky, has crumbs, etc. Most of the customers will dispose of their containers. If I could see, and get around, I would go directly to the counter, and say, “give me a wet dishcloth, I want to clean some tables.” As long as the restaurant can get away with dirty tables, nothing will change, as long as governments can get away with just treating their citizens any way, nothing will change.

If we have the goodness of God in our heart, we know the closeness of God. Why have we so cheapened humanity? When we suffer, we can know something about His suffering, we have seen nations drink from the corrupted cup before. Stalin killed 25 million of his fellow countrymen; Mao, 63 million of his fellow countrymen. We knew it was going on, we did nothing. In fact, after WWI and after WWII (Marshall Plan), much money was sent to our former enemies while our own parents suffered.

While Americans were losing their homes, think of the money spent in Iraq, where conditions were probably better under Saddam Hussein. While American businesses have gone under, think of the money spent in Afghanistan, where conditions are no better than after the Russians left. Do Americans really care if General Motors went under? Would we really care if a stadium full of people were destroyed? Would we care if ten planes full of passengers crashed each day? This is what happens with the millions of babies who are aborted each day, the millions killed in warfare. In every form of news, we hear about the plight of women and children in other countries, Darfur, Iraq, Pakistan, etc. Do you realize that 41% of all pregnancies are aborted in New York City.

Addictive drugs are now prescribed to overcome addictive drugs. Oprah learned long ago that her programs, her greatness comes from trauma, people describing their problems in detail. Have we arrived at the place in today's culture, today's society, that we can just pass off any cup of corruption, like a former president, I feel your pain. They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak. The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things: Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us? For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. (Psalm 12:2-5)