Escape From Reality

About 50 years ago, I took my first visit to London, one of the world's greatest cities. I stood outside Buckingham Palace, thousands of acres right in the middle of the city, 775 rooms, 400 servants, a 40 acre garden, it's own post office, police station, and helicopter landing pad. Hundreds of horses to draw royal gilded carriages on special occasions, all just for one old royal couple (today, she is 85; he,89), human beings like the rest of us. But, this is not their only house, I have been in Windsor castle, the castle at Edinburgh.

This morning, millions of people around the world watched the nuptials in Westminster Abbey of William and Kate, future crowned heads of the United Kingdom, rulers of the British Empire, Canada, Australia, and many other places. They were married in Westminster Abbey before 1,900 invited guests, large screens set up across the city so that the peasants could watch the affair on television.

Incredibly, thousands lining the streets, turned on by the sounds of horses' hooves, trumpets and cathedral bells. The couple had been living as man and wife for many months, little is known of the bride's family, but we do know that William's father was a philanderer, and so, evidently, was his mother.

Evil has been so glamourized, not just here in America, but around the world. Lifestyles have been downplayed, the seven deadly sins have been downplayed. We don't consider pride, anger, envy, lust, laziness, gluttony or greed as sinful in this world of cellphones and credit cards.

One of my friends here on the coast enjoyed fishing, he also enjoyed sleeping late. Over the years he had discovered the best place in the sound for catching fish. So every morning around 10, he would go out in his boat and catch a good number of fish, enough for his family and some to sell, returning home around 2 in the afternoon. Then, he and his wife would have a siesta, the children would get home from school around 3:30, he would play ball with his sons, and the family would eat around 5-6 in the afternoon. One of his friends said, “why don't you stay out longer and catch more fish, many fish markets would be glad to buy them?” My friend said, “and then what?” He said, “ then you would make enough money to buy new boats, hire new people and then catch more fish.” My friend said, “and then what?” He said, “then you could start selling fish all over the state, up and down the sea coast. You could become a rich man.” My friend said, “and then what?” He said, “after you became a rich man, you could retire, sleep late, go out just what you want to and have a siesta with your wife.” My friend said, “and then what?” He said, “you would die a rich man.” My friend said, “and then what?”

America is known for ordinary men ruining their health trying to obtain wealth, then using their wealth to try and regain their health. David Rockefeller, one of the world's richest and most powerful men, leader of the Bilderbergers, is in a wheelchair, his rich brothers died in poor health. The Vanderbilts, Astors, Fords made great fortunes, climbed over other people to get ahead, but most died in poor health. Remember, as you ogle the British royalty, they hauled back all the valuable marbles from the Acropolis in Greece. They took back gold and jewels, riches beyond compare, from India and other areas of the empire, as the natives in these places shrivel with hunger. There is nothing wrong with wealth, nothing wrong with making money, as long as you follow God's principles of living and giving.

Woe in the scripture means “pitiful”. The prophet Habakkuk tells us the very valuable lesson (Habakkuk 2). First, pitiful is he that increases that which is not his (disreputable business practices). Second, pitiful is one with evil covetousness in his house, so that he might be better than others (the man whose house is on a hill so he can look down on his poor neighbors). Third, pitiful the one who builds a city with iniquity (the crooked politician). Fourth, pitiful the one who gives his neighbor strong drink (those in the liquor business, state-controlled or not). Fifth, pitiful the one who worships idols of wood and stone (anything that consumes your time, even the television and the computer).

From the beginning of time, I do believe, because of the conscience instilled in all of us, men have tried to do right. The Old Testament is filled with the keeping of Jewish law. At the Jewish Passover, Jewish priests would slaughter, as a sacrifice, 250,000 sheep, blood would be up to the priest's ankles. The New Testament church preaches sin's ruin and Christ's redemption.

Yesterday, David Wilkerson, one of America's best known preachers, author of The Cross And The Switchblade was killed in a highway disaster. Every time I passed by, or went into, the church he founded in Times Square in New York City, and today, I realized and do realize that God has blessed humanity with real messengers of deliverance, delivery from doubts and fears. Politicians spend their time and efforts trying to get reelected, pastors spend their time and efforts putting on a front, merchants spend their time and efforts in survival, educators and social workers spend their time and efforts in man-made solutions to Satanic evils. We, who claim the name of Christ, live by faith and must spend our time and efforts with those of faith.

Bitter or Better

One of the finest men I ever knew, already age 82 when I first met him, was Mr. A.M. Dickinson. Right on to that advanced age he was still working. He had always worked as a cotton buyer, one who could determine the quality of cotton from a bale, so the producer could get a fair price.

I met him because he had come to me as a patient, losing his eyesight because of glaucoma, was almost blind at the time. He said, “since my wife died I want to continue working because it makes me feel wanted and productive.” His daughter would go by his house each morning and drive him to work. Mr. Dickinson's problem, he enjoyed walking and exercise. For those of us blind or partially sighted, there is nothing more scary than facing the unknown...fire in the house, a hole in the sidewalk, a growling dog. He walking down the street when he was attacked by two pitbulls who knocked him down and killed him.

I made it a practice long ago not to look at the deceased, I certainly do not want anyone staring at me. But, because of my relationship with the family, I went to the visitation and the daughter talked with me about his wounds. The mortician had done his best to make him presentable, but I can only imagine the terror and pain he went through because of mutilation by pitbulls.

This week in Pender County, a 4 year-old girl was mutilated by a pitbull. Do you think a child will ever recover from such terror? The last time I made a house call, as a doctor, a son had come by my office and asked me to come by and check on his infirmed mother. These black people lived on the edge of town, the hospital had more or less told them there was nothing else to be done. The family just felt that because of her confidence in me, it would make her last days more bearable if I went by to see her. I remember driving up to the front of the house, a very dilapidated structure, I tooted the horn so they would know someone was there. I got out of the car with my bag and started up the yard. A pack of bulldogs came out from under the house and it was one of the most frightful experiences I have ever encountered. I beat them off with the bag until I could get back in the car. If I had been knocked down, there is no doubt in my mind that they would have killed me.

Every day, 1000 Americans go to the hospital because of dog bites. In 2010, 34 human beings were killed because of dog attack, 4.7 million victims annually, mostly children. $1 billion in financial losses each, paid by insurance companies and individuals.

The question is, and I realize that there are people who love their pets more than they love their fellow man, (In fact, I have had people tell me so), when will human beings learn to not keep ferocious, unrestrained, terrorizing animals in places that they can attack other human beings? I understand that illegal drug dealers, illegal counterfeit operators, illegal evildoers of every type keep their ferocious animals around, not only for their own protection but to scare off anyone, including law officers.

Evil has been glamorized all around us, people of questionable mentality, even glamorized ferocious animal life. In Africa, and I don't remember the country, I visited a large snake farm, where ferocious snakes were housed. Cages with panthers, Presa Canario dogs, the most dangerous dogs known to man. I was told that these animals were purchased by African rulers and dictators to keep their subjects, and particularly their prisoners, under control. I know that in the Seychelles Islands, a police state, the despot would threaten prisoners with such. Can one even imagine man's inhumanity to man, the evil mind that would have such around, a group of people at the United Nations in New York, who turn a blind eye to such activity going on in many countries?

We know the lie of babies thrown from incubators in Kuwait during the activities of the first Gulf War. No one has questioned the truthfulness of Saddam Hussein using violent animals against his enemies. The question remains, why does a civilized world continue to permit such uncivilized actions?

Dogfighting is a multi-million dollar criminal activity in America. Mr. Vick, the black football player, made the news by being involved. Can one even imagine what mentality, how some brain must be wired to get enjoyment from such horrendous activity among men or animals? One thing I was told at the violent animal farm in Africa, “we play loud music (noise such as we hear from cars at traffic lights), we bang on their cages, we antagonize the animals in every way to make them just as vicious as possible.” It is not often that serpents will attack one another, but the serpents at this place were so ferocious that they were balled up in their attacks. Ever since my experience there, and God knows I never should have experienced such, I have considered what the guide told me, that if a tyrant could not get just the results he wanted from parents, such a snake was thrown in the bed of their children.

In facing life, we get bitter or better, when I lost my eyesight, it would have been so easy to get bitter, and I went through that for a while. Oh God, why me?! What did I do to deserve this? It is only when you have been washed clean by the precious blood of Jesus Christ that you can get over your bitterness toward everything and become a better, cleaner vessel. A fat man does not want to be fat, but you cannot keep eating and expect to get thin. You do not accomplish anything, good grades without going to class, a good job by not working, become a good father by accident.

I was a Christian when young, but I wish I had been a better Christian in my youth when I had the energy, and a sharper mind for service. I am sorry I spent so much time with people, relatives, who did not deserve my time, who did not care about anything but themselves. But, you cannot be bitter about evil and unconcern in the world, you only strive to be better yourself.

My Great Grandmother's Bonnet

Several years ago, giving the graduation address at a local college, after the usual amenities I said to the thousands there, “this graduating class is blessed to graduate on Mother's Day. Sir Winston Churchill, in preparing one of his biographies, reading over a list of his teachers which some assistant had prepared for him, wrote hist mother's name at the top of the list. He said, 'my mother was my first and greatest teacher.' Right now, before I go any further, I want to honor the mothers of these graduates.” The graduates immediately rose and everyone told me that they began to clap and wave to their mothers in the audience. Along with their graduation, which I stressed is the one thing that cannot be taken from them, they knew they were there because of their mother.

On our farm, there was a large camel back trunk. As I child, I finally got it open one day, someone had put in the trunk a round-up of items belonging to my great grandparents, among which were some political posters of Theodore Roosevelt. One thing that got my attention was my great grandmother's bonnet. Someone had put a note with the bonnet stating that this one was new when she died. I had claimed possession of this trunk, but some time during my long absence from the farm, while I was away in military service, farm hands in and out of the property, the trunk disappeared. She would have worn this bonnet and others like it, homemade like their long dresses and aprons, post civil war. It had been easy to trace her ancestry to England because her family had arrived much later than my great grandfather's family...the Lucas family, who had owned a large part of one eastern North Carolina county.

While in the military, stationed for awhile on the staff of an Army hospital in Alabama, active in a local Baptist church. I was responsible for the Mother's Day program at the Baptist Association's men's annual brotherhood meeting. About the time I arrived for the meeting, I had a received a message that the speaker had been injured and was in the hospital. I went around to several outstanding men in the meeting, one a former senator, one a former school superintendent, a doctor, a lawyer, a produce-dealer and I said to each, “you must help me out with the program. I want you to speak for a few minutes about your mother.”

I would recommend this program for any church, any civic club. I have been to many church gatherings of every type, on every continent of the world, this ranks #1 as the best service I ever attended. Each of these men has a remarkable story about his mother, her cooking skills, her child-training skills, her influence on their community, her putting up with a rotten husband. One of the best stories, “my mother always went around in our large, cold country house, putting her hand to our feet to see if we were warm.” One said, “she forgot that I was married and my wife was in bed with me. My wife said to me the next day, 'I loved your mother before, but after I found how careful she was, and attentive to her children. I love her even more.”

There will be many tears, and this will be a problematic program for your group, but I found that each man there wanted to talk about his mother. I always started out my talks before groups on Mother's Day by telling the story of the young husband who asked his bride, “when are you going to learn to make biscuits like my mother?” Her reply, “when you learn to make dough like my father.”

Pity the individual without memories, many children do not have pleasant memories of parents...dope addicts, philanders, drunks, abusive, but most, in spite of poverty, frugality, lack of preparedness for parenthood, have good memories of parents and home. When I was a child, I could not understand why on homecoming Sunday at our country church, old people who I did not know would enter the church and as soon as the singing started, there was so much crying and tears.

This is what it was all about, homecoming, they had come back to their home church, where they were raised as children, and their minds were flooded with memories of their parents, the old building, the old hymns of faith. My parents owned a very large farm, the highway which goes through the land is named for my father. On the highway, probably two miles from our home, was an old homestead...an old house in a grove of trees, unoccupied my entire life. On one Saturday of the year, the yards and path to that house was lined with fine automobiles. Under the trees, tables were set up, covered with white clothes, filled with food. Descendents of that family, who had been reared in that home gathered at this very uncolorful place. There was no color or attraction there for anyone else, but a certain attraction to the descendants of that family, most of whom were long dead. They did not want their children to forget.

There have been about 4000 books written about the life of Abraham Lincoln. Perhaps one of his greatest expressions, “all that I am, or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” Lincoln's mother raised a family in a log cabin. His mother, like many mothers, never had a manicure, had few, if any, store-bought clothes, and probably her name was never in the newspaper except for her obituary.

I am one of the few fortunate people who remember both of my grandmothers, both prepared meals on wood-burning cook stoves, never saw a supermarket filled with food items. I think of my great grandmother who probably never went to a beauty shop, riding in a buggy wearing her bonnet. Her bonnet which covered most of her head, face and shoulders. About 4 miles from our house, on other family land, land bequeathed to a Christian college. Out in the woods, there was an old structure, over 100 years of age. This too had been preserved because of its heritage. My uncle took me to this structure one day and told me this was where the slaves and the hands on the farm worshiped. Glass was too expensive to have windows, just hinged shutter-like doors. Inside were rough, hand-made benches, you would not consider them pews, there were no backs. He said they mostly used them to lean on since they spent most of their time on their knees.

One old black man has maintained an outhouse for the building, and one Sunday of the year, would cut back the bushes so they could have their annual homecoming observance, remembering their ancestors. Beautiful automobiles would be parked up and down the highways, well-dressed attendees. They did not want the world, nor their long dead ancestors to forget that they could remember...and so it is with every mother's day. Not too busy to forget your greatest friend.

Confrontations

At my age, having traveled every continent of the world and studied most things concerning world history, very few news items shock me any more. Today, the President of the United States, just at a convenient time disclosed his birth certificate.; a matter of conjecture for many years, something he should have done long ago. Tomorrow, a future king of England will be married to a commoner with whom he has been fornicating/cohabitating for years.

There was a time when leaders of moral principles would have confronted the world on these and many other things. For instance, America and Europe played footsie with Colonel Gaddafi despite of his atrocities, but now with the 143 million tonnes of gold in his bank and the oil under his desert, it is expedient to get rid of him. Just as soon as new valuable antiquities were discovered in Baghdad, along with the known reserves of oil, the Iraq war started...and so it goes with wars and diplomacy around the globe. Much of the hypocrisy and down right lying and cheating has been revealed by Wikileaks. From one side of the world to the other, controlled citizenry confronting tyrannical leadership.

In a world of spineless politicians, spineless pastors, spineless parents, there is very little confrontation. The psychiatrist or psychologist may confront parental abuse in the home, but the professional usually takes the side of the person paying his bills. The father may be a dictator, but the mother will yield the welfare of her children to have harmony in the home. We think we are not a communist society, but we have all the authoritarian, totalitarian control features that you find in every Marxist country. In the Marxist country, your freedoms are killed from birth to death, the womb to the tomb, there is no need for ambition, dreams.

Even in America, don't expect anyone to understand or appreciate your dreams or ambitions, don't expect appreciation for productivity or accomplishment. You must get the joy and pleasure of living and giving in the good life from the One who has given you life and your ability, don't expect recognition from anyone else. My soul has ached my entire life, mostly associating with supposed Christians, to hear someone say, “I pray for you.” It is time to have the confrontation with your fellow Christians, family, friends. Ask them if they are a real believer, or just an imposter/pretender? Are our interconnections, our interfacing with family, friends, or even children, genuine, or is it just a matter of getting something we want? Is our interaction with God, if any, just a matter of confronting Him when we have a particular need?

You cheat yourself if you do not put flesh and personality with the bones of the great people of history. There is a reason that Elijah and Moses stood with Christ in their glorious reappearance...Elijah was not afraid to confront, even the hundreds of prophets of Baal. He did not care about political correctness...what the world's population of that time might think of him, he said, “in whose presence I stand.” (1 Kings 18:15) Like Moses before Pharaoh, Paul or Luke when confronted, they knew how to stand. Paul had planned to go to Troas, but God led him to Macedonia, Philippi. Think of the value of Paul's love letter to the church at Philippi (Philippians) There is no record that Joseph, a 17-year-old going through the trials of life very young, ever shedding tears in prison, or out. There is no record that he did anything but stand straight at age thirty before Pharaoh.

Today's world is bewitched with silliness, traditions and exaggerations, parents afraid to confront even their own children, much less the abusers of their own children. One of my young employees told me of how he was sexually abused by a babysitter, a friend of his mother. His mother would not believe him, would not confront the abuser, and so it continued, only more violent. I know of abuse in nursing homes, children of the abused, employers of the abusers, all are afraid to confront anyone about anything.

I hear of unbelievable abuse in nursing homes, the patient, afraid to say anything, and the abuse worsens. 79% of the people in nursing homes never have a visitor. Family members will say nothing because they do not want the responsibility of taking care of the abused patient. A long time friend, Udi (now 92), ill, in a nursing home right across the street from New Hanover hospital. An attendant came in with her breakfast, and she said to the attendant, “I need to go to bathroom.” The attendant said, “you can to the bathroom after you eat your breakfast.” My friend's son, just arriving, standing in the door, hearing the conversation, got his mother into the bathroom and when she emerged, put a robe around her and said, “you will not stay in this place one more minute!” There should have been a confrontation with law enforcement about such treatment.

My secretaries over the years have been amused and amazed with the letters I have written about abuse in the business world, the political world. Their first words, “you know that no one is going to do anything about this.” My words, always, “as long as no one says anything, does anything about these horrific practices, it will continue.” You always just hope that some concerned person will take the time to investigate. There was a time when investigative reporters had the spine to confront. In this politically correct world, no one confronts anyone about anything any more. This is the reason that so many dreams are shattered, a country that at one time enjoyed the respect of the world, it was the ambition of the world to come here in order to escape tyranny. The American dream depended on confronting everything, evil, wrongdoing, hypocrisy.

Like a withering plant, we are told that in five years that China will be the world's superpower. Contradictory to everything we believed about the American spirit, American know-how, Satan has drawn us away from God's mercy. We have too much pride to take Jesus at His Word, we should look in the mirror and confront our problems.

Young At Heart

Traveling the world, every continent, peeking into every culture, I have found that only in America are the old people so unappreciated. I say old because I am old, and no matter how young you are, if you keep living, you too will get old...7000 baby boomers turn age 65 every day of this year.

When young, always running up steps two at a time, always energetic, I never thought I would reach the place that I would look and act like my grandparents, but I did and I have. Knowing their hard lives I am amazed that they lived as long as they did and accomplished so much. From the time I was a youth, I was so offended by the open casket...people walking by, staring at the dead. There are funeral homes, such as one black funeral home close by, with a drive-up viewing window. Can you even imagine anything so uncivilized?

Some of the dumbest words ever spoken: “age is just a number.” There is no need for geriatric depression thinking about age. Relax, enjoy getting older, enjoy not having to impress anyone, enjoying knowing that you have run the race, that the goalpost is in sight.

One of the most genteel ladies I ever knew owned an office building next to one I owned. Once, while discussing something, I told her that if she ever decided to sell, to give me first chance at her building. One night she called and told me, “I have pancreatic cancer. I am ready for you to buy my building. My boys do not want to look after it, they just want to move back up north.” We agreed on a price and the entire subject was closed, except for the lawyers. She said, “I am not stupid enough to prolong a certain thing with expensive, debilitating treatment.”...And, in a few weeks it was all over.

We all age at the same rate, whether you are sixteen or ninety-six. If you are 85, you have a 50% chance of going into a nursing home. If you are female, you have 2 ½ times the chance of becoming disabled. Your chance of Alzheimer's doubles every year after 65...

When I was in school just 60 years ago, diabetes was a practically unknown disease, cancer was very rare, and we were embarrassed to even discuss abortion. Just think of how the vocabulary has changed, now ½ the population is diabetic and/or overweight, body starving from lack of real nutrition. We have the cancer epidemic because every food must be sweetened, and cancer thrives in sweetness. Alzheimer's was unknown 50 years ago, some older people had what we called “senile dementia”. With the onslaught of artificial sweeteners, aspartame, et cetera, the brain and its neurology has been overtaken by poison.

Old people learned to not take antibiotics for “every little thing”. When the country of Norway rid itself of antibiotics, the country's people became much healthier. How much penicillin could have been used in warfare and everywhere else, but with the chase for instant relief, instant cure, fast everything, our immune system has been depleted. There is no reason why people should be sick, sickness is usually a matter of calories and chemicals.

Eventually, all bodies wear out, just go with it. I so well remember what one of the preachers said at my father's funeral, “he was just worn out.” It is all a matter of genes, you can look at your ancestors and determine very accurately not only how you will look, but how you will feel. Keep photographs of you and your family all around, showing how you looked when you were young. Please remember to write names and dates on the backs of photographs, the time will come when no one will remember the people in the photographs. Some of your grandchildren may want to know from whom they got their facial characteristics, your future progeny will be interested in their ancestors.

I have often said to young men who I got to know well enough so I could say it, “you young guys think you are so great, I have photographs showing I was much better looking than you at your age, plus I was smart.” Don't harden your appearance with cold, dyed hair... your wrinkles which you have earned, your saggy-ness which you have earned. Turning gray is natural, don't fool yourself into thinking only your hairdresser knows, the same with plastic surgery, even the skilled scalpel cannot make the 70 year old look 40.

During colonial times, age was considered wealth...just to have survived the hardship of colonial life. At public meetings, the elderly were seated in the front rows, always recognized as being the jewels of the colonies. After the Revolution, the wealthy were seated in the front rows, and the elderly behind them.

I participated in the funeral of the first graduate of North Carolina State University. In speaking with some of the officials, particularly an aged pastor, I said, “when you bury a 100 year-old man like you are burying today, one of the finest men any of us have known, don't you feel like you are putting a library in the ground.” Lincoln said that death is inevitable for all of us, for some death comes too quickly.

I worked hard for my education, my degrees, my military ranks. I die, depending entirely on the mercies of God, His grace through faith. I will be buried near my marvelous parents, just my name on the marker and these words, “because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.” (Psalm 63:3)

Earth Day

In case you have not noticed, your world has gone completely crazy. Nikolai Lenin was born on April 22, the first Earth Day was April 22, 1970, is it not strange that most of the silliness and madness the last quarter of the 20^th century took place after the ridiculous presidency of the peanut farmer from Georgia who thought was our worst president. Can we only imagine what will happen after the Sunni Muslim in the White House leaves?

The man who claimed to be the founder of Earth Day (Ira Einhorn) went to prison for life for the killing of his wife. Go to the attached link (http://youtu.be/G880gxjj9dI) and watch these fools crying and carrying on because of the death of a tree. I wonder what our forefathers would have thought of such, since it was necessary to cut down many trees in order to build the buildings, bridges, barricades which have made this country great, and by burning wood has warmed its many inhabitants. How well I remember my father being prepared to go to the woods with his sons to cut down trees for use in our wood cook stove and in our wood heaters in the house to keep us from freezing in the winter. How well I remember the logs pulled from the wood lands, sawed into timber in the mills for the building of sheds to house God's work animals and cows on which the nation depended. You see, for the young people, there was a time when there were no electronics, not even light bulbs.

This “Earth Day”, “green” malarkey has about the run the insane course. Just yesterday, I heard a woman from Tuscan, Arizona, praying to the Catalina mountains. The good earth, the world over has given to mankind what God intended, soil for nourishment and the production of the things we need. The cattle on a thousand hills are His. The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. (Psalm 24:1)

Traveling the world, I have been amazed at the difference in soils. In the vastness of Africa's Sahara desert, I proved to myself and the world again that at one time the Sahara was covered with foliage. I paid some African youngsters for a petrified plant, which in the shifting sands, they had dug out of the desert many feet down, a desert covered with petrified plants. At the south pole, one young scientist out of the ice cold water was gathering lichens, algae, fungi, plant life. High in the Himilayas, I found berries. I remembered Dr. Singh, the missionary, who, with his guide about to freeze to death, had stopped to rest a minute. In the bushes beneath the cliffs, they heard cries. Dr. Singh said, “I must go and help.” His guide said, “we are almost dead, we should move on.” But the doctor went anyways, dragging the man out of the bushes and back to a nearby village which they had left. His activity, his work in saving this man kept him alive, whereas his guide, staying still, doing nothing, froze to death.

We live in a world of mobility, building gardens, parks, but never taking time to look at the greenery there. We want instant coffee, instant relief, fast food, fast service, fast cars and rapidly progressing children. Within every block of marble, there is a sculpture but it does not jump out rapidly, it takes the artist a long time to accomplish beauty. After Michelangelo had finished his sculpture Moses, so life-like, he hit the bottom with a hammer and said, “speak to me.” A wonderful painting does not just appear on a large canvas, slow talented strokes, every petal, leaf of a plant, every shingle on a building, every caress of material, before you have a canvas of honor for the creator.

So it is with wisdom, knowledge, no shortcuts. There was a time when an academic, attaining a Ph.D in a subject, no matter how large or how extensive, was the world's authority in that subject. In his written presentation, he gave the academic requirements that he had studied everything known about the subject, that he had all the knowledge for his limited area of attainment. We have settled for shortcuts, too many doctorates purchased either from a catalog or nice financial contribution to an institution.

In the famed TV series, I Love Lucy, Ethel and Lucy got a job working in a candy factory, filling boxes with candy. The pieces of candy were coming down the assembly line so fast that their hands would not fill the boxes fast enough. They were forced to eat some of the candy, put some in their pockets, but the boxes did get filled. American commercialism and consumerism is built around quickness, competition, the increase in production, factory or farm, no time for the fields to be watered by God, there must be irrigation. Chickens, pigs raised on mesh and mash, genetically-modified so they are just eating and drinking. Dairy cows milked three times a day, everything both genetically and mechanically. Even the milk goat, trained to jump on a platform at just the right time, head in a noose, eating while mechanically milked, artificially inseminated, goats preferred because they always have at least two babies. Cows butchered if not productive.

All of God's creatures, like God's schoolchildren, just herded from one stable to another, performing fast, never taking the time to enjoy anything about life or living. When my ancestors and their sons went into the woodlands with their crosscut saw, a saw used by two men to cut down and cut up trees, trees used for cooking, heating, building, we still took time to hear the birds, the wildlife. My father could call quail within a few yards because he knew the whistle.

The greatest creation of God, the human being. I love the Catholic Church because of its emphasis on the Cross, forever the symbol of love. On my five mile walk from Jerusalem to Jericho, I could not help but think of the story of the Good Samaritan, the twelve verses of scripture which tells us the importance of important actions (Luke 10:25-37)

Pleasure Principles

My friend Danny was one of the most remarkable young men I have ever known. He was an investment advisor with a radio program, but other than hearing him on the radio, I knew nothing about him until he called, wanting to go to lunch with me. Then, it all spilled out because he learned that I was a retired, disabled Army officer. He had burned the candle at both ends during his youth...in and out of jail, a real hippie, long hair, drugs, an academic mess. The judge gave him the choice, like the choice that has been given to so many, go to jail or join the army.

Joining the army brought discipline, structure, and routine into his life. Because of his exceptional mental ability and the fact that he needed gravitas, he advanced through OCS and became an Army officer. He told me about the lack of guidance and discipline in his home, or rather, a complete lack of home-life. He said that he cleaned up his looks and personality, married a widow with several children and was on the way to a successful career. I became just a friend, not a client. But, all of a sudden, leaving much disparity and questions behind, he was dead. His death in of these build-it-yourself planes, such as the one that claimed the life of John Denver, was ruled an accident, but I believe it was a suicide.

It can all be summed up as follows: many veterans are now returning from these useless wars completely brutalized. In today's warfare, IEDs (improvised explosive devices), they see their friends spattered and scattered, entire villages of innocent women and children traumatized. These men return to America, land of the free, home of the brave, land of opportunity and responsibility to face a government and future of tyranny.

They tire easily of “big brother” looking over their shoulder at everything, a complete lack of future for their children. Their incessant taxation going to buy the wants, not the needs, of about one-half the population of this country, their fellow men. Corrupt politicians making promises in order to get into office, and then doing as they please. Worst of all, these same brutalized veterans becoming law enforcement bullies.

When did Americans get so comfortable with mediocrity? Mediocrity in law enforcement, mediocrity in the judiciary, education, entertainment, healthcare, even church pastors. This writer, like many of my friends, are so fed up with the narcissistic, impotent, incredulity that comes from most pulpits. We are better off at home watching the best via technology. I have told stand up comedians and entertainers that you have to be the very best, you must have a real report with your audience in order to be a success because we have all seen the best on television. The only thing you missed by not being in the audience at such a performance is the interaction with the audience. I would much, much prefer to be in a church worship service surrounded by fellow devout believers, but I cannot tolerate mediocrity from the pulpit, someone who has found a good living instead of a great calling, the very thing that is leading to the death of most churches.

For most of my life I was regular in worship service, always there participating, enjoying the presence of the holy spirit. Like most of the disabled, I learn that people with disabilities are not welcome in the worship service or the church. The last time I fell in the aisle trying to find a seat, the last time I was practically trampled by people wanting to be first in line at the cafeteria, God told me to stay at home. My Lord's Day starts at 5 on Sunday morning with my personal communion service, then I have regular services until 11 o'clock on Sunday night, hearing their very best, R.C. Sproul, Ravi Zacharia, David Jeremiah, et cetera. The worship service at 11 o'clock comes from a Baptist church near Winston-Salem. One Sunday recently, the pastor told of a new family in the church and the unexpected death of their child. The pastor said, “these folks do not have anything, they just live hand to mouth. We must help them bury this child.” The next Sunday he announced that they collected $13,000 for the family.

Arrogance, unions, and politics have taken over the American public schools. The average school child spends 7 ½ hours a day with technology...cell phones, television rather than studying. Just a random group of students from Shanghai, China compared with some of our best, the Chinese students ranked much higher in math and science, even compared to our best. American education is an embarrassment, anytime the subject is brought up apologists for American education talk about the separation of church and state. 88% of American students go to public school, 6% go to private schools, the others are home-schooled. This 12% excels, The others are just entertained, not educated...mostly in sexuality and neutrality.

The lesbian student may put a mustache on the Mona Lisa, but it is still not art. The gay male students may put heels on the disciples, but it is still not theology. I have the 100 year-old Lee portrait of our Lord's last supper. This phenomenal picture shows all the disciples in appearance very different from any other painting. Even so, the attempt to feminize these men by the gay artist has not been successful. When you put flesh and personality on the bones of all biblical characters they become very personal. One does not name a dog Judas, even our blessed Lord said it would have been better if He had never been born, but think of the personality twist, the ecclesiastical implications our blessed Lord allowing him to participate in the last supper as well as washing his feet, the very one who He knew would betray Him with a kiss, having sold Him for the price of a hog. The very one who all the others had elected to keep the money. When you think of Judas' betrayal, you must surely consider the fact that he saw Christ heal the sick, raise the dead, feed thousands from a small boys' lunch and even restore sight to the blind.

I repeat, when did Americans become some comfortable with mediocrity, ambiguity? Do you really believe you are not responsible for your vote? Do you really believe in your pleasures of the world that God does not hold you responsible for your relationship with Him? Do you really believe that God was joking as when He instructed the apostle Paul, 50 AD, in Corinth, to write, “whatsoever you eat, drink, whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31)

Beau Brummel Persona

Beau Brummel, patron saint of man's sartorial splendor around 1778 was a good friend of a future king of England. He taught the young king how to dress appropriately. Beau Brummel supposedly took 5 hours to dress everyday, even shined his boots with champagne. The British male, more or less set the standard for male sartorial persona, Fleet Street bankers, members of the English nobility.

On a trip to the Antarctic, I shared quarters with a Fleet Street banker from London. Some of the ladies on the ship asked me if he wore a tie with his pajamas...he was always so immaculately dressed. He dressed for success. I learned enough about him, his homes, his vehicles, his reputation in Britain to assure you that he was, in every way, a success.

In 1990, following the lead of America's Wall Street, the bankers of Fleet Street and other British bankers and financiers started the same miserable habit, casual Friday. It was a complete failure, everyone knows how dress up, but very few know how to dress down...sweatsuits, gym clothing, pajamas, etc. On one television program I heard Oprah say that she traveled in pajamas. If you are the world's richest woman you could travel in most anything and no one would care. I understand that she dresses appropriately in front of the public's photographers (television, magazines, other appearances).

I thank God that I never saw my mother or grandmother in slacks. They wore dresses and an apron around the house, but when they went anywhere to be seen in public, they were appropriately dressed, mostly “Sunday” clothes. Slacks were introduced in 1942 on the cover of Life Magazine. I never had a female schoolteacher or college professor who wore slacks. Back in the 40s and 50s, some high school girls did wear jeans. There was a time when people dressed for church, funerals, weddings, you even dressed appropriately for a civic club, country club, golf club. Great golfers such as Bobby Jones or Babe Zahares knew how to dress on the golf links.

My parents were just dirt farmers, but before they went to town, to the lawyer's office, the doctor, anywhere, they knew how to dress. I can still remember my mother, beautifully dressed, going to our activities at the public school. You do not dress for comfort, you own your own power, you do not hide under your own clothing. Why go through all the years of education and preparation, to destroy it all with your appearance? You do not change first impressions. Beau Brummel said that a man wears an understated, but well-fitted tailored clothing including dark suits and full-length trousers adorned with a striking tie.

If you want to dress down, just dress for comfort, wear a Djellaba as in Africa, or a Dhoti or sari as in India. Even in Africa or India, you can always tell an expensive African or Hawaiian Muumuu and an expensive Indian sari. I think I would have to “take a pill and lie down” if I ever saw a woman enter a church in a pant suit, but I understand that it happens. Don't women understand that it is gays (homosexuals), that have designed their clothing for the last 50 years. They have gotten rid of all femininity and encased them in unflattering boxes and sacks. Don't women realize that the homosexual coiffures of their hair are the same “queens” who designed haute couture apparel for them. You are in their clutches for stealing for the real males who may be attracted to a woman. Like a tsunami, word has traveled around the world that in order to be successful, male or female, you must dress for success, even women executives will wear well-tailored pant suits.

School teachers have told me that students perform better when well-dressed. I am the world's proponent of uniforms in school. Why not just let your military servicemen dress “in just any ol' way they choose”, individually? No discipline, no gravitas, no limitations of any type. I understand that some preachers actually go into the pulpit in jeans and t-shirts, this must be a stench in the nostrils of God. One pastor traveled along distance to ask me advice on correcting the dress of people in his church. I said, “you need a back door revival.” You have unsaved people who do not dress even for the worship of almighty God.

When I was in professional school, all medical, dental, optometry, nursing, all professions, even the lawyers wore shirts and ties to class. I understand that some seminaries do not have a dress code...are the just trying to tempt the hand of an omnipotent sovereign?

In today's job market, in today's quest for sexual identity, let the perverts dress in drag, let the perverts tattoo and pierce themselves, lets the gays wear long feminine hair, the lesbians wear short, butch hair...let them look like trash. They don't care, they are only concerned with their short life here on this planet. The redeemed of the Lord say so. (Psalm 107) In spirit, word, dress we are his workmanship (Ephesians 2:10). We are what we are.

I never leave my house without a dress shirt and tie, usually a jacket, always polished shoes. It is not just your haircut, not just a clean shave, not just your smell, your attitude, but you and you alone know how much you think of yourself.

Cocoa Beans

Following the civil war, the 630,000 of America's finest young men lost in conflict, the colony of North Carolina losing the most, carpetbaggers from the north, flooded the south land, taking over anything they could to make some profit. The dirty dealings, then as now, were mostly hatched from control-freak fraternity clubs at Harvard, Yale and Princeton. Amazing, such is still going on, Wall Street, K Street, and certainly with the present administration.

If all else fails bailouts, sellouts and cop-outs---you start another war. Imagine the audacity of saying that starting the war in Libya was a humanitarian effort. Why not relieve the brokenness further down in dark Africa, in Sudan or even the Ivory Coast, where over 1000 have been killed in the present struggle over the last few months? The difference is that Libya has some of the largest oil and fresh water reserves in the world, under the Sahara. The Ivory Coast only has cocoa beans, cars and planes do not burn chocolate.

Another mystery: Mr. Arnold Schwarzenegger, gay bodybuilder, sneaking into the Kennedy family, ex-governor of California, now wanting to take over the presidency of the European Union. Don't forget that in 1939, Schwarzenegger's father was one of Hitler's “brownshirts”. In an interview, Schwarzenegger said Hitler was one of his heroes.

As gasoline has reached $5 a gallon in the nation's capital, gold at over $1500 a ounce, silver at $45 an ounce heading to $300, can you even imagine the price of gold, a dozen eggs, or the price of gas, when silver reaches $1000 an ounce? We know that by 2020, the interest on the national debt will $1 trillion a year, greater than all tax collection. The dollar will be devalued 30% this summer. McDonalds has about 14,000 restaurants in America. Soon the McDonald's dollar menu will be the only place you will be able to dine. Other restaurants may as well go ahead and close.

This week marked the anniversary of two of America's most shameful acts. Acts that do not make sense and which are closely connected to the CIA. I speak of the unnecessary killing of woman and children at the religious complex at Waco, Texas and the unnecessary killing of children at the Murrah building in Oklahoma City. Seismograph studies tell us that two bombs went of at the Murrah building, not just one truck bomb. Like the 9/11 mystery in Manhattan, the truth will prevail. We will learn how a 47 story building just fell...a building not hit by any plane, just imploding internally, falling into its footprint.

The United States has been technically bankrupt my entire life. Our ancestors, our parents, most responsible people know, we are a God fearing, hard-working, tax-paying citizenry. There was a time you could expect a return of some sort on your investments whether securities, real estate, or even a small business. Today, when anyone speaks of a safe return, I say, “in what, the Zimbabwean dollar?” (At the last figures, 231,000,000% inflation). We can no longer invest in the post-WWI German Wiemar Republic (there 1 trillion fiat paper Marks was worth one gold Mark). Perhaps this is the reason FDR confiscated all American gold in 1933. Have you ever questioned why most advertisements now concern gold? Gold bugs beware.

In this same world, post-WWII, banks are loaning much more money than they actually control. For example, Goldman Sachs 330% more. If you want to study greed at its worst, study the banking system, particularly those of you whose homes are in foreclosure. Remember, entitlement claims more of the US budget than all taxes received.

In my lifetime, I saw the beginnings of sexual liberation and have seen the results of sexual liberation (liberated women, liberated homosexuals, STDs and AIDS). In my lifetime, I have seen the “slow crawl” of Americans attempting to make democracies of countries that know nothing of democratic republics or liberty. So many nations have always been kingdoms, tribes, police states. Most cannot understand our system of lying, cheating and stealing.

America's secret in warfare has been our esprit de corps. Men and women committed to protecting their country, believing in their national leader. We have one in the White House now that the military mind cannot trust...”Don't Ask Don't Tell”, fortunes paid to contract killers. I am told that there are CIA operatives who make a one year salary for a one month contract on the battlefield, in some cases $35,000 a month. There are more American civilians on contract in war-torn countries than military people in uniform.

I wonder what my friend Dr. Little, US missionary to Afghanistan, killed by the Taliban, would say about such, knowing that he had served the people there for most of his life. There was not a peep in the news about that killing, but Wikileaks has spread the news about many others. The royalty of Saudi Arabia knows how it has been double crossed. We now have the world in turmoil, the middle east, North Africa, new chaos started between Vietnam and Cambodia, Japan is in a mess following their nuclear explosions. The EPA has upgraded the effects of the nuclear explosion from a 5 to a 7 on a scale of 10. One scientist will say that the radiation fallout from the Japan disaster will not affect America, another will say that the Midwest can expect crop failures, just as there are crop failures already in Australia and Russia.

In the meantime, cheer up, listen to the sound of bells, trumpets and horse's hooves as the royals marry in London-town. Prince William was turned on at a Cambridge play by a girl in a see-through dress, and now the United Kingdom, bankrupted by socialism, is turned on by the wedding. The “Kate dolls”, like “Diana dolls” in 1981, are selling for a handsome price ($75 average). America is capitalizing every way possible on the wedding of the royals: movies, TV, cakes, dolls, gowns; even Barbara “Wah-Wah”, (who, like this writer, is old and worn out) is there reciting back to you every sordid detail of the tryst

Wake up, it is spring. You can do little to control the global ponzi scheme, hypocrisy is the word of the day. Even the Donald, wanting to become the Republican president of your country, gave $50,000 to Rahm Emanuel, he contributes to all Democrats including the Clintons. If a RINO can solve the world's problems, he will save the cocoa beans.

Goodluck Jonathan

Goodluck Jonathan became the 14^th President of Nigeria on the 16^th this month (Nigeria, the largest country on the African continent). Goodluck, a Christian, was born in the Niger River delta area to canoe builders, he has degrees in Zoology, including a Ph.D from the University of Port Harcourt.

Once on the banks of the Niger River, I watched a donkey sink into quicksand. The donkey was struggling to extricate himself, natives were pulling and prodding trying to get the animal loose from the sinking sand. Finally, after struggling for so long, the donkey fell over dead, but it was not because the donkey did not struggle, the natives did not do everything they could to loosen the donkey from the quicksand.

Success is not usually a matter of luck, do not confuse luck or celebrity with success, think of Helen Keller and Madonna. One may win the lottery, be heir to a large estate, be unusually talented or physically beautiful, but for most of us it is a matter of struggle, self-denial, self-discipline.

The movie Waiting For Superman depicts the failures of American education. In the movie, students attempt to win a lottery for admittance to a charter school. Education is America's greatest failure. Today, only 38% of public school students read on their grade level.

Educators, we know your product; for over 50 years as a totally blind, 100% disabled, service-connected medical officer veteran it has been necessary for me to hire people to work for me, driving, assistance in my businesses, assistance with every area of my active life. I am sickened to tell you just how poor the product of our education system is. Money has nothing to do with it, gender has nothing to do with it, the school house from which they came has little to do with it. As college officials have told me, over and over, students are simply not prepared, just passed like a herd of animals from one stable to another. No efforts to improve the conditions of the concentration camp. Much time is spent at every college and university on remediation.

Excellency in education started with Christians. Please explain to me why Christian parents would spend their time, talent, treasure to casually send their precious child to a public school to fail AND on top of that, pay the taxes supporting such school sand not be concerned with their failures. Not only is education the greatest failure in the American experience, but the most unfair taxation in America. Now, you can understand why so many parents choose (as did our colonial ancestors, before even the one-room school) to home school.

Parents who choose not to send their children to public school, to take the financial losses of home-schooling, must pay the same taxes as those who put their children on public schoolbusses. At the public schoolhouse, where failure is almost assured, a child can learn more meanness in two minutes than you can teach them rightness at the home in one day. Every person I encounter with small children, the first words out of my mouth are, “do not send your precious child to a public school, we love your child too much.” One of my secretaries, working for me on weekends, educates her five children at home, they excel in every way. You can always spot a home-schooled child.

Comparing the mental accomplishments of a home-schooled child is like comparing a wading pool to the ocean. Now, we all know there are exceptions, my parents' children went to a country public school with marvelous teachers. My own son, my two grandsons, have never spent one hour in a public school, and we are all university graduates. But, I am convinced that my son, my grandsons were much better prepared for university after being home-schooled than those of us who were “public-schooled”.

There is a difference in learning and schooling. I know the difference, I know what is wrong and have been talking about this for many years...but the professionals do not want to hear. Failures in schools is in direct proportion to the increase in television watching. Reading, listening, speaking are all involved in the learning process. I have never known a person who attended a school for the blind who did not excel in learning; because at the schools for the blind, the student must listen and speak.

I am a vision specialist, I know what is involved in the reading process, transmission to the learning centers of the brain. I know about the importance of listening, not just because as a child I was extremely nearsighted. It was necessary for me to walk up to the chalkboard to read anything, so I listened intently to everything that was said. I can still listen to several radios, several conversations at once and tell you everything that was spoken. Note, I said, “listen” and “tell”, the person who learns can talk. Television, constantly on in the home, has caused the child to disregard what is being said, not only on this idol of Satan, but everywhere else.

As pre-medical student at UNC Chapel Hill, not knowing if I would ever complete any course of study because of finances, I decided to get a teacher's certificate. This way I would always be able to get a job teaching science. I got to know the great educators of North Carolina: Guy Philips, Frank Graham, Walter Spearman, et cetera.

While student teaching, I was given a class of low IQ tenth grade biology students. Each had come from an abusive background, abused at home, the school, the playground, everywhere. These students (and you find them in every school) are not expected to excel even though they are often the greatest students there. This was the biggest challenge for the student teacher.

I used methods unknown in the scholastic world: strictly talking, they had to listen; then, the class became like an athletic competition, the student could score only if having listened, they could answer a simplified question with a simplified answer. But, at the end of the day, at the end of the course, they knew more than the other biology students. Dr. McCuskey, famed educator at UNC Chapel Hill, never stopped talking about what she had when evaluating me. I used this method in physics, chemistry, every course. I even used the same method in the pulpit and on stage. Nothing replaces reading, but even for the illiterate, listening and speaking excels every time. Television treats everyone with disrespect; you learn to ignore most of it. You only learn to listen when you push yourself, whether at the school house, church house, or your house.

Marcus Aurelius (161 AD), the world's wealthiest man, in his Meditations says that the fundamentals of education enhanced by natural ability have brought more men to glory than anything else.

Every year, the Alexis de Tocqueville award is given to an American educator. Alexis de Tocqueville writing in 1835 said, “America is good because America stresses learning.” (So impressed was he by our mailing of newspapers, even into the hinterlands in 1792)

Next year, we will observe the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. Our education is sinking because it has hit the iceberg of indifferent educators, profiteering unions, and casual parents. The mighty hand of concern, directed by an omnipotent, sovereign God can keep the ship of American education from sinking. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. (Ecclesiastes 9:10)

Weeds, Bugs, Disease

My parents owned one of the finest farms in the county. Handed down from ancestors, a large house which had survived the civil war, white fences, animals in the pastures, crops and fruit trees.

It was such hard work, I could hardly wait to leave, to get into a community of excitement, educational awareness, worldliness. Now, having seen all the world has to offer, I would like to be back there, on the farm---fresh water from a hand pump, fresh eggs from laying hens, a place to grow fresh vegetables, fresh meats.

On the farm, there were always weeds, bugs and disease trying to take over the crops. After long years of schooling, long hours of hard work, I became a doctor and found that disease is trying to take over the world. Now, disabled, working with technology, I find that viruses (disease) are trying to take over the world.

The world started out perfect, God put Adam and Eve in a perfect garden with just one rule, one law, one commandment: they could not eat the fruit from one tree. Given the greatest gift of all, free will, men could not obey one rule and so came imperfection, disease, weeds, bugs.

Traveling the world, learning the reasons for why people do what they do. I have found that most blame God for their problems. Oh, if all of us could have been born “white, wealthy and wise.” So many people of color have told me that it is the color of their skin that has kept them from achievement on the uneven playing field. People with disabilities have told me that it is their disability that has kept them from performing on the uneven playing field.

I have found that the people who have accomplished the most, usually had to overcome the most...poverty, unattractiveness. So many times, these people had not thought they were chosen by God to do great things. While traveling every continent of the world, I have never found a perfect person, most of us have a neurosis, psychosis, disability of some type. The problem: we usually seek help from someone in worse shape than us, a sociopath, a psychopath. We do not need someone to give us an excuse. The Designer, the One who wrote the manufacturer's handbook (Bible), has given us all the instructions we need.

Life is a matter of sowing and reaping---you reap what you sow. But, you are not stuck where you start, and your character determines your destination. I have found that it is not just the military which carry around excess baggage, external and internal wounds, hidden desperation, struggling in silence. Many find relief from their struggles in addictions...alcohol, illegal drugs, overeating, overspending, sexual promiscuity, societal clashes. In combat, you learn to depend on one another, you watch each other's backs, you pray constantly for one another. The answer for the church, for Christianity; in fact, the answer for any religion, political philosophy: if you are really convinced, convicted, committed, act as if in combat.

I have encountered brokenness many times in my life, not just me, but others. As a totally blind, 100% disabled veteran, I prayed for my restoration; convinced, as I am right now, that God, in his infinite mercy and love, could do anything, even restore my eyesight. I remember the day that my specialist said to me, “Doctor, your eyes are totally gone.” I remember the hopelessness in death, the death of a patient, the death of a parent. Hopelessness is the message of the enemy. Christ forever cured our hopelessness and helplessness by telling us He would never leave, nor forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5)

Long ago, in another life, one of the most remarkable secretaries I ever employed, Jennifer, had won all the secretarial awards at the Pentagon. In the Washington DC cocktail party scene, it all starts with the first drink, and alcohol had enslaved her. When sober, she was the most competent person I had ever been around; under the haze of drugs (and alcohol is a drug), she was totally incompetent, had all the problems of the alcoholic. She had totally alienated herself from her grown children. On the day of my mother's death, I was so aggravated by her alcoholic stupor, (God forgive me) I thought “why lose my mother to cancer, who lived such a clean life; while others have dared their bodies to cave from their addictive living.”

Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh (Matthew 12:34, Luke 6:45). The tares have taken over the church, corruption has taken over government, greed has taken over the banking and financial institutions. On every hand, hypocrisy and outright sinfulness seems to prosper. What do you say to someone who has tried to live right, dependent on the mercy of God, and yet sees the wicked prosper. God told us that the rain falls on the just and the unjust. The apostle Peter told us that our troubles and trials are more precious than gold. (1 Peter 1:7)

If all believers in God prospered in this world, if all Christians were blessed in this world, it would be difficult to find an atheist. If unbelievers were the only ones experiencing deprivation of any type, everyone would board the heavenly express. Remember the apostle Paul's great message to the church: rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. (Philippians 4:4)

Work Sets You Free

When I was just beginning my adventure into the buying and selling of real estate--one of the few investments in the world on which you could depend--the tax rate was set in mills. One mill is one-thousandth of a dollar, or one-hundredth of a penny. As Governor Charles Aycock said in his book, “you raise taxes a few mills at a time, and no one realizes it.”

The mill was established in the Coinage Act of 1792. In 1972, President Nixon established it as millage, and from that time to this the entire tax system has been confused, at best. Your tax rate is not correct according to the mills established by the Coinage Act, but the politicians who would have to correct the matter are only too anxious to pick your pockets in tax assessments, which could easily be corrected by multiplying your tax rate by .002. Most people work their entire lives investing so they can see some freedom from work. You should realize that when your children are born, they immediately come under the oppression of taxation. A child born this morning owes the government $250,000.

Once, while attending a meeting at the Fount Bleau Hotel near Miami Beach, in the coffee shop I overheard one Jewish man say to another, “What are you going to do with all your money?”. The other replied, “I hope it will allow me to do nothing.”

The most famous sign in history was the sign over the entrance to hell in Dante's Inferno, which read, “Last Chance”. The most evil sign in human history was the sign over the Auschwitz death camp, which read, “Work Sets You Free” (Arbeit Macht Frei). For the 6 million Jews (and 275,000 disabled) who were exterminated at such death camps, no matter how hard they worked for the Nazis, they were still exterminated. This sign was stolen last week, supposedly to sell to some Neo-Nazis in Poland. The five men who stole it have since been arrested. The sign had been cut into three pieces.

I remember, going through the horrendous Holocaust facility at Auschwitz....most graves marked by the Star of David, and some graves marked by Christian crosses. I have been through the Holocaust memorial in Israel, I have studied this darkest period in world history. From what I have studied, it is almost inconceivable to imagine man's inhumanity to man. The very idea of a sign telling condemned people that work will set you free. A race of people that has been awarded more Nobel prizes for science and literature.

Once, Lewis Pasteur, the premier scientist of his time was on a train in Germany. Pasteur, a Catholic, was praying with his rosary. A young man across from him looked over and said, “surely sir, you do not believe in these religious fairy tales?” Pasteur said to him, “Yes, it is time for me to get off this train. Here is my card, I'd like to explain my faith to you if you will come by my office.” The young man was amazed to have the card of the most famous scientist of his time.

Albert Einstein, a Jew, said the Christian religion was the most fascinating study he had ever made. If you are to be free, whether Einstein, Pasteur, or the millions exterminated by the Nazis at Auschwitz and elsewhere, you will find freedom ONLY by grace through faith in God's only son (John 8:31-32). This says it all. In this freedom, you can live with disability, any other disaster, or the chastening which most certainly will come to you. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? (Hebrews 12:7)

Those who claim the name of Christ are not willing to endure chastening. Those who claim the name of Christ are not willing to endure the patriotic obligation of keeping the country free. Those who claim the name of Christ do not love their children enough to protect their future from the scourge of an unjust government. Those who claim the name of Christ have damaged the reputation of our blessed Lord when their walk does not agree with their talk.

The two Bushes, from one of the countries richest families, enjoyed talking about liberty and freedom for other countries. but were too engulfed in New Age philosophy and the Wiccan sabbath of Skull and Bones to defend their own country and their fellow citizens. The sell out now, is almost complete. It used to be said of a hard-working salesman or politician, “he could sell ice to Eskimos.” Now, we have a President and people in the world who will sell you air and force you to buy it. As the Jewish doctor said in the last sentence of Shakespeare's Macbeth, “God help us all!”