Road To Nowhere

Happiness is not a matter of ease. We live in a time when 50% of the people are pulling the wagon, while the other 50% are riding in the wagon. 50% of the people pay all the taxes while 50% pay no taxes at all, except perhaps when they buy some food or other things at the local store.

When I was very young, most black people, especially old black women, made sure that their burial insurance was paid...whether anything else was paid or not. Fortunes were made by insurance companies selling pre-paid burial insurance. Often, people would leave an envelope on the front porch by the front door; each week, a representative from the insurance company came by to collect the money, always leaving a receipt. The homeowner could be away at work or whatever, as long as the money was there.

One old time insurance collector told me about his burial insurance salesmanship. He said, “I made it so seem so beautiful that the person could hardly wait to get into that casket. I made death sure, secure and sacred. A tombstone was included in the burial expenses,and I made sure I had their name exactly as they wanted it, their date of birth, etc. I would even make them bring out the family Bible to secure them in the sacredness of my endeavor. In their mind they could see that tombstone in the cemetery, them laying that casket...All prearranged, all taken care of without interference or concern from anyone else.”

Several times in my life, particularly from a church or college, I have had well-meaning officials seeking money tell me how beautiful it would be for my name to be on a building or on a list of donors inside the entrance of a great building. I learned long ago, just how much giving is appreciated by corporate recipients. I gave a large amount of money to one church activities building ($100,000+) and was not even invited to the dedication. I learned long ago just how much my fellow citizens appreciate my gift to their country:my eyesight. Like most veterans, we learn how much our dedication is appreciated when we go to a veteran's hospital. Your military service is truly a road to nowhere.

Before the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon said that Wellington was not much of a general and that British troops were a sorry lot. Yet, one of the greatest burial monuments in the world is the burial monument of Napoleon in Paris, who was defeated at Waterloo. His great burial vault is truly a road to nowhere.

Michelangelo, perhaps the world's greatest artist, was forced to draw pictures of his grocery list because his cook could not read. Discovered long after his death, his shopping list sold for much money.

The road to nowhere is found in many parts of the world. In England, millions spent trying to transplant animal parts from one animal to another, other than a small genetic advance, billions of dollars are just thrown away. In Raeford, NC, ethanol company Clean Burn's efforts, $66 million invested by Cape Fear Farm Credit lost in plant shutdown on a 5000 acre track, a road to nowhere. In Kinston, NC, the 2400 acre Global TransPark folly... protracted to build the economy of eastern North Carolina in replacement of lost agriculture, picking the pockets of local counties with additional taxation, millions spent, nothing gained, a road to nowhere.

Up and down the seashore, motel and meal taxes costing unsuspecting tourists millions of dollars, supposedly used to enhance sand on beaches. This sand, pumped on beaches, with every tide, every storm, is washed away from the beach...another expensive bridge to nowhere. According to Reuters, home foreclosures in 2010 topped 1 million, it has been learned that most of these foreclosures involve bank fraud. For hard working, taxpaying God-fearing families who just want to own their own home(the American dream), a road to nowhere.

Crossing Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, through vast agriculture fields, like a ziggurat on the horizon, a cluster of farm buildings and a dormitory housing workers. At least, in the Russian grand scheme of proletariat totalitarian control, 20% of all productivity went straight to the government. 10% went to the commune for the buying food, 10% to the commune for new equipment, 10% for fertilizers, the 50% left was divided among the workers in direct control and proportion to the days that the worker actually worked. Which is better the authoritarian communist system enslaved people working on the road to nowhere, or the American capitalist system; couples working two or three jobs attempting to provide for their own future? Their own government their greatest enemy standing on the edge of a chasm, broken entitlement promises, a road to nowhere.

Take the human element out, think of the inner-man, the soul, the spirit of a human being, that immaterial essence which gives personality, we so desperately want to trust. We find so little in life worthy of trust...political, spiritual, even blood-relations. Perhaps this is the reason so many person put their animals-pets in front of fellow human beings.

The most beautiful idea to cross the human mind is absolute trust in another human being...trust without doubts or fears. If you have five friends to whom you can attribute this trust, you are a fortunate person, on the road to somewhere. If your spirit, your inner soul has been filled with the holy spirit of Jesus Christ, you are more than fortunate, you are definitely on the road to somewhere.