Truth On The Scaffold

James Russel Lowell (1819-1891), American writer, looking over history said, “truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne.”

We think that things cannot get much worse. During the years of Jesus Christ's ministry, the Romans were the worst of ruthless occupiers. Of course, the liberal religious Jews befriended their occupiers; remember, it was the popular, religious Jews who gave Judas thirty pieces of silver to betray our blessed Lord.

Exactly 74 years ago, today, Europe saw the worst of hatred of one group toward another, the first blitzkrieg in history. General Franco allowed the German Luftwaffe completely to destroy a Spanish city, Guernica. The bombing lasted for 5 hours, every building in the city was destroyed, along with most human life. It was a small religious Basque settlement involved in the Spanish Civil War. Picasso painted a marvelous canvas depicting the terrible destruction.

A friend in New York City told me of his father's escape from the holocaust. A family of wealth in the town, his father escaped into the hills, carrying with him a bag of his mother's inherited jewelry. The jewelry was later placed in a lockbox in Madrid bank, only he and his father had the combination to the vault. Since he had suspicions about his father's political relationships in Spain, he flew to Madrid without informing his father, went directly to the bank, emptied the box, and brought all the jewelry back to America. In this we have an indication of the values placed on things by people, and truthfulness involved...Franco's relationship with his fellow Spaniards, Germany's willingness to spatter one small city in another country, the willingness of one group to fight another, even in another country (as was so clearly described by Ernest Hemingway, writing about the Spanish Civil War), a father's value system in leaving his family in a blitzed town as he ran away with their wealth, a son knowing so little about his father's political aspirations, more concerned with the wealth that his mother had inherited.

74 years later, have things changed at all? Planes blitzing Libya, killing women and children, and if you can believe anything the government tells you, planes swooping down in the most affluent area of Rawalpindi-Islamabad, Pakistan killing Osama bin Laden. Instead of the ruthless killing of so many innocent civilians in the most prosperous country in Africa, even more prosperous than South Africa, instead of the destruction of Libya, why not swoop in with helicopters and SEALS and rid the world of Colonel Gaddafi, bury him at sea...or even Dr. Assad of Syria? (Assad, ophthalmologist, involved in London hospital when his father died)

Much like the lies of babies being thrown from incubators in Kuwait, other killing in other places, a burial at sea, with all our gadgetry, electronics, we are expected to believe anything at any time. The best example of our expecting to believe anything, anytime: President Obama's newly-produced birth certificate. What a hoax, what a fraud! In 1961, his father might have been referred to as “black”, “colored” or “negro”, but not “African”.

Abraham Lincoln said, “God made our country for serious purposes. God help us to find these purposes.” God knows what He is doing, when will we realize that? Remember, it is our country, our votes that put the present power brokers in control. It is our tax dollars used for evil as well as good. Just as it was the German people's tax dollars that bought the bombs which the Luftwaffe dropped on the innocents of the town Guernica (1,600 killed), so it is our tax dollars buying the bombs, depleted uranium, and other weapons of disaster that are dropped by drones in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Libya.

Has it occurred to anyone, particularly the spenders in Congress, that this warfare, these killings cost American tax dollars? You, me, and the man behind the tree. In just a few years, 2020, it will take every American tax dollar just to pay interest on the national debt. History reminds of us of the Wiemar Republic, or even present day Zimbabwe where, exponentially, prices double on everything each 31 hours. Traveling the world, I have been in countries where inflation was on a rampage, (such as we can expect soon) there people in stores whose only job was to mark through old prices and write in the new, increased price...every article covered in prices of inflation. The truth hurts, but this is truth.

Moses came up with 630 laws because our first ancestors could not keep one (not to the touch the fruit on one tree). In the longest chapter of the Bible, Psalm 119, we find the words “whole heart”, for example, Psalm 119:10. Those who have experienced tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, know terror to the heart. The most vital element of survival is faith. Even the German-Jewish holocaust survivors with faith have lived the longest. Over and over, we heard the survivors from Tuscaloosa and other tornado-ravaged areas speak of their faith. The most expensive and fastest growing population in America are those over 85. 50% of those over 85 will develop senile dementia, but we find that those of faith do not go into dementia.

The most important element of faith is forgiving. In this time, celebrating national day of prayer, there should be much prayer for forgiveness, the forgiveness of America, as well as its citizens.