The Death of Business

#1746

"God grant me the serenity 
To accept the things I cannot change; 
Courage to change the things I can; 
And wisdom to know the difference."

Directions in life, are often determined by unintended consequences. The business model on which all commerce, anywhere around the world, is directed, involves "selling something." Small mom and pop grocery store, a beauty shop at the home or a barber shop at the crossroads, Your neighbors and friends, supplying a source for your need, and trying to make a profit. This 85 year old man well remembers his first self-help store, his first self-help gas station. It is from the sound busiest practices of the self-help- lower price model that Sam Walden built an empire that made his children some of the richest people in America. Only history will tell us what Wal-Mart, stores everywhere in every area of our country, has done to the small business man. The small business man operating with heart, a feeling of family with his customers has died, replaced by an impersonal Wal-Mart model.

It is very much the same with other heartless- hapless corporations such as Amazon and AT&T. The small book seller on Amazon, just wants to make a living, just as the small mom and pop grocery store. But, as this writer found in the huge Communist operations in Russia and China, the personal ingredient, has been taken out of the mega store- corporation. It is only the bottom line that matters. And the, excessive salaries of store and corporate officials. Next to Wal-Mart, the greatest offenders in the American experience, Amazon and AT&T. Even Monsanto and its attempt to control the lifestyle of everyone, does not compare to the poison of Amazon and AT&T. 

Plight of the Disabled

“In time of war, when truth is so precious, it must be attended by a bodyguard of lies”

-Winston Churchill

Truth is truth whether anyone believes it or not. Perhaps in war, truth must be protected by a body-guard of lies. And, Since, in my lifetime, America has been constantly at war, we are "jaded" by war, "tainted" by oppression. Most Americans, under the oath of servitude taxation, have little time to philosophize about freedom or truth. Only a blind person can understand the life of another blind person. Only a person who spends his or her life in a wheel-chair, can understand the crippled. My good friend, Dr. John East, who served in the US senate from North Carolina, said to me from his wheel-chair, "The disabled life is hardly worth living." He was called a cripple on the floor of the US senate by another senator, his reply, "You're right I am a cripple." DR. East later killed himself. America does not mind sending its young men and women from its poorest homes to fight for her lifestyle. When they come back battered, they're mostly disowned. More veterans kill themselves than those killed in battle. Without a peep from the churches, America kills 3,000 babies each day. Without a peep from the school house, courthouse, church house, tax paid buildings were any type of exciting activity is going on (libraries, concert halls etc). Americans are able to totally ignore the disabled.

The disabled do not like to play the victim card. Even though, in my lifetime, I have seen politicians and pastors become profanely politically correct and interested in correcting discrimination against other minorities such as blacks, gays, women. The disabled, is the largest minority.

There was a law passed supposedly giving some attention to the disabled, "Americans With Disabilities Act" (ADA). Believe me, this is a totally useless legislation, I have brought many matters to their attention. Discrimination in stores-parks-cell phones (It is impossible for a blind person to use a cell-phone unless you have one you can speak into). I always get back the same letter from ADA, telling me to "hire a lawyer."

This totally blind, 100% disabled service connected, medical officer veteran of the Korean war era, was born in poverty, on a dirt road without power, phone, or water lines, In the dearth of Democrat debauchery of eastern North Carolina. I will never forget, as a small child (sighted then) seeing what went on at the negro insane asylum (now called Cherry Hospital, Goldsboro NC). The black men were all castrated, the women tied on the porches of the buildings, I still remember seeing those with the intelligence and energy to pick beans, picking green beans in a field, a man on horseback riding around them with a whip. This was the treatment of the disabled- mentally handicapped, in  North Carolina

Blessed to later travel the world (DR. Morris' passport has been stamped in 157 countries) I could not see but could sense what goes on all over the world. There are images which I wish I could erase from my mind... A burden to me in my prayer life...Refuges and hungry children at borders. Much of the turmoil of earth, so senseless, "we will bomb them until they want freedom." Bush 41 said, "a world in which there is the very real prospect of a new world order" (Speech before congress, Sept 11, 1991).  To president Bush 41, Bush 43 ,and anyone else who will listen, The only promise of a "New World Order" will only be when men have learned to love one another, "be kind to one another" (Ephesians 4:32).

The disabled desire to live productive lives. My friend, Catherine Vasalou, blind from birth, college at ECU and UNCCH, went to work as a typist at a local hospital everyday. An only child, she cared for and supported, both of her parents until their deaths. Catherine died in a nursing home. She told me by phone, just before her death "I have been ignored in life, I do not want anyone around me after my death. I have told the funeral home just to take me to the cemetery and bury me next to my parents." This writer feels very much the same way. The last thing that I would want, is for those who have stared at me and my disabled condition in life, to at last file by and stare at me in a box.

The worst thing for most disabled citizens, the attitude of American commerce (businesses) toward them. It is a known fact that disabled people make the best employees. They want a job, need a job, want to live from their own work, not from the slavery-taxation, of others or government.

I cannot speak for many, only for myself. I started making my living many years ago, selling collectibles online After the computer become popular. Before the computer, I sold rare books, vinyl records, ephemera, antiques. Mostly on a one-to-one basis with photographs to dealers.

With the internet, answer to prayer for home business I started selling online (Ebay, Etsy, OnlineAuction, AbeBooks, Gemm, Bananza, etc). I had 10,000 items on Amazon alone. A sabotaging employee, got my business kicked off from Amazon. I could give the police report, trial data etc. But it would do no one any good. Its suffice to say I lost my selling privileges with this huge company. Amazon has no empathy for the disabled. Any communication with this giant company, just an automatic-response. Most disabled people do not write something like this, or offer any complaint about anything. So many get a small government check, on which they must depend to survive. Many have told me that they will not jeopardize their check. As one women preacher told me, who went to a nursing home to pray for a member of my church, she told the man that she wanted to pray for his healing, he said, "You can pray, but remember I get a welfare check."

One of my cousins came to this city to visit me. I said, "I want to take you to lunch, were do you want to go?" He had just lost his beloved wife. "Lets go to the restaurant that you Marie and I went to the last time Marie and I were here with you." The two of us received no service at all (Middle of the Island, Wrightsville Beach NC). At the cash register, I asked the owner, "Why did we not get service?" I know that most of you will not believe this, why should I lie? The owner of this restaurant said, "I do not want disabled customers, It makes our normal people uncomfortable." Churches, schools, governments, businesses like Amazon, come to your senses, get generous, make everyone's life more comfortable. 

#1724

Jungle, Jumble, Jihad

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Ungodliness is a state of mind. There was not a time when Jesus was not aware of the holiness of his father. Faith must be a way of life. This writer must have the faith to believe that God is involved in everything. Faith is a verb, action, based on belief, sustained by confidence. Faith must be life, a way of life. I have the faith to believe that God can subtract as well as add, that in the jungle-jumble almost Jihadist actions of men, IN HIS SOVEREIGNTY, God will handle everything, including the Jihadist actions of one company toward me. "Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD'S anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed" (Lamentations, 2:22).

When you speak of a man's life, you talk about impact, what he does, the resourcefulness of the individual. It has been the resourcefulness of the individual that has made this nation what it is. Most businesses started in the home. I am old enough to remember the woman who started a large clothing-sewing factory in her home. Before the time of motels, there were "tourist homes." Most beauty shops, barber shops, started in homes. Today's large hospitals started in the private individual offices of physicians or surgeons. All new testament churches were in homes, large cathedrals, houses of worship were started and built at least a thousand years after the early church. Automobile garages-dealerships started in blacksmith shops. AND, we could go on and on of how commerce, "sick care", education, specialized services of every type started on a small scale, usually in a home. Before the time of bakeries, large self service grocery stores, mothers made extra money for the family by cooking at home and selling at the curb market.

In the curse of free enterprise, capitalism, governments want control. Now, there must be a permit or a license for everything and, in the fascism-communism regulatory mentalities that afflict the brains of some human beings, large must be better, whether with a smart phone or smart electric meter, your life must be controlled. One of the greatest curses in the modern municipality, homeowner associations. A small elitist group of "supposed" neighbors who regulate and control other peoples homes, people who pay for their home, its taxes, its expenses. Then, homeowners are told what they can and cannot do. Robbing the world of the greatest business model mankind has ever known, the "mom and pop" business, the strip mall concept of small businesses now being "ERASED" by the giants of commerce. This writer has traveled through Communist China three times since the reopening of China to the west. All the stores-businesses in Communist China, Russia, Burma, are much like your local Wal-Mart... huge buildings with great piles of things. Do you miss window shopping? The extravagance of having competitive-civilized service, in any type business? Rapidly coming, just robots doing everything-going through the motions. Watch what goes on in every business enterprise around you.

This world traveler has seen the beginnings of commercial entrepreneurs in developing countries. When you go to a city like Lagos, Nigeria, you find every type of business-enterprise in small stores-offices operated by concerned owners. They want to help you, please you and, this was the American capitalism spirit of my childhood.

The salvation of the small entrepreneur has been online selling. I will not go into every aspect of online selling, just my own personal business. In online selling, just as selling from a brick and mortar building, you face problems. You have all the problems of any other type of business; buyer remorse, employee theft and often disgruntled employee sabotaging, coding and keeping up with everything, postal and government taxes-services. You have wins, might even make some profit, in spite of government, not because of it. The bureaucrat-politician has no concept of what is involved in business success. Most politicians, like Obama have never operated a lemonade stand. The CEO's of most large corporations have never earned a living... they got their positions by knowing the right people, networking at the fraternity house.

Research in England tells us that 70% of all entrepreneurs think that their failures are due to themselves, not the problems afflicted on them by government and others further up the food chain. Time is always a factor and there is not enough time for me to pursue what I want to explain here. We live one day at a time and almost, before you know it, its tomorrow.

I am a totally blind veteran, Army Medical Officer, and I have made my living by investing and still work at age 85.

I am an antiquarian book collector, thousands of rare books and many other antiques (old things). I employ local university students who help me. We sell thousands of dollars in merchandise online every year. We make much money for those licensed by government in E-commerce, such as EBay, Amazon, Etsy and many others. They assist us and get a commission of our sales. We have no quarrel with that. But, Amazon has become a monster-Jihadist, terrorizing enemy of the small business person.

Their latest business model, Fulfillment By Amazon or FBA. To do business with Amazon, you transport your entire inventory to them, where you pay storage fees, handling fees and, if anything is left from their sale efforts, you might get some results from your years of time-efforts-energy. Just think, does this make common sense? You have spent your entire life-money-efforts, collecting, listing for sale inventory which customers might wish to buy. I have over ten thousand items listed in Amazon's sales catalog. Much of the ephemera (paper products) are old documents that have been carefully chosen-purchased, kept in plastic, in climate control and, like old books-vinyl records, kept in plastic-climate control. This company wants me to forgo all my years of training in handling such merchandise. To ship, at my expense, my entire inventory to them for their perusal and disposal. "When orders are received, we will professionally pick, pack and ship the product directly to your customer. In addition, our customer service team will manage customer inquiries, refunds, and returns for your FBA orders." In other words, the new model for American commerce, as in the communist system, big brother controls your business efforts as well as controlling your life.

In the jungle of the new world order, the jumble of financial duress (recessions, etc.). Facing terrorism everyday from some new direction, you now survive in business at the whim of Jihadist competition. The American spirit of free enterprise has been shamed previously by elitists (minorities-especially blacks in business, women in business, the disabled-handicapped in business efforts). Now comes the extremes of taking away from the entrepreneur, every tradition-discipline of self worth. Doctor Benjamin Rush, physician, signer of the Constitution, said, "I have been alternately called an aristocrat and a democrat. I am now neither. I am a Christocrat." What would Jesus do?