Waxed Fruit

"This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.

This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.

This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.

Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

All around the neighborhood, I'm going to let it shine.

All around the neighborhood, I'm going to let it shine.

All around the neighborhood, I'm going to let it shine.

Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Hide it under a bushel? No! I'm going to let it shine.

Hide it under a bushel? No! I'm going to let it shine.

Hide it under a bushel? No! I'm going to let it shine.

Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Don't let Satan [blow] it out! I'm going to let it shine.

Don't let Satan [blow] it out! I'm going to let it shine.

Don't let Satan [blow] it out! I'm going to let it shine.

Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine."

How long would you keep hoping to find a missing wallet? A week? A month?

And even if you found it, would you expect your money to still be inside?

One man got an extraordinary surprise when his wallet came back to him after 14 years missing — and stuffed with more cash than before.

“First I thought that someone was joking with me so I went to check whether the money was real,” Croatian man Ivica Jerkovic told the Croatian outlet 24 sata on Friday.

It was.

“It was the best greeting for Easter!” Jerkovic said.

His wallet came to the post office in a plain package, and the sender did not reveal their identity, but Jerkovic has a theory.

He believes that when he lost his wallet 14 years ago — stuffed with 2,000 German marks, or roughly $1,200, for home repairs — someone who desperately needed the money found it.

“I believe that this money saved him and for years he was calculating how much he should return to me,” Jerkovic said. “Otherwise, I don’t know why he would keep the wallet for all those years!”

When Jerkovic received his long-lost wallet last week, it contained 1,500 Swiss francs, or about $1,530.

 Jerkovic praised the mystery person who returned his wallet for their care in keeping track of the interest.

“I call on him to contact me,” Jerkovic said. “He is the best personal banker in Croatia.”

This writer was on a photography safari in Botswana, Africa. Earlier, I had purchased in the Sudan a most remarkable ruby stone in a gold setting. I thought it was valuable, but until I returned home and had it appraised, I did not know how valuable.

Anyway, I had put the ring in my camera bag. One morning, my guide said to me " Doctor, I found this ring near your tent, do you think it is yours, did you lose it?" Someway, somehow, in taking one of my cameras out of the bag I had misplaced the ring, and the guide had found it. Of course, it meant nothing to him and I thanked him profoundly. He did not realize how much money he had held in his hand.

And, so it is with our lives. In the marvelous book The Godfather. The last words of the Godfather before he died, "Life is so beautiful." We spend our lives thinking that waxed fruit, artificial flowers, veneer on cheap wood, is beautiful. There is nothing the creator designed that can be duplicated. Satan always pays off with counterfeit.

It is so refreshing to find human-beings who are good for goodness sake... People who want to do good because it makes them feel good. Such as returning to someone something that they've lost... Whether valuable or invaluable. The genuineness of life is good, whether from the smell of fresh fruit, fresh flowers, or even the yapping of a puppy. Why should the world be consumed by greed, whether a politician, business man, or even a family member. Children who ate their meals their entire life with their feet under the same table, often get so insanely grieved-greedy toward one another when their hard working parents estate is settled. When you get my age, eighty-five, like the Godfather, you realize just how beautiful a life with honesty can be.

Several years ago, I gave to one of my cousins a fruit bowl that had come from his great grandmothers dining room table. The beautiful bowl had come down to me and I wanted someone in my family to have it. I so remember waxed fruit in the bowl when I was a small child. She had said to me, "Thomas, the fruit in that bowl is just for looking, not for eating." I still remember the owner of a furniture factory saying to me, "I can take any cheap wood and with a veneer, make it look like expensive wood." I still remember, like a fool, standing in line with other Buddhists, in a temple in Sri Lanka to look at a tooth that supposedly come out of Buddha's mouth. It is so easy to be fooled "fooled by fakery." Please god, here at the sunset of my life, let me know the joy of real things, real people. Not waxed figures like those I saw in Madame Tussauds Museum.

#1722

Good Morning, Lord

Most people do not realize that the largest city in South America is Sao Paulo, Brazil, larger than New York City. I was staying in a hotel in Sao Paulo, not far from the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida, first dedicated by Pope Saint Pius X in 1908, then again by Pope John Paul II in 1980. A Catholic Priest, talking with me at the hotel, he so wanted me to go to the shrine and wash my blind eyes for healing. I said, “father, I have more faith than you do, if God wanted me healed he could do it anytime, anywhere, it is not necessary for me to go to the shrine, but I do not blame you or any other Catholic for doing so.”

I truly believe in divine healing, I believed for years that God would restore my sight, I kept putting in drops, praying everyday. Then, one day, Dr. Catherine Oxyner said, “Tom, you are wasting your time, there is nothing there, no retinas, nothing.” But, even now, omnipotent, omniscient, sovereign God could restore retinas, IF He chose.

So often, someone asks, “which is the most beautiful part of the world?” In all my world travels, I saw very little, only listened intently to the description of others. I know that the Arctic is a vast area of 4.5 million square miles of ice, and so is the Antarctic, I know that the Sahara, the Gobi, other deserts I have visited are many miles of sand. I can well visualize the mountains of Switzerland, Afghanistan, these places were for me to visit, others to enjoy by sight.

All beauty is not visual, not spectacular color, spectacular design, a lady I had known for many years, brought her husband's grandmother to me as a patient. She was 94 years of age, black-dressed down to her ankles, her Sunday hat. I well remember her husband Mr. Gurly, who always attended the revival meetings at our church. Everyone said the revival did not start until brother Gurly got there. He sat on the front row, and would praise God throughout the service. The Gurlys had 10 sons, all well-known athletes, they had many grandchildren, all well-known athletes. But, most of all, their family were devout Christians, the backbone of their Pentecostal church. The daughter said, “doctor, let me tell you about this week. I looked outside and this lady was playing basketball with her great grandchildren, they were in a paved parking area in our backyard where a basketball goal is erected. She was teaching them how to dribble and throw a goal.” I said, “can anything be more beautiful? Could there be a more beautiful memory in the minds of those children? Their great grandmother, always in a long dress, still blessed to show them how to play basketball as she had her sons and grandsons.”

We have the mistaken information from those who bombard our senses daily, that beauty consists of things. Most people have too many things: children, too many toys, young people, too many clothes, older men, too many electronics. Is it necessary to have athletic shoes with names, jeans with names, purses with names?

260,000 babies are born each year from in-vitro fertilization, 70% of babies are born in homes without a father. There is nothing more beautiful on earth than the family, god established it, father, mother, children. Stress causes 95% of all illness, almost all depression formulates ages 5-15, the years of puberty. Afflicted, conflicted, so necessary for children to have parents during puberty. Encounters, emotions, problems both inherited and acquired.

We live in a world of great beauty, but believers are going to a place of beauty beyond description. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. (1 Corinthians 2:9, Isaiah 64:4) You will notice that this scripture is found in both the Old and New Testament, found in capital letters because so few times the same scripture is found in both. What a consolation.

We hear about airport searches, this was going on in Dark Africa, years ago. I was stripped and searched as I got on the plane in Rwanda, anxious to leave the country. Women passengers got on the plane in shock, having been violated in every way. To get their mind off the ordeal, I said, “I really enjoyed it, I started to go back a second time.” This got their mind off the awful ordeal and brought their wrath on me. I said, “you are alive, you are leaving this hellhole, think of the women and girls who will endure this type cruelty as long as they live...embarrassment, violation of privacy, insensitivity.” Everyday of your life, when you say “good morning Lord“, be thankful for any beauty left in this world, the beauty of life, the beauty of children and old people, the beauty of kindness, the beauty of your redemption.

As we approach this Thanksgiving season, listen to the Thanksgiving hymn and rejoice that such is written forever. For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven. (Psalm 119:89)

For the beauty of the earth
For the glory of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies.
Lord of all, to Thee we raise,
This our hymn of grateful praise.
Orby Shipley

Black Death

The Black Death, 1347-1351, wiped out half the population of Europe and over one hundred million of the world‘s population. Scholars question and debate much of the details of the Plague but it is believed to have started through the fleas of rats. It led to the morbidity of the most innocent of the population including the poorest and contributed to the ruin of many religions including decimation of the Catholic Church. There have been recurrences of this Plague in other places in Europe, and indeed around in the world such as in Spain and Italy.  Much later America was affected by the Plague mostly in San Francisco where there was much death and rats which could be seen running down ropes of ships being tied in the port facility were a scourge on the city. It was a horrible form of death and like all pandemics tested the social fabric of health and commerce.

Europe again, is in a state of despair mostly due to their own inattention to immigration and border control by an influx of Muslims, mostly African, who risk life trying to find a better existence in European countries.  Most, like refugees from Cuba, are trying to get to America on makeshift floating devices or refugees from Mexico and other Latin American countries trying to get to America through tunnels, over or under fences, the exploitation of the human psyche and the determination for finding a better life, has led to untold hardship and death. Just last week, a ship carrying many Africans sank. A container carrying many was discovered with most of them dead. The risk involved in trying to find a better life here on this earth can be compared to the risk of eternal damnation for the unrepentant soul.

Much of Europe’s trouble is self-imposed because of the desire for cheap labor from the Muslim countries of Turkey and those in North Africa.  Instead of going back home, they stay.  One of the largest mosques in the world is now located in Cologne, Germany.  The Muslims’ have many babies and they do not abort their babies.  Among Westerners, more caskets are manufactured than cradles.  Women in Western Europe have stopped having children, so the Muslims have rapidly taken over.

So many Africans have died trying to cross at Gibraltar that there is little burial ground for the dead. Almost the same situation has happened in the Canary Islands, off the Coast of Africa. With all the problems of colonialism, at least the colonial powers, England, France, Germany, Portugal employed natives in their own native country and introduce housing, streets, social and commercial systems which improves their living standards. I will not go into the sociology of white-owned black rule or black-owned black rule but using South Africa, the wealthiest African nation as an example, matters have not improved, only deteriorated with Black rule. More blacks are unemployed in South Africa now than before Mandela. Living conditions of blacks are worse now than before Mandela.

The African country of Somalia is without government, so terrible that the military from other African countries, who had tried to give some relief, have withdrawn. I remember my absolute consternation when in the Sudan and Ethiopia as I saw the tragedy’s already existing there (nothing compares to present day Darfur) and one of the Sudanese officials saying to me, “ You must go back to your country and try to get us some help. This is a place of complete decimation.”

Of course, as always, in every trip around the world, some reporter was anxious to interview me about the trip. How often, do you find a blind man traveling the world, able to report on conditions? But, as always, until my series of commentaries on my travels, reporters just like to romanticize and talk about the insignificant, such as my crossing one river in Nigeria on an ancient rope bridge. Even my description of the peace corps worker, who I met, along with a British ambassador, who had escaped Charles Taylor’s Liberia with the machete deaths was of no interest.

I described in detail my escape from Kigali in Rwanda where the genocide had just begun (1 million Tutsi were killed by the Hutu’s), where even the United Nations representatives were expelled from the country, and one accompanied me to the airport where we had to fight our way through gangs of young black “head hunters” to get into the airport where we were kept in the superintendents' office with what dire police protection was available. Facilities at the airport, the only one in the country, was behind barbed fenced, the taxi drivers who drove to the airport in a caravan for protection, drove right up to the gate where they formed a gauntlet of protection, as much as possible, for us to get inside.

To this day, just as fresh in my mind as the day it happened, I remember my camera bag hanging around my neck, my white cane and 2 suitcases, being swung side to side trying to protect myself along with the drivers and my guide and the UN officials as we escaped Rwanda into the airport, eventually on the last plane out. I have heard the hatred in the voices of these black people. I know something of the black death and only in the “echo chambers” of hell itself will one hear the cries of the women and children who have fallen victim to the desperation and desolation of the black continent.

Books have been written on the genocide in Liberia, the hell of a 27 year war in Angola, the horror stories of Somalia, the beheading of non-Muslims and the stoning of Muslims in Nigeria. Just this week, photos were shown of a 17 year old girl, held down by adults receiving 39 lashes, for sexual activity against Muslim law.

The world's greatest navy seemingly cannot detect or prevent the hijacking of its flagged ships, but untrained pirates operating from failed boats out of the harbors of a failed country. Have we become so “drugged” that we do not have the mental ability to comprehend what is happening, not only in our own country, but around the world? It does not take a disease such as bubonic plague, the black plague or malaria (from rats and mosquitoes), or starvation. (At the Nigerian airport, the British ambassador said to me, “You stupid Americans send food, why not metal garbage cans for these people to protect their food from rats.”). When will a world of wealth recognize the cries of babies and small children or their desperate mothers in these countries facing black death.

Poltergeist

#662

I was in the Central African nation of Zambia, in a very small city where the plane made a stop once a week. We disembarked the plane because a plane repair was necessary. I was sitting, waiting to get back on the plane, when a group of villagers came into the building to say goodbye to a young man who was leaving on the plane. They were all crying and acting as if they would never see him again. The thought occurred to me, having been in Africa many times with the poor electrical systems, the poor plumbing systems, broken down vehicles everywhere, are they sad to see this young man leave or, are they frightened that he is getting on a plane who has mechanics that have the same mentality and work ethic as those who do the repairs and work on the other mechanical and electrical work in the country? Always, a plane having mechanical problems, in a foreign country, I was afraid the airline mechanics were not up to the job. It is a frightful thing to think of falling thousands of feet out of the air. A true poltergeist experience.

In Mississippi this week, powerful air currents which we can not see, tornado, swiped through a 12 mile area near Yazoo City leaving homes, churches, and businesses in splinters and leaving 10 people dead, many injured.

We live in a time when most are indifferent to the abilities and character of those around us. In all my years as a doctor, I never had the first patient ask me my status in my graduating class... whether I was first in my class or last. We just assume, that anyone in a profession, a business, possess the education requirements to have a license, to have the skills necessary. We well know that many do not. This is the reason we have so much fakery and fraud in every area of political, spiritual, and business life. Cream always rises to the top. Usually because of ability. Family name, appearance, personality, may get you somewhere in society but does not get you very far in professional competence. It is true that who you know is often more important than what you know. But, when a surgeon approaches the operating room table I don't care how good looking he is, I want him to know what he is doing. We live in a politically correct world, everyone trying to say the right thing. To not be offensive to anyone. How many times have you heard, after some scam or tragedy, “Life goes on, everything happens for a reason, lets just get over it.”

As a Christian, I often ask, “How could God love me so much, love me enough to die for me, love enough to bless me while on this Earth... forgive me for my rightness, protect me in spite of my carelessness?”

As a American, having seen the depravity and poverty of the rest of the world why should I be so blessed to be a citizen of this country when I have not been the example of a patriot... have not shown my patriotism in all my actions.

As a son, why was I blessed with two responsible, loving, dedicated parents when, over 50% of children even in America, do not have parents. I can trace my family back many generations, have seen photographs of great grandparents etc. know stories of my ancestors. Think of the boys and girls born in this country who have never seen their father. Who know nothing about their family background. Just think, I was reared in a church, where both my mother and father were reared as children. I did not realize it then, but all the families were so concerned about my parent's children. I can remember the first time I came home after entering college and all the older families of the church were so happy that I had gained this opportunity. I can remember the first time that I walked into the same church as a blind veteran of a war and their tearful reaction. The people in my community, the people in the church were I was reared, had a large flag in the front of the church with a star for every community son serving in WWII. Each Sunday, they would pray for each one of these stars individually. At the end of WWII, there was not one gold star on the flag of the 50 blue stars.

As a grandson, I was blessed to know all of my grandparents, knew their concerns in my development. In the old country homes, in the dining room, chairs being so expensive, a long bench was always on one side of the dining table. This is the way it was in both grandparents homes. I can well remember how grownup I felt, as a small child, when each grandmother would pick me up and sit me on that bench between two older family members. Perhaps more so than parents, grandparents always emphasize the importance of school. They had such wonderful stories to tell about family traditions and family history. I wish I had listened more. Evidently, I was the only one who did listen because I am the one younger cousins always go to for information. Since so much of your family background and history is not recorded you should listen very carefully to those who know because, when the oral memory is gone, it will be gone for ever. Always write names on the back of photographs. It only takes one generation for everyone to forget those in a photograph. Before 1950, and that was only 70 years ago photographs were very rare. There are practically no photographs before 1900. Most had a picture taken perhaps once in their life. I have inherited many old family photographs and would like to know who they are. I recently sold the photograph of one pre 1850 NC governor's wife. A historian told me that it was the only one in existence. Why did it get away from the family? I have the photograph of a former governors nephew, made by a world famous photographer (W.C. Yates). Why did it get away from the family?

As is the case with a Christian, an American the son or daughter of hardworking, caring parents the grandchild of productive, concerned grandparents, why should God, the men and women who have died for this country, the parents that have worked so hard for their children the grandparents who have left such a marvelous legacy have cared when we seem to care so little? We, certainly as Americans, have inheritance unlike any other place on the globe.

Sometimes, just for your information, write your biographical history... the things that identify you as a person. Identification theft is the biggest crime in this country... Someone always trying to steal your identification. Mostly because of financial gain. Two of my former employees, went to prison, for stealing my identification. They thought with impunity, they could write checks on my bank account. Remember, if your personal signature is not on a check and the bank cashes the check the bank is responsible. Since the bank most replace the money you can be sure that the bank will prosecute the thief. Lowest on the list of importance for law enforcement is I.D. Theft. “The law expects you to take care of your things.” Of the 7 deadly sins, perhaps greed is the most fashionable... not just among punk criminals but study your mornings newspaper, the worlds largest investment bankers, the worlds most recognized news makers. Administrative notables, now serving the President, who were former officers of Goldman-Sachs... the world's largest bank which has scammed billions from the American tax-payer while their chief officers were getting millions in bonuses for performing the treachery. You, the hard working taxpayer, will bail them out. The next great bail out... .com, financial and banking, automobile, insurance, housing, will be the movie industry. Slowly but surely, the Poltergeist noise of bristling contempt is breezing through all areas of American business life.

Poachers and Moochers

#554

Mark Twain said that India is the ultimate travel destination. I enjoyed my travels through India, once by train from Pakistan to the Southernmost corner, Kanyakumari. I particularly enjoyed Goa. India is certainly the most religious nation in the world...temples everywhere...rituals in the Holy river of the Ganges, but I disagree with Twain, Africa is the most fascinating continent with it's over 40 African nations...spectacular, pastoral, natural beauty, landscapes of every type, wild bush filled with wild animals blending into their natural habitat...some of the poorest and happiest people the mind can imagine.

On a photography safari in Botswana, sleeping outside in tents, cooking over an open fire, my driver said to my guide, “I think we should get out of here, I don't want the doctor exposed to what he is going to hear”. Government officials and soldiers had captured some ivory poachers. Justice is very swift in an African nation...they have the offenders, they have the evidence. Months are not spent on investigations and trials. Before the poachers were shot, there was crying and screaming, begging for their lives, and then after the shots, silence. The people knew the law, they broke the law, they had the bags of elephant tusks, valuable ivory, justice was sure and swift.

Once, in a Duke hospital waiting room, I had been waiting a long time to see a doctor. A prisoner was brought in by an armed guard to see the same doctor. Compare, if you will, a totally blind, 100% disabled, service connected, medical officer, veteran, working every day to pay taxes to support this county after having given his eyesight...I had to pay someone to drive me to the hospital. I have to pay every day for my upkeep and for the insurance to see the doctor, but, here was a prisoner who had free transportation, free healthcare, free room and board, free clothing and, his vote on anything counts just as much as mine.

One of my friends owns an apartment right on the edge of the university campus here in this city. The government pays, under section eight, the rent for the individual living in the apartment. The individual is a sex offender...living right on the edge of a university campus (strictly against the law but the law and social services put him there), the government pays his rent and his living expenses. This 30 year old gets food stamps, does not work because of his “situation” and is left to spend his time watching trash on television, and “porno computer”, playing video games.

Is there anything wrong with this picture...this is directed to the 52% of you who pay all the tax in this country, particularly those most oppressed by real estate taxes.

The great Egyptian movie star, Omar Sharif, you will remember his role in the 1965 movie, Dr. Zhivago said, “movies are my way of making a living but horse racing is my passion. I love horses. I love to own stables of race horses. The problem is, the losers eat as much as the winners.”

Margaret Thatcher, one of England's greatest Prime Ministers, born in Grantham England in an apartment above her father's butcher shop said, “The trouble with Socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money”.

I get so tired of hearing politicians talk about America being the wealthiest country in the world. We are the world's debtor nation, rapidly becoming one of the world's poorest countries. Many are trying to leave, particularly the children of the migrants who came here seeking opportunity. The Great Depression of the 1930s was not deep at all compared to what they are facing now. In the Great Depression, there was just a tremendous transfer of wealth, transfers to the pockets of the elite and the other power hungry, rich entrepreneurs, Bilderbergers, Illuminati figures, Rothschild banker-fellow travelers, Rockefellers, Kennedys, Bushes and others who play ball with the world's tyrants.

Last year, China produced 18 million vehicles to the USA's 11 million. America, once the automobile manufacturing Mecca of the world. Corruption in America and Mexico is about equal. The different is, the world's largest city, Mexico City, population 30 million, is depending on the largess of American industry through NAFTA. The long border between Mexico and the United States is a source of drug and human trafficking. Crime is so bad in Brazil that police travel in groups...in order to protect one another. Reportedly, it is almost as bad in Argentina. In Paraguay, where former President George W Bush owns a 100,000 acre ranch, American's can be protected because of private armies. It is my understanding, many of America's wealthiest are making preparations to escape the excessive taxation, threats from terrorists which will surely start their suicide missions in this country, by living in remote places.

About every other advertisement on the news now is one trying to sell you gold. All the gold, known in the world, would fit in a 75 foot cube. Gold buyers know that this is an international method of exchange. The problem is, and this is something not discussed anywhere except in the financial world, there is much fakery in gold storage and certification. Tungsten weighs the same as gold, and it is already known, that many gold bars are just tungsten bars with a veneer of gold. It takes large dealers in gold such as nations, national banks or large gold storage companies to pull off this type of fraud but we can be sure with the corruption rampant in the world, corruption in this area is probably taking place.

Thank God I do not have to deal with large municipalities, large corporations or even smaller businesses trying to stay afloat in these perilous times. At a time when 52% of all black babies are aborted, most of the world's population, either already on a socialized slavery system of government, and other people, through hook or crook, are just trying to survive. Most nations, cultures and even individuals have stopped treading water and are now just trying to stay afloat (The retirement fund for California State employees is 500 billion dollars short. Funds are being transferred from park allocations to keep schools open). Morality, honesty, seems to be something of the past.

I have employed many people of all ages through the years in several businesses. I have found, much to my sorrow, that the least reliable employee, worst work ethic, always female. This disabled person cannot even find a woman to do simple housekeeping. I believe from the time she walks in my house she is constantly contriving some way of relieving me of some property. From communion wine in my refrigerator to ties off my tie rack, things just disappear. Has the time come when God's chief creation, those for which his son died for their sins have reduced themselves to just being poachers and moochers from their fellow man and their governments?

Basics

There are about 42 countries on the African continent.  I have visited most of them.  Mark Twain said India is the ultimate travel destination and on my several trips to India I can certainly agree.  But, Africa is still probably the most intriguing, colorful continent; so large, so much beauty, so much poverty.  In 1985, after having done several safaris in which we slept in tents, photographed the animals in their natural habitat, I went on the ultimate safari, a gorilla safari, where you encounter gorillas in their natural environment.  I had a Dutch guide and a driver who had done this trip previously.  But they, like the Congolese government were very anxious about my safety, so in addition to a large group of pygmies I had at all times an armed soldier of the Congolese army next to me.  This certainly came in good one time when we encountered a large nest of wasps.  The soldiers and pygmies surrounded me and were the victims of the anger and stings of the wasps. 

The thing I remember most about the incident was that the pygmies learned that I was a doctor and I took some medicine out of my camera bag and put some medicine on all their stings. The guide said “this is the first time that these people have been touched by a doctor“. I had gone to a thrift store in New York before leaving for the trip, purchased a large number of colorful t-shirts and ball caps and, as the guide said, it was like Christmas to them. These people had never worn a pair of shoes, there feet looked more like animal hooves than human feet. They made my trip a delight and I filled 5 rolls of film in 5 cameras with photographs of the gorillas. 

The gorillas were some what angered on the intrusion on their privacy after we had traveled on foot for miles, but they respected the machetes of the pygmies. It was interesting to see their family activity, the fact that the oldest member of the gorilla community had gray hair and seemed to be the boss, that they have a very tight relationship within the community as families, protecting their young, etc.  So, it was enlightening to see these primates which the evolutionists still thinks are our ancestors and the pygmies (small black people) who have been completely isolated from civilization.  I had taken dry clothing knowing the wetness of the jungle. I gave my wet clothing to the military guard who was very near my size and he kept thanking me for the clothing, at the least that is what my driver who understood the language said.

I noted that the pygmies, like the gorillas, were well trained even they have never been exposed to Dr. Spock or products of Columbia’s teachers college. I’m sure God knew what he was talking about when he told human beings to “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” ( Proverbs 22:6) The objective in parenting is the training of a child who, believe it or not, is born untrained. The modernist liberal psychologist believes that all children are born good and trained, they are afraid discipline will in some way affect or inhibit the child’s psyche, or artistic development.

On a trip to Boston, some years ago, a PhD friend at one of the universities there took me to a magnificent restaurant on the roof of a large hotel. He recognized a fellow professor and his wife at another table, their child being reared without discipline or training was running around the restaurant jerking things off the tables of other diners and they sat there as if pretending not to notice.  One well known professor at a local university and his wife did not believe in discipline and as everyone on the campus could report, there 2 sons were not fit to live in polite society. 

George Orwell‘s, Nineteen Eighty-Four published in 1949, novel has become famous for its portrayal of pervasive government surveillance and control, and government's increasing encroachment on the rights of the individual. It is a show-up of the perversions which have already been partly realized in Communism and Fascism. The scene of the book is laid in Britain in order to emphasize that the English-speaking races are not innately better than anyone else and that totalitarianism, if not fought against, could triumph anywhere.  The story begins on 4 April 1984: "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen".

Sometimes, I don’t think people care about anything, anymore.  But a re-read of this 1949 book will show its accuracy in projecting what has happened in this country from 1984 until the present. 

The basics of Christianity are faith, hope, and love.  Faith is not faith until there is nothing left to hold on to such as Abraham when he was about to sacrifice his only son. I believe that 90% of faith is just raw courage.  Those of you who do not have faith should put some adhesive tape over your eyes and try living as a blind person for at least 1 week as many of us have done most of our lives. (I am a totally blind 100% disabled service connected veteran)  I know the truth of God’s word “we walk by faith, not by sight”.  We have heard the story of the child in the top of a burning building, the father on the ground covered with smoke saying, “jump, I’ll catch you”.  There are times in the life of a child or an adult, when it is difficult to make the decision to jump.  How can anyone live these days, or any day, without faith?

Of the theological virtues, hope is equally important. For many years, I kept putting medications in my eyes right on schedule with the hope that something would improve, that some sight would return.  Then, one day, my doctor said there is nothing inside your eyeballs anymore, the nerve, the retina, everything is gone, medication is useless.  Others, have faced that with cancer, a plane hurling toward the ground, a drug addicted child.

But, as we find in 1 Corinthians, the love chapter of the Bible, “And now abideth faith, hope, charity (love), these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” (1 Corinthians 13:13) 

The greatest support system for anyone, young/old, rich/poor, intelligent/ignorant, is love.  I will not go into all the scriptures, the promises and prophecies, about love.  “behold what manner of love that we should be called the children of God.” ( 1 John 3:1)  No one can defend immorality, even the most pagan among us know that “God is love” and without love in the world life would be impossible.  The  most innocent of creatures with life, small animals, birds (with a brain about the size of a pinhead), even animals in the wild (I noticed on safaris in the bush the mother lion would always get between her young and any danger), the human being is the only mother that will allow the destruction of her baby.  And, still most mothers and fathers will give their lives for their children. 

Concern, is a lost word in most vocabularies. I well remember the history of our society, not very long ago, when families would take in their home parents or relatives who had lost a mate or in some other way needed a home. We now depend on government to provide this care, such as nursing homes, foster care, etc..  One lady, told me recently, she was providing foster care for 2 children, both parents were in prison.  In this one county I understand there is nearly 1,000 children in foster care.  The home is the most basic feature and future of our civilization. Faith, hope, and love, from the home, is the foundation of our republic.

Final Revolution

In my possession, I have a survey map of my ancestor's first farm in New Jersey, dated 1766, the survey having been done by A. Peacock. A splinter of the family moved down to Wayne County, NC and some of us are still around. It was 10 years later, March 23, 1775, that Patrick Henry proclaimed in St. John's Church in Richmond, “Give me liberty or give me death!” This was in reference to the freedom the colonials were seeking, from King George and his gestapo who were seeking to enslave the American Freedom Fighters who had fled to this country to escape the tyranny of the crown.

The fight still goes on, after nearly 250 years, we have lost many battles in our strivings for liberty but have not lost the war. In my world travels, I have witnessed first hand the trauma of tyranny. In Liberia, as my driver would go down a dusty road, any uniformed officer could take my luggage out of the car, throw it right in the dirt and search it. This happened several times before I retreated from that country. It is strange to me that every time I entered one of these third world countries, they had the right to demand all of my personal identifications, the amount of money I had on me, and even the make of my gold watch and any other jewelry. I was totally at their mercy. Yet, foreigners can come into this country at will.

Sitting in the airport at Lagos, Nigeria, waiting for a plane to take me out of Nigeria, there were two other passengers, the British Ambassador and a Peace Corp worker escaping from Liberia. Learning who the ambassador and I were, she clung to us, wanting us to help her escape Africa. She said, in Liberia, any man in uniform had the right to strip search any woman. She had been so abused that she was a neurological catastrophe. If I had not been along I do not know the outcome. On the plane, I talked to her in every psychiatric measure I knew, encouraging her to forget what had happened and look forward to seeing her country and her family. I maintained a correspondence with her for several years after she returned home. She thanked me over and over for my help on that day. The British Ambassador said to me, “you Americans are so crazy, you think that your largess and good intentions will change things. Study the history of the dark continent, learn how much of England's treasury has been spent here, how many English missionaries have spent their lives here. Do you really think things have improved any?”

Next week, Libya's dictator, Col. Kadafi, will celebrate his 40th year as the ruler of Libya. Such great monuments of character as Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Kim Jung-il from North Korea, will help him celebrate. How soon we have forgotten the 270 people, mostly Americans, who were killed by Kadafi and his henchmen on the Pan Am flight 103, 1988. The Libyan engineer who was convicted of the bombing and sentenced to life in prison, was just released by the UK government. Amid the handshakes of his jailers, he boarded the private jet of Kadafi, accompanied by Kadafi's son. For his heroic arrival in Tripoli, he was taken to his marble and gold palace provided by this African dictator. President Obama will probably attend the festivity. He has already paid a visit to Kadafi, who has already said that Obama is a “confirmed” Muslim. A mutual friend of both Obama and Kadafi is Louis Farrakhan, Muslim leader in the US and probably the most anti-Jewish, anti-Christian American.

There have always been citizens, both here and abroad, who do not like the American form of government. In the beginning, Alexander Hamilton wanted a more centralized form of government. Joseph Stalin killed between 25 and 100 million of his fellow Russians to establish a centralized form of government. Millions were killed in China by Mao and his followers to establish the totalitarian form of government in China. We could say the same about Mongolia, Cambodia, even Cuba. When governments are totally centralized and tyrannical, citizens are abused beyond imagination. In the Cameroons, in Uganda, at the airport, both men and women are strip searched. I saw American women in a state of shock just trying to board an airplane. Are you seeing the beginnings of such, here?

A black city council woman from this city, Catherine Moore, to the best of my knowledge, has left town because she was so abused by law enforcement. A bigoted police officer saw her at a table in a restaurant with some people who were drinking. He called an officer on duty and had her followed to her home, arrested her and brought her back to the police station for a sobriety examination. I understand that at the airport she was humiliated. One thing after another like this and people will soon realize how few freedoms they have left. Even though I have traveled around the world 8 times, (one trip had 48 flights) when my missionary son asked me to visit, I said, “I don't plan to ever get on another airplane.” I cannot tolerate the police-state attitude of present day air travel. Read about the 47 who were on a plane on the tarmac for 6 hours in Minneapolis, a plane without toilets and no drinking water. You wanted change, now you have change. IT WILL GET WORSE. The final revolution has begun as the present administration subverts the constitution.

We have already learned that anyone who owns a firearm, is on the “no fly list”. So, I will not be flying anywhere anyway, nor will you if you have a firearm to protect yourself and your family. In this time of permits and licenses, it will be a matter of self protection from now on. Even those in the military service must learn to say no, “No!” to useless vaccines. (Of the 690,000 who went to the Gulf War, we believe 80,000 have already died due to the forced vaccines. You will find many of the others on the streets, homeless. One of this country's great leaders during the Great Awakening, president of Princeton, Johnathan Edwards died from a small-pox vaccination.) Say “No!” to congress people who are taking away your freedoms as provided in the constitution, “No!” to limitation of free speech, in “hate speech” legislation, “No!” to confiscation of your weapons,”No!” to your children being dumbed-down by television trash, and gutted schools.

We tire of talk of new health care legislation. Three thousand children die every day from malaria simply because someone has decided DDT should not be used for spraying. Diseases are targeted at certain groups such as AIDS targeted to blacks.

History books have largely forgotten the Trail of Tears, when 4,000 Native Americans died as they were removed from the Deep South to Oklahoma and other reservations in the country. History has largely forgotten the 8 million buffalo killed just to eliminate Indian food. How quickly democrat voters have forgotten voting for someone who said he would give them jobs. It has just been announced that GM is building an automobile plant in China. There will be jobs, jobs for the Chinese. Our entire emphasis is now on the H1N1 virus and as terrible as it could be (1 in 4 may come down with the flu) remember that the vaccine is still untested.

When you remember that there are people in this country who hate this country, much happening now begins to make sense. There are those who want to chop down the Great Oak of Liberty. They, like Mr. Hitler, think they have the “final solution.” Remember he quoted the scripture Romans 13. But the American people who love their country, will not surrender easily. This is the final revolution.