Catbird Seat

The catbird seat is an idiomatic phrase used to describe an enviable position, often in terms of having the upper hand or greater advantage in all types of dealings among parties. The first recorded usage occurred in a 1942 humorous short story by James Thurber titled The Catbird Seat. I think of the 'catbird seat' every time I encounter someone in a position of authority (or not) who has nothing better to do than to observe every intricacy of others activities. Most of these people have no life of their own, they live vicariously through the observation and interference in the lives of others. Right this minute, one of my neighbors is probably watching the parking lot or street to make sure no one is illegally parked.

On returning from an around the world trip, this time flying from Hong Kong to Hawaii, I always sat, if possible, in the beginning seats of the tourist section, because often, if a seat were vacant in first class, a stewardess asked if I wished to sit there. On this fight, since I can walk in a plane without my white cane, I had walked to the rear of the plane to the washroom. One British catbird, spied me, immaculate in my new, light gray, suit which had been tailored in Tai Pei, and which I was wearing home in order to save on customs. In my dark glasses, new suit, always spectacular tie, I must have looked like someone straight out of GQ. This person asked me if I were Lord Jacob Rothschild, the famed British financier and head of the Rothschild family; one of Europe's wealthiest. My secretary, looking at his picture, tells me there is a resemblance. I told him that I had doubts that a Rothschild would fly 'tourist class'.

Anyway, in Hawaii, at the immigration desk, two officers walked up to me and told me to come with them. They explained that they had reason to believe that I was bringing a large sum of money into the United States and that one is limited to $5,000. I can be sarcastic, and I said, “I hope you can find it!” This did not go over too well, so they had me strip, looking at my shoes, etc. The thing that stopped the search instantly, was the military identification in my wallet. He said, “You are a retired Colonel? Put your clothes back on, we are very sorry.” As I proceeded back to gather up my things, both were very apologetic, having been lead on a wild goose chase by this British catbird. One said, “I was stationed at Fort Jackson when in the military.” I said, “I couldn't care less where you were stationed, just leave this old, blind veteran alone. I have traveled the world many times, but it is only in the United States that you get such callous treatment.” I should have been relaxed because in the nice white handkerchief, which I always wear in my suit vest pocket, I was evading customs with some nice jewelry in that handkerchief. If they had found that, (which I feared, and was being very careful about removing my coat) I could have been in deep 'doo-doo'.

Our blessed Lord, giving us an example to follow in every way, exhibited an attitude of being meek and lowly. Though God incarnate, He strolled the world in servitude. I was a member of a large Baptist church for many years, the two pastors always made their entrance, onto the pulpit, fully robed, during the singing of the first hymn. They took the attitude of celebrity; much like Dr. Gene Scott, who had a curtain pulled when he arrived on the pulpit. It is a mockery of the verisimilitude of shepherding. Like Eugene O'Neill's famous play, Mourning Becomes Electra, humility is the essence of all Christian activity.

Speaking of Dr. Scott, I listened to this unusual preacher on the radio for many years, not because of his lifestyle, but because of his astounding knowledge of theology. As a pastor, he did not visit any of the people who attended the University Cathedral (his church). He said, “When I preach the truth from this pulpit, I do not want any of my members to think I am talking about them from something I have observed in their home or their life activities. I am going to tell the truth, whether it hurts you or not.” From his catbird seat, he felt the entire purpose of his ministry was to teach; to attract people to his teaching, in person, on radio or on television, using any method possible. Now, he really looked like a catbird, preaching and smoking a cigar at the same time. He wanted to set himself apart from the conventional.

In our natural system of 'survival of the fittest', we see a determined cat perched for hours, grab an unsuspecting bird. In Africa, on the great plains of the Kalahari, lions would lie in wait, for hours, when a herd of wildebeests came running by, just to get a chance at one of the disabled or a mother who had dropped her baby. This is survival in the animal world, they live by instinct. They live by superior musculature, smell, sight, coatings which blend with the bush, but man is made in the image of God, with a superior nervous system and the ability to think and make decisions. Genus homosapian is the only animal that knows he's going to die. How tragic it is, that many of our species think they should live and die like the lower animals.

When studying the scripture, or even history, associate yourself with the worst human beings, and see if you can determine why they did and do get caught in a life of degradation. It bothers me that young people from abroad do everything possible to get to this land of opportunity. Over half the graduate students in US universities are from abroad. In NYC, the familiar explanation was, a family from Asia will operate a fruit stand in front of a building in Manhattan. In a short time, they own the building behind the fruit stand, and later, they own the entire block. I noticed, living in Manhattan part-time for many years, that there was always an older family member, a catbird, who was watching every thing that went on in these businesses, large or small. They knew what they were doing. They appreciated their opportunities, large and small. In talking with foreigners in New York, that were here on a visa, each just wanted opportunities. We all know people, born and raised in the United States, who have had such marvelous opportunities, every advantage, and then just flitted it away with indifference, ingratitude, addictions and irresponsibility. Some catbird, in their family, should have warned them, that with American citizenship, comes responsibility. As we old folks know, life goes by very quickly and it is next to impossible to retract or regain what has been thrown away.

A fake diamond doesn't cost very much; a real diamond does. You measure the quality of a diamond by its hardness. Accomplishment is not easy. In every family, every school, every church, every community, there should be a catbird watching, encouraging. The greatest weapon Satan has in his arsenal is discouragement, and believe me, we ALL go through it. The lost word in most vocabularies is concern. Be glad if there is someone concerned about your development. It is when we do our worst that we know God loves us most. The time I learned how much God loved me was when I was leaving a hospital room, knowing that I would forever be totally blind. I immediately walked into a wall and fell. But, I GOT UP and God has been helping me get up in my blind condition ever since. Although I do and did fail him many times, he has NEVER failed me.

Be thankful, those of you who have the good sense to believe in an omnipotent, omniscient, almighty God, that he loves you most when you have done your worst.

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.