Problems & Solutions

#1760

"Open my eyes, that I may see. Glimpses of truth, thou hast for me."

Scatty, cold breath of mentality on the neck. We often project solutions before we understand the problem. Boundaries of all problems have solutions built on eternal values, values already established in Gods answer book, God's word, the holy Bible. One-third of early Americans landing on American soil died from Malaria. They did not know how to handle this disease caused by a small mosquito, Plasmodium Vivax. It is of historical note that most European missionaries seeking to bring Africa to the cross, died from malaria. Many died before they got off the ship, in which they were traveling from Europe to Africa... such a dreadful all consuming disease. Yet, twenty-first century, with a bottomless ocean of technology and chemicals (treatment and cures,) thousands of Africans still die every year from Malaria... when mosquito netting is so cheap, when pesticides are so available. After all, we are not living in a century when 50,000 in London died of the bubonic plague, simply because they didn't know how to handle the fleas on rats. After all, we are not living in a century such as the American Civil War, when 50% of all wounded soldiers died, simply because the doctors did not have sense enough to wash their hands. The greatest cause of disease distribution in the world, civilized or not, are the valuable instruments we find at the ends of our arms... hands with fingers. Hands which hold the dirtiest, germ infested,  much loved, fiat paper money, are holding next, food, which you are putting in your mouth and shaking hands with someone whose hands have been god knows where. We as mortal-mental human beings given by god the brain wiring to think and make decisions, do not have sense enough to control our hands, to wash and keep them clean, as germ free as possible. Microscopic hitch-hikers get into the bloodstream so easily. We have two thousand miles of blood vessels, nourishing every tissue, including the largest organ of the body... the skin. Those of us who study the human body, if we have enough intelligence to do so, marvel that any of us survive. Our institutions of biological sciences have become ivy towered cathedrals of gastrulating manipulation, a wonderland of investigation. Just enough human integrity to pick the pockets of endowment funds, foundations, government grants. Most medical scientists can not get their heads out of the clouds, of complex knowledge, to bring themselves and their patients to a level of common knowledge. When was the last time your doctor asked you about what you eat? The two things that determine health are nutrition and exercise. When was the last time your doctor actually touched you? Most of today's young health professionals can only use their fingers on a computer keyboard... without laboratory studies of your body, they know nothing. This writer has learned, personally, that going to a physicians assistant (PA) you get a better examination and concerned treatment, than you do from "the robber" in the white coat. Most old cemeteries are filled with graves of those who inherited European diseases. The true epidemics of yellow fever, influenza (the early 20th century,) erased entire families and communities from the earth. I'm old enough to remember my grandmothers description of the flu epidemic of 1918. When a family member would start coughing, others in the community still able to work, would start building a coffin. From the old sawmills, used to saw the lumber, for the building of homes and barns (put together with wood pegs.) Wide boards would be "seasoned" to use as coffins. This is what our ancestors endured to build this great nation, which atheists-liberal idea logs are so easily destroying. My progressive friends promote the idea of destroying America because of bad treatment to native Americans. They build hospitals for turtles, rehabilitation for birds, but do not even whimper at the destruction of millions of human babies. Then, to further verify their deity antagonism, they talk of the slaughter of the old testament. The seven civilizations in the "promised land," when the Jews crossed over the Jordan River on dry land, were pagan, sacrificing their own babies in fire to their pagan gods. Have things really changed? Would an aborted baby rather have life sucked from him, or quick immolation. Life and love are essential to healing. God is a great physician, "for I am the Lord who healeth thee..." (Exodus 15:26)

            The Christian should be so ready at the Lords table, to take bread for healing, wine for forgiving. Jews do not read Isaiah 53, it is a precious message for the Christian, written 700 years before the birth of Christ. If god does not choose to heal, "and by his stripes we were healed," (1 Peter 2:24) healed now or later, "Jesus paid it all." In my youth, everything was prosthetic, now I'm living in it. Many times I viewed the "awful" instruments used in surgery and obstetrics, on display in the medical library in chapel hill. It was hard for me to conceive the mental trauma involved, both from the doctor and patient. Yet, with all the advances in knowledge, seeking solutions, have we lost sight of the problem. There are still as many warriors killed from disease as are killed in battle, more soldiers die from suicide then die in battle. More young people die in car crashes and from "exciting" designer drugs, than live to make a better world for everyone. Knowing the value of life, knowing today's opportunities, why do young people seek destruction? If only this writer, from poverty-very poor preparation for anything, could have had a college grant, computer, good diet, maybe I could have made something of myself. No, it is not what we can do with self, as the great prince of preachers Spurgeon said, "anything that makes a man get down on his knees to god, is gain to him." There are those who live in virtual worlds, but we live in a very real world. Jesus, God-man, put on a tent of human flesh and dwelled among us... send us. "If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?" (John 3:12-17)

            In the countless years of my life, as I look at the political and spiritual condition of the world, man has been more interested in the politicians platform than the pastoral pool pit. More interested in what God can do for him, than what he can do for God. We, mortal men, want God in our image instead of our being in the image of God. Now, does the solution to the problem become more evident. We have tried to put the plow before the horse, solution before realizing the problem... same problem, same solution for thousands of years. 

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