Human Relations

This is human relations month. In every village, city and state there are human relation groups whether from the secular or religious communities. When will the world learn that the entire matter of human relation was established by the Lord himself when he said, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. 'All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." - Matthew 22:34-40.

Whether individuals, governments or others in the human family, history proves that mankind has not been very successful with human relations. Scarred battlefields and filled military cemeteries attest to the inability of mankind to live with one another. The first Great Commandment of our Lord is very easy to live by because only an absolute fool does not realize the goodness of God and the fact that we should honor him with our body, soul and mind. The difficulty comes in the second Commandment when it comes to loving our neighbor as ourselves. In looking in a mirror, you are as far behind the mirror in image as you are in reality. When I had eyesight (I am a 100% disabled totally blind service-connected veteran), I was aware of the enjoyment most receive from looking at themselves in a mirror. Like the sound of your own name which one enjoys hearing, most individuals have fallen in love with their own appearance.

Have you ever considered the fact that the billions of individuals that have lived on this Earth, no two have ever looked the same. Like fingerprints and even the iris of the human eye there no duplicates. No two voices have ever been the same (the closest to this are two male cousins of mine of the same age whose fathers were bothers and mothers were sisters, since I depend so much on my sense of hearing, when I was with the two of them I could not tell which one was talking, they sound EXACTLY the same, I have never found this even with identical twins, and as doctor, I have know several identical twins).

I was speaking before a large Christian group one day and made the statement (before computers were plentiful) that I understand; ”there is a computer now that will identify items all over the world”. I said, “I have been to both the Arctic and Antarctic, and at the top and bottom of the world there are 4.5 million square miles of ice and snowflakes, no of two which are the same, in fact, I understand on all the beaches of the world you will not find two grains of sand the same”.

One does not doubt the phenomenon of the computer. But compared to the ability of an almighty God to create things we are still in a very primitive condition. So, when we consider the billions of individuals who have lived on this Earth and the fact they are all so different it gives us a new challenge in our ability to relate to one another.

Anyone with whom we come in contact is our neighbor. Yet, how many of us do not even know the people who live next door or down the street from us. There is a large Presbyterian church two blocks from my house, where I have lived for 50 years. I understand the senior pastor of this church lives on my street, just a few houses from me. To my certain knowledge, he has never spoken to me nor have most of the people that live on my street. Although, if they are observant at all, seeing me getting in and out of taxi cabs or my car being pulled to the front of my house and someone helping me get in the car, if they have any repore with anyone else, they should know I am a blind older resident of their street. Yet, in these 50 years of living here, I am the oldest resident of the community, through hurricanes, storms of every type, holidays, etc., not one time has anyone of these neighbors come to my house. One did write me a letter that “I needed to change the shrubbery in my front yard because it was so old fashioned”.

In this county and state, there are tax supported agencies called “Human Relations Commissions”. As a long time activist, I have written the boards of these commissions several times about ideas to improve neighborhood activity but have never yet received a response. Such activities, as, having law enforcement contact elderly citizens who live alone. I even gave one new car to my local Wilmington First Baptist Church for a committee in a church to use to transport elderly members and citizens in the community for doctors appointments, drug store necessities and such. The car was never used for this mission, an assistant pastor took the car to another town, where I was known, and a dealer there called me because the car title had been put in my name from the dealership where it was bought which bears my family name and wanted to know about the reason for the low mileage new car and that an assistant pastor was trying to sell it. I suppose, this was the neighborly thing for the church pastor to do.

My early life, 1930-1964, was spent in a segregated South, so I know all about separate water fountains, bathrooms, buses, schools, even doctor's reception areas. I was the first doctor in this town not to have a separate “Jim Crow” reception room. I gave my black patients the same which I gave all others and they paid me with the same color money as others. Books have been written on this subject, I will not do so here.

With the influx of many illegal non-citizens from other places over both our Northern and Southern borders we have a new minority challenge we encounter on a daily basis. Having traveled the world (passport stamped in 157 countries) I know that, like the rest of us, there are good and bad, smiles and frowns in all of us. Some of the most marvelous people I have ever known I met in “so called foreign countries”. Once, as a poor student from the poverty of Eastern North Carolina, paying my way through eight years through 2 university systems to obtain my professional standing in the community, I had a talk with an ancient black woman on her front porch which I have used in speeches across the country, regarding this very subject. Her face and physical condition revealed her hard life as a minority in Bladen County, North Carolina. She said, “Son, if I miss out on heaven, I have really missed out”.

The largest minority in this country are the disabled (estimated 38 million). Unless you are in a wheelchair, minus limbs, the VA does not give you much regard as a disabled veteran. It is very much this way with human relations in all area of government and society pertaining to the loss of hearing or eyesight. Helen Keller, in her book in 1904, said “there is no isolation like the isolation of blindness”. There is no insecurity like that of a disabled person regardless of disability. Our blessed Lord had a particular love for the disabled and when one visits a military hospital, nursing home or institution of any type for physical or mental disability we can understand why he taught us to love each other.

In the American experience, next to slavery, the greatest shame of this nation is it’s treatment of disabled veterans and handicapped people. We, who are disabled, realize that in restaurants, clubs, concerts, churches, we make you “normal” people feel uncomfortable. It would be wonderful, if all over the world, we could all be one color, healthy, wealthy and wise. But our blessed Lord trusted us to treat one another with love and respect in spite of our differences. This is human relations.

Boldness

For many years, I owned a very expensive, totally unnecessary condominium apartment in mid-Manhattan. It was a wonderful launching pad for my many trips abroad as well as giving this totally blind, 100% disabled decorated veteran a lifestyle which it is impossible to find in Eastern NC. I would usually spend one weekend a month in this extravagance. The apartment had a 24 hour doormen and all the other accouterments (fresh flowers in the lobby) that those that were not born in poverty only expect. In flying into the city too many times to count, the pilot would point out buildings of significance because for a first time visitor to New York City, it was, and should be a memorable experience. On January 16th, I could very easily have been on Flight 1549. Can you even imagine the boldness of the pilot of this plane when he ditched it in the Hudson River, and who because of his years of careful study in both the military and civilian flight, knew exactly the right approach to this problem? There are not very many heroes left, anywhere, anytime, anymore. But Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger III is a hero. He, like the plane, had to be extracted from the river, and there is probably much cargo and many personal belongings that have to be laundered. Not one life was lost in the most frightening and terror stricken efforts to get everyone out of the plane with the heroism of the many who made the rescue possible. I thought it was significant that one woman who should only have been exuberant with the fact that she was still alive, wanted to go back and get her purse. This reminded me of an elderly man in my town, known only for his holding onto every dime possible (he would actually walk through a restaurant and pick up the tips left for the wait help). But, when his own house was burning and he and his wife had successfully gotten outside, he evidently remembered some money inside the house, went back into the burning house, so he had a cheap and inexpensive funeral.

On all of my flights circumnavigating the world 8 times (one round the world trip had 48 tickets in my flight booklet), I never had many close calls in the air. In Timbuktu, Mali (there is such a place) my first day there I saw a herd of goats being herded down the main street. The government only had two small planes at Segou when I was trying to reach the Dogon country, the two planes, one on which I was traveling, ran into one another on the airstrip. One of the most dangerous places on Earth to fly is Peru. Lima, the capital, is one of the world's most dangerous airports. On my second trip to Machu Picchu we had great troubles with a plane at Cuzco, the closest airfield to the ruins.

Easter Island is a small island 500 miles in the Pacific off the coast of Chili. A Chilean airliner only flies into Easter Island once a week, (at least that was the itinerary many years ago when I was there). The pilot, after he left the island, was instructed to fly low and obtain the number of a Russian vessel off the coast of Easter Island. To say the least, it was a scary experience to suddenly look out the window and realize you were about to ditch into the Pacific ocean. But he pulled up and we went on and continued the flight to the New Hebrides. I owned Dr. Samuel Johnson's first edition book on the Hebrides. I wonder if he had such an experience. Later, over dinner with an island official, he related to me just how dangerous that maneuver had been and I should complain to International Officials about it. I have learned in my long eventful life that complaining to bureaucrats about anything is just a waste of my time!

I can show copies of thousands of letters written to the Federal Trade Commission about commerce practices which are absolutely criminal, but you get nothing in return from them but a generic letter which they send out to anyone that writes them about anything. The best just happened recently, you should try this. I wrote them about the absolute fraud and non transparency when it comes to one of the countries largest corporations, EBAY, a company that does business all over the world, who has over 2 million active accounts; (you may,online, see for yourself just how extensive this company and its business portends). From FTC, after writing a concise, well documented letter about my complaint, I received a printed brochure from them and a generic letter which said 'we hope you can find the answer to your problem in the enclosed brochure, if not, write us a letter.' Hypocrisy is a word which means nothing to the average American. As George Bernard Shaw, the Irish playwright, stated long ago, ' If you rob Peter to pay Paul, Paul will always get all the votes.' Certainly, if you have two purkinje cells still functioning, from recent elections and the trash spewed at you on national TV, you know that this is true.

Eastern NC lies in the path of many horrific hurricanes. Most inhabitants my age, and even younger, will never forget Hazel or Floyd. A few years ago, one hit the coast and, as always, electricity and the entire coastline came to a standstill. I was in my house for one week without electricity, knowing about the rest of the world by a battery radio. The imbeciles running for election care so much for everyone, do not have enough intelligence to have organized law enforcement or others to routinely check on people who are disabled, particularly those living alone. We all know, that the churches stopped being concerned about anything but the collection plate, long ago. However, a group known as the Baptist Men of North Carolina, who have their trucks and food preparation trailers, go to places of disaster and, I understand, (I have never eaten any of their food or been a beneficiary of any of their services) prepare food for those in need. The Baptists had set up for this particular event on the grounds of Winter Park Baptist Church (Wrightsville Ave, Wilmington, NC) A black woman and her husband Isaac had done some work for me at an office complex which I owned, stopped by my house on their way home several counties away, (an area which had not been touched by the hurricane.) She said, 'we have been coming over each day to get food from the truck at the Baptist church. She further stated all our neighbors are doing the same. He said, ' their cars look like mountaineer moonshiners because there is so much food in the trunk that the car is tilted upwards at the front'. She said our dogs and hogs love that chicken pastry that they cook. All our neighbors are feeding their hogs with that good Baptist food, she said '. We will give you some, but we know you have food in your house.' This is the type hypocrisy which should be sickening to every 'so called' Christian and to the good people who give the money for this worthy practice. I called the local Cape Fear Baptist Association of NC and spoke with the person in charge of association activities. In the usual seminary pathos, effected voice he said, ' we just hope we will reach some people in need'. He asked nothing about my own situation, I feel sure that he cared nothing about the fact that my only child and his wife and children were on the foreign mission field. The time has long past for those who bare the name of Christ to show some “boldness”.

In 1991, Congress passed Federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of workers' disabilities. The act is designed to protect the rights of people with virtually any physical or mental disability. It protects consumers in that it makes discrimination against the disabled illegal in public accommodations, transportation, and telecommunications. In industry, it applies to companies with 15 or more employees and protects job applicants as well as employees, commonly known as the ADA. which gives some citizenship to the countries largest minority (Est. 38 million) those with disabilities. As I have said in at least 10,000 letters leaving my home over the period of 40 years, that I have been totally blind, in the American experience, next to slavery, the greatest shame of this nation is its treatment of disabled veterans and handicapped citizens.

Tomorrow, many of you will take joy in the Inauguration of the 44th President of the United States, one who as far as I can ascertain, has done nothing for this country except enjoy its largess, pushed and polluted by the mostly corrupt political machine known to man, whose wife drew a salary of $316,000 a year working for the University of Chicago hospital system, who have little, if any regard for the poor or disabled.

Alexander Pope, the great philosopher, said I will add a new Beatitude which you find in Mathew 5, Blessed are those that expect nothing for they will never be disappointed. Do we have the right to expect boldness from many besides just one airline pilot?