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

Santa Has Come To Town

Forwarded from a friend...

READ THIS CAREFULLY.....

Did you receive your Medicare Handbook for 2015 yesterday? If you have already received yours in the mail please turn to page 12 and go down to the bottom of the page and read Find out what you pay for Medicare (Part A and Part B) . It states that the premium and deductible amounts were not available at the time of printing. It further states you may call 1-800-633-4227 to get the most up-to-date info.

I did just that and talked with a Medicare representative. She told me that they probably would not have those figures in until the end of the first week or possibly the second week of November.

Now, let that sink in!

As soon as she stated that to me I replied , "My, isn't that convenient for the Obama Administration to actually hold off on those figures until after the 2014 election results."

There was dead silence on the other end of the line. I told her thank you and that I would call back.

You see on our Social Security increase for next year we are only receiving an increase of around 1%. Even the military are getting just over 1%. You can bet after the November 4th election the increases for Medicare A & B will be greater than any 1%. That is why they are delaying what the increases will be. Because if they had put it in that handbook, any elderly would be voting against the Democrats.

So anyone voting for the Democrats in the forthcoming elections deserves to get the increases that are coming after November 4th.

Addition Dr. Morris: 

This totally blind, 100% disabled service connected, medical officer veteran of the Korean War era, could become very discouraged and depressed.

I never thought Obama would be elected president the first time, and certainly did not think he would be elected the second time. It seems that with the country in the condition that it is in, there would be no political competition at all in this election. Yet, we are told that $4 Billion has been spent on the midterm elections, November 4, 2014. In North Carolina, we are told that $100 Million has been spent on just the senatorial race. This is almost inconceivable. I voted yesterday. Arrangements have been made for early voting and the disabled can just drive up and a voting official comes out to handle the paperwork and ballots. It took almost one hour, the voting official was so inept when handling the votes cast by me and my driver, a state of complete confusion with the official. I just hope that my ballot gets counted. 

In my lifetime, there has been a total metamorphosis, the change in my country has been almost incomprehensible. It was just a few years ago that we were completely unfamiliar with the term "trillion". Now, my country is in debt over $17 Trillion AND when all future obligations and entitlements are considered the figure is nearly $70 Trillion... a debt that can never be repaid.

The word sacrifice is a very unpopular word. You never hear it anymore, not from pastors OR politicians. When I think of the sacrifices that have been made for my country, my own ancestors, one of North Carolina's first families to settle, what they sacrificed to build the homes, schools, churches. 

Those of us who have known those who have worn the uniforms realize men and women much better than us (over 165,000 buried on foreign soil), died thinking they were dying for the greatest experience in government and liberty the world has ever known. They would not recognize what has happened. My parents, grandparents, great grandparents (and I was fortunate enough to know mine, most children born in America today have no knowledge of their family), knew nothing but hard work and hard times... and they were land owners. I still think of the sharecroppers-tenant farmers-millworkers (particularly the black people who were subjected to every form of bigotry), the trials and tribulations they endured. Have our educators (particularly universities), have our pastors, have our politicians (elected and appointed) become so desensitized, so unconcerned in their thinking, so inconsiderate of history, that they are just willing to stand by and see a great nation just fail and fall, as did the Roman, Greek, and other civilizations?

For the Christian, even in America today, we take humble umbrage in the fact that greatness lies ahead for us, what could be better than heaven? For the unsaved, nothing is going to get any better in America or anywhere else.

Thinkism

Proverbs 23:7King James Version (KJV)

7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.

There are many -isms that should be -wasms. Socialism, Communism, Nazism, Fascism, even Nihilism. Genus Homo (Human Being) is the only member of the animal kingdom who has the ability to think-reason-make predetermined decisions. In my lifetime (84) I have personally seen human beings dumbed down by a secular-state news media who are determined to do all of the thinking for you. We call such, "Stinking Thinking." Satan is in control of such thinking, it should be very obvious to anyone with an IQ above their shoe size. Madison Ave., the world, flesh devil, would have you believe that government knows best... that government knows best with your values judgment, political correctness, the necessity to be popular. There was a time we called such "controls" brainwashing. We have seen the cheapening of life (abortion, euthanasia), the greatest gift in God's creation. It is beyond the comprehension of this writer, one who has spent his entire life in science and healthcare. That those who should know the "magnificence" of the human body, even a rudimentary knowledge of epidemiology, could not with certainty COMPREHEND THE HORRORS OF A VIRUS.

June 20, 2014: The Centers for Disease Control sign is seen at its main facility in Atlanta, Georgia. (Reuters)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed on Tuesday that a patient being treated at a Dallas hospital has tested positive for Ebola, the first case diagnosed in the United States.

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas officials said in a statement Monday that an unnamed patient was being tested for Ebola and had been placed in "strict isolation" due to the patient's symptoms and recent travel history.

Presbyterian Hospital says it's taking measures to keep its doctors, staff and patients safe.

CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said that the patient arrived in Texas from Liberia earlier this month and exhibited no symptoms. The patient sought care last Friday and has been hospitalized in isolation since the weekend. Frieden said that officials don't believe there is any risk to anyone who was on the flight at that time.

State health officials say no other cases are suspected in Texas.

The hospital had announced a day earlier that the patient's symptoms and recent travel indicated a case of Ebola, the virus that has killed more than 3,000 people across West Africa and infected a handful of Americans who have traveled to that region.

The CDC has said 12 other people in the U.S. have been tested for Ebola since July 27. Those tests came back negative.

Four American aid workers who have become infected while volunteering in West Africa have been treated in special isolation facilities in hospitals in Atlanta and Nebraska, and a U.S. doctor exposed to the virus in Sierra Leone is under observation in a similar facility at the National Institutes of Health.

The U.S. has only four such isolation units but the CDC has insisted that any hospital can safely care for someone with Ebola.

According to the CDC, Ebola symptoms can include fever, muscle pain, vomiting and bleeding, and can appear as long as 21 days after exposure to the virus.

Jason McDonald, spokesman for the CDC, said health officials use two primary guidelines when deciding whether to test a person for the virus.

"The first and foremost determinant is have they traveled to the region (of West Africa)," he said. The second is whether there's been proximity to family, friends or others who've been exposed, he said.

U.S. health officials have been preparing since summer in case an individual traveler arrived here unknowingly infected, telling hospitals what infection-control steps to take to prevent the virus from spreading in health facilities. People boarding planes in the outbreak zone are checked for fever, but symptoms can begin up to 21 days after exposure. Ebola isn't contagious until symptoms begin, and it takes close contact with bodily fluids to spread.

God wanted me to sense the world. Though sightless, I could smell, hear and understand matters that were described to me. I remember going to the hospital on Easter Island, not one patient in the hospital, so careful were these people in keeping an island of healthiness-righteousness in a sea of paganism and disease (an island five hundred miles off the coast of South America in the Pacific Ocean). In my eight around the world trips, I found that in many countries, anyone even suspected of a disease was isolated... prohibited from entering their country. I saw a large group isolated in Israel. With all this so-called scientific competence of America, we would dare allow disease to enter, via airports overnight. In most of the world, there are few hospitals, fewer nursing homes etc. The people have an acquired immunity to most diseases they come into contact. Plus, they do not live such sanitized-sterilized lives.

I was in almost every African country, will never recover from their sick-care system. What was called a hospital, a building with mats on the floor... families outside cooking on open fires (I will never forget all that smoke). Themselves cooking for and taking care of their loved one in the so-called hospital. It's just the grace of God that most people do not succumb to any disease in these places. But, is it any better here? We allow just about anyone to enter at our airports... the mad rush to just get through and grab a cab. Anyone, when ill, difficulty in getting diagnosed, visitors in and out of the hospitals bringing in on their shoes, clothing, every type of germ. Anyone ill enough to be in the hospital, should not have visitors. This writer was astounded at a local hospital, actual carpeting in corridors, draperies on windows, stuffed chairs in rooms. It would seem that the "scientist" managing these facilities were attempting to harbor every germ possible. But of course, big pharma, big medicine, big sick-care staffing, big houses on "pill hills", do not get rich from healthy or dead people, only sick people. The objective is to keep as many people sick as possible, keep everyone taking as many medications as possible. This is the reason America spends more on sick-care than any other nation, why there is never a cure for anything... ONLY TREATMENT. As it spreads, and it surely will spread, people and projects will get rich from Ebola.

Frankenstein Science on Memorial Day 2014

"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

                                                Philippians 4:13

            It is truly amazing what Jesus can do with his hands. One small boy's mother, knowing that boys get hungry, sent him off to hear the great preacher, Jesus, with a small lunch-- just loaves and fish. We know what Jesus did with that lunch. D.L. Moody, founder of Moody Bible Institute and the great Moody church in Chicago, had a third grade education. He said, "God will see what one man, completely yielded to him, can do."

                 

            Most days, on the Mall, Washington, DC, tearful parents and children who never saw their father, stand with flowers and cards, before the great marble slabs on which 58,000 names of the fallen, dead of the Vietnam War, are etched. These people know about Memorial Day.

            In one of the most tragic and horrendous battles of the Civil War, a battle in which 17,000 were killed, the Battle of Cold Harbor (on the Virginia line), men and horses were killed-- strewn across the countryside. A wounded officer, with the rank of colonel, walked by a young boy, 17 years of age. The boy looked up and said,  "Colonel, are we winning?" Those, both sides, North and South, the 613,000 killed in the Civil War, knew about Memorial Day.

            In the same house, in which I now live, but 30 years ago, I put an American flag in my front yard. Two women of the Wimble Square HOA came to my front door, and told this blind, 100% disabled, service connected, medical officer veteran of the Korean War, that the home owners association did not allow for me to put a flag in my front yard. Just as those who have never honored our blessed Lord, in memorial at his communion table, some people, even to this day, have no concept of memorializing anything or anyone. I heard a talk show host say, just yesterday, "I am not religious, do not believe in God, but surely God has given up on America. No one living today, who was living 50 years ago, could believe what has happened my country." Like so many patriots, this writer so loves his country, but so despises his country's government.

            BUT, it is not difficult to, on land, love and honor someone who jumps into the river and saves you from drowning. From the revolution to the present, we stand on the shoulders of those who saved us. With our cynicism, brought on by the decadence of government, we must remember our blessed Lord, who told his disciples to cast out into the deep (Luke 5:4). It will not be the silliness of Oprah or the Obama-types, who will save our country. It will not be the "airs" of the blue bloods / elitists/ the one percenters. It will not be the lust for power or things that will make us whole again (Jeremiah 19:11). But, it will be the fundamentals and absolutes of right and wrong-- the recognition of hypocrisy-- that will open our blinded eyes, and give us vision of what's happening, before it's too late.

            Just think, more munitions of war, terror from the sky, were dropped in Iran and Afghanistan by unmanned drones, than were dropped by manned planes in the Kosovo War (1998-99). Just think, our young warriors are "anointed" with psychotropic drugs, 6 months before going to war. The greatest ambition of military planners in today's military warfare, is artificial intelligence-- "high brass" trying to decide if robots have the judgment to differentiate from civilian and military targets. Which is better? Robots or human warriors dominated by toxic molecules.

            As with Obama's American healthcare, Big Pharma is in control. Daily, we hear of the horrors of sick-care with the Veteran's Administration. With government, civilian or military, there is unlimited money to spend with Big Pharma. There are unlimited patients, with which to experiment. Now, more soldiers die from suicide, than are killed by the enemy. Of those who return, 22 veterans commit suicide every day. 91 million Americans are taking anti-depression, anti-despair, psychotropic drugs, 8 million school children are on mind-altering drugs. 91% of all school children who visit a counselor, leave with a drug prescription. This is FRANKENSTEIN SCIENCE-- the "doping" of America, its warriors, its children. Now you can understand why Big Pharma has spent $2.7 billion on lobbying. There are 4 pharmaceutical lobbyists in Washington per congressperson.

            WHEN will the hard-working, tax-paying, God-fearing citizen realize that his taxes are paying for buildings and equipment (hospitals, courthouses, government office facilities) in which doctors, lawyers, and others work to make big salaries for themselves-- while the stressed citizen is treated like dirt when he enters one of these facilities.

            When you have politicians, doctors, warriors, drugs, you have what these people and things can do. We realize and recognize the decadence around us. In the history of the world, God has often started over. Can we believe that a nation, America, that has come so far, has fallen so fast? My Lord of glory and mercy has the ability to start over with us. Those who fought for our great nation buried, wrapped only in the flag which they served, believed in the integrity of this country. On this Memorial Day, help us to believe in the integrity of America.

Impulse for Good

                        Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

                   That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

                   And then is heard no more:  his is a tale

                   Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

                   Signifying nothing.

                                                                        -Macbeth

            In Machiavelli's The Prince, the author said "...he who seeks to deceive will always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived." This writer refuses to be a victim of deceit, a constant cynic. Dig, we must, to find some good on this earth.

            Why are unbelievers threatened because God loves them?

            In a nearby prison camp (Burgaw, NC) prisoners train dogs.  These dogs are used by the disabled-handicapped people, even families who want a loving best friend.

            Years ago, one Sunday afternoon, one of my friends drove my car to a prison camp.  At my expense, I was delivering to the camp religious materials which I felt would help the prisoners there.  When we arrived I noted that it was a visiting afternoon.  Under close guard, the prisoners in uniform, were standing along the fence talking with their visitors... mothers, fathers, wives, and children.  Many were holding hands through the fence.  There were smiles, happy thoughts, signs of loving-forgiveness.  I thought, "If this therapy of families visiting you and seeing you incarcerated does not change your way of living and help keep you out of a facility such as this (rough buildings, poor food, hateful men and dogs guarding them) then nothing will work."  But, I knew, deep down inside, that history proves prisons do not work, even stocks, chains, and shackles.  The threat of road gangs and capital punishment, does not prevent crime.

            Then I learned of the dog therapy used at the Burgaw prison camp.  Prisoners showing their love for an animal, the animal's love for them.  The attachment between man and animal, and inner understanding-- almost devotion, has never been understood by those who study the mind.  The love of animals and the animal's unconditional love, regardless of anything, has always worked in nursing homes and mental institutions.  Why not in a prison?  This program is not new or unique to Burgaw.  It is also used in Colorado (Colorado Correctional Industries) and Washington (Prison Pet Partnership Program).  There has always been a very special relationship between a man and his dog.  Jail bars, like technology, do not change human behavior.  But, we do know that the inmate, showing great care for his animal, changes.  The inmate knows that the animal loves him, depends on him.  The inmate knows that unless he treats the animal well, unless he is of no problem to his fellow inmates, he will be kept from any relationship with the animal.  The inmate has the responsibility of caring for and developing the best behavior of the animal.  An animal trained by an inmate becomes the exceptional, trusted companion of a disabled person... a trusted member of a family.  Perhaps the empathy shown by the prisoner towards his animal will extend to the outside world when the prisoner gains release.

            We all must learn, some later than others, that life has absolutes... good and evil.  We find that good always wins.  There are a billion stars in the universe, God has a name for each.  He knows the name of each person chosen for life, even those who did not survive the murder of abortion.  He knows those who have trusted Him in spite of everything.  There are many in this world, in prisons, the loneliness of nursing homes, those who did not win life's lottery, who have a right to feel defeated-betrayed.  Many of us have the feeling, gathered from the attitudes of our relatives, associates, and neighbors, that if we were burned at the stake, many of those family members and associates would throw wood on the fire.

            Lets face it, we live in a world of deception-- everything, everyone, proffering, and often protected by, a veneer of something. We even believe that God loves us, whether we love him or not. God answers the prayers of those who believe in His son. As a poet said, "There is good in the worst of us, bad in the best of us." God chooses, pulls,  and calls, to His heart of love, every person He knew would believe on Him, before the foundation of the world. The redeemed were a twinkle in His eye, given to His son, claimed by His son, never to be separated.

            For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,  nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

            Romans 8:38-39

           

            If this eternal security and assurance does not bring joy to the Christian, there is something very wrong.

            When one reaches my age of 84 years, is living alone and in poor health, when you go to bed at night, the chances are good that you may never awaken (this is a very good way to pass, instead of waiting for death in a hospice room). This writer, always, in the early morning (4 a.m.), has a time of communion with God-- one does not need a preacher or priest, just a small piece of bread and a sip of wine, and in holy remembrance, you know the blessings of healing and forgiveness. But, suppose when one of my assistants arrives at my house, the doors are locked; I do not answer the phone. They know the hidden location a key to the back door. Please, dear God, if this old, blind veteran is dead in bed, don't let my assistant, the police, or mortician, think for one second, "He actually thought that the creator of the universe had an interest in him."

            After the Macbeths killed the king, Lady Macbeth, more than he, kept washing her hands, attempting to cleanse herself of the murder. Shakespeare said that all the water of the oceans of the world, all the perfumes of Arabia, could not erase the deed. The doctor examining her said, "She has a need for the divine." The Christian, even while alive on this earth, enjoys eternal life. He has already passed from death to life. Clinical death just opens the door to the goal of heaven.

Profundity

Profundity                     

(Grace Gems, February 20th, 2014)

A proud sinner and a humble Savior

(William Gurnall, "The Christian in Completer Armor")

"I hate pride and arrogance!" Proverbs 8:13

   ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

"The Lord detests all the proud of heart! Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished!" Proverbs 16:5

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A man may be very zealous and painstaking in preaching--and all the while pride is the master whom he serves, though in God's livery. 

   ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

It is hard starving this sin of pride--it can live on almost anything!

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Nothing is so sacred, but pride will profane it. 

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So far as pride prevails, the proud man prays and preaches to be thought good by others--to enthrone himself, rather than Christ, in the opinion and hearts of his hearers.

   ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Pride loves to climb up, not as Zaccheus, to see Christ--but so that others may see himself! 

   ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

"God resists the proud" (James 4:6). The humble man may have Satan at his right hand to oppose him; but the proud man shall find God Himself there to resist him. We must either lay self aside--or God will lay us aside.

   ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

A proud sinner and a humble Savior will never agree! Christ is humble and lowly, and so resists the proud--but gives grace to the humble.

   ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

"If God," says Augustine, "did not spare the angels when they grew proud; will He spare you--who are but dust and sin?"

            During the many years I was in school in Memphis, Tennessee, I was a member of the great Bellevue Baptist Church.  I heard the great pastor-preacher, so famous around the world, make this statement many times, "If I tell my people to go and jump in the river, I will hear water splash.  If I tell my people to jump in the fire, I will smell clothes burning."  This writer was so enthralled by this man's intellect that he did not pay careful attention to these words at the time, but I have since.  To many preachers, servants-shepherds, living well off of the money people have given to God, get too enthused with their own ministry.  They forget the members-followers who are surviving on low pay.  I heard one preacher from Tennessee say he would rather be whipped than go to a clothing store to buy new clothes.  Many of us never buy new clothes, everything we wear comes from a thrift store.  Another television preacher told about how particular he was about his shirts, the quality, having to hang a certain way in the closet.  I have known old church members giving through their frugality to keep a church going, who never had more than 2-3 shirts over their entire life.  One of my old uncles never owned but one suit, one pair of "Sunday" shoes, his entire life, but he knew the church depended on his gifts. 

            I knew one black preacher, patient of mine, who always drove a very large car with a blinking light on the front.  He said, "My folks can hardly wait for me to lead their funeral procession." 

            It is not just these shepherds who get confused about pride, but church members as well.  Would it not be great if the average church, instead of carpeting-pew cushions-climate control would get interested in what goes on with the lost outside of the building?  It is wonderful to have a beautiful edifice, comfortable sanctuary, with beautiful windows to talk about numbers.  It is far, far better for numbers to count instead of counting numbers. It is far, far better to make our worship (worth-ship) sinners a welcoming place to the disabled and the seekers.  How many blind-deaf-cripple do you have in your services?  WE who are disabled truly want and need a church.  Maybe it is like a restaurant owner told me several years ago, "I don't want disabled people in my restaurant because it makes my normal customers feel uncomfortable."  Do those who God chose for His work here on earth have so much pride, are they so proud, that they have forgotten the essentials of the Christian faith? 

            When the first king of Saudi Arabia met F.D.R., he was unaware F.D.R. was crippled, in a wheelchair.  He was totally fascinated by the wheelchair, so F.D.R. gave King Saud his extra wheelchair.  Then, the big-fat-rich king could be rolled around without him even having to walk.  

Big Picture

He was 32, teacher’s certificate, actually felt that teaching was his calling. He had worked for me briefly while in college, married, and his wife had a very good job in the banking business. The only place he could find employment was an hour's drive from his home. An hour's drive to work and an hour's drive from work. He described the impossible situation, teaching sixth graders, undisciplined, indifferent, arrogant, nasty, rude, unconcerned about themselves or their world. He said, “I am at the end of the road, totally discouraged. I see no future for the children I am trying to teach nor for the public school profession. It is bad enough just getting there, reckless drivers, expensive gas, wear and tear on my car. We cannot afford to move closer because my wife has a much better job than me, and we like our home but, our life has become a madhouse, the stress of our lives. I am about ready to end it all”.

I reminded him that I did not want to hear any foolish talk, that too many much younger people take the suicide route, not realizing the consequences of their actions.

Our salvation is an internal transaction. When the Holy Spirit of God lives in your life, although you have free will, God is acting through you, ever available to handle any situation. Life is not about us, but what God expects of us.

The greatest thought in the world, the greatest thought in the mind of a human being, the very Spirit of God living in me.

The big picture, only eternity will know the good you have accomplished in the lives of children. The daily task of transportation to and from the job can be turned into a rewarding experience. You can do nothing about the stupid people allowed to drive cars no more than you can do anything about stupid people allowed to have children. You cannot imagine how much I would like to drive a car again, in spite of the challenges on the highway... people talking on cell phones. Be thankful for this time alone in your car, with a CD player, a time of learning and thinking, listening to outstanding speakers, great music on your radio.

You may very well be the only stabilizing, challenging influence in many of these childrens lives. In the country community where I was raised, one woman had an influence on every child in that community. Ms. Ida owned a farm which her deceased husband had inherited from his family. A very prominent, land-owning family, her husband and his brother were the only two men in the area who had gone to college... both UNC-CH graduates. Her husband, lawyer, never practiced law because he committed slow suicide with a liquor bottle. She probably had a few hundred dollars a year income from rent of her farm but, every child in the community knew that when they went by her house, (and this was before television, video games, spending money for candy bars, even if there had been a place to buy such.) she would give them a tea cake. (small cookie-like homemade cake) When handing you the tea cake she would say, without fail, every time, “Jesus loves you.” That testimony affected more people than she would ever know.

One of my aunts, dietician at O'Berry Center (NC hospital for disabled, unwanted children) would drive to her home each lunch hour, to attend her disabled husband, crippled by an automobile accident. He was bedridden for many years before his death, alone, in the house, totally dependent on her. Her neighbors, her church, her family and friends, everyone knew of her devotion to her job and her husband. I am sure she and many others reached the place in life that they just wanted to quit the whole thing, that their promises after death would seem so enticing If they did not know the challenges of the big picture.

I was in East Berlin several times, compared to West Berlin, like black and white. East Berlin was the most dismal, depraved place you can imagine. Trying to escape the hell of communism, the wall was constructed to keep the oppressed East Germans inside. Some would escape through other countries such as Hungary. Erich Honecker, convinced communist, in spite of what he knew about the prosperity of the West, refused to take in the big picture. The wall fell, he died in South America, and East Germany became as prosperous as West Germany. With most things, time cures all. We are active as long as possible knowing that God designed lour lives. Evangelist Billy Graham has said, “After the activity, when the body has slowly worn out, it is good to spend time in prayer for those still in the battle”. Character determines destination but life is a journey not just a destination. It is the bumps in the road that causes me to believe that faith in God is 90% courage, the courage to keep on.

Great Expectations

Great Expectations is Charles Dickens' greatest novel, a story of Pip, a young man who moves from rags to riches, an orphan with a drastic change in lifestyle because of a wealthy benefactor.

It is the unexpecteds in life which determine the character of a man. It is not what happens when all goes as expected, when all goes well, but character is determined when all goes wrong.

On your farm, seeds were planted with great expectations. From the “Good Earth”, sufficient rain showers, sunshine, crop cultivation, care by the farmer, you could expect, reproduce, production of crops which you had planted... the oldest system in the world, sowing and reaping. You must understand sowing and reaping, expectations, in order to understand everything pertaining to life. You reap what you sow. You reap in proportion to what you sow.

There has never been a mother who looked at a new born baby without great expectations. Prisons are full of those who did not meet expectations.

Too many allow critics to determine our lives, our expectations. Think of the teachers who have been surprised by the accomplishment of those from whom they did not expect much. So many families like to point out the “black sheep” The greatest vengeance is seeing the black sheep of the family accomplish most. History books, biographies, are stories of those who did not stand out anywhere except in their own minds. Most great men and women of God, family, country are those who had the courage to keep on in spite of the low expectations of others. There was nothing remarkable about Theodore Roosevelt as a student at Harvard until he, himself, decided to become a man. His cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt did not excel at Harvard, and more than anything else, was forced to live life as a cripple after Polio. Unexpected, both became great Presidents of the United States, simply by their own courage. Thomas Alva Edison had very little formal education, Steve Jobs never graduated from college. Both great in spite of their limitations and low expectations.

In every life there is a constant battle between good and evil. The Great Designer made it that way – with the greatest gift of all – free will.. You are either victim of or victor over the unexpecteds of living. Sooner or later, you face the seven deadly sins, pride, anger, envy, lust, laziness, greed and gluttony. It is so much easier, more accomplished to enjoy the fruit of the spirit - love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, ( Galatians 5:22-23) Most of us live with more evil than good, described best by the seven deadly sins than the nine fruit of the spirit. It is expected that the Christian, filled with the spirit of God, should reflect in our lives the fruit of the spirit. Sad to say, the Christian like the non-Christian is marked more by pride, (the beginning of every sin) than love, (the beginning of everything good) And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity (love).(1 Corinthians 13:13)

Nicola Tesla, inventor of the radio and many other electronics, was ostracized, as a “mad scientist”, died in 1943 almost penniless. A Serbian, Croatian, mostly self educated, became one of the world's greatest engineers... no greater invention than the radio.

The radio, education and entertainment media for the blind. The radio, method of worship for the disabled and the home bound. The radio, classroom for every person who wants to learn. The radio, method for communications in warfare. The radio, essential in all emergency operations.

In the American experience next to slavery, the greatest shame of this nation, is the treatment of disabled veterans and handicapped citizens. If the walk were only as easy as the talk... state-controlled news media, civic clubs, churches, lamenting about their appreciation for veterans and the handicapped citizens of the community. The disabled , the handicapped are the last invited to join these clubs and most churches are just clubs with steeples. The country's largest minority, the disabled and the handicapped, have certainly learned that they are not wanted in public places. As a restaurant manager told this blind veteran, the disabled make our normal customers feel uncomfortable. The young warriors, home from battle, victims of auto crashes, casualties of disease, did not expect to live life with unexpected challenges. Life is tough enough at best, shows true faith when tested by the grace of the unexpected.

ADA Malarkey

AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT OF 1990, AS AMENDED
Editor’s Note:
Following is the current text of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), including changes made by the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-325), which became effective on January 1, 2009. The ADA was originally enacted in public law format and later rearranged and published in the United States Code. The United States Code is divided into titles and chapters that classify laws according to their subject matter. Titles I, II, III, and V of the original law are codified in Title 42, chapter 126, of the United States Code beginning at section 12101. Title IV of the original law is codified in Title 47, chapter 5, of the United States Code. Since this codification resulted in changes in the numbering system, the Table of Contents provides the section numbers of the ADA as originally enacted in brackets after the codified section numbers and headings.

The following private entities are considered public accommodations for purposes of this subchapter, if the operations of such entities affect commerce

(A) Inn Accommodations
(B) Food Accommodations
(C) Movie House
(D) Banks
(E) Grocery Store
(F) Laundromat, dry-cleaner, bank, barber shop, beauty shop, travel service, shoe repair service, funeral parlor, gas station, office of an accountant or lawyer, pharmacy, insurance office, professional office of a health care provider, hospital, or other service establishment;
(G) Travel
(H) Public Entertainment
(I) Recreation
(J) Education
(K) Day Care Center
(L) Applies to Spa Facilities

Section 12182: List of prohibitions
Sec. 12183. New construction
Sec. 12186. Regulations
Sec. 12203 Remedies
Sec. 12205. Attorney's fees (usually not allowed)
12206. Technical assistance
(c)(1) Rendering assistance (generally ignored)
(e) Failure to receive assistance (generally ignored)


In 1990, in a feeble effort to correct the discrimination against the largest minority group in the US (est. 36 million), the congress enacted a “so called” Americans with Disabilities Act as partially described above. As in most legislative enactments, the document is lengthy wordy, and full of every “loophole” known to the political analyst. In using this legislation, in an effort to correct for myself and other in the large disabilities community, the obvious discrimination against those that are disabled. ( I am a totally blind 100% disabled service connected veteran for over 40 years.) I have yet to find one public official and certainly not a private employer who has read the document.

One county manager, (New Hanover County, NC) told me (as well as another totally blind citizen Katherine Vasalao) that he had never read the legislation “and did not intend to do so”. I have brought the matter of ignorance of the intent and legality of the legislation not only to attention of the US Justice Department, but to each state senator and representative since it became law. Anytime, I have brought discrimination against the disabled to the attention of the beaurocrat in the ADA Justice Department, I get back the same, identical letter. “We advise you to employ a lawyer.”

The best example and most flagrant violation showing discrimination against disability occurred with this writer and my complaint with the local YMCA. After the death of Mr. Neworth, I was the oldest and had longest standing membership of the local YMCA. (A member since its location at 3rd and market) Although totally blind, my driver would park my car in front of the facility each day and wait for me in the car while I went in for a one hour workout. Nothing was given to me as far as fees. I paid the same as everyone else. Nothing was given to me as far as special attention. My locker was always put at the most inconvenient place. The security system on the upper door required vision because it had a dial code system for admission. I would stand and beat on the door with my white cane until some member came and opened the door. I believe the attendant would testify that he was instructed to discourage handicapped members from attending.

Since the men’s locker room was upstairs, I had to maneuver not only hallways but stairs. The UPS and other delivery people such as Pepsi/Gatorade always put their deliveries at the bottom of the steps; convenient for a blind handicapped person to fall over. I am still suffering from falls in hallways in the facility.

Finally, after years of this inhumane treatment which the employees were well aware. I left the facility and made a further complaint to the ADA about the discrimination at this public facility which uses public funds. (which would have the audacity to have Christian in its name, which for years discriminated against blacks and women)

Finally, a lawyer was assigned to the case, the hearing was held at a hearing facility on Cinema Drive, I asked the scheduling person if I should be represented by an attorney. She assured me that it was not a part of the legal process. Of course, I am totally blind, I could not see who was at the hearing or how many were at the hearing. All I could hear was the sounds of other people. It was the most one-sided event one could possibly imagine. The federal attorney questioned me since I was bringing the complaint and said practically nothing, ( This should be a matter of public record with ADA) to the YMCA Manager, his board of trustees, and others who were there.

The conclusion was that “they would do better with disabled citizens who come to the facility and that I WOULD SAY NOTHING TO THE LOCAL NEWS MEDIA about the hearing Since the editor of the local paper at the time, Mr. Charles Anderson, was on the board of the YMCA. You can be assured that there was nothing in the paper about the hearing and as far as I know, since I’ve never been back in the building, the same conditions are still in evidence.

The question is if the ADA legislation is not used in a situation such as this or in many others are challenged everyday, why go through the farce of an enacting such hypocrisy?

US Senator John East, wheelchair bound, former professor at East Carolina University, a friend of mine, told me on one occasion that the disabled life “is hardly worth living.“ He later killed himself, even after he was called a cripple on the floor of the US senate. You see, the capitol which has the painting of the baptism of Pocahontas in its dome which from 1799-1892 was declared a Christian nation by the US supreme court., easily discriminates against Christian disabled citizens such as Dr. East and myself.

No one has voted for me, I have not been hired by anyone, I cannot be fired by anyone for speaking my mind, but for decades I have protested the treatment of the disabled, both the average citizen who most of the time will not speak for himself and for the disabled veteran who will not speak for himself (most have told me if they say anything they are afraid they will lose their VA benefit for which their family depends). Katherine Vasaloa, before she died, blind from birth, told me she had never been able to get any funds other then what she provided herself to hire someone to go to the grocery store. I can say without fear of contradiction, and I will reach into my meager funds, to give anyone 1,000 dollars that this totally blind veteran, dictating this letter, to a person hired to take the dictation, has never received one dime from any church, civic club, or veterans group.

In the American experience, next to slavery, the greatest shame of this nation is its treatment of handicap citizens and disabled veterans. The greatest shame is the hypocrisy of a congress who would pass an Americans with disabilities act and then do nothing to enforce it.

Keep On Keeping On

#381

Keep on Keeping On

One of my mother's sisters, a very wonderful aunt, never let me forget the first time she saw me speak in public. She said I was about four, dressed in a white suit with a red bow tie, and at a large county-wide Sunday school convention, I gave the poem, “Keep On Keeping On”.

The sense of this poem has served me well as a totally blind, 100% disabled, service connected veteran of the Korean War. I had to think back many times to the disabled people I have known in my life. One very wonderful school teacher, only had four fingers on each hand but the sweet music she brought forth out of a piano, even though she had to contrive every selection to fit her disability, was truly remarkable. The normal hand can reach a complete octave. Her ability to play the piano, and do all her other duties as a teacher, was a gift. Another man who had lost his legs in WWI, had contrived a bicycle type cart affair which he could operate with handles and could move himself from his house on the edge of town, uptown, so he could sell candy and pencils on the street. Remember, this was the time before social security disability and when disabled veterans, very much as today, were left to fend for themselves. Another lady, well known in the town of Pikeville, NC, born with mangled feet (she was a patient of mine) spent her entire life walking on her knees. You would see her in town, her dress shortened just above the knee, she wore knee pads, proper and prim with her hat and her purse, shopping. Her stocking feet out the back. There are many others. With the scientific progress of vaccinations, we have more people with autism, attention deficit disorder, cancer and every other type autoimmune debilitation than ever before.

I have little patience with healthy people who crawl underneath the tent of disadvantaged disability. Sure, the playing field is not level; many of us come from disadvantaged homes. Look in the mirror and see the person responsible for your future.

I was in the holy city of Benaris, India. I had been out on a boat in the holy Ganges,the holy river of the Hindus, where there were cremations going on along the banks as the people were in the water doing their religious rituals. Getting off the boat, I felt something hanging onto my legs. Blind, I could not see what it was and I asked my guide, “What is hanging onto me?” He said, “These are the begging children. Their legs have been chopped off by enslavers and they are professional beggars.” The same thing happens in the Philippines where the feet are burned off the children. Those of you who like the loud sound of drums and drummer in your church, remember it is not new in religious rituals. Even in a valley in Israel, where the children were sacrificed to pagan gods, the loud beating of drums drowned out the cries of the children as they do in India and the Philippines, when God's chief creation, these innocent children, are defiled and disabled so that healthy people can take advantage.

I do not have a refrigerator in my house that would hold the money stolen from me when people have short changed me over the years. I have been worked over by so many stockbrokers that I have lost count. They all have the same mantra: We know how to make money for you. Just this past week, three bankers came in my house telling me that I am too disabled to handle my affairs, that they will just sell a large part of my estate and start over with their investment ideas so I can be cared for if I become more disabled. The politically correct, the ne'er do wells, those who have been dumbed down by the recent seasons of television ineptness, academic insolence, have forgotten that real men brought this world and country into it's maturity. Even in the Apostle's Creed, many in Church refuse to say “men” anymore, rather just give silence. Like marriage, the modernists and agnostics have tried to change the meaning of that word. Integrity is a forgotten word in most vocabularies. Character determines the destiny of a man and this is the reason that so many men are totally lost.

Rom 5:3 And not only [so], but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
Rom 5:4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
Rom 5:5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Rom 5:6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

Even if I were naïve enough not to believe in God, I would have to believe in a superior being who can bring justice to such a deceitful world. There has to be a balance at the other end of the see-saw. On this Veteran's Day, take a look at those who loved your country enough to defend it, particularly those who have suffered loss. On this Veteran's Day, think of the 126,000 who are buried on foreign soil.

I long for the purity of heaven, a place where there is no deceit, where there is no clamoring to satisfy Satan.

Keep On Keeping On
If the day looks kinder gloomy
And your chances kinder slim,
If the situation's puzzlin'
And the prospect's awful grim,
If perplexities keep pressin'
Till hope is nearly gone,
Just bristle up and grit your teeth
And keep on keepin' on.
Frettin' never wins a fight
And fumin' never pays;
There ain't no use in broodin'
In these pessimistic ways;
Smile just kinder cheerfully
Though hope is nearly gone,
And bristle up and grit your teeth
And keep on keepin' on.
There ain't no use in growlin'
And grumblin' all the time,
When music's ringin' everywhere
And everything's a rhyme.
Just keep on smilin' cheerfully
If hope is nearly gone,
And bristle up and grit your teeth
And keep on keepin' on.