Dead Man's Suit

In a suit, even if you're having a nervous breakdown, you still look like you are in charge.
Paul Feig

The total uniqueness of God, the uniqueness of the Christian faith, lies in the uniqueness that God understands that we need to trust Him, not why, but who, in all things. The poet said, "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of."

In other articles, this writer has described in detail that he is a conservative... conservative in everything. Many have called me frugal, even a tightwad. In college, my nickname was "iron pockets" because, I was careful in every penny I spent. I am now considered a very wealthy man, but nothing has changed in my spending habits. Show me a man's habits and I will tell you much about the man.

I do not own one article of clothing that was purchased new. I buy everything used. The pair of shoes I have, at this instant, were purchased at a thrift store for the sum of one dollar. I do not have a shirt that costs over 25 cents. I believed God when he told us to "deny self." "And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me" (Luke, 9:23). The money you spend on things, even expendables, such as clothing, you can never invest AND, you only make money with money AND, you are able to give for God's work with "blessed" money.

Ernest Mansour, owner of a clothing store in the town wear I live met me on the street and said, "Doctor, come into my store, I want to show you something." We went towards the back and he pulled out a beautiful suit of clothes. He said, "Try on this coat." I said, "It fits perfectly." He said, "Go into the fitting room and try on the trousers." The trousers fitted perfectly, waist-length-everything. I said to him, "This suit fits me perfectly, but I can't afford this expensive suit." He said, "Doctor this suit is a gift from me to you." Then he said, "I might as well tell you the truth. One of the flight officers out at the air force base came in and bought this suit. His next flight, his plane crashed and he was killed. I can't ask his wife to pay for this suit and I knew that he and you are the same size." Ernest new my size because he had fitted a tuxedo to me, which I had purchased from him second hand. Back then, a lifetime ago, I often needed formal wear when I was speaking or participating in a gala, political or professional event of some type. I had decided to purchase a tux instead of continuing to rent one. Of course, I was very happy with the "dead man's suit" because until this day, it was the only new suit I have ever owned.

I was raised at a time before sports jackets-blazers. From youth, real boys-real men wore suits, you only had one, your Sunday suit. I knew old men, relatives, who never had but one suit their entire adult life. Men did not gain weight, today's world, men like women's weight fluctuates up and down, as 30 billion dollars is spent each year on diet methods. Men wore their suit on Sundays, to funerals-graduations-court appearances-special occasions. Even after their hair turned white, you recognized them more from their suit than their appearance.

I was just a child, left in the backseat of the car, my parents went up to the graveside service at the old Nahunta Cemetery. Back then, the only people who had funeral home or graveside services were those who had never become a church member. Nowadays, families have become so cheap and funeral homes so greedy, that until recent years church member's funerals were always held in the church where they had been faithful, now, things have changed. But, on that day, at the old Nahunta Cemetery family and friends had gathered around for a graveside service for an old reprobate who had died and, they always opened the "box" so everyone could see the deceased (Viewing the dead is still the most asinine practice in a civilized culture. I have known people to line up to look at dead people. I understand there is a black funeral home that allows a drive thru viewing window. There is nothing more uncivilized than stalking-staring at a lifeless individual... TAKING AWAY ALL THEIR DIGNITY). As a child, the thing I remembered most THAT DAY, I heard one daughter cry out, "I will never see my daddy again!" And so it probably was, because her only hope of ever seeing her daddy or anyone else would be if she and they are in heaven AND, no one had ever seen her "Daddy" inside a church or showing any profession of faith, in fact he mocked the church. I remember my mother saying, as she returned to our car, "It was the first time I ever saw him in a suit of clothes."

One of my best friends died. His wife asked me to take his best suit down to the funeral home and to make sure he was dressed correctly. I had never seen an undertaker dress a dead body, I did that day, watched him dress my good friend. The first thing he did, was to cut up the clothes, cut the suit coat right down the back. You see, it is a matter of putting clothing together on a dead stiff body. This is the reason, my friend, the mortician, had told me that he always purchased all the strange sized suits and shirts from the local stores. The size does not make any difference on the dead man. You run the shirt sleeve up the arm until the cuff appears out of the suit coat. The shirt is put on in pieces, so is the suit. You have heard people say, to someone well dressed, "You are put together well." Now we know where that comes from. The deceased must be put together well for the final staring of the family and friends. The mortician tells me that it doesn't matter, few people touch the dead, mess with clothing. But, I have heard, that often, it is different with a black funeral, a black mortician, where family members get more aggressive in their farewells.

Yesterday, this very town, some dispute involving four thousand dollars. One man walked up to another at a gas station, victim filling his gas tank and the other man shot him dead. Then reached over into the car where the gasoline was being pumped and shot the man's wife, not killing her yet, but killing the unborn baby within her body. Her three small children all under the age of 8 were in the backseat. Does anyone believe that all dead people are alive? God tells us that the unsaved are dead while they are alive. That dead, unborn baby, like the dead father, had a body built by trillions of cells. Each cell, total personhood of the individual, has enough DNA information to fill one thousand typed pages. If a single cell's DNA was on one strand it would reach to the sun and back. Every single cell of the trillions in the body, whether the unborn baby or the adult father, gives a complete history of ancestry.

Like the trillions of snowflakes which fall to earth, no two alike, this gives one just an indication of the magnificent greatness and design of the God who we worship. And to think, there are still those unbelievers who believe they are alive, dead people walking in dead clothing.

Legacy

I know of no word that has undergone more transition in my lifetime than the word “legacy”. The book, the Bible, written by God, involves more about legacy or forebearers than anything else. The Bible is a true history book, a true genealogy book, a book for every purpose, an answer to every question. Prophet and poets were known by their ancestors; in speaking of a Biblical character, you always had a resume of genealogy.

The early power brokers of the world were involved in genealogy. Some of you just watched a royal wedding in England, where much legacy and genealogy were involved. We hear of American politicians speak of their legacy...Clinton, Bush, Carter, etc. We have one in the White House now without legacy, and with questionable forebearers. I have heard two experts in investigation say that nothing can be learned about the man, just much conjecture.

Many books have been written about genealogy, some spend a lot of time tracing their genealogy, and many find much pride in their genealogy (The Mayflower Society, etc.). One of my cousins spent much time and money establishing her son in the Sons of the American Revolution. The Daughters of the American Revolution is perhaps the world's best known genealogy group, next to the Mormon church.

A young man from Arizona applied for a job from me recently. He told me that his mother was in prison, and that she had been in prison for a long time for trafficking in drugs. I met a young lady who told me that she had adopted two children whose parents were in prison because of drugs. I have known young men who had never seen their father...knew nothing about their own genealogy. Think of the dismay of these individuals when they study their ancestry, it's no wonder so many young people think they come from pond scum.

As an antiquarian book collector, at auctions, buying boxes of books, you would be surprised how many family Bibles are just discarded, containing family genealogy records. At one time this was the chief source of family information, along with family graveyards. One of my cousins was interested in locating the burial place of our great great grandparents. I told him of the church cemetery where I had been told the graves were located. I said, “another cousin, investigating before you, told me the gravestones had been laying on the ground for a very long time, evidently knocked over by a storm.” She had gotten the information she wanted from the grave markers, and I told her I would help her pay the expenses of getting the tombstones set back up.

There is nothing as forgotten as the family graveyard...legacy, buried and forgotten. I have advised many churches, particularly rural churches, churches where family bloodlines were so important. that they should have a gallery in the church, walls covered with pictures, labeled, of long-dead, but important church and family members (church ball teams, choirs, pastors, etc.). I gave the money for this in one church where all the previous pastors' pictures were displayed. Those who gave so much should be appreciated more.

Along with books and other memorabilia that I have collected in buying antiquarian books, magazines, almanacs, and catalogs, there were often military documents. It bothers me to think of men who gave so much in the military having their photographs, orders, and decorations just thrown away. Even in my own family, old photographs of probably very important people, with nothing written on the back so no one could make a record. In olden times, photographs were very rare, very expensive. Even in my lifetime, photography was rare. Many grandchildren--and certainly great grandchildren--have no idea about their ancestry, their appearance, etc. On her death bed, my oldest aunt said to me, “you look just like grandpa.” Knowing now, knowing when he died, she was probably the only grandchild who remembered him. At the time, and for many years, I had a mustache. Finding a marked photograph of him, as was the case with many men of his time, he had a mustache; and everyone said, when comparing our pictures, very much the same.

I attended a municipal meeting in the boardroom of a large bank, it had been the headquarters of the founding bank. The walls were covered with portraits of past bankers of distinction, former banking board members whose easily recognized names almost gave a history of the city, the city's industry, department stores, etc. Most of the time, businesses, civic clubs, fraternal orders, even churches give little honor to past legacy.

Many of my relatives thought God was narrow-minded--that it was impertinent and excessive, even down-right unholy, to show pride or affection toward ancestry...that here and now is all the matters. I am very thankful for my legacy, my ancestry, my hard-working, God-fearing, attentive parents, grandparents, right on back, who passed the true values of life through the generations. I want my progeny to have the same values with which I was instilled, the fortress of Christian faith, the honor of hard work, the values of education, decency, personality, servitude to both God and man.

In my ancestry, the greatest values: God, family, and country. As far back as I can investigate, my family had four interests, the church house, the schoolhouse, their house and the houses of their neighbors. Their legacy, my ancestors built the local churches, built and supported the local schools, hard work, conservatism in their own farms, homes, businesses and professions. Loving and giving, not only to one another, but to neighbors. I could give many examples in my home; during the Great Depression, a large black family, the Bunn family, living on the land since the days of slavery. Mr. Ben Bunn came to my mother's door, “Ms. Sally, my children are starving. Do you have any food?” Many starved during the Great Depression. She gave me a large paper bag and said, “Thomas, go to the potato hill and fill this bag.” She went to the “smokehouse” (outside building where meats and other foods were stored) and got large bags of pork bones and hominy grits. That food kept his family alive.

Aunt Caddy, my great grandfather's sister, was a teacher at the two-room school. My father was chairman of the school board of the large, consolidated school. Today, 40 million Americans, 15 years or older, are illiterate. There is no excuse for this. 100 years ago, it was hard to find an illiterate person, black or white, in eastern North Carolina.

In 1953, DNA was discovered. I still believe this is the greatest discovery in the 20^th Century. Each of the billions of cells in your body gives thousands of pages of information about your genealogy...our looks, your health characteristics, your personality. Your greatest genealogical characteristic, you were designed and chosen by the very Hand of the Creator of the universe to be who you are at this time in history.

Once upon a time

#685

Once upon a time

Once, in Copenhagen, I walked through the house of Hans Christian Anderson. Like Lewis Carroll, and many other fairy tale writers. Stories were started in a didactic to excite the imaginations of children. 300 years ago, the story of the founding of the nation like America would have seemed like a fairy tale to those living under the drudgery and monarchy of European, African, and Asian enslavement. It was to these shores that dreamers fled clinging to the hope of the freedom of the human spirit, A determination for a better destiny. We have the mistaken impression that history is behind us, No, a thousand times no. History is in front of us. In the grandstand, watching the parade, we know what has gone on before, it is the mystery of what lies behind us that creates consternation. No person has ever had a physiological problem or committed suicide over what is happening today or what happened yesterday. It is only the unknown to which we must approach with faith. Our four fathers, those who braved the new world, once upon a time, knew the three absolutes of god, one. All have sinned (Romans 3:23), two forgiveness depends on the shedding of blood (Hebrews 9:22), three without faith you cannot please god (Hebrews 11:6).

Once upon a time earnest, pragmatic pilgrims landed in a place called the new world or America. Arriving by ship, many died on the way over, and others died during the first years establishing a colony.

Seeking to be free, free from the enslavement of the higharchy royal governing seeking religious liberty desiring just to be responsible for their own life. They envisioned just immediate subsistence could not have dreamed of this continents development 234 years later.

At one time, the sun never set on the British empire. I remember standing at the “gate to India”, Bombay, where the royal barge bringing King George and Queen Mary to India for the first royal visit. The British, now a fading, bankrupt monarchy sought to rule the American colonies. It was 56 fearless patriots who risked all to give us our constitution. One of my ancestors, wrote the preamble to the constitution. The freedom of worship, speech, to bare arms, to assemble, all freedoms coming from god were worth defending in many wars... Revolution, Spanish, Mexican, Indian, 630,000 killed in a civil war, 60 million killed in two World Wars. 100,000 killed in wars involving Korea and Vietnam... Thousands more being killed to preserve American honor and commerce even to this present day.

Once upon a time a continent, over 2,000 miles across protected on each side by the two great oceans of the world in harbors and strategic bends and points on rivers built cities.

Once upon a time, through their own annotative, their love for their fellow man... Their neighbors, they built, dedicated to god, colleges which became university's, great sanctuary's of worship, sent out from the shores of this nation. 90% of all the worlds Christian missionaries. No nation had such wealth, great farm lands which could easily feed the world. A great store house of energy (oil, natural gas, Cole, chemicals). This is the nation, first builder of the engine, automobile, air planes, farming equipment and Appliances of every type which made life easier. It is from this nation that most scientific discoveries took root... Medicines, surgery techniques, DNA, nana technology.

Once upon a time this great nation connected large beautiful farm lands with villages. In every small town, there were schools controlled by the people, denominational houses of worship, banks that encouraged investment even to the smallest, dealerships and franchises of every types. Giving to the American people, whether urban or rule the greatest lifestyle in the history for the world... Copied but not found in any other nation (your writer, a totally blind, 100% disabled, service connected, medical officer veteran of the Korean conflict has traveled every continent of the world, passport stamped in 157 countries. As I have stated in every graduation address that I have ever given, “ you young people do not have to travel the world as I have done, I can tell you without fear of contradiction that you live in the greatest country in the world. A country which opportunity is limited only by you..

Once upon a time, free American citizens exercised their own provecy in selecting their own doctor and hospital, whether the country doctor, in horse and buggy carrying for my grandparents or today's specialist found in specialized facilities, the envy of the world. It was a time of decent time of movies, first decent radio shows, then decent TV shows not today's decadence, a stench in the nostrils of all mighty god who has given us moral principals to live and die with and an embarrassment to parents who want their sensitive children to live God-Centered lives. There is nothing attractive about sin, sin does not contribute anything to anyone any where. God knew his first creations, (Adam and eve in a perfect setting) could not keep one commandment. 2000BC, god called the first Jew, and his chosen became a great multitude. They could not keep his 613 commandments god came himself, through his son, (the only way of salvation to man is through the trinity, and they killed him but, our four fathers died for our religious struggle until today, when, because of political correctness, the world and the sin of the world is now indistinguishable from gods people and gods church. From a few laws governing our four fathers, laws which were just common sense even to the natural man, law books of statutes now cover every lawyers office and, like the tax system, so simple in the beginning now, no one can comprehend. A country, which, once upon a time, as the french writer DE Tocqueville said, “When America seizes to be good America seizes to be great”.

Once upon a time, America was good. Our greatest joy and asset our children then, 1963, prayer was taken out of the school room which in early years had been the basis of education then, 1973, the killing of the unborn was made legal. Since, 53 million of the most innocent of gods creations, have been killed. A country so blessed, do we expect to escape the wrath of god?

Once upon a time, young people could hardly wait to finish school, educated taking on the responsibilities and spirituality of work then, from federal and other government in doctor nation many found they could live without work. Today, 60% of all Americans draw a government check. Money picked from the pockets of workers in the form of taxes to support those who don't work. 47% of all Americans pay no income tax. This year, the budget of this country is 3.8 trillion dollars. Of this, we must borrow 1.6 trillion and if taxes are as scarce as expected an additional trillion must be borrowed. Nothing is backing up these dollars... Fiat paper just made of thin air. The consolation in the last great depression, America owned 90% of the worlds gold reserves. Nixon closed the gold window in 1971... Selling what was left of out gold for 42 dollars and ounce. Today, gold sells for 1200 dollars an ounce. America is no longer the creditor nation of the world rather the debtor nation of the world. The two great world powers, china and India owned all the gold. So anxious to become a socialized, communist nation under the directions of democrats who have been in control most of my lifetime, like Iceland, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Portugal we are a bankrupt, poverty stricken nation, just waiting for the gavel to fall on the demise of a nation which, once upon a time people from undeveloped countries risked life and limb to live here. The children of many Irish , Italians, Asians who migrated here for opportunity are now returning to the ethnic homelands of their ancestors.

Once upon a time a retired worker was happy for the reward of a reasonable pension. Living next door to me, a police officer, formally from west point, NY, now retired he is drawing 200,000 dollars a year in pension. He laughed at me, He said, “ you were a real fool to go through what you went through for an education, then lose it all in a war... Spending your years stumbling around in darkness for a few crumbs a penance, that the government drops your way from the table.”

Once of the biggest casualties on Wall Street, the California pension plan worth 260 billion now worth 186 billion. The average school teacher in California gets 100,000 dollars a year in pension. Even the director of the pension fund, sentenced in court for corruption involving the funds receives over 100,000 a year for the pension fund. All over the nation, pension funds are bankrupting states. The entitlement mentality of Americans has reached the unbelievable largess excess of 100 trillion dollars. Now that is 100, with twelve zeros.

Once upon a time Americans “solved” their problem, they did not shift their problems. Adults did not blame their problems on the “milk they drank as a child” “ All have sinned and come short of the glory of god”. (Romans 3:23) The seven pall bearers, involving the sins of people and country. Anger, pride, envy, laziness, lust, gluttony, and greed. The ten most corrupt officials in our nations capital include the president, the speaker of the house, the secretary of the treasury, and the secretary of justice. Most republics lasted a few hundred years, we can easily see our destiny because, character determines destination.

Once upon a time, Americans did what they did because they believed what they believed. Our beliefs system has gone the way of Saddam. Only the destiny of believers is secure.

Mutation

While I was at the university in 1953, perhaps the greatest scientific discovery of the 20th century was made. Dr. James Watson from Chicago and Dr. Francis Crick from Cambridge announced the discovery of DNA.

Cells are the fundamental working units of every living system. All the instructions needed to direct their activities are contained within the chemical DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). DNA from all organisms is made up of the same chemical and physical components. The DNA sequence is the particular side-by-side arrangement of bases along the DNA strand (e.g., ATTCCGGA). This order spells out the exact instructions required to create a particular organism with its own unique traits. The genome is an organism’s complete set of DNA. Genomes vary widely in size: the smallest known genome for a free-living organism (a bacterium) contains about 600,000 DNA base pairs, while human and mouse genomes have some 3 billion. Except for mature red blood cells, all human cells contain a complete genome.
DNA in the human genome is arranged into 24 distinct chromosomes--physically separate molecules that range in length from about 50 million to 250 million base pairs. A few types of major chromosomal abnormalities, including missing or extra copies or gross breaks and rejoinings (translocations), can be detected by microscopic examination. Most changes in DNA, however, are more subtle and require a closer analysis of the DNA molecule to find perhaps single-base differences. Each chromosome contains many genes, the basic physical and functional units of heredity. Genes are specific sequences of bases that encode instructions on how to make proteins. Genes comprise only about 2% of the human genome; the remainder consists of non-coding regions, whose functions may include providing chromosomal structural integrity and regulating where, when, and in what quantity proteins are made. The human genome is estimated to contain 23,000 genes.

The human body consists of trillions of cells, probably 14 billion in the brain alone. The DNA from any one of these cells would fill many pages giving the complete history of your ancestry; that of both your mother and father. Can you even imagine the number of children in this world, particularly the United States (nearly 50% born to single mothers), children who have no idea who their biological father is? For anyone who has the audacity and stupidity to say they do not believe in God, like the mosquito on the railroad track, with the train bearing down on the mosquito and his shouting, “I don't believe in you!” The omnipotence and omniscience of almighty God, our Creator, is never more proven than with the magnificence of the design of the human body and all creation.

This doctor, in my lifetime, (I doubt if I could do it now, I'm an old man) could write the formula for the Gaussian Theory (the theory of light rays bending as they enter water) which would cover many pages, the equations for photosynthesis, and the equations for the clotting of blood. I could trace a drop of blood from one point in the body, all over the body, back to its beginning point. I could stick a hat pin through any part of the body and tell you every histological tissue it went through, and many other remarkable feats and features of the human body, or any form of life. From the lowest, one cell bacteria, to man, God's chief creation; but only an absolute fool would profess that they did not believe in the supremacy of design of life.

A Mutation occurs when a DNA gene is damaged or changed in such a way as to alter the genetic message carried by that gene. It is well known that the H1N1 swine flu crisis is due to a man-made weaponized mutation virus. Get ready for an epidemic that will make the 1918 one seem insignificant. According to W.H.O., the epidemic is already moving so rapidly they cannot keep up with the numbers. Little was known about a virus in 1918 during the Spanish flu epidemic, which cause 100 million deaths around the world. One tribe in Alaska, which numbered 850, according to reports, was killed down to 15 members. Bodies buried in the permafrost never decayed, remained frozen. It is believed that some “mad scientist” extracted the virus from dead bodies, weaponized them with strands from the swine & bird flu in the laboratory, and now this culture of death is moving around the world to the weakened immune systems first, and I seriously doubt that, in spite of Mr. Obama giving billions to his supporters in the pharmaceutical business, any vaccine will be efficient for our deficient body metabolisms already compromised by years of antibiotics.

The small rural community in which my parents were reared in Wayne County, North Carolina, was hard hit by the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918. My mother and grandmother never stopped talking about it until their death. They lost a young brother, several aunts, and, in fact, almost the entire community died. They said, “The men who were not sick were building boxes and digging graves.” The flu started with a cough and anyone who started coughing knew that they would soon be in the grave. The one doctor in the entire county, Dr. Hayes, brave enough to come into the community on horse & buggy, contracted and died with the flu. To this day, in the family cemetery, there is grave after grave with no head stones, because no one can remember who was buried in which grave. But, as in World War II, these living saints still went to the church every Sunday and around the pulpit, on their knees, prayed for help. That time may come again in the 21st century.

Today, in the happy-go-lucky, “party-time” attitude of most people, even with young men dying half way around the world in Afghanistan, even with unstable governments, such as Pakistan, North Korea, Israel having nuclear weapons, which if exploded, can send deadly nuclear clouds across the world and in the countries where exploded one will not be able to enter the area for 50 years. We still have a laissez faire, lackadaisical attitude toward life and the Giver of life.

When I hear boom boxes, automobiles vibrating at traffic lights with music, politicians, preachers and rabbis going to prison for corruption, I am convinced that we have some mutations in our midst. Sane people are concerned about what is happening to the world. Even a bird with a brain about the size of a pin head will not defecate in his own nest. Satan, much smarter than any of us, has taken over a little at a time. As Henry Ward Beecher said in 1887, “Men will believe any lie if it has a small handle of truth.” Recently, some young girls wanted to see a movie which had a short scene of nudity. The father said no, they could not go to that smutty movie; that a small sin is the gateway to large sins. Later, the girls, still pouting, smelled brownie baking coming from the kitchen. They decided that their father, trying to soothe their feelings for not allowing them to go to the objectionable movie, was trying to pacify them by baking brownies. They went into the kitchen and he said, “Yes I am baking some nice brownies for you. They are made of pure flour, pure sugar, pure cocoa, pure eggs...everything in them is pure....except I did put a small spoon of dog feces in them. You told me that the movie you wanted to see only had a small amount of smut; that it would not hurt you. Now, these brownies have a minute amount of feces....they surely will not hurt you. Help yourself!”

This past week, federal authorities arrested dozens of people in New York and New Jersey as part of a money laundering and corruption sweep. Those arrested included several New Jersey public officials and rabbis. Here in North Carolina, we have many state officials, including the most powerful politician in the state (speaker of the house), in prison for corruption. Many should be there, striped clothing would look good on most federal, state, county, and city officials in this country. The former governor here, and his corrupt wife, should be in prison for the theft of tax payer's money. In the county in which I live (New Hanover County), the black representative, Mr. Thomas Wright, is in jail for corruption. Yet, while still in prison, he was a candidate for his office again, and almost won. This shows the heights and depths of the mediocrity and depravity of those who vote everywhere.

We have been overrun by mutants. We thought just a little sin would not hurt. Have we forgotten that 98% of rat poison is just corn meal? It is the 2% arsenic which does the job on the rats. Like mutant rats, we are just running through the maze. Most people are just going through the motions. If you have given up on your own life, think of your children, your grandchildren. Those hard working, tax paying, God-fearing ancestors who were buried believing in the omnipotence and the sovereignty of God, had hopes for your future.

Age of Enlightenment

Good night, sleep tight. Don’t let the bedbugs bite. The resurgence of infestations led the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to hold a National Bed Bug Summit April 14-15, 2009. The following courses of study at a university should be interested in bedbugs, parasitology, entomology, epidemiology, bacteriology, and every area of public health. It is almost inconceivable that in this Age of Enlightenment, entire apartment units, entire housing developments, are being closed down because exterminators and public housing authorities have no solution for this onslaught of bed bugs resurgence.

The only thing the Department of Agriculture and the Public Health Department seem to know is just throw away all furniture, bedding, clothing and anything else in which the “varmints” could find refuge. It seems that the only solution to the problem, now as 100 years ago, is the God given blessing of sunshine. My ancestors, on the farm, would put their mattresses and other bedding out in the sun, go around every seam with kerosene oil. This effort at almost microbiology seemed to work. The genome for a human being is 23,000 genes to a cell. These rapidly multiplying pests are only a few cells in size and have only ten genes to a cell. One would think that in this Age of Enlightenment, some chemical solution would have been found. It is believed that just as the mosquito experimentation, the weaponizing of these small pests with disease has been tried. There has been no publicity about it. But, I understand that congressional committees know that mosquitoes were dropped from planes in balloons, to unsuspecting poor areas of the country to see if this type of biological warfare would work.

When DNA was discovered in 1953, when men supposedly walked on the moon 40 years ago, when the miracle of the internet became a household utility, we had reason to believe that most of our earthly problems were being solved. Over and over, for the past 50 years, with more money spent on education, public, private, high school and college, I have become more exasperated with college graduates and college students completely debilitated by education. They had been through the courses, had the pieces of paper, but were unable to do anything, particularly follow simple instructions, showing any semblance of common sense. My employees spend about as much time correcting mistakes of other employees as they spend in actual productive activity.

The nation's two largest school systems, NY and Washington, DC have been turned over to the mayors of these two cities. In Washington, DC, a new Chancellor of Education, a 39 year old, Dr. Michelle A. Rhee, in a long line of those attempting to solve the worst public education dilemma in the nation, including a Major General, has resorted to hiring teachers from Ivy League universities, has a contract that will give mid-level teachers who are paid $62,000 yearly, the opportunity to earn more than $100,000, but they had to give up seniority and tenure rights. The Washington, DC system where 92% of 8th graders do not have the math skills required of 8th graders, where there is a 70% achievement gap between white and black students, is spending an excess of $12,000 per student, compared to an estimated $10,725 per student in the US. As a comparison, in NC $7,500 is spent per student.

I still resent paying this amount of money in taxes for the product received. When my grandfather was in high school in 1900 $500 was spent per student. When I was in high school in 1940, $1,000 was spent per student. But, we could read and write, spell and do mathematics. Today's students, not only do not have the rudimentary skills of education, but none of the self discipline which will make them successful in life. The dogmatic “look good, be good, act good” is scoffed and scorned by “modern” students and teachers. If you want your child educated, home school. Home schooling is increasing at a phenomenal rate, because most parents love their children too much to see them defiled by the lack of discipline, both physically and intellectually, in the public schools. One of my assistants home schools her five children. The wife of my stock broker home schools their child. My two grandsons, now, a lawyer and an engineer, never attended a public school, nor did their father, on whom has been conferred two doctorates. Even the Obama daughters in Washington, get $7,500 each vouchers. All students should have the opportunity for a voucher, and the option to attend a charter school.

Life does not just happen. No one comes with an instruction manual for life. We cannot reinvent the wheel. In this Age of Enlightenment, please use education procedures and directives that work, sensible discipline such as memorization. My father's ancestors came to this country from Scotland. He always used the Celtic calendar for planning in butchery. He always had the best crops. He knew when to put the seed in the ground. There was never spoilage at his “smoke house.” Procedures that had worked for hundreds of years still worked.

Learning is as old as life, man has the innate capacity and desire to learn. Children soak up knowledge like a sponge. We have heard many advertisements about a mind going to waste. It is a tragedy in this Age of Enlightenment, that the school house would become the place of deception, not enlightenment.