Hubba Hubba

This week, we heard with sorrow of the deaths of four round-the-world missionaries on their yacht off the coast of Somalia. a yacht filled with Bibles that they were distributing around the world. This week we hear of the plight of the Coptic Christians in Egypt, brought to Egypt by the disciple Mark, he was martyred in the streets of Alexandria, but from the humble beginnings of Mark, the Christian Church grew in Egypt until, at one time, Egypt was mostly Christian. There are thousands of Coptic Christians in Egypt today, their lives are not easy, according to Egyptian law, on every form of identification, religion is specified, even on their passports. In such an Islamic country, it is difficult for a Christian to get a job. In India, converting to Christianity from Hindu or Muslim faiths, you must report such to the police or face such a severe fine. As cruel as Saddam Hussein was in Iraq, Christians were protected, there were 500,000 Christians in Iraq before the American invasion. Today, most Christians have fled, the Christian churches are being persecuted and destroyed, only a few thousand are left.

Christian history has been marked by the martyrdom of saints. One does not face death for a false religion, these martyrs believed in their religion. More Christians were killed last year, martyrs to the faith, than had been killed in all previous Christian history, an estimated 165,000. Among those killed last year, one of my college friends, Dr. Thomas Little, killed along with his missionary group in Afghanistan, he was one of the few doctors caring for people in the mountains of that country. He, his wife, children and others had been there for many years, his father is a doctor in Canada, but he chose God's work in Afghanistan. All in the missionary group were killed by the Islamic terrorists, except their guide, who kept shouting to the killers, “I am Muslim!”. Even though the guide had witnessed the miracles of healing provided by this missionary group, he escaped death by clinging to his false faith.

Many of us remember the movies of WWII, servicemen being entertained by USO troops and others. A shapely young woman would come on the stage, and from all corners you would hear, “hubba hubba”. This was an expression of approval, excitement, pleasure. The men and women who fought the Axis powers of WWII, were real men and women, patriotic, oriented to the love of God, family and country. This phoney-baloney, “Ask, Don't Tell”, anticipation for retirement pay, did not enter the equation for their devotion for country. Many times during the past 50 years, I have been in and out of veteran's hospitals. Before that, I was a staff member, as a medical service officer of army military hospitals. Service to God and country was considered an honor. In recent years, I have seen a totally deterioration of service in VA facilities, there is not one doubt in my mind that it has come from this attitude of political correctness...the employment of people who would never meet the qualifications for employment in a private facility. I said to one VA physician, “the technician outside, doing the preparatory work, does not know what she is doing.” He said, “doctor, this place is full of people who do not know what they are doing.”

There may be a computer that can count the number of letters that I have written to VA officials concerning discrepancies in veteran's treatment. Like the organization, supposedly interested in defending veteran's rights, Blind Veteran's Association (BVA), the only thing these organizations care about is getting your membership fee (DAV, VFW, etc.). Next to slavery, the greatest shame of this nation is its treatment of disabled veterans and handicapped citizens. Just as Christians do not face death for a false religion, and the most repulsive thing in the world is religiosity, young men and women do not face death for a false patriotism.

I do not hold myself up as an example of anything for anyone. But, coming from the poverty of an eastern North Carolina tobacco farm, the inadequacy of a small country school (13 in graduating class), working at night in order to go to university in day time, for eight years, passing all boards and requirements for military commission. Entering the army as a medical officer, returning, 100% disabled, service-connected. I feel that, totally blind, I can offer some criticism. Criticism for the fact that veterans pension benefits are totally inadequate (mine were never established). Criticism that there is no preparation for disability (I never had one minute of rehabilitation), criticism regarding healthcare (I have never been able to obtain a white cane from VA, pay for my own talking watch).

It must be a stench in the nostrils of our blessed Lord, to see teachers and other government workers protesting in the streets about their pay and entitlements. In the state of North Carolina, a graduating college student can start teaching school at age 23 or 24, going to summer school to obtain advanced certification by a masters degree or such, and retire at age 54 or 55...30 years service, drawing a wonderful retirement check with benefits. After working 30 years, most are retired for another 30 years, retired as long as working, drawing checks and benefits. This applies to most government workers, including the double dippers, who get addition government jobs, for instance in the postal service. I know several government workers, who on your taxpayer dollar, have spent 30-40 years of their life playing golf.

The user friendly Gospel is straight from hell, user friendly patriotism leads to enslavement. Who loves you enough to tell you the truth? The pitiful politicians, pastors, and parents who know better, but want you to like them.

Retirement

Perhaps France's greatest novelist, Victor Hugo, was right when he said, “no army can stop an idea whose time has come.” Socialist, liberal France is in the pangs of demonstrations and protesters, greatest since 1995, about raising the age for retirement from age 60 to age 62. As in Greece, where the people do not want to work either, most French always bragged about their early retirement when talking with them. My question was always, no matter who or where, why retire when you are perfectly able to work? Those who live the longest, those who are happiest, who contribute most to society, are those who continue to work long past retirement age.

Bankrupt America, looking everywhere for solving economic problems, will raise Americans retirement age to age 69. It was only with the advent of Social Security and other FDR sociological experimentation that the word “retirement” came into the lexicon. Until 1930, there was no such thing as retirement, people worked as long as they desired, the government did not interfere with their freedom about anything. Financially, some people have always been able to quit work early, work only when they want to. Like everything else Christian America, a matter of free will.

During WWII, many teachers both on the public school and college level came out of retirement to resume teaching, these were the greatest teachers I ever knew. When an old teacher or professor entered the room, you felt that a library was present. They had already forgotten more than most young teachers knew.

The greatest pastors and preachers in the world, kept busy in the pulpit until they were hauled away to die. The young ones might be able to talk faster, but old preachers and pastors were filled with knowledge and memory which the young ones could not approach. In professional schools, you always want age, not youth. I do not want a surgeon to cut on me, unless he is so old he can barely hold the scalpel, then I know he has been there before, he knows what he is doing. I'd rather have an old doctor with a stethoscope, then all the X-rays, MRIs and computer print-outs.

Government is responsible for the retirement craze, an enlistment sweetener for those filling military ranks, retirement, after 20 years service, with a “check for the rest of your life.” My first social function as a young army officer, a retirement party for a officer of field rank. He said, “just keep breathing, and you can retire too.” So it is with academia, so it is with civil service jobs. It is usually the second career, after military retirement, which is most rewarding, in the early years of civil service, government jobs were not that great. Now, government workers make an average of double that of the private sector. According to the Heritage Foundation, taxpayers would save $47 billion if federal workers were paid at the same rate as private sector employees.

A working man, a securities broker, who occasionally takes off an afternoon for golf, told me recently, “with the hundreds of golf courses in this area, it is almost impossible to get on one because of the early retirement of government workers, military sorts, preachers, teachers, bankers, and just about everyone who now retires when they are still capable of working.” He said, “I never knew there were so many retired preachers, don't they realize there are many souls out there, young and old, which they should be pursuing instead of a small, white ball. “ In the living of life, you store up a treasure trove of knowledge and memories, valuable beyond words to express, too often, because of the inflictions of disease, such knowledge goes to the grave too soon. But for those still in adequate health, such knowledge-experience should be available.

One wonderful lady I knew in my church, had worked in a large department store her entire life, she was one of their greatest business assets. It was time for her to retire, she did not particularly want to sit around home. The store owner said, “you keep coming to the store. You will get your retirement pay, plus. I want you there just to greet our customers. To give you expertise when it is needed. You are worth more in this business now, than ever before in your life.” At my own father's funeral, one of the several preachers said, “when he had his stroke and death, he was picking peaches off trees which he had planted.”

Now, as you get older, age takes its toll. If you have been resourceful and successful, you no longer have to meet schedules, routines, deadlines. Enjoy the luxury, afforded by age, but I believe everyone is better off to stay involved, to stay productive, to keep making contributions of time, talent, treasure to family, church, community. Hobbies are good, families are better, God's work is best, but it is only the busy mind that gives contentment.

A few years ago, I spoke at a large religious conference, one of the speakers said, “recently, I had the name taken off the face of my watch. Instead, 'the night cometh' (John 9:4)” The night cometh when our work time will be over.

The Importance of Keys

A piece of metal that controls the activity of most lives is a “key”. Historians do not know when locks and keys were first made, we know that such came to life in the Egyptian, Greek and Roman civilizations (at least 2,000 BC, about the time Abraham arrived in Cana, 1000 years after the great flood). Before then, our early ancestors, with few regulations, steeped in sin, had little regard for one another in any way. I once found a very old wood lock buried several feet in the ground. A historian sold me a ring of large brass keys, which he had found near the civil war bentonville battleground, just a few miles from my home. We know they were civil war vintage and were probably used to keep prisoners in the stockade.

Many hotels, many automobiles use electronic locking devices. Security systems are a part of life, since everyone and every thing is more insecure than ever.

One man was sitting in a bar of a very plush hotel, it was magnificent in every way, the type of thing he had always loved, but he could not understand the vice and vulgarity going on around him. Every so often, a totally naked person would walk through, there was pornographic literature all around and the telling of dirty jokes, hilarious laughter, cursing and swearing. He said to the waiter, “I died and I thought I was in heaven. But I'd just as soon be in hell.“ The waiter said, “you are in hell. I have already been here 10,000 years.” So it is, those who have not known the importance of locks and keys in their lives, locking some things out and having the key to many things.

I have not been to a funeral, never talked to a bereaved family, all believed that their dead loved one was in heaven. Even those who have never put a foot in a house of worship, who could not stand Christian people, all believed that heaven was their final destination. Christ talked more about hell than he did heaven, we know this, not one particle of sin will enter heaven...heaven is a sinless place.

The “normal people” do not realize what disabled people go through: blind, deaf, crippled. The alignment in which they must keep their mind, absolute order: the importance of routine, the importance of having everything in it's place, the importance of keys.

I have several employees, I have always kept a very fine automobile, the key to the vehicle must be kept in a certain place. Then, everyone knows where the key is located when I must be driven somewhere. Would you like to guess, over the year, how many times the key to my car has been put in their pocket, and I have been left with a “key-less car”? Would you like to guess how much money I have spent on key duplication: for vehicles, buildings, etc.? They simply do not have presence of mind to keep their thoughts in order. Most young people, even those who are not drugged out of their skulls, stay up late into the night watching slop (liquid garbage) on television, or have other things on their mind (those who have a brain), instead of on their job. Aggravation to me, at my expense, is not a concern to them. The word “concern” is a lost word in most vocabularies.

In this “me” generation, very few are concerned about others. A public school teacher told me that she started teaching at the age of 24, after college graduation. After 30 years at the age of 54 she retired from teaching with full retirement. Her retirement is over 100,000 a year because before retirement she was principal of the school. Now, after retirement, she is working part-time at another school as an associate principal. So, she gets a hefty paycheck there also. So in other words, after retirement she will draw more money than she ever made while working, if she lives to the expected age of 90-95. This nation, right now, owes 108 trillion dollars in entitlements and retirements to such government workers and others. 60% of the population draws a government check every month.

Over the years, when going to the doctor's office, in the reception room I always ask my driver two questions, most of the doctor's reception areas, in recent years have been turned into auditoriums, in this age of assembly line health care: doctor's running from one small room to another. The questions are as follows:

1.How many people are here?
2.Are not all of them old?

Always, since the onset of medicare and medicaid, the answer was the same...the place is full, and they are all old. They are entitled, they have nothing else to do with their lives, except sit in doctor's offices and, with the productive workforce (who pay taxes) shrinking every year, with the millions of young people who would work and pay taxes being aborted. Who will pay the interest, just on the national debt? Do you realize that future opportunity has been totally destroyed for your children's children's children? Do you realize that land of the free, and home of the brave has been replaced by land of enslavement and home of the weak, silly, lying, pretending, sissies.

The key to the lock was lost somewhere, in the wasteland of political correctness, gay agenda, liberated women, and academic meltdown. He has to try and find the key, turn the lock and rediscover the America my generation inherited.