Hope

The profundity of faith  compared to coincidence is in the eye of the beholder.  

While stationed at Ft. Leonard Wood in the Army Basic Training many years ago, I attended church regularly.  Basic Training for this 20 year old soldier, and for all the other soldiers, was grueling and physically draining, especially in the cold winter of January - I literally watched a water puddle freeze while standing in formation. 

We had Saturdays and Sundays off and the $79.00 per month salary in the early 1960’s left you pretty much broke by the end of the month.

On the last Sunday of the month while attending church, I had a decision to make as the donation platter was being passed among the pews.  I only had one nickel in my pocket, the only one nickel before payday. 

It was a difficult decision because as a routine we all lined up at the candy machine outside the barracks to soothe the hunger before bedtime - a Snickers Bar was 5 cents.

With the theme of most church services sermons Acts 20:35 “It is more blessed to give than to receive ” the collection plate came closer. 

My thought was donate or candy, donate or candy.  If it was Snickers, God would understand.  The collections plate was handed to me and donate won.

The Ft. Leonard Wood church was a white painted wooden chapel, as were most of the barracks made of wood, left-overs from WWII.  I exited the church walking down the 3 wooden steps and grabbing the white wooden hand rail, watching my foot steps down the stairs. 

And, to my amazement at the bottom left on the ground was a nickel.  I exclaimed reaching for it  “God understands!”

The Power Of Prayer

While serving in the Army Security Agency from 1963 to 1966, but In Turkey for an 18 month stint, some of the relaxation activities on our Post Det 27, located 20 miles south west of Ankara, was the Service Club, NCO Club to imbibe and play Bingo, the library, and the Gym.  

On one occasion on a Sunday I joined a group from the barracks to play basketball at the gym.  I’m not a good basketball player but agreed to join in the fun.  But the fun turned sour when I jumped for the basket and landed badly spraining my ankle.  

I had to loosen my shoe, and limp to the movie theater. 

While watching Marlon Brando in the 1963 hit Mutiny On The Bounty, my ankle swelled. 

While limping back to the barracks I feared the worse:  tomorrow Monday was the beginning of PT (Physical Training).  I dreaded having to fall out of formation with an injury.  What a dilemma!  

My remedy was prayer.  I prayed for my foot and ankle while lying in my bunk, pulling the blanket from my left foot because of the pressure.  I fell asleep praying.

Upon awakening in the morning, 6AM wakeup for PT, my ankle was completely healed. 

I was amazed.  I jumped up and down for feeling.  There was no swelling, no pain, and my foot was back to normal!  

Speaking Corporatese

“Sergeant Toomey:  What would you do if the entire Japanese Army were behind you?

Private Eugene Jerome: Surrender and get some sleep.

Private Selridge:  If this keeps up, we'll lose this war. They'll be speaking German in Chicago.” 

from Biloxi Blues by Neil Simon

Today it’s not obvious to identify those who want to destroy the basic foundation on which we preach freedom, the Great Middle Class and the pinnacle of democracy.  

President Roosevelt referred to them as  Economic Royalists and “Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob”. 

President Truman said: “The Republican Party, … favors the privileged few and not the common everyday man.”  President Jimmy Carter said that we are now an Oligarchy.  

And now today we speak Corporatese.  Our news media speaks of Dow Jones Industrials, NASDAQ, which does not reflect the happenings of the majority of working Americans, but in reality reflects the Wall Street gangs.  

We speak of Corporate Inversions which is the moving of American jobs and American factories to other countries. We speak of Off Shore Tax Havens. All legal.   

Our cities throughout the Rust Belt, the name given to our devastated industrial heartland, resemble the bombed out cities of WWII Germany.  

Detroit, for example, had a population of over 2 million residents in its heyday and was listed as the richest city in America due mainly to its industrial base revolving around the manufacturing of automobiles.  

Today the population of Detroit is under 700,000 with the difference in resident’s abandoned houses resembling what time did in lieu of bombs.

The text book definition of Profit is a measurement of efficiencies between competitive companies. Since we no longer enforce the Sherman Anti Trust Act via Ronald Reagan, profit has morphed into a destructive force entity with Conspiratorial Capitalism thrust upon us today coupled with the monopoly factor.  

We see, for example, the increase in prices for life saving medicine increasing 600% to 3,000% for no other reason but that big Pharma can.  

We have replaced text book Capitalism with Conspiratorial Capitalism, a systemic corrupt system bought and paid for by legislators and corporate lobbyists.

Conspiratorial Capitalism is the collusion among legislators, right-wing judges, and corporate mass media.  The federal government lowers the tax rate for the wealthy, stops enforcing the Sherman Anti-Trust Legislation, anti-labor and essentially gives corporations and Wall Street free will.  

We now have a corporate press free from the Fairness Doctrine, which the FCC under Reagan in 1987,  left broadcast corporations worry free about broadcasting in the public interest." 

There is nothing in the corporate news about the decline of the middle class, which the last 35 years has left America destroyed while the Republican agenda of closing factories in the United States to the tune of 50,000 factories and moving American jobs to China continues. 

Republicans continue  blocking legislation to restore American manufacturing industry. We do not enforce our tariffs that all other countries use to protect their manufacturing base!

The powerful right-wing network that hijacks state politics and government through the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) continue their nefarious agenda of wealth redistribution upwards to the rich. Composing legislation, calling for a conference of all state legislators to attend, then handing out previously composed legislation for the legislative attendees to take back to their state legislation to vote upon is what ALEC is about. And, with a majority of Republicans in many state legislatures, the vote is “Aye.”

Our health care is like no other in the world and defines what profit means today by holding hostage and skimming off the top to a destructive degree.  The health care insurance is a sham with CEO billionaire “banksters” reaping rewards. Health care has morphed into a disease. 

How can we define and justify profit with private prisons?  Where can efficiency occur in this prison for profit industry except by sacrificing basic human needs?  The Private Prisons takes the word profit to a disgusting definition.

A new business model for profit is government subsidies. The largest retailer is the apparent founder of this business model whereby they pay their workers below substance wages. Their employees then apply for food stamps and medicaid in order to live, all subsidized by the American taxpayer.

Ronald Reagan’s infamous 9 words: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”  Reagan’s First Inaugural: “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” 

From this foreboding idea that government is incompetent sprang the buzz word “privatize”.  Let’s privatize everything! 

The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) is a United States federal statute enacted by the 109th United States Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush on December 20, 2006, a poison pill mandating that the USPS pre-fund 75 years of benefits for its employees within a 10 year window.  

The Postmaster DeJoy is focused on destroying the USPS, destroyed over 700 automated sorting machines in the name of progress.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVoss spent her four years under President Trump turning Public Education into Private Education with Public Funds.

An all inclusive example of Corporatese is GOP Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan who Installed Emergency Managers to sell off city assets to the rich. 

Here was Gov Snyder’s game plan: give $1.8 billion in tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations at the expense of Michigan cities’ budgets, then ask the individual cities to make up the difference. 

Knowing that this shorting the cities of expected revenue sharing, many cities would have hardships and struggles to make up the difference, especially cities with large black populations like Benton Harbor, who lost a children's lakeside park to a rich private golf park, given in perpetuity by the Klock Family in memory of their lost child to the children of Benton Harbor.

When the individual cities fell behind in their fiscal obligations, Rick Snyder sent in his appointed Czar, an Emergency Manager to sell off the city’s assets, in other words a transfer of wealth upwards.

Let’s privatize everything because the Market Place is the best arbiter of freedom!  Just a few examples of innumerable …

Perhaps the enemy is only an idea, albeit a bad idea.  The solution would be to educate the American public through the mass media.  But the mass media is owned by 6 corporations who speak only Corporatese!  Therein lies the problem.

Discovering My Grandfather’s Daily Devotional

 I’m discovering an insight to my grandfather who died in 1962 at the age of 82.

I recently received his book “Johann Friedrich Starck’s Morgen und Abendandachten”, translated means Morning and Evening Prayer, a 1901 copy of a 18th century theologian’s writing.  Reviewing my grandfather Georg (without “e” pronounced GAY-org) Reiter’s daily devotional book, it is fragile, very worn and obviously much used.  To connect with a particular day’s prayer is to wonder how many times has this person read this particular prayer on this particular day over a lifetime.  And, the wonder is also a warm feeling and thought that this person was a good and righteous person.

 I’m seeing a pattern with each day’s prayer ending with psalms, hymns, carols, and ballads.  Here is the Evening - Prayer (Abend) for 21 February.  I used an internet on-line translator as I wrote from the original German text these sentences, trying to interpret the old Gothic letters, used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 to well into the 17th century, if the letter was a U or A. 

Some words do not exactly fit the logic in this translated prayer, because words in all languages become outdated and not easily translated.  This text is probably translated in the 19th century from the 18th century, which would further outdate todays translation.  

So, here is my translation from page 105 and at the bottom is from Pslam 51:

Evening Prayer for 21 February

Return to me, saith the Lord Almighty, so I will teach you, saith the Lord Almighty   Zech. 1.3

Almighty and gracious God! As night falls, I see all my trust and confidence in you and your merciful side.  I ask you humbly, Lord, to forgive me all my sins and transgressions out of grace. Like a sheep strayed from the herd heading for his shepherd. So I too want to turn to you, faithful Jesus, and hold myself to you, so that I will never leave you again.  Without this inner conversion no one has ever found grace before your eyes. A David, a Peter, a Paul have become completely changed people through your spirit power, so give me such a new meaning, O my merciful.  In grace you will abdicate all uncleanness and all damages from me. Let your holy angels encamp around me so that I may enjoy a good night's sleep under their care.  Ah, Lord, come to me when I pray, and hear me; Comfort me when I am depressed, save me when the floods cross over me. Comfort me when I'm sick and lonely.  Will you, sir, attribute sin, who will prevail? Let my soul, when leaving that mortal coffin, open the entrance into your heaven, where I will be eternally united with you. Amen.

I want from my wrongdoing

to convert me to the Lord;

You want help and advice for yourself

for that, O God, bring

and your spirit's power,

that creates new hearts in us,

grant me with mercy.

And God Made The World

And God Made The World

“Yes I am, I am also a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist, and a Jew.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Pope John Paul II in his Address to young Muslims in Morocco, August 19,1985 said: “Christians and Muslims, we have many things in common, as believers and as human beings. We live in the same world, marked by many signs of hope, but also by multiple signs of anguish. For us, Abraham is a very model of faith in God, of submission to his will and of confidence in his goodness. We believe in the sane (rational, balanced, stable) God, the one God, the living God, the God who created the world and brings his creatures to their perfection.” 

In his acceptance of the Ecumenical Council of 1960-1965, Vatican 2, Pope John Paul II asserted that as a descendent to the throne of St. Peter, the true message of Jesus was all inclusive, that all people of the world were saved.

The religious xenophobia so pervasive in our society today is born out of ignorance. In his tremendously brilliant lectures on comparative religion, Professor Charles Kimball reveals the vast similarities of the 5 basic world religions, all faith based: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. 

I particularly like Dr. Kimball’s example in his lecture to a Muslim audience, and the question put to him was that he must be a Muslim because he preached all of the tenants of Islam and that Muslims believe the all inclusive that if you do no harm that you will be rewarded. Dr. Kimball’s answer was that he was a Christian.

Another example from his lectures came from a Hindu, who stated, to the effect,“the other 4 basic religions are really Hindu, they just don’t realize it!”

And, most people have heard the name Dali Lama. This Buddhist Monk’s world views mirror the other four basic world religions. This beautifully enlightened Buddhist Monk said: “Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them”. And another famous quote from this brilliant religious leader: “My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.”

The Judaeo-Christian culture is self evident to the Western World with its revelations of hope, kindness, forgiveness, jubilee, and more. Perhaps Judaism, going back to time recorded, is the genesis of the other religions, since Jesus was a rabbi born in the days of Herod the King.

Buddha was a prophet in 600 BCE, and Mohammad, self-proclaimed the last of the prophets, around 600 CE, but Hinduism has no founder and goes back to unrecorded antiquity, to the days of “oral tradition”. Perhaps the questioning Hindu in Dr. Kimball’s audience was correct.

With the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem, 701 BCE, and if the Assyrian army proceeded to destroy Jerusalem, would there be Judaism, Christianity, Muslim religions?  This question reveals the historical, special connectivity of these three religions.

The only differences between the religious communities is diversity and cultural manifestations, but the common thread is, to use Dr. Kimball’s phrase, the “human capacity for self transcendence”. 

The human species has been religious from time recorded, from the Ancient Greek Gods of Poseidon, Zeus, Apollo, Artemis, and more. I think that the human experience is in our DNA to be religious with the brain manifestations of delight in prayer and self reflection. 

Scripture is replete with God’s message of Joy and Salvation for all religious communities of the world. Inherent in a gift is that there is no payment in return.

My prayer is for everyone to know of the vast religious similarities of all religions, instead of hearing the vast reporting of the religious xenophobia promoting the “fear factor” of religious differences.

Gov. Snyder Legacy Luau Limbo - How Low Can You Go?

The conspiratorial capitalism thrust upon us today has morphed into a destructive force entity beyond the poisoning of our economic system, destroying the lives of most Americans, but has literally poisoned the lives of thousands of children in Flint Michigan. Governor Rick Snyder, playing “luau limbo” with the Michigan economy, has sunk to new lows never imagined from not only a political leader but from humanity!

Former Gov. Rick Snyder is now charged with a misdemeanor for the Flint Water Crisis.

We have Reagonomics on steroids with Michigan Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, Michigan’s Republican-controlled Legislature, the corporate press, right-wing judges, ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) composed of 100-percent Republicans, all in collusion in this “grand rip-off.” Snyder appointed his emergency manager to Flint Michigan using the same bill authorizing the use of an emergency financial manager which the voters rejected in 2011. 

A little more than a month after voters repealed Public Act 4 (PA 4) on Nov. 6, Snyder signed into law Public Act 436 (PA 436), with the help of the Republican legislature.

Here was Gov Snyder’s game plan: give $1.8 billion in tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations at the expense of Michigan cities’ budgets, then ask the individual cities to make up the difference. 

Knowing that this shorting the cities of expected revenue sharing, many cities would have hardships and struggles to make up the difference, especially cities with large black populations like Benton Harbor, who lost a children's lakeside park to a rich private golf park, given in perpetuity by the Klock Family in memory of their lost child to the children of Benton Harbor.

When the individual cities fell behind in their fiscal obligations, Rick Snyder sent in his appointed Czar, an Emergency Manager to sell off the city’s assets, in other words a transfer of wealth upwards.

The Emergency Manger of Flint, Darnell Earley, colluded with the Emergency Manager of Detroit, Keven Orr, to switch the source of Flint’s water supply from Detroit to the Flint River, thus making the Detroit Water Department more profitable and more lucrative for privatizing. 

With the closing of General Motor’s plants and shipping those jobs to China, the resultant hardship placed many Flint residents in default on their water bills, among other bills, leaving the Detroit Water Department to absorb some of Flint’s problems. The solution according to the two Emergency Managers was to let Flint get its water from the Flint River and pay for their own problem.

The switching to the Flint River was a disaster because the poorly treated Flint River water is unsafe and too acid thus corroding and destroying the hundred year old underground pipe infrastructure and allowing the lead seals to leach into the water reaching the residents’ tap. 

Among all of the government agencies condemning the Flint River water, GM on October 13, 2014 announced that it will stop using Flint water because it was too corrosive for building its precision engines. This switch from the Detroit Water Department occurred in April 2014 and switched back in October 2015. 

It comes down to the proverbial question: “what did he know and when did he know it?” It’s obvious that Gov Snyder has his foot prints on this disaster from start to finish! But it’s not over yet; at the heart of this problem is payment, both monetarily and criminally. 

The heart breaking fact is the poor children of Flint who will grow up with lead poisoning, an irreversible tragedy.  

Conspiratorial Capitalism

The text book definition of Profit is the measurement of efficiencies between competitive companies. Since we no longer enforce the Sherman Anti Trust Act via Ronald Reagan, profit has morphed into a destructive force entity with Crony Capitalism  thrust upon us today coupled with the monopoly factor.  

We see, for example, the increase in prices for life saving medicine increasing 600% to 3,000% for no other reason but that Big Pharma can.  We have replaced text book Capitalism with  Conspiratorial Capitalism, or Crony Capitalism - a systematic, corrupt system bought and paid for by legislators and corporate lobbyists.

Conspiratorial Capitalism is the collusion among legislators, right-wing judges, and corporate mass media.  The Federal Government lowers the tax rate for the wealthy, stops enforcing the Sherman Anti-Trust Legislation, anti-labor and essentially gives corporations and Wall Street free will.  

The powerful right-wing network that hijacks state politics and government through the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) continue their nefarious agenda of wealth redistribution upwards to the Rich. 

Composing legislation, calling for a conference of all state legislators to attend, then handing out previously composed legislation for the legislative attendees to take back to their state legislation to vote upon is what ALEC is about. And, with a majority of Republicans in many state legislatures, the vote is “Aye.”

We now have a Corporate Press free from regulation thru the FCC relaxing the Fairness Doctrine, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and the FCC revoking Net Neutrality.  Today’s News is mainly infotainment!

There is nothing in the Corporate News about the decline of the middle class, which the last 35 years has left America destroyed while the right-wing agenda of closing factories in the United States to the tune of 50,000 factories and moving American jobs to China continues. 

Our cities throughout the Rust Belt, the name given to our devastated industrial heartland, resemble the bombed ruined cities of WWII Germany.  Detroit, for example, had a population of over 2 million residents in its heyday and was listed as the richest city in America due mainly to its industrial base revolving around the manufacturing of automobiles.  

Today’s population of Detroit is under 700,000 with the difference in resident’s abandoned houses resembling what time did in lieu of bombs.

A rewarding model for business is government subsidies. This business model sets the condition whereby companies pay their workers below substance wages, then their employees apply for food stamps and medicaid in order to live.  All subsidized by the American taxpayer.

Republicans in the U.S. Senate continue  blocking legislation to restore the American manufacturing industry. We do not enforce our tariffs that all other countries use to protect their manufacturing base!

Republican Senator McConnell, Senate Majority Leader, continues to object to Legislation from the House of Representatives dealing with all sorts of remedies, from Russian  interference in our voting, voter security, monopolies, and more. 

Ronald Reagan’s infamous 9 words: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”  And, “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”  

From this foreboding idea that government is incompetent sprang the buzz word “privatize”.  Let’s privatize everything! 

Perhaps the enemy is only an idea, albeit a bad idea.  The solution would be to educate the American public through the Mass Media.  

But the Mass Media is owned by 6 corporations!  Therein lies the problem.

Creepy Cults And High Priests

What is the nature of a man who considers himself a Christian and High Priest of his family, relegating his wife to subordinate status? What kind of church does this man subscribe to? What drives a person to seek a life’s position other than equal, and more importantly, what is his message?

This man is not part of the main stream churches, although President Jimmy Carter left the Southern Baptist Church because of their failing to promote women as pastors of the church. Moreover, Jimmy Carter said that the leaders of the SBC choose to interpret the bible phrases that subjugate women rather than exalt women.

This defining oneself as High Priest is clearly a case of self-adulation! Where does one get support for his Priest Hood? The main-stream Christian churches do not support this sacrilege. He would have to search for a cult religion, where they twist the interpretation of scripture to meet their selfish ways.

A “Purity Ball” is an example of a cult. It is a sacrilege where the father swears an oath as High Priest of the family before god to protect his daughter’s virginity. Likewise, the daughter swears an oath to be faithful to her father and remain “Pure”.

The “Purity Ball” is sick, creepy, and a sacrilege thus violating Matthew 5:34 “But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne;” and James 5:12 “But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but your yes is to be yes, and your no, no, so that you may not fall under judgment.” The idea of “Purity” should be discussed in the privacy of the home and not put on public display with a cult ritual!

The New Testament clearly teaches that all believers regardless of gender, are joint heirs with Christ, and wives are not junior partners in the marriage. Men are not the High Priest and women are not subordinate. Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

The High Priest uses the Bible as a tool to further his gain and justify his behavior using twisted scripture to get his way. He thinks that he holds the keys and locks out those who do not agree with him, and joins groups that think like him. Salvation is the tool that gives him the power to divide and shut out family members who do not worship his twisted scripture.  And we know where the Jews stand with his outspoken beliefs. 

The creepy cults focus on the “me” society rather than the “we” society. Therein lies a major conflict with the Bible: Matthew 25:45 “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”

The High Priest believes that if you are rich, it must be because God loves you. If you are poor, it is of your own sinful doing. The High Priest singles out one or two needy people to help thus fulfilling Matthew 25 and not costing him too much money or effort, but still justifying his “me” society.

There are many back-yard, barn yard churches with their self-ordained ministers and cult church followers that the High Priest can seek out. The High Priest seeks out the cult church where he can join to influence and be an active part of the ministry, solidifying his High Priest knowledgeable status.

The High Priest’s thinking would not be complete without home schooling, which completes full circle the living in a closed world where he holds the keys. After all, the earth is 6,000 years old, dinosaurs were on Noah’s Ark, and homosexuals are going to hell!

The religious intolerance of this group is repulsive, including their social behavior and lack of humanitarianism. 

 I believe in Dr. Kimball’s phrase from his course “Comparative Religion” regarding the similarities of the 5 basic religions, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, the “human capacity for self transcendence” transcends all religions. This religious creepy cult group is excluded!