Miss Catherine

A good friend of mine, a successful song writer and former Nashville resident, Herb McCullough, wrote and posted this story regarding his experience as a Hospice volunteer. This story speaks to my heart and makes me feel inadequate in many ways.

Miss Catherine

Tired and retired after 30 years in the Nashville song-writing business, I moved back to Florida with Joann in the fall of 2004. In the next year and a half we were confronted with the aging, the illness and the eventual death of Jo’s parents and my Uncle Herb (yep, I was named after him). We were blessed to have that time with them and immensely grateful for the amazing support of hospice.

So, it seemed appropriate for me to sign on as a hospice volunteer, and I’d been giving my time as a substitute courier, with limited patient interaction, for nearly a year when I received a call from the volunteer coordinator, telling me a patient had requested someone to play piano in her home. When I mentioned I didn’t play piano, the coordinator responded, “So can I tell her you’ll sing her some songs next week?” I still don’t know why I did it, since I’d previously resisted bringing music into my volunteer efforts, but I reluctantly agreed to give it a try. Just before our call ended, the coordinator added, “Uh … this patient has a reputation as being a bit of a curmudgeon, but I’m sure you’ll win her over.” 

Thus began my new roll in life … sharing my songs with hospice patients and their families.
As I drove to her house, I reviewed the information I’d received from the office on Patient # ____: Female, 86 years old, diagnosed with esophageal cancer, severe osteoporosis, arthritis, possible Parkinson’s causing continued shaking in right hand. She was in constant pain, was unable to swallow solid food, unable to walk without assistance, was house bound, lived alone and had no family. And, of course, her prognosis was “terminal”.

I tried to smile as I arrived, guitar-in-hand, on-time for our scheduled appointment and was met at the door by a home care nursing assistant who led me into the living room. At one end of that room, perched in a large chair, was a severely bent woman I would come to know as Miss Catherine. She was wearing heavy makeup, large, gaudy jewelry, a wild, primary-colored floral print top, and shiny, bright yellow slacks. To complete her eccentric ensemble, she wore seashell-decorated gold slippers on feet which didn’t quite touch the floor. 
Just as I was thinking, I like this woman, and before I could introduce myself, she demanded in a deep, gruff, cancer-ravaged voice, “Where’s your piano? I requested piano.” 
After telling her my name, I explained that I was a songwriter, and had brought my guitar to share some songs if she’d like, or, I suggested, we could just visit for a bit.

Again in that rough voice, she commanded, “Get your guitar, then!”

As I knelt down and opened my guitar case she commented, “I don’t much like men with beards.” 
Frustrated and running out of patience, I turned to face her, and, as politely as possible, asked if she’d like me to leave? She looked straight into my eyes and, with a twinkle in hers, said, “Sing one and we’ll see.”
As I sat on the floor and shared that first song, a slow, smooth one, I could see her tired body relaxing, and I noticed her hand gradually stopped shaking. When I finished, she flashed a lovely smile and said, “I hope you wrote more than one.”

For nearly two hours that day and nearly every Friday from 4:30 to 6:30 or so for the next eleven months, I shared about every song I’d written with this wounded, perfectly flawed human being. She loved music! I learned that until arthritis and osteoporosis ravaged her body, she had played piano, banjo and guitar from an early age. We shared stories of life, love, loss, hopes and dreams. On more than one occasion, she confided that she didn’t fear death, but was haunted by the thought that no one would remember her when she was gone.

The last time I showed up to visit, Miss Catherine was sitting in her chair, wearing a house coat and plain bedroom slippers … no makeup, no jewelry and no smile. I was aware of her declining strength and vitality over the past weeks, and realized she was obviously too weak now to dress for our visit. After apologizing over and over for not getting “all dolled up”, she said, “Sing one”.

I sang my heart out that day, and before leaving, I gave her a big hug and told her I loved her. She told me she loved me. We thanked each other. l was not ready to say goodbye and didn’t want to hear her say it, but she did just that as she told me she knew she’d be gone before our next Friday visit. 

Miss Catherine passed away a few days later, and the next few Fridays found me at 4:30, on my porch, with my guitar, singing and longing to hear her say, “Sing one.” 

A Once Famous and Notable Cahokia Resident

Most of you are probably not aware but there was a most noted and celebrated gunsmith, Philip Creamer, who once lived on the Quarry Road outside Cahokia, Illinois (my home town) and was once known as “the most celebrated gunsmith in the west.” Following is a recorded account I have edited and a picture of the home that many of you will recognize and was taken apparently after the fire:


In the late 1790s, Philip Creamer was a trained gunsmith living in Taneytown, MD, where he built rifles in the famous Emmitsburg school style. Soon after settling the estate of his deceased father, around 1805, he relocated to the frontier region of St. Clair Co., IL, near St. Louis, MO. There he not only built and repaired guns for local settlers, but numerous account entries for his work are found in the ledgers of the influential trading firm Bryan & Morrison, which was located in nearby Cahokia, IL. This was the same outfitter who collaborated with and supplied Manuel Lisa’s 1807 expedition, and there is a strong possibility that some of the guns they provided Lisa were locally manufactured by Creamer. In fact, it is strongly believed that Creamer may have played a significant role in the initial design and development of what would become known as the famous St. Louis plains rifle especially because of his role in supplying firearms to some of the earliest Western expeditions.

By early 1809, William Morrison, co-owner of Bryan & Morrison, along with other prominent local citizens, including the fur traders Jean and August Chouteau, Ruben Lewis (the brother of Louisiana territorial governor Meriwether Lewis), and William Clark (U.S. Indian agent and Brigadier General of the Louisiana territorial militia), had joined Lisa in forming the Missouri Fur Company. At this time, Bryan & Morrison’s Cahokia store ledgers not only indicate that Creamer still made and repaired rifles for them, but that through them he was likely supplying rifles to the men of the Missouri Fur Company as well.

It was also during this time that Creamer made a brace of fancy pistols for William Morrison’s own personal use. As a trader with powerful Eastern connections, Morrison could have ordered pistols from virtually any maker he chose. The fact that he opted to arm himself with a set crafted locally by Creamer is a very strong endorsement of the gunmaker’s growing popularity and skill.

With such endorsements, Creamer’s reputation quickly spread throughout the frontier. It was soon a colloquialism that a man of dependable reputation and character was “as sure as a Creamer lock.” This in turn earned his work a special place in the hearts of gentlemen who were compelled to defend their own reputations on the field of honor. Men about to engage in such affairs were known to seek Creamer out beforehand so he could personally put their pistols “in the most perfect condition” for dueling.

Sometime, presumably between 1817 and 1824, a local collection was taken up and Creamer was persuaded to make a pistol for the then Secretary of War, John C. Calhoun. It’s a matter of record that Calhoun not only accepted the gift, but that he was so taken with its workmanship and quality that he wrote to personally inquire about Creamer and how he had learned to make pistols like that. Creamer absolutely refused to reply to Calhoun’s inquiry on the grounds that he was “no showman or stud-horse to be advertised.”

Calhoun would go on to serve two terms as the Vice President of the United States. First, in 1824, under John Quincy Adams, and again in 1828 under Andrew Jackson, so perhaps it is no coincidence that Old Hickory would have been familiar with Creamer’s work or that he would eventually come to own  a fine set of dueling pistols made by this celebrated gunsmith. Although Jackson’s set was eventually separated, one of the pistols made by Creamer is now in the possession of The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson’s home and museum just outside Nashville, Tennessee.

This house was built by Creamer shortly after he arrived in Illinois from Taneytown, MD, in about 1806, and is where he and his family lived until about 1816. Their home was located just north of the small American bottoms town of Dupo, in St. Clair County, located about a mile southeast of Cahokia, IL. According to authors and Creamer researchers Curt Johnson and Victor Paul, the Creamer house in Dupo is built to nearly the same dimensions as similar houses in Taneytown. Remarkably, (as late as the 1990's) the building that originally housed Creamer’s gun shop also remained standing, although at some point it had been converted to a chicken coop.

Even after miraculously surviving the epic Mississippi River floods that inundated the region over the years, the Creamer house and gun shop seemed destined to rot and ruin, that is until they were obtained from the land owner and donated to the Lindenwood University and Historic Boonesfield Village, located in Defiance, MO. In 1997, the Village oversaw the careful and systematic dismantling of the buildings, and facilitated their relocation to Defiance where they will be reassembled and restored. Taking its place among the other historical restorations at the Village, the Creamer gun shop will once again be a working gun shop with a full time traditional gunsmith on site.

The surviving Jackson dueling pistol owned by The Hermitage outside Nashville, TN, is an outstanding example of Creamer’s mastery of the art of gunsmithing, and stands out as special even in that bygone age when all fine firearms and dueling pistols especially were held to the highest standards. It is also a sure bet that a man like Jackson would demand and be satisfied with nothing less than the absolute finest.

Andrew Jackson was President between the years of 1829-37 and the original Jackson dueling pistols made by Creamer were outfitted with the finest percussion locks. That’s because Creamer was one of the earliest frontier gunsmiths to specialize in making them and it’s probably no coincidence that another pair of local St. Louis gunsmiths, the Hawken brothers, were also known for their early use of and perfection of the percussion ignition system on both fancy pistols and their famous plains rifles.

In 1825, Philip Creamer returned to the east for a short time and worked at the Harpers Ferry Armory in West Virginia. Born in the town of Harpers Ferry, Jacob Hawken is also believed to have worked for the Armory from 1808 until 1816. Then Hawken went west and partnered with the St. Louis gunsmith James Lakenan, until 1825, when Lakenan died.

Relocating from Xenia, Ohio, Jacob’s brother, Sam, operated a separate and independent gun shop in St. Louis, until Lakenan died, and the two brothers entered into business partnership together. Though things would soon change, remember that at this time it was Philip Creamer who was considered to be “the most celebrated gunsmith in all the west,” not the Hawken brothers. In fact, it is believed that gun repair work was given to James Lakenan, Jacob Hawken, and then to J & S Hawken, by the American Fur Company, only because at the time there was no gunsmith at the Indian Department. Doubtless the Hawken brothers knew Creamer and his work, and likely benefited directly from his short absence.

In 1827, Creamer left the Armory and relocated to St. Louis where he was employed as the gunsmith for the newly opened St. Louis Superintendency for Indian Affairs until 1833. He remained in St. Louis until 1835 and operated his local civilian gun shop on Olive near Fourth. It is during this time that Creamer likely built Jackson’s dueling pistols. It is believed that Creamer died about 1846, but by then St. Louis boasted an influx of many fine gunsmiths, most of them following in the tradition established by Philip Creamer and popularized by the Hawken brothers.
 

My understanding is (according to the above article) that the outbuildings used by Creamer as his gun shops were reportedly purchased and moved to Defiance, Mo. However, I believe the house remained, was occupied and caught fire sometime about the late nineties but was not totally destroyed. I'm not sure about the remaining logs, etc. but I assume they were partially salvaged and the remainder burned. This is just one of the many sad stories concerning historic buildings in our area that we're not protected by the State of Illinois or any historic groups, most likely from a lack of funding or interest by state authorities.  

The Sauget Crawdad Pond

As a small kid growing up on Levin Drive, myself and the other kids in the neighborhood used to spend time at a shallow muddy pond in one of the Sauget’s fields located in a low area just across the road from their farm house on Plum St.  The house is still there and the small field that holds the pond is as well, but it doesn't always hold water like it did when I was young. This pond formed along an old creek channel that once ran from Prairie du Pont Creek which we now know as the canal which separates Cahokia from Prairie du Pont. The creek channel was a tributary that likely fed  Prairie du Pont Creek and which once ran south through Old Cahokia. In the 1800’s this low area held water year round and was probably part of what was known as Cahokia Lake as shown on very old maps. This creek/lake bed can still be traced from a low area behind my mother’s house on Water Street, across Levin Drive, across Isabelle St and along Plum St towards the village of Old Cahokia parallel to Water St and west of where the Old Cahokia Dog Track was located. It can be further traced through Old Cahokia and west of the Old Court House northward towards its original confluence with another stream that entered the Mississippi.    

The small pond was not more than a few feet deep at its center and most often dried up in the summer. Around July it was normally reduced to a soggy mud hole with a dried gumbo shoreline that the hot sun hardened and cracked into jig-saw puzzle-like pieces of clay-like tile. It was a place we spent a lot of time in the summer and was simply named “The Pond” by neighborhood kids. Even though the Sauget family would frequently plant this field around the pond they never chased us away even though we likely did some damage to the crops which were most often wheat or soy beans. There was a certain kind of tolerance for children back then that you don’t see today. Today's tolerance of children lacks meaningful discipline and structure and involves parents living vicariously through their spoiled children. Don't get me started. 

We floated on crude versions of “Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn” river rafts made out of scrap lumber, large tree limbs, old doors or anything that would float. Balance was an issue and we most often ended up in the water. We floated “boats” that we made from scrap pieces of boards that were outfitted with Tinker Toy masts and sails made from small pieces of old bed sheets or newspaper. We also waded in the mud and water. Think serious mud hole. The water was thick and murky, never clear. We would sink up to our knees in the thick gray-black mass of the ponds bottom to the point you would literally get stuck in the mud and had to pull your legs free using your arms or have someone else pull you out by your arms. When your feet came free it was with this loud sucking sound, your feet createing a vacuum as they were pulled out of the mud  When both legs would become stuck we would often fall backwards in this thick goo and until we became almost totally covered with mud.  We would get so caked with this sticky mud it would dry on our legs and hands like plaster casts. The dried covering would pull at the hair on your arms and legs if you tried to scrape it off and usually had to be hosed off with the forceful spray of a garden hose. Getting muddy and getting hosed off were both good fun. 

The main thing we did at the pond was fish for crawdads. I never in my life have seen such a large colony of crayfish anywhere since. Those crawdads were totally unlike the tiny crayfish you see in bait shops or grocery stores today. These were big red monsters. They could grow to a large size six to seven inches long or more and as they grew larger they turned from gray-green to a dark red lobster-like color and developed these large powerful claws and equally large tails. Large juicy tails I might add. The pond was loaded with them and we knew how to catch them using several methods.

The most simple was to tie a small piece of bacon to the end of a string about three to five feet long with a very small rock or fishing weight to allow it to sink. You could either hold the string or tie the free end to a short pole, stick or small tree limb. You would then “cast” the line into the water a few feet from shore and wait a minute or so. The crawdads would find the bait and grab on with their claws and begin backing away with their catch. If you felt a tug on the line you could either slowly raise the line up out of the water or inch the line to the shore. If you pulled the line too fast they would let go so it had to be pulled very slowly. If a crawdad had locked on to the bait with their pinchers they would stubbornly hang on, reluctant to turn loose of their meal, usually long enough for you to grab them as soon as their backs appeared above the water. If you pulled them slowly straight up from the water they would often cling to the bacon while you swung them to the shore where they would drop off and immediately start retreating backwards to the water. Either way you had to quickly grab them by their backs to avoid their pinchers. Those big ones could hurt you and even break your skin – and they were tenacious about holding on. Crawdads swim backwards using their tails as a powerful paddle and when they are in the water they can dart about at surprising speed. Even on land they moved more quickly backwards and you had to be quick to grab them. We usually used a metal bucket about half full of water to hold our catch. I emphasize "metal" bucket as s a point of reference. Back then plastic was a novelty and the world was better for it. 

Another method for catching crawdads was to use the netting of an old potato bag like those that came from the grocery store or other netting. We would make a frame about 12” to 24” square from wire coat hangers and loosely stretch the netting over it and sew it on with string. Then we would tie string from each corner of the square that we brought together in a pyramid shape about 12 inches up from the center of the net and tie them together adding a longer string or cord to that apex. That cord was then tied to a pole to allow the net to be dropped into the water. Also from that center point we would tie a string to hold the bait that would hang down to the center of the net where we tied on a piece of bacon. Sometimes we would place a small rock on the netting to help the contraption sink to the bottom of the pond’s edge. You couldn’t see through the muddy water, so you had to watch the bait string for movement. The crawdads would have to craw to the middle of the net to get the bait and once you saw the bait string moving you quickly raised the net and swung it to shore. Sometimes, if you were patient, you would net several crawdads at once.

That was how we caught the average sized crawdads. The most daring method and sometimes the only way to catch the “big ones” was to invade their lairs. Yes they have lairs or “crawdad holes” or burrows that can easily be identified along the water’s edge of muddy Illinois ponds and streams. I think these burrows are where the females go to hatch their young. They are identified by layered mud cones that usually rise three to six inches from the muddy shore’s surface like a miniature volcano and have a large hole in the middle. The crawdad would burrow down a foot or two deep until the lower part of the hole is filled with water. The cone was formed from the mud they removed while digging the hole.

This method required is digging out the hole with your hands or with a small shovel to the point you can reach down in the hole and find the crawdad at the bottom. This takes some major effort but the one at the bottom is commonly a big one. Usually the bigger the hole the bigger the crawdad. The daring part for us kids was the fact that when you finally felt the crawdad at the bottom of the hole they didn’t take to being caught so easily and would use their only weapon against you which was their claws. They would clamp down on your fingers like a small vise and it sometimes hurt like hell, but it was worth the effort for two reasons. First, reaching down the hole added to a boy’s reputation of being fearless and manly -  because only sissies wouldn’t do it. Secondly, it was sometimes the only way to catch the big red ones with the large juicy tails.

We would take them home, wash them several times and then, often using the same bucket but with fresh water, boil them over a fire in the back yard and once done, pull the tails off, shell them, add a little salt and enjoy. Yes they were good – a poor man’s lobster. I even experimented by frying the tail meat in bacon grease over a small fire right there on the edge of the pond using the pan from my boy scout cook kit. They were delicious. Probably not too sanitary but delicious nonetheless.

I’ve been back several times to see if there are still crawdads but the pond is usually dry and I haven’t seen any evidence of crawdads, however, as of July 2013 the pond is rejuvenated as seen in the picture above. Because of the wet spring it is knee deep or more in water and is about as big as I ever recall seeing it other than right after the major floods we experienced back in the forties and fifties. The pond looks good, I think I saw cat tails coming back and I’m sure the frogs and other wildlife are returning. All is well. Next time I'm up I just might ask Danny Sauget if I can walk the banks and look for pond life. Specifically, Crawdads. U-m-m-m-m! Wanna go mud sloggin”?   

I Give Thanks

Today and everyday I give thanks for all that has been given me. I thank God, whoever or whatever that might be, for giving me life - for the opportunity to live and love on this beautiful planet Earth.

Yesterday I saw a sunset that was more beautiful than any painting ever created – a breathtaking quilt pattern of rose-pink clouds that blanketed the western sky with peace and harmony. How could anyone see this and not realize that our ability to see beauty and our ability to love could only have come from the source of life we refer to as God.

I give thanks for my health and for the health and well-being of my family and friends.

Even though there are days I suffer pain and discomfort as I age I am thankful for all the days and years gone before that I have lived free of any serious health problems or disease. When I look around and see how others have suffered I feel that I have been undeservedly blessed and protected – and, even though I was hit with the biggest personal tragedy I can imagine when I lost my wife Margaret Ann, I don’t believe God has singled me or any group of people out for special treatment – or for punishment. I don’t believe God operates as a man would, bestowing gifts and favor on those who most please him while punishing others who disappoint him. If that were the case then there are seemingly blessed people we all know who would have been struck down many years ago. Genetics apparently play a large part in determining how long we live, what disease might befall us and how we die - it's not God inserting his will. A lot of it is a roll of the genetic dice - the rest is the life style we choose. Smoker's glibly say "we all have to die of something", so they choose smoking as a way of life but with that choice sadly comes a way of death. So it is with the other addictive lifestyles of choice, i.e. food, drugs.

I don’t believe that a supreme being, i.e. God, protects me and my family above those who are innocent victims of war, vicious crime or unfortunate accident. To do so would be an arrogant affront to the highest power in the universe. God does not decide who lives and dies, not in an interpersonal way. I believe the same as Einstein who stated, “I believe in Spinoza's God, who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a God who concerns Himself with the fate and the doings of mankind.”

I give thanks that I have not become consumed by desire and that I do not worship the things of this world.

I do not give thanks for any of the material possessions I have at my disposal for I realize any desire for wealth and material possessions is antithetical to any professed belief in God and lacks a reverence for God’s creation. Those who know and love God should not pray for wealth and power over others. We have become confused when we think that God sanctions the depletion of the earth’s resources and destruction of the earth’s environment in the name of economic growth and opportunity for material wealth.

Our understanding of God has become corrupt if we think God welcomes the mass production and distribution of trinkets and gadgets of no intrinsic worth, and the technology to develop greater weapons of war, worldwide communications networks and electronic devices that support and expand this mad rush to destruction.

Sadly, we have become a world predicated on the growth and multiplication of desire, exactly the thing that the Buddha warned against.

I can’t imagine a God that is orchestrating and supporting global economics that involve crimes against humanity and the environment by those intent on gaining wealth and power at any expense, all this done under the pretense of advancing civilization and fulfilling God’s promise to man.

Also I have trouble with “God’s promise to man”. Why would an all-knowing, omnipotent God promise lowly man anything? If God made a promise to any of his creations I would think his first promise would be to those that offend him the least – and that would send man to the back of the line.

Man has searched for the meaning of life since we human animals were first capable of discursive thought. We have properly reasoned there must be something greater than us, some grand plan or intended consequence of our being. No one has found the answer that can satisfy our innate need and longing to know.

Assuming man has a purpose greater than the other creatures, which is highly suspect, I suggest that he mimic his fellow creatures by leaving the smallest footprint on the earth as possible. To honor God we should commit no violence or act of hate, we should love and respect our fellow creatures and the earth with a passion unrivaled by any great artist, and through those and other right-actions we should write our only epitaph on the hearts and minds of those we come to know and those we befriend during our journey here on earth. Mark Twain understood man better than perhaps any literary genius the world has ever produced. Mr. Clemens observed the following: "When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained." "The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot." "Often it does seem a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat." And, although I couldn’t find the quote, I recall that Mark Twain said he read in the newspaper it was determined that of all the animal species to have ever existed on earth, man is the most intelligent – and guess who it was that determined that ?, Twain mused.

Where do we go from here?

I believe when the body dies it’s gone forever and is not resurrected in some three dimensional purified state of perfection. It is so imperfect and poorly designed who would want to occupy it for eternity? A benevolent and loving God would at least give us a chance to choose some other body or form.

The idea that God created man in his image is an insult to God and the most obscene example of our insidious anthropomorphic effort to create God in our image. We don’t give God much credit for intelligence and creative ability by this self indulgent and obnoxious, anthropocentric claim. Since we allow that God can think and reason with a greater power than any living thing, that alone disproves the notion. Why would an all-powerful and omniscient God choose the unpleasant, unsightly, and ungainly body of man to travel about in? Only man would saddle God with human qualities which by nature are so physically crude and easily corruptible when compared to the rest of God’s creation.

Other members of the animal kingdom are much more perfected than man. The skunk has qualities that allow them to fill their environmental niche much more perfectly than man could ever dream of filling his. Indeed so does almost every other form of animal and biological life. Only man does not contribute to the paradisiacal environment God so graciously created for all creatures of this earth. Other animals live in harmony with the earth’s environment and adapt to it in a way which benefits and restores it while man defiles and destroys it. You have to question why any omnipotent entity, the one man proposes is the creator of all that exists, would unleash an animal as vile and destructive as man on such a beautiful work of art and energy as the earth and the universe.

If in fact there is life after death (which I consider most unlikely in the manner that most theologians propose), I seriously doubt any version of these terra firma adapted physical bodies we now occupy and the mental ability that is attributable to the function of our brains will follow us. More likely, the spiritual essence that seems to dwell in each of us, without the encumbrance of man’s corruptive ego, is all that will survive.

At least that is what I reasonably expect given all that I have read on the subject written by those acknowledged to be the greatest minds in all of man’s history.

Keep this in mind, our ability to reason in the manner that we do is a system developed by man and is structured by use of words developed to communicate and describe thoughts and by use of a numerical system in the form of numbers and equations assigned to observations that can be replicated – and to theories based upon these observations. What we refer to as knowledge, which is only man’s experience of his/her environment is constantly growing and transforming.

And, to add to the complexity of this amazing world we live in, we must never forget that everything is constructed of atoms swirling and colliding together, constantly in motion. In one sense, the floor we stand on is no more solid than the air we breathe and we don’t actually experience anything first hand. Everything we experience and accept as “real and tangible” is first collected by the five senses; visual, olfactory, auditory, touch and taste, this information transferred through a highly complex system of electro-chemical signals and reactions organized in the brain and referenced by our training to reflect an “image of reality”. This image to a large degree is a result of or perceptions of the world which is shaped, taught and assigned us from the minute of our birth by our environment, parents and teachers and is in essence what the Hindu spiritual masters of long ago referred to as Maya or illusion.

Therefore, more accurate than theoretical, life is but a dream.

John Ruskin on Wealth

As you read the following remarks by John Ruskin think about all the cases where excess money or greed for it has ruined lives, destroyed families, friendships, and destroyed nations. Regarding lent money, almost all of the wars fought in world history, the vicious atrocities, the crusades, etc., were financed by borrowed money.

Ruskin: “You will find it quite indisputably true — that whenever money is the principal object of life with either man or nation, it is both got ill, and spent ill; and does harm both in the getting and spending; but when it is not the principal object, it and all other things will be well got, and well spent. And here is the test, with every man, of whether money is the principal object with him, or not. If in mid-life he could pause and say, "Now I have enough to live upon, I'll live upon it; and having well earned it, I will also well spend it, and go out of the world poor, as I came into it," then money is not principal with him; but if, having enough to live upon in the manner befitting his character and rank, he still wants to make more, and to die rich, then money is the principal object with him, and it becomes a curse to himself, and generally to those who spend it after him For you know it must be spent some day; the only question is whether the man who makes it shall spend it, or some one else. And generally it is better for the maker to spend it, for he will know best its value and use. This IS the true law of life. And if a man does not choose thus to spend his money, he must either hoard it or lend it, and the worst thing he can generally do is to lend it; for borrowers are nearly always ill spenders, and it is with lent money that all evil is mainly done, and all unjust war protracted.

For observe what the real fact is, respecting loans to foreign military governments, and how strange it is. If your little boy came to you to ask for money to spend in squibs and crackers, you would think twice before you gave it him; and you would have some idea that it was wasted, when you saw it fly off in fireworks, even though he did no mischief with it. But the Russian children, and Austrian children, come to you, borrowing money, not to spend in innocent squibs, but in cartridges and bayonets to attack you in India with, and to keep down all noble life in Italy with, and to murder Polish women and children with; and that you will give at once because they pay you interest for it. Now, in order to pay you that interest, they must tax every working peasant in their dominions; and on that work you live you therefore at once rob the Austrian peasant, assassinate or banish the Polish peasant, and you live on the produce of the theft, and the bribe for the assassination ~ That is the broad fact — that is the practical meaning of your foreign loans, and of most large interest of money and then you quarrel with Bishop Colenso, forsooth as if he denied the Bible, and you believed it though wretches as you are, every deliberate act of your lives is a new defiance of its primary orders; and as if, for most of the rich men of England at this moment, it were not indeed to be desired, as the best thing at least for [33-34] them, that the Bible should not be true, since against them these words are written in it: " The rust of your gold and silver shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh, as it were fire."

Mark Twain & Upton Sinclair on Corporate Corruption

Mark Twain, in his autobiography, which he instructed would not be published until after his death, made the following observation written in 1906. This observation is of a report published in the New York Sun and could have appeared in your local newspaper yesterday and you would know exactly what Twain was referring to. All you have to do is substitute the names of a few companies and events and you have the current corrupt “big business" and the lack of concern for America and the rest of society. Things have changed very little in the last 100 years and apparently little in the last 2000.

Twain: “Day before yesterday’s New York Sun has a paragraph or two from its London correspondent which enables me to locate myself. The correspondent mentions a few of our American events of the past twelvemonth, such as the limitless rottenness of our insurance companies, where theft has been carried on by our most distinguished commercial men as a profession; the exposures of conscienceless graft, colossal graft, in great municipalities like Philadelphia, St. Louis and other large cities; the recent exposure of millionfold graft in the great Pennsylvania Railway system – with minor uncoverings of commercial swindles from one end of the United States to the other; and finally today’s lurid exposure, by Upton Sinclair, of the most titanic and death-dealing swindle of them all, the Beef Trust, an exposure which has moved the President to demand of a reluctant Congress a law which shall protect America and Europe from falling, in a mass, into the hands of a doctor and the undertaker.

According to that correspondent, Europe is beginning to wonder if there is really an honest human creature left in the United States. A year ago I was satisfied there was no such person on American soil except myself. That exception has since been rubbed out and now it is my belief there isn’t a single American male human being in America who is honest. I held the belt all along, until last January. Then I went down, with Rockefeller and Carnegie and a group of Goulds and Vanderbilts and other professional grafters, and swore off my taxes like the most conscienceless of the lot. It was a great loss to America because I was irreplaceable. It is my belief that it will take fifty years to produce my successor. I believe the entire population of the United States – exclusive of the women – to be rotten, as far as the dollar is concerned. Understand, I am saying this as a dead person. I should consider it indiscreet in any live one to make these remarks publicly.”

Upton Sinclair’s exposure of the meat packing industry, referred to above by Twain as the Beef Trust, and the “big business” of 1906 can be easily compared to the “big business” of 2009.

In the early 1900's, strikes, riots, labor unions, and new political parties arose across the country. The Government, with its laissez-faire attitude, allowed business to consolidate into trusts, and with lack of competition, into powerful monopolies. These multi-million dollar monopolies were able to exploit every opportunity to make greater fortunes regardless of human consequences.

Upton Sinclair, via his novel “The Jungle”, exposed to the public what was known as the “Beef Trust” scandal and is a good example of "big business" corruption and the lack of concern for workers and the rest of society. "The Jungle," was filled with page after page of nauseating detail Sinclair had researched about the meat-packing industry, and dropped it on an astonished nation in 1906.

An instant best-seller, Sinclair's book reeked with the stink of the Chicago stockyards. He told how dead rats were shoveled into sausage-grinding machines; how bribed inspectors looked the other way when diseased cows were slaughtered for beef, and how filth and guts were swept off the floor and packaged as "potted ham."

In short, "The Jungle" did as much as any animal-rights activist of today to turn Americans into vegetarians. But it did more than that. Within months, the aroused -- and gagging -- public demanded sweeping reforms in the meat industry.

President Theodore Roosevelt was sickened after reading an advance copy. He called upon Congress to pass a law establishing the Food and Drug Administration and, for the first time, setting up federal inspection standards for meat.

Although the main thrust of Sinclair’s book was to draw attention to the horrible treatment of American workers by the corrupt Beef Trust, it was more effective at greatly improving food safety and production. Sinclair considered his triumph empty. He complained that the tragedy of industrial life and his socialist preaching were being lost in the meat controversy. He famously stated, "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach,"

"The Jungle", was a factual account of the beef and slaughterhouse industry and gives a heart-breaking portrayal of the hardships faced by the countless poverty stricken laborers in the slaughterhouses of Chicago but it could have been applied at the time to those in East St Louis, Illinois and elsewhere. In Sinclair’s portrayal a struggling family would undergo months of back- breaking labor only to lose their house at the drop of a hat. It was a desperate and unmerciful time when an accidentally fractured ankle cost a man his job and his family food and shelter.

One quote from the book that describes the power that "big business" had during this time period is, "In the national capital it had the power to falsify government reports; it violated the rebate laws, and when an investigation was threatened it burned its books and sent its criminal agents across the country."

During this time period there was not a great deal of government regulation on businesses, and "big business" was able to take advantage of not only the workers, but also the American public.

Deja vu all over again.

Gary

Gary’s Now and Zen

I always meant to do a daily or weekly message with a little Zen and a little observation or commentary. I started it once before but let it fall by the wayside. Here’s another attempt.

Have you ever considered that life is a paradox? Existence is bi-polar in that it has opposites that allow for each to exist. Life itself is the opposite of? – death of course. Without death there could be no life. Darkness – Light. Extreme darkness, extreme light and degrees between. Sweet – sour, love –hate, they all exist in tandem – together. You can’t have one without the other. It is the completeness we call existence.

Shree Rajneesh, more recently known as Osho, points out that language is linear, that rules of language put things in a line, one following the other. Consequently language as an expression of thought makes thought linear, therefore logic becomes linear, but existence is not linear, existence is simultaneous. Love and hate, light and dark, exist together, at the same time in the same space. They are two sides of the same coin, not much separates one from the other. But using language you can’t say the room was full of light and the room was dark as well. Language fails us.

If you go into a dark room at night and turn the light on where does the dark go? It’s still there. The only thing that’s changed is your ability to see. If you close your eyes during the daytime, where does the light go? It’s still there. Light and absence of light, day and night exist simultaneously.

Zen is paradoxical. Zen thought allows things to exist simultaneously and allows opposites to trade places. Doing by not doing is a Zen concept.

To Be or Not To Be?
Osho goes on to discuss having versus being. That man is constantly trying to enrich his life by accumulating more, by getting more property, more wealth, more power, more knowledge. The mind, the head, thinks by having more it will become more, but having can never be transformed into being. Being is accomplished by dropping all desire, just being in the moment, the here and now. In that moment of isness, of just being, says Osho, all is available, all benediction, all blessings, all wonder, all beauty, all bliss. Like light and dark, all exist in the same moment. You just have to realize it.

Do you recall the tribulation of Mel Gibson, his arrest for drunk driving and his remarks regarding Jews? Mel is an example of attempting to have more as a means to contentment and bliss and believing himself and his philosophy to be "right" and others "wrong". Mel’s life apparently became anything but bliss as a result of his quest for more wealth, more power, more things. What has wealth and power wrought Mel Gibson? A poisoned mind? It’s not his drinking, it’s not the alcohol that’s to blame, it’s what his mind has done to his life. One can drink alcohol and be blissful. If the 0.12 blood alcohol content was accurate, Mel may have been too drunk to legally drive but not excessively drunk, not on alcohol - but maybe drunk with power, drunk on supremist Christianity or stressed out from his obsession to have more in an effort to “be” more.

Mel can be faulted for riding the wave of Christian evangelical fanaticism that has swept our nation by introducing the movie “Passion of the Christ” as a crass opportunity to accumulate more wealth, but the result is not harmonious with Jesus’ message of love and just being in the here and now. Yes, Jesus was an advocate of eastern philosophy.

Jesus lived in the here and now and the here and now is the kingdom Jesus spoke of. Consider the lilies of the field, and the birds, and the flowers, God provides and has not forsaken them he reminds us. Why be anxious about tomorrow? Live in the present. Be here now.

Jesus was a product of Eastern thought and philosophy. Even the word Eastern and the Christian holiday we call Easter comes from an ancient European goddess of the dawn called Eostre by the Anglo-Saxons and Ostara by the Germanic peoples. Her name means "movement towards the rising sun" and is related to the Indo-European root word Aus which means "to shine". Hence the word east as a compass direction - towards the rising sun - and the word eastern to describe the area "east" of Europe and "western" to describe the area west of Europe towards the setting sun.

The majority of the Christian leadership has twisted and contorted Jesus’ message to mean the prosperity of having more things, of getting more wealth and power as a reward and blessing for following Jesus. That God wants you to have much more than he provides for the lilies of the field or the birds and wants you to build up treasures while you are here is not what Jesus taught. We know what he thought about the chances of a wealthy person to find paradise and we know what he thought of the despotic powerful. How can a bird have more or be more than a bird is? How can a human have more than God gave us from our birth? Impossible! Birds and all of the "lower" animals are complete just as humans are complete.

Jesus taught about “being” not “having”. When will Christians wake up and “see” what Jesus meant when he warned of those who come in his name? When will they quit warping and reinventing what Jesus taught?

Have you ever seen the video clips of Israeli school children writing messages of hate on the warheads and bombs to be dropped on the Lebanese and Palestinian people? And then have you seen video of the dead Lebanese and Palestine children? Do the Israelis show their children the videos of those dead children and do the Israeli children cheer and clap? That’s how sick western civilization has become. When adult leaders of a nation teach their children to hate and make war how can they call themselves civilized? How can they call themselves God’s people or God’s chosen?

At least President Harry Truman was sad and remorseful when he ordered the atomic bombs to be dropped on Japan. At least President Dwight Eisenhower was sickened by war. How can our current president, George W Bush, laugh and joke, act smug and make arrogant remarks as he orders invasions and missles launched? What abhorrent mutation of thought and reasoning allows him to call himself Christian? What has happened to Christianity and to our nation? Making war is not Christian. What this nation has become is not what Jesus taught and it is not the result of true Christianity. It is instead the result of insanity.

The Curse of The Urban Legend

For all the valuable information available on the internet and the opportunities for learning and spreading knowledge there are also equal opportunities for those who are sick and mean-spirited to cause pain and spread lies. Many of the things that circulate on the internet are absolutely false and many are obscene, viciously mean, character assassinations with no basis in reality. You can check out most (but not all) on several websites dedicated to debunking these lies which are commonly termed “Urban Legends”. Snopes.com is one of the most reputable sites used for that purpose. You simply enter the person’s name and to narrow the search, include one key word regarding the claim.

For example, one popular urban legend involves Lee Marvin, Captain Kangaroo (Bob Keeshan), and Fred Rogers of Mr. Rogers fame. This story makes several false claims about each but most glaring are the claims about Mr. Rogers who, in addition to this false claim, is the victim of several sick rumors.

Mr. Rogers was not a Navy Seal with 25 “kills” to his record and he didn’t wear a long sleeve sweater to cover up tattoos. And the reason he did not have a live audience of children was not because he was a convicted pedophile, etc., etc.

Why would anyone tell these lies about someone so revered by the American public? How sick are these people who delight in attempting to destroy a person’s character and reputation? And why does the PBS attract the ire of the most ignorant of conservatives?

Mr.’ Rogers was apparently one of the most gentle, compassionate and highly respected people to ever grace this planet. An ordained Presbyterian minister, he lived his life Buddha-like and, although he was human and may have had some secrets, they most likely were not anything as bad as most of us are guilty of.

Shortly before his death caused by stomach cancer Mr. Rogers, Art Linkletter and Bill Cosby all served as co-marshals of the 2003 Rose Bowl Parade. Bill Cosby tells this great story of the parade. Despite Cosby's star power he said he was humbled that day. He, Art Linkletter and Mr. Rogers were all riding in back of a convertible waving to the huge crowds that lined either side of the parade route. As they approached and passed by, the crowds would begin applauding and cheering - not for him or for Linkletter - but for Mr. Rogers. The crowds would call out “Welcome to our neighborhood, Mr. Rogers”. Some would sing,” It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood”.

Cosby recently said, “I just want you to know that Art Linkletter and I and Fred were riding in a '38 Packard in the Tournament of Roses parade, millions of people on both sides of the street for five and a half miles, and the one thing that I still remember is people waving and saying, 'Mister Rogers, welcome to the Neighborhood!'"

As for Bob Keeshan, most of us may remember he was also Clarabelle the Clown on the Howdy Doody Show before he played Captain Kangaroo on his own show. Keeshan spent a lot of time in Nashville years ago. I can’t recall why, probably music and book publishing, I’m not sure, but I think he had a residence here. Anyway, I met him once and would see him from time to time at music industry related events. His demeanor was the same as his TV character, Captain Kangaroo. A gentle spirit who owned any room the moment he walked in and immediately instilled a feeling of grace, gentleness and peace.

I’m sure it was even more pronounced when Fred Rogers entered a room.

Mystery on ebay

Why is one copy of a book published in 2006 bringing such a high price on ebay? It’s up to $127 and still has eight days left on the auction. What would make this recently published book so valuable? And who might eventually buy it no matter what price it bids up to? Who might be interested in making sure the content of this book and about 200 plus copies that were pre-released is never disclosed to the American people?

Are you curious about the book on ebay? Here’s the link to the ebay auction.

Do you ever wonder what nefarious undercurrents are in play that form and shape our society and our world? Could corruption and evil be entrenched at the highest level of world power, the office of the US president?

Have you ever heard of the ties between the Bush Family and the Saudis? Surely you heard that for two days after the 9/11 attacks all airliners were grounded and that only government and military aircraft were allowed to fly? Oh, that is except for a few private aircraft including the one that allowed the Saudi royals and eleven bin Ladin family members who were visiting or living in the US to escape to their homelands. Those were the only aircraft allowed to fly, the ones that collected the Saudis and hustled them out of the country. This was authorized by George W Bush.But why?

Why were the Saudi Royal and bin Ladin family members allowed to leave the country when no one else could? Did George W and his father Herbert W fear for the Saudi’s safety? What control over the Bush family do the Saudis have? Again, why were just the Saudis allowed to leave and no high ranking people from other countries?

After all, at that time we had no idea of who flew those planes into the twin towers and the Pentagon - did we? Why was only this select group of Saudis allowed to leave and not other Saudis and citizens of other Arabic nations that were living, visiting and studying here?

This quick exit of the Saudis became a known fact as a result of the 9/11 Commission Report. Why did the FBI and Bush Administration officials for more than three years deny it ever took place? The Bush Administration, the FBI, the FAA, and even defense contractor Raytheon knowingly lied in repeated denials regarding newspaper and magazine accounts of the “phantom flight." Why would Bush not want it known? What and who was he protecting?

This is a picture of the Lear jet that was used to fly the Saudis home. Why did George W authorize this quick escape of the Saudis? What did the Saudis fear? Why did the Saudis think it was imperative that they leave immediately? I mean, at the time no one including George W knew that 17 of the 19 hijackers trained and financed by Osama bin Ladin and his Al Qaeda organization were Saudis – or did they? Think about it. How could anyone have known in advance who it was that attacked us and what nationality they were? These guys were supposed to be just dust among the rubble of their targets. Sure, it could easily be assumed that bin Ladin and Al Queda was likely responsible - but how would anyone, George W or the Saudis here in the US, know the identities of these super-secret terrorists were Saudis?

The Saudis must have known or why would they immediately rush out of the country? George W must have known or why would he have immediately authorized the Saudis to leave when all other flights were grounded? And if he knew the hijackers were Saudis then he must have also known in advance that this attack was going to happen. It follows.

If you want the full details you can Google it or go to this link It may shock you to learn that, according to the FBI, Osama bin Ladin himself was likely the one who paid for the chartered flight.

As for the mysterious book on ebay, here is why it’s bringing such a high price.

New York Post

By Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld

August 8, 2007 -- THE Saudis' efforts to keep a veil of secrecy over their support for al Qaeda and Hamas got a shot in the arm last week, as a British publisher opted to suppress a controversial book on the financing of terror.

Facing the mere threat of a lawsuit from Saudi billionaire Khalid bin Mahfouz, Cambridge University Press agreed to pulp all the unsold copies of "Alms of Jihad: Charity and Terrorism in the Islamic World," issue a public apology to Mahfouz and pay his legal expenses and substantial undisclosed damages.

The prestigious publisher - the world's oldest publishing house - had carefully vetted the book before publishing it last year. Yet now it has asked more than 200 libraries worldwide to pull the work off their shelves.

Bin Mahfouz never sued the authors, J. Millard Burr and Robert O. Collins, both U.S. citizens, who had provided their publisher with all the sources to back their allegations that bin Mahfouz, his family and his former bank, the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia, funded Hamas and al Qaeda. Yet Cambridge University Press still caved - and even asked the authors to join its apology to bin Mahfouz. (They rightly refused.)

Since March 2002, bin Mahfouz has sued or threatened suit in England at least 36 times against those who've linked him to terrorism, including many American authors and publications. Everyone settled with bin Mahfouz - except me.

He sued me in London in January 2004, shortly after my book "Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed - and How to Stop It" was published in the United States. I refused to acknowledge a British court's jurisdiction over a book published here; the court then ruled in bin Mahfouz's favor by default. It enjoined British publication of "Funding Evil," awarded bin Mahfouz $225,900 in damages and expenses and ordered that I publicly apologize and destroy the book. I still refuse to acknowledge the British Court and its ruling.

Will Jesus Be Allowed In Heaven?

No one should be surprised that not all people who believe in God are Christians but some Christians believe only they will enter the kingdom of heaven, that God does not recognize those of other God-fearing religions.Christians have no monopoly on God – or religion. Even Jesus himself was obviously not a “Christian”. He was a member of the Jewish faith who disagreed with some of the teachings and doctrine of his religion but he remained a practicing member of the Jewish religion. He wanted to reform the religion he was raised in, the faith of his father and mother; he didn't set out to create a new organized religion or sect. Others decided to do that after his death.So does that mean Jesus is not allowed in heaven? He wasn't a Christian. He practiced Judaism. 

Despite what they taught, not those back then who broke from Judaism and became Christians, nor any religious leaders since, have been ordained by God to tell the rest of us what to do or how to think when it comes to our belief in a supreme being. We are, at least for the time being, free to choose our faith and our religious beliefs of our own free will. I have to believe that was God’s plan. Free people should not be shamed, cowed, pressured, frightened, threatened or forced into accepting any particular religious doctrine against their will. And for those who profess a certain belief, just the fact you have made a decision to follow a particular religious doctrine does not make you anymore right than anyone else nor does it give you authority or power over them. God has not granted you that right and Christianity is not a state religion. That is the definition of fascism. The right-wing, fundamentalist Christian movement has embraced fascism in their overzealous attempt to take over the reins of our government and convert everyone to their belief. Jesus, who was liberal, and would not support right-wing views by any stretch of the imagination, was anything but a fascist and would reject most aspects of what the Christian religion has become.

Concerning matters of faith, a man-of-the-cloth once told me that having doubts regarding the stories told in the Bible is healthy. He opined that Christianity was alive and evolving and that doubt and ongoing debate was natural and necessary to keep it alive. How can criticism, doubt, debating factual evidence, and reasoning all be wonderful tools for intellectual pursuits but sinful when applied to the Bible? Did Jesus condemn Thomas for doubting? Did he strike him down or condemn him to hell?

Fundamentalist Christians tend to be ignorant concerning the teachings of Jesus and twist the words of the Bible to suit their needs. They foolishly belief that God has blessed them and them alone and that people of other faiths are damned to hell. How ignorant is that? They think only they and those of their particular denomination will walk the golden streets of heaven and the rest of the world’s people will spend an eternity writhing in the flames of hell. In short, they aren't much different than their radical counterparts, the fundamentalist Muslims.

They also indoctrinate their children from birth regarding their religious beliefs, not allowing their children to question or make any decisions of their own as to the logic or absurdity of the faith chosen for them - or if a faith is even required. Many young adults are conflicted by the expectations of their parents and the evidence they encounter as they reason their way through life.

Although I don’t suspect it would make any difference to the closed minds of your average born-again Christian, here are a few things that any professing Christian should consider –

1. Evolution is a scientific fact and religion should stay out of teaching religion/creationism in Public Schools. Religion/creationism is not even good theory and is about things that cannot be proven and must be accepted on faith. Creationism is not knowledge or science. State ordered religious dogma is fascist. Also, praying should not be scheduled and orchestrated by a public institution. Prayer can be practiced by anyone almost anywhere at any time. It doesn’t have to be an overt display. You can set quietly at your desk and pray. Who can deprive you? How do these "Christians" reconcile forced public prayer with Matthew 6:6 ? "But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words." Churches are allowed to have their own schools as long as they meet state and federal standards but they should stay out of the affairs of public schools.

2. Speaking of prayer, it only works when and if it changes us, when it moves our hearts and minds - it doesn’t work to change the world we live in. Show me one proof of prayer changing an event or physical property. Prayers do not produce material or physical miracles. Prayers don’t protect us, produce money, and keep bridges from collapsing or debt from consuming us – but hard work, right living, right thinking and being responsible does. Prayer should not be used to ask for things beyond our control but instead to ask for personal forgiveness, understanding, acceptance and compassion. If you truly accept God then you’ll let God take care of the rest.

3. The Bible should not be read literally because those who composed the writings that were assembled into the Bible were just men and they sometimes got it wrong. Some writings were considered for inclusion and rejected – not by God, but by the self proclaimed leaders of the church. The decision of which writings to include was mostly political and not decided by God. In many cases the books of the Bible were written by people who believed in religious myths and they used allegories to make simple points. We are more knowledgeable now. We now know the earth is round and it circles the sun. We know that thunder, lighting, floods, tornados, hurricanes and earthquakes are not God venting his anger, these are naturally occurring events caused by climatic and geological interactions sometimes triggered by environmental disturbance caused by man. It’s ludicrous to think a book as superstition-ridden, prurient, disjointed, rambling and full of mistakes and contradictions as is the Bible is one that God personally supervised and intended.

4. The miracles in the Bible are not to be taken literally as many can be explained as natural phenomena or just myths appropriated from earlier pagan religions. All cultures have created fictional stories to teach and support traditional and cultural views. Even Jesus openly used parables, which are made up stories, to make his points.

5. Biblical and religious salvation is different depending on the person and that person’s circumstances. Why would a person have to be a Christian to enter heaven? Jesus didn’t say that. Jesus wasn’t a Christian.

6. Religion has traditionally held women down, especially fundamentalist sects, and it's time for that to end. Men should not have any more rights than a woman. A woman’s right to choose is sovereign to her freedom. And all children should be our priority, not just unborn American children.

7. Homosexuality has been present throughout history. Most likely all homosexuals are born with easily triggered genetic propensities. Old Testament references to homosexuality are to be discounted. Why not? We discount other outdated, superstitious and ignorant Old Testament instructions. New Testament references are all about pedophilia, not adult homosexuality. The fact is Jesus never talked about homosexuality. Besides, why is it acceptable for men and women to use various means to satisfy sexual urges but not two people of the same gender? It’s not my cup of tea but it’s no skin off my ass if two women or two men want to get each other off. Is it un-natural? One could argue that any form of sex other than procreative sex is un-natural. If I remember correctly, only our near relatives the chimpanzees and perhaps some other species of monkey engage in sex for enjoyment.

8. If you believe in God then you should accept that God knows who needs Christianity or who will find God utilizing a different path. Jesus didn't claim to be the only way to God and the apostle Paul agreed with this. It was later Christians who decided otherwise. Jesus reputedly said “the kingdom of God/Heaven is within”. You don’t need a church, or a mediator, or someone’s permission to go within. Believing the only path to go within and the only way to find God is through Christianity or the church doesn’t make sense. Jesus would not approve.

9. There is no hell except in your mind. You create hell for yourself and for other people. Stop now! God is Love – Love is God. Jesus called himself the son of man and he talked about returning to whence he came and being with God as he was before the world was made – and Jesus claimed we are all sons of man. Why wouldn't it be the same for us? In essence, assuming there is a God and assuming we are more than our physical bodies, weren't we all with God before we came into the world and isn't it likely we will return there when we leave this existence?

10. Jesus was born a man, and as a man he was subject to being fallible. He admitted his temptations. He obviously didn't know everything or he would not have cried, “Father, if it is your will let this cup pass from me’, and, at the last “Father,why hast thou forsaken me?” If in fact he did say those things.

The books, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John of the New Testament even vary their accounts of Jesus. As example, for Jesus’ last words on the cross, Luke makes no mention that Jesus’ said anything other than, “Father, into my hands I commend my spirit.” John says that Jesus said simply, “It is finished.” Yet Matthew and Mark both say he cried out loudly something akin to, “Father, why hast thou forsaken me.” As a story writer that has a more dramatic twist. Poetic license?

Three different accounts. Wouldn't God in his infinite wisdom, when he allegedly inspired those to write the books of the Bible, have made sure that there was only one factual account or that all agreed with each other? Why would God allow confusion - because he works in mysterious ways? Why would God insist on being mysterious? Why would God allow the Koran, the Vedas, and the Book of Mormon, etc. to complicate things if only the Bible was his true word? And if God really had a hand in the Bible why didn't God just cut through the crap and be clear, accurate, articulate, concise and straightforward so we would know without a doubt that this is the true word of God? Give me a break!

If you look at the heavens and the world of nature, not the world of man, you’ll see a synchronicity beyond understanding, a wondrous complexity, a harmony and balance of amazing proportions and beauty. Accepting that God, whoever and whatever God is, created all this it’s not hard to conceive that God really is omnipotent and perfect. But when I look at man and see the destruction and chaos caused by man’s disregard for and destruction of God’s creation; and when I look at the world religions and see all the conflict, confusion, ambiguities, flaws, contradictions and disharmony they cause; and when I see all the divisiveness and hatred imbued in them; and when I see all the wars and violence, corruption and evil that have been committed in the name of God, I can only believe that man, not God, is behind this madness.

TMA or Text Messaging Abbreviations

CMIIW (correct me if I’m wrong) but FWIW (for what it’s worth) it seems us SC (senior citizens) sometimes referred to as OF (old fogies) or in the case of old women, BH (blue hairs), who are approaching are or well into our GY (golden years), in order to SIT (stay in touch) with the youth of today who delight in KPC (keeping parents clueless), we need to BUOOTMS (brush up on our text messaging skills) if we want to KWTFTKAM (know what the fuck these kids are messaging) to one another.

Below is a link to TMA (text message abbreviations) to HYD (help you decipher) the CAC (concise abbreviated communications) that are TOC (turning our children) into EDI (electronically dependent idiots) who SMOTT (spend most of their time) with TEGTACS (their eyes glued to a computer screen) RT (rather than) LISE (looking into someone’s eyes) and SDTS (speaking directly to someone), SWTV (speaking with their voice) and IWARLP (interacting with a real living person); PETE (physically expressing their emotions) and SWTF (smiling with their face) rather than a CGI (computer generated icon), TWTH (touching with their hands) and IP (interacting physically) rather than IAK (inserting a keyboard) in between them and the RW (real world).

WIMBC (while it may be convenient) IDTIH (I don’t think it’s healthy) and IFO (I for one) TIEI (think it’s extremely important) that WPTOFW (we preserve the old fashion ways of communicating) with one another BWE (before we evolve) ILMT (into little more than) EROBRC (emotionless robots operated by remote control) from some ACTS (advanced communications technology satellite) controlled by someone like a DMCAC (delusional, manic, cold and crazed) DUBYA (dumb-ass, underachieving, Bi-polar, Yalie Asshole) WTTAOBG (who thinks they are ordained by God) to RTE (rule the earth) and AIBOTFCDW (assist in bringing on the fanatical Christian death wish) of the IDOTWASOR (imminent destruction of the world and the salvation of the righteous) Rapture as outlined in TBOR (the book of Revelations).

TAYITE (to assist you in the endeavor) of DTM (deciphering text messaging) IHPTL ( I have provided this link ) to AGTUOCA&SF (a guide to understanding online chat acronyms and smiley faces).

B4N, RTB,

LY,

G

Technical Aversion Disorder

A friend recently bought a vehicle equipped with Onstar. It’s an excellent tool and safety device, no doubt, and although I don’t have a vehicle that includes this service, it sounds interesting. I also don’t have a portable GPS – Global Positioniing System for satellite ground navigation. But do I really need it? Getting lost and trying to find my way around is nearly the only exciting thing that happens to me anymore and one of the only sports where I can still compete. I have a pigeon's sense of direction. Margaret, my wife, calls me The Pathfinder.

Mine and Margaret’s biggest monthly outlay is electronic communications including a cable TV and internet provider, plus MLB.TV package, cell phones and land phone line, etc. This world is becoming so technical what with Handheld PC/Phones, GPS’s in cars, cell phones, OnStar, etc. what’s next, personal satellites? And what if you prefer that Big Brother and the Brownshirts don’t know exactly where you are? What if you cherish privacy and your freedom? (BTW, Big Brother and the Brownshirts would be a great name for a rock band. )

That’s right – freedom. Freedom from TV, Computers, cell phones, GPI devices (Ground Point Indicators), etc. Have we become slaves to technology (the correct answer is yes)? Are our lives truly richer for all the microwaves, shortwaves , etc. that bombard our bodies and our brains every second of our lives? Or is there a danger? Has anyone ever read The Zapping of America?

I have one friend of substantial means who refuses to have cable TV, a computer or a cell phone and I’m beginning to see the value of this decision. He refuses to succumb to herd mentality in other ways as well. He values his freedom and his privacy. He is also environmental/energy conscious and a conservative in the original sense of the word. Women in huge SUV’s with a cell phone permanently attached to their ear is his biggest peeve.

How many of us are addicted and have lost the biggest percentage of our lives to the computer? And how many people have lost their lives to vehicle accidents caused by cell phones? Five young female students died just last week. There are two deaths that are glaring examples right here in our community just in the last couple months.

And what happens when these systems fail? What happens if an enemy targets the critical communications satellites we rely on now for nearly everything? Is there one survival system now integral to that communications system that is not threatened as a result? Food supply and distribution? Fuel and transportation? Emergency healthcare? Water? You name it.

Remember this. When the Native Americans were introduced to and became reliant on the technology brought by European invaders, over a few short decades they lost the ability to produce weapons and other essentials. Their survival skills diminished dramatically and they became almost totally reliant on trade goods and food produced by others. They were enslaved by an advanced technology and unable to survive without it. You’ve been warned.

I recently wrote that an old friend who lives in San Francisco has neither cell phone nor computer and still relies on a “rotary” dial phone. How retro is that?

I can dig it. I’ve got one of the old replicas hooked up in a spare bedroom. It’s the pedestal kind with the speaker cone and the ear piece separate – remember? Our number when I was a tad was BR (Bridge) 2439 or something like that. I can’t recall. Remember Junior Sample’s used car lot number from Hee Haw? BR-549. It spawned a popular country group by the same name.

Speaking of old cord sets, my son lives in a rural area with spotty cell coverage and recently when their power failed so did their cordless land line phones and their cells wouldn’t connect. Everyone should have one of the old cord phones available for power failures. Those will still work when the power is off since they are powered by a low voltage signal that comes through the phone line..

It also helps to have a battery operated radio, a gas or kerosene lamp or both, and a small gas camping stove. Of course that list should include extra white or bottle gas. We also include a gas powered generator which is very nice when the power fails during either cold or hot weather. But those are all examples of advanced technology.

Technology is not all bad and might make life easier and more conveinient on some levels but when you become so reliant on it that you can no longer provide for your basic survival needs for lack of an energy source - you are in big trouble when you lose that energy source through accident or when those who control the source decide to hold you hostage.

Sort of like the gasoline situation we now face. If there ever was a mass war and global shutdown of food and energy distribution, the Amish with their horses and wagons and self-sufficient lifestyles would look like the smartest and most blessed people on earth.

To illustrate the point there is a story I like to tell about being in the recording studio when a storm caused the power to go off. Hargus "Pig" Robbins, a well known blind piano player here in Nashville, was on the keyboards and when the windowless studio went black it was like being in a cave. We were all helpless. After about fifteen minutes the drummer on the session, Buddy Harmon, called out to Pig saying he had to piss and would Pig please lead him to the restroom. It was funny at the time but is a prime example of how helpless we can all become when the tecnology we come to depend on is suddenly taken away or witheld to hold us hostage.

Better get out your old scout manual and start learning how to survive with just sticks and rocks and the animal and plantlife at hand - just in case.

Martin Luther King and JFK Spoke Truth

This is an excerpt from a Martin Luther King publication.It is just as true today.

In 1957 a sensitive American official overseas said that it seemed to him that our nation was on the wrong side of a world revolution. During the past ten years we have seen emerge a pattern of suppression which now has justified the presence of U.S. military "advisors" in Venezuela. This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counter-revolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. It tells why American helicopters are being used against guerrillas in Colombia and why American napalm and green beret forces have already been active against rebels in Peru. It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken -- the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investment.

I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

A Little Poison In Your Diet - What Can It Hurt?

I recently received and email being circulated on the internet entitled “Cancer Warnings from John Hopkins”. It warned against microwaving food in plastic storage and packing containers and also using plastic wrap to cover food in the microwave. I sent it out to my friends list.

Someone in the first group I received it from countered with an email providing a link to Snopes.com that states this concern is false - but I disagree.

I’m the one who always advises that we should all check out any undocumented claim or “urban legend” that circulates on the internet and almost always relies on Snopes to provide the truth. In this case, I think Snopes got it wrong by not explaining that this is in fact partially true or is at the very least undetermined. While it may be false that this warning came from John Hopkins or that dioxins are released, it is not false that heated plastic constitutes a health hazard. And while we are on the subject of microwaves, there is still a concern that microwaves themselves are advcersely effecting your health.

Snopes has called the email claim false that plastics used in microwaves might cause cancer and their refute quotes Dr. Halden of John Hopkins as saying, “This is an urban legend. There are no dioxins in plastics. In addition, freezing actually works against the release of chemicals. Chemicals do not diffuse as readily in cold temperatures, which would limit chemical release if there were dioxins in plastic, and we don’t think there are.” Halden says “we don’t think there are” dioxins in plastic. He hedges because he doesn’t know. But if you do a little research you will find that dioxins are in fact used in the production of many plastics.

But, he doesn't refute the fact that heating food in plastics can affect your health, only that he doesn't think dioxins are released. Halden states, “In general, whenever you heat something you increase the likelihood of pulling chemicals out. Chemicals can be released from plastic packaging materials like the kinds used in some microwave meals.”

Duh! Even Dr. Halden, who states cooking in plastic does not release dioxins and he “doesn’t think” there are dioxins in plastic, goes on to say “Having said this, there is another group of chemicals, called phthalates that are sometimes added to plastics to make them flexible and less brittle. Phthalates are environmental contaminants that can exhibit hormone-like behavior by acting as endocrine disruptors in humans and animals. If you heat up plastics, you could increase the leaching of phthalates from the containers into water and food.” Why didn’t Snopes point this out? Were they only concerned with dioxins?

According to the Food and Drug Administration, freezing and microwaving plastic food containers and wraps are safe. They say although small amounts of chemicals used to make certain plastics may leach into food; any chemicals that do leach into food are within safe limits.

Oh, I see. And who do you think it was that came to that conclusion? I'm sure it was the lobbyists and the chemists that work for the chemical and plastics industry that were asked by the government, by the Food and Drug Administration, to assure the public there is no danger from using their products. They responded and the Food and Drug Administration has passed this industry conclusion along to us – the concerned public. Oh, there may be a few carcinogens here and there that will be released but "trust us" they say, these chemicals that enter your body are within safe limits.

Where and how many times have we heard that before?

Firstly, their research people are biased. They get paid support corporate decisions and to deliver good news. Do you know how long a chemist would stay employed by his employer if he told them their product is endangering the health of consumers and it can’t be fixed? Even prominent university research scientists have been found guilty of forging research data that hides the truth so they can continue to get federal grants (our tax dollars) to keep their job and continue their research.

And when they talk about safe amounts what about safe amounts for infants? Who recalls the findings that low levels of bisphenol-A in plastic baby bottles were linked to reproductive abnormalities?

If you as a consumer don’t believe that you and your children’s health is being compromised every day of your life by manufacturers and puveyors of products, especially those in the pharmaceutical and food production and distribution industry, you are living in a fool’s paradise. The sources and exposures are too numerous to cover here.

Getting back to heating food in the microwave oven, common sense should tell anyone who has smelled burning plastic, technically educated or not, that plastics are toxic and that any form of chemicals entering your body is harmful in some way. The claim in the email that freezing water in plastic containers releases dioxins doesn’t make sense – but eventhough, I’m not certain. Usually lowering the temperature of anything makes it more inert. Raising the temperature causes the atom structure all materials to become more active, liberating components and eventually changing composition, breaking up completely, usually transported by the surrounding air and suffusing into nearby or equally heat-excited substances.

I worked in and was trained in quality control and research laboratories when I worked for Monsanto Company and was exposed to a plethora of dangerous chemicals and production processes. I have a feel for the processes and the manner in which chemicals react and have experienced first hand how people’s health can be affected. While it is second nature for me, I suppose people who have no chemistry or physics background often just don’t have a clue.

Regardless, why would anyone compromise their health for a little convenience? Only because they’ve been led down a rosy path by the pied pipers of industry. Anyone who has worked for a large corporation knows how the corporate hierarchy tells lies and spins things in their favor.

As a member of Monsanto’s management team I observed first hand how this company compromised their responsibility for safety of employees and routinely and knowingly broke laws and regulations regarding pollution control – all in the name of profits for those at the top and for corporate growth - which are one and the same. When I expressed concern that we might be producing a product whose residues and by-products could be very harmful to the environment and a health hazard to people who came in contact with them, I was told that’s not my concern and that future science would learn to deal with it.

As St Paul said in the Bible (and you know I’m not a crazed Christian just because I quote him) “love of money is the root of all evil”. You must note, he didn’t say money is evil, only love of it; the insatiable drive to get more and more. I think I have actually witnessed the presence of evil in the eyes of greedy people.

I’m currently re-reading a book entitled “Our Kind” by Marvin Harris, an anthropologist that goes into how the barter system most likely arose. They have observed female pigmy chimps in the wild that trade sex for food and theorize that’s how early man began what has evolved into the economic system of commerce we know today. However back then, when homo sapien was first developing, this form of prostitution was dignified and had a positive outcome for the group. Today’s uber-greed has spawned industrial and commercial forms of prostitution that are infused with evil and without conscience. This out-of-control greed sacrifices the less wealthy members of the group for the benefit and upkeep of the wealthiest.

It never ceases to amaze me that people will avert their eyes or delude themselves when they see injustice and dishonesty in business or politics as long as they see themselves profiting as a result. How does one rationalize profiting from behavior that causes suffering and pain to others? What makes some people feel a sense of guilt for such behavior while others somehow reason they are not guilty? What is it about the lust for wealth and the lifestyle it allows that will cause people to sell their soul to the devil – even if it’s just one little piece at a time?

Those who produce consumer products are all guilty of exposing us to disease and hazards of one type or another but they always play it down in their favor. They are fond of claiming that the danger that haunts their products is either not there or are is there but in such small quantity it can’t hurt you. They also like to claim we are exposed to these same hazards by Mother Nature. For example, they like to point out that each of us already carries a certain body burden of dioxins regardless of how and what we eat. If you look hard enough, they say, you’ll find traces of dioxins in pretty much every place on earth. They remind us that Paracelsus, the famous medieval alchemist, declared: “it’s the dose that makes the poison”, meaning any chemical can be toxic if you eat, drink or absorb too much of it.

Maybe so, but who the f--- wants the heavily stock optioned corporate executives of General Foods to decide what dose is okay for us and our children to absorb on a daily basis?

Not me!