Monday, May 31, 2010

Sick

I missed preaching church for the first time in something like eight years, Sunday. Our Minister of Music, Darlene Clark and I were both down with some kind of bronchitis/lung disorder, or something like that.  I was really sick, and just could not bring myself to endanger my parishioners.

Have been spending almost the entire Memorial Day holiday in bed.  Phooey!  I did get a blessing when one of my parishioners called to esquire after my health.  Pretty much made my day.

I went to the Dr. on Saturday. Got some antibiotics, and am feeling much better today. May miss the Tuesday Bible Study, but should be ready to hit the ground running Wednesday.
To my detractors: No, I am not going to die! Nyah, Nyah, Nyah.

Friday, May 21, 2010

The Death of A Nation

Friends:

I have seen this a few times, and thought I'd pass it along.  It is attributed to musician Charlie Daniels.  If so, Thanks, Charlie. If not, thanks to whomever wrote it.

Your Non-Politically Correct Friend
Lee


Political Correctness: The Death Of A Nation
Rarely has there been a more poignant point illustrating the silliness of political correctness than that recently made by an Illinois school superintendent who is refusing to let a girl's high school basketball team travel to and compete in a tournament to be held in Arizona, simply because of the new immigration law that state recently passed.

The arrogance--and in my humble opinion, downright stupidity--of this person speaks not only to the out of control cancer of political correctness in this country, but also to the ignorance of this individual for not knowing that Arizona's new immigration law does nothing more than enforce the federal laws already on the books that the feds lack the will or the gonads to enforce.

In 1980 Jimmy Carter refused to let our athletes compete in the Summer Olympics in Moscow. In retrospect, what did he accomplish except to deny young athletes the opportunity to do something they had worked so hard for all their lives?

Looking back it was nothing more than a weak, meaningless gesture and I'm sure the Illinois basketball team's refusal to play in the Arizona tournament will be viewed in the future as just as weak and just as futile.

The problem at our borders has been glossed over by Democrat and Republican administrations and basically ignored by the Congress and Senate until the problem is no longer a political one but a matter of the survival of a state and the welfare of it's citizens.

Last night in Charlotte, NC, I met the wife and son of the rancher who was violently shot down by an illegal who murdered a good man and escaped back over the border.

These are solid American citizens, a family that has been torn apart by some scumbag who will probably never be caught and tried.

I'd like to see that school superintendent in Illinois explain her silly, meaningless little protest to this family. That's the problem with political correctness; there is no underpinning, only empty symbolism, as Mr. Shakespeare so succinctly put it, sound and fury, signifying nothing.

The federal government has ignored murder, rape, kidnapping, organized drug cartels and all manner of violence and nobody but the good people of the state of Arizona seem to have the will to do anything about it.

We have watched this problem grow, going from a minor irritation a few short decades ago to being one of the most serious threats to the future of America.

And something else we should all remember. It's easy to sit half a continent away and criticize what's going on in Arizona, our opinions formed by the meager, one-sided information we get from an agenda driven media.

It is quite another to live there, afraid to work or even walk across your own land, never knowing when or where violence is going to break out and catch your family in the crossfire, watching the local and federal agencies responsible for your safety unable to enforce the laws that would protect you because of the political correctness that is sapping the strength of this nation.

If your family was threatened with violence and the law refused to protect them, what would you do? If you're any kind of man, your answer to that question would be "anything I have to, to keep my loved ones safe."

Well Arizona is doing just that and it's going to take more than some puffed up, self-righteous, politically correct little school superintendent to keep them from it.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

This was on the CBS News webpage this morning. Great photo. I have always admired Ballet dancers. Talk about your athletes.

http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim//2010/05/03/AP100502019696_244x183.jpg
Agape
Lee

Monday, May 3, 2010

Illegal Aliens - Or something like that.

Right now there's this big deal in the press about Arizona passing a law making it illegal to be an illegal. Hummm. There is a federal law that does the same thing, it's just not enforced except by the US Border Patrol. (Hats off to those guys.)

I read where the Illegal aliens are pulling out of Arizona in droves. That is the idea after all, isn't it?  This is going to open up an enormous amount of jobs for unemployed Americans. 

Out of work? head to Arizona. Plenty of jobs there. Let's see... Skilled construction worker. $5.00 per hour. Field Laborer, $1.50 per hour. Yard maintenance, $20.00 per day. And you realize of course, that work days are 12 hours, don't you? Breaks? what breaks. You get paid to work, not take breaks.

Payday. You get payed at 6:00 pm. "La Migra", The Border Patrol shows up at 5:30. and you get to go back to Mexico, no matter where you come from.  Now that is going to be a problem. How are the people who hire illegals going to figure out how to extract work from people, and not have to pay them?

No problem. The American workers will just unionize.  Oops... That's why people hire illegals in the first place. No Union!  'Course it does keep the prices of the products low, 

And what about the illegals who are pouring across the border from Canada?  Oh, that's OK. They're white.

It's time we take a realistic view of the illegal alien problem.

Why do people come to the USA to work? Because there are jobs, and there are people in neighboring countries who are really, really poor. You haven't seen poor until you go to Mexico, and that is a rich country by the standards of other Central American nations.

You have heard about people living in cardboard shacks?  Those are the well off. Cardboard is hard to find. And besides, how can you afford cardboard whey you have six babies to feed?

Many of our immigration problems are being solved as I write this. American companies are moving across the border to Mexico and other Central American countries, and providing much needed jobs.  Automobile manufacturing, Clothing, Electronics, Consumer goods, Diesel engines, and too many more to mention.

And why not? They can get people to manufacture good quality products, for .80 cents an hour American. Approximately  9.60 Pesos an hour. That's damn good money in Mexico.

I read about a lot of violent crimes being committed by illegal aliens. I lived in southern Arizona for many years. I can tell you that for the most part, that is bovine scatology. Yes, there is some theft. People have to eat while they're traveling through the desert with no money, no knowledge of the language, or customs. The violent crimes that I saw were committed by legal aliens, and American Citizens. Not by people who are in hiding, fearing for their very lives.Yes, from time to time somebody gets a little too much celebratory cervesa on payday, and the testosterone overflows, but that's pretty much the lot.

The problem, as I see it, is primarily racism. We have been thought since infancy that "We're better than them." I wonder how many white people who are in this country illegally get asked for their papers? What would happen if we put up a 20 foot tall steel fence across the US border with Canada?

What we need to do, is take a good look at what is causing the problem.  First, why are there jobs being filled by illegal aliens. Answer: because most Americans refuse to do those jobs. Second, why is the economy so poor in Mexico that their people go to such extreme risks to come here to work and send money back to feed their families? Answer: because we do not let them prosper. We wand them poor so that we can exploit them. One thing Mexico could do, is to not allow the Peso to be floated in international trading.  Every time it goes up to a sustainable amount, the trading in Pesos causes the exchange rate to plummet. If you want an awakening, read the international exchange rates in the stock market reports every day.

Is there an answer? Yes, but it is as complicated as the problem. But we will never solve it with hate.



Sunday, April 18, 2010

A High Honor

This is a transcription of a sermon I gave this (Sunday, April 18, 2010) morning during our first service. I went on to teach from Scripture, the text I had prepared, but The Lord moved on my heart to bring this message.

I had a rare and great opportunity yesterday, to sit by the bedside of a dying warrior. A man of our community, suffering in his final illness. 

His wife called me. his pastor's mother passed, and he couldn't be with him.  And we need to pray for that pastor too, that his hear be comforted in the loss of his mom..

So this lady, and I know these people, asked me to come. She said "My husband is dying, would you come and be with him, and pray with him. So I went and sat with him in the nursing home where he is. 

They woke him up, and told min that he had a visitor.  "Oh, Reverend." He said. He always calls me that. I, I'm not too thrilled about that term, because there is none reverend but God, you know, but if that's what people choose to call me, i understand their meaning of it, so I accept it. In the world's eyes, I am a "Reverend",, You know, a minister.

So, I sat there with that man, and he went immediately back to sleep. He's under pretty heavy drugs. Pain medication, and whatnot. So I just sat there with him for a while. and I watched hi, I prayed for him, and I thought about him. There's a man who has served his country in many, many, many capacities. He's a World War two veteran. He served admirably. A decorated war hero.Served in France and Italy  Several places like that, in the 442nd Division, and right in the thick of the fighting. And survived. 

He worked on the railroad before he went overseas, and he came back and he worked on the railroad again until he retired.  And he loved The Lord. A devout Christian all his life.. 

And I thought What an honor! What an absolute deep, deep, personal honor it was to be called to sit by the bedside of that man whom I admire so. To be able to be of comfort. Not only to a hero of America,  and a hero in God's eyes, but what an honor to be called to sit by the bedside, and pray, and read Psalms and comforting scriptures to one of God's children.

And it made my life and my ministry all seem somehow worthwhile, that I was able to be with this guy. A great war hero.

Dan Takanaka. A great war hero. Served honorably in World War Two. Came out of the Internment camp, and served his country. And never thought a thing about it. At least never out loud, never publicly, he never condemned The United States for putting his people in internment camps. He saw that this was what was happening, so he accepted it, and he prayed, and God sent him the answer.

He served his nation in time of war, and in time of peace. God gave him the answer. 

And it does not matter, that this is a man of Oriental heritage. It doesn't matter any more than if he was a man of German heritage, or English heritage, or Swedish heritage, or Finish heritage, or anything like that. he was, He is, an American. A man of whom we need to be proud, and honor greatly. 

And when I spoke to Mildred, his wife, afterward, she asked me to be a pallbearer at his funeral, and what greater honor could that be?  I'm not going to speak at his funeral, that's his pastor's place, because Dan's one of his.

I just wanted to share a little bit about that, and it's been on my heart since it happened. And I just wanted to share a little bit about who I am, and how I feel and what I feel, and what I believe, and how deeply I feel for the warriors of our nation, and how deeply I feel for each and every one of you.

And it doesn't matter whether you're a member of another congregation, or whether you're a member of this congregation, I know that you're God's children. You've accepted Jesus Christ, you're God's children, and I love you. And I feel just as deep an honor standing before you today, as I felt sitting in the presence of Dan Yesterday morning.  And that's my message today.

Agape
Lee

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Taxes

Fringe Benefit Farm
April 15th, 2010

A long time friend sent me an e-mail decrying how a segment of the population gets away without paying taxes. I wrote him back with the following.

Bob:

For many years, I have been advocating a flat tax. 10%. No deductions, no exceptions. If you make a dime, you pay a penny If you make 10 million, you pay a million.  Everybody would have to pay, from the welfare recipient, to the largest corporation, and all the employees of those corporations.

When I first came up with that idea, in the 1960s, we could have paid off the national debt in three years, and maintained the then current level of spending.  At that point we could have reduced the tax to about three percent, and still had a surplus in the federal treasury. 

I couldn't sell it.  I told my tax accountant about it, and she said Oh No! that would put all the tax accountants out of business!   I told a friend who was big in a labor union, he said Oh No! That would be a tax on labor!   When I told my Congressman, he said, "We could never get it past the Democrats.  I spoke to another Congressman, and he said "We could never get it past the Republicans."

Now there is a move to to establish a "Fair Tax" in which which the Income Tax would be abolished, and replaced by a national sales tax.  The proponents of that idea say it passes the burden to the entire population in a fair and equitable manner.

Not a bad idea either.  In any case, we need to make some changes in our tax structure.

The first President Bush did away with many of the deductions on many of the businesses.  The oil industry was a major exception.  But we must remember, it's not the President who levies taxes, it's Congress.  The President may propose laws, but Congress has to do the deed.

We The People, in our greed, keep electing people who serve our personal interests, rather than the interests of the nation as a whole.  If someone comes up with a sensible, workable plan, and not just those stated above, they get shouted down by people mired in their personal greed.

The only thing I do know, is, Ya gotta pay yer taxes... Or Else!  Too many people are living in Federal Penitentiaries who forgot about that.

Is there an answer?  I suppose so, but I don't expect to see it in the 15, or 20 years I have left on this planet.

Best regards
Lee

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Teaching

I was privileged to speak before Ms. Hemmer's Nursing class at Miles Community College, yesterday. They have a Registered Nurse program, that is quite good. I spoke on the subject of addiction. I have lectured the students for several years. I must be doing something right, because I keep getting invited back. I talked about experience, strength and hope, my life before and after mu drug use, what my life  was like, what happened, and what it is like now.  I also talked about the differing genetic structure that is the cause of one being an addict.

There seems to be much misinformation about the disease of addiction. It is not a choice. It is part of our genetic makeup. We don't have a "choice" in the matter. We can choose to not use drugs, and alcohol is a drug, or we can choose to use. Once we use, the old expression "One is too many, and a thousand is never enough" comes into play.

An addict is what we are. It is nothing shameful, it is a part of us. We are born with a terminal disease. We will die with that disease. BUT, we do not have to die from it. The choice, is not to use drugs in any form. Alcohol is a drug.

Just as a person with Diabetes keep his disease under control by using medicine, we keep our disease under control by NOT using "medicine."  You see, our natural state is loaded. When we are loaded, there are only three results. Jails, Institutions, and Death.  When we don't use, and avail ourselves of a good 12 step program, such as Narcotics Anonymous, we learn how to live among normal people, in normal society, and often become respected, productive members of that society.

Remember this: being an addict is not a choice. You either are one, or you are not. Some people who have used drugs, are not. Just as some people who use the drug, alcohol, are not "alcoholics."  My advice is, before you take that first fix, pill, or drink, stop. Put it down, and walk away. If you really are an addict, it will surface in other ways. (Gambling, compulsive overeating, the list is very long.)  The deal is, at least not masking the problem with drugs won't lead to jails, institutions, and death.

Agape
Lee