My grandfather was born June 24, 1896 in Grodek, Galacia Austria. He immigrated to the United States (legally) December 4, 1912 from the Port of Bremen, Germany aboard the S. S. Kronprinzessin Cecilie. His name was changed by immigration officials for simplicity (?). His father's name was Andrew Dunas and his mother's name was Ana Zagski. His mother died when he was six and his father died when he was nine. He had a younger sister that died within a year after their father. This orphaned child ran away from his uncle's home after the man worked him from dawn to dusk on the farm. He wandered across Europe, working where he could and saving money for his dream of going to the United States of America.
I always thought my father was Polish. It was only last month that I learned that his father was born in Austria.
My grandfather declared $26.00 on his person when he disembarked at Ellis Island. That was a lot of money at that time. What will that amount get you today? How about a loaf of bread, a gallon of milk, a pack of sandwich meat, a jar of mayonnaise and a six pack of brand name soda? At that time it would probably keep you set for a month or longer with a room and meals while you hunted for a job.
According to family information, my grandfather's pocket was picked and he started in the United States of America with nothing. He made his way to Michigan where his knowledge of five languages gave him an edge and he became a foreman at a logging camp after a month on the job.
He saved his money and went to Barber College in Detroit, Michigan (he did not get a student loan). He worked as a barber and saved his money. Before long he saved enough to buy out one of the partners. He gradually owned the largest barbershop in Detroit. He was 31.
We have lost sight of some things in our quest to become educated and enlightened. My grandfather never attended school, not one day in his lifetime. He spoke five languages, attended barber school and became a successful business man. He wanted my father to go to Harvard and if the stock market had not crashed, the desires of my grandfather may have been fulfilled.
My grandmother was twice widowed when she met my grandfather. She was an excellent seamstress, owned a candy store and two grocery stores prior to the crash. She was a hard working woman with an unquenchable spirit and an undying belief in the American Dream.
My grandmother went to the fourth grade and then was sent to work at the age of nine in a shirt factory. She worked ten hours a day, six days a week in Reading Pennsylvania. It was 1897. Times were different. In many ways they were better. You rapidly learned the value of hard work or you did not eat. That is a very Biblical object lesson. It was learned fast and hard.
So now, we have child labor laws to protect children and some never learn the value of work, much less the value of hard work. The government has stepped in to feed the poor with no assumption of repayment or working to pay it back. Any idea of having a work for welfare type program is met with angry protests by people who don't know any better; people who do not understand the value of working for what you get. I have been at the mercy of the government services and it SUCKS big time. It is degrading and demoralizing, but that is just my opinion.
When my grandparents and my father were growing up if a person suffered hardship, it was looked upon as something to be struggled through and learned from. Everyone had some sort of problem in their life.
In today's world, too many who start to suffer any kind of hardship are put into counseling immediately. There is definitely a place for counseling, but does everyone on the planet need counseling for everything? Can we not just wallow in our misery for a time while waiting on the Lord for guidance? Is it not possible to work (and I mean work) through our trials? I sometimes I think that the reason we have so many problems is that we do not have enough physical labor to make us just tired to the bone, too tired to think about our state of affairs. People now substitute exercise in a gym for the physical exertion of hard work or maybe just walking to work.
We no longer sleep well because we have not exerted ourselves. We have clogged arteries and migraines because we have desk jobs and watch too much TV. I sometimes wonder if the invention of electricity was a good idea. I like my indoor plumbing and have no desire to go back to walking to the outhouse, but do we really need electricity? It was just a thought. I obviously do like my internet and other electrical things.
Back to the point.
My grandparents immigrated to the United States of America legally. I enjoy the results of that legal immigration as did my father. Some of the requirements of citizenship was that they learned to speak English and learned about the Constitution of the United States and how the Government of their new country works.
I am hopeful that when people learn what it means to be a citizen, a legal citizen, of the United States of America that they will have more desire to immigrate legally with a drive to do what it takes to become a citizen.
Every country has its problems and I do feel that the freedoms we have may have contributed to the loss of some of them. We found out that we could legislate money to us. We could put people in Congress that would give us stuff and that is where we began the escalating debt and a decline in morality. If no matter what you do, the government will take care of you, why bother even trying to keep the family together? If the government will take over the obligations of the church, why support the church? Why even go to church if the government is going to supply all your needs and attempts to take the place of God?
We have taken the dreams and blood, sweat and tears of our forefathers and thrown them away for a dainty from the king's table. We have voted ourselves stuff and dug ourselves a fourteen trillion dollar hole. What were we thinking? We are now dying from over-abundance, excess and sloth.
Shalom. Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
A Matter of Choice?
There will, unfortunately, be many who read my three-part series on abortion and become incensed that I would take away a woman's right to choose. And to that I say, HOGWASH!!!
First, I would like to point out that no one has ever been denied the right to choose anything. Regardless of what law is passed, no one has ever been denied the right to choose anything except those incarcerated individuals and those in mental institutions.
Jeffrey Dahmer exercised his right to choose as did Charles Manson. Just because there are laws which are there to protect the citizens, sometimes against themselves as in suicide, does not mean that the freedom to make illegal choices has been removed from a group of people. All you have to do is choose to look at a newspaper or watch the news programs.
There are women that choose to kill their children by strapping the children in their car seats and pushing the car into lakes and rivers. Some would try to argue that she was simply having a retro-active abortion. Some even think that you should have the right to end a child's life until they are two or more years old. Countries that have enforced limitations on the number of children per household have no trouble strapping a woman down and forcing her to kill her child.
Jack Kevorkian and others like him would have gladly helped me commit suicide if I had even hinted to them that I was depressed and thinking about it. Depression and anxiety pass. Death lingers on. Funny how that works. It really is a permanent solution to a temporary event.
Now there is the possibility of the Death Squad lingering over the heads of the aging population here in the United States. So named because after a certain age, if your quality of life is below a certain scale that is determined by a committee, then there will be no further expenditures for your condition except to provide one with a permanent sleeping pill if so desired. One side said that is the way it will be. The other side said that is preposterous. Who to believe? Frankly, I choose to err on the side of caution. Let us not give the government even a hint of that capability.
There are those who would prohibit surgery to children born with debilitating conditions that exorbitantly priced surgeries and years of therapy would overcome. How could anyone refuse surgery for a child simply because some limited thought process thinks that child may not contribute to society someday? The Shriners and Saint Jude Children's Hospitals provide help for children with horrid conditions every day and most is done absolutely free of charge. Yet there are those who would do away with extraordinary measures for a mere child.
During the course of a day, we make many choices. We have never been NOT free to choose. We just know that some of those choices have dire or life-long consequences.
I was asked in court once if I would force a child to become a Christian. I told them that there was no way that I could do that, but the child would go to church with me if I got custody because the child was too young to stay at home alone.
We have a choice as to whether or not we become a Christian and no one can force you to be one. That is totally voluntary (no, I am not getting into pre-destination). We can choose to follow God and accept Jesus Christ as Saviour or we can continue to follow Satan. We all have to make that choice.
Shalom. Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.
First, I would like to point out that no one has ever been denied the right to choose anything. Regardless of what law is passed, no one has ever been denied the right to choose anything except those incarcerated individuals and those in mental institutions.
Jeffrey Dahmer exercised his right to choose as did Charles Manson. Just because there are laws which are there to protect the citizens, sometimes against themselves as in suicide, does not mean that the freedom to make illegal choices has been removed from a group of people. All you have to do is choose to look at a newspaper or watch the news programs.
There are women that choose to kill their children by strapping the children in their car seats and pushing the car into lakes and rivers. Some would try to argue that she was simply having a retro-active abortion. Some even think that you should have the right to end a child's life until they are two or more years old. Countries that have enforced limitations on the number of children per household have no trouble strapping a woman down and forcing her to kill her child.
Jack Kevorkian and others like him would have gladly helped me commit suicide if I had even hinted to them that I was depressed and thinking about it. Depression and anxiety pass. Death lingers on. Funny how that works. It really is a permanent solution to a temporary event.
Now there is the possibility of the Death Squad lingering over the heads of the aging population here in the United States. So named because after a certain age, if your quality of life is below a certain scale that is determined by a committee, then there will be no further expenditures for your condition except to provide one with a permanent sleeping pill if so desired. One side said that is the way it will be. The other side said that is preposterous. Who to believe? Frankly, I choose to err on the side of caution. Let us not give the government even a hint of that capability.
There are those who would prohibit surgery to children born with debilitating conditions that exorbitantly priced surgeries and years of therapy would overcome. How could anyone refuse surgery for a child simply because some limited thought process thinks that child may not contribute to society someday? The Shriners and Saint Jude Children's Hospitals provide help for children with horrid conditions every day and most is done absolutely free of charge. Yet there are those who would do away with extraordinary measures for a mere child.
During the course of a day, we make many choices. We have never been NOT free to choose. We just know that some of those choices have dire or life-long consequences.
I was asked in court once if I would force a child to become a Christian. I told them that there was no way that I could do that, but the child would go to church with me if I got custody because the child was too young to stay at home alone.
We have a choice as to whether or not we become a Christian and no one can force you to be one. That is totally voluntary (no, I am not getting into pre-destination). We can choose to follow God and accept Jesus Christ as Saviour or we can continue to follow Satan. We all have to make that choice.
Shalom. Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.
Abortion - Part 3 of 3
This is a re-post of one of my first posts. January is Sanctity of Human Life Month, please remember the murdered and the ones they left behind. The following is a true story. It is my story.
Do you think it should be legal to have an abortion?
Do you think it should be legal for a woman to choose abortion?
Do you think it should be legal to kill unborn children?
Each of these questions means the same thing. They are phrased differently and evoke different emotions in each individual but it means the same thing. You are asking if murder under special circumstances should be legal. Murder should never be legal. The rallying cry has been that you cannot legislate morality. There are laws against stealing. There are even laws against murder. Those are both moral issues.
There is also the idea that it is keeping women safe. How do you think abortion legalized or not keeps women safe? Most modern abortion clinics are not even required to pass any state health department inspections. In many high schools and grade schools a girl can ask for birth control or an abortion and no one HAS to tell her parents. In many states a perverted step-father, uncle, neighbor or teacher can take an underage girl to get an abortion and no one bats an eye. There are many things about the Abortion Industry that are appalling. The fact that tax dollars have gone to planned parenthood to promote the killing of children is equally appalling.
Why is the United States of America in such dire financial straits? Could it be that since 1972 we have killed 40 million children who might have grown to adulthood and produced another generation? Has it occurred to anyone in politics that we have killed off our tax base? Is there anyone in government who can sit down and work the numbers and realize that what is killing this nation is the fact that we allow, no we PROMOTE this genocide?
On a national scale, we are oblivious to the destruction. We think we are immune to repercussions. This country, in general, still thinks that if it feels good, do it. The people of the 60's revolution are now governing. And it appears that they smoked way too much pot back in the day or they are still hitting the weed. After seeing all that has transpired in DC in the years since President Reagan, it is painfully obvious that we have left our spines in the nursery. We have ceased rational thinking. We have given ourselves over to being green when, in fact, we are mainly yellow with a big hint of RED. Communism is not dead! Neither is Socialism!
The nation is politically correct and morally and financially bankrupt. And what are we worried about? Our morals? No. We are concerned about our declining finances. I propose that if we get our moral house in order that the financial side will follow. Morally stable people work and take care of business. They take care of their neighbors and they give to the poor.
This has been a bit of a rant but sometimes you have to rant. Not only does it do a body good, sometimes is is essential.
Do you think it should be legal for a woman to choose abortion?
Do you think it should be legal to kill unborn children?
Each of these questions means the same thing. They are phrased differently and evoke different emotions in each individual but it means the same thing. You are asking if murder under special circumstances should be legal. Murder should never be legal. The rallying cry has been that you cannot legislate morality. There are laws against stealing. There are even laws against murder. Those are both moral issues.
There is also the idea that it is keeping women safe. How do you think abortion legalized or not keeps women safe? Most modern abortion clinics are not even required to pass any state health department inspections. In many high schools and grade schools a girl can ask for birth control or an abortion and no one HAS to tell her parents. In many states a perverted step-father, uncle, neighbor or teacher can take an underage girl to get an abortion and no one bats an eye. There are many things about the Abortion Industry that are appalling. The fact that tax dollars have gone to planned parenthood to promote the killing of children is equally appalling.
Why is the United States of America in such dire financial straits? Could it be that since 1972 we have killed 40 million children who might have grown to adulthood and produced another generation? Has it occurred to anyone in politics that we have killed off our tax base? Is there anyone in government who can sit down and work the numbers and realize that what is killing this nation is the fact that we allow, no we PROMOTE this genocide?
On a national scale, we are oblivious to the destruction. We think we are immune to repercussions. This country, in general, still thinks that if it feels good, do it. The people of the 60's revolution are now governing. And it appears that they smoked way too much pot back in the day or they are still hitting the weed. After seeing all that has transpired in DC in the years since President Reagan, it is painfully obvious that we have left our spines in the nursery. We have ceased rational thinking. We have given ourselves over to being green when, in fact, we are mainly yellow with a big hint of RED. Communism is not dead! Neither is Socialism!
The nation is politically correct and morally and financially bankrupt. And what are we worried about? Our morals? No. We are concerned about our declining finances. I propose that if we get our moral house in order that the financial side will follow. Morally stable people work and take care of business. They take care of their neighbors and they give to the poor.
This has been a bit of a rant but sometimes you have to rant. Not only does it do a body good, sometimes is is essential.
Abortion - Part 2 of 3
This is a re-post of one of my first posts. January is Sanctity of Human Life Month, please remember the murdered and the ones they left behind. The following is a true story. It is my story.
She had just been released from the hospital and that gnawing feeling that something was happening kept her awake and uneasy.
A trip to the clinic confirmed her suspicions. She was pregnant again. This time fear engulfed her. She had been on all that medication and the headlines about the Thalidomide babies were just about 15 years old.
The stories about how the drug caused birth defects stared her in the face one day as she stood in line for a burger. The girl was just about the right age. She was in a wheel chair and was missing both arms. Her mother looked tired but she was smiling.
The image seared into her mind like a hot knife through butter. Then the doubts came. What would the drugs do to the baby? She had become both obsessed and repulsed by the images of her unborn child. There was no sonogram to see if things were ok. Sonograms were not in use for pregnancy. There was no way to tell so the fear took over.
How could she do this? Who was there to help her? This man who had already abandoned her certainly could not be trusted. Oh, he had not vacated the premises, but he was of no value for emotional support and since he had quit his job he could not support her financially.
She considered her mother - a woman with three children at home and a husband who, while he worked and put food on the table, had major issues. The chaos that she had left so many years ago was not about to become her home again.
There was little to be called sane in that home. The constant profane and vulgar bickering was one thing. Watching the younger siblings be abused was quite another. She just could not be the target anymore. Everyone said that there was nothing that could be done. Her step-father was a law enforcement officer and any attempt that she made to report him was lost in the shuffle at the station. It was bad enough to be under his constant gaze while she was in the house, but his cohorts took over when she was out of the house. Their snickering and lewd remarks when she was in town were degrading and unbearable.
She could not, would not go home.
Her plan of action was formulated in a heartbeat. She called planned parenthood and made another appointment. This time would be different. She would go alone. She would take the bus. He did not have to know.
The appointment was not what she expected. They told her that they could not do the abortion. She would have to go to a hospital and have general anesthesia.
Her words blurted out in panic, "but I can't!! I just can't!! I have to do this now!!"
They told her that she was too far along and they were not equipped to handle it. But, there was a doctor that she could go to who might be able to help her. They gave her his number and she called him. The appointment was made and it began again.
The day of the appointment she never even told her husband where she was going. She just went.
The office was all dark wood and in a way soothing. The receptionist told her to have a seat while she waited for the doctor.
It was not long before she was called into the doctor's office. He talked to her and told her that he would need another doctor present to administer the anesthesia and it would be done in his office. He asked her why she wanted it and she carefully explained about the drugs in the hospital and her fear and everything.
She asked Dr M why he did this and he said he was making money so he could go back to Puerto Rico and open a clinic for his people. When he told her the price, she said that she did not have that much money, but she would work for him if there was anything she could do. It was agreed that she would cover the front desk while his secretary took a few days off.
It was not hard to keep a secret in a house where no one spoke of anything important. That fatal day came soon enough and as she was leaving, she decided to tell her husband what she was doing and why. She spoke fast and left faster giving him no time to respond. She remembered his stunned look as she left.
Everything was going pretty much as it did before. The anesthesia was on standby in case it was needed. She was not as anxious as she was before. They must have given her a little something to relax her. She was trying to think of anything but where she was and what she was doing.
It was during one of those flights of fantasy that she noticed their words were more urgent than they had been. She wanted to ignore them but what was said was horrific.
Lying on the table, the IV in her arm, her legs strapped in the stirrups the words came.
Those sounds of the whirring suction machine were the same, The room was darker and more comfortable but it would not have made any difference if it had been a five star hotel or a back alley. It was then that the stark realization came upon her and finally showed her what she was doing. The tugging was becoming more intense as the doctors began working together.
Dr. M said, "The head is too big. It won't come out. We'll have to cut it up."
It was at that moment that all of the horror, disgust and realization hit her. She had just murdered her child. She had murdered her second child. If you can be walking and still be in shock then she would be doing just that for several days. The procedure ended without further incident. She lay there weeping silently until they told her she could dress and go home. She lied when she said she was meeting her husband downstairs.
She did work for him the same day as her follow-up appointment. She swore to herself that she would never do this again.
If you think that abortion does not affect women, you are wrong. It stays with you until you die or completely lose your mind. You see those images. You feel everything at the mere mention of babies or birth or anything remotely connected. You wonder what kind of mother kills her unborn child. You wonder what kind of woman you truly are. You wonder many things and can become overwhelmed with self-doubt and self-loathing.
She had just been released from the hospital and that gnawing feeling that something was happening kept her awake and uneasy.
A trip to the clinic confirmed her suspicions. She was pregnant again. This time fear engulfed her. She had been on all that medication and the headlines about the Thalidomide babies were just about 15 years old.
The stories about how the drug caused birth defects stared her in the face one day as she stood in line for a burger. The girl was just about the right age. She was in a wheel chair and was missing both arms. Her mother looked tired but she was smiling.
The image seared into her mind like a hot knife through butter. Then the doubts came. What would the drugs do to the baby? She had become both obsessed and repulsed by the images of her unborn child. There was no sonogram to see if things were ok. Sonograms were not in use for pregnancy. There was no way to tell so the fear took over.
How could she do this? Who was there to help her? This man who had already abandoned her certainly could not be trusted. Oh, he had not vacated the premises, but he was of no value for emotional support and since he had quit his job he could not support her financially.
She considered her mother - a woman with three children at home and a husband who, while he worked and put food on the table, had major issues. The chaos that she had left so many years ago was not about to become her home again.
There was little to be called sane in that home. The constant profane and vulgar bickering was one thing. Watching the younger siblings be abused was quite another. She just could not be the target anymore. Everyone said that there was nothing that could be done. Her step-father was a law enforcement officer and any attempt that she made to report him was lost in the shuffle at the station. It was bad enough to be under his constant gaze while she was in the house, but his cohorts took over when she was out of the house. Their snickering and lewd remarks when she was in town were degrading and unbearable.
She could not, would not go home.
Her plan of action was formulated in a heartbeat. She called planned parenthood and made another appointment. This time would be different. She would go alone. She would take the bus. He did not have to know.
The appointment was not what she expected. They told her that they could not do the abortion. She would have to go to a hospital and have general anesthesia.
Her words blurted out in panic, "but I can't!! I just can't!! I have to do this now!!"
They told her that she was too far along and they were not equipped to handle it. But, there was a doctor that she could go to who might be able to help her. They gave her his number and she called him. The appointment was made and it began again.
The day of the appointment she never even told her husband where she was going. She just went.
The office was all dark wood and in a way soothing. The receptionist told her to have a seat while she waited for the doctor.
It was not long before she was called into the doctor's office. He talked to her and told her that he would need another doctor present to administer the anesthesia and it would be done in his office. He asked her why she wanted it and she carefully explained about the drugs in the hospital and her fear and everything.
She asked Dr M why he did this and he said he was making money so he could go back to Puerto Rico and open a clinic for his people. When he told her the price, she said that she did not have that much money, but she would work for him if there was anything she could do. It was agreed that she would cover the front desk while his secretary took a few days off.
It was not hard to keep a secret in a house where no one spoke of anything important. That fatal day came soon enough and as she was leaving, she decided to tell her husband what she was doing and why. She spoke fast and left faster giving him no time to respond. She remembered his stunned look as she left.
Everything was going pretty much as it did before. The anesthesia was on standby in case it was needed. She was not as anxious as she was before. They must have given her a little something to relax her. She was trying to think of anything but where she was and what she was doing.
It was during one of those flights of fantasy that she noticed their words were more urgent than they had been. She wanted to ignore them but what was said was horrific.
Lying on the table, the IV in her arm, her legs strapped in the stirrups the words came.
Those sounds of the whirring suction machine were the same, The room was darker and more comfortable but it would not have made any difference if it had been a five star hotel or a back alley. It was then that the stark realization came upon her and finally showed her what she was doing. The tugging was becoming more intense as the doctors began working together.
Dr. M said, "The head is too big. It won't come out. We'll have to cut it up."
It was at that moment that all of the horror, disgust and realization hit her. She had just murdered her child. She had murdered her second child. If you can be walking and still be in shock then she would be doing just that for several days. The procedure ended without further incident. She lay there weeping silently until they told her she could dress and go home. She lied when she said she was meeting her husband downstairs.
She did work for him the same day as her follow-up appointment. She swore to herself that she would never do this again.
If you think that abortion does not affect women, you are wrong. It stays with you until you die or completely lose your mind. You see those images. You feel everything at the mere mention of babies or birth or anything remotely connected. You wonder what kind of mother kills her unborn child. You wonder what kind of woman you truly are. You wonder many things and can become overwhelmed with self-doubt and self-loathing.
Abortion - Part 1 of 3
This is a re-post of one of my first posts. January is Sanctity of Human Life Month, please remember the murdered and the ones they left behind. The following is a true story. It is my story.
It was 1972 and the abortion debate was winding its way through the courts. She was not aware of all the legalities involved. She was not even thinking about an abortion. She was married and had always wanted children. It would be okay, right?
When she told her husband that she was "going to have a baby" he freaked. He told her that if she had the baby he would leave her. The words stunned her and he just kept repeating himself. The next day he told her that she was going to have to "take care of it" and she finally took it in. He wanted her to have an abortion.
She felt trapped. She could not raise a child on her own and she did not want to go back to her mother and tell her she was having a baby and her husband had left her. He took every opportunity to remind her that he did not want a baby. Despite her apprehension and her fear she picked up the yellow pages and went to the "A"s. She found the Planned Parenthood number, called it and made the appointment. She told him what she had done and how much it would be. He appeared to be relieved.
It was Saturday and the sun was shining. It was warmer than it should have been for February. As he parked the car, she stared up at the building and wished silently that it would all just disappear. He actually held the door for her when they went in.
The waiting room was not crowded but there were others there and each woman seemed to have that same blank stare. Each table had packs of birth control pills just laying there. She saw the pills and the boxes of tissues. She knew what was expected of her.
He waited with her until they called her name. The questions seemed endless, but it was only an illusion. The question she wanted to hear would never be spoken. "Do you want to just forget this mess and go home?" No one would ask that question.
She undressed and put on that gown and was led to the table. She lay down and her legs were strapped in the stirrups. She wanted her husband to rush in screaming for her to stop but he never did. The cervical dilation was painful but not as soul wrenching as the pain in her heart. The suction machine had been turned on and those awful noises were so loud. Inside she was screaming to stop, but the words never came. She lay there and happened to see the tube with the canister at the end and she was sick to fully understand what she had just done. A few bold tears trickled down.
Her husband must have paid them while she was having IT done. She sat in the waiting room for awhile and then some woman in a white uniform told her she could go and rambled on about what to do about complications or something. At that point it was all pretty hazy and it was like the volume was too low and she never understood what was said and did not care.
There was complete silence all the way home. As they walked in to their basement apartment she noticed his distance. As she took off her coat she watched him lay on the sofa facing the wall. He may as well stabbed her in the heart with a kitchen knife, it would not have hurt as much as what he said. You would think that after 38 years, the pain of that moment would have been forgotten. She remembers the sights and smells and sounds of that day like it is happening now. What he said will stay with her until she dies.
As she stood looking at him lying on the sofa with his back to her he said, "Why did you kill my baby?"
She never answered his question and the abortion was never mentioned again. It was not even mentioned the next time she became pregnant. It was never mentioned when she left him.
It was 1972 and the abortion debate was winding its way through the courts. She was not aware of all the legalities involved. She was not even thinking about an abortion. She was married and had always wanted children. It would be okay, right?
When she told her husband that she was "going to have a baby" he freaked. He told her that if she had the baby he would leave her. The words stunned her and he just kept repeating himself. The next day he told her that she was going to have to "take care of it" and she finally took it in. He wanted her to have an abortion.
She felt trapped. She could not raise a child on her own and she did not want to go back to her mother and tell her she was having a baby and her husband had left her. He took every opportunity to remind her that he did not want a baby. Despite her apprehension and her fear she picked up the yellow pages and went to the "A"s. She found the Planned Parenthood number, called it and made the appointment. She told him what she had done and how much it would be. He appeared to be relieved.
It was Saturday and the sun was shining. It was warmer than it should have been for February. As he parked the car, she stared up at the building and wished silently that it would all just disappear. He actually held the door for her when they went in.
The waiting room was not crowded but there were others there and each woman seemed to have that same blank stare. Each table had packs of birth control pills just laying there. She saw the pills and the boxes of tissues. She knew what was expected of her.
He waited with her until they called her name. The questions seemed endless, but it was only an illusion. The question she wanted to hear would never be spoken. "Do you want to just forget this mess and go home?" No one would ask that question.
She undressed and put on that gown and was led to the table. She lay down and her legs were strapped in the stirrups. She wanted her husband to rush in screaming for her to stop but he never did. The cervical dilation was painful but not as soul wrenching as the pain in her heart. The suction machine had been turned on and those awful noises were so loud. Inside she was screaming to stop, but the words never came. She lay there and happened to see the tube with the canister at the end and she was sick to fully understand what she had just done. A few bold tears trickled down.
Her husband must have paid them while she was having IT done. She sat in the waiting room for awhile and then some woman in a white uniform told her she could go and rambled on about what to do about complications or something. At that point it was all pretty hazy and it was like the volume was too low and she never understood what was said and did not care.
There was complete silence all the way home. As they walked in to their basement apartment she noticed his distance. As she took off her coat she watched him lay on the sofa facing the wall. He may as well stabbed her in the heart with a kitchen knife, it would not have hurt as much as what he said. You would think that after 38 years, the pain of that moment would have been forgotten. She remembers the sights and smells and sounds of that day like it is happening now. What he said will stay with her until she dies.
As she stood looking at him lying on the sofa with his back to her he said, "Why did you kill my baby?"
She never answered his question and the abortion was never mentioned again. It was not even mentioned the next time she became pregnant. It was never mentioned when she left him.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Timeshares - Another of The Devils Inventions (Tormentions)
Timeshares - another one of mankind's attempts to give people something they do not need at a specific date every year for the rest of their life. Bad idea! Bad, bad idea!
I am speaking from personal experience. Buying a timeshare is like having a baby. You own it and the fees and it is a part of you for the rest of your life. You can only use that one pitiful week and of course you bought the white week because the salesman told you it was easy to trade up and get a different week by putting it in the pool where everyone can pick and choose, but it is not that easy and certain restrictions apply. No kidding.
Before my ex and I were married, I had attended several of these sales pitches and never bought into the thing. I looked at it as a way to get some crappy free gifts and spend the night at a resort. In 1987, my ex-husband and I went to a sales pitch for a timeshare. The salesman pitched and he pitched and finally he convinced my ex that it was a good deal. Then they both started on me. I just couldn't hold out and we signed a contract.
The name of the place is Quail Hollow and it is located around Lancaster Pennsylvania and it is run by Crown Resorts, Ltd. The yearly fees that were about $200.00 in the beginning slowly advanced over the years and are now over $500.00. We paid over $5,000.00 for the week. Yes, that's right, a week. They actually issue you a deed for a week at a resort. Then you have interest and other fees and because it is a pseudo-real estate transaction there are title fees and deed fees and fees and fees. After 20 years the total amount paid in to such a fiasco is anywhere from $10,000.00 to $20,000.00 for a week of each year until you die or you find someone to take it off your hands. And if you only use it once, the per use cost is $10,000.00 to $20,000.00. That is a heck of a cost for one week of being miserable.
I am being contacted by the time share yearly maintenance people because I have neglected (after 18 years of paying the maintenance fees with great animosity) to pay the fees for the past 2 or more years. I do not have the money being unemployed and all and it is on the bottom of my list of things that need to be paid. Actually, it is not on the need list at all. It is on the don't need and don't want list.
My last email to them included the following.
"About 18 years ago I sent a certified copy of the quit claim paper to your office. I was told after they got the paperwork that it could not be completed until the balance due was paid. So now you tell me that you do not have the paperwork and his name is still on the deed and you want to resolve the issue but cannot because his name is still on the deed. To my knowledge, he never paid anything on the week and you all never tried to contact him to try to get him to pay anything so I doubt that you are going to accomplish that at this juncture.
"It appears that we are at an impasse. I will not be sending in any money. I have used up all my savings and have nothing left to pay on a week in Pennsylvania that I used a total of ONCE. That one time was the first year we owned it. I never wanted to buy that thing in the first place because my job transferred me around every 2 years. I told that salesman that same thing when we got saddled with all that promotional junk for listening to the sales pitch. He convinced my ex-husband that it was a great deal because we could use it anywhere in the whole entire world. That was the biggest bunch of Biscuit Snot I ever remember hearing. I have tried to sell it and tried give it away. I even tried eBay. No one wants it. I have had time share liquidators tell me that if I gave them $500.00 they would try to sell it but there would be no guarantees and I would be out $500.00. There was supposedly a Thousand Trails campsite membership that was to go along with that for as long as we owned the week. That ended 2 years later. They quit sending membership cards after the 2nd year.
"Now, I realize that the high pressure salesman who sold us this bill of goods is probably living somewhere in the Cayman Islands now with all the money he made off the commissions for these so-called properties. At this point I really do not care. I just want out of this mess. From my calculations I spent around $10,000.00 - $20,000.00 for a one week vacation in the Pennsylvania mountains when it was not fishing season; it was not warm; it was cloudy, overcast and downright miserable and my ex-husband insisted that he was going to catch a fish and embarrassed me beyond all reason because he eventually did catch a fish using a safety pin attached to a string on a skinny tree branch and someone saw him and he had to throw the poor little fish back in the water. I remember that week well. It was downright miserable. I hated it and wished I had never heard of Quail Hollow.
"I am through ranting, for now. If you would kindly email me the paperwork, I will obtain the necessary signatures. If you do not email the paperwork to me with a proper address to return the signed documents to, I will not be able to return said documents to you.
"Thank you very much for your kind attention to this matter."
That is the way it is in timeshare land. I have only spoken with one person who had any kind of timeshare that actually worked out for them. They had 5 children and it would have cost them much more to take their children anywhere and stay for a week. With 5 children, you do look for a way to take them somewhere for a week and they got a blue week which they did trade for other places. I wonder what they are doing now that the kids are grown. Probably taking the grandchildren.
If you don't think the consequences of sin follow you after you are saved or reborn or regenerated, just remember the story of the timeshare. It still follows me and I came to know The Messiah as my Saviour in 1992, several years after I bought the timeshare with my ex-husband.
Shalom. Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.
I am speaking from personal experience. Buying a timeshare is like having a baby. You own it and the fees and it is a part of you for the rest of your life. You can only use that one pitiful week and of course you bought the white week because the salesman told you it was easy to trade up and get a different week by putting it in the pool where everyone can pick and choose, but it is not that easy and certain restrictions apply. No kidding.
Before my ex and I were married, I had attended several of these sales pitches and never bought into the thing. I looked at it as a way to get some crappy free gifts and spend the night at a resort. In 1987, my ex-husband and I went to a sales pitch for a timeshare. The salesman pitched and he pitched and finally he convinced my ex that it was a good deal. Then they both started on me. I just couldn't hold out and we signed a contract.
The name of the place is Quail Hollow and it is located around Lancaster Pennsylvania and it is run by Crown Resorts, Ltd. The yearly fees that were about $200.00 in the beginning slowly advanced over the years and are now over $500.00. We paid over $5,000.00 for the week. Yes, that's right, a week. They actually issue you a deed for a week at a resort. Then you have interest and other fees and because it is a pseudo-real estate transaction there are title fees and deed fees and fees and fees. After 20 years the total amount paid in to such a fiasco is anywhere from $10,000.00 to $20,000.00 for a week of each year until you die or you find someone to take it off your hands. And if you only use it once, the per use cost is $10,000.00 to $20,000.00. That is a heck of a cost for one week of being miserable.
I am being contacted by the time share yearly maintenance people because I have neglected (after 18 years of paying the maintenance fees with great animosity) to pay the fees for the past 2 or more years. I do not have the money being unemployed and all and it is on the bottom of my list of things that need to be paid. Actually, it is not on the need list at all. It is on the don't need and don't want list.
My last email to them included the following.
"About 18 years ago I sent a certified copy of the quit claim paper to your office. I was told after they got the paperwork that it could not be completed until the balance due was paid. So now you tell me that you do not have the paperwork and his name is still on the deed and you want to resolve the issue but cannot because his name is still on the deed. To my knowledge, he never paid anything on the week and you all never tried to contact him to try to get him to pay anything so I doubt that you are going to accomplish that at this juncture.
"It appears that we are at an impasse. I will not be sending in any money. I have used up all my savings and have nothing left to pay on a week in Pennsylvania that I used a total of ONCE. That one time was the first year we owned it. I never wanted to buy that thing in the first place because my job transferred me around every 2 years. I told that salesman that same thing when we got saddled with all that promotional junk for listening to the sales pitch. He convinced my ex-husband that it was a great deal because we could use it anywhere in the whole entire world. That was the biggest bunch of Biscuit Snot I ever remember hearing. I have tried to sell it and tried give it away. I even tried eBay. No one wants it. I have had time share liquidators tell me that if I gave them $500.00 they would try to sell it but there would be no guarantees and I would be out $500.00. There was supposedly a Thousand Trails campsite membership that was to go along with that for as long as we owned the week. That ended 2 years later. They quit sending membership cards after the 2nd year.
"Now, I realize that the high pressure salesman who sold us this bill of goods is probably living somewhere in the Cayman Islands now with all the money he made off the commissions for these so-called properties. At this point I really do not care. I just want out of this mess. From my calculations I spent around $10,000.00 - $20,000.00 for a one week vacation in the Pennsylvania mountains when it was not fishing season; it was not warm; it was cloudy, overcast and downright miserable and my ex-husband insisted that he was going to catch a fish and embarrassed me beyond all reason because he eventually did catch a fish using a safety pin attached to a string on a skinny tree branch and someone saw him and he had to throw the poor little fish back in the water. I remember that week well. It was downright miserable. I hated it and wished I had never heard of Quail Hollow.
"I am through ranting, for now. If you would kindly email me the paperwork, I will obtain the necessary signatures. If you do not email the paperwork to me with a proper address to return the signed documents to, I will not be able to return said documents to you.
"Thank you very much for your kind attention to this matter."
That is the way it is in timeshare land. I have only spoken with one person who had any kind of timeshare that actually worked out for them. They had 5 children and it would have cost them much more to take their children anywhere and stay for a week. With 5 children, you do look for a way to take them somewhere for a week and they got a blue week which they did trade for other places. I wonder what they are doing now that the kids are grown. Probably taking the grandchildren.
If you don't think the consequences of sin follow you after you are saved or reborn or regenerated, just remember the story of the timeshare. It still follows me and I came to know The Messiah as my Saviour in 1992, several years after I bought the timeshare with my ex-husband.
Shalom. Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
"Jesus's broken promises" - Is That So?
I briefly read a post on a discussion board by a self-proclaimed atheist. The title was "Jesus's broken promises." It actually pained me to read past the first sentence.
"Like many Americans, I was raised Christian." Evidently no one ever told him about the relationship that must be with The Messiah. From what was written, there is no mention of the Grace of God nor the life-changing experience of Salvation. Can we be "raised Christian"? How can one become a Christian by any means other than that of coming to the knowledge of the Blood Sacrifice of the Only Begotten Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth upon the Cross of Calvary and being reborn in Christ?
I had the good fortune to not have been "raised Christian." We went to Church and if I were asked, I would tell them that I was whatever Church we were attending at the time. I lied to join the Presbyterian Church many, many years ago. They asked a series of questions to which I answered in the affirmative. The main question was "Do you know Jesus Christ as your Saviour?" I answered "Yes" knowing full well that I had no idea what they were talking about. I suspect there are many in most churches that know the right answers but do not know the Saviour.
I did not post a comment on the gentleman's blog because I did not feel led by the Spirit to do so. I was not asked for my opinion and it is a humanist/atheist blog. He has read the Bible as he quoted a smattering of verses to back up his weak theory that Jesus broke His promise.
It appeared more like the child who wanted an answer from his or her parents but was not willing to obey either of them. God has said He will answer our prayers. He has said that He will supply all our needs. Like the child who asks for something it does not need and gets the answer of "No" or "Maybe", there is a parallel to me asking God for that which will do me no good nor fulfill my needs, but I want it. I think I need it. I really, really do want it.
The Creator of all things knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows us well enough that He will allow us the dubious pleasure of having that which we do not need in order to spike our spiritual growth when things go awry after getting our way.
The child who wants a lighter for their fifth birthday is no more entitled to acquire that item than I need to acquire life beyond what He has measured for me. Answers to prayers are not always "Yes." What He has promised us is far more than we even know to ask for. Sometimes we forget the part about prayers being answered depends upon other factors.
I prayed for more than eight years for my mother's Salvation. I knew that He could force the issue and make her a believer but I also knew that she had to want to be His and He would not force her to be His. If she refused Him, all the prayer in the world would make no difference to her. I knew that she had been seeking and I simply prayed begging that He would give her just one more chance. I held His promises up to Him and begged Him to give her one more chance. When she died of lung cancer after almost 63 years of smoking at the age of 69 (just days before her 70th birthday), I did not condemn Him for not saving her life but praised Him for giving her that one more chance to say "Yes."
When we pray, we need to know that we must pray in the Will of The Lord and not in our own will. We need to know that not every prayer is answered with a yes. We need to know that the faith that He refers to is not just faith that He will answer prayer but faith in Him as Saviour and Lord.
Shalom. Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.
"Like many Americans, I was raised Christian." Evidently no one ever told him about the relationship that must be with The Messiah. From what was written, there is no mention of the Grace of God nor the life-changing experience of Salvation. Can we be "raised Christian"? How can one become a Christian by any means other than that of coming to the knowledge of the Blood Sacrifice of the Only Begotten Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth upon the Cross of Calvary and being reborn in Christ?
I had the good fortune to not have been "raised Christian." We went to Church and if I were asked, I would tell them that I was whatever Church we were attending at the time. I lied to join the Presbyterian Church many, many years ago. They asked a series of questions to which I answered in the affirmative. The main question was "Do you know Jesus Christ as your Saviour?" I answered "Yes" knowing full well that I had no idea what they were talking about. I suspect there are many in most churches that know the right answers but do not know the Saviour.
I did not post a comment on the gentleman's blog because I did not feel led by the Spirit to do so. I was not asked for my opinion and it is a humanist/atheist blog. He has read the Bible as he quoted a smattering of verses to back up his weak theory that Jesus broke His promise.
It appeared more like the child who wanted an answer from his or her parents but was not willing to obey either of them. God has said He will answer our prayers. He has said that He will supply all our needs. Like the child who asks for something it does not need and gets the answer of "No" or "Maybe", there is a parallel to me asking God for that which will do me no good nor fulfill my needs, but I want it. I think I need it. I really, really do want it.
The Creator of all things knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows us well enough that He will allow us the dubious pleasure of having that which we do not need in order to spike our spiritual growth when things go awry after getting our way.
The child who wants a lighter for their fifth birthday is no more entitled to acquire that item than I need to acquire life beyond what He has measured for me. Answers to prayers are not always "Yes." What He has promised us is far more than we even know to ask for. Sometimes we forget the part about prayers being answered depends upon other factors.
I prayed for more than eight years for my mother's Salvation. I knew that He could force the issue and make her a believer but I also knew that she had to want to be His and He would not force her to be His. If she refused Him, all the prayer in the world would make no difference to her. I knew that she had been seeking and I simply prayed begging that He would give her just one more chance. I held His promises up to Him and begged Him to give her one more chance. When she died of lung cancer after almost 63 years of smoking at the age of 69 (just days before her 70th birthday), I did not condemn Him for not saving her life but praised Him for giving her that one more chance to say "Yes."
When we pray, we need to know that we must pray in the Will of The Lord and not in our own will. We need to know that not every prayer is answered with a yes. We need to know that the faith that He refers to is not just faith that He will answer prayer but faith in Him as Saviour and Lord.
Shalom. Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.
What Is In A Name?
"The Man upstairs"
"The Main Man"
"The Head Honcho"
"The One in charge"
"Jesus" (used as an expletive)
"Jesus Christ!" (used as an expletive)
"HIM" (while pointing skyward)
"My Friend"
"The Big Guy upstairs"
"You know Who"
We call the Creator of the Universe, The Lord God Almighty, The Holiest of Holies, The Messiah, The Lord Jesus Christ, The Lord God Most High and we give meaningless, trivial pet names to HIM. We trivialize the very name of Jehovah GOD. We fail to understand the very importance of a name, particularly HIS.
In today's so-called modern, enlightened society, we give our children the names of soap/sitcom/movie characters, rock bands, made up spellings of normal names, names of cities, names of constellations and whatever else our pitiful little brains can come up with not giving one whit of thought to naming a child something that will direct their life. We give names like Le-a, pronounced "lee dash a". That old Johnny Cash song "A Boy Named Sue" is just about ten leagues above what we do now. At least there was a point to saddling a man with the name Sue. I would not do that to a child, but somehow I can understand the twisted logic behind the father's decision. I was given my name because my mother said that she and my father could not agree on anything else. It does not matter why any more. When I asked why I was named "Pamela" I thought I was going to get a sweet loving story about how both my parents just adored the name and what it meant and that is how I got my name.
GOD has a name. HE has many names that HE can be called which mean much, much more than the frivolous names we so flippantly attach to HIM.
EL
ELOHIM
EL SHADDAI
ADONAI
JEHOVAH Yahweh
JEHOVAH-JIREH The Lord Will Provide
JEHOVAH-ROPHE The Lord Who Heals
JEHOVAH-NISSI The Lord Our Banner
JEHOVAH-M'KADDESH The Lord Who Sanctifies
JEHOVAH-SHALOM The Lord Our Peace
SHEPHERD
JUDGE
JEHOVAH-ELOHIM LORD God
JEHOVAH-TSIDKENU The Lord Our Righteousness
JEHOVAH-ROHI The Lord Our Shepherd
JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH The Lord is There
JEHOVAH-SABAOTH The Lord of Hosts
In the New Testament.Jesus is derived from the Hebrew Y'shua or Je-Hoshua meaning JEHOVAH IS SALVATION. The names of God is a link that has the meanings and where those names are found in Scripture. When the Saviour called Himself "I am" He equated Himself with God. He did not use that Name lightly. HE said it with purpose and to explicitly let the Jews know Who He was.
HE has told us Who He is and what His Name is. He has told us what to call Him. Can we call HIM anything less than THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY?
Shalom. Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.
"The Main Man"
"The Head Honcho"
"The One in charge"
"Jesus" (used as an expletive)
"Jesus Christ!" (used as an expletive)
"HIM" (while pointing skyward)
"My Friend"
"The Big Guy upstairs"
"You know Who"
We call the Creator of the Universe, The Lord God Almighty, The Holiest of Holies, The Messiah, The Lord Jesus Christ, The Lord God Most High and we give meaningless, trivial pet names to HIM. We trivialize the very name of Jehovah GOD. We fail to understand the very importance of a name, particularly HIS.
In today's so-called modern, enlightened society, we give our children the names of soap/sitcom/movie characters, rock bands, made up spellings of normal names, names of cities, names of constellations and whatever else our pitiful little brains can come up with not giving one whit of thought to naming a child something that will direct their life. We give names like Le-a, pronounced "lee dash a". That old Johnny Cash song "A Boy Named Sue" is just about ten leagues above what we do now. At least there was a point to saddling a man with the name Sue. I would not do that to a child, but somehow I can understand the twisted logic behind the father's decision. I was given my name because my mother said that she and my father could not agree on anything else. It does not matter why any more. When I asked why I was named "Pamela" I thought I was going to get a sweet loving story about how both my parents just adored the name and what it meant and that is how I got my name.
GOD has a name. HE has many names that HE can be called which mean much, much more than the frivolous names we so flippantly attach to HIM.
EL
ELOHIM
EL SHADDAI
ADONAI
JEHOVAH Yahweh
JEHOVAH-JIREH The Lord Will Provide
JEHOVAH-ROPHE The Lord Who Heals
JEHOVAH-NISSI The Lord Our Banner
JEHOVAH-M'KADDESH The Lord Who Sanctifies
JEHOVAH-SHALOM The Lord Our Peace
SHEPHERD
JUDGE
JEHOVAH-ELOHIM LORD God
JEHOVAH-TSIDKENU The Lord Our Righteousness
JEHOVAH-ROHI The Lord Our Shepherd
JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH The Lord is There
JEHOVAH-SABAOTH The Lord of Hosts
In the New Testament.Jesus is derived from the Hebrew Y'shua or Je-Hoshua meaning JEHOVAH IS SALVATION. The names of God is a link that has the meanings and where those names are found in Scripture. When the Saviour called Himself "I am" He equated Himself with God. He did not use that Name lightly. HE said it with purpose and to explicitly let the Jews know Who He was.
HE has told us Who He is and what His Name is. He has told us what to call Him. Can we call HIM anything less than THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY?
Shalom. Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)