The Hebrew Lawyer and The Good Neighbor

The story of the Good Samaritan, found in the Gospels of Matthew, Luke, and Mark, both answers a "smart Alec" Hebrew lawyer's question to Jesus, and demonstrates to us the true meaning of the word "neighbor."

Without retelling this story (most of the time it is listed as a parable, but Jesus knew a lot of things, saw a lot of things, and for those reasons I feel like this incident was not necessarily a "parable", although that is just my opinion and not really important at the moment), I will point out that the Hebrew lawyer was probably trying to both "broadcast" his life of "service" and to put Jesus ( who had not gone to Hebrew law school) to the test.  He asked Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?"

It may be that the lawyer wanted Jesus to reassure him that his neighbors were those folks who lived with him in his "gated community" or at least the good part of town where the other lawyers, doctors, clergy, and the other gentle-folk lived.  Those kind of "neighbors" were easy for this lawyer to love.  For one thing, they were "leading people" as was he, and for the other, they probably did not need help that often...so that "loving one's neighbor" did not require too much time away from activities the lawyer really wanted to pursue.  It was especially inconvenient to help a neighbor if one was in a hurry, say to get to the local Temple in time to get that seat of honor.

Jesus raised a few eyebrows, and probably some tempers, when the "neighbor" in his story turned out to be the Samaritan rather than the priest or the Levite.  Remember, at that time a Samaritan was shunned, if not outright HATED, by most "real" Jews.  But, as Jesus made the lawyer rightly confess, the Samaritan was true neighbor, because he was the only one of the three who came to the victim's aid. As the lawyer said, "The one who had mercy on him."  But Jesus added one more thing.  He told the lawyer, "Go...and do likewise."

For me, the neighbors I have found who needed help were never in such a dire situation as the man who was robbed and left for dead on the Jericho Road.  But one person I helped, who was my neighbor even though I did not know her, actually put my "religion" to the test.  My lovely bride and I (only a young couple at the time) were racing along because we were "late" to church.  Actually we would get there in time, but ONLY if we made all the green lights and did not have any other delays.  That's when I saw the car by the side of the road, hazard lights flashing, and an elderly lady standing forlornly at the back end of her car, flat tire quite obvious as I raced past.

My lovely bride looked at me...I mean looked at me.  All husbands KNOW what look I mean!

"But we'll be LATE!" I protested, rather sheepishly. In fact, I had already heard the Good Shepherd say, "Go...and DO likewise."  I heard my young bride say so as well.

I turned around and went to the elderly lady's aid.  She was so grateful, and so relieved that I was a young man with a young bride, and not someone who might harm her.  It just took a few minutes to change her tire and get her going.  She tried to pay me, but I had not done it for money.  Actually I HAD thought about the hypocrisy of NOT HELPING A NEIGHBOR because if I did the Lord's work (changed her flat) then I would be late to "church."  So, no, I certainly did not want any money...I was the one who was blessed, not this little old lady.

It truly IS more blessed to give than to receive...even if giving takes a little effort and is a little dangerous.

Over two years ago, I had occasion to meet a "transient," that is to say a "homeless man" who had hidden himself an a building where I worked.  I had to ask him to leave, and he was very cooperative, but when we got outside, it was blazing hot, well over 85 degrees.  The man asked me if I could buy him a bottle of water before I sent him on his way.  That was little enough to ask, and I did so.  Only a couple days later this man was struck by a train and killed.  As little as my gift to him had been, I was so happy that I had given this man "just a cup of water."  The police speculated that he may have taken his own life, but no one could be sure.  Just the same, I was glad I had provided him with at least a few minutes of comfort in what must have been an otherwise lonely and desolate life.

Only last night I came across another person who needed help.  She just needed someone to assist her into a wheelchair and then take her across the hospital, up the elevator, and then down a long hallway to a patient's room.  It was a simple enough request and I did it, even though I was actually on another mission at the time.  But just this simple act brought this woman to tears.  I guess you never know when someone is going to suddenly become your neighbor.

You may never be called on to help the victim of a pack of robbers, or to rescue someone from a burning building, but almost every day there will be someone around you who will suddenly need a neighbor.  Are you willing to be that neighbor?

Remember, the Good Shepherd has said, "Go...and do likewise."

May God bless all of you, and may the Good Shepherd keep you in His arms...

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the "Truth"

Last week, I reprinted one of Martin Luther King's speeches, in honor of his birthday.  I also saw that various people had honored Mr. King in one way or another on various social media, including FaceBook.  I happened to notice a tribute someone had posted on FaceBook in which the person pointed out that Martin Luther King, Jr. had never burned buildings, rioted, or killed anyone during the years he lead the Civil Rights movement for Black Americans, yet he had accomplished so much.  Someone responded to the post by saying that it is about time that Martin Luther King Jr. Day be declared a national holiday, because Mr. King is truly a great American who should be honored as such.  And I can't agree more.

Another person responded to the same post by calling Mr. King a "cheating, wife-beating, fraud who embezzled money from his own organization."  This person went on to say that people who considered a man like this a hero, or a great leader, were approving of all the "things" Mr. King did in his private life.  Instead, we should, according to this person, think of Dr. King only as a lying, cheating hypocrite whose leadership and legacy should be forgotten, indeed, demonized, because of all the immoral things Dr. King did "in secret."  By the way, apparently these "things" weren't too very secret because many people knew about them.  Dr. King, in fact, had confessed an affair to his beloved Coretta, who found it in her heart to forgive her husband and take him back into her arms.  More than that, God forgave him, too.  Shouldn't we?

Now, first I would like to talk about Dr. King's "cheating."  He had one or more affairs during the many years he was away from his wife for extended periods of time.  There is no excuse for cheating on one's spouse, and I am not making one for Mr. King.  In fact the affairs apparently ate away at Martin Luther King's heart because he finally told his wife.  But his close associates were not afraid to tell him he was wrong, and that is surely at least one reason that he confessed to his wife and begged her for forgiveness.  So we should turn our back on him and reject all he stood for, all he gained for Black Americans?

Let's think about that.  We should reject Mr. King because of his sexual affairs?  Well, should we not also reject everything Benjamin Franklin stood for, reject his legacy that literally saved America...because he had an affair?  Oh wait...he had so many affairs he could not, nor can history, remember them all.  Not only that, he had children on both sides of the Atlantic and was rather FAMOUS for his "exploits."  He was somewhat of an amorous hero!  Yet there has never been a cry that we should dismiss him from the annals of American history for his sexual misbehavior.  Again, I am not attempting to excuse Dr. King, just point out there seems to be a double standard here.  A framer of the Constitution of the United States of America was unfaithful to his wife innumerable times, and he is honored as an American hero (as he SHOULD be!).  Dr. King, fighting for Black people, for the rights that were theirs actually from day one of the birth of the United States, had two affairs (granted, maybe there were more he did not admit to, but we do not know if that is the case or not) and some people want him discredited as a hypocrite and fraud.

The person writing about Mr. King called him a "wife-beater."  Try as I might, I have not found a single shred of evidence that Martin ever beat Coretta, nor that she ever accused him of such.  Mr. King's widow and children have had years to make such allegations and have not, though they have written prolifically since King's assassination.  Yet many people, including the writer I mentioned earlier ( I am using the term "writer" very generously in describing this person, I am sure), state as fact that Dr. King got drunk and beat his wife on several occasions.  Even with all the FBI spies and wiretaps, this "fact" was never borne out, and was NEVER alleged, at least publicly, by the FBI.  The allegation deserves no further attention in this blog.

The allegation that King embezzled money from his political organization was never borne out by investigations nor by FBI spying, and deserves no further mention here.

Finally, the person who was responding to the FaceBook post called Dr. King a "fraud."  There were allegations that Dr. King had plagiarized much of his dissertation from an earlier doctorate candidate's dissertation.  The fact, as can be easily researched, is that Dr. King's dissertation has been re-examined by several scholarly authorities and found to be at least enough of Dr. King's own work that it did not meet the academic standard for plagiarism, and thus has been reaffirmed as an acceptable dissertation.

Another area in which Dr. King has been called a fraud is his "I Have a Dream" speech.  He did in fact borrow some of the ideas for this speech from a sermon delivered by another Baptist minister several years earlier.  Again, however, Dr. King used only some of the ideas from that sermon, added his own commentary and his own ideas, reworked them, and delivered one of the most moving speeches of all time.  Again, there is no basis to call him a fraud on this account.   Anyone who has attended church services for more than a few years has heard his or her very own pastor reuse and recycle other sermons delivered by other ministers.  Yet we have not demanded that these pastors be run out of town on a rail!

Unlike Jesus Christ, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was very much a human being.  He was certainly quite human that terrible evening in Memphis when he was felled by hater's bullet.  He bled just as red as anyone, as even you or me.  Unlike Jesus, Dr. King was subject to being overcome by human failings, including the desire for sex outside his marriage.

In fact (and I mean facts which can easily be checked both in printed media and on the Internet) the basis for most of the discrediting "facts" about Martin Luther King, Jr. can be traced directly back to J. Edgar Hoover and the many special agents who followed Hoover's every order (LEGAL OR NOT!) as if Hoover himself were God.  Hoover decided early on that Dr. King was a "national security" concern.  As Hoover himself put it, "that is the most dangerous Negro on the North American continent." (See the many FBI reports for this and other quotes about Dr. King)  Hoover sent his men across the nation to dig any dirt they could find on King, and to plant wiretaps and microphones at every conceivable location that Mr. King might appear.  Papers that have become public record bear out the fact that the FBI, again acting at Mr. Hoover's behest, "planted" newspaper articles and sent "anonymous" letters accusing Dr. King of many improprieties, the allegations eventually becoming "fact," as is so often the case.

Some people may not want Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to be honored in any way, and to that end they take any chance they get to continue spreading the "facts" about Dr. King; the "facts" which over and over have been found to be lies, exaggerations, and rumors, mostly propagated by the FBI.  J. Edgar Hoover was most alarmed at Dr. King's large following and the huge influence he held over the Black American population.  As the REAL facts have shown, Hoover didn't let TRUTH stand in the way of a good propaganda campaign against Dr. King.

I stand by my previous post, and I hold up Dr. King to be a true American Hero deserving, as much as any American hero, of the day named to celebrate his memory by the United States Congress.  More important than that, I stand by the words of Jesus himself, who said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called THE CHILDREN OF GOD."

For all his human failings, Dr. King was a peacemaker, and without doubt, is a Child of God.

Dr. Martin Luther King's Birthday, and the Nobel Peace Prize

Today is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s actual birthday, as well as the day decreed by President Ronald Reagan in 1983 to be the official federal holiday honoring Dr. King.  I wanted to honor Dr. King today in this blog by writing something profound, something eloquent.  Instead I found some simple, yet quite profound words uttered by Dr. King himself, on the day he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. So I will be quiet and let Martin Luther King, Jr. speak from his heart, and let his words touch our hearts, in turn...

December 10, 1964, Oslo, Norway

Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when twenty-two million Negroes of the United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice. I accept this award in behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice.

I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs and even death. I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeing to secure the right to vote were brutalized and murdered. And only yesterday more than 40 houses of worship in the State of Mississippi alone were bombed or burned because they offered a sanctuary to those who would not accept segregation.
I am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder.

Therefore, I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleaguered and committed to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which has not won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel Prize.
After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on behalf of that movement is profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time -- the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression.

Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Negroes of the United States, following the people of India, have demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation. Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood.

If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love. The tortuous road which has led from Montgomery, Alabama, to Oslo bears witness to this truth. This is a road over which millions of Negroes are travelling to find a new sense of dignity.

This same road has opened for all Americans a new ear of progress and hope. It has led to a new Civil Rights bill, and it will, I am convinced, be widened and lengthened into a superhighway of justice as Negro and white men in increasing numbers create alliances to overcome their common problems.

I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him.

I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.
I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.

I believe that even amid today's motor bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men.

I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive goodwill will proclaim the rule of the land.

"And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid."

I still believe that we shall overcome.

This faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom. When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, we will know that we are living in the creative turmoil of a genuine civilization struggling to be born.

Today I come to Oslo as a trustee, inspired and with renewed dedication to humanity. I accept this prize on behalf of all men who love peace and brotherhood. I say I come as a trustee, for in the depths of my heart I am aware that this prize is much more than an honor to me personally.

Every time I take a flight I am always mindful of the man people who make a successful journey possible -- the known pilots and the unknown ground crew.
So you honor the dedicated pilots of our struggle who have sat at the controls as the freedom movement soared into orbit. You honor, once again, Chief (Albert) Luthuli of South Africa, whose struggles with and for his people, are still met with the most brutal expression of man's inhumanity to man.

You honor the ground crew without whose labor and sacrifices the jet flights to freedom could never have left the earth.

Most of these people will never make the headlines and their names will not appear in Who's Who. Yet when years have rolled past and when the blazing light of truth is focused on this marvelous age in which we live -- men and women will know and children will be taught that we have a finer land, a better people, a more noble civilization -- because these humble children of God were willing to suffer for righteousness' sake.

I think Alfred Nobel would know what I mean when I say that I accept this award in the spirit of a curator of some precious heirloom which he holds in trust for its true owners -- all those to whom beauty is truth and truth beauty -- and in whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.

END

In the Good Book, New Testament, Matthew 5:9, the Good Shepherd tells us, "Blessed are the peacemakers: for the THEY SHALL BE CALLED THE CHILDREN OF GOD."

Happy Birthday, Dr. King, peacemaker and child of God, and may you rest in peace, your work here on earth being done...

Alice Sanger - First Known Female White House Staffer - January 2, 1890

I ran across an interesting United States history tidbit, and that is on this date in 1890 President Benjamin Harrison, either with the approval or more likely the PROMPTING of Mrs. Harrison, hired Alice Sanger to be the official stenographer for his Cabinet.  Try as I might, I was able to find precious little information about Alice Sanger, other than that she was an efficient secretary and that she was able to learn the skill of typewriting.  Granted, at the time she was hired, no typewriter existed in the White House, and more than likely no one from President Harrison on down even knew how to type.  A typewrite would indeed be purchased by the Harrison Administration within a few months, but that is a story for another day.

What is nearly as, or maybe more, intriguing is why Benjamin Harrison decided to hire Ms. Sanger in the first place.  You see, at this point in United States history, women had not yet won the right to vote, at least nationally.  There was really no compelling reason for President Harrison to hire a female in any capacity.   Why hire a woman, of all things?!  Well, there was the First Lady...

First Lady Caroline Harrison was a believer in women's suffrage.  She was also instrumental in furthering women's opportunities in the academic world and in those professions traditionally only open to men, which was pretty much anything except grade-school teaching and nursing at the time.  First Lady Harrison was quite influential and powerful, as she served as a major fundraiser for Johns-Hopkins Medical School for the Washington D.C. area.  In this capacity she raised over $100,000 with the stipulation that the money would provide scholarships for both men and women.  Maybe she realized the time was right to have a woman working in the White House, and being a very strong woman, she no doubt had her husband's ear.

But what about Alice Sanger?  As I said earlier, there seems to be very little information readily available about this woman.  For instance, how had she come to the attention of either Benjamin Harrison or Caroline Harrison?  Was it President Harrison's idea to hire her, or was it a stroke of somewhat risky genius on the First Lady's part?  I believe that the First Lady was aware that if she personally came on "too strongly" for women's rights at this historical juncture, it would be damaging to her husband's administration.  But by bringing a woman onto the President's personal staff, though not in a major role, she could help secure at least a footnote of fame for her husband while making a least a token advancement for women in the federal workforce.  This move may also have earned President Harrison at least some respect from the various organizations involved in the women's rights movement.  In an administration known for little else, President Harrison would be famous for hiring a woman, and Alice Sanger would be given one little footnote in United States history.

On March 4, 1893, President Harrison quietly left the White House.  Benjamin Harrison had presided over a relatively quite segment of American History.  Reconstruction was two decades in the past, and the Spanish American War was yet five years into the future.  Harrison even missed the "Panic of 1893," which did not occur until Grover Cleveland was safely in office.  As for Alice Sanger, I can only guess that she slid into obscurity once again, probably without much fanfare or financial gain, after having served her nation as the first ever female White House stenographer.

Thank you all for reading...

And May God Bless America

Happy New Year

Happy New Year, Everyone!  Christmas has come and gone, and (believe it or not!) the Christmas tree is already down in the Meeks residence.  This is very unusual as I prefer to leave the tree up till just about the 4th of July.  But my lovely bride woke up with a vengeance this morning, and before I could even utter a feeble protest the tree was halfway down!

In my defense, one reason I was not able to utter a feeble protest was because I am recovering from some sort of flu-like illness that has attacked one then another of us through the past few days.  Even poor Baby Baby was sick on Christmas Day, suffering from this illness.  So today as I watch the various bowl games (Geaux Tigers!) I am definitely not up to one hundred percent.  Neither were the Tigers.  They dropped the game to Notre Dame, though just by one score.

As the Rose Bowl grinds on, I try to think of resolutions for the New Year, but all of those that I could make, I would probably end up breaking...so maybe I will just forego the resolution making for this year.  It may be that the lingering effects of this illness is keeping me from feeling the full optimism of this New Year's Day.

I guess more important to me than any resolution I could make is my hope for this New Year.  For one thing, I hope that we can go through this year with no mass shootings.  The church shootings, the public venue shootings, the ambushes of multiple police officers.  Wouldn't be great if in this new year there was not one single mass shooting?  Better yet, what if there were no shootings of any kind at all?

I think back to the second invasion of Irag under President George W. Bush, and the ongoing war in Afghanistan, and the smaller engagements still underway in the Baltics, and of President Obama's promise to end these conflicts, which he did not do.  Now, I wonder if President Trump will remove our troops from some or all of these conflicts? I can certainly hope...

I hope for less division in our country this year, for more listening, and more compromise.  I hope for more of the Golden Rule effect, not just "not bothering" anyone else, but actually treating others the way we would want to be treated, putting ourselves in the other person's shoes.  I hope, too, that we will see the truth with our own eyes, and not fall for what the "news" tells us is going in this nation and around the world, because the "news" needs to get ratings, not necessarily give us the "real story."

Most of all, I hope for all of us, that the good things in store for us in the coming year may by far outweigh the bad, the love outweigh the hate...because for all the trouble and trials and bad things that may happen, this world we live in is, overall, a pretty good place and holds many opportunities.

I can almost hear Louie Armstrong..."And I say to myself...what a wonderful world."

Happy New Year, and may God Bless you all.