Al Peffley

Gregg,

Great recap. We are thinking in the same vein.

Tom,

I agree with 90% of what you believe and follow. I will remain a Catholic by choice (even with the humanist Pope that I can barely tolerate.) The US Constitution has been ammended by numerous politicians for various reasons (not always without personal intent or consideration for States' Rights.) A Republic is supposed to be a governing system to protect all peoples' rights through a representative democracy, leaving no class without representation. The rules of Congress have evolved to greatly limit the rights of We the People, in my view. Here is one comparison of a Republic to a Pure Democracy:

https://www.thoughtco.com/republic-vs-democracy-4169936

I think all systems can be altered by illegal elections and "interpretation" of constitutions (American states each have their own constitutions.) The problem today is a lot of people (in both primary political parties) have given up on our Republic form of governing system and they don't vote any more. Many unemployed or special interest people vote for their self-gratification interests or gender alteration agendas and not for the overall well-being of the nation, as a whole. An immoral popular vote base yields a corrupt and self-centered population governing system that  is represented primarily by self-serving politicians. The special interest groups who vote them into office by "popular vote" are their only constituents, whom they pretend to serve to keep them in office and insure their financial livelyhood and/or positions of ruling power.

No, the US Constitution is not a "religion", it is the highest law of our nation. It has ties to referenced unalienable supreme being rights, so you could say it is based on Judeo-Christian guidance principles and the Ten Commandments (still inscribed on government facilities in Washington, D.C.) It is being attacked.

I have experience dealing with Brazil at high government levels. I also had the opportunity to evaluate their country's economics on the International Sea Launch Program. They are a classic pyramidal-structured society where they maintain too many political parties. The rich have their own private healthcare system (separate from the poorly-run, socialized public healthcare system.) Rio is gang-infested and has many high poverty urban areas. The rich citizens all have private limos and armed body guards. They have very strict immigration laws and harsh deportation policies. The rich families live on country estates; they have condos in the cities to live at while they work there during the work week. Public facility construction projects are hardly ever funded to completion because contractors jump to the next project when government funds start to dry up (much like they did in Russia). Their currency fluctuates wildly, and the inflation cycles are very dynamic. We decided not to establish a spaceport operation there at Alcantara. Brazilian commercial companies have executives that get huge commissions for winning large international capital investment projects. Most of the executives and generals I met were college-educated in the U.S., not South America.

Gregg Wilson

Hi Al,

Good that we both agree on having a constitutional republic instead of a raw democracy. You have been more intellectual than I have on the subject.

I remember at college that a number of "professors" taught socialism. I blew it off but apparently many students accepted it. Then the socialism works it way down to high school and most students accept it. Then everyone tells them they must go to college no matter what. They willfully accept the demand and enter into college where there is monstrous tuition. They go into debt. They get a degree in a subject that has no market value. They end up working at a menial job with little pay. They cannot get out of debt and cannot move forward in life. Now they are angry and frustrated. Hey, socialism is the answer to all their problems!

Did they ever, ever think? Or do they blindly accept whatever they are told?

Going to college is not the answer for most young persons. There are a great many trades and businesses where one acquires good skills, knowlege and decent pay. I have had many of these persons out to the house to do constructive work. They are very practical and sensible and they do a good job. And God knows they charge a lot!

This is why I live in the country and as far away from the college idiots as possible.

Tom Chavez

I owe our readers an apology. Today I get to follow in Gregg Wilson’s footsteps (whatever great men do, common men follow) and admit that I was wrong.

A gracious and scholarly (‘brahminical’ in the best sense of the word) classmate has discretely informed me that I misquoted (and misunderstood) when I wrote, in reference to killing animals, that Jesus said, “Whatever you do to the least of these you do also unto me.” Matthew verses 31 to 46 are about separating the ‘Sheep from the Goats.’ In verse 35 Lord Jesus says, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, and I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came and visited me.” The sheep are those who took care of the ‘least of these,’ and they are blessed. The goats not so much. 

I thank our classmate for that clarification. I’ll try to ‘not lift things out of context to support a particular view’ in the future. 

We should see as brothers and sisters not only humans, but also birds, animals, and all living entities, in the mood of St. Francis of Assisi. He called all creatures ‘brother’ and ‘sister’, which is logical if we all have the same Supreme Father.

According to our consciousness at the time of leaving our body, we get a new body. If we develop the consciousness of an angel, we can attain an angelic body. If we develop the consciousness of a hog, we can become a hog. This is reincarnation.

* Biblical Scholars Alert! *

Under circumstances that to this day remain shrouded in mystery, the Byzantine emperor Justinian in 553 A.D. (at the Second Council of Constantinople) banned the teachings of reincarnation from the Christian scriptures. There remain, however, certain allusions to reincarnation in the Bible. 

The Hebrew prophet Elijah is supposed to have lived In the ninth century B.C. Four centuries later, Malachi recorded this prophecy in the closing lines of the Old Testament: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” 

“When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Who do men say that I am? And they replied, Some say that thou art John the Baptist; some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the other prophets.” Matthew 16:13-14 

“And it came to pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him: and he asked them, saying, Whom do the people say that I am? They answering him said, John the Baptist; but some say Elias; and others say that one of the old prophets is risen again.” Luke 9:18-19 

Why would the disciples answer like this if they did not believe in reincarnation? 

What about ordinary men? Do they return? That the disciples of Jesus considered this possible is evident from their question about the man who had been born blind. They asked: “Who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he is born blind?” The disciples must have had reincarnation in mind, for obviously if the man had been born blind his sin could not have been committed in this life. 

We have tangible empirical evidence, from research into out of body experiences and past life memories, for the independent existence of the soul and for reincarnation. Texts from many spiritual traditions and modern science agree on this.

The American heart surgeon, Dr. Michael Sabom, studied out-of-body experiences and concluded that there is a conscious self that can separate from the brain and body. The American psychiatrist, Dr. Ian Stevenson of the University of Virginia Medical School, studied thousands of cases of past lives reported by young children three or four years old. In hundreds of cases Stevenson and his co-workers have been able to verify the existence of the person the child claims to have been in their past life.

Spiritual vision sees all living entities equally as infinitesimal parts of the complete spirit whole, God. Automatically, this clears away pride, prejudice and intolerance based on temporary external labels of caste, creed, race, nationality, gender, species, etc.

He who sees everything in relation to the Supreme Lord, who sees all living entities as His parts and parcels, and who sees the Supreme Lord within everything, never hates anything or any being.—Isopanishad Mantra 6

Tom Chavez

Al, 

Interestingly enough, I was baptized Catholic and my mother often told me, “once baptized a Catholic, always a Catholic.” So, I’ve got that going for me.

Thanks for clarifying that a Republic protects minorities against tyranny of the majority with constitutional rights. I did not understand, when you said that the US is not a democracy, that you meant ‘raw democracy’ or pure democracy. 

When you say ‘humanist Pope,’ what do you mean by humanist?

I see your points about the degradation and weaknesses of our system of government, corruption of the voting process, and the Judeo-Christian basis being attacked. I’ve heard from a few classmates who are dismissive of religion. I also see their points: priests who are sexual predators and cardinals who utilize Church monies for luxurious lifestyle give religion a noxious hypocritical odor.

You describe the problems of Brazil. To some degree they sound like where the US is headed. I read an article by a billionaire today, describing that many mansions on some posh waterfronts are left totally unoccupied during the summer. The writer realized that the owners of those vacant mansions had so many mansions that they did not have time to visit all of them. They suggested that billionaires should pay more taxes.

My take is that people generally are too much absorbed in trying to enjoy their senses as much as possible. As a result they become very bodily conscious and act on the material dog-eat-dog survival-of-the-fittest platform. When even priests and cardinals are in bodily consciousness what can we expect from ordinary people?

There is need for a spiritual renaissance in human society. I don’t think that Attorney General Barr, capable though he may be in the political and legal field, is the right guy to lead it. A spiritual leader should be detached from sense gratification and material opulence and have spiritual vision.

As Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna in Bhagavad-gita:

“A yogi is fully satisfied by virtue of acquired knowledge and realization. He sees everything—pebbles, stones or gold—as the same.”

“One is more advanced who regards honest well-wishers, affectionate benefactors, the neutral, the envious, friends and enemies, the pious and the sinners all with an equal mind.”

“On cannot be a yogi if one eats too much or too little, sleeps to much or does not sleep enough.”

“He who is regulated in his habits of eating, sleeping, recreation and work can mitigate all material miseries by practicing the yoga system.”

“He is a perfect yogi who, in comparison to himself, sees the true equality of all beings, in both their happiness and distress.”

“A true yogi observes Me in all beings and also sees every being in Me. Indeed, the self-realized person sees Me, the same Supreme Lord, everywhere.”

“For one who sees me everywhere and sees everything in Me, I am never lost, nor is he ever lost to Me.”

Tom Chavez

Hello Gregg, 

Definition of Socialism: a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

The term “socialism” has been used to describe positions as far apart as anarchism, Soviet state communism and social democracy.

There is ambiguity in the term socialism. By this definition some degree of socialism is implicit in any society. Every business is part of the society and depends upon society for infrastructure, legal structure, police protection, etc.

Businesses that traffic in dangerous drugs, bio-weapons, nuclear material, child pornography, etc., are considered injurious or dangerous and are outlawed by our society. This falls into the definition of socialism. 

What about quack doctors and other fake professionals? Our government has regulative authorities to certify and license professionals. This falls into the definition of “socialism.” 

What about governmental agencies that check the quality of drugs or food to protect against disease or impure quality? Society regulates these businesses for the protection of the citizens. This also is “socialism.”

What about the national park system, the interstate highway system, and other ‘public’ spaces? Should all such properties be privately owned to avoid socialism?

Government regulates the electromagnetic spectrum. Businesses can’t just jump in and freely use any frequency they want. Business is part of society, and society is governed by laws and regulations. Some degree of socialism is implicit.

What about the social safety net, like FEMA, which is supposed to help in the case of natural calamities? This is socialism. What about Social Security? What about FDIC insurance for your savings in case the bank goes under?

What about government utilities for water and electricity? Should government be out of such activities?

Government is involved with some degree of control and regulation for every entity in the society. Thus, there is some degree of socialism in any society. If you want to eliminate any government oversight and regulation, why have a society or government?

Should government be involved in space exploration, “pure” scientific research which has no immediate practical application, development of fusion energy which is too expensive for private enterprises?

Should government be involved in education? With the Post Office? With the Patent Office? These are all cases of society and government involved in business, falling into the category of “socialism.”

Government may be corrupt or incompetent, but the solution is not to throw out government altogether. The solution is to uplift the quality of citizens to higher ethical and moral standards. 

The alternative is animal society with no government, no laws or regulations, and no constitution to protect individual citizen’s rights. Anything goes, law of the jungle, might makes right, dog-eat-dog, and survival of the fittest.

That will be our utopia with no socialism!

Al Peffley

Tom,

When extreme socialist practicitioners run out of working (productive) peoples' money and resources it ceases to exist because the ruling class are not producing anything tangable for human living or international trade (barter). When intellectual property is valued more than real essential products for living (food, shelter, water, energy, oxygen production from plants, etc.) then life and individual freedom die. Study why some of our colonial period (before the colonies rebelled against a totalitarian English regime) died because of "lack of cooperative and unified community work ethic" and adaption to their new home and available resources.

Gregg, you are spot on target about useless college degrees earned today at unreasonable cost to the public. These degrees with little or no demand are promoted by politicized, greedy college and university departments and schools who are self-centered and "hogs at the State & Federal Budget feeding troughs" of education funding. The U of W changed my ciriculum graduation requirements so many times in my senior year that I gaduated from City University instead. Boeing and I paid for my BSBA degree with minors in technology management and biological science studies. It was accomplished without any student loan. I "worked my way" through undergraduate school education. Most people who are given everything without personal sweat investment in their education and future become slaves to the system that provides everything to them (government and family enablement providers alike.)

Everyone graduating from college expecting to bypass real work experience to obtain management positions will create a four-year extension of the K-12 public education system and no knowlegeable people to manage people that stll do measurable productive work.

If and when government entities (including the education system) provide more service employment than U.S. trades and industries (that provides our economy and government with resources and money), then our Republic will cease to exist or be overtaken by the world forces who despise our founding roots and existense. We are almost there with the latter situation.

The slippery slope to extreme socialism started with people like Woodrow Wilson and FDR. Two world wars initiated by competing totalitarian dictators in multiple countries caused an interuption in their plans to end nationalism in favor of an Orwellian, One World Order governing system. We the People are already paying taxes to support ever-expanding government and special interest rich people's rule over individuals and previously self-run States of the American Union. Central government control by committees of the elite is pure Communism with no religious faith(s) moral guidance rudder (which failed miserably in the USSR.)

Tom, the term humanism as I was using it is meant to depict a secular (non-faith) basis for governing society and establishing "standard" rules of conduct and fairness in universal human governing systems. Applied in political discussion and religious applications, it has been used to describe law and order by people who embrace this philosophical relationship in living and governance.

In politics or religious discussions I have been involed in it is often used to describe influential folks who are athiests. They do not believe in any Supreme Being guidance. Therefore all rules, laws and regulations are derived from human thought, definition, action, and consequences. For some, people are are born basically benevolent and of good will, and all evil is just caused by a person's living environment and DNA makeup. Therefore, all evil people just have a health problem and are victims of outside influences on their psychological development during their youth. Humans are the origin of everything and morality is relative.

The humanism definition use that I chose was in reference to a religious or political application, not in an art Renaissance application as the term was used in northern Italy after the 1200's. Humanism concepts often define Man as the center of the universe's reason for existance and source of guidance for living, and do not recognize guidance from a Supreme Being source. All perception of existence and human success is human-centered and of human origin. At it's extreme belief, humans can create a "perfect world" without evil and defect, if we all just will it to be so through change of living habits and social reltionships. It often requires humanity's total subjugation to imagined, ideal physical states of existence. Versions of this ideal life are now being taught at all levels of our public education system. Extremist, 16-year old Greta is a product of Humanist Agenda 21 education and application programming.

This Sustainable Development slide was developed for Common Core use in public schools during the last decade and promoted by the Obama Adminstration's Department of Education leadership:

Traditional core family values are being replaced by multi-gender hybrid human relationships that do not procreate humans and gradual federal government takeover of our children's upbringing (the state manages your children, you don't as a parent or guardian.) Extreme secular ideals and laws created in the name of "socialism" and the "common good", concerning public safety and national level environmental responsibilty, are used as reasons for subjugation of our American culture (under United Nations' agendas.) The chart above has been used in Common Core ciriculum. It was inspired by UN Agenda 21 presentations on Sustainable Development. Its target audience is American K-12 students. Yet, I repeat myself...

https://www.britannica.com/topic/humanism

Robert Bramel

"Boeing and I paid for my BSBA degree with minors in technology management and biological science studies. It was accomplished without any student loan. I "worked my way" through undergraduate school education."

Al, sorry to disabuse you of your belief that you and Boeing paid for your college education, but in fact your education was highly subsidized by our socialist society. I don't know when you attended, but in 1964-68 tuition at the UW was $115 per quarter. So 150 hours of classes per quarter cost 77 cents per class hour. Four years and a BS cost $1380 which could be earned with less than 150 hours per year of part time work. There was a time, before our society lost its way, when we understood the need to provide for each other for the betterment of us all.

Now it seems we have a society that believes some people are entitled to be paid nearly a million times more than others, and then owe that society nothing. There are no billionaires who could have become rich in Kenya or Sudan; getting even a little rich requires a socialist society.

We can all thank FDR for Social Security and Medicare. How many of our Highline '64 group couldn't make it without those programs? Back then it was understood that society needed to think about providing for its elderly, no-longer-productive members.

Says the rural farmer in Mississippi, "The government has got to quit all those handouts! We've just got to stop!" The interviewer says, "But you get Medicaid!" Says the farmer, "Well, sure, but I NEED that!"

Tom Chavez

Today my wife, Kalindi, was scheduled for open heart surgery to replace a defective heart valve. I brought her to St. Luke’s Heart Center in Houston at 5:30 this morning. First they had her sign an informed consent declaration that she understood that the survival rate is estimated to be 95%; that risk of complications include death, stroke, brain damage, paralysis, heart block, loss of vision, loss of bladder and bowel control, pulmonary embolism, and loss of organ function including the heart, brain, lungs and kidneys; that infection might occur in the incision, region of operation and elsewhere, which may produce all sorts of complications including death. Finally, mandatory blood transfusions may be complicated by transfusion reactions, or viral infections including cytomegalic virus, hepatitis and HIV.

The operation began at 7:30. They had to cut through the breastbone to open the rib-cage. Her body was cooled down so that circulation could be stopped while the heart was being cut and a new valve grafted into the aorta. After this an artificial heart-lung machine restored circulation and breathing, and her body was warmed up again. The operation was finished around 3:15, and I was allowed in to see her around 4:15.

She was sedated and completely unconscious. Her body temperature was 92.2 F when I came in. When I left after 15 minutes it had gone up to 92.7 F (normal temperature is 98.6 F). She was covered with blankets, and they had a machine blowing warm air through a plastic wrap to gradually heat up her body. A ventilator was breathing for her via a tube going into her lungs. They were putting three liquids into her: a saline solution, a sedative and plasma to help stop the bleeding. They were carefully monitoring the bleeding around the heart area where they had operated. There were many tubes and wires attached to and going into her body, and many machines monitoring her vital signs. Two nurses were attending her. Tomorrow I will be allowed to visit her at 10:00 a.m.

There’s nothing I can do now except pray.

Gregg Wilson

Tom,

I pray that she survives. That is religion I guess. I live in fear that will be coming up with my wife.

Karen Buck (White)

Tom - my prayers and good wishes will be with you!!! A word of encouragement: my brother just had a heart vavle replaced 3 months ago. Even though there were several scary moments during his recovery he is now doing physical therapy and walking (as well as riding a stationary bike) and feeling pretty energetic and glad he went through the risky surgery.  Here's hoping your wife has the same positive results.

Virginia Wolfe (Scheffer)

Tom...I wish you and Kalindi well during this scary ordeal.  Keep up the faith and things will be wonderful!!!  Prayers going your way!

Linda Pompeo (Worden)

Tom,

May your wife's recovery be swift and complete. I pray that both of you will be comforted and feel wrapped in the caring arms of God as you journey through this difficult time.

Al Peffley

Tom,

I am sure that you are very busy right now taking care of what's important for today's life and caring love for your healing soul mate. Let's pray that God continues to send the right medical experts to help her recover from a very traumatic and somewhat complex open heart surgery operation.

God bless her and you, and may He give you inner peace through this stressful time in your lives. I am sure that you love her deeply. Tests of faith bring healing of the soul and spirit like no other experiences in life. Visualize healing and positive thoughts about her to your subconcious mind every morning and evening. Speak softly to her in her ear to her subconcious mind about your deep love together. Quietly tell her positive, thoughtful words about her whole body healing when you visit her, even if she is not consious when you are in the room with her.

We join the prayer chain with the others here on the Message Forum. Thanks for reaching out to us. Keep us informed of specific support that you need our prayers to promote spiritual power intercession petitions to God for her whole body healing process.

Much Love,

Al & Bonnie

Al Peffley

Bob,

I reality I had an unusual academic experience and journey through college. The U.S. House of Representatives doesn't adequately subsidze educaton out of "it's own funds" unless it borrows money from international financial institutions, robs money from other other state and federal budget accounts, or the federal government prints money that has little material value when the monetary paper value exceeds any material "stuff's" barter value (use to be gold at Ft. Knox and other storage sites was our money standard.)

All federal "non-discretionary" subsidy spending that is not borrowed by the Treasury derives funding from taxes paid by individual and corporate taxpayers who actually feed the government coffers. Increasing national debt for extreme socialist programs subsidy purposes will eventually destroy our economy and our ability to trade on the world markets. We borrow money as a society for everything.

Some college students who signed legal contracts with commercial loan shark financial institutions (most charging federal government-imposed interest rates) want their loan to be "forgiven" by the U.S. Government and the tax-paying public? Welcome to the real world of adult decision-making and loan responsibilty to pay off contractual obligations! Many of these new generation undergraduate students I would venture to say are the same people who habitually default on house and automobile purchase contracts in adult life. They use resources without rsponsibility for their subsidized life commitments. Taxpayers and financial institutions become their "mom & dad". Nothing is "free" in the material realm of life. There are givers and takers in life. When the takers exceed the givers' resources, then quality of life degrades rapidly -- supply and demand principles of economy, 101. Supply is not unlimited, except in some socialist people's minds. The globalist answer: World population reduction to decrease [self-centered] global demand. Give the planet open space back to animals and live (primatively) in Orwellian-inspired urban sprawl megacities ruled by committees of elites. Robotic systems will do all demeaning work while subjugated people just consume international government-allotted resources. I prefer responsible and loving liberty for myself and all people of good will.

I graduated (eventually in 1999, only five years before I retired) from City University, which I believe is classifed as a private college, not a state-funded school of higher education. As a junior and senior classman, I only took classes that directly pertained to my well-established professional occupation, with a very few class subject matter exceptions. Therefore, I knew what to take to benefit Boeing and I to perform my professional tasks in Financial Analysis and Systems Engineering. I was an undergraduate senior three times (changing majors twice at U Dub before completing my last chosen major at City University.)

Most public college and university (a cooperative group of colleges) institutions nowadays are really giant businesses that feed off of undergraduate program fees, federal and international government grants, and federal government/commercial industry research contracts. Performing these commercial market research business operations requires a lot of General & Administrative and Overhead expnses. It also requires high facilities operations costs to run a huge, non-profit research business, especially with very high-paying salaries and expected executive fringe benefits. I would submit that big business operation was not so prevalent when we started college in the 60's. It is now greatly expanding in operations size and complexity, and its costs to taxpayers far exceed the government "subsidy" income required to sustain research operations and new business capture. Many of the successful graduate students are foreign nationals.

This top-heavy, graduate school emphasis in state-subsidized institutions also increases demand for academic funding of non-producing and marginal-production schools of academic discipline within the system. Literally, we are increasing the national debt to achieve a decreasing taxpayer ROI on American citizens' college education. In the mean time, our K-12 system is failing compared to 1968 curriculum and teaching methods, in my opinion, no matter how much money we throw at state and local government level education in the general fund (non-discretionary) state budgets.

My view, of course, from what AOC has called the "cheap seats" (re: AOC's comment to the co-founder of Green Peace about her extreme Green New Deal solutions to Climate Change.) I am not a PhD in anything, especially about Climate Change or the political "science" of governing cultures with socialism rules and edicts. I am just a lowly taxpayer my whole working life whose investment tax payments mostly go to people now who pay nothing into enormous socialist programs like Social Security (sold by FDR's Administartion and Congress as a voluntary investment "trust fund" managed by the Federal Government which Congess spent.)

Medicare and Medicaid (mostly state taxpayer-funded) are now offered free to illegal aliens and most people on Welfare. These financially bankrupt, socialist government health programs provide ZERO real health services to people. Full Obamacare implementation is proving to be a non-value added government health management system to the taxpayer public (whose co-pay costs are increasing at an alarming rate), and a revised HIPPA bureaucratic nightmare for doctors and health system administrators alike. Doctors are leaving American socialized health care systems annually in large numbers for early retirement or practices in individual private clinics. Doctors I talk to are frustrated with socialist rationing of health services. They must adhere to Obamacare-enforced rules of visit time limitation and restricted health topic discussions with their patients. Medicare for all will make the situation worse for doctors who really care about their patients' well being and reduce average health care service for all patients. CMS is a government management healthcare services failure and Congress (who are exempt from mandatory Obamacare participation) knows it.

Best Regards,

Al

Gregg Wilson

Robert,

I paid social security and medicare taxes for 51 years. So, what did FDR give me? He taxed and spent. Wow.

Tom Chavez

Thanks to you all for your blessings, well wishes and prayers. Kalindi's vital signs look good, and she is moving about a little, sometimes fluttering her eyelids, but not yet coming to consciousness. The doctors say that is not unusual for an elderly person who is sensitive to strong sedative. I spent the day at the hospital, and will attend the 5:30 visiting half-hour tomorrow. Hopefully hunger, if nothing else, will awaken her. She hasn't eaten anything for over two full days. Her heart is working well, which seems miraculous to me. As soon as she awakens they can remover the breathing tube and take her off the ventilator. Thanks again to you all, and God bless you!

Al Peffley

Thank you , Tom, for the update. We will keep praying for her healing and eventual awakening. She is being fed nutriants intravenously, I assume. Rest is important for her body and mind right now. The older we get the longer healing takes...

Yes, Gregg, rich politicians at state and federal levels love to spend our "Social Security" and Medicare money recklessly (and seemingly without much moral conscience.)

Bob, the reason I am still alive is that I had a team of excellent paramedics (not EMT's) and cardiologist doctors in 2015 who took care of me when my plaque rupture and LAD collapse occured (they call the LAD malfunction event "the widow-maker" because few people survive to tell about it.) Procedures done with arthroscopic surgery today are amazing. They are less intrusive surgical operations when it comes to artery clearance repairs and installing medicine-impregnated stints, intestinal polyp removal, or large kidney stone removal (been there, done all that.) CMS had nothing to do with making those resources available to my medical service teams. If anything in medical services needs to be subsidized it's CAT-scan and other costly imaging services. Regional medical service subsidies from taxpayer dollars should not be used for treating virus infections, drug addiction related illness, and removing stitches of uninsured patients at already overwhelmed emergency and urgent care facilites. The medical support system is broken and the damage will be long term if not addressed properly.

Joanne Rowe (Jordan)

You and Kalinda are in my prayers. One of the many blessings and probably the best from God is our spouse. I pray you get more years to love her and love the Lord.

Tom Chavez

Happy News!

This morning I visited at 5:30 and Kalindi was very alert and responsive, much more than yesterday. It seemed that she had finally fully awakened after three nights in the ICU. When I visited later at 10:00 they had removed the breathing tube. At first she had almost no voice, but she could make herself understood. The nurse gave her little cubes of ice, to be sure she could swallow, without it going down the wrong pipe. 

Then Kalindi tried a small cup of water, not much more than a large thimble. Then a big cup using a straw. She is able to talk, and she is able to drink. She has a little pain from the incision, which they will manage with aspirin. During my half-hour visit her voice started coming back. Her color is good, It was wonderful to see her smiling again.

Materialists think that the world runs mechanically according to mathematical laws. Impersonalists think that God is impersonal and uncaring. Atheists think that there is no God, and they seek to exploit the world for their own purposes.

But theists know that a personal God watches from behind the illusory curtain of creation. When God hears prayers and good wishes he may respond, according to his own sweet will. That is causeless mercy. I am very grateful for all the prayers and good wishes on Kalindi’s behalf.

I thank you all from the bottom of my heart!

Betty Weiks (Rickard)

Tom,

So glad to hear that Kalinda is recovering and has made progress post surgery.  I was so sorry to learn that you have both had to go through this stressful time, but you are absolutely correct.  We have a loving God who has given us Jesus, and his sweet Holy Spirit who comforts us through all of our trials. This morning as we were singing a song in church about the POWER in JESUS name, I thought of Kalinda and have been praying for you both. Many years ago my dad had to go through open heart surgery and seeing him before he awakened was so very difficult. I've been away from my computer while on vacation in Hawaii the last week so hadn't heard about your situation. Tonight my husband Rob and I will be meeting with a small group of believers and I will ask for prayer for you both.  I live in Canby, Oregon now, just south of Portland.  

Interestlingly enough, I also spent some time in Asia over twenty years ago.  I was teaching English to middle and high school English teachers in two different Universities.  The first year I was in Nanning, China which is about 150 miles from Viet Nahm.  The next time I went back to teach was in Hohot, China which is much farther north near Inner Mongolia and the Gobi Desert.  It was an amazing time.

Again my prayers are with you both.

Blessings,

Betty Weiks (Rickard)

Al Peffley

Tom, great news for you to share with us! We'll keep those prayers flowing. God has blessed you two.

Al & Bon

Gregg Wilson

Tom,

Don't thank me. Thank the surgeons and nurses - they performed the "miracle".

Linda Pompeo (Worden)

Thank you for the update of such great news.  Hold hands and rejoice.  Nothing is more important than sharing as many days as we are blessed with with the one we love.

Virginia Wolfe (Scheffer)

Wonderful news!  And yes, a shout out to all those in the medical profession too!

Tom Chavez

Happy news: Kalindi came home Saturday from open heart surgery and is progressing nicely—eating, drinking, walking and talking with enthusiasm. Even singing. I had a realization from the whole experience which I’d like to share.

After reporting here that Kalindi was recovering nicely, we had some dramatic episodes.

While I was out of the hospital, I got a call. Kalindi’s heart had stopped. They had to do CPR (cardiac pulmonary resuscitation), knock her out, and put her back in the ICU. I returned to sign permission for a pacemaker implant.

I was angry at the hospital. They had given her drugs to slow her rapid heartbeat, and I suspected that had caused her heart to stop. I was frustrated, because I was thinking that she was recovering and everything would go back to normal.

Kalindi was again intubated on a ventilator for the pacemaker procedure. After two days they took out the tube. She was weak and her voice was almost gone. After only an hour, suddenly she was struggling and fighting for each breath and her heart rate and blood pressure zoomed.

They knocked her out and intubated her again, for the third time. The doctors explained that sometimes, due to the tube bruising the larynx, the larynx and vocal cords swell up, blocking the windpipe. They kept Kalindi intubated for two more days.

Finally, they took out the tube. The next day, she was very tired and weak. The ICU is noisy, with beeping machines, hourly checks on the patients, emergencies and discussions. Kalindi could not sleep at night and she was weak from lack of food.

That morning Kalindi fell asleep, and no one could awaken her. The doctors came and injected medication directly into her heart to wake her up. After two more days in the ICU she was promoted to recovery, and after another two days, as she quickly regained strength, she was discharged.

My realization from all this? How temporary and precarious life is. From a Sanskrit song: “Kamala-dala-jala, jivana tala-mala….” Life is like a drop of water on a lotus leaf—at any moment it can slip away.

I was taking life for granted—relaxed, enjoying and complacent. It reminds me of the Rakshasa's question to King Yudhisthira, “What is the most amazing thing?” The King answered, “We see that everyone around us dies, yet we expect to continue living.”

Each moment is a precious gift, and those moments are inexorably ticking away. They could end at any time. This is always true, but we become intoxicated by life and forget. I’ve been sobered up by this experience and pray that I remain so.

I don’t want to waste my time enjoying mundane entertainment or following worldly affairs. I want to focus on my goal in life, to purify my consciousness and attain higher realization. 

yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ

  tyajaty ante kalevaram

taṁ tam evaiti kaunteya

  sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ

“Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kuntī, that state he will attain without fail.”—Bhagavad-gita As It Is 8.6

“As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from childhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.”—Bhagavad-gita As It Is 2.13