America Will Not Have a King, by Ed Evans

This afternoon a little after noon Eastern time, the President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, made a colossal mistake, based upon regal presumptions. Because he apparently sees himself as King of America -- with all the regal perks, privileges, and allegiances -- he approached the TV network microphones with the idea that a few soothing words from him and the market on Wall Street would rebound.

CBS-TV network ran a running tally of the market's reaction in the lower right hand corner of the screen as the President King spoke. Wall Street was not impressed, even though he worked into his speech all the wonderful things he had done, to no avail, to save America from itself, things God alone might have accomplished. And while he mentioned many things, the mention of God's help in this crisis was unaccountably left off his list.

Perhaps Wall Street was not impressed because he ran off-track with his first few words. Either the current President of the United States is so badly served by those around him, or is deliberately ignorant of the facts behind America's downgrade by Standard & Poors, whom, incidentally he verbally backhanded by calling them "some rating agency."

Someone needs to inform the President King that America received its AA+ verses AAA+ rating not because of the political squabbles in Washington -- he went on to make it clear this was the Republicans' fault -- but because, according to S&P, in passing the latest bill and debt ceiling raise the Congress failed to come up with an organized plan to solve America's growing debt problem.

Not long after that he mysteriously tied together the idea that by having the Congress extend unemployment benefits and taxing the rich, that would create more jobs. Apparently, if you are King you can tie together nonsense notions and they become true. It's good to be King.

Someone close to the President King might also whisper in his imperial ear that it is not helpful to speak one moment about the need for bipartisan efforts, and then in the next breath bash the other party. Even Kings are not able to bridge the gulf of back-biting and non-cooperation that creates.

This nation was built upon the idea of limited government and separation of powers. They go together for successful governance. And although this President King has repeatedly injected his influence into the free market system, skirted Congressional involvement with his Executive signature, and inserted the White House into the Congressional process, the Constitutional restrictions for limited government remain.

Finally, someone might also point out to His Majesty, who claims to be a Constitutional scholar, that natural law, upon which the United States Constitution is based, carries within it the seeds of recommended rebellion, when government no longer serves the best interest of We the People. It is probably much too late to point out to him that in America, the real power lies with those who are governed, with We the People, and that public servants such as he, his administration, and the entire Congress serve with the permission of We the People.

America's own Declaration of Independence states that "when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government". John Locke wrote that it is every man's right to seek such relief, and scholars Morton White, Howard Evans Kiefer, and the Reverend Martin Luther King taught that it is the duty of the people to resist unjust laws.

Of course, there are those who are convinced America's current President King already knows this fact, and this is why he is attempting through various means to accumulate as much power and control as he can, contrary to the intent of the U.S. Constitution. But that is grist for another mill.

Speaking of mills, were our President King a student of history, he might exhibit a great deal more caution in his extended reach for power and control. For the history of the United States of America, because of American exceptionalism and its emphasis on individual freedom, because of those very separation of powers set down by our Founding Fathers, demonstrates that in America the mill of justice grinds slowly, but extremely fine. He may think he and his are above the law. He is wrong. America taught that lesson to King George of England, in blood, and to many others down through history. To paraphrase that historic Prime Minister of Great Britain, Winston Churchill, our President King Barack Hussein Obama is riding about on a tiger from which he dare not dismount, lest he be eaten. But dismount him we must, legally, but absolutely.

To do so before the election of 2012 would serve We the People best, but if not before, then by the electoral process. The election of 2012 must then be a Cease and Desist Order for the Obama administration, lest the dream that is America cease.

The world needs America to be America, for this nation to be that living bastion of freedom for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. American exceptionalism and rugged individualism, not dictatorial whimsy, will see to its survival. But that America will not have a king.

~*~

Coordinated Media Attacks? by Ed Evans

Is George Soros now in charge of America's newsrooms?

When I was in the military, we knew that when you saw coordinated attacks snaking in from different quarters, you could look for a coordinator. Find the coordinator and you cut the head off the snake.

Even before the recent budget action by Congress and the President, the coordinated attack began to appear comparing Tea Party people and the GOP with terrorists. Two columnists from the New York Times have now launched a full frontal assault. New York Times Joe Nocera and columnist Nicholas Kristof didn't even try to soft-pedal their attacks. Nocera outright described Tea Party Republicans as "terrorists" wearing "suicide vests" even as the debt ceiling issue was still being debated.

Kristoff capped off the terrorist labeling by claiming they constituted a “national security threat. … from our own domestic extremists.”

Follow along here as Nocera uses his best writing talents to paint conservatives as terrorists: "“These last few months, much of the country has watched in horror as the Tea Party Republicans have waged jihad on the American people. Their intransigent demands for deep spending cuts, coupled with their almost gleeful willingness to destroy one of America’s most invaluable assets, its full faith and credit, were incredibly irresponsible. But they didn’t care. Their goal, they believed, was worth blowing up the country for, if that’s what it took.” Well done, isn't it?

Nocera and Kristoff are not alone in this media imagte management and manipulation, this has all the marks of a coordinated attack.

All thought the debt ceiling debates, liberal journalists have been referring to conservatives and Tea Party Republicans with terms like the Hezabollah faction, terrorists, traitors, and even hostage takers, as a very obvious effort to manipulate public opinion and marginalize conservative facts.

No less than the Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, joined in, saying conservatives were terrorists for fighting for a balanced budget. Do you see that the Vice President was putting patriotic Americans up there alongside bloodlust killers of woman and children?

On MSNBC, the embarrassingly partisan Chris Matthews said that the GOP had become "the Wahabis of the American government, willing to risk bringing down the whole country in the service of their anti-tax ideology."

If not George Soros, who? It is true the liberals running our newsrooms exhibit the need to uproot and reshape today's America, reshaping it in the progressive image, but only a George Soros, owning as much of the news media as he does, with that kind of financial influence, would be in a probable position to launch and coordinate such attacks.

The issues of freedom and individual liberty at the core of the free market system, and the necessity of limited government in this nation, are of such importance that this type of news media bias and character assassination cannot be allowed to flourish without demanding comment. And the demand must be that it stop. It will only stop at the demand of We the People, as individuals speaking out against it in letters, telephone calls, letters to the editor, and online comments through the social media. Wherever such scurrilous attacks occur, the word must be loud and clear: "No more!" We the People still have that power, so far. But the insidious nature of such attacks on patriotic Americans, with outside interest manipulating our own news media is eating away at the body of freedom like a rotting disease, and must be stopped.

This ethical and moral violence is not the American way. This is not what our Founding Fathers worked to set into motion. This is not what patriotic Americans fought and died for. This is not what we wish to pass on to tomorrows generation of free Americans. May God continue to bless America.

A Series of Sickening Decisions - The Gutting of the American Military as the Defenses Come Down

REQUEST: These decisions, made by the un-elected, by the appointed, overruling hard won military experience, will eventually tear down the fences that protect this nation, jeopardizing our grandchildren's future, and America's legacy. Please share.

Military Leadership Diversity Commission

This was forwarded to me by a retired Navy Flag Officer. I have removed all connections to him and two other Armed Forces Flag Officers.

I just did a quick search for "Military Leadership Diversity Commission" and came up with a reading list that is very long, so I (or we) don't know much but there is a huge and growing database of information that is very worrisome.

The Military Leadership Diversity Commission has made its report to Congress and the Nation. Every news media branch has jumped on the bandwagon of criticism of the "Military" properly named, "The Armed Forces" including PBS. All of the serious critics have micro-knowledge of the Armed Forces, their full mission and how to achieve that mission. Few in Congress know and who in the Executive Branch of Government would know?

Criticism of the Military Leadership Diversity Commission report from professionals who are charged with the responsibility of actually fighting the wars is abundant and growing. These critics are people who will be forced out of their careers when and if identified.

________________________________________

A 31-member Military Leadership Diversity Commission, set up by Pelosi's Lame Duck Congress a year ago, requested that the Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, execute a "social experiment on diversity"; the goal of the recommendations is to change the make-up of the leadership of the US Armed Forces. The Commission contains a sizable number of civilian-equal opportunity professionals, as well as some retired and active military personnel.

Because ethnic minorities are less likely to meet eligibility requirements for entrance into the US Armed Forces, the Commission is urging the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force to either lower or eliminate the standards that have always been used for acceptance of recruits into the military. The Commission proposal states education, entry test level scores, criminal records, and drug use that up to this time have been used to disqualify a large numbers of applicants, including some minorities and all felons, unfair and should be eliminated.

The commission completed a 162-page report and strongly recommended that the Secretary of Defense and the Congress endorse the proposals that they act to execute the Commission's "social experiment on diversity."

The Commission wants Secretary Gates to appoint a "Diversity Czar" who will bypass the Congress on all future matters concerning their proposed "social experiment on diversity" and that in the future the Diversity Czar be permitted to by-pass Congress and report directly to the Defense Secretary.

Another of the many recommendations is that at confirmation, all future flag officer selectees be required to demonstrate to the Senate Armed Services Committee that they have a rich background in promoting the "social experiment on diversity"; future promotions to flag would no longer be based upon what senior officers are best qualified to lead military personnel into combat and/or would be most effective at improving their command's "Combat Effectiveness."

While the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is driving the current aggressive indoctrination of the US Armed Forces, in order to turn the US Military into an openly homosexual organization, the Military Leadership Diversity Commission is pressing the Pentagon to make additional destabilizing changes to the US Armed Forces in the midst of three theatres of armed conflict. Among the many initiatives in its study, is a recommendation to open infantry and armor units to women; the study said that women should be allowed into male-only units to "create a level playing field" in promotions "for all service members who meet the qualifications."

Hardened Combat Veterans say that "direct ground combat" is not like an MP being subjected to exchange of small-arms gunfire with insurgents, or of military personnel being wounded by an IEDs when transiting in a convoy, or a service member being abducted by terrorists while on patrols or on guard duty. There is a true lack of understanding of exactly what direct ground combat entails, what closing with and destroying an enemy combatant by the most violent means available is; often it is a direct eye-to-eye confrontation, then being required to employ upper-body physical strength that physically fit US Marines, US Army Rangers, or US Navy SEALs train for. Direct ground combat is defined as an action when opposing forces engage in violent, intense, close-in, hand to hand combat. According to former Commandant of the US Marine Corps, General Carl Mundy, units which are trained repeatedly into fine-tuned teams to engage and defeat the enemy directly, exist and operate on the basis of masculine cohesion. "I believe that female service members bring tremendous skills and talents to many sectors of our armed forces, but I believe equally strongly that they are not best suited for the unique demands associated with direct combat units."

Congressman Allen West as well as Congressman Duncan D. Hunter, two of the 12 endorsed Combat Veteran For Congress who were elected in the 2010 mid-term election (out of the full slate of 27 endorsed candidates who won their primary elections), have already gone public on their view of the proposed "social experiment on diversity"; they feel the proposal is intrusive and inappropriate.

"This is the last thing the military should be thinking about," said Cong. Duncan D. Hunter, a member of the Armed Services Committee who saw combat in Iraq and Afghanistan as a US Marine Corps Officer. "Our military is engaged in a shooting war," the California Republican stated. "This is just another distraction that can't interfere with what's most important - winning in Afghanistan. Congressman Duncan added, "Some people seem to think the military is a staging ground for social testing, and that attitude only puts lives at risk."

Congressman Allen West, a Florida Representative, who as a senior Army officer completed a one year combat tour of duty in Iraq, and a two year combat tour of duty in Afghanistan said, "The US Military is a merit based organization where anybody can succeed." Congressman West said the report "is a slap in the face to those minorities who have achieved seniority." In an interview with The Daily Caller, Congressman West, who is black, was not pleased with the report, and said that the military is not a social experiment for outside groups to impose their theories.

US Naval Academy Admissions Office now openly practices the "social experiment of diversity." The Naval Academy Admissions Board now admits student with SAT scores in math as low as 410 and verbal scores as low as 370; the SAT score cut off for Midshipmen had normally been around 600 out of a possible 800 score.

A former Admission Board Member agreed to make the following statement on condition of anonymity; he said, "The unfairness is absolutely real." The "social experiment on diversity" has been driven by the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff's and the CNO since their appointments, and has resulted in the admittance of marginal students, mostly athletes and minorities, while by-passing fully qualified white students in the pool of 15,000 applicants annually. The results of the admittance of marginal students has been an increase in serious violations of regulations such as drug use (resulting in multiple dismissals), excessive use of liquor and inebriation on weekend liberty, increased violations of the Honor Code requiring retraining to retain minority students (as a former member of the Honor Committee there was no such thing as honor retraining; Midshipmen do not lie, cheat, or steal) and recently, one Midshipman lied to a law enforcement officer when in custody for a federal offense.

The Brigade of Midshipmen has been negatively affected by the "social experiment of diversity," and now the US Armed forces will be subjected to that same experiment during a wartime environment. The Supreme Court has ruled that admission procedures at institutions of higher education that consider percentages of race and gender as a consideration for selecting and making up an entering freshman class is discriminatory and those actions by a college Admissions Board are a violation of federal law.

The "social experiment on diversity" imposed on the Brigade at the US Naval Academy, pushing an openly homosexual environment on the US Armed Forces, and now the proposal by the Military Leadership Diversity Committee have all put the US Military under unreasonable destabilizing pressure. The proposal by the Commission to select future flag officers of the US Armed Forces using some type of litmus test on diversity will not improve the "Combat Effectiveness" of the US Military.

By recommending that senior military officers only be selected for flag if they pass a test on diversity, and considering their race and gender by some percentages, will not result in the promotion of the most qualified senior officers who would improve the "Combat Effectiveness" of the US Armed Force (there will be no more Admiral Bull Halseys, General Pattons, General Chesty Pullers, General Jimmy Doolittles, etc., because they would not be "politically correct" selectees).

The American people are unaware of the aforementioned coordinated assaults on the most effective and professional military force in the world, they are not aware that the agenda that is being driven by socialists and liberals who oppose the US Armed Forces high standards of duty, honor, country, and its support for the Judeo-Christian religions is hurting the stability of the force. Those coordinated assaults by progressives, pushing a "social experiment on diversity", will weaken the US Military over the long term.

The actions of outside forces supported by the Obama Administration are continuing to push the above listed changes that are marginalizing the "Combat Effectiveness" of the US Armed Forces. The US Military has protected and defended the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Republic for 234 years, experimenting with the structure and make-up of the US Military organization and assaulting its leadership structure will destabilize the US Armed Forces. We must rely on the judgment of the 12 elected Combat Veterans For Congress and other Congressmen to coordinate their efforts to halt the above listed dangerous experiments with the US Armed Forces.

Pres. Obama's 22Jun2011 Afghanistan Speech

Listening to President Obama's speech tonight about pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, it is obvious this is another instance where he intends to ignore the hard-won expert, experienced advice of U.S. Generals, and do it his way. This will have consequences, as we have seen before. But this President is not a student of history.

Here are some instances of his speech that jumped out at me:

He claims HE ordered 30,000 additional troops as a “surge,” but I clearly remember he was one of those AGAINST the surge ordered by Pres. George W. Bush. Yet he takes credit for the "surge."

He will have brought 40,000 troops home by next year, men and women trained at great expense, and because there will be no longer a need for that many troops under arms, they will be released onto an economy that has no jobs for them. This in a nation that already has 14 million jobless. And the reservists will not be going back to their old jobs, because we've already seen the news stories of that law being ignored, and the Obama administration will not fight for them.

Our mission will change, Obama said, from combat to support, obviously not understanding that with his massive drawdown of troops, those left behind will have to fight a rear guard action to get out of Afghanistan alive. We don't learn from history.

Despite what he said, killing Osama bin Ladin has not stopped al Qaeda. They are still armed, dangerous, and attacking us.

Contrary to what he said, we do not have widespread support among our allies in NATO, as many of our former allies are crying poormouth and want to disengage.

He complemented the Afghan Police Force, which is known as a national disgrace. He is obviously out of touch. Reality has no meaning for this man.

He stated we have ended our combat mission in Iraq. What in the world makes him think that? Some wounded veterans at Walter Reed Army Hospital and Bethesda Naval Hospital may want to talk to him about that. They may be arriving by aircraft this afternoon or tomorrow morning.

I have never ... never ... never been more disgusted with not just our President, but with our elected officials who see America being beaten to her knees economically, socially, and morally, and will not take the action available to them to save this nation. Disgusted. Disgusted. Disgusted!!!

Top 10 Reasons Why the U.S. Marines in Okinawa Are Essential | The Heritage Foundation

Top 10 Reasons Why the U.S. Marines in Okinawa Are Essential | The Heritage Foundation

The Living Stone that Causes Stumbling, by Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture: 1 Peter 2:2-10

2:2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation-
2:3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
2:4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and
2:5 like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
2:6 For it stands in scripture: "See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame."
2:7 To you then who believe, He is precious; but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner,"
2:8 and "A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
2:10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

This past week the children of the King, you who have become "God's own people" have been stressed and dressed down for not believing a lie.

The TV Cable wires, radio broadcasts and newspaper printing presses were burning up with the news that the world was ending on May 21st and the earth would be destroyed!

Oh my! Oh gosh! Holy cow! Yikes! Whatever will we do?!

The almost comical rush of media lemmings off the very edge of wisdom and sanity brought to mind the old two-line poem: "When confused, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout!"

An 88-year-old civil engineer and radio network owner, Harold Camping, had declared the world would end at 6 p.m. -- local time all over the world in a rolling earthquake beginning in New Zealand -- and he had spent $2 million dollars putting up billboards to let everyone know. TV screens filled with wide-eyed followers declaring "It's true. He knows. Make peace with God, now!"

Of course, it's easy to say all that now, right? I mean, here it is May 22nd, a day later, with no rolling earthquakes, no appearance of our Lord, and so now we can laugh and make jokes about it. Got news for you. We could do that before.

I won't go into Harold Camping's entire history, it's out there on the Internet if anyone wants to look at this late date, information that was there all along about how many times he had played this same game, and the destruction of the world never came. What do you call a prophecy that doesn't come true? I'm not certain, but you don't call it a prophecy. Prophecies happen.

But there's an even better reason we should have been able to laugh and joke about it during that "stressful" week leading up to May 21st. What's that reason? The reason is because we are children of the King. Because we believe in Jesus Christ. We believe in the inspired Word of God.

If you are going to believe in such "prophecies", such false claims, then you are going to have to forget about Jesus Christ, because you are going to have to believe that He lied to us in Matthew 24:36 where, speaking to His disciples on the Mount of Olives, sitting beside a fig tree, Jesus described what would happen during the last days, ending with, “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

Jesus thought it important enough to repeat His warning just two verses later: " Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour."

In the context of that conversation with His disciples, just a few verses earlier, still there on the Mount of Olives, Jesus warns His disciples, in verse 11, that many false prophets will appear and "deceive many people." Mr. Camping has said the world was ending before, in the 1980's, again in 1994, and now, again; always false.

He has also for years been telling people not to attend church, claiming the Holy Spirit has abandoned churches, and relating how there was silence in heaven because no one was being saved. Oh please, how gullible do you have to be, how ignorant of scriptural discernment do you have to be, to be so easily led away from the guidance of the Holy Spirit in your understanding of holy scripture?

Harold Camping builds his entire false prophesy upon his private interpretation of Ecclesiastes 8:5. He takes that verse out of context and twists it to mean what it was never meant to mean. In fact, the true irony is that the context of chapter 8 is about the limitation of man's knowledge, how much we do not know, cannot know.

It's always possible, of course, that whatever Mr. Camping meant to accomplish, God meant for His own purposes, and perhaps many people came to accept Christ because of the actions of this false prophecy.

But sadly, it is more likely this debacle of false prophecy, for many, undermined what little they knew of Christ, and convinced them that, like Camping's claims, there was nothing to the claims of Christ. This is pleasing only to the god of this world, who delights in such false masquerades of the true Christ.

It is our individual responsibilities, as followers of Jesus Christ, to know enough about the inspired word of Almighty God that we can discern the true from the false. Our natural senses should alert, out of our own learned wisdom about God's word, when people begin twisting and misusing His word. For example, Camping twists scripture to change the dates of Jesus' birth and death, the times of Noah, and other events. For what purposes? Well, for one thing, to disagree with Bible scholars makes news, and Mr. Camping writes and sells books. Publicity also generates advertising sales, and Mr. Camping also has a $22 million dollar radio network.

So, how should Christians react to all this?

First, let us accept that there is a war in heaven. We have God's word that tells us that. Satan and his demons are the enemy of God. God's word tells us that. For that reason, Ephesians 6:12 explains to us, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."

When that verse was posted on Facebook recently, someone responded, "Honestly I would like this, but I don't like the war. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do, but I don't have to like it."

As I read that response, my jaw dropped. What? Do they believe we have a choice in this conflict between good and evil? Okay, that's enough, no more conflict between good and evil. We're not gonna do war no more. Satan, settle down and be nice. God, Satan says he'll behave so You and all Your angels can stand down and take a break.

Now, it is true according to God's word, that when we get to heaven there will be no more sin. But that means that those who want to do sin, who seek sin to do, they won't be there. But here in this life, we are still up for grabs by the enemy if we do not have the life of Christ within us.

But, if we do have Christ, we have a compulsion to share the good news of Jesus Christ. Love, purity, all the good things have come. As 2nd Corinthians 5:14-15, 17, tells us, "For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again ... Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the news has come!"

Those renewed in Christ have no reason to be concerned about this date or that date, but we can merely accept Jesus' word, that no man knows. Our job is to do as Jesus in Mark 16:15 instructs us, "He said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.'"

Note that there is nothing there about packing up and waiting for His arrival, nothing about making arrangements for who will take care of our pets left behind, who will get our house, our car, our fortune. He who loved us first will see that we are taken care of, but first, we need to share His love with all the world. Of course, that will not always be easy, for as we do move into the end times, the persecution of Christians will increase, even as we are seeing in China, India, Pakistan, and Africa today

In the case of those described in verse 9, "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people," we will have the empowerment of the sons and daughters of God; we will have steadfastness and the living truth; the "living stone" which causes others to stumble.

The inspired Word of God makes it clear that there is "the judgment" coming, that God sees and God neither ignores those who become His enemy, nor those who accept His Son. His Word is clear, and true, and deadly to those who ignore Him, even before "the" judgment gets here. Hebrews 4:12 reminds us that "the Word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword."

Let the false prophets do their worst. We the sons and daughters of the royal family have work to do, a mission for the sake of Christ, and the Word of God, which false prophets attempt to use against us, is a two-edged sword in the hands of the believer. Know your sword. For having received mercy, through the Word we now offer Christ to the world, and His hand of mercy.

Amen.

Small Victories and the Run to Hue

by Ed Evans, MGySgt., USMC (Ret.)

April 11, 2011

It was the first warm Monday of a late spring in Nashville, and I was scheduled for an early morning stress test at the VA Hospital. My new doctor, a very conscientious young man, was attempting to determine the cause of my shortness of breath and sometimes loss of equilibrium. I tried to tell him the cause was 'cause I'm 70 years old.

The VA Hospital here in Nashville, Tennessee, is much improved -- from services to attitudes -- from what it was 20 years ago when I first began going there for treatment of my Graves Disease related lack of adrenaline and the after affects of a Vietnam-era gunshot wound to my lower left leg. And it should be one of the best in the nation, since an agreement with Vanderbilt Hospital makes it part of Vandy's teaching experience for new doctors. But to be truthful, at my elder age I'm skeptical of all doctors. My experiences lead me to remind everyone that doctor's are only guessing when they diagnose, and that's why they call it a medical "practice."

When I was in VA Hospital a few weeks ago, I had four doctors attempting to determine why I came into the hospital emergency ward on a Friday night in extreme pain and sickness. My symptoms were a feeling that something was eating my gut, with a steel band of pain across my upper chest. When I had left the house so my wife could drive me to the hospital, I had dry heaved in the bushes, a reaction to the pain in my gut.

When I got to the emergency ward, they determined my blood pressure and temperature was up, they needed to keep me in the hospital, but no diagnosis as to why the pain. It stayed that way all Friday night until Saturday afternoon when I passed the gall stone that I had said I thought was the source of my pain. Meanwhile they had taken x-rays, CAT scans, poked, prodded, taken blood, given me intravenous solutions and even insulin shots in the stomach since my aggravated pancreas had stopped making insulin. I don't know that they ever actually agreed on a diagnosis, after all, where was the evidence? But I'm satisfied that what they could not determine, the Divine Healer handled. For, being a retired preacher as well as a retired Marine, I was surrounded in prayer by a great company of prayer warriors.

Thirty years ago, when my Graves Disease first attacked my thyroid, dropping me in weight from my customary 160-lbs to 95-lbs, and robbing me of any ability to think ahead, the medical community told me I was depressed about my pending military retirement. It was only when I insisted they at least do a simple blood test that I was diagnosed with Graves Disease.

So you can see why I approach the medical craft as a necessity in our lives, but I tend to take their assurances and sureties with a smile and a wink. I feel certain they are well-trained and serious about their craft, but I probably know my body better than they do, and I know the Great Healer.

Now, I will admit to being a bit sensitive about my age. I hate when the young girls at the grocery store insist they should help me carry my groceries to the car. And i guess I should be pleased when clerks want to give me a senior discount. After all, this old face does show its age, a fact I'm not unhappy about. It's been a rough ride, and some of those roads weren't paved.

But getting back to my Stress Test this past Monday, once again my age led them to treat me with concern. And that was understandable. I have no complaints there. But I had my own agenda.

The doctor was a young lady of about 25, the friendly technician was about the same age. They probably each asked me at least five times, "Do you have any questions?" They were so thorough in their explanations about what was to happen there was no need of further questions.

They had given me some sort of intravenous radioactive material, then performed a 15-minute CAT scan of my upper torso, then I was to perform the treadmill exercise, then they would follow up immediately with another CAT scan. Actually, I had a choice of the treadmill physical event, or they would give me an intravenous medication that would artificially stress my heart. Perhaps you can understand why I chose the treadmill. I wasn't sure they could. They kept asking me if I was sure that's what I wanted to do. I assured them it was.

The technician fitted my left arm with an intravenous device into which he could fit a syringe that would be used during the treadmill test. He explained that when I reached the right heart rate, and when I was about at the end of my ability to keep on, they would pump a certain liquid into me that would help them determine the condition of my heart.

They told me my resting heart rate was around 80, and they would need to get it up to 128 beats per minute for a good test. Could I do that? At least three times I assured them I felt I could. As they rigged me with heart monitors and other wires and connections, the technician talked about the good weather we were having and how he looked forward to getting into the great outdoors. He had not heard about Tennessee's best kept secret, Big South Fork, a National Park in middle Tennessee near Jamestown, and I shared with him the joys of having such a wonderful wild area so near Nashville, full of natural arches, hiking and riding paths, and the abundance of wild deer, birds and other animals along the trails by spring-fed waterways. It was once a private hunting preserve, but now the beautiful ridges and waterfalls are open to everyone, and much closer and less crowded than the Great Smoky Mountains.

Finally they were ready. The treadmill had a bar across the front with which to steady yourself, and bars on either side to keep one from falling off. The technician told me how some people had never used a treadmill and what some of the dangers were. I assured him I was familiar with the equipment.

They started out with a gentle walk, the doctor and the technician watching a bank of blinking monitors, glancing at me now and then. She pushed a button and the speed increased. I walked faster and fell into a rhythmic breathing pattern. My heart rate increased dramatically as the speed increased again, reaching 128 and continuing to climb. Now they glanced at me more often. I was enjoying the exercise.

"When you feel you can only go for one more minute," the doctor advised, "let us know so we can put this liquid into your blood stream."

"Okay," I said as I huffed and puffed. I was almost running now.

A few more minutes and my heart rate was at 154. Now it was the technician telling me to let them know when I was about out of steam.

I told them to go ahead and choose when they wanted to put the syringe in, because I could keep going.

The technician looked at the doctor, she looked at him, he said, "Well, okay, you've impressed us!"

At that he leaned over me, attached the syringe and emptied the liquid into my vein. After a few more minutes of them watching the monitors, they began to slow the treadmill until it finally stopped and I stepped off. Since they had not slowed it to a walk for a few minutes, but stopped it rather quickly, I was still breathing heavily. They asked if I was okay.

I replied, "I don't recover as fast as I used to, but I'll be fine in a few moments," and even as I spoke my breathing began to return to normal.

That exercise was then followed by another CAT scan of my upper torso, then I was finished. They told me I would hear from my doctor at some later date concerning the results. As I walked down the halls of the VA toward the garage where I had parked my green van, covered with Marine Corps stickers, I almost felt like I was walking a little taller, even with my customary left leg limp. The words were echoing in my ears, "Well, okay, you've impressed us!"

Small victory, but a great moment when you're 70 years old. Now, if I can only still do that when I'm 80!

Postscript.....How It's Done

I'll share a secret that I learned in the Marine Corps for going beyond "what you can do." First, this "secret" is fifty years old, and it's not all that secret. It is simply "continuing to march" when you think you can't. How? You change your thinking.

It's a fact of life that when faith leads, courage will follow. And sometimes, even in something as simple as pushing your body beyond what you think you can do, it takes an element of courage. But if faith leads, courage will follow.

It's something I have practiced all my life. There was a time when three of my four sons were teenagers, while I was still in the Marine Corps, and they would go running with me. Obviously, being younger, they challenged me. My number two son, Michael, used to taunt me on the run by running backwards in front of me. "C'mon, old man, is that the best you can do?"

Michael seemed to be a natural athlete, and he could always outrun me. He told me one day he had learned the secret to running. "You just run until it hurts, Dad," Michael explained, "then you keep going." True. Different people have different ways for making that happen. Some concentrate on their breathing, some repeat a mantra in their mind, some pick out a target in the distance and run to it, then select another target ahead.

For me, it was always the story of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. When I was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station, Cherry Point, N.C., about the time my boys would run with me, we had a base commander who was a spirited runner. He liked to go on runs, would do that every noon hour, and he wanted his Marines to be as enthusiastic about running and staying in shape as he was. So he arranged to have a formal three-mile cinder track built on the base. I was about 35 at the time, and my left leg gunshot wound from Vietnam was only about five years old. Running was difficult for me at that point in my life, but I had been promoted to the highest enlisted rank, Master Gunnery Sergeant, and led of team of about 20 enlisted Marines. Marines always lead from the front, so I had to make running work for me.

When I would go running, I would often see GySgt. Hartman out there. He always looked like he was in deep physical distress, but he kept on running. Always. He never fell out, never slowed, never walked. He ran.

One day I had the opportunity to sit and talk with him, and I asked him point blank, "You look like you're about to fall over out there. How do you keep going?"

That's when he told me about Hue, South Vietnam. I was in Vietnam when the enemy attacked the beautiful city of Hue during the 1968 Tet Offensive, and I knew the Marines sent a relief column of tanks and infantry to help the outnumbered Vietnamese soldiers.

Hartman told me he was in one of those relief columns to Hue, about an hour's drive north from the 3rd Marine Division headquarters at Phu Bai Combat Base.

"We knew the best warriors in the city, the Hoc Bao (Black Panthers) had left the city and come south to assist our Marines along Highway One, our small teams of Marines within the villages who were being overrun by the North Vietnamese Army. So while they had a few South Vietnamese Army troops there, still the Hoc Bao's families and all of the Catholics there would be at the mercy of a merciless enemy. Other Marines were there ahead of us, and they needed our support. We had to get there.

"But our unit," he continued," had to go by shanks mare (by foot). All the mechanized traffic was busy elsewhere. We started out marching, then, as the Battalion Commander began to get updates on Hue, we realized the situation was desperate. At some point the command was given, "Double time, march!", and we began to run, still in ranks, our weapons before us at port arms, we ran toward Hue.

As Hartman paused, I thought I saw a misty look in his eyes.

"It was too far to run," he said. "But we ran. Women and children, the families of the Hoc Bao were being slaughtered. They were finding mass graves of priests and villagers. We had to get there. So we ran."

"Now," he said, "when I'm out here running, and there's just nothing left, I start running for Hue. I run to Hue. And I don't stop."

It's been about 21 years since I've seen Gunny Hartman, but I can remember every word. And like him, when the body wants to quit, when you just run out of gas, I run to Hue, the adrenalin flows, I run to Hue, and I don't stop.

That's the Marine Corps way ... improvise, adapt and overcome. Semper Fidelis.

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