50th Street looking east from 9th Avenue

(date: not now)

There is a boarded up subway entrance to what once was New York's Madison Square Garden. It is just wood covering something that is not there, as if like a memory locked up, perhaps too dangerous to let loose.

Located at the end of an underused subway station, it is not much to look at, just some graffiti covered plywood on the wall. Without knowing what it is/once was, there is no significance to the thing. 50th street and 8th avenue is a slightly out-of-the-way part of town. Once though, thousands of people used that entrance to Madison Square Garden. Biblical multitudes went to the circus directly from the subway through that entrance. Others went to the fights, political conventions such as those for the America First movement( I wrote about thismovement in my book), the gatherings of tens of thousands of people for events of historic importance, remembered today still.

read my book! www.FulcrumOfDestiny.com

For me it was the memory of a child, who, years later put together the pieces of the oddity of the location. The once massive stadium that was Madison Square Garden had become a parking lot occupying one complete city block. The vast emptiness was notable for its flatness and that flatness gave the area something rare downtown: an unobstructed view. Tenements that were usually jammed claustrophobically close could be seen at a distance on 50th street. Their dilapidation could be taken in at one glance instead of in pieces. Uniquely, the endless quality of the brownstoned buildings proved self-evident; they were there, one after the other, more alike than dissimilar. Once the neighborhoods of New York were full of these cheaply built apartments, housing for the immigrants that flooded the city at the beginning of the 20th century.

The vastness of the view was unusual enough for my teenage self to take note. Slumbering neurons awoke, recalling the magic shop once on that block. That shop captured my imagination as a much younger child. Something of direct relevance to me was once here and now it was gone.

New York is full of places like that magic shop. Places I'd been to then seen on TV shows. I'd walk in front of The Ed Sullivan theatre and remember something that never happened to me, such as the crowds of teenyboppers that would scream at the top of their lungs for a view of the mop-tops, The Beatles. There were other shows. One was THE NAKED CITY. I must have been six or seven when I saw that TV drama, but each episode left lasting impressions. Central Park lunches, scenes around town that I recognized and most especially an episode that I used as proof of answered prayer.

On that one episode police detectives search for a Bowery bum who is ill with some very contagious disease, idunno, TB or anthrax or somethin'. They search the places a Bowery bum would go, cheap bars, a place that bought old clothes, a hardware store where the sought-after bum bought turpentine (to drink). I recall an alley that may have been on Lafayette Street (just north of Houston St. or maybe it was the alley just east of Broadway on Canal). The TV detectives interrogated the owner of the business in that alley about the where this bum could be found. The rest of the story is uninteresting.

The business in the alley was to buy cardboard people from people who collected it from the streets. My little six-year old-mind was shocked. Somebody made a living from what I threw away. I prayed to God that I would not grow up to gather cardboard from the street to sell for money to buy turpentine to drink. My prayer has been answered and I have never, ever done this.

Skeptics used to point out that there is still time, I may yet re-cycle (new word) cardboard to get the money to buy turpentine to drink. I'd once shrug off those cynical skeptics. Now, as I tell this story again I note to myself that there is still time for me to explore this income stream, this special inebriation. In the Third World millions of destitute boys and girls do this. The few pennies the get enough to keep themselves alive one more day. No one is shocked.

THE NAKED CITY was in re-runs a few years back. Unfortunately for me it was on very, very late at night and I'd always fall asleep watching it. The last time I tuned in the show began with a whole series of shots in my old neighborhood. The first shot was the building I lived in.

In time I grew to embrace the idea of going through the garbage, finding value in the cast-offs of others. Part of it was the mortification with myself for not availing myself of a rare childhood find. Once on the two-block walk home from school I passed an apartment building's trash. Treasure of treasures, there were three boxes big as myself filled with the cast-off toys of some unknown child. I wanted those toys with an intensity not unique to children.

These boxes held more toys in private possession than I had ever seen in my young life. I was excited, yet restrained by the potential shame of being seen picking the garbage. This shame was both theoretical and completely internal; there was no one on the street to see me. I couldn't figure out how to get the free toys AND not be seen picking them out of the garbage.

My cousin dropped by later that afternoon. I was obsessed with the boxes of toys. There was nothing to keep me taking any one toy or all of the toys if I chose. Nothing that is except my own, self-imposed shame. Thinking about the toys I realized that if I got my cousin to take them out of the trash for me then the shame of garbage picking would fall on him and not me. That was an excellent solution to my quandary and he was game so we went out to get more toys than either of us could carry.

My disappointment was far greater than his when we got to the apartment building's trash. All the toys were gone! The only thing left was a few broken off toy-parts, left there to taunt me. Those toy-parts mocked me in their brokenness. They laughed at me for not taking advantage of a once-in-a-childhood's opportunity.

Garbage became important years later as an adult. Living in a factory building in the Garment District I learned after moving in that I had to pay for garbage collection. The fee was determined not by how much garbage I generated but by the square footage of my loft. This may have made sense in 1929 when the building was constructed for manufacturing use but made no sense for little me and my single bag of trash.

This was no small matter in the Garment District. A big, burly man came by to collect the bill. I noted that I could tell everything he had for lunch and probably dinner too just by looking at the food stains on his shirt.

I thought of that big, burly man when I stumbled on his offices. Outside were the trucks that collected the fabric trimmings and other scraps from the rag trade unloading their trash. To my surprise another aspect of their business was "wool reprocessing". The big, burly men of Manhattan's Garment Industry were actually very progressive, recycling the trash of one group to produce new products - - all at a profit.

Anyway, should Katie ditch Tom now?

DANIEL CHAPTER 3

Unwilling to bow down in front of Nebuchadnezzar's golden idol, Daniel and his friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.
All this took place in what we now call Iraq. For millennia that country has had oil just oozing out of the ground, something like The Beverly Hillbillies. It had a profound impact on the region’s economy, touching Egypt (they preserved their dead with pitch) and Rome (Mark Antony gave the oil-trading city of Petra to Cleopatra) Nebuchadnezzar's long-ago furnace may have been fueled by a petroleum seep.

I've been reading the Bible's apocalyptic writings (Daniel, Isaiah, Revelation) lately.
Daniel spans the life of a high-born man. Taken into exile in Babylon (now the country known as Iraq) while still a youth, he retains his identity where many of his co-religionists become anomic. As he becomes indispensable to the king's administration he receives heavenly messages that look forward centuries to the coming of Christ and Judgement Day. By the end of his life he sees the return to Jerusalem.

I've also combined this fascination end-times with the MP3 functionality on my PDA.

Ray C. Stedman of the Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto, CA has some messages on Daniel (dating from 1969!) I like what he says. I also like that the material is timeless, 1969 or a thousand years ago the Bible’s message does not change, unlike the Inconstant Constants of scientific theory.

Chapter 3 Excerpts
(MP3)

King Nebuchadnez'zar made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its breadth six cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. Then King Nebuchadnez'zar sent to assemble the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image which King Nebuchadnez'zar had set up.
...And the herald proclaimed aloud, "You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnez'zar has set up; and whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace."
...Then Nebuchadnez'zar in furious rage commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed'nego be brought. Then they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnez'zar said to them, "Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed'nego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image which I have set up?
...Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed'nego answered the king, "O Nebuchadnez'zar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image which you have set up."

A recent LA Times article on the "Lost Boys" of a fundamentalist Mormon sect greatly moved me.

Mainstream Mormons had practiced polygamy in the 19th century and cult founder Brigham Young had dozens of wives. Eventually most of the group abandoned the practice, with some breakaway "fundamentalists" still having plural marriages to this day. According to the various news articles they believe a man must have at least three wives to get into heaven or face eternal damnation.

Mathematical reality being what it is, this quickly means too many men and not enough women. The cults solution? Get rid of the excess boys. Drive them far out of town and drop them off by the side of the road, like an unwanted pet.

According to the cults doctrine, without the minimum three wives, out of religion and guilty of sundry sins, this is not only expulsion from everything the boys know but also a sentence of eternal damnation.

The cult's leaders break-up families, turn women into chattel and proclaim themselves prophets. I could ask how they live with themselves but the answer would be disheartening. They live with plenty of sex, lordly power over others and the satisfaction that whatever they say goes. I’d pray for their souls but first I’d have to get over my anger at the tragedy of such self-serving self-righteousness.

It is difficult to quantify the intensity of psychological suffering felt by cult members. Be they dozens or thousands of members, the pain, the sense of betrayal each individual suffers is intensely personal, often the most intimate pain possible. Ricky "Davidito" Rodriguez, prophet child of the founders of the Family International (formerly the Children of God) is an especially sad case. He and his mother were "going to be the end-time witnesses. They are going to have such power they can call down fire from Heaven and devour their enemies," David "Moses" Berg, the sect leader, proclaimed. Since they were the two prophets of Revelation
"They are going to be killed. Then, after only three and a half days, Jesus is going to raise them from the dead," Berg continued.

Berg, an Oakland California native, founded the sect in the late 1960s, blending evangelical Christianity, radical politics and free love. The original members were hippies and free spirits. They were easy prey for the "sacred prostitutes" who turned Jesus' call that his followers become "fishers of men" into recruitment by seduction. The cult attracted almost 12,000 members by means of this "flirty fishing."
A 20-month-old Ricky "Davidito" appeared in the group’s literature surrounded by naked nannies, personal sex toys for the unknowing infant. "The Story of Davidito" book presented to members that sex with children was okay, a model to follow. The adult Rodriguez, traumatized by a life of sex and no longer able to handle the imposed burden of prophethood, left the "Family." He could not, however, leave behind the rage and anger of years of sexual abuse that started in infancy.
In a sequence of events that is becoming disturbingly common "Davidito" made a videotape before committing murder. In the profanity filled diatribe his frustration and rage is plain. His intentions are also plain. Throughout the video-tape he loads his Glock 23 semiautomatic pistol with dozens of bullets and ends the missive with a call for other defectors from the cult to get justice from their childhood abusers. "Davidito" then goes out to search for his mother. He kills a former nanny trying to find the absent parent and then kills himself.

There is little more devastating than betrayal by those that should be your protectors. Child or adult, the rage and anger caused by such a failure is immense and many second generation members of the erstwhile Children of God have committed suicide. A child of early members, actor River Phoenix, a man who once said that he had lost his virginity when he was four years old, could be a case in point. A strict vegetarian and environmentalist, a man who could not see any point or any good in drugs, died of a drug overdose.

Many parents aspire to be "friends" to their children. This is more than foolishness, it is an abdication of parental responsibility. A child will have hundreds of friends in her life. He has only one mother and one father. A child needs a lifetime of guidance and boundaries. These are not qualities often found in a "best bud." No wing man will be there for you at 3:00 a.m. as it is perfectly reasonable to expect from a Mom and Dad. The cost of having parents that do not know these basics of parenting is paid in the shattered lives of their children. By being a friend to their child these immature parents cause profound harm instead.

There are entire societies built on abuse. Abused mothers abuse theirs sons who in turn grow up to abuse their wives. In some places this behavior is deemed sanctioned by religion. To speak against this ingrained abuse of your own family could be considered shameful and apostasy, open to punishment by death. There is no honor in the abuse of your own sons and daughters, mothers and wives.

Many of the world's children have no parents at all. The streets of South America's cities are filled with orphans and waifs, the unwanted refuse of adult lives out of control. Throughout Africa toddlers are cared for by elderly grandparents, if they are lucky. An entire generation of parents of Africa's children is dead from AIDS, civil war and genocide. In Asia natural disaster in the form of a tidal wave has left scars that may be felt for generations. Orphans created by the tsunami may become sucked into the sex trade, starting a descent into drugs and death.

The Children of God story is especially horrific, combining criminal parental failure with massive spiritual illegitimacy. Its consequences are the most intimate possible and long-lasting. Elsewhere in the world it may be worse. Parents in some places encourage their children to commit suicide. Spiritual leaders promise heaven for political murder, proclaiming it tradition sanctioned by God.

There is a special place in the Ninth Circle of Hell waiting such parents and leaders, victimizers of children they should be protecting.

Letters to the (LA Times) Editor

FOR MORE INFORMATION on cults see www.movingon.org, a website created by and for young adults with parents who joined the religious organization The Family / Children of God. Also try www.rickross.com.
I write about some end-of-days cults in my book: www.FulcrumOfDestiny.com

Obey.
In another day Armin Meiwes' desire to eat human flesh may have been kept secret and unfulfilled. Today he is able to advertise on the Internet and get more than 200 responses, each respondent eager to be eaten by the well-mannered German.

Before Jesus' Second Coming, before the Khilafah, the worldwide Islamic Nation and/or before the end of the world in nuclear Armageddon, the United States of America has a divinely ordained role to play. ( I wrote a book about it.)

How this role plays out -- how the world responds to our efforts -- is yet to be seen. We can be a light onto the nations or, to paraphrase Lyndon Johnson, we can let this opportunity slip through our fingers.

In San Francisco, "The City," I am surrounded by the local fauna, the Californian Dude. Full of ideas that must be expressed, the locals fulminate a politics that are not my own. Some of these politics are not even of this world, or at least of a concrete reality recognizable by this sane person. Not all of these ideas are unique of this population, not all are benevolent. Misguided is a word that comes to mind but then again, sometimes I am too kind.

Americans do not cherish obedience. Following instructions is not a virtue when the idea behind Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll offers unconstrained freedom. We have always been individualists; we have become extreme libertarians. We will not put up with being told how to dispose of our free time. We listen when millions of dollars in advertising dollars tells us we can have it our way, selectively listen. "Just do it" is an instruction we recieve in advertising. We willingly obey. Don't you love beyond measure Disneyland, shopping and eating hamburgers and driving SUVs? Propaganda is reviled yet this form of propaganda is embraced, chatted about in casual conversation.

A hundred years of global advertising by the De Beers diamond cartel has made the diamond engagement ring an obligation the world over. The De Beers cartel has made billions of people demand their colorless, common gemstone. American advertising is recognized as manipulation and propaganda by its audience and we say "It don't matter!" Our unwillingness to suffer constraint blinds us to the possibility that Sabbath discipline may have real personal benefits.

It is not more bombs we need in the difficult times facing us in the 21st century. Our mastery of the physical world assures we can meet any physical challenge. The human challenge that awaits us requires wisdom and resolve. Attaining both is an unsure proposition.

We are not lost in how to attain these virtues. The knowledge of the difference between good and evil is what makes us human. It comes as a still, small voice. Listen to what you know is right as an individual and as a country. Focus on the good, rebuke the devil and he will flee. We did it before; we'll do it again.

Such a formidable foe, the Totalitarian Huns of the Left and the Right. Why didn’t they win? The fiction of Nazis winning World War is the premise of numberless stories. People as diverse as Newt Gingrich and George Orwell have written stories on this premise. The reality is that military powers Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were all profoundly defeated in spite of their initial advantage. The Allied victory has been studied in detail. Military strategists may focus on tactics and materiel. Political analysts may dwell on diplomacy.

Few acknowledge the active Hand of God at work in the lives of men and nations. Look at the effects of the Hand of God from a centuries-long viewpoint, the Long Now. Step back, that way the details don’t obscure the bigger picture. God's will must be done – and this within the free will of man.

Totalitarianism's greatest threat was that even in military defeat its mental and spiritual poison could still win. In defeating the Totalitarian Hun we could ourselves become Hunnish. When the Hot War of World War II ended and the Cold War started free world (meaning the United States) had to rally to stop an expanding Soviet Union. Europe was useless, ruined from WWII and Red from infiltrators from the communist bloc. Our battle continued for 40 years. To win the battle against the Evil Empire took, not years, but generations – and to win that battle without becoming the enemy was the greatest victory of all. We did it.

Today beleaguered Israel faces the Intifada. How cynical to use children with rocks for the benefit of the world’s TV news cameras. It is David and Goliath as an on-going TV soap opera. How dangerous for Israel the threat they become the Palestinian’s Nazis. It is an image Palestinians and others gleefully exploit.

The world's population is now six billion. If there is a one in a billion chance that a person can be born with two heads that means there are six people walking around with two heads on their shoulders. Even a person with only one head can hold true more than two conflicting ideas. Personally, I don’t believe airplanes can fly. The craft weighs an untold number of tons, it carrys hundreds of obese passengers. How can that plane float on invisible air? It is counter-intuitive.

This is just my idea. It is not necessarily related to concrete reality.

Many ideas were once private aberrations, so beyond the Pale of the acceptable it was prudent not to mention them. In an earlier day Armin Meiwes' desire to eat human flesh may have been kept secret and unfulfilled. Today he is able to advertise on the Internet and get more than 200 responses, each respondent eager to be eaten by the well-mannered German. In Japanese you need not commit suicide alone. Post a note to a chat room and get a whole group to end their lives at the same time you do. The Japanese are a very social people.

There are agencies, such as the RAND Corp., who anticipate what is coming in the future. An inexact art, their prognostications are often wrong.

Researching the biggest country in the world I found projections regarding Russia are disheartening. Worse, all scenarios for the world of 2050 foresee a diminished United States. Right now Europe is in the process of uniting, forming a new locus in the coming multipolar world yet U.S. newspapers barely mention it. We may be in the Chinese Century or maybe the beginning of the Khilafah, the worldwide Islamic Nation or maybe at the precipice of Chaos.

Heaven help us if it is all of the above.

ELECTIONS PROTEST
(after the 2004 Presidential election)

Protestors gathered on San Francisco's Market Street to express their ideas. They were against not the results of the last presidential elections but the elections themselves. Other topics to protest against included the existence Middle America, the union of the fifty states, Israeli policy towards Palestine, the cover-up of CIA involvement in the 9/11 attacks, support for Haiti's Aristide, victim of U.S. oppression, and support for Black Panther George Jackson (dead thirty years). Well, it may have been support for George Jackson. I could discern nothing more than his picture and name on the demonstrator's banner.

After marching several blocks the protest ended in a riot and the burning of George Bush in effigy. The man who appears at any and all San Francisco parades wearing hot pants and twirling a baton was not to be found.

Good for him.

Anarchists are still active. On June 25, 2005 they gathered in Lytton Plaza in downtown Palo Alto. This time they were a little more focused, proclaiming:

"destroy their nightmare, make your dreams possible!"