Memorial Day for Lost Freedom

Listening to David Barton yesterday at Highlands made me feel like Sunday was Memorial Day.  After that good dose of Godly American history, I feel sad today.  Today’s sadness, on Memorial Day proper, isn’t for all the fallen heroes, it’s for all us Americans that have been left behind.

It is so ironic that men and women, in so many military campaigns, have lost their lives defending our freedom, and the rest of us let our politicians take it away after 9/11.  Our Constitution has been so watered down it barely exists.  The Patriot Act, along with other legislation, have taken away many of the rights we all hold dear!

• Freedom from unreasonable searches… gone!
• Right to a speedy and public trial… gone!
• Freedom of association… gone!
• Right to legal representation… gone!
• Freedom of speech… gone!
• Right to liberty… gone!

This is the way it now is – video!  You thought the “God-given rights” still existed?  No, not in today’s America.  If you don’t believe me, Judge Andrew Napolitano will tell you about it in this video.

There is a great quote from Benjamin Franklin that applies here, “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”  Let’s face it, we were suckered on 9/11.  You can’t look at all that happened  and NOT think it was wasn’t preplanned.  Why would anyone have to give up any “God-given right” to keep a foreigner from coming in and attacking anything in this country.  All we ever had to do was increase security!  A police state should have been out of question by even our lawmakers.  They claim there just wasn’t time to read the entire 315 pages before voting on it.  Fine, don’t vote for it then.  If you voted for it, repeal it!  There has been time to fix it and it has not been fixed.  Our freedoms are still gone!

I read the news article this weekend listing the “words not to use” to avoid Homeland Security from listing someone as a terrorist.  I think I’ve used most of them in this blog.  I’m a Christian though, so I harbor no violence against anyone.  As a United States citizen though, I feel I must urge repeal of the Patriot Act and a return to the constitutional rights I was blessed by my Creator with!  Our founding fathers said it better than I…

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long-established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But 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, and to provide new Guards for their future security.     Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776

This year I’ve encouraged everyone to support Ron Paul for President.  The powers that be have opposed him strongly and positioned others ahead of him via propaganda in the media.  If you listen to any Paul supporter, it is liberty that is our main theme.  Fix the liberty issue and many other problems resolve themselves.  It is obvious that neither party is moving toward that end.  The same old way of governing isn’t going to be acceptable by Americans much longer.  Our future depends on new leaders who represent the citizens. Washington has proven it is more interested in appeasing foreign governments and corporations and forgetting about the average citizen and all the soldiers that died, fighting for freedom!

Maybe the word “terrorist” needs to be redefined.  After that, we just need to vote them out of Washington and put some real statesmen back in government.  We can fix all this, but it’s going to take a few election cycles!  This “Orwellian” society has to go!

One God and Soap

“Absolute cleanliness is Godliness”.  That is the first line on Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap bottle.  Just reading the label could keep you occupied for maybe twenty minutes.  I was drawn to it while shopping at Whole Foods recently.  I must have stood in the isle long enough reading, to realize I’d been standing there too long… reading.  I put the bottle in the buggy and thought, “I’ll finish this at home”.

At home, I again picked up the bottle and started reading.  I was perplexed because the statements didn’t flow well.  I believed I understood what it said, but my curiosity needed more.  I got on the internet and googled the product and was overwhelmed with information and accolades.  I even watched a documentary entitled, “Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soapbox” on Netflix.  It was well produced and made me understand how Dr. Bronner came to America and began his work.

He was born in Heilbronn, Germany, to the Heilbronner family of soap makers.  He emigrated to the United States in 1929 and dropped the “Heil” from his name.  His parents stayed in Germany and were victims of Nazi persecution.

Dr. Bronner began making products by hand in his home.  His father was Jewish, so it is obvious that belief in God was important to Dr. Bronner and he wanted everyone to believe and be part of the “one faith”.  He used references from both Jewish and Christian sources on the labels of his soaps.

The documentary goes into detail about the strange events which occurred in 1947.  Dr. Bronner was speaking at the University of Chicago and promoting his “Moral ABC”.  There were objections and Dr. Bronner was arrested and committed to a mental hospital in Elgin, Illinois, on just a phone call from his sister.  Obviously, it was easier to have someone committed then.  At the hospital, Dr. Bronner had to endure “shock treatments”.  He escaped the hospital and eventually ended up in Escondido, California.  There, his soap making grew into a large operation which continues today.  Dr. Bronner died in 1997, but the business is still making soap and preaching about God!

Their business is pretty amazing.  You should click on this link to visit their website.  It has more info than I can possibly cover.  I will tell you that their soap is organic with a vegetable oil base.  Their products are completely environmentally safe and not harmful.  The soaps are concentrated, so just simply mix with water to dilute.  The “peppermint” is my favorite but they are all good.  They may be purchased at Whole Foods, Target, or almost any health food store.  I believe in bragging on good companies, because there are so many who shouldn’t be in business.  Good companies need encouragement and our business!

Getting back to their business model, executive compensation is capped at 5 to 1 to the lowest paid warehouse position.  All profits, not needed for business, go to worthwhile causes and charities worldwide.  From watching the documentary, their employees are extremely happy and receive big bonuses each year.  The website shares that one of Dr. Bronner’s “truths” was that constructive capitalism is where you share the profit with the workers and the earth from which you made it!
If you can do a little preaching along with it, that’s even better!

“Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”   Psalm 19:4

Christians Make A Difference

The hatred that spews from the network television shows, the internet, & politicians toward Christians, hurts everyone.  They try to stir up public opinion against Christians, that we are the bad guys and need to be run out-of-town.  Why?  Because we’re against most of the issues driving corporate America these days like greed and gay rights.  We are opposed to making families jobless just to make the stockholders & CEO’s more wealthy.  We are opposed to the murder of children by clinics who lie about women’s health, making profits of over a billion/year.  We are opposed to the unnatural union of gays and lesbians in legal marriage, creating a cultural abnormality.  We are opposed to polygamy and those who would declare the Bible corrupt.  In general, I guess we opposed everything that would make the cultural left happy!

Christians have made a distinct mark on civilization and America in particular.  Our founding fathers used the general principles of Christianity for our independence, our legal rights, and system of government.  The development of higher education, science, and medicine, all were from Christianity.  Art and music were inestimably benefited by believers in Christ.  It was the Christians that opposed slavery first and it is the Christian that is generally a better citizen in any government.

Why would a Christian be a better citizen or employee you ask?  Because Jesus taught that it is wrong to steal and kill.  He taught that government is  empowered by God, therefore we should respect and submit to it.  We are taught to love our fellow-man and reach out to help those in need.  Even today, it is Christians who are quickly on the scene when disaster strikes.  Christian relief has assisted Haiti, Sudan, Somalia, Belize, Japan, and every other location where humans were hurting or in need.  So we’re the bad guys… right, you just keep believing that lie.  We still love you, but our actions speak for themselves.

The reason you really hate us is the problem you have with God.  He is the one who doesn’t approve of your sin.  If every Christian in the world signed over a letter saying you have our approval for whatever sin you want to commit, it wouldn’t carry any legal weight with God.  He is the judge and jury.  And even if we approved of your actions, you wouldn’t quit your hate filled racist attitude toward us until we actually participated in sin with you.  You want us to be like you, a guilt ridden, unhappy human whose hatred for Christianity blinds one from the truth.

Listen, our side is better… come on over!  Being a traitor to your cause has never been easier or had so many benefits.  You get to hang out with the best people in the world!  Medical plans don’t matter, it’s better on the other side for us, anyway!  We live in the light of the Son and know that God loves us!  It just doesn’t get any better.  We’ll even pay your way to the third world country of your choice and let you dig wells for clean water or teach kids to read.  Not only that, but faith in Jesus… get ready for this… guarantees you a mansion in Heaven.  Is that awesome or what?

Now, you’re going to have to read the Bible some.  I’ll give you a heads up, it isn’t what you’ve been told.  The truths contained in that book are amazing and historically accurate at the same time.  It really isn’t just a children’s book, but the “inspired” Word of God!

At least consider it!  You don’t even have to carry around a Bible these days, look at it online!  You can do it when no one is around, until you feel like you are ready to commit.  I’d recommend downloading the app “YouVersion“.  And just to make you feel better, that you’re not alone… YouVersion has been downloaded over 50 million times.  The world is full of Christians. Estimates vary, but the number is close to 2 billion!  Christianity rocks, come on over!  Join us, we’re the ones who make a difference!

Originally published May 14, 2012 at Thechestnutburr.com

Pepper Place in Birmingham

Today’s blog is about a visit to Pepper Place in Birmingham, Alabama.  They are located at 2829 2nd Avenue South, about three blocks north of Highway 78 and three blocks east of the Red Mountain Expressway.  It is an odd place for a farmer’s market, right in the center of a mostly industrial area.  Parking isn’t a problem since most of the businesses are closed on Saturday.

Since we are trying to eat better foods, we decided to check it out.   Organic, local flavor is now my favorite, without all the industrial additives.  The organic part was somewhat of a disappointment, only seeing one vendor.  There was plenty of local grown produce and vendors with various wares, from jewelry to plants and even a car dealer showing off a Scion.

It was crowded at times with plenty of dogs and babies in the mix as well.  We saw a cooking demonstration and even wandered through a furniture store nearby.  A large restaurant is open, plus outdoor sellers have many different foods.

We purchased strawberries, peaches, squash, and earrings. Please visit their website for more info.  I would have to say it’s a nice Saturday morning outing!

Realizing that pictures are worth a thousand words, here you go…


      

    

     
     

Originally published on May 12, 2012 at Thechestnutburr.com
More pics available here.

The Unrelenting Pharoah

Un-re-lent-ing – Not giving way to kindness or compassion.

Hi, I’m an employee of AT&T and today’s blog is of course, my opinion. 

That disclaimer came from an intracompany post concerning social media.  The company requested it be understood by all that anything placed by an employee online should be considered “just an opinion”.  I post it, because they asked…

I’ve been drawn to the story of Pharoah for the last couple of days.  A short outline of the whole story is from Exodus 7: 1-5,  The Lord said:  I am going to let your brother Aaron speak for you. He will tell your message to the king, just as a prophet speaks my message to the people. ² Tell Aaron everything I say to you, and he will order the king to let my people leave his country. ^3-4 But I will make the king so stubborn that he won’t listen to you. He won’t listen even when I do many terrible things to him and his nation. Then I will bring a final punishment on Egypt, and the king will let Israel’s families and tribes go. ⁵ When this happens, the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.

Moses found things just as God had said, especially the hard-hearted leader, who held in his hands the power to allow the Israelites to be free.  I’ve noticed that power and authority, in the hands of men, is always abused!  Pharoah is no different when it comes to a good thing.  He has cheap labor and for higher production, a rod to beat them with!

In the movie, the Ten Commandments, each scene, where a plague was about to take place, was so clean and sanitized.  I will give them credit for not adding too much to the Biblical narrative.  But you know, at first, there had to be some serious reasoning by Moses.  I can just imagine him telling the story of how the Israelites were faithful neighbors living in the land of Goshen, honored by the memory of Joseph, and the work he did to save Egypt during the famine.  In that historical narrative, we know from Exodus 1:8 that “a new king came to power.  He did not know what Joseph had done for Egypt, and he told the Egyptians, There are too many of those Israelites in our country… “  God still blessed the Israelites, even as slaves, and “because of this, the Egyptians hated them worse than before and made them work so hard that their lives were miserable.  The Egyptians were cruel to the people of Israel…“  It even reached the point where the King decreed that all male, slave babies were to be thrown into the Nile River.

I’m sure that Moses reminded the King about the good work the Israelites had done for him, and pointed out the marvelous monuments which dotted the landscape.  Being a man in authority, the King weighed the reasonings put forth by Moses and Aaron, and sadly chose a course of action which would ruin his life and seriously harm his own country.  The Bible says that God “hardened his heart”.  We don’t know exactly when that took place.  It may have been while reading his daily reports or “the numbers” produced by the slaves.  Much like the MSOC numbers that AT&T employees receive at work each day.  The numbers that are constantly changed and modified like a carrot moved further and further from an animal’s hungry mouth.  I believe the Israelite slaves were beaten and killed to achieve the goal of raising monuments to a short sighted, greedy, King.  Moses found his “let my people go” plea falling on deaf ears.

Today, a lot of cosmetics have been applied, but the goal is still the same.  Work hard and raise money for the corporate world leaders and the minions, who live off the crumbs from their table!  The 1% rule and the 99% drool.   CEO salaries have skyrocketed, even during the hard times that we’ve experienced lately.  Add to that the layer upon layer of management salaries, bonuses, retirement payouts, and stockholder dividends, and it is no wonder that everything we buy, costs so much.  Just like today, I imagine all of Pharoah’s minions shouting NO, NO, No, don’t let them go!  They probably imagined the hard times ahead if Pharoah relented and showed some compassion.  They might actually have to work for a living…  Of course, we know the story don’t we.  It cost Egypt dearly for their greed and stubbornness.

Compassion doesn’t cost much!  Not showing compassion, can cost everthing!  Hopefully, God wasn’t the one who hardened your heart…  that would mean He is going to get your attention!  He definitely got Pharoah’s attention!  It might be better to show Him some attention first, in the form of worship and showing a little compassion to your fellow-man.

Changing the topic, but not really changing the topic… our MSOC numbers did change in January, or early February.  I am now alloted .83 of an hour for most troubles and .61 for others.  Put your surgeon on that plan and see how it works out for you.  Sorry, doc, you’ve only got 30 minutes to figure out what’s wrong and fix it!  In January, the company placed the first, ever, entry in my file, for not doing my job correctly.  The entry is still there, and I mention it daily to someone!  To me, it is character assassination and an attack on my work ethic.  It has brought unnecessary stress and even fitful sleep at times.  They don’t understand that you should not beat an older employee with a rod to work harder and faster…  I am relentless in wanting that entry out and this should never have gotten this far in the public arena!  In my opinion, management is entirely to blame for this debacle.  I was told this week that I’m the only one in the crew getting a new truck… I never asked for a new truck.  I have asked over and over, to have the entry, which was unnecessary, taken out!

Mr. Stephenson, could you “let that piece of paper go”?  Your guys around here are unrelenting!

Originally published on May 4, 2012 at Thechestnutburr.com

Earth Day 2012

God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them
      reflecting our nature
   So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
      the birds in the air, the cattle,
   And, yes, Earth itself,
      and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.”
   God created human beings;
      he created them godlike,
   Reflecting God’s nature.
      He created them male and female.
   God blessed them:
      ”Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
   Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
      for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.”
  Then God said, “I’ve given you
      every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth
   And every kind of fruit-bearing tree,
      given them to you for food.
   To all animals and all birds,
      everything that moves and breathes,
   I give whatever grows out of the ground for food.”
      And there it was.

That passage is Genesis 1:27-29 from The Message version of the Bible.   The shortened version would say that God created earth and placed us here to take care of it, till He comes back.  If you consider Jesus parable of the talents in Matthew 25, then it is very possible we may have to answer for our poor stewardship.  Let’s face it, humans have been brutal to our home planet!

If the earth itself brought us up on charges of misconduct with God as judge, there isn’t a lawyer in the cosmos that could even get us leniency.  Our list of abuse is long and sorrowful, and the worst is that we don’t even show remorse or repentance.  Repentance being that point where we say “ok, enough is enough,” and we begin to allow our planet to heal, that concept is completely anathema to us!

I’m old enough to remember the anti-litter commercials where an American Indian is standing beside the highway when a car passes and throws out a bag of garbage.  The camera panned back to a closeup of the man’s face to see a tear running down.  That commercial concept could be repeated in every nation and country on the planet, just pick a race and we can all cry a bucket of tears.  There is still little change.

Litter is the cosmetic problem.  It’s ugly and unsightly, like plastic bags hanging in the trees.  Fast food restaurant debris is still tossed out of cars, but we’ve evolved way beyond that.  Last week, the Bureau of Land Management announced their approval of “fracking” in the pristine Talladega National Forrest, here in Alabama.  Fracking is where the most toxic chemicals known to man are pumped underground to fracture rock, allowing natural gas and other minerals to be mined.  Fracking always poisons ground water!  Let’s all thank government bureaucracy for allowing enormous profits to be made at the expense of our planet’s health!

The British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, was another ecological disaster whose full effects won’t be known for years.  On the local news this morning, there was a report that some shrimp were being born without eyes and that fish were being found with odd lesions.  Should we even allow a process such as “deep water drilling” to occur when the risk of disaster is so high?  Politicians of course say “yes, because the oil companies need more profits.”  Obviously, a gazillion dollars per CEO means a little graft and corruption flows to the re-election fund.

HAARP antenna array (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My favorite waste of money and planet abuse culprit is the military establishment.  They cause everything from bombs being dropped to depleted uranium bullets.  There are forgotten buried mines and IEDs just waiting for any non-combatant to be injured or killed.  Military planes spew a toxic mix of chemicals in our sky and bombard it with microwave energy from HAARP to control the weather.  I won’t blame President Obama for starting it all, but he has done nothing to stop it either!  It’s been a long time since the natural weather cycles were allowed to take place.  But I remember, it all worked ok without dollars and health being spent to manipulate.  We just experienced the warmest month of March on record, so the new system isn’t working very well.  Yes, global warming is real and we caused it!  We can stop it by turning off the atmospheric heater called HAARP!  Propagandist will claim that all this is just myth spewed by angry conspiracist.  Some conspiracy, you can see it on the weather radar!

Planet abuse couldn’t be discussed without touching on our food supply a little.  It used to be natural, organic, but NOT ANY MORE!  We are inundated with hybrid foods created in the laboratory.  They have less in the way of what our bodies need to survive and more of what causes our bodies to deteriorate.  However, the flip side of that is that mega-farm owners and corporations have increased profits.  Our FDA is of course on top of things by approving profits over healthy consumers.  Corporations even create hybrid plants, put them out in the wild, and the cross-pollination causes an organic farmer to lose his crop or even worse, the entire farm through law suits filed by companies.  I hate to mention names but Monsanto is one of the worst culprits!

We have huge mono-farms raising everything from trees to pigs and chickens.  You won’t find anything like it in nature.  Nature has a variety of plants because it is a complete eco-system.  Everything needs each other and the waste is taken care of naturally and not in abundance, say like a chicken house!  If you were to visit a modern chicken house where the birds are given a chemical mix to make them grow faster and heavier while living on top of their own excrement, I’m sure chicken wouldn’t be on the menu!  The chemicals/antibiotics that all food animals receive flow directly to us.  Have you noticed larger people around you lately?

If you would like to wash down that hybrid food with a glass of water… better think again.  Fertilizers, fluoride, and pharmaceuticals are all found in that glass of unhealthy liquid.  I mentioned earlier that fracking poisons ground water for profits.  We poison it as well by flushing the toilet.  Most sewage treatment plants do a poor job cleaning up what we messed up!  I know indoor toilets are nice, but they really aren’t natural either.  Our bodies are 70% water so we need good clean water to survive.

It doesn’t make sense to me that we’ll go to war over religion, but won’t over environmental disasters.  Terrorists blow themselves up to kill infidels, but obviously consider killing the planet to make a buck, okay.

Looking at the body of evidence, we should have done a better job!

Camera pans to your face

tear running down…

Guilty, as charged!

Originally published April 22, 2012 at Thechestnutburr.com

When Kids make you Proud

I’ll have to admit that I’m proud of our children.  The youngest, Stephen, a nineteen year old, is still at home and attending junior college.  Recently he was squeezing into a parking place at Jim & Nick’s Bar-B-Q and bumped a 2004 Volvo side mirror with the mirror on his Tacoma.  Naturally, there wasn’t even a scratch on the Tacoma while the Volvo had some cosmetic damage.  He had a friend with him and they waited till the owner came out, to confess about the damage.

The Volvo owner was a Vestavia Hills fireman and was very impressed that the boys didn’t just leave like most people might.  They swapped info and the guy called me the next day with the damage report, almost nine hundred dollars worth.  He said it was obvious Stephen was a good kid who handled himself well.  Sadly, it just so happened that $900 was the exact amount in Stephen’s savings account for his next semester.  Stephen met him at the downtown fire station the next day and they swapped the money for the local dealer’s estimate, verifying the damage amount.

It was an expensive lesson and one that won’t be soon forgotten.  It’s funny that I was the one who was the angriest, and I’ll explain that.  My wife and I had been trying to encourage Stephen to attend the college Bible class at Westwood Baptist church for quite some time.  That week he met a new friend at college, in one of his classes, who attends Westwood and agreed to visit with him.  The whole Bible class decided to go to Jim and Nicks for lunch, after church.  Turns out, the restaurant was so busy, that the only available space was the one he had tried to squeeze into, everyone else had already arrived and were waiting outside.

So why was I angry?  It wasn’t at Stephen for trying to squeeze into a parking place where the other car was over the line…  it was at God, for allowing it to happen in the first place.  I apologized to the Lord for that, but it was just one of those “life isn’t fair” moments.  On a day when Stephen finally attends Bible class (we always attended worship), he scratches a mirror and does the right thing by owning up to his mistake and it wipes out his bank account!

Working for AT&T,  I’m very familiar with those “life isn’t fair” moments.  I do hate it though, when it happens to someone so young.  Those are the times when many would say, why did I go to church this morning?  Or worse, I’m never going back again.  Stephen did neither! He went back the next Sunday and has been faithful ever since.  The “good guys” are hard to find, glad we’ve got one!
“A wise son brings joy to his father”  Proverbs 10:1

Originally published April 20, 2012 at Thechestnutburr.com

Pray Without Ceasing

I must confess that I’ve been enjoying somewhat of a media fast lately.  The last two weeks have been good for me, spiritually, by refocusing on more important issues.  I still enjoy blogging, and there have been lots of good topics around, but we all need breaks once in a while.  I increasingly find our fast paced lifestyles, both at work and home to be dangerous in many ways.  We all need to slow down and reprioritize on the things that really matter.  If you were asked to make a list of what is REALLY important, my guess is that the person driving slow in front of you, wouldn’t be number one.

We let all kinds of unimportant stuff elbow its way up the list, instead of, going to the back of the line.  Let’s be honest and think about the important things a minute.  Number one has to be your spiritual state or your relationship with God.  I looked at my list and had to reach way down and pull that one back up where it should be.  On April first, my wife and I joined the Church of the Highlands here in Birmingham.  I can only believe that God was pleased with the decision because it seems that every lesson I’ve heard since then, seems to apply directly to me.

Putting God first is one of the best ways to reorganize your life to make everything else fall into place.  My illustration of a cluttered, out-of-order life, is like walking into a “hoarders” home.  You know, those people who can’t throw anything away.  I’ve walked into people’s homes and had to actually step on things to get where I was going, usually a broken telephone jack.  A Godly ordered life is just the opposite, it’s a clean home, with everything in its place.  We’re still going to misplace some stuff, but it’s much easier to get back on track.

I find that prayer to God helps immensely in staying pliant for His wishes.  We are here for a purpose and it is not what most seem to be striving for like money, power, and a good time.  The title of today’s blog came from 1 Thessalonians 5:17.  In context it says this, “Live in peace with each other. ¹⁴ And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. ¹⁵Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else. ¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray continually, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

In prayer, sometimes we just don’t know what to say.  At least our brain might be a little slow in speaking, I’m not sure the inner spirit is ever that way.  Often, a simple written prayer is a good start.  The internet is full of some great ones like the AA-Serenity Prayer…

God, grant me the Serenity
to accept the things
I cannot change, Courage to change the
things I can, and the
Wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardship as the
pathway to peace.
Taking, as He did, this
sinful world as it is,
not as I would have it.
Trusting that He will make
all things right if I
surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy
in this life, and supremely
happy with Him forever in
the next.

Here is another, called

Matt’s morning prayer for sobriety and peace throughout the day

God, Show me throughout this day how to be of service to Thee and those around me.Allow me to show my love and gratitude to Thee, by loving, helping, listening to and comforting others.

Bless me to let go of the expectation that I need to be shown love, listened to, or comforted.

Bless me to do, what I do,  for Thee, and not for the outside reward that may or may not come.

Bless me to trust thee, and with this trust, to release the need I feel to direct or control the lives of others.

Bless me to lose my fears and live each moment as it comes today with a peace and enjoyment I feel when living for thee.

Divorce me today from dishonest self-seeking and selfish motives, that I may be an instrument in thy hands and show others, through my example, Thy way, Thy love, and Thy peace.    Amen

Whatever you use to kickstart your prayer life, I encourage you to get started.  Throw some things out that have pushed God down the list and reprioritize!  Hey, your prayer line is ringing…  are you going to answer that?  It just may be life changing!

Originally published April 17, 2012 at Thechestnutburr.com

How Many Degrees ya Got?

My normal temperature is about 98, thanks for asking.  How did we, as a society, get so hung up on education degrees?  It must have come from the old Catholic Cliche’, which went something like, “give us your child to educate and they will always be Catholic”.  I believe liberals co-opted that idea, and by taking over the American education system, our children have become un-educated liberals. We have an education system which, if you are a Christian parent, opposes almost everything you hold dear.

I remember my first history class in college.  The professor, in the very first class, went on a rant about how religion had ruined the world.  He was not a Christian, and professed as much!  I just felt sorry for him and his warped ideas.  I know enough about history to see the good that religion, especially Christianity, has done.  Humanity, as a whole, is much like a singular human.  Terrible mistakes were made, but repentance along the way has shown goodness and mercy.

Christians, different from most world religions, see the value of every single human.  It doesn’t matter if that person is sleeping on a park bench or sitting in the oval office.  People without a Christian worldview have a different view of that value.  They believe an individual must be educated in their arts to become truly worthy of their anointing.  The ungodly religion of liberalism, and it is a religion, spends billions of dollars to make converts.  Their converts are networked up in their own system and nonbelievers are kept out.  Students are enticed over to the dark side with promises of huge salaries and perks which include guiltless sins, too numerous to mention.  Cookies from the dark side, just what a young college student wants.

Now Christians have a funny way of fighting their enemies, they just go away and give it to them.  We started Christian colleges, and the good guys and girls went there.  We gave them the university instead of fighting for our right in the arena.  Then, needing money, our side raised tuition so high, that most must attend secular schools, being a minority.  Peer pressure is an awful thing and most young Christians succumb by feeling overwhelmed in number.

Liberal institutions are certainly not the bastions of education they are made out to be.  Many graduates end up with a spiritual retardedness they cannot overcome, even with help!  Let’s face it, there is a God and HE must be approached for salvation through Jesus. Our Christian boys and girls take on the “agnostic” label to shunt criticism and then find out later in life, repentance is tough.  Being an agnostic is a weak argument for admission to Heaven.  “Lord, You never convinced me you existed!”  Obviously, they forgot reading in Romans chapter one, The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

Not only is a liberal graduate spiritually hindered, he is often financially chained to debt.   Student loans, books, and tuitions, all the offerings to the liberal gods, fund the system and pay for the priests.   Sorry, I mean the professors.  A graduate from their institution may be promised a high income, but upon exiting many are unable to locate them.  Most of the good CEO jobs are already taken.

I’ll throw in a personal observation as well.  I’ve known university graduates who couldn’t change a flat tire.  A liberal education doesn’t necessarily make you smarter.  They teach you things that THEY want you to know.  Often, a vocational education would be a much better value, especially if it didn’t corrupt your spiritual intellect.  Most people just need training in a career to earn a living.  Vocational schools do a good job with that, at a much lower cost and without all the baggage.  A good employee needs to know the job he/she is doing and not necessarily how religion has or hasn’t ruined the world.

Now, if we could just get companies to understand that college graduates don’t necessarily make good managers…and that is a whole different topic!

Originally published April 1, 2012 at Thechestnutburr.com

A Terrorist and a Truck 2

I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist staying on the same theme.  Oh, wait, I forgot…

Hi, I’m an employee of AT&T and the following is my opinion.

Now, where was I?  Oh yeah, I was scheduled to work today, which is Saturday, as seems to be the rule nowadays.  I drove into the parking lot at eight o’clock, and instead of seeing the normal seven or eight cars, the lot was practically full.  I thought, “What’s going on?”  Something major must have happened!  I knew we’ve been fighting for every trouble this week, because the load was so light.  Most days, we would spend more time trying to find a trouble to go on, than fixing one, much like the old “maytag repairman” commercials.  Three of our maintenance guys reported in at seven o’clock and were already gone.  The first mile group also came in a seven, but they were still hanging around the lot.  One of their guys said it was a full call-out to work troubles, plus they would all be on troubles next week too.  A full call-out means everybody is invited to work overtime!

My only other maintenance cohort looked at the trouble load and it was zero!  We had nothing to do!  Upon hitting the “dispatch” button on my laptop, I pulled a job in Birmingham.  “Figures”, I thought.  So, I fought the inbound 280 traffic, that I hate so much, and spent the entire day in a different district!

In maintenance, we feel like Dorothy, in the Wizard of Oz.  We try to make sense of a confused world.  “Load Balance” is the wizard who directs us on various quests with a booming powerful voice that cannot be questioned!  All who hear must obey regardless of the instructions!  Even the dispatch “minions” are afraid to make simple helpful decisions, while we journey down the yellow brick road.  The wicked witch would be (can’t insert the name here), and his MSOC flying monkeys are ever alert, looking for errors in lost productivity.  Maybe one day, we’ll wake up to sing “Ding-Dong!  The Wicked Witch is gone!”  Till then… Dorothy, this ain’t Kansas anymore!

In Terrorist in a Truck, we discovered what virtual poles look like.  Today, I’ve got a combination shot of a virtual pole, along with a virtual conduit.  Is this not awesome?


The virtual conduit goes from the pedestal to a concrete culvert under the road.  For now, the property owner is mowing around the 25 pair cable on the ground.  He has been pretty nice about not hitting the cable that isn’t attached to the pole next to it.  It is probably attached to a virtual pole that is invisible.  Must be in the practice somewhere, or it just wouldn’t be that way!

In my last blog, I also included a picture of a cross connect box that needed some old jumpers pulled out.  Today, I saw one that made the first look, kinda okay.  I opened a box and saw this…


I thought, “this needs some routine work!”  Then, I opened the back side.


Here, is another MSOC fatality!  It’s about quality, quality, quality!  Somebody pull the curtain away from Oz, so we can see what leaders DON”T look like!

If MSOC were health care, the patient would be on hospice.  Is that what we want?  Is that where we’re missing the big picture?  If the landline business dies, is there a gazillion dollar inheritance for the cell side of the business?  If Ma Bell is so sick and dying, why are so many of her friends and customers still sending their dollars in.  Maybe we need to fire quack doctor Oz, and see a real specialist.  Ma may be ill, but she has a lot of good networking spirit left in her.  We’ve just got to get the MSOC poison out!

Now, this probably doesn’t make a lot of sense to those of you not familiar with MSOC.  It is the driving force behind productivity in our company.  It’s like putting your surgeon on a stopwatch to get in your heart fast, fix it, and get out, NOW!  It is rush, rush, rush, all day long.  “You’re not fast enough.”  “You’re numbers are bad, and we’re going to fire you.”  It is Foxconn for the telecommunication world!  There is no time for quality!  Fix it with a wire on the ground and go!  Hurry, hurry, hurry!  If you would like to see any of my other posts on the subject, click on “MSOC” in the tag cloud, on the right.

For a business to survive, it cannot have quantity and quality.  It must have a quality product delivered in a quick manner.  Quality comes first.  Customers do not want a product delivered quickly that doesn’t work.  Furthermore, it is ridiculous and redundant, to have so many groups who essentially do the same thing.  Stop hiding “head count” in the first mile group and let’s get back to old school.  In the beginning, there was maintenance, which fixed cable, and construction, which placed cable!  It was a simple concept which worked extremely well!

We do get a letter every now and then about quality, but I get numbers every day!  Numbers that compare me to every other technician.  It is posted on the wall for everyone to see, which is against existing privacy laws!  I have a counseling entry in my personnel file because I failed to make “MY NUMBERS” in December of last year!  Today, I heard about a guy with thirty-nine years service, who recently, received the same type entry.  And yeah, we’ll both retire pretty soon and all this will be over for us.  But we care about a network that was well-built, and one that could be around for a long time… if it was treated better!

Originally published March 24, 2012 at Thechestnutburr.com

A Terrorist and a Truck

Kids, watch out walking between that communication pedestal and the pole!  Someone put a cone out here…

(put disclaimer here) Hi, I’m an employee of AT&T and the following blog is my opinion.

I received a company email recently about the fact that damage to communication facilities is considered a terrorist act and is punishable as a federal offense.  That’s funny in a way, not that damage to communication facilities should be punishable, just who are you going to punish.  I know, I know, the terrorist.  The funny part is, one man’s terrorist is another man’s accountant.

I’m reminded of the song Professional Pirate, sung by Tim Curry,  in the movie, Muppet Treasure island.  “When I was just a lad looking for my true vocation, my father said, now son, this choice deserves deliberation, though you could be a doctor or perhaps a financier, my boy why not consider a more challenging career…  Further into the song, “Now take Sir Francis Drake, the Spanish all despise him.  But to the British, he’s a hero and they idolize him.  It’s how you look at buccaneers that makes them bad or good, and I see us as members of a noble brotherhood, hey ho ho…

So, in other words, one man’s pirate (or thief or terrorist) is another mans’ financier (or manager).  That is just funny to me because I see so much that makes no sense in our business.  I know that I’m not able to see the big picture, or I’m not looking at the big picture… whatever cliché you wish to use. I know we need to get rid of our employees to make more money for the stockholders.  We need to sell off parts of the business that don’t make enough money, and we need to maximize our profits on the backs of the few employees we have left.  For those few, MSOC should be used with maximum effect to increase productivity so everything gets done everyday, on time, without any errors and with little or no overtime pay.  Any employee caught dawdling will be shot on sight…or better yet, put an entry in his file!

Maybe, everybody just needs to see things through my eyes a little… or through my lens.  You already know how I feel about MSOC and the “hurry up offense” that is fatal to good quality work.  It’s also costly and a tremendous waste of resources to send technicians all over the county on “demand” work only.  There is always “routine” work all around us, but we can’t do any routine work, that is an unpardonable sin!  Well, what has this awesome plan gotten for us?

  We have created “virtual poles”.  The fiber optic line in the picture, leaves the strand above and goes straight down into the ground.  The pole supporting and protecting it is invisible.  I’m not sure if this has been patented yet, but it seems to work okay.  There could be an issue when the county bushhog comes by.  Remember it takes a little more time to do things correctly.  It takes a LOT MORE TIME to correct them later!
The next picture is an improvement on the virtual pole.  It at least has some protection on the ground, just none above.
If quickly done “dip” cables are the problem, maybe we should just take everything down lower…


If we laid everything on the ground, it would save a tremendous amount of time and money!  We wouldn’t need bucket trucks nor even the new virtual poles.  It’s amazing how much work is around and we still don’t need all those people on the surplus list.


Customers stop and think they’re doing a good deed by letting us know about this stuff.  “Yes, ma’am.  we know about it.  It was reported to construction and should be taken care of soon.” You can never give a timeline or an estimate.  Why?  Because most of the time it’s been on the ground six months already and I really don’t know when or if it will be fixed!
A guy in a cement truck stopped to let a tech know about these low cables over a county road recently.
He was afraid his truck would pull them down.  Yep, the calls were made and guess what?  Looks just like that today!
Here’s a better picture.   It’s right in front of a central office.  Two large cables and a couple of fibers cross the road here.  Shouldn’t be too hard to find and fix, just a transfer to a new pole.

There are other issues as well, not just with transfers and virtual poles.  Some cables need to be respliced completely, and not just a pair at a time.  The pair at a time would be the MSOC way.  There are guys who are so driven by making their numbers, they would drive to a spot, fix one pair…twenty-five times.  Why not just splice all 25 at one time?


The modules at the right were testing crossed with battery.  The top one was in a pedestal without gravel.  The best course of action is resplicing.  These are often associated with “come clear” troubles.  The problem goes away, when the sun dries out the moisture.  So yeah, there are troubles that disappear and then come back the next time it rains!  MSOC penalizes me for that!

My last picture is a nightmare for any technician trying to run new jumpers in a box that is already full.  The trouble here is two-fold.  It is a poor design for jumper routing and MSOC makes everyone hurry so they don’t take time to take out the old jumpers.  A technician from Miami told me they had boxes with wires laid on the ground from both sides.  We’re not quite that bad yet, but it’s just a matter of time(or lack of it)!
Some of you have asked about my grievance for my personnel entry.  It hasn’t taken place yet.  I did talk to a CWA representative who said I just needed to be thankful for my hourly wage.

I also had an inquiry about how does one get out of the union.  I believe you have to send a letter to CWA and the company, on the anniversary of the existing contract.  Some recomment “delivery confirmation” or “signature confirmation” letters to be sure of their arrival.  I believe there is only a two week window of opportunity.  I’d ask my union representative, but he’d just say it isn’t in the contract.  That seems to be their answer to most issues now!

Anyway, the next time you see someone damaging communication property, please report them to the proper authorities!  Hopefully, the proper authorities aren’t AT&T stockholders!

Polygamy - Why Romney will Win

I just finished my first yoga workout, there’s a first for everything.  This weekend, I even did two P90x workouts.  Yes, I’m sore.  I decided that I was out of balance, physically.  My mind was strong, but my body seemed a little weak.  I can serve as an example, that its never too late to change and start improving oneself. We need to break out of the rut sometimes.

That rut is different things to different people.  For you, it might be just turning off the television and picking up a good book.  The Bible is an excellent read, by the way…  For most of our younger folks, it will probably mean turning off or putting down whatever device has you chained to it; iPhone, Xbox, or PS3.  It’s easy to get out of balance by following whatever your mind tells you it wants to do.  The mind is a good thing but it is inside our flesh.  The problem with that is, the flesh usually rules.  Teenagers would be a good example of that reasoning.

Oh yeah, about the title, I’m getting there.  Balance is what we don’t hear very much of.  Society acts like our fleshly bodies.  It wants the cake and candy while skipping the salad and the other stuff that’s good for us.

Take gay rights for instance, it’s very bad for society.  It is, however, being shoved upon us by whoever shoves stuff upon us, from the top of the power pyramid.  They want it legalized, and not only legalized but condoned by everyone in the world.  They were pulling Piers Morgan’s strings when he attacked Kirk Cameron recently.  The media elites have to ridicule Christian beliefs in order to sway public opinion to their side.  It’s a really sad way of trying to win the debate.  They have to demonize the teachings of Jesus Christ.  He’s been dead for thousands of years and His followers still stand in the way of a good party.

I believe it goes beyond the gays just having a good time.  They could do that without getting married.  It’s about changing our laws.  I never really thought about it until I heard Paul Diamond speak about the trials the United Kingdom is going through trying to redefine marriage.  He spoke about the real oddity of a Conservative Prime Minister introducing the argument supporting gay marriage, against the wishes of his own party.  He also mentioned that if gay marriage is legalized, Muslim polygamy will be next on the agenda.

I have to admit that I didn’t think about that one.  So, we have the Muslims who normally have four or more wives and they want it to be legal.  The end run on this political play is to make a little change in the law for a bigger change later on.  A change, that I suppose, even Mitt Romney could support.  If you want the American people to soften up on polygamy, why not elect a Mormon President?  Make him likeable, let him even bring the economy back from the brink.  Why, he could be the next Kennedy… in the eyes of the people.

Politics is never random!  The backroom deals have been made long before the election.  The think tanks have used supercomputers for all the variables and the outcome is written in stone.  We just won’t know for sure, until it happens.  I  want you to be aware and exercise your mind a little.  We’ve gotten soft when it comes to liberty.  We’ve thought that “as long as the Government leaves me alone, everything is okay.” Wake up, things are not okay.  We need to be the watchdogs that the founding fathers intended.

Maybe a little 1776 history workout would do you some good.  There is an awesome website that you could spend fifteen to twenty minutes a day on, and it would have you in shape in no time.  It’s called Wallbuilders.  Their website is at HTTP://www.wallbuilders.com.  Next, go work the soreness out by seeing the movie “Monumental” that should be showing in March at a theater near you.  It looks like a great movie which will stretch those liberty muscles in ways unimaginable.  Then, stay involved.  Look for people to follow on Twitter that can keep you informed.  A couple of  examples would be Judge Napolitano and Ron Paul.

Things are happening that we all should be aware of.  You won’t read it in the news because you aren’t supposed to know.  They just want you kept fat, happy, and anti-Christian.  That way, the money and good times just keep on coming… for them!

I’ll close with the last line of Longfellow’s poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride”.

So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,—
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.


Originally published at Thechestnutburr on March 19, 2012


 

You Can't Rollerskate in a Buffalo Herd

 

It’s a herd mentality thing!  If everyone is running in one direction and you’re going the other, it’s not going to be pretty!

This big guy was standing in a fence next to where I was working today.  His eyes seemed to be telling me something.  David, why are you surprised Ron Paul lost yesterday?  He’s a great guy, but the herd is going the other way.

Sure enough, as I started my truck, the whole herd bolted to the other side of the field.

They are easily spooked, people, that is.  The media have the public so scared of voting for Ron Paul, he can’t possibly win the nomination.  I talked to a Santorum voter the other day and he said that Paul was for legalizing drugs and shutting down the military!  “What? Where did you hear that lie?”  “It was on the radio…”  “You may have heard some idiot talking on the radio, but you didn’t hear Ron Paul say that!”

Now, don’t get me wrong, I still hope and pray that Congressman Paul wins the nomination.  It’s just getting mathematically difficult.  The good news from all this, is that seeds have been planted and ideas floated that will last for generations!  Young people and a lot of us older ones too, have seen the light of a great politician.  A man consistent in his voting, not wavering on his philosophy, and patriotic to the core! A man with fiscal responsibility who could make the American dollar sound again!  But the herd doesn’t want that!  They want more of the same.  Obviously, it hasn’t gotten bad enough for most conservatives yet, or they’re just running from the gunfire.




The herd is going to run away from the big media guns.  Stampeded in the direction that is most detrimental.  They’ll end up in a box canyon with nowhere to go except a packing house.  Or they might get picked off one at a time, by another version of the patriot act.  Hopefully one day, before it’s too late, they’ll remember greener pastures, where there was liberty and freedom.  They had good grazing and didn’t know what a hot brand was.

Makes me think of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness, complaining to Moses about how bad things were.  If only we had trusted… we could have been in the promised land!  You’ll remember it was their kids who actually inherited it.

Keep praying for America and the kids who will inherit it.  May there be a Gideon around to lead them!

Originally published March 14, 2012 at Thechestnutburr.com

Death, The Final Frontier

 

 I felt it only natural to follow my blog on zombie voting with one about death.  Not that I’m an expert, no one on earth is. I’ll just contribute some thoughts on the subject.  Death isn’t a bad thing for the Christian, except that your loved ones are left behind.  We get caught up in the “time thing” and forget that the timeline, that is life here, is only here.  Jesus said in John chapter 8, “before Abraham was, I am”.  That is a difficult concept for our human minds because the march of time is all we know.  Jesus was alive before Abraham, who had been dead for hundreds of years.  Jesus entered our timeline and his “God in the flesh” time, when he was born to Mary.  God is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent.  Time is irrelevant with God,except as it relates to our current predicament.  Picture time like a novel.  You can turn to any page and start reading the story, and be in the correct moment in the story.  However, when God, as the author says our part in the story is over, it’s over!  Death is real.

 

When we die, we are removed from this earth and our slavery to time.  I wonder how it all works myself, but I’m confident that the Bible is true on the subject.  We are born here, we live here, we die here, but then we go elsewhere.  Our life in this place, is simply the refining process the Creator of the universe uses to mold and test us.  1 Peter 1:7 says, These trials will show that your faith is genuine.  It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold–though your faith is far more precious than mere gold.  So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor…  At times, the test is more difficult, necessitating the need to move closer to the Teacher, Jesus Christ.  We may need to ask for answers, strength, forgiveness, or courage.  Regardless, we go through that test and get another, and another, and another…  The end result, is that we are ready for service in the place where God is and where we will spend eternity.

We know that the afterlife exists because the Bible tells us that people have been raised from the dead.  It is a pretty long list;  the widow of Zarephat’s son (1Ki 17:17-24), Shunamite’s son (2Ki 4:20-37), Man tossed into Elisha’s tome (2Ki 13:21), Widow of Nain’s son (Lk 7:11-16), Jairus daughter (Mk 5:35-43), Lazarus (Jn 11:1-44), Tabitha (Acts 9:36-41), Eutychus (Acts 20:7-12), many bodies (Mt 27:51-53).  Sadly, all these had to die physically one more time.  At Jesus’ resurrection, He defeated death for good.  Romans chapter 6 explains how we benefit from Jesus victory over death.  We will enjoy eternal life too, as a reward for our belief and faith in Him.

I believe that the Bible also teaches some people are taken from this earth because of His will.  An interesting reference outside of the Canon of scripture is the Wisdom of Solomon, chapter 4:10-15.  There, it says, ““There were some who pleased God and were loved by Him, and while living among sinners were taken up. They were caught up so that evil might not change their understanding, or guile deceive their souls. For the fascination of wickedness obscures what is good, and roving desire perverts the innocent mind. Being perfected in a short time, they fulfilled long years; for their souls were pleasing to the Lord, therefore He took them quickly from the midst of wickedness. Yet the people saw and did not understand, to take such a thing to heart, that God’s grace and mercy are with His elect, and that He watches over His Holy ones.“  And before you say, “that isn’t in the Bible,” you might read Isiah 57:1-2, it is the same thought.  Remember that God is good, all the time.  Be good yourself, and you might just get a speed pass to the afterlife.

I wonder what God will do with time itself.  Will it just be ended and gone?  Will it be in a heavenly museum for everyone to visit and look over its pages.  Could we be standing there, looking back at this moment in time, and saying, “Wow, what an awesome God”.  Yeah, I think so!

Originally published March 4, 2012 at Thechestnutburr.com

Zombie Voting

 

I was surfing around the net and accidentally came across the Center for Disease Control’s Zombie Apocalypse page.  I was really impressed.  I had no idea someone in the United States Government had a sense of humor.  I’ve heard zombies mentioned quite a bit lately from various sources and that usually indicates a blog is needed on the topic.

If you don’t know, zombies are people who have been brought back to life by mystical means and are in search of normal people’s brains.  I’m not sure why they eat brains.  Maybe its because when that person gets reanimated, they won’t need their brain.  Another definition of zombie would be someone who is hypnotized and practically unconscious, but able to respond to surrounding stimuli.  Much like those recent voters, who have ambled in to vote for Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum without using their brains.

Can’t you just picture all of them slowly, methodically, dragging one leg and swinging an arm, as they march toward the voting place.  Hundreds of voters in a trance-like state who will be undeterred from their only purpose in life, voting for one of the candidates their media moguls encourage.  ”Its only between Mitt and Rick. Its only between Mitt and Rick.  Its only between Mitt and Rick”, you hear them mutter as they pass by.  You shout, “Wait, there is a better candidate!  Have you heard about Ron Paul?” “Its only between Mitt and Rick.”  Its no use, they just won’t listen!

Your eyes suddenly get wide and your mouth drops open.  The Realization sinks in that the dreaded zombie apocalypse has begun!  The time when zombies everywhere, arise and begin their long-awaited war against humanity.  Zombies who hate human life in America, along with its liberties and opportunity for financial freedom.  Zombies who love a crushing national debt, Zombies who have no other function than to  keep their evil leaders in power!  Zombies who ignore lie after lie from the same candidates over and over…

I’ve tried reasoning with them, tried handing them good intelligent literature, suggested good psychologists who could help pull them out of their self-inflicted pain.  Nothing works.  They are slaves who don’t want freedom.  They are citizens intent on national suicide!  I just don’t understand.  Here is an awesome candidate in Ron Paul, that they just won’t vote for. A candidate who could have fit in perfectly sitting beside Thomas Jefferson.  Ron Paul may be the last opportunity to save our country from the evils of debt, tyranny, and imperialism.  If anyone could be nominated a founding father “out of time” its Ron Paul.

So how do we help these voting zombies?  I suppose we could work it like a suicide prevention intervention.  For people who are in danger of suicide, you would keep anything they could use to harm themselves out of reach.  Let’s keep these people from the polls.  If you know a Romney or Santorum supporter, invite them to play golf or go jogging that day.  Go for a visit and ask to see all their home movies or pictures of grandchildren.  Of course you need to go vote for Ron Paul yourself, first!  Then, just keep them away.  Keep them from harming themselves.  We’ve got to love them, they just don’t know any better.   Let’s also keep up the flow of truthful information.  Zombies seem easily led by others in power, so if we can convert more of their leaders, we’ll have a pied piper effect.  They might be able to “wake up” from their zombie trance when they see friends and relatives supporting a true leader.

The one bright spot on the horizon is the support that Ron Paul has from the younger generation.  There may be a genetic trait that has developed to fight this disease.  An anti-zombie chromosome.  Or, its just possible, really possible–they’re smarter!  Maybe our intelligence is evolving to the point that America will be saved from harmful politicians and greedy corporations by a generation of super voters.  Able to swat aside media polls with a single swat.  Jump over media traps with a single jump.  Boldly go where the baby boomers didn’t!

Wake up America, your future is calling!

Originally published March 1, 2012 at Thechestnutburr.com

Employee Hall of Fame

I’ve gotten inquiries wanting to know where I’ve worked with BellSouth.  I’ll give you a short history with a few names I’ve worked with.  If you recognize one, it will give you the time period.   The following order isn’t exactly correct but it’s close.  I went to the Test Center on three different occasions from surpluses or being bumped, so I’m listing only one to keep from sounding redundant.

I started as an Engineering Clerk in Decatur, Alabama.  I remember Stewart, Williams, Stanley, Fory, Pittman, Joe, Reba, and Alice.

I left there and went to Jacksonville, Alabama as a Service Technician and worked with; Hammett, Cheyne, Biggs, Coogler, Martin, Pope, Norton, Hopper, Wheeler, Winkler, Dempsey, Smith,

Stayed in Jacksonville until divestiture and went to the test center as a Maintenance Administrator.  There I worked with Pattie, Dot, Sharon, Oscar, BJ, Jane, Phyllis, Rick, Neil, Jack, Roy, Faye, May,

I enjoyed a short stay in Centralized Repair Service Attendant Bureau in Birmingham, Alabama.  I met Toni, Renae, Judi, Cynthia, Carol, Helen, and a host of others.

I worked as a Service Technician in the Homewood – Vestavia area of Birmingham for about a year before managing to get back to Gadsden.  Worked with a large number of guys but mostly Jim, Howard, and Hubert.

Back to Construction in Gadsden and worked with Whitehead, Jones, Alexander, Whiteside, Lance, Jeff, and Richard.

Another short trip from a surplus to Birmingham at the AOC as an Engineering Clerk again.  For some reason, Mr. Ferguson is the only name I can remember there.

I was able to get back to Gadsden as a Service Technician and worked with Lake, Daugherty, Wood, Payne, Moon, Maples, Powell, Smith, Walker, Brothers,Kilgo, and Correll.

I Volunteered to transfer to Albertville, Alabama to keep another technician from being force adjusted there and met… all the Chaffins.  All of them worked there and most were Baptist preachers.  I especially liked Ken!  I do remember you Gary, Neil, George, Stacy, Jim, Roger, and the other George.

From Albertville, Mr. Hopper talked me into bidding on a Cable Splicing job, in the construction department in Gadsden.  Surprisingly, I won the position.  I  worked in construction covering a five county area in North Alabama.  The longer I stayed, the less challenging it became, so I bid on and won an Electronic Technician job in downtown Gadsden.  I enjoyed the Central office work.  It was varied and pretty technical, especially dealing with a 5ESS switch.   There I worked with Richard, Don, Tim, Jami, Rick, Michael, Phyllis, Nancy, Ben, Janice, Johnny, Dixon, and Brenda.

After seven years as an ET,  MSOC came in and I could see the handwriting on the wall.  Needing to get out of the cage, I transferred to Hoover, Alabama as a Facility Technician.  We are getting into modern history now, so I’ll drop listing names.  That was only about seven years ago.  I stayed in Hoover for five years and I’ve been in Chelsea for two years.

Somewhere in that timeline there was also a short stint as a coin collector and I was loaned to the Assignment office in Decatur for a while.

You might think that with all those transfers, I must have been an unhappy employee.  That wasn’t the case at all.  The company really went through a period of turmoil after divestiture, and I was glad to be still working.  At one time, I was the most surplused/bumped in the State of Alabama.  They even wrote an article about it in one of the company publications.  The movement between jobs was tough on my family but it has allowed me to have a great overall view of how the various departments function to provide good service. I’ve worked with some awesome technicians over the years and I appreciate all that each taught me.

Thanks for taking the trip down memory lane.

Originally published Feb. 26, 2012 at Thechestnutburr.com

Ron Paul is a Christian Too

I am perplexed to keep reading how the evangelicals are flocking to support Rick Santorum, a Catholic.  The other candidates that the media keep pushing are Mitt Romney, a Mormon, and Newt Gingrich, a recent Catholic convert.  I guess there isn’t anyone else for us Christians… we have to choose between those three!

But wait, there is another candidate.  What’s his name, I heard it once or twice on the news… oh yeah, Ron Paul.  But he isn’t a Christian and he’s against the military, right?  Wrong, wrong, wrong.  Ron Paul professes his faith in Christ in this video, if you need to see it for yourself.  Ron Paul worked as an obstetrician-gynecologist from the 1960′s to the 1980′s.  He’s against abortion!  He’s against borrowing money by constantly raising the debt ceiling!  Wow, that’s another  Biblical principle and where do the other candidates stand on that???

Many of you believe America won’t be #1 militarily anymore, if Ron Paul is elected President.  Again, that is a misunderstanding of what will happen that has been publicised  in the media and proclaimed loudly in the Republican party.  Ron Paul is against the undeclared wars we’ve pursued in a misguided foreign policy.  Yes, I believe the neo-conservatives will have to look elsewhere to support their money addicted habit in defense spending.  But let me ask you a question, how big does the military have to be?  Honestly, it has to be big enough to defend this country and protect our allies.  We don’t need to keep attacking countries who haven’t attacked us.  Hey, that’s another Biblical principle.

I’m going to stray into college football a little here, just for an illustration.  I’ll say up front that I tend to be an Auburn fan, so no one will take this personal.   In Alabama, the Crimson Tide football team has to be #1 to all their fans.  In my mind, they’ve been spoiled with so many national championships, that a single season loss is a ruined and disappointing year.  If the coach were to leave, the fans would demand the best(highest paid ), most talented around as a replacement.  There are other things going on at the University of Alabama, but most football fans aren’t aware of it.  A lot of kids actually get an education there.  The illustration is this, there are more important issues confronting America than her military power.  We’re going to be #1 for decades to come, lets stop throwing money at the pentagon!  We are overburdened with debt brought on by imperialistic ideas, encouraged by corporate greed.  It’s time to focus on the home front.

It’s time to bring some relief to the financial pain most Americans feel.  I believe Ron Paul will work hard to that end.  President Obama promised us change and didn’t deliver.  Ron Paul has made that promise and will keep it!  For Christians who are searching to someone to support, I can’t think of anyone in the race that has been more consistent than Ron Paul.  His beliefs haven’t changed through the years like the other candidates… Hey, that’s another Biblical principle, faithful to his word!

 Originally published Feb. 25, 2011 at Thechestnutburr.com

Apologies Accepted?

I'm an employee of AT&T and the following is just my opinion.  If you haven't read my earlier blogs, they like me to say that.

____________________

What if I was wrong?  I admit that sometimes I over analyse issues.  Often, things are just much simpler than I realized.  Like, watching the movie Signs and afterward going to bed.  That noise you just heard in the kitchen probably isn’t an alien, but the cat.  It’s easy to jump to conclusions before all the facts are in.  So… what if I’ve been wrong about AT&T?  What if I’ve blamed a company, where only a misguided manager was at fault?  I would certainly have a lot of positive writing to do!  Single managers are easy to correct, dealing with a whole company, forget it!

Hey, it happens.  Remember Will Smith’s problems in the movie, Enemy of the State.  Great movie, but it shows what can happen when power gets abused.  One man who decides he’ll ruin another for his own lofty ambitions, or sadly,  just because he can.  In the movie, a lot of people were hurt unnecessarily.  I love when Gene Hackman says, “I blew up the building because you made a phone call”.

You may have read my blog on the Uriah Principle.  It may be like that.  King David used his power to commit adultery and then murder.  A powerful man can take what he wants, or deal out any injustice.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Those who bestow authority have to constantly monitor its use.  There should never be small time dictators, who create their own “world” with real people to abuse.  However,  things like that can easily get lost in a big company.

The day I wrote CWA – Missing in Action, I discovered “quality inspections” were done on some of my past work.  That’s ok, I don’t mind, but it got me thinking – could it all be that simple…

If I’ve been wrong and this has all been a “Jon Voight” thing…  then I’ll apologise and remove all my blogs pertaining to AT&T.  I mean it did all start after my transfer to Chelsea.

For now though, I’m waiting.  The jury is still out and I don’t expect them back for a while.  I’ll just be waiting on a sign, and I’ll let you know!

Orig pub Feb. 23, 2012 at TheChestnutBurr.com

CWA - Missing in Action?

Okay, missing in action may be a little harsh for my Communication Workers of America.  I was in a grievance meeting this morning, over AT&T not calling me in on my “off” day.  I didn’t know the meeting was happening, the steward only knew five minutes ahead of time and didn’t have a copy of the grievance.  Thank goodness he had already agreed with management the day before,  that there was absolutely no contract violations or we would have been in real trouble-lol.

Since the union and company have agreed they did nothing wrong and since I agree to disagree(it is still America), here is the problem.  Last year, the company established a group called “first mile” at our work center in Chelsea, Alabama.  This group was originally(we were told) going to work defective cable sections where Uverse had problems.  It’s seventeen member facility technician crew would be working construction and engineering jobs all over the Jefferson/Shelby county area.  They have since been tasked with working repair in the demand load each day, mostly in the Birmingham area.

The frustration we installation/repair technicians at Chelsea have,  is that they work in our repair load and on our “off” days, we are not invited to participate.  Past practice with the union contract entitled “off” day technicians, “penalty pay” for not being invited, when others enter your working area.  The three grievances I had, plus the ones filed by others were thrown out this morning.  We just want to understand how things have changed.

The “first mile” group doesn’t have MSOC numbers to contend with.  No GPS on trucks, no “out the gate time” to worry with.  They enjoy a monday through friday 7:00a-3:30p schedule with almost a guaranteed weekend call-out.  They refer cable troubles back to us if they want to, with no “referral penalty”, like we have.  About twenty technicians were surplused recently and “bumping lower seniority technicians within 35 miles” has started.  “First mile” has been excluded from any surpluses and from other surplused technician bumping them.  They are like the “super posse” in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  Can’t be stopped, can’t touch them, excluded from normal rules, and financially well backed.

Our first level meeting this morning was taken over by the visiting second level.  He advised us that they were a flex force.  Go anywhere, do anything, in any area and we basically didn’t have any room to complain.

Now, I’m probably telling you more than I should, but I’ve always heard that once the Union was done with a grievance, it was ok to ask elsewhere.  So, I’m asking elsewhere.  I know that even veteran managers can make mistakes.  Union people can be mislead.  There are “true and Intent” meanings in the union contract that only real experts can explain.  I’m sure that there are interpretations of “equalization of overtime” that could read like a novel.  “Past practice” grievances are also interpretative challenging.  Hey, if it was easy, there wouldn’t be grievances nor arbitrators.
I know there are union people in our 22 state area who have come across this issue.  I just want to know what you did and how was it solved.  Is there something we’re missing here?  If this group has fallen into the contract loophole zone and have become true Jedi, able to wield amazing powers… then I just want to be one.  Thanks in advance for any email or comments.  It may be the little help you give here, will also solve the mystery elsewhere.  I’m even ok with bad news, I’ve gotten a good bit of that lately.

I like CWA Local 3317′s quote from an Asian proverb, “An army of sheep led by a lion will always defeat an army of Lions led by a sheep”.  But I’ll leave you with a Bible verse.  1 Timothy 5:18 comes to mind…”For the Scripture says, Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain, and the worker deserves his wages.”