Sunday, September 06, 2009

Sermon



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The above scan is one of the reasons I so much dislike organized religion. It is a parking ticket from the Johnson City Medical Center where my Carolyn is recovering. I dearly appreciate the work these people did to save her life, but stupidity of this sort is beyond reason. When I went into Carolyn's room today, I told her I would most likely get a citation for parking the Escape in a spot reserved for clergy. When I left to come home, this piece of yellow corruption was sticking under the wiper. I didn't park in that particular spot to cause trouble, I parked there because there was nothing else available. It was Sunday afternoon, and as always on Sunday afternoons, the parking lot was full. There were a couple of places open, but they were so far back in the sticks I would have needed to send for a taxi to get to the hospital entrance. The hell of it is and in that part of the lot where I parked, there are more areas designated for preachers than there are for handicapped people. I decided my visit with my bride was far more important than scallywag preachers visiting unfortunate sick folk once each week and making $100,000 a year to do so. I found one of several open places and parked, and even at that, it was not one of the closest open ones to the hospital entrance. I placed my handicap placard on the mirror for all to see, and went about my business. I can forgive them for riding around in their little Japenese pickup trucks, but I cannot forgive them for for crass stupidity. Not only is it immoral for hospital security to perform such an act to a crippled person, it is also unconstitutional to do so. The hospital accepts federal money to care for indigent patients, and that fact makes it blatantly wrong and unlawful for them to put the wants of religion above the needs of the people. Separation of church and state is still part of our sacred constitution, and I will do everything in my puny power to see that it not is tread upon so carelessly.

Why raise such a stink over a mere parking ticket? There is nothing mere when it comes to American people exercising their right to be free, and that means whenever possible I want to be free of persecution by religion. I observed some of the "clergy" walking to and from their cars, and not a single one of them sported even a slight limp, wheras I was on a walking cane and limping in a kind of pain none of them have had to endure for very long if ever. Do they know what it is like to walk on a leg where the knee bones literally rub upon each other every time the joint is moved? Do they know the pain of shoulder bones rubbing together from the pressure of putting just a little bit of weight on a walking cane? Most probably do not but I am sure they would gladly pray for me, especially if I tithed in their elaborate temples of self worship. Do you know what they did as we passed one another walking? One smiled and spoke to me while the other three either ignored me (I am hard to ignore at six foot five inches tall, weighing 260 pounds that I will admit to, and carrying a disreputable looking cane with a warp in it that appears to have been forcefully whacked against someone's head), or they averted their eyes from an old cripple. Maybe they did not like my Pink Floyd ball cap?

We handed this country over to the whims of the Moral Majority and the excesses of Big Business; look at what it has begotten. If politicians are fearful of stepping up and fighting for our liberties, then we must do so ourselves. This is my fight for my liberty.
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Carolyn is doing much better; she is very sassy. I may have to whop her up side the head with my cane. Thanks Alice for stopping by today and for the fruit basket. Your visits and caring are always most welcome. Computer fixed?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry, you got the parking ticket.
Yes, computer is fixed it was working when I got home with an E-mail from peoplepc with a web site for a live chat with problems. How can you have a live chat when you can't even access the internet.
How is Carolyn today?
Alice

Tammy said...

Amen brother. Clergy = human beings = faults just like every other sucker. I wonder if one of those silver little fishy-do "I'm a christian" bumper stickers would have alerted them to the fact that perhaps you were one of them (almost just like a Sneech w/a star).. but somehow I doubt it. It always amazes me that people feel the need to share with you their experience with their god. therein lies the problem. I am convinced that humans have the inability to interpret what god says... my relationship with my god is my business. I don't ask you what your favorite sexual position is and I find it just as insulting when you ask me what my relationship with god is... I think you should complain about this ticket as far up the hospital ladder as you can... bastards. Good luck. Glad to hear that Carolyn is doing better...

Anonymous said...

The funny thing is...you TOLD Carolyn that you would get the ticket...and now that you got it, you are bitchin'? It would have been cheaper getting a taxi than paying a ticket. I would like to hear about the preachers day...last rights, etc....hummm... perhaps your day WAS better than his/hers. Life is precious..and it is the moments that count. If you keep on bitchn' you will have a heart attack.PS~ what do you say when healthy people park in your handcapped spot?)oh well, no mo bitchin. Have a happy day.

Anonymous said...

I suppose they expect you to have another computer on standby, Alice ;-)
Carolyn is much better, but becoming depressed because they will not pull the tube from her stomach and allow her to eat. They told her she would have to have a bowel movement or pass gas before they would do so, and she has passed gas all day long. The doc was just in to see her, and he still will not take the tube from her. I told her to hang in and I would see if I could get some sense from someone tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Tammy.
Well said.
There has to be boundaries and limits between religion and other freedoms, or we could soon be looking at an authoritarian state something like Iran, except here, the various denominations would be fighting among themselves to be supreme. The small churches would lose out and be banned, and real religion would be cast aside.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Anonymous.

Yes, I am bitchin'. There was no sense in the ticket being written in the first place. The hospital elected to take what used to be handicap parking and just plain give it to clergy. They never did have enough parking for the disabled, and now there is even less.

Get a taxi? I have no intention of paying for the ticket.

Guess whom some of the biggest names on the JCMC board of directors might be; preachers from a few of the area's largest churches. You do not know what goes on in that medical organization, and I know only some of it. Most of what I do know is not pretty and definitely not for the good of the community. This is a so-called non-profit hospital just like churches are supposed to be, and that is just the old tax dodge.

Last Rights? I live in the Bible Belt, and there are few last rights given by the old time denominations that rule the roost in the south. How about an old man or woman trying to get to a hospital room to say goodbye to a dieing spouse, or a parent trying to come to the aid of their frightened and screaming cancer stricken child? Do you think they will hesitate one second to park in a preacher's cherished spot?

As for my handicap spot, it is something I rarely use, IF there are other places to park close by. There were none such yesterday, but there was today and I used one of them even though there were disabled spots open.

Anonymous, I do not like to give advice, but I suggest you walk a mile in the shoes of a crippled old person before you do too much judging.

I may have a heart attack you speak of at any moment and I may die; my life has been what it has been; very imperfect. I have done much wrong, but I have also done much good; I am just a man. I will leave it to good people like yourself to judge me if they so wish. When I go, it will be without trepidation; I came with nothing; I have nothing; I shall leave with nothing, yet I feel very fortunate.

Have a nice day yourself.

Maggie said...

Hello there Fiesty!

Fiesty and Sassy. So good to see both of you getting back to yourselves again. What a horrible ordeal.

Hope tomorrow is an even better day.. for eating, bitching and anything else you care to do.

I am with you on that parking ticket issue! But there is none so blind as those who refuse to see. (A misquote, probably) Preachers are in an industry that pays very well by preying on the scared, ill, and less fortunate members of society. Your example is enough to make we yearn for a cane that I can cut notches into to mark every well wielded and well deserved hit.

Tammy said...

Don't the clergy take an oath to put god and OTHERS before themselves? I bet it ain't easy to give last rights, etc but guess what? I believe those duties are listed in the job description when they sign up. I bet Mother Theresa, Ghandi, or Jesus himself would have walked from the back lot and blessed every critter and human on the way. Clergy more than any other person in that hospital should be aware of the suffering that families go through. Perhaps a better place for them to park would be the doctor's parking lot if they needed to get to a dying patient quickly... but in my personal opinion.. if you haven't made peace with your life prior to death a clergyman/woman can't fix it. I'll stop being irate now and get back to my lemonbalm tea. I lit a candle this morning for Carolyn and sent a whisper of love for her, and her faithful man!

Anonymous said...

Thanks very much Dear Maggie.

The problem is the same as with cops; one bad one makes a lot of decent ones look like crap. There are a lot of small-church and even big-church pastors and priests whom are dedicated to God and their fellow man, but these few big-time hypocrites spoil the perception of the entire lot.

I have an extra cane that is a bit too short for me that I can send you. It belonged to my dad, and I think he would be pleased to see it put to such a gallant use. It already has a few notches. ;-)

Anonymous said...

When the hospital grew so big, it also out grew its parking lot, but the situation was never remedied. Now, doctors have taken many of the handicapped spots, but you will not hear me complain one iota about that. The fact that clergy take advantage of people because it is allowed is dastardly. I wonder what their individual god'$ think about them?

Thanks for the good wishes, Tammy. :-)

I like lemon green tea with just a hint of ginger and a drop of honey. :-)

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