A Pair of Birthdays Yet Christians Sleep
It seems like only yesterday when my family and I drove from Canada’s oil capital, Calgary, to Canada’s eastern seaboard and then back to Alberta through some of America’s cities.
The year was 1967 and was probably one of the most notable years of Canada’s history. Optimism reigned as 100th year birthday celebrations were held throughout the nation, including Expo 67 in Montreal, a fabulously successful world’s fair that brought international praise to the nation. Still, a prime reason for the optimism was the Canadian economy reaching a post-war peak, with prosperity and quality of life at all-time highs. It was like Canada had scaled a great mountain and looking forward from its peak, the road ahead looked immensely positive.
Sadly, things didn’t look so bright for America at that time who unfortunately seemed headed in the opposite direction. The scars of Viet Nam were ravaging the nation, perhaps highlighted by the growing body-bag count, the antiwar rally at the Pentagon and the high-profile refusal by Muhammad Ali to be inducted into the U.S. Army, saying “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Congs.” The massive transfer of wealth created through the war was overshadowed at the time because America was being drawn further into costly and dangerous world events. And on the home front, race riots were breaking out with severity. A black power rally was held in Detroit in early July 1967 when H. Rap Brown made the statement that if “Motown” didn’t come around, “we are going to burn you down”. Had I known this I would certainly have changed my travel plans, for two days after I dipped down from Canada across the Windsor/Detroit border, the Detroit riots broke out and deaths, injuries and thousands of arrests took place, 2,000 buildings were destroyed, and the army was called out.
So, here we are in 2022, Canada is 155 and America is 246, we’ve had some good times, in fact some very good times, like those during the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s years of government and Donald Trump’s short presidency in America. But, unlike 1967 where our two countries were headed in opposite directions, we are now travelling together. The debt hole we have dug for ourselves is absolutely frightening and the elite is already making us pay the piper in unbelievable costs through inflation they have created through bad management and give-away programs. Just consider the $40 billion America just approved for the Ukraine (Canada has their own similar programs), this is borrowed money and let’s say the interest is at the rate of 5%, that’s 2 billion a year for American taxpayers, on top of all the carrying costs of all the additional borrowing of the past couple of years. So, all average American taxpayers will soon be in for a tax hike, probably a hefty one. Canadian average taxpayers will feel the sting of more taxation as well. Think of it as a battle, the powerful elite, although relatively small in numbers, domineering the vast majority of average peoples.
Let’s look at the downfall in another way. What is taking place in our two nations may look like a race to the bottom, simply because of the ineptitude of governmental, corporate and inter-related leadership! But, is it? Or are the masks, the social distancing, the pandemic requirements, the lockdowns and so on, just signs of freedom being taken away from this vast majority of average peoples and preparing us for whatever it is the elite have in mind for us.
But, Editor, you might be thinking, “Why in the world would the elite do this to us”. The answer might be “more power and money”. War might be the answer to their dreams. And it might be their cure for a looming financial collapse. The burgeoning Russian/Ukraine war might look like regional battle but is fast becoming a world-wide conflict. Our leaders are becoming more belligerent and the 40 billion so called relief package approved by the Americans to the Ukraine has to be a great temptation for the Russians to add to their invasion efforts. Also, the fuse seems to be lit for an international world war.
I would like to end this article with comments from Major General Smedley D. Butler who wrote the book, “War is a Racket”. Wikipedia has thi bio on Butler, “Major General Smedley Darlington Butler (July 30, 1881 – June 21, 1940), nicknamed “Maverick Marine”, was a senior United States Marine Corps officer who fought in the Philippine–American War, the Boxer Rebellion, the Mexican Revolution and World War I. During his 34-year career as a Marine, he participated in military actions in the Philippines, China, Central America, the Caribbean during the Banana Wars, and France in World War I. Butler was, at the time of his death, the most decorated Marine in U.S. history. By the end of his career, Butler had received 16 medals, five for heroism. He is one of 19 men to receive the Medal of Honor twice, one of three to be awarded both the Marine Corps Brevet Medal and the Medal of Honor, and the only Marine to be awarded the Brevet Medal and two Medals of Honor, all for separate actions “.
So, this man was certainly familiar with war and its consequences. You will be amazed at what he wrote. “WAR is a racket. He began, “War always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small “inside” group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.
In the World War [Butler is referring to World War I—Ed.] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows!
How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried the bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?
Out of war, nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few [the wheat being shipped out of Ukraine is an example] —the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public [the vast majority of average peoples] shoulders the bill.
And what is this bill? This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.
For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. Now that I see the international war clouds gathering, as they are today, [as they are again these days] I must face it and speak out”. End of Butler’s remarks.
There are thousands of times more average peoples in our Israel nations that the elite, yet we will continue to sleep and let them have their way. That’s the way it’s been since the time of Christ, and as the elite gained greater power and wealth, more and more of the wealth and freedoms of the average peoples have been confiscated. We were warned many times, the Apostle Paul “Now it is high time to awake out of sleep”, Isaiah said, “Awake, Awake, put on thy strength, O Zion”, and Jesus said, “But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way”.
