Faith and Intolerance

by   September 4, 2021 with No Comments

By Doug Creamer

            I am a weather fanatic. For the last couple of days I have been watching the model updates on Hurricane Ida. Every model predicts a different scenario of strength, size, impacts, and paths. I am completely fascinated and can spend hours on the internet watching storms. Most of you know that my biggest fascination is with winter storms.

            The amazing thing to me has been how similar the models were running for this storm. Normally, three-to-five-day forecasts change wildly as the storm approaches. This one stayed focused and veered very little off the track. I rarely watch weather on TV any more. There is so much information available to weather nuts like me that I go straight to the sources.

            In following the sources of weather information, I make my own deductions on what I think will happen. If storms, like Hurricane Ida, are not directly impacting my area, I tend to keep my thoughts to myself. If weather, especially winter weather, is coming our way, you can be sure I am not only watching but putting my thoughts out there, too. One friend thinks that my forecasts are more accurate than local weathermen. I think his opinion is a little high of my abilities. But sometimes my “guesses” are just as good as the local weathermen.

            Local government officials warned people to get out of the way of Hurricane Ida. That’s their job. Government officials’ jobs are to keep the public as safe as they can in whatever situation the people they govern are facing. They have to make the wisest and best decisions. My prayer is that God will raise up Daniels and Esthers to give government leaders godly advice. The trouble, we can all see from scripture, is that they don’t always follow godly wisdom.

            You and I are no different than government leaders. We need wisdom from heaven as we make daily choices that affect our families. My father-in-law, who lives near the coast of Virginia said that if a hurricane was less than 100 miles an hour he would stay home. If it reached over 110 miles an hour, he was getting out. He did exactly that for the hurricanes that hit his area. He had lived through some hurricanes as a kid and knew his limits.

            Faith plays a very important part of wisdom in our lives. I have some friends who occasionally enjoy a glass of wine or a beer with their meals. Notice I didn’t say they drink to excess. For them, their faith allows it. I have other friends whose parents were alcoholics and they don’t think you should allow any alcohol in your body, even communion wine. Their personal experiences have affected their faith.

            Is either of my friends wrong? I don’t think so. What I believe could be wrong is if one of my friends became intolerant of the other. If those who didn’t drink condemned those who did, that would be wrong. If those who did drink were insensitive and drank alcohol in front of those who are opposed to alcohol, that would be wrong. We have to allow room for different beliefs and different levels of faith.

            These very same principles apply to what we are facing as a country and the world relating to COVID. We have become very strongly polarized as a nation regarding the vaccinations and masking. We have to stop and ask; what would Jesus do? He would pray and ask His Father what He should do.

            I believe God would tell Jesus to honor and respect people. If He came to my house and we were wearing masks, He would honor us and put one on. If He came to your house and you were comfortable without a mask, He would not stand up in any public forum and condemn you because you had a different viewpoint. Yet this is exactly what we see happening among fellow believers.

            To be honest with you, I don’t believe Jesus would be very proud of people who are behaving intolerantly towards others. I want to encourage you to be careful what you say publicly regarding masking and vaccinations. Jesus is listening. I realize as Christians that we must speak out against sin, but even then we need to extend grace and mercy, because I don’t know about you, but I need plenty of it myself. Let’s speak God’s language towards each other which is always filled with love, acceptance, joy, and peace.   Doug Creamer has a new book at Amazon: EncouragingU: Summer Stories. Contact him at PO Box 777, Faith, NC 28041or doug@dougcreamer.com

Day 23

by   September 3, 2021 with No Comments

By David Freeze

  First Dairy Queen milkshake and bike repair


  Leaving Kerrville, my only thought was to be in Fredericksburg by 10am when Hill Country Bicycles opened. I envisioned a one hour repair and a continuance of the trip east.


  On the way into Fredericksburg, I saw a policeman driving toward me and then putting his turn signal on. I knew then that he was going to stop me and he did. The officer pulled up beside me and asked me to come up to his side window. He asked if I was Taylor, and when I gave my name, he smiled big and said he was looking for him and to have a great day.


    I did make it the bike shop before it opened. Lisa, the owner and only staff member currently, showed up a few minutes late. We quickly had a disagreement about expectations, Lisa assuring me that she would work on the bike but that she would have to handle customers and phones calls too. So I told her what I thought the bike needed and did my best to be patient while customer after customer came and went. Over two hours later, I left with the bike in fantastic shape. I had sat outside most of the time, planning the next few days the best I could.


    The chain wasn’t stretched, but she found the hub was loose and fixed that. It shifted better than it had in a long time. The metal had been in the tire but was now gone. The tube in the tire had a small hole and she replaced it with a new one. Plus she put a new covering over the top of the spokes on the inside of the rim, stating that it was wearing and would soon cause trouble. We had an enjoyable conversation at the end, during which she told me that she had completed a 3 year trip around the world on a bike.


    After fueling up, I was over 2 1/2 hours past the point I arrived. I got on US 290 right away as after some up and down to get out of town, the riding was much more enjoyable. After Fredericksburg, which has a dramatic German heritage, I rode through Blumenthal, Stonewall, Hye and then into Johnson City. It reminded me of a segment of Route 66, with lots going on. There were miles of wineries, lots of unusual older vehicles and even a big castle on a bluff. One of the tall men from Route 66, labeled as “Howard Huge” was even on hand. The riding was so much fun!


  Johnson City is the home of Lyndon Baines Johnson, former US President. I stopped at a state park that centers around his ranch and toured the visitor center. There is another National Historic Park here in Johnson City. Lady Bird, his wife, had a park in Fredericksburg.


    So, other than the long wait for the repair, it was a fun day, although short on miles at 55. I am at the Hill Country Inn, right beside one of the first Dairy Queen’s I have seen. My first pineapple milkshake was great! And a great convenience store is next door. The low budget motel room has a cheap price but the biggest screen TV I have ever had in a room, perfect for watching the Yanks/ Red Sox as I write this.


  Tomorrow, I hope to get through Austin and maybe as far as Bastrop, which would leave me less than 100 miles from the end of this map section. If the bike keeps running well and I make the right choices, I will stay pretty close to the planned time frame.


  Thanks again to the Post and all the readers and sponsors for making this trip happen! I completed what I think is the last big climb this morning and we should be dropping below 1400 feet from now on. The bike is good and I feel strong, so send prayers for safe riding.


    See you tomorrow!

Learning History

by   September 3, 2021 with No Comments

By Roger Barbee

The cultural war is full of blather concerning how our schools teach history. In Texas, a heated discussion is on-going about a book’s treatment of one of that state’s icons, The Alamo. I remember watching the Walt Disney movie version of that battle and its heroes and villains but know now how wrong Disney’s telling was. But I remain curious about the process of our learning history whether in the classroom or during independent reading or watching a movie.

For instance, I am reading a memoir by President Carter. I am reading it because I liked the man when he was President, and, because I grew up in a small town, the sub-title of the book attracted me: “Memories of a Rural Boyhood.” The title, An Hour Before Daylight, offered me much to learn about a young boy’s life in rural Georgia during the early 20th Century. Now, I accept that because it is his memoir, President Carter is entitled to his memory and his purpose for the book as he writes in the dedication: “To my newest grandson, Hugo, with hopes that this book might someday let him better comprehend the lives of his ancestors.” I, too, hope the book gives Hugo a window into the lives of his grandpa and other ancestors; it has certainly taught me. It has also raised questions concerning President Carter’s interpretations of events during his early life, and thus how we learn history or what we are told is historical by writers.

On page 149, President Carter writes: “ I also knew about some of the serious crimes that were committed in our region. One tragic and horrible measure of poverty in those days was the lynchings that occurred, at least partially because of growing competition even for the least desirable jobs, which in the past had been saved for black workers. As the Depression deepened, an Atlanta organization adopted the slogan ‘No Jobs for Niggers [sic]Until Every White Man Has A Job.’ The number of lynchings in America quadrupled in 1933 over the previous year, and remained equally high during the hard time that followed.”

This explanation of lynchings comes from a Naval Academy graduate who also served one term as President of the United States, so what could be wrong? Well, Carter is correct when he writes of lynchings as “tragic and horrible.” He also is correct in that the lynchings of Blacks quadrupled in 1933 as compared to 1932. But is he correct when he credits the lynching of Black citizens “partially” to the Depression and its hard times?  Hardly.

Lynchings were not a “horrible measure of poverty in those days”  as President Carter writes. Every study of every lynching shows that the “tragic and horrible” act took place when the hate filled injustice of a white majority avenged any real or perceived violation of the Jim Crow code. Any minority could be lynched, but the violence was mostly reserved for Blacks as a way of striking fear in the local population. I don’t know why President Carter writes of the history of lynching as he does, but on that page his memory collides with historical fact, and he is wrong in his interpretation of history in this example and one more that I will mention,

“Worse Than Slavery” (Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice)  is the story of the feared prison farm in Mississippi by David Oshinsky. In his well-documented book, Oshinsky shows us an American gulag that allowed prisoners to be “hired out” to wealthy landowners to work on their plantations.  Parchman Farm would not have differed much from the chain gangs in Georgia that Carter writes of with the convicts, mostly Blacks, dressed in their horizontally stripped shirts and pants. He describes the chains used to tether the men together and he shares how he and his buddies romanticized the lives of the men they saw on the chain gangs. However, on page 61 he writes: “Georgia law permitted the chain gangs to be contracted out to private employers, so they helped with road construction, railroad maintenance, and other such jobs.” Oshinsky details the same system used in Mississippi and it is one of harsh treatment to any convict “hired out” to a private contractor. What Carter gives us is a romantic view of life on a chain gang much like that when he was young, and  I doubt that any prisoner brutalized under such a system would view his labors as helping with public works improvement.

I don’t know why President Carter would write such historically wrong interpretations. Yet he has, and that fact is dangerous because he is a respected person and his word, like the word of many well-known people, is revered. Years ago, when the brand-new alternator my mechanic friend Larry had just installed in my Jeep failed, he explained it this way:” It was made by people, and any people made thing can fail.” So can people’s view of history.

Day 22

by   September 2, 2021 with No Comments

By David Freeze

  A day of uncertainty


  I loved the room last night in Leakey. All went really well until I got up this morning and checked the back tire. Flat again! I could have stayed there this morning and put my last tube in it, or reinflate it and deal with it on the road. I chose the latter!


    Out with the first light, my goal was to get a jump on the climbing today. I rode north on US 83 and had only one severe climb, then turned on US 39 toward Hunt. Lots of rollers, up and down, trying to manage the gears and grab momentum on the downhill enough to help get up the other side. Supposedly, this is the Texas Hill Country. That is the sign for the series of roads and the area I am in now. Glad it is no longer Texas Mountain Country.


    The climbing was horrendous when I got to to the start of the Guadalupe River. I found out later that early settlers in the area had the road cross the river about a dozen times to slow down the river in high water situations. Over and over I raced down the hill and struggled up the other side. Finally, I reached a high end resort area with lots of inns, lodges and homes along the river. The road became much calmer as it stayed on one side of the river and a canopy of trees made the riding much nicer.


    I added air to the tire about 2pm, just after the small settlement of Hunt. No population given, but The Store had a cafe, convenience items, gas, winery and a meat market, plus a bank. I got a huge brownie and ice there to fuel my ride into Ingram and on into Kerrville.


    I had been watching a huge storm building off to the north, and the bottom fell out just as I entered the Kerrville city limits. Still nearly six miles from my motel for the night, the Lone Star Inn, I waited for 30 minutes under a BBQ joint’s cooking area. Still raining, but tolerable, I hit the road and found the motel. I am on the Kerrville/ Fredericksburg Road or US 16 after 65 challenging miles today.


    The significance of being on the way to Fredericksburg and the tire issue, hopefully will play out into a happy ending tomorrow. I must have a piece of metal in the tire that I can’t find and there is supposedly an open bike shop in Fredericksburg. No one answered the phone today, or for the one in Kernersville. Bike shops usually open later, so if I can get the same result out of the back tire tomorrow and the shop is open, I will get it fixed. If not, I will ride back to Kerrville. Other things that need attention on the bike are a chain that I think has been stretched with all the climbing, a water bottle holder that vibrated off with all the rocky roads and a couple other possibilities. Fredericksburg is about 23 miles east by car. Worst case scenario is that I end up back here tomorrow night, just to get the bike fixed. Usually about halfway is time to get the bike some professional attention.


    It has been pouring again since I got in the room. I did get some bananas and my ice cream plus microwave pizza to refuel after another day of Texas hills.


    Austin, Texas is coming up quickly as I continue to head east. It was a beautiful day today, again not too hot.
    Join me tomorrow for the continuing saga of the tire. My elevation diagram says only one more mountain taller than 2,000 feet and it just happens to be tomorrow.


      David Post has joined the journey as a sponsor again. Two more anonymous ones have also joined. Thanks to them and all the other sponsors who are making this adventure happen! Time to get to the ice cream! See you tomorrow!

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