Some Thoughts on the Occasion of My Retirement (in March of 2015)

This week I go on terminal leave from my secular job. Yes, I’m retiring! Forgive me for some personal recollections and reflections.

In my 65 some years of life I have been employed in any number of occupations and/or careers. Those that come to mind are listed below, Some were after school or summer employment in my youth. I’m certain that I’ve missed some:

Electrician’s helper for my granddad, Homestead, FL

Distributor of “handbills” for a funeral home door-to-door. Homestead, FL

Worker at my dad’s used car lot (including an occasional repossession of cars), Homestead, FL

Grandstands & pits Coca-Cola vendor, Florida City Speedway, Florida City, FL

Newspaper delivery boy, Wooster, OH

Employee at Burger Chef, Wooster, OH

Landscaping laborer, Wooster, OH

Stock boy, J.J. Newberry’s Department Store, Wooster, OH

Spot welder at Crown Steel Mfg., Wooster, OH

Production worker, R&D Metals, Kidron, OH

Midshipman, USNR (NROTC at Ohio State University)

Tomato grader at a packing house in Princeton, Florida (I lasted for half of a day)

Worker & supervisor pouring concrete driveways, Homestead, FL

Officer of United States Marines
(2ndLt – Captain | Infantry, Intelligence, Administration | 1^st Division; 2^nd Division; 3^rd Division)

Security Officer, Pinkerton Security, Watertown, WI

House painter, Watertown, WI

Handyman, Watertown, WI

Print shop worker, Bethesda Lutheran Home, Watertown, WI

Warehouse supervisor & purchasing agent Aero Vans, Miami, FL

Bank Teller, Barnett Bank, Homestead, FL

Information Specialist (Web master, graphic editor), Office of Conferences & Institutes, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL

Pastor, Landmark Baptist Church  |  Administrator, Landmark Baptist School, Homestead, FL and Archer, FL

Knowing what I know now, I would have done some things differently. Of course, in God’s Providence I had to travel the path I traveled to “know the things I now know.”

There are a few things that I think I’ve learned and will pass on for whatever they may be worth.

1.   I don’t think that I would ever have gone to college. It is a glorious waste of time and money. I would rather have sat at the feet of “dead men”, reading and studying the books of my forbears and reaping the combined wisdom that they passed on. I realize that some folks might tend to give more heed to a man with a college degree, but some folks are idiots.

2.   On a similar note, I never would have gone to Seminary either. What things the Lord has been pleased to teach me are in most cases directly contrary to the things I was “taught” in Seminary. In fact, Seminary drove me to the writings of the Old Saints that I might repudiate the garbage that was being taught in class. So, I guess Seminary did serve some purpose.

The venerable dead are waiting for me in my library

to entertain me and relieve me from the nonsense

of the surviving mortals        -- Samuel Davies

3.   For “secular” employment I would have cultivated a skill that could be practiced with the minimum of government knowledge and/or interference. Gun smith, carpenter, electrician, etc. The best path may have been farming, as I believe that a return to an Agrarian culture and economy is the last best hope for our land.

4.   Most importantly, I would never have joined the empire’s military. Certainly there is a need to protect our folk and property, but there is no protection for true liberty from a large standing national military. We need a return to local militia that truly protect folk and property -- if need be from the standing army of the Empire. (And such a time seems to be fast approaching).

By the Grace of God I shall continue as husband, father, grandfather, pastor of the Lord’s church in Archer and chairman of Free Florida First until the Lord calls me home.

Below is a transcript of a poem that my grandpa kept on his wall. It is now on one of mine.

Lord Keep me working

Lord Keep me working, Keep me fit,
At windows I don't want to sit,
Watching my fellows hurrying by,
Let me stay busy until I die.
Grant me strength and breath and will
Some useful niche in life to fill.
A need to serve, a task to do,
Let me each morning rise anew,
Eager and glad that I can bear,
My portion of the morning's care.

Lord, I don't want to sit about,
Broken and tired and all worn out.
Afraid of wind and rain and cold,
Let me stay busy when I am old.
Although I walk at slower pace,
Still let me meet life face to face.
Let me a garden plant and sow,
Set phlox and peony row and row.
New wood for winter's cozy fire,
And at some useful labor tire.
This is MY PRAYER: As time goes by,
"Lord, Keep Me Busy, ‘Til I Die."

Free Florida First advocates for a Free, Independent, Godly, Prosperous, and Traditionally Southern Florida.

Deo Vindice!

TRUST GOD!

STAY IN THE FIGHT!

NEVER GIVE UP!

NEVER QUIT!

CLICK HERE to view a PDF of our weekly paper, Just for Your Consideration.

CLICK HERE to be added to our email list.

The Undefeated

Are we going to win this battle with Leviathan on the North American continent? Will freedom be restored to Florida and to Dixie? I have to admit that I very much doubt it.

But that does not affect my commitment to the cause. I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet. Mine is not to foresee the future in minute detail. Based upon present circumstances I can speculate how thing might turn out, but I cannot know. I do know that a Sovereign God reigns and that He will accomplish His perfect will in ALL THINGS. I do know that His revealed will is to be found in the Holy Scriptures and that it is our duty to obey that revealed will.

I am often drawn back to the words of two great Christian soldiers. First, Lt. General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, who said: “Duty is ours; consequences are God's.” 

And then, General Robert E. Lee, who said in the midst of some of the more discouraging days of the War Against yankee Agression: “At present I am not concerned with results. God's will ought to be our aim, and I am quite contented that His designs should be accomplished and not mine.”            

Let us take inspiration from the example of Major General Joseph O. Shelby. Providence may not give us “victory” in this life, but we are not defeated until we say we are.

The following is from -- From 6 Soldiers Who Refused to Surrender by Evan Andrews:

Confederate General Joseph O. Shelby was so reluctant to surrender to Union forces that his unit earned the nickname “the Undefeated.” Shelby had spent the Civil War commanding a bushwhacking band of cavalry on a series of raids through Missouri and Arkansas. By the end of the conflict, his “Iron Brigade”—so named for its legendary grit—had caused millions of dollars in damages to Union supplies and property.

Announcing that they chose “exile over surrender,” Shelby and roughly 600 soldiers rode south to Mexico after the collapse of the Confederacy. Following a three-month journey through the desert, they offered their services to Maximilian I, an Austro-Hungarian who had been installed as emperor of Mexico in 1864. While the emperor balked at including rebel soldiers in his army, he allowed Shelby’s émigrés to help found the Carlota Colony, a small settlement of Confederate expats. The upstart community enjoyed a brief period of prosperity but eventually dissolved after Emperor Maximilian was overthrown. Having never surrendered to federal forces, Shelby and most of his comrades returned to the United States in 1867 and resumed civilian life.

If we cannot be the victorious, let us be the “undefeated.”

In the words of General Shelby: “We are the last of our race. Let us be the best as well." 

Free Florida First advocates for a Free, Independent, Godly, Prosperous, and Traditionally Southern Florida.

Deo Vindice!

TRUST GOD!

STAY IN THE FIGHT!

NEVER GIVE UP!

NEVER QUIT!

CLICK HERE to view a PDF of our weekly paper, Just for Your Consideration.

CLICK HERE to be added to our email list.

A Dangerous Old Man

Lord willing, I will be retiring from my “secular” job very soon. As I’ve mentioned before, I intend to keep preaching and “talking a little treason” with my comrades at Free Florida First and via this blog, Truth Crushed to Earth, and my electronic paper, Just for Your Consideration, for as long as the Lord allows.

"Well it's a nice, soft night, so I think I'll go and

join me comrades and talk a little treason." 
-- Michaleen Flynn in The Quiet Man, 1952. 

 

Indeed, I suspect that circumstances may soon call for actions well beyond talking in the not too distant future and that’s all I have to say about that . . .

 

In any case, I aspire to be a “Dangerous Old Man” for the rest of my days. Such an occupation has a very long and honorable history.

 

In Psalm 92 we read: (12) The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. (13) Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. (14) They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; (15) To shew that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

 

Yes, to still bring forth fruit in old age is a great gift and blessing from God. I pray that the Lord may be pleased to make it so.

 

There are almost innumerable examples of dangerous old men, who brought forth fruit in old age. I’ll share just a few that readily come to mind.

 

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On April 19, 1775, British forces were withdrawing to Boston after their first engagement with Colonial troops. Some of the Brits had the misfortune of passing the fields of the old farmer, Samuel Whittemore, who personally ambushed the Grenadiers of the 47th Regiment of Foot from behind a stone wall. After dispatching three British soldiers with his rifle and two dueling pistols, he drew his sword and attacked. He was shot in the face, bayoneted numerous times, and left for dead in a pool of his own blood. Later he was found by colonial forces, still alive and trying to reload his musket to continue the fight. He did eventually die, some 18 years later, from natural causes at the age of 98.

 

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"Old Jack" Hinson of Stewart County, Tennessee, made a valiant effort to remain neutral when the war for Southern Independence broke out. But as often proves to be the case, the yankees would not allow him to do so for any length of time. Two of his sons were executed and beheaded, without trial, after falsely being accused of being bushwhackers operating against the Federal forces. Their heads were placed upon the gate-posts of Hinson’s home. In response, Hinson had a Kentucky Long Rifle custom made and began to engage the invading, murdering yankees as a long-range sniper. Before the war was over, he had dispatched as many as 100 of the invaders from distances of up to one-half of a mile (all this with open iron sights). At various times elements of four Union regiments pursued him, yet he was never captured. He survived the war, and lived until 1874.

 

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And one final example from my home state of Florida

 

During the final weeks of the War for Southern Independence yankee forces landed at the mouth of the St. Marks River, determined to capture our capital at Tallahassee. The invaders were met by a hastily assembled force from Tallahassee that was composed largely of “a motley militia of old men (some as old as 70) and young boys (as young as 14).” This force repelled three separate major attacks by the invaders at the battle of Natural Bridge and spared Tallahassee from capture, which was the only Confederate capital east of the Mississippi not captured to be Union forces.

There is a beautiful little state park at Natural Bridge today, with a monument to our defenders. If you are ever in the neighborhood, I would highly recommend it.

Free Florida First advocates for a Free, Independent, Godly, Prosperous, and Traditionally Southern Florida.

Deo Vindice!

TRUST GOD!

STAY IN THE FIGHT!

NEVER GIVE UP!

NEVER QUIT!

CLICK HERE to view a PDF of our weekly paper, Just for Your Consideration.

CLICK HERE to be added to our email list.