Nunca Digas Que No Puedes

Ayer (6 de enero 2015) tuvimos un devocional con la asistencia del hermano Netzhualcoyotl Salinas, Setenta de Area que fue hace años Presidente de Misión en Mérida Yucatán, quien nos contó la siguiente historia que trataré de recordar:

Tenía un misionero que tenía problemas para aprender, y era muy lento para hablar en ingles, en español era todavía peor. Cada vez que tenía que decir una frase más o menos larga sufría lo indecible para poder hacerlo. De hecho, para hablarla tomaba ambas manos en frente de él, las movía de arriba a abajo,  cerraba los ojos y hacía el esfuerzo enorme para completarla.

Cada vez que lo entrevistaba, el misionero le preguntaba, ¿cuándo voy a ser compañero mayor? El presidente le contestaba, eso no es tan importante, ya llegará el día.

Cuando tenía 19 meses en la misión, sintió que debería llamarlo como compañero mayor, y así lo hizo, con todo el temor que sentía por la incapacidad del misionero. Un poco después reicibió la noticia que el misionero iba a bautizar a un investigador que había investigado la iglesia por 22 años pero nunca se había bautizado. El bautismo se efectuó, y el presidente llamó al hermano para preguntarle sus razones de bautizarse. Esto es lo que le contestó, “gracias a ese misionero que me hizo sentir la necesidad de hacerlo”.

Pero, ¿qué le dijo el misionero? “No lo se exactamente, porque tenía tanto problema para decir las cosas que nunca le entendí nada”, fue su conestación. Pero entonces, ¿qué fue lo que pasó? “Pues simplemente, que al escucharle y verle sentí que la Iglesia era verdadera como nunca antes lo había sentido, y fue tan grande ese sentimiento, que me transmitió este buen joven, que lo sé con absoluta seguridad que la Iglesia es verdadera y por ello ya soy miembro.

Obviamente, lo que siempre les decimos a los misioneros es que deben tener la compañía del Espíritu Santo, quien es el que en realidad convierte a las pesonas. En este caso es totalmente palpable que eso es lo que sucedió; este misionero lo que le faltaba como individuo, lo tenía precisamente por ser lo que era, y tener esa compañía con él.

Habemos muchas personas que sentimos la incapacidad de hacer algo, y entre los misioneros, algunos se comparan con otros que están dominando el idioma y el aprendizaje más rápido que ellos, y ha habido alguno que se regresó a casa porque insistió que era imposible para él el aprenderlo. No, no es así, todos podemos hacer lo que el Señor nos ha mandado, si simplemente confiamos en Él, y hacemos nuesro major esfuerzo.

PARADOXICAL LEGAL TERMS

I am not a lawyer, and I believe that you don’t need to be one to understand what is written in any document if you have a minimum of intelligence and you are not contaminated either by ideology, politics or lack of common sense. I think that you need lawyers because they understand many legal implications that are difficult to understand by the ordinary lay man mainly because so many interpretations of the law made in the past and the political weight in the decisions that now form the precedents for the new decisions to be made. However, if I don’t take in account these factors, I can say my opinions that although may be wrong or not shared by others, still may be logical and be good enough to challenge those given by justices in different level of the courts. At the end the fact that many times the decision for instance in the Supreme Court are not unanimous means that some of the Justices thought differently than the others and very likely the difference was due either because of ideology, politics, agendas, or like in my case they expressed simply the way they think. 

I am going to transcribe two of the amendments of the Constitution of the United States and I would like you to read them and think about them and the freedom that they give to us as citizens of the Country:

Amendment 4.

Unreasonable searches and seizures.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment 10.

Powers reserved to states or people.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

I have said many times that the beauty of the Constitution of the United States is its length and simplicity. You can read it in no time and I believe any person can understand it, although I agree that maybe because of the reasons outlined above anybody can interpret it as they want, and because of this is the need to have lawyers to interfere with the citizens thoughts.

At the present time (Spring 2012) there are two laws under the scrutinization by the Supreme Court about their constitutionality or lack of it. In other words do these laws conform to the Constitution or not; if they are, we are going to be subjected to them and if not they are going to be void and null.

The way these two laws are known are, the Obamacare and the Arizona immigration law. With many reasons for that, these two laws are controversial, and the two opposing fields in the political arena are in a fight that made necessary for the Supreme Court to intervene to decide their future.  The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed unto law by president Obama on March 23, 2010. Together with the health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 made the health care reform known as Obamacare. A majority of the States, and a number of organizations and individuals have filed actions in Federal Court challenging the Constitutionality for some or all of its elements.  The Supreme Court after hearing oral arguments is expected to rule by the end of June 2012.

The Arizona immigration law was adopted by Arizona on April 2010. The law also known as SB 1070 (Senate Bill 1070) was intended to discourage illegal immigrants from enter or remaining in the State. It expanded the powers of State police officers to ask about the immigration status of anyone they stop, and to hold those suspected of being illegal immigrants.  They can do this with “reasonable suspect” and without authorization by any court. It makes also a crime –a misdemeanor- to not carry immigration papers. Legal challenges over its constitutionality and compliance with civil rights law were filed including one by the United States Dept of Justice. It has reached the Supreme Court.

Why the title of my writing?  Why are there “paradoxical legal terms” related to these two laws? For me a paradoxical is something that is seemingly absurd or self-contradictory. Let’s exam the opposite fields in these controversial laws. We know that on one side like in any other issue are the Democrats, liberals and leftists, and in the other side are the Republicans, conservatives and rightists. The paradox is that they are using the very same arguments to oppose one law and to support the other one.

I am not going to discuss every aspect of the laws because just to read the Obmacare will take almost my entire life; that’s the reason nobody read it in Congress before they approved it. With both laws I am going to use only the two amendments of the Constitution I wrote above, the 4^th and the 10^th.

Reading the 10^th amendment it is very clear to me that if something in the Constitution is not given to the United States it remains in the States or in the people. I read the whole Constitution several times and I found out that Immigration is specifically given to the United States, while the health care is not. This should be the end of it. However, the Democrats are pushing for Obamacare and the Republicans are pushing for the Arizona immigration law. This is paradoxical.

On the other hand, the fourth amendment, very clearly says that we the people have the right to be secure in our persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures. And again the Democrats support the Obamacare and the Republicans support the Arizona law. This is not only paradoxical but it goes against everybody in this country. By the Arizona law ANYBODY can be stopped by the State police and the police can ask for proof of legal immigration status without PROBABLE CAUSE. The Obamacare is going to impose on us the obligation to buy insurance (among other things). These things are very paradoxical AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL.

 

GOD, GOVERNMENT AND ROGER WILLIAMS

The following are my comments on an article on January 2012 of Smithsonian magazine, related to Roger Williams and Religious Freedom.

I am in complete accord with Roger William’s thinking. For me the best is the least interference of the government on the people’s lives, mainly in all those aspect related to our way of thinking. I cannot stand those persons that try to impose on others their way of life or thinking. I even will defend them on things I oppose, and I will bring out all the possible arguments but never will try to impose my way by force on anybody.

I just came back from a Cruise through the Mexican Pacific Ocean and I had an encounter with a man and we were engaged in a discussion. My wife mentioned that living in different countries allowed us to make comparisons that led us to conclude that in the world the best country  to live is the USA. He asked her the reasons for her thinking and she mentioned several good points among others the most important was FREEDOM. It doesn’t matter how many people in the world discuss this, there is no other country in the world with the freedom we enjoy here. This is the reason why this country is unique. This was the end that Roger Williams was looking for and found and practiced, and his way of thinking set out the foundation of the most precious principles in the USA Constitution that came through John Locke first and after him through Jefferson, Madison and of course John Adams. My comments on the article follow.

I know what Williams was thinking when they described him as somebody who never back in his way of thinking when he was convinced he was right. That’s happens to me, when I am convinced of something I defend my ideas with all my heart and I will put all the arguments to defend my way of thinking (when I think I am right, I am right). He left England to be free of the existing corruption of the Church brought by the State, when the State established the Church as the official one; therefore he knew what he did not want. Those who came almost at the same time, and settled the Colony in Massachusetts began to do the same thing here: the Church-State, and Williams had to leave when his ideas were not accepted; he did not want the same thing they had in England. Those in Massachusetts wanted to have the kingdom of God; they wanted to dedicate the land to God. Although Williams’ thinking about God was the same than the others, all were worshiping the God of Calvin, but they wanted the State to prevent the error in the Church. This for Williams was something impossible since God was not in charge because God among them was a particular interpretation and therefore there were different concepts of God among them and of course for those in the future. So, men were in charge not God, and because of this sooner than later some people were going to be outsiders when their thinking would differ from the majority and soon they would have to leave as they did from England. Williams saw this very clearly and many were going to be forced to a worship they maybe would not like. Also for me as was for Williams this is unacceptable because one of the fundamental characteristics of my religion (my principles, my deepest beliefs) is the free agency of man. Without free agency there is no God. God cannot take away from me my freedom to choose, because in doing so, invalidates His own laws. Nothing can be forced on me in what I believe or not. To force to accept a religion (anyone) makes that religion mute. The State is power, and those with power may force those without it to do things they do not want and therefore the power has to be regulated to avoid this monstrosity. It is therefore, imperative “to define the proper relation between government and what man has made of God… and between a FREE individual and government authority”. William referred to this when he said that the colony in Massachusetts with their principles of the State regulating the Church would bring the corruption “not of the State but of the Church.” The Colony forced him to leave in the middle of the winter and he survived! Thanks to God! Later in Narragansett he bought land from the Indians and “having, a sense of God’s merciful providence unto me in my distress” he called it PROVIDENCE, to serve as a refuge for those who were persecuted because of their thinking. Rhode Island was born and Williams saw the need of a form of government (State) and he drafted a political compact for Providence; in that he did not include the Church, or for that matter God. He did not propose a model of the Kingdom of God or to advance the God’s will as the Massachusetts Colony did. I would like to point out that one thing is God and another very different is the Religion. Williams could advance the word God there, meaning his God, without imposing his conception to others. To avoid any problems he simply did not mention anything related to spiritual aspects, and thus this government was going to be “purely mundane” and his followers agreed that “We, whose names are hereunder… do promise to subject ourselves in active and passive obedience to all such orders or agreements as shall be made for public good… only in civil things.” Here I want to transcribe the Article of Faith # 12 of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints: “We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.”

The survival of Rhode Island needed for Roger Williams to go to England where he obtained the Charter for Rhode Island helped by his contacts like Oliver Cromwell. This Charter authorized a democracy where they had power and authority to govern themselves, leaving the decisions related to religion in the majority knowing that that majority would maintain the State out of the Church. This led Williams to separate the material world from the spiritual world and to formulate the democratic theory of the state. This was not only extraordinary but very advanced and it is important to emphasize a fact that apparently the atheists, agnostics and modern “liberals” have the tendency to forget: This freedom is so important that it cannot be accepted that the secular world try to abolish God from the life of all those people under the government. Here now I transcribe the Article of Faith # 11 from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints: “We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according with the dictates of our conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them to worship how, where, or what they may.”

Since the purpose of Williams was precisely to allow to all men irrespective of their beliefs or non-beliefs to worship what they may want, avoiding with that the corruption of the Church by the State, and since he did it using arguments taken from the sacred Scriptures where tolerance is taught, it cannot be accepted by anyone to be intolerant to RELIGION, as many liberals are trying in our modern world.
It is absurd to think that the State authority is received from God because there are many States and ones are contradicted by others, therefore Williams made the following statement: “I infer that the sovereign, original, and foundation of civil power lies in the people, and the governments that they establish, have no more power nor for no longer time than the civil power or people consenting and agreeing shall be trust them with.”

Those who did not recognize the achievements of Williams, look very much alike as the “modern liberals” since they argue that his justifications for the religious freedom derive too much from Scriptures and are the weaker for it. This is so stupid and only the fanaticism of those people allows them to express such stupidity: “the argument is good, but it would be better if it would not come from the Bible!!! These are the INTOLERANTS. And they go even further when they state that Jefferson defended the religious freedom due to political and social motives, while Williams, “the child of a theological age, the motive was wholly religious.”  SO  WHAT???

As you can see I am completely for the separation of the State and Church, because this goes for the liberty of man. The first amendment of the Constitution is beautiful and very clear, here it is for those who never have read it: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” There is no way that anybody insist in establishing a religion over any other or to try to denigrate Christianity to favor Atheism (another religion) or Islamism to be politically correct; or in the same way to insist that Christianity is the only religion of the USA. No, no religion is the official one, none can be. This is what we call LIBERTY, and liberty is the foundation of this Country.

I finish insisting on the need to have freedom to choose, to think, to act. Any religion that allows this, that gives man freedom, that is respectful of man’s freedom, that respects the right of anybody to worship how, where or whatever he may want, is welcome in this Country of ours, this Country of LIBERTY. We cannot accept  those who want to take away this liberty from us. Without freedom this nation based in Liberty cannot exist. To show again my beliefs in this respect, I end this writing with the Article of Faith # 13 of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints: “We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul- We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endure many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.”  

WHAT IS ART?

WHAT IS ART?

With the death of Thomas Kinkade, the American painter, I read that many people do not consider his painting as art and many (by far more than the others) do like it very much and say he was a great artist. So what is art? I do not think that the dictionary can give us a good definition but let’s start there:

Art: “The power of performing certain actions especially as acquired by experience, study or observation; skill, dexterity. Application of skill and taste to production according to aesthetic principles; the conscious use of skill, taste and creative imagination in the practical definition or production of beauty.”

But in the Merriam Webster dictionary there is a full page of definitions for art, therefore there is an art in defining art. No wonder ordinary people like me cannot know for sure what art is.

I need here another definition in order to continue with my discussion: snob: “One rightly or especially wrongly convinced of his superior knowledge of taste within a field or the intrinsic superiority of his field of interest or hobby.”  I needed this definition of snob, because this kind of people is always associated with art. This means that many snob people are always there to tell you that their art is art while any other “art” cannot be considered as such. Sometimes maybe you encountered some people who really have a great knowledge of art mingled with snob people and you cannot separate one from the other. According with the definition of snob you should be able to distinguish one from the other, because a snob is just a follower of the fashion while the art expert who is really knowledgeable follows nothing but the art itself. But there are many snobbish ones so sophisticated that for the ordinary people are simply impossible to separate from the good ones when you see them only once or twice.

At the end it does not matter, and you not even need to know what art is, but simply enjoy what you like or not enjoy it if you don’t like it. If a painting makes you feel good and you want to stay there admiring it, that’s all what counts, at least for me.

Unfortunately for the ordinary people like me, there are many places in the art world, that you go and visit and bring to your soul not very good feelings and if you say so, you are branded as ignorant, stupid or something else, that maybe be a correct epithet, and again it doesn’t matter and that’s the reason I am going to describe some of those art places.

I lived in Barcelona for six years, and because of that I was exposed to the Catalonian art, and the Catalonian snob and knowledgeable art people as well as to the nationalistic sentiment of Catalunya with Dalí, Gaudí, Miró and others.

Barcelona is full of Gaudi architecture with the Sacred Family Church and La Pedrera as some of his art to be admired. At the same time you are shocked to see the “art’ of an individual named Tapies who with a building with its roof “adorned” with barbed wire made me feel as I said before an ignorant in ‘art”. This same Tapies had in the Reina Sofia Museum of Modern Art in Madrid a “work of art” made of a frame full of hay maintained in place by two cinches (girths); its name: HAY. This Museum with the George Pompidou Center in Paris made me think of the “art” as a subject not suitable for people with usable brains. If not just an example, once in the Pompidou Center, I observed a group of people following a “guide” who was “explaining” to them another “work of art” consisting in a canvas painted completely in black; for 20 minutes I was there listening and when the “guide” finished, turn around to another one painted completely in white and took another half an hour to “explain” them this other “art”.

Back in Barcelona and Catalonia I went to another of this kind of museums, the Miró Museum where I “admired” hundreds of “works of art” from him and other modern “art creators” like the one named “Hands in the space” (Manos en el espacio) that the first thing I thought when I saw it, was that the guy next door (who painted my house) spilled yellow paint on the floor, put his hand on it and then several times on a black canvas, and that was the “work of art”. Miró was so creative than in a Barcelona newspaper (La Vanguardia) came an article about him using a mop full of paint and rubbing it on a window in the process of “creating another work of art”.  Let me tell you the words of another art “critic”. Once in 1992 we were in the World Fair in Sevilla and there was a pavilion there entitled “Spain Treasures”, where we admired works from Velazquez, Murillo, Goya, El Greco, Picasso, Dalí, etc. At the end there was a painting by Miró. My 10 years old son was with me admiring everything and when he saw the Miró he said, “I can do that”.

On the other hand, Dalí’s museum in his hometown in northern Catalonia has many beautiful painting and other wonderful works of art from this man who really knew what he was doing when he painted that piece of bread that caught my attention for long time admiring it. Dalí and Picasso were I believe true artists who went laughing to the bank when they gave to the “art critics” what they wanted and profit from this kind of snobbism, but at the same time both of them knew perfectly what they wanted to do, while Miró painted the only things he was able to paint. I don’t like cubism and many of the works from Picasso, but in the Gothic Neighborhood in Barcelona there are beautiful works from early Picasso that were beautiful to my eyes and soul. 

As you can see, I don’t know what art is, I simply like something and don’t like other things. I respect other’s taste and sensibility, and all those who like the Kinkade paintings but all those “works of art” exhibited in the George Pompidou Center, the Reina Sofia Museum and the Miro Museum I simply cannot understand and I leave it there, and finish with the sentence of that wise man who said it perfectly right: “Entre tu arte y mi arte, major mi…arte.”

VIGILANTISM

VIGILANTISM

For the last week we have witnessed the ugly head of vigilantism appearing all over this country. First through the media that in an incredible way (incredible???), has filled all over their channels with the News (???) about a young man shut to death by a man who stupidly followed him in a neighborhood with a watch program to detect criminal acts in such place resulting in the death of the young man. This act that is under investigation by the Florida criminal justice, is a tragic event by itself, a life is a life and we cannot condone an act where somebody lost it under the hands of anybody.

The bigger problem came when the media have taken “justice” in their hands and “investigated”, prosecuted and executed the apparent perpetrator of the violent act, a man named Zimmerman. The media decided that the Florida Justice Department was very slow, to say the least, or definitively corrupt in trying to protect the “murderer” who is now hiding in some place, afraid of being himself murdered by the vigilantism unchained by the media and other “people” as we have learned. This was exacerbated by the declaration  made y President Obama. 

The “other people” were on one side Spike Lee who in a twitter message to his more than 1/4 of a million followers gave the address where Zimmerman apparently lived. This simple act is pure vigilantism and without any knowledge in the laws, but with common sense, I may qualified it as a criminal act even worse than the one exercised by the media.

The “other people” are the New Black Panther party that is offering a reward to any one who killed Zimmerman.

The result of the first “people” Spike Lee was that the address was the wrong one and an elderly couple living in that address has to leave their home to a hotel for safety reasons. The fact that the address was wrong is only one more stupid act on the part of the entertainer who now has converted himself in an entertainer of potential criminals. The result of the second “people” the Black panthers is not surprising since they systematically are doing illegal things without any response from the US Justice department. By the way where is Mr. Holder in all these criminal acts?

The whole thing is very sad. First a young man was killed and the man who killed him is now been hunted by a bunch of stupid criminal people trying to have justice in their hands instigated by the irresponsible media that has been given a lot of attention of one of many thousands of the same acts committed every day all over the United States. Why so much ado about this event? Was it because the young man was a black one? Zimmerman apparently (not by the name) is from Hispanic origin and very likely is not (although not necessarily) related to racial motives. Still is very odd that one event made so much noise, as it happens once in a while. Would it be the same if a black man would kill a Hispanic young man in the same circumstances? I wonder. Usually the death of a Hispanic is not worth of any news, although for me (and should be for everybody) a life independently of the race should be sacred. What is happening to us? Are we more concerned with the political implications of the killing than to the life itself? This is sad.        

THE CHINESE ARE COMING II

THE CHINESE ARE COMING II

For what I am intending to do, it is necessary to understand what a TRILLION is. In this world we are living in, we hear the word trillion almost every day, and we never pay attention; I am almost certain that most people simply do not have the slightest idea what a trillion dollars is.

We have 60 sec in one minute,

60 minutes in one hour, therefore we have 3,600 sec in one hour.

24 hours in one day, therefore we have 3,600 x 24 = 86,400 sec in one day.

365 days in one year, therefore we have 86,400 x 365 = 31.536,000 sec in one year.

In 10,000 years we have 315,360,000,000 sec; in 30,000 years we have 0.94608 trillion sec. If we will be able to spend or count $1 every second, it will take more than 30,000 years to spend (or count) one trillion dollars.

Since we do not know what one trillion dollars is, we don’t care what 15.5 trillion dollars are. I can tell you: 15.5 trillion dollars is a BIG BIG PROBLEM. It is so big, that it does not have any solution right now. As a matter of fact, the problem is growing at a pace of many millions per minute.

The national debt, the debt that the federal government of the USA has as of March 3, 2012, is15.5 trillion dollars and growing; it is estimated that the entire US economy is going to grow as of December 2012 to 15.3 Trillion, and the debt is already 15.5 trillion and growing. These are real figures, and we have to face it.

What is happening as we talk is that the federal spending is 3.6 trillion, while the US federal tax revenue is 2.3 trillion with a federal budget deficit of 1.25 trillion for this year. The interest to pay the debt accounts for 46% of what the government receives. What I can see and is so obvious is that we have to stop spending what we do not have. Unfortunately there are two other awful facts, one is that the politicians do not want to stop the spending, and second, it is impossible for us to pay what we owe just to the Chinese: 5 trillion of the debt is in the hands of foreign countries and more than 1.5 of these 5 trillions are in the hands of China. We cannot pay to them and the Chinese know that. Both Countries are trapped in this debt, we cannot pay and they cannot get their money back.

What are the Chinese  going to do? Let’s see what France did in the 1960s. Back then, we the United States insisted in maintaining an overvalued dollar at $35/ gold ounce. For many decades the country accumulated a lot of gold that was used to support the dollar as the hard currency and standard currency of the world. Mr. DeGaulle decided that France was not going to accept this anymore and claimed the gold for 150 million dollars they had as foreign currency reserves. They took the gold and we got the dollars, that gold value is now 12 billion dollars. Many other countries did the same and  2/3  of the gold that cost too many decades to accumulate by the USA was gone. President Nixon in the 1970s decided to abandon the gold as the support for the Dollar. The dollar continued and still continues to be the standard currency for the world with all the advantages that this brings to the country. Now we support the dollar with a printing machine by the Federal Reserve, and in order to maintain our spending we are incurring in more and more debt dumping more and more dollars on those who (still) want to give us credit. This is based mainly in the fact that as we stated above the entire USA economy produces more than 15 trillion dollars per year the highest in the world, but this is under very difficult conditions and the economy is suffering to maintain this leadership. Now is different than the 1960s when the economy was very strong and we were able to overcome the currency war we faced then.  This new war is compound by the horrendous federal debt in the hands of the Chinese. What are they going to do, or what are they doing? And worse what are we doing other than spending and printing even more?

For one thing the Chinese are exporting by far more than what they are importing. Their foreign currency reserves in 1980 were 2.5 billion dollars now are 3.2 TRILLION dollars. With all that money they can do whatever they want, and they bought US debt, and they invested in the USA, but more important they are buying a lot of gold, because they want to have their currency the Yuan to be the standard currency of the world displacing the dollar. I can tell you this is not to be good for the USA. Besides of buying a lot of gold, they are the first producer of the metal in the world (300 tons/year), and although any company can go there and mine it, by law they have to sell all the gold to the Chinese government at the market price. In other words nothing leaves the country, and although they permit the Chinese people to buy gold, (even encourage them to do) not an ounce of gold leaves the country. In no time they are going to displace the dollar and we (all of us) are going to suffer deeply in our living standards.

We have hope for two things: first we are still the first and more potent economy in the world; this is due to the fact that despite the continually growing interference of the government in the economy, we are (still) a FREE MARKET, the means of production are mostly in the hands of the people; but if we continue to allow the government to put more and more obstacles (stupid taxes and regulations that slow and even stop production) like cup and trade regulation, or the Kyoto protocol, or stopping the exploration and drill for more oil in our country, or the stupidity of not allowing the construction of the Keystone pipeline from Canada to Texas, allowing then the Canadians to send their oil to the Chinese!! If we continue in this trend, then the first one is no longer a hope anymore. Another point here is the fact that fortunately the Chinese are not going to dump their USA debt because it will hurt them badly. The second hope is that November is close, I’d hope it will come sooner, and we will have the possibility to change the direction we have had; the new politicians I hope, will think and not act just ideologically, (this is so clear with the insistence of Mr. Chu, the Secretary of Energy of instead of trying to lower the oil prices that are hurting deeply to all the people, they want the gasoline prices to increase in order to push their “alternative energy sources” –SOLYNDRA comes to mind- since when the prices of gasoline are so high, then everybody is going to think like them, STOP THIS STUPID IDEOLOGICALLY MOTIVATED MANEUVERS, that by the way may cost them the election) put a stop on the non-productive spending, allow the FREE MARKET to work us out of this mess and bring all of us together again to fight this new war that is killing this great USA Republic. But be aware, if we don’t act decisively on November, the Chinese and many others are coming with a vengeance.   

Economic Thoughts

A doctrine so crucial to Marx was the growing impoverishment of the proletariat; this in turn will bring the overthrow of Capitalism. But it is evident that since the birth of Marxism there has been a spectacular growth in real wages and in the standard of living of the working class in the history of the world and this has been particularly higher in the advanced capitalist countries in the west.

All those catastrophists in our present time are no others than the heirs, the followers of Marx and his horror predictions. Marx envisioned precisely the destruction of the progress gained by everybody under the free market Economy. Since this never happened but the opposite has been always true, the working class, the masses have been continually increasing their living standards. The apologetics of the Marxism have come with an endless kind of explanations that never explained anything. 

The new Marxists (the greens, the liberals, the progressivists), now are predicting the fall of the civilization, and to be sure that this is going to happen, they are taking a proactive approach.  They want legislation aim to stop the capitalistic system with restrictions, regulations and catastrophic lies that are converted in the apocalyptic riders and are making possible the fulfilling of their own prophesies. Gore and followers are pushing for Kyoto Protocol restrictions that with no doubt will bring the fall down of civilization.

The cap and trade legislation they love is the “proletarian army” of the past defeated Marxism. This together with the armies of “community organizers” are trying to empower the labor bosses to force the government to be even more and more intrusive in the wonderful “capitalistic machinery” that has been working so well for so long.
They are trying to destroy the working class that the past 200 years have created the highest living standard for ALL in the whole history of the world.  

TALE OF TWO COUNTRIES

A TALE OF TWO COUNTRIES

Once upon a time there was a place in a remote country where a beautiful girl fell in love with her blue handsome prince. After nine months a beautiful little boy increased their joy to level they never thought existed. The handsome husband was not a prince at all but in the imagination of the girl because she really loved him. He had to wake up in the morning every day to go to work to have enough to cover all the necessities of life for the three of them. Few years later their joy was so great that they thought they were in heaven because they received four more little ones, among them a beautiful little girl. They were expecting the number six, when something awful happened bringing their joy to a greater worry. Due to the economical conditions of their country he was laid off from his job that was permanently eliminated.

He was looking everywhere for a new job, but although he was a very good, responsible worker there were no jobs anywhere. They heard that in the country adjacent to theirs which was a very rich one, there were great opportunities and that if you go there it would be very likely that he would find a job by far better than the one he used to have. For sure he didn’t want to leave his dear ones, but with the pregnancy and the lack of money, in desperation they decided that he had to go. He went to the embassy of the great country and to start with he found out that he had to make a line of about two miles just to get some information. After several days he found out that to apply for a visa just to visit the other country, he has to show that he had a lot of money and a permanent job. If he wanted to go to work there, he needed to have an offer by an employer. He was very confused, because first, he didn’t have a job; this was the reason he made the line for several days, hoping he will find a good one, and second how come somebody was going to offer him a job from that country since he didn’t know anybody there.

Among the people he met in the line was one who told him: “forget about this, I know somebody in the a border city who will help us to cross the line, enter the other country, and once there we will find a job, because they are in great need of labor. But this guy is going to charge us 15000 pancholares  (approximately $1500) to put us on the other side, Are you willing to go with me?” He thought how could I go since I don’t have money even to travel to the border much less to pay this enormous amount of money they will charge us just to cross the border. And he didn’t want to leave his loved ones with no money at all.  He began to do little things here and there to feed the family and they went to pawn their few dear possessions they have, and after great pains he went to border with 20000 pancholares.

In the border he heard horror stories about the guys helping people to cross the border, many were just bandits who took advantage of the poor guys and abandoned them in the middle of the desert to die, disappearing with the money. In desperation he accepted to go with one of them and together with 20 more they venture into the desert. They told them to bring several bottles of water and to use them with great care. Among the twenty people there were three young ones who were behaving as if they were in a pick nick instead of crossing an unforgiving desert.  They were traveling by night, and sleeping under bushes during the day, to avoid the border patrol. They observed once how the border patrol captured another group and put then in cages and went away. In their way they encountered a woman with one child who was waiting for her guide to come back for them because they were unable to continue with the group, they were dehydrated and almost dead. He helped them and carried the child with him. The stupid young men who were playing, drunk their water completely in less than two days. At the third day those three didn’t have any more water and they were begging for some to the ones who were drinking properly. He was unable not to give some of his own water to these stupid ones and his own water was exhausted and the thirst became unbearable. Fortunately they arrive in a highway where they were waiting for them to be transported to a place where they can be by their own.  These three days in the desert were as being in hell and come back, he could not think in bringing his dear ones through this awful adventure.

Now he was in this other country, everything was different here, it looks like everything was in abundance, and sure enough he found a job almost immediately. One of his companions during the adventure in the desert, had a relative close by and through him they were soon working in a restaurant washing dishes, they were paid almost $8 per hour. As soon as he was able to learn how to do it, he sent all the money to his beloved family; at least they will have something despite the fact that he was here alone and with no hope at all. La “migra” (border patrol) was always looking for them, although most of the time it seemed to him that they actually did not want to catch them, but once in a while “la perrera” (the dog cage) will come and catch some that would be deported back to his country. He never understood why sometimes they came ready to catch some of them and many other times it looked like they didn’t care. The immigration officers knew where they were working, but nothing happened (most of the time).

It was awful to live like this; he knew that what he was doing was against the law of this new country, because they came without permits to be here, but what could he do? He needed the money to send to his family. He was always with great fear that the “migra” would catch him and to return to the desert was something he had nightmares about. Most of the time he didn’t dare to go out of the place where he was sleeping, a garage in a house where he paid a small amount of money and share by 15 more people like him. He was longing for his country and more for his beloved family. Why was all like this? He knew that they needed them here, not only in the restaurant he was working, but in the fields, all these people who lived in the same house, were telling him that they have been for months and if without them nobody here would do the job. Why then do we have to come illegally? He questions himself, why not with a permit? When this nightmare is going to finish, when I can go back to my wife and children? I don’t want to be hiding.

My fellow Americans:

Although what I have written is based in true happenings, there are by far more awful stories happening everyday in this country of ours, and listening the other day the GOP debate when all the candidates spoke about this immigration problem, none of them really saw the reality of the problem. It has repeated many times that there are 11 million of illegal immigrants in this country, during the Obama administration, the deported people have been an average close to half a million every year, but the same are either replaced by new ones or the same reenter, of course illegally again. Many of them have brought to this country their families with children who after years of living here do not know any other place on earth as their land. Many more are still longing to return to their dear ones, and they cannot, because they can endure this better than see their little ones without food or shelter. The reality of the problem is very simple, although the solution is not. The problem is that a third world country with a third world economy has a common border of 2000 miles with the richest economy in the world. No fence of 40 meters with machine guns every 300 feet is going to deter a father coming to look for something for his children who are deprived of the most indispensable means for life. The desert has not been able to stop them; man-made means are not going to do it. The sea between Cuba and Florida has not stopped the Cubans to come here; the Rio Grande is not going to do it for the Mexican and South Americans. The National Guard is not going to do it.   This is the real problem, and it is a BIG BIG PROBLEM, with no solution, even worst because the people in charge here and there are not willing to face it. When you do not know what the problem is, because you do not want to know it, or if you know it but do not want to fix it, it is the same: NO SOLUTION.

An economy’s axiom is that “migration follows jobs”.  In this sentence you can see the solution, they will go where jobs are. They will not come when they have jobs in their country, they will go back when they can have a decent job where they were born. If they have only deprivation there for them and their dear ones, they will continue in their suffering in the desert or facing any danger, it doesn’t matter. The Candidates of one or the other Party have to face this in this way. This is the real problem, and nothing is going to solve it but jobs in Mexico. The alternative is not good: NO JOBS IN USA. Either the Economy in Mexico improves, or ours goes to become like theirs. Again nothing else will stop the migration of workers this is ECONOMY 101.

Mexico should become a kind of Country similar to Canada, we need a cushion in the South, meaning a good solid economically country. Nothing else. For our own good, we should begin to see Mexico as an allied friend to fight this big problem we have together. Give Mexico a treatment we have not given it before. We have helped other countries in the world but for whatever reasons (ours and theirs) we have neglected completely this friend in the South. We cannot afford to do it anymore. Investment there should be a priority in our plans before any other country in the world; if not we are doom to loose this battle. And this goes for the government and private companies alike. Stop doing stupid things that do not solve anything.     

CAPITAL GAINS VS. POLITICAL GAINS

CAPITAL GAINS VERSUS POLITICAL GAINS

During the last week we saw the politicians fighting for the votes of the Republican Party and attacking each other with everything, although it was obvious that Romney did not want to go with all force against the others, receiving big punches because he did not want to release his tax return… yet.

Gingrich insisted that Romney should show his taxes, knowing that no matter what this tactic will provide ammunition for him against the former MA governor. If Romney rejected the idea he will be accused of hiding something, and if he accepted, they will say that he is taking advantage of the poor of this country since they knew that Romney had acknowledged that his taxes rate was around 15% because his earnings came mainly from investing, therefore from capital gains. Romney did not release his tax return, and the voters went after him and he came second in South Carolina and looked bad for Florida.

Sure enough as soon as he released his tax returns (a little bit too late) all the stupid people of this country (some are not stupid they are only wolves) began to pound him with the same old stupid logic (this is stupid no matter who is using it) that he is one of the 1% and that the rest of us who are not millionaires are meanwhile paying taxes at a rate by far higher than the governor’s.

This logic is so stupid that I cannot understand those using it. Are we living in a different country I am thinking I live in? Or is it that we already have gone all the way to the situation I have feared this country was headed to? What is wrong with investing my own money in my country’s economy? What is wrong with the Free market Economy? What is wrong to use the stupid tax code we have in our own advantage? What is wrong is that we are taxed too much. Romney should be paying even less than what he paid, and the rest of us should be paying also less than what we are paying. What is wrong is that those wolves in Washington are spending way too much of the revenue they are collecting from Romney et al. (at al. means YOU AND ME).

The Corporate tax at 35% is very high and many American Corporations already went out of the Country to other places where that stupid tax is lower or does not exist (if the tax here is 35% and in Switzerland is none, only idiots remain here). Now these stupid people (and wolves) want the capitals to go abroad, and hide them (do you see even if you take your money elsewhere and have capital gains you have to pay capital gains tax here). Honest people like Romney, are not hiding it and are paying what the tax code asks for, therefore despite of the stupidity of the wolves and followers, honest people in this country might take their money elsewhere and pay taxes here, but, the companies they are going to support are going to be foreign companies not the American ones.

Gingrich at al. (at al. are those who voted for him) are sounding like Obama et al (you know who these et al. are), who are against FREE MARKET ECONOMY/USA REPUBLIC, which for POLITICAL GAINS are against CAPITAL GAINS, disregarding the fact that the only true system that help the masses is the FREE MARKET ECONOMY (called by the wolves, Capitalism with negative connotations). The masses are unfortunately carried away by the political rhetoric of the times (yes, also the New York Times and Los Angeles Times) thinking that the politicians offering them to fight the “vultures capitalists” are the good guys and the investors are the parasites as Karl Marx described the entrepreneurs in the past.  If we follow these kinds of politicians (Obama, Gingrich et al.) we are going to end in the USSA or at least in a European like Economy.  

For those who are thinking that I am a Republican defending Romney, I am telling you, I am not a Republican, I am a concerned citizen of this great Country defending YOU from the politicians who want more and more of your taxes to spend them recklessly.  I don’t think Romney needs anybody to defend him, although he should say the things the way they are and go for those who consistently are attacking the Free Market Economy, and for sure I believe that we need in the White House someone who knows how this system works and try to bring it back and stop so much interference of the government in the people’s affairs.

I don’t understand the people scolding Romney because of the 15% tax rate he is paying. Do they want him to give more than the tax code calls for? Are they (if they pay taxes) sending to the IRS more than the IRS is asking for?  Mr. Warren Buffett (again) came to say that for sure Mr. Romney did not earn his money with the use of his muscles. Of course not but neither I nor those who are leading in any position, who should use their brains to create better conditions for those who for any reasons are unable to show the way we should go. Does Mr. Buffett want a janitor in charge of the Treasury Department? (Oops this is not a good example at least the janitor pays taxes), or does he want an illegal alien picking strawberries in California as Commander in Chief? (Oops another bad example, aliens cannot be USA presidents). We want people using their brains instead of their muscles being in charge, this does not mean that is right that the “brain” guys pay taxes at a lower rate than “muscle” guys, but we should reduce the rate of the “muscle guys” to the level of the others not the other way around as it has been proposed. Are Mr. Buffett and the “rich” guys using the tax code loops to pay lower taxes? Good for them. You don’t like this? Reform the tax code (or better abolish it), but don’t ask Romney or you or me to (stupidly) to not use them or to send more money to the IRS than we are required by the stupid code. 

If you are going to reform it, go the second mile, and make ALL the politicians (Congress, and the other two branches of the government) to be subjected to same laws and benefits that they have enacted for us, among others, Social Security, Obamacare, etc. Stop them to mess around with Capital Gains tax for their Political gains. 

WHY

I have been in many beautiful places in the world, and have marveled of the exquisite appearance of the beaches in Punta Cana, the magnificent splendor of the arches in Utah, of the roaring waters either in Niagara or Iguazu, of the colors in flowers in Singapore and other places, the wonders in the forests in Europe and North America, the delicate shape of lakes and valleys in Japan, the breathtaking sensation when we admire so many other enchanted places in Mexico, Africa, Asia and other parts of this planet. For sure I have missed many other places I will never admire in my life, but know that they are there and when I remember and replay in my mind all these beautiful places I had opportunity to see, I wonder of these magnificent creations and feel that life, my life your life is precious and that we men, are here in this planet to have this joy of just be mesmerized by so much beauty.

On the other hand through my life I have witnessed, in person or through the extensive coverage by the news of many awful events either natural or man made, and have been shocked in dismay of the suffering of so many innocent people under the effects of the force of nature as in earthquakes hurricanes, tsunamis, tornados, etc. or by the wrongdoing of men incapable of see with love their fellowmen causing terrible harm to innocent people that were in their path.

The events in the two paragraphs above are a generalization of what I would like to express, but in particular I also have been and observed human nature acting in one or other way, and I have been overtaken by joy or pain of being either part of events so beautiful or so awful, or participate with others in making people happy because of an act of love for them. All these things bring to my mind a question: Why?  Why all these apparently opposite aspects in our existence? Before I try to answer my question, I will be specific of events in my life that have been a substantial part of or have measurable consequences in my life and the life of those associated with me.  

We are in this world with the natural plan of having during our mortal life four grandparents; and many persons actually have had the four of them, but in my case I had only one. Many times we think when we are in despair because of an inconsequent happening that our suffering is the worst of the human race, but I have just look in my grandfather Juan or my grandmother Altagracia lives and see that our own lives have been so simple and easy in comparison that I ache for them: In their twenties they were married and in 1911 they had two children, my beloved mother and my uncle, she was 7 and he was 5 years of age. The violence they were living in was one of the worst in the history of Mexico or for that matter of the world. He, Juan was the engineer of a railroad train when the bandits (or other kind of people with ideals or not, it does not matter because in those turbulent times there were all kind of them) with a bomb made his train to explode, killing him and leaving the young mother with two children at the mercy of this awful and unforgiving environment of the revolutionary Mexico. Just imagine what was going to do this young woman with these two children alone and mourning his beloved husband? The event that killed my grandfather was not an accident but the common happening in those awful days, now she was alone and the future was not in any ways to look for. Why this happened? Why my young and healthy grandfather was deprived of seeing his children grow, he was a good responsible man, why was he killed? Why my grandmother was left so lonely and so deprived of everything in a so terrible world?  Why?

I can relate many other awful events after that one, but let me tell you some other that are not as sad as the one I just wrote about, but on the contrary have some good ends. When I was around six years old two things happened that I remember very well: one was my adventure in the river close to my home. The river was a wild one during the Summer rains, and we dare to cross it just to prove we could do it, but that was after I was six; after the Summer rains the river was a peaceful one and have some places where we were able to enjoy swimming or fishing. At six I did not know how to swim, but nevertheless I went to “swim” at the river many times; my mother expressly forbade us to go, but I went anyway. Since I didn’t know the art of floating on the water, I use to “swim” in the shallow part of the river, while those who knew enjoy the deep waters. In that particular day I was “swimming” meaning moving my hands as if I knew how to swim, when suddenly I was unable to touch the bottom of the river and began to panic; furiously I moved my hands even more rapidly but with no good results. I was drowning, and there was no help. I don’t remember if I cried for help; I guess I didn’t because I was swallowing a lot of water; when it appeared that there was no hope, I felt that somebody helped me, and suddenly I was laying down on the pebbles outside the water; a man had been observing me, but at the beginning, he told me afterwards, he thought I was swimming, but he noted that actually I was drowning and close to death, and went and pull me out. Immediately he began to teach me how to swim. That afternoon, my father (everybody knew my father in town) told me about the incident and encouraged me to learn to swim. I learned and enjoyed the river from then on.  Why I didn’t drown? Why this man was there precisely in that moment and saved my life?

More or less around the same time in my life, once I was playing close to home and without paying attention crossed the street running, a car came and I was in front of it. It should rolled  over me and killed me, but instead in an unbelievable way I sat down in its fender, and was taken in a ride for a few meters while the driver stopped the car. He came out trembling and looked at me thinking that I was dead, but I was just scared but with no harm at all. I don’t know if he was speeding or not, but he was fast enough to go several meters before he could stop the vehicle. I never forgot these two incidents, because I always felt that without an “external” help, I would not be writing here right now. Why I was not killed while many other people are killed under apparently less dangerous situations?

At the beginning of this 21st century my lovely wife and I built a house in Park City, Utah right there on top of the mountains. The garage was around 15 meters (40 feet) above the street level, and the house was on top of it. Our neighbors’ houses cannot be seen from ours, they were far below us and every lot was almost one acre in size. We decided to install an elevator in the garage to take us up to the house thinking that with age we will need it. We used the elevator many times and enjoyed it, and always used it together. It was the beginning of April 2002 and that Thursday it was very cold up there. We went to town to do some errands and told my son who lived in Salt Lake City that we were going to be at home the whole weekend and agreed that they will come to see us on Sunday after we watched the LDS Conference in TV.  When we returned home, we entered the elevator, but before we started it, I told my wife, ”go ahead, I will go and check some things in the garage”.  Every time when we arrived together, we climbed together in the elevator, but not this time; this time she was going by herself while I remained in the garage doing something. The elevator started and suddenly I heard my wife crying out for help, when after a lot of sparking the elevator halted between the floors.  My wife was crying telling me she could not see anything; I tried to calm her down and told her that I was going to call immediately the elevator company to come and help us. I did it and they told me they would come as soon as they could. Meanwhile I remained talking to her all the time, assuring her that help was in the way. The day before, a service man had come from the company that installed the elevator one year before, to give maintenance and he told us everything was perfect.  After two hours of being trapped she was rescued and we began to see the extremely dangerous situation and the terrible possible consequences we had just avoided, because I went “to check something in the garage”. What happened was that the guy who came before, left the package with all the cables in a way that when the elevator moved, the cables began to move in its way, and after few times, the cables were cut by the elevator; this happened precisely when my wife was in it. Inside the elevator a phone was installed, but the phone cable was also severed. In those times the cell phones were not as common as they are now, and we did not have any. If I had climbed the elevator with her, we would not have any chance to do anything, we had remained there under freezing conditions for the whole weekend (Sunday afternoon at the earliest when my son was supposed to come or call us). Why did I go to “check the things in the garage? Why I did not go with her as we had done every single time in the past? Why?

When we came back from Paraguay in 2007 after two years there, we bought a Honda Odyssey minivan. My wife convinced me to do it even when I had set my mind to buy a different car. We were living at the time in Houston Texas, but still had our home in the beach in the north part of Sonora Mexico. We traveled there several times driving the minivan to Tucson Arizona and then to beautiful Puerto Peñasco.  The speed limit in the interstate highway 10 between San Antonio and El Paso Texas is 80 mph, so I set my cruise control at 85, and I was enjoying it. My wife was doing something with some very good cookies, and I was distracted trying to get one, I turned my head to the cookies for few seconds and when I turned it again to the front, what I saw was just gravel and no pavement! I am not sure if I touched the brakes pedal, because I remember that I told to myself “don’t apply the brakes!” But for sure I did it, at least very lightly since the cruise control was disengaged. I managed very skillfully (??) to bring the car back to the highway although I felt for a moment that it tilted separating two wheels from the ground. When we were back in the pavement, my beloved wife began to cry uncontrollably. Since then she called the minivan “la hija” (the daughter, minivans are feminine in Spanish, while “cars” are males.) If instead of buying that minivan we had bought the car I wanted, for sure we had been killed; only a Honda Odyssey with its low gravity center would be able not to roll over outside the highway at 85 mph. Why we were not killed that time? Many other people are killed in accidents that happen under circumstances not as extreme as was ours.

In 1985 in the Mexico City earthquake, thousands of people die, and some others did not, many in miraculously ways. I have heard several of these events and we think “why so many people die in this kind of awful events and why some people do not?

Why so much beauty on earth and why these kind of catastrophes? Why? Why? By the way if some of you do not know, 27 miles north of the border between Sonora and Arizona in the highway that takes us from Tucson to Puerto Peñasco (Rocky Point for the Arizonians) there is a small town and its name is WHY.

Of course the answer to my question could be very simple for some people. Some would say in the happenings is the answer, you should not see beyond that. Coincidences, fortuitous acts, etc. Agnostics and atheists would say these things and dismiss my wonder with a look in their eyes indicating there is nothing there to marvel about. Events just happen, and sometimes for some people with terrible consequences and sometimes for other people with happy endings. That’s all; it is just good or bad luck.

To answer my question, I have to rely in a very important person who asked the same question when he was marveled of the wonderful creation of this wonderful planet and the universe: “And Moses called upon God saying: Tell me, I pray thee, why these things are so, and by what thou madest them?  And behold, the glory of the Lord was upon Moses, so that Moses stood in the presence of God, and talked to him face to face. And the Lord God said unto Moses: For mine own purpose have I made these things. Here is wisdom and it remaineth in me.  And by the word of my power, have I created them, which is mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth.  And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten.”  

The answer came to Moses from God: “For mine own purpose”. Everything is or happens for “His own purpose”.  This changes my question from why to what?  What is His purpose?  Moses had the answer: “Moses spake unto the Lord, saying: Be merciful unto thy servant, O God, and tell me concerning this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, and also the heavens, and then thy servant will be content. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying: The heavens, they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man; but they are numbered unto me, for they are mine.  And as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof even so shall another come; and there is no end to my works, neither to my words. For behold, this is my work and my glory- to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”

So, His purpose is to bring to pass immortality and eternal life of man. For those who do not follow Him, this will sound as a redundancy: “immortality and eternal life”. It looks like immortality is not to die, and eternal life to live forever. However, the conjunction and tells us that they are different concepts. Because of the atonement brought to pass by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ everybody in this world, ALL the children of God are going to received immortality, meaning all of us are going to be resurrected, but NOT ALL will receive Eternal Life. Eternal Life is for those who accepted Jesus Christ and keep his commandments.

Actually I dare to say that God’s purpose for His children is to bring to pass Eternal Life for All, but it simply cannot come to all because some of us do not want it, cannot stand it, because we simply stubbornly reject what is offered to us, and are content with “just” immortality.

If we accept my thinking that He wants for all of us Eternal Life, then everything on earth, all the beauty, all the happenings are there and are happening for us to have eternal life.  We have been called and elected to have eternal life; it is up to us to achieve it, since Jesus Christ paved the way already with his atonement to put us in the narrow path to Eternal Life.

I do not know many things, but I wonder if since His purpose is so wonderful for us, maybe He is helping us constantly for that purpose, and some times it is enough for some people the length of life they have had or, maybe some others need extra time or extra happenings to put them back in the narrow path. He knows us, He loves us, after all we are His children, and he is trying always the best for us all. Maybe those in the earthquake, in the tsunami were where they were because it was the best for them in the context of their eternal life or their immortality. Maybe sometimes we are preserved because we needed something for us or for others and in some way He is conducting all of us to make the path the correct one, instead of the one leading us astray. He is always trying, He is always loving us and in the Eternal context, which most of the times is incomprehensible for us, we have to die in a particular moment at that time, or it was all that we needed as a measure to state the quality of our existence on earth, or maybe we needed a little bit more. Eternity is His realm but we still need to learn a lot about it.