Autobiography

This chapter is just going to cover some isolated events in my life that are memorable to me. I believe the reader might find them interesting. I am not going to put these incidents in the order in which they happened. Rather, I’m going to write the events in the order in which I remember them. That is, whenever I remember an incident I’m going to write it down, hopefully I will also remember when the event happened.

The first thing I want to write about is two very dear friends of mine; two people I have grown very fond of over the years.

I mentioned earlier that a friend of mine gave me food for helping him and his wife feed their farm animals. This was Mr. Louis DeMuth and his wife Ruth. Their son, Louis, nicknamed Butch, is my age, and one of my best friends while I was growing up. We were almost inseparable.

Mr. Louie and Ms. Ruth, as everyone in the neighborhood called them, had most of their farm animals on a plot of land in what is now Elmwood Shopping Center and the rest of them on a couple of acres of land across Lake Pontchartrain in Madisonville, Louisiana. Almost every kid in the neighborhood helped them feed their animals at one time or another.

Mr. Louie and Ms. Ruth were the kind of couple who could not do enough for their friends. They had the kind of house where all the neighborhood kids congregated. Ms. Ruth always had something cooking on the stove and Mr. Louie was always fixing something or helping somebody do something. It would have been very unusual not to find someone from the neighborhood in their house, helping out, watching television or just plain visiting.

In the evenings, especially on a Friday or Saturday evening, one could frequently find Mr. Louie in a card game (either poker, boo-ray or hearts) with several of the local teenagers. The games were mostly for fun; there was never much money involved – a nickel a point, twenty-five cents a chip or something along that line. The atmosphere was friendly and everyone enjoyed themselves. I grew very fond of Mr. Louie and Ms. Ruth and always felt at home in their house.

I grew up without a father and I have always considered Mr. Louie sort an adopted father of mine and I have looked upon Ms. Ruth as a second mother. My own children referred to Ms. Ruth as “Grandma Ruth.” In fact, they both often referred to me as their adopted son. They were two people one could always turn to for help.

The relationship I have with them is somewhat similar to the relationship Tom Hagen had with the Godfather, played by Robert Duval in the 1972 crime drama of the same name – directed by Francis Ford Cuppola and based on the novel by Mario Puzo.

After March 11, 1971, they were among the few people who accepted me. Most people thought that I was crazy. But Mr. Louie and Ms. Ruth, although they did not believe everything I said, they at least did not reject me as crazy. They accepted me for who I was and did not try to force me to follow a course of action that I did not want to follow, as many other people tried to do.

If I may borrow and paraphrase from Longfellow’s The Children’s Hour: “I have them fast in my fortress and will not let them depart, but shall put them down into the dungeons in the round tower of my heart. And there I will keep them forever, yes, forever and a day, till the walls shall crumble to ruin, and molder in dust away.”

The second thing I want to write about could just as easily go in the chapter entitled The Odyssey Begins, as it partially relates to that period in my life. The reason that I am placing it here is because most of the associated events did not happen in that context.

Anyway, as soon as I got my discharge in 1969, I got a job at the local incinerator. I was driving the crane there and it was my job to fill the hoppers with trash. (It was from here that I got my job as a crane operator on the docks of the Mississippi River.)

One day I picked up a pile of trash to dump in the furnace and right on top of the pile of trash was a small box. It was completely sealed! So, I got out of the crane and threw the box into the back of the crane without thinking too much about it.

Later I opened the box and inside of it was some jewelry, valued about 2,500 dollars. I do not know who the box was addressed to, someone in New York I think, but inside of it was a packing slip from Houseman’s Jewelers of Lakeside Shopping Center. (That jewelry store is no longer there.)

I gave some of the jewelry to friends but most of it I kept for myself, particularly a tear-drop shaped one carat diamond (it could have been 3/4 carat, I don’t remember which) and a 1921 twenty-dollar double eagle gold coin with a front feature of a standing liberty figure. The coin was mounted in a necklace with blue rhinestones. I am not sure of the date on the coin; it could have been 1920.

After I had my personal religious experience in March 1971, I returned all the jewelry that I still possessed to Houseman’s. I had a dream that told me that death was knocking at my door as long as I still possessed the jewelry and I knew to whom it belonged.

Now let’s fast forward to July 31, 2002. I read in the newspaper that a 1933 twenty-dollar double eagle gold coin with a front feature of a standing liberty figure was auctioned off for 7.59 million dollars!

Like I said, I do not remember the date on the coin. (I am only half sure of the 1921 date.) But I am sure it was not 1933. Either way, I do not regret what I did. I am laughing about the whole incident as I write this. In fact, I had forgotten all about the jewelry until I read the article in the newspaper.

The next thing I want to write about is not about something that I have done. It is about something that I will do in the future. It is my belief that I will rise from the dead in the same manner that our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

I believe that this is all in accordance with God’s plan to teach man what he can do if he only obeys the law. That we too can rise from the dead is one of the things that our Lord has been trying to teach mankind for the past ten to fifteen thousand years or so. Thus, my resurrection is God’s work, not mine.

I further believe that I am going to leave an historical record as a testament to my resurrection, just as Jesus left a shroud of His resurrection two thousand years ago.

I have known about my death and resurrection from the early 1970s, but a full understanding of it came to me in stages. Sometime in the early 1970s our Lord revealed to me that I was to rise from the dead.

I had a dream in which our Lord said to me, “You will rise; you will rise.” I woke up and, believing that He meant that I would rise with everyone else on the last day, I said, “Thank you, my Lord.” I then went back to sleep and had a second dream in which He said to me, “But not for 100 weeks, not for 100 weeks.” I awoke and said, “How can this be, my Lord?” At that time, I believed that I would rise 100 weeks after the dream, which is just 4 weeks shy of two years. I went back to sleep and had a third dream in which He said, “You’ll see, you’ll see.”

But He did not reveal to me when this was to happen – the year, the month or the day. After several weeks I began to believe that this was to happen on a Good Friday. Then sometime later in the 1970s He revealed to me that this was to be during the Christmas season. But I still did not know the day or the year.

Finally, Sunday morning July 1, 2001, our Lord revealed to me that “We begin in June.” At first I thought that this meant mean that my three and one half year ministry would begin in June 2002 and that my death and resurrection would be in December 2005. But since 2005, I do not know what it means.

Wow! This is great news! I am going to rise from the dead; something that no other person (except Jesus) has ever accomplished. I should be screaming this from the housetops, proclaiming it loudly to everyone I meet.

Now let’s get serious. Who would believe me? How many quack evangelists have falsely claimed the same thing? I recall there was one preacher who made the national news with the same kind of boast. (If I remember correctly he lived somewhere in the Bible Belt.) He claimed that he could drink arsenic and then rise from the dead three days later. He even convinced one of his followers to drink the poison with him. This was back in the 1970s and they are both still in the grave.

If I told anyone of my beliefs then he or she would just laugh at me and group me among the quack evangelists and other pseudo-Christians who only preach the gospel for the money they can defraud from their followers.

If I told anyone of my beliefs about my resurrection then they would consider me to be just another con artist trying to get something from them or trying to glorify myself.

I have no desire to be classified in the same category as those wolves-in-sheep’s clothing. I believe that it is far more important to teach the law of God and the love of God than it is to glorify myself. Therefore, I keep quiet about the personal things that our Lord reveals to me. In the strictest of confidence, I have only told some close friends about them.

But I’m publishing this on the Internet. Isn’t that a form of publicly broadcasting it to the whole world? True, but who is going to read this before my death and resurrection?

I have checked, and with rare exceptioin, my daughter and I are the only ones who have ever visited my web site, and she told me that she has never done any in-depth reading of my site. She visited a couple of the pages and gave me some constructive criticism on some of the backgrounds and stuff like that. But that is all she has done.

I am writing this now because I want to delineate what is to be done with my work. First of all, it is my sincere hope that my work not leave the greater New Orleans area, preferably housed at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) or someplace like that.

Secondly, the 1978 Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP) can use my work as a control for further collaboration on the exclusive divinity of Jesus Christ. If STURP cannot do this then another research team should be assembled to conduct nondestructive tests similar that which STURP conducted in 1978. In either case, my work is to be used as a control for comparison with the Shroud of Turin.

Finally, I believe that this is what God our Father wants in order to prove the exclusive divinity of His Son.

Yes, I know that my resurrection will glorify me but it will glorify Jesus Christ even more. For I fully admit that I could not accomplish my resurrection if Jesus Christ had not done it first two thousand years ago. I would not have the faith to believe in my own resurrection if our Lord had not risen from the dead and left a shroud as a testament of that resurrection, a shroud that scientifically proves the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Thus, while my resurrection does glorify me, it sheds even more splendor on the limitless power of the death of Jesus Christ and on His generosity as the savior of mankind. I do not consider myself as being in any way on a par with Jesus Christ, the one Mediator. I act only in subordination to and union with our Lord; who alone is needed and is sufficient without me. In fact, my very ability to cooperate with our Lord throughout my life comes entirely from and depends upon the sovereign efficacy of His death on the cross.

I frequently get Twilight Zone type thoughts about my death and resurrection.

For example, one such thought that I frequently get is the thought that after my death I am not going to rise from the dead in this world at this time. Rather, I get the thought that I am going to some other planet in some other galaxy, be born of a virgin there and live the same life that Jesus Christ did two thousand years ago. Coupled with this thought is the thought that I will be crucified and rise from the dead there and then become the “god” of the beings that live there.

The only way I can fight this thought is to remind myself that such a belief does not glorify Jesus Christ at all; such thoughts only glorify me.

Thus, since I am just a joe nobody, (I am not a bishop, senator, a congressman, a famous actor or anyone of this nature to whom all will listen) the only way that I can glorify Jesus Christ is to rise from the dead in this world during this century.

I mentioned earlier that my wife and I have a morning newspaper delivery route. I am very grateful to God for this route. Besides being a source of income for my family, it is also a source of inspiration for me. I sometimes recite the rosary when I begin throwing the papers. It usually takes me about three or four blocks to recite each decade of the rosary; that is how I keep track of how many prayers I have said.

But I do not recite the rosary that the average Christian recites. I have made a little change to the rosary that I recite. Where the average person recites the Ave Maria three times at the beginning of the rosary for an increase in faith, hope and love, I have substituted the Act of Faith, Act of Hope and the Act of Love. The rest of the rosary that I recite is the normal prayers that everyone recites.

Act of Faith: O my God I firmly believe that thou art one God in three divine persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I firmly believe that thy divine son became man and died for our sins, and that he will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe these truths and all the truths that the Holy Catholic Church teaches, because thou has revealed them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived.

Act of Hope: O my God relying on thy almighty power and infinite mercy and promises I hope to obtain pardon of my sins, the help of thy grace, and life everlasting through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer.

Act of Love: O my God I love thee above all things, with my whole heart and soul, because thou art all good and worthy of all my love. I love my neighbor as myself for the love of thee. I forgive all who have offended me and I ask pardon of all whom I have offended.

After I finish reciting the rosary I then put on the radio and listen to music. I enjoy listening to music, for I often imagine that it is our Lord (or the Blessed Mother) singing to me or I am singing the song to them.

Other times I ignore the music and try to find the answer to some philosophical question that might be on my mind. I do this by debating the question with myself. I discuss the liberal point of view and then I discuss the conservative point of view.

One might think that this is not possible without distorting one’s argument. But such is not so, if one lets truth be their goal instead of one’s own pride, narrow-mindedness, intolerance and ignorance. One must look for flaws in one’s own argument. If one looks for imperfections in one’s own beliefs then it is possible to find the truth.

One must accept the fact that both the liberal view and the conservative view have some truth on their side, and both have falsehoods in their beliefs. The only problem is sorting out the truth from the error. By attacking one’s own point of view, looking for flaws, the truth will be easier to see.

I am not saying that I find the truth every time I debate an issue, for it frequently escapes me because I do not reject my own prejudice. Like I said, the problem is sorting out truth from prejudice and that is not often easily done.

In the gospels our Lord tells St. Peter: When thou wast younger, thou didst gird thyself, and didst walk where thou wouldst. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and lead thee whither thou wouldst not, Jn.21:18. I have come to believe that I have also fulfilled this prophecy.

I believe that before March 11, 1971, I was free to go and do as I please but since that date the Holy Spirit has guided me, often in a direction that I do not wish to go. Not that I do not wish to do the will of God but that following our Lord entails carrying one’s cross without complaining, which takes great grace from our Lord.

By this, I mean that before my conversion back to the faith in 1971, I was not conscious of God in my everyday life (very few people are conscious of such). I just did whatever I felt like doing without any thought of the consequences or God’s will. I did not see God guiding and directing my life. But since my conversion, I have often “seen” God guiding and “directing” my life and limiting the choices I have before me. (Just as a master chess player limits the mobility of an amateur opponent.)

That is, our Lord gives me a choice of either doing His will or falling into sin. For example, He gives me the choice of believing in my own resurrection or having my dreams filled with confusion, darkness and without His grace.

In this is the cross, I often see that by taking one course of action I will end up in disaster but if I take a different course of action I will not end up in disaster. But the latter entails a cross, where the other does not; at least I do not see the cross.

However, before my conversion I did not see either the choice or the cross. I just did as I please. (This is how the average person goes about his or her daily life.)

Or so I thought. For when I look back upon my life and see how often were the times when it was our Lord who was guiding me along “the road not taken,” helping me and protecting me. Although I must admit that I did not see God guiding my life before my conversion back to the faith.

This is true of the choices I made before my conversion and since then. I can see our Lord guiding me in my choice of friends while in school, in the choice of what colleges I attended, (LSU, UNO, and Delgado) in the girls I dated, in my major and what courses I would take, in the woman I would marry and many other incidents in my life.

I can see how our Lord protected me when I broke my arm in 1956, when I swam in the Mississippi River as a child, while I was in Vietnam and even in 1991, when I got in an accident, flipping my van upside down on the I-10 expressway. I came out without a scratch and I did not even have my seat belt buckled. I can see my God protecting me throughout my life.

I have not only seen God guiding and directing my life, I frequently feel as though I am a puppet and our Lord the Puppet Master. I sometimes feel as though I have no choice in what I do other than the choice of either accepting my life with dignity, the life He has designed for me, or rejecting God. I become very depressed and angry with this, for I feel that I have no freedom. (It is my own pride, my own selfishness and ignorance that causes me to think such thoughts.)

But I always come around and accept my life and thank God for being there in times of need, helping me to gain more freedom. For only by obeying His law can one be truly free.

I do His will because I know that many of the incidents in my life are there because our Lord is trying to free me from the slavery of ignorance and sin and to get me to my own death and resurrection.

Sometimes when I think of my own resurrection I am filled with delusions of grandeur and megalomania. But I fight these Twilight Zone type thoughts because I know that I am just another child of God. I am no different than any other person. I am a joe nobody.

I know too that our Lord could have chosen anyone in this world to help Him complete His mission (my resurrection is His work, not mine). I thank Him for selecting me. I am humbled because “he that is mighty has done great things to me and holy is his name,” Lk.1:49.

I love to read and when I get to reading something that I really enjoy (science fiction, a spy novel, a murder mystery) I find it hard to put the book down. How I found my love of reading is, I believe, an interesting story.

I was in the seventh grade and had to do a book report, so I went to the school library to check out a book. At this time in my life I hated reading and I hated book reports even more than I hated reading. But I resigned myself to find a book, read it and write a book report on it.

As I browsed through the isles of books at school I finally came upon a book that I thought might not be too boring: Mutiny on the Bounty. As I read about Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian I developed a little interest in the story but not much. However, when I came to the part where the story mentioned naked Tahitian women, my interest in the story sky-rocketed.

What does the average teenage boy have on his mind? Girls and sex! To believe that I could find books in the SCHOOL LIBRARY that covered this subject was totally out of this world as far as I was concerned.

My first thought was that the school librarian did not know that she had a book in her library that mentioned naked women. Maybe there were more! I decided not to tell anyone about my “discovery.”

I began to read other books that told stories about south sea island adventures. I read about the adventures of Captain Cook. I read about Kamehameha and the Hawaiian Islands. I read about World War II in the South Pacific Ocean. This latter opened a desire to read about World War II in general and spy novels.

I read numerous books hoping to find more stories about naked Polynesian women. I did not find any more naked women, but I did discover that I enjoyed reading. I have never stopped reading since and to this day The Bounty Trilogy by Nordhoff and Hall is my favorite story. Oh! The book report, I made an “A” in it.

Now I would like to write about a non-incident in my life; that is, something that I rarely do. Frequently I am told that I have nothing to complain about, that I should not criticize our political leaders and the laws that govern us since I rarely vote. But as far as I am concerned voting is usually a wasted effort – the Presidential election of 2000 and the fiasco in Florida is a classic example.

(When I do vote it is usually in order to vote against a particular candidate that I do not want to see elected.)

Another reason I rarely vote is because I cannot get to the polls on the date of the election or I forget about the date of the election. (I believe that politicians have obscure elections dates in order to prevent voters from going to the polls.) Elections should not be held at obscure dates and times. Rather all elections should be at the same date and time each year.

Besides, those politicians in charge are going to do what they damn well please regardless of what the voters want. (I would vote more often if our leaders would begin to do the will of the people instead of the will of some corporate lobbyist.)

A classic example of this was when the state of Louisiana legalized gambling, casinos and the lottery. The citizens of Louisiana were told by the politicians that if they voted to legalize gambling, casinos and the lottery then a portion of the tax revenues generated from such would go to our schools.

It appears to me that the average casino takes in more money per month than the average local business does in a year. Whether or not this is true is irrelevant, because one thing I know is true: Casinos take in millions of dollars each year.

Since the casinos have opened for business in New Orleans, Jefferson and the rest of the state, I have seen many road repairs that I did not see prior to their opening. I have seen the city of New Orleans get all new traffic lights, and Jefferson Parish get improvements in its parks. I have seen politicians ride around in expensive new cars. I have seen both parishes invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in athletics. Indeed, I have seen many improvements in Orleans and Jefferson and parishes.

But I have also seen an increase the number of poor citizens who have squandered their money in slot machines. I have also seen city and parish employees laid off due to lack of revenues.

I have not seen any monies going toward education. Indeed, I have seen school boards forced to cut back in services and in some cases do away with some services altogether because of a lack of revenues. I have seen teachers laid off and an increase in the number of students per class. I have seen school buildings falling in disrepair. In short, I have seen all aspects of our educational system neglected. That is, all aspects of it except state testing, a multi-million dollar a year corporate business.

I wonder how many hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money Louisiana spends on useless projects that could be better spent on education. I wonder how many hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money Louisiana spends for the Louisiana Education Assessment Program (LEAP); a program that is neither valid nor reliable. It is not valid or reliable because there is no way that the state can ensure that there is no cheating going on.

It appears to me that the politicians were not truthful with the voters when they said that our schools would get much needed revenues if gambling, the lottery and casinos were legalized.

I have seen this same thing happen numerous times. The politicians tell us one thing and then they do something else, something that ultimately is not in the best interest of the voter.

That is why I do not “invest” in the United States and why I rarely vote. I perceive it to be a futile effort.

Please do not think that I do not believe in democracy, for I do believe in democracy. It is just that I do not believe in the form of democracy that has become prevalent in the United States of America today.

After taking into consideration man’s inclination toward corruption, I believe that democracy with economic socialism is the only acceptable form of government.

But regardles, the democracy that I believe in is one where those who are in positions of leadership are honest, hard working individuals who love their country more than they love themselves. They look out for the welfare of the citizens that placed them in their positions of leadership. They put themselves and their own personal goals second. They keep their promises.

But most importantly, they put the education of our children first, above EVERYTHING else. Because, our children are our future, if we cannot educate them and teach them to live in peace then we have no future and we are the endangered species.

On Sunday, September 1, 2002, a few days after I wrote the above, an article appeared in the New Orleans Times Picayune. According to the article there was never any money dedicated to education from the proceeds of legalized gambling.

“Legislators openly weighed dedicating some of the revenue to schools.” True also was that “it was an idea that was discussed with a very high level of prominence.” Lottery officials “ran television advertisements suggesting that the game supports schools. State government and lottery officials defended the spots as accurate.”

However, the truth is quite another story. The “Legislature discussed the idea but never locked lottery money into education.” The average voter was thus led to believe that if gambling, the lottery and casinos were legalized, then education would “draw from bottomless supplies of cash.”

Did anyone in government try to dispel this false belief? Did any elected official come on television and openly tell the voters that the proceeds from legalized gambling would NOT go to our schools? Did any school board superintendent or school board member of Orleans or Jefferson Parishes hold a press conference and tell parents that the casinos and the lottery were NOT going to bring badly needed revenues to hire more teachers?

No! No! No! What the voter got instead was a con game from the politicians, corporate officials and school board members.

I cannot imagine the Times Picayune publishing bare face lies on Sep. 1, so I guess the paper was right. Revenues generated from legalized gambling were never intended for our schools. But if that’s true, then our leaders are guilty of deceit. They’re guilty of leading the voter astray by allowing the voter to believe that revenues from legalized gambling, casinos and the lottery would go to support our children’s education.

The reason that I rarely vote is because I rarely find a politician who I can believe in. The reason that I rarely vote is because I rarely find a politician I trust. The democracy that I believe in and the one that I vote for is one that has A Few Honest Politicians!

I am a rebel and a maverick. I am a loner. I am a rebel with a cause, the cause of helping to establish peace on earth (Please End All Corruption on Earth, P.E.A.C.E.). Jesus Christ didn’t and I am not better than Him.

But I do not live in a fantasy. I know that I will not, indeed cannot, establish PEACE.

But I also know that I can do my part by being truthful and honest with my neighbor. I also know that if everyone follows the Golden Rule then peace will be established on earth.

I am a maverick. I am not just another individualist; I often do things in a totally unconventional manner. I do not follow the crowd. I blaze my own trail. I do things this way because I am a lone wolf and I prefer to be left alone to do my own thing in my own way. Given the choice of socializing with someone and reading a good science fiction or mystery novel or playing a game of chess, I will frequently, but not always, choose against socializing.

It’s not that I do not like company. It’s not that I do not like people. I love to socialize. It’s just that I prefer to be alone. I enjoy being with people. It’s just that I enjoy being alone.

Another example of how I am a loner is in the music that I listen to. I know people who like to listen to classic rock but not modern rock. I know people who like to listen to country but not jazz. I know people who like to listen to classical music but not easy listening type of music. I know people who like to listen to oldies but not heavy metal. I know people who like to listen to soft rock but not country.

To me music is music. I like it all, Elvis to Eagles, Beatles to Beethoven, Led Zeppelin to Hank Williams. I can sit and listen to an hour of Straus or Tchaikovsky then turn around and listen to Karen Carpenter or John Denver, then turn them off and listen to Chuck Berry or The Platters, and finally top it off with some Roy Orbinson and Rolling Stones.

I have been listening to music on the radio since the 1950s and I like it all. “I dig rock ‘n roll music I can really get it on that scene! If you know what I mean.” I like big band music and musicals like South Pacific and Oklahoma and The Sound of Music. I enjoy country and western just as much as I enjoy rhythm and blues. I can listen to soft rock, folk or heavy metal with the same enthusiasm.

I do not know of anyone, absolutely no one, who enjoys such a wide variety of music as I do. Everyone I know puts a limit on the kind of music they enjoy listening to. I do not put any limit on the music I listen to.

I was once listening to Leonard Bernstein and he was talking about music and God. He said that when God created the universe he did not believe that God simply said: Let there be light! Bernstein believed that God sang: Let there be light! I believe that Leonard Bernstein is correct. God sang: “Let there be light.” My point here is that God wants us to enjoy music, all music. I thank God that He has given me the grace to enjoy all music.

I have a lot of bad traits this I know. But one thing that I take pride in is that I am honest. I do not lie, cheat or deceive and I am not a thief. I have a hot temper, although I usually do not let it get the best of me. (I sometimes fail in this.) When I am by myself I have a foul mouth but I do not blaspheme God. I just use profanity when I am alone and no one can hear me, like when I am alone driving in my car or taking a shower.

I do not understand a society (especially a Christian society) that will condemn me for using profanity and then take God’s name in vain and think nothing of it. I do not understand a society that will make it against the law to use profanity in public and then blaspheme God as though no harm is being done.

Yes, there is a separation of church and state, and the state cannot make it against the law to take God’s name in vain. But neither should the state have the authority to arrest someone for using the word FUCK in public. It’s just a word. I agree with the stand-up comic George Carlin: There are no bad words, only bad thoughts.

London, Paris, Rome, Moscow, Tokyo and New York are among the most important cities in the world. There are many others that ought to be on the list of that I am sure. But as far as I’m concerned New Orleans tops the list. In my opinion, New Orleans is the greatest city in the world.

Yes, I’m prejudice in my opinion; I grew up in the suburbs of the Big Easy. But what other city can boast of such a wide ethnic diversity: Creole, Islanos and Cajun to name just three unique ethnicities? What other city in the world has the cuisine that New Orleans has? What other city has a history that can compare with the Vieux Carre’ and the Louisiana Purchase? What other city has an architect that can match up to that of New Orleans?

A few other cities have Mardi Gras but theirs does not measure up to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. New Orleans has the largest dome stadium, one of the longest over water bridges and one of the world’s largest sea ports. New Orleans has one of the greatest rivers in the world flowing by one of the oldest cathedrals in the United States.

The Big Easy has the French Quarter, Bourbon Street, Audubon Park, the Aquarium of the Americas, the Museum of Art in City Park; things that tourist from all over the world come to see. The sports fans are just as devoted – if not more so – to the New Orleans Saints as any other city’s football team. The same holds true for the New Orleans Hornets.

About the only thing that New Orleans does not have are lobsters, (over grown crawfish) hills and snow. Yes, I may be prejudice in my opinion that New Orleans is the greatest city in the world but not by much.

I mentioned earlier that I have a profane mouth when I drive. If somebody cuts in front of me, does not move when the light turns green, drives too slow in the passing lane or anything of this nature I almost immediately ask them: “Didn’t your mother teach you how to drive?” I do not yell this at them or say it so that they can hear me. I say it to myself.

But when someone violates a traffic law, like running a red light or making an illegal turn that is when the profanity kicks in. Again, I curse under my breath so that no one will hear me.

About the only traffic law that I violate is speeding. I frequently drive about 5 to 10 MPH above the speed limit except on the expressway, when I drive about 15 to 20 MPH above the limit. Although my traffic record contradicts this – I have quite a number of traffic violations on my record – several of those tickets are bogus as far as I’m concerned.

I got one for following too close. A police officer stopped short in front of me and I had to slam on my brakes in order to avoid hitting him. I stopped with my front end only centimeters away from his rear end. My tires screeched and I scared the officer. He immediately jumped out of his car with his ticket book in his hand. Then instead of thanking me for not hitting him, he gave me a ticket.

A second ticket I got for driving through a construction site. When I pointed out to the officer that I had not done so, that the construction engineers had put a side road for traffic flow, he just looked at this and proceeded to write the ticket. He put a code on the ticket; I did not know what the code meant.

I came back the next day and took some photographs of the area so that I could prove in court that I did not drive through a construction area. But when I got to court I found out that I was charged with reckless driving; that’s what the code was. The officer then got on the witness stand and lied about the way I was driving. I was found guilty solely on his testimony.

A third ticket was in the same intersection. The traffic light was not functioning properly, so I “eased through” it. A cop saw me and gave me a ticket. In fairness to him though, I used to pass by this light everyday on the way to and from work and sometimes this light worked correctly and sometimes it worked improperly. My bad luck was that when he watched it after pulling me over, it was working properly.

Finally there was the time a police officer gave me a ticket for changing lanes without giving a turn signal. I was guilty of that but that is not why the cop pulled me over.

We were in five O’clock traffic. He was in front of me in the center lane and trying to get into the right lane; he had on his turn signal. But he couldn’t get there, as another driver would not let him. When the right lane finally did open up he did not go there. He had turned his signal off so I assumed he no longer wanted to get in the right lane. I went into the right lane.

I then passed him up so that he could follow me into the right lane if he changed his mind. He was already mad at the other guy but took it out on me. He gave me a ticket for failure to use my turn signal when changing lanes.

There are some other incidents where I was abused by a police offier. But I am not going to go into them at this time. I rest my case.

I have developed three theories. The Theory that Genesis is not a myth, the theory that man is alone and unique in the universe and third, the scientific proof for the exclusive divinity of Jesus Christ.

The second theory proceeds from the first theory and the third proceeds from both the first and the second theories. Each of these theories by themselves is magnanimous. But when I take them collectively, I am humbled by the majesty of God. I am humbled because I know what a chess master must go through before getting to the end game with a superior, winning position.

Our Lord went through similar procedures and much, much more, working with humans. He started thousands of years ago and brought mankind to the 21st Century and the publication of these three theories. Today mankind is in endgame tactics. Yes, it is God who has done this work, not me. I am only the “ink pen,” so to speak, of His hand.

Not only am I humbled, I am also puzzled. I am puzzled because I cannot find anyone in the scientific community or the theological community who will listen to me, who will take me seriously. They all tell me that science and religion cannot be mixed. They all tell me that Genesis is not a factual interpretation of the creation process. They all tell me that science cannot prove the divinity of Jesus Christ. Yet none of them have taken the time to listen to my theories.

As soon as I tell them that Genesis is not a myth, that it gives a description of the creation as it actually happened, they ignore me. Some even tell me to go peddle my fundamentalism elsewhere. This is after I tell them that I am not a fundamentalist, after I tell them that the theory of intelligent design creation is heresy and that I do not believe in its teachings.

Second, as soon as I tell them that one can take the 1978 STURP investigations, and other scientific investigations of the Shroud of Turin, and compare this with what the Bible says about the resurrection, and then prove the exclusive divinity of Jesus Christ, they tell me that science cannot prove the divinity of anyone, that there is no scientific test for Jesus Christ.

I often feel like Chicken Little, running around the chicken yard with no one listening to what I have to say.

I look upon the scientific proof for the exclusive divinity of Jesus Christ as the spearhead or guiding light of my three theories. It is the “angel atop of my Christmas tree.”

What I do not understand is why I cannot get my theory published. I have what I consider a very important theory. It is important because it can be used to fight atheism. For the first time in the history of mankind, the children of God have a scientific tool that they can use to combat atheism and all that it teaches.

I would think that a publishing house would jump at the opportunity to publish such a theory. Yet, I receive only rejection letters. Yes, I understand that they must screen the papers that they publish and that they must reject many of the papers submitted to them. But the scientific proof for the exclusive divinity of Jesus Christ is not just any paper. It is a very important discovery!

I know that these publishers would love to have an opportunity to publish a work comparable to that of Copernicus, Newton or Darwin. Yet, I am ignored. (I do not exult myself over these great men, for I know that my work stands upon their shoulders.)

I look back at history and I can clearly see the hand of God slowly revealing Himself. With the work of Copernicus, He began a scientific revolution and with each new scientific discovery our Lord revealed a little more of Himself to mankind.

The scientific proof for the exclusive divinity of Jesus Christ is the end product of over 500 years of scientific research and study. I see this and I am ignored and I do not understand why man can be so blind and not see it.

But I am also humbled, for I know that my theories will continue to be overlooked until such time that God wants to shine a light upon them, until such time that our Lord decides to remove the cloud that presently hides them. Then nothing will dim their brightness.

All my logic tells me that I am a megalomaniac, a vain fool mislead with his own delusions of grandeur. If I may paraphrase from the 2000 movie Cast Away staring Tom Hanks: I have power over nothing. But I know what I must do. I have to stay alive and keep breathing. I have to continue to go on because tomorrow the sun will rise, and I do not know what the tide will bring.

I can only put my trust in God that everything that I have done since March 11, 1971, isn’t just a figment of my imagination.

Autobobiography

Some Isolated Events