Author: Arnold R. Kropp

About Mr. Arnold. Back in the days when I was a kid growing up in south Chicago, freely roaming around the neighborhood was common, and just a part of life in the late '40s and early '50s. A train track was less than a mile away and a favorite place to walk along the rails. A large city park was a bit closer with areas of dense trees and areas of open grassy picnic grounds. A public golf course was just two blocks away, but the famed 4-lane busy Western avenue had to be crossed to get to it, and we crossed in the middle of the block running between the cars and trucks. We knew the risks. In the winters, we would climb that fence making our way to one of the ponds, we’d push and shovel away the snow and play a spontaneous game of hockey, or bring a sled and slide down the hillside ; no adults, no special padding, just a group of kids enjoying the contest. Dad was at work. Mom was home tending to the laundry and preparing the family meal for promptly at 6 pm. Life was good. It was fun. Sunday mornings were dress up in suit and tie, polished shoes for Sunday school and the worship service, then to a restaurant. Arnold went on to college immediately after high school, but could not find a subject, a major that was really up his alley, so he enlisted in the Army and served in Germany during the years the Berlin wall was built. Seeing what effects Soviet communism had on the people of East Germany left an impression on him. During those years, he would write many long letters home starting a desire to write more than just letters. Many years later Arnold developed a blog where he posted hundreds of articles on the political side of American life. Some of those are available in the collection named "Ramblings". Today, Society is totally different from that of the '50s, a whole lot different. Today, it has become scary to let the kids roam. Today it has become organized to the hilt with 2nd graders playing organized football. In my present relatively quiet neighborhood, I do see kids walking the streets, but there is a difference as the kids seem to be apprehensive and on guard or intently operating a telephone as they walk, not running after each other playing hide and seek. Today, the above freedoms of the '50s are suspect and avoided as being dangerous activities. And that is sad. It's sad that today's kids do not have that freedom, and it may be having a direct effect on their development. Consider, one fact that is readily apparent today compared to yesterday; the preponderance of overweight and obese kids, even pre-school kids are heavier than we were, and this has to be affecting the rest of their daily lives. No doubt about it. But, I'd better hush, can't talk about those things. Yes, in the '50s there were Semi-trucks, public transportation, murders, rape, robberies, house fires, sickness and diseases resulting in death, and yes, there were deadly vehicle accidents too. There was even poverty and homosexuals too. We went to public schools, and the high school was integrated. This was Chicago, but those events did not make the headlines, as news was only broadcast at 6pm and possibly 10pm nightcap. Days of the cold war kept us together as a nation. We saw the "Victory at Sea" war clips before the main feature at the theaters. And now technology dominates life. A cell phone in every handy pocket posting selfies. A computer saving everything to one of those cumulous clouds. Room size TV’s broadcasting everything 24/7. This is more information than I want. Let me decide something. I think. therefore, I am. I was born a male, therefore I am. I was born-again, therefore I am. I have life within, therefore I am. The news is not my guide. The TV is not my Sheppard.

E pluribus unum.

Ah this Latin phrase has been a popular motto here in the US of A. “Out of many, One.” Yes, the country grew great as immigrants from all over the world sailed to their new home in the west easily accepting the diverse multitudes. My grandparents immigrated here from Sweden. Growing up in Chicago, I’ve visiting China town, had dinner in German restaurants, visited a Swedish fellowship where only Swedish was talked, drove through a Jewish and an African neighborhood. The high school was biracial. As a whole everyone was accepted. We were peacefully tolerating our different paths.

Accepting, not really, as our history tells a very different story at times. Just a few examples. We’ve slaved those from Africa to the cotton fields. We’ve pushed the native Americas aside. We fought against the Spaniards inhabiting the south. During the great second war, we rounded up the Japanese into interment camps as their home rulers attacked us first. And here we are now facing all of this head on that’s dividing us away from e pluribus unum.

E unum pluribus is the solution by reversing the original motto to “Out of One Many.” Jesus, the One, the original son of God begetting many other sons of God, us, natural humans of every continent believing and practicing the commandment to “Love one another.”

Weak or Strong?

“When I am weak, then am I strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:10. Yes, many parts of this physical body are weak. My eyes have glasses. My ears have devises. It comes with age, we are told. I can’t do the ten push-ups I could once easily do. I trouble to do sit-ups. Yet I can still walk, but to ride a bicycle, puts the body at unsteadiness. How then did the ancients manage for hundreds without glasses and ear helpers?

This minute I can breathe providing me with a steady heart-beat, pulsating lungs, tightening muscles, and feeling the warm flowing waters over my hands. That’s the physical. God has become my strength. Knowing Him is my strength as He will not leave me. Always there, here right now. Yes, the Great I Am, the Creator, Loving, Benevolent Sustainer walked me through yesterday and will be at my side as the strong soul continues to strengthen the spiritual me.

Yes, I admit I am weak, but still strong.

Boy Scout Oath.

Samuel is talking to the scout troop.

“You pledge that you will … do your duty to God. What duty do you have to God? Duty is a word that means you are expected or required to do something as an obligation. You are obligated to someone for something, perhaps because something was done to or for you and you owe that one something in return. Now, it’s expected of you. You are required to do something.  No second-guessing. No questions asked. You’ve been informed as to what is required, so you do it as a duty.

“But what did God do for you that you owe the Almighty something in return?  You’re living, you’ve got life inside your body. God gave you the ability to choose, to reason, to imagine. You have a body to navigate around this world. God has done it all for You. He created this marvelous universe and put you here in this particular spot where you can breathe and learn to live abundantly enjoying the benefits of a sun rising every day, with animals to enjoy and feed on, water to drink. And in these waters fish to catch and eat. You have others to talk and fellowship with, and on and on.

“God has done this for you, so what do you have to give as a . . . duty . . . in return for this life you’ve been given? God has also sacrificed His only Son for you. So how do you repay Him for that?  You choose to live the way God wants you to live; no lying, no stealing, no cheating, none of that wanting what your neighbor has. And, yes, there’s usually an and. You want to tell others about this gift.

These are perilous times.

As this country and the world is experiencing the pandemic of a virus, the demands of the authorities, plus the looting violence of the rioters.  These are troubling times.  We need  God’s blessings and protection.

I’ve had this idea.

2 Chronicles 7:14 states:  ““If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

What effect would this have on us and the community, if ALL the churches in Broken Arrow, Every protestant denomination church, along with all the catholic churches would gather a bunch, 50, 100 or more from each church to stand together along 71st st for one day, possibly a Saturday morning, holding signs such as LOA (Love one another) and at a certain time kneel and pray together.  We would be presenting a united body of Christ to the community and possibly the media would post it.  And to God we would humble ourselves by putting our theological differences aside by seeking God’s face, grace and mercy together as one body, by turning away from our selfish ways.  Would we get the healing of the wicked ways of our society?

When will it happen?

Oh, perhaps I’m stepping into unforgiven territory here, but this has been on my mind.  You’all be glad that I’m not God. Because if I was, I’d be reining hell-fire down upon this earth right now, and sending additional flames targeting the uprising mobs. Nah. Maybe not right now, because It could have already happened thousands of years ago, many times over. Gads, I even etched in stone so they couldn’t be burned, just ten rules of decent behavior, not 30 or 50 rules, just ten.

Flooded the earth to save Noah, a righteous man.  A fire destroyed Sodom. Still, hardly any wanting to get along with neighbors. Finally fed up, I sent your redeemer for a sacrifice with just one rule: love your neighbor as your own self. But you still had those wars of yours? Stabbing and killing each other. Fighting over a piece of land. Can’t get along can you? Won’t sit down together and work out a peace plan? Don’t want to. Your way or no way. You, all of you, have not wanted to love your neighbor. No, for many, it’s more exciting to harass, fight, hang, and murder, break windows and destroy history. Think about the those millions put in cattle cars and taken to camps, starved to skin covered bones, gassed or burned. Do you really think the enslavement of millions of Africans was good for both of you?  Yes, you love money more than anything, more than your neighbor, more than you even your own, as you choose to dismantle a life in the womb. Your choice. The baby did not get a choice. That big bomb that was dropped killed many innocent Japanese because they destroyed a submarine. But it ended a war, didn’t it? So, if that’s the only way toward peace, a huge one-world bomb from heaven maybe the final way to peace. Think about that.

 But I loved you too much over these thousands of years by allowing you a second, third, fourth, a fifth a thousand more chances.  Jesus provided a way for all of you, everyone to be saved and be made anew. Now again it’s peace or that fire-ball from heaven?

 Your choice. What will you do?

A bit of History

Aw, reading the news this morning about the riots and uprisings across the country, a personal event came to mind. It was 1963 and I had just got my release from the Army. I wanted to go to Atlanta, where my older brother was, and I could get back to finish college. On the way there in a VW, I stopped near Birmingham, AL to play golf. After the round, and back on the city streets, I noticed I was being followed by a pick-up with 3 or 4 guys in the back. It scared me, and I kept going. Why were they following me so close? Here I was a Chicago kid with an Illinois license plate in a southern city during the days when many northerners went south to counter the southern civil rights against Black racist agenda.

Apparently, those white Alabama kids thought I was one of those Yankees supporting the Black uprisings in the south. No, I was just a guy wanting to get on with his life after 3 years in the Army. After getting settled in Atlanta, enrolling at Georgia State College, I got a job with an Auto manufacturer. There I was, working alongside other guys about my age. During lunch breaks, I felt alone as the others would not associate with me, a Yankee with an easily detected Chicago accent. After 3 months, I was told I had to join the union. I quit. Outta there and back to school.
Racial unrest has always been a problem in the US ever since the slave trade of Africa brought thousands of black over black slaves to work the cotton fields of the south. Muslims also enslaved Africans and sold them to Americans. In my Chicago High School, we had a few African Americans sitting next to me in English or History classes and on the baseball team.

In the army, we were just Army guys regardless of skin color. Two and a half years of racial harmony living peacefully together in defense of our Country. Why can’t we do that now?

The BIG difference between the ’60s riots and now is the technology of 24/7 news to get our attention, the internet, computers, and everyone voicing opinions of their hurts and injustice 24/7. Yes, economic injustice is the basis of it all, using the few unjust actions of the police, which the media highlights in delight.
Come on folks, let’s call it quits and return to ‘love one another as you’d like to be loved’ and accepted. You know, I don’t even like to use the words White or Black or Brown to describe our differences. We are all descendants of Adam and Eve through Noah. Having been dispersed after the tower fiasco to different parts of this earth and after thousands of years of living in the sun-drenched south that original sun-tan became embedded in their DNA and passed on to the kiddies. That’s all for now. Time for me to relax and thank God for this day.

Smelling a rat.

I don’t know about you, but I smell a rat.

Let’s back-up a few years to 2009 when the H1N1 flu, or swine flu, which supposedly came from pigs, was estimated to have caused about 284,000 deaths. Some studies estimated the actual number of cases including asymptomatic and mild cases could be 700 million to 1.4 billion people. Compare all that to the current pandemic, this virus that we’ve been told came from bats and started in China. The swine flu perhaps had its first identified case diagnosed in Mexico. In 2009-10, the world was not locked-down, businesses, stores, and restaurants closed, but because of this new virus, yes, we’ve all, the entire world has been put under control.

No, it can’t be just because Covid-19 expanded from China. Something else is going on, something major has changed, and it’s not our CDC, nor is it WHO. Both organizations were operating then. Technology has just become faster and more convenient. The world has not been in a major war. Here in the US, political control has only switched parties, and other nations have not had major changes. Our federal debt is beyond managed control, and a coming depression has been forecast.

What am I missing?

Since 2009, the number of books written and warning us about the end times has increased since 2009. But come on, our human race has been inflicted with viruses, plagues, pestilences, and wars since our fall into sin, and warnings of the coming judgment.have prevailed too. But is this one, the real end time plague?

 We won’t know until it happens, will we? So keep your face-mask handy.

And on a personal note, get and read “Just a Matter of Time: Until the End of Time” available at Banes and Noble. It may enlighten you as to what’s possibly in store down the future road technologically and politically.

Interesting Title: Montesquieu New World Island

Considering the political this year addressing this virus that’s infected the world, this novel was published in 2012 which forecasts political interventions into modern day life. Will this lead to that Brave New World?

“Mark is a farmer and inventor living the good life with his wife Susan of 33 years. While building up the interest in their Halloween Festival on the farm, Mark gets disenchanted, then obsessed, and desires to leave all the comforts behind to follow a desire for freedom. After experiencing a peace that passes understanding, an unsuspected surprise disturbs their tranquility forcing them to form new plans. The progressive idealists believe that the human spirit can be tamed by bureaucratic decree, and are slowly changing equal opportunities into equal results. The federal government has grown beyond its intentional usefulness of protection of our rights to intrusion into those rights, spending money not yet appropriated as if the citizenry were an endless mine. We, the silent generation were mistaken as we thought the boom could never end, treating the national debt as embalming juices preventing deadly decay.”

Available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Montesquieu-World-Island-Arnold-Kropp/dp/1480291218/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1588617423&sr=8-2