August 23, 1996

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Here is a quirky thought:

Somewhere I read that ". . . conscience is a small, still voice that makes minority reports." I sometimes think that what sets us apart from our opposition is that, for better or for worse, we have more than our share of this commodity called "conscience" - and that that is the REAL reason why the odds seem against us at times.

It isn't that we are so righteous about race - although that often is the charge - we are just trying to reduce the scolding from within.

It isn't that we want to be "superior" so much as that we want to sleep at night. It is uncomfortable to have this dissonance within when we are doing something that is wrong when all of us know better.

The charge is often shrieked from every roof top in the world that we are "liars" "racists" "haters" - and on and on and on. These folks don't understand what this is all about. They just don't know what WE are all about.

It is much easier to be honest than dishonest, from our point of view. It is more comfortable to be clean than to be dirty, from our point of view. It is far better to set out to right a wrong than to permit a wrong that's being perpetrated, out of fear or lack of conscience - from our point of view.

I'll give you an example.

We have an #800 that is on a flat rate contract. The number of calls do not matter. The enemy, however, thinks he is hurting us by running up a bill. While he is at it, he spews his filth and hate. We have a lot of calls made for that very reason.

There is one eager beaver, particularly, who calls three or four times a day. It always goes like this:

"Hi, this is Ben the Socialist. @#$%&%$#@! How's your phone bill? Hope you're enjoying your phone bill. Have a good day! And take care!"

He has done this for months. I wish I could send him a message that what he is doing is futile - and let it go at that. I cannot imagine doing something that filthy and sneaky and petty to him - and crowing about it to boot. I, too, could run up a phone bill on him or get somebody else to do it - but why in the world would I want to?

To do unto him as he does unto me would get in the way of my conscience. It would subtract from who I am and what I am about.

So what do I want for myself? I just want to get Ben the Socialist out of my face. He wants to be in my face. I do not wish to hurt him. He definitely wants to hurt me. Whatever is propelling him is not propelling me.

Here is another little story a reader sent to me:

"I was working for IRS as a revenue officer. I got a case, a TDA, tax delinquent account, and when I went to the address I found a quite elderly woman with a German accent. She was a baby sitter in this home in exchange for her lodging. She was 80, had nothing, had been a member of a rich East German family and fled here after the war penniless, her family dead.

She got only spending money, and little of that, but they had reported her as household help and she owed a small amount. I tried to write the case off as hardship. She would not allow me. I told her she could make payments, but not to worry - when I wanted money, I would call. It was obvious hardship and the amount was so small there was no trouble closing the case.

So I thought.

Then she started to take the bus from her home a distance of 5 or so miles and then a walk up a fairly long way with a hill to the office to make her small payments. She would not stop this and made a number of small payments each month of $5 until the $25 was down to $5.00.

The last time I saw her was on a cold, sleet winter day winter day with ice underfoot making her way to the office with the last payment on the time schedule she had made for herself.

I don't think any band or speech has ever made me so proud of the German in me as I watched that old woman. She must have been a beauty in her day. She was a striking, tall, determined figure, walking through the ice and slush to do her duty as she saw it. . . "

Now isn't that a lovely story? Can our opposition match it? It was one little lady against the mighty IRS. It's us against the mightiest media and money power in the world.

We do our duty as we see it. It may seem foolish. Self-defeating. It's costing us. You bet it's costing us.

But then, so what? So what? Is it not better to be part of the solution and cease to be part of the problem? You won't need Sominex.

Ingrid

Thought for the Day:

"I am more afraid of my own heart than of the pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the great pope, Self."

(Martin Luther, 1483 - 1546)


Comments? E-Mail: irimland@cts.com

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