Once upon a time, I was invited to the White House for a private dinner with the President. I am a respected businessman, with a factory that produces memory chips for computers and portable electronics. There was some talk that my industry was being scrutinized by the administration, but I paid it no mind. I live in a free country. There’s nothing that the government can do to me if I’ve broken no laws. My wealth was earned honestly, and an invitation to dinner with an American President is an honor
I checked my coat, was greeted by the Chief of Staff, and joined the President in a yellow dining room. We sat across from each other at a table draped in white linen. The Great Seal was embossed on the china. Uniformed staff served our dinner. The meal was served, and I was startled when my waiter suddenly reached out, plucked a dinner roll off my plate, and began nibbling it as he walked back to the kitchen. “Sorry about that,” said the President. “Andrew is very hungry.” “I don’t appreciate...” I began, but as I looked into the calm brown eyes across from me, I felt immediately guilty and petty. It was just a dinner roll. “Of course,” I concluded, and reached for my glass. Before I could, however, another waiter reached forward, took the glass away and swallowed the wine in a single gulp.”And his brother Eric is very thirsty.” said the President.
I didn’t say anything. The President is testing my compassion, I thought. I will play along. I don’t want to seem unkind. My plate was whisked away before I had tasted a bite. “Eric’s children are also quite hungry.”
With a lurch, I crashed to the floor. My chair had been pulled out from under
me. I stood, brushing myself off angrily, and watched as it was carried from the room. “And their grandmother can’t stand for long.” I excused myself, smiling outwardly, but inside feeling like a fool. Obviously I had been invited to the White House to be sport for some game. I reached for my coat, to find that it had been taken. I turned back to the President.”Their grandfather doesn’t like the cold.”
I wanted to shout- that was my coat! But again, I looked at the placid smiling face of my host and decided I was being a poor sport. I spread my hands helplessly and chuckled. Then I felt my hip pocket and realized my wallet was gone. I excused myself and walked to a phone on an elegant side table. I learned shortly that my credit cards had been maxed out, my bank accounts emptied, my retirement and equity portfolios had vanished, and my wife had been thrown out of our home. Apparently, the waiters and their families were moving in.
The President hadn’t moved or spoken as I learned all this, but finally I lowered the phone into its cradle and turned to face him. “Andrew’s whole family has made bad financial decisions. They haven’t planned
for retirement, and they need a house. They recently defaulted on a subprime
mortgage. I told them they could have your home. They need it more than you do.” My hands were shaking. I felt faint. I stumbled back to the table and knelt on the floor.
The President cheerfully cut his meat, ate his steak and drank his wine. I lowered my eyes and stared at the small grey circles on the tablecloth that were water drops.”By the way,” He added, “I have just signed an Executive Order nationalizing your factories. I’m firing you as head of your business. I’ll be operating the firm now for the benefit of all mankind.. There’s a whole bunch of Erics and Andrews out there and they can’t come to you for jobs groveling like beggars.” I looked up. The President dropped his spoon into the empty ramekin which had been his creme brulee. He drained the last drops of his wine. As the table was cleared, he lit a cigarette and leaned back in his chair. He stared at me. I clung to the edge of the table as if were a ledge and I were a man hanging over an abyss.
I thought of the years behind me, of the life I had lived. The life I had earned with a lifetime of work, risk and struggle. Why was I punished? How
had I allowed it to be taken? What game had I played and lost? I looked across the table and noticed with some surprise that there was no game board between us. What had I done wrong? As if answering the unspoken thought, the President suddenly cocked his head, locked his empty eyes to mine, and bared a million teeth, chuckling wryly as he folded his hands he said:
“You should have stopped me at the dinner roll,” he said.
Great story. I got it.
I think that means November 4Th.
It will be interesting how the press plays this after moaning about the Bush administration doing the same thing.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/05/politics/main2334341.shtml
Give that its own thread.
Ew.
Excellent!
Good one..VERY GOOD
That is a great post.
Lots of people I need to pass this on to. Who should I credit? Excellent.
Good story.
Excellent story, mojitojoe.
Wonderful, thanks.
Brilliant! Did you write this? May I use it?
Ping to Post #16.
You really should read #16. Sometimes a story has more impact than an actual event.
Well done!
I like it.
Awesome!
Well done!
Quoting — “You should have stopped me at the dinner roll,” he said.
—
It is unfortunate that we are at the dessert part of dinner now...
But, I’ve always felt that the American people get the best government that they deserve and choose, and God does give people, in very many instances, what they want.
And so, it does appear to me, that Obama is the judgment of God, upon this nation for its many evils that it has perpetrated over the decades.
Just naming one — the missing 50 million people who have been murdered is probably the only one that needs to be mentioned, because I figure that this one alone would be deserving of the judgment of God upon this nation. I don’t believe the “price has been paid” for that one yet...
—
Now, God is a forgiving God, though, and if we *do listen* to an example of a previous President, this nation *may* find some grace from our Creator God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
BUT, without the requisite repentance, don’t expect the grace of God upon this nation (although as individuals, we do live in God’s grace on our personal lives, in accepting the salvation offered by Him, through faith in Jesus, the Messiah of Israel...)
To see *how far the U.S. has fallen* — from God and His righeousness..., just look at what Abraham Lincoln wrote...
The following is a “national repentence” thread.
Abraham Lincoln’s Word to the United States Today
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2232720/posts
[ —This is Lincoln’s original proclamation, with only *four words* changed in *one phrase* (only)... The rest is the exact same proclamation, except for the dates adjusted, and that’s all (and the note at the very bottom of the proclamation, the very last line...) — ]
A Proclamation.
Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation.
And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.
And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of economic and national collapse, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th. day of July, 2009, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.
All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this 12th day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand and nine, and of the Independence of the United States the two hundred and thirty second.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
Sent by the Word of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
NOW..., as to whether the U.S. and its people *will do this* — that’s another question. I seriously doubt it — so I think the judgment of God will *stay in place* and the U.S. is going down...