Our Demons

Many pundits and modern-day philosophers, myself included, have opined upon “the break-down of the family” as the primary cause of societal failures.  While no doubt fundamental in addressing the question of “what in the name of God is happening to our society?” I sensed that there was a deeper, more sinister force at work.

As I heightened and intensified my observations of the ever-changing human condition, it became alarmingly obvious to me that mental illnesses have become epidemic.  Complicate that with all of the socially-acceptable substance abuse alternatives, alcoholism and the general malaise and sense of hopelessness felt by many and one can see the toll this is taking on us by simple observation.  The profoundly mentally ill are conspicuously in our midsts; it is not at all uncommon, we all see it every day.  Add to that the not-so-obviously afflicted; tormented and tortured but functional and outwardly able to mask their despair.  After all, we each carry our burdens, mostly private and unseen but burdens nonetheless.

I ruminated upon and carefully considered my new theory, believing that the increase and intensity of the advent of mental illnesses was the more foundational underpinning to our societal woes, but I neglected a consideration so obviously important that it took my breath away in my moment of illumination.

Our relationship with God.

While I try my mightiest to write in a secular tone so to not alienate non-believers, there comes a time when the truth and the Word rule the day.

Jesus casting out demons was a reoccurring theme in the Bible, referenced in some 25-Bible verses.  Our evolution into modern times did not eradicate those demons they are with us still today.

While Jesus may not physically walk amongst us today, his church and his soldiers carry on His message and His hope for us.  The demons are still amongst us and if anything they have multiplied, tormenting many souls, just as they did in biblical times.  Casting out these demons requires from us faith.  No demon can stand up to God’s love but it is up to us to seek Him out and ask for His protection and grace.

The line between the modern science of mental health and the demons of satan and evil are blurred to me but they are clearly both undeniable factors in explaining the degradation of our society.  The interplay between broken families, those infested with demons and the mentally ill are the three-key-components in understanding where we are in today’s shameful world.

We see the unthinkable without flinching, fail to revolt at the untenable, and are slow to recoil at the unspeakable and yet are pilloried if we fail to concur with the latest obscenity. The word of God warns us in Isaiah 5:20 when He says:  “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”

Where we cast out the Lord, we invite in the devil.  If you doubt me, look around.

The physical presence of Jesus on earth was to demonstrate to mankind His power and His grace.  His disciples were tasked with creating the church extending to the ends of the earth.  Jesus was crucified, died, rose from the dead, and on eight separate occasions He came back to Earth to reinforce his commandments upon the chosen; empowering them through His spirit and making possible all of the power of His salvation and redemption, even in the absence of his physical presence.  The church today is the physical manifestation of God on Earth, with all of those capabilities for us today that Jesus bestowed on the people of His time.

Good deeds, kindness and doing no evil are not hallmarks of God’s salvation.  The grace of God, combined with our own humility and surrender to His will are the keys to everlasting life.  The simplicity of grace is so flatly understated that its concept is widely and wildly misunderstood and yet ironically, it is the only pathway to heaven.

Say this prayer with me and obtain from God your place in his realm.  Dearest Father in heaven, please hear my prayer.  Father, I’m not worthy, but I come before you as a believer.  You are the messiah and the Son of God.  You are the son of man and died for my sins.  With you anything is possible and without you nothing is.  I seek your forgiveness and with it your redemption, of which I am not worthy, but nevertheless you love me and provide for my salvation.  Thank you Father and please guide my life in a way that pleases you, I pray it in your holy name Father, Amen.

Until we acknowledge our rightful place in this life and humble ourselves to God’s will, we can count on a continuation of the depravity, despair and degradation in which we have created for ourselves all because of our rejection of God.

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Integrity

In County government, the most personally threatening kind of power manifests itself in law enforcement and adjudication.  Power at this level can literally end a human life, imprison a man forever, force someone into a mental hospital or keep a parent from their children.

While we all hope that those whom we elect to govern are honorable and honest people with the best interests of the community in mind, we all know that this is not always the case.  This is why the positions of the county Sheriff and the District Attorney are crucial in defining the overall integrity and reputation of the entirety of the community.  The people we elect to these offices reflect the highest and best individuals we can elevate to those positions of trust, honor and ultimately, power.

There should be a healthy, professional distance and a respectful skepticism separating the relationships between police agencies and the judicial/adjudication side of the administration.  Clear personal relationships, even friendships to the point of mutual campaigning and commingled staff and volunteers does not set the proper tone for the natural inter-agency separation that should exist between entities that many times find themselves at loggerheads.      

The use of power demonstrates ones character.  When a inner-office romance bloomed with a subordinate, as it did in the sheriff’s office when then Captain Akshar was living with a female co-worker, or when then captain Akshar had a sexual encounter with the mother of a murder victim while the matter was actively being adjudicated, or when then Senator Akshar had another affair with a young woman that worked in his office, tripling her salary, prompting the ethics panel in Albany to slap the Senator’s wrists, or when District Attorney candidate Battisti called then Captain Akshar and ultimately had him dispatch his brother, a Broome County sheriff, to arrest Battisti’s estranged wife, in which all charges were ultimately dropped, well, we see power and character in action.

This kind of a quid pro quo power-structure is the worse thing that could happen to the residents of Broome County.  Those who play fast and loose with the rules, use their power inappropriately and are indebted to one another in a Gordian knot of payback and one-hand-washing-the-other shenanigans sets the bar too low and demonstrates a dangerous tenor from which all police agencies will get their cues and when those cues suggest anything other than fair-play, integrity and honorable behavior, you can count on getting none of that in return.

The people we entrust with great power should be those most reluctant to use it.  The lust for power is the surest sign of why the person seeking it should be kept from it.  Power engorges the ego of the tyrant while humbling the wise, the tyrant’s eager first choice, and the humble man’s reluctant last resort.

Einstein warned us when he said, “Force always attracts men of low morality.”  Edmund Burke finished his thought when he said, “The greater the power the more dangerous the abuse.”

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End the Stench in Vestal

In the past, the summertime stench wafting over western Broome County was the byproducts of the Vestal-JC Sewage Treatment plant.  A similar stink has shifted further west and now hangs over the Vestal Town Hall.  Technology defeated the sewage plant stink, now voters have their change to do the same in voting out self-serving elected officials that treat Vestal taxpayers like their personal Piggy Bank.

Hopefully, political new-comers Maria Sexton, Robert Greene and Glenn Miller can provide the industrial-strength air freshener so vitally needed to rid the Town of Vestal of a closed, autocratic governance structure that has provided insiders with bloated salaries while punishing taxpayers with unfair assessments and in general, ignoring the concerns of residents.  The reek of self-serving political operatives that distain their constituents while lining their own pockets is hopefully over.

Sexton, Green and Miller are running against the incumbency in the Democratic primary coming up on June 27, 2023, for Supervisor and town council spots respectively.  Notoriously low turn-outs for primary campaigns is what breathed life into the likes of Congresswoman Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez in 2019.  If Vestal residents sit on their hands in this race, current Town Supervisor John Schaffer and his muted-minions on the town board will continue to ransack the town and betray the interests of Vestal residents so please get out and vote.

Under the cover of a Covid scare, this is what current Vestal leadership has done:

Schaffer has doubled his salary in less than 3-years to over $100,000.00, pretty good for a part-time job but that’s not the worst of it.  The Human Resources Director saw her salary package increase over 130% in three-years to well over $90,000.00, oh and so you know, her husband, who is also the Town Attorney, is making north of $119,000.00, up 74% from 3-years ago.  Those are just the highlights.  For more go to: 

https://www.realdemocracy4vestal.com/money-go-2 and see all of the inflated price-tags on all the insiders riding the taxpayer-funded band-wagon.

Sexton is a political new-comer with an impressive resume of leadership, integrity and a full understanding of systems, administrations, budgets and people.  Mr. Greene and Miller are likewise poised to provide principled leadership by paying close attention to what residents want as opposed to enriching themselves at taxpayer expense.

John Schaffer is a loud-mouthed bully that holds court in a manner that is opaque, autocratic and outwardly abusive and dismissive to any dissenting voice.  The current board members are potted plants that take their nourishment from Schaffer and rubber-stamp his agenda.

If the voters in Vestal want more of the same, keep ignoring your local politics, but be aware, if you do nothing, nothing will change and if that happens, well then keep your mouth shut when the reality of continued mismanagement and uncontrolled taxes is the order of the day.

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In Defense of Property Owners

There is a largely undomesticated segment of society that lives in the stained shadows of poverty, ignorance, crime and mayhem.  These miscreants exist in a world of chaos and filth and care nothing about their home, the quality of the neighborhood or the welfare of their neighbors.  These are the schemers, the scammers, criminals, professional failures, reprobates, repeat-offenders and general agitators; the bottom-feeding under-belly of the rest of a civilized society.

Liberals will tell us that putting these people into “nicer-housing” will make them nicer people.  It won’t.  What it will do is result in that nicer housing being trashed.  This is why slums and crappy housing exist, not necessarily because property-owners want it that way, but because providing anything better is rewarded with destruction.  Why keep replacing doors and walls that have been punched through with holes when these vermin will simply re-punch the same doors and walls over and over again?  Better to let their domain fit their temperament.

Even scum-bags need a place to live, and so some property owners provide exactly the standard of housing these uncivilized people create on their own by the life-styles they choose to live, and by the decisions they choose to make.  Ironically, this cohort is by in large representative of domestic, passed-down generational failure generally unique to those born here and rare in those who risked it all to come here.

Just as fathers are treated terribly in family court, property owners are likewise seen as the “bad-guys” in the legal system.  There is little if any accountability placed on tenants and the presumption of favorable treatment and outcomes is always pointed in their direction while the property owner is generally perceived as evil.

I took a large financial gamble by purchasing a two-family home in a tough neighborhood because I saw the faint signs of revitalization.  After evicting both tenants for months-long non-payment, the clean-up effort was so bad it began by using gas-masks and snow-shovels to remove the filth and debris from the floors.  One tenant had buried her dog in the middle of the back yard in a grave so shallow the lawn mower dug it up.  After waiting months to drag the one tenant into court, the judge asked her if she wanted free legal help in having her case reviewed.  I was paying my lawyer by the hour while this scum-bucket-tenant was being spoon-fed free legal advice by a judge that had no concerns at all with my rights, my losses, and my bad investment.

 After thousands of dollars in remediation and months of lost-rental income, I finally got two really good tenants, only to have them regularly frightened by the constant street noise, the fighting late at night the loud-unlicensed motorcycles, the illegal fireworks and on and on.  The police and the city were no help, except by reminding me to pay my taxes on time.

These two great tenants had to sleep at night because they had jobs.  The street-trash partying all night had no such obligations and had nary a care about the welfare of the very neighbors that actually worked and paid taxes so these same lazy welfare-rats can milk the system and annoy everyone around them.

After 4-years of trying my best and hoping for the revitalization of this neighborhood, it became clear it wasn’t going to happen and I recently sold the building to investors from Boston.  My former tenants just reached out to me, asking if I had anything they might rent because the new owners raised their rents by 40%.

Here is my prediction.  My former great long-term tenants will be forced to move and the Boston investors, managing from afar, will make the mistake of renting to scum-bags and the cycle of destruction will begin again, the investors will sell and walk away and the street and neighborhood will continue its downward decline.  This is what happens when liberal policies paint the world as they wish it were, rather than how it actually is.  This fantasy happens when out-of-touch policy makers live in their privileged and completely segregated world that floats above the rest of the wretched humanity they pretend to try and save while privately abhorring.

The City of Binghamton has a dual-system of tolerance regarding law-and-order; one set very high for poor neighborhoods, and the other set low for the wealthy and privileged.  This emboldens and encourages the very behaviors that are the least desirable and insures that positive changes will not come.  Say what you will about “gentrification”, but without it, the undomesticated amongst us make our communities unsafe, undesirable and a bad investment.

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No Shades of Black

We don’t measure darkness, stillness, cold or silence.  These conditions represent the absence of something, namely light, speed, heat and sound.  There are no shades of black; it is the absence of color.  There are many ways to see, but blind is blind.  Scientists define a total lack of heat as “absolute zero.”  It is important to accept that there are “absolutes” in our lives and the presence of evil is one of those realities.  Evil is to goodness what darkness is to light, its absence.

We can increase light, motion, temperature and sound infinitely while their absences are by definition finite or “absolute.”  The absence of light can’t be made any darker. There is no state of stillness beyond motionless, absolute zero is as cold as it can get and silence can’t be made any quieter.  The bible tells us “But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.” Proverbs 4:18.

Darkness is conquered by light just as goodness conquers evil.

God’s heaven is a state of total goodness and the lack of all evil.  Here on earth, we cannot create a heavenly state we can only strive towards goodness by rejecting evil.

Nature and Divinity abhor a vacuum and when goodness by way of Godliness decreases and when we reject God from our lives, evil moves in to fill that spiritual vacuum.  Just as the path towards darkness increases gradually as the sun sets, evil falls upon us as our souls give into the worldly and the wicked.  Just as the warmth of summer yields to fall and then winter’s cold, mankind in a spiritual vacuum tests the unworldly frigidity of absolute failing, absolute tragedy and absolute anguish.

While the angst, suffering and heartbreak we see today all around us overwhelms the feint of heart and the spiritually suffering, there is a solution.  The absolute Goodness of God overcomes evil but only when we embrace the former and reject the later through the grace of the Lord.  He tells us, “Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” Matthew 13:43.

The senseless killings we see day after day correspond with the mental and spiritual illness we see increasing in our world.  The objects people use to murder and snuff out life are distracting representations keeping us from examining the harder, less obvious problems of mental illness, the corruption of the human soul and the degradation of the value of life.  When we ignore or at best, fail to cultivate our own commitments to righteousness we see the proliferation of evil that fills the vacuum of our own making.

The Lord God possesses all goodness.  Striving to follow Him is the pathway to pushing evil back into the absolute pit of its own birth and to bury its presence in our lives through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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DAD

NOTE: I wrote this article in 2003 just before my dad passed away

The youngest of eight boys and a sister, my father’s biggest fear as a 17-year-old was that the war which had called all of his brother’s would end before he could enlist.

He just made it.

My father was a strong and decisive man, self-made in the tradition of the American hard work ethos, rising from a laundryman in a hospital to a policeman in our little town.  From walking the beat, then patrolman, finally detective, he persevered through bad bosses and good times.

He raised our family and demonstrated a strong faith.  He sang at the top of his voice regardless of whether he was in the church choir or sitting in our family pew dating to 4-generations.  He showed me the power of absolute values and uncompromising principles.

He listened to talk radio before it was popular, late at night the crackling faint and fluctuating AM-radio voices sounding so far away, making it feel so special.  He took me to a small church in the country on some Sunday nights so he could sing real loud and enjoy the company of the minister, his dear friend.

Dad showed me that crying was OK as a man and he leaned on me as a boy when I thought I couldn’t do things,  but I could, even if I didn’t realize it at the time.  He introduced me to death as his mother and then older brothers fell one by one.  I knew it was all a dress rehearsal.

He loved my mother harder than he should have.  He hadn’t considered his own vulnerability, it wouldn’t have been right.  That would undermine the commitment, the uncontested, no restrictions love that he thought transcended all.  He was wrong sometimes.  The divorce nearly killed him.  His only chance was to wade back in quickly.

No good deed shall go unpunished and indeed it did not.  Five children, all pre-teens and a 2nd wife with shoulders built to carry a chip.  He did the difficult with no thanks and suffered at the hand of her having it both ways because he relished the task of being needed.

We all assailed him as adults with various and wide ranging admonitions, requests, presents, favors, accusations, automobiles and accolades.  He was accused of high crimes and misdemeanors and the saving of lives.  Some disliked him because he stood for something and was unashamed in defining it.

He was born late enough to have science save him from the heart disease that took his father and brothers, only to live long enough to be sentenced to death without parole in the cell of a nursing home, a prisoner lost in his own mind.  The Law of Unintended Consequences.

I speak of him as if he were dead because the disease insures that he is, forced to observe it all from his frail body with a capacity just functional enough to feel the terror of the reality every once in a while.  Where is God in all of this?  Why the loss of dignity to such a good soldier?

The only reason I’m not embittered by my father’s dilemma is the knowledge that if he were healthy and guiding me today, he would tell me not to be.  He would look me straight in the eye and tell me that God had nothing to do with this.  It’s because of his faith and example that I believe him.

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Good versus Evil..

There is a finiteness attached to a lack of something and infiniteness only possible in its abundance.  Silence is the absence of sound, darkness the absence of light, stillness the absence of movement and cold simply the absence of heat.  Silence can’t get quieter, dark darker, stillness stiller or cold colder.  Sound, light, heat and movement can all be intensified in one direction only, outward from their absences and infinitely intensified by volume.

Good and evil I believe can be thought of in the same way.  Evil is the absence of good and can only intensify in direct proportion to a lack of goodness.  Just as sound, light, motion and heat defeat silence, darkness, stillness and cold, goodness overcomes evil.

God and faith gird our goodness.  The more distance we put between ourselves and God, the closer we allow evil to come.

Just as heat, light, motion and sound are all choices that we moderate, so too is it with our relationship with God and our faithfulness and with that comes the level of evil we are willing to tolerate.

Our duty to ourselves is only one of two responsibilities we face when addressing our positions in the battle of goodness over evil.  The second condition has to do with the state of our collective conscientiousness that indicates to God the validity of a nation, the nobility of a people and the worthiness of mankind as we are judged by the Almighty when He holds us up to His image, which is what he had in mind upon our creation.

When that day comes when the collective evil in the world outweighs the good and the faithless outnumber the faithful, it will be too late but today is not that day and today, we can reaffirm our faith and redouble our relationship with God as we celebrate His birth and refocus on that which matters most; Goodness.   

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An Open Letter to Former President Trump

Mr. President:                                                                           November 9, 2022

I strongly encourage you to run for the office of President of the United States once again in the 2024 election.  Armed with the experience you gained in your first term, I can only imagine what progress you will make in your second.  The country needs you desperately and the stakes could not be higher for refocusing, rebuilding and re-exciting both the country and the citizenry.

Mr. President, I believe that enlisting the support of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as your Vice-President will afford you the highest likelihood of gaining that second-term for which American’s so hopefully pray. 

Governor DeSantis

Engaging Governor DeSantis as a protagonist is a mistake.  Instead of potentially weakening a terrific governor with a splendid track record, enormous name recognition and wide-spread public support, better to harness that positive energy for not only your re-election, but to insure the legacy of accomplishment two strong-willed and patriotic men can best accomplish together.

I believe the key to this alliance will be to assure the Governor that it is your solemn promise to do everything in your power to see to it that he is your successor.  Leaving Governor DeSantis out of the equation for 2024 will only spell trouble in splitting voters and by doing so, assist the opposition party by encouraging us to war against ourselves and thereby making their path to a victory that much easier.

Mr. President, please Take America Back Again and do so with the horsepower of a Trump/DeSantis ticket to a sure fire victory.

Kind regards,

Bob Kingsley

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Accountability

If you need an example of today’s double-speak and lack of personal responsibility, look no further than today’s story in the Wall Street Journal, (WSJ) regarding Tyson Foods Chief Financial Officer, (CFO) John R. Tyson entitled, “Tyson CFO Held On charge Of Home Trespass.”

This 32-year-old “man” is the silver-spooned-snot-nose son of Tyson Food founder John W. Tyson and according to the WSJ article, the younger Tyson got so drunk that he was found asleep in the wrong house.  He was subsequently arrested for criminal trespass and public intoxication.

Here is the money quote, from Tyson himself:

“I am embarrassed for personal conduct that is inconsistent with my personal values.”

Huh?

REALITY CHECK SON:

Your personal conduct DEFINES your personal values.  Tyson’s twisted logic here infers that his conduct was somehow independent from his values.  Sorry Johnny but that thinking won’t fly any better than your chickens.  If your alleged personal values were as elevated as you suggest, your CONDUCT would reflect that.

Here is a better public statement that would be at least honest:

“I am embarrassed that I didn’t take appropriate measures to enlist the help of others to monitor my drunkenness and keep me out of trouble.  Unlike most people, I can afford to hire any number of people to see to it that I stay out of trouble and I didn’t do that and for that, well, I’m embarrassed.  I’m counting on the fact that regardless of my personal life issues, Tyson Foods will continue to provide me the boat-loads of money I regularly receive for the rest of my life.  Thanks dad.”

Tyson’s chickens will never come home to roost.

(Photo by Greg Smith/Corbis via Getty Images)

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Principled Leadership?

Broome County voters are facing a terrible choice when it comes to electing our next sheriff.  NYS Senator and former Broome County sheriff Captain Fred Akshar is running for Broome County sheriff against Kate Newcomb, his former live-in girlfriend and current Captain in that same sheriff’s office.

The adage about politics and odd-bedfellows has never been more literal.

Akshar is campaigning on “Principled Leadership”.  Seriously?  How “principled” was it to have a sexual encounter with a woman involved in an active criminal case still at trial in which Akshar was involved?  How “principled” was it to dispatch his own brother, (also a Broome County sheriff at the time), to a domestic dispute involving one of his political friends who will undoubtedly be running for Broome County district attorney in the next election?  How “principled” was it to hire an assistant in his office and raise her salary exponentially while having a romance with her, only to be slapped down by the Senate ethics committee?

As for Newcomb, how “principled” was it for her to interfere with a NYS Police investigation involving her nephew, advising him to obstruct an investigation into his drunk driving and then protecting him while screaming at the troopers that she should be afforded professional courtesy because of her position in the sheriff’s department?

Barring a miracle, Akshar will win this race, parlaying the vote-getting appeal of former Binghamton mayor Rich David in exchange for his Senate seat.  After Akshar takes office, you can expect to see Newcomb resign and the county loses a career cop while gaining back a man with well documented integrity and judgment issues.

Then, God forbid, in two years, the Akshar political machine gets into gear and elects his buddy Paul Battisti to the Broome County District Attorney’s office, that’s right, the same guy who called in a favor in having his former wife arrested by Akshar’s brother in the parking lot of Dick’s in Binghamton.  The same Paul Battisti that owed more than 86,000.00 in back taxes to the IRS in 2019.

“Principled Leadership”

When the two most significant legal entities in the county are being managed by men with a history of manipulating the legal system, womanizing, using taxpayer monies to over-pay girlfriends and failing to pay their own taxes, what kind of a justice system will that mean for Broome County?  Those systems will be forged in the respective images of the men who manage them, striking at the very heart of institutions that rely overwhelmingly on morality, truth, character and high principles, qualities which go wanting by all those political players.

Thomas Jefferson was right when he said, “The government you elect is the government you deserve.”

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