Coos Bay Tom Loc: coos bay oregon

Well Eisenhower was president when I was a little kid and every body loved him as much as FDR. Yep the two major parties are spending more time fighting with each other than getting the work done that it takes to keep our country number one. The extremists on each side of our political spectrum are out of touch with reality. On one end we have the bigots --full of h**e and then we have the gun grabbers and freebie seekers. They can KMA--I can see people being fed up--I am--I want America to be the way it I was taught to believe it should be. Nothing wrong with that.

Iliamna1

I always loved to hear Billy Graham. Now he's face to face. Franklin Graham is doing a wonderful job with the Samaritan's Purse, including an amazinig ministry to areras where ebola is striking. Thank the Lord, there are those exceptional Christians who not only talk, but walk the walk.

Iliamna1

I do like Doonesbur0y, but never saw that particular cartoon. I got a good chuckle out of you description of it, however. We frequently stop at Dixie Crossroads after birding. They have a painting of a bunch of nature watchers all looking with cameras loaded down a canal, and in the foreground, miss seeing a large alligator crossing the road right next to them. I always laugh when I see it and if it were for sale, I'd buy it. Great humor.

archie bunker Loc: Texas

Nope, Tom! Not a bit wrong with that! We have to change, and progress, but what I'm seeing now is not good. On both sides.
We both have our opinions, but we can talk about it all, and work out an agreement. Just like me, and my wife.
We disagree a lot, but work it out to where we're both happy.

Government isn't like that. They don't give two s**ts about you, or me.
It's up to us as "the people" to work it out among ourselves in spite of them.

Coos Bay Tom Loc: coos bay oregon

Every man can be a king

4430 Loc: Little Egypt ** Southern Illinory

Most but not all are in Government for Power and Money !

Sad thing about it is they can't set down and say ok lets do what's good for America then comes the hard part both sides have totally different views on what's good for the country !

GOP is more like less Government more military etc etc involvement in folks lives !

DNC wants to have total control of the masses weak military and more folks on total dependence on the Government completely revamping our culture

archie bunker Loc: Texas

Way I see it, one side wants to take the leash off, and let er run.
The other wants to build more fences to keep it all in check.

I won't apologize for being a free range human.

Richard Rowland

I think the choice of Ron Paul when he ran, or Rand in 2016 would have been the smarter choices.

4430 Loc: Little Egypt ** Southern Illinory

You might be right but I think Trump hit the right cord with a lot of folks and he wasn't a politician and I think many saw his a Business Man not some political insider !

T***h of the matter is that Trump is always out in front of the lefty progessive liberals !

Another he doesn't mince words he just tells ya like it is and the wimpy left just can't take it let alone know how to counter him !

From my perspective he's just what we needed had Hillary won we would never have know the extent od lawlessness that the Demo's perpetrated .

Iliamna1

She really didn't, and does not, want her and Bills criminal past investigated! I'm still waiting to find out what Sen. Graham is going to find out. My fear is that it's so devastating, for national security reasons, he can't release the full extent. I believe they've been involved in drug and sex trafficking as well as unnumbered murders and p********a. The general public is starting to catch on, There is no cess pool they won't dive into if there's money at the bottom for them, including betrayal of the Unite States and the free world (like Uranium One).

Nickolai

Iceland is not a c*******t country it is a Republic

4430 Loc: Little Egypt ** Southern Illinory

I gotta Agree with ya Lets hope that it'll all come out and they be accountable but there's a part of me that thinks they will got off with a slap on the wrist !

Blade_Runner Loc: DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

Superstition? I take it you do not believe in the power of prayer and miracles.

OK, I'll give you one example of a miracle healing and you apply your phenomenal secular logic, see if you can come up with a scientific explanation for this that the Mayo Clinic neurologists, surgeons, and the woman's physician were unable to do.

As a teenager, Barbara Snyder was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. She deteriorated over a period of many years, several operations, many hospitalizations, her doctor described her as being one of the most hopelessly ill patients he’d ever encountered. The clinic eventually committed her to hospice care with a no resuscitation order;

Her body had deteriorated to the point where she was legally blind, one lung had completely collapsed, the other was functioning at 50% capacity and required a breathing tube to assist. A feeding tube was inserted into her stomach, all body musculature had atrophied to the point where she was a human skeleton curled into a fetal position. Her hands and feet were permanently curled beyond their physical limits. She could hear but could not speak. The prognosis was terminal, it was only a matter of time. There was absolutely nothing medical science could do for her.

A Christian friend called WMBI, the Moody Bible Institute radio station in Chicago, and explained Barbara’s condition and asked them to requests prayers for Barbara. The letters poured in, over 450 Christians responded, telling her they were praying for her.

One Pentacost Sunday, two of her friends visited her and began reading the letters.

Then it happened.

Barbara's doctor, Thomas Marshall, MD, described it thus:

As Barb became progressively more disabled by her multiple sclerosis, she elected to enroll in hospice. To qualify for this compassionate home nursing program, her life expectancy needed to be less than six months. I don’t think this was an exaggeration, since Barb was confined to bed, her body contracted in a permanent fetal position, with a tracheostomy tube in her neck to provide oxygen to her c*********d lungs, and a feeding tube in her stomach, since she could no longer swallow. Her hands were so permanently flexed that her fingers nearly touched her wrists.

I had known Barb for over ten years, but just recently assumed her care from a colleague who was moving out of the area. It was hard for me to see her so debilitated. She couldn’t leave her room, so I made periodic house calls, but there was really nothing I could do at this point. Her parents were incredibly supportive, as were the members of her church. Pastor Bailie, her minister, agreed with my dismal prognosis and, when he saw her the week before, told me that he thought it would be the last time he would see her alive.

Barbara’s illness started when she was in high school, at age fifteen. At the time, she was a gymnast, played the flute in the orchestra, and was active in a church youth group. She remembers not being able to grasp the rings in gym, and then slipping and falling down. At first her family thought she was clumsy. She occasionally tripped or bumped into a wall while walking, and her classmates, thinking that she had been drinking, whispered about her behind her back, and sadly, even began to shun her.

When Barbara first consulted her doctor, she was referred to a local neurologist. He ordered multiple tests and scans, but no cause could be found. This was in the late 1960s when we did not have CT scanners, MRIs, and all the sophisticated imaging and diagnostics we have today. She was sent to medical centers with the same baffling conclusions. Multiple sclerosis was considered, but she seemed too young for that. All the while she continued to deteriorate. Her handwriting was the next function she lost. She became embarrassed to write in front of others because of her trembling hands, and her writing looked like it came from the hand of a ninety-year-old. She went through a period of questioning her worth and feeling helpless.

With supreme effort, Barbara graduated from high school. However, when she enrolled in college, she developed double vision and had to drop out because she could not physically keep up. She was devastated. Before her illness, she was involved with multiple school activities, and now she could not even keep up with her basic courses.

It was 1970, and, by this time, her symptoms and her diagnostic tests, including spinal taps, confirmed the diagnosis of progressive multiple sclerosis. The prognosis was not good, but she was determined to do the best she could in everything she did. At times, the disease seemed to become inactive, a common occurrence in multiple sclerosis, with relapses and remissions, but she never improved. She would get through a crisis, and then stabilize on a plateau that was lower than her last remission.

In the early 1970s, she had two respiratory arrests because the muscles of breathing were affected, requiring emergency hospitalization. During her remissions, she was able to return to college as a handicapped student and work as a secretary. But her efforts to be “normal” were always interrupted by the progression of her disease. She could not clear her secretions, and, with a paralyzed diaphragm, was recurrently hospitalized for pneumonias and asthma.

Then came one of the most humiliating problems for a young woman: losing the ability to control urination and bowels. She had to have a catheter permanently placed into her bladder and an ileostomy created in her abdomen, with a bag attached for her bowels.

Her breathing became progressively more difficult, and she was referred to the Mayo Clinic in 1978 for a second opinion. She now needed continuous oxygen, and her muscles and joints were becoming contracted and deformed because she could not move or exercise them. Mayo was her last hope, but they had no recommendations to help stop this progressive wasting disease except to pray for a miracle.

When her MS was first diagnosed, Barbara admitted to losing faith in a supreme being. Why would God allow such a devastating disease to ravish an innocent young girl? But as she matured, and with the love and counseling of her minister, Pastor Bailie, she grew stronger in her belief that a loving God participates in our lives. Everyone in her church and community was praying for her.

Despite all the efforts, her condition continued to deteriorate, and she began to lose her vision and soon could not read anymore. She became legally blind and could hardly move out of her bed. A lung collapsed and required a large tube to be placed in her chest to expand the lung. Then in 1980, to add to her humiliation, she required the creation of a tracheostomy, a hole in her neck for a breathing tube connected to oxygen to keep her from being chronically short of breath.

At this point, I sat down with Barb and her family and explained that it was just a matter of time before she would die, since the next major infection would likely take her. We all agreed not to do any heroics, including no CPR and no further hospitalization. This would only prolong the inevitable. Our meeting ended in a tearful prayer.

June 7, 1981, a Sunday, was her sister Jan’s birthday. Barb was looking forward to the celebration at their home. She tried to help with the birthday pr********ns but being out of bed was too exhausting for her, even with her power wheelchair equipped with oxygen to her tracheostomy tube. Her first visitor was her Aunt Ruthie, who read cards and letters written to Barb after her tragic story aired on a local radio station, WMBI. Their program asked for prayers and letters for people who were terminally ill. There were so many letters that Aunt Ruthie had trouble carrying the large mail bag. Almost every letter included a prayer for Barb to be healed. The response was overwhelming.

In the early afternoon, two girlfriends came to visit after church. Barb became weary with all the attention and was quiet while the girls made small talk. When there was a lull in the conversation, a man’s voice spoke from behind Barb—but there was no man in the room! The words were clear and articulate and spoken with great authority, but also with great compassion. The voice said, “My child, get up and walk!” Barb turned around. No one was standing there, but she knew immediately who was speaking. “I don’t know what you are going to think about this,” she announced, “but God just told me to get up and walk.” Her friends suddenly became very quiet. “I know he really did,” Barb insisted. “Run and get my family. I want them here with us!” Her friends, recognizing the urgency in Barb’s voice, bounded to the doorway to yell for her family, “Come quick; come quick!”

Barb felt compelled to do immediately what she was divinely instructed, so she literally jumped out of bed and removed her oxygen. She was standing on legs that had not supported her for years. Her vision was back, and she was no longer short of breath, even without her oxygen. Her contractions were gone, and she could move her feet and hands freely. As she walked out of the room, she was first met by her mother who immediately dropped to her knees and felt Barb’s calves. “You have muscles again!” she yelled. Her father came running in next, hugged Barb, and whisked her off for a waltz around the family room.

A distressed occupational therapist tried to restart her oxygen, but after she realized what was happening, she simply said, “This contradicts everything I ever learned in school.” At the request of Barb’s mother, everyone moved into the living room to offer a prayer. Barb sat down on the couch but was so excited that she could sit and get up that she went up and down at least ten times before she could sit still for the tearful prayer of thanksgiving offered by her mother.

That evening, Pastor Bailie was leading the worship service at Wheaton Wesleyan Church. Barb was anxious to reveal the miracle to all of her church friends, but she was late. She had no clothes to wear. All of her regular dresses had been given away years ago when she became contracted and essentially bedridden. Finally a neighbor was able to bring over a dress and some shoes, and they headed off to church.

As they arrived at the building, Barb bounded up the front stairs ahead of her parents. She waited in the back of the church until Pastor Bailie asked if there were any announcements from the congregation. Barbara then stepped into the center aisle, and, as she casually strolled toward the front, she could feel her heart pounding. Pastor Bailie, the first to see her, fell against the pulpit and began to murmur over and over, “This is nice, this is very nice, this is nice…”

When members of the congregation looked back a sudden cacophony of whispers came from all parts of the church. “Who is that?” came from the front. “That’s Barb!” came from the back. “There’s Barb!” “Look, there’s Barb Cummiskey!” “I thought she was sick!” “Look at Barb Cummiskey walking down the aisle! She’s walking !” “ That’s Barb Cummiskey !” Everyone started clapping, and then, as if led by a divine conductor, the entire congregation began to sing.

Amazing grace,
how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost
but now I’m found
Was blind but now I see…

Tears of joy ran down every face. Pastor Bailie eventually regained his composure and invited Barb to come to the front to tell her amazing story. There was no sermon, but that was a service no one will ever forget. The next day was a Monday, and Barb called our office for an appointment. My nurse didn’t know what to say when she called. But the greatest surprise was when I saw her in the hallway of our office, walking toward me. I thought I was seeing an apparition! Here was my patient, who was not expected to live another week, totally cured.

I stopped all of her medication and took out her bladder catheter, but she wasn’t quite ready to have the tracheostomy tube removed until another visit. No one had ever seen anything like this before. That afternoon, we sent Barb for a chest X-ray. Her lungs were now perfectly normal, with the collapsed lung totally expanded with no infiltrate or other a******lity that had existed before.

I have never witnessed anything like this before or since and considered it a rare privilege to observe the Hand of God performing a true miracle. Barb has gone on to live a normal life in every way. She subsequently married a minister and feels her calling in life is to serve others, which is what she did after her life was miraculously preserved by her Creator.

Iliamna1

As a nurse, I believe all healing is by and through my Lord. BTW, Please be lifting me up tomorrow as I have a cataract in my left eye and they're removing it at 6:45 am EDT. Getting my sight back will be welcome, indeed.

Rose42