For Home!

In Croatia just now, there is a horrid war of words. Most Croatians aren't really certain about what is going on, so it would be a surprise if many of my American friends had a clue. Perhaps, in my stumbling way, I can help.

The US has recently experienced a spate of monument destruction. These monuments have been in place for decades, and, in some cases, for more than a hundred years. First, plaques with the Ten Commandments were targeted. When the usefulness of that tactic wore thin, the target became statues commemorating anything at all to do with the Confederacy. Mostly, leftist "activists" have been spearheading these actions. Some people have noted that these leftist organizations have been notably absent in the relief efforts for those adversely affected by the recent Hurricane in Texas.

In a similar manner, in Croatia, leftists have been bent on removing plaques honoring defenders who fell during the Homeland War, or the War Against Greater Serbian Aggression, that took place in the nineties.

The howling is ostensibly aimed at words on the bottom left of these plaques. I say ostensibly, because centered on each of these plaques is a Croatian Cross. As in America, a goodly portion of the "left" has little love for the Cross. In staunchly Catholic Croatia, however, a good way to lose an argument is to challenge the Cross, so the target is the phrase "Za Dom Spremni," which the leftists decry as a "Nazi" slogan and, not so oddly, the western press echoes without checking the facts.

The facts are these: In 1866, Franjo Marković and Ivan Zajc wrote a patriotic song, "U boj, u boj" (To the fight! to the fight!). Zajc incorporated the song as an aria in his Opera, "Nikola Šubić Zrinski" in 1876 which honors Zrinski as the defender of Croatia, and thus, of Europe from a Turkish onslaught. In the song are the words:
"Into the fight, to the fight!
For the home, for the home now to the fight!"
For those who were taught that these words were the words of Zrinski himself in 1566 as he addressed the remnants of his troops before their final fatal charge into the Turkish lines where the Sultan was killed and the Turkish army fled the field, these are words fraught with a high degree of patriotic emotion.
"Nas mal, al' hrabar je broj!
Tko, tko će ga strt'?
Smrt vragu, smrt!
Za dom, u boj, za dom u boj
Za domovinu mrijeti kolika slast!"
which is to say:
"We are few, but courageous!
Who, who will bring him down?
Death to the devil, death!
For the home, to the fight, For the home, to the fight
To die for your homeland - such a delight!"

In the 1800s, Ban Josip Jelačić greeted his soldiers with the words "Za dom!" For Home! The troops replied with one voice "Spremni umrijeti!" Ready to die! There were no Nazis around for more than a hundred years so the slogan is certainly not "fascist."

In the Croatian language, "For the home!" is "Za dom!" Za Dom spremni recalls the words of the famous and beloved Ban Jelačić whose statue stands in the square named for him in the center of Zagreb, the capitol. So now you see where the slogan comes from, and surely you see that it arrived in the Croatian consciousness long before the Nazi folk were around. The slogan is ours, not theirs. As it happens, the fascists did use those words, even if wrongfully. Croatia is and always was ours, not theirs.

As it stands now, the HDZ, Croatian Democratic Union, does not have sufficient votes in parliament without the "support" of the HNS "Croatian Peoples Party" who insist that "Za dom spremni" are not words they wish to see, and so the present prime minister, Plenkovic, is hustling ways to remove the plaques. One was removed from a private residence because the owner did not have the proper permits. The howling and furor over the issue is deafening and, as in the United States, the left seems to have a poor knowledge of history, and much like the left in the US, they seem to like it that way.

So that's the story for now. Each day seems to bring a new permit to install the plaques and a new furor to have them removed. Here is a picture of what the complaints are about:

David Byler, aka Canovals

Wildflowers

Is an old man allowed sometimes just to muse on things he has seen or heard and to write about them? I do most certainly hope so because I am an old man and I may have seen and heard about this and that.

Tata moj, my father, and I used to spend some time just talking among ourselves while we were repairing fences on his place in Brazoria County, Texas. After he left this pale of tears, the neighbors bought the old "farm" and from what they have posted on Facebook, the road into the place has been under water since Huricane Harvey swept through a few days ago.

Once, he brought up the subject of a Texas law passed in the days of Lyndon Johnson and his wife who was a bit of a wild flower afficiando. Roadside wild flowers are a bit of a thing in Texas and during her days of influence the State began to operate a seed farm for them. Crews scattered wildflower seeds along just about every roadside where they had a chance to take root and self propagate. In the process of their work, we learned that "Indian Paint Brushes" do better along side "Bluebonnets" and vice versa so those two were sown side by side everywhere.

The law in question made these roadside flowers the property of the State, which seemed only fair because the State had gone to considerable expense and trouble to put them there. A person was allowed to admire the flowers as he went along the highway. It was permissible to stop and photograph them anywhere it was safe to stop along the highway. The flowers were there for the enjoyment of the all the people and tourists were duly informed as to how Texas had an abundance of wild flowers. There were even "Wild flower trails," where those who wished to revel in the flowers could drive and see them everywhere. There was one thing NOT permitted. One could not stop and pick the flowers. That was a crime - a misdemeanor of some sort - but whatever, the law was taken very seriously, "DO NOT PICK THE WILDFLOWERS." "Picking" here in Texaneese means "don't cut them and take them away. You would be fined if you did.

Tata said that was a good law and that one should apply it to other things in one's life. There were "wildflowers" of the human sort that one should enjoy and admire, but keep on going past them. "Do not mess with the wildflowers," "leave them be."

I mentioned that Jesus said "whoever looks with lust at a woman has already committed adultery in his heart."

This is where the conversation got serious. Tata came back with the original greek for this from Matthew 5 which says "ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι πᾶς ὁ βλέπων γυναῖκα πρὸς τὸ ἐπιθυμῆσαι αὐτὴν ἤδη ἐμοίχευσεν αὐτὴν ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτοῦ." and then he quoted from the croatian text which likewise says: "Tko god s požudom pogleda ženu, već je s njome učinio preljub u srcu."

As Martin Luther pointed out, "look at the letters." What do the letters say? First "γυναῖκα" is either wife or woman when you put it on english. Likewise "ženu" is either wife or woman also.

So there it is in the tenth commandment: "Ne poželi žene bližnjega svoga," don't want your neighbors woman. Here's the thing, if you are breaking the tenth commandment, you are breaking the sixth commandment which has to do with honoring and not breaking relationships. Jesus leads off by saying "Čuli ste da je rečeno: Ne čini preljuba!" "You have heard is said: Do not do adultery," so he is first of all speaking to the ten commandments as they are written. He is not adding anything to them.

The second thing to notice is that Jesus did not merely say "Whoever looks at a woman..." He said "Who ever looks at a woman with covetousness ..." Tko god s požudom pogleda. You can't just say "Tko god pogleda" because that leaves out what He is saying. Is this just about what men do in regard to women and women can do what they want? I don't think so, but if it suits you otherwise, I am not your judge. God is your judge in these matters. If you have any questions, go talk to Him about it all.

So now, is it ok to just look? To say otherwise is to attempt to make one's self holier than God, if such a thing were possible. God Himself placed all the wildflowers of every sort for humans to look at, to admire, to enjoy, but don't pluck the wildflowers. Pass on by and leave them be while giving thanks to God that He has put beauty in the world.

Just yesterday, while I was bringing coffee to my dear wife where she was working, there passed a lady on the sidewalk with shorts so short that when she took a step you could just barely see just the very bottom tip of her glutemous maximus peeking out for a split second. She was walking a dog and she paused briefly across the street to pet the dog and see if I would notice. I did notice, briefly. Briefly enough that I caught my lady's eyes as she watched mine. I let my eyes gaze up and down my lady's body with that certain grin I have when I do that. My lady smiled. She knew that my eyes were telling her that she is the real thing and, anything else is just a wildflower which I would pass on by.

A little later, on the way back from the art supply store, a young woman on a bicycle passed by on the sidewalk. I couldn't help but notice that everytime she leaned forward, her rather thin skort would ride up to show just about the same amount as the dog walking lady. Hmmm I realized then that both of these women knew exactly how much of themselves they were exhibiting. I don't think either of them was trolling for a man. I think they were trolling for a bit notice, a bit of esteem, a way to see that someone else thinks that they were pretty. Wildflowers, both of them, and that's fine, wildflowers do this.

Still later, at the store, there was a woman "manning" some sort of table in front of the store. She was wearing a dress that was obviously tailored to show the shape of her breasts as though her nipples were standing up to attention. In a Walt Disney movie there was once a barely pubescent girl dressed like that, was it the "Shaggy Dog." At thirteen, I thought that outfit and that girl were so "hot." At 71, well ... I was more amused at the woman's need for exhibitionism than I was titillated. The dress was so tight and thin that her belly button was on display through the dress and certain other shapes were somewhat visible too. She was not "indecent" by any means but she was also being a bit of an exhibitionist for the same reason the other two ladies had been. Another wildflower. I said a friendly "hello" and passed quickly on by, not to say that I didn't enjoy the moment - I am male, and I do enjoy being male. Is this the time to declare that I identify as male? I always have, you know. I also enjoy women who make it clear that they identify as female. Maybe that is why I'm not offended by some occasional discrete exhibitionism. These days it may be important to make these matters clear to everyone.

This morning when I took coffee to my beloved, she was wearing that blue skort that I so much like on her. She came out to the car and I enjoyed every step she took cominig to me. She kissed me and we chatted for a few minutes. As she walked back into the house, I watched every step she took. Her legs are utterly gorgeous. There's not a pair of legs on earth to match how lovely hers are. Her skort was pulled up high enough that I could imagine that maybe a quarter of an inch higher and I would be seeing her glutemous maximus. I wouldn't have complained if I had seen but my imagination was sufficent. There was no one else around. This show was just for me. I couldn't help but shiver with delight. I smiled. I smiled deep inside me where no one goes. I'm still smiling. My love is not just some wildflower to glance at and pass on by. She's mine to keep and I am hers. I am truly a blessed man.

David Byler, aka Canovals

Mea Culpa ....

I have been honored to have this post ran as a guest blog on Victory Girls Blog on 2 September 2017 Victory Girls Blog


I have murdered a man. I have most surely maliciously murdered him. My heart was filled with malice. even with malice aforethought. You will have likely never read such a confession on Facebook nor are you likely to ever read one such as this ever again.


The particulars of my malicious deed: Hardly any of you who knew me in Wharton High School, or Crosby High School, where I spent my senior year, knew anything about me after I left those towns. I attended a bit of college, joined the Air Force, and wound up selling lumber and helping manage truck, rail, barge, and ocean-going transportation for what was once the largest Yellow Pine sawmill in the world. I wish some of the folks I ran with in those years were still alive so they could tell you, too, about the fellow who owned a big honkin' Chevy C10 pickup truck with oversized bracing and shocks and tires so big that the whole rig stood right near four feet off the pavement. That's me. No, I was not a "mudder," but I needed that rig to get in to see about my parents’ little farm over next to David and Gayla Neel's place on County Road 743 in western Brazoria County. I also lived on the high ground in a subdivision out on old highway 90 which tended to flood anytime there was any sort of tropical storm. Several of my co-workers lived out there too. We were all on high ground, and we all had big honkin' trucks to get around in when the water got up.

When the water receded, we old swamp rat types, my buddies from places like Votaw over in the Trinity swamps, and me from Wharton/Matagorda/Brazoria county lowlands, we picked our way through the water into Lakeway Church which was on our side of town in those days on what was more or less an island in these flood times. We'd carry some of our neighbors who needed to get their feet dry over there, and then, like as not, we'd be commandeered to take in some loads of water bottles and other provisions. We'd pick up people and stuff and carry them in there until our fuel started running low, and then we'd go home having done what we could. No, we were not no heroes, neither. If we let our neighbors down too much, they'd sell out after the flood, and our property values would go down. It was in our own interests that we done what we done so don't go trying to say we did something good. I do remember several times thinking that Lakeway had a population equivalent to a small town inside their facilities during the floods.

Years went by, and I became more of an outlaw redneck than just a redneck, but we won't go into all that. I wound up in college again, and then in Seminary, so I could take up a career that paid me less than ten percent of what I'd made before. One of the first things that happened in my first parish up in Paris, Tennessee, was that the Henry County Emergency Management people contacted me. That wasn't hurricane country; it was tornado country. It was virtually impossible to plan shelters for people against tornados, because when one happened, you had seconds to get in a basement or other low place. We could and did plan what to do with people AFTER the tornado had taken down their house or such.

Churches and schools were, of course, part of the network - if they were still standing and still fit to be used. We had teams organized in advance to provide support to the first responders. Someone needs to provide sandwiches and coffee to the firemen and police and such so they can keep working. There was a tornado once seventy miles away. The crew from "my" church was on the ground before all the first responders were in place. They had hot coffee, hot chocolate, and sandwiches for the rescue people and were serving and providing comfort to some very scared and bewildered victims of the storm as they were gathered under tents pending transport to overnight shelter. None of that happens without a plan. Pastors report which buildings were still usable for shelter. School officials do the same. The County Emergency Management folks then decide which facilities are most suitable for the circumstances. My house, for example, was where everyone from a couple of blocks around me came running when the warning sirens went off. On the other hand, if the creek over by me was rising, my basement was useless, and I took people on down to the church. Are you getting the picture yet?

I left there and went down to the Rio Grande Valley, close enough to the coast for hurricanes to be an issue. The County Emergency Management team contacted me before I had my bags unpacked. There was a plan. Not every church nor school building is necessarily suitable shelter during high winds. There are engineering issues to be considered. Not every church or school building is necessarily suitable shelter in high water. Elevation and accessibility come into play. Not every church or school building is provisionable for sustained shelter. There are all sorts of matters to consider, and that is what the Emergency Management people do, not after nor during the storm, nor hours or days ahead of the emergency, but months and years before the emergency is even on the horizon. It wastes resources, for example, to ferry people from one flooded place out to another which is destined to go under water. Old people and children, anybody for that matter, are under enough stress already having to flee to safety once, much less having to be evacuated again and again, so you try to have data long in advance so that what you are doing makes sense. Not a small matter, one of the considerations for any designated shelter concerns working bathrooms and running water.

Whether you know it or not, pastors wind up being among the first responders to a crisis. Everyone ought to know this. When there is a crisis at a school, counselors are called in. Guess who winds up with that task during and after a storm? Yeah. And it's not just spiritual counseling. I remember the eighty plus year old woman who called me in a panic just as soon as phone service was restored after a hurricane. A tree was on her house. Now by this time, I was no longer the redneck in my four-foot-off-the-ground, big honkin' pick-up truck, but I was the pastor who had been busy on the phone locating my congregation and checking to see that all was well, or whether there were needs. I knew who in the congregation had chain saws and were young and strong enough to rescue her from her predicament. One phone call, and off they went to get the tree off her house. They followed the path of the hurricane-spawned twister and got some other trees off of other houses. You see, that's what pastors do, and that's what churches do. Larger churches perhaps have staff to do some of this. Heroes? No, that's just what they do.

Having had all these experiences and more in these matters, first as a redneck, then as an outlaw redneck, and in several more instances as a clergyman, I should have known there was something wrong with the criticisms of Joel Osteen and Lakeway Church when I first heard them. I was duped. I was duped because I wanted to be duped. I do not especially like Joel Osteen, but that is a personal matter. I do not especially like Osteen's theology, but that is a professional matter. What is important is that I allowed my feelings to overshadow truth and I, myself, besmirched Osteen's name, the name of his ministry, and the Name of the Lord God Almighty.

Now let's look at the truth. Lakeway said on Facebook "Lakewood Church is inaccessible due to severe flooding! We want to help make sure you are safe." Pictures promptly surfaced purporting to show that Lakeway was not flooded. After that, pictures surfaced to show that in fact portions of the building were flooded. Neither set of pictures has any bearing on the matter. Highway 69 immediately adjacent to the building was impassible. More than that, the building did take on water during Hurricane Allison. While the building was being used for secular purposes, it flooded several times. Those are all well-known and demonstrable facts which any responsible Emergency Management team would have, should have, and did take into consideration before designating the present Lakeway site as a primary shelter, especially in the face of a storm which they knew already to be worse than any the county had ever faced. To have done otherwise, would have risked a repeat of the Super Dome situation in which tens of thousands were housed with no water, no sewage, and no security for those housed. The circumstances of the structure demand that it NOT be used as a shelter until the waters have begun to recede and that is exactly what has happened. Please note that the building can SEAT 16,000 but no way can it house more than 3-4 thousand. No one died because of how Lakeway was used or not used. Bear that in mind as you consider that the storm was more powerful and dropped more water than Katrina did a few years back. Responsible planning may have been part of the difference.

Second, in the case of a building like Lakeway, as a storm approaches, supplies of various sorts - diapers, bottled water, non-perishable foods, and the like - are prepositioned above the levels likely to be flooded, so that they are near where people will be housed. This is exactly what happened as the church served as a warehouse and distribution point to several shelters.

Osteen mentioned that the church has a sixty-year history of responding to crises such as Harvey. I have personally known since the 1970s that this is most certainly true. Whether I personally like Rev Osteen is not important. Whether I much care for the theology of his church is beside the point. What is to the point is that both Osteen and the congregation he serves did exactly what Harris County Emergency Management called upon them to do, and they did it in a magnificent and responsible way. What is to the point is that I, David Byler, bore false witness against my neighbor.

I have willingly broken the eighth commandment in which I learned that as God's child I am not to be bearing false witness against my neighbor, but that is exactly what I have done. I have learned and I have taught others that, in breaking this commandment, we have also murdered someone, because when we slay another's good name, we have not protected the life and well-being of that person. Many times, we read how someone is bullied by others to the point that they take their own life. When we steal (uh oh, another commandment) their good name, we kill a part of that person. If indeed, they die, it is our fault. In this case, it is certainly not to my credit if Rev Osteen survives my onslaught, but it was my duty to protect him, his name and his life. In this case, I have also violated the fourth commandment which instructs me to honor not only my own parents but all who are in authority but I have, in my behavior, denied that there are those who are in authority in this matter - to wit: the Emergency Management Agency. In this case, I have taken the Lord's Name in vain by allowing and encouraging others to mock the name of the Lord. In doing all these things, I have placed myself above Almighty God Himself.

It is for this reason that I confess to God Almighty, before the whole company of heaven and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned in thought, word, and deed by my fault, by my own fault, by my own most grievous fault; wherefore I pray God Almighty to have mercy on me, forgive me all my sins, and bring me to everlasting life. Amen.

David Byler