What we discovered was impressive: there are many orphanages that do wonderful work in poor places, but those in charge are mostly managers, employing others to run the daily operations. In this case, my future friend and his wife were acting essentially as actual parents, all the more impressive because they had in their care 20+ infants and toddlers. All of these children (all "black or brown," btw), had awful stories, abandoned on the streets, taken away from mothers who were drug addicts or prostitutes, drunken abusive fathers, that kind of thing. As we came to realize, they were running their very involved project in a somewhat tenuous rented facility, whereas we had acquired a number of acres in establishing our smaller project. Our thought was, if a meaningful charitable organization came along, we would sell them a portion at cost (which by then was much lower than the prevailing land price), and Casa Cielo fit the bill. We are happy to mention this worked out quite well, and Casa Cielo began the process of building their permanent facility.

It was a great pleasure getting to know this extraordinary gentleman (despite his being a fascist) in the ensuing years, and getting to know the kids of Casa Cielo as well, all of them truly fluent in both English and Spanish and given the opportunity to be raised in a loving home-like environment. As our schedules would allow, he and I spent many hours in deep discussions sitting on the outside porch of the orphanage- literature, history, philosophy of life and, of course, faith and religion. It was no secret that I was a non-believing agnostic, but that was never a barrier between this deeply faithful Christian and me. Having spent a number of years in the do-gooding world in both Central America and Africa, I associated with many Christians (the people who do the actual heavy lifting of charity, as compared to the social justice activist types working for "non-profits" and NGOs, for whom all that is necessary for charity and compassion are bumper stickers and feelings of outrage). Now and then I’ve met conservative Christians who, contrary to the teachings of Jesus, seem compelled to avoid non-believers, but this certainly was not the case with my (fascist) pastor friend.

Perhaps six years ago he mentioned a feeling of weakness in his legs, attributed at the time to lower back disk problems. To make a very involved story quite brief, what he actually had was a rare and progressive form of adult-onset muscular dystrophy, and he steadily went from walking with a cane to a wheelchair to total quadriplegia. He returned to the US now and then for evaluations and adaptive treatment at VA hospitals (he had proudly been a Marine), and was told, "guess what, you also have ALS." For 1-2 years in 2019 to 2021 he was in the US but felt unfulfilled, and in the Spring of 2019 he told me he was "called" (this being largely a Christian term and concept) to return to Honduras and be with his kids at Casa Cielo, now mostly in their teens. So in July of last year he packed up his quadriplegia mobility vehicle, breathing assist machines, and all manner of auxiliary equipment, and headed back down, knowing it would be his final trip.

I haven’t been in Honduras since the beginning weeks of the corona virus situation, but had many phone conversations with him following his return to Honduras. As always we talked about a variety of subjects, but one thing was always present- not his unrelenting and agonizing condition, but the utter joy he found in his faith and being where he felt he was supposed to be. I received word this past July that my friend, who exhibited strength and courage far beyond anything I possess, had passed away.

To the Biden’s of the world the death of a wonderful, dedicated, and compassionate person is not a loss, because the entire opus of his life is reduced, in their warped minds, to one thing: he was a FASCIST!  Why was he a fascist? Simple: because he supported Trump. He saw the great values of America reduced to cynical, often indefinable words and slogans: not a place of equality for all, but one of "equity;" for some; not a land of "out of many, one," but a country intentionally divided along racial, social, and political lines by politicians and elitists craving power and wealth, turning the concepts of justice and opportunity for all into a kind of imposed tribalism. There are different ways to obtain and maintain power, including appealing to the best in all of us, but also sowing conflict, artificially creating differences and inciting hatred among people, declaring, "These are the people to hate, unite behind me against our enemies (and forget that yesterday they were our fellow citizens and neighbors)."  It is now clear that Biden, or more correctly whoever is his controlling puppeteer(s), has chosen the latter, power through the incitement of division and hate.

Biden, as with so many like him, has never ventured outside his privilege, has never been bothered to dirty himself by the real world. He has spent his entire adult life feeding at the public trough and calling it "public service." And has become enormously wealthy doing so. How dare this petty, shallow, and selfish person; a coward whose life has always been about taking and never giving back anything in return, call my friend a "fascist." Not to sound too harsh or uncharitable, but Biden wouldn't be worthy of licking the scum off the bottom of my friend's shoes.