—The Texas Bus and Prison Camp Dreams

—MOOctober 21, 1974DFO—No.380

1. I WAS SITTING IN THE MOVIES IN AMERICA beside this pretty plump young woman in her thirties. She was sort of shivering from the cold air-conditioning, and so I felt so sorry for her I put my coat around her and my arm around her shoulders to try to keep her warm. She was so appreciative and wasn't trying to make up to me in any way—she was just so thankful. I guess that could be symbolic, as that's what I've really done with the whores and the harlots, taken them into my arms and loved them with God's love.

2. THE NEXT THING I KNEW she and I were sitting together on the seat of a bus, a sort of rickety old bus like out in Oklahoma or Texas with the poor people.—And there was this tough guy, a typical big old Oklahoman or Texan, seemed to me to be about in his late twenties, the usual cowboy type, the rough mean kind, and he was taunting us and making fun of us in front of the whole bus:

3. "HA, HA!—I'VE HEARD ABOUT YOUR KIND OF PEOPLE!—You believe in divorce and remarriage—in fact, you'd run around with 'most anybody, wouldn't you?" The whole bus load was snickering and laughing and thinking it was funny.—And an old man that was carrying some flowers sort of slapped us on the top of the heads with his bouquet and said, "Yeah, yeah! Let's have a wedding!" They were really ridiculing us just because I'd befriended this poor woman. They were the typical low-class down-south cotton-picking type and were really persecuting us.

4. FINALLY SHE PATTED MY KNEE AND SAID‚ "I'M SO SORRY! I'm really sorry—maybe I'd better go." But I was really beginning to get mad and said‚ "We'll just get off together!"—So we did at the next stop at a lovely park. By this time the whole bus was roaring at us and screaming insults, "Yeah, there they go! They don't care!" This tough guy even got off with us, following us and taunting us. It was like they all typified America.

5. SO I FINALLY GOT SO MAD I stopped and said, "Listen buddy, if you don't quit bothering us and insulting this woman I'm going to haul off and sock you one, and I don't mean perhaps! Here, I'm an old man and you're trying to pick a fight! Then if you sock me back, what do you think all these people sitting on these park benches are going to think then?"—I guess they typified the rest of the world. He was being so narrow–minded and ridiculous.

6. THEN THE FUNNIEST THING HAPPENED: His face sort of fell and he just slunk off! The Texans are so proud of their being real heroes and gentleman‚ they'd never think of hitting an old man‚ and so he just slunk off!

7. THEN I HAD ANOTHER DREAM: I WAS A YOUNG FELLOW AND IT SEEMED LIKE WE WERE PRISONERS in a concentration camp or prison camp and the wardens looked just like Texas rangers‚ big cowboy types with huge billy clubs and wearing big broad-brimmed Texas hats. They got us up in the middle of the night shivering in the cold and wet and I remember I was in my long underwear and bare footed. It reminded me of the time when I was in the army and one of the guys couldn't get dressed fast enough when they called an early morning reveille in the cold and snow, so he just went out in his longees!

8. ANYWAY, THESE BIG GUYS WERE GETTING US ALL UP IN THE COLD AND WET, and they said‚ "Somebody stole the warden's keys and we've got to get you guys up and find them—the keys to his car." So they made us all go searching for them all over the grounds. Finally one of the guys suggested, "The last time he drove the car it was over there by the water tank, so maybe he dropped them there." Soon we were standing around the water tank, and shivering with this huge big warden standing beside me when I looked down and saw the keys in the mud and said "Here they are!" But he said,

9. "AHA!—YOU HAD THEM ALL THE TIME and you just pretended you just found them!"—And then they were really mean to all of us and he gave me a swat and said‚ "That'll teach you to steal keys!" I said, "They were lying on the ground all the time." And he said "I bet they were!—We're going to teach you guys not to steal any more keys!" And they were being real mean to all us young fellows. And they herded us back into the barracks and that's the last I remember.

10. IF I WANT TO HAVE NIGHTMARES, ALL I HAVE TO DO IS DREAM ABOUT AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS!—They're almost the awfullest people on earth!—Especially when they think they're the greatest and pretend to be the best! It reminds me of the days when I was a little boy in school there and was constantly bullied by the big tough bullies and bad guys of the school because I was the good, smart little preacher's kid!

11. THE DEVIL'S CROWD ALWAYS HATES GOD'S CHILDREN and they continually beat me up with a vengeance, threw my books around, tore my papers and even broke my left arm which is still handicapped to this very day because of it!

12. NO WONDER I COULD CLIMB TREES AND MOUNTAINS BETTER'N' ANYONE ELSE or swim further and faster underwater than the rest or make more dangerous jumps from building to building three floors up or balance my way along the tops of walls or railings or railroad trestles and know all the good secret places to hide!—I had to, to survive!

13. I COULD OUT-RUN, OUT-HIKE, OUT-SWIM, OUT-JUMP AND OUT-CLIMB ALMOST ANY OF 'EM, although I often risked my life to do it!—Anything seemed better than falling into the cruel hands of those diabolical tormentors! I soon learned "discretion was often the better part of valour" and "he who fights and runs away lives to fight another day!"

14. AND I GUESS THAT'S WHAT I'M STILL DOING AND HAVE TAUGHT YOU TO DO the same! "You can't lick City Hall"—they have the guns and rule by force!—All you can do is hit and run—hit wit da lit and run for the sun!—South and East!

15. BECAUSE THOSE BULLIES NOW RUN CITY HALL AND THOSE VIOLENT MONSTERS OF MY CHILDHOOD ARE NOW THE RULERS OF AMERICA and trying to rule the world with the same tactics: Pushing and bullying the little fellows around, snatching away the poor little countries' things and threatening to shoot if they don't surrender, grinding them under the heel of American pressure, oppression and outright domination.

16. THEY NOW THINK THEY CAN RUN THE WORLD BY THE SAME CRUEL FORCE AND MONEY-POWER and cruel wars and inhuman torture, lies‚ ridicule‚ persecution and cruelty like those in these dreams and the bullies of my childhood! The only way I could ever defeat them was in the classroom with pen on paper, and I always made the best grades on the tests of mind over matter, brains over brawn.

17. I COULD OUTTALK THEM ANY DAY!—And I guess that's what I'm still doing: outtalking them! I've won their children to the Jesus Revolution and while their cruel parents are still fighting their cruel and vicious wars with little people, we've proved the pen is more powerful than the sword!

18. SO DON'T TRY TO FIGHT THEM WITH THEIR OWN WEAPONS ON THEIR OWN GROUND.—Use your pen, our lit, and hit and run. It's been years since they started persecuting you in the U.S.—Why don't you run? Do we have to re-classify you as Associates if you don't obey, and to keep our top secret LTO and DO lit from failing into their hands? Leave the U.S. and England now before it's too late! God help you to obey!—Amen.