10/19/08

NOT “BUDDY ”, NOR “SWEETIE” NOT

“DUDE” NOR “DEAR”,

NOT EVEN “MAN” OR “SIR”

JUST ME
THE PROBLEM OF SOCIALISM and
the (Steve)BRINKS-(Rick)DEVRIES-
(Audrey)VANOEN
“EVIL AXIS”
I TRAVEL a lot and go in to various stores (around Southern
Cal that’s usually grocery stores such as Ralphs, Albertsons,
Pavillions, Vons; and pharmacies such as Rite-Aid or Longs;
and coffee shops (mostly Starbucks) among various other
places of business including public libraries & Kinkos copy
shops, and MOST of the time I am treated with the same
respect & dignity that I show to others;

However, there is a class of unscrupulous clerks & employees

who are trying to MANIPULATE the world around them by
the way they treat or MISTREAT customers. Of course clerks
& servers of many kinds are clerks because they decided
to DROP OUT and take the EASY WAY OUT
and sometimes they are just plain ol’ gay, but as I said in an e-
mail to a few people recently, “IRONICALLY, IT IS THE
GAY COMMUNITY WHO HARRASSES AND TRIES
TO MARGINALIZE THE STRAIGHT COMMUNITY.”

And they do this in OFTEN SUBTLE ways –dropping little

words that are INTENTIONALLY INTENDED to
marginalize. And if you accept it and don’t directly address it,
it has cumulative value. However, at the same time clerks &
servers know they are highly protected by law and can call
police at any time and complain of an “ANGRY CUSTOMER”
and have police on their side without any questions asked; so
you CAN’T YELL & SCREAM at them; and if they dropped
their little “dear” bomb or “dude bomb” before the purchase
was completed you could simply refuse to do business there
and walk out, but SQUIRRELY UNMANLY types of people
are SLICK ENOUGH TO WAIT UNTIL you make the
purchase before they drop the SLIGHT gesture of disrespect.

For example, on Thursday morning I was at a coffee/donut

shop at 7 a.m. on Victory Blvd by Birmingham High and after
purchasing an ice tea as he placed the change in my hand the
clerk of Latino or mideastern descent said, coyly, in a girly
manner, “Thanks man.” When clerks & servers & cashiers call
you “man” they are saying “jerk off” and they ESPECIALLY
like to say it if you are definitely NOT a SO-CALLED
jerkoff. I said to him, “THAT’S SIR TO YOU.”

I used to think that “sir” was the only acceptable form of

reference to a person you don’t know or a customer or
somebody with whom you are not friends but must
communicate with, etc. However, the TONE in
which “sir” is used can eliminate the value of
“sir” as a neutral, respectful term of address.

Yesterday I was leaving ALHAMBRA LIBRARY at 5 p.m.

and as I descended down the staircase as the library closed a
slightly younger-than-me Anglo employee, maybe in his 30’s
was descending upward. I nodded at him to show mutual
respect as a member of the community, but instead of nodding
back he said “Have a nice night SIR.” He emphasized ‘SIR’ in
an ARTIFICIAL MANNER that showed no real respect or at
least neutrality. Using “sir” should AT MINIMUM be a
gesture of neutrality, but if the wrong tone is used, “SIR’
becomes as MEANINGLESS or even as DEMEANING as
many of the other various “TERMS OF ADDRESS” used by
small, petty, people to marginalize.

Back over at Birmingham High I had a fairly good day

TEACHING a foreign language class, all of whom initially
treated me as a normal member of the community, but then I
started having trouble with one gal in particular and asked her
to move to another seat. She did so without objection but later
near the end of the period moved back to her original seat and
when I asked her about it, and then also took her to task for
using the F-WORD (“F—K”) in the classroom in her loud
conversation with the gal next to her, she started
referring to me as “SIR” which I have come to
understand when OVERLY-EMPHASIZED is meant to
marginalize and make a person stand out as a jerk.

I liked what a customer did over in Glendale a few days ago at

a Starbucks. The clerk or barista behind the counter (who I
later learned was from Seattle and tired of being in Southern
California) saw a customer come in with a tie and waiting in
line and she apparently didn’t like his style and said loudly,
“Can I help you, SIR” with a very LOUD emphasis
on “sir” in a disrespectful tone. He responded “Yes you can
MISS”—with just as much emphasis on “MISS”
as she placed on “SIR” which obviously annoyed her,
but also gave her a ‘HEADS UP” and reminded her that SHE
is not the main attraction nor the coolest thing in the world,
even if she is from Seattle. She’s a barista, paid to pour coffee
for “US.”

Then, just last night I stopped in at a Rite Aid on Woodruff

Avenue in Lakewood –the actual purpose to get some “cash
back” but this required that I purchase something. So I
grabbed a small bag of .99 cent cookies off the shelf and went
up to the counter. The clerk, an older Anglo woman treated me
in a friendly manner at first, and we had a brief conversation
which I thought showed mutual respect, but then as I was
walking out the door she had to add, “Have a nice weekend,
HON.” Calling a grown man “HON” or “HONEY” is NOT a
term of respect, nor even truly endearment. If she was my wife
or girlfriend it MIGHT be acceptable, but NOT a clerk to a 41-
year-old man.

THE NUMBER OF WAYS TO MARGINALIZE

are MULTIPLE. In fact, I started reflecting recently on
HOW IN THE WORLD a little gal by the name of AUDREY
VAN OEN from Canada TOOK Calvin College by surprise
when she arrived as a TRANSFER from Redeemer College
BACK around 1987-88 when I happened to be a junior in
college there, and was about to do a SEMESTER IN SPAIN.

You see, I GREW UP in Grand Rapids (MI) and knew WHO

WAS WHO more or less and if somebody “new” arrived I
knew it. We all knew it. Not that it was our city but we had
been around it long enough to know if somebody was from
“here’ (when I was there) or somewhere else. And for that
matter, having grown up in Grand Rapids I PAID MY DUES.

I paid my dues by having a PAPER ROUTE seven days a

week for the Grand Rapids Press, rain or shine, sun or SNOW
(and there was a lot of that back in the mid-70’s) before most
kids my age even had a job. I paid my dues by working as a
grocery store shelf stocker and carryout boy at BOORSMAS
GROCERY STORE in Alger Heights along with Jack
Holwerda, Dave Bosworth, Jeff Hill, Kevin Cuncannan, Mark
Bosker, and several others when I was still in junior high. I
paid my dues by PICKING BEANS out in Cutlerville during
bean season with my older brother & sister and cousins. I paid
my dues by PLAYING ROCKET FOOTBALL, and kept
playing all the way through high school. I paid my dues by
playing LITTLE LEAGUE BASEBALL. I paid my dues
by sealcoating driveways and painting houses. I
paid my dues by STAYING IN SCHOOL and doing my best
all the way through college in ’89 where I graduated WITH
HONORS with a BA in psychology. I paid my dues by GOING
BACK TO COLLEGE for another bachelor’s degree in
English/Education, 1994. I paid my dues by being a
REGULAR TEACHER for a few years despite an antagonistic
administration and an environment of racial prejudice.

I paid my dues by GOING BACK TO SCHOOL AGAIN—

this time for a MASTERS DEGREE in divinity at CALVIN &
FULLER SEMINARY and barely surviving with just my dog,
LOLA in the back seat of the car, no thanks to the “BIG
WIGS’ who dominate the church & seminary scene and are
more intent on keeping themselves “on top” than anything to
do with imitating Jesus Christ.

I paid my dues by being a SUBSTITUTE TEACHER for

eleven years rather than demand a full salary as a “regular
teacher” or demanding to be a “senior pastor” at a church. I
paid my dues by battling the LAUSD to get my
benefits back after they counted my hours wrong and then
this year cut me back JUST ENOUGH to make sure I clearly
did NOT work enough to get benefits.

But back to AUDREY VAN OEN. She arrived just as we were

going to SPAIN for a semester and she had a COCKY
CANADIAN attitude—ADD ‘socialist” to that attitude and it
was a real recipe for disaster. But AUDREY was NOT to be
deterred and she was intent on making us Americans
‘SOCIALIST CHRISTIANS’, albeit back then I had NO IDEA
what she was doing or trying do to us. I barely knew what
socialism was nor would I recognize it and the problems it
entails back then.

It was JUST RECENTLY that I began to realize that, LIKE

OBAMA, Audrey either consciously or unconsciously had a
SOCIALIST AGENDA. This means they want to “distribute
the wealth” as McCain says about Obama. And it is TRUE—
IT SOUNDS NICE—they don’t want anybody to be too rich or
too poor, but is it really nice ? What it means is that actual
actions or accomplishments or achievements really don’t
matter that much.

It takes any COMPETITIVE SPIRIT, even good competition

out of the mix. Socialists want to ELIMINATE highs and lows
including emotional. Of course, Canadians are well
known for their HIGH RELIANCE on alcohol and
cigarettes, etc –which is one way they CHEMICALLY
CONTROL their nerves—and make sure they don’t get too
high or too low. I met enough Canadian around Calvin College
to know NOW that their Christianity is simply a version of
socialism.

And this is what AUDREY brought to us—a group of Calvin

students in Denia Spain in 1988 and continued to bring to us or
AT US even after we returned to the USA. And when I
“DIDN’T BITE” like another one of her “fish disciples” she
got upset and started trying to marginalize me in other ways.

You see, ‘CANADIAN CHRISTIANS’ are SO SURE they are

right about ‘EQUALIZING’ everything they are bound &
determined to GET WHAT THEY “KNOW” IS meant to be,
even if they don’t realize that what they are really proselytizing
is ‘SOCIALISM.”

Of course, Audrey had an advantage in Grand Rapids because

her older brother, John, was already there and was ALSO
attempting to proselytize Americans. And John had already
married an American medical doctor, so LIKE BIG
BROTHER Audrey set out to find a doctor as well. It reminds
me of my half-aunt Teri Peters who, LIKE BIG SISTER, set
out to find a medical doctor to marry, even if it meant
dumping her pretty-good-guy-but-not-a-doctor-boyfriend.

I’m not sure why but AUDREY decided to BEFRIEND me

FOR A WHILE—maybe she thought I would be a good catch,
--the ONLY PROBLEM is that I was NOT PRE-MED nor had
any intentions or desire to be a medical doctor. Maybe she had
another AGENDA FOR ‘befriending me. Later, she would
meet a PRE-MED student by the name of ERIC KOOYER
and today it is Dr. & Mrs. Eric & Audrey Van Oen Kooyer.
But I’ll come back to them later.

Also while I was at Calvin College I met a student by

the name of Steven Brinks. In fact, he lived on the
other side of the hall in Beets Dorm in 1985, my freshman year.
Steve Brinks & Todd Martinez were roommates, both of them
“from abroad” or so I thought at the time. Steve Brinks was a
MISSIONARY KID, son of Ray & Gladys Brinks.
 Growing up I always thought missionary kids had it ROUGH.
It was the propaganda pushed on us when
the missionaries made “home visits” to raise
money for their mission abroad. They always showed pictures
of poor people, a four-by-four vehicle, and reminded us how
good we have it while they are working hard “out in the field”
abroad. It was NOT UNTIL LATER that I realized Americans
living abroad actually have it pretty nice. So yes there are a
few SILVER SPOON MISSIONARY KIDS out there !

In fact, in the case of Steve Brinks he lived abroad as a

missionary kid up until his freshman year of college and then
came “home”as an American and enjoyed college life. A lot of
missionary kids don’t hold jobs until they get to college or even
after college. They don’t play team sports until they get to
college, if at all—and usually that is only intramural sports. I’ll
come back to Steve Brinks and how he later tried to
marginalize me and how that ties in with Audrey & socialism.

And then there is Rick Devries. Rick Devries was NOT a

missionary kid nor a Canadian. He was a LOCAL Grand
Rapids kid, son of our high school janitor, George DeVries.
And YES, Rick Devries is the THIRD PERSON in the
AUDREY-BRINKS-RICK EVIL AXIS who tried to
marginalize me EVEN BEFORE I went to college. I’ve
told the story several times before how RICK DEVRIES hit me
in the head back in high school and called me a ‘MAJOR
JERKOFF.” Here’s a kid who didn’t even have the TACT yet
to try to marginalize in a little-more-subtle manner like the
clerks & servers around Southern California.

Rick Devries obviously thought the ECONOMICS (and

remember that word, “economics” ) of Grand Rapids was
UNFAIR. He was the son of a poor janitor and the kids
around him at school seemed to be so WELL-OFF with
cottages on Lake Michigan, speedboats, and everything else
you could ask for. Perhaps that is why he decided to pursue a
major in Economics while at Calvin College and while working
as a bartender at Great Lakes Shipping Company, a local bar
near Breton Village. And perhaps that’s why he decided to go
on to Notre Dame to pursue a masters degree in Economics,
where he MET STEVE BRINKS for the first time, also
pursuing a masters degree in Economics.

Together, they UNDOUBTEDLY whined & complained about

the economics of the world—Steve intent (or so he said or
insinuated) on going back to the MISSION FIELD OF
CENTRAL & SOUTH America (his dad had been a
missionary in Argentina & the Dominican Republic) to solve
the INEQUITIES he had personally observed while growing
up as a missionary kid. While RICK undoubtedly was intent
on changing the world for the better by distributing the wealth
more “equitably” –having personally observed HOW HARD
HIS DAD WORKED AS A JANITOR (undoubtedly to
be reminded of such as well by his dad at
home) at our high school only to be PAID SO MUCH LESS
than the dad’s of the JERKOFF KIDS around him.

That’s the ONLY WAY certain types can JUSTIFY being

poor—that EVERYBODY ELSE is a “jerk off.” It’s a form of
EXTREME self-righteousness at the EXPENSE of others. And
socialism fails because a socialist will come into a community
and WITHOUT REGARD for the history of the community
will attempt to WHITEWASH it economically—making sure
nobody is too rich nor too poor. Sounds nice, but IS IT ?

Socialism lives on DESIRE ALONE. It wants “everything to

be alright for everybody.” The only problem is that NOT
everybody cares or tries as much as everybody else. It’s wishful
thinking. In every community or micro-community or
ecosystem some people will NOT live up to their share of the
bargain. But with socialism it doesn’t matter. They still get
their “slice of the pie”—the same size as anybody else. This, of
course, causes the achievers to be discouraged and to ask,
WHY TRY HARDER ? It’s not a matter of those with gifts
giving more, it’s a matter of some with gifts NOT giving their
share and so that those with gifts who HAVE been giving of
themselves and more say WHY SHOULD I KEEP TRYING if
“they” are just going to sit there and nonetheless get the same
amount as me ?

SOCIALISM doesn’t take into account the problem of human

sinfulness. Clerks, servers, etc who DROPPED OUT love the
notion of socialism and egalitarian societies and they attempt
to create egalitarianism by marginalizing the achievers—via
“DUDE-SIR-DEAR-SWEETIE-HONEY-MAN” comments.
It’s all an attempt to MASK their own lack of effort and
achievement and perseverance. Rather than do something good
or better they would rather simply play ARMCHAIR
QUARTERBACK.

When socialism SEEPS into the theology of the church, it’s

these same people who start USING others to get what they
want rather than achieving and excelling. People become a
MEANS to an END to get what they want. Even JESUS
CHRIST is seen as a MEANS to an END (GOD) and once that
END is achieved via Jesus Christ they say, “WHO NEEDS
JESUS ANYMORE ? WE GOT TO GOD, forget about Jesus.”
Of course it is delusional and I am being
FACETIOUS because truly the reason the ONLY WAY TO
GOD IS THRU THE SON is because the only way to truly
know JESUS and thereby GOD is to TRULY LOVE HIM.
Those who have made a LIVING & LIFESTYLE out of
USING OTHERS will have an extremely difficult time
discovering the true essence of the Christian faith because they
do NOT understand how to TRULY LOVE (agape).

I felt this when I was around the EVIL AXIS OF BRINKS-

AUDREY-RICK DEVRIES . Unfortunately, I thought STEVE
BRINKS was the real deal but I think he got led astray by
RICK DEVRIES and that their socialism economics combined
with self-serving GOSSIP created a deadly mix. I don’t even
dare go near them anymore because the self-glorifying FALSE
STORY and FALSE NARRATIVE they have concocted in
their minds ABOUT me and others in the history of Grand
Rapids and the Christian Reformed Church is so
PERVERTED so SKEWED in a self-serving, self-glorifying
way that it will take an ENTIRE GENERATION (100 years or
so) BEFORE this will possibly fade out of the false book of
propaganda history.

I’m afraid OBAMA has the entire country believing a similar

SONG-AND-DANCE just because we happen to be having a
touch economic time at the moment. Tough times make people
want CHANGE—and any kind of NEW story or new face
becomes fascinating. A temporary sense of HOPE fills people’s
hearts & minds, perhaps in the same way that HITLER filled
people with a sense of hope for the future. Rather than put
their HOPE in the time-honored tradition of hard work they
want a QUICK FIX. Don’t get me wrong, Obama is NOT a
HITLER or a terrorist , but he does represent a QUICK FIX.
And he is pulling in GOBS OF MONEY that he is using to post
30 minute campaign advertisements on TV more so than
MCCAIN can do.
LIKEWISE, Audrey-BRINKS-Devries CAME to
town with their SOCIALIST ECONOMICS and
offered a vision of everything being “equal” and “nice” and
“pleasant” for everybody but in order to create that vision they
had to ERADICATE some historical truths. They had to tell
people that PHILIP A. KOK –a Grand Rapids native was NOT
a good person, NOT a hard worker, etc that he was FROM
California, AND so on and so forth. They didn’t have a CLUE
as to my history at all –of all the GOOD THINGS I did while
growing up in Grand Rapids.

And like the HISTORICAL REVISIONISTS try to do

by DENYING THE HOLOCAUST ever existed they try to do
likewise by denying any single good thing about PHILIP A.
KOK. It’s all very SELF-SERVING and SELF-
GLORIFYING. In the process they KILL MORALE
because long-term HIGH MORALE requires TRUTH.

Yet the SOCIALISTS just want everything to be

EQUAL, no highs nor lows and so anything excellent, pure, or
simply good and honest they have NO INCENTIVE to admire
or praise. DOES THIS SOUND BIBLICAL ?

MY BIBLE SAYS THIS:

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true,

whatever is noble, whatever is right,
whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
whatever is admirable — if anything is
excellent or praiseworthy — think about
such things.”
Phil 4:8
I remember AUDREY in particular seemed to think
everything is just for “show.” I remember at the end of the
1988-89 academic year at CALVIN COLLEGE there
was an HONORS CONVOCATION to which I was
invited having achieved academic excellence. Audrey happened
to be around at the time and we happened to be “friends” still
at that time, and she said, “Can I sneak in with you ?” to
the honors convocation. She wanted to put on a robe and sit
with us AS IF she were an HONORS STUDENT despite
apparently not having achieved such excellence through hard
work and dedication.

At the time I didn’t think twice about it and said sure you can
TAG ALONG and so she PRETENDED to be an honors
student at the honors convocation, despite her NAME NOT
being on the list. That’s AUDREY and that’s socialism.
Socialism does NOT like excellence. She did NOT like the
honors convocation and wanted to make a MOCKERY of it by
acting as if she was one of the group.

Obviously, BIBLE STUDY & developing a theology or looking

for new insights becomes rather meaningless in the socialist
book because anything NEW or INSIGHTFUL or
EXCELLENT may disrupt the “egalitarian” social order.
Their theology is so-called COMMON SENSE and
nothing new can be truly gained from really reading the
BIBLE. You might find socialists GOING THROUGH THE
MOTIONS of a Bible study OR going through the MOTIONS
of going to church but there’s no real BELIEF in the process—
that it can make any real difference or change anything.
LIKEWISE, for socialists, education becomes a joke.

I think SOCIALISTS are essentially EXISTENTIALIST at

heart; and by the way, SOCIALISM is half-way to
being communism. Communism tries to DICTATE the
way people should think and act and feel and even believe.
Socialism does NOT go that far in actual enforcement but by
trying to EQUALIZE everything it comes down to
SYSTEMIZING people’s thought-system, MUCH LESS
TRUE FREEDOM than you will find in a true democracy and
capitalism.

Sure ‘COMPASSIONATE CAPITALISM is good, but it

should come FROM THE HEART of the people dictated by
conscience, not be dictated by government. So the socialist
says people do NOT by nature have conscience and so the
government must intervene but I SAY that the ANSWER is
not dictating policy (at least NOT nearly as much as the
socialist regimes do) but BY PREACHING THE
GOSPEL OF CHRIST, not only in church on
Sunday or in MASS during the week but
EVERYWHERE WE GO ! NOBODY can stop us from
telling the GOOD NEWS. If you think so it’s only an EXCUSE
not to do so. It’s a COP-OUT. And when I say PREACHING
THE GOSPEL there are a MILLION WAYS to tell
the GOOD NEWS—it’s just a matter of inspiration and
creativity and LISTENING TO THE SPIRIT !

And I could go ON AND ON but time does NOT permit and I

will have to RESUME later with the message of the TRUTH,
the WHOLE TRUTH, and NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH !
STAY TUNED.

Vander KOK / JOHN THE EVANGELIST