Ms. Schuster was a regular contributor to the "Springville Journal" and has written a popular autobiography, "In the Garden of Gethemane" which describes her 30 plus year struggle with ALS, the Lou Gehrig disease.

Finally the inevitable happened, Joan Schuster succumbed to her disease on Feb. 20, 2003. We present the accompaning article in her memory.

Does history repeat itself?
My sister Rosie sent me the following: Some time ago, Billy Graham's daughter was being interviewed on the Early Show. Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this happen?" referring to the September 11 terrorist attacks. And Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe that God is deeply saddened by this just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And, being the gentleman that He is, I believe that He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand that He leave us alone?" Anne Graham continued -- In light of recent events, terrorist attacks, school shootings, etc. -- Lets see, I think it started when Madeline Murray O'Hare complained that she didn't want any prayers in our schools, and we said OK.

Then, someone said you better not read the Bible in school, the Bible that says thou shall not kill; thou shall not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said, OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). And we said, 'an expert should know what he's talking about' and we said OK.

Then, someone said teachers and principals better not discipline children when they misbehave. And the school administration said that no faculty member in the school should touch students when they misbehave or correct them when they're wrong because we don't want any bad publicity; we surely don't want to be sued. And we said, OK.

Then someone said, let's let our daughters have abortions if they want, and they will not even have to tell their parents. And we said OK. Then some wise school board member said, since boys will be boys and they're going to do it anyway, let's give our sons all the condoms they want, so they can have all the fun they desire, and we won't have to tell their parents where they got the condoms. And we said OK.

Then some of our top elected officials said it doesn't matter what they do in private as long as they do their jobs. And agreeing with them, we said it didn't matter to us what anyone, including our President, does in private, as long as we have jobs and the economy is good. And then someone said let's print magazines with pictures of nude women and call it wholesome, down-to-earth appreciation for the beauty of the female body. And we said, OK.

And then someone took it a step further by publishing pictures of nude children and then stepped further still by making these pictures available on the Internet. And we said, OK; everyone's entitled to free speech.

And then the entertainment industry said let's make TV shows and movies that promote profanity, violence, and illicit sex. And let's record music that encourages rape, drugs, murder, suicide and satanic themes.'

And let's print pictures in magazines, on posters and in advertisements that demean women. And we said its just entertainment, it has no adverse effect, and nobody takes it seriously anyway, so go right ahead. Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW!" Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world is going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how everyone wants to go to heaven provided they do not have to believe, think, say, or do anything the Bible says. Funny how someone says he believes there's a God but he still follows Satan's idea of living a Godless life. Funny how the lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but the public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace. Funny how the only book we will not allow in public schools is the Bible.

Funny how someone can be so fired up for Christ on Sunday, but be an invisible Christian the rest of the week. Funny how someone can be more worried about what other people think of them but could care less what God thinks. Are you laughing?

If history repeats itself, America is in serious trouble. In the “Decline and fall of the Roman Empire” in 1788 Edward Gibbon wrote these five basic reasons for the decline and fall of Rome:

1. The undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home.
2. Higher and higher taxes.
3. A mad craze for pleasure.
4. Building of armaments when the real enemy was within.
5. Decay of religion.
Perhaps it is time to turn things in America around. Don't count the things you do; do the things that count.