You want to know what Hell is? Hell is sending your child to kindergarten and finding out that she or he is never coming home again. My heart breaks for the children who lost their lives, 18 at the school and 2 more at the hospital, and for all the children in the school who may never get over what they have gone through today. My heart breaks for the parents who lost their precious little ones and for those parents who have damaged or broken little ones tonight.
Children. Our children. They are all our children. May God bless everyone touched by today's tragedy, even those of us who cry before our tvs and computers. May he help us learn what we do not know, and that is how to take care of our children, here and all over the world. They die because of our frailties. THAT is Hell.
Friday, December 14, 2012
Monday, December 3, 2012
If It Wasn't For You
Yes, this is the song that is played in the Zales 2012 Holiday commercial. No, I can't believe I fell in love with a song in a commercial, but I did. Here it is, and it's a great song.
Saturday, November 24, 2012
The Christian WHAT?
I have been banned from the Christian Left's Facebook page. I can go there and see the posts but I cannot "like" anything. I cannot comment on anything. And I cannot post anything. This happened at around 5pm the Saturday after Thanksgiving, just a few days after I wrote my post on how my belief in Jesus Christ places me on the Left. It just does. I have no choice based on His teachings. Read that post if you are interested in that question. It's the one before this one.
Now, how did mild-mannered me get banned from a Facebook page? It was easy, let me tell you. I have a friend. Let me call her Kathleen. I found out today that Kathleen had voiced polite and mild disagreement with The Christian Left's choice of a photograph they used to illustrate the poverty that would come to America's children if Romney were elected. The photo was of an emaciated child in Africa, and Kathleen thought the comparison was a bit much. She thought it was over the top. And so do I.
For criticizing this photo, this mild but polite disagreement on an editorial choice, Kathleen was banned, apparently for life, from posting, "liking," or commenting on the Christian Left's page.
One thing I'm not is a hypocrite. These facts had an effect on me. Had I continued my relationship with the Christian Left exactly as it was, knowing how Kathleen was treated, I could not have lived with myself. It would have been hypocritical.
So what did I do?
I went to the Christian Left's page and asked a question. I told them that I had a friend who had been banned for a mild disagreement and mistaken for a troll. I assured them she was a person of good will and was in no way a troll. I asked them how long her banishment would last and when would we welcome her back into the fold, as surely Jesus would do.
For this I, too, was banned.
I was meek, mild, polite. I did not question their authority to ban her. I only asked when she could come back, and I give you my word I asked nicely.
Now the Christian Left has a very strict anti-troll policy, which I did not know until today. In fact, I didn't even know what a troll was until today. I looked it up online in the urban dictionary and found that the word refers to one who posts deliberately provocative material in an attempt to disrupt. That is not what Kathleen did. Nor did I. My post did in fact disrupt, but that was not my intention.
This banning behavior is not very becoming for an institution of the Left. We are supposed to be on the side of freedom - freedom of speech, freedom in general, absence of censorship, fair trials, appropriate punishment, open-mindedness, free thinking - FREEDOM. And yes freedom can be messy, but it's FREE.
The Christian Left deleted the entire thread of conversation containing my question about Kathleen and the comments of several people, all of whom I hope did not get in trouble with the school marm. They returned their site to its pristine condition as though the incident had never happened. I thought immediately of the Soviet Union's penchant for air brushing people out of photographs after they had fallen out of favor with The Party, even removing them from the history books. This is the Left gone wrong. This is not the way the Left is supposed to be.
But that is only half of the story. They call themselves The Christian Left. The other half of the story revolves around the word "Christian." I know in my heart that I did nothing that displeased Jesus Christ this afternoon. I am at peace. I can just see Jesus as a child of twelve years, questioning the administrators of this page and tying them in logical knots, just as he did the church elders when he wandered away from his parents. What they did to me was not at all "Christian."
I had no choice but to "unlike" the Christian Left page on Facebook. I will check back from time to time because they do post some good material. But now that I know what is behind that material, it has lost its luster for me. I am so let down, so disillusioned, so disappointed. And they have posted there now first thing something about loving your neighbor and please donate. LOL. Right.
I'll give my money to help the least of these my brothers and my sisters, for they ARE Jesus Christ.
Now, how did mild-mannered me get banned from a Facebook page? It was easy, let me tell you. I have a friend. Let me call her Kathleen. I found out today that Kathleen had voiced polite and mild disagreement with The Christian Left's choice of a photograph they used to illustrate the poverty that would come to America's children if Romney were elected. The photo was of an emaciated child in Africa, and Kathleen thought the comparison was a bit much. She thought it was over the top. And so do I.
For criticizing this photo, this mild but polite disagreement on an editorial choice, Kathleen was banned, apparently for life, from posting, "liking," or commenting on the Christian Left's page.
One thing I'm not is a hypocrite. These facts had an effect on me. Had I continued my relationship with the Christian Left exactly as it was, knowing how Kathleen was treated, I could not have lived with myself. It would have been hypocritical.
So what did I do?
I went to the Christian Left's page and asked a question. I told them that I had a friend who had been banned for a mild disagreement and mistaken for a troll. I assured them she was a person of good will and was in no way a troll. I asked them how long her banishment would last and when would we welcome her back into the fold, as surely Jesus would do.
For this I, too, was banned.
I was meek, mild, polite. I did not question their authority to ban her. I only asked when she could come back, and I give you my word I asked nicely.
Now the Christian Left has a very strict anti-troll policy, which I did not know until today. In fact, I didn't even know what a troll was until today. I looked it up online in the urban dictionary and found that the word refers to one who posts deliberately provocative material in an attempt to disrupt. That is not what Kathleen did. Nor did I. My post did in fact disrupt, but that was not my intention.
This banning behavior is not very becoming for an institution of the Left. We are supposed to be on the side of freedom - freedom of speech, freedom in general, absence of censorship, fair trials, appropriate punishment, open-mindedness, free thinking - FREEDOM. And yes freedom can be messy, but it's FREE.
The Christian Left deleted the entire thread of conversation containing my question about Kathleen and the comments of several people, all of whom I hope did not get in trouble with the school marm. They returned their site to its pristine condition as though the incident had never happened. I thought immediately of the Soviet Union's penchant for air brushing people out of photographs after they had fallen out of favor with The Party, even removing them from the history books. This is the Left gone wrong. This is not the way the Left is supposed to be.
But that is only half of the story. They call themselves The Christian Left. The other half of the story revolves around the word "Christian." I know in my heart that I did nothing that displeased Jesus Christ this afternoon. I am at peace. I can just see Jesus as a child of twelve years, questioning the administrators of this page and tying them in logical knots, just as he did the church elders when he wandered away from his parents. What they did to me was not at all "Christian."
I had no choice but to "unlike" the Christian Left page on Facebook. I will check back from time to time because they do post some good material. But now that I know what is behind that material, it has lost its luster for me. I am so let down, so disillusioned, so disappointed. And they have posted there now first thing something about loving your neighbor and please donate. LOL. Right.
I'll give my money to help the least of these my brothers and my sisters, for they ARE Jesus Christ.
Friday, November 16, 2012
Why Christ compels me to be what people call a Liberal
The righteous is concerned for the rights of the poor; the wicked does not understand such concern. Proverbs 29:7
An old friend from childhood posted the following on my Facebook page today in disagreement with something that I had posted:
"..what one person receives {without} working for another must work for {without} receiving. When half the people get the idea they {don't} have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does not do any good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for.. that is the beginning of the end of any nation...."
She is a conservative who has obviously bought into Mitt Romney 47% remarks, an excerpt of which is printed below, taken from the transcripts published by the Nation magazine:
"There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. That that's an entitlement; And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. And I mean, the president starts off with 48, 49, 48 -- he starts off with a huge number. These are people who pay no income tax. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax. So our message of low taxes doesn't connect...And so my job is not to worry about those people -- I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
Sigh. Where to start?
It is true that the percentage of those not paying income taxes, as Mitt Romney said, is reaching the upper 40's. But that's where the truth ends here. It is not true that half of the population is not working, that half the country are "takers," supported by the other half who are "makers." More than 20 percent of those not paying taxes are the elderly on Social Security who have worked hard their whole lives, paying income taxes and paying for their Social Security in the form of payroll taxes, and they are now seniors who resting and hopefully enjoying life in retirement. Over sixty percent of the 47% not paying income taxes are paying payroll taxes, which means that they are working. They just aren't making enough to pay income taxes. They are the working poor not making enough to be liable for taxes. That does not mean that they do not take personal responsibility for their lives. That does not mean they are "takers" instead of "makers," in Paul Ryan's terms. It does not mean they are not paying other taxes, in addition to payroll taxes, state and local taxes, sales taxes, property taxes. And there are our troops in combat. Takers? I think not.
My friend goes a step further and assumes that 100% of the 47% is young enough and able-bodied and qualified for work, but they are not working because they do not want to work. As a result, the other 53% must work, but cannot keep what they make. But this is incorrect. Most people who are unemployed WANT to work and would be working if they could find jobs. They are calling, writing, sending out resumes, pounding the pavement, calling in favors, rekindling old contacts, doing everything they can to find work. I know some of these people personally. I see the agony they go through, the loss of self-esteem, the depression, the worry that they suffer, especially those without emotionally supportive families. Even the disabled would rather be healthy and back on the job. Of course, they would. Who wants to be sick and disabled? And I believe most people do not mind income taxes, sending in a portion of their earnings as taxes to help those who do need help and to pap for things that are for the common good, like highways. People just want the money to be well spent. And remember, no money from income taxes goes to those on Social Security. That money does not come out of the regular budget but out of money collected in payroll taxes. So the "Makers" are not supporting them in any way. In addition, I and most people I know would gladly pay fifteen cents per pizza more so that Papa John's employees could have health insurance. Not that I've ever had a Papa John's pizza or heard anything good about them. And now, to my joy, I have read that Papa John will be changing his policies to provide full time jobs and health coverage.
Neither Romney nor my friend seems to care about those who can't work: the old, the sick, the poor, the disabled, the broken people, or those who cannot find jobs. But I believe that Christianity commands us to respect and to care for these brothers and sisters. And they are our brothers and sisters. With the coming of Jesus Christ came the time of grace and an end to the time of law, and it is usually Christ who is most associated in our minds with concern for the poor. However, there are many verses in the text of the Old Testament urging us to take care of the poor, the sick, the needy, and to love one another. For example, there is Proverbs 14:21, which says, "He who despises his neighbor sins, but happy is he who is gracious to the poor." I have read that there are more than 20,000 verses in the Bible instructing us to care for the poor and for our fellowman and woman.
Deutronomy 15:11 tells us that, "There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore, I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land." Proverbs 22:9 tells us,"A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor."
In the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, the first book of the New Testament, Jesus tells of three parables. The third is the parable of the sheep and the goats. How does God separate the righteous from the unrighteous? Here is the answer in the third parable.
31"When the Son of Man comes in His Glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne.
32"All of the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
33"He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left.
34"Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
And then He explains why the sheep are on his right and are to be rewarded.
35"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,
36"I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.
37"The righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?
38"When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?
39"When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
40"The King will reply, 'Truly, I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'
This is to me one of the most beautiful and important verses in the New Testament, for it tells us that the most lowly of people Christ considers his brothers and sisters, and it tells us how to be among the righteous. In fact, they are more than just His brothers and sisters. What we do for them, we do for Him. It is as though the poor ARE Jesus in spirit. I would be afraid to mistreat Jesus. And He goes on to show me that my fears are justified.
41"Then He will say to those on His left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
42"For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,
43"I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty, or a stranger or needing clothes, or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
45"He will reply, 'Truly, I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
The lesson could not be more clear. For the Lord, the treatment of the poor, the sick, the needy, the stranger, and even the prisoner distinguishes the sheep from the goats or the righteous for the unrighteous. If we claim to be Christian or want to be a Christian nation, we must take care of our people who need our help in order to be in keeping with the teachings of Jesus. They are our brothers and sisters. All of them. We have the same Father. God is within those who need us.
Then there is more to be learned about the lives Christ wants us to live in the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes in Matthew, Chapter 5:
"Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him
2"and he began to teach them.
3"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4"Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.
10"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven."
Jesus then says,
11"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
12"Rejoice and be glad for great is your reward in Heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
Notice that. Jesus says, "Great is your reward in Heaven."
This is, to me, the most beautiful and most important extended passage of the whole Bible. If I had to give up everything, but could keep one page, that page would contain the Beatitudes. I do not claim to meet my goals to live the life described herein always, but I do try. I try every day by giving to charity and nonprofits, by volunteer work, and by cheerfully giving my tax dollars go toward programs that effectively feed, clothe, and shelter the poor, help the unemployed, care for our elderly and disabled and go toward those projects that improve life for all of us, like bridges and highways and schools. I think this is what government is for: we come together to create a social contract and to provide for the protection of our citizens and our country. That contract is our government. I do also believe we have a right and a responsibility to oversee how that tax money is spent, to see that it is spent on effective programs and is not wasted. The same is true for nonprofits.
In addition to how we treat our less fortunate brothers and sisters, there is the question of peace and war and violence. Matthew 5:9 in the Beatitudes speaks of peacemakers, and there is no violence in the life of Jesus. He rejected the old eye for an eye and instead spoke of turning the other cheek. He says in Matthew 5:39, "Resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on they right cheek, turn to him the other also." This is not weak and cowardly. It is brave and strong. We see in Luke 22:49-51 that "When Jesus' followers saw what was going to happen, they said, 'Lord, should we strike with our swords?' And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. But Jesus answered, "No more of this!" And he touched the man's ear and healed him."
II Peter 3:14 says, "Be diligent that you may be found in Peace." And at His birth, the angels sing, "On earth Peace, good will toward men" (Luke 2:14). I am troubled by many things, for example, the drones program. I believe that violence, including war, grieves the heart of our Lord as much as anything we could do. Jesus is not a Republican or a Democrat; He is not even an American. He is not Caucasian. God is the father of all humanity. And he loves all humanity. We are all brothers and sisters. War is always fratricide. Always fratricide.
And wealth and possessions? Surely it's okay to have a lot of money and a lot of stuff. We all want stuff. All I know is this, from Matthew 19:24, when a rich man asked Jesus what to do and was told to give his belongings to the poor and come follow Jesus, and he turned and walked away, unable to part with his riches. And Jesus said, "Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." And in many other places in the Bible, Jesus implores us to give all our possession to the poor and to come follow him. In Matthew 19:21, we find, "Jesus answered, If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven. Then come, follow me."
We don't all have to take a vow of poverty and walk the streets preaching, but we do have to be careful not to let our possessions own us. And we must be willing to part with them, if we had to, for the glory of God.
Ok, this has been a long entry, but there you have the foundation of my beliefs. It is a daily struggle not to hate the Bill O'Reilly's, the Rush Limbaughs, the Mitt Romneys of the world. But I know that hate is wrong. The only objects of hate I may have are hate, bigotry, and ignorance themselves. And I am called to fight them. It's why I became a teacher and then a professor, to fight them, but it is against my code to indulge in them. But I fail. I am human, and I fail many times.
I'm very weary now because of the hatred and contempt for the poor, the sick, the weak, the old, the unemployed that is rampant in our culture right now because it has been ginned up by Fox News and by what David Frum has called the "Conservative Entertainment Complex." Well said, Mr. Frum. So much hatred for our President has been carefully cultivated by these people by spreading lies, outright demonstrable lies, to those who live within the Fox New Right Wing Alternate Reality Bubble. They are so cut off from the real reality that they were stunned by Obama's victory last week, for they had been led to believe that Romney had it made to win in a landslide by the lies they were fed.
And yet those inside the bubble seem to have learned nothing from that experience. It has not made them question their sources, their positions, their leaders. It has made them say foolish things, such as "America has died" or "We want to secede." It has deepened their hatred for our President, itself a sin. Our county is more divided than before, showing us that the Civil War was never really settled, the conclusion never really accepted by the losers. Nor were the issues of the Viet Nam War and the Cultural Wars surrounding it settled. These issues are all simmering again as though they might bubble up and boil over at any moment.
A revolution began forty years ago. Segregation ended. Women gained equal rights. Gays came out of the closet. It is as though these facts were not real to the far right fringe until a Black man was elected to the White House and the weight of forty years of the culture wars hit them and drove them insane. It is as though they blame him for the past 40 years of change. The condition is called Obama Derangement Syndrome, and I think it is very real. A man killed his children and wife, then turned his gun on himself because Obama won reelection. There have been numerous such incidents. This insanity is hatred being expressed for President Barack Obama and his entire family in a very sick way. Yet Jesus showed us what we should do when He told the thief who repented, the one on the cross next to His, that he would be that day with Him in Heaven - a common thief. Hate is always wrong, always against the will of Jesus Christ. It is never what Jesus would do.
When I was a child, American had another president who was much despised in my part of the country, John F. Kennedy. I will always remember that day in late November, 1963, when the principal's voice came over the public address system, telling us that our president had been shot in Dallas and was dead. The class I was in burst into applause, almost everyone, but not everyone, thank God. They had learned this hatred in their homes and their churches, a hatred that could rejoice at the violent death of a man. I could not understand it then, and I do not understand it now. Jesus was not glad at Dallas in 1963.
I have many questions, but these few things I know. Barack Hussein Obama came to know Jesus more than 24 years ago and joined the United Church of Christ in Chicago. I knew this in 2004 before he ever joined the United States Senate. He is not a Muslim. He never was. He does not hate whites. He is half white himself and was raised by his white mother and white grandparents after he was born in the state of Hawaii and abandoned by his Kenyan father at the age of two. He is a brilliant writer and speaker, and a good family man.
Statistics show that corporate profits have done better under Obama than under any president since 1900, illustrating that he is no socialist. In fact, he is too much a corporatist for my likings, but there it is. I know this because I (usually) get my news from reliable sources and from many different sources, and I am a good critical reader and critical thinker. President Obama has been libeled and slandered and persecuted and hounded and mistreated by the so-called Religious Right, and I believe that racism and bigotry are at the bottom of this behavior. I believe this treatment of God's child Barack Hussein Obama has saddened God. I do not believe that He approves.
How does any action stand up against the parable of the Sheep and the Goats? Does it comport with the Beatitudes? If it does not, it's probably wrong.
The Christian Right all but ignores the lessons of Jesus Christ on how to live. They have twisted His message beyond recognition and have turned hundreds of thousands of souls away from Jesus with their ravings. Many of these people concentrate instead on how to die, on the self-centered goal of avoiding the Hell that they say awaits those who do not accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior. They focus on the crucifixion, but Jesus lived 33 years before he was crucified. What we know about the LIFE of Jesus shows us how to live as well as how to die. The Christian Left or Progressive Christianity emphasizes the fact that Christ taught us how to live our lives on this earth in a way that glorifies and honors Him- from not throwing the first stone for we are not without sin ourselves to giving our meager fishes and loaves and watch as He feeds everyone with our gift. The lessons are all there - if we will but learn.
"Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law?" Jesus said unto him, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:36-40)
For anyone interested in more information on Progressive Christianity, you might want to check out the website for Sojourners at http://sojo.net . Or try the Christian Left's page on Facebook.
Deutronomy 15:11 tells us that, "There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore, I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land." Proverbs 22:9 tells us,"A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor."
In the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, the first book of the New Testament, Jesus tells of three parables. The third is the parable of the sheep and the goats. How does God separate the righteous from the unrighteous? Here is the answer in the third parable.
31"When the Son of Man comes in His Glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne.
32"All of the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
33"He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left.
34"Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
And then He explains why the sheep are on his right and are to be rewarded.
35"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,
36"I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.
37"The righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?
38"When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?
39"When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
40"The King will reply, 'Truly, I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'
This is to me one of the most beautiful and important verses in the New Testament, for it tells us that the most lowly of people Christ considers his brothers and sisters, and it tells us how to be among the righteous. In fact, they are more than just His brothers and sisters. What we do for them, we do for Him. It is as though the poor ARE Jesus in spirit. I would be afraid to mistreat Jesus. And He goes on to show me that my fears are justified.
41"Then He will say to those on His left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
42"For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,
43"I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty, or a stranger or needing clothes, or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
45"He will reply, 'Truly, I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
The lesson could not be more clear. For the Lord, the treatment of the poor, the sick, the needy, the stranger, and even the prisoner distinguishes the sheep from the goats or the righteous for the unrighteous. If we claim to be Christian or want to be a Christian nation, we must take care of our people who need our help in order to be in keeping with the teachings of Jesus. They are our brothers and sisters. All of them. We have the same Father. God is within those who need us.
Then there is more to be learned about the lives Christ wants us to live in the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes in Matthew, Chapter 5:
"Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him
2"and he began to teach them.
3"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4"Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.
10"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven."
Jesus then says,
11"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
12"Rejoice and be glad for great is your reward in Heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."Notice that. Jesus says, "Great is your reward in Heaven."
This is, to me, the most beautiful and most important extended passage of the whole Bible. If I had to give up everything, but could keep one page, that page would contain the Beatitudes. I do not claim to meet my goals to live the life described herein always, but I do try. I try every day by giving to charity and nonprofits, by volunteer work, and by cheerfully giving my tax dollars go toward programs that effectively feed, clothe, and shelter the poor, help the unemployed, care for our elderly and disabled and go toward those projects that improve life for all of us, like bridges and highways and schools. I think this is what government is for: we come together to create a social contract and to provide for the protection of our citizens and our country. That contract is our government. I do also believe we have a right and a responsibility to oversee how that tax money is spent, to see that it is spent on effective programs and is not wasted. The same is true for nonprofits.
In addition to how we treat our less fortunate brothers and sisters, there is the question of peace and war and violence. Matthew 5:9 in the Beatitudes speaks of peacemakers, and there is no violence in the life of Jesus. He rejected the old eye for an eye and instead spoke of turning the other cheek. He says in Matthew 5:39, "Resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on they right cheek, turn to him the other also." This is not weak and cowardly. It is brave and strong. We see in Luke 22:49-51 that "When Jesus' followers saw what was going to happen, they said, 'Lord, should we strike with our swords?' And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. But Jesus answered, "No more of this!" And he touched the man's ear and healed him."
II Peter 3:14 says, "Be diligent that you may be found in Peace." And at His birth, the angels sing, "On earth Peace, good will toward men" (Luke 2:14). I am troubled by many things, for example, the drones program. I believe that violence, including war, grieves the heart of our Lord as much as anything we could do. Jesus is not a Republican or a Democrat; He is not even an American. He is not Caucasian. God is the father of all humanity. And he loves all humanity. We are all brothers and sisters. War is always fratricide. Always fratricide.
And wealth and possessions? Surely it's okay to have a lot of money and a lot of stuff. We all want stuff. All I know is this, from Matthew 19:24, when a rich man asked Jesus what to do and was told to give his belongings to the poor and come follow Jesus, and he turned and walked away, unable to part with his riches. And Jesus said, "Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." And in many other places in the Bible, Jesus implores us to give all our possession to the poor and to come follow him. In Matthew 19:21, we find, "Jesus answered, If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven. Then come, follow me."
We don't all have to take a vow of poverty and walk the streets preaching, but we do have to be careful not to let our possessions own us. And we must be willing to part with them, if we had to, for the glory of God.
Ok, this has been a long entry, but there you have the foundation of my beliefs. It is a daily struggle not to hate the Bill O'Reilly's, the Rush Limbaughs, the Mitt Romneys of the world. But I know that hate is wrong. The only objects of hate I may have are hate, bigotry, and ignorance themselves. And I am called to fight them. It's why I became a teacher and then a professor, to fight them, but it is against my code to indulge in them. But I fail. I am human, and I fail many times.
I'm very weary now because of the hatred and contempt for the poor, the sick, the weak, the old, the unemployed that is rampant in our culture right now because it has been ginned up by Fox News and by what David Frum has called the "Conservative Entertainment Complex." Well said, Mr. Frum. So much hatred for our President has been carefully cultivated by these people by spreading lies, outright demonstrable lies, to those who live within the Fox New Right Wing Alternate Reality Bubble. They are so cut off from the real reality that they were stunned by Obama's victory last week, for they had been led to believe that Romney had it made to win in a landslide by the lies they were fed.
And yet those inside the bubble seem to have learned nothing from that experience. It has not made them question their sources, their positions, their leaders. It has made them say foolish things, such as "America has died" or "We want to secede." It has deepened their hatred for our President, itself a sin. Our county is more divided than before, showing us that the Civil War was never really settled, the conclusion never really accepted by the losers. Nor were the issues of the Viet Nam War and the Cultural Wars surrounding it settled. These issues are all simmering again as though they might bubble up and boil over at any moment.
A revolution began forty years ago. Segregation ended. Women gained equal rights. Gays came out of the closet. It is as though these facts were not real to the far right fringe until a Black man was elected to the White House and the weight of forty years of the culture wars hit them and drove them insane. It is as though they blame him for the past 40 years of change. The condition is called Obama Derangement Syndrome, and I think it is very real. A man killed his children and wife, then turned his gun on himself because Obama won reelection. There have been numerous such incidents. This insanity is hatred being expressed for President Barack Obama and his entire family in a very sick way. Yet Jesus showed us what we should do when He told the thief who repented, the one on the cross next to His, that he would be that day with Him in Heaven - a common thief. Hate is always wrong, always against the will of Jesus Christ. It is never what Jesus would do.
When I was a child, American had another president who was much despised in my part of the country, John F. Kennedy. I will always remember that day in late November, 1963, when the principal's voice came over the public address system, telling us that our president had been shot in Dallas and was dead. The class I was in burst into applause, almost everyone, but not everyone, thank God. They had learned this hatred in their homes and their churches, a hatred that could rejoice at the violent death of a man. I could not understand it then, and I do not understand it now. Jesus was not glad at Dallas in 1963.
I have many questions, but these few things I know. Barack Hussein Obama came to know Jesus more than 24 years ago and joined the United Church of Christ in Chicago. I knew this in 2004 before he ever joined the United States Senate. He is not a Muslim. He never was. He does not hate whites. He is half white himself and was raised by his white mother and white grandparents after he was born in the state of Hawaii and abandoned by his Kenyan father at the age of two. He is a brilliant writer and speaker, and a good family man.
Statistics show that corporate profits have done better under Obama than under any president since 1900, illustrating that he is no socialist. In fact, he is too much a corporatist for my likings, but there it is. I know this because I (usually) get my news from reliable sources and from many different sources, and I am a good critical reader and critical thinker. President Obama has been libeled and slandered and persecuted and hounded and mistreated by the so-called Religious Right, and I believe that racism and bigotry are at the bottom of this behavior. I believe this treatment of God's child Barack Hussein Obama has saddened God. I do not believe that He approves.
How does any action stand up against the parable of the Sheep and the Goats? Does it comport with the Beatitudes? If it does not, it's probably wrong.
The Christian Right all but ignores the lessons of Jesus Christ on how to live. They have twisted His message beyond recognition and have turned hundreds of thousands of souls away from Jesus with their ravings. Many of these people concentrate instead on how to die, on the self-centered goal of avoiding the Hell that they say awaits those who do not accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior. They focus on the crucifixion, but Jesus lived 33 years before he was crucified. What we know about the LIFE of Jesus shows us how to live as well as how to die. The Christian Left or Progressive Christianity emphasizes the fact that Christ taught us how to live our lives on this earth in a way that glorifies and honors Him- from not throwing the first stone for we are not without sin ourselves to giving our meager fishes and loaves and watch as He feeds everyone with our gift. The lessons are all there - if we will but learn.
"Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law?" Jesus said unto him, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:36-40)
For anyone interested in more information on Progressive Christianity, you might want to check out the website for Sojourners at http://sojo.net . Or try the Christian Left's page on Facebook.
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Bo
When I bought my first house in 1997, I knew one of the first things I would do would be to get a dog. I wanted a German Shepherd to enjoy my nice fenced-in back yard on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. I had had Shepherds since 1980 and love them and knew I wanted another, so I immediately started looking. I wanted an older dog this time, not a puppy, a rescue dog, and so I got in touch with several rescue groups and spread the word that I was looking for a middle-aged dog. In a few weeks I got a phone call. A rescue group had taken in a large, solid black German Shepherd named Bo, and he was at an animal shelter in Rockville, Maryland. Did I want to come up and meet him?
The next day, a bright Monday in June, I went to Maryland, taking along a pouch of kitty Tender Vittles to use as treats. As soon as I saw this big, bulky bear I knew I wanted him. He was a big boy and friendly. The shelter put him on a leash and let me take him for a walk outside, away from all the barking dogs inside the kennel. We walked side by side. He did very well on the leash, and I talked to him constantly. He paid attention. He looked at me attentively. After a while, I sat beneath a shade tree and asked him to sit. He did. And got a treat. I asked him to lie down. He did. And got another treat. He didn't mind that the treats were tiny. We sat in the shade for quite a while just talking, and I petted him, scratched his ears and his tummy. Then I took him back inside and said, "I definitely want him."
The next step was the home visit. The next day a very nice woman named Addie came from the rescue group to my house to see me and to see where Bo would live. She saw my fenced-in back yard and met my two cats, Gray Cat and Hei Mao. She was very nice and friendly, and as she left she said I would hear from her soon. She called within a few hours with the good news. The cats and I had passed inspection! Bo was going to come to live with us as soon as I could go and pick him up.
I went the very next day back to Rockville and paid the adoption fee and took my big, beautiful bear of a dog into the backseat of my Jetta and headed back for the District. At one point, Bo became frightened of something, whimpered, and squeezed himself between the two front seats and repositioned himself in the passenger side front seat, resting one paw on my leg. I had been told that he had been a K-9 flunk out. He'd gone through two years of training, but then washed out. I thought I was seeing a hint of why. He was easily spooked. Did I care? Not at all. He had the benefit of excellent obedience training and was a pleasure to be around. He was so well-behaved, you could take him anywhere. But I was to learn that he hated the Fourth of July.
Bo and I walked in our neighborhood several times a day. There was a dog park a block from my house, and we went there sometimes, but mostly we walked together. When asked to, Bo could do a perfect Heel, but usually we just walked casually side by side, he with his shoulders about even with my legs. He was big and solid black and lots of people were intimidated by him until they learned that he was gentle as a lamb. All the little dogs at the dog park had barking fits whenever we went into the park, and one day a little yip yip dog called Barnaby actually bit him. From then on we stayed out of the park unless we had it to ourselves. Bo hated all the the fuss made over him, and he was shocked when Barnaby attacked him. But there were 4 or 5 parks in my neighborhood in Washington, so there was a lot of great walking space.
One of our favorite walks was to the U.S. Capitol, where we walked at a formal heel and received more attention than you can imagine. Bo was a perfect specimen. His conformation was ideal. He was a beautiful shepherd and his basic obedience was without flaw. He was gentle with children, too, and families from all over the world wanted to take pictures of their children with Bo and me. Photos of me and my best friend Bo with children have travelled back to India, China, Korea, England, France and so many places. He was an angel with the kids.
Bo and I bonded very quickly. I think his getting scared on the drive home and forcing his way into the front seat with me helped that to happen. When I had had Bo two weeks, my friend Richard came to visit. We took a walk to the Korean corner grocery near the dog park. Richard held Bo's leash while I ran inside and picked up a few basics. When I came out of the grocery, Richard said, "There is no doubt whose dog he is. He never took his eye off of the door you disappeared into the whole time you were gone." Bo was like that. He really loved me. I finally had a dog like the dog stories and television shows I had grown up with. Bo was my Lassie, my Rin Tin Tin, my Bullet. In the winter, sometimes I took him to the University with me and he waited in the car while I taught my classes. He'd rather go and wait in the car than to be left at home without me. When my mom would visit, she told me he would watch the door for me to return from work all day.
At first my cats were afraid of Bo, but that did not last long. In no time at all, Gray Cat was sneaking up to Bo's bowl and stealing pieces of dog food and standing upright on his back legs punching Bo in the face with his hands. I mean, paws. But Bo's head was so large that the punches didn't faze him, and he just sat with his tongue hanging out looking happy and let the cat steal his food and beat on him. He hardly felt it.
I planted a beautiful flower garden in the back yard of my home and placed a curving walk of pea gravel lined by old brick down from one end to the other. Bo would not walk on the pea gravel. This meant he could not get to the part of the yard at the back, behind the trees, that was Bo's bathroom. So he walked through the flowers very close to the fence on the left side of the garden and of course he wore a trail. I covered his path with pavers to keep down the mud and just let him have that part of the garden. Now that he is gone and I no longer live in that house, the pictures that show Bo's path through the flowers mean the most to me.
Bo didn't sleep on my bed but he slept on the floor right beside me. Sometimes I liked to sleep in the guest room, and Bo would follow me there. He was wherever I was. But one day, when I had had him almost four years he didn't get up to go anywhere with me. I knew he was very sick. I took him to the vet, who diagnosed a virus, and sent us home with some meds. But Bo got weaker and weaker. So I called Friendship in Northwest Washington and described his symptoms and they said to bring him right in. I did. Parking was on the ground floor and there was no elevator up to where the offices were. It took Bo and me a long time to make it up the steps. He was so weak. He'd walk a few steps and pause and I could tell he was doing it for me. That's how much he loved me. When we reached the top, the waiting room, he collapsed. When the vet called us back, Bo got up one more time and walked to the examining room. They checked him in. He was seriously ill.
They kept Bo, and I went home alone, to be comforted by Gray Cat, the most affectionate cat and the cat with the most personality that I've ever met, but I was difficult to comfort. The hospital kept calling every few hours wanting permission to do more tests. I kept saying yes, of course I did. After a day of this, my mother in North Carolina spoke to a vet in my hometown. This wonderful man call Bo's vet in DC and got all the medical information on him, and then he called me. "Dr. Massey," he said, "These numbers are incompatible with life." Bo had complete renal failure, and there was nothing that could be done.
I knew then that I had to help Bo on his way, so I went the next morning in sleet and snow to the vet's to put down my precious friend. When I walked into the vet's office and spoke, I saw Bo raise his head, and I knew he still recognized my voice and that he knew I was there. I went to him. He was bloated and swollen, but yes he knew me. I talked to him nonstop and he met my eyes. After a while a vet came over and asked me if I was ready. I said yes. I sat on my knees beside Bo, and I held his big, black head in my left hand and caressed him with my right hand. I talked continuously, saying Bo's favorite phrases, like "Good Boy" and "That's my Bo" and "Wanna treat?" I continued talking and caressing him until the vet told me, "It's okay now. He's gone." I wanted to talk him out of this world, telling him I loved him. And I did. I wanted to be the last thing he saw and heard and felt, and I was.
I stayed with him after he was gone for quite some time, just stroking his fur. Then I stood up. Somehow I managed to go to the front desk and pay my bill and take the subway back home. Somehow I went to work the next day. And the next. But I sold that house. I couldn't live there without Bo. I've had and lost a lot of pets in my 63 years, but nothing has hurt like losing Bo. I felt so alone. It hurt so badly. But I would not trade one minute that I shared with that noble canine to avoid the pain.
And I went on to love another dog, another two dogs, my precious Duke and Gretta, the famous Grettalulu. Now the years have gone by, and Duke and Gretta have passed away, too, and yet I've given my heart to another dog. Miss Kia, my Great Pyrenees, the first dog I've had that wasn't a German Shepherd, and I love Kia very much. And someday I will add another German Shepherd to our family, maybe a black one, maybe an entirely different type. Kia is very sweet, very loving, very mild mannered, a good inside dog, like Bo. Duke and Gretta needed that fenced yard we had in Boone, NC. But Kia needs only a couple of nice walks a day, and she is healthy and happy.
About ten days after Bo died, my doorbell in DC rang. I went to the door. A man stood there with a beautiful carved wooden box with a white ribbon and a white rose. He said to me, "I've come to bring Bo home." It was his ashes. You could tell Gray Cat knew it was him. He's still here, now in NC, still on the dresser in my bedroom. Bo will be with me always.
NOTE: The pictures are not all of Bo; some are from the web, but those look completely, totally, exactly like him.
The next day, a bright Monday in June, I went to Maryland, taking along a pouch of kitty Tender Vittles to use as treats. As soon as I saw this big, bulky bear I knew I wanted him. He was a big boy and friendly. The shelter put him on a leash and let me take him for a walk outside, away from all the barking dogs inside the kennel. We walked side by side. He did very well on the leash, and I talked to him constantly. He paid attention. He looked at me attentively. After a while, I sat beneath a shade tree and asked him to sit. He did. And got a treat. I asked him to lie down. He did. And got another treat. He didn't mind that the treats were tiny. We sat in the shade for quite a while just talking, and I petted him, scratched his ears and his tummy. Then I took him back inside and said, "I definitely want him."
The next step was the home visit. The next day a very nice woman named Addie came from the rescue group to my house to see me and to see where Bo would live. She saw my fenced-in back yard and met my two cats, Gray Cat and Hei Mao. She was very nice and friendly, and as she left she said I would hear from her soon. She called within a few hours with the good news. The cats and I had passed inspection! Bo was going to come to live with us as soon as I could go and pick him up.
I went the very next day back to Rockville and paid the adoption fee and took my big, beautiful bear of a dog into the backseat of my Jetta and headed back for the District. At one point, Bo became frightened of something, whimpered, and squeezed himself between the two front seats and repositioned himself in the passenger side front seat, resting one paw on my leg. I had been told that he had been a K-9 flunk out. He'd gone through two years of training, but then washed out. I thought I was seeing a hint of why. He was easily spooked. Did I care? Not at all. He had the benefit of excellent obedience training and was a pleasure to be around. He was so well-behaved, you could take him anywhere. But I was to learn that he hated the Fourth of July.
Bo and I walked in our neighborhood several times a day. There was a dog park a block from my house, and we went there sometimes, but mostly we walked together. When asked to, Bo could do a perfect Heel, but usually we just walked casually side by side, he with his shoulders about even with my legs. He was big and solid black and lots of people were intimidated by him until they learned that he was gentle as a lamb. All the little dogs at the dog park had barking fits whenever we went into the park, and one day a little yip yip dog called Barnaby actually bit him. From then on we stayed out of the park unless we had it to ourselves. Bo hated all the the fuss made over him, and he was shocked when Barnaby attacked him. But there were 4 or 5 parks in my neighborhood in Washington, so there was a lot of great walking space.
Bo and I bonded very quickly. I think his getting scared on the drive home and forcing his way into the front seat with me helped that to happen. When I had had Bo two weeks, my friend Richard came to visit. We took a walk to the Korean corner grocery near the dog park. Richard held Bo's leash while I ran inside and picked up a few basics. When I came out of the grocery, Richard said, "There is no doubt whose dog he is. He never took his eye off of the door you disappeared into the whole time you were gone." Bo was like that. He really loved me. I finally had a dog like the dog stories and television shows I had grown up with. Bo was my Lassie, my Rin Tin Tin, my Bullet. In the winter, sometimes I took him to the University with me and he waited in the car while I taught my classes. He'd rather go and wait in the car than to be left at home without me. When my mom would visit, she told me he would watch the door for me to return from work all day.
At first my cats were afraid of Bo, but that did not last long. In no time at all, Gray Cat was sneaking up to Bo's bowl and stealing pieces of dog food and standing upright on his back legs punching Bo in the face with his hands. I mean, paws. But Bo's head was so large that the punches didn't faze him, and he just sat with his tongue hanging out looking happy and let the cat steal his food and beat on him. He hardly felt it.
I planted a beautiful flower garden in the back yard of my home and placed a curving walk of pea gravel lined by old brick down from one end to the other. Bo would not walk on the pea gravel. This meant he could not get to the part of the yard at the back, behind the trees, that was Bo's bathroom. So he walked through the flowers very close to the fence on the left side of the garden and of course he wore a trail. I covered his path with pavers to keep down the mud and just let him have that part of the garden. Now that he is gone and I no longer live in that house, the pictures that show Bo's path through the flowers mean the most to me.
Bo didn't sleep on my bed but he slept on the floor right beside me. Sometimes I liked to sleep in the guest room, and Bo would follow me there. He was wherever I was. But one day, when I had had him almost four years he didn't get up to go anywhere with me. I knew he was very sick. I took him to the vet, who diagnosed a virus, and sent us home with some meds. But Bo got weaker and weaker. So I called Friendship in Northwest Washington and described his symptoms and they said to bring him right in. I did. Parking was on the ground floor and there was no elevator up to where the offices were. It took Bo and me a long time to make it up the steps. He was so weak. He'd walk a few steps and pause and I could tell he was doing it for me. That's how much he loved me. When we reached the top, the waiting room, he collapsed. When the vet called us back, Bo got up one more time and walked to the examining room. They checked him in. He was seriously ill.
They kept Bo, and I went home alone, to be comforted by Gray Cat, the most affectionate cat and the cat with the most personality that I've ever met, but I was difficult to comfort. The hospital kept calling every few hours wanting permission to do more tests. I kept saying yes, of course I did. After a day of this, my mother in North Carolina spoke to a vet in my hometown. This wonderful man call Bo's vet in DC and got all the medical information on him, and then he called me. "Dr. Massey," he said, "These numbers are incompatible with life." Bo had complete renal failure, and there was nothing that could be done.
I knew then that I had to help Bo on his way, so I went the next morning in sleet and snow to the vet's to put down my precious friend. When I walked into the vet's office and spoke, I saw Bo raise his head, and I knew he still recognized my voice and that he knew I was there. I went to him. He was bloated and swollen, but yes he knew me. I talked to him nonstop and he met my eyes. After a while a vet came over and asked me if I was ready. I said yes. I sat on my knees beside Bo, and I held his big, black head in my left hand and caressed him with my right hand. I talked continuously, saying Bo's favorite phrases, like "Good Boy" and "That's my Bo" and "Wanna treat?" I continued talking and caressing him until the vet told me, "It's okay now. He's gone." I wanted to talk him out of this world, telling him I loved him. And I did. I wanted to be the last thing he saw and heard and felt, and I was.
I stayed with him after he was gone for quite some time, just stroking his fur. Then I stood up. Somehow I managed to go to the front desk and pay my bill and take the subway back home. Somehow I went to work the next day. And the next. But I sold that house. I couldn't live there without Bo. I've had and lost a lot of pets in my 63 years, but nothing has hurt like losing Bo. I felt so alone. It hurt so badly. But I would not trade one minute that I shared with that noble canine to avoid the pain.
And I went on to love another dog, another two dogs, my precious Duke and Gretta, the famous Grettalulu. Now the years have gone by, and Duke and Gretta have passed away, too, and yet I've given my heart to another dog. Miss Kia, my Great Pyrenees, the first dog I've had that wasn't a German Shepherd, and I love Kia very much. And someday I will add another German Shepherd to our family, maybe a black one, maybe an entirely different type. Kia is very sweet, very loving, very mild mannered, a good inside dog, like Bo. Duke and Gretta needed that fenced yard we had in Boone, NC. But Kia needs only a couple of nice walks a day, and she is healthy and happy.
About ten days after Bo died, my doorbell in DC rang. I went to the door. A man stood there with a beautiful carved wooden box with a white ribbon and a white rose. He said to me, "I've come to bring Bo home." It was his ashes. You could tell Gray Cat knew it was him. He's still here, now in NC, still on the dresser in my bedroom. Bo will be with me always.
NOTE: The pictures are not all of Bo; some are from the web, but those look completely, totally, exactly like him.
Friday, November 2, 2012
Support Obama. He supported you.
Every country in the world hopes that we re-elect President Obama over Mitt Romney except Pakistan. I can understand that. But Obama has wiped away all the ridicule we suffered during the Bush years and restored America to her place of respect around the world. He is seen as an intelligent, even brilliant, serious, hard-working, honest leader, and I am proud of him, and I thank him for what he has done for us globally. And he never apologized for America.
Here at home he pulled us back from the brink of a second Great Depression caused by strains on our economy from Bush's policies. These policies were two wars that were unpaid for, a new Part D prescription plan for Medicare that was unpaid for, and massive tax cuts favoring the most well off among us, also unpaid for. The deficit soared. And the "small government" that Bush promised? Well, when Bush left office, the federal government had grown more than at any time since the days of FDR. Don't forget we had a brand new Department of Homeland Security. Spending and cutting taxes and not paying for it almost led us to complete economic collapse. But Obama's handling of the economy averted that disaster and kept it to a recession instead. And yes, it's been a long, deep recession, but it hasn't been the GREAT DEPRESSION II. And I thank Obama for that.
Not to mention the fact that the Dow has doubled since Obama took office, reaching a 60% increase at the beginning of 2012. Foreclosures on homes are down and home prices have recently started ticking up again. Inflation is still low as are interest rates. Unemployment is under 8%, which is way too high for our citizens' well being, but when Obama took office, we were losing over 800,000 jobs a month, just losing them from the whole economy. Within three months, Obama had reversed this trend, and we have been adding jobs ever since. Today it was announced that 171,000 jobs were added in October 2012, marking at least 25 straight months of job increases. Fox news stories of executive misdeeds in Benghazi were struck down as lies today. Detroit was saved.
And Osama bin Laden is dead.
As for Gov. Romney of Massachusetts, the people of Massachusetts are wildly against his presidential bid. They know him. They have suffered him. They survived him, and they do not want to go through it again. Romney's biggest problem is his unbounded ambition. He wants to be president more than he wants anything for America or her people. He will say or do anything to win. Willard Mitt Romney has taken every possible position on every issue. Abortion or Pro Life? Take your pick. Leaving Iraq in 2014? It was bad but now it's okay. And just in the last few days there's FEMA, which he wanted to abolish and then Hurricane Sandy came along. Although Romney has hidden from all media questions for over three weeks, someone in his campaign released a statement that Romney wanted the states to take the lead and work with FEMA so apparently he no longer plans to abolish it. Or does he? Who can bank on his words? Or maybe it was just that this was a terrible horrible very bad week to be against the Federal role in disaster relief? Especially with Obama doing it so well.
No one likes a liar and a two-faced person, so why is this election close? Why do almost half of my fellow citizens tell pollsters they are for Romney for President? I am sorry, but I believe with all my heart that half of this county has not been able to stand having a Black president. They are out of their minds with hatred and rage, making fools of themselves. Fools to be feared, yes, but fools just the same. I cannot believe all the talk of watermelon and the like that I have heard. Think of the fringe talk of birtherism and the many Republicans who believe it and believe that Obama is Muslim. As much publicity as Rev. Wright received in 2008, how could they think Obama is Muslim? (Because they are "low information voters.") Things that 5 years ago, people would have been ashamed to say, they now say openly and defiantly. Our county is more openly racist now that at any time since the Civil Rights struggles. People openly call for the elimination of the Voting Rights Act as unconstitutional. I have heard the N-word more in the last year than in the last 40 years combined. There is basically no reason to vote for the spineless, lying Mitt Romney over President Barack Hussein Obama other than race.
Do I think there are any nonracist Republicans? Yes, I do. But they have not yet grappled with a serious problem. The Republican party as we knew it no longer exists. It has been taken over by old style Dixiecrats, Tea Partiers, birthers, and other fringe elements. You get savaged if you just cooperate with Obama on disaster relief. Ask Chris Christie. The Moderates have been hounded out of the party. But for some reason, some decent people have stayed in the party even though the party left them to head for the fringes long ago. And these people will vote for Romney because they vote their party. This sounds neither smart nor noble, but there it is.
This election is a referendum on us, the people of the United States. What kind of people are we? Do we deserve the ridicule of the rest of the world or do we deserve their respect?
The only reason to vote Obama out of office is to follow the advice seen on a T-shirt at a Romney rally that told us to "Put the White back in the White House."
What will we do?
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Integrity
Barack Hussein Obama has integrity. Willard Mitt Romney has none.
The word "integrity"comes from the word "integer" or "whole number."A whole number. Not a fraction. Not divided.
In order to have integrity, a person must have a quality of wholeness, of not being divided against himself. He cannot speak out of both sides of his mouth. He cannot compartmentalize his life and have separate truths for each compartment. He must be centered and speak from that center and speak as a whole man.
Mitt Romney is not an integer. He is not undivided. He has no wholeness. He has cut himself like a pie into so many pieces that the eye could not see them all, the ear cannot hear them all. He has taken every position on every issue, always depending on which he calculates will win him a vote. I wonder how many votes his lack of integrity has cost him. Enough? I can only hope.
NOTE: This was written BEFORE ROMNEY staged his FAKE food collection for the sufferers of Hurricane Sandy. This done in Ohio, in a part of the state that was not affected, but which he needs to win. The rally was originally scheduled as a Victory Rally. Same time. Same place. New name. He sent his staff to buy $5000 of food to give to attendees to make it look like they were giving more to enhance the appearance of his event. Is anything about this man honest?
The word "integrity"comes from the word "integer" or "whole number."A whole number. Not a fraction. Not divided.
In order to have integrity, a person must have a quality of wholeness, of not being divided against himself. He cannot speak out of both sides of his mouth. He cannot compartmentalize his life and have separate truths for each compartment. He must be centered and speak from that center and speak as a whole man.
Mitt Romney is not an integer. He is not undivided. He has no wholeness. He has cut himself like a pie into so many pieces that the eye could not see them all, the ear cannot hear them all. He has taken every position on every issue, always depending on which he calculates will win him a vote. I wonder how many votes his lack of integrity has cost him. Enough? I can only hope.
NOTE: This was written BEFORE ROMNEY staged his FAKE food collection for the sufferers of Hurricane Sandy. This done in Ohio, in a part of the state that was not affected, but which he needs to win. The rally was originally scheduled as a Victory Rally. Same time. Same place. New name. He sent his staff to buy $5000 of food to give to attendees to make it look like they were giving more to enhance the appearance of his event. Is anything about this man honest?
Monday, October 15, 2012
George McGovern
Afterward, a fellow senator told McGovern that he was offended. "That is what I meant to do," McGovern replied.
Send your positive energy, your thoughts, your prayers or daimoku to this remarkable man as he makes this transition. We are losing a giant.
NOTE: Senator George Stanley McGovern died Sunday, October 21, 2012.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Following Einstein's Rules
My favorite lesson to be learned from Albert Einstein is number 5, "Make mistakes." I learned how important this step is to creativity and how liberating it is when I went to MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as a Visiting Scientist in the late 1980's. I remember my surprise in my first brainstorming session in a class in MIT's stellar Department of Linguistics. We were really brainstorming. People were shouting out the most ridiculous ideas, the dumbest suggestions, the most far-fetched possibilities with no inhibitions and without embarrassment. At first I was stunned. I couldn't believe my ears. But soon the ideas came faster and were better, more clever, and before too long we had a very good hypothesis for the solution to our problem.
MIT, of course, ranks in the top 10 institutions of higher learning in the world. My regular school, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, ranks 42nd in the world. That's nothing to sneeze at. I'm talking the whole world. But at Carolina, we would have been embarrassed to offer the bad ideas that we had to go through in order to get to the good ideas in that class at MIT. We would has sat more quietly, holding back, waiting until we felt more sure of what we had to say. I was never in on a brainstorming session at UNC where any of the ideas were as bad as those at that first session at MIT or where such an elegant solution was reached in such a short amount of time. The reason? At MIT, the students were not afraid of making mistakes. They were not afraid of being wrong. They knew that you have to go through a lot of garbage before you find gold and they joyfully did so.
I felt liberated. I had been set free. It was okay to think big, think wild, make mistakes, try things out, try things on. My whole approach to learning changed as a result of being in the environment at MIT. While I love Carolina and I learned a great deal there about linguistics and had wonderful professors, I learned my most important lesson at MIT. It's okay to be wrong. In fact, in linguistics, you want to make a claim about language that is strong enough that you might be wrong, that someone may know a language that disproves your claim. And you need to know that you have advanced knowledge by doing that, by discovering something about language that is NOT true.
All of the linguists I admire do this type of research and publication. They make strong, explicit claims about the nature of language, just begging their audiences to come up with counter-examples. Those counter-examples may be re-analyzed and resolved or they may shoot their theories down. Either way, you have learned, and you have taught.
Because of my experience in the brainstorming session in the class at MIT, I was able to be creative, to imagine a theory of Albanian verbs and their subjects and objects that far exceeded what I had planned to do in my dissertation prospectus. As a result, my dissertation was a thousand times better than it would have been, and MIT published it as the third in their series of Occasional Papers in Linguistics. I surprised my professors back in Chapel Hill when I mailed them their copies of my draft, pleasantly surprised them. My work was cited by many linguists coming after me.
Hard work becomes fun when you follow Einstein's rules.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
despair
i feel despair again. and complete utter aloneness. not loneliness. aloneness. i cannot sleep, but I am tired.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Stand Your Ground
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| Trayvon Martin |
Could this be what happened to Trayvon Martin? The 17-year-old African American male was being stalked by a man with a gun. He must have felt threatened. Somehow there was a confrontation between the two, but we don't know if Zimmerman confronted the young man he found so strange and threatening or if Trayvon confronted his stalker. But the man had a gun and Trayvon had Skittles, so Trayvon ended up dead. Now the stalker, George Zimmerman, claims that he felt threatened because Trayvon confronted him. Even though Zimmerman was the aggressor, he can apparently claim innocence under the Stand Your Ground Law.
But if this is what happened, Trayvon was only exercising his rights under the Stand Your Ground Law. You might say he had a right to kill Zimmerman. But think about it. Since he had a right to kill Zimmerman, under that insane law Zimmerman has a right to kill him back. But Martin had a right to kill Zimmerman because Zimmerman was threatening Martin because Martin was threatening Zimmerman because Zimmerman was...Wait. This is circular reasoning. This is absurd. This is ridiculous.
It was better when nobody had the right to kill anybody.
This is nothing but incitement to vigilantism, creating a dog eat dog world. This law was brought to us in North Carolina, Florida, and 21 other states by ALEC and the NRA. Jeb Bush signed the bill into law in Florida with an NRA official standing by his side for the photo op.
Now the Right Wing Hate Machine is busy spinning away slandering the dead child. It's okay that Trayvon was murdered because his tweets on Twitter aren't up to snuff. It's okay that Zimmerman shot him dead because he was suspended from school for having an "empty marijuana bag." I heard he even wrote the letters "WTF" on his locker at school. That's certainly grounds for capital punishment with no jury and no judge and no attorney and no court and no constitution. What does any of this have to do with making it okay for Zimmerman to murder Martin? And why is Zimmerman a hero to some lost souls for killing Trayvon?
And none of these facts can tell us that Trayvon was the instigator because we have all heard the tapes. We know that Zimmerman hunted Martin down with his gun. What we don't know is whether he caught him and if he did, what ensued. But does it matter? Does it matter if Trayvon fought back? I think not. Surely not. It may have reached a point at which Zimmerman felt he had to kill or be killed, but wouldn't he have put himself in that position by stalking Martin with a gun? Didn't Trayvon have a right to STAND HIS GROUND?
There is no circumstance under which it is okay for an armed adult to shoot dead an unarmed child.
Speaking of the tapes, we hear the police tell Zimmerman to stop following Trayvon Martin, and we know he did not stop. We hear Zimmerman say what sounds like, "[Expletive] coon." But one of his friends is all over TV explaining that "this is the difference between a 'c' and a 'g.'" He says it's "GOON." And he says that's a term of endearment. Yeah right, you can tell from Zimmerman's tone of voice and stalking actions how endeared Trayvon was to him.
I spent years teaching high school in predominately black schools. After obtaining my Ph.D. in Linguistics I taught in the English Department at Howard University in Washington, D.C. I lived in a racially mixed neighborhood on Capital Hill in the SE section of Washington. I have heard countless stories told by the victims of profiling and harassment by police officers. My young African American male students told me of having been stopped for driving too nice a car or being in a nice neighborhood, even if it was the neighborhood where they actually lived. I loved my students and my heart was broken by the hardships I saw them endure for for driving while black, walking while black, breathing while black, being while black.
President Obama implicitly acknowledged this whole package when he stated the other day that if he had a son, the son would look like Trayvon. Meaning he would have to have had THE TALK with him. The talk about holding your tongue with police, no matter what they say, acting respectful, no matter what they do, making no sudden moves, just trying to stay alive in any encounter. And now it isn't just the police. It's Neighborhood Watch volunteers. It's anybody. It's everybody.
It's open season.
And of course President Obama was attacked by the meanest spirits of the Right Wing, including Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich. This was so obviously ugly and unfair that I won't even take it on. You know, even those of you who say you don't. You do. You know.
It is so clear to me that Zimmerman should be charged with murder. I am not saying he should be convicted. He has a right to a fair trial and to be proved guilty beyond reasonable doubt. But he should be sitting in jail right now. I hear there have been death threats against him. I can't say I'm sorry. I hope he never gets a good night's sleep the rest of his life.
A law that give me the right to kill you, which then gives you the right to kill me is insane. Maybe America has gone completely, not just partially, insane. As the play from the Sixties said, "Stop the world, I want to get off."
Sunday, March 18, 2012
UNC-Chapel Hill
I spent so many years of my life in Chapel Hill for one reason or another that it will always feel like home to me. Just going there was such a treat when I was in high school. We would go down to visit Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, one of oldest and largest institutions of its kind and one that was used to train Gemini and Apollo astronauts in celestial navigation.
Morehead Planetarium and Science Center
Chapel Hill was always the center of a liberal oasis in a Red State Right Wing desert. Jesse Helms, in the days before he was in the Senate, used to spew an editorial on Channel 5 in Raleigh, and he often railed about the Communists down the road in Chapel Hill. The state zoo, which is quite nice, is in Asheboro, but Helms once said we didn't need a zoo. Just put a fence around Chapel Hill, he said. Then we'd have a zoo. Chapel Hill elected Howard Lee, an African American, mayor in the early seventies. The town and the campus were always ahead of the times. It was refreshing just to be there.
Here's the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Wilson Library. When I first went to Chapel Hill, this was the most important library on campus. There was a newer Undergraduate library, but Wilson was the Graduate Library, the place for serious research. When I first visited the Harvard campus and saw Widener library, I thought of Wilson. As a "public ivy," Carolina made its research libraries comparable to those in the Ivy League. (Before the cutters and levelers came through in the 80s and 90s and now again, creating mediocrity wherever they can. The library has had books stay in the shipping boxes, uncatalogued and unavailable to students because of personnel cuts, but no one with power cared.)
Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
I worked at Wilson while my then husband was in medical school, in the periodicals division and got more education than I had in any classroom. I've had many lunches with my friends on that stone wall in front, happily running back up those steps into the lobby of a library that LOOKED like a library, like a miniature Library of Congress, complete with dome. Later, when I was in grad school, the linguistics department was in the first building to the right of Wilson, Dey Hall, sitting at a 90 degree angle, making a corner of the campus quad. Before I finished my Ph.D., a new graduate library was built, a modern building, no longer in the center of campus, and Wilson began to be used for other purposes. But it will always be what a library is supposed to be to me.
The Bell Tower is another campus landmark. The Patterson-Morehead Bell Tower has been ringing in each hour of the day since 1931. The landscaping around the Tower is breathtaking and was designed by William C. Coker of the Botany department. There is a Bell Tower parking lot that I was lucky enough to find space in back in the Seventies when I worked across the street at the library. These days you park in a satellite lot and take a bus in to the central campus or get your daily exercise hiking in. Chapel Hill's village character is lost, but I still love it anyway. The Bell Tower stands next to the football stadium between the academic campus and the health sciences campus. And there's a spot on the quad where you can stand from which the top of the tower looks just like a dunce cap on the dome of the library. Legend has it that this came out of a rivalry between the men who founded the buildings.
The Bell Tower
Most post cards of Carolina seem to show the Old Well, the symbol of the campus, which is always surrounded by the most beautiful landscaping. The Old Well stand near Old East, the oldest building on campus. For many years the well was the source of water to the first dorms, Old East and Old West. Its shelter and landscaping were added in stages and now there is a drinking fountain many believe brings good luck. And there's a huge, beautiful arboretum on campus. Carolina's picturesque quadrangle makes it one of the most beautiful campuses in the country, full of trees, grass, flowers, and stone walls and brick walkways, and little mini-quads filled with flowers that sit behind the first row of buildings facing the main quadrangle. Across Franklin Street from campus is the small village-like downtown, full of bars, restaurants, and shops. There used to be the best bookstore ever downtown, the Intimate Bookshop, with wood floors that creaked loudly and books stacked and crammed everywhere, but it moved to the mall a long time ago after a fire, and I think it eventually closed altogether.
 |
| The Old Well |
at the Arboretum
one of the mini-quads off the main quad
Many restaurants come and go, but some become traditions. Off Franklin Street, down Amber Alley, way below downtown, there was an artisan's shop for handmade jewelry next to the classic Rathskellar, which has been a landmark for generations. The restaurant had many rooms, one of which was the cave room, pictured here in days gone by. See the German Shepherd? The Rat, a favorite with alumni, was scheduled to reopen last year, after being closed for several years. I've even taken my mother there. I love it. There's Crooks Corner, gourmet Southern restaurant, specialty: shrimp and grits, which was raved about by the late Craig Claiborne, food critic for the NY Times. Claiborne also enjoyed a little place on Rosemary Street, Mama Dips Country Kitchen, for the best breakfast in town. Dean Smith said that Chapel Hill couldn't be the Southern Part of Heaven without Mama Dip, who began her restaurant in 1976. My favorite bar was always He's Not Here. They had Pac Man and no waiters.
The Rathskellar's Cave Room back in the day
Mama Dip's
He's Not Here
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| The Quad as seen from Wilson Library |
Chapel Hill. I worked there, I played there, I studied there. I loved there, I lost love there. I got my heart broken in Chapel Hill, broken into little pieces. But I learned so much that I realized I didn't know much compared to what there is to know. I learned that one lifetime is not enough to learn much at all. I learned to love learning. I learned to teach. I developed habits of reading and learning and reasoning that I keep to even this day over forty years after I first moved there. You can buy watches and clocks that sing, "I'm a Tarheel born and a Tarheel bred, And when I die I'll be a Tarheel dead." That's me.
Go Heels!
The little village of Chapel Hill.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Brown's Thoughts of Death
Sterling A. Brown
Thoughts of Death
Thoughts of death
Crowd over my happiness
Like dark clouds
Over the silver sickle of the moon
Death comes to some
Like a grizzled gangster
Clubbing in the night;
To some
Like an obstinate captain
Steadily besieging barriers;
To some like a brown adder
Lurking in violet-speckled underbrush;
To some
Like a gentle nurse
Taking their toys and stroking their hot brows.
Death will come to you, I think,
Like an old shrewd gardener
Culling his rarest blossom . . . .
Sterling A. Brown, The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown, ed. Michael S. Harper, HarperCollins Publishers, 1980.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Anniversary of Bloody Sunday, 1965
On this day in 1965, more than 600 people walked toward the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, planning to march across to Montgomery on the other side. Before they reached the bridge they were met by local police and state troopers.
When the 600 civil rights marchers refused to turn back, they were tear-gassed. People were brutally beaten by officers with billy clubs. Fifty people required hospitalization. They didn't make it across. This day has come to called Bloody Sunday.
Soon, however, a court ruled that they were entitled to federal protection. On March 21, the march from Selma to Montgomery was successfully completed, five months before the Voting Rights Act would pass.
These brave souls helped change America 47 years ago today.
When the 600 civil rights marchers refused to turn back, they were tear-gassed. People were brutally beaten by officers with billy clubs. Fifty people required hospitalization. They didn't make it across. This day has come to called Bloody Sunday.
Soon, however, a court ruled that they were entitled to federal protection. On March 21, the march from Selma to Montgomery was successfully completed, five months before the Voting Rights Act would pass.
These brave souls helped change America 47 years ago today.
Peaceful protesters beaten, manhandled.
What a terrible intimidating sight.
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