Find Common Ground, We Must

 

The facts are these: The nation is made up of people who are conservative AND who are moderate AND who are liberal. Depending upon the poll and the topic, we could think of it being about 1/3 conservative, 1/3 moderate and 1/3 liberal. In rough numbers.

In this Gallup poll, we see that in 2019, we identified as 37% conservative, 35% moderate and 27% liberal.

https://news.gallup.com/.../remained-center-right...

And we see that liberals are the minority, but making gains. In other surveys and polls, we see similar results

This poll from 2020 shows the C/M/L mix at 34%/36%/26%...

https://news.gallup.com/.../conservatism-down-start-2020...

The point being, there's not ONE view that represents all of us in the US and that we're roughly split into thirds. Again, it also depends upon the topic.

As we enter into a new post-Trump era at a very divided time, it is vital for us to recognize that we're all in this together. I know that many of us more progressive types have been quite wounded by the Trump years. Nonetheless, Trump conservatism has broad support. Those people are not going away and we in the middle and left have to recognize that and share this land.

Same for you more conservative types. I know you feel like you have to "take America back" - presumably from the 40-60% who disagree with Trump's policies - but the nation is not yours to "take back." It belongs to all of us.

And I know you all feel quite wounded and are grieving Trump's loss - not even trusting that Trump lost! Nonetheless, the fact is just as ultraconservative Kellyanne Conway recently noted: Trump lost, Biden won. The fact is just as ultraconservative Bill Barr has said: There is no evidence for widespread voter fraud.

Trump has lost and Biden has won. Biden is our president elect.

For those on the right, grieve this if you must. Take your time. But in the end, your ~37% of the nation has to work with my 27% of the nation and the other third in the middle.

 

So, can we stop with insults and attacks and start to find common ground? Can it be that difficult?

Some ideas:

1. We are in the midst of this pandemic. We have a vaccine now starting to come out. Let's find effective ways to distribute that vaccine. That goal should be something we can all agree upon.

2. The spread of covid is skyrocketing. We don't have to like the measures suggested by medical experts, but we need to cooperate to stop the spread from getting worse. We should be able to agree to this. If you truly don't want to follow the guidelines, that's fine, but then stay home. If you can't wear a mask in a store, stay home. It's your right to not wear a mask if you don't want to, but it's not your right to insist upon going wherever you please without a mask and put other people at risk.

For a short time, we can do this. We should be able to agree upon this goal.

3. Our economy has taken a big hit this last year. We need to find ways that are safe to get us working again and we can do it. Social isolation and masks are a convenience, but it's also an opportunity to find new ways of doing things. Groceries need to be delivered more. Restaurant food can be delivered. We can be smart about this and create jobs and help one another in the process.

4. While we're figuring it out, many people are hurting. We need financial aid package and we need it now. This should be an area of common ground. We can disagree upon the exact numbers, but we have to work together to get something out.

5. In Trump's four years, we never really got our infrastructure moving. Experts will tell you that our infrastructure is crumbling. We HAVE to invest in infrastructure and we can find common ground on that.

6. Whatever you may feel about the police, the vast majority of the nation would like to see some systemic reform. It's going to HELP police to not to have to be social workers and mental health workers on top of being police. And we have to recognize that we don't want to see our black citizens killed because the police "feared for their lives..." Again, the majority of the nation agrees we need to do something about this. Let's find some common ground.

7. Likewise for our drug and prison policies. There are systemic problems with how we've handled this. We need to find some common ground. Conservatives: You all are supposed to be about fiscal responsibility. Providing education and rehabilitation to prisoners results in LOWERING the prison population and increasing their odds of making it on the outside. It is a money saver. We can find common ground there.

I could go on but will stop there. We may not agree about abortion or some other topics, but we can agree on a lot and we have to start there. This decade after decade of dysfunctional family squabbling is no way to operate a commonwealth.

Three final suggestions as we seek common ground:

A. We have to learn to listen to experts and trust expert opinion. That's not to say we can't ask reasonable questions of experts, but if we're not operating based on best advice, what will we operate upon and find common ground upon? Our gut feelings?

B. We have to stop accepting false claims and unsupported claims. It's NOT okay for a president to insist that "he won," when he is not in charge of the electoral system and when he has no data to support that claim. It's not okay to say that there is a conspiracy and that the media or the Democrats or the GOP WANTS to see our nation collapse. Sweeping unsupported charges are not okay. We have to be adult about this and just stop accepting it when a politician or expert or news source makes sweeping unsupported or just false claims.

C. We have to agree that causing harm to others is not acceptable. Period. Especially causing harm to innocent people. That's a line we can't cross or accept.

Now, let's put on our adult clothes and find some common ground.

Feeling Thankful

They couldn't be together

but they could remember years past

and make plans for next Thanksgiving

to gather in the woods

and hug

and sing songs

to all the gods and goddesses

My Reality is Different than Yours...

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"

"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.

"I don't much care where--" said Alice.

"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.

"--so long as I get somewhere," Alice added as an explanation.

"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."

Alice felt that this could not be denied, so she tried another question.

"What sort of people live about here?"

"In that direction,"

the Cat said, waving its right paw round,

"lives a Hatter: and in that direction,"

waving the other paw,

"lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they're both mad."

"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.

"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."

"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.

"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."

==========

It circulates that, at some point in the conversation, Alice tells the Cheshire Cat that "My reality is different than yours..." but apparently that's not in the book.

Nonetheless, that reality not standing, the point stands. There are some people whose reality is different than, well, reality. They may bark at us when we point out reality. They may retreat to hide in sanctuaries full of people who agree with their "reality." They may even start whole new social media and "news" groups just so they can surround themselves with others who believe in their non-reality reality. And, if that's as far as it went, that's all well and good.

But when they emerge with their guns and their anger and insist that everyone else needs to agree with their reality, that's a problem.

When they are elected the president of the US and insist that those who disagree with reality are lying and trying to "steal" an election, that is a big problem.

And when this non-reality-based president is supported and defended by others who insist that his "reality" is correct... or even, "well, maybe he is correct, we'll just have to wait and see..." that is a big problem.

Where are the reality-based conservatives who will stand up and say, "Yes, the people have spoken. We may not like it, but the facts are that the data shows that Biden won the election. Any claims that Trump won or that the election was "stolen" by "fraud" - when they can't and don't support such claims... that is a big problem..."? Where are THOSE conservatives? (Yes, I know I've seen a few - Mitt Romney and others and good for them. But by and large, those conservatives are only attacked and undermined by the rest of the conservatives defending the Mad World of Trump.

So, to be clear:

IF you are making the claim that widespread voter fraud has happened in an attempt to "take away" the election from Trump; and

IF you have no data, no proof, no support for such claims and you make it anyway;

THEN, you are attempting to defraud the election by presenting a false narrative to undermine the election.

Stop. Don't do that. Don't be silent when those around you are doing it.

We all agree that attempt to defraud an election is bad, but as things stand now, it is Trump and his supporters or silent defenders who are doing it by passing on this false claim.

Thank You, America

"Remember this in the darkest moments, when the work doesn’t seem worth it, and change seems just out of reach: out of our willingness to push through comes a tremendous power… Use it."

~Stacey Abrams

Whatever Happens

                                        Whatever happens, friends
                                                  come what may
                                          we gonna keep on working
                                                     it's just our way

Seriously

This American Life asked Sara Bareilles to imagine what President Obama might be thinking about the 2016 election and Donald Trump, but can’t say publicly. Leslie Odom Jr. performs the song.

All The Grieved World

 One flower rising

casting her stone-strong shadow

o'er all the grieved world

A Vengeful, Angry God?

I was reading Stan's blog (as I still do some days) and had some questions that his posts raise. Stan is very good at raising these questions with his posts. Not so good about answering them or even acknowledging them. But as always, this is not about Stan. It's about the traditional human traditions associated with modern evangelicalism.

Stan was speaking about the notion of an "angry god" and how too many people (i.e., Christians and others who disagree with his tradition's opinions about God) don't take the idea of an angry, vengeful god seriously enough, because, as he is wont to say, "The Bible."

Stan...

So, who makes up this stuff about a God of wrath against sinners? Well, apparently, God does. Apparently it's biblical. Apparently even Jesus believes it.

Look, you can do the happy dance all you want. You can work on fluff and imagine pink unicorns and figure God's not really that miffed about sin and all, but if you do, you do to your own peril because God's Word is quite clear on the subject. Even at the end, it's is Christ who is described as the One who distributes God's wrath.

So you may think that someone is making up this "angry God" stuff and He's really a pussycat, a tame lion. The Bible disagrees and the consequence of being wrong on this topic is nowhere near tolerable. 

This line of thinking always raises questions for me and these questions generally go unanswered.

First of all, we need to be precise and clear when we're talking about God's opinion. When Stan says, "the Bible disagrees," he's implying/outright saying that God in the Bible agrees with and teaches the notion of an angry God.

But it's not that the Bible disagrees. It's that some good number of people have interpreted the Bible to read God describing God's Self as a vengeful angry god. It's the OPINION of those who interpret the Bible thusly that think this way, not the Bible or God's own Self. At least not demonstrably.

Thus, as is often the case with evangelical types, they conflate their opinions with "the Bible" and thus, with "God's Word." I'm fine with them holding their interpretations and opinions, but they should be clear that it IS their opinions, and not the Bible.

Whether or not the Bible teaches that God is rightly understood as vengeful and angry is the question to be answered, not the answer itself.

Question begging and all that.

Secondly, Stan errs in making up a straw man that people paint God as a "pussycat, pink unicorns and not miffed about sin." But very few if any who believe in a God think that way. Everyone (nearly) thinks that God is angry about rape, about child abuse, about war, about murder, about deliberately causing awful harm to people. Of course a good God would rationally be opposed to such behavior, even angry about it.

So, nearly universally, believers are agreed upon that. That's not the question.

The question is, is God TRULY so repulsed by any and all sin that the only just punishment for a just God is for that god to get angry about every little lie, every bit of gossip and "rebellion," and that god gets SO angry that the ONLY punishment suitable for these sins is an eternity of torture.

You see, we don't disagree with the Bible. We learn from the Bible that God is perfectly just and perfectly loving. AND we also see places in the Bible where people describe God (or God describes God's own self) as angry at sin, viciously angry at sin. BOTH teachings are in the Bible.

So, finally, this leads to the question I asked Stan that looks at the notion of a perfectly just God and tries to make sense of biblical teaching and just plain reason, especially as it relates to the evangelical teachings about hell (NOT "the Bible's teachings," NOT "What God hath said...").

My two reasonable questions:
So a good God is angry unto vengeful wrath upon all the sins of a five, nine, 12-year old child and this God's justice demands the most harsh judgment upon this child for all their sins, so much so
that this angry god demands 
an eternity of torturous hell 
upon this young adult for their awful sins of lying, jealousy, stealing two pencils and general selfishness common to people in their first 18 years (and beyond).

A. Can you explain in a rational way how such an extreme (insane?) response is rational, loving or just?

B. Do you at least understand how for many, probably most of us, that sounds like the ravings of a madman, not the response of a just God?

Now, usually, this line of questions go ignored and unanswered, but occasionally some brave evangelical/calvinist will attempt an answer. But that answer is typically,

"Your understanding of the notion of a perfectly just God is not the same as god's understanding..."

Which brings up a third entirely rational question:

C. Says who? Where is the proof for this claim?

The proof, they will say (if they say anything at all), is that there are lines in the Bible that talk about god being angry and vengeful. No one denies that. But there are also lines in the Bible that talk about God being perfectly loving and perfectly just.

Now they will say that we need to reconcile the two extremes. God is vengeful vs God is just. Their answer that I've understood them as saying is that they side on the side of vengeful and explain away the notion of justice (and an eternity in torment/torture for relatively minor sins IS an abomination of justice, as justice is typically understood by humanity) as being a bad understanding on our part. God's sense of justice is just... different than what we normally mean.

Again, Says who?

They are siding on Vengeful but they can never explain why other than just because that's where they side.

The other tact they'll try to take is to say that we "natural humans" don't accurately understand the nature of sin. Even the relatively small "sin" of taking a cookie that doesn't belong to us (for instance) IS A DEVIANT AND GREAT EVIL, because (they say) it is a deliberate and cruel attack on god's sovereignty. It is an attack on God to decide, "I really would like to have this cookie, even if it doesn't belong to me..."

But again, says who? I would wager that most people who would take a cookie (tell a lie, steal a pencil from work) aren't thinking about God, they're just thinking about convenience and being selfish and unthinking. Do they think, "I don't care what God thinks, I SPIT in God's eye and take this cookie anyway!..."? I see no evidence to support such a claim.

So, the idea of them being in open rebellion to God is just not supported, it's an empty claim.

But EVEN IF that were the case... even if the human was selfish and childish and just wanted to satisfy their own sweet tooth (desire for a pencil, the mean wish to gossip about someone...), does that truly warrant an eternity of torture?

If yes, says who? Where is the rational case for this? Because it sounds insanely Un-just... the opposite of justice.

And my final (still unanswered) question was, Even if you ultimately disagree with those who disagree with your hunches about biblical interpretation and an angry god, do you at least understand how crazy it seems to suggest that the 20 year old with a lifetime of typical sins that lead up to that age is "sinful enough" to merit an eternity of torture? Do you understand how un-just this sounds to probably most of the world?

We may never know.

Top Ten Reasons to Vote For Biden (As Opposed to Against Trump)

Reasons why liberals, moderates and conservatives should all vote for Biden. I'm writing this especially for those who may identify as more progressive/liberal. And I do recognize that some conservatives will hold some policy positions that are vital to them that are never going to be embraced by Democrats and thus, they may not be able to vote for a Democrat. But at the least, I'd hope that those conservatives would recognize that they also can't vote for a corrupt, immoral, chaotic and irrational president. The vote for Biden is not in isolation apart from the horrible choice on the other side and that must be acknowledged.

Before beginning my list, I'd like to say that these last four years and especially these last eight months have pointed out important and serious problems with our system of doing things, including problems found with our two party system as it exists...

A. Given the racial strife that has been a problem for the entirety of our nation's history,

B. Given the very real disadvantages that the poor and marginalized have that makes it very difficult to "rise above" problems/circumstances

C. Given the health and housing inequities that we are faced with

AND

D. Given that neither party has effected changes/fixes sufficient to even begin addressing these problems...

Given ALL that, when these troubled years are over, we can't be satisfied to just "get back to normal." Normal was that immigrant families seeking safety were separated and not helped and seeking refuge was criminalized, Normal was that adults with disabilities too often were left behind and outside the opportunities for a good life, Normal was a systemic racism that has not been eradicated lo, these 50 years after black people got the right to vote... given the very real problems that exist under Democrat and Republican administrations, we can't go back to normal.

We need to be better than the normal that we were willing to live with for the lifetime of our nation.

While I think there may have been better choices to get us back to a path to something better than normal than Biden, Biden IS our chance to begin to recover from the chaos of these last four years and beyond.

Reasons I think this is true (my Top Ten Reasons to Vote for Biden):

1. Biden is sane, reasonable and doesn't regularly engage in childish name calling ("sleepy Joe," "Pocahantas," "mad woman"). That last is such a low bar that shouldn't have to be pointed out but we DO have to point it out. But beyond not engaging in grade school bullying, Biden is rational and can be reasoned with. He gives every indication of recognizing that now is a season where we have a chance for change.

We will need to push him, I'm sure, to get the change we need, but we CAN push him to see reason and make at least some of these changes.

1a. Kamala Harris, like her or not, has established that she is tough, smart and reasonable. IF Biden should start to indicate that he's not performing well or living up to his promises or, God forbid, start to decline mentally, it appears that Biden will have Harris and other people who will not just let things slide. Biden is reasonable enough to surround himself with reasonable, independent people he will have to listen to.

2. Biden is a decent human being who recognizes some basic level of morality.

He has engaged in bad behavior in the past, no doubt, but he has the basic moral reasoning to recognize his error and change.

Again, this is a very low bar, and yet, it needs to be pointed out, given our current reality.

I am not one who believes our politicians need to be saints, Godly people or even believers in a particular faith or any faith. However, if these last four years of moral chaos have taught us nothing, it's that having an amoral leader who gives no indication of having a moral compass is just not tenable.

3. Biden recognizes the threat of climate change and is willing to listen to experts. I've recently heard an ultra-conservative complain about the current president's narcissistic wish to change environmental regulations to let shower heads use more water. This particular conservative lives in the arid west and while he's no tree hugger, he recognizes that we need to conserve water, at least in arid places, just as a matter of reason. This is just obvious based upon the data and the advice of experts.

Biden will listen to scientific experts when it comes to climate change.

4. On that same page, Biden will listen to medical experts when it comes to dealing with Covid. Again, this is a very low bar and yet, it's where we are. We NEED our leaders to listen to experts in each field when making policy. Biden will do this.

5. In our lifetime, the data shows that the policies of Democrat presidents have improved the economy and tended to decrease the debt. Looking at the data, Reagan, Bush, Bush, Trump... all have left us in deeper debt and tended to not improve the economy to the degree of the Democrat presidents. While it is true that the ultra-wealthy have done better under GOP presidencies, it doesn't tend to be true for the rest of the population. Biden is likely to continue that trend. WITH THE CAVEAT: We need policies that improve the economic status of those with disabilities, immigrants, women, black people... all the US, not just the better off. We'll need to push Biden, I think, to do this and keep an eye on the betterment of all of us.

6. On that line of thinking, Biden IS appealing to a very Big Tent. His campaign is including all of us and looks like all of America. It's nice to see women, minorities, gay folk, trans folk, people with disabilities, immigrants, refugees, liberal and moderate... all being part of the party. This one is easily one of the more solid reasons to vote for Biden.

7. Draining the swamp. This is a mixed bag. Biden has heavy connections to the DEMOCRAT machine. This runs the risk of him relying upon people who make up the Swamp. But Biden's campaign is already looking less swampy than past Democrats and certainly more so than the current GOP administration.

As is true for all the GOP presidents in the last 60 years, this current administration is littered with criminals and corrupt actors. The data shows that there are just vastly more criminals and indicted types in GOP presidential administrations (something like 50:1, GOP criminality vs Democrat). The Obama/Biden administration was relatively squeaky clean on this front. There's no indication that Biden will foster a criminal/corrupt administration and hopefully, he'll truly drain the swamp and rely upon seasoned, reasonable experts and public servants, not those with agendas contrary to their public service duties (ie, not hiring a coal business millionaire to run the EPA, not hiring an anti-public school millionaire to head up the Education cabinet, etc)

8. The man is Amtrak Joe. He believes in public transport, in public schools, in public life. He believes in government for the good of the people. He doesn't believe in conspiracy theories about Deep State Baddies.

He's Amtrak Joe. For 36 years, he rode public transport. He's walked that walk, at the least.

9. More than two dozen former GOP congresspeople have endorsed Joe Biden. Not to mention the many conservatives who were not in Congress. If even conservative leaders recognize that Biden is the better choice, that says something.

I know that may cause my more liberal friends be suspicious, but the thing is, we are not a majority liberal nation. We are a nation of conservatives, moderates, liberals and all of us are all over the map. We need a leader who can unite this nation and take us in a forward direction. If liberals, moderates and conservatives can all agree on Biden/Harris, I see that as a good thing.

10. Biden trusts the media and won't wage attacks on them.

As with many of these, this is such a low bar that it shouldn't be necessary to point out. And yet, it is. We will not see Biden calling Fox News - who are very problematic from a professional journalism point of view - "an enemy of the people." He won't call the media fake and dodge reasonable questions and generally attack and undermine the free press.

This is vital and we need a change in our nation on this front. The media is composed of humans and, that being the case, will always be flawed and have biases, but professional journalism - and especially the higher ideals of it as found at NPR and BBC and similar classy groups dedicated to high standards of journalism - is vital to our nation and reporters should be recognized as heroes to human rights and liberty, not venomously and endlessly attacked.

Biden will not do this. He just won't. And that's vital.

+++++++++++

For starters.

I'm not the biggest fan of Biden, but like Obama before him, he has demonstrated himself to be a reasonable public servant who does recognize that now is a time for change.

If anyone has other reasons to vote FOR Biden (as opposed to voting against Trump) please add them in the comments.

The Bible and Sin

Stan, at his blog today, is talking about "the Bible and sin," supposedly. He says that we miss the enormity and seriousness of sin. Stan says... 

"We have a problem with definitions here. First, we think of "sin" as a faux pas, a boo-boo, an embarrassing blunder, perhaps. Scripture considers it a transgression of the Most High and to violate the glory of the Most High deserves the ultimate penalty -- eternal death."

I asked him the reasonable question: DOES "Scripture consider it a transgression of the Most High..."? and if so, where? DOES the Bible describe sin as the absolute worst ever and that any and all sin is deserving of eternal torture (an eternity in a burning hell, whether that's figurative or literal "burning," as evangelicals promise)?

Where?

It's a reasonable question if someone is citing the Bible as their authority for that claim. Of course, to really prove it, they need more than their beliefs about what their particular holy book says, as they translate and interpret it. But I was just starting at the beginning.

Rather than responding, he says he never reads my comments and assumes I was saying something else that I was not saying. Of course. When you assume...

I also cited a website talking about how "sin" is used in the Bible.

"The Hebrew and Greek words translated “sin” throughout the Bible revolve largely around two major concepts. The first is that of transgression. To transgress means “to step across” or “to go beyond a set boundary or limit.” This concept can be compared to an athletic playing field with lines delineating the boundaries within which the game is played. When a player crosses over those boundary lines, he has committed a “transgression” and gone out of bounds. Limits are set that define the playing area, and the players are to stay within the limits of that area.

Most of the other words translated “sin” in the Bible involve a second concept, “to miss the mark.” Again, to use a sports analogy, if a player aims for the goal and misses, how many points does he get? None. He missed the goal, missed the mark at which he was aiming."

https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/how-does-the-bible-define-sin

Out of time. More later...

Undone by Grief and Fury

I wonder

if there will come a time

when people who have been

fooled by a con man

who was utterly corrupt

and dishonest

and harmful in his words and actions

and this con man's corruption

was so painfully obvious

that a large majority of people

around the globe

knew about it

but were unable to convince

the people fooled by him

I wonder

if there will ever come a time

when those taken in by the Con

will recognize the depths of the depravity

of the con man

and the degree to which they were fooled

and if they will recognize how obvious

it should have been to them?

Will there ever come a time

where those conned by the deviant

will get angry at him for the Con?

Will there ever come a time

where they will get angry at

themselves

for failing to see what most of the world could see?

Or will they take this Con

to the grave with them

confident that they were right

and that historians

and experts

and scholars

and regular people

fellow citizens

and others around the world

were all mistaken?

Will there ever be a time

when they come

undone

by grief and fury?

Listen

Sharing some words of wisdom from Caroline Randall Williams. Listen...

"I have rape-colored skin. My light-brown-blackness is a living testament to the rules, the practices, the causes of the Old South. If there are those who want to remember the legacy of the Confederacy, if they want monuments, well, then, my body is a monument. My skin is a monument. Dead Confederates are honored all over this country — with cartoonish private statues, solemn public monuments and even in the names of United States Army bases. It fortifies and heartens me to witness the protests against this practice and the growing clamor from serious, nonpartisan public servants to redress it. But there are still those — [government leaders] — who cannot understand the difference between rewriting and reframing the past. I say it is not a matter of “airbrushing” history, but of adding a new perspective.

I am a black, Southern woman, and of my immediate white male ancestors, all of them were rapists. My very existence is a relic of slavery and Jim Crow. According to the rule of hypodescent (the social and legal practice of assigning a genetically mixed-race person to the race with less social power) I am the daughter of two black people, the granddaughter of four black people, the great-granddaughter of eight black people.

Go back one more generation and it gets less straightforward, and more sinister. As far as family history has always told, and as modern DNA testing has allowed me to confirm, I am the descendant of black women who were domestic servants and white men who raped their help.

It is an extraordinary truth of my life that I am biologically more than half white, and yet I have no white people in my genealogy in living memory. No. Voluntary. Whiteness. I am more than half white, and none of it was consensual. White Southern men — my ancestors — took what they wanted from women they did not love, over whom they had extraordinary power, and then failed to claim their children.

What is a monument but a standing memory? An artifact to make tangible the truth of the past. My body and blood are a tangible truth of the South and its past. The black people I come from were owned by the white people I come from. The white people I come from fought and died for their Lost Cause. And I ask you now, who dares to tell me to celebrate them? Who dares to ask me to accept their mounted pedestals?

You cannot dismiss me as someone who doesn’t understand. You cannot say it wasn’t my family members who fought and died. My blackness does not put me on the other side of anything. It puts me squarely at the heart of the debate. I don’t just come from the South. I come from Confederates. I’ve got rebel-gray blue blood coursing my veins. My great-grandfather Will was raised with the knowledge that Edmund Pettus was his father. Pettus, the storied Confederate general, the grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, the man for whom Selma’s Bloody Sunday Bridge is named. So I am not an outsider who makes these demands. I am a great-great-granddaughter.

And here I’m called to say that there is much about the South that is precious to me. I do my best teaching and writing here. There is, however, a peculiar model of Southern pride that must now, at long last, be reckoned with.

This is not an ignorant pride but a defiant one. It is a pride that says, “Our history is rich, our causes are justified, our ancestors lie beyond reproach.” It is a pining for greatness, if you will, a wish again for a certain kind of American memory. A monument-worthy memory.

But here’s the thing: Our ancestors don’t deserve your unconditional pride. Yes, I am proud of every one of my black ancestors who survived slavery. They earned that pride, by any decent person’s reckoning. But I am not proud of the white ancestors whom I know, by virtue of my very existence, to be bad actors.

Among the apologists for the Southern cause and for its monuments, there are those who dismiss the hardships of the past. They imagine a world of benevolent masters, and speak with misty eyes of gentility and honor and the land. They deny plantation rape, or explain it away, or question the degree of frequency with which it occurred.

To those people it is my privilege to say, I am proof. I am proof that whatever else the South might have been, or might believe itself to be, it was and is a space whose prosperity and sense of romance and nostalgia were built upon the grievous exploitation of black life.

The dream version of the Old South never existed. Any manufactured monument to that time in that place tells half a truth at best. The ideas and ideals it purports to honor are not real. To those who have embraced these delusions: Now is the time to re-examine your position.

Either you have been blind to a truth that my body’s story forces you to see, or you really do mean to honor the oppressors at the expense of the oppressed, and you must at last acknowledge your emotional investment in a legacy of hate.

Either way, I say the monuments of stone and metal, the monuments of cloth and wood, all the man-made monuments, must come down. I defy any sentimental Southerner to defend our ancestors to me. I am quite literally made of the reasons to strip them of their laurels.

Caroline Randall Williams (@caroranwill) is the author of “Lucy Negro, Redux” and “Soul Food Love,” and a writer in residence at Vanderbilt University.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/opinion/confederate-monuments-racism.html

A Message on Racism from the Veggie Tales Creator

This video is very helpful and educational and comes from the very traditional creator of the Christian animated series, "Veggie Tales." Well done, Phil Vischer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGUwcs9qJXY&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1MZgNhlG7rstfYbE6wP9UDKdmdnDworN8dq7Ir89lPllrHYTWYpe_xZq4

The Confederacy Were Traitors and Terrorists who Defended Slavery

I've been having some conversations with some conservative folk lately about the Confederacy, where these conservatives made it clear that they did not view the Confederates as traitors to the US (they were) and that they did not believe that the war was fought to defend slavery (it was).

I was looking into how wide spread this thinking was. I found a range of surveys with different numbers, but it appears that a large portion of the US does not view the Confederacy as traitors (!) (the "traitors" designation is mine, but the point being, that the Confederacy was wrong) who waged war to defend slavery. 

The numbers, depending on how the questions were asked, make it appear as if only about half the nation recognizes that defending slavery was the (or at least one of the) primary reason for the Confederacy waging war against the US and that only 67% view the Confederacy in a negative light (!). That is mind-blowing to me.

Historians almost unanimously disagree. Here's one historian making some good points.

++++++++++++

"The decision of slaveholding states to secede, to separate from the United States, was the culmination of a 30-year effort to protect the right to hold property in persons—the institution of slavery. It came in response to Abraham Lincoln’s election, the first of an openly antislavery candidate and party...

Nascent Confederates were candid about their motives; indeed, they trumpeted them to the world. Most states wrote justifications of their decision to rebel, as Jefferson had in the Declaration of Independence. Mississippi’s, called the “Declaration of Immediate Causes,” said bluntly that the state’s “position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery.” The North, it said, was advocating “negro equality, socially and politically,” leaving Mississippi no choice but to “submit to degradation, and to the loss of property worth four billions of money or … secede from the Union...”

"...In late February 1861, in Montgomery, Alabama, the seven breakaway states formed the C.S.A.; swore in a president, Jefferson Davis; and wrote a constitution...

It bound the Congress and territorial governments to recognize and protect “the institution of negro slavery.” But the centerpiece of the Confederate constitution—the words that upend any attempt to cast it simply as a copy of the original—was a wholly new clause that prohibited the government from ever changing the law of slavery:

“No … law denying or impairing the right of property
in negro slaves shall be passed.”

It also moved to limit democracy by explicitly confining the right to vote to white men.

Confederates wrote themselves a pro-slavery constitution for a pro-slavery state..."
++++++++++++

The entire article can be found in the Atlantic...

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/confederacy-wasnt-what-you-think/613309/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Make America Again

Celebrating Juneteenth with the ever-prescient words of Langston Hughes...

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,

And yet I swear this oath—

America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,

The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,

We, the people, must redeem

The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.

The mountains and the endless plain—

All, all the stretch of these great green states—

And make America again!

True Story

 The red-shouldered hawk was sitting near and 

menacing 

a family of robins in the maple in our back yard

Then, mom and dad robin began 

yelling 

yelling down the hawk, 

from a distance, 

complaining about his presence

Mother and father were joined by three, 

then a dozen other robins, 

all squawking and yelling at the hawk

who still sat there

menacing

the smaller birds

One of the robins 

(the mom, I suspect, because, Moms) flew 

right up 

to the hawk and 

barked in his face

Other robins also got closer 

soon, even more robins joined in 

and then 

two cardinals and 

other birds I couldn't recognize

little sparrows maybe

all yelling at the hawk

I think they were saying

We are not your prey.

The Other America

The words of Dr King...

I'd like to use a subject from which to speak this afternoon, the Other America.

And I use this subject because there are literally two Americas. One America is beautiful for situation. And, in a sense, this America is overflowing with the milk of prosperity and the honey of opportunity. This America is the habitat of millions of people who have food and material necessities for their bodies; and culture and education for their minds; and freedom and human dignity for their spirits. In this America, millions of people experience every day the opportunity of having life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in all of their dimensions. And in this America millions of young people grow up in the sunlight of opportunity.

But tragically and unfortunately, there is another America. This other America has a daily ugliness about it that constantly transforms the ebulliency of hope into the fatigue of despair. In this America millions of work-starved men walk the streets daily in search for jobs that do not exist. In this America millions of people find themselves living in rat-infested, vermin-filled slums. In this America people are poor by the millions. They find themselves perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.

In a sense, the greatest tragedy of this other America is what it does to little children. Little children in this other America are forced to grow up with clouds of inferiority forming every day in their little mental skies. As we look at this other America, we see it as an arena of blasted hopes and shattered dreams. Many people of various backgrounds live in this other America. Some are Mexican Americans, some are Puerto Ricans, some are Indians, some happen to be from other groups. Millions of them are Appalachian whites. But probably the largest group in this other America in proportion to its size in the Population is the American Negro...

 It may well be that shouts of Black Power and riots in Watts and the Harlems and the other areas, are the consequences of the white backlash rather than the cause of them. What it is necessary to see is that there has never been a single solid monistic determined commitment on the part of the vast majority of white Americans on the whole question of Civil Rights and on the whole question of racial equality. This is something that truth impels all men of good will to admit.

It is said on the Statue of Liberty that America is a home of exiles. It doesn't take us long to realize that America has been the home of its white exiles from Europe. But it has not evinced the same kind of maternal care and concern for its black exiles from Africa. It is no wonder that in one of his sorrow songs, the Negro could sing out, "Sometimes I feel like a motherless child." What great estrangement, what great sense of rejection caused a people to emerge with such a metaphor as they looked over their lives.

What I'm trying to get across is that our nation has constantly taken a positive step forward on the question of racial justice and racial equality. But over and over again at the same time, it made certain backward steps. And this has been the persistence of the so called white backlash...

 So these conditions, existence of widespread poverty, slums, and of tragic conniptions in schools and other areas of life, all of these things have brought about a great deal of despair, and a great deal of desperation. A great deal of disappointment and even bitterness in the Negro communities. And today all of our cities confront huge problems. All of our cities are potentially powder kegs as a result of the continued existence of these conditions. Many in moments of anger, many in moments of deep bitterness engage in riots.

Let me say as I've always said, and I will always continue to say, that riots are socially destructive and self-defeating. I'm still convinced that nonviolence is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom and justice. I feel that violence will only create more social problems than they will solve. That in a real sense it is impracticable for the Negro to even think of mounting a violent revolution in the United States. So I will continue to condemn riots, and continue to say to my brothers and sisters that this is not the way. And continue to affirm that there is another way.

But at the same time, it is as necessary for me to be as vigorous in condemning the conditions which cause persons to feel that they must engage in riotous activities as it is for me to condemn riots. I think America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air. Certain conditions continue to exist in our society which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots.

But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. 

And what is it that America has failed to hear?

It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years.
It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met.
And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about 
tranquility and the status quo 
than about justice, equality, and humanity. 

And so in a real sense our nation's summers of riots are caused by our nation's winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention...

 Now one of the answers it seems to me, is a guaranteed annual income, a guaranteed minimum income for all people, and for our families of our country. It seems to me that the Civil Rights movement must now begin to organize for the guaranteed annual income. Begin to organize people all over our country, and mobilize forces so that we can bring to the attention of our nation this need, and this is something which I believe will go a long long way toward dealing with the Negro's economic problem and the economic problem which many other poor people confront in our nation.

Now I said I wasn't going to talk about Vietnam, but I can't make a speech without mentioning some of the problems that we face there because I think this war has diverted attention from civil rights. It has strengthened the forces of reaction in our country and has brought to the forefront the military-industrial complex that even President Eisenhower warned us against at one time. And above all, it is destroying human lives. It's destroying the lives of thousands of the young promising men of our nation. It's destroying the lives of little boys and little girls In Vietnam.

But one of the greatest things that this war is doing to us in Civil Rights is that it is allowing the Great Society to be shot down on the battlefields of Vietnam every day. And I submit this afternoon that
we can end poverty in the United States. 
Our nation has the resources to do it. The National Gross Product of America will rise to the astounding figure of some $780 billion this year. We have the resources: The question is, whether our nation has the will, and I submit that if we can spend $35 billion a year to fight an ill-considered war in Vietnam, and $20 billion to put a man on the moon, our nation can spend billions of dollars to put God's children on their own two feet right here on earth...

 I realize and understand the discontent and the agony and the disappointment and even the bitterness of those who feel that whites in America cannot be trusted. And I would be the first to say that there are all too many who are still guided by the racist ethos. And I am still convinced that there are still many white persons of good will. And I'm happy to say that I see them every day in the student generation who cherish democratic principles and justice above principle, and who will stick with the cause of justice and the cause of Civil Rights and the cause of peace throughout the days ahead. And so I refuse to despair. I think we're gonna achieve our freedom because however much America strays away from the ideals of justice, the goal of America is freedom.

Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up in the destiny of America. Before the pilgrim fathers landed at Plymouth we were here. Before Jefferson etched across the pages of history the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence, we were here. Before the beautiful words of the Star Spangled Banner were written, we were here. For more than two centuries, our forebearers labored here without wages. They made cotton king. They built the homes of their masters in the midst of the most humiliating and oppressive conditions. And yet out of a bottomless vitality, they continued to grow and develop.

And I say that if the inexpressible cruelties of slavery couldn't stop us, the opposition that we now face, including the so-called white backlash, will surely fail. We're gonna win our freedom because both the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of the Almighty God are embodied in our echoing demands.

And so I can still sing "We Shall Overcome." We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward Justice. We shall overcome because Carlyle is right, "No lie can live forever." We shall overcome because William Cullen Bryant is right, "Truth crushed to earth will rise again." We shall overcome because James Russell Lowell is right, "Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne — Yet that scaffold sways the future." With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.

With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discourse of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to speed up the day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and live together as brothers and sisters, all over this great nation. That will be a great day, that will be a great tomorrow. In the words of the Scripture, to speak symbolically, that will be the day when the morning stars will sing together and the sons of God will shout for joy.

+++++

Read the entire speech...

https://www.crmvet.org/docs/otheram.htm

I Worship Mystery

What makes sense?

God makes sense

at least to many of us

but if not

okay then

mystery makes sense

Data makes sense, too

Of course

Measure

Weigh

Observe

Touch

Taste

Hear

See with my own damned eyes

Data makes sense

a great deal of hard-hitting

ground-level 

common demonstrable observable sense

but 

even within Data

and well-considered research

there is error

there is lack of understanding

there are unknowns

unknown

variables

equations

conclusions

unknown unknowns

and 

unknowns are a mystery

thus

mystery makes sense

like data

like research

mystery is just as observable

as data that way

We can count on mystery

even as we don't understand it

and we can count on not understanding mystery

even as we explore it

I worship mystery

and call It God