We all need more kindness, more patience, more grace, more love.
We desperately need less violence, less vitriol, less demonization of the other, especially the Struggling Other, the marginalized and poor, the ill and down and out.
Prayers for Donald Trump and the person killed in the shooting, as well as those harmed in the shooting.
Prayers for the shooter - who was not much more than a child - and their family.
Prayers for the violent and those who promote violence, that they will choose other ways.
Prayers that we all take action to see an end, or at least a lessening, of violence. Especially violence and harm towards those who struggle.
15 comments:
Trump’s ear’s width distance from death is not about god.
It’s not about rhetorical or policy warring against those who chew up the fabric of our democracy.
How many white women hate Trump? How many black women hate Trump? How many people of color, queer folk, immigrants from Trump’s “shithole”countries, hate Trump?
How many liberals hate Trump? I hate Trump. With a passion.
But who shot him? Who are the shooters?
We continuingly face the cost of of our White male supremacist culture. And our gun culture that serves it.
And we look away.
When you care more about Trump’s near miss than a score of murdered Sandy Hook children… you know who you are.
To our friends on the irrationally raging right side, it’s clear that when they care more about Trump’s near miss than a score of murdered Sandy Hook children… they make themselves known.
If you're directing your "prayers" to those beyond your own ilk, then they are as false as every other claim of Christian belief you make. I've seen these kinds of "pleas" made by other lefties, including the president, with admission of how much more common...by a large measure...such vitriol, hatred and violence is in this country.
I have always favored less of such behavior, while willing to stand against it when it comes my way. This is pretty much the gold-standard of right-wing rhetoric and posturing despite those like you pretending the biggest threat to the nation comes from our side of the ideological divide. It's just more progressive lies and projection, and it's been unrelenting and ubiquitous since at least the George W Bush days, when BDS was prevalent before Trump throwing his hat into the ring.
Who attacked the Capitol? With nooses looking for the VP from their own Party?
Marshal has obliterated his own conscience.
“The people who erected the infamous gallows and noose on the west front of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, began their work in the predawn hours that day, according to newly released videos obtained by CBS News. A report by a GOP-led U.S. House subcommittee said the perpetrators remain unaccounted for by prosecutors.
Surveillance footage shared with CBS News shows the brazenness of the work behind the gallows and noose, which have a history of racist and threatening overtones. On Jan. 6, then-Vice President Mike Pence was presiding over the joint session of Congress to certify the Electoral College count and had been pressured by former President Donald Trump to unilaterally overturn the 2020 election. He refused to do so, while outside the Capitol, protesters and rioters around the gallows and noose chanted, "Hang Mike Pence."
If you're directing your "prayers" to those beyond your own ilk, then they are as false as every other claim of Christian belief you make.
I'm offering a prayer for peace and basic kindness. I'm calling for us to take a stand against those who promote chaos and violence and hatred.
Do you reject such efforts? If so, why? Why attack others when they're making a call for peace and kindness?
Is it because that's part and parcel of what you stand for? If so, why?
admission of how much more common...by a large measure...such vitriol, hatred and violence is in this country.
I'm not sure what you're saying here. Are you saying we're more violent now than in the days when we enslaved humans? ...More violent now than in the days we denied votes to women and people of color? ...More violent now than the Jim Crow days in our nation? ...More violent now than when we routinely attacked, demonized (literally) and denied rights to LBGTQ folks?
We've always had violence in our nation. And we've always had the abolitionists, the protesters, the Civil Rights fighters who stood against that violence. Yes, there has been an uptick in far right hatred and attacks since at least the Obama years, back when those right wing extremists feared they were "losing their nation..." There have been regular plots and actual attacks carried out by these extremists.
I'm saying let's fight to minimize the strength that such extremists (on the right, primarily, but sometimes on the left) have, to deny them any legitimacy. Will you join us in that fight?
This is pretty much the gold-standard of right-wing rhetoric and posturing despite those like you pretending the biggest threat to the nation comes from our side of the ideological divide.
It has nothing to do with any liberal "pretense." We are/I am just looking at the data. Right wing violence has grown in the past ~20 years according to law enforcement types.
As to conservative peacemaking... that was certainly the case with my parents and other conservatives when I was younger, to some degree. But the modern Maga version of "conservatism" has been very pugnacious, with Trump literally promising to pay for legal fees for conservatives at his rallies to assault reporters or protesters. With Trump literally promising to pardon many (all?) of the attackers on January 6... those violent people who harmed hundreds of law enforcement officers and, as Feodor notes, tried to hang Mike Pence for "betraying" Trump.
I'm calling for an end to such violence being promoted by our political leaders. Will you join us?
Put another way, Marshal, your side is wanting to object to Biden's use of "put a target on Trump" kind of language to indicate stopping him (peacefully) from being elected. But your maga "movement" has repeatedly used violence-provoking language about progressives. From the day that Trump rode his golden escalator down to declare his presidency where he attacked specifically Mexicans, that day, saying "They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us [sic]. They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
THAT language is inflammatory, as if most immigrants from Mexico are rapists, drug dealing criminals with "some" who are good people. THAT inflammatory language scares people like you who are willing to believe him into thinking that crime and violence are common amongst immigrants, even though the data shows otherwise.
He continued with his attacks on the free press as the "enemy of the people" and his attacks on liberals as "they want to destroy America" and "they want to take America from us..." and other inflammatory words. He continued that line of false, inflammatory attacks right up until he lost with his continued false claims that "the election was stolen..." and he continues that language to today. These ARE inflammatory words that DO incite violence. The white wing extremists will gladly tell you that Trump has emboldened them and that's why you have openly racist marchers out in the streets of the US as recently as June (probably more recent, just going from memory).
If we want to encourage the clearly peaceable Biden and Democrats to not use phrases like "put a target on Trump" that's perhaps reasonable. But, at the same time, you all need to tone down your inflammatory, violence-inducing/encouraging language. You can't ask the Democrats to tone it down while you all continue to crank it up.
First, remove the log from your eye, so that you can see.
Craig is nothing but double standards. Because he too regularly murders his conscience. Observe:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/07/18/opinion/trump-presidency-record.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb
Once again, Marshal, unsupported, false claims are not welcome here. You've overstayed your welcome when it comes to false claims.
IF you want to provide data to back up any claims you make, you may do so.
Attacking, hateful, false and unsupported claims will be deleted.
As if the Marshal Taylor Greene’s of our society could change their stained spots.
It truly is hard (but not impossible) to step outside your existing belief system. I am evidence that it can happen, but it seems to be rare.
Dan, that's an interesting painting, especially since, intended or otherwise, the man looks like a Civil War veteran from the CSA side of things.
But I do wonder why you emphasize "the Struggling Other." Sometimes it's appropriate: we should honor some members of the body far above what would be expected, see I Cor 12:21-26, esp. v. 23.
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"Is there a peculiar flavour in what you sprinkle from your torch?" asked Scrooge.
"There is. My own."
"Would it apply to any kind of dinner on this day?" asked Scrooge.
"To any kindly given. To a poor one most."
"Why to a poor one most?" asked Scrooge.
"Because it needs it most."
---
But, OTOH, we all need our daily bread, not just those who struggle, and I would hate to find myself deserving the ridicule that attends that famous fake headline, "World To End Tomorrow: Women, Minorities Hardest Hit."
BUT ALL THAT SAID.... I would otherwise offer a hearty Amen (or two!) to the sentiments of your original post, and it's not often that I've been able to say that.
It's not a civil war veteran. Just a gray looking baseball cap on a gray looking man. As to having our concern begin with the least of these, the poor and marginalized and oppressed... as Jesus taught: I think this makes sense NOT just because Jesus taught it nor that we should live it out because it's a line from the bible. Rather, I think it makes rational, bottom-line moral common sense.
If and when the poor are being watched out for... poor neighborhoods are NOT the ones targeted for destruction or pollution, rising oceans NOT hitting the poorest ones... THEN it helps us all. In the past, if we were fine with putting a toxic pollution plant next to a poor neighborhood, no one may have noticed because the poor don't have the clout to oppose such things. BUT, if they're being watched out for and they move that polluting plant next to a middle class or - God forbid! - a high income neighborhood, well, THEN we hear about it and it's stopped.
A rising tide of common sense and decency lifts us all and IF we're measuring and assessing how it's going to impact the poor, then we're also measuring and assessing if it's something we even need or want, at least without changes.
It's rational, I believe, and supportable by data and hard numbers, not merely an appeal to a Bible verse.
That is why it makes sense to me.
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