POLITICS – lpb quest – the twilight dance

October 4, 2020October 4, 2020

Feast of St. Francis

“Many churches in the United States celebrate the Feast of St Francis of Assisi on October 4 each year. The feast commemorates the life of St Francis, who was born in the 12th century and is the Catholic Church’s patron saint of animals and the environment. It is a popular day for pets to be “blessed”.

Does one need to be Catholic or a professor of any faith walk to appreciate the life of St. Francis of Assisi? Francis grew up privileged in a wealthy family, enjoyed partying with his young friends, got in trouble as revilers will, decided to prove his manhood by enlisting in the efforts of the Crusades, apparently met his God while riding off to battle and returned to follow a life of supplication and poverty. His dedication to the plight of the disadvantaged, his embrace of simplicity and his love for the environment are highlights of many historical accounts. Our contemporary Franciscan order replicates the lives of Francis and Clare of Assisi.

Fast forward to 2020 and the chaos facing Americans in choosing a President. On one hand we have President Trump, apparently bolstered by numerous religious leaders proclaiming he has been sent by God to save America, holding a bible in front of St. John’s Church threatening to use military troops against protesters . Counter that with the image of Joe Biden, a practicing Catholic, paying respects to Justice Ginsburg lying in state at the Capitol. Among many Christian denominations, crossing one’s self while quietly repeating, “In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost”, is indicative of that person’s belief in the Holy Trinity. Joe Biden bowed his head, crossed himself and moved on with wife Jill at his side.

Which scenario gives us comfort? Which visual image fortifies our trust in the faith walk of the man who will become President on November 3rd? To those naysayers who would comment that religion and politics should not mix, I must agree. But, a person’s declaration of faith is of ultimate importance. A man who promotes violence and discord cannot be a man of Christian values. Holding up a Bible while urging the military to move in on civil protest would not be the course of action Jesus emphasized.

So, if you profess Christianity, if you proclaim to be a follower of Jesus, which are you – a Jesus follower or a fake Christian? This is another reason I will vote the Biden/ Harris ticket on November 3rd. It has nothing to do with my religion or God beliefs. It is all about the one who attempts to deceive us.

July 22, 2020

ALBUQUERQUE – you’re next

REUTERS

Not only has the presence of feds in Portland not reduced the number of protestors, the peaceful marchers have dramatically increased bringing international and national attention to the plight of Black America. The ploy of the WH seems to have backfired, although we cannot underestimate what Washington D.C. is willing to undertake in efforts to establish its authoritarian power over the rights of states and citizens.

Coming to your home town – Albuquerque, you appear to be the next city in the crosshairs. Brace yourselves and may God be with you. Authoritarianism is rolling across America.

So many of us have lived our lives placing unmerited value on the opinions of others while discrediting our personal truth and reality. Breaking the shackles of people-pleasing requires honest self-appraisal, a healthy dose of self-esteem, and an enormous commitment to self-realization.

….as near as the destination may be, it’s still the journey that matters….

July 20, 2020July 20, 2020

coming soon to your town

No, I’m not talking about a circus, a new movie release, a new box store. Federal agents have invaded the city of Portland, Oregon ostensibly to quell the rioting ‘anarchists’ who, according to WH reports, are overtaking the city. Local Portland and state of Oregon officials are saying the protests are mostly peaceful and demanding the feds get out of their city.

Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum has sued multiple federal agencies alleging agents in unmarked vehicles have grabbed people off Portland’s streets without a warrant in recent days. USA TODAY

The AG says the tactics are similar to kidnapping. Should we be surprised? The same WH has caged children on our southern border, condoned police brutality publicly and excused the Charlottesville fiasco stating that there were ‘good people’ among the neo-Nazi torch carriers.

We can not afford to turn and look the other way, to be indifferent to the vile force posing as government protection. Non-violent protest is our trump card. MLK,Jr. and Gandhi have proven that violent government intervention cannot win over non-violence. The feds can intimidate, kidnap, beat with billy clubs, and arrest, but cannot crush the spirit of non-violent protest.

In the 1960s and 1970s peaceniks and flower children led the marches. The feds called my brothers and sisters cowards and communists. But, old passions won’t die, will they? We simply became older peaceniks. We ended the Vietnam War and we got Civil Rights legislation passed. We, the peacemakers, prevailed then and we can do so today.

“I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without first having spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today – my own government.”

….as near as the destination may be, it’s still the journey that matters….

July 20, 2020July 19, 2020

indifference

….as near as the destination may be, it’s still the journey that matters….

Speaking to a friend today, she shared her recent experience when her son and grandchildren came to visit. Their conversation turned to the Holocaust. Her 15 year-old grandson drew a blank stare of unknowing. Looking to her son, my friend asked, “He does know about the Holocaust, doesn’t he?”

“No,” replied the son, “they don’t teach it in school.”

They don’t teach it in school! Over 6 million people were systematically murdered in one of humanity’s most wretched schemes of genocide less than a century ago….and they don’t teach it in schools. Survivors have related their tales of horror at the hands of Nazi Germany, SCHINDLER’S LIST was an epic fact-based movie portraying the horror at the hands of Nazi Germany, Elie Wiesel, several years after his release from Buchenwald, wrote in detail the horror at the hands of Nazi Germany…and they don’t teach it in schools.

Today I think about what I would do if the same thing happened in America. Would I have the courage to stand up and defend a persecuted, demonized, scapegoated man with an odd last name, a Muslim woman wearing a niqab, a black man in dread locks, or a Hasidic Jew? Of course, I would.

Oh, by the way, what if my country has embraced white nationalism and has become a bustling hub of neo-Nazism? What’s the answer now? “Well, that certainly will not happen,” I reassure myself.

Really? Do we think that in Germany, in the early 1930s, the gentle, God-fearing, Lutheran citizens anticipated Hitler and a Nazi Germany with goose-stepping soldiers wearing swastikas on their arms would parade the streets, that Jews would be rounded up and put into death camps only a decade later? Can we afford to be that naive?

And the question again is whether I would risk my life and liberty to defend someone less white than me, less privileged than me, someone who is Jewish, Muslim, or any of the others on the target list of white nationalists and white supremacists? Or will I stand by the railroads and watch cattle cars loaded with humans pass by on the way to the ‘final solution’ and turn the other way?

We must remember and teach to our children the sad episodes of human depravity including American slavery, the relocation of Native Americans, the unwillingness to aid the Jews in WWII, the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during WWII, and the horrors of the Holocaust.
We must confront the cowardice of white supremacy and the neo-Nazi movement in America.
We must remember the words of Elie Wiesel:

“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.”

The late Congressman John Lewis reflected in his remarks upon receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama:

“never get lost in a sea of despair…have this abiding faith that there are things that are so right, so good, so necessary that you are willing to die for…”

What mountain am I willing to defend? What things so good, so right and so necessary am I willing to die for?

alone calm faith light — Photo by Garon Piceli on Pexels.com

July 18, 2020

Tommy Tuberville

….as near as the destination may be, it’s still the journey that matters….

So one homophobe (Tuberville) beat out another homophobe (Sessions) in an Alabama Republican Senate Primary race. Surprised? The elections in November will pit Tuberville, a former Auburn University football coach (read: no public service experience) against Senator Doug Jones, the first elected Democratic senator in Alabama in 25 years who pulled a stunning victory in a special runoff in 2017 against Roy Moore who was scandalized by assertions of sexual misconduct with minor girls. Dangit! Those Alabama Republicans certainly do have their sexual hangups, don’t they? https://www.glaad.org

Ahh, do we feel safer now in covid-laced America since the Administration has directed hospitals to “send data on Covid-19 patients, available medical equipment and other information directly to the Department of Health and Human Services’ data portal, instead of the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network.” It’s so comforting 😠 to know we need not worry – our government has this under control. https://www.cnbc.com

…..and speaking of government control, once again protestors in Portland, Oregon are being targeted by feds in unmarked vehicles, carted away without explanation to locations undisclosed. The ‘law and order’ POTUS has ordered this action much to the dismay of city and state officials. Hmmm, should we learn to goosestep, maybe? https://www.cnbc.com

RBG is again struggling with health issues. Let’s share our strength with her and bring her to recovery. Lord knows, we need her voice on the SCOTUS. https://www.iheart.com

July 18, 2020July 17, 2020

freedom or license

….as near as the destination may be, it’s still the journey that matters….

“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.” MARK TWAIN

GOD, GUNS, COUNTRY – I am moved to waves of nausea when I see this political sign in my neighbor’s front yard. It does not matter which political affiliation is being endorsed. How on earth can anyone associate God with guns with country? Truly, if there is a rational answer, I do not see it.

I overheard while entering the grocery store, one of three first responders shopping for lunch say, “I’m not wearing any damned mask.” Okay, you could say he was exercising his freedom, his 1st Amendment rights. But is that a right if it infringes on the rights of the other shoppers who want to walk through the aisles safely with a modicum of protection from covid-19? That fireman’s declaration of his freedoms is more accurately defined as ‘license’, a motivation driven by ego and self-centeredness. Not a good thing, not necessarily a bad thing, but let’s not confuse freedom and license.

Nationalism is part of our political conversation these days. Again, good or bad? I am proud of my country’s people, of the diversity which melds us into one great society advocating justice and equality for all. I love my country when it humbly takes its place as one nation among a multitude of other nations recognizing its virtues along with its sins. On the other hand, I shudder when I hear, “America, love it or leave it,” “America first,” “my country, right or wrong.”

……and I still get nauseated when I have to look at my neighbor’s political sign, “God, guns, country.” I suppose there are some things that are not meant for me to understand.

July 12, 2020July 11, 2020

lemonade, anyone?

No, I am not going to bend your ears about my lemon trees in the back yard, although they are indeed worthy of mention. And I am not going to share my life-long dream of having a lemonade stand out front by the highway. I would need a county license, would have to file the income with the IRS, and would see an increase in my house insurance because of the added liability. All for 25 cents a cup – I don’t think so.

What I will do is share the wisdom of Grandpa advising me how to respond to life when life was nothing but a basket of lemons. “Make lemonade,” he said. Grandpa loved homemade lemonade on a hot, summer afternoon after a hard morning’s work in the potato fields.

Richard Rohr @ cac.org would have loved my Grandpa. A follower of the Franciscan order, Richard writes daily in his blog concerning issues that every earthly human faces in everyday life. Traditional Christian theology promoting ‘salvation’ takes a back seat to sitting at the Jesus table experiencing all of life with all its complexities and heartaches. At this table, where there is a seat for everyone, communing with society’s oppressed and downtrodden is more relevant to the faith walk than ascending the heaven-bound ladder of religion’s ‘thou shalt and thou shalt not.’

I think Richard probably loves lemonade too. He talks about the covid-19 dilemma forcing us to self-quarantine, isolate socially and wear masks. It can be a debilitating event in our lives or it can be an opportunity to focus on our families and loved ones at home getting to know them more intimately and lovingly. We are learning to get by with less expensive amusement from outside sources and staying within the beauty, safety, and comfort of our home environment. Virtual communication with family and friends via internet connections is not the bogeyman we all feared. Conducting one’s job responsibilities from the home computer has distinct advantages (who needs an elaborate wardrobe to go to work or a shiny car to commute?)

And as we address the world’s other potentially debilitating problems….MAKE LEMONADE. The lemons being harvested from a corrupt and dysfunctional political system have brought civics to our supper tables nationwide. Remember civics class in high school? Yes, we talked about the rights and duties of citizenship. We remembered that many people living under authoritarian or dictatorial governments don’t have civics class because they don’t have rights. Ahhh, another glass of lemonade, please?

Or consider the pot of racism simmering on the back burner for decades which is now being addressed honestly and openly. Those sour fruits from the white supremacist factions of our society have surfaced under an accommodating Administration forcing an uncomfortable self-inventory – am I a racist? Many of us before this revelation would have summarily replied, “Hell no, I have a bunch of friends who are Negro.” More lemonade, maybe, with a large twist of humility?

And while we’re on a roll, let’s look at our country’s rampant, materialistic economy which is enriching a handful of corporate pockets while an overwhelming majority of our population lives pay check to pay check. Do you really believe the wealthy are scrimping and saving like most of us are during this virus-forced economic downturn? No, they continue to turn a profit hand over fist. Perhaps this time of pandemic is the time we take stock of our materialistic excesses and embrace simplicity as a better way for us and for our earth. Our society has refused to do this voluntarily, but perhaps now with a simpler lifestyle forced upon us, we will realize it is not the end of the world.

There it is in a nutshell – my love for lemonade. We can continue to lament the ‘way things used to be’ or we can anticipate with excitement and expectation a new way which tells us the earth is overflowing with bounty and goodness and lots of lemons.

July 11, 2020

“our nation, our heritage, our culture”

Much has been said concerning the verbal exchanges between Tucker Carlson and Senator Tammy Duckworth. Carlson’s rhetoric was inflammatory, the Senator’s response was appropriate, and we must believe that the Fox News host’s dialog was intentionally directed to a specific element of the American population.

In the remaining few minutes of his segment on Duckworth, he called her a “fraud” and “a callous hack.” Then he brought up Ilhan Omar, a favorite target, and said those who like the U.S. “have every right to fight to preserve our nation and our heritage and our culture” from “vandals like Tammy Duckworth and Ilhan Omar.”

NYMag.com/intellingencer

What is the heritage and culture of which he is speaking and why is he labeling Tammy Duckworth and Ilhan Omar as “vandals?” Perhaps, to better understand we need to look at his audience. Are they racially diverse and indicative of the demographic changes happening in America? Are they part of America’s minorities who justifiably question the country’s commitment to freedom and equality for all?

Probably not. The Tucker Carlson audience wants to maintain the privilege and exclusionary practices of an America which has seen nearly 250 years of systemic covert and more recently overt racism and oppression of the minority population. And that is understandable – why should white America want to give up the privileges they have enjoyed for centuries?

But, that objective is not moral nor is it sustainable in a civil society. According to the demographic gurus, Caucasian America will be the minority by mid-century. Resistance to change and transformation is the sign of a decaying society. Protecting America from “vandals” like Tammy Duckworth and Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is akin to 1930s Germany protecting its population from the Jewish threat.

The threat does not come from the presence of minorities, religious creeds, nationalities, and varying lifestyle choices. It comes from those who fear change and transformation, those who are willing to demean and demonize others who do not fit into a narrow paradigm based on privilege and exclusion.

July 10, 2020July 10, 2020

good news…..I guess

pride8

SCOTUS decision

By a vote of 7-2, our SCOTUS denied the bid of our POTUS to reign supreme over the justice system. Check out the link above from YES MAGAZINE for the details. No, we are not yet out of the woods threatening our democracy, but there is a glimmer of hope shining through the circus which has become our government.

July 9, 2020

served your country – so what?

pride8

It was 1968. Lyndon Johnson had won easily in the 1964 Presidential election after finishing the term of President Kennedy who was assassinated in November of 1963. But the political scene took a few nasty turns and in March of 1968 Johnson decided to drop out of the race.

Many Americans were disgusted with the Vietnam War, the blacks were disenchanted with the Civil Rights Act, the corruption of DC politicians became fodder for the frenzied press. Brave, young warriors, disproportionately African-American, were coming home in flag draped coffins to an angry and unsettled America. Those who survived the horrors of Vietnam often came home to chants of “baby killers” and were spat upon at the airports.

For many years thereafter, veterans responsibly assured future military warriors and heroes that this display of cowardice and disrespect toward service men and women would never, ever happen again in the United States of America. If nothing else, the dignity of military service would be honored and respected regardless of political alignment or social status. It had nothing to do with flags, parades, or memorial services. It was simply a matter of revering the sacrifices of all who served their country whether in war times or peace.

During the 2016 campaign for President, the Republican Party hosted a wide array of worthy and qualified contenders for the party’s nomination. One of them was Senator John McCain, a Vietnam War hero who was captured and subsequently spent five years in a POW camp suffering torture at the hands of his captors resulting in permanent physical disability. Yet his documented valor in the line of duty was discredited by a man who had spent his war years in NYC “fighting off STDs” in a period of time which he termed as “my personal Vietnam.” Trump referred to Senator McCain as a “loser for getting himself captured, not really a war hero.” The 4 time draft-dodger went on to win the Republican nomination.

Enter Tucker Carlson of Fox News, a champion of the current POTUS and outspoken critic of anything or anyone not clad in the American flag and the traditional red MAGA cap. Like his WH master and trainer, Carlson has not one day of military experience nor public service. Yet, the self-proclaimed guru of patriotism has leveled a stream of negative invective against Senator Tammy Duckworth who had both her legs blown off while serving her country in combat in Iraq.

On Tuesday, Carlson called Duckworth, who is being vetted as Joe Biden’s possible running mate, a “moron,” a “coward,” and a “fraud.” He also called on those who love America to defend “our nation and our heritage and our culture” against Duckworth, Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar, and those like them.

During an online fundraiser Tuesday, Biden said the attacks on Duckworth were “disgusting, sickening,” and a “reflection of the depravity of what’s going on in the White House right now.”

The depravity of which Joe Biden speaks is rampant not only in the White House. It is a contagion infecting the soul of America, it is as deadly as covid-19 and it is spearheaded by men like Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump. Having never stood shoulder to shoulder with others in military uniform, having never spent a day in service to this old codger country, having never fought in combat and severely injured, having never seen the inside of a POW camp, how dare you, Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump question the patriotism of those who served with honor and valor? ‘Loser, moron, coward, fraud’ – the words are applicable, but being applied to the wrong set of characters in this sad episode of American history.

TAMMY DUCKWORTH

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