Keep the Focus

The national and international focus over the last several weeks is that “Black Lives Matter.”  George Floyd mattered.  Brionna Taylor mattered.  The focus is NOT on standing for the national anthem, defunding the police, the dismantling of statues, rioters, Antifa, anarchists or arsonists.  These are distractions.  The focus is that “Black Lives Matter” because in so many cases in this country they do not seem to matter.  This is what is being protested in accordance with the Constitution’s First Amendment:  “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”  There are grievances that need to be redressed—Black Lives Matter.  Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, and many others mattered. “Say their names,” because they mattered!  Black Lives Matter.

Jesus healed the demon-possessed Gerasene, and, according to the story, sent those demons into a herd of pigs which immediately went crazy and ran pell-mell over a cliff.  The farmers lambasted Jesus and demanded he leave their district for destroying their pigs (property, statues, comfort-zones, and other cherished proprieties).  They missed seeing the liberation of the Gerasene!  Even today, when people retell the story the focus is often on the loss of the pigs  rather than on the liberation of the Gerasene from his grievances.

We are doing the same thing as those farmers did.  Keep focused.  It isn’t about standing for the national anthem.  It isn’t about defunding the police.  It isn’t about rioters, Antifa, anarchists or arsonists.  It isn’t about property.  It isn’t about statues.  It is about the liberation of human life—Black human life—and that is what matters.  That’s the priority—don’t lose the focus, don’t be dissuaded.  Don’t let anyone mislead you with the distractions.  The important thing is Black Lives Matter!  The focus is on petitioning for a redress of grievances.  

Statues VS Statutes

The Second of the Ten Commandments reads:  “You shall not make a carved image [a graven image] for yourself nor the likeness of anything in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth.  You shall not bow down and worship them….(Exodus 20:4-5).”  Statues are “graven images” made in the likeness of a person or an animal.  A statue is normally life-size or larger than life.  The Statue of Liberty, for example, is 305 feet high; the Statue of Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial is 19 feet high.  A statue may be made of plaster, wood, marble, cloth, or metal.  

The Second Commandment’s “shall not” has not prevented us from making graven images and has not stopped us from coming “just short” of idolizing some of those graven images (statues).  What bothers me even more than the second commandment about statues, however, is what Tommy Douglas (Canadian Baptist minister and politician—considered the father of socialized medicine in Canada) said about them.  “I don’t mind being a symbol but I don’t want to become a monument.  There are monuments all over the Parliament Buildings and I’ve seen what the pigeons do to them.”

Now a statue is not a “Statute.”  A “Statute” is a law—a physical document that expresses the law of the land as enacted by a legislative body.  The United States Constitution is a “Statute.”  It may have been a monumental effort to create and it may be  seen today as a monumental document—BUT, the Constitution (the law of the land) is not a monument—it is not a statue—IT IS A STATUTE.

There are those who want some “statues” taken down, finding them offensive and divisive rather than unifying.  There are others who feel that removing some of these statues is criminal. Donald Trump just signed an executive order “to prosecute to the fullest extent…any person or any entity that destroys, damages, vandalizes, or desecrates a monument, memorial, or statue within the US…”

Would that an executive order be signed today “to prosecute to the fullest extent…any person or any entity that destroys, damages, vandalizes, or desecrates the Statute of the Constitution of the United States,” particularly, the First Amendment (the rights to assemble, protest, and petition).  There are justifiable reasons to seek redress and those exercising that right are not predominantly “rioters, arsonists, and left-wing extremists.”  We can tolerate what pigeons do to statues, but we cannot allow pigeons to do the same to our founding Statute!

“Manipulated Media?”

To MANIPULATE is to “control or play upon by artful, unfair, or insidious means especially to one’s own advantage.”  Twitter labeled a video tweeted by Donald Trump last night “as ‘manipulated media’ because it attributes to news media a nonexistent story on race. The video depicts a fake CNN headline that states, ‘TERRIFIED TODDLER RUNS FROM RACIST BABY,’ as a Black toddler runs ahead of a White toddler in the same direction…The video then displays the words, ‘WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED,’ and shows the original clip of two children running toward each other on a sidewalk before embracing….”  The video says, “AMERICA IS NOT THE PROBLEM, FAKE NEWS IS.”  Who is the manipulator?

Once again I am reminded of what Trump said in a speech in Kansas City to the VFW annual convention:  “Stick with us.  Don’t believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news….What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.”  In other words, Trump was saying then and continues to say now that anything that doesn’t originate with Trump himself should be ignored.  Many of his supporters ignore facts because they aren’t coming from their horse’s mouth!

The CDC says, Practice good hygiene:  avoid social gatherings in groups of more than 10 people.  Wash your hands…avoid touching your face. Cover your mouth and nose with a cloth face cover when around others, etc.  Trump doesn’t wear a mask and it has become a political statement on the part of his supporters to do obeisance to whatever Trump says—not what scientific data says.  So many seem willing to be manipulated.

Trump will hold a campaign rally tomorrow in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  There will be more than 10 people there—many of whom, following Trump’s example, will not be wearing face masks.  Why bother? This worldwide pandemic, says Trump, will go away in “April” when it warms up.  Meanwhile, 118,000 Americans have lost their lives to this Trump-called “flu.”

We must beware of “manipulated media” from whatever source.  We must also be aware of how America is being manipulated.  

Farewell, Odysseus!

We have come to the end of a wonderful and glorious chapter in our life—a life “on the road” in Odysseus, our mini-RV.  For ten years we were privileged to travel the highways and byways of America in Odysseus.  Odysseus took us to every state between the Atlantic and the Pacific—between Canada and Mexico.  We even ventured into Canada and Nova Scotia and traveled along the southern border with Mexico.  We visited as many national parks and monuments as we could and spent time with family and friends all across this grand land under spacious skies.  We encountered a wonderful and diverse people every mile along the way—and that included a lot of miles—136,000 of them!

I think Nietzsche told this parable.  The end of a melody is not its goal:  but if the melody never reached its end it would not have reached its goal either.  So, too, the end of our days on the road was not our goal when we began, but now as it actually ends we sense all those 136,000 miles, all those places, cities, towns, experiences and people as a goal reached and obtained.  We do not grieve the ending—we celebrate it!

We celebrated it yesterday as we passed Odysseus on to our eldest son, Paul and his wife, Helen.  They have always enjoyed camping and traveling and now Odysseus will be their companion along the way.

Cher and I will continue to celebrate being “On the Road Again” as we browse the notebooks we put together after every trip and we will enjoy all over again the adventures we have known with Odysseus.

“A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience 

from which to look back or from which to look ahead.” (Graham Greene)

Farewell, Odysseus

We have come to the end of a wonderful and glorious chapter in our life—a life “on the road” in Odysseus (our mini-RV).  For ten years we were privileged to travel the highways and byways of America in Odysseus.  Odysseus took us to every state between the Atlantic and the Pacific—between Canada and Mexico.  We even ventured into Canada and Nova Scotia and traveled along the southern border with Mexico.  We visited as many National Parks and Monuments as we could and spent time with family and friends all across this grand land.  We encountered a wonderful and diverse people every mile along the way—and that included a lot of miles—136,o00 of them!

I think Nietzsche told this parable.  The end of a melody is not its goal: but if the melody never reached its end it would not have reached its goal either. So too, the end of our days on the road was not our goal when we began, but now as it actually ends we sense all those 136,000 miles, all those places, cities, towns, experiences and people as a goal reached and obtained.  We do not grieve the ending of being on the road—we celebrate it!

We celebrated yesterday as we passed Odysseus on to our eldest son, Paul, and his wife, Helen.  They have always enjoyed camping and traveling and now Odysseus will be their companion along the way.  

Cher and I will continue to celebrate being “On the Road Again” as we browse through the notebooks we put together after every trip and we will enjoy all over again the adventures we have known with Odysseus.

When My Words Do Not Suffice

When I cannot find words to say what I want,  what I feel,  and  what I mean to say, I end up turning to poetry.  The poet strings words together to form sounds, images, and ideas that are too complex or abstract to describe using my small vocabulary.  

Ultima Veritas 

When the anchors that faith has cast

  Are dragging in the gale,

I am quietly holding fast

To the things that cannot fail;

I know that right is right;

That it is not good to lie;

That love is better than spite,

And a neighbor than a spy;

I know that passion needs

The leash of a sober mind;

I know that generous deeds

Some sure reward will find;

In the darkest night of the year,

When the stars have all gone out,

That courage is better than fear,

That faith is truer than doubt;

And fierce though the fiends may fight,

And long though the angels hide,

I know that Truth and Right

Have the universe on their side;

An that somewhere, beyond the stars,

Is a Love that is better than fate;

When the night unlocks her bars

I shall see Him, and I will wait.

(Washington Gladden, 1836-1918)

“How Dare You Politicize Our Military”

I must confess that I have found “fault” with General James Mattis, both while he served as  Secretary of Defense in the Trump administration and after his resignation from that post. I viewed his silence as complicity.  When he first assumed the appointment as Secretary of Defense many of us were grateful that he would be “there” to keep things “rational.”  When he left that post many of us worried about what might occur without his military experience in that position.  In an interview after his resignation, Mattis said, “When you leave an administration over clear policy differences, you need to give the people  who are still there as much opportunity as possible to defend the country” and then added, “There is a period in which I owe my silence.  It’s not eternal.  It’s not going to be forever.”

Thank goodness that silence was not eternal and Mattis finally relinquished it.  I wish he had done so a long time ago, but that doesn’t matter now.  What does matter is that he is speaking out now in this extremely critical moment in our democracy and saying point blank that the president is “a threat to the Constitution.”  

“When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution.  Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens…We must reject any thinking of our cities as a ‘battlespace’ that our uniformed military is called upon to ‘dominate.’”

“Donald Trump,” Mattis goes on to say, “is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try.  Instead he tries to divide us.  We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate [italics added] effort.  We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership.”

“The military is not to be used against Americans,” said Sen. Tammy Duckworth.  The president  “is perverting, at best, the role of the military.  And he’s destroying what they stand for and the honor with which they serve.  It is disgusting to me.”  And it is disgusting to me, too,  and ought to be disgusting to every American citizen (and citizens in uniform).  The current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Defense should resign their positions immediately for executing unlawful orders to target peacefully assembled protestors in Washington DC.  Congress should convene a new impeachment process and remove the president from office for violating his oath of office.  Any member of Congress supporting the use of the military against Americans, or describing American cities and towns as a “battlespace” to be “dominated” should also resign for failing to uphold their oath of office.  

They (Esper and Milley) were “walking along like lap dogs

 behind a draft-dodging wannabe tinpot dictator.

 …How dare you politicize our military.” 

(Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth)

Which America Do You Want?

Option One:

“If a city or state refuses, to take the actions necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.” (Donald Trump)

This option calls for “domination” and “over-whelming force” be applied to those termed “lowlifes and losers”—“Looters and thugs”—those engaged in the current nation-wide protests. This option says it is okay to “dominate” with “overwhelming force” such people—which is the very reason for the protests.

Option Two:

Rebukes option one and the dictatorial vernacular it employs.  “Our fellow citizens are not the enemy, and must never become so.”

“We must, as citizens, address head-on the issue of police brutality and sustained injustices against the African-American community.  We must, as citizens, support and defend the right—indeed, the solemn obligation—to peacefully assemble and to be heard.  These are not mutually exclusive pursuits…And neither of these pursuits will be made easier or safer by an overly aggressive use of our military, active duty or National Guard.”  (Retired Admiral Mike Mullen (former chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff).

The Very Stones Are Crying Out

When Jesus came to Jerusalem on the day we now call “Palm” or “Passion” Sunday, the people thronged before him waving palm branches and shouting, “Hosanna.”  The Pharisees (religious leaders of the day) said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.”  Jesus answered, “I tell you this, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Luke 19:39-40).

The stones have been crying out.  Haven’t you heard the sound?  The rock-solid foundation of this nation have been screaming!  The second paragraph of the United States Declaration of Independence has been violated—not just with the murder of George Floyd—but for the past 400 years.  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (women and children, black, brown, and white) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”  When these self-evident and unalienable rights are denied—we as a nation live a lie.  The current protests across the nation are saying, “Either live these truths out or confess to the “cover-up”—the Lie.

The stones have been crying out.  Haven’t you heard the sound?  The disciples have been silent.  The Church, the Mosque and Synagogue have been predominantly reticent, failing to cry out against injustices and often siding with the status quo.  But at last, at long last, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington is waving her palm branches—becoming “outraged” after Donald Trump walked from the White House to St. John’s Episcopal Church for a photo-op after dispersing peaceful protesters outside the White House gates with police on horseback, tear gas, flash grenades and rubber bullets.  “I am outraged.  The President did not pray when he came to St. John’s, nor…did he acknowledge the agony of our country right now.”

She went on to say, “And in particular, that of the people of color in our nation, who wonder if anyone ever—anyone in public power will ever acknowledge their sacred words.  And who are rightfully demanding an end to 400-years of systemic racism and white supremacy in our country.  And I just want the world to know, that we in the diocese of Washington, following Jesus and his way of love….we distance ourselves from the incendiary language of this President.  We follow someone who lived a life of nonviolence and sacrificial love.”

If the disciples of Jesus do not shout out (protest and vote) to prepare the way for “Love at the Heart of Things” to enter our cities (rather than armed forces) the stones will cry out—as they already do.

Law & Order—Bah, Humbug

Will we miss the whole point of the present protests by once again, as in 1968, bringing out the "Law and Order" mart?  Dictatorial vernacular bothers me--because I always sees itself above and beyond the Law (as Law & Order Nixon demonstrated) and everyone else under it's perception of law.  To ignore the legitimacy of the protests is to continue to press the knee on the neck of Black America.