New Times for a new year

 

As 2020 winds down and 2021 mercifully (I hope) gears up, Maxine and I have a new source of information and insight to enrich our lives. Rebecca and Benjamin gave us a one-year subscription to the Sunday print edition of The New York Times and to its daily digital edition.

My family was probably tired of me threatening to subscribe to the Times. Reading the emaciated Cleveland Plain Dealer often results in a What happened to REAL newspapers? outburst from my mouth. Getting the Times will ease my frustration when Facebook friends post links to its articles that I can’t read because I am not a subscriber. I think my life is about to become better.

My more conservative friends will no doubt fear my reading the Times will push me ever further over the edge they think I have been falling over for decades. My more liberal friends will wonder what took me so long. Most friends probably won’t care much either way.

I know this: getting to truth and fact in our world is damned difficult, and I believe the Times, like BBC News and NPR, remains a pretty reliable source of truth and fact. Not perfect, not without any bias, but pretty reliable. More likely to give it to me straight than CNN, MSNBC, Fox, or my daily emails from Conservative Direct. I must continue to be watchful, to read outside my comfort zone, and to try to think things through for myself based on as much information as I can absorb. It’s what’s expected of all of us in our democracy. It cannot survive on conspiracy theories, unfounded accusations and charges, and intentionally misleading “news.”

Al Kesselheim, senior wildlife biologist at Yellowstone National Park, has a great affinity for wolves. (Hang in with me on this.) One of his jobs at Yellowstone is to assure that its wild wolf population thrives. That job puts him in the crosshairs of many who fear and hate wolves, who believe we’d be better off if they were no more.

Kesselheim is interviewed in the January, 2021, issue of The Sun. Much of the interview is devoted to how he understands and interacts with people strongly opposed to his work. It is interesting reading in our current political context. A few sentences seemed particularly relevant to me:

…I’ve been an avid reader on the topic of human psychology, and the fact is that we are not good at logical, rational thinking. We’re emotional. We aren’t objective judges of reality. When something doesn’t conform to our picture of how we think things ought to be, we make it conform. Wolves aren’t bad if you look at them objectively, but they have such a bad reputation that most of us believe they are problematic. I just want wolves to be treated like other wildlife. It isn’t that hard.

I will try to keep his point about our human tendency to lack objectivity in mind as I read the New York Times, and hope you will keep it in mind as well when you read whatever it is you like to read. Maybe if enough of us discipline ourselves to do that, we will get through the new decade in better shape than we are in as we leave the old one.

Happy New Year!

Making the US mail great again

 

A gift Maxine ordered for me from Kohl's arrived in Indianapolis on Dec. 14th, was "in transit to the next facility" on the 18th, only to leave Indianapolis on the 28th, perhaps (dare I hope?) on its way to Willoughby, Ohio. Where has it been "in transit to" all that time? And if it has to go through the Cleveland Post Office (which I think it will), what hope is there for it?

Today's Plain Dealer reports that small businesses, already struggling, are being hounded for refunds for orders the Post Office failed to deliver for them. Have a heart, folks; it's probably not their fault, and they need your patience and understanding.

This is a huge issue, far beyond my late gift. This mess could have been predicted months ago. What planning did postal officials do to prepare for it? Who is running to Postal Service...oh, I think I know.

Just makin' the Post Office great again, I guess.

Making Christmas great again, Trump style

I am trying very hard to do my part to lower the temperature of our political and social discourse. But then the following, via Conservative Direct, appears in my inbox, and I am in the 104+° range. Our current and not-soon-enough-to-be former president speaks…

“I promised you that we would MAKE CHRISTMAS GREAT AGAIN, and that’s exactly what we’ve done.

“Recently, I signed an Executive Order to designate Christmas Eve as a Federal Holiday - something that should have been done long ago. Now, hard working Americans from around the Nation can enjoy more time with their family and loved ones during the Christmas season.

“This is a HUGE victory in the Democrats’ pathetic WAR ON CHRISTMAS, and I want YOU to be a part of it. I’m giving YOU the unique opportunity to co-sign my Executive Order. Together, we’ll show the Left that Americans proudly celebrate CHRISTMAS!”

Friends, there is so much wrong with this—politically, presidentially, theologically, factually—that I hardly know where to begin. If you cannot see any of that yourself, whatever I write here won’t change your mind. But I can’t resist trying.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA NEWS FLASH: A presidential executive order does not make Christmas great again, and never did, and never will!

Trump, would-be king, in his raging, Chargèd he hath this day

His men of might in his own sight The King of kings to slay.

Hearing the order, baby Jesus turns over in his cradle. But Herod and Caesar Augustus smile: Donald Trump is their man.

Our Visitation

“I was in prison and you visited me.” I am going to attempt a brief, concluding riff on that sentence, inspired by Eric’s pending parole.

“I was in prison.” Yes, you were. But, in many ways, so are we all.

Not likely literally, but often figuratively. We may be imprisoned by guilt, by habits, by addictions, by history, by ignorance. Perhaps we made a decision long ago whose consequences we feel we cannot escape. We may be a victim of childhood or adult neglect, indifference, or even abuse. There are many kinds of prisons.

We are at the mercy, if not imprisoned by, economic and cultural forces that invade our every living moment. The mysterious algorithms of the internet; the hidden and blatant persuader that is advertising, the rabbit holes of suspicion and conspiracy theories that make it nearly impossible for us to sort fact from fiction. We may be tempted to give up, to drop out, to construct a prison of our own making so that we can, at least, control our day-to-day lives.

And the prison of sin…yes, sin. Our frequent and persistent inability or unwillingness to do the good we know we should do or to avoid the bad we know we shouldn’t do. Our attempts to make our way through life apart from the love and grace of God. One day we decide we will do better; the next, we fall off the wagon of goodness.

And the pandemic. How is that for a prison? Huddled inside our homes seems the only safe place to be. If we dare venture out, it is because we must, even if just to avoid a complete mental and emotional breakdown. Even if the government doesn’t require us to do so, we hide behind our walls and our masks to protect ourselves, and wonder if we are being punished for something, and if so, for what?

Eric will walk out of a prison that has clear and obvious walls and fences into a world filled with vague and hidden forces that want to entrap him into their service. Not to mention into a world that may still be locked down by a pandemic. He will walk into the world we live in all the time.

“I was in prison…” and we still are.

“…and you visited me.” Yes, he did.

And that is my other good news for today. It is the eternal, unchanging good news of God’s earthly visit to us in Jesus Christ, of the Holy One’s visitation into the dark cells of our many and overlapping prisons.

Matthew 25’s dramatic vision of judgment meted out upon the nations by a sovereign Lord suddenly gives way to Matthew 26 and 27’s judgment meted out upon sinless Jesus by sinful human beings. In the same way, as the church turns the page from this Sunday of Reign of Christ/Christ the King to next Sunday’ beginning of Advent, we suddenly go from being awed by the sight of a mighty ruler surrounded by glory and angels to engaging in humble preparation for the birth of a helpless child on the darkest of nights, and surrounded the cattle.

Because of that holy child’s forthcoming visit to us, we know we are not alone despite all the walls that would enclose us and imprison us. By that one’s visitation in Jesus Christ, we are strengthened not only to endure the walls that encompass us, but even perhaps one day to break out of them. We are released from the fears of isolation and separation that incarcerate us in our past and in the pain and turmoil of our present. We are emboldened to live with trust that love is eternal, that justice prevails, that we need not abandon our humanity to get through all this, and that the hungry and thirsty and stranger and naked and sick and imprisoned deserve God’s life-giving visitation and presence as much as anyone else.

These continue to be difficult days and weeks, perhaps the most threatening we’ve known as a people in a couple of generations. But we are not alone. We meet and see and uphold one another as we ask questions and face challenges, dispelling doubt as we are in our beloved faith community. Jesus is in each face. We are not alone.

Seeing him and encouraged by each other, we are compelled toward generosity of time, talent, and treasure on behalf of those we likely do not know. As we serve strangers with resources and care and presence, Jesus is in their faces. And perhaps, they see Jesus in ours. We are not alone.

For Mary’s child liberates us all—servers and served alike—together: Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…

Amen.

Congressman Crockett takes on President Jackson

Last weekend, Maxine and I watched the 1955 Walt Disney film, Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier. We both could recall it being very important to us in our youth, although I, at age 12, was a bit too old to get as involved in it as did younger kids. For example, I never owned, nor even wanted, a coonskin cap.

One scene that I had not thought about for decades came back with such clarity that it surely had a big impact on me at the time. It’s the scene where U.S. Congressman Crockett gives an impassioned speech against the abrogation of treaties made with (actually, forced upon) the Creek Indians.

In making his speech, Crockett takes a stand in direct opposition to the man who had convinced him to run for congress and who expected his undying support in return, President Andrew Jackson. Although Crockett’s fellow congressmen wildly applaud his remarks (which almost certainly did not happen!), the president is not amused, and Crockett is defeated in the next election.

Crockett’s main motivation for arguing against breaking the treaties is that he had given his word that they would be kept. The extent to which he is also compelled by some higher principles is hard for me to say, but perhaps that is enough: I made a promise, and I keep my promises.

Now, there is much that is objectionable about Davy Crockett. I can see why Disney shows a disclaimer before it. The whole history of the “Indian Wars” is at the very least problematic, and at the worst tragic. Crockett may be more concerned with his integrity than with achieving social justice.

But I am more forgiving of historical persona who at least give hints of being just than are those who need them to be perfect—by current standards at least—in order to be admired. And when I was twelve years old, Davy Crockett’s courageous speech taking on the president himself must have really touched me, because it touched me the other night when I heard it again for the first time in perhaps 65 years. Maybe it touched me because it’s the kind of thing that continues to be hard for me to do.

There’s a lesson in that scene: we don’t have to be right about everything in order to be right about ourselves and our values. Perhaps if more of us where at least true to ourselves, we’d be in better shape as a nation than we are now. We might even solve some of our problems.

Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier is probably more fiction than fact. But it’s the kind of fiction that, when incorporated into the real world, can inspire us to better behavior and greater good. That’s not so bad, and it is much needed these days.

(Oh, I forgot to mention that at the end of his speech, Congressman Crockett tears the offending bill in half and lets its two pieces drift to the floor. Not the last time that kind of thing happened in the House of Representatives...)

“I am truly heartbroken but until my President Trump tells me it is over I will continue to pray for him and for pro life.”

That is a Facebook comment by a Trump supporter (a person I do not know), lamenting the outcome of the election. I saw it about a week ago, and it troubled me enough to draft a blog that turned into a rant, which I decided not to post. Let things work themselves out, I told myself.

Well, things are not working themselves out. At least not as the president and his associates want them to work out. That is why there is a rally on the National Mall today in support of the President, one that he has encouraged (and apparently drove by on his way to play golf).

Despite the fact of no credible evidence to question the results of the November 3 election, the Trump team continues to search for ways to discount those results. Moreover, they deliberately stand in the path of an orderly transition to a new administration, putting our nation at risk.

The post reveals at least part of what’s going on here. Its writer is “heartbroken,” as if the life of a beloved friend or relative had come to a tragic end. The writer will believe what has happened only when “my President Trump tells me it is over.” (What up with the my in that phrase?) The writer will “continue to pray for him and for pro-life,” revealing what they believe is primarily at stake, and for which they are willing to ignore all other sources of information until my President validates them.

I am not suggesting that all of Trump’s supporters are so fanatical and nearly cultic as that person, but I do think this comment represents a large segment of his “base,” much of it worshipping in evangelical churches. Consider the emotional parallels between that Facebook comment and this old hymn:

I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses,

And the voice I hear falling on my ear, The Son of God discloses.

And He walks with me and He talks with me,

And He tells me I am his own…

I am his, and he is mine, and we walk lockstep together. Nothing will ever sever that bond. And more rational and thoughtful Trump supporters who are not so tightly tied to him emotionally are afraid to admit to anything that might anger his base.

President Trump’s ability to capture some people’s unthinking loyalty is phenomenal. It is so phenomenal that they can apparently be convinced to ignore or deny realities that are slapping our nation and the world in the face. The pandemic and climate change are two of the most obvious. If you cannot see what’s happening unless Donald Trump tells you to see it, then what hope is there for you and for our democracy?

Power tends to blind leaders to the daily challenges and struggles of ordinary people. Nancy Pelosi had to be told that hosting a dinner party in the capitol during a pandemic is a dangerous thing to do. At least she listened. But why didn’t she know that instinctively, when out here in Ohio we are being told not to share Thanksgiving dinner with our families?

Here’s the bottom line: it is not up to President Trump (or Nancy Pelosi, for that matter) to decide “when it’s over.” It was up to us, and we voted, and Trump was defeated both in the popular and the electoral votes. If some credible facts come to light that change that, we will have to accept it. It’s what we do. In the meantime, it’s time to stop playing games with our democracy and our security, and move ahead.

(Note: I am weary of being told that Democrats did not accept the results of Trump’s election four years ago. Democrats did not like the results, and were troubled by the fact that although Trump lost the popular vote, he won the electoral vote. But I do not recall Democrats questioning the integrity of the election process itself, something Trump has made a career of doing.)

Our signs come down

Shortly after noon Saturday, I removed the Biden-Harris sign that we’d displayed in the front door of our retirement community home. It had been there a couple of months.

Campaign signs had generated a bit of controversy among our residents, but there were no rules against it, and some of us felt we had the right and even the duty to express our preferences. We’ve never done that before did not stop us.

Our cul-de-sac of 10 to 12 homes became the hotbed of political expression on our campus. At the height, 5 homes expressed support for the Biden-Harris ticket, but only one for Trump-Pence. But it displayed two signs, one of them being a Veterans for Trump sign. (Our few numbers were not at all representative of Lake County, which voted solidly Republican all down the ticket.)

A couple of residences’ signs came down right after Tuesday’s election. I decided to wait until the winners were declared, which was Saturday. Last I looked there was only one sign left standing.

But here’s my point for today: about an hour after I had removed our Biden-Harris sign, our neighbor was out removing his two Trump-Pence signs.

As I watched him, I thought to myself, This is our American way. We disagree, sometimes loudly and radically, but when the votes are counted, we put our most partisan personas aside, so that we can work with one another to meet our challenges and solve our problems.

I hope Washington, D.C. will choose to follow the example of our little cul-de-sac. It will not be easy, of course—not nearly as easy as President-elect Biden sometimes makes it sound. But we can do this, given the will. There’s too much at stake for any of us not even to try.

Tuesday is about me

Just thinking today about how elections--especially highly-partisan and contentious elections like this one--tell us as much about ourselves as they tell us about the people we ultimately elect.

How I vote is an expression of what I value for myself, for my family and friends, and for my community, nation, and world. Who I vote for tells who I think will best lead me and my country in the direction I believe we should go, and whether that direction will benefit just me or the common good. My vote tells where I find a balance between my own self-interest and the interests of Americans I can never know.

How the nation votes tells where the nation's heart lies. Unfortunately, things like the electoral college and gerrymandered congressional districts obscure a clear sense of our collective heart's desires. But if we look carefully, we can know who we are and what we want to become. We can see at least in outline our values and our ideals.

Everyone seems certain that Tuesday and the days following will be rough, and filled with rage and accusations and bitterness. Maybe we will surprise ourselves. Maybe we will show ourselves to be better than we think. That would be a great relief.

In the meantime, I can prepare myself to be a good, fair and, if necessary, very vocal citizen who resolves neither to belittle nor to lose respect those with whom I differ. How I react to this election says as much about me as does my vote itself.

To the sowers of distrust, from an American

 

THE election is half a week away (we have to get through Hallowe’en first), and many Americans are doing the daily things that Americans are able to do because we trust our democracy and our election process.

In southern New York State, our older daughter has readied our granddaughters for Hallowe’en by fashioning marvelous Bellatrix Lestrange (from Harry Potter) and hedgehog costumes.

In Philadelphia, our younger daughter’s outstanding vocal sextet, Variant 6, is responding creatively to the pandemic’s demands by developing and offering exciting new ways to connect with audiences.

All across America, parents and artists and all other sorts of people in many conditions and communities are doing what we do in pursuit of our own and our nation’s wellbeing, and out of our desire to enhance our collective human experience. Despite the turmoil that fills the news and heightens our anxiety, I believe the vast majority of us still trusts the relative stability of our society, and our ability to react to new situations and challenges with steady, informed, and compassionate resolve.

But we are at the mercy of our elected and appointed leaders to make sure this election is conducted and counted in a way that is in fact fair and unbiased and is perceived as such. If we don’t have that, we will have lost one of the most important reasons we have thrived as a people.

If those responsible for conducting, observing, and reporting on this election fail us through partisan moves, unfounded law suits, subtle or blatant intimidation, misinformation, or violence, we are done.

The condemnation of history will ever be upon those who deliberately and carelessly destroy our trust in free and fair elections. You know who you are, and you will, sooner or later, be found out.

Do your best things today, and vote by Tuesday if you haven’t already. Let there be no mistake about who is in charge.

So much for "originalism"

This morning I am so distressed by the chaos of our current president's administration and the complicity of the Senate and their blatant politicalization of the Supreme Court that I do not know where to begin to clear my mind. So I will let someone else help me.

Heather Cox Richardson's post today offers this paragraph about the Supreme Court's decision blocking Wisconsin's "counting of votes postmarked before Election Day by received up to six days after it."

"In a footnote, Justice Kavanaugh went further to argue that states need to avoid 'the chaos and suspicions of impropriety that can ensue if thousands of absentee ballots flow in after election day and potentially flip the results of the election. And those States also want to be able to definitely announce the results of the election on election night, or as soon as possible thereafter.' This is the argument Trump has been making to delegitimize mail-in ballots, and it is political, not judicial. Absentee ballots do not “flip” an election; they are a legitimate part of an election that cannot be decided until they are counted. And the idea of calling an election on the night it is held is a tic of the media. In fact, no state certifies its election results the day of the election. Some take weeks."

Of course, Justice Kavanaugh: Because the original thirteen states wanted to "announce the results of the election on election night," right? Back in the old days, that's how it was done, right? All the results from all the precincts in all the towns and counties of each state were in the state capitals and tabulated in time to announce the results of the 11:00 news, right?

I love originalism, don't you? And now it will be visited upon us by a super-majority of our Supreme Court (except when it's not convenient for them to do so).

End this nonsense. Vote for Biden. I am clear about that.

What if...

What if

on this Sunday

our political leaders and candidates

had taken long walks

into the most beautiful and peaceful places they could get to,

there to pause and visualize and reflect

on what they are doing and for whose benefit?

Might they do things differently on Monday?

How will Senator Portman vote?

Supreme Court Justice Nominee Amy Coney Barrett served for nearly three years, beginning in 2015, on the Board of Trinity Schools, Inc, which was founded by People of Praise, a Christian religious group of which she has been a member. This is according to the Associated Press, which also reports that Trinity Schools explicitly discriminates against LGBTQ people in its admissions and hiring policies.

In her confirmation hearings, Ms. Barrett carefully avoided answering specific questions about almost every topic that was brought up. But it is clear from what we know about her that she is deeply committed to her religious convictions. And although she claims that in her service on the Court, she will only be guided by the Constitution, it is highly unlikely that she will leave her deeply-held religious convictions at the door when hearing and considering cases.

I am convinced that complete objectivity on matters that touch human lives and happiness is something few human beings can realistically claim. One cannot expect Justice Barrett to rule on matters regarding LGBTQ rights without being influenced by her conservative religious commitments.

In 2013, Ohio Republican Senator Robert Portman announced that he had undergone a change of heart regarding same-sex marriage. The change was brought about by the coming-out of his son, Will. Portman could no longer oppose same-sex marriage, given his family experience. Which is often how it goes when thoughtful and sensitive people (which I believe Sen. Portman to be) have to choose between human experience and legalism.

I cannot help but wonder whether Senator Portman is wrestling tonight with his vote next week on Ms. Barrett’s nomination. I wonder if he and Will are talking together about it. I wish I thought the Senator would listen to what I dare believe is in his heart, but I fear he will not.

Not your business

 Most of us have had our moments with “government bureaucrats”—indifferent government employees who annoy us just by doing their jobs. No doubt, there are flaws in the civil service system that sometimes allow unqualified and underperforming personnel to stay on the job.

On the other hand, there is something reassuring in knowing that no matter who heads the executive branch, or what party is in power, there is a continuity of knowledge and experience in the federal bureaucracy. These people work for the government--that is, for “we the people”--so their commitment is to us collectively (if not to me, individually). That commitment has generally proven to be a good thing for us all.

Which leads to this paragraph in today’s Letters from an American post by Heather Cox Richardson:

“In a move that threatens to destroy our nonpartisan civil service, Trump today signed an Executive Order creating a new category of public servant who is not covered by normal rules. These employees can be hired by agency heads without having to go through the merit-based system in place since 1883, and can be fired at will. This new “Schedule F” will once again allow presidents to appoint cronies to office, while firing those insufficiently loyal. It also appears to shield political appointees from an incoming administration by protecting them from firing because of political affiliation.”

Likely, this news will be buried by all the other, seemingly more pressing, news today, which is what the current administration is hoping. So, why is it important to me?

It is important to me because the United States of America is not a business owned and directed by those we’ve elected to serve us. The U.S.A. is a people--one people--who entrust leadership to those who further the public interest under the guidance of our Constitution and other laws. Elected office is a public trust, not a way of getting what you want for yourself or for your friends and supporters.

This move by the current administration feels like one more way it is guiding us toward some form of single party or authoritarian rule. It seems to me that it is enough that presidents get to appoint top leaders in their administrations, who are then often forced to come to terms with the continuity represented by the employees who work for them. In that tension is both stability and reassurance that the public will not be whiplashed by every change in administration, and that changes that are made receive informed review before and as they are implemented.

Our presidents are not the CEOs of an entity they own, or may treat as if they own. They may not run our government like they would run their own businesses…particularly like their badly-run businesses.

All the news that fits us

Several weeks ago I finally added the Fox News app to my phone, so now I check it along with CNN, BBC, USA Today, and NPR. Just scanning the headlines, and without pretending that my conclusion can be proven, I will say without a doubt in my mind that I know why so many of us are in personal news-bubbles. If all you watch is either Fox or CNN, you are not getting the whole picture. Fox seems to find a riot a day to report, each day CNN finds something newly awful to report about the current President’s behavior, and each pretty much ignores the other’s stories when they don’t fit its narrative. Both repeat their most partisan stories for days, assuring readers get so full of them they have no appetite for anything else.

(“A person hears what they want to hear, and disregards the rest.”)

Maybe that’s why I am not writing much on politics these days. I am confused by competing stories that I have neither the time nor the resources to sort out and check for myself. Whatever I write, someone can respond with, “Yes, but…” and cite a set of facts (more or less) to defend themselves.

These days, I feel strangely lacking in facts and yet somehow beyond them. I just know, in my heart, that we need a change at the top and all they way through the wretched, grossly-partisan party system that’s killing our own respect for our own democracy. I think we also need a change in us and in our information-absorbing habits, which may be the hardest change of all to make.

Our current president is right...

Our current president is right...people are tired of the COVID pandemic.

He is speaking for me: I am tired of the COVID pandemic.

I am also tired of my arthritic left knee.

But being tired of it doesn't mean it isn't real, nor will it make it stop hurting.

I am neither an idiot nor a disaster for knowing and accepting these realities.

Just one more reason why our White House needs a new occupant.

Love: the way forward

When I opened Facebook this morning, here are two of the first posts I came across.

This first one was shared by a high school friend, and is a quote from British philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

"The moral thing I should wish to say… is very simple. I should say: love is wise, hatred is foolish. In this world, which is getting more and more closely interconnected, we have to learn to tolerate each other. We have to learn to put up with the fact that some people say things that we don’t like. We can only live together in that way and if we are to live together and not die together, we must learn the kind of charity and the kind of tolerance which is absolutely vital to the continuation of human life on this planet."

The second one was shared by the priest of the church we attend, and is from Jesus, as recorded in Luke 6:27-38:

"But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you. "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. "Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

Those statements are not exactly the same, of course. It’s been decades since I read any Russell, but as I recall Bertie Russell and Jesus Christ were at quite different places theologically. But in these statements they seem to share an understanding that loving those with whom we differ is necessary for our fulfillment and survival.

In an era when hatred is all too popular, especially hatred of one’s real or perceived “enemies,” these two posts provided a refreshing start to my day. Thanks, FB friends!

All looking for America

Driving on a cool mid-September afternoon through Ohio’s rural Geauga county, there was no way I could keep count of the campaign signs lining the two-lane roads.

Biden…Biden…Trump…Biden…Trump…Trump--I passed by them at around 50 mph, overwhelmed by their public display of love for and commitment to America, by the trust they evidenced in our democratic system.

Somewhere along my way, my ancient CD of Simon and Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits came to this track…

Cathy, I’m lost, I said though I knew she was sleeping

And I’m empty and aching and I don’t know why

Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike

They’ve all come to look for America

All come to look for America

All come to look for America…

And I thought, Yes, that’s what we are doing, all us Americans, this aching, anxious autumn…we are looking for America. We’re lost--or it is--we may or may not think we know why or how it came to this...

Some are trying to find an America that they believe once existed, but that never really did.

Some are trying to find an America that never existed for them, but that they still wish might.

Some are seeking an America that seems lost and to be lost…an America some have never found.

Some are seeking an America as described by scholars and scientists, some an America envisioned in imagination.

(Create your own dichotomies of such differences if you wish; I'll stop here.)

We’ve all come looking for America this fall. Placing our bets on leaders who might be able to help us find the America we fear we have lost, or are losing.

Do those campaign signs threaten to pit neighbor against neighbor, our different visions often being at great odds with each other, our our personal separation and isolation being encouraged by political rhetoric and simple slogans?

Or do they represent the strength of a still-vital democracy that is able to trust that voting, not violence, is the way we solve our political differences, is the way we Americans together forge workable understandings of who America is and hopes yet to be?

Some of those neighbors perhaps are able to engage in productive give-and-take about their often competing notions of the America they are seeking. Hurray for them!

Others of those neighbors perhaps just smile across the fence, maybe talk about the Browns, or an ailing child, or the best way to grill a steak. Just daily human stuff, knowing all along they will check different boxes on their ballots, and yet remain good neighbors, even friends. Hurray for them!

Hurray for the variety of neighbors and neighborhoods that are America!

Perhaps good and respectful neighbors are the life-blood of the America we are all looking for…those of us who hurtle down urban turnpikes and those of us who wind our way along country roads…in some impossible sense, all 328 million of us.

I dare to believe the vast majority of Americans on this trip want to look for America together. Can we resist allowing this moment's partisan political passions to take that away from us?

Our denier-in-chief needs to be replaced

The wildfires are burning. Out of control. Consuming millions of acres and who knows how many structures up and down our entire West Coast. Killing untold numbers of plants and animals, and threatening and killing people, too. There is no telling when or how it will all end.

Meantime, despite the in-your-face reality of this wildfire catastrophe and all the weather/climate-related disasters we’ve experienced, many continue to ignore the fact of human-caused climate change. What is happening is exactly what scientists have been predicting will happen as the earth’s climate warms.

Denier-in-Chief Donald Trump and his fact-denying administration and congressional cohorts apparently still think climate change is a hoax. They are silent on the matter, as they continue to pursue and implement policies that only hasten the total tragedy in history’s ever-nearer future. It’s a wonder to me that people still believe them, but millions of us have been bought off by the lies of the fossil fuel industry, the primary driver of the rapid rise in global temperatures.

We know this administration denied the COVID-19 crisis until it could deny it no more. People had to be getting sick and dying by the thousands before it showed the slightest serious interest in the pandemic. We now learn that the president feared the truth would “create a panic” among the American people.

Imagine…

An aid tells President Franklin Roosevelt, “Japan has just bombed Pearl Harbor.”

And the president responds, “Well, that’s terrible, but let’s not tell the American people lest they panic.”

Here in Ohio we have a Republican (yes, that’s correct) governor who told us the bad news about COVID-19 and calmly directed us through the worst of it, at least up until now. We didn’t all like what Gov. DeWine told us or ordered us to do, but we did it. I saw little evidence of panic except among Republicans to the right of him, solidly in the Trump camp, who panic at the slightest dose of truth.

We need to turn this around before it’s too late, which it may be already. We need to get back into the driver’s seat of combating climate change by resuming our place at the table of nations, by restoring at least the clean energy and environmental-protecting policies of the Obama years, if not going beyond them. We need to elect a new president to take office next January who understands that any economic game plan that does not include policies to slow down, if not halt, climate change is not worth the paper it’s printed on.

Joe Biden will be such a president. Donald Trump will never be.

I know many supporters of the current president stay with him because of what he promises yet to do to save “unborn children” and to turn back the clock on civil rights for all Americans, even to the point of nominating Ted Cruz to sit on the Supreme Court. I recognize, sometimes appreciate, your passion and single-mindedness.

But I do not fathom your willingness to let planet earth become hell in your quest to make it into what you apparently think will approximate heaven. Is that a deal you really want to make? To me, it’s a deal with the devil.

It's so easy being certain

I once knew a lawyer who said of his law partner, “He’s not a very good lawyer…he understands both sides of every case.”

I think that’s only partially true. Understanding your opponent, your adversary, can make you a more effective opponent and adversary. On the other hand, sympathizing with your challenger will likely weaken you, make you think twice before charging, feel sorry for them when you are about to pin them down.

But then again, understanding and sympathizing with another with whom you are at odds will most surely make you a better human being. And maybe you will learn that you do not have to make a court case out of every little messy human encounter you have.

It’s not easy, this being human.

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I wish I were a better political pundit. Well, sometimes I wish that. I try my hand at it from time to time (as you know), but I always hedge my bets the way the successful of them do not. I guess I know just enough about a lot of things to have an opinion on them, but not enough to take an unwavering stand on them.

Take Portland, for instance. It’s amazing to me how many people all across this nation know exactly what’s happening in Portland and why. How do they know so much for sure, when there are so many conflicting reports about it? Is Portland itself burning, or are there just a few small fires here and there? How do some know for sure so that they can pontificate on the situation? Perhaps some secret revelatory source to which I am not privy?

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I do know that a 17-year-old kid who shoots and kills two people with a weapon he was not old enough to have should not be treated as a hero or given a pass, even by the President of the Untied States. Especially by a president who decries violence in our cities. Or who claims to stand for law and order.

It’s an odd way to support the police, don’t you think?

No? You must know something I don’t know, then.

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Sunday evening we watched the first episode of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross on PBS. (I believe it was made in 2013, but we had not seen it before.) Gates mentioned that, somehow, the various political entities in Europe early on came to understand that they would not enslave one another, perhaps because it would not ever be easy to tell which white folks were free and which white folks were slaves. That understanding lead to another understanding: people of color were perfect for enslaving because you could always tell who was what, and they could never escape it. Very soon “black” and “slave” became two ways of saying the same thing.

Isn’t that what makes white racism so enduring and so appealing to whites? It’s easy, no two ways about it. But wrong.

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Here’s another easy one: Every time a white cop kills a black man, the cop is in the wrong.

Or, every time a white cop kills a black man, the black man had it coming.

It’s that easy…unless and until it isn’t.

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Yesterday Maxine and I delivered bags of food to seven homes all across our area. It’s a ministry of our church and another church, begun when the pandemic started to address the needs of people suddenly unemployed and without incomes.

I am not sure any of the seven homes we visited asked for food because of pandemic-related unemployment. They seemed more likely to be homes where poverty and need are ongoing realities. Several of the people I met were clearly either elderly or differently-abled in a way that made me doubt their employability. Once again, my eyes were opened to the reality of massive poverty in this, our “greatest country in all of human history.”

It would be so much easier to sit in Washington or Columbus and imagine they were all just lazy freeloaders. So much easier.

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It’s easy to leap to large judgments based upon small information. I do it all the time, until I cannot.