May You Live In Interesting Times!

These are interesting times.  I really don’t think too many people would disagree with that.  Although there is an old curse which I have heard attributed either to the Chinese or to Yiddish that states, “May you live in interesting times”.  At first hearing I couldn’t figure out what it meant but finally it dawned on me that to live in boring times meant that all is well in the best of all possible worlds.  That certainly cannot fit the definition of what we are living in now.

 

Although every country, it seems, across and around the globe has problems, in this short blog it is not possible to enumerate them all, so I will simply name two that are happening here in the United States. 

At this particular time the most glaring is the rampant racism that we all thought had gone away with the election of President Obama.  I think that perhaps his election and re-election indicates that the majority of people in this country are on board with people of color or LGBT people having the same equal rights as everyone else.  The problem is that there is a sub-culture that ebbs and flows in numbers and intensity that has a tendency to shock the more rational rungs of our society in manners that are violent and horrifying.  Although the majority of law enforcement officers are good and decent people who view everyone equally, there is a subculture among them that is imbued with the idea that anyone of color is automatically a criminal suspect on the grounds that if that person is not doing something wrong right now, they probably were yesterday and will tomorrow, so we might as well shoot them now.  All one needs do is go to the website for League of the South and read to the very end.  It is scary!  So African-American citizens now have to deal with another domestic terrorist attack on people, at prayer, and in a church.  This alone is such an obscenity, but to be perpetrated by a young man who is hardly out of short pants is an obscenity in itself.   

As if racism isn’t enough we have the overwhelming looming disaster of climate change.  If one looks at a drought monitor map on television, the part of California where the red is the darkest indicating the severity of the drought, above where the shore line takes a curve inland at Santa Barbara, is where I live.  Our little community has cut its water use by 40%, but the trees in this area are under severe stress.  In our canyon we have some mighty native Sycamore trees that should be in full and glorious leaf.  Instead they have a few straggly greenish brown leaves that look very thirsty.  Of course the community is worried about fire, and is taking steps to educate itself on how to make a house more fire safe, and if evacuation is required, what to take and how to take it.   

Most of us, Catholic or not, are thrilled with the Pope’s Encyclical on Climate Change.  One need not share his religion, but can certainly be excited that he calls out climate deniers for what many of them are:  greedy.  To curtail our destruction of the earth, many of them will not be able to make such massive profits at the expense of both the environment herself (Mother Nature), but our children and their children.  Some climate deniers have the quaint belief that we should just let God take care of it.  Fortunately I have low blood pressure to start out with because that statement usually raises  it for me. 

For the sake of this argument, we are going to assume that God created the earth and people.  If that is the case, then God also created the emotions that people have.  If that is the case, then God created the emotion called in our culture, “worry”.  If no one worried about anything, nothing good and positive would ever get done!   It is only by worrying about something that gets people up off their respective derrière’s to do something about what they are worrying about.  Of course there will be some things people can do nothing about, and then worrying about those things won’t help at all, becomes anxiety, and could become debilitating, so some discretion is required to avoid that.  But by and large, worrying is a good thing, and always sitting back and “letting God take care of it” is a cop-out. 

We worry about climate change so we consolidate our trips as much as possible.  We always run multiple errands when we leave home because it takes us 10 miles to the nearest small community.  We recycle; we have solar panels on our home; we do what we can where we are.  The Pope worries about climate change and writes an Encyclical to alert the world to what it can do.  We all need to worry, and do what we can, where we are, with what we have. 

As for racism, this is going to take a concerted effort on the part of Caucasians to change the hearts and minds of their fellow white humans to understand that rather than say there is the black race, white race, brown race, yellow race, pink with purple stripes race, we are all members of the human race.  And this human race had better start working on climate change, or it won’t matter what we are, we will all be living in deep yogurt. 

I would rather live in more boring times!!

Just Rambling

Sat down at the computer to write this blog, and nothing emerged!  I played a couple of games of solitaire since this at times lets something simmer to the top.  Nothing!  So, today is going to be “other irrelevant matters”.

The first thing is an update on my husband’s knee replacement.  He is doing remarkably well, and follows the physical therapist’s suggestions carefully.  It will be five weeks this coming Tuesday.

I believe most people who have heard of the death of Joe Biden’s son, Beau, feels deeply for this family.  At least my prayers are that Beau Biden’s soul rests in peace, and that much comfort comes to the rest of his family.  Probably much grief comes to every family at some time in their lives, and although one may come to realize that it is just part of life, that doesn’t make it any easier.  This morning I was rather appalled to hear a young news person comment on how the Biden family always “bounces back” from grief.  And I thought, no, they don’t.  They crawl back through a great darkness toward a speck of light off in the distance.  It takes time and courage, but it can be done.  This has nothing to do with whether one has a religious faith or not.  Faith may give one comfort and additional strength to keep crawling, but I have seen people with little or no faith make the journey back. 

As an FDR Democrat, or Eisenhower Republican, I am, of course, really thrilled that Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley have decided to declare their candidacies.  I read that older people really relate to Bernie.  Well, of course we do.  We remember the good times in this country when the policies he has always supported were well entrenched in our political system.  And some of us remember the bad times of the Great Depression and the economic safety net FDR gave to really poor people, and the hope for a better life he gave to everyone else.  That better life came during the three decades between the end of WWII and Ronald Reagan.  By bringing those policies back to the forefront, maybe we can get some sanity back into Washington, D.C. 

Before this week, however, the one thing that really got me excited was the comment by Jeb Bush that it was probably a mistake to invade Iraq.  A mistake, my foot!!  It was a deliberate action taken for purely economic reasons, and based on lies, lies and more lies.  My greatest disappointment when we achieved a Democratic majority in both the House and Senate in 2006 was the decision not to impeach George W. Bush for high crimes and misdemeanors.  Vincent Bugliosi’s book, “The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder” is a must read for an excellent legal basis for that prosecution.  These past years since 9/11 have greatly eroded the internal strength the United States had that gave us the world-wide respect that we had enjoyed since WWII.  It was the adherence, at least on the surface, to the principles that we said we believed in that made us so respected.  George W. Bush, et al, absolutely destroyed that. 

Oh, well.  The Giants’ game is on, and I have rambled enough for a Sunday afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Hint of Yellow?

Bernie Sanders has announced his candidacy for President of the United States.  (wow)  That is how the news media has reacted to this announcement.  For months when only Hillary Clinton was expected to run, or had announced, there were outcries from the media that there needed to be another Democratic candidate so during the Democratic debates there could be an actual debate – not just one person up there essentially giving a speech.

So why isn’t the media reacting more positively and vigorously to Sander’s announcement?  Even so-called liberal MSNBC?  For one thing, as far as I can tell, MSNBC is owned by Comcast, and one can be sure a corporation as big as Comcast does not want Bernie Sanders to become President. The prospect of paying more in taxes probably curdles its corporate heart. If it has one.   It will be interesting to observe how the corporate owned media will respond if Martin O’Malley announces he is running on the Democratic ticket since he is as avowed a member of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party as is Sanders.  I really wish Elizabeth Warren would run, but since she has adamantly refused to acknowledge that she is, or will, I must take her at her word. 

With all of the above being said, why am I not on the Hillary Clinton band-wagon?  I certainly believe that it is past the time that a woman could, would and should be President.  Hillary also certainly has a tremendous amount of experience at the federal level – we all know what that is.  There certainly is a tremendous amount of support for her out there.  And if she is the Democratic candidate after the primaries, I will certainly support her.  When I listen to a lot of the whoop-de-do about her not following in Bill’s footsteps, it just about makes me want to throw-up.  I’ve been married for 61 years.  I am a Catholic and my husband is not.  It is perfectly reasonable for a married couple not to share every thought and emotion that crosses their path.  In fact, if they are both strong-minded, they certainly will not.  The political malarkey about her e-mail accounts while Secretary of State and the continuing made-up scandal about Benghazi really are also irrelevant. 

Bear with me here while I digress for a moment.  The third time I ran when I finally won, as a candidate I was doing the “hot-dog appearance” at a fund-raiser in one of the communities in my future District Two.  A woman approached me and very politely said that she and her husband had decided to vote for me this time because, as she said, I had held the same basic opinions all three times I had run.   Taking what that woman said and applying it to the political show playing out on the national level, one of the things the TV “talking heads” do say about a Sanders or O’Malley, or Warren, for that matter, candidacy would do is bring Hillary further to the progressive wing of the party.  And that is where I dig in my heels.

If she could, would or should change her basic positions on domestic policy issues during the campaign because of pressure from the progressive left, what will stop her from changing her basic positions on domestic policies after she is elected?  There will be plenty of pressure on her from the political right to do so, for sure.  Does she have the courage to stick to what she will say during the campaign, or does she have a hint of ‘yellow’ in her character.

In my opinion, pay no attention to what any candidate says during a campaign, whether on the local, state or national level.  Go back and look at their record.  Read what their positions were on policies you favor, or don’t, before there was any hint of running for another office.  If they have held office before, look at their voting record to determine where their basic values tend.  Listen to what they have to say during the campaign to determine if they have shifted positions for political reasons. 

And then support, preferably in my order, Warren, Sanders and/or O’Malley.  They stand firm now, as they have in the past, on their populist values.

I Can Say Whatever I Want

I wonder what would happen to me if I ran into a crowded theater and ran down the aisle shouting, “Fire, fire?”  Since by this time I would be at the front of the theater, I could watch all of the people screaming, shouting and clawing their way back up the aisles, perhaps trampling on others who were slower moving to get away from the supposed fire.  So, a few people were injured, or maybe killed in the ensuing stampede. So what?

I wonder what would happen if a bunch of us got together at some gathering and began to use language that incited a riot, thereby causing injury to life, limb and property?  Or went to a peaceful protest of some kind, and used language to incite that peaceful protest to turn violent?  Or used speech with someone to urge them to commit a crime?

Under these circumstances do I have the right to say anything I want, anywhere I want, and is my right to free speech unequivocally guaranteed in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution?

These are generally accepted as probable crimes, and I could be prosecuted for committing them.  So what is the difference with what occurred in Garland, TX, this past week when that anti-Muslim woman, Geller, knowingly and willingly convened a contest for cartoonists to come up with a cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammad?  I say knowingly and willingly because anyone who follows the news at all should know by this time, Muslim or not, that to depict in any art form a depiction of the Prophet will cause radical-right Islamists (similar to radical-right Christians) to freak out and perhaps cause violence.

Closer to home, does the attorney, Matthew McLaughlin, from Orange County, California, have the right to advocate killing any gay person who touches another for sexual gratification?  What is the difference between conspiring to have someone else commit a crime that you want committed and deliberating creating situations – the cartoon convention in Texas or the attorney paying his $200 in California to get his petition on the ballot to kill gays – that will if carried out result in injury or death to someone, even though that someone is not a specific person. 

Probably the thing that is missing here is the realization, which many of us instinctively have, that with every right guaranteed in the Constitution, comes a corresponding responsibility to use that right carefully.  Thus, we don’t cry ‘fire’ in a crowded theater; we don’t deliberately incite a riot; we don’t conspire to have a surrogate commit our desired crime; we don’t deliberately enflame people on the radical fringes of a religion, knowing they may resort to violence, for example.   

Rational people do not react to provocation, regardless of their cultural background.  We are not talking about the responses of rational people however.  We are talking about the irrational responses of irrational people to irrational people!  Our right to free speech must be absolutely protected.  But it cannot be abused.  Rational minds need to work this one out pretty damn fast, or irrational people will start putting irrational restrictions on our rights.

 

Reason for Late Blog

Friends,  This is only the reason I have not written a blog this week.  My husband had knee replacement surgery Tuesday morning, and he is doing really well.  But on the way down to the hospital on the highway, we hit a deer, mashing in the front of the driver's side.  We were fine.  The deer was not.  Our insurance company has been fantastic -- The Hartford -- so have no complaints there.  But along with everything else, up our isolated canyon we have an encampment of less than desirable neighbors, and one of them apparently committed suicide earlier this week, so that has meant much time on the phone.  And on, and on, and on!!! 

Next week, much on policing, Bernie Sanders, and whatever else I can come up with.

You Are Being Trickled Upon

In my opinion the whole mess surfaced on a national level with Ronald Reagan when he famously spoke his infamous nine words, “Government is not the solution; government is the problem”.  I don’t believe for a minute those words were original with him, but I must acknowledge he had some great speech writers.  At one point in our lives, we knew an Oscar-winning cinematographer who told us that a Director had told him that he loved working with Ronald Reagan.  Reagan could memorize his lines, find his mark and ride a horse.   

That being said, it brought to the national level this hatred of government, and the long time animosity of the radical right for any part of government that did not make a profit for them, and they had the perfect foil to express this in Reagan.  Thus, war was a good thing because the military-industrial complex, which Dwight Eisenhower had warned us about, make big profits from building and selling war machinery, to us, our allies and probably enemies as well.  Social justice programs such as Medicare, Social Security, food stamps, and veterans’ medical care because they were no longer profitable, or any other government program that required the wealthy 1%ers to pay taxes, and thus were to be eliminated.  Even our national infrastructure was a drag on their profits, so our roads, bridges, schools, and any government building or program was anathema.  Taxes were the very worst thing that could happen to them, and if the 99% wanted these things, they had to pay the taxes for them, or donate to charity to take care of the poor, elderly, homeless, and mentally ill, etc.   

As a result of this constant anti-government rhetoric, along with anti-union rhetoric, the government agencies that people rely on the most have had their budgets slashed beyond belief.  It is possible to drive around potholes, when bridges fall down usually not too many people are killed, and schools don’t do a good job anyway, so why bother.  But emergency response agencies such as fire departments, ambulance and medical response, and law enforcement had their budgets slashed as well.  I remember an incident when I was in office when our local bomb squad had come in for approval of the acquisition of a robot to pick up potential bombs and place them in the bomb container.  One of my fellow Supervisors voted “no” because she said it was just “more toys for the boys”.  No thought to the fact that this robot would save both civilian and officer’s lives.  Pre-employment screening of personnel hiring was cut drastically.  Training was slashed because there were no tax dollars to pay for that continuing training.  All of the emergency response personnel must have continual training in order to weed out inappropriate individuals who slipped through the employment screening, as well as keep the skills required to respond to violent situations foremost in officer’s automatic responses.   

We are now seeing the result of these short-sighted policies in the surfacing of the totally nauseating behavior of some law enforcement personnel.  If these shootings, chokings and vehicle ramming’s have indeed been race related, these officers should never have been hired in the first place.  Their prior records should have been scrutinized in detail, but, alas, there was no funding for that.  Apparently there was no funding to scrutinize the behavior of officers who had already been hired to determine if their behavior was going over the line when they were found to use excessive force more than once.  Citizens have the right to be up in arms over these violent actions by law enforcement. But putting the blame on officers only is avoiding the issue of why these situations are occurring in the first place.  Further, if one officer takes it upon him or herself to complain about the actions of another, retaliation of some degree is sure to happen.   

No.  Let’s place the blame where it ultimately belongs.  On us.  Why do I say that?  Because so many of us don’t bother to find out what elected officials really mean when they say that they must cut government spending, or that government is out of control, and they will fix it.  Make them be specific from the local all the way to the federal levels.  When we have such low turnouts during an election, we get the government we deserve.  We need people at the federal level who understand that tax dollars must be made available to government agencies to assist them in working economically and efficiently, but properly and adequately.  And we need voters who will go to the polls and vote people in to office who will raise taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations, bring tax dollars back from where they are stashed overseas, and see to it that these dollars are distributed to agencies that serve the people.   

It is not just the President who makes things happen.  We need to vote in US Congresspeople and Senators who understand that “trickle down” economics is really unscrupulous.  Instead it ends up with the people being “trickled on”! 

Taxes are the dues we pay to live in a democratic society.  To rig tax laws to benefit corporations and people who do not need to be benefitted is extremely detrimental to a democratic society, creating what we have now, which is profound income inequality.  It is destroying our nation, and our souls.

 

God is greater than...an Easter meditation

 

An Easter meditation.  If you wish to read it.

 

God is greater than religion;

Faith is greater than dogma.

     Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

 

God is greater than…

 

There is a hole in the heart that is wide as the sky.  Nothing fills it.  Nothing touches it.  Nothing takes it away.  It cannot be cured, this search for the ultimate in life.

 

It’s not that people do not struggle mightily to grasp it as life goes by.  On the contrary.  Like children on a carousel, adults old enough and smart enough to know better, reach for false stars and watch them all turn to mist on their fingertips.  They stretch themselves to the limits of their strength to grab the gold ring of life’s happiness as they go from one attempt to another, always disappointed by the last one.

 

They go into debt they can’t handle.  They take risks that fail.  They succumb to the failures of them all and sink back into the anodynes of life.  They substitute drink or drugs or work to anesthetize the pain of it.  Or sometimes, a kind of magic they call “religion.”

The problem is that there is a thin line between magic and what some people call religion.  Magic is what we ourselves can perform on command.  Religion has to do with what we believe about creation, its origins, its purpose, its end.  People often mix the two.

Magic makes God “a cosmic bellboy,” as the American clergyman Harry Emerson Fosdick put it.  God the magician runs the world by pulling strings from behind a hidden screen.  If we ask in the right way.  In the right language.  With the right prayer.  In the right liturgy.  Then we get what we want.  Unless God is being surly that day for some reason that we cannot imagine.

So, as a result, we go through life praying for things rather than for God’s grace either to bear our burdens or to reshape our worlds ourselves.

We call faith the notion that religion is a set of ideas designed to get us to heaven.  No questions asked.

The effect of that kind of thinking is worrisome.  It keeps us spiritual children all of our lives.  It means that we may think we know a lot about God but ourselves never really know God at all.

It means that the great hole in our hearts will never be filled at all.

And that’s why this insight from the great rabbi Joshua Abraham Heschel is so important.  Indeed, God is greater than religion.  Faith is greater than dogma.

It is our search for the God who is searching for us that is what life and religion and faith must really be about.  Whatever we do, we must not be fooled by anything less parading as religion, posturing as faith. 

Sister Joan Chittister,  Benedictine  Sisters of Eire.