Howdy Neighbor

 Got my first Covid shot one year ago today … the second, two months later … followed by a booster in the fall. Today, I gladly wear a mask in public for the protection of others whom I might unknowingly infect in the event of an asymptomatic breakthrough infection. Sixty-odd years after waiting with classmates on the breezeway at Lillian C. Ruediger Elementary School to get our   polio vaccines , none of this seems anything but neighborly to me — the sort of thing we do to keep each other safe in extraordinary times. 

Meanwhile, the seven-day rolling average of Covid deaths in my country is more than 2,500. Were that to hold steady, that would be additional 750,000 US Covid deaths by the end of this year ... more than a million-and-a-half lives lost to something I stopped worrying about for myself — just as I stopped worrying about exposure to polio as a child — once I completed a simple act for the good of my community.

That frame of mind does not seem either heroic or cowardly to me. Just seems neighborly.

Christmas Memory | My father is a...

From January, 2014

Our daughter Kate told a story at Christmas that, for Susan and me, summed up a lot that we've been thinking and talking about together.

A young friend told Kate she was struggling with a prominent thread among Christians in her social media connections: "I am a princess, because my Father is the king of kings." Of course there was merchandise involved because nothing says princess like a little pink t-shirt.

The young woman found all this off-putting, though she couldn't put a finger on just why. “Am I wrong?” she asked, “Do I just not get it?”

"Oh, sweetie, no," Kate told her, "you're not wrong. In fact, wouldn't it be more accurate to say, "I am a servant, because my father is a servant"?

There may not be a sizable market for that t-shirt. It's a lot to live up to. But wouldn't it be something if households and streets and schools and playgrounds and performance spaces and youth groups were teeming with little servants learning to understand and embrace their identity and calling to follow Jesus? Wouldn't that be something like Christmas?

Under the Moon + Stars [feat. Mark Yaconelli]

Mark Yaconelli is one of the best storytellers I know. Under the Moon + Stars is a story Mark told one afternoon while we were talking about the sort of people who help other people grow up. If the wind is favorable, that help comes when we’re kids. If not, it comes later, when our paths cross with people like Mark.  This little movie is about listening to people, and encouraging folks to listen to their own lives for clues about where they might go in light of where they’ve been. You can download your own copy of Under the Moon + Stars [feat. Mark Yaconelli].

Maybe Not What We Wanted . Vexation

[A callback, updated from the Christian season of Advent, December 2015]

It’s not yet Christmas … perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself … still, the season of Advent has long been preoccupied by considering and expressing our longings….

A friend lamented the taking down of 10 Commandments displays in public spaces — as if most, or even many, of us care the tiniest bit about keeping those commandments, personally or collectively. 

I replied, “I think, if you care about the 10 Commandments, then live them out. Be the public display, carved in flesh and bone." I didn't mean to be glib... at least not entirely. I suppose my friend complaining about canceling the 10 Commandments struck me as virtue-signaling minus the virtue.

If we were talking about taking down public displays of The Sermon on the Mount, I might have to think a little harder. But there's no danger of that [because there *are* no public displays]. 

Nobody wants to be reminded of what Jesus said about how we are to conduct ourselves — the behavior and motives of those who learn his way. Jesus is an embarrassment to the white American Evangelical Christian movement in which I was raised and lived so many years. Jesus prohibits exactly what most of us seem to relish, and demands exactly the sorts of things almost no one likes or wants to do. He forbids retaliation and revenge, commands us to love our enemies and persecutors, and make peace with them or die trying. He calls us to be merciful, to forgive those who wrong us, to give up anger, to negotiate and reconcile, to settle out of court. Jesus commands us to love God as if nothing else matters, and he commands us to treat everyone we encounter with the loving kindness we want for ourselves. Most people who self-identify as Christians hate this so much we try to make it disappear by never talking about it … or by talking about it only to explain it away because we will not believe Jesus meant what his first followers say he said. Appropriating a line from G.K. Chesterton: The way of Jesus [Chesterton said *Christianity*] has not been tried and found wanting, it’s been found disagreeable [Chesterton said *difficult*] and left untried.

What I long for this Christmas looks something like becoming the sort of person — and living in the company of people — who might be willing to love Jesus as Jesus is … however vexing he may be to our natural inclinations … and not as we have attempted to remake him in our own image. I say *attempted* because the effort is failing so spectacularly that even a child - perhaps especially a child - can spot the fake a mile away — which is about as close as many of our neighbors want to get to anything like *church.*

I swiped from Chesterton; I’ll steal even more flagrantly from Shakespeare: This year, I long to celebrate the annoying, embarrassing Jesus, and the rabble he brings with him, at the feast of Christmas … all the rest is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Maybe Not What We Expected . Anticipation

[A callback from the Christian season of Advent, December 2011]

"Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Messiah." — Luke 2:25-26

 Did those who eagerly waited for "the consolation of Israel" know what a troublemaker the child would grow up to be? 

A friend posted a silly button that made me laugh out loud. Not the sort of thing that person usually posts. 

Others were not amused. After half a dozen readers took my friend to task, I commented: 

At the risk of fanning the flame, here's a question put to former Daily Show writer David Javerbaum by Salon, about research for his new comedic book about modern religion: "So spending all this time thinking about it: Does a New York liberal emerge with any new insights on religion as a result?"

A: As a Jew reading about Jesus, I thought he’s a pretty good guy. It’s the same conclusion Monty Python drew in “Life of Brian” – if people actually live what he did, it would be a pretty good world. But Jesus and Christianity have a tenuous relationship at best.

9/12 . Remarks by George W Bush . 09.11.21

 Remarks by George W Bush . 09.11.21 . Shanksville, Pennsylvania

Twenty years ago, we all found in different ways, in different places, but all at the same moment, that our lives would be changed forever.

The world was loud with carnage and sirens, and then quiet with missing voices that would never be heard again. These lives remain precious to our country and infinitely precious to many of you. Today we remember your loss, we share your sorrow, and we honor the men and women you have loved so long and so well.

For those too young that clear September day, it is hard to describe the mix of feelings we experienced. There was horror at the scale of destruction and awe at the bravery and kindness that rose to meet it. There was shock at the audacity of evil and gratitude for the heroism and decency that opposed it.

In the sacrifice of the first responders, in the mutual aid of strangers, in the solidarity of grief and grace, the actions of an enemy revealed the spirit of a people. And we were proud of our wounded nation.

In these memories, the passengers and crew of Flight 93 must always have an honored place. Here, the intended targets became the instruments of rescue. And many who are now alive owe a vast, unconscious debt to the defiance displayed in the skies above this field.

It would be a mistake to idealize the experience of those terrible events. All that many people could initially see was the brute randomness of death. All that many could feel was unearned suffering. All that many could hear was God’s terrible silence. There are many who still struggle with a lonely pain that cuts deep within.

In those fateful hours, we learned other lessons as well. We saw that Americans were vulnerable, but not fragile — that they possessed a core of strength that survives the worst that life can bring. We learned that bravery was more common than we imagined, emerging with sudden splendor in the face of death. We vividly felt how every hour with our loved ones was a temporary and holy gift. And we found that even the longest days end.

Many of us have tried to make spiritual sense of these events. There is no simple explanation for the mix of providence and human will that sets the direction of our lives. But comfort can come from a different store of knowledge. After wandering long and lost in the dark, many have found they were actually walking step by step toward grace.

As a nation, our adjustments have been profound. Many Americans struggled why an enemy would hate us with such zeal. The security measures incorporated into our lives are both sources of comfort and reminders of our vulnerability. And we have seen growing evidence that the dangers to our country can come not only across borders, but from violence that gathers within.

There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home. But in their disdain for pluralism, in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols, they are children of the same foul spirit. And it is our continuing duty to confront them.

After 9/11, millions of brave Americans stepped forward and volunteered to serve in the armed forces. The military measures taken over the past 20 years to pursue dangers at their source have led to debate. But one thing is certain: We owe an assurance to all who have fought our nation’s most recent battles.

Let me speak directly to veterans and people in uniform. The cause you pursued at the call of duty is the noblest that America has to offer. You have shielded your fellow citizens from danger. You have defended the beliefs of your country and advanced the rights of the downtrodden. You have been the face of hope and mercy in dark places. You have been a force for good in the world. Nothing that has followed — nothing — can tarnish your honor or diminish your accomplishments. To you, and our honorable dead, our country is forever grateful.

In the weeks and months following the 9/11 attacks, I was proud to lead an amazing, resilient, united people. When it comes to the unity of America, those days seem distant from our own. Malign force seems at work in our common life that turns every disagreement into an argument, and every argument into a clash of cultures. So much of our politics has become a naked appeal to anger, fear and resentment. That leaves us worried about our nation and our future together.

I come without explanations or solutions. I can only tell you what I’ve seen.

On America’s day of trial and grief, I saw millions of people instinctively grab for a neighbor’s hand and rally to the cause of one another. That is the America I know.

At a time when religious bigotry might have flowed freely, I saw Americans reject prejudice and embrace people of Muslim faith. That is the nation I know.

At a time when nativism could have stirred hatred and violence against people perceived as outsiders, I saw Americans reaffirm their welcome to immigrants and refugees. That is the nation I know.

At a time when some viewed the rising generation as individualistic and decadent, I saw young people embrace an ethic of service and rise to selfless action. That is the nation I know.

This is not mere nostalgia. It is the truest version of ourselves. It is what we have been and can be again.

Twenty years ago, terrorists chose a random group of Americans on a routine flight to be collateral damage in a spectacular act of terror. The 33 passengers and seven crew of Flight 93 could have been any group of citizens selected by fate. In a sense, they stood in for us all.

The terrorists soon discovered that a random group of Americans is an exceptional group of people. Facing an impossible circumstance, they comforted their loved ones by phone, braced each other for action, and defeated the designs of evil. These Americans were brave, strong and united in ways that shocked the terrorists but should not surprise any of us.

This is the nation we know.

And whenever we need hope and inspiration, we can look to the skies and remember. God bless.

Transcript courtesy of Yahoo News, Colin Campbell, managing editor, with two small corrections by me, replacing the word “watching” with “walking” and the word “face” with the word “fate”.

https://news.yahoo.com/george-w-bush-shanksville-transcript-154329368.html

Another Rendezvous with Destiny this Labor Day

 

 

1936. Franklin D. Roosevelt was three years into his first term as President of the United States. The world economy had crashed seven years earlier … the outcome of the rescue and recovery was still uncertain. Global and national conflicts made the rescue and revival of democracy uncertain as well. Mr. Roosevelt called business owners and workers — the whole nation — to meet the challenge with faith, hope, and charity. 

Here, and in every community throughout the land, we are met at a time of great moment to the future of the Nation. It is an occasion to be dedicated to the simple and sincere expression of an attitude toward problems, the determination of which will profoundly affect America.

 I come not only as a leader of a party, not only as a candidate for high office, but as one upon whom many critical hours have imposed and still impose a grave responsibility.

 For the sympathy, help and confidence with which Americans have sustained me in my task I am grateful. For their loyalty I salute the members of our great party, in and out of political life in every part of the Union. I salute those of other parties, especially those in the Congress of the United States who on so many occasions have put partisanship aside. I thank the Governors of the several States, their Legislatures, their State and local officials who participated unselfishly and regardless of party in our efforts to achieve recovery and destroy abuses. Above all I thank the millions of Americans who have borne disaster bravely and have dared to smile through the storm.

America will not forget these recent years, will not forget that the rescue was not a mere party task. It was the concern of all of us. In our strength we rose together, rallied our energies together, applied the old rules of common sense, and together survived.

 In those days we feared fear. That was why we fought fear. And today, my friends, we have won against the most dangerous of our foes. We have conquered fear.

But I cannot, with candor, tell you that all is well with the world. Clouds of suspicion, tides of ill-will and intolerance gather darkly in many places. In our own land we enjoy indeed a fullness of life greater than that of most Nations. But the rush of modern civilization itself has raised for us new difficulties, new problems which must be solved if we are to preserve to the United States the political and economic freedom for which Washington and Jefferson planned and fought.

 Philadelphia is a good city in which to write American history. This is fitting ground on which to reaffirm the faith of our fathers; to pledge ourselves to restore to the people a wider freedom; to give to 1936 as the founders gave to 1776-an American way of life.

That very word freedom, in itself and of necessity, suggests freedom from some restraining power. In 1776 we sought freedom from the tyranny of a political autocracy-from the eighteenth century royalists who held special privileges from the crown. It was to perpetuate their privilege that they governed without the consent of the governed; that they denied the right of free assembly and free speech; that they restricted the worship of God; that they put the average man's property and the average man's life in pawn to the mercenaries of dynastic power; that they regimented the people.

And so it was to win freedom from the tyranny of political autocracy that the American Revolution was fought. That victory gave the business of governing into the hands of the average man, who won the right with his neighbors to make and order his own destiny through his own Government. Political tyranny was wiped out at Philadelphia on July 4, 1776.

Since that struggle, however, man's inventive genius released new forces in our land which reordered the lives of our people.. The age of machinery, of railroads; of steam and electricity; the telegraph and the radio; mass production, mass distribution-all of these combined to bring forward a new civilization and with it a new problem for those who sought to remain free.

For out of this modern civilization economic royalists carved new dynasties. New kingdoms were built upon concentration of control over material things. Through new uses of corporations, banks and securities, new machinery of industry and agriculture, of labor and capital-all undreamed of by the fathers-the whole structure of modern life was impressed into this royal service.

There was no place among this royalty for our many thousands of small business men and merchants who sought to make a worthy use of the American system of initiative and profit. They were no more free than the worker or the farmer. Even honest and progressive-minded men of wealth, aware of their obligation to their generation, could never know just where they fitted into this dynastic scheme of things.

It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over Government itself. They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction. In its service new mercenaries sought to regiment the people, their labor, and their property. And as a result the average man once more confronts the problem that faced the Minute Man.

The hours men and women worked, the wages they received, the conditions of their labor-these had passed beyond the control of the people, and were imposed by this new industrial dictatorship. The savings of the average family, the capital of the small business man, the investments set aside for old age-other people's money-these were tools which the new economic royalty used to dig itself in.

Those who tilled the soil no longer reaped the rewards which were their right. The small measure of their gains was decreed by men in distant cities.

Throughout the Nation, opportunity was limited by monopoly. Individual initiative was crushed in the cogs of a great machine. The field open for free business was more and more restricted. Private enterprise, indeed, became too private. It became privileged enterprise, not free enterprise.

An old English judge once said: "Necessitous men are not free men." Liberty requires opportunity to make a living-a living decent according to the standard of the time, a living which gives man not only enough to live by, but something to live for.

For too many of us the political equality we once had won was meaningless in the face of economic inequality. A small group had concentrated into their own hands an almost complete control over other people's property, other people's money, other people's labor-other people's lives. For too many of us life was no longer free; liberty no longer real; men could no longer follow the pursuit of happiness.

Against economic tyranny such as this, the American citizen could appeal only to the organized power of Government. The collapse of 1929 showed up the despotism for what it was. The election of 1932 was the people's mandate to end it. Under that mandate it is being ended.

The royalists of the economic order have conceded that political freedom was the business of the Government, but they have maintained that economic slavery was nobody's business. They granted that the Government could protect the citizen in his right to vote, but they denied that the Government could do anything to protect the citizen in his right to work and his right to live.

Today we stand committed to the proposition that freedom is no half-and-half affair. If the average citizen is guaranteed equal opportunity in the polling place, he must have equal opportunity in the market place.

These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the Flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the Flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike.

The brave and clear platform adopted by this Convention, to which I heartily subscribe, sets forth that Government in a modern civilization has certain inescapable obligations to its citizens, among which are protection of the family and the home, the establishment of a democracy of opportunity, and aid to those overtaken by disaster.

But the resolute enemy within our gates is ever ready to beat down our words unless in greater courage we will fight for them.

For more than three years we have fought for them. This Convention, in every word and deed, has pledged that that fight will go on.

The defeats and victories of these years have given to us as a people a new understanding of our Government and of ourselves. Never since the early days of the New England town meeting have the affairs of Government been so widely discussed and so clearly appreciated. It has been brought home to us that the only effective guide for the safety of this most worldly of worlds, the greatest guide of all, is moral principle.

We do not see faith, hope and charity as unattainable ideals, but we use them as stout supports of a Nation fighting the fight for freedom in a modern civilization.

Faith- in the soundness of democracy in the midst of dictatorships.

Hope-renewed because we know so well the progress we have made.

Charity- in the true spirit of that grand old word. For charity literally translated from the original means love, the love that understands, that does not merely share the wealth of the giver, but in true sympathy and wisdom helps men to help themselves.

We seek not merely to make Government a mechanical implement, but to give it the vibrant personal character that is the very embodiment of human charity.

We are poor indeed if this Nation cannot afford to lift from every recess of American life the dread fear of the unemployed that they are not needed in the world. We cannot afford to accumulate a deficit in the books of human fortitude.

In the place of the palace of privilege we seek to build a temple out of faith and hope and charity.

It is a sobering thing, my friends, to be a servant of this great cause. We try in our daily work to remember that the cause belongs not to us, but to the people. The standard is not in the hands of you and me alone. It is carried by America. We seek daily to profit from experience, to learn to do better as our task proceeds.

Governments can err, Presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted in different scales.

Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.

There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.

In this world of ours in other lands, there are some people, who, in times past, have lived and fought for freedom, and seem to have grown too weary to carry on the fight. They have sold their heritage of freedom for the illusion of a living. They have yielded their democracy.

I believe in my heart that only our success can stir their ancient hope. They begin to know that here in America we are waging a great and successful war. It is not alone a war against want and destitution and economic demoralization. It is more than that; it is a war for the survival of democracy. We are fighting to save a great and precious form of government for ourselves and for the world.

When Children Win, Everyone Wins.

10 Questions about Driving While White

White friends:

1. About how times have you been pulled over in your car when you were not a clear danger to others by speeding, running a red light, or other manifestly dangerous driving behavior?

2. During how many of those stops you were required to exit your vehicle? 

3. On how many of those occasions you were asked for permission to search your vehicle? 

4. In how many of those instances you were subjected to threatening or abusive language?

5. How many of those times did you see a weapon pointed at you?

6. During how many of those incidents were you handcuffed?

7.  In how many of those episodes were you subjected to rough treatment?

8. In how many of these encounters were you injured by a peace officer?

9. When you were stopped, how many times did you compare your situation to someone in your relational network who, under similar circumstances, was seriously injured or killed?

10. How many of those occurrences concluded with you feeling valued, defended, and protected as a citizen?

Reckoning

The Black Americans whose names could share this space with George Floyd is dreadfully particular to their families and friends. Generation after generation, an endless roll of our Black American neighbors plucked from this life and from their lives, and from those who loved them … or might have, had we only known.

But we witnessed the killing of George Floyd with our own eyes — you and me. We don’t have to take anybody’s word for it: a smirking, flagrant, public lynching.

Which, now, makes us answerable for what we do about what we witnessed.

 

Easing into U.S. Black History Month . Updated 01.19.24

“I am tired of fighting for something that should have been mine at birth.”

Martin Luther King jr., quoted by James H. Cone, 
The Cross and the Lynching Tree, p.79

Maybe this is the year I read Martin Luther King Jr (instead of reading/hearing *about* him).

On six Thursdays — from February 01 to March 08 — Leesa Riviere and I will host refereed conversations around Martin Luther King Jr's final book, *Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?*

The discussion will operate under 3Practice Circle rules [https://3practices.com]. We require free registration to discourage trolls. Anybody's welcome. Here are details for February 01:

Thursday . Feb 01 . 7p Eastern . 6p Central . 5p Mountain . 4p Pacific

First in a six-part series on Martin Luther King Jr’s final book *Where Do We Go From Here . Chaos or Community?* with Leesa Riviere + Jim Hancock

To take two minutes, read chapter 01 . Anyone may ask clarifying questions

Buy the book: https://3practices.tiny.us/4hhewm65

Register: https://3practices.tiny.us/yuxrjk6y

Impeach Donald J. Trump today.

Impeach Donald J. Trump Today.

Write the articles of impeachment tonight.

Present articles to the Senate tomorrow.

Try the case on Friday.

It will only take a handful of Republican Senators to join the Democrats in convicting and removing the president on Saturday.