Sanders Helps Millenials Discover “America”

Using a Simon and Garfunkel classic to help energize voters and score big on the PR scale – Bernie Sanders has helped propel sales of old S&G albums – particulary vinyls – to a new height.  

Says a Columbia Records mogul, who spoke on condition of anonymity: “We have a lot of this old 60’s stuff laying around in the vaults just waiting for a 60’s Lefty to use it in a political campaign or an ad for a new SUV.  We are delighted to help a new generation of American youth discover the great music of the past.  I may not agree with his Socialist positions – I was a 60’s radical too but I grew up like most people who realized utopian idealism is only great in theory.  But I would give my life, or that of my grandchildren – scratch that – my children – to defend his right to be on the Far Left!  Now if only Hillary would get smarter PR people and use some classic tunes - or the Republicans would get off their country music kick – I have plenty of old Mama’s and Papa’s classics lying unused in the vault!  “California Dreamin’” would be a great option for Jeb Bush if he can just get past New Hampshire!”  

So Long John!

On the day when Speaker of the House, Rep. John Boehner, announces his upcoming resignation from Congress later next month, the Pope addresses the United Nations on issues moral and spiritual.  

If Boehner wanted to find a way to avoid immediate close scrutiny for his resignation- his decision to use the ‘take out the trash day’ {Friday] combined with Papal presence on U.S. soil was probably good timing.

When we take a look at the several years of Mr. Boehner’s leadership in the House of Representatives we see nothing resembling true leadership and statesmanship.  The most tanned Speaker in history was given both a President of another party and a Republican Caucus from another century – the 18^th!

Worse than trying to shepherd a flock (gaggle? Pride? Phalanx?) of cats – the unfortunate Mr. Boehner has been living in a hell somewhat of his own making.  While stirring up the far, far, far right in order to bolster Republican majorities (starting back in 2010) – he has been trying to guide the Tea Party-types to actually govern.  Instead they have usually rushed around skewering everything un-reactionary with their pitch-forks and their pitch-forked-tongues. 

You have to sort of pity the guy.  Which I do, but only a little.  Instead of showing leadership and statesmanship – which actually used to be found in the Republican party – he sought to be the face of resistance to the Kenyan-born, Muslim, Socialist, dark-skinned President down Pennsylvania Avenue.  Often successful at throwing up roadblocks to progress – he generally has been outmaneuvered by President Obama and been knee-capped by his own Caucus. 

With the loss of Rep. Boehner one would think that some legislative progress might be possible.  But he’s one of the few adults in the Republican Caucus – with him gone the lunatics will be in charge of the asylum.  Just expect things to get uglier, more vituperative and nasty, and slow down worse than the snail’s pace they’ve set over the past several years. 

If nothing else, Mr. Boehner can have the privilege of overseeing the worst legislative seasons in the history of our nation.  They make a ‘do-nothing’ Congress of the past look manic by comparison. 

While Boehner weeps and takes leave of the stage – ‘exit stage right’!  - we get treated to the pronouncements of the ‘clown car caucus’ (aka ‘folks running for the Republican nomination’) on the Pope and other immediate news stories.

Jeb! Bush, apparently a Catholic (having thrown aside the Episcopalianism of his childhood) – pontificates (so to speak) that the Pope should avoid speaking about climate change because he “is not a scientist.”   Well, Jeb-boy isn’t lying – the Pope apparently isn’t a scientist.  But wait!  He is.  Before becoming a priest he got a degree as a chemical technician and worked as a chemist.  Well – it’s not as if Bush is really lying he is just uninformed about the Pope’s education – but not lying doesn’t make his comments any less insipid and ridiculous. 

Climate change is actually scientifically verifiable.  The numerous studies – done by scientists – is what people of intelligence and integrity rely upon to determine the truth of something.  

Bush, and his fellow clown car riders, all deny that climate change is taking place.  Of course, being scientists, they know whereof they speak!

The idea that the issue of climate change and concern over the health of our planet isn’t the concern of the spiritual leader of a billion people is so absurd that I’m nearly rendered silent.  Nearly. 

The Pope’s Encyclical “Laudato Si” (Praise Be to You) is a passionate, thoughtful, creative and moral call to take seriously the issues of care for our planet.  Ecology, respect for our resources, climate change – indeed the whole of creation is to be respected.  Since he is both a leader and has a moral center – not speaking about such an important subject would be … well ‘anathema’!

Unfortunately when Biblical truths and economic concerns are weighed in the Bush-ian scales – care for the world is found wanting.  At this point he is one with his car full of ridiculous cohorts. 

Like those mirrors in the funny house at a carnival – any semblance to what might be the shape and gravitas of important ideas gets distorted and reflected in bizarre ways in order to appease the pitch-fork crowd. 

Mr. Bush – you will have as much success with them as did Mr. Boehner.  Lacking a backbone and any real sense of who you are and what you stand for … well it couldn’t happen to a nicer scion of a American “dynasty”.

So long John!  May you be blessed with a long and healthy retirement.  Despite my dislike of your policies, your political posturing and what you have wrought these last few years – I do thank you for doing your best to serve your country as well as you could.  

That's all for today - next blog: Trump - The finest 18th Century mind in America today!

(p.s. - after nearly five years in dormancy it feels good to be back writing!  Share if you dare!)

Stories Must Come to The End

As best I can remember the first book I ever read which made me weep when I came to the end of it was "Beautiful Joe" by Margaret Marshall Saunders.  Of course, being an autobiography of a dog rescued from cruelty, I had to be careful to keep the pages from being tear-stained throughout; so it isn't surprising that 'the end' brought forth a torrent.

There are always some things that get me teared-up.  Just can't help it!  Perhaps it is tied to the anticipation of knowing that upon first seeing the scene in a movie or reading it in a book that crying is as sure to come as taking my next breath -- and just as automatic.

A short list must be stated -- if just for the record: 
-- "How Green Was My Valley" -- having seen it 15-20 times since I was a teenager there's nothing more likely to force me to get out the hanky than seeing Donald Crisp walking the hilltop with his boy, Huw, played by Roddy McDowell.
-- The Dolly Parton song "Coat of Many Colors" which reminds me of grace and forgiveness and the wealth of love springing from poverty, and my mother, here take a listen but be forewarned, have a Kleenex or a dry sleeve nearby, unless you be among the hard-hearted: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr4GT4ltvBk&feature=related
-- It never fails that the last scene in "You've Got Mail" gets me!  Who can avoid choking up when you hear Tom Hanks calling "Barkley!" you know that's the voice Meg Ryan is waiting to hear... the Shopgirl gets her wish and so do we.
-- one of the essential Christmas movies -- "Miracle on 34th Street" -- the original of course with Edmund Gwenn and Natalie Wood -- and the scene of the little Dutch girl who has come to Macy's because she knows Sinterklaas will be there ... and indeed he is!  When the little girl, orphaned during the war, steps forward her American adoptive mother apologizes because she doesn't speak anything but Dutch, but Kris Kringle, being the real Sinterklaas breaks into language this delighted little girl recognizes as her own.  When she is asked what she wants for Christmas, little do we know that when she responds in Dutch (untranslated for us) she is telling Sinterklaas that she wants nothing because she already has the gotten her gift, being adopted by a new mother.  That little tidbit comes from IMDB -- the best source for movie info on the web and it gives me another reason to shed a tear or two because not only does Kris give her the gift of welcoming her and singing with her a folktune in her language, she offers back to Kris her thankfulness at being given a new home. 

Okay ... I must pause as my box of Kleenex is empty.  Not just from recounting these points of warm-hearted, gracious causes for weeping, but because I wish to share with you a book title and recommendation.  It is the moving and beautifully written book by Leif Enger, entitled "Peace Like a River".  I purchased it at a marvelous price when visiting Stacy and Jon in Seattle over Thanksgiving and shopping at The Elliott Bay Book Company.  Published in 2001 it was just lying there staring up at me. Of course I was grabbed by the title, which is the first line of the great, great hymn by Horatio Spafford from "It is Well With My Soul".  I picked it up and glanced at it then replaced it on the stack.  I thought I was done with it ... but alas ... it was not done with me!  After circling around those book tables like a rapacious raven looking for some sustenance, I grabbed it for good.  And now it is spiritual food... how glad I am that it caught my eye again!   I started it shortly after getting home from Seattle and have attended to a few chapters each day.   My copy will soon find its way to Seattle to get the Stacy-once-over as I promised after I read it.  It will find good company there.  And she bought Enger's 2008 book "So Brave, Young and Handsome". 

There is much to find achingly moving in "Peace Like a River".  The writing is lively, creative, full of characters that live in your heart.  A book you can't wait to devour but like a great meal you hate to arrive at 'the end'.  Being home sick today I figured a good dose of something warm to drink, a cozy quilt and a good read would, like a hefty pillow, fluff up my spirits.  I was not disappointed.  I wept as I closed the book.  I can give no greater testimony than that ... and so I commend it to your reading ... and in keeping with the theme, the title of the book and that of this blog ... here is a great version of a marvelous hymn (which if you learn the story of its creation -- will bring you in deep resonance with the weight behind the words) -- "It Is Well with My Soul" ... this is a nice version from youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPPSG_SpojY&feature=related

For the Beauty of the Earth

The first thing that popped into my mind when I saw this article about a fundamentalist legislator
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/13/john-shimkus-climate-change_n_782664.html were hymns about God's creative power.  "For the Beauty of the Earth", "This Is My Father's World", "How Great Thou Art", "Morning Has Broken", "All Things Bright and Beautiful"...  just the start of a list to which I'm sure you could add your favorites.

What I find stunning with the pervasive ignorance of those who regard climate change as not impacted by our profligate abuse of our environment and the overwhelming evidence supported by 98% of all scientific authority on the subject -- is they support the abuse of the environment by abusing scripture.

As the article noted Rep. Shimkus, likely to head a House Committee on Energy and Commerce, brings his considerable skills as a biblical interpreter to his legislative agenda: "I believe that's [the Bible] the infallible word of God, and that's the way it's going to be for his creation," Shimkus said.
Having concluded that the Bible doesn't allow for any destruction by Flood (see the covenant with Noah in Genesis 9) it will only be destroyed should God will it.  I guess there is room for us to destroy it by nuclear weapons -- if it be God's will -- but basically we have little to say about how everything is going to end.

God must have been wasting breath when we were charged with being caretakers of the earth and everything in it -- see Genesis 1.  While Rep. Shimkus might agree with the notion of Dominion Theology -- that the earth is ours to subdue and rule over as we see fit -- I would suggest that the declaration of God for us to be stewards of the environment comes ahead of that part of the story where we screw everything up.

Well ... Adam screws it up by listening to Eve who was duped by a wily serpent.  A brilliant myth by the way, right!?!   But you would think that the perfection of creation, having been ruined by the advent of selfishness and sin might have changed the game a bit.  Prior to 'the Fall' humankind would have operated without sin and sought only the good of creation -- after 'the Fall' humankind suffered the decline of the earth's bounty and reaped a future that was harsh and aggressive.  While God might have willed the sustaining beauty of the earth become the provenance of humankind, the flaw was letting us have free will.  With that reality all bets are off -- as are the capacities of human beings to act without fail as God would wish.

Fundamentalism, with its faith-less reading of scripture, believes that the innerant 'Word of God' trumps everything -- reason, science, common-sense, observable reality by the most untutored of us.  (Even the most ignorant have to wonder why glaciers are retreating at a pace unheard of in centuries -- more about this below)  Conveniently this bizarre reading of the Bible links up closely with the Republican interest in unfettered capitalist exploitation of the resources the earth has to offer.  In an immoral twist on being stewards the assumption is that if it's good for BP and DuPont it must comport with God's will -- I mean if God didn't want us to have cheap oil and defoliants God wouldn't have put those substances into the creation!  By-products are the price we pay for driving comfort and insect repellent.  Bad water, lung disease, spoiled landscapes and famine are the price we pay for listening to ignorant and selfish people who put profits above 'loving their neighbors as themselves'.  (If they could only love everyone into the halls of power like they love themselves, what a different world it might be.)

Natural theology understands that God's purposes and presence can be found in the created order.  And as we review the works of the Psalmists we can acknowledge that ancient articulations about God's blessings are inextricably linked with the power and beauty of creation.  The reality that "rocks and trees and skies and seas, his hands the wonders wrought" finds its way into modern hymns is a testimony to our deep appreciation of God's handiwork.

Thankfully, it may be the impact of legislators like Mr. Shimkus that will begin to light a fire under some Americans who can see stupid when it rears its blockish head.  With the rising number of evangelicals who are willing to acknowledge that good Biblical interpretation compels us to good stewardship we might have an ability for some conservatives to brunt the impact of bad policy drawn from bad hermeneutics.  Hopefully some effective alliances can develop around core human rights and values that will bring progressive evangelicals and mainline Christians together.

To circle back to comments made above concerning the retreat of glaciers those who like to debunk climate change -- consider Nobel Prize winning scientist Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma -- who thinks global warming is a hoax.  While it is true that a study of ancient climates see change as a recurring phenomena throughout unrecorded and recorded history -- for those who follow Bishop Usher's understanding of the creation occurring on Sunday, October 23, 4004 B.C. (or B.C.E. for ecumenical purists) as per Biblical inerrancy all those fossils and carbon dating are a nuisance of course.  But it doesn't really matter.  To equate 2010 with the Little Ice Age -- a period of cooling after a warm medieval age -- is absolutely bizarre.  How does the 13th century compare in any way with the early 21st?  Well -- there are people and horses and cats.  Lots of things that appear to be the same.  Except that in the year 1,200 A.D. (C.E. for ecumenical purists) the head counters estimate that the world contained roughly 450 million people.  That is almost exactly the total combined population of the U.S. (310) and Russia (142) today.  I wonder if population differences make any impact?  Do you think that the Indian subcontinent, which had 125 million people in 1750 -- when they rode in carts and rowed and sailed their boats -- and now has 1.5 billion people driving cars without smog controls, burning diesel to travel by water, and consuming enormous amounts of natural resources might be making a difference in global weather conditions?  Well ... duh!

I'm excited -- I hope you are -- with the election of people who will be guided by narrow interpretations of ancient texts that actually weren't intended to provide road-maps to public policy 20-30 centuries after their creation.  What I do know is that scripture speaks to the deep faith expression that God gifted creation to creatures who have to take responsibility for its maintenance, protection, and sustaining.  As the Psalmist says: 'we are fearfully and wonderfully made' (139:14) ... that doesn't mean we should be fearful of course.  So I will pray that 'warmer' heads prevail as the climate discussion goes on.   Thanks for reading this and letting me grind my teeth in your direction!

Meanwhile I'll sing familiar hymns and trust in God:  verse 3 of a favorite hymn:

This is my Father's world.  
 O let me ne'er forget 
 that though the wrong seems oft so strong, 
 God is the ruler yet.  
 This is my Father's world:  
 why should my heart be sad?  
 The Lord is King; let the heavens ring!  
 God reigns; let the earth be glad!

--  and offer this as a gift for your listening pleasure -- it is a favorite group, Eden's Bridge, singing "Whole Earth":http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNCjgRn-Lw4.  Check them out -- it's worth your time!

Have a blessed Sabbath!

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Communication 101

Some people have a real gift with words.  Perhaps the greatest speech, at least in the English language, is Lincoln's Gettysburg Address: "Four score and seven years ago".  You could never write a speech like that today ... too much time has gone by.

I digress: There may be an argument as to the greatest speech in the English language of course.  Julius Caesar is eulogized by Mark Antony in the play "J.C"  (not that JC ... Julius Caesar!) with the grandiose "Friends, Romans, countryman, lend me your ears..." ... which of course, Mark Antony never really said ... it is a piece of fiction!  Darn good fiction though.  So in the running for a real speech of course has to be M.L. King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream Speech" ... which is far and away gonna have a better delivery and cadence than either Mark Anthony -- despite the iambic pentameter -- and more engaging and memorable than Lincoln's speech.  Which, by the time the reporters present sharpened their pencils was over.

273 words -- by my count (which means give or take a few).  If you read it somewhat slowly out loud it will last about 2-3 minutes.  Edward Everett preceded Lincoln's speech with one of his own ... it lasted two hours!  (That's a couple months of sermons!).  Not only is Everett's speech not remembered -- it isn't likely to be read or memorized.  Lincoln's on the other hand lives on.  As even Everett noted in a letter to Lincoln after the event:  "I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes."   Or in more Lincolnesque language: "you said it better than I did, faster too."

I undigress:  Reading HuffingtonPost.com is often entertaining and enlightening at the same time.  There's a new web site.  Going viral.  It is called: http://whattheheckhasobamadonesofar.com and it says in a succinct way what Obama and his Adminstration have been terrible at saying.  Simply describing their accomplishments.  Of course, this link is the sanitized, PG version... just substitute another four-letter word for 'heck' and you'll get the R rated (maybe PG-13, I don't know anymore what the line is for smut and naughtiness) version.

In either case three bright young people decided to mine the record for a list of some of the accomplishments of the Obama presidency and ... voila!  There they are ... page after page of them.  With links to the factual details.  Not everyone will agree that these are 'accomplishments' but as my friend Barbara Sharry says in response to my disappointment expressed in my last blog entry, also my first blog entry:  "I think the President fell on his own sword to get the healthcare bill done, and moved mtns to avoid an out-and-out depressions".  I agree.  I just wish he could, and those who support him could have, done a better job of reminding people of all that has been done.  The change for consumers bludgeoned by the excesses of Wall Street and credit card companies alone is enormous!

So back to my point about the power of a few words. Check out the web site I noted above.  Creative, succinct, informative -- please kick everyone off the President's PR team and hire these three young people!! (if you want to see them interviewed check out the link on Huffingtonpost.com -- Lawrence O'Donnell "The Last Word" on MSNBC.   They came up with the idea and had it done in THREE HOURS!

Lincoln would be proud.

Epilogue:  I am in a "Man in Black" swing these days and among the great songs is one off a very late work: "Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone"  (album: American III: Solitary Man)  "Would you lay with me in a field of stone ...  if my lips grow dry would you wet them dear ... would you go away to another land ... walk a thousand miles through the burning sand ... wipe the blood away from my dying hand ... if I give myself to you ... would you bathe with me in the stream of life ... will you still love me when I'm down and out?"  Here's a You Tube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1onW7xe4SE

Do you have a favorite JC song?  (Not that JC!  Johnny Cash!)  Share with me what and why. 

^Whiuch

Post election dirge

Is this what democracy looks like?  Casting about for some stability in a sea of monied-interests, blind anger, simplistic solutions and amnesia American government lurches precariously right-ward as voters say 'yes' to the Party of 'No!'  Governing is a messy business and people have short attention spans.  Given that we are, by nature, self-centered, tribal and unforgiving it isn't really unexpected that there was a backlash over the decisions, or lack of them, taken by the Democratic leadership over the past 22 months.

I could sing a litany about issues not addressed (immigration reform, energy independence), those poorly attended to (infrastructure jobs, DADT, the foreclosure crisis, failing to imprison Wall Street thieves) and those areas where some chest-thumping was in order (saving the American Car Industry, increasing mpg requirements, taking college loans away from rapacious banks, getting a major health care bill passed that faces down the most inhumane abuses, a stimulus bill -- while inadequate kept a lot of people from losing homes and hope -- getting us mostly out of Iraq, giving us some level of appreciation in a world that had turned against us).

Now the 'post election dirge' has many verses that could be created but this is a song in need of a finish.  How low it will go depends on whether President Obama will get some spine.  Americans want a leader who stands for something. Every time he has been abused by Republicans -- verbally or politically -- he comes back for more, like a wife beaten by an abusive husband.  What will it take to call the cops!?! 

So here is the last verse of the dirge:  Mr. President, don't make me sorry I voted for you.  When you stood tall and talked about your accomplishments on the campaign trail in Sept/Oct your poll numbers jumped.  Do you think was that just a coincidence.  Au contraire mon ami!  You were laying some wood upside the empty heads and rhetoric of Republicans -- who have no plans for anything or anyone -- except YOU -- which is to make you unemployed in 2013.  Wake Up!! 

DON'T YOU DARE allow those immoral, budget-killing, deficit-spiraling, noxious Bush Tax Cut Giveaway to America's wealthiest 2% to be extended!  If you do I will not give one dime to your re-election, make one call on your behalf, I will strip my fridge of my "Obama" magnets and encourage everyone I know to do the same.  Make the Republican leadership show their true stripes -- as if they haven't already!! -- and defend giving the wealthiest a break while tens of millions of Americans can't find work or afford to pay their mortgage or send their kids to school. 

Am creating a new song mix of some favorites -- so that I can have some music to lift my heart.  Any suggestions?  I have put the Mint Juleps "Higher and Higher" on it and "Jump, Jive an' Wail" by Louis Prima ... music can save me!