Occupy Faith

Today’s school shooting …

2018 America

Any teenager will hear these 3 words

… “Today’s school shooting …”

They will hear the 3 words and not be surprised

Just 3 words

High school in America

The students expect to hear

Just 3 words

Any Day

Every Day

3 words

Bang – Bang – Bang

Message to the NRA:

Yes, it’s about money.

But more:

It’s about fear.

https://www.damemagazine.com/2018/02/22/its-time-to-scare-the-nra/

“And even with all this, we will NOT learn a thing.

Indifference

– deliberate indifference.”

[AHAMAR 06, 2015 09:57PM]

Other Days – Other Places

On 16 December 2014, six Taliban gunmen attacked the Army Public School in Peshawar Pakistani. The murderers were foreign nationals: 1 Chechen, 3 Arabs and 2 Afghans. They entered the school and opened fire on school staff and children, killing 149 people including 132 schoolchildren, ranging between eight and eighteen years of age making it the world’s fourth deadliest school massacre.

‘None of this is Normal’ by Jenna Harris

I haven’t written about it yet maybe because writing was one of the things

that felt normal to me

But nothing about this feels normal

Seeing my classmates on the news

Being asked for interviews

Having celebrities tweet my town’s name

None of it feels normal

Being asked for interviews Having celebrities tweet my town’s name

While in the closet

My body shook uncontrollably

I held the hands of my friends

And tried to hold in my tears

Because I didn’t want to think about who wouldn’t see their

loved ones these following years

My heart is racing

My insides are aching

I’m angry

I’m sad

But I am grateful that I am alive

And hungry for change

And for my school, for my community

I’m filled with so much

Pride

None of this feels normal

But with a broken heart,

I know all of this is true

And for each angel that was brutally ripped from us

Everything from now on is for you

Jenna Harris, a Parkland survivor, turned to poetry following her own ordeal at Marjory Stoneman Douglas. In her poem “None of this is Normal,” Harris reflects on the surreal turn her life took after the deaths of her classmates, promising them that “everything from now on is for you.”

Originally published on Youth Radio                                                                    

‘Empty beds and broken hearts’

by Jett Hays – A poem for Parkland

Books and backpacks

Pencils in pouches

Students in body bags

No bells only shots ring – No practice, no dinner

Only shooters and sinners

No morning    – Only mourners

Early morning prayers on a Wednesday

Bodies don’t get buried till more mourning on a Sunday

No milestones or tassel throws

Only growing roses and tombstones

Rising death tolls and bells that tell of funerals

Empty beds and broken hearts

No hearts beat – No children dance

Post mortem I love yous – I would’ve told you – if I had the chance

This is no new news – This is not the first, this is not the last

Too many children killed walking to class

American carnage consoled with carnations

coronations of leaders who think band-aids will protect schools

And heal our nation – Unless ink and compassion flows

Laws pass and guns go You will lose our vote

So Scott, Martin, Nicholas, and Alyssa, Aaron, Alaina, Meadow, and Helena, Jaime, Chris, Luke, and Cara, Joaquine, Alex, and Gina – Stay alive

So 17 faces smile

17 dream in figures and a crown

Three teachers

14 students graduating in caps and gowns

17 sit down

17 seats fill with the future

When will it be a last breath too many?

When will the candle flames die

Cuz students don’t

When will we quit drowning in

Our own sorrow

Our own blood

And gasp for air

Grasp change

And pass laws

Be kind to others

And show that we care

We are almost there

For every candle every night a torch burns every day and burns bright

Allowing us to photograph the darkness

So – We can grasp the light

When the sun sets

Jett Hays Torrance High School / Words of a generating generation.

Tunnel light into the future

And bury hate with the past

So students aren’t targets

And there’s no shooters to shoot

Dreams to nightmares

Schools to memorials

Times like these seem a long way from the American dream

The Silence

Parkland 17-year-old David Hogg

“Please!

  We are children.

  You guys are, like, the adults.

  Take action, work together,

     come over your politics,

        and get something done.”

Parkland, Florida, Jaclyn Corin 

“Why should they listen to me?

Because I had to sit in a classroom, in the dark, next to 20 of my friends, watching us all text our parents that we loved them.

Because we didn’t know if a shooter was going to come up to our door.”

“… That’s why I’m credible.”

senior Emma González

“We are going to be the kids you read about in textbooks.

Not because we’re going to be another statistic

about mass shooting in America, but because…

we are going to be the last mass shooting.”

“Never Again”

“Politicians who sit in their gilded House and Senate seats funded by the NRA telling us nothing could have been done to prevent this, we call BS. They say tougher guns laws do not decrease gun violence. We call BS.” – Emma Gonzalez

“This isn’t something that you let go of a month later, this is something that we will persist with. This is going to be an issue probably for the rest of my lifetime unless we do something about it,” Brighton senior Jonathan Vaysman

Step forward into the future. Support each other.

Build community.

Make peace. Practice nonviolence.

Resist the forces of war.

Reconcile with our enemies. Come what may.

We have met a Rebel God.

Begin the revolution within us.

Hearts burn with the fire of Hope.

Summon us to carry on an Errand of Nonviolence.

On a Monday

At 4:01 p.m.

Suspended between winter twilight

..  and despair

I wondered if all the poets were gone.

It was harder to breath the air.

There was a ricochet from a dream.

A child of a former slave-owner

..  sat beside

The child of a former slave

Not eating they waited

..  Sweating blood

For the Man’s four children

Dying from the unquenchable thirst

Into an oasis of liberation

Captives of righteousness

.. become Children of Light

They wait for their kin

.. Into the night

Rescued from god

Searching for a 26-year-old Prophet

Mass Shootings Reports
On October 1, 2017 Las Vegas Mass Murder reported 59 killed and 441 wounded.
From October 1, 2017 there were 24 deaths by shooting reported across the US and approximately 93 wounded during those murders.

From November 3 through the 4th there were 2 deaths by shooting across the US reported and approximately 28 wounded.

November 5, 2017 Sutherland Springs, Texas 26 dead and 20 reported wounded at the Sutherland Springs Baptist Church.

The Year 2017 to Date (reported)
52,374 – Total Number of Gun Violence Incidents as of November 5, 2017
13,142 – Number of Deaths
26,934 – Number of Injuries

Nick Wagner/AP Nov 5, 2017

20 States – 31 Cities over period of 36 Days
Lanett, Alabama
Casa Grande, and Phoenix, Arizona (2 incidents),
Clearlake Oaks, Gardena, San Francisco (2 incidents), Santa Monica, and Aliso Viejo, California
Hartford, Connecticut
Miami, Tampa, and Jacksonville, Florida
Chicago, Illinois
Hammond, Indiana
Lawrence, Kansas
Louisville, Kentucky
Lacombe, Louisiana
Edgewood, Maryland
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Meridian, Mississippi
Brooklyn, and New York Buffalo, New York
Youngstown, Pedro, and Toledo, Ohio
Chester, Pennsylvania
Nashville, Tennessee
Austin (2 incidents), Houston (2 incidents), and Sutherland Springs, Texas Petersburg, Virginia

(Source: Gun Violence Archive – http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/)

Each person murdered or wounded has a family.
Period.
Think on them.

Let us remember the families and loved ones of those who have died from gun violence. We acknowledge their pain and their deep grief. They too, are part of our community, and need our love and help towards healing.

God of life,
Every act of violence in our world, in our communities, between myself and others, destroys a part of your creation.
Stir in my heart a renewed sense of reverence for all life.
Give me the vision to recognize your spirit in every human being, however they
behave towards me.
Make possible the impossible by cultivating in me the fertile seed of healing
love.

May I play my part in breaking the cycle of violence by realizing that peace
begins with me.

The Fever of the Gun

Hot .. The Fever
Forever Molten..
Forever Voiceless
Just a Weapon
Of the Hopeless.
My Children’s Children’s Children
At the Mercy
And .. The Fever of the Gun.

omar2016

“We are Prophets of a Future Not Our Own”

Óscar A. Romero (August 15, 1917 – March 24, 1980) was a prelate of the Catholic Church in El Salvador and served as the fourth Archbishop of San Salvador. He spoke out against poverty, social injustice, assassinations and torture.

This March 24th was again the feast day for the former Archbishop of San Salvador, Blessed Oscar Romero. It was the 37th anniversary of his assassination by the hand of a paid hitman at the height of the civil war in El Salvador.  2017 also commemorates the centenary of Romero’s birth. This event will be celebrated in his native country by a special anniversary year.

In 1980, in the midst of a U.S. funded war the UN Truth Commission called genocidal, the soon-to-be-assassinated Archbishop Oscar Romero promised history that life, not death, would have the last word.

“I do not believe in death without resurrection,” he said.

“If they kill me, I will be resurrected in the Salvadoran people.”

On each anniversary of his death, the people march through the streets carrying that promise printed on thousands of banners. Mothers will make pupusas (thick tortillas with beans) at 5 a.m., pack them, and prepare the children for a two-to-four hour ride or walk to the city to remember the gentle man they called Monseñor.

Archbishop Oscar Romero Prayer: A Step Along the Way

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent

enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of

saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.

No prayer fully expresses our faith.

No confession brings perfection.

No pastoral visit brings wholeness.

No program accomplishes the Church’s mission.

No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about.

We plant the seeds that one day will grow.

We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an

opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master

builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own.

*This prayer was composed by Bishop Ken Untener of Saginaw, drafted for a homily by Card. John Dearden in Nov. 1979 for a celebration of departed priests. As a reflection on the anniversary of the martyrdom of Bishop Romero, Bishop Untener included in a reflection book a passage titled “The mystery of the Romero Prayer.” The mystery is that the words of the prayer are attributed to Oscar Romero, but they were never spoken by him.

Assassinated

Thirty-seven years ago, Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador was assassinated in the early evening in the chapel of the Hospital of Divine Providence. The day before he was killed, at the Cathedral of San Salvador, he had ended a sermon with words he directed at Salvadoran soldiers and police:

“I would like to make an appeal in a special way to the men of the army, to the police, to those in the barracks. Brothers, you are part of our own people. You kill your own campesino brothers and sisters. And before an order to kill that a man may give, the law of God must prevail that says: Thou shalt not kill! No soldier is obliged to obey an order against the law of God.

No one has to fulfill an immoral law. It is time to recover your consciences and to obey your consciences rather than the orders of sin. The church, defender of the rights of God, of the law of God, of human dignity, the dignity of the person, cannot remain silent before such abomination. We want the government to take seriously that reforms are worth nothing when they come about stained with so much blood.

In the name of God, and in the name of this suffering people whose laments rise to heaven each day more tumultuously, I beg you, I ask you, I order you in the name of God: Stop the repression!”

A single shot rang out and pierced Romero’s heart. As he bled to death those around him believed they knew what forces in Salvadoran society were responsible for the crime. Church and human rights groups recognized the killing as the familiar work of right-wing death squads. The Washington Post and other U.S. news outlets reported that Romero’s assassination might have been the work of “leftist” rebels.

(Reported by Dr. Joseph A. Palermo in the Huffington Post)

On the occasion of the beatification of Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Romero

on May 23, 2015

I Am the Land:

A Poem in Memory of Oscar Romero

The doors of the church are open

As wide as the heart of a man

In times of trouble

Here is a rock,

Here is a hand.

The souls of my people

are the pages of history.

The people of El Salvador

are the people of the world.

I am Oscar Romero, a humble servant.

I am the land.

I am all the people who have no land.

I am the grass growing.

I am all the children who have been murdered.

I am the poor.

The Unfinished Eucharist

I am the trees.

I am the priests, the nuns, the believers.

I am the wind, the voice calling.

I am the poets who will sing forever.

I am the poor.

I am the dreamer whose dreams overflow with hope.

I am the hungry.

I am the people.

I am Oscar Romero.

—E. Ethelbert Miller, literary activist

“In other times it may have been the business of Christianity to champion the equality of all men; its business today will be to defend passionately human dignity and reserve.”

― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters from Prison

I was born in 1952.

It was a small town outside a major military base near Waco, Texas.

My father was a career Army man.

He grew up on a ranch on the outskirts of San Antonio.

His father was a successful architect and deacon in the Christian Church.

My father sometime rode his horse to school.

Deep in the heart of Texas there was a dirt farmer that had nine children.

My mother was born eighth of that clan.

Old Methodist Church pews .. Great for napping or singing

I have one sister and we grew up singing in the Methodist Church.

Mom always made sure we attended a Methodist church.

My father was stationed in Texas, South Carolina, and Louisiana.

We went to the Methodist church.

I suppose we went to the Protestant Chapel while he was stationed on Guam.

No matter, we were Methodist all the way back to the Wesley brothers.

Texan to the bone.

I am also a Caucasian with deep roots in the Great Britain vicinity.

White.

Mr. President I am white.

White – Anglo Saxon – Protestant

I’m one of the great American WASPs towards whom you feel such kindred.

Mr. President I went to a public high school in San Antonio, Texas.

That was from 1966 to 1970.

During that time we had a total of three African American students.

Out of twelve-hundred kids in my school, maybe 10% were Mexican American.

That’s me on the right there. New Orleans 7th Ward

Mr. President, I hold a bachelor’s degree from a Catholic liberal arts university.

Mr. President, I have a Master’s of Divinity degree from a Presbyterian Seminary.

My two older children were baptized in the Episcopal Church.

My two younger ones were baptized in a Lutheran Church.

For forty years, I’ve been a Protestant Youth Minister by profession.

Mr. President, this was my calling.

Currently, I preside over a weekly Protestant Worship and Communion Service.

It is held at an elder care facility.

Me with some Texas sweet tea

Mr. President, I have never been inside a Muslim Mosque to attend worship.

Mr. President, I have not read the Koran.

I do have a few casual acquaintances that are practicing Muslims.

I have never traveled to a Middle Eastern country.

I have no future plans to do much traveling other than to Texas.

Mr. President, you can see by my photo that I am an older white male.

I have 3 main reasons for sharing my actual photo.

NUMBER 1

LAX Jan 28, 2017 (AP/Reed Saxon)

When profiled at the airport or in my car, I am mostly invisible.

(I call myself non-profile-able. White. Old. Male. Who cares?)

No one will call me a Muslim!

Or a Mexican!

Or a woman!

Or a Terrorist!

NUMBER 2

As a sweet, old-looking white grandfather, I certainly pass as a Christian.

(This is noticeable with a quick glance at the previous evidence of Methodism in my past. It is positively safe to assume that, “Hey, that old white guy is one!”)

So as someone who passes as Christian,

JFK Protests

I want EVERYONE to know what being one means to me.

We Christians stand in harm’s way.

We protect the outcast.

We protect the widow.

We protect and look after the orphan. (James 1:27)

We surround those who would be harmed by malevolent minds.

This is not an afterthought.

Mr. President, a Christian always has that thought foremost in our mind and heart.

NUMBER 3

Mr. President,

You weave a web of exclusion under the guise of protecting the America people.

You seek to instill fear in anyone who dare oppose your dreadful actions.

Not the fear of opposing a new law or even a false truth,

The fear of you.

But you seek to instill absolute fear..

The fear of YOU!

As you attempt to create a false narrative of history.

You babble an artificial chronicle of insulting propaganda,

Designed to pave the way for rule under the control of a senseless con man.

Mr. President, know that your decisions..

Mr. President, know that your deeds..

Hold lives in the balance.

Mr. President, your decisions and deeds hold my children’s lives and their children’s future in a delicate balance.

Mr. President, I do not trust that you will care for the children of the earth.

Mr. President, I do not trust that you understand that your whims are not wisdom.

Mr. President, I do not trust that you know you have limitations.

Mr. President, I do not trust that you have any close friends to help you.

Mr. President, I do not trust that you are humble or teachable or even grateful.

Mr. President, I do not trust that you know how to care.

So in light of the Christian ethics that were taught to me when I was a child,

And in the sad belief that you Mr. President will attempt to..

-ban people from nations with Muslim majority populations from entry to the USA

And in the sad belief that you Mr. President will attempt to..

-make people from Mexico “not our friends”..

And in the sad belief that you Mr. President will attempt to..

-cause people of color to fear and loath you and you policies..

And in the sad belief that you Mr. President will attempt to..

-take away the hard-won rights of the LGBT community

And in the sad belief that you Mr. President will attempt to..

-install a law to require Muslims to REGISTER as Muslim..

In light of all that, Mr. President,

I will preemptively call myself Muslim..

I will wear my Christian clerical collar..

I will hang a Celtic pectoral cross over my chest..

I will walk to the front of the line..

I will ask to be..

the FIRST REGISTERED MUSLIM in AMERICA!

In confidence of my personal relationship with Yahweh God..

In the clarity of my walk in the Way of Jesus..

In my conviction that the long arc of the moral universe, bends towards justice..

In the overwhelming evidence that the oppressed need advocates..

Mr. President..

I am persuaded that I must take the same stand as Dietrich Bonhoeffer while imprisoned at Tegel military prison.. and of Martin Luther King as he wrote from the Birmingham jail.. and with my father the Army Major who I can hear singing in clear Irish tenor voice the strains of “How Great Thou Art”.. and most certainly because of my mother who would have taken any frightened refugee in to our family kitchen .. for sanctuary..

You see Mr. President sanctuary for the weary outcast is our calling..

In evidence all of this mighty cloud of witness..

Mr. President, I Am a Muslim.

“When a man becomes a Christian, he becomes industrious, trustworthy and prosperous. Now, if that man when he gets all he can and saves all he can does not give all he can, I have more hope for Judas Iscariot than for that man!”

– John Wesley

Mr. President, this is my prayer for you.

I implore the Universe to shed some light into the blackness that seems to haunt you.

I pray you will experience forgiveness.

But.. Mr. President..

For every man and woman who is planning on becoming wealthier – and as a byproduct – more powerful because of your decisions and your deeds..

Mr. President those people should read up on what happened in South Africa in the last throws of Apartheid.. and reacquaint themselves with Gandhi and the fall of British Raj in India.. the Edmund Pettus Bridge.. the human toll of Mao’s “Revolution” .. (sadly too many other examples)

Finally Mr. President,

It doesn’t matter to me if you won by nuanced electoral votes.

It doesn’t matter to me if you won through someone’s hidden agenda.

It doesn’t matter to me if you won by an unfortunate turn of chance.

It doesn’t matter to me if you won and this land is split into halves.

Mr. President.

You won.

You

Are

The President.

You have been entrusted with so very much.

Mr. President You have not earned this as a right.

Mr. President you are holding the office of President as a trust.

You are in office as a privilege.

Period.

The world is only just learning the treacheries of your past.

Mr. President the dark tragedy of all your deals will be brought into light..

“With the tools of democracy, democracy was murdered and lawlessness made “legal.” Raw power ruled, and its only real goal was to destroy all other powers besides itself.”

― Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

Protest at LAX

Mr. President

I do not trust you to care.

Therefore Mr. President I do not trust you to care for my children..

I do not trust you to care for their children’s children’s children’s future..

Mr. President, I have decided to prove my loyal opposition.

Back to the Big Easy

(What I mean by loyal is simple. I am loyal to the notion that there is a necessity, and a goodness, in having a democratically elected president to lead the USA in the self-governing tradition of our nation. The opposition part is equally simple. I am opposed to your cavalier ‘America First’ effluvia you are passing off as care and strength. It is an illusion. Mr. President you are the Fascist my father warned me to watch for. I will ‘loyally’ oppose you till my last breath.)

Here it is.

It is simple.

Mr. President, I am a Muslim.

Question One for the Church

Syrian refugee girl Aya Bandar, 6, from Hama, Syria, poses for a picture at an informal tented settlement near the Syrian border on the outskirts of Mafraq, Jordan. AP Photo

Who will claim these children for the Church?

Question Two for the Church

The Muslim ban hits close to home for the Burk and Fawcett family. Their friends have relatives who survived Nazi Germany. They now have a neighbor whose husband is detained. SeaTac International Airport ASK

If you have a building can it be a Sanctuary?

Resist

“American Carnage” Day One … bleeding the same red blood of patriots

During his Inaugural address Trump invoked an odd phrase – one for all time – when he said,

“American carnage”: “The crime, and the gangs, and the drugs that have stolen so many lives… This American carnage stops right here, right now.”

In President Trump’s Inaugural Address he also said,“Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength. I will fight for you with every breath in my body, and I will never ever let you down.”

Protection /Prosperity

Rev. Henry Ward Beecher wrote, “The fundamental doctrine of Christianity is that all men are brethren. The fundamental doctrine of protectionism is that all men are NOT brethren.

Christianity teaches that all men, in all parts of the world should love each other.

Protectionism teaches that all men on one side of an imaginary line should hate, or at least disregard, all who live on the side of that line. Not only so, but protectionism teaches Christians to hate their fellow Christians (more than they do pagans).”  Protection a Moral Question by Henry Ward Beecher (Note 1)

President Trump continued in his address,

“A new national pride will stir ourselves, lift our sights and heal our divisions. It’s time to remember that old wisdom our soldiers will never forget, that whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots.”

Protection /Prosperity  

Don Boudreaux wrote in TRADE on April 5, 2010 (Note 2) “But let’s never forget that protectionism is also immoral.

It is immoral for anyone or any collective forcibly to obstruct peaceful exchanges between two parties merely because a political border separates these parties from each other.

If it is legal and proper for me to buy widgets, my choice of which widget supplier to patronize should be mine and mine alone.  Likewise, the terms on which we deal are no one’s business but my own and that supplier’s.

Protectionists, at root, are thugs.”

Trump went on to claim,

“We will bring back our jobs.

We will bring back our borders.

We will bring back our wealth.

And we will bring back our dreams.”

Protection /Prosperity

“All trade barriers rest upon the moral premise that it is fairer for the U.S. government to effectively force an American citizen to buy from an American company than to allow him to voluntarily make a purchase from a foreign company.

U.S. trade policy assumes that the moral difference between an American company and a foreign company is greater than the difference between coercion and voluntary agreement.

The choice of fair trade versus free trade is ultimately this: Is coercion ever fairer than voluntary agreement?” The Immorality of Protectionism by James Bovard September 1, 1994 (Note 3)

“When you combine ignorance and leverage, you get some pretty interesting results.”

― Warren Buffett

Today is a blurr. (I’ll blame it on the common cold and Seattle’s drippy skies.) Tomorrow will be out of focus. (I wonder who I should blame that on?)

Even if today I stood with the throng right in front of the restored Capitol building in DC I would have become “unstuck in time” like Billy Pilgrim (protagonist from Kurt Vonnegut’s, Slaughterhouse-Five).

As a person with a high regard for civil discourse and rational thought the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States might be an insult to the intelligence. (This is a good time for me to breathe and admit the hypocrisy of self-righteous know-it-allness.)

That might explain why I’ve been on this shaky acid-trip-type of thrill ride since before Thanksgiving.

It’s like Annie Barrett at Entertainment Weekly wrote a few years back (about the Willy Wonka’ creepy boat scene.)

She said, “I’ve always found such profound peace in this CRAZY boat ride — I love that he’s (Wonka) so calm about not knowing a damn thing… But as a kid I just recognized hey, this is exactly how I feel in relation to my surroundings all the time. I too can sit perfectly still and dart my eyes around with knowing glances at the wonder of all the not-knowing.”

The best part is right when Wonka begins to sing very softly.

There’s no earthly way of knowing

Which direction we are going

There’s no knowing where we’re rowing

Or which way the river’s flowing

Is it raining, is it snowing

Is a hurricane a-blowing?

Not a speck of light is showing

So the danger must be growing

Are the fires of Hell a-glowing

Is the grisly reaper mowing?

Yes, the danger must be growing

For the rowers keep on rowing

And they’re certainly not showing

Any signs that they are slowing!

(Breathless Pause)

“The roots of prejudice can be traced to a general cognitive outlook characterized by the hunger for certainty.”

― Jamie Holmes,

Nonsense: The Power of Not Knowing

The new Sitting President of the United States of America “rejects free trade.”

The new Sitting President of the United States of America “rejects our disproportionate role in the military defense of Europe and the West.”

The new Sitting President of the United States of America “rejects the diversifying of our culture and the opening of our borders.”

The new Sitting President of the United States of America “embraces the kind of tariffs that were once thought the relic of an old international system.”

The new Sitting President of the United States of America “would cede the shaping of markets to a Chinese leadership that now, improbably, seems to be the world’s largest cheerleader for trade.”

The new Sitting President of the United States of America “imagines profound beauty in a wall.”

(taken from reporting by Matt Bai National Political Columnist Yahoo News

On January 19, 2017)

Not a speck of light is showing

So the danger must be growing

Are the fires of Hell a-glowing

Finally the new Sitting President of the United States of America has antipathy toward the political establishment and toward globalism itself.

For the new Sitting President of the United States of America ambition is personal, not national.

And the new Sitting President of the United States of America has made a promise to (Quote) “make America great.”

But for the new Sitting President of the United States of America this is a promise only for and to a subset of Americans to whom modernity has been callous.

It is very important we remember that during the entire process that has led up to today Americans have allowed a ‘normalcy’ to be created from an abomination.

Before we can stand up to the new Sitting President of the United States of America we need to recognize our complicity (allowed this ‘normalcy’).

We MUST recognize this.

We all do.

Recognize and Grieve.

And then Let it be.

And Forgive internally.

So we can move forward as the loyal opposition.

What comes in the light of confession and forgiveness can be hard to swallow. But so much damage has already been done. Time is at a premium. The folks who will most benefit from protectionism have been racing away while we have barely arrived at the starting gates.

Our hesitation to throw all we had against this hell-bound train has permitted a void to form.  It materialized through a moral lapse of audacity.

In the ethical void a vacuum is brewing.

This nothingness exits.

Fear and not-knowing is real.

Once a vacuum is left, it will not be possible to simply step back in and say,

“Hey you guys! We were only messing around.  Just kidding!”

Because in the vacuum economic rules will get written.

And in the vacuum rising powers will exploit the moment.

So in the vacuum the world will look elsewhere for predictability

Yes in the vacuum the world will look elsewhere for … stability.

By the way – isn’t this precisely what Vladimir Putin recognizes?

This is why Putin loves Trumps and his blather. Right?

The Russians are nothing if they are not patient.

The Russians have been waiting over 75 years for an exact moment.

A moment . . JUST – LIKE – THIS.

America’s vast expansion during the past American Century has run aground on the boundaries of time and technology – just like when the British Empire had to struggle to maintain its driving force in the decades that lead up to World War I.

They could not.

They did not.

We cannot.

We will not.

Does Globalism exist because of cheap technology and even cheaper transportation?

Has Globalism given free rise to competitors while automation has left American workers redundant?

Did Globalism make factory-towns cave in upon themselves.

Has Globalism made the price of maintaining global supremacy, both in peoples lives and in their credit harder to justify?

Yes, the danger must be growing

For the rowers keep on rowing

And they’re certainly not showing

Any signs that they are slowing!  

Has Globalism grown government?

Has Globalism deepened the chasm between the wealthy and everybody else?

Once you’ve survived Wonka’s boat ride there is a moment for reflection before the next horrific disaster falls on you.

So in my reflective moment I have reacquainted myself with the little 1987 book, Trump:The Art of the Deal, from Mr. Donald Trump (and Mr. Tony Schwartz).

“The final key to the way I promote is bravado. I play to people’s fantasies. People may not always think big themselves. but they can get very excited by those who do. That is why a little hyperbole never hurts. People want to believe that something is the biggest, the greatest and the most spectacular.”

― Donald J. Trump, Trump: The Art of the Deal

Oh yeah .. I am really going to miss President Barrack Obama.

Goddamn it!

“Leverage:

 don’t make deals without it.

Enhance”

― Donald J. Trump, Trump: The Art of the Deal

Attention to the loyal opposition

Attention to the loyal opposition

“We’re bound by demographics to become a more diverse, more enlightened country, not less so. We remain the world’s leading exporter of culture and consumerism. We’re awash in technological talent, and we command more military machinery than any nation in history.

But like the British before us, we’re increasingly reconciled to being one power among many — to act modestly on our own behalf, rather than grandly in the service of what Joe Biden, speaking at Davos this week, called the “liberal international world order.”

TIME Jan. 18, 2017 Melissa Chan reporting from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland

Speaking at President Donald Trump’s inauguration Friday, North Carolina-based evangelist Franklin Graham said his prayer was that God would bless the new president, his family, his administration “and may He bless America.” Graham’s famous father, Charlotte-born evangelist Billy Graham, now 98, gave prayers at the presidential inaugurations of Richard Nixon (in 1969), George H.W. Bush (in 1989) and Bill Clinton (in 1993 and 1997).

Graham (Junior) chose to read a passage from Paul’s First Letter to Timothy, chapter 2, which calls for prayers for all people, including

“.. kings and for all those in authority, that we may live peacefully quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.”

Peaceful quiet lives may be on hold for a season.

Resistance may get a bit loud and uncertain.

Godliness and holiness might look a little different as well.

Resist

Henry Ward Beecher

(Note 1)

Henry Ward Beecher (June 24, 1813 – March 8, 1887) was an American Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, and speaker, known for his support of the abolition of slavery, his emphasis on God’s love.

Donald Joseph Boudreaux

(Note 2)

Donald Joseph Boudreaux (born 1958) is an American libertarian economist, author, professor, and co-director of the Program on the American Economy and Globalization at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

James Bovard

(Note 3)

James Bovard (born 1956) is a libertarian author and lecturer whose political commentary targets examples of waste, failures, corruption, cronyism and abuses

Twilight Seattle is one daily occurrence that goes down fast here in maritime autumn (faster once the winter arrives).

Sunset is 4:20 this evening.

Twilight begins.

It will last most of forty nine minutes.

By 5:10pm darkness falls.

Welcome to the fallout
Welcome to resistance
The tension is here
The tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be
-Dare You to Move

Three weeks have disappeared since the election that “shocked the world.”

At times it has felt like a waking dream just after a nightmare (for many).

(Donald Trump shocks world, wins presidential election in biggest upset in political history)

http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-wins-election-results-2016-11

It has been 48 years since I felt this odd.

It was the morning of my sixteenth birthday. I was awake to see the announcement of the death of Senator Robert Francis Kennedy (Note 1). It is embedded in my forever memory – the frailty of a cause and its leader. I was already in shock since the murder of Dr. King at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. That was only sixty-three days before.

Assassinations and an election bound together inside us like a hideous knotted rope. These far flung events are tied by time and space because so very much has gone unchanged in most of the last half of an entire century.

An unchanged melody can be heard – that plays out sadly and awkward – across the American landscape. Yet it is one that appears more as a dystopian dreamscape – from a Young Adult Trilogy – than the clear strong strains of a Patriotic Hymn. The tune reeks of fear and loss and hopelessness. It tastes of failing promises to ourselves and to our children.

A Drumbeat of War ..

Across time an horizon is strewn with the bodies of justice-warriors and partners of good faith initiatives. The sun is setting. No song is being sung for the grandchildren. But if you listen closely there is the faint drumbeat of war.

Before we search the horizon for some army of darkness approaching at twilight we need to be very still. Look to the fading light and see in that half-darkness that the drums are beating within our own hearts. We are a nation at war with ourselves, a people who have forgotten who we are.

There are no leaders coming through the twilight to lead a revolution. Remember the twilight lasts just short of one hour before darkness falls. Waiting for the twilight just before sunrise will be too late. Without movement before the dawn hope will be lost to the shadows.

Where is the legion of my generation

Where is the legion of my generation (the baby boomers). We were born into the very foundational fire of our heroes passion that blazed a way forward. Our failure with the subsequent Generation X and then Y has left our grandchildren on their own. Yet, many of these orphaned Millennials burn to make a sustainable future free of bias and despair.

These are the ones who must move with haste into the dark night to bring light where now there is none.

And they must be able to count on our willingness to hear their voice ..

Orphaned Millennials burn to make a sustainable future free of bias and despair.

And in our ability to create for them the place of honor at the head of the table ..

And in the assurance we will fight like tomorrow is today so as to grant them full access to running this revolution ..

And then have them experience our presence at their back and in their flank and in virtually surrounding them with our overwhelming numbers ..

And claim them before the odds are stacked so high against them that blood will be the only way out..

Twilight

The Golden Hour ..when all things remain suspended just long enough to regroup, replenish, and be restored.

Twilight

The Blue Hour .. moments before dusk when the heart slows to take in the strength needed to declared war on the forces of the night.

We can do this.

We can’t see the wind, but we know what happens to the trees.

Look not for the wind, but for the effect of the wind.

Dare you to Move

---

Words from Millennials

“I’d like to make my shame count for something ..”

Just What I Needed / Not Just What I Needed

Artist: Car Seat Headrest Album: Teens of Denial

I have nothing but questions

I need answers, those would fill me up

I KNOW WHEN I’M BEING CATERED TO!

I KNOW WHEN I’M BEING CATERED TO!

I will not settle for the lowest common denominator!

Will I find out
That I am people too?

Hello my friend, we’ve been waiting for you for a long time

We have reason to believe that your soul is just like ours

Did you ever get the feeling you were just a little different?

Well, here’s our web page, you’ve finally found a home

Good people give good advice

Get a job, eat an apple, it’ll work itself out

It’s a phase

It’s chemistry

It’s your own fault

Well don’t listen to us

We’re just people too

I will not settle for the lowest common denominator!

I’ve been waiting all my life

I’ve been waiting for some real good porn

Something with meaning, something fulfilling

I’d like to make my shame count for something

I feel so empty trying to explain this

His name is William Onyeabor, he’s from the 70s

And when I wake up in the morning, there are people sleeping on my couch

Well, I’ll have something to say about that one

Free people give free advice

Let go of the pain, let go of the fear

But if I let go of that

What will still be here

Will I find out

That I am people too?

NOTE 1

After receiving word of Senator Kennedy’s death, his spokesman Frank Mankiewicz left the hospital and walked to the gymnasium where the press and news media were set up for continuous updates on the situation. At 2:00 AM PDT on June 6, Mankiewicz approached the podium, took a few moments to compose himself and made the official announcement:

“I have, uh, a short….. I have a short announcement to read, which I will read, uh….. at this time. Senator Robert Francis Kennedy died at 1:44 AM today, June 6, 1968. With Senator Kennedy at the time of his death were his wife Ethel, his sisters Mrs. Stephen Smith, Mrs. Patricia Lawford, his brother-in-law Mr. Stephen Smith, and his sister-in-law Mrs. John F. Kennedy. He was 42 years old. Thank you.”

NOTE 2

Twilight (4:20pm – lasts 49 minites)

The golden hour (sometimes known as magic hour) is a period shortly before sunset during which daylight is redder and softer than when the Sun is high in the sky.

The blue hour is the period of twilight early in the late dusk each evening when the sun is at a significant distance below the horizon and the residual, indirect sunlight takes on a predominantly blue hue.

Dusk occurs at the darkest stage of twilight, or at the very end of astronomical twilight just before night.

EPILOGUE

In Christian practice, “vigil” observances often occur during twilight on the evening before major feast days or holidays.

The Maghrib prayer (Arabic: صلاة المغرب‎‎ ṣalāt al-maġrib, ‘”West [sun] prayer“), prayed just after sunset, is the fourth of five formal daily prayers (salat) performed by practicing Muslims.

According to Hindu scriptures, a daemonic king, Hiranakashipa, performed penance and obtained a boon from Brahma that he could not be killed during day or night and neither by human nor animal. Lord Vishnu appeared in a half-man half-lion form (neither human nor animal), ended the life of Hiranakashipa during twilight (neither day nor night). Hiranyakashipu (Sanskrit: हिरण्यकशिपु, “clothed in gold”; the name is said to depict one who is very much fond of wealth and sex life: hiranya “gold,” kashipu “soft cushion”) is an Asura from the Puranic scriptures of Hinduism.

In Judaism, twilight is considered neither day nor night; consequently it is treated as a safeguard against encroachment upon either. For example, the twilight of Friday is reckoned as Sabbath eve, and that of Saturday as Sabbath day; and the same rule applies to festival days.

In 1972 I worked on staff of the McGovern for President campaign in Texas. We lost big. I was twenty. When conceding the presidency to Richard Nixon on that night when he only won the electoral votes of Massachusetts and the District of Columbia Senator George McGovern of South Dakota said,

“We have found the greatest outpouring of energy and love that any political effort has ever inspired at least in my lifetime .. I want every single one of you to remember and never forget it, that if we pushed the day of peace just one day closer, then every minute and every hour and every bone crushing effort in this campaign was worth the sacrifice.”

I felt so bad, but also I felt so very much a part of something great that had been born from that campaign. That was not anything like what millions feel today regarding the result of this political cycle.

So … here is my question to the man in my mirror this morning:

“This time did we do all that we could do to defend our beliefs and secure the future we want for our children and this world?”

If the answer is yes, then we can say as McGovern did to his supporters that, “this campaign was worth the sacrifice.” We must remember the sadness and heartrending ache that this year’s campaign wrought. More importantly, we must remember that not only did we give our best, but we are determined now not to quit .. ever.

Like McGovern knew.. we will always have each other and the truths we together in our souls.

If the answer is no – that we did not give our best – then please don’t forget how you feel today because now there is even more to do.

McGovern ended his concession by saying,

“Now the question is to what standard does the loyal opposition now rally?

We do not rally to the support of policies that we deplore ..

but we do love this country and we will continue to beckon it to a higher standard

So I ask all of you tonight .. 

Stand with your convictions.

I ask you not to despair of the political process of this country because that process has yielded to much valuable improvement these past two years. The Democratic Party will be a better party because of the reforms that we have carried out. The nation will be better because we never once gave up the long battle to renew its ideals and to redirect its current energies along more humane and hopeful paths.

So let us play the proper role of the loyal opposition and let us play it in those familiar words from Isaiah that I’ve quoted so frequently,

They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength

They shall mount up with wings as eagles

They shall run and not be weary

They shall walk and not fade.

God Bless you and good night.”

Time for you and I to become the loyal opposition?

Michael Ignatieff, former leader of the loyal opposition in the Canadian House of Commons, said in a 2012 address at Stanford University:

“The opposition performs an adversarial function critical to democracy itself… Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of the same sovereign, servants of the same law.”

A protester walks past a fire burning along Broadway at 17th Street following a mostly peaceful march in demonstration against President-elect Donald Trump in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)

“Not my President, not today,” many across the nation yelled.

One college student showed CNN a sign that said, “I still can’t believe I have to protest for civil rights.”

“We don’t feel the government is hearing our voices when we say Donald Trump is not our president. The fact that he’s our new president says a lot about where our future and our generations are heading.,” said UC Berkeley sophomore Esmeralda Cortez, who was at the protest.

For millions of American Muslims, black and Latino voters, gays and lesbians, immigrants, people with disabilities, Jews, women and others offended by Trump during the long run-up to Election Day, Wednesday morning brought a looming sense of dread.

The following are thoughts from folks who could become the next members of the loyal opposition:

Katie R    Yesterday at 3:46am · Teach For America Special Education Teacher · Philadelphia, PA

“I feel like I can’t breathe and all I can think about is what I’m going to tell my kids today.”

Shea H    Yesterday at 4:11am · Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities (PPCD) Teacher – Plano, TX ·

“I woke up this morning heartbroken and sick to my stomach. I don’t know how to face the day and my sweet little students. Knowing this is their future. I have to put all my faith and trust in God that his plan is always bigger and better than the one I see in front of me. So I am going to try with everything I have to be joyful in knowing God is in control and I have a job to do today.”

Lori M    Yesterday at 5:55am · Seattle ·Teach for America Teacher

“I’ve snoozed every alarm this morning… not because I’m asleep or tired…but because I’m scared. I don’t know how to be a teacher to my diverse classroom of beautiful students today. I don’t know how to face my students of color, immigrant students, Latino/a students, lgbtq students, female students, etc and tell them that America didn’t value them. I don’t know how to bring unity in the face of brokenness… when I am broken too.”

Lynn A   San Antonio, TX – Certified American Sign Language Interpreter

“Up in the middle of the night wondering what the hell we will do now with no health insurance since Trump aka Orange Toddler will be President and he had pledged to dismantle it first thing. I am wondering what having no Social Security until age 70 will look like since the GOP has pledged to move retirement age up. I am wondering if none of that will matter anyway since Trump will destroy the earth first with unregulated oil and gas development through our treasured National Parks, and his insistence that Global warming is just a plot started by the Chinese. I am trying to decide if I want to live through the nuclear winter/fallout that will come when he starts a war over some perceived personal slight. I am also pondering the welfare of that hairy orange animal, living atop his expansive head.”

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT @ADtheBAND    12:14 AM – 9 Nov 2016

“Donald Trump has won. Now is a test of everyone’s faith and character. #GodBeWithUs”

Jennifer G  November 8 at 11:30pm · Seattle · Special Education Leader

“Trump might become THE president of the United States, but he will never be MY president. As a woman, I refuse to accept a president who has so little respect for my gender. As an educator of special needs students, I refuse to accept someone who mocks people with disabilities. As an educator who has worked with wonderful students and families of many races, religions, countries of origin, and sexual/gender orientation, I refuse to accept someone who chooses to foster hate, fear and intolerance. As a woman who was groped while walking down the street in broad daylight as a young teenager, I refuse to accept someone who thinks it is his privilege to engage in, and joke about this sort of behavior. As a person who strives for peace, I refuse to accept someone who encourages violence. As a person who tries to think rationally and logically, I refuse to accept someone who spews misinformation and has such little regard for the truth. As a Christian, I refuse to accept someone who lives his life so, so far from basic Christian and human values. As I wrote months ago, this election is not about politics. It is about what we value – as individuals and as a country. I do not accept Trump’s values and am heartsick that so many people appeared to do so.”

Claiborne Bridge entering the 9th Ward before and after Katrina

Rose G   Yesterday at 6:00am · feeling amused at 7th Ward of New Orleans. On the Claiborne bridge downtown someone tagged

“fuck this racist asshole president –A”

Not A #PLL

Maggie Gyllenhaal @mgyllenhaal    5:13 AM – 9 Nov 2016 Actor

“Despair does nothing for me this morning. I’m looking for hope wherever I can find it. This “will be a test of our seriousness and resolve”

“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Perhaps we can bring the day when children will learn from their earliest days that being fully man and fully woman means to give one’s life to the liberation of the brother [and sister] who suffers. It is up to each one of us. It won’t happen unless we decide to use our lives to show the way.” – Cesar Chavez

Boulder High students cheer on cars that are honking for love and peace as they drive by the school. About 200 Boulder High School students walked out of class Wednesday morning to protest the message of hate they say president-elect Donald Trump sent during his campaign. For more photos and a video, go to www.dailycamera.com. Cliff Grassmick Staff Photographer November 9, 2016

BOULDER, Colo. – Dozens of teens in Boulder walked out of class to protest what they say is Donald Trump’s message of hate.

The Daily Camera reports that about 100 Boulder High School participated in the protest Wednesday morning following Trump’s election. They held up banners with messages like “honk for love” along the street outside while others held a Mexican flag.

In an email to the newspaper, students said they don’t oppose the nation’s political system but oppose “the hate that is being broadcasted by our newly elected leader.”

Remember “Black Lives Matter”

Note: Please go here to look at this petition.

https://www.change.org/p/electoral-college-electors-electoral-college-make-hillary-clinton-president-on-december-19

My youngest daughter texted me a few hours ago. She had been watching the election results with her girlfriend and others at a bar in safe blue Portland, OR. This was all she said,

“I’m so scared.”

I replied,

“Baby, don’t be scared. Detroit and Madison may save us all (this was before the state was called) Don’t be afraid ..” I went on. “ we have our family and friends and I believe we will always have hope.. We will prevail..”

Then feeling like my grown daughter was a small child calling me when I was late to come home and read that nights stories I wrote,

“Go home .. turn off the news.. snuggle up with each other and the puppy. The world will still need people of good will tomorrow.”

2:04 am in the safe blue city of Seattle – in the safe blue state of Washington – on the safe blue Pacific coast. I know my children and family and friends are in pain. They are not all in a safe-blue-space. At least half of this entire republic is frightened for our democracy this morning.

At least another half of this land is overwhelmed with new hope. These fellow Americans are sensing the sweet fresh air of justice finally served. They have experienced a reckoning.

Over the past forty years the Republican Party has germinated and beckoned this movement of silent desperation. They feed it with hate and vengeance and blame of the OTHER. They plowed fields of hideous innuendo and outright un-factual half-truths and even more vicious goddamned lies made up from the ether-of-division and from the whispers of small sinister soulless men. They planned and they plotted through a mesmerizing glitter of gold-plated-rubbish and the never satisfied consumption of useless things and yet more futile stabs at dehumanizing greed. They left their privileged white pawns leaderless, ignorant, stupefied, shamed and completely bankrupt.

And the cowards of the Democratic Party let them.

Now we are here.

Almost every scientific poll  .. WRONG.

Almost every political pundit .. WRONG.

Almost every major newspaper .. WRONG.

Almost everyone on the planet Earth ..

S T U N N E D.

But not the true believers. See how dearly they believed?

They went all in.

They were not stunned. No, not the ones who have been left behind by the self-satisfied future-seekers who damn well left them behind.

And we should not be surprised. Not if we can stomach being honest with ourselves for a moment of reflection.

We really should have seen this coming.

The most committed wins.

Detroit could not save us this time.

How many homeless does it take?

How many bullets fired in anger at the unmoving targets of the innocent does it take?

How much profit from our investments does it take before we know that so many are being left underfoot for our success to be realized?

How long do we push too-many people through that too-small opening of opportunity before the hole is filled and the left-behind are .. left forever behind?

When do these voiceless, and former proud workers of America’s past say.. enough?

Now?

One of my former students sent this email a few hours back..

“I’m at sea. I don’t know what to do. I’m in total despair. I could really use some words of encouragement or hope.

How do I keep going in a world where a man like that has the support of my country?”

This is how I lamely replied,

“We can figure it out together .. We must. We will .. tomorrow we can begin.”

Gustave Moreau – Thracian Girl carrying the Head of Orpheus on his Lyre

Finally another former student posted on facebook..

“Comfort me, dammit!”

I wrote this..

“We can figure this out .. together. WE WILL .. together..

We cannot follow Orpheus down to the underworld to revive what has been lost .. or sing celestial songs to make the sun rise only to be torn apart like Orpheus was by those who could not hear the divine music.

No – we must own this national shame and be the courage for our children’s children’s children to claim that the day of white imperial hubris has come to its logical tragic conclusion..

as brutal a task as it may turn out to be.. we are left to cry as one – the prophetic word ..

“THIS is NOT who we are .. we are a people

of MERCY and JUSTICE and PEACE.. “

I will stand with you and your generation to the very end..

PS: This is only the beginning of a miracle we cannot yet see.. do NOT despair my dearest friends..

He is just a man.. that is all..

We .. we are a people.”

Epilogue: Final words from a past president on the occasion of the concession telegraph to their opponent.

“It’s now apparent that the American people have chosen you as the next president. I congratulate you, and pledge to you our fullest support and cooperation in bringing about an orderly transition of government in the weeks ahead. My best wishes are with you and your family as you undertake the responsibilities that lie before you.”

         And I signed it, Jimmy Carter.

Remember: Black Lives Matter