I’m cured! I’m healthy! I’m rich!
April fool!
The weather threw us a curve last night, as well. All the fun stuff went right around us. There are still storms forecasted for later this morning, but it’s doubtful they’ll be too terribly strong. My biggest concern is the possibility of the kids getting wet when they get off the bus this afternoon. Other than that, the day should be reasonably quiet for the first of April.
As holidays go, yesterday had to be one of the most boring ever. The kids didn’t give a shit and stayed in their rooms most of the day either playing games or, in Tipper’s case, painting. While the afternoon cleared up and gave my aching bones a break, the only way I had to enjoy it was to join the dogs in lapping the house a few times. Am I really complaining? Not sincerely. As holidays go, Easter is toward the bottom of my list. I wouldn’t miss it if it went away. I would miss the chocolate bunnies, though.
What’s frustrating is that we needed milk by late yesterday afternoon and couldn’t get any. Almost all the major stores, including Target, were closed. The older I get, the more I resent this forced observation of a holiday that means nothing to me. I’ve been around long enough to know that no matter the holiday, including xmas, there are almost always enough people who would rather work than have to deal with family or religious nonsense. I can promise you that I was far from being the only person sitting around by themselves, and even among those who weren’t, many would just have soon been making money. Forcing people to observe a holiday that doesn’t affect them is wrong.
Consider that we’re smack in the middle of Ramadan. What if we were all forced to fast during the day? What if there were no restaurants open until after sundown? Worse yet, my dear heavily inked friends, what if there were pop-up shops outside your work so you could get those “sinful” tattoos removed from your body? That’s actually happening in India and other places around the world. If you wouldn’t want those celebrations forced on you, why the hell would you think it’s okay to force your celebrations on anyone else?
Now, if you want to celebrate, fine, go ahead! Businesses should allow you the space and means to do so without any penalty. I don’t have any objection to you celebrating anything you wish to celebrate. Some, such as dancing naked around a bonfire, I wish more people would celebrate. But there’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to get the milk and butter we need because the stores are closed for a holiday I don’t observe.
Not that it matters. I’m just an old man shaking his cane at the clouds as they pass. Pay no attention. I’ll get over myself as soon as I’ve had enough coffee.
Be glad I have coffee.
Many Xian people went to great lengths today, and throughout the week, to attend worship services. Some in South Africa even died trying to get there. (Their bus ran off the side of the road. Only a child survived.) Each year during Holy Week, the truly committed go to great lengths to observe all that happened in the week leading up to Easter. Whether one believes or not, we have to admire their commitment.
Then, there are those who pretend to be xian simply for the political optics. After all, no one gets elected to any office in the South without claiming membership in one church or another. The only commitment here is to get rich off the power that comes with holding public office. They’ll occasionally go through the motions by attending a worship service somewhere, but for the most part, they’re only in it for the votes that accompany the religiosity of it all.
For example, both the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee released new music this week. When did the RNC and DNC suddenly become music-oriented? They’re not. Both records are absolutely horrible, do not need to exist, and are an insult to anyone who actually writes decent music. There’s nothing good about these events and we all need to hope that it never, ever happens again.
Yet, this type of pettiness is exactly where these pseudo-xians’ minds are this week. It’s almost as if they’re asking “Jesus who?” to all the rites the committed are going to. If only the records were the worst offense this week.
Meanwhile, down in Texas, a group of hardcore Republicans is looking for excuses to kill women, including those under 18. Hood County has a population of 66,000 bodies, but apparently not that many brains. During a meeting of elected offices that included Constable Scott London, County GOP chair Steve Biggers, and Hood County GOP chair candidate Greg Harrell, the discussion swirled around executing women of any age who get IVF or seek an abortion.
Paul Brown, director of Abolish Abortion Texas, told the group, “Other forms of abortion… would include IVF, when a fertilized egg is created and is often times destroyed. Those that do {IVF{ are terminating or destroying a human life. Their lives don’t matter any more than the babies they are killing.”
MeidasTouch Network has the video secretly created by Adrienne Quinn Martin, Chair of the Hood County Democrats if you question the content’s veracity. If you have a strong enough stomach, I strongly encourage watching the whole thing. Don’t just take my word for it. These idiots, every one of which identifies as a xian, seriously talk about executing young girls who have an abortion after the rape and claim that carrying the rapist’s baby to term will make the raped girl happier.
WHAT THE LIVING FUCK IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE? Easy, they’re xians who fetishize Old Testament law. They’re inhuman monsters who have weaseled their way into office to influence laws so that we revert back to the same existence as a cultish group of illiterate nomads around 5,600 BC. Oh, if only their god would strike them dead by lightning.
Oh, wait, that god doesn’t exist.
Meanwhile, all over the country, conservatives have their panties all in a wad over the fact that this year Easter and Trans Day of Visibility fall on the same day, March 29. Now, before anyone goes thinking that this is intentional on anyone’s part, know that TDOV happens on the same day every year, March 29, and does every year. It doesn’t move. At the same time, there’s a whole formula applied to when exactly Easter is, and over the past 2,000 years xians who are unreasonably obsessed with the date have argued about it. The date is generally set by the first Sunday after the full moon on or after the Spring Equinox. If the full moon falls on a Sunday, then the following Sunday is Easter. None of this like likely to be accurate from a historical perspective, but apparently someone, somewhere, thinks it has some meaning. The net result, though, is that it’s never on the same Sunday any two years in a row.
But oooooohhhh, if there’s a non-xian conflict with the xian holiday, then surely something’s wrong, at least in the eyes of the pseudo-xians who enjoy making noise over such things. There must be a conspiracy of some kind. Maybe trans people are organizing to offend xians. Or, in the view of one nut job, it’s a demonic spell of trans-gnosticism. In his opinion, the “culture war” (huh?) is simply a front for a deeper spiritual war.
Dude, you don’t have a war if only one side is fighting. The trans community knows a nut job when they see one (better than anyone) and just roll their eyes at the stupidity on display.
Nonetheless, Fox News helped spread the lies (per usual formatting) and so the alarm has spread among the pearl-clutching people fearing that some version of the devil is going to come marching through their small town without warning and ruin their egg hunt.
By the way, Easter, and egg hunts, and the bunny rabbit? All pagan traditions that have nothing to do with being xian. Zero. Zilch. It has nothing to do with chocolate, either, but all things considered, I’d rather have the chocolate stuffed down my throat than the religion.
I’m sure there are plenty of other insidious things xians have perpetrated this week, I just don’t have the energy to look them all up. A great deal of them have the fingerprints of the 45th president attached to them and I am not of the mind to give him any more fuel than he already has.
Seriously, someone call Thor. We need those lightning strikes.
Do we have to crucify someone to make Friday good? Asking for a friend.
Judging by the way alleged Christians are behaving this year, I don’t think the whole sacrificial thing worked like it was supposed to.
There’s not anything significant to write about yesterday; it was what it was, nothing out of the ordinary. That’s a good thing, though, because that means nothing horrible happened, either. No one in our family was shot. No one was in an accident. No one accidentally let the dogs out. Given the way things are going around the rest of the world, that has to count as a win.
If you think combatants in the Israel/Gaza war are going to take a break this weekend, you’re not paying attention. Do you think anyone in the Russia/Ukraine war is going to go to Good Friday services? (You do realize this is NOT Orthodox Easter, right?) The violence still continues because when it comes right down to it, no one’s religion is enough to keep bad and stupid things from happening. Talk about love all you want, it’s not atheists who are going to war. You don’t see lines of bagpipers leading a Celtic army into battle. Transcendentalists are not leaving their meditative positions to topple a government. I even checked and made sure that Zoroastrians weren’t arming themselves to take on the world.
Belief systems are inherently, and necessarily judged by what they do to help the world. On that scale, the Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism) continue to fall at the bottom of the list. They’re the ones perpetuating hate in the name of their holy book. You find them at the core of every major military conflict. You find them at the heart of crimes against women. You find them leading the charge against immigrants (especially in the state of Georgia). You catch them perpetuating outright lies about elections and political contenders.
How does any part of Good Friday help the world? It doesn’t, because a couple of hours at church doesn’t override all the years of hate and murder that are perpetuated in the name of the one crucified. Nowhere does your holy book tell you to bomb anyone. Nowhere do they tell you to support political causes and protest in their name. No scripture tells you to mistreat people looking for a peaceful home.
Suppose you are going to claim that religiously and politically motivated murder of an innocent person somehow brings grace and love to the world. In that case, you have to take a stand against the people fueling hate, division, partisanship, and corruption, not pay their fines for fraud. If the priests and ministers standing before you today are not accepting of LGBTQIA+ people, then they’ve totally missed the message. Should a worship leader proclaim that any other group of people should “return to where they came from,” they are definitely following someone other than the one whose death is being remembered.
What makes a Friday good? Spending time with a friend. Helping someone in need. Feeding the poor. Housing the homeless. Protecting the weak. Standing up for everyone’s rights. Loving someone different than yourself.
And a big plate of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and greens. That’s a GOOD Friday.
Nothing is more blasphemous than the former grifter-in-chief hawking “customized” Bibles during Holy Week. The level of backlash the entire party should receive for indulging in this nonsense would be never-ending if there were, in fact, genuine Christians at the head of any major denomination. There once was a time, not terribly long ago, when this would have been enough to end his campaign. But then, how many times have we said that same thing about other shenanigans and idiocies this over-hyped fool has perpetrated?
One of the aspects of this mess is the narcissist stating that he wants to “Make America Pray Again.” Say what? Is it just me or does that sound like a threat? Stop and think about it. When are people most likely to pray? When they’re afraid. When do even non-believing people start to pray? When their lives are in danger. When are we most likely to be afraid for our lives? If this idiot gets re-elected. He’s already been talking about retribution and he’s made it quite clear that he plans on taking an authoritarian, even dictatorial stance if he should get back into office. There is nothing about this move that is comforting or Christian. In fact, this is an insult to everything that is genuinely American.
This comes at a time when more people are leaving the church than joining it. The number of atheists has doubled. The number of agnostics has more than doubled. Of those leaving, 67% say they are doing so because they no longer agree with that religion’s teaching. Okay, so find a different religion, right? Nope, only 9% are looking for any kind of substitute. People are increasingly fed up with the nonsense that religions are spouting, especially aggressive anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric. A smart campaign manager would look at that trend and say, “Hey, we need to step away from the religious bullshit.”
Such a level of grift reminds me of the hundreds of thousands of people who gave money to the late televangelist Jim Bakker. There was the Christian theme park. There were the “End Times” food buckets. There were prayer clothes and “holy oil” and all manner of nonsense for which people would pay believing that it would somehow make them better Christians. The evidence, however, points to the fact that such devotion only leads to increased levels of hate, the church doing more harm than good, and innocent people victimized.
Furthermore, if one is going to believe the Bible at all, one has to be concerned that such blasphemy is inviting God’s wrath on anyone who participates in the nonsense. Remember the Golden Calf? 3,000 died and the rest were struck with a plague. [Exodus 32:1-35] Of course, there’s been no such wrath for 6,000 years, so either there’s no God to get angry or no teeth to his threats. But if you’re going to believe, then perhaps it would be a good time to repent of such idolatry.
None of this has any place in politics. Politics should be about who would be the best leader, not the best grifter, not the best preacher, not the biggest felon. Smart, intelligent people are onto the scam and want nothing to do with it. Those who are shelling out $80 for their package are just stupid. There’s no other way to look at it.
Update: 04.13.17: NPR reports that the Alabama State Senate has approved a bill allowing Briarwood Presbyterian Church to form its own police force. The measure has yet to be voted on by the House.
Ed. note: This is a long read, over 8,000 words in length. Worth your time? Absolutely. We wouldn’t have posted it if we thought it were waste. However, coming at the time it does, right smack in the middle of our month-long fashion coverage for Pattern, we’ve not had the normal level of resources to double check what was being written. There may still be some misspellings or improper verb associations. If so, we apologize. Please consider sharing this post to fuel the conversation necessary. Let us know if you find an error. |
Religion has come to the front of the headlines the past two weeks as the 45th president denounces anti-semitic violence but is still berated by the Anne Frank Center. At the same time, Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Alabama is asking to establish its own police force. All this as the president re-writes a travel ban affecting primarily Muslim nations. Our relationship with religion has disintegrated to being a flash point for violence. However, religion itself may be responsible for inciting the hate.
Briarwood Presbyterian Church, a 4,100-member megachurch located in suburban Birmingham, Alabama, has requested of that state’s legislature the ability to form its own police department. The model for that request is based on the university police departments at higher education facilities around the state. Briarwood operates a k-12 Christian School as well as Birmingham Theological Seminary. As of yesterday (February 21, 2017), the bill had been introduced in both houses of the state legislature.
Meanwhile, over the course of the past week, bomb threats were sent to 11 Jewish community centers and over 170 tombstones were toppled at Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in University City, a suburb of St Louis, Missouri. The president had twice refused to answer reporters’ questions regarding what he would do in response to anti-semitic violence. Then, yesterday, he finally made a statement:
The anti-Semitic threats targeting our Jewish community and community centers are horrible and are painful and a very sad reminder of the work that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil.
However, the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect says the president’s statement is too little, too late. In a Facebook post, the center’s director said:
“The President’s sudden acknowledgment is a Band-Aid on the cancer of Antisemitism that has infected his own Administration. His statement today is a pathetic asterisk of condescension after weeks in which he and his staff have committed grotesque acts and omissions reflecting Antisemitism, yet day after day have refused to apologize and correct the record. Make no mistake: The Antisemitism coming out of this Administration is the worst we have ever seen from any Administration. The White House repeatedly refused to mention Jews in its Holocaust remembrance, and had the audacity to take offense when the world pointed out the ramifications of Holocaust denial. And it was only yesterday, President’s Day, that Jewish Community Centers across the nation received bomb threats, and the President said absolutely nothing. When President Trump responds to Antisemitism proactively and in real time, and without pleas and pressure, that’s when we’ll be able to say this President has turned a corner. This is not that moment.”
Underscoring all these activities is the recent chaos from the hastily applied ban on travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries which has been stayed by federal courts. Reports from February 10 of this year state that the ban is being rewritten, but that the same seven countries continue to be targeted.
The United States has always had a difficult relationship with managing religion. The original settlers, the ones we refer to as Pilgrims, were Puritan Congregationalists, known as Brownists, and had fled Holland to escape religious persecution. Ironically enough, once they established a settlement in North America, they became extremely intolerant of any other religious belief system. That was 1620. Ideologically, not much has changed since that time.
Among the framers of the US Constitution were several whose relationships with religion were something less than what one might have been taught in Sunday School. In a letter to Ezra Stile, President of Yale, written shortly before his death, Benjamin Franklin said:
As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, the best the World ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupt changes, and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the Truth with less trouble.
Franklin, despite his personal misgivings, was a tolerant man, however. He found “no harm, however, in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequence as probably it has, of making his doctrines more respected and better observed; especially as I do not perceive that the Supreme takes it amiss, by distinguishing the unbelievers in His government of the world with any particular marks of His displeasure.”
Let me translate that last bit for you: Dr. Franklin that whatever deity (he never mentions God directly) might be in control would not consider unbelief something to get terribly upset about. Franklin saw a benefit in mutual respect and unified moral teaching that might be achieved through religion. He did not, however, see it being beneficial to government.
Thomas Jefferson was even more pointed in his opinions. He was writing a section in his autobiography about the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom when he penned these words:
Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting “Jesus Christ,” so that it would read “A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;” the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo [sic] and Infidel of every denomination.
If that was indeed the opinion of “the great majority,” as Jefferson implies, that opinion didn’t last for long or at least only applied strictly to government as popular opinion held that the United States was a Christian nation and that, as such, no other forms of religious observance was acceptable.
I should also point out that the term “Christian” in this particular context, should be taken to mean protestant Christianity. Catholics have often felt the sting of popular discrimination as well. The arrival of Franciscan monks in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1844 nearly caused riots as the monks walked down the streets and throughout the South, both prior to and after the Civil War, Catholics were considered subversive because their bible was different from the King James version used by protestants.
We should also note that as much as the white supremacy movement has been about race, it has also been very much about religion, with Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and even atheists having historically been targets of the various hate groups. This sad tragedy continues right up to this very moment.
There is nothing I can do to stop religious persecution or discrimination beyond my own actions and activities. Individually, the same applies to everyone reading this. The problem with religious intolerance starts with religion itself and its ability, whether intentional or not, to create extremists. If society, especially American society, is to ever get past this life-long problem we have with religious intolerance, the religions themselves need to deal firmly with the intolerance they themselves perpetuate.
And adding a police force isn’t going to help any.
Mind you, I’m not sure any of the religious organizations in the United States see themselves as part of the problem. All religions tend to view themselves as the solution to the problem caused by everyone else who, at the very least, is terribly misguided.
Please allow me to use my own history as an example.
As long-time readers know, I was raised Southern Baptist. My father was a pastor of small, mostly rural churches. A regular part of the indoctrination, from as early as I can remember, involved the need to know everything “wrong” with every other denomination and why only Southern Baptists were getting it right. In abbreviated form, the litany went something like this:
The Church of Christ was totally misinterpreting what the bible says about musical instruments. Free Will Baptists were wrong about “losing” one’s salvation. Methodists were absolute lunatics for baptizing babies (there was a standing joke about getting in out of the rain lest the sprinkles turn one into a Methodist). Presbyterian belief in predestination precluded any need for the gospel. Lutherans encouraged alcoholism by using real wine in their sacraments. And Catholics? Catholicism was a cult.
Can you see how those very basic teachings bred complete contempt for anyone and anything different? The juxtaposition made for a very strange sermon: God wants us to love everyone and make them just like us. That same kind of underhanded intolerance applied to non-religious differences as well, including what one wore, how one’s hair was styled, how gender defined one’s role in society, and how sexuality was a sin. What were minor points of difference that should be set aside were actually an indoctrination of hate.
Not that anyone ever sees what they’re doing as hate. One typically has to step outside religion to come at the problem from that perspective. The religions themselves like to think they’re pushing a message of peace, love, and forgiveness, and to a limited extent, that is true. However, in their insistence that devotees of their religion be “pure” and “faithful” to their beliefs at the total and complete exclusion of everything else, they lay a foundation for exactly the opposite of what they claim to desire.
When religions use phrases such as “be full of the Spirit,” and “be wholly consumed in devotion to God,” and “know nothing but the will of God,” regardless of what the intention might actually be, the effect is to lay in the cornerstone of extremism. While most people are, thankfully, not committed enough to their religion to act on such extremism, it only takes a handful to wreak complete chaos and perpetuate the intolerance and misunderstandings between peoples of the world.
Among Christians specifically, the misinterpretation of scripture such as Romans 12:1-2 don’t help the matter any at all. I don’t think most pastors consider the extreme that can be reached from these verses:
1Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
Do you catch the danger phrases? Lifting things totally out of context, the phrases “offer your bodies as living sacrifices,” and “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed …” are the type of verbiage extremists latch onto when defending attitudes, opinion, and behavior that are in direct contradiction with the religion itself. Tell the wrong person to “offer your bodies as living sacrifices” and the next thing you know they’ve strapped a bomb to their chest and are heading for the nearest mosque or shooting at people coming out of a synagogue.
The phrases are not unique to Christianity, though. They exist in virtually every major religion; statements of exclusivity that emphasize how that those holding to one specific belief system are the only ones worthy of salvation and that everyone else is unworthy, or infidels, and deserving death. Never mind that the death being spoken of is metaphorical or, at the very least, spiritual. Every time someone says their scripture is “the literal word of God,” they are adding to the extremist’s mentality of hate and violence. “Deserving of death,” in their minds, becomes “license to kill.”
I’m unconvinced that there is anything that stops extremism. The number of people given to it can be reduced, I am sure. Hate has a way of finding an excuse, though, and even if it were possible to completely remove the religious equation from society, and it’s not, hate would still be there rearing its ugly head in the name of some form of belief system, whether political, spiritual, or possibly even culinary (some folks gets really uptight about pork).
Still, there is much that religion can do in not only reducing extremism within their ranks, but eliminating the undercurrents that allow that extremism to flourish in the first place. Unfortunately, doing so means up giving some presumed authority on moral matters as they relate to society at large. Religions have to first and foremost allow people to exist, all people, without any presumption of guilt or exercise of judgment. What I’m about to suggest is not going to set well with hardline conservatives within any camp because they refuse to give up any ground at all. They insist that their way is correct and fail to see how such a stance invokes hate and intolerance that snuffs out any sermon on peace. Yet, for those of a more reasonable nature, and just for the sake of making it a matter of public record, here are some things that must happen.
A lot of religions think they’re involved outside of their own bubbles. They have all these “ministries” to which they claim some level of commitment. Child care. Single moms. Teens. Homeless. Some ministries are more effective than others but all of it gives a religion the feeling that it is making a difference in their community and many actually are. The question comes now, given our previous statements, are they doing enough?
Let’s consider for a moment the situation at Briarwood. When I first saw the story I couldn’t help wondering what might lead this storied congregation down a path to where they felt that they need their own police force. Surely this was more than just petty thieves here and there. What could be the motivation behind such action?
Of course, the official line from the church is that the move allows them to create a safer environment “in a fallen world.” The very language of their statement reeks of exclusivity at the very time they need to be reaching deeper into their community. Calling all that is outside of the church “a fallen world” is condescending, claiming a superiority that the unchurched world isn’t willing to recognize. Without having done anything physical, the church has already established a wall between itself and the community. Adding a police force only heightens that wall.
At the same time, there are religions that are afraid to open up to communities that have already been hostile toward them. The lack of understanding on both sides of the equation creates a tense and uncertain environment that is lacking in trust simply because one side doesn’t know enough about the other to create an informed and enlightened opinion.
The solution for either type of religion is simple in theory but extremely difficult, and sometimes expensive, in practice: do unto the least of these.
Here’s the thing: those who are at the same middle-class economic level as the church, synagogue, or mosque don’t need that much, if any, help outside of emergency situations. Those who need the help are those who many religions cast off because they’re too poor. They have nothing to offer the church economically and until that person’s need is resolved they’ve nothing to offer the religion in return. They are what I’ve heard some clerics refer to as “a drain on the system.”
Yet, that is exactly where religions need to be if they want to begin breaking down the barriers and developing a sense of mutual trust and understanding, something that mutes the hate rather than stoking the fire. When people drive by and see a huge edifice worth millions of dollars, the communication is that the religion would rather spend money on itself than the poor and needy around them. That the religion may already have ministries allegedly addressing needs is insufficient. As long as there are poor, as long as there are those suffering, as long as there is anyone going hungry, money spent on buildings and internally-focused programs is hypocritical.
Nothing is going to take the suspicion away from a religion faster than feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, housing the homeless so long as it is done without an attempt at proselytizing. Historically, however, religions haven’t been too good at not trying to convert those they help. They’ll feed the hungry, as long as the hungry listen to a sermon first. They’ll clothe the poor who come to the church or synagogue or mosque to get the clothing, not realizing the intimidating effect of a religious facility. They’ll house the homeless as long as the homeless attend their weekly services in return.
I’ve seen those programs. I’ve seen the judgment and animosity they create. People inside the congregation either look down on those they’re helping or are jealous that, “no one ever helped me with anything.”
For religion to make any progress in reducing hate, they must give with absolutely no strings attached, with no expectation of any return, and no complaining when the service eats through the budget faster than expected.
There were moments when my father was ahead of those around him, such as when he swapped pulpits with a black pastor in the midst of the civil rights movement. He made some enemies within the denomination when he did that, but he knew it was the right thing to do in building bridges within a community on the verge of becoming violent. He never shied away from opportunities to meet with other religious leaders, even though he knew little about their belief systems, but again, doing so almost always caused ripples of unrest within his congregation.
We lived in Southeastern Oklahoma when the Iranian hostage situation occurred. On one level, that politically-induced tragedy didn’t affect us. There was no one of Middle Eastern heritage in our small town. There were some Iranian students at the local junior college a town over, but the State Department quickly whisked them away for their own safety. While we watched the situation unfold on television, there were no practical means of immediately understanding the Muslim perspective nor their religion.
As the situation continued and anger grew, a rabbi from the nearest synagogue, nearly 100 miles away, suggested a gathering of clerics from across the region. The event would simply be an opportunity to develop understanding between the different religions so they would be better able to address the anger in their communities before it erupted into violence. Poppa received an invitation and promptly replied that he would attend. However, others within the denomination did not approve of the event. They couldn’t be ecumenical, they said, because in refusing to accept the deity of Christ there was no common ground on around which a conversation could occur.
Never mind that all three major religions represented, Christian, Judaism, and Islam, all share a common Abrahamic heritage. Tension grew within the clerical community to the point that the event was canceled to prevent any further friction.
Where there is not understanding between religious leaders hate and distrust grows between the people of their faiths. People of faith respect and follow the actions of their leaders, no matter what the religious hierarchy may be. If an iman voices distrust in a Christian leader, those around him will hold the same distrust. If a rabbi speaks disparagingly toward a Muslim leader, be sure the members of his synagogue are likely to do the same. When a Southern Baptist pastor demonizes the pope, his entire congregation develops a distrust for all Catholics. As those statements and habits are repeated from one religious leader to the next, distrust, fear, and a severe lack of understanding eventually develop into full-fledged hate that is willing to justify violence.
I have never understood how so many religious leaders come to the conclusion that to talk with their counterparts among other religions somehow involves a compromise of their own faith. We are not giving anything up when we simply enter into a conversation. We still hold tight to our own beliefs. No one has the power to take anything from us. Yet, just getting clerics of any faith to sit down and talk with someone outside their religion proves difficult.
Hate and distrust grow anywhere we do not illuminate. When religions sequester themselves within their own bubble, they place their beliefs in the shadows for anyone outside. It is not enough to suggest that someone read the approved literature on a different religion because the literature itself is biased and steeped in verbiage and nomenclature that is foreign to someone not already familiar with the religious system. The path to understanding, the path to peace, is found in relationships of mutual respect for one another.
I find it interesting that it is relatively simple for me, from the outside, to find unifying messages of peace, harmony, and love within all the world’s major religions. The texts are obvious about the importance of those attributes. Yet, those who should know those texts the best seem unable to find the common ground between people of diverse faith.
When religions finally begin talking openly to one another, placing aside their fears and opening their hearts before opening their mouths, we will see hate decline.
Peace does not come from governments and politicians. War comes from governments and politicians because war creates the illusion of power. Desire for power inherently corrupts as it creates a stranglehold on those who attempt to wield it. We have only to look at the obnoxiousness coming from our own government entities and personalities to see how this plays out. Why did the US president not immediately condemn anti-semitic violence? To retain power among the base of white supremacists partially responsible for his election. Why did the Israeli prime minister not challenge the US president on his silence? To retain a positive relationship with the power that comes from being allied to the US president.
If looking to governments for peace is folly, then where are we to look? While there are many possible answers to that question, the one that makes the most sense, the one that already has the structure built in to make an immediate and lasting impact around the world is religion. As religions are no longer limited to a specific geography, they have the unique ability to spread a message decisively and quickly to their adherents, reaching more people and affecting more action than any government could ever hope to achieve.
Here is where religious hierarchy comes into play because I know at the individual congregation level there are already those who are attempting to do that very thing. Ask almost any member of the clergy who has a predominantly urban congregation challenged by the reality of inner-city violence. They will tell you that the influence of religion has a strong impact on what happens in their communities. Where religious influence is the strongest, violence declines. Hate between rivals dissipates. Not because anyone is converting entire gangs or getting people to trade in guns for religious texts. People of faith are effective when they simply lay down an expectation for peace above all in their communities.
Now, if individual clerics can lead their congregations to exert an expectation of peace within a single community, why are those within religious hierarchies not creating similar expectations across larger geographies? Religious leaders who do not lead toward peace, respect, and understanding show themselves to be little more than the religious equivalent of the power mongers we see in governments, and the results are almost exactly the same. Religious corruption is just as real and just as damning as political corruption and as long as it is ignored and tolerated and even supported at the congregational level, that corruption continues to generate hate and distrust that leads to violence and destruction.
The solution is painful to those in seats of religious power, but it must happen. We need Christian pastors to publicly and forcibly denounce hate toward Muslims. We need imams to publicly and forcibly support the right of Jews to exist not only in their homeland but wherever they wish around the world. We need rabbis to publicly and forcibly denounce the antagonism for anyone who is not Jewish.
Understand, we do not need sermons on peace in general terms. We need leaders who speak in specific terms in specific communities. After what happened in Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery every congregation in Missouri, regardless of faith, should be hearing homilies not only teaching why the toppling of tombstones was wrong, but how the hate behind that act is destructive. No one should have any question but what that act was worthy of condemnation in the strongest language possible.
The situation at that Missouri cemetery is a good place for examples to be set. As people from all over the St. Louis area gathered to help repair the tombstones, Muslim activists raised over $70,000 to help cover the costs. This is exactly the kind of religious leadership needed to put an end to the hate directed toward people of different faiths. Yet, that leadership needs to be at even higher levels for the message to become universal. There are people of every faith willing and ready to follow a message of peace and understanding if only people will step to the front and lead.
One of the major aspects breeding animosity toward religion is when people, especially nonbelievers, see extremists and flamboyant clerics spouting off propaganda well outside the mainstream of their religion without any retribution. Giving into the whole freedom of speech issue applies only to government. Religions themselves not only have the right but the responsibility to reign in those who misrepresent their religion in ways that not only breed hate, sometimes on both sides, but grossly mislead those who are truly faithful.
For Americans, names such as Joel Osteen, Pat Robertson, and Creflo Dollar are among the more recognizable names of so-called “preachers” who operate without any oversight, saying whatever they please, stirring hate and anger, and doing a disservice to all of Christianity while swaying the loyalties of many looking to that religion for guidance. We may not so quickly recognize the names of extremists from other religions, such as Allama Kaukab Noorani Okarvi, Rabbi Berl Lazar, or Chandraswami. Yet, each is guilty of manipulating their religions, even if it is out at extreme fringes, for their own benefit, whether political or financial.
We have reached a point in world relations where it only takes one religious extremist to inflame the hatred of thousands towards other religions. Take, for example, that time back in December of 2015 when Pat Robertson declared that Islam is not a religion. How is that not considered hate speech? Yet, too many people dismissed the statement as the continued ramblings of a senile old man who just happens to have a television program watched by millions of devout Christians.
Words like these are not innocent. Statements like Robertson’s cannot be allowed to continue without severe and immediate repercussions and those consequences need to come from within the religion itself, not government. Religious leaders have to take a public stand against those within their own denomination, within their broader religion, to stop the inflammatory rhetoric. Shut down their support systems that steal funding from local congregants. Pressure them to be removed from cable networks and public media systems. Take away their audience.
Religious leaders have to be held accountable at a strict level we’ve not seen before because the results of their incendiary speech are inciting religious-based violence and hate crimes like we’ve never seen before. This is a major religious issue and to the extent that religions refuse to address it for themselves, they leave the entire religious body open to criticism and condemnation from those affected by the actions of a few.
Something religions seem to have difficulty understanding is that they are not obligated to let those who use their name to say anything they wish and remain under that religious umbrella. Christians are not required to tolerate Joel Osteen. They have every right to shut him up and throw him out because what he says is not Christian. Muslims have every right to defrock Allama Okarvi and shame him into silence. His words are not those of true Islam and everyone within Islam knows that.
Strict religious discipline within the religion, and not external to it, is a necessity for a religion to maintain any cohesiveness or moral authority among their members. I know this bristles those who believe in a congregationalist form of religious governance. There are those who resist hard against any kind of authority outside their own body. I get it. Yet, without some form of external authority, there is a very real and very severe danger of those congregations becoming nothing more than radicalized social clubs bent on hating those who are not like them.
I’ve seen it happen. Small, rural, Southern Baptist churches whose pastors are not required to have any actual religious training, become swept up in the rhetoric of a fire-and-brimstone preacher who blames societies perceived ills, especially problems that don’t even come close to affecting the congregation but are observed through the media, on Muslims, or blacks, or Jews, or immigrants, or Catholics.
Rural pastors garner a lot of respect within their small towns. People listen to what they have to say. Preachers are often considered the ultimate authority figure in that they are that communities moral representative anointed by God. So when a pastor stands behind a pulpit and denounces the “scourge” of Muslims as being a threat to the nation, those words stick in the minds of his congregation. Never mind that most of them have never knowingly met a Muslim and are not, within their small community, likely to do so. They are all now convinced that a different religion is responsible for the world’s problems.
How does that perpetuate hate?
A young man I came across in high school couldn’t wait to get out of his small town and off to college. The small town didn’t have anything to offer him and he was certain he would make it big at the university. Upon arriving at the university, however, he was introduced to people and cultures that hadn’t existed back where he grew up. The “outside” world was different. There were people of every different color, with difficult to understand accents, wearing clothes that seemed strange and with religious habits he didn’t understand.
At first, this young man took his new environment as a challenge. He would be a “witness” for his God and attempt to “save” as many as he could. Not only were his efforts fruitless, however, but he found others disliked him for daring to insinuate that their own faith was insufficient or unacceptable. He became more and more marginalized within his dorm until he came across a small group of guys equally frustrated. They were all white, all devout members of their church, and all tired of having to apologize for what they saw as God-ordained evangelism.
In an ideal world, they would have found ways to share their religion without being insulting. While such methods don’t rack up high numbers of converts, they do exist within the tenets of most every religion. These young men, unfortunately, did not look for those methods. Instead, they took a more violent route, attacking an Iranian medical student in a parking lot and leaving him for dead. Everyone involved in the crime was eventually caught, convicted, and expelled from the university (along with appropriate jail sentences).
As much as I would like to say that was a lone event from 40 years ago, I can’t. All across the country, those same type of events keep happening. Again, just this week, in Olathe, Kansas, a former air traffic controller in a crowded bar yelled, “Get out of my country!” along with a host of racial slurs and then shot at what he thought were two Middle Eastern men, killing one, wounding the other, and also wounding another local man trying to stop the shooting. Here’s the thing: the men he shot weren’t Middle Eastern. They werent Muslim. They were Indian. They were Hindu. Just the fact that they weren’t white was enough for one ignorant man to decide to kill them.
Olathe, Kansas is a very small town. I’ve been there more than once. The town is so small, in fact, that there’s a Southern Baptist church directly across the street from that bar. The churches in Olathe are the most dominant influence in that town. People listen to the pastors of those churches when they’ll listen to no one else. The sermons they preach this Sunday are critical. While I’m quite sure none of them directly intend to perpetuate hate, without directly addressing attitudes such as the one expressed in the bar, they participate in hate’s spread toward both Muslims and Hindus and other non-Christian religions.
I am aware that all major religions have a number of different factions and there is no one within any of them that can speak with authority over the entire religion. Yet, there is someone at the top of every denomination, every variation, every off-shoot who can, at the very least, strongly influence those under them.
Far too many of the problems that exist in this current state of existence owe their origination to the fact that too many governments hold an allegiance to one or more religions, some more formally than others. Within the United States, our Constitution prohibits the establishment of a state religion and prevents the government from hindering the “free exercise” of any religion. Yet, the concept that we are, or should be, a Christian nation is still dominant. Dominant to the point that many radicals spent eight years claiming that president Barak Obama was unfit for office based on the incorrect assumption that he is Muslim. He’s not. He never was. The amount of hate spewed toward president Obama for religious reasons was unprecedented for the United States.
However, such associations between government leaders and religions are hardly new. Even now, the ruling monarch of the United Kingdom must, by law, be a member of the Church of England and the monarch is the titular head of that religious body. While Queen Elizabeth II is directly involved in religious affairs even less than she is matters of state, the very fact that such a connection still exists underlines the ubiquity of a global problem that has done little more than producing hate and violence for the past two millennia.
Here, we have to stop and give serious consideration as to whether the world would still be as dangerous were governments with strong religious affiliations replaced with secular ones. The answer is probably not as clear cut as one might want. Two of the world’s largest superpowers, Russia and China, are officially atheistic. Yet, one might argue that their communist ideals hold the same emotional if not spiritual value for their adherents as would any formally accepted religion. The only major difference between ideology and theology is having a central figure who is worshiped. So, to assume that the world would be any safer by removing all religiously-enabled governments is likely absurd.
Still, we look across the world at the places where governments are detached from any religious preference, including atheism, and we see a much more peaceful existence within those countries than we do the world at large. Consider the list of the most peaceful countries in the world as calculated by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). The list for 2017 looks like this:
Now, for the sake of brevity, which almost seems laughable as we just passed the 6,000-word mark, let’s look at just the top five of those countries and check their relationship to religion.
Iceland: Officially, there is a state church of Iceland and the government pays the salaries of its ministers. The primary purpose of the state church, however, is telling: it operates all the cemeteries across the countries. Also, officially, there is a religious tax that Icelandic people pay. That tax, however, doesn’t necessarily go to the state church. Instead, it goes to whatever religious or philosophical organization to which one belongs. Don’t belong to any philosophical organizations? Fine. The money goes into the general fund. From a more practical point of view, Iceland has one of the most secular societies in the world. Even though churches do exist, attendance is extremely low and their authority within the country is largely non-existent. Until you die.
Denmark: As with Iceland, the Church of Denmark is the state’s official religion and has a strong history of influence in the country. However, the government’s website says of the church, “Denmark is also among the world’s most secularised countries, in which religion and Christianity play only a minor, often indirect, role in public life.” The country’s “striving for the Church of Denmark to become more independent, with a looser association to the state.” The potential for conflict with Arab immigrants has grown over the past few years, but even there are efforts to avoid problems before they occur. “In the so-called Arabian Initiative the Danish government is seeking to build positive relations with Muslim countries. This initiative also includes projects promoting religious dialogue which is supported by the majority of Denmark’s religious communities.”
Austria: We’ve all seen The Sound of Music, right? 60% of Austrians still identify themselves as Catholic. While the country’s Constitution prohibits the establishment of a state religion, just as the US Constitution does, defining any portion of Austria’s population as strictly secular would be incorrect. Instead, we do best to consider the country pluralistic, which is the way Austria defines itself. In a 2015 speech, Austria’s Human Rights Commissioner, Tim Wilson, put it this way:
In Australia the role of government is to be secular. But that is not the nature of Australian society. We are not a secular society, we are a pluralist society. That means everyone is entitled to their faith, and to express it so long as they do no harm to others.
But pluralism means more than just faith. It also means pluralism for people based on other factors, such as ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. To have a pluralist society we have to have laws that respect everyone’s individuality and accommodate for everyone’s unique needs, this is especially true for religion.
New Zealand: If you’re beginning to think that I’m just typing the same thing over and over again, you’re not alone. There is a great deal here that is identical across all five countries, which is probably worth noting. New Zealand is also predominantly Christian, with the Anglican church being dominant. As with the other countries, however, religious adherence outside of major ceremonies around the beginning and end of life has dropped significantly. There has also been a blending within the denominations themselves where Māori have their own versions of Christian denominations. While the number of Hindus, Muslims, and Buddhists have increased with recent immigration, New Zealand’s attitude of letting everyone alone to set their own path has worked well in helping to keep matters peaceful.
Portugal: It wasn’t all that long ago when the phrase “to be Portuguese is to be Catholic” applied across this critical European country. In fact, the Church held a tight grip on the country until the latter part of the 20th century. However, as the influence of the Church waned after World War II, attitudes shifted and in 1976 Portugal adopted a new Constitution that permanently separates the roles of Church and State. Since then, the influence of the Church has fallen from first to eighth among all social groups. Moral issues once considered within the responsibility of the Church have instead been decided by those outside it. Today, to be Portuguese is to be of whatever faith one wants without any interference.
Note the commonality across all these countries. They have all moved from a strongly Christian background to one that is either immensely secular or, at the very least, highly pluralistic. Religious establishments have had to step back and allow their influence to wane in order for the countries to become the peaceful places they are now. The same holds true for almost all the other countries on the top twenty list.
The exceptions would be Japan and Bhutan. Japan’s path has been relatively similar to European countries, transitioning from a blend of Shintoism and Buddhism to a more secular society. Only Bhutan, a landlocked Asian country located wholly within the Himalayan mountain range, still holds strongly to a dominant religion. Mahayana (tantric) Buddhism is the official state religion and practiced by some 75% of the small country’s inhabitants. Unlike other major religions, however, the goal of Mahayana is not to evangelize or “save” the world, but rather to achieve an elevated state of being by becoming one with and respecting not only other people but every aspect of the physical world. As a result, people of Bhutan are not only inherently peaceful, but have a strong concern for the preservation of the environment and animal rights.
What we see, on the whole, is that dramatically reducing the social influence of authoritarian religions is a significant and helpful factor in reducing the amount of hate present within a country. While that obviously may not be the solution that religious leadership wants to hear, the practice has born true time and time again in country after country. Mahayana works in Bhutan because it is an inherently peace-oriented religion but it is unreasonable to expect \entire nations to achieve something that Bhutan has been cultivating for centuries. Bhutan’s geographic isolation likely participates in their success as well. For almost every other country, however, the complete removal of religion from political influence and a reduction of its social authority is critical to establishing a consistent environment of peace.
A lot has happened since I started right this article Tuesday morning. I never fully intended for it to be as long as it has become, but I didn’t want to leave out any necessary part of the conversation, either. Even now, I’m not fully convinced but what there isn’t more we need to discuss.
What’s important, though, is that the discussion begins in earnest, that we take seriously the impact of religion in cultivating hate toward its counterparts and even toward secularism itself. Backed into a corner with their power and authority at risk, the religious establishment frightens me. There are still a large number of charismatic leaders across all the major religions who can marshall a very large number of supporters to do their bidding, even if that bidding is not legal. While those majorities whose religious views are centrist and not overly committal may not be at risk, there are still hundreds of thousands, if not millions on the fringes, already marginally radicalized, and willing to make themselves “a living sacrifice” for their deity.
Religions could take away much of the sting from such a transition themselves simply by changing the language they use to avoid terms that are unnecessarily exclusionary or even elitist. Surely it is possible to teach the tenets of one’s religion without needing to refer to others as “unclean” or “infidels.” Referring to yourself as a “sinner” is one thing, but to project that title onto someone from outside your religious belief system is insulting and inflammatory. The decision to make religion offensive is one largely made by the people in pulpits and the leaders who put them there. Change that attitude, change that rhetoric, and we’re more than half-way to achieving a level of peace this planet has not known in the modern era.
I shuddered this past week when the vice-president proclaimed loudly and proudly that the world would know that the US stands with Israel. Mr. Pence might as well reach out and sucker punch the heads of state for every country in the Middle East that is predominantly Muslim. Whether he intended for his words to be offensive is irrelevant and any apology he might give now is empty. As a representative of the United States government, the vice-president made a statement that effectively establishes a level of religious favoritism that quite likely, in a finite sense, violates the First Amendment. This is not the first time such a statement has been made, but it needs to be the last and steps must be taken to make sure that it never happens again without severe and immediate repercussions.
Religious leaders have an important choice. Either they can tone down the rhetoric and step back to a more leisure place in American life that they fashion for themselves, or they can risk becoming like Denmark when the only time people think of religion is when they die. Already, the number of Americans who don’t identify with any religious belief system has grown from 16.1 percent of the population in 2007 to 22.8 in 2014. By even the most conservative estimates, more than a quarter of Americans are now totally unaffiliated with any form of religion or organized spiritual philosophy. This comes while every form of Christianity has seen a serious decline in terms of both membership and attendance. Change is going to happen. Religious leaders can either claim a place at the table or find themselves victims a secularization that shuts them out, in part, because they are too hateful toward other people.
Those who drive religions, all over them, not just Christianity, need to desperately get back in touch with the peaceful tenets of their teachings, the ones that focus on being a better individual, on helping others, on providing an example of selflessness, not selfishness. Religions must look to growth mechanisms not based in fear or shaming. Threatening to bomb one’s place of worship because they are merely a different sect under the same religious umbrella does not serve your deity at all. There is a core of peace, love, and harmony within every religion out there. Adherents need to find that core, stick to that core, teach that core, and not be persuaded to move from it.
In no way do I want anyone to think I condone a world without religion. Too many people need something that answers life’s larger questions for them: the question of why am I here, what is my purpose, and where am I going. For some, religion is a point of comfort, a sense of security, and I would not suggest that those people be denied the good things that can come from religion. When religions adhere to their core, when they demonstrate love through acts of charity and selflessness, when they feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, and provide medical care to the ill without expecting even as much as a thank you in return, that is when religion is a benefit to society. That is a religion with which we can co-exist.
What we can no longer tolerate is a religion that attempts to dominate all others, religions that consider themselves exclusive holders of God’s favor, religions that place repugnant and offensive titles on those not part of their elite membership, religions that look to usurp government and establish theocracies, religions that look to impose their limited and narrow moralities upon people who hold to a different belief system, or religions that perpetuate any form of hate among people of color, sexuality, gender, marital status, or any other form of social or personal identification. These are the religions that have brought us to the unacceptable point we now find ourselves. These are the religions that excuse the dismantling of headstones, encourage the burning of a mosque in Florida, and look right past the murder of Hindus in Kansas.
We can no longer tolerate religions that say one has a right to a parcel of land to the exclusion of another religion. We can no longer tolerate religions that encourage the ongoing animosity between other religions.
Those within religious bodies must look up from their constant self-serving prayers that never cease a litany of favors requested from their deity, realize the messengers of hate that their religions have become, and press those in leadership to either make a change or be replaced. Religions do not exist without followers. Now is perhaps the time for those who have followed to become the leaders toward a new direction, back to core beliefs, back to inclusion and peace.
We have often heard the phrase, “We can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way.”
Religion in America specifically, and to a lesser extent around the world, faces that same choice. Those coming behind us, those who hold an intelligence we never knew, those who understand the meaning of life from a very different perspective where answers are not found in ancient texts but in double-blind studies with extensive peer review, those who have no long-standing regard for pointless traditions, are growing rapidly in number. They are much better than my generation at rejecting hate. At the same time, however, they are also, in overwhelming numbers rejecting religion.
The “easy way” is for the religious to adjust themselves, find a different way of communicating, and demonstrating core values that are not patently offensive to the rest of the world.
The “hard way” is for the religious to remain indignant and defiant as their numbers decrease, until they are seen as nothing more than doddering old fools, and their empty buildings are left to disintegrate into rubble.
Make a choice. One way or the other, this hate has to end.
Pakistan doesn’t like Valentines Day. More specifically, the Islamabad High Court’s order prohibits all Valentine’s Day festivities in government offices and public spaces. Immediately. No cards. No candy. No streamers. Nothing. Conservative Muslim groups are considered to be behind the ban.
Pakistan has a very interesting view of Valentines Day. Whereas most Americans think of it as a day to celebrate love and to give sweet gifts of chocolate and nonsense to someone you care about, conservative Muslims in Pakistan see it as an example of Western decadence.
The petition on which the High Court issued its verdict claimed that Valentines Day “promotes immorality, nudity, and indecency under the cover of spreading love.” Kinda makes you wonder what Valentines Day party they were invited to, doesn’t it?
The ban covers any public display and even encouraged national media to not talk about or promote Valentines Day in any form.
Last year, Pakistan’s President Mamnoon Hussain denounced Valentines Day, saying it is a Western tradition and not part of Pakistan’s culture. His words didn’t carry any force, however. It was just sort of a suggestion. Separately, local officials in Kohat, in northwest Pakistan, banned the sale of Valentine cards and goods, and Peshawar local council banned celebrations last year as well.
However, today’s ruling by the High Court affects the entire country. You can’t celebrate Valentine’s Day, which is likely to displease a number of people. The day has become extremely popular especially among Pakistan’s younger and more secular population.
The ban does not necessarily affect card shops and restaurants. However, whether a shop or restaurant is able to get away with any kind of Valentines Day promotion is likely to come at the discretion of law enforcement.
So, if you love someone, don’t plan on spending Valentines Day in Pakistan. Try India. I’m sure they’ll welcome you. [insert evil grin here]
I do not know Beau Willimon. I’ve never met the young man and, quite honestly, until last week didn’t know a thing about him. Yet, most of what you will find here, all the good parts, are his words, not mine.
If you know of Mr. Willimon, it is likely in connection with this little show he produced for Netflix called House of Cards. Given all the awards its won and the general acclaim for the series, one might assume that Mr. Willimon understands how Washington politics work.
What you might not know is that Mr. Willimon has hands-on experience in the political world, having worked on campaigns for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Hillary Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign, and was press aide for Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign. He’s done a bunch of other political stuff as well to give him a fairly substantial background in politics. Top that with his House of Cards experience and I think it’s reasonably safe to say his understanding of the political world is a bit more advanced than the average guy sitting at the bar.
So, when he decided last Friday, 3 February, to present the Internet with his Declaration of Resistance via Twitter, it carried a little more weight than the average entertainment industry celeb. However, Willimon is also a playwright and as such there are some subtleties and inferences built into his tweetstorm that may not be immediately obvious. Some of them may not need to be obvious for his meaning to be clear, but our opinion is that assurance is better than adding to the heaping mounds of confusion spread across the Internet. He bases his words largely upon the contents of the Declaration of Independence. Therefore, we’ve decided to annotate his entries both as a means of explaining what might not be immediately evident and confirm what might be inferred.
This also gives us a chance to more reliably preserve and index Willimon’s entries. If there is a downside to posting these things on Twitter, it is that they are quickly pushed down the list and more difficult to find with each passing day. Willimon uses Twitter a fair amount so even one day after they were posted we still had to do a great deal of scrolling to find them. This will, hopefully, provide a more consistent point of reference for more long-term use.
These are the original tweets since from @BeauWillimon. Our additions are in red italics between tweets. Note: we do not control how Mr. Willimon’s tweets appear on this page.
1. DECLARATION OF RESISTANCE
When in the course of American history it becomes necessary for the people to save our Nation from a Tyrant,
— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 3, 2017
If the opening sounds at least slightly familiar, that’s a good thing: it comes close to the opening paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, which I will refer to from here on out as “the Declaration.” He only modifies a portion of the first sentence, but the remainder is implied through the rest of the document. For those who slept through Civics class, please allow me to remind you of that first paragraph.
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
Now, see the connection between what the framers of the Declaration were saying and Mr. Willimon’s words? Consider the phrase “dissolve the political bands” extremely important from here on out.
2. To safeguard equality for all and their inalienable rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness from bigotry and corruption,
— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 3, 2017
Another Declaration reference. The second paragraph of that document begins:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
The use of the word “men” in this context should be interpreted as representative of all humanity. While women had few legal rights at the time of the Declaration’s writing, the framers were not intentionally leaving them out. Rather, they were attempting to make the statement as inclusive as possible. Willimon nicely modernizes the sentence with the phrase “To safeguard equality for all.”
3. To ensure that our Government continues derive its power from the consent of the governed rather than by autocracy,
— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 3, 2017
Breaking things down into smaller chunks, we hit a point of the preamble that some consider inflammatory. Those who would call themselves “patriots” have long used this portion of the Declaration to justify acts of violence against the government and/or its representatives. The Declaration reads:
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed
Arguably, in challenging the authority of the 45th president, Willimon claims that the person residing in the White House does not have sufficient consent of the government. His point is based on the fact that while some 63 million people did vote for the president, over 75 million voted directly against him and over 200 million others are not represented by either vote. Therefore, one might well argue that the president is far from having the consent of the governed and that his election is illegitimate.
4. That whenever any President becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to make such demands upon their Congress:
— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 3, 2017
Willimon is being very careful with his words here. Using the phrase, “to make such demands upon their Congress” is a softer action than what is stated in the Declaration. I don’t blame him. To copy the words of the Declaration might be considered by some as an attempt to overthrow the government. Take a look at the original language:
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government
We have to understand the challenges that the founding fathers experienced in living under the auspices of Great Britain, which was in full-tilt empire-building mode at that particular moment. The intent was very clear: do the will of the people or the people will kick you out on your ass and do something different. Never would they have guessed that either the government or the nation would become as large and complicated as it is today. We can’t just march on Washington and institute a new government, no matter how attractive that might sound to some. Appealing to Congress to act on our behalf is a lot safer and doesn’t get one arrested as quickly.
5. Immediate impeachment of the President for crimes committed, or removal from office by way of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution.
— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 3, 2017
Impeachment. There’s a word that politicians have been tripping over themselves to avoid. With the president’s administration only two weeks old, there are few members of Congress who have the intestinal fortitude to even think about drafting articles of impeachment at this point. While they might admit that the president is building such a case, few have dared to actually utter the word aloud in public. To engage in impeachment is to bring much of government to a grinding hault while the matter is addressed. This is not a matter to be entered into lightly or without sufficient preparation.
Willimon references the 25th amendment. Let me refresh your memory on that one.
The 25th amendment was ratified in 1967 and clarifies exactly what happens in the event that the president is no longer capable of fulfilling his oath of office. There are four sections to the amendment, the first two not applying to our current situation unless the president should happen to simply fall dead or become a victim of some violent action against his life. Section three has been used any time the president undergoes any type of treatment where he is under anesthesia, temporarily rendering him incapacitated. Section four is the kicker. It reads:
Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice-President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
Let’s be clear that this action would most likely occur only after articles of impeachment against the president had been passed by both bodies of Congress, or should the vice-president be able to convince enough members of the Cabinet to implore Congress with sufficient reasons for removing the president from power. Either path is extremely difficult given the partisan politics currently dominating the legislative bodies. This is a serious course of action with a distinct set of consequences.
6. Donald J. Trump has conducted injuries and usurpations, pursuing the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.
— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 3, 2017
Here is Willimon’s charge against the president: that the has “conducted injuries and usurpations, pursuing the establishment of an absolute Tyranny …” Reference again back to the preamble, pretty much picking up where he left off. The Declaration specifically states:
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Let me emphasize again that the framers were referring to the “abuses and usurpations” of Britain’s King George III. For our use here, Despotism and Tyranny are sufficiently close in meaning as to be interchangeable. In short, Willimon is saying that the current president is no better than mad King George III and should be deposed for exactly the same reasons.
7. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world–
— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 3, 2017
This is a direct quote from the preamble. In the Constitution, it is followed by the charges of the colonies made against Britain’s king. This was not so much for the benefit of King George, but a justification for those who might choose with which side the might ally themselves.
In our particular case here, however, very specific charges are necessary not only so that one might recruit allies to the cause, but to justify taking any action in the first place. One does not simply call the president a tyrant without providing evidence of such. So, Willimon proceeds to make his case.
8. He has obstructed the Laws for Naturalization of Immigrants, and illegally banned refugees in need of safe haven.
— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 3, 2017
As I am writing this, we are waiting for the 9th circuit court of appeals to make a full decision regarding the president’s ban on immigrants and refugees. The president’s executive order created a ban against people from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering this US. While verbally asserting that this was not a ban against a specific religious group, it had the effect of such, likely making it a violation of the Constitution’s first amendment prohibiting any action against any religion. One can also reasonably argue that the ban failed to allow for due process. The end result has been chaos.
9. He has continued to violate federal court orders which require the temporary cessation of this ban, thereby violating his executive oath.
— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 3, 2017
When a New York judge issued a temporary restraining order against deportations arising from the ordered travel ban, the president refused to acknowledge the action and instructed federal agencies to continue. This can be interpreted as a violation of the presidential oath, but actual charges against the president on this account could easily be challenged by Congress.
10. He has dismissed an Attorney General for fulfilling her oath to defend the Constitution, defying the autonomy of the Dept. of Justice.
— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 3, 2017
For the sake of history, and anyone who might not have been paying attention, one should be aware that the president dismissed acting Attorney General Sally Yates for failing to defend the president’s travel ban. By definition, it is the job of the Attorney General and the US Department of Justice to defend the laws and interest of the federal government. However, Ms. Yates voiced concern that the order was possibly not legal and therefore should not be defended.
Willimon’s claim regarding the autonomy of the Department of Justice is shaky, however. The position of Attorney General, specifically, has been highly politicized since John F. Kennedy nominated his brother, Robert, to the post in 1961. There are no laws that specifically require or enforce the autonomy, though it is, in practice, an ethical goal.
11. He has purged the State Dept. of its highest level officials without any regard for a responsible continuity of State Affairs.
— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 3, 2017
Here, Willimon is referring to actions taken on 26 January 2017. At first, it appeared as though the senior officials at the State Department had walked out of their own accord. Only later did it become known that they had, in fact, been dismissed by the president. This created a vacuum of knowledge and experience within the federal government regarding international relations. While the move is within the president’s prerogative, it came at a time when the action arguably left all US embassies and overseas personnel without a direct contact or person of authority at the State Department, creating an inherent security issue.
12. He has enlisted amateur ideologues – such as the white supremacist Stephen L. Bannon – to make national security decisions.
— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 3, 2017
The reference here is regarding the placement of the president’s chief strategist (and campaign manager) Steve Bannon to the principals committee of the National Security Council. This committee ultimately makes direct recommendations to the president regarding matters of national security. Mr. Bannon’s previous statements present ideologies and philosophies consistent with those of a white supremacist, though Bannon denies the charge.
13. He has vowed to enact policy and legislation which clearly tread on the separation of church and state.
— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 3, 2017
At a prayer breakfast on 2 February 2017, the president told a group of religious leaders that he would “get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment.” The Johnson Amendment was enacted in the 1950s to maintain the wall between church and state by prohibiting religious organizations from participating directly in political activities. The president enjoyed considerable support from Christian extremists during his presidential campaign. This move is seen as a way of undergirding that support. However, repealing the Johnson Amendment would require, at the very least, a two-thirds majority vote of both houses of Congress, something that is not generally considered likely to happen.
14. He has refused to remove or address conflicts of interest regarding both his own business and that of his cabinet and family.
— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 3, 2017
Conflicts of interest have been a persistent issue against the president from the day he took office. Already, multiple lawsuits have been filed in federal court seeking to force the president to either divest himself of his business holdings or place them in a genuine blind trust. To date, the president has refused to do either. Instead, he handed off control of his business concerns to his two oldest sons while maintaining full ownership.
The effective law here is what is generally considered the emoluments clause of the Constitution. The clause in Article I, Section 9, of the Constitution says that, “no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or Foreign State.” Given that the president’s considerable business holdings are often utilized by other heads of state, many claim that to retain any interest at all in the properties or holdings would be in violation of the law.
We should note that the current lawsuits represent the first serious challenge to the Emoluments Clause in modern history.
15. He has hastily signed multiple Executive Orders without the advisement of Congress, policy experts, his cabinet or staff.
— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 3, 2017
Willimon’s statement here is based primarily on anecdotal evidence. While that evidence appears likely to be valid, it lacks the weight of authority to have any genuine effect beyond the matter of public opinion. The argument speaks more to the character of the president and the possible presence of mental illness, specifically narcissistic personality disorder (DSM-5 301.81 (F60.81)). The presence of such a mental illness could provide justification for the invocation of the 25th amendment.
16. He has signed an Executive Order which knowingly deprives the sick of desperately needed healthcare with no concern for their lives.
— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 3, 2017
Repealing the Affordable Care Act was one of the president’s primary campaign promises and one of the first executive orders signed once he was in office. If the repeal were to be immediate, ti would indeed leave many without healthcare. However, any change in the law requires action on the part of Congress where the momentum to make any change has waned under differences of opinion and public backlash. At the time of this writing, there is no way to determine whether the president’s order will have any long-term effect or not.
17. He has signed an Executive Order permitting a pipeline that tramples on Native American Rights and endangers safe water supply.
— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 3, 2017
In two separate Executive Orders, the president pushed for reinstatement of the KeystoneXL pipeline and the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Keystone pipeline had been effectively halted by the previous administration while the Dakota Access project had been stalled due to high-profile protests. Both pipelines present significant environmental concerns, endanger nearby water supplies, and usurp the rights of indigenous North American tribes. While the president’s actions on the matter are not technically illegal, one can argue they are in violation of the public trust by putting drinking water at risk.
18. He has illegally threatened to cut off funding to Sanctuary Cities which have determined their values through self-governance.
— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 3, 2017
Back in January, the president signed an Executive Order instructing federal agencies to identify funds that might be withheld from sanctuary cities. This presents problems on two fronts. Denying the funds would require an act of Congress and it’s difficult to imagine a member of Congress who would vote against their home state. Such an act would almost certainly come back to haunt them in 2018. Second, the very suggestion of the idea may exceed the limit of the president’s authority. The cities in question are already fighting back. Removing funding from these cities could dramatically hurt a lot of people, but the president seems to not care.
19. He has knowingly, repeatedly and egregiously misled the public, and directed his staff to do the same.
— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 3, 2017
You’ve heard the phrase “alternative facts” by now, right? That would be a prime example of what Willimon addresses here. The number of misstatements and outright lies are too numerous to list. One would think that the White House would be embarrassed being caught in so many lies. Instead, they double down and assert their own version of reality. There are a lot of things the White House can get away with, but lying to the American public is not one of them. This issue alone is an impeachable offense.
20. He has strongly advocated for the silencing and suppression of a Free Press.
— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 3, 2017
Again, there are multiple examples backing up Beau’s statement. The press is a protected entity under the first amendment. Any attempt to suppress or silence the press would violate the Constitution. The challenge is that the White House is using demeaning and distraction tactics in an attempt to undermine the credibility of the press. The latest salvo came on 5 February as the president claimed that any “negative” polls are a form of “fake news.” Shortly thereafter, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer attacked the satire of an NBC television show. While the tactics skirt the border of legality, any outright attempt to quieten the press would be an impeachable offense.
21. He has repeatedly and consistently shown contempt for people based race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity and religion.
— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 3, 2017
Much of the evidence behind this statement comes from the mountain of information in the president’s path. While he actively denies that he dislikes anyone when he is challenged, his actions and his history both point to an attitude of contempt for anyone not rich and white. This includes comments regarding inappropriate groping of women and demeaning people because of their ethnicity, including a federal judge. While this is not directly an impeachable offense, it does speak to his suitability for the office and could potentially be used in a 25th amendment argument for removal from office.
22. He has shown disdain and disregard for the judiciary, and the fundamental human rights that are the foundation of Justice.
— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 3, 2017
Willimon is using nice words again here to convey what is a rather nasty characteristic of the president. Put more accurately, the president seems to have absolutely no concept of the system of checks and balances put in place by the country’s founders. The founders understood all too well the corruptive power of the office of President and put in place multiple safeguards to protect against the totalitarianism of a despot. This is where we get to test those safeguards placed in both the judiciary and legislative branches.
23. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 3, 2017
Once again, a direct quote from the Declaration. Of course, in its original context, the “Prince” was King George. The parallels between the behavior of the mad king and the 45th president are striking. Just as there were assertions made regarding the king’s mental state and his suitability for governing, so too have such concerns been raised in regards to the president. Both would seem to suffer from narcicisstic personality disorder, among other things. Of course, proving that assertion without clinical examination is impossible. Yet, given the accusations made above, it doesn’t seem improbable for Congress to demand such an examination.
24. We shall Resist until our Congress uses the mechanisms afforded to by the Constitution to remove this Tyrant from Power.
— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 3, 2017
The most important thing Beau says here is the phrase “mechanisms afforded to by the Constitution.” During times like these, there will always be those who find in their cause a reason for violence. We saw those forced in action both at the inauguration day protest and more recently at the protest in Berkley. Chaos and anarchy is their goal. They do not represent thoughtful-minded people but are vigilantes bent on vengeance and a warped sense of justice. Any resistance to this president must first employ every available legal method available to it.
This is the precedent set forth in the Declaration. Look at it. The phrases “We have warned …,” “We have reminded …,” and “We have appealed …,” reference the attempts on the part of the colonists to resolve their grievances in an appropriate and legal manner. King George III and his parliament made the fateful decision to not only ignore the colonists, but to increase the unfair treatment directed toward them. Only when separation was the only choice remaining did the representatives pen the Declaration.
So, too, now it is necessary that we utilize every legal option available to its fullest extent as we resist the illegal dealings of this tyrant in the White House. We must implore Congress to act on our behalf as they have been elected to do and we must show patience in giving them an opportunity to act within the letter of the law. We fail just as surely if we allow ourselves to be taken by our own anarchy as we would if we did nothing.
25. And for the support of this Declaration we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Honor.
Signed. The Resistance
— Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 3, 2017
This is an interesting though not inappropriate variation of the final line of the Declaration. The founders included the phrase, “with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence,” and also referred to their “Sacred” Honor. Too many have misinterpreted those inclusions, along with other deific references in the Declaration, as pointing toward a specific religious foundation in our country’s founding.
Those misinterpretations are grossly unfounded. Among the signers of that document were men of many various and contrasting belief systems., most notably Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Franklin, both of whom were deists. None of their belief systems, including those of the four active preachers on the list, would have remotely compared to anything seen in contemporary religion. They would not have held any book or writing as inerrant nor infallible and bristled at the thought of their religious beliefs dictating the functions of government.
The only common belief among them was that some power external to them must be guiding their direction. It was that unnamed power they refer to as divine and sacred.
Given the extremes of religious beliefs and behaviors in contemporary America, it is appropriate that those references be removed so as to not infer an association that does not exist. We are not bound by religious duty or obligation. Ours is a duty to one another as humans. Our morality is based on the greater good of humanity, not the confines and strictures of a specific dogma.We do better because we know better.
Equally important in this statement, and something the founding fathers knew well, is that unity within the cause and the mutual support of those who resist is critical. This president has already proven that he can create chaos and destruction faster than anyone we’ve ever encountered. Dissent and resistance against the broad array of offenses is going to be tiring and will not stop. His intention is to wear us down in hopes we will just give up and let him have his way.
We cannot afford to give up. We cannot afford to give in to weariness. To stop is to yield to tyranny, authoritarianism, and totalitarianism. We cannot let the banner be carried by a few while the rest sit in silence on the sidelines. The resistance must come from every state, from every city, in number incalculable. We must support and encourage each other, helping those most adversely affected by yet another madman attempting to ascent to a throne of his own construction. We must pledge to each other. Together.
I do not know Beau Willimon. I do not know his motivations, his plans, nor his favorite flavor of ice cream. As an artistic person who has achieved some success with his writings, I assume he has an underlying passion that pushes him into action. When he latches on to a concept or an idea, he follows it through with some level of excitement, I would guess. Based on what I’ve seen in his twitter feed the past few days, that seems to be evident. I would also guess that his carefully selected friends consider him a nice guy. Just guessing.
What I do know is that this statement of his is bold. He puts out into the public conversation a well-constructed argument and solid statement of intent. While he leaves the topics of methodology and implementation open for conversation, he has at least provided a framework around which those conversations can occur.
I don’t expect him to stand up and lead this fight. He might, but I don’t think it’s right to obligate him in that way. After all, it wasn’t Thomas Jefferson leading troops across the Potomac in the middle of that cold winter. Some stir the fires, others lead the charge.
Still, Mr. Willimon’s voice alone is not enough. The resistance needs voices in such volume as to create a shout that cannot be ignored. We need those willing and able to march as much as those willing to consistently hold members of Congress accountable for their actions. We need you.
Thank you, Beau Willimon, for igniting this conversation.
Now, let us carry it forward.
Two men are in custody after a shooting at a Quebec City mosque that left at least six dead and eight injured. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was quick to denounce the murders and declare them an act of terrorism. The shooting occurred as many in the US were protesting a travel ban on Muslims from seven countries.
Quebec City officials are not releasing a much detail after a shooting at the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre that left at least six people dead and eight others injured. Approximately 50 worshippers had gathered for evening prayers when the two men began shooting, apparently at random. The dead range in age from 35 to 70.
No motive has been given for the attack as of this morning, but Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau didn’t hesitate to call it an act of terror. Trudeau said in a statement:
“We condemn this terrorist attack on Muslims in a center of worship and refuge. It is heart-wrenching to see such senseless violence. Diversity is our strength, and religious tolerance is a value that we, as Canadians, hold dear.
“Muslim-Canadians are an important part of our national fabric, and these senseless acts have no place in our communities, cities, and country.”
If such violence in Canada comes as a surprise to you, you’re not alone. Canada is generally open and accepting of immigrants and people of any faith. Just earlier this weekend, Trudeau said that Canada would accept those turned away by the US travel ban that caused considerable confusion and outrage over the weekend.
However, the French-speaking province of Quebec tends to be a bit more cantankerous on a number of issues, including immigration. Francois Deschamps, an organizer of a refugee support group in Quebec City, said he was saddened but not surprised by the attack. He says right-wing groups there are well organized, constantly posting leaflets and stickers across the city.
Still, the Associated Press says that Quebec City Mayor Regis Labeaume “appeared visibly shaken.” Labeaume said: “No person should have to pay with their life, for their race, their color, their sexual orientation or their religious beliefs.”
There will be solidarity rallies held across Quebec this evening and increased security at mosques across Canada as well as New York City.
04:43:54 01/06/2017
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Brrrrr! If you feel a draft this morning, you might be in the central Midwest where temps are in the single digits and wind blowing across the snow puts wind chills well below zero. At these temperatures, frostbite is a serious possibility, especially if you have children standing outside waiting on a school bus. Be sure to dress everyone in multiple layers of loose clothing to prevent any danger there. Meanwhile, the South is gearing up for a major winter storm barreling down at them from the Rockies. This could be a rough weekend.
I could have ten things you should know this morning and still not cover everything that is newsworthy. Vice President Joe Biden told the president-elect to grow up yesterday1. It would be funny to watch to old men fight if they weren’t supposed to be leading the freakin’ country. Trump now says American taxpayers will fund that wall with Mexico2. And Hustler is suing the city of Indianapolis3, but we don’t have time for any of that. What we have are five other things we think you should know.
President-elect Donald Trump is supposed to receive his national security briefing this morning, one that President Obama saw several days ago. We can only guess how the president-elect might receive the news, but it isn’t going to be pretty as national intelligence director James Clapper and other national security advisors double-down on the evidence that Russia not only was involved in hacking during the election, but engaged in other activities aimed at altering the outcome4.
Don’t expect that news to set too well with the president-elect, who has chosen to listen to Wikileaks’ founder Julian Assange rather than the people with actual evidence of the hacking and other activities conducted under the authority of the Russian government. During a hearing yesterday before the Senate Armed Services committee, support for the US intelligence community was strongly bipartisan, setting up a rift between Congress and the president-elect that could affect a number of decisions in the immediate future.
At the same time, former CIA director James Woosely has resigned5 from the president-elect’s transition team and former Indiana Senator Dan Coates, whom the New York Times describes as “the Mister Rogers Senator,” has been named as the person likely to replace Director Clapper later this month6. Put everything together and what we have is a picture of an incoming administration that is long on talk and short on actual intelligence. Definitely not a good way to start.
If you were paying attention yesterday at the start of our article, we mentioned the arrest of four people in Chicago who live streamed a brutal kidnapping. At the point we were writing things yesterday, details were still sketchy. What we now know is that four people used Facebook Live to stream their torture and abuse of a mentally challenged man, who was tied up, hit, and cut with a knife by several assailants in what is being described as one of the most brutal scenes ever broadcast7.
All four people have been arrested and charged with committing a hate crime, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated unlawful restraint, and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, burglary, robbery and possession of a stolen motor vehicle. Chicago police superintendent Eddie Johnson told reporters that, “There was never a question whether or not this incident qualified to be investigated as a hate crime … The actions in that video are reprehensible.”
One of the challenges this crime presents is exactly what, if anything, Facebook could have done to prevent the live stream from being broadcast. While the crime itself was bad enough, having the unmitigated gall to stream such an act is beyond deplorable. Fears are that the ease of streaming events is such that other ego-driven criminals might commit even worse acts for everyone to see. Unless Facebook and other streaming providers can get a lock on this issue, they could be facing civil suits for providing the platform.
As if women’s and transgender rights hadn’t come under enough fire in 2016, 2017 is shaping up to be an even larger battle. There’s more here than I have time to discuss so please click the numbered links to check our references. For starters, a federal district judge ruled the doctors may turn away women who have had abortions and transgender patients based on the doctor’s religious freedom rights8. How is this even possible? Thank that idiotic Burwell v. Hobby Lobby ruling in 2014 that sets such a precedent.
At the same time Texas Republicans, apparently unable to learn from the experience of North Carolina, have introduced a bill that requires people to use the restroom and locker room defined by the gender on their birth certificate and bans cities from passing ordinances contrary to that law9. Now, sports is a really big money maker in the Lone Star state and we don’t want to even get started on all the music festivals and events such as SXSW that occur in Austin. Threats of boycotts are already being voiced. North Carolina has lost millions in revenue. Are Texans any smarter?
Then, to top it all off, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan once again has vowed to strip Planned Parenthood of all federal funding as the new Republican-dominated Congress attempts to re-write healthcare laws10. This is not a new fight and Republicans tried repeatedly last year to do the same thing. The challenge facing them this year is that any attempt to defund the non-profit that provides healthcare for millions of women might result in the entire re-write of the Affordable Care Act being scuttled. Speaker Ryan best watch his step.
It is no secret that thousands of Sikh and Muslim recruits have been turned away from serving in the US military because of the strict rules regarding uniform appearance. That, however, is changing. Army Secretary Eric Fanning signed a memorandum that would allow Sikh and Muslim recruits to dress and groom themselves in a manner appropriate to their religious beliefs11. The new rules not only affect men serving in the Army, but also allow for women to wear hijabs provided they are free of any religious markings or decorations.
To be able to take advantage of the new ruling, those currently serving in the Army would need to apply for a religious accommodation. Once approved, the accommodation would follow them throughout their career and would not be allowed to influence job duties or duty locations except in specific highly-sensitive circumstances. The women’s hair code was also modified in the memorandum to allow for braids, cornrows, twists or locks.
What effect this might have on the Army rank and file remains to be seen. One of the issues drilled into recruits during basic training is that they are no longer an individual but part of a group and that they must put the needs and safety of the group ahead of their own. Having different grooming and appearance rules for some that do not apply to others would seem to be a visual violation of that general rule. Still, religious liberty advocates are excited about the change and the opportunity it provides.
New parents have been warned for the past 30 years that they need to be careful when introducing their child to potential allergens such as peanuts. Conventional wisdom has been to wait until a child is at least two years old before introducing them to peanuts. All that changed yesterday, however, when the National Institutes of Health issued a new ruling stating that introducing those foods as early as six months could help prevent those very allergies12.
Ground-breaking research has found that early exposure to such foods is much more likely to help infants rather than hurt them as has been previously thought. This is an extremely serious matter as peanut allergies specifically is a growing problem affecting roughly two percent of children born in the United States. Pediatricians are now advising that if a family member has an existing peanut allergy then that is all the more reason to start feeding them to the infant early.
No, this does not mean you can just toss a bag of peanuts at your little one for a snack. Common sense is appropriate here. Smooth peanut butter is likely to be the best form of introduction, and that should be mixed with things such as oatmeal. The guidelines also recommend that the child have experience with other solid foods before introducing those with peanuts. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, consult your family pediatrician.
Once again, we are out of time for today. Since we’ve started writing this morning, breaking news says that Russia is pulling its military out of Syria, so we’ll be watching that along with a number of other things. The latest wage report is due today as well, so we’ll be looking at that. In the mean time, bundle up, stay safe, and join us tomorrow. It’s Friday. Enjoy.
04:28:30 01/03/2017
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Hey there! It’s Tuesday, January 3, and I wish I could say that we had five uplifting pieces of information for you this morning. We don’t. That’s why we’re putting pretty pictures, or at least entertaining ones, with today’s 5 Things You Should Know. You need a bit of beauty and laughter if you’re going to get through this day. Already, 4 have died in tornadoes in Alabama overnight1. Much of the South and Midwest is looking at more rain today and Northern Plains states are getting snow.
We don’t have enough room for everything worthy of conversation this morning. We’re skipping over the bombings in Baghdad that claimed several lives2 and the prison riots in Brazil that have killed approximately 60 people there3. As important as those matters are, events overnight force us to take a look at domestic situations instead. We expect this to become normal, unfortunately. As Congress and the incoming President try to sneak things past us, our 5 Things You Should Know becomes that much more critical.
I think we all can agree that ethics are kind of a big thing in the world of politics. Corruption is a problem and simple things such as not revealing a financial interest in a new law can have serious consequences. Even as I’m writing this, Israeli police are asking some serious questions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about accepting gifts from business people with interests in how he governs4. We take these matters seriously. That’s why, when House Republicans wait until the middle of the night to completely gut the Office of Congressional Ethics5, it’s kind of a big fucking deal.
The new rules, which are scheduled to be voted on by the full House this afternoon, change the name to the Office of Congressional Complaint Review, a body under the misnamed and mismanaged House Ethics Committee, which has proven to have absolutely no teeth and little motivation to actually hold the members of the House accountable for their actions. The Office of Congressional Ethics was non-partisan. The House Ethics Committee is not. Therefore, the opportunity to “punish” the minority party while ignoring complaints regarding the majority was just swung wide open.
Even House leadership, including Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) were against the change and the vote shows just how little control they have over their members. What Republicans are telling us with this first move of the new Congress is that they can’t be trusted. There is no intention to play fairly or follow the rules of good governance. They don’t want ethical oversight because they, like unruly children, don’t want any form of discipline for their misdeeds. This is how a country begins to fall.
Speaking of discipline, the Vatican released a letter yesterday that was sent to Catholic bishops around the world last week, telling them that there would be zero tolerance for any instance of sexual abuse among the clergy6. This comes as critics of the church and victims advocacy groups complain about the slow pace of change within the Vatican and the lack of official policy changes that would hold bishops accountable for the priests under them.
In the letter, Pope Francis tells the bishops, “I would like us to renew our complete commitment to ensuring that these atrocities will no longer take place in our midst. Let us find the courage needed to take all necessary measures and to protect in every way the lives of our children, so that such crimes may never be repeated.” The letter is the Pope’s most comprehensive statement on the issue yet, but still falls short of enacting any real policy change.
The public release of the letter comes as the Diocese of Springfield revealed yesterday that the first bishop indicted in the US for a sexual-abuse claim has died7. Former Bishop Thomas Dupre died Friday at an undisclosed location. Dupre was defrocked by the Vatican in 2006 after being indicted on sexual abuse charges in 2004. That case was dropped because prosecutors determined the statute of limitations had expired, but the former Bishop was later indicted on other charges as well. The ongoing issue of abuse within the church remains one of its most public problems.
Let’s shift our attention now to Puerto Rico, the United States’ most overlooked territory. At the ceremony swearing in its new Governor, 37-year-old Ricardo Rossello, the push was made once again for the struggling island to be made a full state8. Puerto Rico became a Territory following the Spanish-American War in 1898, and its residents became US citizens in 1917. It has been a US Commonwealth since 1952. However, its persistent requests to become a full state with full representation in Congress has been repeatedly denied.
Gov. Rossello said in his address yesterday, “The United States cannot pretend to be a model of democracy for the world while it discriminates against 3.5 million of its citizens in Puerto Rico, depriving them of their right to political, social and economic equality under the U.S. flag. There is no way to overcome Puerto Rico’s crisis given its colonial condition.”
What stands in the way between Puerto Rico and statehood, though, is its $70 billion in debt which the US would assume should Puerto Rico become a state. The severe financial crisis of the country has already caused some 200,000 Puerto Ricans to leave the country and move to the mainland, according to the Governor. Still, Rossello plans to have the country elect two Senators and five Representatives in their push for statehood. Unfortunately, no one expects him to receive a warm welcome from the Republican-controlled Congress or the incoming administration.
There have been numerous times in our country’s history where it seemed impossible for women to get ahead. Even more challenging has been the advancement of women from many different religious and ethnic groups. Starting today, though, at least one person can claim a victory for women as Rachel Freier becomes the first Hassidic Jew to become a publicly elected judge9. The married mother of six won a three-way Democratic primary and the general election in a swath of Brooklyn that includes the heavily Hasidic Borough Park neighborhood.
At her swearing-in last month, Freier said, “My commitment to the public and my commitment to my religion and my community — the two can go hand in hand. This is a dream. This is the American Dream.” Hasids represent an extremely small portion of the total Jewish population in America, something slightly less than six percent. They are known for being ultra-Orthodox in their belief system, often separating women from men in public. Mrs. Freier’s ascent to the bench is seen as a victory not just for women, but particularly for Hasidic women who struggle to find a public identity within their religion.
Mrs. Freier already has a bit of a reputation for bucking the system. When she attempted to join an all-male volunteer ambulance corps, aiming to aid fellow women during childbirth or gynecological emergencies, she was turned away. Her response? She helped women launch their own volunteer service and joined it herself. In fact, she was taking her turn on call this past weekend. We wish her well and hope her example encourages others.
We’ve all known people who just can’t seem to resist dressing up their pets, especially during the winter. Personally, I’m not one of them. In fact, I’m pretty sure our brood would not respond positively to any attempt at putting clothes on them. However, three members of a Florida family had to be hospitalized after attempting to dress their dog, a pit bull mix named Scarface10.
First off, we need to be very clear that the dog’s reaction has nothing to do with its breed. The manner in which the dog was approached and its fear of being confined were what prompted its violent reaction. From that point forward, the dog was simply trying to defend itself, especially after one of the sons in the family tried stabbing the dog in the neck. This dog absolutely, positively did not want to be wearing clothes for any reason.
Naturally, animal control was called in an attempt to subdue the now-agitated dog. A tranquilizer dart had absolutely no effect and officers used a bean bag gun and eventually a stun gun to gain control of the dog. There is no word as to the current condition of the dog or its owners. However, this should probably be a lesson to everyone who thinks that dressing their dog, especially a large breed, is cute. It’s not. They don’t like it. Don’t do it.
That’s all we have space and time for at the moment. Be sure that we’re staying on top of changing developments and will do our best to sort through all the mess to find the things you should know. We would love it if you would consider sponsoring our efforts here, subscribe so that you don’t miss anything, and share so that we can grow. As always, be careful out there and we’ll all be back tomorrow.
For the past 365 days we have suffered through a hellacious year. 2016 hasn’t been fun. 2016 hasn’t given the world a reason to cheer. 2016 has sucked from one end to the other. Period. Every morning I come in, look at the headlines, and immediately want to go back to bed, hoping it’s all a dream. A nightmare. I’m ready to wake up anytime, but that doesn’t seem to be happening. We’re stuck with this stupid year.
Is this the worst year ever? Well, no, not if one counts all the hundreds of years where some sort of plague was running rampant, or the dark ages, or pretty much any year prior to 1790 when the Industrial Revolution finally got around to making our lives just a little bit better. This wasn’t any 1929, either. The vast majority of us have jobs and some of them even pay a decent living wage, or come close. We don’t have the spending power we once did, but we’re still finding ways to keep a roof over our heads and those of us in the US are still putting way too much food in our bellies. So, you have that if you really want to embrace it.
Still, just because all of history pretty much sucked before our great-great-grandparents started doing some cool shit doesn’t mean that this wasn’t a bad year. This was a bad year and I don’t mind taking a few minutes out of my day to make sure you understand just exactly why this was a bad year. This year is a warning. We can turn ourselves around now, or things can get worse in 2017. And 2018. And the foreseeable future. We need to learn from this year before it’s 1837 all over again. Trust me, you don’t want to mess with 1837. The only thing good about 1837 was Worcestershire sauce.
So, here, in no particular order, are ten damn good reasons that 2016 sucked. You are free to disagree, but if you do we’re locking you away where you can’t hurt intelligent people.
The Rio Olympics
Talk about a cluster fuck. Even before the games started we knew this was going to be a bad one. Venues were incomplete. The water where athletes were supposed to swim was littered with trash. Corruption was rampant at every conceivable level of the games, including within the IOC itself. Russian athletes were prevented from participating because of a doping scandal and a number of athletes refused to participate because of the threat of the Zika virus. Then, just to give the games a WTF label, there was Ryan Lochte pretending to get robbed when he was the one being a punk. The world would be better off had these games never happened.
The Refugee Crisis
21 million people. Stop and think about that for a moment. TWENTY-ONE MILLION PEOPLE. That’s how many refugees have left war-torn countries across Europe and Africa looking for a place where they could live peacefully without someone trying to blow their heads off just for existing. They flooded into Europe for the most part, creating crisis there because not only was there an incredible strain on already strained resources, but because terrorists hid in their midst, causing many people to not want to help people with extreme and genuine need. This was a humanitarian crisis unlike anything we’ve seen in the past 60 years and for the most part, the majority of us sat on our fucking hands.
Syria
Far too many of those refugees came from Syria, where the government military of President Assad battled with a number of different rebel groups for control of the country. The entire country has been devastated by the war, but the worst atrocities came in the city of Aleppo, what had once been Syria’s largest city. The world watched in horror as the entire city was reduced to nothing but rubble. An untold number of civilians, especially children, were killed by barrel bombs employed by government forces. There was no relief until the city was completely empty, a mere shell of its former self. Making this tragedy worse was the failure of the US and its allies to successfully intervene. Blame bad policy and an unreasonable fear of pissing off other stupid little Middle Eastern dictators.
Venezuelan Food Shortages
Americans have really enjoyed lower gas prices this year, but the low price of oil has a human toll. As oil prices sunk, the country of Venezuela went further and further into crisis. By May, there were long lines for food, assuming you could find a store that actually had anything edible in stock. By the end of summer, most food was gone and even staples such as bread and dairy products were nearly impossible to find. As the country’s economy collapsed, creating corruption involving bank notes, the government made a bad situation worse by changing currency in November, making old money worthless. A warehouse full of 4 million toys was found in early December, but it’s still hard to have a happy Christmas when you don’t even have enough food to make a sandwich.
Brexit
For all the really incredible displays of stupidity, voters in the UK set an early score to beat when they voted to leave the European Union. Political analysts around the world were stunned. While the topic had been a matter of discussion for over a year, no one in their right mind thought the numbskulls would actually vote to separate themselves from the EU. Not that it’s actually happened yet. Politicians there have spent the rest of the year trying to decide whether a full separation is actually possible (they’re still unsure) and if so, how to actually make it happen without creating a full-scale economic disaster. Most people thought that this would be the biggest political disaster of the year. Unfortunately, the US took it as a challenge.
A country without drinking water
The water crisis in Flint, Michigan actually began in late 2015, but it came to a head in early 2016 with the city being declared one giant fucking disaster area in January. Both state and federal politicians then proceeded to spend most of the rest of the year arguing about who to blame. Here we are at the end of the year and there are still large populations within Flint that, at the very least, have to boil their water. Many are still having to use bottled water. Several politicians, including the mayor of Flint and the governor of Michigan, have been indicted for corruption, but the people most directly affected are still suffering. Worse yet, the problems are spreading as the national infrastructure of lead water pipes is crumbling.
Standing Rock standoff
Oil. Our dependency on fossil fuels has become a national disgrace, one which spineless politicians refuse to address because of the number of jobs associated with the inefficient and quickly depleting fuel system. Since we can’t produce enough oil to cover domestic requirements, we have to bring it in through any means available, including pipelines. Pipelines that leak. They always have. They habitually create environmental problems everywhere they are laid.
So, when yet another greedy oil company wanted to run a stretch of pipeline across an area that would have contaminated the water supply for native tribes living there, they said, “Hell, no.” As word spread of the tribe’s protest, others joined the cause. The protests were peaceful, but police still decided they needed to fight back with attack dogs and water canons. For now, the matter is calm as the Corp of Engineers refused the pipeline company’s request for easement. However, there is tremendous fear that the oil companies will try again once the new president is installed.
Pulse Nightclub shooting
We have wrestled long and hard with tremendous amounts of hate across this country both toward people of color and people of varying gender identities. There have been random acts of violence scattered all across the country this year, but none were so horrific as the events at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando on the night of June 12. That was the night Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old security guard, killed 49 people and wounded 53 others. The particular details of what motivated him and whether he pledged allegiance to some terrorist group are irrelevant at this juncture. Hate was at the root of the problem, as it has been at every other racial and/or gender-identity-motivated crime in the country.
This one makes me particularly nervous because it inevitably carries over into the new year. One of the worst anti-LGBT politicians in the country is now Vice President and he markets in hate as though it were a valuable commodity. Already there are those trying to sweep the tragedy of the Pulse Nightclub under the rugs. This is a stain not only on the year, but all of the US.
Anti-Intellectualism
We did a fantastic job of showing the world our stupid side this year. Anti-intellectualism has always been present in the undercurrent of American society. This year, however, it came to the surface and repeatedly inserted itself into public discourse with statements so astonishingly stupid that the rest of us could only shake our head and wonder how much Flint, Michigan water they were drinking. Just how bad did it get? Consider some of these quotes from this disgraceful year:
Mind you, that is just a small collection from people who’ve made the most media noise over the past year. There are MILLIONS of other quotes from equally ignorant people all over the world. I mean, stop and think about it, A full-scale replica of Noah’s Ark opened in June in order to further the mythology known as “creation science,” which actually contains little valid science at all! When it comes to matters of science and advances in intelligence, 2016 may have actually seen us move backward, that’s just how bad it’s been.
The Presidential election
Oh. my. god. No, this one is so horrible I’m not even going there. Scratch this one out. If I try writing anything about this piece of insanity I’m going to throw up and miss the New Year’s Eve party.
Deaths of Notable Persons
No, contrary to popular belief, there have not been more deaths of celebrities this year than any other year. In fact, if one is looking purely at numbers, then this year was a little below average in a few categories. However, that approach is assuming that all lives are equal. Uhm, no. If I die before midnight (which I’m definitely not planning on doing), I wouldn’t make anyone’s list. In fact, I might not even make the obituary in the Indianapolis Star. However, the deaths of people we really care about, people whose contributions to our lives, people whose work directly affected who we are and shaped are personalities, is what has made this a horrible, horrible year unlike any that we remember.
Look beyond just the number of bodies. David Bowie alone is worth at least a thousand mere mortal souls. Merle Haggard? C’mon, you just can’t rank the Okie from Muskogee with all those commoners. And then, there’s Prince. Seriously, he’s a three-hour “In Memoriam” reel all on his own. The numbers themselves are irrelevant. What matters is that we lost people of note with whom we felt as though we had a connection, and we lost them one after another after another after another after another. There was no break. What started as a shock in January just kept causing us pain right up until this very last week. Everything else this year could have been sunshine and daisies and the people we lost would still leave us feeling as though we’d had our hearts collectively ripped out and stomped upon.
NOW do you understand why this year sucked so horribly? And we didn’t even get into things like automobile recalls, stupid stalking clowns, phones blowing up, Russia hacking the election, or anything else that might have been a really big story most any other year. Nope, 2016 sucked bilge water.
So, please understand if our celebration tonight is rather muted. We’re not just saying goodbye to 2016, we’re shooting it in the head and burying that fucker 30-feet deep and covering it with rebar and concrete to make sure it doesn’t rear its ugly head ever again. And we’re going to make the baby 2017 sit there and watch so it will know what happens to a year that fucks up. Little squirt better get these next twelve months right.
There are plenty of things we could make lists about, and probably will over the next couple of weeks. One of the big ones, though, is the list of things we really don’t want to see in the next year. With everything we’ve been through this year, there’s not much we really want to carry over. In fact, we’re rather selective about anything new that might be coming along. We’re concerned about what might happen over the next 12 months.
The thing about the future, of course, is that it is what we make of it. No one has a lock on what might or might not happen. We can make the next year better if we put forth the effort.
Of course, I’m not sure I have any faith in people putting forth the effort. We don’t exactly have the best track record given the way we’ve behaved over the past 12 months. So, here’s our list of things that absolutely, positively, unquestionably, should not happen in 2017. And if any of them do happen, we’re going to publicly shame whoever is responsible.
10. Awkwardly flavored soda. Actually, we don’t need any new soda at all, but I’m sure someone at Coca-Cola or Pepsi will convince executives that they have a can’t miss proposition that scored really well with a test group that has never actually had soda before. The problem with new sodas now is that, having already explored most of the flavors that occur naturally, all that’s left are the mashups one gets by standing at the soda fountain mixing different flavors together in uncertain quantities. While popular among 14-year-old males, these strange mixes are really just bad ideas with mediocre marketing. No more.
9. Cookie mashups. What are we, two-year-olds trapped in a high chair? I swear, half the new snacks we’ve seen this year have to be the products of parents who were trapped at home with their toddler on a rainy Saturday. Oreos with Doritos? No thank you. Honey-dipped cheese sauce? Please, there’s a reason the kid didn’t actually eat that combination. What’s worse is that these new snack combinations are doomed to some of the worst marketing ideas we’ve ever seen. Honestly, Hershey’s, the Snack Patrol? Someone’s been watching too many late-night reruns. Try keeping things simple this next year.
8. Book sequels not written by the original author. I don’t envy book editors whose job it is to publish material that is going to be profitable before it is actually released. The number of great authors is limited and, for better or worse, a number of those who might have penned blockbuster novels are choosing to self-publish instead. There are a number of classic novels that, at least on some level, seem to demand a sequel that the original author never wrote. Once a writer is deceased, however, there are fewer ethical problems with hiring someone else to write the sequel for them. There’s just one problem with that: the sequels stink. In fact, quite often they stink when written by original authors. Let’s just limit the sequels not part of the original literary plan, okay?
7. New social media sites. Nope, don’t need ’em. I don’t care how wonderful the idea seems. Social media has picked its dominant tools. Only Twitter has any chance of being replaced by a newcomer, and that’s only if it captures the fancy of the Great Orange President. New social media applications are dangerous. We sign up for them, find them to be the most boring things ever, and then promptly forget that we signed up for them, leaving the information in our half-finished profiles open to hackers. Making a bad situation worse is the fact that the hacks are so insignificant that they never get reported. As a result, we don’t know that our information has been hacked. So, let’s try going 12 months without signing up for anything new, okay? Give it a try.
6. New photography/art sites. Photographers and artists are so desperate to sell anything to anyone that they’ll jump on every new site that comes along without bothering to think whether there’s really any chance of one site working any better than another. There’s not. People don’t buy art online in significant enough volume for any site to actually boast any success. Of course, part of that could be due to the fact that the creative work being put on these sites isn’t commercially viable in the first place. Still, we really don’t need any more creative sites that do nothing more than waste our time with empty promises.
5. New terrorist organizations. Sorry, we have too many terrorist groups to keep track of already. I don’t give a fuck how niche your religious beliefs might be or how passionate one might be in their zealotry. Just stay home, keep your fucking opinions to yourself, and put up that bomb-making kit before someone gets hurt. Terrorists need to learn that we’re not going to give in because of violence and they’re not going to win any favor by trying to kill everyone on the planet who doesn’t agree with them. We’re tired of this shit. If you’re thinking of starting a new terrorist organization, just go fuck yourself and call it a day.
4. Attacks on civil rights. One of the most disgusting aspects of 2016 has been the severity with which civil rights have been attacked. This nonsense needs to stop right now and shouldn’t be carried over into the next year. If you’re a member of the KKK or any other white supremacy group then feel free to kill yourself. We promise to not mourn your passing. Hate is a blight on this world and you’re doing nothing but making the planet a less tolerable place to live. And don’t give me that shit about those who dislike hate groups being intolerable. Hate is a choice we can no longer accept. If you choose to hate, you need to not be present in the next year.
3. New reality programming. Reality TV has been nothing but disastrous, culminating this year in the election of a reality personality as president. Given that each new reality program inherently tries to do something more absurd than the shows before it, we simply cannot risk anything new over the next year. We aren’t likely to survive anything more ridiculous and dangerous than the Trump administration. This has to stop here. Please. For the sake of all humanity.
2. Celebrating people who have done nothing of value. This goes hand-in-hand with the reality programming, and for the same reason. Our national obsession with making celebrities of people simply because they’re rich has to stop. We don’t need any more Hadids or Jenners or Trumps. This stupid and nonsensical obsession damn-near destroyed democracy this past year and has placed us on the brink of complete destruction. It is time we started celebrating people who actually help society, people who know what it means to actually work rather than just bossing people around and firing them for stupid reasons. Leave this bad habit right here. No more.
1. Ignorance. Come on, we’re entering 2017. We have access to every bit of wisdom ever recorded and we can get that information at any time on our phones. So, why are we, collectively, so fucking stupid? We need to leave the stupidity behind and make a concerted effort to become a more intelligent and better-informed society over the next year. By doing so, we will inherently eliminate many of the problems that have cause 2016 to be such an incredibly horrible and distasteful year. We also would be taking a giant step toward ensuring that our species won’t be exterminated in the next hundred years or so. If we are going to survive, we have to put ignorance and all the problems it creates right here in 2016. There is no place for it in the future.
12/20/2016 05:26:21
Whew! You made it! You’re one of the lucky ones. Temperatures are even warming up a bit today. We have a balmy 14 degrees here in Indianapolis and the forecast calls for continued warming through the weekend. This is not going to be a white Christmas or Hanukkah for most of the Midwest. Wet, perhaps, but no new snow covering the ground.
I wish I knew where to even begin this morning. Yes, the Electoral College did the deed and elected Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States. China gave the US Navy its drone ship back, and stocks are looking a bit nervous this morning. Yesterday will be remembered, though, as a day of incredible violence, none of which was justified in any way. Of the five things you should know for today, the first three should never have happened.
Berlin, Germany really gets into Christmas. Its open-air holiday markets are a tradition that spans generations. Millions of people from around the world flock to the city during the month of December to shop the artisan crafts and old-world goods that can only be found in this one place. One finds happiness in Berlin this time of year, so it’s not surprising that when a truck plowed into the holiday market there yesterday, the initial reaction was that it must have been a drowsy driver. It wasn’t.
This morning, police in Berlin are saying that the act was intentional and that they are treating the incident as a terror attack1. Twelve people are now dead as a result of the attack. One of those appears to be the original Polish driver of the truck who was found in the cab. The truck was apparently hijacked earlier by a man German media is claiming to be a Pakistani national. We’re waiting for a press conference later today to confirm that information.
Berlin markets are closed as both the investigation and mourning continues. The archbishop of Berlin held prayers for the victims at noon today.
One of the most frightening things about terrorism is that it attacks us in the most unsuspecting of places. When Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, was invited to speak at the opening of an exhibition of photographs from Russia’s westernmost Baltic region, I’m sure it seemed like another mindless affair of state; the sort of things ambassadors do on a regular basis. He’d read a short speech, shake a few hands, say nice things about the photographs, and be gone.
That’s not what happened. Associated Press photographer Burhan Ozbilici was attending a photo exhibition simply because it was on his way home2. He describes the scene as quiet, the ambassador, “was speaking softly and… lovingly about his homeland.” That silence was soon shattered, though, as a police officer fired several shots killing the ambassador. He then menacingly continued yelling, in Arabic, smashing some of the photos on the wall. He would later be killed in a shootout with police.
Tensions between Russia and Turkey have been high over Russia’s support of the Assad regime in Syria, especially in regard to the humanitarian tragedy in Aleppo. Many of the Syrian refugees have fled to Turkey for safety. In a separate attack, a Turkish man is being detained after firing a shotgun outside the US embassy in Ankara3. No one was injured in that incident, but tensions still remain very high even as both Russian and Turkish officials pledge to work together in resolving their differences.
Even Switzerland, which we normally think of as being peace-loving, quiet, and accepting, was marred by violence late yesterday as a gunman opened fire in a Geneva mosque frequented by Somali Muslims4. Three men were injured, though, thankfully, none of the injuries appear to be life-threatening. A regular worshipper at the mosque said this was the first time they had any problems at the center and that normally no one bothered them.
Even in Switzerland, though, where two-third of the population identifies as Christian, relationships with the Muslim community there, many of which are immigrants from the former Yugoslavia, is tentative. Back in 2009, a constitutional referendum banned new minarets in the entire country.
The body of the gunman was found later on a street nearby, but police in Geneva are being quiet about the shooting, hoping to prevent the panic that often accompanies terroristic incidents such as this. Still, for a shooting to happen in as place like this, where there was no hint of any discord, gives the entire international Muslim community reason to be on guard, especially during this holiday season.
The state of North Carolina seems to have difficulty keeping itself out of the news. After passing bills last week limiting the executive powers of the incoming Governor, it appears that same state legislature may be ready to repeal the controversial HB2, dubbed the “bathroom bill,” that required transgendered persons to use the restroom facility matching the gender identity on their birth certificate5.
How this all went down is a bit complicated. The whole thing started when the city of Charlotte passed an anti-discrimination bill that guaranteed transgender people the right to use whichever restroom they wanted. That bill motived the state legislature to pass HB2 specifically to stop the Charlotte law. The law proved to be bad for the state, though, costing it several high-profile events and thousands of jobs. So, a deal was made over the weekend. If Charlotte would repeal their law, the state legislature would repeal theirs. The Charlotte City Council took the necessary action yesterday and the state legislature is being called into emergency session specifically to repeal HB2.
Is this really a victory, though? While the elimination of HB2 is a good thing, the deal leaves transgendered people without any legal protection. This sort of “don’t-ask-don’t-tell” approach isn’t likely to work for long. Without specific anti-discrimination laws in place, transgender people are still too easy a target.
“You are free to go,” are words being said at federal prisons all across the US as President Obama set a new record yesterday for the most individual clemencies issued in one day by any president. The president pardoned 78 people and shortened the sentence of 153 others convicted of federal crimes6. And this is while the man is on vacation with his family, mind you.
Issuing pardons is a fairly common activity among lame-duck presidents during their final days in office. Every sitting president has done the same thing, but President Obama has been much more proactive about the matter. All total, he has pardoned 148 people during his presidency and has shortened the sentences of 1,176 people. He has been very vocal about the need for prison reform, even though his administration was never able to get much legislative traction on the issue.
What many people are waiting to see is whether the president takes any action regarding Leonard Peltier. Peltier is the native tribesman and leader of the American Indian Movement who was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences for the murder of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1975. From the very beginning of that incident, many have believed that Peltier was a scapegoat and not the person actually responsible for the shootings. Amnesty International still lists this as an unfair trial7 and it has been the subject of intense controversy. While native tribes civil rights groups have been lobbying heavily for Peltier’s pardon, however, it seems more likely that President Obama might shorten the sentence to match the time already served. This would allow Peltier to be released but would not remove the conviction.
We are so very out of time this morning. Let’s hope that Tuesday goes much smoother than our Monday did. I have holiday treats to bake. Bundle up and stay safe. Subscribe to our freakin’ post already! Share our articles so we can grow, please. May your Tuesday not be terrible. We’ll see you tomorrow.
There is so much going on in the world today that makes it almost seem wrong to feel happy or even smile. There’s the election results, the possibility of a Russian intrusion into our system, the upside down, nonsensical manner in which cabinet members are being selected, the whining and the crying over Facebook’s take on fake news, and just an incredible amount of stupidity on the part of far too many people.
This has been a rough year, no doubt about it. As a result, I think there’s plenty of room to be a bit snarky about the holidays. If one has any Grinch tendencies, now’s the time to let them all out, get them aired and out of the way and then everyone can go on with their lives. Maybe if we let the snark out a bit, we might actually feel a little better because one of the less joyous emotions about this time of year is everyone is so freakin’ busy with their shopping and gift wrapping that they don’t actually listen to why you’re saying unless you stomp your feet and shout a little bit.
So, we’re going to go full snark for a little bit and just air some of our grievances about the whole holiday season. I’m putting on my green Grinch suit and hooking the little lost dog up to a sled with the demand he pulls me to the nearest Chinese buffet. It’s time we cleared the air about a few things.
Why the fuck is everyone taking a full two-week vacation this year? Late night talk show hosts are wishing everyone a Merry Christmas tonight and won’t be back until January 2 or 3. Most network series have already gone on hiatus for the month unless their ratings need the boost from being the only fresh thing still on television. Companies were all having their holiday parties this week so that no one would be left out. There are even some smaller shops in the local area who posted notices they’ll be closed starting the 19th. What the fuck? Since when did everyone get a two-week break?
Of course, this goes along with the typically inconvenient break kids get from school. Back when I was a kid and we walked across mountains that no longer exist, we didn’t get out for winter break until the 22nd or 23rd of December, depending on what day of the week Christmas actually hit. We were still back on January 2, too. School didn’t let out for just any willy-nilly reason because our parents worked, dammit. They didn’t have time to stay home and take care of our rambunctious asses. That’s probably a good thing, too, because I’m pretty sure that if they had we’d have gone back to school missing a few classmates. Our parents took capital punishment seriously.
The last two weeks of the year are always lousy if you want to actually get anything done at work, too. I remember when I was still considered a rookie and was too poor to take any time off work. Trying to get anything done was impossible. Half the people necessary to sign off on anything were gone until the first of the year. We’d have our weekly department meeting and only three out of 27 of us would be there. And good luck trying to find a model this time of year. The agencies would just laugh when we called. I don’t see how companies don’t go bankrupt with no one getting any actual work done.
I would still like to know who the fuck thought it would be a good idea to put the biggest holiday of the year right smack in the middle of the most inhospitable and contrary weather we have. My guess is it was someone down under where they’re having a nice, cozy summer right about now because a holiday in December makes absolutely no freakin’ sense in the Northern hemisphere. I mean, have you looked outside recently? If you live in the Northern United States, all you see is white and cold. Folks in the state of Maine are looking at temperatures this weekend that could reach -40°! No one wants to get out and go shopping in that kind of weather, and I don’t care how much they’re getting paid, the guys at UPS don’t want to be out there delivering your online orders, either. Having a major holiday that involves traveling and being outside for any reason in the middle of winter is just fucking stupid.
Besides, everyone knows Jesus wasn’t born on December 25. Let’s just stop perpetuating that stupid little myth.
Which brings us to another major annoyance I happen to have. People get all upset about the “war on Christmas” when Christmas is actually a war on Solstice celebrations. Facts are facts, folks, and there are more than enough documents to support me in this. Early Christians flat out stole the Christmas tree, putting candles or lights on said tree, the concept of gift giving, wrapping paper, and even that whole story about some fat guy in a red suit. Every last one of those ideas was stolen from pagans. There’s absolutely nothing genuinely Christian about Christmas, so stop getting so fucking upset if someone says “Happy Holidays” or if the decorations on your coffee cup aren’t too your liking. There is no fucking war on Christmas. The war is in Syria and they don’t have time for Christmas because all the children are dead now, thank you.
Don’t think you’re any better with Islamic or Jewish traditions either. Our Jewish friends are all about celebrating Hanukkah for eight days. They’ve made a party around some slow-burning oil in the middle of a relatively minor skirmish in the middle of a war they actually lost. Yeah, that really sounds like something to celebrate. Meanwhile, Muslims celebrate the birthday of their prophet on Monday, the 19th, assuming they’re paying attention. You see, they use some strange system where the prophet’s birthday never falls on the same day each year. Last year, it was back in the middle of summer, which makes a helluva lot more sense anyway. And they can’t say his name nor depict his likeness without getting into trouble, which makes greeting cards and singing Happy Birthday a little more than awkward.
Have I insulted enough people yet? No? Okay, I’ll continue.
I’m not so sure but maybe it’s time to revise the whole Santa Claus story. After all, for far too many people in America, the very concept of a fat white guy entering their house in the middle of the night is not a good omen. Shit’s going to go down and it’s not going to be pretty, elves or not. Maybe if Santa took the form of your kind but lonely uncle who never married and spends most of the holidays quietly drinking eggnog in the corner. I mean, we want him to be a kind and familiar figure, but we don’t want to really get all that close to him.
And what the fuck is up with setting children on his lap? Are we trying to encourage pedophilia or what? Stick with the letter writing. More kids need to learn to write letters, anyway. In today’s digital world, there are far too many kids who have absolutely no freakin’ clue what a stamp and envelope even is. Hell, they see a mail carrier and think they’re just a Fed Ex person who lost their truck. Now that I think about it, why don’t we make Santa Claus more like mail carriers: a nice, friendly, gender-neutral person who delivers packages and maces your dog. That sounds entirely workable to me. The damn dog needs to learn to stop charging the fence.
We need to stop encouraging kids to be so damn greedy, too. Why? Because look what they grow into: people like you and me. People who think the world owes them something just for being nice. You know damn good and well that’s a pile of bullshit. The world doesn’t owe anyone anything, and you’re certainly not going to get presents from someone who doesn’t know you.
Besides, the kids aren’t that good anyway. Have you seen kids today? They talk back to their parents as though they had some right to open their damn little mouths. Kids start bullying each other and calling each other names all the way down in preschool. Why are we rewarding that kind of behavior? Maybe if we actually gave more kids lumps of coal and then made them burn it to keep warm they might appreciate just how nice they have it, living in a structure with a solid roof and someone putting clean clothes on their little bodies every morning.
One last thing: Why is no one capable of writing a decent holiday song anymore? I keep hearing these new Christmas songs and every one of them is a complete piece of crap that no one wants to remember two minutes after it’s over. All the good holiday songs are older than I am: White Christmas, Chestnuts roasting o’er an open fire (The Christmas song), Rudolph, Winter Wonderland, Sleigh Ride, and even the ultra-creep Baby, It’s Cold Outside. All of those songs are at least half a century old and we’re getting rather tired of hearing them. Yet, no one seems to be capable of writing a decent holiday song. Grammy awards be damned, if no one remembers your song 12 months later, it was a piece of shit.
Let’s get real: our parents coddled us too much and we grew up into a big bunch of selfish, greedy bastards who deny science and think that electing an utter moron as president is a good idea. That’s right, Trump became president all because our parents were too soft on us during the holidays. This whole freakin’ year is your fault and no one deserves to get a damn thing in their stockings except holes.
There, I think that’s everything. Well, the big things, at least. I’m done snarking up the holidays. Feel free to let me know if I missed anything, though. We still have a couple of days before the first holiday hits. I’d hate to think I missed insulting someone. Everyone benefits from a snowball upside the head occasionally.
Happy fucking holidays.
Good morning! It is a brisk 21° this morning in Indianapolis. Many of us woke up to a dusting or a little more of snow covering the roads. Today’s forecast calls for a little more snow converting to ice and eventually rain before the day is over. The ice is what you’ll want to watch. While no significant accumulation is expected, we all know that any ice at all can make surfaces dangerous, so be especially careful before noon today.
Being the weekend, the world is a little quieter, which is a nice thing. We did manage to find five things we think you should know today, so let’s take a look at those now.
Worshipers at a church in Lagos, Nigeria were trapped this morning when the steel girders holding up the recently constructed structure suddenly fell. At this point, Associated Press is reporting at least 160 are dead, but that number is likely to rise.1
Rushed construction is getting the early blame for the accident. Apparently, workers were rushing to finish the job in time for a special service there yesterday installing the church’s founder, Akan Weeks, as bishop. A crane being used to lift the steel girders out of the rubble is said to be hiding more bodies. Journalists in the area say that church leaders are attempting to prevent anyone from getting an accurate count of the dead or taking any pictures.
The Nigerian government has said there will be a full investigation. However, you should know that building collapse is common across Nigeria due to corruption with contractors and shoddy building practices. A similar collapse occurred at a church in 2014 killing 116 people. While two engineers and church leaders have been accused of wrongdoing in that collapse, the state government has not been able to bring anyone to trial.
1. Associated Press: HOSPITAL DIRECTOR: 160 DEAD IN COLLAPSED NIGERIAN CHURCH BY HILARY UGURU AND MICHELLE FAUL Dec 11, 4:43 AM EST
You’re probably not going to want to believe this, but the Ku Klux Klan has told the Associated Press that they’re not White Supremacists1. I know, crazy, right?
First off, let me just be very clear that the young woman in our picture is not a White Supremacist and does not support them in any way. We don’t have any pictures of sheet-clad idiots, though, and her posture in this image reflects the weariness we feel from having to put up with the constant babbling from the Klan and other white supremacy groups since the November election.
Of course, like most everything else the Klan and other hate groups say and do, this statement is utter nonsense. Even the Klan rulebook, published in 1915 and still used by many groups, declares them to be white supremacists dedicated to those ideals.
So, to all members of the KKK and any other neo-Nazi, white supremacists hate group, we have two words for you: fuck off. As long as you spew your hate, as long as you fail to recognize that all people have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, as long as you paint swastikas and burn crosses, as long as you hide your identities under robes that represent hate, as long as your actions lean toward violence, as long as you claim that white people are the only ones fit to govern, as long as you attempt to deny people of color and equal place and standing, as long as you divide people by religion and country of origin, we are going to call you what you are: white supremacists.
We’re going to call you something else as well: Haters. That’s what you are and no matter how hard you try to deny it, an ass doesn’t become a thoroughbred just because you put a saddle on it. We’re tired of this nonsense littering our public discourse. Sit down and shut up.
1. Associated Press: “KKK, OTHER RACIST GROUPS DISAVOW THE WHITE SUPREMACIST LABEL” BY JAY REEVES Dec 10, 4:27 PM EST
Children born in 2015 are not likely to live quite as long as those born the year before. Now, before you go getting upset, the difference is only about a month. A child in the United States has a life expectancy of about 78 years and 9½ months, on average. This is according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control this past Thursday.1 When compared to a 1950’s life expectancy of around 68 years, we’re not doing too bad.
However, this is the first single-year slip we’ve seen since 1993 when the US was in the middle of the AIDS epidemic. What is worth noting about this decline is that there is no outstanding disease or war factor that can claim responsibility. There were increases in deaths due to several of the nation’s top killers, from heart disease to chronic lower lung disease, accidental injuries, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, kidney disease and suicide.2
Who do we have to blame for this downturn? Ourselves, for the most part. While medical care among the poor and indigent remains a factor, the fact is we’re not taking care of ourselves, eating right, and exercising. I know I’m just as much to blame as anyone else. We all need to improve.
1. Center for Disease Control and Prevention: Mortality in the United States, 2015 By Jiaquan Xu, M.D., Sherry L. Murphy, B.S., Kenneth D. Kochanek, M.A., and Elizabeth Arias, Ph.D.
2. Associated Press: “US LIFE EXPECTANCY FALLS, AS MANY KINDS OF DEATH INCREASE” BY MIKE STOBBE Dec 8, 6:41 PM EST
Remember last weekend when some gun-toting conspiracy theorist walked into a Washington, D.C. pizza joint and opened fire? Well, as you might imagine, that wasn’t all too good for business. The pizza place, which has the rather strange name of Comet Ping Pong, has been struggling a bit this week since that happened. So have all the other businesses in that immediate vicinity. Even once the police finished their investigation and the tv cameras moved out, people were still a bit hesitant to satisfy their pizza craving in that part of town.
So, over 2,000 people showed up this weekend, starting on Friday, to show their support for Comet Ping Pong and other restaurants targeted by fake news stories. At one point, according to the Associated Press1, patrons had to wait an hour and a half just to get a table and 45 minutes for take out. The restaurant has also been getting help through a GoFundMe that so far has raised over $28,000.
1. Associated Press: “PATRONS USE DOUGH TO BACK PIZZA PLACE TARGETED BY FAKE NEWS” By BY JESSICA GRESKO Dec 10, 12:38 PM EST
If Kermit the Frog thought it wasn’t easy being green back in 1979, he’s really going to have problems with 2017. Pantone, those wonderful keepers of color definition, has decided that the color for 2017 is one called Greenery. According to AdWeek1, the color was chosen to help us out with the year ahead. Given some of the other prognostications I’ve seen for next year, they could be right about this one. Green is widely known to be a color that has a calming influence. Given the political and economic landscape going into 2017, I would say we need all the calming influences we can get.
Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, said in a statement: “Greenery bursts forth in 2017 to provide us with the reassurance we yearn for amid a tumultuous social and political environment. Satisfying our growing desire to rejuvenate and revitalize, Greenery symbolizes the reconnection we seek with nature, one another and a larger purpose.”
I’m not sure painting everything green is going to help that much if we see the economy turn South or find ourselves in yet another war. Still, it’s not a bad color to look at. Be thankful they didn’t choose Puce.
1. AdWeek: Pantone’s Color of the Year Is Greenery, Designed to Perk Us Up in 2017 By Kristina Monllos December 8, 2016, 4:08 PM EST
That will have to do it for today. Thank you for sharing your time with us. We look forward to seeing you back here again tomorrow.
Take a careful look at the two pictures at the top of this page. What do you think you are seeing? How do they make you feel? What do you think they communicate?
The two photographs are part of a set we shot for a now L.A.-based designer and local jewelry designer. It’s the accessories that likely get your attention in these photos. While the designer originally intended the cuffs and collars to be worn by the same person, she decided on set that it might be interesting to give each model an element, essentially linking them together. Her intention was to emphasize how we are all linked together, connected across numerous chains without realizing it. No one on set at the time objected, so we went with it.
However, once we first showed the photos back in 2012, opinions changed. While the designer’s point of view is still credible, once one superimposes their own belief system and personal history, they tend to see something different, something not very positive. Are we connected or are we enslaved? Sometimes the difference is difficult to distinguish. The set was dropped from any additional publication. This is the only place you are likely to ever see the photos.
Belief systems alter how we see the world. They influence everything from how we view art to how we view each other. Our opinions regarding what we eat, what we read, what is acceptable entertainment, and sometimes who should be allowed to even exist are all matters determined by our belief system.
A current theme running through social media is that we should neither judge nor shame people for what they believe. I disagree. We should not judge or shame people for who they are, but belief systems definitely need to be challenged, especially when those belief systems are based on inaccuracies and ignorance. Let me give you five good examples.
So, have you been paying attention to the weather lately? How ’bout those fires that consumed Gatlinburg, Tennessee and a large portion of the Smokey Mountains? Did you see that? What caused that? Long-term drought, ladies and gentlemen. Regardless of how the fire actually started, the fact that it spread is directly because the land was so incredibly dry that forests burned hotter and faster than was anticipated. Firefighters couldn’t move fast enough to get in front of the fire.
Or how about those tornadoes in Alabama and Tennessee this week? Folks in the South are having a rough time of it. Yet those, too, are the result of changes in global climate patterns. Taking a look at the current statement made by the U.S. Drought Monitor regarding Southern states sounds horrifying:
Severe drought impacts continued to mount in this region and included parched soils, record to near-record low stream flows, and drying stock ponds. Impacts from southern Alabama, as submitted to the Drought Impacts Reporter, include shrinking aquifers, dried-up stock ponds, failed crops, and stressed feed for stock. In Lowndes County, Alabama, ranchers have been feeding hay reserved for winter since early September, and, except in a few places, pastures were absolutely bare. Soybean growers statewide have reported that soybean pods were shattering. Soybean pod shattering occurs as a result of hot and windy conditions and low humidity combining to dry the pod walls until they become brittle and break. As of mid-November, the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs’ Office of Water Resources had declared most of the state in emergency drought status.
Oh, but climate isn’t the only place we’re not too excited about science. NPR is reporting that “Americans Don’t Trust Scientists’ Take On Food Issues.” The article is based on a just-released paper from the Pew Research Center. Among the details are nauseating tidbits such as:
39 percent of the survey participants believe that genetically modified foods are worse for your health than non-GM food. However, there’s essentially no scientific evidence to support that belief — a conclusion confirmed most recently by a National Academy of Sciences report.
And this:
Americans believe that there’s no scientific consensus on GMOs. Just over 50 percent of respondents believe that “about half or fewer” of scientists agree that GM foods are safe to eat. Only 14 percent’s beliefs match the reality — that “almost all” scientists agree that GM foods are safe to eat.
Then this:
Americans feel that research findings are influenced in equal measure by the following factors: the best available scientific evidence; desire to help their industries; and desire to advance their careers. In the view of the public, all of those factors are more important to scientists than concern for the public interest.
A distrust of science is a particularly dangerous thing because it leaves us open to myth, conjecture, and the overwhelming amount of false news permeating the Internet. The American public displays a particularly high ignorance regarding even the basic matters of science, such as the term “theory” and the stratification of “hypothesis.” Without even a basic understanding of science and a complete dismissal of its findings, we are left open to consequences we won’t see coming. The fires and tornadoes are just a start. The planet has no problems eliminating humans in order to reclaim itself.
Those who deny science on any level need to be challenged every time they open their mouths. There is no acceptable level of ignorance. Science is not only predictive, it also has the ability to provide remedies if we’ll just pay attention. The future of the entire human race depends on using whatever means necessary, whether through shaming or complete public humiliation or academic discretization of those who encourage the denial of science. Allowing such ignorance to grow dooms us all.
I was deeply disturbed when I saw a news story out of Virginia yesterday. Accomack County Public Schools have, at least temporarily, pulled To Kill A Mockingbird and Huckleberry Finn from its shelves after one mother complained about the use of racial slurs in the books. The mother told the school board that her biracial son, who is in high school, “struggled” with getting through a page containing a racial slur.
Even more disturbing, however, might be the quote in the news story from a different mother of a 10-year-old: “It’s not right to put that in a book, let alone read that to a child,” she said.
Apparently, some of the folks in Virginia have forgotten the very purpose of literature. But then, such sentiments are not unusual anywhere across the United States. The American Library Association’s ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) compiles lists of challenged books as reported in the media and submitted by librarians and teachers across the country. Their most recent list from 2015 (because, in case you hadn’t noticed, 2016 isn’t over yet) includes the following books:
Find some of those titles surprising, do you? Would any of those books challenge your personal belief system? I really like what the ALA’s website has to say about banning books:
A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others. As such, they are a threat to freedom of speech and choice.
“A threat to freedom of speech and choice.” Those words should send a chill down your spine. Book challenging and banning is one of the most visible and most emotional methods of anti-intellectualism, but it certainly isn’t the only one. Even worse, the problem is growing.
We’ve been hearing about the “dumbing down of America” for years. The truth is that there has always been a certain amount of anti-intellectualism throughout the United States since its founding. Not all the founding fathers believed that everyone deserved an education, or needed to know how to read and write. What’s disturbing is how that this belief system has spread and might even be considered at least partially responsible for the surprising outcome of this year’s presidential election. Smart people scare those who are ignorant.
Psychology Today has taken on the topic of increasing anti-intellectualism rather frequently. In looking back over an article from 2015, by David Niose, I was struck by this particular paragraph:
In a country where a sitting congressman told a crowd that evolution and the Big Bang are “lies straight from the pit of hell,” where the chairman of a Senate environmental panel brought a snowball into the chamber as evidence that climate change is a hoax, where almost one in three citizens can’t name the vice president, it is beyond dispute that critical thinking has been abandoned as a cultural value. Our failure as a society to connect the dots, to see that such anti-intellectualism comes with a huge price, could eventually be our downfall.
I cannot disagree with Mr. Niose. The increase in our national inability to reason is terrifying. What makes it difficult to stop this line of thinking, however, is that it is impossible to reason with an unreasonable person. For those who are willfully ignorant, especially, there is no argument that can permeate that thick helmet of absolute wrongness. When that anti-intellectualism is even further entrenched by eccentric religious beliefs, it is even more dangerous and more difficult to fight.
Yet, fight we must. We cannot let gross and rampant anti-intellectualism go unchecked. I don’t care if it is a part of someone’s core belief system, it is still wrong. That’s correct, I have no problem stating that anti-intellectualism is wrong. We have to challenge those mindsets and use whatever methods are necessary to push it back into some form of social submission. Ignorance has no place in the public discourse.
Issac Asminov rather famously said:
“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’”
We have erroneously allowed anti-intellectualism to grow throughout American in the name of some manner of freedom to be stupid. No, you do not have a freedom to be stupid. Ignorance puts everyone in danger and is a threat to our way of life. I can think of no circumstance in which ignorance is to be tolerated. I can think of no circumstance in which ignorance should be protected. We should fight it at every juncture with all our might. While we certainly won’t see its end, we must see its diminishment.
How many of you just scrolled quickly to get the above image off your screen? I wish I could know what was your motivation. Why are people offended by this picture? Is it the nudity, the fact that both models are female, or the most obvious element that one is black and the other isn’t? Chances are, for far too many Americans, it’s the latter.
Racism in America has, like anti-intellectualism, been a part of the American reality since its inception. The very first Europeans to set foot on think continent enjoyed slaughtering indigenous people so much that after each such event they would have a feast and call it Thanksgiving. That’s just how incredibly deep racism flows through the American culture. As a belief system, racism has frequently been a core issue, backed up by religion, reinforced through oppression. America’s racist history is shameful and something of which we’ve yet to repent.
What is most bothersome, however, is the degree to which those who are most ardently racists have taken the election of a new president as reason to glory in their racism and demonstrate such deplorable ideology in a public manner. NBC News made public research from the Southern Poverty Law Center this week showing over 900 incidents of hate, most of which have involved racism or sexuality, since the November election. Specifically, “900 separate incidents of bias and violence against immigrants, Latinos, African-Americans, women, LGBT people, Muslims and Jews in the ten days after Trump captured the White House.”
Can we possibly make this any worse? Yes, yes we can. Most of those incidents occurred in schools. Quoting now from the NBC News article:
In a related SPLC online survey of 10,000 teachers and school officials, eighty percent of the respondents reported a “negative impact on students’ mood and behavior following the election,” and eight in ten said they detected “heightened anxiety on the part of marginalized students, including immigrants, Muslims, African Americans and LGBT students.”
Bigotry takes a lot of forms, and every one of them is deplorable. However, the worst of them all is racism and the speed at which racist events have accelerated should make everyone of a more reasonable mind a bit nervous. Just in case you haven’t seen any of the nastiness that’s been caught on camera, here’s a sample from earlier this week:
The young black woman toward whom this particular rant was directed has received a tremendous amount of support after the incident, but the fact remains that the incident shouldn’t have happened at all! Nothing like this should ever happen.
Hold on, there’s more. This isn’t the only recent incident. Consider some of the following headlines that have cropped up recently:
Here’s the thing: we know that racism is a problem, yet we continue to tolerate it from people we know. How often have I heard someone excuse the racist behavior of another by saying, “Well, they have a right to their opinion.” No! Racism is not an opinion! Whether or not you want fries with that is an opinion. Which color you should paint your living room wall is an opinion. You do NOT get an opinion about the color of someone else’s skin!
There is no such thing as a racial supremacy in any direction because, guess what, race is just something we made up to divide ourselves. We have known at least since 1998 that, from a genetic standpoint, there is no such thing as race within the human species. The pigmentation of one’s skin is wholly irrelevant as to one’s humanity.
Furthermore, as genetic research continues, there is increasing evidence that a considerable number of people who think of themselves as white actually have at least one black ancestor in their family tree. So much for the concept of racial purity.
Anyone who has racism as part of their belief system needs to be confronted, shamed, and socially outcast at every opportunity. This increasing trend is not something we can tolerate a second longer. We must address racism aggressively before we end up in yet another pointless domestic war.
Why the hell did I choose this specific picture? Because I have a challenge for you: Guess the gender of the two persons standing with their back to the camera. My guess is you’ll look at body curves and general physiology and try to make a guess. One male, one female? Both male? Both female?
Here’s the answer: it doesn’t matter.
Discrimination based on gender and sexuality is a belief system that is more than 6,000 years old. We see it in all the Abrahamic religions and the societies built on those traditions. Therefore, the belief system is deeply entrenched not only in those religions but through the societies around them. No matter how deeply entrenched those beliefs may be, however, they need to be challenged. Women are not property. Homosexuality is not wrong. Gender is more than physiology.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation didn’t begin investigating crimes based on gender identity until 2013. When they did, they listed crimes against a person because of “sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity” as hate crimes. Hate itself, the FBI insists, is not a crime. How one behaves in response to that hate, however, can be. So, with the FBI on the case, incidents of sexual-based crimes has gone down, right?
Uhm, no.
2016 has seen some of the most alarming incidents of hate specifically against the LGBT community. Most notable was the shooting at an Orlando gay club that left 41 dead. However, as the New York Times reports, even before that event, people within the LGBT community were more likely to be the victims of hate crimes. As incredible as it may seem, LGBT people are twice as likely to be the victims of hate crimes than are black people. The number of incidents has risen so dramatically that hate against the LGBT community now outpaces hate against Jews, which has historically taken the top spot for hate crimes.
Oh, but it gets worse. Numerous sources have ran with the story this week that the president-elect has pledged to sign the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA). The bill was first introduced in 2015 but languished in the House of Representatives knowing that there was no way it could ever receive a presidential signature nor override a veto. However, given vice-president-elect Mike Pence’s history with anti-LGBT legislation here in Indiana, and given the president-elect’s campaign rhetoric, supporters of the legislation feel certain that they can now get the bill through Congress.
We simply cannot let this kind of thinking continue. More than just an anti-LGBT law, such legislation further codifies hate into the American system, hate that inevitably spreads from the LGBT community on to any other group that finds itself out of favor with ignorant society.
Here again, we are dealing with belief systems that are based almost wholly on a religion-facilitated ignorance. When one speaks up against the hate and bigotry and discrimination, one is quickly told that their Bible or Quran or the Talmud prohibits such relationships. Yet, there are plenty of well-studied religious scholars who disagree. The portion of scripture that spans all three of the major Abrahamic religions, placed in the Christian Bible as Genisis chapter 27, has been widely misinterpreted to be preaching against homosexuality. Many preachers stand and fume against the “sin of Sodom,” but analysis reveals that Sodom’s sin had absolutely nothing to do with homosexuality! Consider (from the linked article):
The classic instance of this is in Ezekiel 16:49-50 which castigates the people of Jerusalem:
“This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.”
Another, Isaiah chapter 1, also enumerates the sins of Jerusalem, whom he addresses directly as Sodom and Gomorrah (v. 10):
Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of Sodom!
Listen to the teaching of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!
Verse 17 implies what those sins are, by stating what the people should be doing:
… learn to do good;
seek justice,
rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
plead for the widow.
Not a word about homosexuality. As in Ezekiel, the sin is the abuse of the vulnerable.
Furthermore, not only did the alleged Christ or Prophet not address the matter, apologetics attempts to excuse that fact with, “you weren’t there so you don’t’ know for sure,” is as weak as some of the same apologeticisms’ denial of evolution.
Gender and sexual discrimination and hate as a belief system have to be confronted. Those clinging desperately to those beliefs need to have those beliefs condemned in very harsh terms because they are wrong and endanger the lives of others. There is no level of tolerance for such ignorance and hate. Shame on anyone who still holds to such antiquated beliefs.
At this point, nearly 3,500 words into this missive, one might wonder exactly how bullying factors into the whole concept of challenging belief systems. The answer is that many beliefs, attitudes, and actions that we see demonstrated through society, regardless of their names, are nothing more than pure brutish bullying. Any attempt at intimidation in order to force the will of one onto the actions and behaviors of another is bullying, plain and simple. We see far too much of it, but perhaps it is difficult for you to recognize some issues as a matter of bullying. So, let me give you a few examples.
Abortion. Actually, this has very little to do with saving the life of a fetus and more to do with men, through their power in government, bullying women. Do men really care what women do with their bodies? No, not really. What men, in general with notable exceptions, care about is control. They like being bullies.
Unsurprisingly, we see this form of bullying in the results of this year’s presidential election. The president-elect has made it perfectly clear that he intends to use new legislation and judicial appointments in an attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade. The president-elect’s choice for Health and Human Service secretary supports defunding Planned Parenthood, which would not reduce abortions but would significantly affect the healthcare of millions of women. Both are classic examples of bullying.
Or how about the president-elect’s threat to deport immigrants? Not only is the threat illogical and impractical, it is another case of bullying, using fear and intimidation against a specific group of people. While some are standing up and saying they will defy the president-elect’s orders, he has still been able to create an atmosphere of fear among the immigrant community at a time when the world needs us to be accepting more immigrants, not fewer.
That whole deal about a wall along the Mexican border? Bullying.
Wage discrimination? Bullying.
Threats against companies moving outside the US? More bullying.
In fact, there is a lot of what we see in this white-male dominated society that is nothing more than well-entrenched bullying. We’ve been doing it for so very long that we’ve come to expect it and think that it’s just the way things are done.
No, we refuse to accept that line of thinking. Bullying, no matter the form it takes or who is the target, is wrong. Forcing someone else to act upon your belief system rather than their own, is wrong. No matter how much power one thinks they have, resorting to intimidation factors and fear is always wrong. You do not have the right to be mean. You do not have the right to push others around.
What is most upsetting about these bullying tactics is that the bullies always think they’re in the right. The reason we’ve seen such a dramatic rise in the number of hate incidents across the US is because those who voted for the president-elect mistakenly believe that his election provides justification to their warped and improper belief systems. Since bullying is an underlying principle of their belief systems, they have joyously exercised that belief in some of the most frightening ways we’ve seen since the civil rights struggles of the 1960s.
Bullying is not just a crime against a given set of people, it is a crime against all humanity and it is not limited to those in the US. A young woman in Riyadh posted a picture to social media of her standing outside, in public, without her hijab. The response was calls for her execution.
The world has no choice but to confront such belief systems. We must take a stand against the bullying. We must fight against the implementation of legislation that codifies bullying. If there’s one thing of which I’m certain it is the fact that standing up to a bully almost always causes them to back down. Now is the time we need to make that stand.
Belief systems are not infallible. Even well-considered and carefully thought out belief systems need to be challenged in some form or fashion. Those elements that are necessary and true will hold. Those that are false and unjustified we have to change. Unfortunately, not everyone sees that. So, where we see belief systems that exercise hate, where we see belief systems that put others in danger, where we see belief systems that spread ignorance and lies, we must challenge them. We need not always be aggressive. We need not always be forceful. But we must always challenge.
To be silent is the greatest mistake one can ever make.
There are a lot of things going on in the world right now that can be upsetting. The situation at Standing Rock seems to be coming to a head. Many are concerned about choices being made as the new presidential administration begins to take place and some are still trying to prevent it from happening at all.
At the same time, an East Congo militia kills 30 from a rival tribe. Militants kidnap six Pakistanis working for a Polish oil firm. Daesh appears to have used ‘chemical gas’ against Syrian rebels. Then, there’s the increasingly complex and anxiety-ridden situation with Russia.
If that’s not enough for you, there are still the omnipresent issues of hunger, homelessness, poverty, education, debt, and access to healthcare. Those have been with us my entire life and show absolutely no sign of going away no matter who is President or what new programs Congress might trot out.
What might be most disturbing, however, are situations like this one reported by Reuters this morning:
Hateful letters sent anonymously to three mosques in California with a warning that President-elect Donald Trump would “cleanse” the United States of Muslims have stirred fears among congregants, a community leader said on Saturday.
Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the letters were identical and were postmarked as being sent from Santa Clarita just north of Los Angeles.
Ayloush said his group is considering asking the Federal Bureau of Investigation to look into the letters, which he believes were sent to other mosques aside from the three that received them earlier this week.
The increasing number of events such as this one is extremely worrisome. What frustrates me to no end, however, is when I look at the comments below every last one of these stories and see comments such as, “Only God can resolve this problem,” or “Our prayers are with them,” or “Trusting God to keep us safe.”
I get it, your belief system places control of the world in the hands of a deity who, allegedly, cares about the outcome of these events. I won’t argue that particular point at the current time. That’s your decision. However, what I will argue is that even if there is such a caring and attentive deity, he/she/it is not going to suddenly reach down from the heavens and reset the chessboard! The work of your God has always been carried out by those who trust him the most. So, if there’s trouble anywhere in the world, stop waiting on God to do something. If he exists, he’s waiting on you.
For those of you just now joining us, my late father was a Southern Baptist pastor for over 45 years. As a result, I still have several of his sermons deeply engrained in my memory. The issue of what he called “religious buck-shifting” frustrated him 40 years ago as much as it does me now. From his perspective, he would say the problem stemmed from an Old Testament verse found in Psalm 27, verse 14:
Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord.
The issue, he would say, is that we misunderstand the intent of the verse. God did not mean for his people to sit on their hands until he passed out specific instructions. Rather, he was instructing those who are anxious to not get ahead of themselves, to wait until there is a plan and not go off tackling one’s enemies half-cocked.
Poppa would then follow with the story of a small-town congregation that was woefully worried about a bar that had opened up on the edge of town. Especially concerned were the women of the church whose husbands, they feared, might start sneaking out of the house at night to go drinking at the bar. The women started praying that God would burn the bar to the ground. They prayed, and prayed, and prayed, but nothing ever happened. Making matters worse, the women began to see their fears materialize as more men would find an excuse to slip out and have a drink. The women were terribly worried about the problem.
After a while, an older woman moved to the small town and joined the church. The other women immediately welcomed her and implored her to join them in praying that God would burn the bar to the ground. The older woman agreed that this was a most dire situation and promised that she would begin praying that very day.
That night, the bar burned to the ground.
The women in the church were astonished. “How did that happen?” they asked the older woman. “How is it that we’ve been praying for months that God would burn down that bar and nothing happened. You come along and on the first day, you prayed the bar actually burns to the ground! How come God listens to you and not all of us?”
The older woman answered, “It’s really rather easy. You see, I prayed that God would burn down that bar. Then, I got up off my knees and put feet to my prayer.”
Therein lies the problem. Too many of us expect God, or the government, or some other mysterious entity to do the very thing we should be doing. If we want the problems of society to go away, then we have to realize that we are society, we are government, and we are the hands of our deities. For anything to actually get done, we have to be the ones to do it.
While the issues we see are contemporary in nature, the problem of dealing with such social issues is neither new nor limited to Christians. There is a Jewish text, not scripture, mind you, but a book published by Martin Buber in 1947 called, Tales of the Hasidim. The book is an attempt to capture some of the oral history and folklore of the Hasidim, an orthodox sect that began in the third and second centuries. Specifically, the books focus on the teaching of a Ukranian rabbi, Baal Shem Tov, considered to be the founder of “modern” Hasidic Judaism. From that oral history comes this story:
The Master teaches the student that God created everything in the world to be appreciated, since everything is here to teach us a lesson.
One clever student asks “What lesson can we learn from atheists? Why did God create them?”
The Master responds “God created atheists to teach us the most important lesson of them all – the lesson of true compassion. You see, when an atheist performs an act of charity, visits someone who is sick, helps someone in need, and cares for the world, he is not doing so because of some religious teaching. He does not believe that god commanded him to perform this act. In fact, he does not believe in God at all, so his acts are based on an inner sense of morality. And look at the kindness he can bestow upon others simply because he feels it to be right.”
“This means,” the Master continued “that when someone reaches out to you for help, you should never say ‘I pray that God will help you.’ Instead for the moment, you should become an atheist, imagine that there is no God who can help, and say ‘I will help you.’”
Now, let’s give this a little perspective. This story is, at the very least, as old as the early 18th century, perhaps older. Social media had yet to be invented. For that matter, electricity was an unknown quantity at that point in time. However, even then, they still had a problem with people of faith, particularly, expecting their God to solve problems that were right in front of them and within their ability to address. As humans, we’ve been getting this wrong for a very long time.
What’s interesting about the story is that the rabbi’s reference to an atheist solving the problem is spot on. In general, those who profess no faith in a deity, or are at least agnostic on the subject, are more likely to give to charities, volunteer their time to community efforts and to respond with acts of compassion. Don’t take my word for it when there’s research to demonstrate the difference.
Robb Willer, University of California, Berkeley social psychologist, along with Laura R. Saslow, of the Osher Center at the University of California, San Francisco, published research in the journal, Social Psychological & Personality Science showing that compassion predicts generosity more among “less religious” people.
Three studies tested the hypothesis that, with fewer religious expectations of prosociality, less religious individuals’ levels of compassion will play a larger role in their prosocial tendencies. In Study 1, religiosity moderated the relationship between trait compassion and prosocial behavior such that compassion was more critical to the generosity of less religious people. In Study 2, a compassion induction increased generosity among less religious individuals but not among more religious individuals. In Study 3, state feelings of compassion predicted increased generosity across a variety of economic tasks for less religious individuals but not among more religious individuals. These results suggest that the prosociality of less religious individuals is driven to a greater extent by levels of compassion than is the prosociality of the more religious.
Stop and think about what this means. Flip it to another perspective and one can easily make the argument that one’s religion or belief system might actually be standing in the way of one doing any good or acting on their compassion. Again, if one is waiting on their deity to solve all the problems, they’re less likely to do anything themselves.
Religion has been a hot point in political conversations this year. The misinformation that we are or were ever a Christian nation has not only raged strong but has been the basis for an incredible amount of hate both before and after the election. While only a few might exhibit their hate in a public manner, be sure that there is hate sitting in the pews of every church gathering together this Sunday. Not everyone in the church hates, of course. Not even a majority. Still, the hate is there and everyone is expecting God to be the one to do something about it.
Take the letters sent to the mosques as an example. The person who wrote those letters is almost certainly sitting in a church somewhere this morning. They could even be teaching a Sunday School class. Their friends and neighbors may look at them as “fine Christians.” Yet, that hate still lurks. Fueled by a belief system that leads them to mistakenly think that God has given them permission to annihilate “those who serve false gods,” the president-elect’s rhetoric against Muslim people has emboldened them to bring their hate public.
Mind you, that hate has always been there. I saw it when I was little. The first time a black person attended one of our services, there were those among the church leadership who wanted her escorted out the door and off the property. As a teenager, I saw that hate directed toward a music director whose mannerisms led some to attempt to “out” the young man as gay and force him from the church. As a young adult, I saw that hate as those of a more moderate belief system, specifically those encouraged a cooperative attitude in working with Muslims and Jews in the community, were driven from the denomination in which I grew up, ruining the lives of pastors and others with false stories alleging heresy.
That hate is still there, right now, in churches all across this country. Fortunately, I’m not the only one who believes the hate has to end and that we can’t wait on someone’s deity to take specific action.
John Pavlovitz, a pastor at North Raliegh Community Church in North Carolina, is someone whose stance against hate within the church is one I’m quickly coming to admire. In a post on his website earlier this month, he made the following statement:
At times like these, Christians like to smile sweetly and say, “God is in control.”
No. God is not in control.
God didn’t vote for Donald Trump, you did.
Stop passing the buck to God.
God isn’t defacing prayer rooms.
God isn’t taunting gay teenagers.
God is not bullying kids on buses.
God isn’t threatening Muslim families.
White Christians are.
You are in control of this. You have pulpits and pews and a voice and influence and social media, so get to work.
In the same piece, he also instructs:
Your pastors need to speak clearly and explicitly into this, now.
Your church websites and social media pages need to address this harassment and bullying and terrorizing, now.
You need to talk to your white children and teach them how not [to] be horrible to other kids, and how to stand up to those who are being horrible, now.
You need to talk to your kid’s coaches and to your midweek Bible Study and to your co-workers and your church staff and your gun club—and you need to call this poison out, now.
White churches, this Sunday, your only sermon should be the one that reminds your white members what the parable of the Good Samaritan was compelling followers of Jesus to be: radically merciful when everyone else looked the other way.
You need to reach out to your neighbors and coworkers and classmates and social media friends who are part of marginalized communities and reassure them, listen to them, care for them, be Jesus to them.
Of course, those words don’t only belong to Christians, they can be said of anywhere there is any measure of hate. YOU have to fix this. YOU are the one who has to address the issues of hate that are growing by leaps and bounds across our country. YOU have to be the one who instructs your children how to respond to people who are different from them. Whether you believe in a deity or not, YOU are responsible for challenging the hate in our society.
It is up to us, you and I to speak out when we see hate, no matter where we see hate. There was a story earlier this week, whose link I can no longer find, of people coming to the rescue of a woman who was being berated in a store for wearing her hijab. There have been other similar incidents in the past two weeks where good people, kind people, people of reason and people of faith, have stepped up to fight against the hate. This is what we all need to be doing.
Of one thing I am sure: the skies are not going to suddenly open up with a great, thunderous voice like that or Morgan Freeman and give us instruction to love each other. All the relative deities have already done that through their respective books. That we are to love each other is a universal message through all the world’s dominant religions. The problem comes, across all religions, that we just don’t like to listen to the teachings of our deities.
Again, pastor Pavlovitz stated in a message earlier this week:
At some point silence becomes something else.
It becomes negligence.
It becomes compliance.
It becomes blessing.
It becomes participation.
And at times like this, it becomes fully sinful.
We can disagree on many things. We can disagree about sex and sexuality. We can disagree about marijuana. We can disagree about whether my pictures are appropriate for this message. What we must agree on is that hate has no place in our society. None. Our responsibility is to respond to each and every instance of hate that we see, defuse it if we can, and hold the person(s) accountable for their actions. We might not be able to do anything about the hate in someone’s heart, but we can do something about the hate that spills out into the public.
Don’t be silent. Don’t wait on God. Get your ass up, put feet to your prayers, and do something. Now.
Here we are, less than a week before Thanksgiving, and this year everyone’s coming to your house. Sounds fun, doesn’t it, doing all that cooking, seeing the nieces and nephews, listening to Uncle Bud talk about SEC football while Grandma Marian goes on about her hip replacement surgery? I bet you can hardly wait for everyone to get there. This is when families are at their most fun. Cousins who haven’t seen each other in a year playing in the yard, brothers and sisters reminiscing about when they were kids, and more food than anyone ever needs to eat. I remember those Thanksgivings nostalgically, though we’ve not actually had one in several years.
The problem with Thanksgiving, or any family get-together, comes when someone says something, perhaps innocently, that reveals a political rift within the family. Almost every family has someone who doesn’t agree with the majority opinion. If they decide that someone’s statement is offensive to them, then the arguments begin and it doesn’t matter how good the turkey was, all anyone remembers is the year Uncle Bud bashed Aunt Noreen in the head with that lamp. I’m the liberal in a family of conservatives so I just avoid family Thanksgiving down in Wichita. I’m sure we’re all happier that way.
Not everyone shows such discretion, however, and if your family is one of those whose Thanksgivings turn into an annual knock-down, drag-out, pay-per-view event live streamed by the teenaged cousins, we’re here to help. Never mind that the first Thanksgiving almost certainly wasn’t a religious event and was probably more of a harvest festival. Ignore the fact that the alleged friendliness of the Pilgrims was little more than a prelude to murder. Let those discussions happen elsewhere. What matters is that you and your house survive Thanksgiving intact.
Distraction is the name of the game in a politics-free Thanksgiving. What is important is that you remove as many possible reminders of the presidential election as possible. Tempers are still short. Feelings are still hurt. Forks are a weapon. So, start wth the simple things such as removing any political signs from your yard, especially if your side won. No one likes it when the other side gloats. They’ll be in a bad mood before they get out of the car if they see a Trump or Clinton sign in your yard. Instead, just don’t rake the leaves. The kids will enjoy playing in them and the adults will either reminisce about how they used to do the same, or gripe about how you’re a bad neighbor for not taking care of your lawn. Either way, it’s not politics. You’re winning so far.
Next, hide anything of value and do NOT light candles for any reason whatsoever. What you want to avoid is giving anyone an easy weapon. Rather than using the fine china handed down from your great-great-grandmother, use paper plates. By all means, use plastic utensils rather than the silverware that’s been in the family for generations. You certainly don’t want to risk Aunt Josephine’s hair getting too close to an open flame, either. The woman uses a full can of Aqua-Net on that beehive of judgment. One little spark and she’s the flambé. This, of course, will get your relatives talking about the fact you wouldn’t let them use the family relics and that your house smells like dog poop. Again, better than politics.
Worst-case-scenario, should you get wind that Uncle Bud just can’t wait to light into his Hillary-supporting sister-in-law, you can take preventative measures by connecting a small electrical charge to the doorknob on the front door. The relatives you like can be told to use the backdoor. Everyone else gets a shocking greeting. Don’t make the shock too hard, mind you. You don’t want to spend the day at the hospital after Grandma’s pacemaker gives her an unexpected jolt. Just make it enough to hurt like fucking hell and send a clear message that their hate is not wanted in your house. They’ll be talking about you for years.
I’ve always been an advocate of attending family events naked. This is especially true if you’re male because, no matter how good you look, no one in your family wants to see that. Open the door in your birthday suit and watch how quickly everyone suddenly remembers that they promised to spend this Thanksgiving with the other side of the family. The only problem with this approach is that Thanksgiving day often turns out to be on the chilly side. While one can turn up the heat to a comfortable temperature inside, the frequent blasts of cold air that come with greeting your guests is going to make matters all the more uncomfortable for everyone.
An alternative to being naked would be to dress otherwise inappropriately. Pajamas come to mind, especially the kind with feet in them. Dress your entire immediate family that way so that when extended family arrives they think they missed an email or something, which is probably cousin Jennifer’s fault because she always was a stuck-up sort of brat who never let anyone play with her dolls. No pajamas? Go with something sheer or low-cut, something that shows some side boob. Again, this is much more effective if one is male. If you’re female it just makes cousin Horace’s drooling problem that much worse.
Hair and makeup also come into play here. Specifically, if you’re female don’t wear any and, by all means, don’t bother brushing your hair. You want everyone to know how hard you’ve been slaving over this dinner, staying up late to bake pies every night this week, and wrestling with those homemade rolls. Just make sure you’ve hidden all the boxes from the store before you do so. If you’re male, though, you need to go the opposite direction. Open the door with a full face of makeup AND a full beard and everyone immediately forgets that there even was an election this year. Arguably, one has to have a rather thick skin to actually use any of these tactics. Family is going to be telling stories about you for generations. It’s worth it, though, to avoid the uncivil political discussions that tear a family apart.
Everyone shows up for Thanksgiving expecting the regular menu, which Uncle Bob is sure was ordained by God and handed down from the Pilgrims themselves. There has to be roast turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, homemade rolls, cranberry sauce, and enough green bean casserole to last until Christmas. This is what they’re expecting when they come to your house. This, however, is not what you’re going to give them. Trust me, altering the menu is the quickest and easiest way to direct the conversation away from politics and toward the food.
What’s critical here, though, is that the food has to actually be good. If you’re going to go altering the same Thanksgiving menu the family has had since great-grandma crossed the plains in her bare feet, you have to get it right. Consider trying a Moroccan-Spiced Turkey with Aromatic Orange Pan Jus instead of the traditional shove-it-in-the-oven-and-pray turkey. This blend of spices is going to catch everyone by surprise and leaves a pleasant yet lively taste in your mouth. Then, to really throw everyone off, replace the green bean casserole of death with something like Quinoa Salad with Pistachios and Currants or maybe even Whole Roasted Carrots with Black Lentils and Green Harissa. In place of all those starchy potatoes that no one really needs, try Honey-Roasted Butternut Squash or Acorn Squash with Pomegranate and Kale Tabbouleh. Top all that with something along the lines of Grapefruit Granita with Pear-and-Pom Relish and Cherry-Port Cranberry Sauce and tongues should be wagging when their mouths aren’t full.
Disclaimer: I haven’t actually tried any of those recipes. There will only be five of us at our Thanksgiving dinner and two of those are well-indoctrinated children. I did look over all the recipes, though, and don’t find anything that seems horribly unrealistic, depending upon one’s personal tastes. I may try something along the lines of the Moroccan-spaced turkey and honey-roasted butternut squash just sounds amazing. No one here is going to be upset about messing with any tradition, though.
I also heartily recommend spiking everything possible. The punch. The tea. The coffee. The cranberry sauce. Getting everyone a little bit tipsy without getting them quite drunk puts everyone more at ease, especially if your family doesn’t normally drink. Then, in states where it is legal, adding a fair amount of a certain green herb to your dishes is not a bad idea, either. No one is going to argue if they’re all passed out on the couch. Mind you, we’re not advocating anyone break any laws (much), but if you live in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, California, or some other weed-friendly locale, you can find some herb-based recipes here.
We all know the holidays are stressful and arguments about politics just make everything that much worse. When you’re the one hosting, it’s not like you can gather up the kids and just leave when matters get heated. So, take my advice and prepare for a holiday where there is so many other things to talk about that no one gives a second thought to politics.
You’re welcome.
We reveal much about ourselves in the way we play games, make comments, and interact with the world. Early yesterday morning, the hashtag #IWantAmerica emerged on Twitter and it was interesting not because of any particularly insightful or witty responses as is often the case, but more for the ways in which the hashtag showed how very dissatisfied with our country and each other we are. Some tweets were downright mean in their attack on differing points of view. Some, sadly, were unapologetically racists or homophobic. If there is a reason the hashtag didn’t trend for long it is likely because the hate being expressed was too much for anyone to enjoy reading.
At the same time, though, the hashtag was also taken up in a very different tone by those, primarily students, stuck overseas. For them, the hashtag reflected why they actually miss the US. Their tweets said things like, “I’m running out of my day’s allotment of Internet #IWantAmerica,” and “My card doesn’t work at foreign ATMs. #IWantAmerica.” Sometimes we don’t appreciate the little things until we are deprived of them.
While the game itself quickly dwindled and died, the concept of what I want from America, the kind of nation I expect America to be, stayed with me all day. I am an idealist in that I expect a lot from my country. I expect the collective, corporate body to behave better than I do on my own. I expect the nation to be smarter than any one individual, to have better foresight, to be more thoughtful in its actions. While we, as individuals, might fail through our foolishness, I expect our country to succeed through our combined wisdom. Let me elaborate.
We don’t have a great track record for keeping our promises as Americans. Most notably, we have continually gone back on treaties with made with those who occupied this land before us. The current situation at Standing Rock, where the Dakota Access Pipeline threatens native burial grounds and endangers drinking water, is but the latest example of a litany of grievances native peoples have against the government. While I’m pleased that the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers that is responsible for the placement of the pipeline is looking for alternatives, I am saddened that it too massive protests to lead them to what should have been an automatic priority when the pipeline was first considered. Then, as native protestors were beaten and mistreated, more promises were broken. #IWantAmerica to start keeping its promises, all of them, to native tribes.
#IWantAmerica to keep its promise to provide for the safety and common welfare of all its citizens, not just the privileged few. While we are concerned at the rise in threats against minorities since the election, those actions are just a reflection of the increasing violence and hate crimes that has been growing across our country for years. Compounding that problem is the fact that, increasingly, hate crimes are being committed with a religious bias.
The First Amendment of the Constitution, that document which allegedly contains our core values, promises the ability for one to worship in any way they please. So how is it that Bible study members at a black church get shot? How is it that mosques and temples have their members threatened and their facilities vandalized? How is it that if we are not judging people by the color of their skin we’re judging them by the belief system they profess? We’re breaking that fundamental promise of the First Amendment and it’s disgusting.
Social media justifiably exploded yesterday as word of a West Virginia non-profit director called First Lady Michelle Obama an “ape in heels.” The severe error in judgment was compounded when the town’s mayor agreed with the statement. The comments do not come as a surprise for anyone of color, though. The undercurrent of racism long present in our country moved to the surface the day Barack Obama took the oath of office as president and has only grown worse over the past eight years. America is, to put it in derogatory terms, a large group of racist jackasses trying desperately to hold on to power they don’t actually have.
#IWantAmerica to get past the racist nonsense. The civil war ended over 150 years ago. There’s no damn good reason to keep flying Confederate battle flags. There’s no reason to continue treating and speaking of people of color, ANY color, as second-class citizens or as some form of animal. We should be ashamed that people of color are afraid to even walk down the street for fear of being harassed. This isn’t the ideal on which the United States was founded. Our continued embracement of racism, through policy, in practice, and in things as simple as Facebook statuses and appointment of chief strategists is beneath us. This is not who we claim to be. This is not who we should be.
There should be no exception in who we accept in this country. America was founded, from the very moment those pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, that those who were not welcome anywhere else in the world could come here and be free. Then, from the moment those pilgrims actually set foot on the soil, we promptly forgot that ideal. #IWantAmerica to be a place for everyone without exception. There should be no need for classification of race nor of gender nor of marital status nor of sexuality nor of religion. We are all Americans and that should be quite enough, thank you.
There is much I don’t know. My children are smarter than I am but there is still much they don’t know. I have mad respect for the intellect demonstrated by people such as Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Stephen Hawking but both will admit there is still much they don’t know. There never will be one person who contains the whole of all there is to know. Our potential strength and intellect lie in the combined forces of all our minds, not just a few. To the extent that many of us are not cooperating not only makes us appear stupid but endangers the entire country. Where we do not embrace wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, we leave ourselves vulnerable to those who do. What we don’t know can hurt us.
Anti-intellectualism has always been present in America and it is high time we drove out that thread rather than letting it take hold. When we deny knowledge, when we believe in mythologies rather than facts, when the truth becomes too inconvenient for our lifestyles, we place ourselves in grave danger. Our policies and our actions should be based upon our combined intellect and understanding of how the world works and is operating. If we see that global temperatures are rising and creating a long-term threat to our very existence should we not look to solve that problem rather than denying it even exists?
We have the ability to do great things, to make millions of lives better, to solve problems that have plagued us for years, but doing so requires a combined intelligence. We can’t make progress if half the country decides to skip science class because it conflicts with the mythologies being preached in a pulpit. Our greatest shortcomings arise from our collective ignorance, our purposeful inability to see past our own selfish existence and the desires that entail. We must stop running from reason and logic
#IWantAmerica to be better than it is. I want us to lead not from a position of military power but one of superior reason and understanding. I want us to lead with compassion, not from the ability to kick someone out at will. I want us to lead from a position of acceptance, not exclusion.
#IWantAmerica to be the best it possibly can be. I think you do, too. Why don’t we work toward that goal?
I had to take a break from my vain attempt to keep up with world reactions to yesterday’s disgusting election results. Not only have we elected the embodiment of hate to both the positions of President and Vice President, we have armed them with a Republican-controlled Congress and an increase in the number of Republican governors scattered across the nation. While I know that some see this as a good thing, for people of reasons this is a very dangerous event with global ramifications. However, I had to take a break.
You see, we have a dog. We recently put a fence around the entire yard so that the dog, who is a mix of hunting breeds, would have plenty of room to run without having to be on a leash. He loves it out there. The downside is that he tends to be a little aggressive toward anyone who isn’t me. While he’s never bitten anyone hard enough to break the skin, he does have an awesome takedown move. Once you’re down, he’s not letting you back up until I come to your rescue. So, I needed to put “Beware of Dog” signs out on the fence, just to be safe. This is part of being a reasonably responsible dog owner.
Given yesterday’s election results, I’m wondering if we might not do well to place a series of “Beware of Politicians” signs around our country to other countries, businesses, and would-be immigrants can be informed and take evasive action if necessary. Such a move would seem to be the responsible thing to do.
Not everyone had finished voting last night before the global markets started getting the jitters. When the Asian markets opened around 10:00 PM Tuesday evening, currency was what took the biggest hit as both the dollar and the Mexican peso suffered on the uncertainty that the election might introduce a slew of unknown factors to the market. Markets prefer to maintain the status quo. Disruption is met with negativity and values decline sharply as a result.
Among the biggest points that have global analysts screaming is the fear that the new President could embolden Iran’s hardliners. This could lead to further instability in the Middle East and might possibly threaten the fragile Iranian nuclear deal. Continued instability worries investors as the price and availability of energy resources, specifically oil, has the ability to immediately impact markets, driving costs well out of anticipated range with no warning.
At the same time, Wall Street economists are concerned that the new administration might make changes to the Federal Reserve that would remove its autonomy from political influence. Such changes would further erode trust in and the power of the Fed, which in turn could trigger yet another global recession. Stability, again, is what the markets need and the threat of significant change at the Fed could send much-needed investment funds looking elsewhere.
While we’re over-simplifying some very detailed topics, the screaming point is this new administration has absolutely zero experience in monetary policy and the President himself has a proven record of failed business dealings and bankruptcies that erode faith in his ability to appoint staff capable of keeping things calm and moving forward. Recession could hit quickly and painfully once he is in office.
The concerned was raised in Europe a couple of days before the election. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) put 300,000 ground troops on alert as fears of Russian aggression are growing significantly. The move represents a return to Cold War status for European NATO troops as Russian propaganda, a build-up of Russian forces along NATO borders, and aggression in places such as Syria remind long-memoried Europeans of the Soviet threat after World War II.
Now, add in that whole Iran nuclear deal thing, the situations in Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, Egypt, and other hotspots, and mix those with campaign rhetoric that has threatened to not honor the NATO treaties while making friends with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and one can see where our allies might not be feeling all that confident about our ability to keep the peace. In fact, there is more than a little worry that a shift in US policy might actually support Putin rather than trying to keep him and Russia in place.
All this comes on top of concerns about Daesh and Al Queda having possibly infiltrated the United States. As the father of an active-duty U.S. Marine, the proximity to war we now face has me worried not only for my safety but that of my son as well. Should something happen to him as the result of an unjust or politically-motivated war, I will not be forgiving.
The back-stepping has already started. A number of news and media outlets did not take it easy on the Republican campaign. The Huffington Post even went so far as to include the following statement at the end of each article about our new President-elect:
“Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.”
Care to guess what is being retracted today? HuffPo’s editors claim that their move is an effort to start the new Presidency with a “clean slate” and give him a chance. However, in a campaign that was filled with direct threats to members of the media, insults toward reporters, and a general lack of cooperation with and respect for the press, There aren’t too many people feeling as though criticizing the new President and/or his administration is going to be met with the usual denials and rebuttals. Just a few weeks ago, National Press Club president Thomas Burr criticized the Republican campaign for “journalist intimidation.” The insults and direct attacks against the news media and press have been unrelenting.
Now, the person at the heart of those attacks is, somehow, President-elect. Does anyone trust that the rough rhetoric of the campaign will just go away? Of course not! Instead, what we anticipate is a lack of journalistic access to the White House that we’ve not seen since the Nixon administration. Our reasonable fear is that anyone who dares to openly criticize the President might face a personal lawsuit, which, justified or not, no journalist can afford to fight.
We have fought long and hard for freedom of expression. The right of citizens to know everything their government is doing is inalienable. Without the press, a democracy quickly falls to a dictator. We are in grave danger.
This one may be what causes me to tear out my hair and do damage to my vocal cords. The instant media outlets declared that the Republican nominee had more than the required 270 electoral votes, former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, David Duke, said, “Make no mistake about it, our people have played a HUGE role in electing Trump!” Never mind that the President-elect’s campaign officially distanced itself from the KKK and any other recognized hate group that tried to ride campaign coattails. No one ever believed those denials were sincere in the first place. Hate has always been standing right next to the Republican nominee as evidenced by his choice of running mates.
Of course, not all hate groups look like hate groups. The Washington Post ran an article this morning regarding the overwhelming role of specifically white evangelicals in electing the new President. They may not look like a hate group, but these are the people who have marginalized LGBTQ people for years. Evangelists such as Pat Robinson have vilified any and every Democrat they’ve come across. These are the same people who have spent the past eight years ridiculously attempting to accuse President Obama of being a Muslim. They are bigoted, homophobic, xenophobic, nationalistic, racist, and classist in the worst possible way.
Understand, none of these radicals may actually take an official seat in a cabinet post, but be sure that they are there, talking, advising the new President, and making sure that hate remains a part of the new administration’s agenda.
Who does this put at risk? Women. People of color. Immigrants. Children. The elderly. The poor. The homeless. Science. Reason. Our allies. The planet.
We have given power to the most ignorant, the most hateful, the most prejudiced, the most selfish, and the most diabolical group of people to ever set foot in our nation’s capitol. The dangers are very real. Ignore the warnings at your own peril.
I think we’re going to need more signs. And I still reserve the right to scream.
America has made a grave error, the impact of which may not be fully realized until long after all of us are dead and historians have the opportunity to sift through the rubble. We have committed a deed of terrible atrocity, which has no adequate comparison in the annals of time. We have endangered not only ourselves, but the entire world. As such, we need to start apologizing now to the many groups we have offended, endangered, marginalized, and disgraced.
We owe an apology to over 60 million men and women who gave their lives in WWII in an effort to save us from a fascist, racist, narcissistic, xenophobic, homophobic, power-hungry dictator. 25 million of those people were military, the rest were civilians, many of whom died in prisons or labor camps. We elected the very sort of person they bled and died to keep us from having to endure. For our actions yesterday, we have no choice but to apologize.
We must apologize to the millions of women now doomed to second-class personhood, who will quickly see their reproductive and healthcare rights taken away, who will have to continue enduring unwarranted sexual assault, who will continue earning less than men, and who are likely to see incidents of bullying and intimidation rise. To all the women about to be adversely affected by America’s most ridiculous decision, we have no choice but to apologize.
We must apologize to every person aged 50 and older who has been paying into the Social Security system since they were teenagers, trusting the government’s promise that the money would be there when they retire. With a Republican-controlled Congress, that money will soon be completely gone and will never return. As stock prices are already taking a considerable tumble, chances of finding solace in a 401K are severely diminished as well. They have just lost any hope of retirement. They will work until they fall over dead. To them, we have no choice but to apologize.
We must apologize to all the workers who will now either lose their jobs or see their wages diminish. Foreign-owned companies who have enjoyed relatively easy trade with the United States are waking up this morning to the promise of increased tariffs and trade restrictions. Some have already said that any increase in duty taxes will force them to leave the country. When they do, the jobs they create go with them. Similarly, a Republican-controlled Congress means that the federal minimum wage has no hope of increasing, unions will be busted, and wages for remaining jobs will go down. To everyone affected by this tragedy, we have no choice but to apologize.
We must apologize to every person of color who has just seen their personhood marginalized by a president-elect who finds them inferior, replaceable, and disposable. Civil rights have just been set back over 100 years. All the gains for which people such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Emmett Till, and thousands of others worked so hard and so long, some to the point of giving their lives, have all now been placed in danger of elimination, if not in actual deed at least in spirit. As a white man, I am ashamed. As a country, we have no choice but to apologize.
We owe an apology to the millions of immigrants who came to this country looking for a better opportunity and have found only hate, derision, and now full condemnation for even existing within the borders of this country. Our national ignorance to the value of immigrants is overwhelming and now that severe ignorance is what guides the creation and application of public policy. Without immigrants, we very quickly become a much, much poorer country. We have crushed their dreams and, for many, doomed their very lives. For such actions, we have no choice but to apologize.
We owe an apology to everyone who identifies as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, or any other sexual orientation not deemed “straight enough” for those who, like our new vice-president-elect, believe that sexuality is ordained by their deity. The LGBTQ has fought long and hard to make even the most modest gains toward acceptance, but now they are faced with a clown in the Vice President’s office with a proven hatred toward all of them. All of the advances they have made are likely now thrown out the window. If the vice-president-elect has his way, their lifestyles will become criminalized. We could have prevented this tragedy, but we didn’t and for that we have no choice but to apologize.
We must also apologize to all our children whose futures have now been destroyed, whose dreams and hopes have been dashed to pieces. Our actions yesterday do not communicate our love to them, but rather our selfishness. Their lives will now be less safe as the Republican Congress removes regulation and oversight from corporations. They will be less informed as journalists are punished for telling the truth about this megalomaniacal administration. More of them will die from malnutrition and lack of affordable healthcare as the programs designed to protect them are eliminated. More of our children are now likely to experience homelessness. More of our children are likely to reach adulthood under-educated and unable to go to college. Fewer children are likely to have access to technology, to safe and appropriate child care, to appropriate housing, and even basic education. Of all the people ill-affected by yesterday’s election, our children, the ones we claim to cherish, are the ones who bear the brunt of our horrible actions. What we have done to them is nothing short of abuse. For our sins, we not only own them an apology, but our very lives.
Americans chose to elect hate yesterday. There can be no unity in hate. Great harm and great danger now stands ready to take the lead. Your deity cannot help you now. We owe the world an apology.
Hey ya’ll! My name is Mortimier Chunkendunck but ya’ll can call me Mort. I’m a good friend, well, actually more of a distant acquaintance, of ol’ Chuck Letbetter and he’s done gone and given me permission to teach ya’ll a little bit about photography. I’ve known ol’ Chuck since he was still wet behind the ears. I’ll tell ya’, that boy couldn’t tell the difference between a lens cap and a shutter button when he first started. That’s a story for a different time with lots of alcohol, though. He’s only giving me one page to do all this learnin’ for ya’ll here.
You see, how this all got started was that an ad from something called Shutter magazine. Not Shutterbug, mind you, which is something totally different about a lot of the same stuff. This here Shutter magazine has been promoting these ads on your Facebook sayin’ they’ll give ya’ a free photography lesson, or somethin’ like that. There’s a pretty picture on the ad and I’m guessing that’s what gets most people’s attention. Click on that there ad, though, and you find out there ain’t nothing much free. You get this page here that says ya’ gotta subscribe to that there magazine to get anything. And ya’ gotta get what they be callin’ an “Elite+” membership to be gettin’ any lessons about anything. Now, I don’t know what neck of the woods you grew up in, but ’round here that’s not what we call free.
So, ol’ Chuck calls me up—well,actually, I been houndin’ him a fair deal on Facebook to let me write somethin’ for him—but anyway, he says to me, he says, “Why don’t you go write a one-page photography course since you already know everythin’ ’bout everythin’?” An’ I says back at him, “Why, I’d be right honored to do that fer ya’>” So strap in an try to pay attention ‘cuz this here is some high-level information I be givin’ ya’ll here.
I know, that pretty young woman in that picture is a bit distractin’ for some of ya’ll. Let me just tell ya’ right now ya’ll probably ain’t got the smarts to keep up with that young lady there. Ya’ might as well just keep your mind on the topic here, which is cameras, and that’s exactly what she’s holding in her hands: a camera. You’re gonna need one of those things if ya’ll plan on being a photographer. No, dangit, your phone does not count. Takin’ a phone to a photo shoot is like showin’ up at church without a Bible, ’bout all ya’ can do is watch.
Now, I know a lot of people make a big freakin’ deal ’bout the kind of camera they be usin’. Let me tell ya’ right here and now that it don’t make one damn bit of difference one way or the other when you’re just startin’ out. Yeah, I know those really pricey ones got all the gizmos and gadgets that are fun and look good in the store, but if’n ya’ll don’t have the first clue’ bout takin’ a picture all the gizmos and gadgets on the planet ain’t gonna help ya’ none. Get yourself somethin’ simple so you can find that there ISO setting without having to turn the dang camera upside down and sideways. Ya’ don’t need 250 on-board filters if’n ya’ keep choppin’ everybody’s head off in the pictures. Like my momma told my pappy, “Keep it simple, Stupid.” She told him that ’bout a lot of things. That’s why I have 11 brothers and sisters.
Jus’ git yo’self a decent little camera there. Get one that feels good in your hands. If’n ya’ have tiny little dainty hands, like that there Republican feller that Chuck doesn’t like, then you’ll be wantin’ one of those smaller little boxes ya’ll can pick up for cheap. If’n ya’ have big ol’ farmer’s hands, though, you’re gonna be wantin’ something heavy enough ya’ don’t break it jus’ tryin’ to put the lens on the front. Try ’em out like ya’ would a good pair of work gloves. Git a feel for ’em.
Now, if’n ya’ gonna be a photographer, ya’ gotta decide what kinda subject you’re gonna shoot. No, De-Wayne, put down that shotgun, that ain’t the kinda shootin’ we be talkin’ ’bout. Ya’ need to decide what kinda pictures you’re gonna take. If’n ya’ take pictures of pretty people, like the young lass in this picture, then us normal folk will like yo’ work. If’n ya’ take pictures of ugly people in black and white, then all them high falutin’ artsy dodgers gonna like yo’ work. HowEVER, though, there’s only one way yo’re gonna make your grandma happy and that’s if’n ya take pictures of old barns and that ol’ oak tree back there by the crik when it turns all them colors and the Grand Canyon and stuff. Ya’ probably don’t want to go makin’ Grandma mad now, I hear she’s been updatin’ her will just in case the good Lord takes her away. Jus’ between you and me, I wish he’d get on with it ‘cuz Grandma’s done past her expiration date an’ is startin’ to smell a bit, if’n ya’ know what I mean. But don’t be tellin’ her I said that.
ANYway, takin’ picture of blank walls isn’t gonna get ya’ very far. Ya’ gotta have a subject and ya’ kinda want to keep takin’ pictures of the same kinda subject so that folks’ll know what to be expectin’ from ya’. Ya’ don’t need no tree photographer takin’ pictures at Darla Mae’s weddin’ next month, for example. That boy she’s gittin’ hitched to is dumb as a bag of rocks an’ twice as ugly. She’s gonna need one very talented photographer to make those pictures come out decent ‘nuf to hang on a wall. Pick yo’self somethin’ an’ stick wit’ it.
Eyes down here, folks. I don’t know why ya’ll keep gettin’ so distracted by the pictures. Ya’ll know dang good and well yo’momma would tan’ yo’ hide if’n she caught you takin’ pictures like that. Ol’ Chuck’s diff’rent. He’s too old for it to matter. The rest of ya’ll, tho’, be needin’ to keep yo’ eyes in yo’ head. Ya’ gotta learns to be proFESSional and not be distracted by boobs an’ such.
Back to the subject at hand, light is the most important part of photography. Ya’ can’t take pictures of nothin’ in the dark. That’d just be silly now, wouldn’t it. Besides, I done know half ya’ll city slickers be ‘fraid of the dark in the first place. Ya’ll wouldn’t know what to do if ya’ got a picture of the boogey man now, would ya’? So, ya’ gotta have some light turned on some place or else the picture just ain’t gonna turn out the way ya’ want. Git that through that li’l pea brain of yo’rs. Ya’ gotta turn a light on somewhere.
Now, ol’ Chuck likes whatcha call that there “natural light.” That is, he shoots where the sun be shinin’. He don’t even use no flash or nuthin’ most the time. Me, I prefer crankin’ up the generator and usin’ some big ol’ strobe lights so that everything is all lit up nice an’ pretty like Chris’mas. Either way’ll work if’n ya’ be careful. Just don’t go draggin’ no ‘lectrical cord through a mud puddle, though. That’ll give ya’ quite a shock there an’ ain’t none of yo’r kin gonna want to be yo’r assistant no mo’.
If’n yo’ takin’ pictures of peoples, then gittin’ ’em to stand the right way is the other most important part of photography. This is called posin’. No, DeWayne, it ain’t got nuthin’ to do with those folks walkin’ ’round with their britches saggin’ below their drawers. We be callin’ those folks “urBane” now, or somethin’ like that. Posin’ has to do with how yo’ subject be standin’ or sittin’ or whatever. Ya’ gotta be payin’ attention to this stuff or else the pictures be turnin’ out lookin’ like the stuff ya’ be shovlin’ out of Merle’s dairy barn.
Now, posin’ standin’ ain’t exactly like how ya’ll might be normal standin’. Ya’ gotta make it interestin’. Like, standin’ with one leg lookin’ like it done got stepped on by Pete’s bull. No, DeWayne, that does NOT mean ya’ll can go around stompin’ on people’s feet. Didn’t yo’ momma teach ya’ll no better’n that? Whatcha gotta do is go lookin’ at them there fashiony magazines an’ seein’ how them pretty ladies in them magazines be posin’. Pauline’s gotta stack of ’em down there in her hair Say-lon. She don’t mind ya’ lookin’ at ’em as long as ya’ keep the stack neat’n tidy.
Ol’ Chuck says ya’ can hire some help who done knows how to pose folk. They be called “art di-rectors” or somethin’ like that. I suppose they be walkin’ ’round with paint brushes in their pocket or somethin’. I ain’t never met one so I can’t rightly say.
Now, once ya’ done takin’ the pictures, ya’ gotta do this thing called editing before ya’ can show them to anyone. Take this here picture of ol’ Chuck, for instance. We both know dang good and well that there’s no way anyone’s gonna git Chuck up on no space ship. He done gone an’ used PHOTOshop to make it look like he was out in Jedi-land, where ever that is. Ya’ see, that PHOTOshop thing is mighty powerful stuff an’ ifn’ ya’ gots them computer smarts ya’ can do just ’bout anything with a picture that ya’ want.
Once upon a time, back when Chuck ‘n me were jus’ pups, folks used to have to do this editin’ stuff the hard way in what was called a dark room. It weren’t actually really dark in there, of course, we wouldn’t be able to see what we was doin’. There was a red light bulb in there and ya’ had to dip the picture in all these strange chem’cals an’ hang it up to dry like June’s laundry out there on the line. Took forever, it did.
Ya’ll be lucky now, tho, all ya’ll gots them computers an’ yo’ wifi an’ I’m tellin’ ya, there’s magic in them there boxes. Ya’ll can edit jus’ bout anything into anywhere if’n ya’ know what yo’ doin’. DeWayne, ya’ might as well go ahead and find yo’self a tudor or somethin’ to help ya’ figger it all out. Not all ya’ll the brightest bunch of bulbs in the box.
Once ya’ll got all them there pictures edited, then ya’ gotta post ’em all to Facebook. This is a re-QUIRE-ment ‘cuz there ain’t no way folks are ever gonna see none of those pictures if’n ya’ jus’ leave ’em sittin’ on yo’r computer there. Now, ol’ Chuck is sittin’ over here shakin’ his head for some reason. I’m not sure he’s feelin’ all that well. But trust me on this, no one is gonna know that yo’r bein’ a photographer now if’n ya’ don’t be postin’ yo’r pictures on the Facebook.
Now, I know some folks be postin’ all their stuff to this other thing called the Instagram. I sup’ose that might be okay if’n ya’ want to be lookin’ like one of them there spoiled li’l brats out in HolLYwood. I myself ain’t found much use for the thing. It keeps tryin’ to make all my pictures square and look funny. B’sides that, most people who be usin’ the Instagram be takin’ pictures of themselves, ya’ know, what they be callin’ selfies. Vanity is what it is, ya’ know, takin’ all them pictures of yo’r own face. Ain’t nobody need to see that many pictures of yo’r own face. Vanity is what it is. Heard the preacher say so jus’ the other Sunday.
This here concludes my photography lesson. I was gonna give ya’ll a test but Chuck is sayin’ we ain’t got time for that. So, I’m jus’ gonna go ‘head and DEclare ya’ll gradjuates of the Mortimier Chunkendunck Skool of Photography. Ya’ll is now o-fish-ally photographers. Good luck to ya’. Jus’ don’t be tryin’ to steal an of my customers.
Our little ones regularly tell me that I’m mean. Typically, that accusation comes when I tell them to go to bed, or don’t let them play with knives, or deny them the fourth cookie. In their view, I am impeding their path to happiness. For all their short little lives, other people have been focused on making them happy: grandparents, teachers, babysitters, etc. They are told in a thousand different ways that their happiness is what matters. Then, Kat and I come along and ruin by insisting that they take a bath, or not play in the litter box, or tell them to stop climbing the walls in the hallway (not kidding). We are so very mean.
I’m rather sure that when Thomas Jefferson included that line about the “pursuit of happiness,” he didn’t realize the level of horror he was unleashing on us a little more than two centuries later. We have come to take his words as a mandate: we must pursuit happiness. We think that we are not being fulfilled as individuals if we are not pursuing happiness. Oh, and by the way, it is our own individual happiness that matters. If your pursuit of happiness interferes with my pursuit of happiness then what you are doing is wrong. This is where our current social thought process has taken us.
Could it be that we have become so incredibly focused on being happy that we’ve lost sight of all the other things in life that matter? Does happiness need to be our highest priority or might there be more to life?
Such obsessiveness over whether we are happy is apparently a uniquely American thing that doesn’t occur in other societies. Ruth Whippman, an English writer, journalist, and documentarian currently living in California, wrote a rather interesting book, AMERICA THE ANXIOUS: How Our Pursuit of Happiness is Creating a Nation of Nervous Wrecks. You can get a taste of her book in this article on Vox. Part of the motivation for writing her book was the experience of coming from a society where happiness isn’t given a second thought and being tossed into the heart of a culture that is wholly obsessed with how happy they are. What she notices is that, as hard as we try, we’re really not any happier. In the Vox article she says:
To an outsider, it can sometimes feel as though the entire population has a nationwide standardized happiness exam to take and everyone is frantically cramming the night before to get a good grade. Like a stony-faced “that’s hilarious” after a joke in place of laughter — another mildly unnerving staple of conversation in this country — it appears that somewhere along the line, the joy has been sucked out of American happiness.
Americans are obsessed with being happy, I am convinced, because we somehow see it as part of our national birthright. We look at our lives and if we don’t think we’re happy then, somehow, our country is letting us down. Certainly, the Republican candidate for President whose slogan is “Make America Great Again,” enjoys such ridiculous appeal despite all that is inappropriate about him because what he’s actually saying is, “Make American Happy Again.” People respond to that desire to be happy, even if it denies happiness to others.
Because we, as Americans feel entitled to being happy, we give that feeling a priority and refuse to accept any other emotion for very long. Sadness is not acceptable. Depression requires medication, as does anxiety. If we are angry then we “have issues.” One who is overly enthusiastic is “out of touch,” but one who is embarrassed or feeling guilty needs to “get in touch with their inner self.” We look at happiness as our diety-delivered right and refuse to accept anything else.
One of the most ridiculous yet widely followed and often quoted statements in history comes from Ayn Rand:
Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values.
Can you see how that self-centered piece of horseshit is guiding the entitlement philosophy of an entire political party? Rand, and those who blindly follow her, put one’s personal happiness as a moral imperative above things such as being kind, helping others, compassion, caring, and empathy. When we become so singularly focused 0n achieving a state of happiness, when our purpose in life is to please ourselves first, we end up with policies that are anti-women because that infringes on the happiness of the men making the laws. If our integrity hinges on an imaginary emotional state of bliss, then we develop hate toward others whose conditions of poverty make us look bad. When we depend on the unachievable as proof of our values, we then question and criticize the values of others.
I’m sitting here looking at Little Man’s report card for the first term. He’s in second grade. Back in the cultural stone age of when I went to school, second grade was the last year we received the grossly over-generalized grades of S for satisfactory and U for unsatisfactory. Either we understood the material or we didn’t. No gray area. By contrast, the grading scale for Little Man’s class is as follows:
There are a tremendous number of 4s on this report, which pleases Kat. However, as Little Man was going over the report card with me this past week, he wasn’t happy. “Threes aren’t good enough,” he told me. “Threes mean I’m just the same as everyone else. 4s mean I’m better than most the people in my class.”
“So, three isn’t good enough?” I asked.
“I wish there was a 5 to show that I’m the best,” he answered. “That would really make me happy.”
Good god, we’re raising an over-achiever. Yet, this is how Little Man defines whether or not he is happy. S for satisfactory would never be enough for him. Exceeding standards isn’t enough for him. This social culture has convinced him that he needs to be on top, leaving everyone else behind, in order to be happy. The kid is likely in for a world of disappointment. Yet, if he demonstrated any lesser amount of determination then he would be labeled as an underachiever and probably considered uncooperative.
In the world of creating happiness, there are two buzz words that come up a lot. One is empowerment, the other is mindfulness. On their own, both words can have some really positive meaning. Yet, as we’ve taken them to become significant parts of our push to find what makes us happy, we might have taken both words a little too far. I like what Ms. Whippman says about empowerment:
As a rule, “empowerment” appears to be the consolation prize for those of us who will never have any actual power, and you can safely assume that no one in any position of genuine authority will be joining in. Creating a Tumblr of photos of your post–C-section wobbling and scarred naked stomach? Empowering! Creating a Tumblr of photos of your post-prostate surgery rectum? Not so much, senator.
Mindfulness requires being completely focused on whatever one is doing right at this moment. For example, if I was fully mindful, I would be totally consumed with writing the article and probably miss the fact that I have water boiling on the stove. Yet, the Mindfulness movement is so large that it has even made the cover of TIME (January, 2014). Should one make a trip to mindfulness.org, the home base of all things mindful, one sees articles such as The 7 Qualities of Mindfulness Trained in the Body Scan and Take a Mindful Hike. Here, happiness comes through hyper-attentiveness on a specific object or thought, not letting the mind wander, and thereby avoiding all things negative. That sentence is an over-simplification, of course, but again it is pushing one to focus on themselves to the exclusion of other things and other people around them.
I’m not anti-self-help, mind you. Rather, I think that when we improve ourselves it should be so that we are better able to help others and our community. Society only works when we are involved outside ourselves.
Happiness is elusive. To the extent that we spend all our time, all our motivation, in the pursuit of a condition we often cannot even define, we end up making our lives miserable. Gallup does an annual Positive Emotions Survey that essentially matters how happy people are. They poll adults in 140 countries and ask the following questions:
• Did you feel well-rested yesterday?
• Were you treated with respect all day yesterday?
• Did you smile or laugh a lot yesterday?
• Did you learn or do something interesting yesterday?
With all the effort Americans put into being happy, one might be tempted to think that we’re at the top of the list. We’re not. The US isn’t even in the top ten. Want to know who is the happiest? People in these countries, scale based on 100 being the happiest:
Paraguay 84
Guatemala 83
Honduras 83
Uzbekistan 83
Ecuador 83
El Salvador 82
Indonesia 82
Costa Rica 81
Uruguay 81
Colombia 81
Switzerland 81
One doesn’t need to look long to realize that none of the countries listed are likely to be engaged in things like empowerment and mindfulness. They’re not doing yoga and attending seminars on How To Be A Better You. Yet, they are consistent, year after year, happier than we are. We’re still in the top 25, mind you, but that people in lesser industrialized countries with fewer opportunities, higher unemployment, and lower wages would still be happier than we are should give us a hint that we’re probably going about this the wrong way.
One of the lessons I learned from going to church every waking moment of my youth is that no one promises us happiness. In fact, we’re pretty much assured that happiness isn’t going to happen all that often. If Poppa were sitting here with me this morning, and perhaps he is, he would likely use this scripture to make his point:
11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength. [Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.]
Look back up at the questions asked for the Positive Emotions Index. Did you sleep well? The question isn’t whether you slept as long as you want. Neither does it involve the type of bedding on which one sleeps. Simply sleeping well is sufficient and being content with that is more likely to leave us feeling satisfied. Were you treated with respect all day yesterday? That’s going to change from day to day and perhaps even moment to moment. Yet, to the degree we can find contentedness, not happiness, in our situation, regardless of how others treat us, we are more likely to feel better about ourselves.
Now, look what happens when we focus questions outward. Did you help someone else smile or laugh today? Chances are, if you helped someone smile, you were probably smiling also. It is easier to feel good when we are helping others feel good. Did you teach someone something new and interesting today? Does not improving someone else’s life not improve your own at the same time? When we are content, we might just increase our happiness because contentedness allows us to focus outward rather than inward.
One would think that the pursuit of happiness is a virtue, a positive character trait to be admired. Unfortunately, Americans, in their obsession to find happiness at any cost, have made that pursuit negative. Too often, our happiness comes at the expense of others. We focus so fully on what we think might make us feel better that we lose sight of what we could do to make the world feel better.
If we were some type of larvae that lives in a cocoon with no interaction with or obligation to the outside world, then sure, focusing on our own happiness might be totally appropriate. We do not live in cocoons, though. We are part of a vibrant, loud, emotional, and needy society. When we focus on our own happiness to the exclusion of those around us, we ultimately do harm to the whole.
Instead, perhaps we should work more to find contentedness and focus our intentions and actions on helping others. Something tells me that when we stop pursuing happiness so hard it might just show up on its own.
Don’t Trust The Messenger
For much of the past month, I’ve been getting ads between YouTube videos for a set of speakers, all of international origin, trying to get me to invite them to my church to talk about sexual trafficking. They claim that if they can come to my church, together we can help eliminate the horrible global problem of sexual trafficking. The ad shows photos of them speaking against a black background, laid over some random crowd shot that could have just as easily been a basketball game.
There are many problems with this ad. First, I don’t have a church and I did its regular attendance number would be around three, on a good day. Second, none of the names were recognizable and there was no way to check their credentials. Third, the photo felt fake. The solid black backgrounds matched too perfectly. Nothing was defining about the “crowd” to legitimize a specific location. Fourth, there were no endorsements from well-known third parties, such as UNICEF. I don’t know if you’ve worked around legit NGOs, but I assure you this is not how any of them work.
Then, one of the first things I read this morning was this headline:
Philippine court orders arrest of religious leader with ties to Duterte
The article centers around a megachurch pastor, Apollo Quiboloy, who calls himself “owner of the universe” and “appointed son of god.” He is charged with sex trafficking and sexual abuse of a Philippine woman. The Philippine court reversed a 2020 decision dropping the charges because the victim in this case continued to press the matter, making it impossible for the court to deny her charges.
Quiboloy also faces charges in the United States of sex trafficking based on accusations of coercing girls and young women to have sex with him. He is on the FBI’s “Most Wanted” list.
And this is why the church cannot be trusted to actually do anything to end sex trafficking. Sure, they make a lot of noise about it, and it’s become an election-year rallying cry for right-wing congregations who are sure that governments as responsible for the problem because, are you ready… Epstein. However, churches are not in the policing business, are they? Consider a few highlights:
And yet they want to be the ones who put an end to the very activity that has been one of their core interests for centuries? Let’s not forget that these same organizations supported slavery for over 400 years. They were adamant that by taking black people out of godless Africa they were helping to save their souls. Are we really going to fall for this trick again?
There’s no question that sex trafficking is a problem, but religion is absolutely not the way to solve it. First of all, churches have no legal authority outside the confines of their own addled minds. They can’t go running around internationally taking on the bad guys and putting them in jail. One doesn’t just walk into a sex trafficking operation and shut them down without a lot of authority, and usually a lot of firepower. This is dangerous work that needs to be carried out by professionals, not a group of folks with questionable divinity degrees.
Another huge issue is that the church’s mission of forgiveness lies in opposition to the legal need for punishment and restitution. We don’t need anyone cornering a bad guy and letting them off with a warning that “if you say 34 Hail Marys and promise to never do it again, we’ll let you go. Solving the problem of sexual abuse and sex trafficking first requires that people listen to the women and children who tell them what is going on, and believe what they’re being told. The church cannot be trusted to do that. They’ve never done it before, so why would anyone in their right mind trust them now?
Sex trafficking is rampant around the world for a number of reasons. Not only is there this long-standing problem of not listening to women, but it is far too easy to escape capture simply by moving from one country to another. There’s little cooperation between law enforcement authorities around the world, even in places where they share borders. Even if people are kidnapped in China, for example, getting sex trafficking charges in the US to stick is difficult because a) some of the people wanted to come to the US in the first place, and b) the Chinese government isn’t terribly cooperative in taking victims back or filing charges on their end.
Without a universal law enforcement agency that has the ability to make arrests regardless of a person’s country of citizenship and a court that can actually enforce international law promptly, all manner of international crime falls between the legal cracks. The bad guys succeed because international law is broken and toothless. These are the same empty laws that allow smugglers, drug dealers, and spies to get away with their horrible acts. Until there’s some stronger enforcement around the globe, there’s not a lot to stop the bad guys.
One thing that could work is responsibly legalizing sex work. I know a lot of conservatives, and especially religious conservatives don’t like having this conversation because they don’t want to understand human sexuality, but there are at least four benefits to legalizing sex work.
Other things we can do include addressing poverty, the lack of opportunities (especially being able to move between countries freely), and inequality. These are all critical to effectively combating sex trafficking and abuse.
Several states now require that signs be posted in businesses that say something to the effect: “If you or someone you know is being forced to engage in an activity and cannot leave, whether it is prostitution, housework, farm work, factory work, retail work, restaurant work or any other activity, call the National Human Trafficking Hotline.”
Human trafficking isn’t only about sex work. The high demand for farm work and low-wage warehouse work are perfect conditions for human trafficking because there’s little public interface or knowledge of the situation. I am aware of one instance from two years ago where traffickers attempted to push warehouse work that required a lot of walking and lifting onto a 74-year-old Senegalese woman who could barely walk without assistance, couldn’t lift, and had severe breathing problems. The argument for human trafficking was, in my opinion, one of the most obvious I’d ever seen. Yet, the management at the warehouse didn’t want to report the incident because of the high number of “good” workers the “agency” provided.
We don’t need the church involved in solving human trafficking. We need real laws that stick and the international clout to enforce them. Until we have that, poor and desperate people around the world remain in danger.
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