Morning Reading . . .

It was a busy summer and especially July in our little corner of creation.  My companion and I traveled most of the month with work splashed into the travels.  That is one way life is different for me.  Have laptop and phone so the office is always with me.  I choose to “work” on holiday to stay informed and meet expectations of my position.  I also channel a bit of my father’s workaholic tendency the older I become. Anyway, there has not been much time for the leisure routine of reading and when I have I did not make the time to post.  I guess if some of my livelihood depended on this blog to generate income then maybe it would get into my regular attention sphere.

I do like to write and think through the keyboard.  That part of my day is coming back when September arrives.

Morning reading . . . you might guess that it is dominated by news and opinion about the clash of ideals and values in Charlottesville, VA this past Saturday.  Oddly, we passed through Charlottesville on the train from Lynchburg to New York during July taking our niece on her graduation trip.

The last article from Vox.com provides some explanation about the forces at work on white people, no matter how educated or cosmopolitain one might be, as our country struggles to embrace changing demographics, leadership, and address systemic racism.  Like my denomination, our country is going through a remodel.  Some citizens are not comfortable with the architects drawing the plans.  The film, “Men of Honor” highlights the fragile relationship of poor whites, working class whites, and specific to the film, black people, though if made about our historical context it would no doubt include other non-white people.

The response to the election of former President Obama by the GOP at all levels of government, in polite educated voices like Senator McConnell and the gun wielding Tea Party movement, was an alarm ignored that led to the election of Trump with Russian help or not.  In the end, the privacy of the election booth gave cover for the fear of other, of change, and loss of power to overshadow education and experience.  Electing a woman, even a white woman, after such a shock of victory by a non-white was just too much for some of our citizens no matter her qualifications.  And Trump’s lack of civility, open bigotry, and attitude of being above the law based on his economic privilege empowers white people to act out without fear of prosecution like what we saw in Charlottesville. President Trump’s bullying privilege makes space for discriminatory religious liberty laws, for pro-birth requirements of women, and monetizing all aspects of life. These United States are looking a lot more like the Nation States of Europe rather than one Nation with liberty and justice for all.  Maybe these are growing pains?

We are all racists, sexists, some kind of ‘ists’ or ‘ism’ to some degree or another no matter our ethnicity.  The movie “Blazing Saddles” notes this aspect about the human condition very well.  And the movie demonstrates that this doesn’t mean humans cannot overcome this condition, but it takes intentionality.  If we survive this second decade of the 21st century it will be because American citizens decided to give up our adolescent ways, learn from history, and embrace early adulthood as a Nation.  The civic contract we have with one another requires it.  I wonder if people in other parts of the world ask themselves, “I thought America was better than that?”

This Indiana man is in the middle of the ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville
IndyStar.com

Christian Parents of LGBTQ Children: The Church Has Been Wrong
http://johnpavlovitz.com

Editorial: We don’t have words strong enough
The Roanoke Times

Amid the violence in Virginia, President Trump failed in a test of leadership
The Dallas Morning News

Ten Ways to Fight Hate: A Community Response Guide
Southern Poverty Law Center

Independents’ movement hits Philly, walking in Founders’ footsteps
philly.com

The Charlottesville protests are white fragility in action
Vox.com

 

, 08/14/2017. Category: Monday Morning Reading.

Repair the ACA

Here is the text of a fax and email I sent to one of my Senators today.  At some point people of good will are the only persons that can bridge the chasm that exists in State and Federal government.  Hyper individualism is breaking the social contract we all signed as citizens of this Nation.  Oligarchs and open corruption exist in other countries of the world and it seems that with this President and the supporting cast dominating government right now, that style of governing, oligarchy, is what a minority of loud voice are willing to endure to ensure their dominance, white patriarchy, even when these citizens will suffer the most under the tax, health, energy, and industrial military complex policies to which the current GOP leaders swear allegiance; and look the other way as the President enriches himself, his family, and other political leaders by using the government for their own financial means.

Senator James Lankford,

Sir,

Thank you for serving the public in this anxious and conflicted time in our Nation’s history.  I keep you and your family in my meditations. It cannot be easy balancing what you think your constituents desire, what data may tell you constituents want, educating yourself broadly in the issues that effect the Nation and Oklahomans, dealing with lobbyists telling you what their interests desire, and managing your own ambitions.

I email today to encourage you to repair, rather than repeal, the ACA.  The GOP at the State and Federal level are making life, free as it is, harder for Oklahomans and our Nation’s citizens by intentionally sabotaging the exchanges & subsidies designed to assist persons to get healthcare.  Your participation with the GOP sabotage places you in a challenging moral position to recalibrate your moral compass and find it within your self to do what I know, you know, to be right, equitable, and above all honorable.

I know you profess faith and I often ponder how you balance that discipleship of following Jesus with the policies and politics of our Nation.  I know your faith places a high value on belief in Christ for an afterlife in heaven. I urge you to read the parables of Jesus again. Those parables and the Sermon on the Mount are not describing a theocratic Nation evangelizing the world for Christ, but a counter-cultural kingdom of heaven where the first are last and the last first.  By the way, you and I are the first.

So, I offer prayers of intercession that you will find some Democratic and Republican colleagues that will set an example and do the hard work of governing for all our citizens by fixing the ACA with the same urgency as you support more military spending, more gun ownership, and more drilling.

Oklahomans and our Nation’s citizens need you to demonstrate consistently that you are not supporting the President for your own gain, political spoils, or ambition.  President Trump’s actions are divergent with the faith you proclaim and his ‘Christian’ belief appears tied to keeping his approval rating high with white evangelicals. Are you certain you want your political legacy intertwined with that kind of political leader?

Repeal of the ACA will make life harder for Oklahomans in rural areas as well as urban areas.  Be a repairer of the breach rather than a cause of it.

I would be happy to speak with you anytime about this or other topics that address the common good of our Nation and the world.

, 07/19/2017. Category: Michael D.
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