David Brooks is one of my favorite OP/ED writers because he is an authentic person that has a label, conservative, hung on him, in the same way that Maureen Dowd has been labeled, liberal. He writes about common humanity and is concerned for the common good, it appears to me, with an elegance and humility of someone that understands the responsibility of journalism, of being a citizen in this nation, and the role of government. We would no doubt differ on some issues, but his writings and appearances on Meet the Press demonstrate a person comfortable, concerned for others, and ability to integrate. It is this last characteristic, integration, that is missing from the halls of Congress and many elected officials all around this country; and it is clearly lost on the “front runners” for the Republican nomination for President. Brooks’ latest piece in the New York Times is an example of reflection and integration that is missing from many parts of our culture including Christendom. There are lessons for my denomination in his essay. A paragraph and click the title to read the entire article.
The Haimish Line
By DAVID BROOKS | The New York Times | August 29, 2011
Recently I did a little reporting from Kenya and Tanzania before taking a safari with my family. We stayed in seven camps. Some were relatively simple, without electricity or running water. Some were relatively luxurious, with regular showers and even pools.
The more elegant camps felt colder. At one, each family had its own dinner table, so we didn’t get to know the other guests. The tents were spread farther apart. We also didn’t get to know the staff, who served us mostly as waiters, the way they would at a nice hotel.
I know only one word to describe what the simpler camps had and the more luxurious camps lacked: haimish. It’s a Yiddish word that suggests warmth, domesticity and unpretentious conviviality.
A great article from Huffingpost.com. I’ve argued that this nation has not dealt with its grief from 9/11 and that this is fueling the current anger and depression (recession). This is what people and our institutions are living through and it has crippled our political process. Add to this a person of color ascending to the seat of power, the Presidency of the United States, then add the continuation of time and space rather than the apocalypse anticipated by the “left behind” believers, and you have an identity crisis that gives rise to the all white Tea Party and a sitting Senator proclaiming that his primary job is to make this non-white President a one-term President. The President is working and living from a post-racial mindset in an institution full of persons still shocked (offended) by not having a white face in the Oval office. Hillary Clinton would have suffered similar insults and attacks couched in anti- feminism, rather than race. The overt racism that is tolerated (celebrated on a network not to be named) on cable news and via talk radio, most of it from proclaimed and unashamed”conservatives”, harkens back to the days of segregation. My opinion, it is what fueled a South Carolina congressman to shout, “You lie” at the President. When it comes to Americans that practice Islam as their religious expression it goes back farther. The profiteers of grief and racism are entertainment branches of corporations, dominated by white males, that are making a buck off the fears of the working poor and now the debt riddled working middle class, whose only perceived power is to be “better” than those people. In a nation that shamelessly sells shame and humiliation via “reality” TV, shame has been lost as an effective tool of making justice happen. One of the best lines from this article is, “They will have learned to have compassion for people who maybe don’t even deserve that kind of compassion – dealing with bigots and dealing with prejudice – and that’s a great life lesson.” Maybe compassion is the last, best tool of making justice happen in our culture, because honor and shame in much of the political class have been bought out. Click the article title to read the entire piece.
Assalamu Alikum, my Muslim siblings, on your Ramadan journey this year.
Growing Up Muslim After Sept. 11: Yousuf Salama’s Story
by Gillian Flaccus | The Huffingtonpost | August 20, 2011
FULLERTON, Calif. — In many ways, Yousuf Salama is a typical teenager: He lives for football, worries about acne and would rather dash off to see “Captain America” with friends than spend one more minute with his mother. He’s aware, however, that his actions in particular can have greater meaning.
Yousuf is a Muslim, one of only two in an all-boys Catholic prep school in Southern California. He has been asked if he’s a terrorist and routinely shrugs off jokes about bombs and jihad. “Sometimes I feel like I take it upon myself to be a better example,” he said on a recent evening after returning for a weeklong football camp.