and the Netroots Nation worship service, which was a memorial for the troops who have died, and more. It was very moving. I played a small part in it. But I have been thinking about how we ended - with John Hobbs playing and singing a song he wrote, accompanied by Timroff on guitar. While I don't have video or audio of that performance, I thought what I have below will give you a sense. Peace.
that is how moved I am right now. I have just finished reading a column that is affirming of life, insistent on moral clarity, and totally appropriate to the incident which occasions its writing, the arrest of Radovan Karadzic. It is by Roger Cohen of the New York Times, and is entitled Karadzic and War’s Lessons.
Perhaps it will not move you as it did me. But you should read it. It should not be excerpted, which is all I can do without violating copyright. So I am going to ask a favor. Please read the column. If you do nothing else this morning, I think you will find my request reasonable. After you've done that, if you want, we can talk further. And anything I have to add will be below the fold. But don't feel obligated to do anything - except read Cohen's column
but I had a very busy end to my school year, and since then have attended several workshops. In addition, my wife made me buy some new clothes (f you are coming to Austin it is actually possible I might at some point wear a suit that fits). And I have been busy with reviewing books, catching up on other reading, doing all the house work and yard work that goes wanting during the school year, and giving my cats lots of attention.
I do not know if I will be able to attend the Street Prophets Caucus on Thursday. I will be in Austin as of midday on Wednesday, but I will have to see how the schedule works out. I still plan attend the Sunday Service, although this year I may not have a role.
Now let's see if I can actually still remember how to post here. Peace.
How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died? The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
(emphasis added)
I thought of these words by Bob Dylan because I am reading Dan Schorr, a book entitled Come to Think of It: Notes on the Turn of the Millennium, which is a collection of his commentaries on NPR during the period 1990-2006. And one commentary challenges our thinking about the use of the US Military. But as my title notes, this will not be what you think. At least, I think not. But I hope it will provoke some serious discussion.
December 29, 1985. It was a Sunday. For December it was crisp, but not too cold. It began with attendance at church, although we arrived for the morning services separately. It was a day full of family and friends. It was our wedding day. Kenneth Bernstein was not yet teacherken, but that marriage to the woman who posts here (too infrequently) as Leaves on the Current is the major reason that I became a teacher, and also a strong influence on my attempting to write.
I have written before about what the marriage upon which we embarked that day has meant to me, most notably two years ago in How does one measure a life?. I choose this anniversary to repost that in its entirely below the fold, and then add only a few additional words.
The law of love, peace and liberty in the states extending to Jews, Turks and Egyptians, as they are considered sons of Adam, which is the glory of the outward state of Holland, soe love, peace and liberty, extending to all in Christ Jesus, condemns hatred, war and bondage. And because our Saviour sayeth it is impossible but that offences will come, but woe unto him by whom they cometh, our desire is not to offend one of his little ones, in whatsoever form, name or title hee appears in, whether Presbyterian, Independent, Baptist or Quaker, but shall be glad to see anything of God in any of them, desiring to doe unto all men as we desire all men should doe unto us, which is the true law both of Church and State; for our Saviour sayeth this is the law and the prophets.
I no longer consider myself a Christian, although I did spend almost two decades in the Episcopal Church and the Orthodox Church of America. My wife is still devoutly Christian. And there is much I respect about Christianity. Most of my fellow member of the Religious Society of Friends consider themselves Christian, and their pacifism derives specifically from their understanding of what it means to be a Christian.
When I glanced this morning at the editorial pages of The Boston Globe, I encountered a column by H. D. S. Greenway entitled Hope in times of war which I commend to you. This diary is the result of reading his column, and of my further reflection upon it. Since I am not wealthy, it is all I can bring to the manger, or to collection of offerings under the communal tree.
crossposted from dailykos at the request of loggersbrat
Romney's speech has led to much bloviation. I watched Chris Matthews say how it was the best speech of this political season, althouh eventually he acknowledged that there were some problem areas. David Brooks has written a somewhat sensible column. The Boston Globe has an editorial entitled Romney on bended knee in which they note
Romney got applause when he criticized those who would supplant a faith-centered nation with "the religion of secularism." But given the amount of violence and intolerance that various religions have generated throughout history, it is unwise to insist that religious belief is a prerequisite for freedom.
I'm not sure that an ordinary school teacher aka blogger has much to add to the discussion, but as this is a question that concerns me, I will offer a few thoughts below the fold.
In 1965, when Moynihan published his report, suggesting that the out-of-wedlock birthrate and the number of families headed by single mothers, both about 24 percent, pointed to dissolution of the social fabric of the black community, black scholars and liberals dismissed it. They attacked its author as a right-wing bigot. Now we'd give just about anything to have those statistics back. Today, 69 percent of black babies are born out of wedlock, while 45 percent of black households with children are headed by women.
The words are by Henry Louis "Skip" Gates, of Harvard's Black Studies Program, and appear in today's New York Times in an op ed entitled, as is this diary, Forty Acres and a Gap in Wealth. Gates is writing in response to last week's Pew Center report where African-Americans think blacks can no longer be thought of as a single race because of the class divide.
I am not black, and perhaps am not the best to write about this. But it is an important subject, so I will with some trepidation use the Gates editorial to explore it.
entitled Mobilizing the Religious Left, it is by Alan Wolfe and is a presentation of an old book, Walter Rauschenbuschs's Christianity and the Social Crisis. The book is now 100 years old.
Let me offer a few paragraphs to encourage you to read the review. Then you can decide about the book if you have not read it, or perhaps offer some comments about it if you have.
The review begins:
Suppose you view the United States as filled with glaring inequalities and dominated by corrupt politicians. Suppose you are also a Christian who believes that "the Church is to be the incarnation of the Christ-spirit on earth." Would you link your two causes?
Walter Rauschenbusch, the leader of the Social Gospel movement of the early 20th century, did just that in "Christianity and the Social Crisis," published 100 years ago this year.
The kingdom Jesus preached was radical. Not only are nations irrelevant, but families are, too: he instructs those who would be his disciples to give up all they have and all those they know to follow him.
I have no intention of offering a sermon. Neither did the author of the words I just quoted, which are from A Nation of Christians Is Not a Christian Nation, an op ed by Jon Meacham, editor of Newsweek. Immediately after the words with which I began, Meacham reminds us that
The only acknowledgment of religion in the original Constitution is a utilitarian one: the document is dated "in the year of our Lord 1787." Even the religion clause of the First Amendment is framed dryly and without reference to any particular faith. The Connecticut ratifying convention debated rewriting the preamble to take note of God’s authority, but the effort failed.
I believe Meacham's piece is a useful reminder, which I want to explore in the context of attitudes, actions and events of our own day.
On the Op-Ed page of today's Washington Post is a provocatively entitled piece, An American Hajj written by Charles Crohn, deputy director of the American Battle Monuments Commission. He uses the Muslim obligation of Hajj, the mandatory one-time visit to Mecca as a metaphor and asks
What if every American who is able to do so made an effort to visit at least one American military cemetery overseas during his or her lifetime?
Reading that paragraph got me thinking, not merely about the idea of visiting military cemeteries, whether here (I do live in Arlington VA) or overseas. Rather I began to reflect on the idea of the journey, the process. This diary is a product of that reflection, on the idea of pilgrimage.
