Part I: God's In My Gasoline (bad working title)

This is a part of a short story...not sure if it's the beginning, the end, or somewhere in between.

Gasoline had become increasingly hard to find during the Christianization of the refineries. President Bush had sent teams of Faith-Based chemical engineers throughout the southern United States, directing them to review every function at every refinery to ensure that there could be no question as to the legitimacy of his claim that refineries operate according to God's will. Simultaneously, he ordered dramatic changes in the distribution system, directing large supplies of all grades of gasoline toward Bible belt states and limiting pipeline capacity in such places as California, Oregon, New York, and other states with questionable commitments to the administration's religious and political ideologies.

The "Godding of the Gas" as the Heathens later called it, came on the tails of a shocker of even greater proportions: the 'temporary hibernation of the Constitution.' Following the massive November 2005 demonstrations against the war in Iraq and his administration's bungling of relief to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Bush had become increasingly agitated. He had ordered National Guard troops to Washington, DC to quell the uprising, only to be told by his military advisors that the supply of National Guard troops was inadequate; they had been sent to Iraq, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and--because of protestors flooding in from throughout the U.S. --Crawford, Texas. Not being a man to accept bad new when he expected good, Bush emptied the ranks of his advisors, military and civilian, who could not supply the troops and replaced them with more malleable types who would give him any answer he wanted to hear.

The willingness of his new advisors to simply tell him anything to keep him from getting angry helped accelerate to 'evolution' of his plan (it hurts to say). Initially, he had planned to corral the Senate and House through bullying and intimidation, but that had not been necessary. They were in his pocket in almost full force, Democrats and Republicans alike. So, with no need to waste his energy on those tactics, he decided to go beyond what he once thought was reasonable...instead, he would be bold, brash...'memberable', as he liked to say. Calling a press conference at prime time on October 15, 2005, President Bush made the announcement:

'My fellow Americans. You, like me, are part of this great Christian nation. You, like me, have seen the devastation wrought by our Creator. You, like me, must have wondered: Why? Why would our God exact his wrath upon our country? Why would our God expose us to such pain, such trauma, such horror? I asked for advice on these questions...advice from the finest religious minds of our time. And I got answers.

I learned that it is an abomination unto Him that some among us have forsaken hard work for handouts. And it is an abomination unto Him that some among us have in their hearts a desire to KILL unborn babies. And I learned that it is an abomination unto HIM that some among us are urging our country to reject the natural, holy liquid from under the earth in favor of sources of power as yet untested, sources of power not provided by our Great God, but provided, instead, by SATAN!

When I heard why God had caused the hurricanes...when I heard that God was punishing us for permitting far too much freedom of thought, I decided to take action. The action I have taken, while not necessarily contemplated in the laws of our great Constitution, is most certainly contemplated in the laws of our Almighty God! The action I have taken is to place the United States Constitution in hibernation until we are able to set this country on the right path again. Then, and only then, will we consider reinstating it. Now, you are no doubt wondering what this means for you. Well let me tell you.

What this means for you is that, if you behave as we expect Christian Americans to behave, you will not see much difference from the ways things are now. You may see more military presence in your area and you may be subject to periodic search of your person or your home, but otherwise, the changes will not be significant. But for those who choose to behave in ways that are contrary to the teachings of the Bible as I interpret them, life will not be easy. Those people can expect a harsh master..."

[This will be subject to regular, and probably massive, rewriting...and it will be added to, replaced, moved, massaged, and otherwise changed. In short, the piece you have just read is the first documentation of a still-evolving (there's that word again) idea for a short story. I can't possible make this into a novel...that would give me cause to think Bush will continue in office beyond the end of this year, which is just too painful to consider...]

What Role Does Business Play?

Until recently, I considered the role of my business to be this: provide adequate income to my wife and me to live a reasonably comfortable life, while serving the needs of my clients and providing a fair wage and benefits to my staff. Not particularly grandiose, I know, but that was essentially how I saw my business. I'm beginning to look at it differently of late.

After Hurricane Katrina, I felt compelled to use some of the resources of my business to make a donation to the American Red Cross; I wanted to do something. I encouraged my staff to make a donation, too, which I said I would match, up to $200 (making their donations worth $400). I was disappointed that only half of them made donations, and those donations were, in my view, rather small. But I matched their donations (and the donation my wife and I made), and added enough to make a $1000 donation from my company.

I had an opportunity to attend a meeting of other people in my line of work shortly thereafter and was pleased, initially, to hear some of my colleagues say they had made similar decisions and similar contributions. But the more I listened, the more it seemed to me that I was hearing a bunch of people congratulating themselves for giving money that did not even belong to them. These people work for organizations that pay their salaries, but they do not have a particularly personal stake in the organizations. And the money they contributed to the charities that are helping the victims of the hurricane was not money that would cause my colleagues to feel any personal discomfort. I know it sounds like I am berating these people for not giving more; but that's not quite it. I'm concerned that businesses, associations...organizations of all kinds...don't necessarily see themselves playing a hands-on role in responding to and correcting human misery. They give within their comfort zones.

I began thinking beyond responding to an immediate crisis. What about responding to the ongoing drudgery of poverty? What about helping people get past the things that are keeping them from achieving some degree of self-sufficiency and self-respect?

All these issues raises the question: what role does, or should, business play in giving everyone an opportunity to live with respect and dignity? On one hand, I think business should be far more generous, in general, than I believe it is. The vast sums of money that are reported as profits of large corporations make me think many of those dollars should go to better uses. On the other hand, I am a capitalist and I do believe that people should be able to reap the rewards of their own efforts, intellectual pursuits, etc. Is there a happy medium between "caring for the masses" and sucking every cent possible for owners and shareholders?

I believe there must be a happy medium, but it can only be achieved by introducing into the business mindset and honoring a morality based on the value and dignity of every person. Business can contribute, but society across the board must make an effort. My immediate thought is that churches, religion in general, have attempted to make such an effort. As much as I dislike churches and their dogma, I have to admit that, sometimes, churches do help people through hard times, though churches do have an ulterior motive. Unfortunately, churches rely on a invisible power to inflict fear into humankind in order to convince people to behave charitably. That's no good. So what can we do to inject a "baseless" morality into society? I think one place to start is business. There are many, many businesses in this world; most people spend a great deal of their lives involved, in one way or another, with businesses. If businesses would take it upon themselves to promote a social order that supports people who need support, the rest of society might follow suit.

What role does business play? I'm not sure. What do you think? Am I being a hopeless Pollyanna?

My Mother's Birthday

Today is my late mother's birthday. She was born on this day in 1908, so she would be 97 years old today had she lived. But she died when she was only 79. It's hard to believe she has been gone for 18 years.

When I think about my mother, I think of a woman who was devoted to her kids, but not in the way one often thinks of devoted mothers who believe their children can do no wrong. She did not look past her children's faults; instead, she worked to correct them.

My mother was an English teacher and she was very proud of her work. But she finally gave it up because the school systems changed to the extent that she found the job bureaucratic, unreasonably demanding, and unfulfilling.

She was a very good writer. One of the first things I saw that she wrote was a short story she did for a college course. It was an autobiographical allegory of self-worth that dealt with her perceptions of herself vis-à-vis her siblings. She felt that she paled in comparison to them. She did not...she was a fine woman who had so many talents, a wonderful sense of humor, and such a sense of pride in her children. She had plenty of faults, but her genuine goodness outweighed them.

I credit my mother, in large part, for my interest in the English language and literature, for my adventurous nature about foods, and for my willingness to question authority.

She felt so strongly about the importance of reading that she took on one of my teachers in sixth grade. I was reading Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck and was sharing something from the book with a classmate; I remember being intrigued by some dialogue that included a reference to "Sicillian bastards!" which I no doubt found delightfully wicked as a 12-year-old. My sixth grade teacher didn't share my admiration for the phrase and took the book away from me and told me never to bring such nasty stuff to school again. That evening, I told my mother about the incident and she became livid. I recall hearing her call my teacher at home to explain that she didn't care what I read, just so long as I read; she told the teacher to never take a book from me and to call her if she ever had concerns about what I was reading.

There are so many conversations I never had with my mother; I wish I could turn back time so I could ask her the hundreds of questions I've wanted to ask her since her death. Today, I'll just say "Happy Birthday, Mom," knowing she can't hear me, but also knowing that she's still influencing me now, deep into my geezerhood.

An Important Unrelated Update
I just got word that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has been indicated by a Travis County (Texas) Grand Jury on one count of criminal conspiracy. The indictment accused DeLay of a conspiracy to "knowingly make a political contribution" in violation of Texas law outlawing corporate contributions. It alleged that DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority political action committee accepted $155,000 from companies, including Sears Roebuck, and placed the money in an account.

I truly hope he's guilty and that he is found guilty by a jury. If he's not guilty, then he should be exonerated...but he should still be dipped in boiling oil, just because he is one of the most obnoxious, arrogant, bastards I have every had the displeasure of hearing utter a word.

Life-Changing Grilled Fish

And now for something totally new and different...again.

I'm going back on the South Beach diet. It worked quite well the first time around. In fact, I lost at least 25 pounds in relatively short order. However, I quickly got into my old habits of eating too much and drinking too much and ignoring exercise. So, here I sit, fat and unhappy about my too-big waist and my too-little stamina.

Today, I'm back on the diet. Grilled meat in small doses and grilled fish in somewhat larger doses. Grilled vegetables in even larger doses. Laying off the milk and cheese, despite the fact they're supposed to be OK for the diet, because the doctor I'm seeing these days thinks my triglycerides are far too high, going through the roof.

I need to feel smaller than my clothes again. I need to see only two chins, where there are now a baker's dozen. So, another diet. What I really need is to change my lifestyle...exercise every day, drink lots of water and not much (or any) booze, eat vegetables, and avoid breads and such. Last time around, I was able to deal with the diet by adding spices to otherwise uninteresting fare and I suspect I'll do the same this time around.

The scale will get used every morning...and I will record my weight. I should publish it here for the world to see. That ought to give me some incentive to drop it! At the same time, I really need to get in the habit of checking my blood pressure at least once a week...it's another thing my cardiologist rants about (my failure to check it periodically).

Tomorrow, or the next day, I'll be back at my political, social, and economic diatribes. For today, though, I'm going head to head with my overweight and undermuscled body.

But all that is after tonight's meal...my wife wants to use a many-dollars-off coupon at Lawry's so we can have prime rib. A fitting feast in preparation for the famine.

It's My Country, Too

For five years, President Bush and his henchmen have been allowed by the American people to ignore the legacies of this country...the legacy of free expression and honest argument; the legacy of defending an opponent's rights to an opinion, as vile as that opinion might seem; the legacy of cherishing diversity and respecting religious freedom. This country was founded on principles of fairness. It was built upon the tenets of democracy and openness and generosity. But for five years, the administration of this American president has turned its back on the very principles that made the country great.

Since well before the 2004 presidential election, I have felt a great sense that something is wrong in this country. I have felt that my opinions, my beliefs, my ideas and my attitudes have been not only at odds with the administration, but with the majority of the American people (if the media's reports of public opinions were any measure). I've felt that I no longer belonged in my own country, the country of my birth. These sensations were awful; they made me feel alone and abandoned by what once was, with all its faults, the world's greatest democracy. I have been feeling that my own country doesn't want someone like me anymore. My own country thinks that, because I hold views that are at odds with the party in power, I am somehow unAmerican, that I am not sufficiently patriotic. We Americans have allowed this to happen. We have permitted ourselves, as a country, to be twisted and bent into something that hardly resembles what we once were.

It is disgraceful that good people is this country are smeared and called traitors, simply because their view of the future of this country is not aligned with that of the current administration, which envisions a future that many of us consider dark and dangerous.

Lately, though, I've begun to have some faint stirrings in my mind that, perhaps, my assessment of the American people was wrong. Maybe my countrymen did not, as a group, view my liberal politics as unAmerican. Maybe, just maybe, they disagreed with me, but aligned themselves with Bush simply because he was the leader of their party. Maybe they are, just now, beginning to see that despite our very different political leanings, we're on the same side. Maybe they're beginning to realize that the one-sided fascist approach fancied by Bush and his compatriots might temporarily put them where they want to be but would, in the long run, eliminate their freedoms just as the administration has eliminated the freedoms of so many others. Maybe they're coming to believe that a healthy democracy should never be of one mind, lest that one mind silence all rational thought.

The more I think about political parties and their frequently malignant ways of growing and building strength, the more I believe they should be abandoned and replaced by societal platform initiatives, each of which would address strategies to address issues relevant to the societal initiative. More about this later, but I think election of people to address limited-scope societal imperatives might eliminate traditional political parties. Instead, voters could more easily express their specific desires on issues such as public health policy, farm subsidies, economic policy, etc. But I digress...back to the point.

I encourage everyone, whether right, left, or centrist in their social and and economic and general political leanings, to express your opinions about social and economic and political issues. I'm not suggesting you should loudly proclaim your positions but, instead, I am suggesting you argue your positions with people who hold differing opinions about the world...but do it dispassionately. Don't use this administration's manipulative tactic of shouting down or silencing those who hold different viewpoints; instead, be rational and reasonable. Recognize that it's your country, too, and it does not belong solely to the Republican Party or Democratic Party or to the Bush Administration. Take our country back. If you're a Republican, take it back for your Republican compatriots who share a sense of reason and obligation to the people of the United States and the world and who fear the Bush administration has twisted your party's history of conservatism into an unreasonable dogma . If you're a Democrat, take it back for your Democratic compatriots who share your sense of obligation and reason. If you're nonpartisan, do the same; take steps to take back your country.

If everyone ...or only a fraction...in the country will recognize that it's your country, too, and you can and should have a voice in it, we can make a difference. We can recognize that others hold differing opinions, but we should never acquiesce to the argument that minority opinions, whatever they are, do not matter.

I'm tired of seeing right-wing nutcases and left-wing lunatics brand me a traitor for my failure to share their beliefs. I'm tired of people at the ends of the political spectrum taking control of the political establishment. I think their views deserve to be heard, but the simple fact that they are on the fringe suggests that we moderate them when putting them into political action.

I'm liberal. I confess that I am much more likely to support liberal ideas than conservative ideas. But I will listen to both of them. I will argue for the position that I believe is best, but I will insist that the other side be given an ear, as well. The more I hear of frenzied screams on both ends of the spectrum, the more moderate I become.

Back to my initial comments, though. We really are living in a time in which the far-right religious zealots are taking control and attempting to demonize those with more rational and less rabid views. Our first step is to step up to speak out against them. Argue for reason. Argue that it's your country, too, and that you, too, are a patriot whose demand for reason and respect for the constitution makes you more of a patriot than those who would abandon the document that gave birth to this country.

Just Like Poverty...but on a Smaller Scale

I live in a climate that's not suitable for human habitation. Summers are hot, horribly hot. I arrived home this afternoon after a flight from a much gentler climate. I stepped from the airplane into the jetway and a blast of oppressive heat instantly enveloped me and, as I took my first breath outside the controlled environment of the airplane, I felt as if a fist had punched my chest, hard. Then, the fist unclinched and grabbed my throat, choking me and preventing me from catching even the slightest breath. Home at last.

Fortunately, I was able to return to relative comfort upon entering the air-conditioned terminal. That was short-lived, though. Once I collected my bags, I exited the terminal to the oppression of a parking lot whose massive concrete structure absorbs heat and intensifies it. My thoughts upon returning home to this sort of shock to my system repeated the thoughts I've had many other times I experienced the crushing heat; why do I live in a climate unfit for man or beast? The answer is simple: money and fear of the unknown. Though I live a relatively nice life, I'm not financially secure, nor am I financially independent. I have to choose to be where I know I can make a living. Or, I have to be willing to risk the unknown...move somewhere else that I might find a more appealing climate, but where I may be unable to make a living. I know, I know...if I had more ambition, I might be able to make a change without financial worry, simply by marshalling my economic and intellectual resources. But, at the moment I choose to steady myself with the resources at hand and only dream of living in a more appealing place.

My financial resources pale in comparison to people who really have money. I cannot help but think of whether I can afford to buy a new car before I visit the lot. I cannot help but assess the status of my checking account before deciding to buy an expensive outdoor gas grill (and then opting not to do so, since my resources are needed elsewhere). I cannot help but evaluate whether my entertainment funds might be better used as a start to savings for a trip to South America than for lunch today. People who have almost unlimited resources do not have to ask themselves such questions. Those questions, for them, may be irrelevant. But they're relevant to me. Why the difference? The difference is that I, when compared to people with lots of money, am poor. I live in poverty, relativel to people whose economic resources far exceed mine. Is mine real poverty? No, of course not. But my financial resources, compared with the truly well-off, can explain some of my decisions.

My decision to continue to live in this summertime hell-hole is influenced in ENORMOUS part by my financial resources. If I had much more money, I would not hesitate to move to a place where the climate is more to my liking...where the weather, as well as the political and social values, are more pleasing to me. But my financial situtation prohibits me from making the decision to move on.

The fact that I can't have what I want makes me realize that some decisions that may appear to be based on personal values or ambition (or lack hereof), or some other internal driver are, in fact, economic decisions. Did the people who failed to leave New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina stay put because they weren't motivated to leave, or did they stay because they did not have the means to get out? Do people who don't go looking for a job stay home because they're lazy or because they don't have access to a car or public transportation or money for a taxi or money for clothes?

My decision not to move...or even to try to find a way to move...is based on my belief that I know I just cannot garner the resources I would need to be successful after a move. Some people encourage me, saying I could be successful; all I would have to do would be to take a chance. That chance, of course, could lead to bankruptcy, homelessness, and despair. What if I failed? Then what? What, indeed! If I understand that taking a risk could ultimately cause me to be in financial ruin, then the impoverished person who decides he can't leave New Orleans for a similiar reason is easier for me to understand. My safety net is far stronger, yet I can't take the risk. The family in New Orleans may have to look at it this way: if we leave, we have no place to go, no money, no future of any kind, but if we stay, we have a home and a neighborhood and people we know who might come to our aid in the worst of times. Which risk is greater, dying surrounded by family or living with even fewer resources than were ever available before?

I do wish I could live in a gentler climate, where the people are pleasant even if you don't share their political agenda. I haven't given up on achieving that dream. But in the interim, my "cross" seems much easier to bear than so many others.

When I compare my wish to live in a place where the weather is more hospitable, I will try to put it in perspective. My inability to buy my way out of my predicament is just like poverty, but oh a much smaller scale.

Another Hurricane

Today's news is Hurricane Rita, which reached category 5 status before weakening to category 4, then to category 3. As I write this, the storm is lashing the coast of Texas and Louisiana. It should go ashore early this morning. A levee in New Orleans was breached earlier today due to rain. Television reports are showing awful weather...rain, wind, huge breaking waves on the shore.

Horrendous traffic jam prevented many from evacuating Houston and other coastal and near-coastal cities. Many people are just trying to get to protected shelter and hold on.

I'm on the west coast on business...can't do anything to help except try to return early, which I can't reasonably do.

I just hope everyone is safe and the storm isn't as powerful or as deadly as it earlier promised to be.

9/11 and the Sport of God

I am pasting this entire piece, verbatim, because it is so powerful and so instructive. The source for the material is www.TomPaine.com; the specific item address is: http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050909/911_and_the_sport_of_god.php


9/11 And The Sport of God
Bill Moyers
September 09, 2005


This article is adapted from Bill Moyers' address this week at Union Theological Seminary in New York, where Judith and Bill Moyers received the seminary’s highest award, the Union Medal, for their contributions to faith and reason in America. Bill Moyers is a broadcast journalist and former host the PBS program NOW With Bill Moyers. Moyers also serves as president of the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy, which gives financial support to TomPaine.com.

At the Central Baptist Church in Marshall, Texas, where I was baptized in the faith, we believed in a free church in a free state. I still do.

My spiritual forebears did not take kindly to living under theocrats who embraced religious liberty for themselves but denied it to others. “Forced worship stinks in God’s nostrils,” thundered the dissenter Roger Williams as he was banished from Massachusetts for denying Puritan authority over his conscience. Baptists there were a “pitiful negligible minority” but they were agitators for freedom and therefore denounced as “incendiaries of the commonwealth” for holding to their belief in that great democracy of faith—the priesthood of all believers. For refusing to pay tribute to the state religion they were fined, flogged, and exiled. In l651 the Baptist Obadiah Holmes was given 30 stripes with a three-corded whip after he violated the law and took forbidden communion with another Baptist in Lynn, Mass. His friends offered to pay his fine for his release but he refused. They offered him strong drink to anesthetize the pain of the flogging. Again he refused. It is the love of liberty, he said, “that must free the soul.”

Such revolutionary ideas made the new nation with its Constitution and Bill of Rights “a haven for the cause of conscience.” No longer could magistrates order citizens to support churches they did not attend and recite creeds that they did not believe. No longer would “the loathsome combination of church and state”—as Thomas Jefferson described it—be the settled order. Unlike the Old World that had been wracked with religious wars and persecution, the government of America would take no sides in the religious free-for-all that liberty would make possible and politics would make inevitable. The First Amendment neither inculcates religion nor inoculates against it. Americans could be loyal to the Constitution without being hostile to God, or they could pay no heed to God without fear of being mugged by an official God Squad. It has been a remarkable arrangement that guaranteed “soul freedom.”

It is at risk now, and the fourth observance of the terrorist attacks of 9/ll is an appropriate time to think about it.

Four years ago this week, the poet’s prophetic metaphor became real again and “the great dark birds of history” plunged into our lives.

They came in the name of God. They came bent on murder and martyrdom. It was as if they rode to earth on the fierce breath of Allah himself, for the sacred scriptures that had nurtured these murderous young men are steeped in images of a violent and vengeful God who wills life for the faithful and horrific torment for unbelievers.

Yes, the Koran speaks of mercy and compassion and calls for ethical living. But such passages are no match for the ferocity of instruction found there for waging war for God’s sake. The scholar Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer carefully traces this trail of holy violence in his important book, Is Religion Killing Us? [Trinity Press International, 2003]. He highlights many of the verses in the Koran that the Islamic terrorists could have had in their hearts and on their lips four years ago as they moved toward their gruesome rendezvous. As I read some of them, close your eyes and recall the scenes of that bright September morning which began in the bright sun under a blue sky:

Those who believe Fight in the cause of Allah, and Those who reject Faith Fight in the cause of Evil. (4:76)

So We sent against them A furious Wind through days of disaster, thatWe might Give them a taste of a Penalty of humiliation In this Life; butThe Penalty of the Hereafter will be More Humiliating still: And theyWill find No help. (41:16)

Then watch thou For the Day That the sky will Bring forth a kind Of smoke (or mist) Plainly visible, Enveloping the people: This will be a PenaltyGrievous. (44:10-11)

Did the people of the towns Feel Secure against the coming Of OurWrath by night While they were asleep? Or else did they feelSecure against its coming in Broad daylight while they PlayedAbout (carefree)? Did they then feel secure Against the Plan ofAllah?—But no one can feel Secure from the Plan of Allah,except those (Doomed) to ruin. (7:97-99)

So the holy warriors came—an airborne death cult, their sights on God’s enemies: regular folks, starting the day’s routine. One minute they’re pulling off their jackets, shaking Sweet n’ Low into their coffee, adjusting the height of their chair or a picture of a child or sweetheart or spouse in a frame on their desk, booting up their computer—and in the next, they are engulfed by a horrendous cataclysm. God’s will. Poof!

But it is never only the number of dead by which terrorists measure their work. It is also the number of the living— the survivors—taken hostage to fear. Their mission was to invade our psyche; get inside our heads—deprive us of trust, faith, and peace of mind: keep us from ever again believing in a safe, just, and peaceful world, and from working to bring that world to pass. The writer Terry Tempest Williams has said “the human heart is the first home of democracy.” Fill that heart with fear and people will give up the risks of democracy for the assurances of security; fill that heart with fear and you can shake the house to its foundations.
In the days leading up to 9/ll our daughter and husband adopted their first baby. On the morning of September 11th our son-in-law passed through the shadow of the World Trade Center toward his office a few blocks up the street. He arrived as the horrors erupted. He saw the flames, the falling bodies, the devastation. His building was evacuated and for long awful moments he couldn’t reach his wife, our daughter, to say he was okay. Even after they connected it wasn’t until the next morning that he was able to make it home. Throughout that fearful night our daughter was alone with their new baby. Later she told us that for weeks thereafter she would lie awake at night, wondering where and when it might happen again, going to the computer at three in the morning to check out what she could about bioterrorism, germ warfare, anthrax and the vulnerability of children. The terrorists had violated a mother’s deepest space.

Who was not vulnerable? That morning Judith and I made it to our office at Channel Thirteen on West 33rd Street just after the second plane struck. Our building was evacuated although the two of us remained with other colleagues to do what we could to keep the station on the air. The next day it was evacuated again because of a bomb scare at the Empire State Building nearby. We had just ended a live broadcast for PBS when security officers swept through and ordered everyone out. This time we left. As we were making our way down the stairs I took Judith’s arm and was struck by the thought: Is this the last time I’ll touch her? Could what we had begun together a half century ago end here on this dim, bare staircase? I forced the thought from my mind, willed it away, but in the early hours of morning, as I sat at the window of our apartment looking out at the sky, the sinister intruder crept back.

Terrorists plant time bombs in our heads, hoping to turn each and every imagination into a private hell governed by our fear of them.

They win only if we let them, only if we become like them: vengeful, imperious, intolerant, paranoid. Having lost faith in all else, zealots have nothing left but a holy cause to please a warrior God. They win if we become holy warriors, too; if we kill the innocent as they do; strike first at those who had not struck us; allow our leaders to use the fear of terrorism to make us afraid of the truth; cease to think and reason together, allowing others to tell what’s in God’s mind. Yes, we are vulnerable to terrorists, but only a shaken faith in ourselves can do us in.
So over the past four years I have kept reminding myself of not only the horror but the humanity that was revealed that day four years ago, when through the smoke and fire we glimpsed the heroism, compassion, and sacrifice of people who did the best of things in the worst of times. I keep telling myself that this beauty in us is real, that it makes life worthwhile and democracy work and that no terrorist can take it from us.

But I am not so sure. As a Christian realist I honor my inner skeptic. And as a journalist I always know the other side of the story. The historian Edward Gibbon once wrote of historians what could be said of journalists. He wrote: “The theologians may indulge the pleasing task of describing religion as she descended from Heaven, arrayed in her native purity. A more melancholy duty is imposed on the historian [read: journalist] He must discover the inevitable mixture of error and corruption which she contracted in a long residence upon earth, among a weak and degenerate race of beings.”

The other side of the story:

Muslims have no monopoly on holy violence. As Jack Nelson-Pallmayer points out, God’s violence in the sacred texts of both faiths reflect a deep and troubling pathology “so pervasive, vindictive, and destructive” that it contradicts and subverts the collective weight of other passages that exhort ethical behavior or testify to a loving God.
For days now we have watched those heart-breaking scenes on the Gulf Coast: the steaming, stinking, sweltering wreckage of cities and suburbs; the fleeing refugees; the floating corpses, hungry babies, and old people huddled together in death, the dogs gnawing at their feet; stranded children standing in water reeking of feces and garbage; families scattered; a mother holding her small child and an empty water jug, pleading for someone to fill it; a wife, pushing the body of her dead husband on a wooden plank down a flooded street; desperate people struggling desperately to survive.

Now transport those current scenes from our newspapers and television back to the first Book of the Bible—the Book of Genesis. They bring to life what we rarely imagine so graphically when we read of the great flood that devastated the known world. If you read the Bible as literally true, as fundamentalists do, this flood was ordered by God. “And God said to Noah, ‘I have determined to make an end of all flesh… behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” (6:5-l3). “I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall die.” (6:l7-l9) Noah and his family are the only humans spared—they were, after all, God’s chosen. But for everyone else: “… the waters prevailed so mightily… that all the high mountains….were covered….And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, birds, cattle, beasts…and every man; everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life, died….” (7:17-23).

The flood is merely Act One. Read on: This God first “hardens the heart of Pharaoh” to make sure the Egyptian ruler will not be moved by the plea of Moses to let his people go. Then because Pharaoh’s heart is hardened, God turns the Nile into blood so people cannot drink its water and will suffer from thirst. Not satisfied with the results, God sends swarms of locusts and flies to torture them; rains hail and fire and thunder on them destroys the trees and plants of the field until nothing green remains; orders every first-born child to be slaughtered, from the first-born of Pharaoh right on down to “the first-born of the maidservant behind the mill.” An equal-murderous God, you might say. The massacre continues until “there is not a house where one was not dead.” While the Egyptian families mourn their dead, God orders Moses to loot from their houses all their gold and silver and clothing. Finally, God’s thirst for blood is satisfied, God pauses to rest—and boasts: “I have made sport of the Egyptians.”
Violence: the sport of God. God, the progenitor of shock and awe.

And that’s just Act II. As the story unfolds women and children are hacked to death on God’s order; unborn infants are ripped from their mother’s wombs; cities are leveled—their women killed if they have had sex, the virgins taken at God’s command for the pleasure of his holy warriors. When his holy warriors spare the lives of 50,000 captives God is furious and sends Moses back to rebuke them and tell them to finish the job. One tribe after another falls to God-ordered genocide: the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites—names so ancient they have disappeared into the mists as fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters, grandparents and grandchildren, infants in arms, shepherds, threshers, carpenters, merchants, housewives—living human beings, flesh and blood: “And when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them; then you must utterly destroy them; you shall make no covenant with them, and show no mercy to them…(and) your eyes shall not pity them.”

So it is written—in the Holy Bible.

Yes, I know: the early church fathers, trying to cover up the blood-soaked trail of God’s sport, decreed that anything that disagrees with Christian dogma about the perfection of God is to be interpreted spiritually. Yes, I know: Edward Gibbon himself acknowledged that the literal Biblical sense of God “is repugnant to every principle of faith as well as reason” and that we must therefore read the scriptures through a veil of allegory. Yes, I know: we can go through the Bible and construct a God more pleasing to the better angels of our nature (as I have done.) Yes, I know: Christians claim the Old Testament God of wrath was supplanted by the Gospel’s God of love [See The God of Evil , Allan Hawkins, Exlibris.]
I know these things; all of us know these things. But we also know that the “violence-of-God” tradition remains embedded deep in the DNA of monotheistic faith. We also know that fundamentalists the world over and at home consider the “sacred texts” to be literally God’s word on all matters. Inside that logic you cannot read part of the Bible allegorically and the rest of it literally; if you believe in the virgin birth of Jesus, his crucifixion and resurrection, and the depiction of the Great Judgment at the end times you must also believe that God is sadistic, brutal, vengeful, callow, cruel and savage—that God slaughters.
Millions believe it.

Let’s go back to 9/11 four years ago. The ruins were still smoldering when the reverends Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell went on television to proclaim that the terrorist attacks were God’s punishment of a corrupted America. They said the government had adopted the agenda “of the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians” not to mention the ACLU and People for the American Way (The God of the Bible apparently holds liberals in the same low esteem as Hittites and Gergushites and Jebusites and all the other pagans of holy writ.) Just as God had sent the Great Flood to wipe out a corrupted world, now—disgusted with a decadent America—“God almighty is lifting his protection from us.” Critics said such comments were deranged. But millions of Christian fundamentalists and conservatives didn’t think so. They thought Robertson and Falwell were being perfectly consistent with the logic of the Bible as they read it: God withdraws favor from sinful nations—the terrorists were meant to be God’s wake-up call: better get right with God. Not many people at the time seemed to notice that Osama bin Laden had also been reading his sacred book closely and literally, and had called on Muslims to resist what he described as a “fierce Judeo-Christian campaign” against Islam, praying to Allah for guidance “to exalt the people who obey Him and humiliate those who disobey Him.”

Suddenly we were immersed in the pathology of a “holy war” as defined by fundamentalists on both sides. You could see this pathology play out in General William Boykin. A professional soldier, General Boykin had taken up with a small group called the Faith Force Multiplier whose members apply military principles to evangelism with a manifesto summoning warriors “to the spiritual warfare for souls.” After Boykin had led Americans in a battle against a Somalian warlord he announced: “I know my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his God was an idol.” Now Boykin was going about evangelical revivals preaching that America was in a holy war as “a Christian nation” battling Satan and that America’s Muslim adversaries will be defeated “only if we come against them in the name of Jesus.” For such an hour, America surely needed a godly leader. So General Boykin explained how it was that the candidate who had lost the election in 2000 nonetheless wound up in the White House. President Bush, he said, “was not elected by a majority of the voters—he was appointed by God.” Not surprising, instead of being reprimanded for evangelizing while in uniform, General Boykin is now the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence. (Just as it isn’t surprising that despite his public call for the assassination of a foreign head of state, Pat Robertson’s Operation Blessing was one of the first groups to receive taxpayer funds from the President’s Faith-Based Initiative for “relief work” on the Gulf Coast.)

We can’t wiggle out of this, people. Alvin Hawkins states it frankly: “This is a problem we can’t walk away from.” We’re talking about a powerful religious constituency that claims the right to tell us what’s on God’s mind and to decide the laws of the land according to their interpretation of biblical revelation and to enforce those laws on the nation as a whole. For the Bible is not just the foundational text of their faith; it has become the foundational text for a political movement.
True, people of faith have always tried to bring their interpretation of the Bible to bear on American laws and morals—this very seminary is part of that tradition; it’s the American way, encouraged and protected by the First Amendment. But what is unique today is that the radical Religious Right has succeeded in taking over one of America’s great political parties—the country is not yet a theocracy but the Republican Party is—and they are driving American politics, using God as a a battering ram on almost every issue: crime and punishment, foreign policy, health care, taxation, energy, regulation, social services and so on.

What’s also unique is the intensity, organization, and anger they have brought to the public square. Listen to their preachers, evangelists, and homegrown ayatollahs: Their viral intolerance—their loathing of other people’s beliefs, of America’s secular and liberal values, of an independent press, of the courts, of reason, science and the search for objective knowledge—has become an unprecedented sectarian crusade for state power. They use the language of faith to demonize political opponents, mislead and misinform voters, censor writers and artists, ostracize dissenters, and marginalize the poor. These are the foot soldiers in a political holy war financed by wealthy economic interests and guided by savvy partisan operatives who know that couching political ambition in religious rhetoric can ignite the passion of followers as ferociously as when Constantine painted the Sign of Christ (the “Christograph”) on the shields of his soldiers and on the banners of his legions and routed his rivals in Rome. Never mind that the Emperor himself was never baptized into the faith; it served him well enough to make the God worshipped by Christians his most important ally and turn the Sign of Christ into the one imperial symbol most widely recognized and feared from east to west.

Let’s take a brief detour to Ohio and I’ll show you what I am talking about. In recent weeks a movement called the Ohio Restoration Project has been launched to identify and train thousands of “Patriot Pastors” to get out the conservative religious vote next year. According to press reports, the leader of the movement— the senior pastor of a large church in suburban Columbus—casts the 2006 elections as an apocalyptic clash between “the forces of righteousness and the hordes of hell.” The fear and loathing in his message is palpable: He denounces public schools that won’t teach creationism, require teachers to read the Bible in class, or allow children to pray. He rails against the “secular jihadists” who have “hijacked” America and prevent school kids from learning that Hitler was “an avid evolutionist.” He links abortion to children who murder their parents. He blasts the “pagan left” for trying to redefine marriage. He declares that “homosexual rights” will bring “a flood of demonic oppression.” On his church website you read that “Reclaiming the teaching of our Christian heritage among America’s youth is paramount to a sense of national destiny that God has invested into this nation.”

One of the prominent allies of the Ohio Restoration Project is a popular televangelist in Columbus who heads a $40 million-a-year ministry that is accessible worldwide via l, 400 TV stations and cable affiliates. Although he describes himself as neither Republican nor Democrat but a “Christocrat”—a gladiator for God marching against “the very hordes of hell in our society”—he nonetheless has been spotted with so many Republican politicians in Washington and elsewhere that he has been publicly described as a“spiritual advisor” to the party. The journalist Marley Greiner has been following his ministry for the organization, FreePress. She writes that because he considers the separation of church and state to be “a lie perpetrated on Americans—especially believers in Jesus Christ”—he identifies himself as a “wall builder” and “wall buster.” As a wall builder he will “restore Godly presence in government and culture; as a wall buster he will tear down the church-state wall.” He sees the Christian church as a sleeping giant that has the ability and the anointing from God to transform America. The giant is stirring. At a rally in July he proclaimed to a packed house: “Let the Revolution begin!” And the congregation roared back: “Let the Revolution begin!”

(The Revolution’s first goal, by the way, is to elect as governor next year the current Republican secretary of state who oversaw the election process in 2004 year when a surge in Christian voters narrowly carried George Bush to victory. As General Boykin suggested of President Bush’s anointment, this fellow has acknowledged that “God wanted him as secretary of state during 2004” because it was such a critical election. Now he is criss-crossing Ohio meeting with Patriot Pastors and their congregations proclaiming that “America is at its best when God is at its center.”) [For the complete stories from which this information has been extracted, see: “An evening with Rod Parsley, by Marley Greiner, FreePress, July 20, 2005; Patriot Pastors,” Marilyn Warfield, Cleveland Jewish News, July 29, 2005; “Ohio televangelist has plenty of influence, but he wants more”, Ted Wendling, Religion News Service, Chicago Tribune, July 1, 2005; “Shaping Politics from the pulpits,” Susan Page, USA Today , Aug. 3, 2005; “Religion and Politics Should Be Mixed Says Ohio Secretary of State,” WTOL-TV Toledo, October 29, 2004].

The Ohio Restoration Project is spreading. In one month alone last year in the president’s home state of Texas, a single Baptist preacher added 2000 “Patriot Pastors” to the rolls. On his website he now encourages pastors to “speak out on the great moral issues of our day…to restore and reclaim America for Christ.”

Alas, these “great moral issues” do not include building a moral economy. The Christian Right trumpets charity (as in Faith Based Initiatives) but is silent on social and economic justice. Inequality in America has reached scandalous proportions: a few weeks ago the government acknowledged that while incomes are growing smartly for the first time in years, the primary winners are the top earners—people who receive stocks, bonuses, and other income in addition to wages. The nearly 80 percent of Americans who rely mostly on hourly wages barely maintained their purchasing power. Even as Hurricane Katrina was hitting the Gulf Coast, giving us a stark reminder of how poverty can shove poor people into the abyss, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that last year one million people were added to 36 million already living in poverty. And since l999 the income of the poorest one fifth of Americans has dropped almost nine percent.

None of these harsh realities of ordinary life seem to bother the radical religious right. To the contrary, in the pursuit of political power they have cut a deal with America’s richest class and their partisan allies in a law-of-the-jungle strategy to “starve” the government of resources needed for vital social services that benefit everyone while championing more and more spending rich corporations and larger tax cuts for the rich.

How else to explain the vacuum in their “great moral issues” of the plight of millions of Americans without adequate health care? Of the gross corruption of politics by campaign contributions that skew government policies toward the wealthy at the expense of ordinary taxpayers? (On the very day that oil and gas prices reached a record high the president signed off on huge taxpayer subsidies for energy conglomerates already bloated with windfall profits plucked from the pockets of average Americans filling up at gas tanks across the country; yet the next Sunday you could pass a hundred church signboards with no mention of a sermon on crony capitalism.)

This silence on economic and political morality is deafening but revealing. The radicals on the Christian Right are now the dominant force in America’s governing party. Without them the government would not be in the hands of people who don’t believe in government. They are culpable in upholding a system of class and race in which, as we saw last week, the rich escape and the poor are left behind. And they are crusading for a government not “of, by, and for the people” but in favor of one based on Biblical authority.


This is the crux of the matter: To these fundamentalist radicals there is only one legitimate religion and only one particular brand of that religion that is right; all others who call on God are immoral or wrong. They believe the Bible to be literally true and that they alone know what it means. Behind their malicious attacks on the courts (“vermin in black robes,” as one of their talk show allies recently put it,) is a fierce longing to hold judges accountable for interpreting the Constitution according to standards of biblical revelation as fundamentalists define it. To get those judges they needed a party beholden to them. So the Grand Old Party—the GOP—has become God’s Own Party, its ranks made up of God’s Own People “marching as to war.”
Go now to the website of an organization called America 2l

(http://www.america21.us/Home.cfm ). There, on a red, white, and blue home page, you find praise for President Bush’s agenda—including his effort to phase out Social Security and protect corporations from lawsuits by aggrieved citizens. On the same home page is a reminder that “There are 7,177 hours until our next National Election….ENLIST NOW.” Now click again and you will read a summons calling Christian pastors “to lead God’s people in the turning that can save America from our enemies.” Under the headline “Remember—Repent—Return” there is language reminiscent of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell reminding you that:
...one of the unmistakable lessons [of 9/11] is that America has lost the full measure of God’s hedge of protection. When we ask ourselves why, the scriptures remind us that ancient Israel was invaded by its foreign enemy, Babylon, in 586 B.C. ….(and) Jerusalem was destroyed by another invading foreign power in 70 A.D. …. Psalm l06:37 says that these judgments of God …were because of Israel’s idolatry. Israel, the apple of God’s eye, was destroyed … because the people failed… to repent.'

If America is to avoid a similar fate, the warning continues, we must “remember the legacy of our heritage under God and our covenant with Him and, in the words of II Chronicles 7:14: ‘Turn from our wicked ways.’ "

Just what does this have to do with the president’s political agenda praised on the home page? Well, squint and look at the fine print at the bottom of the site. It reads: America 2l is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to educate, engage and mobilize Christians to influence national policy at every level. Founded in l989 by a multi-denominational group of pastors and businessmen, it is dedicated to being a catalyst for revival and reform of the culture and the government .” (emphasis added)

The corporate, political and Religious Right converge here, led by a president who, in his own disdain for science, reason and knowledge, is the most powerful fundamentalist in American history.
What are the stakes? In his last book, the late Marvin Harris, a prominent anthropologist of the time, wrote that “the attack against reason and objectivity is fast reaching the proportions of a crusade.” To save the American Dream, “we desperately need to reaffirm the principle that it is possible to carry out an analysis of social life which rational human beings will recognize as being true, regardless of whether they happen to be women or men, whites or black, straights or gays, employers or employees, Jews or born-again Christians. The alternative is to stand by helplessly as special interest groups tear the United States apart in the name of their “separate realities’ or to wait until one of them grows strong enough to force its irrational and subjective brand of reality on all the rest.”

That was written 25 years ago, just as the radical Christian Right was setting out on their long march to political supremacy. The forces he warned against have gained strength ever since and now control much of the United States government and are on the verge of having it all.
It has to be said that their success has come in no small part because of our acquiescence and timidity. Our democratic values are imperiled because too many people of reason are willing to appease irrational people just because they are pious. Republican moderates tried appeasement and survive today only in gulags set aside for them by the Karl Roves, Bill Frists and Tom DeLays. Democrats are divided and paralyzed, afraid that if they take on the organized radical Right they will lose what little power they have. Trying to learn to talk about God as Republicans do, they’re talking gobbledygook, compromising the strongest thing going for them—the case for a moral economy and the moral argument for the secular checks and balances that have made America “a safe haven for the cause of conscience.”

As I look back on the conflicts and clamor of our boisterous past, one lesson about democracy stands above all others: Bullies—political bullies, economic bullies and religious bullies—cannot be appeased; they have to be opposed with a stubbornness to match their own. This is never easy; these guys don’t fight fair; “Robert’s Rules of Order” is not one of their holy texts. But freedom on any front—and especially freedom of conscience—never comes to those who rock and wait, hoping someone else will do the heavy lifting. Christian realism requires us to see the world as it is, without illusions, and then take it on. Christian realism also requires love. But not a sentimental, dreamy love. Reinhold Niebuhr, who taught at Union Theological Seminary and wrestled constantly with applying Christian ethics to political life, put it this way: “When we talk about love we have to become mature or we will become sentimental. Basically love means…being responsible, responsibility to our family, toward our civilization, and now by the pressures of history, toward the universe of humankind.”

Christian realists aren’t afraid to love. But just as the Irishman who came upon a brawl in the street and asked, “Is this a private fight or can anyone get in it?” we have to take that love where the action is. Or the world will remain a theatre of war between fundamentalists.

Happier Thoughts

For some time, I've been at the bottom of the barrell when I've been writing this blog. The posts reflect my mood...somber, pessimistic, and generally down. Today, I'll make an effort to change my mood and, consequently, the mood of my posts.

I listened to an NPR program yesterday that I'm not impressed with...but my wife likes...called, Whad'Ya Know? The host annoys me. But, then, lots of things annoy me. I'm a Geezer. What do you expect? People piss me off.

Anyway, yesterday's program was unusual in that I heard some music and some comments that I particularly liked. So, today's blog will deal with what I heard and the aftermath...

Judith Owen was a guest on the program. She sang. She was brilliant. Lovely voice, lovely ideas, nice person. She spoke of a song that intrigued me..."Christmas with the Devil." I've not heard it, but her comments about it made me laugh. I looked her up online and found that she recorded that song, which was initially recorded by Spinal Tap, on one of her albums. I do not own any of them.

She's a jazz/blues singer. Beautiful voice, wonderful way of drawing me in. She is from Wales. Therefore...therefore, what? No clue. She's just from Wales. I like her music.

Somehow, some way, I managed to go from her website to the website for one of the principals behind the TV show called "The Simpsons." I like that show, too, despite the fact that it is animated and I despite animated shows because I should not like them yet they often make me laugh and I am embarrassed at my own behavior for laughing at stuff designed for 8-year-olds. Of course, they'are not designed for 8-year-olds. They're designed for 11-year-olds. That's better.

Anyway, from Harry Shearer's site (he's the Simpsons dude), I somehow made my way to the website promoting Keb Mo's latest album. It won't be available for sale until September 21, but I bought it already anyway. Go immediately to his website and listen to his music! http://www.kebmo.com/ It's 60s/70s peace music; album title is: PEACE... BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND.

From there, I wandered all over the web...learned alot, read some garbage, listened to music, got angry at right wing nut cases...but ultimately came back and decided that something has happened to me. I have somehow changed from being a completely self-absorbed asshole into something less vile. I care about people, about the future, about the fate of the world. I'm willing to live a less prosperous life if I can have a positive impact on the world. Not sure yet what that means, or whether my wife will see my changed mind and my changed thought process as a reasonable thing. We shall see.

I'll continue arguing against the religious zealots and political killers and economic leaches, but I'd like to focus on something more positive. I'm worn out, in some ways, but feeling exciting and newly alive in others. I just hope I can keep that sense of purpose alive and driving me.

Solutions...Everyone

I watched part of a program on CNN tonight, during which Christianne Amanpour (spelling?) interviewed President Clinton, the Queen of Jordan, and various others who are involved in a summit organized by Clinton to talk about...and make commitments to help solve...poverty in the world. I was impressed...I felt a glimmer of hope that the human race might, possibly, have a future. I felt dismal, though, thinking that the only way to make a global effort work is to get companies, individuals, AND governments to deal with the problems. The only way if for all of us to contribute, to sacrifice, to make a difference. But I don't think we will. The shareholders won't stand for it. The spouses won't stand for it. The employer won't stand for it. The governments won't stand for it. The solutions to world poverty are in the hands of every individual on earth, but we won't reach them because most of us will wait for someone else to make the sacrifice. Our governments won't ask us to sacrifice, for fear of political backlash. Companies won't sacrifice because their shareholders want money, not global equity.


Who is to blame? I am. You are. Bush is. Putin is. Bin Laden is. We're all appallingly to blame. Look at your bank account. There is too much money there. Look at your home. There are too few people basking in its luxury. If we really cared, we would do something.

I admire Clinton and his guests. I am just feeling hopeless, knowing the Bush is in the White House and no one seems to be trying to eject him. Democrats have no one to replace him. When Republicans...anyone other than Bush...look appealing, we have lost all hope.

I Am Not a Democrat

I do not subscribe to all Democratic ideals. Nor do I subscribe to Republican ideals. Both of them are sorely lacking. Here is what I would like to see in a leader of this nation:

Belief in religious...or not religious...freedom. I do not want the government involved in religion in any way. Nothing. Not a bit. People should be free to practice whatever religion they wish, but not within a governmental lens.

Fiscal restraint. Cost-effective government. Government spends too much money. It is inefficient. The U.S. government, along with its states and cities, acts like money grows on trees. That is absurd. I tend toward Republican ideas in this area, but more toward Democratic performance. Neither are good at it, though. Spend less in almost every area, but spend more where it really, truly helps.

Support the disenfranchised and poor. If people are willing to work, they should be able to work. If they don't have the skills, it's in our best interests to give them skills. Help people. Train them. Help them learn. If they will then work, let them work. If they still expect a handout, let them starve or let the justice system deal with them. But if people are willing to lift themselves up, let them do it. Help them.

Support true democracies, but don't support countries that support us simply for that reason. If a country mistreats its people, either band with other nations to oppose it or ignore it. Do not attack it. NEVER attack a country that has not attacked us. Be a real believer in people; help them.

If government does not need to be involved...stay out! Government should not intrude on our lives. Many situations require the massive capacity of the U.S. government to adress problems. Many do not. Government should stay out of our lives, but should look out after us.

Enough for now.

Credibility and Criminality

George Bush seems to have lost much of his credibility. Last night, he made a speech to the nation in an effort to make a turnaround. I hope the people of this country have finally gotten enough of a dose of what kind of person he actually is so they do not buy into his political pleas.

President Bush expressed the sentiments that many people have felt for weeks...this is a bad situation, but if we pull together, we can recover. He went beyond that, though, and said New Orleans would be better. I think that could happen, too, but I don't believe it will. The reason I don't believe that is the same reason I do not believe New Orleans and all the victims will get the help they need from the U.S. government. Our current administration thinks it cares...but it doesn't. It doesn't have the capacity to care. Bush thinks he is a compassionate conservative...and I think he believes he is. But, in reality, Bush is a parasite on humanity. He sees people as commodities. No words he utters can change the reality that he reacts only to political issues...never humanitarian issues. I'm angry and cannot make good sense at the moment...so I won't try.

The Bush administration is already letting no-bid contracts to Halliburton, et al. Nothing has changed. Money matters. Money is all that matters.

Tonight, I listened to Bill Clinton being interviewed by Larry King. As much as I distrust Clinton for his political career, I could not help but think he was genuine and has a charitable view toward human beings. His presidency, soiled though it was by his indiscretions and personal failings, will be remembered as a presidency anchored in goodness. George Bush will be remembered as a cumbersome, stupid, bad-actor cowboy whose intellect was surpassed by his sixth grade colleagues. He should never have been President; he should never have been allowed to graduate from grade school. George Bush should have taken a position as a Republican janitor in a Baptist church. That would have taxed his intellect, but might have protected his countrymen.

If the U.S. does not reject Republican rule in the next elections, we are a doomed country. I am not a fan of Democrats, nor of Liberatarians or Greens, but we must get Republicans out of power. We need a national conscience. We need people who really care about people and do not rely on the church to provide their humanity for them.

Saving America's Soul Kitchen--an Essay by Wynton Marsalis

No one could have put my feelings into words better than Wynton Marsalis. I read his essay in, of all places, Time Magazine and I was moved beyond words. The emotion, the raw emotion, that his words brought to my mind, was overwhelming. There are more reasons to examine our national soul, but he gives us as good a reason as any. Here is his essay, in full. I admire his ability to articulate an emotion I have felt, but could not articulate.

Saving America's Soul Kitchen
How to bring this country together? Listen to the message of New Orleans
By WYNTON MARSALIS

Posted Sunday, Sep. 11, 2005
Now the levee breach has been fixed. The people have been evacuated. Army Corps of Engineers magicians will pump the city dry, and the slow (but quicker than we think) job of rebuilding will begin. Then there will be no 24-hour news coverage. The spin doctors' narrative will create a wall of illusion thicker than the new levees. The job of turning our national disaster into sound-bite-size commercials with somber string music will be left to TV. The story will be sanitized as our nation's politicians congratulate themselves on a job well done. Americans of all stripes will demonstrate saintly concern for one another. It's what we do in a crisis.

This tragedy, however, should make us take an account of ourselves. We should not allow the mythic significance of this moment to pass without proper consideration. Let us assess the size of this cataclysm in cultural terms, not in dollars and cents or politics. Americans are far less successful at doing that because we have never understood how our core beliefs are manifest in culture--and how culture should guide political and economic realities. That's what the city of New Orleans can now teach the nation again as we are all forced by circumstance to literally come closer to one another. I say teach us again, because New Orleans is a true American melting pot: the soul of America. A place freer than the rest of the country, where elegance met an indefinable wildness to encourage the flowering of creative intelligence. Whites, Creoles and Negroes were strained, steamed and stewed in a thick, sticky, below-sea-level bowl of musky gumbo. These people produced an original cuisine, an original architecture, vibrant communal ceremonies and an original art form: jazz.

Their music exploded irrepressibly from the forced integration of these castes to sweep the world as the definitive American art form. New Orleans, the Crescent City, the Big Easy--home of Mardi Gras, the second-line parade, the po' boy sandwich, the shotgun house--is so many people's favorite city. But not favorite enough to embrace the integrated superiority of its culture as a national objective. Not favorite enough to digest the gift of supersized soul internationally embodied by the great Louis Armstrong. Over time, New Orleans became known as the national center for frat-party-type decadence and (yeah, boy) great food. The genuine greatness of Armstrong is reduced to his good nature; his artistic triumphs are unknown to all but a handful. So it's time to consider, as we rebuild this great American city, exactly what this bayou metropolis symbolizes for the U.S.

New Orleans has a habit of tweaking the national consciousness at pivotal times. The last foreign invasion on U.S. soil was repelled in the Crescent City in 1815. The Union had an important early victory over the South with the capture of the Big Easy in 1862. Homer Plessy, a black New Orleanian, fought for racial equality in 1896, although it took our Supreme Court 58 years to agree with him and, with Brown v. Board of Education, to declare segregation unequal. Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference was formally organized in New Orleans in 1957. The problem is that we, all us Americans, have a tendency to rise in that moment of need, but when that moment passes, we fall back again.

The images of a ruined city make it clear that we need to rebuild New Orleans. The images of people stranded, in shock, indicate that we need to rebuild a community. The images of all sorts of Americans aiding these victims speak of the size of our hearts. But this time we need to look a little deeper. Let's use the resurrection of the city to reacquaint the country with the gift of New Orleans: a multicultural community invigorated by the arts. Forget about tolerance. What about embracing. This tragedy implores us to re-examine the soul of America. Our democracy from its very beginnings has been challenged by the shackles of slavery. The parade of black folks across our TV screens asking, as if ghosts, "Have you seen my father, mother, sister, brother?" reconnects us all to the still unfulfilled goals of the Reconstruction era. We always back away from fixing our nation's racial problems. Not fixing the city's levees before Katrina struck will now cost us untold billions. Not resolving the nation's issues of race and class has and will cost us so much more.

From the Sep. 19, 2005 issue of TIME magazine

No New Business

Today, I learned that a piece of business that I really, really wanted went to a competitor. I spent Saturday morning with the people who made the decision and I thought I developed very good rapport with them. They complimented me on my proposal and said it was far more personalized, tailored to them than any other. I left feeling very, very positive about getting the business. But I learned today I did not. The reason: they felt slightly more comfortable with the technological capabilities of the company they selected. I could kick myself for failing to invest in newer technologies before now.

Today

Today is the fourth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, and the crash of a hijacked plane in Pennsylvania.

People the world over grieve today and remember the victims of those attacks.

Today we're still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Katrina.

People around the world feel the pain that this awful storm inflicted upon an entire nation and, in particular, a huge number of people who just happened to live in the wrong place.

I'm not a religious man. I don't believe in a superior being. But today I grieve and I remember and I honor the lives of the people who died and those who suffered and those who suffer still.

Let people believe what they wish. Let them get comfort where they can. As long as they don't insist that I share their beliefs, I don't begrudge their beliefs, regardless of how much I may regard them as fantasy. Today, I join millions of my fellow humans in tears and memories of people who suffer.

What Have YOU Done?

I condemn our Federal Government's efforts...I find Louisiana's state efforts ineffective...local efforts in New Orleans were inadequate.

I do blame, and will blame, people for failing our citizens. Right now, though, I think we can all blame ourselves. What have YOU done to help the victims? Have you offered a place for them to live? I haven't.

I think we should all step back and ask ourselves what we have done. I hate the Bush administration for its ineptitude. I hate myself for giving money, and money alone. Let's throw stones at our own glass houses.

Am I turning Republican? Absolutely not. Am I blaming Democrats? Absolutely!

Both parties are throwing blame around like it fucking matters! Let's all look at what we have done, could have done. All of us are to blame. Republicans, Democrats, Independents. We all allowed this to happen. I do, indeed, blame Bush. I do, indeed, blame his idiot lieutentants. But I blame the Mayor of New Orleans, the Governor of Louisiana, the citizens of Texas, and the people of North Dakota. And I blame myself.

I am much, much closer to the Democratic view of life and justice than I am the Republican view, but I loathe both for the moment. Let's create a new society based on true humanitarian values. Screw politics. Really. SCREW politics! Focus on man's humanity toward man. Leave the religion in the churches. Let's live like life matters, today.

Rethinking the World View...So Soon!

I am open to other points of view...perhaps too much so. Just after outlining my view of a new persona for the U.S., I am beginning to question some of my basic premises, thanks to some comments made by Robert Bridge in the Moscow News in his piece entitled Is Globalization a Fool's Progress? I have found, of late, that getting perspectives from other parts of the world, by skimming English-language newspapers from around the world, is interesting, informative, and eye-opening. It's not hard to get perspectives from Egypt, the entire Arab world, Venezuela, the UK, Singapore, Russia...the whole world. Most difficult in getting a real perspective, from my point of view, is the Arabic world...little in English, that in English is somewhat suspect as to source.

Part II: A New Persona for the U.S.A

In Part I of this piece (September 5), I outlined what I proposed should be the United States' "View of the World." I discussed the values that should shape the U.S. and priorities for U.S. policy. But do these things really create the new persona that will ensure the world that the U.S. is home to a good people? Do they articulate to the rest of the world that the U.S. is not a threat?

Probably not. Not until we intitutionalize our view of the world and our place in it. Not until we refine our values and how they relate to cultures that do not share them. Not until we position ourselves to make the hard choices...so that our values and our priorities truly guide our policies and actions.

If a nation selects leaders with whom we do not agree or whom we do not trust, we cannot relax our adherence to principles and take the "easy" way out by supporting their opposition, simply because that opposition is willing to express its support of the U.S. We have seen too many examples of the U.S. shifting is policies and compromising its values to support an underlying belief that, regardless what is good for the rest of the world, what really matters is what is important to us.

I do believe the U.S. still holds the potential of serving as a world leader and even a moral compass for the rest of the world, but only if we as a nation act as leaders and only if we avoid irrational patriotism and nationalism. Like fallible human beings, the United States government and its policies can be wrong. Like people of principle, the U.S. shows a much stronger "backbone" by acknowledging mistakes and changing. When we insist that our policies must be right because they are ours, we risk doing irreparable harm to our position in the world and we risk harm to our dignity as a nation.

Our persona should be one that demonstrates goodness; tolerance; and respect for the people of the earth, the creatures with which we share it, and planet itself.

New Orleans...Build a NEW Orleans

I'll certainly expect a round of snarls and snipes at me for this, but here goes, anyway...

New Orleans should not be rebuilt as it was, where it was. It doesn't make sense to me to rebuild a city that was hoping beyond hope for many, many years to "dodge the bullet." The fact that the city was mostly black and mostly poor has nothing to do with my belief it should not be rebuilt where and how it was. In fact, I think those factors contributed quite alot to the fact that it was built there and that it was not protected the way it should have been.

I'm not advocating tearing it all down. Perhaps the remnants of the Garden District, the parts of downtown that are readily salvageable, parts of the French Quarter, and other areas that were not utterly devastated should be repaired. Perhaps the levees should be rebuilt and reinforced to minimize the likelihood of another Katrina. But the row-houses that were ready to crumble, the buildings that were on their last legs, should not be rebuilt where they were. I advocate finding other areas to develop, areas that won't be as devastating to the environment as New Orleans has been. Bring the people back...those who want to come...to rebuild the diversity in other areas...areas that are liveable. Honor the architecture, but don't doom it to being submerged in the next storm by locating it in an area that should have been given over to nature years ago.

I know, I'm being insensitive...but really I'm not. Give people who were dirt poor in New Orleans a chance to build a new life in a house and in a city that has a chance. Build a NEW Orleans.

WMD...Weather of Mass Destruction

Bush decided he would lead the investigation into "what went right and what went wrong" in the response to Hurricane Katrina. He and his team evaluated all the facts, examined all the reasons for the delayed Federal response, considered all the reasons CNN staff, Harry Connick, Jr., and Sean Penn could find and rescue people from the floodwaters while the "government" could not, and assessed the reasons the Federal budget had eliminated funds that could have protected New Orleans from the floodwaters. Bush and his team looked at the way hurricanes are formed and why they seem to be growing in intensity.

After this careful investigation, President Bush came to the following conclusions:

• Hurricanes generally form somewhere off the west coast of Africa and frequently drift toward North America
• Because these hurricanes can cause catastrophic damage to the U.S., we must consider them the enemy
• Harry Connick, Jr. and others who got to New Orleans and pulled people from the flood did so without the knowledge and consent of the U.S. Government...in addition, if they are so damn powerful and caring, they should have reinforced the levees
• The call by the Governor of Louisiana for all available assistance was not made using the proper U.S. Government forms, in triplicate
• If the President really thought people were serious in asking for money to reinforce the levees, he would gladly have diverted large sums of money from Iraq to New Orleans, but the pleas for assistance were not "realistic" enough
• If the enemy (hurricanes) are attacking us from the coast of Africa, then that makes Africa our enemy...any continent that would provide any support to weather of mass destruction is evil and is our enemy
• Taken together, these facts can lead to no other conclusion than this: the Unites States of America, to protect its own citizens from the scourges of weather of mass destruction, must take immediate military action against all the nations of Africa.
• Being President of the United States is hard work...it's hard

Supreme Court Nominees

I cannot claim to know a great deal about John Roberts...there's not much of a judicial history to review. Consequently, I do not know whether he would make a good Associate Justice or Chief Justice. However, I think Bush's appointments to lead Homeland Security and FEMA argue persuasively for a very, very, very hard look at any future nominees Bush makes for any post.

Lifetime appointments to powerful positions can have effects far greater than even the impact of his appointment of fellow bunglers to positions that are ostensibly intended to protect citizens of the United States.

I'm moderating my language and my views in this message. I'm afraid some readers would consider my viewpoints to be merely maniacal rants if I put my true feelings in to words, as I have done before from time to time.

Fox Appoints Self to Investigate Henhouse Murders

George Bush says he will lead an investigation to "find out what went right and what went wrong" in the response to Hurricane Katrina.

Write to your senators and congressmen...tell them it's utterly inappropriate for Bush to lead an investigation, just as it would be inappropriate for the Secretary of Homeland Security and for the Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be involved in the investigation. The investigation needs to be led by someone who is not in the chain of command.

Part I: A New Persona for the U.S.A.

I've tried to stop feeling so utterly, hopelessly sad about what has happened, and is happening, to the people along the Gulf Coast and New Orleans in particular. But I just can't. There's too much devastation, there's too much suffering, there's too little aid. I wish I could turn back time, but I can't. The fact is, this country is in the midst of one of the most horrific disasters it has ever faced. As we continue to do everything in our power to help the people affected by the storm recover and as we work to minimize the impact of the cataclysmic events on our economy, we need to look at where this country heads in the aftermath of this catastrophe. And we need to look inward, to look at what we stand for as a people.

We need to work to regain our position of leadership in the world. I'm not talking about leadership by force or by faith, I'm talking about leadership by philosophy and by example.

Our country's view of the world, its approach to dealing with cultures that do not share our values, and its view of its position in that world should be clearly articulated. So should the values by which we, as a people, wish to lives our lives. If we ever wish to live in harmony with the rest of the world, or even hold onto any hope for harmony, we must do this.

A Proposal As To Our View of the the World
The world comprises myriad nations, cultures and religions. So long as the value systems that attach to those nations, cultures and religions do not incite attacks on other nations, cultures or religions, the United States will treat each of them as having a legitimate place in the world and in the collective governance of the world. Whenever the actions of any country or culture or religion appear to cause needless suffering, the United States will work with the global community to collectively address the issue. The United States will never take unilateral military action except to defend itself and its people against attack.

Because the United States has, historically, led the world in economic and industrial development, its citizens generally have one of the highest standards of living of any country. It is right and just for our citizens to help enhance the standards of living for others around the world, both through personal donations and through their government's contributions of money and materials. It is equally right and just for our citizens to reevaluate their own standards of living and to modify their consumption habits if those habits are harmful to the global community. Finally, it is right and just for the people of the United States to help people of less fortunate countries learn how to enhance their standards of living, while protecting the rights and privileges of the earth's population.

We as a nation do not have an inate responsibility to other nations, beyond humane treatment, except to the extent to which accumulation of wealth is attributable to the suffering of others; then, we do have a responsibility to make reparations.

Values that Shape the United States
The United States is not a Christian nation, as some would suggest, despite the fact that the majority of its citizens call themselves Christians. While many values that guide U.S. society are shared with Christianity, the same values may be shared with Islam, Buddism, Paganism, and many other religions, as well as many who are agnostics or atheists. Some of the values that form the underpinnings of U.S. society include:

• Every person has inherent worth and dignity
• We believe the the First Amendment to our constitution should guide our national policies with regard to religion, that is, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"
• Justice, equity and compassion in human relations should guide our national policies
• Every person has the capacity to develop a conscience that serves as his or her guiding principles, and it is our society's responsibility to encourage development of conscience that is in alignment with our society's values
• We will operate as a nation as a democratic society, in which government is not only of and for the people but also by the people
• We recognize that there will be discords between our own citizens and between our citizens and the citizens of other countries about what constitutes moral behavior and we believe that those discords should be addressed through discussion and debate; we acknowledge that some of those discords cannot, due to deeply held personal beliefs, be addressed and we believe that, in such cases, we as a society must accept that individuals will always hold invididual beliefs
• Our goal with the world community is to establish peace, liberty, and justice for all people, while acknowledging that it is neither our right nor our responsibility to intervene in the affairs of other nations except at the express invitation of those nations
• It is the responsibility of every individual and every nation to acknowledge the limitations of the earth's resources and to behave in ways that will protect them

Priorities for U.S. Policy
Priorities that should guide U.S. policies, both domestically and internationally, include:

• Social and political policies should be developed to help assure that all able-bodied citizens are able to use their capabilities to secure or create employment that offers sufficient remuneration to allow them to live comfortably, and above the poverty line
• A safety net of unemployment benefits should be available but time-limited for those who are able-bodied, provided employment opportunities exist that would allow the individual to live above the poverty line
• A safety net of unemployment benefits should be available to people who are unable to work and who have no other means of income
• The United States military should disengage from combat as soon as possible without abandoning the citizens of Iraq to civil war and should, thereafter, be sent to combat only to protect the United States and its citizens or after the global community collectively decides that military action is necessary
• Social and political policies should be developed to help assure that every United States citizen has access to adequate healthcare
• Environmental protection and rehabilitation policies should be established to rapidly improve the environment and to protect it from future degradation
• Energy policy should focus on rapid development of renewal energy resources that can be used to power automobiles, aircraft, machinery, industrial plants, and other equipment that presently require hydrocarbon-based fuels
• Economic policy should have at its core three main priorities: keep the world's and the nation's economy healthy; engender economic well-being at every level of society; and maintain flexibility to enable economic imperatives to change with changing circumstances
• Policies which support economic and business growth should simulataneously offer necessary social and environment protections.

Part II later. This is apt to be an evolving and growing piece.

"We Couldn't Have Predicted..." and Other Blather

An article by Andrew Sullivan in The Times of London presents facts about Bush's incompetence in dealing with New Orleans. I highly recommend it.

The Department of Homeland Security and FEMA are saying they had not way of predicting that the results of Katrina would be so catastrophic. All they needed to do was read National Geographic to get an idea. Here is just a snippet of an article from the October 2004 issue of the magazine; it's very eerie reading:

"It was a broiling August afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Big Easy, the City That Care Forgot. Those who ventured outside moved as if they were swimming in tupelo honey. Those inside paid silent homage to the man who invented air-conditioning as they watched TV "storm teams" warn of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing surprising there: Hurricanes in August are as much a part of life in this town as hangovers on Ash Wednesday.

But the next day the storm gathered steam and drew a bead on the city. As the whirling maelstrom approached the coast, more than a million people evacuated to higher ground. Some 200,000 remained, however—the car-less, the homeless, the aged and infirm, and those die-hard New Orleanians who look for any excuse to throw a party.

The storm hit Breton Sound with the fury of a nuclear warhead, pushing a deadly storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain. The water crept to the top of the massive berm that holds back the lake and then spilled over. Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea level—more than eight feet below in places—so the water poured in. A liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, over the white-columned porches of the Garden District, until it raced through the bars and strip joints on Bourbon Street like the pale rider of the Apocalypse. As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city, people climbed onto roofs to escape it.

Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.

When did this calamity happen? It hasn't—yet. But the doomsday scenario is not far-fetched. The Federal Emergency Management Agency lists a hurricane strike on New Orleans as one of the most dire threats to the nation, up there with a large earthquake in California or a terrorist attack on New York City. Even the Red Cross no longer opens hurricane shelters in the city, claiming the risk to its workers is too great."



Read the entire article at: http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5/

A Brewing Battle

Tonight's announcement of the death of Chief Justice William Rehndquist signals a brewing battle in Congress. The man who showed remarkable incompetence in the nation's response to the Hurricane Katrina tragedy is now in a position to appoint two justices...one of them Chief Justice. The United States is truly at risk.

Time for a New America

I truly appreciate the National Guardsmen who are working to respond to the catastrophe of Katrina. I appreciate the people of the nation giving all they can. I applaud the contributions of so many people. I am so delighted to hear so many countries outside that the U.S. has helped in the past, including Canada, England, Germany, and Sri Lanka, have offered help. I so appreciate the individuals and countries that want to help the U.S. I wish the United States government would express the same support. It's finally helping, but it is too little, too late.

I call for a new America...free of George Bush, free of Condi Rice, free of the fascists that run the country today. I am willing to be part of the revolution. I just need to know I have some support. This country is being led by idiots. We have to have better leadership, or we will disappear. We need to stop ignoring our racist policies and acknowlege them. Fix them. We have to help. Let's start over with a newAmerica. A new president, a new Congress, a new attitude. We can keep the Constitution. We just need people who will adhere to it as our leaders.

We can wait until the next election, or we can start today taking back our country.

Any Help...Anything...Will Make A Difference

Katrina is beyond comprehension. One of my brothers has offered space in his home for Katrina evacuees...I learned to day many others have done the same.

Look at www.craigslist.com; select a city and then select housing and look at shared housing. Many, many people are offering a room in their home, an apartment, a temporary place to live...just shelter.

The problem, of course, is that so few people are actually getting out of New Orleans. But there are lots of people in Mississippi and Alabama who need help, too.

Here's an example of what drives me to the edge of sanity...the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas sent several buses to New Orleans to evacuate people in the New Orleans Fairmont back to Dallas. Despite big challenges and hardships, they succeeded, today. Why can the U.S. Government not do the same for the people at the New Orleans Convention Center?

The gangs with guns in New Orleans are insane...possibly exacerbated by lack of water and assistance, of course...and they should be dealt with in whatever way necessary to allow government and volunteers to get to those who need it.

America, at least part of America, has become a Third World Country. Maybe we can learn from those who have had this experience for years and years.

Last night, I sent my email list a plea for donations to help. I make that plea again. Give anything you can to any organization that can help. Be careful, though, of making donations to the U.S. government; it's not to be trusted. Pick a charitable organization. Offer a place for refugees to live.