Peril by Bob Woodward
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Excellent book with lots of keen insights and interviews with individuals involved in presidential politics in the past five years. The book confirmed for me the grave danger our republic is in from the forces of evil that have come to dominate the Republican party in the United States. I wasn’t initially in favor of a Joe Biden presidency. I didn’t think he was progressive enough to lead the country forward. Now, however after seeing him in action of the past nine months and learning much more about his history and character through this book I am convinced that he is the right person for the job.
Who are they kidding?
I read today that a poll conducted recently that a majority of voters of both persuasions believe that the time has come for secession from the United States of America. Are these folks living in a vacuum? Who do they think provides the fuel for the economy that provides for the common defense and the common good? Forces of the extreme right wing of the Republican party who care nothing about the common good of the country and for that matter, the world are espousing this wrong headed approach to the body politic.
These separatists who decry socialism and advanced society fail to realize that the roads we drive on, the sewer and water systems that support our day to day lives and most of the infrastructure that supports our daily lives is paid for by tax dollars. Many of the so called red states are full of military installations which provide thousands of jobs and no doubt contribute mightily to the wealth of the communities that surround them. If they secede from the union then those jobs go to other states.
Nearly seven hundred twenty thousand Americans are dead from a deadly virus primarily because this same bunch of idiots are interfering with roll-out of the vaccine to mitigate the effects of the virus.
It’s October 1 and where I live the trees are still mostly green. That’s unusual. When I was a boy most of the trees were bright orange on the first day of October. It was common to have a ‘killing frost’ by mid-September. We have had one overnight when the temperature dipped to 38 degrees fahrenheit. The forecast for December this year is for warmer weather than normal. That’s all becasue the climate is changing. The gulf coast of our country has been ravaged by record breaking hurricanes which have left unheard of destruction in their wake.
We need thoughtful leadership from intelligent people. I encourage you not to listen to talking heads spreading lies and misinformation that put the lives of all the world at risk. Be a uniter not a divider.
You owe it to yourself
Persist by Elizabeth Warren
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I liked Elizabeth Warren and thought she had the makings of a great president before I read this book. Now after reading the book I am more sure than ever. This book is well written. It’s full of personal stories that are riveting and policy statements and research that are compelling. I was fortunate to get a signed copy of the book and now it’s going to be passed on to my daughter who is an Elizabeth Warren fan. I highly recommend reading the book. You won’t be disappointed. Persist.
Vote to confirm Xavier
Yesterday I received an email from a sibling urging me to pray that Joe Biden’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services be defeated because he’s pro-choice. My correspondent wrote of course that he’s pro-abortion which is not true. I’m tired of these either/or evangelicals who are merely pro-birth and not truly pro-life. Life is both/and and much more complex than the binary choices these folks espouse. I pray everyday for an end to bigotry and hatred based on skin color, sexual orientation, religion or no religion at all. I hope Xavier Becerra is confirmed and that he leads us to better health and human services.
The wisdom to know the difference
Earlier today I saw a post that rang true. In 2008 we elected a black man to be president of the United States. The specter of a black man as the leader of the free world was so terrible to those who are intent on white supremacy that they spent eight years attempting to discredit him. Equally terrifying to these folks is that people of color will soon be the predominant group in the United States.
In many areas of the country that is already the case. The United States was founded by white men who slaughtered indigenous people, enslaved Africans and kept women subjugated while using religion to justify it. There has been an evolution of consciousness since the 1790’s. We stopped slaughtering indigenous people in the nineteenth century although we put them on ghettos we call reservations. We ended chattel slavery in 1863 and passed the 14th Amendment to the Constitution in 1868. We followed that with Jim Crow and one hundred more years of terror for people of color. Nonetheless consciousness continued to evolve. We passed landmark civil rights and voting rights in the 1960’s.
All of this progress has been countered with reactionary movements which live on to this day. Consciousness will continue to evolve despite the efforts of some to put the genie back in the bottle. I may not live to see the change but eventually our democracy will evolve to the land of the free.
On January 20 2021 a woman of color will be sworn in as Vice President of the United States. We’re long overdue for a women at the top and especially a woman of color. This fact is what mostly animates the angry white men in our halls of government. They’re actually frightened that America is living out the promise of our ideals.
Democracy isn’t easy. It never was nor will it be.
Joe Biden wins Pennsylvania, and with it, the presidency
That’s the ballgame, folks. Joe Biden’s projected win in Pennsylvania puts him over 270 electoral votes. There are still potential state wins on the table, but he does not need them.
…
— Read on m.dailykos.com/stories/2020/11/7/1990093/-Joe-Biden-wins-Pennsylvania-and-with-it-the-presidency
True Colors
If you’re Roman Catholic in the United States the assumption is that you’re pro-life which in political parlance means your anti-abortion. It’s a great wedge issue exploited by Republicans. In previous years some bishops have gone so far as to insist on denying communion to candidates like John Kerry and Democrats who are pro-choice. The recent conference call cited in this article that appeared on National Catholic Reporter’s website is one more instance of this insanity. The gospels calls us to protect the poor, the marginalized, the disenfranchised. Cardinal Dolan is turning a blind eye to that and instead kissing up to policies that are counter to Catholic Social Teaching. I think the church as we know it is done. No communion for anyone due to quarantine and lock down. The only gift the church has left is its prophetic voice and Dolan just pissed on that.
“The ongoing collusion between certain U.S. bishops and President Donald Trump hit its nadir point this weekend. Or at least we have to pray it did.”
Crux’s Christopher White obtained a recording of a …
— Read on www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/grace-margins/call-president-trump-cardinal-dolan-reveals-his-true-colors
A new direction
The word Christian is meaningless. It has become so because of all the charlatans who have taken it as a mantle. We need a new word to describe followers of Jesus. Following Jesus is much different than worshipping him. Following implies living as he did among the outcasts and dregs of society. In the United States the word Christian implies selective and exclusive adherence to so called conservative worldview. Conservative in the United States implies connection to the Republican Party which means you denigrate the poor and marginalized. Conservative here means love of wealth, power and enfranchisement. That’s not following what Jesus taught. That’s diametrically the opposed to the gospel.
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,
Luke 4:18
What is good news to the poor? Are you part of the good news? Are you proclaiming this message?
Earth Day 2020
We can no longer exploit the resources of this earth—the trees, the water, and other natural resources—without any care for coming generations. Common sense tells us that unless we change, we won’t survive. This Earth Day let’s resolve to live in harmony with nature.
Dalai Lama
Maybe this pandemic has a silver lining. Maybe it forces us to realize that we can’t continue to exploit the planet. Our existential crisis has to be a point of reflection for all of us. The age of fossil fuels must end but that’s not all that we need to change. What must we change and how must we live are no longer ideals they have become essential questions.
Hope for today
I just finished reading Ilia Delio’s book which I reviewed previously and there are a treasure trove of ideas and quotes in the book but one that stood out for me is the following.
“On the whole, I find that younger generations want to help make the world a better place. Many Gen Z-ers express a desire for a just and sustainable world and are concerned about world poverty and hunger. They have an inclination toward catholicity without realizing it, expressed for them as a desire for inclusive, ecological, and planetary life. These concerns are not necessarily driven by institutional religion but by an inner sense of belonging to a whole.”
— Birth of a Dancing Star: My Journey from Cradle Catholic to Cyborg Christian by Ilia Delio
Young people aren’t burdened by the tired old labels that boomers are. What concerns them is creation and the care of it. They’ve frequently been referred to as the nones because they have no religion but they do have this inner sense of belonging to the whole. They see the world as interdependent.