Tuesday, August 28, 2018

John McCain's Farewell Message to Us

Senator John McCain passed away on Sunday. 
Because of his decades of public service, his passing has drawn much public coverage. Which includes a farewell letter he penned knowing that his death was imminent.
It's worth taking a closer look. 
In his letter, McCain wrote: "We are citizens of the world's greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil. We are blessed and are a blessing to humanity when we uphold and advance those ideals at home and in the world..."
McCain isn't sugar-coating our history. He calls us to remember that we can be a "nation of ideals." But it is only in remaining true to those ideals that we become a "blessing to humanity." 
Whenever we veer from those ideals and turn to "blood and soil" or tribal instincts, we cease to be much of a blessing to the world, or to each other. 
McCain goes on to note in his farewell letter. "We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe. We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been."
It's worth remembering that immediately after Charlottesville last summer, McCain was quick to condemn neo-Nazi, white supremacism. What he said at the time was crystal clear: “Our Founders fought a revolution for the idea that all men [and women] are created equal. The heirs of that revolution fought a Civil War to save our nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to that revolutionary proposition.


“Nothing less is at stake on the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, where a violent attack has taken at least one American life and injured many others in a confrontation between our better angels and our worst demons.

“White supremacists and neo-Nazis are, by definition, opposed to American patriotism and the ideals that define us as a people and make our nation special.

“As we mourn the tragedy that has occurred in Charlottesville, American patriots of all colors and creeds must come together to defy those who raise the flag of hatred and bigotry.” 
Getting back to McCain's farewell letter, he continued:
"We are three-hundred-and-twenty-five million opinionated, vociferous individuals. We argue and compete and sometimes even vilify each other in our raucous public debates. But we have always had so much more in common with each other than in disagreement. If only we remember that and give each other the benefit of the presumption that we all love our country we will get through these challenging times. We will come through them stronger than before. We always do...
"Do not despair of our present difficulties but believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history."

I believe here, towards the close of his farewell letter, McCain is calling us to our best selves. Most especially, in inviting us to "never hide from history." In fact, it's only when we soberly address a mixed past that includes racism and other forms of injustice and oppression, can we truly heal. 

McCain, after casting vote against repeal of Affordable Care Act
Although aligning himself with the "conservative" viewpoint, McCain enjoyed being called a political maverick. He was not afraid to walk across the aisle in the Senate floor to accomplish good. When he saw injustice, he labeled it, casting his dramatic "thumbs down" vote to defeat efforts to kill the Affordable Care Act. And he was not afraid to go against the grain of his political party in openly chastising the current president and the senate. 

Did John McCain make mistakes? Yes. Did he always come down on the correct side of history. No, but more often than not, he did. Was his personal life unblemished? No, but he admitted when he blundered. 

And especially towards the end of his career McCain valued morality far more than politics.

May we all come to learn this important life lesson.
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Watch Meghan McCain's powerful eulogy to her father.

Photo credits: top AZCentral.com; bottom Vox


Monday, August 20, 2018

Are All Things Possible?

In Carlos Rodriguez's book, DROP THE STONES, he zeroes in on Jesus' statement in Mark 10:27, "With God, all things are possible." (NLT)

Rodriguez's point is that most often, this quote from Jesus is taken out of context, becoming a rubber stamp to approve anything we'd like to accomplish. Not necessarily tied to developing our spiritual or moral character. Or even following Jesus.

The context of this Bible quote comes as Jesus and his disciples are going to Jerusalem. Along the way "a man came running up to him, knelt down and asked, 'Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?'"

From Matthew's account of the story, we get additional detail - the man running up to Jesus was young and rich. From both Mark and Matthew's accounts we know that he was eager to know more about following Jesus.

So, Jesus recites the Ten Commandments in his initial answer to the earnest young man.

The young man answers, "I've obeyed all these commandments since I was young."

Jesus looks the man in the eye, feeling "genuine love" for him, and tells him, "There is one thing you haven't done. Go and sell all your possessions, give the money to the poor... Then come, follow me." (Mark 10:21).

At this point, the man is crestfallen and "went away sad, for he had many possessions."

What's significant here - which Rodriguez points out - is that Jesus had invited the man to follow him. He was giving the guy a personal invite to be one of the disciples. And the man turned him down.

In response, Jesus has a sideline conversation with his disciples. He explains that it's very difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. Comparing it with a camel passing through the eye of a needle. His followers are flabbergasted, and ask him: "Then who in the world can be saved?"

Jesus realizes they need some encouragement, so he tells them: "Humanly speaking it is impossible... But with God all things are possible."

So when taken in context, Rodriguez argues, what Jesus is saying ["All things are possible with God"] has nothing to do with materialistic goals. 

Rodriquez writes: "The desire in the heart of Jesus is for us to be able to say, 'I can give away everything. Be saved from mammon [material things]'. Yes, it is impossible for me but not impossible for God.

"How bizarre that we have turned this very statement into the prayer and declaration we use to ask for success and possessions."

God is not interested in giving us a bigger, newer SUV. 

God is not interested in if we're wearing the latest designer clothes.

God is not interested in how many bedrooms our home has, or which neighborhood we live in.

God is not interested in how big a paycheck we take home each week.

It's not that any of these things are bad, in and of themselves. The problem is that we humans have a tendency to use all of the above as symbols of status. And God clearly could care less about it.

If he did his Son wouldn't have hung out with tax collectors, publicans, prostitutes and other people who weren't making six-figure deals. 

When Jesus announced his mission in a lowly out-of-the-way synagogue in Nazareth, his home town, he didn't say, "I have been sent to broker some tremendous deals. Watch me mingle with the religious leaders folks. And get a hold of how I impress all the businessmen in town!"

What Jesus did say was: 
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, 
Because He has anointed Me to preach the Good News to the poor; 
He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, 
To proclaim liberty to the captives, 
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." Luke 4:18-19).

It turns out that we, to the extent that we are following Jesus' example, have the same mission. And it's impossible to accomplish it without God's help. 

Photo credits: (top) Church at Bergen; (middle) Tipsy Writer; (bottom) Leadership Raccoon. 

Monday, August 13, 2018

Breach of Peace: Voices From the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders

BREACH OF PEACE, is a powerful book consisting of a preface by Roger Wilkins, foreword by Diane McWhorter and a series of portraits and interviews by Eric Etheridge with many of the Mississippi Freedom Riders of 1961.

As McWhorter explains, "The term 'Freedom Rides' eventually encompassed a campaign that lasted more than seven months, involved over four hundred direct participants, and desegregated dozens of bus depots (plus some train stations and airports) from Virginia to Texas. They galvanized every branch of the civil rights movement, binding its past to its future, its tactics to its soul."

The individuals who boarded buses were greeted with racial slurs, open contempt and a deep-seated violence that eventually shocked the nation into demanding Civil Rights legislation be passed.

As McWhorter points out, "Perhaps the ultimate achievement of the Freedom Riders was that, even as the headlines faded in the summer, and without knowing what the results would be, they kept coming, simply because what they were doing had to be done. The resulting moral clarity, combined with the prodigious organizational and fundraising skills honed in its service, completed the Freedom Rides' evolution from what had arguably been a courageous stunt... to the kind of transformative community-building discipline that would sustain the [Civil Rights] movement into its future."

Most of the Freedom Riders were arrested on the charge of breach of peace. What they did was test a federal law that demanded that public transportation vehicles and facilities be integrated. So, in practice they were arrested as they tried to integrate public waiting areas in the Deep South (mostly in Jackson, Mississippi). 

Many of those arrested were transferred to the infamous Parchman penal facility in the countryside, away from the public eye.

Although Etheridge's photos are exceptional, what the former Freedom Riders had to say was equally powerful. 

Pauline Knight-Ofosu
In referring to the training on non-violent civil disobedience, Pauline Knight-Ofosu said, "That was something I remember - you cannot hate, you cannot hold this person in error. You've got to see them for who they are. They don't know it maybe, but they're God's children too... I wasn't afraid. The training that we had gave everybody the conviction that 'You can kill my body, but you can't kill my soul.' That is a very strong and powerful thing."

Jean Thompson reported, "Then someone bailed [out of jail] and reported that I and others had been hit. They brought the FBI in to investigate. They interviewed me. They interviewed the superintendent, and all the other people. And they concluded that nothing had happened. No one had been beaten.

Jean Thompson
Well, I must be hallucinating now 'cause I know I felt that man's [jailer] hand on my face. I know I heard other people being whacked. But nothing happened. That said a lot to me about what actually happens in this country. It was very eye-opening."

Speaking of the danger of he faced, Rev. C.T. Vivian noted, "As long as we allow someone else to speak for us...there's not gonna be a breaking of the old order. We're still going to be killed whenever any policeman decides to. And they are always gonna be covered up if they care to cover it up at all.

Robert Singleton
Who's going to get honest enough to cut through this? This is who we are. We know we can be killed in the process [of demonstrating]. So? We're gonna get killed anyway. But we're not going to do it without being obvious, and we're not going to do it without it being all over the world, and we're not going to do it playing the game of your so-called democracy, which is undemocratic."

And every once in a while, via one of the interviews, a recollection is offered, almost as a tidbit, but it turns into a powerful statement of the time. As Robert Singleton recalled, "A policeman came up on the side and looked in the window [of the paddy wagon] and said to me, 'You're a black son of a bitch, ain't you?' I said to him, 'Isn't that a beautiful color?' And he just froze. He didn't know how to respond to that."

What were the lessons learned from the Freedom Riders of 1961? The power of a non-violent witness in the face of such venomous racism? The power of standing up as a witness to indescribable evil? The simple power of continuing to show up, until the tide turns towards moral justice? Perhaps all of the above.

Meanwhile, as we ponder the significance in the light of history, BREACH OF PEACE serves as a reminder of what our better selves can accomplish.

Click on this link to view Breach of Peace.

NOTE: There is a new edition of BREACH OF PEACE coming out soon. It features additional interviews. For more information and to pre-order click here.

Photo Credits: All photos above were taken during intake process at the Jackson, MS. jail, Police Department of Jackson, MS.



Monday, August 6, 2018

Life Lessons

Every so often, everyday life comes forward in such a way that its lessons become obvious. Like...

1. Life is unpredictable. On a Friday I was having lunch with a dear friend who is eighty-one years young. During our time together she described how her late husband passed away. It was bedtime. He closed the book he was reading and called out to my friend, "Are you coming to bed?" She answered from another room. "Soon. Go ahead and turn out the light." When she came back into the bedroom, he had died from a heart attack. 
APPLICATION: My friend told me, "Ever since then, I make it a point to regularly tell my close friends that I love them."

2. Life is fragile. Two days after this conversation, I met at a brother's house to carpool to a family gathering on Lake Michigan. When I walked into the living room, I was told that my brother-in-law's younger brother had passed away the day before. He had eaten a nice supper and was enjoying an ice cream cone, sitting outside, enjoying the evening.
APPLICATION: Don't take your family members for granted. No matter the differences you may have between/among you there is still something special about familial love.

3. Life can't always be planned. This afternoon I went to an apple orchard that one of my brothers manages. We began final pruning to make sure there's adequate space in-between rows and trees. That way it's a lot easier for the folks u-picking in a few weeks. But after going through two rows of trees, the sky turned really dark grey and it began pouring! We actually heard the sound of the rain hitting the surrounding corn field and ran to my brother's truck to get out of the storm. After sitting it out for about a half-hour I gave up and went back home. 
APPLICATION: Sometimes Mother Nature sets her own agenda, and you're best off going with her flow.

4. Life can be funny. At the afore-mentioned party (celebrating my older sister's birthday) on Lake Michigan, I was tossing a beach toy (sort of like a giant frizbie) with a five-year old grand-nephew. At one point, he looked at me and said, "Let's change our names." I said, "O.K., what'll  your name be?" He smiled mischievously and said, "Mr. Underpants."
APPLICATION: Humor doesn't have to be sophisticated to be appreciated. When my grand-nephew told me what his "new name" was, I burst out laughing. It was spontaneous and his timing was incredible - even though he's all of five years old!

5. Life can be tough. This morning I had breakfast with a good friend whose wife has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. She's been fighting this disease for about a year. Meanwhile he developed a tumor around a nerve feeding into his ear. While he is cancer-free, the operation left a droop on the left side of his face, making it difficult to eat until recently. Now his hearing in the left ear seems damaged. He's very hearing impaired already, so my friend is very concerned about this latest development. (He's scheduled to have an MRI and Ultrasound of the ear tomorrow). Needless to say, the past twelve months have been extremely challenging. "Every day I wake up and feel like 'this can't be happening to us'" he told me. 
APPLICATION: Be honest with yourself and others. Don't feel that you have to explain away difficult days or circumstances. 

6. Life can be absolutely beautiful. Last week, we had a birthday party for one of my younger sisters. She is a very outgoing, energetic person. And she was in seventh heaven surrounded by siblings and friends. Another sister had flown in with her husband from Florida to be there for the celebration of my oldest sister's fiftieth wedding anniversary (the same sister who was staying at the beach house with her own family on Lake Michigan).
APPLICATION: Try to practice being more "in the moment," during simple, everyday events.

7. Life provides moments of absolute peace if we are open to them. Oh, the beach house was incredible! Sitting right above a bluff on the Lake Michigan shoreline. When you walk into the house, there's an open walkway leading to the dining room/living room area that has huge windows along one side. And what you see is the Lake in all its magnificence! I walked into the house, got a few steps in, looked out the window and stopped still. I instantly felt at peace, as if my blood pressure had dropped twenty points!
APPLICATION: It is perfectly o.k. to slow down and even stop to fully experience the joys of life.

Final thought: Establish and nourish your faith. Even if you're an atheist, you believe in something. On good days your faith will deepen your appreciation for life. On not-so-good days, your faith will help you find the silver lining. This includes regularly taking the time to meditate, pray and offer thanks.

Photo Credits: 1. Pixabay, 2. The Lens Flare, 3. deviantart.com, 4. expedia.com

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!

Pinocchio: Art Credit, Disney If ever there were a time for a national "Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire" award, it's now. And certai...