Reasons for Thanksgiving

Perhaps you too heard Ofeibea Quist-Arcton’s report yesterday on NPR about the expanding food crisis in Zimbabwe that ended with this profoundly disturbing image:

Farmers, villagers and townsfolk alike say that some Zimbabweans are reduced to plucking undigested corn kernels from cow dung, which they wash, pound and then cook. That could be tonight's supper.

As I assume the patriarchal role at tomorrow’s Thanksgiving feast I will be sorely remiss if I fail to bring this horrifying truth to the attention of those gathered, even at the risk of spoiling a few appetites. We Americans have earned an “ugly” reputation in much of the world through our indifference and self-centeredness, and it is probably deserved if we fail to think beyond our own four walls.

Yes, we have so much to be grateful for. But such gratitude is empty if it does not consider “the least of these.” No, we’re not going to be able to box up tomorrow’s dinner and send it to Zimbabwe, but we can reverently consume the abundance that is ours to fuel a spirit of genuine compassion that will not rest easy until the feast is shared with all.

Reasons for Thanksgiving

Count Your Blessings
I find it to be true that the methodical, conscientious inventory of all the good things in my life leaves very little room for the bad. As President-elect Obama challenges us to sacrifice luxury for moderation, he will do well to have us do so in the context of counting our blessings. For those of us who have roofs over our heads, food in our bellies, clothing enough to protect us from the elements, our concentration on those gifts will provide the context in which we see the need to ensure that everyone can be grateful for the same things. Again, relativity is key. Should I let myself obsess on those who have more than I, my unhappiness will likely increase because there are always going to be those who have more than I do (Warren Buffet and Bill Gates being the exception). But when I concentrate on all that I do have, including so many intangibles like the love of family, etc, my mind turns not to what more I need but to the abundance that allows me to share. I want to believe that one of the profound changes in the air these days is the dismissal of greed as the sinfully immoral thing it is. That can start with this first Thanksgiving of a new era in which we gather with loved ones around the table and give thanks for what we have, and to find authentic expression for that gratitude in the selfless act of sharing.

Reasons for Thanksgiving

My parents were children during the Great Depression, young adults during World War II, and reared a family during the Cold War. I benefitted from all this simply by being their child. Gratitude—thankfulness—is simply more sincere among those who had little, just as it is elusive for those of us who have always had. Yes, I’m well aware that everything is relative, and that all the things I had growing up in the fifties and sixties pale by comparison to what kids today have. But what those kids today don’t have is the example of adults who have had to make any significant sacrifice. It is with no pride that I am able to say that I’ve never had to go without, a very different legacy for my children than that bestowed upon me by my parents. Our parents’ generation grows smaller by the day, just one of many reasons to participate in StoryCorps’ National Day of Listening this coming Friday. Given our current economic situation, this makes ever so much more sense than consumerism’s Black Friday which does nothing more than reinforce the fallacy that meaningful happiness is derived from stuff. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Thursday Is My Friday

I prefer the term ‘progressive’ to ‘liberal’ because it better conveys the spirit of intent. It seems to me possible that both liberals and conservatives can be progressive in persuasion. It also clarifies the opposite as regressive. As I engage in the production mode to which I referred in Tuesday’s post, I efficiently multi-task by reading at the same time, and that’s how I came across this little factoid which serves to illustrate the point I am trying to make. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter had the White House fitted with solar panels. That’s progressive. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan had the solar panels removed. That’s regressive. It has been that intentional regression during and since the Reagan era that has brought us to the edge of the cliff today. Those who were seduced by Reagan’s proclamation of "It's morning in America" apparently weren’t in agreement with Jim Morrison’s observation, “No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn.” The election of Barack Obama is definite progress, and it is up to those of us who consider ourselves progressives to keep the momentum going. Bail out the American automobile manufacturers to reward their non-regulatory regression? I think not!

Wednesday Follows Tuesday

Oh where, oh where, has my little Babe gone?
Oh where, oh where, can he be?

Well, Rachel apparently found him; all grown up! Being an unabashed porcine aficionado, I was concerned that my Incite logo had disappeared. The lost, however, has been gloriously found.

Rachel is also responsible for the Protect Marriage, Protect Children, Prohibit Divorce video imbedded in Monday’s post. With no small degree of irony, on the day I first saw it on Commercial Zen I had just put the finishing touches on a case for which a woman was seeking financial support for seven children by four different men. Damn those homos! They’re really screwing up the sanctity of the sacred bond between a man and a woman.

I am indeed blessed by two wonderful daughters that are each in their own way making the world a better place. They’ve consumed quite a bit over the years, but what they produce far outweighs what they’ve taken in (I encourage you to read Rachel’s comments on yesterday’s post). Such people are the true hope for the future!

Tuesday Follows Monday

I am, first and foremost, a consumer. I produce little more than my daily bowel movement. I am employed primarily to gain the wherewithal to consume more. I am a consumer.

I have learned consumerism from practical experience, just by being born an American. Granted, formal education attempts to put a lofty spin on the subject but it still boils down to survival of the fittest, those who consume most efficiently. The weak and unfit are consumed.

It has been the consideration of a Hippocratic, sustainable lifestyle that has led me to this less than flattering view of myself. The proverbial paradigm shift from consumer to producer is virtually unfathomable, and yet this is what will be required if I sincerely desire to become part of the solution rather than be the problem.

I value the opinion of my loyal readers, and my hope is to stimulate some sort of discussion about where we go from here. Christmas 2008 is already being forecast as a disappointment because the recession/depression is going to curtail retail sales. I know that the politically correct response is that this is not what Christmas is really all about, but there is no denying that the health of our economy is dependent upon consumption: make it and we will buy it.

An unprecedented number of Americans feel that our country is headed in the wrong direction; that we are sorely in need of change, etc. Barack Obama symbolizes that hunger, but to what degree are we really willing to fundamentally change our worldview? It has been said that it is more blessed to give than to receive, but such words are just nonsense to a consumer.

Monday Follows Sunday

I am remiss whenever I forget to be consciously grateful for the myriad of blessings that are mine. I am equally remiss if my acknowledgment does not include an awareness of the many that are not as blessed and a confession that some of the good fortune I experience comes at a cost to others. The Zeitgeist is ripe for pondering the multitude of ways that selfish greed has consumed the American worldview and to repent. We don’t need all the stuff that consumerism says we can’t do without. We should stop playing the game of planned obsolescence whereby the perfectly good is discarded in able to obtain the “new and improved.” We need to somehow replace pseudo-thanks for cheaper gasoline with genuine appreciation for what $25 per gallon could mean to the planet and its future generations of inhabitants. The authenticity of my gratitude will be determined by the changes it inspires me to make in order that all my brothers and sisters may be equally blessed.

Protect Marriage, Protect Children, Prohibit Divorce

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

God Bless America?

Right now, I tend to agree with Jeremiah Wright. We must not let this happen again!
Threats Against Obama on the Rise by EILEEN SULLIVAN, AP

Death Sentence

Last June (06/10/08 Safe in Las Vegas) I supposed this city’s invincibility given the power of greed and lust. There is one small exception that I failed to note which now should be addressed. Las Vegas’ Achilles’ heel is morality. Given the election of Barack Obama, it is an appropriate time to reconsider the topic which from time to time genuinely enlightens human consciousness. The Religious Right’s understanding of morality was surely just as much a loser on November 4 as were the Republicans who have, at least ideologically, embraced it. But just as the American people have awakened to the folly of top-down government, so should this be the optimal time to renew our understanding of bottom-up morality. The two really go hand in hand. Just as the notion that a black man cannot be president has been shattered, so should be organized religion’s propagation of a monopoly on morality. Genuine morality is quintessentially abstract when understood as the harmonious relationship between Creator and Creation, a vagueness exploited by those who seek to assume power by defining it. Now is the time to realize that morality trumps ethicality and legality and does so by its very nature. As we stand together on the threshold of a new beginning, let us be wise enough to ponder anew just what our relationship with the Higher Power actually is. Should such a realization dawn upon the American horizon, Las Vegas is doomed.

Just What We Need: A New Holiday

Veterans’ Day is the least deserved holiday I take. For many years I was employed in occupations that didn’t observe the holiday, at least in terms of having the day off. But it has been as regular as clockwork since being employed by the county, and each year it leaves me feeling a little squeamish.

It really seems that Veterans’ Day ought to be just that, a day for veterans. Show your honorable discharge to the boss and enjoy a day off with pay. Veterans are those who have served their country through military service and the honor should be reserved for them.

My six years in paramilitaristic service to the community through law enforcement did nothing if not reinforce my recognition of the struggles and sacrifices made by veterans who had served, a discipline from which I benefitted just by being exposed to it.

The change in worldview, however, upon which threshold we now stand, needs to recognize those who have served their country by means other than the military. My dear friend, Paul, served as a conscientious objector in the oncology unit of Children’s Hospital in Denver, and his contributions to the larger good deserve recognition, too.

I pray that our species is evolving toward the Star Trek paradigm as opposed to the Star Wars. Surely the next great human discovery beyond fire will be love. It will truly signal God’s reign on Earth when Peacemakers’ Day warrants observance as an official holiday.

Be Prepared

In the ugly aftermath of World War II the German citizenry was forced to acknowledge the atrocities of the Third Reich. While not on the scale of Nazi Germany, the criminal acts of the Bush Administration coming to light are going to be a bitter pill for many Americans to swallow. Just as the Germans were not innocently ignorant of what was going on right under their noses, neither will we Americans be able to claim impunity for the despicable erosion of civil and human rights methodically perpetrated by the neoconservatives who have all but brought the Constitution to its knees. We’ve known. We just haven’t wanted to admit. With not just a new administration, but with the clamor of the public who voted it in, there is the promise of transparency (apparently a more palatable euphemism for the truth) which is going to expose just how depraved we let ourselves become in the years since Nixon. The first step toward recovery is admitting that we have sinned. I sense that no one is eager to prosecute the wrongdoers, and that may be just as well. The American equivalent to a Nuremburg-like trial of Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld…the list is so long that we could easily spend the next eight years attempting to adjudicate the last…will likely not serve well the imminent need for progressive reform for the future. But we need to look at ourselves in the national mirror, accept what we have either through submission or omission allowed to happen in the name of democracy, and swear to never, ever let it happen again.

Yes, We Can!

Today, I have a new understanding of ‘ecstatic’! The surreal nightmare of the last eight years is over, and although there’s a lot of spin right now about color, our country proved yesterday that we really are more concerned with the content of character. To those who “lost” yesterday I extend my condolences because I have been feeling the way you must now feel since 2000. Until now I’ve been reluctant to express it this way, but we are witnesses to an unfolding of messianic proportions. Repentance, forgiveness and redemption are all critical elements of the historic change We the People and Barack Obama initiated yesterday. It goes without saying that Obama’s election to the White House is not the end but the beginning, the Alpha and Omega of prophecy. I feel sorry for my Bible-bound brothers and sisters who cannot appreciate what is going on right now because they are enslaved to preconceived notions of how the end of time yielding to the new age of God’s reign should look and behave. I thank God for those who enlightened me to a progressive theology that affirms the marvelously mysterious ways by which Creation unfolds. We have crossed a threshold as the world watched on, and We the People have proclaimed that our nation really is about justice, compassion, and goodness. Knowing that President-elect Obama is without a pastor and that I am without a parish (except in the Wesleyan sense), I humbly offer myself as one who recognizes the Christ at work in our very midst to shepherd in whatever way I may. “Stronger than the dark, the light; stronger than the wrong, the right.” Even though the “official” observance is three weeks away, it is not too early to lift our prayers of thanksgiving for the way that God truly blesses us. Amen!

Election Reflection

It was one of those rare evenings when Dad stayed home after supper. Mom had put together a batch of the genuine Chex mix (complete with real butter and Worcestershire sauce; not the mass produced stuff that you find in stores today). Fitzmorris Elementary had let us students cast our votes during the day, a faux-election which went well for Richard M. Nixon (predominantly Republican Jefferson County was openly suspicious of John F. Kennedy’s Catholicism). So there we were, the Methodist preacher and his family sitting down to a black-and-white (literally, and perhaps figuratively) report of the polls as they started coming in. There was school the next day, and when it became obvious that the counting was going to continue throughout the night I was sent to bed without knowing until the next morning that JFK was the new president. It’s hard to believe that was all nearly a half-century ago, and to believe that in a scant eight years more Nixon would introduce criminality to the White House. I suspect that the call for Obama will be made relatively early this evening, thanks to the technological progress since 1960. Then, we hung on every new vote that was added to the board. Now, we are inundated by more information than we know what to do with. In many ways, the election of a Roman Catholic was a new beginning for America, a chance to rethink our prejudices. That’s the similarity I see with today’s election. We have before us the opportunity to become the nation we claim we want to be. It will be interesting to watch what we do with our second chance.

Election Eve, 2008

I’m quite certain that those who read this blog will be voting tomorrow—if they haven’t already. Mary and I got our early voting taken care of last Friday, a moment that actually left a lump in the throat of this old girly-man. Literally millions of people around the world do not have the opportunity that we Americans have. Yes, I am convinced that the past eight years are the darkest in American history (save the Civil War which only lasted four), and that is due in large part to the stupidity of voters who elected (sort of) and reelected immoral, unethical, and illegal politicians to the White House on down. Republicans are waving their flag of fear just as high as they can this election eve, warning of the perils of a veto-proof Democrat Congress and President. They should know, because that’s exactly the position Republicans had from 2000 to 2006 which they abused to nearly send the whole country down the crapper. I’m all for a multi-party system, but for the present we need an enlightened Democratic majority to try to repair all of the damage done by evil incarnate during the past eight years. These are the thoughts that influenced my choices in the booth. Your thoughts may well (and probably do) differ from mine. But vote, gosh darn it! It’s the best medicine known to this ailing country we love.