The flag is at half-staff again
or still.
I can’t remember the last time
I saw it waving from the top
of the pole.
Days? Weeks? Months? Years?
Someday it will rise again,
someday when we put our fears
to rest, and begin
to trust each other once more,
put down our weapons of words
and steel, and pour healing
love into our nation’s wounds.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell
I took my Bernie bumper sticker off my car before I left for work yesterday morning. Bernie Sanders had a noble and honorable run for the presidency. I believe he accomplished a lot that was good and important during his bid for the White House, and I’m beyond grateful to him for that. But, for me, it was never about rooting for a personality – it was always about the ideas Bernie supported. I’ve always tended to follow ideas more than people. People die or they don’t get elected or whatever, but the ideas live on. Let’s not stop fighting for the ideas, okay?
My Bernie bumper sticker.
The weapons of bigotry, ignorance, envy, fall before an honest heart.
– Mary Baker Eddy
This will maybe tell you something about me. When President Obama got elected the first time and my friends and I were all excited and celebrating, someone – or probably a bunch of someones – said how awesome it was that we had finally elected an African-American to be our president. And – honest to goodness – up until that moment this hadn’t even occurred to me. When I voted for Barack Obama I was just voting for the person I thought was going to make the best POTUS. His race had never entered into any of my political conversations or been any kind of factor for me in deciding that I would like him sitting in the Oval Office.
Just as I don’t believe people should be denied equal rights because of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, non-religion, or sexual orientation – I don’t believe we should vote someone into the presidency just BECAUSE of her or his race, ethnicity, gender, religion, non-religion, or sexual orientation. There is too much at stake to focus on a person’s color or gender as a deciding factor in a presidential election.
So when I came across this while internet surfing, I was… well, “dismayed” might be the right word…
emoji art by Laura Olin
To lump all “white guys” into one big monolithic group doesn’t feel right to me. To put Abraham Lincoln in the same lump as, say, George W. Bush, is… well, it’s a little appalling, isn’t it? To paint FDR with the same brush as Herbert Hoover just because they both happened to be males is, I believe, a kind of bigotry.
If we’re going to vote for a woman for President, it would be awfully nice if we did it for the right reasons rather than just because she happens to have two x chromosomes. To vote for a woman just because she happens to be a female seems… well, in a roundabout way it’s disrespectful to the female candidate.
Okay. That’s all I have to say about this, I guess.
Carry on then…
A picture of Cory Booker just popped up on my Facebook page. It was taken four years ago when I was a delegate for Pres. Obama at the Washington State convention. For a few hours I got to hobnob with Cory Booker and other movers and shakers and political celebrities. I also met some really amazing people who were not celebrities or stars – but who, every day, are in life’s trenches, working to improve the lives of the people in their communities.
And at the end of the day, I came home, changed into my jeans, got out the sponge and scrubbing brush, and cleaned the toilet. That sort of thing always helps put things into perspective for me.
Viva la cleaning agents!
Cory Booker et moi.
I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately to the kind of person I’d like to see running for President of the U.S. of A. Here’re my thoughts, thus far:
Anybody got anything they’d like to add?
Did y’all see the clip of the little bird landing on Bernie Sander’s podium? Isn’t that cool?! 🙂 I can’t imagine a little bird flying to the podium of any other candidate – thousands of people hooting and screaming around him – and happily sitting there for a minute to commune with the speaker. I also can’t imagine any other presidential candidate responding to that little bird in the same way Bernie Sanders did. I’m thinking if that small feathered earthling has the good sense to recognize a friend when he sees one, why shouldn’t human earthlings be able to do that, too?
I am caucusing in Washington State today. Four years ago I caucused for the first time and ended up going to the state convention as a delegate for President Obama. That was such a blast! (You can read all about that little adventure on my Humoristianity blog.) I’m not voting for Bernie today because that little bird endorses him – I have known from the moment Bernie Sanders announced his candidacy that I would be supporting him – but that video clip surely does help validate my choice for me.
“Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy has always believed that those who are entitled to vote should do so, and she has also believed that in such matters no one should seek to dictate the actions of others.”
– from Prose Works by Mary Baker Eddy
Christian Scientists are expected to follow individual conscience when it comes to voting. There are no bossy britches big wigs in the Christian Science movement telling other Christian Scientists how to vote… and, frankly, trying to dictate voting choices to Christian Scientists would be like trying to herd cats, anyway. We are a… peculiar… people. (And “peculiar” might be an under-statement. 🙂 )
In 2012 I served as a delegate for President Obama at the state convention. This year I am rooting for Bernie Sanders. It is very tempting for me to explain my choice by pointing out the flaws and foibles of the other folks running for President. But it’s probably a more positive thing for me to talk about the things about Mr. Sanders that I like and respect – things that I liked and respected about him even before he announced his candidacy: He is honest; consistent in his views; fights for the humble, poor, and disenfranchised; and cares about the same things I care about. He is an upright man:
“The upright man is guided by a fixed Principle, which destines him to do nothing but what is honorable, and to abhor whatever is base or unworthy; hence we find him ever the sane, – at all times the trusty friend, the affectionate relative, the conscientious man of business, the pious worker, the public-spirited citizen…He assumes no borrowed appearance. He seeks no mask to cover him, for he acts no studied part; but he is indeed what he appears to be, – full of truth, candor, and humanity. In all his pursuits, he knows no path but the fair, open, and direct one, and would much rather fail of success than attain it by reproachable means.”
– Mary Baker Eddy’s re-working of a description found in Murray’s The English Reader, published in 1823
There’s a quote in Timequake, by Kurt Vonnegut, that I think could have easily been said by Bernie Sanders: “Many people need desperately to receive this message: ‘I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.”
Feel the Bern! 🙂
photo by Carolyn Kaster
“Your influence for good depends upon the weight you throw into the right scale. The good you do and embody gives you the only power obtainable. Evil is not power. It is a mockery of strength, which erelong betrays its weakness and falls, never to rise.”
– Mary Baker Eddy
“Evil is not supreme; good is not helpless…”
– Mary Baker Eddy
After watching this videoclip from the Young Turks on Facebook – a clip from a Donald Trump political rally – I’ve been feeling really discouraged about mankind. As Cenk Uygur, the commentator, says: “If you think this isn’t dangerous, then you’re not paying attention.” In the clip we see the mob inside the rally hall applauding as people are bullied and threatened, hated on, and thrown out – the mob getting more and more excited and frenzied as the rally goes on. The blood lust and excitement we see in the crowd towards the victims of this hatred is incredibly disturbing. When did it become acceptable, in America, to treat each other with such brazen, unapologetic mean-ness? When did people in our society lose their civility and courtesy to one another? When did it become popular and “cool” to be hateful?
I’m grappling with how I, personally, should respond to what I see in this videoclip. I’m thinking it through as I type this… so… yeah… this may not be the most articulate post you’ve ever read…
It seems to me that to ignore the behavior we see in that video – to just close our eyes and stop up our ears and pretend it’s not happening – is not going to make it go away. It needs to be unmasked, exposed, and seen for what it is – senseless and hateful and dishonorable. The hatred needs to be condemned. Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “Evil which obtains in the bodily senses, but which the heart condemns, has no foundation; but if evil is uncondemned, it is undenied and nurtured. Under such circumstances, to say that there is no evil, is an evil in itself. When needed tell the truth concerning the lie. Evasion of Truth cripples integrity, and casts thee down from the pinnacle.”
Whoaaaah, right?
But I don’t want to be a part of perpetuating the cycle of hatred, either. I don’t want to personify evil or demonize men. Eddy writes, “”Evil has no reality. It is neither person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion of material sense.” Okay. Let me think about that for a moment. Evil is an illusion. Hunh. It sure SEEMS real, doesn’t it? But… “Evil thoughts and aims reach no farther and do no more harm than one’s belief permits. Evil thoughts, lusts, and malicious purposes cannot go forth, like wandering pollen, from one human mind to another, finding unsuspected lodgment, if virtue and truth build a strong defence.” A Facebook friend said, upon watching the aforementioned videoclip, that these “folks are mesmerized.” And I think she’s spot on with that observation. In that sense, it IS an illusion – an illusion of power and belonging – a hypnotic suggestion that to follow the path towards bigotry and hatred is somehow a good thing. Illusion. There is no real power for folks who hate on others – hating on people doesn’t make you healthier or happier or stronger – it has no power to make the world a better place. And that’s the only power that really matters, right?
And now I’m thinking about all the really wonderful and noble people in my community of friends – good people – generous and caring and thoughtful and honest – decent, fearless individuals. THOSE are the people with the real power, right?
Okay. It’s time to get ready for work. I think first I’ll listen to Joan Baez sing one of my favorite songs, though…
“We are not afraid, we are not afraid today… deep in my heart I do believe we shall overcome someday.” (Charles Albert Tindley)
