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A Free Press
“When the press is gagged, liberty is besieged…”
– Mary Baker Eddy, founder of The Christian Science Monitor
The job of the free press is to keep our citizens informed. When the White House refuses to let the free press do its job it is an attack on our democracy. Our government is by the people, of the people, and for the people – it is not supposed to be a dictatorship, or a corporation. Our government depends on an informed citizenry – how can we have an informed citizenry if the White House refuses to let its citizens see what it’s doing? Pictures don’t tell lies. Yes, words can be twisted, biases can be presented in the written and spoken telling of a story – but a rolling camera that films exactly what is being said and done isn’t lying – it isn’t showing bias – it’s just showing us exactly what is happening – and that is vital for a healthy democracy.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
– First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States
“It is the pulpit and press, clerical robes and the prohibiting of free speech, that cradles and covers the sins of the world,—all unmitigated systems of crime; and it requires the enlightenment of these worthies, through civil and religious reform, to blot out all inhuman codes. It was the Southern pulpit and press that influenced the people to wrench from man both human and divine rights, in order to subserve the interests of wealth, religious caste, civil and political power.”
– Mary Baker Eddy, Miscellaneous Writings
“When the press is gagged, liberty is besieged; but when the press assumes the liberty to lie, it discounts clemency, mocks morality, outrages humanity, breaks common law, gives impulse to violence, envy, and hate, and prolongs the reign of inordinate, unprincipled clans. At this period, 1888, those quill-drivers whose consciences are in their pockets hold high carnival. When news-dealers shout for class legislation, and decapitated reputations, headless trunks, and quivering hearts are held up before the rabble in exchange for money, place, and power, the vox populi is suffocated, individual rights are trodden under foot, and the car of the modern Inquisition rolls along the streets besmeared with blood.”
– Mary Baker Eddy, Miscellaneous Writings
Medicaid Cuts
Did you all see the video of the people getting dragged from their wheelchairs and carried out by law enforcement officers for protesting proposed Medicaid cuts outside Sen. McConnell’s office? If you missed it, here’s a clip.
Here’s what Donald Trump promised during his campaign: “I’m not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid.”
And here’s what Trumpcare proposes today: Medicaid Cuts.
In grade school I was taught that the United States stood for liberty, justice, and equality. We were the good guys. We were the country that people immigrated to for freedom and opportunity – people came here to escape religious persecution, political persecution, and poverty. My immigrant ancestors came here to find better lives for themselves and their families, and, unless you are descended wholly from indigenous peoples or slaves, so did yours.
And look at us now. What have we become?! We are the only industrialized nation with for-profit health care. Health insurance corporations don’t actually seem to care about making people healthy – the corporations’ main concern is making money. That’s what for-profit corporations do: They make money. And our politicians are, of course, in the back pockets of these guys because that seems to be what their chief concern is, too – making money. (For an insightful piece about this from the perspective of a patient – click here.)
Add to this the corruption found in pharmaceutical companies (click here for a link to a Harvard University study), and if you are suffering from health problems and don’t have insurance to pay for the cost of your care, you and your family could get financially wiped out in a matter of days. (According to the HealthCare.gov site, the average cost for a three-day hospital stay is $30,000.)
This is shameful.
Our Republican legislators – the (fill in the blank) who came up with the latest health care “reform” plan should be ashamed of themselves. But somehow I doubt they are. Their proposals indicate they don’t have any kind of collective conscience. They appear not to give a hoot about the people they were elected to represent.
And this might be a good time to remind our politicians that they are not the bosses of us; we are the bosses of them. They are here to serve US – not the pharmaceutical companies, and not the health insurance corporations – but US. And if they won’t serve the people who put them in office, then it is time for us to fire their kiesters.
“The rich in spirit help the poor in one grand brotherhood, all having the same Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth his brother’s need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another’s good.” – Mary Baker Eddy
“Love is everything that matters.”
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A Prayer
Know that Love is all-power, all-presence,
everywhere, through all, in all, the Only.
Know there isn’t the teensiest tiniest nano
space or second that is not filled with Love.
Know that there is no time, no place,
outside the reach of Truth, the touch
of Love, the wisdom of Mind.
Truth created all, every-thing
every-one, and there’s no part of creation –
not the most miniscule micro molecule –
that can possibly be unlike its Creator –
that doesn’t fully express the beauty,
perfection, wonder, sublimity, whole-ness,
and joy of Love.
Amen.
– Karen
Photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell
“We keep each other on our toes.”
“There are Democrat Christian Scientists and Republican Christian Scientists, ‘Green,’ and ‘Red,’ and ‘Blue’ Christian Scientists, and Christian Scientists with no political affiliations at all. Frankly, I like that about us. We keep each other on our toes.”
– Karen Molenaar Terrell, Blessings: Adventures of a Madcap Christian Scientist
A few years ago when my newly-graduated son was living with us while he looked for engineering jobs, he helped me set up a highly sophisticated, state-of-the-art recording studio (a set of Logitech headphones and the recording program on my husband’s Mac) so I could make an audiobook of Blessings: Adventures of a Madcap Christian Scientist. It was an adventure, for sure. I do not believe I could have pulled it off without the son’s patience and technological support.
If you go to the link highlighted in blue above or click > here < – it should take you to my audiobook on Amazon. If you click the little arrow that says “Audible Sample” you’ll hear me reading the introduction to Blessings. Among other things you will hear me wax philosophical about Christian Scientists and their political affiliations.
And I was going to write a whole bunch of stuff about Christian Scientists and their political affiliations here, but I find I don’t wanna. 🙂 I want to go eat breakfast now and take a nice walk – it looks like it might be drizzling again out there, which is always fun. So I’ll just leave you with the audible sample to do with as you choose and wish you a wonderful day full of blessings and hope and kindness and progress and everything good.
Message to My Senators
“The rich in spirit help the poor in one grand brotherhood, all having the same Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth his brother’s need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another’s good. ”
– Mary Baker Eddy
Message to the esteemed Senators from Washington State, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell:
Regarding the proposed budgets for Education and Health Care –
I know you will stand, as you always have, with the poor, sick, disenfranchised, and struggling. I know you will do what you need to do to help our young people receive the education that will make their lives, and our world, better. I know you will do what you need to do to ensure that health care is affordable and accessible to all our citizens.
And I thank you for that. I am grateful to live in Washington State and to be represented by you in Washington, DC.
Karen Molenaar Terrell
“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
– James 1: 27
Thinking for Ourselves
Several folks have now shared the opinion that we should stop reading the news and “think for ourselves.” And… a few things:
1) The fact that several folks have parroted the almost exact same words about “thinking for ourselves” leads me to believe that they are not actually thinking for themselves, themselves.
2) “Thinking for ourselves” shouldn’t just mean making up “facts” as we go along, or pulling “the truth” out of our kiesters. To really “think for yourself” you have to be informed and knowledgeable.
3) It doesn’t take any special kind of talent to spout off a bunch of opinions – anyone can do that. To really be a thinker, you need to be able to separate opinions from facts. And to separate opinions from facts, you need to have some facts to separate the opinions from. And where do we get our facts? Well… by reading the news, right? And not by reading just one news source (one news source could easily be biased) – but by reading multiple sources. And not just by reading the editorials – which are, by definition, opinion pieces – but by reading actual news stories.
Okay. That’s all I’ve got right now. Carry on then…
“The time for thinkers has come.” –
Mary Baker Eddy
Cattle Drive
A truck was ahead of me on I-5
“Cattle Drive” written on its backside
Holes punched out on the side
to let in air and light to the four-legged
occupants hurtling through time
and space to their destiny.
As I passed I glanced through
a glass-less window and saw a bovine
leg shifting its weight – skin and fur
and muscle of a living being moving
inside the metal crate and I wanted
to acknowledge its life, wanted to reach
out and touch the leg and ask forgiveness
for humanity.
Vegetarianism calls.
– -Karen Molenaar Terrell
Easter Gladness
Took an early morning walk and when I stepped out of the house I found myself totally immersed in birdsong, and the smells of blossoms and new green growing things. Started singing the Easter song to myself (with words by Frances Thompson Hill): “Let us sing of Easter gladness that rejoices every day. Sing of hope and faith uplifted, Love has rolled the stone away…” And as I got to that part in the song there was a break in the clouds, and the sunshine landed on my face – warm and reassuring – a blessing, a benediction…
Glory be to God, and peace to the struggling hearts! Christ hath rolled away the stone from the door of human hope and faith, and through the revelation and demonstration of life in God, hath elevated them to possible at-one-ment with the spiritual idea of man.
– Mary Baker Eddy
***
I’m thinking about the stone that Love has been rolling away from my heart over the years – the ego, blame, self-will, guilt, fear, anger, selfishness, sense of being “put upon” and treated unfairly – and, though there’s still more stone-rolling needed in my consciousness, I’m so very grateful for the progress so far – so grateful for the light that’s reached me – so very glad to be alive – to be able to experience the birdsong and blossoms and sunshine of an Easter morning.
And here’s a cool thing – hope, renewal, love, joy – those things don’t need to be limited to some traditional church holiday, do they? Haleleujah, brothers and sisters! 
We can have the glory of an Easter morning EVERY day…
…Every day will be an Easter
Filled with benedictions new.
– Frances Thompson Hill
(Post originally published on April 20, 2014)
Adventures of the Madcap Christian Scientist 