Bill Leslie in Me

 For many years we attended LaSalle Street Church and for most if those years we both worked for LaSalle in one capacity or another. I was Bill's secretary for awhile. Bill was founder and senior pastor. 
 
 I forget the exact number, but I think it was 480. He used to say "There are over 480 verses in the Bible that speak of God's identification with the poor but only two that speak of the virgin birth. One of those actually says a young girl shall conceive."  The point being that our priorities need to be adjusted. 
 
 Social Justice starts in the Old Testament and runs through the New Testament like fire. But as you read the verses you will see that God is not calling for "bleeding heart liberalism" or throwing money at the problems of the disenfranchised - although I remain a democrat - but a sacrificial communion with that population. Meeting them as equals and receiving as well as giving. 

 That kind of equality is terribly difficult for those of us who grew up entitled. I am not sure most of us at LaSalle ever truly achieved it. 
 
I have been the mother of a son with profound disabilities for 30 years and the wife, for close to 40 years, of a man who has been a minister, a public school teacher, a janitor and unemployed. He is currently a school bus driver. We are now impoverished ourselves and live in a community that would have terrified me 40 years ago. Yet I am still conscious that my education, my accent, my skin color, my posture and my assumptions all still communicate authority wherever I am. I am still treated with more respect in stores, restaurants and laundromats than my neighbors. When I take a friend to a hospital or doctor visit, for example, the doctors and nurses invariably speak to me as though I am the guardian or person in charge of the friend (black, Latino or disabled) who is the patient, after all.  The friend will be ignored as if invisible unless I direct the doctor to speak to the friend. What is even more disturbing to me is how often the friend is not just okay with this but seems to welcome it and readily defers to me, clearly thinking they will get better care that way.  And they are probably correct. This is one way I can be of service to my friend: to make limited use of my power as an over educated white woman without ever mistaking that power for superiority. 

In our neighborhood, we are the "go to" people whenever a neighbor has to interact with public officials. We spend a lot of time reading and filling out complicated forms and advising people regarding confusing notices they receive. It seems to me that the complication of arcane paperwork has an inverse ratio to the educational level of the recipient. It is amazing how many intrusive and ridiculous yet terrifying forms poor people must fill out!  Although it is time consuming and seems thankless, our front lawn magically never seems to need mowing and the winter Charley had surgery I never had to shovel our front walk.  Of course, Sam Care comes first and it is sometimes important to say no, but helping is what friends do for each other and we try to do what we can. 

 We will never be like our friends. We can only be ourselves as honestly and faithfully as we possibly can. We do not "bear witness to Christ" in the way most Evangelicals mean it. We simply live our difficult life along side our friends who are leading equally difficult lives and by that witness we are all transformed. 

Holocaust

I have received one of those chain letters that drive me crazy.  Usually I just delete them, but this one got to me.  It starts out praising Eisenhower for ordering photos of Holocaust survivors and then it claims that England is about to take the Holocaust out of it's school curriculum to avoid offending Muslims.  

I agree that the holocaust should never be forgotten.  This misleading mass chain letter, however, is full of inaccuracies.  Here's one of many links I found de-bunking it.

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/uk-holocaust-removal.shtml

But I suspected it was nuts before I started checking into it.

First of all, the British people themselves suffered deeply during WWII and remain extremely proud of their resistance to Hitler.  They are not going to forget it any time soon.  Additionally, they are still dealing with the emotional scars that resistance caused.  We are more likely to forget it than they are.  

Secondly, this letter conveniently leaves out the millions of powerless people: homosexuals and people with disabilities and other "non-Aryan" qualities, who were also victims of the holocaust. This makes me suspicious that there is an unexpressed agenda here.  Was it okay for Hitler to experiment on them?  Or is it still okay to hate them?  

Thirdly, why would Muslims find Hitler's regime offensive?  The extremist Muslims we are worried about hate Jews more than Hitler did and have more justification.  (I do not advocate jihad, pogrom, holocaust or other forms of feuding.  I'm just saying that the on-going conflict between Israel and the Muslim world is not creating mutual understanding and respect.)  I personally think the whole point of this letter is in the last line where it warns that 9/11 will soon be forgotten because Muslims find it offensive.  Which makes this a not very subtle attack on Muslims.  Is it okay to experiment on Muslims and put them in camps?  If the people in those initial photos were wearing burkas would those photos be just as offensive?  

There is so much anti-muslim propaganda in our world today that it is very difficult to listen to reason.  We only hear about the crazy people.  Who wants to be judged by the crazy people?  As a Catholic, I certainly don't want to be judged by the Inquisition or the tiny number of sick priests.  Religion is a very tricky thing.  

Finally, Ike is famous for many things, not least of which was his warning about the dangers of the "Military Industrial (Congressional) Complex" in his farewell address.  (His original draft said "Military Industrial Congressional Complex" but he struck Congressional out.  His daughter has said it was because he thought it was counter productive to offend Congress.)  Fear and inaccuracies only give that dangerous alliance more power.  The relevant portion of his speech is found here: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y06NSBBRtY

"Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together."

Alert and knowledgeable.  I would add compassionate.  This letter fuels fear of Muslims and supports the Military Industrial Congressional wars against people who do not even have indoor plumbing.  I am in favor of security AND liberty for everyone.  Unfortunately, there is a balance.  Ultimate security can only be found by giving up liberty.  Give up too much liberty and you once again start to lose even security.  I worry that in this country we are letting our fears talk us into surrendering liberty for a false sense of security.  To a large degree, we have surrendered our ability to think rationally to our fears.  We have given our power to the Military Industrial Congressional Complex just as Ike worried we would.  He was a very thoughtful man and I suspect he would be very unhappy to have his reputation attached to this letter.  By fueling our fears of Muslims, this letter empowers the very people Ike warned us about.

Too often these mass mailings I receive do not seem knowledgeable, compassionate or even alert - they just seem ill-informed and scared.  They remind me of Beatrice in "Much Ado About Nothing":  "He is now as valiant as Hercules who only tells a lie and swears by it."  

Daughter of a scientist here.  My motto is "Check it out."  I will not forward anything on until I have checked it out.  If I do not have time to check something out or if I am not particularly interested in the subject, I just delete it.  This particular one, since it deals with and encourages hate and fear, upset me more than most.  So I decided to respond.

Tax the Rich

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says he's not engaging in "class warfare" -- he's just doing the math. But House Speaker John Boehner (BAY'-nur) says class warfare is exactly what Obama is engaging in -- and he says that's not the same as leadership. (End Quote)


President Obama promised to veto any budget plan that cuts Medicare without closing loopholes which create tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.  Speaker Boehner said, "Tax the rich, tax the rich.  That's really not the American way."  Then he went on to say that balancing the budget requires more people on the tax roles, more jobs.


So let's think about this.  What we need is more people working at Wal-Mart, earning less than a living wage and paying higher taxes.  We need more elderly going without medical care because they can't afford it.  We need to keep giving the wealthiest people "incentives" to get richer because "they deserve a break today."  We need to crush unions and collective bargaining because it's all those teachers and fire fighters and police officers being greedy that actually is behind the deficit.  That's the way the Sherriff of Nottingham reasoned and why Robin Hood is still a popular folk hero!


Yet it's President Obama that is accused of "class warfare" and not people like Boehner and the Tea Party?  


I think the "Trickle Down Theory" hasn't actually worked.  Nothing ever "trickles down".   It hasn't worked in the recent past.  It didn't work in the days of Rockefeller.  But speaking of Rockefeller and the Robber Barons, maybe Boehner has a point.  Maybe class oppression IS the American way, it's just not what I learned America was about when I was in grade school.    

Governor

On the front page of the Trib recently there was an article on how many children with disabilities have died in state homes because of poor oversight, understaffing and neglect.  Complete with pictures of the deceased.  They were adorable.

On the SAME PAGE they had an announcement that the Trib is endorsing Brady for governor.  This is the same guy that will CUT funding to these institutions.

I'm just saying...