Notes from the Revolution, 6/9/20

. . . a revolution of hearts and minds . . .

After his funeral in Houston today, George Floyd was carried
to his final resting place in a horse-drawn hearse.

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As I said in Sunday's post, I can't keep up with all the news that's going on right now, but I will continue to post from time to time, under the above heading, my thoughts about where we are as a nation and where I think we ought to go, and how.

And let me say, for the benefit of any new readers, something that I suppose has been apparent to my longtime truckbuddies:  I represent a party of one, and this blog is my personal forum in which I express my own independent thoughts, not all of them necessarily in tune with the zeitgeist of the modern world.  My party's platform includes the Golden Rule, the Golden Mean, and the Baptismal Covenant, as well as a plank in favor of the Oxford comma, and another one denouncing the use of gift as a verb.

Being fairly well versed in the English language, I say what I mean and I mean what I say: it's my privilege as a free, though flawed, man in a free, though flawed, country.  I don't want to argue with anyone.  If you don't agree with me, just move on and find someone else you do agree with:  that's your privilege.  There are millions of other voices in the world, and mine, small and obscure, has no influence over the course of events, one way or the other.  Which may be all for the best; at least it passes the time for me here in retirement.

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"Defund the Police" Needs a Rebrand:  It certainly does, for all sorts of obvious reasons. As Kevin Drum says:

We can write thousands of pieces telling people that “defund” doesn’t really mean defund, but honestly, you can hardly blame people for nevertheless thinking that defund means defund. That is, cut police budgets to zero and get rid of them entirely.

There’s not a Democratic politician alive who thinks we should do this, and keeping the phrase in use is just an invitation for unnecessary conflict between politicos and their base. Maybe it’s too late, but can’t we come up with something better? Rebuild the Police? Reform the Police? Demilitarize the Police? There’s got to be something.

Notice how Senator Kamala Harris, a former state prosecutor, struggles to explain what the phrase really means - "not that we get rid of the police, of course not" - which is baffling to any intelligent listener who believes that words have meaning:



Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis was booed out of a protest march on Saturday after he refused to accede to the demand to "defund the police." He was quite right to decline, in my opinion. Here he explains his stand:




Now I certainly agree with Sen.  Harris that increased funding for public schools, healthcare, job creation and training is necessary to make better communities:  you get what you pay for.  Although I do have to wonder why, more than fifty years after LBJ called for the building of a "Great Society" in America - and the countless billions of dollars that have been spent on those very issues - why is our society not great?  Why are black communities still impoverished, with all the unhappy outcomes that go with poverty?  Why have fifty years of massive federal aid to cities and minorities had no better effect on its intended beneficiaries than what we see today in this country - the richest and most powerful in the world?

Please understand that I do not know the answers - I am simply asking the questions.  Questions that are long overdue a proper answer free of bias, one way or the other.

Some uninformed people in this great country think that it was established as an exclusively Christian nation and intended to be such forever.  The facts are otherwise, but even if that were true, they should not boast about it, but weep.  Jesus did say, "The poor are always with you."  But this hardly justifies complacency about the fact; I think it likely that He was quoting, in part, Deuteronomy 15:11, where God commands the Israelites:

For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.

And of course, Jesus himself told the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25, enjoining those who love God to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, care for the sick, and comfort the prisoners; in other words, to do whatever was needed to alleviate poverty and misery.  In the Sermon on the Mount, He blessed the poor, saying the Kingdom of Heaven belonged to them.

Now, you need not believe in God or Christ or the Bible to grasp the exalted moral imperative here, which is expressed in different words in all other religions worthy of the name:  love your neighbor as yourself.  Believer or non-believer, conservative or liberal, rich or just getting by - if we are not barbarians, we must as individuals and as as a nation do what needs to be done to help and heal and lift up the poor among us - poor in body, mind, or spirit - and that is what will truly Make America Great Again.

"Real Christian" Thinking

An anonymous commenter has, in a roundabout way, accused your Head Trucker of not thinking like a "Real Christian."  Because I don't support starving stray animals to death, or letting poor kids go hungry.

You can read his or her remarks here as well as my response.

But in the meantime, since it's Sunday, your Head Trucker would like to clear up what seems to be some widespread confusion about what "Real Christians" should be thinking and doing.  So as a public service, I therefore present the following excerpt without further comment.  Read it and make up your own minds.

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

--Matthew 25.

Don't Even Let Them Eat Cake

Oh hell no, not in South Carolina - that would be too good for the worthless beggars.

At a town hall meeting on Friday, the Republican - you knew that, right? - lieutenant governor, Andre Bauer, delivered himself of these compassionate remarks about why poor kids should be denied school lunches if their parents don't attend parent-teacher conferences:

"My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed," Bauer said, according to the Greenville [S. C.] News. "You're facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that. And so what you've got to do is you've got to curtail that type of behavior. They don't know any better."

Among other South Carolinians who responded with outrage to Bauer's remarks, Democratic candidate Mullins McLeod said: "It amazes me how some Republican politicians claim a monopoly on Christianity and then go out and say and do some of the most un-Christian things imaginable."

Yeah well, no shit buddy.  The Republicans aren't about being Christian.  They're all about power.

And screwing over all the poor bastards who don't have any.

P.S. - Bauer is rumored to be gay, which of course he firmly denies; google it up if you're interested.

Honk to Pam's House Blend

Update:  Rachel has the sound clip, and some trenchant remarks on this pompous ass, too:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Give a Damn, Give a Goat

Does the commercialized mania of Christmas get your goat?  Are you tired of pigging out at Christmas parties?  Do you duck out of shopping sprees?  Do you wish you could chicken out of climbing that roof one more time to string yet another row of lights around the eaves?

Then maybe it's time to rethink your whole approach to the holiday season.  Historians tell us that the custom of giving Christmas gifts arose in imitation of the Magi who brought gifts to the infant Jesus - albeit they arrived a good while after he had outgrown the manger, contrary to the popular depiction; go read your Bible and see.

Yet the Magi were not giving gifts to each other, but rather offering them to the manifestation of God made flesh; at least such is the Christian interpretation of the story.  But whether you are preparing to celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwaanza, Solstice, or something else, or nothing at all - is it not true that "it is better to give than to receive"?

Instead of loading your nearest and dearest down with a lot of expensive crap that they really don't need, please think about making a gift to someone you will never see, but who will benefit from your small act of generosity in many ways for years and years to come.

Give a goat - for only 80 bucks, the price of a movie and dinner at a nice restaurant for two, you can provide a family in Africa or elsewhere with a source of milk, cheese, and even manure for farming.  Or for a hundred bucks, a pig; or if you can't squeeze that into your budget, how about a duck or a chicken? 

These and many other life-sustaining, life-saving gifts are available through the Gifts for Life Catalog at Episcopal Relief and Development, formerly the Presiding Bishop's Fund of the Episcopal Church.  ERD has a four-star rating from Charity Navigator, the highest rating that organization bestows; you can see a breakdown of ERD's revenues, expenses, and operational efficiency here.  Of course, ERD is just one of many fine outfits that do much good work in the world; you can review others at Charity Navigator as well.

I well recall watching Mother Teresa's funeral over in India in 1997; and I was struck by the fact that, as one high leader after another of India's many religions took a turn at eulogizing her - they expressed their thoughts in different words, of course, but one and all said essentially the very same thing:  "This woman, though she was not of our faith, lived up to the highest precepts of our belief - that to treat others as you would want to be treated, to care deeply and work steadfastly for the good of those who cannot help themselves, is the noblest path of human life, and the most sublime service to God."

We are so very rich in this country, and we take it for granted most of the time.  Nowadays, even the poor people in America, I would say perhaps 90 percent of them or more, have electricity, running water, including hot water, a refrigerator, a microwave, a color television, even central heat and air, many of them - and closets full of clothes.  Which is not to say that poverty is not a concern to be taken seriously - after all, it's no good having all these conveniences if you can't pay the light bill - and your Head Trucker in his time has seen many days like that - but the point is, the vast majority of us have no idea what true poverty is.

My own little grandmother was born in a two-room log cabin with dirt floors, way to hell back in the woods.  When she was married and my grandfather went off to seek work in the city, she plowed the fields herself with a team of oxen, and filled the crib with so much corn, they had to knock the roof off.  Until the children were grown, she used to do all the family laundry in a cauldron of boiling water out in the yard, scrubbing the clothes on a scrubboard until her knuckles bled.  Yet now I, her grandson, live in comfort at 70 degrees year round, and I get pissed because I have to carry my wet laundry from the washer out to the garage, where the dryer is - until I think of all that Grandma had to do, and did do for eight decades, and I feel ashamed of myself.

Yet millions and millions of folks around the world live on less than a thousand dollars a year, without electricity, without running water, without even windows or doors.  And you're going to be pissed if Santa doesn't bring you exactly the right pair of Gap jeans?  Please, Mary - think about someone besides your fabulous self for a moment.  Whether you are religious or not, give a damn, give a goat - or whatever you can afford - not to yourself, and not to somebody who will pay you back with a present in return. 

But give it to somebody who can never, ever repay you - offer it to whatever your concept is of the Ultimate Good in the universe - which we mortals can only ever see clearly when we look into the face of another human being:  a spark of God made manifest in flesh.

Happy holidays.