History Shows The Wisdom Of A Bipartisan Cabinet Under President Biden

The Republican Party has done a lot of damage to America’s democracy over the past fifty years. Here’s what I believe are the worst four:
Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” in which he embraced the white racists of the Deep South. As a direct result, the Deep South, historically the most religious region of the nation, became the GOP’s strongest base, and so forced the party to not just accept its racism, but also elevated its right-wing evangelicals to become the political power brokers that Barry Goldwater warned about in the early 1960's.
Reagan’s “war on big government” wherein he intentionally sowed mistrust and fear of the government itself. He followed this up by slashing taxes, and by doing so ushered in the era of still-uncontrollable deficit spending. …
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Oct 23
It Is Morally Wrong To Post Cartoons Of The Islamic Prophet Mohammed
The reason is one upon which Christians, liberals, and conservatives can all agree
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National tribute to beheaded French teacher Samuel Paty. (msn.com)
Before saying another word, the beheading of the teacher in a quiet suburban French town northwest of Paris — like the massacre of the reporters and staff of Charlie Hebdo in 2015 — is an inexcusable crime for which the murderer must face the full weight of French justice. …
Read more · 3 min read
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Oct 21
School Uniforms, No More Summer Vacation, And An Extra Year Of High School
The things no kid wants are sometimes what every kid needs
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By Chicago 2016–103008_1982, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54062063
My sons are both married, one with a one year-old child, and the other with a pregnant wife. Both work full time with benefits and are in the process of buying homes of their own. It looks like they’re well on their way to achieving the American Dream, right?
Actually, that’s not their goal.
Both of them intend for their children to attend K-12 school in the Philippines. My oldest son attended K-12 schools here in America and attended college in the Philippines, while my youngest attended his last two years of high school there. …
Read more · 8 min read
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Sep 22
Baby Boomers And The Greatest Musical Revolution In History
Why humanity will probably never see anything like it again
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Led Zeppelin, perhaps the greatest Rock-n-Roll band ever. Much of their music was born in the cottonfields of the Mississippi Delta. (source)
In the past few years, “OK Boomer” became the insult du jour by Millennials and Gen-Xers towards us Baby Boomers, we who were born between 1946 and 1964. The sometimes-sincere jibe has been used to blame us for all society’s ills, from global warming to nuclear proliferation to white privilege. It’s like we’re the world’s husband — no matter what it is, it’s our fault (and it usually is).
But you know what? There’s one thing we Baby Boomers did better than any other generation in humanity’s history or future: music. Here’s why:
Factor 1: The Blues
To be sure, the revolution started a generation before with the great Blues musicians that sprang from the Mississippi Delta juke joints like B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy Waters. Led Zeppelin’s “Travelling Riverside Blues”, Cream’s “Crossroads” (led by Eric Clapton), and the Doobie Brothers’ “Black Water” clearly show the indelible influence of the Bluesmen who lifted the hearts of sharecroppers after long days in the cottonfields under the hot Delta sun. They did so by giving melody and verse to the hardship, adversity, and heartbreak of Black men and women whose families had spent generations under the yoke of slavery followed by the Jim Crow era. In his book Revolt of the Rednecks, Albert Kirwan recorded the observation of overseers watching Black workers out in the cotton fields in the 1870's: “And they sing, as only they can sing.” …
Read more · 6 min read
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Published in Our Human Family
·Sep 14
Now Streaming: Modern Reality and Past Fantasies of Whiteness
The different starting points of “Little Fires Everywhere” and “Blue Bloods”
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Elena Richardson (Reese Witherspoon) and Mia Warren (Kerry Washington) provide an epic study in racial and cultural contrast. (ScreenRant.com)
“You’re not a good mother! You didn’t make good choices!” shouts Elena Richardson at Mia Warren, who shouts back just as furiously, “You didn’t make good choices. You had good choices!”
The roles are played by A-list actors Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington to devastating effect in a drama about a homeless Black professional photographer trying desperately to provide a stable home and a good future for her overachieving daughter in white suburbia.
This one exchange between the two main characters of Little Fires Everywhere encapsulates the themes of the entire series, that (1) white people and People of Color often live in wholly different realities, (2) white people have a wider range of much easier and safer options from which to choose, and (3) the near-total ignorance of most white people concerning the basic facts of white privilege. …