Uncategorized – A View From the Sycamore

Truth or Consequences

“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
― George Orwell

It’s time for healing in our nation. In fact, it’s well past time. Our American democracy has gaping wounds, and we the people long to see them closed. Yet, as with many injuries, healing only comes with an accurate diagnosis of what caused and is causing the damage. In the immediate situation, in a nation with a barricaded Capitol and threats of violence across the country, the most damage is being caused by a particular set of lies, those being 1) the 2020 election was riddled with fraud, 2) Trump actually won, and therefore 3) he is being unfairly robbed of a 2^nd term. All three of these statements are inflammatory, damnable lies wounding our nation.

How do we know? Because representatives who have the most reason and resources to know have told us so. This includes then-Attorney General Bill Barr who, despite being an unflagging Trump loyalist and apologist, said there was no evidence of fraud. We know because Chris Krebs who headed the Trump Administration’s Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency reported absolutely “no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.” We know because Ben Hovland, the Trump-appointed head of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission said there was no evidence of fraud. Likewise, those overseeing elections in various states – including members of the Republican Party, have told us there was no fraud and the votes have been counted and recounted as required by law. We know because Trump loyalists one after another have marched into courts of law from the state level to Supreme Court of the United States and in over five dozen court rulings have universally been told they have no evidence and therefore no case. This has not stopped Donald Trump – for whom lying is his chief skill set – from repeating these lies over and over for three months now. Trump is shameless in his lying and, perversely, this gets people to believe him because they would never lie so guilt-free and so can’t imagine anyone would.

Trump even pre-lied about the election outcome by casting doubt on its integrity before it happened. This was to groom his base to accept the lie when it became necessary and it appears to have worked. Last week an angry mob invaded the Capitol building with the stated purpose to “Stop the Steal’ even though there was no steal. Thus, their true purpose was to overturn a valid election. It was a Trump-inspired coup attempt but, even with the death and destruction, they felt their actions were morally righteous and politically patriotic. This does not excuse their actions; it simply notes that the responsibility does not start, nor should it end, with them. Prosecute them for their bad behavior, but they had help.

Recall Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and the 145 other Republicans who voted to overturn the U.S. 2020 presidential election. Joe Biden won by over 7 million popular votes and 74 electoral college votes. Nonetheless, these members of Congress voted to invalidate the election because of the “concerns” of those who lost. Those concerns existed only because Trump and company, bolstered by vast media networks – FOX, OAN, Breitbart, and certain members of Congress – worked to sell the lie and keep raising the level of concern. By stirring up doubt on the election outcome, they hoped to provide cover for their representatives to undo a valid election. And rather than stand up to tell the people they represented there was no evidence of fraud, these Senators and Congressional Representatives chose to perpetuate the lies and the social unrest they generate. They don’t actually believe the lies. But it serves their own personal careers and political agendas to validate them. This makes them not only liars, but craven liars. It’s unfortunate to believe and act on an untruth; it is a whole new level of betrayal to support a known lie for personal interests. Their vote may have been the cruelest cut to American Democracy because – despite their best efforts – Trump will be gone but they, their lies, and the unrest they generate will continue.

So, to the Republican Party and their followers: If you want healing, the ball is in your court. Quit repeating convenient lies. Trump is a passing problem. Trumpism’s commitment to lying is an infection in the body politic and it might be deadly. There is only one cure for this infection and that is the truth spoken by those these disgruntled citizens have reason to believe. We can be certain Trump will never do it; it is not in his nature to be honest. It must fall to others in the Republican Party to now stand up and say this was a tough but fair election and Joe Biden won it by proper Constitutional processes. Until the balm of truth is spread on this festering lie, the body will continue in dis-ease. What say you GOP? Will you stop being the party of Trump and once again become an American party? Will you heal our nation with an anti-inflammatory honesty? The cure is in your hands. What will you do?

Tikkun Olam

On Spirituality, Part 1 : The Once & Future Me

This Fall, while hiking along Bent Creek here in the North Carolina mountains, I paused to watch the water running over the river smoothed rocks. The clear water rippled the sunlight and that, mixed with the smell of fresh mountain air and the sounds of the stream, carried me back to my childhood. I was the curious boy wading the creek below our house. The light filtered through green trees and the creek held treasures both natural and man-made — smooth rocks, sand-scrubbed glass, the occasional fossil, discarded debris –were all sources of endless fascination. When I stepped on a moss-slicked rock and fell in, well… that was just part of the experience to explain to my mother’s horrified look when I got home wet and muddy. Life was good.

The creek was a playground where I could pit boyish ambition against the forces of nature; piling rocks to slow the water and create a deeper pool for wading or soaking. It was also good for problem-solving. Where’s the water getting through? What’s the perfect stone, stick, or tree limb that might block that hole? But the unintended and ultimate lesson was this, the creek was always going to win. Sooner or later, work as I might—block this hole, move that rock, wedge in a stick there—the water would find its way around, over, ever forward. Nature would have its way – always.

In mere seconds staring into Bent Creek, all this flashed through my memory from years gone and here I am in this later stage of my life where time flows on and ages my body. I search out various fixes – personal habits of how I eat, exercise, or use medical interventions from pharmaceuticals to physical therapy. All are attempts to slow or offset the effects of time flowing by; to create a calmer spot in the stream where I might labor, relax, visit, laugh or play for a while longer. But I also know, in the end, nothing stops the stream. Nature will win, my body will fail, and I will be gone. I’m okay with that.

I’m not in any hurry; I have a lot to live for. Nor are these premonitions but, at my age, I know that – even if should I live to the highly improbable age of 110 – more of my life is now behind me than ahead. And I’m happy to be settled about that. Fifty, thirty, even twenty years ago, I was uncomfortable with my own mortality. Today, I am not because I accepted death as part of life. As for what happens next, well… in the words of a folk song, I decided to “let the mystery be.”

These days I give little thought to heaven or hell. Certainly, as a gay man I’ve been told on numerous occasions I’m going to hell, but such rude opinions don’t trouble me anymore. If something of “me” exists after my body dies – a highly dubious hypothesis, but still a possibility – it will be whatever is me. This suggests that I shouldn’t worry about afterward, I should tend to things here and now. I don’t worry about going to hell, I work here to not be hell, a potential existing in anyone. To become hell is easy; just be consumed with myself. Make it all about me. Fail to acknowledge the humanity or value of others. And what a sad person that would make me. If only I and my little circle matter to me, that is a small little life unworthy of the investment of time I’ve given it. I don’t know what happens when we die and, say whatever they believe, neither does anyone else, but if I exist afterward, what I am is what I carry with me when I go. If I have an ugly soul here, it won’t look any prettier over there.

Spirituality for me, then, is deeply connected to how I relate to and interact with others. I believe much of the pain and suffering in the world is made by us when we’re hell-bent on getting or keeping power, money, prestige, or other things that buttress our own sense of self. We all need a sense of self and I want mine to arise out of compassion, caring, honesty, justice, fairness, and a concern for those who follow after me. There is nothing wrong with power or money or prestige. But I take a broader truth from John Wesley’s caution about money, of which he said, “Money is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master.” When my pursuit of that begins to erode my commitment to those other selves, I’m losing my way.

Many things in our lives are useful servants and that makes them seductive. They are useful or even necessary, but when they become the yardstick of my success as a human being, my reason for being in the world, I begin to lose my spirituality, my connections to others. Opioids are a useful analogy. No medicine has more potential to relieve pain and suffering like opioid drugs. That’s why we persist in using them as pain medications. They are wonderful servants. But when they become the master in someone’s life, all hell breaks loose. Or consider Purdue Pharma and the now infamous Sackler family who made billions while deceiving patients, doctors and the public as they pushed their opioids. Money had quit being their servant and was now the master. Indeed, the “profit motive” in end-stage capitalism is the problem where the supposed servant – profit – has become the master. When profits consistently matter more than people, whole systems and the people running them lose their souls.

I would be embarrassed if anyone thinks I am making any claims here to sainthood or superiority. Despite the above examples, I don’t write to admonish you, but myself. I’ve had my hellish moments and, sadly, probably will again. The times I recall sit as cringe-worthy events in my memory. I’m certain there were other times when I didn’t even notice, so I work to reduce the frequency of such moments. I write today to remind myself I can be a better version of me, someone who does not treat other people or the rest of world as existing for my use or convenience. And I write to share a vision of how I measure my own spirituality in hopes of finding kindred spirits. It’s a large subject, so this is Part 1 of my exploration of spirituality. I will say more in future posts.

Tikkun olam – heal the world. AB

Evangelicals – A Pyrrhic Victory?

Was this win worth it?

Congratulations, evangelicals! Your decades-long effort to secure a Supreme Court packed with judges who will overturn Roe vs. Wade is about to happen. You might also succeed in overturning Obergefell vs. Hodges and banish legally recognized same-sex marriage. So, you win. But I wonder if you have counted the cost of this victory. A Pyrrhic victory is one where you win a battle at a cost so high you lose the larger war. If your mission is to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His saving grace – as “Evangelical” suggests – I suspect you’ve paid more than you intended.

You’re fond of Bible study so let’s explore Jesus time in the desert fasting and the devil’s three temptations (Matthew 4:1-11). The last temptation was when the “tempter” offered Jesus “the Kingdoms of the World” – a quick route to power and control that did not involve crucifixion. Jesus rejected the offer. To a lot of us out here, it looks like you took it. Let me explain.

For the past 40 years, evangelical Christianity has been sharply focused on two social issues – abortion and homosexuality. Many of you are so young you likely do not know that prior to 1978, abortion was a non-issue among Protestants; it was viewed as a Catholic issue. Protestants viewed abortion as a private matter between a family, a doctor, and God. Following the Roe vs. Wade ruling, the Southern Baptist Convention actually passed resolutions in 1974 and 1976 affirming that women should have the right to access abortion. Yet, this was also a time when the conservative churches felt they were losing a culture “war.” Churches were shrinking, social mores were changing, and the country was in chaos over Vietnam and Watergate. This was the church’s moment in the desert and the tempter appeared.

To create a political movement that would move Evangelical voters into the Republican Party, a GOP strategist named Paul Weyrich proposed the anti-abortion issue as a cause. He succeeded by joining with Jerry Falwell to form the “Moral Majority” movement, and the Christian Right was born. This was in 1978 – hardly ancient doctrine. Understand this was not a discussion of ethics or doctrine within the church, it was a political strategy to strengthen the Republican Party. All of the Scriptural justifications were given after the fact, when the decision to play that game had already been made. Protestantism interpreted all those same scriptures quite differently before that time. But this movement was successful and the most vocal and visible part of American Christianity became over time a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Republican Party. It was a stunning victory for the GOP, but less so for Jesus. This group settled on two issues Jesus himself never addressed – abortion and homosexuality, selected because they were emotional issues useful to generate outrage and motivate “the faithful” to vote for a particular party. Falwell and his kind were offered the secular “keys to the kingdom” and they eagerly accepted them. To this day their successors seek to use the levers of state power in an attempt to enforce their beliefs, rather than the conventional tools of doctrine, service, witness or moral persuasion. Church leaders have become the handmaidens and water-carriers of politicians, leading their flocks not to the Kingdom, but to the polls.

What has been the fallout of this deal with devil? The GOP’s institutional capture of white, conservative American Christianity is almost complete. Compared to white evangelicals who in 2016 were motivated to vote for Trump because they disliked his opponent Hillary Clinton (45%), this year increasing numbers of evangelicals say they are voting for Trump because they like him and his policies (57%). Only 20% say they are voting for Trump because they dislike Biden. This is an astonishing moral collapse. Why?

Here is your problem:

Recall that in living memory abortion was a non-issue but today ending it is the justification for abandoning Jesus’ own spirituality. You have alienated a lot of people not just from you or the church, but from Christianity in general. Across every single age group, but especially among the young, the number of those who identify as “nones” with no affiliation to any religion has grown. For example, in 2007, 25% of Americans born in the 1980’s said they were “nones.” A scant 7 years later in 2014, 34% embraced being “nones.” A survey published in the evangelical publication Christianity Today reported that, among young adults leaving churches, 25% did so because they disagreed with their churches political stances and an additional 32% did so because they felt the church was being hypocritical. Moreover, those “nones” increasingly identify as agnostic and atheist rather than simply unaffiliated; that is to say, their anti-religious positions are hardening. From an evangelistic point of view, this is a disaster.

If Trump is your exemplary leader, you have lost credibility because you have mistaken your mission. It was and is to spread the good news of God’s love and saving grace. You’ve decided instead to play God and try to fix the world using secular tools. That’s not your job and you’ve trashed your ability to do the real one given you. Your ability to witness to the love of God is gone. Who can possibly trust your spiritual judgment when this man is your example? Many of my friends are non-Christians and I listen to them talk. I tell you, now more than ever, you will never be a credible messenger to them. Not ever.

Was it worth it?

Can’t You Just Be Quiet?

October 11 is National Coming Out Day, but why do we need it?

Let me start by saying I’m not proud to be gay, nor am I ashamed of it. Being a gay man is natural to me. I am no more – or less – proud of being gay than I am of being right-handed or going gray-haired. All of them are simple biological aspects of who I am. “Ok, you say, I get it, but do you have to go on about it? Why talk about it?”

For starters, I celebrate myself. Despite spending my childhood, adolescence and much of my adult life being told who I am as a gay man was bad, wrong, immoral, unchristian, diseased, perverted and above all shameful, I was finally able to face that instilled fear. I threw off untruths I was fed my whole life. On National Coming Out Day I am glad I’m honest about myself, that I knew who I was. It wasn’t easy and I nearly died. I finally realized, despite being told otherwise, that my moral character is NOT defined by my sexual orientation. Heterosexuals fall all along the moral spectrum irrespective of their romantic attractions. So do lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender, and gender queer (LGBTQ) people. Nothing inherent in anyone’s sexual orientation indicates their morality or character.

When I first came out in 1993 I did it for me, because I was suffocating under other people’s expectations that I conform to their heteronormative expectations. I spent the first 40 years of my life “in the closet” doing everything I could to meet my own and other people’s expectations. This ignores the fact that nature doesn’t give any of us much choice. Oh, I tried to choose otherwise. I spent thousands of dollars in therapy both secular and spiritual, spent thousands of hours seeking spiritual awakenings and in prayer– sometimes with tears of frustration and despair. I tried the ex-gay thing which was useless. And I tell you neither change nor choice is an option, so no one belongs in that closet. Worse, hiding one’s sexual identity is a dark, depressing, frustrating and self-defeating way to live. You are living against reality itself, as if you are bird trying to live like a fish. I’m proud that the stink-eye directed to me by the ignorant, the homophobic slurs shouted at me by the intolerant, nor even the one incident of (mild) physical assault I experienced failed to chase me into the shadows or silence my voice. I’m proud to stand with my brave LGBTQ sisters and brothers, many of whom have suffered far more than I, to say “This is us.”

The closet is chosen based on mistaken beliefs; that what you are is shameful, or from a fear that people you care for will reject you if you speak your truth. To be fair, some have been and will be punished. I can tell you multiple, factual stories of people who literally had guns held to their heads by family members for speaking a simple truth. A story of a trans teen whose father literally beat the shit out of her because she appeared in women’s clothes in her own home. There are untold stories of teens thrown onto the streets for revealing who they are. In fact, such stories are so well-known they would be trite to report if their horror didn’t live on. Lives were lost because everyone was taught being LGBTQ was something no one should ever be. To overcome that is a reason to speak out.

Today I recognize and celebrate LGBTQ Pride and National Coming Out Day not only for myself; but also for two other groups of people. The first are those still in their closets. Despite all the progress we have made, somewhere today there is a child contemplating killing himself because he lives in terror being discovered as gay, or for realizing that her girl-crush is more, or that their gender doesn’t match their anatomy. There are also those who aren’t LGBTQ at all, but who will kill themselves because others believe they are and shame them for it. Such judgments are not simply immoral; they are sickening, and they make me angry. I celebrate visibly, proudly, because there are people out there who need hope there is a satisfying, productive life filled with loving relationships, meaningful experiences, and happiness outside of that closet door. Our visibility as people living openly, free of shame, with love and joy is a literal lifeline.

And I celebrate to tell some other people if they dislike with who I am, that is their problem, not mine, nor will I tolerate efforts to make it my problem via policy, law, or moral sanction. Once, while campaigning for legal recognition of same-sex marriage, a woman said to me “You’re degrading my marriage to my husband.” I pointed out that such “degradation” existed only in her mind. Nothing in the real world changed. Nothing of what I do in my marriage—or in my bedroom—affects hers. Over and over people build these justifications for discrimination based upon nothing but their own perceptions and want me and my community to fix it for them. No.

We are worthy, we are equal to you, you have nothing to fear from us. Unless you attempt to make us second class citizens in our own country. Then you and me – we’re going to have a quarrel. Just this past week two sitting Supreme Court Justices announced they would like to revisit and overturn the Obergefell decision that legalized same-sex marriage for the nation. And so we also celebrate these days to rally the troops. We will not go back into those closets and we will oppose you at every step if you try to force us there. That is how Pride began in the Stonewall uprising, with an assertion of equality. That is what it still means and I’m proud to own it.

Come out, come out wherever you are.

Tikkun Olam

Two Hypotheticals and All the Little Lies

A Hypothetical Message From Your President

“Dear Citizens of the United States. I want you to understand why I concealed from you all that I knew about this vicious new virus back in February 2020. Yes, it’s true as the taped interviews reveal that I knew it was deadly – far deadlier than “the flu.” Yes, I knew it was airborne, could spread easily. Yes, I knew how to get that word out to you and have had medical experts who assured me that all of this was correct. However, I knew something else you might not know. You see, I knew I had to conceal the truth and tell you comfortable lies because of the massive bunch of bozos you are. My superior genius mind knew I couldn’t trust you with the truth or factual information about the risks facing you or you would lose your minds and run amok. Had I told you the truth you would have panicked and hurt the economy. You might have rioted. You could have accused your government of failing you. You might not have voted for me in November. So, I’m sorry it didn’t work out like we hoped, but I’m sure you understand that a panic would have been bad for everyone, especially me, and this was only way I could think to not have one. Plus, this gave me an opportunity to lie and–let’s face it–that is my wheelhouse; one of my best skills. Yes, I know the death toll is nearing 200,000 people, but you know I never talk about that. It’s almost like it never happened. Thank you for your time. Oh! And thanks for your vote in the upcoming election. I think we can all agree I’ve done a great job of reducing panic and I deserve your support. And God Bless the USA. (Not that I really believe in God or the USA either, but you know, it’s traditional!)

Brilliantly yours,

Donald J Trump, President of the Untied States of America (In case you forgot.)

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A Hypothetical Message from Virtually Any Other Sensible American (Yes, including even a bozo like me who isn’t qualified to be President, but does believe in my nation, its people and science.) Dated: February 17, 2020.

“My fellow citizens, as you are becoming aware, what we have long feared is happening; a deadly new virus called SARS-Cov-2 is spreading across the globe. This virus creates an illness known as COVID-19 which is lethal for some who get it and puts massive strain on healthcare systems. Already other countries have seen significant consequences both in their health and economic outcomes, so we must act now to prevent as much harm as possible here.

Let me say clearly that, while this situation is serious, there is no reason for panic. We are Americans who have faced many trials in our nation’s past and we will face, endure, and prevail over this one. We have the world’s leading medical and epidemiological experts and they are going to tell us all what we need to do to protect ourselves and those we love from infection and possible death. Please be aware that because this is a new virus, our knowledge and understanding of it will evolve over time, and recommendations may change accordingly, but for now, here is what we do know and need to do.

First of all, the current data suggests this virus is already in the United States and it is potentially more lethal than the flu. Besides treating those who are already ill, stopping the spread of this virus is crucial. This is important not only to protect our own health, but the health of others. Early data from China suggests that, just as with the flu, people who are elderly or immune compromised have greater risk for infection and higher mortality rates. However, everyone is at risk.

Second, early reports suggest that, once a person is infected, they do not immediately become ill, but may be able to infect others before they begin to show symptoms. This is known as “asymptomatic spread” and is a serious challenge.

Finally, all current evidence suggests this virus is airborne which means you do not have to touch something or someone to become infected. It can pass through the air from another person to you if they carry the virus and, as already noted, even before they show symptoms. This is yet another reason why we must take swift action now to stop the spread.

To accomplish this will mean all Americans working together to halt the virus from further in-roads into our nation, and here is what we all need to do. Begin by keeping at least six feet of social distancing when around others. Stay in as much as possible and if you must go out, wear a mask when you are in public, as you see me and those around me doing now. This will protect you and others. You or anyone around you could be carrying the virus and not know it.

I call upon Congress – both the Democratically-led House and the Republican-led Senate to bring me a funding bill for massive testing and contact tracing of those who test positive for the corona virus. I call upon state and local governments to immediately begin coordinating with the CDC and Health and Human Services to accomplish this massive testing. Details will follow soon. In doing so, we can identify those who are infected, direct them to medical treatment, and limit the danger to others. We can also limit the harm to our economy. If necessary, I will enact the National Defense Production Act to get medical protective gear, ventilators and other crucial materials to those needing them. The CDC is already in conversations with pharmaceutical companies and the World Health Organization to begin work on a vaccine, but that is a long-term solution and will need months of development time, at least. We must anticipate, as we have seen in other countries, that we may need to quarantine, which will impact businesses and employees. We will need funding to meet those needs as well and I expect Congress to address these pressing issues.

This is a challenge. But I know the heart of the American people. You will rise to this occasion, you will make these necessary adjustments and sacrifices and your government will work with you to stop this virus, mitigate its harm, and help you medically and financially to continue your lives. A calm determination to overcome this trial is our best attitude to adopt now.

I now turn the podium over to leading experts to give you more information and answer questions. We are all in this together and we will prevail. We are going to honor the heritage of those gave us this nation, and protect our children who will inherit it. We will make them proud of how we manage this trying time. God Bless the United States of America and God bless and keep each of you.”

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This latter is the hypothetical message the President—or any honest, intelligent, compassionate person—could and should have delivered to the U.S. early on, followed with regular updates on policy and public health needs guided by science. Instead we were lied to and the risks downplayed because Trump says he wanted to “avoid panic.” Instead, it all fell apart from sheer incompetence. All evidence suggests he wanted to protect his re-election. He has no other agenda. One day, his followers will see that.

Carry On – AB

How to Tell a Fish It is Wet

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA, Photographer, Nick Hobgood, Wikimedia Commons

In my Master of Social Work studies, I was required to take a class on policy. I was not enthused because I viewed policy as boring. How wrong I was. I soon realized we all swim in a sea of policies making our lives easier or harder, wealthier or poorer. Policies express our values. From paved roads to public toilets, from tax codes to building codes, from education to economics, from abortion to Jim Crow, from definitions of marriage to unpaid maternity leave, there are tens of thousands of policies impacting and shaping our daily lives. Every law or regulation implements a policy. We are all in the sea, and we are all soaking wet. Those policies get put into place by politicians and politics is how we select them. So, when people tell me they are not interested in politics, I know they are, as I used to be, a fish who has no idea what it means to be wet; failing to recognize the sea in which we swim. Politics determines policy and we should care about that as much as a fish cares about the quality of the water in which it lives.

Around this same time, I came across a quote by one of the most conservative Presidents of the 20^th Century, Calvin Coolidge:

“When you live in a democracy, you are a politician whether you wish to be or not.”

By voice and vote we all influence policy, but the opposite of that is also true. When we silence our voices or ignore our votes, we also influence policy. The difference is that by the first means we do it intentionally while by the latter, we do it by default. Either way, policies are added or subtracted from the sea in which we all swim; we all get wet. Failing to be “political” means I have ceded all my influence to others and must live with what they choose to give me. It also means I fail my democracy.

While policy bores us, politics annoys us and we love to hate politicians who run “the Government”. And this is not accidental. From at least the time of Ronald Reagan’s 1981 Inaugural pronouncement that “Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem” we have been fed a steady diet of how bad government and politicians are. We have been taught the government should get out of the way of the market and let the market rule. We have been made cynical about government and this led us to today, what many Gen-X and Millennials refer to as “end stage capitalism.” As anti-tax warrior Grover Norquist put it, the plan is to make government so small you can drown it in the bathtub.

Here’s the problem. We’re the government. We’re the politicians. We’re the ones called to pay attention, educate ourselves on the issues, and vote accordingly. Our learned cynicism has diminished our voices in the face of market forces that care nothing about societal good. The markets will not save us, nor do they plan to give us a better society. Indeed, they are told their ethical obligation is to maximize profits even over societal good. (Read an excellent blog on this here.) One of the most expensive crimes in the nation is wage theft where businesses fail to pay their employees for worked hours. This theft amounts to $8 billion dollars stolen annually from workers. If corporations are people, many are sociopaths.

While we held politicians in contempt, failed to vote, and proudly proclaimed our disinterest in “politics”, powerful monied interests simultaneously found ways to absorb the vast majority of the wealth and fix the laws so that what was once considered blatant corruption is not only legal, it is the general practice of the day. When the Supreme Court—packed with conservative judges placed there by “trickle-down” politicians—ruled that money was free speech, they silenced us by taking away the volume of our voice. It now takes millions of us to match a single billionaire. We are outshouted by the wealthy. For example, 89% of Americans favor universal background checks on gun purchases, but so far the NRA and other gun manufacturing lobbyists have successfully stifled any legislation to this end by “donations” in black money. Why doesn’t a bankruptcy clear student loans? Because banks didn’t like it. As Congress became less responsive to us, our cynicism about government grew. Enough.

What to do? Dismiss your cynicism about government. The government is not the problem because the government is us. But it will only work for us when we invest ourselves and demand those we elect represent us. Reclaim your voice and your vote. It will not be easy. The monied interests have deeply embedded themselves in our psyche, and in electoral and legislative processes, i.e. in our government. They may say they hate it, but they sure know how to use it. They have diminished our power and our voice. Right now, the tools we have are our bodies, our voices, and our votes. They will fight with every trick, every personal attack, every backroom arm-twist they can muster to keep us cynical, silent and passive. Why is voter suppression rampant? Because your vote matters. Why are peaceful protesters met with violence? Because your bodies and your voices matter. Don’t badmouth the government; be the government. Insist your family and friends be the government, work to change the election laws and legislative processes that have crippled our voices and suppressed our votes.

The most cruel way to teach a fish it is wet is to leave it high and dry. We are nearly there. That is the brutal lesson we are forcibly learning now from our oligarchy bought-out Congressional and state legislatures. It’s past time to rouse ourselves back into the polluted waters of our political processes and demand the policies that will make the swamp clean again. It will never be perfect, but it doesn’t have to be poisonous.

May we heal the nation. AB

The Problem of Baboons

“The alpha male baboon is not a leader; he just has the best stuff.” –Robert M. Sapolsky, author, professor

I thought long and hard before writing this piece because comparing someone to one of our primate relatives is historically an odious, racist trope. Yet unlike racist intent, this is not about appearance or intellect – which one cannot change – it is about behavior which one can change. I use the comparison because it highlights a problem we must see clearly. And we do have a problem.

Robert Sapolsky, Stanford Professor of biology and neurology, studied baboons in their own habitat to better understand the biological basis of human behavior. Baboons live in social groups and the alpha male, typically the strongest and most aggressive, keeps his standing by intimidation and, when necessary, by violence. He does what he wants; getting his pick of the females and stealing food from other less aggressive males. Should you offer him food, he would think you’re weak. He will slaughter infants that are not his but keep his own progeny safe. In Sapolsky’s bestselling book Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, he makes the observation I’ve quoted above, “The alpha male baboon is not a leader; he just has the best stuff.” The alpha male has no intention of serving the troop, he just wants access to the best resting spot, food and females for himself. In his standing, he feels entitled to anything he can take, all others are beneath him, and any resistance is met with force and violence.

America, we have made the mistake of putting an alpha male primate into a position calling for leadership. We mistook wealth—acquired by luck of birth, media fascination, and amoral animal cunning—with “success” as a leader. Too many of us mistook bullying for strength because the bully said things we wished we had the nerve to say. Donald J. Trump believes he should have the pick of the females and the possession of anything else he wants, including your lunch. His response to any challenge is to dominate and he will escalate to violence if intimidation fails. He will protect his own progeny and be violent to others. He has called state governors “weak” for not intimidating and “dominating” those protesting the murders of unarmed African Americans. In this behavior, Donald Trump literally has the morals of a baboon. I don’t say it merely as an insult; I say it as a statement of objective fact.

I also hesitated to write this because I don’t typically indulge in mere name-calling. I try to understand what’s correct in someone’s positions. However, as we now work to remove DJT from office, we see intimidation escalating to violence as a response. In recent days, DJT sent anonymous armed thugs into U.S. cities to deny American citizens the right to peacefully protest. Indeed, it appears they intend to provoke resistance so that he can make a show of force to impress and intimidate the rest of us. He cares not at all if anonymous “officers” violate the protesters’ Constitutional rights to peaceful assembly and free speech. To him the only rules or societal norms that matter are those serving his purpose to remain at the top. With all that, the time for being civil in our opposition is over.

Worst of all, this has happened at a time of maximum peril from a global pandemic that requires actual leadership. Such leadership springs from an intent to serve the common good, in turn requiring empathy and concern for others. These are impulses which the alpha male’s brain is not at all wired to do. Thus, the outcome of Trump’s baboon brain has been to serve only himself, to downplay the seriousness of this pandemic because it does not serve his re-election goals. Now we are a global epicenter of the pandemic, trapped inside our own nation by a wall—only ours is made up of disease and international disdain. How ironic. Our economy is trashed because the pandemic is uncontrolled because the alpha male baboon-in-chief is bored with it. Worse, DJT has inspired others to copy his behavior, engaging in their own narcissistic impulses, so that even wearing a mask – the simplest, most effective public health practice we currently have – has been transformed into a divisive message. A leader would have had the humility and intelligence to follow the science. The baboon-in-chief could not.

The next six months are going to be a dangerous time in America, perhaps the most dangerous since the Civil War. A plague is upon us and we not only have no leadership, we have an authoritarian baboon who plans to hurt us for trying to replace him with leadership. He has at his disposal levers of power and henchmen who will do his bidding regardless of legal barriers or social norms. This is a crisis; we must act like it.

I absolutely do not advocate violence of any kind, but our own non-violent response must be tougher and more unwavering than his. Conceding anything to him will be interpreted as weakness. He and his followers must obey the rule of law. We must insist that the U.S. Constitution means what it says. We must demand that law enforcement follow the Constitution, that our courts, our political leaders, our medical experts, and our own family, friends and neighbors do their civic duty to speak, to vote, to act, to publicly protest (in masks), to demand a higher calling from ourselves as a nation.

“Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, in the strife of truth with falsehood for the good or evil side.”

This is that moment.

If we fail, we will become Baboon America, and no one in the world will be safe from that.

Done With Dixie

I remember the first “minstrel” show I ever attended. My father was on the stage in blackface as one of the performers. This was the local Ruritan Club’s annual fundraiser in my small hometown in Virginia when I was a preteen, just becoming aware that the world was more complex than I had known. If anyone in the white community thought this show problematic, I never heard it. That annual event ended after a night when a group of brave, local African-Americans, with tickets duly purchased, took seats in the back of the hall and sat quietly stone-faced during the show and left just before it finished. This quiet confrontation put faces and names on those in the group being ridiculed and the minstrel show was never staged again in our community.

I was raised drenched in the Confederacy. Lexington, VA where I grew up is the home of Washington & Lee University where both of the named gentlemen served as Presidents. That campus is the Home of the Lee Chapel and Museum where Robert E. Lee is honored and he along with his family are interred in their crypt. Lexington also houses the Virginia Military Institute where the cadet/students who fought in the Civil War battle of New Market on the side of the Confederacy, are still lionized in a mural. The parade field there is lined with four of Stonewall Jackson’s cannons the so-called “Cadet Battery.” I was told Jackson named them Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John because they “spoke loudly for The Lord.” The only home Jackson owned was a house in Lexington when he was a professor of philosophy and artillery at VMI. That building, now restored as Jackson’s dwelling for historical tours, housed the local hospital at the time I was born. So, yes, I was literally born in Stonewall Jackson’s house. Decals stating “The South will rise again” featuring an angry old Confederate soldier were commonly seen in public and private spaces. This genteel racism permeated my childhood; genteel from my perspective. I have no idea of what it was like to live in “colored town” as we called it – the African American community in the town. My school was first integrated under Federal order the year I began high school, much to the dismay of my family. It takes time, distance, and education to overcome the perspectives and misinformation we’re given as children. Some never achieve it. I recount my personal history on this issue to say that I get the Confederacy. I reject it and here is why.

I am proudly American and a student of history. They say “winners write the history” but that was not true of the Civil War. It is a singular, sad exception that in the century following the Civil War it was the South that wrote the history. The so-called “Lost Cause” narrative suggested the South fought for “states’ rights” while conveniently overlooking that the “right” they fought to preserve was nothing more than an inhumane policy to hold darker-skinned humans and their progeny in perpetual bondage. They erected monuments to those who led an armed insurrection against their own nation. Robert E. Lee was a former West Point Commandant who was offered the position of leading the Union forces. He wrongly chose the Confederacy and should bear the cost. Today people say their desire to maintain those memorials is to “honor tradition.” What in that tradition is honorable – the slavery, the racism, the betrayal of country, the Jim Crow laws? The Confederacy lasted a little over 4 years. I have underwear more resilient than that. They lost the war due to bad tactics and thank God they did. The only thing they won was the propaganda war that followed, the rewriting of history to glorify white supremacy by lionizing traitors to our nation’s evolution into “a more perfect Union.” I never feel more fully American than when I reject the Confederacy and the 100+ years of propaganda put out to justify it.

Further, those statues were not erected to teach history. We don’t need them for that, we know the history. No, they were erected as a statement of values. That’s what statues are, statements of values. The Statue of Liberty doesn’t teach us any history, it states our values as a diverse, welcoming nation sharing a vision of individual liberty, personal dignity, and a common good. That we have not always lived up to that vision does not dim its purpose. Rather it reminds us of what we should value even when we do not. Confederate statues and monuments glorify the values of the Confederacy, but behind the “courage” is the betrayal of nation. Behind the “standing for your principles” is slavery and continued racism. I don’t buy those values; I don’t know why anyone would.

You can be a proud Southerner if you mean the kinder culture than I find elsewhere in the nation. You can honor the cuisine (dang, I love me some Southern cooking), and the dialects. I love my Southern mountain accent. But those other values, we don’t need to buy into those any longer. I embrace American values of dignity regardless of race or class, individual liberty and balancing it with the common good, and similar virtues. Nothing in the Confederacy evoke my values.

Southerners, here is our real Lost Cause—It is time to let Dixie die. Those Confederate monuments are part of the pus and debris in the open wound of racism poisoning our nation for 400 years. Let’s finally drain the wound so healing can begin. I love many things about the South, but I’m done with Dixie. Let’s write history more accurately this time and put up monuments to our real American values, independence from tyranny, the courage to stand against inhuman policies, to stand for equity, diversity, and loyalty to our highest virtues. Let’s lift every voice and sing that song. Let that healing begin.

Tikkun Olam. AB

Nature Don’t Care

In my first semester of college I had a profound religious experience. Having grown up in a family that practiced a perfunctory Christianity, I found myself surrounded by friends who took their faith quite seriously. I was intrigued. This was in the early 1970’s when the “Jesus Movement” was well under way. I was persuaded and became fully involved. It was a culture where God was found more emotionally than intellectually, and more in experience than in clear thinking. I still have friends I made in those days and I learned some perspectives I continue to value, but I also picked up something theologically problematic; a belief that God would rearrange reality on my behalf. This is not an uncommon belief.

Of course, I never stated it that way; that would smack of undo pride and arrogance. What I said was that God would hear my prayers, meaning God would protect me, heal me, arrange the world to make sure favorable things happened for me. It was a belief that made me feel protected and valued, and in an emotional sense, what is love except feeling secure and valued by someone else? It was comforting and powerful. But there was this one problem. I was a homosexual, and everyone assuring me that God had my back, also told me this was a very bad thing indeed. It would make God rethink loving me.

In the mistaken belief that I needed to undo my gay reality, I set out to provide all the conditions in which God could – and therefore of course, would – fix it. Heterosexual marriage and sex (in that order), seminary, ministry and service to others, Bible study, faithful prayer sometimes in tears, counseling both secular and spiritual, journaling, exorcism, ex-gay – for twenty-five years I did it all. Many things changed. Many great people crossed my life in meaningful ways. Many wonderful events and spiritual moments happened. A change in my sexual orientation was not one of them.

After 25 years of great difficulty and anguish, I finally realized there was a basic reality at work in my life and no amount of spirituality was going to change it. This was a valuable life lesson. When you try to live against reality, you can hurt yourself… and others. This became important for me – “Don’t try to live against reality.” Nature doesn’t care what you want or believe. So a mantra in my life is this “Nature don’t care.” I became more of an empiricist – show me the science. It is no accident that my 2^nd career was grounded in reading, understanding, summarizing, and teaching others research-based ways of dealing with life issues.

Imagine an ideology determining gravity is “just a theory.” (And by the way, that is exactly what gravity is – a theoretical understanding of how spacetime works.) Imagine then being taught that with sufficient spirituality you can “transcend gravity.” I’m not talking about flying which has scientific principles behind it. I mean the belief that, with sufficient faith, you can levitate off the ground. Some who engage in transcendental meditation have asserted exactly that. I’ll only say the evidence for this being true is lacking and as we in the research world are fond of saying: “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” No such evidence has emerged. For the rest of us mere mortals, acting upon this dismissal of gravity will lead to serious physical injury or even death. Imagine breaking an arm, leg, or your neck because you jumped off a ledge, and then having someone tell you the cause of your injury was not the fall, not the gravity, but your lack of faith and you should really repent of your disbelief and try it again. That is the idea of “faith” too frequently promoted.

This may seem an obvious life lesson, but today, especially in this era of pandemic, there are literally thousands of people who fail to apply this basic understanding in the real world. Claiming to be “covered in the blood of Jesus” or some other such religious-based, magical thinking they will swear they are immune to the SARS-Cov-2 virus. They will refuse to wear a mask, practice social distancing, or take other simple measures to protect themselves and others. God, they assert, will alter reality for them. Some have become ill. Some of have died. Some have infected and killed others. I don’t mention these folks to demean or mock them. I’m sorry for them. I’m sorry for those I misled with that same bad theology. I use my story, and sadly theirs as well, to illustrate the danger of these beliefs, how widespread they are, and how they threaten everyone.

Here’s the bottom line: God is not going to alter the physical world to suit your doctrines or even your health. Neither the world nor God work that way. Viruses are not moral agents; they are natural phenomenon and will follow the laws of nature. Whatever your religion, politics, intellectual rationalizations or other barriers against reality, nature don’t care. Learn to say this with me as a basic fact of life – Nature don’t care.

Shalom. AB

He Burned Down the House

A social worker friend of mine was asked to visit a 14-year-old boy who was in jail for burning down his family’s home. The interview revealed the boy was being sexually abused by a relative and that he had reported the abuse on three occasions to three different adults with nothing being done by any of them. He had concluded no one was going to help him and it was up to him to find a way out. He did. He burned down the house. Was it destructive? Yes. Did he damage his own future? Yes. Was it effective in getting him out the abusive situation he was in? Yes, his abuser was arrested. He, of course, had already been damaged; first by the abuse. then by those who ignored it, and then by his own desperate efforts to escape that abuse. The lesson I learned from this story is this: If those with authority fail to protect the abused, the abused will sooner or later find a way to make themselves heard and it will be in an angry voice a lot of people won’t like.

In recent days riots have broken out in cities across America because African-Americans as a group feel abused by the police. Yes, I know, #notallpolice and most are likely professionals who do their job well. But the pattern is clear and persistent. In the presence of the police, unarmed black people die at an incredibly higher rate than armed white people. People who are wringing their hands and complaining about the riots should hear the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “A riot is the language of the unheard.”

I’m an old white guy. In many states, I could strap on an AR-15 and stroll into a store with small concern for my safety. I know this because multiple white men have done so with no consequences. If anyone even bothered to call the police, history suggests the odds of my getting shot are minimal even if I’m angry and shouting. The police might think I’m a jerk, but they wouldn’t shoot me for it. But tell that to the parents of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old African American boy, killed by police for holding a toy gun, moments after they arrived on the scene. The police officer who fired the killing shot, in a previous police application, had been deemed “an emotionally unstable recruit and unfit for duty.” Or tell it to unarmed social worker Charles Kinsey who was helping an autistic young man who had wandered from a group home carrying a toy truck. Someone called the police because they saw his young Latinx client with what they thought was a gun. Police arrived and found Charles Kinsey attempting to persuade his client to return to the group home. The police ordered Kinsey to lie down—which he did—and raise his hands—which he did—while begging police not to shoot his client seated nearby because there was no weapon, only a toy truck. And, by golly, it worked; the police did not shoot his client. Instead, they shot Kinsey.

Social worker Charles Kinsey seconds before being shot.
Screengrap from video by Hilton Napolean, courtesy of Miami Herald.

Another officer there with binoculars had confirmed to everyone present that no weapon was in sight, but inexplicably, another police officer then shot the unarmed and supine Kinsey in the leg. He was flipped over, handcuffed and arrested. When Kinsey asked the policeman why he shot him, the policeman answered, “I don’t know.” The policeman was later acquitted of attempted manslaughter but convicted of misdemeanor culpable negligence.

Charles Kinsey was fortunate in that he survived. Among unarmed African American citizens who did not survive their encounter with the police are Breonna Taylor, Dontre Hamilton, Eric Garner, John Crawford, Michael Brown, Ezell Ford, Dante Parker, Tanisha Anderson, Akai Gurley, Rumain Brisbon, Jerame Reid, Tony Robinson, Phillip White, Eric Harris, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, and of course, George Floyd. Ahmaud Aubrey was killed by a retired policeman acting as a vigilante. It required two months and a public protest to get the former policeman and his son charged and arrested.

Let’s be clear. Violent protests, looting, torching businesses, and harassing otherwise innocent police are not acceptable, but neither is this pattern of abuse. If the rioting outrages us, we best carry the outrage back to the source of the rioting – injustice. Until that is addressed, we should hear again the words of Dr. King: “And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention.” I point out that these words were spoken nearly 60 years ago, and yet here we still are today.

If we want peace, we must want and demand justice, with better police training, and more legal consequences for police who fail in their duties to protect and defend. If the abuse—and the ignoring of it—continue unaddressed, the house will continue to be set on fire until someone listens. I’m not saying that is the right response, but it is the inevitable one.

In the hope for justice and peace – AB