Still under assault 50 years later

Tomorrow will be the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

By Moristotle

In “What the Supreme Court Doesn’t Get About Racism” [NY Times, April 2], the Editorial Board of the NY Times reminds us that Dr. King

Tax Bill December 2017

By Bellator Senex

I had my first job when I was eleven years old. I set pins at a blowing alley on Harlingen Air Force Base, in Texas. Even though I made little to nothing, my employer took out for Medicare and Social Security. From that day, until I retired from business about five years ago, I paid into those government programs.

The Old People Party

By Bellator Senex

I have news for people over 65 or those coming close to it. You are no longer a Democrat or a Republican, or members of any of the other known parties. You, my friends, now belong to the party of old people.

Interview: Sean C. Ewing on seeking public office

Never down, never out

Interviewed by Moristotle

The first yard signs we saw in our neighborhood for the November 7 election of three City Councillors in Mebane, North Carolina advertised Sean C. Ewing. It was his first run for a governmental office, and he was opposing the three popular incumbents whose terms were ending. All of the incumbents had served at least two terms already, and two of them had served at least six terms. Sean seemed to be in for an uphill battle.

Third Monday Musing

The right to vote

By Ed Rogers

We have all placed our trust and hope on one candidate or the other at some time in our life—if you haven’t, why vote at all? The right to vote has forever been in the hands of the rich. White Americans never questioned the right to vote until the voting act of 1965. Outside of the South, people seemed to believe that everybody was voting who wanted to vote. But in the South, citizens with money pretty much controlled who got elected, and they controlled who was allowed to vote. A number of blocks were placed in the road to guarantee white control. From Wikipedia’s article on “Voting rights in the United States”:

First Saturday as the World Turns

The Southern voter

By Ed Rogers

[The first of Ed Rogers's new monthly column appeared on November 2.]

Let’s face it, I’m a Democrat. My mother, father, and grandparents were Democrats. All the way back to the New Deal, the South was Democrat. It was the New Deal—or government if you will—that brought the South indoor plumbing so people no longer needed to rush across their yard to the outhouse. Because of the New Deal, or government, the South got electric lights and telephones.

First Saturday as the World Turns

The 2014 election

By Ed Rogers

[This is the first of Ed Rogers's new monthly column.]

It would seem that for all practical purposes the “Tea Party” has shot itself in the foot—both feet to be correct. However, many things need to happen before you will be able to call the beast dead.

Tuesday with Another Voice

Today's voice belongs to
Contributing Editor
motomynd

So, what is a “wasted” vote?

This is the time of year we are pushed to vote either Democratic or Republican so we don’t “waste” our vote on someone with no chance of actually winning the race to be President of the United States. The logic of the “wasted” vote seems simple enough, but have you ever actually thought about it?

Good Friday in mind

[Click to enlarge]

I knew it was there, the editor had told me Wednesday it would appear today. I didn't even look at it before leaving the paper on the dining table for my wife.
    In fact, an hour before I read it, I saw on my Droid that I had an email from the editor, subject line "Possible Opinion Column?"
    Gosh, it's a good Friday, I thought—or, more accurately, felt.
    Let me savor this.
    While the water was heating for coffee and I sliced the fruit (strawberries and kiwi fruit this morning, with some of the best-tasting blueberries either of us could remember) I thought about a remark I'd made the day before about my blog's being "near the center of my universe." Curious concept that. I'm not sure what "my universe" means. If I have one, then doesn't everybody? And how could all those "universes" co-exist?

Punish him...or reward them?

One reader of "Calling all voters" told me that she agrees completely about not donating any money for election campaigns. "It is absolutely unnecessary." Most American voters can read and have the ability to obtain reliable information about the candidates and the issues. They don't need to watch or read political advertisements.
    But my friend doesn't agree about what to do on Election Day. (I had written, "Follow Nike's advice and just go out and vote.")
    After losing the elections of 2000 and 2004 (my friend voted for Gore and Kerry), she was made hopeful in 2008 by "Obama's great plans and ideas."
    But midway through 2012 she is bitterly disappointed. "Obama has not delivered anything he promised." She says that she is "not going to waste my time to vote this year."
    Bitter disappointment is a poignant, personal reason not to vote, and my friend is not the only one who could use that excuse for shunning the poles in November.

But not voting for that reason is equivalent to punishing President Obama without taking the Republican party's deliberate roadblocking into consideration.
    The Republicans' oft-expressed Number One Goal has been (and continues to be) to put Obama down and make sure he can't be re-elected. If my friend doesn't vote, she will be rewarding Congressional Republicans more than she will be punishing President Obama.
    But I have faith in my friend. I'm sure that she'll see the illogic of her intention not to vote and will show up at the polls on Tuesday, November 6, hoping to give the President another chance (and the Republicans fewer members of congress). And helping to give the nation another chance.
    I hope that everyone else suffering disappointment over our government's frustrating stalemate (and I'm one of them) will not reward the obstructionist party in November by refusing to vote for anybody at all.
    To do that would not be the first step in taking our country back.

I voted early

I'm still wearing my little "I Voted Early" sticker from Wednesday. As I wrote to a friend on whom (and his wife) I depend for recommendations in judicial races,

Having received no recommendation from you or [your wife] as to voting for judges, I went ahead and took my best shot. I excluded as potential my-vote-getters anyone on the list of nominees recommended by the Republican Party, then, if that didn't do the entire trick, I read about the individuals in the voting guide (preferring blacks, women, and non-business types). [emphasis mine]

My friend's wife wrote me this morning:

Absolutely, you voted well. I was trying to learn who your district court judges would be. Now I know how to do that—although a little late. I think your rationale for voting choices excellent. [emphasis mine]

Don't worry, be happy?

Yesterday, I began to read Philip Roth’s 2007 novel, Exit Ghost, and today I read in “Don't Worry, Be Happy,” on Judith Warner's New York Times blog, “Domestic Disturbances”:

The excitement/disappointment cycle of the past two elections has taken a toll on many Democrats. Some have undergone a kind of progressive self-numbing. Their brains could register only so much outrage before they became desensitized and began to rewire themselves to adapt. Oliver Stone’s bizarrely inert new movie “W” exhibits just that kind of circuits-overloaded mental compromise.
    Philip Roth, on the other hand [emphasis mine], in last year’s novel Exit Ghost, painted a brilliant portrait of the fallout of too much political heartbreak. Roth’s alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman, a near shut-in, decides, post Bush v. Gore, (an election he describes as “perfectly calculated to quash the last shameful vestige of a law-abiding citizen’s naiveté”) to cut himself off from all awareness of politics, precisely in order to shut out any future glimmers of hope.
    “Having lived enthralled by America for nearly three-quarters of a century,” Zuckerman says, “I had decided no longer to be overtaken every four years by the emotions of a child – the emotions of a child and the pain of an adult.”

Like Nathan, I have damped my own emotions and don’t experience any of the euphoria that might otherwise accompany the highly probable prospect of a Democratic victory on November 4. I’m too shy of potential euphoria’s being dashed yet again, defensively steeling myself for the long-shot possibility of needing to practice another four years of adaptive stoicism.

But a friend of Warner’s advises her:

“You may as well enjoy the anticipation,” she said, “Because it may be all that you’ll get.”

Warner accepts this advice and recommends it for us:

...whatever happens, those of us who are tired of experiencing the “despising without remission” that Zuckerman was moved to flee in the Bush years are entitled now to a tiny moment of elation.
    And we’d better grab it.

I’m not sure my heart is up to it. It’s so scarred from these years of political desecration, I don’t think I’ll feel all that euphoric even if Obama and Biden win by a landslide. Domestic and international prospects are daunting. We’re not going to see dramatically better days for a very long while yet. Anything but stoicism seems naive.

Please take my religion survey

A friend of mine told a friend of hers who used to be Muslim of my interest in Sam Harris. He read my posts on Harris, especially the ones discussing what Harris says about Islam in The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason. (You can call up all of my posts that have the Sam Harris label by clicking on that label at the bottom of this post.) As a result, he wants to meet me, and I've agreed to join my friend and him for lunch.

In thinking about what a former Muslim might ask me, I've begun to think of what I might ask him. And in doing that, I've found myself thinking of questions I might ask other people, such as a cousin whose father (like my mother) was very religious and regularly attended an Assembly of God church. I've always suspected that this cousin isn't what you'd call particularly "religious." But I don't really know, and I'd sort of like to find out before it's too late. After all, it has been many years since we were teenage cousins together (and even rode in the same car to that Assembly of God church).

That's sort of where this survey comes from. If you'd be so kind as to take it and give your answers publicly (as it were), I'd appreciate it. (If you're not familiar with how to make a comment, click on "Comments" below.):

1. Religiously, how would you describe or classify yourself? (not religious, Christian, Muslim, Judaic, other: _________)
2. Whatever you answered, what is it about you that leads you to say that?
3. If you answered Christian, how much, if any, do your religious beliefs influence how you vote?
4. If you answered Muslim, do you approve of martyrdom "in defense of Islam"?
5. If you answered Judaic, how do you feel about Israel's policies toward the Palestinians?
6. Anything else you'd like to say by way of your "religious statement"?

In fairness, I'll answer these questions myself:

1. Religiously, how would you describe or classify yourself?

   agnostic Christian

2. Whatever you answered, what is it about you that leads you to say that?

   While I'm uncertain as to whether God exists and do not believe that Jesus was the "son of God" in a way different from how you or I might be "a child of God," I have been raised in the Christian tradition, and I more or less try to imitate Christ's example of love and doing unto others.

3. If you answered Christian, how much, if any, do your religious beliefs influence how you vote?

   Surprisingly (to myself), I'd say quite a bit, but in the "liberal way" of influencing me to vote "for the common good." To me, Jesus was a champion of social justice.

4. If you answered Muslim, do you approve of martyrdom "in defense of Islam"?

   not applicable

5. If you answered Judaic, how do you feel about Israel's policies toward the Palestinians?

   not applicable

6. Anything else you'd like to say by way of your "religious statement"?

   I once gave an impromptu sermon in an Episcopal church in San Jose, California. In the couple of minutes I had to prepare, I "called on the Holy Spirit" to come to my aid, and I spontaneously chose as my text the passage from the Book of Exodus in which the burning bush says unto Moses to tell the people that he's been talking with "I AM THAT I AM." In the short sermon that I then delivered I said that God is as God is, and God is going to be that way regardless of what you or I believe God is. Either or both of us could be wrong. I said that, in that sense, it doesn't matter what we believe about God.
   
   I'd add now that God is, OR IS NOT, as God is, OR IS NOT, and what we believe doesn't affect it one way or another. So let's not fight over it.