I’ve been thinking a lot about the quote I posted on Friday from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Their statement poses a direct challenge to the political-religious attitudes of the conservative Christian community in which I grew up. In the 1980s, tens of millions of US evangelicals, including my parents, flocked to support Ronald Reagan and his “trickle-down” economic policies. Apparently “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” resonated with many members of the Me Generation.
But how could followers of the Jesus who told us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and care for the sick have believed that the Christian thing to do was cut taxes for the wealthy, while cutting benefits for the poor? How did followers of the Prince of Peace come to support massive increases in military spending? How did so many US Christians come to treat a divorced Hollywood actor who rarely attended church as the closest thing to an evangelical pope? I was a kid back when this all started and I’m still trying to figure it out. What happened?
Posted in Politics | 4 Comments »In this editorial published in the NY Times, conservative columnist David Brooks discusses Ted Kennedy’s endorsement of Barack Obama.
Kennedy went on to talk about the 1960s. But he didn’t talk much about the late ’60s, when Bill and Hillary came to political activism. He talked about the early ’60s, and the idealism of the generation that had seen World War II, the idealism of the generation that marched in jackets and ties, the idealism of a generation whose activism was relatively unmarked by drug use and self-indulgence…
And in the students’ rapture for Kennedy’s message, you began to see the folding over of generations, the service generation of John and Robert Kennedy united with the service generation of the One Campaign. The grandparents and children united against the parents…
The respect for institutions that was prevalent during the early ’60s is prevalent with the young again today. The earnest industriousness that was common then is back today. The awareness that we are not self-made individualists, free to be you and me, but emerge as parts of networks, webs and communities - that awareness is back again today.
So Rachel and I found this video really inspiring, and it seems there may be a few others like us, since it’s had nearly 500,000 views in less than 48 hours. It was directed by Bob Dylan’s son Jesse Dylan, and features Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas and footage from Barack Obama’s Yes We Can speech. We’d love to hear from you, dear fellow JaC’ers, about your reactions to the video. Or is there another candidate or message you find super inspiring? We’d love to hear about that as well.
Posted in Politics, Videos | 16 Comments »Scott Rasmussen of the polling organization Rasmussen Reports recently wrote a really fascinating commentary entitled “The United States Needs a Confirming Election“. He says:
The United States is in dire need of an election where somebody wins big, an election that confirms someone with a real majority, and an election that provides the nation with some sense of a prevailing public perspective. Big Victories in Presidential elections don’t make everyone happy, but they do help to unify the nation and improve the health of our political system.
More…
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What links the whole UK population, an arms manufacturer and the US Patriot Act?
Answer - the 2011 UK census.
The UK Office of National Statistics is the government department charged with collecting and analysing the nation’s statistics. They conduct a complete national census every 10 years of the 56-odd million people who live in the UK.
Hidden in their information about the 2011 census, is this paragraph:
Two suppliers, Lockheed Martin UK and T-Systems International, have been shortlisted and each awarded a contract to provide services for the 2007 Census Test in May. Following this test, further performance evaluation of the two shortlisted suppliers will be carried out, and one supplier will be awarded the contract to design (with the authorities) and deliver the 2009 Census Rehearsal and the 2011 Census.
That is Lockheed Martin UK as in Lockheed Martin one of the biggest arms manufacturers on the planet.
So it appears that in order to collect personal information about our lives, the government has decided to employ an arms company. As you do.
Now, if that is not bad enough, The US Patriot Act apparently states that the US authorities can demand that any US business hand over records to the intelligence authorities. Which means that every British citizen mentioned in the census could potentially have all of their personal data in the hands of the US government, information which is not available in the UK for 50 years. If our government hasn’t already lost it in the mail, that is.
Posted in Nationalism, Politics | 11 Comments »
“I did not have sexual relations with that woman”
January 26, 1998
“This government does not torture”
October 5, 2007
Posted in Ethics, Politics, Quote for the Day | 20 Comments »
1 Billion people in the world live in extreme poverty on less than US$1/day
The United States has a gross domestic product of US$13.2 Trillion, or $44,000/person, or $120/person/day
Should world poverty be a big issue in the ‘08 U.S. presidential election?
“It’s in our generation’s gift to end the kind of stupid poverty that means a child dies of hunger in a world of plenty”
al·le·giance
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 2006
Over the last few years, I have been struggling with the question “Should a follower of Jesus pledge allegiance to a nation-state?” Growing up in a conservative American household, I never questioned that it was the duty of every patriotic citizen to say the pledge. Hundreds of times in school, at sporting events, and even in church, I proudly placed my hand over my heart and promised my loyalty to “the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.”
But as I have begun to understand more clearly the radical anti-imperial message of Jesus and as I have learned more about the life and convictions of the Early Church, I have grown increasingly uneasy with this pledge. Read the rest of this news item »
The following is part of a letter I recently received from my Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-OR).
Dear Ms. Stanton:
Thanks for your message expressing concerns about funding for international HIV/AIDS and anti-poverty programs in 2007. I appreciate hearing from you…
Regarding funding for international HIV/AIDS programs, I have tried for years to redirect U.S. foreign assistance away from military aid and toward humanitarian assistance. As you know, many nations are witnessing the destruction of entire generations of their citizens through disease epidemics, poverty, famine, and poor education. The U.S. should assist in combating such problems.
Currently, our foreign aid priorities are awful. Around one-quarter to one-third of the money the U.S. will spend on foreign aid this year will go toward military, not humanitarian, assistance. It’s hard to see how selling an F-16 fighter aircraft to an impoverished nation will assist in treating one AIDS victim, providing a single meal, or educating one child. Read the rest of this news item »