Chinatown in the Rain

Here's a poem for today ...
Unseeing eyes look out from a death mask
as an ancient Chinese woman
holds out her empty hand expectantly
... when I was hungry you fed me.
Smelling of subway, drink and filth
his hand -- 22 going on 90 --
thrusts storefront trinkets into a tattered coat
stealing a living
... when I was in prison you came to me.
Sirens scream past
hollow eyes follow the path
from boarding room windows
each pair to its own pane
... when I was alone you comforted me.
And arm in arm we walk to our car,
and check first to see
if the stereo is still there.

More Wright than Wrong

It’s nothing new to suggest that the coverage of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is more than a bit colored by race, but the reflections bottomed out when Gary MacDougal’s essay in the Saturday Post brought victim blaming and racial stereotyping to new lows. Ignoring the long history of community development by Trinity United Church of Christ in the Southside of Chicago, MacDougal essentially blames the poverty and institutional racism that plague such communities on Wright and others who would dare to name them as such.

MacDougal asks where a “20-something black man, or other relatively uneducated young people” would get the idea that the American justice system might somehow be stacked against them. Where? Perhaps by looking around with eyes wide open. It doesn’t take Mr. MacDougal’s Harvard graduate degree to ask why almost 40 percent of the inmates in U.S. prisons are black, or why blacks are five times more likely to be in jail than whites, or why more than one in 10 young black men are in prison.

Perhaps the young inmate Mr. MacDougal spoke with displayed a lack of rhetorical subtlety and sophistication when he looked at all the black faces surrounding him and said, “this is white man’s genocide.” But when more than 80 percent of defendants in crack cocaine cases are black while two-thirds of crack users are white or Latino, is it any wonder that such charges might emerge from young black men? Moreover, when the black users of crack cocaine receive much harsher penalties than the white users of powder cocaine, a young black prisoner might be forgiven for rashly speculating that white folks “put us in here to keep us down.”

Do these facts of contemporary urban American life point to “perceived victimization” or to real patterns of institutional racism?

Mr. MacDougal is quick to let institutions off the hook, which is not surprising given his long-standing conservative credentials. Still, it is surprising that he should troll so easily in the turgid waters of racial stereotypes. Immediately after speculating that the “vitriol spewed by the Rev. Wrights of this world” teaches young people that the job market is stacked against them, he notes that the federal government spends “more than $10,000 per poor person for welfare.” The clear but unstated implication, given his context, is that “government welfare spending equals spending on poor black people.” Yet there are three times as many poor whites in the United States as there are poor blacks.

Why even bring this up if not to blame the poor for their poverty? Of course, Mr. MacDougal does not actually blame the poor for being poor. It is far easier to blame Jeremiah Wright and other religious leaders who have the temerity to name the present time for what it is.

One wonders, do all of the religious leaders in Appalachia, to take the white example most often counter posed to black urban poverty, preach that “God helps those who help themselves”? If so, it should be noted, they are not preaching from the Judeo-Christian Bible, where that oft-repeated line never appears. That sentiment emerges from the bible of the American Right which worships the god of the free market.

That god has tumbled just a bit of late, what with poverty rates growing not just in Rev. Wright’s neighborhood but across the country. Of course, when poverty increases in the United States, historically speaking, racial minorities take the hardest hit. During the most recent recession, black unemployment reached 10.8 percent; white unemployment peaked at 5.2 percent. Goldman Sachs estimates that national unemployment in the present recession will peak at 6.4 percent sometime in 2009. They predict that black unemployment will top out at 11 percent. Along with unemployment, we can expect that income disparities will increase, especially among the poorest black families. At the same time, we should expect to see social indicators associated with economic hardship, including rising crime rates.

Are these cold statistics and the realities they underscore the fault of Rev. Wright? Well, not even Mr. MacDougal suggests that, but he does point the finger of blame at Wright and his like for discouraging progress and individual responsibility.

One wonders: are the young people in Trinity’s job training seminars on interviewing techniques, job search strategies and dressing for success being discouraged more by what religious leaders teach or by the realities in the streets all around them? Of course, investigating that reality with genuine care is far more difficult than casting blame on an angry black man. It also makes for much less interesting media, which, perhaps more than anything else, explains why the Post wasted so many column inches on the ravings of a calm white man.

Milepost

Here's a poem for today, that I found while looking for something else:
She half smiled.
Leaning across the counter, she said,
"What, are you some kinda goddamned poet?"
And it meant, "move it, Jack"
as well as, "I wish I could move it, too."
And I moved ...
leaving her life behind
not moved, not touched
in the cold Nevada night.
I moved; she remained.
And we both dreamed.
And in our dreams we went our separate ways.

Allergies ... to War

I've been under the weather all week -- allergies, cold, who knows? The only good thing to come of such days is that about all I have energy for is watching movies, so I've caught up on a few good ones that came into the house months ago. This afternoon I watched the story of William Wilberforce, Amazing Grace. It struck me as I watched all the good and proper, and even faithful Englishmen of the time confidently defending the slave trade, that a movement to abolish war in our time probably seems every bit as unlikely and indefensible as the effort to abolish slavery did in Wilberforce's day. Yet I wonder if 200 years ... 300 years ... 500 years from now people will look back on us and say, "how did they have such moral blinders to that fundamental question?"

Christian Homeschoolers for Obama

I googled the phrase “Christian homeschoolers for Obama” today. No hits. There are “homeschoolers for Obam” and there are “Christians for Obama.” Indeed, there are “families for Obama,” and “Republicans for Obama,” even “Swedes for Obam,” but no “Christian homeschoolers for Obama.”

As a Christian family who homeschools one of our children (and who have cast occasional votes for Republicans and, perhaps, even for Swedes) and who now feel quite drawn to Obama’s vision, I’m struck by the disconnect. Oh, for sure, it’s not the lack of any organized group that strikes me, although when there are “Irish Americans for Obama” and Presbyterians for Obama,” and most any other group you can imagine, it does seem that perhaps some self-identifying Christians who homeschool kids might put out the idea. (On the other hand, there are not, as yet, any “Christian homeschoolers for McCain … or Clinton” either at this point.)

So, what’s the point of this silly exercise? Just that the slicing and dicing that we do to one another in the attempt to pin people down or put them in the correct box almost always fails to grasp the entirety of anyone’s faith or politics or life choices and decisions. It does violence to the wholeness and integrity of one's life.

To reduce all homeschoolers to the image of them as conservative Christians trying to protect their children from a debased culture suggests misses all the other families who may be trying to protect their children from the culture for decidedly nonconservative, non-Christian reasons, or who may simply be better suited to educate particular kids. To reduce all Christians to the media image of conservative evangelical similarly misses folks whose faith is just as dynamic and important but is expressed quite differently and may arise from different human responses to the experience of God. To reduce all Obama supporters to elite, latte liberals misses folks like the trucker I heard on the radio this morning. To reduce McCain and Clinton supporters to the caricatures the media broadcasts does the same violence to them, and, in the end we are all the poorer for it.

So, Christian homeschoolers for Obama take heart; it’s a big country with a big politics and there’s space for all of us!

In a much more erudite and fluent manner, Ched Myers addressed this same basic question years ago in Who Will Roll Away the Stone, when he wrote:

"The highly polarized public struggle over multiculturalism -- trivialized by the ideological right and by the popular press as 'political correctness' -- has ironically made it both easier and more difficult to be self-conscious about social location. It is easier because class, racial/ethnic, and gender identification is rightly expected as it becomes more widely accepted that such matters necessarily shape one's perspective. The presumption, for example, that a professional discursive community made up of predominantly white male theologians could speak for everyone in the church has, gratefully, been thoroughly discredited. It is more difficult, however, because identifying social location necessarily entails certain cultural, economic, and political generalizations that can easily degenerate into one-dimensional stereotypes of, worse, caricatures of one's own group or others. Nevertheless the task is a necessary one; theology, like other forms of public discourse, must come to terms with multicultural realities and the promise and problems of genuine social pluralism."

Obama's "bitter" remarks fell prey to the tendency to caricature groups; unfortunately, his critics on this score have tended also to fall prey to the tendency to caricature, as well. Thus, what might have been an opening to an important conversation has been erased.

April Witness

Sunday was the April witness at Lafayette Park. In the downpour a handful of hearty souls gathered to lift prayers for peace. The rain fell like a river of tears that cannot wash away the names of all those who have died. These Americans have fallen since our March gathering, and for each of them it is likely that 10 Iraqis died as well.

Michael D. Elledge, 41, Army Staff Sergeant, Mar 17, 2008 Brownsburg, Indiana

Christopher C. Simpson, 23, Army Specialist, Mar 17, 2008 Hampton, Virginia

Gregory D. Unruh, 28, Army Sergeant, Mar 19, 2008 Dickinson, Texas

Keith M. Maupin, 20, Army Sergeant, Mar 21, 2008 Batavia, Ohio

Tyler J. Smith, 22, Army Private 1st Class, Mar 21, 2008 Bethel, Maine

Thomas C. Ray, 40, Army National Guard Sergeant, Mar 22, 2008 Weaverville, North Carolina

David S. Stelmat, 27, Army National Guard Specialist, Mar 22, 2008 Littleton, New Hampshire

David B. Williams, 26, Army National Guard Sergeant, Mar 22, 2008 Tarboro, North Carolina

George Delgado, 21, Army Private, Mar 23, 2008 Palmdale, California

Andrew J. Habsieger, 22, Army Private 1st Class, Mar 23, 2008 Festus, Missouri

Christopher M. Hake, 26, Army Staff Sergeant, Mar 23, 2008 Enid, Oklahoma

Jose A. Rubio Hernandez, 24, Army Specialist, Mar 23, 2008 Mission, Texas

Joseph D. Gamboa, 34, Army Staff Sergeant, Mar 25, 2008 Yigo, Guam

Steven I. Candelo, 26, Army Corporal, Mar 26, 2008 Houston, Texas

Gregory B. Rundell, 21, Army Specialist, Mar 26, 2008 St. Paul, Not reported yet

Joshua A. Molina, 20, Army Specialist, Mar 27, 2008 Houston, Texas

Charles A. Jankowski, 24, Army Not reported yet, Mar 28, 2008 Panama City, Florida

Durrell L. Bennett, 22, Army Specialist, Mar 29, 2008 Spanaway, Washington

Jevon K. Jordan, 32, Army Sergeant, Mar 29, 2008 Norfolk, Virginia

Patrick J. Miller, 23, Army Private 1st Class, Mar 29, 2008 New Port Richey, Florida

Terrell W. Gilmore, 38, Army National Guard Sergeant, Mar 30, 2008 Baton Rouge, Louisiana

William G. Hall, 38, Marine Major, Mar 30, 2008 Seattle, Washington

Dayne D. Dhanoolal, 26, Army Sergeant, Mar 31, 2008 Brooklyn, New York

Travis L. Griffin, 27, Air Force Staff Sergeant, Apr 03, 2008 Dover, Delaware

Jeremiah E. McNeal, 23, Air National Guard Staff Sergeant, Apr 06, 2008 Norfolk, Virginia

Ulises Burgos-Cruz, 29, Army Captain, Apr 06, 2008 Not reported yet, Puerto Rico

Matthew T. Morris, 23, Army Specialist, Apr 06, 2008 Cedar Park, Texas

Shane D. Penley, 19, Army Private 1st Class, Apr 06, 2008 Sauk Village, Illinois

Stephen K. Scott, 54, Army Colonel, Apr 06, 2008 New Market, Alabama

Stuart A. Wolfer, 36, Army Major, Apr 06, 2008 Coral Springs, Florida

Emanuel Pickett, 34, Army National Guard Staff Sergeant, Apr 06, 2008 Teachey, North Carolina

Jason C. Kazarick, 30, Army Specialist, Apr 07, 2008 Oakmont, Pennsylvania

Michael T. Lilly, 23, Army Sergeant, Apr 07, 2008 Boise, Idaho

Timothy M. Smith, 25, Army Sergeant, Apr 07, 2008 South Lake Tahoe, California

Richard A. Vaughn, 22, Army Sergeant, Apr 07, 2008 San Diego, California

Jeffery L. Hartley, 25, Army Staff Sergeant, Apr 08, 2008 Hempstead, Texas

Mark E. Rosenberg, 32, Army Major, Apr 08, 2008 Miami Lakes, Florida

Anthony L. Capra, 31, Air Force Technical Sergeant, Apr 09, 2008 Hanford, California

Jesse A. Ault, 28, Army Sergeant, Apr 09, 2008 Dublin, Virginia

Jacob J. Fairbanks, 22, Army Specialist, Apr 09, 2008 Saint Paul, Minnesota

Jeremiah C. Hughes, 26, Army Specialist, Apr 09, 2008 Jacksonville, Florida

Shaun P. Tousha, 30, Army Sergeant, Apr 09, 2008 Hull, Texas

William E. Allmon, 25, Army Specialist, Apr 12, 2008 Ardmore, Oklahoma

Arturo Huerta-Cruz, 23, Army Specialist, Apr 14, 2008 Clearwater, Florida

Joseph A. Richard III, 27, Army Sergeant, Apr 14, 2008 Lafayette, Louisiana

Richard J. Nelson, 23, Marine Reserve Corporal, Apr 14, 2008 Racine, Wisconsin

Dean D. Opicka, 29, Marine Reserve Lance Corporal, Apr 14, 2008 Waukesha, Wisconsin

Jason L. Brown, 29, Army Staff Sergeant, Apr 17, 2008 Magnolia, Texas

Benjamin K. Brosh, 22, Army Specialist, Apr 18, 2008 Colorado Springs, Colorado

Lance O. Eakes, 25, Army Specialist, Apr 18, 2008 Apex, North Carolina

Cherie L. Morton, 40, Navy Petty Officer 1st Class, Apr 20, 2008 Bakersfield, California

Adrian M. Campos, 22, Navy Airman Apprentice, Apr 21, 2008 El Paso, Texas

Bitter?

So now Obama is in trouble for suggesting that a lot of folks in America are bitter about their lot in life. I’m not much concerned with the political fallout of his comments one way or the other, but I am amazed that so many folks would express so much surprise at the notion that folks might be bitter. After all, almost 90 percent of Americans rate the current economy no better than “fair,” and more than half rate it “poor,” according to recent polls. At the same time, according to another poll, more than half of the country thinks the decision to go to war in Iraq was wrong, and about half the country believes that troops should be withdrawn from Iraq as soon as possible. The results of the 2006 Congressional elections clearly underscored the public’s desire for an end to the war, but almost two years further on we seem no closer to an end than we were at the beginning. All of which is to say, when people feel economically at risk and politically powerless on issues as significant as war and peace, it would come as a surprise to find that folks were not “bitter.”

Whether or not that bitterness explains other political perspectives, as Obama suggested, is, of course, a far more complicated question. And whether or not it has anything to do with faith perspectives is even more complex. But bitter? I’d guess that’s the most polite term that could be used to describe the mood of lots of folks these days.

Cross ... Dressing

Well, if they attack Halloween then I suppose it's no surprise that some folks with too much time on their hands and too little humor in their hearts would find this troubling. It only bothers me that they should do so under the banner of Christianity. I mean, what would all those robe-wearing men of Jesus' time have done? But then, they put the cross in cross dressing.

Jeremiah Right ...

"God's wrath will go forth like fire, and burn with no one to quench it, because of the evil of your doings" ... hm, just wondering what would have happened if Jeremiah had been videotaped saying such things about the beloved mother country back in the day. Wonder if that sounded pretty much like "God damn Israel" to the folks who heard it? Just asking. Oh, I know, context is everything, but I bet old Jeremiah was a pretty wild looking guy, and a clip of him preaching about unquenchable fire would have played well on cable.

Happy Easter!

Just that -- more than enough for the day.

Neck Deep in the Big Muddy ...

We gathered again in Lafayette Park on Sunday to witness once more for peace. About 50 of us stood in a chill wind in the fading light and prayed and sang and recited the names of those Americans who have died in the weeks since our most recent witness in February.

It was Palm Sunday, and we recalled Jesus' response to the powers when they told him to shut up and keep his followers quiet, too. He said, "fine, but if we're quiet, the rocks will cry out loud." So we placed rocks at the gates of the White House to bear witness there in our absence and in the silence of so much of the broader church in the face of a war which condemns us all.

Five years in, and we remain up to our necks in the big sandbox, and the damn fool says push on.

Five years ago it was clear that the risks of attacking and occupying a country at the heart of the Arab world outweighed the risks of isolating and containing that country. Today that instability threatens to spill over in Iran and Turkey, oil prices top $100 per barrel and Osama remains out there somewhere releasing hate-filled videos and encouraging the desperate and fanatical. The war to bring peace, as President Bush called it five years ago, has turned into an occupation without end.

Five years ago it was clear that the war would divide this nation, and now we are more deeply divided than at any time since the end of Vietnam. On top of that, we are more isolated now from the rest of the world than at any point in my lifetime, and probably that of my parents as well going back 80 years.

Five years ago it was clear that the world’s desire for peace ought to balance the American empire’s desire for domination.

Five years ago it was clear that the greatness of a nation is not measured solely by its accomplishments. The moral greatness of a nation is measured by the means it employs to accomplish its purposes. History will judge us according to the death and destruction that we have rained down on Iraq.

The saddest part of it all is that none of this comes as any surprise. Indeed, I wrote most of this in the future tense five years ago. Sigh.

Obama and the Preacher

All I can say is, "I'm glad no one in my congregation is running for president!"

Everyday Theology

The District of Columbia’s 31-year-old gun restriction law is going to be tested before the Supreme Court soon, and I heard opposing sides on the radio offering perspectives yesterday. There was really nothing new under the sun on this argument, which has been going on in one form or another my entire life, but I was struck by a theological error voiced by a Cato Institute representative arguing against the restriction.

He was making the case that gun laws only strike at “good people who obey the laws.” I’ve heard this argument many times, and I’m enough of a Calvinist to ask, “who are these good people?”

Are they the ones who never break any laws? Not even traffic laws? Which leads me to wonder about the number of speed-related traffic fatalities compared to the number of gun-related deaths. A lot of good people break laws, and sometimes they kill other people when they do so. I don't know what the Framers would have thought about traffic laws as not even those most imaginative of them would have foreseen the Beltway. Of course, they probably also did not imagine AK-47s.

I’m not suggesting that the DC gun law is necessarily a good one, I’m simply pointing to a theologically flawed argument. I do think the Framers would have understood that.

Frustrations, to be sure

Well I thought I might experience a few frustrations encountering the police as crime victim and I was not disappointed after spending almost three hours waiting for someone to show up and take my statement so a formal report could be filed (and thus open the way to making an insurance claim). I finally had to give up and head home to pick up my daughter after school. I suppose I'll be back at it tomorrow.
At least I spent most of the waiting time today in the Lincoln Parlor at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. The parlor includes Lincoln's handwritten original draft of a legislative proposal that eventually become the Emancipation Proclamation. Pondering the long wait for justice faced by the slaves did not make me any happier, but it did put me in my place with respect to my own little problems.
Moreover, considering Lincoln's actions and the long road to justice did and always will renew my own hopefulness. Frustrations, to be sure, will always arise along the way, but the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice (with or without a laptop).

Agitations and Response

Anonymous has been posting comments here for quite some time, and I have not responded. Perhaps that is a breach of hospitality.

On the other hand, perhaps it is a question of call. It is not so much that I disagree with him – and the aggressive tone of the posts leads me to this assumption about gender – on the question of abortion rights as it is that I do not feel centrally called to work there. I admire the clarity of calling that anonymous feels on the issue, and the persistence of his agitations, even though I disagree theologically and in terms of U.S. Constitutional law on the issue itself. I just do not share his passion, nor do I feel any great call to engage beyond a link to an interfaith statement on abortion rights that more or less aligns with my own perspective, and some statements of the Presbyterian Church General Assemblies over the years which also more or less align.

That does not mean that I do not support those doing work on the issue from the perspective with which I agree, it is rather an acknowledgment that I only have so much time. Beyond parish ministry and all that entails, the core callings of my life for a long time have been peacemaking and equal rights, particularly as pertains to my gay and lesbian brothers and sisters both in the church and broader civil society. These three – parish ministry, peacemaking, equality concerns – have been and will continue to be what I reflect on here. It seems enough to keep me busy and mostly out of trouble. Guests are welcome to comment on anything, of course. Anything less would be inhospitable. But if an argument about abortion is what you're looking for, I suggest looking elsewhere -- they're not hard to find.

Peacemaking in the Empire

So my laptop got stolen over the weekend, and I got arrested. Perhaps this is what happens when you try to be a peacemaker in the heart of the empire.

To be sure, the events were not related. The laptop walked away from the temporary offices of Christian Peace Witness for Iraq at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church sometime Saturday afternoon. By then I had already been, like a sport fish in a school of 42, caught and released by the U.S. Capitol police.

We were arrested Friday evening in the Hart Senate Office building where we had gathered to pray for peace in what the police deemed an illegal demonstration. Following a permitted interfaith witness in Upper Senate Park attended by 750 folks in a driving rain and led by a remarkable collection of folks including Rev. James Forbes, Rev. Michael Kinnamon, Rabbi Arthur Waskow and Dr. Sayyid Syeed, we processed up the sidewalk along Constitution Avenue to the Hart building.

Those of us risking arrest walked down the stairs into a small patio outside the glass doors. Police watched, photographed and filmed us, but made no move to arrest. Most of them were warm and dry inside the building and seemed to be thinking, “well, if those fools want to sing and pray in the rain, they can stay out there all night for all we care.”

After a half hour, we decided to move inside and join them.

We made our way through security, and 42 of us sat in a circle beneath the gigantic Calder sculpture that dominates the atrium. We prayed and sang, and sang, and sang some more – This Little Light of Mine, O Freedom, We Shall Overcome, Peace, Salaam, Shalom. Perhaps had we rehearsed more and sounded better the police would not have arrested us, but as we sang We Shall Not Be Moved, they moved in.

The Capitol police are an interesting institution. We worked for weeks prior to the event to arrange a permit for Upper Senate Park. They dragged their heels and dragged us through a tortuous bureaucratic maze before finally releasing the permit on Thursday afternoon, less than 24 hours before we were to begin the program. The permit included a stage and sound system, and the information that we included with the permit application detailed it all. Then, in the midst of the program, in the driving rain, the police informed us that the small tents over the stage and sound equipment would have to be removed. It was harassment, pure and simple. They had the power, and they were going to use it. We negotiated and stalled and speeded up the program and brought it to a conclusion before they pulled the plug on the electricity.

Then, the same police, as they arrested us, were incredibly humane and thoroughly professional.

I was among the last to be arrested, so I had the opportunity to watch the process unfold slowly. It was almost liturgical. As each of us was arrested, the arresting officer asked if we had any injuries. (In my case, a rotator cuff that causes serious pain when my right hand goes behind my back, led to being handcuffed in front of my body which allowed me to get to my cell phone while in the paddy wagon and take a couple of seruptitious pictures.) We have all been through nonviolence training, and in keeping with that spirit, each of us tried to connect with the human being on the other side of the line.

In a remarkable testimony to the power of nonviolence, such connections were made in many cases with the same police force that an hour earlier was threatening us. I was wearing a new, bright blue clerical shirt, and several of the officers were admiring the color as they stood with us waiting to load us into the wagons. When I recounted this later, my wife asked if we’d been arrested by the fashion police! Another young officer told me that he lives down in Fredericksburg, a long commute to DC, and uses his morning drive as prayer time. The woman in charge of the station where we were processed shared with us that when she retires in 18 months she fully expects to be joining us in pressing for peace and for an end to this war.

Small connections, to be sure. Nothing earth shattering or system changing, but small human connections that break down walls and barriers and begin to build common ground and community where mistrust and hostility reign.

Today I will engage the system again. This time as a crime victim, as I follow up on the theft of my laptop. I anticipate frustration, but I will look for connection. That is the way, these days, of peacemaking in the heart of the empire.

Being a Mocha Liberal Today

The peace witness is this week. Months of praying and planning, and now final frantic moments of last-minute details and waiting and wondering.
But the details are not dragging me down, nor are concerns about "numbers." First, because we are called to witness not to "success" -- whatever that might mean. But, more to the point, because it is an absolutely beautiful early spring day in the DC area. Sunny, mid-60s. Perfect weather for my first good bike ride in a long while, and, now, perfect weather for sitting in my favorite coffee shop, sipping iced mocha, and catching up on all the e-mail.
I will probably be quiet on the blog again for most of the week, but trust that the crush of this particular season of faith will lighten after these days of witness pass. Peace.

Latte Liberals?

At the Youngstown, Ohio rally following the recent Wisconsin primary, International Association of Machinists President Tom Buffenbarger called Obama supporters “latte-drinking, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies.” That reminded me of one of my favorite Ohio moments. A few years back I was stopped for gas at a Ravenna, Ohio gas station. Ravenna is one of those small rust-belt towns that the economy forgot. It’s been down-at-the-heel since I was a student at nearby Kent State in the late 70s and early 80s, and it shows no signs of recovering.
Anyway, I was pumping gas when a pick-up truck that had obviously been out “mudding” pulled into the pump right in front of me. One guy, in battered jeans and sweatshirt, got out to pump gas. His friend, similarly attired, hopped out and headed into the store. As he walked away, he shouted back over his shoulder, “hey, Bubba, want a cappuccino?”
So, I wonder today, if this cappuccino-sipping, work-boot wearing, pick-up truck driving guy and his friend are pondering the up-coming Ohio vote from the trucking view or the latte view?
Name calling, reductionist politics, will never move us beyond the mess we’re in. I think I’ll go have a mocha.

Witness for Peace

Last night, the interfaith peace witness in Lafayette Park gathered again in the twilight to remember the dead and to pray for an end to the killing. Rev. Madeleine Beard recited the names of all those American soldiers who have died since the last witness in January. It is a sobering reminder that the violence continues to take a terrible toll:

• Richard B. Burress, 25
• Jon M. Schoolcraft III, 26
• Justin R. Whiting, 27
• James M. Gluff, 20
• Michael R. Sturdivant, 20
• Tracy Renee Birkman, 41
• Duncan Charles Crookston, 19
• Robert J. Miller, 28
• Matthew Ryan Kahler, 29
• Mikeal W. Miller, 22
• Alan G. Rogers, 40
• James E. Craig, 26
• Gary W. Jeffries, 37
• Evan A. Marshall, 21
• Brandon A. Meyer, 20
• Joshua A.R. Young, 21
• Michael A. Norman, 36
• David E. Schultz, 25
• Matthew F. Straughter, 27
• Chad A. Barrett, 35
• Christopher J. West, 26
• Nathan H. Hardy, 29
• Michael E. Koch, 29
• Rafael Alicearivera, 30
• Miguel A. Baez, 32
• John C. Osmolski, 23
• Timothy R. Van Orman, 24
• Donald T. Tabb, 29
• Bradley J. Skelton, 40
• Luis A. Souffront, 25
• Michael T. Manibog, 31
• Timothy P. Martin, 27
• Jack T. Sweet, 19
• Jerald A. Whisenhunt, 32
• Corey E. Spates, 21
• Javares J. Washington, 27

These 37 now number among the more than 4,000 Americans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. One more will be one more too many.
Here are three immediate opportunities to deepen your own involvement in the long struggle to build a culture of peace during an era of endless war. Please share them with anyone in your own networks who may be interested.

• Eleven months ago, 4,000 people of faith joined their voices in prayer and worship at the Washington National Cathedral for a Christian Peace Witness for Iraq that marked the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq. We walked together three miles from the Cathedral to the White House to encircle it in the light of peace. More than 200 people were arrested that night as they knelt in prayer at the gates to the White House. Next month we mark the sixth anniversary of war in Iraq. More than 29,000 Americans have been wounded in combat, and we will likely mourn the 4,000th American death in March. More than 80,000 Iraqi civilians have died – more than one hundred already this week alone – and we are no closer to the peace that we long for than we were one year ago.

In the face of this human catastrophe, we must lift up an alternative vision for the future and press to make it a present reality. Responding to this call, people of faith from across the nation will come again to Washington March 6-8 to witness for peace and to call upon the people's representatives in Congress to act to end the occupation. As of this week, free registration for worship and for workshops is open at http://olivebranchinterfaith.org/

• If you live in the Metro area and would like to participate in a more intimate witness for peace, join the local interfaith witness as we mark our seventh month of vigils in Lafayette Park in front of the White House on Easter Sunday at 5:00 p.m. Join us in prayers for peace, and, at 4:15 p.m., for good conversation at the Cosi Coffee at 17th St. and Pennsylvania Avenue.

• Finally, wherever you live, if you are a leader in a Christian faith community, I invite you to visit the Pledge for Peace web site (http://pledgeforpeace.org/) and prayerfully consider signing this powerful document.

The time has come for people of faith to make our voices heard with renewed passion, commitment and clarity. The time for peace is at hand. Please join me to pray and act for peace.

Pledge for Peace

This pledge has just "gone live" at the link to the left. Please pass it along as you feel called. (There are apparently a few bugs in the software so not all signatures show up, but I'm told they are stored and will be shown soon. Such is technology.)

Because we follow the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, who promised that peacemakers shall be called the children of God,

We shall seek peace and pursue it.

Because God calls us to beat swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks until nation does not lift up sword against nation,

We shall seek peace and pursue it.

Because war violates the very foundation of our faith in God, who insists that genuine security is possible only when we love our enemies,

We shall seek peace and pursue it.

Because the occupation of Iraq breeds violence and despair and visits suffering on the most vulnerable Iraqis,

We shall seek peace and pursue it.

Because our faith teaches us to live in solidarity with the poor and the suffering and to share in God's boundless compassion and mercy,

We shall seek peace and pursue it.

Because war sows seeds of terror and undermines hope for future generations, and any attack on Iran will expand the present war in dangerous and unpredictable ways,

We shall seek peace and pursue it.

We follow Jesus, who taught by word and deed his conviction that we must show courage, love those of whom we are most afraid, and build right relationships across boundaries of suspicion and hostility.

Today we respond to Jesus' call as individuals formed by a tradition that strives to do justice and to speak the truth in love from the pulpit and from the center of the public square, even at personal risk.

Thus, I will do everything within my power to avoid complicity in acts of war that violate my fundamental beliefs. I pledge:

• To be a pastoral presence: I will witness to my faith as I work for peace and reconciliation where I see violence tear at the heart of my own community.
• To speak the prophetic word: I will speak boldly against the war on terror, the occupation of Iraq, and any proposal for aggression against another nation. In our divided nation, I refuse to demonize my fellow citizens with whom I disagree about these matters, but I refuse also to be silenced.
• To model the way of peace: I will learn the principles and practices of active nonviolence, taking and teaching classes and using those practices within the growing, faith-based movement to end the spiral of violence in the United States and around the world.

• To resist the powers and principalities:

  Through war tax-resistance: I will educate myself about war tax-resistance and share that information with others. As I am able, according to my own calling and conscience, I will with-hold all or a portion of my own taxes until I can be confident that the United States will seek peace through a combination of diplomacy and development together with other nations of the world.

  Through principled, nonviolent civil disobedience: In the event our government moves to attack Iran or another nation pre-emptively, I will participate in and encourage other to participate in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience, risking arrest, public trial and even prison witness to make clear my grave concern for the direction in which our leaders are taking our nation.

• To stand with the oppressed and afraid: I will reach out to those who are most at risk in the United States in this time of fear — Muslims, undocumented workers, immigrants - just as Jesus continually extended himself to the stranger and the outcast.
• To partner with those of other faith traditions: I will work with those of other faiths who make a similar pledge based on their own convictions. Together, we will break down barriers of fear, misunderstanding and mistrust.

With my signature, I commit to action and to personal sacrifice. I commit to live my faith boldly in the heart of the empire. I commit myself to follow the Prince of Peace.