The Wild Reed

Saturday, January 27, 2018

Three Winter Gatherings

It may be, by turns, cold and snowy outside but I'm happy to say that my spirit has been kept warm by a number of gatherings with friends over the past few weeks.

The first of these that I'll highlight is the tea party I hosted at Hare House last Saturday, January 20. I should say that "Hare House" is the name I give to wherever it is I'm living. And why the hare? Well, as an ancient symbol of both enlightenment and homosexuality, the hare has long been something of a totem or spirit animal for me.

Last Saturday's gathering was actually my fifth (somewhat) annual tea party. I hosted my first tea party back in 2012 when I was living in St. Paul. That very first gathering was, in part, a way to "reclaim the tea party" from the reactionary political movement that was emerging at the time and calling itself the Tea Party. My gathering also provided me the opportunity to finally use the china tea cups and saucers that I'd been gradually collecting since my December 2008-January 2009 visit home to Australia. During that time, while visiting my hometown of Gunnedah, I was inspired by a delightful afternoon tea at the home of Gwen Riordan, a longtime family friend.

My second and third tea party (2015 and 2016) took place in my previous Minneapolis residence; while the fourth took place last year in the current manifestation of Hare House!

This year's tea party was a low-key affair compared to last year's, which saw me gather a number of my friends from different times and spheres of activity in my life. To this year's tea party I invited my dear friends Ken and Carol Masters and a number of the wise and inspiring women who are members of (or closely connected to) the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet – St. Paul Province. I'm a consociate member of this Catholic order, and two dear CSJs, Marguerite Corcoran and Rita McDonald, served as my companions during my two-year consociate candidacy (2006-2007).

Above: Sitting around my dining room table (from bottom left, clockwise) Kate McDonald, CSJ; Brigid McDonald, CSJ; Sue Ann Martinson; Rita Quigley; Florence Steichen, CSJ; Carol and Ken Masters; Kathleen Ruona; and Rita McDonald, CSJ.

Right: With my friends Rita and Sue Ann.

Above: After our morning tea we gathered in the parlor for wine in front of the fire!

And, yes, my Christmas tree is still up as in some older Catholic Christian traditions, Christmas lasts until February 2, the date which marks the end of the 40 day-long "Christmastide," which corresponds to the 40 days of Lent. As I'm sure many of you reading this would know, on February 2 the church celebrates the day that Mary entered the temple when her days of "purification" (as defined by the patriarchal Mosaic law) were fulfilled after giving birth. It's also the occasion when Simeon and Anna made their well-known pronouncements about Mary and Jesus. The day is known as "Candle-mas" because of Simeon's prophecy that Jesus would be a light for all people.

Above: Rita, Florence, and Kathleen – Saturday, January 20, 2018.

Above: My dear friend Brigid with a photo of herself as a child having tea with her dog!

Above, right, and below: A week before my tea party I was in St. Paul celebrating little Amelia's fourth birthday! It was a lovely gathering at the home of Amelia's maternal grandparents, John and Noelle.

The beautiful cake was made by Amelia's mum, Liana (with help from Amelia!). Oh, and that's Eddie the Wonder Dog in the picture at right. For more images of this handsome creature, click here, here, here, here, and here.

Above: Jackie, Noelle, and Phil (Amelia's uncle).

Above: Phil and Dee – Saturday, January 13, 2018.

Above: With my friend Jackie at Amelia's party – January 13, 2018.

The third "winter gathering" I highlight in this post is the birthday party for my friend and fellow resident chaplain Katie (above), which we celebrated on Wednesday, January 17, in our Spiritual Care office at Abbott Northwestern Hospital.

Above: Ken, Chandler, Hae, Katie, and Mark.

Above: Standing at left with my fellow resident chaplains Chandler, Hae and Katie, and our supervisor Mark.

For more about my chaplaincy experience, click here, here, and here.

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• In Wintry Minnesota, An Australian Afternoon Tea
• Anyone for Tea?
• Winter . . . Within and Beyond

Images: Michael J. Bayly.

Friday, January 26, 2018

Changes

This evening for music night at The Wild Reed I share "Changes," a hip hop song by 2Pac featuring Talent.

2pac was the stage name of Tupac Shakur (1971-1996), an American rapper, poet and actor. Shakur is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with over 75 million records sold worldwide.

About "Changes" Kent Umeki writes: "This song clarifies the problems in our world and what we can do to fix them while at the same time displaying Tupac’s rap and poetic skills. In 'Changes' Tupac sings about what it’s like to live life being poor. He also sings about war, poverty, racism, corrupt police, drugs, and prison." Umeki also suggests that through Tupac's "Changes" we're given an opportunity to ponder and perhaps even understand the grief that so many people experience throughout the world.

Writing in Atwood Magazine, Sydney Sweeney contends that "Changes" is "one of hip-hop’s most successful political statements, not because it’s especially radical in its words on police brutality, drugs and gang violence, but because the track was, from music to lyrics, accessible to those who needed it – people unconcerned with the politics challenged by unapologetic MCs [microphone controllers]."

"Changes" was originally recorded during Shakur's tenure at Interscope Records in 1992 and was produced by Big D The Impossible (Deon Evans). It was later remixed during 1997-1998. The song re-uses lines from "I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto" which was recorded during the same year. The song samples the 1986 hit "The Way It Is" by Bruce Hornsby and the Range, with the chorus re-sung by Talent.

I dedicate my sharing of 2pac's "Changes" to a friend who started treatment for chemical dependency today. This friend, who finds the music of Tupac Shakur very meaningful, is very much on my mind and heart this evening. I pray that he may know many positive changes in his life from this day forward.

Notes Wikipedia:

Released posthumously on his album Greatest Hits, "Changes" talks about all of the different issues that were related to Tupac's era of influence – notably racism, police brutality, drugs and gang violence. The "Huey" that 2Pac mentions in the song ("two shots in the dark, now Huey's dead") is Huey P. Newton, founder of the Black Panther Party. The song refers to the possibility of a black president of the United States, claiming "we ain't ready". Further, the last verse of the song refers to Tupac's premonition about being shot to death, mimicking the sound of the gun with the phrase "rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat."

The song was the #1 hit in Norway and the Netherlands and reached the top ten in the singles charts of several other countries, including #3 in the United Kingdom, which gained Tupac a broader audience. The Chris Hafner-directed music video is a compilation of a number of previous music videos Tupac released in addition to home videos and never-before-seen pictures, similar to the format of The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Dead Wrong", also released in 1999.

"Changes" was nominated for Best Rap Solo Performance at the Grammy Awards of 2000 and remains the only posthumous song to be nominated in this category. It was also nominated at the MTV Video Music Award for Best Editing in a Video & Best Rap Video in 1999.

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Something to Think About . . .

Related Off-site Links:
Fantasy Novelist Ursula Le Guin, Who Explored Resistance and Change, Dies at Age 88 – Democracy Now!, January 24, 2018).
Ursula K. Le Guin, Whose Novels Plucked Truth From High Fantasy, Dies At 88 – Colin Dwyer (MPR News, January 24, 2018).
Ursula Le Guin: "One of the Literary Greats of the 20th Century" – Margaret Atwood (The Guardian, January 24, 2018).
Ursula K. Le Guin’s Warning on the Dangers of Capitalism – Natasha Hakimi Zapata (Truthdig, January 24, 2018).
Mythmakers and Lawbreakers: An Interview with Ursula Le Guin – Margaret Killjoy (The Anarcho-Geek Review, January 23, 2018).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Quote of the Day – April 6, 2017
• The Purpose of Art
• Art and Resistance
• Mystics of Wonder, Agents of Change
• The Potential of Art and the Limits of Orthodoxy to Connect Us to the Sacred

Monday, January 22, 2018

Photo of the Day

Related Off-site Links:
Winter Storm Jaxson Arrives, Canceling Flights, Causing Spin-outs, and Postponing Events – S.M. Chavey (Pioneer Press, January 22, 2017).
Winter Storm Cranking Out More Than a Foot – Paul Huttner (MPR News, January 22, 2017).
Gov. Dayton Calls Out National Guard as Snowstorm Slams Minnesota – Tim Harlow (Star Tribune, January 22, 2017).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Photo of the Day – December 5, 2017
• Winter Beauty
• Winter Light
• Winter Storm
• Winter . . . Within and Beyond

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Quote of the Day

People have asked me, “if you’re all about women’s agency, isn’t it enough that this woman felt assaulted [by Aziz Ansari]?” Unfortunately, no – not when it becomes a matter of public accusation. Assault is not a feeling. Discomfort is a feeling, embarrassment and hurt and anger are all feelings, but assault has to have an objective definition because of the legal and social ramifications that come with it. When we act as though disrespect, harassment, assault and rape are all different words for the same thing, the conversation starts to lose its legitimacy.

. . . Some of the most candid and insightful points I’ve seen about this story have come from women who have argued that, for a lot of men, sexual aggression is something that has been ingrained in them from a young age. They are socialized through the examples of other men, not just those around them but in TV, movies and music. Heterosexual sex has long been portrayed as a kind of cat-and-mouse game in which the woman is expected to play coy and the man is expected to wear her down until she gives in. This is an unhealthy and dangerous dynamic, and it needs to change – but if our main approach is assigning facile labels to individuals rather than frankly examining root causes, it never will.

Framing this as an Aziz Ansari problem instead of a culture problem gives men the opportunity to distance themselves from it instead of reflecting upon their own attitudes and beliefs.

Proper language and communication are critical not only in these discussions, but in the heat of the moment. While there are many clear-cut cases of men deliberately disregarding women’s boundaries, there are others where neither person clearly expresses what’s going on in their head, and both are left trying to fill in the blanks. It is not anti-feminist to recognize that sometimes, human relationships are messy, signals feel mixed, and misunderstandings occur. And it is not victim blaming to say that we need to work harder to empower women to firmly say “no” when men are acting entitled, as well as teaching those men to look for nonverbal cues and ask their partner explicitly how they’re feeling before proceeding.

– Tiffany Wright
Excerpted from "Assault Is Not a Feeling.
The Aziz Ansari Story Shows Why Language Matters"
The Guardian
January 17, 2018

Related Off-site Links and Updates:
Aziz Ansari Accused of Sexual Misconduct – Emma Stefansky (Vox, January 14, 2018).
Whoopi Goldberg Scolds Aziz Ansari Accuser: ‘Non-Verbal Cues’ Are Not Enough – Matt Wilsten (The Daily Beast, January 16, 2018).
Blurred Lines: Aziz Ansari and the Line Between Jerk and Predator – Erin Gloria Ryan (The Daily Beast, January 16, 2018).
The Controversy Around Babe.net’s Aziz Ansari Story, Explained – Caroline Framke (Vox, January 18, 2018).
Babe Turns a Movement Into a Racket – Caitlin Flanagan (The Atlantic, January 19, 2018).
We're Not Done Here – Laurie Penny (Longreads, January 2018).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Four Balanced Perspectives on the Wave of “Sexual Misconduct” Accusations Against Influential Men in the U.S.
• What a Man! – Connor Beaton
• Quote of the Day – November 17, 2017

From Wikipedia: In January 2018, a woman using the pseudonym "Grace" accused Aziz Ansari of sexual misconduct in an article on Babe.net. The article was met with a polarized and mixed response among commentators and the public with disagreement as to whether the incident described in the Babe article constitutes sexual misconduct. Ansari stated that the encounter "by all indications was completely consensual," but critics have stated that his actions were misogynist, lacked affirmative consent, and spoke to a larger culture of harmful male expectations. Others say that Ansari's actions did not constitute sexual misconduct and that his accuser's narrative trivializes the larger movement against forms of sexual abuse. In an article for The Atlantic, Caitlin Flanagan wrote that the narrative in Babe was revenge porn. HLN host Ashleigh Banfield criticized Ansari's accuser for what she described as "reckless" claims.

Monday, January 15, 2018

For MLK Day . . .

. . . "My Brother's Keeper," a painting by Haitian artist Watson Mere.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

– Martin Luther King, Jr

Related Off-site Links:
This Haitian American Artist's Image of MLK Hushing Trump Goes Viral Again – Stephen Snyder (PRI, January 15, 2018).
The Story Behind One of the Most Powerful Images of the Resistance – Tod Perry (Good, August 24, 2016).
Martin Luther King, Jr. Was More Radical Than We Remember – Jenn M. Jackson (Teen Vogue, January 15, 2018).
Martin Luther King, Jr., the Radical: 9 MLK Quotes the Media Won’t Cite – Kali Holloway (AlterNet via Salon, January 16, 2017).
Dr. Martin Luther King in 1967: “We As a Nation Must Undergo a Radical Revolution of Values” – Democracy Now!, January 21, 2013).
If Martin Luther King Jr Were Alive Today, Politicians Would Denounce Him – Steven W. Thrasher (The Guardian, January 15, 2018).
Malcolm and Martin, Closer Than We Ever Thought – John Blake (CNN, May 19, 2010).
Turning King's Dream Into a Nightmare – Chris Hedges (Truthdig, January 13, 2018).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Quote of the Day – January 15, 2017
• Martin Luther King, Jr. and Democratic Socialism
• Global Condemnation for Trump's Latest Ignorant and Racist Comments

Sunday, January 14, 2018

Global Condemnation for Trump's Latest Ignorant and Racist Comments

U.S. President Donald Trump recently ignited an international firestorm of outrage and condemnation when he called Haiti, El Salvador and African nations “shithole countries.”

Following are responses from around the globe to Trump's comments.

_____________________________

These are shocking and shameful comments from the President of the United States. I’m sorry, but there’s no other word one can use but “racist.”

You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as “shitholes,” whose entire populations are not white are therefore not welcome. [Trump’s] positive comment on Norway makes the underlying sentiment very clear.

Like [Trump’s] earlier comments made vilifying Mexicans and Muslims, the policy proposals targeting entire groups on grounds of nationality or religion, and the reluctance to clearly condemn the anti-semitic and racist actions of the white supremacists in Charlottesville, all of these go against the universal values the world has been striving so hard to establish since World War Two and the Holocaust.

This isn’t just a story about vulgar language, it’s about opening the door to humanity’s worst side. It’s about validating and encouraging racism and xenophobia that will potentially disrupt and even destroy the lives of many people, and that’s perhaps the single most damaging and dangerous consequence of this type of comment by a major political figure.

– Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the
UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights
Excerpted from “UN Statement on Trump ‘S***hole’ Comments, in Full”
The Independent
January 12, 2018

Donald Trump has been branded a shocking and shameful racist after it was credibly reported he had described African nations, as well as Haiti and El Salvador as “shitholes” and questioned why so many of their citizens had ever been permitted to enter America.

U.S. diplomats around the world were summoned for formal reproach, amid global shock that such crude remarks could ever be made in a semi-public meeting by the president of the United States.

In a strongly-worded statement, the United Nations said it was impossible to describe his remarks as anything other than racist, while the Vatican decried Trump’s words as “particularly harsh and offensive”.

The 55-nation African Union said the remarks were “clearly racist”.

Trump initially allowed reported accounts of his comments to go unchallenged, but went into damage limitation mode on Friday, insisting he had not used derogatory words – but admitting that the language he had used at a meeting with Senators on immigration was “tough.”

But the democratic senator Dick Durbin – who was present at the meeting with Trump on Thursday – insisted that the reports were entirely accurate.

He said “those hate-filled things and did so repeatedly.”

“Shithole was the exact word used once not twice but repeatedly,” Durbin said, adding that the word was specifically used in the context of African countries.

– Patrick Wintour, Jason Burke and Anna Livsey
Excerpted from “‘There’s No Other Word But Racist’:
Trump's Global Rebuke for ‘Shithole’ Remark”
The Guardian
January 13, 2018

I am not ashamed of the country where I was born. I am not ashamed to call myself an American now. I am a proud immigrant, refugee, Minnesotan and a proud State Legislator.

But make no mistake, I am ashamed, disturbed, and outraged that the leader of the United States can’t see beyond his own embarrassing privilege to embrace the diversity that has made this country great for generations.

– MN State Representative Ilhan Omar (DFL-Minneapolis)
January 11, 2018

The President’s comments today are horrifying and truly deplorable. It saddens me to my heart to see our country misrepresented like this.

The time for neutrality and silence is long over – anyone who doesn’t stand with this nonsense must stand firmly together against it now.

– St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter III
January 11, 2018

We subscribe to the words of James Baldwin, “Ignorance allied with power is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.” Mr. Trump’s comments are woefully racist, ignorant, xenophobic, and inflammatory. Racism is undeniably evil. The evil of racism is always incapable of critiquing itself; therefore, it must be condemned whenever and wherever it arises. Racism is a question of power and not merely attitude. The President harbors these racist views and has the power to implement policy that subjugates poor people and people of color to oppressive systems and structures. His haphazard pronouncements and unmitigated power is problematic for the nation and world. Mr. Trump has repeatedly demonstrated himself unknowledgeable about the history of this country and the contributions of the children of the African Diaspora brutally enslaved and brought to these shores as well as those who have immigrated here, particularly Haitians whose benefaction is woven into the very fiber of our nation.

We vehemently condemn the racist comments of Mr. Trump. We cannot remain silent amid the horrid neglect and lack of concern for our sisters and brothers maligned throughout the world. Globally millions of immigrants are fleeing despicable and life-threatening situations. We have a moral and Christian responsibility to be supportive as they escape political, cultural, and social threats in their native homelands. Mr. Trump’s maleficence toward our sisters and brothers in Haiti and African nations is antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is contradictory to the universal, unconditional love of God for all people.

– Black Catholic Theological Symposium
Excerpted from "Statement Regarding Mr. Trump’s
Racist Comments About Haiti and African Countries"
January 15, 2018

My response to President Trump is total condemnation. It was a very racist remark, which shed light on earlier decisions that he had – that have been made by the administration – for example, about temporary protected status being eliminated for Haitians and Salvadorans, and his remark, as reported by The New York Times, about all Haitians having AIDS. It seems like, once again, Haiti is being used as a foil, and he is baiting his bait and feeding them — Haiti as red meat.

And it’s extremely sad that it happened also in the shadow of this day. Today was going to be an extraordinarily sad day for many of us, anyway, who lost our family members, who lost our friends, in the devastating earthquake [of 2010]. So this is even more salt on our wounds. Not surprising, because of the nature of this presidency and the way this president conducts himself, but it is a terrible slight. It’s completely racist, especially the way that he paralleled Haiti and Africa, which is a continent, not a country – someone should tell him – and describing them in this manner and contrasting them to Norway.

– Edwidge Danticat
Excerpted from "'Completely Racist': Edwidge Danticat on
Trump’s 'Shithole Countries' Remark Targeting Africa and Haiti"
Democracy Now!
January 12, 2018

Countries like El Salvador and Haiti are in terrible condition in large part because of long histories of American support for right-wing dictatorships and crony capitalism. And why would anyone in Norway give up their social benefits – universal health care on a single payer system, no college tuition, and the like – to come to the U.S., which has none of it?

– Mae M. Ngai
via Facebook
January 12, 2018

President Trump’s characterization of Africa, Haiti and El Salvador as “shitholes” disturbed me, but I wasn’t sure why. The comments were made during a discussion about the temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of Salvadoran, Haitian and other immigrants Trump had just rescinded. In search for an answer, I went home and pulled out and studied my boots , which were tattered after too many visits to mass graves, mass graves with the remains of Salvadorans—in El Salvador, in Mexico and in the deserts of south Texas. Wearing my hiking boots during visits to numerous sites along this chain of devalued life led me to the conclusion that mass graves were the ultimate shitholes.

What made me most uncomfortable was less about Mr. Trump’s choice of word than how he used it: he mistook the shithole part for the whole country. Trump’s rhetorical fallacy feels like a cover-up, a distraction from the fact that El Salvador’s mass graves contain fingerprints and other evidence that point to the United States as an accomplice to the mass murder and violence that created them. Viewed from this perspective, Trump’s “shithole” comment said in words what all US presidents have said with their policies towards countries like Haiti and El Salvador.

Consider, for example, the Salvadoran case of El Mozote, the site of the massacre of almost a thousand peasants, a crime whose irresolution still haunts many. Some 37 years after the mass massacre, forensic evidence from mass graves proved that 553 of those victims were children, many of them under six years old.

El Mozote is the best documented of El Salvador’s thousands of mass graves, many of which remain unexcavated. Forensic experts with El Salvador’s Institute for Legal Medicine and the world renown Argentine forensic team told me that their evidence – bones, shoe marks, hair samples, bullet shells – of the mass killing at El Mozote pointed to elite Salvadoran soldiers trained in places like Fort Bragg and Fort Benning, Georgia, formerly known as the notorious “School of the Americas.” Evidence from recent Salvadoran and international court cases corroborates this. The boots, bullets, weapons, helicopters and uniforms used during the massacre were all Made in the U.S.A. And the evidence trail isn’t limited to El Mozote.

– Roberto Lovato
Excerpted from “El Salvador’s Worst Shitholes
Are ‘Made in America’”
Latino Rebels
January 12, 2018

Good people don’t refer to entire countries as “shitholes” – most notably countries that have given birth to our very humanity; ones that for hundreds of years have been colonized and poached and mined of their riches by powerful white men; countries whose people have been enslaved and sold and forced to come and build your country.

Good people by any measurement we might use – simply don’t say such things.

. . . But this President is simply not a good human being, and there’s simply no way around this truth.

He is the ugliest personification of the Ugly American, which is why, as long as he is here and as long as he represents this nation, we will be a fractured mess and a global embarrassment. He will be the ever lowering bar of our legacy in the world.

And what is painfully obvious in these moments, isn’t simply that the person alleging to lead this country is a terrible human being – it is that anyone left still defending him, applauding him, justifying him, amening him, probably is too.

At this point, the only reason left to support this President, is that he reflects your hateful heart;he shares your contempt of people of color, your hostility toward outsiders, your ignorant bigotry, your feeling of supremacy.

A white President calling countries filled with people of color shitholes, is so far beyond the pale, so beneath decency, and so blatantly racist that it shouldn’t merit conversation. It should be universally condemned. Humanity should be in agreement in abhorring it.

And yet today (like so many other seemingly rock bottom days in the past twelve months) they will be out there: white people claiming to be good people and Christian people, who will make excuses for him or debate his motives or diminish the damage.

They will dig their heels in to explain away or to defend, what at the end of the day is simply a bad human being saying the things that bad human beings say because their hearts harbor very bad things.

No, good people don’t call countries filled with beautiful, creative, loving men and women shitholes.

And good people don’t defend people who do.

You’re going to have to make a choice here.

– John Pavlovitz
Excerpted from “Good People Don’t Defend A Bad Man”
JohnPavlovitz.com
January 12, 2018

I have lost patience with the shock supposedly well-meaning people express every time Mr. Trump says or does something terrible but well in character. I don’t have any hope to offer. I am not going to turn this into a teaching moment to justify the existence of millions of Haitian or African or El Salvadoran people because of the gleeful, unchecked racism of a world leader. I am not going to make people feel better about the gilded idea of America that becomes more and more compromised and impoverished with each passing day of the Trump presidency.

This is a painful, uncomfortable moment. Instead of trying to get past this moment, we should sit with it, wrap ourselves in the sorrow, distress and humiliation of it. We need to sit with the discomfort of the president of the United States referring to several countries as “shitholes” during a meeting, a meeting that continued after his comments. No one is coming to save us. Before we can figure out how to save ourselves from this travesty, we need to sit with that, too.

– Roxane Gay
Excerpted from “No One Is Coming to Save Us From Trump’s Racism”
The New York Times
January 11, 2018

Far too many people are surprised by your racism, [Mr. President,] which is as ignorant as it is blatant. This is confusing because you’ve made no secret of your attitudes.

You started this political trip by insisting that America’s first black president wasn’t really American, despite all evidence to the contrary. You seem driven by an irrational hatred of everything Obama: you even blamed him on Thursday for building a new US embassy in London, even though the decision was taken by his white Republican predecessor. You campaigned against Mexico by peddling the libel that the country was sending its criminals and rapists to America. You now want to kick out 200,000 immigrants from El Salvador who keep the economy humming in your new hometown of Washington.

When neo-Nazis marched in Charlottesville, carrying torches and shouting about racial purity, you said they were good people. You endorsed the Britain First brand of neo-Nazism by sharing its racist lies on Twitter.

With a depressing frequency, you have made it clear that you are literally a neo-Nazi sympathizer. If at some stage you promote eugenics on Twitter, we will save a few letters on our character counts and simply call you a neo-Nazi.

– Richard Wolffe
Excerpted from “‘Shithole Countries’?
Words Worthy of a Racist-in-Chief”
The Guardian
January 13, 2018

President Donald Trump has called Africa a shithole. How America elected a narcissist, racist, white supremacist to be their president defies logic. Africa sends love and light to America.

– Boniface Mwangi
via Twitter
January 11, 2018

Related Off-site Links:
Trump Decries Immigrants from "Shithole Countries" Coming to U.S. – Eli Watkins and Abby Phillip (CNN, January 12, 2018).
"There's No Other Word But Racist": Trump's Global Rebuke for "Shithole" Remark – Patrick Wintour, Jason Burke and Anna Livsey (The Guardian, January 13, 2018).
"Reprehensible and Racist": Trump’s Remarks Outrage Africans – Cara Anna (The Associated Press, January 12, 2018).
"Racist" and "Shameful": How Other Countries Are Responding to Trump's Slur – Colin Dwyer (NPR News, January 12, 2018).
This Is How Ignorant You Have to Be to Call Haiti a "Shithole" – Jonathan M. Katz (The Washington Post, January 12, 2018).
The US Role in Turning Countries Into Shitholes and Provoking Immigration – Juan Cole (Informed Comment, January 12, 2018).
Your Response to Trump’s Racist ‘Shithole’ Comment Will Be Remembered – Rex Huppke (Chicago Tribune, January 11, 2018).

UPDATE: Cory Booker Lashes Into DHS’s Kirstjen Nielsen: “Your Silence and Your Amnesia Is Complicity” – Shira Tarlo (Salon, January 16, 2018).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Trump's America: Normalized White Supremacy and a Rising Tide of Racist Violence
• In Charlottesville, the Face of Terrorism In the U.S.
• 2000+ Take to the Streets of Minneapolis to Express Solidarity with Immigrants and Refugees
• On International Human Rights Day, Saying "No" to Donald Trump and His Fascist Agenda
• Progressive Perspectives on the Election of Donald Trump as President
• Progressive Perspectives on the Rise of Donald Trump
• Trump's Playbook

Friday, January 12, 2018

Waking Up

I came across the video below while perusing my Facebook news feed earlier today. It's by the non-profit organization Avaaz, and I have to say that I find it very inspiring and hope-filled! Perhaps you will too.

I preface it with the following quote by Joanna Macy (right), one that I find equally inspiring and hopeful.

The most remarkable feature of this historical moment on Earth is not that we are on the way to destroying the world – we've actually been on the way for quite a while. It is that we are beginning to wake up, as from a millennia-long sleep, to a whole new relationship to our world, to ourselves and each other.

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Something to Think (and Chuckle) About . . .

Monday, January 08, 2018

Hope in the Midst of Collapse

In a commentary published in Business Insider in the ebbing days of 2017, James Traub argued that the United States has become “decadent and depraved.” He explains what decadence means, and how it's tied to corruption. “Decadence is usually understood as an irreversible condition – the last stage before collapse,” he writes.

Today I share an excerpt from Traub's December 24, 2017 commentary, one that, as the new year begins, remains very much relevant and "of the day." . . . And yet I am not despondent. For as Ann Kreilkamp's photograph above and many of the links that follow this excerpt remind us, every end serves also as a beginning. And that's hopeful.

A democratic society becomes decadent when its politics, which is to say its fundamental means of adjudication, becomes morally and intellectually corrupt. But the loss of all regard for common ground is hardly limited to the political right, or for that matter to politics.

We need only think of the ever-unfolding narrative of Harvey Weinstein, which has introduced us not only to one monstrous individual but also to a whole world of well-educated, well-paid, highly regarded professionals who made a very comfortable living protecting that monster. “When you quickly settle, there is no need to get into all the facts,” as one of his lawyers delicately advised.

This is, of course, what lawyers do, just as accountants are paid to help companies move their profits into tax-free havens. What is new and distinctive, however, is the lack of apology or embarrassment, the sheer blitheness of the contempt for the public good.

When Teddy Roosevelt called the monopolists of his day “malefactors of great wealth,” the epithet stung – and stuck. Now the bankers and brokers and private equity barons who helped drive the nation’s economy into a ditch in 2008 react with outrage when they’re singled out for blame.

Being a “wealth creator” means never having to say you’re sorry. Enough voters accept this proposition that Donald Trump paid no political price for unapologetic greed.

The worship of the marketplace, and thus the elevation of selfishness to a public virtue, is a doctrine that we associate with the libertarian right. But it has coursed through the culture as a self-justifying ideology for rich people of all political persuasions – perhaps also for people who merely dream of becoming rich.

Decadence is usually understood as an irreversible condition – the last stage before collapse.

– James Traub
Excerpted from "The U.S. Has Reached
the Last Stage Before Collapse"
Business Insider
December 24, 2017

Related Off-site Links:
10 Good Things About a Terrible Year – Medea Benjamin (Common Dreams, December 25, 2017).
2018: Moving Beyond Trump – Rebuilding Our Civilizations from Source – Otto Scharmer (The Huffington Post, December 28, 2017).
Why Trump Phenomenon Signals an Oligarchy on the Brink of a Civilization-Threatening Collapse – Sally J. Goerner (Evonomics, April 29, 2016).
Golfing Into the Apocalypse, Which Is Happening Faster Than Anyone Anticipated – Abby Zimet (Common Dreams, December 28, 2017).
How Corporate Power Killed Democracy – Richard Moser (CounterPunch, December 6, 2017).
All of Trump's Problems Seem to Perpetually Come Down to Money – Charles P. Pierce (Esquire, January 4, 2018).
Daring to Dream in the Age of Trump – Naomi Klein (The Nation, June 13, 2017).
The End Is Near (or Is That the Beginning) – Neo(un)Orthodoxy (April 2, 2012).
Scores of Leading Economists Demand End to All Fossil Fuel Investments – Andrea Germanos (Common Dreams, December 8, 2017).
How Inequality Is Killing Off Humanity – Paul Buchheit (Common Dreams, January 8, 2018).
What We Want for 2018: The Biggest Movement Leaders Envision the Changes Ahead – Beverly Bell (Yes!, January 5, 2018).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• The End of the World As We Know It . . . and the Beginning As We Live It
• See the World!
• As the Last Walls Dissolve . . . Everything is Possible
• Threshold Musings
• The War Racket
• Buffy Sainte-Marie's Medicine Songs
• Let Us Be "Energized by the Beauty That Is All Around Us": Jane Goodall's New Year Message

Image: Ann Kreilkamp.

Happy Birthday, Shirley!

The celebrated vocalist Dame Shirley Bassey celebrates her 81st birthday today. Happy Birthday, Shirley!

To mark the occasion at The Wild Reed, I share the following clip of Shirley performing one of her most well-known recordings, "(Where Do I Begin) Love Story." It's from a television appearance in 1972. Enjoy!

Where do I begin?
To tell the story of how great a love can be
The sweet love story that is older than the sea
The simple truth about the love he brings to me
Where do I start?

Like a summer rain
That cools the pavement with a patent leather shine
He came into my life and made the living fine
And gave a meaning to this empty world of mine
He fills my heart

He fills my heart with very special things
With angels' songs, with wild imaginings
He fills my soul with so much love
That anywhere I go, I'm never lonely
With him along, who could be lonely?
I reach for his hand
It's always there

How long does it last?
Can love be measured by the hours in a day?
I have no answers now but this much I can say
I'm going to need him 'til the stars all burn away
And he'll be there

– Carl Sigman

For more of Shirley Bassey at The Wild Reed, see:
• Time of the Tigress
• The Living Tree: Shirley Bassey and Me
• The Rhythm Divine
• History Repeating
• Oscar Highlights 2013
• Quote of the Day – February 26, 2013
• Shirley, Shirley, Shirley!

Related Off-site Links:
17 Times Dame Shirley Bassey Proved She's Truly World Class – Tyler Mears (Wales Online, January 7, 2017).
Why Shirley Bassey Is Horrified by Today's Pop Stars – The Telegraph (December 24, 2016).
Dame Shirley Bassey "Couldn't Sing" After Death of Daughter – BBC News (December 24, 2016).
Shirley Bassey Reveals Secret Torment Behind Glittering 60 Year Career – Rod McPhee (Mirror, December 23, 2016).

Thursday, January 04, 2018

Let Us Be "Energized by the Beauty That Is All Around Us": Jane Goodall's New Year Message

British primatologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace Dr. Jane Goodall recently shared a New Year's message via her website. Following is an excerpt.

[F]or so many people around the world, 2017 brought hardship and suffering, because of the hurricanes, floods, droughts and fires due to climate change that have caused some to lose their homes, their possessions, even family and friends. And climate change has caused others to migrate from increasingly hostile environments. Then there are the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing violence, war and genocide. The horrifying number of people subjected to domestic violence. The poverty, the rising number of the homeless and the millions, including children, subjugated to modern day slavery. And we have inflicted unimaginable suffering also on billions of animals in factory farms, those subjected to wildlife trafficking, or to medical or pharmaceutical testing. And let us not forget the shocking destruction of the rainforests, the pollution of the ocean, the devastation caused by the unsustainable demand for the finite resources of Planet Earth, the clearing of land for development and for industrial farming with its chemical pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and fertilizers. The loss of biodiversity, the increasing number of animal and plant species listed as endangered. A daunting and depressing scenario indeed. The list is endless.

But as I was thinking about all of this, a little robin, with his cheerful red breast, flew onto the bird table outside my window. I could just see him in the bleak morning light. And before taking a beakful of food, he perched there singing his little heart out. An exquisitely enchanting matins that found its way into my soul. I realized then that he was delivering a message: reminding me that there is still so much in the world worth fighting for. So much that is beautiful, so many wonderful people working to reverse the harm, to help alleviate the suffering. And so many young people dedicated to making this a better world. All conspiring to inspire us and to give us hope that it is not too late to turn things around, if we all do our part.

With his bright, beady eyes shining in the light from my bedside lamp, the robin gazed at me through the glass before flying off. He had played his part, rekindled the hope that leads to action. Prepared me for the challenges that lie ahead.

So this is the message I share with you now in the hope that throughout 2018 we shall be energized by the beauty that is all around us, and rather than becoming discouraged and rendered helpless by the ignorance and evil that is so obvious, we shall become strengthened by the goodness and love that is also everywhere. And then we shall be able to use the gift of our lives, to make the world that little bit better – every day.

And, by the way, we must take time to make merry, to have fun – and to laugh!

– Dr. Jane Goodall
Excerpted from her New Year's Message for 2018
January 2, 2018

Related Off-site Links:
12 Books (and a Poem) That Inspire the Activism We Need in 2018 – Paul Brandeis Raushenbush (Auburn, January 2018).
18 Refugees, 18 Countries – and Their Hopes for 2018 – Mark Rice-Oxley (The Guardian, January 1, 2018).
New Year’s Resolution: End America’s Quagmire Wars – W.J. Astore (Bracing Views, January 2, 2018).
Let's Make 2018 the Year We Rise Up and Regenerate! – Ronnie Cummins (Common Dreams, January 5, 2018).
For the New Year – The Leveret (January 1, 2018).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• A New Year (2017)
• Move Us, Loving God
• Andrew Harvey on Radical, Divine Passion in Action
• For 2015, Three "Generous Promises"
• Something We Dare Call Hope
• Buffy Sainte-Marie: "Sometimes You Have to Be Content to Plant Good Seeds and Be Patient"
• Called to the Field of Compassion
• Threshold Musings

Image: Writes Lori Dorn about this photograph: "In June of 2013, Dr. Jane Goodall and her team set out to release a chimpanzee named Wounda back into the wild. Wounda had spent a great deal of time at the Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center in the Republic of Congo being treated for a life threatening illness from which she had since recovered. Before heading out into the jungle, however Wounda doubled back to express her sincere appreciation to the entire team and give the iconic primatologist a truly grateful hug."

Tuesday, January 02, 2018

If God is Love . . .

. . . [then] the only way we can worship God
is by loving others. The more we give love away,
the more we make the experience of God visible.
God is not a being, external to us;
God is experienced in the presence of love.

– John Shelby Spong
Excerpted from his forthcoming book,
Unbelievable: Why Neither Ancient Creeds Nor the Reformation
Can Produce a Living Faith Today
HarperOne, 2018