If Only We Were Christian

If only...If only I would not have been greeted by one of my golfing buddies yesterday who spat out, "Congratulations".  I asked him for what, and he answered the SCOTUS decision on gay marriage.  He then remarked with scarcasm about the White House lighted up in Gay Pride colors.  He spate out, "And YOUR President" ran their colors on the White House...I can't believe it".

I replied, "Have you seen the Imitation Game"?  He said he had.  He must have been asleep during the last part.

An expert on codes helps end WWII.  He is as he puts it, "a homosexual".  He is hounded after the war, arrested for sexual depravity and given hormones to "cure" his "illness".  This guy, by historians analysis, probably helped shorten the war by two years!  He winds up committing suicide.   He should have been given a medal, but like many gays, he is driven to suicide by the hate of the Bible Crazed Christians.  That's right, you drive people to sucide with your HATE.

But, now we hear the right proclaiming that they will elect a Republican President, restructure the Court and put back into place the hateful structure of religious backed bigotry we have endured for over 200 years.

That's right, religious Christian backed bigotry based on a few verses in the Bible, that have been used to discriminate against a small percentage of the population for centuries.  We are talking the Salem Witch Trials type stuff here, murder, beatings, and certainly the favorite of the "Scarlet Letter" , shunning.

Oh, yes, outcast them all.  Cluck and turn our heads away in our pathetic self righteousness.  Make sure we harm them.  Make sure we punish them.

And then, on Sunday, jump to our feet and sing Amazing Grace.  Worship  the son of man who preached exactly the opposite behavior we tell the world is demanded by the Bible.  Why would Jesus preach the way he did if he wanted his flock to act like vigilantes?

Then, act like this SCOTUS decision  will kill you.  A preachers in the midwest even threatened to set himself on fire if SCOTUS ruled the way it did.

  It will ruin Christianity right?  Another  example of the liberals trying to destroy our church.  Little children will be in danger by a 55 year old gay man who only wants legal protection for his union to another man.

There is no conncection between homosexuality and sexual predatory behavior...none.  In fact sexual predators are overwhelming heterosexual.

We have debated this for years, just like we debated racism for years.  We have fought a Civil War over it.

And you, my fellow Christians REFUSE to be Christian.  What is the matter with you?

May Jesus have mercy on your rotten souls!

In the Background He Stood Smiling

Many are talking about President Obama's Eulogy in South Carolilna.  It was a magnificant speech.

It also was very unusual, because for the first time the President really talked about race.

He dissected the past tragedy of slavery and its effect on the brutal killer who shot nine people to death during Bible study in a Church.  He spoke of Grace, a gift from God that we do not earn, but simply have God's love to do with what we can.  Most fail to even see it, because of our sins.

He described this eternal truth in a preacher's voice.

He told us the "conversation" that this tragedy should cause about race was not needed, because God only knows, we have discussed and fought over this endlessly.

It is Grace he said, Love for our fellow human, with no regard for racial characteristics, that is all we have to do.  We are blind and cannot see this simple truth.  

As the President spoke I focused on  another man on the podium.  He was in the back, fading in and out in time with the melody of the President's speech.  He smiled most of the time, with arms folded, surveying the crowd.

He was a very tall man, dressed a bit oddly  for the occassion, but his reactions to the President's message were unmistakable.  He shook his head in sadness as the President recited the names of the victims.  He smiled when the President spoke about taking the Confederate Flag down.  His eyes moistened when the President spoke of eternal grace, and being able to see that Grace and acting accordingly.

Then the President concluded his talk with Amazing Grace, which he remarkably  sung himself.  The old man on the podium was visibly shakened by this, and a tear flowed down his cheek.

And finally, in the most telling phrase in the speech, the President, as he always does, blessed the U-N-I-T-E-D States of America.  It was then that the old, tall man  applauded enthusiastically.  

The President read this slowly and for obvious effect, since  the Civil War started a few miles from where  the President stood.

As the crowd dispersed, and handshakes were all around, I saw the man, quietly walk to the back and merge into the curtains.

As he did so, he put on his  tall stove pipe shaped hat.  

The Vice President of the Confederacy Speaks

For all of you Republicans and Fox News Followers, who still believe slavery was not the cause of the Civil War, these are Alexander Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy, words justifying the establishment of the Confederate States of America.

If anyone who can read English can read this and still believe the defense of slavery and racism was not the primary cause of the Civil War, then they are just living in a world of make believe!  

"Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth. This truth has been slow in the process of its development, like all other truths in the various departments of science. It has been so even amongst us. Many who hear me, perhaps, can recollect well, that this truth was not generally admitted, even within their day. The errors of the past generation still clung to many as late as twenty years ago. Those at the North, who still cling to these errors, with a zeal above knowledge, we justly denominate fanatics. All fanaticism springs from an aberration of the mind from a defect in reasoning. It is a species of insanity. One of the most striking characteristics of insanity, in many instances, is forming correct conclusions from fancied or erroneous premises; so with the anti-slavery fanatics. Their conclusions are right if their premises were. They assume that the negro is equal, and hence conclude that he is entitled to equal privileges and rights with the white man. If their premises were correct, their conclusions would be logical and just but their premise being wrong, their whole argument fails."

This and other arguments of the time have been used for over a century, since the Civil War, to justify the "lost cause" and supported Jim Crowe and still motivate racist lunatics like that demented soul who killed the innocents in South Carolina last week.

Alexander Stephens was Vice President of the Confederate States of America and is here supporting the racist explanation for the need to preserve slavery....

To be fair, to a racist, Mr. Stephens did not have access to the DNA and genetic scientific facts of the twentieth century, that prove conclusively that all of humankinds is 98% genetically the same....there simply  are no significant differences tied to racial make up....NONE!  

This is why the battle flag of the Confederacy needs to come down and off every state government vestige in this country.  And flying it should be a crime!!!!

Freedom?

I can't put this one down without another comment.  

Mr. Will, true to his aristocratic upbringing and extreme condescension, states that political free speech is somehow the same, in a coroporate context, to "discuss" fairly with individuals in the political arena.  He equates  the economic power of Apple to Greg Beale.  Both deserve the same protections for speech.  Really?  

This is the rub.  I will bet if you ask 100 Americans what free speech means to them, they will speak of an individual's right to express themselves without recriminiation.  The First Amendment does not speak of political free speech for groups, or representatives of groups,  it addresses protections for individual citizens.  

In fact, any beginning political science student will tell you that the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution as a condition of its ratification, as amendments to address concerns that INDIVIDUAL rights be protected.  Hence the right to be protected from searches and seizures, the right to be informed of charges against you; etc.  Note, how the word  individual  

comes up again and again as we study the Bill of Rights.  

There is no corporate there.  A corporation is an organization, a group endeavor, usually for profit, or also non-profit.  Corporation groups were simply not in America in 1789.  And, the Bill of Rights was never intended to protect groups, it was specifically to protect individual rights.  That was part of the grand compromise that got the Constituion ratified.  Americans remembered the repression the British had used against them in pre-revolution times, many colonists could still remember why they fled Europe to America: individualism and individual rights.  

What the Supreme Court did was to treat corporate interests like individuals.  This goes to the infamous ruling by a former court, that, as Mitt Romney famously said, "Corporations are individuals too, my friend".  

So, as individuals we would expect a level playing field when it comes to the Citizen United political, free speech, right?  As Will smugly states, "we need to not regulate politics".  

And that is simply wrong.  Politics has been regulated from its inception.  The Congress of the United States makes laws through the political process.  And from it comes regulations of all sizes and colors.   Men are indeed political animals, but if left unregulated, you get war and violence.  Even a cursory study of the French Revolution will prove that.  

So, the "regulators" as Will states, are always out there, regulating free political speech and then are shocked by how their rules backfire.    And what does he consider a backfire...like the election of a Black President???

Finally, we need to ponder what this is doing to our political process.  By equating Apple Computer Corporation for example to me, Citizens United assumes fatally that we are both individuals and therefore should be regulated little if at all.  So I take my paltry retirement income and the resources it can buy, up against Apple Computer with its Billions.  I can buy 10 seconds on the local T.V. station, Apple can buy through a Super Pac, hours on the national scale.  This is fair?  This is a fixed game!

In the United States we use T.V. advertisements (and the Internet) as part of a highly materialistic political campaign process.  The size of monetary support for a candidate is reported constantly, or at least guessed  at, thanks to Citizens United, and is used to predict winners and losers.  Dark money runs the show.  

And sure enough, the size of a political war chest directly affects the future of a candidate's chances to win.  At last check, the Koch Brothers' corporation has dedicated over a BILLION dollars to elect the President.  

The Koch Brothers have poured money into state legislative races and governors races from Maine to California.  And the results have been spectaculor, the majority of governors are conservative Republicans and same with the state legislatures.  And these "representative" bodies in no way reflect the citizenry they represent.    The book, "Whats the Matter with Kansas" springs to mind.  Currently Kansas has a zealot for a Governor, who has bankrupted the state, but politically is protected by a right wing legislature and a election process that no longer can hold him accountable.

And accountability is essential to good government.  

Citizens United ended accountability in the United States.  

This occurs because voter turnouts are deliberately suprressed, people are sick of advertisement politics, and simply do not vote, leaving exactlly what the Koch brothers and others want, a political playing field tilted heavily in their oil interest favor and not accountable to the people they do not represent; the corporations is who they really represent.  

And if I decide to speak out, what resources do I have against their billions?  This is the point that Will and the other plutocrats don't bother to tell you:  THE GAME IS FIXED FROM THE BEGINNING.  EQUATING FREE POLITICAL SPEECH BY EQUATING CORPORATIONS WITH INDIVIDUAL FREE EXPRESSON IS A FATAL CONTRADICTION.  

 How in the world can I compete in a political discussion equally with the billions of the Koch brothers, the legions of political consultants they hire, the PACS and SuperPacs they employ?

So we slide further into the fascism they are pushing for so diligently.  And George Will loves it, since unregulated is his mantra, his religion; and unregulated gets lots of Republicans elected.   

Unregulated is good, he preaches,  it will always produce a better result.  Tell 1932 that.  Tell 1939 that.  Tell WWII surviivors that.

Unregulated political speech leads to death of democracy, and ultimately war, since the political process is regarded as unable to solve economic problems and issues.  So, sooner or later, a leader comes along that says, "forget democracy" follow me...Hitler, Mussolini; etc.  Or the people finally rise up and kill them all; witness Syria and the Middle East.  

Ironically, the poltical system that the corporations work to control, in the end always leads to the destruction of the economic stability they need to continue to profit.  E

ver seen the ruins of Germany in 1945?  Consider that the Krupp Industries gave millions to support HItler and his political madness, then watched in horror as their factories were bombed into oblivion.  

Our political system from city councils to the Congress is poisoned by special interests.  The Republicans have pushed for years that this is somehow politically healthy, as one bribery case after another occurs.  Again, government regulation of political speech is seen as the enemy of democracy.  One thing it is the enemy of, bribery. 

In fact, leveling the playing field, so ordinary citizens can express their political opinions with equal volume as corporations is the ONLY way we can preserve freedom.  And, it is also the only way to continue to provide a stable and peaceful economy in which corporations prosper.  

And thanks to George Will, we are failing miserably...

The Tragedy of Shasta Lake City

Shasta Lake City, once called Central Valley after the Central Valley Project one of the largest water reclamation projects on earth, has always labored under a downcast second class stigma.

Most of this stigma  is very wrong and unfair.  Central Valley was and is one of the poorest areas in Shasta County, but much of it is not their fault.  Shasta Lake City is one of the more beautiful spots in Shasta County.  

Shasta Dam was the last large dam built as part of the  huge water reclamation projects of the early twentieth century.  Legions of workers, called dambusters, followed these huge projects to escape the ravages of the depression.  When a dam was completed, say Hoover or Boulder Dam, the Federal Government would leave a "planned" community for future generations.  

In Shasta Dam's case, there was no planned commuinity.  The dam was completed during the Second World War and the Feds did not have the extra money to leave a planned community.

So Central Valley, Project City and Summit City (named after the workers'  tent cities that grew up to support the dam's construction), had no  infrastructure, no water system,no sewage system to speak of.  The Feds just left, with practically nothing of benefit behind.  

The Federal Government did leave a small planned commuity, the administrative housing facility, which was famously taken over in the 60s by local Native American tribes for a time as a protest for the wrongs done to their land and interests. It was reduced to rubble.   Otherwise Central Valley had little in the way of a head start toward becoming a prosperous city.  I can remember during my eight years at Central Valley High School, the smell of sewage that would always follow a strong rain storm, because the sewage system was basically home made.  

So poverty was the starting point.  And a sense of being a second class area in a county that was becoming more prosperous after the war due to the explosion of the logging industry was strong.  Central Valley, in spite of the fact that the dam and federal project it was named after was directly responsible for Shasta County's affluence, was depicted in the larger community as a poor, underclass place.  

It is interesting, because the dam workers, many who lived in Central Valley, were the best paid workers in Shasta County in the late 1930s and early 40s.  They would come to Redding and spend their paychecks on the whores on California Street and the bars.  There were many fights between the "townies" of Redding, and the "hicks" from Central Valley.  There was great resentment in Redding citizens because the "hicks" from C.V. actually made way more money!  

In the mid-1950s Central Valley High School was built.  It was needed because Redding was growing rapidly, partly due to Shasta Dam, and one high school was not large enough.  Unfortunately for Central Valley High, it was the smallest high school between Enterprise and Shasta, but was forced to compete athletically in the NAL.  

So, winning was very difficult.  One year in the 60s Central Valley High did not win a varsity boys game in any sport until baseball season!

Understandably the citizens of Central Valley did not like this stigma.  And they rebelled by "unifying" Central Valley High out of the Shasta Union High School District in the early 1990s.  

At the time I was an Assistant Principal and Interim Principal of Central Valley High School.  I have the dubious honor of being the Principal of the school when it was unified out of the district.

There is more to this than  just a school reorganization.  There was a great amount of bitterness and resentment in the Central Valley community for alleged wrongs the greater Redding area constantly foisted upon them.  Some of these were fanciful, some not.  But for sure, there was a pent up resentment.  Shasta High students called C.V. students hicks and worse, while running up the scores on them.  

In the 1980s for example, the Central Valley Varsity Football Team won 3 games in the whole decade.  

The citizens of now Shasta Lake City blamed the Shasta Union High School District for this unfairness. And they had a point, the district for some strange reason, refused to allow the high school to move to a smaller school league.  This resulted in one year after another of defeat.

But, in the unification lies the moral of this story.  It should have never happened.  At the time proponents of unification studied future enrollments and quickly realized that a viable reorganization depended on Bella Vista and Columbia areas being included in the unification.  Both areas were independent and did not want to be associated with the unification, so they opted out.  This left the unified area with a small population base, in areas that did not promise rapid population growth. 

Shasta Lake City for example is a retirement community with few school aged students.  The Buckeye area is mostly commercial with few new housing developments.  So, while the greater Redding area grew into the twenty first century, the attendance area of the new Gateway Unifed School District did not.  In fact it is shrinking.  

And then, in another spurt of local civic pride, Shasta Lake City was born.

Again, this organization faced formnable obstacles, small tax base, little real growth potential, and another threat that nobody could foretell:  the implications of a killer drought on a community that relies greatly on recreation revenue from Shasta Lake.

As Shasta Lake goes, so goes Shasta Lake City.  And Shasta Lake is running dry.

So now we see about 150 students graduate from Central Valley High.  The size of the student body has almost halfed in the years since the unification.  The school does compete in a smaller school league and the years of losing have ended, but the school district is becoming less viable by the year.

Small high schools are dificult to run, because the smaller they get the more difficult it is to offer a full ranged curriculum.  College bound students transfer out to larger schools because they have to.  The University of Califorinia system requires what is called an A to G curriculum, full ranged from chemistry to calculus.  Small high schools cannot offer that.  

So Central Valley High School, who once had Bella Vista students and Columbia students in its student body, now have way less.  Ironically, the claims that under the Shasta Union High School District the school was being shortchanged have only come true AFTER the unification due to declining enrollemnt.  

It pains me to see what was a wonderful high school struggle with declining enrollment.  No school can overcome this.  The state's financial support of schools punishes declining enrollment severely.  I have often said, Jesus himself could not overcome declining enrollment.  

And now we see Shasta Lake City's council cut the fire department in half due to declining revenues in the middle of the worst drought in recorded history.  This seems to make no sense.  

But it makes perfect sense in the tragedy that has become Shasta County and Shasta Lake City in particular.  Reactionary political and educational moves almost always result in unwanted and unforseen consequences.  As it turns out Shasta Lake City and the Gateway Unified School District are in big trouble because they are separate and smaller.   

In retrospect they needed to stay part of a larger governmental entity (there was a move to incorporate them into Redding in the 1980s) for fiscal, educational and viable government reasons.  

Smaller is not always better.  I worry about my friends in the Shasta Lake City area as the days grow hotter and the water dwindles with 1/2 the fire fighters.  I worry about Central Valley High School.