Reconciliation or Reckoning?

I have been teaching a class at our church about the "Trail of Tears".  It is a study of what missionary Christianity did to Native Americans as Manifest Destiny conquered the North American Continent.

It is not a pretty story.  Aside from the outright genocide, a cultural war was waged against Native Americans,  destroying not only their society but their culture and religion as well.

Anthropologically speaking a "superior culture" engulfed an "inferior" one with disastrous results.  As it turns out the disaster was not only for the Native American culture, but to the invader's culture as well.  

For as it turns out, the story is not  over.   In fact is it has only just begun.   

Global warming and environmental damage threatens us all today; a by-product of Manifest Destiny's "conquer nature is a part of inevitable progress" approach.  The dominant culture is now in trouble:  for there is an inevitable consequence of disturbing divine balance.  

Native Americans  believed strongly in divine, natural balance, in leaving nature alone as much as possible, in not "conquering or exploiting" but in living in harmony with the environment.  Imbalance from this divine command will bring a reckoning according to Native American religion.  

Of course modern world technology might look a little different today if there was a balance.  Perhaps with more harmony in nature, the world would not be draining every last drop of oil, or filling the air with tons of CO2 and other pollutants.   Life might be a little slower, a little more like, as Native Americans often said, "life as human beings".  The wolves and the bison might once again roam the Great Plains.  Wintu might once again fish for salmon in the Sacramento River.  

The last part of the class is of   reconcilation.   That is, how do we attone for the horrors of the past, the Wounded Knees, the "Trail of Tears", the genocide?   The Methodist Church, where I am teaching the class, actually has an entire devotion to reconciliation with Native Americans, ranging from direct financial support to more cultural awareness.  

So reconcilation is part of our church mission.  

And then  there is the reckoning.    

We  actually have no choice.   Either we reconcile, with Native Americans and groups who have been victims of western culture prejudice and genocide, or there will be a disastrous reckoning.  

The reckoning  will not come from Native Americans or African Americans  (I am not predicting a racial war at all)  but from a reckoning with nature.  A reckoning with the Great Spirit.  Yes, a reckoning with God.  

Nature you see is part of the Great Mystery, according to Native People everywhere.  It is all connected, natural world and spiritual world. Again, there is no choice at all.  In fact the reckoning is already occurring.

In short  we must reconcile, else reckoning will continue with devastating consequences for the survival of the human race.

Global warming, climate change is a reckoning.  The horrors in Middle East is a reckoning.  The consequences to the global economy of the oil addiction for all of us is a reckoning.  The high percentage of breast cancer downstream from the Iron Mountain Mine is a reckoning.  The hanging of that Cherokee so many years ago brings a reckoning.  

The "Great Mystery" does not forget, because it is the harmony  of existence that has been disturbed.  Once that precious balance if gone, the consequences are dire and unfortunately irreversable.

Which means reconciliation is not  voluntary.  We must stop attacking Native Americans.  We must stop demeaning people of color, because they make up the majority of the human race.  We must stop demeaning and taking nature for granted.  

The stupidity of racism has consequences, a reckoning will occur unless we reconcile our differences through LOVE.  

Martin Luther King repeated this warning.   So did Jesus Christ.

Studies of ecological balance have shown us not only the moral imperative of reconcilation, but the imperative for survival itself of human beings on planet Earth.  

So, it is not just political correctness that is in play when stopping the Redskin mascot name from being used, or Braves, or Indians, it is the beginning to reconcile.  It is the beginning of love first.  It is a beginning to stop the reckoning.  

And the costs of waiting  are just too much.

Finally, how do we know this....the elders in the oral history tradition of Native American culture warn of it all the time.  So does the Bible.

Mindlessness and Luck

I can still see him at the podium.  The Coach of the Year Clinic was always held in San Francisco and most of the high school football staffs in Northern California attended.   Like most adult males in San Francisco, we also attended our share of bars.  So, the crowd that day had bloodshot eyes and were renowned for not paying much attention to speakers at the convention.  In short, we were rude.

The Stanford head coach was on the podium, he was gradually having success at a school not known for football.  But he too had sat where we sat, he had been a high school coach in the bay area and a longtime assistant.

So, nobody really paid much attention when he started tossing a football in the air and waited patiently for the crowd to quiet down.  

Bill Walsh then did the unexpected.  Partly in desperation to get the crowd to quiet down, he slammed the football point down into the floor in front of the podium.  Predictably the ball caroomed off at a weird angle and bounced into the crowd.

A hung over peer grapped it and lobbed it back to Walsh, who quickly slammed the ball into the floor again.  Once more it bounced into the crowd.  Once more it was retrieved and lobbed back to the speaker.

The crowd was beginning to pay attention when once more Walsh flung the ball down.  This time it bounded back to him.  

Now there was silence.

Coach Walsh then explained that many probably were wondering what in the hell he was doing?  He replied to his own question, that the ball was, unlike soccer balls, baseballs, basketballs; etc the only ball in competitive sports that was one, not round, and two had points on either end.

He then lauched into an hour long lesson of how to build "chance" into your game plan.  Incredibly he planned for chance, for the errant bounce, the crazy catch, the call that for some reason the opponent could be lucky enough to guess.

And his advice was as old as the game itself:  take calculated risks.  And when needed, go with the odds...especially near the goal line.  So don't pass coming out of the endzone.  Don't pass going in either unless you have to, in a strange way the defense has the advantage.  

Throwing the ball near the endzone is risky.  Why you might ask?  The answer is rather simple, the defense has far less territory to defend.  The throwing lanes can be risky, because the defense isn't worrying about getting beat deep.  And throwing coming out of the endzone is risky as well, the defense itsn't worried about getting beat deep because long passes take longer to develop, and the quarterback is standing in his own endzone; a likely target for a sack and a safety.  

Pete Carroll is known as a gambler.  He calls the unexpected play.  He also doesn't much believe in luck, as Bill Walsh did.  He is known for taking uncalculated gambles.  

So the call Sunday makes sense.  It was not a calculated gamble, it was an uncalculated gamble plain and simple.  And it backfired.  

And Seattle went home without a championship that was one yard away. And Bill Walsh is in the hall of fame and Carroll has a way to go.  

The ball is not round.  There is a huge element in chance in the game for that reason.

That is why we are all so obsessed by it.  

What About Africa?

I am so tired of this.  Fox runs it all day long.  Obama is weak, he is  idealistic and can't see that simply invading every country on earth that has terrorists (except African nations) is what needs to be done.

There are WMDs...there are.  Yellow Cake Uranium is everywhere.  Remember this B.S. that Bush spewed, lied to all of us, and invaded a country while Saudi Arabia (where Bin Laden was a citizen) walked.   And it walked because it has a lot of oil that our SUVs simply must have or...or...our profligate, hopeless lifestyle must have.

So we invaded a country that had absolutely nothing to do with terrorist, sparked a massive Islamic reaction, that specifically motivated the Paris terrorists.  

And, by over reacting terrorists are motivated to get massive and cheap publicity.  They kill a few (except in Africa), and the west reacts the same way every time...24/7 coverage...fear mongering...political posturing...and where is Africa anyway?

Nigeria is undergoing a massive human tragedy right now.  Islamic extremists are killing thousands and the west stands back, nothing is done.  Darfur has bled for a decade at least, nothing is done.

As long as Islamic terrorism kills black people, and in country's that don't sit on an ocean of oil, conservatives don't say a thing.

And, you postulate that torture is a good thing.   That the terrorists will motivated by fear of their comrades being tortured, that they are discouraged by "enhanced techniques".

Have you seen "Unbroken" for example.  Or have you ever watched "The Great Escape".  It is American folklore that Japan and Germany tortured and killed captives and millions of others, and the great savior, the United States, came in with its righteous wrath and saved the MOTIVATED THAT TORTURE AND CRUELTY IS WRONG AND MUST BE STOPPED.

Why do conservatives not get this?  Torture and persecution only serve to motivate resistance.  When Bush LIED to get us into Iraq, he unleashed a wave of terrorism that continues still.

"American Sniper" is in theaters now.  There is controversy that it glorifies murder.  It does show, in graphic detail, the horrendous destruction to civilians in Iraq that the Bush adventure caused.  It shows children shot by snipers, blown up by grenades, and sectarian violence that was directly caused by the United States.

I for one felt the film handled the dilemmas service men and women faced in Iraq very well.  Often in the fog of war, innocents get killed.  But did any of you consider that some of those fighters, who got the best of our forces sometimes, were fighting because WE INVADED THEIR COUNTRY.  And as it turned out, with no good reason.

Terrorism is a complex thing...you know complex.  Simple conservative answers don't work.  The more you repress the more it grows.

Let's deal with the causes.  For example:  1.  The oil cartels that keep us all prisoners to automobiles.  2.  Racism that turns a blind eye to the largest continent on earth south of Iraq.  3.  Religious zealotry that wants another Crusade.  4.  Militarism that dictates all international problems can be solved by massive force.

If we continue on this path, ultimately the atomic solution will be used, and the game will be over.  But by GAWD we showed them..we were tough.  

MLK, on the second try to cross the Selma Bridge, hesitated and turned around.  He turned around!  His followers were baffled.  The Selma police had stood aside.  But MLK hesitated.   He was weak, right.  NO, he didn't yet have a federal judge's decision that legitimized the protest and the protection it would bring from the federal government.  So, he took the peaceful way.  And it worked, and he won.....

Do you remember!????

The New Year and a Gun

I really wasn't looking for an argument.  It is a new year after all, and chilling out on the the first day is an ideal.

But the news from a Idaho is too much.  It appears that a toddler shot his mother to death in a Wal-Mart.  The mother, evidently an avid gun toting mother, decided to take her gun into the store in a special purse that had a gun compartment.  The gun was loaded.

The baby was left unattended for a minute in the shopping basket,  unzipped the purse and accidently shot  his mother in the head.  The baby is two years old!

The article quoted a friend who evidently was very upset that "anti-gun" types were "using" the incident to argue against gun violence.

Really, how crass of them.

Really, a two year old shoots his mother with a loaded gun in a Wal-Mart and it is wrong to use that in an argument against the insanity that is America's approach to deadly gun violence.  

Really?  

Kind of reminds you of the African American youth who was fooling around with a toy gun in a Wal-Mart and was shot by police.  Or the Redding Police Officer, who left his service revolver in a closet without the trigger lock on and his three year old crawled up a ladder and shot himself to death.

All terrible.  All accidents.  All proof positive that America's obsession with firearms is dangerous and tragic.  American shoot each other more than any other society on the planet.  Many of the shootings are accidents.  Statistics show that the person you are most likely to shoot if you own a gun is yourself or a family member.  

We also have the easiest access to firearms than anywhere else.  

Police shoot first and ask questions later because they have to assume that evey suspect is armed.  And, coupled with racial profiling this provides a deadly atmosphere of deadly force being used  with tragic results.  

I happen to not blame the police at all in this.  I know they are well trained.  I know they take their jobs very seriously.  And I know they have to protect themselves with deadly force because every suspect  they must assume is "packing".  And not just packing, but have no real idea how to handle and use a firearm, which is the most dangerous suspect.  

Idaho, in a usual over reaction of the right, has legislated that practically anyone can get a concealed weapons permit, that guns can be carried onto school campuses; etc.  They are making a statement that no damn federal government will tell them what to do, by GAWD!  

Madness, sheer madness!  

Look, guns are intended for one thing only, to kill things.  They are not made to wound.  Guns have no brains, no souls.  They are tools, often fatal, to , if you watch most video games, solve social and political problems.  They don't!

How on God's Green Earth, does a two year old shooting his mother solve ANYTHING?

Oh, I am sure I will get the crap that "we need our guns to defend our liberty".  This comes from a population without mandatory military training, no draft, and the average military trained citizen from draft days is over 60 years old!  

I served.  I also was trained in the use of deadly force.  I am over 60 years old, and I do not like guns.  I have a couple guns, a starter pistol and a relic that might work.  Both are locked up and not loaded.  Both are only handled by me.  And I am trained.  

That two year was not.  And the huge majority of gun owners today have NO military training at all.  They don't know what a gun can do to the human body...They are ignorant, sometimes drunk, and very dangerous!

 I don't care how many superficial trainings they take at the local gun range; like the instructor who was shot dead while trying to teach a frightened client to fire an assault rifle, that was on automatic and pivoted by force and blew him away.  

We trained for weeks in firearm use and safety...weeks.  We also were ordered to practice a certain amount every year to maintain our status; and I was a company clerk!  

That deep resevoir of trained handlers of firearms are gone.  We are left with a bunch of video gamers who thing bang, bang you're dead is fun.  And everyday they kill, they maim, thinking it's all a game.

Any combat vet knows that is bullshit.  Any trained soldier is told, even if they never see combat, what an M-16 can do.  We had this simple lesson.  A pumpkin was place 50 yards down range.   It was explained how the bullet from an M-16 acted when it hit the human head.  And then the instructor shot the pumpkin; and the entire back of it was vaporized!  

And then he told us, with pictures, what the human head looked like when it was hit; same as the pumpkin.  

I will never forget that lesson.  

Here's a news flash for you, a bunch of untrained civilians have no chance against a trained military or police force.  Americans, no matter how well armed, are not trained to fight the military.  A squad of Marines could destroy virtually any citizen armed group, unless they were in their sixities.  And most of us are in our late sixties!

In short, the argument that guns will preserve liberty in the face of a military force is  crap.  If we allow our government to get to that point we are doomed anyway.  If we are invaded, we are so fat and out of shape we won't have a chance; they will take our guns from us  and stick them where the sun don't shine so to speak!

What we really get are tragedies after tragedies.  We get two year olds shooting themselves.  We get kids killed in gang cross fires.  We get children shot for playing with a toy.   We get massacres.   We get chaos.

I am looking for an argument.  You bet I am.  I am sick of this.  I am sick of the whoop assed stupids ruling the argument.  And the NRA is whoop assed stupid.

I am tired of the NRA throwing its money around and stopping gun control.

I am tired of crying.  

Shooting of N.Y. Police is a Tragedy

The volleys of political attack are flying back and forth.  Protests against police shooting people in questionable circumstances versus the murder of police officers.  

My stepson works in Stockton.  He is a fireman and EMT.  He tells us about the climate down there, the mean streets.

He talks about the filfth, the depressing circumstances, the crime, the violence.

His  former girlfriend, also an EMT in Stockton, actually was part of a "game" that counted the murders and bet that Stockton would beat other cities for the most homicides.

Most of these homicides were by firearm.

So the African-Americans protest along with liberal whites about the alarming rate of police initiated shootings.  And Fox News rails about the shooting of the two New York policemen casting blame on the liberals for supporting the protests.  

And we all scream at each other, vying for political advantage with a general population that more and more doesn't give a damn.

That's right:  doesn't give a damn.  In the recent elections, people did not show up to vote.  The conservative base did show up some and the result is a more conservative representation than really exists in the country.

So we will be entertained by their high jinks for a couple years, alientating and intensifying the depression of the general population that things are so wrong nobody can do anything.

And what is wrong?  There are places in this country that no white person would go into.  There are places in this country that no person of color dare traverse.  The penalty for this is violence and possible death.

We all know this,  We also all know that there are millions of young people of color incarcerated for everything from shoplifting to getting high on marijuana (that is legal in several states) and have been recruited into street gangs who exist to kill and intimidate.  

In short the mean streets are getting meaner.  The homocide rate in Stockton will probably set another record in 2015.  

And it seems that nobody gives a damn.  

And this is by design.   Many conservatives are using the "there is no racism, its all fixed" and liberals who brag about the "growth of the African American Middle Class", have chosen to ignore the issue.

The issue that still plagues America is gun violence coupled with racism.   And, since it now is anchored by the incarceration epidemic that has seen the jailing and criminalization of millions of people, certain areas of the country are getting to be shooting galleries.

Police and Firemen have to patrol these mean streets.  These streets, of inner Stockton for example, none of us will go into.  But Police and Fire personnel do everyday.

And there is great danger.  And they sometimes shoot first and ask questions later.

And that is the point.   The issue is NOT that police are inhuman animals shooting children.  The issue is racism is still very much with us all; coupled with a gun culture that has everyone armed.

You reap what you sow according to the old saying.  Violence begets violence.  

Guns are easy to get.  Movies and video games glorify gun violence.  Children learn that problems can be solved with a gun.   And we jail people of color for practically spitting on the sidewalk, put them into jails where gangs rule; and then wonder when people are released that they are much "meaner" than when they went in.

We have all created this.  We perpetuate it when we turn on MSNBC or Fox and revel in the opinion that supports our personal stereotypes:  that cops are evil, or that black men are evil.

And the society spins further into the vortex of despair and violence.

Merry fricking Christmas.  

Does Anyone Think Anymore

Ok, let's postulate for a minute.  Let's assume that the ancient Supreme Court ruling that First Amendment Rights are conditioned by the "yelling fire in a crowded theater" analogy.

The point of the ruling is that free speech is not unconditional.  There are times when free speech must be compromised.  Common sense does count for something, even by mega-corporations like Sony who must have thought they were bullet proof from stupid!

We see that in legal cases all the times free speech is NOT unconditional.  Grand Juries cannot divulge their deliberations.  There are penalties if a juror breaks this demand of silence.

The mess over the immature and probably not funny "The Interview" is a good example of wrong First Amendment assumptions.

Sony, without any preparation for possible fall out, produced a film that postulated that a couple idiot media wonks  would be recruited by the CIA and attempt to assassinate the  North Korean Dictator.   This is the same dictator who has sponsored cyber attacks in the past on suspected opponents.  This is the same dictator who possesses nuclear weapons.

This comes on the heels  of the disclosure that the CIA tortured dozens of suspected terrorists.  Then, once the report came out, the CIA and conservative politicians went on a rant that the report was unfair; that torture was good in that it developed actionable intelligence.  And this mess had no effect on deranged Islamic extremists?  There is little doubt that the practice of torture helped the terrorist cause, in a real sense making martyrs of them!

So, the CIA that admitted widespread torture, that violated international law, is depicted by a comedy film trying to assassinate an North Korean dictator as a "good " and rational group?

Really????

And America, tone deaf to the maximum, is in an uproar that Sony's "free speech" has been abrogated.  Many are calling for action.  What, should we bomb them for being upset that a film proposed killing their leader?

Really?  How would we feel if North Korea made a film about killing our leader?

There is no free speech at risk here.  Sony intended to make money with a film that uses a spy agency training a couple idiots to kill the leader of another country.

And North Korea got mad.  And it appears they cyper -attacked Sony.  It appears they punished irresponsible free speech.

This attack by the way,  shows the ridiculouly low security American computer systems use.  It also shows that Sony had no plan B, and never considered any blow-back from a notorious unstable regime.

It also shows that Americans are an incredibly arrogant lot!

In a real sense Sony yelled fire in a crowded theater and got nailed for it.  And there is nothing anybody can really do about it.


Look, I rarely agree with the NRA, but they are right when they focus on violent movies and video games that encourage gun violence.   Video game violence has been proven to drive unstable individuals to violence yet media companies continue making them.  Movie violence sells in the American market, so the idea that a gun can solve problems by blowing the opponent away, is repeated incessantly.

So don't cry when some disturbed young person comes to school and shoots someone. Demand that gun violence be curbed by irresponsible media companies!

And, Sony making a film that makes fun of killing a leader that many disagree with is in the same vein.  It isn't funny to North Korea for sure to watch a plot to poison their leaders.  In a very real sense Sony screamed fire in a crowded theater.

Finally, why does the media react so massively when a terrorist, be he/she a deranged individual or an organized group, strikes?  During WWII there was an agreement to not show dead American soldiers for at least two years of the war.  This was done for morale and intelligence purposes (showing dead soldiers while America  was losing the war and divulging battlefield locations were agreed upon taboos).

Today, the "free world" is locked in a struggle with Islamic terrorists.  And, America's media companies show absolute no restraint in covering their insane acts of violence.

And there is no doubt that offering free publicity does NOT discourage acts of violence.  In fact,the  media everyday uses violence and sex to sell products with absolutely no regard for blowback.  Similarly, the idiotic handling of "The Interview" certainly did not discourage crazy acts from the North Korean regime.  In fact, it encourages them.

You yell "fire" in a crowded theater, you are irresponsible, then don't come crying to us if you pay for it.  And stop encouraging  terrorism.  Sony just lost millions because of media crying fire in a crowded theater.

Free speech is NOT unconditional.

The Tragedy of Ethnocentrism

Today I got an email from a friend who railed against multi-culturism.  It seems in Canada Moslems are complaining that required P.E. classes infringe on their religious right.  The article claimed that the "political correctness" of having empathy for that position and seeking to accomodate that must "finally" end.

I see this position all the time.  The railing at "political correctness" that sees cultural diversity as somehow un American, unpatriotic and "we are simply sick and tired of it" .  The article resorted to the cliche, "If they don't like Canada's Laws then let them leave".

Today, in the United States, we see an anti-immigration movement that attacks cultural differences, language differences, and brands many law abiding citizens or non-citizens as dangers or threats to "America".

So, I asked my friend what Canada and the United States had done to those cultures that were already here when Europeans and other "immigrants" came into conflict over land?  You know, that pesky genocide thing!

What happened?  You all KNOW what happened.  The "dominant" culture destroyed the other cultures in short order.  This was done through religious "order" through direct military action and genocide.

Today, we see the "Redskins" as the mascot of a NFL team in the United States' Capitol.

And if you say anything, you are attacked as being overly "politically correct".

I can and probably should list the literally thousands of etnocentric destruction of culture that western civilization has manifested on millions of people over the past five hundred years.  I could mention the World Wars, the genocide that western culture has perpetrated on the world.

But we still get the "wounded" statements that "political correctness" is "endangering" our way of life.

I have a news flash for you, at the present rate WE are endangering our way of life more every day than ANY immigrant or different cultural group.

Western Civilization as a culture is the dominant culture in the world.  China and India are trying full time to be more western.  And, they are fouling the environment, possess nuclear weapons, and spend more money on "defense" than on their chilrens' welfare.

The United States, the present leader of western civilization as a culture, poisons the air, burns fossil fuels as fast as we can, and spends more money on "defense" (war) than any other country on earth.

And if the day comes when the button is pushed, and the world is plunged into the dark ages of hell, what culture is supreme then?