I Picked a Bad Night to Watch the News

I never watch the news. I sometimes read about it. There’s just too much to keep up with.

This past Friday I spent the night with my parents after my dad had a stint in the hospital. My brother used to live in Memphis, we have friends there, and the city is on the verge of something big as police body cam footage is about to be released. My mind has been filled with frustrating, sad, angry, and confusing thoughts.

It’s Holocaust Memorial Day, and the only positive news story I see is of a successful play about Holocaust survivors. But even that is only good news about bad news that must be remembered.

But there’s a tiredness to everything. What lessons have we learned? That same night, news of a shooting at a synagogue, that was a response to a shooting of Palestinians.

The home attack of the spouse of a House Speaker.

School shootings in schools where nothing was done.

And the killing of a man by five police officers in Memphis.

I picked the worst night to watch the news.

Nothing feels safe. Nothing feels stable. Nothing feels right.

It all keeps swirling around as the same experience in my head tonight as I sit with my parents, befuddled.

Why does this keep happening? Why did this happen this time? Who is responsible? What will be done to them? How do we keep it from happening again?

And these questions as being asked of everything. All the pain. All the violence. All the history repeating itself.

I’m tired of hearing over and over again of a few bad apples. What are we putting in the basket?

Where was the good news tonight?

Lord come quickly.

What Clint Smith and Frederick Douglass Taught Me About Critical Race Theory

“Oppression doesn’t disappear just because you decided not to teach us that chapter.”

I decided to write this post reflecting on the first July 4th celebration since the government officially recognized Juneteenth.

I’ve been following Clint Smith for some time now, after his Crash Course video series popped up on my YouTube feed at the same time that I read an article about him in Poets & Writers.

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The Circles Around Us by Brad and Kristi Montague vs Circles by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Recently I read Brad and Kristi Montague’s new book Circles.

Then I went and read Ralph Waldo Emerson’s old essay, also called “Circles.”

I decided to review them both by making a compare/contrast chart. I couldn’t figure out how to make it a circle, so it’s going to be a rectangle, okay?

                             

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5 Reasons To Say Bye to Lee’s Statue

“I think it wiser not to keep open the sores of war but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, to commit to oblivion the feelings engendered.”

Virginia put up a statue of a Confederate commander in 1890, just after the Civil War and preluding years of Jim Crow and Civil Rights opposition. After many recent protests, the Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond is removed. I’m happy to hear this. Here are 5 reasons why: Continue reading

Scrooge Would Have Loved This

Ebenezer Scrooge hated Christmas.

“Every idiot who goes about with a ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.”

But that was back in the Victorian era, when Christmas was a small holiday that involved cheer, giving, and caroling. Not like today. Continue reading

Today’s Featured Series: A Faith Not Worth Fighting For

Well readers, we’re nearing the end of summer. Recently my blog (and my marriage) celebrated an anniversary.

So in honor of that, this week I will repost one of my blog series every day.

Today’s series is my chapter-by-chapter review of A Faith Not Worth Fighting For by Tripp York and Justin Bronson Barringer.

faith fighting

Ch1: Aren’t Pacifists Passive?
Ch2: Can We Let Neighbors Die?
Ch3 What if Someone Were Attacking a Loved One?
Ch4 What About Hitler?
Ch5 What About Calling the Police?
Ch6 What About Killing Freedom?
Ch7 Should a Nation Turn the Other Cheek?
Ch8 What About War and Violence in the Old Testament?
Ch9 Let Every Soul Be Subject?
Ch10 Did Jesus Bring Peace, or a Sword?
Ch11 What About the Centurion?
Ch12 Didn’t Jesus use a Whip?
Ch 13 What About the Warrior Jesus?
Review End: A Closure of Thoughts