Tête-à-Tête-Tête

Welcome my son, welcome to the machine

At 8:20 last night I officially became a Grandpa.

Once again I was overwhelmed by the strength of a woman and this time it was my own daughter. I was so proud of her.

They did good!

Quote of the Day

For good clean fun at home, every time you see someone on tv screaming about the community center calling it a “SUPER TERROR MOSQUE,” mentally exchange the word “mosque” with the word “synagogue” to recognize just how differently this debate would be were we not in the grips of demonizing Islam. The only way to get offended by the community center is to fully buy into the clash of civilizations rhetoric and believe that terrorists didn’t attack us on 9/11, but Islam did.

-The concluding paragraph from a link that is worth reading.

Virtues of Extremism

How did I get to be a grandpa without ever seeing this???

My letter to the Anti-Defamation League

As sent on the contact form on their website:

I write in hopes that the ADL will re-think its position on the Park51 project in Manhattan. It troubles and saddens me to think that the ADL, which I have long held in the highest esteem, refuses to take an unequivocal position against the anti-Islamic bigotry surrounding this issue.

I fully understand that the construction of an Islamic community center near the site of the 9-11 terrorist attacks may be an unwelcome reminder of that event for some people who were affected by it. And, I understand that it is sensitivity to that position that motivated the ADL to suggest an alternate site.

However, the fact is that the largest part of the negativity toward the project represents problem of bigotry and ignorance that the ADL should stand against. A smaller part is fueled by simple and forgivable conflation of Islam with its extremist wings – an unfortunate conflation that this project will help to correct.

I urge Abraham Foxman and the ADL to reconsider their position on this project and to maintain the place they have historically earned as defenders of freedom, caretakers of the United States Constitution, and opponents of bigotry.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a decent human being

…
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/08/03/mayor_bloomberg_on_mosque/index.html

“On Sept. 11, 2001, thousands of first responders heroically rushed to the scene and saved tens of thousands of lives. More than 400 of those first responders did not make it out alive. In rushing into those burning buildings, not one of them asked, ‘What God do you pray to?’ (Bloomberg’s voice cracks here a little as he gets choked up.) ‘What beliefs do you hold?’

“The attack was an act of war, and our first responders defended not only our city, but our country and our constitution. We do not honor their lives by denying the very constitutional rights they died protecting. We honor their lives by defending those rights and the freedoms that the terrorists attacked.

“Of course, it is fair to ask the organizers of the mosque to show some special sensitivity to the situation, and in fact their plan envisions reaching beyond their walls and building an interfaith community. But doing so, it is my hope that the mosque will help to bring our city even closer together, and help repudiate the false and repugnant idea that the attacks of 9/11 were in any ways consistent with Islam.

“Muslims are as much a part of our city and our country as the people of any faith. And they are as welcome to worship in lower Manhattan as any other group. In fact, they have been worshipping at the site for better, the better part of a year, as is their right. The local community board in lower Manhattan voted overwhelmingly to support the proposal. And if it moves forward, I expect the community center and mosque will add to the life and vitality of the neighborhood and the entire city.

“Political controversies come and go, but our values and our traditions endure, and there is no neighborhood in this city that is off-limits to God’s love and mercy, as the religious leaders here with us can attest.”

Of Railroading

Worth more than an eye-booger… an upcoming wrongful execution (that’s assuming for the sake of argument that not all executions are wrongful). It isn’t too late yet.

Thirteen years after he was convicted, Keith’s lawyers discovered that one of the state’s “witnesses” never actually existed, and that police at his trial testified about a fictitious person and attributed a statement to her.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Yet Kevin Keith is still on death row.

ACORN’d

When I saw this, and found out that it was a Breitbart vid, I knew that it wouldn’t be long before the rest of the story came out. And it has… And Ace doesn’t miss a beat before missing the point.

I don’t guess I knew this, but politics makes you cynical, besides just dumb… so I suspected that there was a lot more to the story than the video clip suggested whether or not the rest came out.

Here was my logic: the NAACP is a high profile organization. The comments came at a function with an audience. Even if everybody at the NAACP was the devil that white southerners seem to hope they are, they wouldn’t accept someone undermining their credibility this way. More generally, someone like Shirley Sherrod was during the time she described in her comments wouldn’t get on stage to brag about it, even if she thought the audience was more or less friendly. Comments like that, apart from the context that were the basis for her re-telling the story – simply have no public value. So, it was very unlikely that S.S. would be sharing them in front of the NAACP and in public, just to brag about getting back at the condescending white dude.

Of course, Andrew Breitbart knew this. But in his mind the NAACP are demons, so it doesn’t matter if the story gets told straight, since he was using it to communicate a larger “truth” that exists primarily in his own mind. This is an example of how politics makes you stupid.

Which thinketh thou was neighbor unto him who fell among thieves…?

Coincidentally, after posting yesterday about an opportunity for religious leaders to do some good vis-a-vis the building of mosques in their communities, I heard this interview on the way home. It’s interesting all the way around. The interview is with the author of Journey into America, and cit was focused specifically on troubles Muslims have in communities other than NYC and Brentwood, TN. But, what caught my ear was a side note from the author about an incident that is detailed in this post on the book’s blog.

On February 9, at 5:00 a.m., Daoud was awakened by the fire department. His Mosque and the home of the Muslim community was ablaze.

The community of 55 people at the maximum had purchased the building paid it off and was extremely proud that they had a home in the idyllic small town of Columbia in south Tennessee. The mosque was the only one within a wide radius and people from many small towns in the area came to worship there.

Three individuals had broken in, trashed the inside and tossed Molotov cocktails into the Mosque.

[...]

In the 7 years following 9/11, many have faulted the Muslim community for not speaking up enough. “Where are the moderates?”, people ask time and time again. But, many did speak up, others just didn’t know what to say. And when the Islamic Center was burned down by one of their own, the Christian community felt the same way. Many didn’t speak up. Not because they condoned the actions, but because they didn’t know what to say. Others said that the attackers were non-Christians or misguided so there is no reason for them to apologize or speak out against it.
Within a week, neighboring Muslim communities rallied and held a vigil at the sight. It was advertised an open to all. People from all faiths came and one of those was Reverend Bill Williamson from First Presbyterian Church. He had immediately sprung into action, collecting money during a service at the church and attending to present the money and take it one step further–offering a set of keys.

Reverend Williamson welcomed the displaced worshipers to visit the church. He brought Daoud and others to the Church and showed them to a room that he had set aside for them to use for meeting and prayers.

This dude was way, way, ahead of me.

If I was a Murfreesboro Minister

Or NYC area, doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter much what denomination… or even if I was the chairman of programs at the local humanist group.

This is what I’d do. I’d have a big chicken dinner on a Sunday after church. I’d encourage my congregation to attend, and invite the members of the new Mosque or Community center to join us. Discussion of religion and politics would be discouraged. Discussion about children and grandchildren and good music would be encouraged. Desert would include ice cream. Reciprocal invitations, should they come, I would accept, and encourage my congregation to accept.

Theological differences would not be allowed to be a barrier to friendship. For those who have a gospel to spread, the suggested manner of spreading it would be through a life well lived and open arms to embrace neighbors without precondition. Might this lead to a sympathetic interchange of theological views? Of course it might. In fact, it might work for spreading a gospel better than Chick Tracts, bullhorns, and nervous interviews to ask if the neighbor is certain that if they died today they would go to heaven, and did they know… ?

I would probably try to organize similar functions with other churches, from other denominations, and with local synagogues.

An afterthought to this post. .. If I was who I am, I might e-mail a suggestion of this type to some ministers in the Murfreesboro area, after I thought about it some more. I don’t know how many would be open to such a project, but I’d be willing to bet that the UU fellowship of Murfreesboro would be – even if they don’t have the facilities to make it work… or maybe one of the Nashville congregations. And I’d bet there are United Methodists who might even be willing to extend themselves this way, too. “…But Love and I had the wit to win… we drew a circle and drew him in.”

…

P.S. …not like this.

Moving The Nihilism Gauge

Spotted linked numerous times around the interwebs in the last 24 hours: How Facts Backfire. Not news to me. Moves the needle on my old nihilism gauge, though. I increasingly find myself wondering how is the proper way to live in a world where knowledge is strongly devalued. I’d be inclined to grow a beard and become a poet, but I’m not good at poetry.

Seriously, I don’t know which are the symptoms and which are the causes of depression – but I’m feeling down about it all. Maybe it’s time to stop thinking for a while.