Thoughts of a worried Christian

We have to work harder this year to keep Christmas in our hearts and spirits, with all the hate surrounding us, here at home and abroad. I am appalled at news clips and photos of a mob protesting in front of a mosque, a pig’s head thrown at a mosque, a Muslim shopkeeper beaten for his religion.

The love, care and concern being expressed apparently aren’t as good news copy—you don’t see much about the $100,000 raised by American Muslims for the San Bernadino victims and their families. Nor do you see the outreach to the Muslim community by most of the diverse groups that make up America—the Jewish community, Hispanic organizations, and some Christian groups. To our shame, many of those angrily protesting at the mosque probably call themselves Christian.

I have always been frightened by Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, but now I am truly terrified—how can so many Americans support Trump’s blatant racism, his echoes of Hitler, Senator Joe McCarthy, and George Wallace. And why does he himself not realize he’s playing into the hands of ISIS, creating the division by which they will conquer? Ted Cruz is not far behind him (except in the polls) with his calls for carpet bombing. Yes, let’s kill thousands more innocent people to wipe out the small number of radicals.

Really, which is more frightening—a radicalized Muslim or a radicalized Christian?

A friend wrote in a post today that he feels that our country is so fraught with tension that it’s about to explode—and he obliquely predicted that explosion would come as civil war. It seems a possibility to me, and I think we cannot set back and let things unfold. We have to be proactive.

Meantime, we wrap gifts (I made good progress today), plan for holiday parties, and go about our lives as if the world was as peaceful as it was during Jimmy Carter’s administration—the only president who has not presided over a war.

I think we have to do more. I read a post with the headline, “What to do if a Muslim moves into your neighborhood.” The advice? Take them food, clothes, personal items, blankets—all the things they will need. Reach out and welcome them into the community. Sure, we all have to be watchful for suspicious behavior and not just from brown-skinned people who dress differently from us but everyone. But if we let suspicion and fear replace love and joy, we have lost the battle. We have to keep Christmas in our hearts.

Blue Monday--or is it?

Mondays are often sort of dull days for me--I rarely have lunch or dinner plans, and if it weren't for Jacob and his homework, I could well go through the day without any human contact. But Jordan pops in when she drops Jacob off at school, and we have a short visit when she comes to pick him up. He has baseball practice on Mondays, so they never linger long and he and I move at a frantic pace to get homework done. Today we did a find-the-word puzzle with his spelling words--both of us stumped by "collision" and "sculpture." Jordan took one look and found them right away!
I do work on Mondays, which is good--today I finished a book and wrote a review, worked quite a bit on my next novel, did some marketing. And to my astonishment, got a letter asking for some quick material on the chili book I probably submitted three years ago to a university press. I thought their board was meeting this summer and, having heard nothing, dismissed the project once again. But it turns out their board meeting was postponed...and could I supply a CV, synopsis, and suggested 30 pages in the next two days. I haven't had a formal curriculum vitae or resume in years--wasn't looking for a job. I'm not sure I've even kept my list of publications up to date. But I wrote a biographical sketch, took a stab at a synopsis, and suggested the first 30 pages. Got it all off tonight.
I'd been wondering lately about all those young girls kidnapped in Nigeria, so I was interested and yet appalled to read that most of them are still missing. Some have escaped but relatively few, and Boko Haram has taken over other towns and taken smaller bunches of captives. Yet it has faded from the headlines. The international forces that were looking for them, including American, have about given up, and there are hints that corruption and bribery are involved. Meanwhile think of those poor girls and their families. Their story has been replaced by the horror of ISIS,
We live in a global world. Isolationism is not possible as it was in 1900. Technology has changed all that, and yet how do we decide what bad guys we're going after, which ones we're going to throw up our hands about and give up. I'm glad I'm not commander in chief, and I support President Obama who deals with these difficult decisions every day.
Lord, let their be peace--seems a bit of a futile prayer, doesn't it?

Starting the day with the newspaper

I was both amused and alarmed when I read the paper this morning. Straight out laughter came from an article on the criticism of President Obama's tan suit. God in Heaven Above, have we no more serious matters to report on? It's not Labor Day yet, so as far as I know tan is perfectly acceptable for a man. And, in addition to his other responsibilities, he's supposed to be a fashionista? Maybe Michelle didn't dress him that morning. Who knows? It's just one more manifestation of whatever he does, let's criticize him for it--but this is getting pretty petty.
I admit to a faint but triumphant smile when I read that a Federal judge had declared Texas HB2 (the famed anti-abortion clinic) bill unconstitutional because it robbed many Texas women of health care. Yes! Isn't that what Wendy said in her filibuster and got run over at the last minute. It's a triumph for her and for we women of Texas. Of course there will be appeals, but the precedent is set...and I hope women in our state pay attention.
Then there's Gov. Perry who has charged us the taxpayers something like $133,000 for his defense. I'm sure that's just a drop in the bucket compared to what's to come. But it seems to me if he's defending himself against felony charges, we the taxpayers should be supporting the prosecution (well, we are with our tax dollars but I'd even chip in a bit more.) It shows a whole lot about the man's integrity or lack thereof, and I hope another Federal judge--or state--comes down on him for it.
More alarming was that Britain heightened its security alert. Do they know something we don't? Are they concerned about Isis--because I am. Is increased security on the way in this country? We live in a world of such uncertainty, such fear. I hate to pass it on to our children but I'm afraid that's just what we'll do.
We also live from crisis to crisis. Remember all of what? four weeks ago when illegal children crossing the Mexican border were the focus of every news broadcast and newspaper? Ever hear anything about that now? (a friend in the Border Patrol assured me it was a legitimate crisis and in his 17 years with the Patrol, he's never seen anything like it--but he also assured me they treated every child with kindness and concern and saw that they were in a safe facility--none were, as rumor had it, dumped back in Mexico.) But we moved on to the domestic crisis of Ferguson, Missouri and the death of Michael Brown--now sliding out of the headlines. During the Iraq War, it was Al Queda but we hear little about them today. Isis, which seems worse and very scary, has taken over the headlines.
We live from crisis to crisis. I have enough respect for some of the journalists I know not to blame all this alarm on the media...and yet I wonder if things like this went on when I was a kid and we didn't have all this information.
Wouldn't it be nice to wake up to a happy headline?
Ended the day with a wonderful dinner with neighbors that took my mind off headlines--a smoked trout appetizer, scallops in a butter/thyme/parsley sauce, and a salad of green beans, cherry tomatoes, leeks and a buttermilk dressing. Eating high on the hog in good company.