Things are out of whack

There are no words. The world seems to be collapsing around us. Thursday we awoke to one of the most terrifying hail storms I’ve experienced in 50 years in Texas. Today we woke to the news of the attacks in Brussels, a lovely city in a peaceful country. For those of us in North Texas, the news got even worse: the wife of the Van Cliburn-winning pianist probably suffocated her daughters and stabbed herself; a man went into a WalMart in East Texas, shot another man and then shot himself. When does the violence end? How do we cope with it?

Brussels is rightfully the tragedy most on our minds. Can you imagine sending someone you love off to work—or travel—only to learn that they’ve been killed in a suicide bomb explosion? On an ordinary day when you expected the world to go on as it always has? The mind boggles. On 9-11, Belgians held hands in support of America; today we pray in support of them. I am proud of America’s reaction but scared by the response of the two leading Republican candidates. Neither learned from the Bush’s trumped up (no, not a pun) war in Iraq. They would willingly lead us into such another futile war, sacrificing thousands of people in Middle Eastern countries as well as our own troops. It didn’t work before, and it won’t work again. I am afraid of the war-mongering mentality more than I am afraid of ISIS..

For Christians, this is Holy Week, the most sacred time of the year. I write as a Christian who feels this holy time has been defiled. But I am also convinced that we must keep the faith and believe. No, it won’t bring back the people who died today, nor will it heal the injured. But faith—whatever your chosen religion—seems to me the answer. I pray for the Muslims in this country who now live in fear. If my understanding is correct, the Muslim faith calls for peace, not violence It doesn’t sanction beheading stoning, etc. Yet people preying on the fear of Americans have made terrorists of all Muslims in this country. Do you know how many there are? Fifty thousand in Houston alone; an astounding number in the entire world. As one Facebook post said tonight, if they were all terrorists, we’d all be dead. We must stand by our Muslim neighbors and friends and also our friends of color who are under attack if not suspicion now.

Pray for our friends and neighbors, pray for the world, pray for this country. Things are really out of whack right now. And I for one am grieving.

The media is electing our next president

 I saw on Facebook that Bernie Sanders said in a speech that ISIS is a serious threat but it’s not the only problem the U.S. faces and, in effect, it’s getting too much media attention. What’s significant to me is that I saw nothing about that speech on national TV or print media. It seems that the major networks have declined to cover Sanders’ campaign—as my son-in-law asked, isn’t that illegal? Aren’t they required to give equal time? But have you seen Sanders on Meet the Press? Face the Nation? Even the PBS News Hour—I admit I don’t watch that all the time so I may have missed it, but his face, his speeches, and his following have been noticeably absent from the public eye. Even Hillary Clinton is much less in the news lately, though perhaps she’s waiting for Trump and Cruz to deflate each other.

Meanwhile there isn’t a news show that goes by without mention of Donald Trump and his obsession with keeping Muslims out of the country. Trump’s distorted, angry face makes great news; Sanders, not a striking figure, doesn’t. This morning the news is all about Trump cancelling his truce with Ted Cruz. Now that’s an interesting case—my understanding is that the president must have been born on U.S. soil. Look at all the fuss birthers raised, claiming Obama was born in Kenya when, in fact, he was born in Hawaii, then a territory, now a state. Cruz on the other hand, if I have the facts straight, was born in Canada, and though he may claim dual citizenship now, the fact remains that he was not born I this country. Yet the media also considers Cruz good copy—whereas most Republicans and others who know him declare him a conniving sleaze ball. But if he’s Canadian, why are we even worrying about him?

Tom Brokaw is that last journalist I can think of that I counted on for honest, fair coverage of the news, including the political scene. Since them journalism has gone downhill. In featuring Trump and Cruz (who apparently has appallingly inhumane plans for ISIS), the news feeds the fears of some Americans and plays into the hands of ISIS. Did anybody hear President Obama this morning outlining the gains that have been made against ISIS. Does anyone recognize—or see on the news—that most mass shootings in this country have been carried out by mentally ill U.S. citizens who are not Muslim?

Listen to Bernie Sanders, folks. He may not be the next president or even the best candidate, but a whole lot of what he says makes sense—if we can afford to send men and women to war, we can afford to take care of them when they come home; the minimum wage is years outdated and expecting people to buck up and live on that meagre amount is ridiculous. And so on. Or listen to Hillary for the continuing need to work on women’s rights in this country, let alone abroad (yeah, Saudi Arabia for electing women!). On the Republican side, listen to Kasich, who has an unfortunately low profile but a strong background in government and, apparently, a good head on his shoulders (quick! Kick him off the clown car!).

I am seriously concerned that the media-fueled campaigns of Trump and Cruz are leading too many citizens astray. I can’t understand why the comparisons of Trump and Hitler don’t strike terror into every heart. But I read of a teacher who decided to show his class how easy it was for Hitler to brainwash Germans—using similar techniques, he turned the class into a group of followers with a few leaders. And then told them at the end what he’d done. It could happen here.

Remember Nazism, or Jim Jones and the Kool-Aid, or Mussolini or many other examples from history. Watch the news with a large grain of salt and seek out reliable news sources. I wish I knew what to recommend.

Where is America going?

Today a local high school was on lockdown because a student fired a gun at a fight at an adjacent McDonald’s—apparently he fired in the air and no one was hurt. But two high school students are jailed tonight—the second for bringing an air gun on campus. This is the school my niece and nephew attended, across the street from Central Market, a store I frequent. And today in a blog a former minister of my church recalled the night we were all at a board meeting and heard continuing sirens—someone had killed several people at a local church. It doesn’t just happen in San Bernadino folks, it happens all around us.

I have thought from time to time that America is ripe for revolution. I don’t know what form it would take, and I didn’t want to dwell on it but I guess I always thought it would be the poor rising against the terribly unequal distribution of wealth in this country, probably with racial overtones since the poor tend to be minorities—or what is rapidly becoming the majority. Rich old white men are going to lose their grasp.

But now I think revolution is upon us. It doesn’t just come from Muslims—I’ve heard conflicting reports about whether the San Bernadino shooter was American-born or here on a visa. But it comes from our neighbors, from the angry high school student, from the alienated man who shot up a church in Fort Worth, from the disturbed (putting it mildly) young man who shot all those children at Sandy Hook. Violence is all around us, and I wonder how as a society we got to this point.

I think I go back to the inequity of life in this country. Yes, we alienated a lot of Middle Easterners with our senseless invasion of Iraq (I hope you all saw that Dick Cheney was honored today with a statue commemorating his bring an end to terrorism—irony reigns supreme!). And yes, we had no after-conquest plan for helping the people of Iraq, which allowed ISIS to flourish. But the shooters in this country are mostly native-born and Anglo. We can’t keep on blaming Muslims.

We can blame Congress for blocking the President’s efforts at gun control. And we can blame the NRA for the senseless argument that we’d be safer if more people had guns. Tell me, truly, if you had been in that center in California with a gun, how successful would you have been against two crazed people with automatic assault guns? In Texas, we can blame a legislature that approved open-carry, even on campuses. If high school students bring out guns for an off-grounds fight, what do you think will happen at a drunken college frat party? We have let guns become way too much a part of our culture.

So, really, those are my two thoughts—we have disenfranchised so many citizens, and we have let guns become commonplace. Don’t talk to me about the Second Amendment—it was written in far different times and calls for a well-regulated militia.

Yes, I’m afraid. Afraid for my children and grandchildren, friends and neighbors. I see my local grandson off to school every morning with a catch in my throat. And yes, I’m angry. In this season where peace and love should prevail, I fear they are not enough. What can we as a society do about it? I don’t know, but I haven’t heard much come out of Washington that makes sense. Paul Ryan says we can’t stop people on the no-fly list from owning guns because it would violate their civil rights. President Obama, in the face of his many off-the-wall critics, makes the most sense but he’s fighting a corrupt legislature.

God help us all!