Keeping Christ in Christmas

On Saturday December 12, I walked ten miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem (Pennsylvania) with about 135 other people in the 56^th Annual Christmas Peace Pilgrimage. I’m not certain when I started participating in this yearly walk, but I’ve been doing it at least since 2002 (I remember hearing the speaker listed for that year on their website). I have only missed a couple of the walks since that time.  We walk on the shoulder of Route 191 most of the way. Some drivers beep to show their support; others call out positive comments. This year, just before our first rest stop, one driver called out “I hope you’re keeping Christ in Christmas.” I guess, for some people, if they see a large group of people with signs that read “Peace”, they assume those folks must be liberals, radicals, or socialists and most likely atheists. If there had been time, we could have told him that the walk is sponsored by a lot of Christian churches and religious groups; that we stop at three churches along the way to rest and enjoy some refreshments; that we end the walk at the Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem, where we sing a couple Christmas carols. Here’s a picture of the group getting ready to move on from the second rest stop at First Baptist Church, which provided us with hot chocolate.

Every year when I get to the end of the walk my feet, legs and hips are hurting quite a bit and I wonder whether I should do the walk the next year. And as the date approaches for the next walk (2^nd Saturday in December), I wonder if I really want to put my body through that again. But, I always push those thoughts aside and head out for the walk. I do it for 3 reasons. First, more than 100 people walking down Route 191 just before Christmas carrying signs that read “Peace” is a good witness to the Christmas message of “Peace on earth, good will to men [and women]”. It was especially relevant this year with all the political talk about bombing ISIS and refusing entrance to refugees and all the fear being spread by some politicians. Second, as I walk, it is an opportunity to think about the importance of peace in our world and to consider ways that I can help foster that peace. Third, it is an opportunity to get together with others for whom bringing about peace is important. I always see people whom I recognize from previous walks. But there are also people participating for whom this is their first time doing the walk. During this year’s walk, I spoke with people I know and people I had just met. Here’s a link to the Christmas Peace Pilgrimage website. You can see pictures from this year’s walk by clicking on the Gallery link.

On Sunday, my wife Pat and I spent much of the day at the Christmas Market at Assumption Church in Morristown, NJ. This was another good Christmas season event. Pat had been asked by our friends, Sergio and Johanna Burani, to come to sell some of the books she has written. The catch? Vendors were asked to donate 50% of their profits to Africa Surgery. Sergio and Johanna are regular fundraisers for Africa Surgery and all the profits from Photos bySergio go to support Africa Surgery. Pat and I had read information about this charity on its website, so we knew that the organization helps coordinate surgery for children and adults living in Sierra Leone. On the website, we watched the video “The White Man on the Bicycle” about Tom Johnson, the founder. And at the end of the Christmas Market, we had the opportunity to talk with Tom about his organization. Tom had spent time in Sierra Leone as a Peace Corps volunteer. We usually think of Peace Corps volunteers as being right out of college. However, Tom told us he was 38 years old when he joined the Peace Corps. After leaving the Peace Corps, he returned to Sierra Leone a number of years later and at the end of his trip, he left some money to help a couple people obtain surgeries they needed. That was the beginning of a mission that has helped hundreds of people there. Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in the world and has been devastated by years of war. Tom showed us pictures of a child with a severe curvature of the spine related to tuberculosis. Untreated, this condition could result in paralysis. But, with the help of Africa Surgery, this young man will be able to lead a pretty normal life. Tom spends most of his year in Morristown, raising money and obtaining supplies for Africa Surgery. But he told us he spends 4 to 5 months a year in Sierra Leone, coordinating resources to provide the needed medical services. In fact, he told us he was leaving within the week to go there. Africa Surgery provides essential services to some very needy individuals. I like the idea of donating to a charity that I have a direct or indirect connection to. At the Christmas Market, Pat donated all of her profits to Africa Surgery. Although the Christmas Market is a relatively small operation, it raised $8000 for Africa Surgery. I encourage you to take a look at Africa Surgery’s website.

It’s now less than a week until Christmas day. We’ve done most of our shopping. Practically all the credit for that goes to Pat, who has spent a lot of time on-line ordering gifts, shopping in stores and wrapping gifts. While giving gifts to our loved ones is an important part of the season, I’m happy to have had the opportunity to spend some time thinking about the more spiritual aspects of Christmas and to be reminded that we are all God’s children and that Jesus came to show God’s love to all of us. Merry Christmas to all.

Chris Christie for President?

Get ready, America. Here comes Chris Christie.

I started writing this blog back in November after Christie was re-elected Governor. It was delayed because the hard-drive on my laptop had to be replaced and that took a few weeks to get accomplished. Then, information about an issue involving the George Washington Bridge and one of Christie’s political allies hit the local papers. I included that and was ready to publish the blog just before Christmas, but it didn’t seem to be an appropriate holiday subject. So I delayed it again. Now, information has surfaced linking Christie’s office to the scandal involving the bridge; so I’ve added a little more. To keep things clear, I’m breaking it down into 3 parts.

Part 1: Chris Christie, Governor

On November 5, Christie won re-election as Governor of New Jersey by a wide margin (61% - 38%). The popular wisdom seems to be that this puts him in a great position to run for President in 2016. The high percentage of votes that he received, his high profile around the country and his claim that he has worked across the aisle with Democrats in NJ paints a rosy picture of his chances of winning at least the Republican nomination, if not the Presidency itself.

I don’t get it. If you look at the details behind the headlines, you get a different picture. Look at the endorsement he received from the Star Ledger Editorial Board (the largest New Jersey newspaper). Although the Board endorsed Christie, the endorsement pointed out many problems it saw with his performance as Governor. These included: continued growth of property taxes, his hostility to low-income families, the downgrading of the State’s credit rating, his removing two Supreme Court justices with no good cause. It also stated that he has been “a catastrophe on the environment”, draining money from the clean energy fund and moving away from efforts to address climate change. One of the things that helped his approval rating among New Jerseyans is his handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. But the Star Ledger Editorial Board stated that he has a mixed record in that area. In the endorsement, the Board says that he is “better at politics than he is at governing” and “Our view is that Christie is overrated.”

So, why endorse him? Basically, the Board determined that he was a better choice than his Democratic opponent, Barbara Buono.  She is a State senator and was the only Democrat willing to take a chance running against Christie. Even though the Board agreed with her on a number of issues, it felt that she was too supportive of unions and would stand in the way of some reforms that have been put in place during Christie’s first term. One of the big problems that Buono faced was lack of any significant support from the State Democratic party. In fact, 50 elected officials who are Democrats endorsed Christie. From what I can gather, Buono has for a while been out of favor with the majority of Democrats in the NJ legislature. In her campaign, she emphasized that her priorities were to govern in a way that would benefit the working people of New Jersey.

In addition to the items listed above, I would point out that Christie: vetoed a minimum wage hike, cut funding for women’s health services and opposed the extension of a tax on millionaires. Also, fearing that Democrats might turn out in large numbers to vote for Democrat Cory Booker in a special election to fill Frank Lautenberg’s seat, Christie ordered the special election not be held on the regular Election Day in November, when NJ voters were voting for Governor. Instead, it was held in October and on a Wednesday. Holding this special election cost the taxpayers at least $12 million dollars (Christie’s estimate), and maybe up to $24 million dollars (estimates from other sources). This ploy most likely helped increase Christie’s margin of victory in the November election. In evaluating the strength of his victory in that election, we should note that the election set a record for the lowest turnout of NJ voters in a general election (only 38% of registered voters turned out).

Finally, Christie touts himself as a straight-talker. But some would call him a bully. This article by Richard Eskow on Huffington Post, provides a number of examples about his bullying behavior. The incident that I recall most vividly is one where Christie responds to a question from a reporter about his confrontational tone. Here's a YouTube video of the incident. The thing that strikes me most about the video is the reaction of the young man standing behind Christie to his right. I assume he is a Christie aide. He snickers and laughs at Christie’s response to the reporter. I found his reaction very disrespectful and demeaning to the reporter, who was asking a legitimate question. I think that’s the thing that bothers me the most about Christie – his lack of respect for people who have opinions differing from his.

Part 2: The Bridge Scandal

That was going to be the end of my comments. But, a situation involving the entrance to the George Washington Bridge from Fort Lee, NJ, broke into the news. Apparently, a high school buddy of Christie’s, whom he appointed to the NY/NJ Port Authority, ordered the entrance to the bridge from Fort Lee cut from 3 lanes to 1 in early September. The result was a massive traffic jam in Fort Lee. The lane shutdown went on for 4 days. Allegedly, this was done for a traffic study, but later disclosures showed that explanation to be questionable. Christie’s pal resigned from the Port Authority and later his boss also resigned. One alleged cause for the shutdown of the 2 lanes is that the Democratic Mayor of Fort Lee was asked to endorse Christie for the November election and declined to do so. Two weeks later, the lane shutdown occurred. (The story has been reported in the Wall Street Journal and Rachel Maddow has done a number of segments about this situation on her show on MSNBC.) I’m not suggesting that Christie had anything directly to do with this situation. But, I think that indirectly his bullying behavior may influence those who work with him and support him. This column by Tom Moran in the Star Ledger includes some related comments about the two officials who resigned.

Part 3: Link to the Governor’s Office

At this point, the story has gone national. Over the last week, emails have indicated that Bridget Anne Kelly, Deputy Chief of Staff to the Governor, was involved in orchestrating the closure of the 2 lanes on the bridge. According to a Star Ledger article, an email from her to David Wildstein, who ordered the closures, states: “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.” Wildstein replies: “Got it.” Chris Christie has apologized to the citizens of NJ and Fort Lee, asserting that he was not aware of any of these activities of his staff. He has fired Kelly, the Deputy Chief of Staff. David Wildstein has pleaded the Fifth Amendment in his testimony before a NJ Senate committee investigating the situation. Loretta Weinberg, the Democratic leader in the State Senate, said on the Rachel Maddow Show on Jan. 9 that it seems that Christie “has created a culture that somehow made many of the people who work for him think this kind of behavior is appropriate.” (This relates to my comments at the end of the last paragraph in Part 2 above.) Here’s a recent story in the Star Ledger about this culture and actions Christie has taken in the past in retaliation against others.

Final Thoughts:

At this point the Bridgegate story has gone national and you may have seen in your local media. I’m hoping Christie does not win the presidency. His “straight-talking” (or bullying) behavior may play well in New Jersey. But I can’t imagine it being an asset in the presidency. I believe diplomacy is a vital trait for a president to have and I don’t see him doing well in that area.

Big Brother Is Watching

When I was a 22-year-old, involved in protests against the Vietnam War and in meetings of the local Vietnam Moratorium group in Trenton, NJ, I wondered whether I had my own FBI file. There was talk about the FBI keeping files on Vietnam War protestors. We later found out that these rumors were true. The fact that I obtained conscientious objector status from my draft board probably increased the likelihood that there was an FBI file on me. However, I thought at the time that I was not important enough to warrant one. I’ll probably never know if I had one.

But that seems like small potatoes compared to what we’re hearing now about U.S. government surveillance of its citizens. Our home phone provider is Verizon, so information about all our phone calls is being collected.  Through the government’s Prism program, information is being collected from what we do on Google, Facebook and Skype and through our use of Microsoft products.

On the Common Dreams website, I just read an article by Alfred W. McCoy, entitled SurveillanceBlowback: The Making of the U. S. Surveillance State, 1898 -2020. It’s a long article but I think worth the read.  It’s scary to think about the amount of information being monitored and collected, the large number of government employees involved in this activity and the advances in technology that make it easier and easier for information about us to be collected and analyzed.

There seems to be increased attention in the media to all this surveillance. And, in a poll conducted by The Guardian newspaper, 66% thought that the NSA’s activities need to reviewed by Congress and 56% agreed that the NSA needs more Congressional oversight. Also, 50% of those polled disagreed with the government collecting metadata (e.g., date of a phone call, duration, phone numbers of two parties involved). The poll numbers seem to show a majority opposition to the continuing collection of such data.  However, we’ve seen many instances where the President and/or Congress ignored the popular will of the people. I’m inclined to believe that the people’s outrage will die out over time and the extensive surveillance will continue (and likely increase).  Maybe it’s time to break out that dog-earred copy of Orwell’s 1984 – as a reminder of what could happen.

Voting for President in 2012

On November 6, I will cast my vote for Barack Obama for President of the United States.

There was a time when I thought I wouldn't do that.  What I'd really like to do is write in Bernie Sanders for President.  Do you know Bernie Sanders?  He is the Independent US Senator from Vermont.  He supports progressive ideas and is a great advocate for the middle class and the poor.  Both Pres. Obama and Gov. Romney say in their speeches and debate statements that they want to make the middle class stronger.  But their policies would continue to advantage the wealthy more than the middle class.  But, for Bernie Sanders, support for the middle class is more than election rhetoric.  

On December 10, 2010, Sen. Sanders spoke for 8 hours and 37 minutes on the Senate floor in opposition to a 2 year extension of the Bush tax cuts and the deal that had been agreed to by Democrats and Republicans to continue tax breaks for the wealthy.  That speech has now been released as a book, titled The Speech: A Historic Filibuster on Corporate Greed and the Decline of Our Middle Class.

In my opinion, Bernie Sanders is a statesman, not just a politician.  I believe he is sincerely concerned about the best interests of the American people, not just the wealthy and powerful.  Here's a link to his appearance on Moyers and Company, which gives a small taste of what he is like:

Bernie Sanders on Moyers and Company

If you decide to keep watching after the Bernie Sanders segment, you can hear the Green Party Presidential candidate, Jill Stein, talk about the Green Party platform.  For a while, I thought of voting for her.

However, in the end I have decided to vote for Barack Obama.  I could probably get away with voting for Bernie Sanders or Jill Stein without affecting the outcome in New Jersey, which is expected to be won by Obama easily.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think that Pres. Obama's policies, as a whole, are horrible.  And they are certainly much better than Gov. Romney's and the Republican party's.  But, I think he has been too willing to compromise with Republicans and not willing enough to fight for the middle class and the poor.  He has gotten us out of Iraq but is not getting us out of Afghanistan quickly enough.  He is too committed to using drones and too willing to accept the civilian casualties that result.  He is too beholden to Wall St.

I read a couple columns recently that encouraged people to vote for Pres. Obama in order to register votes against Gov. Romney.  I guess that's where I am in this election.  I believe that a Romney administration would be a disaster for the country.  I believe Romney would be heavily influenced by the extreme right wing of the Republican party and I couldn't live with the results of that.  So, I think it's best to try to put as many votes in the Obama column as possible, to send a message that he is preferable to Romney.

What I would really like to see is a third (progressive) party that is not reliant on wealthy individuals for its campaign funds and that would represent the interests of the people of this country.

P.S. - Network, a Catholic lobbying group, has created an election guide that compares Pres. Obama's and Gov. Romney's positions, in relation to Network's framing of the issues according to Catholic Social Teaching.  Pres. Obama seems to be more in line with Catholic Social Teaching than Gov. Romney.  Although I think they do not include some of Obama's negatives (e.g., the drone strikes), I agree that Obama's policies are more in line with Catholic Social Teaching.

Click here to see Network's Election Guide

Individualism - Some Consequences

Last time I wrote about the extraordinary emphasis in our country on individualism.  I think this focus on the rights of the individual versus the responsibilities each of us has to promote the common good results in a number of things that do harm to the world we live in.  Here are some examples:

·      People throwing cigarette butts, empty plastic bottles and paper cups, papers that food was wrapped in on the ground or out of the car window.

·      Bumper stickers and car decals that include curse words, crude comments and pictures, e.g., a decal of Calvin peeing on the Ford logo.  I recently saw a decal on the back of a mini-van that had a father, mother and kids, with names underneath.  The family was labeled “The Ass Family” and the names underneath were “Smart Ass”, “Wise Ass”, “Stupid Ass”, etc.

·      The greed of bankers, hedge fund managers, CEOs and other corporate executives, who believe there is nothing wrong with making millions of dollars a year while others earn only minimum wage and millions of children live in poverty.

·      The belief among many Americans that taxes need to be decreased over and over again so they can pay less and less, regardless of the impact it has overall on the society.

Can you think of others?

I've Been Wondering ...

I’ve been wondering whether the shooting in the Pathmark store in Old Bridge, NJ, which killed two employees, is related to the extreme emphasis on individualism in America.  Also, the shooting in a movie theater in Aurora, CO; and the one in the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, WI.  Certainly, we can’t identify a direct link between the specific shootings and the individualism phenomenon.  The gunmen in these situations most likely had some sort of mental health problems that could be pointed to as being a more direct cause.  But, could the focus on each of us as an individual, with individual rights that others can’t abridge (as opposed to seeing us as part of a larger community) have played a part?

When I was growing up, people talked about the common good.  It meant that, as individuals, we should act in a way that promoted the common good of the communities we lived in – our town, our state, our country, and our world.  It meant seeing ourselves as part of a larger community.  I don’t hear many people talk about that very much these days.  It seems that, for many people, the focus is on the individual person.  Some people act as though they have made themselves everything they are.  As though they didn’t have parents who acted as models for them and taught them their basic values.  As though they weren’t influenced by the teachers they spent hours a day with for 12 or 16 or more years.  As though they weren’t affected by the friends who listened to them, argued with them, played sports or musical instruments with them, supported them and hugged them when they needed it.

Our society and many of our leaders emphasize the importance of each of us standing up for ourselves and taking care of our own needs, instead of relying on others.  George W. Bush advocated for America to become an “ownership society”, in which individual Americans would take more responsibility for themselves and depend less on government programs.  One of the keystones of this “ownership society” would be people’s investment of their money in the stock market for their retirement, instead of contributing to the government-run Social Security system.  Theoretically, it sounds good.  But it can be a risky venture, as recent years have shown.  Ayn Rand, the philosopher whose ideas Paul Ryan espouses, believes that people should act on “rational self-interest.”  She believes that each of us has to act in our own best interests, that what we achieve by our efforts is ours and that government’s role is to make sure no one takes it away from us.  Again, this puts the focus on the individual, and doesn’t acknowledge the societal supports we have throughout our lives.  The two examples I have given are of Republican politicians.  But Democrats have been all too willing to go along with emphasizing the responsibilities of the individual and cutting programs that support those who have fallen on hard times.

The message is that each of needs to be self-reliant.  That we should not depend on others and others should not depend on us.  Does a society that emphasizes this message so much encourage isolation of its citizens?  Does it make it more likely that individuals will feel they are disconnected from others?  Does it make it more likely that an individual who could benefit from the support of others will not see reaching out to others as a viable option?

How would it affect our country and our citizens if the message coming from our leaders was that we are connected to one another, that each of us is part of a community that cares about us?  If that message permeated our society and our lives, would it make our society a more supportive one and help prevent the mass violence we saw in Old Bridge and Aurora and Oak Creek?  I’ve been wondering …

Be Open to the Truth - Addendum

Just a couple days after I posted my blog Be Open to the Truth, I came across a column on Common Dreams that included some good examples of things that many people believe that are not supported by facts.  I thought the information included supported the point I was making in my blog post.  The piece I'm referring to is "U.S. Running on Myths, Lies, Deceptions and Distractions" by John Atcheson.  I hope it rings true for you as it did for me.  You can get to the column by clicking on the name of the article above.

 

Be Open to the Truth

I have a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy.  Sometimes I feel embarrassed to admit that, since I think a lot of people’s reaction would be “What can you do with a degree in Philosophy?”  But, I’m glad that I studied Philosophy and believe it has benefited me greatly throughout my life.

Philosophy is about the meaning of life, what we know, how we know it and how to live ethically. Having a philosophical perspective on life means being open to new ideas, new experiences, new information.  It means being willing to consider ideas, experiences and information, even if they seem to conflict with our currently-held beliefs.  It means thinking critically about our experiences and not just accepting things as true because we saw it on tv, read it in the paper or heard it from a politician.

During my senior year in college, I wrote a paper about philosophy and ideology.  As opposed to philosophy, which is open to all information, ideas and experiences, ideology is rooted in specific ideas and rejects concepts that don’t fit with them.  Presented with new information, philosophy would evaluate it, try to determine its validity and see how it could fit in with the current belief system.  This process might result in that belief system being modified.  Ideology would reject it if it were not compatible with the current belief system.

Racism is a good example of an ideology.  Many people who grew up in the southern United States before the civil rights movement, held a deeply rooted belief that black people were, by nature, inferior to whites.   That belief made them reject facts that would have required them to accept blacks as equals.  Another example of an ideology is the belief of many Americans that global warming does not exist, despite a consensus among most scientists that it is a reality.

We all have a natural tendency to accept certain information and ideas and shut out others.  It’s easier to do this than to leave ourselves open to information and ideas that challenge our current belief system.  However, I think that conservatives in America have a greater tendency to do this.  For example, currently one of the major tenets of conservatism is that taxes not be increased for any reason.  This belief is practically absolute.  No matter what’s happening in our country, taxes must remain as they are; or, better yet, be decreased.  It’s the solution to everything.  If the economy is doing well, the best way to keep it that way is to decrease taxes.  If the economy is doing poorly, decreasing taxes will help it improve.

Another example of conservative ideology is its opposition to regulations.  The belief is that all regulations stifle American business.  There is no acknowledgement that deregulation of the financial industry resulted in a worldwide economic crisis that we are still suffering through.  Related to this is the concept that millionaires and billionaires need to have their taxes reduced so they can be job creators.  Their taxes have been reduced and it hasn’t led to significant job creation.  It doesn’t work – but conservatives won’t admit it.  The belief of many conservatives that President Obama was not born in the United States is based on ideology.  When his long form birth certificate was released, the reaction of some conservatives was that it must be a fake.

Let’s all work at not becoming ideologues, people who won’t take the risk of considering new information and ideas that don’t fit in with our current beliefs.  Let’s be open to new ideas.  Let’s evaluate them carefully.  Let’s be willing to change our ideas and beliefs if we encounter new ideas that are valid and truthful.  Let’s act like philosophers!