If you weren’t at the SC Progressive Summit Nov. 17, this is just one of the moments you missed. Clip features master drummer Amara Camara, his student Toni Jones, and Network Co-chairs the Rev. Dr. Bennie Colclough and Donna Dewitt.
A Bible Lesson for Liberals
Rev. Dr. Neal R. Jones
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Columbia
The Rev. Dr. Neal Jones gave this speech/sermon/Bible study at the SC Progressive Summit Nov. 17 in Columbia. It was so well-received, we asked permission to post it here.
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Hello, my name is Neal, and I’m a recovering Baptist. One of the reasons I fell in love with Unitarian Universalists and became one is because, unlike any other religious group I have known, they can laugh at themselves. We UUs may be dead serious about human rights and social justice, but we don’t take ourselves seriously. We can tell jokes on ourselves. You may have heard some of them.
A Unitarian Universalist died and came to a crossroad in the hereafter with three signs. One said, “This way to heaven.” Another said, “This way to hell.” And a third one said, “This way to a discussion about heaven and hell.” Without hesitation the Unitarian went to the discussion.
A jet airliner was having serious problems in flight, and it became apparent that the plane might crash. Everyone on board began to pray, except for the UUs. They organized a committee on air safety.
They’ve come up with a Unitarian version of the TV show “Survivor.” Contestants have to drive from Pelion to Pickens with a bumper sticker on the back of their car that says, “I’m a gay, atheist, vegetarian, and I’m here to take away your guns.” Anybody who gets there wins.
Unitarian meetings must be very confusing to visitors. A person speaks and says nothing. Nobody listens. Then everybody disagrees.
What do you call a dead Unitarian Universalist? All dressed up with no place to go.
Why did the Unitarian cross the road? To support the chicken in its search for its own path.
Why is a Unitarian congregation like granola? When you take away all the fruits and all the nuts, all you have left are the flakes.
Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused.
Today I want to conduct a Bible study, and our Bible study is about prophets. Who are prophets, and what do they do? Many people think prophets tell the future, but prophets in the tradition of the ancient Hebrews told the truth. It’s informative to look at the etymology of “prophet.” In Hebrew, the word for prophet is “nabiy.” That shares the same root with “nabat,” the Hebrew word meaning “to see, to look intently at.” So one clue to what prophets do is that they help us to see more clearly. “Nabiy” also shares the same root with “nabach,” which means “to bark like a dog.” So a prophet makes a lot of noise to warn us of danger or to wake us up.
Hear the barking of some of the Hebrew prophets:
I hate, I despise your religious festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings, I will not accept them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. — Amos
They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more; But they shall all sit under their own vines and fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid. — Micah
The Spirit of God is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. — Jesus
According to the etymology of the word, prophets bark to wake us up so that we can see “what’s going on,” to quote Marvin Gaye. The Biblical prophets were saying, “Wake up, Israel! This is not the way the Creator intended the creation to be. God intended for you to establish peace and justice here on earth as it is in heaven. Modern day prophets, like Martin Luther King, Jr., are saying, “Wake up, America! You’re not living up to your creed. You say you believe that all people are created equal, but you are not practicing what you preach.
We need prophets in every age because we can’t see clearly on our own. We can’t see the forest for the trees. We are born into a particular time and place, and the history of the place becomes our history, and the culture of the times becomes our identity. None of us asked to be born to our particular parents, in our particular communities, attending our particular schools and churches, in 20th century America, but we were. We could have been born at another time and place, but we weren’t. We perceive, think, and act the way we do because that’s the way people of our time and place perceive, think, and act.
Iraq 3.0
by Sheldon Richman
One gets the feeling that even the White House realizes the mess it’s made of Iraq. The other day the newspapers reported that the Bush administration has scaled back its objectives rather substantially. We might call it Iraq 3.0. First the plan was to create a democratic paradise which, domino-like, would spread freedom throughout the Middle East. When that didn’t work, the administration shifted to simply bringing some kind of order to Iraq, reconciling the three largest groups - Shi’a, Sunni, and Kurd.
That hasn’t gone too well either. The nearly two dozen political objectives that the military “surge” was intended to accomplish have largely gone unachieved. The violence level may have fallen (one never knows how temporary such things are), but there are many possible explanations for that. One horrifying explanation is that enough ethnic cleansing of neighborhoods and emigration have occurred that less violence is “necessary” in the eyes of the various militias. That presumably is not the sort of peace President Bush had in mind.
So now the strategists in Washington have retooled. The New York Times says, “The Bush administration has lowered its expectations of quickly achieving major steps toward unifying the country, including passage of a long-stymied plan to share oil revenue and holding regional elections. Instead, administration officials say they are focusing their immediate efforts on several more limited but achievable goals in the hope of convincing Iraqis, foreign governments and Americans that some progress is being made toward the political breakthroughs that the intensified military campaign of the past 10 months was supposed to promote.”
Stage magicians call this “misdirection.” If you can’t have the audience look here, you must do something to make them look over there. Voilà!
the King
Donna Dewitt and Linda Carnes join the picket.
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) held an informational picket today in front of the AT&T Building in downtown Columbia over problems in the workplace.
In December 2006, the merger of BellSouth with AT&T made it the largest telecommunication company in the world.
“It is now apparent the new AT&T is not interested in continuing the previous relationship we had with BellSouth,” says Deborah Brown, President CWA Local 3706. “We have lost over 300 jobs in South Carolina in less than one year. In our residential Consumer Service Center, our Sales Associates are denied Family Medical Leave time. They are disciplined every day and terminated for unrealistic sales quotas. The Consumer Service Center has become a revolving door to the unemployment line. There is no respect for the employees - our members - and this must stop.”
District 3 includes: South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, Florida, Kentucky, and Alabama. AT&T has removed a total of 1,519 jobs in the district in less than a year.
B. Robbins
photos by Brett Bursey
Girl gets camcorder.
Naomi Wolf thinks it could happen
by Don Hazen
AlterNet, Nov. 21
If you think we are living in scary times, your worst fears may be confirmed by reading Naomi Wolf’s newest book, The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot. In it, Wolf proves the old axiom that history does repeat itself. Or more accurately, history occurs in patterns, and in order to understand where our country is today and where it is headed, we need to read the history books.
Wolf began by diving into the early years leading up to fascist regimes, like the ones led by Hitler and Mussolini. And the patterns that she found in those, and others all over the world, made her hair stand on end. In “The End of America,” she lays out the 10 steps that dictators (or aspiring dictators) take in order to shut down an open society. “Each of those ten steps is now under way in the United States today,” she writes.
Here is a link to an article about the voting machines we use in SC, and their possible effect on our presidental primaries. Author Sean Flaherty works for Iowans for Voting Integrity, and the piece is posted on Vote Trust USA, a national network serving state-based organizations working for secure, accurate and transparent elections.
Brett Bursey
The First Thanksgiving
From the Community Endeavor News, November 1995, as reprinted in Healing Global Wounds, Fall, 1996
The first official Thanksgiving wasn’t a festive gathering of Indians and Pilgrims, but rather a celebration of the massacre of 700 Pequot men, women and children, an anthropologist says. Due to age and illness his voice cracks as he talks about the holiday, but William B. Newell, 84, talks with force as he discusses Thanksgiving. Newell, a Penobscot, has degrees from two universities, and was the former chairman of the anthropology department at the University of Connecticut.
“Thanksgiving Day was first officially proclaimed by the Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1637 to commemorate the massacre of 700 men, women and children who were celebrating their annual green corn dance-Thanksgiving Day to them-in their own house,” Newell said.
“Gathered in this place of meeting they were attacked by mercenaries and Dutch and English. The Indians were ordered from the building and as they came forth they were shot down. The rest were burned alive in the building,” he said.
The whispering campaign against Obama
by Kevin Alexander Gray, Columbia
I hope folk don’t think I am for a particular candidate cause I’m not. This time out I intend to vote in the Democrat primary but beyond that remains an open proposition. Obama is 3rd on my consideration list. Krugman’s article is just another reason to reconsider his position. Clinton is not on my list at all.
Oddly enough, I was speaking to someone from the midwest this past weekend. I believe it was after the Vegas debate. That person matter-of-factly mentioned that the bomb Clinton operatives may have sent to Novak was Obama’s alleged heroin use. I think the person mentioned it to me knowing that at times I can’t hold my water. I mentioned the call for its oddity to a family member but held passing on the gossip.
But low and behold by Sunday Obama on air was daring the Clinton people to put up or shut up. Then by Monday that sorry-ass Chris Matthews was talking about Obama’s drug use confession to a group of school kids. Matthews said that Obama confessed to drug use as a kid, “pot, cocaine, everything but heroin.”
Activists meet for Network’s 12th annual Fall gathering
by Becci Robbins
Blogging last weekend’s Progressive Summit is late in coming. Sorry ’bout that. But these are heady, hectic days for the Network, and we’ve been distracted. We are in the process of buying a headquarters in downtown Columbia to house offices, meeting space and a social hall, a reprised GROW Cafe. The three-building complex, now occupied by Habitat for Humanity, is in a great location. It’s close enough to the college campuses to attract students, and the State House is just blocks away - the better to keep our eye on the scoundrels. More on this when we actually have the keys.
But back to the Summit. It was, judging by the feedback we’ve received, a smashing success. The statewide gathering may have been our best - most productive, most inspiring, most fun - since our founding conference in the spring of 1996.
One of our guest speakers, Angela Canterbury, outreach director at Public Citizen, said in an e-mail. “I am really impressed at the good work you all are doing. It was a great day - a little like a day at church, worshipping at the altar of hope and change.”
Nice.
Go Fish: Clinton Undaunted by “Gender Card” Allegations
By NOW President Kim Gandy
With a widening six-point lead separating her from Republican frontrunner Rudy Giuliani, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton remains undaunted amidst media allegations that she has played the “gender card” during debates and public speaking engagements. Are Clinton’s opponents “piling on”? Of course they are — and they’d pile onto any candidate so far in the lead. Taking advantage of that fact isn’t playing the gender card, it’s playing the game.
Most notably slandered for comments made at her alma mater after the last debate, “In so many ways, this all-women’s college prepared me to compete in the all-boys’ club of presidential politics,” Clinton was attacked by pundits charging that the mere mention of the boys’ club was playing the victim. And when her campaign manager said, quite accurately, that the other candidates had “piled-on” Clinton at the last debate, the pundit-roar was deafening.
The Big Apple, 1000 Hampton, downtown Columbia
Join grassroots activists from across the state for the SC Progressive Network’s 12th annual Fall gathering. Whether you’re concerned about social justice, global warming, the Iraq War, or the growing influence of money in politics, participants will seek common ground upon which to build a movement for progressive power in South Carolina.
“This is the Network’s most important event of the year,” said Co-chair Donna Dewitt, president of the SC AFL-CIO. “Our folks look forward to this weekend retreat, where they can reconnect with old friends, meet new allies, and be inspired by the good work going on all across South Carolina that rarely gets the attention it deserves. We hope to see lots of new faces.”
Obama’s Big Gay and Black Problem
By Kevin Alexander Gray and Marshall Derks, Columbia
There’s a point in a campaign that’s behind in the polls when desperation sets in. That’s the time when trailing candidates try to throw the haymaker punch hoping for a knockout blow on the frontrunner. We are not at that point in this campaign season, but it’s getting close.
It’s no surprise that part of Barack Obama’s South Carolina primary strategy aims at black church-going voters. The church is the most organized part of the black community and churchgoers are reliable voters. In addition, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s hiring of local high-priced preacher-politician-businessman Darrell Jackson and her husband Bill’s clout with blacks puts additional pressure on Obama. The Illinois senator has to cut into Clinton’s black support as well as establishing his own African-American base.
