Change 2008

Thanksgiving Message 2008

2008-11-26T05:06:00.000-08:00

My Dearest Friends and Family,

I find this moment in life to be an extraordinary moment. In the time that I have lived on this earth, there has never been such great challenge and great opportunity. We have all witnessed an historic turn of events and now we wait breathlessly for the things that may be, the dreams to unfold and for hearts of intolerance, indifference and individualism to be healed.

I have noticed holiday lights going up earlier this year, I can’t help but feel it is the desire to bring some brightness into the world and build momentum for celebration.

I find my own desire for celebration. I celebrate so many of you who have supported and been a part of my journey of the last four years. I celebrate my hope for a successful visit in two weeks to my ordination board and a job soon to follow. I celebrate my partner in life and lessons I have learned through the depth of her love. I celebrate the peace I have found in the service of others. Most of all, I celebrate the hope I now, finally feel that the world I wished for last Thanksgiving may be a possibility. I want to make it clear that I am not placing all this hope on one man, I am placing my hope on the fact that he could be and was elected, that the world can see a new way and that there is a conversation that has risen to the surface for the need of compassionate and sustainable relationships with each other and the planet.

So, although it is a repeat of what I sent last year, I send it again for there is much work to do, much hope to be fulfilled and a growing optimism that wishes can come true:

I wish for true peace for the world, a peace built on mutual need to create a sustainable earth for generations to come.

I wish for open hearts toward those in need, for we are all one and in this interconnected world what happens to one truly does happen to all.

I wish for the blossoming of compassion, for all faiths have a compassionate core and all lives crave the kindness of others.

Finally, I wish for you, your families, friends and loved ones, the gentleness of spirit that lies at the heart of the songs and rituals of the holidays and may that spread out beyond to touch us all.

Peace and Happy Thanksgiving

Not to just rise above but to lead beyond

2008-09-12T13:40:00.000-07:00

I write this on the night September 11th, 2008. I actually was only barely aware of today’s date during the day. I saw the news online and for the most part was involved with my life as it exists today and not as it existed seven years ago tonight. I was busy today. I was doing the things that life has brought me to seven years later, busy, happy and fulfilled. I tried hard to avoid the political machinations of the current presidential race. I tried to avoid the jingoism of some of the remembrances. I tried to live life, as I know it now, seven years later. But, as much I tried to focus on some work, as much as I tried to focus on channel surfing, as much as I tried to think about other things, I couldn’t help but think about the way I felt seven years ago tonight and seven years ago this week.

It is easy to say all the things that so many have said so many times, I was terrified, horribly sad, furious, and many different other emotions, but I was also aware of something that I am not sure I have ever felt before those days and really not since, I felt something that was transcendent, a sense of national and in some ways, international unity. From these horrible events, there was a feeling amongst strangers, no matter what party, no matter what faith, there was this feeling that we needed each other to get through all of this. Actually it was beyond that, it was that we must rely on each other in order to get through all of this.
(This was true with the exception of those small-minded people overwhelmed with hate who sought out those who in their minds looked and/or worshiped like those who carried out the attacks.)

We looked for what was best about this country in those dark hours. We held up the graciousness, the self-sacrifice, the sameness, the best possible of common denominators. We focused on the things that make this country, with all of its challenges, a place of compassion and a successful experiment in otherness living side-by-side in freedom.

It is unfortunately clear to most of us however, even those who disagree on many political and personal issues of the day, it is clear that there were many opportunities missed and an historic chance to capitalize on this good will that was wasted.

This all makes me think about this moment in time in our country and in the world. I, like many others, believe that we are on a precipice. This country and this world face choices about the future that will have consequences for generations. Once again, whatever political side you take, the economic, environmental, military, and poverty issues that this next president will face are not just issues of this generation, but many generations to come.

The problem with all of this is the process is broken. In fact, the process may not have ever been that great, but it certainly is more broken than it has ever been. We have gotten to a place where it is unbearable to watch the daily tracking polls on who won the news cycle for the story about who could call each other the most names. But it is more than just the news cycle. We are in a cycle that is much more dangerous. This is a cycle of power over policy, about profit over performance. A cycle that is much more about perpetuating violence in our actions and in our speech than about promoting peace. There may be electoral winners in November but in this system no one really wins, we all lose.

In his first inaugural address on March 4, 1801, Thomas Jefferson spoke words with a style and substance rarely heard today, words that could easily provide us with wisdom to learn from our history, our successes and our failures as a nation. On that Wednesday in March, Jefferson offered:

All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression. Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions.

Our presidential candidates have been sucked into a broken system, a system that feeds media and creates issues that take away from the truly momentous topics that must be discussed, debated and deliberated. I have no answers for how we solve this cycle of the politics of destruction, of this appeal to the least common denominator, but I deeply feel we must “restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things.”

So can we demand better, can we all stop demonizing, is it possible for our voices to cry out demanding that it is the problems we face that must be addressed versus the schoolyard behavior that we currently spend our time assessing? Can we rise up and insist from our grassroots that these times call for our leaders to be better, think loftier, and pull us together instead of pushing us apart? As many of you know, I have been an Obama supporter but I believe it was an egregious error not to meet John McCain in a series of face-to-face town hall meetings. At least then we would hear the candidates discuss the issues versus listening to the surrogates throw insults and the television ads provide carefully construed misinformation. They know that what they are saying is bad, but we have constructed a system where we must win whatever the cost and the cost is truth, honestly, integrity, kindness, and social harmony.

It has been a long day, it has been a long seven years where the leadership of this country played to fears and looked to the past. There have been many days lately where I have been filled with hope, where I have believed in the possibilities of the future. Is it time to look to that future? Is it time to change the tone of our emails, the substance of our interactions? It is time for each and every one of us to take responsibility not to just rise above but to lead beyond? I believe the time has come to put this chapter of our history to sleep and hopefully awaken to see that the bad dream is over and that the hope we all so desperately seek really is possible.

2008-05-11T21:43:00.000-07:00

My Dear Friends and Family,

Mid-May another transition will begin. One of my self-defining roles will end and another will begin; I will be a graduate of the Claremont School of Theology. I NEVER thought this would be a stop in the journey of my life but now, three years later, I can honestly say that it feels like it was meant to be.

After three years at this liberal, ecumenical, Methodist seminary, it is hard to describe what a transformative experience this has been for me. It is not as simple as "now I understand Christians." I actually have a much deeper understanding of myself, my calling (although after three years of theology school I am still trying to find out who or what is on the other end of the line), my place in the world and how I have strengthened my belief that there must be a new way in order for this planet to survive.

Many of you have played a substantial role in that transformation. Your kindness, love and support have been a transformational experience in and of itself. This is an emotional time. I will miss school and all the friends that have become so dear to me, but for perhaps the first time, I feel like I now have the training and substance to impact the world in the manner I have desired for so long. I have learned, peace is not a passive act and I hope that I will use these wonderful resources wisely to help us all build a more compassionate and peaceful planet.

With my degree, I will receive an Emphasis is Social Transformation and as one of my professors has brought to my attention, I have spent the last three years exploring issues of violence and peace. I still strongly define myself as a culturally Jewish Unitarian Universalist, but I also have come to learn more about and deeply appreciate theologies I never even knew existed before my CST education. One of the resources of my education that I have come to respect is the theologian Walter Wink. In his book The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium, Wink talks about the Myth of Redemptive Violence when he writes, “The story that the rulers of domination societies told each other and their subordinates is what we today call the Myth of Redemptive Violence. It enshrines the belief that violence saves, that war brings peace, the might makes right. It is one of the oldest continuously repeated stories in the world.”

The other side of this coin is not passivity however. In fact, that is one of the things I most appreciate about Wink and his theological interpretations of the message of the New Testament and the words of Jesus. Wink points out that in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was not asking us to be passive in our opposition to violence and the powers, he was in fact asking us to resist, but to do it nonviolently. Wink notes that the “Greek word translated “resist” in Matthew 5:39 is antistenai, meaning literally to stand (stenai) against (anti),” as opposed to what translators have most often translated antistenai to be, a technical term for warfare. Wink goes further in his explanation that it is not just about warfare and resistance, but about how that resistance is manifested. “The image is not of a punch drunk boxer somehow managing to stay on his feet, but of soldiers standing their ground, refusing to flee.”

For Wink, Jesus is in fact calling for us to find a different way to resist. To change the story that has been told since the beginning of time:

Jesus is not telling us to submit to evil, but to refuse to oppose it on its own terms. We are not to let the opponent dictate the methods of our opposition. He is urging us to transcend both passivity and violence by finding a third way, one that is at once assertive and yet nonviolent. The correct translation would be the one still preserved in the earliest renditions of this saying found in the New testament epistles: “Do not repay evil for evil” (Rom. 12:17; 1 Thes. 5:15; 1 Pet. 3:9). The Scholars Version of Matt. 5:39a is superb: “Don’t react violently against the one who is evil.”

Once again, calling for strength in our resistance but not violence is Wink’s clear theological interpretation of how we deal with evil.

I believe that we do have a choice, a choice of breaking through the “Myth” to embrace a world that recognizes the need for wholeness, dialogue, compassion, the gift in otherness and that interdependent web of which we are all a part. The time has come; there is an urgency in the air. I intend to continue my training and then incorporate in to my ministry all that I have learned to support and facilitate this new way.

Many have asked what is next. From graduation we will spend a little time moving into a new apartment, (our current home is going condo), then this summer I will begin six months of half-time chaplaincy at Children’s Hospital in San Diego to fulfill my one required unit of Clinical Pastoral Education, and from now until the first week in December, I will be studying and preparing for the Ministerial Fellowship Committee, (our ordination board). Then, when and if passed, I will be eligible to look for a job.

So much has happened in these three years. So many gifts have been shared. I am deeply humbled and so very grateful for everything, the challenges, the joys, the love and support. I would be severely remiss if I did not mention how profoundly grateful I am for the woman who has read my papers and heard my sermons, at least twice, and has walked this journey by my side; thank you.

And to all of you, I wish us all peace and I offer you my warmest thanks.

Ready for Change

2008-02-03T17:49:00.000-08:00

“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.”
- Robert Kennedy

After a couple of drafts that skirted the issue that I really wanted to talk about, I have decided to put my thoughts on the line and say what I really want to say.

My earliest memory was the death of John F. Kennedy. I remember I was downtown Chicago with my mother and people were standing on a street corner looking up at one of those signs that scrolled the news in lights. I remember standing with a bunch of stunned adults, on a cold, windy and grey Chicago day, I was 4 years old. Through the years I have written about the legacy of hope in my memories of John and Robert Kennedy. I have spoken of my desires for a world where we value hope and conversation over fear and violence. For the very first time in my life, since those early days of hope, I believe we are on the verge of real change.

I am ready.

I am ready for change in the way we talk to each other about the problems that face our country. I am ready to work with each other differently than we have before. I am ready to stand up for the earth and not be labeled as anti-economy. I am ready to address the real problems of our future like poverty, oppression and the effects of the corporatization on the resources and people of the world. I am ready to work to change a small portion of events that I can help change, I am ready to vote.

The act of faith that I view as having the biggest possible affect on life as I would like it to be is; I am going to walk into that polling place, ask for a paper ballot, I am going to exercise my democratic responsibility and I am going to vote for Barack Obama.

Let me tell you why. I don’t care that he doesn’t “have experience,” it is the ones with experience that have gotten in the mess that we are in. I want change. I want hope. I want something very different than what we have come to know.

It is amazing that I have spent this much time and money to prepare myself for ministry in order to do what I can to change the world and the world changing action I have chosen for this year is voting. You see, when you study theology there is some history of the world thrown in. We learn about the rise of recorded civilization and the beginnings of religion. We understand how institutions have shaped the world. We also learn how one person can have an affect on the course of history. To me, after spending some time studying this, I have come to the conclusion that this election truly is as consequential as it seems. There is just too much going on in the world of deep significance.

Four years ago, I named this blog “change2008.” I had grown disgusted with the politics in this country and I was pleading, begging and praying for change. In an excerpt from my first entry, I wrote, "I am thinking myself and would like to encourage any of you who are taking the time to read this to think about these questions. What can I do to get involved and change the level of political discussion in this country? How can I resist getting stuck fighting just about the issues (I don’t want us to totally give up the fight while we work on the bigger picture), and contribute to a principle/value-based progressive movement built on compromise, mutual benefit and a nondenominational spiritual connection with each other and our planet?"

Since then, much has happened in this country and I do believe that we are conscious of the need for change. But as I reflect on the word, I also reflect on how my concept of change has, well, changed. I think four years ago, I would have been happy for the anti-Bush, in fact, looking back on it, I think that was a little bit how I felt about John Kerry. But, I feel differently now. It not about just having someone different, it is about doing it differently.

Four years ago I said, “I don’t want us to totally give up the fight while we work on the bigger picture.” Quite frankly, I am tired of fighting. I want someone who is willing to talk. I want someone who is willing to think beyond surface politics. I want leaders who are willing to converse in the effort to build understanding and creative ideas. I want someone who is willing to consider not only the needs of America, but how addressing the needs of others in the world will help America be safer, healthier and not just a leader but a partner living up to its truest ideals.

We are now more aware than ever that we are truly interconnected and our connections are troubled. Our western way of life is leading to depleted resources and a wounded planet. This grand experiment of democracy is surviving with a damaged government.

People need help. The policies and laws concocted in Washington do matter. They do make a difference in our lives and if you don’t believe that ask the family of a loved one serving, killed or wounded in Iraq. Ask the parents of a school age child with too many benchmarks and not enough attention. Ask one of our neighbors losing their home to a greedy mortgage deal. Perhaps we should ask someone being sent to an overcrowded jail instead of receiving competent treatment for drug or alcohol addiction. The people we elect matter.

The spirit of the people needs a lift. The spirit of the people is ready to accomplish new and wonderful things. The spirit of the people need to see that that they, and not just the rich, are worthy of care and compassion.

There is a firm foothold in the mind of America that there is a deep need for change. And at this point, if this country elects a democrat, there will be a change in the presidency like we have never seen. But, to believe that any of these people alone are the answer to the problems we face would only be setting us up for disappointment. These are not perfect people. You don’t rise to this level of our political system by being perfect, but guess what; I don’t expect them to be.

We the people are becoming very engaged in this election but that engagement has to last beyond the voting booth. We are so close to this new path, this truly could be a change in direction, a movement of the spirit and a hope for a new path. “Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.” For our generation the time is now. I know that most of those who will read this will vote, but I think the time has come to vote for hope, for change, and I hope, for Barack Obama.

End of Summer Report

2006-08-15T07:16:00.000-07:00

It is August 15, 2006 and summer is essentially over for me. In the coming days, I am finishing up my first summer job in 28 years, I am headed back to school to assist in orientation for the new crop of students and I am preparing to begin another major part of my journey, as an intern minister.

Just a quick note on the job; what an experience going from $100 an hour back to $9 an hour. (I must really want to be a minister.)

I became a manager for the first time at the age of 20. Since then, I have pretty much been in management or an ownership position in almost every job I have had. One possible exception was when I was a cook for sororities when I returned to school to finish my bachelor’s degree after a 6 year hiatus, but that is a story for another day. Working at a little bed and breakfast just down the block from my house was a strange and wonderful experience. It was humbling, frustrating, fun, and perfect for what I needed to help support me this summer. It was also the first job I have had since this new path in my life began.

I will return to the job in a moment but first let me explain another profound experience of my summer. I have had some awakening around some thoughts on life. All summer I have been meeting with my friend Lee who I met through the Network of Spiritual Progressives. He is a warm, wise and wonderful man with a loving spirit and a gentle heart. We have spent much time talking about where we are in our lives and how that relates to the world we live in. As I wrote in an earlier blog entry, I heard a speaker at the NSP conference in Washington say, “don’t follow your bliss, follow your heartbreak.” Well, we two are following our heartbreak and in some strange way it has given me a great deal of bliss.

We have spent much time talking about “the Movement.” In my opinion, the movement is happening all over and needs to happen in the face of an equally increasing sense of violence as the answer to differences and division as a political strategy. It has been written about by many authors such as Jimmy Carter, Jim Wallis and Michael Lerner, and it is being tested all over in religious and political circles. To me, the movement is about the growing knowledge base and brewing strategies that are attempting to answer the question; how do we really, finally, and truly build a different world? How can we build a more loving world, a more generous world, a kinder world, a more respectful world, a more peaceful world and a world more in tune with sustaining the life and beauty of our planet?

This is not a simple task, especially when faced with the horrors of dead children caught in an over rationalized crossfire of violence (not just in one area, but in too many places). This is also not about an election, a new book, or some new policies; to me this is about a true shift in the way the world operates. Lee and I have decided that this must begin with us. I am not saying that the whole movement will begin with us, but we must live and breathe the movement if we ever want to make sure that we can help create that movement in the world.

Now, how does my summer job fit in? It has been a fascinating experience to have this clerk’s job in the middle of all of this. I have really been living so many different roles this summer. Preacher, pastoral care listener, partner, hourly employee, nonprofit consultant, student on break and a host of others. Of the experiences that came from this, none were more surreal as the day I helped lead a service at church speaking to around 400 people, glowing in the excitement, warmth and love of this calling, feeling that I have truly found my place in the world and then an hour later, sitting at a desk answering phones and taking breakfast orders at my little B&B down the street. Even though I was back in my clerk’s role, the transition of that day and how I define myself was much easier with this purpose, movement, (or calling if you will) in mind.

It isn’t that I did not know some of these things, but being a clerk this summer allowed me once again to see how hard the immigrant women maids worked for such a relatively small wage. How the issues of health care, child care, stereotyping and immigration affected many of them on a daily basis. I saw and experienced how challenging it is to treat ourselves and each other with love, generosity and respect in the realities of this small business. This summer I was steeped in observing how we can live in the boxes we have so long defined for ourselves and each other.

I also found myself struggling to know how to apply this movement in my job, not being in a leadership position that I have become so used to over the years. I decided that the best way was to do my utmost to treat others with love, respect, kindness and generosity. To think of all of us as in some way as being wounded and in need of healing and love, to being special and in need of expression, to deserving respect and in need of kindness and to be searching for our own truths and in need of support and connection.

I am clearly training to be in a position to have a voice and a place to express it, but I also learned from this summer’s experience that the words from that pulpit will ring hollow if I do not live the values I preach.

So I finish the summer with a flurry of activity in preparation for my next phase of life. I need to have my car serviced, I must fill out scholarship applications, I have been asked to assist others (new students) in their transitions on their journey, and I strive to balance the substantial new commitments away from home with my on-going commitments in my own home. But, most of all, I hope to continue my call to do what I can to facilitate enlightenment, awakening or whatever you may call it in myself and others. I am not naive about what it may take to build a better world, I am just convinced that it is possible. As my friend Lee says, “Shift Happens."

Many blessings and peace to you all.

More on the Middle East

2006-07-24T11:59:00.001-07:00

I am Jewish, I am American and I am studying to be Unitarian Universalist Minister. I do not see my choice of religious practice (such as it is) having anything to do with reducing my "Jewishness."

A few years back, in a search for an emotional center to my own cultural roots, I went to the Holocaust Museum and while on a trip to Europe, I went to Dachau. In a third of some sort of triple crown of experiences, I saw Schindler's List. After the movie, I remember just pulling off to the side of the road and weeping. I was overwhelmed with pain and sadness. I was processing for perhaps for the first time what it meant to be a Jew.

This however pales in comparison to those Jews who have suffered persecution in so many ways for so many thousands of years. As a white middle class American who has not been the victim of terrorist violence except on the TV and through second hand experience, I can hardly place myself in their shoes. I can hardly know the pain and suffering of those who have lost so much.

But, here is one thing that I know to the depths of my soul, violence does only beget violence. war has never ever led to peace. The ramifications of one war lead to the contributions of another. These global cycles of violence have been going on for so many thousands of years that we have become used to talking about who is right and who is wrong verses what can be done to break the cycles of violence for good. As I have written any of a number of times recently, the question for me is, who will blink first for real transformation for that is what I believe peace will require.

I have no interest in getting involved in the "Israel's actions" debate. I care about who is right and who is wrong but I just don't think that is really the point. What I am focusing my thoughts on are the official actions of the United States. Can the leading power on the planet whose charter says that all are created equal, actually place that point into policy. Can those who run our government see past the need for oil, their personal religious motivations, their own ambitions and fears and actually lead the world to a safer and more peaceful place where our actions model behavior for others to follow.

The current leaders are modeling violence as the answer and others have now picked that up. I just don't believe that violence works to stop violence, it never really has. At times mutually assured destruction has worked, but my goodness, is that the kind of planet we want to live in, what happens if someone makes a mistake?

I crave leadership that takes all the history, anger and fear and follows a different path. A path where the "evil ones" are isolated and those who have a tendency to follow are presented with different choices not forced into unfortunate actions. A path where the money is spent on building nations not destroying them. A path where respect, democracy and love are modeled and not belittled by lip-service, political posturing at home and the narrow vision of violent solutions to global issues.

As a Jew I have certainly felt the pain of "otherness" and as I've said, I can never compare my pain to the loss of a mother whose bleeding child is dying in her arms, but I must hold out hope, for that mother and for the others currently to come. As Desmond Tutu writes in his book, No Future Without Forgiveness:

Peace is possible, especially if today's adversaries were to imagine themselves becoming friends and begin acting in ways that would promote such a friendship developing in reality. It would be wonderful if, as they negotiated, they tried to find ways of accommodating each other's needs. A readiness to make concessions is a sign of strength not weakness. And it can be worthwhile sometimes to lose a battle in order in the end to win the war. Those who are in negotiations for peace and prosperity are striving after such a splendid, such a priceless goal that it should be easier to find ways for all to be winners than to fight; for negotiators to make it a point the no one loses face, that no one emerges empty handed, with nothing to place before his or her constituency. How one wishes that negotiators would avoid having bottom lines and too many preconditions. In negotiations we are, as in the process of forgiveness, seeking to give all the chance to begin again. The rigid will have a tough time. The flexible, those who are ready to make principled compromises, end up being the victors.

July 4, 2006

2006-07-02T22:59:00.000-07:00

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State. -Thomas Jefferson, letter to Danbury Baptist Association, CT., Jan. 1, 1802 – (Please forgive the male patriarchal language, it was Jefferson’s in 1802 not mine, actually read on, it is kind of the point.)

Knowing that I wanted to write something for the blog on this Fourth of July weekend, I have sat down at this computer any number of times to get working on my latest foray into the blogasphere. I have thought, what is it, what can I write that effectively demonstrates what I feel is happening in this country, where I think we are, where I hope we are going and all the while be insightful and inspirational, and I decided the best way to do that is to start with a quote from an old dead white guy. Yes, I wanted to choose someone more interesting than me and who did I pick, none other than Thomas Jefferson.

I have used many quotes before in this blog, but I have never turned to one of our founding fathers. I have to admit, Jefferson was not perfect. I know that picking a quote from a white male and not one of the many worthy women, people of color, Native Americans or countless others who contributed greatly to this republic could alienate some of my friends, not to mention the woman with whom I share my life. I worry that he owned slaves. I was concerned that he was a man of certain appetites that may lead people to have moral objections. Some of my atheist friends may be mad that he wrote a version of the bible, others, my more religious friends, may be put off that he changed the “real Bible” to be more of his liking. But what ever the consequences I thought, I have to pick a quote from someone. I need a snappy beginning, something that will catch people’s attention and of course that left out most of today’s politicians, so I reached back in time and I found this quote.

But thinking a little more deeply about this, I found myself thinking about Jefferson and those other long dead white guys who are most publicly credited with starting this country. They were products of their generation much as many of us are products of ours. I thought, if alive today would Jefferson use Tide with bleach alternative, or would he shop for the environmentally friendly detergent they sell at Whole Foods? If Ben Franklin were alive today, would he be drinking Coors Light, or Samuel Adams? Would John Adams be in trouble for lobbying his relatives after leaving office? Would Paul Revere buy the good silver or just pick up some stuff at Walmart?

I guess my point is, Jefferson, Adams and Franklin all lived in a time, admittedly flawed by today’s progressive standards, where they were born into a world with all the assumptions, roles and structures that existed at their specific place in history. They were products of a system. Their system had history, habits, traditions, beliefs, prejudices, stereotypes and myths. Although they were at a different place in time, many of our national habits, traditions, beliefs, prejudices, stereotypes and myths have evolved from many of theirs.

With deference to my Professor Elizabeth Conde-Frazier whose class notes I am using, I would like to point out that on a day-to-day basis, many of us do not think about some of the consequences of that previous history and those habits, traditions, beliefs, prejudices, stereotypes and myths. One of the things we do not think about is the societal enforcement, in other words, the ongoing fact that if you conform minimally “they” leave you alone and if you conform maximally, you get privilege and power. Also, aside from the unfortunate fact that if you are not a member of the majority group you are held up as inferior or different, (have you checked any commercials lately) there is the internalized oppression – or as Professor Conde-Frazier calls it, the oppressors from within. That voice that tells us to stay in our place, or that says “in order to get along, go along.”

The point is that the privileged group and those who are not privileged stay in their own cycles; we remain in these roles and become unwilling to interrupt the cycle, because it is just the way that things are. Would there even be a United States of America right now if those white men of privilege had accepted their socialization? Or ponder this, is there a United Stated of America because they accepted their socialization?

So how do we break cycles? One of the expressions I have used lately is, “who are going to be the ones who are willing to blink first?” One of the models that talks about breaking cycles says, one of the first requirements is that the victims of the cycle need the help of allies of privilege. I was shocked and thrilled to meet progressive evangelical Christians at both of the Network of Spiritual Progressives conference. Those are allies who have been very willing to blink. They have also been very willing to enter into dialogue.

Dialogue is a way of creating alliances. Deep dialogue, or speaking out of a place of pain – authentically and honestly helps us overcome the fear and insecurity we have been taught. In truly listening to one another we begin to change our core with the goal that hope will find a way to the surface and working together with shared values will hopefully create more hope. Eventually, we begin to unlearn and unravel the things that have kept us from one another. We begin to co-create.

I do not pretend to simplistically try and capture a whole field of study in a short holiday blog but I wanted to present the flavor of where I feel the hope for America and perhaps the rest of the world lies. Jefferson seemed to know that the excess of power stifles the will of freedom whether through governmental or religious majority. For all the bad things we can say about those guys, (and what their motivations were, which is the subject of much debate), I do believe in the ideals they professed in their documents.

I believe in the unbending separation between church and state, a great example from 230 years ago of a cycle that needed shattering. In today’s Washington Post (as seen at MSNBC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13622029/), they concluded a nine month investigation on congressional farm subsidies. Perhaps not a sexy topic, but this is another great example that falls under the category of, “why can not we break the cycle of politics and do what is actually right for farmers and the country?” In this article, among other things, they talk about payments attached to land that have not been farmed in 40 years. So an asphalt contractor is getting a check every year not to farm rice that was last farmed on his land 40 years ago. The article goes on to say:

The payments now account for nearly half of the nation's expanding agricultural subsidy system, a complex web that has little basis in fairness or efficiency. What began in the 1930s as a limited safety net for working farmers has swollen into a far-flung infrastructure of entitlements that has cost $172 billion over the past decade. In 2005 alone, when pretax farm profits were at a near-record $72 billion, the federal government handed out more than $25 billion in aid, almost 50 percent more than the amount it pays to families receiving welfare. The Post's nine-month investigation found farm subsidy programs that have become so all-encompassing and generous that they have taken much of the risk out of farming for the increasingly wealthy individuals who dominate it.

I guess this raises the question, how many of those founders would have bought their fruit from the local family-owned organic farm if alive today?

The real question is what can any or all of us do to break the cycles? War, violence, environmental degradation, religious oppression, colonialism, racism, I still hope and believe are all breakable cycles. By separating church and state, no matter how much it seems at times not to have been successful, those long dead men of privilege did at least recognize the need to break the cycle of state sanctioned religion. As we celebrate this 230th anniversary of the signing of our Declaration of Independence, I hope for a new generation of cycle-breaking idealists who have a vision that will carry them beyond their current self-interest and hold up hope beyond America’s self-interest towards a peaceful world built on mutual respect and shared interest.

Not an easy task, but setting up a new country, no matter how flawed, wasn’t so easy either.

"A government regulating itself by what is wise and just for the many, uninfluenced by the local and selfish views of the few who direct their affairs, has not been seen, perhaps, on earth. Or if it existed for a moment at the birth of ours, it would not be easy to fix the term of its continuance. Still, I believe it does exist here in a greater degree than anywhere else; and for its growth and continuance... I offer sincere prayers." --Thomas Jefferson to William H. Crawford, 1816

Me too.

Many blessings and peace to all of you, and have a great 4th of July.

NSP Report

2006-05-23T07:27:00.000-07:00

(For those of you who don’t know, this past week I attended the Network of Spiritual Progressives Conference in Washington D.C.)

It is hard to know where to begin with this “report,” so I think I will just start here—for me this conference was about transformation both personal and societal.

For one brief moment this past Saturday, I felt that the world really could be transformed. That was what this conference boiled down to, that no matter what the pundits would say when it was over, David, the idealist and the realist believed there really could be a transformation in the world to a new bottom line based on respect, love and compassion.

The question that comes from this is, what personal transformation must I make in order to transform the world? The simple way to ask this is how can I be the change that I want to become? More deeply, what are the things that I must do to help facilitate a more loving and accepting community? I think a part of this process is to do my best to get over feelings of personal or societal wounding caused by those whose politics or views I oppose. Yelling insults at George Bush at a peace rally may make me feel better but is it really doing anything to help transform the world to be a better place?

The first conference in Berkeley this past summer was this wonderful new idea where I met people who craved a deeper meaning in the world, this second conference however was different. I really feel that this message of transformation is getting clearer, more people are catching on to the ideas, and that true change might actually be possible.

Possible, but not easy. Regarding a more global transformation, as a part of the planned activities there were many meetings with Senators and Representatives on Capitol Hill. Initially I thought these meeting were premature but later I appreciated how truly grassroots they were. The biggest meeting for the California delegation was with an aid to Diane Feinstein. About 50 of us, with little organization and no real pre-planning, descended on the office all with our own words, thoughts and approach to “lobbying” our Senator about the existence of a new religious/spiritual left in America.

Without going into great detail, it was a microcosm of all that is good and challenging about this movement. After electing 3 speakers to deliver the message, which they attempted to do to the best of their abilities, others in the group felt the need to deliver messages that they felt were also important. Once again, what I worry about is how this might “shut down” the receptors of anyone listening. If we say things in the same way as they have always been said, will people act in the way they have always acted? With more planning I would have asked (and will ask in the future), how does every word and action help people in power clearly hear, authentically understand, and begin to believe that they too can be a part of a transformation.

I say “shut down” for a very specific reason. They have heard it before. Those who work at Diane Feinstein’s office very likely do not approve of the war either. They are probably against tax cuts for the rich; they want a fair immigration policy; and they desire a decent and more comprehensive health care program. One more progressive, speaking from their well deserved position of frustration, was probably not going to have a specific effect on policy and may in fact have turned on what I will call “the filter.”

What was wonderful about this experience however and could have a more lasting effect, was the presence of 50 people (they said they had never had a group that large a group come to the office) speaking in one voice regarding a new and growing movement of secular, spiritual and religious Americans coming together as a political force to propose and support a new and systemic method of solving the problems facing the country and the world. I believe just this in-person announcement of our presence had an impact.

Now to address personal transformation. One of the things that is hopeful to me is what happened as the conference progressed. During the conference I sent a note to the NSP San Diego Yahoo Group about some of the news articles being written about the conference. An email discussion ensued that was not unlike discussions that must be taking place all around this country. What is this Network of Spiritual Progressives? Who are they to think they can speak for me? Why should I join? Aren’t they all just a bunch of Christians trying to further co-opt the left? These and many other questions have been raised and I imagine, will be repeated in communities all over the country in the coming months (or years) and quite frankly, although the conversations are uncomfortable, it is amazing that they are happening at all.

One of those potentially uncomfortable conversations happened during a session I attended. Although potentially uncomfortable, this ended up being a unifying moment, a moving start and what I believe demonstrates the true message of this conference. (I apologize to those on the Yahoo group list for the repetition of this story.)

This session was about African Americans as a part of this spiritual movement. About 1% of the people at this conference were African American. Out of the 30 attendees to this session, 9 were African American. People came to this session with a wide variety of ideas about what it was going to cover. Some thought it was just an African American caucus to talk amongst themselves about the need of their community in this process. Others thought it was going to be an opportunity to address the lack of African American people at the conference. What ended up happening was something much different from either of those.

People in the group, mostly the African Americans, shared deeply from their authentic selves about the pain and anger of the divisions of race in this country. They talked about how that affected their own sense of wholeness and what issues they had to face as they walked through life in a community that doesn’t understand and at times fears each other.

There was one woman, a light skinned African American woman, who at one point just started crying. After a moment, she raised her head and said the she was a product of a 1960's love relationship between a dark-skinned black man and a white, Catholic woman. She said that she had never fit in to either group and the pain she had felt in growing up in a country that didn’t accept her or even know what to do with her was overwhelming and over the years was intolerable.

She said that the reason that she was crying was that she had never heard people share their feelings on this subject so honestly and authentically. She almost couldn’t believe that this could happen and although she didn’t say this, it felt as if she could not believe that people of different skin colors and religious backgrounds could come together in the same room with such love and respect and even have this conversation.

That is what all of this is about for me, the moment of transformation that took place in that room. The beginning, and let me emphasize, truly that this is just the beginning, of a movement to have these conversations. To be authentic and work through the years of mistrust, anger and pain. To be able to embrace the values that lie deep in us all even if we don’t accept the beliefs that others may have. This moment, on that day, at this conference, made this trip worth it to me.

Of the many, many things I could quote to capture the spirit and the heart of this conference I will close with two. One of the speakers said this, “Don’t follow your bliss, follow your heartbreak.” What is the pain in the world that you wish to transform and how can you devote yourself to that with all of your being?

The other thing was particularly meaningful to me and I believe is at the core of Michael Lerner’s message and the message of the new NSP. If we talk to “them” or the “others” or those “who don’t agree with us” and they don’t understand, is it not our duty to refine and change the message? Must we not try to be more loving? Must we not try to be more real? How are we ever going to transform the world if we don’t understand their opposition and if our message isn’t working, hone a better message based not on the words we have come to use in opposition but the common ground of the shared values we can discover. Someone has to blink first for real transformation, I am willing for it to be me.

I hope that I can be more compassionate, and above all, understanding the urgency of the need for change, be more patient while acting everyday for change.

Real change takes time.

I can not and will not believe that things must be and always will be like they are, even with a “Democrat” variation. This may not be the perfect roadmap, but I now know the journey has begun.

Further Information:

http://www.spiritualprogressives.org/

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003008966_religchurch21.html?syndication=rss)

End of the Year Report

2006-05-01T08:50:00.000-07:00

This is not really a political blog entry, it is more personal than that. It is an end of the year school report if you will. Last week, I received an assignment to answer three questions about my vocational discernment and formation process over the past year. As I write this with two weeks left in the semester, I intended to write the 300 – 500 words the assignment called for, be done with it and move on to the next 5-10 page paper on the list, but I have to pause here and really put some thought into these questions, they deserve thoughtful answers.

This has been one of the most amazing years of my life and one of the fastest. I can not believe how this year has flown by and that I am now just about finished with my first year of graduate/theology school/seminary. I have never had such an extraordinary experience and I hope you will see that in the answers to these three assigned questions.

Question 1 – What have you learned this semester about your vocational desires and/or direction?

What have I learned, let’s see, where do I start? I have always felt that I was being prepared for something in life; some might label this a calling and for now I will just leave it at that (although I usually add, I wish whatever was calling had caller ID). For years I was involved with politics and thought that maybe I would run for office, but I saw the brutality of our political process during the Clinton years and I became very disillusioned with the acrimony of the whole mess. However, even after that, I have always felt a need to do or say things to help heal the world and somehow I needed to find a path to try and do that.

This year, by an amazing series of events, I feel like I have found that path. I can not even begin to tell you how often and how deeply I have felt affirmed and supported to do this thing I am doing. I know now more than ever, that from this journey I will learn skills and develop thoughts that will further prepare me to take on the challenges and rewards the future holds.

I believe this world needs structural change. I think there is a growing movement of people looking for new ways and new answers to the problems of greed, poverty, hunger, ignorance and war. The confirmation I have felt through feedback on my writing, my thoughts and my actions has helped me feel like I do have something to say. I am trying to live a good life, a life of integrity and to do the best I can to be the change I want to become. This is not easy, but I continue to strive to walk a spiritual path together with others, doing what we can to change the world.

Question 2 - What have you come to understand about your faith?

This is a very interesting question for an agnostic, Jewish, humanist, Chicago-born, Unitarian Universalist attending a liberal Methodist school of theology, but surprise, I do have an answer.

I have a growing and very strong feeling about my faith. Last week we had a panel discussion on inter-religious dialogue. It all went very well until people actually started talking about religious beliefs using dogmatic religious terms. I guess I can say that I was not all that shocked when the room got tense and the panel ended shortly thereafter. The discussion the class was having before the panel portion began was about how shared values are the beliefs that actually unite people. In other words, I believe that if we were to have a discussion on values, the people in that room (whose values are probably pretty similar) would have been able to have a much more stress-free conversation, but because of the religious language, tension followed.

This leads me to the discussion of my faith. In Hebrews in the New Testament, (using religious language hopefully with broad meaning) faith is described as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” I have come to deeply believe now more than ever that there is hope for the world and I do this in the midst of one of the most difficult times in modern history. I also believe that my new faith, Unitarian Universalism, offers a hopeful and wonderful message. To me, this message is based on coming together in community supported by values and not about the polarizing religious language that can come from institutional religions.

One of the most significant areas of enlightenment for me this year has been learning some of the good things about some of the messages of religion. Through my studies, I have come to understand our need for joining together in community to share the unexplainable, the mysteries and the sheer awe of life. Also, I have come to believe that the less we use the “language” of religion and the more we share the timeless messages based on shared values, the easier it will be for us to live together. So, my personal faith has grown and so has my clarity about what religions have to offer.

Question 3 - What did you come to understand about your sense of God (or of whatever is of the ultimate significance for you)?

Ah, here is the big one, what have I come to about God. I will say that this has been my single biggest change this year. I have not come to the belief that there is an omnipotent God looming down upon us. (I could get into a whole bunch of theology that I have studied this year, but I won’t.) There are all kinds of definitions of God. For my Pagan friends, they speak about the Goddess and Mother Earth, my Christian friends talk about Jesus and the trinity, (which they debate), and my atheist friends just say no to God. I have my own take on God. I have found my first year of seminary fascinating for among other reasons, its effect on my thoughts on God. What I have learned is that my opinion on how I think about God has not changed a great deal, but my thoughts on how others think about God have changed significantly.

To me, God represents the feeling that we all get when feeling loved, accepted and tuned into our community. It is something that I can not explain, but I know it when I feel it. It is the love that transcends our fears and pettiness. One way I have explained it lately was that I believe there is a metaphorical layer of energy and love that streams above us, on occasion we rise above our daily lives and flow in that stream. When we do, we know it. This is unsettling for many religious people I know. They would like a more firm depiction of God to hold on to, but I am comfortable living in the unknown and not having to have a firm definition of an omnipotent God.

My thoughts on others beliefs have been extraordinarily expanded. Here at a Christian school, I have come to learn the need to separate theism from institutional religion and that there are many different Christian conceptualizations on God.

I think there is a part of our brain or life energy that when fully aware and functioning, can transcend our daily lives and connect at a more spiritual level. For example, I do believe that as a result of the events of September 11th, 2001, although the horror of the day was beyond words, for a short time the events served to strip away our daily layers and exposed some to the core. I remember being a part of groups that week that connected like never before, in a loving and spiritual manner. Although I have many other examples not based on tragedy, I will never forget the reaction of my community in connecting with others in love and spirit.

What this means for me is that I intend to facilitate community almost any way I can. In community is where I believe God (or my definition of God) lives. As a minister, I feel my calling (from whatever is calling me) is to transcend our differences through words and deeds and lower, move or abolish the traditional boundaries that serve to keep us divided. I think we need to celebrate our differences of cultures and faith, but I hope that I can instill a strong and growing sense of shared principles and values that transcend our traditional feelings of rightness of our own take on faith.

So, where does that leave me? It leaves me in perhaps one of the most fascinating places in my life. I end this semester with a need for summer employment for the first time in 25 years. I will spend the summer excited about moving on from the first year of classes into classes that feel more specific to my type of ministry. I anticipate starting the first year of a two year internship at a local UU congregation.

I feel open for whatever awaits me on this journey. But, even more significantly, I am so much more deeply convinced that although it will take hard work, patience and huge amounts of love and understanding, I truly believe we can create a better world and I hope that this experience will prepare me to play some small part in that change.

Marching for Peace

2006-03-19T23:36:00.000-08:00

When asked to write something about “following our bliss” for the April edition of our school journal the Theolog, I thought long and hard about what that truly would be. To tell you the truth, following my bliss has always been about a lottery win and the presidential suite at the Bellagio in Vegas. But, after a semester and a half at Claremont School of Theology, I am much deeper than that now. I say that with tongue firmly in cheek because although I am sure I would still enjoy the lotto money, there are things stirring in me that have much greater meaning and much deeper significance.

I write this on Sunday, March 19, 2006. Tomorrow is the third anniversary of the beginning of the second war in Iraq. Like many I must say, quite superficially that I am pissed off about this war, but let me get back to that some other time.

I had a profound experience today. My local Unitarian Universalist minister organized an event of faith leaders to protest this anniversary and the war as a whole. He was concerned about the lack of an organized clerical movement to oppose the war and did something about it. He made a few phone calls to begin with and a number of months later there are fifty clergy from numerous faiths who have joined this group. Today, there were almost one thousand people who participated in a multi-denominational service and a silent, prayerful, meditative walk for peace. This was where my profound experience occurred so let me tell you how that relates to “following my bliss.”

I have become increasingly frustrated with some in the anti-war movement. I am grateful and thankful for their passion and commitment, but I must admit that I am weary from the mutual finger pointing, anti-violence slogans couched in violent tones, focus on demonization and retread chants from the Vietnam era. I am fed up with the us verses them mentality of both sides and I am quite sure that most, if not all, people who end up at the protest marches don’t really need to hear a speech about how George Bush has lied and the neocons want to control the world. I think at this point there are many of us who believe that he did and they do and we can stop preaching to the choir about that. What we cannot stop preaching about is how this is an abomination against the teaching of all faiths, and how their policies are contrary to the ideals that this country was founded on. Most of all, we must be able to have a conversation with those that don’t traditionally already have a tendency to believe that, we must engage those who voted for Bush and people of faith who don’t consider themselves in the traditional antiwar category. The coolest sign I saw today was one that said something to the effect of, “Another Veteran, Christian, Republican Against the War.”

There is another side of all of this and since I am writing this for a journal entry, this is also about what happened inside me today. I have been to protests before but it has been a long time and this was perfect reentry. There I was sitting in a huge Episcopal cathedral and onstage were Rabbi’s, Priests, UU Ministers, Methodists, Muslims, Buddhists, Baptists and a host of others. Watching the gray haired woman two rows over from me with a huge cross around her neck singing a song of peace with Hebrew and Arabic words was surreal and awe inspiring. I wanted to be up there on that stage leading that group, preaching and inspiring all this. And I thought about that, why do I want to do those things? Is it the old actor in me wanting the limelight, is it my desire to change the world, is it wanting the opportunity to have my views heard—of course the answer to all those questions is yes. It is all those things.

I think we bring who we are to whatever we do both blessing and curse. As an old boss of mine used to say, “what makes us good makes us bad,” in other words, I do my best with what I have and always try to be a little better where possible. I would like to be less vain. I would like to be more magnanimous. I would like to care a little less about my happiness and care a little more about the happiness of all those whose lives I touch, but indeed, I am human.

That is what I noticed when I left the cathedral and walked for the next thirty minutes in silence; we are all human, with all the frailties, strengths and challenges that humans possess. As we walked reporters were there to report on this common experience. We had honks of support, we were yelled at for not supporting the troops and one woman walked by and called us names. We also had car after car flash us the peace sign in return of ours and, although I don’t like “protests,” there I was with almost a thousand other people, silently holding up traffic and weaving together all those different stories, frustrations, fears and hopes—together in silence. I hate to be trite, but to me, on this day, that silence was indeed deafening.

I know that after today I will not quit school to go off and protest the war. I am also sure that I will not be the same person that I was yesterday. I am even more committed to make every moment count. Whether it be in something I write, or helping to organize Claremont’s Seminarians for Social Justice, or dealing with one person in need next year in my internship, I am convinced that we all need a new language of peace, kindness, love and justice and “we need to be the change that we want the world to become.”

With all my challenges, faults and frailties, I hope that this will be the “bliss” that I follow. To badly paraphrase the Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, if you set off on a journey and try to reach the North Star you never will, but you will make a lot of progress in a northerly direction. A few months back my minister, Arvid Straube took a step in that direction and today a thousand people took a few steps closer to the North Star.

A Letter to Mr. Bush

2006-02-11T20:49:00.000-08:00

Dear Mr. Bush,

I recently saw you at the Coretta Scott King Funeral with all those Democrats and I do have to say it was one heck of a sight. Many people have written about the dynamics of that day, but I wanted to write and tell you about something I witnessed. I saw a man who is the embodiment of what is both good and flawed in this country. To me, you are a white male of privileged descent, claiming to be compassionate but influenced by the hundreds of years of puritan history that precedes you. On stage there were times where you looked as if you wanted to laugh in joy at the stories of love and triumph, but also cry for those who had been so challenged by struggle. What I fear is there’s something in you, like so many other of our white American political leaders, that has been conditioned to believe that vulnerability is weakness and true compassion is somehow a handout.

As a seminary student who questions traditional definitions of religion and the divine, it has been interesting to study the founding of America from a religious viewpoint. Understanding how this country was founded and why, and then looking at you up on that stage with all those African Americans, I could not help but note the irony. In fact in one of my textbooks in a chapter titled, “Religious Consequences of the Revolution,” it talks about the same the heritage of the leadership of this country that I believe in some ways has been passed down to you. The informative words of the textbook read as follows:

While there were no religious tests for citizenship, most states restricted officeholding in some way. Five states reserved offices for Protestants. Delaware required a belief in the trinity, and Maryland restricted religious freedom to Christians. When Pennsylvania attempted in 1776 to broaden the loyalty oath for office in ways that might allow deists and Jews to serve, the Protestant clergy objected and persuaded the Constitutional Convention to adopt more restrictive language.

It goes on to say, The theory was that only knowledge of a future heaven and hell would bring honesty. Under the same theory, some states refused to allow atheists to testify in court. Jews could not hold office in Virginia until 1857 and in Maryland until 1867, and North Carolina restricted office holding to Protestants until 1868.

So you see Mr. Bush, although you have appointed many people of different backgrounds to your administration, I view your approach to governing as coming from this lineage of punishment and reward with the father as the all powerful enforcer of self-proclaimed righteousness.

The point I am making is, the history of America confirms that the struggles of race and religion are deep-seeded. The leap I am making, in case you do not see it, is that as the white male protestant President of a country founded on religion, you come from a long line of issues that continue to need moral evolution.

In fact it is not just you. I believe we have come to a time where the world is at a crossroads influenced by three major forces. None of them are black and white and each of them has fuzzy edges. Unlike the fight of good vs. evil, characterized by the cold war and your own administration’s rhetoric, I think there is a continuum. On one side of the line are totally secular forces with fundamentalists for their position. At the other end of the continuum are religious fundamentalist. We all know that those on that extreme also have equally strong views as to the "rightness" of their position. In the middle, somewhere between the fuzzy lines, are those who believe in something; some who believe in the mystery of it all or "spirit," who lean one way perhaps and those who believe in God, Jesus, Mohammad or others that lean the other way. (These are simplistic examples for purposes of illustration for there are obviously any number of combinations.)

We are at a crossroads with these influences on the world. Picture three paths, one path is polarization and conflict, the middle path is incrementalism and politics as usual and the third path (for the purposes of this discussion) we can call a "new bottom line," (a phrase I borrow from Rabbi Michael Lerner). To me the new bottom line is focused on creating connections, focusing legal, social and political actions on enhancing community across traditional boundaries and, especially for religious people, thinking of your actions towards others, (ALL others), to be part of one’s spiritual practice. It also is based on emphasizing change that strategically approaches the structure of issues rather than the symptoms. Our current model is set up to deal with symptoms not structure. Trying to change structure is something that runs head on into money, lobbyist and political constituencies.

It is true Mr. Bush, that on the other side of “the aisle” you have not had much of a challenge or in fact, any real coalition of ideas to debate. I feel that this is a bit of a failing by my progressive friends. Our real challenge in helping to set a new course or agenda for this country is the well meaning but inadequate proliferation of progressive groups in opposition to your conservative issues. Frequently issue-based or overlapping, I have now actually lost count of how many progressive organizations have great and similar ideas to do basically the same things. Democracy for America, True Majority, MoveOn, and the Network of Spiritual Progressives are all organizations basically saying the same thing while having similar goals in mind. Perhaps it is time to fold all of these organizations into one movement, or perhaps one political party, the Progressive Party of America. At least then we could coordinate the message and the movement, something that until recently you Republicans have accomplished so effectively.

If progressives can’t pull it together for that idea, perhaps what we can create is a Pedagogy of Transformation (again not an original term). After years of fundraising in nonprofits and working in politics, I (and many others) have come to the conclusion that convincing people to change/increase their commitment to something based on intellectual discussion or arguments does not create long-term systemic change. You can not tell people things in presentations and hope that they see the light. I think long term change comes when change happens within. Although we all want to believe that a presentation, marketing or advertising will work on its own for the topics and issues we are dealing with, I believe people must want to do things based on their own perceptions, (what it means to them) and a change of heart, spirit and/or soul.

I hope my progressive friends consider the formula written below. It is a variation of something that I have used in fundraising when trying to understand a person’s decision to donate to or get more deeply involved with a cause they care about. Perhaps this formula is a beginning of a Pedagogy of Transformation:

- Properly presented awareness of progressive issues leads to opportunities
- Opportunities lead to engagement
- Engagement leads to relationships
- Relationships lead to involvement
- Involvement leads to understanding
- Understanding leads to increased commitment
- Increased commitment leads to increased participation
- Increased participation leads to deeper commitment
- Deeper commitment leads to longer term actions
- Longer term actions lead to true change

So Mr. Bush, and this is an important point, although you may not like it, I would like to suggest that we on the progressive end of the spectrum unite for this common purpose.

Personally, what I am trying to do by attending seminary is to learn a new language and a new paradigm in preparation for engaging others, not those who think like me or the progressives I know, but those who think like you and the conservatives you know. I truly believe this type of engagement is where the hope is; those who think differently must cooperatively engage in community, cross traditional boundaries and over time facilitate change. This is what a true progressive effort might look like. We must at least take the middle third of this country, unite for common purpose and if nothing else, change the structure of the corporate based political system.

So, as you reach the final years of your presidency, I beg you, please take the truly courageous step of evolving your heritage and party toward true compassion. Take that difficult step and cross your political line in the sand. The world needs reconciliation not puritanical posturing. The country needs ideological healing not the politics of polarization. If we are going to survive the challenges of history, brave leaders need to take steps in new directions. And, I also want to ask my friends in the progressive movement who may be reading a copy of this letter a question; can we give up our own issues to come together and work as a coordinated movement? (Or at least sacrifice some of our individual efforts to work together.) I ask this because should Mr. Bush decide that it is too late to change, we must seize the higher ground and continue to work for true community filled with cross-cultural compassion that builds hope for all our futures.

Most sincerely,

David

Thank You Dr. King

2006-01-16T09:50:00.000-08:00

I was eight years old and my family had accompanied my dad to Collinsville, Illinois near St. Louis on a business trip. I remember that my parents had gone out and when they returned to the motel they told us that Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot and that we were leaving for (the safety of) our north suburban Chicago home. In 1968 we were a baby boom family with parents from a generation before Vietnam and children from a generation mostly after. In April of 1968 my oldest brother was twelve, (certainly not old enough to serve in Vietnam or be in the streets protesting it) and I was eight. We were liberal Democrats with African American friends at school and although eight, I knew about Martin Luther King Jr. and was very aware of the civil rights struggles of the day. When my parents returned with this news, I remember being very sad and scared and at the age of eight, that was enough. I also recall that my dad seemed worried. That is all I remember until we got back home.

This next part of the story has become one of those things from life that you never forget. One of those things like your first kiss, where you were when JFK was shot (or 9/11 depending on how old you are or both) -- some kind of event that you will remember until the day you die. I remember getting home and my dad pulling out a map of the city of Chicago and spreading this map out on our kitchen table. Now my dad always enjoyed listening to the “fire calls” on the Chicago fire radio, the calls from the dispatcher to the trucks in the field. I also found that kind of interesting and to an eight year old boy fire trucks are pretty cool. This night however was different. The night that MLK Jr. was shot, my dad took that map of the city of Chicago and by the information coming across the radio, he marked down what parts of the city were going up in flames as a result of the rioting that was taking place from the anger and frustration of the day's events.

As many in my generation, this was my first real brush with terror. As I remember it, the mood in the house was similar to that feeling we had during one of those Midwestern tornado warnings, also a radio driven event that created fear. Those were humid summer nights when the skies turned a dark green and you never knew whether what was coming was coming for you.

This night of fear was soon followed by another night of deep sadness, the assassination of Robert Kennedy. Even at that young age, these two tragic days had a lasting and profound effect on me. These two men were different. I was aware of their idealism, of their call for unity and community, and their desire to create visions that would help lead us together as a society to a better place. I have never forgotten their call and during that turbulent spring before my ninth birthday, the threads of their spirit were woven into the fabric of my life.

I have often quoted Dr. King in this blog and with this new direction in my life, I recognize the internal need to mark the holiday of his birth.

In the Time Magazine dated January 9th, 2006, former civil rights leader and Democratic Congressman John Lewis was a member of a group of people who were asked the question, “What if he were alive today?” In part he answered:

The very last time I saw Dr. King alive, he was getting ready to bring people to Washington to deal with not just civil rights, but the whole question of economic justice. He was going to put on the American agenda the pain and the suffering and the hurting of that segment of America. I truly believe if he had lived and if Robert Kennedy had lived and been elected President, the two of them together would have been an unstoppable coalition that would have made the country a place with a greater sense of community.

In that same article, the President of the Children’s Defense Fund, Marian Wright Edelman notes a very important point when she says:

Everybody is looking for Dr. King to come back. The issues were very clear-cut back then. Now it’s about technical matters, monitoring government agencies. And how do you relate the complex relationships of injustices and basic wrongs and needy children with the legalese and legislation needed to right them to the general public. Dr. King’s vision was clear; the voice was clear. That clarity was a great loss. While we’re all looking for the heroes of the 60’s, a strong foundation has been laid. It spawned the next phase in taking our nation where it needs to get. Now the task is to honor them in our deeds. Where is the voice today? We’re it. We’ve got to make the leaders hear it. He did his part. Now we need to do ours.
I find these to be prophetic words. Indeed, we are it -- he did do his part now we do need to do ours. Most of the time, I have tried to honor his words in my deeds but I have never known exactly how to do that. Now, after this successful, thrilling, unbelievably challenging and certainly enlightening first semester at school, I know I am finally on the right path. In fact, I know many people on this path. Among others they include my classmates at school, members of the newly formed Network of Spiritual Progressives, fellow Unitarian Universalists, and yes, even some other Democrats and Republicans. These are people of all races, backgrounds and economic levels who are working for evolution not revolution.

What I do believe we are missing however is that “clear voice” for that is the void that has not been filled. My question is how can we overcome all our own causes and issues and come together in clarity? How can progressives sacrifice part of their own individual work to join together in creating, as Michael Lerner says, “a new bottom line” for America? I do not have the answer yet, although this is the question that I and many others are working on. I would like to pose this question to all of you. Feel free to respond on the blog if you have any thoughts or send me responses if you want and I can post them with your permission or just ponder this if you will. In my mind this is a huge part of a progressive strategy that needs to be addressed so please allow me to clearly pose this question again; how can progressives with disparate causes and issues find/do something that will bind us together to create a “new bottom line” for America?

To me, this new bottom line would look a great deal like the economic justice and sense of community that John Lewis felt Dr. King and RFK were heading towards. So this is where I continue as I enter my second semester of school. I am searching for the knowledge to help understand my version of faith. I am searching for faith to support my spirit. I am searching for the spirit to provide me vision. I am searching for vision to clarify my purpose. I am hoping that purpose brings me clarity of action. And I hope action helps me facilitate change.

So on the holiday marking your birth Dr. King, I hope our gifts to you are worthy of your lasting gifts to us.

Thanksgiving 2005

2005-11-14T07:39:00.000-08:00

Well, it is time for my annual Thanksgiving message, something I have been doing for many years now since the advent of email. It comes to you a little early this year because of school concerns and homework schedules so I wanted to put something down on paper before the school week began. It is a long entry so for those of you who don’t read past this point, have a great Thanksgiving. For those who do, unlike in previous years, I wanted to make this message a little less political and a little more personal. Please allow me to say this to start, I have never been more thankful in my life, I feel as if I am engaged in a journey that I have been preparing for since birth.

This year’s Thanksgiving theme is about connection. It would be wrong for me not to talk about connection considering what I have been going through this year. I am connecting with people in completely new and fascinating ways. I am connecting with my family differently than before (interesting for sure), I am connecting with people of different faiths, backgrounds, and traditions and most of all, I am connecting differently with myself.

What do I say to my friends who think I have lost my mind, all this religious stuff? Well, I say this, for me it really isn’t about religion; in fact I still have my struggles with institutional religion. To me it is about something much deeper than the semantics of how one faith describes something differently than another. To me it is about love, compassion, and most of all coming together in community. I don’t just mean community that looks, talks and walks exactly like us, I mean community that stretches your comfort, that looks different than you, prays (if at all) differently than you, and perhaps even thinks about politics differently than you.

It wouldn’t however be a thanksgiving message for me if I didn’t make a couple of political comments.

I think one of the reasons George Bush was successful early on and why I think politics is broken is, he very effectively separated us into groups and appealed to each group with what they wanted to hear. This is not new from politicians or Madison Avenue. We have individualized our society in such a way that the expert marketers and political consultants have made it an art form to break us down to individuals making individual decisions about the color of their car and the mustard on their bun. Having it your way seems to be a mantra.

I also think that we have individualized the way we deal with issues in society. We are treating the symptoms and with rare exception, we aren’t treating the problems, or the structural issues. It is too easy to make people feel better rather than address the toxic nature of the structure. But here is where I divert my path from Arnold, we have to do this together. It is not feasible, expedient, or civil to play together pointing fingers and calling names. It didn’t work in the school yard and it won’t work as adults.

I have often quoted Martin Luther King Jr. in this blog and I do it again. In fact, I have used a popularized version of this quote in another entry. But here is actually the full quote from the Letter from a Birmingham Jail:

I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.” What a line. How can we as caring people, as people who crave justice, who complain about the war, who question the ethics of Washington, how can we look at the structures we feel need changing and be satisfied just treating the symptoms? I would like to suggest that the first step is building understanding and stepping over our borders to create community.

We so often end up treating the symptoms of a problem, the illness after a problem has become toxic but rarely if ever, do we address the structural needs of a problem. (My holistic friends should love that line.) We see this with war, homelessness, drug abuse and a litany of other issues in our society. Someday, we will have to look at these issues with a different lens if we truly want to affect change. Building community has to be the start. This is my journey now. Day to day I travel through this unknown and I am much happier for it.

On a personal note, I would like to mark the passing of two members of my community. My cousin Malcolm, not someone I knew very well, he was my mother’s first cousin. He was a funny man, sort of rollie pollie. His death was sad for two reasons, first, it made my mother sad, but it also made me think of how long it had been since I had seen him, knew about his life, or even thought about him. He was a part of many of my early childhood memories, but here was a family member that had passed without even a recent thought from me.

The second person was a close friend of my mother’s, the mother of one of my brother’s best friends, and someone who was also in my life since I was a child. This woman was someone I had seen through the years, thought about a lot as I learned about her struggles with ALS and I was very saddened by her passing. Although not always seeing eye-to-eye in the past, my mother and I have been sharing our journeys more closely lately and she shared some of her thoughts about this latest experience. She would take this woman to lunch every week until shortly before her death she could go to lunch no more. This woman, also “fought like hell,” to go to lunch until she absolutely couldn’t. I got the sense from my mother that she was fighting to squeeze every moment she could out of life by among other things, taking the simple act of getting dressed and although unable to speak, going with her friends to share a meal.

My journey has led me to a place where I am exploring the spirit and mystery of life and how we as people frame it, deal with it, and travel through it. As this Thanksgiving approaches, I am thinking about the things I have done and the people I have known. I think about what has led me here, this place, at this time, and I look back at those who came before me and those that will be here long after I am gone and I can only think one thing, I am so thankful.

I am thankful for Malcolm, for the little imprint he left on my life and in many ways I am sorry that this is realized after his passing. I am thankful for our friend Sandy and the way, even without words, she has spoken to me through her actions. I am thankful for my mother and my family, and although our relationships are not all perfect, they are what they are. I love them and I am a better person because of them. I am thankful for my fiancé who provides me with love like I have never known, and a life that I didn’t think I could have. And I am also thankful for all of you, whoever you are, friends, classmates, teachers, for what you teach me and how I live a richer and more fulfilling life because of you. Whether we meet in passing, struggle with homework together, or just sit quietly to share a meal, as Thanksgiving approaches I am thankful that you have shared with me those precious moments that come and go in time.

Mid-Semester Report - Report #1

2005-10-15T10:18:00.000-07:00

I have a minute to breathe this morning before I move on to my homework and I wanted to create this mid-semester report. I think I can characterize this as one of the most incredible experiences of my adult life. To be able to sit and think, talk and write about the things I am pondering is amazing. Aside from forming a deeper understanding of the political and social issues that I went to school to eventually address, I am learning about the common nature of the mysteries that we all face while we walk (or sometimes sleep or run) through life on this planet. It is extremely challenging and so far, unbelievably interesting.

But there is so much more to it. I am meeting people who have already and will continue to have a substantial impact on my life. They are from very different backgrounds and bring a wealth of knowledge, love and experience to my education. Growing up in a fairly multi-cultural hamlet of Evanston, I am so thankful that I already knew people of different skin tones and faith traditions. Looking back on my youth, I see how that has influenced me and continues to do so everyday. So a little shout out for the hometown.

As a Jewish, humanist, agnostic, Unitarian Universalist Midwesterner, the whole God thing is something that I have struggled with through the years, but now I am studying and thinking about it and school is providing me with some new frameworks. One of those came from my new friend Paula who said that you don’t fall in love, you step up to it. I love that image even more because in a discussion in class the other day we talked about how there is a level of God that is always present, that sometimes we reach and sometimes we don’t. From my filter I look at it this way, there is a place of love, clarity, understanding and moments of joy that sometimes we can climb the ladder and reach. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does we know it. It leads to a tingly sort of feeling. I had two of those moments the other day. Imagine, two in one day.

The first was at a meeting of “Seminarians for Social Justice.” This is a group of idealistic mostly young people trying to mix their spiritual need for justice with the available academic setting for thought and discussion. Sitting in this meeting I realized that this was the kind of discussion I had always longed for in nonprofit work. This was a discussion on how to inform, learn and act on ways to create justice in the world. I know a lot of people who try to do this on a daily basis and I honor them for that, but for me, although I have taken many paths, sitting there at that moment, on a plastic chair, eating a piece of chicken and potato salad, it seemed as meaningful to me as almost any nonprofit work I have done over the last 20 years. Thinking about all the work I have done to get to this point, it felt just right.

The other moment was later that same day when under the stars out on campus, I had a chance to have a beer, play some music and beat my drum (literally). It was a poetic moment. It brought the joy of a new experience with new friends that reminded me of many old experiences with old friends. It was an experience I think many of us move on from at some point and I can’t tell you how grateful I am that I haven’t. I have tried to increase these in the last couple of years and I’ve got to tell you, they are good for the soul.

The openness I now feel to new people, new ideas and other ways of thinking is amazing. As my new friend Reggie might say, I may not be as open to some ideas as I think, but at least I am thinking and talking and feeling things that are making me grow and feel very alive. I also am developing a deeper understanding of the troubles that face this country. So many of them come from the divide created by our religious and cultural history. I will, as I feel most of my classmates will, work over the years to come to bring justice to the world. They will go off to their little corners and do the best they can and I am sure that our years here together will influence their sermons and actions.

I am halfway through this first semester. I am behind on my reading, I have written two papers and a test and at this point have no idea about my grades, I have put thousands of miles on my car, and I have just begun a journey that will change my life forever.

Yet Another Voice About Katrina – The Blame Game

2005-09-13T07:17:00.000-07:00

This has to be a quick entry because I need to get back to not understanding Aristotle for my graduate school homework. By the way, I am now into my third week and it is very challenging, exciting and definitely will transform my life. More later, or contact me for the exciting but exhausting details.

Yet Another Voice About Katrina – The Blame Game
It goes without saying that I am shocked by the events following Hurricane Katrina. I need not cover ground that has been talked about so much. The devastation of culture, property and most importantly lives is almost impossible to watch every night on the evening news. I thought about this a great deal this week after attending worship services that also comemerated the 4th anniversary of 9/11. I was deeply moved by the sermon delivered by our minister. One of the many wonderful points he made that stuck in my brain was how easy it is to go to blame from disbelief and anger.

I too had that same reaction, but I must admit it was about something a little different. My blame went to our society, the participants and leaders who have allowed people in the richest nation on earth to live in poverty, racism and lack of hope for so many years.

What is it that makes this natural disaster be the horrible opportunity to view the inequities and lack of kindness and compassion that has become the invisible reality of everyday life in America?

I was deeply saddened by this and moved to tears more than once but not just by the horror of the unfolding scene along the Gulf Coast, but the horror of the excuses we fool ourselves with everyday. My minister went on to say that instead of blame, are we not better off if we can go to compassion and kindness? By the look of the emails in my in box, I noticed that moveon.org and Democracy for America have already started the blaming for the Left, but as we have seen from the Rove machine, the Right as usual is worse. This time however, it is going to be really hard for them to make their case that the victims, the mayor and governor were somehow more responsible.

Here’s the thing; this also could be an opportunity beyond compare. We are going to spend billions of dollars rebuilding the affected area. How often in modern American life has that ever happened. An example I can think of is the recent closing and rebuilding of the military bases after the end of the cold war. There are a couple of examples that I am aware of where marvelous coalitions have been built to plan a multitude of cross-community-building actions. Ideas like creating affordable housing, new and more modern schools, environmentally friendly buildings, open spaces, consideration for cultural enrichment and the establishment of neighborhood and community-centric groups that cross traditional cultural/political boundaries to work for the good of the community.

One of those examples is the former Lowry Air Force Base in Colorado. Here is a quote from their website, “Once a working Air Force base in Denver, Colorado, Lowry transformed into a forward-thinking, mixed-use community. The idea behind Lowry was to take an existing urban area, give it new life and avoid adding to the problem of urban sprawl. That dream is now a reality. In fact, Lowry has been so successful that it received the Governor's Award for Smart Growth and has become a model community for urban-infill projects across the country.”

As a part of the new Network of Spiritual Progressives, I have already made my list of community-building criteria that I will propose we follow and my hope is that somehow others in the gulf will too. As Michael Lerner and Jim Wallis say, it is time to create a “new bottom line."

My suggestions are:

To work to create interfaith and interracial connections in activities and actions;
To endeavor to facilitate new communities, crossing social and political boundaries to form new relationships;
To offer viable alternatives as a vital step in any suggested actions;
To undertake this effort based on the values of love, civility, compassion, justice and the realistic understanding that this will happen over time.

We have an extraordinary opportunity gleaned from this great tragedy, but the real tragedy will be if based on politics and “traditional values”, things end up staying much the same.

Building Community - just another thought or two

2005-08-10T19:22:00.000-07:00

In 1996, before the age of blogs, I wrote down some thoughts of my disappointment with the vision of the Democratic Party at the time and the acrimony of politics. In light of recent events and activities, I have taken out the old copy to reread.

The discussion was based on the principles of increasing community, feeling compassion and creating hope for a better future. To cut to the chase, I sent that out via the relatively new medium of email and we had a series of meetings that included Democrats, Republicans, Mormons and non-Mormons, (I lived in Salt Lake City at the time).

Below is what came from that discussion. Unfortunately, although the group was enthusiastic, it didn't really go much further than these meetings. Surprisingly, as I reread it, it sounds a bit like what Peter Gabel and the Network of Spiritual Progressives are proposing.

Below are some of the things we discussed back then with additional comments.

We would like to create a national organization that:

Provides resource and referral - This department would research initiatives being undertaken around the country that support the guiding principles and through newsletters, publications, consultants and other forms of communications, provide information to local and regional members.
Sponsors seminars, conferences and think-tanks - The organization would bring together political figures, community activists, educators, and others for discussions on values driven actions based on increased civility. The purpose would be to support change in our society. (We could certainly add spiritual progressives to that group.)
Supports grassroots political organization and activity - Create a political network to review, endorse and support local and national candidates who subscribe and pledge to support a values and civility based platform developed through a national and local development process.
Trains and provide community consultants for corporate partners and community groups - Although there is a great deal more of this going on now than there was in 1996 such as the growing move toward venture philanthropy, there are still many ways that community consultants could be used to promote the building of community between corporate partners, community groups and local communities.
Has member services - (or the Movement part) - In 1996 we also stated that it was important to create a sense of a movement. At that time we talked about creating a message that implies something like "I am helping my neighbor, no matter what party they are!" or other things that cross traditional lines to build community and a sense of the common good. This would include t-shirts, bumper stickers, buttons, publications, and other types of message conveying materials. As the NSP is attempting, this would include local chapters and meetings.
Provides community needs assessment and action plans - to do the following:

Assess previous and existing community efforts based on guiding principles
Provide a sense of ownership for community participants
Customize the model for the needs of the community
Identify community based leaders, volunteers and coordinators

In specific communities:

Community Resolution, Mediation and Facilitation Councils - Organizations that resolve disputes among citizens and work to reestablish civility among people who differ on major issues.
Create Neighborhood Organizations - Community consultants would help plan, organize and implement community councils and other cross community based organizations.
Design and Implement Community Events - These events would be designed for the purpose of tearing down barriers that create isolation. Block parties, progressive dinners, farmers markets and other community oriented activities that could be planned by neighborhood committees. Components of these events would include discussion on cultural sensitivity, diversity and other related topics facilitated by community consultants.
Community support for single and working parents - Designing networks for emergency assistance/support, and other needs that reduce isolation and provide community for those without "traditional" support networks.
Educational Support - A program that would create homework groups and identify community members who can assist in tutoring and supporting education for neighborhood children.
Work projects for neighbors in need - I know of many organizations that do this now, but there could be a day once a month, facilitated by and/or in support of other organizations, where neighbors come out to help those in need in their neighborhood.
Political non-partisan forums - These forums could be organized to discuss and act on issues that affect the community. Based on principles of civility and common good, these could be grass roots led lobbying efforts to impact areas of community need.
Increased network of nonprofits and faith based organizations working together based on shared principles - Facilitated by this organization (I just added this)

It is not 1996, it is 2005 and I realize that there are NGOs or faith based groups that do some or all of this. I think one of the main points of difference that was true when we discussed this and still holds true today is the need to cross traditional boundaries and base these actions on shared values and principles. I am thrilled that 10 years later the Network of Spiritual Progressives is leading this charge. I really hope all of these thoughts, some how rolled together with thoughts from many others, will some day make the changes we all hope to see.

Thanks

Simple Idea - Let's Change the World

2005-07-25T11:16:00.000-07:00

I write this on Monday morning after what could be a life/world changing experience or another meeting of progressives dreaming big but unable to coalesce. I certainly hope it is the former rather than the latter. Even if it doesn’t change the world through the planned efforts of the group, I am sure, if there are people who had an experience like me, it will help change the world at least through the individuals involved. For those of you who don’t know, last week I attended a conference to create a new Network of Spiritual Progressives. To view the goals of the conference go to http://www.tikkun.org/

I am still exhausted and overwhelmed, filled with thoughts and emotions, thrilled and motivated, scared and typically skeptical. But I am full of hope in a way I have never been before… on a spiritual level. What do I mean by that? Without boring you all with the specific details of my vast spiritual journey, I now find myself at a place to be open and accepting of things that I never thought I would be able to accept. In fact, I am moving beyond acceptance to embracing and that my friends is an amazing change, (in part due to this conference), that already has begun to change my world.

I am embracing this community of spiritual people no matter what their religious beliefs. I am embracing the idea that a community of committed people, with diverse ideologies, belief systems and backgrounds can come together with shared values and principles. I embrace the notion that there really can be a different way for us to relate to each other, individually, locally, nationally and across the global community. And, I believe that we can as a norm, make decisions that will consider the health of our planet and thus the future of our children and our children’s children.

There was speaker after speaker that set the stage. With each speaker’s words flowed the rationale on why we should work together. Each speaker talked about how the current system has abused faith and has provided a manipulated place for those looking for meaning. Each speaker, in their own way offered a vision of a better world, a world based on love, respect, tolerance and compassion, all noble and highly desirable thoughts (even when occasionally using the current language of polarization).

As a part of my own spiritual journey, I am attempting to understand the need to process—to take the time needed to let things bubble. Although I want all these changes to take place yesterday, I know that any good pot of chicken soup needs time to simmer. Ideas will come from this effort that no one has thought of previously. There will be connections, as I feel I have already made, which will lead to collaborations of hearts and minds. One definition of chemistry is, “The elements of a complex entity and their dynamic interrelation.” There will definitely be some “dynamic interrelation” after this conference and through this network.

But here is the thing, in my opinion this can’t be about where you fall on the continuum of left verses right. This can’t be about masking a change to bring people to the Democratic Party. It isn’t about that. It is about creating a new paradigm, a way of looking at politics, human interaction and community in a different context. The challenge with this however is almost beyond comprehension. How can we change a violent world laden with greed, corrupting power , excess materialism and the marketing of the supremacy of the individual verses the good of the community?

I think of that Hummer commercial where there is a soapbox derby car designed like a Hummer. It is designed to show that a Hummer, even one built for a soapbox derby, can go through everything to make you a winner. I see it as teaching us that we can cheat, ruin the environment, and meet our individual needs in order to win totally without regard to the consequences.

I think these changes will like most, come in fits and starts. They will happen inspired by good people working very hard over time. I don’t think they will happen overnight, but I do believe we all must do a little something everyday to keep working on them. (Well, within reason, I am still pretty tired.)

So here I am at a local internet café near my brother’s house. Tomorrow I head back to real life; money concerns, the approaching unknown of my first school experience in many years, and a life ever increasing in meaning. So, in honor of some of my new friends, I will now write something I have never written before. Today I pray the following:

That we have the wisdom to work together to create systems and processes that bring us together to facilitate this change.
That we are smart enough to make this accessible to those who haven’t always thought the way we do.
That people understand and remain committed to the idea that this effort needs to look different then the arguments of the past.
And, that we can sacrifice where needed, (including our comfort with demonizing the other side), to build a better conversation, one that builds bridges, serves to unite and creates a new framework for moving forward together.

We live in a scary and yet exciting time. I believe we are on a precipice, one that this nation has rarely seen. Through recent years the choices have been primarily left or right or somewhere in between. Today I ask all of you, my friends and family, please open your minds to thinking differently. To join with others that haven’t always been along side you on your journey. To work together based on shared values, to create a unique vision, a vision that we may not achieve in our lifetime but as a speaker said at the conference, “if you are going to call yourself a progressive, that means you must be progressing towards something.”

Let’s cross those boundaries of comfort, find the shared values and work together to change the world. Idealistic I know, but hey, if not me, (or you) then who?

Don't Dismiss Us - (Inspired by Live 8)

2005-07-02T14:30:00.000-07:00

On this July 4th weekend do not dismiss me.

Do not dismiss my desire for peace over violence.

Do not dismiss me as automatically voting Democratic.

Do not dismiss the growing chorus of voices looking for different solutions to the same old problems.

Do not dismiss the thought that while there is hunger and death from neglect anywhere in the world, we are all responsible.

Do not dismiss the ability of the earth to make us pay for her scars before she helps us correct our ignorance.

Do not dismiss the precept that no cause, no ideology, no true religion, can ever justify the deliberate killing of civilians -- for this is the purest definition of terrorism.

Do not dismiss that I am "liberal" or "progressive" and I still love my country.

Do not forget that Jesus was an anti-establishment radical.

I believe that there are a growing number of Americans, more than at any time since the 1960's who love this country who want change.

Changes in our approach to conflict resolution.

Changes of the way religion is being used as a weapon of anger instead a path to tolerance, acceptance and spiritual connection.

Changes to the political quagmire in Washington -- on both sides.

Changes to the lack of connection to each other in our communities.

Changes in the way you try to legislate my morality.

Changes to the way our elections are corporately financed.

and changes to patriotism being defined by blind support to an ideology verses the sincere desire to build an ever evolving future based on the spectrum that is America.

I encourage all of us to take a minute away from baseball and BBQ's to reflect on where we will be next July 4th and beyond. Will there be a great jurist of intellectual excellence on the Supreme Court, will there be clear alternatives to neo-conservative ideology, will you add your voice somewhere?

Have a great 4th!

Oy vey, you're a what?

2005-03-14T10:28:00.000-08:00

Edited on 4/5/05 if interested, please contact me for the full post.

I have been accepted to attend the Claremont College, School of Theology beginning this fall. (With a scholarship nonetheless!)

I have told some of you of this new direction in my life and others I haven’t, but as of now I am “coming out the closet” yes. . . I am a Unitarian Universalist. I have found religion, well religion such as it is. I still believe that religion as it is practiced today is the cause of many evils, and I think of myself more of a humanist so mom, don’t worry, your little Jewish boy hasn’t really switched teams. To paraphrase Will Rogers, I am not a member of an organized religion, I am a Unitarian. If you read on you you will read the principles of the Unitarian Universalist Faith. These are things that I feel are important beliefs, especially in today’s world.

The primary reason for this new direction in life couldn’t be summed up any better than this quote from the story, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, “The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart.” This is my place for change now. This is how I intend to do my best to leave my mark on this world.

The day after the election I wrote the following paragraph. This is my next step in my personal pledge to take action to do what I can to affect change.

“Today I say that there needs to be a new vision for America and it can't be the same retread of 20th century democratic thought. It has to be a vision, a cause, a movement that connects real meaning and hope for our world's future, to the millions of voters who could have made a different choice if given the proper motivation. I am not sure today what all this will look like, but I will work the best I can to find it and to tell others when I see it. Yes today I make that pledge and I ask that you do too. We need to move past our history and into the future, it won't be easy, but to me it is the only choice we have.”

Unitarian Universalist Association Principles and Purposes
We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote:

The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

The living tradition which we share draws from many sources:

Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life;
Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love;
Wisdom from the world's religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life;
Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;
Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.
Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.

Grateful for the religious pluralism which enriches and ennobles our faith, we are inspired to deepen our understanding and expand our vision. As free congregations we enter into this covenant, promising to one another our mutual trust and support.

As a marketing person I struggle, as I believe others do, to have an “elevator pitch” for the question “What is a UU?” I have just begun my education on this subject but for now I would say – Unitarian Universalism is a multicultural and multidenominational spiritual community coming together for common purpose.

Thanksgiving Message

2004-11-21T14:44:00.000-08:00

Updated Thanksgiving 2008

Welcome to my Blog

2004-11-14T18:26:00.000-08:00

Welcome!

Below you will find my first entries of my new Blog. I would like to thank my friend Silvia for turning me on to Blogging. These entries will be the first in what I hope will be lively discussion on political idealism and the future of America. Hey, you got to start somewhere, I might as well join the discussion. I also intend to add a few personal, non-political related thoughts from time to time, I hope you don't mind. Anyway, please feel free to comment and add your ideas and thanks for visiting.

Election Day and Beyond

2004-11-14T15:50:00.000-08:00

Below – Email from November 3rd and November 7th

An email from November 3rd, 2004 ___________________________________________

As I sit at home today, sick to my stomach both from the election and a bug, I ponder my future as an American. I don't mean that I am moving to Canada, no matter how attractive that looks at the moment, but in a country where over half of those who voted, voted for a man, his values, his fears and his version of world politics that I fear are a threat to the very democracy I love, I ponder how we can come together and move forward. I also ponder what it means to be a Democrat.

There is a line from the West Wing, (the early years, when it really did have the heart and soul I related to), Leo says this line when talking to Bartlett in New Hampshire after getting rid of his slick handlers during the first campaign, "I'm tired of it. Year after year after year, having to choose between the lesser of who cares. Of trying to get myself excited about the candidate who can speak in complete sentences. Of setting the bar so low I can hardly stand to look at it." Where are they, where are the smart, idealistic, charismatic, honest, willing to put their ass on the line in their words and in their deeds, leaders for tomorrow?

Sure, it is easy to now say that Hillary is the logical choice, it is all over the internet already, but that isn't who I am talking about. I am talking about the people in this country that know that science and discovery are our collective future, that faith is a personal choice and not one to be imposed on others, who realize that there are many people of many backgrounds and many races, who will soon and are already becoming the majority in this country. Where are our future leaders who will set the bar higher, not pander to the middle and still be able to get elected? I still believe that package will come with a hefty dose of idealism and truth. That we need someone, who can energize the base, but build a strong enough vision that others will want to join. It won't be an election, it will be a movement. Something that people will want to join, be on board and help create.

That is what I have been pondering, the lack of vision. Not vision about saving Social Security, or when and how Iraq will have their elections, but a vision about what the world of the 21st Century could look like, how the people of this country can use what's left of its place in the world to build a safer better world for our future that doesn't always start with white men "going to the mattresses" (a Godfather reference for those who don't get it). Another words, not always resorting to war and violence as the answer in a complex world.

I am sad today, but my wise and wonderful fiancé assures me that there still is a future. Children will still play, we will still enjoy the sunsets off the cliffs in San Diego and Starbucks will still serve a crappy cup of decafe. But I must say this, I had hopes for this election. My hopes had alot less to do with John Kerry being President than they did with waking up today to see that there was a new start for America. I had the hope that the majority of the people in this country would vote to reject fear, anger and the self-serving use of a specifically defined god. I had hopes that we would at least being moving in the right direction as opposed to the one that we are unfortunately already in.

Well it didn't happen. It didn't happen so today I take a solemn oath. Today I say that there needs to be a new vision for America and it can't be the same retread of 20th century democratic thought. It has to be a vision, a cause, a movement that connects real meaning and hope for our world's future, to the millions of voters who could have made a different choice if given the proper motivation. I am not sure today what all this will look like, but I will work the best I can to find it and to tell others when I see it. Yes today I make that pledge and I ask that you do too. We need to move past our history and into the future, it won't be easy, but to me it is the only choice we have.

November 7th, 2004

I was deeply disappointed with an article in the San Francisco Chronicle today about how the Democratic Party must evolve. I was most disappointed by the comments of Senator Feinstein. The thought that we must "build a new base through candidates who are moderate, who carry the values of the state" is just the type of thought process that I believe is killing the Democratic Party. Yes, we almost unseated a sitting president in wartime and yes, we learned how to raise money on the internet, but what we didn't do is capture the hearts and minds of Americans. We responded, we complained, we bashed, we took too many of the same positions and took the opposite on too many others. What we didn't do is redefine, reframe and create a vision that breaks the bonds of the 20th century.

A few years ago, during the Gingrich years, I tried to start a bipartisan group based on three principles, Community, Compassion and Hope. It suggested that political decisions should be filtered through these principles. We talked about how to build these communities from the inside out on a neighbor-to-neighbor basis. By community we meant attempting to understand what could do to work together to build connections and relationships that help cross boundaries, patterns and differences. When talking about compassion we posed the question, what can we do to create understanding, tolerance and acceptance of those who are different than you, especially those who need the support of the society. Finally, hope was about creating policy that had a premise that no matter what our differences are, we all need to contribute to build a common future for our planet and our children. It is about touching the spiritual center of all people and using these three principles, principles which appear in all faiths and beliefs. The trick is building a process and framework that is new and different, that breaks the rhetoric of the last century, and that move us into an evolved framework.

I also believe in something else that was written in the paper today about Dr. Martin Luther King. Dr King helped create a new framework. The civil rights movement was actually the last time I believe what I am writing about was accomplished. He led a movement that crossed the boundaries of race, religion, and class and changed the country forever. He didn't eradicate the issues that his cause addressed, in fact now is a critical time for race and class relations. I believe it is time we create a movement. Call it Community, Compassion and Hope, (CCH) or call it something else, but there needs to be a multicultural, spiritual movement that builds bridges and common ground. Something that transforms this country, that crosses boundaries, that takes the land, the environment and the world into account. That builds hope and a vision for the future. That takes us to the mountain top and lets us all see to the other side. I am still working on this as others are and will be for our near future, but the ideas are bubbling and they will eventually be there, at least for now I can hope they will.

Sunday, November 14th, 2005

2004-11-14T15:44:00.000-08:00

Sunday, November 14, 2004

This is what I read in the paper this morning. I would like to thank Maureen Dowd for bringing it to my attention.

http://www.bju.edu/letter

Congratulatory letter to President George W. Bush from Dr. Bob Jones III
November 3, 2004
President George W. Bush The White House1600
Pennsylvania Avenue NWWashington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:

The media tells us that you have received the largest number of popular votes of any president in America's history. Congratulations!

In your re-election, God has graciously granted America—though she doesn't deserve it—a reprieve from the agenda of paganism. You have been given a mandate. We the people expect your voice to be like the clear and certain sound of a trumpet. Because you seek the Lord daily, we who know the Lord will follow that kind of voice eagerly.
Don't equivocate. Put your agenda on the front burner and let it boil. You owe the liberals nothing. They despise you because they despise your Christ. Honor the Lord, and He will honor you.

Had your opponent won, I would have still given thanks, because the Bible says I must (I Thessalonians 5:18). It would have been hard, but because the Lord lifts up whom He will and pulls down whom He will, I would have done it. It is easy to rejoice today, because Christ has allowed you to be His servant in this nation for another presidential term. Undoubtedly, you will have opportunity to appoint many conservative judges and exercise forceful leadership with the Congress in passing legislation that is defined by biblical norm regarding the family, sexuality, sanctity of life, religious freedom, freedom of speech, and limited government. You have four years—a brief time only—to leave an imprint for righteousness upon this nation that brings with it the blessings of Almighty God.
Christ said, “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my father honour” (John 12:26).

The student body, faculty, and staff at Bob Jones University commit ourselves to pray for you—that you would do right and honor the Savior. Pull out all the stops and make a difference. If you have weaklings around you who do not share your biblical values, shed yourself of them. Conservative Americans would love to see one president who doesn't care whether he is liked, but cares infinitely that he does right.
Best wishes.
Sincerely your friend,
Bob Jones IIIPresident
BJIII:lw
PS: A few moments ago I read this letter to the students in Chapel. They applauded loudly their approval.

When I told them that Tom Daschle was no longer the minority leader of the Senate, they cheered again.
On occasion, Christians have not agreed with things you said during your first term. Nonetheless, we could not be more thankful that God has given you four more years to serve Him in the White House, never taking off your Christian faith and laying it aside as a man takes off a jacket, but living, speaking, and making decisions as one who knows the Bible to be eternally true.

I am going to do something radical right now. I am going to suggest that we don’t call for an all out battle against these frightening people who would like the United States to be a theocracy. I am going to suggest that we need a different tact, one that takes values, reframes them, and folds them into a vision that cuts the legs out from the religious right by appealing to those edges of their coalition who still have the sense to know that people like Bob Jones do not represent their views.

Since writing a couple of thoughts down on e-paper after the election, I have had some very interesting conversations. These conversations have been with old friends, new friends, Republicans, Libertarians, Democrats and Pagans and I have come to a conclusion about the election, it still sucks. But beyond that pearl of observation, I have also had a couple of thoughts on the thoughts I had after the election. (Both emails are attached below, please disregard if you have already read them and read them if you haven’t, I kinda lost track of who I sent what).

It is obvious to me, and many people I have talked with, that we need a new paradigm in politics. The real conclusion that I came to after the election is, the political discourse in the United States is actually based on an outdated paradigm, the paradigm of the industrial revolution. I would like to say it had its roots in 20th Century thought, but in fact it may be based in 19th Century thought. Political machines and ideological constituencies were built to serve special interests and sustain power and accept for a rare progressive movement such as the abolition of slavery, civil rights or women’s right to vote, little has changed.

So I had a thought for a metaphor, not a good one, but bear with me. If we were examining our political process as expressed by this last election and compared it to a dinner table the following might occur. The Democrats would argue that the condiments were good for the people and that more condiments might be necessary. They add flavor, they need to be supported by the government, and the relish should be given a choice place on the table in order to make up for the dominance of the ketchup and mustard. The Republicans might say that the condiments should be paid for by the states, we should only have ketchup and mustard and (in light of the above letter) that ketchup was inspired by god and sauerkraut shouldn’t even be on the table because it is un-American.

Then there would be other issue-based discussions on the merits of salt and pepper and god-forbid we start talking about soy sauce. Here is my point, we always end up fighting about the issues and rarely if ever talk about the table. We are so mired in the discussion of the individual issues as represented by interest groups in this country, we are neglecting some huge overriding issues that are much more global in nature. For instance, now that we have moved from the industrial age to the information age, is there a technique to influence world politics in more enlightened ways other than violence? After years of talking about the promise of America, is it time to export it with the full faith and credit of the United States?

I am not naïve about the threats that face this country. I felt the same anger on 9/11 as all my fellow Americans did. But taking $200 Billion and spending it they way it has been spent is a crime. How is that better than taking $200 Billon and supporting alternative sources of energy, promoting human rights across the world, building schools, and supporting democracy, diplomacy and understanding across borders, race and religious groups?

If we truly are going to build a progressive movement that cuts the foundation out from under Bob Jones and other enemies of democracy, I believe we must win on a different level. One that places the discussion of these issues in a framework of a new vision. This vision must allow for differences. This vision must look inside our borders first and work together to come to terms with a new era. Evolving as a country isn’t bad. In fact, we will never live in the 1950’s again and the Bob Jones’ of this world may need to come to terms with that. But we also must move from special interest based politics to the politics of the future. We cannot close our borders, and expect the rest of the world to go away, or worse, look exactly like us.

I am thinking myself and would like to encourage any of you who are taking the time to read this to think about these questions. What can I do to get involved and change the level of political discussion in this country? How can I resist getting stuck fighting just about the issues (I don’t want us to totally give up the fight while we work on the bigger picture), and contribute to a principle/value-based progressive movement built on compromise, mutual benefit and a nondenominational spiritual connection with each other and our planet? Yes, I know, this is sort of a lot to ask, but if we don’t start to think about it we will never get it done.

So here I am, another Sunday morning at the computer. I will repeat, if you do not want to receive my random thoughts, I will be happy to remove you from the list. But, if you continue to, please consider the above questions. Once again, I am not sure how all this will turn out, but I don’t want our election disappointment to be lost because the passage of time. We must hold that in our hearts and work now to change the future.