Tread lightly on the things of earth

Something spiritual shifted today. [Wed, Sept. 22, 2004]

Pretty unmistakeable. A sea change, I think. Steph noticed it, too.

A weight lifted. A breeze of hope, incoming fresh air. I think it’s political.

As usual, I sense these things kind of like a barometer, then it takes me several days to concretely identify what happened. I’ll be back.

2004-09-30 update:
Today as I look at the assembly line of B/C yard signs in my neighborhood — even as someone steals my Kerry/Edwards sign, again and again — the breeze of hope seems faint at times. Is this America? And yet …

Last Sunday I walked in the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ) Walk-As-One fundraiser in downtown Memphis. Fascinating people and surroundings! I noticed with some relief that as you drive from affluent suburb to downtown, the B/C signs slowly give way to Kerry/Edwards signs. Once downtown, I didn’t see one B/C sign.

In the midst of the multicolored throng of smiling brothers and sisters walking with me, and especially as we passed the Lorraine Motel where MLK was killed, now the home of the National Civil Rights Museum, I recalled that the God of scripture, history, and my experience is primarily about community and justice, as conveyed in the prophet Micah’s summary (or its more familiar translation, if you prefer) —

He’s already made it plain how to live, what to do,
what God is looking for in men and women.
It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor,
be compassionate and loyal in your love,
And don’t take yourself too seriously—
take God seriously.

Compared with this, today’s prevailing political understanding of community and justice seems lacking to me — Denying free speech to neighbors as in my neighborhood and across the country? Denying rights to people who are different, even unto writing discrimination into the U.S. Constitution? Bearing false witness against others, of which the reason given for invading Iraq is a prime example? Killing men, women, and children with bombs (“collateral damage”) almost indiscriminately? Sending people into poverty while favoring the wealthy with tax cuts? Passing the curse of a crushing debt onto our children and grandchildren? Avoiding responsibility saying “it’s not my fault — he did it, she did it, they did it”? Ridiculing knowledge, thoughtfulness, and wisdom? Being adamantly unrepentant? I find behaviors like these completely opposed to Micah’s understanding of what God is looking for in us.

Yet even in the face of these destructive winds, I detect the breeze of hope. We will not succumb to this curse. The spiritual shift I felt last week is a critical mass of us clicking into awareness: We will no longer be captive to fear and deception. We will no longer tolerate lies, hate, and endless war masquerading as the will of God. As Martin puts it, we will “overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression.”

I share Martin’s “abiding faith in America” and “audacious faith in the future of mankind.” With him I audaciously believe that “unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.” And I will work to my dying day to speak this word, to help bring about this reality.

If faith has taught me anything, it’s that the highway of retribution and violence we’re on leads to hell. We’re approaching the last exit before we hit desert. Let’s take it.

2004-10-03 update:
I’m not wild about Kerry’s saying “I will hunt down and kill the terrorists, wherever they are,” of course, but I assume that’s an essential criterion for the bloodthirsty vote. Why this unappealing stance doesn’t dissuade me is summed up by GussieFN in this succinct analogy praising competence:

Kerry and Bush have the same plan on the war
and Tiger Woods and I have the same plan on the golf course.
What’s the point, again?

I’ve been thinking a lot about worldviews lately. Electing a president, I think, is only somewhat about the person we choose to occupy the Oval Office, and much more about the worldview — the lens through which we view the world and our place in it — that we endorse and put our power, treasure, and collective awareness behind.

This worldview choice is a big deal because it affects nearly every aspect of U.S. policy, life, and discourse. And, because of U.S. far-reaching influence (and effluence) in world affairs, our worldview choice proceeds to affect every person on the planet to one degree or another.

An easy way to recognize the radical difference in worldviews between the Democratic and Republican parties in the U.S. these days is to compare the keynote speeches from each party’s convention (nod to Al Franken).

Assuming each speech is representative of its party’s worldview — and I think it is as each was its convention’s keynote — the difference really is astonishing. Check it out:

Barack Obama (Democratic Convention keynote, July 27, 2004)

• full video, excerpts
• transcript, alt

Zell Miller (Republican Convention keynote, September 1, 2004)

• full video, excerpts
• transcript, alt

(Each speaker’s name above is a link to his Wikipedia entry that contains bio info and numerous links to further related information.)

For me, my Christian worldview preempts all others, and as I find it generally compatible with the Democratic worldview and almost completely incompatible with the Republican worldview — a finding made stronger by further study, interestingly enough — you can understand why I come down on the side I do.

Now presumably, a Christian worldview transcends both Democratic and Republican ones by encompassing more truth than either alone could hope to. But here and now as a U.S. voter I’m forced to choose between these two, so I choose the nearer approximation.

The General’s new bumper sticker, political satire though it is, appears to me to convey the almost-literal truth. Which makes the B/C yard signs popping up in my admittedly conservative, swing-state neighborhood all the more surreal.

Alert: The bumper sticker uses VP vocabulary, so don’t click through if you’re easily offended.

I wrote about this earlier saying the best thing the B/C team has going for them is their carefully cultivated image as berserkers. Not that I find that comforting, as I’ve always been a “Great country, less crazy” man myself.

2004-09-25 update:
Speaking of crazy, I’m encountering the yard-sign swing-state shuffle: someone’s stealing each Kerry/Edwards yard sign I put up. I see it’s happening to both parties’ signs in Tennessee and elsewhere. But in my immediate neighborhood, anyway, the B/C signs, like the one directly across the street, remain untouched.

Earlier in my life I’d have been irritated by this. Now I’m just motivated to keep putting up one damn sign after another, every day until Election Day if necessary.

2004-10-01 update:
I still think replacing the signs is the best solution for me, but here’s a creative alternative involving poison ivy. :-)

2004-10-05 update:
Today I find my Kerry/Edwards sign not only stolen but replaced with a B/C sign. I see they’ve gone from trespassing and theft to trespassing, theft, and littering.

As campaign strategy, this seems so, I don’t know, “wicked retaahded,” to use Jon Stewart’s term. Like I’m going to do anything but point out the following to everyone I know:

This nationwide political sign theft/vandalism problem is a symptom of the childishness and attitude of lawlessness trickling down from the top. Trickled-down lawlessness in this case of stealing yard signs has few consequences, but trickled-down lawlessness at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib — see Hersh’s Chain of Command — has consequences we’ve barely begun to realize.

Being a grownup who respects the rule of law is hard, it’s hard work. But it’s what we each of us must do to move forward. This apocalyptic playtime must end; it will be the death of us.

Josh sums up well the Republican Convention proceedings through Wednesday night: “This whole confab has been built around militarism, the seductions of the mentality of seige and insecurity both from without and within, and the sort of no-rules-win-at-all-costs-lie-if-it-works mentality that will lead this nation to grief.”