I'm a left-wing, progressive nut,. right?
So, I'm really 'into' political correctness.
No racist, anti-gay, anti-trans, anti-immigrant, anti-feminist remarks--right?
But political correctness has been embraced by the right now--it's all about Israel.
Say something about Israel (the country) and you are an anti-Semite (the Jewish people).
The Muslim woman in the House got caught in it.
Criticizing a country who keeps millions of Palestinians in what could be considered servitude and second-class citizen status, a country that won't agree to a two state solution, a country whose head of state is even deeper in controversy than our own--criticize that country and people call you a hater of Jews.
I criticize any number of countries--Russia, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela==and I'm not a hater or Russians or Asians or Muslims or Hispanics--I just don't agree with what the leaders of those countries are up to.
But there are those who have co-opted 'political correctness' for their ends that make any criticism of Israel (the country) as being anti-Semitic.
No wonder some white folks don't like 'political correctness'--it stings when it gets applied to you for opposing the policies of a country and not a criticism of a religion.
Odd how that works on the 'other side'.
Monday, May 6, 2019
Sunday, May 5, 2019
There may have been
There may have been a rainier spring in Connecticut, but after living here for 33 years, I don't remember one.
It has rained almost every day of April and now May here. It has rained all day today--all day!
Really.
It's raining hard now at almost 11 p.m.
Very wet.
Very wet.
Has been all Spring.
April showers and all that....
Rain.
Better than the option of drought.
It has rained almost every day of April and now May here. It has rained all day today--all day!
Really.
It's raining hard now at almost 11 p.m.
Very wet.
Very wet.
Has been all Spring.
April showers and all that....
Rain.
Better than the option of drought.
Saturday, May 4, 2019
you, too, Dorothy, RIP
Two funerals in two days--unusual since I left St. John's (I once remember counting and finding I had done over 600 funerals there!).
Ann I knew well. Dorothy, I had never met.
Ann was 65 and Dorothy 89.
And after I heard one of Dorothy's daughters and three grown grand-children speak, I wished I had known her.
She and some relatives had been country and gospel singers back in the day and had a radio show on a local station. And she was a farmer--and a good one. And a lovely, gentle, humorous woman from all I heard of her today. And someone who, with help, had stayed in her home until the end.
Her granddaughter played the guitar for the hymns, which had been reproduced in Dorothy's handwritten words!
Lovely and loving people.
Sometimes, one of the things we can take from a funeral is that life is still and over for one we love. No more pain.
That's obviously not enough to make up for their loss in your life--but it is something.
Ann I knew well. Dorothy, I had never met.
Ann was 65 and Dorothy 89.
And after I heard one of Dorothy's daughters and three grown grand-children speak, I wished I had known her.
She and some relatives had been country and gospel singers back in the day and had a radio show on a local station. And she was a farmer--and a good one. And a lovely, gentle, humorous woman from all I heard of her today. And someone who, with help, had stayed in her home until the end.
Her granddaughter played the guitar for the hymns, which had been reproduced in Dorothy's handwritten words!
Lovely and loving people.
Sometimes, one of the things we can take from a funeral is that life is still and over for one we love. No more pain.
That's obviously not enough to make up for their loss in your life--but it is something.
Friday, May 3, 2019
Oh, Ann, Rest in Peace
Today I presided at Ann's funeral.
Her brother and her son both gave eloquent and heart-felt eulogies. I told her son afterwards that I've heard lots of tributes and his was in the top three. He began with this great line: "How can I put 65 years of my mother's life in this short, 90 minute speech."
Humor is a great tribute in a funeral eulogy. Humor gives honor to the dead and to the living.
Communion was a big problem since we were in the parish hall--the church is too small--and people were standing 4 wide and 20 deep in the center aisle.
So we gave them communion right after the family and sent them to the upper hall until the others could receive.
I said of Ann that she was a 'dear soul' and a 'fighter'. Her soul was deep and wide and her son captured that in his remarks. And she fought cancer three times before losing the fight.
I saw her the day of the night she died and though she was pretty full of morphine, when I said, "Ann, it's Jim Bradley", she opened her eyes for a moment and smiled.
There were all these pictures on boards--as most funerals these days have--and she was smiling in every single picture.
A dear soul and a fighter--can't get much better than that.
I always quote St. Francis of Assisi in a funeral homily: "Death is not a door that closes, it is a door that opens and we walk in, all new, to the presence of the one who loves us best of all."
Death, to us, certainly is a closed door. I'll never see Ann's smile again. But I pray for Ann it was that door that opened....
Oh, dear soul Ann, rest in peace, and be 'all new'.
Her brother and her son both gave eloquent and heart-felt eulogies. I told her son afterwards that I've heard lots of tributes and his was in the top three. He began with this great line: "How can I put 65 years of my mother's life in this short, 90 minute speech."
Humor is a great tribute in a funeral eulogy. Humor gives honor to the dead and to the living.
Communion was a big problem since we were in the parish hall--the church is too small--and people were standing 4 wide and 20 deep in the center aisle.
So we gave them communion right after the family and sent them to the upper hall until the others could receive.
I said of Ann that she was a 'dear soul' and a 'fighter'. Her soul was deep and wide and her son captured that in his remarks. And she fought cancer three times before losing the fight.
I saw her the day of the night she died and though she was pretty full of morphine, when I said, "Ann, it's Jim Bradley", she opened her eyes for a moment and smiled.
There were all these pictures on boards--as most funerals these days have--and she was smiling in every single picture.
A dear soul and a fighter--can't get much better than that.
I always quote St. Francis of Assisi in a funeral homily: "Death is not a door that closes, it is a door that opens and we walk in, all new, to the presence of the one who loves us best of all."
Death, to us, certainly is a closed door. I'll never see Ann's smile again. But I pray for Ann it was that door that opened....
Oh, dear soul Ann, rest in peace, and be 'all new'.
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
Barr's testimony
Did you watch any of it?
It was cringe-worthy and painful and revealing.
Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Whitehouse and Kamala Harris, in that order, made Barr fumble and fib. Harris tied him in knots and he couldn't really answer her questions.
But the highlight came when Mazie Hirono, Senator from Hawaii, lectured him.
She called him everything but 'middle-aged white man'. Equated him with Rudi Guiliani and Kelly Ann Conway and accused him (correctly!!!) of lying to Congress.
Days after he received a letter from Robert Mueller himself, criticizing Barr's four page memo that essentially 'exonerated' the President, Barr told a Congressional committee he had 'no idea' what Mueller thought of his memo!
Sen. Hirono then told Barr to resign and Linsey Graham chided her for 'slandering' Barr.
Like telling the truth is 'slandering'.
No one knew until yesterday about Mueller's complaining letter which said Barr had 'misrepresented' the report in his memo, giving the President over two weeks to brag that there was nothing damning in the Mueller report.
Probably not, unless you consider the 10 instances of obstructing justice that Mueller enumerated and did not indict because, as it said in the report, there is a standing opinion that a sitting President cannot be indicted. But his report said clearly and in no uncertain terms that Mueller DID NOT 'exonerate' the President from obstruction of justice.
Another weird day in a weird and painful two years of this presidency.
It was cringe-worthy and painful and revealing.
Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Whitehouse and Kamala Harris, in that order, made Barr fumble and fib. Harris tied him in knots and he couldn't really answer her questions.
But the highlight came when Mazie Hirono, Senator from Hawaii, lectured him.
She called him everything but 'middle-aged white man'. Equated him with Rudi Guiliani and Kelly Ann Conway and accused him (correctly!!!) of lying to Congress.
Days after he received a letter from Robert Mueller himself, criticizing Barr's four page memo that essentially 'exonerated' the President, Barr told a Congressional committee he had 'no idea' what Mueller thought of his memo!
Sen. Hirono then told Barr to resign and Linsey Graham chided her for 'slandering' Barr.
Like telling the truth is 'slandering'.
No one knew until yesterday about Mueller's complaining letter which said Barr had 'misrepresented' the report in his memo, giving the President over two weeks to brag that there was nothing damning in the Mueller report.
Probably not, unless you consider the 10 instances of obstructing justice that Mueller enumerated and did not indict because, as it said in the report, there is a standing opinion that a sitting President cannot be indicted. But his report said clearly and in no uncertain terms that Mueller DID NOT 'exonerate' the President from obstruction of justice.
Another weird day in a weird and painful two years of this presidency.
Tuesday, April 30, 2019
Alas and alack...
So, I went to my Tuesday morning group primed to talk about Game of Thrones and none of the people there had ever watched it!
I was shocked--I thought the only thing more people were talking about than what an despicable idiot our President is, would be Game of Thrones. I talk to people in the grocery store and filling up our cars with gas about the show. But none of these people I care deeply about have ever watched it!
I took a deep breath and decided, instead, to talk about how all the Yankee stars are on the injured reserve list and they are still only 2 games out of first.
Then I checked their faces and realized that people who didn't watch GofT wouldn't follow baseball either.
It was great because I usually think I'm out of the 'mainstream', but maybe not as far as I thought....
"Go Yankees!!!!"
"Go Dragons!!!!"
I was shocked--I thought the only thing more people were talking about than what an despicable idiot our President is, would be Game of Thrones. I talk to people in the grocery store and filling up our cars with gas about the show. But none of these people I care deeply about have ever watched it!
I took a deep breath and decided, instead, to talk about how all the Yankee stars are on the injured reserve list and they are still only 2 games out of first.
Then I checked their faces and realized that people who didn't watch GofT wouldn't follow baseball either.
It was great because I usually think I'm out of the 'mainstream', but maybe not as far as I thought....
"Go Yankees!!!!"
"Go Dragons!!!!"
Sunday, April 28, 2019
OK, here's the Truth
Whether or not you read the books and whether or not you've only 'been aware' of The Game of Thrones TV series or fanatics about it like Bern and I. you should go to HBO on demand, if you have it, and watch Sunday night's episode.
It is beyond words.
And I may watch it again to count the 'words' spoken in over an hour.
It was pure battle from beginning to end.
All the blood and death and terror of all that came before was overwhelmed by this episode.
I won't even begin to try to write about it.
It is beyond words.
It must be experienced to comprehend.
Please check it out and let me know what you thought.
It was all the wars ever fought condensed into just over an hour.
Amazing. Terrifying. Astonishing.
Beyond words.
It is beyond words.
And I may watch it again to count the 'words' spoken in over an hour.
It was pure battle from beginning to end.
All the blood and death and terror of all that came before was overwhelmed by this episode.
I won't even begin to try to write about it.
It is beyond words.
It must be experienced to comprehend.
Please check it out and let me know what you thought.
It was all the wars ever fought condensed into just over an hour.
Amazing. Terrifying. Astonishing.
Beyond words.
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