Timeless not old.....

I got two statements, if you don't remember anything else I say:

Begin with the end in mind and die empty.

- Aeneas Williams, Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Speech

(August 2nd, 2014)

Do you know who Aeneas Williams is? You should. Have you heard Fred Rogers' commencement speech at Dartmouth? You should. Have you been exposed to timeless wisdom recently? You should. How much better would your life be, however you define this, if you made it a practice to seek out, reflect on, learn from and live into wisdom consistently? Greater abundance awaits if we but seek it….

Unexpectedly, several times in just the past that day, I've encountered wisdom. Wasn't looking for it and honestly wasn't that open to it at the time … but both instances that I'd like to share here have left an indelible impression that I hope to carry forward in my life, so I share them with you….

Aeneas Williams is now pastor, but if you recognize his name at all, it's likely because he was an exceptional defensive back in the National Football League for fourteen seasons and was recognized for his appreciable accomplishments by being inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2014. I was always a fan - he just seemed to carry himself so differently and better and with such grace that it was noticeable both on the field and off in his playing days - but I never really knew what had become of him in his retirement.

As it happens, even though I'm boycotting the NFL along with so many who are repulsed by its tone deaf and cowardly record with respect to social justice and the care of its current players and alumni, as I scrolled through the program guide, I noticed a segment of the program  A Football Life that featured Williams (https://gamepass.nfl.com/video/aeneas-williams-a-football-life), so I watched it. And I am so thankful that I did, because I'm an even bigger fan of Aeneas Williams now and even more impressed with him as a human being than I have been him as an outstanding and truly all-time player.

You see, Aeneas Williams is truly a man in full, a human being fully alive, imbued with a sense of purpose and living on purpose in an otherwise chaotic world, and thereby he is making an even greater contribution off the field than his incredible body of work on it. Suffice it to say that I was truly happy for him and his family when I learned a few years ago that he was being inducted into the Hall of Fame: it was a hard-won and richly deserved honor for an exceptional and exemplary player and leader, because during his career he had always been a positive influence not only on teammates but on the organizations with which he was affiliated and on the larger body of active players during his day. So I was gratified to learn even more about this exceptional person and his impact … and then they began to examine his life in retirement, which is even more impressive than his exceptionally impressive playing career.

Aeneas Williams is a man of deep faith and has chosen to become a small-town pastor and community leader. But not just in any small-town: by coincidence, it turns out that he has settled in Ferguson, Missouri. Yes, that Ferguson. And though we all have horrific memories of what happened there in the aftermath of Michael Brown's death just four years ago, as is typical with our media, we know much less about the appreciable renaissance that's occurred since … in which, it turns out, Aeneas Williams has played a meaningful role. He is still the same understated, by example leader, but now his focus is helping others see hope in the midst of despair and to make this the basis of informed choices that will lead to better outcomes for them and, actually, for us all.

Aeneas Williams' example inspired me and, even though I've lived a parallel life of service throughout my for-profit career, it reminded me just how important being a positive influence and role model in the lives of others truly is. Specifically, his example has inspired me to ensure that every time I have the opportunity to share meaningfully with someone I should take it, or, to use his phrase, I should live as if my goal is to "die empty," having left all of myself and what I have to contribute out on the field of my life. Yes, I've given a great deal over the years, and at appreciable cost to me and my loved ones at that, but this is a small price to pay both to pay forward the myriad blessings that I have received and to have the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to fellow human beings' success and fulfillment in life.

Simply put, Aeneas Williams is one of my heroes, not just on the field but in life, which matters so much more … and he's so very different but in meaningful ways quite similar to another of my heroes to whom I was reintroduced recently, Fred Rogers.

That's right, that Fred Rogers, as in Mr. Rogers, the creator of and lead character in the exceptionally long-running and profoundly influential television program Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.  Currently on my list of things to do is to see the new documentary tribute about his life and work, Won't You Be My Neighbor? So I didn't expect to be reacquainted with him and his legacy via my Facebook feed this morning, but I'm so thankful that I was.

You know that Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood ran for a long time, right? But did you realize that it was for more than thirty-three years, from 1968 to 2001? Me either. And did you know that this gentle, courtly man whose on-camera persona was the embodiment of understatement and grace was actually the graduate of an Ivy League college, a Presbyterian minister and one of the most progressive social influences in our society for decades? I suspect you may have known the latter, but, like me, not the first two realities about this singular gentleman's life. But what brought me back to - and has greatly enhanced - my appreciation for Fred Rogers is his 2002 commencement address to his alma mater, Dartmouth (https://news.dartmouth.edu/news/2018/03/revisiting-fred-rogers-2002-commencement-address).

If you know Fred Rogers, you know him to be the very embodiment of graceful, classy humanity: he was an exceptional person in so many ways, including as "an extra special, kind man" (which is actually how he described one of his collegiate professors). And he was also an incredibly incisive social observer and innovator in his ever-understated way, which it turns out, was also supremely positively influential. So his commencement speech is as he described the world, "a magnificent jewel."

In it, he shares the wisdom of "the last of the great Roman philosophers, and the first of the scholastics of the Middle Ages," Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius. (Sure, we all remember him!) And that of Yo-Yo Ma and Saint-Exupery to boot. But what he mainly does is to offer sage advice to a cadre of people embarking on the next chapters of their journey.

And, in true Fred Rogers style, he offered them what he called "an invisible gift," by asking them to invest one minute in silence to ponder "those who have helped you become who you are today." I can imagine that although the assembled were honored to be hearing from Mr. Rogers, I suspect that they were looking even more forward to the end of his remarks and to that of the ceremony itself … except that momentarily they had underestimated this quiet force of nature, as we've all tended to do. Gently yet profoundly he stopped them and refocused them on gratitude rather than their understandable and well-earned pride. In so doing, he shared a gentle reminder of what should be the priority of our priorities. "It's not the honors and the prizes, and the fancy outsides of life which ultimately nourish our souls," he noted, but "the knowing that we can be trusted" and "that we never have to fear the truth" for this "is the bedrock of our lives, from which we make our choices" and therefore "is very good stuff."

He concluded his remarks with an exhortation of which we should all be mindful and share every day, too:

So, in all that you do in all of your life,

I wish you the strength and grace

to make those choices which will allow

you and your neighbor

to become the best of whoever you are.

That was sixteen years ago, but is no less powerfully true today. That's the thing about Aeneas Williams and Fred Rogers: they are - and they have lived in ways that are - timeless, not old. Were it that we could live so eternally, too....

In this spirit, then, I wish all of you the gratitude-infused courage to live a life that's timeless both in its substance and its impact and, at Mr. Rogers' behest, I leave you with the words of the great philosopher as he quoted them:

O happy race of mortals,

if your hears are ruled as is the universe,

by love.

Unbelievable....

To embrace life, to increase love, to have the courage to be - 

these, for me, are the doorways through which

I walk into the mystery of God..

This God is real to me

and Jesus is still my doorway into this reality....

I walk eagerly into this life-centered God experience....

I bear witness to the faith that leads me and the whole world

to live fully, love wastefully and be all that we can be.

 - Bishop John Shelby Spong, Unbelievable (2018)

For many, many years now, Bishop John Shelby Spong has been sharing his unique experience of God with fellow human beings of every stripe and type. To some, he is a heretic: someone who refuses to swallow whole the orthodoxies and dogma of the Christian church with which he has been affiliated for more than six decades. To others, he is a hero: someone whose willingness to wrestle with the challenges of life and faith has encouraged the development of new and vibrant pathways to God. Having studied Jack's work and having come to know him a bit in recent years, I'm definitely in the latter camp. He is both my hero - personally and professionally - and my guiding theological light, as his unique approach to faith and spirituality has encouraged me to develop my own, which has, in turn, led to a profoundly abundant spiritual life that I could not have imagined even a decade ago.

Don't get me wrong, I also believe that Jack's a heretic, but in the very best possible way: he has long evidenced the courage and conviction to question the oh-so-human dogma and practice of institutional Christianity … and in this speaking of the truth to power he has both enraged and unsettled the church's hierarchy and reached and reclaimed many of its ostensible adherents. I am one of these whose spirituality has been encouraged and developed by Jack Spong's wisdom and piercing insight, and because of this I have now found both a strength of affiliation with the Christian church and a personal theology that I never before thought possible. 

Thank you, Jack, both for your example as a heretic and for your encouragement for me and many others to try it! I am not now a member of the Church Alumni Association (as he slyly describes the Christians who've left this institution in droves in the past generation) because of Jack: thanks to him, I was able to see a place for myself within the Church, rather than outside of it, and have been benefiting from and contributing meaningfully through this affiliation for many years now. I'm proud to be both a heretic - which for me means that I've developed an idiosyncratically resonant personal theology that doesn't correspond fully (or event that much) to the institutional church's teachings - and, now, the Senior Warden of my Episcopal church.

But even more than I appreciate Jack as a heretic, I revere him as a person and a trailblazing religious professional. In fact, his theology is at the core of mine now, for which I am indescribably grateful. And as I studied the development of his theology, I was also introduced to other theological eminences whose insights have illuminated  and elevated my spiritual path. Other than Jack, three of my greatest theological influences are Bishop John A.T. Robinson, Paul Tillich and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the first two of whom have also had an especially profound influence on the evolution of Bishop Spong's theology. Cobbled together in an idiosyncratically meaningful way, their insights have led to a simple, three-pronged faith that has been profoundly life-affirming for me:

First, though I consider myself a Christian, I don't believe that this particular faith is the only path to God, nor does it exclusively have all of the 'right' answers in the spiritual domain. (In fact, to me, the Church is a decidedly human institution - which isn't inherently a bad thing as long as we don't get this twisted - while God alone is divine.) Accordingly, I have studied, benefited from and incorporated insights from multiple faith traditions, especially, in my case, Taoism and Buddhism. So, in reality, I'm really a Christian-Taoist-Buddhist, which might be a little hard for the folks in the Baptist church that I grew up in to wrap their heads around, but it works beautifully for me.

Second, I choose to be Christian because I believe that Jesus Christ's example is worthy of emulation by us all. I no longer buy the dogma that He's the only son of God, or, necessarily, that he was even Divine in the sense of being especially aligned with God. (Truth be told, I believe that God is in all of us and that Jesus just did a better job - the best job ever, actually - at reflecting this than we average humans do.) In fact, following Bishop Spong's teaching, I believe that Jesus reflected the insights of early Christian Bishop Irenaeus of Lyons, who (in modern language) observed that the glory of God is a human person fully alive. To me, Jesus is one of history's finest examples of what it means to be fully human and fully alive. I consider myself a Christian because I hope to live into His example ever more lovingly and impactfully every day, and I accept that His standard of embodying and sharing love constantly and with all is as simple as it is profoundly difficult to live. Every day, I fall short in myriad ways, but I am lifted by the belief that Jesus' love compels me to pick myself up, dust myself off and try even harder to be the better person that I am capable of being. I take it as one of God's and life's delicious ironies that the simplest and yet most profound way to live is also the hardest.

Third, based on these two preceding spiritual principles, my guiding philosophy comes straight from Bishop Spong: I believe that I'm called by God to live fully, love wastefully and be(come) all that I am capable of being every day of my earthly life. I further believe that if I am able to live in this way, more moments of my life will resonate in ways that are eternal in the sense that their import and impact will be forever felt. So, perhaps another irony of my faith is that while I no longer believe in Heaven and Hell as I was taught them in my youth - meaning, plainly, that there is no physical life after my earthly death - I do believe that we can live eternally in the here and now, in this one and only earthly life, and Jesus' example is my proof: though He is no longer with us physically, the way in which He lived His earthly life is so profound an example that we feel His presence to this day (and even define the way that we measure time by it). The eternal life that I hope to live is like His: that long after I'm gone physically, the love that I shared and the contributions that I made will be resonant in the lives of others and especially, hopefully, in those of my loved ones and their progeny.

So, in this Spirit, I leave you with the profound theology of Bishop Spong and pray that you, too, will find your spiritual being immeasurably enriched and your spiritual journey lovingly illuminated and elevated by it:

I cannot tell you who God is or what God is.

No one can do that.

That is not within the capability of any human mind.

All I can do is tell you how I believe I have experienced God.

God and my experience of God are not the same.

…

I believe I have experienced God as the Source of Life. ...

If God is the Source of Life,

then the only way I can appropriately worship God

is by living fully.

In the process of embracing the fullness of life,

I bear witness to the reality of the God who is the Source of Life.

I believe I have experienced God as the Source of Love.

Love is the power that enhances life. ...

If God is the Source of Love,

then the only way I can worship God

is by loving "wastefully"....

By "wasteful" love I mean the kind of love

that never stops to calculate whether the object of its love

is worthy to be its recipient.

It is love that never stops to calculate deserving.

It is love that loves not because love has been earned.

It is in the act of loving "wastefully" that I believe I make God visible.

Finally, I believe I experience God,

in the words of my greatest theological mentor,

Reformed German theologian Paul Tillich (1886-1965),

as the Ground of Being. ...

If God is the Ground of Being,

then the only way I can worship God

is by having the courage to be all that I can be;

and the more deeply I can be all that I can be,

the more I can and do make God visible.

So the reality of God to me is discovered

in the experience which compels me to

"live fully, to love wastefully and

to have the courage to be all that I can be."

May we all live so well and eternally....

Whither America?

What we are facing today is the fact that through our scientific

and technological genius we've made of this world a neighborhood.

And now through our moral and ethical commitment we must make

of it a brotherhood.  We must learn to live together as brothers -

or we will all perish together as fools.

- The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Remaining Awake Through A Great Revolution"

Oberlin College (June, 1965) 

The Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland: the site of our latest loss to the epidemic of gun violence that continues to plague our country due to legislative inaction and the latest reason to return to consideration of a most fundamental question. "What is America?" Many of us thought that it was the shining city on the hill of former President Ronald Reagan's conception … but clearly, we are wrong. Others of us thought that it was the mythical place where having the right to protect oneself and one's family meant that you likely never would have to … but clearly, we are wrong. America is something very different than the vast majority of us thought: it's a land lost, stuck in a past that it hagiographically glorifies and facing a future that's looking darker by the moment, largely of our own making.  It is no longer a beacon, but an unpredictable and largely malevolent force without and within.…

Who shoots dead a small town paper editor and several other members of its staff, including a sales assistant? The answer, sadly, is someone who listens to the Forces of Darkness, the influencers, now in both formal and informal positions, who increasingly urge violent action that rips asunder our social fabric.

Who is Milo Yiannopolous, really? Conceptually, he's a far-/alt-right commentator and gadfly … so why should we care? Because two days before the slaughter at the Capital Gazette, he shared with a reporter for major media outlet that "I can't wait for the vigilante squads to start gunning journalists down on sight." Let that sink in for a moment … and now consider the sad case of Jarrod Ramos, who, just two days later, decided to be that one-man vigilante squad, ending the lives of five innocent victims.

For such a foolish, reckless and intensely lethal exhortation, Milo Yiannopolous is both an ass and and inhuman being. But he's not the only one…

Why, just a day before, the President of the United States, the thoroughly undeserving and incompetent Donald J. Trump, incited a rally of mindless lemmings by declaring the press "the enemy of the people." That's right, the man who occupies what was formerly the most influential office in the world has used his podium to demonize hundreds of thousands of professionals who've dedicated their lives to helping us learn more about our world so that we can make more informed decisions about how to live in it.  Is it any wonder that the demonized press now die in it?

Now let's cut to the chase: 45's anger at the press is personal, because the latter is doing such an effective job of exposing him and his minions for the craven and corrupt people that they truly are. So, on one level, I get it: he doesn't like them because they (rightfully) hold his feet to the fire (which, of course, they're supposed to do on our behalf).

But, 45's anger and subsequent behavior reflect another truth: that his character and judgment are so lacking, and that he has so little sense of the import of the office and its strategic imperatives, that he's chosen to use it as a bully pulpit for ill rather than good, to incite violence rather than to discourage it. Is there no clearer indication both of his moral vacuity and his unfitness for office? He, too, is both an ass and and inhuman being.

Now, in fairness, we don't know for sure whether the Annapolis shooter was responding to Milo's dark encouragement, or 45's, or was just acting independently, but we do know that he's far more likely to find such an inhumane choice to be a reasonable course of action in an environment where the influential encourage the resort to violence (that, of course, cravenly, will be visited on others/The Other and not themselves). And for this, the latter should be damned ... but, in one of life's cruel twists of fate and ironies, it's us who're damned.

So, you want to live in America where our leaders encourage us to behave violently and, indeed, lethally relative to those with whom we disagree (however strongly), then you should sit back and enjoy the show of darkness: this the America in which you live now. If, however, you want to live in an America suffused with light and and in which when we differ we dialogue, then you have to mobilize, demonstrate and, most of all, vote, because your opportunity to begin to put an end to this inhumanity starts on November 6th, 2018, and will recur on November 3rd, 2020. Those are the days on which you should fire your metaphorical shots, the ones designed to uplift and not demean, to affirm and not diminish.

I'll end this piece with an admission of my own truth: I never, in my darkest and most doubtful moments, envisioned the America that we've become. I am aghast and enraged at our choice to reward inhumanity writ large and to support the wielding of it against the most vulnerable, fellow citizens and those who aspire to be alike.

And, at first, I was a bit flummoxed about how to respond, because this is not a scenario that I had remotely anticipated.  But, virtually immediately upon reflection, I've been struck quickly by a profound clarity, and now know that my anger, though understandable (and, truly I believe, righteous) can never be expressed violently, firstly because of my faith and secondly because of my citizenship.

So what options do I and others of good will have? Speak up, speak out, advocate, organize, protest, march and, most importantly, vote. Vote: each and every time you have the opportunity. The Forces of Darkness are counting on us not to exercise this most fundamental right: in fact, it's how they came to power. But, learning this lesson, we are going forward by making a different and better choice: to re-envision America in all of its philosophical and physical diversity and to rebuild it to honor the common humanity that we share. And this journey starts on November 6th, 2018....

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral

begetting the thing it seeks to destroy,

instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.

...

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence,

adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

- The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)

What's good for the goose....

nothing gives one person so great advantage over another
as to remain cool and unruffled under all circumstances.

- Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Francis Eppes, May 21, 1816

I know that so many of us who believe in decency are too tired and fed up with the seemingly ubiquitous evidence of craven behavior and outright inhumanity being demonstrated so consistently by the present Administration.  This being said, we must not allow our frustration to lead us to lower our own standards.  As our former First Lady put it so elegantly not long ago, "When they go low, we go high."

Which brings us to the horrific recent SCOTUS decision involving the Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple (Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission) and the recent disinvitation of the Press Secretary from a suburban Virginia restaurant. In both cases, in a public place, people were denied service.  It's like a flashback to a half-century or more ago....

In a surprising (to some) 7-2 decision, the Justices of the US Supreme Court ruled that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission had been too zealous in its efforts to find fault with a baker who refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding because of what he claimed were his deeply held religious beliefs. Whether or not we agree with this decision, one thing is apparent: in it were very clear indications from the Court about how to approach this issue in the future so that  SCOTUS intervention wouldn't be necessary again. And while I believe this approach may ultimately prove helpful so that this issue of the service responsibilities of a business supposedly open to the general public could be addressed more effectively going forward, that subtlety is lost on the millions of our fellow citizens whose only knowledge of the case is the headline that a baker with deeply held religious convictions can judge someone in the moment and deny him, her or them service. My suspicion is that many, especially on the Religious Right, will see this as a victory for their warped worldview, one in which discrimination in God's name is not only acceptable but (now) legal and state-sanctioned.

Then, just last weekend, in a suburban Virginia restaurant, the White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was refused service by its owner, whose claim was to be offended by Ms. Sanders' support of the current Administration's inhumane immigration policies and her frequent lying in defense of these and other unconscionable state actions.

Are these two incidents comparable? I think so, because they involve a singular act that I believe has no place in our society: the refusal of service by business open to the public. Simply put, in my view, it's an issue of fairness and equal rights in that any business that chooses to serve the public should serve all of its members, not just some. Why? This, too, is simple in my view: because it's virtually impossible to parse who's in the in-group versus who's in the out-group without violating someone's rights in an immoral way. For example, are progressive Christian business owners allowed to refuse service to their conservative counterparts because they view the latter's deeply-held beliefs to be perversions of the very Scripture to which they (both) claim allegiance? Or what about the easier and more obvious ones that have deep roots in this country's history: can I be refused service because I'm Black, or Muslim or Mexican, etc.? At least relative in the America I thought I knew and that I want to live in, the answer is no.

Which makes what Representative Maxine Waters did in suggesting that members of the public make Administration officials aware that they are unwelcome in public spaces all the more unfortunate and also wrong. Do I agree that this Administration's heinous behavior should be contested at each and every opportunity? Absolutely! But does this extend to denying them their right to free access, a right that we claim for ourselves? Absolutely not! While I understand and empathize with the profound sense of indignation that animates so many of us who are appalled by what we are witnessing, we should not allow this to lead us to sink to the level of those whose behavior we detest. For, to use a phrase that I was taught as a child, it's unquestionably true that two wrongs don't make a right, so those of us who expect greater humanity from those who represent us must extend that very humanity even to the representatives who most challenge our patience and conscience.

Again, as Michelle Obama reminded us, when they go low, we go high. And we do this not just to be morally superior (which is a self-congratulatory illusion), but because we must abide by the example that we expect in return: to be treated fairly as an equal, as a fellow citizen and Child of God. Another motivation is a sadly simple and political one: the minute that we engage in untoward behavior in our protest, those we are protesting immediately focus on our method and not our message, typically resulting in a successful distraction that prevents a full hearing for our grievances and requests for restitution/resolution (that we hope to attain for all, not just for ourselves). Therefore, we also need to be impeccable in our conduct so that we do not allow the Politics of Distraction to impede our determined march toward a better America for us all.

So, hard as it may be, grit your teeth and keep taking the high road because it turns out that Ron Burgundy was right: we do, in fact, need to stay classy, especially when what we are witnessing and what were protesting is almost unbelievably and unconscionably objectionable to us. Actually, we are called to exhibit the same confounding and seemingly superhuman restraint that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., exhibited more than a half-century ago. We must be mindful that this sort of loving discipline is supremely difficult, but necessary to contest the forces of negativity and evil in a way that can lead to positive change. In sum, we must be prepared to show the best of ourselves in the face of the worst behavior from many of our fellow citizens as we seek to evolve our country to be a better one not just for us, but for them, too....

Taking the high road is never easy, but it's always right, including because from the perspective of history it's always a defensible approach. Negativity and inhumanity, by contrast, never wear well  and tend to make us want to avoid our history rather than embrace and learn from it. So, as difficult as it may be, let's commit to behaving in the ways that we are asking others to emulate while keeping our eyes fixed on the prize of the better America that can and will come from our committed effort. And though they may hurt greatly in the short run, the accumulated wounds from this effort will produce the most beautiful battle scars when the victory is won. Let's stay focused on that vision of a better America and keep treating everyone - especially those who disagree with us - as if it already exists, because in our hearts and minds it does….

No, our motto is "when they go low, we go high."

- Michelle Obama, Democratic Convention Speech, July 25, 2016

The next MLK....

Change will not come if we wait for some other person

or if we wait for some other time.

We are the ones we've been waiting for.

We are the change that we seek.

- Senator Barack Obama, February 5th, 2008

We celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s death just a few days ago.  What did we learn, really? Since that time, two peaceful, respectful and respectable African-American real estate agents were arrested for trespassing while waiting for a friend in a Starbucks in Philadelphia.  And in Rochester, Michigan - probably only 25 miles or so from where I grew up in Detroit  - an African American young man, a 14-year old high school freshman who missed his bus, was shot at for knocking on the door of a neighbor's home to ask for directions.  This is America, 2018. 

I'd like to say that I don't recognize this America … but I do. It's the America that I've lived in all of my life as an African-American youth and now man. It is also the America that my white fellow citizens have lived in for all of their lives. The difference is that, now, thanks to the social media video revolution, we're getting to see what America really looks like quite regularly. And it's not a pretty picture… 

And dare I mention the name of Stephon Clark? Shot at 20 times in his grandparents' backyard within a split second of being commanded to raise his hands. Shot eight times, seven in the back and the side, a mortal impact. For what crime? Perhaps disorderly conduct ... but now we'll never know. This, too, is America, 2018. 

Of course, the list could go on, but what's the point, really? We all know the names of too many victims of America's foundational -ism, racism. And it's hard for us to acknowledge that this cancer, this reflection of our collective our dark side, is not only still alive and well in 2018 but flourishing and seemingly becoming ever more ubiquitous. 

What happens next? Not much, really. African Americans and other 'woke' folk will continue to protest and most of their neighbors and fellow citizens will continue not to care … and more lives will be lost. This is the reality of America, 2018.

But it doesn't have to be, as the glorious March for Our Lives reminded us just a few weeks ago. The question - damningly simple, profound and vexing - is how do we lead ourselves to change?

And it will require a huge amount of leadership applied consistently for a very long time for us to change a pernicious pattern of social behavior that is as old as the ages and certainly as old as our country.  How do we evolve into a people we've never been and leave behind attitudes and conduct that have been so determinative of our lives?

I believe that two types of leadership will be required, one now half a century absent and another continuing (and, we pray, flourishing) this very day. If we're going to change our society, we're going to need another MLK - or preferably quite a few of them - and we're going to need grassroots leadership from our young people as the Parkland young adults have so powerfully demonstrated. 

Where do we find another MLK? My guess is that he or, just as likely, she is in a pulpit or a community organization somewhere right now.  And much like the Montgomery bus boycott of more than 60 years ago, a catalyst, likely an unfortunate one, will bring him or her to fore.  Were it that we didn't need to have tragedy to find new leaders.... 

And where do we find passionate, persistent and incredibly impactful leaders among our youth? Well, beyond the incredible students of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas high school, I suspect that they're in high schools and colleges and for-profit and not-for-profit organizations everywhere right now.  If we'll but listen to them and, in fact, encourage them to speak and act. Are we ready to be led by those we presume to lead? Probably not. But our times demand it….

I pray that, every day, each of us looks in the mirror and asks, "Is it me?"  And I pray every day that each of us sees a young person and asks, "Is it you?" ... and then, more importantly, prepares him- or herself to support the leadership of someone who is supposedly less knowledgeable and less experienced but likely arguably more passionate, more persistent and therefore more qualified to lead. 

Sadly, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will never come again … but he is in us. Thankfully, passionate, persistent and committed young people are everywhere today - it's so wonderful and fortunate that they're already here if we choose to be aware of them. So let's stop waiting on Martin and realize that we're all the creators of a much greater America, and, indeed, world. I am the next MLK. You are the next MLK. And every young person in America can be the next MLK, if we but recognize them and commit to the better world that they deserve....

Maturity includes the recognition that

no one is going to see anything in us

that we don't see in ourselves.

Stop waiting for a producer.

Produce yourself.

- Marianne Williamson

From Austin to Washington....

You adults have failed us

by not creating a safer place for your children to go to school.

So we, the next generation, will not fail our own kids.

We will make this change happen.

If not today, then tomorrow, and if not tomorrow, then next year.

Take it from us.  You created a mess for us,

but we will make this world safer for our children.

- Florence Yared

Junior, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School

Parkland, Florida

Mark Anthony Conditt.  He may be more familiarly known as the Austin, Texas, bomber, who, according to the police chief there was a "very challenged young man."  But what he's not been known as is the serial killer that he is/was.  The question is why?

There are a number of groups to whom the answer is patently - and offensively - obvious.  If you're a Person of Color or even a Woke white person, you're tired of the double standard that our media - both the spineless mainstream media on the left and the purposely obfuscatory 'media' on the (alt-)right - has imposed once again: white mass killers are mentally ill and in need of support (whereas anyone of Color is quickly labeled a terrorist for a single killing, much less multiple ones).  Oh, yes, and in a doubly cruel irony, when the victims are all or primarily of Color, the focus is on the (white) killer, not his (Black and brown) victims (and, yes, the killer's virtually always a 'Christian' white male).

And yes, too, it's b.s., but, more than this, it's a mirror held up to us at this moment in our journey and the reflection says that we've failed the test of collective character implicit in it.

We cannot solve America's foundational problem - racism and the White Supremacy and Privilege that it creates - if we can't even acknowledge it.  And, sadly, Mr. Conditt's 15 minutes of fame (or ignominy) are frightfully illustrative here: not only is he being portrayed sensitively in the media, but the picture of him that's most often used is at least seven to ten years old and one in which he looks decidedly more 'all-American' than a more recent photo might show.  Ostensibly so that the nation can bemoan how such a nice and nice-looking young man lost his way?  (Grrr.)  But I digress....

The truth is that it's not just this latest young white serial killer who's lost his way: it's our country as a whole.  Our values - not the pristine ones that we profess but the increasingly tawdry, inhumane ones on display in our actions and in how we live - are those of a declining and lost society ... and we must re-order them quickly if we hope to prevent the demise of what one Canadian observer on Facebook recently termed "the American Empire."  How tragically ironic that we have a president who purports to want to make the country great again and yet is bringing out all of the ugliness in us of which too many were previously ashamed to give vent publicly, illustrating just how illusory a goal this is (or, for the more optimistic, how very long a journey this will be).  But, again, I digress....

In addition to not addressing and exorcising our fundamental racism - and, in fairness, our subscription to a number of other -isms like sexism/misogyny, religiocentrism, racism in its nativist form (xenophobia), classism, etc. - we've also become a militantly selfish and inhumane nation that is heavily influenced (if not dominated) by those who claim to follow the teachings of a pacifist, nonviolent Middle Eastern Jew.  Hmmm.  We claim Judeo-Christian values but can't identify them, at least not in how we behave in the public square.  And we wonder why we all can't get along....

If America as we dream it truly has any future - which, based on our collective behavior as a society at present, I believe to be a very open question - then we will need what the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., termed a "revolution of values" to arrest our moral (et. al.) slide and put us on a better/higher/more humane path.

Thankfully, there are glimmers of hope:  Today is the day of the #MarchForOurLives, the national protest against gun violence that's happening in many cities across the country and especially in our nation's capital - where my wife and stepdaughters are now - which is led by some of the survivors of the Parkland, Florida, school massacre (in which the killer was ... aww, you know...).  These teenagers have seen through the threadbare illogic and morally bankrupt piety that have surrounded our national conversation (and inaction) on sensible gun control that has left them exposed ... and they are not having it!

That we had to get to the point of preferring our guns to our children so much so that the latter have revolted is yet another of the damning paradoxes in the life of our nation of late: our children feel so betrayed by us, their parents and other adults who are ostensibly dedicated first and foremost to their well-being and safety but who, collectively, haven't done a damn thing to protect them in the wake of dozens of such attacks in recent years, that they are deciding to lead us.  Yes, America, look at your shame and glory personified: we adults have failed our children but they are seizing the day to goad us into humane action.  If not for the humanity of this younger generation, I would have a hard time being optimistic ... but, today, as millions march in response to their call, I have hope.

Also in this outcome I believe is a bigger message and, perhaps, a vision of the solution to our present and pervasive ills: we have to listen to our children, value them and build a world that we truly want them to inherit, not just one that we leave them - a broken society, especially as exemplified by our shameful (and lethal) lack of address of gun violence - and say we tried.  We owe our children - mine and yours, of whatever color, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, etc. - this: that we endeavor to improve the world that they'll inherit, not just survive in it until we pass the baton without having finished the job.

And, today, we get a glimpse of this future in the March For Our Lives.  Let us pray that these young people's (hopefully sustained and even elevated) pressure goads us out of our torpor on this first of many issues and returns us to a more proactive fight for the more just, equitable and safe world that they deserve (which, ironically, is the kind of world that we pledged to build, we Baby Boomers, when we wrested control of the societal discourse from our elders in opposition to an unjust war a half-century ago).

Let the children lead us, because Lord knows we need it and them.  And let them lead us, too, so that many more of them learn that their voices and votes matter, which, in turn, should lead more of them to choose the common good over the cynical, selfish and lethal entitlement of Cruz and Conditt and....  It turns out our children are better than we've assumed them to be, so let's let them show us how it's done, this re-making of a better world....

We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values.
We must rapidly begin the shift from

a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society.

When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights,

are considered more important than people,

the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism

are incapable of being conquered.

- The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence," (April 4, 1967)

Accepting a normal that's not normal....

A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,

the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

- The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution

Parkland.  Yes, Lord, it happened again!?!  Except that it happens all of the time now in our country: 18 school shootings in the first month and a half of this year and 45 mass shootings in all during this time.  We have a problem ... to which we offer lip service in the form of "Thoughts and Prayers" and then express surprise and outrage when it happens yet again ... and again ... and again and....

I truly do pray for those parents of the unnecessarily lost souls in this tragedy, but I realize that it's not enough ... 'cause I'm still prayin' for the parents of Sandy Hook (and Columbine, for that matter).  Excuse my French, but f@#k our thoughts and prayers and especially those of our craven and cowardly elected representatives who offer truly empty words every time a dishearteningly predictable tragedy like this occurs.  No more prayers: God isn't going to save us; only we can save us.  Oh, God'll be involved alright, but it's the God inside each of us that has to rise up, assert itself and demand that we treat each other better, which includes curtailing our fascination with, access to and protection of the proliferation of guns in our society and the death that they inevitably deal.  When we evidence the God in us by holding ourselves accountable to protecting each others' lives, then we'll have change.  (And this also extends to providing the mental healthcare that so many of our fellow Children of God clearly need....)

Today's post is going to be my shortest ever ... because there's little more that I can add that hasn't been said before ... and that's the point. F@#k thoughts and prayers, it's time for policies and change (as one Facebook meme making the rounds puts it incisively).  It's time for action and love, writ large: to evidencing sense and sensibility in limiting our clear inability to manage access to lethal force individually in prudent and thoughtful ways.

Let's start with (extensive) background checks.  And then limit access to automatic weapons.  (Seriously, who can claim anymore that these are for hunting, unless you're hunting fellow human beings?!?)  And require gun safety training.  (If I have to learn how to drive a car, which can be a lethal weapon, why shouldn't I have to learn how to own and use a firearm safely, whose purpose is even clearer [i.e., to bring mortal injury when used]?)  And a handful of other reasonable measures that have worked in every other truly civilized nation on this planet except for ours.

And if this doesn't work, then we'll go full Australia and have to try, effectively, banning guns entirely.  But let's see if we can keep more of us alive by making some meaningful changes first.  It they work, great.  If they don't, then we'll have to take more drastic and sweeping action.  So be it.

(And lest you still claim the individual right to bear arms, look at the Second Amendment again and explain to me how you belong to a citizen militia in our modern military-industrial and police state?!?  And have things changed in almost 2-1/2 centuries?  Should we have a different approach to guns now that they fire many rounds per second not once or twice a minute as in revolutionary days?!?)

What matters is that we DO SOMETHING NOW!  No more thoughts and prayers, unless the former is to be smart about how to address this problem and the latter represents faith in action in the form of making our world safer for all of God's children.  We need courage, action and discipline now.  For if we truly aspire to be great (again?), then surely one of the important ways of doing so is to encourage life in this country, not to allow senseless and unnecessary death.

I won't be a single-issue voter in the fall, but this opportunity for massive change will be in my top 3.  Right alongside making this country more equitable and caring (again?).  Life-protective and -affirming seems to go hand in hand with that.

I truly do pray for the grieving of this latest tragedy.  But even more than this, I will act - and enjoin others to do so - so that these types of prayers won't be necessary anymore.  This is the true mark of a great country and a God-loving people....

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired,

signifies in the final sense a theft from those

who hunger and are not fed, from those who are cold and not clothed.

- President Dwight D. Eisenhower