HOW MANY DEATHS WILL IT TAKE...? - PART 4

Seth Walsh, the Tehachapi 13-year-old who hanged himself from a tree in his back yard after years of being bullied, died Tuesday afternoon after nine days on life support.

Tehachapi police investigators interviewed some of the young people who taunted Seth the day he hanged himself and determined despite the tragic outcome of their ridicule, their actions do not constitute a crime.

"Several of the kids that we talked to broke down into tears," Jeff Kermode, Tehachapi Police Chief, said. "They had never expected an outcome such as this."

He said the students told investigators they wish they had put a stop to the bullying and not participated in it.

Friends said Seth was picked on for years because he was gay.

School administrators said they have an anti-bullying program in place, but schoolmates said staff at Jacobsen Middle School in Tehachapi offered Seth no protection or guidance.

Oh God! Not another one! I'd read about Seth when he was still hanging on to life on life support, and I knew I'd likely be posting again on the tragedy of another premature end to a young life.

Some of the kids who bullied Seth show remorse, but that won't bring Seth back. Yes, I call myself a Christian, and I place my hope in a life to come, but the romance that sometimes attaches to the story of a life so tragically and unnecessarily come to an end, escapes me. I fear the contagion of this romantic view that may entice other young people to see suicide as the solution.

How many deaths will it take to convince the members of our society, including the young people, of their responsibility to treat those who seem odd or different with respect? If adults won't set the example by ending their vile and abusive commentary, how can we expect the young people to be different? How many deaths will it take to convince our citizenry to force the leadership in the schools, not only to set in place policies to deal with bullying, but to implement the policies in an effective way? Will the growing number of teen suicides as a result of bullying be enough to get the wheels in motion?

May Seth Walsh rest in peace and rise in glory.

May God give comfort, consolation, and peace to Seth's parents and to all who love him.

May God have mercy on us all!

H/T to Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin.

A WORD FROM ENGLAND

From the BBC's article on Archbishop Rowan Williams' recent interview in the Times, which is behind their wall:

"In his interview Dr Williams also revealed he will retire before his full term as Archbishop ends in 10 years, saying: 'I will not be doing this job when I'm 70.'"

I saw a news item this weekend that stated that the Archbishop of Canterbury will not serve until he is obliged to retire (age 70 in the Church of England).

This is good news for the C of E and the Anglican Communion. What worries me is that the Archbishop (now 60) will retire at or before his 65th birthday. That would mean that his successor is chosen by the current Conservative Prime Minister, David Cameron.

I have discovered that, reversing the decision of Gordon Brown to only require one name for episcopal appointments, Cameron has gone back to the historic tradition of requiring two names from the Appointments Committee, from which Cameron will pick one to send to the Queen for appointment. There are rumours (which I am discounting, but which may be true) that the two names that Southwark sent to the Prime Minister have
been sent back, one for being too liberal, one for not fitting the profile of the Diocese. I do not think that this could have happened without it being announced, as the Appointments Committee would have to reconvene to send two more names (as happened when Tony Blair, crypto-Roman PM at the time, sent back the two names for Liverpool early in his premiership). However, it is still a possibility.

The successor to Rowan Williams should be someone who is a consensus-builder, has a truly Anglican view of the Communion, and does not think of himself (or, perhaps by then, herself) as an Anglican Pope. Cameron is unlikely to look with favour on such a candidate.

By that time I believe that the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church of Canada, the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Church in Wales, and perhaps the churches of Australia and New Zealand will be out of the orbit of the Archbishop of Canterbury. But the wrong person chosen as Archbishop will have a devastating effect on the Church of England. In 5 years Sentamu will be 66 and thus probably too old to take it. The current Bench of Bishops is conspicuously thin on the ground of good diocesan bishops. If Nick Baines has gotten a diocese and settled in by then, he would make a good candidate. But we need to be very wary of a new ABC. After all, we have suffered since 1990 with two very unsuitable Archbishops and a third one in a row would mean misgovernment of the Church for at least 30 years.

A humourous postscript: A Welsh politician has upbraided Barry Morgan, Archbishop of Wales, for stating in an interview that if he is with Rowan Williams and wants to say something in private, they switch to speaking Welsh. The politico says that this reinforces the stereotype of non-Welsh people entering a pub in northern Wales and hearing everyone switch to speaking Welsh as soon as they see that strangers have entered. That was exactly my experience the one time I went to north Wales, so perhaps it's more than a stereotype.

Chris Hansen

Chris is a friend of Ann Fontaine, and the commentary above is posted with permission.

MIND THE ACRONYM!

The newly formed Society of Saint Wilfrid and Saint Hilda self-describes as:

Anglican Catholics Rally to protect
and preserve Anglican tradition

New Society is announced
to refocus ministry and mission

Anglican Catholic bishops have announced that in addition to the provision of an Ordinariate offered recently by Pope Benedict there is to be a new Society [of St Wilfrid and St Hilda] for bishops, clergy, religious and laity in order to provide a place within the Church of England where catholics can worship and minister with integrity without accepting innovations that further distance the Church of England from the greater churches of the East and West.

At two upbeat gatherings this week of over 600 clergy and religious from the northern and southern provinces of the Church of England, there was unanimous condemnation of proposed legislation to allow the ordination of women as bishops that will soon go to the dioceses for discussion, debate and approval.

The unveiling of The Mission Society of St Wilfrid and St Hilda reflects a determination not to accept a Code of Practice as currently suggested by the General Synod but to work for and create a more realistic approach which allows the integrity of those who cannot accept this innovation to be preserved, to flourish and grow within the Church of England. This development represents a constructive initiative on the part of those who cannot accept the innovations proposed in legislation and who are hurt and frustrated by the General Synod's inability to provide for their theological position.

To define one's organization by what it stands against, rather than what it stands for, seems a rather inauspicious beginning. And an "upbeat gathering" for the purpose of condemnation seem something of a contradiction. The group wants not to be distant from the "greater" churches of the East and West, but they won't go so far as to join them. The members of the Society want to be Anglican, but only as part of proper Anglicanism, which would not include women in the episcopacy.

The Society claims to be a "constructive initiative" for those who are "hurt and frustrated" because things are not going their way in the Church of England, but the group does not plan to join the Roman Catholic ordinariates, once they are in place. Since the members of the Society won't accept the Code of Practice passed by General Synod if women bishops are allowed, it seems to me a stretch to label the members of the group as the loyal opposition. Then, what exactly are they?

The WATCH statement quoted at Thinking Anglicans says of choice to include St Hilda in the name of the Society:

How sad that the example given by St Hilda in her obedience to a decision concerning the ordering of her church is ignored by those using her name, who are themselves unwilling to accept the decision made by the Revision Committee and endorsed by the General Synod.

From the comments to the post at Thinking Anglicans on the WATCH statement:

I couldn't help noticing that SSWSH invites being pronounced "Swish" - how appropriate for all those red-buttoned and braided cassocks with watered-silk cinctures being flicked out of the way of the unholy regiment of women!

The acronym is not as bad as FoCA, but apparently the founders of the new Society didn't give much thought to possible humorous plays on the acronym.

Inspiration comes in strange ways. This entire post came about because of the comment at TA.

UPDATE: Church Mouse comments on the Swish SSWSH also.

A group of Anglo-Catholics, largely from Forward in Faith, have established a 'society' within the Church of England. For what purpose? We don't really know. What will this society do? We don't really know. Who will run the society? We don't really know.

The first action of the Society will be to immediately set about theological investigations of what it is for. Brilliant stuff.

See. Church Mouse is puzzled about the new Society, too, and he is English.

Thanks to Cathy for the link to Church Mouse.

ARE WE A BANANA REPUBLIC YET?

From Philly.com

WASHINGTON - The income gap between the richest and poorest Americans grew last year to its widest amount on record as young adults and children in particular struggled to stay afloat in the recession.

The top-earning 20 percent of Americans - those making more than $100,000 each year - received 49.4 percent of all income generated in the U.S., compared with the 3.4 percent earned by those below the poverty line, according to newly released census figures. That ratio of 14.5-to-1 was an increase from 13.6 in 2008 and nearly double a low of 7.69 in 1968.

A different measure, the international Gini index, found U.S. income inequality at its highest level since the Census Bureau began tracking household income in 1967. The U.S. also has the greatest disparity among Western industrialized nations. (My emphasis)
....

An -GfK Poll this month found that by 54 percent to 44 percent, most Americans support raising taxes on the highest U.S. earners. Still, many congressional Democrats have expressed wariness about provoking the 44 percent minority so close to Election Day.

"We're pretty good about not talking about income inequality," Danziger said.

My, my, we ARE good at sticking our heads in the sand and keeping them there when the subject of income inequality comes up. You'd think that the Democrats running for office would feel pressed to spell out policies for reducing the income gap between the rich and the poor. You'd think that they'd promote policies for restoring the numbers of the disappearing middle class. You'd think that these matters would be major talking points in their campaigns, but if you thought that, you'd be wrong.

WHO PLAYED OBAMA IN 2008?

From Borowitz Report:

Democrats to Employ Man Who Played Obama During 2008 Campaign

Would Hit Campaign Trail in Place of President

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) – With just a month remaining until the crucial midterm elections, worried Democrats have decided to reach out to the man who played Barack Obama during the 2008 campaign, Democratic Party officials confirmed today.

“We were sitting around thinking of who we could put out there on the campaign trail to get people energized again,” said party chairman Tim Kaine. “And then I was like, what about that guy who played Obama in ’08? He was amazing!”

Read the rest at Borowitz's website.

The Obama of 2008 was ever the man of our dreams. Too many of us left-leaners loaded onto him all our expectations of our dream Democratic candidate, which he never was. He was center-right then, and he's center-right today.

Nevertheless, 4 or 8 more years of the likes of Bush or worse would have brought the country ever closer to becoming a banana republic, with the rich getting richer, and the poor getting poorer, and the middle class squeezed to fit in a bathtub, with governmental functions squeezed down to the same size. Good-bye Social Security. Good-bye Medicare. Good-bye to any programs that benefitted anyone but the rich and corporate classes.

Very likely we would have found another war to fight to keep the military-industrial complex fed. Iran, perhaps?

And now we are facing the possibility of the loss of a functional majority in both houses of Congress and perhaps even an actual Republican majority in one or both houses. We are in a fix, my friends. We cannot afford complacency.

HOW MANY DEATHS WILL IT TAKE...? - PART 3

From the Houston Chronicle:

Asher Brown's worn-out tennis shoes still sit in the living room of his Cypress-area home while his student progress report — filled with straight A's — rests on the coffee table.

The eighth-grader killed himself last week. He shot himself in the head after enduring what his mother and stepfather say was constant harassment from four other students at Hamilton Middle School in the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District.

Brown, his family said, was "bullied to death" — picked on for his small size, his religion and because he did not wear designer clothes and shoes. Kids also accused him of being gay, some of them performing mock gay acts on him in his physical education class, his mother and stepfather said.

The 13-year-old's parents said they had complained about the bullying to Hamilton Middle School officials during the past 18 months, but claimed their concerns fell on deaf ears.

When will school authorities begin to take the bullying and abuse seriously? How many kids will have to die before the members of our communities take note and force those authorities to implement policies to prevent such tragedies from happening?

Cy Fair ISD officials said Monday that they never received any complaints from Brown's parents before the suicide about the way the boy was being treated at school.

School district spokeswoman Kelli Durham said no students, school employees or the boy's parents ever reported that he was being bullied.

That statement infuriated the Truongs, who accused the school district of protecting the bullies and their parents.

In an opinion piece in the Chronicle, gay dad, Barry Baxter, writes:

There’s a great deal of outrage directed at the students who bullied Asher consistently during his two years at Hamilton, and rightly so. There’s additional focus on a school administration that Asher’s parents and others say looks the other way when students suffer abuse at the hands of their peers. That scrutiny must continue.

But there’s an even broader and more insidious force at work in our country when it comes to gay teen suicide. Granted, gay rights may be inching slowly forward in the court system, but that progress has contributed greatly to unprecedented levels of self-esteem battering rhetoric in the media and from the pulpit.
....

Yes, the bullies and their despicable behavior are responsible for Asher’s death. But so is the toxic, virulently anti-gay environment that continues to swirl around all of our children.

And when will the rest of the people in the country take responsibility for contributing to the toxic environment in which LGTB persons are forced to live and that drives so many young people to take their lives?

May Asher Brown rest in peace and rise in glory.

May God give comfort, consolation, and peace to Asher's parents and to all who love him.

May God have mercy on us all!

H/T to Timothy Kincaid at Box Turtle Bulletin.

PLEASE HELP MARK IF YOU CAN

Last night, I received this email from Mark Brunson, who often comments here at Wounded Bird:

My older cat, Katzie, has had to have emergency care - x-rays and catheterization. His urethra blocked and he couldn't urinate and was in great pain. This has happened before, and the vet has confirmed that this is likely to happen throughout the rest of his life, off and on, and it may require surgery - a long name with "cysto" in it somewhere - to basically transform his urinary tract into a female's urinary tract, opening the ureters wider to allow the crystals in the urine to flow out.

As of now, he's home, having been catheterized and cleared. He's not showing any signs of pain, but also hasn't urinated since he got home, so, naturally, I'm worried.

The difficulty is the cost of the care - for the past two-day stay, it comes to $281. I've been able to pay most of it, but it's coming out of the money saved for my property tax, which will be due December 20. The full surgery will cost (an additional) $400. I'm writing the two of you because you have far wider readership than I could hope for, and are more forthright and, well, crusading than I am. I wind up apologizing for having bothered everyone by living and saying "You know, don't worry about it. I'm sure I'll be fine." But I won't be fine this time. This is serious, and I need folks in my corner. I've checked around - our priest is out of country, and he's the one with the discretionary fund, though it's tiny. There are no charities (I'm aware of) who have anything right now, and nothing for someone's pet care. I'm now, officially, pulling in $217.50 a week, which is the legal requirement that I be left with in my pay after garnishment, being minimum wage X 30.

I have a PayPal account now through this email address. I'll take any help anyone can give, if you'll raise the rallying cry. Even a few bucks helps.

Thanks, in advance, for anything - prayers, advice, whatever.

Love,

Mark

Mark's email address where you can make PayPal donations is:

petrus332000@hotmail.com

Mark said further that if you email him, he will provide the name of the veterinarian who is caring for Katzie, who will verify his story.

Mark has internet access only at his workplace, where he works as the night auditor.

I believe all that Mark says is true, otherwise I would not post this request. Thank you for your help.

"WHY SO CRYPTO?"

Bishop Alan Wilson, who is Bishop of Buckingham in the Church of England, writes in his latest blog post titled, Why So Crypto?, about openness v. secrecy:

Before leaving the question of politics, I have been wondering why some of the English have such a fascination with secrecy, and such a horror of public discussion? What’s wrong with vigorous public discussion of points of difference?

Why so much crypto and secrecy?

The Bible is full of open disputation. In Galatians Peter and Paul have a technicolor public row. In the Acts various apostles fall out with each other and take their separate ways. In the gospels disciples vie with one another in front of all the others (or at any rate their mothers do) for hot spots in the Kingdom of Heaven.

All this is done without shame, or any particular feeling that it would have been very much better if the elite had stitched everything up behind closed doors. The only attempt to do this (the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15) was a brilliant day out, but its conclusions didn't last five minutes — soon enough Christians were eating non-kosher food anyway, and Peter and Paul arguing as forcibly as ever.

I strongly urge you to read the entire post. The post is instructive to all in positions of power who must make choices between openness and secrecy. Of course, privacy is sometimes necessary, but in cases where it is not, where the major reason for disallowing public discussion is so as not to be seen in dispute, then rethinking is in order.

Bishop Alan's post is as applicable to our own hierarchy in the Episcopal Church as it is to the leadership in the Church of England.

The kitschy gremlin gargoyle pictured at the head of the post is lifted from Bishop Alan's post.

BOAT RIDE FROM PORTREE

What follows is a picture-essay, with not many words, of photos from the boat ride which Cathy and I took out of Portree harbor on the Isle of Skye in Scotland.

 

The ever-changing views were lovely, and my pictures are far better than I'd dreamed.

 

We moved over the water and, as the sky changed color, the water and the rocks changed color.

 

The sky began to capture more of my interest...

 

...and even more.

 

The combination of the sky and the reflection on the water...I'm running out of words. I said that the post would be a picture essay, didn't I?

 

Bright blue skies mixed with clouds from one direction, and, from another, only low clouds with no sky visible.

 

And didn't I say ever-changing?

 

This photo blows me away. I'm deeply grateful that the sky caught my attention.

Does looking at the pictures from the boat ride give me more pleasure than the boat ride itself? Surely not! But I'm having a grand time with this post.

Cathy took photos on the ride, too, and she captured pictures of wildlife with her better camera, which I was not able to do with mine. I extend my public offer to Cathy to send me whichever of her photos that she chooses, with or without commentary, and I will publish them in another post.

FEAST DAY OF THOMAS TRAHERNE - METAPHYSICAL POET

THE VISION

Flight is but preparative. The sight
Is deep and infinite,
Ah me! 'tis all the glory, love, light, space,
Joy, beauty and variety
That doth adorn the Godhead's dwelling-place;
'Tis all that eye can see.
Even trades themselves seen in celestial light,
And cares and sins and woes are bright.

Order the beauty even of beauty is,
It is the rule of bliss,
The very life and form and cause of pleasure;
Which if we do not understand,
Ten thousand heaps of vain confused treasure
Will but oppress the land.
In blessedness itself we that shall miss,
Being blind, which is the cause of bliss.

First then behold the world as thine, and well
Note that where thou dost dwell.
See all the beauty of the spacious case,
Lift up thy pleas'd and ravisht eyes,
Admire the glory of the Heavenly place
And all its blessings prize.
That sight well seen thy spirit shall prepare,
The first makes all the other rare.

Men's woes shall be but foils unto thy bliss,
Thou once enjoying this:
Trades shall adorn and beautify the earth,
Their ignorance shall make thee bright;
Were not their griefs Democritus his mirth?
Their faults shall keep thee right:
All shall be thine, because they all conspire
To feed and make thy glory higher.

To see a glorious fountain and an end,
To see all creatures tend
To thy advancement, and so sweetly close
In thy repose: to see them shine
In use, in worth, in service, and even foes
Among the rest made thine:
To see all these unite at once in thee
Is to behold felicity.

To see the fountain is a blessed thing,
It is to see the King
Of Glory face to face: but yet the end,
The glorious, wondrous end is more;
And yet the fountain there we comprehend,
The spring we there adore:
For in the end the fountain best is shown,
As by effects the cause is known.

From one, to one, in one to see all things,
To see the King of Kings
But once in two; to see His endless treasures
Made all mine own, myself the end
Of all his labours! 'Tis the life of pleasures!
To see myself His friend!
Who all things finds conjoined in Him alone,
Sees and enjoys the Holy One.

Thomas Traherne - (1637-1674)

From Poets.org:

Thomas Traherne, the son of a shoemaker, was born in 1637 in Hereford, England. He received his education from the University of Oxford and was ordained as an Anglican clergyman in 1660. Traherne first served in a parish near Credenhill and later became the chaplain to Sir Orlando Bridgeman, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal.

Further biographical information and a brief description of Traherne's works may be found at the links above and below.

Traherne's work was personally influential on the thought of such notables as Thomas Merton, Dorothy Sayers, Elizabeth Jennings and C. S. Lewis, who called Centuries of Meditations "almost the most beautiful book in English."

From Wikipedia.