WE THE PEOPLE

We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths –- that all of us are created equal –- is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.

It is now our generation’s task to carry on what those pioneers began. For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts. Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law –- for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote. Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity — until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country. Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia, to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for and cherished and always safe from harm.

(Barack Obama - Second Inaugural Address - January 21, 2013)

IS THE WILL STILL ALIVE?

Icon by Tobias Haller

"In a few weeks some of us are coming to Washington to see if the will is still alive or if it is alive in this nation. We are coming to Washington in a Poor People’s Campaign. Yes, we are going to bring the tired, the poor, the huddled masses. We are going to bring those who have known long years of hurt and neglect. We are going to bring those who have come to feel that life is a long and desolate corridor with no exit signs. We are going to bring children and adults and old people, people who have never seen a doctor or a dentist in their lives.

We are not coming to engage in any histrionic gesture. We are not coming to tear up Washington. We are coming to demand that the government address itself to the problem of poverty. We read one day, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." But if a man doesn’t have a job or an income, he has neither life nor liberty nor the possibility for the pursuit of happiness. He merely exists.

We are coming to ask America to be true to the huge promissory note that it signed years ago. And we are coming to engage in dramatic nonviolent action, to call attention to the gulf between promise and fulfillment; to make the invisible visible.

(Sermon by Martin Luther King, Jr at the National Cathedral, Washington, DC, on 31 March 1968.  The Rev King was shot on April 4, 1968.)

Tobias Haller blogs at In a Godward Direction.

SWEARING IN IS DONE

Cancel tomorrow's festivities.

H/T to Athenae at First Draft.

ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION, BOBBY?

The recent mass killings in Tucson, Aurora and Newtown have sparked public conversations about the deficiencies in state-run mental health systems across the United States. But few states are poised to spend their own money to reverse as much as a decade of budget cutbacks in those areas.

Instead, many of them are counting on an infusion of federal mental-health dollars. Because Medicaid includes mental-health benefits, those states that opt into the Medicaid expansion included in President Obama’s Affordable Care Act will be able to make mental health coverage available to thousands of their citizens who do not now have it.
For the first three years that additional coverage would cost the states nothing: Under terms of the Affordable Care Act, the federal government  will cover 100 percent of the costs of new Medicaid enrollees for the first three years and 90 percent after 2020.

Louisiana is not presently known for its sterling mental health care system.  Nevertheless, our governor, Bobby Jindal, has opted out of the Medicaid expansion which would cover mental health care on conservative principles, but I wonder if he may reconsider.   The majority of the citizens of Louisiana are against any sort of regulation of firearms or ammunition, giving as their reason that it's not guns that kill people, but deranged individuals who manage to get their hands on guns who kill people.  How about it, members of the NRA in Louisiana?  Why not start a campaign to urge the governor to sign on to the expanded Medicaid program that will enable more persons with mental illness to get treatment? 

The mentally ill deserve the same treatment as those with physical illness, because it's the right thing to do, but whatever your motive behind opting into the Medicaid expansion, just do it, Governor.  The Medicaid expansion program would serve a good many people with physical illnesses and offer preventive care.  What's not to like?  If conservative principles prevent you from giving the citizens of Louisiana services they need, then, in the name of simple compassion for the well-being of the people you serve, you should ditch your principles.

Also, Governor, in the event you hadn't noticed, the line of Republican governors who refuse to participate in the Medicaid expansion program is broken.  I expect more Republican governors will decide to adopt the program, so you would not stand alone if you changed your mind.  Perhaps you and your good friend Rick Perry (Tweedledum and Tweedledee?) from Texas might have a conversation about a change in policy. 

Arizona will participate in the expansion of Medicaid, Gov. Jan Brewer said Monday in her State of the State address, making her the third Republican governor to agree to one of the key components of President Barack Obama's health care reform.

Brewer said that if she did not accept the Medicaid funds for Arizona, other states could claim those federal dollars and create jobs that otherwise would be created in Arizona. Fellow Republican governors Susana Martinez of New Mexico and Brian Sandoval of Nevada also plan to expand Medicaid to anyone who earns up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, which is currently $14,856 for an individual.

But 10 other Republican governors have already decided not to participate. The Supreme Court's 2012 ruling that affirmed Obama's health care law allows states to refuse to take part in the Medicaid expansion.

"TENSE" - A POEM

Tense

What was or is or will be, no sense

in this craving certainty

facts on which to safely stand, defense

the default pose of wisdom

as if all imperfect past pretense

of knowing could guarantee

passage through high reeds or forest dense

tangle of conformity

assumed, silent threat of violence

individuality

an idea, in practice the province

of lone eccentricity

tolerated in rare great talents

muffled in society

where ritual mutes the mass conscience

to accept disparity

as the price of managed turbulence

balance of security

held in place by a gossamer fence

decorum of brevity.

The perfect, not without flaw, complete.

Some believers claim just one

error free leader, teacher, God’s Son

fret that he/she/it with us is done

indulge the urge to compete

mark clear grace with penitence

as if the gift was some short-term loan

a debt re-paid in fragments

pain the test of unearned interest

currency of consequence.

Love, the real thing, is given, not lent

no tensile integrity

of high wire show, by no human rent

just response ability

the impulse to pray, a need intense

to veil the fragility

of subjunctive, iffy existence

in terms of nobility

power vested in high thrones

armaments, mobility

secrets glorified, the work of drones

scorched credibility

on the altar of the last unknowns

what shall not, cannot, should never be?

To lose the true living sense

present tense, that life is, is holy

each and every one intense

precious, not some beta test worthy

only if one can convince

some self-appointed authority

eager or reluctant prince

to hold Love bestowed as surety

against the void, the absence

of even one, small, humanity.

(Marthe G. Walsh)

"Love, the real thing is given, not lent..."   True and lovely words.  Thank you for the poem, Marthe.  It is all good.

"THE SON COMES OUT TO HIS MOM"

I like men, too, so everybody's happy?  It ain't necessarily so.

From nakedpastor.

THAT KRUGMAN GUY AGAIN

It’s looking increasingly as if House Republicans won’t crash the world economy by refusing to raise the debt ceiling, at least not right now. Score a big one for the White House (provisionally); its bet that it wouldn’t need a way to bypass the ceiling is looking like a winner (although it ain’t over until the tanned guy cries).

Paul nearly caused me to spew orange juice all over my keyboard with his final parenthetical comment.  Don't misunderstand me: Krugman has a biting wit, but it's not usually of the sort that will cause liquid to be spewed, so I was unprepared.

The reality that they will be blamed for a default seems finally to be dawning on Republicans.  That they would even contemplate such a move as not paying bills that the government owes seems quite reckless.  Their chief supporters of the GOP, investors, banks, and corporations, don't like the present uncertainty either.  Even now, the fact that the matter of the debt ceiling is not settled puts a drag on economic recovery.

DOGS WILL GET THEIR REWARD

Our Diana wearing her Mardi Gras beads

It is taught that in the World-to-Come, dogs will lead in singing the praises of the Almighty. They will say to other creatures "Come! Let us prostrate ourselves and bow, let us kneel before G-d, our Maker".

Throughout classical Jewish literature they are portrayed as the most insolent of animals. How could it be, he wondered, that this very same creature will merit to lead in the singing of praises to G-d in the World-to-Come?

(Rav Yishaya)

A charming commentary on dogs as portrayed in classic Jewish literature.  Thanks to my friend Linda, who posted the link on Facebook.

The answer to the question may be found at torah.org.

Good Shabbos!

ZACK WILL GO FAR IN LIFE

For Zack Kopplin, it all started back in 2008 with the passing of the Louisiana Science Education Act. The bill made it considerably easier for teachers to introduce creationist textbooks into the classroom. Outraged, he wrote a research paper about it for a high school English class. Nearly five years later, the 19-year-old Kopplin has become one of the fiercest — and most feared — advocates for education reform in Louisiana. We recently spoke to him to learn more about how he's making a difference.

Kopplin, who is studying history at Rice University, had good reason to be upset after the passing of the LSEA — an insidious piece of legislation that allows teachers to bring in their own supplemental materials when discussing politically controversial topics like evolution or climate change. Soon after the act was passed, some of his teachers began to not just supplement existing texts, but to rid the classroom of established science books altogether. It was during the process to adopt a new life science textbook in 2010 that creationists barraged Louisiana's State Board of Education with complaints about the evidence-based science texts. Suddenly, it appeared that they were going to be successful in throwing out science textbooks.

Below is a video of Zack on Hardball in 2011



What courage and determination in one so young.  I'm so very proud of Zack and what he has accomplished.  Sadly, the ignorance displayed by the reverend who objected to science textbooks that are biased in favor of evolution is not so rare amongst the citizens of the Gret Stet.  Govermor Bobby Jindal, a major force behind the Louisiana Science Education Act, surely knows better with his major in biology from Brown University, but he is the consummate opportunist.

Following his success in halting the practice of removing science textbooks from the classrooms, Zack plans to focus his attention next on voucher schools, religious fundamentalist schools that use supplemental materials in science classes to teach young-earth creationism to their students, whose numbers include those whose tuition is paid with state vouchers.  Zack has paid a price: he's been called the Anti-Christ and accused of causing Hurricane Katrina. (Multiple eye rolls)   Geaux Zack! 

H/T to my Facebook friend Chris H and others for the link to the article.

WELCOME, BROTHER SUN

 

When I woke up this morning, the bright light shining through the windows caused me to squint and had me baffled for a spell, but then I remembered the light came from the sun. It's been so long since we've seen sunlight (and shadows, those dark things) that I'd forgotten.  Good to see you again, Brother Sun.

Praised be You my Lord with all Your creatures,
especially Sir Brother Sun,
Who is the day through whom You give us light.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendour,
Of You Most High, he bears the likeness.

(From Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon - St Francis of Assisi)

UPDATE:

We praise You, Lord, for Sister Moon and the stars,
in the heavens you have made them bright, precious and fair.

Tonight was the first night I've seen the moon and stars for quite a while.