Americans have no idea about contents of inaugural invocations but everyone remembers Bishop Budde

Three cheers for Episcopal Bishop Budde❗🙏✝️"I appreciate his acknowledgment that religious leaders, including those found in the Bible, often feel compelled to hold the powerful to account — which is just what I believe the bishop was doing." From Tom McCullough in Dennis, Massachusette published in the Boston Globe,

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (“What MAGA really hated about Bishop Budde’s homily." Bishop Mariann Budde recited this verse as part of her homily about the need for unity in our polarized society and on resisting the temptation to “mock, discount, or demonize those with whom we differ.”

Boston Globe opinoin:  One day after the January 20th inauguration, the quadrennial interfaith worship service at the Washington National Cathedral featured the kind of Christian minister Trump disapproves of — the kind who calls on him to heed the better angels of his nature and to remember, even as he orders dramatic changes in federal policy, that empathy and mercy are important ideals.

In her leadership clerical homily, the Rev. Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, spoke mostly about the need for unity in our polarized society and for resisting the temptation to “mock, discount, or demonize those with whom we differ.” Just before concluding, she addressed Trump directly. Acknowledging that millions of Americans have put their trust in the president, she implored him “to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.” She spoke in particular of undocumented migrants facing deportation. Most “immigrants are not criminals,” she added. “They pay taxes and are good neighbors.”

Bishop Budde’s tone was respectful, even deferential, but the implied criticism, however brief and gently worded, was more than Trump could abide. 

Cowardly Trumpzi took to social media late that night to slam Bishop Budde as a “Radical Left hard line Trump hater” who was “nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart.” For good measure he insulted the entire two-and-a-half-hour service, calling it “very boring and uninspiring” and said both Budde and the church “owe the public an apology.”  (Bishop Mariann Budde tells NPR "I won't apologize' for the sermon addressing Trump")

Since antiquity, religious leaders have felt compelled to hold the powerful to account, often at great personal risk. The Bible, of course, is replete with such episodes, like the prophet Nathan confronting King David over his sin with Bathsheba and Elijah condemning King Ahab for his corruption and cruelty. In later centuries, the Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas spent decades exhorting the Spanish Crown to end the brutal enslavement and mistreatment of indigenous peoples in the Americas. 

The Puritan minister Roger Williams challenged the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s leadership on issues of religious liberty. Martin Luther King Jr. repeatedly appealed to Judeo-Christian values of justice and mercy as he led the fight against racial segregation and the authorities who sustained it.

Nothing is more normal than the invocation of God in our public life. “In God We Trust” appears on all US currency.

The vitriol directed at Bishop Budde from the MAGA cult loyalists reeks of hypocrisy. 

None of them objected when Trump perverted his inaugural address to heap scorn on the outgoing president to his face. None uttered a word of criticism when Franklin Graham fawned over Trump during the benediction. If Budde had praised a Trump executive order during her homily the following day, they would have applauded her sagacity. 

But because Bishop Budde suggested that Trump's

 sweeping new orders ought to be combined with compassion, they berated her. They weren’t offended that she brought politics into the pulpit. But, her message wasn’t Trump-approved, and that was intolerable to the hypocritical right wing MAGA cult.

Michelle Obama is the world's beautiful leading "influencer". An important trend setter even in her absence

Michelle Obama Isn’t Sick — She Just Hates Trump

Echo repoer published in The New York Magazine Intelligencer by Margaret Hartmann

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is an American attorney and author who served as the first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017, being married to Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States. Raised on the South Side of Chicago, Obama is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School.

The state funeral for President Jimmy Carter was attended by all five living presidents and their spouses — except for Michelle Obama. Although CNN reported that the former First Lady missed the January 9, memorial due to a scheduling conflict, searches for “is Michelle Obama sick” spiked on Google.

And when the Obamas announced last week that Michelle would not attend the second Trump inauguration, people started speculating that they were headed for divorce.

Thankfully, it does not appear that Michelle is ill or having marital troubles. Judging from the available evidence, she just really hates Donald Trump.

The statement from the Obamas’ office on January 14, which was shared with the Associated Press (AP), said: “Former president Barack Obama is confirmed to attend the 60th Inaugural Ceremonies. Former First Lady Michelle Obama will not attend the upcoming inauguration.”

Sure enough, Barack Obama was flying solo at Trump’s swearing in on January 20, 2025.

Meanwhile Michelle posted this message on Instagram — which could be a subtweet aimed at Trump, or just an earnest celebration of MLK Day, which also happened to fall on Monday:

Former President Barack Obama arrived at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda for the second inauguration of President-elect Trump.
Former first lady Michelle Obama is not in attendance. https://t.co/81S7rzN0DZ #InaugurationDay pic.twitter.com/hqIkHuCFPr— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 20, 2025

Meanwhile Michelle posted this message on Instagram — which could be a subtweet aimed at Trump, or just an earnest celebration of MLK Day, which also happened to fall on Monday:

Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy of service always inspires me.

This #MLKDay, I hope you’ll join me and @WhenWeAllVote in honoring Dr. King’s life and legacy by getting involved in your community. Whether you’re mentoring students at your local school or volunteering for a cause that matters to you, it all helps make a difference. Tell me how you’re giving back today in the comments.

No reason was given for Michelle’s absence from Trump’s swearing in, nor did the Obamas say why she skipped Carter’s funeral. 

Earlier this month, an Obama spokesperson merely confirmed in a statement to The Hill that she was “not in attendance” adding, “Mrs. Obama sends her thoughts and prayers to the Carter family, and everyone who loved and learned from the remarkable former president.”

Is it possible that something more serious is going on? Sure. But no PR team wants a repeat of last year’s Kate Middleton debacle, and there’s no real reason to think that. There is, however, ample evidence that Michelle Obama has had it with pretending she doesn’t dislike Trump.

Obama explained her exasperated looks in her 2018, memoir, Becoming. “Sitting on the inaugural stage in front of the U.S. Capitol for the third time, I worked to contain my emotions,” she wrote. However, after surveying the crowd of Trumpworld figures that surrounded her, she gave up. Though the “optics” might have been bad, “I stopped even trying to smile,” she said.

She recalled her terrible inauguration experience again during an episode of her podcast in 2023, saying she was “uncontrollably sobbing” by the end of the day. “Many people took pictures of me and they’re like, ‘You weren’t in a good mood?’ No, I was not❗ But you had to hold it together like you do for eight years.”

Eight years later, Obama went after Trump by name while campaigning for Kamala Harris. In her Democratic National Convention speech, she accused Trump of doing “everything in his power to make people fear” her and Barack because he felt “threatened” by “two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who happen to be Black.” Then she dropped the memorable jab, “Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs’?”

Obviously, the Ex-Presidents Club is full of people who have said terrible things about each other. 

Nevertheless, that did not prevent Barack Obama from yukking it up with Trump at the Carter funeral. But had Michelle attended, the task of chatting with Trump would have fallen to her, as she would have been seated next to him. She is not a professional politician, and it seems her willingness to engage in fake niceties with the Trumps has only waned over the years. Her rumored excuse for skipping the funeral wasn’t even very good. CNN’s Jeff Zeleny reported that she was “still in Hawaii on an extended holiday vacation.”

Several anonymous Michelle Obama “allies” told The Hill that her decision was all about Trump:

“She meant every word she said on the campaign trail with every fiber of her being,” one ally said. “And she’s no hypocrite.”

By not attending the inauguration, Michelle Obama is “saving some credibility,” one longtime aide to her said.

“She campaigned the hardest against him personally, of anyone,” the aide said.

And a “source familiar with her thinking” told People that she “did all the public good that she could for eight years as first lady.” 

Now we’ll see her when she has a project or cause to promote, “but she doesn’t feel the need to be a public figure anymore.”

“There’s no overstating her feelings about [Trump]. She’s not one to plaster on a pleasant face and pretend for protocol’s sake,” the source added. “Michelle doesn’t do anything because it’s expected or it’s protocol or it’s tradition.”

So who was there to supply meme-able looks on Monday with Michelle sitting this one out? Another former First Lady came through: "Hilary Clinton reacts to Donald Trump declaring he will rename Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America."

Hillary Clinton laughs as Trump announces ‘Gulf of America’ order:

“There’s no overstating Mrs. Obama's feelings about [Trump]. She’s not one to plaster on a pleasant face and pretend for protocol’s sake,” the source added. “Michelle doesn’t do anything because it’s expected or it’s protocol or it’s tradition.”

Media Alert! Donald Trump must be held accountable for spewing lies and misinformation!

A Mississippi point of view by the Association Press and published in Mississippi Free Press  (Check my blog published on April, 1, 2017....a preamble to continuous lies... https://oneturkeyrun.blogspot.com/2017/04/lie-library-solicitions-trump-legacy.html)

In his first news conference since Vice President Kamala Harris became popular the Democratic nominee for president, former President Donald Trump said he would debate her on September 10, and pushed for two more debates. The Republican presidential nominee (X-president) spoke for more than an hour, discussing a number of issues facing the country and then taking questions from reporters. He made a number of false and misleading claims. 

Many of them have been made before. Here’s a look at some of Trump's false claims. 

1.  Crowd Sizes:  CLAIM: “The biggest crowd I’ve ever spoken — I’ve spoken to the biggest crowds. Nobody’s spoken to crowds bigger than me. If you look at Martin Luther King when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours, same real estate, same everything, same number of people, if not we had more. And they said he had a million people, but I had 25,000 people.”

“Stop questioning the size of her crowds,” was the advice former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. said in a Fox News appearance.

But, THE FACTS: Trump was comparing the crowd at his speech in front of the White House on Jan. 6, 2021, to the crowd that attended Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech on August. 28, 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial.  But far more people are estimated to have been at Dr. Martin Luther King's speech, than the former.

Approximately 250,000 people attended the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, at which King gave his speech, according to the National Park Service. The Associated Press reported in 2021, that there were at least 10,000 people at Trump’s address.

Moreover, Trump and King did not speak in the same location. King spoke from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, which looks east toward the Washington Monument. Trump spoke at the Ellipse, a grassy area just south of the White House.

2,  January 6th: CLAIM: “Nobody was killed on January 6th.” ❓

But, THE FACTS: That’s false❗ In fact, 😡 five people died in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and its immediate aftermath. Pro-Trump rioters breached the U.S. Capitol that day amid Congress’ effort to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

Among the deceased are Ashli Babbitt, a Trump supporter shot and killed by police, and Brian Sicknick, a police officer who died the day after battling the mob. Four additional officers who responded to the riot killed themselves in the following weeks and months. 

Babbitt, was a 35-year-old Air Force veteran from San Diego, was shot and killed by a police officer as she climbed through a broken part of a Capitol door during the violent riot. Trump often cited Babbitt’s death while lamenting the treatment of those who attended a rally outside the White House that day and then marched to the Capitol, many of whom fought with police.

3.  Democratic Nomination: CLAIM: “The presidency was taken away from Joe Biden, and I’m no Biden fan, but I tell you what, from a constitutional standpoint, from any standpoint you look at, they took the presidency away.”

But, THE FACTS: There is nothing in the Constitution that prevents the Democratic Party from making Vice President Kamala Harris its nominee. That process is determined by the Democratic National Committee.

Harris officially claimed the nomination Monday following a five-day online voting process, receiving 4,563 delegate votes out of 4,615 cast, or about 99% of participating delegates. A total of 52 delegates in 18 states cast their votes for “present,” the only other option on the ballot.

The vice president was the only candidate eligible to receive votes after no other candidate qualified by the party’s deadline following President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the race on July 21.
The Economy

4.  CLAIM: Suggesting things would be different if he had been in office rather than Biden: “You wouldn’t have had inflation. ❓ You wouldn’t have had any inflation because inflation was caused by their bad energy problems❓ Now they’ve gone back to the Trump thing because they need the votes. They’re drilling now because they had to go back because gasoline was going up to 7, 8, 9 dollars a barrel.”

But, THE FACTS: There would have been at least some inflation if Trump had been reelected in 2020, because many of the factors causing inflation were outside a president’s control. Prices spiked in 2021 after cooped-up Americans ramped up their spending on goods such as exercise bikes and home office furniture, overwhelming disrupted supply chains. U.S. auto companies, for example, couldn’t get enough semiconductors and had to sharply reduce production, causing new and used car prices to shoot higher. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in March 2022, also sent gas and food prices soaring around the world, as Ukraine’s wheat exports were disrupted and many nations boycotted Russian oil and gas.

Still, under Biden, U.S. oil production reached a worldwide record level earlier this year.

Many economists, including some Democrats, say Biden’s $1.9 trillion financial support package, approved in March 2021, which provided a $1,400 stimulus check to most Americans, helped fuel inflation by ramping up demand. 

But, the relief check didn’t cause inflation all by itself. And Trump supported $2,000 stimulus checks in December 2020, rather than the $600 checks included in a package he signed into law in December 2020.

Prices still spiked in countries with different policies than Biden’s, such as France, Germany and the U.K., though mostly because of the sharp increase in energy costs stemming from Russia’s invasion.
Immigration

5. CLAIM: “Twenty million people came over the border during the Biden-Harris administration — 20 million people — and it could be very much higher than that. Nobody really knows.”

But, THE FACTS: Trump’s 20 million figure is unsubstantiated at best, and he didn’t provide sources.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports 7.1 million arrests for illegal crossings from Mexico from January 2021 through June 2024. That’s arrests, not people. Under pandemic-era asylum restrictions, many people crossed more than once until they succeeded because there were no legal consequences for getting turned back to Mexico. So the number of people is lower than the number of arrests.

In addition, CBP- i.e., Customs, says it stopped migrants 1.1 million times at official land crossings with Mexico from January 2021 through June 2024, largely under an online appointment system to claim asylum called CBP One.

U.S. authorities also admitted nearly 500,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela under presidential authority if they had financial sponsors and arrived at an airport.

All told, that’s nearly 8.7 million encounters. Again, the number of people is lower due to multiple encounters for some.

There are an unknown number of people who eluded capture, known as “got-aways” in Border Patrol parlance. The Border Patrol estimates how many but doesn’t publish that number.

6.  CLAIM: Vice President Kamala Harris “was the border czar 100% and all of a sudden for the last few weeks she’s not the border czar anymore.”

But, THE FACTS: Harris was appointed to address “root causes” of migration in Central America. That migration manifests itself in illegal crossings to the U.S., but she was not assigned to the border.
New York Cases

7.  CLAIM: “The New York cases are totally controlled out of the Department of Justice.”

But, THE FACTS: Trump was referring to two cases brought against him in New York — one civil and the other criminal.

Neither has anything to do with the U.S. Department of Justice.

The civil case was initiated by a lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James. In that case, Trump was ordered in February to pay a $454 million penalty for lying about his wealth for years as he built the real estate empire that vaulted him to stardom and the White House.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a state-level prosecutor, brought the criminal case. In May, a jury found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016, election through a hush money payment to a porn actor who said the two had sex.

Associated Press writers Melissa Goldin and Elliot Spagat and economics writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this article.

Find more AP Fact Checks here.

Nikki Haley certainly needs American History lessons about racism, slavery and civil rights

Echo opinion published in NOLA.com in Lousiana:

Not long after sundown on the day the United States of America honored the life of one of its greatest civil rights leaders ever, Martin Luther King Jr., an animated politician blurted out one of the most ridiculous claims in the history of this great country.

Ed Pratt: Never a racist country? Surely Nikki Haley knows better than that❗

Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley proclaimed, “We’ve (the USA) never been a racist country.”

Wait❗ Isn’t battling racism and seeking rights for Americans the reason why King is annually saluted? 

So, I guess Haley, and those like her, never got the memo. 

Or, maybe she is joining the group working hard to whitewash our country’s history.

I’ve written before about my U.S. Army veteran dad and me being confronted by a White teenager who refused to sell him two sno-balls, and she made it clear why when she said, “We don’t serve Negros.”

My brokenhearted dad was convinced that he was a victim of racism. Silly, right?

In my early days as a reporter on the old evening newspaper State-Times in Baton Rouge, a White reporter held up a magazine for me to see the headline about a popular television miniseries: “Roots best watched from end to beginning.”

Let’s be clear, most folks in this country are working hard to treat people as people and that has led to improvements in employment, education, housing and other areas. But, my goodness, Nikki, there is a contingent who are unabashed racists and another group who don’t believe they are racist.

I’ve written before about my U.S. Army veteran dad and me being confronted by a White teenager who refused to sell him two sno-balls, and she made it clear why when she said, “We don’t serve Negros.”

My brokenhearted dad was convinced that he was a victim of racism. Silly, right?

In my early days as a reporter on the old evening newspaper State-Times in Baton Rouge, a White reporter held up a magazine for me to see the headline about a popular television miniseries: “Roots best watched from end to beginning.”

Get it, Nikki? Funny, huh? But not racist, right?

Let’s talk about the biggie — slavery. I guess holding human beings just a step above captive animals was just a thing or a phase, huh, Nikki? Nikki, have you seen what the belly of the slave ships were like?

Nikki, I know you read stories about places where people who look Black like me could not sit at the front of a city bus. 

I’m thinking that if you and your family were around at that time, some folks may have said something about you sitting in those front seats, too. But asking you to move to the back would not have been racist, though, right?

Nikki, Nikki, Nikki. Did you hear about the White people in Tulsa, Oklahoma who went into a prosperous Black section of town and burned it down? After finishing the dastardly deed, no harm nor foul to the perpetrators. Your thoughts?

Now, that I’m thinking about it, I recall you saying a couple of weeks ago that slavery was not at the heart of the Civil War. 😒😟😳❓ 

Indeed, even many racists agree that keeping slaves on those cotton farms was the foundation for the Civil War.

Hey Nikki, you know several GOP-controlled legislatures around the nation are trying to make it more difficult for Black and poor people to vote. Shouldn’t voting be as accessible as possible?

You know, Nikki, I’m anxiously waiting for your comments leading up to February. You do know what that is, don’t you? 

You know, February is Black History Month. Pay attention 😅, Nikki, you may learn something about what a race of people has faced since 1619, and what they have been doing about it.

Or, given your recent outlandish comments, you may say something else to cause jaws to drop and for you to appear, well, you know.

Email Edward Pratt, a former newspaperman, at epratt1972@yahoo.com.

Message to Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginians

US Senate to debate and vote on the Freedom to Vote Act:

Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr. in photographs

Echo editorial message to Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia:

Had Martin Luther King Jr. not been gunned down in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968, while visiting that city to try and help sanitation workers to obtain a livable wage, he would have turned 93 years old, on January 15th.

His legacy of nonviolent resistance, fighting for civil rights and equality for what he termed “Black and Brown people” is a fight that continues to this day.

One of the key bills he fought for is no longer valid, struck down June 25, 2013, by a right-leaning U.S. Supreme Court in a ruling now commonly referred to as Shelby Co. vs. Holder. In that ruling, the court sent forever to the history books important guardrails that had been created by passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The Voting Rights Act required Southern states, that had historically used Jim Crow tactics since the Reconstruction era (Dec 8, 1863- March 31, 1877) to limit Black and Brown citizens’ access to the voting booth, to obtain pre-clearance from the U.S. Justice Department for any changes in their state elections laws.

From left, Ralph Abernathy, James Forman, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Rev. Jesse Douglas and John Lewis lead a march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, in a scene from the Paramount documentary “I Am MLK Jr.” photo credit...Steve Schapiro.

With a growing number of misled Americans believing the 2020, presidential election is (false!) invalid, many states have rushed to enact laws that will make it even more difficult for minorities to vote.

In Georgia, for example, its newfangled voting coup allows state officials to go to any of its 159, county elections boards and simply take them over. Georgia officials have done this so far in counties that have majority-minority populations, including Fulton County, the seat of state government.

This is also the same county in which pro-Trump officials accused an elections worker of stealing votes. Since that unfounded accusation, as Reuters reported in December 2021, Ruby Freeman had to go into hiding to save her own life.

“Death threats from angry Trump supporters forced Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman, a 62-year-old grandmother, to flee her home of 20 years. Some messages called for her hanging; one urged people to ‘hunt’ her. Freeman showed hundreds of menacing messages to police and called 911 three times,” according to the report.

Oftentimes, the answer is right in front of our faces.

That answer continues to be, as we have stated on this page before, the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Both bills would end “dark money” donations and increase access to voting, which is, after all, the linchpin of American democracy. Lewis was a confidant of King’s and was there with King on many marches and nonviolent actions, including the historic march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in the march on Selma, Alabama.

“The Freedom to Vote Act also advances civil rights and racial justice. It restores federal voting rights to returning citizens who have been released from prison after serving their sentences. The bill includes targeted protections to ensure underserved and vulnerable communities, such as those with disabilities and Native Americans, aren’t disenfranchised through no fault of their own,” according to the Brennan Center.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted this week to send the Freedom to Vote Act to the divided U.S. Senate where Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is one of the bill’s co-sponsors. Manchin even spent hours working on the bill in an attempt to make it bipartisan.

However, since Republicans continue to resist the change by disparaging the bill as a federal takeover of state elections, they continue to fail the voting public. 

Not one Republican has come forward to offer an alternative to the Freedom to Vote Act.

All the public keeps hearing about is protecting Senate rules, which speaks of plain and simple politics, not governing, not advancing America forward, which is every lawmakers’ job. It’s time the conversation shifts to protecting democracy — plain and simple.

What you do, Sen. Manchin, speaks so loudly we cannot hear what you say.

Stand up for America, not some contrived thing called the filibuster.

Trumpziism - racism is democracy suppression

Opinion echo letter published in the Kansas newspaper:

Topeka Capital-Journal

Martin Luther King 

I have struggled with this question for going on five years: How can people support Donald Trump when they are hearing and seeing exactly what I am hearing and seeing? He is an unapologetic fascist authoritarian racist. Democracy can no longer be taken for granted. He is full of lies and contradictions. Freedoms of speech, press and religion have been well on their way to the endangered species list.

Now I think I know the answer. Donald Trump is saying what his base of supporters wants to hear. Up to now, I have given them the benefit of a doubt — that is, even though they supported a racist, they weren’t necessarily racist themselves. I now believe that they really are racists, aka white supremacists.

I heard a pundit wiser than I am declare that white supremacists do not like democracy. They see democracy as too hazardous to their health; people of color might actually get elected when elections are fair and open. Voter suppression isn’t just about suppressing voting rights, it’s about suppressing democracy itself.

It appears that white supremacists fear losing their self-deluding white superiority. Ironically, racists are inferior beings. The mere fact that they are so full of irrational fear and hatred makes them so.

Terry Larson, Topeka Kansas

Create political change by voting!

Echo opinion letter to the Conway Daily Sun in Conway New Hampshire:

To the editor:  In the interest of full disclosure, I do not get my identity from my political beliefs. Over the decades, my political opinions have evolved as the culture has changed. I have family members, friends, coworkers and acquaintances who hold a variety of political views. I respect them all.

"...we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation."- Martin Luther King

Like millions of Americans, I am concerned about the polarization and uncivil discourse in this country. While we may be speaking the same words, we are attributing different meanings to these words. Let’s look up the following definitions of “revolution,” “repentance” and “reconciliation” in the dictionary.

Revolution is “a forcible overthrow of government or social order, in favor of a new system.” The American Revolution overthrew a British monarchy for a republic. The French Revolution overthrew a French king for anarchy. The Russian Revolution overthrew a Russian Czar for communism. None of these subjects had the right to vote to influence or change their government. All involved violence, death, loss of property and imprisonment.

Repentance is “a call to persons to make a radical turn from one way of life to another.” It is much more than feeling sorry or guilty; repentance leads to an observable change. When we acknowledge that we are part of the problem, we can become part of the solution. Repentance is the first step toward reconciliation.

Reconciliation is “the process of two or more people or groups in a conflict agreeing to make amends or come to a truce.”

Revolution is fueled by anger, repentance by humility, reconciliation by concern. Revolution is symbolized by a raised fist, repentance by a bowed head, reconciliation with an outstretched hand.

Revolution shouts, repentance whispers, reconciliation listens. Revolution tears down statues, reconciliation erects new ones to overlooked heroes.

In revolution the oppressed become the oppressors. In reconciliation the oppressed become equals. Revolution draws a line in the sand and demands you pick a side. Reconciliation invites you to the table to express your views.

Revolution wants to destroy the Judeo/Christian foundation of our nation. Reconciliation acknowledges we have failed to live by the ideals we claim to believe.

In the 1960s, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. transformed American society without throwing a brick or hurling an insult. His weapon was the word of God. I challenge you to read the books written by him or watch his “I Have a Dream Speech” online.

America as we have known it is at a crossroads. It is not a choice between left or right, Democrat or Republican. It is a choice between revolution or reconciliation. I choose reconciliation.

From June O’Donal
Denmark, Maine

Racism during Trumpziism - Donald Trump reaction

How I responded to a racist note in my gym bag

An echo experience from Alabama

Trump Tells Congresswomen to ‘Go Back’ to the Countries They Came From

By Karim Shamsi-Basha-  This is an echo opinion column published in Alabama.com.

This note was left in my bag at the gym last week, because it has become acceptable to be a racist in America.

Donald Trump can say, “Go back” to the “Totally broken and crime infested places from which they came” to four Muslim congresswomen, three of which were born in the United States.

The note in my bag had the same Trumpziism language. 

Was this hateful message inspired by Trump and his rhetoric? I’m sure it was caused by many things, including Trump’s continuous assault on what makes this country the beautiful diverse tapestry it became in 1776.

Many Americans embrace this beautifully diverse tapestry, like our own Alabama Senator Doug Jones, who surprised me with his supportive Tweet:

"As expected, the @realdonaldtrump disturbing rhetoric has gone mainstream. In Alabama especially, we know what can happen if we allow this kind of hatred to fester and if we don't call out racism when we see it." 

Someone left this note in
@arabinalabama's bag at a gym in Vestavia Hills, Alabama. His response? A note to his children that said, "Keep your chin high, be proud of who you are, and where you come from. Ignorant people should be taught and loved, make that your mission."

Arabinalabama is my twitter handle. This is what I wrote to my children following the incident:

“So I wasn’t going to show you all this, but then I thought this is something you will face one day no doubt. Someone left this in my gym bag the other day. Things are for sure getting worse as far as race in this country. Just do this for me though: Keep your chin high, be proud of who you are, and where you come from. Ignorant people should be taught and loved, make that your mission, not hatred. Be compassionate, loving, in the long run, that will pay off much more than hatred. I love you all so much, and this only makes me stronger, and should you as well.”

I came to this country from Syria at the age of 18 to seek a better life, and it has been 35 years of dreams coming true, freedom burgeoning at every turn, and, unfortunately, racism sometimes thriving—fashionable and strong.

Facebook Backlash

Examine the actions of Martin Luther King who said, “Love is the only way”.

I posted the note and some brief commentary on Facebook. 

Friends have since then posted their support on Twitter which has taken a life of its own as well. The question remains, Why are people from different “anything” less worthy?

I never wanted any of this backlash, but journalists make things public. They pour their souls out for the world to stomp on, and stomp on it they have. Despite receiving love and support, I have received a thousands of hateful and racist comments, as well as a few death threats. One comment said, “You should be beheaded.” Another, “Go back to Syria.” I have since then made my Facebook profile private.

Death threats are nothing new.

Racial issues make the waters of our lives boil and spill over, sending the steam of intolerance, the heat of hatred, and the smell of burning rage. No doubt, this is often promoted by the notion that some are better than others due to the color of their skin.

Does this behavior filter down from the top down? Trump did not invent racism, he is only bringing it back with style. He is making it acceptable to be intolerant, belligerent, and aggressive. That is how he acts, and his fans have followed suit.

All of that is now normal behavior.

But it shouldn’t be. It should be looked at as despicable, unacceptable, and revolting. Common decency asks us to accept everyone regardless of their different “anything.”

Humanity pleads with us to rise above, to smile, to preach peace, to speak kindness, to be humble, to promote tolerance, to help others, and to be loving beings in touch with their empathy, in tune with their charity.

Love is the answer

Love is the only thing that will fight racism, bigotry, and all the ills of this world. If you trace the greatest leaders throughout history, you will find they accomplished huge tasks and motivated millions by love.

Examine the actions of Martin Luther King who said, “Love is the only way”.

Read the words of New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Mania, who said this after the Christchurch shooting in March of this year, “Sympathy and love for all Muslim communities.”

Will racism continue? Will the President continue to inspire hatred and division? Will white nationalists continue to harass others on social media? Will Muslims and Jews and Hindus and Buddhists and people of other faiths be harassed to the extent that they feel unsafe?

Will different skin color continue to cause problems?

The answer to the questions above is a “Yes.” But I like to think that “Yes” is marred by compassion, shaken by mercy, and will eventually be destroyed by love.

The timid “yes” will become a resounding “NO.”

Call me hopeful. Call me idealist. You can even call me a dreamer. Life without hope, idealism, and dreams can be pretty boring.

Karim Shamsi-Basha is a journalist living in Birmingham, Alabama.  Karim Shamsi-Basha immigrated to the United States from Damascus-Syria in 1984, at the age of 18.

Maine's good riddance to Paul LePage

Kick the LePage administration out and don't bother to return!

Maine's now "former" Governor Paul LePage has left Maine with a message about his ghostly return if he sees the state's fresh and new administration going too far astray for his draconian policies.

Ex-Governor Paul LePage: "Slip out the back Jack"*

Thank you Rachel Maddow for reminding us just how horrible the LePage leaership was as the state edured his cruel policies. She neglected to mention that Maine lost population and job growth stagnated while he was in charge of government. This echo of a 2016 Portland Press Herald editorial is the proverbial kick in the pants, as Maine slams the door behind the failed LePage administration.

Like the ghost of Marley, the LePage legacy will bear the burden of the chains and yokes that rattled Ebeneezer Scrooge to his core when the macabre spirit visited to warn him of his errant ways.

A link to this video is here

To re-echo the underlying message about the political agony felt by tens of thousands of Maine citizens over the past 8 years, I'm posting the Portland Press Herald editorial apology to the world as reported in Maddow's video segment aired on January 5, 2019, MSNBC. This editorial apology is a classic example of ending the old and predicting the new, in 2019. Seldom do editorials get to create prophesy and be so correct:

Our View- Message to America: Sorry we gave you LePage published in the Portland Press Herald  in Maine on August 26, 2016

Dear America: 

Maine here. Please forgive us – we made a terrible mistake. We managed to elect and re-elect a governor who is unfit for high office.

He has a gruff exterior and blunt way of talking that some of us find refreshing, but he has shown again and again that he governs by grudge, and uses his power to beat up on people who cannot fight back.

You probably heard about the latest episode. He was asked about the toxic racial environment that he created in the state with insensitive statements about people of color. The questioner, an entrepreneur from New York, wondered how he could ever bring a business here.

This should have been an easy one for the governor: Maine is a state where more people hit retirement age than graduate from high school, and our traditional industries are shedding jobs. 

Maine desperately needs new businesses and young people – of all races – who would be willing to move here to work.

The question was an opportunity for the governor to undo some of the damage that he has caused by giving members of minority groups around the country the impression that Maine is a white state where no one else is welcome.

Instead, the governor repeated one of his worst libels: That Maine’s drug crisis is the fault of black and brown transient thugs who come here not only to sell their poison but also to take advantage of “white Maine women.” It’s a matter of fact that heroin comes to Maine from other states – they don’t produce it here – but the governor is adamant about identifying the drug runners by race, leaving it to his audience to fill in the blanks of why that might matter.

This was not a slip of the tongue. He has said the same thing before, denied saying it, and then said it again before the latest incident. This time, he offered it as proof that the racial divide in Maine was not his fault – that it was the fault of black and Hispanic criminals that he keeps track of in a three-ring binder on his desk.

LePage knows that his words are widely understood to mean that he thinks that the color of their skin makes some people more likely to commit crimes. Rather than clarify or withdraw those statements, he repeats them.

We wish we could say that he is the only one in the state who feels that way. When LePage makes these comments, some of our fellow Mainers applaud him for defying what they consider to be oppressive political correctness.

But as a famous Mainer once said: “Rejecting the conventions of political correctness is different from showing complete disregard for common decency.”

Those words were written by Sen. Susan Collins in her denouncement of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Like Trump, LePage is a repeat offender.
It would be nice to think that Le-Page would reflect on what he says and learn from these incidents, but he appears to be completely incapable of change. He will probably blame the media again for any embarrassment he suffers, but everyone has heard the tape and knows what the governor said.

On the bright side, America, Le- Page isn’t going to be governor forever, and when his successor takes office in 2019, Mainers of all political parties will have to work together to fix the damage he has done to our reputation. 

We hope that this person will be a leader who will welcome people of all races to live in Maine, and invest in our wonderful state.

Until then, please accept our apology. We’ll try not to do it again.

*You just slip out the back, Jack
Make a new plan, Stan
You don't need to be coy, Roy
Just get yourself free
Hop on the bus, Gus
You don't need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, Lee
And get yourself free

Maine is "Free at last, free at last.  Thank God Almighty, we are Free At Last!"

Black History is parallel to American history

Reported in the Illinois newspaper:  Star Courier ~ Rick Holmes

February 2018 ~ Black History Month 

When it was first proclaimed in 1976, Black History Month made sense. The stories of the struggles and achievements of African-Americans had gone untold, for too long a time.

Atlanta Georgia - The tomb holding Martin Luther King Jr. is covered in plastic while workers spruce up the reflecting pool that surrounds it. Written in the tiles is King’s promise that he will never be satisfied “until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream."

King rests in the King Center, less than a block from the house where he was born, and just steps from the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he - along with his father and his grandfather before him - preached. All are part of the Martin Luther King Historic District, which will be ready for the spotlight by April 4, the 50th anniversary of King’s assassination.

This will be a year of grim 50th anniversaries, because 1968 was an especially dark year. It was a year marked by war, riots and assassinations, by deep divisions and the death of dreams. No event shook the nation like King’s death in Memphis, a city that is also preparing commemorative events. 

King had come to Memphis in the spring of 1968 to march in support of sanitation workers. The nearly all-black workforce had gone on strike after two workers were killed by a trash compacting machine. They did dangerous work for pitifully low pay. The placards they carried demanded not just pay, but dignity. “I AM A MAN,” they declared.

King was standing on the balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel, talking with friends in the parking lot below, when the shots rang out. The motel is now part of the National Civil Rights Museum. Visitors can look through a window into the room where King stayed, unchanged since his death, and look out past the balcony to the rear window of a rooming house where James Earl Ray stood when he fired the shots that killed the conscience of a nation.

When it was first proclaimed in 1976, Black History Month made sense. The stories of the struggles and achievements of African-Americans had gone untold for so long, why not encourage people, especially students, to learn about Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglass and, of course, Martin Luther King?

But segregating African-American history from American history - giving them the shortest month on the calendar, at that - has always felt not quite right. Those stories aren’t black history; they are American history, part of a huge canvass of aspirations, conflict and connections. Their stories need to be included in our story, not stored on a separate-but-equal shelf.

That context is being provided where people meet history face-to-face. There’s the small stone stump on a corner in Fredericksburg, Virginia., that a plaque identifies as the main auction block for slave sales, or the sign in New Orleans marking the location of the notorious slave pen featured in “Twelve Years a Slave.

“You can’t miss Charleston’s Old Slave Mart, now a museum operated by the city. And if you’re driving down Rte. 80 in Alabama, you’re reminded every few miles of the march King led from Selma to Montgomery that inspired passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act."

Some of the changes are subtle. At Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, curators avoid the term “slaves,” preferring the terms “enslaved men and women,” or “enslaved families.” 

It makes them more human by describing slavery as their condition, not their identity.

One of the ways Memphis is preparing to honor Dr. King is by removing the statues of two Confederate leaders. City leaders did it quickly over the December holidays, taking advantage of a loophole in a state law enacted to prevent such assaults on Confederate memorials. 

Some conservatives believe in local decision-making right up to the point local people make a decision they disapprove of.
I’m fine with Memphis’ decision. The statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, erected in 1964, was more a rejection of the Civil Rights Act than a tribute to the Civil War. 

But the National Civil Rights Museum teaches a lot more history to a lot more people than the relocation of a dated and offensive statue.

The granddaddy of Confederate monuments sits outside Atlanta, where Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis are carved into Stone Mountain, the site where the second iteration of the Ku Klux Klan was founded. A Democrat running for governor has called for the figures to be sandblasted off the face of the mountain, which seems unwise as well as unlikely.

In his famous speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, King said he dreamed of a time when America would,“Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.” 

On the anniversary of King’s death, one Georgia legislator hopes to see thousands of people on top of Stone Mountain. Another is calling for a “freedom bell” to be built atop Stone Mountain in honor of Dr. King.

Sounds good to me. Doing history right is a matter of addition, not subtraction.
-- Rick Holmes

Transcript of George W. Bush - alert to the nation

Full text: George W. Bush speech on Trumpism- (In my opinion, this text by the former president is the moral equivalent of the Martin Luther King clarion calls for freedom.)

"We know that free governments are the only way to ensure that the strong are just and the weak are valued. And we know that when we lose sight of our ideals, it is not democracy that has failed. It is the failure of those charged with preserving and protecting democracy."~ George W. Bush

George W. Bush

Below is a transcript of George W. Bush's speech delivered Oct. 19, 2017 at the at the “Spirit of Liberty: At Home, In The World" event in New York.

Thank you all. Thank you. Ok, Padilla gracias. So, I painted Ramon. I wish you were still standing here. It’s a face only a mother could love – no, it’s a fabulous face. (Laughter.) I love you Ramon, thank you very much for being here.

And, Grace Jo thank you for your testimony. And, big Tim. I got to know Tim as a result of Presidential Leadership Scholars at the Bush Center along with the Clinton Foundation, with help from 41 and LBJ’s libraries.

I am thrilled that friends of ours from Afghanistan, China, North Korea, and Venezuela are here as well. These are people who have experienced the absence of freedom and they know what it’s like and they know there is a better alternative to tyranny.

Laura and I are thrilled that the Bush Center supporters are here. Bernie [Tom Bernstein], I want to thank you and your committee. I call him Bernie. (Laughter.)

It’s amazing to have Secretary Albright share the stage with Condi and Ambassador Haley. For those of you that kind of take things for granted, that’s a big deal. (Laughter and Applause.) Thank you.

We are gathered in the cause of liberty this is a unique moment. The great democracies face new and serious threats – yet seem to be losing confidence in their own calling and competence. Economic, political and national security challenges proliferate, and they are made worse by the tendency to turn inward. The health of the democratic spirit itself is at issue. And the renewal of that spirit is the urgent task at hand.

Since World War II, America has encouraged and benefited from the global advance of free markets, from the strength of democratic alliances, and from the advance of free societies. At one level, this has been a raw calculation of interest. The 20th century featured some of the worst horrors of history because dictators committed them. Free nations are less likely to threaten and fight each other.
And free trade helped make America into a global economic power.

For more than 70 years, the presidents of both parties believed that American security and prosperity were directly tied to the success of freedom in the world. And they knew that the success depended, in large part, on U.S. leadership. This mission came naturally, because it expressed the DNA of American idealism.

We know, deep down, that repression is not the wave of the future. We know that the desire for freedom is not confined to, or owned by, any culture; it is the inborn hope of our humanity. 

We know that free governments are the only way to ensure that the strong are just and the weak are valued. And we know that when we lose sight of our ideals, it is not democracy that has failed. It is the failure of those charged with preserving and protecting democracy.

This is not to underestimate the historical obstacles to the development of democratic institutions and a democratic culture. Such problems nearly destroyed our country – and that should encourage a spirit of humility and a patience with others. Freedom is not merely a political menu option, or a foreign policy fad; it should be the defining commitment of our country, and the hope of the world.

That appeal is proved not just by the content of people’s hopes, but a noteworthy hypocrisy: No democracy pretends to be a tyranny. Most tyrannies pretend they are democracies. Democracy remains the definition of political legitimacy. That has not changed, and that will not change.

Yet for years, challenges have been gathering to the principles we hold dear. And, we must take them seriously. Some of these problems are external and obvious. Here in New York City, you know the threat of terrorism all too well. It is being fought even now on distant frontiers and in the hidden world of intelligence and surveillance. There is the frightening, evolving threat of nuclear proliferation and outlaw regimes. And there is an aggressive challenge by Russia and China to the norms and rules of the global order – proposed revisions that always seem to involve less respect for the rights of free nations and less freedom for the individual.

These matters would be difficult under any circumstances. They are further complicated by a trend in western countries away from global engagement and democratic confidence. Parts of Europe have developed an identity crisis. We have seen insolvency, economic stagnation, youth unemployment, anger about immigration, resurgent ethno-nationalism, and deep questions about the meaning and durability of the European Union.

America is not immune from these trends. In recent decades, public confidence in our institutions has declined. Our governing class has often been paralyzed in the face of obvious and pressing needs. The American dream of upward mobility seems out of reach for some who feel left behind in a changing economy. Discontent deepened and sharpened partisan conflicts. Bigotry seems emboldened. Our politics seems more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication.

There are some signs that the intensity of support for democracy itself has waned, especially among the young, who never experienced the galvanizing moral clarity of the Cold War, or never focused on the ruin of entire nations by socialist central planning. Some have called this “democratic deconsolidation.” Really, it seems to be a combination of weariness, frayed tempers, and forgetfulness.

We have seen our discourse degraded by casual cruelty. 

At times, it can seem like the forces pulling us apart are stronger than the forces binding us together. Argument turns too easily into animosity. Disagreement escalates into dehumanization. Too often, we judge other groups by their worst examples while judging ourselves by our best intentions – forgetting the image of God we should see in each other.

We’ve seen nationalism distorted into nativism – forgotten the dynamism that immigration has always brought to America. We see a fading confidence in the value of free markets and international trade – forgetting that conflict, instability, and poverty follow in the wake of protectionism.

We have seen the return of isolationist sentiments – forgetting that American security is directly threatened by the chaos and despair of distant places, where threats such as terrorism, infectious disease, criminal gangs and drug trafficking tend to emerge.

In all these ways, we need to recall and recover our own identity. Americans have a great advantage: To renew our country, we only need to remember our values.

This is part of the reason we meet here today. How do we begin to encourage a new, 21st century American consensus on behalf of democratic freedom and free markets? That’s the question I posed to scholars at the Bush Institute. That is what Pete Wehner and Tom Melia, who are with us today, have answered with “The Spirit of Liberty: At Home, In The World,” a Call to Action paper.

The recommendations come in broad categories. Here they are: First, America must harden its own defenses. Our country must show resolve and resilience in the face of external attacks on our democracy. And that begins with confronting a new era of cyber threats.

America is experiencing the sustained attempt by a hostile power to feed and exploit our country’s divisions. According to our intelligence services, the Russian government has made a project of turning Americans against each other. This effort is broad, systematic and stealthy, it’s conducted across a range of social media platforms. Ultimately, this assault won’t succeed. But foreign aggressions – including cyber-attacks, disinformation and financial influence – should not be downplayed or tolerated. This is a clear case where the strength of our democracy begins at home. We must secure our electoral infrastructure and protect our electoral system from subversion.

The second category of recommendations concerns the projection of American leadership – maintaining America’s role in sustaining and defending an international order rooted in freedom and free markets.

Our security and prosperity are only found in wise, sustained, global engagement: In the cultivation of new markets for American goods. In the confrontation of security challenges before they fully materialize and arrive on our shores. In the fostering of global health and development as alternatives to suffering and resentment. In the attraction of talent, energy and enterprise from all over the world. In serving as a shining hope for refugees and a voice for dissidents, human rights defenders, and the oppressed.

We should not be blind to the economic and social dislocations caused by globalization. People are hurting. They are angry. And, they are frustrated. We must hear them and help them. But we can’t wish globalization away, any more than we could wish away the agricultural revolution or the industrial revolution. One strength of free societies is their ability to adapt to economic and social disruptions. 

And that should be our goal: to prepare American workers for new opportunities, to care in practical, empowering ways for those who may feel left behind. The first step should be to enact policies that encourage robust economic growth by unlocking the potential of the private sector, and for unleashing the creativity and compassion of this country.

A third focus of this document is strengthening democratic citizenship. And here we must put particular emphasis on the values and views of the young.

Our identity as a nation – unlike many other nations – is not determined by geography or ethnicity, by soil or blood. 

Being an American involves the embrace of high ideals and civic responsibility. We become the heirs of Thomas Jefferson by accepting the ideal of human dignity found in the Declaration of Independence. We become the heirs of James Madison by understanding the genius and values of the U.S. Constitution. 

We become the heirs of Martin Luther King, Jr., by recognizing one another not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

This means that people of every race, religion, and ethnicity can be fully and equally American. It means that bigotry or white supremacy in any form is blasphemy against the American creed. (Applause.)

And it means that the very identity of our nation depends on the passing of civic ideals to the next generation.

We need a renewed emphasis on civic learning in schools. And our young people need positive role models. Bullying and prejudice in our public life sets a national tone, provides permission for cruelty and bigotry, and compromises the moral education of children. The only way to pass along civic values is to first live up to them.

Finally, the Call to Action calls on the major institutions of our democracy, public and private, to consciously and urgently attend to the problem of declining trust.

For example, our democracy needs a media that is transparent, accurate and fair. Our democracy needs religious institutions that demonstrate integrity and champion civil discourse. Our democracy needs institutions of higher learning that are examples of truth and free expression.

In short, it is time for American institutions to step up and provide cultural and moral leadership for this nation.

Ten years ago, I attended a Conference on Democracy and Security in Prague. The goal was to put human rights and human freedom at the center of our relationships with repressive governments. The Prague Charter, signed by champions of liberty Vaclav Havel, Natan Sharansky, Jose Maria Aznar, called for the isolation and ostracism of regimes that suppress peaceful opponents by threats or violence.

Little did we know that, a decade later, a crisis of confidence would be developing within the core democracies, making the message of freedom more inhibited and wavering. Little did we know that repressive governments would be undertaking a major effort to encourage division in western societies and to undermine the legitimacy of elections.

Repressive rivals, along with skeptics here at home, misunderstand something important. It is the great advantage of free societies that we creatively adapt to challenges, without the direction of some central authority. Self-correction is the secret strength of freedom. We are a nation with a history of resilience and a genius for renewal.

Right now, one of our worst national problems is a deficit of confidence. But the cause of freedom justifies all our faith and effort. It still inspires men and women in the darkest corners of the world, and it will inspire a rising generation. The American spirit does not say, “We shall manage,” or “We shall make the best of it.” It says, “We shall overcome.” And that is exactly what we will do, with the help of God and one another.

Thank you.