Satan's Son and other photos

Satan's Son

Hello Visitors:

Welcome to my Texas Tree Magic Collection of photos. All of these images are amazing and magical. Strange as it may sounds to say out loud, the "poses" and "faces" in trees seemed commonly familiar to me, and would fit well in a horror movie. Many of them resemble paintings and drawings. One photo reminds me of the mask in Phantom of the Opera, a Broadway hit. (see below). I especially like the Jesus in Abstract. It reminds me of a Picasso painting. (bottom of page)

When I began taking these pictures in the summer of 2001, I walked for hours, carefully examining and inspecting countless trees, not sure of what I was looking for. I stumbled on "faces" in the trees quite by accident. One day I snapped what I thought was an image. I did not know what I had until the pictures  were developed.

As an amateur photographer I was shocked to see what I had! I instantly found a new respect for trees. Previously, I'd only taken photos of family, friends and shots for news stories.

Soon I was taking rolls and rolls of film. It got to be quite expensive. I overlooked the expense because the trees were providing me with something I never thought I'd see. I discovered that trees are nudists. They are emotional.  They are angry. They are shapely. They are innocent.  They are defective. They are animals. They are exhibitionists. They are abstract. They are sexual. They are loving . . . all the things humans are.

That's what made this adventure with trees so thrilling and enlightening for me. The guy who processed my film was as excited as me when I'd take rolls of film to be processed. He could not wait to see more new images. "What you got this week?" he would ask excitedly. "Your guess is as good as mine," I'd tell him. He told me, as have several people, "I'll never look at a tree with the same way again." I love hearing those words.

The reason the photos were so colorful and expressive is because Texas experienced a few dry summers without rain. The drought heightened the trees colors. When it finally rained, it rained for weeks and weeks and weeks. The constant raining washed away the images. I returned to some of the same place, and photographed the same trees. I was so disappointed. Nothing was there but colorless, rain washed bark. I was lucky to pick the right summers to take these photos, all of which are one-of-a-kind.

Doggy in the Window

Capital Grounds Ghost

Every time I see a tree getting cut down, I cringe, and wonder what images are hidden in them. None of these photos have been photoshopped or manipulated to make them appear aesthetically pleasing to the eye. I like the raw look of the trees, allowing each photo to speak for itself. Each tree has its own personality.

Phantom

Pssst! Up Here!

Queen of the jungle

The Turtle

Jesus in Abstract

Georgia Rep. wants to classify miscarriage as murder; suspend doctors licenses

Yesterday (Feb. 22) I did some research to "unconfuse" myself. I read this article about Georgia’s anti-abortion House Bill l introduced by Rep. Bobby Franklin, who was voted into office in 1996. Despite my confusion I clearly remembered Tea Party folk protesting about big government interfering in their lives. They carried posters at rallies. The posters labeled President Barack Obama a communist, Hitler, Stalin, dictator, big brother, illegal immigrant and more.

“Dictator,” is an interesting noun. It's meaning is not up for personal interpretation. Republicans have become the dictators instead of President Obama.

 Franklin recently introduced a bill in the Georgia legislature that threw me. He proposed to make abortion equivalent to murder. All miscarriages will be subjected to investigation by "proper authorities." I take this to mean Georgia police will make an arrest, and prosecutors will act quickly if a miscarriage appears “suspicious.”

I assume a woman’s personal medical records will be explored by strangers; a legitimate miscarriage can openly challenged or seriously questioned in court. We all know that “authorities” can go into overdrive, zealously turning an innocent miscarriage into a media circus, especially if the prosecutor is politically ambitious and pro-choice.

If a woman is suspected of self-aborting she will go on trial to prove she is innocent. She will have to hire a lawyer at her own expense, or get a ho-hum court appointed attorney, who will do a piss-poor job of defending her. If she has a private doctor or attends a clinic, the attending physician's career will be on the line until the “suspicious” miscarriage or suspected abortion is prosecuted in the courts. The physician and woman's reputations are at the mercy of a jury, the prosecutor and the court.

Franklin’s bill demands that a physician's license be suspended until everyone is satisfied that no abortion was performed. If there was an abortion, he wants the woman and doctor tried for murder.  Evidently, Franklin's wife or mother did not tell him that a miscarriage cannot be predicted or stopped, especially in the early stages of a complicated pregnancy.

Excerpt from House Bill I

The act of prenatal murder is murder and conspiracy to commit murder per se; (26) The act of prenatal murder has caused a significant reduction in the number of citizens in this state who would serve as workers, entrepreneurs, teachers, employees, and employers who would have significantly contributed to the prosperity and continuation of this state; and (27);

The failure to prosecute a violation of this Code section is a violation of the obligation of this state to provide all of its citizens with an equal protection of the laws. (b) As used in this Code section, the term: (1) 'Fetus' means a person at any point of development from and including the moment of conception through the moment of birth. Such term includes all medical or popular designations of an unborn child from the moment of conception such as conceptus, zygote, embryo, homunculus, and similar terms. (2) 'Prenatal murder' means the intentional removal of a fetus from a woman with an intention other than to produce a live birth or to remove a dead fetus; provided, however, that if a physician makes a medically justified effort to save the lives of both the mother and the fetus and the fetus does not survive, such action shall not be prenatal murder.

Such term does not include a naturally occurring expulsion of a fetus known medically as a 'spontaneous abortion' and popularly as a 'miscarriage' so long as there is no human involvement whatsoever in the causation of such event. (c) The act of prenatal murder is contrary to the health and well-being of the citizens of this state and to the state itself and is illegal in this state in all instances.

(d) Any person committing prenatal murder in this state shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, shall be punished as provided in subsection (d) of Code Section 16-5-1.The license of any physician indicted for an alleged violation of this Code section shall be suspended until resolution of the matter. The license of any physician convicted of a violation of this Code section shall be permanently revoked. The provisions of this Code section shall be in addition to any other provisions relating to the killing of a fetus or any other person."

SECTION 2.1.

Said title is further amended in subsection (h) of Code Section 16-5-20, relating to simple assault, by striking current paragraph (1) and by redesignating current paragraphs (2) and (3) as paragraphs (1) and (2), respectively.

SECTION 2.14.

A report of spontaneous fetal death for each spontaneous fetal death which occurs in this state shall be filed with the local registrar of the county in which the delivery occurred within 72 hours after such delivery in accordance with this Code section unless the place of fetal death is unknown, in which case a fetal death certificate shall be filed in the county in which the dead fetus was found within 72 hours after such occurrence. All induced terminations of pregnancy shall be reported.

Preparation and filing of reports of spontaneous fetal death shall be as follows: (1) When a dead fetus is delivered in an institution, the person in charge of the institution or that person's designated representative shall prepare and file the report; (2) When a dead fetus is delivered outside an institution, the physician in attendance at or immediately after delivery shall prepare and file the report; (3) When a spontaneous fetal death required to be reported by this Code section occurs without medical attendance at or immediately after the delivery or when inquiry is required by Article 2 of Chapter 16 of Title 45, the 'Georgia Death Investigation Act,' the proper investigating official shall investigate the cause of fetal death and shall prepare and file the report within 30 days; and (4) When a spontaneous fetal death occurs in a moving conveyance and the fetus is first removed from the conveyance in this state or when a dead fetus is found in this state and the place of fetal death is unknown, the fetal death shall be reported in this state. The place where the fetus was first removed from the conveyance or the dead fetus was found shall be considered the place of fetal death.

This legislation, if passed, will cost Alabama millions of dollars. What federal agency will monitor these "cases"? What about all that talk about big government and wanting it out of citizens' lives? Tea Party politicians should stop talking with the forked tongue of a serpent.

Climbing the ladder of competitiveness through education

President Obama

Last week (February 19) President Barack Obama, speaking outside of Portland, Oregon at Intel, stressed the importance of a quality education and global competitiveness. He talked about science and math, and a 10 year plan to achieve his goal.

“Over the next ten years, nearly half of all new jobs will require education beyond high school, many requiring proficiency in math and science. And yet today we’ve fallen behind in math, science, and graduation rates. As a result, companies like Intel struggle to hire American workers with the skills that fit their needs.

"If we want to win the global competition for new jobs and industries, we’ve got to win the global competition to educate our people. We’ve got to have the best trained, best skilled workforce in the world. That’s how we’ll ensure that the next Intel, the next Google, or the next Microsoft is created in America, and hires American workers,” President Obama said.

If America is to climb back to the top of the education ladder, a quality, well-rounded education is key. Facebook, Texting and Twittering are social instrument; no skills are required to use them. 

The public school system is failing students with the help of enabling parents and the Internet. President Obama is endeavoring to rebuild--not the physical structures--but the minds within the classrooms, starting with weeding out poor teachers, principals and superintendents. He understands the significance and weight of a global education.

Former Chancellor of DC Public Schools, Michelle Rhee, caught triple hell from teachers and the union when she attempted to clean up D. C.’s stagnant schools. Students were failing. She fired ineffective teachers and staff. She had the backing of Mayor Adrian Fenty, who lost an election to Vincent Gray in November. Gray was not willing to work with Rhee.

I agree that the unionization of teachers has stifled creativity, competition and excellence in the classroom. Not saying that unions are bad, but it’s blindingly clear that unions are on the wrong side of education. The union’s responsibility and allegiance is one dimensional. It's devoted to protecting poor teachers who commit fraud in classrooms five days a week. A school system that graduates incompetent students is criminal. Just as bad are parents who focus more on extracurricular activities and the socialization of their children.

An ABC News 20/20 documentary titled Stupid in America: How We Cheat Our Kids with John Stossel--was an indicting report on the public school system in America. He said in conclusion: “Competition inspires people to do what we didn't think we could do. If people got to choose their kids' school, education options would be endless.

“There could soon be technology schools, science schools, virtual schools where you learn at home on your computer, sports schools, music schools, schools that go all year, schools with uniforms, schools that open early and keep kids later, and, who knows what else. If there were competition, all kinds of new ideas would bloom".

Unfortunately, the redlining of students depends on the kind of education they earn. For thousands of kids deficient schools are all they have. They are trapped behind the eight ball. They will never get a chance to run the table of educational opportunities like White kids who attend quality schools with quality teachers.

The eight ball trap leads to failure, and that leads to hopelessness and that leads to disaster and that leads to . . . You fill in the blank.

When is 'funny' not so funny?

I found the other cartoon that MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell refused to show on his February 15, The Last Word. The images are disgusting and racist.

The other half of the cartoon was one in which a very brown skinned, pink lipped, plump Michelle Obama is sitting at a table eating from a platter of hamburgers and fries. A Ketchup bottle is also on the side.

Michelle tells President Obama, her husband: "I've stepped up my efforts to control America's eating habits by telling restaurants to lower portion sizes and fat content."

A skinny President is deeply tanned, with ears the size of no recognizable human. He has a tiny amount of vegetables on his plate. Giving Michelle a talk-to-the-hand, he tells her : "Michelle, I want to get re-elected. What you're doing is only going to annoy a lot of people."

Anyone who believes this crap is doing so because they want to believe this is the real Michelle Obama. They have no evidence that she stuffs herself like a pig. The President and First Lady are two of the physically fittest people to ever grace the White House.

O'Donnell said he would not show the rest of the cartoon "because it is a racist obscenity." In his view, President Obama was depicted "in a half man, half animal form, with ears that don't exist in the homo sapien species."

An online poll conducted by New York Daily News, February 15, says that 42% of those who participated said the cartoon was totally offensive; 54% said it was funny, and 4% were not sure how they felt. I read some of the remarks and they all said it was funny. Someone wrote, "People are too uptight, thinking the cartoon is racist." Someone said O'Donnell is racist because of his response.

I have never seen or read this kind of blatant disrespect for any president in America's history. Right wing hatemongers see this as satire. What has been written and said about President Obama and his family falls in line with tabloid smut.

The cartoonists, Batton Lash and James Hudnall, must have had negligent parents who did not teach them that respect is a desirable character trait. Maybe they cannot acquire the taste to treat African Americans with respect, particularly the President and First Lady.

In defense of the obnoxious “cartoon” Hudnall said on biggovernment.com: "Batton and I are not so much conservatives as libertarians. We’re believers in small government because, as I outline in my political thesis, it’s the only workable form. President Obama is very much a big government fan. He has tripled the debt and deficits in his first year in office. His new budget would add another three trillion. These are things we don’t like about him. We also don’t like the lies. Which seem to be second nature to the man.

“So last Sunday we turned in what we thought was a very mild cartoon mocking the first lady’s over reach of her powers. And I decided to show her eating hamburgers like Wimpy from the old Popeye cartoons to mock the fact that she tends to scold other people’s eating habits, yet every time we read about what they’re eating at the White House, it’s extreme. And to throw in a gag we used before, the President is shown eating hardly anything.”

For the love of life I cannot see the connection in what these two said, and the president running the country. They implied that President Obama is a pathological liar. I am happy to see that Michelle and Barack Obama are cut from a stronger cloth than those whose aim is to disparage them. Their parents taught them well. Respect for others, and self-respect does not allow for wallowing in the mud with pigs.

The “mild cartoon” that Lash and Hudnall defended has been scrubbed from the site for now. The above images were on Andrew Breitbart’s biggovernment.com.

Michele Bachmann's rewrites African American history, calling African slaves 'risk-takers'

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann

"Other than Native Americans who were here, all of us have the same story," Bachmann told the National Press Club at a "Tea Party Express Forum" Tuesday.

She went on to insist that all Americans are descendants of "risk-takers from their home country, doesn't matter what the country is, but they took a risk, and they came here".

Michele Bachmann has never converted her blatant lies to truths on the campaign trail.  And now she is insisting on rewriting the history of African Americans in her own image. 

She seems to believe that African slaves voluntarily came to the Americas on cruise ships. She forgot to mention that the captured Africans were jammed together like sardines in the bowels of those "cruise" ships. Bachmann is basically postering that Africans loved the "risk” of getting enslaved by their equals, facing the unfavorable odds of getting killed by their equals if they attempted to escape at sea or on land.

African slaves even loved the “risk” of seeing and hearing their daughters and mothers getting raped by White males who had no regard for their womanhood or humanity. There was nothing these free African women and girls could do to defend themselves against the rape and violence. African fathers and sons were helpless to stop these crimes against their  mothers, grand-mothers, sisters and daughters. They did not have the power to defend themselves.

There was a “risk” of women and young girls dying giving birth to their rapists' babies. The chance of them getting sold like cattle was equal among all the slaves and the children they gave birth to.

According to Bachmann's thinking, African men, women and families loved the “risk” of getting torn away from each other and sold on auction blocks. They loved the “risk” of death if they disobeyed their White masters, mistresses, even White children. Anyone White was a master whether they owned slaves or not.

Bachmann implies that "risk" taking Africans were thrilled to work the cotton fields, and other plantation chores from sunup to sundown, in hot and cold weather. Sadistic overseers slapped their backs with skin eating whips. The African "risk takers" were so happy with their "freedom" that they attempted to run away. They preferred the “risk” of gaining independence to dependence on slave masters.

If Bachmann’s evaluation of Africans is correct, then the 13th and 14th Amendments did not apply to them. They were already free “risk-takers” like her European ancestors!

When Martin Luther King, Jr. led civil rights marches and demonstrations in the 1950s, he was merely the leader of a walking marathon to keep “risk’ taking African Americans in good physical condition. They were getting too fat living the good life. Once in a while African Americans liked pretending they were on equal footing with White Americans. The “risk” of pretending kept them grounded.

All of those Jim Crow laws, Black and White water fountains, and lynchings carried out in a carnival atmosphere are historical exaggerations. The murders and rapes committed by White males against African American women and young girls, even after slavery ended, were exaggerated imaginations! If the White criminals were not brought to justice, that’s because “risk" taking African Americans refused to seek justice.

If Michele Bachmann knows nothing else she knows Black history! According to her, if captured Africans did not succeed in America it’s their fault for not taking advantage of the opportunities awaiting them in their new homeland. Apparently they were too lazy, or too scared to act like European “risk-takers.”

Setting the tone to disrespect Barack Obama

President Barack Obama

The media and pundits set the tone to disrespect Barack Obama when he was a presidential candidate. They treated him like a joke as they did Al Sharpton, Republican Alan Keys and Democrat Jesse Jackson. Prior to them it was Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, who ran for president in 1972. They were all African American candidates.

When Obama was elected president, critics, the media and pundits turned up their volume of disrespect. They accused him of wearing a pair of "mommie jeans" when he threw out the first ball at a world series. They said he threw the ball like a woman. Maureen Dowd, columnist with the New York Times, wrote the President "makes decisions like a woman." 

As a woman, I have no idea what "making decisions" like a woman means.

I do not have space to list all the other names she has called President Obama since he's been in office. She was and still is a stalker on paper. I question her constant attacks. She ranks right up there with Sarah Palin. Both of these women are obsessed with President Obama.

During his campaign the media got angry because they could not force candidate Obama to go over the deep end, showing that he is an "angry Black man." They could then say he is too emotional to be president. A younger Obama was not raised in an angry environment.

The media have said, and still say, Obama does not understand what it takes to be president. They say the fire that is supposed to be in his belly is lukewarm. They say he is too scared to get into a fight Republicans. I have no idea what the media means by "fight". President Obama does not scream and yell.

MSNBC's Ed Schultz said President Obama needs “to grow a spine.” Schultz equates screaming and demanding with having a spine. Chris Matthew made statements similar to Schultz. Fox pundits call President Obama a communists, a dictator, a socialist, Hitler and more. The Daily Show host Jon Stewart called him "dude" in an interview. He has made biting commentary about many decisions made by President Obama.

Critics, TV hosts and pundits seldom address Obama as President Obama. Connecting his name to “President” leaves a bad taste in their mouths. None of the major print media gives the president credit for his many accomplishments. Whatever he say, critics feel that they--none of whom have been elected to a political office--can say it a better. Rachel Maddow of MSNBC rewrote the President's first State of the Union address to say what she wanted him to say. She read her state of the union address on her show. She assumed that she is better suited to solve gay issues because she is gay. She wanted President Obama to talk about the issue in his state of the union address.

O'Reilly of Fox News decided he was going to show President Obama who was boss when he was granted an interview before the Superbowl game.  Remembering a pre-game interview he conducted with President George Bush, I went to YouTube to find the 11/11/2010 interview.  I was ready to count the times O'reilly interrupted Bush.

Everyone who has watched an O'Reilly interview knows that he makes himself a part of interviews, regularly voicing his opinion. When he interviewed Bush he allowed him to complete responses without interruption. I had pencil and paper ready to write down the interruptions. The few that I counted were not forceful, and hardly classified as interruptions. He flattered Bush, and lightly disagreed with him a couple of times. O'Reilly was not the same with President Obama. He was extremely rude, and egotistical enough to solicit compliments from the President.

When he asked the President about the media and people hating him, I remembered him asking Bush a similar question: "How you feel about the media hating you?" To President Obama he said "the media and people." Clearly O'Reilly had an agenda with his "gotcha" interview. If he intended to catch President Obama off guard, saying something that would catapult him (O'Reilly) into the media eye for a day or two, he failed the task.

Mob rule is never the way to go during message driven protests and demonstrations

I understand people protesting conditions under which they are forced live with. If you back an animal in a corner, and threaten it with bodily harm, the animal will either succumb to its fate, or fight to survive. Citizens in Cairo have decided to come out of the corner fighting. They are willing to die for basic human rights such a right to work, to own a business, to get an education, to pursue happiness in whatever limited ways available to them.

It's natural that people tire of being deprived. When slaves got tired of their bondage in a free country, many of them rebelled against their masters. These insurrectionists were not organized revolutionaries. Nat Turner, a slave noted in history for pulling together a band of slaves to fight for their freedom. They terrorized slave masters for a day or two before they were killed or captured. Turner knew that the condition he was forced live in was wrong. He waited for a sign from God before he made his move. When people rise up out of an undesirable condition there is always a signal of some kind.

Riots in major cities in this country were the results of living conditions and a lack of opportunities. African Americans were being deprived of basic rights and freedoms guaranteed them in the Constitution. There are people who argue that Blacks have always the right to achieve and advance just like Whites. Sounds good but blatantly untrue. Proof is the historical Jim Crow laws. If Blacks were on equal footing as Whites there would be no need for affirmative action, or other door opening opportunities. If everyone were equal desegregation would have been a mute factor.

Whereas I concur with people staging purposeful marches and protests, positive intent oftentimes takes an ugly turn when the mob-rule mentality steps into the picture. As a result, riots and protests in the Middle East, comparable to protests and riots in this country, can be counterproductive. Rioters destroy their own neighborhoods and neighborhood businesses. When looting and setting fires start blazing and smoking, earnest protests quickly lunge out of control. It is not irrational to destroy historical artifacts and museums as happened in Iraq after the American invasion. When these pieces of history are destroyed none of them can be replaced. The two Egyptian mummies that were reportedly destroyed cannot be replaced. Egypt has a connection to early history and civilization.

For these reason and more, I believe that demonstrators and protesters hurt themselves when they lose focus on the real reasons for their  insurrection. Looting and property destruction should never become a part of the equation. Destruction committed by  slaves fighting for their freedom was justified. It was a different time in America's history.

When we willfully give into fear and threats, we lose the battle

Sen. Anthony Miller

Forty-three year old Anthony Miller, a Republican from Arizona, and former campaign worker for Republican Senator of John McCain, resigned as chairman of the Arizona Legislature District 20, because of verbal and blogged threats to himself and his family.

Miller, an African American, said angry supporters of J.D. Hayworth called him “McCain’s boy.” Hayworth ran against McCain in the November 2010 election. Miller’s resignation, along with three other Republicans, was prompted by the Saturday shootings in Arizona, in which Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was the main target. A nine year old girl and five others were killed; 14 bystanders were injured.

The shooter was 22-year-old Jared Loughner of Arizona. The act of terrorism that occurred at the Safeway

Republican J .D. Hayworth

grocery store reminded me of  a program I saw on TV a few of weeks ago. The documentary dealt with gangsters telling their stories in their own words, describing their lifestyle, their rise and fall from power. One young gangster, now in prison, said: “America loves violence. They love to watch it.” 

For that reason, he relished his involvement in violence and criminal acts. He is right about the love of violence. The proof is on YouTube, where millions tune in to look at violent videos. 

Violent news clips are shown repeatedly on local and cable news.  Movie goers flock to see violent movies more for the violence than to see the plots. The movie "Friday 13th" was a favorite the first time it was seen on the big screen.  Jason was hell on wheels with a butcher knife. "Friday 13th" has a cult following. The series is a must see throughout the month of October.

That old adage about the media are true: "If it bleeds it leads." I might add that if it's violent it sells. Even the threat of violence piques interest.

Watching a 9/11 documentary I heard Donald Rumsfeld say: “Terrorists intent is not to kill, but to terrorize people enough to make them do what they want them to do.” He said to some extent the terrorists have succeeded. Since 9/11 the government has been spending millions of dollars to secure the safety of Americans. Merely catching a plane is now complicated by new rules and regulations. There is still an element of fear of another terrorist's attack on the scale of 9/11.

The threat to Miller fits into the language of gangsters, politicians and 9/11. The title of the article about Miller says a lot: “Fearing tea party violence, four Arizona Republicans resign”. Tea party zealots are acting like homegrown terrorists and out right gangsters in their quest to force everyone to adopt their ideologies. These fanatics are daring politicians to go against their definition of what’s politically correct or suffer dire consequences. These four Republicans are taking the threats seriously. They want no harm to come to their families.

If this trend takes hold in the future, bullies who threaten politicians will get their way. If America is willing to stand by and allow this to happen to elected officials, then a small band of terrorists wins the war with little effort. If Americans stay silent, over zealous tea partiers will attempt to run this country like a dictatorship, rewriting the Constitution to fit their anti-government agenda. Any politician that steps out of line will be threatened with death.

Media outlets played an around-the-clock role in hyping the legitimacy of the tea party as a viable third party, intentionally enlarging their strength and importance in the realm of mainstream politics. These edgy terrorists in costumes made sure Americans mainlined their hyped image. I do not believe the Tea Party is that large, nor are all tea partiers reading from the same page. 

Hundreds of them are encouraged to protest by the likes of Dick Armey's Prosperity for America, billionaires Charles and David Koch, all of whom want to buy political power in 2012. If it means violating other politicians Constitutional right to life and peaceful assembly, let the bullets fall where they will.

'Jesus Christ would not vote for Barack Obama' says Alan Keys

Call for Renewal Keynote Speech

Senator Barack Obama

Delivered by Barack Obama
June 28, 2006
Washington, DC

Good morning. I appreciate the opportunity to speak here at the Call to Renewal's Building a Covenant for a New America conference. I've had the opportunity to take a look at your Covenant for a New America. It is filled with outstanding policies and prescriptions for much of what ails this country. So I'd like to congratulate you all on the thoughtful presentations you've given so far about poverty and justice in America, and for putting fire under the feet of the political leadership here in Washington.

But today I'd like to talk about the connection between religion and politics and perhaps offer some thoughts about how we can sort through some of the often bitter arguments that we've been seeing over the last several years. I do so because, as you all know, we can affirm the importance of poverty in the Bible; and we can raise up and pass out this Covenant for a New America. We can talk to the press, and we can discuss the religious call to address poverty and environmental stewardship all we want, but it won't have an impact unless we tackle head-on the mutual suspicion that sometimes exists between religious America and secular America.

I want to give you an example that I think illustrates this fact. As some of you know, during the 2004 U.S. Senate General Election I ran against a gentleman named Alan Keyes. Mr. Keyes is well-versed in the Jerry Falwell-Pat Robertson style of rhetoric that often labels progressives as both immoral and godless. Indeed, Mr. Keyes announced towards the end of the campaign that, "Jesus Christ would not vote for Barack Obama. Christ would not vote for Barack Obama because Barack Obama has behaved in a way that it is inconceivable for Christ to have behaved."

Now, I was urged by some of my liberal supporters not to take this statement seriously, to essentially ignore it. To them, Mr. Keyes was an extremist, and his arguments not worth entertaining. And since at the time, I was up 40 points in the polls, it probably wasn't a bad piece of strategic advice. But what they didn't understand, however, was that I had to take Mr. Keyes seriously, for he claimed to speak for my religion, and my God. He claimed knowledge of certain truths.

And so what would my supporters have me say? How should I respond? Should I say that a literalist reading of the Bible was folly? Should I say that Mr. Keyes, who is a Roman Catholic, should ignore the teachings of the Pope? Unwilling to go there, I answered with what has come to be the typically liberal response in such debates - namely, I said that we live in a pluralistic society, that I can't impose my own religious views on another, that I was running to be the U.S. Senator of Illinois and not the Minister of Illinois.

But Mr. Keyes's implicit accusation that I was not a true Christian nagged at me, and I was also aware that my answer did not adequately address the role my faith has in guiding my own values and my own beliefs. Now, my dilemma was by no means unique. In a way, it reflected the broader debate we've been having in this country for the last thirty years over the role of religion in politics. For some time now, there has been plenty of talk among pundits and pollsters that the political divide in this country has fallen sharply along religious lines. Indeed, the single biggest "gap" in party affiliation among white Americans today is not between men and women, or those who reside in so-called Red States and those who reside in Blue, but between those who attend church regularly and those who don't.

Conservative leaders have been all too happy to exploit this gap, consistently reminding evangelical Christians that Democrats disrespect their values and dislike their Church, while suggesting to the rest of the country that religious Americans care only about issues like abortion and gay marriage; school prayer and intelligent design.

Democrats, for the most part, have taken the bait. At best, we may try to avoid the conversation about religious values altogether, fearful of offending anyone and claiming that - regardless of our personal beliefs - constitutional principles tie our hands. At worst, there are some liberals who dismiss religion in the public square as inherently irrational or intolerant, insisting on a caricature of religious Americans that paints them as fanatical, or thinking that the very word "Christian" describes one's political opponents, not people of faith.

Now, such strategies of avoidance may work for progressives when our opponent is Alan Keyes. But over the long haul, I think we make a mistake when we fail to acknowledge the power of faith in people's lives -- in the lives of the American people -- and I think it's time that we join a serious debate about how to reconcile faith with our modern, pluralistic democracy. And if we're going to do that then we first need to understand that Americans are a religious people. 90 percent of us believe in God, 70 percent affiliate themselves with an organized religion, 38 percent call themselves committed Christians, and substantially more people in America believe in angels than they do in evolution.

Each day, it seems, thousands of Americans are going about their daily rounds--dropping off the kids at school, driving to the office, flying to a business meeting, shopping at the mall, trying to stay on their diets--and they're coming to the realization that something is missing. They are deciding that their work, their possessions, their diversions, their sheer busyness, is not enough. They want a sense of purpose, a narrative arc to their lives. They're looking to relieve a chronic loneliness, a feeling supported by a recent study that shows Americans have fewer close friends and confidants than ever before. And so they need an assurance that somebody out there cares about them, is listening to them - that they are not just destined to travel down that long highway towards nothingness.

And I speak with some experience on this matter. I was not raised in a particularly religious household, as undoubtedly many in the audience were. My father, who returned to Kenya when I was just two, was born Muslim but as an adult became an atheist. My mother, whose parents were non-practicing Baptists and Methodists, was probably one of the most spiritual and kindest people I've ever known, but grew up with a healthy skepticism of organized religion herself. As a consequence, so did I.

It wasn't until after college, when I went to Chicago to work as a community organizer for a group of Christian churches, that I confronted my own spiritual dilemma. I was working with churches, and the Christians who I worked with recognized themselves in me. They saw that I knew their Book and that I shared their values and sang their songs. But they sensed that a part of me that remained removed, detached, that I was an observer in their midst. And in time, I came to realize that something was missing as well -- that without a vessel for my beliefs, without a commitment to a particular community of faith, at some level I would always remain apart, and alone.

And if it weren't for the particular attributes of the historically black church, I may have accepted this fate. But as the months passed in Chicago, I found myself drawn--not just to work with the church, but to be in the church.

For one thing, I believed and still believe in the power of the African-American religious tradition to spur social change, a power made real by some of the leaders here today. Because of its past, the black church understands in an intimate way the Biblical call to feed the hungry and cloth the naked and challenge powers and principalities. And in its historical struggles for freedom and the rights of man, I was able to see faith as more than just a comfort to the weary or a hedge against death, but rather as an active, palpable agent in the world. As a source of hope.

And perhaps it was out of this intimate knowledge of hardship -- the grounding of faith in struggle - that the church offered me a second insight, one that I think is important to emphasize today. Faith doesn't mean that you don't have doubts. You need to come to church in the first place precisely because you are first of this world, not apart from it. You need to embrace Christ precisely because you have sins to wash away - because you are human and need an ally in this difficult journey.

It was because of these newfound understandings that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity United Church of Christ on 95th Street in the Southside of Chicago one day and affirm my Christian faith. It came about as a choice, and not an epiphany. I didn't fall out in church. The questions I had didn't magically disappear. But kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side, I felt that I heard God's spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth.

That's a path that has been shared by millions upon millions of Americans - evangelicals, Catholics, Protestants, Jews and Muslims alike; some since birth, others at certain turning points in their lives. It is not something they set apart from the rest of their beliefs and values. In fact, it is often what drives their beliefs and their values.

And that is why that, if we truly hope to speak to people where they're at - to communicate our hopes and values in a way that's relevant to their own - then as progressives, we cannot abandon the field of religious discourse.

Because when we ignore the debate about what it means to be a good Christian or Muslim or Jew; when we discuss religion only in the negative sense of where or how it should not be practiced, rather than in the positive sense of what it tells us about our obligations towards one another; when we shy away from religious venues and religious broadcasts because we assume that we will be unwelcome - others will fill the vacuum, those with the most insular views of faith, or those who cynically use religion to justify partisan ends. In other words, if we don't reach out to evangelical Christians and other religious Americans and tell them what we stand for, then the Jerry Falwells and Pat Robertsons and Alan Keyes will continue to hold sway.

More fundamentally, the discomfort of some progressives with any hint of religion has often prevented us from effectively addressing issues in moral terms. Some of the problem here is rhetorical - if we scrub language of all religious content, we forfeit the imagery and terminology through which millions of Americans understand both their personal morality and social justice.

Imagine Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address without reference to "the judgments of the Lord." Or King's I Have a Dream speech without references to "all of God's children." Their summoning of a higher truth helped inspire what had seemed impossible, and move the nation to embrace a common destiny. Our failure as progressives to tap into the moral underpinnings of the nation is not just rhetorical, though. Our fear of getting "preachy" may also lead us to discount the role that values and culture play in some of our most urgent social problems. After all, the problems of poverty and racism, the uninsured and the unemployed, are not simply technical problems in search of the perfect ten point plan. They are rooted in both societal indifference and individual callousness - in the imperfections of man.

Solving these problems will require changes in government policy, but it will also require changes in hearts and a change in minds. I believe in keeping guns out of our inner cities, and that our leaders must say so in the face of the gun manufacturers' lobby - but I also believe that when a gang-banger shoots indiscriminately into a crowd because he feels somebody disrespected him, we've got a moral problem. There's a hole in that young man's heart--a hole that the government alone cannot fix.

I believe in vigorous enforcement of our non-discrimination laws. But I also believe that a transformation of conscience and a genuine commitment to diversity on the part of the nation's CEOs could bring about quicker results than a battalion of lawyers. They have more lawyers than us anyway. I think that we should put more of our tax dollars into educating poor girls and boys. I think that the work that Marian Wright Edelman has done all her life is absolutely how we should prioritize our resources in the wealthiest nation on earth. I also think that we should give them the information about contraception that can prevent unwanted pregnancies, lower abortion rates, and help assure that that every child is loved and cherished.

But, you know, my Bible tells me that if we train a child in the way he should go, when he is old he will not turn from it. So I think faith and guidance can help fortify a young woman's sense of self, a young man's sense of responsibility, and a sense of reverence that all young people should have for the act of sexual intimacy. I am not suggesting that every progressive suddenly latch on to religious terminology - that can be dangerous. Nothing is more transparent than inauthentic expressions of faith. As Jim has mentioned, some politicians come and clap -- off rhythm -- to the choir. We don't need that.

In fact, because I do not believe that religious people have a monopoly on morality, I would rather have someone who is grounded in morality and ethics, and who is also secular, affirm their morality and ethics and values without pretending that they're something they're not. They don't need to do that. None of us need to do that.

But what I am suggesting is this - secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square. Frederick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, Williams Jennings Bryant, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King - indeed, the majority of great reformers in American history - were not only motivated by faith, but repeatedly used religious language to argue for their cause. So to say that men and women should not inject their "personal morality" into public policy debates is a practical absurdity. Our law is by definition a codification of morality, much of it grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition.

Moreover, if we progressives shed some of these biases, we might recognize some overlapping values that both religious and secular people share when it comes to the moral and material direction of our country. We might recognize that the call to sacrifice on behalf of the next generation, the need to think in terms of "thou" and not just "I," resonates in religious congregations all across the country. And we might realize that we have the ability to reach out to the evangelical community and engage millions of religious Americans in the larger project of American renewal.

Some of this is already beginning to happen. Pastors, friends of mine like Rick Warren and T.D. Jakes are wielding their enormous influences to confront AIDS, Third World debt relief, and the genocide in Darfur. Religious thinkers and activists like our good friend Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo are lifting up the Biblical injunction to help the poor as a means of mobilizing Christians against budget cuts to social programs and growing inequality.

And by the way, we need Christians on Capitol Hill, Jews on Capitol Hill and Muslims on Capitol Hill talking about the estate tax. When you've got an estate tax debate that proposes a trillion dollars being taken out of social programs to go to a handful of folks who don't need and weren't even asking for it, you know that we need an injection of morality in our political debate. Across the country, individual churches like my own and your own are sponsoring day care programs, building senior centers, helping ex-offenders reclaim their lives, and rebuilding our gulf coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

So the question is, how do we build on these still-tentative partnerships between religious and secular people of good will? It's going to take more work, a lot more work than we've done so far. The tensions and the suspicions on each side of the religious divide will have to be squarely addressed. And each side will need to accept some ground rules for collaboration. While I've already laid out some of the work that progressive leaders need to do, I want to talk a little bit about what conservative leaders need to do -- some truths they need to acknowledge.

For one, they need to understand the critical role that the separation of church and state has played in preserving not only our democracy, but the robustness of our religious practice. Folks tend to forget that during our founding, it wasn't the atheists or the civil libertarians who were the most effective champions of the First Amendment. It was the persecuted minorities, it was Baptists like John Leland who didn't want the established churches to impose their views on folks who were getting happy out in the fields and teaching the scripture to slaves. It was the forbearers of the evangelicals who were the most adamant about not mingling government with religious, because they did not want state-sponsored religion hindering their ability to practice their faith as they understood it.

Moreover, given the increasing diversity of America's population, the dangers of sectarianism have never been greater. Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.

And even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools? Would we go with James Dobson's, or Al Sharpton's? Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is ok and that eating shellfish is abomination? How about Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount - a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application? So before we get carried away, let's read our bibles. Folks haven't been reading their bibles.

This brings me to my second point. Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason. I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God's will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all.

Now this is going to be difficult for some who believe in the inerrancy of the Bible, as many evangelicals do. But in a pluralistic democracy, we have no choice. Politics depends on our ability to persuade each other of common aims based on a common reality. It involves the compromise, the art of what's possible. At some fundamental level, religion does not allow for compromise. It's the art of the impossible. If God has spoken, then followers are expected to live up to God's edicts, regardless of the consequences. To base one's life on such uncompromising commitments may be sublime, but to base our policy making on such commitments would be a dangerous thing. And if you doubt that, let me give you an example.

We all know the story of Abraham and Isaac. Abraham is ordered by God to offer up his only son, and without argument, he takes Isaac to the mountaintop, binds him to an altar, and raises his knife, prepared to act as God has commanded. Of course, in the end God sends down an angel to intercede at the very last minute, and Abraham passes God's test of devotion.

But it's fair to say that if any of us leaving this church saw Abraham on a roof of a building raising his knife, we would, at the very least, call the police and expect the Department of Children and Family Services to take Isaac away from Abraham. We would do so because we do not hear what Abraham hears, do not see what Abraham sees, true as those experiences may be. So the best we can do is act in accordance with those things that we all see, and that we all hear, be it common laws or basic reason. Finally, any reconciliation between faith and democratic pluralism requires some sense of proportion. This goes for both sides.

Even those who claim the Bible's inerrancy make distinctions between Scriptural edicts, sensing that some passages - the Ten Commandments, say, or a belief in Christ's divinity - are central to Christian faith, while others are more culturally specific and may be modified to accommodate modern life.

The American people intuitively understand this, which is why the majority of Catholics practice birth control and some of those opposed to gay marriage nevertheless are opposed to a Constitutional amendment to ban it. Religious leadership need not accept such wisdom in counseling their flocks, but they should recognize this wisdom in their politics.

But a sense of proportion should also guide those who police the boundaries between church and state. Not every mention of God in public is a breach to the wall of separation - context matters. It is doubtful that children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance feel oppressed or brainwashed as a consequence of muttering the phrase "under God." I didn't. Having voluntary student prayer groups use school property to meet should not be a threat, any more than its use by the High School Republicans should threaten Democrats. And one can envision certain faith-based programs - targeting ex-offenders or substance abusers - that offer a uniquely powerful way of solving problems.

So we all have some work to do here. But I am hopeful that we can bridge the gaps that exist and overcome the prejudices each of us bring to this debate. And I have faith that millions of believing Americans want that to happen. No matter how religious they may or may not be, people are tired of seeing faith used as a tool of attack. They don't want faith used to belittle or to divide. They're tired of hearing folks deliver more screed than sermon. Because in the end, that's not how they think about faith in their own lives.

So let me end with just one other interaction I had during my campaign. A few days after I won the Democratic nomination in my U.S. Senate race, I received an email from a doctor at the University of Chicago Medical School that said the following: "Congratulations on your overwhelming and inspiring primary win. I was happy to vote for you, and I will tell you that I am seriously considering voting for you in the general election. I write to express my concerns that may, in the end, prevent me from supporting you."

The doctor described himself as a Christian who understood his commitments to be "totalizing." His faith led him to a strong opposition to abortion and gay marriage, although he said that his faith also led him to question the idolatry of the free market and quick resort to militarism that seemed to characterize much of the Republican agenda. But the reason the doctor was considering not voting for me was not simply my position on abortion. Rather, he had read an entry that my campaign had posted on my website, which suggested that I would fight "right-wing ideologues who want to take away a woman's right to choose." The doctor went on to write:

"I sense that you have a strong sense of justice...and I also sense that you are a fair minded person with a high regard for reason...Whatever your convictions, if you truly believe that those who oppose abortion are all ideologues driven by perverse desires to inflict suffering on women, then you, in my judgment, are not fair-minded....You know that we enter times that are fraught with possibilities for good and for harm, times when we are struggling to make sense of a common polity in the context of plurality, when we are unsure of what grounds we have for making any claims that involve others...I do not ask at this point that you oppose abortion, only that you speak about this issue in fair-minded words." Fair-minded words.

So I looked at my website and found the offending words. In fairness to them, my staff had written them using standard Democratic boilerplate language to summarize my pro-choice position during the Democratic primary, at a time when some of my opponents were questioning my commitment to protect Roe v. Wade.

Re-reading the doctor's letter, though, I felt a pang of shame. It is people like him who are looking for a deeper, fuller conversation about religion in this country. They may not change their positions, but they are willing to listen and learn from those who are willing to speak in fair-minded words. Those who know of the central and awesome place that God holds in the lives of so many, and who refuse to treat faith as simply another political issue with which to score points.

So I wrote back to the doctor, and I thanked him for his advice. The next day, I circulated the email to my staff and changed the language on my website to state in clear but simple terms my pro-choice position. And that night, before I went to bed, I said a prayer of my own - a prayer that I might extend the same presumption of good faith to others that the doctor had extended to me. And that night, before I went to bed I said a prayer of my own. It's a prayer I think I share with a lot of Americans. A hope that we can live with one another in a way that reconciles the beliefs of each with the good of all. It's a prayer worth praying, and a conversation worth having in this country in the months and years to come.

Thank you.

Civility is not just an eight letter word, it's a call for intelligent action

Palin. Hannity. Limbaugh. Beck. Hate talk radio. Fox News. Instigators. General haters. Republicans. With the election of America's first black president, Barack Obama, all of these individuals and organizations took their hate to a new height.

The media tiptoes through the tulips to avoid the obvious: there is a segment of the population that hates President Obama with a purple passion. That's the reason it was easy  to take advantage of tea partiers, encouraging them to hit the streets wearing ridiculous outfits, openly bearing their hate and prejudice. Their agenda? Get President Obama out of office. Push the birthers fabrication into 2012.

Gabrielle Giffords before shooting

Before the midterm elections in November the rhetoric was endless. Obama haters worked in concert to enlarge this radical movement that was more Astro Turf than grass. Even members of the Democratic party want to see the President fail. They call themselves the "Blue Dog Democrats."

Talking points were thrown from all directions. I am amazed when I read posts in newspapers and magazines that repeat the words of Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, Palin and Tea Party candidates. Protesters say they do not hate President Obama. They hate his policies. Prodded to name the policies they hate their faces go blank. They lose their voices after naming health care reform. Some admit they "took instructions from Glenn Beck." With the exception of a few young faces here and there, the majority of marchers were older people on Social Security.

Gabrielle Giffords after shooting

The malicious absurdity hit home today, Saturday 8, 2011, with the senseless shooting of Congresswomen Gabrielle Giffords. In the following weeks Fox and Beck and hate talk radio will convince their followers that President Obama is going to take their guns. They will listen and start buying  more guns and ammunition. This craziness happened a year ago after a mass shooting. Gun dealers did record business.

This shooting  may be the straw that broke the camel's political back. It's already hard to get worthy people to run for office. In addition to threats of danger, candidates are at the mercy of  the media and its willingness to shovel dirt to dig up a scandal. And now the tone of the country is to kill and threaten politicians who vote their own conscious. What politician in his or her right mind is willing to walk that line, having to look over their shoulder all the time, fearful to appear in a crowd?

The price is not worth it. No politician or candidate should have to pay the price Giffords paid. The loss of common decency and intelligent discourse is our fault. We are at fault for what we let happen. We worship guns more than we worship life. Expect more gun violence to come.

Sorry, wheelchair lady, no meth or other drugs allowed to board this plane

One website described Rhonda Renee Simmons as having an "unusual contour around her buttocks." Smuggling or hiding drugs in your hip pocket will, indeed, cause a distraction on the airport scanner.

Was Simmons playing a game to see if she could get away concealing something illegal without detection? Maybe she got high before leaving home and forgot that she was going to the airport. When police were summoned by a TSA employee, they discovered that Simmons had a gram of meth on her person, hiding it out around the buttocks area.

Of course, it's not her fault that she got caught. TSA violated her privacy and rights by scanning her body! Believe it or not the woman had a large circle of travelers who championed her indignation. In fact, according the media, complaints about airport scanners and pat downs are running rampant. There is probably a streaker out there complaining about getting body scanned.

"But what if that had been explosives in her pocket instead of meth?" I asked myself. " I have no problems with scanning," I answer myself. It's explosive on a plane that scares me.

I've given birth to three children, and I cared less who was in the delivery room looking at my daisy unfold, preparing to give birth. I wanted the pain to stop and the kid out of me. This has nothing to do with this story. I know. I added this to say that people sometimes complain too much.

Just think of how you're exposed to nurses and doctors when you have physical exams, or rushed to the emergency room, have a heart attack in public. Was hiding your private parts your top priority before getting treatment?

For me, safety and precaution over-rides potential danger on an airplane. I can't jump out of  the plane when is in flight even if I sensed danger. Simmons has been charged with a felony: possession of a controlled substance. She has a January 12th court date.

In a prior television interview Simmons said the video of her on YouTube has made her life miserable. She is now recognized at airports. Simmons next showed up at the airport wearing a two-piece black bikini that looks like underwear, sitting in a wheel chair. There was no mention of her being disabled or paralyzed.

I think Simmons is enjoying the attention. She is trying to find a way to push her five minutes fame into 15 minutes or more. I don't know that for sure. I'm just saying.

Underhandedness in the House

Congressman Paul Ryan

"The incoming Republican majority in the House of Representatives has laid out a series of changes it would like to make to the House rules, including replacing the current “pay-go” rules — which require all spending increases to be offset with spending cuts or tax increases — with a rule called “cut-go,” which requires that new spending programs — but not new tax cuts — be offset with spending cuts. The GOP has also proposed a new rule requiring that each piece of new legislation include a statement justifying the legislation’s constitutionality.That’s not all, however. 

"As National Journal reported today, 'a little-noticed detail in the new rules proposed by House GOP leaders would greatly increase the power of Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the incoming chairman of the House Budget Committee.' Indeed, under the proposed rules, if the House and Senate do not agree on a budget resolution (a distinct possibility with a divided Congress), Ryan will be able to unilaterally set spending levels that are binding on the House, and any attempt to lessen the impact of these cuts can be ruled out of order." Think Progress, December 30, 2010.

The proposed "rules" by the incoming House are bogus. Tea party Republicans are shoring up to legitimize their underhandedness to impede President Obama's agenda. This is a scheme to further enrich themselves and their donors. They are endeavouring to constitutionally empower themselves against the power of President Obama.

Tea partiers who screamed they want a smaller government may get their wish. Republicans see Social Security and Medicare as entitlements, and they plan to put them on the chopping block. I remember President Obama saying several months ago that he would see how serious Republicans are about decreasing the deficit when it's time to cut programs. The President told them in advance that they won't be able to sit on their hands and say "No!" Or as John Boehner screeched in a drunken stupor on the Senate floor: "Hell no!"

Of course tea party Republicans will swim upstream  to transfer their weaknesses and ineptness onto President Obama and Democrats.