Category Archives: Sedition Watch

Cross-Generational Conversation: YAFS & OFFs, Current Affairs, Sedition Watch, Signs of the Times

The Spirit of the Klan Haunts the 2016 Election

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The Spirit of the Klan Haunts the 2016 Election

Let’s talk about building a wall to keep out immigrants; it’s a thing in the current campaign. But it’s not a new idea. How about this earlier version?

kkk-wall-vs-immigration

The image is from 1928, and a bit fuzzy. Note the three faces peeking over the wall: the “Red” is for eastern Europeans & Jews; “Rum” is for Irish, as deemed to be all drunkards, and stupid; and at left, the one with the big pointed hat is the Catholic church, as the force behind immigrants from Italy and other predominantly Catholic countries (especially Irish again).

Today the wall would be on the Mexican border, and focus on keeping out Latinos and Muslims. But the image is, to me, eerily familiar. Continue reading The Spirit of the Klan Haunts the 2016 Election →

Hard-Core Quaker, Quaker Theology, Sedition Watch, Signs of the Times, Stories-Quaker, War & Peace

Dog Days True Quaker Stories: The Party That Went On Too Long

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The Party That Went On Too Long
A True Story for the Anniversary of Richard Nixon’s Resignation

Seat belts were only for airplanes when I was nine, in 1951. So one day I leaned forward over the back of the front seat, to ask a question of my mother, who was driving.

The radio was on, and a news report had just finished. The announcer had said something about the Communist Party. 

i-led-3-lives

This party had been mentioned before, in other news reports I had begun, just barely, to notice. We had no TV yet, so it was all scattered words without pictures, which gave rise to my question:

“Mommy,” I said, “how can a party go on so long? Continue reading Dog Days True Quaker Stories: The Party That Went On Too Long →

Current Affairs, Sedition Watch, Signs of the Times, War & Peace

2016: Politics “When The Sky Darkens”

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2016: Politics “When The Sky Darkens”

Most years, I just  put up with politics: it’s as necessary as taking out the trash, but only about as interesting.
Sure I have my preferences, and occasionally a candidate is exciting, for awhile. But usually I’m eager to get it over with, and go back to what feels like real life.
This year is different. I’m following the campaigns as closely as I can, with a morbid, horrified fascination.
 The NY Times‘s Roger Cohen gets at the reason why: Democracies can die.
2016: Politics "When The Sky Darkens"
Many parts of our former republic, including civil liberties, are already close to catatonic; and profoundly anti-democratic forces (the secret security state, the war machine, vote suppression) are already loose, some beyond our control (which is why we mostly prefer not to think about them). 
But all this could get much, much worse, depending on how this political year turns out.

Cohen comes at the 2016 campaign from the BTDT (“Been There, Done That”) perspective, of those who have seen — and lived– this movie before.

It’s also a movie which is being remade today in more and more corners of their continent.

And What about Ours?

Let Roger Cohen say it: Continue reading 2016: Politics “When The Sky Darkens” →

Current Affairs, Sedition Watch, Signs of the Times

Anti-Disestablishmentarianism: The Word for Southern Marriage Holdouts

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Anti-Disestablishmentarianism: The Word for Southern Marriage Holdouts
Do kids still joke about learning to spell “anti-disestablishentarianism”?
I used to think it was a fake, something made up, like Mary Poppins’s “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”

But no! It was real. And in fact, I just realized that TODAY, for the very first time ever, I can use the term in a piece of factual writing, in its actual meaning.
Because that’s what going on in a few holdouts spots across the American South: fits of Anti-Dis-Establishmentarianism.

keep-calm-and-get-off-my-antidisestablishmentarianism
Continue reading Anti-Disestablishmentarianism: The Word for Southern Marriage Holdouts →

Current Affairs, Sedition Watch, Signs of the Times

Conscience in Mississippi; Grandstanding In Alabama

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Conscience in Mississippi; Grandstanding In Alabama

A Circuit Clerk in Mississippi resigned her post rather than issue marriage licenses to same sex couples.

Linda Barnette said in a letter of resignation, effective on June 30, 2015, that

“The Supreme Court’s decision violates my core values as a Christian,” she wrote. “My final authority is the Bible. I cannot in all good conscience issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples under my name because the Bible clearly teaches that homosexuality is contrary to God’s plan and purpose for marriage and family. . . .”
Acquaintances said Barnette’s husband is a pastor who worked with Billy Graham Ministries for many years.
“I choose to obey God rather than man,” Barnette wrote.

Linda-Barnette
Linda Barnette, former Circuit Clerk of Grenada County, Mississippi.

Continue reading Conscience in Mississippi; Grandstanding In Alabama →