Category Archives: Signs of the Times

Bernie Sanders, Jack Shafer & The Day After

Sanders has been a fighter who is a gentleman.

This combination is rare enough in our public life; but beyond merely being admirable, it is one that will wear well. Sanders may have been defeated in his presidential run, but he has not been disgraced, nor have his ideas been discredited. He and they will persist.

On the political side, his disciplined focus on economic inequality has been expressed in policy proposals which, whether you like them are not, are rational and plausible. If he wants to spend more than a trillion dollars on infrastructure, education & expanded health care, he is also clear that all this would be paid for, with higher taxes. It would not be a shower of “free stuff”; there is no “voo-doo” in his economics.
Moreover, his stubbornly consistent message of economic justice was timely when he first raised it more than forty years ago, not long after president Lyndon Johnson had declared (and lost) a war on poverty. It has only become more intense through the years, is urgent now, and will remain high in public consciousness thru the next president’s term, whoever occupies the White House. Sanders will still be strategically positioned to affect coming policy debates.

2016: Politics “When The Sky Darkens”

Most years, I 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.
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) are already loose and 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 in more and more corners of their continent. And What about Ours?

Clinton’s Big Donors: No Wonder They’re Complaining

Clinton’s Big Donors: No Wonder They’re Complaining Some Inside Scoop On A Clinton Campaign Huddle; and an exclusive photo: Bernie’s billionaires! The NY Times‘s “First Draft” report on a Feb. 17 meeting of top Clinton campaign donors.First, campaign manager Robby Mook “told the donors that the outcome in Nevada” was too close to call: “depending … Continue reading Clinton’s Big Donors: No Wonder They’re Complaining →

Why Is North Carolina Yearly Meeting Like The Flint River?

So this proposal might be an interesting opener for broader discussion, but just a beginning. If the YM wants to set concrete standards of conduct (e.g., don’t steal YM money; don’t sexually abuse or harass others, especially children; respect your fiduciary duties), there are likely numerous specific infractions that could be agreed on.

But those who think they could now achieve a purge of meetings which have non-fundamentalist views about the Bible, social issues and other matters by tacking on these preliminary steps, will likely run into some stiff opposition, as they have before, pushing the purge idea from the YM floor.

Northwest YM Leaders Kick The LGBT Expulsion Can Down the Road

Here is the message that has been sent out by Northwest Yearly Meeting leaders on January 22, 2016; it does not seem to have been made widely public yet:

“Regretfully, we are not able to come to unity to overturn or affirm the elders’ decision to release West Hills. Therefore, we’ve postponed the effective date of West Hills’ release at least until yearly meeting sessions.

At that time, the Board of Elders will report to the Yearly Meeting its summary of the state of the church, allowing time for prayerful consideration of issues raised by the report and by any attached judgments or interpretations offered by the Board of Elders.”