Category Archives: Signs of the Times

Getting Kicked Off The Titanic: More NC Quaker Shakeups?

This change could, in a best-case scenario, bring some of the recent purge efforts to a screeching halt.

Why? Because, to be frank, there are very few if any of the purge promoters who have the guts to face their targets over a table in the target’s meetinghouse, and to lay out and explain a prepared, meeting-approved bill of particulars.

Instead, the modus operandi over the past two years has been classic bullying: innuendo, false charges, harassing gossip, catcalls and bullying in large sessions, or haranguing audiences captive on their own home turf.

They are even less prepared for a setting where they would be obliged to present evidence, and then listen as well as preach.

They are much more accustomed to drive-by potshots. For instance, in a Quarterly Meeting session, I listened to jackleg preachers toss out accusations that the meeting I attend was allied with the Anti-Christ, and going down the same road to mass murder followed by the Branch Davidians.

These absurd charges were based on — well, misapprehensions would be a kind description; prejudiced delusions somewhat more pointed. But the preachers were not held accountable for those calumnies there.

Further, in one of the recent Representative sessions, a preacher accused my meeting and several others of spreading “blasphemy” with almost every statement we made. Really? Blasphemy about what? There was no accountability for that assertion either.

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.