Unless you live under a rock or have been on silent retreat for several weeks, you probably saw something about the neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville this past weekend that left one woman dead (a first person account is here), two police officers dead from a helicopter crash, and many injuries including a man who was almost beat to death with a metal poles by neo-Nazis.
I’m sure most of you who know me well would argue that I “got political” and that none of what I’m about to say or show you is surprising, but I would appreciate you hearing me out anyway.
How a *REAL* president tweets. This tweet by former President Obama is the most liked tweet in history. 45 should take notes. As I know some of you cannot go to the former president’s Twitter page in good conscience, I’ve taken the liberty of screen-capping it for you.
White privilege. My friend Sarah wrote this and it is excellent. These were my thoughts on Sunday in response to my priest’s sermon.
For those who want to be white allies or who have friends who are people of color, read this and this. There is also the amazing example of Darryl Davis.
Also, please don’t claim that you’re not racist/homophobic because your BFF/friends/loved one is a person of color or is Jewish or is GLBTQ. All three communities want you to cut that crap out because you’re offering them up as a sacrifice to assuage your guilt.
Issues of Southern heritage. I’ve seen people posting quotes from Robert E. Lee all week and talk about how this is destroying Southern heritage. I invite you to read these words from Robert E. Lee and a reflection from Jon’s intership supervisor. Robert E. Lee’s descendants have even spoken out against the statue of him staying up.
My friend Eileen shared this with me from the Southern Poverty Law Center which discusses the timing of the monument erection. Hint: it was 1910-1930 during the rise of the KKK and of anti-Semitism.
This is an interesting reflection on the Confederate flag. Here’s a piece on mothballing Confederate monuments.
Identifying the neo-Nazi marchers. There have been marchers who have been doxxed. One such story is here. A thoughtful discussion on whether it should happen is here.
There was also one protestor who decided to strip down when the going got tough. Too bad a documentary film crew caught it!
For those who want to read… My dear friend Kate went to the library this week and got quite a few books with main characters who were people of color so she read them to her kids. She also shared this link that she found for books about social justice issues.
One thing for which I am thankful is that they were changing around the reading lists when I was a junior and senior in high school to give us a greater breadth of American writers who were not white. We read Amy Tan, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Lorraine Hansberry, and they were adding a book by Sandra Cisneros to the sophomore reading list. I was also fortunate to read some pieces by Gary Soto and some young adult literature about concentration camps in middle school. College brought me Drink Cultura by José Antonio Burciaga and A Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki.
Response of faith communities. This picture of clergy from different religious backgrounds standing tall in the face of men with automatic weapons is striking. It’s a pity there was a lack of Catholic clergy.
Brian McLaren also shares what he saw.
Political ramifications of all of this. I’m incredibly disappointed with 45 over his statements and refusal to condemn the neo-Nazi marchers outright. His daughter is an Orthodox Jew and they were calling for people like her, her husband, and her kids to die in ovens like in Nazi Germany.
House caucus groups are calling for the firing of Bannon, Miller, and Gorka. There is also speculation that this was practice for a militia attack.
**UPDATE** Bannon is gone!
There is also the consideration of what this looks like from Berlin…
So please, I beg you, speak out and speak up.
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