by Ken Sehested
Kindred, the news is bleak. For we live in the valley of the shadow, when:
• the stock market reaches record-breaking levels in the midst of near-record-breaking rates of unemployment;
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News, views, notes, and quotes
Signs of the Times • 18 August 2020 • No. 204
Special issue on
THE US POSTAL SERVICE
AND THE STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRACY
(Additional documentary material is posted at the end of this article.)
Who would have thought that Mr. McFeely, the lovable deliveryman and avatar for our nation’s postal carriers on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” could be the flash point of a fierce struggle for the preservation of democratic institutions in the US.
Read more ›The US Postal Service and the struggle for democracy
by Ken Sehested
Who would have thought that Mr. McFeely, the lovable deliveryman and avatar for our nation’s postal carriers on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” could be the flash point of a fierce struggle for the preservation of democratic institutions in the US.
Of course, Mr. McFeely worked for “Speedy Delivery,” and because of copyright laws couldn’t sport a United States Postal Service (USPS) logo.
“We tolerate no scruples”
A brief history of 20th century bombing of civilian populations
by Ken Sehested
Every year on 6 August much of the world remembers the first-ever atomic bombing, of Hiroshima, Japan; then, three days later, of Nagasaki.
Few remember, though, that the US firebombed more than 60 other cities (using the recently invented incendiary substance known as napalm), including Tokyo, causing the deaths of 100,000, mostly by fire, destroying 16 square miles of the city, leaving another million homeless. The fatality total from this “conventional” bombing rivaled each of the two atomic attacks.
Read more ›Good news on the environmental front
Six very significant wins for Mama Earth
by Ken Sehested
In an attention-deficit-disordered culture, alongside a news cycle that feels like a gerbil on a spinning wheel track, important news often goes unnoticed.
Taken together, in just the past few weeks, six dramatic actions on slowing ecological disaster are worth 
celebrating—even when you recognize that we’re still in deep doo-doo with regard to our climate crisis.
A (brief) history of the Liberty Bell
by Ken Sehested
There are four great ironies behind the “Liberty Bell,” associated with the founding convictions of the United States of America and inscribed with the phrase “Proclaim Liberty throughout the land and unto the inhabitants thereof.” The reference, from Leviticus 25:10, is a text that stipulates profound social renewal as part of God’s 
covenant with the Hebrew people, requiring the forgiveness of debt, reclamation of ancestral lands and the release of slaves every 50 years.
In the first instance, the colonial Pennsylvania Assembly ordered the bell in 1751 to commemorate the 50-year anniversary of William Penn's 1701 Charter of Privileges, Pennsylvania's original Constitution, which contains Penn's far-reaching ideas on religious freedom, his liberal stance on Native American rights, and his inclusion of citizens in enacting laws.
Read more ›Patriotic holidays in the US
The nation's liturgical calendar celebrating our militarized history
by Ken Sehested
There are 14 officially-sanctioned holidays (or commemorative days) in the US annual calendar which, directly or indirectly, commemorate a militarized history of the nation.
This does not include commemoration of the Confederate cause of the Civil War, or the birthdays of one of the Confederate leaders, in 11 Southern states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia) and in Pennsylvania, where the state’s Confederate partisans are remembered. In many of these, actual observance is fading or phased out entirely. (For more details, see “Confederate Memorial Day in the United States.”)
Read more ›Colin Kaepernick, national anthems, and flag-flown piety
Commentary on what is and is not sacred
by Ken Sehested
It started as a typical evening’s research, selecting and reading a number of news stories in search of material for my weekly column. One on the list was the account of San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback Colin Kaepernick sitting during the playing of the national anthem prior to the start of the game.
Reading these accounts led me to similar events in previous years of athletes using their public visibility as a stage for protest. That led to digging into the history of the national anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner,” including its largely unknown third verse which celebrates the killing of African slaves. This information led me to research the US invasions of Canada (also largely unknown here).
Read more ›This Land Is Your Land
Independence Day in light of Woody Guthrie’s enduring question about to whom the land belongs
by Ken Sehested
4 July 2016
The fireworks started early, long before the night’s dark background provided illuminating dazzle, testimony to the pyrotechnics expert on the afternoon NPR hour who said he still prefers the “big boom” type over the advanced visual displays.
My wife retired early to our basement apartment to escape the roar. I always shudder on Independence Day for the dogs who shiver in fright at the noise.
You corrupted wisdom for the sake of splendor
Meditation amid pandemic and pandemonium
by Ken Sehested
I will likely be considered antiquated, maybe maniacal, even apoplectic when I say we in the US (with derivative outbreaks elsewhere) are under the spell of the demonic, of those who worship death’s malicious craving, specifically the sacrificial scalp of dissenters, of those who do not genuflect in its presence, of any and all who stand in the way of 
imperial designs, who claim authority to divide the world into makers and takers, to shape all reality in service to the ruthless pursuit of power’s conceit, arrogance being the elixir of indefinite, everlasting rule of the strong over the weak, the privileged over the disdained, the worthy over the maimed.
Not just rule, but a despising and revulsion of the frail, now consigned as burnt offering to an unholy, odious, heinous god; a god who justifies caging children, who threatens fire from (nuclear) heavens, who shrugs and scoffs at the sight of trauma, of those begging for breath, during pandemics, racial and economic pandemonium, and ecological devastation; who laughs at every attempt of impeachment, whose word is less than worthless, whose every step is concealed in deceit, whose smirking face tells lies at every turn, whose law has become a license for infamy.
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