Recent

Signs of the Times  •  15 September 2016  •  No. 88

Instead of the usual "Signs of the Times" column, ponder this new essay, and let me know what you think.

 

The taunt of Lamech’s revenge
Authorization for Use of Military Force:
60 words that bring the US to the edge of a permanent state of war

by Ken Sehested

        Fifteen years ago today, 14 September 2001, the US Congress approved a 60-word joint resolution—with only one dissenting vote, by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)—named The Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF). It grants the president sweeping latitude for authorizing military action. The implications it carries have become so commonplace they no longer raise public attention. Not unlike the lyrics to some popular children’s songs, the AUMF’s assumptions are repeated so often we are numbed to their significance.

        This is unfortunate, for the AUMF, approved amid the trauma and rage of the 11 September 2001 terror attacks, has brought us to the edge of a permanent state of war.

§ § §

"This is the future for the world we're in at the moment. We'll get better as we do it more often."
—Larry Di Rita, special assistant to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, responding in an
18 July 2003 news conference to reports of low morale of US troops stationed in Iraq, for whom
combat had not ceased despite President Bush’s “mission accomplished” speech two months prior

§  §  §

        Many parents shudder when paying attention to the lyrics of some traditional childhood lullaby and rhyming songs. You got an old man who died after bumping his head. Three blind mice having their tails cut off. An old lady who may die because she swallowed a fly. Bridges falling. A lamb’s eye being picked out. Ashes! Ashes! they all fall down.

        Or my favorite, “Rock-a-bye Baby,” a broken bough, with cradle and child tumbling from the tree.

        There are many folklorist theories, but little hard evidence, about the origins of such songs or explanations as to why they endured. The genesis of some may have been disguised political satire, particularly “Rock-a-bye Baby,” sometimes associated with the overthrow of England’s King James II. (The first known publication of this song came with this footnote: "This may serve as a Warning to the Proud and Ambitious, who climb so high that they may generally fall at last.") But the fact remains that mystery abounds and collateral damage endures.

        The cause for shuddering in the adult world mirrors and compounds, in exponential fashion, the foreboding lines amid children’s verse.

§  §  §

“I believe the perception caused by civilian casualties is one of the most dangerous enemies we face.”
—US General Stanley A. McCrystal in his inaugural speech as
NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Commander in June 2009

§  §  §

        My vote for the most heinous euphemism of the 20th century is the phrase “collateral damage.” First used by Thomas C. Schelling, an economist and national security expert, collateral damage, in short, is the oops response to unintended damage in battle. So sorry. (See my “Sorry, sorry, sorry” poem.)

        Former UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, Hans-Christof von Sponeck—one of a slew of ranking UN officials who resigned in protest to the US sanctions against Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War—made this assessment of collateral damage.

        “The 21st century has seen a loss of innocent life at an unprecedented scale, especially in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan,” he wrote in 2011. “Nobody should even dare to ask the question whether it was worth it!” [1]

        Like beauty, however, the calculation of worth is in the eyes of the beholder. A US Department of Defense document puts it this way. “Such damage is not unlawful so long as it is not excessive in light of the overall military advantage anticipated from the attack."  Notice the blurry boundaries created by the words “excessive” and “anticipated.”

        Who can forget when US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was interviewed in May 1996 on the "CBS 60 Minutes" news program. Reporter Leslie Stahl asked:

        "We have heard that a half million children have died [as a result of sanctions against Iraq, documented by UNICEF]. I mean, that is more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?"

        To which Albright replied: "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price, we think the price is worth it." A bough broken.

§  §  §

“Having a war on terror is like having a war on dandruff.”
—Gore Vidal

§  §  §

        One has to wonder whose violence is driving whom? We forget that Osama bin Laden was once on the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) payroll, as a member of the Afghan mujahideen resistance fighting the occupying Soviet military—as, in all likelihood, was Saddam Hussein, whose Ba’ath party came into power in 1963 when the CIA engaged in an earlier regime change in Iraq. The US then supported Hussein’s war with Iran starting in 1980, including providing some of the ingredients for Iraq’s chemical weapons.

        We forget that bin Laden formed al-Qaeda in his outrage over Saudi Arabia’s allowing the US to use Saudi bases as a staging area for the 1991 Gulf War. Though he was an archenemy of Hussein, bin Laden considered US troops on his home country’s soil an abomination and vowed to take revenge. A bough broken.

        We forget that on 11 September 2001 al-Qaeda was a force of a few thousand in Afghanistan with scattered supporters elsewhere. Now the spin-off groups and emulators are thriving throughout the Middle East and northern Africa. [2] And we’ve not yet come to terms with the substantial evidence that ISIS, our current Public Enemy No. 1, was spawned from Iraq’s killing fields.

        It would appear, as the bumper sticker says, we are creating terrorists faster than we can kill them.

§ § §

“[T]here is enough evidence that a substantial part of terrorism is engendered by military, intelligence,
and economic intervention of the very same countries that consequently make use of the pretext
of terror to politically legitimize their military and geo-strategic expeditions.”
—Jens Wagner [3]

§ § §

        Among the most notorious incidents of creating a terror pretext to justify intervention was “Operation Northwoods,” originating in a 1962 collaboration between the US Department of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff to covertly instigate violence in Cuba—bombing and hijacking were specifically mentioned in the document—sufficient to warrant military response. Here’s a quote from that recommendation, titled "Justification for U.S. Military Intervention in Cuba”:

        “The desired resultant (sic) from the execution of this plan would be to place the United States in the apparent position of suffering defensible grievances from a rash and irresponsible government of Cuba and to develop an international image of a Cuban threat to peace in the Western Hemisphere.”

        Luckily President John F. Kennedy quashed the top-secret plan that only came to light in 1997 when Kennedy’s records were released.

§ § §

"I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq"
—US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz in a 21 July 2003 news conference in Baghdad

§ § §

        Fifteen years ago today Rep. Barbara Lee rose, alone, to speak against the AUMF. This past week she said:

        "I voted against that resolution 15 years ago because it was so broad that I knew it was setting the stage and the foundation for perpetual war. And that is exactly what it has done," Lee notes. "It’s been used over 37 times everywhere in the world," including Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Somalia. (Listen to Rep. Lee’s original 2001 statement (2:19) on the floor of the House of Representatives and a recent Democracy Now interview with Lee.)

§  §  §

“‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.’” —Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

§  §  §

        Among the things learned by those of us required to take a high school civics course was that only Congress

has the power to declare war. The US hasn’t declared war on anyone since World War II. Vietnam, Korea, and 14 US military incursions in Muslim-majority countries since 1980, are not “wars” at all. That mechanism is now irrelevant as an instrument of international law. Its modern incarnation is a congressional Authorization for Use of Military Force. And the one approved in September 2001 has no expiration date.

        In a mere 60 words Congress granted a virtual carte blanche credit card (and most of our wars since 9/11 have been funded by borrowing) to the President, for “he (sic) determines” when and where to use “all necessary and appropriate force” against “nations, organizations or persons” who “planned, authorized, committed, aided” . . .  or “harbored” the 9/11 attackers in order to “prevent any future acts of terrorism.”

        The latter phrase in the AUMF—“prevent future acts”—echoes President Bush Jr.’s “National Security Strategy Paper” of September 2002 which, for the first time in US history, lays the legal groundwork for “preventative” war.

        The right to engage in preemptive war—to initiate hostilities when there is clear evidence that an enemy is on the verge of attack—is acknowledged in international law. Preventative war is not. Though the Obama Administration’s annual “National Security Strategy” doesn’t include “preventative” language, the precedent has effectively been set.

        Now, powered by the open-ended AUMF, the President simply has to declare that something bad might happen, sometime, somewhere, and the troops saddle up. Shout 9/11 and the drones are launched to anywhere in the world.

        This same preventative impulse emerges in the spate of domestic “stand your ground” state laws and the frequent exoneration of police shootings of unarmed black men. A perceived threat equals actual peril justifying acting with extreme prejudice.

        So many boughs broken.

§  §  §

"We have a choice, either to change the way we live, which is unacceptable,
or to change the way that they live, and we chose the latter."
—former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

§  §  §

        A single photo (below, Manu Brado/AP) has haunted me, by day and by night, all this past week, with our nation’s 9/11 remembrances prior to the infamous date’s fifteen anniversary. [4]

        Look at it closely. You see an unidentified Syrian man holding his dead son. Take in the background. Notice the torn jeans. The blood stains. The boy’s shirt ripped away. The utter grief on the father’s face. The boy’s limp body. The immediate association my mind made was to name this photo “The Final Cradling.” Bough broken, baby fallen.

        Now bring up the most vivid image in your memory from 9/11. The Twin Towers on fire, and falling. The people who jumped to their deaths. The dust-choked, panicked survivors. The first responders digging through rubble, some in tears.

        Can you make a connection between these images?

        It’s almost certain that as many non-combatants died in the first few weeks after the 2003 “Shock and Awe” attack on Baghdad as died on 9/11. Wouldn’t that have satisfied an “eye for an eye” standard of justice?

        It hasn’t. Current estimates of fatalities just from our wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria now stand at 1.3 million. [5]

        Lamech’s threat, in the earliest pages of Genesis, is with us still. Lamech—great-great-great-great grandson

of Adam and Eve—makes a vengeful vow that echoes to this day. With his two wives, Adah and Zillah, as his witness, he pledges “If Cain is avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy-sevenfold” (Genesis 4:23).

        9/11 has now been avenged 433 times, and the meter’s still running.

§  §  §

“If we have to use force it is because we are America. We are the indispensable nation.
We stand tall. We see farther into the future.”
—Secretary of State Madeline Albright, 19 February 1998

        Really? If true, I shudder over that future.

§  §  §

        The use of US military might is far more common than most of us think. In the 20th century there are but a handful of years when our troops were not actively engaged outside our borders. (See Wikipedia’s “Timeline of United States Military Operations.”) Now, however, with a preventative war precedent and the current AUMF in place—along with numerous national leaders speaking of the “long war” we face in the war on terror, I grieve.

        Nevertheless—and Scripture is full of neverthelesses—there is a saying from the Hasidic tradition, “If you want to find a spark, sift through the ashes.”

        Sisters and brothers, we have some sifting to do.

        And at the same time we must ask and act on a series of questions: What would it require to catch some of those cradles? Arrange for sufficiently sturdy boughs? Support arborists to treat weakened boughs? Work diligently at preserving more forest land, along with the ecosystem needed for all life to thrive?

Left: Textile art depicting Noah's Ark, by the Kairos Center sewing cooperative, Matanzas, Cuba.

        Lamech’s taunt awaits our response. There’s no better time than now to get started.

#  #  #

Notes
[1] “Preface” to “Body Count: Casualty Figures After 10 Years of the ‘War on Terrorism’: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan,” Physicians for Social Responsibility, pp. 6-7

[2] Tom Engelhardt, “A 9/11 Retrospective: Washington’s 15-Year Air War.”

[3] “Introduction” to “Body Count: Casualty Figures After 10 Years of the ‘War on Terrorism’: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan,” Physicians for Social Responsibility,” p. 14.

[4] See additional photos at “What Is Aleppo? This is Aleppo.”

[5] “Body Count: Casualty Figures After 10 Years of the ‘War on Terrorism’: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan,” Physicians for Social Responsibility," p. 15.

 

Signs of the Times  •  8 September 2016  •  No. 87

¶ Processional. Bach’s “Prelude 1” performed by Irena Koblar.

Above: Kuang Si Waterfalls, Laos

The US “secret war” in Laos, 1964-1973
President Obama’s visit to Laos casts light on a forgotten war

        This week President Barack Obama became the first US president to visit the nation of Laos in Southeast Asia. "Given our history here, I believe that the United States has a moral obligation to help Laos heal," he said.

        As a result, two important things happened.

        First, media attention was directed to the “secret war” waged by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1964-1973, part of a larger war (legally it was referred to as a “police action”) centered on the war in Vietnam and the secret bombing of Cambodia ordered by President Nixon in an expansion of the war.

        Even though the bombing of Laos was made public in 1971, few citizens have ever heard of it. Fewer still know that, on a per-capita basis, Laos was the most bombed country in history: a total of 580,000 air strikes, on average one plane load of bombs every eight minutes, around the clock, for nine years.

        The second important thing that happened with the President’s visit was his announcement of a $90 million contribution from the US, spread over the next three years, to clear unexploded ordinance (UXO).

        Some 50,000 civilians have been killed or maimed (20,000 since the end of that war) by UXO.

        Below are several other pieces of this savage story.

¶ Invocation. “Grab the broom of anger and drive off the beast of fear.” —Zora Neale

Left: President Obama tours the Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise center in Vientiane, Laos. Photo by Carolyn Kaste, Associated Press.

¶ Call to worship. "Suppose the Holy One whose face we seek is not so much invisible, as we are ill equipped to apprehend his grave proximity." —Scott Cairns

¶ Hymn of praise. “Lao Phene,” classic music from Laos.

¶ Confession. “Our nation is at war, and our hearts are torn. The seeds of fear are planted in terror and harvested in violence. How long, O Lord, how long? The dream of a new order birthed in justice and baptized in mercy has been ruptured by the nightmare of bloody enmity.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Testimony in a Time of Terror,” a litany for worship

Right: Cluster bomb casing filled with unexploded bomblets.

        § “Acknowledging the history of war is a way that we make future wars less likely.” —President Obama, speaking 7 September during his visit to the Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise (COPE) Visitor Centre in Vientiane, Laos

        § Laos, along with Cambodia and Vietnam, were French colonies from the second half of the 19th century through 1953-54.

        § “Cluster bombs” were among the 2.2 million tons of ordinance dropped on Laos. The most commonly used cluster bombs carries 670 “bomblets,” about the size of a tennis ball, and each of these contain 300 metal fragments.

        § It’s estimated that 20-30% of the 260 million bomblets failed to explode. Less than 1% of these have been cleared.

        § Article 22, a Brooklyn-based company founded in 2010, sells jewelry made from scrap bomb casings (left) that fell on Laos and Vietnam during the war —Daily Capital, “From Laos With Love: Vietnam Bombs Become Jewelry”

        § Ten of the 18 Laotian provinces have been described as “severely contaminated” by UXO, making vast tracts of land unavailable for farming—in a country where 80% of the population are farmers.

        § 98% of the victims of cluster bombs were civilians; 40% of those, children.

        § The CIA’s secret war in Laos was aimed at halting North Vietnamese troop and weapons transfer into South Vietnam, along with supporting the Laotian monarchy against the Pathet Lao insurgency.

        § At one point the CIA airport in the Long Tieng region of Laos was considered the busiest airport in the world, with 400 flights per day. (You may remember the 1990 American action comedy film, Air America, directed by Roger Spottiswoode, starring Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr. The movie doesn't get many facts right, but it is based on actual history.)

¶ Words of assurance. “The fullness of life is in the hazards of life.” —Edith Hamilton

¶ Hymn of intercession. “Jesus, Remember Me,” a chant from the Taizé community.

        § During Obama’s speech in Laos he mentioned Channapha Khamvongsa, the Laos-American director of Legacies of War, the premier US-based education and advocacy group working to address the impact of conflict in Laos during the Vietnam War-era. (Want to get personally involved? They are always looking for volunteers, especially to host their National Traveling Exhibition in cities across the country.)

        § “Despite the international ban on cluster bombs, more than 150 financial institutions have invested $28 billion in companies that produce them, according to a new report released Thursday [16 June 2016]. Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo are among the 158 banks, pension funds, and other firms listed in the "Hall of Shame" compiled by the Netherlands-based organization PAX, a member of the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC). Of the top 10 overall investors, the US is home to eight. Japan and China round out the last two.” —Nadia Prupis, Common Dreams

        § In December 2008 representatives from nearly 100 governments gathered to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions, a comprehensive ban on the production, transfer, export and use of cluster munitions. To date, 119 nations have signed—the US, Russia, China being among the key holdouts.

Right: These “ponds” are actually bomb craters created by US bombs 50 years ago. Photo by Titus Peachey, Mennonite Central Committee.

        § In June of this year legislation outlawing transfer of US cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia (which has used them in its ongoing attacks in Yemen) failed in the US House of Representatives.

¶ Preach it. “The Body of Christ must remain alert when Caesar quotes Scripture. The text of Holy Writ is forever threatened with being co-opted, is always in danger of being robed in the garments of empire, of being mobilized to endorse injustice, of being segregated from intended conclusion. And in Tuesday night's episode, President Bush [in his address to the nation on the evening of 11 September 2001] neglected to note that the text [from Psalm 23] he quoted pushes forward to the point of table fellowship with enemies.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “In the valley of the shadow: Reflections on the trauma of 11 September 2001”

¶ Can’t makes this sh*t up. We should “blow them [terrorists] away in the name of the Lord.” —televangelist Jerry Falwell in an interview on CNN, 24 October 2004

¶ Call to the table. “I’m Going Down to the River of Jordan,” Fannie Lou Hamer.

¶ When only the blues will do. “I got me a fearless heart / Strong enough to get you through the scary part / It's been broken many times before / A fearless heart just comes back for more.” —Stevie Earl, “Fearless Heart”

¶ The best essay in response to the trauma of 11 September 2001 is John Paul Lederach’s “The Challenge of Terrorism: A Traveling Essay.”

        “We should be careful to pursue one and only one thing as the strategic guidepost of our response: Avoid doing what they expect. What they expect from us is the lashing out of the giant against the weak, the many against the few. This will reinforce their capacity to perpetrate the myth they carefully seek to sustain: That they are under threat, fighting an irrational and mad system that has never taken them seriously and wishes to destroy them and their people. What we need to destroy is their myth not their people.”

        The best book-length treatment (analytically and theologically) on terrorism is Lee Griffith’s The War on Terrorism and the Terror of God. (Griffith had finished his manuscript before 9/11, adding only a postscript.)

        § Between 1993 and 2016, the US contributed on average $4.9 million per year for UXO clearance in Laos; the US spent $13.3 million per day (in 2013 dollars) for nine years bombing Laos.

        § Good news. “Last Remaining Cluster Bomb Maker in the US Ceases Production After Critical Report.” —Sam Sacks, truthout

        § Watch this visually-stunning, animated video (1:37) of a map of US bombing missions in Laos.

Right: Dok Champa, official flower of Laos.

        § “US bombs still maim as Obama prepares to visit Laos,” Agence France-Presse (1:55 video).

        § Watch this inspiring video (8:09) produced by the Mennonite Central Committee on 30 years of work clearing cluster bombs in Vietnam and Laos.

        § “In his diary in March 1969, [President Richard] Nixon’s chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman, noted that the final decision to carpet bomb Cambodia [also a secret war, lasting four years] ‘was made at a meeting in the Oval Office Sunday afternoon, after the church service.’”

Sources for the above information include
        • “Laos: Barack Obama regrets ‘biggest bombing in history,’” BBC News
        •“Laos: Thousands suffering from the deadly aftermath of US bomb campaign,” Matteo Fagotto, The Guardian
        •“Obama pays tribute to victims of US bombing during the ‘secret war’ in Laos,” Christi Parsons, Los Angeles Times
        •“The Bombing of Laos: By the Numbers,” Sarah Kolinovsky, ABC News

Left: An empty US bomb being used as a bell at a primary school in the village of Na Phat in the northern province of Xiangkhoang.

        •Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor, an initiative providing research for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and the Cluster Munition Coalition

        • Special thanks to Titus Peachey, recently retired director of Peace Education for the Mennonite Central Committee, for the conversations which inspired this issue of “Signs of the Times.” Titus and his wife Linda were the directors of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) aid program in Laos from 1980-1985. Titus returned to Laos in 1994 to help coordinate the beginning of the humanitarian demining project in Laos, working alongside the Mines Advisory Group and the Lao Committee for Social and Veterans Affairs. He continues to serve as chair of the Legacies of War board of directors.

        He writes, “I am a member of the Legacies of War Board because of the shattered Lao hoehead that has lain on my desk for more than 30 years. It was given to us by a man from Moung Kham Village who lost his wife and the mother of his 11 children to an unexploded U.S. cluster bomb in 1981. Each day it tells me that I must be deliberate and creative if I wish to contribute to a future of safety and peace."

¶ For the beauty of the earth. “The Earth—A Living Creature" (The Amazing NASA Video. 1:28. Thanks David.)

¶ Altar call. “The roots of terrorism lie in the hoarding of sanctuary, economic production and land ownership. But to get there requires a radical reorienting of our minds and hearts. This is what it means to get saved.” —Ken Sehested

¶ Benediction. To have hope “doesn’t mean closing one’s eyes to the horrors of the world—quite the contrary, in fact: only those who have not lost faith and hope can see the horrors of the world with genuine clarity.” —Vaclav Havel

¶ Recessional. “Now the Day Is Over,” Hastings College Choir.

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. “Hear this, oh people of the Covenant: The claim of Heaven’s Reign and the clamor over earth’s rule are woven together. The seed sown in one is harvested in the other. . . . Hoard your money or hallow your God.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “No one can serve two masters,” a litany for worship inspired by Luke 16:1-13

¶ Just for fun. “President Barack Obama defended his decision on Wednesday to issue a payment of five billion dollars to Mexico to compel that nation to retain custody of Donald J. Trump. ‘I have been assured by the government of Mexico that Mr. Trump will be well taken care of and, if he proves to be a productive member of their society, will be provided a pathway to Mexican citizenship,’” Obama said. —Andy Borowitz [master of satire], The Borowitz Report, The New York Times

#  #  #

Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “No one can serve two masters,” a litany for worship inspired by Luke 16:1-13

• “In the valley of the shadow: Reflections on the trauma of 11 September 2001”

• “The payback of Heaven,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 103

• “Testimony in a Time of Terror,” a litany for worship
 
Other features
• The information above regarding the US secret war in Laos is gathered separately in one document on this site.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Language not otherwise indicated above is that of the editor. Don’t let the “copyright” notice keep you from circulating material you find here (and elsewhere in this site). Reprint permission is hereby granted in advance for noncommercial purposes.

Your comments are always welcomed. If you have news, views, notes or quotes to add to the list above, please do. If you like what you read, pass this along to your friends. You can reach me directly at kensehested@prayerandpolitiks.org

 

 

Signs of the Times  •  2 September 2016  •  No. 86

¶ Processional. “Approach My Soul God’s Mercy Seat,” hymn from the indigenous “Spiritual Baptist” tradition of Trinidad & Tobago. (More on that below.)

Above: Sunrise at Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, photo by Ira David Wood III

¶ Invocation. “There are no unsacred places; / there are only sacred places / and desecrated places.” —Wendell Berry, “How to Be a Poet”

¶ Historic flight. “First US-Cuba Commercial Flight in More Than 50 Years Has Landed.” —Merritt Kennedy, NPR

Left: The first commercial flight in over 50 years from the US to Cuba—from Ft. Lauderdale to Santa Clara—landed Wednesday, 31 August, and greeted with a water canon salute. Photo by Joe Skipper/Reuters.

¶ More Cuba news. This past June the United Church of Christ Southern Conference approved a resolution drafted by Ken Sehested in support of renewed diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba.  “Bring Down the Wall in the Caribbean” serves as a good summary of recent advances.

¶ 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).
        It was a busy evening, but a fascinating one. —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Colin Kaepernick, national anthems, and flag-flown piety”

Right: San Francisco 49er stadium, photo by Carlos Avila Gonzalez, San Francisco Chronicle.

¶ Call to worship. “Let the ruined rejoice in the Lamb who rules, for the Tendering Day draws near! How sure the delight of Mercy’s pure light conqu’ring darkness and danger with cheer.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Let the lost rejoice,” a litany for worship inspired by Luke 15:1-10

¶ “Ultimately it’s to bring awareness and make people realize what’s really going on in this country. There are a lot of things that are going on that are unjust, people aren’t being held accountable for, and that’s something that needs to change. That’s something that — this country stands for freedom, liberty, justice for all. And it’s not happening for all right now.” —Colin Kaepernick, commenting on his decision to remain seated during the playing of the national anthem prior to his team’s National Football League game against

¶ Hymn of praise. “For you I'll fly / through skies and seas / to your love / Opening my eyes at last / I'll live with you. [English translation]” —Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman, “Por ti volare” (“For You I’ll Fly”)

¶ It wasn’t until 1931 that “The Star-Spangled Banner” became our national anthem, and then only after 40 previous failed congressional votes, beginning in 1918. The song was not universally beloved, partly because of its difficulty in singing, and partly because of obscure lyrics. Among the obscure ones is a phrase in the third stanza’s:
        “No refuge could save the hireling and slave / From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave.” The reference was to mercenary forces employed for the British in the War of 1812, along with American slaves who volunteered to fight in exchange for Britain’s pledge of their freedom. —Ken Sehested

¶ The first flag desecration laws . . . "were not to stop political dissidents from burning flags.” They were “intended to prevent the use of flag imagery for political campaigns and for commercial and advertising purposes—uses that are now seen as patriotic. —Sarah Boxer, “Word for Word/The Flag Bulletin; Two Centuries of Burning Flags, A Few Years of Blowing Smoke," The New York Times

¶ In 1861, poet Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote a fifth verse to support the Union cause in the Civil War and denounce “the traitor that dares to defile the flag of her stars.” I doubt this verse will be sung this Saturday at the Alabama-Clemson game.

¶ “A Brief History of Racial Protest in Sports,” Kat Chow, NPR.

¶ Invading Canada. Many historical accounts refer to the War of 1812 as “America’s Second War of Independence.” More properly, it was America's “First War of Choice,” since it was we who declared the war. Though historical causation is always a complicated matter, and both Britain and the U.S. had lingering disputes from our previous war, the evidence is clear that the war’s principal aim was annexation of Canada.
        Among the many pieces of our forgotten history is the fact that the U.S. invaded Canada four times. —Ken Sehested

¶ Confession. “There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.” —Howard Zinn

¶ Spontaneous heroism. In case you didn’t see the video (39 seconds) of this woman being freed by passersby from a car fire, shortly after a 10-car pileup in New York. (The first few second are startling—but the rescue is inspiring.)

¶ Hymn of lamentation. “Shadows are fallin' and I've been here all day / It's too hot to sleep and time is runnin' away / Feel like my soul has turned into steel / I've still got the scars that the sun didn't heal. . . . Sometimes my burden is more than I can bear / It's not dark yet, but it's getting there.” —Bob Dylan, “Not Dark Yet”

¶ Care as a form of prayer. Rev. Jessica Lowe, a Methodist pastor in Shreveport, Louisiana, recently spent time helping friends in Baton Rouge recover from the flooding. Out of that experience she write this powerful meditation, ““How to Gut a House (in 7 Steps).”

¶ Words of assurance. “Lay down your burden / Lay it all down / Pass the glass between you / Drink it up / Place the Light before you / Come through the door / The dragon doesn’t live here anymore.” —Colleen Crangle, "Lay Down Your Burden," performed by Susan Osborn and the Paul Winter Consort

¶ Troubling conviction. The flag's central purpose, aided by the anthem, is to maintain attention to, and confidence in, military supremacy. The nation's memory of flag “desecration” is associated with the shame of the one war—Vietnam—we lost. —Ken Sehested

¶ Hymn of intercession. “Talk About Suffering,” Ricky Skaggs, BBC Transatlantic Sessions.

¶ Preach it. “The early church would be utterly baffled by the idea that future Christians would shame someone for not swearing allegiance to the empire.” —Rachel Held Evans

¶ A community’s creative response to hate crime. Suburban Philadelphia resident Esther Cohen-Eskin was saddened one recent morning to find her trash bin painted with a swastika. Cohen-Eskin, who is Jewish, immediately recognized the targeted threat behind such graffiti. In response, she painted flowers over the hate symbol, and in a gesture of solidarity, many of her neighbors painted pleasant scenes on their bins as well. When the story circulated on the web, she received notes of support from as far away as Germany and Ireland, some accompanied with photos of paintings they had done on their own trash cans. —Dake Kang, Associated Press

¶ Online offering. You’re invited to take part in the Friday 9 September (12 noon) online seminar about “the Original Rainbow Coalition, formed in Chicago in the late 1960’s, was the alliance between the Chicago Black Panther Party, Puerto Rican Young Lords, and Poor White Young Patriots Organization. It was one of the moments in the history of this country where poor people came together across racial lines to build power, support each other, and fight for their shared interests.” —Kairos: The Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice (at Union Theological Seminary, New York City). For more information.

¶ When only the blues will do. “I’ll Play the Blues for You,” performed by Joe Bonamassa.

¶ The best short article on racism (and what to do about it) I’ve seen in a long time: “How White Americans’ Hatred of Racism Actually Supports Racism Instead of Solves It.” —Jon Greenberg, Everyday Feminism (Thanks Ron.)

¶ Can’t makes this sh*t up. “When you go to war . . . You shoot at the enemy. . . . And the enemy right now, the overwhelming majority of people coming in are people of color.” —Maine Governor Paul LaPage, quoted in Vox

¶ Didn’t hurt a bit. The LinkedIn social media platform just sent me a notice that my profile matches a new job opening for a pregnancy counselor at a local social service agency. (I didn’t have the heart to respond that I had a vasectomy 36 years ago.)

¶ The arena for practicing nonviolence is comprehensive. The overwhelming number of contexts, in fact, are far short of international conflict. For example, school discipline. See “Everything you think you know about disciplining kids is wrong,” Katherine Reynolds Lewis, Mother Jones. (Thanks Abigail.)

Right: AP photo by Mark J. Terrill

¶ Call to the table. The dispute over sovereignty, over whose bread will satisfy, over whose power is more reliable, over whether love is stronger than fear, is adjudicated anew every time we come to the Table. Unfortunately, the bread tends to be stale. —Ken Sehested

¶ Excellent electoral history summary. “How the Republican Party went from Lincoln to Trump,” Ezra Klein (7:20 video).

¶ The state of our disunion. Kaepernick’s pride, or lack of it, brings to mind this ancient assessment. “Look at the proud! . . . They open their throats wide as Sheol; like Death they never have enough. They gather all the nations for themselves, and collect all peoples as their own” (Habakkuk 2:4, 5).

¶ After the War of 1812, most of the American slaves who fought for the British settled in Canada. Some, however, relocated to the Caribbean island of Trinidad (one of the twin islands that now make up the nation of Trinidad and Tobago) and founded a distinctive religion tradition known as Spiritual (or Shouter) Baptists. Though explicitly Christian, the tradition adopted many devotional elements from indigenous African religious.

Left: Trinidad & Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar (center) is escorted by Archbishop Barbara Gray-Burke (left) in the Shouter Baptist Empowerment Hall for the 15th anniversary of Shouter Baptist Liberation Day celebrations, 30 March 2014, in Maloney. Photo by Abraham Diaz.

¶ Best one-liner. “You don’t like what Kaepernick has to say? Then prove him wrong, BE the nation he can respect. It’s really just that simple.” —Navy veteran Jim Wright

¶ Altar call. “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” Cannonball Adderly Quintet.

¶ Laughter as a mechanism of grace. Remembering Gene Wilder, PBS Digital Studios interview on why be became an actor. (4:28. Thanks Abigail.)

¶ Benediction. “The Gandhi Rap–Be the change you want to see,” MC Yogi.

¶ Recessional. “Palestine Symphony,” Murat Malay.

¶ For the beauty of the earth. View a few British photographer Christopher Swann’s breathtaking photos of whales. —Inspiremore (Thanks Mimi.)

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. “Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? Who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord.” —Psalm 14:4

¶ Just for fun. Time magazine has assembled videos of what it judges the “Top 10 Worst National Anthem Renditions.”

#  #  #

Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Let the lost rejoice,” a litany for worship inspired by Luke 15:1-10

• “Colin Kaepernick, national anthems, and flag-flown piety: Commentary on what is and is not sacred”

• “Bring Down the Wall in the Caribbean: A resolution in support of renewed diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba.”
 
Other features
• “Labor Day: A litany for worship: For work that fulfills”
• “Labor in the shadow of sabbath,” a Labor Day sermon

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Language not otherwise indicated above is that of the editor. Don’t let the “copyright” notice keep you from circulating material you find here (and elsewhere in this site). Reprint permission is hereby granted in advance for noncommercial purposes.

Your comments are always welcomed. If you have news, views, notes or quotes to add to the list above, please do. If you like what you read, pass this along to your friends. You can reach me directly at kensehested@prayerandpolitiks.org.

Signs of the Times  •  25 August 2016  •  No. 85

¶ Processional. Korean figure skater Yu-na Kim, 2010 Olympic champion, performing to the song “Arirang,” the unofficial national anthem of both North and South Korea.

Happy centennial, US National Park Service! Photo above of Acadia National Park, Mount Desert Island, Maine, by Scott Kublin.

¶ Invocation. “How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place,” Brahms Requiem, Exultate Festival Choir and Orchestra. (Thanks Roy.)

¶ Call to worship. A variation of Psalm 139. “Where Can I Go Without You,” Nat King Cole.

¶ History being made in Cuba. Pictured (in white, at left) are baptismal candidates at Somos Iglesia de la Comunidad Metropolitana en Cuba (Metropolitan Community Church in Matanzas, Cuba), 20 August 2016, during the service marking the church’s first anniversary. Included among those being baptized is a transgendered woman, thought to be the first trans person baptized by the Christian community in Cuba. Somos meets in the sanctuary of First Baptist Church in Matanzas. Part of the congregation’s mission statement includes this sentence: “We will continue to promote the open table of Jesus Christ for all, no matter who you are, what you are or how you are. We will continue walking along with the lepers, the eunuchs, the excluded and excluded from our time.”

¶ Hymn of praise. “Oh night thou was my guide / Of night more loving than the rising sun / Oh night that joined the lover / To the beloved one / Transforming each of them into the other.” —Loreena McKennitt, “The Dark Night Of the Soul” (Thanks Deborah.)

¶ Now we know. “Contrary to what The Donald says, President Obama and soon-to-be President Hillary Clinton did not found ISIS. It was me. I apologize everybody, I don't know what I was thinking. I remember the #4 train was especially overcrowded that morning, I hadn't had any coffee, and the next thing I knew I'd founded an international terrorist organization. My bad!! Just one of those days I guess. So again, please accept my apologies and feel free and pass along my regrets to all your friends.” —Facebook post from Andy, a friend in New York City

Right: Colombian government negotiator Humberto de la Calle (right) and his Farc counterpart Ivan Marquez (left) signed the agreement as Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez watched. Photo by Ramon Espinosa/Associated Press.

¶ Extraordinary news you probably missed. “Hundreds of Colombians have celebrated an historic peace accord between the government and left-wing Farc rebels, signed after 52 years of conflict.” Cuban and Norwegian officials have brokered this agreement, the result of four years of hard negotiation. —BBC News

¶ Confession. “God Forgive Us,” Armenian hymn.

¶ Words of assurance. “When it hurts so bad / And you feel that you can't go on / Each day goes by too fast / And the nights are so very long / You'll find out true / What mother said to you / That tears of God will show you the way / The way to turn.” —Los Lobos, “Tears of God”

¶ “This work is a masterpiece, far and away the most profound treatment of significant themes of life in Cuba I’ve read anywhere.” That’s what Stan Hastey, a veteran Cuba traveler and analyst, says about Stan Dotson’s new book (cover, at left), Cuba: A Day in the Life. Order from Parson’s Porch Book Publishing.

¶ Wi-Fi temperance at summer camps.  “Campers say going cold turkey isn't easy. When 16-year-old Lily Hildreth first arrives, she says she would constantly ‘tap my pockets, and you're like, what am I missing?'" —Tovia Smith, “Summer Camps Struggle To Enforce Bans On Screen Time,” NPR

¶ The pratfalls of texting while walking. —ABC News (1:42)

¶ Wi-Fi mahem.

        •64% of the 2.5 million traffic accidents each year involve use of a cell phone.

        •Each year 330,000 accidents are caused by texting while driving.

        •Texting while driving is six times more likely to cause accidents than drinking and driving.

        • The average speed in the US is about 55mph. Taking five seconds to read a text in this time means that the driver travels the length of a football field without looking at the road.

        • Every year approximately 11 teens die because they were texting while driving.

        • When polled, 77% of adults and 55% of teenage drivers say that they can easily manage texting while driving. —ICEBIKE.ORG

¶ There’s a Wikipedia page on this. FoMO (fear of missing out) is "a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent.” This social angst is characterized by "a desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing."

¶ Old school social media.

        • “Using data from nearly three-quarters of the world’s countries, a new analysis from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that students who do not regularly eat with their parents are significantly more likely to be truant at school.”

        • “Children who do not eat dinner with their parents at least twice a week also were 40% more likely to be overweight compared to those who do.”

        • “Children who do eat dinner with their parents five or more days a week have less trouble with drugs and alcohol, eat healthier, show better academic performance, and report being closer with their parents than children who eat dinner with their parents less often.”

        • ”In her book Eating Together, Alice Julier argues that dining together can radically shift people’s perspectives: It reduces people’s perceptions of inequality, and diners tend to view those of different races, genders, and socioeconomic backgrounds as more equal than they would in other social scenarios.”

        • ”The average American family now spends nearly as much money on fast food as they do on groceries,” and that “meals eaten outside of the home are almost uniformly less healthy than homemade foods, generally having higher fat, salt, and caloric content.” —Cody C. Delistraty, “The Importance of Eating Together,” The Atlantic

¶ “Somewhere, maybe at this very moment, neurologists are trying to figure out what all this screen time is doing to the still-forming brains of people Katherine’s age [13], members of what’s known as Generation Z. Educators are trying to teach them that not all answers are Googleable. Counselors are prying them out of Internet addictions.” —Jessica Contrera, “13, right now: This is what it is like to grow up in the likes, lols and longing,” Washington Post

¶ “Carnival barkers, conspiracy theories, willful bias and nasty partisanship aren’t anything new, and they haven’t reached unprecedented heights today. But what’s remarkable and sort of heartbreaking is the way they’re fed by what should be strides in our ability to educate ourselves. The proliferation of cable television networks and growth of the Internet promised to expand our worlds, not shrink them. Instead they’ve enhanced the speed and thoroughness with which we retreat into enclaves of the like-minded.” —Frank Bruni, "How Facebook Warps Our Worlds,” New York Times (Thanks Jon)

¶ A friend in Australia sent me a job opening notice he saw for a small business. Among the qualifications required is “Be able to last eight hours without your phone.” (Thanks Geoff.)

¶ A quick web search pulled up a tidal wave of article examining the impact of cell phones. The following stories were on the first page of the search (which went on for another 204 million pages).

        •“Cell Phones are Changing Social Interaction,” Psychology Today

        •“Cell phones promote serious social, psychological issues,” Washington Times

        •“Cellphone use linked to selfish behavior,” ScienceDaily

        •“Is Your Cell Phone Making You a Jerk,” Time magazine

        •“Cell Phone and Anti-Social Behavior,” StudyMoose

        •“How Your Cell Phone Hurts Your Relationships,” Scientific American

¶ I taught both my daughters to drive, using some fun exercises like finding an empty school parking lot on a Saturday: I rode a bicycle and required them to follow me in reverse using only mirrors (to get used to using rear and side mirrors and the counter-intuitive steering needed when in reverse).
        One exercise was more serious. We took a walking tour of our local car junk yard, just to inspect up close the horrendous damage that can be done in an accident.
        But everyone who gets behind the wheel, of whatever age, should view this 34-second video of a texting-while-driving accident.

¶ Several years ago my congregation approved a recommendation banning all Wi-Fi devices from our Sunday gathering. Most immediately it was a response to one of our members who lives with an acute sensitivity to the electromagnetic radiation such devices emit (even when they’re “off”). More than that, the decision represents an awareness that social media has an inherent tendency to dominate our lives. Disconnecting for a brief time each week is a tangible discipline to remind ourselves of the need to “be still.” —read Ken Sehested’s “Old dogs, new tricks, and social media”

¶ Preach it. “Life smooths us, perfects us as does the river the stone, and there is no place our Beloved is not flowing, though the current’s force you may not like.” —St. Treresa of Ávila

¶ Electoral commentary. “So while a Trump presidency holds the prospect of the United States driving off a cliff, a Clinton presidency promises to be the equivalent of banging one’s head against a brick wall without evident effect, wondering all the while why it hurts so much.” —Andrew Bacevich, “The Decay of American Politics,” TomDispatch

¶ Yes, I’m voting, if for nothing else because the next president will nominate at least one, possibly three, Supreme Court justices. Whatever your conscience—vote or don’t vote. Elections are a tiny part of “seeking the welfare of the city.” Every year I spend a lot more time in grocery store lines and doctor’s office waiting rooms than in polling sites. Elections, whether local, state, or national, are but the terminus of a long pipeline in history’s shaping. Get in on the front end. None of us start a meaningful movement for social change; but we must be busy laying the line in preparation. —Ken Sehested

¶ Call to the table. “The Holy Scriptures were not given to us that we should enclose them in books, but that we should engrave them upon our hearts.” —St. John Chrysostom

¶ The state of our disunion. “What would it take to cause Hillary Clinton to distance herself from the newly launched bombing campaign in Libya? Or call for a congressional debate on it? Or suggest the obvious: that the war on terror isn’t working? Of course it won’t happen. But the fact that it sounds so absurd—almost as fanciful as the notion of movie characters stepping off the screen into real life—indicates how illusory, how unglued from reality, American democracy is at the presidential level. It’s a spectator sport—mud wrestling, say—doled out to us as entertainment by the media in sound bites and poll numbers.” —Robert C. Koehler, “Reaching Beyond the Candidates,” CommonDreams

¶ For the beauty of the earth. 23 dramatic photos of a thunder storm passing over the Outer Banks of North Carolina on 14 July 2016.

¶ Altar call. “The resurrection isn’t an argument. It’s the Christian word for defiance. . . . It is who we are—our word for how we go on in the face of overwhelming odds.” —Giles Fraser, The Guardian

¶ Benediction. “Slumber, my darling, till morn's blushing ray / Brings to the world the glad tidings of day / Fill the dark void with thy dreamy delight / Slumber, thy mother will guard thee tonight.” —“Slumber My Darling,” performed by Allison Krauss, Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer and Mark O’Connor

¶ Recessional, in intercession for friends in South Louisiana. —“Weary Blues,” New Orleans Stompers

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. “Creator God, we give thanks this day for work: for work that sustains; for work that fulfills; for work which, however tiring, also satisfies and resonates with Your labor in creation.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Labor Day: A litany for worship: For work that fulfills”

¶ Just for fun. “‘We’re here to call ourselves the Church of JC Capitalist” —a video (2:28) spoof by comedian John Cleese

#  #  #

Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Old dogs, new tricks, and social media: Is the "fear of missing out" actually causing us to miss out?”
• “Labor Day: A litany for worship: For work that fulfills”
• “Labor in the shadow of sabbath,” a Labor Day sermon

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Language not otherwise indicated above is that of the editor. Don’t let the “copyright” notice keep you from circulating material you find here (and elsewhere in this site). Reprint permission is hereby granted in advance for noncommercial purposes.

Your comments are always welcomed. If you have news, views, notes or quotes to add to the list above, please do. If you like what you read, pass this along to your friends. You can reach me directly at kensehested@prayerandpolitiks.org.