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Signs of the Times  •  23 September 2016  •  No. 89

¶ Processional. “Rivers of Babylon,” The Melodians.

Above: A caiman in the Amazon whose head is nearly covered in butterflies. Salt is critical to the survival of many creatures like butterflies and bees who sometimes drink tears from reptiles in regions where the mineral is scarce. Photo by Mark Cowan.

¶ Invocation. “If you want to find a spark, sift through the ashes.” —Hasidic saying

Right: Water defenders shut down construction of the Dakota Access pipeline by obstructing the equipment on 6 September 2016. Photos by Rob Wilson.

¶ "It’s being called 'the largest, most diverse tribal action in at least a century': scores of Native American tribes camped among the hills along the Cannonball River. . . And they won a partial victory on Sept. 9, when the federal government ordered a provisional halt on construction [of the Dakota Access Pipeline–DAPL] near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. What’s behind the opposition to the pipeline, and what makes it spiritual?” —Emily McFarlan Miller, Religion News Service

¶ Call to worship. “By the Waters of Babylon,” a cappella round by foxxvixx.

¶ This was a pretty stunning initiative, made more dramatic by the fact that it is a collaboration between three separate federal agencies. “Important issues raised by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other tribal nations and their members regarding the Dakota Access pipeline specifically, and pipeline-related decision-making generally, remain. . . . The Army will not authorize constructing the Dakota Access pipeline . . . until it can determine whether it will need to reconsider any of its previous decisions regarding the Lake Oahe site under the National Environmental Policy Act or other federal laws.  Therefore, construction of the pipeline on Army Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe will not go forward at this time.” —9 September 2016 Department of Justice news release
        Stay tuned; this is but a temporary measure.

¶ As of 7 September, “The broadcast news networks—ABC, CBS and NBC—have aired exactly one report on the Dakota Access Pipeline protests since the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe began an encampment against the project in April, according to a search of the Nexis news database. That report, read by Anne-Marie Green, aired on the CBS Morning News at 4 a.m. on September 5.” It was a mere 48 words long and cribbed from a National Public Radio report. —Jim Naureckas, FAIR

¶ “There is an old Lakota prophecy of a black snake, a creature that would rise from the deep, bringing with it great sorrow and great destruction. For many years, the Lakota people have wondered what the prophecy meant and when it would come to pass. When they heard news of this pipeline — this tube, immeasurably long, that would pump black oil through the heart of this country — some Lakota people began to wonder if the snake appeared at last.” —Kristen Moe, “How a ‘Black Snake’ in the Heartland Brought Spirit to American Environmentalism,” Yes!

¶ “The Great Sioux Reservation, formed in the eighteen-sixties, shrunk again and again—in 1980, a federal court said, of the whole sad story, “a more ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealings will never, in all probability, be found in our history.” In the nineteen-fifties and early sixties, the Army Corps of Engineers—the same Army Corps now approving the pipeline—built five large dams along the Missouri, forcing Indian villages to relocate. More than two hundred thousand acres disappeared beneath the water.” —Bill McKibben, “A Pipeline Fight and America’s Dark Past,” The New Yorker

¶ Hymn of praise. “Waters of Babylon,” Sweet Honey in the Rock.”

¶ In light of the civil disobedience action at Standing Rock, commentator Lawrence O’Donnell’s brief (4:34) recitation of the historical treatment of Native Americans is the most concise and blunt, not to mention truthful, chronicle I’ve heard from mainstream media.

¶ Good long read, for further background on the DAPL action. “Two of our country's biggest issues, racism and climate change, have collided on a North Dakota reservation. This week, I loaded up my station wagon with water and supplies and drove down for a look at a historic demonstration that could shape the national dialogue going forward.” —Mark Sundeen, “What’s Happening in Standing Rock" (Thanks Robin.)

¶ Another child leading. “This 8-Year-Old Boy Spent 2 Years Growing His Hair To Make Wigs For Kids With Cancer.” When Thomas Moore saw his mom watching a video on Facebook about a girl who had lost her hair to cancer, he had an idea. He decided to start growing his hair out for kids who had lost theirs to chemotherapy, and so that's what he did. For the next two years. —James Gould-Bourn, boredpanda (Thanks Jo.)

¶ A testimony from Charlotte. “But then an officer walks onto our porch. I greet him at the door, cautious and respectful, and note that there are three others running down our driveway. There are two more in the front yard to the left. Three near the pecan tree by the street. Two cruisers parked on the side street. At this point it becomes clear that the helicopter is not just close by, it is hovering above our house. We are surrounded.” —continue reading Greg Jarrell’s “Standing as loving accomplices on a front porch surrounded by police”

¶ Good news from afar. In the Uttar Pradesh region of India, Sunni and Shiite Muslims make a point of joint worship during special observances, defying the typical narrative of conflict. —Akhtar Ali, Religion News Service

¶ Words of thanksgiving. “We give thanks for curious stories that nudge us to act with cleverness, creativity and compassion within such agonizingly unjust systems. May we be found as your church that has some tricks up the old sleeve for the common good.” —continue reading Nancy Hastings Sehested’s prayer, “Companions of comfort”

¶ The truth stings. “You know whose to blame for the problem of the abuse of women and girls? Men who don't give a damn. You know whose to blame for the problems of discrimination? The supposed superior class who does not give a damn.” —former President Jimmy Carter, address at the recent New Baptist Covenant conference

¶ Confession. “By the Waters of Babylon,” traditional Kievan chant, St. Symeon Orthodox Church.

¶ My vote for the most significant-but-unheralded news of the year comes from Michelle Alexander. You may know her ground-breaking book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Alexander has just announced that she is leaving her law professorship at Ohio State University to join the faculty at my alma mater, Union Theological Seminary in New York City.
        It is an unusual move, since Alexander admits she “was not raised in a church.” But she goes on to say “But I know there is something much greater at stake in justice work. . . . I no longer believe we can ‘win’ justice simply by filing lawsuits, flexing our political muscles or boosting voter turnout. . . . At its core, America’s journey from slavery to Jim Crow to mass incarceration raises profound moral and spiritual questions. . . .” —read Alexander’s entire statement at Faithfully Magazine

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

¶ Professing our faith. “Ideas that matter will almost certainly cause calluses, maybe blisters, likely emotional turmoil and spiritual vexation of every sort. Tired bodies, cluttered minds, lagging spirits—all these and other impairments will have to be endured. A true and worthy hope, as Barbara Kingsolver wrote, requires more than admiration from a distance. You to take up residence under its roof.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Having a dream is not the same as being had by a dream”

¶ Hymn of intercession. “By the Waters of Babylon,” Choir of King’s College, Cambridge.

¶ Short take: On the salvific function of R-rated violence. The pervasiveness of gratuitous violence in popular media is rightfully a matter of judgment, calling for cultural resistance, public complaint and outright boycotting. But in order to see the world rightly we dare not close our eyes to the surrounding, actual bloodbath that marks our day, whether near or far away. If there is any hope of healing, people of faith and conscience must—must—be willing to risk the traumatizing effect of visual exposure to actual bloody history. Damien Cave and Rochelle Oliver have gathered “The Raw Videos That Have Sparked Outrage Over Police Treatment of Blacks” at one New York Times site.

¶ Preach it. “The facts of this world seen clearly / Are seen through tears / Why tell me then / there is something wrong with my eyes?” —Margaret Atwood

¶ Can’t makes this sh*t up. Michigan Officials Strip [the city of] Flint of Right to Sue Over Water Crisis.” —Imani Gandy, Rewire (Thanks Lenora.)
        To add insult to injury, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, and Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette want taxpayers to cover the cost of using private law firms representing the state in civil litigation over the Flint water crisis ($1.2 million) and investigating the matter ($1.5 million). —Brad Devereaux, MLive Media

¶ We can all wish for more of this. “He [Dominican Republic-born David Ortiz, aka “Big Papi,” Boston Red Sox star and future hall-of-famer] added that his kids are into baseball and said, ‘If they ever get up here [to the big leagues], I want people to say to them, I knew your dad, and he was a guy with huge power. But there was something better about him. He was a good person. That’s what I care about the most.’” Ortiz announced earlier that this will be his last season. —Jorge I. Ortiz, USA Today

¶ Call to the table. “By the Waters of Babylon,” Don McClean.

¶ The state of our disunion. NC Representative Robert Pittenger on the protests in Charlotte after the killing of Keith Lamont Scott. “. . . they hate white people because white people are successful and they’re not.” In a follow-up tweet Pittenger did not retract his statement, only “I apologize to those I offended.” The implicit message: It’s your fault that you were offended. —CBS New York

¶ Best one-liner. Stop trying to make everyone happy—you aren’t chocolate. —author unknown (Thanks Karen.)

¶ For the beauty of the earth. “The Breathing Earth.” Watch this stunning, sequenced series of composite satellite photos of the earth. (1:40 video.)

¶ Altar call. “There is a place between passivity and violence. I’ll meet you there.” —Rivera Sun

Right: Painting by Jose Ignacio Fletes Cruz.

¶ Benediction. “We do not live by what is possessed but by what is promised.” —Walter Brueggemann

¶ Recessional. “By the Waters of Babylon,” Russian chant by the Moscow Srentensky Monastery Choir. (7 minutes)

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. “The City: Besieged and Beloved: A collection of biblical texts for personal meditation and public liturgy.”

¶ World Communion Sunday. “I’m not sure if it’s celebrated much outside the US. And that may be because much of the world suspects that ‘world communion’ holds the same promise of what we call ‘globalization.’ A globalized economy is supposed to work for everyone. ‘Everyone has an even chance,’ so we’re told. But casino owners say the same thing, knowing the process is heavily tilted toward the house.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s World Communion Sunday sermon, “Remembering the Future”

¶ Just for fun (this is a genuine hoot). Comedian Ellen DeGeneres taking First Lady Michelle Obama shopping, to prepare her for life outside the White House. (9:20. Thanks Leslie.)

#  #  #

Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Having a dream is not the same as being had by a dream”

• “Remembering the Future,” a World Communion Sunday sermon

Left: "Our Lady Mother of Ferguson and All Those Killed by Gun Violence," icon by Mark Dukes.

Other features

• “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”

• “The US ‘secret war’ in Laos: President Obama’s visit to Laos casts light on a forgotten war”

©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  •  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

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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