Both Sides Use Videos To Glorify Killing

F-22 fighters delivering death, destruction and dismemberment

In my 9/13 post I expressed my outrage over videos that show ISIS beheadings, acts of terror no doubt applauded by their bloodthirsty supporters. I've recently also seen numerous videos that show the effects of air strikes on ISIS targets, which I'm sure are also applauded by US citizens eager for revenge.

Sadly, we have come to accept drone, rocket and other air strikes as antiseptic and routine, the equivalent of just another hit in a video game. Civilian casualties are seen as “collateral damage”, and enemy fighters we kill are dehumanized, not seen as equally precious to God and to their civilian families.

When Fascist planes dropped bombs resulting in the deaths of large numbers of noncombatants in the 1937 Spanish Civil War, there was a worldwide outcry. Pablo Picasso did his famous painting “Guernica” in protest, and governments around the world denounced the tactic as an act of terrorism.

As late as September 1, 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt decried the "inhuman barbarism" of such bombings which "sickened the hearts of every civilized man and woman," and "profoundly shocked the conscience of humanity".

But in a very short period of time Hitler’s strategy won the day, and Allied forces in World War II engaged in wholesale saturation bombings of German populations. Soon thereafter President Truman gave orders to completely obliterate two Japanese cities with atomic bombs.

In February, 2003, at the 58th anniversary of the fire bombing of Dresden, German survivors of that 1945 firestorm joined with survivors of the bombing of Guernica to issue the following appeal:

“As our television sets show bombers preparing for war against Iraq, we survivors of Guernica and Dresden recall our own helplessness and horror when we were flung into the inferno of bombing—we saw people killed. Suffocated. Crushed. Incinerated. Mothers trying to protect their children with only their bodies. Old people with no strength left to flee from the flames. These pictures are still alive in our memory, and our accounts capture indelibly what we went through.


“For decades we—and survivors from many other nations—have been scarred by the horror, loss and injuries we experienced in the wars of the 20th century. Today we see that the beginnings of the 21st century are also marked by suffering and destruction. On behalf of all the victims of war throughout the world we express our sympathy and solidarity with all those affected by the terror of September 11 in the USA and the war in Afghanistan.


“But is that very suffering now also to be inflicted upon the people of Iraq? Must thousands more die in a rain of bombs, must cities and villages be destroyed and cultural treasures obliterated?”

Their voices went unheeded, and now we are again resorting to extreme “shock and awe” tactics in order to degrade and destroy terrorists we ourselves have helped create.

While civilians are not being deliberately targeted in our fight against ISIS, President Obama is using the same violent war tactics as his predecessors. In the words of anti-war activist David Swanson, “He can get away with some abuses and worse and be forgiven because he engages in wars more eloquently and reluctantly. But the people who die in the wars are just as dead...”

Following the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center the U.S. experienced an outpouring of sympathy and support from all over the world, including many of the Muslim nations with whom we are now in conflict. We could have resorted to waging peace on a massive scale, working to make sure that perpetrators of 911 kinds of violence were degraded and disenfranchised.

Instead we chose revenge. And now we are reaping the brutal consequences.

Teaching Our Children Some Real Respect

http://www.heartlight.org/gallery/237.html

In parenting classes I've taught over the years I've been impressed by how concerned parents are about raising children who show genuine respect toward them and others.

When I taught my Positive Parenting class to ex-offenders, many of whom have felt "dissed" by society, they strongly expressed that same concern. And even though many of their parents had abused them with the harshest punishments imaginable, most staunchly defended the practice of "butt-whipping", believing it was the only way to "teach children some real respect".

But do all of our attempts to teach respect disrespectfully or violently just teach fear, instil anger and ultimately promote more violence?

Children, someone has wryly noted, are a lot like people. They aren't dumb, they're just short and inexperienced, and it is our duty to teach them what they need to know to become successful adults. Generally the same things that work with taller and older people are also the things that work best with shorter, less mature people.

In the real world we know that we teach best by use of careful and repeated explanation and lots of good demonstration over time, along with appropriate and respectfully administered consequences when offenses occur.

So I often ask parents, "When our children misbehave, are they simply defying us or might they often be imitating us?' Can we successfully teach patience impatiently, teach kindness unkindly or teach self control when we are ourselves are out of control? In other words, most good behaviors children learn they learn by loving elders who demonstrate and teach these qualities on a a consistent basis.

In each parenting class we begin by listing some of those good traits we want our children to take with them throughout their lives, long after we have any direct control of their choices. Then after highlighting such qualities as respect, courtesy, kindness, unselfishness, good work ethic, concern for others, picking up after themselves, being able to manage their anger, etc., I ask "How many of these qualities can we instil in our children by harsh lectures or beating?" and "How consistently are we demonstrating these traits ourselves?"

Of course parents can't be perfect, and the good news is that we don't have to be in order to be good role models. The secret is to recognizing when we fail and not being afraid to apologize when we miss the mark.

Which becomes another one of those good traits we teach by example.

Here's a link to another post on child discipline.

My Awfully Cheap Cosmopolitan Wardrobe

Some 1,100 died in recent Bagladesh garment factory collapse

"Come now, you rich, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten... Listen! The wages of the laborers ...which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and their cries have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts."

James 5:4

According to a check of clothing labels in my wardrobe, I benefit from the near slave-wage labor of garment workers in over a dozen countries, many of them making less than $100 a month. I found only three of my older jackets and one shirt with "Made in the USA" labels.

These are among the more common countries represented:

Vietnam
Bangladesh
Indonesia
China
Cambodia
Indonesia
Dominican Republic
Korea
Mexico
Pakistan
Philippines
Lesotho

Thanks to the thousands of underpaid workers putting in long hours in oppressive environments who are manufacturing and transporting my clothes and shoes, I have the luxury of getting to decide what combination of things to wear every day, choices few of them can afford. I also have the problem of deciding what items to get rid of to avoid overcrowding our modest size closet. Some of my items were purchased at our local thrift store to begin with, but I'm still extremely rich, wardrobe-wise, when compared to those who toil day after day sewing all of my stuff.

This morning as I dressed for the day I breathed a prayer for these desperately poor clothing servants and their families. Are we willing to pay more in order to provide more decent conditions for them?

Meanwhile, I just learned that a new store, Green Hummingbird Fair Trade Clothing, has opened at 320 S. Main Street in Harrisonburg, and will be having its Grand Opening Saturday, October 4, from 1-5 p.m., complete with food, music, door prizes, a fashion show, and massages.

Doesn't look like there's much here for men, but I'm glad that at least someone is promoting fair trade in our community, along with places like Artisans' Hope, 821A Mt. Clinton Pike, and Ten Thousand Villages at 181 S. Main Street in Harrisonburg.

Solitary Torture

See Infograph World Blog for full view

According to the Center for Constitutional Rights over 80,000 U.S. inmates are currently being held in solitary confinement for 22-24 hours a day, some of them for years on end. In many cases their only physical exercise involves being taken in handcuffs and shackles to pace back and forth in another solitary location.

Originally this form of confinement was seen as a way of encouraging offenders to reflect on their misdeeds and experience repentance and a changed life, but it turned out that it was far more likely to lead to psychosis. In the past century such cells have been used more and more frequently as a means of punishing troublemakers in prison, sometimes including "jail house lawyers"advocating for fellow inmates, along with truly violent and incorrigible inmates.

In our local jail segregation cells are used routinely for disciplinary reasons, and sometimes for the protection of an inmate who is in danger of being harmed by his or her cell mates. Such sentences in the “hole,” for either the prisoner’s protection or for in-jail violations, may be for weeks at a time.

  
In all fairness, overcrowding at our local jail, along with challenges of limited budget and personnel have Sheriff Hutcheson and his staff stretched to their limit. Our jail, built for 208, is double bunked and typically houses from 375 to 400 inmates, some having to sleep on the floor. The Sheriff feels he has few choices at times but to resort to using the restraint chair, segregated cells, and even the dreaded isolated padded cell, which is sometimes used for suicidally depressed persons they fear might harm themselves.

It doesn't take a mental health professional to know that prolonged confinement behind bars is certain to have a negative impact on anyone's emotional and physical health, and to be deprived of human contact and normal forms of sensory stimulation and physical activity in a solitary cell will have an even greater crazy-making effect.

Our Harrisonburg-Rockingham Regional Jail has a contract with Southern Health to provide at least one nurse on site around the clock to meet the medical needs of inmates. In addition, a retired MD from Staunton is available on a marginal-time basis.

But for mental health needs, the jail has only its annual contract with our local Community Services Board, a board of which the sheriff himself is a designated member. This paltry $15,600 annual agreement is sufficient to only cover the cost of a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner for three hours a week.

We can, and must, do far better than that.

For an earlier post on this subject, go to this link.

Who Has Grumbling Rights? A Reflection On A Sunday's Lectionary Texts

source

When I reviewed the Exodus 15 text for last week, the one about a newly liberated people complaining about their hardships, I found myself feeling more empathy than usual.

It's easy to criticize these folks who grumbled about things like recurring water and food shortages, but didn't they have a right to be upset? After all, they're having to journey on foot through desert heat while carrying their meager possessions with them, and without the luxury of overnight motel accommodations.

Most of us, accustomed to air-conditioned transportation and comfortable lodging at a Hampton Inn, wouldn't have lasted a single day under those conditions.

Which makes this a serious lesson about whether or when we have grumbling rights and when we have only gratitude rights. It always depends on our perspective, and on how we do our mental bookkeeping. That is, do we mostly make note of, and record, our deficits, our losses, our deprivations? Or do we enter and celebrate our many undeserved assets, blessings and benefits?

I was reminded of the humorous song "Grumblers" by Thoro Harris I learned when I was a child:

In country, town or city some people can be found
Who spend their lives in grumbling at everything around;
O yes, they always grumble, no matter what we say,
For these are chronic grumblers and they grumble night and day.

CHORUS:
O they grumble on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Grumble on Thursday too,
Grumble on Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
Grumble the whole week thru.
                        (Repeat)

They grumble in the city, they grumble on the farm,
They grumble at their neighbors, they think it is no harm;
They grumble at their husbands, they grumble at their wives,
They grumble at their children; but the grumbler never thrives.

They grumble when it’s raining, they grumble when it’s dry,
And if the crops are failing they grumble and they sigh,
They grumble at low prices and grumble when they’re high,
They grumble all the year ‘round and they grumble till they die.

We all have our share of both stresses and blessings, but like our financial accounts, if our deposits exceed our withdrawals we can live in the black, can experience a sense of abundance, even of plenty. On the other hand, if we, like the above grumblers, see our perceived losses as being greater than our assets, we live in a state of scarcity and want, and will tend to be complainers.

This Sunday's gospel reading from Matthew is a story about some laborers who grumbled about an employer giving each worker a full day's pay even though some had put in many more hours than others. Jesus' point is that each person deserves a living wage, and that the rest of us who have plenty should be grateful for this kind of just provision instead of being envious or resentful.

The Psalm 105 passage reframes the Exodus story, focuses on God's gracious deliverance for a people who had experienced only bondage and suffering and were offered liberation and new hope.

In the Philippians passage, the missionary Paul, writing from prison, gives up his grumbling rights and counts his blessings instead.

Sounds like a lot depends on how we do our bookkeeping.

To Our Civil Servants: Pardon my "Répondez S'il Vous Plait" Request

Which part of RSVP ("Reply please") don't they understand?

If you've ever written to an elected official and not gotten a response, you're not alone.

Here are my two most recent examples:

CASE #1

Several weeks ago I sent an email to the members of the Harrisonburg City Council and the County Board of Supervisors with a petition regarding local jail expansion that I had posted on my blog. Since it was signed by 125 local citizens, I assumed they would at least take time to read it and make some kind of response.

The petition asks for an additional year, at least, for our community to consider the proposal due by late November by the Richmond-based Mosely Architectural firm regarding plans to add more jail space. This proposal is to then be voted on by City and County representatives before December 31, allowing us a mere month to examine what's in the report.

Since any proposed construction will likely involve millions of taxpayer dollars, many of our local citizens see a need for taking more time for the process. The City of Richmond, for example, is taking five years for a similar study.

All that being said, I got only one reply to my email. One.

A week later I resent the message and link, this time addressing each representative by name, which resulted in my getting at least a brief acknowledgment from half of them. But only half.

I know our elected servants are busy and undoubtedly get a lot of correspondence, and I don't expect an extended essay from every public official I write to. But I do expect at least the courtesy of  something that helps ordinary citizens like me feel like our input isn't just an annoyance.

CASE #2

Just prior to that I had sent a hand-written personal letter along with a copy of one of my blog posts urging parole reforms to each member of the Virginia Parole Board as well as to Governor Terry McAuliffe, Attorney General Mark Herring and Commissioner of Public Safety Brian Moran, again expecting at least an acknowledgment from someone on their staff.

The response? Zero. Zilch. Nada.

Am I not doing something right here? Or don't our public servants really want input from ordinary taxpayers like you and me?

Is Race Still A Relevant Category?

proposed wording of Census questions on race

Throughout our nation's history, the U.S. Census Bureau has used the discredited and inadequate “five races of mankind” as a basis for recording the race and ethnicity of its citizens: "White; Black; American Indian or Alaska Native; Asian; and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander."

I 'm sure there must be some need--for purposes of comparison with other nations, or to note trends in our own history--to use such designations, but I still wish racial labels would become less and less important.

My August  blog entitled "Where Have All The Racists Gone?" had a link posted on Facebook which got an unusual number of comments, including on in which I suggested we might just avoid using racial designations altogether unless they have something directly to do with the scientific study of skin pigment or when we're referring to a sociological study involving some kind of useful research.

To which one friend responded, "Color blind doesn't work. It just glosses over biases. Better to be actively advocating for diversity and encourage people to learn about their own culture and appreciate that of others."

That sounds wise at one level, but I still wonder just how color conscious we should be, or how important it is to pay attention to dozens of kinds of other designations of things that distinguish us from each other. 

For example, should the Census Bureau also include categories like the following:

Swiss-German Caucasion (my "race")
Mixed Irish, African American, and native American (a nephew's "race")
Left handed versus right handed
Blond, brunette or red headed 
Kinky, wavy, straight and/or disappearing hair
Pink, tan, bronze or dark skin shade, with or without freckles
Tall, short, stocky, thin, obese
Eye color
Etc.

Such a list could go on and on, leaving unanswered the question of what information about others' physical characteristics really have anything to do with anything.

Perhaps some day a simpler version of a census question on race might be the following:

___ Human
___ Inhuman