Imagine the Quaker
an erstwhile mirror site for weblog on newquaker.com
archives | newquaker.comThursday, January 06, 2005
I am no longer maintaining this page as a mirror for the New Quaker Notebook at newquaker.com. If you link to imagine the quaker, please update your link to my weblog at newquaker.com.
posted by Merle Harton, Jr. 8:30 AM
Sunday, January 02, 2005
My new web portal, Radical Christian Information [radicalchristian.info] is up and working at last, and I'm submitting to the search engines and soliciting submissions and URL recommendations.
After watching the format behavior of the site's HTML tables under a variety of browsers, I'm rethinking my plans to move its format to 100% CSS. Tables have been unjustly maligned, I think. (Oh, excuse the pun.)
posted by Merle Harton, Jr. 3:10 AM
Oh, we spent our tithe at the race track. Last Monday, in response to the Bush administration's initial pledge of $15 million to help Asian nations hit by the devastating tsunami, Jan Egeland, UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, called the gift stingy and complained about the level of assistance by Western nations in general. The initial US gift of $15 million was mostly channeled through the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, plus logistical support for aid efforts; on Tuesday, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) added $20 million for the earthquake relief, bringing the aid subtotal to $35 million, still less than the cost for the forthcoming presidential inauguration. On Friday President Bush announced that US aid would reach at least $350 million, and Secretary of State Colin Powell said more US aid could be likely.
It is not necessarily the place of the US federal government to give away American tax money to other countries, whatever the reason, but the US routinely does that in the form of economic aid. That's at least what USAID is for. Historically and commonly our government also steps forward in circumstances of great humanitarian need, sometimes in concert with assistance from American charities and NGOs, sometimes not. What hinders the US government here from being the leader in giving to this tsunami relief in southern Asia is that we are just too steeped in debt to do much more. In fact, we have to borrow in order to give away that $350 million in relief, because there is nothing in the bank to cover it. Promises, maybe, but the money isn't there: we're spending it in the Middle East.
This event should push the scales from our eyes and make us see that we simply squander our resources when we chase supremacy through military might, preventing us from helping—rather than hurting—when the world looks to us for a genuinely human response to sudden misery. Perhaps this is what keeps us from helping in Uganda, Darfur, Haiti ... the list is too long.
posted by Merle Harton, Jr. 2:45 AM
Hmm, I just discovered that my 1999 review of Caught in Between, by the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, is featured at the UCC Palestine Solidarity Campaign at University College Cork, Ireland. The group has affiliation with the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign. I hope this doesn't mean that I'll be swept up in the Patriot Act II, or will find my name on a no-fly list.
I found (and still find) Riah Abu El-Assal's book an enthralling, sometimes poignant, and often exasperating tale of several identities in crisis, and less a book about the Episcopal church and far more a book about the Arab-Palestinian search for identity and the increasing isolation of the Christian community in Israel today. And the perspective is compelling, written as such by a Palestinian Arab Christian in Israel. Riah has been priest of the parish in Nazareth for over 30 years; this is where he was born and where, as a child, he drank from Mary's Well. Even apart from intervals of travel, Palestine is his home. His ethnic identity is Arab, his mother tongue is Arabic, his faith is Christian, but he is also an Israeli citizen.
posted by Merle Harton, Jr. 1:50 AM
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
I just finished the .info web setup for a new website for committed Christians with a steadfast faith in the radical, transforming love of Jesus Christ. The web portal, Radical Christian Information [radicalchristian.info], will share like-minded sites and information and will post approved user-submitted sites.
I've used straightforward HTML tables for the preliminary layout, but plan to move it to 100% CSS—if I can get it all to work properly. I've also hidden the submission email address to avoid spam, which is something I wish I could have done better when I set up newquaker.com. I've tried just about every trick in the anti-spam book, including a robust use of the helpful robots.txt file, but alas! I still manage to get a mailbox full of useless spam.
posted by Merle Harton, Jr. 2:07 AM
Saturday, December 25, 2004
Who is Ty, you ask? Ty is the monkey off my back. My mother gave him to me many years ago and he's still hanging around.
Here he is reading E.F. Schumacher's classic Small is Beautiful, because I re-read it every now and then, too.
posted by Merle Harton, Jr. 11:45 PM
I have to get off this Bush jag. I'm now having Bush episodes in the way I used to get Nixon episodes: they weren't healthy or productive for me then and probably aren't now. Besides, I'm reaching a point where I just end up repeating myself, or at least start saying the same thing in different, creative terms—but that's only because the Bush administration is consistent, just as the Nixon administration was consistent, and these in the end turn out not to be virtues.
Instead, I need to put my energies elsewhere. A good place to start is where the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is picking up, by again calling for the immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. They have an Iraq Peace Petition underway right now. The petition will be delivered on the morning after the inauguration.
posted by Merle Harton, Jr. 11:10 PM
"Everywhere peace is needed!" As rescuers finish digging up bodies from the truck bomb attack on the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad today, I have to reflect on the stark differences between two world leaders and their markedly different Christmas messages.
On the one hand is a man I admire very much, Pope John Paul II, who now can't walk, suffers from Parkinson's Disease, can barely talk or sit up straight, and yet can still muster up the strength to brave a pouring rain as he gave his "Urbei et Orbi" message from the steps of St Peter's Basilica. "Let there be an end to the numerous situations of unrest which risk degenerating into open conflict; let there arise a firm will to seek peaceful solutions, respectful of the legitimate aspirations of individuals and peoples," he said, calling for everyone, everywhere, to "come with trust to the crib of the Saviour!"
On the other hand is our President who, from the comfort of his radio studio, spoke words that could appear on any seasonal Hallmark card. But his words were somehow different, skewed, morphed from their original into something dark and subliminal:
He said, "Christmastime reminds each of us that we have a duty to our fellow citizens, that we are called to love our neighbor just as we would like to be loved ourselves." But what really came from his lips was: "What I mean is that we should love our own American kind. Forget about those Middle Eastern-types. Forget that Jesus said we must love our enemies: I say instead that we must destroy them, for they are the enemies of freedom."
He said, "By volunteering our time and talents where they are needed most, we help heal the sick, comfort those who suffer, and bring hope to those who despair, one heart and one soul at a time. " But what came from his lips was: "Americans must volunteer because my government will neither fund a national health plan nor set aside funding to comfort anyone—not in Darfur, not in Haiti, not in America. That money is needed to blow up insurgents, houses, and people in Iraq."
He said, "By bringing liberty to the oppressed, our troops are helping to win the war on terror, and they are defending the freedom and security of us all." But what really came from his lips was: "So these are two great lies—one, that we are actually helping the Iraqi people by occupying their country and, two, that the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq have anything whatsoever to do with the security of the US."
Meanwhile, in Italy, was heard the labored prayer of Pope John Paul II: "You, Prince of true peace, help us to understand that the only way to build peace is to flee in horror from evil, and to pursue goodness with courage and perseverance."
posted by Merle Harton, Jr. 10:30 PM
Friday, December 24, 2004
Well, I finally got to the post office in Herkimer and picked up my copy of Time magazine with the romantic cover featuring as "Person of the Year" President George W. Bush, American Revolutionary. How did he get this ridiculous honor? What were they thinking? Says Time in the frontpiece: "For sticking to his guns (literally and figuratively), for reshaping the rules of politics to fit his ten-gallon-hat style of leadership and for setting the global agenda whether the world likes it or not, Bush is Time's Person of the Year." In other words, for all the wrong reasons. At the President's next press conference, I'm sure that Time correspondents will be there asking the hard questions.
Time sent me a renewal notice to the magazine for $19 bucks, but I can't in good conscience pay that after this blinding evidence of bad judgment. I'd cancel my subscription, but I've been getting the magazine free through my $4.95 account with AOL. Now that the subscription is almost up, I figure it's about time that I got rid of AOL, too.posted by Merle Harton, Jr. 12:55 AM
Friday, December 17, 2004
One of my favorite Bob Newhart gags has him as a psychotherapist with a sure-fire technique for fixing his patients' psychological problems: No matter what problem they bring to him, his prescription is "Just stop it!" You have a drinking problem? "Just stop it!" he says. Anxious about things? "Just stop it!" And so on. Well, at least it's funny when he delivers it. But this isn't about Bob Newhart. It also isn't really about the Bush administration's toolbox. (That's the toolbox in which they have only one tool and they use that one tool to fix everything.) You think the "war on terrorism" is getting fixed? Just wait till they get around to fixing Social Security.
Back in 1994 our pundits figured that the Social Security system would go belly-up in 2029. The Congressional Budget Office now has it failing in 2052. Despite a slew of interesting suggestions to keep the system functioning properly, the Bush administration, with its recognized lack of imagination, wants to get rid of it altogether through a process of privatization. Like this president's plan for confronting universal terror, there is only one way to ensure the solvency of Social Security. So we fix Social Security like we fix terrorism. "There's only one way to deal with terror," says President Bush: "We must confront the enemy and stay on the offensive until these killers are defeated." Like terror, we must confront Social Security and stay on the offensive until it is defeated, er, privatized. Forget that the Social Security tax currently stops at incomes of $87,900, pushing the burden to everyone with incomes below that; forget that the shortfalls could very well be paid for by the remission of his supply-side tax cuts specifically favoring those who make over $500,000; forget that this president wants to borrow $1.5 trillion dollars just to make the privatization plan work.
My take on it is that this is a consistent application of the Bush administration's single-minded effort to benefit the large publicly-held corporation. That's who benefits from stock-and-bond trades, and, well, along with the firms that will handle the trades and the accounts and the accounting, and we know that they can all be trusted with our money.
posted by Merle Harton, Jr. 4:35 PM
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Sometime in 1996, around the time of my separation and divorce, I gave up on radio, TV, and all forms of media news. I did that for about a year and a half. I suppose I could have done something else, like maybe not speaking for a year, walking around with chalk and a small chalkboard to use for communication, but the divorce made me want to scream a lot—the scary, primal kind, which comes from deep inside—so that wouldn't have worked out. When I did pick up the news again, I discovered that not much had changed. The names were different, the time was different, the places were different, I was more broke ... but our politicians still spoke falsely, crime still frightened the country, somewhere there was always a disaster or two, and there were still wars or rumors of wars.
I figure that it would just be a repeat of it all if I swear off the news again, but yesterday seeing George W. Bush put the Presidential Medal of Freedom around the necks of Gen Tommy Franks, Paul Bremer, and George Tenet, in what is really our version of the knighting ceremony, made me want to go back into hiding. This US president has no shame. He could very well have been knighting the Three Stooges. But in another year there will be something equally stupid to rant about, and so it goes. Life in a fallen world is a world in which we keep pretending that life is better, that we are making progress, forgetting that this is a world in which progress is sometimes merely actually getting up in the morning. How much better is that today than yesterday?
posted by Merle Harton, Jr. 4:44 PM
© Merle Harton, Jr. All rights reserved. Biblical references are NIV® unless otherwise noted.
