Born Again Americans

I've always appreciated Norman Lear. His creation of "All in the Family" brought Archie Bunker into every American home at a time when we needed to come to grips with the divisions that plagued our nation.

In the early days of my marriage, my father-in-law referred to me as "meat head." I wore the tag with pride!

Lear's latest interest has him encouraging the creation and growth of a new brand of patriotism. You can view and experience the website of Lear's Born Again American here. Be sure and pay attention to the words of Keith Carradine's moving song.

The focus is not new. It is a restoration movement actually--a call backward to the Constitution with a vision forward to working out the implications of those values in our new day in the United States.

The theme song that you'll hear and see performed when you visit the site is moving lyrically and visually. It is a call to each of us to work hard to restore justice, to ensure equity and fairness and to promote authentic opportunity in the beloved community that can be America. I find a healthy balance here of moral challenge and hope. I know in the communities where I word, the message and the movement is needed. Staying involved in the national political and policy process is a must for all of us.

This has been an emotional weekend for me.

I watched and listened all day yesterday as President-Elect Obama and his family took the same journey as President Lincoln down the railway line from Philadelphia to Washington, DC in preparation for the historic events awaiting them and us all on Tuesday.

What moments.

Tomorrow we honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

How fitting that our new President will be sworn in the following day.

We stand on the brink of a new era as a nation. The challenges will be incredibly difficult. Never before have the values of community been more important, never more essential.

The notion of being a "born again American" may sound strange to you. But at a time like this time, nothing will be more important to us as a people than a recovery of the hopes, visions and values of our constitutional democracy. Standing together--diverse, strong, determined, welcoming and committed to freedom--we will continue to overcome.

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Our new President calls for sacrifice

The current economic crisis has us worried.

Its impact on the poor and on the inner city could be devastating beyond what we can imagine.

Frankly, it is beyond amazing that all of this has happened to our nation. We are now reaping a harvest prompted by greed, selfishness and unimaginable lack of concern for the whole that is our national community.

On Thursday, President-Elect Barack Obama made a major speech on his vision for economic recovery.

He didn't pull punches. He told us the remedy would be hard, a real national challenge. He called for putting good ideas ahead of the tired, worn partisan battles of the past.

He didn't blame. He led.

He spoke the hard truth about the depth of the current calamity.

He spoke of building a "green" infrastructure for the creation of a new national economy. He turned our attention to the education of our children, our future workforce. He ruled out "earmarks." He spoke of comprehensive economic systems change relative to regulation reform.

I've talked to a number of people who were most impressed by his words, both Democrats and Republicans.

The speech is worth your time. You can listen to our new president by dropping in here.

I talked to a dear friend who had heard the speech. He has been a long-time Republican and a successful business leader. He was excited by what Senator Obama had to say.

We all need to prepare for sacrifice. We all need to pull together. We need to return to a basic principle that we've come to cherish in inner city Dallas: we think first of "us" rather than "I." I heard him say that we must "look out for one another." Sounded just like home to me.

I'll pray for him in church today, as I did for President Bush so often.

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Racism very much alive and active. . .

Jesse Washington filed a sickening story ("Obama election spurs race crimes around the country") last Sunday, November 16, 2008 with the Associated Press.

So much for those who report that they are tired of "hearing about race" or that it's time for the nation "to move on beyond racial conversations and categories."

Wishful thinking, folks.

Consider, better, can you believe these tag lines?

Cross burnings.

Schoolchildren chanting "Assassinate Obama."

Black figures hung from nooses.



Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.

And, that is just for starters. sort of tones down the optimism most of us have been feeling, wouldn't you say?

Across the United States from one corner to the other, authorities document a wide range of racially motivated crimes, threats and attacks. a range of alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to insults and racial taunts, as well as at least one physical attack. Hundreds of incidents have been reported involving people of all ages, including, unbelievably, a group of second-graders.

On second thought, maybe not so unbelievable at all.

From Washington's report:

One [incident] was in Snellville, Ga., where Denene Millner said a boy on the school bus told her 9-year-old daughter the day after the election: "I hope Obama gets assassinated." That night, someone trashed her sister-in-law's front lawn, mangled the Obama lawn signs, and left two pizza boxes filled with human feces outside the front door, Millner said.

She described her emotions as a combination of anger and fear.

"I can't say that every white person in Snellville is evil and anti-Obama and willing to desecrate my property because one or two idiots did it," said Millner, who is black. "But it definitely makes you look a little different at the people who you live with, and makes you wonder what they're capable of and what they're really thinking."

I'd say Ms. Millner has it about right.

Other incidents (can you spell "u-n-b-e-l-i-e-v-a-b-l-e"?, not so fast. . .) Washington includes in his report:

-Four North Carolina State University students admitted writing anti-Obama comments in a tunnel designated for free speech expression, including one that said: "Let's shoot that (N-word) in the head." Obama has received more threats than any other president-elect, authorities say.

-At Standish, Maine, a sign inside the Oak Hill General Store read: "Osama Obama Shotgun Pool." Customers could sign up to bet $1 on a date when Obama would be killed. "Stabbing, shooting, roadside bombs, they all count," the sign said. At the bottom of the marker board was written "Let's hope someone wins."

-Racist graffiti was found in places including New York's Long Island, where two dozen cars were spray-painted; Kilgore, Texas, where the local high school and skate park were defaced; and the Los Angeles area, where swastikas, racial slurs and "Go Back To Africa" were spray painted on sidewalks, houses and cars.

-Second- and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted "assassinate Obama," a district official said.

-University of Alabama professor Marsha L. Houston said a poster of the Obama family was ripped off her office door. A replacement poster was defaced with a death threat and a racial slur.

-Black figures were hanged by nooses from trees on Mount Desert Island, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported. The president of Baylor University in Waco, Texas said a rope found hanging from a campus tree was apparently an abandoned swing and not a noose. [I must say, I need to hear more about this investigation at Baylor, how about you? LJ]

-Crosses were burned in yards of Obama supporters in Hardwick, N.J., and Apolacan Township, Pa.

-A black teenager in New York City said he was attacked with a bat on election night by four white men who shouted 'Obama.'

-In the Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills, a black man said he found a note with a racial slur on his car windshield, saying "now that you voted for Obama, just watch out for your house."

Please take the time to read Washington's entire report here.

Minority reports, these acts of hateful stupidity? Let's hope so. Clearly, the work is far from over in this country. Those who want to rush us along without allowing us to invest in the necessary work of reforming and cleansing the nation's soul should be ignored and their commentaries discounted.

And, now that you mention it, a strong, continuing word from the white church in America would be useful. Are you hearing anything out there from that camp?

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"It's A New Day"

Regardless what your political worldview might be, you have to admit that the selection of Senator Barack Obama as our 44th President set off a cultural, emotional, celebratory, social shift of tectonic proportions.

Those of us who are white likely will never fully appreciate what's back of the continuing public displays of emotion, hope, celebration and pure joy.

But, we can try, and in this new opportunity to try, we may discover a phenomenal basis for the growth of community and real progress in pursuing racial reconciliation.

In this same spirit, I just had to share this one from YouTube! Check it out here.

Reactions?

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