EXCERPT FROM A LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL

 Written in April of 1963

 “I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block is not the White Citizen’s Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice, who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice, who constantly say “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action.” Who paternalistically believes that he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom…” Martin Luther King Jr. Letter from Birmingham Jail. 

He echoes what I've often felt. Who are the greatest enemies of change? The diehard segregationists, abortionists, talking heads at least they make no secret of who they are? Or is it the nice people who just can't be bothered, don't want to rock the boat, don't have time or are afraid that they'll get into trouble too. 

And another group we've seen all too many of these last election cycles. They can't get al that they want, when they want it, so they pick up their marbles, go home and forfeit the more important right we have that is guaranteed under the constitution. The right to vote. Also the responsibility to make sure the candidate are there to do the job, not running as a spoiler. Jill Stein comes to mind as an example. And if Ralph Nader had sat out the election in 2000? Old news but it does get you to thinking. 

Also the churchmen who told King that he was supposed to stick with spiritual matters and not meddle in politics. But how can you separate the two? You can't. King pointed out that young white men and young black men were being sent half way around the world to fight toeither when in many parts of the country they couldn't sit down a share a meal in the local  diner. 

THE INCONVENIENT HERO

 t's the annivesary of the I Have a Dream speech. Our national mythology drops MLK off the radar in 1963 and he resurfaces just in time to be murdered in cold blook in Memphis in 1968. Ah the sixties. frankly when you think about it very little permanent good came out of that chaotic decade.  

This is an excerpt from the conclusion of Vincent Harding’s essay The Inconvenient Hero found in his collection Martin Luther King: The Inconvenient Hero.

This essay collection was originally published in 1996. The echoes of the fall of the Soviet Union were still reverberating. If he had revised the essay for the second edition he probably could have used manipulated anti terrorism and it would mean pretty much the same thing.

1996 the videogame industry was just taking off and “Reality TV” was a nightmare waiting to be born.

The so called Free Trade Agreement treaties were just being negotiated and signed. Beware when anyone in any government or corporate position tries to pat you on the head and tell you not to worry your little head about the details; it’ll all work out.

And the toxic hyper individualism pushed by the likes of the Ryans and Santorums was just beginning to send out its poisonous tendrils.

Harding really catches the cadence of the spoken word in the written word. If you can get away with it try reading it out loud. And Mr. Harding goes in the neglected Wordsmith column.

“Who dares recall the man when, when all the plagues he fought are still among us, standing in the way of the “America we hope to be”: poverty and exploitation, racism, militarism, materialism, manipulated anticommunism? How shall we recall him when the America which has been is still protected and justified by Bible quoting presidents and supine legislators who offer no visionary leadership to a spiritually crippled people?

Who dare rededicate themselves to the causes of this hero? Who is there now when major portions of his black middle class have made their peace, found equal opportunity in the America that is? Someone.

Who is there now when the overwhelming experience of the black church is still focused on the individualistic religious experience, breaking faith with the Tubmans, the Turners, the Truths, and the Kings (and the King)/? Someone.

Who is there now when so many Black youth in whom the fire once burned are now being cooled out by drugs, by jail, by military lies, by poisoned cultural opium in music and on screens, and by big money for small games? Someone.

Who is there when so many of his white comrades now stand by in cynicism, success, fear, and puzzlement? Someone.

Who is there when the poor (and the recently poor) now compete for crumbs across racial and ethnic lines, rather than standing together in vision, to pray, to recollect, to plan, to struggle? Someone.

Who stands with a hero who insists on living for the broken and exploited,  Who refuses to deny nightmares, who still will not let dreams die, and is not afraid to go on exploring, trembling, stumbling wherever dreams lead him? Someone.

Who will open the door for the children, to let them see him, feel him, as he was, to recall him as he is, perhaps to expose their hungry, directionless lives to the flaming vector of his passion for the poor? Someone.

Is he safely dead? Perhaps we should recall him and see. Now. Perhaps in the process we  learn again how to live – unsafely, in love with God and neighbor, with cleansing, purifying fire, with the America that is yet to be created – by us. 

STILL PASSING FACE PALM APPROACHING MELT DOWN

 

When I originally wrote this entry you could make comments on the reviews on Amazon. Back in 2020 Amazon not only removed the ability to comment on a review but removed all the comments already written. Too bad. It was a riot to read the comments on this particular review. 

I have admited over the years that admired Carl Sagan. He may not have been the best scientist in his field but his ability to explain how science works was remarkable. He didn't talk down to his adience. He assumed that anyone who was curious, willing to listen, perhaps willing to do some of their own research was capable of understanding the basics of science. He had his prejudices and was upfront about them. Didn't have much use for astrology or the UFO mania. He didn't discount the possibillity of life on other worlds just that was no hard evidence that thos possible aliens had visited earth. Or if they had they didn't leave any evidence  behind. I still make no apologies for being totally PO'd  at a reivew written by someone who didn't bother to watch the series or do any basic reserach on Dr. Sagan's background and education. And it's only gotten worse. At least it looks like it to these tired eyes. 

Between politics, crap like this and some stories about rape/shaming culture in certain fundie colleges in this country I was just about ready do somebody some serious injury last night. So I wrote it out instead of punching it out. 

“I rented the 13 episode series after having watched a portion on PBS, thinking that it seemed like a good watch. How wrong I was. This is nothing more than a New Age brainwashing series. The music, often Vangelis, repeating the same things over and over, does nothing but brainwash and dumb the viewer. The overall purpose of the video series is a "science as religion" infommercial (and perhaps a means of self-worship -- he seems to enjoy the sound of his own voice). Sagan, as it should by now now be widely known, himself engaged in his fair share of pseudoscience. He is best described as a sci-fi writer pretending to be a scientist. By accusing others of pseudoscience, he was able to divert attention away from his own pseudoscience because clearly, anyone accusing anyone else of something can't possibly be doing the same thing. That would be hypocritical! And, after almost 30 years, the tapes still sell for this ridiculous price. Save yourself the time and/or money and restrict yourself to series about real science. This is in the same league as "What the bleep do we know?", judging by the trailers and clips of the latter.”

This is a review of the original Cosmos series I stumbled over on Amazon. I do love the one star reviews. In a back handed, how can anybody be so freakin’ braindead in the 21^st century sort of way.

One the reviewer doesn’t tell us how much of the series he/she actually watched. I’m guessing just enough to trigger the inbuilt fundie meter. I gathered enough from their other reviews to suspect we might be dealing with some kind of “theology” student here.

Anyway, typical fundie bashing of anyone they don’t agree with. Beginning with, drum roll please.

“New Age propaganda.” New Age as defined by Webster: an eclectic group of cultural attitudes arising in late 20th century Western society that are adapted from those of a variety of ancient and modern cultures, that emphasize beliefs (as reincarnation, holism, pantheism, and occultism) outside the mainstream, and that advance alternative approaches to spirituality, right living, and health. If this mindless twit had bothered to actually watch the series he/she would have discovered that Carl Sagan was about as New Age as my mother. He doesn’t mention reincarnation, had no patience with the occult, astrology or the UFO cult of the times. He doesn’t discount the possibility of extra terrestrial life. Just that we’ve been visited recently. Or any time for that matter.

Geez, what do you have against Vangelis? The soundtrack also includes other “New Age” brain washers such as Vivaldi, Bach, Pachelbel and Rimsky Korsokoff.

Science as religion. Excuse me while I go take forty turns around the yard to cool off. Science is just that science. And Sagan did spend a fair amount of time over the course of the series lamenting what we’ve lost in the fires of history. Also lost libraries.

“loves the sound of his own voice.” Yo, Spam for brains (sorry for insulting a perfectly useful if calorie and salt laden lunch meat) he’s the narrator for cryin’ out loud. The programs are his personal opinions so there are very few other talking heads involved. I guess he could have collected a bunch of slides, put labels on them and did a thirteen hour slide show. 

“A pseudo scientist pretending to be a scientist.” Face palm, head bounce, ear splitting scream. Two bachelors, a master’s and a PhD. Taught in California, at Harvard and Cornell. He participated in several space missions through the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. I mean how much MORE DO YOU WANT!!!. I have at least four of his essay collections in my library. Demon Haunted World was probably the best.. He did write ONE novel. Contact, which I haven’t read. Saw the move though. It was cool. Known as a science fiction writer pretending to be a scientist????? Are we even on the same planet?

I suspect that the so called pseudo science in question is Sagan’s thorough going, passionate defense of the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection. And I do mean passionate. He spent at least ten minutes in the second episode waxing nealyr poetic over the shared ancestry of bacteria, fish, trees…and us. And I just rewatched the third episode. I suspect the other "pseudoscience" is climate change. Sagan was ringing the alarm bells back in 1980. 

This is a prime example of the mountains of crap we have to put up with as we try to too many of our fellow citizens kicking, screaming and shouting at the top of their lungs out of the Dark Ages and into the future. Can’t stop now there’s too damn much to lose.

 And please excuse the caps and extra punctuation, but I passed pissed off yesterday and am rapidly heading into ballistic territory.

One consolation out of thirty six comments originally attached to this one star review, ninety five percent were of the “bro, what HAVE you been smoking” variety. 

THE PALE BLUE DOT

 Shot taken by the Cassini space probe. That tiny dot below the rings of Saturn is our earth. What Carl Sagan called "the pale blue dot."  

When the Voyager space craft had reached just beyond the outer planets Carl Sagan persuaded the  mission controllers to turn the space craft around to take pictures of the planets. Earth didn't even cover a whole pixel. And this is what Carl Sagan had to say about that piece of a pixel. 

What he had to say about that small island in the Cosmic Ocean can't be said often enough. Neil Tyson used this quote in the finale of the final episode of the new Cosmos. That quote and his summing up are enough to get me to buy the series.

"From the Pale Blue Dot.

That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar. Every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, live there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturing, our imagined self importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity-in all this vastness- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us.

It’s been said that astronomy is a humbling, and if I might add, a character building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known..

 Carl Sagan.

Yes, it's the only home we have or will have in the forseeable future so we do we keep treating it like a garbage dump? Why do we treat our neighbors as if they were disposable trash? Why, oh why, oh why. I was literally in tears at the end of the episode. We're capable of so much more. So damn much more.

A CELTIC PRAYER

 This is an adaptation of a Celtic prayer that I found in the book KNITTING INTO THE MYSTERY.

May the blessing of light be on you,
light without and light within
and light inside the darkness within.
May the blessed sunlight shine upon you
and warm your heart 'til it glows,
like a great peat fire, so that strangers may come
and warm themselves; and that friends may come.
And may the light shine out of the eyes of you,
like a candle set in the windows of a house,
bidding the wanderer to come in out of the storm.
And may the blessing of the rain be on you--
The soft, sweet rain.
May it fall upon your spirit so that the seedlings of light
in you shadow may spring up,
and shed their sweetness on the air.
And may the blessing of the great rains be on you,
that they beat upon your spirit and wash it fair and clean,
and leave there many a shining pool,
and sometimes a star.
And may the blessing for the earth be on you--
the great round earth
who carries all; the great round earth
whose suffering has already become radiant.
May you ever have a kindly greeting for people
you pass as you are going along the roads.
And now may the Lord bless you, and bless you kindly,
your kin and all creatures.

Blessed be

I've noticed that prayers of the Celts can't be read quickly. They loved their words and every one of them counted. To be said slowly, mindfully.

THE BULLSHIT PRINCIPLE

 Sometimes you just have to call bullshit by its right name. 

Sounds  about right. Some folks may not believe the moon is made of cheese but they will claim until both sides are blie in the face that the moon lnadings were faked. Only now it's the twin towers were an inside job, there was massive voter fraud in 2020, heck there were claims that Uvalde was "fake news" before the victimes were even buried. 

IT'S ALL A DANCE

 

Much more fun than trying to take any longer than necessary with the sad sack in the last entry. They are out there and like a black hole. They will suck all the joy and mystery out of the universe if you let them. 

That is a map of the tectonic plates. And that little guy up north is the Juan De Fuca plate. It's subducting, slowly moving under the Pacific Northwest and northern California. At the blinding speed of up to two inches or so a year. The whole surface of the earth is moing in one direction or another. It's too bad this map doesn't show the deep ocean trenches where basaltic magma flows up to the surface pushing everything next to them away. 

And while those plates are creeping along the earth is rotating on its axis. Spinning at about one thousand miles per hour. So much for the sun standing still over Jericho. Just my personal opinion. The earth revolves around the sun at about sixty seven thousand miles per hour. The solar system revolves through the Milky Way Galaxy at just over half a million miles per hour. It takes us about a quarter of a million years to make just one revolution. The whole galaxy is rotating around the galactic center at about four hundred senventy miles per hour. 

I've been trying, with some success, to work my way through a geology text. But when I got to the point where I was contemplating all that spinning, all going on at the same time, I got just a little dizzy. And then I stepped back a little and just thought about the wonder of it all. And at all the hard work it takes to make the measuments, double check, do it again and maybe give up a cherished belief or two that the evidence won't support anymore. 

There are two ways of looking at the world. You have evidence and come up with an explanation that fits the evidence. Or you have an explanation and you go looking for the evidence to back it up. Even if you have to twist the evidence like a pretzel to back it up. Treating scripture as a science textbook is one glaring example. And I believe I will stop there.