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Get Up Off Your Knees

Dear law-abiding Americans: You have done nothing wrong. Being white is not a crime. Being a Trump voter is not a crime. Being a police officer sworn to “protect and serve” every day is not a crime. Being a non-white police officer proud to uphold and enforce law and order is not a crime. Being a black or brown or yellow American who rejects excusing criminal behavior is not a crime. Rejecting collective guilt is not a crime. Refusing to acknowledge “white privilege” when you were born poor, or in a broken home, or with physical or psychological challenges, is not a crime. ...

Civil Rights — The Struggle Continues

Fifty-six years ago (1964) I became involved in the civil rights movement. I was in seminary in the Chicago area, and a group of seminarians and Methodist ministers were assisting students at Tougaloo College near Jackson, Mississippi in their attempts at worshipping at white-only churches. At the time, under Jim Crow laws, the deep south had segregated most institutions including, in this instance, the Methodist Church. When we walked up the church steps that Sunday accompanied by a black student from the college, the local police were quickly sent after us. After being turned away ...

Watch This Republican Primary

Across the country, primaries involving the Republican Party’s two main flanks are fairly common. Those involving such names as Taft and Eisenhower, Goldwater and Rockefeller, Reagan and Ford, Reagan and Bush 41, Huckabee and McCain - and many more - come to mind. Pick whichever labels you like for the two flanks. One flank reflects the conservative movement, and the other flank doesn’t. Republican primaries happen in New York, yet state law in effect discourages them, because of the possibility that different candidates will win the Republican and Conservative ...

Straight-Line Mowing Vs. Scattershot Seeding

By Denny Bonavita Ah, spring. Revive the old saw: “Spring is sprung, the grass is riz; I wonder where the posies is.” “The flowers are right beneath the mower blade!” she shouts. Yes, my wife and I continue to amuse our dogs, cats and chickens with traditional sounds as we revert to our springtime outdoor work patterns. May brings mowers. Mowers beget the Brutal Battle of the Begonias, the Titanic Tussle of the Tulips, the Dreaded Damage to the Daffodils. She plants. I mow. Oh, she does mow, too. We split the weekly nine hours or so about 70/30. I honcho riding mowers ...

Bernie, What Is Your Daily Life Like?

Meet Bernie, the beta-man. Bernie was a study of marital anxiety. He called and came reluctantly. The self-reproach, the shame he described emanated from an abusive marriage. His self-described alpha wife reportedly tormented Bernie for years. Though described as a “nice guy” by family, friends, and professional colleagues, he suffered under the burden of emotional distress. Welcome Bernie, what is your daily life like? I recall you telling me over the phone that you can’t sleep. How long has this been going on? “Thanks, sir, for seeing me. You know when someone points out your ...

Here We Are Again, This Time In Minneapolis

And so here we are again. Another black man, unarmed and defenseless, is dead at the hands of a white police officer. This time it was in Minneapolis, where excessive force complaints against its police officers are all-too-common, especially by black residents. This time, it was 46-year-old George Floyd who lay handcuffed on the ground while police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into his neck. For one minute. Two minutes. Three minutes. Four minutes. Five minutes. Six minutes. Seven minutes. For as long as he could, George Floyd pleaded for Chauvin to stop, begging ...