Monthly Archives: July 2020

July 22, 2020

Etty Hillesum

By Joe

“If there is ever to be peace, it won’t be authentic until each individual achieves peace within [them]self, expels all feelings of hatred for a race or group of people, or better, can dominate hatred and change it into something else, maybe even into love- or is that asking too much? It’s the only solution.”

– Etty Hillesum

I came across this post in my daily email from Queer Theology. I’ll be honest, I had never heard of Etty Hillesum, who was a diarist and Holocaust victim. There is probably a reason for that. Her diaries are not of a young girl like those of Anne Frank, but a woman who was open about her sexuality. In one of her writings she wrote, “I am accomplished in bed.” Hillesum journaled for two years and three months. In her first entry, she boasted of being, “just about seasoned enough I should think to be counted among the better lovers.” She was then sleeping with the man she was living with, Han Wegerif, a widower of 62. Soon, Etty would be sleeping with her therapist, Julius Spear. When it came to sexual freedom, Etty was a woman ahead of her time. But besides being a sexually free woman of the 1940s, who was Etty Hillesum?

Etty Hillesum was born on 15 January 1914 in Middelburg, Netherlands. After leaving school in 1932, she went to Amsterdam to study law. She also studied Slavic languages in both Amsterdam and Leiden. She greatly enjoyed student life moving several times within Amsterdam before settling down in an apartment on the Gabriël Metsustraat in 1937 which she shared with Wegerif. She lived in that apartment until her final departure for Westerbork (a Dutch camp that served as a staging ground for the deportation of Jews) in June 1943, and it was there in the Gabriël Metsustraat that she wrote her diaries.

At Westerbork, Etty was assigned to the registration of arrivals and acted as a social worker, psychologist, and spiritual counselor. The survivors of that period testified to her radiant personality and her great dedication. “One would like to be a balm poured on so many wounds.” She devoted herself to others and bore the daily brunt of the stress in the camp such as the deportation of a part of its population every weekend. She finally fell ill, but thanks to her status, was allowed to go back to Amsterdam to be treated. Despite such pressure, Etty nevertheless remained determined to write, and she kept up her journaling. 

On June 5, 1943, when friends offered to help her hide, she chose instead to return to Westerbork and stay there to continue her work. She also had the opportunity to help her parents and her brother Misha who had been the victims of the great roundup of June 20-21, 1943. An unfortunate letter written by Etty’s mother to H.A. Rauter, the Commanding Officer of the police and the SS in the Netherlands, exasperated him and caused the entire Hillesum family to be deported. On September 7, 1943, they were sent to Auschwitz with 986 other Jews. According to the Red Cross, Etty was thought to have died there on November 30, 1943.

What survives her is a diary covering the last three years of her life. In Etty’s diary we discover her as she really was, day by day, and this presence which we perceive in her writing moves us much more than a biography written by someone else. A few letters also remain. They were published in 1982, and give us a deeply moving picture of Westerbork: “the home of Jewish suffering” stuck in the mud and barbed wire where Etty depicts men, women, children, old people who have nothing left except “the thin cover of their humanity.” The end of her diary written in Westerbork unfortunately disappeared with her at Auschwitz.

The quote above shows her feelings about humanity. With protests, divisive politics, and an emerging police state surrounding us every day, we need to take her words to heart. We can honor her legacy by expelling those feelings of hatred we may have and achieve peace. We can turn our negative feelings to love and create a better world. I think Etty makes a very good point. It is something we should strive for in our lives.

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July 21, 2020

Pic of the Day

By Joe

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July 21, 2020

The Song of the Chattahoochee

By Joe

The Song of the Chattahoochee
By Sidney Lanier – 1842-1881

Out of the hills of Habersham,
Down the valleys of Hall,
I hurry amain to reach the plain,
Run the rapid and leap the fall,
Split at the rock and together again,
Accept my bed, or narrow or wide,
And flee from folly on every side
With a lover’s pain to attain the plain
Far from the hills of Habersham,
Far from the valleys of Hall.

All down the hills of Habersham,
All through the valleys of Hall,
The rushes cried ‘Abide, abide,’
The willful waterweeds held me thrall,
The laving laurel turned my tide,
The ferns and the fondling grass said ‘Stay,’
The dewberry dipped for to work delay,
And the little reeds sighed ‘Abide, abide,
Here in the hills of Habersham,
Here in the valleys of Hall.’

High o’er the hills of Habersham,
Veiling the valleys of Hall,
The hickory told me manifold
Fair tales of shade, the poplar tall
Wrought me her shadowy self to hold,
The chestnut, the oak, the walnut, the pine,
Overleaning, with flickering meaning and sign,
Said, ‘Pass not, so cold, these manifold
Deep shades of the hills of Habersham,
These glades in the valleys of Hall.’

And oft in the hills of Habersham,
And oft in the valleys of Hall,
The white quartz shone, and the smooth brook-stone
Did bar me of passage with friendly brawl,
And many a luminous jewel lone
— Crystals clear or a-cloud with mist,
Ruby, garnet and amethyst —
Made lures with the lights of streaming stone
In the clefts of the hills of Habersham,
In the beds of the valleys of Hall.

But oh, not the hills of Habersham,
And oh, not the valleys of Hall
Avail: I am fain for to water the plain.
Downward the voices of Duty call —
Downward, to toil and be mixed with the main,
The dry fields burn, and the mills are to turn,
And a myriad flowers mortally yearn,
And the lordly main from beyond the plain
Calls o’er the hills of Habersham,
Calls through the valleys of Hall.

About the Poet

The Montgomery County Board of Education voted last Tuesday night to change the names of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Sidney Lanier High Schools — each named after men who were members of the Confederacy. I agree that Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee High Schools needed to be changed, but I’m not so sure it is appropriate to change the name of Sidney Lanier High School. Established in 1910 on the southern outskirts of downtown Montgomery, Alabama, the school was named for a Southern poet, Sidney Lanier, who lived in Montgomery during 1866–67. The school has one of its focuses on the arts, and Lanier (February 3, 1842 – September 7, 1881) was far more famous for being a poet and a musician than being a private in the Confederate army, where he spent most of his time as a prisoner of war. While being held in prison, Lanier contracted tuberculosis. The disease eventually killed him at age 39. Lanier was mostly forgotten for decades after his death until, in the 1920s the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) worked to enhance Lanier’s posthumous reputation and succeeded in making him a symbol of the Lost Cause. The UDC called him the “Poet of the Confederacy.”

The connection with Lanier and the Lost Cause is a sad epilogue to his career. Lanier was a young man of 19 when the war broke out, and he was a southerner and a product of his time. I don’t think his legacy should be tarnished because of that. During his lifetime, Lanier published an anti-war novel about his war experiences, Tiger Lilies (1867), as well as a collection of poems, a series of adventure stories for children, and a work of criticism. His Poems (1877) brought him renown and led to his appointment as lecturer at Johns Hopkins University in 1879. He died just two years later. Lanier was considered a minor poet in his own times, and although his fame has steadily risen in recent years, he remains obscure in comparison to the giants of the 19th century such as Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Nonetheless, Lanier is a notable poet in the American canon because his style of writing poetry is so utterly distinct from almost every other English-language author of his era. Greatly influenced by the Anglo-Saxon poets of the Old English period, Lanier gradually developed a style of poetry written in a loose imitation of Anglo-Saxon meter that utilized extremely creative and musical alliteration and sound effects to create poetry unlike anything else written in America.

About the Poem

Lanier composed “Song of the Chattahoochee” in November 1877 for a small paper in West Point, Georgia. At the time he considered it the best poem he had ever written, and critics have generally agreed that it is one of his finer efforts. Originally from Macon, Georgia, Lanier travelled much in Georgia, Maryland, Florida, and North Carolina for employment and for his health. Lanier was able to see much of the South’s natural beauty, and he found much religious and spiritual significance in it. “Song of the Chattahoochee” is primarily a musical poem whose words flow very much like the river that is its speaker. The river’s aim is to do its duty, answering the call of God.

“Song of the Chattahoochee” describes the Chattahoochee River which begins in Georgia, has a significant portion which divides Alabama and Georgia, and empties into the Gulf of Mexico in the Florida Panhandle. The poem describes for readers the river’s journey, from its headspring in Habersham county to its end in Georgia’s East Gulf coastal plains, where, in Lanier’s time, it fed into another river that led to the Gulf of Mexico. Lanier’s style in this poem copies the rushing, shifting, gurgling motion of a true river, giving readers a little bit of the experience of following the water on its journey. He gives the river a human personality, ascribing to it human motivation. This helps to make this natural phenomenon more understandable to people who are not familiar with it and to make readers who are familiar with rivers experience the feeling of them anew.

The river is introduced as being on a mission, to water the dry fields of Georgia and to turn the water wheels that power the grain mills. Similarly, the other natural objects that the Chattahoochee passes seem to have a human motivation. They all want the river to stop, or “abide.” Most of the natural objects in the poem are presented as calling for the river to stop its motion. The waterweeds hold the river, the trees command “pass not,” the gemstones try to lure it to stay with them, etc. Nature, in general, is presented as favoring passive behavior over action. The river is presented here as an exception to nature, as being almost unnatural in its rush to keep on moving. This idea is supported by the fact that the river’s “Duty” (which is capitalized in the poem, to show its connection to God’s will) is not to aid nature, but to aid humanity in the commercial enterprises of farming and milling. The river, though natural, rushes like a human in order to fulfill its human responsibilities.

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July 20, 2020

Pic of the Day

By Joe

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July 19, 2020

Pic of the Day

By Joe

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July 19, 2020

Gleaning

By Joe

When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God….— Leviticus 19:9-10

There is a lot wrong with the Book of Leviticus. It is an archaic set of laws for the tribe of Levi who were designated as the priestly class. However, there are tidbits from which we can learn a few things. One of these is the concept of gleaning. Gleaning is first mentioned in Leviticus 19:9. When wheat and barley fields were ready for harvest, some of the grain was allowed to fall to the ground so the poor could gather what they needed for provisions. Israelite law also required the corners of the fields not to be harvested. The purpose of the law was to feed the poor, the orphans, the widows, and the foreigners. It served as a safety net and resource. 

Gleaning is an example of how, without capitalism, humans are naturally inclined to share with and care for others. There’s more than enough to go around as long as people are not greedy. We might think of the Native American concept of land ownership. While it is no longer believed to be true that all Native American lands were held communally, there was always a sense of sharing for the common good. The community worked together to feed one another. This is apparent in the sharing of the meal at the “First Thanksgiving.” However, as American society became more capitalistic (as opposed to the original mercantilist economy), American land ownership became particularly important. Usually, land ownership was a criterion for voting. 

Americans pushed Native Americans to adopt private property standards. The Dawes Act of 1887 sought to assimilate Native Americans by, among other things, transforming their traditional uses of, and attitudes about, land and land ownership to the more mainstream American attitude of private ownership and settled farming. Some Native Americans did become farmers convinced that assimilation into white society and having a property deed were their only protections against those who would rob them of their lands. Others rejected the white man’s world of markets, deeds, schools, and Christianity. Encouraging resistance, they deemed the government’s allotment strategy a conspiracy to destroy tribal culture and organization which indeed it was. Native Americans would have been familiar with the concept of gleaning in some fashion even if they did not call it that.

In Judeo-Christian tradition, gleaning the fields is central to the story of Ruth found in the Old Testament. Ruth was a Moabite, the widowed daughter-in-law of the widow, Naomi. To prevent starvation, Ruth gleaned the fields of Boaz: “And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter.” (Ruth 2:2). The example is found again in Ruth 2:23 “So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest; and dwelt with her mother in law.” Because Ruth was a widow, she had no husband to provide for her. She took the initiative and went out into the fields to take care of herself and Naomi. She was not afraid of admitting her need or working hard. 

Modern Christians can practice the biblical concept of gleaning by allowing others to “glean” from our abundance and to “glean” from God’s Word.

Throughout Scripture we see God blessing people and promising to bless people. But abundance isn’t only for the wealthy. In the book of Ruth, Boaz set this example. He was wealthy and richly blessed. When he learned of Ruth’s story, and of her dedication to her mother-in-law Naomi, he instructed his field workers to drop extra grain on the ground for Ruth to collect. Boaz is an ancient example of sharing abundance which modern Christians can apply today. People often talk about God doing “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us,” (Ephesians 3:20). What does this look like in your current lifestyle? What corners of your field or extra margins could you share?

  • It could be sharing your talents and gifts.
  • It could be giving extra time to help those in need.
  • It could be taking groceries to the local food pantry.
  • It could be giving free space or donations to non-profits if you’re a business owner.
  • It could be giving to charity.

There are many examples of giving what we have to help others. The commandment of gleaning reflects God’s desire for people of means to create opportunities for the poor and marginalized to be productive and contribute to their own well-being. In the Bible, gleaning created a safety net for those who were in need. Many politicians, especially conservatives, do not follow this belief. They use the ideas of gleaning as fearmongering among their followers. They are afraid that laws similar to Christian charity might be applied to the wider world. They fear losing their own abundance.

We glean from the Bible, too. We gather, we acquire, we obtain, we extract. And what we acquire becomes a provision of God’s word for our spiritual nourishment. It becomes words to live by. It applies to us today because like Ruth, we are among foreigners, gleaning the living word of God to sustain us as we apply his truth and teachings in a fallen world. We must keep in mind the latter references that God will glean us one by one threshing out the righteous from the unrighteous.

We should take note that we will glean different concepts, lessons, and boundaries depending on the season we are in. Notice that Ruth gathered for the whole harvesting season. From March to May, she gathered barley; from May through July she gathered wheat. As we grow in our faith, we will have different seasons of harvest. Like Ruth, we need to stay in the fields with other experienced believers to glean what we can from their wisdom. In Ruth 2:8, we see the wisdom and example set for Ruth in this manner. The Lord might say to you what Boaz said to Ruth; “Hearest thou not, my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens.” Gleaning in the Bible is an important concept that a believer should take to heart and remember. Each time we open the word of God, ask Him what He wants you to glean from His Word today.

Believe it or not, the custom of allowing the poor to glean in the grain fields and vineyards is still practiced by generous landlords in some parts of the world such as in Syria.  Sometimes the owner will send a helper to glean what remains to be given to the poor. The appointed “watchmen,” who are like a type of security guard over the fields, groves, or vineyards, allow the poorest of the poor to glean what the harvesters missed.  Sometimes, a gracious owner will intentionally instruct his workers to leave some of the produce so the poor can harvest it and provide for themselves and their families. This falls within the Pillars of the Islamic Faith, the third pillar zakat, or alms. In accordance with Islamic law, Muslims donate a fixed portion of their income to community members in need. Many rulers and wealthy Muslims build mosques, drinking fountains, hospitals, schools, and other institutions both as a religious duty and to secure the blessings associated with charity. Why aren’t Christians doing more of this? Why do so many evangelical Christians fight against welfare programs by the government? It is because they do not follow the concept of gleaning.

There is still a harvest going on and the Lord God is gleaning the corners of humanity, but it appears to be only the corners of the fields that are left. As Jesus said “For many are called, but few are chosen,” (Matthew 22:14) and so we must understand that “Then saith He unto His disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into His harvest.” (Matthew 9:37-38).  Sadly, most Christians (less than 1 in 10) have ever entered the harvest fields even once. 

In contemporary societies, it may not be easy to discern how to apply the principles of gleaning. In many countries, land reform is certainly needed so that land is securely available to farmers rather than being controlled by capricious government officials or landowners who obtained it corruptly. In more industrialized and knowledge-based economies, land is not the chief factor of production. Access to education, capital, product and job markets, transport systems, and non-discriminatory laws and regulations may be what less fortunate people need to be productive. Leviticus does not contain a system ready-made for today’s economies. But the gleaning system in Leviticus does place an obligation on the owners of productive assets to ensure marginalized people have the opportunity to work for a living, and those who cannot work are taken care of by those who can. In many cases that is the government. We shouldn’t begrudge someone for needing government assistance. 

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July 18, 2020

Pic of the Day

By Joe

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July 18, 2020

Moment of Zen: No Explanation Needed

By Joe

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July 17, 2020

Pic of the Day

By Joe

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July 17, 2020

On Tuesday Night

By Joe

Jeff Sessions lost the US Senate GOP Alabama primary runoff to former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville. It was a major blow to the former Attorney General, who had faced fierce opposition to his candidacy from the President. Tuberville, who was endorsed by the President, will now advance to the November general election as the Republican candidate set to take on incumbent Democratic Sen. Doug Jones. The race is likely to be the Republican Party’s best pickup opportunity of the cycle.

Jones, who pulled off an upset in the deep red state in a 2017 special election, is widely viewed as the most vulnerable Senate Democrat facing reelection in 2020. The outcome of Tuesday’s GOP runoff race marks a significant political defeat for Sessions who had been fighting to reclaim a Senate seat he had previously held.

Sessions was the first US senator to endorse Trump in the 2016 presidential race. As Attorney General in the Trump administration, he fell out of favor with the President and became a target of his attacks after he recused himself from the FBI probe into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign.

Sessions became the underdog in the fight for his old job after losing the support of the President. Tuesday night, Trump was quick to celebrate the victory by his candidate of choice, tweeting, “Tommy Tuberville WON big against Jeff Sessions. Will be a GREAT Senator for the incredible people of Alabama. @DougJones is a terrible Senator who is just a Super Liberal puppet for Schumer & Pelosi. Represents Alabama poorly. On to November 3rd.”

The rest of this post is geared towards my Alabama readers, especially those who are Alabama football fans. Does anybody remember what an asshole Tuberville was a football coach? He was widely known in Mississippi as Tommy Turncoat when he broke his contact with Ole Miss to go to Auburn. He can’t be trusted, and he will turn on the people of Alabama too if he gets the chance. He has no loyalty to anyone. Furthermore, need I remind you of the whole incident of holding up his fingers to show how many times he beat Alabama? It was unsportsmanlike and childish.

He’s also a crook. In 2010, Tuberville was a co-defendant with John David Stroud in a lawsuit brought against TS Capital LLC which the two founded. The lawsuit was filed by investors, and alleged that Tuberville and Stroud co-managed a hedge fund that defrauded investors of $1.7 million. In October 2011, the Business Conduct Committee of the National Futures Association, a self-regulating industry organization, took “emergency enforcement action” to permanently bar the firm from soliciting, accepting, transferring or disbursing any funds from investors. Stroud was found guilty in August 2013 of securities fraud and was ordered to pay $2.1 million in restitution and serve 10 years in jail. The case against Tuberville was settled on October 10, 2013, but terms were not disclosed. If he will cheat investors out of $1.7 million dollars, he will cheat Alabama voters as well.

Furthermore, Tuberville’s primary residence isn’t even Alabama; it’s Florida. He only began staying in Alabama, and notice I said staying, because he has no desire to live in the state, so he could run as a Trump puppet for the Senate. Tuberville is homophobic, racist, and a crook. If you want this as a Senator, you are an idiot. How can an Alabama fan stomach voting for Tuberville? It is unthinkable.

Jones is a University of Alabama alumni. As U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, Jones successfully prosecuted two Ku Klux Klan members for the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four African American girls, and the indicted domestic terrorist Eric Rudolph. But if you are hellbent on Republican ideals, Jones is considered a moderate Democrat who demonstrates a willingness to work with Republicans, to split with his party on certain issues, and has voted with Trump’s position about 37% of the time as of April 2020. Jones has worked tirelessly for Alabama, and he is really the only choice for the Senate.

I believe Alabama voters voted for Tuberville only because he was Trump’s choice. Of course, Trump cares nothing about the people of Alabama. He merely wants your votes, and you will get NOTHING in return. Tuberville has no stance on any issue; he just parrots Trump. His only campaign promise is he will be loyal to Trump. Do you want a man of substance like Jones, or do you want someone who is nothing but a Trump lapdog?

Remember, Alabama fans: Trump can’t even get Nick Saban’s name right, calling him Lou Saban. Remember, Trump said of Tuberville, “Really successful coach. Beat Alabama, like six in a row, but we won’t even mention that.” He brought up one of the most humiliating series of moments in Alabama football history. No one who cares about Alabama can bring up Tuberville’s winning streak against the Tide, and then refer to Alabama’s coach by the wrong name. Also, Trump famously attended the Alabama-LSU game at Bryant-Denny Stadium last season. There are plenty of superstitious Alabama fans out there who point to a specific moment in that game when everything started going downhill for Alabama. It was right after they showed Trump on the videoboard in the first quarter. Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa fumbled the ball walking into the end zone a few moments later; he then threw the worst interception of his career at the end of the first half. Trump was a distraction that day, and Alabama was never the same in that season. 

Politicians might flip-flop all the time, but that’s a Cardinal sin when it comes to Alabama and Auburn fans. Trump might as well just ask for unsweet tea and rolls instead of sweet tea and cornbread. Tommy Tuberville can never represent a true Alabama fan. So, in November, show him we don’t forget, and vote for Doug Jones.

Leave a comment | posted in Politics