Reverend Jeremiah Wright

The current 24/7 news cycle this week latched onto several clips from sermons from Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the pastor to presidential candidate Barack Obama for some 20 years.

Most have now seen these clips of the minister’s theatrical and hyperbolic style. And it would be to walk among mine fields to attempt to defend the several sound bites that the networks have chosen out of the many sermons the minister’s church apparently makes available on video.

Wright’s statements in these clips have been almost universally characterized as incendiary, outrageous, and anti-American.

It may not be possible now, in this poisoned atmosphere, to view these in context, but I challenge you to do that. I challenge you to imagine you are in the congregation during these sermons and I challenge you to abstract yourself from the current controversy and honestly ask yourself if you had been there, would you, without the coaching of TV and radio’s talking heads, have the same opinion of this minister.

Well here is that opportunity. Here are those two sermons – and if there were equivalent inflammatory sermons out there, then I would imagine the media’s research would have already found them. So I am assuming these are the worst of the worst the media can recover.

Does Virginia Really Want To Reelect Congressman Cantor?

For the first six years of the Bush administration all three branches of government were under tight Republican control. It was no secret over those years that a housing bubble was growing. Speculation was rampant. Housing developments were carving a new landscape. Whole TV channels were being devoted to how to make fast money by flipping real estate. And TV commercials were full of enticements to buy and refinance at suspiciously low rates with lots and lots of small print.

Where were the regulators of this industry? The mortgage bank regulators? The federal and state financial institution regulators? Were they all asleep?

Bear Sterns demise over the weekend may be just one domino. And though I have little sympathy for the Bear Stearns execs and the threat to their multi million dollar salaries and loss of millions of their equity, what about all the middle class Americans who were lured into this market bubble and are now threatened with loss of home and hearth?

When the Democrats wrested control of the legislature in 2006 they began to reverse the lack of regulation and to put more safeguards into the system. The bill was the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act and it passed the House 291-127 including substantial support from Republicans from some of the more seriously affected states.

This bill is described as: An act to amend the Truth in Lending Act to reform consumer mortgage practices and provide accountability for such practices, to establish licensing and registration requirements for residential mortgage originators, and to provide certain minimum standards for consumer mortgage loans. And Virginia’s 7th District Congressman Eric Cantor voted NO!

His vote was little surprise as anyone who follows his voting record can not but notice that he votes consistently along party lines – not along the lines of the needs and values of his constituency.

Check his top Political Action Committee contributors in this election cycle; Genworth Financial, Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, Wachovia, and Capital One were all in the top seven contributors. Any chance they have more influence on his voting than does the mere average citizen in his district who is being affected by the mortgage crisis?

The administration elected this November is going to need to work with a Congress that is willing to stop the political gridlock and work to bring common sense solutions to our commonly shared national problems. We need statesmen not politicians, we need representatives who are willing to work across the aisle, to bring ideas rather than obstructions, and to listen to the people over the largess of their corporate sponsors.

Cantor will be opposed. Anita Hartke, daughter of former Democratic Senator Vance Hartke is preparing to throw her hat in the ring and others have indicated their intention. Certainly in a district of 700,000 there must be better candidates than Cantor who both can take the concerns of Virginians to Congress and can work collegially with other members to deal with our economic, health, environmental, and other major problems that affect every American.

Turmoil in Chesterfield County Elections

Beginning before the January 3rd Iowa primary, there was a heady storm of general interest in November’s upcoming presidential election. Eight more primary election dates would build this crescendo of public attention before the Chesapeake primary on 12 February that included Virginia. Election Commissions and Registrars across the Old Dominion were gearing up for what was to be a very high turn out primary. But somehow this preplanning was far insufficient for one Virginia County – Chesterfield County.

Early on the morning of 12 February red flags were going up in the county about long lines and long waits to vote at several insufficiently staffed precincts. And as the day progressed problems compounded to the point that disgusted voters walked away from lines that circled around polling sites. And then even worse -- precincts began running out of ballots. As the polls closed almost 300 votes had been placed on scraps of paper, countless voters had walked away from the long lines, and the county was in the spotlight of a whole lot of angry dissatisfaction with the management of the county’s primary election.

Why were polling places insufficiently manned? Why weren’t contingency plans in place to anticipate long lines and voter turnout that outpaced ballots? These were some of the issues that caused a rare convening of the State Board of Elections for a public hearing that occurred on March 5th.

At the hearing private citizens, interest groups, and politicians alike testified to problems they encountered on voting day and the need for investigation. Jim Holland, the county’s lone Democratic supervisor, anticipated to call for the resignation or removal of the registrar, merely gave a timid admonishment. State Senator John Watkins made a political speech that brought out the one rare applause, but for what I don’t know, as he merely made the political remarks of “there is much to be said on both sides”. And Registrar Larry Haake, although present and glad-handing as if he were running for office, inexplicably chose not to testify at all.

Rumors swirl in the county that Haake is nothing but a political hack who won the cushy position of registrar due to his political network, and that the commission itself was generally incompetent. Haake's wife is said to be an active and supporting Republican and that there is no love lost between the Haakes and the local Democratic bigwigs.

There are 100 counties in Virginia – why was Chesterfield the one county that stood out as having such a poorly managed election? Why were the precincts with the higher level of black voters the precincts most affected? Why wasn’t there, despite the early red flags, a timely response by the county election commission and registrar to deal with the problems? Well the matter is still under investigation. A State Board of Elections report is due out in April. But in the meantime can Chesterfield residents be confident that the current county election officials will be able to manage a fair and orderly election in November without the long lines, long waits, and ballot stock outs?

And is it time to replace this registrar and this election board in the light of their performance and in the interest of an assurance of an orderly presidential election? With the visions of election mishaps in and screw-ups in Florida, Ohio, and Michigan, do we want Chesterfield County and thus Virginia added to that ignominious list – I hope not.

The Missed Story – From Tuesday’s Election

Virginia is perennially considered a red state by TV’s talking heads and the print world’s political pundits. Virginia is considered a conservative bastion and the home of fundamentalist Christians as shown by being custodian of the two holy places of Pat Robertson’s 700 Club and the late Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University. Last Tuesday’s primary would expect these authoritarian Virginians to march lock step to the polls and vote solidly Republican – but they didn’t.

Where the voter had the option to choose a Republican or a Democratic ballot, only 34% chose a Republican ballot as opposed to 66% who chose a Democratic ballot.

And in my county of Chesterfield, which has been a bastion of Republican ole boy politics up until the last board of supervisor’s election, the breakdown was 38% choosing the Republican ballot and 62% choosing the Democratic ballot.

Virginians were going Democratic versus Republican – two to one!

This is a seismic shift, a pole reversal, an underreported story that bodes the possibility that Virginia is truly turning from red to at least purple, and suggests real opportunities in November for Democrats in Virginia, if they can get their act together, to make further inroads in local and state offices.

Dare I Mention the Word - Marijuana

The following is a response to blogger Paul Hammond's posting on Barack Obama's position on marijuana.

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America’s criminal justice system has over the past few decades evolved into a criminal justice industry where vested interests and corporate interests have propelled our country into the largest prison in the world, and the largest prison population in the world. And it is not just the two million who languish in cells; it is the millions more affected as families and communities are disrupted. It is not just the millions incarcerated; it is the consequences of the world’s greatest crime university that takes in young men who committed small crimes and turns out hardened criminals and recidivists. It is not just the millions who sit imprisoned, but the fact that one in three adult black men in America are felons or ex felons – deprived forever of not just their suffrage, but disadvantaged regarding housing, employment and education opportunity. And a huge portion of those entering this system for the first time are there for relatively small illegal drug offenses.

We fail to recognize how barbaric we appear relative to all other western countries and many third world countries when it comes to crime and punishment. We fail to understand that The Netherlands, where small amounts of recreational drug possession is decriminalized, that for every person per population that Holland puts behind bars, America puts fourteen. That’s right, we incarcerate at a rate fourteen times as high, on a relative basis, than does The Netherlands. These are hard facts.

And as for marijuana use, the middle class, clean cut, white suburban high school student, who goes into the murky shadows of inner city realms to find a bag of grass, is coincidently exposed to predatory drug pushers who will acquaint our young lad with a far more dangerous and addictive menu.

Our pharmaceutical industry and our physician enterprises are all too eager to prescribe any of an assortment of “legal” mood changing chemicals to their affluent patients. But marijuana, a medicinal for centuries, cannot be even seriously studied for its efficacy.

I lived recently in Amsterdam for two and a half years. There were three coffee houses within blocks of the middle class canal house where I lived (not like the more psychedelic tourist trap Amsterdam coffee houses that cater to the world’s backpacking youth). These were not shady crack houses with disreputable clients, they were bright and warmly friendly gathering places where well dressed neighbors met, sipped coffee, would perhaps ceremoniously roll and share a Dutch marijuana and tobacco joint, and relax amidst an environment where crime is virtually unknown, excepting the occasional bike theft.

We, as Americans, arrogantly insist that we are the beacon to the world, but fail to look outward for solutions that other countries have long ago found to a myriad of social issues – not the least, an undeniable urge of many to chill out with an occasional marijuana smoke.

I can’t fault Obama too much for backing off this subject on which an inordinately influential segment of our population still views with irrational hysteria – I only hope that more, like you, will have the courage to come forward and insist that marijuana be fairly judged in the civic square relative to tobacco and alcohol use.

I Know What You Are, But What Am I?

I’ve wanted for some time to ponder the growing tendency of many Republicans to use the term “Democrat Party” instead of the more familiar “Democratic Party”. A tactic even our President has adopted. And the current Republican strategy to demonize the term “liberal” and equate it to limp-wristed, nebbish, effete, ex-hippies. And to further suggest that any semblance to socialism is to be equally dismissed as a slippery slope to communism. Even further, France and now all of Europe are not seen as precedents of America, but as a region of weak, withering, peoples, only existing by being propped up by our global might and reach. Somehow the oafish bullies and the BMOC types of high school become the Republicans of adult life.

I suggest you pull out your Webster and refresh your understanding of the labels “liberal” and “conservative”. I’d further suggest you afford yourself of the studies that indicate how those with conservative leanings are apt to be individuals who are attracted to authoritarian control.

One wonders at the longer term implications of even having a self-selecting volunteer military. Our earlier wars that were soldiered by a draft would certainly have cut more equally across the population.

In the context of the time, democracy was a very liberal concept. In the context of the time Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and many more of our founders would have been seen as liberal. Certainly the Loyalists and the Tories occupied the conservative niche at the time.

If a liberal characteristic is the ability to see things in the context of the time and place they occurred, then I value that characteristic. If being liberal means I am less drawn to authoritarian father figures, and am more independent, questioning, open minded, and take responsibility for my own path in life, then I value that characteristic.

Yes, there is a broad swatch of the population that can be mesmerized by an authoritarian figure who suggests he/she, and thus you, belong to the superior race, religion, creed, etc. And I suppose that is why there will always be unquestioning followers of a Hitler, a Pope, a Castro, a Pat Roberson, an Osama bin Laden, etc.

It is authoritarian led conservatives who end up being the cadres of recruits for authoritarian headed conservative movements. Thank God for those not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or traditional forms -- they are the “liberals”.

But regardless of our growing blue/red divide, our pissing contests between Republicans and Democrats, our gridlocked legislatures, the problems on the horizon are undeterred. And our American arrogance can be so soon humbled when we are overtaken by problems that have been foreseen for years and by now are close to being inevitable.

The childish name-calling and innuendo by our leaders permeates to our communities, to our schoolyards. And unless we as a nation start pulling together rather than pulling apart, we, to use a military term, will be OTBE (overtaken by events).

If There Is A God, Huckabee Will Be Our Next President

Don’t get me wrong, I like Mike Huckabee. He is an eloquent and compelling speaker, he is not a part of the Belt Way establishment, and he has a great sense of self-deprecating humor. He is even a musician and I respect his discipline in losing 100 pounds. I like his intelligent initiative to dramatically overhaul out tax system to stop the disincentive to production and earnings.

But as much as I like Huckabee, I would never vote for him. Or anyone who has such an unenlightened and simplistic view of this mystery known as God. No, even large numbers of theologians question the inerrancy of the Christian Bible.

I believe God inspired the Bible – and I use “God” as a short cut for my sense of whatever the mystery of mysteries is. But then aren’t all great works inspired? I believe that Jesus was the Son of God. But aren’t we all the children of God? The more one has a sense of history and of the wiles of men, the more I, at least, can see through the lens of time more and more the mark of just human beings and human institutions, rather than the hand of God, both as editors of the word of God, and frequent contributing authors.

How can we not appreciate, as science progresses, that what was previously explained by myth and imagination, is now explained with reason and logic? And how much of unfounded bias, prejudice, and discrimination, has subsequently been overturned by enlightened men and societies who truly see that all men are equal.

But apparently not Mike Huckabee, who still holds to the notion that gays and lesbians are morally deficient and not worthy of the full civic equality that their heterosexual brothers and sisters in America so casually take for granted.

Whomever becomes our President, I hope that he/she can be the President of all Americans and can move policy forward that is based solely on reason and the best expert advice and not couched in the hidden agendas derived from one’s belief in whatever man made myths and fairy tales.

It is everyman’s individual responsibility to search out their own spiritual path – but when someone imposes their concluded spiritual beliefs in such a way that it diminishes me, a gay man, in my civic life, it then becomes untenable.

A Prayer For 2008

How shameless it is of some to stand in their conviction that words alone convey meaning and without attribution to the time and context written by mere mortal men. How courageous were our founders who grasped for words and fought amongst words to elicit a sense of democracy and freedom – in the context of their time – and how do we not revere their courage and their, yes enlightenment, and even their liberal or progressive views – taken in context of the time and place they were conceived. Just as some can only see the literality of the Bible and walk it as if it were traffic directions and never see the courage and enlightened thought that in the context of the time and place it was written could produce such a marked and magnificent view of morality. One in which individuals were worthy, all individuals. And that men treated men not just with civility but also with love and caring and charity.

Amazingly, it is that some among us are so rigid, so obfuscated, so obtuse, as to lose their way in principle, and rail against those who lose their way in feeling. And rarely are there those amongst us who can delve between principle and feeling to offer insight, to offer common good, to offer common sense – that too takes courage and an enlightened soul, such as were once held by those great authors of the Bible and of our own Constitution.

We don’t so much live in perilous times, as life exists perilously – and only when courage and a flash of brilliance and God given inspiration join in one man’s soul does he have the opportunity and the burden to move us forward. Pray that we find such character in our next president.

Sleazy Politics In Chesterfield County

Two nights ago in a debate in Chesterfield County, Don Sowder was asked specifically to comment on negative campaigning. Any person who attended would have heard his seemingly sincere and plaintive words – how much he just hated, just hated, just hated negative campaigning. He is the incumbent supervisor from Midlothian District and one of the supervisors on the county board of five – all Republicans. There has been some sniping back and forth, but rather fact based, and for some time the local papers and blogs have examined the issues. Both his challenger, Dan Gecker, an independent, and Sowder have insinuated that developers are too close to the other. It has been politics as usual but up to now on a rather civilized and respectful basis.

Until today. Today, just one business day before the election, Midlothian residents find in their mail a brash, completely new, and hugely controversial accusation that implies Dan Gecker is in bed with some developer who is a federal felon who plead guilty to bribing a city counselor.

This slick mailing was certainly in the works long before last Thursday’s debate – but it was not mentioned in Sowder’s opening nor closing remarks nor addressed in any of the 15 questions posed to each by the panel or by the several questions posed by the audience. Don Sowder was feigning repulsion of negative attacks while apparently quite aware of this coming, so cleverly timed, bombshell. It is just plain and simple sleazy politics.

Is the county electorate so disrespected and so contemptuously held as to have not been informed by Sowder weeks ago if this were a real issue?

If this alleged connection was so important to the substance of the race, then why has Sowder waited until the last possible minute to spring it? Is this the character and integrity of the politicians we want in public office?

I don’t know what Dan Gecker’s explanation or response is – I only hope he has the opportunity to make it before the polls open on Tuesday.

Scandal in Chesterfield's Sheriff's Race?

The Sheriff’s office pulls a bunch of inmates out of the county lockup and brings them over to the house of a relative of the Sheriff’s to clean up the yard and carry away loads of trash. Sound like something out of “The Dukes of Hazzard” or “Porky’s”? Actually it was the fairly recent practice in Chesterfield County, or so alleges Perry DeMay, candidate for Sheriff of Chesterfield County.

He alleges that. In violation of state law,

On February 1, 2000, the Sheriff’s inmate work force performed work at Sheriff Clarence Guy Williams’ Jr. cousin’s house. 


• A fallen tree was cutup and removed

• Snow was cleared from entrances to the house. 

• Salt was applied to walkways. 

• Three loads of brush were taken to the county landfill

• Sheriff’s Office trucks transported the brush

This is a clear violation of the laws of our Commonwealth and the trust of the citizens of Chesterfield County. The Sheriff’s Office does not perform these services for all of their county taxpayer’s.

There was an attempted cover-up for the work performed at the sheriff’s cousin’s residence and it has taken seven years to break the veil of silence to expose this corruption. The deputy who supervised the inmates on the job was advised by a member of the sheriff’s administration to keep quite, “He instructed me not to speak to anyone about this matter.”


At a recent debate at the county library the three candidates for Chesterfield County Sheriff stated their positions and qualifications, answered questions from a moderator, and from a packed audience. Apparently half packed by members of the Sheriff’s Department and their families and friends. The back half of the room all spotted large Proffitt signs and after the debate I spoke with a mix of those attendees to confirm that. The same Sheriff’s Department employees that are alleged to actively man the campaign tables at the polls. Note: all the circular blue “Proffitt for Sheriff” labels on the right shoulders.



The debate was well run. The audience was well behaved and attentive. The questions were fair and all three candidates gave a good showing.

The current Sheriff, Dennis Proffitt is alleged to have been handed his job on his friend’s, prior Sheriff Williams, early retirement so as to give Proffitt an incumbents advantage in the election. In fact, a main tenant of DeMay’s candidacy is that the county is riff in good old boy politics where plum jobs are passed one white Republican man to another in a very ingrained and patronaged way – such that jobs are more often based on the interconnection of networks rather than on qualification.

Independent candidate Ken Hall positioned himself as the true conservative among the contenders and is running a strong platform of anti illegal immigrants, although he admits that there are major limits on what a local jurisdiction can legally implement. He is an ardent admirer of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Sheriff of Maricopa County in Arizona – the self described "Nations Toughest Sheriff".

Allegations were also made that local developers and builders were financing the campaigns of the status quo as it helps insure a steady flow of low wage illegal aliens to work at their housing and shopping center projects.

DeMay contends that decades of one party control has lulled the county into a system of inefficient operation, created a dispirited Sheriff’s Department, and pursues poor policies of advancement and promotion – all resulting in a department that does not reflect the diversity of the community.

Will the electorate see a need for change? Will Hall and Proffitt split the conservative vote and open an opportunity for DeMay? Or will the county continue its decades long status quo? We’ll know in less than three weeks.

Challenge To The Chesterfield County Board of Supervisor Candidates

Full Disclosure:

I have challenged all 13 candidates for Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors to take an online test that can help inform county voters on 6 November as to where they fit on the political landscape. If you are a voter, I would challenge you to also take this test – here is the LINK. I don’t pretend that this should be determinative. But I do think it is informative, and that participation in this exercise will be informative in itself. Following is the message I sent to the candidates and if you are an eligible voter in the county, I suggest you encourage your local district candidates to participate.

Results will be published here prior to the election.

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Hello,

My name is Bill Garnett and I write a blog that, among other topics, often explores aspects of Chesterfield County politics. Recently I sent out a test questionnaire to the 13 candidates for the five board of supervisor positions up for grabs on 6 November – I only received back responses from four and hope this is not representative of how responsive you will be to constituents should you be elected.

I am now making another request and this request is that you take a few minutes to show where you fit on the political landscape by taking a very short and easy online test. (It takes me less than five minutes). I think you will find this personally useful and informative.

I ask that you respond by sending me the two resultant coordinates

(1) Economic Left/Right
(2) Social Libertarian/Authoritarian

My intent will be to publish the results, by candidate, on a graph that will be published on my blog before the election, as an additional assist to voters who may find this instructive to their choice. I intend to present this information in a neutral manner.

I look forward to your participation and to your “test” results and I will have to suggest that not participating, in my opinion, would suggest a characteristic that might be also indicative of your style should you be elected – so please do respond. The test is at this LINK.

I am thanking you in advance for your participation.

Regards,

Bill Garnett

Dan Gecker – A Ray of Sunshine In Chesterfield County

Chesterfield County nestled in the bosom of the James River, bedroom community for Richmond City commuters, and a patchwork quilt of public soccer fields and shopping malls and . . . well, not really much else. It’s a sleepy contented sort of place, blighted to the east by the gradual crawl of lower class whites, blacks and Hispanics, that nudge their middle and upper class white neighbors to leap frog again and again further west into the once verdant county, and now leaping all the way into Amelia and Powhatan.

This slow motion generational immigration west is prompted by the encroaching deterioration of neighborhoods, increased crime, and neglect of the schools, that even to a stalwart resident would omen the depreciation of his property’s value. No one expects anything better, the county has long been lulled by the mesmerizing tunes sung by their self perpetuating Protestant deacons and their inept and embarrassingly corrupt and ineffective politicians who feed at the trough of the real county dynamic: commercial and residential developers -- both feeding, and capitalizing on, the leap frogging west of the white classes.

It’s not an inspiring place. Hating one’s job and shopping occupy most of a resident’s time. And with little more to look forward to in the county than the opening of a new further west located mall and the new slew of low paying retail jobs that seem to be the only employment future the county has to offer.

Into this rather bleakly painted suburban scene steps a displaced Yankee who has come to love and plant roots in the community. Over years he has established a reputation of fighting for his neighborhood, his county, and his region. A man of law and a man of vision. Someone who has quietly and pleasantly made innumerable unrecognized contributions, seeks no accolade, and could do much better for himself and family somewhere else in some other pursuit – but he chooses to stay in Chesterfield County because he sees the promise others lost sight of long ago.

Let me step back before I introduce Dan Gecker, Independent candidate in the upcoming November election for Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors. Some time ago I sent out an identical email to each of the 13 candidates running for the five county board of supervisor seats. The entire board is up for election and represents a potential turning point for a county that has been essentially totally dominated by a local Republican machine for decades. A machine that has put more emphasis on cost control than on the effectiveness of the dollars spent. Has put more emphasis on growth through unbridled development, rather than a sustaining growth through ensuring a mixed level of good paying jobs. Sees the concerns of the deep pocket developers over the rather ignored needs and values of the citizenry it represents.

Of the 13 emails which asked simply the candidate’s position on a matter that affects directly perhaps 15,000 of the county's 300,000 population, but indirectly scores more, only four candidates had the courtesy to reply – and this is in the run up to a hotly contested election. Imagine how responsive these guys will be should they become ensconced in office? Well, at least that’s my conclusion from this exercise. But one candidate not only promptly responded but also suggested that we meet at a local coffee shop so that he could listen to my concerns and give a fully thoughtful response. That meeting took place yesterday and Dan Gecker afforded me over more than an hour of unrushed time, a rare opportunity to feel that someone was actually listening. And took the time to respond such that I truly knew his position and his reasoning of that position.

One would never imagine that Dan Gecker came to Chesterfield from New Jersey, his Southern gentleman politeness is now truly authentic, as is his self effacing humility, his courageous candor, and a clear intellect that steered him through Princeton and William and Mary and on to advise local governments and teach at the university level on his passion, which is thoughtful urban and suburban planning aspiring to a better quality of life for residents. His service on the county planning board, if past is prologue, certainly suggests his political and management acumen, his energy and diligence, his foresight and imagination, and most of all the deferring to community interest over that of proliferate developer largess. He has almost single handedly revised and restructured the way the planning board operates, making it more transparent, more professional, and more clear-sighted. All skills that are sorely needed on the board of supervisors.

Few have a political bent in this sleepy stepsister of Richmond; few know the names of their local officials much less have an interest in issues. Off year elections are particularly poorly attended – the corollary election four years ago had a 19% turnout of the eligible voters. And with no social issues driving the religiously conservative, with disaffection for the Republican administration in Washington, and with the resurgence of independent political leanings, Dan Gecker, in this two-thirds Republican county, may just have a chance – and there could be a quiet revolution at the county courthouse. And what a pleasant change that would be.

Does Congressman Eric Cantor Represent Your Interests?

Expanding American Homeownership Act of 2007 - Vote Passed (348-72, 12 Not Voting)

The House easily passed this bill that will give the Federal Housing Administration the authority to assist struggling homeowners in making their mortgage payments.

Rep. Eric Cantor voted NO

But, I guess Congressman Cantor and his wife (on the board of directors of Media General) haven't the problem of struggling to meet their house payments -- or identify with those in his district who are struggling.

“Representative Eric Cantor, a Virginia Republican famous on K Street for his annual fund-raising weekends in Beverly Hills and South Beach, has recently invited lobbyists to join him for some expensive cups of coffee. A $2,500 contribution from a lobbyist’s political action committee entitles the company’s lobbyist to join Mr. Cantor at a Starbucks near his Capitol Hill office four times this spring.” New York Times February 11, 2007

The Politics of War

The junior Senator from Virginia and decorated war hero and former Secretary of the Navy, Jim Webb, introduced an amendment to H.R.1585 (To authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2008 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes.), with the purpose of specifying minimum periods between deployment of units and members of the Armed Forces deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

This amendment lost by a vote of 56 to 40 generally along party lines (a vote of 60 was required for passage).

The senior Senator from Virginia and previous Undersecretary of the Navy, John Warner, introduced a parallel amendment to express the sense of Congress on Department of Defense policy regarding dwell time.

This amendment lost by a vote of 55 to 45 generally along party lines.

Anyone following this legislation and following the debate on CSPAN can only scratch their head and wonder if our elected Senate is any more wiser, any more adult, than are high school politics. The Senate fiddles while America burns (or more accurately our forces in Iraq).

Senators who should be elected based on their integrity, wisdom, intelligence, experience, and fair mindedness would NOT so routinely vote on party insistence but on their own individual best judgment. Such voting solely on party lines is not indicative of a high level of judgment. Would we not as well turn over the vote to the respective party headquarters? We deserve a government that is run on the best interests of the common good – not he best interests of the common party.

Were this just one example it might be excused but this is more the rule of our times and is largely responsible, I argue, for the intransigence, grid lock, and ineffectiveness of a Congress that procrastinates on moving forward to solve our common and serious problems and rather continues to push into the future any effective action or any real world solutions.

As the election season heats up in Virginia for local elections on 6 November, it is our duty to make choices based not so much on party, as on the integrity, wisdom, intelligence, experience, and fair mindedness of the candidates. And to do that we all need to make informed choices BEFORE we enter the voting booth and are confronted, perhaps for the first time, by the candidates’ names.

In The Aftermath Of The Virginia Marriage Amendment

A year ago November the people of Virginia entered the voting booth and amended the state’s Bill of Rights to discriminate against the state’s gay population. The argument was that this was necessary and essential to protect the traditional family.

Yes, but what is a traditional family? Is this the traditional family?


Or is this the traditional family?


Or perhaps this – no, not until 1967, when the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Loving v. Virginia that anti-miscegenation laws are unconstitutional.


But is this not a family?


Or this?


Or this?


It’s a funny thing how stereotypes can influence one’s bias isn’t it? Our state has a spectrum of people with all sorts of God given traits – but in a democracy, each person is supposedly equal under the law – and have an equal right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Sadly, too many Virginians so cavalierly dismiss this notion – even many people of color and women who not so long ago faced a bias themselves.

The following is from a text used in the state’s universities:

“Not until the nineteenth century did the notion of love as a basis of marriage become widespread in Western society.”

“Marriage provides a sense of emotional and psychological security, however, and opportunities to share feelings, experiences, and ideas with someone with whom one forms a special attachment. Desires for companionship and intimacy are key goals in marriage today”.

“Broadly speaking, those people who want to get married do so because they believe they will be happier if they get married.”

Today, an article by archconservative Ken Connor titled, “Evangelicals must stay the course” appeared on the web”.

It included these lines and they betray the sense of many conservatives that either the people cannot be trusted to govern themselves or that the public cannot choose the wisest among them to govern.

“There was a reason, after all, that the Founding Fathers embraced the concept of "separation of powers." They did not want to concentrate too much power in the hands of flawed human beings. They were not naïve about the nature of human beings or politics, and we should not be either.”

However, the people are far ahead of the legislature as I remind the reader by the following, the people were far less supportive than were the Republican politicians who ramroded the amendment through in a year calculated to turn out the religiously conservative. And it is our younger generation, much more accepting of gay marriage, who have this biased legislation foisted upon them.


In passing this amendment does the state continue the democratic experiment started by earlier Virginians now so proudly remembered – or will this be seen by generations to come as an aberration? Who will really remember this as our proud moment? I love my state but I am repulsed by this amendment and by the political calculations, hypocrisy, and homophobia in which it was advanced. And those who pushed this measure should be held responsible to those younger Virginias who have to live with this state sponsored discrimination until a more enlightened, just, and fair minded Virginia will finally offer them full citizenship and equality. Until then Virginia shares the dubious distinction of discrimination, bias, prejudice, inequality and religious fanaticism of the very areas of the world we consider in opposition to the American way of life.


click on the above map for a better view

Is There Going To Be A New Sheriff In Town?

There are a lot of rumors and allegations and some facts blowing around Chesterfield County in Virginia about the local Sheriff’s Department. Suicides in the jail (one recent one that seems to have been suspiciously underreported), a mistakenly released criminal serving a 20-year sentence, use of prisoners to do yard work and other chores for a sheriff’s relatives (apparently documented). But the most pervasive charge is that the department is full of cronyism, and jobs and promotions are routinely handed out based on patronage and not necessarily on qualifications.

But a stranger just rode into town and he is challenging this status quo. He is Perry Demay and he is just possibly going to clean house with his commitment to bringing about a fair and impartial professionalism, based on fair recruitment and promotion, better training, and accountability to the citizens of the county. No arrogance, no pomposity, no sense of entitlement.

Mr. DeMay is challenging the incumbent County Sheriff Dennis S. Proffitt who is alleged to be emblematic of a county tradition of being part of the good ole boy’s club. If you meet DeMay you will find a motivated, courageous, open-minded, and fair cop, who is fully qualified and who is aggressively waging a fight to bring some semblance of balance and fair play to local politics. He deserves your consideration.



Democratic Party Candidate For Sheriff Perry DeMay pictured on the right

I grew up in the county; my best friend, before he was killed in the Viet Nam War, was the son of the previous County Judge D.W. Murphey (his other son in what is emblematic in the county is now Chief Judge Tom Murphey). I was regaled with stories from the then 1960’s of how the well connected in the county were optioning property ahead of the I-95 corridor through Chesterfield. How ironic that Route 288 recently had its interchange coincidently located on a local politician’s land. Whether these are merely coincidences or suggestive of insider political advantage is unknown but what is known is that the county is one party dominated, and when that happens there can be a culture of complacent mediocrity – and new ideas are not properly balanced, debated, or argued to the benefit of the populace at large.

Come November, Chesterfield voters will have an opportunity to address this and perhaps there will be a new Sheriff in town.

Chesterfield County At A Political Crossroads?

In the 400 years since a European first set foot on what would become Chesterfield County, Virginia, and in the 230 odd years since Virginia joined in this experiment in democracy, and in the 140 odd years since our Civil War, one might suppose that some sort of reasonably effective progressive movement might arise out of what is now a population of over 300,000. But alas, it hasn’t. The rather stuffy but tenacious Republican Party holds firm reins over the county as some sort of entitlement, controlling all five supervisor seats and filling most of the county’s policy and management positions. With an election coming up in less than two months, is there a change in the wind?

All five supervisor seats are up for grabs -- is there a chance that at least three will turn Democratic? Well the Democratic Party was only able to field candidates for three of the five supervisor seats so they would have to have a sweep to do so. Bermuda District has an increasingly impressive candidate in Ree Hart who is actively working the grassroots in her community. An equally impressive Jim Holland in running in Dale District and a bit more lackluster Bill Hastings is competing in Matoaca District. The Clover Hill and Midlothian Districts both have Independents challenging Republican candidates.

Dan Gecker, Independent vying for the Midlothian seat, is certainly a progressive, and is an experienced planner and knowledgeable about the county from an insider’s perspective. He brings an intelligence and strategic point of view and is a formidable opponent to Republican Don Sowder, who was only recently elected to fill the vacancy left by the Democrat Ed Barber, after Barber left due to scandal in his personal life, and after Independent Teri Beirne had temporarily filled that vacancy. Were two Democrats plus Gecker to win seats on the board then there would presumably be a shift to a more progressive policy in the county.

But . . . Chesterfield is two thirds conservative Republicans by past voting patterns and the county has a long history of being managed or governed by a rather small and rather inbred group of Republicans who can not be easily dismissed, who most likely are far better funded, and who have the momentum of history behind them. How large a “Bush backlash” is blowing in their face may be the real measure of how successful progressive inroads might be in the county in this election cycle. This is an off year election. Primary elections in the state hardly motivate five percent of the electorate to the polls. This graph on the county’s website hadn’t been updated in four years – when pressed, the County Registrar issued this rather terse reply, I imagine rather indicative of the general disinterest in the county in things political:

Greetings,

The turnout data for elections since 2003 is on the web. You can get that data and create your own graph. We have not updated due to lack of resources and other more pressing matters since 2003.

Lawrence Haake 
Chesterfield General Registrar


In such situations it is not unexpected that conservatives, more disciplined and more authoritatively controlled, will file out to the polls in larger numbers than liberals, who though a bit more idealistic and energized about the issues, are often less dependable to show up to vote. Without the socially compelling issue of gay marriage, there is less interest from the religiously conservative to vote as well. So, in the end, it may only be the growing dissatisfaction with the Bush war and with the direction the country seems headed, that could be the deciding factor in whether even conservatives choose an “R” or a “D”. After all, as recent history has shown, few will arrive at the polls with a working knowledge of any of the candidates anyway, and so it may just be the broader winds of change that might blow well for progressives in this stodgy old county.

The Rip Van Winkle Method Of Candidate Selection

Washington Irving imagined a Rip Van Winkle who fell asleep under a tree only to wake up twenty year later. Imagine for a moment that you fall asleep tonight and wake up on the morning after next year’s presidential election, November 5, 2008. Now, honestly, try and imagine how happy you would be if you picked up the morning paper on that day and read “[blank] WINS ELECTION”. Substitute the current candidates for [blank] and rank your level of happiness to the news. Be sure to NOT base your decision on what you think is the probability of that person winning, or on who you are currently supporting, but on how happy or unhappy you would be after being asleep from now until after the election and awake to the news.

I took the test on myself and here are my results (on a +10, most happy, to a -10, most unhappy scale). And I was surprised at how this point of view helped me adjust my choice of whom I should really support. It is a bit like the concept of following your bliss.

+9 Barack Obama
+7 Hillary Clinton
+6 Joe Biden
+5 John Edwards
+4 John McCain
+4 Mike Huckabee
+4 Bill Richardson
+3 Dennis Kucinich
+3 Chris Dodd
+2 Ron Paul
-3 Mike Gravel
-4 Sam Brownback
-5 Duncan Hunter
-5 Tom Tancredo
-6 Rudy Giuliani
-7 Fred Thompson
-7 Mitt Romney

I challenge you to test yourself using this method. And more than that, I challenge you to, after taking the test, to put your money where your bliss is and support that candidate.

President Bush Frees Scooter Libby

And I,
holding my head in horror, cried: "Sweet Spirit,

what souls are these who run through this black haze?"
And he to me: "These are the nearly soulless
whose lives concluded neither blame nor praise.

They are mixed here with that despicable corps,
of angels who were neither for God nor Satan,
but only for themselves.

Dante’s The Inferno, Canto III

After living abroad almost ten years in both Saudi Arabia and in The Netherlands, one of the most upsetting and glaring aspects of American life I experienced on my return was the apathy and un-involvement of the average Americans I met. They seldom had the least interest in the governance of their community, scant interest in world affairs, and little sense that they, as individuals, could make a difference.

This was utterly at odds with my experience living in middle class neighborhoods for years, both in Riyadh and in Amsterdam – two extremes of the liberal/conservative world. In both countries it was usual, not unusual, to comfortably routinely have conversations about politics and frequently to find that natives were even well informed about American politics. (The press – not unsurprising unfairly skews the portrait of Muslim life, even in Saudi Arabia,).

And as unsettling as today’s news is about the commuting of Libby’s sentence by President Bush, I look beyond that to indict the American people who continue to put up with this White House and the continuing corruption of our country’s executive branch. It has been an extraordinary tenure of overreach, arrogance, and outright politicization of a supposedly equal branch of government.

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings."
--From Julius Caesar (I, ii, 140-141)

Regardless of your political persuasion, how can you, the reader continue to be herded, like sheep, putting up with, rather than taking exception to? Be not surprised that into the vacuum that ensues from your non-involvement, that special interests and the rich and powerful gleefully take your place in governing.

And as to the freeing of Scooter Libby, well one wonders at the record death sentences George W. Bush signed as Governor, sending America to the top of the list of those who still use this barbaric practice. This barbaric practice that denies, to permanently caged humans, the Christian opportunity for redemption, and places the hand of every American on the executioner’s hand. We can’t use public funds to transfer frozen zygotes, that will be discarded, to medical research to help save lives and reduce human suffering --- but we can use public funds to take the life of a caged human –-- even though DNA testing occasionally shows that the convicted are actually innocent.

And to this self-proclaimed compassionate President, I ask, what about the two million incarcerated in our country, the highest percentage in the world -- many of whom are serving hellish sentences for non-violent drug related crime?

Garrison Keillor paraphrased Dante:

“Dante said that the hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who in time of crisis remain neutral.”

It's Time

The human race in 2007 stands at a crossroads, faced with the complexities of the political and cultural and technological realities accumulated over more than 4000 years of recorded history. And we are being hurtled into the shadows of an approaching unknown – un-experienced by our species and most likely pivotal to our species’ future. And perhaps the real and ultimate test of our religious and our spiritual strength. But constrained by the trappings and vested interests of established religion, there seems to be little promise.

The pomposity, the religiosity, the arrogance, the hypocrisy that their intervention brings to our spiritual quest – all being human intervention, of oft well intentioned ecclesiastics – and often an obstacle to the universal human longing for connection with this universal and magnificent mystery we call by many names – and which is God to all.

It’s time to see the Testaments and the Koran and the Pali Canon in context, to accept the inspiration of all holy script, while accepting the inspiration as well, of our art and literature, our law and our invention.

It’s time to accept reason and logic and science, as the discovery of the magnificence and promise of our shared heritage. To learn from and understand our common history as a long trail of tortured and celebrated and enduring journey, whose hard fought lessons must not be forgotten.

We have not just mastered nature; we have overcome it, conquered it, and are close to altering it in ways that can threaten, if not our planet, certainly our human presence.

Progress marches inevitably and inexorably forward, not in the glacial pace of past generations, but in a more and more noticeable technological acceleration – and beckons us to have the wisdom and foresight to stay ahead of its implications.

It’s time for common sense and common resolve. It’s time to reach down into our core spiritual beliefs, and express that commonality of good, and that commonality of stewardship, and that commonality of love and compassion. And it’s time to summon the courage to overcome our baser instincts of intolerance and privilege, of greed and violence. And to see our commonality and connection though the veil of self-interest.

It’s time – our time in history – our time to stop bickering and start conversation; stop unrestrained consumption and begin sharing our blessings; stop ignorant and insistent mythology and embrace an enlightened wisdom. And to accept, as individuals, a responsibility and accountability commensurate with the God given fact that we are sentient beings, ultimately judged or not on finding the right path, regardless of any person who assumes he or she is closer to the intention of God than are you.

"One" - an Internet Video

Although I’ve been playing with computers and computer applications since an IBM 1620 was delivered for faculty and student use to the University of Richmond in 1964, I still am amazed at some of the things computers enable, and especially the values available on the Internet.

One recent find I’d like to share with my readers, and I hope you find it as engaging as I did - follow this LINK.

Cantor Banter – Or What The Hell Is This Guy Doing To Help The Country?

I suggest anyone in Virginia go to www.cnn.com and search under “earmarks” and then under their representative in Congress and find out if they are sharing their earmark requests – if they are transparent on these requests – if they are willing to be accountable for the earmark requests they make.

I live in Eric Cantor’s district - the seventh district in Virginia, and when asked by CNN to disclose his earmarks, the response was “no response”.

Now Congressman Cantor is the fair-haired boy of the Republican Party, the lapdog of his party, and supposed representative of 700,000 Virginians, most who probably have never heard of him. But lobbyists have:

“Representative Eric Cantor, a Virginia Republican famous on K Street for his annual fund-raising weekends in Beverly Hills and South Beach, has recently invited lobbyists to join him for some expensive cups of coffee. A $2,500 contribution from a lobbyist’s political action committee entitles the company’s lobbyist to join Mr. Cantor at a Starbucks near his Capitol Hill office four times this spring.” New York Times February 11, 2007


Few follow the votes in Congress of Virginia’s Mr. No, but here are a few of his recent votes – ALL NO

Implement the 9/11 Commission Recommendations Act
Fair Minimum Wage Act
Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act
Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act
Creative Long-Term Energy Alternatives for the Nation Act
Iraq War Policy Resolution
The Employee Free Choice Act
Freedom of Information Act Amendment of 2007
Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2007
Accountability of Contracting Act
Gulf Coast Hurricane Housing Recovery Act of 2007
U. S. Troop Readiness, Veterans Health, and Iraq Accountability Act
Improving Head Start Act
Department of Homeland Security Authorization Act
Agricultural Disaster Assistance Appropriations Act
Federal Price Gouging Prevention Act
Homeland Security Appropriations FY2008

By the way, the majority in Congress passed all of these measures.

Most of his constituents don’t live the cozy life of Congressman Cantor and his wife, who is a member of the board of directors of Media General Inc., the parent company of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Richmond’s right leaning sole daily paper. Most are hard working, common-sense, middle of the road, average souls, who don’t like the red/blue pissing contest Cantor perpetuates, the grid-lock he contributes to – and particularly the lack of progress on the major problems facing our state and nation to which he seems to not have one creative initiative. Need I mention the war, tax reform, out of control health costs, loss of high paying jobs, and on and on and on?

His district has a proud heritage and certainly there must be someone who is more capable, more dedicated to reform, and who can provide a modicum of leadership and ability to bring about change. And there must be someone out there of any party who can successfully challenge his next bid at reelection to his cushy position.

Excuse me, but the Declaration of Independence does begin with the words “We the people . . . ”.

The Future For Progressives in Chesterfield County and the Chesterfield County Democratic Committee

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results - Benjamin Franklin.

The overriding dynamic in Chesterfield County, in my humble opinion, is clear but hardly recognized and seldom discussed. It is the continual white flight west ahead of non-white encroachment that lowers property values and reduces the attractiveness of the attendant school districts. Middle class whites move to protect their real estate equity and to insure that their children have the better educational opportunity.

In the fifties and early sixties downtown Richmond, with its Thalhimers and Miller and Rhodes anchors, imploded, coincident and largely because of a poorly conceived busing solution to court required integration. Retail shopping in the county moved west to malls like Southside Plaza then further west to Clover Hill mall then further west to Chesterfield Towne Center. Anyone shopping at this mall today and noticing the increasing boarded up storefronts and tacky kiosks can only foresee its eventual decline too, especially with the currently planned Watkins Center even further west. Horace Greeley may have exhorted "Go west, young man, and grow up with the country." But today the cry may be “young professionals and affluent, go west, and grow up in Amelia and Powhatan County”.

And even professionals will find themselves on a longer and longer commute into Richmond as the county itself provides few opportunities for jobs above retail clerk rates. It costs me about twelve dollars now just in gas to make a round trip visit from Midlothian to my relatives in Amelia. At six dollars a gallon, easily in a few years, there will be a tipping point where commuting to low pay jobs close to Richmond may just not be worth the trip.

The county has been in the grasp of a Republican clique for some time that seems to have a higher allegiance to developers than it does to quality of life. It is business as usual, just a slow and agonizing deterioration of the eastern frontier of the county, probably eventually resulting in further city annexation and a slow motion withering of the county as a whole.

Enter the Chesterfield County Democratic Committee (CCDC) -- a small group of well-meaning and rather conservative Democrats, and under Pareto’s Law largely controlled by an even smaller cadre of overworked and rather unimaginative stalwarts. The result is county governance almost completely under the thumb of the local Republican machine despite an arguably one third and growing populace that are more liberal and progressive leaning.

Is this bleak picture inevitable? Is it not possible to better integrate and assimilate the county’s population? Is it not possible to bring in serious amounts of higher paying jobs into the county? Is it not possible to offer a quality of life that exists beyond the shopping malls, residential rec rooms, and assorted soccer mom fields?

The answer lies with the people – what would inspire the populace to take even a passing interest in local government – when the population is now highly mobile, not having a sense of place residents of the county had a generation ago. When day-to-day economic concerns trump any time or energy that can be given to civic responsibility.

A part of the answer could come from a more vigorous and open debate in the county, and a part of that would be a more aggressive and energized CCDC that would seek more engagement, have a louder voice, and most of all energize the young people of the county who will be the recipients of a long drift towards the west.

Chesterfield County – Good Ole Boys – and Perry DeMay for Sheriff

It’s taken 400 years to get us here – I mean the Chesterfield County, Virginia and its 300,000 population that exists ostensibly as a bedroom community for the city of Richmond. I grew up here, went to high school here, and after a long absence have returned to the area – and I’m appalled. The first election I went to had not one Democrat on the ballot. Now I had been a small business owner, a long time business consultant to major companies, and for most of my life a Republican – but I found that local politics was still very much in the tight grasp of a few Republican good ole boys, hardly unchanged for decades. And that riled me to no end, as I am firm in my belief that a vigorous debate of ideas is essential to the evolution of a democratic society.

Which brings me to last night’s meeting of the Chesterfield County Democratic Committee that featured four Democratic candidates vying for county office in this fall’s election. I add here that the county’s five supervisors and most other county officers are – of course – from the Republican good ole boys school. So it was most refreshing that one of these candidates is true grit. Has energy and apparent integrity and a driving intention to upset this Republican stranglehold and attempt to wrench some political power from the steely grasp of a group of county conservatives who view office holding as some ancestral right.

And this “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington” of Chesterfield County is none other than A. Perry DeMay – and he gave an electrifying and inspiring PowerPoint presentation that illustrated he is committed to win, committed to changing the county’s balance of power, committed to changing the “nepotism” networking between greedy developers and the county’s blue blood families. And he has specifics of what is wrong and specifics of what he intends to do to change the operation of the county’s Sheriff Department.


Perry DeMay is a stout truth telling common man – so uncommon in these times and particularly in this locale. Candid, self effacing, and committed – one only hopes that should he win, that he won’t be deterred by the powers to be or the general indifference of county residents.

By recent voting patterns, the county is about one third Democratic, liberal, or progressive leaning, and it’s about time the county begins a vigorous debate about it’s future – or the county will become increasingly irrelevant in this metro area and fail to provide the opportunity and quality of life its residents deserve.

Illegal Immigration

As to immigration - my position:

(A) The U.S. should control its southern border.

(B) Recent illegal immigrants (up to last five years) should be returned to their country of origin.

(C) Illegal immigrants who can prove they have been in the U.S. for over five years, have no criminal record, are fluent in English, and show they are supporting themselves and their family may go through a process that will eventually give them citizenship.

(D) Employers of more than 10 illegals should get jail time.

My reasoning is three fold:

(1) - There is no practical solution I know of that would accomplish a 100% expulsion of illegals.

(2) - We have a legal tradition in America of eminent domain and statute of limitations which suggests to me that if we do not take action in response to a transgression within some reasonable time, then the opportunity to take action expires.

(3) - We do have a long tradition of being a nation of immigrants and most of us are descendants of immigrants.

Regardless of my position, I am incensed that my government has twiddled and shuffled and ignored this festering problem year after year after year -- they are all bums and all of them should be thrown out of office.

Was Jerry Falwell A Christian?

I give Reverend Falwell a lot of credit. His life surely made an impact. And I am satisfied that much of what he did was good and caring and constructive. I am sure his life work has had national and international impact. And as a Virginian, I realize that he is one of our most famous and recognizable citizens. But was he a Christian? And if he was, does that mean that I am not?

I grew up in the Southern Baptist tradition, and the church was a refuge for me from as early as I can remember, up through high school and before I was able to leave the dysfunctional family and abuse I experienced throughout childhood. My life then was about trying to be perfect and living with the guilt of not being able to attain it. As a child I went to Sunday School, Sunday worship service, Sunday night service, Wednesday night prayer meetings – I read my Bible regularly and studied more for my Sunday school class than I did for my school subjects.

But no one really told me the truth. No one told me about how the King James version of the Bible was cobbled together from centuries of translations, (and mistranslations), whole books added and lost, a history of human intervention that applied the biases of the times to the book I was told was inerrant, was the word of God, was the only true word of God.

No one explained to the child back then of the context in which the Bible evolved and the relation it had to other religions that came before and existed along side.

So I am left with the question – was Falwell a Christian? Can a person who lives a life as a bad person and converts to Christianly at the last moment, go to Heaven? And a person who lives a good life but has skepticism about the historically evolved Christian religion, go to Hell?

I’ve often wondered that the Reverend Falwell seemed far too stuffed with church potluck fried chicken that he could hardly get up from his chair to stand at his pulpit. I wondered that he was as sensitive to the half of the world that either goes to bed hungry or doesn’t know where the next meal will come from. I wondered that as facts changed he was unable to change his mind – stuck in what would seem an arrogant assertion that he alone knew God’s will and that anyone who disputed him was dismissed offhand. I wondered that as science and medicine concluded that homosexuality was a state of being and not a moral choice, how much Reverend Falwell contributed to the estrangement of and discrimination of gays from family and community. I wondered at the anachronism of how his church maintained its older bias against mixed race relationships.

Was this man who seemed to me to be pompous and arrogant and smug within his conceit really the Christian that my childhood introduction to Jesus would suggest? And I have to come to the conclusion that he was not.

Senator Webb -- Perhaps You Should Read Your Mail

The following is a letter I wrote to Senator Jim Webb in January. I suppose he is too tied up with learning his new job to reply. Perhaps some readers will find thse suggestions useful

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Dear Senator Webb,

I supported you in your campaign and when you were the guest of the Chesterfield Democratic Committee, of which I am a member, I asked you a question relating to our criminal justice system and the high percentage of incarceration in America. You replied that of all the campaign stops you’d had, this was the first time a question of this nature had been posed and you remarked how your Japan experience had sensitized you to this high statistic in the states.

But I write with a suggestion for breaking the impasse on major problems so far not addressed by Congress.

The Democrats are off and running on their much flaunted first 100 hours, and I wish them luck. But I haven’t heard a word on what is to follow. May I be so bold as to suggest an approach for the second 100 hours that potentially could turn our country around and make major strides in solving vexing problems that have been building and unaddressed for decades -- for the world is moving exponentially but government reform is moving linearly if at all.

Let me preface my idea by reflecting back on another issue where Congress perennially maneuvers itself into gridlock -- military base closings. Military bases are very parochial beasts and local self-interest and political survival are usually at stake. It makes sense to periodically readjust and resize our military but “not in my front yard” is the position of any Congressman with a base in his/her district. This problem has had a simple and rather elegant solution – Congress appoints a non-partisan, bipartisan, respected and trusted, experienced and expert, panel that steps back and takes a global view and can often come up with a consensus recommendation to Congress. The other essential part of this strategy is that Congress pre-agrees that when the recommendation is made, that there will be no debate – only an up or down vote. The debate would only be initially on whether to follow this strategy and how to empanel it.

This approach removes much of the politics, pettiness, infighting, and influence of special interests, and hopefully, although some will be disappointed, the best interest, on balance, of the nation will be served. And an intractable problem can sometimes be politically dealt with.

Well, I say we use this same strategy to deal with a myriad of universal problems that seem unaddressed and festering. My candidates would be:

(1) Education – We educate in ways little changed from the methods of our grandparents, where summers were taken off, as children were needed for critical farm chores. We take an inordinate amount of a life span to educate ourselves and it is inefficient. We do a poor job of matching education to skills needed in society. We do a poor job of preparing the young for the realistic challenges adult life brings. Education is inordinately expensive and education varies considerably in quality depending on the wealth base of the local community – there is no equivalently equal access to education.

(2) Health Care – We fall far behind other western countries in providing the security of health care, something that is a universal need. Our system is overly complicated, overly controlled by special interests. Contrary to a free market system, providers of health care, through associations equivalent to trade cartels, restrict paramedical professionals and even the quantity of medical professionals. Applying the 80/20 rule suggests that preventative care and minor medical procedures could practically be performed more efficiently by paramedicals. And the insurance industry has far too tight a grip on devolving medical care in their own interests and opposing a system that best meets the common good.

(3) Taxes – Federal, state, and local taxes only grow – they never seem to be overhauled, reinvented, or restructured. Our federal income tax system turns a nation into exasperated bookkeepers, and promotes whole hoards of accountants, lawyers, and tax administrators. And as taxes are both incentives and disincentives, it makes suspicious a system that taxes labor – and increases the tax relatively the more and harder one works – it’s like the government is saying we will tax you if you work, and the harder you work the more we will take of each dollar you make, we will teach you!

The tax code is now over 30,000 pages, the income tax system was never envisioned by our founders, and was only to be a temporary measure when it was initiated. The original 1040 was a simple one-page form. Our government has become addicted to this poorly thought through tax system that has developed a life of its own. Retiring the income tax and substituting a combination of a national sales tax, property tax, and carbon tax could be a major boost to competitiveness in the new world order.

(4) Criminal Justice System – A sea change in approach to substance abuse where this human condition is viewed from the medical/health point of view rather than from the criminal point of view, would help move us from the world’s largest incarcerator of human beings to a more reasonable and compassionate society. Attitudes towards recreational drug use, particularly marijuana, have hardly budged from the hysteria of previous generations. And here again, vested interests in prison building, drug testing, and the criminal justice industry, continue to propel this national policy which frankly has failed miserably – and destroyed countless lives of both those incarcerated and their families and communities.

And the corollary is that white-collar criminals are treated with kid gloves and certainly disproportionately to non-violent drug offenders. The system of justice for the poor and the minorities is far different from that administered to the white wealthy.

(5) Energy – Our dependence on an overseas, undependable, volatile, and diminishing source of hydrocarbon energy is a major national security risk. Incentives to develop national energy independence, new sources of energy, and more efficient use of energy require a national mandate. Disincentives have prevented, for decades, the building of new infrastructure, nuclear plants, and refining capacity.

So, would this Democratically controlled Congress adopt my suggestion for the second 100 days, to appoint such commissions, to return within six months, practical, broad reaching, enlightened, proposals for major legislation to restructure our education, health care, tax system, criminal justice system, and energy policy – well then, this Congress would perhaps be the most important in memory and would have bulldozed through the almost impenetrable thicket of national intransigence and have initiated a markedly improved quality of life and international competitiveness for America.


With kind regards I am,

Sorry To Tell You – But The End Is Near

I find it fascinating to see the DNA helix in 3-D and alive and reproducing in a video animation, an artificial depiction of our best level of insight to date. Its zipper like unraveling and then its coded arms searching the sea of amino acids for one of four m