Sowing the Seeds of Love

We have a few local newsletters and news blogs out here in the rural parts of NH.  Most of the content is town oriented, with news about school board and selectperson meetings.  One online newsletter has been generating some rather heated conversations as a local pastor has taken to the pages to spread his version of the gospel.  Interestingly, to me anyway, Pastor Ted is condemning the US Senate for apparently allowing sex with animals in the armed services.  I can't really pull anything out of the incoherent babbling so if you're really interested in what religious bigots think up here in NH, go check it out.

Wide Screen TeeVee New GOP Measure of Poverty

According to a new census report, 50% of Americans are living in or near poverty, underscoring the rapid decline of the middle class in the US.  It's really an untenable situation - people do not starve gracefully.


The good news, for the GOP anyway, is that many of new downtrodden put into these circumstances by the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression own big television sets and drive cars.  From the newspaper article:


Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, questioned whether some people classified as poor or low-income actually suffer material hardship. He said that while safety-net programs have helped many Americans, they have gone too far, citing poor people who live in decent-size homes, drive cars and own wide-screen TVs.


I have to think that the reporter added this comment to demonstrate the intransigence of the GOP.  It cannot be resonating with many Americans, particularly this time of year.  I'm really on outrage overload - I just can't keep up.

Keep Harping

The Nottingham Community Church puts on some great musical events.  Last night we went with our friends Cathi and Mel to see the New England Irish Harp Orchestra at the church.  The acoustics are phenomenal and when the house is packed as it was last night, the spirit comes to you in so many ways.  The session was being filmed and they hope to have it up on YouTube soon.  In the meantime, enjoy this session that I found on the Tube:

Why I'm a UU

I'm a UU because I like being offended. I enjoy the learning experience that comes from sermons that strike nerves with me, fellow members who have very different answers and questions than I do, and folks who know little about UU who think they have it all figured out.

I get a kick out of holding the complex and somewhat contradictory concept of being intolerant of intolerance. You know you're a UU at heart when you understand that. And I love being able to be myself here...and to be accepted and loved for that.

I'd like to tell you that I had a long and arduous road to get to our church. I'd like to say that the UU church came to me after a spiritual awakening. I'd like to say that I'm a religious refugee struggling for answers. But I can't say any of those things. Although I was born to an Irish/Italian Catholic family, we were not very pious and only occasionally attended Mass. My wife and I had a civil marriage, and although we later had our vows blessed in the Catholic Church, we were intermittent worshipers. By the way, an intermittent worshiper is not much different from an intermittent wiper, where you can never get the intermittance to align just right with the need.

Looking back, it seems likely that we never felt like we belonged to the various churches that we attended. Nothing really fit. The truth is that we weren't looking for answers because we didn't know what the questions were. I heard many wonderful messages during the years from many excellent priests and pastors. But they were all too certain for what I've always felt was an uncertain world.

This reminds me of something Somerset Maugham once wrote:

"Sometimes, people hit upon a place to which they mysteriously feel that they belong. Here is the home they sought, and they will settle amid scenes that they have never seen before, among people they have never known, as though they were familiar to them from their birth. Here, at last, do they find rest."

And then I stumbled into a UU church. And you really do have to stumble into one because there's almost no such thing as an evangelical UU. And I knew that I had "hit upon a place to which" I "mysteriously felt that I belonged." And it felt right. Everyone struggling to find answers and questions were welcomed. There is no dogma, but faith overflows. A church where you'll find no Saints and plenty of humans.

The Nottingham UU church was also a serendipitous finding. Kelli and I had belonged to the Concord UU church, but, you know, for pragmatic UU members, driving 45 minutes during snow storms to attend church was not reasonable. Heck, driving 45 minutes in nice weather to attend church was not reasonable.

Then we saw a flyer for an event at the Nottingham church. We came to the event and then to a service. Again, I felt like I belonged and welcomed. And what a wonderful group of people to belong with. And this is very powerful, because religion is far too big a job for any one person. It takes a team and we use that teamwork to amplify our voices in song and in our efforts to make our community a more just place for all people. The great systems thinker, Peter Senge once wrote of this experience:

"When you ask people about what it is like being part of a great team, what is most striking is the meaningfulness of the experience. People talk about being part of something larger than themselves, of being connected, of being generative. It become quite clear that, for many, their experiences as part of truly great teams stand out as singular periods of life lived to the fullest. Some spend the rest of their lives looking for ways to recapture that spirit."

That's what keeps me coming back. This sense of being connected and generative and weaving a common fabric of life. I hope to never let this collective spirit escape me so that I don't have to search for it again.

Government Sanctioned Sterilization

If we needed any more reason to despise the 1% in the US, and I'm not sure that we do, look no further than than the report in the NYT today that describes the sterilization program that was widespread in the US from the 1930s to the 1970s.  The report specifically covers the aggressive program conducted in North Carolina, but 31 other states also had programs.  You have to read the whole article to believe even a sentence of it.

The 1% have always been trying to screw the 99%.  From the article:

Wealthy businessmen, among them James Hanes, the hosiery magnate, and Dr. Clarence Gamble, heir to the Procter & Gamble fortune, drove the eugenics movement. They helped form the Human Betterment League of North Carolina in 1947, and found a sympathetic bureaucrat in Wallace Kuralt, the father of the television journalist Charles Kuralt.

Picked a bad decade to quit drinking

News that has me depressed today:

NH will receive less than half the amount received last year for fuel assistance from the feds, even though the need is greater.  Only 25% of those requesting assistance to receive it.

Not satisfied with installing FIRE sector technocrats as heads-of-state, the EU is attempting to codify control of  individual member nation budgets into their compact.  In my view, this is the interim step between national sovereignty and Goldman-Sachs run countries.

Fox News is taking The Muppets to the woodshed for supporting an anti-capitalist agenda.  I refuse to link to Fox, but your google machine should find it nicely for you if you're so inclined.

That is all.

Death by Austerity

There's just no way that the financial crisis in Europe ends well.  All the central bank action designed to ease bank liquidity by providing billions in loans and guarantees would be great if the Euro zone economies were tuning up.  But they're not.  And diving GDP is creating bigger deficits (tax revenues go down while automatic stabilizers kick in to increase government spending) leading austerity cheerleaders to call for more cuts.  In Ireland, where they have been chasing their tail for months, the government is set to announce another round of austerity, this time taking almost 4 billion eu out of the economy.

The British government is warning embassies all across Europe to be on the watch for social unrest, and have created advisories for helping British citizens escape a Eurozone collapse.  Can I point out that the ruling elite in Europe have a pretty crappy record of handling crisis?

Dog Shoots Man

That was the headline today, giving canines in Gary Larson's world hope.  Apparently, some fool left his loaded shotgun laying in a boat, pointed at him, while he attended something at the bow.  The dog steps on the shotgun (right on the trigger it must be pointed out) and boom goes the man's buttocks.  It's a wonder how some people make it through life.

"So Called"

By now, if you're from NH anyway, you've heard that the state legislature (the House) sustained the governor's veto on HB 474 (Right to Work for Less).  It was an incredible victory for Democrats and working people facing long odds in a very skewed legislature.  Democrats have approximately 25% of the seats in the 400+ member body, and needed 35 - 40 GOP colleagues to join with them in a sustain vote.  Kudos to Labor and Dem leadership for holding this coalition together.

I sacrificed most of my summer to help Bob Perry win a House special election in our county.  Bob is an amazing guy - knowledgeable about the issues, hard-working, and a great, great progressive who just happens to be a Democrat.  I add that because it's not always enough just to be a Democrat.  I know from very close conversations with people in union leadership that they are not thrilled with NH Dems, 474 notwithstanding.

So imagine my delight to see this headline in my local newspaper this morning:

NH House kills so-called right-to-work bill

Just doesn't get any better than that!