Celebrate

 Celebrate The Season

 

The celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ is here once more along with Kwanza, Hanukah, the Winter Solstice, and many other year-end celebrations. Although I was raised in the Episcopal Church, I no longer subscribe to biblical Christianity. I favor a spirituality based on protecting Mother Earth and all of those who are blessed to live on her. My beliefs are allowed under our pluralistic democratic government which welcomes all beliefs and faiths, including none at all. 

 

There are some among us who believe the United States is, or should be, a Christian country. While many of our founders were practicing Christians, they clearly believed our democracy was better served by allowing all faiths and beliefs to exist, side by side. That explains the absence of references to “God” and an explicit prohibition of any state sanctioned religion in our founding documents. The separation of church and state was so important to the founders that the very first amendment to the Constitution found in the Bill of Rights starts with, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…..”

 

Subsequent interpretations of the Bill of Rights by the U.S. Supreme Court made the First Amendment language prohibiting state sanctioned religions enforceable against state and local governments as well. 

 

We join with those who celebrate any or all these year-end holidays wishing for peace and joy to all in the coming year. 

 

Celebratory aspirations in mind, we need to continue to resist those who would do away with our pluralistic democracy in favor of white Christian nationalism led by an authoritarian wannabe dictator. 

 

We now live in a perilous time where those claiming to be called by some higher power would undo centuries of pluralistic self-government in favor of their specific belief system to the exclusion of all others. We cannot vote based upon President Biden’s age. We must vote to preserve what we already have, not what some want us to believe the authoritarian savior will bring. 

 

If you cherish women, vote to preserve their bodily autonomy and freedom to choose whether to bring a child into her life. If you cherish women, vote to continue their march towards economic and social equality with men.

 

If you cherish children and the adults charged with their care, vote to end the scourge of gun violence that takes far too many way too soon. Vote for paid family leave and universal healthcare. 

 

If you recognize gender is fluid and not binary, vote to allow all those to live the lives they must in the gender roles best suited to each.

 

If you value diversity, equity, and inclusion in all its iterations, vote for those who support teaching and learning from history to help prevent mistakes made in the past.

 

If you value the ability to read books that will expand your horizons and add to your knowledge of human history and the human condition, vote to end book bans, and support free expression of ideas. 

 

If you value helping everyone reach their full potential, vote for those who support public education for all and not those who would starve our public educational institutions in favor of private religious ones. 

 

If you value those who work, vote for those who support collective bargaining rights for working people so they may level the playing field with their employers and come to enjoy a living wage and safe working conditions. 

 

If you value your home on Mother Earth, vote for those who would protect her from the ravages of climate change.

 

If you want state and federal governments that work for all of us and not a privileged few, vote for those willing to do that and turn those who want to dismantle our governing bodies out of office. 

 

The upcoming elections loom large over our collective holiday celebrations. Celebrate how you choose and follow the traditions you choose. Always remember that you get to choose how you celebrate your faith because of where you live and under a government that does not dictate how you must make that choice. 

 

Happy Holidays.

Choices

 We Have Choices

 

In the good old days, being Speaker of the House or a United States Senator were jobs worth seeking and having. Not so much these days. 

 

First, we saw the debacle around Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) rise and fall. It took the GOP caucus 15 votes to elect McCarthy as Speaker after squeaking out a razor thin majority in the last congressional election. McCarthy had to give away what little power he might have had as the Speaker to bring the hard right Freedom Caucus on board. In the end, those concessions were his undoing after he crafted a way to keep the government open without sticking to the hard right demands from the Freedom folks to use the spending bills as leverage for their social agenda. McCarthy was voted out and has just announced he will retire from Congress at the end of the month. 

 

After McCarthy’s ouster, several GOP House members ran for the post, but none could secure the votes needed to take the reins. GOP House leader Patrick McHenry (R-NC) presided over this series of failed elections as interim Speaker. He too has announced his intention to leave the House.

 

Finally, a little-known House member, Mike Johnson (R-LA), emerged as the only one willing to give it a try. He is a neo-conservative, evangelical Christian who represents all the hard right Freedom members might have asked for from their Speaker. Faced with another potential government shut-down, Johnson crafted an 11^thhour, short-term solution to keep basic governmental functions up and running while kicking aid for Ukraine and Israel down to road for stand-alone votes. That was enough to bring Democrats on board to pass the bills, but this move will probably end his time in the Speaker’s chair as the hard right members still want to use their bills to leverage support for their anti-abortion, anti LBGTQI, anti-Ukraine, pro authoritarian Christian Nationalism, Make America White Again agenda.

 

Since those bills were passed, the House has once more become paralyzed and ineffectual in finding anyway forward towards responsible governance. Aid to Ukraine and Israel must pass the House to keep those countries and democracy safe. So far, Johnson has not found a way to get that done and may well need democratic votes once more to make it happen. If he turns again to cross the aisle, his time as Speaker will surely end. 

 

Over in the Senate, Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has finally caved to the pressure from his fellow republican and democratic senators and lifted his 10-month hold on approval of senior military promotions. He held up all these promotions of highly qualified commanders to protest military support for member abortions. His block created vacancies in senior positions in all the branches of our armed services, leaving important decisions to less seasoned minor ranking officers and several branches without top commanders. While he released the blocks on three-star officers and below, his blocks remain for four-star admirals and generals who would lead their respective branches and serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Tuberville represents yet another GOP leader willing to use the power of his office to wreak significant damage to our government and national security to leverage an agenda opposed by most Americans. 

 

Other GOP intransigence in the Senate has caused Vice-President Harris to cast a new record of tie breaking votes to secure passage of bills aimed at improving the lives of working citizens.

 

Even with GOP congressional craziness, President Biden has been able to get a lot done at home and to safeguard democracy abroad. We have his leadership and experience to thank for the infrastructure bills that are now fixing American roads, bridges, ports, and airports. We have him to thank for our newfound ability to negotiate drug prices for seniors on Medicare which has already brought the cost of life-saving insulin down to no more than $35 a bottle. We have his administration to thank for lower inflation and significantly lower gas prices. We have him to thank for the lowest unemployment rates in decades as more manufacturing and supply chains have been repatriated. We have him to thank for protection of women’s reproductive healthcare and the rights of LBGTQI Americans. We have him to thank for student debt relief. We have him to thank for aggressive action to mitigate climate change and protection of our shared environment. 

 

As elections loom, think about what matters to you and your family. We have a choice between an authoritarian would be dictator and a calm reasonable adult who gets things done for everyday Americans. We have a choice between those who would govern for all of us by cooperating and compromising or a clown car that spits out those who put on faces to make us laugh and believe their craziness. 

 

We have choices. Make them wisely.