Friday, September 18.

I stopped in my House Rep’s office yesterday. She’s Jan Schakowsky’s, and I’m proud she’s my Rep.  A month ago I’d been in there venting my spleen that the Town Hall disrupters were nothing but Racist rat-bastards who just plain hate niggers.  Now Jimmy Carter agrees with me, abeit in a more civil tongue. Now I wanted to share with her my new insight.  This one calmer.  Ah ha, now I see what Obama’s Goal is, and how is Strategy and Tactics are working out just fine.  After all, I trust he is a really, really really smart guy.

He knows that the minority of Americans who are Racists have the power to disrupt EVERYTHING he tries to do.  And if even Racists represent just 1 in 10 people, that’s enough people who are screwed up[1] to gum up the works.

So, Racism is what he must Do-Accomplish-Address right now.

Ya gotta figure that he knows how to deal with Racism.  After all, he’s been Black a long time, ya know what I mean? De-fusing &  marginalizing the Racists is his core strategy. 

His Tactics:

1) He is going slow and steady.  There is no hurry on this bill.  It’s been an issue since forever.  A few more months, it’s ok.  He is being patient. If he came in flexing his muscles and forcing things thru, like a lot of us Lefties want, he would open himself up for criticism.  He would scare the Racists up even more than they are now.

2) Continuing to reach out to Republicans.  Of course it is futile.  They and their followers, like angry alcoholics, will always find something to rage about.  But his reaching out isn’t to get consensus on details. It’s for the Regular Guy ‘n Gal, the one’s who just hear the headlines.  And what they hear, over and over and over again is: “hey, he’s trying.”

3) He’s picking his fights carefully. Giving way on things like the Van Jones issue and ACORN is smart.  They aren’t not worth him spending his energy on.  Right Winger’s are great at getting people sidetracked.  Obama, he ain’t falling for that old trick

4) Staying above the fray on Racism. 

Of course he knows this is at the core.  But he gets to stay out of it:  ”I want to focus on Health Care”.  Even Blacks can stay out of it to a great extent. Whites are doing the Heavy Hitting. We’re the ones putting a fist in the Racists mouths.  Jimmy Carter. The Liberal Talking Heads. The folks at MSNBC and Air America radio and such. Regular Guys like me.  Hell, let them put their rage on me. Who knows, eventually maybe the Mainstream Talking Heads will speak out.  And eventually maybe even some Republicans will grow a pair and eject the Crazies.

5) Letting the Racists hang themselves with their own rope

Hmm, their own rope.  As in lynching – I hadn’t thought of that when I wrote that line. 

 Anyway, Obama isn’t giving the Crazies any kind of hook to hang their hat on.  And nothing for us Regular Folks to have any sympathy for them.

If Obama had chosen an actual controversial topic, the Crazed-Racist-Bastards would have some  (as in more than zero) Ground under their feet.  As it is, they have zero.  Now, no one can say: “oh, they have a good point here, or there”.  Their hysteria won’t fly even to people who are addicted to saying, “Well, there are 2 sides to every issue.”  Their rage won’t fly with Regular Folks like my sister Kathy.  She’s a Good Person – thoughtful,  active in church, etc . But  even she sometimes gets sidetracked by this type of thinking.

The Racists are Projecting all their Anger-Racism-Sh*t into this issue, onto Obama.  But Obama is Walking[2] much like a good psychotherapist. By not pushing back, by being a blank wall, a mirror, it becomes quite clear that it’s just the Crazies own emotional poop. 

At the end of the day, the details of the Health Care bill won’t matter to them. These Racist bastards will never know, understand or care about the details anyway.  Whatever gets passed, Limbaugh and the other Psycho, Anti-American-Media-jackasses will distort it and lie about it to incite them.

The key is to allow this Racist Blood Clot, this Dis-Ease, to work its way through our society.  It’s going to continue to hurt.  There will probably be real violence – shootings, etc.[3]   But we cannot just Cut-It-Out.  Surgery is not going to work here.   Patience. Hmm, perhaps the real metaphor here is Holistic & Western medicine.   Obama’s role is to be the Holistic doctor, the Zen Master.   The rest of us can administer the Tough-Love Western medicine. Like re-break the arm so it can heal correctly. Maybe combine it with some South Side Chicago medicine. You know, Slap ‘em upside the head.  Not out of anger, but to get their teeth & brain cells back in alignment.

The Best Case Result.

I envision the Racists being marginalized at a new level. Their ideas don’t get taken seriously at all.   Non of this “they are just expressing their concern” garbage. Their rage and actions get condemned by society as a whole, much like the KKK and the John Birch’ers.  And America becomes freer than ever to Grow and become more Healthy.  To work towards real solutions.

By by Taking-Care-Of  the Racism-Anger[4] first and foremost, President Obama sets the table for the rest of his Life Leading America.  And that is The Goal.  That is Abraham Lincoln-esque. And we need a great leader, because the World faces challenges as humongous, dangerous and historic as World War II[5]. 

Footnotes.

[2] The First Nation people (American Indians) often talk about “Walking in a Good Way. Doing things in A Good Way.”  The Ojibwa have a term – NaMaJe.  It means to do Everything you do with Honor, Respect, Dignity and Pride.

[3] There was violence during other significant periods of growth.  Workers Rights, Unions,  Civil Rights, etc, etc.  Violence & pain seem to come with process. I wish it weren’t so, but historical facts is facts.   Trends are trends.

[4] Ok, Racism is not going to be fully resolved now. But it is the next iteration in the Growth of our Nation.  This is huge.

[5] Do you hear this, you Millennium gen’ers?  Your generation is the same type that won WWII.

(just one of a series of “History Standing Alongside One’s Personal Life”, begun in 1988)

Thursday, August 27, 2009

    As I watched them go through the Life of the Kennedy brothers for the 1^st time last night, I went through my own Life.  Our lives have been connected. I’ve connected them.

But before I get to that, I’ll share my first reactions.

    It was yesterday morning,  I’d gotten online and it was a news item on my default page..  My exact thought was “Another icon of our generation is gone.”  I’m not sure if I used the word “icon” tho.  One of the people I grew up.  Like the recent passing of the TV guy, “And that’s the way it was.” Walter Cronkite. [1] It’s a similar thing – they go down memory lane in his life and I see the images and events I grew up with.

    My 2^nd reaction was that I wasn’t in synch with the gush of all-praise for him.  I blame him for being a part of the bad things that happened to the Democratic Party in the 80’s.  He should have never run against Carter.  It split the party, I realized this later.  He helped pave the way for the insanity of Jesse Jackson, and  where at each election it was “What does Jesse Want?”  Until Bill Clinton came along, that is, and it was, as one commentator sorta said “The train’s pulling out of the station Jesse, do you want to be on it?

   Perhaps had Kennedy gotten behind Carter, the Party may have been less vulnerable.  More able to mount a solid campaign against Ray-gun in ’84, or ’88.  [2] I didn’t like this mixed feeling.  The being out of synch-ness.  But there it was.

    How strong I identified their family with mine hit stronger last night, after that first show I saw.  As I went to bed Tuesday, I wondered if my unconscious would have anything to say about it.  It didn’t, as far as I can tell.  In the main, what I write here, this is stuff that’s been within me for years and years and years.  Maybe just a few sharper points put on and a bit new info.

I pride myself that my first Halloween costume I ever recall wearing was of JFK

“See, I was destined to be politically active”, I’ll jokingly say.  It must have been in ’61 or ’62. But who knows, maybe it was in ’60.  No matter, it puts me at 4, or 5 or 6 at the oldest.  It was so funny.  I was going around with the group, but I kept getting invited in, and the adults all laughed and smiled.  The design of suit with the JFK monogrammed handkerchief tucked in.  And the JFK mask. 

I knew we had that mask years later, I saw it.  Can’t believe we didn’t keep it.   I must have had some say-so in buying that.  I can’t imagine Mom pushing it on me, she never spoke politics in all her life.

The space program.  My Uncle Bill and I were into it. He and I shared watching it on TV – John Glenn, the whole thing.  And the space program was JFK.

Dad and Mom, our family, it felt like the Kennedy’s. 

    In the late 50′s and early 60′s, our family had it all. Success. Golf. Youth-fullness. A real family with kids in the White House. Like the Kennedy family, we were Irish Catholic, with 10 kids.  I 8th of 10, 5th of 5 boys.  I always thought Dad looked a bit like JFK.  Dad’s job as Corporate Exec VP was going well.  Times were good.  Dad had big parties for all his workers in the backyard, complete with cute women in bikini’s.   We went to Ridge Country Club a lot.  Swam.  Went on 2 month long vactions in  Lake Geneva, and went on a big boat.  We laughed while we played in the water at the pier, and rollicked in the inner tube.  Dad dove off the pier.   He was going to take us on the plane sometime when he went out to California on business.

We had glamor too.  Dad & Aunt Rita had been in show business all their lives.  So when Aunt Rita’s daughter, cousin Charmian, starred as Lisel in the Sound of Music, we all dressed up and took a ride in limos downtown to see the Chicago Premier.  It was Hollywood, red carpet and all. 

    Then something bad happened.  Dad lost his corporate-really-great job.  I don’t know exactly what year that was, but it must have been within a few 3 years of Kennedy’s assignation. Things in our family were never the same.   I don’t know if I identified with little Robert Kennedy Jr. or not.  But I wasn’ t much older than him.

The early ’60′s, that time was the Oehmen family’s Camelot.

 Bobby Kennedy’s death.  June 6^th, 1968.

My oldest sister Patty woke me up in the morning, as usual.  She’d usually tell me the time, and I’d usually say something like “You’re kidding.” And she’d reply, “No, I’m not.”  My line was just a throw away line that I always said.

      On this morning she woke me up with something like “Bobby Kennedy has been killed.”  And I said my usual, “You’re kidding.” But I knew she wasn’t.  She gave her usual response.  Only more intense, and serious.

    I wasn’t surprised exactly. Some part of me, it’s like I wanted it to happen. Some weird thing like that. Maybe that it was inevitable.   The ‘want it to happen’ wasn’t clear.  It wasn’t clearl, like how around that same, when Dad had bought a restaurant,   I hoped it would fail.  Because then maybe Mom and Dad wouldn’t argue so much.  It did, but they didn’t.

    I’m not sure, but I may have identified with Bobby.  Just tonight, I got the dates put in perspective.  June 6^th.  Just a few weeks before Patty got married.   I was just out of 6^th grade.  Could it really be that his death and King’s were less than 2 months apart?  Wow.

    And then 2 months later I spend 2 weeks with the Chicoin’s, friends of Mom & Dad’s, with their son on their houseboat.  With the two 16 year old girls from the other boat.  Did any of this ever come up?  Was it all just the eight track, Beatles and Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band?

    As they explained about his ground level, uncoordinated campaign, it hit me clearly.  His youthful supporters were the same one’s who had been inspired by Jack 8 years before.

Teddy Kennedy.

    It’s weird, but somehow  up until the last decade or so, I see him as a bit clownish.  Like  my older brother Billy in the one scene [home movie] where he and I are wrestling in front of the house.  Maybe it’s the black hair.

    Strange, I never even thought to learn more about him while I lived in Boston.  Maybe even then I resented the divisiveness that centered around him in 1980.  Maybe it was picking up some of co-worker Paul-e’s attitude “oh, the Kennedy’s were nasty.  Joe made his money as a Rum runner.”  And then there was the fact thaty

    Tonight, learning that he hated Carter from the start and vise versa, and that his campaign was poorly run, it’s taken the edge off my negative feelings about that stuff.  He was probably goaded into it.  Too bad.  He maybe would have had a better shot in ’84. 

    On Rachel Maddow, she showed a speech he gave in Alaska, just a few days after

the death of King.  It had only surfaced recently.  It was a fantastic speech, given with clarity and authority and passion.

    When they mention how he always had time for the little guy, I smile with my friend Helen Lundergrad. [3]  Her great story about how she met him at the convention, I think it was the 2000 in Los Angeles.   In her own words:

“Oh Mr. Kennedy, I’ve got a joke for you,” I said to him.  His staff wanted him to keep going, but he told them to stop, he wanted to hear it.  And so he did.

Why is a Republican like a condom?  One…they block growth,  two…[I forget # 2], and three, they cover up pricks.   Oh, he laughed at that, he thought it was so-o funny.  He’s such a nice man. He really is.”

Teddy and his oldest brother Joe.

    They said something about, of all of them, he was closest to Joe.

At a family gathering, when they toasted each other, it was 14 year old Ted who said, ‘a toast to the one who is not with us tonight, Joe”  I did something similar with Uncle Bill, and later Brian. 

Their own Band of Brother’s, so to speak.

    I stole that line from one of the shows tonight. The Kennedy brothers, the trio.  With Joe as the fourth in these tributes.  Nah, I identified me and my four brothers with the Bonanza Cartwright family, and Ben.   On the other hand, like Teddy, I am the youngest male in my family.  Hmmm.  Never thought of that.

Impact

    The Kennedy family’s commitment to doing Good, even tho they came from wealth, is incredible.  Even more than FDR, the “traitor to his class.” [4]       Imagine 3 brothers, a whole family really, committed to the same core values. I cannot imagine what that must have felt like.   Woulda been nice to grow up with that.

    Committed to making things happen. To social justice.  To the belief that we can do better. That things can get better.  That government of course has a role. They put themselves out there.  It does not matter that they had faults.  Yes, there was the fight for power, and ego, and all that comes with that.  Each fought with true Fire in the Belly.  Each gave the full measure. I cannot imagine what must have gone through them when Jack was murdered.  And then Bobby. 

    Did I pick up on that?  It certainly pervaded those about me.  Dad embodied that in many ways.  Though by example.  By using the skills of his show business profession to entertain, lead fundraisers, and build a parish. I don’t recall him ever talking about it. 

    I was in grade school from 1962 to ’70. My nuns and priests and lay teachers from Queen of Apostles, they must surely have been inspired by the Kennedy’s. It must have been interwoven with the liberal, radical changes of the Vatican II council.    How could it have not?  We learned of hope that irrigation would convert deserts to farms, so that no one would go hungry.  Nuclear power would solve other problems. The exploration of space and science.  And that this and Faith & God were in synch, not in any way in opposition.

    We discussed all the issues of the day.  Both sides. Being controversial was just accepted. Father Maher embodied that. He stood for Civil Rights.  He marched with Martin Luther King in Harvey, a bordering suburb.  I recently found out that he was well known in Roseland and south Chicago.  Which was on a front line.  And he did it in an all white parish in an all white community.  Riverdale, where the whites who had lost their homes and everything in the white flight from Roseland were pouring in.

    Someplace in all the tributes tonight, I heard one of the Kennedy’s  say that a society is measured by how we treat the weakest of us.  I concluded that same thing many years ago.  Danny told me it was not a new idea.  It didn’t matter.  It sprung from the collection of all that is Within.  That’s a pretty good compliment to them and how they influenced me.

A Full Life.

    Ted Kennedy lived to be old.  [5]  And so his death is not tragic, like all of his other brothers.  So he deserves a real old fashioned Irish wake.  Lots of drinking.  And celebrating his life.  Jez, I hope his family have not forgotten or let go of THAT tradition.  Tho the Irish thing, they’ve never played that up at all.

    They better enjoy celebrating him as a full-on Liberal. He fought hard and well for the Good.  Not let these Republicans pull a Wellstone on them.  Of course talk of his Liberal political accomplishments at his funeral.  It’s what he was about.  At my funeral, they damn sure better talk of my politics.

History Standing Alongside One’s Personal Life. 

Some parts of it are more personal than others.  Some cover a greater time span.  It’s pretty cool how Teddy said at the convention, “…the torch has been passed….”  Obama’s a great man to pass it to.  [6]

But there will never be another “The Kennedy’s.” 

POSTSCRIPT

Friday night, right after the Memorial.  I feel like I was invited into their home.  It was Irish, tho I guess they’ll drink later. Here was the Vice President of the United States, talking as if to a private gathering.  The first, Joespeh P. II, was one of the best. … “every Irishman’s wish is to see their own eulogy.  That’s why the Irish call the obituary’s the sports page. And what a great story with them all in the regatta  – I can see the terror in them as they hit the bouy, and hear Teddy “ if as the start of the race you’d know that after the 1^st bouy you’d be in 7^th or 8^th place, would you be happy at that? (yes). “Well then, let’s go win this race.” Orin Hatch of all people, what a guy. Being oh so human as he wiped his nose more than once.  Telling stories, honest about their fights, yet they boomed with Ted’s laughter.  When Orin had asked him one night when Teddy was feeling no pain, would he speak before 200 Morman missionary students and get Fanuil Hall, to each he responded “DONE!” And “…the next day he came to me with the letter in his hand…what else did I promise you last night?” I can see Ted singing.  How did he give so much to so many?  How is possible for one man to be so large and Good? I wish I could have met him.  Ah, but, as Biden hinted at, the next generation of Kennedy’s. This will be nice to see.  It is only the The Kennedy Brothers Era that is ending.

=====================================

Footnotes.

[1]  There are a number of people who remind me of Dad.  Walter is one of them.  Maybe it’s just those super big black glasses. And mustache.  Mickey Rooney is another.  I’ve always sensed a connection in the tragic look of sadness on LBJ’s face and Dad’s. 

2 The leadership of the Democrats during this time, they didn’t understand the need to be pragmatic.  They didn’t accept that things had changed.  Couldn’t control or reign in their passion.  They can be cut some slack in this.  After all, they had lost all their leaders.  Leaders who clearly understood things take time. But Jesus Christ – it was frustrating for me and Danny.

3 A few other personal comments. 

Just a few weeks ago I was talking to a gal from Green Singles.  We weren’t right for each other, but we both found each other interesting.  She dated Robert Kennedy’s son for a brief while.  The one who is associated with Maria Shriver.

Back in 1990, I was at a fundraiser for a guy named Rich McMinneman.  He was running for Ward Committemen.   At a fundraiser, I say to a guy, “you look a lot like Robert Kennedy.”  His answer was “I’m his son.” Or some close relationship. He and Rich had been friends in college or something.

Why does Robert Kennedy Jr’s voice sound so pained?  The one who hosts Ring of Fire on Air America Radio.   It’s really irritating.  Worse than nails on a chalkboard or something.  Listening to John and Bobby these past few days, they don’t sound like that.  I kinda figured they did.

4 Funny, I’ve never heard any mention of them being traitors to their class.  But I’ll bet it no doubt is behind the passionate hatred the Republicans have for them.

5 But why did they let him wear that goofy looking round rimmed hat at the inauguration?  FDR wore one of those silly looking things too when he got old.  Is that some kind of old man look? 

No writing would be complete without talking about his “Generation type.” [see a summary of the book ‘Generations’ by Howe & Strauss in a blog on www.NatCapClub.org] A child during WWII, by age he was an Adaptive generation type.  That type is a mediator between the power of the Civic and the Idealist generations.  He was a rock of the Democratic party.  Always there, year after year after year.  Working for the Best Good, and willing to make incremental changes.  Which is the hallmark of his generation type.

⁶ And he’s from Chicago, even better.  And worked in Roseland

Sunday, August 30, 2009, right after Meet the Press

    I was not old enough to cry for Jack or Bobby.  But tears fell yesterday morning while I watched the funeral mass.  Tears fell again this morning.    I confess, at funerals I often wonder if those great qualities in the person being eulogized will be said of me.  Do I possess them?  Will people appreciate me?

    Perhaps this ties in with a dream I had last night.  I was walking along smoking a cigarette.  “Oh shit, I’ve gone back to doing all 3 of my bad habits.  Now I’ll have to stop again.”  Well ok, I know 2 of those bad habits.  What’s the 3^rd?  It could in fact, be a trait of Teddy’s that I fear is a weakness of mine.  I felt it Friday night when Biden said of him, “with Teddy, it was never about him, it was always about You.”  I have heard the opposite of that pushed in my face.  I know some of it is their Projection, but …

 Beyond the Redemption  

      I wondered where did his empathy come from?  Where did all his concern for others come from?  The answer of course, is that it came from the suffering he experienced.   And is that not true also of myself? That my focus on doing Good for people and the planet I know comes from my own suffering growing up.

    But that answer alone seems to contain a sense of the pejorative in it.  A sense of lack of a limits in its genuine concern, since it stems from our own wounds.  Neurosis.  That which has lots of unseen Shadow in it.  Or contradiction, as with me doing self destructive, polluting things.  Ah, but as with Teddy and myself:  it is genuine Healing of the Trauma that enables me to move Beyond the Redemption.  That’s the key.  That’s what’s makes it not just about Me, Me, Me, Mine  – My Suffering.  Life Forgiveness, it’s a process, it grows in degrees.   Like shifting gears on a stick shift – let out the clutch as you press on the gas.   It’ not a light switch that is flipped.  So, Teddy is further along that path than me.  I can live with that.

    There is one thing though.  Teddy was responsible for killing a girl.  Or rather, involved with the death of a girl.  That is no doubt what is at the core of his letter to the Pope.  Yet tears fell with that letter too.  Is there some Chappaquidic in my closet, or just a feeling of guilt at being involved or associated with the unforgivable?

Seeing the Obvious – Ted Kennedy

    As I was biking along the lake yesterday, it hit me quite clearly.  Here we’ve got a guy, about 36.  It’s one year after is 2^nd brother has been assassinated, murdered in cold blood, simply for their  political views and concern for the common good.  All within the last 6 years. His 3^rd brother was killed when he was 14.  In WWII, which granted, makes it easier.  And I believe he had a few other siblings who died by ’69 as well.  The country is in the midst of history making turmoil. An unwin-able war, drugs are available, Free Love and the Sexual Awaking.  Civil Rights, of which he was a part.  And now he’s the oldest in his family, with tons of fatherless nieces and nephews.  Oh, and his life has been on display for like the last 10 years or more.  People have been probably putting pressure on him to run for president.

    Now he’s at a party with a bunch of cuties who adored and worked for his older brother.  Hmm, ya think he might be tempted to have sex with one of them? Duh.

    So now he goes off with one, and the worst possible thing happens – they get into a wreck and she’s killed.  He knows this is tragic. He’s terrified.  Jesus, his older brother fooled around, noboday sez nothing, and he’s an American Saint. Now when he, Teddy does it, not only is he gonna get caught, he’s a part of her death. And there’s no big brother to turn to, to call. 

    So with all this, ya, what a surprise he’s got a few problems with booze and such.  That last until well after he’s run for president.

    Doesn’t anybody in the media have a brain?  My God, ya don’t have to be Freud, or Carl Jung.  Nor do ya gotta make it Dr. Phil – Oprah pop psychology. 

It would be nice if somebody said, “…with all that going on in my life, I’d  [select from below, or fill in the blank]

a)       wanna get drunk all the time too

b)       do some self destructive things

c)       be needing some time in psychotherapy

d)       other

Seeing the Obvious – Town Hall protesters.

My email on August 14

    Cut the horse poop at the vein popping screaming about health care reform. It is whites yelling their hatred of blacks. Period. On national tv. And then on  Right wing media shows. KKK’ers must be lov’in this. I’m a 53 year old white guy who went to high school where we had race riots every Spring and Fall. I know scum sucking white nigger-haters when I see them.

I intentionally used the harsh word “nigger-hater” because racist sounds far too nice.    Again, let’s look at the facts.  One, these people don’t know the issues.  Two, they are yelling and screaming bloody murder that their world as they know it is falling apart.  Hmm, this intensity about everybody getting fair insurance.  Three, the Right Wing media terrorists who are proding these assholes are openly fear mongers &  anti-black.  Oh, and we have a black president.  Hmmm.

A Strong, Clear Voice

Politically, that’s what I’ll miss the most.  I wish I had appreciated it more when he was alive.  He was the one who cut through the bullshit and stated the issues clearly, in a strong and powerful voice.    “…those people are Wrong….Health Care is a moral issue…Alkida is not connected to nuclear weapons….”

    I wish he could speak one more time.  I can hear him saying the following (or wish he would):

There are issues and situations where both sides must bear some of the blame.  Lack of civility and  reasonable discourse in politics today is not one of them.

In both houses of Congress it is the fault of the Republicans. It is they and their Right Wing media that for years has been demonizing what they oppose.  In angry hyperbole that doesn’t contain facts.  They have nurtured hatred and fear for decades.  This didn’t start with President Bush, but it was during his reign that their unbridled anger got worse – they refused to compromise at any level.  Do not forget – it was Republican Joseph McCarthy in the 1950’s who stirred up the Red Scare Witch hunt that became one of the most shameful times in our country’s history.  I saw the Black Listing of hundreds of people.  I saw American’s lives destroyed based on hearsay and forced testimony. 

We need to stop this fear & hate propaganda machine so that we can make progress on the local and global challenges we face today.

History & The Gospel Truth

    I enjoyed watching the mass yesterday.  It was a beautiful service.  It brought me back to growing up, and high school, and other times when I found solace inside a church, and the magnificent symbols.

    During the Service, I tied a few things together.  The eating the Body and Blood of Christ.  It was only a few years ago I learned what’s behind Indians giving Flesh Offerings. [1] Our bodies, our flesh, is the only thing we really say is our own, the only thing we really have to give.  Jesus and the Church, on the same vein.  But Christ gives his Body and Blood to the People.  And to the Creator, I think.

    May Peace Be With You.  And With You Too. What a fantastic exchange.  My friend Joseph’s phrase “Many Blessing’s” is nice.[2]  But to wish Peace.  Not world peace.  Inner Peace.  What could be better.

    I never understood the punitive side of God. If God is All Loving, how can he condemn to Hell those who ‘did not clothe or feed or comfort me’.  Ah, but perhaps he doesn’t really mean Hell, and Forever.  Maybe he’s just saying “Hey, cut the bullshit. You’re wrong and that’s that.”  God is being tough and direct.  No beating around the bush.  And there’s a time and a place for this toughness.  

     Just like I do in these blogs and in my daily life. It’s the Regular Guy kindof approach.  I don’t know if that’s history, but it confirms my gospel.

History Standing Alongside My Personal Life.  Like I always say – it’s a funny place for it to hang out.  But then again, it’s as good a place as any.

[2] Joseph Davis.  A long-time friend and mentor, and chief within the American Indian Religion.