There is a sadness at the heart of America. It pervades everything we are, everything we do, everything we touch. Every fifty-five years [1] or so, we all take sides in an argument we have been having since our country was founded. Like an old married couple that seem to fight about many different things, but in reality the argument is always based on that same thing, that same issue, the issue of racial inequality.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Some of our ancestors came here from Asia many thousands of years ago as the last ice age retreated. Our continent was briefly visited by Scandinavians, Chinese[2], and finally permanently settled by groups of Spanish/Portuguese, French, German and English speaking peoples. Some came to live here, many came to make their fortunes and then move back home to Europe as wealthy people. America was founded on the get rich quick scheme. Eventually, people from every corner of our world came to the Americas to live permanently. Among them were people enslaved as property.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. The more prosperous, more advantaged of us adopted this ideal of democracy from the ancient Greeks and Romans. Everyone who came to these shores through hard work, determination, and faith in their creator could be successful. Could share in the wealth of our country. Could share in the decision making process of politics. But ‘everyone’ was not every person here. Everyone did not include women. Everyone did not include people who did not own land. Everyone did not include the people already here. Everyone did not include those enslaved and owned by others. Some of us were more ‘equal’ than others[3].
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. After some period of assimilation, everyone who comes to our continent is supposed to share fully in the rights, responsibilities, and privileges of an American. But it ain’t necessarily so [4]. The people at the top of our American hierarchy, have decided they like being privileged. To the detriment of all of us, the caste system of ‘whiteness’ was adopted to separate who can enjoy all the benefits and privileges, and those who should know and keep to their place out of sight and out of mind. The non-white people who should be grateful for the scraps they receive, grudgingly paid from the enormous wealth that they create for their fellow Americans who just happen to be more equal than they.
Once again we celebrate another Juneteenth. During this most recent 55 year cycle of partisan strife between those who are white, ‘normal’, ‘American’ and those who are striving for equality, safety, and inclusion for everyone who is attempting to live in our America. If there is anything that can unite us all, it is that sadness which is the original sin of America: that for some of us to be so prosperous, many more of us have to be exploited. For some of us to be included, many more of us must be excluded.
For the upholders of the status quo – our uniquely American systemic, cultural, racial and class based caste system – who claim that eventually we will all share in the benefits of our society. That nagging feeling, that constant doubt, that fear of the other, that insecurity that all the hard won status of whiteness might be lost. For in America it is not what you are, who you know, or even what you have done that count – but what have you done for me lately – which maintains your status on the job, or in your community. This leads to that zealous rage against these people who protest, who remind us all of our troubled past and present. Who remind us of what we would leave safely buried. Underlying that rage and fear is that American sadness that things will never be as in that mythic past when everyone knew their proper place.
To those who celebrate this Juneteenth. For the protesters who feel they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. To those who know that in the long arc of history all people must eventually breath free. To those who ask the questions of all of us, “If not us, then who? If not now, then when?” We celebrate our past progress in the certain hope that someday all people will be free, welcomed, and included in our America. While at the same time, we feel that bittersweet American sadness that for all the progress we have made, we still have so very far to go.
[1] Every ~fifty-five years we experience racial based unrest in the United States – examples:
War of 1812 (British forces promised enslaved Americans freedom if they helped British forces)
American Civil War 1861-1865
Racial unrest during/after WWI 1910s-20s
Late 1960s-early 70s
Now
[2] Menzies, Gavin. 1421: The Year China Discovered America. New York, NY, USA, William Morrow Paperbacks, [2008. Print.
[3] Orwell, George. Animal Farm: A Fairy Story. New York, NY, USA : Signet Classics, [1996. Print.
[4] Ira Gershwin, DuBose Hayward. “It Ain’t Necessarily So” From the Album “Highlights from George Gershwin’s Porgy And Bess”, performed by John DeMain with the Houston Grand Opera, RCA Victor, May 12, 1997. Audio Recording.
Justice has always been in short supply in the United States. This has never been news to poor, native, or enslaved Americans. As imperfect as our courts have been until the last 25 years or so, we had experienced more fairness, protection of civil liberties, more of “We the People” actually recognized as persons under the law, and treated as such. It had seemed that the “great moral arc of the universe” while long actually does bend toward justice. Then, in the 90’s the conservatives of the Republican party decided it was time to turn back the clock, through ruthless partisan tactics to appoint radically conservative judges to the Federal courts.
The United States Federal courts are not supposed to be the forum where we as a society enact social policy. Our courts are supposed to rule on the cases before them, deciding on the merits of the law and the facts of the case, whether the litigants before them have been wronged and should be compensated or if the judgement against them was correct. The United States Supreme Court has for many decades, abandoned this role, instead seeking cases to rule on to establish precedent – the litigants seeking Justice before them be damned. Precedent is supposed to provide continuity to law in our United States. If a Federal court decides that the precedent to this point was wrong – that is a big deal – as in the decisions that “Separate is not Equal: in Education – which it plainly was not (and still is not), in many schools throughout our United States when predominately white schools have ample money, facilities and books, and schools which are in poorer white or brown communities make do with much, much less.
The six radically conservative Republican, and three liberal Democratic associates of our United States Supreme court are itself an artifact of a Republican Senator, the Honorable Addison Mitchell McConnell III, who in his position of Senate Majority leader blocked President Barack Obama’s supreme court nominee Merrick Garland from consideration in the Senate. Senator McConnell and the Republican majority prevented this position on the supereme court from being filled for 12 months, until after the election of President Donald Trump.
Republican Senator McConnell then displayed that perfect hypocrisy which demonstrates that no Republican can be trusted in the modern Republican party by reversing his rational for preventing consideration of President Obama’s supreme court nominee ( that there was an election coming up in 8 months ) to rush through confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett, President Trumps third nominee to the supreme court, less than 2 months before the 2020 presidential election.
Through these Republican machinations, President Trump was able to seat 3, radically conservative Republican “Justices” to the Supreme Court of our United States. Supreme Court decisions were already getting decidedly more radically conservative. Some examples follow:
That women are not people after all – deserving of making their own decisions with their doctors about whether or not to carry pregnancies to term.12
That police officers need to be protected from anything more than cursory investigation, let alone prosecution from the deaths they cause in the line of duty. 34
That with mass casualty shootings almost every day, the second amendment has been construed to mean that any person in our United States has a personal right to carry a firearm in spite of the wording and meaning of the actual second amendment.5
That corporate persons rights are more important that the rights of the people that work for those corporations.6
Not only has the Supreme Court of our United States been corrupted by this sort of partisan ideology which supports moneyed interests over people, and gives no consideration of fact, or truth, or even basic common sense in favor of the strict legal arguments where both thumbs are firmly on the scales of Justice to construe the law to favor those self-same moneyed interests. An entire educational system of law schools, foundations, and professional societies have been established to advance the ideal of an absolute right of property to those few who hold the most wealth in our country. This idea originated in the early 19th century of the United States, when property included the enslaved persons who collectively represented 20% 78 of the wealth of our United States before the Civil War. The reforms of the 20th century: safe food and drug reforms of the Progressive era at the beginning of the century, the labor and finance New Deal reforms after the great Depression as well as the voting, civil rights, environmental and consumer protections of the 60’s through the 80’s, are all anathema to these self proclaimed “Public Choice”, “Economic Libertarians”. These proponents of extreme self-reliant, personal liberty believe that we all would be better off if workers were prevented from organizing and business’s are freed from financial and environmental regulation. Restricting government to providing domestic security ( basic policing ) and sovereign security ( military protection of the country ). Where the poorer among us – the Takers are denied any government services, while the wealthy Makers are not taxed of their well-earned wealth.
Who are these puppet masters who have through Republican Senator McConnell have put these radical conservative Jurists on most of the Federal Courts throughout our United States?
I recently read a book – Democracy in Chains, The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America, by Nancy MacLean. It was the reason this Part 3 took so much time for me to post. This book details the life and work of James McGill Buchanan and his influence on Charles and David Koch, using their resources to found the infrastructure necessary to destroy the liberal reforms accomplished by our United States in the 20th Century. To make our United States more like Chile under the dictator Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, and more importantly ( Buchanan was an advisor to Pinochet ) to create constitutional blocks to changing government policy, such that Chile even 30 years after Pinochet’s death still struggles with enacting more liberal policies.
This political and legal infrastructure which is attempting to impose this economic radical personel liberty on all of us, whether we like it or not; consists of the following institutions. Anyone who is half-aware of conservative policy will recognize some if not all of these institutions.
As these public choice policies have been implemented, the regular working public is increasingly having to shoulder more responsibility of our health care, our retirement, our consumer/worker health and safety. While the wealthy in our country pay less of a percentage of their income in taxes than the rest of us. Especially since most of their compensation is paid to them as stock rather than monetary wages. Public Choice personal “Liberty” can only be enjoyed by people with enormous wealth, who can buy for themselves all the protections, services, and security which we liberals believe should be enjoyed by everyone who lives and contributes to our country.
Paradoxically, this public choice, personal liberty movement seeks to increase the size and control of government over American society rather than as it purports, to shrink government control over our lives. The problem of public choice is that to provide the personal “liberty” for the wealthy among us, the rest of us must be prevented from electing public officials who will raise taxes on the wealthy to provide services to everyone.
The Republican party has been entirely captured by this point of view. Republican ideology is that government is the problem, so that the more incompetent, less effective Republican officials are: only better proves their thesis that government of the people does not work. Why should anyone vote for any Republican who promotes the tax cutting, government services cutting, anti-government ideology of our current Republican party? Why should anyone support a political party that instead of doing positive things for our country is only interested in obstruction?
Government is not our problem. Our problem is the Republican party and their ideological puppet masters, the architects of public choice, establishing the liberty of the wealthy on the backs of the rest of us.
After President Richard Nixon was re-elected in 1972, a major scandal was reported in the press about the Nixon administration. Investigations revealed the following criminal activities by Nixon Administration officials.
President Nixon’s team of ‘plumbers’ who targeted whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon papers fame, also broke into the Democratic party headquarters in Washington, DC to plant listening devices for political dirt on the Democratic party.
Richard Nixon distributed tens of millions in illegal campaign contributions to his own and other Republican campaigns during the 1972 elections.
Tapes of Oval Office conversations ( subpoenaed by the Congressional Judiciary committee and ordered by the United States Supreme Court revealed incontrovertible proof of President Nixon’s knowledge and approval of ( in rough non-presidential language ) the crimes and misdemeanors alleged in Congressional investigations.
In 1973, the Republican Party believed in bipartisanship, in working with the Democratic Party, even when the process was painful; the impeachment of a President of their own party. President Nixon, believing that his impeachment in the House and conviction in the Senate was inevitable, resigned from office.
Members of the Republican Party are no longer capable of such selflessness to the truth or the pursuit of justice. Remember our societal democratic norms of belief and behavior from the first post in this series The American Crisis – 2024.
Both parties must agree to work with each other, toward the common good of our country
Both parties must agree to abide by the results of elections
Both parties must agree that government at the Federal, State and Local levels all have a role in maintaining the common good for all of us
One of the most frustrating aspects in the downfall of the Republican Party is how the Democratic Party in their hope that the other party will return to sanity keeps getting betrayed by the perfidy of Republican party members. In the following examples of special investigations, Republican party members were chosen to conduct investigations of both Republican and Democratic government officials. Even when the investigations revealed there was no wrongdoing, the concluding reports were made in such a way as to cause political damage to the Democratic officeholder under investigation, whereas if a Republican party officeholder is being investigated, the resulting report is misrepresented as a vindication whatever its conclusions. Examples Below.
The Whitewater investigation of President William Clinton and Hillary Clinton by Republican Kenneth Starr in 1994. Kenneth Starr found in his investigations some questionable real estate and financial transactions while the Clintons lived and worked in Arkansas, but nothing that would justify impeachment or criminal charges. The reason Starr’s investigation led to William Clinton’s impeachment hearing was that Clinton had sex with an intern in the Oval Office and Clinton lied about this liaison under oath. Kenneth Starr used the salacious nature of the personal information he obtained in his investigation to launch a political attack on a President of the opposing political party.
The investigation by Republican James Comey – Director of the FBI – into Secretary of State Hillary Clinton alleged misuse of government email communications. James Comey released a memo 2 weeks before the 2016 election to the heads of several committees in the US Congress that he needed to “supplement” his testimony of July 2016. That additional email had been discovered on a laptop and that these emails were being investigated. In his July testimony, Comey had expressed the opinion that Secretary Clinton
Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.
Republican James Comey’s opinion is that Secretary Clinton and her colleagues did not violate laws, but were “extremely careless”. James Comey’s own extremely careless memo released two weeks before a Presidential election betrayed the common good while he occupied one of the highest positions of moral trust in the United States.
The Investigation into Donald Trump’s contacts with Russian officials was suppressed by Trump Administration Attorney General William Barr. Republican William Barr delayed the release of the Mueller Report and purposely misrepresented the report findings that there was no evidence of wrongdoing, even though Robert Mueller reported multiple criminal acts, and acts of obstruction of justice by Donald Trump during his candidacy in the 2016 election for President of the United States.
To give credit where it is due, Republican Robert Mueller acted honorably in his investigation of Russian influence into the 2016 Presidential election. He did not leak like the sieve James Comey, and delivered his report of Candidate Trumps alleged crimes with Russian officials faithfully to Attorney General William Barr.
When classified documents were found in an old office and at one of President Biden’s homes from his time as Vice-President, Biden worked with government investigators to determine how it happened and immediately turned the documents over to the national archives. Republican members of Congress demanded an investigation into these documents, as former President Trump had purposely taken classified documents from Washington DC to his resort home in Mar-a-Lago Florida. In contrast to Democrat Joseph Biden, Republican Donald Trump did everything he could to keep the documents he had taken illegally from the White House, and the FBI was forced to raid his home to recover the documents.
Attorney General Merrick Garland in yet another misguided bipartisan gesture, appointed Republican Robert Hurr to investigate the classified documents Vice-President Biden had in his possession. Robert Hurr concluded that no wrongdoing by Biden or his staff had occurred, however he then added the following to his report – released February 2024
We have also considered that, at trial, Mr Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.
At a time when President Biden is the oldest person to run for office of President of the United States and Republican media has been pushing the theme that President Biden has declining mental faculties. Clearly, Republican Robert Hurr is attempting to influence the Presidential election for a future appointment in a Republican administration.
Members of the Republican party can no longer be trusted in positions of political responsibility, like the Justice department. In fact, like many senior military leaders, Justice department officials should not participate in politics, even to membership in any political party or voting in elections. Their impartiality needs to be not only absolute, but to exhibit as absolute an appearance of impartiality as is possible.
James Carter Administration – May 1, 1980 – caused by a reinterpretation of the 1884 Antideficiency Act – shutdown lasted one day – the only government shutdown caused by members of the Democratic party in the history of the United State.
Ronald Reagan Administration – caused by President Ronald Reagan’s veto’s of appropriation bills, as a negotiating tactic to force congress to make changes to these appropriation bills.
November 22, 1981 – shutdown lasted one day over a weekend
October 4, 1984 – shutdown lasted ~4 hours
October 12, 1986 – shutdown lasted ~4 hours
George H W Bush Administration – October 6, 1990 – caused by Republican members of Congress due to tax increases to reduce the budget deficit – shutdown lasted 3 days
William Clinton Administration – caused by Republican members of Congress threatening to not raise the debt ceiling
November 14, 1995 – shutdown lasted 5 days
December 16, 1995 – shutdown lasted 21 days
Barack Obama Administration – October 17, 2013 – caused by Republican members of Congress attempting to defund The Affordable Care Act ( ObamaCare ) by not raising the debt ceiling – shutdown lasted 16 days
Donald Trump Administration
January 20, 2018 – Continuing funding resolution failed to pass because of DACA provisions, then various compromise solutions to minimize impact to the United States military could not be agreed upon until a bipartisan group of 20 senators put together a compromise – shutdown lasted 3 days
December 22, 2018 – President Trump would not approve the appropriations bill which did not fund his border wall with Mexico – newly elected Democratic party members of Congress were able to pass an appropriation bill which had already passed in the Senate – shutdown lasted 35 days – the longest government shutdown in American history – with both a Republican President, House and Senate.
Republican party office holders in this last government shutdown on Dec 2018, shut down the government of the United States in a disagreement they had with each other. Only the installation of newly elected Democratic party members of congress broke the stalemate within the Republican party.
The reason for this Republican disfunction is the accepted Republican ideology that government is the primary threat to the ‘freedom’ of their wealthy supporters, who do not need the programs or support that our government provides. Their conclusion then is to grab all they can before shutting it all down. The question we all need to ask ourselves as Americans is why we should vote for a Republican candidate ever again?
Date: 3/9/24 7:09 AM (GMT-05:00)
To: info@marketplace.org
Subject: Comments on March 8, Marketplace Morning Report
David Brancaccio,
On the news segment you presented, “An economic-infused State of the Union address” how about some even handed reporting? President Biden is fact checked which is fair, but how about a fact check of the Republican response? Many economists are of the informed opinion that most of our recent inflation is the result of companies raising prices, under the cover of distribution disruptions, not just President Biden’s opinion as you gratuitously commented.
This peice was not a fair assessment, and I know that your team could do better.
Listen to this piece and email David Brancaccio what you think about it.
“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” – Thomas Paine The American Crisis – 23 December 1776
We Americans once again are in political crisis. Unlike the revolutionary war period, today’s crisis is one of our own making. It is the result of both the political, legal decisions we made in governing ourselves and the decisions we did not make; where we allowed precedent and custom over time to harden into democratic norms of belief and behavior which are even more essential to our society than any written law. Centuries ago, our forbearers decided that we should have two political parties compete to package our choices in government. The parties have changed names and positions over time, but essentially one will represent a conservative position on governmental policy, while the other counters this position with more liberal ideas on governance. The parties themselves, recognizing that limiting the electorates choice to just these two alternatives enhanced their power, both adopted a “conservative” position in actively repressing the establishment of other political parties. The last time there was the establishment of a new major political party was over 160 years ago before our Civil war when the Republican party was formed to prevent the spread of slavery to new states in our United States.
Our two party system requires that both parties wholeheartedly conform to the discipline of the following societal democratic norms of belief and behavior to function properly.
Both parties must agree to work with each other, toward the common good of our country
Both parties must agree to abide by the results of elections
Both parties must agree that government at the Federal, State and Local levels all have a role in maintaining the common good for all of us
Our current crisis is that only one political party in our United States, currently conforms to the above democratic norms of behavior – the Democratic party. Many members of the Republican party have openly rejected these norms of belief and behavior of civil society. The Republican party for my entire lifetime ( I am 61 this year ) has been lowering it’s standards in all these areas, in favor of a policy of consolidating political power in any way possible. This consolidation of power and influence has been accomplished by their refusal to compromise, ignoring opportunities to enact policy for the good of all Americans, and a rejection in the idea that government itself ( except for police ) is necessary for any society. The Republican party has replaced the societal democratic norms in their party ideology with the ideal of absolute individual freedom, however it is a freedom that only those who agree with Republican ideas enjoy. Some examples.
Business free to pollute our common water and air, and pay lower ( or no ) taxes than the common individual taxpayer.
Every individual free to openly carry semi-automatic weapons in public while we experience mass shootings nearly every day somewhere in our United States.
Full personhood rights to a fetus while the woman pregnant with that fetus is denied the right of lifesaving healthcare to terminate that fetus even if it is not viable until she is on the verge of death herself.
All Republican party members, voters, and office holders own this madness in their sabotage of policy making and bear responsibility for the rejection of the normal democratic values and behavior which would lead to sound governance for our United States.
With the emergence of former President Donald Trump, this degeneration in the integrity of the membership of the Republican party has moved with stunning speed. I believe most Americans are overwhelmed by the new normal of naked corruption which has sullied many of our most cherished American institutions by the Republican party. The most notable victim of corruption being the Federal Judiciary, especially the majority Republican nominated members of the Supreme Court, where precedent has been replaced by partisanship, and constitutionality seems to be whatever policies this “conservative” majority wants to inflict on the rest of us.
It is my thesis in The American Crisis – 2024 that the United States cannot exist in any recognizable form with one of our major political parties intent on their own self-aggrandizement rather than the common good of our United States. The following postings will outline the damage that Republican party members and office holders have done to themselves and our United States. I will conclude these essays with a posting of the remedy to our Crisis. It will take us all, working together as Americans, to save our country. It is my hope that we can once again return our country to common norms of democratic governance.
“that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
– Abraham Lincoln Gettysburg Address – 19 November 1863
On November 12th, 2019 – I posted the letter that I physically sent to all 435 members of the United States House of Representatives. In that letter, I urged the members of Congress to include President Trump’s violation of the constitution under both emoluments clauses in the artlcles of impeachment. ( First Impeachment )
This month on January the 4th, the Democratic party members of the Congressional Committee on Oversight and Accountability released the report – White House for Sale: How Princes, Prime Ministers, and Premiers Paid Off President Trump. Although the Republican representatives did their best to derail this investigation, this report documents the at least 7.8 million dollars that President Trump received while in the office of President of the United States. According to the Consititution of our United States – all that has to be proven in violating the emoluments clauses is the receipt of monies from organizations, public or private, foreign or domestic.
My letter to the members of the United States House of Representative in November 2019 follows.
Honorable Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have been following closely your progress in investigating and drafting articles of impeachment for President Donald John Trump with considerable frustration. From his first months in office, President Trump has accepted payments (emoluments) to his businesses (from which he has divested in name only) from domestic and foreign organizations and governments in direct contravention to the United States Constitution Article 1, Section 9, Paragraph 8:
No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.
and Article 2, Section 1, Paragraph 7:
The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.
The meaning of these clauses that no federally elected official is to receive any gift, payment, or payment in kind; is so clear that no president before now has even sought to challenge them.
A further charge of obstruction of justice suggests itself from President Trump’s repeated successful attempts thus far to block the release of his tax returns. The lengths of litigation to which President Trump is willing to commit would make any reasonable person wonder at the perversities he has indulged in his tax filings.
Please include in your articles of impeachment the charges of receiving emoluments from organizations and governments both foreign and domestic. We need to set a strong precedent that our federal officials cannot accept payments of any kind from any source.
6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places: 8 all this is but the beginning of the birth-pangs.
According to Wisevoter.com there are currently 32 countries presently at war, most of them at war with themselves in civil: terrorist, political, and drug wars and this does not include the recent conflict in Israel. The passage in Matthew is most commonly thought of as a prophesy of an apocolyptic end time, but my feeling is more of disappointment in ourselves as people. We are all forgetting the progress we have made together. We are drifting backwards into scarcity patterns of thought, when we are ready to do violence to all people we identify as ‘them’ to protect the people we identify with as ‘us’.
The conflict in Israel (Gaza) is particularly damning, and unique in war as the general population has been oppressed by both an occupying power and their own political leadership for decades. Now this low level conflict has escalated, and there is nowhere to go. In all other conflicts, there has been somewhere to flee, to escape, but not in this war.
For several years, I have advocated among my small circle of friends, that the United States should allow anyone in territories controlled by the state of Israel asylum with a roadmap to full naturalized citizenship in the United States. This offer of asylum should be understood as part of the security guarantees made to support the State of Israel.
Everyone living in Israel is a veteran. The members of the military organizations on all sides. The civilian populations in all the countries of the region. I wish that all veterans could put down our weapons, so that we all may use our brief time on this good earth to work with and support each other.
One hundred and five years ago on September the 12th 1918, Eugene V Debs was convicted under the Sedition Act of 1918 for a speech he gave in Canton, OH on June 16th, 1918. Eugene Debs was aware of the recently passed (May 16th, 1918) Sedition Act, and carefully crafted his remarks such that he did not use “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” about the United States government, its flag, or its armed forces or that would caused others to view the American government or its institutions with contempt. ( From the Sedition Act of 1918 )
In Federal Court in Cleveland, OH, the jury found Eugene Debs guilty on 3 counts: attempting to incite insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, and refusal of duty in the armed forces of the U.S.; obstructing and attempting to obstruct the recruiting and enlistment service; and uttering language to incite, provoke, and encourage resistance to the United States. Judge Westenhaver sentenced Debs to 10 years imprisonment pending an appeal to the Supreme Court, which upheld Debs’ conviction.
At his sentence hearing Eugene Debs made this statement to the court.
Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
I listened to all that was said in this court in support and justification of this prosecution, but my mind remains unchanged. I look upon the Espionage Law as a despotic enactment in flagrant conflict with democratic principles and with the spirit of free institutions…
Your Honor, I have stated in this court that I am opposed to the social system in which we live; that I believe in a fundamental change—but if possible by peaceable and orderly means…
Standing here this morning, I recall my boyhood. At fourteen I went to work in a railroad shop; at sixteen I was firing a freight engine on a railroad. I remember all the hardships and privations of that earlier day, and from that time until now my heart has been with the working class. I could have been in Congress long ago. I have preferred to go to prison…
I am thinking this morning of the men in the mills and the factories; of the men in the mines and on the railroads. I am thinking of the women who for a paltry wage are compelled to work out their barren lives; of the little children who in this system are robbed of their childhood and in their tender years are seized in the remorseless grasp of Mammon and forced into the industrial dungeons, there to feed the monster machines while they themselves are being starved and stunted, body and soul. I see them dwarfed and diseased and their little lives broken and blasted because in this high noon of Christian civilization money is still so much more important than the flesh and blood of childhood. In very truth gold is god today and rules with pitiless sway in the affairs of men.
In this country—the most favored beneath the bending skies—we have vast areas of the richest and most fertile soil, material resources in inexhaustible abundance, the most marvelous productive machinery on earth, and millions of eager workers ready to apply their labor to that machinery to produce in abundance for every man, woman, and child—and if there are still vast numbers of our people who are the victims of poverty and whose lives are an unceasing struggle all the way from youth to old age, until at last death comes to their rescue and lulls these hapless victims to dreamless sleep, it is not the fault of the Almighty: it cannot be charged to nature, but it is due entirely to the outgrown social system in which we live that ought to be abolished not only in the interest of the toiling masses but in the higher interest of all humanity…
I believe, Your Honor, in common with all Socialists, that this nation ought to own and control its own industries. I believe, as all Socialists do, that all things that are jointly needed and used ought to be jointly owned—that industry, the basis of our social life, instead of being the private property of a few and operated for their enrichment, ought to be the common property of all, democratically administered in the interest of all…
I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.
This order of things cannot always endure. I have registered my protest against it. I recognize the feebleness of my effort, but, fortunately, I am not alone. There are multiplied thousands of others who, like myself, have come to realize that before we may truly enjoy the blessings of civilized life, we must reorganize society upon a mutual and cooperative basis; and to this end we have organized a great economic and political movement that spreads over the face of all the earth.
There are today upwards of sixty millions of Socialists, loyal, devoted adherents to this cause, regardless of nationality, race, creed, color, or sex. They are all making common cause. They are spreading with tireless energy the propaganda of the new social order. They are waiting, watching, and working hopefully through all the hours of the day and the night. They are still in a minority. But they have learned how to be patient and to bide their time. The feel—they know, indeed—that the time is coming, in spite of all opposition, all persecution, when this emancipating gospel will spread among all the peoples, and when this minority will become the triumphant majority and, sweeping into power, inaugurate the greatest social and economic change in history.
In that day we shall have the universal commonwealth—the harmonious cooperation of every nation with every other nation on earth…
Your Honor, I ask no mercy and I plead for no immunity. I realize that finally the right must prevail. I never so clearly comprehended as now the great struggle between the powers of greed and exploitation on the one hand and upon the other the rising hosts of industrial freedom and social justice.
I can see the dawn of the better day for humanity. The people are awakening. In due time they will and must come to their own.
When the mariner, sailing over tropic seas, looks for relief from his weary watch, he turns his eyes toward the southern cross, burning luridly above the tempest-vexed ocean. As the midnight approaches, the southern cross begins to bend, the whirling worlds change their places, and with starry finger-points the Almighty marks the passage of time upon the dial of the universe, and though no bell may beat the glad tidings, the lookout knows that the midnight is passing and that relief and rest are close at hand. Let the people everywhere take heart of hope, for the cross is bending, the midnight is passing, and joy cometh with the morning.
– Eugene Debs, September 18, 1918
The Sedition Act of 1918 (an amendment to the Espionage Act of 1917) was repealed by the Congress of the United States on December 13, 1920.
Eugene Debs sentence was commuted by President Warren G. Harding on December 23, 1921 – effectively releasing him on Christmas Day two days later. Eugene Debs had served one and a half years of his ten year sentence.
Several years ago, I was assigned to preach from these same lessons we have today, Proper 14 year A, in the season of Pentecost. I had just started preaching at Saint Martin’s in Des Plaines, IL. For several days, I studied these lessons and struggled about what I should preach. Then a realization came to me that at least two of the lessons were all about prayer and being in communion with the Holy Spirit. Our New Testament lessons, present to us, examples of prayer and discernment with the Spirit of God; from several different points of view.
The most obvious example of prayer and discernment is from our Gospel lesson from Matthew. A typical day in Jesus’ ministry on earth. After a long day of preaching and teaching, Jesus sends the people and his disciples away and secludes himself to pray. What could be a more typical passage in any of the Gospels? But notice how long Jesus is praying in this passage – He prays through most of the night into the early morning. My impression is that Jesus often prayed into the early hours of the morning. It was probably the only time of day when he could be alone, when it was quiet. In that time of profound silence and stillness when Nature herself seems to be holding her breath, (pause) that Jesus could pause to reflect and to allow His Father the time and space to speak to him.
Jesus Himself shows us how important it is to have this time for prayer and by His example.
It is in this profound silence, when we are calm, when we have emptied our minds of our concerns and our worries, when our thoughts are quiet; that we may be able to hear the Spirit of God speaking to us.
When I pray, I am reminded of the next passage in our gospel lesson.
We read that after Jesus had finished his prayer, he walks across the water through a violent storm to where the disciples were struggling to keep their ship afloat. The disciples see Jesus out in the storm, walking on the water – they hear him over the sound of the storm – and the disciples are terrified. They believe they are seeing and hearing some sort of ghost across the water. Peter asks Jesus to command him to walk across the water, and Jesus calls to Peter to join him.
This passage about Peter crossing the water feels like many of my experiences with prayer. How often have I started to pray, to attempt to reach across that gulf that separates us from God – only to start to sink, to be distracted by
the violent storm that sometimes is the world around me,
the violent storm that sometimes is my own thoughts and fears,
and finally, as I am going under, I call out to be saved:
O God, make speed to save me!
O Lord, make haste to help me!
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me! (pause)
For at least, 15 centuries, Christians have prayed these three, simple, prayers to our Lord: to be saved, to be helped, and for Jesus Christ to show us His mercy.
From all that I have read, and all I have experienced, I believe that people have always had these problems in prayer.
That is why we all must continually practice prayer, and through trial and error find out what works best for each one of us, at every stage of our lives; to help us in listening to the Holy Spirit.
In the discussion of prayer up to this point – we have concentrated on that journey of faith that we travel alone, in our personal relationship with the living God.
Paul, in our reading from Romans, takes this discussion to the next level.
But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed?
And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard?
And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him?
And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent?
John Gill, the first Baptist theologian, in his commentary on Romans 10 verse 15 really helped me to understand the meaning of this passage.
Ordinary mission is of [people] to be pastors and teachers …. for whom Christ sends forth into such service, he bestows gifts on them, fitting them for it …. and it also includes a call unto it, which is …. by the Spirit of God ….. and the inclination of the heart to this good work which he forms; and which arises not from a vanity of mind, and a desire of popular applause, ….. but from a real concern for the good of souls, ….. being willing to deny themselves, and forsake all for Christ.
Paul’s four questions in our reading from Romans, are about how we are to call and select our ministers: our leaders and teachers in the community of Christ. Paul is laying the organizational groundwork for growing Christianity from a small group of believers to an organization – a Church. Paul is also describing the process of discernment; asking how we should listen; and to discern, to hear and to interpret, that whisper of the Holy Spirit, when we are being called to ministry into that larger Church organization.
Nine years ago, when I first preached on these lessons, I was two years into a discernment into ministry with the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Chicago. I had met with my discernment committee at St. Martin’s in Des Plaines, IL over a period of six months. We had prayed together, and talked and listened together. My committee and I had discerned a call for me to continue to work towards ordination as a Deacon in the Episcopal Church.
As in our lesson from Genesis, with Joseph being sold into slavery by his own brothers, life seldom turns out the way we think it will. Joeseph had been the heir of his father’s fortune, the golden child, and not only that, but he was also having prophetic dreams in which his older brothers bowed down to him.
In my discernment for ministry in our church, life intervened in my plans in a much more gentle way than Joseph being sold to some passing Midianites. When I interviewed with the Diocese of Chicago committee on ministry about entering the Deacon training program, the committee did not hear my call to ministry. I was asked to come interview with them again – perhaps the following year. I had invested a great deal of my time and effort into entering the Deacon program in Chicago, and I was deeply disappointed. As I considered what I should do next, I answered another call for service, my father was losing his short-term memory and my mother needed help to take care of him. Darlene and I moved down here from Chicago to be near my parents as they made the transition from living in their own home to an independent living community in Marietta, Ohio.
I still have a great deal to learn about discernment.
What I have learned is that being in discernment is not an easy way to live, but it can be a very rewarding way to live.
Discernment guides us in choosing between the many paths we may follow, the many things we may do.
Usually, all the paths we are considering are good, productive, things that we can do with our time and our talents. But finding that one thing, that will really make a difference, can be difficult.
Discernment does not end after you are called into a ministry. Discernment continues.
My discernment continued even though I did not become a deacon in the Diocese of Chicago.
As I have come to understand what discernment is about, I was surprised by how familiar it turned out to be. It seems I have been in discernment all along, I was just not aware of what I was doing, as I used it in my daily life and work. All this time, in my work when I have been stuck on some technical problem. I clear my mind, and simply listen. (pause)
Given some time, from out of nowhere, I will receive an idea about how to approach that particular problem, or how to put together a solution. The artist waiting for inspiration, or the engineer awaiting that technical insight are in discernment. We are all opening ourselves; allowing our own divine nature to commune with the divine nature which is present in everything in the universe around us.
When we are inspired, we manage; for just that brief instant to hear God’s voice, the Spirit of God, speaking to us.
I have found that in discerning what God wants me to do – I am discovering what I am capable of becoming:
I am continually learning who I am.
God, as our Father and Creator, knows us far better that we know ourselves.
It is a startling, humbling and liberating experience to be middle aged and to be continually learning who I am, and what I am capable of becoming.
I’d like to leave you with this thought.
Discernment is for Everyone.
Not just those people, who are the clergy.
Not just those people who are on the vestry.
Not just those people, who are being called to ministry.
Everyone.
We should all be practicing how to be (pause) present and aware of the Holy Spirit speaking to us in our reflections, our thoughts, our feelings, and our prayers.
We should all be finding time, each day, to listen in profound silence, allowing the Spirit of God the time and space in our lives, so that we may hear (pause) the quiet voice of God.
Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28 Jacob settled in the land where his father had lived as an alien, the land of Canaan. This is the story of the family of Jacob.
Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; he was a helper to the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.
Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem. And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” He answered, “Here I am.” So he said to him, “Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock; and bring word back to me.” So he sent him from the valley of Hebron.
He came to Shechem, and a man found him wandering in the fields; the man asked him, “What are you seeking?” “I am seeking my brothers,” he said; “tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.” The man said, “They have gone away, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers, and found them at Dothan. They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him. They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.” But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him” —that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore; and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.
Then they sat down to eat; and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balm, and resin, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers agreed. When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.
Romans 10:5-15 Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that “the person who does these things will live by them.” But the righteousness that comes from faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say?
“The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart”
(that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
Matthew 14:22-33 Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”
Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
What is Good 