After a dry week, beautiful one, to be sure, we need the rain. So far a gentle one, bringing our parched plants back to life. Other parts of the country and world, though, are facing some severe storms. But the summer isn’t over yet
We think of summer as a time to recover from our normally frenzied lives, and summer suggested reading usually reflects that with light novels. However, there are serious books out on the market as well. In A Most Tolerant Little Town, Rachel Louise Martin explores the events that engulfed the small town of Clinton, Tennessee, in 1956 when the high school, in obedience to the Brown decision, decided to integrate.
Remembering the chapters of our not so recent past is important, and Martin in this book shows how what began peacefully turned violent. The “outside agitator” was a man from New Jersey who brought his hate into Clinton, stirring up violence. Martin’s book is well-written, a warning to all of us who think that hate is behind us.
Prayer for the Day
O Divine Light, that shines in the deep darkness,
Brighten our lives with the light of redemption;
Claiming that we are helpless, unable to change the world,
We have tolerated injustice and violence.
Help us recognize that the real change is that of ourselves
So that we learn to are able to love as we wish to be loved.
In the name of the One shows us how to love,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
It just presses you down every day, lower and lower. And to me it is an amazing thing that an American citizen living in the United States has to be subjected to this while the lawless citizens, those who refuse to abide or accept the law, continue to run free.
- David Brittain, Clinton High School principal in 1956
The district courts are to] take such proceedings and enter such orders and decrees . . . as are necessary and proper to admit to public schools on a racially nondiscriminatory basis with all deliberate speed the parties to these cases.
- From Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954)
Whoever says, “I amin the light,” while hating a brother or sister is still in the darkness.
Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light…
But whoever hates another is in the darkness, and does not know the way to go
Because the darkness has brought on blindness.
John 2: 9-11