The realities of the political world keep impinging on what is supposed to be Earth Week keeping us from just basking in spring beauty. The campus ferment on Gaza should remind those of us old enough to remember the ferment of 1968, which probably resulted in Nixon becoming President. There are other, better ways to address Gaza.
Most people do not like disorder. The real work of intended political change is less flashy than the encampments we see on college campuses. It is not as flashy, but usually quiet and methodical.
Anger and rage seem to be the order of the day, and not just on Gaza. The radical right has its share with its semi-militarized groups. The difference is that they usually carry guns. At least the college students just sit and shout.
Prayer for the Day
Breaking into our lives, turmoil and disorder upset us, O God,
For we want peace and understanding among us;
But we know the world outside impacts our lives
And we struggle to keep some sense of order here at home.
Be with us, O Holy One, in these times of anger and rage,
So we can be voices of peace and reconciliation.
In the name of the One who is our help,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
In which we learn that Princeton was fine in graduating a student who took part in the January 6 assault on Congress but will expel a finishing PhD student for sitting on the grass.
Jonathan Hopkin, on X
The median voter is a 50-something White person who didn’t go to college.” Is this protest going to change that person’s mind? Hardly. It’s difficult to imagine anything less likely to appeal to that voter than an unsanctioned tent city full of belligerent elite college students whose chants have at least once bordered on the antisemitic.
Megan McArdle, from The Washington Post
Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us;
We wait for the light, and lo! There is darkness; for brightness but we walk in gloom.
We grope like the blind along a wall, groping like those who have no eyes;
We stumble at noon as in the twilight, among the vigorous as if we were dead
We growl like bears; like doves we moan mournfully.
We wait for justice but there is none, for salvation, but it is far from us.
Isaiah 59: 9-11
The realities of the political world keep impinging on what is supposed to be Earth Week keeping us from just basking in spring beauty. The campus ferment on Gaza should remind those of us old enough to remember the ferment of 1968, which probably resulted in Nixon becoming President. There are other, better ways to address Gaza.
Most people do not like disorder. The real work of intended political change is less flashy than the encampments we see on college campuses. It is not as flashy, but usually quiet and methodical.
Anger and rage seem to be the order of the day, and not just on Gaza. The radical right has its share with its semi-militarized groups. The difference is that they usually carry guns. At least the college students just sit and shout.
Prayer for the Day
Breaking into our lives, turmoil and disorder upset us, O God,
For we want peace and understanding among us;
But we know the world outside impacts our lives
And we struggle to keep some sense of order here at home.
Be with us, O Holy One, in these times of anger and rage,
So we can be voices of peace and reconciliation.
In the name of the One who is our help,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
In which we learn that Princeton was fine in graduating a student who took part in the January 6 assault on Congress but will expel a finishing PhD student for sitting on the grass.
Jonathan Hopkin, on X
The median voter is a 50-something White person who didn’t go to college.” Is this protest going to change that person’s mind? Hardly. It’s difficult to imagine anything less likely to appeal to that voter than an unsanctioned tent city full of belligerent elite college students whose chants have at least once bordered on the antisemitic.
Megan McArdle, from The Washington Post
Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us;
We wait for the light, and lo! There is darkness; for brightness but we walk in gloom.
We grope like the blind along a wall, groping like those who have no eyes;
We stumble at noon as in the twilight, among the vigorous as if we were dead
We growl like bears; like doves we moan mournfully.
We wait for justice but there is none, for salvation, but it is far from us.
Isaiah 59: 9-11