Some Photos From Today

Instead of the traditional red poster of an upside down Chinese character hung on the door meant to bring prosperity, we opted for a Christmas wreath and a ridiculous cartoony dragon from Brynn's kindergarten. "Which apartment do you think the foreigner's live in?"

Wwe spend a lot of time with Ariel in her office on the first floor of our building. If her boss comes, we hide behind the boxes.

A Taiwanese Funeral

A view from the top floor of the library

A group of men congregating at the feet of Confucius outside of the Library

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A Wedding

My sister is getting married today, or tomorrow depending on where you are at the moment. I am a little sad that I cannot be there, but my pain is eased by the fact that no one else can be there either. Its just a private ceremony. I am sure she has gotten some flack for that, but I completely support it. Weddings should always be what you want them to be. Congratulations Christy and David.

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Absolute Power

Is this really happening? Bush to Be Dictator In A Catastrophic Emergency. The original source is a directive released by the White House on May 9th, 2007.

How did this not make the news?

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Quite Telling

Is this where we'd be if people like Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, and others who have married Christian Fundamentalism with American Politics, had their way in America? It is the logical conclusion of the ideology.

I found the link to this article on The Daily Dish.

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Is Feeding A Family on Food Stamps Feasible?

Can members of Congress feed themselves on a typical $21 a week food-stamp budget? Listen to this quick NPR story.

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Habeas Schmabeas

I just listened to last year's This American Life episode "Habeas Schmabeas" for the second time. I think that every American should hear the information that is in this episode. It is mainly about the detention center at Guantanamo Bay and features interviews with 2 of the former detainees. Basically, most of the information that our president has given us about Guantanamo and the people being held there is misleading, if not untrue. It points out the administrations blatant disregard for the law, both domestic and international. Here are some quotes from the beginning of the episode:

President Bush: These are people that got scooped off a battlefield, attempting to kill U.S. troops. And, uh, I want to make sure before they're released that they don't come back to kill again.

Dick Cheney: The people that are there are people we picked up on a battlefield...They're terrorists. They're bomb makers, they're facilitators of terror, they're members of Al Qaeda, the Taliban.

Jack Hitt: In a new study by Seton Hall's law school, researchers simply went to the trouble of reading the 517 Guantanamo case files released by the Pentagon. Here's what they found:

Only 5% of our detainees of Guantanamo were "scooped up" by American troops...The rest? We never saw them fighting. Only 8% of detainees in Guantanamo are classified by the Pentagon as Al Qaeda fighters. 86% of the detainees were handed over to us by Pakistan or the Northern Alliance....out of nearly 600 men at Guantanomo, the number who could give us useful information about Al Qaeda was "only a relative handful."

We were offering bounties of $5,000-10,000 in Pakistan for people who turned in Al Queda members. So apparently we bought a lot of the prisoners as well. One such person that we purchased was a publisher of a satirical magazine that offended some Pakistani leaders.

Many people who have been declared "No Longer Enemy Combatants", yet were still being held because officials couldn't figure out what to do with them. They are Uighur, a Muslim ethnic minority from China, and they cannot be returned to China because the Chinese government has a long standing campaign against the Uighur people. Why not give them political asylum in the U.S. Its the least we can do for holding them without cause for so many years. There are Uighur communities in the U.S. But instead, they continued to be detained.

So many of the people that have been held and tortured for years with no hearing and no charges aren't terrorists. And even if they are, is torturing them and denying them basic international rights a good precedent to be setting. This is not the last war we will fight, and the world will not forget how the U.S. declared itself to be above the Geneva Conventions.

And if you doubt that what has happened at Guantanamo is torture, check out this FBI report.

So what will the American people do? Apparently not much as seen at the last Republican debate when Mitt Romney called for the doubling of Guantanamo. And the people said, "Amen".

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Goodbye #2

This card was given to me on Tuesday when my first class graduated. There was no graduation. The parents weren't interested. The class mostly just fizzled out as it approached the end of level 16, but I made them some cookies and gave them my best wishes, hoping they wouldn't spend the rest of their young-adult lives studying and worrying about getting into the right school.

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Goodbye #1

Friday night I said goodbye to my friend Sarah. It is one of my first Taiwan goodbyes, and I know there will be plenty more. Sarah arrived 3 months ahead of me last year, therefore she left 3 months ahead of me. Sarah is a beautiful, crazy, mood-lifting, South African girl who feels like an old friend the first time you meet her. She is probably the only person who, with her enthusiasm, could have persuaded me to hike the tallest mountain in Northeast Asia. Thank you, Sarah for adding such words to my vocabulary as "Foofy slide", "braai", "hectic", "how's it" and "just now".

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Falwell Dies; Two Voices

I always get the news a little later here in Taiwan, but even CNN international is reporting on the death of Jerry Falwell today. Here are three views of his legacy already emerging.

-- Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas: "I have lost a great friend. America has lost a great patriot. Nevertheless all followers of Jesus rejoice for Dr. Falwell today even as we sorrow together with his entire family over our loss. Dr. Falwell's shadow falls across the face of the rebirth of conservative values in our nation, in the Southern Baptist Convention, and in the entire evangelical world. Only once in a generation will a man of his stature arise. We all owe him a debt of eternal gratitude."

--WASHINGTON – Joe Solmonese, President of the Human Rights Campaign, issued the following statement today in regards to the news about the death of Reverend Jerry Falwell:

“Reverend Falwell’s death today causes my thoughts to turn toward the members of our community who have at great personal sacrifice contended with the Reverend’s work and teachings. As I remember Reverend Falwell’s life, I also remember all of the families of people who have died of AIDS,” said Joe Solmonese, Human Rights Campaign. “Reverend Falwell’s legacy is not about the tenets of Jesus’ ministry such as healing the sick and standing with the disenfranchised but about shunning and ridiculing those who have suffered and died of AIDS and their families. Many faith leaders today are moving away from his divisive approach and toward the compassion and inclusiveness that Jesus modeled every day of his ministry.”

--Jim Walliss, found and editor, Sojourners

I was saddened to learn that Rev. Jerry Falwell passed away this morning at age 73. Rev. Falwell and I have met many times over the years, as the media often paired us as debate partners on issues of faith and politics. I respected his passionate commitment to his beliefs, and our shared commitment to bring moral debate to the public square, although we didn’t agree on many things. At this time, however, what matters most is our prayers for comfort and peace for his family and friends.

And this best sums up my immediate feelings:

You're a disgrace to the concept of family
The priest won't divulge that fact in his homily
And I'll stand up and scream if the mourning remain quiet
You can deck out a lie in a suit but I won't buy it
I won't join in the procession that's speaking their peace
Using five dollar words while praising his integrity
And just because he's gone, it doesn't change the fact:
He was a bastard in life, thus a bastard in death.
--Death Cab for Cutie, Styrofoam Plates

I find Jim Wallis' response to be the one most appropriate at this time. Though I couldn't disagree more with Falwell's public ministry, and there is no doubt that he has said some awful and hateful things in the past, now is probably not the time to speak ill of him. There will be time to debate the controversies over what his life represented. Now we can only hope that this is a symbolic end of an era in America. Maybe the influence of others like him will soon begin to die.

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Justice not Sacrifice

It looks like the Moral Majority is having problems finding a candidate to get behind for 2008. I guess its surprising since most of them are twisting to fit the mold of the GOP “base”. Mitt Romney has tried hard to reinvent himself, but I’m not sure if James Dobson will be able to look past his Mormon Faith. Giuliani is pro-family, in fact he has had a few families, which is a nail in the coffin that is his pro-choice leanings. There are some candidates that would probably even line up perfectly with their “voter guides” distributed to churches across the country. Pro-life, check. Anti-evolution, check. Anti-gay, check. Anti-tax, check. But these guys are just too fringe to throw your support behind. It would be like supporting Alan Keyes…you definitely get your point across, but it’s basically a throw-away vote.

The book, A History of God, which I finally finished had this to say about this brand of religiosity (along with its counterparts in Judaism and Islam):

...this type of religiosity is actually a retreat from God. To make such human, historical phenomena as Christian "Family Values," "Islam, or "the Holy Land" the focus of religious devotion is a new form of idolatry. This type of belligerent righteousness has been a constant temptation to monotheists throughout the long history of God. It must be rejected as inauthentic. The God of the Jews, Christians and Muslims got off to an unfortunate start, since the tribal deity Yahweh was murderously partial to his own people. Latter-day crusaders who return to this primitive ethos are elevating the values of the tribe to an unacceptably high status and substituting man-made ideals for the transcendent reality which should challenge our prejudices....

…Ever since the prophets of Israel reformed the old pagan cult of Yahweh, the God of monotheists has promoted the idea of compassion…

...But Jews, Christians and Muslims who punctiliously attend divine services yet denigrate people who belong to different ethnic and ideological camps deny one of the basic truths of their religions. It is equally inappropriate for people who call themselves Jews, Christians, and Muslims to condone an inequitable social system. The God of historical monotheism demands mercy not sacrifice, compassion rather than decorous liturgy.

So maybe its time for all candidates to be held to the moral issues of compassion and social justice. We are living in a nation, and world, of inequitable social systems. The rich corporations and the people running them keep getting richer and the poor stay right where they were. Which candidate will make that a major domestic/moral issue?

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Immigration and Morality

For the most part, Christians, or the most vocal Christians in politics today have been quiet about immigration reform. It hasn't fit their moral agenda of abortion, gay marriage, and low taxes. Another voice from American Christianity is speaking out. Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform has published a statement calling for a change in policy.

Mostly it calls for dignity, respect, compassion and mercy. It speaks out against unjust laws that "harm and oppress people made in God's image." It sounds like something we could all get behind, right?

Actually, I can imagine the arguments against it before the opponents even speak.

"But these people are breaking the law." Well, yes, many of them are. But many of them are not. For example, the children of illegal immigrants who have lived most of their lives in this country, and had no choice about immigrating here, shouldn't they be given the right to become citizens and be productive members of society. Would you seriously call for them to be sent back to a country that was only home to them as infants? Some states have taken a compassionate approach and allowed undocumented students to attend public universities paying in-state tuition. Upon graduation, though, where are they supposed to find employment? They have an education, but they are still undocumented and mostly unemployable.

"What about our national security?" Really, is that the best argument you have? The immigration that you are complaining about is immigration from Latin America, can you at least be honest about that. Is that how any of the terrorists that have been arrested entered our country? If so, I am not aware of it. So build a wall, but don't claim that that wall is for your security. That wall is to protect you from people who are different and therefore threatening to your "sense" of security only.

Taking your jobs? I will accept that argument if you yourself are having a hard time finding employment because the jobs you are qualified for are filled by immigrants.

You think they should just stay in their country, or "go home?" Do you think they really wanted to leave their home in the first place? Or were they driven to leave home because there was no opportunity for them there in the first place? There was no way to pull their children up out of poverty, much less feed them. To them, at least there is hope in emigrating. So, "go back", you say.

"Go back to a place where you have no hope. We took this country over 200 years ago, built its wealth, became a world superpower (to the detriment of the original inhabitants) and now we reserve the right to keep our riches to ourselves. We gave you NAFTA, what more do you want?"

Build a wall you say? That doesn't even deserve an argument.

Well, like they suggest...mercy, compassion, dignity, respect.

I don't claim to have the answers, but our system is seriously broken. I think everyone can agree to that. Change is needed, and a system that balances our national interests with the above virtues would be a welcome change.

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Song of the Moment

My favorite song for the last couple of months has been "Better in Manhattan" by Casey Dienel. The song takes someone who most people may not be able to identify with, and paints paints her as a beautiful person. Listen here.

And in my spare time I'm making a garden on my fire escape
I can't wait to watch my seedlings find the sun
It won't be easy, 'cause nothing ever is
That's why everything tastes so good

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Signs

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Another Quote from "A History of God"

On the Enlightenment:

The study of history (during the enlightment) was dominated by a new myth: that of Progress. It achieved great things, but now that damage to the environment has made us realize that this way of life is as vulnerable as the old, we are, perhaps, beginning to grasp that it is as fictitious as most of the other mythologies that have inspired humanity over the centuries.

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Real Live Preacher

If you look at the "Places I Visit" list on the right column of this page, you will see Real Live Preacher listed. This is the blog of a Baptist preacher in Texas (no, really, its great) that my friend Chad told me about a year or so ago. He recently posted a story in 2 parts that I enjoyed. You won't be disappointed if you have about 10 minutes to spare.

Cold Calling - Part 1
Cold Calling - Part 2

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Chinese Class

This is a video taken during Chinese class this Tuesday. Hopefully you don't speak Chinese and will be wowed by the unintelligible sounds. Cast of characters include students, Elena, David (laughter in the background), and me. Our Laoshi (teacher) is the lovely Yi-Chieh.

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