Little is more quintessentially American than asserting the right to change course. The Declaration of Independence hinges on this passage from lawyer, advocate, president, and slavery investor Thomas Jefferson: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, […]
Suppressing the natural
At the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City, visitors learn about Native dance, art, history, and modern culture. It’s a two-floor archive and represents thousands of years of Native contributions to the Americas. A recurring theme across the exhibits is colonial religions suppressing Native ceremony. Everywhere their boats took them, European […]
You have to manage your own memories
The Church State Council pulling down its statement of support for California’s Proposition 8 (2008) is no match for me and the Wayback Machine. The statement is a piece of evidence in a series of posts I wrote back in 2013 that contains several links to official Adventist departments, ministries, and advocacy organizations. These links […]
Products of our time
Part of the 20th Century’s progress myth was an assumption that recency means improvement and therefore old age means “fixed in early developmental stage.” The argument goes that it’s unjust to measure ancients by the morality of this society rather than by the morals of their own culture. It’s wrong, some say, to judge grandparents […]
No reward for good behavior
The anniversary of Executive Order 9066 (1942), February 19, drew extra attention this year because of No. 45’s executive order on immigration and refugees. Since US legislators, executives, and judges are determined to reopen so many of the 20th Century’s civil rights debates, it makes sense to take a new look at the laws, rules, […]
We’ve been here before
I grew up hearing about the civil rights era lunch counter sit-ins. It took me a while to understand that they were about much more than food. In Greensboro, NC, in 1960, four Black students sat down at a Whites-only counter in a Woolworths store and refused to move until served. They sat down at […]