Circuit Writer

Here’s a summary of President Obama’s discussion of energy legislation and climate change in the State of the Union address.

Watch the video here and then click over to Repower America to learn more.

A friend of mine put me on to this blog post through Facebook and I’ve deemed it important enough to share – and it’s unbelievable well written to boot!  It engages the question of white privilege and spells out what it means in accessible terms.  I’m posting a teaser here and a link to the rest of the blog.

One of the frustrating things about living in Iowa City – a cozy, liberal-for-the-Midwest sort of town – is that I’ll make friends with intelligent people, considerate people, well-spoken, literate people, who nevertheless will pull out phrases like “I don’t believe in white privilege” when I have discussions with them.

To them, I dedicate this. (Originally posted on my own blog, http://magistrate.dreamwidth.org/.)

Click here to read the rest.

Now that the metaphorical dust is settling on the disaster that has befallen Haiti, it is the time to begin remembering what we are already forgetting.  Distracted by the commentary and wrangling surrounding the State of the Union Address, we’ve lost track of the tragedy of an estimated 150,000 dead (the U.N. confirming 111,481 based on bodies recovered as of January 24).  While there is no doubt that we should acknowledge the economic problems here in our country, it would be a failure of nerve and moral courage to shift our focus inward upon ourselves on account of an arbitrary requirement that the President “shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union.”  (Article II, Section 3, U.S. Constitution)

I’ve previously written concerning the real nature of Haiti’s “curse” and Christian responsibility in the wake of this disaster, but it’s time for us to move beyond talk and take action.  For everyone who has already become involved, sending recovery kits and making financial contributions, I thank you and commend your actions.  However, as Richard Kim points out, our charity simply isn’t good enough: continue reading…

(Photo by Chris Hondros/Newsmakers) Content © 2008 Getty Images All rights reserved

In a previous blog, “Hijacking History,” I took on the subject of the Texas state curriculum for K-12 education (known as TEKS) and the implications of the proposed revisions to the curriculum that was to be presented to the State Board of Education (SBOE).  This new curriculum will not only determine what will be taught in Texas’ many public schools, but will also likely determine what is seen in new history textbooks throughout the nation.  (I explain this in more depth in my previous post.) continue reading…

Howard Zinn, the controversial author of A People’s History of the United States, passed away at the age of 87.  A historian who admitted that he never intended to write a complete or objective history of our nation, he challenged the idea that there is one story that defines the United States.  Growing from an initial publishing run of 5,000, A People’s History went on to sell over 1 million copies, become a textbook in high school and college history courses, and launch a series of publications that would remind us all to listen for the voices that are often never heard.

The remainder of this post includes excerpts from his obituary at the New York Times.  Godspeed, Professor Zinn. continue reading…

This is my latest column for The Tahlequah Christian for the week of January 24-30.

We’ve all watched and listened in horror to the unbelievable destruction in Haiti. Granting that a 7.0 magnitude earthquake is a devastating force, we should all be asking the question as to why the estimated death toll has skyrocketed to over 100,000 dead with countless other injuries. The greatest tragedy in Haiti has not been the earthquake itself, but the absolute lack of basic government services to support the population and insure safe living conditions for the people. This is a byproduct of rampant political instability in the country, an irony considering that it is one of the oldest republics in the Americas, gaining its independence in 1804 (that’s just 21 years after our recognized independence in 1783), and we seem to believe that democracy is the answer to any country’s political woes. continue reading…

This is my column for The Tahlequah Christian for the week of January 17-23, 2010.

If you’ve heard me say this once, the odds are good that you’ve heard me say it many times: words are important. And if you’ve had this discussion with me before, you know that it’s not a question of using words with a poetic flourish or that speak ideas in sophisticated or elegant ways, but that the very use of even simple words carries with it great meaning. This is especially the case for us when we are talking about matters of faith. continue reading…

In the midst of the storm surrounding Pat Robertson and his comments about the “curse” upon Haiti, we might have missed the other imposition of the language of “curse” on that country.  In a statement on Thursday afternoon, French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for an international conference on the question of reconstruction aid for Haiti after associating the plight of country with a more ambiguous curse:

From this catastrophe, which follows so many others, we should make sure that it is a chance to get Haiti once and for all out of the curse it seems to have been stuck with for such a long time.

If not Pat Robertson’s absurd theological stretches, then what exactly is this “curse” that haunts Haiti? continue reading…

I’d like to dedicate this blog post to Bobbie Tetley, my high school AP American History teacher who instilled in me a love of history, and even though I am on the eve of completing graduate school, she remains one of the most challenging, demanding, and respected voices not only of my educational career, but of my life.  Thank you, Mrs. Tetley.  – cwc

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This first came to my attention through an action alert from the United Farm Workers, an organization I’ve become connected to through my denomination’s participation in the National Farm Worker Ministry.  I received an email asking me to “Stop Texas from erasing Cesar Chavez and Hispanics from school books.”  It provided information about an upcoming session of the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) that will be voting on new curriculum standards for social studies for the state of Texas.  UFW asked me to compose an email to Gail Lowe, the chair of the Texas SBOE demanding that they not further marginalize the voices of Latina/os within the history curriculum. continue reading…

This is the pastor’s column for The Tahlequah Christian for the week of January 10-16.

You know, I’ve come to a realization as of late. I’ve realized that we don’t always agree. Now before you set aside the newsletter and quit reading, that’s not the realization. It’s what comes after the disagreement that makes for the realization.

But I’d like to set the stage before I share. One of the places I’ve noticed we don’t always agree is in our times of study. Book studies, Sunday School, other discussions: we all have our differences of opinion, and like good Disciples, when it comes to the faith, we have our differences of interpretation and practice. And in our general board, although I think I can still count on one hand the number of votes that haven’t been unanimous, our discussions show that we’re not some monolithic body where everyone is on the same wavelength. We all bring our ideas, patterns, and histories to our discussions, and sometimes that can cause a little friction. continue reading…