Occasional reflections on religion, culture, politics, and anything else that comes into my mind...
CHANGE MUST BE MADE ONLY
WITHIN THE CONSTITUTION
Last week was spent vacationing in South Dakota with my family. One of our stops was Mt. Rushmore. Like all the hundreds of tourists there, we gazed up at the towering faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt.
In the small museum that’s a highlight of the visitor center, I learned some interesting facts about this impressive monument. First is that the four faces symbolize…
THE NFL NEEDS TO SING
FOR UNITY, NOT DIVISION
The National Football league is searching desperately for an ideological “sweet spot” where it can regain lost fans while it presents itself as being sensitive to calls for “social justice.” As part of that effort, the song, “Lift Every Voice” — often referred to as the “Black National Anthem” — will be played before the start of week-one games.
“Lift Every Voice” was written as a poem in 1899 by James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938), an early leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. His brother, John Rosamond Johnson (1873-1954), set it to music.
According to NAACP’s website, the song was first performed on Lincoln’s Birthday in 1900 “by a choir of 500 schoolchildren at the segregated Stanton School” in Jacksonville, Florida, where James Weldon Johnson was principal. (A poet and author, Johnson later taught at New York University and then at the historically Black Fisk University).
Between the Coronavirus lockdown and ongoing controversy surrounding the kneeling protests, it’s been a tough year for professional sports. One can certainly appreciate that NFL decision makers are feeling a lot of pressure.
But are they opening the door to even more controversy?
AUNT JEMIMA SYMBOLIZES
MUCH BIGGER OBJECTIVES
Thank God somebody still has a sense of humor. The Christian satire website, Babylon Bee, perfectly captures the current madness over ethnic symbolism.
As everyone knows by now, Quaker/PepsiCo has come under pressure to retire the Aunt Jemima image on its popular line of breakfast products. Likewise the Black chef on B&G Foods’ Cream of Wheat hot cereal, and Uncle Ben, the dapper gentleman who personifies the famous parboiled rice marketed by Mars, Inc.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO SAY
“BLACK LIVES MATTER”?
Branding is a key component in any promotional effort. A powerful combination of words can make all the difference in how a product, service, or movement is perceived by the public. The right name sets the terms of discussion.
This truth has been amply demonstrated by Planned Parenthood, a name adopted in 1942 by the Birth Control Federation of America. Founded three years earlier by eugenics advocate, Margaret Sanger, BCFA actively championed artificial contraception, which at the time, was resisted, even condemned, by virtually every Christian denomination.
Switching to “Planned Parenthood” was an inspired stroke, permitting the organization to present itself as an advocate of enlightened, ethical choice. Who could object to responsible planning, particularly in an area of such basic concern as bringing children into the world?
That name remains an essential part of the organization’s benign representation of itself as a provider of services to improve “woman’s health.” It’s even helped give moral cover to the many churches and church-related organizations that now support and work with Planned Parenthood, the world’s leading abortion mill (especially active in minority communities).
Similar verbal power is on display in the phrase, “Black Lives Matter.” I have no idea who came up with that name, but they surely earned their salary.
ONLY TRUMP CAN RESPOND
TO THE RADICAL CHALLENGE
I happened to catch a few minutes of Rush Limbaugh’s interview with the cast of “The Breakfast Club.” That’s the syndicated Black-focus radio show on which Joe Biden made his famous “you ain’t Black” gaff.
Rush explained that he was sickened by the “criminal brutality” evident in the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and wanted to “reach out” to some people with whom he ordinarily wouldn’t be likely to exchange views.
One of the hosts, Lenard McKelvey, known as “Charlamagne Tha God,” noted that Floyd’s death was only one instance of a Black person killed by police, and asked why this was the one “making you say, ‘enough is enough.’”
Rush responded passionately, “Because I’m fed up with it!”
The answer to McKelvey’s question is really quite simple…
Why this one? Because it was clear.
In other police killings, such as that of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, there have been additional facts not immediately known, or other actions not captured on video. Things happen quickly in confrontational situations, and you usually can’t know what transpired before the camera was turned on, or what might have been revealed if viewed from a different angle.
The Minneapolis incident had no such ambiguity about it.
OUR DIVISIONS DEEPEN OVER
UNANSWERED COVID QUESTIONS
We’ve entered the next phase in our struggle with the great 2020 plague.
Businesses are reopening, people are moving about more freely, and that great spirit of “We’re all in this together!” has morphed into “What the hell’s the matter with you?!”
It goes without saying that Democrats and their media enablers are scratching around for every possible way to pin blame on Donald Trump. From the beginning, they’ve hoped for the nation to endure maximum suffering so that the Trumpian Miracle might be undone.
But everybody in the country seems bugged, to one degree or another, at somebody else.
The face mask is one of the key lines of division. It isn’t just that some people choose to stand by this small precaution while others doubt its effectiveness. Rather it’s become an emotion-laden symbol.
CORONAVIRUS HAS CREATED
SOME VERY ODD SITUATIONS
What can one say about Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer?
Well…she’s pretty.
Now, don’t give me any crap about sexism. You can be sure Whitmer understands that her physical attractiveness is a political asset. There’s no doubt it was a factor in her becoming governor.
Of course, the Republicans ran a lousy campaign, with an uninspiring candidate. And our former governor, Rick Snyder, did little to protect his legacy from Democrat depredations.
At any rate, we’ve now got Gretchen — who still hasn’t fixed “the damn roads” (her big campaign promise). Under her executive order, we can buy food at Walmart, but not seeds.
And garden stores are closed by decree.
In planting season.
My wife, Kathy, is a dedicated gardener. She grows all kinds of comestibles. We eat out of the freezer year-round.
Food.
Get it, Gretchen?
REEXAMINING THE GREAT
SACRIFICE THAT SAVES US
The essay below launched my blog back in 2013. It later appeared at the online journal American Thinker. And I have reposted it in subsequent years.
The research on which it was based also provided the background for writing my novel about Jesus’ family, MY BROTHER’S KEEPER (shown at right).
As we approach Easter 2020 under the somewhat strained conditions of quarantine — which for many of us has been a kind of cross — I offer these thoughts once again for your consideration…
Despite its status as the holiest day on the Christian calendar, Easter has never had an impact on American life that comes close to the annual, all-pervasive social and economic supernova of Christmas. This is probably explainable by Easter’s limited potential for commercialization. Chocolate bunnies and died eggs can’t match the buying and gift-giving frenzy of Yuletide. Even shopping for that new spring outfit — to the extent people still dress up for Easter in our over-casual age — barely nudges the gross domestic product.
Easter just remains so stubbornly…religious. It’s also kind of demanding. Grasping the joy, or even the concept, of resurrection takes faith. What does it mean that Jesus rose again? For that matter, why did he have to die in the first place?
UPDATE ON MY NEW SHOW
FOR WRITERS & READERS
Getting bored with coronavirus lock-down? Looking for some mental stimulation to enliven those empty hours in quarantine?
Check out my radio series, “Free Expression with Bill Kassel.”
Produced by Good Shepherd Catholic Radio, the show is all about religious communication. I interview writers, publishers, book reviewers, and other folks active in bringing you engaging books and media that convey the Christian message and provide insights to help you on your faith journey.
We’ve set up an archive page where you can listen to the show online anytime…
https://goodshepherdcatholicradio.org/radio-show/free-expression/
It’s a work in progress at this point, but we’ve got four episodes posted so far…
A SOFTER, GENTLER DONALD
PRESSES ON AMID CRITICISM
At President 
Trump’s recent press update on government action to counter coronavirus, PBS White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor claimed that some unidentified White House functionary referred to the pandemic flippantly as “kung-flu.”
Bringing this up was, of course, the latest in ongoing media efforts to keep painting the Trump Administration as fundamentally racist.
Actually, this clever expression is a perfect example of that great American ability to disarm fear with humor which has served us so well during many periods of crisis. So let’s get something straight…
Nobody … nobody … NOBODY believes that being ethnically Chinese makes you responsible for coronavirus.
THE DEMS JUST KEEP
PLAYING POLITICS
Events have proven the truth of my own misjudgment. As I wrote recently…
“Drawing conclusions from early primary elections is always risky, because states vary. A candidate who flops in one region can perform impressively in another part of the country. And in politics a couple of months is an eternity.
“A lot can change.”
That has certainly been shown to be true, and I should have stopped there. Instead, I wrote…
“Nevertheless, after Iowa and New Hampshire, things aren’t looking good for Joe Biden. There’s enough of a geographic spread between those two states to give the impression that ‘momentum’ — the elusive sense people impute to a politician’s progress on the campaign trail — has abandoned him.”
And, wouldn’t you know it, now “good old Joe from Scranton” is the front-runner.