Bill Kassel's Blog

Occasional reflections on religion, culture, politics, and anything else that comes into my mind...

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Both Sides of the Fence

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LET’S CONSIDER THE LARGER PICTURE
AS WE DEBATE IMMIGRATION REFORM

Unwrapping an old set of dinnerware my wife acquired for her online sales business, I had the opportunity to flip through some pages from an issue of the Pittsburgh Press of December 1978. I love reading old publications. They provide glimpses back into worlds we thought would never change and often, in a certain sense, prove that our assumptions were correct.

US-MX FlagsThere at the top of the Background/Opinion page was an analysis piece headlined, “Plan to Reinforce Border Fence Weakening U.S.-Mexican Ties.”

That headline could have been written this morning (instead of back during the Carter Administration), as a compromise agreement on increased border security is announced in the ongoing negotiations about the proposed immigration reform bill.

[Read more…] about Both Sides of the Fence

In Deep

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IT’S EASY TO TRIP OVER
RELIGIOUS/CULTURAL LINES

Years ago — in another life, it seems nowadays — when I was a newspaper reporter, I wrote a caption for an interior shot of a headquarters building just constructed for the township sewer commission in the district I covered.

It was our style to begin photo captions with a word or phrase relevant to the subject of the image. This provided small opportunities for reporters to be clever, and I thought I was being mildly so when I began this particular caption: “New Digs.”

Get it? Sewer commission? “New Digs” — meaning, New Home — as in “Come over sometime and see my new digs.” Right? Seemed clear enough to me. But the day the photo ran I received a phone call from the sewer commission secretary. [Read more…] about In Deep

Maybe the Child

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A SONG FULL OF MEMORIES
ABOUT BECOMING A FATHER

Father’s Day always makes me feel a little self-conscious. Perhaps it’s because this rather contrived celebration — one of several “Hallmark Holidays” we observe throughout the year — reminds me of how intimidating the idea of being a father was to me.

Having children would prove one of the greatest fulfillments of my life. But as I looked ahead to it, I was filled with existential angst.

Anticipating fatherhood did inspire a song, however — one which I think reveals the heart of a young man with spiritual inclinations whose faith hadn’t fully coalesced into a life-guiding conviction, but who thought about the big questions.

It would be several years before that faith became clear enough for me to start writing Christian music. But I think there are some seeds here.

 

Maybe the Child

By Bill Kassel

Life is reaching from the dark divide
Kathy, I think I felt it move beneath my hand
All these feelings that have torn me inside
Someday
Maybe the child will understand

Life is sadness, as the time slips by
Youth is as lasting as a teardrop in my hand
Still, the fire inside won’t let the flame die
Someday
Maybe the child will understand

Is there a power that saves us for forever?
Is there a sign that leads us to the way?
Is there a hope that drives us through loneliness
Till the dark at the end of the day?

Life calls out, and somehow frightens me
Have I the right to hold tomorrow in my hand?
Yet, I stumble on to all that must be
Someday
Maybe the child will understand

Is there a power that saves us for forever?
Is there a sign that leads us to the way?
Is there a hope that drives us through loneliness
Till the dark at the end of the day?

Love is all the meaning I can find
Kathy, I love you
Come and take me by the hand
If we leave the fear and doubting behind
Someday
Maybe the child will understand.

Copyright © 1974, Bill Kassel

 

Dilemma — Part II

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AS THE SNOWDEN STORY GETS MURKIER
I’M EVEN MORE UNCERTAIN HOW I FEEL

The more Edward Snowden speaks to the media, the deeper my dilemma over U.S. spying on digital communications (per my last post, below) seems to become. Now he’s told the South China Morning Post that the National Security Agency “had been hacking computers in Hong Kong and on the mainland since 2009.”

“‘We hack network backbones — like huge internet routers, basically — that give us access to the communications of hundreds of thousands of computers without having to hack every single one,’ he said.”

Impressive, though not exactly a bombshell revelation. And to tell the truth, I don’t find it altogether disturbing that we’re going tit-for-tat after years of Chinese tinkering with the data systems of American companies and even our military networks.

[Read more…] about Dilemma — Part II

Dilemma

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CAN WE BALANCE SECURITY AND FREEDOM
IN THE FACE OF THE TERRORIST THREAT?

I find myself on the horns of a dilemma, and I suspect I’m not alone.

The self-revelation of Edward Snowden as the source of leaks about widespread National Security Agency spying on the phone calls and emails of American citizens — lots and lots of American citizens — has raised this story to a Watergate level of news interest.

The Obama Administration was able to tamp down controversy generated by the attack on an embassy-related compound in Libya and the deaths of our ambassador and two aids. Even the ham-handed — and transparently stupid — attempt to pin that incident on grassroots outrage against a shoddily produced anti-Muslim video didn’t pose any meaningful threat to the President’s approval ratings.

Prism LogoBut sifting through the private communications of, literally, millions of Americans is a different matter. Viewed in light of the scandals over Department of Justice spying on journalists and news organizations, along with the Internal Revenue Service’s attempts to derail applications for tax-exempt status by groups that don’t share the Progressive agenda, this new flap over the so-called Prism program goes to the very heart of public trust in Obama, his support among even leftwing factions, and the spirit of rapport that had existed between the White House and the mainstream media.

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Kathleen’s Choice

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MEDICAL ADVANCES HAVE CREATED
UNRESOLVABLE ETHICAL QUESTIONS

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is the bête noire of the Pro-Life Movement. Both Catholic and pro-choice, Sebelius generally vies with Nancy Pelosi for the title of “The Catholic Whom Other Catholics Least Wish to See Receive Holy Communion.”

Typical reactions to her run along the lines of…

“How can she call herself a Catholic and believe the things she believes?”

“Why doesn’t her bishop do something about that woman?”

Kathleen SebeliusBut Sebelius recently found herself on the hot seat over a heart-rending question that neither she nor anyone could answer in a satisfactory way. Congressman Lou Barletta, a Republican who represents Pennsylvania’s 11th Congressional District, asked the Secretary to suspend an HHS rule prohibiting children under 12 years of age from receiving lung transplants from adult donors. It seems there are compatibility issues that require children to receive lungs only from other children. [Read more…] about Kathleen’s Choice

The Right to Think

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HATE IS HARMFUL AND DANGEROUS
BUT CRIMINALIZING IT IS TYRANNY

It’s Voltaire, that spinner of quotable lines, who is credited with one of the great statements on freedom:Voltaire

“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

Unfortunately, it appears that this oft-cited declaration in defense of intellectual liberty comes from a book about Voltaire, and that, even if it reflects his opinion, he never actually said it. Which may serve as a metaphor for the current tenuous condition of the First Amendment.

Recent weeks have brought parallel scandals surrounding the DOJ’s snooping into the confidential communications of various media organizations and the IRS’ sandbagging of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status — both of which are growing like Topsy and posing significant threats to certain prominent members of the Obama Administration.  We’ve also seen a federal judge allow the use of so-called “National Security Letters” — secret, warrantless orders which cannot be discussed or even acknowledged publicly — to let the government go fishing in the user files of Google, one of the world’s great depositories of personal data.

Now the conservative watchdog group, Judicial Watch, reports that the Justice Department is warning it may take legal action against individuals “using social media to spread information considered inflammatory against Muslims” on the basis that such talk could be a violation of civil rights.

[Read more…] about The Right to Think

Christmas in June

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AN IRISH-CANADIAN DOCTOR SHOWS
HOW TO MAKE WHOLESOME FRESH

I had never read anything by Irish-Canadian author Patrick Taylor before finding myself a client of the literary agency that handles his work. But upon joining the lists of the Aponte Agency, I figured I should acquaint myself with the output of my fellow scribblers.

Irish Country ChristmasLo and behold, a brand spankin’ new volume of Taylor’s An Irish Country Christmas called out to me from the book rack of a local thrift store. Not being one to pass up the chance to acquire new books at less than remainder prices, I bought it, but didn’t get around to cracking it open for several weeks (good intentions, slow delivery — an ongoing story).

I shouldn’t have waited.

[Read more…] about Christmas in June

Prayer Time

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AN EFFORT AT RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION
RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT SCHOOL PRAYER

When I was a kid, each day in public school began with a religious invocation that included a reading from the Bible and recitation of The Lord’s Prayer. It was an official institutional practice led by the teacher along with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Old Bible

Jewish kids were a large portion of the student body in schools I attended, so teachers made an effort to select Bible passages in a way that gave representation to both the Old and New Testaments. But even though the formulation “Our Father in heaven” was not original with Christ (it was, in fact, used by many rabbis of his time), the identification of The Lord’s Prayer with Jesus’ teaching, and its appearance in two of the Gospels (Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4), gave our morning exercise a decidedly Christian cast.

It was, after all, the Lord’s prayer. Everyone understood which Lord we were talking about.

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Once to Every Man and Nation

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THE WORDS OF A GREAT HYMN ARE WORTH PONDERING
AT A CRITICAL MOMENT IN OUR NATIONAL LIFE

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) was a poet and an editor of several American periodicals. He was also a college professor, and later in life, was appointed a diplomat representing the United States in Spain and Britain.

James Russell LowellHe is best remembered as one of the Fireside Poets, a group of New England writers who gained popularity in the first half of the 19th-Century. They were so named because their verses were considered suitable for reading aloud around the family hearth.

Lowell was an advocate of Abolition. His anti-slavery sentiments and other political opinions frequently found expression in his poetry. One of his most influential polemical works was “The Present Crisis,” a portion of which was adapted as a song lyric and set to a Welsh tune called “Ebenezer” by composer Thomas J. Williams. We know it as the hymn, “Once to Every Man and Nation.”

The lines speak of defending truth when falsehood is ascendant. That they were written in 1845 illustrates how history tends to, if not precisely repeat itself, then to follow very similar recurring themes.

Today we have entered a period in our history when we are reexamining our national character and considering what kind of nation we wish to be. The presence of falsehood — in the form of distorted moral values and dishonest political ideas — is very much a factor in our decision making.

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Breaking Camp

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THE BOYS SCOUTS ARE THE LATEST
TO BE CRUSHED BY SOCIAL CHANGE

Cub Scout LogoI didn’t have a dog in this fight — at least not directly. I had no fond memories of scout camp or jamborees or sharing dreams around the campfire.

My career as a Cub Scout lasted only a couple months. I was in the world’s worst den with the least engaged and imaginative den mother ever.

The most interesting part of our meetings was making the Living Circle by gripping each other’s thumbs and reciting the Law of the Pack. The high point of our activity schedule was a field trip to a naval supply depot in Philadelphia where we looked at some rusting World War II-era trainer planes parked on the lawn.

I dropped out.

Boy Scout SealCertainly, I realize that many other boys have had wonderful scouting experiences that brought them lasting friendships, gave direction to their lives, and helped make them into men. Untold thousands of such stories, lived out over a century, have made the Boy Scouts of America a vital part of our national heritage.

Now it’s all winding down.

[Read more…] about Breaking Camp

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