GOP slithers out of town DC. Meeting up at Susan & Wayne LaPierre's 4th of July NRA Barbeque

GOP slithers out of town DC. Meeting up at Susan & Wayne LaPierre's 4th of July Barbeque. Fresh shot meat, stuffed envelopes provided by NRA.

Paul Ryan is the purrfect NRA Lap Dog. 



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Insure Domestic Tranquility - U.S.Constitution - Ban Assault Rifles and GunViolence

q

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House of Representatives SIT IN - Wash DC - Civil Right Not To Live In Fear of Terrorists Buying Weapons of War caused by the NRA and GOP Lackies - NRA WHORES

House of Representatives SIT IN - Wash DC - Civil Right Not To Live In Fear of Terrorists Buying Weapons of War caused by the NRA and GOP Lackies NRA Whores.


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Day of Rage in Tucson Arizona 2011 - Revisited

(February 7, 2011)

I lived and worked in Tucson Arizona for close to eight years back in the 1990s. I worked for a short time, 100 yards down the road from the recent mass murders there that involved the shooting of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords of the U.S. Congress.

As stated I worked down the road from the Safeway and its parking lot, the scene of this recent American-style tragedy. I even ate lunch a few times in a food court setting in the front of the supermarket way back when. 

I researched this matter of the shootings that took the life of a nine year old girl among others. The date is January 8, 2011. Seems like two months ago instead of one month to me. Time seems to be compressed sometimes concerning memory. 

I had written an account of the attack on Rep. Giffords Tucson office at the end of the debate and vote on Health Care Reform last year. The attack in the middle of the night and broken glass brought to mind the terrible tragedy of Kristallnacht in Nazi controlled Germany in November 1938 against Jews in the population. I made reference to that event because Ms. Giffords is Jewish.

Kristallnacht – Tucson - USA 

The apparently troubled young man who did the shootings and these murders seems to have bought into a uniquely American style of settling arguments or supplementing mental disorders with guns. 

Because I had been in this place in Tucson and knew its layout I did not write anything or comment until now. I felt the tragedy in a personal sense having a shared experience of the geography with the victims. I should also note that it took me five years to finally write down my experiences of the 911 tragedy here in NYC. 

No Guarantee of Tomorrow

I also wanted to turn a corner in this blog whereby I did not want to poll parrot the party line coming out of the media. The media turns on cable and cable turns on the middle class who can afford it. The media rightly or wrongly from left or from right seems to feed on the energy of rage both in content and filler. I need to and we all need to as well step back from the edge of that rage that permeates our complex modern society. 

Rage is not only a middle class thing but perhaps a middle aged thing. It comes from the disappointment from expectations not fulfilled. It comes from recognizing the disappointment from the perspective of age and or wisdom from life experience. 

I do not want to merely echo the media and its sounds of fury. 

Now a month later I can look and see how death by random acts of violence is fed by rage and guns. 

I do not object to hunters having rifles in their homes with or without permits. I do object to weapons of war with high capacity discharge being sold in America. They are not necessary in a civilized society. 

I think that licensing handguns within the confines of city limits is the right of the well being of the population of that densely populated city to assure protection from violence and violent mental illness spilling into the streets and onto the parking lots of America. 

I am not advocating repeal of the second amendment’s right to bear arms. I am trying to find common grounds with all parties to seek a solution to too much gun power in America and to too many guns. 

The days of the wilderness are long gone. The days of conflict with the native Indian population are long gone. In the twenty first century, a fetish for guns and gun power is a bit outdated and obsessive. It speaks of the breakdown of community and loss of civility in our society. 

The gun lobby and the media lobby both seem to be catering to keeping the rage up to sell their products. Whatever. 

I am glad that Representative Giffords survived and may well have a normal life returned to her after much therapy. 

Prayers for the victims and their families in Tucson. Prayers for the perpetrators, both the lobbyists of hate and rage, as well as for the disturbed young man who committed this crime.

http://thisculturalchristian.blogspot.com/2011/02/day-of-rage-in-tucson-arizona.html

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Sabino Canyon - Tucson Arizona

Sabino Canyon - Tucson Arizona - Photo by W. McClements

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabino_Canyon

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Rocco’s Little Chicago Tucson Arizona – A Great to Eat if you are not an Asshole Arizona Politician

In Arizona’s boom and bust economy it is surprising that I run into a piece of an old acquaintance from Tucson, Rocco of Rocco’s Little Chicago Pizzeria along the main east west drag East Broadway on Internet News.

I can remember when Rocco’s was searching around for the right spot to put his version of Chicago and its style of pizza and Italian food on the local Menu and under the Stripes and Stars Chicago City Flag inside the restaurant.

His wife was a fellow co-worker at a local HMO before it was sold out to the Corporate Global Spreadsheet, before you had to dial a 1-800 number to help you with your primary care doctor or your meds and reach perhaps in those days Minnesota which is probably Mumbai these days.

The corporate culture of that local HMO was such that everybody was a member of a team and almost like family. So it was not hard to keep up with the progress of Rocco starting a business with limited capital and in the boom and bust economy of an old cow town, university town of Tucson.

I was pleasingly surprised to see that Rocco had posted a sign restricting service to the morons in the state legislature over this recent religious right to discriminate law. The sign above.

I wished him and his wife and baby luck at the grand opening of Rocco’s in the late nineties before traveling back east to a more stable long term work environment. I even gave him a collage of old newspaper stuffed into the seat of a shaker chair I bought there in a thrift store. Rocco said he was going to hang it in the bathroom.

Doubt is something as brilliant and as valuable (sarcasm) as one of my works of art has survived the tourists.

Rocco Bathroom Art Reminiscent of College Days spent in Saint Petersburg Russia Comrade

Was back in 2007 visiting my son in college but missed getting to say hello to Rocco. Hello Rocco. Good Man! Even Better Pizza!

Real Tucsonans Stay In Summer
And are not Stupid enough to
Turn away Business LOL

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Historical Fact - (small one) - Tucson Arizona - December 23, 1995

Historical Fact (small one) - Tucson Az, December 23, 1995 (from a journal)

As Iris and I approached the Basha's Checkout Counter at approximately 9:45 AM Arizona Time - I noticed Time Magazine's cover - Man of the Year - with Newt Gingrich's picture - I remarked to Iris that we had forgot - and still needed toilet paper - I ran through store - to complete our order while she stood in line waiting to be served.

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Pioneer Hotel Tucson – Ghost Story – Resurrection of Louis Taylor – Freed After 42 Years Jailed on Flimsy Racist Charges – Accepts Plea Bargain to Gain Freedom

Louis C. Taylor - Tucson Az

I don’t know if Louis Taylor set the fire at the old Pioneer Hotel in Tucson in 1970. 

I never heard of Louis or the Pioneer Hotel Fire before I encountered some of the dead ghosts still inhabiting the place, now an office building.

Spring Bloom, by David Schwindt

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Great Pictures Great Spaces of the Southwest U.S. - Texas to Tucson

http://www.artdivastudios.com/photography/texas-to-tucson/


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Bishop Brom San Diego – Vampire Bishop? – Twilight Cathedrals California? – Kinky Catholic Sex in Coffins

This is a bit late for Halloween and perhaps a bit silly, but a few thoughts.

Twilight – Breaking Dawn – a vampire flick just grossed close to $300 million on its opening weekend.

And I ran into the weirdest reference in Wiki about the current RC bishop of San Diego California whose settlement, out of court, from his youthful indiscretions with children that did not keep him from being a bishop in San Diego.

BTW, border towns or near border towns like San Diego, Tucson, Phoenix, El Paso, or transportation hubs with Mexico like Calexico CA have long been the dumping grounds for pedo priests in the United States. Why?  Illegals can’t call the cops when the local padre rapes their children.

 

Anyway. The weird thing about Bishop Brom (any relation to Bram, Bram Stoker?), is the obscure reference to kinky gay vampire sex in coffins for a self hating gay? self-hating vampire? like Bishop Brom?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_abuse_scandal_in_San_Diego_diocese

Robert Brom was accused of coercing a student into a sexual relationship at a seminary in Minnesota, where he once was rector and later headed the Diocese of Duluth. The alleged victim reportedly claimed that the incident of abuse occurred "in a coffin along with other bishops". Due to the "unusual" allegation, no criminal charges were brought at the time and, according to Brom, the settlement was made to offer psychological assistance for the alleged victim.

Doing further research, I have not been able to tie down that “in a coffin with other bishops” quote to a specific document. But it leaves a lot to my imagination. A lot!

Having recently done an Architectural Review of the RC Oakland Cathedral that got built for $200 million, and the old cathedral damaged in an earthquake could have been repaired for $8 million dollars, I have to wonder the need to spend so much?  And why also a new RC Cathedral in Los Angeles for another $200 million dollars? 

Aside from the need for underground parking, the major use of space underground competing with the parking is the Crypts, acres and acres of Mausoleum space underground? Honeycombed under these new church structures.

Time was when churches were places of worship.

But I guess there is more money selling burial space to elites and renting to out of town California vampire types like Bishop Brom? LOL

With all these TV shows, movies, books about blood sucking and the undead, La La Land big business - money, is somebody trying to let us know something about the dark underbelly of the human soul?

Who better to get involved in banking and the dark underbelly of the soul than the RC church?

Whatever.

Have a nice.  (cover your neck)

J

Day of Rage in Tucson Arizona

I lived and worked in Tucson Arizona for close to eight years back in the 1990s. I worked for a short time, 100 yards down the road from the recent mass murders there that involved the shooting of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords of the U.S. Congress.

As stated I worked down the road from the Safeway and its parking lot, the scene of this recent American-style tragedy. I even ate lunch a few times in a food court setting in the front of the supermarket way back when.

I researched this matter of the shootings that took the life of a nine year old girl among others. The date is January 8, 2011. Seems like two months ago instead of one month to me. Time seems to be compressed sometimes concerning memory.

I had written an account of the attack on Rep. Giffords Tucson office at the end of the debate and vote on Health Care Reform last year. The attack in the middle of the night and broken glass brought to mind the terrible tragedy of Kristallnacht in Nazi controlled Germany in November 1938 against Jews in the population. I made reference to that event because Ms. Giffords is Jewish.

Kristallnacht – Tucson - USA

The apparently troubled young man who did the shootings and these murders seems to have bought into a uniquely American style of settling arguments or supplementing mental disorders with guns.

Because I had been in this place in Tucson and knew its layout I did not write anything or comment until now. I felt the tragedy in a personal sense having a shared experience of the geography with the victims. I should also note that it took me five years to finally write down my experiences of the 911 tragedy here in NYC.

No Guarantee of Tomorrow

I also wanted to turn a corner in this blog whereby I did not want to poll parrot the party line coming out of the media. The media turns on cable and cable turns on the middle class who can afford it. The media rightly or wrongly from left or from right seems to feed on the energy of rage both in content and filler. I need to and we all need to as well step back from the edge of that rage that permeates our complex modern society.

Rage is not only a middle class thing but perhaps a middle aged thing. It comes from the disappointment from expectations not fulfilled. It comes from recognizing the disappointment from the perspective of age and or wisdom from life experience.

I do not want to merely echo the media and its sounds of fury.

Now a month later I can look and see how death by random acts of violence is fed by rage and guns.

I do not object to hunters having rifles in their homes with or without permits. I do object to weapons of war with high capacity discharge being sold in America. They are not necessary in a civilized society.

I think that licensing handguns within the confines of city limits is the right of the well being of the population of that densely populated city to assure protection from violence and violent mental illness spilling into the streets and onto the parking lots of America.

I am not advocating repeal of the second amendment’s right to bear arms. I am trying to find common grounds with all parties to seek a solution to too much gun power in America and to too many guns.

The days of the wilderness are long gone. The days of conflict with the native Indian population are long gone. In the twenty first century, a fetish for guns and gun power is a bit outdated and obsessive. It speaks of the breakdown of community and loss of civility in our society.

The gun lobby and the media lobby both seem to be catering to keeping the rage up to sell their products. Whatever.

I am glad that Representative Giffords survived and may well have a normal life returned to her after much therapy.

Prayers for the victims and their families in Tucson. Prayers for the perpetrators, both the lobbyists of hate and rage, as well as for the disturbed young man who committed this crime.

Hate and Prejudice in Prescott Arizona

Mural creates quite a stir in Prescott after artist is asked to lighten faces

PRESCOTT, AZ - Recent changes made to the colorful mural on the front of Miller Valley Elementary school have some in this town like Barbara Braswell turning every shade of angry.

"Do you see? Do you see where they tried to lighten that guy's face up there?," she asked her children.

"I think it's absolutely unbelievable. I think it's teaching our kids that racism is alright," Susan Griffin agreed.

Two months in the making, the mural depicts children escaping a crowded cityscape into more natural surroundings, but some in the city have taken exception to the colors in the mural.

Some have called for the colors of the children's skin to be changed. School board officials approached the artist, R.E. Wall, demanding they be lightened.

Hate is a strong word. Prejudice is real in Arizona and it not as simple and black and white. The so-called brown people which I feel is insulting to use but the term has not yet been banned to the wrong side of PC yet. For the native Mexican Americans in Arizona, many have been there many more generations than any recent white visitor or residents.

These brown people are the subject of discrimination and are under attack for merely being who they are, the children of God – perhaps not the one true white god – but legitimate children never the less.

I can remember listening to a co-worker well over a decade ago about how her son was an ace soccer player and how he got discouraged from participating in the all white soccer team at an exclusive Catholic high school in Tucson. I say exclusive in the money sense and not any class sense. White trash with money got more respect from the religious males and females that administered veiled hate and prejudice there like a lot of other institutions, parts and geographies around the country.

Prescott was one of many territorial capitals of Arizona. Barry Goldwater would announce every campaign for Senate and the Presidency on the steps of the old state capital building. It is north and high in the mountains and somewhat on the way to Flagstaff.

When talking racism in Arizona, Phoenix and Tucson are big cities and relatively cosmopolitan compared to Prescott which is part of the original Mormon territory of Deseret which I think they still plan to annex and secede with one day, no doubt in their dreams.

I guess that the recent anti-immigrant legislation let demons fly out of Pandora’s or I should say Robert E. Lee’s box. This recent sponsored by the lunatic cracker default governor Brewer legislation gives people the desire to keep the front door pure in that public display of white people only in murals reflecting the unrealistic bubble world of the tea baggers and their toxic Tea Party.

It is okay. I am glad that the liberal east coast media is outraged by this blatant racism in the fictional state of Deseret or one of its counties called Arizona.

The front door in the Global reality can be as pure as you want it to be. The true reality is that the Internet, DVDs, communications technologies are making the true world of the very near future a reality – and through the back door so to speak of our culture.

While the rednecks of Arizona are little different than the rednecks of Afghanistan or Pakistan, the new global reality is taking shape and it is about people first and foremost and the color of people have no color anymore in any common globalists’ eyes.

Arizona Cracker Law HB2281

I used to stand and wait for a bus to go to work near a cemetery on Oracle Rd. in Tucson. I would be standing something like thirty feet from a huge granite tombstone of the infamous local financier Sam Hughes who orchestrated and paid for the Camp Grant Massacre in 1871.

Camp Grant Massacre

The tombstone is still there but the man is long forgotten. “The evil that men do lives after them.” The massacre deserves to live on in “ethnic studies” courses in Tucson that cracker Governor Brewer and the hack white Arizona legislature have banned in HB2281. Too Bad.

Arizona Legislature Passes Bill That Outlaws 'Ethnic Studies' (HB2281)

The new Arizona law:

“Prohibits a school district or charter school from including in its program of instruction any courses or classes that:

Promote the overthrow of the United States government.

Promote resentment toward a race or class of people.

Are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group.

Advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”

The target is Tucson, T.U.S.D., Tucson United School District, and the one progressive end of that state.

The first provision to not promote the overthrow of the U.S. Government is a dead give away about the paranoia of a dying white majority to deny the rights of ethnics claiming their heritage through the honest study of history.

Jan Brewer will do anything, say anything, sign anything to get reelected this year.

Wikipedia has Governor Brewer listed as a member of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.

I have looked through the internet to find comment of the LCMS on the recent racist SB1070 Arizona Immigration “show me your papers” law. No comment. A shrug perhaps. And they wonder why they can’t fill pews these days.

It is too early for that “moral” comment perhaps on this scraping of history from the history books - as is now law in this new White Only History - Arizona law. Is silence tacit agreement?

Kristallnacht – Tucson - USA

Our democracy is fragile. It is very disheartening that elements of the mainstream media that I term Hate Radio and Hate News are on a 24/7 bellicose attack on all things government.

It is time for some ambitious district attorney, democrat, republican, independent somewhere to bring Roger Ailes of FOX NEWS and Sarah Palin up on some conspiracy, incitement to commit violence charges.

Palin of SarahPAC, a charity of sorts for has been half-politicians who openly - hint, hint, wink, wink - advocates violence against the elected representatives of the government with target crosshair symbols on her web page against Democratic enemies and their seats up for re-election in Congress.

Ailes of course, the man who helped get Nixon elected with false advertising is the model for the main Jon Hamm character in the AMC cable show “Mad Men”. As president of a “news” department at Fox, he is the one ultimately involved and responsible for incendiary language coming out of the mouths of paid actors on his news programs.

What's Behind The Wave of Right-Wing Health Care Violence?

I am particularly hurt by the attack on Representative Gabrielle Giffords congressional office in Tucson in the middle of the night, early Sunday Morning with a brick through that window.

In total five windows seemed have been smashed across the country. Three at local democratic party offices. Two were against the offices of two congresswomen. An article in the Christian Science Monitor which I thought to be a balanced honest paper showed its true colors by playing down, ignoring the violence against Congress Women and then quotes Rep Boehner out of context, like he really deplores violence.

That article was questioning the validity of vandalism on the property of Congressman Tom Perriello’s brother after his brother’s address was posted online as the Congressman’s address. The address was posted in the hopes that some moron would do violence against Tom Perriello or his family.

Was Rep. Tom Perriello targeted for his vote on healthcare bill?

Hitler and his brown shirts before they came to power were nothing more than street thugs, throwing rocks, breaking windows, intimidating, bullying etc. not unlike the Tea Party movement that the GOP hopes to nurture and absorb rather than let it become independent and free to destroy the presently comatose Grand Old Party.

Representative Giffords in the 8th district of Tucson is Jewish and married to an active duty serviceman Mark Kelly, also an astronaut.

My interest in Tucson is having lived there for close to a decade in the recent past. The thing is with two corporate whores liked Jon Kyl and John McCain hogging the two senate seats of Arizona, the only address most citizens have in petitioning the government with legitimate grievances is through the one liberal congressperson that usually represents the one solid liberal corner of the state in Tucson.

So when I hear that the closeted brown shirts like Sarah Palin has a bulls eye target on Representative Giffords, I say Fuck You Sarah and Fuck the Horse you rode into town on. Half baked, half educated, half governor of Alaska.

No bunch of thugs is going to take our democracy away from us like the Nazis took Germany in the thirties.

Vandalism, thuggery, bullying and the breaking of windows by in the middle of the night cowards says an awful lot about Roger Ailes cash cow audience at Fox “News”.

the great dark

A great dark bird (B-1)
circles above.

It is hard to ignore as I
approach and park, then go
do a late day routine.

Lines in the desert seem
more crisply defined with
clear blue sky overhead.

Black silhouette
against electric blue
is hard to miss.

Driving here everyday sees
training flights all the time
as they round the city.

Oddly comfortable,
a nation’s ready defense
against who or what
I sometimes wonder.

My errand is done.

The image returns as
I start up the car and
look through the windshield.

The great dark bird
continues to fly.

It casts large shadows
while it coasts on solar winds
slowly maneuvering near
its unseen home mountain
(Davis Monthan Air Force Base).

This while four young chicks,
training jets in standard gray,
(not the usual A-10’s)
keep careful speed and distance
to the mother bird.

This all, with nearby
afternoon football play
in a still green autumn park.

Long shadows, fading sun.
A warmth of Sol on the face.

Driving away from the park
and daycare retrieval
I notice (and am part of)...

The great dark’s spread
of larger wings,
casting its personal shadow
on us, my son and me,
as it seemingly glides to conquer
near ground in landing.
over a house as horizon line.

Momentary illusion, partaking
interrupted by reality and
a sobering thought.

The cost overruns had
nothing to due with grace
or beauty.

Haunting end day images
mix with Oppenheimer’s
Hindu recitation. – echo
“ I am become death...
...a shatterer...”

(be not death! I reply)

Where there is life, there is God.

Power. Power.
A dropped egg?

Potential death.
There or here?

Hopeful design
never (a prayer)
to be fulfilled.


(11-29-95, Tucson)
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Sabbath Tales

I have met and know of some remarkable men in my life. Since it is Friday and tonight at sundown marks the start of the traditional Jewish Sabbath, let me tell a few tales.

The man who baptized me or more accurately the man who was founder and pastor of my parish in Philly was a fanatic of sorts. He started out life as an Episcopalian, changed Christian registration to R.C. when in the seminary and went on to start a new R.C. parish. The parish was sort of in between a lot of other established parishes and the land in between those other churches began to be developed, houses built, and there was a need for a new church, school etc. in the first decades of the twentieth century in that part of Philly.

Let me call this man Father Ed. He was of the old “God is to be feared” school of beliefs. He was an Old Testament kind of guy.

He was dead by the time I reached first grade. I have heard stories about him. One from a home inspector who related the story about being an altar boy in my parish and being five minutes late for mass. Father Ed ranted into him at the end of service about how you can’t be late for God. The priest also made the boy serve everyday for a year at 6:00 a.m. mass as punishment. That priest made an impression on that guy but I don’t think that Father Ed made a friend.

Then, as it happens sometimes in life, a lady knocked on the door and said that she had been raised in our house and asked if she might get a quick nostalgic view inside. She then got into some stories about the neighborhood. The one story I remember most was about Father Ed.

There was a Russian tailor in our neighborhood. He also did dry cleaning and his store was a block away from our house. We did business with the man. In the story of the visiting lady we finally understood why some of our neighbors took their dry cleaning three blocks away and not use the local guy. The Russian was also a Jew and a good tailor I might add. My parents, for working class, were flaming liberals. Being Jewish did not matter to them. That and my father liked to haggle.

The lady went on to say that as a child, she and her friends used to taunt the man. Let me say anti-Semitism was rampant in America back then in the 1930's, at least in this neighborhood. Well Father Ed got wind of the fact that some of his parishioners and children were harassing the man and boycotting his business. Father Ed made it a point to visit the tailor and bring his dry cleaning four blocks from the rectory. In good weather, Father Ed sat on the store stoop and smoked a cigar together with the tailor as a means to make a statement of sorts to the neighborhood. Apparently Father Ed and the tailor became good friends as the result of this local anti-Semitism.

Which leads me to the story of my next door neighbor in Arizona. Perry had a remarkable life. Left home and dairy farm in Minnesota when he was fifteen in the middle of the depression and headed west. He wanted to be a cowboy and that he became for some years. Then when World War II broke out he went up to Canada and joined the fight. He hit Juno beach on D-Day as a lieutenant in the Canadian army. He married a Brit, brought his war bride home and settled into life in Arizona B.A.C. (before air conditioning).

Perry joined the post office and then worked his way up to postmaster before retirement. I got to talk to him over the fence as a neighbor. Good stories. Went into his house a few times and vice versa. All in all, he was a great neighbor.

Then one day his wife came to us to tell us that Perry had skin cancer, that they did some necessary surgery but that the disease may have spread. I am not sure how all this got started. Perhaps my neighbor’s wife was talking to my wife and then the topic came up about me being an elder in a local church. Apparently Perry had no religious ties. I would have assumed that he might have attended church in his youth in Minnesota. His wife asked if I would talk to him.

I went over to the man in his house and tried to give comfort. I don’t think he wanted me there. Perhaps he was in denial of his own mortality. No doubt he sensed how green I was in giving comfort. I admit it. I couldn’t do him any good. Between his resistance and my inexperience, I did not serve his needs very well sad to say. Perry died suddenly about two weeks later while working in the garden. We went to give comfort to the wife next door that night and then we attended a graveside service a few days later.

This is where I get some reality checks put into my little bubble world of beliefs. I met Episcopal nuns at the graveside. I never knew such an animal existed. They had educated Perry’s children. There were lots of neighbors, relatives and co-workers from the post office. The most interesting person I met was a female Rabbi. Perry was Jewish?

I was a bit taken aback. I had heard the story about how Perry and his war bride had built the second house in this desert housing community in 1948. When I closed on the house next door, I got my deed of title or whatever and included in the paperwork was a covenant of restrictions set on the property when it was built.

That covenant was of course stamped with a label “Null and Void under Federal Civil Rights Act of...” The nasty thing about that covenant was the few pages that made it quite clear in a long range of specifics that no ...”Jews, negroes or dogs...” were allowed in this housing development etc.

As it turned out, Perry had no religious affiliation. His wife was Jewish. I chuckled about how a man like Perry, this cowboy, this war hero, this postmaster must have laughed at the WASP covenant of restrictions. Here was a real individual. Here was an old fashioned American. Here was a man.

Perry had made arrangements with the rabbi to be buried in solidarity with his wife’s belief system. Was Perry a believer, an atheist, an agnostic? I don’t know. In retrospect I don’t care. I knew the man. He was good ethical man. I prayed for him.

Part of being a cultural Christian is that you can embrace people of other beliefs, respect them and still retain you basic feel for yourself and not compromise your basic faith.

America’s greatest strength is and has always been its diversity.

Amidst this eclectic graveside audience, I had an epiphany. I also think that that paradigm shift thing happened.

It was fascinating to hear the twenty third psalm read in Hebrew. I am not certain that the Kaddish was said there but I realized something about my own belief systems. Christianity is wrapped up in a lot of layers of traditions, sacred tradition, faith, grace, propaganda, love, hate and on an on.

There under a blistering Arizona sun, prayers for a Jew were said in the desert. Were these the similar prayers that Joseph of Aramathea read over Jesus’ broken and lifeless body on Good Friday at twilight, eve of Sabbath?

You could be surrounded with stone cathedrals, and stained glass and the gospels could be read from a Gutenberg bible and the minister could be wrapped in gold cloth. But could you get any more from prayers at the end of your life than my neighbor got that day or when Jesus was interred and they rolled the stone in front of the tomb?

It makes you think. It made me think.

Good Sabbath.


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