I’ve been sick all week. Just a bit ago, the school bus that picks up and drops off kids rolled up after a hard day at school. The engine rumbles as it idles, red lights flashing, cars backed up, as kids stream off.
I can hear the commotion in my apartment – two sides face out over the street where the bus stops. A clear, exited voice raised up, “Mama! Mama!” He was so exited about something. The trust and love – the innocence, the excitement to see his Mama.
I just started crying. I don’t know why. Not a bad thing.
Then, I started thinking…
It is so hard for kids growing up in these times. Growing up has never been easy, but in these times, well. So many kids – so innocent, so hopeful, so trusting – are being so harmed and their young lives bent and destroyed by so much of our culture. A culture that we allow. (Does poetic license cover using sentence fragments to make a point, or am I adding to the problem?)
So much of culture is degrading. I spent yesterday wondering through MySpace and so many of the high school and college age people, well, their pages are full of sexualized images of themselves or their language and descriptions of themselves is jarring. They mimic the adult MySpace pages. These kids are Paris Hilton, Nicole Richy, and Justin Timberlake wannabes. This is the impression they are fed and accept – image is everything; the image is sexualized; to be someone you have to be sexualized by exposing as much as you can get away with and having ripped abs. No substance. No depth. Only image. And we let it happen.
What are we doing and allowing to be done to our children?
South Park did a perfect job exposing all this in their typically rude, crude, and particularly gross way through this episode – “8.12 – Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset,” originally airing Dec. 1, 2004 (I think). You can read a synopsis of the episode from Wikipedia. Here is the script, if you want to read it. It isn’t for the easily skweemish – it is typically South Park. And, here is the final video of the “South Park Whore-off.”
At the conclusion of the Whore-off, Mr. Slave says, “People, don’t applaud me. I’m a dirty whore. [the crowd falls silent] Being spoiled and stupid and whorish is supposed to be a bad thing, remember? Parents, if you don’t teach your children that people like Paris Hilton are supposed to be despised, where are they gonna learn it? You have to be the- [feels something in his stomach] ooohooho, Jezuth Christh. You have to be the ones to make sure your daughters aren’t looking up to the wrong people.”
I don’t know. We spend less and less money educating our children well. We spend less and less with them, period. We give them over to other people to raise and to the culture, which is not the way to maturity, self-respect, sanity, freedom, peace, joy, or wholeness. It is the way of manipulation, deception, and making lots of money for some corporations and certain people. God, save us from ourselves, and save the little children. Who will be wearing a millstone around their necks?

There is an article in today’s New York Times covering the ancient Lenten tradition of “pelting one’s neighbors with oranges” found in Ivrea, Italy.

The carnival is a bizarre and messy affair and, like most everything in Italy, has a long story behind it. One version has it that feudal lords gave pots of beans to the poor, who began throwing the beans back into the streets out of disrespect for such meager charity.
But a far more interesting account tells of a population incited to rebellion by the violent act of a woman who, as the yarn goes, was only protecting her honor. That woman was Violetta, a young commoner who presented the head of the local tyrant — Marquis Raineri de Biandrate — to her fellow citizens from the castle balcony after he tried to steal her virginity on the eve of her wedding.
This practice of noblemen claiming a right to enjoy a betrothed woman before her husband did was certainly not exclusive to this place. But it is said to have been exercised quite regularly by that marquis, much to the chagrin of the women and their families. The citizens, empowered by Violetta’s defiance, stormed the castle and burned it to the ground.
The carnival is rich in costumes, music and symbolism. The oranges of the Ivrea battles represent the head of the marquis. The pulp and juice are his blood.
“It’s a festival that represents the people against any type of oppressive power,” said Roberto Vola, 43, as he tried to speak over the roll of kettle-drums and the blare of techno music.

Now, this may be a stretch, but it got me thinking about “nation building” and our attempts to establish democracies in Afghanistan and Iraq. Admittedly, both efforts are still in effect and the end results will not be realized for a while yet. So, there yet may be success as defined by the U.S. administration.
This story of throwing oranges points to a consideration: freedom must be won by those who will experience or live within such freedom. These Italian towns people of antiquity rose up and fought the marquis and rebelled against the status quo of oppression. Most examples of the establishment of democracy show that the local populations rose up against the oppressors and forged a new social and political world for themselves.
Now, I’ve heard it said that places like Japan and Germany are examples of nation states where democracy was “imposed” upon the populous for their own benefit. Well, that may be true as it goes, but these places were utterly destroyed during WWII. Germany already had some experience with democratic processes. Japan was an extremely hierarchical social system and if the emperor said this is how it was going to be, then that is how it was. The emperor surrendered to the Allies, and the American’s institute a new democratic system quite contrary to the people’s experience.
This has not happened in Afghanistan or Iraq. For these two regions to move into democratic systems, they will have to win it by their own initiative. We cannot impose it upon them because of their own cultural realities. They have never known democratic processes. The Taliban will probably take back control of much of Afghanistan, regrettably. I heard last night that the Taliban are now bombing girls schools in an attempt to stop the education of females (which was official policy when they ruled the country). Iraqis needed to rebel against Hussein themselves.
They need to start throwing their own oranges.
This may mean many more years of oppression and there are things we can do to help the locals, but we cannot do it for them.

Listening to Morning Edition this yesterday morning, I heard an economics piece on what states are trying to do meet their budget requirements. Most states, unlike the federal government, are required to have balanced budgets year-in and year-out.
The report focused on states that are in the process of selling off their physical assets in order to need budget demands – they need the money NOW, as the reporter emphasized as he spoke of the Illinois plan to sell off its state lottery to private investors.
Several months ago, I heard similar reports about Indiana’s, Michigan’s, Illinois’, and Ohio’s plans to sell of such things as state toll-roads, turnpikes, and bridges – mostly large physical infrastructures. Now, I can understand that there are times when this may truly be advantages and prudent. I don’t think in these cases that we are in such times.
The reporter this yesterday morning said that the opposition in Illinois claims that a private group will do nothing but market the lottery more strongly and the end result will be greater harm for poor folk and those who are addicted to such things. (For some strange reason, I cannot use the “g” word with my host provider. Whenever I use the word for what people do in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, I am given an error message and can’t post. How strange is that? It has taken me a whole day to figure why I couldn’t submit this post.) This kind of have may not result from the sell last year of Chicago’s Skyline bridge-highway system, but it does set up situations where either tolls will be charged or increased or maintenance will suffer because private firms are all about making a profit and not serving the public good. Okay, that’s fine, but when we talk about public works originally paid for by tax funds, there is an obligation of government to manage those projects well.
Selling off state assess because the legislature cannot discipline itself to arrange state budges to meet the basic needs, rather than pork-barrel projects or even niceties when the coffers are flush with money, has become the new M.O. in many states. This is obviously very shortsighted. But, when people are desperate and unwilling to make hard decisions, then what do we expect?
Decisions have to be made: Will the people hold government officials accountable so that they are wise and diligent in the allocation and spending of the people’s money? Will the people be willing to live with less and be inconvenienced more for a little more money in their pockets? Will the people and government be willing to take the long-term view of things? Will people be willing to allow for the further stratification of society – the rich becoming richer and able to afford whatever they want while the middle-class and poor continue to live with less and less? Will the people and government go back to believing in the public general welfare and be less obsessed with their own greed? Will the political parties stop crassly promising the world at no individual cost in order to win elections to gain more and more power for themselves? Will special interests be brought to account? Will people begin to act more altruistically and less selfishly? Will our elected officials make the hard and perhaps unpopular decisions for the benefit of future generations?
To be honest, I think we are at a point in this country where we will act positively to any of the above. It is easier to think in the short term and desperately sell off public assets rather than to answer in a positive direction to any of the above questions.
I’m not a pessimist, but I am becoming much more of a realists as time goes on. The Religious Right talks a lot about morals. They focus on sex and keeping for themselves what they feel is theirs. What about the issues of morality surrounding the Golden Rule, loving our neighbor as ourselves, even loving our enemy, and looking out for the welfare of the least of these? The Church looked far different as portrayed in the Acts of the Apostles by Luke (the Book of Acts in the Bible) concerning the welfare of its members than it does now. They all sold everything they had and laid it at the apostles’ feet so that it could be distributed to all who had need! Personal greed and the fulfillment of personal want have replaced concern for the welfare of the least of these – the very people Jesus said will be the greatest.

I watched a portion of this year’s American Idol auditions. The question I keep asking myself, and Ashton keeps verbalizing, is how in the world do these people not recognize that they have no talent? How can so many of these people get up before the four (this year Jewel joins Randy, Paula, and Simon) judges and actually expect to be chosen to “go to Hollywood?”
I don’t get it. What is going on in their minds, in their home-life, in their schools that compels them to have such a skewed self-image or an inability to rightly judge their own abilities? Well, when feelings become the most important thing in our pedagogies over and above substantive achievements then what do we expect? It is one thing to encourage children to try anything, but there comes a point were our encouragement becomes counter productive when it changes into lying. There are things we simply cannot do well, and to pretend that we can just because we want it so badly and don’t want our feelings hurt doesn’t cut it. We will end up on American Idol auditions making fools of ourselves, and crying and cursing when we are not esteemed once again, when we are not lied to in order to makes us to feel good about ourselves once again, despite how well or badly we actually do.
I read a review this morning of the book, “The Decline of the Secular University: Why the Academy Needs Religion” by C. John Sommerville and published by Oxford Univ. Press. The reviewer is Stephen Carter, a professor of law at Yale University. The book is basically a critical commentary on Higher Education. This isn’t anything new, of course. The author, Sommerville, also laments the hostility expressed towards religion in general as retrograde and the religious disciplines.
The reviewer writes that the Sommerville comments on how campus-life is moving swiftly to bypass secularism to favor “post-secularism.” “That is, the appeal to reason is being replaced by the appeal to fashion… Worse still, to the extent that the university becomes post-secular, it will hopelessly flounder at preparing students to use the knowledge they gain.” The review comments on Sommerville, who claims that secular universities have lost the sense of why they are educating students in the first place.
“The modern campus does nothing to help students ponder the most significant questions of life,” the reviewer paraphrases Sommerville. These are the categories that religion can address.
Having worked and taught and ministered in secular Higher Education for over 20 years, I think there is a lot of truth in his statement.
The reviewer comments that Sommerville is calling universities to better enable our natural human propensity to question and wonder. He then writes, “Because the secular project demanded ‘destroying traditions,’ it kicked away the props on which might rest answers to the great questions. As the university now becomes post-secular, it replaces those props with a celebration of feeling and ‘fashionable moralizing.'”
The review continues, “My date book contains cartoons first published in the New Yorker. One shows a young boy in front of his class, doing arithmetic at the blackboard. He has just written ‘7 X 5 = 75’ and says to his astonished teacher, ‘It may be wrong, but it’s how I feel.’ There, in a nutshell, is the problem with the post-secular university. Faith is dead, reason is dying, but ‘how I feel’ is going strong. Should we ignore warnings like Sommerville’s, ‘how I feel’ will be all there is.'”
The Simpson’s had a related episode. A new school principal took over the elementary school where Bart and Lisa attended. She was all about the “woman’s way of knowing.” She divided the school into two schools in one building – one for the girls and one for the boys. Lisa was all excited, until she got to her math class. The new principal, who also taught math, only wanted the girls to “feel math” and talk about how numbers made them “feel.” Lisa, all disappointed, asked if they were going to do any real equations. The teacher/principal chastised her saying that only stupid boys did things like that, but that the most important thing was how the girls felt about math and numbers. Lisa quietly slipped away and crashed the boys’ math class were they were figuring out parabolas and the area within a cylinder – stuff like that.
There you have it. One of the reasons people go to American Idol auditions when they have no talent (which is just a very mean and wrong of me to say because it hurts their feelings) is because they have grown up being told that their “feelings” are the most important thing, not their accomplishments. Now, when they hit the real world and are told the truth, they aren’t going to be feeling very good about themselves, are they? Oh, the years wasted and the false sense-of-self these kids have been programmed into believing. How long will it take for them to develop a true sense-of-self, if ever?

I need to read this quote often.
“Of all tyrannies a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience …. To be ‘cured’ against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level with those who have not yet reached the age of reason … You start being ‘kind’ to people before you have considered their rights, and then force upon them supposed kindnesses which they in fact had a right to refuse, and finally kindnesses which no one but you will recognize as kindnesses and which the recipient will feel as abominable cruelties.”
– C.S. Lewis