The Unclad Soul

The courageous protest by the former professional football player, Colin Kaepernick, has been so misunderstood and misrepresented that the point of it has mostly been lost. After what seemed like an endless stream of shootings and killings of unarmed black men by white police officers, Kaepernick decided to do something. He didn’t riot or retaliate, scream profanities, or assault white people. Instead, he simply chose not to stand at the playing of the National Anthem before his games . It was not an attack on the American Flag, on the military, or the anthem. His action was simply saying that, for him, the battles of war that our soldiers have fought to make us “the land of the free and the home of the brave,” as spoken in The Star-Spangled Banner song, are not being honored. The violence of white cops against Blacks and the indifference of politicians and the courts to tolerate and excuse it was what Kaepernick was protesting. The National Anthem praises honor, courage, ...

I didn’t vote for President Trump but I did try to give him the benefit of the doubt once he was elected. I often held back from any real criticism simply because I thought he might very well shake up our political system in a way that would set it back on some reasonable track, away from the career politicians who have all but demolished it. I was wrong. President Trump continues to demonstrate no real interest in politics. He has no legislative goals other than to make certain existing laws harsher, more punishing. He is not impressed with the Republican leadership in Congress and has so far refused to be cowered by any of them. That, I do find somewhat refreshing. Those guys have ignored the country for far too long, hiding behind pretended concern, while voting and plotting to do nothing about immigration reform, police brutality, the militarization of police, Afghanistan and Iraq, Syria and Yemen, race relations, Israel’s merciless regime, the catastrophic refugee problem...

Easter approaches with its egg hunts and colorful dress and the festivities of people celebrating bunnies and cashing in their Easter coupons on online shopping and at the mall. Holy Week is here too with its shadows of darkness, its Last Supper where cowardice and betrayal transcend devotion and trust. The disciples never really understood what Jesus had in mind. Many of them still don’t. I often worry that all of his teachings on kindness and generosity and love remain on the Cross beaten and dead to his followers; all of those wise and difficult truths; all of those calls to deeper living crushed by selfishness and fear, by greed and prejudice and the lust for power. The governor of Indiana and his legislative devotees have passed a brutal law primarily against the LGBT community shallowly disguised as “religious freedom.” Arkansas legislators came up with an even more appalling law with even worse prejudicial intent. Why are these discriminating laws necessary? We ...

While sitting in the doctor’s office the other day I picked up a copy of “Parents” magazine. Not only does it have excellent articles with terrific parenting advice but I couldn’t help noticing the diversity of the people both children and adults in every single picture in the magazine. The ads, the photos accompanying each article, everywhere you turned a page, there was a different ethnic group represented: Blacks, Asian, Latino, and Anglo. I thought, yes, that is really what our society looks like. We are a huge melting pot of nationalities, races, cultures, ethnicities, likes and dislikes. What a beautiful, pluralistic, multicultural country we live in. Think of what we could accomplish if as an entire nation we totally welcomed, fully accepted, and genuinely embraced the diversity of the people that we are? Think of the variety of artists, writers, actors, musicians, poets, and other creative, thinking people we have in this country? They are a mix of races all of them;...