Normal

Things are remarkably quiet, and reactions seem so muted these days.

One if five children in the USA goes to bed hungry every night (that's the USA, not Ethiopia).

Almost half the population of New York City lives on incomes near or below the official poverty line.

The unemployment rate remains stuck at around 7% now for more than 5 years.  Anyone remember what 3% unemployment used to be like?

Real wages for almost everyone continue to stagnate or decline, while the richest of the rich make out like bandits.

Gun rampages are so commonplace that we just shrug our shoulders as the bereaved bury their dead.

The owners of the richest empire in all of history demand that the rest of us subsidize their fortunes with our taxes.

Men who sling their guns in public and their penises in private have the most delicate of feelings, and demand that we "respect" them no matter how ridiculous or dangerous they are.

Things that people in past years would have considered outrageous are now ho hum and boringly normal.

***

Here's a sermon by Bishop Gene Robinson from yesterday that might make us feel more encouraged (despite the bad pun at the beginning).  His evangelical upbringing really comes through in a sermon that expands upon an idea I heard expressed by a retired Baptist preacher. "We're all sons of bitches, but God loves us anyway."

He's preaching at the famous/notorious church of All Saints in Pasadena, CA.





Thanks to Kittredge Cherry for sending this to me.