Learning, not Lashing

Posted on December 26, 2006
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Cheers to incoming Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the first Muslim elected to the House of Representatives, as he responded to Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA), who objects to him taking his oath of office on the Koran.

Congressman-elect Ellison noted that he would be taking the official oath with his fellow newly elected representatives as a group by raising his right hand, then swearing on the Koran in a private ceremony. More to the point, he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer:

“He (Rep. Goode) might want to know that Muslims, there are about five million in the country, that they’re here to support and strengthen America, that they are nurses, doctors, husbands, wives, kids who just want to live and prosper in the American way, and that there’s really nothing to fear, and that all of us are steadfastly opposed to the same people he’s opposed to, which is the terrorists.

“And so there’s nothing for him to be afraid of, and that what we should do is to tell our constituents that we should reach to each other, not be against each other, and we should find ways for common ground.”

Mr. Ellison noted that he was born in Michigan and converted to Islam in the 1970s while he was in college. He’s traced his ancestors to Louisiana in the 1740s.

America is a land of religious freedom. Rather than typecasting people for their religion, a congressman, above almost anyone, needs to be reaching out to someone of a different belief. That’s how learning occurs and leadership develops.

A Good Evangelical Portent

Posted on December 5, 2006
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When a liberal columnist hails an evangelical preacher, something may be changing in American politics. We can hope that’s the case as Washington Post op-ed columnist E. J. Dionne, Jr., writes of how Rick Warren, pastor of the Saddleback Church in Southern California, welcomed U.S. Sen. Barack Obama to an AIDS conference at Saddleback last week.

“When Rick Warren, one of nation’s most popular evangelical pastors, faced down right-wing pressure and invited Senator Obama to speak…,” writes Dionne, “he sent a signal. A significant group of theologically conservative Christians no longer wants to be treated as a cog in the Republicn political machine.”

As it happens, my wife and I were at Saddleback Church on a family visit the Sunday before the AIDS conference. We were impressed with how Rick Warren seemed to be out of patience with politics as it’s being practiced in Red/Blue America. He told the congregation(s) at his Orange County megachurch that weekend how glad he was that the elections were over, and that he would “go anywhere” – including Iran or North Korea – to talk in the interests of peace.

He told a pointed story about a trip Billy Graham made to the Soviet Union during the Cold War. When he returned, Dr. Graham was criticized by some of his fellow preachers for meeting with Communist chief Leonid Brezhnev. “You have set the church back 50 years,” one colleague told him. “I’m so ashamed,” Dr. Graham replied, “I was trying to set it back 2000 years.”

Rick Warren is an impressive guy. E.J. Dionne thinks the megachurch pastor “speaks for a new generation of evangelicals who think that harnessinging religious faith too closely to electoral politics is bad for religion, and who are broadening the evangelical public agenda to include a concern for global poverty and the scourge of AIDS.” That would be great for America, at home and in the world.

Help on Our Identities

Posted on December 5, 2006
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Here’s another exemplary state web site as reported by Government Technology, this one from Pennsylvania on identity theft.

Posted by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, the IdentityTheftActionPlan.com web site “includes information on how identity theft occurs, prevention tips, steps to take if you become a victim, statistics, and information for law enforcement agencies that investigate these types of crimes.”

Like Alabama’s web site for family members of people with dementia, www.AlaSafe.gov, the Pennsylvania site is a great example of the web serving as a relational service mart for people with social or economic needs that can be served over the Internet.

Congratulations to Pennsylvania’s enterprising social practitoners on behalf of their public clients – the Commonwealth’s citizens. That’s people, all of us, who want to keep our identities to ourselves – until it’s time to relate in ways of our own choosing.

Looking Out for Wanderers

Posted on December 4, 2006
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The State of Alabama deserves a commendation for its website, www.AlaSafe.gov, that allows family members and caregivers of people with forms of dementia to enlist the ready help of state law enforcement officials should their loved ones wander off.

Wandering is a fairly common problem for elderly people who have lived in several generations and prize remembered settings more than their current surroundings. They may seek to reclaim those “good times” by walking off to find them. My own father at one point set off, on foot, from Cornwall, Pa., to New York City at the age of 90, but didn’t get more than a few hundred yards before someone spotted him. Other folks aren’t so fortunate – they can get lost or injured in their optimistic wanderings.

By enrolling on AlaSaf.gov, family members can provide information to authorized Alabama law enforcement officials to assist in identifying their loved ones when they are found. AlaSafe.gov is a secure government website and is available as a free service. It’s designed, maintained, and operated under the authority of the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center (ACJIC).

Congratulations to the empathetic folks at ACJIC! They are truly keepers of a public trust – by being available for those who can’t fend for themselves.

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