from www.free-market.net How can it fly without both its wings?

by M.e. Cohen, from www.caglecartoons.com, 11/04

On February 1, 2003, the fact that I was officially earning my MA 
in English-Creative Writing from Queens College that day didn’t even 
cross my mind.  

I woke up to hear the local Christian radio station saying the 
space shuttle Columbia was missing. Like Challenger on take-off 
seventeen years ago, the Columbia exploded or disintegrated upon 
reentry, killing seven astronauts—-two women and seven men.  

Back in mid-January, when I learned the first Israeli astronaut 
was going upon the space shuttle, I thought, wrongly assuming the 
astronaut to be female, I hope she doesn’t suffer the same fate 
as Christa McAuliffe.  At least Ilan Ramon, unlike McAuliffe, 
got to spend a few days in space.

The main theory for Columbia’s destruction has to do with a 
damaged left wing.  Upon take-off, the theory goes, a panel 
fell from the fuel tank and struck the shuttle’s left wing.  This 
could have exposed or peeled off some of the shield under the 
shuttle, the heat shields crucial to protecting the shuttle from 
extreme heat upon re-entry.  The shuttle, subsequently, just 
couldn’t take the heat.

Now, as extremely sensitive as I’ve become to the liberal-bashing 
from conservative circles, both “Christian” and secular, my mind 
went to this:

When the World Trade Center was destroyed, preacher Jerry Falwell 
said that God had removed his protection from this country due to 
abortion, homosexuality, and other “liberal” sins.   Falwell 
eventually recanted.  Back then, I thought, if God wanted to judge 
liberalism, why strike the WTC, in the financial district, a bastion 
of conservatism?  I still remember that sea of blue and gray suits 
I saw exiting through the towers’ subterranean shopping mall one 
late afternoon circa 5 p.m. in the 1980s.  Why not strike Rockefeller 
Center, Times Square, or Broadway?  Or even Greenwich Village?   
Then again, to a Southern-styled preacher like Falwell, anyplace in 
New York City or New York State is liberal enough to earn God’s wrath.

Now, this disaster in February 2003 happened over Texas—-
which to me sounds conservative enough.  Has any preacher, 
liberal or conservative, come forward and declared that God 
has removed his protection because of the Enron scandal, 
the seemingly stolen 2000 election, racism, anti-environmentalism, 
unfair executions, and other “conservative” sins?  Has that kind 
of accusation even crossed the mind of anyone else in the United 
States of America besides me?  If the right wing of Columbia had 
been damaged, that would have symbolized such a message.

But it was the left wing that was battered.  That’s another 
message entirely.

A few days after the tragedy, we heard that the left wing overheated 
and the craft veered to the right.

We have suffered extreme liberal-bashing over the past twenty years. 
I can barely stand to listen to some of the programs on the 
aforementioned Christian radio station anymore, for it’s guaranteed 
that some program will always include a barb against somebody or 
something “liberal”.  If someone among “conservative” circles is, 
say, helping AIDS patients or advocating women in ministry 
leadership, they have to say that they’re not being liberal.  
That bashing is so automatic, it’s assumed that whatever is bad 
is liberal, and whatever is liberal is bad.

Even before 1980, the left wing took some serious assaults: 
the assassinations of JFK, RFK, Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, 
Malcolm X (no liberal he, but no friend of white conservatism), 
even John Lennon.  Now Ronald Reagan and George Wallace were shot, 
but survived.  In 1972, before the Watergate mess was exposed, the 
Republican “Dirty Tricks” squad, part of the Committee to Re-Elect 
the President (CREEP), sabotaged the Democratic presidential 
candidacy.  

In 1980, the “October Surprise”—-which I suspect was engineered by 
former CIA head and VP-candidate George Bush on behalf of Ronald 
Reagan—-hurt Jimmy Carter’s re-election bid.  Then there was the 
2000 Florida fiasco.  

Besides the Nixon scandal, the only things I can think of that 
just as seriously hurt the Republicans in all that time were 
their own arrogance at their 1992 primary (also held in Texas), 
coupled with the Rodney King riots.  Those helped get Bill Clinton 
elected.  Then the Republicans spent years searching for an excuse 
to crucify Clinton-—starting with a real estate scandal, and finally 
nailing him on, horror of horrors, lying about adultery.

Why, oh why, are “good Christian people” scandalized by Clinton’s 
adultery, and not by the Enron scandal?  Why has the Biblical quote 
about prophecy, “Avoid the very semblance of evil,” been misapplied 
to dating or rock and roll, but never applied to looking like you’re 
stealing an election?  The Clinton adultery made no common people 
poor (except maybe Linda Tripp), and infringed on very few people’s 
civil rights.

Today, it’s said the Democractic party, and the liberal side in 
general, are having a crisis in leadership, in position, in platform.

The Damaged Left Wing.

Overheat the left wing, and the craft will veer to the right.  
Keep bashing the left wing, keep stripping its shields, and 
the entire ship of state may disintegrate.

What’s the solution?  Shall we strip off the damaged left wing, 
replace it with a right wing, and try to fly on two right wings?  
Do any of you really want to trade in your left arm for a second 
right arm?  Can you walk, run, or dance better with two right feet? 

Do we replace the damaged left wing with a stronger, sturdier, yet 
more flexible wing—well-positioned and able to balance off a powerful 
right wing?  Do we even need to rip off our damaged left wing; 
will repairs be enough, if we don’t keep trying to hammer it and 
bash it off our body?

Might we make the mistake of building each wing so strong that 
they both rip off the body—in any sense of the term “rip-off”? 

In the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 12 says no body part can say 
to another, “I don’t need you!”  One Corinthians 12 says no body 
part, however honored or despised, can say of itself, “I am not 
part of the body.”  One Corinthians 12 says that when one part of 
the body is damaged, the whole body suffers.  

The Columbia shuttle disaster, with its damaged left wing, 
may well illustrate that bit of wisdom.





by Bill Schorr, from www.unitedmedia.com, 11/17/04

www.bridgebuilding.com Jesus of the People, by Janet McKenzie
Is he complete without his left and right sides?

from www.7online.com
April 8, 2003

********************


March 2003:

It may be foolish of me to post this message in the middle
of a job search--but then again, it's just as foolish of me
to keep my picture posted in the middle of a job search 
(and for the record I'm still employed part-time)--
but here goes:

I am against this stupid war in Iraq.

This doesn't mean that I think I'm totally right 
and that I can't be absolutely wrong.  
This doesn't mean I like Saddam Hussein.

It does mean that I don't trust George W. Bush.  
Nor the process that "elected" him in 2000.  
Nor his motives for attacking Iraq NOW.

Two things that especially bother me:

1) Some say we can't talk against GWB because he's a
"brother in Christ".  Where was that sympathy for a
"brother in Christ" when Bill Clinton was in office?
King David was a man after God's heart, but he committed adultery.
King Ahab, to my knowledge, never committed adultery, but
the Bible calls him the most wicked king of all (1 Kings 16:30).
In fact, Ahab, with his wife Jezebel's help, 
accused a man of blasphemy and treason, had him killed,
then stole his land (1 Kings 21).

Peter was a "brother in Christ", but Paul publicly
criticized him to his face when Peter was wrong.
(So did Jesus, BTW.)

2) Too many people think that anyone who criticizes GWB
or the war effort at this time is a traitor. 
Would that we had had more of those kinds of "traitors"
in 1930s Germany!
Unlike most countries throughout history,
the United States of America is supposed to cherish dissent
as necessary to keep the government and the powers-that-be
in control.  The lack of freedom to dissent led to, on
this soil, the Salem Witch Trials in the 1690s, 
and McCarthyism in the 1950s.  Not to mention Jim Crow.
I am angry at some of the ways my family has treated me.
I still love them.
I am angry at the way the USA has treated my various peoples,
and some peoples abroad.
I'm still an American, and I still love my country.

If GWB is as serious a scourge to this country and this earth
as I think he is, I'll be glad when his regime is over.
As far as I'm concerned, as the Chinese say, we're 
living in "interesting times".

If GWB is no more harmful than any other President we've had,
and if he actually proves to be an asset to our nation,
I will apologize from this website.  
Or I'll apologize to him in heaven.

I posted this message March 20, 2003.  
Now how long will I leave it up?

(note: on June 23, 2003, I transferred this message from my home page
to this page--MNL)


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Bomb Iraq! song parody 3/20/03
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