this is the fun we teach:

November 20, 2008

jfk_reloaded.jpg

jfk.jpg


see:
Slate.com article

January 25, 2008

God’s love is perfected in us.

– Martin Luther King Jr.

Newark revisited

January 22, 2008

During the summer of 1967 I worked at a Fresh Air camp in the rural hills of New Jersey. Twenty miles to the east was rioting and rebelling in the streets of Newark.

I was asked to make an emergency trip into the Newark ghetto to return a camper whose mother or sister had been killed by gunfire.  I was to say nothing about it.  The Bonnie Brae camp truck would be our credential for safe passage I hoped.  On each corner were crowds of angry black men staring at each vehicle passing by.  Forty years later many corners are still the same.

I was living in Newark in 1968 when Doctor King was murdered. Five of us (all quite white) lived in a black neighborhood while attending Seton Hall.

Down the street from our apartment was Cookie’s Plain and Fancy.  We would stop in after class to play pool, shoot darts, and drink High Life. Cookie had a shotgun behind the bar and  James Brown on the jukebox.  On the day he bought us a round of beers we felt like honorary members of the neighborhood.

When Martin Luther King was assassinated – it all changed. We were told not to return by Cookie.  We moved to the white suburbs soon after.

Evil had its way – with all of us.

a new year thought

January 1, 2008


peace-sign-option-2.jpg

Peace
and Prosperity
for the Poor

(for a change)

 

slum.jpg

what if
we stopped
building mansions

what if
we began
to build ourselves.

our home
in our hearts
freedom

our home
in each other
humanity

our home
in love compassion
reality

image source:

freedom rider

January 15, 2007

If I had my way,
If I had my way,
If I had my way,
I’d tear this building down.

 

 

– traditional: sung by African slaves
posted in contemplation of Dr. King’s birthday
to honor all those who faced down the dogs of slavery