Listening at Lost Nation

Posted on February 27, 2017 by Gordon C. Stewart

Shouting comes easily. Listening does not. Especially in February 2017.

Today’s Washington Post offers an exercise in listening to the real-life, on-the-ground voices of Iowans who voted for Donald Trump – who they are, why they did, and how they view him one month after his inauguration.

Click HERE for the story as told by Jenna Johnson who listened to ordinary folks in beer halls, barber shops, meat-processing plants, and places like the Pub Club in Lost Nation.

Does the piece have a bias? Of course it does, but it asks the questions and reports answers we otherwise might not hear. It begins:

“Tom Godat, a union electrician who has always voted for Democrats, cast his ballot for Donald Trump last year as ‘the lesser of two evils’ compared to Hillary Clinton.

“He’s already a little embarrassed about it.”

The point of view is biased. but it’s not fake. For those of us who are deeply troubled and unable to understand the results of the 2016 election, this reporter’s reporting of the real-life views of real-life people offers insight not available in the silo within which we live most of the time.

“On the other end of Clinton County is the tiny town of Lost Nation, where the president received 66 percent of the vote. On Wednesday night, a couple dozen local farmers and union guys gathered to play pool at the Pub Club, situated amid downtown storefronts that once contained a funeral home. (Beer is chilled where bodies were once stored.)”

Only by listening will people such as I begin to understand what happened last November and gather wisdom from beyond our silos to sustain us through this cold winter when soul food sometimes seems so far away.

Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, Feb. 27, 2017.

When the Pond drives up and the Echo stops

Posted on February 25, 2017 by Gordon C. Stewart

Classical Greek mythology held a deep wisdom familiar to the framers of the U.S. Constitution. They were well-schooled in the Greek and Roman classics.

In the Greek myth of Narcissus, two things keep Narcissus alive: the unruffled water of the pond that reflects back his self-image, and the voice of Echo, the beautiful wood nymph whose voice the gods have silenced, except to echo Narcissus’s speech.

Narcissus dies of thirst. He refuses to drink because to do so would mean disturbing the pond’s reflection on which his sense of self depends. The pond and Echo are enduring metaphors of a deeper wisdom.

What happens to a president when the pond (the electorate) is disturbed or dries up and the voice from across the pond (the press) no longer echoes his words? Or, to the contrary, what happens to the pond and Echo when they placidly yield to the needs and voice of Narcissus?

Yesterday the President and his Press Secretary acted to shrink the pond and silence Echo by including Breitbart News and other alt-right media and by excluding the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and CNN from the informal “gaggle” White House Press Conference. They took another step toward shrinking and smoothing out Narcissus’s pond, and muting Echo’s own voice.

“No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact, that man may be governed by reason and truth. Our first object should therefore be, to leave open to him all the avenues to truth. The most effectual hitherto found, is the freedom of the press. It is, therefore, the first shut up by those who fear the investigation of their actions.” – Thomas Jefferson.

Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, Feb. 25, 2017.

Our Father who art in heaven…

Posted on February 19, 2017 by Gordon C. Stewart

It began with “Let us pray,” and a one person recitation of the Lord’s Prayer. The First Lady was flawless. The crowd went wild.

It wasn’t a worship service. It was something else – a post-election presidential campaign rally not far from the home of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and Goofy.

When was the last time you saw a political campaign rally begin with “Let us pray”? And, if you’re a church-goer, when was the last time the Lord’s Prayer was “recited” by a single voice rather than prayed in unison by the entire congregation?

It was a political stunt. Chills ran up and down my spine as I watched the prayer of Jesus being used to rally fellow Christians for purposes other than political purposes antithetical to the purpose of prayer.

Ecce homo - "Here is the man" Albrecht Durer

“Ecce Homo” (Behold the Man) -Albrecht Durer

Yet, as I watched the First Lady in front of the crowd, it was hard not to feel sympathy for her as well as apoplexy over the abuse of Jesus’s prayer. “Give us this day our daily bread,” she prayed – a line that presumes a humble dependence upon divine providence. “Give us today the bread we need just for today” is another way to say it. It assumes a kind of poverty. An ultimate dependence.

The New Testament Gospel stories of the wilderness temptation of Jesus begin with the need for bread and the control of it. After forty days of fasting, Jesus is hungry. “If you are the Son of God,” says the Devil in the story, “turn these stones into bread.” Jesus responds that human beings do not live by bread alone but by every word (bread) that proceeds from the mouth of God.

The Devil takes him to a high mountain where the hungry Jesus can see all the kingdoms (empires and nations) of the earth. “These can all be yours!” says the Tempter. Jesus replies that the kingdoms of the world do not belong to mortals. “Get behind me, Satan!” Then the Devil leaves him.

Watching the First Lady praying the Lord’s Prayer with the crowd cheering left me, for a moment, wondering what the wilderness must be like for Melania Trump. Despite the smile, it’s hard to imagine a hell farther removed from “Our Father in heaven” than performing the Lord’s prayer all by yourself in an Orlando airport hangar on the way back to living among the gilded stones of a New York penthouse.

“…lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory forever.”

Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, Feb. 19, 2017

The Bannon Presidency

Posted on February 17, 2017 by Gordon C. Stewart

Every day that the White House chaos grows worse, President Trump escalates his attack on the fake news of the fake media.

As the President’s approval ratings tumble, It doesn’t take much to imagine Steve Bannon, the alt-right “news man” of Breitbart News as the key figure in the new Administration, pushing the President to get back in front of the cameras to shift the blame the media and reassure his shrinking base in an ill-conceived, hastily called Press Conference.

This morning the NYT published David Brooks’s piece zeroing in on Steve Bannon as the strategist of chaos pulling the strings behind the bully pulpit.

In an administration in which “promoted beyond his capacity” takes on new meaning, Bannon looms. With each passing day, Trump talks more like Bannon without the background reading.

Click What a Failed Trump Administration Looks Like to read Brooks’s editorial.

Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, Feb. 17, 2017.

Mic check? MIKE CHECK!

Posted on February 15, 2017 by Gordon C. Stewart

What a difference six years make.

In 2011 “Mic check?” was the call and “MIC CHECK!” the response in the Occupy Wall Street camps. Electronic amplification was against the law. Only the human voice remained to protest crony Capitalism. The Nation’s We Are All Human Microphones Now reminds us how it was in the Occupy Wall Street protests of 2011.

How quickly things change. The “mic check?” call goes unanswered in the spaces that once attracted national attention. Instead the news is of a man named Mike whose voice was electronically recorded by U.S. intelligence while Mr. Flynn had a curious conversation with the Russian Ambassador during the presidential transition, and of another Mike, the Vice President-Elect, whom the first Mike “was not entirely forthcoming” about the contents of the conversation.

Some things don’t change.

In 2007-2008 Wall Street was big news. Time magazine and other media were asking “Is Capitalism Dead?” In 2011 Wall Street was back in charge, but Occupy Wall Street continued to point the finger at crony capitalism, the deep tie between Wall Street and the Congressional Representatives and Senators whose elections depend upon the flow of capital into their campaign coffers. They do it without using microphones; they do it quietly through SuperPacs. No one has to tell them to turn off their microphones. they do it out of sight, very quietly. In the 2016 presidential campaign Wall Street was again the target of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Both held the microphones. One was a phony. The one who was elected President appointed Wall Street billionaires to fill his cabinet, appointed a previously fired General named Mike his National Security Advisor, and loosened the Obama Administration regulations of Wall Street.

The one Mike misled the other Mike and the media are using their mics to amplify the story of the two Mikes. Now it falls to the people to use our voices. “Mic check?” “MIC CHECK!” “Mike check?” “MIKE CHECK!”

Many years before, following the Nixon Administration Watergate break-in of Democratic headquarters, the question was “Who knew what, and when did they know it?” “Trump check?”

Some things do not change.

Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, Feb. 15, 2017.

Mike Flynn, Mike Pence, and the Boss

Posted on February 14, 2017 by Gordon C. Stewart

Two Mikes of the Trump Administration – Mike Flynn and Mike Pence – and the question of who lied, who told the truth, and who was spinning the story, have been making headline news. Mike Pence held the mike. Mike Flynn stayed back while the Boss and Kelly Anne Conway covered for them both with conflicting accounts.

This morning an email from a wise political observer was waiting following news of Mike Flynn’s resignation:

I get that Flynn had to go, I get that he had to go fast, and I get that the Vice President – to create a desired impression – first defended the general, then characterized his conversation with the top Trump aid as “a lie”.

Of course, it is NOT a bad thing that Flynn – an off-the-wall, unmanageable firecracker – is out of there.

But think about it. These are the first days of the “You’re Fired!” Reality TV Star administration, with a little bit of chaos peeking out at us each day.

What are the chances that knowledge of this call to the Russian ambassador – not to mention the possible directing of this call – went no higher than the Vice President??

Today it’s the news. It will be tomorrow as well. Until some precipitous presidential impulse shifts the news. Imagine military action against North Korea while Congress is investigating which Mike knew what and when, and whether Mike Flynn’s pre-inaugural consultation with the Russian Ambassador was authorized by the Boss.

The future of the Boss depends on two Mikes and whether one, the other, or both will take the mike in a Congressional investigation. Or, perhaps, the Boss will decide to resign before impeachment proceedings, declaring he never really wanted to be president, that the system is rigged, that’s it too broken for him to “fix” and the lying press which has made the two Mikes a big issue are losers. “You’re all fired!”

Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, Feb. 14, 2017.

Should we pray for the President?

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Gordon C. Stewart

“Should we pray for Trump?” asks The Washington Post Saturday Opinions piece by Colbert I. King.

While it’s well worth the read, we draw your attention to “After Presidential power shifts, Episcopalians ask: How should we pray?“ which looks deeply within a single Christian denomination for a look at the meaning of prayer for the President in this time of deep national division.

Over the last eight years of ministry in a Presbyterian (USA) local church, we often used the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer‘s Prayers of the People. It became our practice to pray for the president, governor, and mayor by their first names, not because we voted for them, liked them, agreed with them, or approved of them, but because the public trust was in their hands; they, like us, were human – weak and frail, and in need of guidance; and, even though we may have despised one o them, we were called to pray for our enemies.

Increasingly I sense beneath our new President’s bravado a deep insecurity and fear, a deeply troubled, as well as troubling man. I see a lonely little boy desperate for approval playing with some very big toys. I’m doing my best to pray for him even as I pray for the world. I cannot pray for the world without praying for him. In the end he’s just Donald, and I’m just Gordon, and only God is God. God, help us all.

Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, Feb. 11, 2017.

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