Ex Cathedra

Hat tip to Arthur Conan Doyle.

Jimmy Carter was right that racism drives a lot of the hateful, violent Deep South Right, but he missed three things.

Some people just can’t handle change. It frightens them, and they’ll do whatever it takes to resist it. For some people the President’s race is merely a symptom of change. It’s change itself that they fear.

Second, not everybody is best friends with reality. That hardly needs to be said any more. Even science classes just teach a collection of elderly facts. They don’t teach how to do science. They don’t teach the skeptical point of view, the point of view that gives ultimate respect to what is real . How, except for the set of facts they drum into you, is that different from teaching that Yahweh made the sun stop moving and Jesus played with dinosaurs and drove demons into a a herd of pigs?

Last and most important is privilege. The people shouting “we want our country back” are actually saying “we want our privilege back.”

If you’re White, you’ve got White privilege. If you’re male, you’ve got privilege. If you’re straight, you’ve got privilege. If you’re not poor, you’ve got privilege. If you’re able, you’ve got privilege. Doubt it? Do a CAPTCHA. If you’re Christian, you’ve got religious, cultural, and political privilege.

If you don’t understand the all the kinds of privilege you’ve got and the kinds you haven’t got and if you fail to make common cause with people who also lack some kinds of privilege, you’re volunteering to be a victim of the next batch of teabaggers to come along.

Or worse, you’re volunteering to grow old and satisfied and rigid and become a teabagger yourself.

If you do understand and realize that humankind was born to surf the waves of change, hey, surf’s up!

Dans mes rêves j’entends une voix
Qui me dit “Ne pleure pas”,
Quel dommage mes yeux sont des sources claires.
Dans mes rêves j’entends une voix
Qui me dit “Ne souffre pas!”
Quel dommage mon âme n’est pas de pierre.
Mais les voix de mes fantômes ne connaissent pas la douleur de l’homme
Pourtant les cloches m’annoncent toujours mon vrai destin.

Dans notre maison fragile et grise
Nous partagions le rêve d’la vie
Et la lune souriait sur l’innocence
Dans un monde plein de néant
Même les promesses sont du vent
Et le soleil parfois se perd dans les nuages
Ne me quitte pas encore,
Ne me laisse pas partir
Pourtant les cloches m’annoncent toujours mon vrai destin.

Peter, Paul and Mary

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• Likes the brand new Brand New. #

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• 13 more things that don't make sense – New Scientist http://ow.ly/oJxm via GMSV #
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• Happy birthday #1 son, #2 son is paying the bills, upgraded WP on my blog, Sen Shelby wrote to say he's not a birther, life is good. #
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• It’s all about change. Obama’s hope that people who fear change will compromise with change is irrational: http://ow.ly/okKu Xaxnar at Kos #

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