Prayer in Schools

Now, again, evangelicals call for prayer in schools.

Well, which kind?

How about a Muslim Prayer on Monday.
A Jewish Prayer on Tuesday.
A Sikh Prayer on Wednesday.
A Wiccan Prayer on Thursday.
An Atheist reflection on Friday.

Each read by a practitioner.

And the following week:
Prayers from Native Americans
Prayers from China, Vietnam and Thailand.
India and Pakistan.

Not to mention Liberal Christians.
Liberal Jews.
Hasidic Jews.
This and that, and everything else.
Since most everyone prays.
One way or the other.
And if not prayer, then a reflection.
Thoughts about the nature of life.

And all the other variants and varieties of each religious tradition ... and philosophies ... and interpreters of history ... and poets and artists and dancers, who pray with their bodies ... and a group of puppies chasing one another, with the sheer joy of life.

Oh, wait a minute.

My evangelical friend just told me:
Only prayers written by his kind.
And no others.

Oh well, I guess that settles it.

A Rat Problem

The GOP talks about the poor:
As if they were a rat problem.
A scourge upon the estate.
Something to spoil the view.

The GOP cannot see people, but only problems.
Problems to be solved, with eradication.
Cruelty.
Death.

The poor are immoral, they say.
The poor are lazy and dirty, they say.
The poor are poor for their own fault, they say.
They say a lot of things.

And none of it is right.
They lie through their pearl-whitened teeth.
Admiring their prowess in a pitiful mirror.
Plastic surgery for the women and viagra for the men.

Slapping one another on the back.
Or grabbing one another in the nether parts.
Laughing all the way to the bank.
Grateful that so many rubes believe their lies.

The poor be damned.
Though we know the truth.
The poor are poor because of theft.
Wage theft and health theft.

Life taken away and hoarded by the few.
Because the few are really afraid.
Afraid of not having enough.
The death of the soul; the real scourge on the land.

The poor be damned.
Take away what little dignity they have.
Strip them bear in the public square.
Shame them all the more.

Why must it be this way?
What deformity of their DNA would prompt such lies?
Wealth has distorted their vision.
And for the rubes, the dreams of wealth kills the spirit.

The GOP talks about the poor:
As if they were a rat problem.

Federal Judges

The damage is done.
If that's what it is.
To the Federal Bench:
Judges appoint by 45,
And quickly approved by the Senate.

Judges who will sit for a lifetime.
Who will make judgments about the law of the land.
And what's right and what's wrong.

All judges, in some form or another,
Are ideologues ... they have a penchant:
For this or for that.
How they see the world.
Or believe the world should be.

So, the damage is done.
And more judges to come.

So, I pray.
That the high bench will lend its grace.
That responsibility will temper intemperance.
That wisdom will emerge, at least in some.
Along the way.

Conservative?
Sure ... but thoughtful, too.
Willing to bend, to give, to listen.
To grow and change and give heed:

To the common good,
The Constitution and the Bill of Rights,
The best angels that set people free,
And secure justice for all.

Now that they serve, I have to pray.
That in their time, and for their day.
Their gavel will sound, and their words will stay,
The hand of greed and malice.
To sustain what is good, and offer to the soul of the land, justice, peace and solace.