I will be gone for one week.  The place where I will be staying has no Internet connection.  Imagine that!

     My time away will be a conference which will include recreation, spiritual renewal, and some work.  It will be in a very remote place.  I will not be bringing my computer or any other electronic device.

     It just wasn’t his day.  A man walked into a pizza parlor in Texas with a gun, and a staff member fought back, eventually beating him unconscious.  After the would-be robber came to, he ran out of the restaurant but was subdued by other people outside. 

     I love it when crime victims fight back.  I know it’s not always possible, and it’s not always wise, but when it happens, it is so satisfying.  In our emasculated culture we are led to believe that criminals are just more powerful than us, and there’s nothing we can do to protect ourselves or to fight back.  But why should we have to be at the mercy of people who want to steal from us or hurt us?

     As I said, it’s not always wise to confront a person with a gun.  One has to be very sure of what one is doing, including understanding the risk.  Sometimes it’s just not possible to stop a bad guy, and we should never blame a victim who has no way to escape or to stop the criminal in the act.

     But when I hear of a miscreant’s being stopped through heroic action on a civilian’s part, I can’t help but smile.

     I recently wrote about Webster Cook, the college student who walked out of a Roman Catholic service with the eucharistic wafer in hand.  A newer devlopment is the blog post by P. Z. Myers who asked readers to send him a consecrated host so that he could commit sacrilege against it.

     I’ve read quite a few opinions on the affair, and many of them are just plain rude.  I’m not a Roman Catholic, and I don’t believe that the consecrated Host becomes the body of Christ.  However, my mother taught me to show courtesty to those whose beliefs are different from my own, and I strive to do just that.  Apparently Myers wasn’t taught that.

     I respect Myers’s right to write what he did.  But I strongly question his character for stooping so low.

     We all should be able to understand how deeply offended–even horrified–Roman Catholics were that Cook took a communion wafer with him and “held it hostage.”  Based on their beliefs it is a very serious sin, and we should respect their right to be outraged.  What Cook did was not an example of free speech but an example of religiously criminal behavior.  Taken in light of Catholic doctrine, the woman who “assaulted” him had every right, even a duty, to do so.  Cook should have complied with her request that he either consume the wafer or return it.

     Some people have said that the consecrated wafer is “just a cracker.”   If somebody stole the Declaration of Independence, would people say that it is “just a piece of paper”?  If somebody stole Michelangelo’s David, would people say that it is “just a hunk of rock”?  No.  That piece of paper and that hunk of rock are priceless.  Their value comes from what they represent–not from the material they are made of. 

     To Roman Catholics the Eucharistic bread is much more important than the Declaration of Independence or the staute of David.  It is the body of Christ.  And people should have the simple decency not to make jokes about it or to dismiss it as inconsequential.  Didn’t their mothers teach them anything?

     Mike Gallagher has said what I couldn’t bring myself to.  He is suggesting that Jesse Jackson purposely staged the whispering incident on FOX in order to benefit Barack Obama’s campaign.  I’m not sure I can believe it, but Gallagher makes a few persuasive points.

• Jesse Jackson has appeared on TV many times.  He knows how things work.  He couldn’t have thought it was safe to whisper between segments of the show.
• Jesse Jackson enjoys publicity–a lot.  He could have been operating under the premise that any fame is better than being ignored.
• Commentators have indeed said that Jackson’s “mistake” will be a big boon to Obama.
• Although Jackson may not fully support Obama, as he claims, he certainly prefers him over McCain.  He would be willing to make a fool out of himself to boost Obama’s appeal to moderate white voters.
• Jesse Jackson, Jr., would not have repudiated his father’s words so strongly unless it was pre-planned and he was playing along.

     Are you convinced?

     Right up front I want to say it:  black people aren’t really black and white people aren’t really white.  We are all just different shades of brown.  (I suppose an artist might take exception to that statement, but play along for simplicity’s sake.)

     A county commisioner in Dallas County has taken exception to the word “black hole,” as in so much money is being spent in that office, it’s like a black hole.  He gave other examples of how the word black is always used figuratively in a negative way.  Angel food cake is white, while devil’s food cake is black, he pointed out.  To be the black sheep of family is to be the bad guy.

     Think just a second.

     Sometimes black is good.  To be in the black means that you have a positive balance–that you haven’t overspent or gone into debt.  Black diamonds are extremely rare and valuable, and “black gold” is a nickname for petroleum–something very precious indeed and growing more precious all the time.  The black belt is the highest rank in the martial arts.  In many love songs black hair is considered beautiful.  Dark chocolate has become extremely popular, just as dark-roast coffee has.

     Sometimes white is bad.  A white elephant is a valuable gift that you don’t want but cannot get rid of.  Paleness of skin indicates poor health or extreme fright.  White hair, sometimes seen as a sign of respect, is also something that many people cover up with dye because it is associated with diminished capacity and a loss of sexual appeal.

     Overall though, it is true that the color black has tended to have negative connotations and has represented evil, while white has represented goodness.  So what?  

     That has nothing to do with the word black hole, which refers to the fact that it does not emit or reflect any light.  It sucks up everything near it, including light, because of its intense gravity.  That’s why it is a good metaphor for a government department that is a constant financial drain. 

     And the symbolic meaning of the colors black and white have nothing to do with dark-skinned or light-skinned people.  Only an idiot or an extremely hateful person would make such a connection.  It’s obvious that some of the worst people around have very light skin, and some of the very best people around ahve very dark skin.

     My final word.  Give me a break!

    Do you suppose that Jesse Jackson is jealous of Barack Obama?  Is he bitter that Obama is experiencing a level of success that Jackson never has?  Sheldon Alberts of the National Post in Canada thinks so.  I’m inclined to agree, and although I certainly cannot say what Jesse Jackson’s frame of mind is, his words certainly indicate more animosity than just a polite disagreement on a political issue.

     Eric Easter at Ebony Jet says that it is all about context.  Easter says that Jackson had a valid point but chose a bad time, a bad place, and a bad way in which to express it.  I understand what Easter is trying to say; I am a firm believer that context is absolutely necessary for correctly intepreting discourse.  However, in this case it is not the context that is the problem, but the words themselves.  There is no context in which Jackson should have said that he wants to castrate anyone, and the meaning would be no different no matter where or when he said it.  Did Jackson have a valid point to make?  Perhaps, which is all the more reason that he should have avoided the mutilation talk.  (Easter’s editorial is fascinating.  I encourage you to read it all.)

     Some people say that Jackson’s inappropriate words represent a sharp divide in the African American community–between those who emphasize personal responsibility and those stress government assistance to poor minorities.  Some of the folks who agree with Jackson–that Obama’s Father’s Day speech was condescending–are once again questioning Obama’s “blackness.”  J. Whyatt Mondesire, a leader in the NAACP, said. “A lot of the old war horses like Jesse and I have had serious questions about his orientation to race, . . .”  So race isn’t really race, it is a commitment to a set of political viewpoints.  Very interesting!

      Some people are saying that Jackson’s crude comments have helped Obama.  Andrew Ward wrote, “But by exposing tensions between Mr Obama and one of the US’s most strident and polarising black leaders, the episode might help convince sceptical white voters of Mr Obama’s moderate ­credentials.”  It makes you wonder if Jackson might have staged the incident.  Nah!  I don’t think so.  I think he honestly opposes Obama’s message.

     You realize what the word unequivocal means, don’t you?  It means that you take an unambiguous stand on something without any hesitation or qualification.  Jesse Jackson said that he supports Barack Obama unequivocally.  Well, I don’t think he knows what the word means, because he then equivocated.  He said that Obama should not deal exclusively with the moral failings of black men but with the wider moral failings of government and public policy.  Oh, yes, I can tell that he supports him fully; he even wants to give him a higher singing voice and softer skin.

     On some level I feel sorry for Jesse Jackson.  He did not intend for the entire world to hear his disparaging and crude remarks about Barack Obama.  He must feel extremely embarrassed.  He not only put his foot in his mouth but most of his leg, too.

     He should know better.  How many times has he spoken in public, and how many times has he appeared on radio and television?  How many stories has he heard of microphones being open when people didn’t realize it?  It has happened to the President, as Jackson probably well remembers.

     But when I consider what he said, I don’t feel sorry for him at all.  He obviously knows how wrong it was, since he issued an apology.  His own son repudiated the remarks in no uncertain terms.  Frankly, I would never utter such words, and don’t know anyone who would.  If I try to imagine somebody I know suggesting that somebody’s gonads be removed, it would be directed at his worst enemy–not at somebody he claims to support.

     Castration is the worst thing you can do to a man.  There is no context in which you could say what Jackson said without it being extremely, extremely offensive.  No white politician could get away with saying such a thing.  He would be accused of the worst kind of racism, because talk of castration would conjure up images of lynching.

     Beyond the obvious egregious comments, Jackson was once again questioning Barack Obama’s blackness.  When he said, twice, that Obama was “talking down to black people,” where does that leave Obama?  To say that he talks down to black people implies that he is not one of them.  Oh, Jackson supports Obama all right.  But with such support, he would probably prefer that Jackson oppose him.

There are so many interesting and captivating children in the world of fiction,

its hard to pick just one favorite. 

     Here are ten that I like a lot:

1.  Anne Shirley (Anne of Green Gables)

2.  Tom Sawyer

3.  Charlie Bucket (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)

4.  Mary Lennox (The Secret Garden)

5.  Scout Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird)

6.  Oliver Twist

7.  Encyclopedia Brown

8.  Tiny Tim (A Christmas Carol)

9.  Pippi Longstocking

10.  Charles Wallace Murry (A Wrinkle in Time)

     Which juvenile character in fiction is your favorite?

     A college student in Florida has received harsh criticism for taking a communion wafer home from church.

     What is most remarkable to me in this news article is the significant mistakes it contains.  See how many you can find, and then I’ll list below the ones I noted.

MISTAKES IN THE ARTICLE

1.  I might be wrong, but I don’t think that a Eucharistic wafer is considered an “icon” as the headline reads.

2.  The wafer is not called a Eucharist.  The Eucharist is the service in which the bread is eaten to commemorate the death of Christ on the cross.

3.  In the Roman Catholic Church, the bread is not symbolic of the body of Christ, it is the body of Christ.

     Do you remember when Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats said that it wouldn’t do any good to drill for more oil?  Now she says that President Bush should release some oil from our country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.  She says that such a move is needed in order to reduce the price of gasoline at the pump.

     So which is it?  Will a greater supply of oil lead to lower prices, or won’t it? 

     Oh, and is it wise to use up our reserves when there is plenty more oil underground?