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Posted February 5, 2005
Selma 1965: The Historic Alabama
Voting Rights Campaign --
Selma 1965: The March that Changed the South Charles E. Fager First published, 1974. For a 1960s white liberal, the fortieth anniversary of the Selma, Alabama voting rights campaign in March 2005 ought to be a time for unalloyed celebration. But while preparing my book Selma 1965; the March that Changed the South for republication, the events of the past few years, and especially the fall of 2004, crowded out my celebratory feelings. My editorial preparations involved a review of the conditions in Alabama and the Deep South which made the Selma campaign necessary. As I read, repeated and ominous parallels between them and the national U.S. polity in 2005 emerged. For me, these parallels cannot be ignored or downplayed; and they leave little space for celebration. Consider some of the key features of the segregated South that confronted the young organizers of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) who first came to Selma in 1963, followed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in early 1965.
Both groups faced a one-party political system which had been in power, with only brief interruptions, more than 80 years. This system had maintained the trappings of electoral democracy, in which the ruling elites’ factional rivalries were played out. However, electoral fraud, persistent, substantial, and unbridled vote-stealing, was a keystone of this structure’s reign and modus operandi. Likewise, stigmatizing and disfranchising much of the population (poor whites as well as blacks) were both means and ends of this electoral corruption. This exclusion was partly written into state laws. But where de jure proved insufficient, arbitrary imprisonment and unofficial terror were widely used to keep the subject populations de facto "in their place" and out of the political realm. The major regional news media abetted and rationalized this situation. Adhering to a rigid, if unofficial code of conduct, they kept whole categories of events, and the subject populations, largely hidden from the awareness of the voting public, and for much of this era, invisible to the rest of the country as well. When some outrage upon the underclasses could not be ignored, this same media was quick to downplay, explain away, or excuse it.
As this is written, one-party rule is being institutionalized in Washington. In Congress it has advanced to the point where the majority in the House of Representatives made many of the key legislative decisions in its party caucus, leaving the minority completely outside the process – a procedure with eerie resemblances to the all-white Alabama primaries of old. Further, most major American "news" media have been either absorbed into or neutralized by the commanding ideological juggernaut. Dissenting media voices still exist, of course, but they are effectively marginalized. For example, in December 2004, Bill Moyers concluded a long and distinguished journalistic career in which he repeatedly and trenchantly exposed harsh truths about the ruling regime. His reporting was fearless and probing. But where were the signs that anyone in the circles of power was listening? They were certainly not listening to the many well-documented reports of widespread and strategic voting fraud in the 2004 election. In numerous key states, coordinated efforts were made that denied large numbers of minority voters – "minority" here meaning both people of color, and residents of regions known for supporting the political minority – effective access to the ballot box. And as this debacle was documented and analyzed, it became ever more clear that such tactics were not an innovation, but a tradition, one familiar to anyone who has read the post-Civil War history of the Deep South’s Black Belt. In 1892 Alabama, for instance, such blatant fraud robbed the Populist majority and handed victory to the ruling coalition of Big Mules and Planters, as it had in so many other places. "Yes, we counted you out," the winners bragged. "What are you going to do about it?" (Vann Woodward, 242) The insurgents wrung their hands, raised their voices to heaven, and to the state house in Montgomery, and the result was – nothing.-
Two Modern Quaker Theologians in the
Shadow of Greatness A Living Faith, Wilmer
Cooper (Friends United Press, 1991, 240 pages, paper). While keeping up with a sampling of current Christian theologizing, I have often regretted that Friends are not better represented in this contentious field. Following the ongoing debates on such doctrinal issues as the nature and use of the Bible, the place of Jesus, and the shape and limits of the Christian community, I often find myself saying, "Yes, but the Quaker position on that makes much more sense." Yet these Quaker positions, however telling, are rarely articulated in that arena today, except occasionally and then typically in a form diluted almost beyond recognition. Not only are the debates thereby impoverished, but the Society of Friends is left as something of a denominational Rodney Dangerfield, getting no respect. Even more, the practical sides of these debates, their implications for questions of personal ethics and group action, are similarly deprived of the insights our tradition could bring to bear. <<More>> Marine War Resister Stephen Funk Is Free! Posted February 4, 2004, 11:30 AM EST Stephen Funk, one of the first GI resisters in the current war, was released this morning form the brig at Camp Lejeune NC. Exclusive Pictures and more . . . . YES! A Blow Against the Excesses of the (Mis-named) "Patriot" Act "Citing Free Speech, Judge Voids Part of Antiterror Act" Headline, The New York Times, January 27, 2004 Universalist Theology Rises Again-- Posted 1/25/2004 If Grace Be True: Why God Will Save Every Person. Philip Gulley & James Mulholland. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2003. 220 pages, cloth, $22.95 A Treatise on Atonement, Hosea Ballou. Boston: Skinner House Books, 1986 (Reprint of 1832 edition) 254 pages, paper. Reviewed by Chuck Fager Almost two hundred years ago, Hosea Ballou foretold what would befall two Quaker pastors in Indiana, Philip Gulley and his good friend James Mulholland, in 2002: To profess universal salvation," Ballou wrote, "will subject some to excommunication from regular churches; others to the pain of being neglected by their neighbors; others to be violently opposed by their companions . . . and a man’s enemies will be those of his own house. (Ballou: 227)
Ballou wrote this about his own time, and the controversy generated
by the ideas contained in his magnum opus, A Treatise on Atonement.
In it Ballou, an early New England Universalist, made a case that Unitarian-Universalists
today claim as one of their founding classics. Taking on "Just War" Propaganda-- Posted 1/23/2004 Quaker Theology is published twice-yearly in both print an online editions. Ann K. Riggs (of Annapolis MD Meeting and the National Council of Churches) and I co-edit it. We're excited about this new issue, and excerpts from it will appear here over the next week, linked to the full text. First excerpt: Just War Against Terror: The Burden of American Power In a Violent World. Jean Bethke Elshtain. New York: Basic Books, 2003. 240 pages. $23.00 Reviewed by Chuck Fager I First a bit of autobiography: Jean Bethke Elshtain and I were both undergraduates at Colorado State University, and late in my time there, we became acquainted. I recall with a smile a party where she, a known intellectual, amazed me by dancing wildly to the Beatles, at a time when I was still holding out against the "British Invasion" as a classical-music snob. Jean was the one who taught me better. Later, our paths crossed again in Boston, when she was at Brandeis and I was sputtering along at Harvard. There, at some particularly low moments, she was very kind to me, and I still feel gratitude for her personal compassion in time of need. A lot of water has gone over the dam since then. Jean, who was always headed into the academy, has had what is commonly called a "distinguished career" there, which I, not being an academic, have not followed closely. But my own path does put me in the way of books like Just War Against Terror, (JWAT) so I made haste to read it. Thus it is with regret that I am obliged to report this is a dreadful book, a sub-par example of the genre called "neo-conservative," and one that I hope is not representative of her overall body of work. II I’m not the first to say this. Indeed JWAT has overall not fared well among the critics, as we will see below. Leaving aside the predictable kudos from the usual neo-imperial claque (e.g, Paul Berman in the New York Times, whose praise was damningly faint enough at that), even a brief online search shows it being savaged both from left and right. I wanted, for the personal reasons stated above, to be sympathetic to an author thus besieged, but reading Just War Against Terror made it difficult. <more>
Dangerous Metaphors: Handle With Care – A Response to: "See No Evil," by Donna Glee Williams, Friends Journal, January 2004 . posted 1/18/2004
Donna Glee Williams begins her piece with a
sweeping declaration: "I don’t see anything to gained using the word ‘evil’
to describe any part of creation." Here Is Your War, America -- posted 1/16/2004 From the Fayetteville NC Observer, 1/14/2004, front page: Army was an escape Staff Sgt. Ricky Crockett, who was killed By Robert Boyer Staff writer
Two months after finishing high
school in June 1984, Ricky Crockett joined the Army. He was
determined to stay away from crime and from work pulling tobacco and picking
peanuts in Broxton, Ga. Day of Remembrance, Day of Forgetting -- posted 1/16/2004
Yesterday,
January 15, was Dr. King's birthday. The many events that were held
around here focused mainly on themes drawn from his 1963 "I Have a
Dream" speech.
"Over the past two
years, as I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to
speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical
departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many persons have questioned
me about the wisdom of my path.
"At this point I
should make it clear that while I have tried in these last few minutes
to give a voice to the voiceless in Vietnam and to understand the
arguments of those who are called "enemy," I am as deeply concerned
about our own troops there as anything else.
"Somehow
this madness must cease. We must stop now. Quotes of the Week (Year?) From People Magazine, January 8, 2004
People Magazine: Is
there a silly, playful, affectionate side, like if you're cooking does
he come up behind you with a tickle or something? January 12, 2004 -- Strong Stomachs Needed
The
chronic epidemic of family abuse in the U.S. military is currently back
in the shadows where the Pentagon likes to keep it. It was not on my
radar screen when I came to Fayetteville/Ft. Bragg, but it
soon forced its way
onto my agenda. And it continues, with little public attention.
A Message I’m thinking about prophecy today, prophecy and its fulfillment. As best I understand it, biblical prophecy was not always simply a matter of foretelling the future. Another indicator of the depth hidden in these texts was how they could illuminate situations and events in times other than those they were ostensibly aimed at. So a scripture could be prophetically "fulfilled" by a future event coming to pass as had been predicted. But it could also be fulfilled when a passage from centuries before fit and brought light and understanding into later events and situations, quite apart from matters of simple prediction. That is, there were truths in scripture whose truthfulness could transcend their specific time and intention, and do this more than once Thus in the Fourth Chapter of Luke (verses 14-21), when Jesus was handed the scroll in the Nazareth synagogue, he read that the spirit of the lord was upon him, and he had been anointed to preach good news to the poor and deliverance to the captives. And then he told the congregation that this scripture had been fulfilled in their hearing. One perspective on the passage he quoted, from the 61st chapter of Isaiah, is that it was pure prediction, a foretelling of Jesus’s mission hundreds of years later. Yet the message does not say that someone will be anointed someday; the prophet who received and wrote it down claimed that the spirit was upon him, right then, that he, Isaiah, was anointed. This good news was to be announced not only in Jesus’ time; Isaiah was to declare it too, right then and there. So when that scripture was later "fulfilled" in Jesus reading, it was not the first time it had "come to pass"; nor should it be the last. I believe it reasonable to think this prophecy could be fulfilled again: no one would replace Jesus, but others could be, as he was, and Isaiah before him, anointed to announce good news of God’s favor and liberation. In the same way, I’m remembering another prophecy, which includes an image that has stayed with me for many years, and has become more meaningful especially in the last several months in my work at Quaker House near Fort Bragg. It’s from Jeremiah, chapter 32, verses 6-15. It comes after Jeremiah, who was a reluctant prophet to stat with, had been thrown into prison for announcing the imminent ruin of Jerusalem and the captivity of its people. King Zedekiah was treating Jeremiah like an enemy combatant, as if he was an agent of his enemies the Babylonians. This was a bum rap – which didn’t make much difference then, as for many it hasn’t now. Jeremiah’s own statements make clear that it was just as devastating to him, a birthright Israelite, to announce the destruction of his homeland as it was for Zedekiah to hear it. While he was in prison, no doubt wondering if he’d ever get the Israelite equivalent of due process, he had what appeared to be an oracle from God. But the message was not a grand vision of salvation, or even destruction; instead, this revelation seemed to involve, of all things, a real estate deal. The word came to Jeremiah that his uncle’s son would visit him and want him to buy a piece of land, which Jeremiah had inherited an option on. And sure enough, the uncle’s son showed up with news of the option, and so Jeremiah decided that this word must indeed be from God. So he bought the field and, was careful to complete all the needed paperwork, assemble the required witnesses, and weigh out the pieces of silver to pay for it, it was all legal and official. He then had his secretary Baruch put the deed in a sealed urn and bury it to keep it safe. And all this went on just as an enemy army was surrounding and bearing down on the capital, shortly to destroy it and make all such transactions worthless and void–just as he himself had predicted. Yet for Jeremiah the prophetic meaning of this action was made clear (32:15): "For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land." (and v. 43 adds) that "fields shall be bought in this land whereof ye say, It is desolate, without man or beast." For Jeremiah this message and the commercial ritual became prophetic signs that although his nation, his people faced total disruption of their lives, and loss of life for many, and then exile and captivity for the survivors -- yet they also had a divine promise was that someday, they would return and, at least for a time, be able to enjoy the ordinary, even mundane elements of peaceful life. I said this passage had long stuck with me and become even more meaningful in recent months. Here’s how: I know four families at Fort Bragg, each of whom has had to face the disruption of having a spouse sent into combat in Iraq. None of them believes in this war; all were facing the great stress of at least short-term disruption of their families, while one member risked death or the debilitating wounds of modern war. Three of them are there now. They are not pacifists; each would fight to defend their country from attack or imminent threat. But that’s not what they see happening in Iraq, and they don’t believe the occupation is worth the lives of their buddies, the Iraqis, or themselves. Every day when I pick up the Fayetteville Observer, I hold my breath before reading the casualty list, wondering if it will include names I recognize. These are not my blood relatives; but they’re brothers and sisters. They are my neighbors, in a very concrete biblical sense. They are men caught in a war they don’t support, conditioned to obey orders, trying to see their duty and do it and yet somehow keep body and mind and conscience together in a place and time that threatens all of these. And if I hold my breath, what must their wives and children be going through? The fourth family took a different course. The husband spent six miserable months in Afghanistan last year. He came back last summer, safe and sound, but with a broader conviction than the others, that the whole program of war was misdirected and posed as much a danger to our homeland as it does to that of the Iraqis and others. He filed a Conscientious Objector claim, but to no avail. Over the months since his return, his sense of the immorality and absurdity of the whole military venture only strengthened. So when orders came in December that his unit was sending troops to Iraq, and his name was on the deployment list, it presented not only a crisis of risk to him, his wife and their toddler son. It was also a crisis of conscience. The troops from that unit left for Iraq this past week; they must be there by now. But this soldier was not among them. One night the phone rang and I learned that he and his family had left the country, and are seeking refuge in another land, probably never to return. They left almost all their possessions behind, and are literally starting new lives. This is a story familiar to those who remember the Vietnam War; it’s also a story that should be familiar to readers of Jeremiah, because he too left his homeland and ended his days, so far as we know, as a refugee in Egypt. If there is a word of prophetic comfort for these families, for me it comes in this account of the assurance to Jeremiah that despite the coming perils and devastation, yet someday these would be overcome, they would have an end. The exiles or their descendants would return, and once again there would be in the land the ordinary things that make up the warp and woof of peaceful common life: homes, families, vineyards, even the routines of commerce. This, the routine. the everyday, all that which we normally think we can take for granted, was shown to Jeremiah to be signs of God’s favor, and a ground for hope. I’m no prophet, and I don’t know when this passage of hope and peace will or can be fulfilled for these four families, or for the hundred and forty thousand others in this country who face similar perils. Or, for that matter, for the millions of Iraqis, among whom the disruption of life is so much more general and near-total. But it has been fulfilled before; it has come to pass before, and it can be fulfilled again. Its achievement would also mean the fulfillment of yet another scripture passage that resonates for me today, from Psalm 107, verses 4-8: They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. Let them thank the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works for humankind! That can’t come soon enough, for any of them, for any of us, and that is my prayer this morning. My prayer and my hope, and the basis for continuing witness. - - - - - - - - - Top Issue: Declaring "The Hundred-Year Lamb's War"
-- 1/9/2004 As this work develops, it will have many facets, and no central headquarters. I'll be returning to it frequently. The Draft Is Coming Can the U.S.
war machine sustain its expanding imperial mission with a "volunteer"
military? The imperial
course has its defenders, even in religious circles. One of them is the
scholar Jean Bethke Elsthtain, whose book, Just War Against Terror
undertakes to make the case that not only the U.S. war in Afghanistan, but
the attack on Iraq, and the "new imperialist" mission underlying it, are
moral and Christian. I beg to differ, and have prepared a review explaining
why, in the forthcoming issue of the journal
Quaker Theology; the
review will be available online shortly A Fine New Book -- 1/9/2004
Last month I was sent a book that I'd call a
"must-read" for Friends and other peace folks,
with special interest for women: Driving By Moonlight, by
Kristin Henderson, just out from Seal Press.
WARNING: Do NOT start this book when you have a lot of work to do. It was very hard to put down, and I stayed up way too late (even for me) over several nights to finish it.
And he's not just a minister, but one who has lusted to be a chaplain
in the Marines, and finally achieves his goal. He heads for Afghanistan on
a troopship as she heads west in the Corvette, leaving her to agonize both
about his personal fate and about how his acting on his faith connects
with her efforts to act on hers.
Intrigued? Visit Chuck's other site, for Kimo Press!
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