Sunday Morning Coming Down

A couple of months ago the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Miami had a series of discussions about 'white privilege".  I'm not a big fan of the word privlege, be cause I think advantage is more accurate. The following is an outline of the more common aspects of 'white privilege". Citizenship  - Simply being born in this country affords you certain privileges non-citizens will never access. Class  - Being born into a financially stable family can help guarantee your health, happiness, safety, education, intelligence, and future opportunities. Sexual Orientation  - By being born straight, every state in this country affords you privileges that non-straight folks have to fight the Supreme Court for. Sex  - By being born male, you can assume that you can walk through a parking garage without worrying you'll be raped and that a defense attorney will then blame it on what you were wearing. Ability  - By being born able bodied, you probably don't ha...

“It’s not [Cubs pitching coach Chris] Bosio this time, it’s [Cubs manager Joe] Maddon, and that means a change. [Reliever Jason] Motte is on his way in. Strop is on his way out, pointing toward the heavens. We can only ask or wonder that he is asking some departed relative for forgiveness for this atrocious performance.” Bob Costas didn't think much of Pedro Strop's relief effort on Friday and blown saves by a relief pitcher won't bring out the best in people. Players that invoke the baseball gods when entering games or in this case when leaving a game should be fair "game".  Personally, all this pointing to the heavens is getting to be just another one of those "baseball" nervous gestures similar to the waggle of a golf club. Maybe Bob should have self censored because an awful lot of broadcasters are athletically challenged, but make no mistake about it, the latest losing streak of four games hurts.

I'm relieved that the Supreme Court decided in favor of the ACA and decided that the right to marry applied for everyone in all fifty states. In the middle of the night on a sports talk show the guy started talking about the gay marriage issue. The San Francisco 49er's tweet of love wins and posts the gay pride flag isn't surprising but the idea that love wins is an idea of Biblical proportions. A Mississippi legislator's response is to suggest that the State of Mississippi stop issuing marriage licenses entirely. Tina Turner sang: "What's Love Got To Do With It." Demographically, an awful lot of households consist of one person and recently it was estimated that 27% of the population fit that description or defy description. Sort of like it's complicated and regardless of what SCOTUS says it still is complicated. Napoleon Dynamite, is/was a comedy and it is also a dance movie.

The Atlantic Monthly put the Confederate Battle Flag in its place. It was a South Carolina symbol  during the Civil War to defend slavery, it was resurrected in the fight against civil rights for African Americans, and it was a symbol that motivated a hate crime that ended in the death of nine people attending a prayer meeting at the Emmanuel A.M.E. Church. The Governor was right to say it was time to take the Flag Down. Jeb Bush took the Confederate Battle Flag down in 2001 saying it didn't represent modern Florida. It certainly doesn't represent modern South Carolina.  

Unitarian Universalist Congregations pride themselves with being liberal congregations in theory. Theory is easy, getting folks to change is the hard part. Making it easier for people to change is possible but a lot of habits are hard to change and the parties must want change to happen. Even good church going folks have their differences as evidenced by this hatchet job on Unitarian Universalism.  Just telling people to wake up and smell the coffee doesn't work very well. Historically UUs were in favor of the abolition of slavery but that didn't make UUS the go to religion. Don't ask me why but churches are a lot like fraternal organizations and a lot of them are not very integrated either. When and if stuff like happens requires big organizations with a large advertising budget and some rules everybody signs on to.  Unfortunately, this usually only works when selling products and military which isn't very voluntary except when you sign up. BY  GABRIELLE DEVENIS...

Robert Reich, a former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton Administration, has been criticized for getting paid about $20,000 a month for teaching at the University of California, Berkley. This seems like a lot of money for a full time teaching position at a major state university. It is only a little bit higher than average for full professors at Ivy League Schools. Robert Reich is all over the internet publicizing his ideas on wealth, education, and politics. Making movies may substitute for publication in academic journals these days and it is certainly clear he has a bigger audience than most professors in academia. Folks also bitch about how much former presidents make for giving speeches and on the other end of the spectrum how little folks that work at fast food restaurants make per hour. Drivers for Uber are being classified as employees of Uber rather than users of an app that brings them customers. Uber may now be required to pay payroll taxes like social security, medica...

Island divide Activists rallied in Little Haiti on Thursday to protest a ruling that retroactively  denies citizenship to thousands  born in the Dominican Republic without at least one Dominican parent, WLRN reports. The two countries are situated on the same island, and after the 2010 earthquake, the Dominican Republic has seen  historic highs of Haitian immigrants , according to WPLG 10. The legislation has rallied human rights activists in Miami, many of whom have ties to the Island. Some describe the situation as “ ethnic purging ,” the Miami Herald reports.  Maybe the lesson learned from this immigration fiasco is to make sure that paperwork is up to date. Island living can be a complicated thing because it is hard to get away if you have no where to go.

It is reported that a young white male entered a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina and killed nine people participating in a prayer meeting. The gunman is still at large. At my Unitarian Universalist Congregation we have had a church member who has been assigned security duty for a while. I've kind of thought this was a little over the top as the security person would probably not be able to stop any attack and police response would be way too late to make a difference. I just thought we would just be in a safe place. This is a really sad happening as once again I have been proven wrong about some of my more quaint ideas about safety.

Alberto Iber was the Principal of North Miami Senior High School in Florida until he decided to comment on Facebook regarding Officer Casebolt, late of the Mckinney, Texas police force. Principal Iber was assigned to administrative duties by the Miami Dade County Superintendent of Schools after Iber voiced his support for Officer Casebolt.  Some may think his right to free speech was violated. The Miami Dade County School Board folks say "This is not an infringement on freedom of speech but rather our standard procedure when dealing with matters that have the potential to interrupt the learning environment and the operation of a school". Middle Schoolers are being taught in school to be very careful when posting "stuff" on social media. You would think a principal in a school where almost 100% of the student body was Latin or African American would or should be even more careful that the average seventh grader. I've learned that at least this one principal...

Billy Graham's son is mistaken for making a big deal and moving his money from Wells Fargo to another bank because Wells Fargo made a gay friendly ad about a same sex couple adopting a deaf child.  Gay friendly is ok, but he mistakenly feels the ad goes beyond being "friendly" to advocating a lifestyle he disapproves of. Kids are better off in good families.  I think most folks would think that those responsible for helping families that would adopt kids whether special needs kids or not would appreciate an ad which directly or indirectly reminds all of us that there are kids that need the support a family can give. I don't think the ad in question advocates a gay life style. It may advocate that a gay couple should be able to adopt a child, and that we should value folks that come forward to adopt kids. Being a family isn't fool proof but being a kid that ages out of state run foster care, leaves a lot to be desired in Florida.

Disney World seems to be playing some games with H-1B visas. Julia Preston of the New York Times reports that 250 Disney World employees were laid off in October and "many of their jobs were transferred to immigrants on temporary visas for highly skilled technical workers." Disney's response is that as the result of a reorganization, the company opened more positions than it eliminated.  On paper that may be correct but try explaining that to folks that trained the H-1B workers from India.  Too often the intent of these laws is just something on paper to get around if you can lower costs by importing workers from other places or just exporting the jobs overseas if it makes a few bucks for the company. What about the American workforce, that gets played?

Watched the Belmont Stakes at the Magic City Casino, aka "the dog track". The place was crowded with folks wanting to watch the race on big screens and like minded racing fans. There was a drawing after every race at Belmont Park and the winners got a $20 win ticket on American Pharoah and a $1 trifecta box on the 5,6,7 in the 11th race. Both bets were winners! As races go it wasn't a great betting race but it certainly was a chance to watch some history being made.  More than a few $2.00 win tickets were bought and they will never be cashed, kept as proof they saw something in sports that doesn't happen often. The "dog track" crowd cheered from the moment the starting gate crashed open. American Pharoah obliged by leading from "box to wire". Frosted, an obvious second choice was flying at the end but American Pharoah with the lead just opened up and kept going, winning in 2:26, sixth fastest time in the race's history. As days go this on...

The Belmont Stakes will be run tomorrow and the race is American Pharoah's race to win. I've watched the horse since Arkansas and from my relatively untrained eye the horse goes well. He might not be Secretariat but there is very good reason the horse will be an odds on favorite for the race, if he wins he will be the first horse in thirty seven years to win the Triple Crown. Pharoah's Owner rightly says it is about the horse and not the owner. I agree and I hope he (the horse) wins. Win and the talk about money, and breeding rights, the owner and babies will explode. Short of victory, Pharoah will be one of the last dozen or so horses that have won the Derby and the Preakness, but failed in the Belmont and the talk will revert to a rematch somewhere down the road, maybe the Breeder's Cup. It's hard to win three races in a row at almost every level of competition and why should it be easy when you are running against the best horses around for a lot of money. Fr...

I came across the term eggcorns and wonder how much they are different from malaprops. Not much. My Mom who could type like the wind, never really got the hang of the "e-line". These days I wonder if she would have been a fan of  "Face Tube". Somehow or other I think she would like the pictures of children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, but would need someone to print out the pictures just to make sure.