America is a great country. But the US Capitol Insurrection is part of a long, dark, racial history in the United States.
“This isn’t who we are.”
President-elect Joe Biden said these words in the aftermath of Wednesday’s assault on the US Capitol. Politicians like to say this during events like this. I believe that President-elect Biden and others who use that phrase mean nothing but good. They want to say that as Americans we aspire to higher goals and that what happened is something that is uncharacteristic of who we are as Americans.
This phrase comes from a good place. It’s also incredibly wrong. This is who we are. This is who we are as a nation.
African Americans, Native Americans…
African Americans, Progress Made, and Work To Be Done.
There are certain stories that you hear about only after a parent has died. This is one of those stories.
My first trip was by car to visit my Dad’s relatives in Louisiana in 1973. We embarked on a trip that was familiar to many African Americans who moved north in search of a better life: taking a trip “down South” to visit relatives. That’s what we did: driving from my native Michigan to Louisiana. A year later we had to do it again to see my Dad’s sister, Choletile who was very ill. …
How Black Pride gave way to victimhood and resentment.
In the late 70s, my Dad found a new barber. This meant I had a new barber. I was fine with that except for one little thing: my Dad would get me up at 5:30 as in AM. On a Saturday. At the tender age of eight, I learned I was not a morning person.
We would make our way to the barbershop off of what was then Detroit Street in Flint and waited until the barber opened around 7:00 am. Other men were sometimes waiting ahead of us. When the doors opened up, it was time to either hop…
It matters in the classroom, on the playing field, in the workplace, and in the Oval Office.
Author’s note: The following was originally written in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.
Alike for the nation and the individual, the one indispensable requisite is character — character that does and dares as well as endures, character that is active in the performance of virtue no less than firm in the refusal to do aught that is vicious or degraded.
-Theodore Roosevelt
CNN commentator Van Jones could barely keep it together as he expressed his feelings on air about Joe Biden becoming President-elect. “It’s easier to be a dad this morning. …
One pastor’s walk through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Writer’s note: You can hear a podcast by the author that is based on this article. Listen to Spheres of Influence podcast, episode nine, “Church in the Time of Apocalypse.”
I got my first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine a week ago. I’m still not fully vaccinated and I’m still socially distancing and wearing a mask, but it’s hard not to feel that the pandemic is starting to end. It is not over and things could change that makes things worse. That said, it feels like we are moving away from a year of staying away from public spaces. People…
How the common ground of faith became swallowed up by hyperpartisanship.
For the last year or so, I’ve been thinking about starting a podcast. It’s not like I have time to do a podcast, but I felt this feeling that I needed to try. There are a lot topics I could have talked about like autos or science fiction, but I decided to focus on the two issues that really fascinate me: religion and politics. I’m an ordained minister, that serves a small congregation in the suburban Twin Cities. Religion has always played a big part in my life and so has politics. Of course, I like to see where the…
Why the fate of the GOP matters to American democracy.
Clasp with thy panting soul the pendulous Earth;
As from a centre, dart thy spirit’s light Beyond all worlds, until its spacious might Satiate the void circumference: then shrink Even to a point within our day and night; And keep thy heart light lest it make thee sink When hope has kindled hope, and lur’d thee to the brink. Adonais by Percy Shelley
There is an old saying that Democrats fall in love, and Republicans fall in line. The old saying believes that Democrats have feelings for their party and aren’t going to easily leave the party. With Republicans, there…
How two progressive writers’ electoral hopes for the future changed America in ways they could not have imagined.
You can listen to a version of this story as a podcast using the link below.
There are many factors that have made American politics so toxic. The 2000 Presidential election. The rise of the Tea Party and later Donald Trump. The Iraq war. The legacy of the Confederacy.
But there is one factor that has changed how our political parties operate, how they look at the world, and how they will govern America. …
The Bad and Good of the Senate Impeachment Trial of Donald Trump
It’s not surprising and yet it is.
The second trial of Donald Trump, following his second impeachment ended on Saturday with his acquittal with a vote of the Senate, 57–43, ten votes short of the two-thirds vote needed to convict the former President. None of this was a surprise, but it was still frustrating to hear that yet again, Donald Trump escapes punishment.
There are a few observations on a number of actors that I want to talk about, so let’s start with the Dear Leader himself.
Donald Trump: In the movie Despicable Me 3, the big bad is Balthazar…
We are told that starting new political parties in America is a waste of time. History demands we try.
Donald Trump is now a former president. He is gone from Washington. He is now in Florida, leaving behind an awesome amount of wreckage. He wrecked a long-standing political party. He leaves a nation in tatters. We will find out in the coming years, how our country has been affected by the actions of President Trump. But how will the party he ran under fare? Will the GOP be reformed? Or will it splinter?
Recently Trump mulled the idea of starting a third party called the Patriot party. Rumor has it he was talked out of this idea. His confidants…
Dennis Sanders
A middle-aged pastor living in Minneapolis. I write about politics, religion, sexuality, and autism. https://www.dennislsanders.net/
