the only thing that makes sense

medicare for all Americans.

so simple.

end of debate.

alright congress, get it done.

this fall

for me, the thought of fall brings to mind so many good things. college football games. law school tailgate parties. nice cool weather & beautiful trees. riding in critical mass in Carbondale. the return to school in southern Illinois. going to Cobden for some of the best mexican food in Illinois & the evenings chilling at Fuzzy's. without a doubt, wherever i've lived, fall has been my favorite season.

but, this fall in particular should be especially great. that is because of the fantastic music that's coming down the pipeline.

The Books will be finally releasing a new album in October, based on samplings of answer machine recordings, hypnotherapy recordings, and recordings from the Talkboy found in a Salvation Army store. also, I'll be going to see them play in St. Louis at the Luminary Center for the Arts with Lymbyc Systym. that should be a soothing show. if you haven't yet listened to The Books, you really should. Grab "The Lemon of Pink" today. It will change all of your thoughts about music.



In October, Sufjan Stevens will be releasing a version of his orchestra piece, The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. He is probably my favorite musician. As chaotic as the books can be, to that extent Sufjan's music is polished and perfected. His abilities as a composer are really what make his albums and performances so great. Add to that very good writing and you have great folk music.

So there it is, two of my favorite artists finally make a splash again this fall. Neither has released new material since 2005. What a great year for music 2005 was. "Come on Feel the Illinoise" and "Lost and Safe" both were released that year. The Books released a short group of tracks, all based on music made for a hotel in France and Sufjan released a song on Dark was the Night, but those nice tidbits can't compare to full length albums. There's a lot of great music being made each year, but 2005 seemed especially nice. I never would have imagined that the same stars would re-align for 2009.

Hang on tight folks. Its going to be a fun ride.

things i like # 22: staying @ my parents' house

it's quite relaxing. there is great music here. homemade food from fresh vegetables too. come stay awhile.

things i like no. 371: minhas havaianas

i never was much a flip flops guy.

my brother mike always wore them. even climbing. once, we climbed up the fire escape of the Tip Top Tap in Chicago. up more than 300 fee above michigan avenue. & it was raining. we climbed on top of the neon sign. mike was wearing flip flops the whole time. i thought that was a crazy moment for the little guy.



& i still think mike is crazy, but for other reasons.

the first pair of flip flops that i wore, since like being six, where havaianas.

Anacarolina had written about them in an email while she was living in Switzerland. but i didn't know what they were & i didn't ask.

when i stepped off the plane in fortaleza, we drove to the beach at cumbuco. but on the way we stopped at a small shop and she said, "you must wear these", pointing to a pair of flip flops. "pick a color, what is your size?" i grabbed a few black pairs. i found a pair that fit. she bought them and we were off to the beach.

& just like that, i decided that i would wear flip flops once in a while. now that i have a pair bearing the brasilian flag & from a brasilian friend.

Darfur

By writing this post, I admit culpability.

The charge? Indifference. Evidenced by inaction.

I've grown up watching a genocide & until recently didn't realize how strange that is. Its always been easy to scoff at the Americans of the past, who waited far too long before stopping the holocaust. It seems so obvious that had we been alive then, the response would have been so much quicker and focused. Yet, Sudan has opened up like a wound before the world's eyes. And no one is moving to stop the bleeding.

Perhaps there is (was) very little that I could have done to stop this event from happening. Honestly, what was happening wasn't even on my radar until summer of 2007 when I was studying in Strasbourg, France.

What is condemning is that this is a genocide that I, and people my age, have grown up with. It has been with us during our formative years. If you mention Darfur, most people my age have a clear understanding that something very ugly happened there. Many will be able to tell you the nation has witnessed a genocide. And many others in my generation will be able to identify the ethno/religious roots of the aggression. We are not uninformed. Ignorance does not excuse our lack of movement. Nor the stillness of our hearts.

I read a piece by Richard Just* on The New Republic's online version a few weeks ago. The quote below made me feel absolutely sick to my stomach:

"[T]his gives Darfur a morbid sort of distinction. No genocide has ever been so thoroughly documented while it was taking place. There were certainly no independent film-makers in Auschwitz in 1942, and the best-known Holocaust memoirs did not achieve a wide audience until years after the war. The world more or less looked the other way as genocide unfolded in Cambodia during the 1970s, and the slaughter in Rwanda happened so quickly--a mere hundred days--that by the time the public grasped the extent of the horror, the killing was done. But here is Darfur, whose torments are known to all. The sheer volume of historical, anthropological, and narrative detail available to the public about the genocide is staggering. In the case of the genocide in Darfur, ignorance has never been possible. But the genocide continues. We document what we do not stop. The truth does not set anybody free."

Richard Just, The Truth Will Not Set You Free, The New Republic, http://www.tnr.com/story_print.html?id=36975a7c-224c-438a-9538-130b9e5cdd91 (accessed August 15, 2009).

I heard a homily at Redeemer Presbyterian in Newport Beach, CA in the fall of 2007 about poverty and wealth. Part of the pastor's thoughts included the observation our age is increasingly complicated due to the availability of information. Today we are a mouse-click away from witnessing the most degrading poverty in the world via our computers screens and internet accessibility. Google images can take you to the slums in moments. How much more indifferent we will likely become than generation before. We are on track to becoming one of the least empathic generations in history.

Overexposed in every way. Bombarded. Able to change the channel quickly. Autonomous. Overfed. Under-read.

There is just so much that we have to dull, shut-out, in order to continue our own lives. That is because a crisis like Darfur demands urgent action. Even by a college student who was saving up for a motorcycle. And while Darfur is certainly the most gruesome example at present, there are also atrocities taking the lives of the innocent throughout the globe: Zimbabwe, East Timor, North Korea, Tibet, Afghanistan, Burma, and on.

One other complication that arises when thinking about how to respond (or how we ought to have responded) to Darfur is the question: OK, now that we know what is happening how to stop it?

The activists have done a great job making documentaries or writing books. But their own assumptions about the use of force undermine their goals, Richard Just captures this reality as well:

" "Many of us peace and human rights advocates are rightly reluctant about the use of force. We need to get over it. There is such a thing as evil in this world, and sometimes the only way to confront evil is through the judicious use of military force." Amen, as long as "judicious" also means effective."

Id.

I had a similar reaction. Now, being a Calvinist, I'm not a pacifist. I'm entirely against violence--but I believe that the use of just force to protect the innocence is anything but violent. Yet, the notion of sending troops to Darfur was a difficult concept.

But to stop the killing, it is the only answer. Bush's dilemna was much like Clinton's at the time of Rwanda. Clinton was feeling too politically vulnerable after the failure in Somolia to sanction any type of action. Likewise, as the situation in Darfur worsened, Bush was bearing intense criticism for the conflict in Iraq. It would be easy to blame Bush, but the truth is that Germany, France, and China all had plenty of able bodied troops available, all of whom could have ended the killing. In fact, they still do.

And then there is President Obama. He is a President who wears the liberal mantle of idealism and respect for human rights. Further, he enjoys unprecedented popularity internationally. It would seem obvious that he would have already done something to intervene in this situation. Yet, nothing. Granted, he faces numerous challenges domestically, but really the priority of stopping the genocide and the delivery of Omar Bashir to the Hague, trump even the most serious domestic issues.

Simply, its time to move forward. We must immediately sign and ratify the Statute of Rome, adding to the strength of the International Criminal Court. Further, we must coordinate with China. China is the largest trading partner on the African continent. A coordinated action by these two governments would be a powerful movement. After all, the purposes of government, more than any other tasks, are to restrain evil and promote the good.

Most importantly, we need to push aside the asinine domestic debates, which define the political spectrum of the U.S. Its time to start fighting for things that matter, that is, innocent human beings. There are still many things which can and must be done to protect many people.

But nothing we do now can change who we are. A generation that grew up watching a genocide and did little. A generation that must trade indifference for guilt.




*Read that article here

The Law & Gospel Distinction

Yesterday I was reading John Calvin's letter to the King of France, which was a plea on behalf of the Huguenots who were being persecuted in France. In that letter I discovered a real gem, which is useful both for understanding the distinction between law and gospel; and for hermeneutics:

"When Paul declared that all prophecy ought to be according to the analogy of faith (Rom. xii. 6), he laid down the surest rule for determining the meaning of Scripture. Let our doctrine be tested by this rule and our victory is secure. For what accords better and more aptly with faith than to acknowledge ourselves divested of all virtue that we may be clothed by God, devoid of all goodness that we may be filled by Him, the slaves of sin that he may give us freedom, blind that he may enlighten, lame that he may cure, and feeble that he may sustain us; to strip ourselves of all ground of glorying that he alone may shine forth glorious, and we be glorified in him?"

John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, trans. Henry Beveridge, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, 1989.

Calendars

"thou hast put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound." psalm 4:7 (rsv)

i was thinking about professions. how great it is for teachers. their professional calendars are still attuned to the agrarian calender, that is, the summer/growing months are left open so that students and faculty equally, might grow the food needed to survive pending winter.

this practice remains with us from another era. one before the non-teamster truckers made low food prices possible. one before supermarkets. before globalization. in fact, its safe to say, one before the modern capitalist state. this practice is truly a relic of another world.

so, even as a professional student, for some time i have argued that the practice ought to be discarded. but more and more, as i reflect on the value of subsistence agricultural and the need to move to a more sustainable society, i realized that this policy should not be jettisoned, it should not be buried.

no! it should be expanded!

even professions which cannot pause, such as emergency room physicians, policemen, and firefighters should benefit from such a calendar--just perhaps on a rotation of some sort from year to year.

such an expansion would restore much needed margins to life of those who work in America.

such an expansion would promote learning how to grow food, real food--not the processed dross which coats our veins.

indeed. farming is good. it should be respected. & we all should have the space and ability to do so. such a refinement of our society would return us to reality. it would return us to the real environment. to real labor, sweat, & fruit. it would give meaning to harvest, patience, and an appreciation for the exquisite design of creation.

may we pattern our calender accordingly.

things i like # 148 & #51: "hospice" by the antlers & seersucker pants.

no. 148

i heard the antlers for the first time this summer at pitchfork. i was waiting to meet up with my friend dan and for "the pains of being pure at heart" to play & i wandered over to the stage were the antlers had begun playing their set.

the crowd was getting larger. i kept moving closer to the stage since i was still by myself at that point. right away i liked their music, great use of falsetto vocals, bright pop melodies, and fun piano jangles. it reminds me of cyhsy, but without the strained voice.


fun stuff. [download "Two"]

///



no. 51

i love wearing seersucker pants. i bought my first pair a few weeks ago. i was unsure at first about getting them, but received enough encouragement to go for it. i wore them today when i biked to logan square. they are so light and comfortable. they work great for cycling in the summer. it was pretty humid this morning before the rain began & it couldn't have been a better choice for slacks.

my next post is going to be on my reflections on Judge Sotomayor's appointment. thus, a nice light hearted post seemed ap-ro-po for the mean time.