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Sorry everyone. My blog when down in the middle of all the excitement. As I understand it, my site could not keep up with the volume and I had a bad plugin. I think it’s all been taken care of, and we should be back in business tomorrow. Thanks for your patience, and thanks to David Rackley for all the help.

There could have been a riot last night in the Texas Capitol. I don’t know how to put what happened into words. I have been involved in Texas politics for maybe thirty years and I have never seen anything like it. I suspect few of us had.

After the Republicans appeared to have won the day and passed a bill that added a horrible burden on poor rural women seeking reproductive healthcare, as soon as it became clear that the Republicans were going to make up the rules as they went along, including a final dirty trick of letting the bill pass after time had expired, it was clear that the women of Texas had had enough.

Words fail. It was like a Kafka novel where humanity and the structure of a building merge. Suddenly, from the capitol extension, one could feel a vibration coming from the Rotunda where people had begun shouting and stomping and producing a noise that was so loud it was hard to make out the words being chanted.

At the time, I could not make out what people were saying, but the men were chanting a refrain and the women were answering. It turns out the chant began with the men asking, “Whose house is it?” and the women responding in deafening thunder, “Our house!” Through the early years of this movement in Texas I always expected to be one of a handful of men at such a gatherings. My eyes filled with tears as I realized those days are over. The women of Texas have found their beautiful angry voice and the men of Texas have their back. We have all begun to realize that reproductive choice isn’t just a woman’s issue. It is a human rights issue as basic as any other.

The people seemed to realize they had to stop asking for their own power. They needed to stop asking permission to be fully human. When this bill passed, it could have been just one more indignity for Texas women. After all, the Republicans of Texas have launched a tireless assault on women for decades. As one more anti-choice bill passed in the Texas House and then Senate, suddenly a realization seemed to dawn on the masses all at once. They realized that these Republicans will never stop trying to control Texas women. They will never really listen to what Texas women have to say. And they will cheat at every turn because they believe they are right by definition.

After the bill appeared to pass another reading, people ran toward the rotunda for what might mean certain arrest. One Republican talked about removing the people if they would not be quiet, and then something happened. I saw a look of determined peace in the peoples’ eyes as they ran toward what might be their own arrest. It was the peace one only sees in those who have given themselves to do their duty at any price.

As the politicians struggled to justify their anti-democratic actions, democracy broke out all around them. It must have been hard to think with apocalyptic thunder ringing from the heart of the building. In the end, the Republicans agreed to throw out the bill. I have no idea what happened behind closed doors, but this much seems clear. Last night would not have happened had the people lacked a revolutionary courage and a willingness to be civilly disobedient. Nor could last night have happened had there not been people who stayed to work within the system to translate the peoples’ energy into law. And we must not forget the x factor. Last night could not have happened had not at least one Republican done the right thing. Republicans are not our enemies, they are our friends, but they cannot be our overlords. This world belongs to us all and if necessary the people will rise up to make it so.

The evening ended with Cecile Richards leading us in a song that, as a native Texan, always seemed trite, “The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You.” I have never heard the song as a revolutionary anthem until last night. Our nation is a representative democracy. And, as Jefferson warned, if the powers that be do not represent the people, then the people must rise up and remind them where all real legitimate power resides, not in the government but in the people. Last night Republicans were served notice that they must represent every Texan or find new employment.

The Eyes of Texas are upon you,
All the live long day.
The Eyes of Texas are upon you,
You can not get away.
Do not think you can escape them
At night or early in the morn-
The Eyes of Texas are upon you
‘Till Gabriel blows his horn.

America’s minority populations lost a critical safeguard today when the Voting Rights Act was eliminated by the Supreme Court. It is a victory for the hidden and sinewy hand of racism that still infects our halls of justice.

While no one calls for Jim Crow directly, it is obvious that the monster of racism has never died, and is not far below the surface. Reagan’s bashing of welfare mothers was a coded message that most of us understood. He was bashing people of color. When people attacked President Obama and continued to claim he was really African, most of us understood. They were really bashing people of color. When people talk about illegal aliens, most of us understand. They are really bashing people of color.  And when Republicans say that some people are voting just so they can get free stuff, most of us understand. They are bashing people of color.

When Texas Republicans gerrymander the state so that it looks like a squid, most of us understand. They are really trying to exclude people of color. It is the same when cities move to single member districts to overwhelm any voice minorities might have. So we know when people claim that America is no longer racist we know they are ignorant or worse.

Civil rights lawyers responded to the ruling:

“The Supreme Court has effectively gutted one of the nation’s most important and effective civil rights laws.  Minority voters in places with a record of discrimination are now at greater risk of being disenfranchised than they have been in decades,” said Jon Greenbaum, chief counsel for the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “Today’s decision is a blow to democracy. Jurisdictions will be able to enact policies which prevent minorities from voting, and the only recourse these citizens will have will be expensive and time-consuming litigation.”

One good result of the verdict is that it forced the President to use the word “discrimination.” It is time for all of us to use that word, at the top of our voice.  All of us must go on record calling for new safeguards because America doesn’t just have a problem with racism, America is a racist nation.

Today we will gather outside of the HEB to protest the slaughter of unborn chickens. Imagine the pain an unborn chicken feels when someone scrambles an egg. We will also show a screening of the film, “Silent Cluck” which shows a yolk trying to avoid being poked with a fork. We want people to know that every omelet stops a beating heart.

The event is sponsored by the Col. Sanders “Save the Egg” Foundation. Spokesman John Plucker said, “It’s because we love chickens that we want to put them in cages and force them to lay eggs. That’s what makes them happy. How can we tell when chickens are happy? Because happy chickens lay more eggs. That’s how.”

Kenneth Cockadoodledoo of Roosters for Life will also speak at the event. “This isn’t about controlling chickens. Hens are emotional beings. I love my ladies which is why I feel a responsibility to make their decisions for them. They would never forgive themselves if they made a mistake. This decision should not be made by a poor chicken in trauma. It should be made by a group of roosters who can be objective because we don’t know anything about the situation.”

Father Clucky of Our Lady of the Sacred Ovum will be there to give God’s opinions on the subject. “Jesus said he wanted to gather us like a mother hen gathers her chicks. We all know that the tiny chicken soul enters the shell at fertilization. This is a slippery slope. It’s no coincidence that Hitler loved scrambled eggs and served them to his storm troopers. Is that what you want, to live in Nazi Germany?”

Finally, Dr. Nathan Smirk will hold up numerous medical studies and charts. Dr. Smirk is a doctor. He has scientific studies that show everything we are trying to prove. “We now know that chickens in the egg not only feel pain, they also fly around and sometimes write poetry. Can you prove me wrong? All we are asking is that restaurants be required to install expensive equipment to give Novocain to any egg they wish to serve their customers. And did I mention I am a doctor?” (–Dr. Nathan Smirk, PHD. in Landscape Architecture.)

But today’s event won’t be all men. HAA! (Hens Against Autonomy) will be there to talk about the success of their wonderful “abstinence only” barnyards, and to show how much safer reproductive health clinics would be if you put them on sixteen foot poles and surround them with a flaming moat.

The event will start at 5pm. Remember, it’s not a choice, it’s a chicken!

Last night Texas house Republicans robbed you while most of you slept. After gerrymandering Texas so they could silence your voice and the voice of Texans of color, last night a group of Stepford Republican women hand delivered legislation clearly written by anti-choice lobbyists intended to double the cost of abortion and force women in some parts of Texas to drive hundreds of miles for health care.

I say “hand delivered” because it was clear that the “author” of the bill could barely read it. The talking head in a pink dress proposing to control women’s reproductive health care could barely pronounce the parts of a woman’s anatomy. Her now infamous quote that rape kits clean a woman out should not be reduced to a joke. This ignorance will kill real women.

When her ignorance became too radiant to hide, the Republican chair allowed her to table other house members’ amendments without coming to the microphone to defend her reasons. When the vote finally came down about 3:30 in the morning it followed another anti-democratic slight-of-hand maneuver followed by high fives, primate hoots and Cheshire smirks.

But I am not writing you with bad news. You already knew that Republicans do not consider you a moral agent capable of making your own reproductive decisions. You already knew that they see you a kind of breeding stock Republican men need to make other Republicans. No, I am writing with good news.

Last night I saw a fire I haven’t seen since Ann walked these hallways. I heard a defiance I haven’t heard since Molly taunted these same bullies. I saw new champions emerge on the scene that will lead us into the future, because human rights are not won with political victories, they are born out of defeats that build movements. I saw a new breed of feminist men who can stand as allies to women without trying to control their movement of self determination.

The sad truth is that human rights are never safe. These Republicans will never rest until women are forced out of power. We must keep eternal vigil over our human rights and not allow any to be isolated from our group lest political jackals pick us off one at a time. But last night I saw the fire again. I saw the old champions, but there is a new leadership emerging in Texas that would make Ann and Molly very proud.

Women of Texas, do not call last night a defeat. Last night was a slap in the face of an awakening giant. Last night we saw that the game is rigged, which is just fine. We’re not playing their game anymore. Last night we saw if we trust in this political process we cannot win. Which is fine, because we also remembered that, if we become a political movement again, we cannot lose.

Last night was long and painful and beautiful because it seemed we remembered a primal truth. Human rights are not won, they are seized.

I am doing a sermon today on immigration. We will consider Biblical passages where God’s support of Israel was made contingent on remembering that they had once been immigrants and were not to mistreat the foreigners and migrants in their own land. The citizens of that nation were to bring one tenth of their first fruits to share with orphans widows and migrants.

This passage will remind us that the people many of our leaders call “illegal aliens” are in fact the true natives of this land. It will also remind us that the problem of immigration did not begin when migrants crossed our borders, but when we crossed theirs to destabilize their economies and force governments that served us, not the people. This has been going on for ages. Our nation is responsible for the people it has displaced politically or economically.

Finally, we will revisit the plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty and see if we even recognize the nation being described:

The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” -Emma Lazarus

As our nation votes increasingly to tighten our southern border (but not our northern), and thus declares to the world that we do not wish to be “mother of exiles,” perhaps we could also vote to decide which nation deserves to harbor that noble vision to which we have now closed our eyes. Perhaps it is time to pass the torch of liberty to a nation that still believes in it.

Neither the theist nor the atheist understand what a mystic is even saying.

It is not so much that they disagree, but they usually cannot even hear what is being said.

Most theists believe in a divine being and consider all those who don’t believe to be atheists.

Most atheists disbelieve in a divine being and assume all who are religious must believe in some such supernatural being by definition.

But mystics are not speaking about a being. We are speaking of being per se.

We do not greet the morning sun as a created object, nor as an inert fact, but as a revelation of the invisible unthinkable energies of our universe. We greet every life form not as a soul, nor as a carbon chain reaction, but as something more. To us, that “something more” is not a projection of human purposes upon an indifferent universe. Life, too, is a revelation of the profound nature of it all.

We are at one with every religion that remembers “God” is a symbol of something beyond any religion. We are also at one with the atheistic scientist looks through a telescope and mutters , “wow!” To us, every such evocation of wonderment is an expression of the divine name; and every religious hymn or prayer that does not move us to silent wonder is a profaning of that same name.

A mystic’s religion does not reside in credulity but in reverence. For us, the three letters g-o-d are optional. We do not believe or disbelieve in our symbols. We sing a hymn to the universe with our very lives because we know that we too are its revelations.

Next time someone calls President Obama or Hillary Clinton a liberal, play a video of Elizabeth Warren and say, “No, this is a liberal.”

Senator Warren learned the lesson from NAFTA that secret trade deals make perfect Trojan horses for shady business dealings. The Trans-Pacific Partnership could affect the sovereignty of nations, intellectual property rights, an open internet and living wages at home and abroad.  Warren is challenging the Obama administration to make the full text of the trade deal public. When the nominee for U.S. Trade Representative would not agree to that condition, Senator Warren responded:

“The American people have the right to know more about the negotiations that will have dramatic impact on the future of the American economy. I believe in transparency and democracy, and I think the U.S. Trade Representative should too.” -Elizabeth Warren

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced yesterday they are dropping plans to have independent scientists review its earlier findings that fracking is linked to groundwater pollution in Wyoming.

“We stand behind our work and the data, but EPA recognizes the state’s commitment to further investigation,” said agency spokesman Tom Reynolds in Washington, D.C. The EPA will let state officials carry on the investigation with the federal agency’s support, he said.

Possible translations:

-Pressure by the oil and gas industry has trumped science again.

-Cutting the domestic budget worked out for corporate giants. The EPA can no longer follow through on protecting the environment so long as giant businesses have the money to slow down the process.

But don’t worry. Wyoming “officials” will launch their own study funded in part by a $1.5 million grant from an oil and gas company that owns the gas field in question. Why go through an independent scientific study when corporations can buy the answer for us?

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_268743/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=XPRIwmCJ

In the first major global review of violence against women yesterday it was found that about a third of women worldwide have been assaulted by their current or by an earlier partner. 40% of women slain across the world were killed by a partner. Domestic violence was found to be the most common source of violence against women.

“The head of the World Health Organization, Dr. Margaret Chan, called it “a global health problem of epidemic proportions,” and other experts said screening for domestic violence should be added to all levels of health care.” -Maria Cheng, AP

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_289563/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=llyD8JzB