Connecting the Dots of Yesterday

January 21, 2021.Reading time 13 minutes.

Don’t ever again tell me “the parties are the same.”Don’t ever again tell me “non-violent action doesn’t work.”Don’t ever again tell me “elections don’t matter.” These are the three biggest lies — the three greatest disincentives to voting and activism — that I have heard during the past four years. Time and time again, I’ve heard them repeated online, […]

When “Public Service” Gets Crushed

January 9, 2021.Reading time 9 minutes.

Everybody is haunted by the images of this week.The Nazi shirts…the Confederate flag…the man with zip ties in military gear…the wild-eyed looks of these insurrectionists. But I’ve been deeply stirred by two images.One, of this Capitol police officer being crushed.The other, of Representative Andy Kim cleaning up the trash. I know that this is a […]

White Privilege Illustrated: The HOLC Maps

June 26, 2020.Reading time 27 minutes.

Far too many times, I hear White people say White Privilege is a myth or a creation of the Left. But there are ways to VISUALIZE it…to illustrate it…show show its pernicious effects beyond shadow of dout. Exhibit A: The HOLC Maps. This is a long blog. I can’t apologize for that, because you need […]

Juneteenth and the “Power of Power”

June 19, 2020.Reading time 15 minutes.

Two thousand Federal troops. I keep coming back to that number. That’s the number of Union soldiers that accompanied General Gordon Granger into Galveston on the day Juneteenth was proclaimed in 1865. We White people barely understand Juneteenth to begin with, and what we do understand is often whitewashed. Yes, General Granger read that proclamation […]

What We Value

June 6, 2020.Reading time 8 minutes.

One thing is certain about the year 2020; it’s a year where all of us are being asked: “What do we truly value?” The picture of the left is a graphic that ran on Fox News this week, and I’m going to ask you not to move straight to your outrage. Even though I’m confident […]

Don’t Look Away

June 3, 2020.Reading time 4 minutes.

White Siblings, Don’t look away. Don’t avert your eyes. Yes, there is a danger even in reposting these because of the moral license they may give other racists who see them. But you….dear White sibling… You who are still more concerned about property damage and protesting “the right way”… You who every time there is […]

White Privilege

May 28, 2020.Reading time 13 minutes.

My struggle to adequately describe the murder of George Floyd ended when I saw this picture late last night. Take a hard look at this picture, because if you let it sink in deeply it will help you see much of what is wrong with America today. One frame: Armed protestors, effectively taking over the […]

Faith, Not Fear, Is Calling us to Close

March 14, 2020.Reading time 8 minutes.

I’m gonna push back against churches boldly proclaiming that they intend to meet tomorrow and, by insinuation, calling the rest of us chicken or “afraid.” Because of the lack of wide-spread testing, because we don’t *scientifically* know just how widespread this pandemic goes, churches, schools, community groups, etc…are making the decision to close to the […]

Democratic Identities and Super Tuesday

March 4, 2020.Reading time 15 minutes.

“All politics is identity politics.” I keep mulling over this key learning from Ezra Klein’s new book, “Why We’re Polarized.” The classic formation of “identity politics” is used as a slam against liberals. But Klein’s book turns that on its head, and suggests that ALL of us have identities…MULTIPLE identities. Black, White, Latino, Asian. LGBTQ+, […]

Mayor Pete

March 2, 2020.Reading time 5 minutes.

Early in the campaign season, Pete Buttigieg made a stop here in Dallas for a big Democratic event. I was asked to deliver an invocation for the evening, which I was honored to do. During Mayor Pete’s keynote speech, he was interrupted at several points by hecklers, in what was clearly an organized plan to […]