Lone Star, But Still A State

I know I've joked about this, but joking is one thing.  This is something else.

Texas State Representative Bryan Slayton has filed HB3596, the "Texas Independence Referendum Act" or TEXIT, which, if passed, would enable Texans to vote in the next general election whether Texas should seek to become an independent republic and secede once again from the Union.  "The Texas Constitution is clear that all political power resides in the people," Slaton said. "After decades of continuous abuse of our rights and liberties by the federal government, it is time to let the people of Texas make their voices heard."

It's a popular idea, and a bill that has been suggested before.  It's just amazing that we have to keep shooting this down.

First, despite what you may have heard, there is no special provision that gives Texas this ability.  Some clause or provision that allows Texas because it once was an independent republic to return to that state.  It doesn't exist, and likely never did.  Further, there's no right to secede.  If we do, it's defection against the United States, just as it was before.

A vote would not even work.  The 1869 case Texas v. White determined that individual states could not secede from the United States, even if voted on by the people.  "The union between Texas and the other States was as complete, as perpetual, and as indissoluble as the union between the original States."  Again, if we vote, if we force a separation, it's defection.

Plus, recent events should show us that an independent Texas won't survive.  The ERCOT energy crisis in the state in 2021 should show us that.  That mess largely happened because the Texas grid remains isolated and not connected to the larger United States energy grid.  Add to that the small fact of Texas needing to replace the $41.4 Billion that the national government spends in Texas.  And many other entanglements that would have to be unwound.

This ridiculous self-determinism has fatal consequences.

So while it can be a funny joke, it's just that - a joke.

No TEXIT, no secession.

We Texans may think of ourselves as Texans first, and Americans second, but we're still Americans.

Always.  

State of the Union 2022

President Biden will address the nation tonight in the annual State of the Union speech.  He will attempt to rally the nation at time of particular division and uncertainty.

I certainly don't envy him.

He has the monumental task of outlining the factual state of the nation, the achievements of his administration, and his plan for the remainder of this term, in an environment where perception is greater than reality. 

The country and its representatives have generally made up their mind already about the state of the nation.  Polls are not in Biden's favor.  Only 42% of Americans find Biden generally trustworthy.  This is down from 60% when he took office.  His approval ratings remain likewise below half, trending at around 43-44% approving of his performance in office.  

It's interesting, as this is in direct contrast to the results of his policies.  Economic numbers are generally trending positively.  Unemployment is at its lowest rate in more than half a century.  Twelve million new jobs have been created in his first two years of office.  

No matter the numbers, it's not impacting the people.  The country is still feeling inflation, recession, shortages, supply chain issues, staffing impacts.  The country is changing, and it remains to be seen as to what.  

Perception creates reality.  

And it's that perception Biden has to overcome and change.  He has to improve reality to make it felt. 

I don't know if that is possible.  For any president.

I pray he does make policy choices that can get the country to start feeling positive changes in the economy and environment.  I pray they do take hold over the next couple of years.  I'm not optimistic for his odds, but I pray they do work.

To create a more united state of our union.

National Day of Prayer 2021

Today marks the National Day of Prayer, an annual occurrence on the first Thursday of May designated by Congress, on which people are asked to "turn to God in meditation and prayer."   The modern annual observance was first established in 1952, though it relates back to similar days of prayer and fasting that started as far back as 1775.  Traditionally, the President of the United States marks the day with an official proclamation.  This year is no different.

Below, find the text of President Biden's proclamation for the day.

"Throughout our history, Americans of many religions and belief systems have turned to prayer for strength, hope, and guidance. Prayer has nourished countless souls and powered moral movements — including essential fights against racial injustice, child labor, and infringement on the rights of disabled Americans. Prayer is also a daily practice for many, whether it is to ask for help or strength, or to give thanks over blessings bestowed.

The First Amendment to our Constitution protects the rights of free speech and religious liberty, including the right of all Americans to pray. These freedoms have helped us to create and sustain a Nation of remarkable religious vitality and diversity across the generations.

Today, we remember and celebrate the role that the healing balm of prayer can play in our lives and in the life of our Nation. As we continue to confront the crises and challenges of our time — from a deadly pandemic, to the loss of lives and livelihoods in its wake, to a reckoning on racial justice, to the existential threat of climate change — Americans of faith can call upon the power of prayer to provide hope and uplift us for the work ahead. As the late Congressman John Lewis once said, “Nothing can stop the power of a committed and determined people to make a difference in our society. Why? Because human beings are the most dynamic link to the divine on this planet.”

On this National Day of Prayer, we unite with purpose and resolve, and recommit ourselves to the core freedoms that helped define and guide our Nation from its earliest days. We celebrate our incredible good fortune that, as Americans, we can exercise our convictions freely — no matter our faith or beliefs. Let us find in our prayers, however they are delivered, the determination to overcome adversity, rise above our differences, and come together as one Nation to meet this moment in history.

The Congress, by Public Law 100-307, as amended, has called on the President to issue each year a proclamation designating the first Thursday in May as a “National Day of Prayer.”

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 6, 2021, as a National Day of Prayer. I invite the citizens of our Nation to give thanks, in accordance with their own faiths and consciences, for our many freedoms and blessings, and I join all people of faith in prayers for spiritual guidance, mercy, and protection.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-fifth."

Oh, Lord, we do petition you for wisdom and grace.  May we move past division, move past convenience and truly seek your will.  Speak to us, and make us listen.  Teach us, so we may learn.  Guide us and give us the courage to truly live as you have called us; not as we have interpreted your will.

Amen.

Don't Matter How Raggly The Flag, It Still Got to Tie Us Together

Yesterday, we took the opportunity to visit Newfields and the Indianapolis Museum of Art.  Our bank offers free visits to certain museums on the first of the month and Newfields and its grounds was one of the largest to visit in the Indianapolis area.  

It was our first museum that we have been able to visit in Indy, and it was great to be able to explore.  African, Asian, and Mediterranean art, Fashion and Design.  A special exhibit on Edward Hopper and his artwork of hotels in particular.

The piece that jumped out to us, though, the one that had the greatest impact was the piece of art shown above.  A representation of the flag by Thornton Dial.  Entitled Don't Matter How Raggly the Flag, It Still Got to Tie Us Together, Dial created the piece in 2003 out of mattress coils, chicken wire, clothing, can lids, found metal, plastic twine, wire, Splash Zone compound, enamel, and spray pain on canvas on wood.  

It's still unmistakably the flag.

The piece was set off in a separate room, used to highlight the purpose of art.  It was placed on the back wall of the room, and viewers were asked a prompt to start their evaluation of the art.

How does it make you feel?

There was a table with pencils and card stock for visitors to write and submit their responses.  The museum evaluated responses and the placed them on the side walls of the room.  The responses ranged from anger and disappointment with the country, to pride, to conflicted emotion.

Jamie submitted, as did Avalyn.  I did not, it took a little longer to come together.  My response is below.

--------------------------------------------------

This is us.

This piece of art is wholly symbolic of us.  Of U.S.(A.).  Of these United States of America.  Our history, our reality, and our future.

This isn't the version that we like to present of ourselves.  It's not the shining, exceptional, "Greatest Country in the World."  This isn't the perfect flag marking our national religion.

This is our reality.  A flag closer in relation to the war torn, battle scarred flag at Fort McHenry that inspired Francis Scott Key, than any we fly today.

This is a flag soaked in blood, born in blood, overpowering the white innocence of our ideals and blue perseverance of our character.  It reminds us of our struggles.  Of the conflicts of our past and the conflicts of our present.  How they pervade all aspects of our history and heritage.

A flag cobbled together from the common, from junk, hanging together by a thread.  In which there is still beauty, so long as it holds.

This is a flag that reveals why people both stand in reverence to the ideals of the nation and kneel in protest when we fail to uphold them.  A flag we would all do well to consider.

This piece does what art is supposed to do.  It moves us.  It makes us think.

It grows us by forcing us to reckon with it. To wrestle with it.  To be uncomfortable.

To hold a mirror to ourselves and say:

This is us.

Christchurch Call

Once again the United States abdicates and its companies have to step up and fill the gap.

Wednesday, May 15, 2019, twenty countries and eight tech companies gathered together in Paris, France to compile the Christchurch Call, a set of guidelines for governments and companies to help combat the internet being used to spread hate, organize extremist groups, and to broadcast attacks.  It provides a roadmap aiming to prevent similar abuses of the internet while insisting that any actions must preserve "the principles of a free, open, and secure internet, without compromising human rights and fundamental freedoms."

The Christchurch Call developed after the attack on mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in which the events were broadcast live on Facebook, drawing public outrage and fueling debate on how to better regulate social media.  The New Zealand government under the leadership of Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern, partnered with the Frence government under President Emmanuel Macron.

"Fundamentally it commits us all to build a more humane internet, which cannot be misused by terrorists for their hateful purposes."

Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern

The meeting on Wednesday coincided with the "Tech for Good" conference in which 80 CEOS and executives from technology companies gathered in Paris to address how they can use their global influence for public good.  Accordingly, the Christchurch Call has involved the major social media and internet players.  Facebook.  Amazon.  Google.  Microsoft.  Twitter.  Those five companies in particular issued a joint statement supporting the Call, outlining in further detail actions they would take individually or together to combat abuse of their technology.  Facebook in particular, has committed to toughening its livestreaming policies, with a one strike policy for a broad range of offenses.

The companies that have joined in support are not surprising.  Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada, the European Commission and members the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Sweeden, Norway, and the Netherlands, among others.

There is one glaring omission.

The White House is not endorsing the global pledge, citing a respect for "freedom of expression and freedom of the press."  Instead, the White House said it will "continue to be proactive in our efforts to counter terrorism online" while also protecting free speech.

As if the other countries supporting the pledge don't have free speech rights in their countries.  Some of them having much stronger guarantees than we do in the United States.

Further, the Christchurch Call is not some binding legal decree or treaty.  It's a nonbinding pledge without any plan for enforcement or regulatory measures.  It's a symbol.  It's a recognition of the problem and a commitment to address it.  It is something we could commit to and adopt to our Free Speech requirements.

But I suppose it shouldn't be surprising.  There are a lot of extremist groups that support the current administration. Extremists which have endorsed Trump and he has not exactly disavowed.  Why would he start now?

Further, endorsing the call would seem to be counterproductive to President Trump's attempts to call out social media firms for a perceived social media bias against conservatives.  "SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS should advance FREEDOM OF SPEECH.  Yet too many Americans have seen their accounts suspended, banned, or fraudulently reported for unclear 'violations' of user policies," read an online form shared with the Twitter followers of the White House.  Nevermind that many of the so called conservatives that have been banned have been promoting out right lies and misinformation or calling for truly extremist views.  Or that there has been no evidence of a systemic effort on the part of Facebook, Twitter, or Google to specifically shut down conservatives users or content.

Perhaps Trump is just worried his twitter account would be affected?

It's also part of a worrying trend where the United States is forgoing many global causes. Backing out of the Paris Climate Agreement.  Out of the Iran nuclear agreement.  Bilateral trade agreements.  From the United Nations Human Rights Council.  Yeah.

At some point we have to realize that we have responsibilities as a global citizen.  That isolationism does not work.

Perhaps there's hope for a turnaround in a year and a half.

Or maybe we'll just get more of Gene Simmons, from KISS in the White House briefing room.  Apparently that took precedence yesterday.

The Decline of Happiness

It's official.  We are becoming less happy in the United States.  And it's been measured in a report by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network in partnership with the Ernesto Illy Foundation. 

In general, since the World Happiness Report started in 1973, American happiness peaked in the late 1980s and has been down ever since.  The report asks, "Taken all together, how would you say things are these days - would you say that you are very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy?"  It looks like we're more on the "not too happy" side of things.  According to the report, both adults and adolescents were reporting significantly less happiness than they had in the 2000s, let alone the late 1980s.  In addition, numerous indicators of low psychological well-being such as depression, suicidal ideation, and self-harm increased sharply among adolescents since 2010, particularly among girls and young women.

By most accounts, we in the United States should be happier now than every.  Violent crime is low, unemployment is low, and income per capita is steadily growing.  And yet here we are.  As our standard of living improves, so should our happiness.  But this does not seem to be the case.

If we look at the broader report, we see that the United States ranks 19th among countries in the World Happiness rankings.  That's one spot down from last year, which was four spots down from the previous year, and so on.  Compared to the happiest countries, America has declining social support, and increases in obesity and substance abuse.  Finland, this years happiest country, boasts a good work-life balance, generous parental leave and other policies helpful to parents, universal healthcare, and lots of time spent in nature.

The report even included a special section on the "Sad State of Happiness in America," which pointed to a different, more insidious culprit.  The shift in leisure time to isolating digital platforms.

Several studies have found that adolescents and young adults to spend more time on digital media are lower in well-being.  For example, girls spending 5 or more hours a day on social media are three times more likely to be depressed than non-users, and heavy-internet users are twice as likely to be unhappy.  Overall, activities related to smartphones and digital media are linked to less happiness, and those not involving technology are linked to more happiness.

Correlation between activities and general happiness, 8th and 10th graders, Monitoring the Future, 2013-2016 (controlled for race, gender, SES, and grade level)

Notice that the ones that bring the most happiness, beyond sufficient sleep, generally involve live, social interaction.  How ironic that a medium designed to bring us closer together makes us more isolated, more depressed, and less happy.

"It is not good for man to be alone."

I wonder why we do not bring up this part of the Gospel more often.  The Good News.  That the followers of God will no longer be alone.  That He promises to always be with us.

"Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

Joshua 1:9

"The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud signing."

Zephaniah 3:17

"Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Matthew 28:20

"For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Hebrews 8:38-39

We see from the chart, that religious services rate as an activity that generally brings us happiness.  There is the camaraderie, the family, the fellowship.  The bond of believers that lifts our spirits.  In the best churches, we find true fellowship that bears one another's burdens, that truly binds us together in Christian love.  The kind that is contagious.

But, if possible, I think we underplay the reminder that we are not alone.  That no matter the situation, the Lord is with us.

We added a new song to the worship service yesterday entitled "Another in the Fire" by Hillsong.  Through the verses and the choruses, it is a wonderful reminder of the Lord's presence with us always.

There's a grace when the heart is under fire
Another way when the walls are closing in
And when I look at the space between
Where I used to be and this reckoning
I know I will never be alone.

The title and the hook of the song refers to the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and how they were thrown into the fiery furnace.  How after the three men were thrown into the furnace, the people saw four figures instead, with one shining like a "son of the gods".  Regarded by many as a "Christophany," or appearance of Jesus before His human birth, it remains in any interpretation a powerful metaphor of Christ walking and being with us through it all.

The verses illustrate this concept beautifully.

There was another in the fire
Standing next to me
There was another in the water
Holding back the seas
And should I ever need reminding
Of how I've been set free
There is a cross that bears the burden
Where another died for me

There is another in the fire

And through the song, the tense changes us to remind us that God is the one who was, is and will be.  "There was/is/will be another in the fire."

So no matter what you have been through, no matter what you are facing, no matter what lie ahead, you do not have to face it alone.  There is One who wants to be there through it all.

I'll count the joy come every battle
'Cause I know that's where You'll be

That should be reason enough to be happy.