“To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heaven,” begins the third chapter of Ecclesiastes. Two distinctive seasons in the cycles of time are marked by the vernal and autumnal equinox which signalize equal lengths of day and night as the sun crosses the equator, at which point the cycles shift.

The vernal equinox, that begins each March 21, signalizes Spring, the warming of the earth following a long, cold winter–from which we have ironically been recently spared in our particular area–and the rejuvenation of plant life with all of its beauty! Continue reading Approaching “Harvest season” . . . →

Trump and his Republican supporters are losing their argument about Trump being the country’s economic savior as the economy tanks, mainly because of his non-handling of the pandemic.

They appeared to be winning the argument last May when 54 percent of registered voters said Trump would better handle the economy than 42 percent for Biden. Now, incredibly, Trump and Biden are tied at 49 percent apiece on who would manage the economy better. Continue reading Republicans Peddling Myths →

by Amy Johnson,
Minister for Sexuality Education

I’ve been thinking a lot about words lately, and language, encouraged by the indomitable Rev. Dr. Velda Love in the Sacred Conversations to End Racism Fall Institute.

I’ve been thinking about the characteristics of white supremacy culture, and how “worship of the written word” is included on the list. I’ve been thinking about who controls what can be published and who decides who can even learn to write. Continue reading Words →

A recent Americans for Tax Fairness press release headline read: “BILLIONAIRE WEALTH GREW BY $845 BILLION, OR 29%, AS AMERICA STRUGGLED THROUGH FIRST SIX MONTHS OF PANDEMIC: While Millions Lost Jobs, Businesses, Health & Lives, Nation’s 643 Richest Saw Their Collective Fortune Leap Nearly 30%.” The report continued: “Needless to say, ordinary workers did not fare as well . . . In fact, this billionaires’ bonanza occurred against a general backdrop of working-class pain: 6.6 million Americans got coronavirus, and almost 200,000 died from it. Over 50 million Americans lost jobs, with nearly 14 million still unemployed. 30 million are collecting unemployment benefits (counting contract workers), up from 1.6 million a year earlier. Nearly 30 million Americans have gone hungry. 12 million Americans have lost employee-sponsored health insurance. Big swaths of business have shut down, including 100,000 restaurants.” Continue reading Millionaires and Billionaires Keep Winning and Poor Children Keep Losing →

“Racism is the most challenging issue confronting America,” begins a statement issued by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States in 1991. “A nation whose ancestry includes every people on earth, whose ideals of freedom under law have inspired millions throughout the world, cannot continue to harbor prejudice against any racial or ethnic group without betraying itself.

Racism is an affront to human dignity, a cause of hatred and division, a disease that devastates society…To ignore the problem is to expose the country to physical, moral, and spiritual danger,” continues the statement from a booklet entitled The Vision of Race Unity-America’s Most Challenging Issue. Continue reading Face to Face with “America’s Most Challenging Issue” →

As one writer said, “There are no permanent victories against racism.” There are just permanent interests and consistent struggles. And we are in one now.

Let us do what one of our senior citizens said years ago—in the face of strong voter suppression executed by hostile FBI agents and a lawless U.S. Attorney. She said, “They can’t scare me.” “I’ll vote on.” In the brave tradition of so many African Americans who put their lives on the line to bring us the franchise, this grandmother was all in. And this was in the 1980s, not the 1950s and 1960s. Continue reading “I’ll Vote On” →