When I was a child I learned the poem of solace, that was supposed to salve the hurts of hateful words…spoken by bullies.

‘Sticks and Stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.’

Of course, we all learn early on that words do hurt and that those who proudly claim that they are not affected by mean and sarcastic and juvenile name calling…are some of those that are hurt the most.

In school we, painfully accepted, that there were, among us, the emotionally stilted and people that were so insecure that they must belittle and make fun of and name call others…in order to fill some vast vacancy in their soul.  People who felt so small and insignificant that their recourse was to create and compound those feelings in another human being and thus to feel like that they were at least better than the poor individual that they chose to persecute.

As a rule, when a teacher or a principal or an adult and an authority figure saw what was transpiring…they came to the aid of the person who was being bullied and instructed the bully to cease and desist.

What if, when a person was being bullied, the teacher and the adult and authority figure and the Principal and the Superintendent joined in and became the Bully in Chief?

I was the Assistant Superintendent of Building Services for twelve years.  On more than one occasion I had to dissuade and even order members of my staff to not do something or say something that my boss, the Superintendent, had encouraged them to do.

Racial slurs….fighting…and swimming in the Pulliam Pool after hours…were neither right nor defendable and they were, indeed, infractions that could lead to suspension and termination.  Yet, the members of my, and the Superintendent’s staff, assured me that since their boss, and mine, had assured them that they would be alright that they felt secure in indulging in the the prohibited activities.

History teaches us what power words have…in the mouth of the powerful.

‘Adolf Hitler had provided clues to his ambition to commit mass genocide as early as 1922, telling journalist Josef Hell, ‘Once I really am in power, my first and foremost task will be the annihilation of the Jews.’   Smithsonian.com

‘As soon as I have power to do so I will have gallows built in rows-at the Marienplatz in Munich, for example-as many as traffic allows.  Then the Jews will be hanged indiscriminately, and they will remain hanging until they stink; they will hang there as long as the principles of hygiene permit.  As soon as they have been untied, the next batch will be strung up, and so on down the line, until the last Jew in Munich has been exterminated.  Other cities will follow suit, precisely in this fashion, until all Germany has been completely cleansed of Jews.’    Statement to Josef Heil, 1922 quoted in Gerald Fleming, Hitler and the Final Solution pg. 17

‘Since we are socialists, we must necessarily also be antisemites because we want to fight against the very opposite; materialism and mammonism…How can you not be an antisemite, being a socialist!’   Adolf Hitler  Why We Are Anti-Semites, ‘August 15, 1920 speech in Munich at the Hofbrauhaus.  Translated from Vierteljahrshefte fur Zeigeschichte, 16. Jahrg., 4.H.(Oct 1968), pp. 390-420. Edited by Carolyn Yeager.  [2]

‘President Donald Trump mocked California Rep. Maxine Waters during a freewheeling speech Saturday night, saying she had a ‘very low IQ.’   CNN

‘President Donald J. Trump hosted a Make America Great Again rally this evening in Pennsylvania.  Per usual, the Donald’s flamboyant and charismatic personality charmed the standing room only crown.  However, the loudest reaction and most amused came when the president referred to NBC’s Meet the Press host Chuck Todd as a ‘sleepy eyed’ ‘sleeping son of a bitch.’   Townhall

Members of the media have received death threats as a direct result of president Trump’s continued pronouncements of fake news and calling out individuals, on a regular basis, for ridicule and catcalls and taunts.

I took Journalism classes at SIU…it is a noble profession and unworthy of the disdain and danger that the professionals in this Constitutionally recognized field are members of.

Most human relations seem academic…until they are on our doorstep…then…suddenly…they are crisis.

Note: Photos are from the Free Photo Library

Jonathon and I went to our local watering hole…’where everybody knows your name,’ and I had my usual…Dragon’s Milk.

We missed the third musketeer, Aaron, and the fourth, Mary Jane, but we carried on…the best that we could.

The bartender knows us so well that she begins pouring up my beverage of choice before I sit down.

I do not drink too much…two usually.

After that, a trip to Plaza Records is in order.  They have the most wonderful used records that, often, are so clean that they do not appear to have ever been on a turntable.

Our friend, Chris, works there.  His friendly demeanor causes us to want too purchase Vinyl.

Today, I obtained a Nina Simone album and a boxed set of jazz artists from the Smithsonian.

I often think of the father, in one of my favorite Christmas movies, A Christmas Tale, and his love for jazz music on vinyl.  The movie is French and I identify with the old jazz aficionado.

And…Chris even gave us a discount.

As the old commercial stated, as a Russian actor exclaimed…’What a Country!’

I, often, reflect on the miracle of life that is before our eyes and ears and senses each day of our existence.

We walked campus earlier and took note of the Red Bud trees that are blooming.  I am sitting at my desk and looking out my loft window and watching a Great Blue Heron search for fish in our pond.

Our planet is so magnificent that if your were summarily dropped, or deposited, on to our Earth from another world…you would be breathless with awe and delight and wonder at the unique beauty that you were surrounded by.

‘Stop being afraid of what could go wrong and think of what could go right.’   Zig Ziglar

I believe that a key to happiness is to help others in need.

The more that we can get out of ourselves and focus on our fellow human travelers…the increase in our contentment.

My friend, Jeff L., is a great example of helping others who are less fortunate than he.

Jeff grew up homeless on the streets of Chicago.  Not long after he became a christian he began putting the golden rule into practice.  When we visited he and Margo, in the United Kingdom, I noticed how he was constantly reaching out to whoever that he met and offering them, potential, opportunity in the company that he is the CEO of.  The looks of wonder and delight and the, palpable, intrigue emanating from the people that Jeff was speaking with was something to behold.

My friend, Elizabeth, is, daily, trying to find new ways to assist and help her colleagues at Southern Illinois University.

‘But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and so the evil.’

‘Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.’

‘Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.’

‘Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.  For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.’  Luke 6: 35-38   KJV

‘Famed actor Arnold Schwarzenegger posted a photo of himself sleeping on the street under his famous bronze statue, and sadly wrote ‘How times have changed’…

‘Trying to teach everyone that when you’re ‘important’ in the people’s eyes, everyone is your ‘Friend’ but once you don’t benefit their interests, you won’t matter.’

‘You are not always who you think you will always be, nothing lasts forever.’   Ovilia Mendonca  Facebook   Photo: E News

Indeed, fame and power, and money and popularity are fleeting.

I observe, with great interest, the preening and prancing of the powerful.

I had the pleasure of becoming friends with several university leaders during my over thirty-two year career at SIU.  I watched the, obvious, sycophantic shuffling of those who sought to be ensconced in the good graces of both chancellors and presidents.  I also witnessed the, not so obvious, apparent, good will of others…who seemingly wanted to assist the leader and in the methodology of their apparent, ‘good will’, receive a hefty pay raise for their altruistic efforts.

Then, when the leader is no longer in power and unable to facilitate additional money or prestige or power for the supplicants…they melt away like the snow of a spring day.

So, the question is…is our identity our job or our profession or position…or do we identify ourselves uniquely as a one of a kind creation in a world of wannabes and facsimiles and poor imitations?

I was on campus, the other day, and spring is coming again and a time of renewal and rededication to living our unique and unparalleled lives as God intended for us to live them.

‘I am not a stranger to the dark

Hide away, they say

Cause we don’t want your broken parts

I’ve learned to be ashamed of all my scars

Run away, they say

No one’ll love you as you are

But I won’t let them break me down to the dust

I know that there’s a place for us

For we are glorious

When the sharpest words wanna cut me down

I’m gonna send a flood, gonna drown them out

I am brave, I am bruised

I am who I’m meant to be, this is me

Look out cause here I come

And I’m marching on to the beat I drum

I’m not scared to be seen

I make no apologies, this is me’

This Is Me   Keala Settle, The Greatest Showman Ensemble

This morning, Pastor Janice, in her last sermon to us, spoke regarding what it must feel like to be exiled.

‘Exile – expel or bar (someone) from their native country, typically for political reasons.’   Dictionary

‘So all Israel was enrolled by genealogies; and behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel.  And Judah was carried away into exile to Babylon for their unfaithfulness.’   I Chronicles 9:1

‘By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.’

‘We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.’

‘For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.’   Psalm 137: 1-3

How does it feel to be a stranger…an exile…in your own land?

A couple of years ago I read a blog, written by one of my friends from the United Kingdom, where she had been admonished to ‘go back where she came from’…but she came from the UK?  Her perceived ethnicity had caused a prejudiced person to assume that she did not belong in their country of origin.

The United States is comprised of people from every country on the face of the Earth.  The geological facts are that in a few years, Anglo Saxons will be a minority in this country.

When, some, exclaim the clarion call to make America great again…they mean that they desire white people to be in the ascendancy and people of color to be subservient to them.

Upon ancestral examination these people would discover that their forefathers and foremothers were immigrants…and exiles…from their lands of origin.

President Trump’s ancestors are of Germanic origin.

Countless multitudes flee hunger and deprivation and genocide…in the hope that the beacon of freedom and safe haven still shines in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

‘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 lighting, 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!’

The New Colossus   Emma Lazarus   Inscribed on the Statue of Liberty

‘Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.’   Proverbs 31:8  NIV

Pastor Janice…spoke for those who have no voice…we shall miss her…