Hymn For The Hurting by Amanda Gorman

 Everything hurts,

Our hearts shadowed and strange,
Minds made muddied and mute.
We carry tragedy, terrifying and true.
And yet none of it is new;
We knew it as home,
As horror,
As heritage.
Even our children
Cannot be children,
Cannot be.

Everything hurts.
It’s a hard time to be alive,
And even harder to stay that way.
We’re burdened to live out these days,
While at the same time, blessed to outlive them.

This alarm is how we know
We must be altered —
That we must differ or die,
That we must triumph or try.
Thus while hate cannot be terminated,
It can be transformed
Into a love that lets us live.

May we not just grieve, but give:
May we not just ache, but act;
May our signed right to bear arms
Never blind our sight from shared harm;
May we choose our children over chaos.
May another innocent never be lost.

Maybe everything hurts,
Our hearts shadowed & strange.
But only when everything hurts
May everything change.

How long, O Lord?

Thurston High School

Columbine High School.

Heritage High School.

Deming Middle School.

Fort Gibson Middle School.

Buell Elementary School.

Lake Worth Middle School.

University of Arkansas.

Junipero Serra High School.

Santana High School.

Bishop Neumann High School.

Pacific Lutheran University.

Granite Hills High School.

Lew Wallace High School.

Martin Luther King, Jr. High School.

Appalachian School of Law.

Washington High School.

Conception Abbey.

Benjamin Tasker Middle School.

University of Arizona.

Lincoln High School.

John McDonogh High School.

Red Lion Area Junior High School.

Case Western Reserve University.

Rocori High School.

Ballou High School.

Randallstown High School.

Bowen High School.

Red Lake Senior High School.

Harlan Community Academy High School.

Campbell County High School.

Milwee Middle School.

Roseburg High School.

Pine Middle School.

Essex Elementary School.

Duquesne University.

Platte Canyon High School.

Weston High School.

West Nickel Mines School.

Joplin Memorial Middle School.

Henry Foss High School.

Compton Centennial High School.

Virginia Tech.

Success Tech Academy.

Miami Carol City Senior High School.

Hamilton High School.

Louisiana Technical College.

Mitchell High School.

E.O. Green Junior High School.

Northern Illinois University.

Lakota Middle School.

Knoxville Central High School.

Willoughby South High School.

Henry Ford High School.

University of Central Arkansas.

Dillard High School.

Dunbar High School.

Hampton University.

Harvard College.

Larose-Cut Off Middle School.

International Studies Academy.

Skyline College.

Discovery Middle School.

University of Alabama.

DeKalb School.

Deer Creek Middle School.

Ohio State University.

Mumford High School.

University of Texas.

Kelly Elementary School.

Marinette High School.

Aurora Central High School.

Millard South High School.

Martinsville West Middle School.

Worthing High School.

Millard South High School.

Highlands Intermediate School.

Cape Fear High School.

Chardon High School.

Episcopal School of Jacksonville.

Oikos University.

Hamilton High School.

Perry Hall School.

Normal Community High School.

University of South Alabama.

Banner Academy South.

University of Southern California.

Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Apostolic Revival Center Christian School.

Taft Union High School.

Osborn High School.

Stevens Institute of Business and Arts.

Hazard Community and Technical College.

Chicago State University.

Lone Star College-North.

Cesar Chavez High School.

Price Middle School.

University of Central Florida.

New River Community College.

Grambling State University.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Ossie Ware Mitchell Middle School.

Ronald E. McNair Discovery Academy.

North Panola High School.

Carver High School.

Agape Christian Academy.

Sparks Middle School.

North Carolina A&T State University.

Stephenson High School.

Brashear High School.

West Orange High School.

Arapahoe High School.

Edison High School.

Liberty Technology Magnet High School.

Hillhouse High School.

Berrendo Middle School.

Purdue University.

South Carolina State University.

Los Angeles Valley College.

Charles F. Brush High School.

University of Southern California.

Georgia Regents University.

Academy of Knowledge Preschool.

Benjamin Banneker High School.

D. H. Conley High School.

East English Village Preparatory Academy.

Paine College.

Georgia Gwinnett College.

John F. Kennedy High School.

Seattle Pacific University.

Reynolds High School.

Indiana State University.

Albemarle High School.

Fern Creek Traditional High School.

Langston Hughes High School.

Marysville Pilchuck High School.

Florida State University.

Miami Carol City High School.

Rogers State University.

Rosemary Anderson High School.

Wisconsin Lutheran High School.

Frederick High School.

Tenaya Middle School.

Bethune-Cookman University.

Pershing Elementary School.

Wayne Community College.

J.B. Martin Middle School.

Southwestern Classical Academy.

Savannah State University.

Harrisburg High School.

Umpqua Community College.

Northern Arizona University.

Texas Southern University.

Tennessee State University.

Winston-Salem State University.

Mojave High School.

Lawrence Central High School.

Franklin High School.

Muskegon Heights High School.

Independence High School.

Madison High School.

Antigo High School.

University of California-Los Angeles.

Jeremiah Burke High School.

Alpine High School.

Townville Elementary School.

Vigor High School.

Linden McKinley STEM Academy.

June Jordan High School for Equity.

Union Middle School.

Mueller Park Junior High School.

West Liberty-Salem High School.

University of Washington.

King City High School.

North Park Elementary School.

North Lake College.

Freeman High School.

Mattoon High School.

Rancho Tehama Elementary School.

Aztec High School.

Wake Forest University.

Italy High School.

NET Charter High School.

Marshall County High School.

Sal Castro Middle School.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School

Great Mills High School

Central Michigan University

Huffman High School

Frederick Douglass High School

Forest High School

Highland High School

Dixon High School

Santa Fe High School

Noblesville West Middle School

University of North Carolina Charlotte

STEM School Highlands Ranch

Edgewood High School

Palm Beach Central High School

Providence Career & Technical Academy

Fairley High School (school bus)

Canyon Springs High School

Dennis Intermediate School

Florida International University

Central Elementary School

Cascade Middle School

Davidson High School

Prairie View A & M University

Altascocita High School

Central Academy of Excellence

Cleveland High School

Robert E. Lee High School

Cheyenne South High School

Grambling State University

Blountsville Elementary School

Holmes County, Mississippi (school bus)

Prescott High School

College of the Mainland

Wynbrooke Elementary School

UNC Charlotte

Riverview Florida (school bus)

Second Chance High School

Carman-Ainsworth High School

Williwaw Elementary School

Monroe Clark Middle School

Central Catholic High School

Jeanette High School

Eastern Hills High School

DeAnza High School

Ridgway High School

Reginald F. Lewis High School

Saugus High School

Pleasantville High School

Waukesha South High School

Oshkosh High School

Catholic Academy of New Haven

Bellaire High School

North Crowley High School

McAuliffe Elementary School

South Oak Cliff High School

Texas A&M University-Commerce

Sonora High School

Western Illinois University

Oxford High School

Robb Elementary School

Why We Care (from a JOSHUA Publication, 2007)

 “Why do you care what happens to those people?” The people who have been fighting City Hall over the treatment of the chronic homeless have heard this question from many sources. It has been asked by City Council and County Board members. It has come from friends, neighbors, and co-workers. It appears in letters to the editor and on online forums. The question needs to be answered.

For many, unconditional compassion is a result of personal life experiences. These are people who have been lost, but now are found, people who have recovered from addictions, mental disease, or financial disaster through the unconditional compassion of someone else. They find that the only true form of thanksgiving for the compassion they have received is to share it with others.

Others believe that their faith traditions require them to act according to the very specific and clear directions that their founders and prophets have laid out for them. These messages of compassion were directed toward people who did not deserve compassion. People of faith are compelled to provide for the simple human needs of the helpless.

Still, the impulse of thanksgiving and the compulsion of faith do not apply to those who have never been needy and who do not accept a religious way of life. For these people, there is still a compelling reason for unconditional compassion, for caring for the helpless people that don’t deserve and can’t repay that compassion.

Over the past millennia, we have grown from small bands of hunter-gatherers to tribes of farmers to large and complex civilizations. This has been possible because we have learned to work together and live together in ever-growing groups. The glue that holds our mega-communities together is the same that held our clans and tribes together: “interdependence”. We all need each other. In this country, we are falling into a new and dangerous mindset, known as “radical individualism”. This is the notion of “liberty” taken to such an extreme that it denies the existence of the community. It is all privilege, no responsibility; all take and no give.

The corrosive effect that this attitude has on a community has been seen throughout history. Societies have tried to purify themselves by driving out the “undesirables”, but find that the definition of “undesirable” expands in an ever-widening circle.  The results have ranged from pathetic to tragic. In order to be healthy over the long term, a community must involve all of the gifts of all of its members, even those who appear at the moment to have no gifts. We are not intelligent enough or farsighted enough to judge anyone as worthless.

We sometimes mistake the intentions of the Founding Fathers in the Bill Of Rights. The granting to “We the People” of rights such as freedom of speech, religion, press, and assembly was not a kind-hearted humanistic gesture. They realized that respect for the individual is necessary for a strong, free community. We need to restore our sense of compassion and community and outgrow the mean-spirited and fearful attitude of exclusion and separation that we have fallen into in the last couple of decades. Our community will be better for it, and our grandchildren will thank us for it.

David Annis

Green Bay, WI

 

A Prayer for the Reopening of Kanawha County Library, Charleston, WV May 9, 2022

 God of all Truth,

In your manifest Wisdom

you have taught us that in seeking, we find.

In asking, we are answered,

And when we knock we discover the door standing open before us.

As we gather to reopen these doors we ask your blessing upon our labors, upon our gifts, our hopes and our dreams that have led us in this great endeavor. May all those who enter our library, in person and online, all those seeking knowledge, learning and growth, access and assistance, solace and community, may be lifted up to your wisdom, even led to contemplate your greatest mysteries with open books, open minds and open hearts. That what we do here in this place and at this time may extend these blessings to our city, our state and beyond, to those yet to come.

To those who knock, may these doors stand open;

To those who ask, may this place provide those answers that delight and challenge;

As seekers come, so may they find, and ever be found in You.

Amen.

Rt. Rev. Matthew Bowden, Bishop of West Virginia

Rick Rubenstein on "Maus" (from Facebook)

 A few thoughts on Maus.

First of all, I want to underscore that people who have not read Maus are not entitled to an opinion about the propriety of children reading the book, whether under the tutelage of an educator, or on their own. Anyone who ventures: "I haven't read it, but. . ." is out of bounds.

I am a long time reader of Shoah literature, a parent who educated his children early, and a fan of the narrative technique employed in the graphic novel. And certainly I am fan of the message of Maus. Especially in a time of unparalleled division and moral confusion.

A few observations that have escaped the bloviators:

1. There are no people in Maus, mostly cats and mice, who do not customarily wear clothing. If your child sexualizes rodents and felines, your problems neither begin, nor end, with Maus.

2. The fundamental human problem addressed in Maus is the lack of empathy that a nation of human beings showed for one or more of their component groups--the wholesale dehumanization, attribution of otherness, and gratuitous brutality that led to the Shoah. Not by soldiers, in war--but by every aspect of German society, and for that matter, Austrian and other European nations all too ready to participate.

Empathy and solidarity is in short supply in 2022 America. As a vehicle for promoting empathy, warning of the dehumanization of other people by immutable characteristic---Maus is effective beyond mere words. No reader could conceivably suffer harm greater than benefit. Either you are too young to take anything from it, or you are old enough to grasp its tragedy. It may be a perfect bridge between those stages, since kids respond to anthropomorphism, as Disney has long demonstrated. What trauma unique to Maus would NOT be conveyed by another book decrying racism, anti-semitism, and senseless murder? Is there a "clean" way to teach about Mengele and Crematoriums?

3. I would very much like to hear from the proponents of this culling of libraries where they have stood on the video games and TikTok videos and violent films their kids digest daily. I submit that the average 10 year old in America sees entire worlds blown up with no moral lesson attached, entire populations wiped out on every streaming service out there. Do these parents set about blocking, culling, or editing the latest Call of Duty? Is the library somehow more sacrosanct a source of information than one's own home?

4. It is too cute by half to point out that there is more illicit sex and violence in the Bible and Quoran than in any book the Tennessee Board of Education would remove, and the moral messages in those religious tracts are far more opaque than the very direct and unsubtle Maus. But here we are: Too cute by half is also undeniably accurate.

5. When people tell you who they are, believe them. And when they tell you that a book about the Shoah doesn't teach what they want to teach, ask them what book they will hand their kids and get them to read in the way Maus communicates a message of empathy and the indispensable value of human kindness, and the burgeoning and recurrent threat of racism and nativistic violence. If they tell you they will get back to you on that, then they have won a zero-sum game: they have acted against empathy and created a vacuum with the loss of a tool to erase anti-semitism and cruelty. What will replace Maus? Show me the better vehicle for this lesson, before you remove it.

They should be incorporating it in every curriculum, not removing it without replacement.

And here's a hint: Look for the kid who fails to find meaning and moral direction in Maus. That's the one to fear.