Everyday Citizen

An Interview With Peace Activist and Lay Pastor Jim Ramelis

2012-05-17T19:26:23Z

At around 2007, I was visiting different churches and wondering whether I still wanted to be a Christian. I had been in some painful conflicts at a former church that really was very disillusioning to me. Then I found Crossleft, a progressive Christian blogsite, and I was thrilled to find a number of Christians who had liberal and progressive points of views. Though Crossleft no longer exists, I still keep in touch with a number of the former Crossleft bloggers. One of the most interesting individuals that I met there was Jim Ramelis. Jim Ramelis was born in Virginia, but raised in Detroit during the 1960s, where he witnessed the racial divisions that were affecting the country. A Vietnam War veteran, Jim's experiences led him to be a strong peace advocate and is a member of the Veterans for Peace, the Presbyterian Peacemakers, and the Michigan Peace Network. A progressive Christian, Jim volunteers his service as a lay pastor to the First Presbyterian Church Munising Michigan, is affiliated with the Progressive Christian Alliance, and is founder of the non-profit UP North Ministries. Jim is currently a trustee of the Mackinac County Department of Human Services Board and a member of the Board of Directors of the West Mackinac Food Pantry. He has lived all over the country, and has lived in for the past 22 years in Michigan. He has a family of three children.

Unions Back Obama’s Stand for Marriage Equality

2012-05-17T01:36:44Z

Cross-posted from Talking Union

AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee and Sec.-Treas. Lee Saunders released a statement applauding President Obama’s message. They said:

“President Obama’s announcement today recognizes a fundamental American right – that every citizen is entitled to respect and dignity, and the equal protection of our laws. For too long, lesbian and gay Americans have been denied the right to marry the person they love, raise a family and live as equal citizens in our country.”

Evangelicals For Gay Rights

2012-05-16T06:05:32Z

Last March the Christian gay rights group Soulforce has sponsored the Equality Rides to challenge LGBT discrimination in many of the Christian colleges across the nation. This is part of a growing group of Evangelical Christians who are challenging the homophobia within the Evangelical church and are fighting for the fair treatment of LGBT people in the Evangelical church. A younger generation of Evangelicals are challenging longstanding assumptions among older evangelicals on social justice issues, gay rights issues, environmental issues and immigration issues.

Democrats and Republicans Supporting Gay Rights

2012-05-16T03:44:45Z

The big news of the past week has been President Obama's comments in an interview that he now supports same-sex marriage. Over the years, he has stated his opposition to gay marriage, but added that his views were "evolving". This has been an issue where many Democratic and Republican politicians have seen their views evolve to the point where they now support gay marriage. This issue cuts across ideological lines where now several conservative Republicans are joining their liberal Democrat colleagues in support of marriage equality. In an article by Helene Cooper and Jeremy Peters for the May 15, 2012 New York Times, they write:

“If you don’t know anyone who’s gay, then it’s an alien lifestyle,” said Theodore Olson, the former solicitor general for President George W. Bush who supports same-sex marriage. But, he added, when “you realize that that’s Mary from down the street, she’s a lesbian and she’s with Sally, what would it be like if they couldn’t be together?” people come around. During the civil rights movement, many white Northerners — including some who had never before interacted with black people — joined African-Americans to fight for the principle of equal rights, often opposing white Southerners who had lived among blacks all their lives yet saw nothing wrong with the separate but equal statutes. Principle seemed to come before the personal in many cases. With the gay rights movement, it often seems that the opposite applies. While there are many people who support gay rights because it is in line with their personal or political views, for many others, their approach on the issue is experiential, and comes down to a simple issue: knowing an openly gay couple. In fact, it can seem as if there are two Americas when it comes to gay rights: one in which same-sex couples interact regularly with their straight counterparts, helping to soften impressions of homosexuality, and another in which being gay or lesbian remains largely unspoken.

Republican Platform?

2012-05-11T02:38:26Z

Cut taxes on the rich and increase them on the poor. Cut spending on regulatory agencies, consumer protection programs,education, and social welfare programs. Increase spending on the military. Increase jobs. What is their formula for that? The old song and dance that cutting taxes on the rich will create jobs is a theory that has never proven its self. Why would the rich create jobs if the rest of the population have no money to buy, even their necessities let alone any non essential products. The candidates across the board (local, state, & national) are trying to be more conservative sounding and more right wing religious right than their primary opponents; bash the homosexuals; take reproduction rights away from women; kick out the illegals; restrict immigration; throw out ‘Obama Care’; return to the unequal health care availability of the past; destroy labor union; make Christianity the National Religion.

The Face Behind the Cartoons: An Interview with Artist Angelo Lopez

2012-05-06T20:06:27Z

My Open Letter to the Detesters of America) in which I did a great deal of reflecting on our actions in response to those attacks and on the damage we have done to ourselves as a result. We’ve done a great deal of harm to our country, our liberties and our citizens. We’ve done far more harm than the terrorists ever could. What have we achieved? Do we even know? We certainly aren’t happy with what we have. Do we really feel any safer?

An Interview With Cartoonist Monte Wolverton

2012-05-05T00:27:07Z

The second political cartoonist that I met after Steve Greenberg in the convention of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists two years ago was Monte Wolverton. The son of famed MAD cartoonist Basil Wolverton, Monte was trained at Pasadena's Art Center College of Design and he also studied editorial photography with Look magazine's Earl Theison. His cartoons have been published in CB Radio magazine, Creative Computing, CARtoons and Youth Magazine. He did advertising, publication design and illustration work in L.A., Seattle, and Portland, running an innovative design business that produced advertising, corporate images, and comic illustration. In the last 1980s Wolverton was the design director for Plain Truth, a large faith-based publishing concern that produced magazines and promotional materials. Since the mid 1990s, Monte began doing editorial cartoons for syndication by Cagle cartoons to over 850 publications weekly. His political cartoons also appear weekly in the LA Daily News.

Comment on Randy's blogg

2012-05-03T03:33:26Z

Randy, I agree with much of what you've presented. The bureacracy doesn't change much from one administration to the next. We here the complaints from polititians on both sides of the aisle and talk show pundits about the 1,000 pages and more in laws passed. I'm afraid the bureacracy puts out multi times as many pages of regulations and procedures to implement those laws. Our legislators, from both parties, claim authorship for laws, but the lobbiests decide the main issues and professional writers, who may or may not agree with the law, put the words together. Some of the laws are intentionally obtuse to keep the common folks from actually understanding.

Left Wing or Right Wing, It’s Still the Same Bird

2012-05-03T00:47:22Z

I’ve been analyzing details and numbers. I’ve looked at our current and past leaders in all three branches of our government. The prevailing truth is that the country is more or less going in a single direction and the only thing that varies, from election to election, is the speed at which it is going. If you look at the actions of the last four Presidents you will see a great deal of similarity, and let me be clear, I said actions and not policy. I question if their actions don’t actually describe their policy more than what they are declaring it to be. I’ve been looking at this data for a couple of years now. I’ve continued to see a picture form. The picture is very large and it takes a great deal of information to paint it in one’s mind. This whole idea originates from a comment that I was told by someone, who at one time worked in intelligence. This person told me, a little before President Obama was inaugurated, that I “shouldn’t expect things to change too much, especially with international issues. The President might change but the people controlling the information and making the recommendations are still going to be the same.” I didn’t realize how right this person was.

Sorrow/Joy

2012-05-01T13:09:21Z

That sorrow which is the harbinger of joy is preferable to the joy which is followed by sorrow. -Saadi, poet (c.1213-1291) [Gulistan] Our recent discussions about religion reminded me of this. The sorrow of death is the harbinger of joy in the hereafter for the Christian. The joy of the lascivious life for the non Christian is the harbinger of sorrow in the hereafter. The Christian faith isn't the only religion/faith that views our earthly life as a time of testing and often sorrow. And, most religions look at death as freedom from our earthly woes. That doesn't mean we should prefer death to life. It does mean that we should be prepared for death, irregardless of our theology. I sure wish we would get the comment system working.

Interviews

2012-05-01T04:22:52Z

Angelo, I enjoy reading your interviews. Rev. Britt and Larry James used to give us some very interesting bloggs.

An Interview With Cartoonist Adam Zyglis

2012-04-30T16:37:20Z

Adam Zyglis is one of the best young political cartoonists today. I met him briefly about two years ago in an Association of American Editorial Cartoonist Convention in Portland, Oregon, and have been a fan of his work since seeing his incisive cartoons in the Buffalo News. Adam's cartoons are internationally syndicated and appear in publications like The Washington Post, USA Today, The New York Times and Los Angeles Times. He also does illustration work for magazines such as The Week, Time, and MAD Magazine. In 2004, he graduated from the Canisius College Honors program summa cum laude, with a major in Computer Science, a minor in Math and a concentration in Studio Arts. Adam's first cartooning job was for The Griffin, the weekly student newspaper at the college, where he a first place national award from the Associated Collegiate Press and the Universal Press Syndicate. He placed second in the 2004 John Locher Memorial Award, and he was a finalist in the 2003 CharlesM. Schulz Award. In 2006 and 2011, Adam won third place for Editorial Cartoons in the National Headliner Awards, sponsored by the Atlantic City Press Club.

An Interview With Reverand Gerald Britt

2012-04-29T17:46:08Z

One of the most interesting bloggers on the Everyday Citizen blogsite has been Gerald Britt. Rev. Britt is a graduate of Harvard University’s Summer Leadership Institute and taught about community organizing at Yale University’s fellowship program for public housing administrators. He served as pastor of New Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church for 22 years. As a preacher, he has performed chapel services for the Dallas Cowboys, Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Giants, Texas Rangers, Oakland Athletics and Chicago White Sox. Rev. Britt writes a monthly column for the Dallas Morning News, and contributes to his blogsite Change the Wind. Rev. Britt serves on a number of Boards of Directors in areas that include, health and wellness, community and institutional organizing as well as ministry. He is one of the founders of the local network of the Industrial Areas Foundation (Dallas Area Interfaith), as well as the African-American Pastors’ Coalition and the Baptist Ministers Conference. Gerald currently serves as the VP of Public Policy & Community Program Development for City Square (formerly called Central Dallas Ministries). In 1996 Rev. Britt was awarded the Coca-Cola African-American Heroes Award. He is also a recipient of the Mickey Leland Human and Civil Rights Award by the Texas State Teachers Association for his work in public education.

Finding the Path

2012-04-29T15:15:13Z

Since we can't use the comments section on the Everyday Citizen blog site, I suppose we have to respond with blogs of our own. Thanks to Ken and Angelo for their thoughtful responses to my blog. My blog idea came from a blog I read on Alternet written by a man who had gone through his own spiritual journey. For most people, life and what we think of it is a journey with many paths open to us. We have to find peace within ourselves in the best way we can. On the other hand, nothing is ever really settled. The search is ongoing. Forgive me if this all sounds cliche'. It's difficult to avoid those large ideas when one is thinking about the search for meaning in one's life. Long ago, when I studied existentialism in college, I came to the conclusion that the only failing is failing to make choices, that is, to let those choices be made for us. I found it especially enlightening to read Kierkegaard, a Christian theologian and according to some, the first existentialist philosopher. In his philosophy, one takes a leap of faith; one doesn't look for proof. One makes a choice to believe. I agree, Ken, that there is a difference between religion and Christianity. When I said in my blog that many people use their religion as a stick to hit others over the head, I had that difference in mind. If a person is following the teachings of Jesus, he or she doesn't have to announce it. It will be evident in the person's life. Angelo, I think it's healthy that you are asking questions. What is unhealthy is closing the mind. Who knows what possiblities may present themselves as time goes by. I won't belabor this. I do appreciate the feedback.