APOLARITY

If [Martin Luther] King’s actions against war prove anything, it’s that there’s a huge difference between patriotism and nationalism. Patriotism is the critical affirmation of one’s country in light of its best values, including the attempt to correct it when it’s in error. Nationalism is the uncritical support of one’s nation regardless of its moral or political bearing.

(…) The confusion between the two has blurred the difference between love and worship of country, a distinction King never failed to make.

- Michael Eric Dyson, professor of theology and African American studies at Georgetown University

“Awe is a way of being in rapport with the mystery of all reality. The awe that we sense or ought to sense when standing in the presence of a human being is a moment of intuition for the likeness of God which is concealed in his or her essence. Not only persons; even inanimate things stand in a relation to the Creator. The secret of every being is the divine care and concern that are invested in it. Something sacred is at stake in every event.”
—Abraham Joshua Heschel (stolen unapologetically from Experimental Theology)

I have long thought that a truth commission such as the post-apartheid Truth & Reconciliation Commission in South Africa may be the only way to move forward, loath as I am to see the boastfully guilty pardoned.

How Should Obama Deal With Bush Era Torture? puts it succinctly, along with photographic and documentary evidence from torture regimes of the past: the Khmer Rouge, the Inquisition, the Gestapo.

Torture will remain an ugly stain on the U.S. until it is dealt with openly and transparently. The truth is, to me, more important than seeing punishment meted out on the offenders.

Jónsi Birgisson, the lead singer of the delightful Icelandic band Sigur Rós, is releasing a solo album “Go” in April. In January he did a live acoustic set on WNYC radio.

I took the liberty of separating the three songs he played into discrete tracks. Enjoy (please).

Go Do
Boy Lilikoi
Around Us

Once people acknowledge their common humanity, it becomes more difficult for them to demonize and destroy each other. It is far easier to find principled compromise with one of “us” than one of “them.” Our religious convictions can help us erase the age-old dividing line.
- Bill Clinton

“Peace is not the absence of conflict; peace is the presence of justice.”

- Martin Luther King, Jr., quoted by Dr. Cornell West (here)

I think it’s safe to say that the first Expert Witness for the defense¹, Professor Kenneth Miller², is not doing any favors for his cause. Under cross-examination by Plaintiff’s lawyer David Boies, he’s been fumbling all over himself. He’s admitted that he didn’t research the marginalization of gays and lesbians, he’s said that the majority of the articles he’s been brought in to comment on were provided by his counsel, he’s stated that DOMA and DADT are discriminatory, and he’s being confronted with his own writings which discuss the fact that ballot initiatives can be used to further inequality and discrimination.

Here’s a quick example from today’s liveblogging (the grammar’s a little rough, but you can get the gist):

Boies (Plaintiff’s lawyer): Reads from another article. “Popular view that courts should be lenient in judicial review for initiatives is 180 degrees off. … “When courts review initiatives, need to be more vigilant, not less.” “Courts are the only institutional filter, the check of first and last resort” in imitative process. Courts project against “majoritarian” rule. Did you believe this when you wrote it?

Prof. Kenneth Miller: It’s compound statement. Which part?

B: All of it. You wrote it!

M: I did not agree with all of it.

B: You don’t say here that you are exploring the issue. You don’t say maybe this is right and maybe you don’t know?

M: Maybe I should have written it differently. Maybe courts should look at initiatives in the same way as laws passed by legislature.

Also see How a Bad Expert Witness Can Ruin A Case. Quote:

But it really goes further than [the fact that Prof. Miller is a net loss for the defendants]. When an attorney puts on an “expert” who has so little background in the subject area, it tells the Court that this is a) the best they could find and b) probably the level of all of their witnesses. A bad expert can taint the whole case, the reputation of the attorneys, and the odds of winning. Combining the fact that they could only find two expert witnesses, the fact that this one did so poorly, and the fact that cross-examination did little to touch the plaintiff’s experts, the defense has a bit of work ahead of them.

—

¹(so, the groups trying to uphold the constitutionality of Proposition 8’s ban on same-sex marriage in California)
²Not the biologist. This is Kenneth P. Miller, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College.

(Image via Charles, a commenter at the trial tracker)

The education and empowerment of women throughout the world cannot fail to result in a more caring, tolerant, just and peaceful life for all.

- Aung San Suu Kyi, rightful leader of Burma, quoted in Greg Mortenson’s Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan (currently reading – thanks, Bat!)

Also via Mortenson:

If you teach a boy, you educate an individual; but if you teach a girl, you educate a community.

- African proverb

a.k.a. Links for the week.

I haven’t figured out a good workflow, a way to publish and comment on the things that I read and that are important to me. I’m still working out the kinks.

Here’s what I’ve been focused on lately:

The Proposition 8 Trial

As I wrote earlier, I’ve been very interested in the federal trial over the unconstitutionality of Prop. 8. It seems important and potentially ground-breaking. The courtroom provides an ideal environment for the societal and cultural stigmas surrounding homosexuality, the economic and social factors involved in the push for marriage equality, the role of religion in the democratic process, the nature of civil rights, the makeup of how a group of people is granted protected status, and other such issues to be discussed calmly, rationally, and with the input of experts.

But so anyway, here are some links, analyses, summaries, that have caught my attention lately, for what they’re worth.

• Prop. 8 Trial First Week Roundup – an AFER (American Foundation for Equal Rights, one of the organizations bringing the court case against California’s Proposition 8 ) summary of the trial’s first week of arguments and witnesses.
• “Home Court Advantage” and Determining Scrutiny, both from Prop 8 Trial Tracker, are helpful explanations of the process by which the case will be decided, and which side will be deemed to have the burden of proof.
• An Explosive Afternoon: LDS Church – It’s fascinating the length, time, and manpower the Mormons put into the passage of Prop. 8.
• Chinese Christians Are the Focus of Same-Sex Marriage Case – NYT article on one of the official proponents (one of the five people who officially filed Prop. 8), Hak-Shing William Tam, and his testimony this week. His testimony went a long way toward illustrating the animus involved in the push to pass the measure. Mr. Tam was more than willing to propagate falsehoods (read: lies) linking gay people to all sorts of societal ills: pedophilia, incest, molestation, prostitution, and recruiting children.
• An Odd Couple Defends Couples That Some (Oddly) Find Odd – NYT op-ed about the “odd couple” of the two lawyers arguing the case. An interesting comment regarding President Obama’s reluctance to support marriage equality:

Obama sees himself as such a huge change that he can be cautious about other societal changes. But what he doesn’t realize is that legalizing gay marriage is like electing a black president. Before you do it, it seems inconceivable. Once it’s done, you can’t remember what all the fuss was about.

• Why I’m Joining the Fight for Marriage Equality – well-written Fox News (!) piece with another conservative perspective on marriage equality.

Miscellaneous

• How to live to be 100+ – TED talk covering research on “Blue Zones”, areas of the world where people frequently live active lives into their 90s and 100s.
• EVIL little cameras – from Metafilter, an interesting collection of articles about a new type of camera (Electronic Viewfinder, Interchangeable Lenses) which has the quality of a dSLR in a compact size.

Personal

I’ve been making tasty concoctions.

• (faux-) Bailey’s Irish Cream – for the instant coffee, I used Starbucks Via. It turned out great.
• Hot pepper infused vodka – I used two green jalapeños, one red jalapeño, and a habanero, with a half-bottle of vodka. It smells delicious – I have tasted it but not yet made a drink with it. It’s going to be quite a kick in bloody marys!

This is getting to be too much for one post (and I’m running out of time for now). I’ll put the next installment in a post of its own.

Shalom,

Adrenalin Tim

As I write, at the end of the first long season of Revolution, the Negro is not unmindful of or indifferent to the progress that has already been made. He notes with approval the radical change in the administration’s approach to civil rights, and the small but visible gains being made on various fronts across the country. If he is still saying “Not enough”, it is because he does not feel that he should be expected to be grateful for the halting and inadequate attempts of his society to catch up with the basic rights he ought to have inherited automatically, centuries ago, by virtue of his membership in the human family and his American birthright.
- Martin Luther King, Jr., Why We Can’t Wait, from Chapter 2: “The Sword that Heals”

Returning violence for violence multiples violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

- “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?”

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate(…)

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

-  “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”

“All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority.”

- Why We Can’t Wait