Day 2, Part 1

After morning prayer, we moved into legislative session and began the business of starting convention, and a tedious business it was.

As anyone who has been to a legislative convention knows, there is a good deal of parliamentary procedure that ha to take place so we can begin considering business. We also took the time to recognize military chaplains, seminarians and postulants, and youth and young delagates. I was very pleased to see the number of youth delegates sent by their parishes. Sadly there were fewer delagates between the ages of 20 and 30 than there were high schoolers. Only two of us in that age group were not seminarians. This is clearly an area the episcopal church need to work on.

We followed this session with a viewing of a film called "Traces of the Trade.". It is a rather profound movie documenting one families attempts to com to terms with their slave trading history. It was a fantastic movie and I would recommend it to anyone and will post a more complete reflection later.




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Day 1

After check-in this afternoon, most of the new delegates headed (surprisingly) to the New Delegate Training Session. It was a rather nondescript, though useful little workshop, mostly focused on Robert's Rules of Order. The high point of the day came afterward at the opening Eucharist for the convention at wonderful and historic Christ Church New Bern.

When most of the St. Andrew's on-the-Sound delegation arrived roughly a half hour early to secure a seat the church was already thoroughly censed and the smoke hung rather heavily in the nave. This good omen carried through to the service. Though the hymns were a touch unconventional and left the crowd somewhat disoriented as to what we were singing, a rather good sermon from Bishop Daniel pulled the service through strong. As we were acknowledging the presentation of Christ in the Temple and his recognition by Simeon, the theme was based around the light of Christ. Bishop Daniel told a story of a little boy who watched the lamplighter making his rounds and told his grandmother he was watching the man "punch holes in the dark." After listing several of the many afflictions facing the world today, the Bishop spoke of how we have grown rather adept at punching holes in our neighbors instead. The suggestion was that we would serve better punching holes in hunger, oppression, fear, homelessness, want, etc. than beating up our neighbors over things of little consequence. It was a simple message eloquently put (by the Bishop, though obviously not here.)

Following the service, our delegation had dinner at a fantastic restaurant in downtown New Bern called "The Chelsea" and a few of us followed it up with a nightcap in the hotel bar afterward with some company. All in all a pretty good end to a pretty good day.

In other news, I may wind up with an opponent in my election for the Board of Trustees of the University of the South. A woman approached me purely by chance and asked if anyone was nominated for the University of the South trustee position. I mentioned that I was and she then mentioned that her husband was also interested in that and may put his name in. As of yet, I'm not terribly worried as I'm the only person in the convention literature, but it appears this may not be a totally uncontested race. I will check with the convention office tomorrow to see if anyone else has been nominated and keep everyone posted.

So ends the first day of convention, and I'll leave you with a bit of Night Prayer from the New Zealand Prayer Book



Lord it is night.

The night is for stillness.
Let us be still in the presence of God.

It is night after a long day.
What has been done has been done; what has not been done has not been done.

Let it be.

The night is dark.
Let our fears of the darkness of the world and of our own lives rest in you.

The night is quiet.
Let the quietness of your peace enfold us, all dear to us, and all who have no peace.

The night heralds the dawn.
Let us look expectantly to a new day, new joys, new possibilities.

In your name we pray.
Amen

Convention Time!!!

This afternoon the 127th Convention of the Diocese of East Carolina will convene and begin its business. I have the good fortune of attending this convention for the first time as a full voting delegate, having attended previously as a youth delegate, Bishop's page and observer. I also am very excited to be nominated and up for election as the next Trustee of The University of the South (Sewanee), my alma mater. There is not a ton of controversial legislation up this time, though there is a resolution regarding our position on the Ridley-Cambridge Draft of the Anglican Covenant we will be voting on.

The diocese will be addressing also the "Traces of the Trade," the marks slavery has left on our society, a particularly prescient issue in our diocese, who's many ports were the place of entry for many thousands of Africans brought to this country against their will. I will have my computer and phone with me throughout convention and will be blogging and posting twitter updates from convention at @danielstroud and with the hashtag #DECC unless an official hashtag emerges. So here is an invitation to the few folks who actually read this (and hopefully that number will go up over the course of the weekend): PLEASE COMMENT ON THIS BLOG!! Or send @replies to my twitter account or post on my facebook wall and join the conversation. Convention represents everyone from the Diocese and is in communion with the whole of the Episcopal Church, and I for one take my duties seriously and would like to have feedback and input on my thoughts and decisions so that I can effectively serve those who sent me there. So please send your thoughts and prayers and wish us all a safe, productive and harmonious trip to New Bern!

A Bit of Perspective

This has clearly not been a good couple of weeks for those working for social justice, health-care, racial and gender equality or any number of other issues. With such great change lingering seemingly inches out of reach, we can do well to remember how far we've come already. While providing universal health-care (which I believe is a right) is certainly a noble goal, and something we should strive for, taking a minute today to look back on things that have happened in the past that make the fact we're even discussing an idea like that incredible.


On August 13, 1965, Jonathan Daniels, an Episcopal Seminarian, was arrested with 29 others for simply picketing a Whites only store. He sat in jail for 6 days with the other adults refusing to be bailed out unless all were granted bail. As they walked to the only store in town that served non-whites they were accosted by a "Special Deputy" armed with a shotgun.

The man, Tom Coleman, leveled his shotgun at a 17 year old girl named Ruby Sales. Daniels moved quickly to shove Ruby out of the way taking the full brunt of the shotgun blast himself. He was killed instantly. John Morrisoe, also a protester and a Catholic Priest, was shot in the back as he fled with the other black protester.

Thomas Coleman was acquitted by a jury of his all white peers after Shooting a priest and a priest-in-training downtown in broad daylight.


July 23-28, 1967 had one of the worst riots in American histories. The streets of Detroit saw 467 injured, 2,509 stores looted, 388 families left homeless and 43 killed.

Clifton Pryor was mistaken for a sniper and shot dead by the National Guard. Ernest Roquemore was shot in the back by a US Army Paratrooper. He was 19. Roy Banks was shot when he was mistaken by a National Guardsman for a looter. He was a deaf mute. A tank rolling through the streets of Detroit shot Tanya Blanding. She was upstairs in her house. She was four years old.


On May 4, 1970, nine unarmed students were wounded and four more shot and killed when the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a crowd with live ammunition. Jeffrey Miller, 20 (Pictured), was shot through the mouth and killed instantly while standing 81 meters from the National Guard. Allison Krause (19), William Schroeder (19), and Sandra Scheuer (20) were also unarmed protesters shot by the Ohio Army National Guard.

As the US invaded expanded involvement in the already unpopular VietNam War into Cambodia, these students who were protesting the expansion of the use of force were unarmed themselves, but cut down by the US military. Again, none of the shooters faced criminal charges.



These were dark moments in American history, in fact, they were some of the darkest. As we debate now our views and lament our losses, whether they are a lack of legislative achievement or a perceived loss of American values, we would do well to remember that a generation ago Americans were killed at home with impunity, often by our government. Those in my generation could not conceive of tanks rolling through any of our cities instituting martial law and backing it up with lethal force. Shooting even the most unpopular people point blank in broad daylight would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, just ask Scott Roeder.

Though we have far to go and much work to do, we should in our defeats draw strengths from our victories over violence and hatred and be glad at least, that we no longer have to fear the bullets of our own soldiers turned against us as a method of crowd control. So let us continue to debate passionately about our future, but let us remember together how far we've come.

How could this week get worse?

This week this happened:

The Democratic Party lost Edward Kennedy's Senate seat.

Seriously.

Our party totally caved on saving the lives of 46,000 people a year.

The Supreme Court decided that corporations are actually people, just like you and me.

Conan O'Brien had to step down from The Late Show.



I'm not sure how this week could get any worse.

I hope there isn't a way.

A man, a plan, a truck; a total missing of the point!

The morning after Republican Scott Brown not quite stunned Martha Coakley in the Massachusetts Senate race, I, like so many others, want to throw in my two cents. While many are urging the Democratic Party to move to the right, I'm looking at you Lieberman, that seems to be exactly the wrong way to go.

As a Democrat, I feel I'm in a position to talk about why many people are either turning away from the party or not showing up to vote. Here's my conclusion.

We suck.

Really, really suck.


It's not that we have bad ideas, or unpopular policy, it's that we're governing as if Republicans matter. We have an overwhelming majority in both the House and the Senate, even with the Brown win. We have the American public behind us. Seventy some percent of Americans STILL want a public option. Yes, employment is a major issue, but with the numbers continually improving, we (as a party) have to accept that we are going to lose some folks who don't recognize it can't be fixed overnight.

Our main problem is that in spite of all the support on the issues, and all of the majorities we have, our electeds sit around on their thumbs, fretting and wondering how much they should water down what they want to do.

Here's a hint, when the electorate hands you a landslide presidential victory and the largest majorities in Congress in around 40 years, you go big.

The people who are walking around in Revolutionary War costumes with Lipton Tea bags hanging off their hats and signs that say "Gov: Hands off my Medicare" aren't going to vote for us whether or not we pass insurance reform. Ever. We can't satisfy them, and with our majorities we shouldn't even entertain the idea of trying.

President Bush didn't even win a majority of the vote in 2000. His response to that was "So what?" A w. is a w. for W. And he was right.

I disagree with nearly everything President Bush did as President, but even I have to admit he was a terribly effective president. When he wanted something done, he got it done. At the moment, we have folks like Lieberman, Nelson, and Stupak doing something Republicans would never ever consider doing by attempting to torpedo torpedoing their own party's signature issue.

I know not every bill is exactly what we want, but I'd a lot rather have our fairly pathetic Senate health-care bill than the Republican's plan which seems to be, mostly, "don't get sick." It's time to get it together and start passing meaningful legislation that helps people instead of hand-wringing and fretting about how much that meaningful legislation is going to tick off Glen Beck.

While I can offer assurances I will keep voting, working, and doing all I can to advance a progressive agenda, I can also strongly sympathize with all those who are disappointed that our party is acting like a bunch of pathetic, lily-livered weaklings. The lesson we take from this election isn't that we should moderate ourselves even deeper into the ineffective abyss, it's that it's time to wake up, flex some muscle and show voters we can deliver on our promises.



EDIT: Shortly after posting this morning, Huffington Post reported on THIS poll, basically confirming what I said. Voters punished the Democratic Party for being weak on health care and Wall St.

New Year's Resolutions, only two weeks late

In the past this blog has been primarily short essays, if you will, posted roughly once a week. Alright, once every week and a half to two weeks. Also, though I intended to keep this blog restricted to about three subjects, it has overwhelmingly focused on things with a decidedly Episcopalian bent. Part of that is my preference, part is that way more people who are way more knowledgeable in their fields get paid way better than I do to write on sports and politics. While lots of people get paid more to write on religion, I at least feel I occasionally have a viewpoint worth contributing there.

As a result, I'm planning on posting more. Way more. And mostly shorter posts. I'm going to try and post at least every other day, and more likely every day. I'm still planning on occasionally writing lengthy (for the web) thoughts on things that move me to write, but I'm going to loosen up the filter here a bit and stop just writing on things that move me like the death of Ted Kennedy & the Sewanee Community after Tragedy. Hopefully this will make this whole enterprise more enjoyable for you, the reader, and for me, as the poster.


To mark my departure from the purely serious and sincere, I'm going to post an exceptionally silly clip. This isn't indicative of the tone this blog will take in the new year by any means, but it's funny and irreverent, and with all of the horrors in the world today, the immense tragedy, the suffering, and the hopelessness one has to feel in the wake of the Haiti tragedy, hopefully this will brighten everyone's day (if you'll excuse the moderately coarse language.)

Just not before you make a donation to Episcopal Relief and Development, because before you can escape for a minute, you really should help out.


And now for something completely different.