Author: redwa1106

Focus: We are more than halfway through the Advent season as we continue to wait andprepare for the coming of the holy child. Waiting can be tiresome, even lonesome, formany people, and making preparations can be just as hard – especially on those of uswho struggle with anxiety. It would seem that the people in… Continue reading Advent Week 3: Joy →

A Small Group Discussion designed for those of us who need a little help and a lot of grace staying in the spirit of the holiday season. Inspiration from the Gospel According to Luke (Chapter 1), Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent* (Enuma Okoro), The Mood of Christmas* (Howard Thurman), and the collective experiences… Continue reading Advent for Frazzled People: 1 →

General Colin Powell posted this a few years back.  He often spoke of 13 Rules:  1/ It ain’t as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning. 2/ Get mad, then get over it. 3/ Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes… Continue reading A Life Well Lived….. Colin Powell →

This holiday brought to you by those of us who have paid our dues, negotiated contracts, argued in court or walked picket lines so that you might have fair wages, paid holidays, health care, paid family leave, safe working conditions, and reasonable work hours. You are welcome.

As I read the news today I thought of a blog that I penned in 2010. It read in part: “The white cracker who wrote the national anthem knew what he was doing. He set the word ‘free’ to a note so high nobody can reach it.”  From Tony Kushner’s, Angels in America. I heard… Continue reading Dangerous Times →

Five Monuments in Chapel Hill: Silent Sam (center), Freedom Riders (top left), African American Cemetery (top right), Unsung Founders (bottom left); Dean Smith's Headstone (Bottom Right) On one visit to Chapel Hill, NC, home to my beloved Tar Heels, I discovered five monuments to its history (pictured above). I believe that they tell an history… Continue reading 5 Monuments →

Focus: On November 5th, 2008 we sat watching as President-elect Barack Obama gave his victory speech. It was a powerful speech on an emotion packed evening. The news commentators were talking about a new era, a post-racial America. A little while after the speech ended, my mother-in-law called me into her room, waited for me… Continue reading “Post-Racial America” →

Focus: “The post-war era marked a period of unprecedented energy against the second class citizenship accorded to African Americans in many parts of the nation. Resistance to racial segregation and discrimination with strategies such as civil disobedience, nonviolent resistance, marches, protests, boycotts, "freedom rides," and rallies received national attention as newspaper, radio, and television reporters… Continue reading Civil Rights →

Focus: Imagine that after WW2 there were no trials for treason or war crimes; no leaders executed or jailed. Imagine that the military presence quickly evaporated and the local governments allowed to re-establish as they had before. Imagine that the Swastika was not banned but rather flown as a badge of honor. Imagine that monuments… Continue reading Reconstruction and Jim Crow →

Focus: In the last year of the Civil War, Lincoln publicly reflected in his second inaugural address that both sides “read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other.”  Similarly, the case has been argued that the War Between the States did not start in 1861… Continue reading Expansion and Civil War →