After watching the 7th public hearing of the January 6th Committee, I'm so disgusted by their manipulation of evidence, their abuse of witnesses, their denial of due process, and their outright lies that I've concluded the only honorable course of action left for a witness is to resist and accept jail time.
As you know, if you've followed me for long enough, I opposed the January 6 rally; I considered the election neither free nor fair, NOR fraudulent, and congratulated Joe Biden when he won the Electoral College; yet I consider this Inquisition a grotesque abuse of civil liberties that will do lasting damage.
There is precedent, in the noble tradition of the civil rights movement, to be prepared to accept imprisonment as the penalty for disobeying an unjust law. That, I believe, is what future witnesses hauled before the committee must be prepared to face. It is a hard choice, but it is also the only moral choice.
I'm not giving legal advice here, nor am I judging those who have testified already. Probably, they imagine that because no one takes these hearings seriously anyway, it does not matter. But it does. The rules of due process are the glue that holds our society together. It is worth self-sacrifice to save them.
This week’s portion launches the great story of Abraham, who is told to leave everything of his life behind — except his immediate family — and to leave for “the Land that I shall show you.”
There’s something interesting in the fact that Abraham is told to leave his father’s house, as if breaking away from his father’s life — but his father, in fact, began the journey, moving from Ur to Haran (in last week’s portion). His father set a positive example — why should Abraham leave him?
Some obvious answers suggest themselves — adulthood, needing to make one’s own choices, his father not going far enough, etc.
But I think there is another answer. Abraham (known for the moment as Abram) needs to establish his own household. This is not just about making one’s own choice, but really about choosing one’s own starting point. It’s starting over.
Sometimes we start over in fundamental ways even if much that surrounds us remains the same. Sometimes the journey we have to ...
The story of Noah is familiar; the details, less so.
Noah is often seen as an ambivalent figure. He was righteous -- but only for his generation. What was his deficiency?
One answer suggests itself: knowing that the world was about to be flooded, he built an Ark for the animals and for his own family -- but did not try to save anyone else or to convince them to repent and change their ways (the prophet Jonah, later, would share that reluctance).
Abraham, later, would set himself apart by arguing with God -- with the Lord Himself! -- against the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that they should be saved if there were enough righteous people to be found (there were not).
Still, Noah was good enough -- and sometimes, that really is sufficient to save the world. We don't need heroes every time -- just ordinary decency.
Hi all -- as I noted last month, I'm going to be closing down my Locals page, at least for tips and subscriptions -- I may keep the page up and the posts as well, but I'm no longer going to be accepting any kind of payment.
Look for cancelation in the very near future. Thank you for your support!
