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The Prayer That God Hears

Against the conspiracy of cruelty

Clergy pray in the US Capitol rotunda as part of Moral Mondays. From left: Steve Swayne, Min. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Bishop William J. Barber II, Rev. Dr. Alvin O’Neal Jackson, and Rev. Dr. Hanna Broome.

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove writes about The Prayer That God Hears: Below is the prayer Bishop Barber, Steve Swayne, Alvin O’Neal Jackson, Hanna Broome, and I were praying in the Capitol rotunda on Monday, April 28, when we were arrested. We invite you to share this prayer with others and join us wherever you are at noon this Monday.

Prayer for the US Congress

God, we are gathered beneath this dome of political power to pray that Your mercy, which sustains us all, will prevail to save us from an immoral budget that would destroy millions of lives.

Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of Your mercy.

We have read the text of the prophet Isaiah, which says, “Woe unto those who legislate evil and rob the poor of their right, making women and children their prey.” We have also read the budget resolution of this Congress, which calls for $1.5 trillion in cuts to life-saving and life-sustaining programs in order to give a tax break to billionaires. To keep faith with our moral commitments, we must stand together and cry out to You:

Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of Your mercy.

We have made promises to You and to our communities; among them is a promise to tell the truth, even when it is difficult. We have taught our communities that a lie destroys the fabric of trust which knits us all together. When we hear the Speaker of this House parrot a regime he aims to please by calling this ugly and immoral budget “one big, beautiful bill,” we recall the prophet Isaiah’s woe against those who call what is good, evil, and what is evil, good. And we pray for the leadership of this body.

Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of Your mercy.

All of our religious traditions affirm care for the sick and the dying, but this budget proposes an $880 billion cut to Medicaid, which could result in 36 million Americans losing access to healthcare. As people who bury the dead in our communities, we refuse to go along with policy murder and say, “God called them home.” We cry out now and ask You to spare the lives of those this budget would kill.

Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of Your mercy.

In the Christian tradition, You have said that nations will be judged by how we treat You in the hungry among us. But the proposed budget of this Congress threatens to take SNAP benefits away from tens of millions of our most vulnerable neighbors.

Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of Your mercy.

We are here, O God, because we have heard the cries of your people who are already hard pressed and unable to meet their basic needs. We have also heard the confessions of people who suffer from the alienation that greed plants in the human soul. Deliver us, Lord, from the deceptive lie that says our nation will be better off if those who have little get less and those who have too much get more.

Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of Your mercy.

God, we have too often confused ill-gotten gain with your blessings. We have praised success that came at a cost to the vulnerable and worshipped wealth built by taking from poor and working people. We have come to confess the ways we have been too quiet for too long while far too many suffered, and we repent of the ways we’ve allowed the language of symbols of our faiths to prop up abuses of power.

Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of Your mercy.

In the mystery of Your might, interrupt us in this moment to re-order our priorities. More than half a century ago, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called for a radical revolution of values in our common life that would turn our attention toward Your concern for the least of these, the poor and downtrodden, the forgotten and rejected of our society. But we did not listen to Your prophet, God. We killed him. And we allowed people to use Your name and Your sacred gifts to us as justification for a religious nationalism that has pitted us against one another.

Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of Your mercy.

Unite us, O God, in a movement focused on Your love, truth, and justice. Grant us wisdom to touch the pain of each and every American, and courage to embrace the bold policies that could genuinely address the inequalities in our society. Order our steps, O Lord. Order our steps with Your love, Your truth, and Your justice.

Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of Your mercy.

We are here, crying out to you, O God, because we have heard the cries of Your people. We are also here because we know that You have heard their cries and called us to stand with the downtrodden, defend the oppressed, and care for the widow, the stranger, and the orphan. We have stood with Your people and we have seen the salvation that you can bring when the stones that the builder rejected become the chief cornerstones of Reconstruction.

Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of Your mercy.

We come, God, as prisoners of hope, bound by the belief that You can make a way out of no way. As long as the details are still being worked out in committees, You can soften the hearts of representatives who refuse to hear from their constituents. As long as the final vote has not been cast, you can spare us from wholesale devastation by legislation. As long as the Constitution still exists, You can move us, the people, to work to establish justice and promote the general welfare. As long as you are on the throne, O God, You can super-rule over those who hold earthly authority.

Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of Your mercy.

We pray this not only for the sake of those who will suffer most, but also for those who wrongfully believe that this immoral budget will benefit them. Teach us again, O God, how we are “from many, one” and that we cannot become the more perfect union You’ve called us to be unless we lift from the bottom so everyone can rise.

Amen.

Sunday Stealing — Time Travel

COVID phone calls

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. “Here, we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. “Here’s Time Travel.

“I can’t trace back where these were stolen from. So sue me.”

What were you doing …

1. Twenty years ago? This is shockingly easy because I just wrote about starting my blog two decades ago. I was still figuring out what the heck I was going to discuss. At my job at the NY SBDC, we will start a blog later in the month. I think I was working at 41 State St. That 7th-floor suite was the best office I’ve ever worked in. I loved that I had a door, yet I also had a window to look out onto the main space.

2. Ten years ago? I was involved in the ABC Wednesday meme, possibly running it, or being Mrs. Nesbitt’s lieutenant. The SBDC was in Corporate (frickin’) Woods, which I hated. I was getting allergy shots regularly. My daughter was opting out of the core curriculum test; her choice.

2020

3. Five years ago? This was the early days of COVID. My church, specifically my wife, the membership chair at the time, worked on this project where members would call other people from the church, letting them know we were thinking about them. I took the premise and started calling different people, some of whom I used to see and others I hadn’t talked to in several years. It was an exciting experience. “Roger called me out of the blue!” I started watching a few things online; it’s not my favorite way to see movies, but that was what was available. I applied to work on the 2020 census, which I would do in July through September.

4. One year ago? Nothing unusual. Find speakers for the Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library talks on Tuesdays, and sing in the choir.

5. Yesterday? I went to Earthworld for Free Comic Book Day. The choir sang at the very emotional funeral of Christy Harris D’Ambrosio, then went to the gathering afterwards. I watched the replay of the Kentucky Derby.

Bonus! What will you do tomorrow? I’m going to find out whether I strained my left Achilles tendon or tore it.

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2025 Inductees

Wrecking Crew

The 2025 inductees to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame were announced recently. The ones I voted for on the fan ballots are marked *

The selections: Bad Company* (Bad Company)

Chubby Checker (Let’s Twist Again)

Joe Cocker* (You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away); I wrote about him here. Billy Joel and Paul McCartney Supported the Late British Singer, who was Inducted into the Rock Hall.

Cyndi Lauper* (She Bop); I wrote about her here

Outkast (B.O.B.) (Bombs Over Baghdad)

Soundgarden (Rusty Cage)

The White Stripes* (The Denial Twist)

I’m mildly disappointed that Joy Division/New Order* didn’t make it. The Black Crowes* will probably get there eventually. I was a bit surprised that Phish’s substantial popular vote did not net them induction.

Frankly, I started voting for Maná* because they were doing SO poorly in the fan vote. A day before the polls closed, this was the count:

Phish 325,407
Bad Company 276,938
Billy Idol 256,998
Cyndi Lauper 233,808
Joe Cocker 230,393
Soundgarden 229,987
Chubby Checker 200,395
The Black Crowes 163,292
Mariah Carey 136,663
Joy Division + New Order 118,261
The White Stripes 109,218
Outkast 106,659
Oasis 98,257
Maná 34,184

In addition

Selected in the musical influence category were Salt-N-Pepa (Expression) and Warren Zevon (The Envoy); I’ve been touting Zevon for YEARS. “Among his high-profile supporters was Billy Joel, who wrote a letter to the hall’s nominating committee urging them to consider Zevon, who became eligible for induction in 1994 but had never made the ballot” until 2023.

In the musical excellence category were: Producer/arranger/songwriter/musician Thom Bell (I’ll Be Around by the Spinners) – I wrote about him here.

A “hero of the piano,” Nicky Hopkins (Jeff Beck’s Beck’s Bolero);

Pioneering bassist Carol Kaye (The Beat Goes On by Sonny and Cher), “who shaped the sound of modern music .” It’s about time another member of the Wrecking Crew got in.I wrote about her here.

The Ahmet Ertegun Award went to Lenny Waronker, who “is celebrated for his artist-first philosophy and transformative leadership. As head of A&R and later president at Warner Bros., he championed creative freedom for artists, forging an environment where musicians could innovate free from the confines of commercial pressure.” Later, he cofounded DreamWorks Records.

I’m still waiting for Estelle Axton to be inducted.

20 years a blogger

over 7,300 days

20 years a blogger. Am I out of my mind? Quite possibly. For two decades, every day, I have posted something on this blog or its predecessor, which is now included in this blog.

For a while, it made sense to me to try to get my thoughts down. But now, it’s become a bit of a sport. Can I keep doing this, and should I?

It was 20 years ago today.

The first Monday in May

I decided to start a blog

Stumbled into going whole hog

I’ve told how I started blogging before, but it’s anniversary time, so I can share it again. Back in September 2004, I ran into my friend Rocco Nigro. He says to me, “Are you following Fred’s blog?” Fred is Fred Hembeck of comic book fame but not that much fortune.

I said I didn’t know Fred had a blog, and I had never read anybody else’s blog, so the answer was No. I started reading it from the beginning on New Year’s Eve 2002 to the then-current day. As he went on, Fred used to write very long posts daily. I liked it.

I commented to Fred about things in his blog and started contributing ideas after a while. Specifically, I remember that I told him that Herb Alpert of the Tijuana Brass fame and A&M Records was going to have a 70th birthday at the end of March of 2005, so he wrote about that.

Steve Gerber

I was taken by the initial blog post by Steve Gerber, a Marvel comic book writer who scripted The Defenders and Man-Thing. As I noted early on, he posted on April 4, 2005: “I make my living as a writer. There is only one characteristic that distinguishes writers from non-writers: writers write.

“(That’s why there’s no such thing as an ‘aspiring writer.’ A writer can aspire to sell or publish, but only non-writers aspire to write.) Anyway, writing for a living requires writing every day. Writing every day requires discipline. Discipline requires enforcement.

“I’ve lost the habit of writing every day. I need discipline. I need enforcement. You’re looking at it.

“I intend to post something on this blog every day. If I fail to do so, that failure will be very public, and I’ll be embarrassed by it. I don’t enjoy being embarrassed. So maybe, just maybe, making this obligation will help transform me into a habitual writer again.”

Looking back at this, the peculiar thing is that I didn’t necessarily fancy myself a “writer,” but I did need to write to make sense of the world. So I started writing a blog post, and then I wrote another one.

Logistics

At the beginning of May 2005, there was a bit of pain in the neck. Unless I misunderstood the technology, I couldn’t save a blog post for the first three years to publish the next day when I was on Blogger/Blogspot. Specifically, I was at a work conference in Lake Placid, NY, and I did not have Internet access at the hotel. So I would run down to the public library, write a blog post at lunchtime, post it, and then run back to the conference. This was when I could run. What a chore.

Why?

As I noted, there were two reasons I started writing a blog. I was on this TV show called JEOPARDY; the episodes were recorded in September 1998 and broadcast on November 9th and 10th. I realized that if I didn’t write this down soon, I would totally forget the experience. I documented what I could recall about 6 1/2 years after the fact.

Again, as I noted, the other thing was that my daughter was born in 2004. We had one of those books that cues you to note when her first tooth comes in or when she takes her first step or the like. I had every intention of doing so, but I failed miserably, so I decided to write about my daughter on the 26th of every month, and for 20 years, I have kept that.

I really liked some of the blog posts I wrote for ABC Wednesday, which was initially started by a woman named Denise Nesbitt. One would write based on an alphabetical cue. I did that for about 7 years, once a week; I even ran it for a time.

One of my favorite series of posts was an alphabetical tour of all the groups with some family ties, like the Wilson brothers of The Beach Boys or the Wilson sisters of Heart. I managed to get every letter except two; one I couldn’t find was Q for quirky (ABBA). But I did find the one for X, which was for the group X with John Doe and Exene Cervenka, who used to be married.

In some cases, I find that things I’ve written have triggered people’s interest long after I’ve written them, many of which are about genealogy. So, I guess I’ll keep doing this for a while.

Can’t be everywhere all at once

Frankfort

Despite the movie title, I can’t be everywhere all at once. That seems obvious on two April weekends. The Friday before Palm Sunday, my wife and I went down to south central Pennsylvania to attend a wedding. This took much longer than we anticipated. Leaving around 10:30 a.m., we took I-87 to I-287 and ultimately traveled west on the route that was formerly I-78 before reaching the local roads. We didn’t arrive at our hotel until 6:00 p.m.

The wedding of our niece, Markia, and her fiancé, Brandon, on Saturday was lovely, and the reception was equally nice. I will likely write more about this at some point.

The next morning, we traveled from southern Pennsylvania to the Binghamton, New York area. One of my oldest friends, Carol, along with her brother, sister, and other relatives, was having a celebration of life for Carol’s mom, Lillian Bakic, who died a few months ago. It was at a country club outside the city, which I had never been to.

A bunch of us got up and spoke briefly about Lillian, and I was feeling compelled to do so in part because Karen, who Carol and I have known since 1958, couldn’t make it because, bizarrely, there was a snowstorm in western Massachusetts. In April.

So obviously we didn’t make it to church. It was amusing that both my wife and I had people emailing or texting us, asking why they hadn’t seen us at church. We made it to church despite an ice storm and a threat of a snowstorm in February. We don’t come one weekend, and folks pointed it out.

Split screen

Two weeks later, on Friday night, there was an event at Wizard’s Wardrobe, where my wife works, to celebrate the tutors and other volunteers. I attended last year and had a good time.

However, the Underground Railroad Education Center (UREC) held an appreciation tea for those who have supported the program simultaneously. Congressman Paul Tonko was present and spoke briefly about recovering the IMLS and EPA funds that were allocated but DOGE-frozen.

At least three people asked me where my wife was, wanting to talk with her, needed to call her, mentioned they had seen her around, etc..

Later, my wife said that if I had been at the Wizard’s Wardrobe event and been on their team, maybe their team would have won the contest. There was a category about Beatles songs; the host would play 10-second snippets, and they had to pick the title. One was I’m Happy Just To Dance With You, which I realize could be a slightly tricky title. They also couldn’t name The Ballad Of John And Yoko.

There was also a question about the number of states that have a capital starting with the letter F. I didn’t know; the only one I could think of was Frankfort, KY, which turns out to be the only one. Someone else on their team had suggested Frankfort, but said it was the capital of Tennessee (which is Nashville), which didn’t sound right, so they went with the answer of ‘none’.

I have said this before: if people are bored, they are just not trying hard enough.