Forgiveness

Our church’s Lenten Bible study this year was about the Apostles’ Creed. It was a yeasty conversation over topics such as the representation of God as Father. One part reads “I believe in the…forgiveness of sins”. By that, one might assume God forgiving sins, but I think it also has as much to do with us forgiving the sins/debts/trespasses (to site another well-known Christian prayer) of each other.

Today being Good Friday, I’m also reminded of Ruby Bridges, a six-year old black girl who desegregated the schools in New Orleans in November 1960, who you will recognize from a famous painting by Norman Rockwell. To survive the attacks she received daily as she walked to school, and where only one of her white teachers would teach her, she said a prayer which her mother had taught her. Robert Coles, then the child psychiatrist who volunteered to work with Ruby and her family, asked her one day what she was mumbling as she walked through that crowd. She famously told him she was saying this prayer, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” This of course echoes one of the seven last words of Jesus on the cross.

Thus, it is in that spirit that I have decided that I need to forgive someone. It has to be someone for whom I have had a great deal of enmity in the past, lest it not be meaningful. So, I’ve decided to forgive George W. Bush.

I forgive George W. Bush for:
*gutting environmental initiatives
*instituting a wide variety of surveillance programs
*signing the USA (so-called)PATRIOT Act (H.R. 3162)
*the unjustified invasion of Iraq in 2003
*the poor handling of the Hurricane Katrina crisis
*the lack of fiscal regulations that has led to the current recession
*and all the rest of it

Understand, I haven’t forgotten. But I’m doing this for me, not for him. I need to let go of my anger.

Maybe someday I’ll even forgive his vice-president – or maybe not. Certainly, I’m not there yet.

ROG

ROG

April Ramblin’

I briefly attended that vigil for Binghamton yesterday. Would have stayed longer but for the fact that it was cold, occasionally rainy, and I had the child, who has been sick recently, in tow. She may not have understood the point of the gathering, attended by about 45, including Albany’s mayor (who, not incidentally is, running for re-election), but I still wanted her to be there. That event, along with the story in question, probably prompted this response from me.

THE best television newsperson to come out of the Capital District of New York State, Ed Dague, is in chronic pain. Touching story. I met him at least twice, which I should write about sometime, I reckon.

Greg finds legislation he just can’t get behind.

Gordon touts Robert Johnson, as well he should.

They are remastering the whole Beatles catalog. Given the fact that I’ve already bought it all about thrice (US LP, UK LP, CD), do I want to buy this AGAIN? No, yet the Past Masters package sounds annoyingly intriguing.

Ken Levine talks about Point of View, one of my favorite episodes of M*A*S*H. Did the TV show House steal it? Didn’t see the House ep, but I have my doubts.

15 free downloads to pep up your old PC, which I haven’t tried yet, but I figure if I post it, it’ll remind me.

I’m getting fairly obsessed with getting the Denver mint state quarters. All I need are Hawaii, Washington state, Missouri and, most problematic, Pennsylvania, the eldest. Oh, and the District of Columbia; just got the Philly mint version this week. Haven’t seen the Puerto Rico quarter yet.

My good buddy Steve Bissette discusses, in great deal, including 27 8 by 10 color glossies, Saga of the Swamp Thing #20, the transitional first issue by Alan Moore, John Totleman, and himself that starts off the neat book I just received.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

Speaking of Swamp Thing, the co-creator of, and later Steve’s editor on, the title, coping as well as one can, given the circumstances, but there’s a movement afoot to replace the comics he wrote or edited and, to that end, for people to contribute to a Len Wein comics checklist. I always liked his work during my days of reading Marvel Comics.

So THAT’S what happened at the Albany Comic Show Sunday, before I got there.

ADD’s Eisner picks. I’ll take his word for it, since the only thing on the list I own is Mark Evanier’s Kirby book, though Coraline has been on back order for about a month.

Evanier tells A Story You Won’t Believe about Spike Jones.

I’m so pleased: Two weekends ago, we went to the in-laws for their 50th wedding anniversary. Last weekend was Lydia’s 5th birthday party at the State Museum. Next weekend is something else again. This coming weekend, Easter, the wife and her mother were trying to come up with a plan to get together. The final resolution – we’re all staying in our respective homes and resting; I mean we’ll go to church and all, but no travel. I for one am exhausted, and so is my wife, so this is a good thing.

Nik from Spatula Forum celebrates five years of blogging by talking about…

Arthur from AmeriNZ celebrates both his 100th blogpost and two years of podcasting.

ROG

ROG

L is for Liberia


I have long been fascinated with the western African nation of Liberia. I have a friend at my former church from Liberia who has traveled back to her homeland a number of times in the last 25 years, when it was safe to do so.

Looking at the map above, there were only four countries on the whole continent that were independent when I was born; much of the rest were colonies of Europeans. Sudan was controlled by an Anglo-Egyptian combo, and the Union of South Africa, as it was then known, controlled Southwest Africa, now Namibia. And it wasn’t that long ago before that Ethiopia had been taken over by Italy before and during World War II.

So what IS this place with a flag very similar to that of the Unites States, an island of liberation in a sea of colonies in west Africa with a capital named for a U.S. President? And what is the relationship between the countries of the red, white and blue?

The roots of what came to be known as Liberia came from an unlikely mix of people who formed the American Colonization Society. From the Wikipedia post: “Supporters of the ACS may be divided into three main groups. The first consisted of those who genuinely felt that it was the best solution to a difficult problem and might lead to a gradual emancipation. Another smaller group was a pro-slavery group who saw removal as an answer to the problems associated with ‘dangerous’ free blacks. Perhaps the largest group of supporters was made up of those who opposed slavery, but did not believe in anything remotely resembling equality of the races.” Thus, the Society was supported by an unlikely combination of free blacks, abolitionists and slave holders, though by no means a majority in any of those groups.

The “settlement of freed slaves from the US in what is today Liberia began in 1822” with the active and tacit support of American political leaders. “By 1847, the Americo-Liberians were able to establish a republic.” But there was, for many years, tensions between the resettlers and and the folks native Africans who were forced to accept them. It didn’t help that those who once had been in the Western Hemisphere and their progeny tended to look down on the natives.

From the CIA World Factbook: “William TUBMAN, president from 1944-71, did much to promote foreign investment and to bridge the economic, social, and political gaps between the descendants of the original settlers and the inhabitants of the interior.” This was facilitated by the United States, which “began providing technical and economic assistance that enabled Liberia to make economic progress and introduce social change. Both the Freeport of Monrovia and Roberts International Airport were built by U.S. personnel during World War II.”

Unfortunately, the last couple decades of the 20th Century found the country rife with instability. “In 1980, a military coup led by Samuel DOE ushered in a decade of authoritarian rule. In December 1989, Charles TAYLOR launched a rebellion against DOE’s regime that led to a prolonged civil war in which DOE himself was killed. A period of relative peace in 1997 allowed for elections that brought TAYLOR to power, but major fighting resumed in 2000. An August 2003 peace agreement ended the war and prompted the resignation of former president Charles TAYLOR, who faces war crimes charges in The Hague related to his involvement in Sierra Leone’s civil war.” Indeed, just this month, Taylor’s lawyers asked for a U.N. tribunal to acquit their client of all charges.

“After two years of rule by a transitional government, democratic elections in late 2005 brought President Ellen JOHNSON SIRLEAF to power…President JOHNSON SIRLEAF, a Harvard-trained banker and administrator, has taken steps to reduce corruption, build support from international donors, and encourage private investment…The UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) maintains a strong presence throughout the country, but the security situation is still fragile and the process of rebuilding the social and economic structure of this war-torn country will take many years.”

Despite the history, the United States does not appear to have a “special relation” with Liberia, as the United Kingdom, for instance, has with the Commonwealth or the French has with some of its former colonies.
***
I’m taking a wild guess that no one in the ABC Wednesday group picked Liberia, no?
 ROG

ROG

The Phone, the phone is ringing

One of the rules of the house is that we don’t answer the phone we’re eating dinner. My running joke: “That’s why God created the answering machine.” Even when we’re not eating, we screen our calls. We have Caller ID, and unless it’s a name or number I recognize, it goes to the machine; “Private Name, Private Number” always goes there, and sometimes it’s someone we know, so then we respond accordingly. I didn’t think I’d like it, but my favorite gizmo is the fact that I can tell who’s calling while the TV’s on so I can see if it’s worthwhile getting up.

At work, though, I don’t have that luxury. If the phone is ringing, I answer. I have access to four different lines. One is my direct line. One is the line for the library; we have a rotation, whereby I’m first on the phone on Tuesday and second on Thursday. However, if it gets to the third ring, regardless of the day, we each try to pick it up, for after it gets to the fourth ring, it goes to voice mail, and it’s a minor pain to retrieve.

The other two phones are the main office phones. Back in our old place, with our ancient, supposedly inferior system, if I heard the phone ringing at lunchtime or late in the day, I could hit *70 and pick it up. In our current location, though, only the secretary and office manager initially could answer the main phones, which wreaked to me of bad customer service. They are not glued to their desks and so they would often miss calls. Some of them were important government officials or even a delivery person in the lobby of our own building, who can’t get in without being buzzed in.

Things improved somewhat when a free-standing phone was installed near the copy machine. Not only did the secretary not have to run back to her desk, I could run over and pick it up if necessary. Eventually, I realized that the phone chord was long enough to reach my desk, so for the last hour of the day, after the front desk personnel left at 4 p.m., I’d haul it over to my desk for the last hour.

Finally, at my request, I was given a new phone with all four lines. This saved me an inordinate amount of time and effort during the day. Though I’ve discovered we do seem to be getting more prerecorded messages like this one: “This is your second call. This is your second opportunity to save money on your auto insurance…”

It’s the little things that make a job more or less tolerable. When I first started working at the SBDC 16 years ago, I shared a phone line with the fax line, and far too often, I’d pick up and get an earful of the whiny, high-pitched noise of a fax transmission. Getting my own line a few months letter made my life SO much easier.

But what prompted this post was a particular call I got a couple weeks ago to my direct line. “Hello,” the live voice said. “Is this Roger Green?” Yes. “This is Roger Green from Ramblin’ with Roger?” It is. “Hello, I’m XXX. You may be surprised to hear from me. But I need a trustworthy person to transfer some monies from my country into the United States. And we know that you are a reliable person.” He said a couple other things. It was the Nigerian scheme – live, on the phone! I quickly said “no, thank you”, mostly because I was awaiting a call from my wife about our daughter, but I would LOVE to have heard more about it. All I know is that he called from Rhode Island and that he had that typical British/African vocal pattern.

ROG
Ramblin' with Roger
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