The Fierce Urgency of Prophetic Hope

  © Wendell Griffen, 2024 Imagine that you serve on the hiring committee for an enterprise that does business throughout the world. Your job is to select the next chief executive officer (CEO) from a pool of several candidates. Here are facts about the two most prominent candidates in the hiring pool.. One candidate served four years as CEO of the enterprise. During that four-year tenure, he took the following actions. ·         He bad mouthed the enterprise the day he entered office. ·         He insulted the workers. ·         He tried to ban people from nations that have large Muslim populations from entering the business. ·         He called people who shouted racist and antisemitic slogans and insults “very fine people.” ·         He lied in an unsuccessful attempt to conceal that the world was threatened by the worst airborne virus in a century. ·         He was impeached for trying to force another enterprise to do a sham investigation on his chief competitor

  ©Wendell Griffen, 2024 On September 20, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now reported that the Uncommitted Movement has declared it will not endorse Kamala Harris, that it is vehemently opposed to the candidacy of Donald Trump, and that it will not endorse any third-party candidate in the U.S. presidential election contest. Here is a link to that report, and Goodman’s interview with Lexis Zeidan, a co-founder of the Uncommitted National Movement. https://www.democracynow.org/2024/9/20/lexis_zeidan_uncommitted_national_movement_2024 . The Uncommitted Movement’s stance makes a point that bears remembering. Kamala Harris will have only herself to blame if she does not win in Michigan, Arizona, and Wisconsin, battleground states whose electoral college votes are crucial for any presidential to win to reach 270 votes. I made that point in an August 23 blog post after Harris spurned pleas from Palestinian delegates who asked to speak during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

  ©Wendell Griffen, 2024   COMEUPPANCE (noun): a punishment or fate that someone deserves: “he got his comeuppance.” Synonyms: due, retribution, requital, recompense, just deserts, deserved fate, due reward, just punishment, castigation, wrath, chastisement. Beginning shortly after 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on September 10, 2024, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris gave former U.S. President Donald Trump what one of my Arkansas lawyer friends would call “a stand-up ass whipping.” People saw it happen live, across the United States and throughout the world.   Harris deployed her skills and discipline as a seasoned prosecutor to cut through Trump’s façade and expose his most unpleasant characteristics. Dishonesty. Bigotry. Cultural and political incompetence. Emotional immaturity. Vicious idiocy. Sociopathy. Mental clumsiness and laziness. By the time their 90 minute “debate” ended, Donald Trump’s posture was slumped. He had y

  ©Wendell Griffen, 2024 Little Rock, Arkansas   We should be offended, but not surprised, that Donald Trump recently visited Arlington National Cemetery for political posturing ( https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/28/trump-arlington-cemetery-visit-altercation?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other ). We have seen Trump use the Holy Bible for political posturing, personal branding, and private profiteering. He uses women in his family, notably Melania Trump (his wife) and Ivanka Trump (his daughter) as sex objects. He used classified material stolen from the White House as personal swagger material. He wanted to stage a Fourth of July military parade using military personnel and armored tracked vehicles on Washington streets to show his personal power. Trump referred to flag officers of the U.S. military as "my generals."   Long before Trump stomped onto the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery to exploit family members of fallen veterans of the

  © Wendell Griffen, 2024 Little Rock, Arkansas   Vice President Kamala Harris had a brilliant week during the Democratic National Convention. She and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, were nominated and celebrated with enthusiastic fanfare. Even right-wing media outlets such as Fox News acknowledged as much. However, Harris and Democratic leaders committed an unforced error by refusing pleas from Palestinian-American delegates to the Convention to speak briefly – five minutes – concerning the ongoing genocide Israel is committing against Palestinians in Gaza, with U.S. funding, weapons, and diplomatic support. I’m not alone in holding that view. Prominent national newspaper columnists friendly to Harris - Jamelle Bouie and E. J. Dionne come to mind - said so as well. That unforced error pained Palestinian-Americans who grieve the Biden Administration’s full-throated support for Israel as Israeli Defense Forces slaughtered more than 40,000 people in Gaza – includ

  ©Wendell Griffen, 2024 Little Rock, Arkansas Like millions of other people in the United States and across the world, I watched Vice President Kamala Harris accept the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States in the November 2024 general election.  Harris delivered a stirring speech that described her personal and professional history. She forcefully expressed her commitment to civil liberty. She extolled the role of working people. And Harris was blunt about her resolve to correct the wrongs done to women and girls concerning reproductive freedom by the right-wing super-majority that former U.S. President Donald Trump nominated and had confirmed on the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the landmark decision of Roe v. Wade. On those and other issues, Harris clearly showed that she will be a different kind of leader from Donald Trump if she is elected President. However, Harris failed to do the one thing that mattered most to people who watched all week for th