Jack’s Winning Words 8/28/18
“There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.”  (Eric Hoffer)  A Wall Street Journal article described in detail how social philosopher Eric Hoffer predicted the current political situation 70 years ago.  The rich don’t understand the poor, and vice versa.  And, isn’t it true?  Not only is there a non-understanding, there’s unwillingness to understand.  Hoffer lived both sides, poor and rich.  He understood.   When will we?   ;-)  Jack

FROM WALMART REV:  Hopefully tomorrow, for we sure are missing it today! Yesterday looked much better than today, but if my memory serves me correctly we were describing the same back then too. One might believe we are living in a broken and depraved world ===JACK:  I was reading an article recently..."What if tomorrow never comes?"  But, our faith tells us that our tomorrows are in God's hands.  As long as that's the case, I am hopeful for tomorrow.

FROM ST PAUL IN ST PAUL:  don't hold your breath, Jack.  but pray for unity in the church, schools, offices, and neighborhoods of America.  there is some, if you take time to look for it but i admit, it does seem less prevalent than years gone by.===JACK:  I'm waiting and hoping for "understanding" and a willingness to seek to understand.  There will be no unity without understanding.  The past wasn't always that rosey, either.  Each era has its challenges.

FROM JACK:  (I read this today in an article by Greg Jaffe and Jenna Johnson)  Over the past few decades, Americans have fled to the political poles, leaving fewer in the once vibrant and decisive middle. Increasingly, those partisan voters are being driven more by fear and loathing for the opposition party than admiration for their own party’s leaders — a phenomenon that political consultants call “negative partisanship.”  Today partisanship has a “stronger influence” on voters’ behavior that at any time since the 1950s, Alan Abramowitz and Steven Webster, two Emory University political scientists, wrote recently. One result: Any act of compromise with the enemy — or opposition party — is greeted with anger and derision.  “Dislike of the opposing party, its supporters and its governing elite is a powerful mechanism driving individuals to remain consistently loyal to their own party,” the two political scientists wrote.  This anger is likely “to shape voting behavior well into the future,” they concluded.

FROM FACEBOOK LIZ:  oversimplified to say it’s rich v poor. our god-given survival instinct makes it me v you, pretty much in any situation, unless we rise above our baser emotions... which is god’s goal for us, right?===JACK:  What is it that separates you from me?  What is it that separates the masses, if not "the haves" and "the have-nots?"===LIZ:  people w/in the various class designations do not see eye to eye for a variety of reasons.===JACK:  ...but that does not preclude them from trying to understand one another...as in a marriage, religion, politics. workplace, ethnic neighborhoods, etc.===LIZ:  i guess i don’t see people as labels. “what” you are has never mattered to me. perhaps that is just how i am built, and also raised.===JACK:  Whatever we call people or individuals, my point is that an ordered society needs a willingness to try and understand each other.  Your response says to me..."If you want help in understanding me, here's who I am (in part)." ===LIZ:  my response is: if you marginalize groups therein lies the problem. treat everyone equally, no problem.  has always worked for me.

FROM SHALOM JAN:  I used an old quote in my sermon a few weeks ago:  "Living together is an art." (William Pickens, 1932, speech to Congregationalist gathering in Oak Park, IL)  With divisions being more accessible to our knowledge (if not our understanding!) it appears Pickens was correct 86 years ago and today, as well.===JACK:  I Googled, How to live together successfully and came up with these sites:  3 Secrets...5 Secrets...!0 Secrets.  I guess that it's more complicated than I thought.
===JAN:  I think our history -- both national and church-wide -- would teach us the same lessons!  I have actually heard church members say that they wanted their church to grow (membership wise) and added, "But, I don't want any ... here!"  Fill in the blank with any ethnic, racial, sexual identity group, etc. and we know how much of a struggle we're up against.  We still have small congregations in the same small town here in this synod who will not join together because of age-old ethnic background differences (Swedish vs. German, for example) that led to disagreements/arguments/fights about all sorts of other (non-) issues.  Your Winning Words for today also reminded a friend of mine, with whom I share WW often, to recall learning recently about the Exclusion Laws in the founding of the State of Oregon, where they not only did not want slavery, they did not want black people at all.  As a history major in the early 1960s at a Lutheran college, of course, I never learned about that.  It pays to keep learning about one another.===JACK: A declining church that I know of has an increasing Sunday School (of color) and is making an increasing effort to reach out to the community.  However, in a sense, there is a reverse racism (a reaction to sins of the past) where "the neighborhood" feels more comfortable in their traditional places than in the reaching out mostly-white congregations.  That's why I write for the need for "understanding."

FROM BLAZING OAKS:  I do think we will survive these divisive and base times we're
experiencing, but it will leave its mark; Things will never be the same, sadly. We've certainly taken steps back in race relations, which will be a long recovery, and probably true of economic situation as well. Prayers abound! :-(===JACK:  I think that racism was muted in our time, but seeds were kept and allowed to grow anew in the present time.  Do you know of some pesticide that we might use?  Classism is another weed that continues to grow.

FROM TAMPA SHIRL:  When I was a social worker in Peoria for a year after college graduation, I saw many children and adults with many many problems. At the guardian angel orphanage there were 120 children but only 2 were real orphans with neither a mother or father. At the home of good shepherd for delinquent and non delinquent girls, I learned so much! We have so much to learn to make a better world and to appreciate what we have!===JACK:  That experience, no doubt, helped shape you into the caring person  you are, today.  It's too bad that more people can't have such an experience.  That's how "understanding" grows.

FROM GDJ IN WISC:  I remember Hoffer. Liked him. Sorry he was so prescient. 😣===JACK:  Thanks for teaching me a new word...and it's a good one, worth adding to my vocabulary.  From the time he was in his teens,  Eric always carried a library card with him...even on skid row.

FROM JB IN OLV:  Eric Hoffer was a wise, observant man.  I grew up on the east side of Detroit.  It was the little Italy.  When the I-94 was going to be constructed all our neighbors left and moved to East Detroit, Warren and Roseville.  Our house wasn't needed for the expressway so we stayed.  A large city playground on one side and the service drive on the other.  By the time I graduated from High School our neighborhood was 90% black.  We had no problems with our neighbors.  They were for the most part families like our own.  When the riots hit in '67 the business district near us was ransacked but without burning the buildings or injuries...our neighbors protected their homes just like my folks and Bill & I did my folks'.  Bill was just back from Vietnam....I am grateful that I grew up in such a richly diverse area...it was an education in manhood that has held me in good stead.
===JACK: The experiences that we've had have shaped us into the persons we are today.  It was also true of Eric Hoffer.

FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY:  That’s the 100 million dollar question!!  It has been the same question since mankind was dropped on this planet!  When will we understand each other?===JACK: There used to be a radio quiz show where the top prize was 64 silver dollars.  To win the prize you had to answer a tough question.  "That's the 64 dollar question" became a phrase to describe what you called "the 100 million dollar question."  Times change.