The Shifting of Political Sands

This is a trend piece I wrote for my JMC 2033 class this past semester. Sorry about the poor formating, that's Word for you.

On August 9, 1974 a well-dressed man ascended the steps of a helicopter emblazoned with the flag of the United States of America. He turned, smiled, and stretched out his arms to either side of him, two fingers extended on each hand.

Richard M. Nixon then turned around and boarded the helicopter and left the White House. Nixon’s term was marred with success and scandal alike. He received one of the most resounding reelections in presidential history, and was the first U.S. President to resign from office.

Nixon was at the nation’s helm during the closing stanzas of the Vietnam quagmire. Today, the country is in a similar situation; as the war in Iraq drags on, the public’s tolerance for the current administration is spreading thin.

The political world has undergone some enormous changes since Nixon was elected the first time.

Larisa Yun, a graduate teaching associate, working toward her doctorate in political science at the University of Oklahoma, said perhaps the most significant change is the overall decrease in trust the public expresses for the government.

“Generally, we’ve seen a decline [in trust] since the 1970s with Nixon and the Vietnam War,” Yun said. “But trust increased after September 11, because of the ‘rally around the flag effect.’ But now, it is on the decline again since we have not found weapons in Iraq.”

Samantha Bershears, an OU political science senior, said she agrees. “The distrust of the American public toward the government started around Watergate.”

Episodes like Watergate, the Whitewater real estate scandal, Vietnam and more recently the Abramoff and Libby scandals have had a profound impact on the nation’s perception of the federal government. Abramoff, a Congressional lobbyist, pled guilty in 2006 to charges of fraud and conspiracy. Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, is currently awaiting sentencing after being convicted of obstruction of justice charges. With each new scandal that unfolds, the public’s distrust increases a little bit.

Visiting assistant professor of political science, Dr. Shad Satterthwaite, said this trend of public dissatisfaction with government proceedings manifests itself in voter participation.

“There has been a decline in voter participation since 1960, it hit a low in 1996, when it dipped below 50 percent,” Satterthwaite said. “And then it went above 50 percent again in 2000.”

According to statistics at infoplease.com, in 1960, 63.1 percent of eligible voters turned out for the general elections. Since then numbers have steadily decreased, bottoming out at 49.1 percent in 1996. However numbers have increased slightly since the ’96 election, with 55.3 percent of eligible voters showing up in 2004. Numbers in midterm elections are staggeringly low, striking bedrock in the mid 30th percentile.

“It went up a little bit from 1996 to 2000,” Satterthwaite said. “When you have no incumbent you have a close race and there is an increase in interest.”

Satterthwaite said he attributes voter apathy to a lack of political and social motivation. “In 1996 the economy was starting to go pretty well, there was no major problem, which is why we see low turnout.”

The theory also works to explain student voting patterns, Satterthwaite said. “Students do not care because there is nothing impacting them right now. Like in the 1960s, for example, you had the draft and students protested, because it meant something to them.”

Indeed, the 1960s saw unprecedented student political involvement and massive campus protests over the Vietnam War. Iraq maybe today’s Vietnam but one would not assume this to be the case if they looked at an average campus.

Bershears echoed this mentality. “If it does not affect them, they are not going to care about it,” Bershears said. “People will not see past the tips of their noses.”

Satterthwaite said public apathy is also in large part due to increased media activity since the ‘60s and ‘70s. “The media really are to blame, their role is to inform the people,” Satterthwaite said. Simply opening the morning paper or watching the evening news confirms this statement.

All of the news coming out of Washington seems to be bad, Satterthwaite said, “It is easier to do a story on conflict.” He said the media puts greater emphasis on stories where the parties are at odds, than when they are working together.

“I think that it has to do with what sells,” Bershears said. “People want to hear about scandal and competition, not bipartisanship.”

Yun said she also blames the media for recent political changes. “It is easier than ever to avoid information,” Yun said. Although the news media makes information more readily available, the rest of the media offers itself as a distraction from world events, Yun said.

“These distractions lead to less political knowledge and thus less political interest.”

For example, many Americans do not know whom Jack Abramoff or “Scooter” Libby are; however, many of those same people know of Sanjaya Malakar and his recent departure from American Idol.

This is not the only impact of the media on the political field, Yun said. She said she believes the media is changing the way the American political machine is run. “I think you see a move from party centered politics to candidate centered politics because of television and the internet,” Yun said. “This is because you no longer need to be connected to a party to get your name out there.”

Mike Jones, another graduate teaching assistant at OU, claims this is the reason for the recent successes of third party candidates. “Just look at Ross Perot, in 1992 he received almost 20 percent of the popular vote,” Jones said. Yun and Jones both agreed all a person needs to run for office is money.

Satterthwaite said he sees a problem in that. “I think the two party system is plenty entangled and it would be hard for a third party to get into office,” he said. “Because of the way the system is set up now I do not see it as being in danger, but I do see a lot of dissatisfaction in politics.”

A lot of that dissatisfaction is arising from issues of money and campaigning. Politicians are already beginning to campaign for the 2008 presidential race in early 2007. “A lot of the early campaigning is just raising money,” Yun said. “If you are interested you have to keep up. If one person starts you have to do the same thing.”

By the time Election Day rolls around many citizens are tired of the endless political banter that consumes the news media in the weeks and months prior to an election.

Money is not the only thing that keeps third parties out of office, however. “Third party voters are very specific, often voting on single issues,” Jones said. He went on to say the mainstream parties often incorporate successful third party issues.

“In the 1990s politics started becoming more partisan,” Satterthwaite said. However, he points out that most party members are not extremists but rather closer to political moderates.

“Party identification has decreased,” Yun agreed.

Jones said he is skeptical of the people who call themselves moderates. “Either moderates are incredibly informed or incredibly ignorant,” he said. “Most people who claim to be moderate actually identify with one of the parties more than they realize.”

One example of a growing moderate climate exists in the state of Oklahoma. Oklahomans tend to vote Republican in national elections. In 2004 George W. Bush received the state’s Electoral College votes, gaining 66 percent of the popular vote in the state, according The Washington Post’s website. The only Democrat voted into office in 2004 was Dan Boren, son of former Senator David Boren.

However, the CBS News website reports a 66 percent majority voted for Governor Brad Henry, a Democrat, in the 2006 midterm elections.

“There are more registered Democrats in Oklahoma,” Satterthwaite explained, “however, there was a poll that showed more Oklahomans relate with Republicans than Democrats.”

Jones and Satterthwaite do not see eye-to-eye on this subject. Different populations vote in local elections than in national elections, Jones said, therefore the results will be different. Still, the CBS website shows that every other seat open for election in 2006—again except for Dan Boren’s—was won by Republicans.

This moderate climate that is apparently developing in Oklahoma is not unique, but part of a greater trend, encompassing the nation. It is but one face of how the world of American politics has changed since Nixon first walked the White House lawn.

-Caleb Williams

Why the Christian Right is Wrong

This is a speech given at a peace rally held here at the University of Oklahoma sometime in 2004 by Robin Meyers, a minister at an Oklahoma City church. While some of the points he makes in this speech I do not fully agree with, the majority of it is dead on. This is transcribed directly from Meyers' book Why the Christian Right is Wrong.

I would like to know what anyone who reads this to tell me what their opinions on this speech.

"As some of you know, I am minister of Mayflower Congregational Church UCC in Oklahoma City, an open and affirming, peace and justice church in northwest Oklahoma City, and professor of rhetoric at Oklahoma City University. But you would most likely have encountered me on the pages of the Oklahoma Gazette, where I have been a columnist for six years and hold the record for most number of angry letters to the editor.

Tonight I join the ranks of those who are angry, because I have watched as the faith I love has been taken over by fundamentalists who claim to speak for Jesus but whose actions are anything but Christian. We're heard a lot lately about so-called moral values as having swung the election to President Bush. Well, I'm a great believer in moral values, but we need to have a discussion, all over this country, about exactly what constitutes a moral value--I mean, what are we talking about? Because we don't get to make them up as we go along, especially not if we are people of faith. We have an inherited tradition of what is right and wrong, and moral is as moral does. Let me gie you just a few of the reasons why I take issue with those in power who claim that moral values are on their side.

When you start a war on false pretenses and then act as if your deceptions are justified because you are doing God's will and that your critics are either unpatriotic or lacking in faith, there are some of us who have given our lives to teaching and preaching the faith who believe that this is not only not moral, but immoral.

When you live in a country that has established international rules for waging a just war, built the United Nations on your own soil to enforce them, and then arrogantly break the very rules you set down for the rest of the world, you are doing something immoral.

When you claim that Jesus is the Lord of your life and yet fail to acknowledge that your policies ignore his essential teaching or turn them on their head (you know, Sermon on the Mount stuff like never returning violence for violence and those who live by the sword will die by the sword), you are doing something immoral.

When you act as if the lives of Iraqi civilians are not as important as the lives of American soldiers and refuse to even count them, you are doing something immoral.

When you find a way to avoid combat in Vietnam and then question the patriotism of someone who volunteered to fight and came home a hero, you are doing something immoral.

When you ignore the fundamental teaching of the Gospels, which say that the way the strong treat the weak is the ultimate ethical test, by giving tax breaks to the wealthiest among us so that the strong will get stronger and the weak will get weaker, you are doing something immoral.

When you wink at the torture of prisoners and deprive so-called enemy combatants of the rules of the Geneva Convention, which your own country helped establish and insistss that other countries follow, you are doing something immoral.

When you claim that the world can be divided up into the good guys and the 'evildoers,' slice up your own nation into those who are with you or with the terrorists--and then launch a war that enriches your own friends and seizes control of the oil to which we are addicted instead of helping us kick the habit, you are doing something immoral.

When you fail to veto a single spending bill but ask us to pay for a war with no exit strategy and no end in sight, creating an enormous deficit that hangs like a great millstone around the necks of our children, you are doing something immoral.

When you use hatred of homosexuals as a wedge issue to turn out record numbers of evangelical voters and seek to use the Constitution as a tool of discrimination, you are doing something immoral.

When you favor the death penalty and yet claim to be a follower of Jesus, who said and eye for an eye was the old way, not the way of the Kingdom, you are doing something immoral.

Whe you dismantle countless environmental laws designed to protect the earth, which is God's gift to us all, so that the corporations that bought you and paid for your favors will make higher profits while our children breathe dirty air and live in a toxic world, you have done something immoral. The earth belongs to the Lord, not Halliburton.

When you claim that our God is bigger than their God and that our killing is righteous while theirs is evil, we have begun to resemble the enemy we claim to be fighting, and that is immoral. We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us.

When you tell people that you intend to run and govern as a 'compassionate conservative,' using a word that is the essence to all religious faith--compassion--and then show no compassion for anyone who disagrees with you and no patience with those who cry to you for help, you are doing something immoral.

When you talk constantly about Jesus, who was a healer of the sick, but do nothing to make sure that anyone who is sick can go to see a doctor, even if she doesn't have a penny in her pocket, you are doing something immoral.

When you put judges on the bench who are racist and will set women back a hundred years, and when you surround yourself with preachers who say gays ought to be killed, you are doing something immoral.

I'm tired of people thinking that because I'm a Christian, I must be a supporter of President Bush, or that because I favor civil rights and gay rights, I must not be a person of faith. I'm tired of people saying that I can't support the troops but oppose the war.

I head that when I was your age, when the Vietnam war was raging. We knew that that was wrong, and you know that this war is wrong--the only question is how many people are going to die before these make-believe Christians are removed from power.

This country is bankrupt. The war is morally bankrupt. The claim of thei administration to be Christian is bankrupt. And the only people who can turn things around are people like you--young people who are just beginning to wake up to what is happening to them. It's your country to take back. It's your faith to take back. It's your future to take back.

Don't be afraid to speak out. Don't back down when your friends begin to tell you that the cause if righteous and that the flag should be wrapped around the cross while the rest of us keep our mouths shut. Real Christians take chances for peace. So do real Jews and real Muslims and real Hindus and Real Buddhists; so do all the faith traditions of the world at their heart believe one thing: life is precious.

Every human being is precious. Arrogance is the opposite of faith. Greed is the opposite of charity. And believing that one has never made a mistake is the mark of a deluded man, not a man of faith.

As for war, war is the greatest failure of the human race--and thus the greatest failure of faith. There's an old rock song whose lyrics say it all: 'War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing.'

And what is the dream of the prophets? That we should study war no more, that we should beat our swords into plowshares and our pears into pruning hooks. Who would Jesus bomb indeed? How many wars does it take to know that oo many people have died? What if the gave a war and nobody came? Maybe one day we will find out.

Time to march again, my friends. Time to commit acts of nonviolent civil disobedience. My generation finally stopped a tragic war. Yours can too" (Robin Meyers).

-Caleb Williams

A Moment of Silence, Please

Where are the moments of silence for Iraqi children?

I'm hoping for peace soon.

-Caleb Williams

Politics

I've been thinking lately a lot about politics. I know it seems like a very boring subject to most anybody who would read this but to some people it is profoundly fascinating. More specifically I have been thinking about the politics of Jesus; further, I've been wondering if such a thing can exist.

For the last two years I have been trying to reconcile my political beliefs with my spiritual beliefs and most of what has arisen is pure rubbish (I never get to use that word, it sounds too British).

Is a set of political beliefs oriented solely to God possible? It seems that the American two-party system the answer is emphatically "NO." Obviously, most Evangelicals are registered Republicans, toting the party line of Regan, H.W. and, W. at least the latter two of whom built careers for themselves through the votes of the "Religious Right."

But why is it that people who call themselves Christian seem to be so aligned with the party of Regan? Not that anything was wrong with Regan in particular--I'm not here to argue against one party or for another—but why have Christians (and I’m assuming that the Religious Right is indeed devout, which might be a very dangerous assumption) so aligned themselves with Republicans?

Republicans (in their present form) champion a free market economy. This might sound a little pompous and slightly un-American but the ideal form of government is communism. The early. Church was one of the few times that a true communist government has worked properly (don’t believe me, read Acts). Granted, I do not believe that a truly communist government can work outside of a theocracy but how is the free market the next best thing? I know all of the American answers, social Darwinism in action and all but why is this best?

Republicans also will tend to favor tax cuts which benefit the rich, while Democrats will typically want to increase welfare and social programs throughout the United States. Christ himself said that His followers should be like Him. He promoted clothing the naked, feeding the hungry and, fighting for the poor and for the oppressed. Often these ideals are more commonly associated with the Democratic Party.

So Democrats are largely more socially responsible, advocating increased internal welfare and aid to impoverished counties around the world, some Republicans are in these ranks too do not get me wrong but the idea is more based around the Democrat platform. But Democrats also largely support issues like homosexual marriage and abortion ‘rights.’ I, as a believer in Christ, have a very difficult time swallowing these things. I do not want to get into the thought process on legislating morality (this post is already longer than anyone will read) but how do I reconcile the two?

I do not pretend to believe that the United States is a Christian country, although most Americans claim to be Christian. I do not believe that we are “one nation, under God…” but where do I… we, as Christians, go from here?

-Caleb Williams

The Ballad of Catherine Barkley

Marry me my love, and we’ll run away
From this damn war and this damn rain.
Take me, dear, to the Falls and to the Gate
If we leave now we can escape our fate.
See, oh sweet, the clouds are parting;
They may yet give way to our son’s rising.
Switzerland is calling, love, calling we three on
To life anew, the lie is true and now our sun is falling.
Still I hope, and still I pray, though praying is for fools,
That the rain will slow and our son can grow
In a land without all this fighting.
Curse the curse, and damn the falling rain.
Shut up the skies and stop pain.
Don’t worry, love, and don’t you fret, I am strong—
And I am brave.
But the world it has taken me.
Our son too soon has set.
And I must follow him beyond that horizon.

-Caleb Williams

Portrait: Sherron Hughes-Tremper

This is something I wrote for my JMC class this last semester. It is a personality profile of Pastor Sherron Hughes-Tremper, whom I consider to be a beacon of the Christian faith:

They say nothing spells lovin’ like something from the oven. As the scent of fresh cake spread throughout the house this was probably the thought of one Texas woman, visiting her father for the weekend.

The cake took the shape of a heart as it was expertly crafted and adorned by hands that have done this many times. The woman, who bakes wedding cakes for a living, was not baking this particular cake for a bride and groom, but instead to say “Thank You” to the staff at the Manos Juntas Free Medical Clinic for treating her father the week before.

Manos Juntas is located in Epworth United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City, and is led by Reverend Sherron Hughes-Tremper. Every Saturday morning from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. the church doors open to embrace the community.

“I love cultures, I love people,” Hughes-Tremper said. It is this love of people that she says has inspired her to devote her life to making her world a better place.

As 9 a.m. rolls around, patients begin to file through the doors of the church. Hughes-Tremper makes a point of greeting each patient in their own language; at last count she knew 11 different greetings. Though she knows several ways of welcoming patients, Hughes-Tremper is only fluent in Spanish and English.

“On average we have about 80 [patients], we can go as high as 130; sometimes we only have one doctor,” Hughes-Tremper said. In the past the pastor of the church has not always worked at the clinic, she said; but Hughes-Tremper does.

“The clinic is the biggest mission of the church,” Hughes-Tremper said with a smile. “We have more people here on Saturday than are at the services on Sunday, so as a pastor how could you not be here?” She said she sees the clinic as a way to serve the community.

Service has always been an important part of Hughes-Tremper’s life, she said. “In 1967 through 1969, I served in the Peace Corps in El Salvador, Central America,” Hughes-Tremper said. “I felt called to do ministry, to be a missionary. I went to the Peace Corps because I thought it would be great training for my life.

“I had to go to seminary,” Hughes-Tremper said. She has been in ministry ever since. “In 1981 I started working as a chaplain supervisor,” she said. “For 20 years I have taught people how to be chaplains. Then five years ago I felt called to be a pastor.” For the last two years she has done just that.

Hughes-Tremper does mostly managerial work at the clinic, including meet-and-greet, organizational work, and designating jobs for volunteers to do. Without computer records, however, the organizational aspect of her job can be a tall order. Sometimes patient files go missing and have to be tracked down. One such patient was left waiting for about an hour.
After a massive search for the prodigal file, an exhausted Hughes-Tremper, half-buried in manila folders, exclaimed, “This is eureka!” as she held up the elusive folder with the exuberance of someone who had just won the Super Bowl.

Alongside the clinic Hughes-Tremper facilitates other community minded ventures, including a thrift store known as Le Shoppe, where people can buy garbage bags of clothing for one dollar.
Hughes-Tremper has also instituted legal clinics and adult education programs, including English lessons for the large Hispanic and Vietnamese population in the area.
She has also offered programs in art and dance. “Everything is the same if you do it in love,” Hughes-Tremper said.

This type of community involvement was exactly what Elaine Gragg was looking for when she moved to Oklahoma City. Gragg, who volunteers at the clinic alongside Hughes-Tremper, said she knew about Epworth after traveling to Nicaragua in 1998 with the Manos Juntas program.
“I knew I wanted to be a part of a missions oriented church,” Gragg said, claiming she had found that at Epworth and with Hughes-Tremper.

Hughes-Tremper has faced many obstacles in her journey to where she is now. Not only was she the first female Methodist Reverend but when she became pastor at Epworth she inherited a building in decay.

Water drips through the ceiling of the fourth floor of the church, into trash cans and old paint buckets while the wood floor underneath has warped with age and the elements. “This is our bucket room,” said Hughes-Tremper with an amused sarcastic grin. Someday she said she hopes to use the floor for classrooms.

The third floor is in only slightly better condition, having just been repainted after being vandalized in recent months, said Hughes-Tremper, who seems only to focus on the potential the area holds.

The second floor used to look the same way, but one would never guess looking at it today, she said. “When I got here I was very discouraged about getting all of this cleaned up. “But I realized that we just have to take it one job at a time.”

Even though much of the upper floors of the church are in disrepair, Hughes-Tremper said she still thinks it better to give back to the community. “It costs the church $20,000 a year to operate the clinic,” Hughes-Tremper said. She added that they had just received the Racial and Ethnic Minority Grant for $5,000 for the work they have done in the community.

The clinic also offers some students on-the-job experience. Grace Taylor, an OU zoology senior, volunteers at the Manos Juntas Clinic regularly. “I started volunteering at the clinic a little over a year ago; about 13 months,” Taylor said.

Though there are other opportunities to gain experience closer to Norman, Epworth offers something special, Taylor said. “I’m really not an ordinary pre-med student; what I love about the clinic is that it is not just students and doctors; it’s church members and patients.”

Taylor describes Hughes-Tremper as genuine, patient and congenial. “All three of those are exemplified in her work with the patients,” Taylor said. “Her character exemplifies the feeling of the clinic. She’s all over the place; she’s wonderful.”

After taking care of a patient Hughes-Tremper asked herself, “What did I eat this morning?” in a rare idle moment in the Manos Juntas Clinic. She never came to a conclusion, for she immediately began attending to the next order of business. Maybe she should have tried the cake.

Idealism

Is there a place for idealism in this world today? I have been accused recently or being overly idealistic in some of my political and religious views. This is not, by any means, to say that my belief in Jesus as the Christ have been called into question, but really the level or idealism I associate with my societal paradigm.

I realize that idealism—from a sociological standpoint—is often vain and utterly naïve but should it be overlooked? Overlooked is the wrong word. Should I, or for that matter should anybody, allow themselves to succumb to idealism, especially when they know that the world never deals in the ideal?

It might make me out to be a fool but I can’t help but believe that I am called to be an idealist. I think Christ was an idealist and I am called to be like Him so it seems only logical that I too should deal with society in the same manner.

In this light am I justified in hoping for a world without poverty, hunger and war? I know none of these will be eradicated in my lifetime; in fact, it seems all three are elemental to the human experience. These things will continue as long as humans exist—as Donald Miller put it—in a world absent God.

I see little promise or future for blogging, other than as a manner to express my views on world events. I still refuse to write about my daily life. Maybe this constitutes a revival of this decrepit blog or perhaps this is just a stab at curbing the tide of boredom, either way I’m fine with it.

-Caleb Williams