Silence

"Silence does not mean consent. Silence means death. When we have something to say and we are afraid to speak, or forbidden to speak, we feel as though we've been walled into a closet... Here in America we are finding pressure to silence us coming from all three sources (government, market, public hysteria)." from Writing in An Age of Silence, by Sara Paretsky, Page 113.

To the Paretsky quote I would like to add that pressure to silence us also comes from employers, corporations, family, co-workers, churches, attorneys, politicians, etc. People are frequently being pressured to stay quiet about anything in their experience that might have been injurious, illegal, inappropriate, immoral, unethical, abusive, unjust, or just uncomfortable. Anytime someone is urged to "just move on," "forget it," "drop it, " or "let it go," they are being asked to go into denial and ignore something that needs to be addressed. The best possible response is to ignore the advice being given and continue speaking out on the issue. Speaking out could cost them their jobs, friends, and family, but not speaking out will cost them their integrity, self-respect, peace of mind, and possibly even their health. Those who urge victims of injustice, abuse, or other mistreatment to "just move on," may have good intentions, but there are similarities between pediphiles and child molesters who order their victims to not talk about the abuse so they can continue to abuse, and managers or supervisors who impose conditions of confidentiality on employees in an attempt to cover up unjust or injurious behavior.

There is value in researching all the possible options for dealing with the issue, considering the possible consequences of any action, and using the imagination and creativity in selecting new and original ways of addressing the problem. Timing and patience should also be taken into consideration. But there is no respectable or responsible way of not dealing with the unresolved issues of the past. We cannot move into the future properly prepared to care for it, if we are simultaneously neglecting the past.

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter."
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"He who accepts evil without protesting against it, is really cooperating with it."
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1958; from CitizenLink.com, March 17, 2008

"True forgiveness deals with the past, all of the past, to make the future possible," Desmond Tutu; South African Archbishop, from the book, Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy, by Kraybill, Nolt, and Weaver-Zercher

"On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' And Vanity comes along and asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But Conscience comes along and asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, not popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right."
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

A Morning Prayer

Holy Creator;

I ask today for the grace that
all my thoughts, words, and actions,
all my motives, inclinations, and desires,
all my activities, opinions, and aspirations
be directed purely to the praise and service of your Divine Majesty.


May my spirit be gracious, loving ,and forgiving.


May all my hostilities and frustrations,
my anger and pettiness
be swept away
in the river
of the water of life
that flows from your throne.


May my life shower the fruit of the tree of life
for the shalom, healing, and restoration of
all whose lives touch mine today.


May your name be written clearly on my forehead for all to see.


May my heart be broken again,
broken open so widely that the whole world falls in,
a wide-open welcome to enemies and friends.


I ask for the courage and wisdom,
to respond rather than react,
to help rather than hurt,
to understand rather than judge,
to care rather than criticize, and
to seek the good of those who are hurting and harming me.


May I trust in your protection instead of my own defenses.


In all of my life today, I turn myself over to you.
Keep me in your hands.
And in everything I am grateful.
Amen.


This prayer was adapted from one written by my pastor, Linda Nafziger-Meiser. I've used it frequently in the past few years.

Letters from 1998

I'm including here three letters I wrote in 1998 addressing a usually overloked enviromental problem, a problem that still exists and still needs to be addressed.



July 1, 1998



Mr. Tom Shealey, Editor
Backpacker
33 E. Minor St.
Emmaus, PA 18098


Dear Editor;

Inside the back cover of the June issue of Backpacker is a two page advertisement for Jeep. The background image for the advertisement is a picture of a rugged alpine mountain range with small rectangular pictures of three Jeeps and a mountain goat superimposed over the mountain. The image also contains markers indicating where the viewer should imagine the Jeeps and the goat being located on the mountain.

An advertisement such as this one which strongly suggests that it's acceptable to use Jeeps or other four wheel drive vehicles in steep, alpine mountain areas is environmentally irresponsible. The use of motorized vehicles in alpine areas is enormounsly destructive to the environment. Alpine areas, because of the steep incline, are subject to serious erosion. The vegetation there is fragile, has a very short growing season and a slow growth rate. Damage done by the tires of any motorized vehicle can be extensive and long lasting.

Backpacker Magazine should have an environmental ethic which prohibit promoting this kind of destructive advertising. Environmental protection is in the long term interest of Backpacker and its readers. Advertisements for Jeep or other sports utility vehicles should be limited to depicting them being used on established roads, not on steep pristine alpine slopes. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Leonard Nolt

--------------------------------------------


July 8, 1998



Mr. Perkins Miller, Editor
Editorial Office
Snow Country
5520 Park Avenue
Turnbull, Ct 06611-0395



Dear Editor;


On Page 9 of the Spring/Summer issue of Snow Country is a one page advertisement for the Lincoln Navigator. The image is of a Navigator on a rocky alpine slope with clouds just beyond the vehicle, and beyond the clouds is a distant mountain range. The implied, if not stated, message for the reader is if they want to get away into the mountain wilderness, the vehicle to use is the Navigator. The picture is attractive and the vehicle appears capable.

Unfortunately an advertisement like this one, which strongly suggest that it's acceptable to use Navigators or other four-wheel drive vehicles in steep alpine mountain areas, is environmentally irresponsible. The use of motor vehicles in alpine areas is enormously destrictive to the environment. Alpine areas, because of the steep incline, are subject to serious erosion. The vegetation there is fragile, has a very short growing season, and a slow growth rate. Damage done by the tires of any motorized vehicle can be extensive and long-lasting.

A four-wheel drive manufacturer who advertises his product by showing it being used on environmentally sensitive alpine areas is acting as irresponsible as a syringe manufacturer would be if he advertised his product with a photograph of a drug addict shooting up. Another comparison would be with a beer manufacturer promoting his product with a photograph of a fatal accident caused by a drunk driver. Advertising a product with an image of the product being used in some irresponsible manner does not speak favorably of the manufacturer, the product, or the publication displaying the advertisement.

Snow Country should have an environmental ethic which prohibits promoting this kind of destructive advertising. Environmental protection is in the long-term interest of Snow Country and its readers. Advertisements for Navigators or other sports utility vehicles should be limited to depicting them being used on established roads, not on steep pristine alpine slopes. Thank you.

Sincerely;


Leonard Nolt

--------------------------------------

August 27, 1998


Mr. Shoichiro Toyoda, Chairman
Toyota Motor Corp.
Totota-cho
Toyota, Japan 471

Dear Chairman;

Recently I've been noticing the advetisements for the Lexus V8 LX 470 spots utility vehicle in US publications, and I have some concerns about the way that vehicle is depicted in those advertisements.

For example, the one on pages ten and eleven of the April, 1998 issue of Town and Country is a darkly colored image of the LX 470 under a tree which also has a couple of menacing-looking alligators on a thick branch of the tree directly above the LX 470. The caption includes the following sentence, "Let nature worry about you for a change."

Another advertisement is on pages eight and nine of the May/June 1998 issue of Mountain Summer, a special issue of Ski Magazine. This image also depicts the LX 470 as being in competition with nature. It displays another dark image of the LX 470 on a diagonal path through a forest, and all the trees on either side of the vehicle are bent away from the SUV at a sharp angle. The caption includes the sentence, "Now with added intimidation." Another sentence in smaller print says, "You can go through or over pretty much anything."

I realize that these images are probably computer generated and no animals or plants were damaged in producing them. I'm also aware that your company has a reputation for manufactuing quality vehicles, and even though I've never driven or even ridden in a LX 470, I'm sure it's a fine SUV.

However I'm concerned about the depiction of a modern sports utility vehicle as being in competiton with nature. I'm sure some people will get a laugh from the image of the LX 470 with alligators since, although I'm not a reptile expert, I don't believe alligators can climb trees.

However we all know that the use of motor vehicles with internal combustion engines already have a destructive impact on nature. Fossil fuels are burned to power them, which releases sustances that contribute to the greenhouse effect and to air pollution. The construction and maintenance of roads for motorized vehicles to use also damages the natural environment.

Advertising the LX 470 as being a threat to, or in competition with, nature seems to be a questionable way of promoting sales. It could give the LX 470 a bad image. It could also be interpreted from the advertisements that the LX 470 threat to nature is more than just an advertising tactic, that perhaps it is just a very subtle way of telling the public that the LX 470 pollutes more than most vehicles, or gets poorer gas mileage.

It seems to me that it would be wise for vehicle manufacturers to reduce the destructive effect that their product has on the environment as much as possible. It would also be wise to advertise those vehicles with images, and with captions to the images, that does not encourage them being used in ways that cause further harm to the environment. Users of sports utility vehicles should definitely not be encouraged to "go through or over pretty much anything." An advertising approach like that is environmentally irresponsible, and may contribute to "road rage" which threatens other motorists as well as the environment.

Images which depict the LX 470 being used in ways that harmonize with the environment would present a positive impression of the LX 470 and enhance the public image of your company. I do appreciate the fact that I haven't seen advertisements of the LX 470 being used in fragile mountainous alpine areas, which is how some manufacturers have advertised their SUV's.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and consider my comments.

Sincerely,

Leonard Nolt


Recently I spent some times scanning issues of magazines checking advertisements for SUVs and found that there has been some improvement in the way SUVs are advertised. However at least one publication still has a problem with advertising SUVs in a responsible manner. That publication is SKI. The March/April 2008 issue of SKI on page 26 and 27 had a two-page advertisement of a Range Rover perched on the edge of a cliff in the Grossglockner, Austrian Alps "most imposing range." The caption asks, "Have you ever seen the curvature of the earth?" "The Range Rover has." This, of course, encourages the use of the Range Rover in alpine areas which is environmentally irresponsible unless used on established roads, which was definitely not happening in this image. Also the October, 2006 issue of SKI, which I was surprised to find two copies of on a newstand on March 13, 2008, had inside the front cover a two page advertisement of the Chevy Tahoe 271 being used on a flat snow-covered alpine setting between high peaks. Some change still is needed. I'll be contacting SKI at http://www.skinet.com/.

On War

People kill, and kill, and kill some more,
for reasons that we must explore.
Can anyone list the excuses used
to justify increasing death's score?

For the dead, all freedoms are lost
when war victims pay the total cost.
"We did it for freedom," the
soldiers on both sides say;
(at least those who live to
greet a more peaceful day).
But what they really did, however
was simply transfer oppression
from one victim to another,
for speech, religion, and press,
are freedoms to which the
dead have no access.

When the guns are silent, the dead buried,
and the rubble sifted;
when the missiles are anchored, the bombers
parked; when the threat of sudden violent
death is temporarily lifted;
to the mourning survivors left
it becomes quite clear, that in war,
the winner's trophy goes to death.


Previously published in 2003 on the web site
http://www.poetsagainstthewar.org/

Does God Exist? Do Christians Exist? A Review of the book "Letter to a Christian Nation," by Sam Harris

I've been reading Sam Harris' book Letter to a Christian Nation for the second time in a few weeks, and it raises some old questions and issues I've been challenged to re-think. Harris is an atheist, a term he dislikes. He writes, "Atheism is a term that should not even exist. No one ever needs to identify himself as a 'non-astrologer' or a 'non-alchemist.'" He continues, "Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world; it is simply an admission of the obvious... An atheist is simply a person who believes that the 260 million Americans (87 percent of the population) claiming to 'never doubt the existence of God' should be obliged to present evidence for his existence - and indeed, for his benevolence, giving the relentless destruction of innocent human beings that we witness in the world each day. An atheist is a person who believes that the murder of a single little girl - even once in a million years - casts doubt upon the idea of a benevolent God."
I disagree with Harris on many points since I believe that the existence of a supreme being and creator is perhaps the most obvious fact about this world. I have no plans to embrace atheism. But I find Harris' 91-page book worthwhile reading and I would recommend it to you also. Harris raises the usual questions asked by those who believe, and don't believe in God. How can there be a benevolent all powerful God when innocent people every day are suffering and dying throught no fault of their own? Why such horrible God-given laws in the Old Testament as the orders to kill disobedient children, and to execute people for certain sins such as working on the Sabbath? In fact I believe there are explanations and answers to those questions. Harris also points out some of the contradictions in the Bible and makes a credible argument against the Bible being infallible. I have no problem with those arguments. Many Christians damage the credibility of Christianity by making claims that have no basis in truth or Biblical fact. In order for the Bible to be infallible, the language it's written in would also have to be infallible. No language used by humans is infallible. An infallible language is one in which misunderstandings could not exist. Of course no such language exists. Harris is right in challenging the phony claim, made by many Christians, that the Bible is infallible.
More troubling to me is Harris' report that since the publication of his first book, The End of Faith, which addresses the same issues, the most hostile responses he received came from Christians. I guess we can always count on some Christians giving Christianity a bad name. Just as important is the information that the least religious countries in the world: Norway, Iceland, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Japan, the Netherlands, Denmark, and the United Kingdom, are also the healthiest as indicated by life expectancy, adult literacy, per capita income, educational attainment, gender equality, homicide rate, and infant mortality. Why do the religious beliefs of Christians often seem to impede human development? If our religious beliefs block human development, can those beliefs actually be Christian beliefs? Harris does acknowledge that not all Christians are alike, that some do not take their beliefs too seriously and use them as weapons against others.
I recommend reading this book because it helped me to see how some other people view Christians. It demonstrates a need to rethink how we as Christians talk about and practice our faith. What kind of impression are we leaving with others? Do my beliefs actually impede human progress? Is God really all-powerful? Harris raises brief, but solid criticism to Christian opposition to evolution, abortion, and stem cell research. He points out that "religion tends to divorce morality from the reality of human and animal suffering." Harris writes that "religion allows people to imagine that their concerns are moral when they are highly immoral." I agree. Christian support for the US military attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan is highly immoral for numerous reasons, but primarily because of the harmful impact those wars are having on the lives of innocent humans. Many of Harris' arguments are very credible and directed at what I would see as Christian mis-interpretation of the teachings of Christianity.
Harris doesn't take into consideration the distinction between Old and New Testaments, or the differences between the various types of literature in the Bible: poetry, history, didactic writings, prophecy, etc., and that each needs to be read somewhat differently, as today we read and interpret differently, a poem, a play by Shakespeare, and the front page of the daily newspaper. Failure to address those factors weakens Harris' arguments. He also seems to assume that the writings from the Bible are believed by Christians to be the work of God with no influence from human culture, as opposed to a hybrid or "cocktail" of writings by men and women inspired by God, but also reflecting strong human and cultural influence, which, I believe, more accurately describes the Bible. Since Harris is not a believer we cannot expect him to embrace the Anabaptist concept that the life and teachings of Jesus is the first principal of Biblical interpretation. This book does illustrate the value of interpreting the Bible through the life and teachings of Jesus although such an interpretation does not adequately respond to all of Harris' criticisms.
Harris would like to see religion eradicated and compares efforts to eliminate religion to the effort to abolish slavery in the eighteenth century. He claims that those who pray are simply "talking to an imaginary friend," He points out, with some justification, that when an atheist contributes to help meet human need, it's a greater act of charity than a Christian doing the same, because at least the atheist doesn't expect to get something, such as eternal life, in return. He rightly reminds us that Christian opposition to stem cell research, to vaccination to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, and to condom use actually results in more human suffering and premature deaths.
These challenges to Christianity are what many Christians need to hear. They raise questions we need to face. What kind of impact do my Christian beliefs have on others? Does my interpretation of the Bible make sense in light of what we know about history and science, or are they as ridiculous as believing that the earth is flat? Read Letter to a Christian Nation and I believe you will be inspired and challenged to face your beliefs, and ask yourself some of these important questions that Harris raises.

Previously published in slightly different form in the May, 2007 edition of "The Olive Branch," the newsletter of Hyde Park Mennonite Fellowship in Boise, Idaho.

Haiku

The blinding sun, strikes
lush, green cornfields, smiling down
on a job well done.



Written for a poetry writing assignment at Boise State Univ., 1993

Quicky Love Poem

Eyes of love
In my life
Pause in time
Cause of strife

The sole source
From each heart
Makes us one
A new start

Charge of joy
Surge of hope
Face the dare
We can cope

Time's sweet shove
Past the date
Hearts that love
Meet too late

Here's the way
Each to give
All we can
Helps us live

You my life
You my love
Soon to join
Hearts above


Written for a poetry writing class assignment at Boise State Univ., 1993

An Alphabetical Description of Light

Light is ambiguous
Light is benevolent
Light is complacent
Light is deceptive
Light is ethereal
Light is flirtatious
Light is gracious
Light is hypnotic
Light is intense
Light is jaunty
Light is kinetic
Light is liberating
Light is masculine
Light is nostalgic
Light is ornamental
Light is personal
Light is quick
Light is redundnat
Light is succinct
Light is treacherous
Light is understanding
Light is voluptuous
Light is winsome
Light is xanthic
Light is yielding
Light is zany

Written for a poetry writing class assignment at Boise State Univ., 1993.

Please note that, unless otherwise indicated, all the prose, poetry, and photographs on this blog are the creative property of Leonard Nolt and may not be reprinted or republished in any form without permission. (Leonard_en@Hotmail.com)