Formation

Retirement is freedom to live into one’s deepest calling. For me, it’s spiritual formation, a term that sounds religious. Since much of the world’s public religion today is toxic, personal formation may be better. For the simplicity in this and the next few posts, I’ll call it, simply, Formation.

In 1968, CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite was a major opinion-swayer. Lyndon Johnson understood the significance of Cronkite’s opinion that it was time to negotiate an end to America’s war in Vietnam. In my opinion, Fox News has become America’s most important opinion-swayer.

As an act of intentional formation, we no longer have TV cable. I subscribe to CNBC+ for $15 a month to access their financial news, so I don’t aspire to be a Desert Spiritualist. After our two-month camping trip, I’ve re-established a daily pattern of media intake that will continue to evolve. Here are links to today’s example of my first reads:

Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation, from the Center for Action and Contemplation.

Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American, which I access via Substack. She is also available on YouTube and Facebook.

Joyce Vance, Civil Discourse, a federal prosecutor for 25 years, is must reading in this age when (for now, at least), the judiciary is our only functioning “check and balance,” and it is wobbly. Vance helps me know (with wonderful Jewish precision and levity) the crucial legal issues of the week.

Those three are everyday “must reads” for me. Also, I check Robert Hubbell, whose Today’s Edition Newsletter tends to be encyclopedic. I use Hubbell to practice speed-reading. Today’s post. “Toto, I dont think we’re in 2024 anymore….” was a good review of Tuesday’s election results.

From “What the Frogs Know,” by Joyce Vance, Civil Discourse (cited above)

Nuisance or necessity?

If you’re radically MAGA, you likely view government as a nuisance, or at best a necessary evil to be minimized, mostly limited to national defense. The Trump administration has expanded our military by creating a Space Force to police the heavens and ICE to police the immigrants.

If you’re radically anti-MAGA, you likely view government as a necessity, a mostly welcome partner to individuals, businesses and institutions. You likely see the Trump administration as at best a bumbling disaster and at worst the beginning of America’s plunge into fascism.

Many Americans are somewhere in the middle of that continuum, the ones who swing elections. In 1932, Dale Carnegie wrote Lincoln the Unknown, which begins with his radical poverty on the wild Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois frontier of the early 1800s. Government was not a factor. Settlers were on their own:

Abraham was a 7-year-old migrant to Indiana from Kentucky when Tom Lincoln hastily built what was then known as a “three-faced camp.” Today it would be called a shed. It had no floor, no door, no windows …. during the long winter of 1816-17, one of the severest and most violent winters in our history.

As for food, they had no butter, no milk, no eggs, no fruit, no vegetables, not even potatoes. They lived chiefly on wild game and nuts. Tom Lincoln tried to raise hogs, but the bears were so hungry that they seized the hogs and ate them alive. For years, there in Indiana, Abraham Lincoln endured more terrible poverty than did thousands of the slaves whom he would one day liberate.

Late last night, Lincoln Unknown gave me a context for the Heather Cox Richardson reflection on Greg Abbott’s view of government as he handled questions about accountability for the tragic death toll from the Independence Day floods in Texas. Is government a nuisance or necessity? During the Great Depression, the nation voted in 1932 that government is a necessity. What about now?

From Lincoln the Unknown, by Dale Carnegie, 1932 (eleventh printing, 1977), via a Goodreads review

Project 2026

Early today, Heather Cox Richardson put the Trump budget bill in its historical context. Robert Hubbell said the “big ugly bill” poses potential political disaster for the Republican Party in 2026, even as the Democratc Party is being rejuvenated by younger, visionary leaders. Hubbell said in the Republican Party, “disagreement with Dear Leader on a single vote in the Senate spells the end of a respected Senator’s career. You tell me which party is in disarray.”

In contrast to the budget bill currently being considered by Congress, here’s another idea. Our son Rob asked ChatGPT, “How would you structure American society to be more equitable?”

ChatGPT responded: That’s a deep, important question — and there’s no single magic fix. But if I were designing a more equitable American society, I’d focus on systemic changes that don’t just treat symptoms but reshape opportunity structures. Here’s a high-level framework I’d suggest:

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1. Economic Foundations: A Floor No One Falls Below

• Universal basic needs — Guarantee access to healthcare, housing, food, and education so no one’s basic survival depends on luck or birth circumstances.
• Progressive taxation & wealth taxes — Reduce extreme inequality without punishing productive innovation, redirecting resources to social programs and infrastructure.

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2. Education: Level the Playing Field Early

• Equitable school funding — Break the tie between local property taxes and school budgets so poor areas aren’t perpetually under-resourced.
• Universal pre-K & affordable childcare — Give every child a strong start, regardless of parental income.
• Free or low-cost higher education / vocational training — So opportunity doesn’t hinge on family wealth.

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3. Health & Well-Being: Universal Coverage & Mental Health Parity

• Single-payer or robust public option healthcare — Decouple health insurance from employment so people aren’t trapped in bad jobs for benefits.
• Parity for mental health — Treat mental health care as essential, not optional.
• Preventive care incentives — Focus the system on keeping people healthy, not just treating illness.

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4. Labor & Wages: Reward Work Fairly

• Living wages indexed to local cost of living — So full-time workers don’t live in poverty.
• Stronger worker protections & collective bargaining rights — Reduce exploitation and give workers a real voice.
• Portable benefits — Health insurance, retirement, and other benefits should follow people between jobs or gig work.

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5. Criminal Justice: Fairness & Rehabilitation

• End cash bail & excessive fines — So poverty doesn’t equal jail time.
• Address systemic racism — Independent oversight, bias training, and demilitarizing police forces.
• Invest in rehabilitation & reentry — Reduce recidivism by helping former inmates build stable lives.

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6. Housing & Community Investment: Desegregate Opportunity

• Expand affordable housing — Through zoning reform and public investment.
• Target disinvested communities — Invest in infrastructure, transit, broadband, and small businesses in areas left behind by economic shifts.

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7. Democracy & Representation: Make Government Reflect the People

• Automatic voter registration & fair districting — Reduce gerrymandering and barriers to voting.
• Ranked-choice voting or proportional systems — Encourage more voices and reduce polarization.
• Campaign finance reform — Limit outsized influence of big donors.

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8. Address Intergenerational Inequality

• Child allowances or family supports — Directly reduce child poverty.
• Support for first-generation college students — Break cycles of disadvantage.

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Key Principle: Equity vs. Equality

• Equality gives everyone the same resources.
• Equity gives people what they need to overcome structural barriers — and that often means targeted investment.

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Of course, these aren’t easy fixes; they’d require political will, cultural shifts, and rethinking America’s deep assumptions about individualism and meritocracy. But they aim to ensure everyone has genuine opportunity — not just those who start out with advantages.

The Bulwark

The Bulwark is a news and opinion website that is conservative in the best sense of that word. In 2018, Sarah Longwell, Bill Kristol and Charlie Sykes launched The Bulwark as a conservative, thoughtful and self-critical alternative to a Trump-dominated authoritarianism that claims to be “conservative.”

In their January 15 newsletter, themed “We Had a Good 50-Year Run, Folks,” Bill Kristol wrote that the second Trump term marks the end of an era that began with the resignation of Richard Nixon. His brief article provides a helpful context for understanding where we’ve been and where we’re headed.

Kristol wrote that “…the past half century, when compared with other 50-year stretches in American or world history, stands up well. Obviously progress is never linear or one-sided. Every achievement has its drawbacks, and every success leaves some problems unaddressed and creates others. Still, there was less war, more freedom, and greater prosperity. That’s not a bad record.”

The Bulwark is the successor to The Weekly Standard, which was founded in 1995 by Bill Kristol, Fred Barnes and John Podhoretz. See, “The Weekly Standard To Close; Anti-Trump Conservative Magazine Was Cable News Pipeline,” by Greg Evans, Deadline, December 17, 2018.

A Day of Remembrance

For me, this isn’t a Day of Mourning. November 25, 1963 was a Day of Mourning. Etched in my memory is John F. Kennedy’s riderless horse with boots facing backward. I remember older people describing their shock when Franklin D. Roosevelt died suddenly at 63. April 14, 1945 was a Day of Mourning.

Jimmy Carter was elected Governor of Georgia at 47 in 1971 and President at 52 in 1976. It’s sobering that I remember when Carter was young. I began seminary in Atlanta midway through his term as Governor. He was elected President five months after I graduated.

I cannot mourn his death because he made the most of his long life. Bob Costas delivered eulogies for Mickey Mantle (1931-1995) and Stan Musial (1920-2013). In a 5-minute video, Costas reflects on Mantle’s regret for missed opportunities and Mantle’s respect for Musial for making the most of his.

Carter’s family and friends said he was determined to accomplish in retirement what he was unable to do because he was denied a second term. Carter’s “second term” was better than his first, and longer. It was 12 times longer–48 years. He saw opportunities in defeat and made the most of them.

A Day of Remembrance

John Cobb

A biblical idiom for dying is to be gathered: “Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and full of years; and he was gathered to his people.” John Cobb, Jr. was a universal human who understood he is (and we are) intricately interwoven with all humanity and creation.

A note by Wm. Andrew Schwartz was posted at The Center for Process Studies on December 27, 2024, entitled “The Passing of John B. Cobb, Jr..” Here are the first two of eight paragraphs:

It is with profound sorrow that we announce the passing of John B. Cobb, Jr., a visionary thinker, tireless advocate for ecological civilization, and a guiding light in process thought. As the founder of the Center for Process Studies, John’s wisdom, courage, and unwavering hope inspired generations of scholars, activists, and spiritual seekers across the globe. 

John remained remarkably active up until his final days, continuing to engage deeply with the issues that mattered most to him. However, after a fall a few days ago, his health declined rapidly. He passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loving family, on the night after Christmas—just six weeks shy of his 100th birthday. 

Havel to Snyder to Cheney

We’re in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, overlooking Lake Superior, reading Yale professor Timothy Snyder’s new book, On Freedom. As we prepare for our journey home on a clear, windy, blue sky day, On Freedom is a helpful, pre-election companion.

Snyder was influenced by Vaclav Havel, the Czech dissident who became president. Snyder introduces his Yale students to Havel’s 1989 essay, “The Power of the Powerless,” a profound meditation on freedom. Snyder’s words about Havel help me understand today’s Republican Party in the US:

Havel (describes) Czechoslovakia … adaptation to the party line, even though no one believed it expressed anything beyond the convenience of the powerful. Normality in this sense … has no substance, only form. It is the habit of saying (and then thinking) what seems necessary, while agreeing implicitly (and then explicitly) that nothing really matters. Life becomes an echo chamber….

The pretending was what Havel called “unfreedom,” the concession of the authentic self. … Modern tyranny, Havel concluded, required not devotion but predictability.

In my 8th grade typing class, one of the drills was to type, “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party.” I didn’t expect to live long enough to actually see it, but we’re in that time now. It’s time for Dems to work and vote for Kamala Harris for reasons readers of this blog understand. Republicans need to work and vote for Harris as well, not just for the well-being of our nation and world, but also for the long-term survival of the Republican Party.

Each step toward conformity with Donald Trump makes the Republican Party more predictable and less alive. Few Republican leaders have Liz Cheney’s courage. John McCain did. He understood freedom. He would be on the stage with Cheney and Kamala Harris. I believe the spirit of George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and Abraham Lincoln is there, too. Those still alive must speak for themselves.

Photo by Cathey Leach of Lake Superior from the Summit Peak, Porcupine Mountains State Park, Michigan

On aging

The media frenzy around Joe Biden inspired me to update (and trim) the News Sources page. It’s humbling to admit (on my 1,625th post) that it’s not necessary for me to have an opinion about everything, including whether Biden should stay in the race. I addressed the debate in the June 29 and July 1 posts. The media’s concern has caused me to examine my approach to aging.

In 2020, a Wisconsin friend said, “Joe will be a good, transitional, one term president.” With enormous gratitude for Biden’s win in 2020, I hoped he would announce at his Inauguration that he would not run in 2024. I was unrealistically naive. After all his years of public service, it would be hard for Biden not to run. Theodore Roosevelt regretted his pledge not to run again after he won his first full term in 1904.

My hat is off to those who lead well in their 70s and 80s. I began serving as a pastor as a college sophomore. After 40 years, at 59, I decided it’s better to leave a year too soon than to stay a day too long. But, we age at different speeds. Biden wants to press on. For me, “Let’s Go, Brandon!” is “Let’s Trust Biden.” In gratitude for his leadership, I would happily vote for him in November.

If the Democrats nominate someone else for President, I’ll vote for her or him. I’m comfortable letting Biden and the party work it out. As long as Trump or Trumpism controls the Republican Party, I’m a Democrat. Why? Check out these posts by Heather Cox Richardson and Joyce Vance about Trump, the Heritage Foundation, Project 25 and their Hungarian connection. Here’s a “Room Rater” opportunity:

Former Republican Representative Dave Brat, now Dean of the Liberty University School of Business, hosted the imprisoned Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast. Brat spoke with Kevin Roberts, President of the Heritage Foundation. The 3-minute video segment and transcript, “Heritage Foundation president celebrates Supreme Court immunity decision: ‘We are in the process of the second American Revolution,'” are available from Media Matters, July 2, 2024.

Everything is for sale

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter appointed U.W. Clemon as Alabama’s first black federal judge. Judge Clemon served for 29 years before retiring to private practice. I don’t remember the source, but the new judge encouraged his fellow black citizens to take their turn on jury duty to prevent some of the injustices visited upon black criminal defendants by all-white juries.

Clemon helped educate folks about the power of a mistrial caused by a hung jury. When a unanimous decision is needed for conviction, it “only takes one” to block it. The requirement for a unanimous verdict is a genius protection placed in our system by the Founders. Marc Caputo notes that the MAGA machine is ready to use a hung jury as a “victory” for fund-raising and campaigning.

From Caputo’s insightful article in The Bulwark, which is free to the public: If (a hung jury) happens, Trump allies suspect that it will be chiefly due to the one juror who has made friendly eye contact with Trump from time to time as the jury enters the room and walks right past the defense table.

From “Trump Legal Team Pins Hopes on Hung Jury,” by Marc A. Caputo, The Bulwark, May 28, 2024