Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, better known as B. R. Ambedkar, and to the many whom he served throughout his life, as Babasheb, one of the singular figures of the Indian revolution was born on this day in 1891. While an untouchable (the term in general use has shifted to “dalit,” largely led by Ambedkar himself) his father, like his grandfather before, served in the British Army, and because of that he had access to an education. Nonetheless, the indignities he suffered... Read more

Yesterday Jan & I saw Eye in the Sky. Rotten Tomatoes‘ “critics consensus” tells us it is “As taut as it is timely, Eye in the Sky offers a powerfully acted – and unusually cerebral – spin on the modern wartime political thriller.” What we get is a morality play as political thriller. One hundred, eighteen professional reviewers averaged 92% positive on Rotten Tomatoes, while 88% of the audience score liked it. I find both the extremely high positive numbers... Read more

MISTAKES WERE MADE A Meditation on the Ecological Catastrophe And What to Do About it, Even if it is Too Late James Ishmael Ford 10 April 2016 Pacific Unitarian Church Rancho Palos Verdes, California It wasn’t all that long ago that the right wing entertainer Rush Limbaugh declared with full on pontifical certainty that “global warming is a religion!” You should feel the exclamation point. It reminds me of that old story where the kid goes up to the pulpit... Read more

Thomas Andrew Lehrer was born on this day in 1928, making him eighty-eight. A prodigy he entered Harvard at fifteen, graduating with a degree in mathematics, and then a year later was awarded an MA. He worked at his doctorate for the next fifteen years, teaching at various schools and spending a tour as an enlisted man in the Army. Eventually he would give up on the doctorate. Other interests overtook him. And, of course, Lehrer would come to be... Read more

Symbols count. Don’t ever let anyone tell you they don’t. They are not the end of the deal, of course, but they can be enormously important. Case in point. The Daughters of the American Revolution refused to let celebrated contralto Marian Anderson perform in Constitution Hall because she was African American. The uproar that followed has echoed to this day. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigned her membership in the DAR, and with the aid of her husband, was able to... Read more

Of course we don’t have a clue about when Gautama Siddhartha was born. We can only reasonably assume he was a real human being, and beyond that a few details marking his life. What we know of these things about his life are what we can glean from the suttas or sutras, texts written in Pali or Sanskrit some three, maybe four, possibly five hundred years after he died, and incidentally in languages he himself didn’t speak. So, everything about... Read more

William Ellery Channing was born on this day in 1780 in Newport, Rhode Island. He was the grandchild of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. As a child Channing attended with his family an extremely conservative congregation led by the Reverend Samuel Hopkins. Dr Hopkins was a strict Calvinist who preached the utter depravity of humanity and how nearly all of us were destined to damnation. A turning event occurred for the boy when after hearing a... Read more

It was on this day in 1895, following his disastrous, and frankly given the givens incomprehensible law suit for libel against the Marquess of Queensberry, Oscar Wilde was arrested in his room at the Cadogan Hotel, and charged with “committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons.” It would go from bad to worse. Later, John Betjeman would sing of those moments at room 118 in the hotel… Read more

Yes, it is true. I do not believe in a deity with some human like consciousness interfering in history. And, throughout my life I’ve stumbled into such serendipitous events that calling those moments evidence of a good god is totally understandable. At least if you’re not holding too tightly on to what is being proved. It turns out I’m not alone in having these experiences. And with that a small anecdote from noted Buddhist scholar, Richard Hayes. I first heard... Read more

Conventional wisdom is conflicted on the subject. The Mahatma himself, Mohandas Gandhi warned how “silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly.” After all the assumption that silence means assent is so old as to be a Latin proverb. “Qui tacet consentire videtur, ubi loqui debuit ac potuit,” that is “He who is silent, when he ought to have spoken and was able to, is taken to agree.” While on the other hand we... Read more