This relief bill is more like Herod’s mess than a Christmas miracle. Billionaires have made $1 trillion during the pandemic, but poor & low income ppl can’t get guaranteed health care, just sick leave, adequate unemployment or help for cities—just $600 & a delay in overdue rent.
McConnell & the Republicans act as though they hate the people but love greed & power. There are those who want us to applaud this pitiful response, but the old folks I was raised around used to say you don’t “mess” on the carpet and then get praise for cleaning a little up.
Trump & McConnell’s minions “messed” on America & they want us to applaud them for cleaning a little of it up. No, we can’t do that.

This Christmas, we must be like Rachel who weeped for her children & refused to be consoled because they were no more.
As our Franciscan friends pray, “May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships, so that you will live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you will work for justice, freedom, and peace.
May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that you will reach out to comfort them. And turn their pain into joy.
And, may God bless you with foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you will do what others claim cannot be done. Amen."

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More from @RevDrBarber

9 Dec
Representation in any administration matters. We need to see female, Black, Asian, Latino, Native & LGBTQ ppl in leadership. But we need more than faces in high places. Justice is about what policy priorities the next administration will pursue.
Real power is not just about who gets appointed, but who is at the center of an administration’s vision for change & policy transformation goals to make the establishment of justice real.
Remember, when Thurgood Marshall was asked whether his replacement on the Supreme Court should be Black, he said that while race would inevitably be a factor in choosing someone for the Court, it should not be used as "an excuse for doing wrong."
Read 5 tweets
8 Dec
During the first Christmas, there was a crazy, sick, narcissistic, mean leader on the throne. Trump is more like him, a modern-day Herod, who doesn't even care about those dying from his policies & crimes against nature.
What did Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, Zechariah, the shepherds & the wise men do? They did the right thing, birthed a new beginning & let Herod sink into the forgotten footnotes of history.
Herod is only referenced in the Bible to show us what not to be, why we should never follow his type & why no Herod-type can ultimately stop God's truth, love & justice.
Read 5 tweets
7 Dec
Media—esp. progressive media—must stop acting as though Trump’s tactics, terminology & political treachery are new. This didn’t just begin when Trump got elected. Mainstream Republicans have embraced this kind of extremism for decades.
I deeply appreciate my brother @JoeNBC, but I heard him say this morning that conservatives who rejected the “radicals” of the 60s need to reject Trump radicals today. We have to be careful how we use the term ”60s radical.”
In the 1960s, “radical” was a slur against movements for justice. Extreme voices like Billy James Hargis were the “Trump radicals” then & conservatives didn’t reject him.

Read 4 tweets
2 Dec
It’s damn near criminal that millions are hurting, billionaires are getting richer, sick people are dying, poverty is expanding & the Senate can’t do the right thing. A so-called "centrist" compromise is $2.2 trillion less than the Heroes Act & some say it’s a "good deal."
When will we have politicians who love the people & refuse to play games with people’s lives? Corporations have gotten everything they asked for & more. 1 in 8 Americans reported going hungry last week!
These Senators could have refused to vote for a Supreme Court nominee until a stimulus bill was passed. Please do not call this a "centrist" position. It’s a cynical position that reveals again & again why Trump alone is not the problem.

washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020…
Read 4 tweets
29 Nov
The worst thing for people to think would be that folks just want to go back to normal.

People understand that even after the election, 8 million more people have been added to the 140 million people in poverty and low-wealth [conditions].
Millions more people have lost their health care. There’s nothing normal about this situation.

The Constitution doesn’t say, “Just give half the people equal protection under the law.” That’s being centrist.
It doesn’t say “Give half the people the establishment of justice.” It’s a requirement of the whole. So we don’t need this language that’s really more about people getting along on the surface, but not having a real healing.
Read 4 tweets
24 Nov
Most people in this country don't hold stocks, are too far in debt or in jobs where they don't have access to a pension fund or something like that to be directly impacted by the stock market, whether it is going up or down.
If Americans have wealth at all, it is invested in their homes, but, through loans or mortgages. This may still not translate into any "positive" wealth, i.e., they may be in debt or "under water," where they owe more than they own.
This means the stock market is more a reflection of the wealth of the wealthy. Poor & low-income people are indirectly impacted by it, as the wealthy make decisions on their different sources of wealth (investments, firms/businesses they own, etc.) that affect the rest of us.
Read 9 tweets

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