Hurricane Gustav appears to be moving inexorably toward New Orleans. It's hard to imagine anything worse than Hurricane Katrina three years ago, but they predict that this may well be the case. I pray not.  Whether or how much Gustav will disrupt the Republican nominating convention in St. Paul is still moot. People here in Paterson are adjusting to Senator McCain's surprise selection of Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. It's hard for me to envision Mrs. Palin as President of the United States, should McCain die in office, but perhaps that is just latent chauvanism on my part.
          Now here is some food for thought, especially for my friends in Colorado Springs who persist in voting Republicans into office.  Republicans have governed the country during 34 of the past 60 years; Demoncrats have done so for 26 years. Republicans insist they are the better party for economic growth.  But under Republican presidents, the annual gross national product of America averaged only 1.64 percent per capita; under Democrat presidents it averaged 2.78 percent -- 70% higher.  But that's not all:
          Over the 60-year period, when Democrats were in office, the average annual income growth for Americans, adjusted for inflaction, was roughly equal across all five percentiles, from the lowest 20 percent to the highest 20 percent. The lowest income group enjoyed a 2.64 percent annual increase in income, while the highest income group averaged 2.12.  But during the Republican years in office the lowest income group averaged only a 0.43 percent increase, while the highest income group averaged 1.90 percent.  Thus over the 60-year period the income gap in the United States has steadily widened.  The richest are getting even richer while the poorest are getting poorer.  This is a startling refutation of the basic Republican "trickle down" theory of economic prosperity.

          Georgia and I stayed up tonight to watch Barack Obama's acceptance speech.  It was not his best, rhetorically, but politically it went very well. Georgia has been an Obama supporter from Day One.  I was much more skeptical at first, thinking that Obama might be a replay of Adlai Stevenson.  But both of us are very much aware of the cultural significance of this nomination, regardless of the actual outcome of the election.  Back in the 1960s I was deeply impacted by the civil rights movement.  I thought highly of Martin Luther King, Jr. and alienated some of my Navigators colleagues by flying down to Atlanta to attend his funeral when he was asassinated.  I admired Shirley Chisholm's try for the presidency in 1972 and supported Jesse Jackson's abortive try for the same in 1984; but in truth I never thought that in my lifetime an African-American woman or man would be a viable candidate for the presidency of the United States. But here we are, and it certainly reveals measurable progress in the American mentality.
          Of course, it would have been progress if Hillary Clinton had won the primary contest and possibly the presidency.  But there is a difference.  While it would have been a significant "first" to have a female president in the United States, around the world there already have been a number of outstanding women who have led their coutries: Golda Meir in Israel, Margaret Thatcher in Great Britain, Indira Gandhi in India, not to mention current female leaders such as Angela Merkel of Germany and Cristina Fernadez of Argentina. But if Senator Obama wins the presidency, that will certainly be a watershed in American history.

          Pro forma, I note that Senator Hillary Clinton gave a good speech last night, on her own behalf as well as Senator Obama's.  But my real interest today is drawing your attention to the spate of unrecognized and untreated concussions soldiers in Iraq are incurring.  We've read a lot about traumatic brain injuries, but little to date about about concussions, which the military calls mild traumatic brain injuries.  But it turns out there is little that is mild about them, for the returning soldiers are experiencing memory loss, mood swings, dizziness, headaches, hearing problems and light sensitivity, sometimes on a severe scale.  And the reason this interests me is because Georgia, following three consecutive concussions from car accidents suffers similar symptoms which doctors do not seem to take seriously, even as the military does not consider the soldiers' concussions a major concern.  But these returning soldiers are suffering job losses, financial difficulties, divorces and mental health issues.  Likewise Georgia was finally forced into an early retirement in the aftermath of her concussions.  It would appear that the medical profession has some ways to go in understanding these events, military and civilian concussions alike.

          Opening night of the Democatic Party Convention.  Lots of short speeches.  Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. gave a fine speech; he's a better orator than his father.  Senator Ted Kennedy, suffering from a brain tumor, nevertheless showed up and gave his usual rouser.  But the big even was Michelle Obama's speech, and it was, in my opinion, excellent.  Her two kids were a big hit, too.  I'm not certain Barack Obama can win the presidency, but if he does, his wife will be a superb First Lady. David Brooks, the Republican commentator for PBS and a columnist for the New York Times, thought she did not accomplish what she set out to do: help the country get better acquainted with her husband, but he was mistaken.  I used to like Brooks' commentaries, but for the past six months or so I have come to feel he's out of touch. He seemed to be so tonight.

          Senator Obama has decided on his running mate.  Senator Biden is a good enough choice, but in my opinion, Senator Hillary Clinton would have been better.  She is as good or superior to Biden on each of the several criteria Obama set out as the basis for his selection.  She is as qualified as Biden to be President if something were to happen to Obama.  She is as qualified as Biden on the issue of experience and expertise in foreign affairs.  She is as able as Biden to appeal to blue collar voters. She is as apt as Biden to speak up independently to Obama.  And she is as qualified as Biden in her ability to serve as an attack dog against the Republicans.  But above these qualities, she has one more: her ability to bring in the approximately two million women voters who once favored her but now lean toward Senator John McCain.  That would virtually guarantee a "dream ticket" win. Why then didn't Obama choose her?  My guess is that Obama is not as comfortable with her personally as he is with Biden; he would likely have to put up with Bill Clinton as part of the deal; and most likely he thinks that in the final analysis he rather than McCain will get those resentful women voters.

          Georgia's plane took off from the West Palm Beach airport this morning in the midst of the tropical storm Fay.  Rain was heavy and winds were gusty, but there was no problem and she arrived on time in Atlanta.  Her son Bo lives in Atlanta.  After a few hours with Bo, she went a few miles north to Lawrenceville, where her daughter Ivy and several grandchildren live. She should be back home here about a week from now.
          I still cannot fathom the hypocrisy being expressed by the current U.S. administration over the Russian invasion of Georgia.  "We cannot allow bullying in international affairs," says President Bush. "We cannot allow one country to just invade another country in order to promote its national interests."  But isn't that precisely what the U. S. did five years ago when it invaded Iraq?  What right have we to object when Russia does the same thing?  It reminds me of the U. S. cold war policy with respect to Cuba.  At that time we had missles in Turkey, which bordered the then-Soviet Union, missles that were pointed at the Soviet Union.  Yet when the Soviet Union sought to establish a military presence in Cuba, on our doorstep, we were prepared to initiate World War Three.  This double standard contines to baffle me.

          I've been watching the Olympics most late evenings.  China seems to be running away with the gold medals.  Jamaica appears to have the popular track and field races wrapped up.  The U.S. gymnastics teams have done well, especially the women.  It's hard, however, to watch some excellent athletes have one bad event, destroying their medal hopes after years of hard work and achievement.
        I also watched the political forum that Rev. Rick Warren (The Purpose-Driven Life) moderated with Barack Obama and John McCain.  Warren did a fine job, in my opinion.  McCain came off well.  Obama's answers to Warren's questions were typically nuanced and long-winded, relative to McCain.  I like Obama's nuances, but suspect that most of the country doesn't.  Obama reminds me too much of Adlai Stevenson, who ran against General Dwight Eisenhower twice in the 1950s and lost both times.
          On the international front, the conflict between Georgia (the country, not my wife, who continues to peacefully visit her children and grandchildren in Florida and the state of Georgia, and won't be home till this time next week) and Russia is a harbinger of the future.  Not every crisis in the world centers on Iraq and Afghanistan.  Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Darfur are equally important, each in its own way. And while U.S. presidents can bluster and talk tough, often there's not much they can do to make a difference.

          I have completed the first draft of the book I am writing, The Renewal of All Things.  I cannot proceed further until I get some thoughtful feedback.  Would any of my blog readers be able and willing to help me out?  If so, please drop me a line by email and I will send the first draft to you by email attachment. Your assistance will be a tremendous help to me at this time and I will be most grateful.

          I do not need feedback in identifying typos or grammatical mistakes; the copy editors will take care of that.  What I need are specific alerts about paragraphs or larger sections where I am not communicating clearly.  Also, it would help it you would identify areas where my argument seems deficient and should be sharpened.  And it would help if you could point out issues you think I should expand more on, or issues that I may have overlooked entirely.

          Thanks much!
    

He (a 79-year-old): Let's get out of here
She (his wife): Stop acting like a grumpy old man.
He: But I am an old man.                                                 
She: Well, then, get over it!

          That conversation, overheard in a department store, could just as well have been between Georgia and me.  This year, for the first time, I am beginning to feel my age.  But, as I mentioned yesterday, it's best to just ignore the signs of aging and keep plowing ahead.
        Riverside Church, New York City's best-known congregation, noted for great preaching and social activism, has a new pastor, Dr. Brad Braxton, a 39-year-old African-American New Testament scholar at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. He is the author of Preaching Paul, and No Longer Slaves: Galatians and African-American Experience. He is also something of an authority on preaching -- always a requisite for any minister at Riverside.
         Three weeks of top-level discussion aimed at preventing the breakup of the worldwide Anglican communion over the issue of homosexuality ended inconclusively yesterday. Conservative Anglicans, mostly from Africa and Asia, but including some from the USA, have long threatened to leave the communion unless the ordination of gay and lesbian priests and bishops is not halted. I have mixed feelings about the issue.  My biggest mental reservation is that focusing on this matter appears to make Christian faith primarily a matter of morality, which is what I believe the New Testament writers, particularly Paul, strongly opposed. Christianity is always in danger of becoming "just another religion" rather than a living relationship with God.  Even if one believes homosexuality is a sin, the fact remains that Jesus embraced "publicans and sinners," much to the consternation of the Pharisees of his day.  Of course, accepting sinners is not the same as ordaining them to leadership within the Christian community.  So the matter is clearly debatable -- but hardly worth dismantling an entire Church (the third largest in the world, after Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox) over it.
          Over in Malaysia the Muslim government is being rocked by two separate scandals involving sodomy and murder.  I was instrumental in creating the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship of Malaysia years ago.  It's present executive, Rev. Wong Kim Kong is reported in the New York Times as saying that the constant barrage of accusations being made has left ordinary Malaysians pining for clarity.  People cannot distinguish whho is telling the truth, he says.  Of course, the same could be said of many governments, perhaps most, around the world, not excluding our own.
          Nebraska, my home state, has just built its first major wind farm, consisting of 36 wind turbines that produce enough enery to power near 20,000 homes annually. 3,600 such turbines would supply all of Nebraska's electrical needs.  That seems to me to be well within reach.
         The biggest news today, by far, is the death of Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, the great Russian writer.  Back in Lebanon, in 1962, I read his first publication, "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," the story of life in Soviet prison camps.  This was followed by "The Gulag Archipelago," a work of great historical importance -- the "archipelago" being Solzhenitsyn's label for the vast system of Soviet prison camps. Later I read his nover, "The Cancer Ward," but never got around to reading the "August 1914," the first of the four volumes of "The Red Wheel," which Solzhenitzen thought was his most important writing. Solzhenitsyn was a great man, but a complex, difficult one -- a personality hard to like. His Christianity was basic to his life experience, but it was a faith deeply rooted in his Russian Orthodoxy and therefore not easy for Westerners to fathom or appreciate. 

          We've been home nearly a week now. It's taken us longer to recover from our rather strenuous trip to Colorado than either of us expected.  We've required more sleep this past week.  But we're getting there.  We've done a bit of yard work.  Yesterday Georgia attended a cousin's retirement party; and I attended the funeral of a friend's brother, killed by a drunk driver.  For me, the biggest accomplishment has been getting back into the writing of my book, The Renewal of All Things.  I feel pretty good with the progress I'm making so far.  For most of the month of August Georgia will be away, visiting her daughters and son in Miami and Atlanta.  I anticipate making really good progress on my book while she's away!