A New and Different Person

Dear Friends and Family – This is a non-partisan, non-political message.

With the election upon us, I’m compelled to get this information out to you all, non-partisan facts widely reported by reputable sources. (If you want references, I’ll provide them upon request, or Google them.) I know many people are in “information bubbles”, and depending on the one you’re in, these facts may or may not be a surprise to you. Coronavirus numbers are surging in our country, as well as other parts of the world. Yesterday, there were 99,000 new US cases, a record daily number – and almost a thousand deaths in one day. The upper Midwest is especially seeing alarming acceleration in rates of infections and mortality, the highest of this ongoing pandemic.

We must all act accordingly for everyone’s safety. Please do not go to large events with tightly packed people, whether indoors or outside, especially if masks and social distancing are absent. There are now two rallies in Minnesota and one in Wisconsin in recent weeks showing Covid-19 cases resulting from Republican campaign rallies.

Since the famous Rose Garden event that resulted in over thirty people contracting Covid-19 after the president had gotten it, now a second wave of the virus is going through the Whitehouse, this time hitting five of the Vice President’s close aides. Pence is head of the Corona Virus federal response, but is not himself following CDC protocol guidelines, nor attending the coordinating conference calls with the 50 state governors. There is a lack of available testing and PPE for frontline medical people, and hospitals are being overwhelmed in many states.

We have been told by this president that we are “turning the corner” on this virus and that it will disappear on Nov. 4. Don Jr. claims the number of coronavirus deaths has dropped to “almost nothing”. His father claims, “If you get it, you’re going to get better”. This is disinformation. We are told masks aren’t effective and that doctors get paid more for Covid-19 deaths. This is untrue. A study out of the U. of Kansas last week clearly demonstrated that the counties in Kansas that followed the governor’s mandate to wear masks have half the new Covid cases than do the counties that chose to ignore the mask mandate – in every case for every county. The rate of spread is double without masks, statistical data shows.

China has reopened their economy because of extreme measures. The US will never take such action, but Marin County, where I live, has extremely low Covid-19 numbers thanks to a partial reopening of the economy plus people following the guidelines of masks, social distancing, and hand washing. Parts of this country show it’s possible to contain this virus. Other sections of the country are demonstrating what politicizing the issues leads to.

Please, please be cautious. This meme from an anonymous source sums it up well: “We isolate now so when we gather again no one is missing.”
Blessings, Jonathan Nelson

A US PRESIDENT JOINS THE PANDEMIC – Facts and Feelings, Oct.2020

“If you made this stuff up, no one would believe you.” - a phrase for these times. When the US president, who downplayed the pandemic for 8 months, tested positive for Covid-19 and it hit the media feed that connect us all, the Internet exploded with conspiracy theories, including a popular one from the left that this was all a disinformation campaign intended for trump’s advantage. It illustrates how low we’ve sunk in this country, against all logic, that the announcement was thrown down multiple conspiracy rabbit holes.

Of course, the president’s Covid-19 infection runs counter to the entire strategy of the GOP/trump campaign, which has consistently downplayed and minimized the pandemic risks and the federal response to it. Now, it makes trump look foolish for mocking and bullying his political rival for wearing a mask at the presidential debate just days before his test diagnosis. The pandemic is now unequivocally front and center for the duration of the 2020 campaign.

Multiple ironies are piling up everywhere. The president went to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, serving our nation’s military personnel, those who fit the president’s own categories of “losers” and “suckers”. Even though he, in reference to John McCain, said he prefers people who weren’t captured, trump has been captured by the virus in this pandemic war and is being treated at a government run, taxpayer funded, officially socialized medical institution – all programs of the type that trump’s GOP are trying to kill for American citizens. If trump recovers, it will be largely due to the crack physicians available to him along with the experimental therapies unavailable to you and me. I prefer those who don’t get infected due to their own cavalier negligence.

And the ironies pile on. In 2016, candidate trump famously mocked his political opponent, Hillary Clinton, in the run-up to that election, making fun of and pantomiming her flu weakness at his campaign rallies. Now struck by a deadly pathogen, just weeks out from the 2020 election, trump lands in a hospital. Alternately, Joe Biden has tested negative multiple times since the debate and has offered prayers and well wishes for trump’s speedy recovery, also pulling negative campaign ads against him – classy, compassionate. President and First Lady Obama wished and prayed for trump to safely recover as well, ‘going high when they go low’, contrasting the ongoing trump campaign fundraising ads insulting Joe Biden and Obama.

Frankly, I’ve been surprised by the volume of positive, courteous responses after trump’s infection from sources on the left. It’s challenged me to wonder where my Christ-like standards are for myself. Let’s face it; if trump suffered a protracted serious illness or death, this would undoubtedly save American lives, countering the reckless and cavalier behaviors and narrative demonstrated by the Whitehouse that encourage the growing numbers of Covid-19 casualties. More fans of trump might finally realize that masks save lives and take conservative precautions.

So, do I pray for trump’s full and speedy recovery like others who value religious or civil ethics? Would he not likely claim to the American people that the virus is not really that bad, even though the therapies that likely saved him are not available to you and me? Do I pray in the language and spirit of the biblical Psalms (Ps. 109 in summary), that God not spare the wicked ruler from the consequences of his actions? Or, more specifically from Mary’s famous Magnificat in Luke 1:52-3, for God to bring down the powerful from their thrones and the rich to be sent empty away – a candid prayer for justice, along with a curse for the unjust. Is this what Jesus meant in saying: “Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.”? Those demonstrating against injustice trump labeled enemies of America and are being hunted, after trump retweeted: “The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.”

I find it challenging, often impossible, to figure out how to take the high road in all this. I pray for wisdom, and for the courage not to remain silent. Thank you for listening. These times are not easy for anyone. Hopefully, we can all speak and receive honesty, and grow in our compassion and understanding.

Regards, Jonathan Nelson

Oct. 5, 2020

Dear Friends and Family, (September, 2020)

In the midst of our smoky fire season out here in California, I’m writing to you because I love my country and I’m trying to do the right thing. You and I were raised in much the same way, and we still have more in common than we are led to believe by the politicians and media that dominate our news feeds.

I grew up in a Minnesota Republican family admiring the popular US President General Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950’s. When I finally could vote, I cast my ballot for Richard Nixon in 1972 for his second term, while the Watergate break-in barely made the back pages of the Washington Post. He would soon resign in 1974 because a bipartisan Congress was certain to impeach him for a cover-up. The famous Nixon tapes sealed his fate.

Yesterday, I watched the popular documentary THE SOCIAL DILEMMA on Netflix, which I highly recommend. In it, top corporate social media techies explain how profit driven social platforms and algorithms manipulate us and hold us in our own information “bubbles”. The result is a divided, intolerant population living in two separate realities. Politicians use this condition to pit us against one another, sowing discord and fear, thereby consolidating their own power. It’s an old authoritarian playbook tactic, on steroids now because of social media.

I used to think the problem was half the country watches Fox News, and the rest of the country watches everything else. But, it’s much bigger than that. What we see on our phones is all chosen for us, to maximize advertising profits and feed us what we want to see to keep us engaged, clicking, scrolling, getting the dopamine hits – but the result is we never, or rarely see the other side of the issues. After decades of this, we stand in a country coming apart at the seams.

Depending on what you watch on TV or scroll through on your phone, you may have just learned from Bob Woodward, one of those two reporters who broke the Watergate scandal, that president trump, counter to what he told us, early on was well aware the Covid-19 virus is a deadly airborne pathogen, far more contagious and lethal than the ordinary flu and very dangerous to the country. Yet, he’s told the country something very different. While he claims he lied to the American people in order to prevent a panic, his downplaying of the pandemic, combined with his lack of a response, has cost tens of thousands of lives according to his own experts. His current indoor rallies of unmasked followers hear promises that we’ve turned the corner and this pandemic is almost over. They are told instead to fear protesters, Democrats, and liberals (folks like me). We are called terrorists, but we are not. We are Americans.

Actually, one of my biggest fears, which you might share, is having inadequate health care to meet my needs. The GOP and trump have clearly stated Medicare, Social Security, and the Affordable Care health program are all definitely on their chopping block, with no plans to replace them. To millions of Americans this extreme policy is unthinkable. Some news outlets don’t even report this.

Whistle blowers keep sounding the alarm about the danger trump is to this country. They are warning us as best they can – his former lawyer and staff, family members, former congressional Republicans, career generals, former Joint Chiefs of Staff, and US intelligence officials who have served this country with distinction through multiple administrations. This is no longer about right verses left, or Republican verses Democrat. All former presidents of both parties have warned us against this president, and are all voting for the other guy.

I am now a registered Independent voter and I simply want to make sure you have heard the alarms many respected conservative sources are sounding. If you wish, I can provide links from reputable and reliable sources on any of these points, just ask if you want to read further. Please don’t vote to re-elect this president. Please vote for who can best help heal our nation at the present time. Biden has presented good plans that are bipartisan in nature.

Thank you for listening and feel free to share this,
Jonathan Nelson, Novato, CA

Here is a letter to my friends and family. Feel free to use it to send your own letters and emails. Do it now please.

Dear Family and Friends, (August, 2020)

This feels like the most important letter I’ve written in my life, because of what’s at stake in this country. I send it in hopes that you read it and talk about it with me. I don’t intend this to be a political rant, but rather a heartfelt plea and warning. The late Congressman John Lewis said: “When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up.” Well, I’m speaking up.

This summer the current US president began a historically unprecedented campaign by violently clearing Lafayette Park adjacent to the Whitehouse of peaceful protesters (including clergy and first-aid volunteers) with an unidentified paramilitary force, for a photo-op to hold a Bible aloft in front of an Episcopal Church. This was accomplished with teargas, flash bombs, rubber bullets, and baton beatings upon peacefully protesting US citizens, and was roundly criticized by congressional and military leaders alike.

This campaign has expanded into other US cities, against the objections of state and local officials, where similar secret police in unmarked vans are instigating violence and snatching non-violent protesters away for interrogations. The administration has said up to 75,000 of these paramilitaries are being readied for deployment to cities around the country. The Whitehouse has called peaceful demonstrators terrorists, anarchists, and enemies of democracy. The violence of a comparatively few problem agitators (some proving to be white nationalists) serve as their pretext for what some politicians are calling an “invasion of America”. Many of these paramilitary mercenaries are from a private company and are neither police nor US military. This has never happened before in US history. It is standard practice in authoritarian dictatorships.

The narratives from the right and left are worlds apart, no surprise there. Because I protest, I’m called a terrorist by trump, re-tweeting “The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat”. Although I’m now registered as an Independent, Whitehouse rhetoric brands me, contrary to the 1st Amendment, an enemy of the state for protesting. He also brands the free press an enemy of the people.

Rhetoric out of the Whitehouse also blames China for the Covid-19 pandemic. Weeks ago, we spoke with our good friends in China, whom we visited one year ago. They asked us: “Do Americans really hate the Chinese?” My heart sank and I felt ashamed. It was like a gut punch. We told them the truth, that a minority believes the tweets out of the Whitehouse, but not the majority of Americans. Ethnic based slurs have real consequences here and abroad.

Now, American travelers are banned from all major world countries, even our neighbors Canada and Mexico. Pandemic numbers are surging, yet after six months to get it right like other countries have demonstrated - testing, tracing, and PPE are still in short supply nationally. In March we were promised that anyone anytime would be able to get a test in a Target parking lot, from the president flanked by corporate CEOs. Now, even GOP governors say the federal response is worthless. The lack of an organized federal response is unnecessarily costing thousands of American lives, and killing an economic recovery as well. What should be a war to save lives is now a war of words and battles on city streets.

Prior to the 2016 election I penned a letter warning that this country felt like 1930s Germany to me. In four short years we are on an unmistakable slide into fascism, with the blessing of Russia, and all Republican senators (except one) supporting trump’s rhetoric and actions, either with words or now with their silence. I am actually not being over-reactive or alarmist here - that’s happening on US streets and in ideological/political discourse across social media. I look at the history of fascism and see the repeat of these patterns by this administration’s policies and narrative. This is the observation of many respected authorities now as well.

I get it - 23% of Americans voted for trump because he spoke his mind, appeared to be a shrewd businessman, headlined a reality show, all with untested political ability. We are now dealing with a known quantity. All current living US presidents have warned us, as have former generals and Joint Chiefs of Staff that he is a danger to our democracy. Prominent conservatives like columnist George Will, the Lincoln Project, and former GOP campaign managers have told us to vote against trump and the entire GOP supporting him, what is now referred to as the cult of trump. They say the Republican Party abandoned them and its platform of conservative spending, values, and smaller government, no longer resembling the party of Eisenhower and Reagan. No less than 27 past GOP congressman have together signed an endorsement letter for Joe Biden. I ask you please to heed their advice. Our country needs us all to turn this around, to be the change. George Washington said the two party system would be America’s downfall and we’re here.

If trump stays in for another term, like many of our friends have already done, we will very possibly leave the country. As Social Security and Medicare are on the chopping block here, better medical care and affordable prices are available elsewhere, as are lower living costs and more peaceful societies. Until then, we will not give up the fight to help this country live up to it’s founding ideals – equality, justice for all, and freedom. I look forward to talking about this with you.

Thank you,
Jonathan Nelson

p.s.- Other serious developments that should deeply concern us are:
* A recent bipartisan Senate Intel. report showing 2016 Russian collusion, as well as interference then and now.
* Systematic dismantling of the US Postal Service, which trump admits is intended to disrupt mail-in voting.
* US intelligence reports of Russia paying bounties to the Taliban for killing US soldiers, which trump calls a hoax.
* Climate change, which trump calls a hoax.

I wish I knew the source of this great piece of writing, but I don't, so it remains anonymous. (July, 2020)

Copied and pasted: (This is very good!)
For those of you who have family and friends opposed to abortion, voted for Trump in 2016 and now are struggling to justify a Biden vote, I found a pro- lifer’s post explaining WHY she is changing her Vote in 2020. Hope you find this helpful. I have shared it with several of my very religious friends and they certainly did.
From an ardent pro-lifer;
“I have felt a heaviness in my soul lately.
For the past couple weeks, I’ve felt it. A weight. The heaviness. So this morning - when a block of time unexpectedly opened in my schedule, I closed myself in my room, read some of John’s gospel, opened my journal, and prayed, “OK, God. What is it? My heart feels heavy. I need to write. But I don’t have words. What is this feeling?”
And I began to write - Heartbreak. It’s heartbreak. And disillusionment. I’ve been here before - so many times since 2016. And here I am again.
I keep seeing Christians say they can’t vote for Joe Biden because of his stance on abortion. I”ve seen Christians proudly state they are single-voter issues - it all comes down to abortion. So they’ll vote for Trump. Because he promises to appoint Supreme Court Justices who will overturn Roe v. Wade. That’s the one and only thing that matters.
But why? Why is that the one and only thing that matters?
Is that the one and only thing that matters to Jesus? Reading through the Bible, I would say unequivocally “NO.” What does the Bible say directly about abortion? And I ask this from my pro-life heart. The Bible has FAR, FAR more to say about pride, about abusing power to mistreat the poor, about lying, about treating others with hatred, about humility, about seeking forgiveness, about faithfulness -- about ALL of that than it does about abortion.
So, Christians, why are you so willing to toss all of those morals aside? Why are you so willing to turn a blind eye to so many behaviors that are completely, blatantly in opposition to the heart and character of Christ?
When I read about Joe Biden’s stance on abortion, I see a man who has wrestled with his faith. I see a man whose heart wants no abortions and who has struggled throughout his years in public service to determine the best way to accomplish that. Is it by making abortion illegal? (At one point, he said “yes.”) Is it by prohibiting government funding of abortion? (At one point, he said “yes.”) Or is it by supporting public policies that make abortion rates decline? (This seems to be where he’s landed.)
This personal wrestling resonates with me. I have had those same wrestling matches within myself.
Did you know - between 1981 and 2016, the sharpest decline in abortion rates occurred under Democratic Presidents - not under Republican Presidents. The rates especially dropped under the leadership of President Obama and continued to decline after he left office. Most everyone agrees the reason for this is because access to contraception is key in preventing pregnancies. And under the Affordable Care Act, contraception coverage became more widespread. Even though some states enacted new abortion restrictions between 2011 and 2017, by 2017 57% of the nationwide decline occurred in states that had not enacted new abortion restrictions. So there is evidence that pursuing legal action isn’t necessary (or effective) to reduce the amount of abortions.
I am pro-life. I would like to see zero abortions. I also want to honor and value the lives of women who find themselves in the position of considering abortion. Those lives also matter to me. So I don’t believe criminalizing the choice is the best way to truly help those women. I think public policies that offer help and hope -- financial and medical - are the best ways to reduce abortions.
Therefore, I need to find political candidates who will support programs that help the women who are most likely to feel that abortion is their only option, candidates who support making effective contraception affordable and accessible to everyone.
I also want a candidate who values all life. Refugees’ lives. Women’s lives. Black lives. Poor lives. Lives during a pandemic. The lives of people who disagree with him.
You see, when you say you’re voting for Trump because you’re pro-life, I can’t take you seriously. Because Trump has not proven himself to value lives. For the love! - read his Twitter and show me how this man values life.
When you say you can’t vote for Biden because of your Christian beliefs, I can’t take you seriously. Because again and again and again, Donald Trump’s words and actions fly in direct contradiction to the character of Christ.
For the past four years, I’ve been so disillusioned and heartbroken and sad to see so many Christians abandon their morals and contort their beliefs in order to justify their support of someone who so obviously violates every moral and value I was taught in the Church.
Somewhere along the line, political masterminds decided that evangelical Christians could be manipulated into believing abortion and gay marriage are the only two things God cares about.
Friends, that is a lie. You have been hoodwinked.
Obviously, you don’t have to vote for Joe Biden. But you can’t use our Jesus and the Bible to defend your support of Donald Trump.”
- Jennifer Able, Hays Free Press

Easter and the Pandemic
Blog 5 by Jonathan Nelson

Almost anyone calling themself a Christian goes to church on Easter, a high holy day in the Christian calendar. This year is very different. Unless you’re a member of one of those infamous congregations in the south with a pastor putting his own ego ahead of common sense, you are worshipping on your favorite device at home. This pandemic is an extraordinary time calling us to rethink everything, an unprecedented opportunity of a lifetime.

Two millennia ago, long before the cross was a symbol for Christianity, two creatures of nature were its symbols - the fish and the butterfly. Simple carved depictions of the fish and butterfly have been found on catacomb walls under Rome, thought to be signs directing persecuted early Christians to secret gatherings. The fish was a symbol of the miracle Jesus performed in feeding the poor. The butterfly was a symbol of transformation and resurrection.

The butterfly is a true miracle of the animal kingdom. The caterpillar overeats, and then forms a chrysalis around itself. Next, it transforms into goo, a slurry of recumbent DNA inside imaginal cells, as some biologists call them. New genes, dormant in the original creature, now come to life to form wings and a completely new animal. It emerges from this confinement of its own making, a new and wondrous flying creature. We are now shut-ins, in cocoons of our own making. We did not heed clear warnings of inevitable pandemics like this, nor plan for it, nor elect and appoint capable national leaders to organize the appropriate response.

We are also in the middle of Passover, seven days of remembrance that God delivered a people out of slavery, and protected them from the angel of death, which “passed over” the Hebrew households marked with the blood of the sacrificial lamb. This time, Jews cannot even gather their wider families together for the ritual meals and telling of the stories in the beautiful Seder meal.

Easter, Passover, and Ramadan (beginning for Islam in less than two weeks) are sacred holidays of immense significance to the three great religions of the world. All three celebrations have been publically shut down, relegated to individual households with followers left watching rituals on screens without their respective clerics nearby. Religion’s first impulse will be to maintain the traditional forms, all be it on a screen. This can initially bring adherents needed comfort, yet not enough.

It would be a mistake if religions only attempt sticking with the past, trying to replicate the old and familiar with enhanced technology. These high holy days don’t just rehearse the past; they call adherents to greater devotion to teachings and focus on compassionate service to others – at the heart of the message of all three faiths.

This pandemic lays bare the human forms and institutions no longer serving humanity. Old political and economic models now fall flat, exposed for what they are, ineffectual and inhumane. A spotlight now shines on the obsolete models no longer serving the greater good, and the purely self-serving people stick out like a sore thumb. Religious institutions will undergo the same transformation as the old socio-economic models.

The ideologies and formulaic practices that have come to dominate religions over time, and the “going through the motions” kind of behaviors will now ring hollow for most perceptive believers. Truth will resurface, the old truth that has always been there from the beginning – hunger and thirst to know the Divine, love of all things, compassionate service to people and creation. These are the priorities of the mystics in each of the great religions. With one voice they say: “The god you think you know is not the god who exists.” Humility, love, and service are the pathways. Ideologies, forms, rituals, organizations are not. They are passing away.

Most humans wait for “someday”- for their big opportunity, for their ship to come in, for their real life to emerge. Well, here it is, that day you’ve been waiting for. We have been put in our cocoons by Mother Nature, Gaia some call her. Lessons abound here. It is a mistake to try and recapture the old, familiar forms. They didn’t work anymore, and certainly won’t now. This is the time to become goo, pliable, changeable. Nothing like this has ever come our way before. You are sequestered in your cocoon to learn the lessons and emerge a new and different person.

See you on the other side.

Blog #4: Like the Plagues of Old.

The Clovid-19 virus is sweeping our world like the plagues of old. People are social distancing at home, as they should be. Yet, the three major world religions are entering their most significant holy days, when their adherents should be gathering together in sacred observances and ceremonies at this time of year.

Palm Sunday today begins Holy Week for Christians, culminating with Easter seven days later. Jews will observe Passover beginning at sundown on April 8, for a beautiful reflective ritual meal. This is what Christians say Jesus and his followers were doing back in the day - now they call it Maundy Thursday. And, on April 23 Muslims begin Ramadan at sundown, also a time of deep religious devotion, self-examination, and increased service to others.

Passover actually retells the story of the ancient Hebrews being released from slavery in Egypt after a series of plagues were visited upon the Pharaoh. The last plague was the “angel of death” killing all first born in Egypt, but reportedly “passing over” and sparing the Hebrew households. Whether you believe the literal biblical tales or not, today’s pandemic seems eerily similar to the plagues of old. People across the belief spectrum even wonder if the virus has an intelligence of it’s own. It acts as if it does, calling people to come together and help one another, and revealing the weaknesses of the familiar systems we once thought would have our backs and provide for us, even in hard times.

One poignant, and I dare say, ironic aspect of this pandemic are the institutional forms we took for granted, which are now looking quite lacking and perhaps obsolete. Christians cannot gather at church to wave palms, or sing their favorite hymns, or reenact the events of Jesus’ final week. Jews cannot gather for the Seder meal at their synagogues or with their wider families. Muslims cannot take their pilgrimage to holy sites or break their fasts with family and friends. The old forms are falling away. On line versions are cropping up to be sure, but they are pale and passive virtual experiences compared to the once vibrant community celebrations.

People long for the way things were. However, it would be a mistake to try and work our way back to the status quo predating this pandemic. At the end of a plague there is usually a march into the wilderness of uncertainty, followed by the arrival to a new land and a new day. The new and different world, in many respects, doesn’t resemble the old one very much. The biggest mistake people can make in this crisis is trying to get back to the way things were. The way it was didn’t work for more people than you know, and didn’t save us from this inevitable collapse. We have the opportunity of a lifetime here. There is a better way, a new and different way. We must all work together to find it. One of the greatest promises of religion is: “Behold, I make all things new.”

Peace, Jonathan Nelson