Remarks to Legislative Prayer Breakfast

The Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance (IMA) and the Greater Hartford Coalition for Equity and Justice co sponsored a prayer breakfast for Connecticut legislators on the second day of the session.

I was asked to talk about the ICEJ issues, and then get out of the way for a major presentation on youth violence. The press conference ended with a challenge to clergy and legislators to pledge to give as much attention to the 33 murders in Hartford as has already been given to 3 murders in Cheshire.

Here is the text of my remarks:

Remarks delivered at Legislative Prayer Breakfast February 7, 2008
By Terry Davis

I have been asked to speak briefly about work of the Greater Hartford Interfaith Coalition for Equity and Justice, and about those issues that have been and continue to be our primary concern. Most of you are familiar with the Interfaith Coalition which represents 32 Churches joined together to be A Faith Movement Acting For a Just Society.

One year ago we had great optimism that we were going to see progress on our legislative agenda which includes passage of a state Earned Income Tax Credit, improvements in our system of healthcare which move toward a universal healthcare system, and major improvements in the funding of public education including moving toward making preschool and head start programs available to all of the children of this state.

I must say that at the conclusion of the last budget we felt universal disappointment and more than a few of us felt some anger for the legislative failure to move this agenda forward.

Our keenest disappointment was the failure to enact the EITC. Prior to the final budget negotiations the passage of this much needed bill seemed assured, but when the legislative leaders went behind closed doors to hammer out a budget they came out with a budget that did not include the Earned Income Tax Credit. We frankly felt more than disappointment about the failure to provide this small benefit for the working poor. The working poor pay a much higher percentage of their meager incomes in taxes than any other segment of society. Even those who pay no income taxes still pay social security tax, sales taxes, gasoline taxes and property taxes. Many people are under the illusion that renters avoid paying property taxes, but let me assure you every landlord includes the cost of property taxes in the lease price for their apartments.

The EITC is not charity, but justice for the poor, and we expect this legislature this year to enact this into law and into the budget. We are pleased to see it put forth as part of an economic stimulus package, but I want to say to you that the working poor have needed economic stimulus long before the middle class knew we were headed into an economic downturn.

Everyone knows that the present health care system is broken from the presidential candidates down to those who personally go without medical care or who are forced into bankruptcy because of their medical bills. We need a system that is universal, accessible, affordable, and of high quality and further we know that the system must be sustainable. Improvements to the Husky program are important, but we remain a world away from these goals.

We are here today to describe a great healthcare crisis involving urban violence, but you will see us back here pressing for the balance of our agenda as well.

Theology for Liberal Presbyterians and Other Endangered Species, by Douglas Ottati, professor of theology at Union/PSCE in Richmond, VA.

The title sounded very promising when Lois sent me a note on the book, but it was really a dull read. Not that I disagreed with the author, I was in agreement with him practically every step of the way. He talks about the centrality of grace in reformed theology and how a grace centered theology leads to acceptance for all people because God has accepted all of us sinners in his marvelous grace.

Here is a paragraph that I am totally in agreement with: “We belong to the God of grace. Once we are clear about this, a number of things follow. First we live in assurance, refuse to set limits on the extent of God’s faithfulness, and refuse to exclude anyone from the scope of Grace and redemption. We then work for an inclusive church, support a ministry of reconciliation, and invite everyone everywhere to lay hold of the assurance and confidence that come with the knowledge of a gracious God. Second we acknowledge the human fault and, without losing hope, maintain a realistic attitude toward the present age and its daunting challenges. Finally, we affirm that all people have worth, and we commit ourselves to public practices, policies, and leadership that respect persons, pursue equitable opportunities for the poor, and care for those in need.” (Page 20)

My problem is that it is dense writing, it lacks stories, real life examples, personal passion. Finding something I agree with is not the same as being interested in what is written.

Others may have a totally different reaction to his writing style.

It is solid theologically, although I am sure that the right wing of the Church would like to label him as a heritic. That would be a hard charge to sustain since he bases his theological conclusions on the very mainstream documents of the Presbyterian Church, the such as the Heidelberg Catechism, the Confession of 1967, the Book of Common Worship.

An A for theology, hardly above a D for entertainment value. I suppose some people might have the same comment about my sermons.

Going back to the quotation above, it does highlight a problem I have been having, maintaining hope, hope for an end to the sensless war in Iraq, hope for making significant changes in our state (see my blog for yesterday), hope for changing the Presbyterian Church into a truly accepting community for all people.

Here are a few paragraphs I wrote to a friend earlier today in regard to my frustration with the past legislative session.

I hear you when you say we built relationships, we got people thinking about our ideas, we laid the groundwork for success in the future. It is what I have been telling myself for the past 50 years of political advocacy. Some day our efforts will bear fruit. Next year in Jerusalem.

My problem is that as my career comes to an end I have a greater and greater difficulty in believing what I keep telling myself. There are times when I think perhaps my Communist friends from years ago were right that we need a revolution, not simply more effective advocacy.

The whole direction of our country is wrong, our civil liberties are being eroded, the power of the few is growing greater and greater and the power of the people is shrinking. Is it really possible for this or any citizens group interested in justice to really impact the legislature in the face of established power and special interests?

While we could not win for the working poor a few hundred dollars a year in earned income tax credits this is what is happening at the other end of the income scale. http://www.courant.com/business/hc-worldwealth0628.artjun28,0,483148.story

Is the ballot box the way to change our state, our country, our world? The country effectively voted to end the war in Iraq, we expressed our national lack of confidence in the president and the Republican Majority, but the war rages on with 30,000 more troops in harms way and the body count rising every month.

Throw the tea in the harbor, over turn king George, storm the Bastille, remember Stonewall, end apartheid now!

Maybe I will be less frustrated next week and more optimistic about the success or legislative advocacy; or maybe not.

The 2007 session of the Connecticut legislature has come close to being an utter and complete disappointment. Considering the fact that the democratic party (supposedly the left or liberal party, in a reportedly liberal state) had a veto proof majority in both the house and the senate virtually no part of the liberal agenda moved very far forward. Click on the headings below for my take on the major issues. [All of these issues except the same gender marriage issue were identified by ICEJ as high priority issues.]

Tax Reform
Immigration Issues
Healthcare Reform
Education Issues
Same Gender Marriage
A Cynical View

The gold coast legislators sided with the republicans on the issues of tax reform; we have to do everything we can to help the rich get richer and pay less taxes while the middle and lower class rate payers get stuck with the bill. The complaint is made that progressive income taxes and the inheritance tax confiscate the wealth of the most affluent members of society. Well yes they do. Isn’t that what we should be doing; narrowing the gaps between the haves and the have nots? It is certainly the Biblical ethic beginning with the Jewish law of the Jubilee. Under the law of Moses in the year of Jubilee (See Leviticus 25 and 26), each 49th or 50th year, all land was to return to the families that originally owned it, all debts were cancelled. It is the divine plan for redistributing wealth; the divine plan for land reform. (This law was of course proclaimed in a time when wealth consisted primarily of property, not stocks and bonds and precious metals). Conservative religious people who are so eager to uphold the ten commandments and the holiness code might ask themselves why they are not supporting laws to confiscate excessive wealth and redistribute it to the poor.

Score the legislature as a total failure on significant tax reform; the progressive income tax was defeated. It looked as though progressive legislators might preserve the state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) if they were willing to roll back or abolish the estate tax on estates over $2 Million Dollars. That was a draconian compromise, but in the end it was lost also.

Score one for the legislature for passing a bill that granted a few hundred undocumented immigrant children the right to pay the same tuition that other state residents pay at state universities. These are children whose parents are undocumented, but who have been living long term in the state, in many cases not even knowing that their status was not copasetic. (Anti immigrant agitators like to talk about these people as illegal immigrants. In the first place it is not a crime but a civil offense to be here with out documentation. Second the illegal term implies that all these people snuck in to this country by violating the law; many of them came here legally as tourists or other visitors, students, etc. but stayed after their visas expired. Others were here legally as spouses of US citizens or permanent legal residents and may not have even been aware that their status changed when they were divorced.) Unfortunately although the legislature passed this progressive measure the margin was slim and our wonderful and popular governor vetoed the bill. Put a black mark next to her name.

Healthcare reform seemed off to a hopeful start with State Senate President Pro Tempore Donald E. Williams, Jr. being a primary champion for universal healthcare in Connecticut. In the end all that was accomplished was to increase the compensation rate for healthcare providers under the Husky Plan. (Of course that is significant since the rates were so low that many impoverished children had limited access to doctors for non-emergency care, and no access to dental healthcare.) But the hopes of Don Williams, Healthcare for All, the ICEJ and so many other groups for significant progress were sadly disappointed.

What was accomplished? There is significant new money for education in the budget, but whether this will mean more money for the public schools in most districts remains to be seen. The governor’s education package was touted as giving a tax break to the cities; the state will give cities more money for education so the cities do not need to impose such high property taxes to pay for education. Every one wants property tax relief, but is the almost flat rate state income tax that much more desirable as a revenue source? What is positive about the shift in who pays for education is that the same tax base will be supporting the schools in every town. Without the new state money impoverished (i.e. low total property value) districts like Hartford simply lack the revenue to provide support for the high cost of educating underperforming students. Score the legislature a partial success in the educational field. (On the other hand are we doing all we can, and need to do to move toward universal access to preschool.)

The bill creating same gender marriages in Connecticut seemed to be off to a good start when the joint Judiciary Committee passed it by a much larger majority than even the most optimistic supporters expected. Unfortunately the Governor, bless her small minded heart, promised to veto it. The Leadership of the Judiciary Committee counted the votes and were uncertain about having a majority in both houses, and were certain that the votes were not there to override the veto so withdrew the bill before it ever came to the floor in either house. While this is considered a better strategy than bringing up the bill and seeing it either defeated or vetoed I am not sure it is a moral strategy.

One of the most dismaying facts about the Connecticut Legislature is that it is still dominated by an entrenched leadership and a incompetent and unprogressive governor. During the session everything is so democratic and open with public hearings and debate on every issue of importance, with everything exposed to the light, everything open the public scrutiny. Then the session ends with no budget, no tax plan and no spending plan, and the key leaders get together totally in secret and decide what is going to happen with state spending, then the legislature convenes and rubber stamps what the leadership has decided, without even knowing what is in the budget in most cases. Why have the 6 month long session? Just let the governor and a few other folks make the decisions and then call a session to rubber stamp everything. No matter how successfully I lobby my representative and senator, it doesn’t make a dimes worth of difference.

CT Legislature draws to a close with unfinished work. Books I have and am reading.

In less that 48 hours the Connecticut legislature will adjourn as required by law, with much of their work still unfinished, including both the tax plan and the spending budget. I guess none of the Legislators mind coming back for a special session since they will be paid for the time they spend in the special session. I have always been surprised that the precedent which was common in Kentucky seems unknown in the northeast. When the statutory hour for ending the session drew near with the work incomplete it was common practice that the clocks in the legislative chambers were stopped so that officially midnight did not come until the work was complete.

What have you been reading lately? I am always interested in what is on other people’s reading list. I have recently completed The Children of Hurin, by J.R.R. Tolkien. The author has long since passed from this earth; his now aged son Christopher has pulled the book together from his father’s various writings, published and unpublished. I certainly enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as either The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I missed the Hobbits and Dwarves and Trolls; this book is concerned with the history of men in Middle Earth, along with the elves who did not make the great voyage to Valinor. There is one aged Dwarf remaining, but it is the later children of Iluvator (men) who are most involved in the conflict with the evil Morgoth and his armies of Orcs.

I also read a New York Times Bestseller, Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. Another of a number of books like The DaVinci Code that take their setting from legends of the Grail and alternate understandings of what the true Grail is. It is of course pure fiction set in Languedoc in southern France, but a very interesting page turner with an interesting theory to explain who were the heretics (variously known as Cathars, Bons Chetiens, or Albigensians) against whom the Pope declared a Crusade and who were the first objects of the inquisition.

I am now reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini whose first novel was the wonderfully popular The Kite Runner. I had printed out the coupon to buy the book at Borders Books and then failed to get there before the coupon expired. The next weekend in the Hartford Courant is an ad for a book signing by Hosseini at all places at BJ’s Wholesale Club. I am continually amazed at their selection of books, often including new releases and bestsellers, and the prices cannot be beat. Anyway I was enjoying the beginning of the book when we came to a new section labeled Book Two which picks up new characters 9 years later with no obvious relationship to the first story. I have gotten far enough to find the connection.

The picture says it, Marriage Equality. Yesterday First Presbyterian hosted a prayer breakfast for Connecticut Clergy for Marriage Equality. After breakfast and a keynote speaker, Bishop John Selders we walked over to the press conference at the Capitol. Here is my set of pictures from the event. Another set by Chion Wolf

SAME SEX MARRIAGE
I listened yesterday to a part of the 12 hours of testimony for and against the bill before the Joint Judiciary Committee to authorize same sex marriage in Connecticut. I had testified two years ago, but did not this year, but as I listened I really wanted to say something. Again and again legislators seemed to be saying in one way or another that they didn't want to discriminate against gays and lesbians (no one mentioned bisexual or transgendered), but that the legislature had already given them all the rights of marriage through civil unions. Several of them kept on at Anne Stanback wanting to know why it was so important to call same sex relationships "marriages."

What this sounds like to me is the same old separate but equal argument that we rejected when it came to rights for African Americans. There were people in the 1950s who wanted to know why Rosa Parks was not satisfied to sit in the back of the bus. After all the back of the bus is going the same place as the front.

Why do LGBT people want marriages, civil unions get them the same rights.?