MORGAN'S MOMENT...
Sara had a baby…
    a different lady from the one in the Bible
    who was so old she laughed
    at the idea she could have a baby.
I last wrote about the present Sara
     29 years or so ago
     when I announced in this column…
     “Unto us a child is born!”
In our multi-service church
      Paul and Mary’s pregnancy
      was watched by everyone
      all feeling Sara’s birth was to all of us.
She was long awaited
      in more ways than one
      very reluctant it seemed 
      to get around getting born.
Sara’s own time to deliver
      did not allow impatient waiting
      as daughter Lucy Mae
      came forth way ahead of time.
In one of life’s mysterious wonders
      Lucy Mae insisted herself into the world
      on Sara’s beloved grandmother’s birthday...
      whose middle name became her own.
Lucy Mae doesn’t know it yet…
      but if we have our way on Christmas Eve
      she and her mother
      will be holy family at the Old World Deli.
— Art Morgan 
BOOK CORNER
I was asked how I ever found time to read all the books reported here. Remember, I only write this page every couple of weeks, so a book or so in that time is no big deal. I know people who have a stack beside their chair or bed all the time.
I don’t have a time for reading. It’s always done in between things. Sometimes after suppertime I read a few chapters. We rarely watch TV, so that leaves some room (in fact we haven’t watched TV in over two months—and we don’t even have TV at the cabin.) I think TV would cut into reading time. 
We certainly read more at the cabin. I always have a book along when out sailing. Jean has a list (many suggested by my readers) which she will get for me from the library. I’ll read and share my list.
MOMENT MINISTRIES
May 24, 2004
home address:  25921 SW Airport Ave.
Corvallis, OR 97333   541-753-3942
email at  a-morgan@peak.org
So, I lied.
Actually, I just underestimated myself. I thought I was done for the season. I thought I had more to do than I could get done anyway.
But then—as you can tell from the back page—I felt an urge for one more blue sheet.
Besides, when you figure what it costs for an annual postage permit above the cost of each mailing, the only way to get your money’s worth is to keep writing.
This blue sheet was actually born while I was driving the riding lawn mower around our extensive yard. I spent my going around time thinking about all the things I wished I had said about Jim.
But this is the last blue sheet of the season. It will go into the 2003-2004 season file. I have 26 or 27 years of these files since starting Moment Ministries. Our Webmaster, Bill Gilbert has many of these on our web page. 
I wrote this on the day Massachusetts began issuing marriage licenses to all sexes equally. There will be more ruckus. Some churches in Oregon are leading the way to change the constitution to ban such marriages. There is a great deal of division on the matter. It will no doubt become a big political discussion. 
We might wish for the discussion to focus more on a worthy foreign policy for our great nation. Or on the controlling influence of corporate wealth over our national policy. I would like to see discussion on the relative priority of jobs and profit, and the health of our planet’s environment. I would like to have discussion about how to bring children and poorer elderly people into health care. I would like to hear how America’s national budget can move more money into helping people rather than perpetuating militarism. I would like some discussion about the evasion of taxes by America’s wealthiest individuals and corporations that not only take jobs overseas, but profits and taxes overseas as well, leaving the bills of America to the rest of us. Aren’t these some matters that should matter to us more than whether gay marriage is going to hurt anyone?
Alas, we’ll probably hear more about gay marriage than anything else. Let us pray. 

(back page)

ONE MORE WORD ABOUT JIM
      After publishing the last blue sheet I had second thoughts. I often have second thoughts about what I write, usually wishing I could have said more, better.
      So I wrote about the death of Jim Draper. Most of you don’t know him. I didn’t really know him either. He was one of those guys I saw around town, often at certain kinds of gatherings. You can tell a lot about people by the kind of events they attend. 
      I would see Jim at the annual Martin Luther King Day ceremonies. And I saw him at the Court House peace vigils the few times I stood with that group. 
      In fact, it was while chatting with him in front of the Court House he told me that he had lung cancer and that it was about to “get” him. 
      When Jim told me that he was dying, I thought, “This guy is a community icon. He ought to have some recognition before he goes.” Newspaper people come and go so often there is no community memory to make note of guys like Jim.
      So I decided to take it on myself to call the newspaper (these days you do better to e-mail than call, which is what I did). I wrote the news editor about Jim and my feeling that his story was worth telling.
      The one thing about Jim that first got my attention was that he was an activist for all sorts of causes. He was always getting on the side of people who didn’t have anyone on their side. He was often a lone voice, saying, “This needs fixing.” What really opened my eyes was when I learned that he had marched with Martin Luther King.
      Now, lots of people have marched with Martin Luther King, but not while being a newspaper editor in Memphis, Tennessee! 
      I mentioned that fact in my e-mail, and soon the news editor had a reporter give me a call to see whether I could connect him with Jim, which I did. These news guys understand one another.
      So, a week or so later a page-wide article with a picture of Jim Draper appeared in our local paper. He had many supportive responses from that and hopefully heard many of the same comments that were made about him at his memorial service. It’s always too bad when tributes are spoken too late.
      On the Saturday of his memorial service I stood with his family, all from out of town, who chose to join the daily Court House vigil, as did Jim for so many months. People drive by with various responses. Some try to ignore all those people standing there. Some honk and offer a peace sign. An occasional driver equates peace with lack of patriotism and offers an angry middle finger as he passes by. As Jim always did, we waved back and smiled anyway.
      Jim often said that he had been protesting something almost all of his life. He once interrupted a church service in which the preacher was going on about brotherhood. As the story goes he stood up in the middle of the sermon and said, “Stop!” You can imagine the chilled silence. Jim said, “How can you talk about brotherhood in this town and this church when there isn’t one person of color here? And if persons of color were here, they wouldn’t be welcome?” He sat down. He had demonstrated.
      I think that the idea of what is true justice does not penetrate our minds and hearts easily. Our sense of patriotism is narrow. Until some prophet or advocate can get our attention we seem able to go along like sheep with what our kind of people agree is right. But when an old guy like Jim stands in front of the courthouse with a placard calling for peace or justice or whatever, it has been known to cause some people to ask, “What’s this all about?” One young lady testified that Jim’s activism woke her up. She’s an involved citizen now.
      Jim loved his country. He was a true patriot. He participated in democracy. He was often at the City Council and other meetings. He would say that his country is a good country, “but not nearly good enough.” He wanted it to be as good for the poor as for the wealthy, as good for the hungry as the overfed, as good for people of color as people in the majority, as good for the aged, the handicapped, the uninsured, the homosexual, as for everyone else. His patriotism demanded—yes, demanded—liberty and justice and peace for all!
      As we take a day to honor fallen war dead, as we should, and as I will when I raise the flag at our cabin and put on my stars and stripes sweater, as I always do, I’ll also think of other fallen heroes like Jim whose idea of making peace did not include making war.
— Art Morgan, May 24, 2004