Robert Chase's blog

It has become almost a cliché that, in today’s society with its instant communication and never-ending information loops, the words we speak in a previous context can be used in current  settings to reveal the truth about our perspectives and intentions. I offer such an example in the current brouhaha here in New York over the creation of a proposed community center, the Cordoba House, in an old Burlington Coat factory two blocks from ground zero.

Now that the hoo-hah over health care seems about to subside, other pressing issues, long relegated to the back burner by the heated exchanges—complete with accusations about killing grandma and the descent into socialism—surrounding health care, can emerge.

So, the Oscars are this weekend and whatever the outcome, there is little doubt about who won at the box office. James Cameron’s epic Avatar is smashing all kinds of attendance records and is on the path to becoming the highest grossing film of all time—by any measurement—while charting a new way of filmmaking.

To be gay in America overwhelmingly means to be denied essential rights and protections. From marriage equality to parental rights, hate crimes to job discrimination, the estimated 30 million Americans who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT), face pervasive social and legal opposition to exercising basic liberties most citizens take for granted.

I confess that I have never been to Haiti. But the picture that the media has presented of this country just to our nation’s south, even before the recent earthquake, has been one of a (black) society run amuck in dysfunction and violence.

The past decade, which Time magazine called “The Decade from Hell,” will likely be remembered as bracketed by the two events that signal important moments in the so-called War on Terror. The opening volley, of course, being the tragic events surrounding 9/11 and the closing note occurring on Christmas Day, as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab sought to detonate explosives in his underwear on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, only to be thwarted by his own ineptitude and the quick response of fellow passengers.

On November 27, the Collegiate Church of New York, Intersections’ “parent” organization, observed the first national Native American Heritage Day (as designated by President Obama in June) with Healing Turtle Island: An Event of Cultural Reconciliation between the Collegiate Church and the Lenape.

Look hard into the tragic shooting at Fort Hood and, amidst the carnage, you may see an important lesson that is not readily apparent: a blurring of the line between veteran and civilian.

Our cat died last night. Monkey was her name—a small black cat that came as part of the package deal when Blythe and I were married more than a decade ago. Not a great cat lover, I must confess that she did ultimately become a fixture in my life; we spent our mornings together, as she liked to sip residual water from the shower stall as I’d get dressed in the morning.

For Muslim women, wearing the hijab is often a defining point in the struggle for religious freedom, both within Islam and in the wider civil societies. This is an issue in the US but perhaps even a larger concern in “secular” Europe where nations and regions have banned the wearing of the head scarf in public schools or in government jobs.