Harris/Warren? Warren/Harris?

Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren have risen in the polls due to their strong debate performances. I am fine with either candidate. Warren has my support in some part because she was born and grew up in Oklahoma City though she is mainly associated with Massachusetts these days.

Kamala has the advantage of youth and charisma. Warren is more intellectual, and she has a plan, a good plan for nearly everything.  Would putting the two of them together on the same ticket be an advantage?  I don't know. Balancing the nominees for president and vice president has been the strategy in the past, but it would be great to have two progressive, female Democrats running together. 

I am going to dismay several progressives by stating that Sen. Bernie Sanders is a fading star.  In 2016 he was a different kind of candidate and a clear alternative to Hillary Clinton. It is not so now. His ideas have been absorbed by other progressives, including Warren and Harris. 

Joe Biden's main strength is his name recognition, but this is an advantage that has already started to fade as the others become more well known.

The Politics of Dinner: Mayflower Service June 30, 2019

The Prophet Elijah in the Wilderness

by Daniele de Volterra c. 1545

Hymns: Let Me Enter God's Own Dwelling, You are the Salt of the Earth, O People

Prayer of Confession: 

Gracious God, sometimes the journey feels too long. The road is unfamiliar and we are tired. We confess to letting the shadows crowd out the light. When our strength is gone and we are ready to give up, may we know your presence and be renewed. We pray in the tradition of all who have found themselves in the desert, including of teacher Jesus. Amen

Scripture: I Kings 19: 1-8 (Relevant Section) 4 But he himself [Elijah] went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. . . . 5 Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” 6 He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. 7 The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” 8 He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.

Sermon by Rev. Lori Walke

Elijah, the prophet, is fleeing from the wrath of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. Jezebel in particular has vowed to have Elijah killed. Elijah flees for his life into the desert. 

His situation is similar to the migrants who are fleeing for their lives in the southwestern desert. Like them, Elijah's survival turns on receiving help. Elijah credits an angel for his help, but  dehydration and hunger can bring about hallucinations. The help of a cooked loaf of bread and ajar of water seems very human very similar to the help being provided by groups like "No More Death" to migrants in the desert.

Their help has been targeted for interdiction and prosecution by the Justice Department and ICE officials. The Trump administration would prefer that asylum seekers follow the suggestion of conservative commentator Laura Ingram who said the these asylum seekers should apply for asylum in the "safety" of their their own country. In other words, they would like to have them hidden away from us, not being crowded into concentration camps or drowning on our river banks.

We cannot do nothing. We know how to change the course of things. We know how to work to help those who will not survive without it.  

[Personal thought: We have had waves of immigrants before including those fleeing war and death, as was true with the Vietnamese who came and settled in Oklahoma City.]