25

Signs of spring:
robins,
kids doing circus tricks in the park,
policemen wearing shorts and riding bicycles,
sun,
plants budding.

Quotes of the day from a book I bought at the Saskatoon Symphony's annual book & music sale:

'Think of the use of labels to categorize political activity. Some labels are used to neutralize the actions of certain groups; others denote being "one of us," acceptable.
The words "right wing," "fundamentalist," "pro-life," "absolutist," and "deeply religious" are put-downs more than categories. Conversely, think of the the unspoken pat on the back and blessing that the following words convey: "moderate," "pluralistic," "liberal," "civil libertarian," "pragmatic," and "enlightened."
Life, people, politics and social action cannot be reduced to one-word categories; when they are, falsehood and political manipulation become the norm. Mass media, by their very nature, must to a certain extent indulge in the shorthand of labels. But the deliberate abuse of labeling has conditioned the population to respond negatively to any mention of religious concern in the public sphere...

Deceit always deals in stereotypes; and stereotypes perpetuate bigotry. The Indian as a "savage red man," the black person as a shuffling Uncle Tom, these images have been used in our nation's history to oppress and exploit minority groups. Hitler, in Mein Kampf, never dealt with any individual Jew, his family, his aspirations, his fears, his thoughts, or what he personally could contribute to society. He wrote only of the "Jewish race," in broad, general, and paranoid terms. Today, as Christians have declined in influence, they have become subject to misrepresentation in similar ways. The secular humanist, although he would never dream of committing the social faux pas of calling a black man a Negro, feels perfectly free to castigate Christians and their leaders in any way he likes.'

A Time for Anger; the Myth of Neutrality, by Franky Schaeffer