Rev. Ben McBride
Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
This summer I have been missing my son Jukie’s regular bus driver, a man named John who greeted Jukie every day with a smile and a handshake and the right amount of firmness and guidance to help my teenager with autism make the right decisions on the bus every day. We rarely heard stories of behavioral challenges when John was at the wheel.
Jukie can’t introduce himself with words, so I always appreciate it when friends greet Jukie by name. Saturday I encountered the boss of a good friend – she approached us in sunglasses and was greeting both Jukie and me before I realized who this friendly Davis citizen was who knew Jukie so well. Yesterday I walked into a deli in Crockett and again heard Jukie greeted by name by the California poet Connie Post. These kindnesses matter to a kid, and to his parents.
Kate and I similarly appreciate it when a parent calls us at home to discuss cake and ice cream ingredients for a friend’s surprise birthday party. Most of our friends know that our daughter Geneva carries an Epinephrine Auto-Injector because of her deadly peanut allergy. A parent’s or neighbor’s kindnesses remind us that we live in a community of people who care.
Parents and their children depend heavily upon such public servants. Last week I read about a cafeteria supervisor who memorized the names, and the food allergies, of the 500 children at the Montessori school where he worked. As the parent of children who benefit directly from the conscientious care of such school staff members, I can tell you that my anxiety is lessened by the work of John the bus driver, or, over at Davis Senior High School, the entire village of staff members and teachers who supported by daughter all the way to graduation last month.
As of this week, 500 children in St. Paul, Minnesota won’t benefit from that sort of care, for last week the cafeteria supervisor in question, Philando Castile, was killed at a traffic stop in the suburb of Falcon Heights, evidently while complying with officer’s directions. Still wearing his seat belt, Castile was shot four times with his girlfriend’s four-year-old daughter strapped into a car-seat directly behind him.
Feeling desolated by the violence in St. Paul, Baton Rouge, and Dallas, and feeling somewhat removed from the sites of our nation’s conflict and protest, yesterday my son and I ventured to a Sunday service in the First Congregational Church of Oakland. The experience provided us the solace and inspiration that we needed.
In a rousing sermon, community activist and visiting Reverend Ben McBride spoke to the congregation about the importance of “crossing the street” between African-American communities and law enforcement communities. Providing context, he spoke of the history of policies and duplicitous bargains that Americans have embraced, each of them serving to denigrate the ancestors or members of our citizenry. McBride challenged our nation’s leaders’ choices to commit genocide against native people, to kidnap and enslave generations of Africans, to subjugate immigrants and women and LGBTQIA folks, as if any of these actions could be somehow excusable or reconcilable steps towards becoming a great nation. Too many of us and our ancestors have been treated like rungs on a ladder.
Learning from these conflicts, McBride argues, neither African Americans feeling besieged and threatened when they step out of their homes or into their cars, nor police officers who fear for their safety with so many unregulated firearms on our streets, should belittle the humanity of members of the other group in order to gain additional security. With lessons from our nation’s history in mind, McBride says, we should recognize that violence and threats of violence never make us feel more secure.
Our civil rights leaders can inspire us to make better choices. A year before Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, the civil rights leader told Harry Belafonte “We have fought hard and long for integration, as I believe we should have, and I know that we will win. But I’ve come to believe we’re integrating into a burning house.” According to Belafonte, King said, “I’m afraid that even as we integrate, we are walking into a place that does not understand that this nation needs to be deeply concerned with the plight of the poor and disenfranchised. Until we commit ourselves to ensuring that the underclass is given justice and opportunity, we will continue to perpetuate the anger and violence that tears at the soul of this nation.”
When asked what could be done, King responded, “Become the firemen. Let us not stand by and let the house burn.” Keeping King’s analogy in mind, perhaps all of us might consider how we could help to carry the water buckets or turn on the hose. I have been reading the news of this past week with distress and sympathy, as well as with admiration for those who peacefully protest. Like many, I would wish that the love we feel for the ideals of our country could be made more manifest. To do that, we must endeavor to press for goodwill and justice in all our interactions. As Cornel West says, “Justice is what love looks like in public.”
Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on one or more of the issues raised above, as well as on prose adaptations, the eating habits of millennials, people who may take charge, the Peter Pan syndrome, words that start with Q, ambitious garden projects, the extra calories needed to lose weight, that which matters, titles with five vowels, British actors, unforgiveable, colorful names, faddishness, Sarah Winnemucca, the San Francisco Bay, long-standing icons, people born with the name Elizabeth, nearby rivals, dance moves, popular birds, young shoots, excellence at reproducing, the last guy in a human centipede, the never-ending British invasion, convenient disappearances, and Shakespeare.
Speaking of Shakespeare, I saw the Davis Shakespeare Ensemble’s Cyrano de Bergerac Friday night, and highly recommend it. The play addresses the importance of literature, poetry, and self-expression during a time of conflict. The play runs in repertory (much the same cast) with the musical comedy Bells are Ringing.
I hope you can join us tonight after a Monday night off. We will celebrate some time away from TV news, from which I’m sure we will all benefit.
Your Quizmaster
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Here are some unexpected questions for you to reflect upon until 7:
- Sandwiched between two dynamic statesmen, Warren G. Harding and Herbert Hoover, our 30th President of the United States was formerly a Republican Lawyer born on the 4th of July, 1872. Who was he?
- What is the highest grossing Will Smith film of all time?
- Philip Glass has composed music for “This American Life,” a radio show hosted by whom?
P.S. Poetry Night on July 21 will feature Melissa Goodrum.