God's Politics Blog » Valerie Elverton Dixon

Endurance in the Struggle for Health-Care Reform

Valerie Elverton Dixon — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:50:51 +0000

President Obama has postponed his trip to Guam, Indonesia, and Australia to work for the passage of health-care reform. The president’s determination reminds me of wisdom my mother taught me: “The race is not given to the swift, nor victories…

Coverage is the Main Issue for Me

Valerie Elverton Dixon — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:05:38 +0000

When the various cable news channels announced that they would broadcast the health-care summit, I thought this meant uninterrupted coverage. I was mistaken. They not only interrupted for commercials, but they interrupted for commentary. This left me surfing the channels…

Health-Care Polls, Good Will, and the Golden Rule

Valerie Elverton Dixon — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:00:46 +0000

Good will is a primary element of moral conduct. This is an important idea in the thought of philosopher Immanuel Kant. A good will is good in itself because it does not depend upon whether or not the person will…

Obama’s Attempt at a Bipartisan Health-Care Summit

Valerie Elverton Dixon — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:30:43 +0000

President Obama has scheduled a bipartisan meeting on health-care reform that will be nationally televised live on Feb. 25. His plan is to provide an opportunity for Democrats and Republicans to sit together with a representative of the Congressional Budget…

What Is and Isn’t Socialism

Valerie Elverton Dixon — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:00:28 +0000

When President Obama took questions from Congressional Republicans recently, he spoke about Republican characterizations of his health-care reform plan as something akin to a “Bolshevik plot.” There was a smattering of applause. I did not know what to make of…

State of the Union: Our Responsibility for the Government We Deserve

Valerie Elverton Dixon — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:00:57 +0000

My measure of a good State of the Union address is whether or not I am able to stay awake through to the end. I am still awaiting the president who will say at the beginning, “please hold your applause…

‘Health and Fitness Are Better Than Any Gold’

Valerie Elverton Dixon — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:58:53 +0000

Life and the body require exertion. There was a time — and this is still the case in some places on earth — when eating required physical effort. Human beings hunt, fish, forage, plant, reap, or shop every day. It…

Now is the Time for Congressional Courage on Health-Care Reform

Valerie Elverton Dixon — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:57:26 +0000

The people of Massachusetts already have near universal health care. Too many of the rest of us do not. The loss of the senate seat formerly held by Senator Edward Kennedy to a Republican who opposed the Senate health-care bill…

Poor Folks’ Food

Valerie Elverton Dixon — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:03:00 +0000

My mother loved food.

She loved it from the garden to the table. She enjoyed feeding people and all of creation. In the winter she and my father would feed the birds and the squirrels in the backyard and then watch…

Not All Racial Comments Are Created Equal

Valerie Elverton Dixon — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:00:30 +0000

Please God, save us from hyper-partisanship and hyper-media in perpetual election mode selling us a hyperbolic public discourse. Not everything is a crisis setting off alarm bells in a red hot explosive firestorm that may cost someone the next election. …

Praying the Hand

Valerie Elverton Dixon — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:00:55 +0000

I do not remember where I learned the idea that the hand represents a pattern of prayer. I do not recall my mother or other teachers teaching it to me. I cannot cite the source of it in a book…

Faith, Hope, and the Advent of Health-care Reform

Valerie Elverton Dixon — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:06:33 +0000

Biblical wisdom teaches us to “give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (I Thessalonians 5:18). This is a syntactic ambiguity that makes us ask the question: is the circumstance the…

Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize Speech and Just Peace Theory

Valerie Elverton Dixon — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:45:03 +0000

If all we notice in President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize Lecture is a justification of war, we will miss the 21^st century import of his thinking and the hope of peace he called forth. President Obama spoke of just peace, the middle…

Afghanistan: Praying Our Part

Valerie Elverton Dixon — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:00:17 +0000

The decision has been made. The orders have been signed. The first wave of the 30,000 additional warriors heading to Afghanistan is scheduled to arrive before Christmas. President Obama has made a difficult and controversial decision. In his speech at…

A Thanksgiving Reflection on Food

Valerie Elverton Dixon — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:00:38 +0000

The United States is a country that is at once overweight and hungry. There are those among us who are overweight and obese. There are those among us who live with food insecurity. There are those among us who are…

Obama’s Bow and R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Valerie Elverton Dixon — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:00:10 +0000

The gospel according to Aretha Franklin says: “R-E-S-P-E-C-T find out what it means to me.”

Biblical wisdom teaches: “Give everyone what you owe him. If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then…

Freedom from Fear in the Health-Care Debate

Valerie Elverton Dixon — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:30:48 +0000

There comes a moment when we can say a word or speak a concept so often that it loses meaning and simply becomes sound. The concept becomes exhausted, thin, one-dimensional. Such was the case with the word and the concept…

Tuesday’s Elections Don’t Change the Fierce Urgency of Now

Valerie Elverton Dixon — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:30:25 +0000

In the wake of Tuesday’s elections where the Democrats lost governor’s races in New Jersey and in Virginia, some observers are advising President Obama to scale back his agenda. Health care and energy and education and banking reform and war…

The Health-Care Roller Coaster Rolls On

Valerie Elverton Dixon — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:10:37 +0000

We continue the roller coaster ride that we hope will end with universal or near universal coverage for health care in the United States. Those of us who favor, at the very least, a public option had reason to be…

Is Obama’s Peace Prize Premature?

Valerie Elverton Dixon — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:30:19 +0000

Just peace theory proceeds from the premise that peace is a day by day effort. It is a process that requires vision, skill, and courage. The Nobel Committee awarded its 2009 Prize for Peace to President Barack Obama. He had…