Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

Racism

  • There’s a lot of exercising of free speech these days. And I love it. Well, I love the positive kind. And the kind which provokes us to better ourselves. Of course, I’m not into the kind which denigrates and destroys. The kind which labels and causes emotional harm. That kind I struggle to defend. I’m…

  • I didn’t watch the returns Tuesday. My excuse was that we don’t have cable. But really, it was because I was afraid. I hadn’t processed what would happen if Trump won, but something told me…I don’t know. Maybe not. I didn’t check until after 9. I listened to Slate’s live feed. And I heard it…

  • Want

    WANT As a supporter of gun control, I’m often asked “If a man breaks in and has your wife at gunpoint, wouldn’t you want a gun?” Want? For what? To kill? What I would want is a howitzer. Or Jason Bourne. Or to have Blade’s sword and his powers. Or the police. Or maybe just…

  • [bctt tweet=”A poem for King, justice, and repentance. #ReclaimMLK” nofollow=”yes”] When we speak of a dream, we speak not of the hazy sleep indulgence, the phantasm of our psyche, but the very call of GOD to make this world radically different from the way it is. The dream, a tricky encounter of revelation. Assaults our…

  • More than dogs

    Given our country’s spotty record on race relations, on exploitation of others, it is far too easy for us to ignore our place in the mess. a call to reconciliation Proper 18B  |  Mark 7:24-37 Feeding the dog We don’t know the original question the woman asks Jesus. Only its subject and that she begs.…

  • We are fond of the dialectic method of arguing. In this, there is always “us and them” and things are always “black and white”. We assign sides and it is simple and clean. Life is never so simple and clean. Those raising concerns about systemic violence in the criminal justice system, particularly toward young, unarmed, black…