Pamela Jean Owens off-line

Monday, April 24, 2006
On the death of William Sloane Coffin
Another one has died. Another of the giants.

William Sloane Coffin — Bill Coffin — has died and is being mourned by all kinds of people who never agreed with him but sure don’t want anyone to know it now. He is being called a prophet. Maybe he was. He definitely was an icon, a symbol — a model for what all activist preachers and pastors wanted to be like.

I met Bill Coffin twice. I was more impressed the second time than the first.
The second time I met him was at the Disciples Peace Fellowship meeting at a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) General Assembly. I don’t remember the city or the year, but I haven’t been to one in at least ten years, so it wasn’t any more recent than the mid-nineties, and it may have been earlier than that. Bill Coffin was the speaker at our breakfast (and I don’t do breakfasts well, but more about that later). I don’t really remember much about the breakfast. What I remember was a smaller get-together in the late evening, just a group of people and Coffin sitting around talking. He made a statement that night which I have quoted countless times since. Read the rest of this entry »

What am I doing here anyway?

I had not intended my blog to be about dead people.

I had expected to record my intellectual wanderings, my political brainstorms, and maybe a bit of old-fashioned story telling, for posterity, or whatever passes for posterity these days.

I hoped, probably vainly, that my blog might interest some people and get popular. I’ve always wanted to be one of the popular crowd, even though I know they are usually pretty shallow and even rather boring sometimes.

But I couldn’t be part of that crowd anyway, because I was just never willing to permanently move to the other side of the tracks. I get uncomfortable there and come back as fast as I can. Here in Omaha, the other side of the tracks for me is west of about 102nd street, or even west of 90th or so. I’m even a bit uneasy west of 82nd and Dodge. And I think it looks like Mars out Radial Highway past 90th. Or at least what I imagine Mars looking like once we colonize it. I know for sure west of 680 is the other side of the tracks, the popular side. I practically have an anxiety attack when I have to drive that far west. People drive like maniacs over there. And there are just way too many scarey white people west of 680 for me. Read the rest of this entry »