Hasta La Gadget!

WASHINGTON — From the Department of Predictable Outcomes: The House select committee investigating the 2012 attacks on the U.S diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, appears to be falling apart.

At issue are two complaints from committee Democrats. The first is that they have been systematically excluded from at least five witness interviews, and only discovered that Republicans had conducted those interviews after the fact through press reports. The second complaint is the committee chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), is downplaying or disregarding interview testimony that contradicts assumptions about the night of the attacks.

The complaints, laid out in a letter from the ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), come as the committee is to hold a public hearing Tuesday on the status of records requests related to the attacks. One of the Democrats on the committee, Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), told CQ Roll Call in an interview that it might be time for Democrats to consider leaving the committee altogether. A top Democratic aide said members still planned to attend the meeting on Tuesday, but would use the occasion to amplify the concerns expressed in Cummings’ letter, below.

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It’s rare for lawmakers to take private complaints like this public. Though the Democratic aide said the impetus was to pressure Gowdy to be more collaborative with members of the minority party, Republicans will view it as a gambit to damage the committee’s legitimacy.

“[T]hat the Democrats have released correspondence that attempts to politically characterize sources’ private discussions with the committee without proper context goes to the exact heart of why the Chairman will not require sources to talk to both sides,” Jamal D. Ware, the committee communications director, said in a statement.

Looming over the acrimony is the pace being taken by Gowdy to investigate the attacks — a pace that critics have described as glacial. The committee was formed eight months ago. It has only held two public hearings since (the third will be Tuesday). There have been private hearings. And in conversations several months ago, Gowdy allies and aides were quick to note that they have been doing work behind the scenes to access documents, line up interviews, and review information.

Through it all, however, both sides have been unable to agree to a basic set of rules governing how the committee will operate, from interviews it conducts to how it can exercise subpoena power. Gowdy’s office contends it has offered a generous package of rules. Democrats argue that what the chairman offered wouldn’t permit them to sit in on witness interviews. Either way, the committee has been unable to avoid discord without a map for its mission.

How much Gowdy acquiesces to Cummings in the days ahead may end up determining whether other Democrats join Smith in determining that the committee is a waste of time for the five minority members.

Ware, in his statement, insisted that the committee wouldn’t be “hamstrung by politics.” But he also said Gowdy would “work to address any legitimate minority concerns.”

Gowdy has so far adroitly served as chairman, earning early kudos for an unexpectedly leveled approach. But the compliments have turned to criticisms recently, both from those who say that the Benghazi attacks have been already exhaustively investigated (by congressional Republicans no less), and from Democrats, who now say they feel blindsided.

“There are rules on the Committee of Oversight and Government Reform,” the Democratic aide said of the other major investigative committee that was led, in the last Congress, by Rep Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). “There are no rules here. … At least we had rules with Issa.”

As someone who’s professional and personal life involves many areas of seeking justice and equality, I have often been moved by the work and legacy of those who have persevered through trials in order to see a better world. One of the most powerful moments of my life occurred in 2005, when I helped to lead a Justice Journey with members from Willow Creek Community Church and Salem Baptist Church in the Chicago area on a spiritual pilgrimage through the southern United States. The journey consisted of dialogue about the history of the African American experience, the civil rights movement and race in America. Our group consisted of almost 40 African Americans and Caucasians who spent the week together traveling through the Deep South visiting memorials, museums and people who had been a part of the movement.

In Alabama, our group was introduced to two amazing women who had been teenagers during the voting rights protests and non-violent resistance in Selma. These events have been brought back into my mind and the national consciousness by the recent release of the movie Selma. On March 7, 1965, a group of more than six hundred non-violent protestors from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the community attempted to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge on a march from Selma to Montgomery. En route, the protestors found their way blocked by police forces and state troopers, who ordered them to turn around. The white police shot tear gas into the crowd and used clubs to beat back the marchers. More than 50 people were hospitalized in what came to be known as “Bloody Sunday.”

The two women with whom we met had been a part of the events on Bloody Sunday. Starting at Brown Chapel, Martin Luther King Jr. and hundreds of others made a second attempt on March 9, but there were forced to turn around when they got to the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Finally, on March 21, 1965, a successful march occurred under federal protection, and protestors were able to travel from Selma to Montgomery. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed a few months later.

During the justice Journey in 2005, our group prepared to once again cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge, symbolizing the beginning of the historic march. As had our predecessors half a century before, our group met for worship in Brown Chapel. At one moment during our worship service Mrs. Mays, an elderly African American woman and choir member at Salem Baptist, stood up in the choir loft and began to sing:

Oh freedom, oh freedom, oh freedom over me
And before I’d be a slave I’ll be buried in my grave
And go home to my Lord and be free.

No more mourning, no more mourning, no more mourning over me.
And before I’d be a slave I’ll be buried in my grave
And go home to my Lord and be free.

No more crying, no more crying, no more crying over me.
And before I’d be a slave I’ll be buried in my grave
And go home to my Lord and be free.

Oh freedom, oh freedom, oh freedom over me
And before I’d be a slave I’ll be buried in my grave
And go home to my Lord and be free.

Tears streamed down my face as she sang. Her voice was as pure as angel’s, and it resonated throughout the historic chapel. As she sang about freedom, her worship was a declaration of God’s promises to his people that one day true freedom will come.

Our group, accompanied by the two women who had been present during the traumatic events of Bloody Sunday, joined arm in arm and marched from Brown Chapel across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. It was the first time those women had crossed the bridge in forty years.

As I reflect on the memory of that memorial walk across the bridge I am reminded that we are still longing for and singing, “Oh freedom. . .” Our nation has once again seen the birth of non-violent protests in cities across the nation as women and men rise to demand equality and a recognition that black lives matter. It is important and necessary to continue to have conversations and take action in pursuit of peace, justice, and reconciliation. While on-the-ground organizing and the work of marches and protest are still important, we are also seeing these conversations happen on social media, such as the Evangelicals for Justice (@Evangelicals4J) twitter-teach in after a viewing of Selma. Find ways to participate in conversations like these – to learn about our history and our current context and then live out the teachings and the truth of these movements for justice in a way that honors God in your community.

This article adapted from chapter five “From Worship to Freedom” in Just Spirituality: How Faith Practices Fuel Social Action by Mae Elise Cannon (IVP, 2013)

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With Windows 10 set to hit the market later this year, sporting a fair number of features that will match the Surface Pro 3’s capabilities such as Continuum, it does look as though the Surface branding will continue to grow from strength to strength. Here is the next billion dollar quarter from Microsoft’s Surface range! [Press Release]

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