I have decided to create more posts with shorter thoughts rather than attempting the infrequent, pithy diatribe. So, for today:Why is it always that people who refer to themselves as "white supremacists" don't even appear to be superior to most primates, let alone other races?
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/11/06/obama.plot.indictment/index.html
As much as the election result made me proud to be an American, this makes me embarrassed to be a white male American.
Allen and I worked the polls today, from 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. We had about a one hour line in the morning after we opened, but after that it was light with almost no wait times. Even though the election day physical turnout was light, with the pre-voting and absentee voting we ended up with a 70%+ total turnout for our precincts. In order to clarify the rule concerning paper ballots, each site was required to read a statement aloud every half hour. Of course, yours truly was elected to do the reading. So here is the statement I was privileged to read 26 times on this historic election day: "In accordance with Secretary of State Directive 2008-107, please be aware that you have the choice to vote either on the voting machines or by paper ballot. You will be able to select your preference after you have shown I.D. and signed the signature poll book. Votes cast using the voting machines and paper ballots today will be counted tonight. Thank you." I am proud to be an American.
Not satisfied with his party bringing back the Great Depression, John McCain has decided to usher in his own era of McCarthyism. Of course, in this post Cold War era it would sound ludicrous to yell "communist", so instead McCain has chosen to take the economic angle and accuse Barack Obama of "socialist" policies. Is there no end to the lengths he will go in his campaign of hatred and fear? Is the Republican party so desperate that this is the strategy to which they are reduced? In a campaign that has seen more than its share of negative ads on both sides, McCain has dropped to a new low. As if sending his Alaskan toadie to call Obama a terrorist is not enough, McCain is now trying to scare Americans with the prospect of Barack Obama redistributing our wealth. This dissemination of misinformation is to what McCain has been reduced. The Republicans have few facts on their side, so they have chosen to wage a war of hatred and fear. It is only slightly veiled racism, and represents the worst of what America has to offer. To quote Joseph Welch, "Sir, have you no decency?"
I resisted blogging about this before due its controversial nature, but now that it seems to be gaining momentum in the U.K. ( http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/07/lotus-safe-and-sound-technology-gives-hybrids-a-voice/ ) I feel I must speak up. The issue is putting artificial noise into electric/hybrid vehicles because they don't make enough noise for pedestrians to notice them in the same way they would conventional vehicles. The argument is that people, especially the blind and children, use auditory clues to detect that vehicles are approaching. There is no doubt that this is true. There is also no doubt that vehicles that make little or no noise present a new danger for those who depend solely or primarily on their hearing to identify oncoming vehicles. But the solution is not to make quiet vehicles LOUD! We finally have the technology to eliminate the second greatest type of pollution created by automobiles (noise), and we are going to take a step backwards by adding the noise back in. Absurdity. The simple fact is that all people will now have to realize that their hearing is not the reliable tool it once was to detect traffic. Children will need to be trained to ALWAYS look before crossing the street, and not to depend on whether they can hear a car. Animal assistants will need to be trained to always look, and not depend on their ears.
I learned this morning during ESPN's recap of the baseball All Star Game that John Philip Sousa, yes the actual man, led the band at the first All Star game in 1933. Of course I have heard Sousa's name associated with an endless amount of memorable American music, but I guess he was so iconic that I never imagined him as an actual person that ever led a band. I find it much more significant that he led the band at this game than, for example, Babe Ruth hit the first home run. Is that weird?
Although the rain threatened to turn the day into a "cow-tastrophe", it actually turned out to be a great day with lots of rain, candy, patriotism and fun. It started out with Allen getting to work extra early, because he was going to be one of the cows in the parade for Chick-Fil-A. The rest of the family packed up, prepared for rain, and headed to a streetside spot near the end of the route and close to the church. Joyce joined us, and later Lisa's friend Lisa, whose daughter was in the parade, sat with us too. At first we were high and dry, but by the time the parade made its way to us we were in a light drizzle. We stuck it out, determined to see HUMC's Pig Roast float mad by the Livewire group, and Allen as a cow. Over the course of the next hour the drizzle turned into a genuine rain. Out came the ponchos, jackets and umbrellas. Eventually they were not even enough as we became soaked, and as canvas chairs filled with precipitation. Finally the Pig Float mad its glorious apperance, resplendant in paper mache, chicken wire, and tiki torches. Spirits were still high despite everything and everyone being soaked. Mercifully the Chick-Fil-A coningent appeared shortly thereafter. There were three cows, and Allen turned out to be the cute one in purple with the hair ribbon. "Cowdulling" ensued and then it was a dash to the car and home for prolonged drying out and candy accounting. Pictured above is a bovine embrace with Joyce, Lara, Lisa, and Allen as the cow. As usual, more pictures on the family Flickr page.
July 1st was Lara's tenth birthday and she celebrated in style! First, we had a cookout the night before and entertained several of her friends and their families. We cooked out in the backyard and then had flag cake and ice cream before Lara opened presents in the backyard. Then a few of them stayed overnight, crashing in the living room. After a night of the birthday girl snoring, the next day the party continued at the pool. The girls went swimming and enjoyed a rare day of sunshine. That evening we had a party for the family. That's when Lara was surprised by Mom and Dad with Guitar Hero. So, ever since, it has been many hours of Lara, Cassie, and Allen battling at Guitar Hero, playing all the songs that we rocked to when we were their age. Look for lots of pictures of all the fun on our Flickr page.
My boss's boss posted on this cool new thing today; it's called "Wordle". It is a tool that creates a word cloud from any text that you input. The sizes of words are based on the frequency in which they occur in the text. It is really interesting to play around with different groups of words and see how they turn out. Here I took the words from our home page. I can't put my finger on it, but there is something I really like about this! It is like a quick intuitive way of turning words into pictures. If you click on the image to the left you can see the larger version.
On Monday Lisa, Cassie, and Lisa's mother Louise set out for San Diego. This is Cassie's official 8th grade trip, a present from her grandmother. Louise has made it a tradition to take each grandchild on a trip after their 8th grade year, and Cassie chose San Diego for its preponderance of animal-viewing opportunities. Monday night they landed in Los Angeles, and Tuesday they took in Disneyland. The picture is of the roller coaster "California Screamin'", which incorporates a loop into a Mickey logo! Tuesday night they went to San Diego and will spend the rest of the week there seeing the zoo, the Wild Animal Park, the beaches, and other attractions. The weather looks to be great all week so they should have a wonderful time.
Yesterday was a great day at annual conference. Both of our guest speakers for this year addressed us. The first was Rev. Rudy Rasmus of St. Johns church in Houston TX. I won't recount his whole story here except to tell you that he took a nine-member urban church and grew it to a membership of nine thousand, one third of which are homeless or formerly homeless. He grew it by creating a place where people are loved and they are in service. It is a church of getting things done. Bishop William H. Willimon comes from the North Alabama conference, a place where he readily admits much of the populace is still racist. He is one of the authors of the “Disciple” bible study series, so he seems like an old friend. He comfortably conveys stories of pastoring, preaching and challenges from his many years in the ministry. I would strongly encourage you to visit their respective web sites to learn more about them.
On the surface these men could not appear to be more different. But in the most important ways they are of one mind. The both believe in loving first. They both believe that we learn and live most like Christ when our faith takes action. They both have such a love for God's people, that they were willing to bring the gospel to this tiny peninsula in northern Ohio.
We needed to hear their message. We needed the encouragement, the reassurance, and the challenge. Although many great things are going on in the name of Christ in our conference, we still have a long way to grow. Our Annual Conference is still too white, too rich, and too old to properly represent the actual membership of West Ohio. And I count myself as part of the problem. We must be ever vigilant to keep working towards a church in which everyone truly feels not just welcome, but accepted and loved radically and unconditionally.
I truly believe that Christ and his church is the only hope for the world. I do not put my faith in human creations, for people (including myself) always disappoint. I do not put my faith in the rule of law created by our governments, because morality cannot be legislated. The only place I can put my faith is in the redeeming power of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Only through his crazy, irrational love for the world and the people in it can we expect to affect real and lasting change. Evil will always defeat the plodding strategies of a bloated government or bureaucracy. But when God's people simply go out and DO, evil cannot keep pace. Love unencumbered moves at a pace that cannot be matched by forces seen or unseen. When we strip away the committees, and the laws, and the rules, and the regulations, love moves at a speed that can only be measured in changed lives. Like the wind, you can only see love because of the obsolete traditions it has blown over as it passed through. Like the wind, you can only see love because of the way lives have turned like leaves on a tree to reveal a side that was previously unseen. Like the wind, you can only see love because where love has been, things are no longer the same. Lives are changed, communities are transformed, relationships are restored, and the faces of the people are turned toward the sky, waiting for that next wind that will carry them to further heights in directions they cannot predict and do not expect.
Friday night we started our annual pilgrimage to Lakeside, OH for Annual Conference. What started six years ago as an obligatory duty has become a much anticipated family vacation. We are back in the same house that I have enjoyed every year (the family for the last 5). We came up earlier this year because we are leaving earlier - we are going on Friday to Indiana for Father's Day. We arrived late at night, unpacked, and decided to get the grocery shopping over with. Lisa and I drove, shopped, drove back, unpacked groceries, and dropped into bed by 2 a.m. This morning we slept in until breakfast blurred into lunch. After everyone had foraged until satiated we headed out for our first pilgrimage to downtown Lakeside. Of course, it is only 3 blocks away, so perhaps pilgrimage is overstating it. The first stop was the local bike shop, Sypherd's. We rented bikes for the three kids. Lakeside is the kind of community where you can still let the kids run around town on their bikes and not worry about them. While we were there the kids also go to try out a tandem which they found very difficult to steer.
After that it was some quick visits to some of our favorite shops. We picked up a “family” jigsaw puzzle, which is actually kind of neat. It was made up of three interlocking sections with pieces of different sizes so that the whole family could work on it together no matter what their age. We also found a great deal on shorts for Allen at “Marilyn's”, one of the kids' favorite places. They have Webkins an the coolest t-shirts and something new every year.
We headed home, did the puzzle, read, made cards for the troops for church, watched the Belmont stakes, had pizza for dinner, headed to the “Coffee and Cream” for a little wifi access, and then called it a day. All in all a very relaxing decompressing kind of day.
Each year it is a real gamble to see what the weather is going to be like. Saturday it was 90 degrees, and Sunday it will be 93. This is definitely one of the hot years. Oh well, we have a couple of air conditioners and lots of fans and we will survive. The mayflies aren't too bad yet so things are tolerable.
We are going to head out for “Monsoon Lagoon” tomorrow since we can't go on our way out of town. Tomorrow our housemates will arrive as well as almost every other of the about 6000 people that will come into town for the week. Today was a relatively quiet sleepy day in Lakeside. Tomorrow the Annual Conference week will be in full swing.
I am going to try to blog each day and share my thoughts on the conference. We will see how that goes.
Allen had an assignment for German class that entailed listing 20 things from a story. The assignment did not specify in what format the 20 things were to be presented. Allen wanted to find an unusual and coll way of presenting them, and the number 20 sparked an idea. He remembered that one of the regular solids had 20 sides, and then looked it up on the Internet. He found the icosahedron, and a template for making one. He then enlarged the template, put the 20 things on it, and then (with some assistance) taped it together. For display purposes he attached a three-corded string with the German flag colors! Voila! A very creative presentation of the assignment. When he brings it back home I will get a picture and replace this generic icosahedron. Sometimes I am so proud of my boy!
On Saturday May 10th Lara's Girl Scout troop, Troop #309, went to Distinct Design Group to donate hair to "Locks of Love". This is a program where you can donate hair to people who need wigs due to chemotherapy, etc. Six of the girls, including Lara, got their hair cut, and two of the parents, including Lisa, did also. Several of the other girls brought in pull tabs to donate for the Ronald McDonald House. They had pizza, cake, and lots of fun. They also received the awards that they earned from the recent G.S. cookie sales.
I should mention that the salon stayed open just for the troop, and three of the stylists were there to cut and style their hair. The stylists were incredibly patient and friendly, and they did a great job with all the girls. I can't say enough about their generosity in helping make this activity possible!
It was a great afternoon, and it was wonderful to see the girls doing so much for worthy causes. It really demonstrated what scouting is all about!
Two years ago we were introduced to a money management plan called "Financial Peace University". This program was created by Dave Ramsey after he personally worked his way back to being a millionaire for the second time after going through bankruptcy in between. The program really is very basic and focuses on how to get out of debt and stay out of debt. This time around I lead the class of about 20 families that were going through the 13 week program. It was truly a gift each week to hear their success stories and share in their challenges. A big part of this class is having small group discussions about the topics each week and sharing our stories. It was encouraging to hear how people were changing their views on money away from the mainstream ("you've got to have debt") to beliefs that lead to winning with money ("debt is dumb!"). I pray that all of these families keep working their financial plan and continue to enjoy all that God has planned for them. Unless you are already an out-of-debt millionaire, you deserve to check out this program. It can change your family tree!
Warehouse 839 - Our church.
Lisa leads the Pathway team and Michael is
the Webservant for the site. |
Central Ohio Emmaus - The
Emmaus community where we attended our
Walks, and in which we are involved.
Michael administers the site. |
Columbus Metropolitan Library -
Michael manages the group that creates and
supports these web sites. |
Hilliard Schools - The schools where
our children attend. |
Dailygammon - Where Michael likes to
play backgammon. |
 WebKinz
- Lara's favorite place to play with her
furry friends. |
