Dan Cathy of Chick-Fil-A How About Lunch?

Dan Cathy of Chick-Fil-A How About Lunch?

Participaste in Non and Retroactive Flavors

In the last post, "I Post Therefore I Am," the idea surfaced that we can change ourselves by changing our language and by so doing work toward a country of civility through public discourse.  Many times this blogger challenges nonproductive language and discourse on social media and lords over his own arena of vocabulary, thought and spirit.  So we can still help this little guy keep "chugging along."  If you are not part of this you can do like Romney and retroactively hop on board... we know your heart was there from the beginning, we'll paste you in the roll call..
Often the greatest form of protest is revealed not aggressively in shouts and screams but by aggressively positioning one's self not to participate:

As George Nemeth notes, the little meme that could got a boost this week from the folks at Wal Mart The High Cost Of Low Price who put it on the front page of their website in the Get Active category. It had been a while since anyone had picked up the meme and I was beginning to think it had run its course. But the little guy keeps chugging along.]

I cast my my modest proposal for a Wal Mart Toothpaste Buycott into the blogosphere and it is slowly making it’s way across the Internet. So far 23 bloggers have picked it up and begun to spread the word. One of the reasons I did this was to show two of my friends that one person can make a difference. All you got to do is fling one starfish.... (more)

I Post Therefore I Am?

WWDD? (Rene Descartes by Frans Hals)

An article by Vibhu Norby entitled, Why Social Media Is Endangering Our Future, starts out saying “Everybody wants to be famous, Nobody wants to be nameless, aimless” "... Because to be searchable and indexed on Google is to be, we are in need of exposing our lives more and more on public channels to permanently plant ourselves in the memory of the Internet.
 Nobody wants to be forgotten. We are losing control over our content as well as how we are represented online. That power is entirely in the hands of social media and search companies".

Today a very good friend posted on facebook the following, "If you aren't writing to be immortal, you are wasting your time and ours."
Another friend and blogger  at Have Coffee Will Write  replied that he writes to understand what he thinks.  I then read a blurb about designer Philippe Starck at Design Within Reach.  In a video at the site Starck states what I believe that everything worth doing should start with mission and that mission informs goals and objects which in turn express the mission.  I think this can be and perhaps should be applied to just about everything. 

One of my clients has enlisted my services to market and advertise for their company.  Early on I learned the client had no defined company mission.  They had products but as far as I was concerned would have a difficult time reaching an intended audience/clientele, developing a niche and their brand without a reason for being.   In our initial meeting I inquired "why do you do this, what drew you into this particular realm, what services do you provide" and so on.

Perhaps ironically, I've never written a mission about why I write or more to the point of this muse why I post to social media.  I have a personal facebook and two fan pages, Google+ personal and biz, I try to stay on top of two blogs and I am leaving one or two things out.

 I do have a personally mission statement I pull out every now and again and peruse to see if I'm on track and if things have shifted,changed or expanded.  It is at the end of this piece.

Am I one of the everybody that wants to be famous of whom Norby speaks?  Do I not want to be aimless nameless?

I don't agree with Vibhu Norby that "We are losing control over our content as well as how we are represented online. That power is entirely in the hands of social media and search companies."
I believe that whatever control we don't have we have never had and that if nothing else John Q. and Alice P. Public have more access to the entire world than ever before.  A case can be made for the fact we don't know and do not exercise what control we have.  This stance may bespeak my ignorance in this area but perhaps it is more that Vibhu may not understand the significance of the fact that "anyone" has access to "everyone."  It certainly was not the case as I was growing up in the 60's.  If you were not associated with a powerful publisher whether it was McGraw-Hill or the Cleveland Plain Dealer not many would ever know your thoughts existed, the access did not exist.

For some time I've been thinking about things I want concerning work and employment and recently I have concluded that my ability to write and high order thinking can possibly pay some bills.  Thus far things I want from writing are basically in my personal mission.  I never want to be complicit in  an organization's actions  that don't have the goodwill of public in mind.  I don't really even want to work for organizations like this however I find this is very difficulty to avoid.  I've found no matter how good an organization is on paper it is given to those in charge and directed and informed by their ethics and morality or lack there of, there understanding of the world.  This is one issue that kept me out of advertising years ago that back then I feared I didn't have the integrity one really needs in advertising.
 Now I have the integrity and the experience if not wisdom to lay a foundation for everyone to glean and hold up to scrutiny for their own good and the good of the organization.

One organization was a bit dismayed because I sent a treatise of sorts concerning a project in which I might become involved.  After deciding to work with this organization and the organization deciding to work with me I received a call from the HNIC questioning my ability to communicate coherently in writing.

So as of recently one reason I write is because it will pay bills, but once again why social media write on a personal note?
I think writing to become immortal may be part of the equation.  If I want to write to understand what I think and I think too I do I would need less of an audience than I am trying to reach.  Do not we all think about posterity and legacy? Some people will leave property, money, goodwill in their name a legacy of community service and all of these can be comprehended through social media.  Some will leave an often used piece of art like a watch, a homemade recipe or literary legacy I think that is sublime.

Foremost in my thoughts however I use social media because I love to discuss and share and hear what others say that might inform and grow my world and social media satisfies this desire with immediate gratification.  As immediate as it is it also affords one the opportunity to go back to a discussion one may have been too emotional about to listen to initially.  You can come across discussion you didn't even participate in even weeks and months later after it was posted.

 I also believe that there is a process whereby folks including myself can continue to become or be thinkers about their lives, how they connect with a diverse world and what they can add to the planet.  One of my bents is global thinking toward a win-win in everything I encounter. It can't always be done but one can come closer to accomplishing it if one has it as a goal from the outset.

Civility is a huge issue with me and I believe incivility rules in these United States.  I think incivility and intolerance walk hand in hand down the path to the dumbing of America, prejudice, racism, poverty, add your own ism and are steeped in selfishness ergo no win-win.

  If we can change our language we can redirect our thoughts and actual talk to people toward consensus, understanding and a more sustainable and livable society.  The term "quality of life" comes to mind.  I'm not saying lets all hold hands and kumbaya.  I am saying there is a big difference between saying "if you are a Republican you are an idiot," and "I perceive Republican ideology to be thus and so and I disagree with it on points a,b,c for reasons e, f, g."

In the past I've tried to excuse myself and others for sensationalism because it is just a statement that gets attention and starts a conversation, blah, blah, blah but I think we should develop a distaste for such language in public forum and shy away from it. It may be that many who engage in this language have an aversion to truth and knowledge and a diverse points of view endeavoring to put themselves at the center of their universes and yours too....ergo no win-win..
How well am I doing?  I have a ways to go or I would have left out the HNIC comment.
So I perhaps said all of this to conclude that I write using social media to change things for the better and probably to leave my mark.
So I am waiting with proverbial baited breath to hear why you do social media voodoo you do so well.
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Short Version: Mission

·     Congruency

·     To love God (the Divine) and my enemy

·     to be content to enjoy life

·     Breathe in/ Breathe out and let God Breathe out then Breathe in, so my soul does breathe in/ breathe out. 

Mission

·     Congruency for myself, for other people and for organizations and alliances.

·     To love God (the Divine) with all my heart by manifesting a passion for El Shaddai’s (Ultimate) truth, for compassion and for service to others.

·     To love God (the Divine):

o   with my entire mind by renewing it with eternal principles for living true to myself, by recognizing the win-win scenario that may exist in every circumstance I encounter.

o  With all of my soul by acting on what is on my mind and in my heart and by obeying that “still small voice” within me.

·     to be content to enjoy life by understanding that the living and praying into the journey is the key to real joy.

·     I will always be where I am supposed to be no matter what the circumstances may suggest. Circumstances are always subject to change that is to say that change is their master.

I have an adage that I keep in mind that; Breathe in/ Breathe out and let God Breathe out then Breathe in, so my soul breathes in/ breathes out.  For me Breathe in breathe out is more than a metaphor. I had this epiphany while meditating and playing my didjeridoo. 

We breathe in what the earth expels and the earth breaths in what we expel as toxic.  I remember when Art Modell, the owner of the Cleveland Browns moved the team to Baltimore and of course Browns fans were angry, to me short sightedly angry.  In a larger picture where Cleveland and Baltimore are a unit or connected what seemed bad for Cleveland was good for Modell and Baltimore and ultimately not bad for Cleveland.

The West Side Market and Spaces Mix Art, Gardening, and Healthy Eating

On Saturday, June 23, join SPACES’s artist in resident Alison Pebworth and local farmers from City Rising Farm, Erie’s Edge Farm, Gather ‘Round Farm, Let It Bee Gardens, and the Possibilitarian Garden at the West Side Market for an all-day Elixir Social.

This June, Pebworth has been in town with her traveling cross-country art exhibition, Beautiful Possibility http://www.beautifulpossibilitytour.com. Inspired by the 19th century American Traveling Show, Pebworth’s hand-painted posters use the elaborate graphics of Wild West show posters to re-tell American history.

At stops across the country, Pebworth has been surveying people on their thoughts about "Americanitis," a curious 19th century nervous condition resulting from rapid modernization. While in Cleveland, Pebworth has partnered with urban farmers to make an array of special "Cleveland Elixirs" for Americanitis, which you can sample all day at the Market.

THE BEAUTIFUL POSSIBILITY ELIXIR SOCIAL
@ The West Side Market Lorain Avenue Produce Entrance

8:00 - 9:00 am:
Stretch Your Roots Sunrise Elixir, with Erie's Edge Farm

10:00 - 11:00 am:
Journey to the Center of the Self Elixir, with Gather 'Round Farm

11:00am - Noon:
Full Sensory Elixir Experience, with the Possibilitarians

Noon - 1:00 pm:
Mulberry Thyme! With City Rising Farm

1:00 - 2:00 pm:
Tea with Ms. McGregor, the Real Master Gardener of Blaine Avenue

2:00 - 3:00 pm:
Community Service Berry Potent Potion, with Let It Bee Garden

3:00 pm:
Cap off the day with Alison Pebworth

For more information:
http://www.spacesgallery.org/events/beautiful-possibility-elixir-social-at-the-west-side-market-06-23-2012

Grow Your Own is Making a Comeback in Cleveland

The Buckeye Area Family Garden Initiative

Saturday, May 12th I visited Benedictine High School on Martin Luther King Drive where the Buckeye Area Family Garden Initiative was kicking off its neighborhood gardening endeavor.  

According to the  Family Garden Initiative this is the first of its kind in Cuyahoga County; "We aim to bring healthy food back to the household through backyard gardening."   

This is a collaboration with the Buckeye Area Development Corporation.  The Garden Initiative itself is composed of Buckeye- Woodland Learning Farm, Body Age Project, Green Houses and Greenhouses, Garden Leader Network and Green Line.

At the center of this initiative, Garden Soxx a portable growing system that can be "planted" virtual anywhere.  The above ground Garden Soxx system is sponsored by filtrex land improvement systems a subsidiary of nonprofit 501c3 Filtrexx Foundation.  According to the filtrexx website the foundation was

 "created to promote educational programs centered on compost use, gardening, childhood, early development, and student programs."

2006 South Central Farmers Evicted Despite Daryl Hannah Efforts

Some may remember the 14 acres urban farm in South Central Los Angeles in California servicing around 500 mostly Hispanic families that no longer exists.  With all of the vacant warehouses in the area developers wanted the land supposedly to build a warehouse, yeah right.  The developers proffered the idea that if $16.3 million dollars was raised the farmers could stay.  Danny Glover and Willie Nelson were involved in the effort as were Daryl Hannah and Ed Begley Jr. who both lived in a tree on the property for 23 days.  The money was raised and the farmers were still evicted days later.


In sharp contrast to this travesty, six years later First Lady Michelle Obama visits the International Rescue Committee (IRC) sponsored gardens in San Diego in the City Heights neighborhood.  First Lady chose this site to promote her  own national gardening initiative.  Unlike the South Central garden this garden is 2.3 acres, is tended by, and services refugees from Somalia, Guatemala, Burma, Uganda, Mexico, Vietnam and several other foreign countries.


Like the gardens of the Buckeye initiative Michelle Obama tore up a portion of the south lawn and planted her own private garden; well as private as a garden can be on government property. 


 If memory serves me, as a child growing up in the Lee Harvard/Lee Miles area of Cleveland, Ohio many of the schools had community gardens as did many of my classmates' parents.  My parents certainly had a garden that yielded more than we could eat at harvest times.  We harvested, cooked and ate, gave food away, and canned.  I remember pear preserves, canned green beans,  tomatoes and other garden delectables and cherries.  Does anyone know what a Ball jar looks like?
Even through my high school years living in Woodmere it was not difficult to find gardeners.  I would laugh at the friendly competition as the Lards, the Rices, Mr. Burke and others would carry their best offerings to people, especially other gardeners with a, "let's see you top that smile," thinly veiled in the offering.


I remember my mother sending me to the garden in January to dig through the snow and bring in collard greens with leaves sometimes circling the center three feet in diameter.  In the fall we harvested our apples and passed them through a grinder and then into an apple press, ahhhh, immediate gratification as we would taste the cold apple juice squeezed through the cheesecloth running down the cast iron channel.


The one thing I don't remember are Garden Soxx.  The company states that this is the fast easy way to garden, not much harder than putting your plants in and watering; and it is about that simply.

Kristin Nix of the Filtrex Foundation and Garden Soxx

Buckeye Community Health fellow Vedette Gavin. Kristin Nix of the Filtrex Foundation

In one respect this is surely a sign of the times in our no fuss, no muss, prepackaged, prefab society but this is very pragmatic.  Garden Initiative started out with 150 of these gardens and I suspect a good many of them went to "once upon a time" gardeners as well as "I'm not going to dig and fertilize" gardeners.  It seems a great jumpstart idea.  it is wonderful that Buckeye Garden Initiative considered and opted for organic Garden Soxx; it is clear from the filtrexx site that non organic is an option possibly their primary ware, unless one asks otherwise.

Vedette Gavin explains how it works

The kick-off event was very well organized I found as I went from the logistics tables where friendly, knowledgeable staff proactively engaged people that arrived to the education table where very knowledgeable folks answered all of my questions.  So often one can go to endeavors like this, ask questions, and be met with, "Don't ask me I just work here."  I found none of that here.  Even the uninvolved Benedictine athletes there new what was going on.

If you would like more information on this initiative, even how to start it in your neighborhood, Vedette Gavin's name floated to the top the most.  Also visit the Buckeye Area Family Garden Initiative website.

Buckeye Development Area Corp staffer Radiah Douglas

Radiah Douglas and Garden participant

Volunteers from Cake Boys Cake Girls

Garden Initiative staff

Why I oughta... Oh, a wise guy, eh? Why you... What's the big idea?!,Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk! Soitenly! Nyaaaaaahhhhhhh! Rrrowf! Rrrowf!- Do You Speak Three Stooges?

 

What do Bob Dylan's, Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues, It's a Shame by the Spinners and the English nursery rhyme, Three Blind Mice have in common? Envelop please: The Farrelly Brothers' Three Stooges! So far at Rotten Tomato the critics are coming in a 48% and general audiences at 67% for this flick.  This movie is faithful to the memory of the 3 derelicts and as one review wrote this is definitely a love letter to the Three Stooges and slapstick. The Three Stooges must have had "it" starting in 1925 and not really ending until Larry Fine's 1970 stroke permanently ended his acting career.


I give this movie a thumbs up, would see it again at some point, and yes I am embarrassed about it.


For those who say it isn't funny, you either led a deprived childhood and were not exposed to 3 stooges as a child or you just don't get slapstick nor maybe vaudeville. I laughed loud and hard at the slapstick and the entire spirit of the film had me smiling.  I wish the subplot had nothing to do with an adulteress wife plotting to kill her husband for the money which gets really weird when it turns out that step dad is the one with whom she's having an affair; but of course as morality plays run their course the bad guys get theirs in the end. 

Chris Diamantopoulos as Moe, Sean Hayes who plays Larry, and Will Sasso, Curly incarnate are superb.   The timing, pace and editing are great.  The Farrelly brothers half-way made the decision to break the film up into three film shorts rather than try to hold together a 90 minute film based on Three Stooges antics and a tired plot but I wish they had gone all the way and actually made each 27 minute segment totally different or made the film as three acts; what they did was in between and confusing enough to snap you into reality for a second trying to figure out what was going on.

The plot of the movie has the three leaving the orphanage they grew up in and inadvertently bankrupted to raise $830,000 to keep the place afloat; this actually becomes a minor supposition as they reunite with orphanage inmate Teddy, now exceedingly rich and successful, played by Kirby Heyborne, who got the filthy rich parents Moe would have gotten as a child had he not insisted on taking Larry and Curly.  As movies would have it Teddy's gold-digging, unfaithful wife Lydia and her accomplice stumble upon the Three Stooges and try to enlist them to knock off husband and childhood friend to the Stooges Teddy.

Sophia Vergara is not only sexy with her Hispanic self but turns in a great performance as cheating wife, Lydia who would be a great roll model of strength for girls, except for that cheating thing.  My daughter noted the strength and fearlessness of the character in several situations throughout the movie.  I guess she was almost a female Snidely Whiplash... but more pragmatic, just a girl tryna get paid.  It is so fun when beautiful women don't take their beauty seriously as she shares in the site gags like everyone else.

One very fun and interesting character was Sister Mary Mangele played by actor Larry David... don't worry most of the adults didn't figure it for half the movie so your kids are safe, this was more a typical vaudeville decision than anything else...

As odd as it was to see Jennifer Hudson in this flick playing a singing nun (I guess Whoopi was busy) her character worked well and I think it would have worked better had she not sang.  She did a decent job with her lines but she looked terrible, thin and mannish.

The new stooges don't imitate the original they more like channel them, totally comprehending the essence of their characters.  One minor flaw in the movie is at a couple of places the movie tries to delve into melodrama attempting to build empathy and give the three way more depth than anyone woud dare suspect they had, it is fleeting, and does serve to keep the film light-hearted; it would have been easy for the film to turn mean spirited at several junctures but it stealthily avoids these traps.

I am discounting the detractors it seemed to me these folks gave in to preconceived ideas or are not the type of reviewers to ignore their tasted to see what the movie is.

I don't understand complaints about nothing being new in one breath and then in the next breath referring to Jersey cast and an iPhone joke as not being in keeping with the old Three Stooges.  The movie does not introduce modern day elements as references the movie lives in the times in which it is created.  The Jersey Shores cast is the perfect segway from the 30's, 40's, and 50's era Three Stooges to the Stooges of 2012 the parallels should be more than apparent; at the very least it should be apparent that no chasm separates the stooges and Jersey Shore except the stooges were much better actors and not mean and self absorbed.

One very odd and fun thing is that after the end of the film before the credits the Farrellies do a "don't try this at home" joint showing the hammers to be rubber and how the eye poking is done.  One of the brothers (I assume it was one of the brothers, Pete) comes out in an opened shirt bouncing his pecs up and down for the cameras, guy lovers bring your smelling salts.

Shortly after as the credits start to role the Three Stooges sing the Spinners classic, "It's a Shame." with the help of Jennifer Hudson which is a blast, weird but a blast.

After I wrote this I found Pretty Much It at youtube which to me was the best video review out there. 

AN EVENING WITH SHANE CLAIBORNE

Author and Christian activist, Shane Claiborne, shares his journey and his mission. Claiborne is founding partner of The Simple Way, a faith community in Philadelphia that has helped to birth and connect radical faith communities around the world. He writes and travels extensively speaking about peacemaking, social justice and Jesus.
He will be with us Friday, April 27 at 7:00pm at Trinity Cathedral, 2230 Euclid Avenue.
So don't let the Christian angle keep you away.  Check out the video above.

I've been "walking out" my path in Christ for sometime and many times I am at odds with the official party line.  I think perhaps this is Shane's walk also.

 So many times we are quick to encounter and know the word of God without understanding that we need to know the God of the word so that his Word by revelation can come alive in us. These must go hand in hand.  We often use the word as superficial posi-think mantras allowing the depth and revelation of the Word to fall by the wayside; perhaps mantra and depth of revelation don't have to be mutually exclusive.

  The famed story of Solomon threatening to cut a child in half was inspired wisdom.  We take the uninspired framework and apply it to two guys fighting over a car; well the two are both just as soon see the car cut in half as let the other drive, right?  This is a case of lack of revelation to rightly divide the word of God. 

This is what many of us do, we misapply the word through our ignorance of the Word, through our lack of revelation.  We are quick to affirm, "I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me," when trying to accomplish some feat but not so quick to apply it to enduring circumstances when we are not in control; it is out of spiritual balance and superficial for many.

Much of today's church get's caught up in sin management and thought control, teaching that "we know what the word says and you must believe what we believe," or be in danger of being cast off into the netherworld of Hell.

Many including myself are often quick to quote without having revelation of the thing of which we speak. We can lend mental ascent to understanding that  we do not have revelation on so much but in practical terms it can be hard to determine.  So many of the do's and dont's of the church are not understood at the core, so much is handed down and accepted as "gospel" because of tradition not fresh revelation.

So what do we do with the Gay issue how do we apply the word?  Personally I'd rather deal with, "anyone that looks on a woman in lust has already committed adultery in his heart," and work out my own salvation in fear and trembling than look for what is wrong in others without God's revelatory light.  I know that it seems that there is a sin hierarchy but to the saints, believe the word when it says if you have broken the law in any one point you have broken the entire law.  Listen to Paul when he struggles and says, " the thing I don't want to do, that I do and the thing I want to do that I don't do," and take comfort in the question and answer, "who shall deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.  If you consider yourself in Christ and you haven't figured out there is a war going on you need to, "check yourself before you wreck yourself."

I was on facebook recently and a guy who always talks about "the Lord" and "Jesus" and the "power of God," was openly lusting after a woman whose boyfriend had posted some pic of her in lingerie.  He calls this woman holy and a saint and on and on and then pretty much says to her, "take it off baby!"  He knows she is away from her husband and having an affair with a married man but he is undisciplined in the things of God, lets is dick rule or his flesh rule him and control his mind never realizing the Rhema word of God walking in deference to only the Logos.  The fleshly mind is an enemy of God and can not obey the things of God. 

We all should know that the gate to life is narrow and few there be that find it and great and wide is the gate that leads to death and destruction.  Don't for one minute believe that because you said a prayer once upon a time, or can quote a lot of Christian mantras, wow folks with your prayers or even that because you know the truth that this will spare you from the coming destruction as you repeatedly spiritually shoot yourself in the foot, in the chest in the head.  You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!   How foolish!  Can't we see that faith without works is dead?  if we have living faith it will produce just like a living orange tree will naturally produce oranges.  Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, this is different than what many of us think this says; faith comes by hearing the word of God... not.

I was talking to a beautiful Greek woman one night who is not in Christ and I was talking about wanting a trial I am going through to end even though there is much growth because of it. The woman understood exactly where I was coming from and shared some of her own trials and growth and said, "the trials never stop," and went on to further associate trials with spiritual growth.  Christians do not corner the market on morality nor do they corner the market on spiritual wisdom.

We also should understand that different rules apply to those in Christ and those not in Christ.  The only thing pertinent to those not in Christ is that they come to a saving knowledge of Christ, put another way, they come into a relationship with the Christ.  In America it doesn't matter what one does outside of the Christ mind except to our own comfort level as "the redeemed. " I believe we should all think, "to hell with my comfort level, how can I love this person toward Christ, draw her or him to Christ in me the hope of glory?"  Continually we turn our noses up at everyone that doesn't fit our moral code thereby condemning ourselves as hypocrites in most cases, because we compare our strengths to the weakness of others and may not even take account of our failings. Is it an inferiority complex or superiority complex that causes us to label people Not Our Kind if they see something different than we do in their walking out of the word of truth and love?   How can we be in community with the community.

Once in Christ, we need to forgive each other from the cross as Christ has forgiven us.  Forgiveness is not an easy proposition and it is an ongoing process.

I/we have so much to learn about Christ, so much relational ground to cover with Him but first we must acknowledge this fact and the fact we don't save our selves, even the very faith whereby we come to Christ who calls us, woos us, draws us is given to us.  We love Him because He first loved us and have nothing to be proud of and nothing about which to brag.

Well I would love for someone to takes shots at what I've just pronounce or agree with it.

THE BRAIN SPIRITUALITY AND FREE WILL

Honest Talk with Yourself

I've been having a very interesting discussion with my brother Jeff over at, Have Coffee Will Write.  He is one of the more well read folks you will ever meet, sincere, an excellent writer.
 We have been soul searching as we deal with the death of Trayvon Martin and uncovering some interesting tidbits.  Love and respect imbued  and I might add received rebuke flow both ways.  I appreciate the different point of view as I think we perhaps both allow our opinions to be jostled around.  


Can our society, as opposed to our nation, move forward without soul searching, true dialogue and even confession?  I don't see how we can.  Can we improve others before we have improved ourselves?  How can we improve ourselves if we have refused to see ourselves as we truly are?  How can we see ourselves as we truly are without coming to terms with the warts and all?  Can we come to terms with that when all we recognize is the euphemism, "warts and all," the truisms like, "oh everybody does that, nobody's perfect," our whatever we tell ourselves to excuse our lack of love our neighborism.  Our "warts" cause us to consign folks to death and poverty as we say, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled; but give not to them the needful things for the body."(James 2:16)

So often I hear things like, "My parents came to America looking for a good life with only $2 between them; they made it, I don't see why those people can lift themselves up."  The bottom line falsehood is I "raised myself up by my own bootstraps" or I built the house I was born in, I got mine now you get yours, ignoring the uneven terrain.

  In the past I've just given up on such ubiquitous ignorance.  I am not even surprised any more that it still exists.  This basic lack of understanding and in my opinion lack of  basic decency, because it is so ignorant... choosing to ignore it is not relegated to "race," or class, or religion or gender but we all identify with our special interest groups and point at the shortfalls in all of the other groups thus making ourselves just like them.  So sadly much of the time I have to name myself among the careless.

I now realize that in life, in living and navigating through this world that the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it and narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leads unto life, and few are they that find it.  There are few who find it because there are few who seek it out.  Being comfortable at the expense of others is so easy, so easy.  I check myself more and more to make sure I am on the right path going through the right gate. I cannot answer for you nor can I judge your heart but I can proffer the question; are you?

We are Trayvon's Watchdog

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What if we're wrong...what if we're right?

We are Trayon’s watchdog.  Trayvon is us. Tryvon is my dark skinned daughter who many believe to be ignorant, unrefined, “ghetto,” as if they know the ghetto, and belligerent because of the color of her skin before she speaks or acts, sans hoodie and even many times afterward despite the contrary evidence. Trayvon is every middle-classed Black person discounted as naturally knowledgeable (I worked for my degree and any knowledge I may have amassed like you worked for yours, don’t get it twisted) and exotic by many liberal white folk who sadly truly believe they are color-blind though the be far from it.  These are the ignorant that demand our attention. Trayvon is every Black person ostracized and put in a box by her or his “own” Black folk for being too White, too educated, too articulate, this is the ghetto mind as opposed to saggin and gangsta rap.  God forbid Black folk should like European classical music and art, Carly Simon, even Tracy Chapman or Frank Sinatra, eat Beef Wellington and know what the heck Vichyssoise is.  (Did I spell that correctly?) What is Black anyhow?  Trayvon  is me.  And if you are not dark skinned know that by extension Trayvon is even you, you better recognize… It’s almost too late.

Men in Black

 

The unavoidable context of this case 

 is why it is so huge. Until we are able to put race behind us as a nation we will never be able to exact justice for all; that goes for gender identification, gender preference and a host of other death receiving societal brunts of injustices.

I read Mano Singham's post concerning the Trayvon Martin case and there is good advice in it. .  I think also Dr. Singham, even though dark skinned, speaks as one who does not realize what is at stake, as one who, perhaps as Skip Gates once felt, feels insulated from injustice and microcosmic prejudice in an American justice system.   Read his wellthought out blog here. 

 In diversity training I rely on Daniel Kahneman's research, who Dr. Singham mentions, to explain the necessity of prejudice, the unavoidability of it and how to overcome it, which harkens to what is called system one and system two in his post.

 We cannot remain silent until all the facts are in.  

All the facts have to be wrenched from the grasps of certain gatekeepers with no light assertion of force through public outcry.

Concerning not jumping to conclusions because all the facts aren’t out, it has been a month, many of us noted this and put it on the back burner until now.  The facts are still not out and in fact I believe the family had to sue under the public info act to get the 911 calls release by law enforcement officials.

ADHD and the Media

Dr. Singham mentioned the short media attention in America that is so true, mentioning the Kony endeavor as the most recent.  Personally I'm trying not to let it and other things in the media, die to media ADHD, which is greatly due to our, the public’s short attention span.

Because media memory is so short this particular event, Trayvon's death cannot wait for all the facts given the legal system injustices and its propensity for surreptitiously hiding the facts, which are commonplace to say the least. 

Justice-  "You go down there looking for justice; that's what you find: just us."- Richard Pryor

It is a truism that had the color/race been reversed a Black Mr. Zimmerman would have been handcuffed and taken to jail even if there was less a preponderance of evidence than currently exists, and not released just because he said he was defending himself.  A Black Mr. Zimmerman would have undoubtedly been searched on the spot, tested for alcohol, taken and tested for drugs, detained for further questioning and so on.  This is at the crux of the public outcry more so than if Trayvon was profiled and unjustly killed. 

 

A point is that he is profiled and unjustly accused hundreds of times a day, everyday without recourse because of the color of his skin.  Many know the arrest and release stats and the "who is in prison stats,' better than I.  Fifty years of research has come to no other conclusion than skin color to explain the gross disparities and inequalities in the legal system where people of color are concerned.

In the rape case of the "Central Park Jogger," that Dr. Singham notes, Trisha Mieli was raped in 1989 but "all the facts" didn't come out until 2002 when the real culprit, a White looking, curly haired Hispanic and serial rapist, Matias Reyes confessed to the crime and his DNA corroborated his testimony. 

Perhaps had that incident and consequent railroading of five Black youths, garnered as much attention as Trayvon Martin’s murder those innocent, young, Black boys, who spent the majority of their youth wrongfully accused in jail would not have been incarcerated. Thirteen years is a long time to be incarcerated awaiting the facts especially when you are fifteen.  If one reads the case, one will see that all the facts did not come out because, as so, so often is the case the police were not looking for the facts once they had identified the 'usual suspects.' 

In the Trayvon Martin case, I think many people are coming from a point of view that the legal system and law enforcement officials have proved ad nauseum that they are not worthy of the public's trust and confidence to serve justice and many would rather err on the side of being loud, vocal and wrong than to let the system, "do what it do one  mo’ ‘gin,” which to many of us is nothing less than emasculation, decimation and genocide of dark skinned people, especially its men.  It seems thus far Florida law enforcement officials are living up to this very low standard.  

If you say the lie long enough it becomes the truth

We are now being asked to believe that a man with a gun in his hand was accosted by a boy and then screamed out, “help help me!” (there is absolutely no credible reason, beyond a supposed insanity of Mr. Zimmerman to believe he would carry a gun, follow someone, put himself in danger, and not have his gun drawn.)  It is no surprise many are screaming, “Emmitt Till” all over again.

A comparison of the statements in the Central Park Jogger case reveals troubling discrepancies. ... The accounts given by the five defendants differed from one another on the specific details of virtually every major aspect of the crime — who initiated the attack, who knocked the victim down, who undressed her, who struck her, who held her, who raped her, what weapons were used in the course of the assault, and when in the sequence of events the attack took place. ... In many other respects the defendants' statements were not corroborated by, consistent with, or explanatory of objective, independent evidence. And some of what they said was simply contrary to established fact.

 Motion to vacate

If this were the exception not the rule the Trayvon injustice would be garnering far less attention, however it is not.

Thanksgiving Came Early

I often wake up asking the Lord to give me a witness or an opportunity to help someone.
Today in between morning communion and my Theopoetic readings (http://www.campus-agape.org/)  I went to ________ supermarket to get odds and ends for tomorrow, Thanksgiving.

When I walked in a distressed looking lady asked me if I drove.  She had been stranded by whoever gave her a ride to Dave's and she needed to get to East Cleveland.  After I got my odds and ends I got her and started off.
She had to get to the person who had stranded her because her prescription meds were left in the car.  "I am so sick, I feel so bad, I need to get my prescription and go home."  It turns out she is the fiance of one of the cats that works at _______ who I "know" and like very much. He is not that keen on me.
I asked her why she was sick.  "I have ovarian cancer.   I had some removed but it is back.  I am having surgery next week to have everything taken out, God bless you for taking me, God bless you. "
She was having custody issues with her kids and they were possibly spending Thanksgiving with someone who drinks a lot.  I didn't understand because I thought she said the kids were 18 years of age.  I ministered to her and prayed for her the "kids" the over drinker in the name of Jesus.

She said she had a few dollars she could give me.  I explained how I ask God to give me at least one person to minister to, to help in some way everyday and that she was my blessing.  She was my answer to prayer.  She mentioned paying me two or three more times and each time I told her she had already given me something and that she was my answered prayer, my blessing. I don't think she was a Christian or church-goer or "believer."  She was someone God loves though.

I told her how good God is.  As i was driving her home I inadvertently told her of an issue I was going through and she said, "Oh ok, good, you prayed for me and I will pray for you."  I hope she does but whether she does or doesn't isn't God faithful?  Isn't God good?  He used me to answer her desperate prayer to get home.  I don't know how many folks she had asked to take her home.  More than a few.  In the midst of my misery God's Spirit sprang forth and took my eyes off of me and blessed somebody.
I believe she will be much, much better on the other side of surgery than had I not prayed for her.  And now God may use me to bless the finance.
Seems like such a little thing but I am thankful and overwhelmed at God's goodness.
Bless his Holy name.  Bless his Holy name.  Have ya ever been there? Overwhelmed by life and stranded with seemingly no help on the horizon. Call on Jesus.
Praise God he causes it to rain on the just and unjust alike.  God answers prayer.  God is love.

The Hundredth Monkey by Ken Keyes, Jr. (->FREE COPY HERE<- ) is about nuclear proliferation and critical mass, mass consciousness. The lessons can apply to the Wall Street debacle, Occupy Wall Street, the 99%, the 1%. We must scream it, sponsor golf fundraisers against it, dance it, art it, poem it, make jokes concerning it, rally it, protest it, show love, talk it, do it, unite, drag people into the higher consciousness kicking and screaming, get involved, we already are by default. An excerpt:

There is no need to feel helpless or get paralyzed by hopelessness. We know we have the power to make changes if we can join together and raise our voices in unison. There is more power in numbers that we ever hoped to dream about! I call for us to let our numbers grow exponentially as we all take it on ourselves to spread these messages. We are the bearers of a new vision. We can dispel the old destructive myths and replace them with the life-enriching truths that are essential to continued life on our planet.
St. Mary, Kentucky Ken Keyes, Jr. December, 1981

Stop Coddling the Super-Rich - NYTimes.com

Where is the Love?

Stop Coddling the Super-Rich - NYTimes.com
The above Op Ed letter submitted by Warren E Buffet, "Stop Coddling the Super-Rich" is a breath of fresh air. However his "outing" the rich and legislators in Washington begs the question, "why now?"  The political slant in favor of the rich has existed since at least April 30, 1789 when George Washington was sworn in as president.
It also begs the question what expectations do the rich eg., Warren Buffet have concerning any outcomes based on our country, politicians, and all taking Mr. Buffet's advice.

Our country is in serious trouble, not only due to our debt and mortgage crisis, which was not a lapse in judgement but rather chickens coming home to roost to poor morals leading to unethical and illegal behavior bred in America culture and escalated since the 70's,  but financial and cultural trouble do to the erosion of the middle class.  The shrinking middle class call to arms got a lot of play during the Reagan years and interesting statistics leaped to the forefront.   However, for every statistic heralding the end of the middle class there was one to suggest things were not so bad.

The boundaries between classes are  imaginary  spanning around groups according to economic and psychological standards. In the 1980s at least one economist defined the middle class as a state of mind. "Says Lawrence Lindsey, assistant professor of economics at Harvard: "A middle-class person is someone who expects to be self-reliant, unlike the upper class with its unearned wealth or the lower class with its dependency on society. Far from declining, the middle class is bigger than ever, and its ethic is alive and well."" (Is the Middle Class Shrinking? by Stephen Koepp; Gisela Bolte/Washinton and Jon D. Hull/Los Angeles Monday, Nov. 03, 1986 Time Magazine)

Like the little engine that thought it could middle classers through hard work, determination and belief in themselves felt they had arrived at a station in life  that at least would not be toppled. As comforting as this is at first blush this mindset ethic has created a false sense of security that has caused the middle class to react slowly to a drastically changed, even more, uneven terrain that at one time affected the small percentage of middle class fringers who found themselves overwhelmed by American politics and the resulting economics. Like Dorothy observing, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore," more and more middle classers have been awakened from the American dream into an uncertain nightmare on Elm street where one must stay awake and alert.

In essence the fringe group has eaten at a significant part of the core middle class and the new fringe has failed to realize it is now the outskirts of the middle class and spinning of the circumference. Never has the saying, "a paycheck away from" hunger, homelessness, no health insurance, the working homeless, and displacement been so real for so many.
"Joel Kotkin seems to concur with some of this doomsaying. In his piece in the Dallas Morning News, Kotkin says:

Most disturbingly, the rate of upward mobility has stagnated overall, as wages have largely failed to keep up with the cost of living. It is no easier for poor and working-class people to move up the socio-economic ladder today than it was in the 1970s; in some ways, it’s more difficult. The income of college-educated younger people, adjusted for inflation, has been in decline since 2000." (Warner Todd Huston, "Is the American Middle Class Disappearing?" Canada Free Press 2010)

Still not a believer?

• 61% of Americans “always or usually” live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49% in 2008 and 43% in 2007.
• Only the top 5% of households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
• A staggering 43% of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.
• For the first time in US history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.
• 66% of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.

Have we seen the last of the attacks on collective bargaining?  Probably not.  Power struggles such as in Ohio where Democrats staged a walk out in favor of unions, in Massachusetts where the attack on unions was led by Democrats and  in Indiana point to a government as usual panicked and looking for money in a business as usual support- big- business environment.  There is absolutely no creative thinking based on a long range view of  the real state of America advocating the case for the little people, the heart of our country.

It is patronizing for president after president to ascent we are the strongest greatest country on the planet when even the most ignorant of world affairs know we lead in military expenditures only.  We have lost ground in education and health care and steadily slide down the world leader list.  We still have not conquered the game of race and what is most startling is that many polls suggest most A

If we take Mr. Buffet's "we're all in this together" advice what then? We may avert a financial apocalypse, the middle class may still believe in the American dream which supports the upper class risking the possible complete demise of the middle class, and Mr. Buffet and the rest of the really really rich, stay that way.   By the way the American Dream is based on the premise that anyone can become part of the upper class through you guessed it, through hard work, determination and belief in ones selve, laudable ideals to be sure, but grossly misplaced.   I would think there would be many writings out if they are not out now about the American cast system.

Government backed credit card companies and banks are the new loan sharks able to change rules, interests and contracts in a single sweep of the pen.  Many churches are still only sellers of "pie in the sky" that nominally support the poor and down trodden but not in deference to their own fiefdoms.  We are a society without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable and unmerciful from the greatest to the least.  Because of the aforementioned we are a nation of cynics.
Time for some black eyed peas and cornbread as I ponder, where is the love?

 Dismal wouldn't you say?

2-1-1 Food

Free Food at a Price

My God shall supply all my needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:19.  Today God supplied my need to humble myself.

July 12, 2011.  Today my wife and I went to an emergency hunger center in our neighborhood, (see video at end of this blog) in Cleveland Heights.  Inside we were met by a dour man in his 60's, standing in front of a desk, face snarling, slightly slouched over, one hand in his pocket seemingly sizing up the scum as he looked up peering over his glasses at us.

"Take a ticket he barked," as our eyes met.
 I felt trapped in a "Where's Waldo" episode, only Waldo had a whip,and the  stopwatch was racing to zero, as my eyes frantically raced up and down, back and forth across the room until I found the number 7 on a dowel of numbers on one of the walls.  "Oh look honey," my wife exclaimed, "only 7 people in front of us!"
An elderly lady had entered the room.  "You're the only ones here," she explained.
"Okaaaay, so why do I need a number," I thought.  I was fearful to broach the topic, even just out of curiosity, we sat down and the surly man began to ask questions to ascertain how provably poor were we .  We supplied the proper documents while an upbeat, friendly man named Bob handed me a bag of fresh green leafy stuff and a bag of lettuce with peppers in it.   We agreed that the green stuff  was most likely Swiss Chard. 

There were also baggies of sugar, flour, instant coffee and canned items on the desk.  He stood briefly in the doorway behind the dour, surly gent seemingly apologetic.  Was he apologizing for Mr. Surly or for my being there?

 I didn't have my child's social security number with me but Mr. Surly assured me I could bring it  when I came back.  The thought of returning had not occurred to me.  At one point my wife and I stumbled over information Mr. Surly requested, "Now look," he chastened, "I can't hear both of ya talkin at the same time!"  The sweet elderly woman interpreted "We both have trouble hearing."

I felt my eyes widen so I picked up a flyer advertising a community meal at the church housing this food center, to bow out of the info gathering.  "Oh you ought to come to that, the food is really good!" the sweet older lady chirped.  I then eyed another piece of paper.  "A lot of places on that list have really good food too but you need to call and make sure the hours are correct, this list may be outdated," she cautioned.

Not knowing the procedure it occurred to me maybe I should've brought a packing box, so I decided to take the few things on the desk and the greens to the car. Two others had come in during our interview, a lone woman and a young woman with a small child.  The little girl had apparently not received the memo about not making eye contact and we studied each other on my way past her.    A woman in the passenger's seat of a car stirred when I came outside.  Today the recipients of free food handouts, seemed too intent on avoiding eye contact, or was I projecting?  I leaned out of my way, like Michael Jackson in "Thriller" into the driverless car, to make eye contact with the woman who smiled sheepishly and replied to my hello.  There I'd done it!  I'd broken through the invisibility cloak!

I returned inside, like a convict to the electric chair, hearing the voice of another inmate,  loudly addressing a cell phone as if straining to be heard over the din of an imaginary crowd in the tiny room.  "Uh huh, well I calt chu the otha day and told you I wasn't doin' nat.  Listen I'm over at da food place.  I had my money come in an' I'm goin' to da sto'.  You want me to pick you up anythang?"

She was obviously not a novice.  She was serenely oblivious to the rest of us.  She was seasoned enough to owe obeisance to no one.  There was something to admire there but did I want to become a regular?

 

The Bounty: sugar, flour, 2 bags Jack Rabbit pinto beans, 1 bag of Diamond rice, 1 jar of Hampton  peanut butter, 2 cans of Hudson sweet corn, 2 boxes of Tabatchnick 1% milk, one box of cream mushroom soup, 1 can of Hart sliced potatoes, 1 bottle of SunPac orange juice, 1 baggie of sugar, 1 bag of flour, 1 plastic tin of Giant Eagle Itty Bitty brownies "($3.99), 1/2 pound cake, a 2 pound loaf of bread, 2 bagels, 2 muffins, 4 small whole loaves of bread, 2 cans of Port Royal tuna, 1 can of First Harvest sliced peaches, 2 cans of Family Pantry chicken noodle soup, 1 can Estofado Verduras (stew), 2 cans Delmonte leaf spinach, 1 can Lady Liberty pear halves, 1can of Mothers Maid apples, 1 can of Beckman's greenbeans. 

See you Thursday?