July 3, 2009
IT’S MY FINAL NIGHT AT HOME and I’m up late because I’m still packing my personal stuff. Everything else in the house is packed or prepared for the shippers who will arrive in the AM. The kids are sound asleep. It’s their final night here, too. Our house has not sold yet, and we might end up leasing the house for a year – who knows? But it’s quite possible that this will be my last night here on Navarro Avenue. I’m just letting that fact settle in. I haven’t thought too much about the change, to be frank, and I’ve wondered why. My life has plenty of excitement – that’s the nature of urban ministry – I don’t often remember what I’ve done even in the past few months, just because so much life gets lived in those few months. Anyway… I haven’t had time to make rounds and connect with folks, as my family’s life has been busy on all fronts for weeks now. Let’s email or IM chat or call or skype, you know. My cel phone number is new, email me if you don’t have it and want to reach me. You can still jump in if you’d like to help me bless my wife and children in the transition. Kafi and I will be here in ‘dena for most of the day on Friday. We’ll take the kids and grandma to the airport for a late afternoon flight to JFK, then dad and mom will spend the night near the airport as we have an early Saturday morning flight to Grand Rapids. We go to make a special place for our growing family.
I have so many great memories of Harambee – how do I pick one? Check out this pic… just one special pick of many:
It was last December. We filled up two vans with boys and young male staff. I was the senior guy at 41. Think about this: 9 nine-year olds, 5 in their early twenties, and me. I did two layers of mentoring. Plus my son was along. Here we stopped on one of those Big Sur cliffs on the drive home down Highway 1. I stopped the vans and made everyone throw rocks over the cliff and down 1,000 feet to the ocean. The boys were happy to oblige, as were the adults. For years I’ve taken kids out of spaces of limitation and expanded their horizons, and we’ve had a lot of fun to boot (it’s important to have fun as you learn). This image is symbolic of many, many similar trips and events. I just want to express my gratitude to friends and supporters of Harambee, because these trips – this trip last December – simply couldn’t have happened without your support. Thanks!
Otras cosas…
• HOW WIDE IS THE WORLD’S DIGITAL DIVIDE, ANYWAY? asks Ars Technica. Telling detail: “Broadband represents the most extreme example in the gulf between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’,” said TeleGeography Executive Director John Dinsdale. “Less than 2 percent of African households have broadband compared with 68 percent of North American homes.”
• HOW MCDONALD’S CONQUERED FRANCE: They did it by “buying French” – McDonald’s France sources 75 percent of its ingredients domestically.
• THE CLIMATE CHANGE CLIMATE CHANGE: Kimberly Strassel at the WSJ says the number of skeptics is swelling everywhere. She notes that the Australian Parliament is “preparing to kill its own country’s carbon-emissions scheme,” and introduces us to Dr. Ian Plimer:
Credit for Australia’s own era of renewed enlightenment goes to Dr. Ian Plimer, a well-known Australian geologist. Earlier this year he published “Heaven and Earth,” a damning critique of the “evidence” underpinning man-made global warming. The book is already in its fifth printing. So compelling is it that Paul Sheehan, a noted Australian columnist — and ardent global warming believer — in April humbly pronounced it “an evidence-based attack on conformity and orthodoxy, including my own, and a reminder to respect informed dissent and beware of ideology subverting evidence.” Australian polls have shown a sharp uptick in public skepticism; the press is back to questioning scientific dogma; blogs are having a field day.
Interesting.
July 1, 2009
“IT’S NO SECRET THAT A FRIEND IS SOMEONE WHO LETS YOU HELP.” That’s one of my favorite U2 lines. It’s from their song, “The Fly.” It’s the spirit in which I share this: Today is the first day of the rest of my life and my family’s life. For me and my wife, yesterday was our last day on staff at Harambee. It’s been a great 19 years for me and 17 years for my honey. We will start this next season in our lives with a family sabbatical. We’ll be living in Grand Rapids, Michigan for the coming year. In a few days we’ll take leave of Southern California and take hold of the upper Midwest with two hands. This is where you can come in. I’d like to make the transition as smooth as possible for my pregnant wife and three children. So this is a request to my friends. A variety of things, here and on the ground in GR, would be of help. Email me if you’d like to hear how we can connect. Thanks!
June 30, 2009
THE LAW TRIUMPHS IN HONDURAS says John Fund in the Wall Street Journal:
Many foreign observers are condemning the ouster of Honduran President Mel Zelaya, a supporter of Hugo Chavez, as a “military coup.” But can it be a coup when the Honduran military acted on the orders of the nation’s Supreme Court, the step was backed by the nation’s attorney general, and the man replacing Mr. Zelaya and elected in emergency session by that nation’s Congress is a member of the former president’s own political party?Mr. Zelaya had sacked General Romeo Vasquez, head of the country’s armed forces, after he refused to use his troops to provide logistical support for a referendum designed to let Mr. Zelaya escape the country’s one-term limit on presidents. Both the referendum and the firing of the military chief have been declared illegal by the Honduran Supreme Court. Nonetheless, Mr. Zelaya intended yesterday to use ballots printed in Venezuela to conduct the vote anyway.
All this will be familiar to members of Honduras’ legislature, who vividly recall how Mr. Chavez in Venezuela adopted similar means to hijack his country’s democracy and economy. Elected a decade ago, Mr. Chavez held a Constituent Assembly and changed the constitution to enhance his power and subvert the country’s governing institutions. Mr. Zelaya made it clear that he wished to do the same in Honduras and that the referendum was the first step in installing a new constitution that would enhance his powers and allow him to run for re-election.
No one likes to see a nation’s military in the streets, especially in a continent with such painful memories of military rule. But Honduras is clearly a different situation. Members of Mr. Zelaya’s own party in Congress voted last week to declare him unfit for his office. Given his refusal to leave, who else was going to enforce the orders of the nation’s other branches of government?
If Fund’s analysis is correct, it was not a coup but rather due process of law, what we should be affirming. Every day, however, I see the Los Angeles Times’ headlines on this matter using the word “coup.” I wonder if that verbiage will change as the facts become more broadly dispersed.
y mas…
• There’s some energy behind a bill on Capital Hill to “Audit The Fed.”
• The U.S. Military, Exiting Iraq’s cities, victorious: This should be getting more cheers and coverage. This was and is not another Vietnam. Look.
• The US Men’s Soccer team stepped it up last week, defeating mighty Spain and holding Brazil over the cliff until the very end. Excellent. Greater things are yet to come in 2010…
• This guy says conspiratorial thinking has become respectable. I’ve sensed this for a while. People love to attribute large, mysterious events (usually events we don’t like) to a plan skillfully executed by a hidden group of evil plotters. But what in life ever goes according to plan? I think the devil himself has trouble executing plans, because he has to rely on people to carry out his wishes, and people are a notoriously selfish bunch who don’t willingly submit to authority and who are, besides, only human. Whenever I hear a perspective that requires precise execution and alignment of improbable events, I pass. But only after listening for a while. Because conspiracy scenarios are, you know, pretty fascinating. The human mind can make some amazing connections and see monumental castles where there is only sand. Remember the quote attributed to Napoleon: “Never attribute to malice what can easily be explained by incompetence.”
• Bon Jovi has recorded a song in support of the Iranian protestors.
• Just shut down for a week: That, apparently, is what Adobe is doing to save cash.
• Average Twitter user has 126 followers.
• They grow up quickly:
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prayers for safety and support for those protesting the election in Iran
