Rather Little To Say...

I continue to be quiet, both here and on the email lists. It's not for lack of stimulation though, just a lack of response. Work has been fine, not much to write about. I helped our chaplains out with a retreat for about a dozen boys yesterday, focusing on the life of Joseph and lessons that young men can draw from his experiences. Went to a luncheon fundraiser for a former co-worker who had a liver transplant and whose family is suffering financial hardship. I'm looking at a major staffing crunch later in July when I have a number of staff on vacation or taking clients camping at the same time, which may end up affecting my own time off plans. We have some girls getting ready to leave the program and a couple of positions to fill on our team. All routine business.

From the outside world, we had some stuff happen this week that might normally provoke some kind of response from me, but I'm just not interested in tangling with it right now. Bush made a major speech about Iraq, but it just sounds like the same old rubbish, to be honest. I'm so tired of listening to what that man has to say, his appeals are so stale and hollow and uninspiring. I suppose he's not really trying to reach my demographic or mindset though.

And then there's the Supreme Court - what a bunch of muddled thinking nonsense they put out recently. The Ten Commandments ruling seems to be based on how long a monument has been sitting around (the longer the better, and the less obvious the theocratic intentions are laid out, that helps also.) And cities have the right to seize homes if such a move is deemed in the public (property tax raising?) interest. And broadband carriers may have the right to deny some websites to their customers or otherwise restrict access to some aspects or services of the internet? And of course they feel entitled to meddle into p2p file-sharing... All moves aimed at limiting the internet from becoming a more transformative force than it could be.

It seems to me that the kind of people who desire to get into positions of governing authority over others are precisely the kind of people that we should try to prevent from having access to that kind of power.

Another Busy Weekend...

Not much profundity to lay down here today. The main event of the past several days for me was serving as a Master of Ceremonies at a wedding of two of my co-workers, a duty I was willing to take on, I guess, even though I wasn't ever really all that sure of what the groom was asking or expecting of me up until just about the time I was due to pick up the microphone and start talking.

Fortunately for me, the wedding was an informal affair, as weddings go, and the audience was fairly small. I only know the couple on the job, I've only socialized with the bride (Keren) on a few occasions and never met the groom (Jason, or JB as we know him) outside of work, so it's not like I had this big stockpile of anecdotes to draw from. But they really didn't want me to put on that kind of performance - it was more about making announcements, saying a prayer before the meal, what I would call "facilitating" rather than being an M.C. proper.

Here's a picture of all the cool people I work with who were able to attend the reception:



It was a fun occasion. I enjoyed the opportunity to socialize with a bunch of folks that I either currently or formerly worked with and it was a happy occasion, after all. I had a nice meal on Friday at the rehearsal dinner, got to the wedding just moments before the processional started on Saturday afternoon, then did the M.C. bit a couple hours later. It was a hot day and I was sweating, let me tell you. And my old beater of a car doesn't have air conditioning either. I hope to get a new car in the near future but we have to be careful with major purchases because college tuition bills loom on the horizon and we need to avoid over-extending ourselves financially. And I still haven't made up my mind what kind of car I want, either.

In the freetime I've had around the wedding-related events, I've been downloading a fair amount of Oasis-related material, still basking in the afterglow of a great concert last weekend. I now have the entire show that I saw on mp3 on my computer, along with a lot of pictures taken by others in the audience that night. Also some camera-phone video clips that are pretty interesting - I saw a lot of them hoisted over peoples' heads in the crowd, perhaps replacing the lighters that used to mark the opening chords of some classic, "Free Bird," "Stairway to Heaven" or in Oasis' case, "Champagne Supernova" and "Wonderwall." I also found an Italian website that has videos of a very similar setlist that Oasis performed just a few weeks ago in Italy. So it's cool to be able to find all this high-quality stuff for free! And I struck up a few conversations on the Oasis fan boards as well.

Like I said at the top, nothing all that heavy on my mind as of late. At least off the job. There are some big things happening at work, more on the upper administrative level, involving on-going shifts in program treatment philosophy and trauma-sensitive programming (I won't go into more depth on that topic today, but perhaps later) and I'll be hitting all that at the Supervisors meeting on Monday, but I'm at home now and not all that inclined to do much heavy thinking, to be perfectly honest. It's summertime, man! Time to take it easy whenever I find the chance.

Here's a picture of me and Deanna, one of the people I supervise at Wedgwood. She has just left our team to go work in another home - she got a promotion to be an Assistant Supervisor! I have worked with Deanna since she started as a part-time staff and I am very pleased to see her moving on to a position of greater responsibility in the agency, even though I won't be working with her on a daily basis anymore.

I don't often blog about my job (not as much as I could anyway, considering all the dramas and interesting stories that happen there) but I thought I'd enter this picture into the record. Last night several of us staff at the Delta Home got together at a local watering hole to give D a proper send-off, and it happened to be the night of Game 6 of the NBA Finals, which you can see in the background. The Pistons won and the state of Michigan is suddenly feeling confident that our hoops franchise might be on the brink of successfully defending the title they won last year against the Lakers. Sorry for the bummer flashback, Bilbo! Well, not really... :o)

But back to Deanna. She is a bright, talented, tenacious woman who has contributed bunches to our program over the past few years. Now she gets to take her experience into a new environment where she'll tackle a different set of challenges, moving up in the ranks, getting well-deserved recognition but also stepping up to a higher level of pressure and visibility. I'm excited to see what happens next for her, and as chair of the Assistant Supervisors' group, I'll have a significant role to play in her work and opportunities to continue our working relationship in a new context.

She's great, but our team is able to sustain her loss because we have a whole crew of gifted people who bring good stuff to the kids who live in our care. My role as Home Supervisor gives me a unique opportunity to bring people together and help them individually and collectively develop their abilities. I'm not quite as hands-on as I used to be since my work duties are split between two campuses/jobs/sets of responsibilities these days. But I hope that it hasn't been too much of a loss for everyone involved. The flip-side is that I've been able to connect with many other people around Wedgwood and involve myself with many other projects aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of our treatment.

Anyway, this is mainly just a cute picture of me and D that seemed to require some explanation so there it is.
 

Oasis/Jet at Meadowbrook Music Festival

Oasis/Jet at Meadowbrook Music Festival

Wow, well, what a night we had. As mentioned below, my sons Curt, Brandon and I made a trip to Detroit to check out the bands Oasis and Jet. The venue was the Meadowbrook Music Festival, an outdoor amphitheater on the campus of Oakland State University, in Rochester Hills, very close to the Palace of Auburn Hills, where the Detroit Pistons will be competing in the NBA Finals later tonight.

We got there fairly early and had a couple hours wait to get through before the music started. Our tickets were for the lawn, general admission, and we figured that we'd have to spend the evening sitting back behind all the reserved (and covered) seating.



But then we noticed a few folks were sitting on patches of grass off to the sides of the stage, so we made our way down there and strolled easily to the front (no one was even close), staking our claim to a spot probably no more than 50 feet from the stage (about 12 - 15 rows back) off to the left side from the viewer's perspective. A fantastic spot, much better than if we had paid twice as much for most of the seats!



So all we had to do was kill some time until Jet started the night off (we discovered that there were no plans for a third band to play, unlike what had happened in the Toronto concert the night before.) That was no problem, my boys and I chatted and struck up conversations with a couple of guys from Canada who'd been at the T.O. gig. One of them hung a handmade flag on the chain that marked the forward limit to our approach of the stage (pictured above.)

Brandon had waited awhile to use the restroom but decided he'd get it over with while we stood and waited, but after he had made his way up the hill, he heard sirens going off and a roar from the crowd, which got him dashing back to us. He reclaimed his spot just as the band was kicking into the instrumental prelude to their hit song "Cold Hard Bitch" which has a nasty-sounding title, I know, but the song really rocks and isn't as misogynistic as one might think. Fact is, it's a catchy song with a tight crunchy riff that is close to irresistable for us crunchy riff lovers. That launched them into a solid opening-act set that was met with the usual degree of indifference by many in the audience but represented the group more than adequately, in my opinion. I enjoyed the performance - Jet's music is simple, straight on rock, kind of an AC/DC sound with neither the long delirious solos (I don't think that the guitarists could imitate that part of Angus Young's repertoire, based on what I heard) nor the sleazy, violent, menacing lyrical imagery associated with that band. Brandon was a big fan of theirs going in to the show and he was thoroughly impressed. I think Jet has carved out a niche for themselves among young hard rock acts and I'll be interested in hearing what they do as a follow-up to their first CD, "Get Born" which came out in 2003.



Between Jet and Oasis, we conversed with a couple of girls, one of whom was holding autographed photos of Jet that she'd obtained from a backstage visit. Here's a photo of the boys holding the pictures (the girls can be spotted in a crowd shot that I'll post lower on the page.)



One of them had won a radio contest to meet the band. These girls were funny and hyper and also very flirty. Music is their life and they had lots of stories about different musicians they've met, concerts they've been to and numerous adventures they've had getting access to backstage. As may be predictable, they were both cute and blonde, which undoubtedly helps their access to the inner workings of the musical entertainment business. There were also indicators of struggles and pain in their lives outside of all the partying and fan-frolicing, but they were fun, enthusiastic and kind, so we enjoyed a short time of getting to know each other.



And finally, after much anticipation, Oasis came on. They were sensational, easily living up to my expectations and completely delighting the packed house that had gathered to hear their music. They opened with a few songs from their excellent new CD, "Don't Believe the Truth" which I recommend if you think you'd like to hear some new classic-sounding British rock music in 2005. "Lyla" is their current single, the second number they performed, and their performance was the first indicator that we had a crowd that was dying to sing along.



I won't ramble too long about the concert though. Here are the main points - each of the songs that the band played from their immortal 1995 album (What's The Story) Morning Glory sent the audience into a frenzy. Hands in the air, bodies swaying, dancing, grooving, people yelling out the lyrics at the top of their voice, the whole bit. Other songs from different albums got a response that could be described as less enthusiastic, but that's only relatively speaking. There were no dud numbers, no points at which the energy seemed to be lost. More just some time to catch our collective breath with either a newer tune or an older hit that aficionados could appreciate hearing once again (or for the first time ever live, as was my case.)

But if you were not already an Oasis fan, there's a chance that you might have been put off by the lack of physical theatrics put forth by the band. Oasis aren't exactly a "shoegazer" band, but they don't move around a whole lot either. Liam Gallagher, the main singer and front man, actually stands still and stares at the audience most of the time that he's not singing during songs. On tunes where his brother Noel sings, Liam leaves the stage altogether. His persona is very much Rock Star on stage, but it's not fist-pumping passionate, strutting peacock, thrasher or even primadonna. His statue-like composure seems more like a form of philosophical detachment, as if he's subtly reminding the audience that this is just rock and roll music that he and his mates are blasting from the stage, and that he's observing us almost as a curiousity. He limits the amount of touch and interaction that he's willing to engage in with the crowd and tends to clap back at the people as each song draws to its end.



The other members are fairly static in their stage presence as well, but their playing is impeccable and the power of the tunes, the enigmatic implications of their lyrics (which seldom spoon-feed direct meaning to their audience but contain highly evocative phrases) supply all the stimulation needed to rev people up. We all loved it!



My boys were definitely treated to a memorable "first rock concert" and I, as a veteran of many such events over the years, consider this one to have been highly successful, all the more enjoyable because I was able to share the time with my boys as the clock rolled over and we began this year's Father's Day driving on the highway through the night, our ears ringing, hearts and minds buzzing from the pleasure of hearing great music and sharing it with thousands of similarly energized fans.

Lift high and drink deep from the Goblet of Rock!

What's Next from Creators of "The Matrix"?

What's Next from Creators of "The Matrix"?

I'll get around to my Oasis/Jet concert review and pictures soon, but first here's a link to a NY Times article about V for Vendetta, the next film project from the Wachowski Brothers, who are the main idea-people behind the Matrix trilogy.

Bloody Well Ready To Rock

Bloody Well Ready To Rock

In a very short while, Brandon, Curt and I are heading off to Detroit (my second trip to Motown this week) to see a tiptop, first-rate and simply smashing rock and roll programme. The English band Oasis is just getting underway on their summer concert tour, with opening bands Jet (from Australia) and Nic Armstrong & the Thieves (another Brit who I haven't heard yet but the reviews look good - a blues rocker with a strong voice.)

English rock bands (like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Clash, The Sex Pistols and many others) have been a source of much enjoyment for me over the years - the very first concert I ever went to featured Queen and Thin Lizzy, in late '75 or early '76, the same years that their respective hits "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "The Boys Are Back In Town" were riding the charts. What a memorable occasion that was for me! And now my sons, a few years older than I was at the time, are going to their first big gig. I hope they don't mind having Dad along. It is Father's Day, after all (or will be by the time we get home!) I'm pleased with the symmetry, that their first major concert will be with a "larger than life" act heralding from the British Isles. The boys have been Oasis fans for a long time, maybe since I got my copy of "(What's The Story) Morning Glory" back in the mid-90's and began getting back into "secular rock" after a period of listening only to contemporary Christian music or baseball games on the radio.

There are and have been many fantastic American bands over the years - Pearl Jam, who I saw last year, and Green Day who I saw several weeks ago, rule the contemporary scene in my opinion - but there's nothing quite like the swagger of an English band with the prerequisite Big Guitars and Rock Star Attitudes, and that's what Oasis does better than anyone, I'd say, including U2. They're also somewhat rowdier and raunchier, which I think is simply part of the overall package. The Gallagher brothers are bad boys, who rock out, and write wonderful anthemic songs that big audiences can sing together - which is what I'm looking forward to seeing, hearing and being a part of as the sun sets later tonight!



So check back for pictures and a review sometime in the next day or two...

Tigers 3, Padres 1

Tigers 3, Padres 1

I went with a group of my friends from work to a baseball game at Comerica Park in Detroit today. It was a well-played contest, not all that dramatic as far as unusual baseball circumstances are concerned, which the Tigers won, 3-1. Detroit and San Diego rarely play - this occasion marked a kind of rematch of the 1984 World Series participants - with current Tigers' manager Alan Trammell and coach Kirk Gibson representing the Detroit franchise both then (as shortstop and outfielder, respectively) and now.

As happened in 1984, the Tigers won all three games in Detroit, though the significance of the '84 series was much more dramatic than this one. It was Detroit's first series sweep at home since last year, and puts the team just one game under the .500 mark for the season. There were some good defensive plays, a couple of home runs, and we had fun teasing one of our traveling companions, whose fantasy league catcher, Ramon Hernandez of the Padres, swung weakly at strike three, not once but twice, after Keith (who "owns" the player) had confidently predicted a two-homer, five rbi performance from his guy. We gleefully imitated his buckled-knee, frail sweeping motion with the bat several times throughout the day.

We've had a mostly-annual tradition of taking in a ballgame during the season over the years, going back to the mid-90's. This year, we chose cheap 2-for-1 seats in the Upper Reserve section - we've spent the big bucks to sit down on field level before but these seats were fine and we had just as good a time as if we'd spent five times the amount. Here are a few pictures that I took!

Entering Comerica Park, site of the 2005 Major League All-Star Game (way out of my price range)


The first pitch! (The Padres OF at bat in this picture, would hit a home run in this at-bat, the only San Diego run of the day.)


Strolling the outfield pavilion during batting practice.


Check me out, I'm in the upper deck at Comerica Park!

McLaren's "New Kind of Christian" Series

McLaren's "New Kind of Christian" Series

A few weeks ago I read the latest book by Brian McLaren. It's the concluding volume of a trilogy of books that he's produced over the past few years, chronicling the fictionalized spiritual journeys of a pastor, Dan Poole, his wife Carol and various friends and acquaintances through contemporary American society. Though the books themselves are fairly slight (less than 200 pages each), they are significant in their import, I believe, because they represent a unique example of a broader perspective on theology and biblical interpretation than we usually see from popular evangelical writers. McLaren is seen as a leading figure within the Emergent Movement within contemporary evangelicalism.

Each volume in the series can be characterized as a re-examination of a current controversy within today's evangelical subculture. The first volume, A New Kind of Christian, deals with postmodernism. The second, The Story We Find Ourselves In, focuses on evolution, and the third, The Last Word and the Word After That, takes on the question of hell and the afterlife. Certainly, these topics are extensively covered on the bookshelves of Christian bookstores, but McLaren's take is different because he opens up a lot of questions and introduces arguments that calls into question the traditional perspectives on these issues (that postmodernism is inherently anti-Christian, that evolution is an ungodly deception and that hell is the destination of all who don't have a saving faith and a declared personal relationship with Jesus Christ.)

McLaren's approach typically holds him back from offering straightforward, unambiguous answers to the questions he raises. He's either undecided on these matters himself or simply too shrewd to declare himself conclusively and risk putting off one half or the other of his readership. It doesn't really matter that much that he appears to be modulating his theological boldness for the sake of allowing the dialogue to proceed - the very openness and willingness to engage outsiders in the questions he raises has proven to be unsettling enough to generate a backlash, including a posse of hostile reviewers at Amazon.com who show up to give his books 1 star ratings though many appear to have never read the series, or just scan it looking for evidence of heresy.

My purpose here is not to offer a comprehensive review but just to put the word out and perhaps generate some discussion on my own. I'm going to raise the topic on my PoMoXian email list if any readers want to follow me over that way.

British Memos Reveal 2002 Plans for Iraq War

British Memos Reveal 2002 Plans for Iraq War

I assume that most people who read this have heard something about the "Downing Street Memo," notes taken from a meeting between British and American officials that imply that the Bush administration had decided during the summer of 2002 to go to war with Iraq, with a comment that "the facts and evidence would be fixed around the policy" (or words to that effect.) Though this memo was published in England a few months ago, it's just now beginning to create some ripples in the US media, and many outlets still appear reluctant to give the hard questions much air time.

Apparently there's even more evidence to substantiate these concerns. From Sunday's London Times comes this article. I'll be interested to see what kind of play the story gets on this side of the pond. If you are as troubled about the implications of this article as I am, I encourage you to contact your representatives and local media sources to let them know what you think.

Here's the actual text of this newly-emerged memo, again courtesy of the Times of London.

...and an analysis of how this is affecting British and American politics.

It makes for fascinating reading. It's not too often we get such an unvarnished glimpse into this level of foreign affairs strategizing. But it does reinforce whatever degree of cynicism has set in about the motives and credibility of our leaders who openly plot ways to "create the conditions" that would make their war plans legal, and "prepare public opinion... that it would be necessary to take military action."

The Washington Post version of this story downplays the "fixing the case" angle (probably still a bit gunshy of taking on the admin so directly), emphasizing instead the "lack of post-war planning" which is still pretty damning, considering the damage and instability that the invasion would surely inflict on the populace.


It really disturbs me to ponder that our leaders really do seem to see their subjects as a vast herd who need to be shepherded along so that we can be persuaded into supporting policies that don't benefit our society and end up killing or maiming many thousands of people. All for the sake of furthering an agenda that they won't openly discuss or bring to the table in any meaningful legislative sense. Instead, it's all obscured under pious rhetoric and patriotic appeals. And they accuse Saddam and his regime of obfuscating...

Ahh, hypocrisy that plays with other people's lives - I can't stand it!

If you want to support the effort to inform our society about these memos, here are some sites to check out:

http://downingstreetmemo.com/

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/

http://www.johnconyers.com/

Across the Chasm

Across the Chasm

My letter to the Press got published in yesterday's paper. I pretty much expected that it would get printed this week, since I was called early Monday morning to confirm my identity and that I'd written the letter.

It's nice to see one's name and writing in print and I feel good about what I had to say, though I am always a bit over-analytical about these things, thinking that I could have made my point better or differently. And I'm chronically aware of the counter-points to just about any argument I would raise which makes it hard for me to hammer the issue as hard as I otherwise might.

But then there's the question of what kind of feedback I'm going to get from friends and acquaintances who view issues differently than me. Especially since this Bush visit seemed to touch some nerves on both sides of the political divide here in town.

On Fridays, I'm in the habit of lunching at a local pizza place with guys I work with. Most of the time, the topic is sports, safe territory for us men - we all participate in a workplace-based fantasy baseball and football league. But occasionally the conversation veers off into current events, and amongst this group, my "radical leftist" views are in a distinct minority. That's fairly well known so most of the time we stay away from the hotter issues. But when I go shooting off my opinions in the local press, well I guess I have to deal with whatever reaction my buddies want to give me.

So just after one of the guys had stepped away, Keith, who works in local government and has numerous connections to actual politicians, brought up the fact that I had just been published last night. I didn't want to yield the initiative, of course, so I interjected that yes, indeed, I had written a "caustic" letter in defense of the protestors at Calvin College, counting myself as one of that company. I had a smile on my face as I made this confession.

Upon hearing me, DVZ, our other lunchmate (there were just the three of us at this point) mentioned calmly that he'd written a letter to Calvin College president Galen Byker, praising his accomplishment of bringing President Bush to Grand Rapids. Without openly declaring ourselves in opposition to each other, it was quite clear that he and I were coming from conflicting perspectives. Keith just sat there grinning to see what would unfold.

Well, DVZ, Keith and I went on to have a pleasant andsubstantive discussion about the war in Iraq where I'd like to think we all walked away feeling a little more able to understand the values and concerns that drive us to our respective conclusions. Keith and DVZ see things pretty much the same - that the war in Iraq really was and is about national security, that Bush did the right thing in initiating military intervention when he did and that the Calvin faculty were off base and out of line to issue their critique of Bush's policies in the way they did (a large ad in the G.R. Press timed to coincide with the president's visit.)

I can't say that I persuaded them to see things my way (nor did they persuade me) but we had a fine time of it, running our way through the ping-pong match of all the usual arguments re: WMD's, the rationale for the war, the lack of serious attacks on US soil since 9/11, how we should respond to the threat of radical Islamists here and abroad, whether the war was truly a "last resort," how it's affected America's standing in the world, Bush's effectiveness as a leader both domestically and internationally, and so on. What I enjoyed most about the exchange was that it never got heated or emotionally tense. According to DVZ, that was rather remarkable for him, since he seldom gets into conversations with liberals like me without getting worked up. He commented on this a couple of times and I appreciate the fact that we could lay our views out there, have them countered and rebutted consistently, but not lose perspective or let it dampen our friendship. I think it's because we maintained the objective of trying to understand each other, and we stayed respectful. I think that makes a big difference, though I understand how such patience can be strained over the course of time if no resolution is found and the time for action is delayed indefinitely.

I'm not sure if I'll hear from anyone else I work with or not. I imagine that my opinions could make some people mad at me, not to mention surprised since I don't often cut loose politically when I'm on the job (though I've been more candid about it lately.) But the fact is that the longer this Bush administration continues in power, the more well-founded my opposition to many of its policies becomes and the more my views take on the feeling of "common sense," in my mind at least. And that always makes it easier to claim a point and defend it, when one is arguing on behalf of "self-evident truth."

Busy Week

Busy Week

I don't have anything particularly deep or profound to pass on here. More just interested in catching up with some of the events that have been filling my days lately. So here are a few photos and the stories behind them.

The big focus around here last week was an open house party we threw for Brandon and Curt in honor of their graduation from Wyoming Park High School. Julie and I both (but more Julie than me, I must admit) devoted significant hours to our preparations. Her main emphasis was food, mine was getting the yard and garage cleaned up and presentable for our guests. It was a big job getting it all together, but we had a good time and everyone feels pretty good about how the results.









Even though we had a huge thunderstorm in the middle of the afternoon.



Which forced us into the garage (except for the kids who actually enjoyed standing in the rain getting deeply soaked, obviously a highly significant and subliminal act as they prepare to say goodbye forever to their rapidly receding childhood stage of life...)









The morning before the open house, we caught an opossum in our backyard (I call these animals "possums" but I'll stick with the spelling I was taught as a kid for literary purposes.)



It was very cute but tried to look scary and intimidating when I approached it's temporary home (the live-trap that we are using to catch the woodchuck family that we've spotted hovering around our garden over the past couple of weeks, which will probably be the subject of a separate blog entry once that story has reached its denouement.)



I didn't want the critter to suffer in the rapidly escalating heat of the day, and our party didn't need the distraction of a caged rodent lurking on the premises, so I took it out to a woodsy patch a mile or so from our house and let it go.



Last night my family went out to my sister's house to say buh-bye to my dad as his visit to the USA came to an end today. He's in flight back to Sint Maarten even as I type. From there, he'll be sailing southward down the chain of islands... Would that be the Western Antilles or something like that? I could look it up, but in any case, he'll be toodling around South America in weeks soon to come and I'll be interested to see what he discovers there. So send me pictures, Dad!



It was really nice seeing him and having him around again. I was especially happy he could join us for the graduation. He and I talked about arranging another visit to the islands, so I'm going to see what I can do to make it happen. Maybe sometime this fall.



That's what I've been up to lately!

Letter to the Editor

Letter to the Editor

Of course any regular reader of this blog knows that I was at the recent demonstrations that "greeted" President Bush upon his visit to Calvin College. You can re-visit my pictures and narrative of that day's events here.

Since that occasion, there's been a lot of buzz in the local newspaper generated by people who've written letters to the editor deriding the protestors. Most of them, in my opinion, are rather pompous and self-righteous and more or less miss the entire point. You can read them, and other examples of reactionarydiatribe, here at the Grand Rapids Press website. Just now, I've written my own response that I hope will get printed in the next few days. Here it is!

I’m bemused by recent letters to the Press criticizing protests that accompanied President Bush’s visit to Calvin College. The complaints of my fellow citizens revolve around the propriety of faculty objections, the money spent on two advertisements that ran concurrent with Bush’s visit and the presence of protestors in the vicinity of Calvin’s campus.

What these critiques lack is substantial defense of issues that arouse our displeasure with the President. A significant percentage of the public opposed invading Iraq since rumors of war began circulating in 2002. The tragic events that followed this needless and destructive war confirm the skepticism we had about Bush’s motives and rationale. His conduct offended many who expect our leaders to conduct themselves more honestly and wisely than the president has in this regard. The day after Bush made his 2003 State of the Union speech, I and several hundred others gathered on the Michigan Avenue hill in downtown Grand Rapids, pleading with the president to turn our country back from the warpath he put us on. Bush’s indifference to our petitions at that time and ever since created a rift in our society that has yet to be resolved or seriously addressed by him or his advisors. I don’t like the feeling of being treated with contempt by our nation’s highest official, but that is how the situation appears to me.

Beyond the war, many other Bush policies have prompted a backlash of resentment by people whose lives and well-being have been adversely affected. Bush’s appearance in our neighborhood presented an opportunity to bring our message to an attentive audience, and it is disappointing (but not surprising) to see that the serious moral issues we attempt to raise are overlooked by those who are more interested in burying them under clichés and facile rhetoric.

(Note: The Press imposes a 300-word limit on letters to "The Public Pulse." I used up every one.)

Book Tag

Book Tag

I see that Bilbo not only updated his blog, but he also responded to the tag that Russ laid on him, which reminded me that I have to keep the promise I made, so here it is.

1. Total number of books I own:

Hundreds, perhaps a thousand but it's hard to tell. Many are packed up in boxes. Fair to say that I have lots more than most people, probably.

2. Last book I bought:

I like to browse the Bargain Bookstores in this area, that offer brand new books at deep discount prices. Most of them are remainders, either former best sellers or just books that some retailer decided to no longer stock. Since Grand Rapids has a lot of Christian publishing based in the area, I get some very good deals on a lot of theological and philosophical material. But the last two books I bought, to answer the question, were at that store: a single volume of the four Rabbit novels by John Updike, and Joseph Heller's Catch-22. Each bound in the handsome "Everyman's Library" editions published by Random House.

3. Last book I read:

The Last Word and the Word After That by Brian McLaren. Which is also the last book I bought at retail price (though I had a discount coupon to use at my local Family Bookstore. I like the thought of buying McLaren's book there rather than at Barnes & Noble or through Amazon.com...)

I'm currently reading American Aurora which I've already mentioned in this blog a few days ago.

4. Five books that mean a lot to me:

1. Radical Hermeneutics by John Caputo. It's the book that got me started on the whole postmodern thing - a work of serious philosophy that really opened my eyes to a larger vision of life, meaning, reality, all that stuff.

2. The Meaning of Jesus by Marcus Borg and N.T. Wright. An excellent and fascinating dialogue between two top-notch scholars who use their academic expertise to bring up all the significant questions surrounding the historic person of Jesus. Well-balanced and ultimately unresolved - one is simply allowed to choose: "who do you find most convincing?"

3. The Powers That Be by Walter Wink. A pivotal book that got me to think seriously about non-violence as a serious principle and ethic that I could base my life on. Not that I have mastered the practice by any means, but that's where my heart is and I deeply respect Wink's perspective.

4. A Testament of Devotion by Thomas Kelly. Another book I read several years ago that stuck with me and encouraged me to identify myself with a less aggressive, more reflective and intuitive form of Christian spirituality.

5. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. I like this book for a lot of different reasons, but the one that caused me to put it here is that when I read it back in 1996 I found myself able to identify with both Huck and the messed-up adults who were trying to suppress and control him. The experience of reading that book at that time changed my life.

5. Two major books when I was a kid:

When I was young, I really loved Edward Lear's Book of Nonsense. When I was a teenager, I got into the Illuminatus! Trilogy, by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson.

I'm not going to tag anybody. Sorry! But I enjoyed this chance to list a few of the many books that have been significant in my life. There are so many more!

Brandon and Curt - High School Graduates!

Brandon and Curt - High School Graduates!

My twin sons, Brandon and Curt Blakeslee, crossed a milestone of life yesterday evening when they walked across the platform to shake some hands and receive an empty folder that would eventually hold their high school diploma.

Here's what they looked like prior to getting in the car:



As graduations go, it was pretty routine. Certainly much more meaningful for me as a parent than I imagine I could render it here in words for casual readers. So I won't try much along those lines. Instead, a few pictures...



Curt is a few steps ahead of Brandon. Unlike all the other students, Curt and Brandon chose not to have their full names read - they excluded their middle names for reasons they haven't bothered to explain and I haven't found necessary to ask about. It caused Julie and I to laugh. So much for all that thought and deliberation we put into choosing their middle names!

The most unusual thing that happened occurred at the very end of the ceremony. As the recessional was heading into its final bars, a long line of Canadian geese passed directly over the field, with timing about as exquisite as an Air Force fly-over at the end of a Fourth-of-July parade. It was quite remarkable and drew a delighted response from the audience. The whole thing happened so spontaneously that I couldn't get the perfect picture of the moment, but here's one of the two shots I captured:



And here are a few family pics because you know that's what we do at the end of these things.


My dad, the boys and I


Mom and Dad and Sons


My mom, the boys, and Julie's mom


Five of The Guys, shortly before they whipped off the robes and went off to the safe, secure and chaperoned Senior All-Night Party.

OK, now I am the parent of three post-high-schoolers!