Our first Christmas tree!

I wish beards helped you get into grad school

The wish is silly I understand, but wouldn't that be awesome? Not just beards of course, maybe for you its a pretty rad hairdo, or perhaps that nice flannel shirt you wear way too often. Whatever it is that gives you that little extra boost of confidence, if you could somehow transfer that to a qualification on a resume or an application, life would be that much more feasible at times... 

I just voted!

I sent in my absentee ballot today, my vote is in and it feels great. Before that I stood in line at the courthouse with my lovely wife Rachel so she could vote early( I am registered in another parish still) and that was a very neat experience. We had to wait in line for about an hour with a line full of politically enthused citizens( at least that is what I was telling myself) and with every one of them I was asking myself who I thought they were voting for. I wanted to ask so badly but I am pretty positive that if its not against the law it is definitely not the PC thing to do.

Needless to say I hope you all vote, it really is important and your vote really does count( and if you think it doesn't because the electoral college can vote against the popular vote then that member of the electoral college won't get re-elected next time). I felt like it was shared experience that bonded that line of people in the courthouse in a unique way. If you don't know how to vote or where to vote go to this website...

http://www.sos.louisiana.gov/

Gen. Colin Powell endorses Barrack Obama

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7678788.stm

If the abortion issue is the deciding factor for you please read this

http://ncronline3.org/drupal/?q=node/2058

Trouble the Water

Rachel and I saw this preview of this documentary the other day and it seems like it is going to give a powerful perspective into the heart of poverty and government relations through an unlikely eye. Here is the preview and website if you want to find out more info.

http://www.troublethewaterfilm.com/

A narrative of fear and security

With White House Push, U.S. Arms Sales Rise Sharply

Interesting article...thought I would share

Amy Sullivan: 'Are Evangelicals Really Sold on Palin?' (by Jim Wallis)

I saw a column this weekend in Time magazine by Amy Sullivan in which she asks, "Are Evangelicals Really Sold on Palin?" It's well worth reading.

Lost in the stampede of social conservatives to embrace Palin this past week is the fact that she is culturally outside the mainstream of Evangelicalism. Over the past few years, a growing number of Evangelicals have been consciously distancing themselves from the more extreme stands of the Christian Right. They live in the suburbs, hold graduate degrees, and while they might not want their children reading certain novels, would be embarrassed by attempts to ban certain books from libraries, as Palin is reported to have briefly considered while Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. They don't attend churches where speakers charge that violence against Israelis is divine punishment for the failure of Jews to accept Jesus, as happened at one of Palin's churches two weeks ago (though Palin has now issued a statement saying she does not agree with those views). And they would disagree with Palin's decision to use her line-item veto as Governor to slash funding for an Alaska shelter that serves teen mothers.

That goes double for younger Evangelicals. These voters tend to be even more pro-life than their parents, but abortion isn't always a priority that moves their votes -- it wasn't when McCain was alone on the ticket, and there's no reason for that to change with the addition of Palin. More important, Palin has problematic stances on many of the issues that do motivate young Evangelicals. Her insistence that global warming is not man-made, for instance, is unlikely to appeal to those Evangelicals who have embraced so-called "creation care" in the past few years. This is particularly relevant to the current race, as young Evangelicals account for much of that demographic's undecided bloc. No one knows what the size of their impact may be in November because young Evangelicals are consistently underrepresented in polls of white Evangelicals. (Even a TIME poll of likely white Evangelical voters conducted last month used a sample in which just 10% of respondents were between 18 and 35. That age group made up 22% of the total electorate in 2004, and its share of the electorate is expected to increase this year.)

Hurricane Gustav Post #2... bringing down trees

Here is a video of last minuet preparations before the storm hits in the early morning. Trying to get rid of immediate threat trees that have a chance of coming through the roof.

Hurricane Gustav Post #1

Me and rachel are all set at her parents house in Mandeville while we await what is quite possibly the biggest storm to ever hit here. Who would have thought that only three years after Katrina we are facing a storm even greater. The storm surge and flooding is going to be atleast 4 feet higher than in Katrina. The footprint of Katrina was 400 miles, Gustav is already 9oo miles and growing. I have a lot of apprehension right now and you might ask why in the world are you staying, well the way I looked at it no matter where in Louisiana we went we we're going to get hit and power, granted we live just above lake ponchaetrain but we live right above I-12 so we really only have to worry about trees coming through the roof from gail force winds and or tornado's. We are as prepared as you can be for something of this magnitude. We have a generator, chainsaws, plenty of food and water, flashlights, cards and games, books and of course beer, wine and tobacco(quite possibly the most essential resources in a time like this). This is post number one, I intend to update as often as possible, hopefully I can find an internet source quickly after the storm hits, me and my brothers-n-law plan on taking some before pictures and then after the storm we plan on taking the canoe around(because thats the only way to get around) and getting the after shots. I hope all are well, and I pray that lives are saved and and houses unscaved.  

Inspired and unashamed

I am married now and have a future with my family to consider with everything I do and every decision I make now. I have been very forward with my support for Barrack Obama for president for a while now and after tonight I have a myriad of new reasons why I am supporting him and would love to talk to anyone about that who would like to know. After tonight I saw such a bright future for my family in the hopes of the leadership of Barrack Obama. I want my kids to inherit a better world than the one that we have today and I feel confident in my kids and families future because of the character of the person of Barrack Obama. I am by no means naive and completely idealistic, I believe that it takes an incredible amount of individual responsibility, but it also takes a significant amount of mutual/communal responsibility. 

may the winds blow

the winds of change

amen

Voter Guide

Here is a pdf that you can download that comes from the Sojourners organization that outlines the issues that Christians should be aware of and vote on along with holding our candidates responsible to.  It really is worth your time to look at.

Poll results

I put this poll up initially on an impulse( like a lot of the things I do) and it was after watching the Saddleback  Faith Forum as well as the Larry King Live interview with pastor Rick Warren who hosted the forum between Senators Barrack Obama and John McCain. After about 10 minutes from posting this poll I wanted to take it down because I realized how silly it seemed and especially how silly it could seem without an explanation to it, but I decided to leave it up there because I realized that it could be a great visual for what I am about to write about. The Evangelical vote is always highly coveted as of the past few elections and quite a large voting block that is heavily targeted. Over the past several elections cycles there have been several hot button issues that have decided who to vote for if you are a Christian. And yes we all know these as abortion, gay rights and war. Over the past few election cycles if you were a self proclaimed Christian then you had to vote for someone who held the same values on these issues as you and the evangelical base as if these were the only moral issues at stake. Other moral issues such as the environment(creation), poverty,non-violence, healthcare etc. haven't been considered important enough to God apparently and decidedly so by the evangelical leaders. So up to this point we have the conservative right evangelicals backing republican base issues of pro-life and anti gay rights and war and we have the liberal secularist and evangelicals backing democratic base issues of poverty healthcare and the environment. 

    Lets jump forward a little to the faith forum. I was really excited about this. I had read a lot about Rick Warren as the ascribed new leader of the modern evangelicals who cared about more historically liberal issues such as poverty and the environment. During the interview with Larry King he said that there were a lot of questions that he wanted to get to that covered these more historically liberal issues but didn't have time to, but he definitely had time to ask questions about abortion rights and gay rights. And it was at this point that I decided to throw the poll up on this blog, because I wanted to see how people viewed the message of Jesus Christ. I wanted to see if that view of Jesus's message correlated into the evangelical base's main issues of importance. And the results show quite the opposite. If the people who voted on my pole vote according to their view this upcoming November then it should be clear who they vote for, at least its clear to me. If those 7 who took this poll are a small sample of the evangelical voters then I have hope for this upcoming election. I sincerely hope and pray that followers of Jesus Christ see the message of Jesus as the 7 of you who took this poll do. Jesus never spoke of abortion or homosexuality directly, Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God at hand, he taught us to take care of the least of these, he taught us time and time again to take care of the poor and the oppressed, he told us to turn the other cheek, he told peter to put down his sword. Jesus didn't say that because we were attacked we must defeat evil by attacking back. Jesus taught and lived Non-Violence as a means to resist evil! 

this is my prayer

    

Inconsistency?

           

Ive been real intrigued by the Russian/Georgian conflict, for several reasons. The battle over western and eastern ideologies first grabbed my attention and I started getting sucked in to the pro-west mindset and fervor that once held most americans during the days of the cold war. Then I started hearing what could be called a "meta-message", this wasn't a meta-message intentionally inlayed into the coverage but instead of how I started to interpret the actions by our government, the coverage, and the feelings of importance of what was happening. That is kind of vague so I will try to narrow it down. 

       The meta-message started occurring when they started giving numbers about the humanitarian package and effort that was underway by the United States. Our mission from President Bush was strictly a humanitarian mission, no use of force was expected by our military. At first I was excited because this is how I feel that our military should be used instead of war. Then they started talking about how many displaced Georgians there war and they were making romance of it in only the way media can and I think that is when it hit me. "Why after only six days has this "atrocity" been so romanticized when the ATROCITIES in Sudan and Uganda and Burma and elsewhere have been happening for who knows how long and nothing by our government has been done about it, no romanticized coverage by the media and no since of grave importance?"

   This I find very inconsistent for top down. It makes me very grateful for the many organizations and individuals who care so deeply to bring light to these atrocities. I hope that we as a nation and as believers and as humanitarians don't get sucked in to the middle and forget about the margins. 

Reconciliation

Several years ago I heard this image(hmm that sounds funny) as another way to see the life of Jesus and as a way to show/explain what Jesus was about and what He was hear for. Essentially, as my amazing drawing shows, Jesus came to reconcile four relationships; our relationship with oursleves, our relationship with humanity, our relationship with God and our relationship with creation(nature,environment,etc..) 

Any thoughts on this?

Me and Rachel's future entrepreneurship

Rachel and I have always had a desire to own and run a cafe/coffee shop/lounge what have you, for many reasons. For one, coffee shops were central to the beginning of US ( :) ). Two, they are central to several things that we value very highly such as conversation, common ground, comfort, familiarity, a rich shot of espresso, an aromatic cup of dark roast, a sense of community etc.. We have several ideas of ways we want to use it in a way that brings 

a little more of the Kingdom of God to the community where we have it such as the kinds of people we hire and train and services we provide to the community as well as what kind of coffee we buy, from who, and how they are treated(yes you can assume I mean fair trade). Every opportunity we get we try to find new coffee shops or cafe's to check out to give us inspiration and re-ignite our desire to open one some day, so with that I stumbled on this amazing cafe in Seattle called Q Cafe.  Here is a little description that they give of the Cafe that immediately sparked enthusiasm and gave me even more to shoot for when we open ours:        

Q Cafe is non-profit neighborhood cafe in Seattle featuring direct trade espresso and tea, live music, art, and community events.  We proudly serve Stumptown Coffee; support local artists and musicians through our art gallery and live music venue; host many groups through the rental of our space; host community events; help collect resources for the homeless community; and give back 10% of all cafe sales to local and global non-profit causes.

In addition to great coffee and tea, Q Cafe also features free WiFi for laptop users, 2 desktop kiosks for internet [30 minutes/purchase], a new kids’ room for parents and children, countertop tables and benches for laptop user with easy access to outlets, a piano, and plenty of comfy chairs and sofas.

As I said early we don't know when this venture will take place but hopefully it brings together all of the elements that I mentioned here and more.

the green thumb and much much more

Rachel and I don't have much yard to work with but we try to make the most of it. Here is our first attempt at bringing a little creation to our home. As you can see it is very basic, consisting of only plants, but it is a beginning nonetheless(and yes this is pretty much the extent of our yard). Eventually we desire to have a small garden with vegetables and fruits as well as many more beautiful plants. Im starting out with this because it is a small part of a bigger idea that I am looking into under the umbrella of sustainable living. I recently bought this book called "ToolBox for Sustainable City Living" 

      

I have a good friend in Baton Rouge who is wanting to start a community garden to give back to the Baton Rouge community as well as provide basic skills to underprivileged areas of BR. He is also trying to get crew from the Rhizome Collective  to come to BR and put on a work shop. Essentially it would be a workshop on permaculture which is a multi-disciplinary practice used to design long lasting human communities. Its essential goal is to create intensively cultivated spaces capable of providing for as many human needs as possible in as small of an area as possible. By doing so, humans can be self-reliant and lessen their impact on their surrounding environments in a way that doesn't rely on outsourced energy and resources (xvi).  It seems like something that you could apply in your life in whatever kind of community you live in, learning how to use and recycle different materials to be able to perform everyday uses. They also make a great statement about the state of capitalism and its consequences and that is that "it requires infinite expansion and consumption of material resources. In a world that is fragile and finite, such a system is inherently unsustainable." (p.xii,xiii). Just something that has been going through my mind, I will keep updates on the progress of both this project and our venture in it. 

Washington D.C. and the beloved community

Two weeks ago Rachel and I attended a conference in Washington D.C. titled "Training for Change: Vote out Poverty Campaign" it was hosted by Sojourners and is part of their annual Call to Renewal/Pentecost conference. It was one of those things you expereince where, like trying to capture a beautiful moment with a photo and how it too often doesn't do the moment justice, trying to put it to words really won't skim the surface of what we experienced, not just at that conference but what we experienced all together in D.C. 

The conference had speakers, panel discussions and workshops like many others do, but the people that were leading all of these were not ordinary people, they were extraordinary people. They were priest, pastors and civil rights activists from all over the United states, from every denominational background you could imagine, every age you could imagine, all ethnicities, both sexes, movers and shakers in the Kingdom of God, and they were all friends, brothers and sisters. There were civil rights activists who had marched with Dr. Martin Luther King and there were new civil rights activists fighting for immigrant rights and living wages. There were people who had worked in Calcutta and with Mother Teresa. All of this, to me, was overwhelming. To be in the presence of these people and their stories, their stories that will bring you to tears while at the same time light a fire of righteous anger in you, will never leave me. The stories of injustice that happen all around our country and world are present today just as much so as ever. We as the church, and we has human beings need to recognize that our will is to preserve justice within the human race with love and humility. 

The conference was to train us how to be grassroots organizers in our local church or faith based communities, to lobby for the poor because they can't afford to do it themselves. There are two goals that we are supposed to organize people to pledge for and to have in mind when they cast their votes, one is a domestic goal of reducing poverty in the United States by 50% over the next ten years and the other is to meet the millenium development goals set in place by the UN to reduce poverty internationally. So we are supposed to first register voters if they aren't already registered and then get people to sign pledge cards saying that they will vote these issues next elections and then, like a petition, we take the voter pledge cards and bring them to our state elected officials and say here are your constituents and this is what they are voting for, are you on board? and then Sojourners will make it public and next April there is a rally in D.C. where we will have meetings with our elected officials and hold them accountable to their pledges. It is kind of tricky for us because we don't have a traditional home church but we think we have figured out a way to make it happen. So we are both excited and anxious about pulling it off. 

We were also blessed to meet some amazing people our age who were doing amazing things, big and small, all over the country and world. It was encouraging to see people living in intentional community with each other. Guys committing to live in true community with each other, and also girls doing the same, and even some couples committing to live life together and raise families together. We also met a lot of people from bigger cities who were choosing to move from their urban homes to downtown( not the hip/artsy parts and not gentrification) but where the people that they are working and fighting for live. You have to live with the people, you can't just go in and help once a month, you have to immerse yourself in their lives and into their community, creating a beloved community. Such a beautiful thing. There was this one guy from Toronto who lived in a poorer part of the city and did a lot with the kids around him and tried to show them that they were not poor, that actually they were richer than 40% of the world and showed them examples of what impoverished was, and then took it to the next level and gave them a since of empowerment and wealth by getting them to send a pair of their basketball shoes to kids who didn't have any shoes at all. He called it two kinds of oppression that poor kids/people face, internal and external oppression, and he was trying to reverse the image of themselves that they are told they are. This is just one of many beautiful stories that we heard. This is love, this is the gospel of Jesus, this is tangible.

We need to start living and voting with the love and compassion of Jesus

"Breaking News" flashed across every news station a moment ago with the sub-title "Bush comparing Obama to Nazi appeasers" and "Bush suggests Obama wants appeasement for terrorist." Here are a few startling facts that are not well known and should be a concern... 

"The 2006 budget showed that US military expenditures were twenty-one times larger than diplomacy and foreign aid combined, and that the United States was dead last among the most developed nations in foreign aid as a percentage of gross domestic product. One wonders what would happen if good-hearted Americans realized that a mere 10 percent of the US military budget, if reinvested in foreign aid and development, could care for the basic needs of the entire worlds poor." 

"Even if you take all the rest of the world's weapons sales and put them together, they don't match US weapons exports. My country can boast that we produce 53.4 percent of the worlds weapons. Most Americans are either uninformed about these figures, apathetic, or perhaps they believe that McNamara was more rational than President Jimmy Carter, who in 1976 saud "We can not have it both ways. We can't be the world's leading champion of peace and the world's leading supplier of arms."

"It gets worse. In 2003, 80 percent if the top buyers of US Weapons (twenty of the twenty five top clients) were countries that our own State Department labeled undemocratic or countries known for their failure to uphold human rights, such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia. In 1999, the US weapons industry supplied arms to 92 percent of the conflicts in process anywhere on the planet, and in a stroke of elegant fairness, often supplied both sides in conflicts. Perhaps most shocking and awful of all:between 1998 and 2001, the United States, Great Britain, and France earned more income from selling weapons to developing countries than the gave those developing countries in aid"

(all of these passages in quotes are take from 'Everything Must Change' by Brian McCalren with annotated sources in the back of the book.)

What if we had a President who stood up against this and perhaps wanted to talk conflicts out, through diplomacy, rather than immediately going to war and perhaps saving us from the deaths of nearly 1,000,000 Iraqis and 4,000 Americans among the countless others who we have supplied arms to. If we as people have any compassion and love for the rest of the world we have to stop voting for policies that contradict the love, humility, meekness and forgiveness that we are taught through Jesus.

We would be in a far better place than we are right now not only in our country but also in our world. I read this passage in a book im reading right now and it fits perfectly in describing this moment  "The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him." -Tolstoy

Blowin' in the Wind

In my recent spike in political interest I started to focus on the wrong solution(but with good intentions of course). I started putting my faith into governing bodies in the form of an individual candidate that true authentic change for the better could happen. Not that one person can't bring change for the better, but that the means through which that change is brought by the individual is the key to what my focus should be on. What I mean be this is putting my faith and energies into a changing wind. Here is a powerful image by Jim Wallis to hep convey this idea: 

"If we look back, we realize that political systems(not to mention business, military, and even religious systems) have, in spite of their high ideals and noble ambitions, frequently been driven by the winds of expediency, self-interest, fear, greed, and pressure. So, looking around today, we see politicians wetting their fingers and raising them to see which way the political wind is blowing-to see what voters want so they can remain popular, raise donations, and secure reelection. Wisdom and honesty tell us that we aren't going to change politicians much in the future. They're always going to be wetting their fingers and testing the wind. So, Jims says, there's only one hope: we're going to have to change the wind.

 Changing the wind would mean changing public opinion, which requires changing the values that guide people individually and as groups, which in turn requires changing the vision of what is both possible and desirable, which ultimately means changing our framing story. In other words, changing the wind means doubting, rejecting, and defecting from our old framing stories, and instead, discovering and adopting-in a word, believing- a new framing story. That, once again, is exactly where I believe Jesus steps into human affairs, challenging us simply to believe his good news (Mark 1:15), and to believe him as the bearer of that good news (John 6:29, 35; 7:38; 10:37; 14:1)."

War

"All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers. Each one owes infinitely more to the human race than to the particular country in which he was born"

-Francois Fenelon

A life of Activism

While sitting at Rachels restaurant today I had a very intriguing and encouraging conversation with a couple that actually live a few streets down from us in downtown Covington. It is a couple that both myself and Rachel have been particularly drawn to for a while because they both frequent our restaurants and downtown Covington quite a bit and have a unique freedom to their style, so one day we got to talking and realized that we lived by each other and have since taken part in small talk from time to time when we would run into one another. Today was a different day. I decided to bring my cup of coffee over to their table and sit down and get to know them on a deeper level. We ended up talking for a quit a while and it was one of the most challenging and real conversations I have ever had with, more or less, complete strangers. 

It turns out that they have been political activists for about five years now and so we talked about that and about different things all relating to humanity, war, love, peace, civil rights, human rights, the constitution, and etc. Then they asked me what I was passionate about, because they could obviously see I was somewhat like them. So I started telling them that over the past two years my eyes have been opened to a new world, the entire world and not just America, I have begun to realize that we are all people and all deserve love regardless if we are Christian, Muslim, Hindu, American, Iraqi, Chinese, etc. I then started telling them how I have started to become passionate about social justice and politics and that I am trying to figure out how to merge the two. I told them that I have been discovering an emerging view of Jesus that I had never been exposed to before and that this new view of how Jesus came to live a life to show us how to have peace and justice and equity is something that is driving this passion in me.  So we went on for a  while longer before wrapping it up and exchanging contact information and we went our separate ways. On my walk home my mind was racing with everything that we had been talking about. And the thought that a life of activism is something that we owe our friends and family and neighbors(both domestically and globally) was stuck in my mind. To wrap this up, the common denominator that both of us said lead to our desire for activism is EXPOSURE, we were all exposed to more truth that had not previously been shown to us in our little worlds that we came from. And so the main thing that we both said was essential for change is AWARENESS, and that awareness is the backbone of our activism. We as people and as citizens need to be aware and educated on and about the governing bodies that we put our faith in ( whether it be the U.S. Government or the Church). Once you have the information you can choose what to do with it, but I know  that I personally can't ignore it.

the power of words

Today I have been reflecting a lot about the power of words and opinions and the affect, whether good or bad, they can have on you and particularly the affect they can have on a relationship(of any level) when those words and opinions are disagreed upon. The reason why I've been thinking a lot about it is because over the past month or so I have started to voice my opinions and beliefs more, either through the internet like this or in person, and my opinions and beliefs have changed a lot over the past year and in the opposite direction than most. I almost started feeling apologetic about them today, but I thankfully stopped and realized that I couldn't afford to let my voice go unheard. Why, you might ask? Because my opinions and beliefs have changed due to the exposure to other viewpoints and information that I had never been exposed to before, or perhaps I was too scared to expose myself to them for the freedom that came in that also carried the potential for what I have been feeling today. But I feel as though I have had a blindfold removed from my eyes and I want to share this new view that I am experiencing. So I will end with an oft quoted poem from Robert Frost to sum this up.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The first general election campaign ads of '08

I just watched the first John McCain ads for the general election on youtube, the first one is titled "TV ad" and the second one is titled "Man in the Arena". If John McCain plans on playing up and running on his Vietnam War experience then I say he be asked about the Human Rights aspect of his "service to our country". Is he so extremely proud of fighting in a war that had no threat to us? To protect us from no enemy threat by killing innocent people? I am by no means attempting to belittle his POWMIA experience, that took tremendous courage and strength that I could only hope of having, but there should be a since of character about ones actions and a since of what to be proud of and what not to and a Vietnam War experience should not be an experience to be proud of.

Media slant

Mass media is an uncontrollable force that will no doubt change the landscape and direction of the presidential election at any given time. Fox News is by far the most slanted of the mainstream media outlets. Last week Barack Obama came on the big three major news networks to dismiss controversial comments about his former pastor Jeremiah Wright and I watched clips of all three of them and Fox News, by far, was the most divisive and had more framing and leading questions then the other two. The only thing we can do to combat this is to use mass media ourselves. Anyway possible to voice the truth, as we see truth, we must. All three media outlets failed to give McCain the gauntlet for his endorsements from and ties to equally as controversial pastors John Hagee and Rod Parsley, who have both made anti-catholic, anti-muslim, anti-gay sermons and a plethora of others in various forms and capacities. Let us not miss our opportunity for real authentic hope and change in the form of a person who genuinely loves people. 

Hobbies

My free time as of late has been filled with very productive activities. I have been reading a lot lately, mostly Brian McLaren books, but books that nonetheless have my mind racing with ideas and desires and questions. Also, I finally got tired of having adobe CS2 and not really knowing much about it besides what I learned in a graphic design class I took at Tech so I started teaching myself how to use all of the applications mostly through tutorials and also some from my brother. Me and Rachel also just bought an awesome new Nikon D40 camera from her brother for a ridiculously cheap price so we have been learning how to use it and it has been a lot of fun. We are going camping in a month and I can't wait! I will try to remember to post some pictures from our trip....Finally, I just downloaded Obama's Blueprint for Change and plan on reading it through to really familiarize myself with his and issues. Last night I saw a kid in New Orleans wearing this T-shirt.... 

Speaking of New Orleans, the past two nights we have gone to NO ( monday night and last night) it has been thriving with people, lots of business conventions and travel. This was very exciting to see, to know that it is up and running, slowly but surely, so if you havn't been in a while come on down and if you need a place to stay we have an air mattress and some couches!

your decision after reading this?

This is a post from Jim Wallace's blog "God's Politics" it is posted by a woman by the name of Peggy Gish, a fulltime worker with Christian Peacemake Teams who has been in Iraq since 2002. Read this article and let me know what you think.

Political astuteness?

Political astuteness, or not, this is an entry that I posted on facebook about christianity/faith and presidential candidate Barack Obama. I don't fear that it is a premature thought or feeling but as more information becomes public and available I will see how this initial statement holds up. ( a quick side note, I have put a lot of time into learning about Barack and watching and listening to him, so this wasn't on some bandwagon whim).

"
Ignorance is dangerous-

I am so enthralled with the democratic race right now, so motivated to finally have something to believe in, something to believe in that I feel lines up with the compassion of Christ, I believe that as scary as it might be that real change might actually occur we will finally have a president that cares so much about PEOPLE, and if I am not mistaken that is what Christ was about, not about insuring our economic free capitalistic market so that we are all comfortable in our lifestyles (but as a side note I in no way feel that that will change). Barack Obama, to me, is that presidential candidate and I intend on researching and making myself so familiar with his issues and ideas that I will be able to have conversations with whomever might have misconceptions about his "democratic" ideals and show them that they are actually more like their own than they realize. This is why ignorance is dangerous, the lack of knowledge on a certain candidate might lead us to ASSUME things that aren't true and can prevent us from having the most compassionate and people centered president we have had in a long time or ever."