Kids Survivor: Don’t Even Think About Itl

The new CBS reality TV series Kid Nation is receiving the type of controversy-driven publicity that would make Michael Moore turn green with envy. A parent has complained about conditions bordering on abuse and neglect, the whether state laws were broken, and the Smoking Gun has published the show’s contract with parents.

CBS’s promotion of Kid’s Nation describes the show as follows:

“Forty children, forty days, no adults. They’re eager to prove that they can build a better world for tomorrow in the new reality show, KIDS NATION. Setting in Bonanza City, New Mexico, once a thriving mining town, but now deserted, these kids ages 8 – 15, all walks of life, will build their own new world, pioneer style. They will confront adult issues while coping with classic childhood emotions such as homesickness, peer pressure and the urge to break every rule. Episodes end with a town meeting in which the kids award one child $20,000 all leading to a grand finale, with an unimaginable test, the biggest awards, and a special surprise for every kid.”

Just from this description, we would think that any normal parent would decline to let their child participate. Going a step further in this concern, a 22-page contract was signed with parents and the producers that allows the producers almost full custody of the child for the duration of the show’s production. One particular paragraph that interest us:

Parents of minors starring in "Kid Nation," the controversial new CBS reality show, signed away their rights to sue the network and the show's producers if their child died, was severely injured, or contracted a sexually transmitted disease during the program's taping. The blanket liability waivers are contained in a detailed "participant agreement" prepared by the show's producers and signed by parents. That document also gave consent to CBS and its production partners to make medical treatment decisions on the minor's behalf (including surgery), though the network made no promises about the "qualifications or credentials" of medical professionals that might treat the stars of "Kid Nation," which was originally titled "The Manhattan Project." The show, which debuts next month, features 40 children (ages 8-15) living in a New Mexico "ghost town" for 40 days without adult supervision. Concerns about possible violations of child labor laws have prompted state officials to investigate the TV production. A copy of the participant agreement was provided to TSG by the New Mexico attorney general's office in response to an open records request. By signing the agreement, a parent gave CBS the right to search the Minor's person and the Minor's belongings (including, without limitation, by x-ray or similar device)." Additionally, the agreement notes, "Kid Nation" participants "will have no privacy" except when they are in the bathroom.

Why would any reasonably thinking parent sign any contract that would require this of their child and relinquish their own parental rights? A parent has complained about conditions bordering on abuse and neglect, the New Mexico Attorney General’s office is investigating whether state laws were broken, and the Smoking Gun has published the show’s contract with parents.

Instances have been reported in Entertainment Weekly the purpose of the project was to watch youngsters build an adult-free society. They cooked their own food, washed their own laundry, used outhouses, and even cleaned their own kitchen. And that's how one participant on Kid Nation (premiering Sept. 19) has mistaken a water-and-bleach solution for ginger ale. He thought it tasted funny, so naturally, he asked three friends to take a swig.

We all know that reality TV appeals to industry executives due to the cost efficiency of it. Why splash out on a sumptuous period drama or a star-studded comedy when all you need to guarantee a ratings hit is a few wannabes and a camera? Now Hollywood unions are fighting back after one reality show that featured children allowed to run their own town, has been condemned for going too far. Jeff Hermanson, assistant executive director of Writers Guild of America, West has fumed that: “To me, this is the sweatshop of the entertainment industry” adding that such shows are exploited to avoid having to pay the salaries of talented writers and actors.
Still we sit in amazement about how this fiasco has gotten then far. Kids’ Nation is set to air on September 19.

Facing a salvo of criticism - and potential lawsuits - CBS has little choice but to air a safe, predictable show about 40 kids ages 8 to 15 taking over a New Mexico ghost town. Don’t expect Lord of the Flies. Some will get homesick yet miraculously harness the strength to stand on their own. Nerds will find friends. Bullies will learn to show their soft sides. Hugging will become a team sport. Not exactly what we might expect. Such a white-wash would squelch some of the mystery of the show.
Still Paul Petersen, a former child actor said, “It's ghastly and a shame," Petersen runs A Minor Consideration, a non-profit watchdog and advocacy group that monitors child labor in the entertainment industry. "I've never seen anything like this, in terms of wanton disregard for the lives of children."

Can kids legally choose to enter into an intimate relationship? The parents can't speak publicly about the show without the network's permission. They face a $5 million penalty if they do. For the honor of letting their children become human guinea pigs, each family could receive a whopping $5,000 or $20,000 for the best participants. While CBS was careful to add countless disclaimers in the contract, there is one they can't use: "There were no kids harmed during the production of this show."

Maybe CBS should have cast Michael Vick and his dogs instead. Well, maybe not!. That would have been inhumane.

Barry Garron of The Hollywood Reporter pressed CBS to cancel the show. "This has all gone far enough," he wrote. "It's time for CBS to cut its losses, apologize for an idea that was well-intentioned but ill-considered, and pull Kid Nation from the schedule.” Deadline Hollywood blogger Nikki Finke concluded her column by urging a Congressional investigation of "this latest scandal because it involves children.” On the other hand, Alex Koroknay-Palicz, executive director of the National Youth Rights Association, told Britain's Guardian newspaper, "This show is challenging a social taboo that needs to be challenged ... that kids need to be kids and need to be sheltered from life, which isn't the case at all."

What encourages a TV network and parents of 40 kids to submit to such a premise in a TV show? We believe, simply, it is greed, avarice, etc.

We need to stand up and be counted in opposition to such nonsense on TV. Shame, shame on the parents for giving up their precious privileged of being a parent. We need to speak out in opposition to television that promotes greed. We need to demand that well scripted, well-acted shows be developed.

Do you remember Howard Beale, the news anchor who lost his job with the network? He encouraged his viewers to find some common ground to stand upon to make changes and cure ills of the society. His best quote was.

“'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!’ I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!’ Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!'

You may want to consider watching a DVD on September 19 th.

Michael Vice is a Disgrace

There are many comments of Michael Vick's guilty plea include criticisms of those who target icons such as Vick. It is troublesome that a person who would find sport in dog fighting is called an icon. Michael Vick was involved in a sport that at one time was acceptable, but is now considered brutal and inhumane. He not only financed this activity, he raised dogs to participate in the sport and he slaughtered dogs that did not perform up to expectations.

It has suggested that we not be so sensitive about this and everything. If we desensitize ourselves, then we will fail to acknowledge the wrongs in the world and speak out against those wrongs. Do we fail to be sensitive about the genocide in Darfur, the dieing of thousands of children every day, the children who are uninsured for basic health care, those who are still suffering the affects if hurricane Katrina, and the list goes on. We must not become insensitive.

As to the banning of Pit Bull Terriers because they are use by the uncaring to fight, the breed is not the problem. Even the Boston Terrier was originally bred for fighting originally.

Some say that we are getting too sensitive about Vick's crime an that we should get real. Getting real is standing up for what is right and not accepting the world for what it is. It takes strong people to stand-up and be counted and protest the wrongs of the world.

Michael Vick had been an icon of the NFL and should have accepted his responsibility to live a life that is exemplary to the people who cheered for him during every game. Sports icon was paid too much not to give back to their fans and to a place that has so richly blessed them. The NFL Commissioner agrees and has suspended Vick. The Atlanta Falcons are consideration demanding the return of payments that have been made to him. These payments include, but are not limited to: the last signing bonus.

Yes, it is a mean, cruel world. Michael Vick had become a part of that. He should be punished for his crime. The privilege of earning grossly big pay checks should be taken away from him. Perhaps this example will encourage others to a more sane world.

Parts of this essay have previously been published on the Helium website.

Look Closely at Guiliani

There are some real possibilities about what the White House might hold for us in the next administration. Unfortunately, I do not see a lot of the cream rising to the top. Bill Richardson is making some headway in his campaign. I can only wish him good fortune.

On the Republican side, I am not sure there is any candidate that will ever rise to the top. The election is not a shoo-in for the democrats. Even so the Republicans have one candidate that could out-worsen G. W. Bush. Giulani's rhetoric is beyond comprehention. His speeches only succeed in making Bush's orations sound fresh.

Guiliani's concepts on foreign policy are founded deep in nothing. His platitudes are often well used and tend to bore me:

We are at the dawn of a new era in global affairs, when old ideas have to be rethought and new ideas have to be devised to meet new challenges ...

The United States must not rest until the al Qaeda network is destroyed and its leaders, from Osama bin Laden on down, are killed or captured ...

We must seek common ground without turning a blind eye to our differences with [China and Russia] ...

It is clear that we need to do a better job of explaining America's message and mission to the rest of the world, not by imposing our ideas on others but by appealing to their enlightened self-interest ...

America will win the war of ideas ...

We must learn from our past if we want to win the peace as well as the war ...

It is better to give people a hand up than a handout.

Most of his sayings on international affairs are fresh from a Henry Kissinger "op-ed".

Reading Giuliani and imagining that he might somehow become president chills me with a profound sense of dispair. Fortunately, there is comic relief. At one of many points where he attempts to display his erudition and expertise, he notes the "cultural exchanges" that allegedly brought about the end of the Soviet empire. The example he cites is pianist Van Cliburn's concerts in Moscow, which "hastened change."

Van Cliburn played Moscow in 1958. The Soviet Union fell in 1989. If change were any hastier, the Berlin Wall would still be intact.

I encourage you not to give Guiliani a second look. We do have the potential to have something worse than Bush.

The Answer is Blowing in the Wind

Do you know the word Omertà? It is the code of silence practiced by the Mafia. The code goes like this "Whoever appeals to the law against his fellow man is either a fool or a coward. Whoever cannot take care of himself without that law is both. For a wounded man shall say to his assailant, 'If I live, I will kill you. If I die, you are forgiven.' Such is the rule of honor.” The word is not original to the Mafia and its roots also refer to manly.

It seems that the code of silence is the final bond holding the Bush administration together. The President cannot fire Alberto Gonzales. Gonzales is needed to protect White House secrets and the scheming of Cheney and Rove.

The following just might exhibit the actions of the Bush administration to keep a lid on everything:

• Honesty is dishonorable.
• Silence is manly.
• Penitence is weakness.
• Loyalty trumps law.
• Protecting higher-ups is patriotism.
• Stonewalling is idealism.
• Telling the truth is informing.
• Cooperation with investigators is cowardice.
• Breaking the code is betrayal.
  

As with the Mafia, once the code is shattered, however, no one can be trusted and the entire edifice crumbles.

Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head,

Pretending he just doesn't see?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,

The answer is blowin' in the wind.

The President is using the longest list of Executive Privileges of any President, and we aren’t sure where it will end. The use of the privilege has gotten out of hand that we find this most exhausting, tedious quote of a witness before the Senate Judicial Committee. White House political aide J. Scott Jennings, "testifying" today before the Senate Judiciary Committee on White House involvement in the firing of U.S. attorneys last year:

"Please understand, Senators, that I have the utmost respect for this committee. And a contempt citation is not something that I take lightly. To the contrary, if a court ultimately determines that Congress' need for the information
outweighs the president's assertion of executive privilege, I would welcome the
opportunity to answer your questions on the U.S. attorneys matter.

"Until that time, however, I am compelled to abide by the president's directive, particularly given my status as a current White House employee. In light of these considerations, as well as a desire to be as consistent as possible and
avoid even the appearance of selectively answering questions, I will be unable
at this time to answer any questions concerning White House consideration,
deliberations or communications related to the U.S. attorneys matter, regardless
of whether specific documents or conversations may already have been discussed
publicly by others. To do otherwise would directly violate the president's
order."

Whew!

How many times must a man look upBefore he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man haveBefore he can hear people cry?
How many times must we hear and not understand
Before we say stop?
How many times must we see poverty?
Before we understand what to do.
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blown' in the wind.

Thanks to Bob Dylan, a fresh sound in the naïve days of my youth.

OH! That old picture! And Other Ruminations

Yes, there is a photographic representation of this writer. This was used by The Enterprise when I wrote my "Babbling Brooks" column for them almost ten years ago. I like the photo and I don't know why. Maybe because it is one of the fairest representations of me that I have. Maybe it takes me back to a time when I was meeting dead-lines and spent my summers camping in the woods of Caswell County.

Much has changed since this photo in my life. Carol and I now have two grandsons who are presents from two great sons and two wonderful daughters-in-law. A third is expected in December.

I am surviving from my deep dark bouts with depression.

I am back on course as a conservative Christian. Don't misunderstand this statement! Not the Christian Right.

• I am a believer in the teachings of Christ and the "red letters" in my Bible are my guide.
• I do not believe in abortion or gay marriages. However, I do wish that these would become more of a discussion and debate in the Church, than in the the legislatures of this country.
• I believe that every individual is a gift of God and
• that no child should have to live in poverty.
• I believe that our "Great Commission" is to help those who need help, not just with money, but with a smile and a hand up.
• I believe that God is color blind and that all the races and creeds of this world are a part of His plan.
• I believe that in America that the Bill of Rights is what we must adhere to and no established religion is just as important as free expression.
• I believe that tax dollars should be used more efficiently in solving the poverty, hunger and genocide in this world.
• I believe that good people have to stand tall and to express their opinions rather than accepting the status quo.

I wish for you a great day and sweet dreams. Just remember that yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery. So Carpe Diem

Other's Thoughts on Karl Rove

These I Wish I had Said!

In a few days Presidential aid and confidant is leaving the White House and politics for the present. This "political serial killer who tried to forge a one-party state. But don't expect the Mayberry Machiavelli to pay for his civic sins" as described by Sidney Blumenthal.

Garrison Keillor says

"He left the White House with a wave and a grin and not in handcuffs as some had hoped, followed by the usual backwash of commentary on how important he was, or how not important in comparison to how important some people thought he was, and what I find eerie about the man is his inexhaustible self-confidence and optimism. "

"His last big assignment was to get the immigration bill passed. It failed in large part because Congress is tired of Mr. Rove and his boy-genius high-handedness."

". . .Most of the people who pick our beans and tomatoes are men and women forced to sneak across the border, and why? Because they're a security threat? No. So that we can get them cheap, that's why. "

"Mr. Rove spoke with great confidence about beans and tomatoes and showed slides and got standing ovations in many places, but he didn't get the crops in."

"No wonder they called him turd blossom! Karl Rove could put fecal matter on his lapel and call it a boutonniere. Goodbye and good riddance"

Karl Rove is one of those political operatives that was given too much authority by a President who owes him a great debt. Without Karl Rove, George W. Bush would have never been elected President. Rove's efforts to form a coalition of the Christian Right and the Republican Party is a failure. Karl had no business in the operation of the White House and this observer is convinced that his actions have hurt the United States in many ways that we may not ever understand. The White House has been used for the protection of big business, not a vehicle of conservatism as it claims.

Take a long hard look at your government at every level. Is is practiced in the open? Are issues unreasonably hidden and secrets kept? Is your Congressman one of them or on the side of good government? Is your Congressman responsive to your need? Look at the candidates for President and determine for yourself, if they are responsive or just answering what they think you want to hear?

Let's let this Administration be an example of what we do not want and what is corrupt. We haven't seen this sort of hard ball politics in decades. Maybe together we can put it out of business.

I want to thank some very special friends for bringing my attention to Garrison Keillor's comment. To my good friend from Cherry Lane, thanks!

Bear Bryant Artwork on the Walls!?

I don't know about you, but I am sick and tired of reading of the collapse of aid to the Gulf region following Hurricane Katrina. The latest is the building of football condos in Tuscaloosa, Alabama,with grant money that was designed to spur rebuilding of the economy and infrastructure in the Gulf disaster area. Ten condominium projects are going up about the University of Alabama. The builders are asking upwards of $1 million dollars for each which have granite counter tops, king-sized bathtubs and what is called "Bama" decor, including crimson upholstered furniture and Bear Bryant wall art.

To set the record straight, I am NOT an Alabama fan. I have never been to Tuscaloosa. I do not hate Bear Bryant. However, the good people of the University of Alabama should be embarrassed by such use of the GO Zone grants.

Many of the investors who purchase the condos with plans to rent them. They also plan to take full advantage of tax benefits to investors under the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005 (GO Zone). Needless to say, the developments in Tuscaloosa are completely legal. However, many in the area are galled by development such as these. Some believe that the act was created to encourage the building of housing and shopping centers of the worst hit areas of the region. Tuscaloosa only got heavy rainfall during the storm. Many developers that the grants should not have been use for condos and other development is Tuscaloosa. They think that the harder hit areas of Mobil, Biloxi, Gulfport, and New Orleans are the most likely places for this development.

My wife and I rode around Pearlington, Mississippi, recently and observed very little improvement in commerce in the area. We also noted families still living in Katrina campers. The elementary school is not open and the post office has not be rebuilt. A great nation that we claim to be is failing at all levels. Government at the Federal Level has failed in the recovery following the worst natural devastation in our history. The displacement of the victims is terrible. Local investors, at times, would rather invest in condos decorated in Bear Bryant wall art, than to build a small subdivision in Pearlington or condos for the working poor in Louisiana. Church denominations have left existing churches instead of attempting to rebuild. Pearlington is the poorest place I have ever visited. A few months following the storm, it looked like third-world. It seems that this great nation has decided to use Katrina to rid itself of slums in the larger cities of the gulf and to make more and more homeless and displaced people.

I am approaching the time when I am going to use the character Howard Beale's call to action in the 1976 movie, Network.

I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it:'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'

You may remember the movie and Peter Finch played the role of Howard Beale.

If we really get angry about this lack of action and inappropriate action, then maybe we can get something done.

I Wish, I'd Said That

"Maybe uninsured American children who can’t get adequate health care could masquerade as cotton plants or cornstalks. Then the farm bill would shower them with money and care."


New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof.

Gordon Brown: A New, Fresh, Leader for the World

It appears that we have a leader who leads and does not just say the popular and the expected. In his first few weeks in office and the leadership, he has shown around the terrorist attack that came just days after he took office, the domestic crisis of flooding, another outbreak of foot and mouth disease among cattle, and his first visit to the United States since becoming the British prime minister. Brown was affirming the U.K. /U.S. relationship for the long term while keeping the President Bush at arms length.

In his speech at the U.N., Brown helped to make some real breakthroughs on both Darfur and global poverty. The British newspaper The Guardian reported his description of the situation in Darfur as the "greatest humanitarian disaster" the world faces today, and his announcement that the U.K., France, and the U.S. would submit a resolution to the Security Council mandating a peacekeeping force. The resolution passed later that same day.

The heart of his speech was global poverty and the challenge of meeting the Millennium Development Goals. Brown said that after seven years "it is already clear that our pace is too slow; our direction too uncertain; our vision at risk. ... We cannot allow our promises that became pledges to descend into just aspirations, and then wishful thinking, and then only words that symbolize broken promises."

He then challenged his audience:

And so my argument is simple: The greatest of evils that touches the deepest places of conscience demands the greatest of endeavor. The greatest of challenges now demands the boldest of initiatives. To address the worst of poverty we urgently need to summon up the best efforts of humanity.

I want to summon into existence the greatest coalition of conscience in pursuit of the greatest of causes. And I firmly believe that if we can discover common purpose there is no failing in today's world that cannot be addressed by mobilizing our strengths, no individual struggle that drags people down that cannot benefit from a renewed public purpose that can lift people up.

To find that common purpose, he said:

Our objectives cannot be achieved by governments alone, however well-intentioned; or private sector alone, however generous; or NGOs (non-governmental organizations) or faith groups alone, however well-meaning or determined—it can only be achieved in a genuine partnership together.

After addressing governments and businesses, the prime minister went on to say

Let me say to faith groups and NGOs—your moral outrage at avoidable poverty has led you to work for the greatest of causes, the highest of ideals, and become the leaders of the campaign to make poverty history. Imagine what more you can accomplish if the energy to oppose and expose harnessed to the energy to propose and inspire is given more support by the rest of us—businesses, citizens, and governments.

A leader to inspire, don’t you think!

Is there a candidate for President who is this inspiring? There are very few, if any!

Shakespeare Taught Much About Insulting

While surfing the other day. I ran across some quotations from Shakespeare's plays that have the ability to put an advisary in his place. Some are quite straightforward in language. Just remember they are apart of the literature of our language.

Allow me to list a few for your consideration:

Thou cockered whoreson moldwarp!
Thou weedy hell-hated wagtail!
Thou whoreson impudent embossed rascal!
All from: Henry IV, part I

And from: As You Like It
Thou dankish dizzy-eyed varlot!
[Thou art] like the toad, ugly and venomous.

Hamlet gives us these:
Thou odiferous common-kissing mumble-news!
[Thou] appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.

My favorite is from the Merchant of Venice:
[You] speak an infinite deal of nothing.

Before I am accusted of saying "an infinite deal of nothing" I best sign off.

Just remember that we do not have to curse to be creative in our insults.

LET’S CREATE A BELOVED COMMUNITY

A chairos moment is one of those moments in our life that everything comes together, just as the experience of the Apostle Paul. Few of use have such an experience, an experience that molds our future actions, our future beliefs, and our countenance, etc. The times we are fueled by our faith, stretched to think bigger and bolder than our shriveled-up minds could fathom, and yes, the times when there was a threat, an external challenge to overcome, were indeed the times when we had little experiences of chairos the beloved community.

The Montgomery bus boycott was the catalytic experience, a chairos moment that crystallized Dr. Martin L. King’s thinking. He became convinced that love, love that transforms, was the key to moving in to that beloved community. “We have before us the glorious opportunity to inject a new dimension of love into the veins of our civilization,” he said in calling for a boycott of the buses. He went on explaining that the boycott was but a means to an end. “But the end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the beloved community.” In the face of the hatred and violence, he said, “We’ve got to love people no matter what …love the unlovable. Love the hell out of them.”

What a world it would be, if we could take this as our new/old motto and approach the so-called enemies and bad guys in the world with the energy to "Love the hell out of them" ... it would take a boldness and confidence to try, a chairos moment. Nevertheless, what do we have to lose? The path we are currently on as a nation is deadly, dead-ended, creates more enemies every day, and makes us an unloved nation. Where can we choose to make changes in out world and our nation? Does anyone want to join the new offensive to "Love the hell out of them."

Doug Marlette

A True Champion of Freedom of the Press.

I met Doug during the first Alamance Reads program. I first watched his presentation in Burlington to a packed house. Later he was at a more intiment venue in Mebane. I boldly walked up to him and introduced myself. He found out that I had served as Mayor of Mebane and he responded, "And you still go out in public?" That evening he autographed every thing that I could put my hands on. Among them was a copy of The Bridge, for every member of my family.

Doug Marlette was afraid of no man. He tackled the top and the bottom of society. Doug was a Southern Rebel Rosier at heart and could laugh at any thing or any body.

We often wonder about God's will in the loss of someone as talented as Doug. However, it must remain one of those mysteries that only God understands. We are confident that the heavenly host are having a good laugh with Doug'scaricature of Satin and his crowd.

Artist, political observer, novelist, and a great guy are adjectives to descrip Doug Marlette. He always had the ability to poke fun at the most sacred and respected.

Thanks, Doug, for your treasures that you have given us.

TAKE A LOOK AT THE SOUTH

My wife and I just returned from a trip to visit my brother, Wayne, in Georgia. Our next stop was Natchez, Mississippi. We passed through sights in Alabama that brought back remembrances of the Civil Rights movement of Montgomery and Birmingham. In Mississippi saw signs honoring Medger Evers. Sometimes some of us grow to believe that those places in the Deep South are still the same. It doesn’t take much observation to notice that there are changes. Just as it is here, maybe not enough, but there is progress. Need we remember the Governor George Wallace who fought to keep Alabama schools segregated only later to become a more responsive governor, who appointed minorities to positions of great responsibility and saw that integration was accomplished. In Natchez, the place of antebellum homes along the Mississippi River, mixed race neighborhoods are being seen. We understand that these are very real signs of progress in solving racial differences in the South.

The South is a very special region of the USA and a very diverse region! Some of the most talented writers of American fiction and non-fiction had their roots in the South. Maybe this has happened because we are a people who love our region and our land. We welcome those who move here with open arms when we are confident that we are no longer the butt of their jokes and that we have much to offer them. Yes, our climate is not always the most preferred. Here in the ‘Ole North State’ complain about the heat in the summer and the cold in the winter. We know that our weather will change if we stand here long enough.

Even with modest changes in racial tensions. The South is a changed place. There are still farms and an agrarian society in parts of the South. However, our urban areas are large and sprawling. Population is in an obvious increase. The instances of automobiles are difficult to imagine. Take a ride of the beltway around Atlanta during the rush periods of the day. This stretch of freeway become a parking long very quickly and is practically impassable. Our cities are cities of distinction that offer a quality of life that is unsurpassed in the country. Theatre, opera, the visual arts are ever-present. Our writers are still churning out there work. James Lee Burke, John Grissham, Fanny Flagg, Lee Smith, Pat Conroy, are some of our finest.

I might suggest to us native-born Southerners that we get out and look at our South again and that you who have moved in look at our personable, picturesque region.

Ruth Graham

Ruth Bell Graham has left this place better just because she was among us for 87 years. She once said,

I saw a sign on a strip of
highway once that I would like
to have copied on my gravestone,
It said "end of construction.
Thank you for you patience."

Perhaps the only real way to see the life of Ruth Graham is to read her poetry. She was an accomplished writer and poet, in addition to being a wife and mother.

There is noway that I can describe a great marriage than to see the example of Billy and Ruth Graham. Their undying committed devotion to each other kept them both humble and proud. Billy Graham is one of the world's greatest religious leaders and undoubtedly the example of the verse in Micah that goes something like this: "Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God." Billy Graham is what he has become because he chose Ruth as his wife.

Ruth Graham's life is going to be an example for all people of faith for years to come. Perhaps as much as her husband's.

Thank you, God, for giving us Ruth Bell Graham.

Judge Roy Pearson not to be Confused with Judge Roy Bean

Roy L. Pearson Jr. wanted to dress sharply for his new job as an administrative law judge in Washington, DC. So when his neighborhood dry cleaner misplaced a pair of expensive pants he had planned to wear his first week on the bench, Judge Pearson turned away from being Solomon to being just about the biggest jerk to sit on the bench. Such a jerk that he sued the cleaners for $67.3 million.

Of course, the judge's pants aren't the issue here. The whole issue is the example of our national legal excess. The judge has been lampooned on talk radio and on Internet blogs. Additionally complaints to the District of Columbia Bar and city officials from those involved with national tort reform and lawyers worried about the backlash of this suit.

Paul Rothstein, a professor of law at Georgetown University said, "I don’t know of any other cases that have been quite this ridiculous." I find the word ridiculous just too tame.

This questionable example of a judge tried to pass himself off as a "private attorney general" with a pulpit to champion the rights of DC consumers . Later this clown began to weep when he described the day he says that the cleaners tried to pass off a cheaper pair of pants. He asked for abreat and dabbed his tears as he exited the courtroom. When I worked in the courtroom, we called the grandstanding.

When the owners, Korean immigrants who came to America in 1992, could not
find one pair of pants, Judge Pearson demanded $1,150 for a replacement sit. The owners did not respond; he sued.

He has rejected three settlement offers, the latest, in March, for $12,000. Last week, Judge Pearson revised a few claims and lowered his damages request to $54 million.

Judge Pearson’s future as an administrative law judge is in limbo. His two-year term expired on May 2, and a judicial panel has yet to decide on his reappointment.

In the meantime, Judge Pearson remains on the city payroll as an attorney adviser to the Office of Administrative Hearings, at a salary of $100,512.

Person is representing himself in this action. An old saying, "A man who represents himself in court has a fool for a lawyer and a fool for a client."

It is said that 99 percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name. Judge Pearson gives th rest of humanity a bad name.

An so it goes.

THE YOUTH ARE THE ANSWER TO CHANGING WHAT IS UNACCEPTABLE

We Who are More Mature Must Give Them the Chance

In his remarks to the graduating students at Georgetown University, founder of Sojourners magazine, (http://www.beliefnet.com/blogs/godspolitics) Jim Wallis asked, “What's Acceptable? What's Possible? At first look, these are two very curious questions. Each new generation has a chance to alter two very basic definitions of realty in our world—what is acceptable and what is possible.

First, what is acceptable?

that 3 billion people in our world today live on less that $2 per day
that
more than 1 billion live on less than $1 per day
that the gap between the
life expectancy between the rich places and the poor places in the world is now
40 years
that 30,000 children globally will die today

Many of us don't really know that and have never really focused on the reality or even given it a second thought. We really don't have to care. So we tolerate it and keep looking the other way.
Then something changes. Something gets our attention; something goes deeper than before and grabs our heart, our soul, our spirit. Once we know the injustice, we can never really look back again. It is now unacceptable to us.

What we see now, offends our most basic values and violates our concept the common good, and requires us to take a stand. At this point, we have crossed the line of unacceptability. We have become intolerant of the injustice.

Rev. Wallis tells this story after making speeches about this subject.

I was in Minneapolis and, after speaking, was signing books. I looked up from the table and saw a very little girl who was next in line.” How old are you?” I asked. "I'm eleven," she said. I stopped the line; I wanted to know what she thought of what she had just heard. I asked her what she got from tonight. "Well…I think we are just going to have to change the world!” And, who is going to that I asked her with a smile.” I think people like me!" she replied. I told her story the next night in Tacoma, Washington. Sure enough, in the book signing line afterwards was another little girl who grinned at me and said, "Nine!” So I told both their stories the very next night in Seattle. There in line was the littlest girl of all. When she approached the table, she said, "I think I'm the youngest so far. I'm eight.” I couldn't help but ask this child what made sense to her tonight. She paused thoughtfully for a moment and then answered, "When you talked about that 'silent tsunami,' that is killing so many children every day because of poverty—children like me…I was just sitting there and started to think, if I'm a Christian, I better do something about that."

There is a great deal of both wisdom and hope in what those kids have to say to us.
Madison Smith said, “It makes me happy knowing that I’m doing something good.” As you, remember from Jeff Wirick’s story in The Times News on May 24, 2007 (http://www.thetimesnews.com/onset?id=2425&template=article.html). Madison made this comment about selling lemonade at the Hospice Flea Market to raise money for the Hospice Home where her grandmother spent her last days.
Madison Smith is an eleven year-old girl who sensed a need and found a way to help fill that need. Her acts of volunteerism and kindness reveal a spirit of the hope that we see in our young people. Madison is not much different from most kids. She is the pride and joy of her parents Jay and Geri Smith. Madison stepped out with courage that she could make a difference. She has done just that.

Today’s graduates and youth need to be allowed to think “out side the box.” I am confident the Geri and Jay Smith never told Madison that such a project was impossible. The thought of failure has probably never crossed her mind or those who know her. They need to learn to ask what can I do to make a difference. Today’s parents need to give their children a spiritual foundation with a concern not just for their selfishness, but for unselfish consideration of their fellow men.

We need a new generation of young activists talking about globalization, HIV/AIDS, reducing global poverty, and curing cancer. A spiritual foundation is necessary to change history. That's what's always made the difference - abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, civil rights. This will be no different.
The young people today are going to make the difference in finding the unacceptable and making it possible. The key is to believe that the world can be changed, because it is only that belief that ever changes the world. And if not us, who will believe?

What is possible? The eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews says this: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Rev. Wallis suggested this paraphrase: Hope is believing in spite of the evidence, and then watching the evidence change.
We are thankful that God has placed young people like Madison Smith who:

No longer accepts the unacceptable.
Changes what is believed to be
possible.
And always makes the choice for hope.
Look out world, here
they
come!

Thank you, Madison, and God Bless You!

Newt Do You Think I am That Gullable

Hypocrisy desires to seem good rather than to be so; honesty desires to be good rather than seem so.

...Arthur Warwick

Before his death, Jerry Falwell invited former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich to speak at graduation at Liberty University, founded by Falwell. Graduation at Liberty had become a forum for the conservative, Christian Right supporter politicians. Last year it was McCain who had mended his division with Falwell. We see Republican candidates making their journeys to seek the blessings of Dobson, Robertson, and Falwell. Newt has made his rounds also claiming a change in and redemption from his errant ways.

Newt is the poster child for amoral behavior. Yes, he was the one took the lead in the campaign against Clinton for the Monica Lewinsky scandal while he was having an affair. He was also the one that left his wife when she had cancer. Gingrich, who is considering a run for the presidency in 2008, faced 84 ethics charges when he was House Speaker, including tax violations, perjury and reckless disregard of House rules. He was sanctioned, and resigned from Congress. He also gained notoriety for visiting his cancer-recovering first wife in her hospital bed to get her to sign divorce papers. After the divorce, a church organization helped the family financially because Gingrich did not pay any child support. I really hope that his hypocrisy cannot be mistaken for honesty. If he is honest, he would admit his short comings and seek forgiveness. (Me thinks he give the salmander a bad name.)

His warnings of the threat of "Radical Secularism" is a scare tactic of the right and of religious extremist of every persuasion.

"A growing culture of radical secularism declares that the nation cannot profess the truths on which it was founded," Gingrich said. "We are told that our public schools can no longer invoke the creator, nor proclaim the natural law nor profess the God-given quality of human rights."

It is not radical secularism that the people of this nation cannot profess the Godly thruths on which the United States is founded. It is that little pharse in the Constition, one of the basic tenets, of this great country that tells us that we shall not extablish a State sanctioned religion. It is not the prohibiting prayer in our public schools, it is the prescribing of an all inclusive prayer that would actually. It is the getting public school teachers out of preaching and back to teaching.

Newt and his buddies are not Christian. Real Christians would do the work of Christ at bringing in people through love and by defending the persecuted. These "Christians" have hate, money, and power in their hearts. They seek to expand their power by fighting, through politics, and by picking on minorities that don't hurt anyone (anymore than other groups), and by believing they are "holier than thou".

Just remember: "Someone his hurting, Not too far from here."

America is Not Always Good in History

"We are becoming increasingly disappointed in the optimism of our leaders..." "The only rational way out is to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people..."

Walter Cronkite said those words at the end of his television special about the Vietnam War. President Johnson watched this show and at the conclusion said that if he lost Cronkite, he had lost America. The President later chose not to seek re-election.

The wisdom of this statement is very typical Cronkite. I wish we had someone present with his wisdom.

I have seen some suggestions for withdrawal. One that catches my eye is withdrawal of British and American troops. These troops will be replaced by troops from other middle-Eastern countries. Then, as an honorable nation, we would apologize to the world for our attack and destruction.

It seems to me that America is supposed to be a very moral nation. Additionally, a good confession in this instance will let the the rest of the world know that we are loving and carrying.

Jerry Falwell: Farewell to a Legacy

I have watched much coverage of Jerry Falwell’s death and legacy. I did not agree with the uncritical who failed to see Falwell's divisive character. Nor do I agree with those who vehemently opposed him and attacked both his character and his faith.

Falwell was a man of faith and good intentions to do what is expected if a minister. He was a land mark in modern day Christianity. His significance cannot be denied.

I did not agree Jerry Falwell's theology or politics,[the local Christian Coalition never supported my candidacy for office ; > ) ] yet I mourn the passing of one of my fellow human beings. All those with a heart for love must do the same. Here we have a perfect example of the Christ ethic - we must love our enemies, we must pray for those that persecuted us.

Jerry Falwell was devoted to his ministry. His greatest legacy will probably be Liberty University. Sports pages in news papers are covering his devotion to sports. He could probably cheer louder than any fan for his LU sports teams. His former students called him Jerry, not Dr. Falwell. He seemed like a man who was always available for any student's question.

Yes, he was flamboyant. However, I do not believe that he had that personality to bring attention to himself. After all, aren't most Baptist preachers prone to be the the same.

What Does the LORD Require of Us.

I love Native American fables and stories. They often carry the wisdom of a parable of Christ. So much wisdom is expressed in each of them. Rev. Joy Carroll Wallis, in her address to the graduates at commencement at Goshen College, used a Cherokee story to describe choices. It goes as follows:

One evening, an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, “My son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’ inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, fear, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other one is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.”

The grandson thought about this for few minutes and then he looked up at his
grandfather and asked; “Which wolf wins?” The old Cherokee simply replied,
“The one you feed. The one you feed.”

We often think the real battle is going on in the world around us and that we can become insulted from this terrible world. However, the old Cherokee described the battle within us. When have we fed envy, pride, superiority, and ego and forgotten all about love, hope, serenity, kindness, humility, peace, and generosity.

It is important to remember about many religious leaders in our country today is that they often feed the wolf of greed, arrogance, resentment, superiority, and ego. These leaders have
forgotten that Jesus taught, joy, peach, love, hope, humility, benevolence, generosity, truth,
compassion, and faith. We must feed the good wolf and not submit to the evil wolf.

God has shown us what He expects of us in
Micah 6:8.

And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and
to walk humbly with your
God.

Do we do what the LORD requires?


Rev. Joy Carroll Wallis is the wife of Jim Willis founder of Sojourner and author of God’s Politics.
Goshen College is located in Goshen, Indiana. It was Established in 1894 and owned by the Mennonite Church.