“WE BELIEVE that in the best American tradition of helping others help themselves, now is the time to join with other countries in a historic pact for compassion and justice to help the poorest people of the world overcome AIDS and extreme poverty. WE RECOGNIZE that a pact including such measures as fair trade, debt relief, fighting corruption and directing an additional one percent of the U.S. budget toward meeting basic needs – education, health, clean water, food, and care for orphans – would transform the futures and hopes of an entire generation in the poorest countries. WE COMMIT ourselves - one person, one voice, one vote at a time - to make a better, safer world for all.”
Free Christian Web Graphics, tools, tips, techniques,
and links to resources that will help Internet Missionaries build their own
web sites, and share the Good News of the WORD on the World Wide Web.
--> Took a 300 mile road trip and looped around East Texas last Saturday. Drove past Corsicana, through Tennessee Colony, Palestine, Maydelle, Oakland, and Dialville. Then stopped to put flowers at some ancestrial graves in the Union Grove Cemetery, including my second great grandfather, Texas Cav. 2nd Lt. John Patton, who gave the land for the cemetery. (he was my father's mother's mother's father.) Then went up to Jacksonville to see one of my aunts (my father's oldest sister). After that drove through Tyler and past the Rose Garden, then west to Canton for the huge monthly flea market that practically takes over that rather small town.
--> I was elected as co-chair of my parish's newly formed Strategic Planning Committee.
The execution of those with mental illness is prohibited by international law as well as by most countries in the world. In April of 2000, The UN Commission on Human Rights urged that all states that do maintain the death penalty do not impose it on those who are suffering from any form of mental disorder. However, it is a common occurrence in the United States. There is clear evidence that Ocha is mentally ill and suicidal. By signing his death warrant Governor Jeb Bush is merely assisting in the suicide of a sick man and continuing the unjust practice of executing the mentally ill.
ENDQUOTE
Governor Bush is a practicing Roman Catholic (he was interviewed after Mass by the media last Sunday about Shindler v. Shiavo) and the Roman Catholic Church happens to oppose the use of the death penalty, as stated in the 1995 encyclical The Gospel of Life and in the definitve Latin edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church that was issued in September 1997.
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"Among the individuals and groups against legalized abortion in the United States, there are some who support the continuation of capital punishment. This is an inconsistency and an unacceptable contradiction."
~ Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini, 1992 Newspaper Interview as quoted by Catholics Against Capital Punishment.
I had this grand plan of putting up something about Holy Week and the next thing I knew Palm Sunday had come and gone. So here are links to the Easter Messages from the Archbishop of Canterbury and from the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church USA.
I spent last night watching not just one, but two brand new episodes of the Vicar of Dibley on my local PBS station. They showed the Christmas 2004 episode and the New Years 2004-2005 episode. Both were really great. The New Years episode included information about MAKEpovertyHISTORY.org (click on the white banner at the top of this page for more info). And the Christmas episode had an appearance (as himself) by none other than the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams!
2008 could see a US Presidential race in which both major parties have viable female candidates. Wouldn't it be fun to watch DemocraticSenatorHilary Rodham Clinton running against Republican Secretary of State Condoleezza "Condi" Rice. Blogosphere buzz on this dream match up goes back to at least the Summer of 2003. The only problem is that Secretary Rice has said she isn't running.
I left Lynchburg, Virginia (not to be confused with the other Lynchburg) at 5:51AM EDT on Thursday and got into DC later that morning. I had 7&1/2 hours in DC before my train to Chicago left, so I checked my carry-on bags (except my laptop bag), did a little quick shopping at Union Station (which is a Mall and a Train Station both and is quite beautifully restored to its original splendor), and then cought the Metro Red Line up to the Tinleytown/AU Station, which is near American University. Once I went up three escalators (one of them quite long) I got to Wisconsin Avenue. there I caught a MetroBus down Wisconsin Avenue, back towards Massachusetts Avenue, to National Cathedral.
After taking a MetroBus back to Tinleytown, I had a nice healthy late lunch from the deli counter at the Whole Foods Market that was right by the MetroRail Station entrance. That is one thing I so missed from Portland - the ability to go shopping for yummy healthy food at Whole Foods. Then I took the elevator down, instead of the escalators, and caught the MetroRail Red Line back to Union Station. I then had an hour to kill until my friend Alison (who works in DC) and I were to meet for drinks at Starbucks at 4. The Starbucks was nicely located only a couple of gates down from where my next train was departing. We talked over iced chai unitl it was time for me to go queue up to get on the train.
We had to sit on a siding in Indiana while some freight trains that were too long for the siding, passed us going the opposite direction, so we arrived almost an hour late in Chicago. Just befoe we reached the station, we passed Chicago's Chinatown and I'm more sure than Ivory Soap is pure that I saw Ping Tom Memorial Park which was the finish line for this season's edition of The Amazing Race on CBS.
The funny thing is that I was meeting some friends for lunch at Lou Mitchell's which is just down Jackson Street from Chicago's Union Station. One of them was coming in by train from Michigan for the day, and I was expecting to wait about 20 minutes for his train to pull in, instead he was waiting for me. We stashed our carry-on bags in lockers and headed off to meet the other three at the restaurant. I had a wonderful Cheddar & AppleOmelet for lunch.
I got on my third and final train, settled in to a window seat with no one next to me, picked up a magazine to read, sat it back down for a minute, closed my eyes briefly, re-opened them, and realized that I had slept almost the entire length of the State of Illinois! I went to the club car, got a light dinner, and looked out the windows as we crossed the darken Mississippi, passed the illuminated from below St. Louis Arch, and pulled into and out of the busy St. Louis train station. I then read a wonderful fiction piece in the Missouri Review, while ironically enough actually in Missouri. The story though was set in Crete and not in Missouri. (If it had been set in Missouri that would have been too funny.) After that I did some work on my laptop, and then fell asleep, curled up on the two seats and their fully raised leg rests, about an hour before we reached the northern border of Arkansas. When I awoke, I had slept another state away and we were in Texarkana, Arkansas, five blocks east of the Texas border. I spent the morning doing more work on the laptop, and actually got quite rolling along (accidental pun) until I realized it was after Noon. Not long after I ate lunch, I spotted the now familiar Dallas skyline. The train pulled in to the station about four minutes early.
Well, I ended up writing more than I had planned to, but that's all the news from me.
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To read about someone going from Virginia to Texas, long long ago, see this link.
Collect (opening prayer) for Ash Wednesday - "Almighty and everlasting God, You hate nothing You have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of You, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen." From the Book of Common Prayer 1979.
"Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith . . . the observance of a holy Lent, by self- examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word." ~ Parts of the exhortation read to the congregation on Ash Wednesday.
Next Wednesday is Chinese New Years. If you click here, a new window will open with a list of related web pages, one of which is a fortune cookie message generator.
Next Wednesday is also Ash Wednesday. I'll write more on that later.
With much nervous hope I sent off a "general letter of inquiry" to a particular NYC publishing house regarding a rather ambitious non-fiction project today.
Everliving God, we rejoice today in the fellowship of Thy blessed servant Bridget of Kildare, and we give Thee thanks for her life of devoted service. Inspire us with life and light, and give us perseverance to serve Thee all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with Thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, world without end. Amen.
Adaptation (2002)
An excellent study in the writing of plot & plot twists. Also, one of the best movies related to writing, other than Finding Forrester that I've ever seen.
The Business of Fancydancing (2002) Sherman Alexie not only wrote it, he produced it. There are very few movies that have been produced by members of First Nations Tribes in the US, and this is one of them.
Radio (2003)
Based on a true story and written by Mike Rich
The Absolute Must Miss Movie of All Time
I swear this is one of the worse, if not the worse, film ever made. The special effects were terrible. It was released in 1997, but I've seen better special effects on Star Trek: TOS! Even the burning of Atlanta in Gone With The Wind used better special effects and that movie was the winner of Best Picture at the 1939 Oscars. The only reason I saw this movie was because the Jurassic Park sequal was sold out and since the group of us was already at the theatre Tim & Michael talked the rest of us into seeing this movie instead. I'll never let them live it down. Oh, and Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, and Jon Voight were in this cinematic disaster. In case you haven't guessed, 1997's Andaconda is not worth the film it's printed on. That it has a 4.1 rating, out of a possible 10, at IMDb.com is totally amazing. It should be a -4.1, cause that's how bad this film really is. For a really good laugh read IMDb's User Comments for this cinematic disaster.
