for your personal devotional time



ht: al keida

memorandum from captain random...

john mccain still thinks the "fundamentals of our economy are strong." i'm thankful for more hope we can bereave in.

today i've been wondering how the church and her mission would be altered by a long-term recession. other than encouraging compassionate redistribution, providing financial and sustainable life skills training and, if need be, turning a few of those ginormous family life centers into places where displaced families could really, you know, live their lives, i don't really know what the church in the context of depression would look like. thoughts?

the boston cohort is gathering tomorrow night (9.15.08) at danny's diner in somerville (300 Beacon Street, near the porter square stop on the red line) around 7 p.m. we'd love to see you there.

little p's laughter is the sweetest sound in the world.

this weekend, i was once again amazed by my eclectic, incredible group of friends. i do not deserve you.

overheard: traveling with autism

today the new york times had an excellent multimedia feature that focused on how a family has intentionally introduced their autistic child to the wonders of travel. anyone who has heard me talk about my experiences accompanying and empowering people with disabilities has probably heard me say that "family is the greatest disability." stories like this, as well as my interaction with many of our participant's families, reminds me that families are the greatest source of ability as well.

anyway, i enjoyed the story and i hope you do as well.

the hastily written, under-contextualized political report

yesterday we, along with an incredibly eclectic group of new and old friends, attended the barack obama rally in manchester. throughout the event i was impressed by obama's focus on progressive policy, detailed comparisons of his proposals and mccains' and the hopeful, positive tone of the whole event.

although i don't talk politics on the blog much, i am definitely an obama backer. though the polls are tight right now i think obama has the wind on the economy, the war and resource development. for those reasons, in my better moments, i believe that the american public will eventually decide to arrest the elevated entropy of our nation by voting the neo-con edition republicans out of office.

that being said, my one concern with obama's platform, and with contemporary american politics in general, is that our leaders constantly promise significant change that requires little or no sacrifice from ordinary citizens. that is why i completely agree with jeff jacoby's opinion that the change we need cannot simply be funded by increased taxes on the top 1% of americans. in order to bring economic stability to the nation and provide the innovative resource development and sweeping access to health care that this nation needs, we will need not only to tax the rich and strategically retreat from economic blunders such as the iraq war, but we will also need for the middle class to sacrifice by rolling back the bush tax cuts and so requiring the investment of ordinary citizens in the redevelopment of our beleaguered nation.

of course, that's only my opinion. i could be wrong.