I Have Seen the Enemy - And, Yes, It Is Us Too

I have had several conversations in the last few days trying to understand the current financial crisis and its relationship to the housing crisis of the last year or more. It is clear to me that aspects of this issue are simply beyond my understanding at this time, but I am trying. Given the Congress' decision to adjourn it seems it may be beyond its understanding as well.

It seems that a part of the problem lies with an earnest desire on the part of well meaning folks to see more and more people own their own homes. But beyond that it just seems that banks and mortgage companies pushed too hard, and handed out too many risky loans, and that when this problem became such that could impact everyone in a significant manner, there was no adequate watchdog, whether that watchdog be the media or the government.

And from what I can tell it seems like the government simply has to establish some regulatory boundaries or set up some tripwires so that we can all know when we're close to the edge of such a crisis again.

Having said all that, what has been on my mind the last few days is the role that American home buyers have played in this crisis. It seems everyone is pointing his or her finger at the congress, the President, the regulatory agencies, the bank executives, and all sorts of other nefarious people and entitries, but to some degree we should also be pointing our fingers at ourselves.

There being so many people who give lip service to Jesus, or who don't really believe in Him as Son of God, yet like to quote the Sermon on the Mount as their personal ethic, try this on for size: "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?"

Without countless ordinary american people signing on to risky and presumptuous loans we would not be in this mess. And to blame the whole thing on the government or on corporate executives is a failure to accept personal responsibility.

Years ago when we were trying to move so as to keep our kids in the NW Guilford school district (we eneded up being able to without moving due to a grandfatehr clause), I talked to various banks and lending institutions. I was appalled, APPALLED, at the loans that these banks were happy to extend to me. It would have been foolhardy in the extreme for me to take on one of those loans, and it was foolhardy for them to offer them to me. Oh yeah, they had all their little tricks of variable rates and such to draw me in. And sure, I could have done it, and then had no money for anything else.

In my own opinion a fair amount of greed and presumption on the part of the American people has also driven us into this crisis. The greed is the craving for bigger and better - in this case housing. The presumption is the idea that house prices would forever appreciate.

I know, some of the peopel defaulting are first time homeowners just trying to own a house. In many cases family crisis, job loss, and divorce has excerbated the problem on the personal level. Many people have defaulted on perfecrtly resonable loans due to such circumstances.

And I can hardly fault peopel for wanting to own their own home (though the merits of home ownership may be overrated).

But way too many risky loans were peddled to people who had no business accepting them - lower income people AND higher income people alike. In the latter case, in my judgment, greed, the need to say that one lives in such and such a neighborhood, covetousness for bigger and better, drove people into outright foolish financial committments.

I keep wondering, "Why weren't bells ringing or red flags waving?"

So before we chastise George Bush, Barney Frank, Barack Obama, John McCain or whomever else, maybe we should all as citizens take a deep breath and look at ourselves. We're over extended. Our personal debt is too high. In too many cases we have bought what we don't need with money we don't have. What is it it that has driven so many of us into risky, unwise, and in all too many cases, downright foolish financial decisions? Do we the people bear no blame?

I think we do.

And Then It Hit Me - I Don't Believe in Forced Wealth Distribution

I was reading the news about Joe Biden's argument that paying more taxes is an act of patriotism, which I suppose it could be the case if it were voluntary, when it hit me, I don't believe in using the tax code to distribute wealth, except perhaps to care for the poorest and neediest among us.

I thought Biden's wording was telling:

"We want to take money and put it back in the pocket of middle-class people," Biden said in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America" (from Yahoo News).

Yeah, that's right, TAKE MONEY. It sounds like stealing.

I am a middle class American. I am struggling financially. I have raised five children on one salary (until now - my wife who has worked hard day after day for years caring for our children and homeschooling has just this season gotent a job outside the home) and it has been no walk in the park We have had big medical bills. We deal with debt. We live in a small house. But I'm doing OK, and by the standards of the world as a whole, I am rich.

But I do not believe that someone who makes over $250,000 owes me a penny, and to take money from them to give it to me would be little more than stealing as far as I am concerned.

I just don't think this is right. It's like there is this undercurrent assumption that people who make over $250,000 in income have somehow sinned, and now they have to be punished. I would rather see those people spend their money how they see fit, legally of course.

So this was kind of an "aha" moment for me. Thank you Joe Biden.

Center Pointe , As Reflected off Bank of America Building

I love all the cool reflections off the various buildings in downtown Greensboro. They change according to the time of day and light. I kind of dig taking seeing what odd abstraction I can get out these reflections.

Happy Birthday Mary, and We Miss You Rachel

Today is my little sister Mary's birthday. Mary is not only my blood sister, she is my sister in Christ, a bond which goes beyond the natural bonds of family and blood. Mary was the first of the Gillespie family to become a Christian even though she was the youngest. I persecuted her terribly for two or three years, until God decided to call me to Himself. Now I am so thankful that He chose to establish a beachhead in our family through Mary, and thankful that she was a good witness to Christ even during my family's darker days. And she's a good sis. I'm thankful for her.

Happy birthday Sis!

By God's providence Mary and her husband Sandy's first child Rachel was born on Mary's birthday - on September 16th, 1984. It has at times seemed a cruel providence as Rachel was struck down by an overwhelming bacterial infection and died at the age of 2 1/2 years old, on Feb 9, 1987. For a long time it was really painful and hard to acknowledge Mary's birthday. Now it provides a chance to remember Rachel, my parent's first grandchild.

Happy Birthday Rachel. We miss you.

I like this picture taken the summer before Rachel's death not in spite of its slight out of focus misty quality but because of it.

Please take the time if you have not before to look at a set of pictures that follows Rachel's young life. We don't want to forget her, or the world to forget her either.

In Memory of Rachel Elizabeth Johnson

Don't Get Fooled Again

OK, I'm shallow. I confess. So there, it's out. I like CSI Miami.

And the new season starts next Monday. The Closer ends this week and CSI Miami begins next week. Life can be good.

So, I was writing about great rock organ solo's over at mylifemyjourney, and "Don't Get Fooled Again" was on my mind, which got me thinking about CSI Miami, and wondering whether Horatio was really dead. I mean, he couldn't be, right? He's the show.

And that got me thinking about David Caruso's schtick, which got me to thinking about two super You Tube clips my good friend Sam sent me this summer. If you haven't watched these, well, you should.

The first is Caruso at his, well, at his one liner sunglassy best.

And Jim Carrey's Late Show take on David Caruso is priceless.

Younger Evangelicals - The World Watches and Waits

I originally entitled this piece "Younger Evangelicals Are Stupid." I don't really believe that. I just wrote it to get attention.

In fact I think that Younger Evangelicals are just as intelligent as Older Evangelicals, though that may not be saying a whole lot, as anti-intellectual as American Evangelicalism has been the last fifty years.

Truth be told I pity the generation of Evangelical Christians that have had to grow up in and have had to bear with so much of the nonsense of my generation of Baby Boomer Evangelical Christians.

Younger Evangelicals have rebelled against Baby Boomer Evangelicals and their antics. Younger Evangelicals are WAY more hip and TOTALLY more emotionally authentic.

Though I do not think that Younger Evangelicals are less intelligent, I do worry that they may be even less informed, as hard as that is to imagine. I am certain that they drink more Starbucks, and are WAY better at rattling off all the different kinds of lattes and such. I am sure they even own more iPhones.

Some Younger Evangelicals have rebelled into a more Biblically solid foundation than their Baby Boomer parent's Evangelicalism. For this I can only give thanks. Indeed, a shout out to RUF and many other such organizations that have made that possible.

All too many Younger Evangelicals have developed mere slicker versions of Baby Boomer Mega Churches. Yet, Others, seeing the shallowness of Baby Boomer Evangelicalism, and with a yearning for the transcendent, have run into the waiting arms of Emergent Church Gurus (such as have been mentioned in many recent political articles loving the attention as they tend to do). There Younger Evangelicals have come to reverence the old paths, well, minus the content thereof. One chuckles at the whole notion of "Emergent Church," as if there did not exist a church already. From what did this Emergent Church emerge? The hubris drips...

But into the waiting arms of Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones and Brian McClaren all too many of these Younger Evangelicals have run. There they have embraced a form of Biblical Christianity without its, well, content. Not having received a greater or deeper foundation from Baby Boomer Evangelicals, they really just don't know better.

And the big question of the day is whom will they vote for? They're undecided. The world awaits, breathless.

The Guilford Building at S Elm and Washington Greensboro

I'm sitting here in my office on the left side in the picture, facing north, fifth floor, toward the back. Wave!

Check out more Downtown Greensboro and Guilford Building pictures.

Letter from Daddy Fall 1975 Columbia to Clemson

This is an interesting insight into daily life circa early fall 1975 I think. "Harry" was my roommate 1975-1976 (Harry Lancaster, who now lives in Charlotte). I have no idea who the black quarterback would be in 1975. Steve Fuller started that year as a freshman.

I will do some research on the other football schedules and verify the year.

My dad owned a business called "Gillespie Cleaners," hence the letterhead.

See my Flickr Photostream.

Window Washing

Cleaning the Bank of America building, N. Elm and Friendly Ave, Greensboro, NC. Looks kind of fun. See more at Downtown Greensboro.

Buck Up Obama

A few thoughts on pigs and lipstick...

But first...

I thought Obama did very well on Bill O'Reilly. I thought O'Reilly did very well also. It was a good interview. I don't agree with Obama on too many things, but I like him very much. Actually I like all four of the candidates, even Joe Biden, whose foreign policy in the 80's would have led to our ruin (in my view), but for whom I have always had an odd affection.

The problem with Obama's skin isn't that it is too dark but that it is too thin. He needs to buck up. He has been given a virtual free pass in the mainstream media, most of which drools over him liked he is a pop star/messiah, and he needs to be able to stand the heat without pulling out the "offended" card so often. Give me a break.

I do NOT think Obama made his lipstick comments with Sarah Palin in mind, though I would bet anything that in the back of his mind, after he said it (or even as he was saying it), it was like "s***, I'm screwed." I would like to have seen his BP and pulse right then! What did bother me was the rapt happiness of the audience. I believe they were connecting the dots as the words came out.

I can't believe that this has been all over the media. It's a kindergarten circus out there.

All for now.

Old Security Van Lines Building along RR Tracks

A block or so west of S. Elm. It's kind of cool back in there. Downtown Greensboro.

Nathanael GREENe Keeping Watch Over GREENe Street, downtown GREENsboro

Still looking out for us after all these years....

Check out my new Downtown Greensboro set.

We've also just started a new Flickr group called "Downtown Greensboro" to which any one with a Flickr account can add pictures of our downtown. Please contribute. If you have a Flickr account you can do a group search on "Downtown Greensboro" and there you will find it! Join up and contribute!

This group is for pictures taken of or from downtown Greensboro, NC. I am defining downtown as bordered by Lee Street on the south, Martin Luther King and King street on the southeast, Spring Street and Freeman Mill on the west, Fisher and Murrow on the north, and Murrow on the west. Maybe there is a better definition.

Center City Park - A Different View

City Center Park as reflected off the Bank of America Building, N Elm and Friendly, Downtown Greensboro, NC, Sept 4, 2008.

Moved by McCain

I will confess that I had grown weary of the McCain POW war hero story. It just always seemed like a patriotism one-upmanship thing to me. I was glad when Fred Thompson (I think it was him) acknowledged that being a POW does not qualify one to be president. I was glad to hear that said. But all in all my reaction had "OK, do we have to hear that story again!"

Last night in listening to McCain I think I finally got it. Frankly I was moved, to tears, as he talked about being thankful for his sufferings for what they taught him. And to get a feel for the thousands of acts of kindness, courage, encouragement, support, love, real and true love, POW to POW gave me another insight to McCain's heart. But mostly it was understanding how the event changed the man.

It seems McCain had a kind of conversion (not necessarily a religious one though it may have been, I don't know), a personal transformation that reached into the core of his person as he walked through his suffering. He learned through suffering. He learned a lot about himself, his pride, has selfishness, his cockiness, his independent spirit. And he ultimately survived and avoided suicide or death by withering away because he was loved and served and encouraged by his fellow prisoners. He was a broken man physically and otherwise, but not just in the sense that he finally gave in to the torture and said things his torturers told him to say. No, it was deeper, a deeper kind of being broken.

I understand now John McCain's motivation, his gratitude, his desire to give back, to give of himself in public service. I am reminded of Tom Hank's character in saving Private Ryan and those haunting words at the end, "Earn this." Of course no man could possibly earn such a thing, and I am brought to tears every time I watch the grown up Private Ryan at the end of that movie weighted down by that terrible burden.

I don't think McCain carries that sort of dreadful burden. His I think is more a burden of gratitude, of service, of giving back, of wanting to make better the country that provided the men who loved him and served him and kept him alive. The narrative makes sense to me now. His "America first" makes sense to me now - not merelty some patriotic blather but a deeply ingrained perspective forged in his sufferings.

It doesn't mean that all of his quirks left him, or that he had no more pride to deal with. But it is very easy to read pride into a man bucking the system than one playing by its rules when it isnlt really there.

And I really don't think McCain gives a lick about party. He just fits better in one than the other.

Calling education THE civil rights issue of the 21st century I think is profound and spot on. I agreed with every single word he said on that subject.

I also thought is was deeply thought provoking to speak of how our present approaches to a multitude of issues were formed under a different set of assumptions and rules, and that we have to adjust to the new world we find ourselves in - adjust and change in almost every area of government. I think that that is a profound thought which I have not heard articulated in this campaign and which I think is correct. The old guy, the grey haired one, he seems to be the one most in tune with today, and how we must adjust and change to address creativelty the new world in which we find ourselves - that new "flat" earth we now walk upon.

All in all I was most moved in both conventions by John McCain. I look forward to voting for him.

Flags, Real and Reflected, Downtown Greensboro

As reflected off First Citizen's Bank (I think), Green Street side, Thursday afternoon, September 4.

Can anyone tell me the name of the building on the corner of Friendly and Elm, kitty corner to Central City Park? I have lots of cool reflection pictures off that building and I am not downtown and can't remember which building it is.

See my new downtown pictures here - LOTS more being processed.

Joel

For more new downtown pictures go to my Flickr photostream.

The Future of Journalism

I found this working through a pile of papers. So all of you across the street at the Greensboro N&R, here's your competition! Madeline and Abigail obviously had fun with this. It looks best on large. Now why did we get her that old type writer?

September Songs

Can you believe that September is here? I love September, so I am glad – fall in the air, lots of critters about (birds, butterflies, spiders, and other bugs mostly), late season flowers in bloom (especially the wildflowers), the pennant race in baseball, the beginning of football season, getting outside more, and a new year (since we tend to live by the school year, September first feels like New Year's day to me). It’s a great month all in all.

Hey, here's a question. If you can think of ANY song with the word September in the lyrics or title I'd like to know it. I have a short list but know there must be a LOT more of them out there. Send 'em on!

To My Friend Jeffrey

Jeffrey Sykes who writes the excellent blog A Priori Concepts dropped a challenging existential/religious/philosophical question on us today. In his words:

Open Question:

What is the life lesson I am supposed to learn from a life full of instances where my greatest successes are tinged with intense failures and life’s most pleasant experiences are colored with the pain of significant loss or impending devastation?

I’m open to all interpretations.

I would normally try to answer such a question by an appeal to Genesis 3:15-19, the book of Ecclesiastes, and Psalms like Psalm 73. I think I will try to do that, maybe later. But for now I thought I would offer a larger answer (given my propensity to ask the same questions - you know, like every other day), an essay, written to myself really, and dealing with much the same stuff, particularly in the middle and end. It is entitled The Creation Mandate. It is a Christian reflection about the meaning and the frustration of work. I would be interested in its applicability to your (or anyone else's) situation.

Hope this helps,

Joel

Spam Reaches Deeper

Ed Cone addressed comment spam on his site last week. I've been getting a ton of it on my Word Press blogs. Even the spam filter program can't stop it all. Well, to clarify, it does push into a "moderate" category, so at least it doesn't hit the public view. It hasn't happened yet in Blogger.

Facebook has been hit hard by spam in the last few weeks with phony Wall messages being sent out in the name of some person to others on their friend list. Usually the message points the reader to a not very nice web site.

And today I got comment spammed for the first time on my Flickr site. Under a lovely picture of a sweet child was this comment. And by the way, cristian202005 is an empty account - phony - I looked it up. I don't know how they stop individuals or companies from creating phony accounts and then posting comments like this. Maybe they should purge all accounts that have no pictures.

Joel

cristian202005 says:

Acura ,
Alfa Romeo,
AMC,
Aston Martin,
Auburn, Audi,
Austin,
Austin Healey,
Beck,
Bentley,
BMW,
Bugatti,
Buick,
Cadillac,
Chevrolet,
Chrysler,
Citroen,
Cord,
Daewoo,
Daihatsu,
Datsun,
DeLorean,
DeSoto,
DeTomaso,
Dodge,
Eagle,
Edsel,
Factory Five Racing,
Ferrari,
Fiat,
Ford,
Geo,
GMC,
Honda,
Hummer,
Hyundai,
Infiniti,
International Harvester,
Isuzu,
Jaguar,
Jeep,
Kia,
Lamborghini,
Lancia,
Land Rover,
Lexus,
Lincoln,
Lotus,
Maserati,
Maybach,
Mazda,
Mercedes-Benz,
Mercury,
MG,
Mini,
Mitsubishi,
Nash,
Nissan,
Oldsmobile,
Opel,
Other Makes,
Packard,
Peugeot,
Plymouth,
Pontiac,
Porsche,
Qvale,
Renault,
Replica & Kit Makes,
Rolls-Royce,
Saab, Saleen,
Saturn,
Scion,
Shelby,
Smart,
Spyker,
Studebaker,
Subaru,
Suzuki,
Toyota,
Triumph,
Volkswagen,
Volvo,
Willys

And the Dumb-Ass of the Year Award Goes to...

Me.

Have you ever done something so stupid that you felt like you had to tell everyone first before they found out otherwise? You know, that way you get to put your own spin on the thing...:-)

So, my daughter Anna, the track whiz, well, she has this little neighborhood lawn mowing business going. She has always been a very hard worker and is very tidy about mowing and weed eating and such. Anyway, she has gone off to college now, but the problem is, the grass around here is still growing. So, how can she keep her customers? I offered to mow this one man's yard for her and send her the money until mowing season stops. Good old dad.

The nice man from down the street dropped by Friday on his way to the beach and gave me the thirty bucks to send to Anna, plus some tomatoes and cucumbers from his garden. He also invited me to help myself to anything that was ripe while I was mowing.

So, Monday morning I took off down the street pushing the mower. Anna always listened to her iPod while mowing which would make it impossible for her to hear us calling, so I thought I would take mine with me. Led Zeppelin IV came to mind as good lawn mowing music, and I had just turned on the iPod as I pushed the mower into the guy's driveway. "Hey hey mama said the way you move..." You get the picture. So I cranked the Honda mower up and started mowing.

The guy had nice grass. Really nice grass. Our mower is stuck on "mulch"mode for some reason and I had to go over parts of the lawn several times. I like mowing. I used to do it a lot before Anna took over. She doesn't like it when I mow. The lines are all weird. She does perfect lines.

Anyway, I got to the guy's backyard - more long lush grass. I am about half way through with the back yard when I remember what the man said about the vegetables. I looked around...no vegetables. Hmmm. I looked next door. Mucho vegetables!

I was mowing the wrong yard!

My heart sank. I knew I would have to cancel my lunch appointment. I was trying to think how I could explain away what would be a very long mowing job to my wife. I was also worried the folks might show up and shoot me. I had the thought - for real - am I senile? I thought about just leaving - just getting out of there - but then I said to myself, "I've gone this far I may as well do a good job."

So, I finished. Then I went next door and mowed the yard I was supposed to mow. Finally I got home. There was no way around it. I had to tell my wife. She tried not to laugh because I can be very sensitive about being laughed at. But my 11 year old couldn't contain herself. I'll exact my revenge. In time.

Later in the day I'm just finishing mowing my own yard and I look down the street and see a car in THAT driveway. Thinking there's no time like the present I marched down to apologize. I mean the guy had REALLY nice grass, and I've had a run in or two in my day with Lawn Nazi's, kind of like Anna but way bigger with a few Bud's for the heat, so I was a little worried the guy might just kick my butt right there on the spot. Or call the cops.

I walked up the drive way. There was a little girl looking at me from behind the glass door in that "never talk to strangers" kind of way that makes you feel like a total, well, you know. I said "Can you get your dad" and then I heard a voice from the garage.

The guy came out and I introduced myself. We shook hands. He seemed young enough to be my son. I told him that I had come down to offer an apology, and he was like, "OK....?" probably wondering what in the world had I done. I told him the story. He seemed worried at first not knowing where it was all going, but then at the punch line he laughed and was very gracious.

He said he had just gotten back from Virginia Beach and was tired and had been thinking about how he had to mow the grass and all, and when he drive up, there it was, all mowed. He even said I did a good job (which I need to tell Anna), but then he may have only been trying to make me feel better. He offered to pay me. "No," I said, "I can't accept any money. I'm just sorry it happened." He offered to have us down for a cookout and then we commenced to talking about deep sea fishing about which I know nothing whatsoever.

I had to go. We shook hands. I told him I'd see him around. I said, "You don't HAVE to tell all the neighbors if you don't want to." He laughed.

I'm just waiting for warning posters to start showing up in the neighborhood with the picture of a man pushing a lawn mower - "Beware of the Lawnmower Bandit." Then I'll have to move for sure. Maybe to SC. Ahh, a silver lining....

Rebekah on Hike up Moore's Knob Trail

This is one of my favorite pictures I have taken in a long while. As I often say, if you press the shutter button enough times some of the pictures are bound to come out looking good. In this shot the green tint is natural - not photo-shopped or anything. It was the way the sun was filtering through the leaves at that moment, With her green shirt set off by the dark tree trunk behind her for contrast, it makes for a cool study in green. It was a lucky shot. I think I might photo-shop it a tad to lessen the shadow on her face.

You can see more pictures of our Sunday August 31 hike up to Moore's Knob, plus a few new shots of downtown Greensboro, on my Flickr Photostream.

Perkins Follow Up

Given some of the feedback (comments and e-mails) to my post Developers, Perkins, and Our Shared Environment, I do sense a need to clarify and elaborate.

I have not talked to Robbie Perkins in years, mostly because we travel in different circles (you think?). When I did know him he was only ever nice to me, as was his wife. In fact, I liked the Perkins family very much. Robbie always carried himself in a gentlemanly demeanor. I thought of him as a gracious person and a good and decent man. I would suppose that those qualities have a significant role in his electability.

I wrote what I did about his comments regarding water runoff because I wanted to illustrate the "mindset" of developers, a mindset which has always mystified me somewhat.

And truth be told I have gotten more and more disenchanted with the power which the "developer" class yields in local decisions. There does seem to be a quintessential good old boy network ("boy" being used loosely of course) going on here. When otherwise good and decent men and women are drawn into making back door deals and decisions which impact the public good, who work the system and take advantage of poorly written laws that give them undue power, who use their wealth to "help" like minded folk get elected, and who use their influence on city and county councils to advance their industry if not their own companies, then no matter how good their motives may be what you have is an incipient corruption. I think it has gone well beyond incipient. But I would not myself call Mr. Perkins a sleaze ball as did one commenter. I don't think that way about him.

I think her is just being a developer, a developer mixed up in local politics. It's a bad combination.

I am interested in reading more about Protest Petition issue as brought to my attention by triadwatch. The TREBIC cartel does concern me, and it seems cartel is not an inappropriate designation.

Election Watch: Experience Isn't the Issue

Well, not for me anyway. We have had great presidents with little experience and terrible presidents with lots of experience, and lots of mediocre presidents of both kinds. Thus I don't think either side will ultimately win the "experience" argument.

I'm more experienced than her.

She is more experienced than him.

To me they all sound like school children.

Washington has its own built in machinery. There are career politicians and diplomats and bureaucrats abounding. The place practically runs itself. I think what is more important is intelligence, values, judgment, and of course one's political philosophy.

Where these folks actually stand on the issues, and to what degree any of them will be able to put together the kind of bipartisan coalitions needed to tackle the very real problems we face together is more important to me.

Truth be told I think many people I know are experienced and smart and creative enough to be president. I think if you dropped me down up into the White House I would be a decent president. Well, except that I need my sleep. All those 3:00AM calls would really start to wear me down.

Moore's Knob Anyone?

Hey, a bunch of folks are leaving after church Sunday to head up to Hanging Rock State Park to hike the trail up to Moore's Knob. It's a dandy trail, and the view is to die for. If you'd like to come along I promise we won't sing "Just As I Am" all the way up, try to give you Bibles, or generally act like the Church Lady in any way. We're just folks out for a good walk on a pretty day. We'll leave Bur-Mil about 1:30 or so, get to the very top parking lot by the lake about 2:30, and take the longer trail up. If we're lucky we might see some Ravens, Hawks, and Buzzards. Oh, and we'll have folks of all ages heading up. Kids like it up there. The picture above is a view of Moore's Knob from an adjacent outcropping.

Click on any of these links to get a feel for what you see from Moore's Knob...

Cute Little Farm

Hanging Rock Proper

Pilot Mountain

And, at the risk of scaring you off completely, Me.

Developers, Perkins and Our Shared Environment

I moved to Greensboro in 1989 to become Associate Pastor of Christ Community Church. At the time Christ Community met in a building at the corner of Lake Brandt Road and Lawndale Drive. Christ Community was a lively and growing community of Christians with a charismatic pastor with unusual gifts of relating well to ordinary folks.

During my time at Christ Community the membership and attendance grew consistently. There were two identical worship services and both were full. There was not adequate space for educational ministries. So a committee was looking hard at either expanding the facility or perhaps building elsewhere.

Around that same period of time – from about 1989 to 1992 – the city and state were formulating guidelines for protection of the local watersheds from which we get our drinking
water. If my memory serves me correctly there was much debate with pressure coming from developers to minimize the watershed regulations. Eventually a compromise set of rules was
established. These rules involved progressive tiers of protection for land at certain distances from the waterfront.

At the same time, and much to my own personal consternation, Lake Jeanette was excluded from such regulations because the lake itself and the land around the lake were privately
owned. As everyone knows Lake Jeanette feeds into Lake Townsend from which we get much of our water. The logic of excluding Lake Jeanette from the same watershed restrictions
as the other lakes which provided our drinking water baffled me. The difference had “developer” written all over it.

Christ Community’s property was included in the Lake Brandt watershed. It was in the farthest out “tier” but the regulations impacted what Christ Community could do with its property. Only a certain percentage of the average could be covered by building or asphalt for example. All this hindered greatly the prospect of expanding on the existing property.

I was of the opinion at the time that the Christ Community sanctuary had a unique warmth and charm that fit the personality both of the congregation and the pastor. I definitely wanted to see the expansion take place on site, and even proposed various ways of doing that within the boundaries of the restrictions. But it was going to be awkward and more expensive due to the regulations (which I supported).

Robbie Perkins was a member of Christ Community then, and was involved in the building matter in some way. I think he was a deacon but I am not sure. I do however remember clearly
a conversation we had about the watershed restrictions. We were sitting at the end of a table after a meeting. The meeting had had to do in part with the whole facility/watershed issue. So I was talking with Robbie about this. I do not consider that conversation privileged as pastor to parishioner conversations are. Nor was it part of any official meeting. It was small talk after a meeting with others around.

Despite my desire to see Christ Community stay in its facility and find a way to expand on that property, I was also an avid proponent of the watershed regulations. There was movement by some to appeal to the city or state for an exemption of some kind. I was not for that. I wanted to see us stay in that facility but not if it meant seeking exemption from the rules. To me churches of all places should be cooperative with such regulations and be good citizens in so doing.

I could be wrong but I think that the property got moved to the Lake Jeanette watershed since it was into Lake Jeanette that runoff from the property eventually flowed.

So I was talking to Robbie and he said to me something pretty close to “There is no proof that water runoff into a lake is harmful.”

I remember being quite taken back. My first thought was “I don’t think he really said that.” My second was “This guy went to Duke?” And the third was, “This sounds like a tobacco executive talking.” I knew at that point that further conversation was pointless.

It was not that much longer after that, as I remember, that Mr. Perkins made the local news for his opposition to tree ordinances in residential neighborhoods. He said they would raise the cost of the property and house and diminish demand and in effect depress the housing market. I personally have never met anyone that said they preferred that their new property have no trees, or that they wouldn’t be willing to pay a little more to keep the trees. And tree cover has such an overwhelming benefit to everyone it seemed only a developer could be against a reasonable tree ordinance.

My personal experience of conversations, along with the subsequent issue of the tree ordinance, combined with the more recent obvious conflict of interest regarding the incentives package has led me to think that most developers like Mr. Perkins, though otherwise fine people in every respect, bring a deeply ingrained set of values into these discussions that are formed by their work as developers. In other words, they see the world through a developer’s lens.

I think it is just a very bad idea that developers have such influence upon our local governments. But they do.

Government has certain key responsibilities. One is to provide protection to its citizens against aggression from outside and crime within. A second role is to help provide an infrastructure that allows its citizens the ability to work and move around in an equitable and effective manner. A third is to provide and promote the general health and safety of its citizens. The provision of a clean and safe water supply would be one of its primary obligations.

I think our watershed restrictions are way too lax. Not only that, but downriver from Lake Townsend the restrictions diminish greatly. We seem to forget that what we put into our water up here impacts everyone downstream, all the way to Lake Jordan and to the Cape Fear River. I think we owe it to our neighbors downstream to be watchful of the quality of the water we send their way.

How we get developers who serve on our town and county councils to support reasoned planning, ordinances which protect the health and safety of our citizens and the beauty of our shared environment is a question I wonder about all the time.

Remembering My Irish Friend Clancey

I dreamed about Clancey last night and thought I'd post a different picture of him.

Clancey was my dog from the time I was about 14 in 1971 until he died of cancer of the heart cavity in February of 1981 when I was 23. He was, of course an Irish Setter, a male, and was a great companion and friend. We lived in an area of Columbia SC with lots of ponds and great roads for long walks. He was a little high strung as setters can be, but he was just such a loyal and cheerful fellow. He never failed to greet my homecoming - whether from high school, from being away at Clemson, from working at the store - with joy and enthusiasm. He could hear my VW Rabbit driving down the road (catalytic converter rattling) and would be running out to greet me with sheer exuberance as I pulled up in front of the house

We would go on the longest walks - no leashes required then - and he would run all around, swim in lakes, chase squirrels, whatever he felt like. In this picture he had just been in the water. All I had to say was "walk" and he would be grabbing my shoes in his mouth for me to put them on. He was not the sharpest tool in the shed dog wise, but for an Irish Setter he was pretty smart. I can just feel and imagine our familiar forehead nuzzles right now. I would get down on the floor, on my hands and knees, and we would rub foreheads, pushing a little, like two friendly big horn sheep!

We had some really fun games we would play, especially tackle the man (or dog) with the tennis ball. I would throw the ball up and across the yard and we would both race for it. He would generally win. Then I would try to get the ball from him, usually trying to corner him and tackling him if he made a dash for it. I would lunge and try to knock his back legs out from under him. He knew the rules - no leaving the yard for example. We would run and chase until we were both worn out and would just fall into a heap on the grass together. I miss him terribly.

Dancing Queen

My little sister, Mary Adeline Gillespie (Now Mary Gillespie Johnson), about age five, app. 1964. I came across this yesterday buried deep in my Flickr site. I actually remember this event..."do I have to go..."

The Flickr comment is perfect...

"...a family treasure ! I like the way she holds her hands, baby's grace, and love the detail of her knees that show she might have been rowdy, and doing some other things apart from dancing!"

Mary, you can never escape your rowdy past :-)

South Elm Rocks

I don't mean any disrespect for all you good folks north of Market Street, but having had my office down here on South Elm for almost nine months now, I can definitely say that South Elm is cool.

There seems to be more and more people about, more shops being renovated, and more places to eat every month. There is cool urban vibe - a little Greenwich Village like - art, food, music, theater, quirky and interesting people everywhere (my favorite kind).

I'm thinking of riding my bike to work. Thanks to my good friend Kay at the city who gave me the newest copy of the Trails of Greensboro (which included a great bicycle map of greater Greensboro) I figured out that I could ride all the way from my home out near Greensboro Day School to downtown and not be on a major road except for a few blocks downtown. I just have to figure out how to "clean up" after. Does anybody out there know of a "wipe down" product that would approximate the benefits of a shower?

I'm also thinking of getting a scooter - no, not the little Razor but the Vespa type. It would be such a blast to "scooter" around down town with camera in tow.

I can't wait until the Mellow Mushroom opens. Meanwhile on days when I don't have a lunch appointment somewhere I tend to hang out at Jimmy Johns for a late lunch. Good sandwiches, good prices, and totally rocking music after the lunch crowd leaves. And I don't need to eat dinner.

I'd love to live down here. Maybe someday.

My Grand Slam

I was born in 1957. Growing up in the early sixties I was an avid baseball fan just like pretty much everyone else, collecting baseball cards, following the teams and the stats, watching probably every World Series starting in about 1962 or 1963, and when they came to Atlanta, watching the Braves home games on TV.

Back then kids learned how to play sports in the neighborhood. I had older brothers and there were older kids all up and down the street. We played baseball in the street, in the backyard, in a field near the church, pretty much anywhere we could. I had baseball in my veins.

There was no travel ball then, no tee ball, no coaches pitch. There was no place to play baseball except Little League. So that’s where everyone, good and bad, played baseball.

I was a scrappy and competitive kid and simply loved – loved – playing baseball. The field was on the same property as my grammar school (Satchel Ford Elementary), about a mile from my house, and I generally rode my bike to and from practice.

Our little league was for kids 10-12 more or less. I played for “Custom Cleaners.” They had won the championship the year before I started, and did again my first year. We had cool green uniforms with the old fashioned baseball pants and striped baseball socks.

We played six inning games, one during the week and one on Saturday, with no time clock, so sometimes we would be at the field a long time.

Our best player was Larry Chavis, probably the best all around athlete I knew growing up. Larry was our # 1 pitcher and best hitter, and I was the #2 pitcher. When Larry pitched I usually played short stop and when I pitched he played first. Larry was also a buddy of mine. His dad was the coach. I know people who have bad memories of coaches, but Mr. Chavis was as good a coach as I can imagine ever having. He was a very kind and decent man, yet was committed to our being a good team, and he played to win. When I think back, the image I have of him merges a little with that of Andy Griffith. Imagine someone with Andy Griffith’s demeanor hitting ground balls and pop flies, running double plays and such until the team got it perfect, or until it got too dark to play. In those days the parents waited, period.

Our second year we weren’t terribly good. We had lost a ton of players and were “rebuilding.” I did manage to throw a no hitter that year against one of the best teams (check out the box score). That was cool.

I was young for my grade so my third year of Little League I was in seventh grade as was Larry. The owner of Custom Cleaners, Mr. Allday, assisted as coach, and his son Greg was the catcher and some time pitcher. I think five people from our team made all-stars my third year, Larry, Greg, Bob Dreher, Clint Freeman, and myself.

You can see a team picture here. That’s Mr. Chavis back right, Mr. Allday back left, Clint Freeman back middle, Larry between Clint and Mr. Chavis, me between Clint and Mr. Allday. Debbie Carawan was the bat girl.

One very cool aside: our primary umpire was Kirby Higby. Most of the adults just called him “Higby.” He had been a major league pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He even won a World Series game, I think in the 1948 World Series. He wrote a book called “A High Hard One” that is still in print. I have an autographed copy of the first edition. Sometimes, since Mr. Higby had been a pitcher, he would call a game from behind the pitcher’s mound. He talked to the pitcher the whole game, giving advice or just talking turkey. It was super. He was really opposed to young pitchers throwing junk and was ahead of his time in that regard. I couldn’t throw a decent curveball to save my life, but I did have a screwball that I would use on occasion and he would razz me about it. This was also back in the day when parents felt free to express their opinions about umpire calls. It made the games, well, colorful!

The way things worked in our league the season was divided into two halves of nine games each. The winner of the first half would play the winner of the second half in a two out of three game playoff for the league championship. As I remember we won the second half and Garber’s Shoes won the first half, so we met in the playoff.

My third year a kid named Clint Freeman moved into town. He ended up on our team and became the catcher. Clint was a stud. In those days you could run over the catcher, but few people wanted to try to run over Clint. One time, in going after a little pop foul, he ran headfirst with his head into the 2 by 6 cross beam of the dugout - and he broke the beam. Yes, he kept playing. Clint was a lefty. He could smoke the ball. He threw it back to me faster than I pitched it to him!

Toward the end of the season, Larry and Greg and I starting talking to the coach about trying out Clint at pitcher. I mean, nobody could have hit his heat. He pitched in a couple of games and did OK.

Anyway, we won the first game of the playoffs, with Larry pitching. I don’t remember the details of that game. I do remember the second.

Coach Chavis decided to start Clint pitching. We were home team so Garber’s batted first. Clint didn’t have any control that day and walked the first four or five batters. Mr. Chavis eventually pulled him and put me in.

Now in those days Little League was a big deal, and there were a couple of hundred people at the game, all around the field, even up in the trees past the outfield.

Well, they ended up scoring five runs in the bottom of the first. It was kind of deflating to say the least. Then we came up to bat.

They were pitching George Lee that day. George was a big guy, and a lefty. I was not a really great hitter and had spent half the season in a slump, but I had been hitting well the last five or six games, and for some reason I could see George’s pitches better than I could see most.

I batted fifth. When I came up to bat the bases were loaded and there was one out. I dug in and really wanted to get a hit or a walk. Now, it is pertinent to this story to know that at no time in my life, in practice, in a game, hitting around for fun, whatever, at no time had I ever hit any ball over the fence. Ever. I could throw it over the fence but I couldn’t hit it over the fence! I was a singles hitter and a really good base runner and loved to steal. But I had no power.

So I came up. I suspect George was glad to see me and not Larry or any of three or four other of our other batters right then with the bases loaded. "Easy out” I heard from their dugout. I can’t remember the count for sure, maybe 2-1. George had a big looping windup. In came the ball. Now the ball just seemed big to me that day. I swung hard and I hit it hard, but definitely got under the ball too much. From the feel of the ball off the wooden bat, it seemed like a high pop fly to me, so my first reaction was frustration. Still, I was well coached and started running. That ball went as high as any ball I had ever hit and it just seemed to drift deeper and deeper into left center. The left fielder and right fielder were converging on the ball as I was rounding first. Even in these short periods of time a lot of things happen. I could hear my mother screaming “go ball go” and other people yelling at the ball. Both of their outfielders had reached the fence and were reaching out with their gloves for the ball when it fell just out of their reach, over the fence.

I had hit a home run! No, a grand slam! I will never ever forget the feeling of running those bases. Fans of our team were screaming and my mom was going nuts. I was smiling ear to ear. I touched home plate and got the congrats of all my teammates, and when I went into the dugout Mr. Chavis kissed me right on the cheek. He was so happy, not just for me, but also because he wanted to win the game. We all did.

We scored nine runs that inning and won the game like 29 to 9 or something outrageous like that. I went 3 for 5, had a grand slam, and was the winning pitcher. It was my best sports moment ever. I close my eyes and I can still hear the noise and see the ball dropping over the fence.

My dad was a nut. He knew pretty much all the families and kids, and at one point one of their batters, Cam Creps, was in the on deck circle and he and my dad were talking trash to each other. Cam said he bet he would hit a home run. My dad never saw a bet he didn’t want to make, so right on the spot he bet Cam five dollars that he would not hit a homerun. Cam was pretty motivated. He hit the first pitch over the fence! Thanks Dad!

It was a great day.

Ahhhhh - Looking Glass Falls Frozen Over

It's a beautiful summer day today but I still have winter on my mind. It's hard to imagine Looking Glass Falls this frozen, but that was one cold week back in January 1977.

Custom Cleaners Spring 1970 Columbia SC

This picture is of my little league team Custom Cleaners spring 1970. That's me top row 3rd from left - League Champs of Satchel Ford Little League 1970. Head Coach Mr. Chavis, top right. Asst. Mr. coach Mr. Allday top left.The guy in the middle is Clint Freeman. He was a stud and played catcher. To the right of him is Larry Chavis, one of the best athletes you could ever see, and league MVP. Larry and I pitched mostly, and when he pitched I played shortstop. Greg Allday is in front of Larry Chavis, third from right kneeling. Bob Dreher is in front of Mr. Allday, and Tom Lancaster third from left kneeling. Debbie Carawan was the bat girl. Mr. Chavis was a great coach, a great mentor, and a fine man.

I wrote a story about our very last game as a team on my site www.mylifemyjourney.org today. OK, it's mostly about my grand slam!

Looking Down from Shining Rock

I've been thinking of winter this week. Ahh, even the thought of a cold day is refreshing! Rummaging through some old pictures this one jumped out. Taken from Shining Rock in western NC. So who is up for a winter backpack in Shining Rock, say in January? We could have a "meet up" at the peak!

From my Flickr photostream.

Two Computer Questions Regarding Windows and Explorer

Hi everyone. I have a friend who has two Microsoft Windows problems, and I was wondering if anyone might have any suggestions, other than buy a Mac, since he can't do that :-). I am helping him which is really a scary thought.

Internet Explorer locks up within a minute of being opened. I have installed Firefox for him and imported all his Explorer settings and bookmarks and such so he has that to use. He had "upgraded" to Internet Explorer 7. We uninstalled Explorer 7 leaving him with Explorer 6, but the problem persisted. We also installed XP Service Pack 3 but that didn't help, and we ended up uninstalling it. Is it possible to remove Internet Explorer altogether and reinstall it from a Windows disk or a download? I just don't know at what level Windows and Explorer are integrated and if you can really "get rid of" Explorer.

Also, the "Help and Support Center" won't open. Click on it and the hour glass hovers for a second or two and then disappears. Some of the ideas I found online call for deep edits of the registry files, and I am hesitant to try that for him.

I have a suspicion that the problems are related but I may be wrong.

Is it possible to reinstall Windows XP SP2 on top of a preexisting Windows SP2, sort of like you might do in an upgrade?

I know, in a perfect world we would all have Macs.

Joel

Downtown Clemson, Fall 1977 - Name that Car

Far left side, parked:
4th car from bottom: MGB
8th car from bottom: Volkswagen Beetle

Far right side, parked:
2nd car from bottom: Opel GT

Left side driving:
1st car from bottom, driving toward me: - Ford Pinto

Check out more of my old black and white shots.

George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Franklyn Ajaye at Clemson

In the fall of 1977 I took a bunch of B&W pictures of downtown Clemson. I wrote an article to go with the pictures. The article and pictures appeared in the 1978 TAPS, the Clemson yearbook. These pictures, which I took, were scanned from the 1978 TAPS, loaned to me by a friend.

I don't remember "Car Wash." Was it a good movie?

See more pictures of Clemson, 1977, on my Flickr Site.

Great Site - SC1way.net

I would love to be apart of a site like this - it's very cool. Maybe a NC branch?

Click on the link below for a story about SC blue granite and scroll down to the bottom. You never know when someone will find your work. This makes me happy.

http://www.sciway.net/facts/sc-state-stone-blue-granite.html

Joel

SC Summers Past

Kids from our 500 mile bicycle tour of SC, May 1977, somewhere in the coastal plane of SC between Columbia and Charleston. We rode by these guys and they were very curious and ran out to the road to talk to us, so we stopped to hang out for a while. They were great. We rode around in the wagon and generally horsed around for an hour so, and then had to move on. I often think of these guys and wondered what came of them. I love South Carolina! For more pictures of my homeland, look at my South Carolina set on Flickr.

Jews Invade GSO

I was scanning we101 to see what I'd missed the last few days when I came across this blog title, "Christians Invade GBO." Fec's a funny guy, so I read it. He makes me laugh even when he is very nasty. I even thought his comments on the Christian tour bus were funny:

"I spent the afternoon doing chores so boring as to be indescribable. My diabetes meds and lack of food gave me the shakes, so I ran over to McDonald’s on HP Road for a burger. As I arrived in the drive-thru lane, I noticed two large Christian Tour buses in the parking lot. The sadly dressed occupants were wandering around like rejects from a bad George Romero movie. Actually, I’m not aware of any good Romero movies, but that’s not the point. The good people of GSO should not have to put up with such people in our public places. Don’t they have churches or something for these extremely stupid and unattractive people, except for one scrumptious thing who is, undoubtedly, on her last Christian Tour? I was not aware the McD’s on HP Road was a shrine. They almost ruined my appetite."

Now it's no skin of my nose really, but I did wonder....suppose we substituted "Jews" for "Christians" in the post. I have no doubt that Jewish people do bus tours too. They probably even stop to eat, well, somewhere.

Imagine reading:

"Don’t they have synagogues or something for these extremely stupid and unattractive people, except for one scrumptious thing who is, undoubtedly, on her last Jewish Tour? I was not aware the McD’s on HP Road was a shrine. They almost ruined my appetite."

My guess is if I wrote an article entitled "Jews Invade Greensboro" I'd be roundly condemned. I would called hateful and many other awful things.

But Fec didn't get of that. So why not?

These double standards reveal much about us. And they should bother all of us.

The Past Becomes the Present

I received an e-mail from someone who linked to this long chain over at Word Up. I wish I hadn't clicked on the link, but I did. It was oh so edifying and helpful.

As I read through the chain I kept having these memories, hazy, like in a dream. Images came and went through my mind too fast for me to identify them. I couldn't figure it out.

Then I remembered....



But I wonder, which name in the thread goes with which face in the picture?

Cycling South Carolina

This is a picture of my old Sekine bicycle against a tree near Clemson 1976. I loved taking off on my bike while in college and exploring the old highways and byways of upstate NW South Carolina.Check out of black and white Flickr set.

Wall-E

I saw Wall-E with my good friend Kyle Suggs last evening. I'll have more to say later about the movie but suffice it to say for now that this is a great flick. Pixar should be very proud. Unbelievable animation. Great story. Many clever nods to movies past. It's even thought provoking. If you have not seen it you should check it out. I'm already thinking about when I can see it again.

Hanging Out at Hanging Rock

Back on the last Sunday in May some folks from our church drove up to Hanging Rock State Park. We took "the long way" up to Hanging Rock proper, via Wolfe's Rock. Several of us were looking back on the trail which had taken us to the top when Mike Ehrhardt snapped this picture. That's me pointing! It's great to have such a beautiful place so close. Hopefully this July 4 weekend we'll hike up to Moore's Knob. If you've never been you should. Moore's Knob has perhaps the most impressive 360 degree view in the entire Piedmont Region of the United States. You can find more picture from that hike on my Flickr site.

Bad Rhino

I love the Rhino Times generally, but their annual educational salary listing always aggravates me.

One mistake was made regarding the highest paid teacher who is not a coach or AD. The article says:

"The highest paid teacher who is not an athletic director or ROTC instructor is Ann McCary, a teacher of exceptional preschool children, who is paid $72,000. There are 15 other teachers who make over $70,000 a year."

Actually, according to the listing itself, the highest paid teacher who is not an AD makes $73, 120. This teacher happens to be a good friend of mine. She has 35 years of educational experience, a doctorate, and National Board Certification. I personally think that it is a travesty that the highest paid teacher in a large county-wide district of this size (and with such qualifications) only makes $73, 000. That's a pity. What does that say about the rest of the teacher salaries.

I think is tacky for the Rhino Times to publish this list in the first place. Yes, it is public information, but publishing the list has a voyeuristic feel to it, and I can't see how it promotes anything good. It is well to remember also that these salaries are all set my strict salary schedules. You can find those schedules on the Guilford County Schools site. Check out the salaries at the lower end. That's the real story.

Just keep in mind what kind of salaries await college graduates in any number of other fields and you will understand why it is hard to attract and maintain quality teachers.

Mr. Hammer repeats the mantra about Christmas and Easter breaks, and about that two month period of time in the summer that teachers are supposedly more or less on vacation. Believe me, that two month break is a double edged sword. When I taught school I had to work every summer to make needs meet, and finding that work was always a challenge in itself. Mr. Hammer concedes that such a break may be worthwhile to mitigate against burn out. yeah, you think?

Few people who have not done classroom teaching have any idea how draining it is, and more and more with all the discipline issues and stupid stuff coming down from on high.

The article also says the following:

"Also missing from the list is last year's highest paid principal, Valerie Collins, who was at Brown Summit Middle School last year and working on her doctorate. She was making $140,000 last year and is not on the list this year. "

Well, there is a good reason that Ms. Collins is no longer on the list. She had a sudden heart attack this spring and died.

I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Collins this year and seeing her navigate her way through a very tricky situation. She was a delightful person and a fair minded and conscientious administrator of a coveted program at Browns Summit Middle School (which my daughter will be attending in the fall).

I think that saying what was said about her was the height of bad taste. No doubt the Rhino didn't know. But, since the point of the story was the "new" people at the top of the list, one would think the reporter would have wondered what happened to those folks no longer there. I hope there will be a front page apology to the family.

Personal Note: I like the Rhino Times and agree with John Hammer on many more issues than not, and I think he is a great guy. I applaud his devotion to this city, and the great success of the Rhino Times which I read every week. Thus I hate getting on his case about this issue each year; but I wish he would stop doing this to our teachers.

Looking Harder at the Second Amendment

I have always felt like I was in a no man’s land on the issue of the right to gun ownership.

From a practical life standpoint I think that disarming the law-abiding citizens while keeping the criminals armed (defacto) is sheer insanity. I would like every criminal who thinks of pulling out a gun to worry that he might get killed - immediately. I have encouraged all my daughters to pursue getting concealed weapons permits as soon as they are old enough (though I don't own and have never owned a gun).

I have always thought that there OUGHT to be a right to private gun ownership for hunting (I am not a hunter myself) and for reasons of legitimate self protection. But I have never been able to read this right into the second amendment.

I have always had the notion that the right to own guns and knives and such was merely assumed by the framers. It seems assumed by the second amendment itself, unless we imagine all these unarmed people showing up for militia duty asking "hey, anybody got a gun?"

I doubt any of the states except maybe Rhode Island would have ratified the Constitution if they had thought there was any doubt about the right to personal or private gun ownership. Again, I think the right was simply assumed.

But I have always thought that that assumption (sadly) didn't make it into the wording of the second amendment.

Anti gun ownership folks look hard at the second amendment to find the right of private/personal gun ownership. They don’t see it.

Pro gun ownership folks look hard at the second amendment to find the right of private/personal gun ownership. They seem to see it clearly.

As for me, I am generally supportive of the idea that individuals ought to be able to own guns, yet I simply have not understood how that right can be read out of the second amendment.

And so, I look forward to reading carefully the majority and minority opinions in the recent ruling on Washington DC’s restrictive gun laws. If Scalia has made a compelling argument, I will be glad.

Thanks to Bubba for posting the link.

Cat Napping

Yes, both Curduroy and I were fast asleep. Picture taken by Anna Gillespie, shown HERE with her sister Heather (Anna on right).

Iris Dement at Cat's Cradle June 28 - A Short Review and Set List

My daughter Heather and I enjoyed a Saturday evening Iris Dement concert at Cat’s Cradle in Chapel Hill/Carrboro NC. Cat’s Cradle is a good venue for Iris and her music – very intimate and good sound quality. It was jam packed.

Compared to when Heather and I saw her two years ago, Iris seemed more confident, more relaxed, and less fragile (though that fragility added something special to the show two years ago). She did not play as many of her older songs this time. During the show she said she was losing her voice but I thought her voice was better than two years ago, plus I thought it got better as the show went on. She seemed to really be putting herself into the singing, the phrasing and such. I'll go see her any time she is close.

Unlike last time, she did not play solo. Two gentlemen from John Prine’s band, Dave Jacques on bass, and Jason Wilbur on guitar, played with her. She seemed to enjoy the company on stage and it made her songs sound a bit more like they sound in the recordings. These guys are first class and Iris deemed to feed off their talent and energy. She talked less and laughed more compared to last time.

Dave Jaques opened the show with a set of about half a dozen songs, mostly original. I really liked him. The line was too long at the show to get a CD but I plan to soon.

I have two wishes: it seems that Iris has enough new original songs for another CD of her original music. Plus, since I got to hear her cover more songs this time including Merle Haggard (three songs), Tom T. Hall, Hank Williams, Doc Watson, and Greg Brown). I'd love her to do a record just covering other people's songs. It doesn't matter who wrote it, when she sings it it feels like an Iris Dement song!

Here is the set list, as best as I can put it together. I am a little uncertain of the titles of a couple of the songs. Iris Dement fans tend to just call her “Iris” so I’ll do the same – but it’s not like I know her!

Oh, I mention whether she played guitar or piano. Her piano playing was way stronger than last time. I love her unique honky-tonk/gospel “Iris” style. It makes me want to play more.

1. Jambalaya (On the Bayou) - (Hank Williams) - guitar
2. The Old Gospel Ship – guitar
3. I Washed My Face in The Morning Dew (Tom T Hall) - guitar
4. The Way I Should - guitar
5. Let the Mystery Be - guitar
6. He Reached Down - piano
7. Legle's Hill - piano
8. Going Away Party (Merle Haggard –Iris mentioned Cindy Walker) - piano
9. When My Morning Comes Around - piano
10. Living on the Inside - piano
11. Pray (Merle Haggard) - piano
12. Mama's Truth - piano
13. This Love's Gonna Last - guitar
14. Our Town - guitar
15. The Night I Learned How Not to Pray - guitar
16. Cheapest Kind (Greg Brown, her husband) – guitar
17. Whole Lot of Heaven - fantastic Iris song I had not heard before - guitar

18. Mama Tried (Merle Haggard) - guitar
19. Sunny Side of Life (Doc Watson) – guitar

If you are not familiar with Iris Dement there are some good clips of her on You Tube. Try these:

Sweet is the Melody
My Life
Our Town - with Emmylou Harris
In Spite of Ourselves - with John Prine
He Reached Down - with Joan Osborne (not You Tube)


You can listen to some Jason Wilbur songs on his MySpace site - I really liked Lazy Afternoon.

I Was Enjoying My Nap

Corduroy, on Madeline's Bed. You are invited to peruse the Flickr Photostream of joelgillespie1957.

Boots - Those Eyes!

Yes, her eyes are that color! Check out my set of Cat Pictures!

O for 3 on Supreme Court Rulings - Exxon Valdez, Gun Laws, and Capital Punishment

The Supreme Court has me befuddled. On principle I am 0 for 3 on the three big cases the last two days, 1 for 3 on desired outcome.

1. On the Exxon Valdez case, it just seems arbitrary that the US Supreme Court would get involved and decide he amount of a punitive damage award. Besides, that was an enormous environmental disaster, not to mention the losses suffered by fishing and tourism. And how is Exxon NOT liable for their employee's actions, even if those actions are contrary to Exxon policy? AND, it's not like Exxon can't afford it.

2. On the Louisiana capital punishment case, if the court is not ruling that capital punishment per se is cruel and unusual punishment, then how is it even their place to decide as to whether a particular crime is a capital crime? I don't get that. Such a decision belongs with the legislative branch.

Child rape ought to be a capital crime if you ask me.

3. On the Washington DC gun laws, well, I agree with others that there ought to be a right of gun ownership and I support concealed weapons laws, though I think we need to be sensible about background checks and waiting periods and such. But for the life of me I have never been able to find the right for individuals to bear arms in the second amendment. I'm glad the DC law was struck down, and so maybe the second amendment came in handy in so doing, but that's not why the bill of rights is there, to come in handy I mean.

Well, that's just me.

ARP Synod Affirms Inerrancy

I did not attend our denomination's "General Synod" this year. I missed some good fun apparently.

I am NOT a denominationally minded person, but neither am I a fan of church independency, in that I think we all need accountability to others. And, though I treasure our theological standards, I also seem to have a personal calling in this secular pluralistic culture to promote what some have called an "ecuminicism of orthodoxy" (ecuminicism within the boundaries of the historic orthodox creeds such as the Apostles' Creed). But my personal views are consistent enough with Reformed Theology and Presbyterianism for them to agree to have ordained me. So they did.

When I was ordained into the Associate Reformed Presbyterian denomination in 1989 I was dismayed to find a abundance of neo-Barthianism (look it up) and in some cases even old fashioned theological liberalism. Apparently the ARP denomination had been flirting with another "ism" that I will call "mainline-ism" for some time.

But things have changed greatly since then. Mainline-ism has been trounced. Neither a theological neo-Barthian or theological liberal (which actually means something in particular as compared to the mudslinging use of the word politically) could be ordained now. I am glad for that and for the theological swing toward a more conservative historic Christian orthodoxy position.

Somewhere along the line, and I do not know the history well, compromises were struck, words were carefully chosen, and the word "inerrant" never found its way into to our standards. Rather, the Bible was said to be "infallible" which in the history of theology means something slightly different.

Yet, it has been quite clear for some time that most of the pastors and elders held to a doctrine of "inerrancy." So, for some reason this matter came up in this year's Synod meeting.

Someone put forth the following motion: That the 2008 General Synod go on record by stating that the position of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church on Scripture is that the Bible alone, being God-breathed, is the Word of God written, infallible in all that it teaches, and inerrant in the original manuscripts.

Though some (sadly) opposed it, it passed overwhelmingly. So, what to do with it?

Another person put forth the following up motion: That the position statement adopted by the 2008 General Synod on the Bible be forwarded to Synod’s Committee to revise the Form of Government and that this statement be included in the vows of ministers and elders at the appropriate places.

I am very happy about that motion.

Finally yet another person saw a second place of needful application and put forth the following motion which also passed: In the Manual of Authorities and Duties, p. 9, the definition of an evangelical, item 1, regarding the Bible, reads, “The Bible to be the inspired, the infallible authoritative Word God.” I move that the position statement adopted by the 2008 General Synod on the Bible replace that statement.

So, while many Christian institutions continue to make hard turns to the left, theologically speaking, our Synod is standing firm regarding the unique and special authority of the Scriptures. I doubt this matter will interest many Greensboro bloggers, and it certainly may dismay others, but I am glad for it myself.

AVG Eight Ate My RAM

A while back I got frustrated at how slow Norton's anti-virus programs made my system, so I dumped them for the free and nimble AVG. My computers sped up remarkably as I multi tasked, often with several big programs going at once. Recently AVG has been "nagging" me about upgrading to version 8 from 7.5. So I finally did the upgrade. Still free, but my computer slowed to a crawl. I looked in the processes running and saw that AVG was using some 80M of RAM. But certainly the problem was more than that - there must have been some new feature that was gumming up the works. I fiddled with it but couldn't fix it. So I uninstalled it and reinstalled version 7.5. My machine responded with much greater speed. I did my control/alt/delete to call up the task manager and looked at the running processes and AVG 7.5 isn't even in the top five of my currently running programs in terms of resources used. I wonder if a anyone else has had any troubles with AVG 8.

Does Anyone Know Where This Is?

Today, June 26, is the 19 year anniversary of my father's death at age 59, in 1989, just before we moved here. So I've been thinking about him a lot today as I always do on this date. This is a picture of my grandmother Mary Sue Gillespie (Nanny), my grandfather, Curtis Claunch Gillespie (known in the extended family as "Brother"), and my dad, Curtis Claunch Gillespie, Jr (known in the extended family as "Sonny" and to me as "Daddy." This was one of my attempts at scanning (before I really knew what I was doing), and of a tiny little print, and it is much pixilated (sorry), but still the picture has a certain charm. I wish I knew where this was taken. Does anybody know? Dad moved from Tampa Florida to Columbia SC when he was 13. By the looks of it he was younger than that in this photo. My guess is that this was taken in the late 1930's or very early 1940's. My grandfather had family in Kentucky and had worked for some time in Chattanooga. He and my grandmother also lived for a while in Greenville SC.

There is this mystery about your parents' childhoods and upbringing. You want to understand and know them, then, but it is so hard. It always seems just out of reach.

I have Iris Dement's "My Life" playing in the background. Looking forward to seeing her Saturday at Cat's Cradle. There is a song on the CD called "No Time to Cry." She is reflecting on her own father's death, and then on how little able she is to grieve given how busy she was and is.

My dad died suddenly and unexpectedly on June 26 and I had to move and report to my new job here on July 1. I have always wondered how much the lack of time to grieve impacted me. It really kind of sucked.

Here is the chorus - not a real pick-me-upper - but it kind of resonates with how I feel about my dad's passing.

I've got no time to look back, I've got no time to see,
The pieces of my heart that have been ripped away from me.
And if the feeling starts to coming, I've learned to stop 'em fast.
`Cause I don't know, if I let 'em go, they might not wanna pass.
And there's just so many people trying to get me on the phone.
And there's bills to pay, and songs to play,
And a house to make a home.
I guess I'm older now and I've got no time to cry.

L'Abri, The Manor House, Greatham England, in Fog, 1978

I spent three months at English L'Abri in Greatham England in 1978. It was a very important part of my spiritual journey, and I was baptized there. Here are some pictures of some of the people, and of some of the things we did. I was twenty. You can learn about L'Abri England, and elsewhere, here.