Photo of the Day - November 27, 2007 - Alleyway Mural, S. Elm

One of the many pleasures of hanging around downtown are the many and various murals. Hope to document them all eventually.

Photo of the Day - November 26, 2007 - Poor Little Butterfly

See my other pictures on Flickr here.

Photo of the Day - November 21, 2007 - Downtown

The JP Building reflected off First Citizens. I like the abstract effect.

View my Flickr photostream here.

By Design, Not Default

My good friend Mack Arrington has started a new blog called By Design, Not Default. Check it out. He is new to Blogger and to blogging.

Strange Goings On

Odd things are happening at our house as we approach the holidays.

photo of the Day - November 12, 2007 - Ponte Vecchio

Ponte Vecchio, Florence Italy, late March 1978. The most wonderful, beautiful, fascinating, romantic, historic, interesting bridge I have ever seen or walked upon. I LOVED Florence! See some more pictures of Europe here.

Ohoto of the Day - November 10, 2007 - Blood Orange

This picture was taken while sitting atop the Leaning Tower of Pisa in late March, 1978. My fondest memory of that time was singing our own version of "Favorite Things," being able to laugh at our many travel woes, and remember the good times.

Check Out my Flickr Photostream here.

Photo of the Day - November 9, 2007 - Anna Running

This was taken at the very beginning of the 4A regional Cross Country meet at Tanglewood on October 28. This was first attempt at a pan type shot with my new camera lens. Northwest girls won the meet. The girl in blue went on to win State the next week. She is an amazing athlete. But in the regionals she came in second to another runner. Anna came in fifth.

Photo of the Day - November 8, 2007 - Pooped

In May 1976 Bill, Beau, David, and I set out on what would be a 600 mile bike ride around the state of South Carolina, starting from Clemson where we all attended school. This picture was taken on the second day, on the ride from Ninety Six SC to Columbia SC. There were a lot of hills between Ninety Six and Batesburg where this photo was taken, and we were pooped! Our travels took us from Clemson through Anderson to Ninety Six, from Ninety Six to Columbia, from Columbia to John's Island, then a day riding around the Charleston area (and over and back on the old Cooper River Bridge - in traffic!), then from John's Island to Beaufort (pronounced Byoofirt, the "beau" as in "beautiful")), from Beaufort to Hilton Head, from Hilton Head to Savannah, and then from Savannah back up to Columbia. On the ride back to Columbia we wimped out and hitched a ride in a pick up for about half the 130 mile distance! Sissies.

Check out my Flickr photostream here.

I Agree With Obama

I think Obama is right.

Prayer for the City

Last night in a prayer group that I am a part of we spent a fair bit of time in prayer for the new city council and mayor. (I joked before we prayed that only one person I voted for actually won!) Anyway we prayed in particular for Mayor Yvonne Johnson, that she would be an instrument of unity and peace for the council and for the city. We prayed that despite party affiliations or philosophical differences about government that the new council would unite around the key matters that face our city, and that God would lead the council to know and agree upon what those most important issues were. We prayed for God's hand of protection against the ever present temptations that come with power. We prayed for a new spirit of cooperation and openness between the council and the press and the citizenry in general. We prayed for a new era of humble mutually deferential servant leadership. We prayed for the walls of division that plague our city to be torn down. We prayed for the good of the city.

On a personal note, politically speaking, if we were to sit and compare notes, I would imagine that I am more of a social and fiscal conservative than Yvonne Johnson. Like, duh. I have never met her, but through seeing her and reading about her through the various media I have always liked her. I hope and pray that her own expressed goals of developing consensus around key issues will come to fruition. I think she is a good person for the job (even though I voted for Billy - here's to ya big guy!) and I have high hopes for a new period of life in a new city council.

Almost Heaven, Downtown Greensb'ro

OK, I am more or less settled in to my new office, and I have to make a public confession - I LOVE IT DOWNTOWN!

I have lived here in Greensboro for 18 years and frankly it has never felt like home for me. It's my kids' home, but not mine. I live here, I want the good of this city, but it's not MY city.

Every time I hear the train whistle as it crosses S. Elm (and what's with that little spur up to the New and Record - that's kind of cute. I can see that train right out my window. The other I have to open the fire escape door to see)., every time I look out my window at the cranes over the Old Wachovia Building, and every time I go out the front door onto the street, well, it feels like home. For the first time really. And that's kind of cool. I hope soon to stat posting pictures of downtown. And maybe David Wharton could give me an architectural tour!

I would move down here in a New York minute.

Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city,
Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty
How can you lose? The lights are much brighter there...
You can forget all your troubles; forget all your cares, and go
Downtown -- things will be great when you're
Downtown -- you'll find a place for sure
Downtown -- everything's waiting for you

Tony Hatch 1964
Sung by Petula Clark

What About Bob

My friend Bob Knorpp has a blog called Practically Drowning, and just wrote a great piece on the Hollywood writer's strike. It is a call to alternative ways of creative expression, including podcasting.

Photo of the Day - Friday October 26, 2007 - Young Maple

Was just thinking about Spring for some reason. This is a Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum), taken April 1, 2007.

See Flickr Photostream

Photo of the Day - Thursday October 25, 2007 - Steps out of Fisher Park East

Check out my Flickr photostream here.

Photo of the Day - Wednesday October 24, 2007 - Cross Country at Hagen Stone

My ten year old daughter Madeline took this picture with my little Canon A85 digital. I think it's a great shot - has a Chariots of Fire thing about it. Taken at Hagen Stone Park, Guilford County, NC. That's our Anna in the front of the pack! She went on to win in a somewhat slowly paced race. Next week...Regionals...

Catch my Flickr photostream here.

Who(m) Should I Vote For?

I’ve been thinking about the various blog posts a few weeks back after the rather low turn out for the primary election, as well as trying to figure out where I am coming from as far as local politics and the upcoming elections.

Local elections seem always to have a relatively lower turn out. I think voters think that generally local politics don’t impact their lives as much. I also think that things are pretty good here overall, because of or in spite of local politics I don't know, and that is a voting disincentive.

I think that there also may be a sense, here and elsewhere, that the real players in local politics are not even the elected officials. Here in Guilford County it seems that the two most powerful people are employees – Terry Grier and Mitch Johnson. And of course there are the moneyed people putting together the deals in the back rooms as with everywhere else. Our mayor isn’t even a real mayor; he’s more of a figurehead. Maybe Billy would shake things up a little, even as a figurehead. At least he’d always have the “Billy Pulpit!”

For myself, there has been a sense of growing cynicism over the years. I have found our local governments to be rather childish generally, and dominated by special interests, including developers on the one hand and the Skip Alston crowd on the other. I have a friend who refers to the council members as real estate whores. You might find that sort of thing said in the prophetic books of the Bible – maybe there is something to it.

It seems we’re paralyzed by the politics of race and the politics of development.

I wish real estate folks and developers should recuse themselves from many of our important votes.

But look at the present slate, it is filled with developers and real estate people. Are these the only folks with enough time and money to serve on our councils, or do they have secret back room meetings where they choose who will run to represent their collective interests each election cycle?

All that being said, I think the city and county have done well regarding downtown and regarding recent corporate decisions, especially out at the airport with Honda and now Skybus. I wonder if those things would have happened without the infrastructure created by the Fed Ex project.

There are two or three issues that dominate my concerns looking ahead at the new election.

First, I want to see real transparency in local government. I am tired of the childish hide and seek games. If the city council had released information in a timely manner we may have come closer to resolving the whole Wray affair; or we would have already long concluded that we couldn’t resolve it. I think all of the incumbents should be kicked out.

Second, I want to see our county develop in a planned and orderly and environmentally friendly manner. Who amongst all of our developer politicians is going to allow that? I’ve seen some good signs from Joe Wilson, but otherwise I think sprawl and all the problems that go with it will continue until we have folks looking after the interest of the whole and not the interest of the most recent development project.

Third, I want to see our gang problem addressed. Public safety and security is the primary purpose of government, and we are dropping the ball. Unfortunately I don’t really trust the city to properly allocate money given for police to help with gangs, and anti gang units are known for corruption. It’s a nasty business.

Fourth, I want to see us address the problem of both the chronically and acutely homeless. They can’t panhandle, and now they can’t loiter. I mean, what are they supposed to do, walk in circles all day? Seems we need 2 or 3 more shelters with options for longer stays, group homes, easier access to subsidized medical care, including mental health care, employment assistance, and the option of being committed somewhere if their human life is at stake.

Fifth, I think way too much money is going into brick and mortar for schools, and way too little money for teachers. There is not a brand spanking new building in the world that can compete with well paid highly qualified teachers in terms of educational quality. Less money for superintendents of various kinds, less money for buildings, and more money for teachers. We need to incentivize our best college students into teaching.

Sixth, I would like to see the city "just say no" to annexation against the will of the annexed. I know the state allows for this, but it strikes me as so fundamentally undemocratic that I think we should decline the privilege.

Seventh, I personally would like to see more school choice, especially vouchers for those in the least well performing schools, and if not vouchers more magnet and charter schools.

Eighth, though as a white person I doubt I will ever adequately appreciate the damage done to communities, families, and individuals over time by slavery, Jim Crow laws, and general racism, I would like to see us looking to the future together and not the past. I’m tired of the race card being always held in the hand, ready to pull out. I think it results in dumb decisions being made out of fear.

Ninth, is the Heart of the Triad really ever going to be something? I am not sure that Triad regionalism is the right way to go. I think a Metro Guilford approach is smarter, taking advantage of the real population and transportation patterns that we have already.

Tenth and finally, and this is like, duh, of course I would go for this, but I’d like to see a tree ordinance. Developer scare tactics about how this will suddenly make housing unaffordable are just that – scare tactics. There is a significant economic, aesthetic, environmental, and quality of life downside to the loss of our tree canopy. I think I heard Joe Wilson address this too. What, a real estate person with a heart for trees? Ah, life can be good.

Well, maybe you can remind me of the ten things I haven’t thought about. I always leave out something in any top ten, as when I left David Gilmour off my list of top ten favorite guitar players. What an idiot!

Please also tell me who you think I should vote for, given 1 through 10 above.

Photo of the Day - Tuesday October 23, 2007 - Protect Haw River State Park

Madeline and I saw this on Church Street just south and across the street from the pedestrian bridge connecting Fisher Park and Aycock neighborhoods. I think it is the coolest Haw River Park sign I have seen yet!

For my Flickr photostream, look here.

Picture of the Day - Monday October 22, 2007 - Leaf and Stream, Fisher Park

Sunday afternoon my daughter Madeline spent an hour walking around Fisher Park taking pictures. She loved walking in the creek - I hope the water is OK there. We have a lot of pictures - the beauty of digital cameras! Fisher Park remains my favorite park in town. Can you name the group that had a song "Leaf and Stream" without looking it up. It's on an album in my top ten favorites of all time, but it's a little obscure. The leaf is from a Tulip Poplar. There is some scummy stuff on the water's surface that looks like dust on the camera lens - it isn't. The water wasn't exactly flowing hard!

Evolution and Racial Variety

There is an interesting article in The Independent today regarding comments by the famous Dr. Watson (of Watson and Crick fame) regarding differences in intelligence between African and other peoples.

I am not writing to defend his conclusions, and I doubt them to be true. I am writing to illustrate the intellectual pickle in which proponents of evolutionary theory find themselves.

Dr. Watson writes:

"There is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically. Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so."

He is exactly correct, and this is indeed the huge elephant in the evolutionary room that no one seems capable of addressing. If we embrace the evolutionary origins of human beings, we are left having to conclude exactly the principle Dr. Watson concludes. We cannot have our evolutionary cake and eat it too. It is absolutely possible, given the assumptions of evolutionary theory, that such intellectual or other variations could exist across the diverse variety within our human species, much as they exist across other species. And to say so does not make Dr. Watson or anyone else a racist. In fact, to embrace evolutionary theory regarding human origins you pretty much HAVE to agree with the principle stated above, or you are letting your personal moral or political sensitivities override the principles of the science you embrace. And you are revealing fundamental ignorance regarding evolutionary theory.

If scientific research proves that it isn’t in fact the case that such variations exist, it still does not undermine the possibility that such variations could exist. But the politically correct powers that be will destroy anybody whose science leads them to that conclusion.

As for me, I rest in the fact that all human beings of every race and gender were created in the image of God and find their fundamental equality in that reality.

Ultimately, given time, after the truth of God-given human equality has had opportunity to overcome sin-based prejudices (even amongst "Christian” peoples), this age old Judeo Christian view of human origins will provide the principles that will lead to policies of equality. On the other hand, if our politics find grounding in principles of evolutionary understandings of human origins (which must require or teach no principle of equality whatsoever), eventually some sort of race-based differential of policy will result. At the present moment, culture wide, our human equality assumptions are invalid to the extent that they are rooted in evolutionary principles.

There was another side item in the article on Dr. Watson. As the article said:

“In 1997, he told a British newspaper that a woman should have the right to abort her unborn child if tests could determine it would be homosexual."

I mean, the hypocrisy and inconsistency behind the objections to this comment are too numerous to mention. So, we can abort a healthy child for any reason, and that is not objectionable? We can abort a child because it is not of the preferred gender (and studies have shown conclusively that the vast majority of abortions done due to gender have resulted in the abortion of female babies) but not because of predicted or supposed sexual preference? We can abort children for being imperfectly formed? That is the most terrible reason of all.

So, predicted sexual preference above and beyond all others is the one reason we can’t abort a child. Talking about unusual and exceptional rights given to one sub group of the society. Wow. Now THAT’S discrimination!

By the way, I don’t think we should abort children for any of these reasons, because I believe that all children, whatever their race, gender or predicted sexual preference, are human beings made in the image of God.