Wednesday, July 08, 2009

A Perfect Prayer

My own "rule" of prayer has grown from the prayers provided in the Red Prayer Book published by the Antiochian Archdiocese. Since these prayers can get a bit lengthy as a group event (especially if one of your group is a two-year-old), we typically just say the Trisagion and Lord's Prayer with Noah on the way to school and before bed.

After Pascha, we added the Paschal Troparia to our prayers (with Noah enthusiastically singing along). More recently we've added "Jesus Loves Me." Noah asks to sing these songs as "Trampling" and "Jesus."

The most recent addition to our family "rule" has been the addition of personal commemorations. This started, I feel certain, as a made up song while driving (probably home from church). Noah probably asked me to sing a song about mommy. I responded by singing "I love mommy" three times in the same way that we sing "Lord have mercy" in triplicate as a response in the litanies. At prayer time, this has evolved to be a series of short songs about everyone in our family, as well as their dogs, and sometimes Noah's shoes. It goes something like this:

Noah: Sing mommy

All: I love mommy, I love mommy, I love mommy

Noah: Sing daddy

All: I love daddy, I love daddy, I love daddy

Noah: Sing baby

All: I love Samuel, I love Samuel, I love Samuel

Noah continues racking his brain to remember all of his aunts and grandparents and our dogs. At times he pauses, obviously deep in thought, to try to remember who he has left out.

Noah: Sing Granddad

All: I love granddad...

After he can think of no one else, Noah smiles, very pleased. "Everybody," he exclaims.

All: I love everybody, I love everybody, I love everybody.

I can't think of a more perfect prayer. From the mouth of babes, indeed.

Pork Loin with Mint Cherry Reduction

Monday night we had Samuel's godparents over for dinner. I had planned to cook steak pinwheels (stuffed with Parmesan and spinach), but when I pulled the meat out of the refrigerator, it had turned a greenish-grey and smelled dead. This was at about 6:00 PM, and we were expecting our dinner guests any minute. I rushed off to HEB (where I had purchased our just-discarded dinner the previous Friday) to try to salvage dinner.



HEB didn't have any more steak pinwheels, so I opted for some fresh pork loin and hurried home. As I was throwing together some ensalata caprese as an appetizer and talking with our guests it occurred to me that my friend Lisa Moorman of A Cupcake in Paris would appreciate the story, so I broke out the camera and resolved to make a blog post out of dinner.

Roasted Pork Loin

6 fresh pork loin chops

Worcestershire sauce

sea salt

pepper

Mint Cherry Sauce


1 Can Bing Cherry pie filling

6-8 mint leaves, chopped

Preheat oven on the Low Broil setting. Lay your pork loin chops out in a roasting pan. Using a fork, pierce the chop all over to allow your salt, pepper, and Worcestershire to soak in. Grind generous amounts of sea salt and black pepper over your chops. Soak each chop in 1-2 Tbs of Worcestershire sauce. Place roasting pan on middle rack and broil approximately 20-25 minutes, or until a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees Fahrenheit for medium well chops.

Put cherries and mint into a small skillet. Cook on medium-high heat until juices boil. Using the back side of a spoon, smash cherries and stir. Continue to reduce cherries until the sauce doesn't run in when you stir through with your spoon.



I served my chops with a fresh herb salad tossed with halved cherry tomatoes and grated Parmesan cheese and a rice pilaf of white, brown and red Texmati rice with lentils. The meal paired nicely with the Savioun Rose de Anjou graciously provided by our guests.



How's that for "off-the-cuff"? Besides the pork loin, the rest of these ingredients were literally in the pantry. Necessity, again, proves to be a wonderful inspiration.

Samuel Isaac

Turns out that Baby K #2 is a boy as well! Samuel Isaac was born Wednesday, July 1. He was 20 inches long and 8 lbs 13 ozs at birth.

If you're paying attention to details, you'll notice that as I'm writing this, Samuel has turned one week old. His was an uncomplicated, if super quick, delivery. We were able to leave the hospital late last Thursday evening, so I didn't have much in the way of downtime at the hospital to blog. This is a good thing.

Adjusting to life with child number two is vastly different because there are already daily rhythms that need to remain as constant as possible (e.g. dropping off and picking up from school, dinner, bath & bedtime). Instead of us reshaping our world to the new child as we did with Noah, this is more of a collaborative effort. I expect that Samuel will learn to sleep in his own bed much earlier than did Noah.

I'm doing my level best to keep pictures updated on the Picasa site.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

"Western" Approaches to Eastern Christianity

Gordon Atkinson, aka Real Life Preacher, has become something of a celebrity in Texas Orthodox circles after having blogged about his first contact with the ancient Christian worship at St. Anthony the Great church in San Antonio, TX as part of his sabbatical leave from Covenant Baptist Church, also in San Antonio.

Reading Rev. Atkinson's description of his first visit, I was reminded of the statement of Prince Vladimir of Kiev's envoy, after visiting the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople in the late tenth century
We knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth, for surely there is no such splendor or beauty anywhere on earth. We cannot describe it to you; only this we know, that God dwells there among humans, and that their service surpasses the worship of all other places. For we cannot forget that beauty.


Seeing Orthodox worship new again through Rev. Atkinson's eyes, I was moved to tears at the overwhelming beauty of the Liturgy, as well as its strangeness to the western ear and eye. He did an outstanding job of relaying that sense of being part of something bigger than human scale, something that isn't necessarily easily comprehended by human intellect or senses, because its not intended or directed toward us.

Rev. Atkinson seems somewhat amazed at his reception and celebrity in Orthodox circles. Permitted to speculate, I think that he is seen as a convert on the brink. What we know that Rev. Atkinson might not yet understand is that once you start engaging the historic church, you either end up in an Apostolic communion, or leave Christianity altogether. We American Orthodox are particularly interested in high-profile stories of conversion because, like the consumer-driven lifestyles we lead outside of church, we are looking for celebrity endorsements of our own desires. (It's OK, go Google "Celebrity Orthodox Christians". I'll wait).

I was discussing this phenomenon with a friend several weeks ago, and we both felt that this trend was regrettable. To be clear, I'm always very happy when someone finds their way to the Orthodox church, but the emphasis on the high-profile convert seems antithetical to the conciliar heart of Orthodoxy. More to the point, the celebrity endorsement par excellence is the Pope. This economy of endorsement and reinforcement is Western in approach.

Finally, to get the point of this article (which ultimately has nothing to do with Rev. Atkinson, though he was a convenient vehicle to get to the point) is that I propose a different phraseology to delineate orthodox from non-orthodox thought. I fervently pray every day for the unification of Orthodox churches in America. I expect that this will ultimately result in an uniquely American expression of the Orthodox faith (as has been the case in Greece, Russia, Albania, Serbia, etc.). While an American church would encompass Canada and Latin America as well, certainly the United States will have a huge impact on that expression. I've long held that the U.S. is a system of government founded on economic freedom and entrepreneurship. Part of that entrepreneurship is adaptation and pastiche. U.S. culture is at its best when it has adapted and adopted beautiful cultural expression from elsewhere. I hope that an American Orthodoxy would do the same (as a very small example of this, my family has adopted the Serbian tradition of Slava to pay homage to a Christian heritage that was not Orthodox).

So, if there is to be an American Orthodoxy, it will be western, so "Western" is no longer as useful a term to denote something that is non-Orthodox. I would propose that most of what is antithetical to the Orthodox faith in western culture arises out of post-enlightenment thought, and so I'd suggest "Post-Enlightenment" as a useful substitute for "Western." Getting back to my example, a consumerist approach to celebrity "endorsement" of Orthodoxy is a post-enlightenment approach to faith. It begins in my presuppositional authority and looks for a faith that fits me, instead of my submission to objective Truth.

I'm guilty of this. My entree to Orthodoxy was Frank Schaeffer's Dancing Alone. I found it (and more importantly, read it) because Frank is Francis' son. I became intrigued by Orthodoxy because it satisfied my own longing for room in my faith tradition for the mystical. We American Orthodox, by and large, are protestant in the way that we approach the faith. We have an embarrassment of riches with respect to the number of parishes, and so we pick and choose (I like that priest, or I like the politics of this parish) where we will worship or even if we will worship (there isn't a church of my jurisdiction locally).

My hope and desire for Rev. Atkinson is that his struggles will pay dividends for his family and his church, and I hope that along the way, the blemishes of American Orthodoxy don't get in the way of simple Orthodoxy.

True to each other as Aggies can be...

I'm incredibly disappointed that the beef between Texas A&M President Elsa Murano and Texas A&M University System Chancellor Mike McKinney has resulted in Pres. Murano's resignation. Murano's announcement comes just one day before a special meeting of the TAMU Board of Regents called specifically to discuss the continued employment of executive-level leaders.

The scheduled meeting marked the first official action on the part of the board since McKinney started the public beef by making a statement to the press regarding his contemplation of combining his position with that of Pres. Murano's. A public records request by KBTX the following week revealed that McKinney had rated Murano poorly in an off-schedule review and that Murano took exception to the ratings and had rebutted them point-by-point, copying the entire board.

I must admit that when Murano was named to the presidency, I was incredibly skeptical of her qualifications. The presidential search committee--composed of current students, faculty, former students, community members, and members of the board--forwarded a list of three finalists in August 2007, none of whom were selected. The search committee was unceremoniously disbanded with no clear way forward.. In the background of this process, rumors surfaced that Governor Perry had hand-selected a candidate with ties to the military and his undergrad years. Of a sudden, in a hastily-called meeting in late November 2007, the Regents apparently decided to offer the job to Murano, a decision announced about a week later. Murano took office on January 3, 2008.

The university community was understandably guarded about Murano with her hire in this context. A number of personnel changes in upper-administration did nothing to ease concerns, and the unceremonious firing of Dr. Bresciani from the position of Vice-President for Student Affairs (where he was a much-loved fixture) and the selection of the arguably under-qualified Gen. Joe Weber painted Murano's decision-making in a poor light to many at the university.

Fast-forward to the controversy this month, and I have to say that despite my previous evaluation of Murano, she acquits herself well in her rebuttal of McKinney's review. I find that, though I've not agreed with all of her decisions, I think that A&M is better for her having been president (as opposed to, say, McKinney). Paul Burka at BurkaBlog speculates that Murano got in trouble by stepping out from beneath the Perry/McKinney thumb and poking into shady political dealings. I think that that makes the whole situation stink worst of all.

Updates Coming Soon!

Howdy! And Happy New Year (seeing as how this is my first post of 2009)!

So...here's a few quick updates:

Our Summer Honors Invitational Program (SHIP) is keeping me busy this summer, along with thirteen New Student Conferences for the largest freshman class in TAMU history.

Baby K #2's arrival is imminent. The due date is July 9, but Noah came at 37 weeks, which would be this coming Friday.

Also, this Friday is Ashley's and my tenth wedding anniversary. Happy Juneteenth! We've invited friends and family to join us in celebration as we (finally!) have our marriage blessed in the Orthodox church. If you missed it, here's the invite:


Those following Texas A&M in the news know that there is a lot of foolishness at the executive leadership level. Pres. Elsa Murano, the first woman and first Hispanic (Latina? What appellation do Cuban expats prefer? Weigh in on comments) submitted her resignation today in what will hopefully only be the start of changes at the top...I'm hoping that the BOR shows McKinney the door tomorrow. So long as "governor good-hair" doesn't get the spot I'll be happy.

Look for new blog posts on all of the above (well, perhaps not on SHIP and incoming freshman) soon. Also, I plan to weigh in on the Real Live Preacher's sudden celebrity in Texas Orthodox circles.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

More on a post 11/4 World

After posting, I thought: "How overplayed is this phrase?"

Turns out, not so much.

What Should Obama Do? points out that we are (hopefully) more farsighted in a post 11/4 world.

Kyle Pfister at Just Sayin' Is All chronicles the voting queue this morning as a step "toward a post 11/4 world."

In a Post 11/4 World...

A Lexis-Nexis search for the phrase “post 9/11 world” in all English-language print and broadcast transcript outlets returns 999 hits since September 11, 2001. That such a context-loaded phrase has become shorthand for the change in our lifestyle is obvious from within, but what does it mean from a perspective outside of that experience? We can point to various watershed moments in history after which the paradigm for normality shifts and “everything changes.” I believe that today, November 4, 2008 is another one of those days.

As a short preface, I should explain my position vis-à-vis the presumptive president-elect. I campaigned for Dennis Kucinich during this election as I did during the 2004 election. I have been vocal about my feelings that Barack Obama might make a good president someday, but not yet. I have worried that in order to get to where he is in as short a time as he did, that he must be in someone’s pocket. I’ve echoed concerns that an Obama presidency will certainly be more polished, but isn’t likely to be more transparent. I have spoken openly that its just as wrong to vote for Obama because he’s black as it is to vote against him because he’s black.

I did cast a ballot for Barack Obama, not because I like his policies or think that he’ll make necessary changes; in fact, I think that he’s not likely to be radical enough in changing our foreign policy writ large with the so-called “War on Terror” being a prime example of our folly nor will he go far enough in nationalizing health care to truly make such a system workable and affordable. Essentially, I voted for change. For the hope that if enough people cast ballots the way I did, that states like Texas can’t be presumed to vote one way or the other.

The Obama campaign has promised things like “change,” and “hope.” While what Obama means by these words isn’t exactly clear (especially since his stance on many issues is centrist, maintaining status quo). When I step back and look at this election as a referendum on race, however, these words do make a kind of sense. I think that they’ve resonated with black Americans as well, since the greatest fears and hope we have seem to revolve around Obama as a “first and only.” Though I would be quick to criticize someone whose only rationale in voting for Obama was race, I certainly see Obama’s racial identity as a value-added component of his presidency.

Given the recent history of presidential elections in this country, there is reasonable concern that a post 11/4 world will reinforce the state of racial affairs in the United States. Even if Dick Cheney hasn’t rigged all the voting machines and purges of registered voters fail to effectively disenfranchise black voters, there is significant buzz among white Americans that “we’re not ready for a black president.” This statement really has very little to do with any person in particular or black people in general, but about the mindset of the people who think and say such a thing. They mean, I think, to say that there’s no way that a black person is capable of holding and executing such a powerful and prestigious position as President of the United States of America. Such a thought causes so much cognitive dissonance in these folks that they are literally scared for their way of life. For good measure, the Republican machine has cultivated rumors about Obama’s citizenship, his religion, his attitude toward gays, and his ability to serve in the CIA or FBI as fodder for those Republican voters who are too sophisticated to be swayed by a racial argument. A post 11/4 world might very well mean a retrenchment for openly racist Americans who would view Obama’s defeat as a victory for the Lost Cause.

A post 11/4 world might also bring that ray of Hope that Obama preached to us. Yes, an Obama victory means that he will no doubt be considered a race representative, and that his gaffes will be attributed to some supposed defect of the black condition instead of his own foibles. But the opposite is also true. The inescapable presence of a black man in position as what has often been referred to as the “most powerful man in the world,” suggests that white folks will have to do daily battle with the little racist thoughts that are so pervasive as to constitute a sort of “background radiation.” For our part, seeing one of our own in the Oval Office gives a reason to hope against experience that sometimes the system will work for us. We can only get over so many times before it becomes the rule instead of the exception. Certainly the man down the street, the lady at your grocery checkstand, and the kid in your daughter’s classroom aren’t going to stop holding racist beliefs or making racist comments or viewing every black person differently in 11/5, but those beliefs and comments will be on notice.

Finally, what this contest is about is Change. Whether the post 11/4 world brings a resplendent victory for Obama or chilling defeat for racial progress, we will be forced to enter into a conversation about who we are as a nation (including who “we” encompasses), what we believe, and where we are going. The necessary prerequisite to that conversation is a common vocabulary, and that vocabulary requires a common experience. Up till now, it has been the peculiar prerogative of white privilege to deny the subjective experience of discrimination. Life after this election means that we have to examine why racism has been so persistent in the way that Americans think and act.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Former Student Coordinates Care Packages For Troops

For several years, Brad Blauser ’92 has been a shining example of the kind of selfless service that all Aggies should strive to emulate. As a civilian contractor in Iraq, Brad has coordinated the donation and delivery of care packages for troops, wheelchairs for disabled Iraqi kids, and study bibles for soldiers. The following is his latest request for assistance in sending care packages to the troops:

Here's a list of commonly requested items for care packages (feel free to deviate and get creative), and the address where to send the boxes:

Brad Blauser
DLS Corp
APO, AE 09342

1. Comfort foods! Twinkies, doughnuts, cupcakes, Little Debby snacks, sweets, no chocolates (they'll melt on the way over), other things off the snack aisle. Health foods go over well also with the athletic/health conscious crowd. Any liquids need to be in sealed zip-lock bags or we end up with soggy boxes.
2. Pictures of yourselves / your kids and a hand written note of encouragement to / kids drawings for the troops. This makes each box personal for each of them. Troops will stop and read the letters before they'll even check to see what's inside the box. Maybe even include a self-addressed pre-stamped envelope. BE SURE to include a return email address of the donor - you're much more likely to hear from them as mailing letters takes much more effort here than sending a thank you email.
3. DVDs of the top 10 movies at Blockbuster.
4. Packaged coffees – ground up.
5. For the ladies - if you're doing gender specific packages - anything from Bath and Body Works or someplace similar.
6. Blade replacements for the Gillette Mach II or Fusion razors.
7. White crew socks.
8. DEET pump spray repellants.
9. PX Gift Cards from AAFES.
10. Re-hydrating drink mixes to add flavor to bottled water.
11. New toothbrush (SOFT).
12. Long Distance Phone Cards.

Now's a good time to start organizing groups to gather funds and items to send care packages to the troops for Thanksgiving and/or Christmas. As the time gets nearer, I'll post the addresses of Chaplains / units in areas who will need them most. Contact me with questions or ideas if you'd like to run them by me!


For more information about Brad’s multiple missions and to get involved, visit the following links:


Invite WFIK to be your MySpace Friend!
Invite WFIK to be your Facebook Friend!
Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids
CNN Report (Article) on Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids
CNN Report (Video) on Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids
Study Bibles for Soldiers

Opposing the Bailout

Below is the text that I've sent to both my senators today:
Dear Senator,


Please do all in your power to oppose the Paulson-Bernanke bailout plan. I understand that there are arguments against the plan from all different sides: from Democrats who think the bill lacks enough regulation as well as from Republicans who are opposed to the expansion of our government as well as our debt. I identify as a Democratic Socialist, but think that the plan proffered does not establish safeguards against another crisis, nor does it give the taxpayers who will fund the bailout any share in a fiscal rebound.


Bad mortgages are only one part of a larger economic downturn, and issues such as the evaporation of industry and jobs and the high cost of healthcare need to be addressed as part of a comprehensive solution. The companies responsible for creating a financial disaster through insufficient vetting of borrowers and predatory lending practices should be held accountable and, if necessary, be allowed to fail. The American public needs an economic and cultural wake-up call. We need the long, painful process of a depression to re-learn fiscal responsibility, the value of strong industry led by empowered workers, and a sense of frugality but also a sense of generosity.


I hope that you will be proactive and passionate in your opposition to this legislation, as well as look for sound ways to guide our country through the financial crises yet to come. Thank you for your service!


Jonathan Kotinek


Sunday, September 14, 2008

No need to wait til 2009

Previously, I speculated that the changeover from analog to digital television signal next year might provide the richest opportunity for a breakdown of the consumer economy that keeps our (relatively) highly educated and highly mobile populace from proving Marx & Engels' thesis.

To recap quickly, the elimination of the "opiates" of our working-class populace (television, movies, fast food, consumer goods -- all had cheaply) would provide occasion for those people to evaluate their status vis-a-vis the persons for whom they work. Since ours has become a service industry based economy, the elimination on a significant scale of any of these commodities would also create a large number of jobless people (who are also presumably more dissatisfied with their position in life).

The massive damage caused this weekend by Hurricane Ike has been likened to the hurricane of 1900 that destroyed Galveston. While the casualty reports (so far) don't show a parallel (thank God!), one possible parallel has yet to be explored. At the time that it was destroyed, Galveston was poised to overtake New York as the nation's biggest port and richest city. Houston is currently the nation's fourth (or fifth, depending on your source) biggest city and was the only major U.S. city with a growing economy (LINK?) going into this weekend. Massive power outages, floodwater and wind damage, and displacement of people are likely to put a huge dent in that growth.

This kind of disaster, both in economic and human terms has just as much, if not more, potential to act as a watershed moment for the downfall of the American economy (and political system).

A good doomsday prophet always hopes to be proved wrong, and that is the case here (tongue firmly in cheek...I don't claim to be good nor a prophet). Be mindful and watchful if you can, and if you can't do anything else, pray for those affected by the disaster.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

Fly High...Part II

After a month-long stint as a delivery driver for DoubleDaves in Northgate (where my mad cleaning skills from Freebirds were not appreciated...) I found a job at the University Police Department. I stayed at UPD until I finished my undergraduate degree. About a month before graduation, I ran into Pierre at the corner store by my house and he asked if I ever thought about coming back to Freebirds. I told him I would if he would give me an interesting opportunity, and that is how I came to work at the Freebirds corporate office at a time of great change.

The office was located in a small suite in a non-descript one-story building on Lincoln. Pierre brought me in as a Project Manager. Project Management was a new concept for me and Freebirds, so I got to build the position to suit me. Tom was in the office then as HR manager, and had built an incredible framework for Freebirds employees...book scholarships, training, regular opportunities to share suggestions. I learned about Gantt charts and watched Devon as he created the Freebirds brand from scratch (with a little magic from Corel). We tried (with limited success) to launch a Freebirds employee newspaper (the original title was "Bird Crap") and even tried to get it printed on news stock. I got to help Devon first find a place and then set up the mock-up of the Shepard Plaza store in a warehouse in north Bryan. It was serindipitious that the warehouse had tens of thousands of old soda crates; we used them to make the mock-up life size and three-dimensional.

I started developing my computer abilities during this stretch, too. I created the first internet to fax order system for the 'Bird, and got it set up with the help of Brian B. The big project that I had great hopes for and saw die on the vine was Bird TV. The concept was to put cameras in each store and send live feed of people waiting in line at one store to all other stores. Ironically enough, the project bogged down because the cables from the cameras to the computer were getting too much interference from electronic pollution in the store, and the cost of setting up DSL in each store was prohibitive. When I left the Project Manager position, I got to hire two people to do my job: one for operational projects and another for personnel projects.

A special memory from my time in the office was the development of a business plan. In developing the Freebirds plan, we referenced others, including Chipotle's, which referenced Freebirds as a model. We also, at that time, were dealing with a trade dress infringement suit with a little place in Dallas (across the street from what would become the first Dallas location at Lovers and Greenville).

I was HR manager for a short spell after that. I was there long enough to get moved into the new office building on Longmire. I instituted a policy of having a presence in every store, every day, and felt that I made a real difference. Before long, though, I was looking to get back to the operations side of things and work more closely with the great people I was seeing in the stores. The GM position at the Rock Prairie store opened up, and I jumped on the opportunity. It had been several years since I had been in the store, but I got caught up to speed quickly. The biggest challenge for me was learning the kitchen and paperwork expectations.

I inherited April as an Assistant GM. I was ready and willing to work with her, but she didn't like my management style (or something) and left not long after I got there. Her parting words to Crane and Craig were "have fun on your sinking ship, boys." I don't think either were too disappointed, however, since they both became Assistant GMs. I have to brag and say that the Rock Prairie store, at that time, was the best of all the stores. I had great morale...my store had the lowest turnover of all locations, and Freebirds turnover was about half of industry average in the first place. I demanded a very clean store and hard work, but felt that I gave a lot of opportunity to those who stepped up. I created a payscale that gave regular raises for skills acquired as well as time in service. Our food was the best quality too, thanks to Bob. People that made Rock Prairie worth working at: James, Craig, Erin, Bob, Derrick.

It was during my stint as GM that Pierre (or Alan?) brought in a brand consultant. I don't remember the guys name, only that he had us read The Flight of the Buffalo. That brand consultant was, I think, the beginning of the end. But, he did provoke a marketing challenge that gave each store a small budget (Crane did a music festival in our parking lot with ours) and solicited ideas for a company-wide strategy. Intrigued by the success that places like Joe's Crab Shack and In-and-Out Burger had with innuendo in their advertising, I mocked up a shirt with a burrito on the front and the words "Eat me." Our suggestion was that this shirt could be a customer loyalty reward. When I presented the idea in a group meeting, it got batted around a bit before I shouted out "Unwrap My Monster." If you've seen the shirt you know the rest is history.

I finally left Freebirds for the second time because I realized that my vision wasn't in sync with that of my superiors. I had bought into the promise of Freebirds, Alan's plans for growth, and expected that what we needed were well-trained highly dependable managers to go and grow these stores. I invested a lot in training, but still managed to average 15% on my bottom line. The Texas Avenue store was setting the standard at around 20%, so I wasn't cutting the mustard. My only regret is that I cashed out my ghost stock when I did, instead of holding on to it until Pierre sold the company last year.

All of which brings me back to my experience last night. A bright new sign advertising that "Tacos...are back" reminded me that I'll never eat my favorite Freebirds meal again: grilled steak tacos, nor my second favorite, a loaded quesadilla crispy from the butter on the grill. About 15 people walked in behind me, and the shift manager planted himself on the register, the grill guy retreated to the grill, and the runner started changing out tomatoes. The remaining three or four (!) rollers looked like they were in molassess. My server was friendly enough, but in sort of a generic way. When he ran out of sour cream on my first burrito, he kind of shook the gun once or twice, shrugged and asked if I wanted anything else. I explained that I'd like the rest of the sour cream portion, to which he made no reply but started to go roll up the burritto. Thankfully, he was an incredibly slow roller, and I was able to get his attention after calling his name four times and explaining that I was willing to wait for him to go get more sour cream since I'd also like it on my second burrito.

I know well enough that kids that work in food service don't get paid enough to care, but at one time Freebirds was enough of an experience that we worked hard anyway. It makes me sad to see it sink to mediocrity, if nowhere else at least in my mind, because it held forth such promise once. I used to make the comment that Freebirds and Chipotle were different like Bennigans and Chili's were different. They make basically the same food, but if you want a Monte Cristo, you don't go to Chili's. I fear that, in my heart at least, that analogy is broken on both sides now.

Fly High...Part I

I had Freebirds for dinner last night for the first time in a long while. The experience was disappointingly blase, and in ruminating on the visit and my time with Freebirds, I felt compelled to compose something of an ode to the 'Bird that was. This memory is dedicated to Tom Thweatt, who was with me at Freebirds during the zenith of the development of the culture. My apologies to Pierre, Alan, Charles, Burt, Chris...and any of the old guard who might take offense.

My Freebirds Story

Like most of the good things that have happened to me, my "career" at Freebirds was an accident. Conrad and I, on a rare, coincident day off from Discount Tire stopped into a very deserted Freebirds one July morning. Being the young, recent high school graduates that we were, we both ordered Super Monsters. I think that was the only Super Monster I ever finished at a single sitting. Before we left the store that morning, Barry had hired both of us, and we had both quit Discount Tire by the end of the week.

There are a number of great memories from that first semester working at the Bird. The Freebirds on Northgate was, at that time, the only Freebirds anywhere except for the Santa Barbara store. I learned most of my management style from Charles: work harder than anyone else, and never expect anyone to do something that they've not seen you do. I don't recall all the names of my trainers. Besides Charles, there were Louie and Teri...and one other that I completely failed to recognize when she showed up after a shift dressed to go out (Robin?). I tracked more for the front of the house, concentrating on becoming a "grill god," while Conrad picked up the special power of steak cutting. In those days we cut the steak from big briskets right in the store. I worked a catering event for a Halloween party at 3rd Floor Cantina not long after I started. That was a blast!

Before too long both Conrad and I were shift managers, and Lee had joined us at the apartment and at Freebirds by then and he was managing shifts as well before it was all said and done. I'd have to look at HR records to be clear on exactly when it all happened. I remember Nema being the GM of the store, but Barry was still around then too. The whole store was a great community both in and out of work. Many of us lived in small frame houses rented from Culpepper Realty (courtesy of Jim Elmquist) just north of campus. Pierre would sometimes drop in after closing and make tacos for his group of friends. I remember that when I was promoted to shift manager, Barry told me that I was the youngest and quickest to make it there and it happened because I "worked like I got paid more than I did."

One task I secretly relished was cleaning the fatigue mats. I'd load them up in the back of Barry's ancient white van (that had been purchased as surplus from the university), take two rolls of quarters, and take the mats to the car wash just northwest of the intersection of Villa Maria and Finfeather. I'd spray down the mats, scrub them with the soapy brush, and rinse them before loading them back in the van. It was a nasty, smelly job, but Barry told me that any leftover quarters were mine to keep, and that was how I paid for laundry. One glorious summer I got to be a personal assistant for Pierre, which meant that when I wasn't running errands, I got to bounce ideas around with him. The only other person that I've found as much creative synergy with in conversation is Blake Godkin.

There were great times and good friends at Freebirds then: Brandon, Christos, Allison, Conrad, Lee, Charles, Burt...so many. The first time I left Freebirds was just after the Texas Avenue store opened. I had helped collect bricks from the rubble of what had been Deware Field House and been part of cleaning them off in the field next to what was then Brazos Brewing Company (now Blue Baker). Pierre treated everyone that wanted one a brew. I wish I had taken him up on the offer. In November of 1997 the corporate office for Freebirds had started to take shape, and a Human Resource manager had been hired. Disappointed that I hadn't even been asked to interview, I asked Barry for some background. I had heard rumors that the position was being created and had indicated interest early the summer before. Barry told me that the hire had needed to take place quickly (it had happened while I was at Ft. Leonard Wood for BCT & AIT). Further, he said, I could expect not to see any further promotion so long as I had my military obligations. After telling Barry that he had violated Federal Law, I made arrangements to leave.

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Be the Change...

Mahatma Ghandi, in the statement "Be the change you want to see in the world," echoed the words of St. Seraphim of Sarov who said, "Acquire peace and thousands around you will be saved." Few political leaders in the U.S. are doing as much as Dennis Kucinich to wage peace and call the Bush43 administration to account for the direction they've taken the country.

Rep. Kucinich is working to deliver one million signatures in support of his articles of impeachment by September 10. If you are so inclined, I hope that you'll sign on and do what you can to effect this change.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Up with Dennis...

Hello friends. I just watched Dennis Kucinich's speech "Up with America" from the DNC this past week. I still struggle to fathom that we can't see clear to think of this energetic, inspirational, and insightful man as "electable." The disgrace that he suffered at the hands of the media in collusion with the DNC is unconscionable...and yet he is the image of love stumping for the Dems.

This literally brought tears to my eyes. God bless you Dennis. I hope someday we can get this man and his vision into a position to move our country in the right direction, and I hope we do it before its too late.

Monday, August 04, 2008

More on Beijing 2008

Last month I commented on a Slate.com story about boycotting the Beijing 08 Olympic Games. This week I was directed to an editorial in April's Economist highlighting the spectacular failure of the IOC's "quiet diplomacy":

A DEVELOPING country gets the Olympic games as an acknowledgment of its new, exalted status. An authoritarian government, awash with money, exploits the chance to project a peaceful, progressive image. Critics of the regime use the games as a chance to demand more democracy and human rights. There are demonstrations, forcefully broken up.

This is the story, more or less, of the Beijing Olympics 2008—so far. But it also describes the run-up to the Mexico City Olympic games of 40 years ago. Then, the protests ended in a massacre, an awful sign of how far governments can go to protect a cherished sporting show.


In "honor" of the start of the 08 games I'm wearing this shirt by Thread Pit on Friday:

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Be ye therefore perfect...

Does cross-posting something on my blog that I wrote for a TexAgs count as cheating? I hope not.

Anyhow, this grew out of the "Christians, why don't you believe in... thread, this will be a reference point for Orthodox Christian soteriology. This is an important topic for discussion, even among Apostolic traditions, since the definition of salvation and why we need it differs even between the East and West. Orthodox soteriology will also sound foreign to protestants who hold to sola fide. I encourage readers to engage all linked articles and post thoughtful questions and dialogue. If you want to start a thread about your faith tradition's theory of salvation, please be my guest. =)


Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect
(Matt. 5:48)

...till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ

(Eph. 4:13)

...as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

(2 Pet. 1:3-4)

The Orthodox understanding of salvation is often called deification or theosis. St. Athanasius notes in his treatise On the Incarnation that “God became man that man might become god.” St. Gregory Palamas tells us that we are able to become by grace what God is by nature The Orthodox notion of salvation is not juridical; that is, it is not simply justification for guilt. Valeria A. Karras, points this out in her paper Beyond Justification: An Orthodox Perspective:

Robert Eno has pointed out the second generation of Christians, the Apostolic Fathers, “have been seen as presenting an almost total disappearance of the Pauline point of view.” A search of Greek patristic literature on the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae shows that, over a period of a couple of centuries that includes the theologically-rich fourth century, most Greek Fathers don’t talk much about dikaiosuvnh (“justification” or “righteousness”) except when exegeting a passage using that term. The striking exception is Gregory of Nyssa, the late fourth-century bishop who was younger brother to Basil of Caesarea, but, interestingly, when Gregory uses the term, it is almost always in the context of the true, Christian way of life, in other words, works of righteousness; neither Nyssa nor any other Eastern Father ever writes in terms of what Lutheranism calls “forensic justification” (some would claim that the mid-fourth century Alexandrian bishop Athanasius did, but we will return to this issue later).

The absence in Eastern Christianity of a soteriology in terms of forensic justification is serious because Orthodoxy believes not only in ecumenism across geographical space, but especially “ecumenism in time”, i.e., the need to be consistent with the theological tradition of the Church from the earliest centuries. Thus, the traditional Orthodox mind is immediately suspicious of biblical interpretations that have little or no root in the early life and theology of the Church; this is true in spades of particularly the forensic notion of justification, and of its consequent bifurcation of faith and works. Sola scriptura means little to the Orthodox, who as opposed to placing Scripture over the Church, have a full sense of Scripture’s crucial but interrelated place within the Church’s continuing life: the apostolic church communities which produced many of the books of the New Testament, the communities of the catholic Church which over a period of centuries determined which books circulating through various communities truly encapsulated the elements of the apostolic faith; the dogmas and Creed declared by the whole Church in response to the frequent controversies over the nature of the Trinity and of the theanthropos Jesus Christ, controversies which frequently arose precisely from dueling perspectives of which biblical texts were normative and of how those texts should be interpreted.

This of course does not mean that the Orthodox do not believe that each generation of Christians may receive new insights into Scripture, especially insights relevant in a given cultural context. However, it does mean that the new insights must remain consistent with earlier ones, and that one or two Pauline passages (and one specific interpretation of those passages) are not considered theologically normative – particularly as a foundation for a soteriological dogma – unless the early and continuing tradition of the Church show them consistently to have been viewed as such.

History is important in a second way. Because of its less juridical exegesis of Pauline soteriological statements, Eastern Christianity has never had anything approaching the kind of faith v. works controversies that have enveloped and (for both good and ill) theologically shaped the Christian West, whether one considers the late fourth-/early fifth-century Pelagian controversy or the 16th-century Protestant Reformation begun by Martin Luther. Rather, the East has maintained a somewhat distant and even puzzled attitude toward the theological polemics which have raged over justification in terms of faith or works.

The Orthodox notion of theosis is relational in that we become like God by communing with God, as was man’s created purpose. Mankind’s fall from grace was that Adam & Eve broke communion with God by eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and, rather than repenting and returning to --God, they persisted in sin—Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent. God removed them from Paradise as a mercy since if they were to further disobey and eat of the Tree of Life they would become eternally sinful. It is instructive that the original sin was a distortion or perversion of created intent: mankind was created for communion with God, but rather than following God’s plan for theosis they partook of the tree to become “like God.”

The consequence of the broken communion and persistence in sin is that man became subject to Death. Christ effects our salvation by restoring communion in His person—fully man and fully God, and by destroying Death. He calls us to “be perfect” because He has made that perfection possible…not easy…but possible, through imitation of Him.

When the Son of God assumed our humanity in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary, the process of our being renewed in God’s image and likeness was begun. Thus, those who are joined to Christ, through faith, in Holy Baptism begin a process of re-creation, being renewed in God’s image and likeness. We become, as St. Peter writes, “partakers of the divine nature” (1:4)

Because of the Incarnation of the Son of God, because the fullness of God has inhabited human flesh, being joined to Christ means that it is again possible to experience deification, the fulfillment of our human destiny. That is, through union with Christ, we become by grace what God is by nature—we “become children of God” (Jn 1:12).

“Deification” p. 1692, The Orthodox Study Bible, 2008, Thomas Nelson Publishers

With the Incarnation, God has assumed and glorified our flesh and has consecrated and sanctified our humanity. He has also given us the Holy Spirit. As we acquire more of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives, we become more like Christ, and we have the opportunity of being granted, in this life, illumination or glorification. When we speak of acquiring more of the Holy Spirit, it is in the sense of appropriating to a greater degree what has actually been given to us already by God. We acquire more of what we are more able to receive. God the Holy Spirit remains ever constant.

Theosis: Partaking of the Divine Nature by Mark Shuttleworth.

All of this is intended to be worked out in “fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12), and while we are corporately saved (2 Pet. 3:9), I’m called to worry about my own shortcomings and simply love everyone else. Fr. Matthew puts a nice twist on the mote:log injunction (Matt 7:5) by telling me to keep my eyes on my own plate. And while he is speaking specifically about fasting, the concept maps nicely onto thinking of myself as “chief among sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15).

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Comparative Religion

I wrote this in response to a thread at TexAgs.com asking whether or not the resident Christians had studied other faith traditions. Please forgive any inaccuracies I may have written below, as my study has been self-initiated and is, in all likelihood, incomplete.

In-between my formative years when my family attended first an Independent Fundamental Baptist Church (Worth Baptist, Ft. Worth), then Southern Baptist churches (Matthew Road, Grand Prairie; First Baptist, Euless) and my conversion to Orthodox Christianity, I did study Buddhism and Taoism. Growing up, I went to my best friend's synagogue (Congregation Beth Shalom, Arlington). In college I had gone from my Baptist roots (First Baptist, Bryan) to non-denominational (Grace Baptist, College Station). When my then fiance and I started talking about churches we visited churches based on her background as well (St. Thomas Episcopal, College Station). We ended up halfway between our faith backgrounds (A&M United Methodist, College Station).

Our pastor there, Buddy Walker, a Baptist convert himself, helped me start to understand issues such as infant baptism. When I brought my thoughts about Buddhism to him, he also made the point that the same Christ that said to love our enemies probably wouldn't have much problem with most of what Buddha said.

I have in the last two years done fairly extensive reading on Baha'i and Islam. What I have found in all of my reading and participation is that there seems to be something innate in most people that draws them to be part of something bigger than themselves. I concur with prof. gradoo that I'm likely to have approached all of my study through the lens of some basic "Christian" assumptions, but I've also shattered some of those assumptions along the way (e.g. OSAS, Sola Scriptura).

The assumptions that I have left are that we are intentionally created (though I don't take a dogmatic position on how or when); that Christ is God; and that our calling is to love one another. Besides Christianity, Buddhism & Taosim come the closest to providing a framework for understanding my experience. The difference for me between these two and Christ is that instead of the person being subsumed in an everythingness of Being, in Christianity, the person becomes an integral part of unity in God, but retains his personhood. For a great meditation on Lao Tzu as a pre-Christian prophet (ala Aristotle) see Christ the Eternal Tao by Fr. Damascene Christensen.

Coming to Orthodox Christianity, I struggled with some concepts (e.g. veneration of icons, the role of the Theotokos, confession) more than others that were more familiar in my upbringing (e.g. the Trinity). What I discovered is that while there is a wealth of texts and traditions in Christianity, so too there are a wealth in other faith traditions as well. This is, finally, what I think faith is. I decided that I would trust Christ's word that he had established a temporal church and that it would persist (Matt. 16:18) and be led by God into all Truth (John 16:13). Along with trusting that Christ’s church existed and persisted to our times and had preserved Christ’s teachings intact and unaltered, I had to trust that those things which I didn’t cognitively understand would be made clear.

With respect to the comparative religion, I don’t disbelieve Judaism but think that Orthodox Christianity is a fulfillment of the Law and Prophets in Christ (and Judaism post-Javneh has a flavor of damage control for the “Christian problem”). Islam is a radical monotheistic reaction to Christianity. Baha’i is a universalist reformation of Islam. Buddhism/Taoism, like many pre-Christian religions (including Native American religion and Zoroastrianism) reveal mystical truths which are fully revealed in Christ. I’ve not studied Confucianism, Hinduism, Jainism, or Sikhism in any depth past casual reading. Confucianism is more of an system of ethics than a faith, and as such isn’t necessarily at odds with Christianity. In the case of Hinduism and Jainism, I think that multiple gods and/or ancestor worship can be influenced by evil spirits and/or point to later, more fully revealed truths in Christianity. Sikhism also points to a “Universal God,” which is beyond human ken…also has the ability to be interpreted as fulfilled through the Trinitarian understanding we have of God as uncreated and outside of time.

The bottom line to comparative religion for me is a truth that I discovered in Orthodoxy (it certainly wasn’t an aspect of the Evangelism Explosion training I received in the Baptist Church) is that I am called to focus on my own salvation, to work that out in “fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12) and not worry about what someone else is or isn’t doing, but to love them as icons of Christ.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Field of Drama

I suppose I could have just as easily titled this as the third part of the decline of American power.

Ever wonder why we have evolved into a nation of overweight, uptight, litigious video gamers? Here's a good example of why:

After three weeks of clearing brush and poison ivy, scrounging up plywood and green paint, digging holes and pouring concrete, Vincent, Justin and about a dozen friends did manage to build it — a tree-shaded Wiffle ball version of Fenway Park complete with a 12-foot-tall green monster in center field, American flag by the left-field foul pole and colorful signs for Taco Bell Frutista Freezes.

But, alas, they had no idea just who would come — youthful Wiffle ball players, yes, but also angry neighbors and their lawyer, the police, the town nuisance officer and tree warden and other officials in all shapes and sizes. It turns out that one kid’s field of dreams is an adult’s dangerous nuisance, liability nightmare, inappropriate usurpation of green space, unpermitted special use or drag on property values, and their Wiffle-ball Fenway has become the talk of Greenwich and a suburban Rorschach test about youthful summers past and present.

On the one hand we have examples of creativity, industriousness, and exercise. On the other worry about property value, noise, and liability. Which nation do you want to be?

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Orthodox Perspective on Ordaining Women Priests

With a nod to the folks over at Vox Nova, who made me think hard enough to write something down.

The Anglican Church has voted to approve the ordination of female bishops, further intensifying rifts caused by the ordination of women to the priesthood.

The teaching I’ve received from my spiritual father, Fr. Matthew, on the matter of a female priesthood goes like this:

On either side of the beautiful gates there is an icon of Christ (right) and the Theotokos (left).

As icons, they represent the spiritual and physical reality of actual persons, and as such reflect the glory of God. They are also icons of perfect manhood and womanhood; that is, the highest calling that any man can aspire to is that of priest, and the highest calling any woman can aspire to is that of mother. Not all men will be priests and not all women will be mothers, but certainly no man will ever be a woman (plastic surgery and hormone supplements notwithstanding) and no woman will ever be a priest because these we are specifically created for different functions.

Fr. Alister Anderson has written a response to the Anglican decision to ordain women in the priesthood and his comments echo the teaching I related above:

We Christians who advocate only a male priesthood as being the only valid apostolic ministry of the Church do not in any way deny that women have equal rights and opportunities to work. We believe that women should be paid commensurately with men for their labor and skill. But certain leaders deprecate the male priesthood as being a bastion of male chauvinism and a violation of civil and equal rights for women. Nonsense! The Church is not a secular institution governed by democratic processes. The Church is a spiritual organism and not just a secular organization. She is a spiritual and supernatural monarchy with God as Her king and supreme judge. We Orthodox Christians declare that while men and women are equal in the eyes of God and under the secular law, they are very different in their human nature because God has created them for different functions. A bishop, priest and deacon have a specific function within the family of the Church. To ordain women to the sacred ministry would only confuse and destroy that function. In terms of human function a woman can no more be a priest than a man can be a mother.

The full article

Sunday, July 06, 2008

At long last...an update


It seems people (my dad) check this site and notice when I don't post. Since last I posted, the world has continued to move. Marking such progress, its of special note that the Northwest Passage, long sought at great cost, is open for the first time in recorded history.

I've discovered that there are more Kotineks out there! Hi Lauren, if you're reading.

While I voted for Ron Paul in the primary, it doesn't mean that I've permanently crossed the aisle. I held out hope that if there were a Republican candidate with good plans for foreign policy, trade, and health care it would force the remaining Democratic candidate field into more substantial positions.

Anyhow, hope you enjoy reading the updates and I hope I get a chance to write again soon!

Night Falls on Lake Somerville, July 4, 2008

A Medidation on the Decline of American Power, Part II

All of this doomsday scenario making leads us back to the 08 elections. Is there the possibility of change?

From my perspective, there are three very basic areas in which we need radical shift if we are to stave off the worst of the possibilities I've described:

1) Develop a coherent, workable foreign policy. Isolationism can't work. Jingoism paints targets on our collective chest. Removing ourselves as the coordinators/occupying force in Iraq and Afghanistan would be a good start (replacing with U.N. command is a possibility).

2) Develop a fair trade policy. Bring production back to the states, encourage heirloom craftsmanship and buying locally. Use (what little) economic power we have to mandate fair wages and humane working and living conditions for workers abroad (this ought to have an beneficent effect on immigration as well). Don't trade with countries that won't play ball. Don't give personal rights to corporations.

3) Establish universal, centralized health care for all people in the USA.

I recognize that all three of these represent radical shift from the current state of affairs. I also think that we're at a tipping point economically, politically, and militarily. We don't have the luxury of making a slow U-turn. Unfortunately, neither of the presumptive major party candidates has the political will to pull off this kind of sea-change. A McCain presidency is a vote for status quo. Obama will make a good president someday, but not yet (and he agrees with me...waiting on the video from LaueOfficer). I don't think you get to where Sen. Obama is, as fast as he did without being in somebody's pocket, and that scares me (incidentally, I read an article in a magazine aboard a flight to Denver last year that cited specifically whose pocket he's in...but I can find no reference to this now). What scares me most is that someone with pockets that big isn't likely to be interested in much of a shift from business as usual either.

A Medidation on the Decline of American Power, Part I

For quite some time now (perhaps since the Democratic National Convention in July 2004) I've believed that the future of our country will, quite literally, ride on the outcome of the 2008 elections. In 2003, former president Bill Clinton noted, "We need to be creating a world that we would like to live in when we're not the biggest power on the block." We have not, in the interim, been exhibiting the sort of humility that President Clinton suggested. To the contrary, we've eroded the trust of our allies and sometime collaborators worldwide, our credit practices have caused the dollar to plummet, and our military--though still the most advanced in the world--is stretched dreadfully thin and cannot sustain the current deployments indefinitely. Domestically, we have sat idly by while watching as our elected representatives have traded in on our fears and expanded their powers; as Ben Franklin observes, perhaps we deserve neither liberty nor safety. Short-sighted attempts to solve the energy crisis with ethanol will make food and fuel prices continue to rise. We're scared of our food, and rightly so, because we don't know its provenance.

Most Americans are literate on some level. More than fifty percent of our economy is based in the service industries. Ubiquitous technologies such as internet and cell phones have made easier migration from family homesteads. Many Americans work to have enough money to have a place to stay and a way to get to work, and we don't seem worried about not saving. We are, in summary, creating a highly-educated, highly-mobile, poorly-compensated underclass. Marx only said that religion was the opiate of the masses because he had never seen TV.

The curious thing about critics of Marxism is that they focus on the failures of Communist states. Though I am decidedly not a Marxist scholar, my brief reading of his and Engels principles suggests that the theory hinges on the dialectical historical process resulting in a shift in the balance of power. Put simply, Marx and Engels weren't creating a business plan so much as making predictions of the future. The ironic part of all of this is that the only place in the world (so far) that has the necessary conditions to play out the Marxist experiment is right here in the good ol' USA. One need not imagine too hard to come up with a scenario that could mobilize a restless underclass: a severe disruption in the activities that take our minds off of our lives, or a steep spike in the cost of food and fuel, which leads to less travel, less eating out, less flying...what made up over half of our economy again? And those nations we bullied, think they'll watch from the sidelines as our country falls apart?

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Boycott Beijing 2008?

Anne Applebaum at Slate.com has the right idea, why not boycott the 2008 Olympics?

Unfortunately, the American people have, as a whole, lost the stomach for prosecuting righteousness if it means getting our own hands dirty. Or, more to the point, not getting that Coke at McDonalds for lunch, paying for it with your Visa, driving there in your V-Dub, taking pictures of the kids' soccer game with your Kodak, letting them wear Addidas, or making dinner with your GE appliances. Or doing without a whole host of integral products and services. We wouldn't want of offend anyone now, would we? Yes, we really are that lazy.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Kucinich out of Race, I'm Changing Boats

Effective on Rep. Kucinich's official withdrawal from the 2008 presidential race tomorrow, I will be shifting my monetary, volunteer, and grassroots organizational support to Republican candidate Ron Paul.

The media blackout of Rep. Kucinich in the 2008 contest and the DNC complicity in a system that seeks to anoint an early frontrunner and channel all donations through the DNC is an abhorrent corruption of the democratic process. We Americans should all be ashamed of our system.

The big three issues in this race are our rampant militarism, health care, and the economy, and all three are inextricably linked. As was the case in 2004, Rep. Kucinich was the only Democratic candidate who could stand on a record of not funding the war, providing for an immediate withdrawal of troops, a universal not-for-profit health care system, and an economic policy that privileges working people, not corporations.

I have thought for some time now that the viability of the United States in the next decade would be determined by whether or not the 2008 election would be a real turning point, and none of the democratic "frontrunners" provide hope for substantive change. I'm not interested in changing the name of who is in power in Washington; I'm interested in changing who is in power in Washington, and that needs to be the American people. Since Rep. Kucinich can no longer carry that flag in the presidential race, I'm willing to be blind to party labels and support a man who has that vision.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

More Jena 6

After a particularly heated office discussion about whether or not the Jena 6 demonstrations were useful and necessary, a co-worker gave me a copy of this article which suggests that the story is far more convoluted than what was generally represented in the news media (go figure).

Among the conclusions that our discussion came to, the following ideas are underscored in this article: there is more to the story than what we heard on the news and in the paper, and none of the young men involved can be characterized as innocent.

But, the legal response to the Jena 6 story, the outpouring of emotion, the creative response, and the thousands that converged on Jena, LA and demonstrated in their own towns and schools suggest a reason why we did take to this story with the fervor we did.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Strange Fruit

"Southern trees bear strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root"
- Lewis Allan (Abel Meeropol)

-tshirt image courtesy of Glenn Bracey

September 20, 2007

Nationwide protests today bring a new generation of activists into the ongoing fight against entrenched racist power structures in the U.S. The "Jena 6" are accused of conspiring to murder a white high school classmate (who spent a total of 3 hours in an emergency room as a result of his injuries). These six young men--Robert Bailey, Theo Shaw, Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis, Mychal Bell, and Jesse Beard--were in fact responding to a racially-charged tensions in the small Louisiana town of Jena (pronounced gee-na)that heightened after two black students had the audacity to sit under "the white tree" on school grounds for lunch.

The following day, several nooses were found hanging from the tree, an all-too-clear message from white students intent on preserving the Jim Crow privilege of their favorite eating spot. When black students protested the hateful display, District Attorney Reed Walters threatened, "I could end your lives with the stroke of a pen."

When a white student continued to taunt black students, a fight ensued and D.A. Walters got a chance to make good on his threat. Perhaps saddest of all is that even if "justice is served" and the young men are exonerated, the damage is incalculable. Mychal Bell, the young man whose conviction is currently under review stands to lose out on his pick of college scholarships. Worse still is the hard lesson these young men have had to learn at such an early age that the system is stacked against them. The thousands of people who are traveling to be a part of the protest illustrate that the problems these young men face aren't unique, but in fact systematic oppression still occurs and has mobilized the next Hero Generation.

Visit the following sites for more information and to support the defense efforts of these young men:
http://www.freethejena6.org/
http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/

Thursday, July 05, 2007

To Be, or Not To Be

I'm having an epistemological, ontological, existential crisis with regard to my doctoral program. In a recent course geared toward helping students prepare our dissertation proposals, I discovered a huge gap in my education.

The opening essay to Conceptions of Giftedness, by James Borland, makes a compelling case for dismissing with the notion of defining giftedness. My very first reaction was a feeling of validation since I found correspondence between Borland's points and some ideas I had been developing independently since my introduction to the field. One such issue is the need for an umbrella term to describe giftedness and retardation (my suggestion is lamentably uninspired: "differently abled"). I suggested the need for such a term since there seems to be some emotional baggage attached to the term "gifted" that leads some administrators and teachers to believe that gifted students will fend for themselves in an average educational setting. The other point of correspondence that I found was with my idea that early entrance programs are an imperfect solution to the need for accelerated learning opportunities for gifted students. I suggested that instead we should have an educational system that provides access to suitable learning opportunities for students from birth through college, regardless of age.

Borland's solution is simple and elegant. If the end goal of programs to serve gifted students is ability-appropriate educational opportunities, the amount of time and energy we are spending on identification is a ridiculous waste of time, not to mention a process fraught with uncertainty and inequity. Instead, we should spend our resources ensuring that all students have an ability-appropriate education. In so doing, the gifted constituency, however one wants to define it, has their needs met, as do all other students, including those that might have been otherwise marginalized.

Which leads me to my crisis/es. Most of my chosen field has taken up the banner of one or another definitions of giftedness, and usually, some method of concluding that a person meets those criteria. I don't think that we can accurately say what giftedness is, figure out how to determine who is actually gifted, or continue to have a viable field while recognizing the ethical, political, and professional implications of being so unsure.

Ive come to the conclusion that I'm not satisfied with the rigor of my doctoral program so far. I don't have a good command of the literature (as evidenced by my startling discovery), I'm not confident in the soundness of some of the major theories in my field, and I'm not convinced of the viability of my degree. I need to immerse myself in the literature and find my way back out.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Radicalism as a Democratic Social Indicator pt. II

A few more thoughts on the subject. Unpolished. Let me know what you think..

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The more firmly entrenched persons in positions of power tend to be, the less likely they are to be willing to share power and access to power. In shoring up their positions, such persons tend to choose as their successors persons of like mind and intent. Maintenance of the status quo (i.e. classical conservativism) is a tool of those who would consolidate power. Such a process is inherently un-democratic and leads to ideological inbreeding.

Radicalism, understood in the socio-political sphere as agitation (e.g. demonstrations, proselytization) and pursuit of change that is inimical to centrist positions because its end is widespread social change (hopefully for the better). Understood in this light, the claim to be apolitical and/or not vote is, in fact, a vote in support of the status quo.

Political parties, no matter their stripe, that have massive infrastructure and resource needs that extend past an immediate election, campaign, or mission can fall prey to this underlying principle.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Full Circle

NOWisNOW is a band whose sound you're not likely to have heard unless you frequent small, hip venues on the eastern seaboard or are a SKEMER. If lead singer Mitch Alden has his way, though, that might change. Mitch is petitioning the director for a (hopefully) upcoming big-screen production of The Dark Tower to include his original music in the soundtrack of the movie. In his blog, Mitch writes:
King's office told me that once the deal is set, more often that not, the Director, not the author, chooses the music for their movies...and here is where I could really use your help - getting JJ Abram's attention. I'll be sending his office a CD with a letter and all that stuff, but having the outside hype concerning these tunes would be an added bonus. If any of you guys know of message boards or other areas where folks talk shop about JJ Abrams &/or "Lost," or "The Dark Tower," would you be into starting some threads about getting these tunes in the production? I'm thinking during the outro credits, the tunes would be used best, but I'll leave that opinion to your tasteful ears. And if you're not into message boards, Of course, you could always write JJ Abrams or Stephen King directly :)The 3 tunes are "other worlds", "daydream", and "wheel."


The Dark Tower inspired tunes can be found here.

Listen to the songs, and if you feel so inclined, help spread the word on Mitch and NOWisNOW and help the inspiration for these songs come full circle.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Friday, June 15, 2007

A Movement to Transform?

I sent the following letter to Sojourners in response to their exclusion of over half of the Democratic presidential candidate field from their recent Candidates' Forum:
Dear Sojourners,

I was appalled, dismayed, and disappointed to learn that your organization declined to find a way to include all of the Democratic Party candidate field in your recent forum. At the very least, Sojourners should be quite sensitive to how media access and portrayal of candidates influences voter perspectives. More to the point, you excluded the candidate that best exemplifies the values expressed in your Mission.

Not one to let such an injustice go unchecked, Rep. Dennis Kucinich corrected your error by securing time for the rest of the field to also share their perspectives on and commitment to Faith, Values, and (ending) Poverty. In this action Rep. Kucinich clearly demonstrated his commitment to social justice, helped to inspire CNN and the rest of the viewing public to see beyond the choices made for them by self-serving interest groups, and gave some hope that a true message of peace and love can prevail even when it might not seem marketable.

I invite Sojourners to admit their error and publicly acknowledge the leadership that Rep. Kucinich has shown in this situation. Until such time, I don’t intend to monetarily support Sojourners and will be canceling my subscription to your journal.

Peace!


In response, I got what seems to be a semi-personalized form letter directing me to Sojourners website:
Mr. Kotinek,

Thank you for expressing your concerns about the recent Democratic presidential forum. We appreciate your willingness to share your views with us, as your thoughts have not gone unnoticed. Rep. Kucinich's absence, and the rest of the second-tier candidates, came in order to fulfill our need to engage in a broader dialogue on the issues. Filling in eight different candidates within one hour of time would make for a very limited discussion, which is something we very much wanted to avoid. I would invite you to take a look at our website which looks into this matter in further detail.

Blessings,


And my response:
Thank you for your response and dialogue on this issue.

Respectfully, if the intent of the candidate’s forum was broad dialogue, was choosing the three candidates receiving the most press the most effective way to achieve your goal?

My frustration and disappointment stems not as much from the fact that Rep. Kucinich was not included, or that any particular candidate was included or not; rather, I hold Sojourners to a higher standard than most mass media outlets and had hoped for an honest and real exploration of this subject. Sen. Clinton pointed out that she does her best (and it showed in the forum) to distance herself from the topic of faith. I feel that she was included only because the DNC and major media have anointed her as the “frontrunner.” Any such attempt this early in the game is ridiculous if the intent of an election is free-ranging debate and an opportunity to democratically select (on the part of the American people) the best candidate from the field. All of which begs the question, if that isn’t the intent we’re operating under, what is?

Peace!


Today Jim Wallis published four questions he didn't get to ask at the Candidates' Forum. These questions cover the topics of extreme poverty, the practical application of the Commandments of Blessedness, the cultivation of fear as a political tool, and government funding of faith-based charitable organizations. I'm hoping to see Dennis Kucinich exhibit leadership in stepping up and being the first candidate to answer these questions, and in so doing, perhaps, kindle an acceptance of his legitimacy in the minds of the folks at Sojourners (Romans 12:20-21).