Another picture of old factories in Pueblo

 

Overlooking the Railyard in Pueblo

 

Waiting in Line at the Obama Rally--Looking back over the bridge

 

People at the Obama Rally--Looking Back through the Crowd

 

People at the Obama Rally--Hollie and my wife Jennifer

 

I loved this mural in Pueblo

 

Learning Experience

I went to the Obama rally in Pueblo this evening. I am not a big fan of crowds, but my wife is a lifelong democrat. So, we decided to do the rally for our monthiversary.

She had been to rallies with Bill Clinton. She knew what she was getting into. I went to a Reagan rally in 1984, and I also went to a press event as a local representative of my school newspaper when Joan Mondale came to town, and even asked a question that she addressed. Those were a long time ago and quite different.

It required us to be on our feet for about 5 hours. In the 80+ degree sun (in November). Jen's best friend came, and we all had a good time. The politics was the same fare as you sould see on TV. The adventure for me was the crowd and being there. Especially as someone who has always been registered as a Republican.

Here are some of the pictures. The first set of pictures were all of t-shirts, which I thought was fun!

Obama--A Rally in T Shirts

What was impressive to me was the intentional imagery of the Obama campaign. Much of it alludes back to the sixties. For instance this shirt, which I think is designed to look a lot like Kennedy.

 

Obama--A rally in t-shirts

A postage stamp already

 

Obama Rally in T-Shirts

I thought this instead of being retrospective was more hip hop. I told Jennifer the last shirt was Kennedy, this was Jay-Z.

 

Obama Rally--An Event in T-shirts

I thought this was amusing and it grieved me a little at the same time. It expresses the hope a lot of people believe Obama brings.

 

Obama Rally-An Event in T-Shirts

T-shirt vendors

 

Prank Call on Palin

Too true too be funny Halloween picture

ht Harmonie

My Vote and Why I Voted the Way I Did

As I said, I voted earlier this week. I have voted for a Republican for President for 16 years. This time around I voted for Barack Obama. This is why:

1. Obama had a clear message of hope of the future.

When I heard Obama speak, visited his web site, read articles about him. Do I agree with him about everything? No. Do I agree with his plan to get out of Iraq, work toward affordable health care (we will not get as far as he hoped), and the logic of his tax plan? Yes I do.

2. McCains lack of vision

I kept hoping McCain would communicate a vision for the future that made sense. He did not communicate any sort of hope for the future. He just relied on a his resume to carry him through. Surviving a prison camp in service of one's country is a noble accomplishment. It in no way has any bearing on how one will be president 40 years later. He is a survivor. He has been in congress for decades. His campaign is all about how he feels entitled to be president, much like Bob Dole.

3. The Vice Presidential choices

I predicted Palin would be chosen months ahead of time. I think she has a lot of political talent. She has good job as governor of Alaska. She is not ready to president of the United States. She is a female version of George Bush, with less gravitas (which is saying a lot.)

4. McCain's campaign
McCain, who I was open to be convinced by--especially after the choice of Palin--has failed to run a campaign with any focus or discipline. Instead, he has consistently run a campaign of attack on Obama on irrational, fringe issues. McCain has tried to appeal to the racism and fears of Americans, and I refuse to vote for anyone who does this. The last couple weeks I have been called by McCain advocates who say that Obama pierces children's head with skulls, inserts for church bullitens by a PAC that say Obama favors child sacrifice and making America a Muslim nation.

The communism argument is a red herring, and politicians tried to put the same label on Martin Luther King Jr. in the 60s. It is not socialist to stand for a fairer and more just economy. It is just moral and right.

As for the "associations"--they should have been mentioned but not dwelt upon. Do you want to be held accountable for every word your pastor has ever said? Do you want to be held to account for every committee member of every committee you have ever been on. I don't. Also, in respect for Bill Ayers, every urban area has that influential person that had a radical past. Especially when you are a community organizer in an established inner city.

If you don't believe me, I ask every White American with small town roots if they have friend or acquaintence with strong racist attitudes that somewhere in the past participated in some sort of racial violence or with a fringe group. Heck, I have a man in our church that is a member of the John Birch society. Another who talked about how minorities used to be out of town by dark, and that is the way it should be today.

5. Obama inspires me and makes me feel proud of my country.

McCain does not.

Well...there are several other reasons. But that is a short view of my rationale.

Voting by Mail

Jen and I voted by mail this evening. It was an interesting experience. In the process, it brought up issues of a fear about whether our votes would be counted, but at the same time a similar sense of excitement in a little more open aptnosphere.

First, there was the fear. This came up in some ways for both of us. It is strange putting a ballot in the mail, and wondering if it will get there. When you do it at the polls, you watch your ballot go into the box or on the computer. When you do it by mail, you wonder if your ballot will even get there. And if they will lose it or something from the mail box to the machine that counts it. It was kind of strange.

Second, I had seen some publicity about how especially with mail ballots, republican powers that be were finding all sorts of ways to disqualify ballots. When I saw Jen's ballot, it was interesting to see how hers was different than mine. First, her political party (Democrat) was written on her label on her ballot. Mine (Republican) was not. Why is her party identified and mine was not? Then, her ballot instructions were poorly copied and illegible. Then, there was the fact that she intentionally did not register for a mail ballot, and yet got a mail ballot anyway. Finally, her envelope was addressed on the back side of the envelope instead of the front. She is convinced she is going to be a disenfranchised voter--in her mind just like the ones in Florida in 2000.

Book Club

We had a good book club meeting last night. It keeps sounding like people in the community might be invested in joining us, but as of yet nobody has made it.

Last night we studied The Shack. It was interesting to see the diversity of response to the book. One of the responses was by my neighbor Scotty. Scotty thinks that we have this culturally conditioned view of God, and of the supernatural for that matter. In reference to angels, he is convinced that his guardian angel looks like a triceritops dinosaur. I laughed out loud, but thought it was great. Certainly the angels in Revelation look more like a dinosaur than it looks like our renaissance picture of angels.

One of our more mature ladies was frustrated that the author didnt include Bible verses, until she reread the cover of the book and realized that it was fiction. So cute.

The smart alec side of me did want to say....verses are not in the Bible. Well...they are, but they are not. Verses were a later addition to the Bible, and are there so we can understand the Bible better. But John did not write his gospel with chapters and verses. That is just how we have put things together as people.

That got me thinking...how much of what is "inside" our Bibles are not really a part of the Bible at all. Paragraph divisions. Subheadings. Footnotes. Cross-references. Study notes? How do they condition our thinking? Define our way of reading?

Anyway...there was a little bit more personal sharing of things.

It is interesting. I am getting to use these book clubs to discuss theological issues--most have one or more theological themes. So I am getting to teach a whole group of folks that do not usually come to a traditional class/bible study.

btw...I was just elected as president of friends ofthe library...lol...life in a small town...life as a small town pastor.

I love this because I agree

HT Marko

Discipline--The Overview

I have been thinking about how to become more disciplined. I seem to do well at some things for a while, and it gives me traction, but then I seem to get stuck at some point and fail to make progress.

The other day I was reading Axioms by Bill Hybels, and he encouraged leaders not to be decieved by incrementalism. He said that incremental change often means no real change in the long run. Furthermore, he encouraged wholesale, exponential steps of growth. He was talking about this in relation to working with churches. I have been thinking about this in terms of life stuff.

Here are some of my observations:

• When I try to get disciplined in one area of my life (time management), I usually thought it was better to give myself slack in another area of my life (diet, finances, spiritual disciplines, goal setting and acheivement). What I have come to understand is that it may be better to get disciplined in all areas of my life at the same time. Thus...wholesale life change instead of incremental change. The problem is I have already had a lot of life change this year.......
• At the same time, little changes can make a big difference. They have to be small committed changes, not half-hearted, put your toe in the water changes though
• I need effective accountability structures to make life changes. I have tried this in some areas of my life. My accountability people in some recent ventures have not done well at keeping me accountatble. Other times the people are total jerks and I do not want to be around them.

Just some thinking I am doing.

Discipline Part 2

I have been thinking a lot, and discussing a lot with Jennifer about being more financially disciplined. Jennifer thinks I am a planner--which is probably different from what my family of orgin would say--but I think she is right. I am more and more of a planner all of the time.

Lately I have been thinking about Dave Ramsey, the Total Money Makeover, Financial Peace University, and how we can become more disciplined as a couple with our finances. To be honest, we are not awfully undisciplined at the moment. We do not eat out a lot, we rarely go to movies, and we do not spend a lot on luxuries. But, I think with a little more focus we can get some good things accomplished. And maybe if I get a second job, we can get some more stuff paid off. Right now we do well if we have regular expenses, but when those unexpected (car repairs or medical bills) or irregular (like Christmas) expenses come, we fall a little behind. Luckily, right now we have a cushion.

I am thinking that we will look at preparing for this until the end of the year, and then after Christmas get started with a firm plan.