TAPPED Archive | The American Prospect

TAPPED Archive | The American Prospect: "'It's extraordinary to me that the United States can find $7 $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can't find $25 billion dollars to saved 25,000 children who die every day from preventable diseases.' - Bono

--Dana Goldstein

Posted by Dana Goldstein on September 24, 2008 11:17 AM | Permalink"

Reflecting on Our Response to 9/11

Reflecting on Our Response to 9/11

(reprinted from Sojourners @ www.sojo.net)

Seven years ago this morning, airplanes were flown into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon, and a field in rural Pennsylvania. The next day I joined with a few others to draft the following statement. In a few weeks, more than 4,000 of America's religious leaders of all faiths had signed it and it was printed as an ad in The New York Times.

Seven years later, as we remember that day, it is appropriate to reflect on this statement and to wonder how the world would be different if its counsel had been heeded.

We demanded "that those responsible for these utterly evil acts be found and brought to justice. Those culpable must not escape accountability." Yet after seven years of war in Afghanistan, we are still engaged against a resurgent Taliban and al Qaeda, and Osama bin Laden has still not been found. Then, 9/11 was used as a rationale to invade and occupy Iraq, a conflict that has now taken the lives of more than 4,000 American troops and countless Iraqis. Rather than "the vision of community, tolerance, compassion, justice, and the sacredness of human life, which lies at the heart of all our religious traditions," we have seen the erosion of our civil liberties, torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, and indefinite detentions without trial.

Today on this anniversary, let us pause to remember those who died, to reflect on what has happened since, and once again, "Let us rededicate ourselves to global peace, human dignity, and the eradication of the injustice that breeds rage and vengeance." We offered a different way to deny the terrorists their victory, which, I believe, could still be followed. It's not too late to change our course. Please read and reflect upon the original statement.

I like this description...

Justice is what love looks like in public.

- Cornel West
From Call and Response, a documentary on global slavery.

Role of the Church

The church ... cannot be content to play the part of a nurse looking after the casualties of the system. It must play an active part both in challenging the present unjust structures and in pioneering alternatives.
- Donald Dorr

MCCAIN MET PALIN ONCE BEFORE YESTERDAY?

So, I wonder if McCain is picking the best person for the job, or the best vote getter for the election?

Makes me nervous.

Beer & Converative Voters

Interesting, Cindy McCain's company,Hensley & Company is the main Anheuser-Busch beer distributor in AZ.

As Hensley & Company approached its 50th anniversary, it held sway as one of the largest beer distributors in the country, enjoying more than a 60 percent share in its markets and dominating the distribution business in Arizona.

Wonder how many conservative voters know this?

http://www.answers.com/topic/hensley-company

7/29/08 Earthquake

5.8 earthquake shakes us pretty good- about 20-30 seconds of the house rolling - no damage though.

Quake was apparently felt from San Diego to Las Vegas.

Syd & Zach was at VBS at church... hope they did ok! It was their first one!

We'll pick them up in 2.5 hours.

A good reminder that we definitely should get more prepared for the eventual big one.

More later...

Urgent Prayer Request... for John Perkins

Dr. John Perkins, Co-Founder, CCDA

An urgent prayer request has just come in from reliable sources, for Dr. John Perkins... who is apparently heading into major surgery today.

Here's the published announcement at JMPF.org...

******URGENT MESSAGE*******

Dr. John Perkins was admitted to St. Dominic Hospital on the morning of July 26.

He is having surgery July 28 to remove a bile obstruction in his large intestine.

Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

He will be at St. Dominic in room 3404 for the rest of the week and would appreciate any visitors.

Any words of encouragement or prayers sent to elizabeth@jmpf.org will reach Dr. Perkins this week.


**********************

Thank you Neil and Rudy for keeping us all posted.

Great Quote!

It is not a matter of engaging in both the gospel and social action, as if Christian social action was something separate from the gospel itself. The gospel has to be demonstrated in word and deed. Biblically, the gospel includes the totality of all that is good news from God for all that is bad news in human life—in every sphere. So like Jesus, authentic Christian mission has included good news for the poor, compassion for the sick and suffering justice for the oppressed, liberation for the enslaved. The gospel of the Servant of God in the power of the Spirit of God addresses every area of human need and every area that has been broken and twisted by sin and evil. And the heart of the gospel, in all of these areas, is the cross of Christ.

- Christopher J. H. Wright
International director of John Stott Ministries (from Knowing the Holy Spirit Throught the Old Testament)

True Joy

It is sad to see that, in our highly competitive and greedy world, we have lost touch with the joy of giving. We often live as if our happiness depended on having. But I don't know anyone who is really happy because of what he or she has. True joy, happiness and inner peace come from the giving of ourselves to others. A happy life is a life for others.
- Henri J.M. Nouwen
Life of the Beloved

Fresh & Easy; A Compton Success (company Blog)

The opening of our store in Compton last February was one of those very special moments that will stay with me for a very long time - we were made to feel so welcome.

100 days later, it's great to see that it's proving a simple point. Although it was the first new grocery store to be built there in a generation, it's performing just like any of our other stores.

It's attracting a broad mix of customers, and it's business is being built on fresh foods - 10 of its 20 top selling products are fresh produce, some organic, and more than 75% of its sales are our own brand, all of which has no artificial colors or flavors, no added transfat, and only uses preservatives when absolutely necessary.

As I've said before, in our experience, if you offer fresh, wholesome foods at prices everyone can afford, in a clean environment with friendly service, people will shop with you.

Compton again demonstrates the point. And that, of course, is how it should be.....

posted by Simon Uwins @ 1:51

http://www.freshandeasy.com/blog/

Meditating on...

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. ... For thus says the Lord: Only when Babylon's seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

- Jeremiah 29:7-14

Astros visit the MLB Urban Youth Baseball Academy in Compton

Astros manager Cecil Cooper and his entire coaching staff took time out of a busy game day to visit the MLB Urban Youth Academy in Compton, Calif. Cooper and his staff were given a personal tour by Academy instructor Ken Landreaux, who played against Cooper in the 1970's when both were in the American League.

This was the first time that Cooper had seen the two-year-old facility and was very impressed. Cooper and his staff took the time to chat with many of the young academy students.

Cooper says he will make it a point to come back to the academy when the Astros are in the Los Angeles area to play either the Dodgers or Angels.

In photo, Zach is the player to right, stretching his legs (maroon socks).

Happy Cinco De Mayo

Happy Cinco De Mayo

It’s May 5th and in Compton we are celebrating Mexican heritage and pride.

Contrary to popular belief, Cinco De Mayo is not a celebration of Mexico’s independence. We celebrate Cinco De Mayo in memory of Mexico’s victory over the French in the Battle of Puebla in 1862. In Compton we take it a step further and celebrate Mexican culture, history, and ancestry with an annual festival.

When we learn and observe cultures other than our own, we are able to bridge gaps, open the doors of communication, and embrace one another. For those that thought Cinco De Mayo was Independence Day you just learned something new :) Mexican Independence Day is actually on Diez y Seis De Septiembre!"

Teens Fly Into Record Books in Compton!

.:: Aero-News Network: The Aviation and Aerospace World's Daily/Real-Time News and Information Service ::.

Teens Fly Into Record Books At CPM



Tue, 18 Mar '08
Two Kids, 11 Solos!

Two 16-year olds from Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum flew into the record books this weekend, when they each set new world records on Saturday, March 15, 2008.

Kelly Anyadiki (above) became the youngest African American female to solo in four different aircraft on the same day, while Jonathan Strickland (below) established a new record as the youngest African American male to solo six different airplanes, and a second record for soloing six airplanes plus one helicopter all on the same day.

The records were set at Compton Woodley Airport in front a large crowd. Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca was on hand to witness the event, as were other members of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, many of whom flew in from across the country to attend the event.

"These new world records the kids set are an example of where the past meets the present and the future!" said Robin Petgrave, founder of Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum.

"What Robin and these kids are doing here would have made my dad very happy," said Chauncey E. Spencer II, whose father was instrumental in getting African Americans approved for flight training in Tuskegee, AL during World War II. Spencer flew in from Michigan just to witness the world record flights.

Located at Compton Woodley Airport (CPM) in Compton, CA, Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum offers aviation-themed afterschool programs for more than 800 kids from grades K-12. Kids can take part in projects ranging from washing airplanes to graffiti mitigation. Instead of earning money, kids earn 'museum dollars,' which they can apply toward flight instruction or continued education in any field.

Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum plans to open additional locations across the country. The Newport News, VA chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen will open a TAM operation this spring, and the city of Norwalk and the ‘Adopt A Bike’ program in San Bernardino, CA. have plans to open a TAM as well.

Compton Vision Tour Map

A Wake-Up Call

This is an important year for studies on religious life in the U.S. From Kinnaman and Lyon's UnChristian, to David T. Olson's The American Church in Crisis, data is accumulating that business/ministry as usual is not a great strategy for most U.S. denominations and nondenominations.

The
new Pew study highlights the fluidity of commitment among the American
people of faith, and it raises important questions for church leaders
in at least three areas.

1. If congregations and denominations
are not connecting with people's questions, needs, and desires - people
are moving on. Old-fashioned denominational loyalty is gone. Church
leaders can complain about it, but they'd also better acknowledge it.
Now this fact could be used to advocate increased religious pandering
... a "give 'em what they want" approach that turns church leaders into
"purveyors of religious goods and services" (a damning turn of phrase
from the missional church folk) who are competing for share of the
religious market.

But it could also have a much more positive
effect: by convincing church leaders that blindly maintaining the
status quo is a losing strategy, the data can liberate them to ask
deeper questions like ... Why are churches here? What is our mission?
What is our core message? Does Christ's church have a mission, or does
Christ's mission have a church? How much can, and should, change in our
churches? What shifts in church history can guide us as we face this
sea-change in our religious environment? In other words, the new data
could challenge leaders to ask, not simply, "What do the customers
want?" but, "What does God want?" ... and not just "What do members
need from their church?" but "What does the world need our churches to
become, be, and do so that God's will can be done on earth as it is in
heaven?"

2. People are dropping out of church altogether. The
fastest-growing religious segment - especially among the young -
continues to be the unaffiliated. If the "church growth" question of
the 90's was, "How are we going to attract baby boomers to come back to
church services on Sunday?" the "church mission" question in coming
years might be, "How can our churches inspire younger generations to
live a new way of life as disciples each day of the week?"

3.
Old categories are blurring and old identities are diversifying and
fragmenting. The study highlights the simultaneous growth and
diversification of the old evangelical base, for example. As older
generations pass from the scene and the alliances they created lose
strength, who will help catalyze new movements and alliances? What will
their priorities and ethos be?

In light of the accumulating
data, it's become increasingly clear: we don't just need new answers to
old questions, but we need new questions as well.

Brian McLaren (brianmclaren.net) is board chair for Sojourners. He is in the middle of an eleven-city speaking tour you can learn about at deepshift.org.

What if... Compton's Transformation

Market Opening Draws Droves of Shoppers – And a Prince!

Residents say store featuring fresh, nutritious foods ‘couldn’t come soon enough’

Scores of shoppers who waited for more than an hour outside the new Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Feb. 7 fill the aisles once the store opened its doors to the public for the first time. —Compton Bulletin photo by Allison Jean Eaton

By Allison Jean Eaton
Bulletin Staff Writer

COMPTON – The city’s new Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market opened its doors last Thursday to a throng of eager shoppers, most of them from the surrounding neighborhood, and a member of the British Royal Family.

His Royal Highness Prince Andrew, Duke of York kicked off a U.S. visit with a stop at the new location off the intersection of Central and Rosecrans avenues, the latest in a rash of stores the U.S. arm of British retailer Tesco is opening in California, Arizona and Nevada.

The prince is currently touring British business ventures in the United States in his capacity as the United Kingdom’s Special Representative for International Trade and Investment.

“If I was going to want to shop on a regular basis, I’d rather come to a store this size,” said Prince Andrew after comparing large Tesco supermarkets he’s seen back home to Fresh & Easy’s smaller size and wider aisles.

Despite what Dr. Kofi Sefa-Boakye, the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency director, described as a “fast tracked” project, the store billing itself as a one-stop shop for fresh, nutritious and wholesome food products was a long time coming, according to some residents.

“It’s about time they opened a store like this here… I am so excited about this store being here. I could not wait – the day couldn’t come soon enough,” said Sharron Bryant, 48, who lives around the corner on 131st Street.

Bryant and several other women pushing shopping carts with cherry-picked selections took a little time out from shopping to comment on what a relief it is to finally have a store like Fresh & Easy in Compton.

“In these areas like this… people think we don’t eat healthy,” continued Bryant. “Well, we do. It’s just that the ones that do eat healthy go outside. We have to go far away to get to a Trader Joe’s or a Whole Foods or a Bristol Farms or something like that. But now we have it here locally, and it’s excellent,” she said.

And it means more sales tax revenue for the city, chimed in longtime resident Erma Clements, who lives six blocks from the new market. She and shopping companion Melanie Franks said they’re used to traveling all the way to Gardena, Manhattan Beach or El Segundo to access fresh and for the most part organic and preservative-free foods.

Sefa-Boakye said this new market is likely the fastest project he’s ever worked on in his years of community redevelopment experience, and it proves that Compton “is at the head of the pack in urban resurgence.”

“It was about October or September (of 2007) that we got the news” that the market chain had decided to locate here, he said. And now, just a little more than five months later, what was a vacant dirt lot littered with used tires has been transformed into a an eco-friendly structure that inside offers nutritious foods to an underserved population.

The entire northwest corner at Rosecrans and Central has been redeveloped over the past five years, Sefa-Boakye said. Just in front of Fresh & Easy sits Rite Aid, and next to that is Starbucks and T-Mobile. Prior to these developments, Sefa-Boakye said the area lay blighted and run down, an eyesore to the neighborhood.

The city “fast tracked” the project, speeding up the permitting and inspections process to get the store to residents as soon as possible and to give the city a competitive edge in attracting additional economic development.

Sefa-Boakye explained that if the city can offer companies the ability to get a project done from start to finish in a matter of months, Compton will become more attractive to prospective businesses interested in setting up shop in the southern Los Angeles area.

“The location they (Fresh & Easy) selected wouldn’t have been better,” said Sefa-Boakye. “Because this northwest quadrant, which includes Atkinson Brickyard, is one of the sleeping giants which eventually is going to transform the community of Compton.”

What’s more, the store rings true as a sign of urban revival here.

“Fresh & Easy is going to put Compton straight on the map,” he continued. “Why? Because urban communities are currently being realized as the best place to do business. And Compton is the ‘Comeback Kid’.”

Which hasn’t always been the case.

2nd District Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke said she’s struggled for years to get supermarkets and major grocery chains to open stores in her district, but to little avail.

“We’re so pleased to have this facility here – it makes such a difference. I know that everyone assumes that there is a grocery store in everyone’s neighborhood where you can get good produce and where you can get all the things you need to raise your family. Unfortunately, that is not always the case in my district,” said Burke. “Too often when people go into the grocery store, the produce is at its end of its shelf life, and you cannot get a full array of the kind of products you want.”

Mayor Eric J. Perrodin echoed Burke’s comments.

“This means so much to us here in the city of Compton,” he said. “We’ve been trying to get a full service supermarket that offers healthy food for so long here in the city of Compton.

“We had to get somebody from Great Britain to come over here before we could get our own Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s, so thank you, Great Britain.”

A Great Compton Work Day on Feb 2nd!

IMG_5674.JPG
Originally uploaded by urbanfocus

A Great Compton Work Day on Feb 2nd!

"I feel like we have a new house!", said homeowner Alisha from Rose Street. She cried, giggled, laughed and did alot of hugging over the period of the day.

Over 50 volunteers, mostly from West Coast Sand and Gravel in Buena Park, scraped, painted, plastered, dug and landscaped Alisha and her family's home. "We have been here over forty years and we have never seen anything like this", she exclaimed. She expected a three or four painters to do a little bit on the house, but she became quickly overwhelmed when she saw all the vehicles and volunteers arrive bearing paint, ladders, rollers, etc.

This past Saturday, over 600 volunteers participated in the most recent Compton Intiative Work Day, making it the most populated work day so far! One hundred and sixty people drove up from Saddleback Church in south Orange County for the day, along with forty staff and college students from Campus Crusade for Christ, as well as over fifty students from Biola and University California at Irvine.

Six Compton churches including, Faith Inspirational Missionary Baptist Church, Citizen's of Zion Missionary Baptist, The Salvation Army- Compton Corps, and New Birth Foursquare Church had close to 200 volunteers represented.

Thirteen different sites were worked on, most of which were on Alisha's street, Rose close to Faith Inspirational Missionary Baptist Church. Two of those locations were churches, Faith Inspiratonal and Martin Temple, but the others were private homes like Alisha's.

See some of the days pictures from the Feb. 2nd Work Day by clicking here http://www.flickr.com/photos/urbanfocus/sets/72157603844189992/

Don't forget the next work day, March 29!