A Gift Buyer's Guide to Mother's Day?

Mother's Day is a little less than two weeks away, so two local merchants here in Marshall, Texas are here to remind you it's not too soon to shop for that perfect gift.

On the way to work a Home Health Care Supply store has this sign--

Lift Chairs

for

Mother's Day

I guess that's because nothing says love like "Ma, you're so fat..." or "Ma, your knees are so badly shot that I got you a lift chair! Happy Mother's Day!"

I felt that way until today when I went to the pharmacy where the bags were stamped

Happy

Mother's

Day

I guess that's because nothing says love like, "Here ya go Ma, stay on your meds!"

Please, do better than that for your Mother this Mother's Day... unless she asks for a lift chair or meds. Then it's up to you!

And Don't Let the Door...

The Colorado Springs Gazette Newspaper is reporting that First Presbyterian in Colorado Springs has had a congregational meeting and voted to leave the PC(USA). The Gazette reports that this has been in the works for over a year. Anyone who is surprised by this just hasn't been paying attention to the current landscape of the PC(USA).

By the way, if that's you let me say I wish it was me.

There was something in the article which has drawn my attention that I feel needs to be shared. This comes from the Gazette article:

The final vote tally was 1689 church members in favor of the split with 80 opposed, the church announced during an evening service.


The shift to the new denomination may cause some members to leave, acknowledged Alison Murray, staff leader, after the results were announced.


“We grieve that and don’t want that to happen,” she said.


The church now has to try to identify those members who voted against the split and help them find new local churches within the Presbyterian Church, USA, if they want to leave, she said.

Read more: http://www.gazette.com/articles/presbyterian-137338-historic-downtown.html#ixzz1t4GN3td0 

What upsets me is that it is not up to the congregation to show the door to those who dissent.

One of the questions that has permeated this process is "in the event of a split, who gets the property." Here's the Cliff Notes version of this part of Presbyterian Polity. To paraphrase, the Book of Order says property is held in trust by the Presbytery and when questions of "which group within a split get to hold the property" arises it's the Presbytery and not the congregation that decides. (There are limited exceptions to this rule, but I don't know if they apply to First-Springs.)

Obviously if the Presbytery does not agree with the congregation about the property issues, this is going to play itself out in civil courts instead of church courts again.

But in advance, First Springs has decided it is the congregation who stays and for those who aren't comfortable can find another place to worship (and we'll help!). The congregation and its leadership has taken it upon itself to usurp Presbyterian Polity by creating a process to show dissenters the way to a place where they'll be more at home. Sorry, this isn't pastoral care, this is laying a siege.

I pray it all works out well for First-Springs. I pray all works out for Pueblo Presbytery. And I hope the Reverend Singleton makes his way into the history books as the father of a new denomination. I want to wish you all love and hope, but I think I'll first offer that love to the 80 people who have become disenfranchised by their own pastors, friends, and neighbors.

Suspensions for Sports Violence

Metta World Peace (hereafter referred to as MWP), the artist formerly known as Ron Artest, tossed this haymaker elbow in Sunday's game against the Oklahoma City Thunder...

It was a tough game and evidently there had been jawing from victim James Harden during the game. As you see in the replay, MWP knocked down the basket and was ready to flex some muscle and attitude while getting down on defense. Harden was getting ready for the inbound, at least nominally. Suddenly, BAM!, Harden goes down.

MWP has a history of bad behavior in the NBA. In Indianapolis he was responsible for a huge fight in the stands. (It's true, he didn't start it, but going into the stands, especially when you start slapping around the wrong guy, is never a good thing for a millionaire to do. It'll get you sued quick!) So what ever his punishment will be, it will be based on being a repeat offender, and so be it.

I have heard that Harden has a concussion. Here's hoping he doesn't, but if he does he'll miss a few games.

So if I were the Czar of Sport Punishment, how would I handle MWP? Easy. First, I'll agree with everyone who says he should miss ten games. Good start. But here's my wrinkle: First, he misses the same number of games Harden misses because of the injury AND THEN he serves the ten.

So, if Harden misses six games because of the concussion, MWP misses a total of sixteen. If he's knocked out for the season then so is MWP then he serves the ten next season. If Harden misses the playoffs then so does MWP.

By the way, this has a "professional death penalty" implication too: If your intentional violent action ends someone's career then your career ends too.

My rationale is simple, nobody should benefit by intentionally injuring another player. I want the punishment to fit the crime. If you take someone out intentionally, you go too. For those who say I'd end careers, I would say "Well, in the (insert sports league here...). There's always Japan, Italy, Turkey, Israel, Finland...(I can't think of another place for NFL style football, so they'd better be careful or check out the Arena League.) Playing is a privilege, if you intentionally destroy someone's career you'd better be ready to pick up the shattered pieces of your career too.

I know accidents happen, Joe Theismann knows this better than anyone. But this Suspension for Sports Violence would not have been applied in that case because it was not intentional. It was a horrible injury, but it was not intentional.

Sure, lawyers, unions, and leagues would fight implementation tooth and nail, and that's fine. But implementing this sort of rule would curtail many cheap shots seen in sports and that's a good thing. As for the cheap shots still taken, implementation just might get it out of the league another way.

The Next "The Day the Music Died"

It's being widely reported that Dick Clark has died from a coronary and Levon Helm, drummer for The Band is desperately ill.

You know, I really don't have much to add to this, but it reflects a slice of my youth going to the permanent realm of memory. Go with God.

Bobby Petrino--YOU'RE OUTTA THERE

Bear with me, I'm going to take you on a long, convoluted explanation about why University of Arkansas Head Football Coach Bobby Petrino was fired.

The cover up.

Kind of a big build up for nothing, wasn't it.  Check this out...

• Bobby Petrino wasn't fired for having an affair. If people got fired for having an affair the unemployment rate would go through the roof.
• Yahoo! reports Coach Petrino gave his mistress $20,000. It is also reported that this was a gift from his personal accounts, not the University nor the Razorback Foundation which supports and funds Arkansas Athletics. So he wasn't fired for this either.
• Coach Petrino did not get fired for making a false report to the police because technically he did not make a report. As for lying to the police in general, well, that's "an error of omission, not commission."
• He wasn't fired for hiring his mistress. The violations of employment law was enough to get him fired, but it wasn't why.
• He wasn't fired for misuse of state employees. The local newspaper reported Coach Petrino contacted his personal game day security day man after the accident to get him to the hospital and keep things on the down-low. This man is an Arkansas State Trooper. This too could have gotten him fired, but it wasn't why.

What Bobby Petrino was fired for was lying about all of this to Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long. I believe all of this could have been swept under the inappropriate rugs if it were not for the lies. 

What Coach Petrino was despicable, I'm sure his wife would agree. But it's nothing a state university, athletic department, or team couldn't live with. And while I find that sentence despicable, I also believe it's true especially in the football crazy SEC.

In the end, it was lying to Jeff Long that made Bobby Petrino's stay at Arkansas untenable. If it weren't for the cover up, it could have all gone away.

The moral of our story is, as usual, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Look at Watergate, Iran-Contra, Whitewater, and any one of a million other political scandals since time began. It's not the crime that gets you, in the end it's the cover up.

At least that's my opinion. Here's Jeff Long's...

Ozzie and Miami

When he was manager of the Chicago White Sox, Ozzie Guillen was known for putting his foot in his mouth. He would say the most absurd things! This was a part of the reason the Miami Marlins were so happy to land him, and why it was so easy for the Sox to let him go.

The Miami Marlins, formerly the Florida Marlins, have two World Series Championships and no fan base. It's almost impossible to get a house for a game in Miami! Between the weather (rain at 5PM anybody?) and, well, it's Miami people, the Marlins never drew much of a crowd.

This year was the first big step in changing that. There's a new baseball stadium on the site of the old Orange Bowl. There's a retractable roof so there's no more problems with the rain. There's a change from a generic "Florida" name to a new "Miami" vibe. The last piece of the puzzle was Ozzie. Venezuelan by birth, it was hoped Ozzie could speak to the Latin population of the city in ways others could not.

Whoops.

ESPN reports Guillen told Time magazine for an article published last week that he loves Castro and respects him for staying in power for so long. If you want to alienate Miami's Cuban population, with a stadium in the heart of Little Havana, that's the best way to do it.

I think this analysis says more about what Ozzie meant to say than the quotes. Ozzie has always seen himself as a rebel. He's willing to do or say what ever it takes to win games and championships, his way of staying in power. He said he deplores Castro's politics, but loves his chutzpah. He loves the fact that a man so despised by the world can be a "success." He is still President-for-Life after all. Maybe that's the title Ozzie wants, President-for-Life. Forget these silly front office people. Forget the press. Forget the crowds. All that matters is the number of wins. Fidel is a winner and Ozzie backs the winner... even though he hates his politics.

I know little of Florida or Miami politics, but this much I have learned: There is no way of extolling love for Castro in South Florida that even comes close to being appropriate. Ozzie committed the first sin of trying to get Miami's Latin and specifically Cuban population to follow. That's all.

Ozzie has apologized. Whether it's because he "betrayed his Latin community" or for causing such a storm that he might lose his job we'll see. In my opinion he'd be a fool not to be sorry for both of these things. In both of these things he seems sincere.

In the meantime, he begins a five game suspension. Will he be fired? I suspect it depends on whether or not the storm subsides and people go to the stadium or not. We'll see next week.

Support for Coach Ricky Sargent

Here's a plug for Coach Ricky Sargent.

Let me begin with a little about where I'm coming from. First, my mother and father taught me to respect and obey authority. You had better believe I obeyed my high school coach when we were out on road trips. Second, I have no kids of my own. The concerns of the parents, while understood, are not ingrained on me like they would be a parent. Finally, let's just say 60 miles today isn't what 60 miles was when I was in high school. I remember thinking it was a huge distance, but after living in rural Colorado and in Texas, 60 miles is nothing.

Ricky Sargent was the football and track coach at Hempstead ISD. The kids were being rowdy on the bus, so when they stopped at 11PM in Gittings, Texas, 60 miles from home, the coach told everyone they weren't getting any food.

Two boys, cousins, decided to disobey. They got left behind. The coach even went back to wait with the boys!

Now let me add two more things. First, getting stranded in 2012 is different from even being stranded when I was in High School in the late 1970's. The boys called their mommas from their cell phones, they didn't have to call collect from a gas station pay phone. Let me also mention again they were stranded in Giddings, Texas. Giddings is a wide spot in the road outside of Austin with a population of less than 6,000. It's not like they were left in a crack den in a methed-up neighborhood.

There is talk of discipline breaking down. Well here's somebody who showed that actions have consequences and for that he got fired. What did the young boys learn, "if I cry to momma I'll get what I want." What did the mommas learn? Nothing, by their actions all they say is "I can't discipline my children and neither can you."

I like what Coach Sargent did. Was it a good thing to do? In this litigious society it wasn't the smart thing to do. Do I think the the school board did the right thing? I think that to cover their collective asses in a litigious society they did what they had to do.

On a side note, what if the coach "had been playin'" and pulled around the corner? What's the lesson to the rest of the team? "Go ahead, disobey me, there are no consequences and by disobeying you are the only members of the team to get food." Now that would be messed up. Good for you coach. Here's hoping you, your 2011 State Championship in football, and no-nonsense attitude get a better job quickly.

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