interesting op-ed in thursday’s wsj by dan henninger…

Hatin’ Palin

She’s not the reason Americans can’t stand their politicians.

here’s a core clip…

The established political pros let the selection process come to this. Presidential candidates such as John McCain and Barack Obama have become untethered from the discipline of party institutions, largely because the parties have lost coherence. So we get celebrity candidates made famous, fundable and electable by dint of their access to the Beltway media. For voters, this election is a national Hail Mary.

dan goes on to offer an opinion poll about who we’d prefer leading the country through a time of testing in foreign policy.  i’ve posted it as a poll and for the sake of conversation would invite you to vote in it.  its in the side bar of my blog.  give it a shot.

like dan, given the choices i’d take gov. palin.  the more she speaks, the more she engages the more impressive she becomes.

just saw this clip from a true american hero in the heart of the urban america, rudy carrasco.  i’ve had about a dozen conversaitons in the past week about this very subject.  this clip is from some good folks at the acton institute in that state up north and their excellent  “Effective Stewardship” curriculum. which says it very well.  (btw, the namesake of acton, lord hb action was the author of a great reminder for today… “absolute power corrupts absolutely.”)

and it rings so true.  rudy says…there are reasons about poverty that are counter-intuitive…things you don’t think about…there are times when poverty is the result of a stupid decision at a buearucratic level… it reminds me of a similar argument that marvin olasky made a few years ago in his book the tragedy of american compassion. in the midst of this messy financial upheaval many things are becoming clear.  we need to allow the natural pace of the free market.  there is a hand that rewards when you work it right and a foot that gives you the boot when you miss the mark.  what we are in the middle of is unprecedented, but has as many dangers and penalties as it does rewards and progress.

i love rudy’s heart and passion.  he’s leading and doing what real compassion is all about….surf over to harambee and see for yourself.  if you’re looking for a place to do some hands on ministry…this would be a great place.

here’s a couple of pixs from a recent visit.  the first is rudy hard at work in his office at harambee.

the recyle bins pictured were the good work of our students last summer when we were in socal and spent a couple of days at harambee in pasadena.  though it was a small effort, the students still talk about their investment.  i was blessed to see them still there and very much a part of the neighborhood.

in less than a month the outpost is hosting its first conference called the sticks. tim stevens, from granger community church is one of the main session speakers and this video he recently posted will literally have you seeing double about being at the sticks.

there’s still some space so hop over now to the website and check it out.  on a side note  i’ll be teaming up with a couple good folks ( more on that later) to talk about youth ministry in some break out sessions.  should be a great time…promise.  just so you know our friends at simply youth ministry have partnered with us in my breakouts and the boxes arrived last week..and let me say they weren’t full of sticks.  hope you can join in the conversation.  tag me up here or on twitter if you’re going to be in the audience.

this past summer we spent sometime at saddleback church for the student leadership conference.  one impacting aspect of our time was the leadership of Christopher “Taffy” Tafala.  Taffy is the director of student ministry worship and he knocks it out of the park. (in the picture taffy is on the left and i’m not sure the other two, but  i know the young man on the right is the lead vocal on the take it all clip mentioned below ) i loved this young man’s heart as he particapated in the worship sets at slc08.  his energy took the time to a whole new level. here’s a clip from one of our times of worship (the audio isn’t the best.)

best thing is they’ve got their first cd album due out later this week.  right now you can surf to their myspace and check out a clip.

a little over a year ago my pal mark zimmerman lead a dialogue via a radio event at a church on the near westside of cleveland.  the event was called 1 night on the street.

its purpose was and is to raise awareness that one person can truly make the difference in the life of those that are in bondage to poverty. i took a group of youth and another adult leader up for the evening.

i know for those that went their life was radically changed. the video above was the result of our students becoming frustrated that there was food left over from an meal that had been prepared as part of the evening. the weather had gotten chilly and those that would normally attend a free meal stayed in the warm places. our students decided to take the food to those in need. it took a journey. the city had already rounded up many of those in need and we finally caught up with them and offered a small portion. in the conversation that followed over the next couple of days, the words i heard from those that attend was how they had to get out their safety zone to reach out. so as part of blog action day 08 i share this video…and ask you to join in the conversation (as my pal nick says all the time!)how have you or will you engage locally and globally in meeting the needs of those in poverty?