Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

[Earned Media]

On Wednesday, August 27, police officers brutally arrested two teenage girls, ages 15 and 17, near Senator Obama’s Denver hotel. The young women, Julia Giacopuzzi and Jayne White, were writing messages in sidewalk chalk on the public sidewalk when the police officers rushed in and violently arrested the girls without warning or provocation. 

The girls are members of the pro-life youth organization Survivors, and were in Denver during the Democratic National Convention to call attention to Senator Barack Obama’s pro-abortion position as part of A Prayer for Change. 

Throughout the DNC, the youth of Survivors were using sidewalk chalk throughout the city of Denver with the permission of City Attorney David Fine and Denver Deputy Chief of Police John Lamb. It was understood by the young women that sidewalk chalk was an accepted medium, and they were given no warning by the police before being cuffed and dragged away.

Jayne White, age 17, was rushed from behind by a police officer and pushed face-down on the ground. He slammed his knee into the back of the young woman’s neck as she lay on the concrete without resisting. The officer forcefully pulled her arms behind her back and cuffed her. 

Miss White states, “I was peacefully sidewalk chalking when I was forcefully pushed to ground by a police officer from behind. As I was being cuffed on the ground, the police officer pushed his knee into the back of my neck. I was pulled roughly off the ground and taken away. I was given no warning to stop and was completely shocked when I was arrested. My back was throbbing from his knee.”

Julia Giacopuzzi, age 15, was surprised by a police officer twisting her arms behind her back and using them to lift her off the ground to be handcuffed.

Miss Giacopuzzi comments, “As I was sidewalk chalking, I was rushed by a police officer without warning and lifted up off the ground and was cuffed. I was then dragged by the police into the Westin Hotel.”

Read more here.

[From me]

I’m very pro-life but I’ve been critical of many of the protests I’ve seen.  But I don’t get how you can be arrested when you got permission for writing on a sidewalk with chalk.  My daughter writes on our driveway all of the time.  When you have wackos out to assassinate Obama, why are the police concerned about a couple of girls writing in chalk?  They look like real threats to national safety.

Also, why hasn’t the national media picked up on this?  Where is the ACLU?

What do you think?

[HT] Mark Mansheim 

[New Haven Register]

The fight between youth baseball league officials and one of its teams over a player whose pitching is said to be too good for batters is moving from the ball field to the legal field. Leroy and Nicole Scott, whose fast-pitching son, Jericho, 9, is at the center of the dispute, met Monday, along with another player’s parents, with prominent attorney John Williams to see whether the season could be saved. Williams said Monday he will take legal action to try to get Jericho’s team into the upcoming playoffs, where they belong after an 8-0 season. He also will sue the league over the pain and suffering of Jericho and the other young players.

League officials offered to move the team’s 13 players to other squads after they tried to dissolve the team last week because the coach, Wilfred Vidro, refused to pull Jericho off the pitcher’s mound as requested by league officials.

Jericho’s pitches are so fast and accurate that league officials and some parents feared their kids weren’t able to play freely, league attorney Peter Noble said recently. All the players on Jericho’s team declined to move and are sticking together.

Williams says the league officials are out in left field.

“This is a terrible, terrible thing happening to these kids,” Williams said. “Not only does it spoil their summer and their childhood, but it tells them it’s more about winning than doing your best. Everything we value children in athletics for, this is the antithesis.”

Leroy Scott said Jericho remains sad about the situation, blaming himself for the team’s troubles, troubles that keep them from playing ball.

“He’s trying to hold the weight of the world on his shoulders,” Leroy Scott said. “The kids are suffering because they were looking forward to the playoffs.”

Scott said no one from the team of 13 has sided with the league, and league officials have declined to answer their many questions, leaving no choice but to approach the situation legally.

Parents will hold a car wash and other fundraisers to offset the cost of hiring Williams, known for being willing to tackle out of the ordinary cases.

Noble had no comment Monday, but said over the weekend the league has only the best interest of kids in mind and it is intended to be fun.

Read more here  and here.

[From me]

What kind of message does this send to children?  When the going gets tough make the better player quit? Life isn’t fair!  The sooner we understand that the sooner we can learn how to adapt.  I think way too many American parents coddle their children and bail them out.  Jesus said following him was like giving your life away.  What kind of message does it send to the young boy who is so talented?  This is misguided at best. Jealousy will do some strange things.

My first football team I played on I scored the only touchdown for our team the entire season! Not everyone wins. There is always someone who finishes 2nd. Failure is a part of life and if children don’t learn that early on then they won’t know how to handle failure later.  I should know I have a lot of experience with failure!

What do you think?

Yesterday I finally finished reading Peppermint-Filled Piñatas: Breaking Through Tolerance and Embracing Love by Eric Michael Bryant. I’m sorry it took me so long to finish it but I was working on my own book proposal and well LIFE.  

Anyway, I brought the book home a few weeks ago and Cassandra (my beautiful wife of 20 years) stole it from me.  I had finished the first two chapters but the title caught her attention.  Then she read the entire book within 24 hours!  So, I had pencil underlines all through out the book!  So yes, she liked it.  Or should I say it challenged and convicted her about building relationships in our community.

Eric Michael Bryant is a pastor at Mosaic Church in Los Angeles, CA.  For those of you who don’t know Mosaic is pastored by Erwin McManus.  Mosaic is a unique church in that it is truly multi-racial. Eric is one of the few white people on staff.  He and his wife purposely moved to an area in LA where they are in the minority.  

The title of the book comes from when he went out to get candy for their child’s birthday party.  He wanted to save money so he bought peppermint candy.  But his wife knew that children wouldn’t want the cheap stuff they wanted the good candy.  He compared that to life.  People don’t want cheap relationships they want the good stuff.

He said the invention of the garage door has probably hurt relationships as much as anything.  I would tend to agree.  We just wave at our neighbors and push a button and go out of site.  He said as believers we need to quit hiding from the world and get in the world.  We have to get messy and dirty with people.  Not their lifestyles but we have to be involved and life is messy.

Eric is very transparent and doesn’t preach at us through this work.  But it was very convicting and confirming to both me and Cassandra that this is what church should be about.  Church is being the hands and feet of Jesus not a building, or a choir or band or the best pageant in town, etc….

I highly recommend Peppermint-Filled Piñatas and give it 4.8 hockey sticks out of 5.

I was supposed to start my Uptown Barista job on Monday.  But they were having computer problems so the manager backed it up until Tuesday. Then he called and said the computers were still down so he changed it until Wednesday.

At the church, especially since we are new, changes happen almost hourly.  We have to be ready to change our plans because stuff happens.  Whether it is the AC not working or a musician that can’t be there or a preschool teacher who is sick.

I learned a long time ago that the key word in ministry is “FLEXIBILITY.”  If you aren’t flexible then you will be left behind and be extremely frustrated.  I am a organized person (except for my desk).  I have always planned out my days down to the minute to get the most out of my schedule.  However, there were always interruptions and distractions that arose and changed my plans.  After reading and going to leadership conferences I realized those were actually opportunities for ministry.

Then I went to a Franklin-Covey seminar that taught me that the reason I was frustrated with my schedule is that it was unreasonable. No day goes 100% as planned.  You have to build in wiggle room.  You have to be flexible.  First, I started figuring out what were the most important things that absolutely had to be accomplished and I ranked them as “A” events.  One way or another I would finish them each day.  Then I would rank “B” events.  These are important but sometimes they could be rescheduled or even cancelled if needed.  Then there are “C” events which are nice but aren’t necessary for my day to be a success.  

What happens with many people is we have a check list of 10 things and we check off 9 of them.  But we aren’t successful because the one we left off was an “A” event.  Sometimes it is the #1 “A” event! When I started planning my days this way I became “less” frustrated with my days.  

So the key word in ministry is “FLEXIBILITY.”  What have you learned that could help me or others in time management?