Trying to follow

I got the Nashville Scene on Friday and was perplexed by the cover photo:

What’s your take?

I’m sure there might be more to say about this one, but I guess today for what ever reason I found it pretty touching.

http://www.freehugscampaign.org

From the site:

How it all started:

I’d been living in London when my world turned upside down and I’d had to come home. By the time my plane landed back in Sydney, all I had left was a carry on bag full of clothes and a world of troubles. No one to welcome me back, no place to call home. I was a tourist in my hometown.

Standing there in the arrivals terminal, watching other passengers meeting their waiting friends and family, with open arms and smiling faces, hugging and laughing together, I wanted someone out there to be waiting for me. To be happy to see me. To smile at me. To hug me.

So I got some cardboard and a marker and made a sign. I found the busiest pedestrian intersection in the city and held that sign aloft, with the words “Free Hugs” on both sides.

And for 15 minutes, people just stared right through me. The first person who stopped, tapped me on the shoulder and told me how her dog had just died that morning. How that morning had been the one year anniversary of her only daughter dying in a car accident. How what she needed now, when she felt most alone in the world, was a hug. I got down on one knee, we put our arms around each other and when we parted, she was smiling.

Everyone has problems and for sure mine haven’t compared. But to see someone who was once frowning, smile even for a moment, is worth it every time.

If you don’t know my friend Rachel, you probably should. You can read some her blog about her teaching adventures in Chicago, and might catch a glimpse of the heart and love she puts into the children that she serves. I was reading a recent entry of her’s and was touched by how much she cared for the kids she worked with, and wanted to pat her on the back with a nice little comment: “it’s so great the work that you do and that you have such a heart for those kiddos.” And then I realized I was slipping into the dangerous place of vicariously serving, and also missing the whole point of Rachel’s heart.
What I’m trying to say is that way to often in our society, and particularly in Christian churches, there is a tendency to sit back apathetically and do pretty much nothing, and not do much of anything to address the social injustices (actually doing more to contribute to them). And the worst thing is we don’t even feel guilty about it. Instead we watch a movie like Dangerous Minds, Lean on Me, or Coach Carter, and we shed a tear and say things about how wonderfully selfless those teachers are. We give front line teacher’s like Rachel and Nate pats on the back, and we do nothing to address the cries of injustice that pour out through their experience.

Rachel writes:

why has no one helped danisha before now? why has she not received counseling for the death of her brother, the death she witnessed? why has no one been listening to me about the letters she has written when she says she is ready to die? why has she been in our school for five years without anyone doing anything about the fact that she obviously exhibits signs of sexual abuse? why am i the first teacher to realize that she has a boyfriend who is in and out of jail, who beat her, and that this might be a problem? why was no one available to take her in the office an hour earlier when i had tried to prevent something like this fight from happening?

And that folk’s is where you come in, because of a lot of the answers are: The reason nothing was done is because nobody who can really do something about it (you and I) really bothered to. We’re too busy telling our friend’s to check out Gridiron Gang. We should be going to school board meetings, voting for election candidates that actually care about addressing our unjust school system, and demanding the discrimination, racism and oppression that exist in this country be changed.
I’m all for tutoring programs and summer programs for kids, but the churches need to stop putting mediocre bandaids on this injustice and start addressing it.

That’s my rant. Please help.

Seriously, someone has a credit card in my name and they are racking up charges. Wow.

(reposted from Mark Leon Goldberg at UNdispatch)

It’s not often that a story in Sports Illustrated can have a direct impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in sub-Saharan Africa. But with an 815 word column in April, writer Rick Reilly kicked off a grassroots campaign to do just that.

Reilly’s pitch was straightforward. Every thirty seconds, an African child dies from a malaria infection transmitted by a mosquito bite, making it the number-one killer of African children under five. So he implored his readers to send $10 donations to the United Nations Foundation to purchase mosquito nets to help protect families when most of the transmissions occur: at night when families are asleep.

The pitch was simple, and it worked. It really worked.

In a few short months, SI readers, little league teams, high school clubs and community groups began sending donations to the United Nations Foundation. Soon, some $1.2 million - much of it raised in $10 increments - had poured into UNF. As a result, some 120,000 insecticide treated bed nets were purchased.

The success of Reilly’s campaign was, quite literally, overwhelming. So to help organize the incipient movement, and collect and distribute the donations, the United Nations Foundation, in partnership with Sports Illustrated, the NBA, and the People of the United Methodist Church, established a non-profit to handle the donations and keep the momentum going. Nothing But Nets was born.

Here’s how it works: One net is durable enough to last as long as four years. The nets themselves cost about $7. A $10 donation covers the cost of the net, delivery, and installation. In some cases, parents and children may sleep under one net. Importantly, there are no overhead costs for Nothing But Nets - the United Nations Foundation pays for that.

The first nets were recently delivered in Nigeria. Reilly is traveling there to visit families and with staff from the World Health Organization and the Measles Initiative to check out how the nets are used.

In the meantime, you can click here to donate ten bucks.