I agree with Keith

Missouri State Representative Cynthia Davis (R) is quoted speaking quite disparagingly about a summer supplemental meals program, for school children who during the academic year receive free or reduced-price lunches.

"Hunger can be a positive motivator."

While I might say something like that in a pique of anger about my own kids, who are quite well-fed thank you Lord, coming out with something like this in relation to public policy and program is reprehensible. Davis goes on to suggest that these kids should get jobs at McDonalds so they can get free food during their breaks on the job. Her biggest concern seems to be that paying for this summer meal program leads to increased taxes (reportedly the 9.7 million meals served cost about $3.5 million, which seems to me to be a not-too-bad return).

Keith Olbermann tonight called Rep. Davis today's "worst person in the world." I tend to agree.

I think Davis needs to get in front of her remarks and defend them as best she can, and then recuse herself of her public service appointments related to child welfare in the great state of Missouri. An apology of a sort that these same defenseless children can understand and relate to, along the lines of having failed them and their needs miserably would be a good start. Remarks like this in no way signal a commitment to the welfare of that state's children. They further display a warped perception of the realities of hunger in our nation and a baffling inability to construe positive means to alleviate hunger and try to secure better futures for any state's children.

Thanks to ThinkProgress for relating the same story that Olbermann reported on-air tonight.

Back from camp

Eli had a good time at camp, even if they had to leave early because of a flu outbreak. Two kids (from Alabama) were ultimately diagnosed with Novel H1N1. The day our troop returned, we had one "sicky," who was told by his doc it was not the notorious version of the flu, but some other sort of virus. Everyone else was checking in "okay." That is until Sunday. They started dropping like flies with various symptoms. Some had started Tamiflu as a precaution, some had not. I couldn't keep track of the correlation between who was sick/not and who had started the med/not. But it was a little anxiety-provoking. Eli started Tamiflu the day he got home and never exhibited any symptoms. My doc graciously had a scrip available for me over the weekend if I began to show any symptoms (I did not).


We went ahead as planned and visited Mt Mitchell and the new observation platform on Saturday, and the Carter reunion in Mayodan and Hanging Rock SP on Sunday.

Here are some pictures from camp.

Pair of Ducks?

Recently I have been living with the notion of the paradox of our faith, and the paradoxes contained within our faith. Lots of folks want absolute answers, but I think a big part of faith is living with paradox, two seeming opposites that must reside together for the most authentic expression of our faith. Donna Shaper in a helpful post at Theolog, suggests the less antagonistic term "partnership" might be more helpful than either paradox or dichotomy. I think I might agree.

The notion struck me again today as I was reading about church marketing. Our church is in a very propitious moment: I think there are lots of possibilities that will likely begin to evidence themselves when we have new permanent pastoral leadership in place. This article by Brad Abare at Church Marketing Sucks seems to get at the issue. We are a fairly intellectual, liberal congregation, but not all that representative of the wider community in which we reside. We have a decision of sorts to make in the coming months if we are going to grow. And I think a lot of the decision-making will be along these lines and how we deal with the issues that are raised here. I intend to try to get our leadership to read these articles in preparation for studying how we want to understand ourselves as church in the next few years.

Bug-Out

The Scouts came back late last night. There was an outbreak of flu-like symptoms in another troop. It seems to have begun Wednesday night (one of our leaders thought it was food poisoning). The Haywood County Health Department is concerned that it could be the infamous H1N1 virus. Our troop decided not take any further risks; they got home after midnight last night. Eli is still sleeping. He will begin a round of tamiflu today. I have a call in to my doc (I was at camp for 90 minutes yesterday morning) to see what I might have to do. One of our boys was feeling ill last night, but only the one. The troop that seems to be the source had 15 out of 45 boys laid low. I am glad our leaders did not dawdle and brought the boys home right away.

Scout Camp

Eli went to Scout Camp yesterday. The Daniel Boone Council here in southwestern NC runs Camp Daniel Boone, near Canton. All 13 boys in the troop are at camp this week. Dads are sharing the leadership through the week(I'll be heading down TH morning). Eli will be studying First Aid, Crime Prevention, Weather, Canoeing, Space Exploration (building a rocket) and Horseback Riding. It will be a busy week. I'll post some personalized pictures when I have some. Above is the lakefront, and below is a typical campsite.

Random

Libby's Uncle Reid turned 97 recently. She took all three boys with her to visit for 24 hours a couple of weeks ago to celebrate (I am still reveling in having the house to myself for that brief respite!!) She took a couple of pictures of the trio for Reid who is an historic train buff.

This is what I have to work with at church. These are a couple of shots of kids in our youth bell ensemble. Goof balls one and all! The "older" person, in blue (who ought to know better than be photographed with this lot) is our education ministry intern this year, Kathryn.

The dogwood in the front yard bloomed in early April and looked pretty nice. And then the blooms faded. And then they fell off, all at once, one night. The station wagon looked like it had been in an Indian wedding! It was pretty cool!

Montreat Trails

Montreat has a pretty nice system of trails throughout the area. We have a couple of maps and have made our way one a few of the trails. With this post I am going to try to document our exploration of the trails.

Last summer a couple of dads and boys from Cub Scouts hiked to Walker's Knob. It was a fairly ambitious hike for 5th graders, but the view from the Knob was stunning. It was a glorious Sunday afternoon, and the sky was amazingly clear. We'll have to do it again, and press on from there to Greybeard (that will take a whole day, I think).

Several weeks ago I took Briggs and Eli on the Gate Trail on a Sunday afternoon to get us all out of Libby's hair while Calvin napped. It's an easy walk straight along Montreat Road and beside the Falling Creek. We stopped when we got to the playground, though it goes just a wee bit further to the Nature Hut. Up and back is just about two miles.

More recently the whole family set off on the Lookout Trail. The first 300 yards are seemingly straight up. But at a crossroads we switched to the Trestle Trail, which as one might imagine is pretty level. We hiked around the cove to a very nice shelter. Out and back was probably three miles. I did it with Calvin in a baby backpack. Don't need to do that again soon!

Today Eli and I took the whole length of the Lookout Trail, to the Lookout Point. It was cloudy and rainy at home, but from the point, above the fog, we had a pretty good view across the valley and into Montreat, and even a bit of Black Mountain. We went a little further (and a little higher) and hopped on the East Ridge Trail. That took us over Boggs' Bunion and through a very lovely forest on the ridge. We walked about 20 yards out of our way and saw the Tollroad Trail (we'll hike that someday), but went the other way ultimately, on Buck Gap Trail (which goes straight down in our case!!) and took a breather at the same shelter mentioned above. From there it was a pretty easy jaunt back around the Trestle Trail, down the lower part of Lookout and to the parking lot. We figure it's about 5 miles. Eli needed to orienteer a 5 miler to gain rank in Scouts, so we used his compass for this one.

I keep you posted on other hike we take in the future.