Archive for July 23rd, 2007

Local Links: Down with yawning apathy

Monday, July 23rd, 2007
  • I love the Preds, but Chris Wage makes an excellent point: “We can get ourselves worked up into a fervor over the prospect of losing the Predators or gaining a baseball stadium, but the extent of our interest regarding the homeless amounts to ‘why don’t we just arrest them all’. There was a lot of talk about ‘community’ and ‘coming together’ at the rally. I dunno, the contrast of this mass hysteria to the yawning apathy at the other events was striking.”
  • Malia is on a similar topic and provides a much needed infusion of reality: “As a friend of mine put it recently, “You know we live in Disneyland, don’t you?” He and I were talking about something completely different, but the image is still the same. We act as though the way we live in the U.S. is normal, but it is more like living every day in Disneyland. Reality is across the ocean and south of the border. Reality is that 40% of humanity lives in abject squalor. Reality is that thousands of people die every day from starvation and thirst. Reality is that a car, a steady supply of food, a roof, clean running water, electricity, etc. are all luxuries. ” (By the way, David and Malia are looking for folks who want to go in on Preds tickets if you are interested, too.)
  • Speaking of hockey and spirituality, Kerry Woo reports that the Promise Keepers just outdrew the Our Team rally: “Men Gather 9,500 Strong for Promise Keepers at the Sommet Center… Many thanks for the hard work from all of the volunteers - hundreds of women, youth and men gave of their time to facilitate the third stop on the seven conference schedule… the best is yet to come!” While PK is a little too conservative for my personal tastes, any time nearly 10,000 people are gathered together to try to live more honorably, that sounds like good news to me. Let’s see Canada or Kansas City do that. (Seriously, how about franchising compassion and kindness and other forms of virtue?)

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