Guns, God, Governor Palin and Giving
Guns
I took JD shopping last night to Academy Sports and Outdoors. We bought ammo. It was very sweet.
Put this on the record, I'm no gun nut. I just don't worship at that temple. But we don't live in Blossomwood. Our dog was killed in the spring, there are snakes in the flower bed, and a feral pig charged my neighbor the other night. My neighbor Alisha calls this "Redneck Hill". I prefer "Cahaba Mountain Badlands" and refer to our house as "Rivendell, the Last Homely House".
If we were in a neighborhood with sidewalks and a community watch, I wouldn't have any gun in the house. I'd feel less safe having a gun in the house in that environment. It helps that Shannon's dad is a HUGE sportsman. She grew up with a gun range in their basement. So while neither one of us are NRA card carrying 2nd amendment zealots, we also both know that a boom stick can be the best tool to use in very specific circumstances.
We did run into Bo Lloyd, pastor of Christ Central UMC in Rainbow City, at Academy. He was on his way to do some hunting in Fayette County. (Matt Miller: you should buddy up to him. He's got a little farm over there that you could maybe sweet talk your way on to.)
So bottom line: Operation Porkchop Hill is moving forward.
Sumatanga Email List
I sent around 1100 invites yesterday. This morning there were 200+ subscribers with only 2 declines. Wow. This is really off to a good start. The link is up on the website. Things seem to be working with this tool. Fingers still crossed, though.
The challenge won't be finding reasons to use the list. The problem I foresee is people asking us to use this list for all kinds of weird requests that will saturate subscribers and annoy them to the point that they delete what we send. So we'll probably say no to a lot of stuff and try to be disciplined in what we send. I think we'll be OK if we send one message a week, as long as we rotate the type of content.
The Governor of Alaska
Governor Palin was speaking on special needs education this morning. She did a great job. It doesn't matter if I think she was full of baloney or whether or not I think she's incapable of being commander in chief if called upon. She presented herself as a competent person who could reasonably speak on the subject with some level of understanding, not just as a mother but as a policy maker. So why did she spend the VP debate auditioning for the Disney remake of "Annie, Get your Gun"?
First off, it's obvious that she was hurriedly picked and didn't have enough time to beef up on some key issues for a campaign of this scope. Secondly, she got some bad, bad, bad coaching from someone on the McCain staff about winking, and "aw shucks-ing" her way through the debate. She's a bright person. That doesn't mean she should ever be vice president. But they did her no favors in her selection, preparation or presentation strategy. Bad job by people who claim to be pros at this stuff.
Capital Campaign
Good stuff is happening at Sumatanga. Some great pledges are coming in on our capital campaign. A couple of Emmaus clusters are in a contest to see who can pledge the most (or so it seems). We're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars. I know that those of us who identify primarily with summer camps generally have less income and wealth. But I really urge y'all to talk to camp friends and encourage them to make a pledge to the campaign - any level of giving. We all know the parable of the widow's mite, so any commitment is important.
The proponents of summer camping brought Sumatanga into existence. The United Methodist Women rebuilt our Lodge after a terrible fire in the late 1960's. Right now the Emmaus community is really driving this campaign. I hope that our current summer camping community will stand shoulder to shoulder with Emmaus folks, not in size of contributions, but in terms of faithfulness.
I took JD shopping last night to Academy Sports and Outdoors. We bought ammo. It was very sweet.
Put this on the record, I'm no gun nut. I just don't worship at that temple. But we don't live in Blossomwood. Our dog was killed in the spring, there are snakes in the flower bed, and a feral pig charged my neighbor the other night. My neighbor Alisha calls this "Redneck Hill". I prefer "Cahaba Mountain Badlands" and refer to our house as "Rivendell, the Last Homely House".
If we were in a neighborhood with sidewalks and a community watch, I wouldn't have any gun in the house. I'd feel less safe having a gun in the house in that environment. It helps that Shannon's dad is a HUGE sportsman. She grew up with a gun range in their basement. So while neither one of us are NRA card carrying 2nd amendment zealots, we also both know that a boom stick can be the best tool to use in very specific circumstances.
We did run into Bo Lloyd, pastor of Christ Central UMC in Rainbow City, at Academy. He was on his way to do some hunting in Fayette County. (Matt Miller: you should buddy up to him. He's got a little farm over there that you could maybe sweet talk your way on to.)
So bottom line: Operation Porkchop Hill is moving forward.
Sumatanga Email List
I sent around 1100 invites yesterday. This morning there were 200+ subscribers with only 2 declines. Wow. This is really off to a good start. The link is up on the website. Things seem to be working with this tool. Fingers still crossed, though.
The challenge won't be finding reasons to use the list. The problem I foresee is people asking us to use this list for all kinds of weird requests that will saturate subscribers and annoy them to the point that they delete what we send. So we'll probably say no to a lot of stuff and try to be disciplined in what we send. I think we'll be OK if we send one message a week, as long as we rotate the type of content.
The Governor of Alaska
Governor Palin was speaking on special needs education this morning. She did a great job. It doesn't matter if I think she was full of baloney or whether or not I think she's incapable of being commander in chief if called upon. She presented herself as a competent person who could reasonably speak on the subject with some level of understanding, not just as a mother but as a policy maker. So why did she spend the VP debate auditioning for the Disney remake of "Annie, Get your Gun"?
First off, it's obvious that she was hurriedly picked and didn't have enough time to beef up on some key issues for a campaign of this scope. Secondly, she got some bad, bad, bad coaching from someone on the McCain staff about winking, and "aw shucks-ing" her way through the debate. She's a bright person. That doesn't mean she should ever be vice president. But they did her no favors in her selection, preparation or presentation strategy. Bad job by people who claim to be pros at this stuff.
Capital Campaign
Good stuff is happening at Sumatanga. Some great pledges are coming in on our capital campaign. A couple of Emmaus clusters are in a contest to see who can pledge the most (or so it seems). We're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars. I know that those of us who identify primarily with summer camps generally have less income and wealth. But I really urge y'all to talk to camp friends and encourage them to make a pledge to the campaign - any level of giving. We all know the parable of the widow's mite, so any commitment is important.
The proponents of summer camping brought Sumatanga into existence. The United Methodist Women rebuilt our Lodge after a terrible fire in the late 1960's. Right now the Emmaus community is really driving this campaign. I hope that our current summer camping community will stand shoulder to shoulder with Emmaus folks, not in size of contributions, but in terms of faithfulness.