People you meet 2

What is it about Fridays? I was walking to the National Museum of Art to get a brochure on the Cézanne in Provence exhibit they have there and I met a woman who was - literally - covered in leaves. Fronds. Holly. Ivy. All kinds of green stuff. Her name? Amelia Exotica. Yeah I know, sounds like something from a B & D bar. But she was actually here to lobby Congress as part of National Ivasive Weed Awareness Week. I am not making this up. I will post a photo her friend shot as soon as I get it. Apparently, invasive weeds are a problem. Who knew?

I was wrong . . . .

Why are these three words so hard to say? Why does everyone from a three year old child to the President of the United States avoid these three words like Bird Flu? When did being responsible for our own actions go out of style?

The Houghton Mifflin dictionary defines responsible this way:

"Liable to be required to give account, as of one's actions or of the discharge of a duty or trust." Another definition is: Involving personal accountability or ability to act without guidance or superior authority: a responsible position within the firm."

Some synonyms include: Answerable, accountable, liable, trustworthy, dependable, reliable, sound. But sadly what we see is a condition that is all to familiar to human kind - passing the buck.

Adam did it; Eve did it. Abraham did it. We all do it, but that doesn't meant it's right. One who did not do it was Jesus. He was perfectly accountable and trustworthy in everything He did. He did not make excuses, He did not try to deflect criticism but answered His critics with wisdom that confounded them.

So why is it so hard to own up to our screwups? NBC had video this week of the Presidential briefing before Hurricane Katrina struck last August. Some say the President was engaged, others say he was clueless, but everybody is looking for somebody else to blame. The President couches it in euphemistic language - mistakes were made. Great! Why can't he just say "I was wrong; I should have acted sooner,"? New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, the Governor of Louisiana, Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff, former FEMA head Michael Brown - they are all looking to pass the buck.

But it doesn't really matter to those who are out of a home. Everything they had - all their possessions, all their memories and is some cases members of their family - is gone. They looked to the government for help and what they got was excuses. Katrina took no mercy on anyone - it was an equal opportunity destroyer. But the fact that most of those left in the Superdome and the Convention Center were poor, black, and disenfranchised should give us pause.

Former President Clinton and the first President Bush have been raising money to help people in the storm zone. There are people living in tents - tents, not trailers - in Mississippi. This is an AP Photo of some of what people had left. Now they live in tents. Think of Hawkeye and B.J.'s tent on the old tv series M*A*S*H. You know, no heat, no running water, no toilet, no security. And the aid that the government promised seems to be slow in coming. Even this week, the Washington Post carried a story about Bishop T. D. Jakes and several other ministers wondering where $20 million in promised funds from the Clinton-Bush efforts was. Churches are places that people turn in times of crisis, but many churches were also devastated by the storm.

So when is someone going to step up and say "Hey, we screwed up! We were wrong and now we want to fix that." That would show something else - character, one definition of which is "moral or ethical strength."

It's all about the Benjamins ....

or at least the Hamiltons in this case. The Treasury Department issued its new $10 bill today in a special ceremony at the National Archives. The link on the title of this post goes to a pretty cool interactive link at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing that shows some of the features. The folks at Treasury have devoted lots of these Hamiltons to make sure the bad guys can't copy them. There's a sermon in there somewhere.

I discovered this news while walking past the National Archives building today. It was a slow day at work so I decided to get some fresh air. There was a photographer on the street and a video crew was packing up along Constitution Avenue, and I ask the photog what was up. He told me, and I went inside to get a press kit.

This new bill is first of all - pink! That's right it's pink; can't call this one a "greenback" any more. Granted there is some green in it, but mostly it's pink.

It has the first words of the Preamble to the Constitution on it (We the People .... all you Star Trek fans remember those as "holy words.")

It also has the Statue of Liberty's torch on it. The ink changes color, just like the $20 bill does, and there is a watermark image and a security thread.

A lot of time and effort went into the making of this bill. I had to get one once I saw the hubub around it. Alexander Hamilton is still there, though he is not encased in a circular motif as he was on the old bills.

You have probably heard the sermon about how the Secret Service wants their agents to know the real thing so they can recognize the fake ones. The become real familiar with the original so that they can pick up the fake ones easily. However, the advent of digital technology has made keeping ahead of the bad guys more difficult. I wonder if the physical is a reflection of the spiritual?

The other day I had a dentist appointment, and my oral hygenist was telling me about how her teenaged daughter was on "MySpace." She had posted her photo, her address, and other pertinent information about herself on her site. And her mom was justifiably upset. When she and I were teenagers, there was no Internet (Yeah I know, that makes me as old as Noah, so what!) Now we cannot imagine life without it, at least here in the U.S.

There have always been sexual predators, but now it is so much easier for them. You have probably seen the NBC report about catching sexual predators. So what to do? The U.S. Department of Justice has some guidelines at its website. Some of them should be obvious, but in our high-tension, fast paced world we might miss them:

a. Never arrange a face-to-face meeting with someone they met on-line.

b. Never upload (post) pictures of themselves on-line to people they do not know.

c. Never give identifying information, such as school names, team names, etc.

d. Never download pictures from an unknown source, since they may be sexually explicit or contain computer viruses.

There are also some helpful tips in this brochure.

Parents need prayer. We all have to make a living, but take it from a survivor, making more Hamiltons will not replace a child's innocence.

1,095 days and counting

So it's been three years since we went into Iraq. So far there have been nearly 2,300 U.S. troops killed - male and female, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Arab - and it doesn't appear that we are any closer to the end than we were last year. The President has declared "Mission Accomplished" aboard an aircraft carrier. I wonder if the families who lost loved ones this year believe him?

The Associated Press line reads "BC-Afghan-US Toll Capsules." It's one of those things that is supposed to get your attention among the thousands of stories that come across the wire. There was another one that read " BC-Iraq-US Toll capsules-February, 4 takes" . Four takes! That means there are so many that it takes four reports to cover them all.

I thought that it might be appropriate to let you know some of them (These are the AP reports)

Army 1st Lt. Garrison C. Avery
Fourth-graders at Chanhassen Elementary School loved getting letters from Garrison C. Avery, who told them about Iraq and the children he had met there.
The class also sent Avery a care package filled with stuff -- coloring books and crayons, trail mix, chewing gum and hand lotion.
"When I was writing the letter to him, I didn't even think about him being killed or anything like that," said Julia Galler, 9. "It didn't even cross my mind."
Avery, 23, of Lincoln, Neb., was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad on Feb. 1. He was assigned to Fort Campbell.

Army Spc. Marlon A. Bustamante
Marlon A. Bustamante's devotion to his country was so strong that his younger brother, Omar Ciro, followed him into the Army.
"He believed if the president called him to do a job, it was his duty," Ciro said.
Bustamante, 25, of New York, was killed by a roadside bomb Feb. 1 in Baghdad. He was assigned to Fort Campbell and was on his second tour.

Marine Pfc. Sean T. Cardelli
Sean T. Cardelli loved to cook and eat. He was particularly fond of his grandmother's mostaccioli and chicken cacciatore and liked anything spicy, particularly chorizo and tamales.
"Instead of going out and getting something to eat," said his friend Joe Torres, "he'd go in the fridge and say, 'We can make something.' My mom would wake up at 1 in the morning and see Sean cooking something over her stove."
Cardelli, 20, of Downers Grove, Ill., was killed Feb. 1 by small-arms fire near Fallujah.

Marine Pfc. Javier Chavez Jr.
Orosi High Assistant Principal Gabriela Medina remembers Javier Chavez Jr. -- but not for getting in trouble.
"He never had to be sent to the office," Medina said. "He was really quiet but very mature for his age."
Chavez, 19, of Cutler, Calif., was killed Feb. 9 by an explosive near Fallujah.

Marine Staff Sgt. Jay T. Collado
Bernie Grivetti, a social studies teacher who coached Jay T. Collado in football and soccer, remembered the Marine as a tough competitor despite his standing only about 5-foot-4.
"Jay was a small kid with a lot of heart," Grivetti said. "He always had a smile on his face. He was a very well-behaved young man who was disciplined, hardworking, and conscientious."
Collado, 31, of Columbia, S.C., died Feb. 20 in a bomb blast near Baghdad.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Lance S. Cornett
Family members said Lance S. Cornett loved his career and his country.
"Lance took great honor in protecting our freedoms and our way of life," a family statement said. "We are so proud of Lance's bravery, selflessness and sense of duty."
Cornett, 33, of London, Ky., was killed Feb. 3 by injuries sustained during combat near Ramadi. He was assigned to Fort Bragg.

Army Spc. Clay P. Farr
When he was a boy, Clay P. Farr colored everything camouflage, until his kindergarten teacher broke the news to him that camouflage isn't really a color.
"He was born a little soldier," said his mother, Carrol Alderete.
Farr didn't let personal tragedy distract him from his drive to serve. In February 2004, shortly after he started boot camp, his fiancee was killed in a car accident.
But when the Army wanted to stop his training so he could grieve and start again in six months, he refused.
Farr, 21, of Bakersfield, Calif., was killed Feb. 26 in Baghdad by a roadside bomb. He was a 2003 high school graduate and was assigned to Fort Drum.

These are just a few of those who have paid for the freedoms we enjoy. God give them leaders who deserve such sacrifice!