Category — angst

Yesterday I read a status update by a friend over on Facebook, and commented on it.  This meant that I would get an email of any further comments… and one of them has stuck with me.

It was a comment that I’m sure was made in jest, but I still found it disturbing.

My friend is nervous about doing something new at her church – it involves putting herself out there in the public eye in a way that she has not done in a very long time.  Part of her status was the following joke:

Oh well. They won’t judge. Uh, will they? Hee.

This was not the disturbing part.  No that came with a comment:

They`re church going people of course they`ll judge you!!!LOL

It disturbed me in part because of just how true it is.  But more disturbing is how little I see the church doing anything to change that viewpoint.

God keeps bringing me back to John 13:35 this year – over and over and over again.

“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

We are supposed to be know by our love, but as the comment above shows us, the Church in America today is known more for it’s judgmental, better-than-you attitudes and hipocracy than by our love for our fellow man.

How can we change this?

I believe that this can only be changed one person at a time.  I believe that each of us has a responsibility to show the world that yes, we love God, and no, we aren’t what they expect “Christians” to be like.  We have to show kindness and love.  We have to help out those around us when they need it.  We have to reach out and be the hands and feet of Jesus to a world that so desperately needs Him but has rejected Him because of those who claim to follow Him.

Why?

Because history is filled with horrendous acts done in the name of the church.  Because the world recognizes Christians by something so far from what we are called to be that it will take something radical to change that perception.

And that radical thing is love.  Real, God-given, Christ-centered, honest love.

We have to love, and it starts with you and me.

What are YOU known by?

So, we have listened in as Nabal let his mouth run away from him (we assume not for the first time).

We have watched as David let all of his pent up anger and frustration towards Saul get re-directed towards Nabal for the refuse he spewed from his mouth.

And we have seen Abigail step in the middle and reach out with an attempt at peace.

So, what happened?

³²And David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! ³³Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from avenging myself with my own hand! ³⁴For as surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly by morning there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male.”

³⁵Then David received from her hand what she had brought him. And he said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. See, I have obeyed your voice, and I have granted your petition.”

-1 Samuel 25 – ESV

Whew!  David actually listened to Abigail!  He set aside his pride and truly heard her words and took them to heart.  Her household has been saved from certain death.

It was worth the risk.  Praise the Lord!

But that’s not where I want to focus…

David could very easily have chosen to ignore Abigail’s words.  He could have sought to save face before his men.  He could have stayed all tied up in knots and blinded by the rage he allowed to grow within him and turned a deaf ear to her.  He could have slain her where she knelt on the ground before him as the first of the household to die.

But he didn’t.

He stopped and truly listened.

He graciously accepted her rebuke and sought to do what was right rather than continuing to feed his pride.

It is so easy to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the truth when we have been offended!  I’m sure that David’s men thought that his reactions was just a tad bit extreme – I mean Nabal didn’t really owe them anything.  And while he said some things that were intended to ridicule, none of it was worth killing every man there over, was it?

Something in this tells me that David was just looking for a place to vent his frustrations over Saul.  Or maybe I just see that since I have been known to do that myself.  I can’t let out the anger and frustration I am feeling in one area of my life for a variety of reasons, but along comes a completely unrelated situation and boy howdy!  This new situation gets all kinds of “righteous indignation” thrown at it!  Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.  Look out world – Hiroshima was just the warm up.

I must admit that I have been known to use a not-entirely-innocent bystander as the target for wrath that really should never have been directed at them simply because I needed an outlet and they happened along and offended me.  And their offense was so far overshadowed by my reaction that it was nearly ridiculous.  My anger got me worked up into a froth and I tried to get others on my side to agree with me that so-and-so needed to go down in a ball of flames.

Ouch.

The question is this: when I let my anger take over my better judgment in such a manner, am I willing to unstop the eyes and ears to see and hear truth as David did?

Unfortunately I have to answer that I too often am not willing.  I want to be angry.  I want to see someone – anyone – pay for hurting me or those I care for.  I want to make them feel the full force of my anger… even if they are not the sole cause of it.

But that is not how God wants me to react.

He wants me to get humble.  To recognize truth and listen to it.  And he wants me to recognize the bearer of this truth… and thank them.  Most importantly, I believe He wants me to forgive those who have given offense and spare them my wrath.

That means I have to swallow my own pride and be willing to look foolish in front of those who have seen me set out on the war path.  And it means that I also need to apologize to those who have been unfortunate enough to be the target of my wrath when they were not the only cause of it.

God is a God of love.  Correction – God is love.  We who call ourselves His people need to remember that we are the People of Love… and even when it is hard, even when it hurts to do so, we are called to love everyone – including those who have hurt us.

Admittedly I still have a looooong way to go.

How about you?

I was bouncing around the blog-o-sphere tonight and happened upon a post that Carlos Whittaker did a while back asking 2 simple questions…

• When does a worship leader really botch it for you?
• What is the biggest gripe you have about something a Sunday worship leader does?

There were LOTS of responses – most of them contradicting each other, ironically – but one of them encapsulated it for me.  A gent named Rick tossed this comment into the mix, and I wanted to share it.  I also want to ponder it myself for a bit.  Here is what he said:

I hate it when my worship leader…
-has to remind Christians that corporate worship is a mandate from God.

-has to risk being a cheerleader because the people that claim to love God exhibit no sense of joy when singing about Him.

-has to burn the first song because 75% of the congregation is late, talking in the lobby, perfecting their coffee, or sleep walking instead of enthusiastically taking advantage of celebrating our Savior with like-hearted people.

-has to endure darts of personal preference from hundreds of individuals who have lost sight of what Sunday worship time is prescribed by God to be.

-is treated as a thoughtless hire rather than a divinely appointed servant.

-is expected to never get nervous but be humble,
execute notes and lyrics without flaw while avoiding performance and being vulnerable,
make no effort to teach or guide but don’t be a juke box, and stay traditional and contemporary,
all while burying, birthing and resurrecting songs appropriately.

I’m sure that’s easy to do!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This also comes on the heels of seeing one of my fellow worship leading mom’s getting roasted by a “friend” on her facebook wall because she gets “paid too much just to sing on sundays, most people volenteer their time for that.”

Is this really where the Modern Church has gotten to?  Are we really that consumer-minded?  Are we that angry and judgemental?

The true question should be “what is it that helps draw you into the presence of God?” or “is there a way that your local worship leader can help you shake off the baggage you brought with you so that you can truly worship God?”

As a worship leader, these are the questions that I would love to have answered!  I want to know if there is something that I can do to help you enter the throne room of your Saviour and King.  How can I help you feel released?  How can I get out of your way and create an environment where there isn’t anything to distract you from living out your sacrifice of praise of an Almighty God?

Don’t get me wrong – I totally get why Carlos asked the questions, and I do appreciate some of the responses.  There are things that I do that would drive some of his readers insane (and I’ll be working on some of them – but not all of them!).

To be the person that God has called to stand up in front of His church and lead them is a daunting task.  To be the person that is responsible for getting a list of songs together that:

1. The congregation knows
2. Relates to the pastor’s message
3. The band plays/sings well
4. Has a natural “flow”

well, that is a hard thing some weeks!  And we do it every. single. week.

Yes, there are times that it all comes together in such an amazing way that there is no doubt that God had His hand in it… but there are also weeks that I look at the passage we will be studying (and the supporting passages) and I draw a huge blank for days.

Then you add in the hours of practice, set-up & tear down, the creating of charts (in multiple keys), the time spend seaking out new music to add to your church’s repitoire, building relationships with the members of the band and making sure they are growing spiritually… and the list goes on and on.  Oh, and having the guts to get up in front of you each week and blowing it as often as not (even when you may never know) – mixing up words or chord progressions or sounding like an idiot when you lose your train of thought.

I’m human.  Your worship leader, worship pastor, director of music, etc – they are only human too.  We fail, we get nervous, we have things that come up in our lives that reduce the time we have to prepare. The unexpected happens.

BUT

We serve a God that gives each of us a second chance – you, me and even your worship leader.

Next time your worship leader does or says something that bugs you – and I’m sure they will – take a step back and try to see the why in it.  Why does it bug you?  Is it something that needs to be addressed spiritually or theologically?  Is there something that hints at hipocracy in their lives?  Or are you just grumpy today?

Are we coming to church to be entertained, or are we coming to worship the Saviour of our souls in unity and community with a body of believers?

Just some things to think about.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**I’m not saying that ALL churches are this way, I’m just making a generalization based on the fact that nearly 200 people chimed in and over 80% of the comments had a negative slant.  Help us out – tell us how we can help rather than throw us under the bus. If you really want to see the negativity (from both sides, unfortunately,) just google “I hate when my worship leader” – ugh.

** 2nd disclaimer – I’m not trying to cast angry comments back, but rather to help the general church-attendee to see that there may be more to it than meets the eye.  I really do want comments and feedback – I want to help make your corporate worship experience as seemless and God-honoring as I can!  I also want you and I to be able to worship together, side by side.  After all, that is the point of corporate worship!

This is in response (and agreement with) a post made by Tam today… Check it out over at InProgress.

Our President made a speech today.  It was directed to our kids in our public schools, or so I’ve been told.  I had appointments all morning and missed it – I’ll try to catch it later this evening.  We missed out on the point of the whole debate – school doesn’t start here until tomorrow.  Thank goodness, because all of the bickering is getting old.

Oh and before you ask – if school had started already I would have sent them off to school.  WHAT?!?!?!?!?  *GASP*  Yes, I would have allowed my children to be influenced by the “evil regime that has taken over our country.” *rolls eyes*  Why?  Well, because I like to think that we are raising our girls to actually use the brain that God carefully placed within their skulls.  We would have talked about it tonight – most likely even watched it again as a family and discussed it over dinner.  Constantly forcing our kids to blindly follow us without thought isn’t much different than expecting that they will be so easily swayed by everything they hear.  God created us with free will and by squashing it we generally create teenage kids that rebel in the worst ways.

Personally I get so sick of the “Christian Right” getting so up in arms over EVERYTHING, and making those that may not 100% agree with them get blamed for the actions of a few highly vocal people.  I also get so sick of the “Liberal Left” being named as “Christian haters” when in fact there are quite a few Christians that are liberal.

Lest you think I hate Christians, I am also tired of being labeled as a “Right-Wing Extremist” just because I don’t personally agree with the policies that the left thinks I need to support.  (correct – I don’t think that the current “health care reform” is the answer.  I think it’s idiocy and if it passes we will all be very, very sorry.  Well, unless we have been voted into a position within Congress or the office of the Presidency -  they don’t have to be subjected to it)

It makes a person revert to the childhood question “Why can’t we all just get along?” although I realize that it will never happen this side of Heaven.  The Church is messy these days.  The title of “Christian” is becoming a bad name.

The Church is a house divided and desperately trying to influence a country divided (and making a huge mess of things for the most part) but it is playing catch-up rather than being the leader for the world to follow.  Christians are looked at as being 50 years behind the times and irrelevant (which is largely true, unfortunately) and are becoming more & more ignored on a good day and hated of the worse ones.

How can we be a Godly influence on our world if we can’t get our head out of our collective a$$es long enough to put together a coherent sentence?

Yes, I’m saying that if you disagree with what is being touted, then do your research.  THINK for goodness sake and use a little bit of logic!  If the conservatives would make an argument based on logic and fact rather than just pointing fingers and throwing tantrums they might get a few more ears turned their way.  Just a thought.

Moving on.

President Obama is the person that was elected by the people of this country – whether we like it or not – and as such we need to lift him & his administration up in prayer.  When I read my bible I see that God places people in positions of leadership, and that we are called to support them.

Do I agree with all of his policies?  Absolutely not!  Do I think he underestimated the position he applied for?  Most likely.  Holding the title of President of the United States of America is a thankless, crappy thing at times.  It’s a glorious thing at times too, and you have to take the bad with the good.

Basically I’m saying this:

Quit whining about it and do something.  Get yourselves down on your knees and pray.  Talk to your kids about our country and our world.  Teach them about Jesus, read the bible with them and make sure that their faith is just that – THEIR faith.  They can’t get to heaven on your faith, and if you strut around being an idiot, they won’t want your faith anyway.  Live the life that God has called you to and for goodness sake, stop making it worse!  Sharing the love of Jesus and the truth of the gospel is often hard enough without Fundamentalists and “Right-Wing Extremists” spouting off every two seconds and making fools of themselves.

I do, however, find it funny how when the liberals were staging protests they were for freedom, but when the conservatives start doing it they are extremists and nut-jobs.

God Bless America…

In apology to those that I may have offended.  Sometimes we all need to hear a little tough love.  Sometimes we need to be reminded that “they will know we are Christians by our LOVE”.  Not our hate or bickering or finger pointing or tantrums, but by the fact that we love them.  And that we love each other.

And lest you think that I am advocating rolling over and letting the devil have his way, I’m most certainly not!  Yes wo DO need to take a stand for our beliefs.  We do need to influence our world for good, we just need to do it in such a way that shares the love of God with those around us instead of spreading around hate.  Hate the sin – absolutely!  But love the sinner.

Oh, and we are all sinners.  Even me.

We recently flew to Missouri to visit family and while the trip was lovely – despite the heat – the getting to and from was a bit discouraging.

Let me preface this by letting you know that I generally fly on Delta Airlines with United Airlines as the back-up.  Due to pricing I elected to book our travel on American Airlines.  I’m not sure that I will make that same mistake again.

While I realize that American is very popular in the mid-west and eastern states, those of us out west don’t generally use them, and we are accustomed to a certain level of service.

A level of service that, sadly, we did not receive.

The planes that we flew were set up with a single restroom in the front of the plane and a single restroom in the rear of the plane.  OK, not what I’m used to, but we can deal.  First Class occupies the first 6 rows of the plane, and there is no curtain or anything to divide them from the rest of the plane (not that I cared, just something that I noticed).  The head flight attendant took care of first class and first class only.  The other two flight attendants took care of the rest of the plane.

Did I mention that I was traveling with a child?  A child that keeps herself well hydrated?  Yes, that would mean that she has to use the restroom… often.

Did I also mention that the flight was over 4 hours long?

The first time she needed to use the potty they were not finished with beverage service in the rear of the plane, so they sent her to the front potty.  I decided to use the chance to stretch my legs, and well, I am a mom, so I took my own advice to use the bathroom while the chance was there.  I headed up (through first class) to the bathroom she was using.  The flight attendant was a bit put out that I was in her space, but I explained that my daughter was using the potty.  This afforded me fewer dirty looks for being there.

Then another woman was sent forward due to a line 4 people long in the back.  When she arrived at the front the FA told her “There are bathrooms in the back” in very short, clipped words, complete with a glare.  She simply looked back at the longer line and smiled that she had been sent forward.

This was on the flight down to Missouri.  A 4+ hour flight in which we received beverage service twice, but no snacks.  Thankfully I had brought some, as I didn’t know that AA doesn’t offer anything to eat – unless you are in first class.  They had a 5 course breakfast on nice dishes.  Did I mention that we were flying out early in the morning?  With kids? Yep – the first thing we did after renting the car was go get food!

If that had been the worst of it I would have let it slide, but the head attendant on the return flight was twice as bad.

The return flight was the same set-up.  Two bathrooms, forward and aft.  First class for 6 rows, then the lesser people for 30 rows.

The head flight attendant had an accent that made her difficult to understand at best, and kept losing her place on the card she was reading and having to apologize and start that section over again.  Seriously?  I think most of the people on the plane could have given the “seat belts and air in case of loss of cabin pressure” talk better.

Then came the moment where she was trying to make a joke about the weather in Seattle.  About how thankful most people were that we would be flying in to temps in the 60′s and 70′s instead of the 100′s that had been happening.  I don’t know if she was a religious person or not, but to invoke thanks in the name of God while making a joke seems a little out of place.  I think there were quite a few that shared that thought with me as there was a tiny bit of nervous laughter, but mostly dead silence.  Swearing has become a bit to commonplace I think.

Oh, and I nearly forgot something that while it wasn’t the airline’s fault, they could have helped it a bit.

While we were waiting to board, we were standing hext to a family with a toddler and an infant.  About 2 minutes after we got there, I noticed that the baby had laid a doaper bomb.  A very, very stinky one too.  Keep in mind that they JUST STARTED boarding the flight, and would be doing so for another 10-15 minutes.

No one changed the baby’s diaper.

Before you say something about me not understanding traveling with infants, let me assure you that I have on numerous occasions.  With an infant as young as 3 days.  And by myself with a toddler and an infant quite a few times.  There was a dad, a mom and grandparents traveling with these 2 children.  Surely SOMEONE could have thought to change a diaper that was bringing tears to my eyes before putting in on an airplane with recirculated air?  No?  Apparently not.  I feel bad for the kid’s diaper rash from being forced to sit in it for so long.

How could the airline have helped?  Well, The flight attendant could have let the family know that since it was an enclosed space with recirculated air for 4+ hours, the plane would not leave without them if they chose to quickly change the baby.

The worst part?  They sat right behind us.

So, we finally take off, reach our altitude and they start beverage service (and food up front).  My daughter has to use the restroom, but the cart isn’t even halfway to the back yet.  The first class cart is at the last row and is almost finished, so I instructed her to go and politely ask if she could get past to use the restroom.

The head flight attendant was once again servicing first class, and was in the midst of finding out what kind of wine the people in the last row wanted.  She shushed my kid, held up her finger to her and ignored her for over a minute.  I get that she was busy, but there are more polite ways to do it.  And when a kid is dancing in the aisle because she has to pee, well, making her wait may not be the best option.

She finally let her through, making sure that everyone who could see her knew what a pain it was (yes, other people commented & looked at each other – it was that much of a huff).  She started helping the people on the other side of the plane when a gentleman in his late 40′s/early 50′s walked towards the front.  He stopped at the cart and was turning around when she snapped at him.

“I can’t keep moving the cart to let everyone through – you’ll just have to wait!”

I was stunned.

I mean, it’s one thing to shush a child and make them wait while you finish serving people (annoying, but somewhat more acceptable) but to bite off someone’s head just because you are annoyed at being interrupted again?  Someone who’s airfare helps pay your salary?  All so you can ask someone if they want Merlot or Chardonnay.

She tried to make light of it with small talk and asked if he was perhaps merely stretching his legs after he informed her that he didn’t want through (he was), and laughing it off, but it was too late.  Everyone in the first 5 rows had seen her get snippy with 2 people and we were stunned.

I almost wished A had been unable to hold it and left a puddle on the floor.  Almost.

Yes, A had to use the bathroom a few more times, but she kept trying to go to the back one if at all possible.  She was scared of the flight attendant up front (with good reason!)

Other things I noticed about American Airlines.

• There are no in-flight movies.  There aren’t even screens to show the seatbelt video.  Not that I minded trying to keep my kids from seeing movies and tv shows that are innapropriate, I just wasn’t expecting it.
• there is no food service AT ALL unless you fly first class.  Not even snacks.
• You will pay to check a bag.  $15 for the first, $25 for the second.  Fortunately Eric fly’s United a lot and has some status over there, so we checked our single suitcase over with him.
• I think they must hire the flight attendants that either get fired from everywhere else, or don’t make the cut to start with.  I have never had a flight attendant be so rude.  Ever.
• They don’t have headphone jacks for music either.
• And I didn’t see any in-flight magazines to read.  No SkyMall either.
• Their flight attendants don’t like to smile.

This is, of course, in contrast to Delta and United.  Yes, they may charge for meals now, but at least you have the option.  And they still give you snacks.  Make sure you carry cash – the meals run about $6 – $10 each.

When did customer service get tossed out the window at 30,000 feet?  I will say that I have been thrilled with the service that I have gotten on Delta, United, and Southwest airlines – the flight attendants and gate staff are generally smiling and are helpful.  They are polite and realize that customer service still means something.

Was there any part of these flights that was positive?  Yes.  Snuggling my Nani-girl for a bit while watching an above-the-clouds sunset that lasted for over 3 hours was nice.  And looking down at those sunset-streaked clouds really was peaceful and beautiful.

That and noise-canceling headphones on my iPod. *grin*

So, I had an entrecard on here for a bit, and it was great – I found some great blogs that I would not have found otherwise.

But they have changed.

They have started placing paid advertising on my site, and I can’t approve them anymore (or reject those that I don’t like).  And quite honestly, there are many sites using entrecard that I don’t have any desire to link to! Add that to the fact that this is MY blog (not entrecard’s) and I don’t like being told what to do (there’s a shock, no?) and you start to see what has prompted this decision.

Therefore, as of today entrecard is no longer on this blog.  If we had been visiting one another, please send me a message or leave a comment and I’ll add you to the blogroll (I’ll be adding these great sites as I have a few spare moments).

I just wanted to let you know!

Have a wonderful week.

Eric had a birthday on Wednesday and I didn’t get to see him for more than about 15 minutes (that is worship & choir practice night, remember?) So we made weekend plans…

You see, Eric & I were supposed to have this wonderful semi-weekend away Friday night & Saturday. And it started out great! Drive to Seattle, dinner at Braza, hotel on the waterfront… beautiful sunset, starry sky, the works.

Then I got hives.

Waking up every hour due to that until 4:30, when I woke up to an amazing amount of pain in my left ear AGAIN. Yep, another ear infection – ’cause apparently 2 just wasn’t enough. Well, I can’t sleep, which means Eric can’t sleep, so we got up, ot dressed & packed up.  While we were walking to the parking garage we got a beautiful view of the Seattle sky line though… a cobalt blue sky, a crescent moon, fog just starting to crawl in & the stadium glowing green just peaking out above it.  I tried to take a picture, but my camera & night shots aren’t a good combination.  It was gorgeous though!

We had parked in a parking garage at the Seattle Art Institute… and there isn’t an attendant until 8 am. We checked out at 6:30. No problem, you say, just use the debit card in the card reader & it will let you out! Well, in theory, yes, that would be brilliant. In practice, however, it was an epic FAIL. Nope, “please pay attendant.” Insert card to pay – nope “insert ticket first” ummm, I JUST DID!!!!! We tried to leave at 6:42. After numerous phone calls to every number we could scare up (by haunting the booth) we were informed that the employee would be there at 8am, but we could call the towing co. and pay a $40 fee (posted as $35) for “after-hours release” even though it was their system that wouldn’t let us out.   So w walked back to the hotel & had a cup of wake-up juice (Coffee for Eric, Tea for me… I really miss coffee too)  We finally got out at 8:10, when the attendant (who was late) got there and logged himself in.

By this point my ear is shooting searing, pulsating pain through my head. Fortunately I keep Motrin in my car for just such emergencies. Had to take them dry, but they eased the pain. Oh, and we’ve been up since 4:30, so breakfast sounded good a couple of hours before that.

Up to Pike’s for crumpets we went! A leisurely stroll up and down the market (that was just getting set up for the day) and the purchase of some fruit… and there was nothing else to see. The Confectional was closed, Piroshky, Piroshky was closed, Beecher’s Cheese’s was closed… you are getting the idea. We had planned to sleep in (I know, what a concept) and go have crepes by Seattle Center at 10… but we were headed north by 9. Stopped at a PCC to get some ear drops (NOT similican – that junk has mercury in it!) and wandered our way towards home. We did stop at a Emery’s Garden to think about what to plant this year (Spring has officially started after all… it just doesn’t feel much like it), and picked up some cucumber seeds and shallot starts.

We were home by 10:45, which threw off Mom H’s schedule with the girls.

They were decorating for a little surprise birthday/welcome home party and getting ready to head out to go shopping and get pictures taken, so Eric went along with them. However, by this time my lack of sleep and the early morning wake-up had caught up with me.

I slept. It was lovely.

I met up with them for pictures, and the pain returned. I took more Motrin, but it didn’t work. I took more a while later, still not working. Ugh. But, I did get some good Indian food for dinner! That was a glowing moment much like Friday had been.

We headed to bed around 9, I tossed & turned until about 11:30, when I remembered that I had some vicadin left over from last Summer (yes, I checked the date – it’s good for another month) so I took 2 and Eric put in more ear drops. I slept for about an hour-&-a-half. The rest of the night I was fading in & out with recurring dreams and Desert Song on repeat play in my brain. And I so used to like that song.

So, needless to say, I slept through my alarm this morning because I couldn’t hear it (cotton crammed in one ear, sleeping on the other) and was late to church. Then I coughed instead of starting a song… nice.

Had to take more heavy-hitting pain killers to get through the morning, then came home & attempted sleep again (I do have 2 kids, remember?).

As of now I am sitting here with kleenex stuck in my leaky, ringing ear trying to stay awake until it is somewhat closer to an acceptable time to go to bed & listening to Eric search for new music to buy with the iTunes gift card the girls got him for his birthday.

How was YOUR weekend?

What a wonderful group of elected officials we have these days.  Verbage that is so over-reaching that it is hurting us in the name of helping us.  Nice.  Almost makes a person want to move to another country where the gov’t isn’t as interested in controlling every aspect of your life… but I’m not sure that one of those exists anymore.

This is re-posted from an email to get the info out.

OVERKILL: HOW THE CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY IMPROVEMENT ACT IS DAMAGING AMERICAN BUSINESSES

FLY-IN, RALLY AND CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING
TO FIX FLAWS IN NEW PRODUCT SAFETY LAW

Washington, DC – April 1, 2009

Implementation of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) is following a worst-case scenario for manufacturers, retailers and charities. Thanks to the flaws in this law, millions of perfectly safe products are in the process of being destroyed, costing U.S. businesses billions of dollars in the midst of one of the worst economic crises in U.S. history. Charitable organizations and thrift stores are being forced to pull inventory from their shelves at a time when American families need them more than ever. The supply of science supplies to schools is being curtailed. Youth model ATV and dirt bikes are no longer available creating a safety issue because more than 90% of injuries to kids on ATVs occur on large adult size models. Even libraries are at risk of legal liability for lending children’s books. All of these violations of common sense are being done in the name of “safety”.

From unrealistic compliance deadlines that made it impossible for industry or the Consumer Product Safety Commission to adequately prepare before the law went into effect, to the unprecedented decision to retroactively apply the new lead standards and phthalates ban to inventory already sitting in stores and warehouses, CPSIA is causing massive disruptions to industries across the board, particularly small and medium-sized businesses.

So far, Congress has ignored the calls of thousands of small businesses, charities, parents and teachers to fix the flaws in this legislation, refusing even to hold public hearings on the problem. That’s why business and charitable groups are organizing a fly in, rally and Congressional briefing on Capitol Hill to meet with Members of Congress, provide information and bring attention to the CPSIA crisis. Wide participation is anticipated in this unique event to call upon Congress to urgently fix the CPSIA.

Date and Location: April 1, 2009, 10:00am, Capitol Visitors Center, Room HVC201 A&B,
The U.S. Capitol

Speakers will include Members of Congress and representatives from:
· Charitable Organizations
· National Association of Manufacturers
· Small Business owners from various industries affected by CPSIA
· Motorcycle and ATV dealerships
· Publishers and Library Associations
· Product safety and lead experts (to discuss science-based risk assessment)

Confirmed Participating Organizations (as of March 16, 2009)
· Alliance for Children’s Product Safety
· American Apparel and Footwear Association
· American Motorcycle Association
* American Specialty Toy Retailing Association
· Fashion Jewelry Trade Association;
· Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association
· Handmade Toy Alliance
· International Sleep Products Association
· Motorcycle Industry Council
· National Association of Manufacturers
· National Association of Resale and Thrift Shops
National School Supply & Equipment Association
· National Bulk Vendors Association
· Specialty Vehicle Institute of America
· Toy Industry Association

For additional information, please contact the Alliance for Children’s Product Safety at 202-828-7637 and visit the web-site at http://www.AmendTheCPSIA.com. For those who can not attend, the event will be telecast on the mentioned web site.

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This (among other things) just serves to make me wonder why our gov’t hates it’s people. We were once the land of the free, but we are quickly becoming the land of those that cannot do anything because it might turn out to be dangerous for someone… except of course that our gov’t likes to approve the things that truly ARE dangerous for us. One example… check out HR 875 – another “over-reaching” law that will put small businesses out of business, leaving big agri-business as our only option (you know, the people who grow the GMO crap from Monsanto. Oh goody.)

I’m not feeling up to the debate today, ut if you want some info on Monsano (the truth rather than what our fine gov’t tells us) I found a great video – it’s a long one, but very informative. Take a look at it here. Hopefully this one will be available for a bit – go watch it quickly before it gets pulled.

Want more info? Check out HR 875 (as in actually read it) over at GovTrack. Want another one to look at? How about S 425 in the Senate.

I guess the First Lady just planted a “Neo-Victory Garden” that may soon be illegal!  Well, it will be if the wife-of-a-Monsanto-employee-that-sponsored-the-bill gets her (Monsanto’s) way. Organic seeds contain contaminants you know… ’cause GMO seeds are just DNA (and we’ve been ingesting DNA since we were created, so it can’t be bad for us.)

Any thoughts? Please share…