‘Man on Wire’ in the NY Times August 8, 1974

I watched Man on Wire today on Netflix instant play and looked up the story of Phillipe Petit prancing around on a tight rope between the two world towers on August 7, 1974. This historic act did not seem to phase New Yorkers – as the article is on page 30. There was a much bigger story going on at the time- the resignation of Richard Nixon which capitalized a lot of the news.

The story which can be found here  follows the movie fairly closely. Phillipe is only 24 years old – almost 25. He is a street artist who lives off contributions from pantomine and acrobatic acts and he talks with heavily accented English punctuated with a Gallic “bon”. He makes a deal with the police officers – if he does a free show for the children of New York, they will drop charges.

“When I see two towers, I just want to put my wire across, bon!” he said,

After the first crossing I look at the people and that was fantastic,” Mr. Petit said. “New York wake up and what did they discover? There was a high walker on the twin towers. I was not scared because it was a precise thing. I was dying of happiness.”

He was finally brought in by a policeman who shouted, “Get off there or I’ll come out and we’ll both go down.”

Once his sanity is proved at the Beekman Downtown hospital, he is given breakfast and  asked about his dreams. Phillipe replies:

Mr. Petit insisted, “I have no ambitions.” But, when asked if he has any dreams, he undoubtedly thought about a French high-wire artist of the last century, Blondin, who had crossed from New York State to Canada in a most unorthodox way.

“I have a dream,” Mr. Petit said. “Niagara Falls, I would like to cross the falls but, who knows? For that I need permission.”

I do recommend this movie, which is done as documentary. There is no suspense because it is all told past tense by the participants.

Christian Churches unite to help Coatesville

Coatesville (about 15 miles away from where I live) has been experiencing one arson fire after another. The people who live in this city are terrified. There was a new fire this evening. There has been 30 since January 1.

Many local churches have gotten together to organize aid relief

http://coatesvillerelief.blogspot.com/

There will be prayer meetings:

Prayer Rooms/Gatherings

–YWAM Coatesville/Neighborhood Center, 752 E. Lincoln Hwy., Coatesville. 6pm Friday Evenings
•Metui: 610-476-1282/ ywam.admin@gmail.com

–NCCC/OUMC. 310 E. Chestnut St. Coatesville, PA. 7:30pm Wednesday Night
•Cynthia Jones: praisedantzer@aol.com

and food and clothes drop off points. There is grief counseling. Please check out this site:

http://coatesvillerelief.blogspot.com

and help in any way you can. May hundreds of people come together to help our neighbors in Coatesville!

Here are some news stories on what is happening:

http://fgbc-world.blogspot.com/2009/01/coatesville-pastor-asks-prayer-aid-for.html

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/us/26pennsylvania.html?ref=us

news about the latest fire that happened this Tuesday evening:

http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2009/01/27/news/doc497f94c55f2e3417463025.txt

http://www.dailylocal.com/

Covenant coach who beat Dallas Academy 100-0 is fired

update: Coach Micah Grimes tells his version of the story here.

 A Dallas Christian High School just fired their basketball coach, Micah Grimes  for running up the score in a girls basketball game, and not demonstrating a Christ-like attitude.  The school issued this statement.  Coach Grimes then issuing a post and an email that said in part “I do not agree with the apology or the notion that the Covenant School girls’ basketball team should feel embarrassed or ashamed”.

Here is a video to the losing team – The Dallas Academy Girls – reaction to their 100-0  loss. They will be on Good Morning America tomorrow.

I think Jesus would have told the girls to play to the best of their ability – so nothing done by either team of girls was shameful. But if He was the ref, He would have stopped the game at half-time. But I wasn’t there. Jesus was though.

To the Moon Solution: Have the Covenant team play the biggest Dallas High School’s girl basketball team. On ESPN.

The Only Good Indian

One of the advantages of growing up in Lawrence Kansas was getting to know, and just being in the same place, of the native Americans that went to Haskell Indian College – the other college in the small town besides KU.  Going to Pow Wows and things like that. That is one thing I miss living on the East Coast. I see almost every concievable type of person in Philadelphia, but the people I never see, or rarely see, are the ones who were here in great numbers just a few centuries ago – the native inhabitants. I miss them. Where did they all go?

a prayer for Gaza

Pray not for Arab or Jew
for Palestinian or Israeli
But pray rather for ourselves
that we might not divide them in our hearts
But keep them both together in our hearts.

link

Praying through the first one hundred days

This site looks interesting:

http://www.presidentialprayerteam.org

I could not tell by briefly looking at it where they were coming from

but it looks like a good idea! Comments on how we should pray for Obama?

Rick Warren’s Prayer and Gene Robinson’s Prayer

At the Inauguration of President Obama.

Rick Warren:

Let us pray.

Almighty God, our Father, everything we see and everything we can’t see exists because of you alone. It all comes from you. It all belongs to you. It all exists for your glory.

History is your story. The Scripture tells us, “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is One.” And you are the compassionate and merciful one. And you are loving to everyone you have made.

Now, today, we rejoice not only in America’s peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time. We celebrate a hingepoint of history with the inauguration of our first African American president of the United States. We are so grateful to live in this land, a land of unequaled possibility, where the son of an African immigrant can rise to the highest level of our leadership. And we know today that Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in heaven.

Give to our new President, Barack Obama, the wisdom to lead us with humility, the courage to lead us with integrity, the compassion to lead us with generosity. Bless and protect him, his family, Vice President Biden, the cabinet, and every one of our freely elected leaders.

Help us, O God, to remember that we are Americans, united not by race, or religion, or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all. When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you, forgive us. When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone, forgive us. When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the earth with the respect that they deserve, forgive us. And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches, and civility in our attitudes, even when we differ.

Help us to share, to serve and to seek the common good of all. May all people of good will today join together to work for a more just, a more healthy and a more prosperous nation and a peaceful planet. And may we never forget that one day all nations and all people will stand accountable before you. We now commit our new president and his wife, Michelle and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, into your loving care.

I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life, Yeshua, Isa, Jesus [Spanish pronunciation], Jesus, who taught us to pray:

“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

Gene Robinson:

By The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire

Opening Inaugural Event
Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC
January 18, 2009

Welcome to Washington! The fun is about to begin, but first, please join me in pausing for a moment, to ask God’s blessing upon our nation and our next president.

O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…

Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic “answers” we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be “fixed” anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.

Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.

Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.

 

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.

 

Links that I am posting from:

http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/faith_and_politics/gene_robinsons_prayer_for_pres.html

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctpolitics/2009/01/rick_warrens_in.html

Let’s Do It!

Darwin Day is coming up on February 12

Darwin will be 200 years old on February 12, 2009. He was born on the same day that Abraham Lincoln was – February 12, 1809. The Royal Mint is commemorating the day with this beautiful British coin that has the famous naturalist looking eye to eye with a chimpanzee.On the edge of the coin, it says “Origin of Species”.

Check out http://www.charlesdarwin.org (which is actually an intelligent design site – pretty sneaky!)

To find events in your area, go to  http://www.darwinday.org/ which is the official site for all things concerning Darwin Day, including how many shopping days are left for this most important birthday.

In defense of Israel

I think the media is not covering this very well so I will blog about it.

Israel is acting out of its own self-defense because the terrorist group Hamas was  and is sending suicide bombers and rockets into Israel. The United States would do the same thing if a terrorist organization took over Mexico or Canada and then proceeded to kill American civilians. Gaza used to be part of Israel. Israel decided to unilaterally withdraw, including moving settlers out of the Gaza strip in 2005. They did this out of the goodness of their heart, and this is what they get in return! This is not a pre-emptive strike caused by the changing of the American President. This is an emptive strike against terrorists who are hiding among civilians. It is much more justified than the United States invasion of Iraq where the United States was simply denied the right to search Iraq’s military arsenals.

The problem is that Hamas and Iran want to wipe out Israel and kill Jews. If they say and mean that is not what they want to do, Israel would abide by the two-state solution. The terrorism must stop. Israel must also stop killing innocent people in Gaza. I hope President Elect Obama gets this.