Who Killed Indy’s comprehensive smoking ban? or a Sad day for Indy

 

Terrible.  Indy politicians have once again missed an opportunity to improve the health of our community.  There’s a lot of blame to go around about why the city council has once again failed to pass a [nearly] comprehensive public smoking ban.

Mayor Greg Ballard is one person to hold accountable.  Matthew Tully in today’s star writes that the mayor  walked into a closed-door meeting with council Republicans and made it clear he didn’t want the ordinance to land on his desk.” Tully points out that as a canidiate for Indy mayor Ballard approved of a comprehensive smoking ban.

Democrats aren’t blameless either.  First of all, if council Democrats had made a stand during the Peterson era about smoking (or anything, really), this would be a mute point. Indy would have long ago joined the 21st century when it comes to public health.  But Peterson and the council back then weren’t about taking bold stands.

And on the city council, Democrats should feel embarrassed.  Council member Dane Mahern abstained from the vote because, as Tully reported, his father is a lobbyist for the tobacco industry. Heaven forbid, you take a stand that might bump against your father’s business interests.   More so, Mahern had his father host a fundraiser for him within a week of the scheduled smoking ban vote.

This was a chance to be a truly bipartisan and  other Democrats didnt’ show up.  Council member Doris Minton-McNeal, Monroe Gray, and, already mentioned Mahern, abstained from voting.  Their abstentions helped kill the bill and  Minton-McNeal didn’t even bother to show up.

Whatever the reasons, other Democrats who voted against the bill include Duke Oliver and Vernon Brown.

Thanks should go to  Democrats Jose Evans and Angela Mansfield and Republicans Barbara Malone and Ryan Hunter for taking a strong stand for making Indianapolis a better place to live.   And don’t forget to thank Smoke Free Indy.

 

http://www.indystar.com/article/20091028/NEWS08/910280381/Tully++Ballard+threat+helped+kill+smoking+ban

Filed under: Broad Ripple, Indiana, Indianapolis, Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis politics, POlitics, city council, community, community organizing, economy, progressive , angela mansfield, ban, barbara malone, Bart Peterson, city council, comprehensive smoking ban, dane mahern, doris minton-mcneal, duke olliver, Greg Ballard, Indianapolis, Indianapolis politics, Indianapolis Star, Jose Evans, matthew tully, mayor, monroe gray, POlitics, ryan hunter, smoke free indy, smoking, smoking ban, vernon brown

Job’s One Thousand donkeys or Sh&%$%&*$%T Happens

The Revised Common Lectionary finishes up the book of Job this week.  Job 42:1-6 and 10-17 proves to us that there are such thing as happy endings. From the scripture:42:10 And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends; and the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.” God even gives Job 1000 donkeys.

There might not be better prooftexting for the prosperity gospel than this very verse.

Last night in our Tuesday night gathering at Lockerbie Central UMC, our most tenured member might have summed it up best.  “I’ve read Job.  I don’t think it justifies any type of suffering.  I think what it says is that SH*T Happens!”

He went on to ask, what about Job’s dead children?  It does them or Job no good that Job is ultimately rewarded for his “patience.”

Job is a tough, complicated book.  It is so easy to settle on simple answers.  I like what Marcus Borg writes about it in Reading the Bible Again for the First Time,”Is there such a thing as religion unmoitivated by self interest?  What would it mean to take God seriously not as a means, but as the ultimate end.”

Filed under: Christians, Lockerbie Central United Methodist Church, after pentecost, bible, church, economy , united methodist, marcus borg, bible, lockerbie central umc, Hebrew Bible, suffering, Job, creativity and suffering, donkeys, prosperity gospel, prooftexting, shit happens, revised comon lectionary, after pentecost, twenty second week, reading the bible again for the first time

Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize

Congrats to President Obama on winning the Nobel Peace Prize.  Lets hope he ends up more like Martin Luther King than Henry Kissinger, who won it in 1973.

Kissinger won the award for arranging U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam.  Good for him but Kissinger, as Richard Nixon’s main advisor, was responsible for the secret bombing of Laos and Cambodia and most likely behind the overthrow of Chile’s democratic government in 1974.

This is what Martin Luther King said in his Nobel Peace Prize speech:

I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality….I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.

Obama has walked a very fine line since getting involved in mainstream politics.  Not many former community organizers end up becoming the most powerful person on Earth. I I think that is a good thing.  I‘d rather have someone like Obama, trained on the streets of Chicago,  leading our military and our economy than a Wall Street type or a general.  He should know that military action does not produce a better and more safe world; and that our economic system has severe shortcomings.

If anyone has the chance to make Dr. King’s dream a reality–the dream he talks about in the Nobel speech–than Obama is our greatest hope.

We might not ever again have someone like Obama in the oval office; lets hope that he and we can forge a peaceful world that lines up with Dr. King and not Kissinger.

Filed under: Barack Obama, chicago, economy, environment, military , martin luther king, peace, Obama, chicago, community organizing, economy, military, Nobel peace prize, nobel, henry kissinger, chile, 1973, dream, King's nobel peace prize speech, miiitary, wall street