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

Thoughts on Catalyst and The Eerie Quiet

Catalyst bills itself as”the largest gathering of young leaders in the country…”

The Catalyst Conference is the largest gathering of young leaders in the country, but it pains us to call it just a conference. Catalyst is more than just a three-day event – it’s a movement, a convergence, an experience where you find yourself fully immersed in learning, worship, and creativity. Catalyst brings people together – the influencers, the do-ers, the cultural architects, and the change agents who will reclaim our communities and culture for good.

Catalyst has been described many ways but once you’ve experienced it, you’ll call it what we call it – pure leadership adrenaline.

A few years back I was in the Atlanta airport and there seemed to be thousands of people  wearing Catalyst backpacks, probaby catching planes back to where ever they came from.  I asked a guy next to me what it was all about and it did seem like an awesome gathering. And though this world is normally politically reactionary, it did seem that the organizers at Catalyst did offer some challenging words and ideas. Hopefully, they are trying to take the evangelical conversation in a different direction.

Anyways, my church, Lockerbie Central United Methodist, got a visit from  Catalyst’s LV Hanson on Sunday night.  LV is on the road meeting with young church leaders after hearing about our church from a friend.  He came to our Sunday night worship service and posted this on our blog:

I am familar with the predictable flow of church services that strive to leave people feeling encouraged and uplifted throughout the experience.  But right now, there is no flow leading me towards an entertained or comfortable place.  In this absence of the familiar I am facing myself, and the Lord is stirring an unsettled and convicted spirit.  The fog of my world is fading, and I am coming undone as I see the Lord behind the backdrop of this facede that I so often champion.

Maybe that is why Lockerbie will continue to struggle to grow numerically as “…there is no flow leading me towards an entertained or comfortable place” or not get the support from the United Indiana Methodist conference that we deserve.  We are a church that (intentionally or not) that forces people  and other churches out of their comfort zone.  We aren’t afraid to speak truth to power or call a spade a spade.

But that is why we struggle on.  Because a church needs to have a prophetic voice, needs to connect people with the deep and radical traditions of the early and historic churches.  We got a long way to go and we need to grow, but LV’s blog is right on.

Filed under: Christians, Earth House, Indiana, Lockerbie Central United Methodist Church, bible, church, emergent church, evangelism , Indianapolis, worship, lockerbie central, social justice, emergent, united methodist, lockerbie central united methodist, Catalyst, conference, the eerie quiet, evangelical, blog, LV, Lv hanson, Indiana United Methodist conference, Atlanta, quiet, silence

Rethink Church: Fight for Universal Health Care!

I believe, as taught by the Hebrew prophets and Jesus, that the measure of a society is seen in how it treats the most vulnerable. The current discussion about health-care reform is important for the United States to move toward a more just system of providing care to all people (Isaiah 1:16-17, Jeremiah 7:5-7, Matthew 25:31-45).

From “A Christian Creed On Health Care Reform“

Before I moved back to my hometown of Indianapolis in 2004, I was an organizer for Service Employees International Union.  I spent three years working with nursing home workers, nurses, and even hospital patients.   I got to see the tragedy of American Healthcare up front and personal.

I spent my last year with SEIU working as a patient organizer for  the Hopsital Accountability Project.  It was my job to work with patients who had been sued (financially destroyed) by Advocate Health Care, the largest hospital system in Chicagoland.  If that wasn’t bad enough, Advocate is a joint Lutheran-United Church of Christ hospital system and some of its hospitals are named Christ, Good Shepherd, Good Samaritan!

I bet the Methodist based Clarian Health in Indiana is much better.

One of the uninsured Advocate patients I worked with was a victim of violent crime who had been shot in the stomach and nearly killed.  He developed a hernia the size of a football not too long after he was released by Advocate Christ Medical Center, but was told he needed to pay the hospital in cash before they could remove the hernia! (He had a friend who helped him come up with the money, but still “owed” tens of thousands of dollars to the hospital)

This man and other patients took their stories to the media, to the streets, and to the statehouse.  The highlight of the campaign was when these patients took over the billing office at Christ Hospital when demands went unmeant.  Many of these hospital debts were forgiven when the public scrutiny got a bit too much.

Back here in Indiana though, we have our own problems.  We lead the county in per-capita medical based bankruptcies and nearly 30% of Hoosiers were uninsured at some point last year.

As United Methodist Churches and as we rethink church, lets make sure that we do everything possible to agents of change when it comes to our national and local health care system.  Let’s remember and act on the words from our Social Principles of the United Methodist Church:

Providing the care needed to maintain health, prevent disease, and restore health after injury or illness is a responsibility each person owes others and government owes to all, a responsibility government ignores at its peril. In Ezekiel 34:4a, God points out the failures of the leadership of Israel to care for the weak: “You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured.” As a result all suffer. Like police and fire protection, health care is best funded through the government’s ability to tax each person equitably and directly fund the provider entities.

Filed under: Christians, Indiana, Indianapolis, Lockerbie Central United Methodist Church, church, community, community organizing, economy, united methodist , A Christian Creed on Healthcare reform, advocate, advocate health care, bankruptcy, chicago, christ, church and society, church of christ, clarian, crisis, good samaritan, good shepherd, health care, healthcare crisis, Indiana, Lutheran, medical bankruptcy, medical debt, methodist, methodist social principles, rethink church, SEIU, Service Employees international union, social principles, sojourners, sue, UCC, uninsured, united methodist