Just for Fun

Protest Photos & Flickr Stats

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On Tuesday last week I posted 345 photos from the peaceful RNC protest in St. Paul to my Flickr account. My traffic skyrocketed, as you can see.

I always think traffic stats are fascinating. My photo views went from an average of around 300 per day to 5,335 views on Tuesday. On Wednesday they were still pretty high at 2,487, but by Thursday they went into the basement with 80. Oops. So much for increasing my audience after a spike.

Though Friday and Saturday they were relatively high again (over 1,000), so I guess we’ll see (helped along by the fact that I posted a few more protester pics I’d overlooked, as well as a pile of other photos).

Not that these stats mean much of anything practically. I’ve noted before that my most popular photo isn’t even a photo.

Politics

Here’s Where I Stand: Let’s Disagree Well

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This has been an interesting couple weeks of politics, getting sick of politics and not listening to myself about politics. I’ve been twittering and spouting off about politics because it riles me up. Because I disagree. Because I hear things that strike me as wrong and I want to respond. And what I failed to realize is that so often we just disagree (like I said before and then ignored) and pouncing on each other doesn’t help. I’m sorry.

I think politics would be a lot more friendly if we could cut out the rhetoric and just focus on an issue. If we could see where and how we disagree and just be fine with disagreeing. It’s easier to find a path forward if you understand where the other person is coming from. Too often in politics (myself definitely included), we don’t take the time to do that. Instead we jump to the conclusion that you must be stupid. That’s probably why I don’t usually talk much about politics (I tend to disagree with the standard Christian/Republican stance) and why in the past two weeks of talking more about politics I’ve annoyed some people and riled up others. Not that frustrating or riling is bad, but I’m not sure what I’m accomplishing.

Take the Test
So let’s accomplish something. My sister-in-law took one of those online quizzes that tell you where you’re at politically. These things are always goofy because on some questions I hem and haw and then wonder if I had answered differently if it would have changed the outcome (I checked, it didn’t change much). But at any rate, I think it can be helpful to see where we stand.

So give it a try. It’s about 40 questions and takes less than five minutes.
Continue reading Here’s Where I Stand: Let’s Disagree Well →

Politics

Country First?

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Country FirstI’m watching coverage of the Republican National Convention tonight (and making snide Twitter comments, like I did during the DNC as well, trying to be non-partisan) and noticing lots of signs that say “Country First.” It’s the theme of the evening.

And I’m confused. I don’t put country first in my life.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my country. I experienced the incredible freedom we have here yesterday, freedom you won’t find in China. That’s amazing. I’m thankful and grateful for it.

But I don’t put country first. Is that so wrong?

I put my faith and my family and my principles before my country. Is that so wrong?

Country first? That kind of blind nationalism scares me.

And if by “Country First” you mean the people of this country, I have no problem putting others before myself. But those ‘others’ involve humanity at large, not just Americans.

Country first? I’m not comfortable with that.

Politics, Twin Cities

RNC Protests in St. Paul

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2008 RNC Protest MarchI went to a protest today. I didn’t really participate, more observed. And took lots of pictures (I’m still working on uploading them). And a video.

The event I went to was a peaceful march from the State Capitol to the Xcel Center and back. But things haven’t been so peaceful all day in St. Paul. The Pioneer Press has a good overview of the various skirmishes between police and protesters. It seems the 10,000 or so marchers were mostly peaceful, but some anarchist groups (for lack of a better description) have been causing mayhem downtown (breaking windows, slashing tires, blockading streets) and police are rightly moving in to stop them (tear gas and rubber bullets). The show of force is a little disturbing, but so is hurling bricks at cops. (It’s unclear at this point what’s rumor and what’s reality, so take what you hear with a grain of salt. At any rate, there was enough documenting going on that any police brutality should certainly come to light.)
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Politics, Twin Cities

Police Raids on Protesters in St. Paul

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If you don’t follow my Twitter updates, you probably missed much of the hubbub over yesterday’s police raids in the Twin Cities. In anticipation of the Republican National Convention, police have been raiding homes, detaining people and pulling over buses. Most of yesterday’s raids centered around a self-described anarchist group, the RNC Welcoming Committee. Five or six of their members were arrested on charges of conspiracy to riot and a number of weapons or potential weapons were seized (among them what could be some regular household items, what actually are weapons [slingshots mostly] and what’s just bizarre—buckets of urine, later explained by protesters to be a gray water system and not actual urine).

It’s all kind of bizarre, and as early stories come in it’s hard to know who to believe (like I just blogged, nobody just disagrees, we have to insult, mislead and insinuate).
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Politics, Society

Why Can’t We Just Disagree?

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As an addendum of sorts to my recent rant on the ineffectualness of politics, I offer this thought: Why can’t people just disagree? I’ve talked before about how hard it is to argue, and I think the current political climate only reinforces that.

The problem is that very few people can just disagree. We take disagreement to the next level by seeing the worst in people, flinging accusations and insults, and starting to distort the truth ourselves. You can see it in politics when someone points out the gaffes of one candidate, ignoring all context, explanation, apology or understanding, and then shrugs at the gaffes of their own candidate.
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God, Church & Stuff, Politics

Politics is Like Trying to Cure Cancer with Ointment

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The last 24 hours have probably been some of the most historic 24 hours of politics in a long time. Barack Obama officially accepted the nomination of the Democratic Party with a stirring speech last night in Denver, making him the first African American presidential nominee in U.S. history. And today John McCain announced that Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin would be his running mate, making Palin only the second female vice presidential nominee from a major party in history. No matter who wins in November, history will be made.

I find myself caught up in the excitement—and rightly so; it is historic and ground-breaking and that has personal implications for me—but I’ve been reminded by several people that politics is not everything. As one friend said, “I freaking hate politics. It’s all trying to cure cancer with ointment.”

Even as politics enters uncharted, historic territory and is worth being excited about, I think it’s worth remembering that there are more important things.
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Politics

Yes We Can: Hillary Clinton Made Me Cry

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Let me start by saying I don’t like Hillary Clinton.

But I got teary eyed watching her tonight during the Democratic National Convention. There were two moments that got me: Her introduction video when she said, “See, you can be whatever you want to be,” and in her speech when she talked about women getting the right to vote and her mother being born before women could vote and her daughter being able to vote for a woman for president.

All my life women and minorities have had the right to vote and have had other equal rights and I’ve never thought much of it. But when you realize that only white men have ever been the face of this country’s highest office, it sends a clear message and you begin to wonder about those equal rights. It’s one thing to say a woman or a black man or a Latino woman or a Jewish man could be president, but it’s another thing to see it happen.

I got teary eyed because this election year a woman and a black man had a chance to be elected President of the United States, and for the first time I realized what that meant for my daughter and my soon-to-be-adopted black child. I can tell them, and reality will back me up, that they can be whatever they want to be.

You could say that fatherhood has made me soft, and you’d be right. Thanks to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for proving you can be whatever you want to be.

Politics

Politicians are Rich

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I think the story about John McCain not knowing how many houses he owns is hilarious. They’re even passing out buttons at the DNC: “Ask me how many houses I own.”

As funny as it is that you can claim to connect with the average American when you don’t even know how many houses you own, just about every national politician would be in that camp. Starting salary for a member of Congress is $169,300. I don’t know about you, but that’s a lot more than I make. By way of comparison, 80% of U.S. households make less than $100,000 per year (and that’s households, not individual salaries). I think it’s fair to say that few members of Congress can claim they know what it’s like to be an average American today.

That’s true for John McCain and it’s true for Barack Obama. I’m not saying they shouldn’t make that much money, but it should be remembered when politicians claim they understand tough economic times. It’s a little ironic when we accuse our congress members of being elitist when that’s exactly what they are (and as Jon Stewart says, you shouldn’t be allowed to run for president if you don’t think you’ll do better than the rest of us).

Art, Twin Cities

Start Seeing Art’s Downtown St. Paul Art Map

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Protagoras by Charles GinneverOn Saturday I posted the Downtown St. Paul Art Map on Start Seeing Art. It’s a free, printable, 7-page PDF map that features outdoor sculptures and murals in the downtown area.

I’m intentionally putting it out just before the Republican National Convention comes to town. Hopefully it will draw some attention to some of the amazing public artwork we have in the Twin Cities. The map itself isn’t very pretty (I’m no designer, and I didn’t even try to be), but it does include 85 works of art and pictures of each one (OK, 84 pictures. One sculpture is supposed to be placed any day now and I don’t have a picture of it).
Continue reading Start Seeing Art’s Downtown St. Paul Art Map →

A work-at-home dad wrestles with faith, social justice & story.