The Week Link

With the devastating effects from this week's earthquake near Port au Prince in Haiti, today's link is myriad of organizations who need help in the relief of this disaster that is effecting over 3 million people.  At the least, support the efforts of these organizations with your prayers over the next few months.

Haiti relief organizations

Friday's Finds are in tomorrow.

Super Tuesday

I wanted to apologize for the late posting of today's Super Tuesday, but I wanted to wait and see how things played out before posting the candidates for today's vote.

As a TV network, it is one thing to have programming on your airwaves.  It's a whole other thing to mess up the good programming that is already on your airwaves.  If you've been away from the television for a year or two, you may not have known about the NBC late night situation involving Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien that can best described as gross incompetence.  Essentially, Conan was the heir apparent to Leno for "The Tonight Show", and because of that growing feeling, NBC promised Conan that he would take over the show back in 2004 to keep him from bolting to another network.  But as the date approached for Conan to take over (last June), something weird happened:  Jay Leno's ratings refused to drop.  It was assumed that Leno would fade into the sunset and give way to O'Brien, and when he didn't fade, NBC panicked and looked for a way to keep Leno on their airwaves.

Without going into detail on the rest of the story, it's sufficient to say that NBC set "The Tonight Show" up for failure by keeping "the old guy" around, and everyone knows in a professional setting that the new guy can't fully reach his/her potential if the old guy is lingering around to look over his/her shoulder.  Conan is loved by millions, and is a brand name in and of himself.  Yet NBC took this talented comic and mistreated him to the point that it's hard to think that anyone with any entertainment success would ever want to do business with the network in the future.

All of this as context, today's Super Tuesday vote is simple:  which late night comic do you prefer?

Jay Leno:  This large chinned car freak has been a mainstay for close to two decades on the late night scene, and his comedy is very much reliant on structure; a "set 'em up and knock 'em down" type of comic.

Conan O'Brien:  This crazy haired, freakishly tall comic started off as a writer before hitting the night time airwaves around fifteen years ago.  His comedy is more reliant on his ability to make fun of himself and roll with the punches.

So who do you love?  Cast your vote with a comment or on the 611 facebook page...and do yourself a favor and watch Letterman while this whole this thing sorts itself out.

The Post Mortem

Before we begin the post mortem today, I think it's important to identify the five people who personified what 611 is all about last night, taking the fishes and loaves they have and using them to be a part of God's plan.  Bryce Thompson was our lead singer for music last night, along with his wife Jenna, TJ Thompson shredding on the guitar, Ryan Ikeler banging on drums like Animal from the Muppet Babies, and Brian Banks adding the sweet effects.

We also need to send a shout out to everyone who helped us as we made 2040 sandwiches for Cass Community Social Services, sandwiches that will both be given away to the hungry and sold to other organizations to raise money for some the other amazing programs that Cass performs daily.

As for the Post Mortem, the theme for today is that context matters.  If we ever run across people who are homeless, the obvious question is "Why?".  What get's someone to the place where they are unable to find shelter for himself/herself?  If homelessness is a symptom, then what is the illness that we need to treat in the world around us?  And if a person is homeless on the account of bad decisions that they've made, are we the kind of people to go ahead and say, "...they got what they deserved."?

No one ever wants to read a list of the mistakes they've made, nor do they want to see the instant replay.  We all have made choices of which we're not proud.  I believe that our community stands for the idea that no screw up is too big for God's forgiveness, and if that is true, then maybe no screw up should be too big for our forgiveness.  If someone is homeless because of their own poor choices, I believe God demands that we come along side of that person, show them love and forgiveness, and walk with them as they learn how to not repeat the same mistakes.

Let's close the post mortem this way:  We stand for these ideas because we believe that God has created us and shown us the best possible way to live, devoted to the God's reclamation work; forgiveness, service, and love.