It’s been several months since I last mentioned politics on this blog, but now that Barack Obama is the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee, I think it’s time to highlight some of the things I continue to appreciate about his campaign.

First is his refusal to take money from lobbyists and political action committees, a policy that the Democratic National Committee just adopted across the board:

“The DNC and the Obama Campaign are unified and working together to elect Barack Obama as the next president of the United States. Our presumptive nominee has pledged not to take donations from Washington lobbyists and from today going forward the DNC makes that pledge as well,” said Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. “Senator Obama has promised to change the way things are done in Washington and this step is a sure sign of his commitment. The American people’s priorities will set the agenda in an Obama Administration, not the special interests.” link

Second is the number of people who’ve contributed to Obama’s campaign. It’s ordinary people - people like you and me, who donate reasonable amounts of money to make a small difference. I’ve made several donations to match first-time donors’:

Here’s what Sue T. in Los Angeles, CA had to say:

Barack is a force. I’m over 60 and didn’t think we would ever see a president as mean spirited as Nixon ever again — but then there was George W. Barack will bring a new way for us to think about the White House — and a new way for the White House to think about us. I can’t wait.

This is a direct message to me from another Obama supporter. Megan G. in San Francisco also made a donation that was matched by my last donation. It’s a simple feature to implement in a donation website, but a great way to connect people and help them feel like they’re a part of the campaign.

The graphic above read 14,000 earlier today, and now it’s over 20,000 (and may be higher still by the time you see it - it’s updated regularly).

Third, and somewhat tangentially, I like the way the Obama campaign has marketed itself. Style and design matter, and BarackObama.com is one of the best websites I’ve used (not to mention the best campaign website by far).

There are also tons of policy reasons I’m enthusiastic about the Obama campaign, as well as historic reasons. I’m looking forward to the upcoming debates between Obama and McCain.

If you’ve seen the breathtaking and profound 1986 film The Mission, you know of the musical talents of the native people encountered by the colonizers and missionaries who came to South and Central America in the 1600s and 1700s.

NPR has an amazing story on the revival of baroque music in Bolivia, which I heard this morning on the way to work. As soon as the story started, I recognized a familiar tune from The Mission. Sure enough, the story revealed that this piece was one of many that have been restored from 17th-century manuscripts from Jesuit missions in Bolivia.

The Mission is a story of the tragic clash between the peaceful Guaraní natives, Portuguese colonizers, and Spanish Jesuit missionaries. The musical abilities of the Guaraní are pointed out as evidence that they are, in fact, human and worthy of respect.

Few situations in human history are as complex and conflicted as the situation between colonials and the people they colonized (both militarily and religiously). The Mission is a must-see for feeling the tensions and the beauty in this situation, and this NPR story is a great way to convince yourself to see it. The music is beautiful.

This site shows up very well in search engine results, and one of the top posts attracting search engine traffic is this one on whether bisphenol A in Nalgene bottles is dangerous.

I’ve used a Nalgene religiously since 2000, and have consumed probably 2,500 gallons of water using it. In fact, I rarely use a drinking glass. I wash my Nalgene about once a week (see this post for bacteria info, including petri dish photos). If anyone was going to suffer ill health effects from using a Nalgene, it’d be me. No damage to any organs or appendages so far, though. I replace my bottle when the label wears off, and I’m on my third now (actually, my 2nd Nalgene was fine, but I had to replace it after leaving it on a plane).

Today we were in Whole Foods, for some reason, and I bought a Sigg bottle (this one) to see how it compares. I like the way it feels (it’s is one of the few anodized/texturized Sigg bottles), but the mouth is not wide enough to hold ice. I’m big on icewater, so the ice-unfriendliness may be a dealbreaker.

Anyway, Nalgene announced a few weeks ago that they’re phasing out the polycarbonate that traditional Nalgene bottles are made of, in favor of another material, Eastman’s “Tritan” copolyester, which does not contain bisphenol A. I don’t know how this material compares in terms of feel, taste, or durability to polycarbonate, but these bottles will probably become widely available next month. Here’s the press release.

So, if you’re afraid of bisphenol A, you’ll have plenty of alternatives from Nalgene.

Rodney Olsen recently returned from a Compassion International trip to the Dominican Republic, and has a post about breaking the cycle of poverty. Rodney’s group was supposed to go to Haiti, but food riots there forced them back to Miami, where they regrouped to head to the Dominican Republic.

This morning I read on BoingBoing that, according to this NY Times article, the poorest of the poor in Haiti can no longer afford basic food staples, and are staving off hunger pangs by eating a mixture of mud, sugar, and oil:

In Haiti, where three-quarters of the population earns less than $2 a day and one in five children is chronically malnourished, the one business booming amid all the gloom is the selling of patties made of mud, oil and sugar, typically consumed only by the most destitute.

“It’s salty and it has butter and you don’t know you’re eating dirt,” said Olwich Louis Jeune, 24, who has taken to eating them more often in recent months. “It makes your stomach quiet down.” link

Sponsor a child through Compassion (search for Haiti in the country field)

More information about people resorting to geophagy (eating dirt) in Haiti

How could we not be outraged by such affronts to human dignity? When do we stop for a minute in our comfortable lives and refuse to ignore such suffering any longer? The NY Times article points out that hungry people tend to overthrow their governments, and food riots are increasingly common in a world of rapidly rising food prices.

But riots by those affected by these crises will not solve them. Allow me to quote from a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the Vietnam War in 1967:

This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all mankind. This oft misunderstood, this oft misinterpreted concept, so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force, has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I’m not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Muslim-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John: “Let us love one another (Yes), for love is God. (Yes) And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. . . . If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us.” Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day.
…
We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood-it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, “Too late.” There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. link (emphasis added)

Indeed. So here is my challenge to my readers and fellow bloggers: As of today, there are 67 Haitian children in need of sponsorship on Compassion’s website. I think we can get that number down to zero within a week. It’s $32 a month, which is less than we spent on food and coffee at Zoka last time we went. Go to the Compassion child search page, and select Haiti from the dropdown menu, then pick a child to sponsor.

Then, blog about this and ask people to help. Thanks.

The United Way of King County has published an ethnographic study of homelessness (PDF) that shatters many of the myths and generalizations about homeless people.

From the introduction:

Fundraising for the Campaign to End Chronic Homelessness is at its halfway point, and the associated resources are now beginning to be deployed in the community. To ensure that we and our partners truly understand the shape and scale of the problem, and use our resources to the best possible effect, we commissioned this Ethnographic Assessment of Homeless Street Populations. It is Washington State’s first-ever effort to take a probing, anthropological look at the people and places of King County homelessness, and capture the diversity of the homeless experience.

Not everyone who is lingering on the street is homeless, and not everyone who is homeless is on the street. Drug and alcohol use is widespread, but hardly universal, and different ages of the homeless have different preferences in substances.

For some homeless people, life will turn around if there is a dependable roof overhead. For others, the challenge is deeper, and success will hinge on supportive services, including mentorship in regaining critical social skills.

All this and more emerges from this rich, textured, and challenging report. As we move forward in United Way of King County’s work to end homelessness, the report will guide our effort to be as comprehensive and effective as possible in our approach. link

Story in the Seattle P-I

Further down, the report notes:

Now, there are evidence-based practices for serving the chronic homeless population. Positive results have been found for models that incorporate Housing First principles, recovery first models, generic outreach, employment options, day centers, harm reduction, and motivational interviewing approaches to chemical dependency. Seattle has yet to develop a coordinated effort incorporating all of these components. However, as reported earlier, MID workers noted a clear difference on the street with the opening of the 1811 Eastlake Project (DESC) for chronic alcoholics and Real Change, which provides the opportunity to earn cash by selling papers. The innovations of Housing First principles have transformed the service philosophy toward this group in recent years. Equally transformative approaches are needed for other homeless streetbased
populations.

In other words, we may need to suspend some of our assumptions about what we should do and look at the research. Many people objected when 1811 was opened, as it lets alcoholics drink in their rooms, but it does get them off the street, giving them a greater chance of achieving sobriety and employment.

The “Chronic Homeless” category used in this report is a bit broad; it’s designed to encompass groups that aren’t adequately described by the other categories “Chronic Public Alcoholic,” “Mentally Ill and Mentally Ill Offender,” “Drug Addicted Offender.” I think the simply down-and-out are a bit overlooked, though I haven’t read the report in its entirety. What about those who have chronic, untreated health issues? Getting such issues fully treated is not easy for the homeless, and such issues can quickly lead to homelessness for those without insurance.

For those of you who know our homeless friend Paul, I’m saddened to report that he passed away about two weeks ago, after spending several weeks in a coma. While he did have some drug issues in his past, most of his issues were related to chronic health problems. We saw over and over that he’d get short-term treatment for his MRSA infections and then be released, so the infections would never go away. They eventually destroyed his kidneys, forcing him to go to dialysis four times a week. A number of other complications made the kidney failure worse, and ultimately contributed to his untimely death.

These are serious issues, and United Way’s $25 million campaign to end homelessness will be a necessary start in addressing them.

Having been to a few churches other than the one I helped to start in the past few months, I’ve come to the conclusion that I am very, very hard to please. I almost always encounter something I’m uncomfortable with, and not necessarily in a good way.

As I’ve mentioned, that feeling is minimal when I’m with the great people at Ohana Project, and I’m starting to realize that (gasp) church should not exist to make me happy. This should really be no revelation, because we set out to plant a church that was free from the consumeristic, church-shopping mindset that informs the design of so many church plants.

We’ve avoided suburban “perfect-fit” churches intentionally, and have no interest in visiting them. I’m sure we could find one that would fit us like REI gear, but I’m not convinced that would be a good idea.

And yet, as I look back on what we did as a church when we were meeting on Sundays, it was very closely tailored to our personal preferences. This wasn’t a matter of marketing, but of the fact that we naturally did what seemed best to us. There was no one else to market to us, but we were constructing a church that would be the way we wanted it (for better or for worse).

One of the downfalls of this approach, I realized recently when speaking with Jeremy, was that we left discipleship (our own and others’) out of the equation. We held gatherings, which I liked, but did not get much out of them in the way of challenge to live a holy life - since it was up to us to challenge ourselves, not a lot of discipleship occurred.

All this makes me wonder whether you can ever be satisfied in a church that’s good for you. I think we’re so shaped by consumerism that we have lost the habit of being comfortable in situations that aren’t tailor-made to suit our preferences.

One of the things I like about Ohana, as I said the other day, is that I’m not in charge, so it’s not left up to me to challenge myself. That may make me feel uncomfortable from time to time, but maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe I should break out of the assumption, expressed either by being in charge or by ruthlessly church-shopping, that church should make me comfortable and happy.

If you realized that my previous post about church was written in celebration of April 1, you might be wondering what I really think.

The truth is that we’ve been going to The Ohana Project for several weeks, and plan to continue doing so. This is in spite of the fact that I don’t like worship services and am not nearly as charismatic as most OP-ers.

So why are we going? Not surprisingly, it’s about the people. We knew several OP regulars before we started attending, and found out that we knew even more people when we started going. They’ve been great to us, even though I have a reputation for being perpetually dissatisfied with church.

The nice thing is that we’ve had the opportunity to not really worry about whether everything at church is being done the way we’d do it. Unlike many churches that we could doubtless find in the city and in the suburbs, OP is not tailor-made to suit my whims and preferences. And I like that.

It’s good to, for a change, be with other believers who have a vision and a passion for what they’re doing, without my having to be involved in making the decisions. I don’t mean that I want to just show up and not get involved, but for now I’m enjoying being in a community where other people make the decisions.

I was watching TV the other day and this commercial for the We Campaign to stop global warming caught my attention:

Terrablog points out that the narrator of this clip is none other than William H. Macy, which I didn’t realize when I watched it. It’s an inspiring commercial - I thought it was going to be an Obama ad or something.

The We Campaign’s platform focuses on the following solutions:

• Clean Energy Economy
• Personal Choices
• Adoption of Renewables
• Enhanced Energy Efficiency
• Innovative Leadership

The campaign is funded by Al Gore and other private donors. It reminds me of the One Campaign - a public awareness effort designed to build political will for changes that will benefit all of humanity.

Start here for some footprint-reducing tips.