but life is not all a bowl of cherries (which i had [a bowl of cherries]) at multiple times over the weekend...
crime: (there's a naughty word here, if you keep reading)
while walking from the red line to the blue line at jackson, i watched as a group of kids turned, chased and mercilessly beat another kid. and i did nothing. my first thought was to protect the people i was with, so i just put myself between the rampaging youths and my friends who i thought were right behind me [they were, in fact, farther back]. everyone pressed against the side of the tunnel to get out of the way. one tall, strikingly beautiful girl in front of me [it's strange what details you remember when things happen quickly, no?] as soon as most of the kids had run away because they heard the security guy coming, charged forward, yelled, "get the fuck off of him!" and proceeded to charge in and pull the last two or three attackers off the victim. Jake then surged forward and started examining the victim. the tall girl was helping support him as he stood up. I still did nothing except keep an eye on the group of attackers in order to warn the folks looking after the victim if they would charge back. basically nothing.
and i wonder, what was the right response? should i have charged in earlier? what if there were guns and knives instead of just fists and boots? does that change my responsibility at all? i stood idly by and let innocent blood be shed. Jake was saying later that he could have beat the crap out of kids, he could have put his body over the person being attacked and protected him, or any manner of other things. but instead we did nothing. well, until it was over. then Jake took charge, talked with the kid and did some diagnostics to check for responsiveness.
one more note before moving on: the racial element. we were just talking about racism earlier in the day. i know that differences in behavior come from socio-economic and cultural differences, and not race. i know this. but as i think back, it was white folks cowering against the wall, and black kids beating up another black kid. nevermind that the scores, and i do mean scores - as in 40ish - of CPD officers who were there within 5 minutes [which was odd in it's own right. where did they all come from and how did they get there so quickly? and what were they doing before that they could abandon so easily?] were mostly African-American and Latino. There were two ladies behind me on the next blue line train talking about how "those people" are so senselessly violent. and maybe they are, but being "those people" obviously has nothing to do with skin color, but rather being steeped in a culture that presents beating someone for a perceived slight as a workable alternative to walking away.
and by me not doing anything to prevent violence, or stop it once it started, i am one of "those people."
Arson:I came back to my apartment sunday, only to find that the staircase was sealed off by police tape. i found a note under my door saying: We have had some trouble with apartment 17. if you see anything suspicious in the future, please call the police." In talking with other residents, aparently, the resident of apt 17 tried to set the apartments on fire. wow. she was arrested though, so that's good for me.
that being said, i had a lot of fun this weekend, but you know, if it bleeds, it leads.
links:It's a banner day in Bible research. The Codex Sinaiticus was released today in online form.
This is the oldest
complete New Testament, and it was "found" (did the Greek Orthodox monks lose it? Thank heaven the British came in and "found" it for them...) at St. Catherine's. it's critically important to see the changes in the text over time and will make for much fascinating research. read a great article
here and view the collection
here. To the right is a picture i took of the "burning bush" during a visit to Egypt in 2006.
Another great post from the
Center for Biblical Equality on
Celebrating Singleness (they don't talk about Jesus though, only Paul... i feel like i'm taking crazy pills sometimes.)
a great article about leaders, choice, hoiness and preperation through the frame of
Moses and Korach. i don't know that i totally buy this reading, but i've heard a lot of folks turning punishments into preperations lately, so why not join in? [because it's incorrect?] still, Rabbi Waskow brings an interesting intrepretation to light, and i really like it!
A while ago, Sarah and I visited an Orthodox church and she was refused communion. reading
this post brought that back to mind. we walked out to the car, and i had some bread and some sort of drinkable thing. we had communion out there, and then walked back in. [bonus: try on
this sermon from Nadia.]
Cleveland Church gears up to end poverty. get this: in this article, there's talk about inter-church collaboration, poverty-reduction, repenting of thinking of ourselves as saviours to the poor rather than perpetuators of poverty. Read the criticism at the bottom. that's fantastic! if there had been talk about ending the causes of poverty production, my computer would have exploded from the greatness!
