I highly recommend everyone who lives in Nashville join the Homeless Power Project’s newsletter and attend their events. I also recommend joining us for Food Not Bombs or just going to downtown and taking an opportunity to meet those who hang out in the park across from the library. However, for those who don’t currently think they have the time, Sans Houses is a beautiful introduction to the Homeless Community of Nashville.
Frenchpress takes pictures and voice records many of the homeless community throughout Nashville. Her work is beautiful, and …

Rachel at Ally Work gave some commentary on a real interesting report on Traffic Stop statistics that came out recently.
When you combine the data, the result do show greater scrutiny of people of color by police officers.  However, that scrutiny doesn’t always occur in the ways that we expect.  With the traffic stops, the greater scrutiny comes after the stop is made.  The data on stop and frisks need a more thorough analysis that has a national level sample and more methodological sophistication before we can make find how and …

UPDATE (7/28/09): Two years later, here is the results of the Jena Six trial. Mostly a victory.
Updated:  New post on the Jena Six
We’ve talked about stories of racism and police abuse in the past, so this shouldn’t be a revelation for any of the regular readers around here. However, stories like this, when they are specific, need to be noted, brought up, spoken out against, and made aware to a larger community.
In Jena, Louisiana, a town of 3,000, 85% white, 12% black, the disgusting injustice of a still racially charged …

This is actually a repost of something I wrote last year, but I figured it fit appropriately on a Monday (CRM). This has changed a little since we live in a community and I don’t actually do much of the shopping, but I think it’s still pertinent to most people. I’ll probably elaborate on CSA’s and other things more at some point soon. From February of 2006:
When it comes to most of my purchasing, price is a major factor. In the same way that I wouldn’t go pick the most …

This is more question time for the readers then me giving answers.
In a discussion at the house the other day, and a couple email conversations with some readers, I’ve started to rethink what topics, facts, concepts, etc. are essential to the Gospel.
There’s all kinds of cliches and sayings about the gospel: “Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words.” There’s all kinds of things we spend far too much time talking about and others we simply neglect. So, take a minute to think about this. I’m wondering, …

Below, in it’s entirety, is something I wrote a while back about why I don’t shop at Walmart. With all the CRM posts and everything I felt this was probably a pretty appropriate time to post this up again and hopefully garner further discussion on it. If your going to link to the article, please link to the original, Why I don’t Shop At Walmart:
This topic always draws a lot of feedback. The thing is from the moment someone starts to talk, or write, you usually have a good …

I like to say Shane is my friend, though he’s becoming quite the name and face in the big media, he’s very personable and committed to the faith. His story is a wonderful one and he explains well a lot of the values and truths I hold in my faith. I haven’t even listened to the whole podcast above (it’s 53 minutes) but I promise you it will be worth your while.

Shane.
I also have a couple copies of his book, Irresistible Revolution, if anyone is looking for one. It’ll change …

Okay, I don’t know for sure that bottled water is a scam, but I had to come out strong. My dad sent me the Ideal Bite Tip from the other day that suggested using home filters to clean your water rather then bottled water. It made me think about how ridiculous I think the bottled water industry is.
I haven’t been alive that long, but I clearly remember when there was no such thing as bottled water and I didn’t think twice before drinking my water straight from the tap. Now …