Heated toilet seats? I need to get me one of them…

If you are not aware of the story of Sarah Kreager you are a fortunate soul indeed. Sarah was the victim of a beating by a group of nine middle school students in Baltimore’s Hamden neighborhood. On Wednesday, Judge David W. Young made this statement at the sentencing of 15 year old Nakita McDaniels:

Baltimore Circuit Judge David W. Young sentenced 15-year-old Nakita McDaniels for attacking Sarah Kreager aboard a city bus. The following statement was made in court on Wednesday.

I came to Baltimore 37 years ago from Hagerstown to attend UMBC. Growing up in Hagerstown, I didn’t see a lot of things. I didn’t see lawyers of color. I didn’t see women attorneys or doctors, doctors of color. The first six years of my life I went to segregated schools.

Not withstanding all of that, when I got to UMBC and I saw the city of Baltimore, and I said this the other day, I thought I was in heaven, and I literally decided that I was going to make Baltimore my home.

In 1985, I became a judge. I’ve done thousands of cases. I can’t think of more than three or four in 23 years that have reduced me to tears like this case. And when I say this case reduced me to tears, it reduced me to tears.

I just wonder what has gone so wrong, so wrong, in our families, in our communities, in our churches and schools. It’s been painful for me. I didn’t get more than three hours’ sleep. I didn’t want this case. I didn’t get more than three hours’ sleep for a couple of months.

My staff will tell you I got literally dozens of phone calls. I got phone calls from people who said they’re only picking on these kids because they’re black. I got phone calls from people who said, “You’d know they did it if you’ve ever ridden a bus in this city.” I’ve had people literally come up to me on the street, and I’ve had to walk away from them.

I only point that out because this case grabbed the attention of our community. I got e-mails from our state and, sadly enough, from our nation. And Nakita is not responsible for that. We are as a community.

Something is wrong. The good Lord has a way of revealing the truth, and I don’t even know what movie it’s from. But one of my favorite movie lines is where Jack Nicholson says, “You can’t handle the truth.” And I just think in many ways, we are ignoring the truth that’s as plain as the noses on our faces.

A house divided cannot stand. And our house is divided. Our city is divided. Our country is divided. Nobody likes anybody. It scares me.

Men are angry at women. Women are angry at men. Blacks don’t like whites; whites don’t like blacks. Latinos. We’re homophobic. We’re ethnocentric. We’re moving to the right in terms of our intolerance.

And so what this case represents to me was — and I don’t doubt that Nakita is an intelligent young woman — but what it points out to me is the crying need for early intervention. I reviewed the psychological report. I reviewed the court file. I reviewed the report in her prior case. This young and gifted young lady has needed help for a long time and not gotten it.

On Dec. 4, caution went out the window, compassion went out the window, and reason went out the window. You know. And so, it’s, it’s sad to me.

It’s also sad to me — and the reason I ordered DJS to staff her case — is because I’ve been in juvenile [court] nine of the last 12 years of my life. And one thing I am certain, if we don’t intervene, it doesn’t get better. It gets worse.

I’ve done homicide cases as a juvenile judge. I’ve done attempted murder cases. And I’ve not dealt with many people — juvenile or adult — who I am convinced given the proper provocation would kill. I don’t say that lightly.

I actually wept when I heard the testimony of Mrs. King. When she yelled, “That’s not a dog. That’s a person. And you’re going to kill her.” I believe, but for Miss King, this case would have been much more tragic. I just really believe it. I believe the pack mentality kicked in.

And the person who could have led them in staying on the bus — led them in doing the right thing, who, according to her counselor, being vice president of student government — chose to lead her troops in another direction.

There are many types of leaders. I’m not going to call them by name, but there are leaders for positive and for good. And there are those leaders who choose to use their leadership abilities to do wrong.

But I do know this. In my heart, in my belief and in my experience, unless and until Nakita gets in touch with what is making Nakita explosive and angry, the next person who argues with her may be a homicide victim.

And that to me is born out in the evaluation, where she says, “If I fight somebody, I really try to hurt them.” And the doctor says, “She does not fight often. But when she does, it’s as if a switch gets turned on. She loses control.” The 10 or 12 homicide cases I’ve done, that’s what happened.

She has had the benefit of prior probation. I do not think probation is in order, nor do I think community-based placement is in order.

Nakita McDaniels … this court now finds you delinquent. This court also finds that it is in your best interest to commit you to a secure residential placement outside of the community.

From the Baltimore Sun

I am haunted by this line:
I just wonder what has gone so wrong, so wrong, in our families, in our communities, in our churches and schools.

What has gone wrong in our families, our communities, our churches, and our schools?
How do we begin to pick up the pieces?

Thoughts?

I live! To prove it to you I am going to give you the digest version of my life right now, and then I am going to bed. I have had so much that I have wanted to write about lately, but time has just not been available. Here is what is going on:

• It has been just over three weeks since my nephew was born, and he is still the coolest kid ever (until I have mine sometime in the future)…
• Who knew that you could pull off a wedding in the NYC area in June cheaply on ten weeks notice? It looks like I really am getting married on June 14.
• In case you are wondering, we have a wedding website, check it out here.
  We are getting married here, having our reception here, and having our honeymoon here.
• The car business has been rather slow of late. The constant barrage of bad news on the economy has made people hang on to their money, and discouraged them from buying cars. I am currently sitting at 6 cars for the month, with a week to go. While this is bad, I am doing better than a good bit of the guys that I work with. Pray for us, we need to pay our bills this month.
• The Garden is progressing quite nicely. We still have a great deal of money to raise, but we are putting together a plan to work on that, and we are seeing people join us more and more as time moves on. Joel is currently at the National New Church Conference in Orlando. I was supposed to be there with him this week, but with the way the month was going at the dealership, I could not afford to miss four days off of the sales floor. If you are interested in supporting this ministry, please click here.

I think that pretty much is the quick recap on my life… I should be able to post again after invitations are mailed out…

This is my nephew, Shane who was born yesterday afternoon (no foolin!).
He is a big fella, eight pounds and change (my sister is not all that big… she is tough!).
Anyhow, it is only a matter of time before I start teaching him all the important things in life that only uncles can teach (belching the alphabet, rolling around in mud, you know… that kind of stuff)…

The most incredible sound on the face of the planet is the gasp that comes when you slip an engagement ring on the trembling finger of the woman you love…

Oh, by the way… the wedding is June 14.

Flying home from my Easter on Long Island I was captivated by a story in Southwest Airline’s Spirit Magazine.

I will wait while you all finish snickering.

The story is about an organization called Bonnie CLAC that works with people with limited income and less than perfect credit to secure reliable transportation at a reasonable price.

Over the last two months I have been spending a great deal of my time at work on a “special finance” program (special finance is the nicer way of saying bad credit). This has been an eye opening experience for me, and has shown me some areas of huge need when it comes to our tendencies as consumers. What I like about Bonnie CLAC is that it is not about selling a car, but it is about dealing with the root issues of credit problems, and then solving a the transportation challenges of an individual.

Over my last eighteen months selling cars I have collected numerous stories of people with credit issues. People with two and three repossessions, multiple bankruptcies, credit scores in the 340s, and multiple foreclosures (especially lately). With very few exceptions the people in these situations have been (to steal Bonnie CLACs term) financially illiterate, and while their illiteracy does not leave them blameless, there are many places that thrive on the financially illiterate.

Thinking back over the last month I am unable to count the amount of times that I have come across a customer who is paying a ridiculous monthly payment for a vehicle that is on its’ last legs, or is altogether dead. I continue to run into people who are driving a car because of its’ name (BMW, Lexus, Mercedes, etc. etc.) not because it is affordable or practical. I have had many conversations of late with people that are driving luxury cars with over 150,000 miles on them, and are locked into three or four more years of payments on them, while they are continuously in the shop for repairs… and what was the car of their dreams becomes their worst nightmare… keeping them in the cycle of debit and poor credit.

I recently posted about B Corporations, and the idea of the triple bottom line has stuck in my head for quite a while… I wonder how we go about morphing the traditional car dealership into a B Corporation. How do we go about serving people, and helping them get out of the sick cycle that is bad credit, while still turning a profit and solving their transportation issues? Could a Bonnie CLAC model work in Baltimore (or any other urban environment, for that matter)?

I would love to hear what you all think on this stuff… enlighten me, please…

I have gone through an evolution of sorts through the years…

I used to say that Christmas was my favorite holiday (presents!)…
Christmas eventually morphed in Easter, which still rates up there…
But over the course of the last several years, my heart has been captured by Good Friday.

The power and wonder that is Good Friday, never fails to awe me.

It is Good Friday when we see Christ at his most raw, and most real.

The imagery of Christ in the garden, surrounded by his closest friends, crying out to God, asking him to take this cup from him…
Christ wrestling through his coming turmoil to the point of sweating drops of blood…
Christ going peacefully with Judas and the Romans…

This is not the picture of Jesus that we choose to remember all that often. This is not the Jesus we so often like to ask favors of, the Jesus who we ask to make traffic jams go away, heal everyone who is sick everywhere, or to give us world peace…

This is the Christ who suffered for me. This is the Christ taking his stripes, that I might be granted peace… This is the Christ, the wounded healer.

Isaiah 53:5
Today’s New International Version (TNIV)

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

The power of Good Friday is not in what happens, but what does not happen… Christ does not forsake us me. He chooses to follow through with his own crucification.

It is this night that I find myself overcome with the beauty, love, utter joy that is God’s heart for restoration.
It is this night that I can not help but fall more deeply in love with the Christ that bled for me.
It is this night that I am once again humbled by the mercy of Jesus Christ.

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died
My richest gain I count but loss
And pour contempt on all my pride

See from his head, his hands, his feet
Sorrow and love flow mingled down
Did ever such love and sorrow meet
Or thorns compose so rich a crown

O the wonderful cross, O the wonderful cross
Bids me come and die and find that I may truly live
O the wonderful cross, O the wonderful cross
All who gather here by grace draw near and bless
Your name

Were the whole realm of nature mine
That were an offering far too small
Love so amazing, so divine
Demands my soul, my life, my all

The Wonderful Cross, Chris Tomlin

As I pursue Christ, and struggle daily to grow closer to him, my prayer is that my life will reflect the sacrifice, the sorrow, and the love that is Good Friday…

It never fails that every time I say I am going to write on a few different things it ends up being one post…

The other day at Dunkin Donuts Joel and I had coffee with Brian McLaren. We spent a while talking about all sorts of stuff, networking, and talking about B Corporations. But what has haunted me since that day was the idea of the remainder slum.

Now, I do realize that what I am about to type will be considered to be politically incorrect, but such is life… and this is important.

Slums tend to fall into two categories… arriver slums, and remainder slums. Arriver slums are a bit of a transition point, the place where people enter into a new place, and eventually work themselves out of it. Historically speaking, these are the places where people would move into a city from the country, leaving the agricultural trades, and getting an industrial job. After working hard and establishing themselves financially they would move to another community. We have also seen this through immigration.

The remainder slum is what happens to those people who, for one reason or another, can not leave the arriver slum. Through the generations these are the people who were not able to establish themselves economically, and were not able to leave. The remainder slum is a huge issue that we do not want to deal with because it causes us to deal with generational failure, and it takes the hard work of reversing the culture of that niche society.

The remainder slum is where we find people who come from a family history of unemployment, and to whom a forty hour work week is as impossible to accomplish as a marathon would be for me to finish. And so, the question becomes, how do we minister to, and in, the remainder slum?

I believe that there are many ways to answer this question, and I also believe that B Corporations play largely into the equation. But I also believe that we need to step back, and re-examine how we look at the situation.

Coming from a largely conservative republican background, the first thing that comes to mind is that you just need to provide jobs for people, and if they work, they work… But I don’t think that is the answer anymore.

I also don’t think that the answer is giving them money, or “Independence Cards” (how Orwellian is that name?), or allowing them to get by through hand-outs.

Somewhere, between the two, is the answer.

In my last post, I said that I was going to talk about what I am thinking about politically this year… and to be honest with you, I am slowly coming to the decision that regardless of who runs, I am going to write in Michael Bloomberg. Why? Mostly because I am sick of the status quo, and I refuse to give any kind of support to it.

A few weeks back there was a debate at work about the candidates and who should be president. There was all sorts of talk about change and freshness, and new spirits… It was all crap. You see, as long as we continue to support the candidates from the established parties who are continuing to take money from the same old people, and are catering to the same old contingencies there is no change, no freshness, no new spirit. The puppet masters are still the same, the only thing that has changed is the face of the puppet.

And so, rather than real change, there is a warm fuzzy feeling for about twelve minutes and everything continues on the way it has been for years. In order for change to occur, in order for real, substantive change to happen, you need to start fresh… you need to shed off the chains of those who have kept us shackled to the old ways, and start to move in a fresh, new way… and while that sounds hopeful, as long as the Republicans and the Democrats are in charge of the political landscape in this country they will do everything in their power to keep that from happening. Hillary? Obama? McCain? They are all the same candidate, just wrapped in different colors and genders.

As I think through were we are politically, I can not help but look at it all through the lens of Baltimore’s brokenness. I can not help but see the picture of the remainder slum that consumes so much of this city. I see so much that has been promised, but the promises end up in a remainder slum of their own… having sounded good at the time, they were unable to claw their way into existence. What we need is not the right political candidate, but it is a group of people to take ownership of their city (and nation). A group that puts the needs of their brothers and sisters above all else, including votes, and does what is in the best interest of those around them… regardless of whether it is popular or not. What our brothers and sisters need is not another handout, but to be taught how to work… how to handle their money… how to raise their children.

What the remainder needs is a group of people to care for it… to invest in it… and to develop it… even at the expense of profit.

And so, I will leave you with some homework. As I am thinking and praying through what it looks like to love and care well for the city of Baltimore, the idea of the B Corporation continues to stick in the back of my mind… I would love to hear your thoughts on what an effective B Corporation would look like here, and how it can successfully care for the city…

I am out sick today.

I am never out sick. The last time that I took a sick day was approximately three years ago when I had the death flu from hell.

So what happened? It was a conspiracy, I tell you, and it all starts with Oprah.

You see, Oprah apparently has a friend named Gail (I say apparently because I never watch her show… which is why she is out to get me), and it would seem that this friend Gail comes on the show every now and then (or so I have heard). Gail seems to like Ledo Pizza, an addiction that goes back to her days in College Park. Well, this pizza was being discussed on one of her shows that my beautiful, charming, wonderful (I say this because she is, and she is also providing me with the Immodium that I crave) girlfriend saw and instantly became brainwashed by the Oprah. The Oprah commanded her to take me to Ledo, and so we went.

And I am still going.

Last night I was awakened by Mr. Bowel voice (one of those people who you do not, under any circumstances ignore) at 4:17 am, and 5:17 am, and 6:32 am, at which point Mr. Bowel voice and I decided it was far better just to stay up and communicate with one another for a while.

This is what I have learned…

I am exhausted. My body has been waiting for a chance to rest, and the Oprah’s conspiracy to get me played right into my body’s needs. I think that I will work tomorrow, and then rest again on Sunday… all day.

Toilet paper with lotion is all that there will be in heaven.

I hate my cell phone (except for the cool new White House Rumble game, think Mike Tyson’s Punch Out with presidential candidates, makes bathroom time much more fun)

T’s landlord REALLY needs to fix these pipes… and soon.

Soup always tastes better when you are sick.

I do a really poor job of calling in sick to work. I always feel guilty, even when I can not leave the bathroom for more than 10 minutes.

We have a nice couch.

Joel went and posted about our time with Brian McLaren at Dunkin Donuts yesterday… I hope to post something about it tomorrow, or Sunday (I have a couple of other takeaways, but he is right about Brian’s warmth)…

I am also hoping to write a little bit about my political thoughts as soon as I can make them sound a little less cynical.

Until then, February 25th is coming… You should get me something nice for my birthday.

Come For Me
Charlie Hall

Jesus come take me away,
I long to see Your face
This world is broken yet beautifully made,
Jesus come take me away.

Jesus I’ll patiently wait,
until like a vapor I’ll fade
Help me fulfill all your dreams for these days,
and Jesus I’ll patiently wait.

You’ll come again with a shout,
like a thief in the night you’ll come riding on clouds
and Finally the voice I have followed for life
has a glorious face that is lit up with light
And you’ll come for me, no more pain - peace,
No more fear - release
just lost and consumed with my glorious King.

Jesus today I am tired,
and I need your music to come and inspire
and I give myself to be refined in this fire,
but Jesus today I’m so tired.

You’ll come again with a shout,
like a thief in the night you’ll come riding on clouds
and Finally the voice I have followed for life
has a glorious face that is lit up with light
And you’ll come for me, no more pain- peace,
No more fear - release
just lost and consumed with my glorious King,
and you’ll come for me.
come for me.

Tomorrow morning, I shall rest… and maybe I will share a little bit about my breakfast with Brian McLaren.