News Round Up, you know...

I meant to post this last week, but somehow I forgot ... super encouraging article about the police chief in Richmond, California.  If you know anything about Richmond, it probably isn't good, so this just might blow you away.  I know Richmond to be a complicated place with a strong sense of community that has taken more than its fair share of the repercussions of troubled economic times.  I am so glad that they are finding ways to use their strengths to combat their weaknesses.

I am truly torn between "say it isn't so" and "best wishes" on hearing that Jon Stewart will walk away from The Daily Show sometime this year.  I truly do wish him and his family the best ... but what a loss for the world to not have him around four days a week, when he isn't on vacation *wink*.  Seriously, though, who else will take the media to task on being divas -- following ridiculous stories down the rabbit hole like it is a bare Kardashian ass...

It would seem that the whole world has gotten Pope Francis' messages wrong, and the archbishops and cardinals, especially those in San Francisco and Oakland, are carrying out the true message ... or these guys are fighting back from the colonies.  Whichever it is, the people losing are those who have been enjoying pretty progressive Catholic education in the Bay Area .. so sad.  

For those who still think that their words and actions of "self-preservation" (read NIMBY) are not sending larger messages to the community at large, here's some proof you are dead wrong.  First you went to war with a church group about their ministry to the homeless, and then the youth listening to you rage over your evening cocktails take to the street with matches and bats.  As this article points out ... the homeless, like it or not, are also citizens of your city.

Not sure what it says about me ... but I used to love to read the long pieces in the NY Times about politics, life, etc... and then I couldn't take the tragedy (and I didn't have the time to read and then be properly outraged).  Recently, I have developed an interest in these pretty emotional pieces.  I opened this one, titled All Parents Are Cowards, not knowing what to expect.  I loved it, but maybe I relate more to this since I became the not-parent to my nieces and nephews (and especially since I have been trying to coax my nephew to try the skateboard someone gave him for Christmas) ... hope you like it, too.

I always think the saying "acknowledgement is the first step" is just another bit of excruciating torture.  First step into what?  Hell.  Whenever I acknowledge something it is always some ugly truth I have been effectively hiding from ... and I am guessing that is exactly what it is meant to refer to.  Here is a piece on just this kind of acknowledgement ... and it seems like it is not only a logical first step -- it is necessary ... to say it aloud and for someone in this man's positions and of his complexion to say it.  Though I am guessing that it will need to be said by many others who look and sound like him, and some that look like him but sound much more reactionary, if we are ever going to find a way to combat the knee-jerk reaction to race.