Imagine my surprise this week when I finally realized that the war has started.  I come back from a weekend of celebration and worship to find that there is a war raging and the target is Christianity.

fox news shows the truth

Wait… that’s Christian America.  The war is against Christian America.

Nevermind.  I’ve just been reminded by fox news that there is no difference between the two.

My favorite example so far was the ‘hit piece’ above that recently ripped apart the University of Maryland’s student senate for voting to take a Judeo-Christian prayer out of the graduation ceremony.  Imagine that – a public university made up of students representing multiple religions removing a part of a ceremony that only represents the beliefs of a portion.

Oh, thank goodness fox news is there for me.  This senate is made up of “liberal professors and activist students.”  Those dang profs and crazy students in Maryland… why must you hate Christians?

These are the same students who are showing porn at a closed event.  Oh the whore horror (ha!).

Do you want to know what the real war on Christianity is?  It’s agents like fox news and the heritage foundation and their goons who think that Christian college students can’t make their own decisions to avoid porn being shown on campus.  That is a war on Christianity.  It’s these ridiculous ‘news’ stories that continue to weaken American Christianity and drive it to the fringe.  And good riddens.  The sooner we can cast this fake, watered down version of Christianity into a fiery lake of sulfur where it belongs, the better.

Christians at the University of Maryland don’t need a student senate telling them there will be a theatrical prayer to open up the graduation ceremony.  Christians at the University of Maryland, and apparently fox news and the heritage foundation, need to realize that every single person at the graduation ceremony can pray as much as they want whenever they want.  They can pray as they line up to head to the ceremony.  They can pray as they pull on their cap for the first time.  They can pray as their name is called.  They can pray as they walk across the stage and shake a trustee’s hand.  They can pray as the ceremony comes to a close.  Is some fake corporate prayer that was written weeks prior and vetted by a team of administrators somehow more powerful than individual Christians offering up words of thanks and worship?

Apparently so, according to fox news and the heritage foundation.  Hope they enjoy their superficial white suburban Jesus religion.

When I moved to Chicago, I knew very little of the current politics that ran the city.  I had heard the term alderman but had no clue that it meant “overpaid city councilperson.”  I knew some of the history of Chicago politics and the name Daley was recognizable.  It was the stuff that barely registers a blip outside of the city that was foreign to me.

I think my friend Karen was the first person to shed a little light.  I was in awe of the beauty of Millennium Park in downtown.  The cool sculptures and the amazing location was awe inspiring.  Karen, though, had a little different take on the park.  It turned out, Karen mentioned, that everything about the park was a slap in the face of Chicagoans.  It was a huge drain on taxpayers money sitting on stolen land taken in the middle of the night by a corrupt mayor.  I didn’t really believe her, though.  How could an entire city sit back and allow this to happen?

I think the past couple of years in the city have given me a better understanding as to why the city ignored the entire fiasco.  You see, Mayor Daley, he keeps the city running.  The parks are taken care of (for the most part) and the trains run – not on time, mind you – but they run.  Enough of the city either knows works for some part of the giant city bureaucracy or knows someone that does.  The garbage is picked up and every once in a while an idea bubbles to the surface that makes sense (blue recycling bags?  how do these people keep their jobs?).

As one of the largest cities in the world, you have to admit that being able to balance all of the basic city services is a hard task.  Now try doing that while increasing revenue from non-taxpayer sources – tourism, film permits, federal and state grant money – and you obviously have a job the requires bending the rules.  So that’s what has happened in Chicago and people generally seem to be OK with it.

Somewhere beneath the big happy picture, though, the foundation is rotting.  As I was standing in line at the Obama Election Party, I overheard a conversation that the person next to me was having with a Chicago police officer.  The civilian was mentioning how amazing it was that the mayor could pull off an event of the size and complicated nature of the Obama party.  The police officer seemed to put up with it for a few minutes before airing his disagreement.  He asked the lady if she knew the last time Chicago police officers received raises.  He asked if she would stay in her job if she didn’t get a raise in a three year span.  The lady mumbled “probably not” and turned away.

I thought this was a somewhat isolated incident, but I have a feeling more anti-Daley feelings are going to start finding their way into the public forum.  A couple of days ago, just moments after the first real snow accumulation in the city, Daley announced that the city snowplows were going to cut some residential streets from their routes.  The money wasn’t there to make sure all streets were clear.  So, for the taxpayers living on these streets, they could be happy knowing their tax dollars would be spent clearing off main arteries, but everyone else is out of luck.

Now, the mayor wants to privatize parking meter collections.  After all, we’ve privatized CTA and that has just worked… well, it hasn’t really worked at all.  Instead CTA has threatened shut downs and “doomsday” scenarios to strong-arm the state and city into fare hikes and unwarranted increases in funding.

So, anyway, back to the parking meters – the mayor wants to now privatize collections at city meters.  He wants to grant a 75 year contract to a company, and all that company wants in return?  How about a 400% increase in parking costs starting 1/1/09 in my neighborhood?  Oh, and that’s just in 2009.  The price will continue to escalate at alarming rates through 2013.

The mayor thinks it’s ok though because they promise to make all meters credit card compliant… in a couple of years or so.  After all, he doesn’t want folks to have to worry about carrying around almost $7 worth of quarters to park for an hour in the Loop.

The mayor has quickly forgotten what has kept him in office by large numbers – he has kept Chicagoans happy.  Unplowed streets, quarterly CTA fare hikes, a +10% sales tax, increased violent murders, disgruntled police officers, and unwarranted parking meter fare hikes are no way to keep the people happy.  It may not be in the next election, but I’m guessing that if this trend continues, 2016 Olympics or not, a changing of the guard will be here sooner than we though.

Dear President-Elect Obama,

First of all, SWEET PARTY in Grant Park the other night.  It was amazing.  I kept telling my friends – there’s no way this guy can pull off this shindig.  You proved me wrong, sir.  The pizza was so-so and hella expensive, but it’s cool.  I was hoping for an open bar or at least a keg, but hey, you did your best.  Maybe in 2012, right?

Now, the reason I’m writing.  I’m pretty excited about your presidency overall, but there’s a few things I’m hoping you can address in late January/early February.  I’m writing to you now because you probably need to get a head-start.  I’ve always heard that money helps grease the wheels, so I’m not afraid to bring up the multiple donations I sent your way over the course of the primary and presidential races.

So, without further ado, here’s what I’m thinking should probably be addressed: (more…)

If Sarah and I are graced with children someday (woah), talking about the presidential election of 2008 will have a special importance.  We had the chance to stand in Grant Park with 250,000 people and follow the election results all night.  Then, as the west coast states closed their polling places, we watched as Wolf Blitzer told us Barack Obama would be the 44th president of the United States.

I can’t write that without getting goosebumps and watery eyes.  The memory of raising my arms in jubilation with about 250,000 people, one of which was my wife of 30 days, is one I will never forget.  It was almost like a combined sigh of relief for a moment most of us probably at at least one time doubted we would ever see.  As much as I supported Obama from before his announcement in Springfield, to believe that he actually was named president-elect?  It’s still a struggle.

I remember talking with Sarah and realizing that she was as excited as I was, and the anticipation on the ride downtown.  I was wearing a button my friend Kelly bought me – it said “Beer Brewers for Obama.”  While beer brewing is still a yet-to-be-achieved dream, it was a fun, eye-catching button to wear.  Sarah and I were in a crowd of supporters as we walked from the station to the park.  It wasn’t long before we hit Michigan Avenue and saw the first real glimpses of the enormity of the crowd.

We were quickly divided into two groups – people with tickets and those without.  As Sarah and I pushed through to the ticket side, mounted police appeared and the hustling crowd slowed to a crawl.  We chatted with people around us as we made it through the first check point.  Lots of people were being turned away and the crowd control staff was visibly overwhelmed.

Once past the first check point, we made lots of ground as we crossed Columbus Drive flanked by mounted police.  We thought we were moments away from finding our place in the park, but we were definitely wrong.  We again slowed, this time to a complete stop.  That’s when it started to happen.  Pennsylvania was called for Obama.  Expected, yes, but incredibly important.  A loss in PA meant this race was a lot closer.  That’s when we pretty much all knew all we had to hear was Ohio or Florida.

We moved in clumps in that crowd as the check point gradually let us move past.  As much as we hated just standing there, it made sense and worked out well.  More people were turned away at this check point, so once we made it through it was another chunk of ground we had to cross.  This time it wasn’t just cops lining the path – the first Secret Service officers and Obama staffers began to appear.  We were told repeatedly not to run, but we were all making that awkward speed walk that kids do when you tell them not to run.

Once we made it to the metal detectors, Secret Service outnumbered the Chicago P.D.  The lines moved quickly as we literally had every ring of keys, cell phone, and camera inspected.  It actually moved really quickly considering the circumstances.  We were the first of our group to make it the entire way in so we found the closest spot  we could.  That’s when we heard it – Ohio.  For someone who bore a little of the blame from my Minnesota friends in 2004, I took great pride in my home state’s decision.  I also knew that this was it.  Any path to victory for McCain went through Ohio, and Obama had blocked it like my friend Geoff and Corey block my longest road in Settlers of Catan.  We would have to wait several hours though until the west coast polls would close and networks could ethically call the race.

The crowd was in high spirits.  Even though the networks weren’t calling it, we were all talking about the importance of the Ohio victory.  They flashed a county map and I saw that my home county was blue.  I literally choked up.  I wondered how my parents had voted.  I wondered if my mom was physically able to vote after her surgery.  Sarah soon made a trip to grab us a couple slices of pizza and some water.  She also brought back some of our best friends.

As we stood there and watched CNN on the giant screen, we cheered the Obama victories and booed the McCain wins – even the obvious ones.  We watched as Obama got closer and closer to 270 and anxiously waited for the polls to close on the west coast.  We counted down the seconds.  And then it happened.  Wolf acted like it was just another projection, but he flashed the words President Barack Obama on the screen.  A wave of disbelief hit the crowd for a half of a second… then an explosion.  We yelled at the top of our lungs and raised our arms in the air.  I turned to Sarah and hugged her with tears in my eyes.  My friends came next.  They just kept showing it over and over.  Jesse Jackson cried.  Oprah was flipping out.  And we were all there together in Grant Park.

The last sound check operator walked ot the podium and said, “Last sound check for the next president of the United States.”  We went crazy again.  They showed McCain’s speech, which garnered a mix of responses.  The mention of Palin was pretty much the only part that drew a widespread negative reaction.  The announcer came over the PA and we cheered as a bishop walked out to give the invocation.  We cheered again for the pledge and national anthem.  Anticipation was at a fever pitch.

Then… music.  Stevie Wonder.  Brooks and Dunn.  Buddy Guy.  More and more music.  The end of each song was a tease.  We stood there in disbelief as Obama’s appearance was delayed.  It was as if it was Christmas morning and your parents were making you wait to open gifts.  And then, as we waited for another song to come on, there he was.  Obama poked his head out and made his walk to the podium.  I was in disbelief.  It was real.

I will always have the words of his speech, but the experience of standing in Grant Park on that night will be one I have to hold on to in only a few pictures and my memory.  Here is hoping the next four (or eight) years prove to be worthy of that night.

Dear Senator John McCain,

You probably don’t remember me.  Eight years ago as you mounted the Straight Talk Express during the Republican Primary, I sent you a couple bucks because I thought you were poised to be a great leader.  Clinton was wrapping up his time in office and I felt you were the best candidate to follow him.  Times were good, weren’t they?  I was a college student at the time – just a blank slate of a freshman excited to vote in my first presidential primary. (more…)

I’m glad that people are talking about the recent decision by Dunkin Donuts to pull an ad featuring Rachel Ray in a scarf that some random nut with a blog deemed too similar to a keffiyeh.

This xenophobic hate mongerer wasted no time in linking the scarf, which apparently was a floral print available at a major US retail chain, to terrorism. You see, to the blogger, the keffiyeh is not worn because it protects the wearer from the sun in an arid climate and can quickly be adjusted to protect the face from wind. No, the keffiyeh apparently identifies the wearer as a terrorist. Seriously, only a terrorist could consistently whip up tasty looking meals in 30 minutes and still look like… actually, I better not post the picture I found when I googled Rachel Ray.

Regardless of the appearance of Rachel’s scarf, what is more concerning to me is the implied idea that xenophobia can completely control what we are exposed to. If you are sitting there, watching tv, and Rachel’s commercial comes on and you say to yourself, “Man, the scarf looks like a keffiyeh! I refuse to support a business with a commercial featuring a keffiyeh!” that’s your decision. It’s ridiculous, but if you and a bunch of other folks decide not to go to Dunkin Donuts because of it, well, have fun with that.

But because some blogger calls attention to it, the corporation decides to pull it? There is something deeply troubling about that. You want to talk about the degradation of our society? Look no farther than power-obsessed fake celebrities that somehow gain notoriety for being a valuable contributer to political discussions that use their perceived soapbox to tear down the very fabric of our society.

Yes, all of this over a commercial for a donut company. I hope said blogger continues to be exposed until her credibility is destroyed beyond recognition. Unfortunately, I feel the enemies of the great society we could become will continue to support the nuts with keyboards that decide being drunk on their own power is more important than common sense.

So here’s how I’m starting to understand this country…

1) Pastors are only allowed to mention the work of the government if they are asking God to bless America or somehow supporting the efforts of the current administration

2) Any effort to curtail the proliferation of guns in our society is reckless work of a bloated government, but using the legislatures and courts to define marriage is acceptable

3) Do not, under any circumstances, take part in anything that remotely resembles the Middle East. If you do, you are supporting terrorists that could and will strike at any moment.

Thank goodness we got that cleared up!

Getting out of the city for a long weekend is always a welcome treat, especially after the winter we just had. I don’t know if I can remember a winter that has lasted so long or has been so consistently cold and I’d prefer it if the city could make sure it doesn’t happen again. I figure I’m paying enough in taxes and parking tickets, the least the city could do is give me a few days above the 30 degree mark.

Anyway, it was pretty great spending the weekend with Sarah and some great friends in West Virginia. Watching my friend Corey get married was something I never expected in my lifetime, but leave it to him to defy my expectations. It was a great morning ceremony with a brunch reception, and honestly, does it get better than pancakes at a wedding reception?

I think not.

Coming back to the city was a dose of reality. The warm weather brought with it a wave of gun violence. Already this year too many Chicago Public School students have been gunned down – some targeted, some random. Growing up in southeast Ohio, gun violence is a rarity and when it does happen, the entire region is in shock. Here in Chicago, you quickly become desensitized to it until numbers start popping up in the paper like, “24 CPS students killed so far this year,” or, “36 shootings, 9 killed.” By then the weight of the situation is overwhelming.

The answer, I fear, is much more complicated than the gun legislation being called for by the mayor. The guns being used to commit these acts are not legal in Chicago, but regardless, the question needs to be asked – why are folks seeking these guns out to commit these acts? What is it the convinces kids in our schools that academic success is not a viable option?

Since joining the staff and collective effort of Teach For America, I’ve heard some very valid weaknesses of our two-year program that brings talented college graduates into our nation’s most under-resourced classrooms. I can understand the worry among traditional career teachers, but I have to ask – what else are they doing? Are they moving into a severely under-resourced district with a tradition of weak student test scores and applying for a job? If they are taking those steps, are they walking into their classrooms expecting their students to perform as high, if not higher, than their suburban counterparts?

That’s what our corps members are doing. They walk into classrooms full of students with low test scores with a sense of possibility and the energy needed to walk in step with their students. It’s what I see in my friends that teach here in the city, and principals and superintendents need to have the power to weed out the teachers that fall short.

Education is certainly not the only key to turning around this resurgence in violence, but it surely is a good start. We have to start fighting the overwhelming helplessness and cynicism that pollutes our conversations and efforts to turn the tide. Now if we could just find more leaders in our districts and schools that are willing to demand every decision be made with the best interest of students in mind… now that would be revolutionary.

This is fantastic.  Let’s hope the people in Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island, and Vermont take former President Clinton’s advice.

“… you better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope…”

[youtube Qe0BPwWAxnk]

Money was tight for my family, especially while I was in college. It was a reality I completely understood. Loans were going to have to be a part of my college experience. At the time, it seemed simple enough – sign a few forms and a friendly company with a smiling representative with nice pens takes care of the costs and I would pay them back after I graduated and started hauling down the big bucks.

Then… it got complicated…

My junior year, our financial aid office decided to adjust the way they awarded financial aid. Financial aid is based on need, and since my housing was free (as payment for being a Resident Assistant), someone decided to adjust my need to take out the housing costs. This meant that my grants and loans were lowered and all of a sudden there was a gap between what I owed and what my package covered. Almost $1,600 to be exact.

The financial aid employee that explained the whole process was more than happy to suggest I sign up for a Signature loan with… guess who… Sallie Mae. At the time, things like a variable interest rate and the term “unsubsidized” meant nothing. Unless I had $1,600, the employee told me with feigned concern, this loan would be the best option. Looking back now, maybe I should have been tipped off by the multiple chotchkies around their office with the Sallie Mae logo proudly displayed.

Conflict of interest, what?

Anyway, fast forward a little. The time comes to consider consolidating my loans and locking in at a low interest rate. Surprisingly enough, this gem of a loan I was encouraged to sign out does not fall under Sallie Mae’s consolidation policy! Look at the variable interest rate laughing at me as it hovers around 8 or 9 percent. So now I have two loans – the consolidated loan (which has been in deferment since my years with AmeriCorps), and the signature loan (which I’ve been paying off since graduation).

Now, I come to the fun part. Last month, I noticed two things – the deferment on my consolidated loan will be up in April and I could afford to pay the complete remaining balance on my signature loan. To me, this seemed like a great idea because it meant I could get the signature loan off my plate and start working on the behemoth that was about to hit my bank account each month.

Sallie Mae, on the other hand, did not like this idea.

I tried multiple times to enter the complete remaining balance in the online billing form, only to receive error message after error message telling me I could not pay that amount. It allowed me to pay the required payment amount (about half the remaining amount), but wouldn’t let me pay the whole thing.

Interesting practice, huh? The amount they made by dragging my signature loan out another month isn’t a huge amount of money, but think about what that means in the grand scheme of things (and I do mean scheme). That nice little policy means quite a few bucks headed their way… which is definitely interesting considering their stock dropped by about 50% between November and January.

The massive stock drop must have been just enough to push Sallie Mae to unleash their dogs. In the past 24 hours, I have received 11 phone calls from four different numbers that all lead back to Sallie Mae. Why? Good question. My next payment isn’t due until Sunday. I’d love to hear a message letting me know why my phone has lit up multiple times in the past 24 hours, but apparently Sallie Mae representatives aren’t sure how voicemails work. Instead, I have to look the numbers up on the internet to find out who I’m getting these calls from-

866.517.3062
888.272.5543
765.283.3176
866.656.3422

This is why education lending reform HAS to happen. Uneducated high school and college students making decisions based on biased financial aid officers bought out by lending corporations is appalling. I’m deep in this mess now, but others should be spared the harassment and lifetime of debt (make it 12 calls now).

For the past week, I’ve been repeatedly accused of being deceived. I’m being won over by slick words and pretty speeches, rather than solid policy proposals. It’s interesting and somewhat perplexing to listen to television pundits, editorial writers, and even people I know tell me I am lacking the ability to think independently.

And apparently it’s not only me. Millions of young people are being told they don’t understand politics. We’re the “Facebook” crowd, as Hillary Clinton’s chief strategist called us, “only a few of [us] look like [we] could vote in any state.”

Of course, we see how that worked out in Iowa. Catching pretty much everyone not paying attention to Obama off-guard, the young vote that’s been sought after for the past few elections finally showed up. The same vote that could have spared this country 8 years of G.W., the same vote that was pretty much sworn off, made it to the Iowa caucuses and turned some heads.

I think what cracks me up more than anything is that one of the first points I hear in the argument accusing me of being deceived is that all Obama does is go out and make pretty speeches. He’s naive and his supports are too. We don’t understand the complexities of world affairs and the best approach to handle issues like terrorism or the global economy, and Obama glosses over these items in his well-spoken speeches.

While I can’t deny that Obama’s speeches are light on content and heavy on inspiration, I’m stuck wondering who among the major candidates of either party are giving us in depth views on specific policy ideas they would enact. When, ever, have the primaries been the time to be heavy on content? The answer is never! The purpose of the primaries is to simply energize your base and convince voters that you understand the issues that need to be addressed as president and that you are ready to take them on. If you highlight enough issues that strike a chord with voters, pretty soon you see your delegate count rise as people say to themselves, “wow, this candidate understands what I’m struggling with and is ready to take them on.”

And is it really that bad of an approach? Why is it a problem when a candidate seeks to inspire people? If any candidate took time to lay down policy after policy after policy, they’d quickly find themselves at the bottom of the polls and without an invitation to televised debates. The majority of the American electorate does not want to have to digest anything. Why do you think Ron Paul is quickly becoming the Libertarian version of Nader? (insert Tracy Jordan line from “30 Rock”… “I think I voted for Nader… NADER!”)

Believe it or not, Obama and his team have pulled together ideas and policies to approach some of the biggest issues our government faces. The struggle I keep finding is that the people accusing me of being deceived don’t want to have an actual discussion. They want to be the cool people that make fun of the bandwagon-jumpers, but don’t want to hear that someone of us made our decision with clear, educated, rational thought.

So, anyway, that being said, I am effectively suspending my campaign for president and officially endorsing Barack Obama.