More thoughts on Rick Warren

In the film, Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood plays a man who is as racist and hate-filled as they come. He hates the Priest; he really hates his Hmong neighbors. He flings every possible epithet there is during the course of the film - it's really difficult to empathize with his character, except to see how his neighbors continue to include him and through that process of inclusion he is changed.

In The Big Book Of Alcoholics Anonymous, there's a phrase that says "we are people who normally would not mix." But through the process of recovery and the inclusive nature of AA, we find ourselves embracing people with whom we disagree on other issues - and they become close friends.

President Obama ran a campaign of inclusion - he embraces people with whom he disagrees, because he knows at the deepest level that only through intense dialogue can people be touched. Asking Rick Warren to give the Invocation is just such a moment - perhaps, with enough dialogue and exposure to various people he despises, Rick Warren can be changed and his heart can be opened. Even if just a little, it's a step in the right direction.

I don't like Warren, nor his message of hate - I disagree with him on so many levels - but I would be a fool to close the door on dialogue. I've got friends who hate homosexuality, and voted for Prop 8. We disagreed. We discussed. We are still friends, and I am sorry for THEIR closed-mindedness. It is their loss to exclude people. I find my life is made richer by the inclusion of people who are completely different than I am.

President Obama inherited a nation that is in deep trouble, courtesy of an administration that was filled with haters and people who excluded so many. But he is practicing a principle that we in AA must embrace and live by, which is to recognize we are all in the same boat and unless we put aside our differences and find a way to work together, we'll all sink in the same boat.

I would like to think that this sort of attitude and behavior can have a positive effect on people like Pastor Warren. Apparently, Clint Eastwood thinks so too and showed it in Gran Torino.

Another Modest Proposal: Charge Extra to Live in Disaster-Prone Areas of California

The California Legislature has a modest proposal under consideration. California spent $412 million fighting wildfires last fiscal year – a record. Just two weeks into the new budget year, the state has already burned through a third of that total. So the Legislature contends that if the State of California is to continue to protect homes in burn areas, owners must pay more fees for the priviledge of burning up.

Insurance companies love the idea. It's always in their best interest for us to pay more, and get less. Fire season in the West, Hurricane season in the East, Tornado season in the Midwest - it's always something. We should be expected to bear the brunt of it, right?

Chicago Cubs Baseball

This makes me happy. Yes, that Sam Zell will not let former Illinois Governor Jim Thompson and his Illinois Sports Facilities Authority turn Wrigley Field into another U.S. Cellular Field (a disaster of a park if I ever saw one) and sell equity seat rights, which requires a person to sign a long-term contract to buy a specific seat for a price that is either fixed or rises in an agreed-upon way, much like a fixed or adjustable-rate mortgage.

I can imagine it now - selling sub-prime seats to a baseball game. No money down. And a balloon mortgage at that. What happens if the buyer defaults? Does the bank forclose on the seat? "Sorry, jerk. Give up that popcorn and hot dog. You're outa here."

Maybe there will be some kind of insurance clause to go with it - like to purchase seats, you have to get pre-authorization from your insurance company. And if you are lucky enough to get a generic seat, it will cost only $10; but if you have to have something that's non-formulary, well, it will cost you your first-born. But you can see the game, right?

Maybe the seats will only be available to people who have never thought about recycling their plastic, and drive Hummers (don't they still get subsidized gasoline?)

I digress. I love the Cubs. I'm glad that Thompson won't get the park. I like this bit of history. But frankly, I think that the greed that's involved ruins the game.