the intersection of life and grace

As I read some materials in preparation for voting next week and in November, I came across yet another disturbing story regarding the violence surrounding the election/transition of power in Kenya.

The first day of international efforts to negotiate an end to Kenya’s bloody election crisis were thrown into disarray yesterday after a policeman shot dead an opposition member of parliament, the second MP to be killed this week, in what his party called a “political assassination”.

You can read the rest of the article from The Guardian by clicking here.

The bloody tribal violence in Kenya is tearing the country apart. Until recently, Kenya was fairly stable, but since it’s disputed election results were announced in December 2007 it has spiraled into deep unrest and distrust.

That is most worthy of prayer for the people who are dying over an election. It is also the reason to be thankful.

In the coming months, Americans will elect a new president. While that is not an easy process, and it likely will continue to be rife with robust debate and politicking that is sometimes ugly, when all is said and done, we will have a peaceful transition of power from the 43rd President of the United States to the 44th President of the United States.

Yesterday morning brought news of a gruesome triple homicide at a house within a mile from our home, which ended up involving a student at Albany High (where our daughter attends), an employee from the school district and Tom’s whole workday (along with his squad and much of the rest of the APD). The scene was a short distance from two elementary schools and on a busy commuter route to downtown; not normally an area known for violence. The story occupied the top spot on the news, which showed the typical exterior of the building pictures and the grieving family members reactions as the police did what they needed to do to investigate the murders.

Relatives and friends were distraught (in the photo you can see Tom and some other officers trying to keep one of them from running to one of the victims being taken out of the house). Family members were adamant that these were good people, seeming to refute the unspoken assumption that violence of this sort must be gang activity or associated with drug dealing and such. Sadly, it often is. The police continued to investigate and overnight a person brought in for questioning admitted he’d shot the three. From a news report:

31-year-old Jovan Underdue from Albany has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of two men and a teenage boy. Underdue was arraigned this morning in Albany City Court as distraught friends and relatives of the victims looked on.

The bodies of 26-year-old Bobby Jones, 25-year-old Victor Anderson and 16-year-old Kenyon Hawkins were found in an Delaware Avenue apartment yesterday morning. Police say Underdue was a friend of Bobby Jones and went over to his apartment Tuesday afternoon. Police say the two began drinking and smoking marijuana. Hawkings was in the apartment and Anderson stopped over later. Underdue told police he started to get depressed about his life. That’s when he allegedly pulled out a gun and shot all three in the head. Police say Underdue then left and went to a girlfriend’s apartment on State Street where he hid the handgun and some other items for the shooting.

Horrific tragedy for the families of these three people, for their friends and neighborhood, because another man under the influence of two depressant substances – alcohol and marijuana – felt depressed about his life. I don’t know how having brutally murdered his friends and an unaware teenager as he played video games nearby changes his circumstances for the better, or under what kind of thought process murder became a vehicle for improvement. I know there isn’t one, that this is just senseless.

Update: Family members, outside Underdue’s arraignment this morning, said the following:

“We took him in, we fed him, we clothed him, we let him feel like he was our family,” a member of one victim’s family said.

Another relative, a sibling of Anderson, said, “My brother, Victor Anderson, and Keynon were all good people. My brother took that man [Underdue] in to help him, and this is how he repays my brother?”

And, another said:

“It’s hard to say forgive him, but I say forgive. I pray that our family just keep loving and that we keep learning how to forgive him,” one family member was quoted.

And for that ultimate grace, the one of forgiveness, I will stand with this family in prayer.

A little while ago I was wearing a surgical gown. I still smell like hospital soap; it’s a badge of honor to me. I got a spur of the moment invitation to go to the NICU with Amy to spend time with little Conner. He’s doing so well. He’s grown a lot – 3 inches in length, gained nearly 2 pounds from his birth weight. He’ll reach the 34 week mark on Saturday, 1 1/2 months after he was born. I got to hold his little hand, tickle his little toes, and pray as I laid a hand gently on his tiny head of red fuzzy hair. I got to hear his mom talk about the understanding she’s gained of love because of her baby boy, and how she’s so determined to do right for him. She’s going to be a good mom.

His neighbors are tiny triplets on one side, and across the way is a very sick little one who was the center of attention this evening because of the troubles he’s having. As Amy cradled her baby who’s improving little by little every day, I could pray for all the babies around the perimeter of the room – I could see them all from my seat.

It was a gift to be able to be there.

Perhaps the biggest off-season priority for the Mets this year was to add a solid pitcher to their starting rotation. As the days counted down to pitchers and catchers reporting time (2/15), there were still only rumors, and it was a sad, sad thing to think about considering last seasons’ fully-staffed pitching struggles. But that’s all over now!

Not only did the Mets add a solid pitcher, but are bringing in the 2-time AL Cy Young Award-winning LHP Johan Santana! Today should see the details of his contract hammered out, but all the media and baseball blogs are writing as though it’s a deal with almost no possibility of falling apart.

I hate to see a personal favorite among the young prospects, Carlos Gomez, go to the Twins in the deal along with 3 solid pitching prospects, but there is always risk in trading for a marquee player. I’d say the deal was as good for the Mets as it could possibly be. I love my Mets come-what-may but it sure helps to ease my sense of dread regarding pitching, and I’m more anxious than ever to get the season started.

There are two highly significant days (in my world) coming up next week – the New York Presidential Primary is Tuesday and Ash Wednesday is, well, Wednesday. Both require some thought and preparation on my part.

As I blogged was the case previously, I remain unsure as to which candidate will get my primary vote. I’m registered Democrat because I grew up in a city that pretty much requires that (right back to the old O’Connell Machine Politics days), but always vote for whomever I believe to be the best person for the office. In the Primary, however, that leaves me a little stuck… actually, I’d feel the same way if I was looking at the Republican slate for this Super Tuesday. None of these politicians represents fully enough the qualifications I believe are needed to address the vast array of issues the United States faces now and in the foreseeable future.

With regard to the start of Lent, I learned yesterday that our church will not be doing a church-wide study for these weeks, offering instead a number of prayer times. This news leaves me with the task of determining what I will focus upon in my personal study, having used the church-wide materials as a starting place for that for many years. So, I’m open to book and/or topic suggestions for prayerful consideration.

Another in the You Matter series for youth workers at ymexchange.com; this one written by a high school senior (and my son).

By Tim Gibbons

You matter to your students. You matter especially when it doesn’t show. It’s true! We really do care about you guys, our youth pastors and youth leaders, despite how we act and talk. I know that we act ungrateful and selfish at times, but the truth is that you are really some of the few adults who treat us like people. To you we’re images of God, not just some kids who have no purpose or direction and that need to be supervised every second of every day. Even though we might not actually have found our purpose and direction yet, and many (OK, most) of us need lots of supervision, you treat us like you see potential and value in us.

Read the rest of this article here.

Owen Reilly (played by Joseph Cross) has a point to make about the demeaning, painful nature of being the family member of a man whose suicide played live on the evening news. In the age of viral video and the internet, Owen’s father’s suicide becomes a “classic” and he’s out to prove that American culture is grotesquely obsessed with violence and pain.

It’s a good point, really. I had to work hard to find a redeeming concept from the film I thought was an internet crime drama (rather than a snuff film). The problem is that Owen chooses to compound the damage by becoming a serial murderer and webcasting twisted torture and death live; the more who log in to view his crime the faster the victims die. Every disgusting, gory detail of the successive murders in this movie is on screen.

There was no entertainment value in Untraceable. If you go to see the movie, you further Owen’s twisted point. The only interesting part was the way that internet crime was investigated by the FBI. According to this story, that background to the plot was very accurate:

So says former FBI cyber-crime specialist E.J. Hilbert, who was a consultant on the Diane Lane film, which opened Friday, and now is head of security for MySpace.

“This movie is as technically correct as it can be while still being entertaining,” Hilbert said in a phone interview from Los Angeles.

Early in “Untraceable” the FBI agent portrayed by Lane identifies a teenage hacker who has stolen thousands of credit card numbers and used them to go on a buying spree.

She tracks him down to his suburban home (he’s using a neighbor’s Wi-Fi as a cover) and orders an FBI team to break down his door.

Absolutely how it really works, according to Hilbert.

“The only area in which we fudge is the time frame,” he said. “Real-life crime investigation isn’t as fast as what you see in the movie. In real life you’d get bored watching us.

“But as to the methodology, it’s very accurate. This is how the FBI monitors this stuff. It’s pretty realistic. We wouldn’t bust somebody for stealing one credit card, but in some of these cases we were dealing with people who had stolen hundreds of thousands of card numbers.”

As for the idea of a killer broadcasting his murders over the Web, it’s entirely possible, Hilbert said. In fact it has already happened with some jihadist Web sites providing live coverage of the execution of Westerners they’ve taken hostage.

One example was the murder of Wall Street Journal writer/editor Daniel Pearl in Pakistan in 2002.

“It’s not that far-fetched,” Hilbert said. “In fact, it’s very plausible.

In a world where the line between horrid, real people, real life violence and “entertainment violence” is entirely blurred by always-available news channels and digital communications & internet technology, the issue of this film is an important one. The film, however, is not important in any way. Based on the reactions of the people around me, they were unsatisfied with the plot, with the ending especially, but not by the premise. They were there to watch the reality violence. I wonder how many went home to log on to the internet and test out the web address Owen’s character uses as a portal to his murder scenes for his voyeuristic accomplices. That’s the truly scary part… the rest was just disgusting.

Spring Training is sooo close! It’s time to brush up on your skills, so here’s a fielding tips video from my fav 30-30 Gold Glove 3B Met David Wright.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjzn33KzR6g]

I love what he says about the game, and it’s exactly how he plays it.

Today’s Non-Sequitur comic strip does a great job expressing the down-right silliness that our election process has become:

(click for full-size)

Knowing the provocative proclivities of Shane Claiborne, I’m looking forward to reading his forthcoming work Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals, set to release in March.  I find Shane’s thinking challenging and look forward to his take on the practical application of faith to politics.  I’m pretty certain it won’t be “vote Republican” – in fact, I’d be surprised if party politics gets any play at all from a man who clearly walks boldly in his life of faith.