In the Long Beach area, a grassroots and coalition campaign is taking place to clean up the air pollution and poverty in the local seaports. The air around the seaports is dirty because port truck drivers earn too little to buy trucks that would belch out fewer diesel particulates, tiny particles that contribute to cancer and asthma.

Lately, a lot of focus has been given to the plight of the big national newspapers that have dominated the media over the past several decades. Part of my work in the library is handling the newspapers that the library subscribes to, and in the past year, several newspapers have folded as a result of declining subscriptions and a younger generation that gets its news from the internet.

I wrote this for a Lay Pastor program with the Presbyterians that I am in.

Assignment: How can we talk about being religious in America that includes more of diversity that represents present day America?

Truth, Love and Peace may be considered theoretical because no one can see them, but we can see their results. Because of their manifestations we can conclude that their reality exists, but we cannot give a reason why Truth is true. At the same time the scientist can't give a good explanation for the action of the atom.

If the church were Christian, Jesus would be a model for living, rather than an object of worship.
If the church were Christian, affirming our potential would be more important than condemning our brokenness.
If the church were Christian, reconciliation would be valued over judgment.

Lent has come again, and as it has, I've had a chance to reflect on something that I've been grappling for the past several years. What do I still believe about God and Jesus and the church?

I've thought a lot about issues of war since I was a teen. I'm not a pacifist, but I do believe that this country has gotten into too many unnecessary wars. Like most people my age, my views on war were heavily influenced by the Vietnam War, seeing how it affected the older generation and the Vietnam veterans.