Last evening I gave a talk to the Atlanta Southside Ultreya gathering. I was asked by several members of that group to post my remarks so that others in their group could hear them. The talk can be found here: Southside Ultreya Talk. It was an honor to be asked to address this wonderful group.
#ATLEC2018 Refugee Speech
This is the talk about #Refugees that I gave on Saturday, June 2, 2018 at the Archdiocese of Atlanta Eucharistic Congress. We all need to advocate on the behalf of those who have no voice!
Homily: Solemnity of the Holy Trinity
My homily from Sunday, May 27, 2018 – The Solemnity of the Holy Trinity is now available at:Deacon Steve’s Homilies. Your feedback is welcomed and appreciated.
Family Dynamics
My wife got this Mothers’ Day card today from our daughter, Jennifer. It expresses what I think are true family dynamics. When our kids were little we used to say to them, “Just do that again and we will sell you to the gypsies.” They knew we were kidding and we didn’t mean it…mostly…sometimes, well…every now and then. Every family has a story like this and it describes the dynamics of a close family. We would have never sold our kids to the gypsies, but the saying became part of our family’s give and take. Truthfully, until this card arrived today we had forgotten we ever said it. Our loving daughter resurrected the saying today and hopefully it will remain part of our family. We can’t wait to see our grandchildren again!!! I wonder what else we used to say to our kids that we have forgotten and if they can find cards for those. YIKES!!!
#YouCan’tFixStupid
My last post was about how the neo-Nazi’s and Antifa were #NotWelcomeHere in my hometown of Newnan, Georgia.
People of good will know that those in the neo-Nazi movement are just ignorant fools and the fools confirmed that for us yesterday. The permit that the city issued to these clowns allowed them to hold their ‘rally’ from 3pm to 5pm at the Greenville Street Park in downtown Newnan. They set out to march to the park….and got lost.! Yes, in our small city, they got lost. These nuts arrived at the park at 4:15pm. Promptly at 5:00pm law enforcement shut down the rally and sent them packing. These idiots want to run the world; but they clearly couldn’t even run (or find) a lemonade stand.
The really great news is that thanks to our city leaders, the Newnan Police, the Coweta County Sheriff’s Department, the State Patrol and many others, there was no violence and no injuries. There were about twelve arrests, mostly for misdemeanor or felony stupidity.
The good that came from this is the solidarity shown by the wonderful citizens of Newnan in opposition to hatred.
#NotWelcomeHere
I love the town that I live in. My wife and I have raised our kids here and our grandchildren visit often. It’s a peaceful multi-ethnic community 45 miles southwest of Atlanta. Unfortunately, today we’re being invaded.
Two groups are coming to our city that are not welcome here. The racist, ignorant neo-Nazi group NSM is planning a rally this afternoon. To counter that rally the violent Antifa group is coming too. Neither of these groups represents what our city or our citizens stand for.
To the credit of our city leaders and law-enforcement our community is ready for whatever happens this afternoon.
All of our downtown businesses are closed for the day. Because Saturday is one of the most important days for any retail or dining establishment this could have represented a huge loss for those businesses. The citizens of our city resolved to come downtown on Friday night and patronize all of the businesses and restaurants. Last night, when my wife and I went downtown we found the streets packed with good citizens, stores jammed with with shoppers, and restaurants filled to capacity. That’s the kind of city we live in.
These two groups are not welcome here but the United States Constitution guarantees them the right to assemble in my city, your city, and any city. Our citizens have responded to their hatred with kindness and compassion for our local merchants. We can only hope that there will be no violence, no one gets hurt, and these unwelcome intruders will leave and never come back.
#Privacy and #Rights
Recently I received a message from a friend criticizing my decision to #DeleteFacebook . I did because of their intentional information leak to Cambridge Analytica and generally their bad behavior. Please note that I said “information” rather than “data.” Losing private data sounds a bit like forgetting to save a spreadsheet, having personal information given to a third party without your permission is much more serious.
My friend said “If you have nothing to hide, lack of privacy and what Facebook did isn’t a big deal.” That position is ludicrous. To say that privacy isn’t needed because I have nothing to hide is like saying freedom of speech isn’t needed because I have Continue reading “#Privacy and #Rights”
