Ramblings (or followings)

It is just too hot today to do anything healthy. It is really too hot to do anything. As I entered Birmingham a few minutes ago I broke triple digits on the dashboard thermometer. Naturally that compelled me to detour to Homewood and drop into O'Henry's for an afternoon latte. Yes, the latte is a hot drink, but the air conditioner is working fine and the ceiling fans are on and O'Henry's is a cool place by all definitions, so the heat of the latte is no problem.

Which reminds me of the sermons I heard this morning. Perhaps the challenge of the sermons is partially the reason for my stop here. I tend to think better and deeper while sipping coffee. The preachers were throwing a bit of heat this morning. Not the hell and brimstone kind of heat. The kind of heat that actually suggests that followers of Jesus are called to do that.

Follow.

"Following Jesus" has become cliche. The words that is. Not the actual doing. That is anything but cliche.

Apparently Jesus likes his coffee hot. As one of the preachers, Michael Miller at St. Mark's UMC in Northport reminded us this morning, if it's lukewarm, He would just spit it out. But he was talking about us.

And Matt Smith, of Taylorville UMC in Tuscaloosa reminded us that Jesus left the world in our hands as stewards to finish the work that He started. Jesus gave us good directions for the rest of the journey. Then Matt asked,"So how are we doing with that?" "No, really, how are we doing?"

Following has a couple of different meanings. The first is a physical action. Getting behind a leader and going where He goes. It is impossible to follow when you run ahead of the leader, or when you get so far behind or off to the side that you lose sight of the leader, or when you just stop.

Following requires going. From a place that you know to a place uncertain and all the places in between.

We as followers are not converted into new creations solely at the trail's head. We change along the journey. If we do not follow, if we do not climb the hills, trip over the rocks, cross the rivers, stump our toes, pop a few blisters and continue until we grow weary, we do not change, we do not grow. We miss the joy of the journey.

The other definition of following is to adopt the beliefs and ways of the leader. Jesus begins his relationship with us with grace, with divine forgiveness. But that is just the beginning of his belief, His ways. He said a whole lot in not so many words. They were radical statements when He lived and are radical today.

Give up your life. Don't live your life to gain material things. Be willing to give all you have to whoever needs it. The first are last. Judge not. Forgive. Love. Serve. Go.

Come and follow me.

Those directions are among His ways. His preaching created quite a bit of heat in His day.

And it still does. For those who will follow if they stay close enough to the source.

But Christians are like lattes even on a sweltering June day in Alabama. Hot is a good thing.

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Numero uno

Saturday. Sofa. Coffee.

I don't have great week-end plans. But at least I am not Alabama governor Robert Bentley. He has promised that he will spend the week-end reviewing the illegal immigration bill sent to him for his signature by the Alabama legislature. Bless his heart.

I have yet been able to read the proposed law, but have read the news reports of its parts, and the boast of its primary author, Kris Kobach, Secretary of State. Not of Alabama, but of Kansas. According to Kobach, Alabama is now Number One, a phrase that does not normally trip easily over the lips of a Midwesterner.

Alabama is Number One in tough legislation regarding illegal immigration. Woo-hoo. Buy me a t-shirt. You better sell a lot.

How to deal with illegal immigrants is controversial, but let's try to put that aside for this morning. Let's take a look at what seems to be the primary focus of every other consideration in state government right now.

Alabama has no money.

When I have been in traffic court lately I have given a couple of my state trooper friends a hard time. There just aren't that many on the roads of Alabama at the same time these days. There are limitations on how many miles they can drive each shift. A driver with good timing can speed all the way across the state, or worse, and the percentages heavily favor the driver. Serious accidents occur and our Troopers doing their best are too far away to offer help or even timely investigation.

Alabama has no money.

When I have been in felony court lately I have seen defendants who a few years ago would have been destined for substantial prison time be placed on probation. I'm not complaining. It's my job to keep folks out of prison. But it wasn't my brilliance keeping them out. We have no place to incarcerate them, nor means to staff existing prisons properly.

Alabama has no money.

Teachers jobs are being cut while student population grows. Programs cannot be funded without private sources. School facilities in some places cannot keep up. In other places the facilities cannot stand up much longer without repair. All of this is happening as it becomes more important than ever to develop a skilled, educated work force. But instead of making progress, our school's struggle.

Alabama has no money.

The recent cuts in state employment reached deep into Alabama's juvenile justice system. In many smaller counties, like Blount County, the cuts by the State would reduce the staff by fifty percent. These offices were already running lean. So without getting too complex, a juvenile probation officer who was handling a hundred juveniles would now be handling two hundred juveniles, unless one of the cuts is the one administrative assistant, and then the whole thing falls apart. Juvenile officers monitor and counsel each youth according to his or her unique situation, and find resources that might be helpful. Suddenly the case load is doubled. The good news is that looking for resources takes less time than before as well, because many of them no longer exist because . . .

Alabama has no money.

The immigration law will cost a so far undiscussed huge amount of money to implement and execute. Before that it will cost money to defend in court.

We hear a lot of talk about fiscal responsibility in government. We are told we must set priorities and cut budgets accordingly.

So this is our priority? To attempt to remove illegal immigrants from our midst whether they have violated the law or not, whether they are a benefit to society or not? This is the thing that we will celebrate spending our tax money on? This is what we will find the money to do?

This is more important than our basic security and safety?

This is more important than the present and future of our children?

What is "this" that is so important anyway?

Maybe the governor will have an answer for us Monday. No wait, that's Jefferson Davis' birthday. It's a state holiday.

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These my children . . .

I will be in juvenile court today, as I was yesterday. No, not for any outstanding matters from years ago, just part of my job. I get to represent children.

One of the advantages of being in juvenile court is that what happens there is confidential to protect the young person from a stigma that might inhibit his or her chances from moving beyond the child's present situation. It is terribly important to maintain that.

But one of the problems with the confidentiality is that the public simply does not know the number of lives and heartbreaking severity of the problems that are dealt with in our State of

Alabama juvenile system, yes even in Blount County, that we tout as a perfect place to raise children.

In Blount County alone, the system deals with, well I'm just going to say hundreds of children each year, because I don't really know. I suspect it is more than a thousand. Some more informed reader may let us know by commenting. They come through the system in two primary ways, delinquency and dependency. Delinquency is when a child under the age of eighteen is charged with a crime. Dependency is when a child is in a situation when he or she has no one appropriate to take care of them, or suffers abuse or abandonment.

This is where the confidentiality is a problem. The public needs to know how much our children are suffering and the horrible, deplorable things that happen to them. But the details offer too much chance of identification and that is prohibited.

So I will post a fictional story every once in a while for the next few weeks describing some common situations of drugs, abandonment, abuse, neglect, and the predictable yet horrible behavior that those circumstances elicit from a child. Unfortunately they have become common to me. But they should be shocking.

For now I would like to raise this issue because the State of Alabama is cutting back on services. You may have heard.

And right now, one of the main areas for the cuts is in the services we provide to our troubled and endangered youth. Thousands of kids in life or death situations will be without needed services, protection and guidance.

At graduations around the world, and certainly across Alabama, the cliche was piously proclaimed thousands of times during the past month:

"Our children are our future."

We'll see.

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Thurvey 6/2/2011

It is time for this week's survey taken on Thursday, known around the world as the Thurvey. This is a time for you the reader to speak your mind to the world. There will be three questions for comment this week. If you wish to answer any question on the Thurvey, click on comment below and follow the instructions.

#1 If you were in Congress, would you vote to raise the federal debt limit? Feel free to explain your answer.

#2 Times are hard and vacation time is here. What are your favorite, cheapest forms of entertainment or vacation?

#3 What is a question that you want answered? This is your chance. Just put it out there.