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By Aaron H. Emery
Writings and Ramblings
M. Garneau's
Test Drive
Before this past week, the request for a test drive had never been considered an inappropriate "attack", even among the most unscrupulous of used-car salesmen. The test drive is merely a part of the standard process in buying a car.
See: home appraisals preceding 30 years of mortgage payments.
See: visiting a university before committing to four years of higher ed.
See: changing rooms playing a role in every pair of jeans I've ever purchased.
Theses aren't "attacks". They're common sense...
The Victory Speech I
Wanted To Hear
"Yes we can" is a statement of responsibility that implicates all of us.
Somewhere, somehow -- we & can were traded off for you & fault. On Inauguration Day 2009, the collective retreated into little more than a cult of personality around a freshly-inducted President. But moving forward, Obama refuses to accept this role. He will not be confined to the ego-building role of saviour. He insists that we operate as "we."
Jesus Wears a
Habs' Jersey
How do I do the "right" thing? When I feel the impulse to help a friend or neighbour in need, who should I speak with in order to cross-reference, peer-review, and certify my prospective course of action?
I certainly can't do it on my own. Can I?
The Victory Speech We
Needed to Hear
One-by-one, the president asks each person why they are in the room: A one sentence explanation of their personal calling into politics.
No spin. No qualifiers or talking points.
Amazingly, no one claims a burning passion for fundraising or the desire to be a spineless party-hack as a part of their call into public service. Despite the mountain of evidence to the contrary, it would appear that these are all good people. They are sufficiently smart, extremely social, and all choose to spend their vocational efforts in the service of others. We can work with this.
Havel's Hope Was Never A Dirty Word
Whether Senator Obama was sincere in his positive pledge of "hope and change" in 2008 or if the Republican establishment believes their own venomous dismissal of that "hopesy-changey stuff" they have been railing against since 2008 is not for me to say.
However, in light of Havel's passing, I think that someone must stand up and defend "hope;" the kind of hope Havel carried within himself and spoke so openly and articulately about throughout his time as a resister to the communist party, political prisoner, and eventually as leader of a free and democratic Czechoslovakia.
Occupy Vs. The Church
My hope arises in the opportunity for your church -- the Church -- to be aggressively relevant to the everyday life of this city and this country.
My conviction is rooted in the overarching narrative of a Judeo-Christian scripture that calls on us, time and again, to love our neighbour. "The rest," as the first-century Jewish scholar Hillel once said, "is commentary." My answers... or lack thereof... are just the uncomfortable result of authentic questioning. We live in serious times with big problems for which I don't have easy answers. But I believe I'm in good company.
Sheetrock For Christmas