"...BUT PLEASE VOTE."

“Render therefore to all their dues:  tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour” ((Romans 13:7)

The above verse is taken from Romans chapter 13, the theme of which is “responsibility to civil authority”.  A careful reading and study of Romans 13 almost makes it seem like it was written by someone like Pat Buchanan.  It’s VERY  “law and order” and very pro government.  I will say, there’s another side to the whole “law and order” thing.  When the Nazi government demanded that “All Jews must now be rounded up,” for instance, does that mean Christians should have cooperated.  Of course not.  The balance to a chapter such as Romans 13 are statements like those in the book of Acts (cf. Acts 4:19 and Acts 5:29) which state that when the authorities contradict the Word of God, then God must be obeyed first and foremost.

Anyway, that above paragraph was just for clarification and to explain the theme of Romans 13.  Romans 13 is a chapter I reference to encourage people to do their civic duty.  Some Christians say, “I don’t pay ANY attention to politics.  I NEVER watch the news.  They’re all phonies and crooks anyway.  I just love Jesus.”  WHAT A COP OUT!   I believe chapters like Romans 13 tell us we ought to “watch the news”, follow politics, and get involved in our society.

If you’re not registered to vote, then it’s too late for this coming Tuesday, but if you ARE registered, the Massachusetts Presidential Primary is this Tuesday.  If you don’t know where you’re supposed to go to vote, call your City Clerk or Town Clerk’s office.  They can tell you.  I’m a registered Republican so I have to take a Republican ballot for a primary such as Tuesday.  (In general elections, I mostly vote for Republicans but I have been known to vote for both Democrats and Libertarians, and even the Reform Party on occasion.)  If you’re a registered Democrat or Republican, then you’ll have to take the Democrat or Republican ballot they hand you and vote accordingly.  In Massachusetts, independent or “unenrolled” people CAN vote in the primary.  In that case, you choose either a Democrat or Republican ballot,  and there’s usually a procedure right there at the polls where you can “switch right back to be unenrolled”.

If the Patriots win (well, WHEN they win) there will be a big Patriots parade in downtown Boston on Tuesday.  I plan to go in to the parade.  Tuesday is my day off!  BUT, I plan first and foremost to vote on Tuesday.

I grew up in Canton, Massachusetts.  Canton had a longtime Town Clerk and State Representative named Maurice J. Ronayne.  He was one of the nicest people you’d ever want to meet.  He used to say, “Vote as you please, but please vote”.  Thus, that’s my inspiration for the title and the posting.

THE BEST KEPT SECRET(s) IN MetroWest

“...See thou say nothing to any man...” (Mark 1:44)

Scores and scores of cars drive past Framingham’s Marian (Catholic) High School every day, and yet Marian High School has been called “the best kept secret in MetroWest”.  Built in the late 1950s, the school’s building is admittedly “dated” and the parking lot and campus are small by 2008 standards.  My understanding is that in the mid-1960s, the school’s student body numbered more than 400; today it’s well under 300.  When I moved to Framingham over twenty years ago, I’d see the kids getting out of school wearing their plaid out-of-style uniforms, and I remember thinking, “Boy, THAT would be the day my kids ever went to THAT school!”

Ironically, some years later, we sent all three of our kids to Marian.   The school HAS changed.  Today’s uniforms are mostly blue (rather than green) and tend to be casual, contemporary, and “cool”.  As of 2001, the school is completely independent of the Archdiocese of Boston.  Technically, it’s now a “private school”.  Probably around 20% of the student body is “non-Catholic” and the faculty and staff are a diverse group which includes Protestants and even Jews.  The school still publicizes itself as a “Catholic” school, but it’s definitely not your “pre-Vatican 2” Catholic high school!  Marian’s athletes excel on the playing field, and Marian’s music and drama programs are outstanding.

Yesterday morning, I was one of six clergy who took part in a special assembly (which in a very real sense was a “service”) as part of “Catholic Schools week”.  Most of the clergy, including me, were from another one of Framingham’s best kept secrets, the “Framingham Interfaith Clergy Association”.  The clergy included Pastor Dan Sierra of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Cantor Jodi Schectmann of Temple Beth Am, The Rev. Dr. J. Anthony Lloyd of Greater Framingham Community Church, Deacon Guy Spiri of St. Stephen’s Church, The Rev. Mindi Welton-Mitchell of First Baptist Church, and me.  Each of the others shared something about their church and some interesting thoughts on spirituality.  I was particularly blessed by Cantor Jodi’s prayer (in song) for healing in both Hebrew and English.  My wife is Marian High’s administrative assistant (and she’s a very busy woman!).  She was surprised that I DIDN’T speak about the church I pastor, but rather, about the Framingham Interfaith Clergy Association.  I explained that Mr. Colm McGarry who was coordinating the assembly specifically asked me to talk about F.I.C.A. as an introduction to the clergy who would follow.  I said that some people are surprised by my involvement in F.I.C.A. (Many evangelicals shy away from interfaith groups.)  I explained that while I have strong theological convictions, each faith group is endeavoring to promote goodness, righteousness, justice, and truth.  There are times that we can all come together and work for the good of the community in ways that we can’t generally do on our own.  We’re not just a “religious” or “do-gooder” organization.  We’ve touched many lives by out annual Thanksgiving services, by a special 9/11 Memorial Service, by prayer vigils, and by tangible things we’ve done in the community.

So, two of Framingham’s best kept secrets found out about each other yesterday morning!

CERTIFIABLE

“And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;” (I Thessalonians 4:11)

On Saturday morning, our small church had our monthly “Men’s Fellowship” meeting.  Including me, there were seven guys present.  For a tiny church in the middle of winter, that really wasn’t bad.  We watched and discussed my favorite episode of “Northern Exposure” entitled “Birds of a Feather”. 

“Birds of a Feather” originally aired on the CBS television network during the Fall of 1993.  In this episode, 30-ish Dr. Joel Fleishmann’s parents (Herb and Nadine Fleishmann) come to visit him in rural Alaska.  Joel clashes with his Dad throughout the visit.  In the same visit, 60-something bar owner Holling Vancoeur admits that he doesn’t like sports and then (because of his dislike of sports) takes all kinds of verbal abuse from the townspeople and even from his much younger wife.  The greatest focus of the episode is Nadine Fleishmann who talks incessantly.  Native American “Marilyn Whirlwind” tells Nadine she’s  an “Eagle spirit”.  Marilyn then recites the Tlinket Indian legend of the eagle which says the eagle was originally “The Talker”.  He talked so much that he couldn’t hear the wind or the river or even the wolf.  When “The Talker” stopped talking and learned to be quiet and listen... he became the eagle, and he learned to fly.  During the episode Nadine comes to grips with her blabbing problem, and (in a mystical sense) becomes “an eagle”.

It’s ironic that I watched that episode on Saturday morning (which incidentally was very well received and brought a lot of lively discussion and good Biblical sharing at Men’s Fellowship).  On Saturday afternoon, I ran into “The Talker” of MetroWest.  Her first name is “Jeannie” and her last name begins with a “G.”. If you’re an evangelical Christian from the MetroWest area, it’s likely you know who she is.

Jeannie has had run-ins with virtually every evangelical pastor in the Framingham area.  She talks, shrieks, and yells incessantly.  She believes herself to be a 2008 version of an Old Testament prophet.  The bulk of her preaching is yelling about what phonies various MetroWest pastors are...usually naming them publicly.  Jeannie has also been known to make constantly harassing phone calls to pastor’s offices and even to their homes.  Around eight years ago it got so bad that my wife filed a formal complaint with the police department and the calls ceased.  On Saturday afternoon, I was shopping at Market Basket in Ashland when who accosted me at the deli area but Jeannie?!  She spoke, yelled and shrieked.  She yelled the name of two area pastors, spiced with the “F” word.  Jeannie had also taken a handful of those “number” slips that you take at a supermarket deli.  “Her number” was called at least 5 times while I was there.  When “her number” would be called, she would jump, wave, smile, and yell, :”That’s ME, PRAISE YOU JESUS!”  It was obvious that nobody at the store knew what to do with her.  After about ten minutes, she left.  One woman came up to me and told me Jeannie is there every Saturday doing that.

“She uses constant ‘F Bombs’!” the woman said.

“Yes, that’s a great witness for Christ, isn’t it?” I sadly and sarcastically replied.

Sunday morning during church, Jeannie called our church office.  Later, upon arriving home, we discovered she’d called our home answering machine and left a twenty minute message, ranting and raving like a lunatic.

Many years ago a mental health professional told me she’s “Certifiable”.
I wonder why she’s still walking around.

Incidentally, if you’ve ever heard a caller named “Jean from Framingham” on Boston’s 96.9 WTKK - that’s the same woman!

THIS ONE'S FOR POLITICAL JUNKIES...

“Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.  For there is no power but of God:  the powers that be are ordained of God.” (Romans 13:1)

To the best of my memory, I’ve only posted 5 or 6 overtly political pieces on this blog in the almost two years that it has existed.  This one will be overtly political.  If you’re not a political junkie and/or a talk radio junkie, this will probably bore you to tears.  If you want to just stop reading now and “click” the blog site away, I won’t be offended!

I’ve been all over the political spectrum in my life.  My parents were each registered Democrats.  I voted for McGovern in 1972 (as an 18-year-old) and for Jimmy Carter in 1976.  My politics sharply shifted between 1976 and 1978...from being a moderate Democrat to being a conservative Republican.  I still consider myself a conservative, although I’m aware that many would label me a “moderate Republican” and, honestly, I suppose that would be a fair label for the Bob Baril of 2008.  I’ve mentioned before that I’m so tired of Michael Graham and Jay Severin downing John McCain in WTKK 96.9 talk radio in Boston.

To sound very Nixonian, Let me just say THIS about THAT:
It’s not that I hate Michael Graham or Jay Severin.  Michael Graham is easily the most entertaining host on WTKK and one of the most entertaining hosts in talk radio.  I really enjoy him and I probably agree with about 85% of what he has to say, but when it comes to the other 15%, boy, we can be worlds apart!  Jay is more intimidating and more cerebral than Michael is, and is an elitist.  I like Michael better than Jay, but I also have to admit that Jay is a brilliant man.  I fully agree with Jay only about 55% of the time, but I keep listening.

I know this will make Michael and Jay mad, but one would have to conclude they must want a Democrat to be elected in 2008.  Well, it WOULD be very good for their business, there’s no doubt about that.  In fact, should Hillary Clinton be elected, I suspect their already good ratings would increase.  I must make that conclusion because both Jay and Michael are dead against the most electable Republican, John McCain.

Jay particularly hits HARD the notion that “no REAL Republican would vote for McCain”.  Jay is in love with Mitt Romney.  Several years ago, on Howie Carr’s show on WRKO, Chris Wallace said of Mitt Romney, “He is an ENORMOUSLY ATTRACTIVE GUY!”  Howie ran that clip SO many times that I think it’s part of why Howie and Chris eventually had a falling out. (I don’t mean to sound like this is TMZ or something, but they did.)  Well, even though Jay is a great womanizer, I won’t be surprised if I tune in some day at 3 to hear him crying out in ecstasy, just like Chris Wallace, “He is an ENORMOUSLY ATTRACTIVE GUY!”

If I ever got through to Jay or Michael here is what I would tell them:
McCain would beat Hillary Clinton in a landslide.  That’s important.  Republicans are in serious trouble this year.  George W. Bush has some of the lowest approval ratings any President has EVER had.  People are sick of him and sick of the Republicans. 

Does anybody really think that the average middle-class independent voter is going to vote Republican this Fall.  Listen, they’re NOT.  There IS one guy they’ll vote for.  Yes, Jay, it’s the one, “The Boston Globe, The N.Y. Times, CBS, NBC, and ABC loves”, John McCain.

Well, the alternative is, someone other than McCain runs, and Hillary or Obama wins.

You can “flag” this one and see how I do, because here is how many states each of the major Republican contenders would carry against Hillary Clinton:

Mike Huckabee would carry 5 states.  He will never be the nominee.
Fred Thompson would carry 8 states.
Mitt Romney would carry 19 states, but he would not put together enough electoral votes to win.
Rudy Guliani would carry 24 states, but he would also not put together enough electoral votes to win.
John McCain would carry 41 states and win.

I know that sounds like a “pipe dream”.
Michael and Jay...think of “non-conservatives” you work with such as Hank Morse, Mike Barnicle, and Margery Egan.  Each of them would vote for McCain against Clinton and they’re typical of many independent middle-class Massachusetts voters.  Jim Braude would even “toy” with voting with McCain but he’d vote Democrat in the end.  I’ve lived here almost all my life.  McCain would carry Massachusetts.  Former Governor Mitt Romney would not.

Think about it.........

FIFTY YEARS

"Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?” (John 8:57)

A few days ago it hit me.  The house I (mainly) grew up in...the house my sister now owns...the house I remember as a brand new house, and that in fact I can remember being built, is fifty years old this year!  To distinctly remember the world of fifty years ago is a strange feeling.  It does make you feel old.

This is also the anniversary of what came to be one of the most famous automobile models of all time- the Chevrolet Impala.  For 1958, the Impala was only available as a 2-door coupe or as a convertible.  The Impala, with its distinctive racing flag logo, was so “cool” and so popular, that beginning in ‘59 it became available additionally as a 4-door family sedan.  I drove a ‘65 Chevy Impala many years later.  For a few years in the 1990s, General Motors retired the model, but reintroduced it as a totally redesigned full-sized Chevrolet for 2000.  Can the Impala really be fifty years old?

But back to the house in Canton.  I remember when it was nothing more than a wooden frame.  We’d drive out from the inner city of Boston to look at it on Sunday afternoons.  I was only around 4 but I remember that distinctly.  In fact, at that time, I remember Route 128 in the Canton/Milton area being under construction as a brand new highway.  I THINK 128 opened up in that area in early 1959.  There were glitches with the new home in Canton.  Shortly after the walls of the garage were done in finish cement, some wise-guy kid ran his finger through the cement and spoiled the job.  It dried that way and remains that way today as a permanent memory of a jerky kid who is probably around 60 today.  Some of the workmen opened a bottle of beer in the new living room and stained the ceiling.  It was that way until sometime in the 1970s when my mother painted it out.  I remember that house being all new, smelling of new plaster and being all “echoey” the way new houses are.  We moved into the house only about a week or two before Christmas in December of 1958.  I can still see my father and his older brother Raymond carrying the Crosley refrigerator up the cellar stairs.  Can that really have been fifty years ago?

In some ways, the world of 1958 was very different from today’s world, BUT in other ways, it wasn’t all that dissimilar.  We DID have radios, television, and passenger jet planes in 1958.  What’s really freaky to think about is that there were middle-aged people in 1958 who remembered 1908 as clearly as I now remember ‘58.  Think of it, 1908 was the year Henry Ford introduced the very primitive Model T Ford.  Chevrolets weren’t even being manufactured yet.  Television had not been invented, nor had radio.  Telephones were a luxury item and were quite primitive.  Airplanes were very primitive biplanes.

Fifty years from now, I will be 103.  If I’m still alive, I will be a decrepit old man in a nursing home, but in fact, I don’t even expect to live to see 90.  I hope I have not depressed anybody, but the fact that the “new” house in Canton is now 50 years old; well it is mind-boggling to me!

THANK YOU PATRIOTS!

THANK YOU, PATRIOTS for a "perfect" season!

Looking forward to the Super Bowl!

Hope  you  agree :-)

"SPEAKING A DIFFERENT LANGUAGE"

Yesterday, I drove Rachel back to Westfield State College for Spring Semester.  (We're all kind of bummed out that the car Rachel drives is "dead" so I had to drive her.)  After spending time at Westfield State, I stopped at McDonald's in Westfield.  I really like the "413 Area Code".  It's a "different" Massachusetts.  Life moves slower.  People watch Springfield and Hartford T.V. stations and listen to Springfield radio stations.  They DON'T have Boston accents...that accents disappears around 10 miles west of Worcester. Yes, I really like the "413 Area Code" BUT communication can get interesting...

As I said, I went to McDonald's.  The order I placed was one I've placed all over the Boston area a number of times with NO problems:  "I'd like a medium DECAF ice coffee...about half ice....cream and two sugars".  I order that around Framingham all the time.  Well, first the woman who waited on me looked at me very confused and said, "We don't have decaf ice coffee, only HOT coffee". Above her was a big sign which was a photo of an ice coffee and a sign saying "Now available in decaf!".  I chose to just let it go. 

"O.K." I said, "I'll have regular ice coffee."

The woman still looked totally confused.  She called her manager over and asked the manager, "How do I give him ice coffee with half the ice, half the cream, and half the sugar?"

I shook my head and explained what I wanted to the manager.

A guy behind me in line said, "I couldn't understand what you wanted, either!"...like I was a weirdo, or something.

Maybe I shouldn't have said this, but I said, "I'm from the Boston area and I place this order there all the time with no problems.  I guess once you go west of the Connecticut river everything changes!"

They shook their heads and agreed that it DOES!

You probably thought I was going to write about people waiting on you in Portuguese or something.  (THAT happens in Framingham!)  And, in the midwest, people can't handle the Boston accent, but THIS WAS STILL MASSACHUSETTS....

man .... communication ..... culture .... cross-culture .... whatever .....

IT'S A PROBLEM!