The World Around You

TalkLeft is noting reports by a Chicago radio station that Former Gov. Ryan of Illinois is about to be indicted.

Steven Waldman tackles the issue of whether Christians, Jews and Muslims all pray to the “same God”. Here even President Bush has taken the right stand and Waldman does a good job of using the furor from many evangelicals over the President’s statement to challenge their beliefs,

One oddity about the evangelical argument is that it implies at least TWO gods. Haggard’s description of the personality of “the Muslim god” evokes a universe of competing deities, slugging it out for dominance…

It’s Wednesday again and this week Dr. Jackson at the Anniston Star waxes eloquent on the art of obituary writing. The kicker is this obituary from March 13, 1921 edition of the Piedmont Journal,

One of the most prominent citizens of Piedmont is sick and in anticipation of his demise Rev. A .E. Page will preach his funeral next Sunday night at the Baptist Church.

This gentleman is one of the best known citizens of our town. He has lived here a long time, and is known by everyone. He has been a prominent church man, a regular attendant at the lodges, has done business with every bank and merchant in our town for years, has been connected with out school system, and visited every home in Piedmont. No movement ever starts for the uplift and progress of the community but what this old gentleman has something to do with it.

For the sake of fitness it is hoped he will die before Sunday night but in the event he refuses to “kick in” by that time, Rev. Page declares he will preach his funeral anyway.

I trust Prattville Mayor Jim Byard, but at the same time if we do not get a single Tier One supplier for the Hyundai plant here in Prattville, I am not going to be pleased or impressed. The singular focus on Venture has cost us other opportunities. I have little doubt that something will eventually end up on the property that was chosen for the Venture plant, but I do not think our elected officials should be allowed to skate on this deal forever.

Prattville Mayor Jim Byard expressed disappointment during a Tuesday news conference over the loss of a proposed $100 million Venture Industries plant, but promised the city would continue to search for a corporation to build at the site.

“Several projects are in the works,” Byard said. “We have discussed contingency suppliers with Hyundai officials as late as this afternoon.”

Venture was to build dashboards and other parts for Hyundai, but failed to raise the money needed to build a plant at the South Industrial Park site in Prattville. The loss of the plant also means the city loses out on 600 job opportunities the plant would have provided.

Byard stressed that, while the city is losing the plant, it is not losing any money because of Venture’s failure to build.

“While we offered a highly competitive incentive package to this company, we have paid no incentives,” Byard said. “Our incentive package was built around quality, higher-wage jobs. In simple terms, no jobs, no incentives.”

I’m willing to bide my time and let whatever deals are in progress emerge, but if we are left empty handed, I will not remain silent.

The City of Mobile is facing a similar situation to the City of Montgomery,

The Mobile City Council inserted itself Tuesday into a debate over taking the word “Christmas” out of Saturday’s annual downtown holiday pa rade.

The council voted 5-0 on a resolution asking that Mobile Christmas Parade Inc., the group that puts on the parade, restore the event’s former name: Mobile Christmas Parade. The group recently renamed the parade Mobile’s Jolly Holiday Parade to reflect a larger number of religious and cultural traditions.

Elizabeth Sanders, one of the parade’s board of directors and a city employee, said there are no plans to change the name back. The parade is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. downtown.

Councilman Ben Brooks said the city might pull future support if the name was not changed back to the Mobile Christmas Parade. He voted for the resolution, along with council members Connie Hudson, Stephen Nodine, Thomas Sullivan and Reggie Copeland.

Council members Clinton Johnson, who is a pastor, and Fred Richardson argued that the parade has been a secular one and abstained.

The issue dominated much of Tuesday’s council meeting.

Well, at least we’re spending time on important things like what a parade is called. Would people really rather not have the parade at all then take a more secular tact in its presentation?

It makes me think of the times when my parents would say, “If you can’t play nicely, you won’t play at all.” Maybe the parade should go away if we cannot accept that Christmas is a religious holiday and assigning the title of Christmas to a government function leaves people out and elevates one religion over others. Just because the majority has been so dominant in this vein for so long, does not mean that it is right.

The Governor of Alabama officially appointed a panel to hear Roy Moore’s appeal yesterday,

Gov. Bob Riley named former Gov. John Patterson on Tuesday as chief justice of a special, seven-member Supreme Court to hear Roy Moore’s appeal of his removal as chief justice.

Riley appointed Patterson and six other retired justices and judges willing to serve from a list of 20 names drawn Monday by Supreme Court Clerk Robert Esdale.

The court is being appointed because the Supreme Court justices unanimously stepped down Monday from hearing the case. The Court of the Judiciary removed Moore from office last month for defying a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the judicial building rotunda. The remainder of the justices had the monument moved to a storage area. They said Monday they would not rule on Moore’s appeal because they had been “intimately involved in the events” surrounding the monument.

Esdale said the six named to serve with Patterson, a former presiding judge of the state Court of Criminal Appeals, are retired Supreme Court justices Janie Shores of Birmingham and Kenneth Ingram of Ashland; retired circuit judges Harry J. Wilters Jr. of Robertsdale, Braxton Kittrell of Mobile, J. Richmond Pearson of Leroy and Edward Dwight Fay Jr. of Huntsville.

Today is the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers first flight at Kitty Hawk, NC. There will be many attempts to replicate the flight today. This is an extremely appropriate way to honor their achievement and what it has brought us in the last 100 years.

Here is the telegram that the Wright Brothers sent to their father, informing him of their success.