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Posts Tagged ‘religion’

Your Illusion of Christ

June 26, 2016 Leave a comment

long lotus

Here’s my question for the day: “What illusions do you have about what Jesus expects of you when you choose to follow him?” Let me repeat that: “What illusions do you have about what Jesus expects of you when you choose to follow him?” For many years I was under the illusion that if or when I would finally be answering His call, everything in and about life would suddenly be like a movie. The butterflies and birds would fly around in circles near my head. Everyone would treat me kindly and I’d see the perfect utopia that we all dream about. Rainbows everywhere, and hunger, fear, disease and poverty were too far out of sight to be brought to mind for even the slightest moment.

I had a lot to learn and learned a lot in a very short time once I stopped the kicking and screaming as I passed from one Committee on Ministry to the next in my diocesan ministry discernment process. I was second-guessing myself right up to almost having to be dragged down the aisle by the saints and angels to have Bishop Baxter lay his hands on me to be ordained. Even the next Sunday I woke up at 4:30 in the morning, so afraid I’d sleep in, that it hit me hard – this was for the rest of my life! This following Jesus thing was now for real! But did it have to involve wearing a collar? There were so many good lay ministers out there that seemed to be more in tune to what it meant to be a Christian than I ever thought I could be. In short, I was like John and James, wanting to know where those lightning bolts were to hurl around at something… just anything… to prove a point. I couldn’t tell you what that point was but I was positive that since I was now following Jesus I might as well go and do some rebuking of my own!

But when we read today’s gospel we find that all of that fluff that we dream about happening couldn’t be further from the truth. What do mean we can’t call upon the heavens to destroy some civilization that is being mean to us? It wasn’t part of the Old Testament lesson for today, but we just read about Elijah, Isn’t that what he did? Didn’t he request that God send down fire to wipe out enemies? Surely we can take revenge on those who harm us. It’s in the bible. We just read it. Oh, and still yet, didn’t Elijah let Elisha, who wished to continue on and follow him go home to say good bye to his family? But now Jesus won’t allow this one potential disciple leave to take care of the bones of his deceased father and then return and continue on with him. Why is there such a difference between what we hear in the old testament and what we hear Jesus doing when it involves the same situations?

Unfortunately, when we try to relate to the bible and look there for answers to what it is we should do in our daily lives, so many of us get caught up in the laws, just as the Jews did, just as the Greeks did, just as the Romans did. To understand Jesus, to understand what it takes to be a Christian requires us to unwrap our brains from the rules and regulations and sink our souls into the Spirit of Christ. I couldn’t remember where I first heard the saying that “You must never break a law unless you know the reason why the law was written in the first place.” Seems that you’d have to be a bit of a renegade to do that. But then again that’s what Jesus was. He healed on the Sabbath, he hung out with the homeless and the sick, he crossed religious and cultural boundaries tending to those different than him, and he opposed war, revenge, and violence.

Looking at those traits, what do many who claim to be Christians do today? Cities are finding ways to make it more and more difficult to feed the hungry and shelter the homeless. Money is withheld from or refused by agencies whereby that money would enable those who need health care the most to get it. Lies are spread and traps set to lure others into fighting instead of seeking to compromise on issues and work things out in peaceful fashion. We could go on and on with these comparisons, and even try to make them political, but the fact of the matter is they are issues not about countries or cities or governments but issues that affect the dignity of human beings everywhere. I’m saying these things today; Jesus was explaining it a couple thousand years ago. Not much has changed except the time and place.

What does all of that have to do with me being a Christian, you might ask? According to Jesus, it has everything to do with it. When we talk of being a Christian so many people like to wrap themselves up in their own little cuddly blanket thinking that to say they are Christians is enough. They wear crosses and put tag lines on email addresses and maybe even have a Shield on their car. They do the duties in church that are needed for the congregation to survive like tithe, volunteer and assist with the services. They do everything they’ve heard they should do and have read – like the ten commandments – from the old law. Yet still we find something missing. Something that nags at us from time to time and we can’t quite put our finger on it. Eventually it comes to us, some late in life, some early, some early, then late, then even late after that. Those are the ones like me who had the call at the age of 10, then put it off at the wise old age of 13, then on again around 35, off at 40, on at 45… until finally we think we “get it”. And then we find out there’s way more to what Jesus kind of said would happen but we glossed over it and act surprised when it does happen.

We find that following Jesus and being a Christian means what Paul said today, that now we are led not by earthly, material things (the flesh as he calls it) but we are led by the Spirit and so must live the way of Christ. We find that living in Christ means that our first response to a crisis is not about what happened or will happen to our property, but we move forward with an automatic concern and compassion for the people who may be effected by that crisis no matter if it’s from a natural disaster or an act of violence, revenge, or war. And we find that living in Christ means we know the reasons why rules and laws were written and made and if the time comes to break that law in order to save lives – be it human or animal, domestic or foreign – we will act in the spirit of the law of do what is right.

Looking back at my own illusion, what I thought what being a true follower of Jesus would be like, all I can say is, “it’s not the same animal, not even the same species.” But once we understand the nature of Christ, not the superficial one some talk about, but the Christ that feeds us with grace and inspires us through the acts of others; once we begin to understand that, we can begin to accept that not everything about being a Christian is butterflies and rainbows. You’ll often be on the wrong side of history. You’ll often have an opposing view of current affairs from what your friends have. You’ll often be in the middle of some illness, some crisis, some dilemma – either yours or other’s – that needs professional help. You may not have it all as far as others are concerned. Having it all is the illusion that you started with. But you will have more than you will ever need or know through this Grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Deacon Pete

(Ref Revised Common Lectionary:  Year C, 6 Pentecost, Proper 8, June 26 2016)

Focus and Choose (Elisha and the Boanerges)

June 30, 2013 Leave a comment

Knowing that I grew up in a coal mining town in the hills of western Pennsylvania, might give away who some of my childhood heroes were.  My first was a second baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates by the name of Bill Mazeroski.  I still remember my Grandpap calling our house on that late summer day of 1960 when “Maz” hit the game winning home run in the final inning of the final game of the World Series!  He became a household name for many years to come, as would the likes of Clemente and Stargell.  Now my talents weren’t close to theirs and there wasn’t much of a chance for me to become like them, but in my mind when I practiced on the ball field I would imagine my body was going through every motion exactly as they appeared on the games I saw on television.  But the biggest thrill of all for me that left the biggest impression on my mind was actually going to baseball games at Forbes Field and seeing these idols perform before my eyes.  Oh, how I wanted so much to play at the level they did!  A competitive spirit was growing in me and would soon show in everything I did.  As much as I’d like to think I’ve settled down with the competing aspect of sports, my wife still brings to my attention from time to time that some things in life aren’t and shouldn’t be a contest.

Now I mention these sports figures not to brag about a particular team, city, place or time, but because as I look at the characters of Elisha, James and John, I see the image of some young people going about life with the same zeal for God that many youngsters have for sports.  There is an enthusiasm here that can get one in trouble depending on what you’re doing – and that is true to the point so much that James and John are told to settle down and start paying attention.  It’s also true in showing where our own passions and desires lie in our lives.

For Elisha it lies in wanting to be able to do more than Elijah does.  He sees the good that Elijah has demonstrated throughout his life, knows that it’s God who does the work, and so wants to do the same his desire to please God is evident everywhere.  Several times he’s told to stay at a certain spot, yet each time he insists on going the distance.  Some might classify this as a test of will and strength.  When we know we are heading toward an unpleasant situation there is always the choice of sitting back and saying no.  As we get closer to the end and we are given an option of not having to witness the final moments of it what will we choose?  Elisha is prepared to stay with his friend to the end.  His request for a higher blessing is met with a condition.  “If you see me as I am being taken from you… then it will be granted.”  Paraphrasing it might sound like this; “If you keep your focus on the ways of how I showed you to live your life up to the final moment, and never take your eyes off of the ways of God and look back to the past, your blessings will be increased.”  So Elisha, formerly a rich man who left his wealth and luxurious life to follow a prophet of God, gained a new life in the rich blessings of the Holy Spirit.

For James and John, their passion for God was so intense they were given the name “Sons of Thunder.”  Jesus seems to have a liking for giving out new names to his followers, especially the twelve, the ones closest to him.  Have you ever stopped to think about what he might name you if he were around now?  This is one passage many consider to be the main reason Jesus dubbed them “Boanerges.”  As they pass through the Samaritan village they are treated badly.  Take into consideration that during the first century CE the relationship of a Samaritan to a Jew then is what the relationship between an Arab and a Jew is today.  They barely tolerated each other; to the point where I read New Testament historian C. Bernard Ruffin tell us to imagine signs on the hotels reading “no Jews allowed.”  That is what is meant by the more polite statement here made by Luke, saying that Jesus’s face was set toward Jerusalem.  Another spiritual lesson is taking place, this time in humility.  James and John are so riled and offended at the apparent hatred being thrown at them they’ve allowed their thoughts to be brought down to that same level.  They want to throw hate back at hate and so ask Jesus to send down lightning bolts from heaven.  They have seen him numerous times control nature by calming the storms and walking on water.  If he can stop the wind and waves from turning over a boat full of fishermen, surely he could shock a few bodies or at least rattle them with some rolling thunder.  Combine that attitude with their presumably powerful voices echoing the good news of Jesus through the huge crowds –the Sons of Zebedee become the Sons of Thunder.

But Jesus tells them to let it be.  They are not traveling through this place or any other place to retaliate and get into arguments and fights.  The mission is clear, at least to their leader.  He is travelling to the place and time where soon He will be taken up.  Just as Elijah has related to Elisha, the focus has to be on God and the Holy Spirit to make it through the entire journey.  Now to drive this point further home, Luke presents some issues that cut through centuries of time and generations of culture.  What about my family?  What about those I love?  What about the things I put above all else every moment of the day?  The people say; “Lord, I would follow you anywhere but you see, I have a wife and 3 children, another family member has passed away and the winds and rain are coming so I must harvest the wheat and there are all these things I must attend to in my daily life, but after I take care of those things, then, yes, Lord, I’ll start following you.”  And then the final request of them is to “let me go and say goodbye to family.”  First of all, it’s my hopefully humble opinion that in none of these cases is Jesus literally telling us to leave everything we have or we will never be able to serve God the way God is to be served.  I do not believe He would tell us to forget about family values or socially acceptable customs or business ventures that keep us clothed and fed.  If that is the case, then we certainly wouldn’t have been given the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves.  Luke’s presentation of the gospel and Jesus’s words are directed to a society where family life was considered central and was more tightly knit than we are today in the western world.  So we must keep this in mind when reflecting on these very shocking words of how to realize the Kingdom in this world.  Jesus knew that all these things were important to people or I doubt these situations would have been put in the gospels.  He understood that family was a prime subject but he wanted to remind everyone that God should be at the top of the list.  He tells us that before everything we do, we must consider what is most important.  Everything is in its place.  We go to our jobs and perform our work but we keep our moral and ethical values no matter what kind of deals are offered.  We tend to the sick and dying with the respect and honor they need and deserve but we don’t forget about our commitment to the living while we mourn.  We value time with the family on weekends but we make certain that some of that time is spent together in church or prayer.  And we look toward the future with each other but we do it prayerfully and thoughtfully keeping God front and center in the decisions and plans we make.  Instead of following that idol from childhood we must now start following the Christ that Jesus has become.  We are Its body.  Through Him it is realized.  By us the work is done.  Will we be like “Boanerges”, daughters and sons of thunder?  Like Elisha, desperately wanting more?  The answer lies in where we choose to place God in our lives.  Amen.

(Scripture used from RCL for Year C, Proper 8.  2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14  Luke 9:51-62)

Have You Been Formed?

January 29, 2013 1 comment

I’m sure you’ve been asked if you’ve been “saved.” Conversion is something the religious world holds as an end-all to being … well … “religious.” It amazes some how anyone can possibly go about their lives not being sure whether heaven holds a place for them or not. We can wonder if perhaps part of the incursions made to us by zealous disciples is simply the other person’s reflection of their own uncertainty. Yet genuine encounters with God most definitely abound. Many of us long for a hint of an epiphany such as this season represents. We ask; “How will God be revealed to me?” or “When will I experience that event set apart from my ordinary life that can only be classified as ethereal and holy?” Whether it is as dramatic as St. Paul being knocked off his horse, or as sullen as a slight chill that raises the hair on your arms, a profound and unmistaken sense of knowing God and where the Holy Spirit moves in our lives can elude us for what seems like eternity. If this is has been the case, consider there may be another more subtle option going on; the option of being formed. When we create regular habits of reading scripture, when we listen to sacred music, and when we allow the spiritual connections with others to move us – rather than make them into what we think they should be – we begin to settle into a way of life where the main thing moving us is the Holy Spirit. And this is what is meant by being formed. Holy things form holy people. The difference is, while an epiphany can be earth-moving, formation is a settling-in. One day we arrive at a place and notice how our ways of doing business in the world are quite different than when we first started out. And maybe then we get that slight chill and the hair on our arms rises up. You’ve been formed!

New Wine, New Joy

January 20, 2013 Leave a comment

Each of us probably has the memory of a wedding – outside of our own – that was an example of a true and honest celebration of the union of love. Not an orchestrated show of “Bride’s Wars”, where parents attempt to out-do the neighbor’s or cousin’s last production; but a coming together of family and community in a spirit of support and love that honors the commitment two people are making to each other. Even in ancient history like we hear in Isaiah this morning, where such celebrations were much more about commitments between families and social orders than they were about two people finding love between each other, the celebration was all about binding the two into one. It was tradition. Now, “Tradition” was much more than a song from “Fiddler on the Roof” and I’m hoping you get the idea of it before I break into singing “Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match…” So while the prophet speaks of the promise God makes to Israel in the same manner as a bridegroom does to his bride, the people experience it in the context of a tradition that is to be celebrated and honored. This image of a wedding has been used for thousands of years to portray God uniting with the soul.

Now it’s important to note that these proclamations in our first lesson are from the latter years of Isaiah – where most biblical scholars have determined the theme of a savior is projected into the future. Here is where the prophets begin looking ahead for hope and not in the immediate group of heirs to the throne. It’s important because John’s Gospel ties in this theme of a marriage promise with the beginning of Jesus’s public ministry and his first miracle directly influences the success of a wedding celebration. John picks up where this prophecy of Isaiah leaves off. By providing a miracle, Jesus announces his arrival with a display of what God has in store for us.

The lead-in to this story can appear to be a bit disrespectful from a son or daughter’s point of view. When Mom brings something to our attention, most of us would not dare react with an attitude which can seem to be portrayed as “Woman!!” What we have to keep in mind here is that the word used in scripture at the time was a very endearing term. “Woman” was a word filled with respect, admiration, and love. And the response of Jesus that “my hour has not yet come” must be imagined as a more caring attitude of “Okay, Mom, thanks for the heads-up, but I’ll handle this my own way.” Looking at the situation in this context we can see several things. First off, Mary probably had a relationship to the bride and groom beyond being a guest. She knew what the situation was and bore some sort of authority that allowed her to be aware of the situations behind the bar and in the kitchen. The last thing she would want to do in this situation – is leave the newly-wed couple and their families embarrassed and disgraced – by not having enough supplies to satisfy the guests while they were still around. Her comment gives a hint of what God can do. In our present day where we place limits on everything, there would have been a set hour at which time people were expected to leave. If the stock behind the bar runs out, guests would be expected to accept what was left or be understanding and make their way home. In this story’s place and time as long as the guests were around it was understood that they would be provided for. The rabbis had a saying “Where there is no wine, there is no joy!” The joy would indeed be ended for this couple if there were no more wine.

Secondly, Mary was also acutely aware of her son’s nature and his relationship with God. He was thirty-something at this point. Clearly, she had intimately shared his faith and witnessed his actions that spread God’s abundance in every aspect of their lives. Mary’s faith in him is strong enough to know he will do the right thing – and so instructs the waiters to “do what he tells you.” Jesus’s response was more of an acknowledgement that help is needed than a refusal of wanting to help. I can almost hear him giving a big sigh and thinking “Okay, Mom’s right. Now is the time.” He then points to the stone jars, and directs the staff to “fill them.” Maybe it was that nudge from Mom, maybe not, but he uses the situation to take charge and begin the ministry that will change the world.

Finally, we, too find out just what was planned for the world; something which at the time only Jesus and perhaps his mother knew. John tells this story in part to show how God’s plan is to make remarkable things out of ordinary objects. What started with empty vessels results in something better than anyone could have expected; things so great that even experts like the chief steward had never experienced them before. John also points to God’s overflowing abundance and grace in places we may never bother to look. Around us there may appear to be nothing. Emptiness, scarcity, nothing left on the table or in the kitchen. Then somehow we get a hint, a nudge, a familiar touch that says “do what I tell you”. We look around and suddenly things that were ordinary are producing extraordinary things. We can look upon the faith Mary had in Jesus – and know that the possibilities are endless. What was once empty is now not only full, but spilling over in ways we’ve never quite experienced. Through our encounter with Jesus, we’re learning what God has in store for us. It may not always be what we expect or what we’ve had previously, but if God’s idea of providing for us is shown by the progress from empty – to water – to wine, then indeed the rabbis will be full of joy; and so will we! Amen.
re: RCL 2 Epiphany, Year C

The Epiphanies in our Lives

January 5, 2013 Leave a comment

How do you relate to the word “epiphany”:  As the name of a church holiday or season?  One of the most thought provoking definitions of the word I came across was from an on-line source.  It was not the initial description of the word that jumped out at me which was “a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something…”  That portion was familiar.  It was what followed that struck me:  “…usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.”  How true it can be that such powerful experiences emerge from what appear to be ordinary.  We go about our lives through our daily routines when we pick up our mug to take a drink and suddenly that little action ignites an insight into the meaning of a bible passage … or maybe even a childhood experience is unearthed that causes you to realize why you use mugs and not cups … it’s the simple action that causes a reaction and produces this awareness.

Even in our spiritual lives it’s through common things that our awareness of the birth and rebirth of our soul’s longing to touch Christ can be ignited.  Perhaps it’s a simple glance at an animal, a familiar gesture, a whiff of something baking or the smell of perfume.  Just as it was through a small child that our salvation was revealed, so it can be through the small parts of our lives that God’s presence might be revealed.  The epiphany lies not in the grand nature of the situation at hand; the epiphany is in the grand nature of the realization that comes over us.  It is quite simply the Divine breaking through into our consciousness.  In today’s watered down expressions where you hear people talk about how they had an “epic” cup of coffee, let’s not confuse an epiphany with suddenly remembering where your car keys are while you franticly search for them.  That’s called recollection.  We can have more epiphanies through continued daily prayer and meditation that helps wear down the wall we’ve built between us and the Divine.  As we do so, we open ourselves to the possibilities of more and more epiphanies, all when we least expect it, and most through the common, seemingly mundane events of our days.

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The Kingdom of Christ

November 25, 2012 Leave a comment

This past week every time I mentioned to a friend that I was writing a sermon for this Sunday, the typical question of “what are you preaching on” came up, and when they heard me say “It’s Christ the King Sunday” their response was, “Already?!?”  Perhaps we’ve always been lulled to sleep around this time of year.  Pentecost is a long season and we become so wrapped up in Jesus’s teaching of things such as the parables every week that maybe we become too comfortable for our own good.  I, for one, am ready for the change in season.  Advent is always a comfort for me.  Whether we use the time for the traditional reason of penance or the modern interpretation which is preparation, Advent is ready to lead us on into a deeper relationship with God and hopefully with a fuller understanding of this Christ who is our king.

Who is this king?  And where is he?  His initial coming was promised as far back as Isaiah and his return has been proclaimed through the ages; perhaps none more dramatic in style than what we hear in today’s readings about this ‘now-and-forever’ kingdom.  And as for this kingdom, what is it and where is it?  What makes it different than others?  Our lives are surrounded by kingdoms.  Everywhere we look, a piece of this world is under the jurisdiction of a king or queen who attempts to take charge of our every movement and lead our thoughts into the realm of its world.  They are countless.  We have the kingdom of consumerism which creates witty phrases and catchy tunes to lure you into buying their product.  There is the kingdom of politics where various sides do whatever possible to convince you their ways will keep you the safest in everything from foreign aggression to local traffic laws.  Then there are the more personal realms we may not consider to be kingdoms at all that are composed of such things as school alumni, sports teams, television shows, and the latest kingdom of social media that strives without end to get us involved.  Some private, some public, some local, some universal, all of these kingdoms begin with the same focus; to draw your attention to what they think you should be paying attention to.  Each claims to be the best, the truest, the most believable and the most beneficial to your existence.  Anything else is just not worth your time or effort.  The thing is, we all follow along to some extent. We may follow with nothing more than keeping an eye and ear out for the next greatest thing to come along that will be worthy of our allegiance and money, but we all follow along.  We have our favorites and in some cases it can be quite easy to allow them to rule us.

Turning to our readings, not much was different in the middle east of the first century, BCE.  Caesar was king.  The politics of the time was that of the politics of Rome, and Caesar ruled wherever his armies travelled and set up camp.  It was not that great a difference from any previous era for the tribes of Israel.  Some king was always trying to rule over them.  Whether it was the pharaoh in Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar from Babylon or now the Romans who occupied the region; freedom was not something that was often experienced by their people.  Even in times of self-governing, they avoided having a king as much as the world would allow until they, too, gave in to the demands of the people to have a human ruler.  The Jewish Kings came and went, success was often brief, and at times, being in exile seemed to be the most reasonable thing to do.  Their minds and prayers always looked to the future with a promise of a king that would lead them into their own wealth and security.  They were promised it.  It was prophesied and foretold by many that one day a king would lead them to their home.  These prophets were dramatic.  They were dramatic testaments to this promise of a divine kingship that would save the people from their suffering.  The apocalyptic works of Daniel and John of Patmos are brilliant; Daniel looking to the future of the first coming, John anticipating the return of Him in the final days.  But they are not just ordinary visions or prophecies.  In their own worlds, each was embroiled in a battle for a kingdom.  The people surrounding Daniel were occupied with the attacks on Jerusalem from the Syrian-Greeks.  John’s writings in the Book of Revelation were driven by the continued aggressions from Rome.  Each of our writers sought comfort and assurance that there is a kingdom without the dread of oppression, tyranny and war, and that there is a king who will rule over it righteously.  Each looked for an end to the pain and suffering caused by kings who ruled by greed and built up their earthly powers by abusing others.  Daniel’s magnificent account of his vision and prophecy proclaims a king that will have dominion over everything for all times without end.  The writer John relates how this king has not merely arrived, but will return to right all wrongs.  And of course we heard the Gospel with Jesus explaining how we already have this kingdom available to us, and that He is our king.

He tells us the kingdom is not the government, not the family, not the social clubs, and definitely not the companies that sell us the necessities we need to survive.  And in a time of history that was so politically charged that we see both secular and religious leaders trying to get the other to condemn an innocent man, so that the other will be held responsible if something goes majorly wrong, Jesus pulls us out of the kingdom of politics and says “it’s not here either.”   He shuts down all of our major learned behaviors concerning this outer visible world that is our home and where we live out our human existence, and says, “That’s not it.”  Aldous Huxley once said “The third petition of the Lord’s Prayer [Thy will be done] is repeated daily by millions who have not the slightest intention of letting anyone’s will be done but their own.”  Might I add the second petition of that prayer as well:  “Thy Kingdom come?”  The kingdom is here and we do pray for it and we have it available to us whenever we choose.  So the real question might not be “where are the kingdom and our King?” but more like “how do I live in this kingdom with our King?”

To do this, I don’t believe God is asking us to give up any of these things we’ve turned into our kingdoms.  In their own right, they are good and often necessary aspects of life and living and happiness.  The error is in allowing these worldly things to rule over us and control our lives as if they were the source of our living and happiness and therefore, we are not to worship them and their kings and their queens.  Even our own King, Jesus Christ does not ask us to worship Him in order to find the true kingdom here on earth.  He doesn’t say, “Worship me.”  Jesus says “Follow me.”  And that, my friends, may be a good way to begin living in the Kingdom now; by allowing Christ to lead us through our journey during Advent, by following Him and His way as the only King in our lives.  Amen.

(readings:  Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14  Rev 1:4b-8  John 18:33-37)

by:  Rev. Peter M. Gdula

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The boardroom bmx and skate

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Illinois Counties Declare ‘Sanctuary’ Status For Gun Owners

Illinois Counties Declare ‘Sanctuary’ Status For Gun Owners

Illinois Counties Declare ‘Sanctuary’ Status For Gun Owners

CHICAGO (AP) â Several rural Illinois counties have taken a stand for gun rights by co-opting a word that conservatives associate with a liberal policy to skirt the law: sanctuary.

At least five counties recently passed resolutions declaring themselves sanctuary counties for gun owners â a reference to so-called sanctuary cities such as Chicago that don’t cooperate with aspects of federal immigration enforcement.

The resolutions are meant to put the Democratic-controlled Legislature on notice that if it passes a host of gun bills, including new age restrictions for certain weapons, a bump stock ban and size limit for gun magazines, the counties might bar their employees from enforcing the new laws.

“It’s a buzzword, a word that really gets attention. With all these sanctuary cities, we just decided to turn it around to protect our Second Amendment rights,” said David Campbell, vice chairman of the Effingham County Board. He said at least 20 Illinois counties and local officials in Oregon and Washington have asked for copies of Effingham County’s resolution.

County officials fear their state legislators won’t be able to stop the passage of the gun restrictions because they are outnumbered by lawmakers from in and around Chicago, where the vast majority of the more than 650 homicides last year involved guns.

Co-opting the sanctuary title is also a way of drawing attention to the rural-urban political divide that was so stark in the last general election, when “downstate” areas of Illinois backed Donald Trump, who remains popular with those voters, while the Chicago backed Hillary Clinton, who grew up in the suburbs.

“We’re just stealing the language that sanctuary cities use,” explained the Effingham County’s top prosecutor, Bryan Kibler, who came up with the idea.

Not lost on them is that lawmakers from Chicago were instrumental in turning Illinois into what they derisively call a “sanctuary state” by passing recent legislation that prohibits local law enforcement from arresting or detaining people based solely on their immigration status. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner signed it into law.

“They are trying to make a point that they really resent how the city of Chicago treats the rest of the state and how they’re treated as gun owners,” said Richard Pearson, executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association.

The resolutions are largely symbolic â a way for communities where guns are cherished and where hunting is a way of life to make the point that they view most restrictions on guns to be unconstitutional.

“We wanted to … get across that our Second Amendment rights are slowly being stripped away,” Kibler said.

Dave Workman, of the Bellevue, Wash.-based Second Amendment Foundation, sees something more.

“It’s like a warning shot across somebody’s bow,” said Workman, who knows of one other place, Oregon’s Deschutes County, that is looking at doing something similar to the Illinois counties. “If you’ve got four or five counties telling Chicago something, that’s significant.”

Such talk worries Kathleen Willis, a Democratic state representative from suburban Chicago who sponsored some of the gun legislation.

“I don’t think you can say, ‘I don’t agree with the law so I won’t enforce it,’” she said. “I think it sends the wrong message.”

Kibler, though, said he thinks the resolutions send the same message that cities like Chicago send by refusing to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. He said he won’t speculate about how he’d deal with new gun restrictions that haven’t been signed into law, but that legislators need to understand, “If you pass it we might not pay attention to it.”

Kibler pointed out that prosecutors already have a lot of discretion and cited an example in which he gave a gun owner a break. He dismissed charges against a man after police found a gun in the car he’d driven from Mississippi, where it is legal to carry guns openly, to Illinois, where it’s not.

“The guy had no (criminal) history and he had it on the side of the front seat of his car in a sack, so I dismissed it,” he said.

(Rich Saal/The State Journal-Register via AP File)

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Israel’s Booming Vegan Culture
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Israel’s Booming Vegan Culture

Picture of Jennifer Strauss
Updated: 17 October 2016
The announcement that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has started serving vegan food on all bases was a momentous step in the dietary revolution that is growing faster in Israel than in any other country. Formerly the ambit of hippies and health nuts, vegetarianism and veganism has taken off in Israel after a series of exposés and campaigns. The culinary world is answering the challenge with delicious dishes and entire restaurants for the animal-free eater.
©flickr/Elad Gutman
One of the new vegan menu items at Café Greg

Many Israelis grew up eating kosher meat with a notion that the rabbinic stamp of approval meant the process was at least marginally humane. However, since a spate of gruesome media coverage exposed the leading meat, chicken and dairy companies of abusing animals and employees alike, Israel is looking a little closer at its food industries. A six-part series by the investigative TV program KolBotek made consumers queasy when their undercover camera showed the truth about the slaughterhouses and dairy farms of the country’s largest distributor, Tnuva, which now faces criminal charges as a result of the feature. The change is happening at lightning speed: Israel has just hosted the world’s largest vegan festival, and even the Prime Minister is discussing animal rights in Cabinet meetings.

With star power from public figures like model Rotem Sela, NGO’s and social organizations are raising awareness of Israel’s food industry. Let Animals Live and Anonymous are two of the main organizations working tirelessly for animal rights and encouraging veganism; their recent petition to the high court of Israel stated that abuse inflicted on animals in livestock processing plants ‘was not exceptional, but was methodical, routine and continuous.’ Now the question where Israelis and tourists can find delicious vegan and vegetarian food!

While of course not everyone is going to give up their shwarma and halloumi, already eight percent of the population identifies as vegetarian and almost five percent as vegan – a higher percentage than any other country in the world. After a prominent vegan activist, Tal Gilboa, won the ‘Big Brother’ competition, 60 percent of viewers surveyed by Israel’s financial magazine Globes responded that they have or plan to change their eating habits as a result of the information and passion she shared on air.

A veggie burger, replacing the favorite meat version all over Israel

To start the journey into a plant-based diet in the holy land, VegansOnTop is a wonderful resource for restaurant recommendations, recipes, news and events run by Ori Shavit, a leader in both activism and gastronomy. She writes that her own conversion and a major influence in the whole movement began three years ago when the renowned speaker Gary Yourofsky’s lectures on veganism and animal-rights were translated to Hebrew. As the ethical trend grows, so does the cultural response and the result is a boom in vegan and vegetarian friendly menu items as well as entirely dedicated restaurants.

Several long-standing institutions in Tel Aviv include vegan Buddha Burgers and 24 Rupees, the vegetarian Indian kitchen with a cult following. These gems have been around for a while but true progress is obvious when establishments such as the exceedingly popular Georgian bar and restaurant Nanutchka, goes all vegan. Now the café chains are taking meat off the table and the Israeli division of Domino’s Pizza is the first of the international franchise to sell a vegan pizza.

©OriShavit with permission
Ori Shavit of Vegans On Top

A growing number of popular chains including the ubiquitous Aroma and Café Greg now feature menu options for hungry vegans and vegetarians, while trendy neighborhoods like Florentin in South Tel Aviv are busting with animal-free gems like The Green Shack, and HaChatul HaYarok (The Green Cat) Israel’s first fully vegan pizza restaurant featuring their unique cashew ‘mozzarella.’

Protest against the meat industry, Israel 2013
©Flicker/U.S.Embassy Tel Aviv
A Vegetarian Cooking Class at the US Embassy in Israel

When picking where to eat in the Holy Land, don’t forget that so many favorite Israeli foods like hummus, falafel, and mujadderah lentil stew are already vegan. The English website Secret Tel Aviv has done a survey of the favorite Tel Aviv vegetarian and vegan eateries according to the international crowd, and HappyCow has compiled a list covering the whole country so you can eat ethically anywhere you travel.

Those who want to get more hands on in eliminating animal products from their plate can take a cooking class with vegan chef Kristof Steiner at his romantic kitchen on Nachalat Binyamin Street, Tel Aviv. Best of all, if time is not an issue, the number one way to appreciate eating vegetables is to stay a while and grow your own while volunteering at an organic farm in Israel.

For a list of Tel Aviv’s top ten vegan restaurants, see our article here. To schedule a cooking lesson with, Kristof Steiner, email him at


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Survival box for students going to university

student fresher freshman survival kit box hamper

From left: Toastabags, hot water bottle, eye maskStabilo coloured pens, Batiste dry shampoo, Pot Noodle, ‘I’m having a me day do not disturb’ sign, mini stapler, plasters, Yankee Candle, ear plugs, Vicks Vaporub, Lemsip Cold and Flu, microwave popcorn, Oust, toilet roll, The Hungry Student Cook Book, Suck UK Bottle Opener and space notes

Whether it’s your friend, daughter, cousin or nephew going off to university, you’ll want to send them away with something useful and meaningful. A student survival hamper, packed with all the items they might not have thought about but will likely need does just that.

It will be gratefully received – and they’ll thank you for it when the time comes to use the bits and bobs packaged inside, whether that’s after a heavy night of drinking, or when it comes to cleaning or cooking something from scratch…

The trick is not to overload the hamper with things that they’ll already have packed. Here’s some inspiration for things to include:

  • Ear plugs: Halls can be lively places, which can make it hard to get some rest. Help your university starter cope with a pair of ear plugs.
  • Post-it notes: In cool shapes and colours, for memorable note-taking, like these (pictured above).
  • Wet wipes: Just because they’re convenient for doing a spot of cleaning, whether it’s shoes, sticky hands, or the kitchen counter.
  • Toaster bags: So your fresher can whip up a quick lunch using just the toaster.
  • Disposable camera: A nice touch, so they can snap all their Freshers’ Week memories using this retro camera, and have the suspense of not knowing what they’ll come out like till they get them developed!
  • Dry shampoo: To fight any signs of greasy hair, or a lack of hair washing. Batiste is ideal: it refreshes locks in minutes. Bad hair days, be gone!
  • Plasters: For sticking over any drunken or sober injuries. This fresher will be considered the saviour of the group, and with funky, grown-up and amusing plasters like this, you can’t go wrong.
  • Cook books: For inspiration in the kitchen, and to encourage your student to venture beyond the ‘safe’ choices of beans on toast, soup and cheese on toast. The Hungry Student Cookbook (pictured above) has rave reviews.
  • Cards: For drinking games, such as Ring of Fire, or for filling up the time in between lectures in the student union.
  • Coloured pens: For making lecture and revision notes lovely and bright, and for doodling fridge notes, such as: ‘My parents are coming to visit today, please be on your best behaviour’, or for labelling food in the fridge.

From left: I Have To Do All The Dirty Work Laundry Bag, First Aid for Hangovers, Oust, Stabilo Coloured Pens, Lemsip Cold and Flu, hot water bottle, microwave popcorn, Pot Noodle, ear plugs, scissors, Train notes, plasters, Batiste dry shampoo, The Hungry Student Cookbook, Space notes, Bottle Opener, Toastabags, ‘I’m Having a Me Day Do Not Disturb’ sign, Vicks VapoRub, Yankee Candle, eye mask

  • Loose change: For sticking an emergency load of underwear in the wash.
  • Personalised photo calendar: They’ll be able to see your face every month, and it might encourage them to note down deadlines and stick to them, or give you a call once in a while.
  • Blu-Tack:  For hassle-free sticking, from putting up posters and pictures to displaying work at revision time, Blu-Tack really is the oldest university desk drawer essential.
  • Fairy lights: To adorn their room and make it feel a little more homely/magical!
  • Nando’s Peri-Peri sauce (or alternative): To spice up a bland meal.
  • Vicks VapoRub: This multi-tasker soothes everything from a headache and cold to foot fungus… Yes, you heard me! It’s got a number of uses, details are here.
  • Extension cable: Because students nowadays have an endless number of gadgets, and never have enough plugs.
  • Painkillers and cold and flu tablets: To save your fresher the hassle of dashing to the shops when they’re feeling unwell.
  • Air freshener: To mask any odd student smells before welcoming visitors. Think Febreze, Air Wick or something along those lines.
  • Sleep mask: Sometimes your fresher may want to get some well-earned kip in the middle of the day, this will help to mask any distractions.
  • Pot Noodle: In the event that your fresher fancies a change from beans on toast.
  • Sweets: To share with new flatmates – what could be better for breaking the ice and bonding, than a packet of Maltesers? Challenge your new friends to a ‘who can keep make the Malteser levitate the longest’ contest (where you blow the Malteser in the air, like this.
  • Scissors: Whether it’s cutting into a packet of noodles or the cellophane on a multi-pack of toilet roll, they are going to come in handy.
  • Loo roll: An emergency bog roll for when supplies run low.
  • Washing up liquid: For sliding down corridors of course. Joke. To encourage dish-washing.
  • Candle: When your fresher has friends over and they are all watching a movie, lighting a candle can be a nice (sometimes romantic) way to set the mood. It’s even a lovely way to relax when enjoying some me-time. Personally, I’d always choose something that gives off a strong scent, such as Yankee Candle (pictured above).
  • Hot water bottle: When Freshers’ Flu strikes, they’ll have something to snuggle up with.
  • Bottle opener: Someone will need it at some point. You’re better off giving them a ‘cool’ one that fits nicely onto their keys, like this (pictured above).
  • Wardrobe tidy: So they can organise their bits and pieces nicely.
  • Berocca: Infused with vitamins, this is a quick, pre-lecture pick-me-up after a heavy or sleepless night. A great hangover helper too. The best bit is it makes urine a radioactive colour! If you’re not too keen on this, pack them some multivitamins.
  • Microwave popcorn, Pop Tarts: and any other quick-fix snacks for settling hunger pangs at an odd hour.

I appreciate that many of the items above are very female-centric. For a male going off to university, you might want to throw in an inflatable football and inflatable football net for some fun in the communal living room, some paper cups and a table tennis ball for beer pong (or get this beer pong set), some homemade meals that can be frozen at university, and maybe some condoms! If you can think of any other items to include, let me know in the comments below.

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VIDEO: Charging Station Tutorial

Last August, Bridget shared a project that she deemed “life changing.” beside charging stationTo say she is obsessed with her bedside charging station would be an understatement. The girl can’t get enough of this decorative way to charge her devices.

We recently shared this simple DIY project on an episode of Weekend Workbench on WGN. The episode was all about making your home smarter though technology, and we think our charging station definitely fit in with the episode theme.

If you’re looking to make your tech gadgets less of an eyesore, check out the video below.

We’ll have more Weekend Workbench videos coming your way soon (& by soon we mean early next week!)

Bridget and Casey Signature


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NAME: Stanley Morgan Jr.

SCHOOL: Nebraska

POSITION: Wide receiver

CLASS: Senior

HT: 6’0

WT: 195

D.O.B.: Not Available

PROS: Stanley Morgan Jr. is a very fluid athlete in the open field, showing the suddenness is short spaces to break quickly off of route stems and break into the open. Can create natural separation with athletic ability, but pairs that with polish on route stems, deliberate with eyes, head and feet in order to set up defensive backs for a clean break. Has the needed long speed to separate vertically and create a big play down the field. Possesses desirable ball skills, capable tracking the ball over his shoulder and has patience with the ball in the air to address at its highest point. Has had success with run after catch opportunities by breaking angle of the first arriving defender and using burst to get up field. Productive despite poor personnel on offense and a tough schedule in 2017, finished with over 70 receiving yards in 8 out of 11 games played and also scored a touchdown in 8 of 11 games played last season.

CONS: Is lacking in the preferred stature of a highly coveted prospect. Doesn’t play with exceptional physicality and more physical corners can effectively pin routes into the sideline as a means of shutting down routes and walling off breaks back into the field of play. Did have stretches where drops were prevalent, although issues appear centered around concentration as compared to hand size or inability to cleanly squeeze the football.

– Kyle Crabbs


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Draft picks are capital and teams invest them on prospects with the expectation of return on investment. Depending on where a player is drafted, the expectations vary. The best teams in the NFL make wise draft picks which turn into important building blocks of the franchise.

As a draft guy, it pains me to say this, but the reality of the NFL Draft is that most draft picks don’t pan out. A team is lucky to get a starter or two and a few key role players within any given draft class. While there is the occasional franchise-altering draft class for a team, by and large draft picks are empty promises. Spend some time in the Bert Bell Historical NFL Draft Library and you’ll quickly see what I mean.

And that’s why the output and potential of the 2017 defensive back class is so special. Collectively, the group made an impact unheard of for rookies with several others primed to emerge as sophomores.

Let’s examine the 2017 defensive back class as a whole to highlight just how rare the return on investment has been.

The Stars

Jamal Adams, New York Jets (R1, Pick 6)  – Emerging as a young leader, Adams quickly became a tone-setter for the defense. More ball production is needed but Adams is already among the top safeties in the league.

Marshon Lattimore, New Orleans Saints (R1, Pick 11) – The NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, Lattimore is a shutdown corner that will be part of the “Who’s the NFL’s best corner” debate for years to come.

Tre’Davious White, Buffalo Bills (R1, Pick 27) – By creating game-changing turnovers and providing lockdown coverage, White was a key factor in the Bills’ surprise playoff berth in 2017.

The Starters

Marlon Humphrey, Baltimore Ravens (R1, Pick 16) – Humphrey took over a starting role midway through 2017 and found immediate success. He has the upside to become one of the NFL’s top press corners.

Adoree’ Jackson, Tennessee Titans (R1, Pick 18) – Starting every game as a rookie, Jackson illustrated steady growth as the season progressed while also serving as Tennessee’s punt and kick returner.

Jabrill Peppers, Cleveland Browns (R1, Pick 25) – The Browns are still figuring out the best way to utilize Peppers, but additions to the secondary should enable Cleveland to take advantage of his versatility and play him closer to the line of scrimmage.

Kevin King, Green Bay Packers (R2, Pick 33) – King battled shoulder injuries as a rookie but is expected to start on the boundary in a revamped Packers’ secondary in 2018.

Budda Baker, Arizona Cardinals (R2, Pick 36) – Baker became a full-time starter in Week 11 and went on to compile 50 tackles, seven PBUs and a sack across the final seven games. He has the upside to elevate to the “star” tier very soon.

Marcus Maye, New York Jets (R2, Pick 39) -Maye pairs with Adams to provide the Jets arguably the best young safety tandem in the NFL.

Marcus Williams, New Orleans Saints (R2, Pick 42) – Despite the costly missed tackle on the decisive touchdown in the playoffs, Williams had a strong rookie year. He and Lattimore provide a strong foundation in the secondary for years to come.

Justin Evans, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (R2, Pick 50) – A rangy centerfielder, Evans led the Bucs in interceptions as a rookie. With an improved pass rush and more experience, Evans is primed to take another step forward as a sophomore.

Chidobe Awuzie, Dallas Cowboys (R2, Pick 60) – Awuzie dealt with some injuries as a rookie but made splash plays when on the field. He’ll be relied on as a starter moving forward.

Ahkello Witherspoon, San Francisco 49ers (R3, Pick 66) – Starting nine games as a rookie while showing incredible promise, Witherspoon looks to be a long-term fixture in the 49ers secondary. The opportunity to work with Richard Sherman should aide in his development.

Shaquill Griffin, Seattle Seahawks (R3, Pick 90) – Griffin shined in ten starts as a rookie and has the makings of a long-term starter at boundary corner in Seattle. With Richard Sherman no longer in the equation, Griffin is Seattle’s top cover man.

John Johnson, Los Angeles Rams (R3, Pick 91) – Johnson impressed in 11 starts as a rookie in both pass defense and playing forward against the run. Surrounded by Marcus Peters, Aqib Talib and Lamarcus Joyner in a revamped Rams secondary, Johnson and the unit has immense upside moving forward.

Cordrea Tankersley, Miami Dolphins (R3, Pick 97) – Tankersley started 11 games as a rookie and fits perfectly with the Dolphins’ prototype at corner. Miami’s secondary has the upside to become among the best in the NFL and Tankersley is a big reason why.

Eddie Jackson, Chicago Bears (R3, Pick 112) – A 16-game starter as a rookie, Jackson was the steal of the third round. Overlooked due to a leg injury during his final season at Alabama, Jackson was one of the steals of the draft.

Montae Nicholson, S, Washington Redskins (R4, Pick 123) – Nicholson showed promise in the eight games he played last season and is expected to be the full-time starter at strong safety moving forward.

Xavier Woods, Dallas Cowboys (R6, Pick 191) – Woods was a playmaking force throughout his college career and he’s already flashed the ability to do the same in the NFL. He is among the early Day Three steals of the draft.

Adrien Colbert, San Francisco (R7, Pick 229) – A physical safety, Colbert took hold of the starting gig in Week 13 and has the makings of the long-term answer at the position. He and Witherspoon serve as a strong foundation of young talent for the 49ers’ secondary moving forward.

Already Prominent Contributors

Quincy Wilson, Indianapolis Colts (R2, Pick 46) – Wilson had his struggles as a rookie but came on late in the season as a starter in five games. The Colts moved on from Vontae Davis and Rashaan Melvin this offseason — the starters to begin 2017 — paving the way for Wilson to claim a starting role.

Teez Tabor, Detroit Lions (R2, Pick 53) – Tabor made notable progress in year one and will factor into Matt Patricia’s defense more heavily in year two. Just like in New England, Patricia’s defense figures to be matchup-specific so Tabor’s role could vary week-to-week.

Josh Jones, Green Bay Packers (R2, Pick 61) – Playing in all 16 games while starting seven, Jones was up and down as a rookie. With that said, he has the inside track to a starting role this in 2018 and offers exciting physical upside.

Jourdan Lewis, Dallas Cowboys (R3, Pick 92) – Lewis flashed as a rookie and even started seven games. He’s in a competition with Anthony Brown for the nickel job, but it’s only a matter of time before it’s his.

Rasul Douglas, Philadelphia Eagles (R3, Pick 99) – Injuries enabled Douglas to start five games as a rookie and he figures to be an important subpackage player against bigger receivers in 2018.

Damontae Kazee, Atlanta Falcons (R5, Pick 149) – Kazee saw action in all 16 games last season, with time spent at both corner and safety. He has already carved out a role as a valuable subpackage contributor in Atlanta.

Desmond King, Los Angeles Chargers (R5, Pick 151) – King starred in subpackages as a rookie, showcasing his versatility and playmaking upside in coverage, run defense and as a blitzer.

Nate Hairston, Indianapolis Colts (R5, Pick 158) – Appearing in all 16 games while starting four, Hairston should provide depth outside this season while in competition for the starting nickel role.

Jamal Agnew, Detroit Lions (R5, Pick 165) – Agnew’s impact wasn’t on the defensive side of the ball but he was an All-Pro return man. He averaged 15.4 yards per punt return with two touchdowns as a rookie.

Primed to Breakout as Starters

Malik Hooker, Indianapolis Colts (R1, Pick 11) – A pure centerfielder that is a ball magnet, Hooker secured three interceptions in his first seven games before a season-ending knee injury. He could quickly make a leap into the “star” tier.

Gareon Conley, Oakland Raiders (R1, Pick 24) – Conley missed practically his entire rookie season with a shin injury but is a do-everything corner that is capable of shutting down an entire side of the field. The “star” tier is also in his future.

Sidney Jones, Philadelphia Eagles (R2, Pick 43) – An unfortunate Achilles injury in the pre-Draft process pushed Jones out of the first round and forced him to miss most of his rookie season. Jones has immense upside in man coverage as a ball-hawking playmaker.

A whopping 56 defensive backs were selected last year and 32 of them are making or inevitably will make significant impacts for their respective teams in 2018.

One season doesn’t define the careers of the aforementioned players, but this group is pacing to redefine the defensive back landscape in the NFL. Virtually every Day One and Day Two pick is meeting expectations while numerous Day Three picks are far exceeding them.

The teams that opted to invest in a defensive back in last year’s draft spent their capital wisely.


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Motorized vehicles are complex things. There are intricate parts of designs, engines, belts and mechanisms that all make it go when you flip the switch and hit the gas. The complexity of it is fascinating, but it’s also why cars are such a pain to repair. When one little thing is wrong with the process, the whole operation falls apart.

Each step, from the spark plug to the engine to the burning of fuel to the transmission to the axels to the wheels all have to be working simultaneously or what you’re expecting the car to do, or more importantly, the potential capabilities of the vehicle, won’t be achieved.

At the highest level, achieving defensive success is often the same kind of process as you can observe from a motorized vehicle. If the pass rush doesn’t do their job, the secondary can’t do theirs. If the defensive backs lack in one area, the whole rest of the team sufferers for it.

Sometimes you can look at a defense and see the talent at every level. You can see pass rush from the edges; you can see control from the interior; you can see intelligence from the linebackers; you can see strong coverage play in the secondary. But even on teams that have all the talent in the world, there is often one player who serves as the linchpin to their motorized defense.

For the Auburn Tigers, linebacker Deshaun Davis is that linchpin.

Davis may not have been able to get the win for his team against LSU, but dammit did he hold them together right to the end. In a performance that recorded 13 tackles (a career high), four tackles for loss, one sack and a pass break up, Davis was the centerpiece of production from the rest of a talented Auburn front seven.

Davis (5-foot-11, 230 pounds) is a senior this season. He has been the Tigers’ starting middle linebacker since his redshirt sophomore season in 2016. Davis’ experience makes him the linchpin of the Tigers’ defense. He’s the one that makes the work of players like Derrick Brown, Dontavius Russel and Marlon Davidson worth it. He’s the one making the calls in the middle of the defense, recognizing things in the pre-snap, doing the dirty work for others and sometimes doing the finishing work for himself.

So with all this praise, why isn’t Davis being talked about more in this draft class?

Let’s examine some of his strengths and weaknesses in the 5-Play Prospect film room.

Play No. 1: Chirp Team

The play above is of Davis’ pass break up, which came on the second play of the game. The recognition to see the screen pass, get his hands up and bat that ball away — you can see how much force was used because he timed it so well — was great to see, but you know what I loved even more? That he let the quarterback know it to his face afterwards.

You have to have swagger on defense; it’s a must. You have to be able to correctly channel the emotion of the home crowd behind you, and you have to be able to feed off that. Intimidation can sometimes be an extra defender, and when you have the confidence to go make the play and then let your opponent know you just made it, that’s not just a bonus, to me. That’s a must-have trait for most good defenders.

Talk that noise, Deshaun.

Play No. 2: See-And-Shoot

One of the best traits Davis shows is his ability to diagnose how a trench is going to open up, occupy the gap, and, at times, even shoot that gap for a tackle for loss. Davis seems to have a knack for knowing where things are going to play out in terms of a ball carrier’s path, and he’s also not afraid to get a little roughed up to get where he needs to be.

Having the kind of patience and recognition it takes to shoot gaps as well as Davis did against LSU isn’t just luck. That stuff takes years and years of experience underneath your belt, and of course the talent to finish the play. Davis isn’t the fastest player, but he is very strong in how he attacks the pocket, how he engages offensive linemen, and how he stops ball carriers dead in their tracks.

Play No 3: Limitations Athletically

Speaking of not being as ideal athletically, the play above kind of sums up Davis’ concerns in a nutshell. On that play, he dropped back into coverage against a seam route and just couldn’t jump high enough or get deep enough to stop the catch (and eventually touchdown) from happening.

Davis gave it his all on that play and it wasn’t enough — and on a play this is run multiple times a game in the NFL. That sort of athletic limitation lowers where you can play him at the next level. It’s hard to trust him as a middle man if he can’t drop deep with ease. He’s just too much of a liability in coverage in a mismatch league otherwise.

Play No. 4: Savvy Coverage — But Not Speedy

But that’s not to say Davis doesn’t make up for that in some good ways. In the play above, Davis quickly sprinted towards what he knew would be the hot route on the play, and due to that the quarterback hesitated, looked elsewhere and ultimately did not complete the pass. The ball wasn’t even throw to Davis in the play above, and yet that was all him, if you ask me.

Davis might not have the athleticism to chase from sideline to sideline or drop super far into coverage, but he seems to know his limits well and really does a nice job of masking them in intellectual ways such as play and route recognitions. That’s the sign of an experienced player and leader.

Knowing your shortcomings as well as your strengths is how you truly evolve into the best player you can be.

Play No. 5: Strong As A SAM

With all the above into consideration, where I don’t think Davis will be a first round player or anything, I could see him being a nice rotational player and perhaps even a starting base linebacker as a strong side SAM.

SAM linebackers are often the ones closer to the line of scrimmage in 4-3 schemes, and are the ones asked to take on blocks, fill gaps and limit rushing averages against 12 and 13 personnel packages.

As you can see in the clip above, Davis has no problem running through blockers to control the line of scrimmage and make plays.

What? You’re going to discredit him there because he went up against a tight end instead of an offensive lineman? What, do you want an extra clip as proof? Fine.

There. Are you happy?

Davis clearly has no regard for the men in front of him, whether big or small or even on his own team or not, when it comes to stopping a ball carrier. He knows his way around chaos, he’s strong when engaging and disengaging blockers, he’s smart, and he’s a key piece to a stout Auburn defense.

Maybe he won’t play his way into the first round because of limitations beyond his control. But from what I saw against LSU, I’d bet that what he can control will play his way into a base defense formation at the next level. He’s too good at the rest of the nuances of SAM linebacker responsibilities to be slept on completely.


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D: David Freyne / 95m

Cast: Ellen Page, Sam Keeley, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Stuart Graham, Paula Malcomson, Oscar Nolan

In the near future, the Maze Virus has almost caused the end of civilisation as we know it. In Ireland it has affected three quarters of the population, with millions having been turned into slavering, flesh-hungry zombies. However, a cure has been found, and it’s been administered to all the sufferers, but only around seventy-five per cent of the affected have responded positively to the cure. Now, they’re back to something resembling normal: they no longer want to eat human flesh, they don’t have to worry about the virus reasserting itself, and they are being allowed to reintegrate back into the society that only a short while ago was hunting them down and exterminating them. But there’s a catch, an unforeseen side effect of the cure: they remember everything they did, everyone they killed and ate, while they were affected.

This proves particularly troublesome for Senan (Keeley), a young man who upon his release from a military quarantine, is allowed to move into the home of his widowed sister-in-law, Abbie (Page). Abbie’s husband (and Senan’s brother) has been missing since the outbreak, but Senan knows what happened to him, a secret he shares with fellow survivor Conor (Vaughan-Lawlor). As more and more of the recently cured attempt to pick up their lives where they left off, they find themselves encountering prejudice and discrimination at every turn, with only Abbie and a research scientist at the military quarantine, Dr Lyons (Malcomson) (who is looking for a cure that will work for all the affected) providing any support amongst the uninfected. With growing animosity towards them, the cured seek to secure their rights as human beings, but through the kind of insurgency that the country has historically had to deal with. With Conor taking the fight to the authorities, Senan’s loyalty to Conor is called to account as he tries to protect Abbie and her son, and his nephew, Cillian (Nolan). But Conor has a darker plan than just fighting for the rights of the cured…

A fresh twist on the zombie movie, The Cured does what all the best zombie movies do: it tells its story against a recognisable social and political backdrop, and adopts a measure of gloomy sincerity that grounds the material even as it makes it overly serious. There’s very little time or room for humour here, as David Freyne’s debut feature paints a terrifying portrait of a period where social order nearly collapsed and four years of bloodthirsty savagery has left deep, unimaginable scars on a nation’s psyche. The cured, it’s made clear, aren’t to be trusted. Worse still, they’re figures of fear, shunned by the majority of the uninfected who show little faith in the idea of an effective and non-reversible cure. With two previous reintegrations having failed, it’s no wonder the cured are required to report to the military each week, as if they were on probation. Freyne, working from his own script, shows the worry and the anxiety shown on both sides, as distrust builds between them and Conor seeks to exploit the concerns of the cured while focusing on his own agenda.

The political backdrop is perhaps inevitable given Ireland’s troubled history, and Freyne charts a clear allegorical course through the narrative that adds depth to the drama and a layer of inevitable tension in the movie’s latter stages. Some of it is simplistic in nature, but it’s carried off with a great deal of style which helps immensely as the style on show is somewhat grungy and dimly lit (which isn’t a bad thing, as Piers McGrail’s cinematography will attest). Page’s character is an American whose place in Ireland is neatly ascribed to a mix of the personal (her son) and the political (US restrictions on travellers from countries with infected populations). She’s also a journalist who can anticipate what’s going to happen, but in one of the movie’s few stumbles, is instructed to forget the potential for a new outbreak and attend the opening of a new McDonalds instead. It’s at moments like these that allegory mixes well with fatalism, and the future becomes increasingly bleaker and bleaker.

Away from the political and social upheaval, the relationship between Senan and Conor is given plenty of room to grow, and Freyne uses it to explore the nature of their connection before they were cured. This connection is one of the movie’s better ideas, and is used sparingly but effectively to show both how bad things were, and how much worse they will be if Conor gets his way. Senan is wracked by guilt at what he did while infected, but Conor is willing to re-embrace the monster he became. Senan is desperate to retain every last ounce of his humanity, and is wracked by nightmares. Conor allows himself to be subsumed by anger and a lust for personal power, discarding his own humanity out of a misguided sense of injustice. Freyne keeps their personal dynamic at the heart of the movie, and though it’s often at the expense of Abbie and her journey toward an unwanted revelation, it’s more than effective thanks to committed and sincere performances from Keeley and Vaughan-Lawlor.

Freyne also finds time and space to offer moments of genuine horror and pathos, and provides a well staged, and convincing breakdown of law and order in the movie’s final stretch that belies the movie’s low budget. And like an increasing number of movies these days, there are plenty of well placed and very loud sound effects to facilitate a number of (mostly) successful jump scares, but these aren’t really needed thanks to the morbid atmosphere that’s already been created at the beginning. With Freyne threading notions of loss and grief into the already gloomy narrative, there’s as much to think about in The Cured as there is to take in visually. This is an intelligent, and intelligently handled, zombie movie that stumbles only occasionally, but when it does it’s not enough to derail the momentum that it builds up quite skilfully and to such credible effect.

Rating: 8/10 – easily one of the better zombie movies released in recent years, The Cured is a thoughtful, well crafted movie that is confidently handled by its writer/director; with an emotional core that helps anchor the tragedy at the movie’s forefront, this is a horror movie that works on several levels and all with a great deal of aplomb.

NOTE: There’s no trailer for The Cured available at the moment. When there is it’ll be added here.


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Dear Non-Southern White Nationalists: The South Is Not Your Racist Paradise

Modified from flickr / Sheri

I’m darkly amused by the entitlement of the non-Southerner’s racist belief that he has any right to define the South.

Growing up a white girl in small-town Tennessee, each week I watched Bo and Luke Duke’s General Lee racing down country roads on The Dukes of Hazzard. The Confederate flag on its hood was as familiar to me as Daisy’s bare midriff.

In high school, I worked as a waitress at a trucker joint off Interstate 24 between Chattanooga and Nashville, and the restaurant owner kept a large Confederate flag standing on a six-foot pole in the corner of the dining room. One morning a group of girls, just a bit older than me, came in off the Interstate—loud, unruly, and rude—and snarled at my ignorance when they asked for “iced coffee” and I brought them iced tea instead.

Cleaning their table after they left, I realized they’d taken down that big Confederate flag, wrapped it around its pole and shoved the whole contraption way up under the heavy oak table. It was perhaps the first time I realized what the Confederate flag meant—bigotry, hatred, slavery—in the world outside Hazzard County. As I watched my manager tug that huge flag from under the table and set it upright, she assured me that the flag had nothing to do with racism. “It’s about pride in our heritage,” she said, “Southern culture”—which I understood to mean that we ate a lot of fried okra and went to church on Wednesdays.

Later, to me, Southern culture came to mean additional things, like the Klan marching in nearby Pulaski, religious discrimination against my gay friends, or societal control of women’s bodily autonomy. I decided to escape if I could, maybe to a paradise that I’d heard tell of‚ a godless place where the gays had busted out of their closets and women refused to wear panty hose and men helped with the housework! California, they called it, and I couldn’t wait to go there and live happily ever after in harmony with all humanity.

But I got here to Southern California and realized that even in my left-coast fantasyland, police killed young Black women, white boys asked if I’d ever worn shoes before leaving the South, and an Asian-American grad student told me she “couldn’t hear” my argument in a professional setting because my twang was coming out.

I heard of a place called Huntington Beach in Orange County, supposedly a hotbed of white supremacists, and soon enough, I decided the Californians might be just as screwed up as us Tennesseans.

A year or so ago, I was in a bar in Newport Beach (which is a very rare occurrence, Mama, if you’re reading this) and began talking to another woman, a stranger I had just met. I mentioned something about being from the South, and she got all excited. She pulled a Confederate flag keychain from her bag and showed it to me, assuming I would share her enthusiasm for it.

“…why do you have that?” I asked. “Are you from the South?”

No, she said, she was from California. I gave her a sideways glance. Did she believe all Southerners held a deep love of the Confederacy? In my experience, it was as hard to say something about “all Southerners” as it was to say something about “all Americans.” Even if you ask two Southern women about their favorite potato salad recipe, you’ll get five answers.

When the girl didn’t get the desired reaction from me, she muttered familiar words: “It’s not racist. I just think that if you have a culture, you should keep that culture.” What culture…? I wondered. Was she talking about my culture, or at least, my experience of the South —my hilly dirt roads and my hotwater cornbread and my endless weeknight Bible studies? No. This girl had likely never passed a piece of fried okra through her botoxed lips in the entirety of her life.

“But the South is not your culture,” I said. My heritage, contradictory and confused as it was, did not belong to her. What “culture” was she talking about that she was somehow identifying with? Was she saying that white racist people should stick together and preserve their…white racist culture?

I wondered the same thing last year as I realized that most of the Nazis and wannabe Confederates marching in Charlottesville were not, it seemed, from Charlottesville. Aside from a few, like organizer Jason Kessler, the ones who were identified in the press were from places like California, New York, Nevada, Washington state, North Dakota, and of course, Maumee, Ohio. These non-Southerners had driven all the way across the country in their quest to “preserve Southern history,” only to ride roughshod over the actual, real-life Southern people of Charlottesville, who had voted to remove a Confederate statue in their own public park.

This past Sunday, as Kessler organized his anniversary “Unite the Right Rally 2,” one of his invited speakers (who, like the rest of the alt-right, it seems, simply didn’t show up, there were only about 24 people there) was Patrick Little, a California Senate candidate originally from Maine who in his own words wants to “raise Jews as livestock.”

Aside from being a disgusting anti-Semite, Little is a member of the League of the South, which as far as I can tell is an organization of a couple dozen old white guys from Alabama who want to re-establish the Confederacy and rule it by fiat. Now, why does a Maine-bred Californian like Patrick Little join the League of the South?

What exactly, does he think “the South” is?

By culture, was she saying that white racist people should stick together and preserve their...white racist culture? Click To Tweet

My youthful misconceptions of California as a liberal paradise have given way to a realization that too many non-Southerners, like Little and the Newport girl, have crafted a competing fantasy of my home—of the South as a white nationalist paradise, where all the white men are strong, and all the white women are good-looking, a white-celebrating world where you can tell yourself you are the master race without being laughed out of the Super Wal-Mart. A land where people of color can be shipped “back” on a boat or burned in an oven. A white supremacist culture.

I’m darkly amused by the entitlement of the non-Southerner’s racist belief that he has any right to define the South (which is much too big and diverse to be defined anyway)—like somehow he’s entitled to identify with the South and claim it as his own and define what it is, simply because he’s a racist. But I am also troubled by the way these folks, in places like California, associate their own white supremacy with my home, and of course, by default, with me.

Now, some will say if the South didn’t want to be stereotyped as a racist paradise it should have behaved better historically, and I can’t argue with that. But the South has always been more than just its long history of racism. The South has always included a heritage of resistance to white supremacist violence. After all, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks were Southerners, too, weren’t they? At the same time, there are Southerners right now in places like Charlottesville and all over the South who are redefining it as a diverse, multicultural place.

Today, people of color make up about 38% of the state of Virginia, which in 2016 went for Hillary overall by a 5% margin. 80% of Charlottesville voters chose Hillary. Even in deep-South Georgia, people of color make up about 47% of the population (defining “people of color” as everybody but “non-Hispanic whites”), and although Trump won the state, Hillary garnered 45% of the vote, improving on Obama’s 2012 performance there.

A red-painted map camouflages all the purple that today is the reality of the old Confederacy, and the Californian waving a Confederate flag wants to render all these real Southerners invisible.

The only way I know to counter this is to refuse to disappear. To say, no, if you are a racist from New York or Maine or Nevada or California, the South is not your culture—you don’t get to define it, you don’t get to define me. To make sure that any time a Confederate flag flies over a racist hate rally, whether it be in Charlottesville or the deceptively liberal bastion of Portland, there are the voices of actual Southerners (like Charlottesville’s first female Black mayor). To make sure they rise up to prove that white supremacists’ fantasy of a world devoid of people of color, LGBTQ folks, Jews, white liberals, and women who expect you to do your half of the house cleaning, is as futile as it is ugly, pathetic, and dangerous.


text:
Andrew Baron-Vartian

David Ayers’ Suicide Squad is the next chapter of the DC Expanded Universe following Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. It really does break my heart to give Suicide Squad an awful review but it is absolutely not a good movie. Now, is it the worst thing made this year, no (Independence Day: Resurgence I’m looking at you!). Is it bad enough to avoid a viewing in theaters, absolutely. It’s really too bad to see such an great performance by Margot Robbie go to waste on a bad film; and yet I’m curious to see what might have been with the different edits left on the cutting room floor…

Writing: 2/10
Direction: 3/10
Cinematography: 6/10
Acting: 6/10
Editing: 4/10
Sound: 6/10
Soundtrack/Score: 7/10
Production Design: 6/10
Casting: 4/10
Effects: 6/10

Overall Score: 5.0/10

Ranked Order:
Man of Steel
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice
Suicide Squad


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Monthly Archives: July 2013

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Acer Real-Time Air Monitor

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Get to know the air in your home with the Acer Real-Time Air Monitor. Tracking and measure six quality indicators, this device alerts you when the air quality in your home is sub-par. In addition to sending your device a notification, the Acer Air Monitor also uses the built-in LED indicator lights to show the quality. Compact, this device features a minimalist yet subtle design to easily integrate with your interior. Despite its size, the Acer Air Monitor can handle complex analyses of your premises. The metrics include TVOC, carbon dioxide, PM2.5, PM10, and temperature as well as humidity. With this information, your family can breathe safely every day. In addition, you can make changes in your home and lifestyle to help make the air cleaner. Finally, the Acer Air Monitor is also IFTTT compatible so certain alerts can trigger filtering appliances and devices.

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