The sun is setting right now on a particularly humid day and the sky looks like it does in these photos.  Everything is yellow.  I'm much less trusting of weather these days, but I find these shots so inspiring.  I love the colors and the vibe, and of course the big bag on the left.

Yesterday I listened to the This American Life episode about Sam and his Iraqi 'brothers' - boys he began a relationship with by telephone and talks to every week.  His wife narrates the story of their relationship and she explains that usually the hardest part about talking with them is not hearing about the dangers and suicide bombers in their neighborhoods, but finding something to say back when they ask about her day.  Safety is such a given where we live that its hard to imagine what it would be like to live in a place where the status quo is explosions in the street.

So let me make this clear: I am not trying to draw comparisons between Iraq and my neighborhood. We live in a great community of people and rarely feel our safety threatened. I say rarely as opposed to never only because of the recent tornado and the effect that it had. My mind however, tends to mull over the events or stories that I have exposed myself to and the former story keeps coming up in parallel with the story below and whirling around up there.  I think I am sorting and trying to make sense of unnecessary suffering in both situations.

Last night Tory and I were talking around a large bonfire in our backyard (wood has been in abundance lately) and a car passed by our house and both our parked cars, going what was probably over 90 mph.  It bottomed out at the top of our street and exploded when it hit a tree. Tory ran to the scene, and I walked, trying to make my new too-fancy-for-me phone dial 911. As I got there, cops were already pulling up and I tried to absorb what had happened. 

Your mind moves so quickly in situations like this.  After I went to bed I was really upset with myself for not helping out once I arrived, but realized this morning that I had arrived a few seconds after the police already got there and help was already being distributed... the images in my mind of the woman trying to get up that I could have helped probably only lasted a few seconds before a policewoman helped her, but in my memory her pain and wailing last so long, while I just stood there.  I didn't even think of helping the other people who weren't moving.  It didn't seem like the right thing to do since the police were there. In the end, my lack of actions didn't make a difference either way, but I wonder what the most helpful thing to do is when the police is there and the ambulance is on its way.  Perhaps leaving is the most helpful thing to do after all.

All I could think as we left the scene was "why were they going so fast??"  I don't understand why you would ever go that fast on a residential street. It caused such unnecessary sorrow.

When we got home I offered some prayers for them.  Seems like not enough but in the end that's all I had.  I don't know where this entered my consciousness but I like to imagine that God has allowed the ocean to absorb the pain of the earth... carbon dioxide, over fishing to feed huge populations, waste of all kinds... and it is so big and large that it can bear it better than we or the land could.  We just don't know for how much longer.  So between this accident and last months tornado in an area already bearing the impacts of a society full of systematic injustice, I think the trees are bearing the community's pain, and we can connect and commune in the streets in spite of and because of these events.

Please read this article and consider helping out with the important work the space and volunteers will provide:

http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/120579424.html

This song is so powerful to me.  Look it up. 

[Intro]
Dear God, I'm trying hard to reach you
Dear God, I see your face in all I do
Sometimes, it's so hard to believe it...
But God, I know you have your reasons
(Uh huh)

[Verse 1]

They said he's busy hold the line please
Call me crazy, I thought maybe he could mind read
Who does the blind lead?
Show me a sign please
If everything is made in China, are we Chinese?

And why do haters separate us like we siamese?
Technology turning the planet into zombies
Everybody all in everybody's dirty laundry
Acid rain, earthquakes, hurricane, tsunamis

Terrorist, crime sprees, assaults, and robberies
Cops yellin' stop, freeze
Shoot him before he try to leave
Air quality so foul, I gotta try to breath
Endangered species
And we runnin' out of trees

If I could hold the world in the palm of these
Hands, I would probably do away with these anomalies
Everybody checkin' for the new award nominee
Wars and atrocities
Look at all the poverty

Ignoring the prophecies
More beef than broccoli
Corporate monopoly
Weak world economy
Stock market topplin'
Mad marijuana oxycotton and klonopin
Everybody out of it?

[Hook]

Well I've been thinkin' about
And I've been breakin' it down
Without an answer

I know I'm thinking out loud
But if you're lost and around
Why do we suffer?
Why do we suffer?
(Uh huh)

[Verse 2]

Yeah... It's still me, one of your biggest fans
I get off work
Right back to work again
I probably need to go ahead and have my head exam
Look at how they got me on the Def Jam payment plan

Well, I'm in the world of entertainment and
Trying to keep a singing man sane for the paying fans
If I don't make it through the night, slight change of plans
Harp strings, angel wings, and praying hands

Lord, forgive me for my shortcomings
For going on tour and ignoring the court summons
All I'm trying to do is live life to the fullest
They sent my daddy to you in a barrage of bullets

Why is the world ugly when you made it in your image?
And why is livin' life such a fight to the finish?
For this high percentage
When the sky's the limit
A second is a minute, every hour's infinite

[Outro]

Dear God, I'm trying hard to reach you
Dear God, I see your face in all I do
Sometimes, it's so hard to believe it..

I love teaming up with other local creatives (consider this an invitation to collaborate and contact me). Thanks to a great team, Amber Brenke, Andrew Thomas Evans, Gemini Tribe, and Tory Roff for all your work and contributions that make my spring lookbook possible.  Check it out (click open in new window to get a better look).

Hi Friends,

Please watch this short documentary:


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/ai-wei-wei/?utm_campaign=viewpage&utm_medium=grid&utm_source=grid

Not only is it very interesting, it is very relevant right now.  I love how Ai WeiWei uses gentle subversion through creating brilliant and thoughtful sculpture, photography and performance art among other things. The only think I can think of when I hear some of his artistic antics is to draw comparisons to Jesus and Gandhi... it's that kind of thoughtful, humorous, turning of the tables to pointedly expose injustice that has the potential to create real and needed social change.

I went back and read the filmmakers thoughts about making the documentary and about Ai WeiWei and this was the last paragraph:

(Read the whole thing HERE)

"Why isn't he in jail?

After spending the last two years following Weiwei, I still don't know exactly the answer to that question. Events over those two years show that Weiwei is certainly not immune to government persecution. When I first started filming, his blog was still running, with minor government interference; he'd never been put under house arrest or injured by police; none of his buildings had ever been demolished; and he was never barred from leaving the country.
I guess my answer to the question is perhaps succinctly summarized by magazine publisher and popular Chinese-language blogger Hung Huang. She told me, "China isn't China until it's China." She explained that the relative freedom of daily life, and people's recent ability to acquire the commodities and luxuries they want and to live without government interference, doesn't prepare you for that moment when the authorities do descend.
Sometimes China can feel like the Wild West, the kind of place where you can show up at a police station with cameras rolling and get away with it for an hour. Until they stop you. This means, essentially, that Weiwei is not in jail until he is in jail. I hope that this story, and my film, can help raise awareness for Ai Weiwei in case that day ever comes."


Go to this site to sign the petition to hopefully get him out: http://www.change.org/petitions/call-for-the-release-of-ai-weiwei

Click here to download the 17 page Economic Summit Response


So far Dayton has listed the programs that are out there, which is nice, and I personally have seen the youth job corps program in Saint Paul succeed, so I can feel confident that many of the other programs listed are greatly benefiting the community as well.  The new ideas I see stemming from this 17 page Economic Summit Response are the following excerpts:

"Effective immediately, the Dayton Administration will re-launch the Urban Initiatives Board (UIB) to create jobs and strengthen minority enterprise development." (followed by details) -page 14

"Through DEED, our Adminisration will immediately dedicate $300,000 to launch a FastTRAC program offered to 100 unemployed and underemployed residents in North Minneapolis who need skills for employment. FastTRAC will integrate work, occupation and college readiness skills leading to an industry-recognized credential certificate and sustainable jobs and careers." -page 16

I'm pretty skeptical in general of what even higher-ups can do to change large problems which is why I try my best to participate in however small movements of change by normal people doing their best to understand and be good to each other. But these are some good initiatives (why was the UIB ever taken out of commision??)

This article breaks the plan down further and offers a knowledgeable reaction/critique.


http://www.minnpost.com/stories/2011/04/11/27358/daytons_economic_summit_report_likely_met_with_both_skepticism_and_hope_in_north_minneapolis