Strong quake shakes Southern California

Strong quake shakes Southern California
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
07-29) 11:53 PDT LOS ANGELES (AP) --
A strong earthquake shook Southern California on Tuesday, and the jolt was felt from Los Angeles to San Diego, and slightly in Las Vegas.
Preliminary information from the U.S. Geological Survey estimated the quake at magnitude 5.8, centered 29 miles east-southeast of downtown Los Angeles near Chino Hills in San Bernardino County.
Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey said there were not immediate reports of damage or injury in Los Angeles.
The quake struck at 11:42 a.m. PDT. Buildings swayed in downtown Los Angeles for several seconds. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/07/29/state/n114525D55.DTL
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Update from SFGate


Quake shakes S. California; No injuries reported
By ROBERT JABLON, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/07/29/state/n114525D55.DTL&tsp=1

U.S. soldiers deploy to bring medical help to Romania

U.S. soldiers bring medical assistance to rural villages in Romania
By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Monday, July 28, 2008

BABADAG, Romania — U.S. soldiers are traveling to isolated rural settlements in Romania to provide health care to people who seldom see doctors, dentists or veterinarians.

They are part of a Humanitarian Civil Assistance team, including Romanian medical personnel, vision specialists, dentists and veterinarians, that is nearing the end of a six-week mission to Romania. Their services are in conjunction with this year’s Joint Task Force East rotation.

JTF East involves the deployment of 900 U.S. personnel to Romania and Bulgaria to train over the summer.

Capt. Robert Dennis, who is deployed to Romania as an intensive care nurse with the 212th Combat Surgical Hospital, said the assistance team visits four villages each week and sees between 65 and 80 patients in each village.

The 34-year-old Philadelphia native said most villages don’t have a doctor and residents must go to a larger town for care. For specialized care, villagers must go to a big city such as Tulcea, Bucharest or Constanta, he said.

"Many of the roads are dirt tracks so they can’t get to the larger cities unless they have a functioning mule," he added.
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http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=56401

Arkansas soldier returns to destroyed home needs your help

She is being redeployed in August and is worried about getting her parents settled first. Can anyone help them out with a donation or helping the family rebuild so this soldier will not have an extra burden to worry about?

Soldier on leave returns to burning home

The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jul 29, 2008 9:32:10 EDT

LITTLE FLOCK, Ark. — An Arkansas soldier serving with the Army in Iraq came back to the state on leave to surprise her family but instead found her family’s home destroyed by fire after a lightning strike.

Rebecca Beaird, 20, arrived July 23 and spent the day with family. When she and the family returned to the home later that night, they found that a fire had gutted it. Beaird had lived there with her parents and two sisters since 1999.

“It was sad because you think about everything that’s in there. My family lost everything,” Beaird told KHOG television.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/07/ap_housefire_072908/

O'Reilly, Savage, Hannity on accused church shooter's reading list

I wonder if they ever understand what their words do to people? The kind of trauma created by their hatred for the people of this church trying to help others was fed by their words.

O'Reilly, Savage, Hannity on accused church shooter's reading list
Diane Sweet
Published: Monday July 28, 2008


Jim Adkisson, the 58 year old man being held in a Knoxville, Tennessee jail on murder charges stemming from a shooting during a children's musical at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church on Sunday, is said to have had a array of right-wing political books in his home, along with brass knuckles, empty shotgun shell boxes, and a handgun discovered by police who searched his home.

A report from the local Knoxville news details the findings from Adkisson's home, along with key statements from a document written by Adkisson related to an apparent motive behind the violent attack that rocked the suburban community:

"Adkisson targeted the church, Still wrote in the document obtained by WBIR-TV, Channel 10, 'because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country's hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of media outlets.'

"Adkisson told Still that 'he could not get to the leaders of the liberal movement that he would then target those that had voted them in to office.'

"Adkisson told officers he left the house unlocked for them because 'he expected to be killed during the assault.'

"Inside the house, officers found 'Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder' by radio talk show host Michael Savage, 'Let Freedom Ring' by talk show host Sean Hannity, and 'The O'Reilly Factor,' by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly."
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Inhumanity Worth Dying For

Inhumanity Worth Dying For
By Brilliant at Breakfast

Even before I read this AP article breaking the news that Jim D. Adkisson had opened fire on a Tennessee Unitarian Universalist Church yesterday, murdering two people, I knew what the motive was. We have a Unitarian church in my hometown of Hudson, Massachusetts. Those who read my last blog may recall my doing a short photo essay last May about the more than 4600 American flags that they’d planted on their property to memorialize those troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The poet and arch-liberal Percy Bysshe Shelley once complained to a friend that there wasn’t a single religion based on charity rather than faith. The Unitarian church comes the closest to realizing Shelley’s ideal of a religion based on charity. Unitarians welcome everybody into their houses of worship, including gays. The sign outside my local Unitarian church even features the multicolored flag indicating their longstanding invitation to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community. I’m not religious, to say the very least. Yet their liberal, secular humanitarianism has earned my neverending admiration and fiercest respect.

Over the decades, they have fought effectively for women’s and gay rights, sheltered the homeless, fed the hungry. Yet this admirable body of work was considered too liberal by an unemployed man, such as the kind they would've gone out of their way to help, who’d taken two lives yesterday, including a church usher who’d bravely put his own body in the way to shield the others.

A signed, four page letter was found in the SUV of the miscreant explaining his intentions to kill as many people as possible then himself during a children’s production of Annie. The church’s views and biases were too liberal for Jim D. Adkisson.

Yes. To some people (think Conservatives), helping the downtrodden, helpless and disadvantaged is a sin worth dying for, a sin worthy of Old Testament vengeance. Murder is a lesser sin than fighting for gay rights or equal rights for women.
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http://airamerica.com/blog/2008/jul/28/inhumanity-worth-dying

If you read the Sermon on the Mount, you will get a better understanding of what Unitarian Universalists are. Aside from not believing in the Holy Trinity, they get the message of Christ.

I am Greek Orthodox and fully believe in the Holy Trinity. Others do not. I believe in freewill and our seeking redemption for sins thru Christ, as well as the ability of people to become saints in service of the Lord. The willingness to die for what they believe in required a special connection between God and themselves. When we think of the "willingness to die" it is not just the physical body, but also willing to surrender the personal desires that stand in the way of truly being connected to God. If we are willing to not stand in judgment of others, as the Bible tells us, then we are doing the will of God. It's far to easy to judge others than to try to understand them or put ourselves in their place. If we look at only the "sin" we see, then we do not look at the needs they have as a human, as a child of God. If we refuse to acknowledge that Christ said all sins are equal in the eyes of God, then compassion for all is unobtainable.

Matthew 5
The Beatitudes 1Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him,
2and he began to teach them saying:
3"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4Blessed are those who mourn,for they will be comforted.
5Blessed are the meek,for they will inherit the earth.
6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,for they will be filled.
7Blessed are the merciful,for they will be shown mercy.
8Blessed are the pure in heart,for they will see God.
9Blessed are the peacemakers,for they will be called sons of God.
10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=MATT%205-7

My greatest wish is not to see God with my own eyes. I can see the existence of Him everyday. I see it when I come in contact with other Chaplains, setting themselves aside and taking care of the needs of others. I see Him when I witness the compassion of a nurse taking care of a dying patient in a hospice. I see Him when I look at picture of a solider cradling a wounded child in his arms. I see it when I watch a fire engine rushing to the home burning because they know someone's life may be in danger. I see it when a police officer is trying to stop a person with evil intent from taking the life of someone else. The existence of God can be seen in others if we take the time to look for Him in them.

My greatest wish is to hear the sound of Christ's voice with my own ears. People tend to get things pretty twisted up in their own minds when they do not understand what God really wants out of them. Saul did. After Christ was crucified, Saul was convinced that followers of Christ were evil. He did all he could to hunt them down and wanted nothing more than to see them obliterated. He believed it was what God wanted. He had things twisted inside his own brain until he heard the voice of Christ calling down to him. Saul understood how wrong he had been and dedicated the rest of his life spreading Christianity to the gentiles. He became known as Paul.

There are many people today getting things twisted in their own minds. They believe that vengeance is their's to take instead of God's.

The Fulfillment of the Law
17"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
18I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
19Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
20For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=MATT%205-7

What does this mean? It means that we are to keep the commandments. They are not cruel or hateful, but a love letter from God. The first part of them is about loving God and the rest are about loving each other, treating them the same way we want to be treated. The words "until everything is accomplished" confuses me. This part gets twisted up in my own brain because of what comes next.

Murder
21"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder,[a] and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.'
22But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother[b]will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,[c]' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.
23"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,
24leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
25"Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 26I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.[d]

When you read Leviticus it is very hard to understand this part. Could it be that things got twisted up there as well? This is what I mean when I say it would be the greatest wish to hear the voice of Christ so that I would be able to understand what He was talking about in the Sermon on the Mount. I try to live my life by the Beatitudes and will keep trying until I do hear His voice.

What I do know is that to hate anyone as much as this man did, blaming the people of Tennessee Unitarian Universalist Church for all that was wrong in his own life, had everything to do with hatred. Adkisson wanted to find someone to blame for what he lacked in his life and he took his anger out on the closest target because of what he heard with his ears from others. When we try to do what we believe is right, what God wants, we either take care of each other or take it out on each other. Seems to me that when we take care of each other, that has more to do with God than hatred ever could.



Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos

Namguardianangel@aol.com

http://www.namguardianangel.org/

http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington