Ain't Complicated

Don Shirrell

Monday afternoon the headline in my feedreader drew my attention: Two dead in Aurora head-on collision.

Was anyone I know involved?

So I clicked.

A head-on collision killed two drivers, including a Molalla firefighter, Monday near the 13500 block of Ehlen Road.

Veronica F. Flores, 28, of Salem was eastbound in her white Honda Accord about 4:30 p.m. when the car crossed into oncoming traffic and crashed head-on into a Northwest Natural Gas Co. van driven by Molalla firefighter Donald L. Shirrell, 43, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said.

Shirrell.

The name jumped out at me.

Probably not the one I know.

(As I recall the original story didn’t mention his being a firefighter with Molalla FD.)

But several hours later I got the email that informed it was the one I knew.

We attended the same school (Elliott Prairie Christian School) though he was a classmate with my sister while three of his siblings (John, Don, Teresa) were my classmates.

Ruby and I attended his funeral yesterday.

The toughest parts for me were when…

The big group of girls from his daughter’s dance team all filed past the casket, each leaving a flower (a rose, it appeared from my distance). I pray at least one of their lives will be affected for good in the kingdom of God.
The people from the Molalla Fire Department formed up along each side of the aisle the casket was taken from the auditorium. First lots and lots of first responders exited the building down that aisle while the MFD stood at attention and in frozen salute. Then the honor guards and casket and families.

May God sustain and draw to Himself those grieving ones (including those affected by Veronica’s death).

Oh, I was also impressed that the chaplain, in both of his prayers, prayed in Jesus’ Name.

I took a few photos. The little ones are actually screen captures from video; they’re not clickable. The one of Don I did not take. Read it all

Borderline Perspectives

So here’s the story: Drug violence spins Mexico toward ‘civil war’.

And here’s the piece that provokes this post:

…the United States helps fuel the violence, not only by providing a ready market for illegal drugs, but also by supplying the vast majority of weapons used by drug gangs.

Victimhood in international relations — great.

How about an alternate rendition?

…~~the United States~~ Mexico helps fuel the violence, not only by providing a ready market for ~~illegal drugs~~ weapons used by drug gangs, but also by supplying the vast majority of ~~weapons used by drug gangs~~ illegal drugs.

Interesting, no?

So…do I (and/or you) do this sort of thing in my our own communicating?

Is Israel Gearing Up?

Here’s a bedtime story for you:

Iran holds enough uranium for bomb

Iran has built up a stockpile of enough enriched uranium for one nuclear bomb, United Nations officials acknowledged on Thursday.

In a development that comes as the Obama administration is drawing up its policy on negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear programme, UN officials said Iran had produced more nuclear material than previously thought.

One nuke, eh?

If the UN was wrong before, is it still wrong?

And more importantly, what’s Israel going to do about it?

(And what do you propose to do about it?)

Right to Life in Mexico

From yesterday’s good news:

Colima Amends Constitution to Protect Right to Life

In an overwhelming 19-0 vote, legislators in the state of Colima, Mexico, decided Tuesday to amend the state’s constitution to protect the right to life “from the moment of conception.”

Article one of the state’s constitution now reads: “Life is a right inherent in every human being. The State will protect and guarantee this right from the moment of conception. The family constitutes the fundamental base of society. The State will encourage its organization and development. For the same reason, the home, and particularly the children, will be the object of special protection on the part of the authorities. Every measure or disposition for protecting the family will be considered to relate to public order…”

[…]

Similar amendments have been passed recently in the states of Baja California, Sonora, and Morelos. However, the constitutionality of the Baja California amendment is now being contested in the nation’s Supreme Court. If the Court rules negatively in the case, all similar amendments could be negated as well, making it impossible to defend the right to life at the state level.

I don’t know if amending a state constitution in Mexico is as simple as that. If it is, then that must be the law of the state.

And if it is, it’s too easy. Nineteen votes in favor is an awfully small number…especially when there were no votes against.

Maybe their Supreme Court will decree similar sentiment.

In any event, thank the Lord for good news like this.

Woes in the Holy Land

You can help!

Here are the first three paragraphs of something I just posted on another of my sites:

Times are tough in the USA. But in the Holy Land….

GAZA CONFLICT: The recent conflict in Gaza caused the deaths of more than 1,000 people, injured thousands more, and destroyed or damaged 21,000 homes. The war increased the woes in this troubled part of the world, known as the Holy Land.

After the militant group, Hamas, continued firing rockets into southern Israel, ignoring repeated warnings, Israel began air strikes the weekend of December 28 and later moved in with tanks. This recent conflict is part of the long-running feud between Israel and the Palestinians. As always, many innocent people — families, children, and the elderly, both Jewish and Palestinian — suffer the consequences.

CAM has been working diligently with our contacts in Israel to supply food parcels to hundreds of needy families in Gaza (mostly Christian, but also some Muslim). We also plan to distribute Christian literature in Gaza. On the Israeli side, where people are traumatized by the rocket fire, we will distribute care packages.

You can help!

Will you?

February 14

On this day in 1977, I think I gave her a Valentine card.

1803 — Chief Justice John Marshall declares that any act of US Congress that conflicts with the Constitution is void. What would he have to say today?!

1835 — The original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus is formed in Kirtland, Ohio.

1849 — James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken. Subsequent Presidents have shown an inability to kick the habit.

1859 — Oregon is admitted as the 33rd US state.

1876 — Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray apply (though not jointly) for a patent for the telephone.

1899 — Voting machines are approved by the US Congress for use in federal elections. “It will eliminate fraud, confusion, and disenfranchisement.”

1912 — Arizona is admitted as the 48th US state.

1945 — On the second day of the bombing, the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces begin fire-bombing Dresden, Germany. So that’s how The Greatest Generation fought?! Imagine the uproar if that had been done in Iraq and Afghanistan!

1949 — Israel’s Parliament (the Knesset) convenes for the first time. Praise God!

1977 — Mark Roth gives Ruby Yoder a Valentine card for the first time. I think that’s right!

1989 — The first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System is placed into orbit. GPS is twenty years old today. Wow!

2009 — What’s noteworthy that happened today?

Am I Guilty?

Last fall (is that when it was?) when Congress rushed some multi-billion “package” through and President Bush signed it, I wondered how they could put their signatures and votes to something they had not read carefully and studied thoroughly.

I marveled at such reckless irresponsibility.

Now I see that such an approach must be the norm.

Yet voters continue to send them back to keep doing such things.

Amazing.

I guess.

But do I do the same type thing as the politicians do? Perhaps more than I realize.

But before further introspection, the “news”: Read it all