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Don and I have this lovely large backyard (lovely, in terms of size, I mean) but no time to do what we want with it. We've had a couple of false starts with some nice plants, but watering regularly isn't something either of us has time for. We only sporadically keep up with the front yard. What Don dreams of for back there is creating raised beds for herbs and veggies, with maybe some space still left over for an English garden. Let's just say we are currently reserving it for that. And in the meantime we treasure it as a blank slate-- a birdland, punctuated by gophers.....oh yeah, and most recently, it seems to have produced a couple of bicolored (cap & mantle) Fairy cats; Tinkerbell, and her kitten, Pixy.
Southern California Day-Trippin
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Don and I went to Lakeside to visit my Dad, Stewart, and Step Mom, Julie (and her Dad, Tom) this weekend. Dad's birthday is Monday, so we wanted to celebrate. We landed at their doorstep at 7:30 a.m. and all headed to Perry's for breakfast. We then went back to their house where we sat on the front porch to chat and watch their new puppies play. These are red Poodles. The larger one with the trimmed facial fur is a girl who goes by the name of Sparkle--although I believe her real name is Sparkler. The smaller bundle of fur is "Dazzler", but he prefers, "Dazzle".
Friday, June 15, 2012
Our trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific
I just love the leafy sea dragons at the Aquarium of the Pacific. Don and I actually went to photograph the new Penguin exhibit, but of all the photographs I took this morning, I had the most fun with the sea dragons. After returning to Don who was taking a break in the food area, and telling him how exciting they were with their pretty eyes and their grace, I decided to take Don up on his suggestion that I use his camera and video them also. So here are a few of my videos of them.
Don got really great videos. Here's a few of his Penguins:
And I can't leave without sharing Don's really cute videos of a seal:
There's more but I'm not even sure these will all fit so I'd better stop for now.
Don got really great videos. Here's a few of his Penguins:
And I can't leave without sharing Don's really cute videos of a seal:
There's more but I'm not even sure these will all fit so I'd better stop for now.
Saturday, June 02, 2012
Carolina Turtledoves or Carolina Pigeons
(Scientific Classification: Kingdom-Animalia; Phylum-Chordata; Class-Aves; Order-Columbiformes; Family-Columbidae; Genus-Zenaida; Species-z. macroura.)
____ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mourning_Dove
____ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mourning_Dove
Okay, okay, probably only Carolinians still call these birds either of those names in the title. Most folks refer to them as Mourning Doves because of that cool call of theirs that someone with the clout to bestow names, thought sounded mournful. For the longest time I thought the name was "Morning Dove" which seemed happy enough. Not so with "Mourning". But perhaps it's name was what granted me my sighting of these fine feathered creatures at the Fullerton Arboretum, as a foretelling of the news I would get the next day of my Uncle Harry's passing the previous day (of my sighting).
Other sobriquets for the Mourning Dove are Western Turtledove, American Mourning Dove, Common Wild Dove, and Rain Dove. (http://www.avianweb.com/mourningdoves.html )
There are five subspecies of Mourning Dove:
- Eastern Z. m. carolinensis (Linnaeus, 1766)
- Clarion Island Z. m. clarionensis (C.H.Townsend, 1890)
- West Indian Z. m. macroura (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Western Z. m. marginella (Woodhouse, 1852)
- Panama Z. m. turturilla Wetmore, 1956
___ (http://www.avianweb.com/mourningdoves.html )
In Scientific speak Mourning Doves are Zenaida Macroura (hence, the Z. in the above list). It came from a zoologist, Charles L. Bonapart who named the birds after his wife, Princess Zenaide.
|Wait George. Just look at that gnat. It's asking to be eaten.
|Frankly, I've got my eye on that snail over there.
|How about; you have the snail, I'll have the gnat, and then we'll feed the kids?
|Martha! That gnat is hardly 20 % of your body weight! I do hope you plan to have seeds with that. I swear, you eat like a bird!
As you know, "eating like a bird" is an unscientific phrase we have come up with under the assumption that because they are so tiny, they can't eat much. Contrarily, like most birds, the Mourning Dove must eat an amazing amount to sustain energy for flight and what-not. Mourning Doves are said to eat 12 to 20 percent of their body weight daily. ___ (the percentage figure is from http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mourning_Dove/lifehistory )
Mourning doves eat a wide variety of seeds, waste grain, fruit, and insects. They prefer seeds that rest on the gound. Occasionally they eat in trees and bushes when ground foods are scarce. Their diet is typically 95% seeds or plant parts. Mourning doves eat agricultural crops, especially cereal grains such as corn, millet, rye, barley, and oats. On rare occasions mourning doves can be seen preying on grasshoppers, ants, beetles, and snails. (Basket, et al., 1993; Mirarchi and Baskett, 1994; U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2007) (http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Zenaida_macroura.html )
Both male and female mourning doves share in incubating and feeding their young. Incubation lasts 14 to 15 days. Young mourning doves are fed regurgitated food by both parents. For the first 3 to 4 days after hatching the young are fed only crop milk, an energy rich substance that is produced in the crops of both male and female parents. After that time, parents begin to add more seeds to the regurgitated food until they are fed only regurgitated seeds by the time the young leave the nest. Female mourning doves feed the young most during the first 15 days after hatching but after that males take over the responsibility for feeding the young. The young continue to stay near the nest and beg for food after they have fledged, but can survive on their own after 21 days old if there is food nearby. (Basket, et al., 1993; Mirarchi and Baskett, 1994; U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2007) ___ (http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Zenaida_macroura.html )
The Mourning Dove is found, according to Peterson's "Western Birds" Field Guide, in Se. Alaska, and from S. Canada to Panama, and throughout the Western States of the U.S.. (Hence, my spotting it here in the Fullerton Arboretum's "California Nature Meadow" area. I also have a pair that hang around our house in Westminster.)
The Mourning Dove is a medium-sized, slender dove approximately 31 cm (12 in) in length. Mourning Doves weigh an average of 4 to 6 ounces. The elliptical wings are broad, and the head is rounded. Its tail is long and tapered ("macroura" comes from the Greek words for "large" and "tail"). Mourning Doves have perching feet, with three toes forward and one reversed. The legs are short and reddish colored. The beak is short and dark, usually a brown-black hue.
The plumage is generally light gray-brown and lighter and pinkish below. The wings have black spotting, and the outer tail feathers are white, contrasting with the black inners. Below the eye is a distinctive crescent-shaped area of dark feathers. The eyes are dark, with light skin surrounding them. The adult male has bright purple-pink patches on the neck sides, with light pink coloring reaching the breast. The crown of the adult male is a distinctly bluish-grey color. Females are similar in appearance, but with more brown coloring overall. The iridescent feather patches on the neck above the shoulders are nearly absent, but can be quite vivid on males. Juvenile birds have a scaly appearance, and are generally darker. ___ http://www.avianweb.com/mourningdoves.html
Mourning doves are monogamous partners. Besides sharing the feeding task, they also share the nesting task. The male brings the materials and then stands on the females back passing them to her as she creates the nest with them (no wonder the nest isn't too elaborate!). A clutch generally consists of two eggs.
Perhaps it is the speed at which they can fly that attracts hunters,
"The mourning dove is well known for being a fast erratic flyer in comparison to other species of migratory songbirds. Record "level-flight speeds up to 55 miles per hour have been witnessed from an automobile (Bastin 1952)," and although "normal" flight speeds are near the lower end of the range, "37 to 40 miles per hour have been registered by radar (Schnell and Hellack 1978)" ___ http://www.savethedoves.org/flightspeed.html
Or perhaps it is their palatability:
The flesh of these birds is remarkably fine, when they are obtained young and in the proper season. Such birds become extremely fat, are tender and juicy, and in flavour equal in the estimation of some of my friends, as well as in my own, to that of the Snipe or even the Woodcock; but as taste in such matters depends much on circumstances, and perhaps on the whim of individuals, I would advise you, reader, to try for yourself. These birds require good shooting to bring, them down, when on wing, for they fly with great swiftness, and not always in a direct manner. It is seldom that more than one can be killed at a shot when they are flying, and rarely more than two or three when on the ground, on account of their natural propensity to keep apart. __John James Audubon (http://www.abirdshome.com/Audubon/VolV/00506.html )
A few points of interest:
· Perhaps one reason why Mourning Doves survive in the desert: they can drink brackish spring water (up to almost half the salinity of sea water) without becoming dehydrated the way humans would.
· The Mourning Dove is the most widespread and abundant game bird in North America. Every year hunters harvest more than 20 million, but the Mourning Dove remains one of our most abundant birds with a U.S. population estimated at 350 million.· The oldest known Mourning Dove was 31 years 4 months old. (So sorry—now I can't figure out which website I grabbed those little facts from.)
According to one website (Emiley, A. and T. Dewey . "Zenaida macroura" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed June 02, 2012 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Zenaida_macroura.html) , the average life span of Mourning Doves, however is 1.5 years in the wild, "but one wild mourning dove lived to 19.3 years old. Some areas of the United States allow hunting of mourning doves, in these areas average lifespan is lower than in areas where hunting is not allowed. "
Another interesting factoid, is that the Mourning Dove is a "related species to the Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius), which was hunted to extinction in the early 1900s.[31][32][33] For this reason, the possibility of using Mourning Doves for cloning the Passenger Pigeon has been discussed." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mourning_Dove .
Reading about the Passenger Pigeon in Wikipedia, I came to this bit about the last known specimen:
"On September 1, 1914, Martha, the last known Passenger Pigeon, died in the Cincinnati Zoo, Cincinnati, Ohio. Her body was frozen into a block of ice and sent to the Smithsonian Institution, where it was skinned, dissected, photographed and mounted.[54] Currently, Martha (named after Martha Washington) is in the museum's archived collection, and not on display.[23][55] A memorial statue of Martha stands on the grounds of the Cincinnati Zoo.[ "
I read that, after naming my pair of Turtledoves here at the Arboretum, Martha and George.
And, now on to the symbolism and legend portion of our discussion. First this bit from Wikipedia:
The Eastern Mourning Dove (Z. m. carolinensis) is Wisconsin's official symbol of peace.[26] The bird is also Michigan's state bird of peace.[27]
The Mourning Dove appears as the Carolina Turtle-Dove on plate 286 of Audubon's Birds of America.[8]
References to Mourning Doves appear frequently in Native American literature. Mourning Dove imagery also turns up in contemporary American and Canadian poetry in the work of poets as diverse as Robert Bly, Jared Carter,[28] Lorine Niedecker,[29] and Charles Wright.[30]
And from "BIRDS: A Spiritual Field Guide Explore the Symbology & Significance of These Divine Winged Messengers" by Arin Murphy-Hiscock:
Interesting Facts:Doves produce a milky substance in their gullets with which to feed their young: to eat it, the chick puts its head inside the adults mouth. The typical call of the dove is a low coo, sometimes characterized as a mournful cry.
Myths, folklore, and cultural associations: Stereotypically, the dove is portrayed as white [I believe the white birds of the pigeon family are actually homing pigeons] and gentle, sweet and loving. The dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit in Christian iconography. Some iconographers show Mary being blessed by a dove at the moment of Annunciation, and Jesus was blessed by the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove at his baptism. The dove is said to be so pure that it is the one form into which Satan cannot transform himself. Doves and pigeons were the only birds suitable for sacrifice by the Hebrews, as stated in Leviticus 1:14. The dove appears as a symbol of purity on the Holy Grail in Malory's Morte d'Arthur. In Muslim lore, a dove murmured the words of God into the ear of Muhammad.
Today the dove is a symbol of peace, often portrayed with an olive branch in its mouth. This iconography is taken from the story of Noah releasing the bird to bring back proof that there was land again somewhere and that the floodwaters were receding. The dove is also seen as representing love; it was a symbol of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, and of Venus, her Roman counterpart. Lovers are said to "bill and coo" like doves. The dove is a monogamous bird, which may be the source of its connection with romantic and eternal love.
In Salvic folklore, doves were believed to conduct the souls of the dead to heaven. For the Celts, the mournful call of a dove meant the peaceful passing of someone.
Omens and divinatory meaning: Doves call you to regain your serenity. Do you feel off balance, or out of step with the world? Are you harried or frazzled? The dove reminds you to take a deep breath and release all your tension and stress.
The dove also urges you to look at your relationships with your partner(s), romantic, work related, or otherwise. Are you in harmony with them? Is there friction? Reach out and smooth over any rough spots. Seeing a dove may be an omen of a new relationship, or a shift in an existing one.
Doves are also associated with purity and innocence. Do you feel as if life has jaded you? Try to recapture a sense of innocence, of wonder and love for the world around you. Operating constantly with a cynical worldview is exhausting. In a situation that is frustrating or upsetting to you, a dove may be encouraging you to wipe the slate clean and start again.
As a symbol of the Holy Spirit, the dove is associated with the mystical fifth element of spirit. Let your sighting of a dove remind you to reconnect with the spiritual aspect of your life; accept it as a blessing.
Associated energies: Peace, love, blessing, patience, grace, hope, marital happiness, purity
Associated Seasons: Year round
Element associations: Air, water, earth
Color associations: White, ivory, buff, brown, grey
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Crystal Cathedral Update
On August 26, 2007 I posted photos of the Crystal Cathedral here, and wrote about my history with and multiple (somewhat remote) connections with the place, from my Dad's involvement with selling the founder a painting, to living next door in my 6th grade year, to later having a Supervisor in the late 1970's, Pat Powell, who lived across the street and attended it (her daughter was involved in the annual "Glory of Christmas" events), to having an administrator of another job, Jan Halverson, leave to join the fund raising efforts there in the early 2000's, ending with my visit there with my work colleague, Tanya Cao. Subsequent to that posting, another former work colleague, Roger Hiles, having seen my post, noted that the architect responsible for the "Tower of Hope", Richard Neutra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Neutra , was the father of the architect for the building in which we'd worked together at the Huntington Beach Public Library, Dion Neutra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dion_Neutra .So this is the update. My newest, equally remote, but still interesting connection with the Crystal Cathedral Ministries at 12141 Lewis Street in Garden Grove, CA (92840) http://www.crystalcathedral.org/ is that the University I work for, Chapman University in Orange, CA http://www.chapman.edu/ , nearly purchased it when it went bankrupt last year. They were out-bid, however, by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange http://www.rcbo.org/ who has this to say about their new purchase:
"Our goal is to preserve an already cherished religious landmark and to enhance its worship use for Orange County Catholics and all people of faith who may be inspired by this wonderful, now Catholic, Cathedral,"
- Bishop Tod D. Brown
A couple of Sunday's ago Don and I visited the cathedral. I took these photos with my 85 mm lens and hope to return for some wide angle shots and a listen to this monstrous pipe organ that Wikipedia says is one of the largest in the world. The gentleman we bumped into there, a church elder by the looks of him, said the Crystal Cathedral Ministries will be staying there for three years before they move up the street to the church that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange included in their payment for the grounds. He said they are doing better financially which lead Don to think there might be some chance of their keeping the cathedral. Time will tell.
The Crystal Cathedral Ministries had it's origin in 1955 when Reverend Robert Schuller (Protestant), began the "Garden Grove Community Church" on a piece of property that used to be a drive in. Robert Schuller became well known after building the first church that he called "The Tower of Hope", with his televised "Hour of Power" that began in 1970. His dream of the "Crystal Cathedral" materialized in 1981 and seats 2,736 people. When Reverend Schuller retired his children managed the Ministry, until they fell into bankruptcy in October 2010 (their total debt was said to be 55 million). They sold the Cathedral and grounds to the Orange County Catholic Diocese for $57.5 million. There is more information at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Cathedral , where the dates and numbers in this paragraph came from.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
|This cockatoo has found a friend.
|I'm guessing the cockatoo belongs to the gentleman.
|The acrylic dinette chair has wheels.
|Isn't this a pretty tea set???
|I especially like the sugar bowl.
|Here's the set from the other side of the shelf, for a better look at the tea pot.
I snapped a couple of quick shots of the sweet cockatoo seen here on it's new friend's arm, found a great pair of two dollar shoes in the shop, and headed back. I hadn't intended to visit the antique shop this time but the acrylic dinette chairs caught my eye. I'm pretty sure the tag said they were $45.00 for the set, as was this nearby tea set, which I would have missed had the shop not been playing a Jim Croce album which bade me linger--at least until the current song (something about "one less set of footsteps at your door") had finished.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Well, it's been awhile since I have posted anything. I've been focused on Flickr--uploading images and occasionally identifying them.
Anyway, today I thought I'd come back and pay a visit here instead. Don and I went to Dana Point yesterday in hopes of seeing the promissed Polynisian (sp?) canoes. I think 7 of them were expected to arrive and stay the night. I guess we were too early, so we took a few shots from the bluff above and West of the harbor.
It was great to get a little excersize, enjoy the sun and ocean breezes.
Anyway, today I thought I'd come back and pay a visit here instead. Don and I went to Dana Point yesterday in hopes of seeing the promissed Polynisian (sp?) canoes. I think 7 of them were expected to arrive and stay the night. I guess we were too early, so we took a few shots from the bluff above and West of the harbor.
It was great to get a little excersize, enjoy the sun and ocean breezes.
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As each side positions itself in the economic debate, pity the voters. They are being overwhelmed by much hot air and many dubious assertions.
Labor has produced a glossy document — paid for by the ALP — claiming that "opposition policies would put the budget $9 billion into the red in 2012-13". Given that the government does not know what the Coalition's proposed savings are, or the configuration of its promises, this number is meaningless.
The Coalition is up to the same game. After earlier suggesting the government could not deliver a surplus and now being faced with the certainty that it will produce one, it is already suggesting this surplus will not be "real".
Finance spokesman Andrew Robb said on Friday that budget figures showed "there is every reason to treat this surplus, even if it ever does get delivered, as thoroughly dodgy and manufactured". He went on to examine various "accounting tricks" and other stratagems. But whether the surplus is in fact "dodgy" can only be judged when we have the whole picture.
Each side is seeking to create a negative story line against which its opponent is judged.
Labor is trying to undermine Tony Abbott's attempt to show he has got a handle on being economically responsible. The opposition won't have its costings out until much closer to the election, so the government has scope to float out any old figure. It hopes that by the time funding details do come, people won't believe them because they will have become convinced of Abbott's profligacy.
The Coalition's challenge is harder. Budget night headlines will scream "surplus" and the government will get marks for keeping its promise. But the opposition wants the voters to start suspicious, so they are as receptive as possible when it begins into its demolition job.
In their attempts at conditioning the public mood ahead of the hard evidence, both sides prefer to blather on about black holes than worry much about facts and fine print.
Follow the National Times on Twitter: @NationalTimesAU

subset: commoncrawl


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Teachers Adapting to Common Core Standards in Classroom
ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. - Arroyo Grande High School chemistry teacher Kelsey Gorter is all about challenging her students.
Twice a year, she gives her students projects that force them to come up with solutions to real-world problems. This year, her students will have to design hand warmers.
"They're going to go into the chemistry lab, they are going to collect data with different types of compounds that produce heat when they're mixed, and they're going to have to look at a cost analysis," said Gorter. "It'll be something that's real-world."
It's the kind of teaching that goes in line with the Common Core philosophy for K-12 students, which emphasizes critical thinking and problem solving. Teachers in the Lucia Mar Unified School District have been re-trained to teach the new way, but for Gorter the new way wasn't that difficult to pick up.
"I think if you're doing your job, you're already doing it," said Gorter.
School districts across the state are learning Common Core on the fly and trying to get their curriculum in order for what's to come.
"I think the benefits are going to be profound for students," said Hillery Dixson, Coordinator of Assessment for the Lucia Mar School District. "Mostly the Common Core is aimed at getting kids college and career ready upon graduation."
The philosophy is already being implemented in the classroom, but school districts are still in the process of learning what new textbooks they'll use. Also, computers and tablet technology are a big part of the Common Core. New testing will be computer-based, and schools still need to do a trial run of those tests before using them next year.
"It's an exciting time to be a teacher, and I think these changes are going to be good for our students," said Gorter.


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Home > Events and News > Research In the News > It All Starts Here: The Politics of Planning in a Small Town
RJ Dourneyis the president of Hearthstone Associates, the New England franchisee of Let's Dish! and Cosi. He
is vice chair of the Hopkinton Planning Board. Rick Holmesis the editor of the editorial page of the MetroWest Daily News. Chuck Josephis a principal of Re/Max Executive Realty in Hopkinton and five other MetroWest towns. A former history teacher in Hopkinton, he has served on a number of town committees. Muriel Krameris the chair of the Hopkinton Board of Selectmen. She has also served as the chair of the Master Plan Update Committee and a member of the Land Use Study Committee. Elaine Lazarusis the planning director of Hopkinton. Frederick MerrillAICP is a principal of Sasaki Associates in Watertown, Massachusetts, and directed the East Hopkinton Master Plan. Elizabeth PadjenFAIA is the editor of ArchitectureBoston. Finley Perryis president of FH Perry Builder in Hopkinton. Most recently the chair of the town's Land Use Study Committee, he has also served on the Conservation Commission and Board of Assessors. He is a director of the National Association of Home Builders and past president of Home Builders of Massachusetts. Christina (Tina) Rosan PhD is a post-doctoral fellow in the depar tment of urban studies and planning at MIT, and co-author with Lawrence Susskind of Land Use Planning in the Doldrums: Growth Management in Massachusetts' I-495 Region(Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, September 2007).
Elizabeth Padjen: The architect James Barker, now president of Clemson University and the former director of the Center for Small Town Research at Mississippi State, once observed that many American small towns have what he called "covenants" — short tag lines that represent a town's self-image, like "Turnip Capital of the World." Very often these covenants have no relationship to the present reality of the town. For example,
Danvers, Massachusetts, calls itself "Oniontown"; it was apparently the world's largest producer of the "Danvers Onion" in the 19th century, but now it's known more for its regional shopping centers and strip malls than for its farms. Does Hopkinton have its own covenant? And is there a disconnect between the idea of Hopkinton and its reality?
Finley Perry: The official tag line is "It all starts here," because of the Boston Marathon. But the reality is that almost nothing starts there.
Muriel Kramer: Small town with rural character — that's how people see the town and what they value. Hopkinton doesn't necessarily see itself very clearly as the growing community it really is.
Elizabeth Padjen: Chuck, you're in real estate, so you talk to people who are looking for houses in town. What attracts them?
Chuck Joseph: That image of a small town with rural character — and great schools. But we didn't always have great schools, and the correlation between the increase in the quality of the schools and the growth in the town is not happenstance. Make no mistake, Hopkinton would still be a very rural town if not for the Interstate Highway System: Route 495 and the Mass Pike put us on the map. In my business, the magic number is the 45-to-50- minute commute. And Hopkinton falls right on that edge, both for Boston and for Worcester.
Fred Merrill: As an outside observer who works in communities like Hopkinton across the state and around the country, I see a split between people who have been in Hopkinton a long time and want to hang on to the small-town character and the agricultural legacy, and some of the newer folks who have only seen it as a bedroom community. They have different images of the town and that creates an interesting tension between these two groups that gets played out in land-use planning strategies.
Elaine Lazarus: People have different set points along this continuum, depending on when they arrived. That set point establishes their view of the town. And a lot of people have arrived in the last 10 years.
Chuck Joseph: We did a study in 2002 that showed that over 50 percent of the people currently in Hopkinton had moved there in the previous five years. That was our boom period.
Elizabeth Padjen: In fact, the report that Tina co-authored indicates that between 1990 and 2000, the communities along the Route 495 beltway grew twice as fast as the greater Boston region as a whole.
Finley Perry: And as a result, the whole battlefield of land use, planning, and development has moved from the inner suburbs and the Route 128 area out to 495.
Elizabeth Padjen: I compiled a list of local news stories that provides a good snapshot of where Hopkinton stands. The biggest story is the proposal for the Weston Nurseries site: Legacy Farms, which would include over 900 housing units and 450,000 square feet of commercial space on 700-plus acres. The whole parcel represents about five percent of the town's total land area. There is Chuck Joseph's proposal for Hopkinton Square: 100,000 square feet of retail and office development. Another proposal, Hopkinton Village Center, would include 42,000 square feet of retail, office, and condos. The Toll Brothers development, Hopkinton Highlands, is close to completion. One proposal that was recently withdrawn would have provided 1,500 units of over-55 housing on 200 acres. At the same time, the town is facing financial challenges — a $2 million shortfall in town revenues. There's an $8 million proposal to expand the library. The neighboring town of Ashland is concerned about its water sources and wants to protect part of the Weston Nurseries site. You have your own infrastructure issues. People complain about traffic. All these things indicate a lot of potential stress and a lot of potential change in a town that considers itself a rural community.
Muriel Kramer: I don't think that sets us apart from other towns working with the same issues. The deficit in expected revenues and expected income is not unusual compared to what every town in Massachusetts is facing. In some ways, we're better positioned because historically we tend not to get as much state aid, so we are not hurt as much when the state adjusts its aid formulas downward.
Tina Rosan: I think you're right about that. But the big issue we found in the course of interviewing local planners and officials for our study was that, although these communities really do share similar problems, they're each struggling with them on their own, each reinventing the wheel.
Fred Merrill: We're what is called a "home-rule state," so each community has its own land-use, planning, and zoning controls. In New England, home rule is jealously guarded, so we do end up reinventing the wheel a lot. In other parts of the country, towns deal with a lot of these same issues — transportation, water, sewer, education — but they tend to work within a regional or sub-regional context. They can share a larger base, either geographic or socioeconomic. It makes a lot of sense because every town doesn't need to have its own fire department, for example, or its own police department. Regionalization of schools can make sense. We don't have any kind of regional planning at all in Massachusetts, which is unfortunate.
Elizabeth Padjen: Hopkinton, like many towns in this region, has a town-meeting form of government and relies on volunteer boards. Would anyone really design such a political system if the goals were growth and efficient land-use allocation?
Rick Holmes: One advantage of this system is that it can mean that a lot of people get involved in creating the future for a town. As someone who's observed these issues for 20 years, I think Hopkinton is actually a very good example of a town that has grappled with growth issues pretty well through the volunteer form of government. When I arrived in the mid-'80s, Hopkinton was already talking about preserving its rural character. In fact, it was doing more than just talking — it was doing studies and appointing committees and saying, "What is rural character? Can we define it?" "Well, it's the stone walls." "So, can we protect the stone walls?" Even in the mid-'80s, it was the fastest-growing town in eastern Massachusetts by some measures. But the people in Hopkinton were dealing with this head-on, rather than sitting back and complaining about some county government that was messing things up.
Elizabeth Padjen: But is it a problem to find people to participate and serve on boards?
Muriel Kramer: It typically is not a problem, although sometimes it's a little harder to encourage people to run for elected office. One of the things that astonishes me and is to our credit is that the schools were turned around principally on volunteer energy. An army of people — parents and others — just came out and created a system of volunteerism that not only raised a lot of money but also created programs and then supported those programs. What I see as the challenge is to be able to focus that same energy on land planning. It's easier when you're talking about excellence in schools; folks can easily understand and rally around that goal. The challenge we have in land planning is with visioning, that ability to see how all the pieces can work together — for example, how economic development can work with conservation and preservation. It can be hard to get people to imagine how all those pieces, that might seem divergent, might work toward a unified whole.
RJ Dourney: Just because you have a resource available doesn't necessarily mean that it is being used efficiently. We have some great people in town, smart people whom we could never afford to hire as consultants. There are many folks who volunteer a lot. But the challenge over the next three to five years will be to engage more of the new folks who have moved into town over the last 10 years — to take advantage of them as a resource.
Rick Holmes: In New England, decisions are made by the people who show up for meetings. That's not necessarily true in other places, where they hire folks to make the decisions. The problem is you can have a real gap between the people who come to meetings and arrive at a consensus and the people who don't. It's still a minority of folks who actually show up.
Tina Rosan: The bigger problem, beyond volunteerism, is the next step — implementation. In all the communities we studied, people spend hours at meetings putting together master plans. But it often turns out that, in order to get everybody's opinion represented in the master plan, it ends up being pretty vague and doesn't hold up when you need a two-thirds majority at Town Meeting. Massachusetts towns also tend to lack consistency between zoning and master planning — new zoning is rarely adopted to reflect a master plan. Even the best volunteers can't fix that, because that's really a political problem.
Finley Perry: I'm always amazed by how much actually does get done. In a democracy, it's very easy to stop something but it's hard to get something done. When you add a two-thirds vote on top of that, it just becomes that much more difficult.
Chuck Joseph: Hopkinton is a little different from some of the neighboring towns — for a very hot Town Meeting, we might pull 1,800 people; other towns might get 250. People who have been engaged in the community tend to recruit the next generation. The high-school civics classes have to go to town meetings — there's a lot to be said for that. Local-access cable television provides terrific coverage of public meetings. But right now, many of us who've been doing this for 20 years or so are very concerned: the 30-to-45-year-old age group is not stepping up to the volunteer plate. I don't know if that's a generational difference. When we got involved, we all had kids and we were all too busy, but we just did it. It's not happening in the same way right now.
Tina Rosan: There is another possible explanation. Maybe those people who've moved into Hopkinton for the good schools and the moderately priced homes really don't care if they live in Hopkinton or the next town over, as long as they can get to Boston in 40 minutes. And maybe they're not there for the long haul.
Elizabeth Padjen: How much do the town's fiscal challenges drive the growth debate? Are people willing to give up some of the rural character that they hold so dear in order to get more of a commercial tax base that might offset rising property taxes?Muriel Kramer: I think people are aware that they have decisions to make. But the Legacy Farms opportunity offers a new way of thinking about growth. We all at this table have our different focuses and advocacy positions, but we all have been closely engaged in and energized by the process for planning the future of the Weston Nurseries site. We understand that it's what we have to do in order to stay vibrant and economically sound. I'm not sure that the community understands how growth can be done differently and how it can work to our advantage. Their taxes have gone up and there are stresses. Some people see growth only as the cause of all that pressure and discomfort — all those schools we had to build.
Fred Merrill: That's what's so amazing about having this large piece of land available. It's huge by eastern Massachusetts standards — 728 acres. And it can be a showcase for large-scale land-planning that addresses all these issues through smart-growth strategies, that demonstrates how growth can be fiscally, environmentally, and socioeconomically positive. In a region where a 50-acre development is considered big, this is off the charts.
Rick Holmes: And that's part of what makes it scary to people. There are still a lot of people out there — I would guess between 40 and 60 percent of the town — whose first choice would be to turn back the clock. Their second choice would be to stop the clock and change nothing from here on out. Their third choice is to do it as
slowly as possible, at the greatest possible expense to the developer.
Elaine Lazarus: As the town's only professional planner, sometimes I feel overwhelmed, not because of the work, but because of the difficulty in translating what everyone feels, both positive and negative, into a plan. People are willing to have more development for economic reasons, but they also want high quality from it. And the planning professionals who try to implement what the town wants need political cover as they try
to listen and translate what they're hearing.
RJ Dourney: Rick was right when he said 40 to 60 percent of the people in town would either want to roll back the clock or stop time right now. But that also means that 40 to 60 percent want to move the town forward. Those are diametrically opposed views of what to do in the same situation, and that's what Elaine is contending with. On the one hand, you have the folks who remember riding snowmobiles through town and complain that the police won't let them do that anymore. And on the other are the people who want to know why they can't have a Bertucci's and a Whole Foods downtown.
Muriel Kramer: The challenge is to have a conversation between those two. I believe that there's a way to develop Legacy Farms so it has some of the best from both sides of that dynamic. But does everybody understand that no one is going to get everything they want? That's the piece that worries me.
Chuck Joseph: One of the things you cannot underestimate is the level of schizophrenia within individuals in a community. Every survey that's been done shows the same response: "We need non-residential tax revenue." But that's quickly followed by the don't-wants: "We don't want big-box stores. We don't want chains. We don't want industrial." It's very hard for communities to determine their margin of tolerance — finding the balance that is enough to keep property taxes reasonable without losing things that are important to them.
Rick Holmes: There was a proposal to rezone from residential to commercial for exactly that purpose. It went through the committee process, and everybody who was at the final meeting said, "Yes, we've got to do this." Then it went to Town Meeting and it died.
RJ Dourney: That is why one of the key issues that needs to be addressed in Hopkinton over the next few years is the leadership that exists within the community. There are people representing different points of view who are considered by their constituents to be voices of reason. Those voices have to be willing to reel their own constituents in. They have to work out the compromises and talk to their constituents. And in so doing, we create reason. And with enough reasonable voices, people will say, "You know what? I am going to listen to the other side. It doesn't have to be only my way or the highway."
Fred Merrill: That's what the East Hopkinton master plan strategy was all about: trying to strike that balance of development and conservation with mixed-use development that would be fiscally positive and still provide meaningful open space.
Elizabeth Padjen: What was the process that led to that master plan?
Finley Perry: The stone that dropped into our quiet pond was an e-mail in February 2005 announcing the public offering of the Weston Nurseries property. The town selectmen established a special committee, the Land Use Study Committee, to look at the town's rights and how we might best position the town in the sale and development process. When it became clear by the winter of 2006 that a sale wasn't going to happen quickly, we decided to hire a professional planner. Elaine wisely urged us to look beyond the Weston property at all of East Hopkinton, where there are several parcels that might similarly be targeted for sale and development. Concurrently, MAPC [Metropolitan Area Planning Council] did a regional study, which Fred and his colleagues at Sasaki were able to take advantage of, and a team of students from MIT conducted another study. Interestingly, they all came to similar conclusions. Sasaki's master plan was finished in spring 2007 at the same time as the sale of the property to Roy MacDowell's firm, Boulder Capital.
Elizabeth Padjen: How close is the master plan to the Legacy Farm plan? How much negotiation is the town facing?
RJ Dourney: First, Sasaki's package was not a defined master plan. It was understood to be a framework for development. I think Boulder Capital did the right thing — they took clear cues from the community and said that they would use the Sasaki document as a road map. Are there interpretations? Absolutely. Make no mistake, they will do what is financially necessary, because on the back end of all this, they're a business. Along the way, we have the Zoning Advisory Committee, which is a subcommittee of the Planning Board, that is shepherding this process and working with Boulder. Eventually, we hope to take something to Town Meeting that might not be exactly what anybody wanted, but is very much in line with the vision that we've created.
Elizabeth Padjen: And ultimately, in terms of process, what exactly will be taken to Town Meeting?
Muriel Kramer: The zoning certainly will be. The master plan that will be attached to that zoning is a separate product of the planning board, through a public-hearing process.
RJ Dourney: We wrestled with this process, which could be overwhelming. The town has to trust that the planning board will make sure that the master plan for Legacy Farms matches the community's intentions. But the key is the Town Meeting vote on the zoning change. Because without any zoning changes, Roy MacDowell could build whatever he wants to build.
Finley Perry: This was the real purpose behind the Land Use Study Committee once we realized the town couldn't buy the property. What could we do to control it? The first goal was to try to let the development community know what kind of a buyer we were going to accept. And I think we were successful in getting the right buyer. The second was to communicate what we wanted the buyer to build. Now we're going through the messier process of getting from a general concept to a specific plan.
Muriel Kramer: I think we all have confidence in the intellectual process. My concern still rests with that emotional process, to actually trigger the vote and make it happen. That's where a lot of work still has to happen. That's our biggest challenge.
Fred Merrill: If you use the planning process as a deliberate educational process, which I think the town has done really well, you build trust as well as new ways of seeing things. That can facilitate a more meaningful dialogue. Some people will never change their minds, of course, but a lot of people will.
Elizabeth Padjen: Thinking about your experience in other communities, Fred, do you see any sticking points here that are different from sticking points in other towns?
Fred Merrill: I think the people in Hopkinton are a lot more engaged. There's a lot more passion and a lot of people who really care, which is great. But the issues really aren't any different: it's development versus non-development, and the fiscal challenges. Everybody has those. There are the growth and no-growth constituencies. But here there's an opportunity to achieve some of the larger community goals around tax-base issues and commercial development, and do it in a new way, a way that can be designed to look different and meet the quality issues that the town is concerned about, because the site is large enough to
support first-class work.
Elaine Lazarus: I think the level of emotion makes it all the more important that people are proud of the final outcome. Growth can have a negative connotation — for all the discussions about "smart growth," I prefer to think of it as "smart change." Change is hard for people, so to whatever extent it can be made easier,
more gentle, more inclusive, people can come to understand and trust everyone who's working on it.
Finley Perry: What's going to make this thing work is whether we can successfully engage with one another in a way that allows us to make intellectual tradeoffs, rather than emotional tradeoffs.
Rick Holmes: You can have a lot of smart, dedicated people coming together in the middle, negotiating tradeoffs, and coming up with a good plan. But Hopkinton is a small town, and like small towns anywhere, personalities get involved — friendships, economic interests, loyalties. Sometimes, just when you've got all the pieces moving together and you think something's going to happen, someone will come out of left field — someone who is really mad at somebody else who happens to be in favor of this thing, so he's against it. That can muddy the water, and it's happened over and over again in Hopkinton.
Tina Rosan: You're not going to get many more 700-acre opportunities, so at some point, you have to look over to your neighbors, and say, "Maybe we don't all need to have commercial and office development. Maybe we could share some revenue." That seems to be the case in other places I've studied, where they have started doing revenue tax sharing across municipal lines. Right now, it seems as if each one of these communities around 495 has to have its own portfolio of residential, office, and commercial, and it seems really unsustainable.
RJ Dourney: Where have you seen that work?
Tina Rosan: Denver is one example. The cities of Denver and Aurora are sharing revenue on the $1.5 billion High Point project. One key difference in many other states is the way that schools are financed, which affects planning choices. Here, towns have zoned bigger lots in part to keep out families who will drain fiscal resources.
Rick Holmes: So our tax policy drives bad land-use decisions.
Tina Rosan: The school systems in Oregon and Colorado, for example, depend much more on state financing. In other states, communities are not as afraid of residential development bringing in more school-aged children and increasing property taxes.
RJ Dourney: Are you familiar with Vermont's process for revenuesharing? It's affectionately referred to as the "Robin Hood tax," whereby the more affluent communities have a higher property tax rate than the poorer communities. So one town might pay $20,000 a year in taxes for the average house, most of which revenue goes to the next town, which is a poorer community where taxpayers pay less. Certainly the poor communities benefit. But you have towns talking about secession. It doesn't work. But the notion of banding together to buy together makes economic sense.
Chuck Joseph: I agree that the Vermont system is too radical to overlay here. But that doesn't mean the larger idea isn't worth discussing. You could probably succeed with talking about four small-town fire departments sharing a ladder truck. You can start by taking baby steps, getting people used to the idea that this regionalization thing is not necessarily bad, and picking your early battles carefully to make sure they're successful. The political reality is that it's sometimes a monumental task to move long-held attitudes.
Tina Rosan: The other way is to push it down from the state level by mandating certain requirements.
Rick Holmes: Or to change the incentives. If the state changed its tax policy so that we weren't as dependent on the property tax to fund the schools, you would change the housing equation. It's simple: towns don't want more residential subdivisions because they don't want to pay for the schools for those families. All of that comes from the state tax policy.
Elizabeth Padjen: Here is a quotation from Tina's study: "Because increases in state aid have not kept pace with increasing costs, all the communities in this study area have increasingly relied on property taxes to fund local services. When adjusted for inflation between 1988 and 2005, property taxes paid by local residents in the case-study communities increased by between 35 and 123 percent." Of course, property values have increased, too, in that time, but if your plan is to stay put for the long haul, the tax bill matters more than the assessment.
Rick Holmes: We haven't talked about what's happened to housing prices in Hopkinton over the last 10 years. Most of us can't afford to live in Hopkinton any more. People who rent in Hopkinton can't afford to buy houses there. So the question is whether Hopkinton can create affordable-housing opportunities.
Elizabeth Padjen: What is the affordable-housing percentage in town?
Elaine Lazarus: It's 3.1 percent. We adopted an inclusionary housing bylaw this year, so we hope that percentage will go up over time.
Elizabeth Padjen: Do you know what the median house value is?
Chuck Joseph: It's just under $500,000. And it's interesting to note that Boulder currently is not proposing any more than 40 or 50 single-family homes for Legacy Farms. They're virtually all condominium cluster homes.
Muriel Kramer: There was some discussion in town about rental solutions to tackle the affordable-housing problem, but there wasn't a lot of receptivity. People would look at it, they'd poke a stick at it, they'd contemplate how it could be beneficial. But they didn't really want to take the chance on rental units.
Chuck Joseph: We do have a very progressive piece of workforcehousing zoning that nobody's ever taken advantage of. It provides for small houses on quarter-acre lots. But you can't build it without a public sewer or a treatment plant, and we have no public sewer. I would love to be able to go in and build some workforce housing, but I haven't found a way to make it work economically. But we could do some great things downtown, if some things got rezoned — even if it was just residential rezoning and not commercial.
RJ Dourney: Conceptually, everybody likes the idea of affordable housing: my first house is here, the fireman can live here, the rich guy down the street can live here. But the reality is that not everybody's comfortable with the notion of an apartment or condo complex right behind them.
Finley Perry: And that brings us to 40B [a state law allowing developers to bypass local zoning if 25 percent of their units are designated "affordable" in a town with a housing stock that is less than 10 percent affordable]. But 40B is intellectually wrong. It turns the political discussion from housing affordability to gaming the system. We tend to think only in terms of how we're going to comply with its requirements. Or how we are going to
dodge the possibility that 40B developers will come in and pretty much do what they want. That's not really solving the problem. There are lots of places in Hopkinton that are in fact affordable, but they're not counted in the affordable inventory. The goal should not be compliance with 40B, but creating a diverse housing stock that achieves the kinds of goals it is supposed to represent.
Chuck Joseph: I think that's a political question. Because right now, it still comes back to families with children and the perception that we're going to have to build more schools. That may change, in which case the whole conversation may change. Some towns have come to a point of maturation where school population is pretty stable. Our school population is actually going down now.
Rick Holmes: Looking at the political lay of the land over the next year, and assuming that you will go to Town Meeting with a new zoning bylaw for Legacy Farms, do you see alternatives? Is there an "or else" scenario that you'll put before the town? That's where 40B comes in — it's often the "or else."
RJ Dourney: There is an "or else." It's an enormous "or else." It's called "by-right use." Boulder can build 350 or so single-family houses if it wants to. Or, say, 200 single-family houses in a 40B development.
Chuck Joseph: Or any combination thereof. That's the sword of Damocles hanging over Town Meeting. Whether or not it gets clearly articulated is another issue.
Rick Holmes: Do you guys play on that as you're promoting the alternative? Or does that get to be fear-mongering?
Elaine Lazarus: I don't think we should be afraid of 40B.
RJ Dourney: Maybe not 40B, but I do think people need to be aware of by-right use of that land. I think the worse-case scenario for most people would be 350 single-family homes on acre-anda- half lots sprawled all over that beautiful landscape.
Muriel Kramer: Let me play devil's advocate, though. That scenario is what people understand. It's where they live. They choose sprawl for themselves and their families. It's what people are comfortable with.
RJ Dourney: But sprawl in this region will only get worse unless we change our mindset. Hopkinton benefited from its location — companies like EMC looked at the intersection of 495 and the Mass Pike and said, bingo. And they could find all their $25,000- to-$50,000-a-year employees in a region where they could all afford to live. Now, a lot of people can't afford to live anywhere east of 495. So where are they moving? They're moving out beyond Hopkinton to points west. EMC has been a great corporate citizen — it's not intrusive and it's been very
supportive of town organizations and programs. But the fact is that a lot of its employees can't afford to live here anymore.
Finley Perry: And that's the conundrum for a lot of towns in this region: they all want to have an EMC in town, but they don't want the employees to live there, because of the burden on the school systems. But if they live someplace else, they create traffic nightmares on 495.
Muriel Kramer: So we need to be able to answer how having the employees living here with their families works for us, and how we can manage the traffic. I frankly don't know how to answer that question when it's asked of me. Some choices affect some people adversely, and I think we haven't necessarily acknowledged that sufficiently. We need to have more conversations that start, "You're right. But this community really needs this. How do we make it work?" I don't know what those answers are, but we have to hear people and engage them, not just listen to them and then show them the door. We have to answer some of these challenges. Their problems have to be our problems, too.
RJ Dourney: It's a question of leadership. We have a responsibility to step up to our constituents and say, "Look, stop throwing marbles at the feet of this. You may not like it, but that doesn't mean that it's bad for the community. We're going to do what's morally and ethically right. We're going to make integrity-based decisions." As leaders, we've got to be able to say that. Sometimes you've got to tell people what they don't want to hear.


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|View single post by Samurai Appliance Repair Man
|Posted: Sun Dec 10th, 2006 06:28 pm
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Martin (film))
Martin may refer to:
In Europe[edit]
- Martin, Croatia, a village in Slavonia
- Martin, Hampshire
- Martin, Lincolnshire
- Martin near Horncastle, Lincolnshire
- Martin Hussingtree, Worcestershire
- Martin Mere, a lake in Lancashire
- WWT Martin Mere, a wetland nature reserve that includes the lake and surrounding areas
- Martin Mill, Kent
- Martin, Kent
- Martín, a tributary of the Ebro river
- Martín del Río, a town in Aragón, Spain
- Martin (Val Poschiavo), a town in Val Poschiavo
in North America[edit]
- Martin Islands, Nunavut
- Martin, Saint-Jean-du-Sud, Haiti, a village in the Sud Department of Haiti
United States
- Martin, Florida
- Martin, Georgia
- Martin, Indiana
- Martin, Kentucky
- Martin, Louisiana
- Martin, Michigan
- Martin, Nebraska
- Martin, North Dakota
- Martin, Ohio
- Martin, South Carolina
- Martin, South Dakota
- Martin, Tennessee
- Martin, Washington
- Martin, West Virginia
See also
In the Southern hemisphere[edit]
- Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land
- Point Martin, South Orkney Islands
- Port Martin, Adelie Land
- FitzMartin, mediaeval English dynasty, later called Martin
Fictional Martins[edit]
First name[edit]
- Martin, also known as Martin the Warrior, a fictional character from Redwall
- Martin (Candide), from the 1759 novel Candide by Voltaire
- Martin Chuzzlewit, from the novel by Charles Dickens
- Martin Crane, from the American situation comedy Frasier
- Martin Crowe (Emmerdale), from the English soap opera Emmerdale
- Martín Fierro, Argentinian gaucho in the epic of the same name
- Martin Fowler (EastEnders), from the English soap opera Eastenders
- Martin Harris (disambiguation), multiple people
- Martin Mystery, title character from the French-Canadian animated TV program of the same name
- Martin Payne, title character from the American situation comedy Martin (TV series)
- Martin Prince, from the American animated television program The Simpsons
- Martin A. Ryerson (1856-1932), American businessman, philanthropist.
- Uncle Martin, title character from the American situation comedy My Favorite Martian
- Captain Martin Walker, the protagonist of "Spec Ops: The Line"
- Martin (1978 film), a 1978 film directed by George A. Romero
- Martin (Konkani film), a 2017 film directed by Jitendra Shikerkar
- Martin (TV series), an American situation comedy (1992-1997) produced by actor and comedian Martin Lawrence
- Martin (play), a 1972 television play written by Alasdair Gray
- Glenn Martin, DDS, a stop-motion animated series on Nick-at-Nite
- Martin Garrix, a Dutch DJ and music producer
- Martin Hoberg Hedegaard, a Danish singer also known by his mononym Martin
- Martin Jensen (DJ), a Danish DJ and music producer
- Martin Jensen (sound engineer), a sound engineer
- Martin Svensson (singer), a Swedish singer also known by his mononym Martin
- "Martin" (Tom Robinson song), a 1978 song by the Tom Robinson Band included on the 1981 album Tom Robinson Band
- "Martin", a song on the album The Art of Falling Apart by Soft Cell
Other uses[edit]
- Martin (bird), several species of birds in the swallow family Hirundinidae
- Martin Field (disambiguation), airports in Nebraska and Washington
- Martin Light, a professional lighting equipment manufacturer
- Aston Martin, an automobile manufacturer
- Martin Randall Travel, a cultural tour operator
- Martin Stadium, outdoor athletic stadium in Pullman, Washington
- C. F. Martin & Company, a guitar company
- Glenn L. Martin Company, aircraft manufacturer, later Martin Marietta and finally merged into Lockheed Martin
- Masayuki Suzuki (singer), a Japanese singer nicknamed "Martin"
- Martin Band Instrument Company, a musical instrument manufacturer in Elkhart, Indiana
- Martin-Baker, manufacturer of airline safety equipment
- Martin's Axiom, a mathematical axiom independent of the usual axioms of set theory
Other forms and similar names[edit]
- Marcin
- Marten, one of several species of carnivorous mammal
- Martian
- Martin (name)
- Martine (disambiguation)
- Marton (disambiguation)
- Martyn (surname), one of the fourteen Tribes of Galway, Ireland
- St. Martin (disambiguation)
- St. Martin's (disambiguation)
- Martin Company (disambiguation)
|This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Martin.
If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.


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The fashion designer, (and former Spice Girl!), splashes onto the 2012 September issue, covered in nothing but soap suds and a tiara. We're not used to seeing this carefree side of her!
It's really no surprise that Glamour chose to showcase fashion forward celeb and designer Victoria Beckham on the cover of their first ever 'Full-On Fashion' issue.
The 38-year-old fashionista looks better than ever in a slew of revealing looks and spills on her work life, marriage, reinventing herself, and why she'd never say never to having another baby! The pop diva has never looked happier and we couldn't be more thrilled to see her on the cover. Check out the pics here before it hits newsstands on Aug. 7!
Taylor Casey
Glamour ➚
More style related news below:
- Ashley Greene Opts For Neutrals At 'NYLON' Party
- Kate Middleton Looks Classic & Casual For The Olympics
- Katy Perry Shows Off The Right Way To Wear Cutouts
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The Seventh Telling: The Kabbalah of Moeshe Kapan
€ 26,49
Lieferbar innert 2 Wochen
Januar 2002
Beschreibung"The Seventh Telling" is a journey into the Kabbalah, a spiritual discipline hidden within the folds of Jewish history. Stephanie and Sidney have been studying with Moshe Katan, a kabbalist who shared his learning only when he perceived that a kabbalistic intervention might be necessary to save the life of Rivkah, his wife. What has happened to Moshe and Rivkah we do not know, only that their house is now being used for an extraordinary storytelling, a spiritual discipline to share with those willing to risk examining the very core of their beliefs.
PortraitMitchell Chefitz, founder and director of The Havurah of South Florida, teaches at Havurah institutes and rabbinic conferences, and has edited a nationally syndicated weekly Torah Column. He lives in Pinecrest, Florida.
Untertitel: First. Sprache: Englisch.
Verlag: GRIFFIN
Erscheinungsdatum: Januar 2002
Seitenanzahl: 432 Seiten
Format: kartoniert


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ED Magedson – Founder
Ripoff Report
StubHub199 Fremont Street, Floor 4 San Francisco, California USA
StubHub Ebay Deceptive Business Practices at StubHub San Francisco California
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I started listing tickets on Stubhub in November of 2013 I believe. I was immediately impressed with everyone I came in contact with on the phone; although I thought their pricing was high. They charge the seller 15% of the sale and the buyer 10% plus shipping.
In January of 2014 I received my season tickets to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (HLSR). With the tickets in hand like I had done before I listed them for sale on StubHub. If I received and order I shipped the same day or next like I had done before.
I thought I would order some tickets from Ticketmaster for the HLSR, not season tickets, regular. When purchasing the tickets TicketMaster explained that shipment of tickets would be delayed until January 29th 2014. I exceeded the ticket purchasing limit of ten tickets per show per customer.
I have ordered tickets through Ticketmaster on multiple occasions and often exceed the limits and thought it would be no problem. Stubhub has an exponential amount listings on their site of 10 plus quantity so I thought it would be of course no problem.
As the January 29th date got closer I went to my Ticketmaster account to see if there was delivery progress information and noticed they changed the delivery date to February 7th. I was getting nervous that I would not be able to sell the tickets before the HLSR actually started in March so I contacted StubHub about my concerns.
I work at the Better Business Bureau and all our calls are recorded. Thank God. When I called to speak to a StubHub representative about my concerns he told me that I could and should list my tickets for sale even though I did not have them in hand.
This idea was foreign to me. How can I sell tickets I don't have? He assured me to list the tickets. Before I started listing tickets for future delivery I thought I would reach out once more and confirm this. I was advised to list the last possible drop down date available so that replacement tickets could be found. I again told the representative that I went over the ticket limit and was nervous that Ticketmaster would cancel my order. He assured me not to worry.
The representative said that the sellers that have problems were not delivering tickets as promised because they sold the tickets for a higher price and didn't want to honor the agreed sale. He went on to say if Ticketmaster or the venue cancelled the tickets that would be something that would be out the sellers control and it would not be the sellers problem.
I immediately started listing tickets for sale with the future delivery date as far out as I could as advised by StubHub representatives on numerous occasions. I started getting order confirmations via email as I always has stating to upload the etickets on or before the promised delivery date.
February 7th 2014 (The start of an ordeal that I know I have an ulcer over). I login to download my tickets from Ticketmaster. The delivery delay information is still there. I call Ticketmaster to find out when the delay would be lifted. They refer me to the Houston Livestock and Rodeo. I call HLSR and they tell me all my orders are being cancelled due to exceeding the tickets limits. Three phone calls later they agree it is in everyone's best interest to not cancel the season tickets since they are in other people's possession already.
I then call StubHub and am advised if there is a sale that cannot be executed by the seller just report the problem and the reason for failure to deliver. I start the process of informing StubHub and get to the 6th order when I am locked out. My username and passcode are not working.
I call StubHub and they inform me that it is probably something in my cookies or web browser and that I should close the browser down and maybe use a different browser.
I try that and I am still locked out.
I am writing this on 2/13/2014 and haven't slept more than an hour straight since the 7th so my details may be sketchy, but the important facts are here. I call numerous supervisors who tell me that I must talk with their Trust and Safety Department (T&S). They tell me they do not have extentions in that department and I must wait 48 hours for a call.
Meanwhile I am getting email after email saying that my credit card was being charged because of my error. I frantically call numerous times and am told I have to wait, I am asked several times if I can prove it was TicketMaster who cancelled the orders. This infuriates me because I have many more tickets to get rid of and I would have to be insane to cancel orders because of any other reason.
I finally get someone to take my call in T&S and he tells me he is not a supervisor, but he tries to pacify me by telling me that StubHub will always work with me and infers that if it is TM cancelling the orders I have no problem. He emails his supervisor, but of course no response. He assures me that his supervisor will get in at 3:00 on Sunday Feb 9 and he will call me first thing.
I call in at 3:30 and after the customary hour long wait on hold I get Justin Friedman who greets me by saying "You know it's illegal to record conversations without a callers consent" I begin to tell him my nightmare. He tells me of a recording that they have that is not the calls that I have inquired about listing tickets without them in hand. I tell him of the approximate time and phone number they would be coming from and he agrees to call me at 7:00 that evening.
He says that liability was mine. I demand to speak to his supervisor. After pushing all he will give me is a first name of Jason. I tell him I want Jason to call me first thing in the morning on Monday. Of course no call so I call and leave him a message that I have the recordings and I await his call.
That evening I get a generic email fromT&S(no name attached) saying that libility was mine unless I could furnish the recordings. Liars Poker if you will.
I send the recordeings. I have yet to hear back from T@S.
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 02/13/2014 11:24 AM and is a permanent record located here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/stubhub/san-francisco-california-94105/stubhub-ebay-deceptive-business-practices-at-stubhub-san-francisco-california-1123337. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year.
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text:
Postings by My Family
American Bulldog > American Bulldog mix??
American Bulldog > Amer. Bulldog weight?
PLEASE NOTE: Due to the rapid nature of forum postings, it's quite possible our calculation of the number of ensuing forum posts may be off by one or two or more at any given moment.


text:
Book List
PLEASE NOTE: All bidding for the auction currently underway
is happening on our temporary website at
Bidding Information
Lot #
Auction End Date
4/24/2007 10:06:51 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)
Title Information
Title (English)
Letter by R. Jacob Joseph, Chief Rabbi of New York
Title (Hebrew)
כתב מה'ר יעקב יוסף, אב'ד נוי יארק
New York
Publication Date
Collection Information
Independent Item
This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
Description Information
[1] p., 135:127 mm., ink on paper, backed, 8 lines of text in Ashknazic script, signed, dated, and sealed.
Rav Yaakov Yosef b. Dov Joseph, (1840-1902) Chief Rabbi of New York City Rav Yaakov Yosef was [1] born in the town of Krozhe (Karziai) a province of Kovno, Lithuania. As a young teenager he was sent to the Yeshiva in Volozhin under the auspices of Rav Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin, his sharp mind earned him the title of "Rav Yaakov Charif", he later studied under Rav Yisrael Salanter in Kovno. After varies [2] Rabbinical positions throughout Lithuanian in 1883 he was selected to serve as the maggid meisharim (public preacher) for the city of Vilna. Soon after he was appointed a dayan on the prestigious Vilna Beth Din, thereafter it's Chief Rabbi. It was in Vilna that Rav Joseph published his book L'Beit Yaakov (Vilna, 1888) In April of 1888, Rav Joseph reluctantly accepter the call from the Association of American Orthodox Hebrew Congregations (AAOHC) to serve as New York's first Chief Rabbi [3]. Although the AAOHC was limited to New York Cities Lower East Side it was Rav Joseph's hope that he would be able to influence the rest of the city as well with a vibrant Orthodoxy comparable to Easter Europe. Rav Joseph arrived on Saturday July 7, 1888 at the port in Hoboken, NJ were he was greeted by a large crowd of hopeful well-wishers. Refusing to disembark [4] on Shabbos the crowd waited patiently until after sundown. After a short reception at the Meyer's Hotel in Hoboken he was escorted to his new home on 179 Henry Street were a crowd of close to fifty thousand gathered to great him. Two week later an over flowing crowd filled the Beth Hamedrash Hagdol on Norfolk Street spilling over onto the surrounding city streets to hear Chief Rabbi Joseph's inaugural sermon. At first [5] Rav Joseph met with much success, especially in testing shochtim and replacing those who were unqualified and doubled the number of certified shochtim in the New York area. He also was able to implement the visual inspection of the slaughtered animals' lungs, as dictated by halachah, and the use of lead seals (plumba) to identify the kosher animals. An oversight board was established to periodically check the knives used for ritual slaughter. Rav Joseph successfully implemented the same standard for chicken and fowl (an unheard off concept at the time). To facilitate these achievements a one-cent tax per animal was implemented. Advancement in the area of kosher matzah-flower [6] was likewise achieved. The new Chief Rabbi took an active interest in education, making periodic visits to the Etz Chaim Yeshiva [7] to test the older students. Within the first few weeks of his arrival, Rav Joseph established a new Beth Din [8] in New York City. It was the job of the Beth Din to assist the Chief Rabbi with all his endeavors. Due to Rav Joseph's success in "cleaning up" the slaughterhouses of the Lower East Side [9] in February of 1889 he was invited by the prominent Rabbanim of the Upper Westside to the Bloomingdale Rooms in an effort to implement similar procedures for the slaughterhouses of upper Manhattan. Rav Joseph's influence spread in upper Manhattan as halachic authority as well. In November of 1892, the members of Congregation Shaarai Zedek sought to uproot its New York City Cemetery due to nearby construction that was compromising parts of the cemetery and have the bodies re-interred in the Bay Side Cemetery in nearby Queens. Although the members were strongly in favor of the move, when it was discovered that the Chief Rabbi disapproved, the idea was quickly put to rest. Rav Joseph's fame soon spread across the United States. When the newly established [10] Mount Sinai Congregation of Newark, Ohio purchased a former church building to serve as their new synagogue on the day the building was to be dedicated two overlooked crosses were found engraved on the facade of the building. The congregations Rabbi, Rav Browne turned to the New York Chief rabbi for guidance, asking if the building was permissible for use. In accordance with his ruling the ceremony was postponed until the crosses could be removed. In 1892, [11] the Central Rabbinical Conference of Reform Rabbis decided to make bris mila (circumcision) optional for new converts. The Chief Rabbi did everything in his power to fight back in both attacking the Reform movement as well as promoting the importance of a bris mila. The Chief Rabbi also attempted to reverse the decline in the observance of Tznius. Unfortunately, many of the married women were abandoning the religious practice of covering their hair. Rav Joseph tried unsuccessfully to convince the masses the importance of this precept. Although initially very successful, the Chief Rabbinate was not destined to last. Due to an overwhelming majority of Lithuanian born Rabbanim associated with the Chief Rabbinate, in 1889 Jews of Galician and Hungarian decent formed Congregation Sons of Israel and appointed Rav Yehoshua Seigal, as "Chief Rabbi of New York City," creating two rival Kehillos, with each side having its own Chief Rabbi and Kashrus supervision. A further decline in the Chief Rabbi's authority was a direct result of his success. The measures to strengthen kashruth caused an increased in the price for meat, chicken, and matzah, something many were not willing to except. Many local rabbis lost their incomes associated with kashruth supervision as a result of the new policies. Slaughterhouse owners did not take well to their loss of authority while many Jewish housewives complained of the increase in kosher meat prices. [12] These groups united forming the "Hebrew Poultry Butchers Association" to fight back. As such the Chief Rabbi was maligned, assaulted, and attacked on a daily basis both in person and in the socialist, antireligious Jewish media. He was accused of robbing the poor for his personal gain and worse. It did not take long for all of Rav Joseph's "enemies" to join in and attack other areas of his successes in an attempt to reverse them. He was attacked by those who were offended by his attempts to address the issue of the Shabbos desecration. Anti-religious demonstrations were constantly being organized throughout the Lower East Side denigrating the Chief Rabbi's authority. With time, the AAOHC was financially destroyed, a final attempt to get prominent Rabbanim in Europe to rally on the side of the Chief Rabbi did little to influence his attackers. Finally, a bankrupt AAOHC could no longer pay the Rav Joseph's salary. In an effort to maintain the office of the Chief Rabbi the AAOHC reached an agreement with the Hebrew Poultry Butchers Association where they would pay Rav Joseph directly for his kashruth supervision. By the end of 1893, Rav Joseph went from Chief Rabbi to a simple mashgiach at the mercy of the Hebrew Poultry Butchers Association. Eventually they stopped paying him altogether opting for "other kashruth supervision" and refused to renew is contract. Left penniless Rav Joseph was forced from his apartment to a small apartment on 263 Henry Street. Throughout this entire period Rav Joseph always maintained his dignity responding only to the issues never to the attacks. But inwardly the wounds festered. He soon suffered a stroke; at first he began to recover, however, a relapse four years later left him speechless and bedridden for the rest of his life. The city that had welcomed him so enthusiastically with honor and hope abandoned him, ungrateful of all the effort he initiated on its behalf with the exception of few. He soon was all but forgotten. In the [13] last year of his life Rav Joseph regained his speech and with assistance was able to walk. Wanting to express his thank to Heshem he asked that he be allowed to deliver the upcoming Shabbos Shuva Drasha. The upcoming Drasha was widely publicized throughout the city. Shabbos morning in front of an overflowing audience Rav Joseph slowly with assistance ascended the bima (lectern) and began with the words "shteit in Rambam", he then fell silent and moments latter burst into uncontrollable tears. After a few moments he said Du vaist vus es maint tzu fargessin a Rambam far dem illui fun Volozhin and with that he sat down. The drasha had a tremendous impact on the community. They saw that nothing could break the Chief Rabbis spirit, that is, nothing except the inability to recall a Rambam. A few months later on the 24th of Tammuz he passed away. (wow! powerful) Upon his death, the battling congregation members of the AAOCH fought for the honor of having the Chief Rabbi buried in their congregation's cemetary. Finally it was the Beth Hamedrash Hagdol on Norfolk Street that received the honor to burry him in the Congregation's plot in the Union Field Cemetery in Ridgewood, Queens. It was agreed that the congregation would give Rebbitzin Joseph ______ upfront and _____ yearly for the rest of her life. _____ years later congregation stoped paying her. In a final irony [14] Rav Joseph's funeral was marred with violence. As the funeral procession following his bier past the printing plant of R. Hoe and Co. the mostly German workforce angrily hurled stones, hot oil, metal pipes, and garbage at the passing procession below. As the ensuing riot unfolded an anti-Semitic police force of over 200 took to clubbing the attacked rather that the attackers. When the dust settled it found scores of mourners hospitalized or incarcerated while the R. Hoe and Co. received a slap on the wrist. The attack led to what was considered the largest "cleaning of house" for the New York City Police Department initiated by then New York City Mayor Seth Low. The Al-mighty never leaves a debt unpaid, two years [15] later on June 15, 2004 more than 1,300 members of New York City's "Kleindeutschland" (little Germany), which included the majority of the R. Hoe and Co. workforce, boarded the General Slocum steamboat to spend the day at Locust Grove on Long Island Sound. As the steamboat passed East 90th street on the East River it became engulfed into a ball of fire. The boats captain, William Van Schaick, fearing an explosion should he dock the boat, opted to proceed at top speed to North Brother Island a mile head, further fanning the flames with the increased speed. Although it was on the East River with its usual over crowding of small boats, adequately stocked with lifeboats, and a few yard from shore, more that 1,020 people died by the time the boat finally docked. Due to the tragedy within the next few years the entire neighborhood collapsed. The once German neighborhood of 80,000 was reduced to a handful. Ironically, most every schoolchild can easily recount the events of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory (146 people killed), Titanic (1,500 people killed), Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (1,117 people killed), and the Terrorist attack on the World Trade Center (around 2,800 people killed), few can recall the General Slocum fire. May the names of the wicked forever be eradicated. Around 100,000 people attended R. Joseph's funeral one of the largest to date in New York City. He was eulogized by the leading Torah authorities in the United States at the time. Each one, steped forward to defend the late Chief Rabbi's honor, chastising the people of the city for the way he was mistreaded [16]. The Chief Rabbi of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania Rav Moshe Shimon Zivits cried out that Rav Joseph was only honored twice by the people of New York City - once when he arrived and now that he was gone. In the [17] weeks following his funeral countless stories of the Chief Rabbi's greatness started to surface. "He never new what money was" said one of Rav Joseph's piers. "He could of left millions of dollars but he died in absolute poverty because he stuck to his values". Another, "Millions passed through his hand NEVER a dollar did he hold for himself". "He devoted his life and every dollar he earned to his fellow beings. No man was ever a broader philanthropist that Rav Joseph" said one of the member of his Beth Din and illustrated his point with the following story. Once two brothers came before the Chief Rabbi to decide a large monetary case that had already started secular legal proceedings. The brothers were so impressed in the way Rav Joseph settled the case they each insisted on giving the Chief Rabbi $200. When Rav Joseph refused the money saying "I don't want your money I only want to help" the money was given to a member of the Beth Din who said he would convince the Chief Rabbi to take the money. Rav Joseph took the money turned to another member of his Beth Din and said here take the money and divide it between the first eight needy people who apply for assistance. On September 17, 1906, over five thousand people gathered at Union Field Cemetery for the unveiling of Rav Joseph's tombstone. He was eulogized by the leading Rabbinic authorities of New York City among them Rav Hillel Klein, Rav Yosef Eliyahu Fried, Rav Bernard Drachman as well as by his son Rav Rafael. Rebbetzin Joseph [18] an indefatigable worker for over thirty different chartable organizations passed away close to twenty years later. After a large funeral at the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School, established in honor of her late husband, she was laid to rest alongside him. Some of the known members of Rav Joseph's family include his two brothers Rav Chaim (________) and Rav Yehuda Leib (cofounder of the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School). His only son, Rav Rafael, was a prominent Rav and cofounder of the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School. His grandson State Senator Lazarus Joseph campaigned for the Kosher Meat Laws in New York City during the years that he served as the City Comptroller. His Great Grandson Captain Jacob Joseph, a Marine Officer was tragically killed during World War II when his plane was shot down during the battle of Guadalcanal over the Pacific Ocean. His two sons-in-law Dr. S. Robert Shultz (the Chief Rabbi's personal physician) married his daughter Nechama. Mr. Nosson Brody married his daughter Chana (Anna). [1] Rav Joseph's birth year is subject of much dispute. It ranges from 1840-1848, this work's adoption of 1840 is based on the engraving of the Chief Rabbi tombstone. [2] Gidolim Fun Unzirer Ztiet, Yaakov Mark, p. 136-140, Veliuona (Vilion) 1868, Jurbarkas (Yurburg) 1870, and Zagare (Zhagory): Jewish Encyclopedia, page 264 [3] See A Brief History of the Chief Rabbi Position in New York City [4] New York Times, July 9 and 22, 1888: The Semi Weekly Age, (Coshocton, Ohio), July 31 and September 11, 1888: Morning Oregonian (Portland, Oregon) July 9, 1888 [5] Safer Hayovel Shel Agudath Harabanim, p. 144: Hamaayan, Shlomo Katz, editor, Volume XVI, No. 1: Rav Yaakov Yosef, Yated Neman [6] The (New York) Daily News, March 24, 1893. The mist generated from steam power mills was found to be mixing with the flower thus compromising the flower for matzah use. [7] Rabbi Isaac Elchonon Spektor life and letters, Rabbi Dr. Ephraim Shimoff, p. 106. The Etz Chaim Yeshiva founded in 1866 was the forerunner of RIETS. [8] Among the members of his Beth Din over the years were: Rav Aaron Gordon, Rav Yisrael Kaplan, Rav Hillel Klien, Rav Hersh Lam, Rav Moshe Mayer Mattin, Rav Asher Noach Rapaport, Rav Shapsi Stock as well as others. [9] Safer Hayovel Shel Agudath Harabanim, p. 145: A Chief Rabbi For New York, Rabbi Shmuel Singer: New York Times, February 18, 1889 and November 28, 1892 [10] Newark (Ohio) Daily Advocate, August 4, 1888 [11] The Lowell (Massachusetts) Daily Sun, October 8, 1892: The (San Antonio, Texas) Daily Light, February 8, 1891 [12] Jews In American Life, Tina Levitan, p. 128: The Galveston (Texas) Daily News, June 1890 [13] Rav Henach Savitsky, Rav of Machzekei Hadas, Kew Gardens Hills [14] New York Times August and September of 1902: The Semi Weekly Landmark (Statesville, North Carolina), August 1, 1902: Idaho Daily Statesman, August 31, 1902: The Gleaner (Brooklyn, NY), August 8, 1902 [15] The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum, Edward T. O'Donnell [16] During his lifetime Rav Joseph never allowed his follower to defend his honor. When attacked by the "Rabbis" associated with the Hebrew Poultry Butchers Association, he simply dismissed them with "they are only trying to earn a livelihood". [17] New York Times, August 10, 1902 [18] New York Times February 13, 1922.
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Listing Classification
19th Century:
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Manuscript Type
Kind of Judaica


text:
Caitlin Jones grew up in a nurturing home and church but her love for the Bible and for the Church have grown more than she ever would have imagined during her years at Campbell University Divinity School.
From the time she became a Christian at nine years of age, she was told by her family and her church that God loved her and had a place for her, a call on her life. Throughout her elementary and middle school years, she had opportunities to develop and use her giftedness in speaking and leadership and she delved into the Bible to represent it the best way she could.
In her college years, however, she ran into some roadblocks where her understanding of God's love and call appeared to be limited by fellow students. Originally, she found herself arguing about her understanding of the Bible but realized that the best way to make a difference would be not through arguments or heated discussions but through "living into my call and representing Christ with integrity." She joined a group called "Samford Sunday," an opportunity for students to preach in local churches around Alabama. During her entire four years on campus, she was never asked to preach through this organization. She quietly participated in the events, making friendships and sharing her call to minister through those relationships. A year after she graduated, women were allowed to preach. Three years later, a woman led the organization.
After graduation, she checked out Campbell Divinity School and others but was struck by the difference in focus. While others asked about her GPA and her intended areas of research, Campbell professors asked her what "made my heart beat faster. Professors felt like highly-respected teammates who were in this with you, and I knew that I wanted on that team."
Much of the knowledge and understanding that Jones has gained through the last three years has been centered on faith formation, the history and value of the organized church, and the eternal truths of the Bible. She recalls one professor saying after giving his opinion about a portion of scripture, "You don't have to believe this. Your job is to seek the Truth for yourselves."
"The lessons I learned in these classrooms would affect the hearts and souls of all I touched through my ministry," she recalls. She saw that "school wasn't just school anymore, but spiritual formation as well." Jones is in awe about church fathers and mothers who literally gave their lives for what they believed. "I was humbled by their belief and their boldness." After the first semester, she says she felt "rich beyond belief." She not only had Jesus, but "I had an identity. I had a history. I had a people."
In her second year at Campbell, Jones would be given a tremendous national honor but through that opportunity be tested beyond anything that she had ever experienced. She would be one of 20 students from across the United States who would be given an opportunity to do theological research in Europe. Little did she know that at the end of that grant process, she would feel overwhelmed by the burden she carries with what her part is in shaping the future of the Church in a world that has strayed so far from orthodox Christian beliefs.
Where does she go from Buies Creek? She says that it is important to know who we are in Christ and what we want our Church to be in a future context. "I desire to do this work as I continue to work out my own faith, journeying toward a greater understanding of the kingdom of God through the leading of the spirit and the greater body and tradition of the Church."
"I'd love to be a part of creating a sustainable church culture that won't bend to the latest trend or shy away from healthy change," she continues. "I'd like to help the Church figure out how to be courageous, and charitable, in claiming the specificity of Christ in a world that wants us to all just be the same."
Jones is a member of Lafayette Baptist Church, Fayetteville, and has served as a ministry intern at Yates Baptist Church, Durham.


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Just give us an indication of what you find objectionable
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Item ID: 72990
(7 candidates drop out as city races shape up)
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text:
Russell Simmons to Bill O'Reilly: "You Wanna Pick on Somebody, Pick on Me"
Russell Simmons and Dr Boyce Watkins recently co-authored an open letter against mass incarceration and the War on Drugs. The letter went to the Obama Administration and has helped to raise awareness about the devastating impact that the drug war has had on families, especially African Americans.
Russell Simmons, writing for GlobalGrind.com, recently wrote an open letter to Bill O'Reilly going after his antiquated view on the drug war. The letter is interesting and here it is below:
Dear Bill,
It's me! Your friend. Your old punching bag. Russell. Gotta tell you, your comments a few weeks back about a public letter to the President I organized, encouraging him to end the "War on Drugs" were way off base. They were so off base that your guest that night who you thought was just going to agree with your "talking points," flipped on you and told you that you were wrong as well. And when I saw you this past weekend in Washington, you continued to spew your fear-laden rhetoric, while Geraldo couldn't figure out whose side to take. Geraldo, you've been hanging out with your friends at Fox for too long…you got to get back to reality. Out of our people, you should know this reality, having come from a community that was completely destroyed by the "War on Drugs." Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but Bill, you got to get your fact straights. It is not acceptable to use skewed and selective information to scare your audience to think that everyone in prison are "terrible people." I know a lot of people who have gone to jail, and you know a lot of people who probably should have gone to jail, but because of the color of their skin or the zip code they lived in, were spared that punishment. And most of these people are diseased addicts who took some drugs, sold some drugs and went to buy some more drugs to stay high.
Read more: http://globalgrind.com/news/dear-bill-oreilly-you-want-pick-someone-call-me-russell-simmons#ixzz2SFWaUkX2