Story People

Ferguson: 'We're Going to Shake the Heavens'

Ferguson: 'We're Going to Shake the Heavens'

A PRE-CHRISTMAS LESSON

Possessions. Holding on to what you have. Things. I carried a rock in my pocket for the last 25 years. A Petosky stone, found only in Petosky, Michigan, along the shore of Lake Michigan. I picked it up the summer of 1971. My wife and I were just married and working in Traverse City as camp counselors. It sat in a box for years until I stuck it in my pocket one day. Why? Maybe to remember the times. Maybe for good luck. A talisman never hurts. Forty-three years that rock spent with me. I LOST IT THE OTHER DAY. Like any possession, it can hurt if you are holding on to it too tightly.
Everything is temporary. It comes and it goes. You have to let it go. It's not yours. It was a pre-Christmas lesson. LEARN TO LET GO.

E-MAIL SENT TO EACH POA BOARD MEMBER:

TWO-TIER PROPOSAL DOWN AND OUT-FOR NOW

THE TWO TIER SYSTEM PROPOSED BY THE VILLAGE POA DIRECTORS WENT DOWN IN DEFEAT. IT WAS A DESERVING DEFEAT. HOPEFULLY, THEY WILL COME UP WITH SOMETHING MORE REASONABLE, PLANNED OUT IN THE OPEN, AND DISCUSSED, BEFORE BRINGING IT TO A VOTE. BUT I'M SORT OF DOUBTING IT. THEY DON'T STRIKE ME AS THE KIND OF GUYS AND GALS WHO TAKE DEFEAT VERY GRACIOUSLY. THEY HAVE THREE MONTHS TO FIGURE OUT THEIR NEXT MOVE, AND SO DO WE. THE LAWSUIT SHOULD MOVE FORWARD. PARTS OF IT CONTINUE TO BE RELEVANT. THE NEXT VOTE WILL BE ON AN UN-LEVEL PLAYING GROUND, THE POA NEEDING ONLY 25% OF THE TOTAL VOTES POSSIBLE TO ACHIEVE A QUORUM.

IT IS A TIME FOR HEALING. COMPROMISE AND SHARING OF INFORMATION SHOULD BE CALLED FOR AND HOPEFULLY ACHIEVED. A NEW PLAN SHOULD BE DEVELOPED THAT MOST EVERYONE WOULD BE COMFORTABLE WITH. TO TRY AND RAM THROUGH THIS SAME PLAN A SECOND TIME WILL RESULT IN UNNECESSARY CONFLICT AND LONG-TERM TRUST ISSUES. IT WOULD BE SOMETHING OF A DECLARATION OF WAR, WHICH I DON’T THINK ANYONE WANTS, AND THAT WE MOST CERTAINLY DON'T NEED.

I WOULD CALL FOR A MEETING WITH THE DIRECTORS AND CITIZENS SUPPORTING THE TWO TIER SYSTEM,  AND THOSE CITIZENS WHO ARE OPPOSED TO THE TWO TIER SYSTEM, TO SHARE IDEAS AND BANG OUT A PLAN THAT IS FAIR AND ACCEPTABLE TO BOTH PARTIES. ONE THAT WOULD MOVE ALL OF US FORWARD IN A UNIFIED AND LESS CONTENTIOUS MANNER.

RESPONSE FROM BOARD PRESIDENT:

Bruce,

On behalf of the POA Board, thank-you for your assessment of the assessment situation.  The Board will discuss available at the December work session.

Respectfully,

Keith Keck

President, Board of Directors

HSV POA

VERY THOUGHTFUL OF HIM.

THINGS I AM THANKFUL FOR

• I'm thankful I'm not a turkey.
• I'm thankful for a wife who has stayed with me for 43 years, sometimes for no good reason.
• I am thankful to have a daughter and son who remind me what life is all about.
• I am thankful to have lived another 14 years, so far, after a near death experience. Those 14 years have been sweet.
• I am thankful that we have been lucky enough to save some money and can enjoy retirement without constantly worrying about money.
• I am thankful both my wife and I had good and satisfying career's.
• I have peeved a lot of people over the years. I am thankful none of them shoot me.
• I am thankful that I will soon be enrolled, once again, in seminary. My quest to discover God continues after almost 67 years.
• Finally, I am thankful that I wake up each morning knowing that it is my responsibility to make the world a better place for someone. Each day, each of us is responsible for making the world just a little better.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING
THE PEEVER

AT THANKSGIVING

Amid football,
        family, and
        too much food,
    we pause quickly and without inconvenience
        to remember and to thank.
        We remember ancient pilgrims
                   who followed dreams of alabaster cities
                          and financial opportunity;
         We remember hospitable first nation people
                    who welcomed them, and then lost their land;
          We remember other family times
                     filled with joy and
                     filled with anxiety, and
                            old scars still powerful.
           We thank you for the U.S. venue of
                     justice and freedom,
                     and are aware of its flawed reality;
            We thank you for our wealth and our safety,
                     and are aware of how close to poverty we are
                             and how under threat we live.

We gather our impulse for gratitude today,
     grateful to you and to our ancestors,
     grateful to you for our families,
                                   our health,
                                   our government,
                                   our many possessions.

We gladly affirm that
   "All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above."
   But we yield to none in a sense of self-sufficiency,
        our weariness in needing to share,
        our resentfulness of those who take and do not give.

Your generosity evokes our gratitude,
but your generosity overmatches our gratitude.
    We are ready to thank,
         but not overly so;
     We remember our achievements,
                             our accomplishments,
                             our entitlements,
                             and our responsibilities
           that slice away our yielding of ourselves to you.

Move through our half measure of thanks
     and let us be, all through this day,
     more risky in acknowledging
          that we have nothing except what you give.

You have given so much---not least your only Son.
Gift us the gift of dazzlement and awe
      that we may rejoice in our penultimate lives
      and keep you ultimate all the day long,
            relishing the wonder of your self-giving love.


Walter Brueggemann, Prayers for a Privileged People

TWO-TIERED SYSTEM DOWN AND OUT-FOR NOW

THE TWO TIERED SYSTEM PROPOSED BY THE VILLAGE POA DIRECTORS WENT DOWN IN DEFEAT. IT WAS A DESERVING DEFEAT. HOPEFULLY, THEY WILL COME UP WITH SOMETHING MORE REASONABLE, PLANNED OUT IN THE OPEN, AND DISCUSSED, BEFORE BRINGING IT TO A VOTE. BUT I'M SORT OF DOUBTING IT. THEY DON'T STRIKE ME AS THE KIND OF GUYS AND GALS WHO TAKE DEFEAT VERY GRACIOUSLY. THEY HAVE THREE MONTHS TO FIGURE OUT THEIR NEXT MOVE, AND SO DO WE. THE LAWSUIT SHOULD MOVE FORWARD. PARTS OF IT CONTINUE TO BE RELEVANT. THE NEXT VOTE WILL BE ON AN UN-LEVEL PLAYING GROUND, THE POA NEEDING ONLY 25% OF THE TOTAL VOTES POSSIBLE TO ACHIEVE A QUORUM.

IT IS A TIME FOR HEALING. COMPROMISE AND SHARING OF INFORMATION SHOULD BE CALLED FOR AND HOPEFULLY ACHIEVED. A NEW PLAN SHOULD BE DEVELOPED THAT MOST EVERYONE WOULD BE COMFORTABLE WITH. TO TRY AND RAM THROUGH THIS SAME PLAN A SECOND TIME WILL RESULT IN UNNECESSARY CONFLICT AND LONG-TERM TRUST ISSUES. IT WOULD BE SOMETHING OF A DECLARATION OF WAR, WHICH I DON’T THINK ANYONE WANTS, AND THAT WE MOST CERTAINLY DON'T NEED.

I WOULD CALL FOR A MEETING WITH THE DIRECTORS AND CITIZENS FOR THE TWO TIERED SYSTEM,  AND THOSE CITIZENS WHO ARE OPPOSED TO THE TWO TIERED SYSTEM, TO SHARE IDEAS AND BANG OUT A PLAN THAT IS FAIR AND ACCEPTABLE TO BOTH PARTIES. ONE THAT WOULD MOVE ALL OF US FORWARD IN A UNIFIED AND LESS CONTENTIOUS MANNER.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”
Elie Wiesel