Weekly Meanderings, 20 May 2017

Last updated on: May 20, 2017 at 12:04 am by Scot McKnight

Weekly Meanderings, 20 May 2017 2017-05-19T08:54:23-05:00 Scot McKnight

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Great for the Cubs manager Joe Maddon! From Mark Gonzales:

The Respect 90 Foundation started by Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon will donate 1,000 meals to homeless children and families at the Salvation Army Evangeline Booth Lodge in Chicago.

The gesture was made by Maddon following his 1,000th victory Tuesday night. The Evangeline Booth Lodge is a haven for families who suddenly became homeless due to eviction, disasters, domestic violence or other danger.

“We are humbled and encouraged that Joe Maddon would celebrate his 1,000th major league win with a pledge to feed 1,000 families in need at The Salvation Army’s Evangeline Booth Lodge,” Shanna Schwarze, the shelter’s director of communications, said in a statement.

“His commitment to combating hunger is a testament to who he is as a man and as a leader. The Salvation Army has been committed to serving Chicago for more than 130 years – and with partners like Mr. Maddon – this commitment grows stronger with each passing year.”

The foundation also will provide 1,000 meals to the Sallie House in St. Petersburg, Fla. The Sallie House, under the direction of the Salvation Army, is a safe haven for infants to children 17 years of age, who have been removed from their homes due to abuse, neglect or abandonment. ■

Good for Jorge Campos:

A Manual Arts High School senior whose family of six was homeless for three months after his father lost his job will be attending Harvard University in the fall, thanks to a USC program.

Jorge Campos, 17, currently lives with his family in Palmdale. His days are typically long, ending late and starting early, as he makes the approximately 140-mile round trip to his high school in South Los Angeles and back.

Campos was just 13 years old and set to begin high school when his father, an auto technician, lost his job. The family was homeless for three months, living in a van, out of hotels and staying with other relatives.

“Right now, I look back and instead of breaking down and crying like I should, because they were quite traumatic experiences, I just look at it … and look forward,” Campos told KTLA.

As difficult as his circumstances were, he didn’t let them deter him from succeeding academically.

That same year, Campos — a USC TRIO Upward Bound Scholar — enrolled in college level courses at Los Angeles Community College. He needs to complete just three classes to earn his associates degree in Natural Sciences and Mathematics.

Homelessness was a motivating factor in shaping his education, as it prompted the teen to learn about finances, according to a news release from USC.

He even learned how his family could transition from a “high loan risk” to homeowners, which helped them purchase their home in Palmdale two years ago.

“I took on the budget. I took on all the finances. All the bills that are paid at home run through me,” Campos told KTLA.

The son of Mexican parents, Campos grew up in South L.A. just blocks away from the University of Southern California campus in Exposition Park. He was invited to join the USC TRIO Upward Bound Math and Science program at his high school his freshman year.

The program is geared toward helping high school students who are first-generation college bound, low-income students fulfill their potential and go to university. It provides students like Campos educational tools and resources at USC.

If you find his size, I recommend one for David Fitch: (Perhaps Blackhawks design?)

Male romper. RompHim. Bro romper (bromper?). Public onesie. Jumpsuit, variety: short. Or, perhaps, just a romper that happens to be worn by a man.

Whatever you call it, the one-piece clothing item preferred by babies and women at outdoor concerts has officially hit the male fashion mainstream.

The sartorial whisper became a scream this week when a project called “RompHim” launched on Kickstarter. RompHim is, quite obviously, a man-sized romper offered in several pastel colors and prints.

The campaign presents the RompHim as a mildly obnoxious, devil-may-care garment for young men with an abundance of money and/or self confidence, who never skip leg day and spend the summer weekends at their bro’s house on the Cape. Which is not to judge! That is definitely an aesthetic.

Chris Armstrong and the lecture — is it dead?

As Molly Worthen has argued in a much-debated op-ed piece, lectures can thereby serve “as an exercise in mindfulness and attention building, a mental workout that counteracts the junk food of nonstop social media…. A lecture course teaches students that listening is not the same thing as thinking about what you plan to say next — and that critical thinking depends on mastery of facts, not knee-jerk opinions.” In CWC we even go the extra mile to shock and appall Wired readers and require students to take notes by hand, banning laptops, tablets, and smartphones unless such a device is required for a disability accommodation.

But it goes deeper than that. Done well, the historical lecture can cause people as self-centered and distractable as 21st century American teenagers to forget the incidentals that preoccupy their short attention spans and focus on the lives of others made in God’s image and the enduring questions that those experiences raise.

In that sense, the lecture both causes students to forget the present (temporarily) and then engage it more thoughtfully (moving forward). Even if students lost 95% of whatever limited information I conveyed as soon as they left the classroom, I can guarantee that at least one awkward, uncomfortable question I raised will bubble up later in their minds. They might well disagree with me (I hope so!), but they will have had their attention focused on a problem that — if they’re from the majority culture — they could easily choose to ignore. [HT: JS]

I’m baffled Reuters thinks this is somehow news-y or worthy of news:

The arrangements appear to fit a pattern in Putin’s Russia, whereby people close to the president benefit from contracts, loans, grants or assets from state enterprises or entities closely linked to the Kremlin. Reuters has previously reported how Putin’s son-in-law, Kirill Shamalov, became a billionaire after marrying a daughter of the president by acquiring a large stake in a leading Russian gas and petrochemicals company. Reuters also reported how Shamalov acquired a substantial property in Biarritz, France, from a close associate of Putin.

Probably the new reality by William Kristol:

It is increasingly difficult for those who have eyes to see to escape the conclusion—one to which we have been inclined since the beginning—that it would have been better if Trump had not become our president and that it would be better now if his service in the office were as brief as possible. But impeachment is a lengthy process and requires a factual record to justify conviction that may or may not present itself. Resignation from the presidency is unusual. And section four of the 25th Amendment, which establishes procedures for declaring the president “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” has never been invoked.

So we have to deal with two facts: that Donald Trump is who he is and that he is our president. Coming to grips with this reality will require an awful lot more leadership than we have seen so far from Republicans on the Hill, an awful lot more responsibility in opposition than we have seen from Democrats, an awful lot more clarity and courage than we have seen from the most prominent conservatives, an awful lot more care and fidelity to facts than we have seen from the media, and an awful lot more thoughtfulness and consideration of their duty to the public and the country than we have seen from those serving in the Trump administration.

The prerequisite to behavior worthy of the citizens and officials of a self-governing people is being sincere and candid about the situation we face. That situation will be perilous as long as Donald Trump remains in office. Until he departs—whether that’s in four years or four months—America expects all of us, in our varied positions with our differing responsibilities and to the best of our judgment and abilities, to do our duty.

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