Interfaith group to 'raise moral voice' on issue

Interfaith group to 'raise moral voice' on issue

I attended an interfaith group meeting in Casa Grande today. 250 people there ... about 1/3 of them were clergy from various denominations. The UMC was very well represented with five Bishops out of the 10 present including our own Bishop Carcano. Pastor Kelly, Dan Sagramoso and I represented PVUMC. It was a meeting primarily to make a statement. People of different faith traditions coming together with a united voice saying the way we treat people is wrong. Shackling people for non-violent crimes. Shackling non-violent women who are nine months pregnant is repugnant. This case actually happened this past Oct-Dec in our Maricopa County jail. The woman who this happened to appeared before us to tell her story. The amazing thing is this treatment is "legal". We have laws that allow law enforcement to shackle non-violent pregnant woman ... walk them to a police van in shackles one day after a cesarean section barefoot and in the cold. I was not proud to be an American when I heard her story.

Blue Moon on my Birthday!

A Blue Moon hung over New Years Eve. According to the paper the Blue Moon occurs once every 2.7 years and occurs on New Years Eve every 18 years or so. It is pretty cool when two consecutive nights have a full moon … so cool they call the second night the “Blue Moon”. The photo below is from Friday morning shot from our backyard out onto the ninth tee and next fairway. New Years Eve was pretty quiet for us as we had my birthday dinner at Brio Tuscan Grill and then were home and in bed before 11PM. Quite the wild time but we figured … hey … we can stay up late and have fun any night we want so lets leave the crowded parties for all those crazy people J and we’ll pick the night when we go out on the town!

After a nice French Toast breakfast Fran and I made our way down to South Mountain and hiked for a couple hours starting at the main parking lot next to the pavilions and climbing up to Dobbins Lookout. It is about a five mile round trip with about a 1000 foot climb. We stopped at Port of subs on the way to the park and had lunch at a rest area overlooking downtown Phoenix. This was a pretty good round trip hike and there were so many people on the trail as well as at Dobbins Lookout point. Dobbins attracts both hikers and people who drive to the top of the mountain for the views. I’ve attached a few photos showing different parts of the hike. Cheers. Dave.