From the Salmon

“It’s not a pay raise. It’s an adjustment so that they’re not losing their purchasing power.”

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, earlier this week
defending a congressional pay “adjustment” of $3,100.

Since Congress last acted to raise the minimum wage in two phases in 1996 and 1997, the value has eroded by more than 15 percent. In the past eight years, Members of Congress will have raised their own pay seven times — by $28,500. Yet, in those same eight years minimum wage workers have not received a single raise, continuing to earn only $10,700 a year working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year. This is $5,000 below the poverty line for a family of three.

DeLay also had said that the House had no plans to vote this year on a minimum wage increase.

Associated Press - March 6, 2005

The work in Iraq is difficult and it is dangerous. Like most Americans, I see the images of violence and bloodshed. Every picture is horrifying, and the suffering is real.

Amid all this violence, I know Americans ask the question: Is the sacrifice worth it?

President George W. Bush
Speech at Fort Bragg, NC - June 28, 2005

Tonight, while the president spoke to troops at Fort Bragg, I watched Michael Tucker’s documentary Gunner Palace, a look at the experiences of the 2-3 FA Battalion in Baghdad. While the president talked about how we see the violence and understand the sacrifice, Tucker’s film began with these words:

Most of us don’t see this on the news any more. We have reality TV instead — “Joe Millionaire,” “Survivor.” Well, survive this — a year in Baghdad without changing the channel.

I’ve never received military training or experienced combat, so it’s hard for me to say whether this is a realistic portrayal of what life is like as a soldier. But I think a strength of Tucker’s film is that, regardless of whether or not you supported the decision to invade Iraq, you will find plenty to reinforce and subtly challenge your view of the war. And Tucker largely leaves you to make your own conclusions.

What his film does well is allow the soldiers to tell their own stories. And for that reason alone, this is a movie that should be seen by every American. And we really need more movies or media stories that do the same. Soldiers’ stories need to be told, with as little varnish or political framing as possible.

Gunner Palace shows American soldiers reaching out to the community in which they’re stationed — visiting orphanages, trying to calm down a heated community meeting, playing “truant officers.” The camera follows the soldiers on raids, as they bring in suspected bombmakers, attackers, and financiers. And it gives you a seat inside the military vehicles as they patrol the streets of Baghdad.

It was this last view that had the greatest impression on me. I got a profound sense of just how vulnerable these soldiers are and just how difficult it is to discern threats, whether human or IED. As part of the most powerful military force ever assembled, they have been trained to fight and win wars. Yet it’s hard to watch them trying to function as policemen and social workers. And it’s hard to watch with the knowledge of how many soldiers have lost their lives as relatively easy targets on simple patrols like this.

As our military technology advances to let us kill with precision from huge distances by pressing a button, as our medical technology allows us to limit battlefield casualties, and as we entertain ourselves with blockbuster war movies and military video games, the decision to go to war becomes less and less weighty.

President Bush seems to think that seeing the few images of violence and bloodshed that make it to our easily-distracted news channels gives us the information we need to understand the realities and consequences of war.

But I’m not sure that’s true.

When the media are not allowed to show images of flag-draped caskets or military funerals, I’m not sure we’re getting a full picture. Without movies like Gunner Palace, I don’t see how we could begin to understand what it’s like to be asked to fight a war in the middle of thousands of innocent civilians. And we certainly don’t understand what it’s like to live as an Iraqi with foreign troops patrolling your streets and knocking down doors in your neighborhood in the dead of the night.

Look, all wars have consequences, many of them unintended. The more we as a country understand these consequences, the less likely we are to approve going to war unless it is absolutely clear that war is the only option. We owe it to ourselves and particularly to the men and women in our armed forces to understand those consequences as clearly as possible.

And so we need to listen to their stories.

As Gunner Palace drew to a close, one of the soldiers was asked “Do people at home understand what is going on here?” He answered:

When you sit on your couch and you watch the TV, and you go to your 9 to 5 job and you complain about the pizza being late, there’s no way you’re gonna know how we live here. Someone being sympathetic to this — I don’t even know if I’d be sympathetic if I wasn’t in the army.

After you watch this, you’re gonna go get your popcorn out of the microwave and talk about what I say. And you’ll forget me by the end of this. You’ll forget all of this. Only people who will remember this is us.

I think it’s important that we prove him wrong.

Earlier today, the McCartys pointed the way to some brilliant photographs showcased in my alma mater’s literary journal.

The photographer, Thomas Allen, uses dramatic light and depth of field to bring old book covers and illustrations to life. As a designer, amateur photographer, and book lover, I’ve been geeking out on these all day.

With a little searching, I found several additional photos from a past exhibit at the Foley Gallery in New York.

I have stared into the face of evil, and I do not believe I will ever forget the sights of pure wickedness that have become commonplace in Zimbabwe.

— From This is Zimbabwe

One month ago, Zimbabwe’s brutal leader Robert Mugabe began Operation Murambatsvina, which literally translates to “Operation Drive Out Trash.” The “trash”? 250,000 to 1.5 million of Zimbabwe’s urban poor who have had their homes bulldozed or burnt down by Mugabe’s police. The newly homeless are left to sleep outside in the freezing winter nights or are being pushed into rural areas, where they face dangerous food shortages and likely starvation.

Mugabe has managed to stay in power for 25 years by allegedly stealing elections and by dealing brutally with his political opponents. In the past decade, he has turned a country that was once a net exporter of food into a country that faces massive food shortages. The outlying rural areas are now deeply dependent on government food rationing, which means they are deeply beholden to Mugabe’s corrupt patronage system. 80% of the country is unemployed, which means that the only way millions are able to survive is by participating in the very informal economy that Mugabe has targeted.

Mugabe claims that these purges are necessary to improve the urban economy and environment. But some observers believe the home demolitions are specifically targeting areas that are the base for Mugabe’s political opposition.

Regardless of Mugabe’s stated rationale, Operation Murambatsvina has been particularly pernicious. Residents have been given little to no warning before eviction. Some residents have been forced to participate in the demolition of their own homes, and if they refused, they have been forced to pay for the demolition themselves. Churches have been instructed not to accept the homeless for shelter. Some churches have organized efforts to transport people to rural areas where they might find shelter, but Zimbabwe faces a dire fuel shortage that has made such efforts extremely difficult.

The BBC has published aerial photos that show the devastation in one of the many areas targeted in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital city:

Mark Taylor, a pastor who grew up in Zimbabwe, gives some background here on the area depicted in the photo.

The first thing I thought of when I read the initial stories about Operation Murambatsvina was the scene in The Killing Fields that depicted the emptying of Phnom Penh by the Khmer Rouge. I realize that Pol Pot comparisons can be pretty controversial these days, but I’m not sure they’re so far off in this case.

In 2002, the Telegraph’s Christina Lamb published a harrowing account (bugmenot) of the rise of rape as a political tool by Mugabe’s security forces. After several horrific, detailed stories, Lamb observes:

Officials now speak of “taking the system back to zero” and of reducing the country’s 12 million population in a chilling echo of what the Khmer Rouge did in Cambodia in the 1970s and seem to even be employing similar tactics of emptying cities and targeting teachers.

Last week Didymus Mutasa, the organisation secretary of Zanu-PF, said: “We would be better off with only six million people, with our own people who support the liberation struggle.”

Mutasa is now head of the secret police. And his words echo in my ears as I read about Mugabe’s recent brutality.

The US, UK, UN, and more than 200 aid and human rights groups have pushed other African leaders to do something. But just last week, the African Union made it clear that it was not interested in intervening.

Honestly, I don’t know what the solution is. The situation in Zimbabwe is unlikely to get better until Mugabe’s government is removed, but I really don’t know the best way to bring that about.

I write this because these stories tear at my heart and I don’t know what else to do. I’m still learning about Zimbabwe’s history, Mugabe’s regime, and its recent atrocities. If you’re interested in reading more, these are some of the sites that I have found helpful:

• I’ve been learning about Zimbabwe over the past few months by reading Steve’s occasional postings at Two and Two Makes Five.
• Two recent postings by Charles Bird at Obsidian Wings opened my eyes to how bad the situation has gotten.
• This Is Zimbabwe and its parent site Sokwanele are probably the best two sources I’ve found for understanding the current situation and the historical context.
• The Zimbabwe Situation has compiled a vast collection of recent articles, editorials, and letters.
• The BBC, Guardian, Telegraph and other British media outlets have done a much better job of reporting on Zimbabwe than their US counterparts.

For now, all I know to do is read, write and pray.

I pray for relief workers, human rights workers, and the church in Zimbabwe, that they might have the resources and courage to bring healing, mercy and change. I pray this out of a belief in a loving, just, sovereign, powerful God. But as I pray and write, I will honestly admit that events like this can sometimes make it awfully difficult to believe in the power of God’s love and justice in the face of seemingly irrepressible human evil.

From Christianity Today:

George W. Bush is not Lord. The Declaration of Independence is not an infallible guide to Christian faith and practice. Nor is the U.S. Constitution, nor the U.N. Universal Declaration on Human Rights. “Original intent” of America’s founders is not the hermeneutical key that will guarantee national righteousness. The American flag is not the Cross. The Pledge of Allegiance is not the Creed. “God Bless America” is not the Doxology.

Sometimes one needs to state the obvious — especially at times when it’s less and less obvious.

Strong words from a high-profile evangelical Christian publication. The rest of the editorial is sharp and worth reading.

I don’t have time now for further commentary, but if you’re new to these parts and would like my take on this, head on over to this post. I think it’ll be pretty clear why this piece resonated with me.

Y’know, it’s been a while since I’ve partaken in a little endoftheweek randonymity.

Quick recap of how this works: (1) load up your full collection of music in your mp3 player, computer, or whathaveyou, (2) shuffle, (3) report the first 10 tracks. Simple enough. As always, feel free to play along as a ripple or on your own site.

It’s time to spin the click wheel and see what we’ve got….

1. Accordian Bells - Leo Kottke
2. Lie in Our Graves (Live) - Dave Matthews Band
3. All Your Way - Morphine
4. The First Full Moon - Sufjan Stevens
5. My Dark Life - Elvis Costello
6. Legacy - Pierce Pettis
7. Tunnels - Gravenhurst
8. Last Snowstorm of the Year - Low
9. Chimes of Freedom (Live) - Youssou N’Dour & Bruce Cockburn
10. Can You Hear the Rain? - Tony Furtado

Hmmm… No real patterns this time. Well, except for the part where it’s more or less an all-male lineup. (Apologies to the lovely Mimi Parker of Low, but Alan does have the melody and all.)

Have a happy Friday.

The last few days at work have been particularly draining. So even though it would only take a few minutes, I still haven’t bothered to fix the flat on my bike. Which means last night found me walking home from work once again.

As I passed a small elementary school, I noticed someone’s homework assignment blown up against a fence. It appeared to be an ode on the passage from spring to summer. I won’t quote the whole thing to you, but let me at least tell you how how the piece begins:

I like Spring because it’s good.
I played outside and whore shorts….

Kids grow up so fast these days.

So my new logarithmic sage didn’t come through for me today. I mean, my day was fine and all, but I expected a little extra something after my serendipitous encounter with the Starbomb Surprise.

Fortunately, on my walk home, I found that there was more wisdom to be had….

There’s a particular lamppost near where I work that seems to attract prophetic postings more often than its nearby kin.

Several months ago, for example, someone posted a large sign that declared “KOFI: BUSH BEHIND BARS!” You know, just in case the Secretary General of the United Nations stumbled upon it while cruising down University Avenue. And just in case the US reversed decades of precedent and allowed the UN or the ICC to have full jurisdiction over our executive branch. As misplaced as it may be, you kinda have to admire the sheer degree of optimism that went into making a sign like that.

More recently, the lamppost was covered with signs warning of the eeeevils of CHEMTRAILS! I can’t stress enough just how intensely concerned someone in Berkeley is about chemtrails.

But those signs are long gone. Today, an unassuming flier asked a simple question:

Got Orgone Generators? -5

Okay, so perhaps it wasn’t that simple. For one thing, I hadn’t the foggiest idea what an “orgone generator” was. And the “-5″ at the end was a touch surreal.

Under the headline sat two photos. The photo on the left had a series of oddly shaped cones and muffins on some sort of grid. The other photo was a picture of the sky (remarkably chemtrail-free!) And the photos were clearly related because, well….

I remained perplexed.

Finally, a few short sentences were all I had left to unravel this mystery:

Ionizing, ambiance enhancing, good energy boosting, subtle yet effective, there [sic] really all that , and much more. Bluer skies where you have them in your yard…. They work. Lots of energy for everyone…sleep better at night.

Energy, better sleep, bluer skies. What’s not to love?

Well, I don’t know yet if memorizing logarithms or surrounding myself with ambiance enhancing wondermuffins will finally bring my life into balance. But I did learn one thing from today….

I need to walk to work more often.

Ever have one of those days when you wake up to discover that your watch battery is dead and your bike has a flat tire?

That was my morning.

As I was walking to work, I found an intriguing piece of paper that promised to solve all my problems.

At least, I think that’s what it promised.

The front of the card inexplicably proclaimed four names in huge block letters: Jesus Christ, John the Baptist, John F. Kerry, and John F. Kennedy. It then promised that the back of the card would offer:

DIVINE TRUTH REVEALED AFTER MEMORIZING
LOG₁₀e(.43429 … ) TO 2200 PLACES

Well, I certainly didn’t have the time to figure out all of those numbers myself, much less memorize them. So I flipped the card over to see what God had to say.

It appears that the Infinite Being was in rare form today:

BETH-EL SUPERNOVAED IN A STARWAR BY A KAMIKAZE, STARBOMB SURPRISE.

THE CRAB NEBULA, IN CONSTELLATION TAURUS, IS THE STARBOMB SURPRISE.

THE 1981 COMFORTER REVELATION WAS ABOUT JESUS CHRIST’S SECOND COMING IN THE YEAR 2004.

Um, okay.

Aside from the part where I kinda missed the Second Coming, I’m not sure that I was able to glean much of a lesson from this revelation. Well, except for this….

Friends don’t let friends memorize logarithms.

In this morning’s New York Times, I was inspired by former Republican Senator John Danforth’s Op-Ed, “Onward, Moderate Christian Soldiers.” For those of you who don’t know Sen. Danforth, he is a former Senator from Missouri, served as Ambassador to the UN under President George W. Bush, and is ordained as an Episcopal priest.

This is actually his second editorial in the past few months on these themes. The first piece was a call for his party to return to its foundational principles, rather than pursue a narrow, right-wing, religiously driven agenda. In this second piece, he addresses moderate Christians, urging them to add their voices to the national discourse on faith and politics.

Danforth says many things that I’ve been trying to say or hoping to say, but he says them more eloquently than I think I could have. And as a lifelong member of a party that has treated its moderate members pretty brutally, he offers words that are both brave and necessary.

People of faith have the right, and perhaps the obligation, to bring their values to bear in politics. Many conservative Christians approach politics with a certainty that they know God’s truth, and that they can advance the kingdom of God through governmental action. So they have developed a political agenda that they believe advances God’s kingdom, one that includes efforts to “put God back” into the public square and to pass a constitutional amendment intended to protect marriage from the perceived threat of homosexuality.

Moderate Christians are less certain about when and how our beliefs can be translated into statutory form, not because of a lack of faith in God but because of a healthy acknowledgement of the limitations of human beings. (Emphasis mine.)

A healthy acknowledgement of the limitations of human beings. I like that.

It’s a cliché to say that power corrupts. As a Christian, I see it a little differently. People have been corrupted even before they assume power. Power, be it political or economic, only magnifies our ability to hurt others. Our desire to hold on to the power that we have and increase that power when possible will often tempt us to identify our will with God’s. With that in mind, it is vital that Christians approach the thrones of earthly power with great humility.

In The Gospel According to America, David Dark looks at the humility that pervades Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address. As he considers how two groups of people on opposite sides of a bloody war could claim the blessing of the same God, Lincoln uses phrases like “The Almighty has His own purposes” and “with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right.” Dark writes:

In Lincoln, we have an elected official who calls on his public to doubt itself; to stay the course, certainly, but to maintain the modesty that won’t presume to take the will of the people (any people) for the will of God.

Of course our political ideals will be shaped by our values — religious and otherwise. But we would do well to remember Lincoln’s humility as we figure out how to be Christians and Americans at the same time.

Danforth’s just getting started….

But for us, the only absolute standard of behavior is the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves. Repeatedly in the Gospels, we find that the Love Commandment takes precedence when it conflicts with laws. We struggle to follow that commandment as we face the realities of everyday living, and we do not agree that our responsibility to live as Christians can be codified by legislators.

[…]

For us, living the Love Commandment may be at odds with efforts to encapsulate Christianity in a political agenda. We strongly support the separation of church and state, both because that principle is essential to holding together a diverse country, and because the policies of the state always fall short of the demands of faith. Aware that even our most passionate ventures into politics are efforts to carry the treasure of religion in the earthen vessel of government, we proceed in a spirit of humility lacking in our conservative colleagues. (Emphasis mine.)

This is good stuff. We should not only approach the thrones of power with humility because we know our hearts and how easily it would be for us to misuse that power, but also because government may not be the best venue for us to pursue religious goals. What Danforth states so succinctly and eloquently is really an entire discussion unto itself, so I’ll leave that as food for thought for a future post.

In the decade since I left the Senate, American politics has been characterized by two phenomena: the increased activism of the Christian right, especially in the Republican Party, and the collapse of bipartisan collegiality. I do not think it is a stretch to suggest a relationship between the two. To assert that I am on God’s side and you are not, that I know God’s will and you do not, and that I will use the power of government to advance my understanding of God’s kingdom is certain to produce hostility.

By contrast, moderate Christians see ourselves, literally, as moderators. Far from claiming to possess God’s truth, we claim only to be imperfect seekers of the truth. We reject the notion that religion should present a series of wedge issues useful at election time for energizing a political base. We believe it is God’s work to practice humility, to wear tolerance on our sleeves, to reach out to those with whom we disagree, and to overcome the meanness we see in today’s politics.

Here again we find echoes of Lincoln. It’s not quite “With malice toward none, with charity for all,” but it’s still stirring.

Our political discussion today is rancorous. But it doesn’t have to be this way. The lifeblood of our democracy is civility and compromise, not the pursuit of an extreme agenda with religious fervor and dogmatic certainty. It’s not the demagoguery and hatred you hear and read from both sides of the aisle.

For all my praise, the truth is that Sen. Danforth and I might very well disagree on many things. Yet in the title of this post, I claimed that he was “my kinda Republican.” What did I mean by that? I meant that, despite our potential disagreements, Danforth seems like someone I could talk to, someone who might listen to me, someone with whom I could seek middle ground, and someone who — after a vigorous discussion — I could still easily love as a fellow American and as a brother in Christ.

Sadly, I don’t feel that I could say the same about many of the national leaders of Danforth’s party today.

Any last thoughts, Senator?

Christians who hold these convictions ought to add their clear voice of moderation to the debate on religion in politics.

Thank you, sir. I’ll do my best.

Note: This post was originally just a quick link to the editorial, since I read it just before going to bed. The longer post was substituted around 9:30pm on the same day.

I know that much of what I write about current politics or about the church in the US is fairly critical. Admittedly, I often use this forum to explore or even vent my frustrations. But I hope that in the midst of my sometimes angry analysis, I’ve been able to offer a more constructive vision from time to time.

Part of that involves recognizing positive contributions by people who I have criticized in the past.

Before I left for the weekend, I wrote a series of posts that were pretty critical of Pastor Ted Haggard, the pastor of Colorado Springs’ New Life Church and President of the National Association of Evangelicals. And I still stand by my statements regarding Haggard’s small-group model, his “free-market theology” and his uncritical endorsement of President Bush. But I was pleased to read the following in an email sent by Jim Wallis of Sojourners, describing an evening a week or so ago when religious leaders set aside differences in politics and religious views in order to focus on the overwhelming challenges of global poverty:

The massive reality of global hunger and poverty has revealed our own spiritual poverty and is bringing us together. The religious leaders gathered at Washington’s National Cathedral also have different political views. But maybe soon overcoming poverty could become a bipartisan issue and a nonpartisan cause. That same day, I received a powerfully persuasive message from evangelical leader Rick Warren, who urged his entire e-mail list to join the 800,000 people who have signed on to the ONE campaign to overcome poverty, alongside sponsors such as World Vision, Bread for the World, Sojourners, and U2’s Bono.

The next day, British Prime Minister Tony Blair was in Washington, D.C., to meet with President George W. Bush, primarily to discuss the goals for the upcoming G8 meeting for heads of state planned for Gleneagles, Scotland, in early July. During his packed one-day schedule, Blair asked to meet with a small group of religious leaders to discuss the issues involved in the G8 Summit, especially with regard to Africa — which he has described as “the fundamental moral challenge of our time.” Some of the same people from the night before gathered again for the hour-long meeting with the British leader whose country will be hosting the crucial international gathering in just three weeks.

We noted the diversity of religious leaders and traditions sitting around the table, including Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago, Ted Haggard of the National Association of Evangelicals, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of the Catholic Bishops Conference, Bishop John Chane of the Episcopal Church, and Bob Edgar of the National Council of Churches. From the Southern Baptist leader to the Muslim imam, we each expressed a real hope that something very new and powerful might come out of our common resolve.

We spoke of how for the first time the world has the knowledge, information, technology, and resources to substantially end extreme poverty as we know it, but that what is still lacking is the moral and political will to do so. And we agreed that to generate such moral will is part of the job of the religious community.

In the past, I’ve criticized not only Haggard, but also Rick Warren and Hybels’ Willow Creek. So let me say that I’m greatly encouraged to see these three influential men take prominent positions as Christians and as Americans in advocating for policies that may lead to substantial reductions in extreme global poverty. For Pastor Ted to join forces with the likes of Rev. Edgar is a positive step in bringing together Christians on the right and on the left. For Warren (whose list of “non-negotiables” in the 2004 election didn’t include a reference to global poverty) to be encouraging his vast list of followers to become engaged in this cause is significant.

In a previous post, I wrote that global poverty is not a liberal issue or a conservative issue. It’s a human issue. But it’s also an issue that the political leaders in the US have been reluctant to make a priority. So to have religious leaders from a broad spectrum of faiths and political ideology working together to build the moral will to tackle this issue is huge.

How huge? It’s hard to know if the meeting Wallis describes is at all responsible, but that same week, the Bush administration finally agreed to months of pressure from Tony Blair and others to pursue large-scale debt relief for impoverished nations at the upcoming G8 meeting.

While this is a commendable, important step, it’s only a start.

Haggard, Hybels, Warren, Wallis and others can be important voices in motivating Christians in the US to take interest in the efforts to reduce extreme poverty. But we can, too. If we start to tell our congresspeople that this is important to us, they might find the political will to act. If we show our support for campaigns like the ONE campaign, it serves as a symbol for the growing number of people concerned about poverty. If we talk to friends, family, fellow Christians and countrymen about this, it might amplify our individual voices.

But this is more than just a problem to be solved by governments. There is a real need for healing, for reconciliation, for renewal, for changed hearts and changed lives in countries burdened by corruption, by civil war, by disease and starvation. As I’ve written previously, the churches in Africa are longing to be partners in healing. We just need to find a willingness in our churches to join them.

Perhaps what we’re seeing is the beginning of that movement. If so, that’s certainly worthy of praise.

Well, I’m back. We had a wonderful weekend with friends. I was continuously reminded of the many reasons why Chicago is one of my favorite cities. Great food and drink from Giordano’s to Garrett’s and Guinness to Goose Island. Grant Park, Rogers Park, Lincoln Park, and Millennium Park. Serendipitous tickets to see a spectacular Red Sox-Cubs game at the Friendly Confines. Traveling by Metra, El, CTA bus, trolley, taxi and by foot. Neighborhoods. Late night conversations. An imaginary tea party with a darling almost-three-year-old girl. A small Frank Lloyd Wright bridge hidden in the North Suburbs. Remembering what 90 degrees and 90% humidity felt like. Learning what an eruv is. A white muzzle on a black lab we’ve known since she was a puppy. Reliving Wheaton memories. Reliving St. Louis memories.

I wish it could have been longer.

Anyhow, I’m still catching up on work and on reading, so I’ll just post some cameraphone pictures for now….

We saw the dolphin show at the Shedd Aquarium from above and below. Above was great. I’d recommend below.

If there’s anything that Red Sox fans and Cubs fans can agree on, it’s that Nomar has been a disappointment the last two years. Of course, I wouldn’t say that out loud in the presence of these four boys.

We saw live swans, too. And cygnets. But there’s just something about a shot like this that I can’t not take.

It’s not easy capturing dramatic skies and urban silhouettes with an unfamiliar cameraphone, but I got close.

The children playing on this side of the fountains in Millennium Park might have missed out on the spitting grandmothers, but they had a much better eye for good lighting.

Thanks to our friends for hosting us. We hope it won’t be another two years before we return.

Sufjan Stevens is exactly the way I like my crazy. Or, to steal a line from the man himself, he’s gone insane, but for Very Good Reasons.

I’ve admittedly got a soft spot for quixotic quests, so when a quirky musical prodigy like Sufjan declared that he would be penning an album for each of the 50 states, I got a little weak in the knees. And when he set the bar impossibly high with 2003’s brilliant Greetings from Michigan “The Great Lake State”, I knew I was done for.

His second installment, Sufjan Stevens Invites You to: Come on Feel the Illinoise (or for the sake of brevity, Illinois ), suggests that Sufjan’s cross-country tour will be well worth the ride.

Many reviewers will make a big deal over the song titles. Indeed, it’s awfully tempting to peg Stevens as pretentious by pointing to a title like “THE BLACK HAWK WAR, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You’re Going to Have to Leave Now, or, ‘I have fought the Big Knives and will continue to fight them until they are off our lands!’ ” (And that’s the title of an instrumental track, no less.) But I’ve already come out and said the man is downright loopy, so what difference should a little pretense make?

What matters is whether the music lives up to the ambition. And it most certainly does. Stevens’ arrangements are even more intricate than ever; the use of a string quartet in several songs adds an epic expansiveness that surpasses anything on Michigan. He even adds a touch of the funk to the undergirding bass groove of “They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead!! Ahhhhh!”

Michigan was a tribute to Sufjan’s home state, and you could tell on the first listen what a labor of love it was. Illinois is the closest thing I’ve got to a home state, so I was interested to see what might capture his imagination and whether the same loving care would extend to a new frontier. I was delighted to discover that, even though Stevens may not have the school field trip credentials I have, he didn’t skimp on the research. Historical characters, events and place names galore are peppered throughout the songs. Occasionally, he does give in to the bizarre bursts of geographic Turet’s that characterized some of Michigan’s weaker moments. But then again, the superfluous statewide shout-outs may pay dividends when he’s on tour: “Kankakee! Whooooooo!”

One complaint: in a song called “Chicago” (yes, he writes short titles, too), why on earth did Stevens make the centerpiece a road trip to New York City? I mean, we eventually embraced the whole “Second City” idea, but that doesn’t mean he has to rub our faces in it. And don’t even tell me that Los Angeles is bigger now. I’m not listening, I’m not listening.

Sufjan’s sparkling symphonic songs may be the most immediately engaging, but as with his previous work, it’s the more sparely arranged pieces that are ultimately the most rewarding. And none is more compelling than his tender ode “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.” Like Peter Gabriel did with Oswald in “Family Snapshot,” Stevens imagines the events of childhood that may have shaped the horrors to come. As a closing flourish to one of the creepier songs I’ve heard, he offers a twist that comes straight out of his Reformed heritage: “And in my best behavior / I am really just like him / Look beneath the floorboards / For the secrets I have hid.” Total depravity never sounded so sweet.

The other lyrical standout is “Casimir Pulaski Day.” I would have loved this song for the title alone. What red-blooded Illinoisan doesn’t have a soft spot for the Polish general who became a Revolutionary War hero? Anyone who got us a day off from school in the winter was just all right with me. But the joy that I remember as a child is nowhere to be found in Stevens’ story of one struggling with God after suffering terrible loss. After a series of personal recollections that frame the heartbreak for us, Stevens concludes:

And the glory that the Lord has made
And the complications when I see His face
In the morning in the window
All the glory when He took our place
But He took my shoulders, and he shook my face,
and He takes and He takes and He takes

This is probing honesty at a moment that so easily shatters faith. God’s glory and sacrifice are not simple, easy ideas. Putting tragedy and loss into the context of God’s glory can be mindbreakingly difficult. And coming to terms with the response demanded by Jesus’ life, death and resurrection can shake up a life in a frightening way. The humanity of these lines gives way to a melding of voice, banjo and brass that builds towards what might be construed to be hope for the future. And as a sign that I might be a little crazy myself, it seems to me that Stevens has woven into this song a theme from the apocalyptic title track from last year’s Seven Swans, reworking it slightly to offer us a more encouraging take.

“The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!” — my favorite song so far — combines the tenderness of his more sparse songs with the rhythmic vitality of his brassier beauties. Strangely, this song doesn’t make me want to dance so much as direct, waving an invisible baton to command the layers that Stevens adds and subtracts as the song swells and subsides.

Illinois certainly lives up to the promise of Michigan, but I’m not sure it surpasses it. I may have to spend more time there before I can make the final call. Oddly enough, I’ll be leaving for the Land of Lincoln later today.

Illinois will be released on July 5 by Asthmatic Kitty (finally, a frameless website!). The album got leaked to the internet early, but you should really stop pounding my site looking for torrents (they’re not here) and pre-order it instead. It might be the best $10 you’ll spend on music this year.

So we’re off to Chicago for the weekend to see friends. In honor of our trip, I’ll have a special Illinois post in a bit. But after that post, I probably won’t be writing much until next Wednesday or so. Enjoy the weekend. I’m out.

… but you can’t take Hollywood out of the Governor:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger traveled to a quiet San Jose neighborhood Thursday, and — dogged by protesters — filled a pothole dug by city crews just a few hours before, as part of an attempt to dramatize his efforts to increase money for transportation projects.

The neighbors, it seems, were a little baffled:

“For paving the streets, it’s a lot of lighting,'’ said resident Nick Porrovecchio, 48, motioning to a team of workmen setting up Hollywood-style floodlights on the street to bathe the gubernatorial podium in a soft glow.

Porrovecchio and his business partner, Joe Greco, said that at about 7 a.m. they became fascinated watching “10 city workers standing around for a few hours putting on new vests,'’ all in preparation for the big moment with Schwarzenegger.

But their street, he noted, didn’t even have a hole to pave over until Thursday morning.

“They just dug it out,'’ Porrovecchio said, shrugging. “There was a crack. But they dug out the whole road this morning.'’

“It’s a lot of money spent on a staged event,'’ said Matt Vujevich, 74, a retiree whose home faced the crew-made trench that straddled nearly the whole street. “We still have the same problems. Everything’s a press conference.'’

[…]

Greco, who used his video camera to record the crews ripping up his street, said Laguna Seca Way had “a few cracks,” which he termed “unsightly,'’ but they weren’t as bad as the “major potholes'’ a few blocks away.

“The street was very drivable,'’ Vujevich said.

If the roads are bad enough as to justify spending untold gazillions of dollars on repair or replacement, you’d think it wouldn’t be terribly hard to find an actual pothole to fill, even a photogenic pothole.

My favorite bit from the article is this glorious morsel of political damage-control from David Vossbrink, director of communications for the San Jose Mayor’s office:

In this case, Vossbrink said, the governor’s event involved “not exactly filling a pothole, but it represented the pothole aspect'’ of the transportation funding measure.

So it wasn’t so much a good deed as it was a representation of a good deed.

That’s my governor!