lotusmedia 2.0

I’ve been invited to speak about OrangePolitics at a conference I’ve never heard of, in a city I would rather never visit in my entire life. I looked at the conference website and saw an all white-male lineup of keynoters (they’ve since added some Asian males).

Why did I say yes? Three reasons:

1. I was invited by Tish Grier. Tish and Lisa Williams of PlaceBlogging are working to support and connect local bloggers and bring more attention to the good work folks are doing around the country.
2. I saw the names of some fantastic women bloggers on the speakers list, like Pam Spaulding, Cheryl Contee, Elisa Camahort, and Erin Kotecki Vest. Plus my old friend, Doc Searls (old in time, not in age ;-)). Their presence legitimizes the conference for me, plus I hope I’ll run into them there.
3. The conference is paying for all of my travel costs, and it’s on a weekend so I don’t have to miss work to go.

There are a few related events going on at the expo including GodBlogCon, MilBlogging, and a citizen journalism training. That should be… interesting. I’ll find out next month whether I made the right choice about attending the Blog World Expo.

Is there anything I should make sure to do (or not do) in my 48 hours in Las Vegas?

At work we recently received an invitation to submit an event for a regional “green” calendar that is e-mailed to subscribers monthly. This is an excerpt from the instructions:

Please send all listings in calendar format (10 pt. Arial font, black ink — NO color or other formatting) to ******@aol.com: Day of the week (abbr.), Date (abbr.), Time, Name of Event (IN ALL CAPS), BRIEF description. Sponsoring group, Location, Contact person, Phone (specify area code), Email, URL, Cost. No more than 3 lines, or 50 words, TOTAL.

The formatting requests are burdensome but fair, but FONT? Really?

My friend Cy was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor last month. He’s on chemo and radiation now, but he doesn’t have insurance. His parents’ church has set up an account to collect money to help with Cy’s medical expenses. You can learn more about Cy at the blog his friends set up when he was diagnosed: cyrawls.blogspot.com.

I’ve set up an online donation tool so people can fundraise all over the internet. Here it is, I hope you will give and pass it on:

Update: Added link to Cy’s blog per Susan’s suggestion.

Sorry I’ve been neglecting this blog. Between Twitter, OrangePolitics, and FORpeace, I’m getting my self-expression fix pretty effectively I guess. Here’s a post I just wrote for the work blog.

The repercussions of last week’s shooting at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville are echoing around the country. Is this the inevitable conclusion of decades of intolerance preached from conservative pulpits (both literal and figurative)? And do open-minded people of faith now need to live in fear - as many abortion providers already do - of the one unbalanced so-called Christian seeking vengeance for our sins?

Upon hearing the news, I immediately became concerned for my mother’s UU congregation. They are located in a small beach town on the coast of North Carolina, surrounded by rural communities in Down East NC - not especially known for modern social ideas, but quite likely to have access to hunting rifles. As we observe Americans trending toward living more in safe, homogeneous communities, we can see both the cause and effect of this increased ideological segregation.

My friend James Protzman blogged about his daughter’s reaction to the shooting. She had met several teenagers from the Tennessee Valley congregation at a UU retreat and was grief-stricken at the irony of a house of peace being attacked so violently. "She wonders about all the other deaths that can be laid at the feet of right-wing political hate. Abraham Lincoln. Martin Luther King. John Kennedy. Robert Kennedy. Will it ever stop? she asks."

Keep reading I’m pretty sure Jesus wouldn’t do this »