What Would You Do If You Won the Lottery?

1. Write down all the things you would do if you won the lottery.
2. Share your dreams with others.
3. Now write down a plan to ***do them anyway.*** 
This might be:
a) writing up a savings plan and/or meeting with a financial adviser to do the 'big ticket' things in your personal or family life.
b) working with other people to pool resources to get the public good things done.
Chances are pretty good you'll accomplish a lot of them!

Here's my 'dream list' of what I'd like to do in Clinton where I live now, whether or not I might ever win a lottery (in no particular order):

+Finish the community kitchen at the Human Services Campus, so NOM-Northend Outreach Ministries can continue to serve a free hot lunch to kids when schools are on summer break;

+Help River Arts Center get a new elevator and develop into a full teaching museum for youth and adults, like the Charles H. MacNider Art Museum in Mason City;

+Help YWCA - Clinton get an elevator and make the renovations to the original Lamb mansion so it can continue to serve the community

+Help Dina White and the Jetter Youth Center, and Jorge Landa Rodriguez and Against the Ropes get the facilities they need to focus on their programs and not have to worry about repairs anymore

+Develop an Underground Railroad Museum/Interpretive Center at the old AME church (which I understand was a stop), and create student jobs there for the youth of Jetter Center

+Help get the shelter for homeless families with children up and running, likehttps://www.facebook.com/FamilyPromiseofLinnCounty/?fref=ts

+Help build a Tiny Homes Village here for chronically homeless individuals, like https://www.facebook.com/OMBuild

+Develop an Underground Railroad Museum/Interpretive Center at the site of the old AME church (which I understand was a stop), and create student jobs there for the youth of the Jetter Center

+Refurbish the 'baby pool' at the municipal pool with a muraled pool floor and sunshade canopies

+Create a year-round children's theater like Stebens in Mason City, and create a position for Kris Doss to run it smile emoticon

+Get a performing arts center for the school district at least as nice as the one at NIACC in Mason City

+Create an ecumenical, inclusive campus ministry at Clinton Community College, with lots of mission service opportunities

+Start a partnership among churches, the high school, and the community college to grow and mentor our own next generation of church musicians

...but that's just a start. This list is getting rather long. However, they are all doable, and can be done without anyone winning the lottery--just a lot of people working together who realize the impact that could be made.

What would you do where you live?

I Am A Pacifist, And A Parent

I am a pacifist, and a parent. 
I will not arm myself out of fear of who may harm my children;
I will instead strive to teach them the ways of peace. 
I will not take classes in concealed carry; 
instead, I took training in de-escalating situations with armed persons who may become violent. 
I have used that training in many situations where people had guns and were very angry--in Iraq and Afghanistan, in Israel and Palestine, on the U.S./Mexico border, and even in the inner city--and I am still here.
I even have several unlikely friends to show for it.
I will not keep guns in my home, because I know that my kids can get into anything, no matter how well hidden or locked away.
I also know the facts that a family member is more likely to be shot by the gun kept in the home, than any intruder.
For this reason, I do not allow my children to play in homes where guns are present, but my children's playmates are always welcome to come play here.
If we are in public (as we often are) and something should happen,
I will do everything in my power to move my children out of harm's way,
I would shield them with my own body, as any parent would,
but I am under no illusion that any gun I might carry,
as a parent whose arms and attention are filled with my children,
would likely protect them from a bomb's blast
or someone loaded up with their own personal arsenal,
or a car careening into a crowd,
or any other of the thousands of ways someone might invent to destroy others at any given moment.
Of course we could die.
I think about that every time I buckle their seatbelts and head out in our car.
But neither will I cower in my home, paranoid of what might happen,
and teach my children not to live life and love others.
I will teach my children to love all people and to treat them with respect, regardless of their religion, race, disability, appearance, occupation, or any other factor.
I will teach them to be proactive in their peacemaking and compassion.
I will teach them to be a friend to the lonely, and not to join in the bullying and exclusion of others.
I believe no weapon can protect us from everything.
I believe that educating ourselves and others to break down the walls of division and fear,
and to actively build bridges of peace and relationships that are strong in love,
and to invite the strangers we fear to become our neighbors and our friends,
is a far more effective way to move us past this very painful moment in our history.