For those wanting to donate....

The UUA has started a web site for donations to help the victims.

Anyone reading who wants to help me do the weeding in front of the church this Saturday morning can shoot me an email as well.

An amazing vigil service tonight

The room was filled not just with members, but people from all over Knoxville. When the hands went up for who was from other congregations, the huge number of visitor's hands drew applause from the UUers.

The President of the UU Congregation from Boston spoke, the high points being:

• We may feel anger, but we are also filled with understanding and compassion
• This will not change who we are and what we believe
• There is power in the community that has been forged out of this tragedy, and we should not let it go away

The surprise ending? The kids came out to sing "Tomorrow", the song they didn't get to finish in their production.

When you're faced with a day that's grey and lonely
I just stick out my chin and grin and say
The sun will come out tomorrow
...
Tomorrow... you're only a day away.

Thank you Chris, Mitra, Rosemary, and William for filling us with hope on this day.

Unspeakable Tragedy

How does this happen? Why? Will we ever know what motivated this individual?

Thanks to everyone for your prayers and thoughts for our injured members. I'm quite shocked and appalled at the early media reports of fatalities with no confirmation. I would ask all media to desist in those situations barring any official confirmation because we still have worried families in the hospital and nobody needs to make reports that (we pray) turn out to be false.

I would like to go on record regarding what I said to the media, which certainly did not include any conjecture regarding the condition of my fellow members (the people I helped were certainly not critical cases, and I'm hoping that the other cases were not much more serious than theirs).. My understanding is they are at UTMC, the best trauma center in the state, and being cared for, and I don't care for the 'we think' reporting.

If there's another source of information leading to these rumors of fatalities, I don't know what it is and I would hope that the media would be much more careful. Not just in this case, but any similar case. I know they are trying to get the news out, but please think of the people in the hospital waiting rooms. Please.

My goal (as I didn't have to await an interview) was to help people in the community to have friends or family members at the church to understand what happened, that the situation was being VERY well managed by KPD and emergency response, and that we are a very strong community already helping each other through this.

For future inquiries, please contact the church (who has not yet defined any official spokesperson, but it sure as hell isn't me) or the Knoxville Police Department.

And keep those prayers going. Again, my thanks out to KPD, KFD, the Red Cross, and my fellow members of the church, especially the brave men who stopped the assailant. And thanks to the outpouring of support from the community. I hope another situation never presents itself where we need to do the same, but be assured, if it does, we will be there standing with you.

Update- it's late evening. The news has already broken regarding our two losses, Linda and Gary. The media, in a vacuum, is making wild guesses regarding motive.

At the vigil tonight, it was clear that we aren't so focused on the 'why', but more on consoling each other, and helping those affected cope with the tragedy. One person commented that what "why" could there be that we would condemn? Mental illness? Hate? Neither of these would be a subject for rebuke by our congregation. So we will focus on the healing, especially the children who had to witness the tragic events. To labor on the question of whether the world is basically good or basically bad is a waste of time- the world is what WE all decide to make it.

And we thank the community (and other communities) for their outpouring of support. While we hope we never ever have to return the favor, we will of course stand with you in your time of need also. From the professional counselors that have offered their services to the person just making sandwiches for strung-out victims, we are grateful for everything.

You can read more about Gary at a site put up by his nephew.

WNOX Interviews (Steve and Ed, semi-debate format)

Version with video:
Part 1
Part2
Part3
Part4

DTV: Friday, 9:30 pm on CTV (Community Access)

Tune in, call in (215-2288)

Don't have Comcast. You can stream CTV now by clicking here!

Knoxville News-Sentinel Endorsements

Being an outside reform candidate, I never expected I would receive this. I toyed with the idea of not even going, but I thought to refuse the interview would send the wrong message.

For those who actually read the article, I should remind you that the News-Sentinel endorsed our current Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale and George W. Bush (twice). The KNS also endorsed many of the term-limited commissioners, leading to Black Wednesday.

Yep, those endorsements and $3.80 still won't get you a gallon of gas. Now go vote, vote what YOU want (not what the newspaper wants), vote for something other than politics as usual, and take a friend with you.

Undecided? The bottom of this page has two good links to help you compare/contrast, and don't forget politicalknoxville.com.
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Some Budget Questions

I've been meaning to write this up for weeks, just a few questions I had as I read through the budget, I'd be curious to find out the answers to in the future... Not to say anything is out of line, but some changes bear some questioning:

• Internal Audit funding down $150K, nearly 40% from their request. Will internal audits be hampered by lack of funding?
• Codes administration cut 5% from current year, 15% from their request. Implications on codes enforcement?
• I was surprised to hear that J.J. Jones Sunday stated on WBIR that KCSD funding has only gone up "one percent," yet the current year budget has large increases in Sheriff's Administration (5%), Patrol (9%), Warrants (30%!), Detectives (22%!), etc.
• Vehicle services up 18%- I guess that's gas prices.
• Building maintenance up 10%
• Capital outlay for eight (8) vehicles outside of patrol cars and engineering/codes/etc vehicles- how many need to be trucks/SUVs, and how many can be defined so that more fuel-efficient (and less costly) vehicles can be purchased? Over their lifetime, a more efficient vehicle purchase could save taxpayers $160,000.