Dinos in the Star Tribune!

The DinoMights were featured in the Star Tribune on Monday!
I also just got back from the Hockey in the hood tournament in Detroit which was fantastic!


The article is below, but I will also include the Star Tribune link which has a photo gallery of the kids.


Inner-city kids get a shot at playing hockey thanks to the nonprofit DinoMights organization.

By JOY PETERSEN, Star Tribune


The alarm rings early Wednesday mornings for 11-year-old Hector Ramirez.

Just a day before he was to leave last week for the Hockey in the Hood Tournament in Detroit, he was catching a ride to an early-morning practice at the Augsburg Ice Arena. Arriving at the brightly lit rink, he was greeted with upraised arms and an eager welcome by his coach, Scott Harman.

"Hector! Glad to see you, buddy!"

Red duffel bags were piled in a heap next to the lockerroom door. One was marked specifically for Hector. All the gear inside -- helmet, pads and skates -- had been donated.

Hector, along with 94 other boys and girls ages 5 to 18, is part of DinoMights, a Minneapolis program that gives inner-city kids access to a sport not commonly played by minority children.

The National Hockey League in 1995 began the NHL Diversity Task Force, now known as the "Hockey is for Everyone" initiative. It offers children of all backgrounds the opportunity to play hockey.

That same year, a team was organized in Minneapolis by John Foley, a preacher's son who started the program as an outreach effort from his father's church, Faith Covenant. That early enterprise today has grown into DinoMights, a nonprofit organization with three paid staff members and 40 volunteers who work with children from the Central, Powderhorn Park and Phillips neighborhoods.

The organization holds an annual fundraiser, receives grants and accepts donations from local businesses. While it asks for $50 from each participant per year to defray costs, those unable to pay are not turned away.

DinoMights also provides tutoring, mentoring, social interaction and faith-based education to the players.

Harman, who is also executive director of the program, said the 40 volunteers pick up and drop off the players. Because most participants are dependent on rides, Harman said it teaches the kids responsibility because they have to set an alarm and be on time.

The volunteers bring the kids to the Augsburg Ice Arena for their 6:15 a.m. practices each Wednesday during hockey season.

While the youngest kids get help suiting up, the older kids take the ice. At 6:45 a.m., after the skates have been tightened and the mouth guards put in place, the volunteers huddle up the younger children for a morning prayer. Then a one-hour practice begins.

Hector said the hardest part for him was learning how to skate -- he'd never skated before he joined DinoMights. For the littlest ones, tumbles on the ice are common. Some fly into the side boards and hit hard. But they pick themselves up and dust themselves off.

After practice, the kids eat breakfast together as a team and then the volunteers take them to school.

Team members practice and play in games and tournaments against squads from around the metro area. The DinoMights also played during intermission at Saturday's Minnesota Wild game. Last fall, Willie O'Ree, the first black NHL player, visited the team.

Hector was one of 10 DinoMights who participated in Detroit's fifth annual Hockey in the Hood Tournament Friday through Sunday. The event hosted teams from 11 cities, including Chicago, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, and smaller cities such as Windsor, Ontario, and Wasilla, Alaska.

Hector was looking forward to the trip. "I'm excited about all the teams we're going to play."

Leonard Silbernagle, 24, grew up in the Longfellow neighborhood and joined DinoMights in 1999 at a time when he said he was "struggling with school." While some in his neighborhood turned to gangs, Silbernagle said the program was a way for him "to get out of the community."

After graduating from high school and taking some time off, he rejoined DinoMights this year as a volunteer coach.

And he loves working with the kids. "It's great to see their faces."

Joy Petersen is a University of Minnesota journalism student on assignment for the Star Tribune.

Dreams

For Black History month at work we are having the kids look at poets from various cultural backgrounds. One of the poets that the kids read about yesterday was Langston Hughes.

"DREAMS"
by Langston Hughes
Hold onto dreams
For if dreams die
Life is like a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

What gives a child regardless of socioeconomic factors the ability to dream?

What holds a child back from achieving their dreams?

Who influences an individual to follow through on dreams they had as a child?

Why do some dreams die?

How does one individual "make it" in this world and another not, even if these two people come from the same circumstances?

How do we keep from failing our youth? What more can be done? How do we
( as a society) keep them from being lost in the system, or failed by the system?

I have been wrestling with these questions and so many more recently.
I have come to some of my own conclusions or opinions . Yet, I would love to hear a variety of perspectives.

cookies for Dr. King.

At The Dr. King soul food dinner 1/19/09



Life is full of redemptive moments.
On Saturday I was at my old apartment which is the same place we store the DinoMights equipment. I lived in this building 2.5 yrs. ago. The year I lived at the 4 plex honestly was one of the most stretching years of my life in so many ways.

5 beautiful girls lived below me, and moved to a nearby suburb 6 months into my stay at the apartment. we lost track of one another through phone numbers changing, and I thought I would never see them again. WELL, this Saturday I saw some familar faces walking down the street. They moved back to the 4 plex 2.5 years later! The oldest is now 12. When I lived at the 4 plex the youngest ( LaShanti) was 3, now she is 6 and in Kindergarten! They invited me up to their apartment, and I got to spend some time with their Mom. The place was super clean, and their Mom is going back to school. LaShanti is the cousin of the 4 girls. Sadly, she stays at a homeless shelter with her Mom & younger brother. Arteshia, the oldest of the bunch had a birthday yesterday. She asked if we could make cookies on Monday for Dr. King. The girls ended up coming over to make cookies, attend a soul food dinner at my church, and a service in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We also watched the " I have a dream" speech in my living room.

As LaShanti ( the youngest) saw this middle age African American man enter the balcony at church she said " LEAH, LEAH! Is that Dr. King right there?" I am not sure if anyone had ever explained to her that he is no longer living. As the kids were given rides home, and their bellies were full of greens, macaroni, potato salad, and fried chicken their voices bellowed the words to "We shall overcome." Children are our hope, and as one man at church told them this evening they are the future...

BELOW: FALL 2006

Ominee a.k.a "Diva" ( age 7) & LaShanti ( age 3)

L to R: Zikia(age 6),Arteshia (age 10), Ominee(7), and Lanaya( age 5)


BELOW: Making "Dr. King" cookies 1/19/09


LaShanti ( age 6) & Lanaya ( age 7)


Zikia ( age 8), Arteshia ( age 12) & Lanaya (age 7)

Better People

I am without a doubt an extrovert, but I am not a verbal processor. Many times I find myself daydreaming, or stuck in my own head...

Often, I am struck by the hope that lies in humanity... I am also continually in awe of how much our lives intersect..

My friend Marta moved here from Poland a little over a year ago. A few weeks ago she shared dinner with her husband, her sister & her boyfriend, a few Muslim individuals from Yemen, a Hindu couple, and a few other people. She was expressing to me how much can happen through conversation and the sharing of food. All of the cultures surrounding the table were drastically different, some even from countries fighting wars with one another...

On Saturday I ended up getting in a long conversation with an individual in my neighborhood regarding public schools, social work, and justice. This individual was so refreshing to talk to because he was not afraid to ask REALLY tough questions. Our conversation sparked something within, and I haven't been able to stop processing it.

Then today at church I was once again influenced by the crazy interconnectedness of our lives. During the offering portion of the service our pastor always explains that our lives are meant as an offering.. It is a time where we share moments of pain, petition, and protest before the congregation. The church I attend is diverse both culturally and generation ally. After the service the church always provides a drop-in meal to the homeless. Lately, a way larger number of the homeless have been attending the church service. During the offering people shared concerns for friends they know in Palestine dealing with the issues in Gaza, others shared personal tragedies within their own family, some shared moments of joy announcing they were expecting their first child, some shared that they are seekign employment, one woman shared that she has been sober for 5 months ... Today, we also had communion. Our pastor always randomly chooses 2 people from the congregation to serve communion together. He seems to choose individuals who would appear quite different from one another. Today, he chose an African American man in his late 30's who is homeless, and myself. This was a humbling experience... As Christ's body was broken for each of us, and his blood shed for us... As we approach a year of new beginnings... May we live in the hope that is found in Christ.. A man who came to this earth to LOVE, not to divide... May we continually recognize our stories are woven together into a beautiful tapestry and we cannot forget that we belong to each other.

India Arie says it best...


"Better People"

Yeah Yeah!
Yeah Yeah!


I wish there was a video game
to teach you your ancestors name
I wish there was a phone number

like 1-800-Save-Your-Brother
I'm thankful for the radio station
Not afraid to put the truth in rotation

there are skirts of information
That you can only get in conversation when...

[Chorus:]
Young People, who talk to
Old People, it would make us
Better People, all around...
(Yes it would)

And if Old People would talk to
Young People, it would make us
Better People, all around....
(Yes it would)

[Verse 2:]
We went from radio to TV
Now we're going from LP to CD
Don't be afraid

To try something new
I can help you with the brand new technology
Help me with the age old philosophy
Together there's so much we can do when

[Chorus:]
Young People, who talk to
Old People, it would make us
Better People, all around...

And if Old People would talk to
Young People, it would make us
Better People, all around....

They say that every
Generation gets worse
They call it a generational curse

These problems don't just drop out the sky (yeah)
Listen to Mahatma Ghandi's words
Be the change you want to see in the world
Start with yourself and healing will multiply
AAAAAAH, that's what happens When..

[Chorus:]
Young People, who talk to
Old People, it would make us
Better People, all around...

If Old People would talk to
Young People, it would.....
Better People, all around....

If black people
Would talk to white people
It would make us
Better People
All Around....

If Republican people would
Talk to Democratic people
It would make us diplomatic people
[laugh] All Around.....

2009...shine.

2008 is old... 2009 is new. Happy New Year!
I thank God for another year.. full of many changes, struggles, joys, and all that is in between.

We took the DinoMights to Feed my Starving Children again this year.. We had 35 youth partcipate, with 10 adult volunteers.


Yesterday I went to the pow-wow to watch three of my neighbors dance.



Overall I am looking forward to 09. I am not really into resolutions..( more into life goals/dreams) Some exciting things are coming up though:
-finishing my last semester of classes for grad school
-taking voice lessons ( many of you know I DO NOT sing.. )
-cabin weekend with the friends
-January 20th...! ( Gobama)
...and many other shennanigans.

Turds & the Christ child.

Buy Nothing Day as Advent Activism Against the Demon Mammon
by Shane Claiborne 12-02-2008
As per usual, on Friday, we had all sorts of Buy Nothing Day festivities . But that’s not what I want to talk about. I read recent posts on consumerism and Buy Nothing Day by Eugene Cho and Rachel Anderson here on God’s Politics, and I admire the optimism and nuanced critiques. But this past weekend folks around the world stared in embarrassment, pity, and horror as people killed each other for bargains –- literally.

It seems to warrant a little more reflection.

A 34-year-old Wal-mart worker was trampled to death. A young woman miscarried in the same frenzy. Two folks were shot in the Toys-R-Us. Fights broke out in stores around the country as people stepped on each other to save $40 on a plasma TV.

Some of the media stories simply looked in horror on the crowds, calling them “savages” and such things. But there are much deeper questions we must ask. We must ask questions of class, race, inequality, and the dynamics that create killing stampedes at Wal-marts. And certainly greed may look different inside the Neiman Marcus, but that does not mean it is any less dangerous or evil.

Suddenly the theatrics don’t seem like hyperbole –- the documentaries on the “affluenza epidemic” are not so far-fetched. The antics of theological stuntsters like Rev. Billy preaching about the “Shopocalypse” and casting demons out of Wal-marts don’t seems so over-the-top. It does seem we are up against a demon … Mammon.

We are fighting a battle not simply of flesh and blood. It is a battle of principalities and powers that possess us to do things we would not do in our own flesh -– like kill enemies we don’t know and step on workers we don’t see. We are up against Mammon (the demonic personification of money that Jesus gives a name to). And Mammon has many faces and disguises as we see possessions possess us with the obsession of heroin addiction and occupy us with the fanatacism of demonic occupation.

As you watch video of the stampedes it does seem almost like a mass hysteria, as if possessed by an evil spirit. And yet I find it hard to imagine any of them doing individually the horror they were able to accomplish together. I’m sure you would be hard-fetched to find anyone who would stomp a defenseless 34-year-old man to death, even for a free TV.

I will never forget what happened to a young man in our neighborhood a few Christmases ago. He never meant to be a murderer. A few adolescent friends planned a robbery, which went from bad to worse. As they were in the middle of the robbery, things got messy and guns were pulled, shots were fired, and a police officer was killed. The young man faced the death penalty. At one point someone asked the glaring question that no one dared ask, “Why did you do it?” The young man said, “We just wanted to be able to get presents for our families for the holiday.” That wasn’t the answer folks were expecting. That wasn’t the voice of a killer, but of a son and a father. The reporter had tears in her eyes.

It seems like a good time to say: ENOUGH.

One of the great memories I have from our Buy Nothing Day circus outside the Gallery mall here in Philly was a woman who came up to me and said, “Thank you. I just needed permission to say ENOUGH! – ENOUGH to the frenzied rush to buy stuff for people who already have everything.”

Enough to the myth that happiness must be purchased. Enough to an economy that is awarding CEOs salaries 500 times that of their workers and still manages to seduce people in poverty and wealth alike to give more money to these predatorial corporations. Enough to the American dream that now consumes over 40 percent of the world’s stuff with less than 6 percent of the world’s resources. Enough to a dream that would need four more planets if the world pursued it … a dream the world cannot afford. Enough to the advice of government leaders who fearfully order us to “just keep shopping” after tragedies like September 11 and November 28. ENOUGH. Maybe God has another dream.

I see a church pregnant with new imagination this Advent season.

In the wake of the bloody frenzy in the malls, I saw another news story that was about a church congregation down in North Carolina that had worship services all day long, praying for freedom from the spirit of consumerism and mammon, praying for the end of poverty, and giving people an invitation to do something different the day after thanksgiving. What originally seemed like wild ideas on the fringes, like the Advent Conspiracy, have snowballed into movements that now include thousands of diverse congregations who are committed to “taking the holiday back from the empire” as one of compassion not consumption.

I love the story of one pastor who got fed up with all the decorations and clutter. He began to see that we are in danger of losing the very “reason for the season,” Jesus –- the Jesus that was born in the middle of Herod’s bloody genocide, the Jesus who was born a refugee with no room in the inn, the Jesus who knew suffering from the cradle to the cross. This pastor went through the sanctuary the night before the big Christmas service and spread out manure all over the floor -– nasty, stinky piles of turd. As folks came in the next day in their best attire, he preached … and did he ever. He preached about how the original story of was not about malls and decorations. He preached about a story that was not pretty. He preached about a God who enters the s**t of this world and redeems all that is ugly and broken. It is a story they will never forget. It is the story of our faith.

That is the imagination that we need as we seek not to conform to the patterns of this world. It takes that kind of courage to exorcize the demons of greed that smell more each day like the seven deadly sins. But unto us a child is born … a child who has overcome the world.

Shane Claiborne is a Red Letter Christian and a founding partner of The Simple Way community, a radical faith community that lives among and serves the homeless in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. He is the co-author, with Chris Haw, of Jesus for President.

welfare redefined

My friend Shanna shared this song with me.
Keith Naylor is a singer she knows from Indiana.

Lyrics to Keith Naylor's Song: Spring Street

"Hey mister do you have a dime?
Do you have a dime?
That’s all I need for my train fare.

I lost my job and my wife’s real sick
And my baby owes more than I can pay

And I smell the scent of Listerine
And the baby steps of a well planned scheme

And I wonder
Oh I wondered why my God is here,
I wondered why he needed a beer in the winter

Hey Jesus with your worn out clothes
And your scattered mind
What you doing on Spring Street?

Of all the people you could be
Do you have to be a disguise so distressing?

So I held out my hand to my new found friend
Side by side we walked to the Crystal

As we talked and as we ate
He forgot his scam and I lost my hate for the winter

I smelled the scent of love unseen
The longing of a heart that clean
And I wondered
I wondered why my God was here,
I wondered how he took my fear
Yes I wondered

Hey Jesus with your worn out clothes
And your scattered mind
What you doing on Spring Street?

Of all the people you could be
Do you have to be a disguise so distressing?

Hey mister do you have the time? Do you have the time?
I think I’m late for my train here
Thank you so much you’ve been more than kind and if you don’t mind
Could you spare me a nickel?

I spelled the scent of Listerine
And I gave the man the last of my change and I wondered

I wondered why my God was here
I wondered why he let me near
Yes I wondered

Hey Jesus with your worn out clothes
and your scattered mind
what you doing on Spring Street?

Of all the people you could be
Do you have to be a disguise so distressing?


I turned and walked away to my car
Met a man I had seen before and he asked me
Hey mister do you have a dime? Do you have a dime?"


Living in the city I am often stuck at the crossroads of questioning people motives .It is always important to have a healthy sense of discernment. Yet, I don't want to have my eyes blinded as I walk through life . Last year I went to a talk by a woman who works for a well known homeless advocacy agency in the twin cities. She advised us to refrain from giving money or food to the homeless carrying signs by the freeway ramps. She said the best thing to do is simply acknowledge their presence rather than awkwardly avoiding eye contact. I still wrestle with that.

Weekly I face the tension of telling an individual "no", or giving them a few dimes or a quarter for their "fare."

I often will never know what an individual might do with a few quarters for a "bus fare." A few months ago an individual was walking up and down our street asking if they could get 75 cents for yard work. They were trying to get enough money for the homeless shelter 30 day stay fee. I gave this person some change and they did a wonderful job raking our yard. Who knows if they used the money for their shelter fee. Yet Jesus asks us to give more than what is asked of us... Call me foolish...

In one of my favorite books of all time " Theirs is the Kingdom-Celebrating the Gospel in Urban America" Robert Lupton writes about welfare being redefined.He writes " Let the 'haves' work in partnership with the 'have nots'. each bringing something of value to contribute. Develop a system of reciprocity that gives poor people the dignity of earning and produces in the giver a sense of indebtedness and gratitude. Let the system be small and manageable so that accountability and integrity can be maintained. Let it be a personable system in which rich and poor touch each other's lives, where their values collide so that both are changed. And when you see pride return to the eyes of the young, and when the affluent offer with appreciation fair compensation for a job well done, you will know that you have created a model of community that is worthy to be called welfare."

The thought of reciprocity doesn't always make sense to me, and it is often difficult. It is often a matter of living the questions.
Their isn't an easy answer.....

I don't believe in handouts...
I believe in advocacy, dignity, justice, and empowering people.
Most of all I value building relationships and truly knowing each other's story.
Yet... often situations don't have a formula or a guidebook... Life in the urban context is filled with the collision of cultures and experiences.