What Makes a Community?

Yesterday, I rented a bike in San Francisco and rode over the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin. To get back to San Francisco I took the ferry from Sausalito to the Embarcadero.

While waiting for the ferry, I called my wife. I said "We are waiting to get on the ferry." In a later call she asked me who was the "we." She knew I was there to meet a man from South Africa. She also knew that our daughter-in-law Jessica was coming to San Francisco for a Salvation Army meeting. So the "we" was unclear. In one sense though it was just me. The cyclists were all off to the side separate from the pedestrians. "we" meant us cyclists. Why did I say we?

There are many cyclists on the bike path along the bay, on the bridge approaches, on the bridge and on the bike paths in Marin and Sausalito. Everyone stops at different points to rest. Cyclists pass each other and then get passed. They hold brief conversations and greetings. A certain number of cyclists then form a camaraderie of doing the same thing at the same time yet not being directly together. While waiting for the ferry loading some of these cyclists are able to greet each other as friends of the moment though names are not known and there will soon be a break-up. It becomes a "we." It could still be "we" to distinguish from the pedestrians or to group those about to do the same thing. In this case the "we" becomes a designation for a temporary community.

There are many types of communities that may not seem to be communities. Motorcyclists  wave to each other. On country roads with little traffic and relatively low speed there is the lifted index finger off the steering wave to each other. Cowboy hat wearers nod to one another. The same with drivers of antique cars, Corvettes, or whatever is similar yet uncommon. In the Xin Fu Kang Neighbourhood in Shanghai it might be senior citizens in specially designed buildings in a wealthy area.   

If it is not possible to say "we" then a community must not exist. Maybe if we (there it is again) can say "we" then  we can go further and clarify the type of community and can do, something for the common good.

As safety moves from mandatory behavior control to grass roots beneficial experiences, there will be more of the "we" communities. I'm going to work more on where the "we" should take place and how to know when the community exists.

David Sneed

I was Stopped by a Deputy in Nevada Today

I was stopped today on a remote highway in Nevada by a County Deputy. No citation though. He said that he stopped me because I was using a cell phone while driving. With each of us doing at least 70 mph I don't know how he could determine that. I was not using a cell phone and my passenger confirmed it. The deputy wanted to see my cell phone. I had to unfasten my seat belt to retrieve it from my left jeans pocket. I gave it to the Deputy who determined that I had, in fact, not been using it. He did tell me that there is a new law in Nevada and that he is watching for violators. 


Authorities say distracted driving puts everyone on the road at risk. The National Safety Council estimates that one in four car crashes involve cell phone use. Cell phone usage though, only one element of distraction, has become safety theatre. I was exceeding the speed limit. That was not an issue. I was driving an Arizona car though the deputy knew I was from Wyoming and my passenger was from South Africa. No need to show ownership or authority to drive it.  There was no security concern about why we were there on that remote road and on a weekday. 


No disrespect intended to the Deputy or to his Department. He was most courteous. He has to do whatever someone somewhere has determined is  a priority. 

David Sneed

Cowboy Safety, Wyoming, and Etch a Sketch

Today on CNN, Eric Fehrnstrom, an adviser to Mitt Romney, spoke of a new start for Romney's campaign after winning the Illinois primary. “Everything changes,” Mr. Fehrnstrom said. “It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again.”


Interesting thought with some history behind it. 


The Virginian, by Owen Wister, is the quintessential Wyoming story of Equality. At the Swinton barbecue, speaking of the unnamed cowboy for whom the book was named, school teacher Molly Wood said "There's a stranger now. Who is that black man?" "Well - he's from Virginia. and he ain't allowing he's black." 


In Wyoming race and color did not matter. Perhaps the Virginian was a freed slave. Where you came from and what you did before coming to Wyoming did not matter. All that mattered was what you were in Wyoming. To paraphrase Fehrnstrom, Wyoming was like an Etch A Sketch. 


Cowboy Safety works the same way. In the industrial age safety was done in a certain way. Legal compliance became more important than incident prevention. People were treated as machines that had to be protected more from themselves than anything else. 


Then safety was all shaken up.  


Safety became a part of the design process. Instead of binders full of engineering legalese, safety became a part of one's life. Automation took over the nitty gritty. Much of safety became invisible. Hazards became those of situational stress. We began to realize that safety is not the same everywhere. And after 9/11 we began to do safety differently. 


In the same way that Wyoming was a geographic place of a new start, safety is a continuing new start not just in our physical location but in our minds and in our actions. Each day is different. Each situation is different. Being safe from random events and secure from planned events means to constantly shake that Etch A Sketch. 


David Sneed

Cowboy Safety Design Process by Richard Rodgers

Cowboy Safety Design Process by Richard Rodgers? Do you mean the Richard Rodgers of Rodgers and Hammerstein? Yep!

Here it is.

"Our first meeting on the project that eventually became known as OKLAHOMA! took place at my home in Connecticut. We sat under the huge oak tree and tossed ideas around. What kind of songs were we going to write? Where would they go? Who would sing them? What special texture and mood should the show have?

We had many such sessions until we became thoroughly familiar
not only with every aspect of the play but with each other's outlook and approach as well. Fortunately we were in agreement on all major issues, so that when we finally did begin putting words and notes on paper - which didn't occur until we'd gone through weeks of discussions - we each were able to move ahead at a steady pace.

The first problem was, appropriately, how to open the show. We didn't want to begin with anything obvious, such as a barn dance with everyone a-whoopin and a-hollerin'. After much thought and talk, we simply went to the way Lynn Riggs had opened his play, with a woman seated alone on the stage churning butter. For the lyric of the first song, Oscar developed his theme from the description that Riggs had written as an introduction to the scene.

This was all Oscar's poetic imagination needed to produce his lines about cattle standing like statues, the corn as high as an elephant's eye, and the bright golden haze on the meadow. When I read them for the first time I could see those cattle and that corn and bright golden haze vividly. How prophetic were Oscar's words I've got a beautiful feelin'/Everything's goin' my way.

By opening the show with the woman alone onstage and the cowboy beginning his song offstage, we did more than set a mood, we were in fact, warning the audience, 'Watch out! This is a different kind of musical.'"

I cannot imagine what the play would have been like if Rodgers and Hammerstein had used the technical approach used by most safety plan designers.

David Sneed

They Knew They Weren't Dealing with the Salvation Army

"In choosing to contract with Goldman, these people knew they weren’t dealing with the Salvation Army."

This is a great quote that is actually to the benefit of the Salvation Army. It draws a contrast between Christianity and Materialism. 

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2012/03/why-is-goldman-so-goldman.html#ixzz1pTbLWu8i

I'm reminded of a sermon by one of the mainline radio preachers like the ones on Back to the Bible, programs that have elevator music hymns and preachers with elevator music voices. As one of his illustrations, in a matter of fact way this preacher was telling about the most important thing that he does every year which is to check his net worth and compare it to the previous year.

No determination of whether or not he was becoming more like Christ as his net assets increased. Nothing about whether or not he was becoming more isolated from the needy. Nothing about whether or not his increasing wealth meant that he was becoming more selfish. Nothing about if he was moving up into better neighborhoods.No review of the condition of his soul. 

With increasing wealth he no and his family no longer had to associate with the low-life that Jesus favored. Instead he lived with people that mattered to him, the money class. 

David Sneed 

How to Build a 30 Story Hotel in Two Weeks

This hotel in China was built in 2 weeks

Do you want to make a difference? Have a look a this video. I made it at R W Schambach's Camp Meeting, his last one, in February 2010. First is what you do something that would be noticed enough that you would be told that you would be arrested if you continue? And then what would you do if you were told that?

Today, Christians are not much of a threat to anyone. About a hundred years ago just in Cheyenne Wyoming, according to the history at the local Salvation Army Corps, people throw rocks at the Salvationists. Their message was so powerful that it caused noticeable loss of business at the bars. What was so different about their message?

Today, the gospel message has become "we'd like to have you as a member of our church especially if you will be putting money in the offering plate. You don't have to quit anything that you do. Homosexual? Living with your girlfriend/boyfriend? Lover of material things? No problem.

You say you are a Christian? Go reread the gospels. Jesus challenged people to believe in Him. Look at the healings. Do you trust God that much? Look at the other challenges. Jesus told one man not to go to his father's funeral. He told another man to give up his money.

Are you into Cheap Easy Believism?

David Sneed

365 Days in the Life of a Bicycle in New York

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then  365 pictures must be worth 365,000 words. thought that this was a neat safety graphic. Think through what that could mean. Parts being stolen is not the issue. Think in terms of time and change.

Opening Prayer at First National Safety Council Congress on September 30, 1912 in Milwaukee

Dr Edward a Steiner, Professor of Applied Christianity, Grinnell College:

Oh Lord, Our God, who dost promise to those who meet in Thy name Thine own presence, we have come together not to consider our own weal or wealth; we have come here in Thine own name to consider the well-being of our fellowmen, and we would invoke Thy blessing, ask Thee to meet with us whom Thou hast chosen to be co-workers with Thee. We pray that Thou may be with us and help us not only to light the way, but help us to keep the way, and grant that everything that shall be done at this Congress  shall work for the well-being of our fellow-men for the glory and development of our own country, and for the speedy coming of the Kingdom of God. May our consideration of the safety of labor and the toiler be rewarded by a higher respect for humanity as a whole, a greater regard for law, a purer and deeper and higher patriotism, wilst Thou bless this city in which we meet, this Commonwealth, our beloved country, the President of the United States, his cabinet and all his officers, this great country and all its states from one end to the other and may it continue to be the great beacon to the world, lighting toward liberty and toward progress, and may the work which we do here this morning be a contribution toward that end. Bless the President of this Association, all the officers, all those who take part, and may it be as solemn as it is sacred, and may it be useful as we try to make it holy. We ask it all in the Master’s name, who gave himself for the good of men. Amen.

B. Schackman & Co, Favors, Novelties

B. Schackman & Co, Favors, Novelties was founded in 1898

http://www.shackman.com/

Dinosaur Account in the Bible

The following, reprinted with permission, was written by Pete Mackevich, Wildlife Lecturer at the Pocono Snake and Animal Farm in Marshalls Creek PA, a short distance north of I-80 near Stroudsburg and the Delaware Water Gap. 

Hello Pastor Dave,

My name is Pete Mackevich. I appreciated your message on how the Bible is reliable. I especially liked when you brought up about how scripture agrees with true science. That's one of my favorite subjects. I've got one other example for you about dinosaurs and the Bible. The word dinosaur was coined in 1842 by Sir Richard Owen, so of course the word is not found in the Word, but an eye witness description is. In Job, believed by many to be the oldest written book of the Bible, chapter 40:15 – 24 is an anatomically accurate account of a dinosaur.

First is the name "behemoth". It's the original Hebrew word, and although many have interpreted it to be a hippopotamus, the text doesn't bear it out. The word behemoth is associated with something BIG. Behemoth existed with man. How else could Job be commanded to look at it? Verse 15 tells us that this large animal was a vegetarian. So we have a large vegetarian animal.

Verse 17 shows it can't be a hippo, elephant, or any other large vegetarian mammal alive now or extinct (that we know of). It describes it's tail appearing like a cedar tree. All known large herbivorous mammals, present or extinct, have puny tails compared to their body. A hippo's tail is so scrawny compared to it's body, you hardly notice it! Now we have a large vegetarian with a long cylindrical tail.

From the NKJ version verse 17 also says “The sinews of his thighs are tightly knit.” The King James says “The sinews of his stones”. The actual Hebrew word is testicles. This is important. In most mammals testis hang outside the body cavity to stay cooler. In reptiles and birds the testicles are inside the body cavity, usually above the kidneys, and wrapped in connective tissue, sinew.

So it can't be a large mammal, and birds, even the largest, wouldn't be considered a behemoth, plus they don't have tails. It has to be a reptile. The only creatures that fit this picture are dinosaurs, either hadrosaurs, better known as duckbills, or sauropods, the “brontosaur” style.

From verse 16 and 18 the NKJ says that his strength is in his hips, and that his bones are like beams of iron. In all dinosaurs, bipeds and quadrupeds, and also alligators and crocks, most of the body weight is born by the hips. With the huge sauropods the leg bones were like a column or beam, only having a 15 degree flex maximum at the joints to bear the weight. Because of this I believe behemoth is one of the sauropods.

Verse 16 tells us that his power is in his stomach muscles. A sauropod, like many dinosaurs, crocodiles, and birds, had a gizzard to break up and, in effect, chew their food. It's believed the larger sauropods may have had gizzards over 3 foot wide with muscle walls a foot thick. These gizzards could grind down almost anything.

Verse 20 says the mountains yield food for him. Up until the 1970's scientists generally believed that sauropods lived in water, that they weighed too much for their legs to support them on land. There are many convincing paintings, done under the guidance of paleontologists. It is known now, from fossil track ways, that they not only walked on land, but many species frequented low mountain, their valleys and surrounding areas. So the mountains did yield food to him. Talk about the Bible being ahead of science!

Verse 22 says the lotus trees cover him with their shade. Modern day reptiles need to sun themselves to warm up, they are cold blooded. I do not agree with the general assumption of paleontologists that dinosaurs were warm blooded. But there is the principle of mass homeothermy, because the proportion of surface area to mass goes down as the mass increases, big animals retain heat. While cold blooded, reptiles do generate a small amount of heat from muscle movement. At a large sauropod's size, the problem wouldn't be getting warm, it would be cooling off. So it would need the shade of trees.

Verse 19 says he is the first in the ways of God. This word has been translated many different ways. I get the general feeling that it means he is so impressive that it calls attention to it's creator. The largest sauropods may have been as long as 150 feet, and weigh almost twice as much as a blue whale. I'm constantly amazed at God's creative hand when I look at animals, I can only imagine if I could see one of those!

So long before scientists ever had a name for them, long before they gave accurate reconstructions of them, the Lord recorded them in His Word. I think it is interesting because dinosaurs are so often used to support evolution, and in the long run discredit the Bible, and yet it is in the Bible that we have the oldest account of them.

I know you most likely remember me, but I'm the person associated with the Pocono Snake & Animal Farm, and I talked to after one service about the witness of the blood cell. You asked me to e mail you those notes, and I have to admit, it slipped my mind till Sunday. I will get them together for you.

Thank you for the great preaching,

Pete

Be Impartial and Objective

Here is David Teater of the National Safety Council illustrating an important safety principle namely to look at all of the factors involved in hazards.

There are factors within our control and out of our control. Some factors may mask others.  Be impartial and objective.

The National Safety Council is a good source of analysis material.

David Sneed