Today is slightly better than yesterday. Things are still rough, but I'll get over it.
 
Yesterday was a typing day. The monthly deacons meeting was moved up a week because we have a quarterly business meeting the last Wednesday of the month. It takes me forever to type up the minutes. I don't know why. I spent four hours on it last night. Of course it wasn't just the minutes; I also type up a summary of the youth stuff each month and that takes a fair amount of time. I also typed up some analysis of the number of households in each income category that I've been working on. I'm trying to see where we are at as far as expectations of what should be hitting the offering plates every week. I looked at it a couple different ways and tried to always take the conservative side of any ranges. What it showed was somewhat depressing; basically, we are getting all that we can expect to get until we get off our butts and fill the seats. Asking the people already giving for still more doesn't seem right.
 
That was pretty much the night.
 
Jerry Pournelle had an excerpt from a NY Times article about the coming disaster of black idleness. It had the following paragraph:

This slow death of the hopes, pride and well-being of huge numbers of African-Americans is going unnoticed by most other Americans and by political leaders of both parties.

This "slow death" goes unnoticed because first, more often than not, it is the result of personal choice. Why would I care if another person chooses what I would consider a miserable existence? People think I'm nuts for the way I live, too. Maybe a significant fraction of black men like to lead pointless lives. Has anyone bothered to ask them? Just because another person's lifestyle would be misery for you, doesn't mean they see it the same way.
 
Second, most voters don't notice because they are too busy working two jobs to pay taxes to fund the welfare that allows a significant fraction of black males to remain jobless for years at a time.
 
Third, politicians don't notice because a) the voters don't notice, and b) unemployed blacks don't generally vote. If they did, you would see delivery trucks with "Vote for the John's" painted on the side handing out free beer and pizza in every inner-city area in America. This is precisely why the people who founded this country insisted that voting be restricted to those with assets or land. A person capable of supporting himself is far less easily bought.
 
OK, so maybe my mood isn't that much better...
 
Tonight will be another late night. I have to get something ready for youth group tomorrow after the deacons meeting. I hope this isn't a late night.