Just a reminder from the folks at Adbusters that today is Buy Nothing Day For 24 hours, millions of people around the world do not participate -- in the doomsday economy, the marketing mind-games, and the frantic consumer-binge that's become our culture. We pause. We make a small choice not to shop. We shrink our footprint and gain some calm. Together we say to Exxon, Nike, Coke and the rest: enough is enough. And we help build this movement to rethink our unsustainable course.

A 20/20 "Expose" on Matthew Shepard's murder is scheduled to air on ABC tomorrow night, November 26. The web site "Boycott for Matthew" reports In a press release promoting the show, ABC promised "surprising revelations, including Laramie's underground world of methamphetamine use that may have contributed to the crime and whether or not Shepard knew his killers." The following is a statement from Matthew's parents about the upcoming program On November 9, ABC-TV announced their intention to air a report on the hate crime and murder of our son, Matthew. The ABC press release was sensationalistic in nature and its implications have caused many of us to be concerned. As a reputable news magazine show, 20/20 has an obligation to its viewers to present fair and truthful reporting, regardless of the subject matter. Based on the problematic wording of their press release, it appears that 20/20 may have strayed from this policy in the interest of strong ratings. We appreciate everyone’s concern. We will be issuing a more complete statement following 20/20’s broadcast. ABC News did not return repeated requests for an advance copy of the program. Here is GLAAD's viewer's guide, explaining some of their concerns and questions about the program. Visit Boycott for Matthew if you are offended by this program and would like to respond.

In my last post, I mentioned the Institute for Servant Leadership. I really recommend checking out the site. I first heard of the idea of Servant Leadership when I read the review of Bennett Sims' book, Why Bush Must Go. I believe this concept of leadership needs more attention and contemplation... What is Servant Leadership? Servant Leadership seeks alignment with the primal human view that the cosmos is Ensouled and responds to Love as the abiding Power in all relationships. This perception translates into a contemporary relationship with the earth that sees humanity as in the earth, not on it. Thus humans are Creation' s ensoulment become visible and responsible, making the soul of education in Servant Leadership an education of the Soul. Servant Leadership functions from trust in Love as the energy to overcome the Fear that distorts leadership into the struggle for domination, vengeance and control. Repressive power in any system eventuates in violence --from such milder forms as passivity, quitting the company or, in the case of children, running from home --to the fiercer forms of violence as smoldering non-compliance, strikes, mutiny, armed rebellion or the horrors of genocide. In a world become too small for violence, power has no acceptable moral purpose except for empowerment to participate in power --in freedom and dignity. Where freedom is the context of any form of human organization members at all levels are harnessed to a loftier goal than competitive personal gain. The high purpose in servant-led systems --families, schools, businesses and nations --is the inclusion of all its members in proportional responsibility for decision-making and the success of the system. Organizations so aimed will be enlargers of life for their people. We believe that there is nothing optional about Servanthood as an approach to life. It represents the way the world must go if humanity is to pass successfully through the sea-change of planetary evolution that marks our time.

This morning, when I saw a blog comment from someone who had a hard time going to church any more, I realized that I hadn't plugged The Center for Progressive Christianity for a while. I remember how excited I was to discover that there was a Christian organization that was so inclusive and open to questioning. Here are the 8 points that describe progressive Christianity, according to this group. Anyway, I realize that there are probably a lot of people out there who are struggling with churches that don't reflect their values, so this might be a good time to point out their search page. If you can't find a progressive church in your area, you can try searching for progressive individuals in your area. I also recommend checking out their links page. Some interesting sites I hadn't heard of before, like the Institute for Servant Leadership. Their annual conference sounds so inviting: Emerging Communities of Hope: Conversations, Community and Transformation. Wish I could make it to Atlanta to hear Marcus Borg on that topic. Borg is so gentle and hopeful--I sure could use some of that about now.

Regina Sewell penned this imaginary letter from Mother Earth... Dear children, Most of you presidents, prime ministers and other leaders have been acting like school playground bullies, beating up countries that you perceive to be smaller and/or weaker in order to get their resources and fighting back to prove how tough you are. I’m sick of your silly squabbles over who has the best resources, the best land, and the best water. I have given you everything you need. There is plenty enough of everything to go around if you would all just share. Your greed is killing me. With your weapons of mass destruction, every military and terrorist attack ends up being an even greater assault on me. And just how do you think you are going to live if you manage to completely destroy me? I’ve tried to be patient, but I’ve had it up to here with you. Stop this fighting at once and go to your rooms! And don’t even think about taking your game boys, walkmans, cell phones, TV sets or anything to play with while you’re in there. This is serious punishment. And the rest of you stop smirking. You’re in trouble, too. As a group, you put them in power and have supported their destructive decisions. Many of you have even benefited by the gains of war. At this level, most of you share a portion of the blame. Don’t you dare roll your eyes at me. The damage you have inflicted on me with your silly conflicts is serious. You have probably either forgotten or ignored the impact of your actions or inactions, so I’ve written a list of some of the most blatant recent atrocities to refresh your memory and hopefully stimulate your conscience. Click here to read the rest

Riverbend's latest. Maybe if I keep reading these, I can become numb to them. Because, what can I do? The election is over. We American have apparently said this is cool with us. Now what? They killed a wounded man. It's hard to believe. They killed a man who was completely helpless- like he was some sort of diseased animal. I had read the articles and heard the stories of this happening before- wounded civilians being thrown on the side of the road or shot in cold blood- but to see it happening on television is something else- it makes me crazy with anger. And what will happen now? A criminal investigation against a single Marine who did the shooting? Just like what happened with the Abu Ghraib atrocities? A couple of people will be blamed and the whole thing will be buried under the rubble of idiotic military psychologists, defense analysts, Pentagon officials and spokespeople and it will be forgotten. In the end, all anyone will remember is that a single Marine shot and killed a single Iraqi 'insurgent' and it won't matter anymore. It's typical American technique- every single atrocity is lost and covered up by blaming a specific person and getting it over with. What people don't understand is that the whole military is infested with these psychopaths. In this last year we've seen murderers, torturers and xenophobes running around in tanks and guns. I don't care what does it: I don't care if it's the tension, the fear, the 'enemy'… it's murder. We are occupied by murderers. We're under the same pressure, as Iraqis, except that we weren't trained for this situation, and yet we're all expected to be benevolent and understanding and, above all, grateful. I'm feeling sick, depressed and frightened. I don't know what to say anymore… they aren't humans and they don't deserve any compassion. So why is the world so obsessed with beheadings? How is this so very different? The difference is that the people who are doing the beheadings are extremists… the people slaughtering Iraqis- torturing in prisons and shooting wounded prisoners- are "American Heroes". Congratulations, you must be so proud of yourselves today.

From the newest post on Baghdad Burning. G-d, I just wish I could make it better. I wish we could find some way to heal the world... Murder... People in Falloojeh are being murdered. The stories coming back are horrifying. People being shot in cold blood in the streets and being buried under tons of concrete and iron... where is the world? Bury Arafat and hurry up and pay attention to what's happening in Iraq. They say the people have nothing to eat. No produce is going into the city and the water has been cut off for days and days. Do you know what it's like to have no clean water??? People are drinking contaminated water and coming down with diarrhoea and other diseases. There are corpses in the street because no one can risk leaving their home to bury people. Families are burying children and parents in the gardens of their homes. WHERE IS EVERYONE???

Disenfranchised in the Buckeye State I know this isn't a usual topic of discussion, but I think it's important--and it's very Matthew 25. Look at some of what Bob Fitrakis wrote about voting in Columbus: It all seemed personal. There was a real sense among the poor and minority voters that they were making history. One older African American man quietly sang to himself “Ain’t gonna turn me around, turn me ’round…” When I decided to vote myself at 3pm when there was the shortest line of the day, I found myself between Mr. Young, an older African American man, who’d left earlier because of the osteoarthritis in his hip. He had returned with a folding chair in high spirits, proclaim in to all who could hear that he was willing to wait all night to vote. On the other side of me was Mrs. Meredith, a youthful-looking 80, who softly told me that she was there to vote for Mr. Kerry because she had lost two relatives, including a brother in World War II. “I don’t like war,” she said. Nor did the elderly African American woman like the party-like atmosphere that had broken out at the Model Neighborhood facility because she felt it wasn’t dignified. Still, the election judges didn’t seem to mind the fact that people had ordered in pizza for the wait that lasted more than three hours at various times in the day. The wealthier white people who had recently filtered in to the gentrified neighborhood kept showing up with free pop, juice and food for those waiting inside. The neighborhood known for its tension, captured in a PBS documentary, between traditional black residents and newly arriving white, many of them gay, suddenly were all working together. It was true. President Bush was a “uniter, not a divider.” The neighborhood was at the height of its solidarity as blacks and whites expressed their joy in voting against Bush. One white male wore a tie dyed peace sign shirt with the words “Recovering Bystander.” One woman left happy that Bush would soon be homeless like of her former neighbors. An hour and 35 minutes later I quickly cast my ballot with the “five minute voting rule” imposed by the presiding judge. Over in the much poorer Ward 5 at the Hope Lutheran Church reported the average wait to be three hours and thirty-five minutes at 3:30 in the afternoon, but reported a steadfast calm and an attitude that the people in line had expected a long wait. The Republican and Democratic challengers appeared to be getting along quite well, as rumors circulated that Republican Governor Robert Taft had instructed the controversial Republican poll challengers to go easy on challenges. At two other Ward 5 polls, Free Press staffers reported frightened Republican poll challengers who had little stomach to directly challenge the overwhelmingly and determined throngs of voters. Please take a few moments to find out the latest on the counting of provisional ballots in Ohio and our Secretary of State's less than above board behavior. I have a diary about this at Kos, and you can check here to find out about the public hearings that are coming up in Ohio.

From the PBS Religion and Ethics Newsweekly Multifaith Calendar November 12 Diwali (Deepavali) is perhaps the most popular Hindu festival. Known as the Festival of Lights, it is dedicate to the Goddess Kali in Bengal and to Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth, in the rest of India. As with several festivals, Diwali is associated with one of the stories about the destruction of evil by Vishnu in one of his many manifestations.

Yesterday I wrote of my sadness at learning that my friend Kimmy's sister Christy had died. Her story can be seen here. Yesterday I wrote that I wanted to be able to do something tangible and proactive in response to this tragedy. This is a small thing, but it is still something. I am adding a link to www.stophospitalinfections.org to my web sites. It would mean a lot to me, and to Kimmy and her family, if other web site and bloggers who (feel so inclined) would do the same.

This week I feel struck dumb...at a complete loss for words. My emotions have riquocheted from numb to enraged to depressed, and back to numb again. I am grateful that bloggers at The Village Gate and elsewhere are able to write articulate, thoughtful posts at this important time. There have been a series of painful blows this week, but the one that really knocked the wind out of me was learning that Kimmy Cash's sister Christy passed away this morning. And, after I learned the news at the end of my lunch hour, I continued my work day with a deep ache at the center of my being--but one that I couldn't even hope to explain to anyone. How could I possibly explain to anyone in my "real life" (other than a few close family members) the profound grief I am feeling right now for a family I have never met in person? But the world wide web is aptly named--its threads connect human lives all over the planet, and we become bound up in each other's joys, frustrations, and sorrows. "Invisible lines of connection" as Rabbi Lawrence Kushner has called them. I want to do something tangible and healing and proactive in response to this. I don't know what, just yet. But I wanted to begin to explain why this is important. If you have not read about young Christy's baffling illness and months-long hospital ordeal, it is all here. And if you wish to share a prayer or some words of sympathy, you can do so here.

This year, election day coincides with a religious/cultural holiday. For some, it is the Day of the Dead (or Dia de los Muertos ). Others call it All Souls Day. Rev. Richard W. Kelley said of All Souls' Day, This is the time for honoring our beloved dead who are not famed in story and legend, in song and scripture. You might say, it is an occasion for honoring the "little people", the "ordinary people" of Earth's past. It's a time for remembering with respect and affection all those people, now dead, whose lives are intertwined with ours in ways both known and unknown. For there is a large element of the unknown here -- unknown influences and unknown personalities -- that go into the fulfilling of our lives in every moment. And All Souls' Day is the intentional occasion for reminding ourselves of the importance of the lesser people of our human past. I like that line--"remembering with respect and affection all those people, now dead, whose lives are intertwined with ours in ways both known and unknown." I think no matter what your theology, there is value in remembering. And as we go to cast our votes tomorrow here are some of the souls that will be with us in our hearts, because their lives were intertwined with ours--directly or indirectly, in the recent or the distant past... The women who endured imprisonment and beatings so that all women could have the right to vote Activists who risked and sometimes lost their lives in the effort to end disenfranchisement due to "Jim Crow" laws Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Eleanor Roosevelt Paul Wellstone Charlie Dean, brother of Governor Howard Dean John Lennon Mother Teresa More as I think of them, or as you suggest them.

The second half of this web page has links to some of the online resources I am aware of--a variety of prayer and meditations sites, web pages where you can light a virtual candle for your intention, and prayer request sites. If you know of other such sites that would be good to link to, my e-mail address is on that page. Or you can leave a comment here.