The Nextdoor website (message boards set up for cities/neighborhoods) is super useful, and the one for my neighborhood gets a LOT of posts. But I hate when the "Who else just heard gunshots?" posts show up. (We heard them, too, maybe 5 minutes ago: about 9 shots, split up as 6 shots and then a pause and then 3 more shots, that sounded fairly close, to the south of our house. Someone who lives less than a mile away posted and said they were right by her house.) (And I called 911. I apologized for not having a better sense of where exactly the shots came from, but the dispatcher said it still helps, because when people from different locations call in, they can triangulate it.)
I'm glad we have Nextdoor for stuff like this, but I hate that we need it.
The Nextdoor website (message boards set up for cities/neighborhoods) is super useful, and the one for my neighborhood gets a LOT of posts. But I hate when the "Who else just heard gunshots?" posts show up.
My neighborhood Facebook page is filled with "fireworks or gunshots" posts at all times. People seem much more concerned with asking about this stuff on Facebook than actually calling 911.
Though, it's New Orleans, and no one comes when we call anyway.
Though, it's New Orleans, and no one comes when we call anyway.
Response is hit or miss (I wonder if their response is based on number of 911 calls), and when they do respond, they aren't super quick. Though someone posted about 15 minutes ago that the cops were going down a side street with a spotlight near where the shots were fired, so maybe they can find who did it.
Well Methodist churches with the ever revolving ministers, not so much.
This.
Yep assigned and except for very large churches that a minister grew, usually reassigned every 4-6 years.
My parents' church had a minister for 9+ years because his kids were in the local school. He was lovely. Our next three or four came through like weather, one during my confirmation class, and didn't bother to learn our names.
Wow, and they say youth group didn't make an impression on me.
We had a special musical installation for a new minister at my UU congregation.
Happy birthday, Ginger!
I don't recall having any fancy services when we got new priests, but when we built a new church, the consecration was pretty awesome...
I grew up liberal Quaker. We just had potlucks and meetings and committees for fucking everything.
In my United Methodist church, it was a "this Sunday we greet our new pastor, Rev. Whozit!", and he might do a particular sermon on how happy he was to be there, and there'd be extended mingling afterwards. Mostly he'd make the rounds of the various groups to get to know people. The biggest to-do was when Reverend Biondi, the young, handsome, unmarried preacher showed up. The elders of the parish were dismayed, the young women of the parish set off the hunting horns (with the encouragement of the elders of the parish). (I ended up winning that particular race, and who knows what might have happened if he hadn't decided to go back to the big city. But it was definitely noticed that he and I snuck way from the zoo trip to go eat pizza in his old neighborhood. Heh.)
committees for fucking everything
I read that a whole different way the first time.
Happy Birthday, Ginger!
Why do we need police at all, really? They're obviously not serving or protecting civilian populations. In fact, they were originally created as guards for corporate shipments and offices--civic governments thought it would be good to co-opt the idea. Not working out so well. Neighbors policing neighbors might be a better way to go. It might well come to armed confrontation though if we challenge the infrastructure, and they're the ones with tactical gear.
