{"id":14992,"date":"2013-04-09T13:41:01","date_gmt":"2013-04-09T17:41:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=14992"},"modified":"2013-04-09T13:41:01","modified_gmt":"2013-04-09T17:41:01","slug":"good-news-for-people-who-like-good-news-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/04\/09\/good-news-for-people-who-like-good-news-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Good news for people who like good news"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u2022 \u201cOne man\u2019s fight against foreclosures in Carpentersville<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom Roeser is on a one-man mission to save Carpentersville, Ill., from falling into the fate of so many post-industrial Midwestern towns, where neighborhoods have become littered with vacant, foreclosed homes.<\/p>\n

Over the past several years, the 60-year-old president and co-owner of the town\u2019s largest employer, a maker of switches and communications gear called Otto Engineering, has bought 193 foreclosed homes, completely rehabilitated them and is either selling or renting them at a discount to local residents.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2022 Harris County, Texas, realizes it\u2019s better \u2014 smarter, cheaper, more just and more humane \u2014 to help the mentally ill get treatment than to put them in jail<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u2022 \u201cFeds Shut Down Telemarketing Scam Aimed at Elderly<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Occupy Wall Street\u2019s Rolling Jubilee has now raised \u201cenough money to abolish $11,226,570 of personal debt<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cUAE Launches 100 Megawatt Solar Energy Plant, Largest in Mideast<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cWind power is poised to kick nuclear\u2019s ass<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Overdraft Protection Act<\/a> has 42 cosponsors in the House of Representatives. Rep. Carolyn Maloney\u2019s bill would prevent overdraft \u201cprotection\u201d fees from snowballing in a cascade of legalized theft that currently transfers more than $30 billion<\/em> each year from workers to banks. This is money \u2014 the equivalent to the annual income of more than half a million American households \u2014 simply taken<\/em> from people\u2019s bank accounts and kept by banks. Banks, of course, would like to continue taking this money from people. And Congress, of course, would like to continue allowing banks to do so \u2014 which is why Govtrack only gives this bill a 1-percent chance of being enacted. But still, it\u2019s a start.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Murmurings of conservative support for fully funding public defenders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Rabbi Jason Klein has been elected to lead the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association. He becomes the first openly gay man to lead a national rabbinic association<\/a> in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Maryland has repealed the death penalty<\/a>, becoming the sixth state to do so in the last six years.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Southern Baptists in Texas and Mississippi are beginning to act against predatory lending<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Students at Wilcox County High School in Rochelle, Georgia<\/a>, are pushing for an integrated prom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since this is 2013, I suppose I should explain that \u201cintegrated\u201d here doesn\u2019t refer to some high-tech initiative to integrate social media into the students\u2019 prom experience or to some new \u201cwholistic\u201d approach to decorating the school gym for a big spring dance. \u201cIntegrated\u201d there means the same thing it meant back in the mid 20th Century \u2014 racially<\/em> integrated, as opposed to racially segregated.<\/p>\n

And even though it is 2013, Wilcox County High School has never had a racially integrated prom. The Constitution may have forced Rochelle, Georgia, to integrate its public schools, but the good white Christian people of Georgia still cling vehemently to their right to bar non-white students from attending prom (and homecoming) \u2014 a tradition of racial discrimination enforced by the local police<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But as effed-up as the alleged adults apparently are in Rochelle, the kids are alright. This year, for the first time, they opted to elect only one \u201chomecoming court\u201d \u2014 with a white student chosen as \u201cking\u201d and a black student chosen as \u201cqueen.\u201d And the kids, correctly, think it\u2019s pretty dumb that the adults won\u2019t allow the homecoming king and queen to attend the same dance:<\/p>\n

So the girls are taking matters into their own hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t change it nobody else will,\u201d said Keela.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re part of a group of students organizing a prom for everyone to attend, called the \u201cIntegrated Prom.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s another 12 reasons that maybe the optimists aren’t completely wrong, including: A town fights back against foreclosures; a Texas county gets smarter; Jubilee!; wind power blowing away nuclear; a bill to stop banks from stealing $30 billion a year from depositors; Maryland opts not to kill people; and even the popular kids at a Georgia high school think the adults’ racist traditions are stupid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-14992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hope"],"yoast_head":"\nGood news for people who like good news<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here's another 12 reasons that maybe the optimists aren't completely wrong, including: A town fights back against foreclosures; a Texas county gets smarter; Jubilee!; wind power blowing away nuclear; a bill to stop banks from stealing $30 billion a year from depositors; Maryland opts not to kill people; and even the popular kids at a Georgia high school think the adults' racist traditions are stupid.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/04\/09\/good-news-for-people-who-like-good-news-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Good news for people who like good news\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here's another 12 reasons that maybe the optimists aren't completely wrong, including: A town fights back against foreclosures; a Texas county gets smarter; Jubilee!; wind power blowing away nuclear; a bill to stop banks from stealing $30 billion a year from depositors; Maryland opts not to kill people; and even the popular kids at a Georgia high school think the adults' racist traditions are stupid.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/04\/09\/good-news-for-people-who-like-good-news-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"slacktivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-04-09T17:41:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/files\/2013\/04\/EHouse-300x176.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/04\/09\/good-news-for-people-who-like-good-news-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/04\/09\/good-news-for-people-who-like-good-news-2\/\",\"name\":\"Good news for people who like good news\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-04-09T17:41:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-04-09T17:41:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\"},\"description\":\"Here's another 12 reasons that maybe the optimists aren't completely wrong, including: A town fights back against foreclosures; a Texas county gets smarter; Jubilee!; wind power blowing away nuclear; a bill to stop banks from stealing $30 billion a year from depositors; Maryland opts not to kill people; and even the popular kids at a Georgia high school think the adults' racist traditions are stupid.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/04\/09\/good-news-for-people-who-like-good-news-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/04\/09\/good-news-for-people-who-like-good-news-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/04\/09\/good-news-for-people-who-like-good-news-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Good news for people who like good news\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\",\"name\":\"slacktivist\",\"description\":\""Test everything; hold fast to what is good."\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\",\"name\":\"Fred Clark\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Fred Clark\"},\"description\":\"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Good news for people who like good news","description":"Here's another 12 reasons that maybe the optimists aren't completely wrong, including: A town fights back against foreclosures; a Texas county gets smarter; Jubilee!; wind power blowing away nuclear; a bill to stop banks from stealing $30 billion a year from depositors; Maryland opts not to kill people; and even the popular kids at a Georgia high school think the adults' racist traditions are stupid.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/04\/09\/good-news-for-people-who-like-good-news-2\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Good news for people who like good news","og_description":"Here's another 12 reasons that maybe the optimists aren't completely wrong, including: A town fights back against foreclosures; a Texas county gets smarter; Jubilee!; wind power blowing away nuclear; a bill to stop banks from stealing $30 billion a year from depositors; Maryland opts not to kill people; and even the popular kids at a Georgia high school think the adults' racist traditions are stupid.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/04\/09\/good-news-for-people-who-like-good-news-2\/","og_site_name":"slacktivist","article_published_time":"2013-04-09T17:41:01+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/files\/2013\/04\/EHouse-300x176.jpg"}],"author":"Fred Clark","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fred Clark","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/04\/09\/good-news-for-people-who-like-good-news-2\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/04\/09\/good-news-for-people-who-like-good-news-2\/","name":"Good news for people who like good news","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-04-09T17:41:01+00:00","dateModified":"2013-04-09T17:41:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47"},"description":"Here's another 12 reasons that maybe the optimists aren't completely wrong, including: A town fights back against foreclosures; a Texas county gets smarter; Jubilee!; wind power blowing away nuclear; a bill to stop banks from stealing $30 billion a year from depositors; Maryland opts not to kill people; and even the popular kids at a Georgia high school think the adults' racist traditions are stupid.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/04\/09\/good-news-for-people-who-like-good-news-2\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/04\/09\/good-news-for-people-who-like-good-news-2\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/04\/09\/good-news-for-people-who-like-good-news-2\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Good news for people who like good news"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/","name":"slacktivist","description":""Test everything; hold fast to what is good."","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47","name":"Fred Clark","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Fred Clark"},"description":"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14992\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}