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Living in Community

A Strange Melancholy

A Strange Melancholy

This past week it hit me one morning, a little depression. It's the first time I have had this feeling in four and a half months of this pandemic.

Welcome Down Syndrome Association of Greater Charlotte

Welcome Down Syndrome Association of Greater Charlotte

The Down Syndrome Association of Greater Charlotte is THRILLED to be a PRBC campus partner and has had an amazingly warm welcome so far! We are excited to sponsor two plots in the PRBC community garden this year, too. We look forward to getting to know you all better. Feel free to stop by our offices on the First floor of Milford Chapel Building. 

Now, a little bit about who we are and what we do…

The Down Syndrome Association (DSA) of Greater Charlotte is a non-profit, family support organization founded in 1986 by a group of local parents. The goal of the DSA of Greater Charlotte and its families is to enable people with Down syndrome (Ds) to reach their full potential and become respected members of their community. Our mission is to enhance the quality of life for all people with Ds by empowering individuals, families, and professionals with information and support through education, social programs, and community partnerships. We serve 10 counties in North Carolina and 2 in South Carolina. 

Our supports and services span the lifespan of those with Down syndrome, including families and community members. Through our First Call Program, we work with new parents who receive a diagnosis of Down syndrome (prenatally or postnatally). We offer day and overnight camps for campers with Ds (ages 5-21): Camp Holiday and Camp Horizon. 

Through our Together in Education Program we offer consultation, professional development, and technical assistance to area schools so they are empowered to support learners with Ds in their classrooms. We host an annual symposium for regional educators featuring local, regional, and national experts. 

New in 2019 are programs and support for adults with Ds – focusing on increasing independence and preparing them for the world of work. We are hosting our first Independent Living Retreat May 17-19, 2019 at Camp Thunderbird. 

We rely heavily on volunteers and welcome members of PRBC to join us as we work to grow our impact and meet our mission every day in the Greater Charlotte area. For details, visit dsagreatercharlotte.org. 

Holly Zipperer,
Executive Director
Down Syndrome Association of Greater Charlotte 

Losing Our Humanity

Losing Our Humanity

Sadly and ironically, as studies show, the more we get, rather than opening our hands even wider, self-sufficiency tends to foster selfishness. Affluence begets anxiety – rather than having too little to share, it seems we have too much to be willing to share. Abundance often turns in on itself, sometimes even to the point of greed.

Quoting the Bible Without Understanding It

Quoting the Bible Without Understanding It

It’s easy, and it appears sadly enjoyable for some people of faith to read the Bible in a way that gives “legitimacy” to pointing the finger at other people. If that is the result of your reading, please, read again.

A Conversation About Guns

Guns.
 
I just needed to get that out there, in case you’re one of those who hears the word and automatically turns the page. If you think everyone who owns one is the spawn of Satan, go ahead, turn the page. And if you think anyone who can actually pronounce the word “control” is a worthless, bleeding heart nutcase, go ahead, turn the page.
 
For the rest of you, could we have a conversation?
 
If so, we will at least be ahead of the Florida state legislature who voted overwhelmingly this week not even to allow a conversation. Not even a conversation – because you know how dangerous it is for grown adults, elected to serve the common good, to have conversations. That courageous and visionary decision was made as the rest of the world was being inspired by the young people from Parkland, who had just survived the latest round of our homegrown, signature terror.
 
Heart-broken, outraged, chests pounding in breathless fear from their lucky or fateful escape, the sound of that brutal, battlefield machine still ringing in their ears, these students spoke with eloquence and power.  And one teenager’s protest sign spoke for all: “Why are we being the adults?”
 
If you’re still reading, for their sakes let’s be the adults: this was not mental illness.
 
Recently mental health experts have been borrowing the phrase, shouted repeatedly at one of those high school rallies: “We call BS on this!” Studies show that only a small minority of mentally ill patients are violent. While many of our now-infamous mass killers were undoubtedly distressed, depressed, unstable, unhinged, most were not actually “mentally ill” when they started shooting.
 
If you’re still reading, for their sakes let’s be the adults: this was not a failure of protocol.
 
Yes, the FBI admitted they missed some signals, but the local authorities had already visited that teenager multiple times, and he still became a crazed gunman. Yes, on a YouTube post he claimed, “I’m going to be a professional school shooter,” but the first amendment is as constitutional as the second. Are we really going to arrest everyone who says something stupid on social media?
 
If you’re still reading, for their sakes let’s be the adults: this was not about background checks or assault weapons bans.
 
Yes, it hardly seems unreasonable to do a simple background check on anyone who buys any kind of gun, anywhere, anytime. It only makes sense to improve that system. One would think it would be at least as difficult to buy a military-grade weapon as a handgun – but the opposite is the case. Some avid gun owners even agree that if you want an AR15, you ought to “sign up and serve your country” – but even with a complete ban on assault weapons, anyone who wants one badly enough will find a way.
 
If you’re still reading, for their sakes let’s be the adults: surely we cannot believe that arming our teachers is the answer.
 
Yes, if every teacher in Parkland had owned a gun, Nikolas Cruz might be dead today – but he would not be the only one. If a crazed gunman knows teachers are armed, you can imagine who has the first target on her head when he starts unloading a magazine in her classroom. I heard an “expert” say recently that the most important thing we can do is concentrate on the first five minutes AFTER the gunman starts killing our kids. Really? Are we that powerless? Are we that ready to admit defeat, to concede that the best thing we can do is kill the lunatic before he kills too many of our children?
 
If you’re still reading, for their sakes let’s be the adults. 

After so many of these tragedies it ought to be obvious that the problem we have is not a mental health problem, not a gun control problem, not a policy problem, not a response problem. But if we are talking like adults, we owe it to ourselves to be honest: we just have too many guns.
 
So, please, don’t just turn the page.
 
I didn’t say I don’t believe in the Second Amendment. I didn’t say you can’t own a gun. I didn’t say policies aren’t necessary. I didn’t say I hate the police or the military. I didn’t say laws aren’t important or can’t make some difference. I just said when there are 300 million guns in the country, anyone who wants a gun, of any kind, to be owned for any reason, will have one – no matter who they are, no matter the laws, no matter our preparedness for response.
 
Until we can admit the obvious, nothing will change. But when we have the courage to admit the obvious, adults acting like adults will be able to have a conversation about what we can do to let reasonable people own reasonable guns for reasons that make sense. That conversation will allow us to slowly change the mentality of violence, that has always only led to more violence. Until we can be honest, and act like the adults our kids need us to be, there will be no end to our madness. We’ll just have more…
 
Guns.
 

Transcending a Sad History

Transcending a Sad History

The President’s most recent ban, preventing transgender persons from serving in the military, is apparently based on concern for the “tremendous medical costs” associated with these enlisted troops. I don’t know what costs are involved. It is difficult to explain complex subjects and difficult decisions in 140 characters. Some subjects (and all people) deserve a more thoughtful and detailed discussion.

Relationships Across the Generations

Relationships Across the Generations

“I like to talk to people, especially older people, about what life was like. Being 17 years old, I only know the world as it is and was during my childhood, which in the scope of the length of human lifespan isn’t very much. You don’t read about daily attitudes and social life in textbooks, what I like to think of as ‘anecdotal history.’ These are the stories and experiences that we can relate to but have no specific parallel in modern life. . .”

Salvation and the Common Good

Salvation and the Common Good

Why should we ever need to raise charitable funds to educate our children? To buy supplies and provide technology? Even to provide weekend snacks, if lack of nutrition is keeping a child from learning? We ought to want to educate our children, all of them.

It is the common good – even if we have to pay more in taxes to do it. 
 

The Power of Love ... and Revenge

The Power of Love ... and Revenge

Love is real. But so is the hateful power of revenge.

Or, maybe they are two sides of the same naked, human emotion, always warring within us, enduring all things – or inflicting all things – in a quest for submission and supremacy.

Seven Monks and a Baptist Church

Seven Monks and a Baptist Church

In a world of such maddening events, I am proud, honored and humbled that seven Buddhists from the other side of the world, and at least 150 neighbors, from across my own community, were comfortable to come to a Baptist church, sit for an hour, search the silence of their own souls and the strains of ancient, chanting rhythms, in search of peace.

5 Stars for our Child Development Center

5 Stars for our Child Development Center

We will take those 5 Stars and celebrate! But the number of stars will never fully show what it takes to care for children. That takes love and can only truly be measured by the heart. Our CDC has heart.

Please Hold us in the Light

Please Hold us in the Light

There is much that needs to be said, that needs to be addressed, that needs to be changed, and I am prayerful that our work in Charlotte might stand as an example across the country.

Time with Mary

Time with Mary

I want to tell you about the best three hours I’ve spent lately.  

Mary, who has walked the grounds at 3900 Park Road since there’s been a church on that corner, suddenly found herself dying, alone. I can’t bear that thought. So on Tuesday, I sat. Most of the time she didn’t even know I was there. I’m pretty sure that didn’t even matter.

Fear Will Not Keep Us Away

Fear Will Not Keep Us Away

Tomorrow we will gather. As usual. We need to be gathering more. Not less. In Charleston, in a church, the people gathered for Bible study and for prayer. They will keep gathering - and so will we. 

Creating Essential Community Through Church

Creating Essential Community Through Church

Participation in a healthy faith community connects us with a greater good – the greatest good – and that is God’s care for all living beings. There must be some truth to the old adage about there being “no atheists in foxholes.” When life’s toughest issues come our way, most people, in one way or another, begin to reflect on what would have to be called “spiritual” things. A good Church helps us engage that conversation throughout life.