Westminster Eagle: “City water rates likely to increase” by Jim Joyner

Westminster Eagle: “City water rates likely to increase” by Jim Joyner

Study proposes rate increase for higher users, those outside city limits

By Jim Joyner jjoyner AT patuxent.com

Posted 7/30/08

City of Westminster water and sewer revenues will fall about $1 million short of breaking even this year, and needs "restructuring" to pay for current and future repairs, maintenance and expansion.

That's the word from a consultant's study released Monday evening at a meeting of the Mayor and Common Council.

"The obvious thing is that (the city) needs to raise more money," said Edward Donahue, president of Municipal and Financial Services Group, an Annapolis consultant hired to study the city's rate structure.

"The question," he added, "is how, and who's going to pay it?"

Donahue said the city has some $80 million in capital projects in its horizon related to water and sewer service -- including a $5.6 million water connection to the Medford Quarry and $36 million project to expand the city's wastewater treatment facility. A new structure is needed, he said, to pay those bills and future obligations.

The study recommends a higher rate for users who use more water, rewarding those who use less and setting up a system to charge out-of-city users more than in-city users.

The council did not take action on the study Monday, but Council President Roy Chiavacci said it sets the stage for a discussion that will extend into the fall before a decision is made.

According to the study, Westminster's current rates are fragmented somewhat, reflecting a long list of factors that determine what people pay.

Donahue said one of the flaws of the current system is that it allows a lower rate per gallon for users who consume more water, essentially a bulk discount, when it should charge a higher rate as a means of promoting conservation.

Under the consultant's plan, the city would charge a set fee per quarter -- suggested at $20.36 for fiscal year 2009 -- then a rate per 1,000 gallons up to 18,000 gallons quarterly, suggested at $2.34.

But if users cross over that 18,000 mark, the rate would more than double, to $5.86 per thousand gallons under the proposed scenario for FY 2009.

Lisa Zitomer, a consultant with of Municipal and Financial Services, acknowledged the boost in rates is drastic, but said is tough to curb bigger users "unless you take an aggressive step."

Councilman Dr. Robert Wack said there's no way to sugarcoat the fact that rates will increase, but attaching separate rates for higher users versus low users may be a good move.

"People who use the most will pay the most," he said, "and people who save the most will pay the least."

Inside outside

The other key factor in the rate structure calls for charging users outside the city more.

Donahue said the city already charges some additional amount to many of those users, but it varies -- from 12 to 25 percent more for water and 34 to 100 percent more for sewer service.

He suggested the city switch to a "utility rate" structure for out-of-city customers -- essentially setting up the city as a utility for those clients.

If the city adopted the proposal, it would charge those users 43 percent more on water rates compared to in-city customers; and 63 percent more on sewer service.

Officials said the city will host additional discussions, and public sessions, before a decision on any new structure made.

http://www.explorecarroll.com/news/404/city-water-rates-likely-increase/

20080730 Westminster Eagle: “City water rates likely to increase” by Jim Joyner

This week in The Tentacle – July 30th, 2008

This week in The Tentacle – July 30th, 2008

July 30, 2008

Wednesday, July 30, 2008
The Obama Phenomena
Kevin E. Dayhoff
With less than 100 days to go before the November presidential election, both presumptive candidates for the Oval Office continue to look for a key – knock-out – issue that will put them over the top.


Oh, Canada!
Tom McLaughlin
There are a many similarities between North Ontario, Canada and Western Maryland. One of the most obvious is the bears. Both areas must bow to what the residents consider regulations promulgated by a foreign government.


Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Graveyard of Armies
Roy Meachum
Both presidential candidates are in agreement: We are losing the war in Afghanistan. That's not what they say of course: We must shift troops from Iraq to take care of unfinished business in Afghanistan. I hope I managed to get that straight.


To Implement Justice – or Not
Farrell Keough
A recent conversation on the radio piqued my interest. A regular Tentacle columnist and our 3-B delegate to the General Assembly, Rick Weldon, talked about the decision facing Gov. Martin O’Malley on the death penalty.


Monday, July 28, 2008
Seniors and the Silent Treatment
Richard B. Weldon Jr.
2005 was a big year in Maryland for advocates for senior citizen issues. Maybe a more accurate way to say that is that 2005 should have been a big year for senior citizens.


Windows Vista and Beyond
Steven R. Berryman
When my kids convinced me that computers and the Internet were here to stay, I invested some time, mostly via trial-and-error, to set up a system of my own. Recently I sat back and took stock of what had eventually become the cyber-center of my organizational universe.


Friday, July 25, 2008
All the City Government Goofed
Roy Meachum
Fortunately for me, the state of county and city remained tranquil for months; only minor whoopdeedos. County Commissioner President Jan Gardner deserves praise for her good job keeping John "Lennie" Thompson from mucking up the public order. And that's great news.


Thursday, July 24, 2008
Living Full Out
Patricia A. Kelly
I was reading The Frederick News Post a few days ago when I came across some fascinating stories. The first was about U.S. Olympic swimmer Dara Torres. She’s 41!


Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Fetching Food and Politics
Kevin E. Dayhoff
Every third Wednesday in July the Maryland State Capital, if not the center of the Maryland political universe, moves from Annapolis to Crisfield for the annual J. Millard Tawes Crab and Clam Bake.


Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Cartoons Capture Cinema
Roy Meachum
As readers know, Bob Miller has me on his Morning News Express (WFMD*930AM) to talk about films and plays. We chat every Friday shortly before nine, when his program ends. This is why I can be spotted hanging around movie theatres.

Ireland or Bust
Nick Diaz
My wife and I are leaving for Dublin tomorrow. No, not Dublin, Virginia, nor Dublin, Ohio. Not even Dublin, California.


Monday, July 21, 2008
Building Community Capacity
Richard B. Weldon Jr.
How do we measure the health of a community? Is it wealth-based? Maybe a healthy community is one wherein there are enough jobs paying a sufficiently high wage to sustain a family.

The Enemy Within
Steven R. Berryman
Vacationing in Bethany Beach, Delaware, took me past the iconic sub-watch towers, still positioned as they were during World War II, standing guard at the shoreline. These fortified cylindrical monoliths at one time dotted the East Coast from Maine to Florida, protecting our borders from invasion.

20080730 This week in The Tentacle

“Her and his” A Review by The Economist of “White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson & Thomas Wentworth Higginson” by Brenda Wineapple

“Her and his” A Review by The Economist of “White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson & Thomas Wentworth Higginson” by Brenda Wineapple

July 24th, 2008

I’ve always been a huge Emily Dickinson fan and this book intrigues me… Moreover, I have always been particularly interested in the friendships and relationships among writers… KED

Part One: Life

XXXIII

Emily Dickinson:

DARE you see a soul at the white heat?
Then crouch within the door.
Red is the fire’s common tint;
But when the vivid ore

Has sated flame’s conditions,
Its quivering substance plays
Without a color but the light
Of unanointed blaze.

Least village boasts its blacksmith,
Whose anvil’s even din
Stands symbol for the finer forge
That soundless tugs within,

Refining these impatient ores
With hammer and with blaze,
Until the designated light
Repudiate the forge.

American literary friendships

Hers and his

Jul 24th 2008 From The Economist print edition

“BIOGRAPHY first convinces us of the fleeing of the Biographied,” wrote Emily Dickinson, America’s most famous female poet of the 19th century, uncannily foreseeing how inscrutable a subject she herself would turn out to be.

Rather like Emily Brontë, with whom she identified, Dickinson shrank from contact with the world, scuttling off in her signature white dress as soon as a visitor appeared at the door. Reluctant to share her pared-down, laser-sharp and sometimes terrifyingly inward poems through publication—only seven were printed in her lifetime—she nevertheless relied on an iron core of self-belief, quietly prophesying that posterity would recognise her genius.

Dickinson’s externally uneventful life has been chronicled before, but Brenda Wineapple finds a new way in by focusing on her relationship with the man who would eventually help to bring her to the public gaze after her death…

Read the rest of the review here: Hers and his

http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11785043

Book details - White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson & Thomas Wentworth Higginson By Brenda Wineapple Knopf; 432 pages; $27.95 Buy it at Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk

20080724 “Her and his” A Review by The Economist of “White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson & Thomas Wentworth Higginson” by Brenda Wineapple

Fans of L.E.D.’s Say This Bulb’s Time Has Come by ERIC A. TAUB July 28, 2008

Fans of L.E.D.’s Say This Bulb’s Time Has Come by ERIC A. TAUB July 28, 2008

When the Sentry Equipment Corporation in Oconomowoc, Wis., was considering how to light its new factory last year, the company’s president, Michael Farrell, decided to try something new: light emitting diodes, or L.E.D.’s.

“I knew L.E.D.’s were used in stoplights. I wondered why they can’t be used in buildings,” Mr. Farrell said. “So I went on a mission.”

What Mr. Farrell found was a light source that many of the biggest bulb manufacturers are now convinced will supplant incandescent bulbs and compact fluorescent bulbs.

[…]

L.E.D. bulbs, with their brighter light and longer life, have already replaced standard bulbs in many of the nation’s traffic lights. Indeed, the red, green and yellow signals are — aside from the tiny blinking red light on a DVD player, a cellphone or another electronic device — probably the most familiar application of the technology.

But it is showing up in more prominent spots. The ball that descends in Times Square on New Year’s Eve is illuminated with L.E.D.’s. And the managers of the Empire State Building are considering a proposal to light it with L.E.D. fixtures, which would allow them to remotely change the building’s colors to one of millions of variations.

The nation’s Big Three of lighting — General Electric, Osram Sylvania and Royal Philips Electronics — are embracing a new era of more efficient technologies, like halogen, compact fluorescent and solid-state devices. Encouraged by legislation and the rising cost of energy, as well as concerns about greenhouse gases, consumers are swapping out incandescent bulbs.

The switch is forcing a fast change in strategy, as companies reposition their manufacturing lines. General Electric, for instance, said earlier this month that it was spinning off its unit that makes bulbs.

The bulb makers face a tough problem. Their businesses were built on customers who regularly replaced light bulbs. How do you make a profit when new lighting may commonly last 50 to 100 times as long as a standard bulb? Compact fluorescents, which use less than one-third the power and last up to 10 times as long as standard bulbs, have replaced incandescent bulbs in many homes and offices.

[…]

Read the rest of the article here: Fans of L.E.D.’s Say This Bulb’s Time Has Come by ERIC A. TAUB July 28, 2008

20080728 Fans of L.E.D.’s Say This Bulb Time Has Come by Eric Taub

Westminster's sacred places are shrines of community life

My Sunday Carroll Eagle column is up…

Westminster's sacred places are shrines of community life

EAGLE ARCHIVE By Kevin Dayhoff Posted on www.explorecarroll.com on 7/25/08

Since this is a Sunday column, I do hope it's fitting to talk about sacred places.

Not necessarily houses of worship, mind you, though those are most often considered sacred places.

I'm thinking of the sacred public places as described in a 1981 book by Dr. Ira Zepp [pictured here in a 1996 file photo] and Marty Lanham, "Sacred Spaces of Westminster."

I thought of the book as I sat in a recent Common Council meeting at Westminster City Hall -- a building that many consider one of the true sacred places in Carroll County.

At the beginning of the meeting, Mayor Tom Ferguson read a proclamation recognizing July as Recreation and Parks Month, and paid tribute to the city's recreation and parks director Ron Schroers, as well as other employees who work tirelessly for our benefit.

One of the recreational facilities that Schroers oversees is the popular Westminster playground in the heart of the city.

The playground is one the first pictures, taken by Lanham, in that 1981 book.

Moreover, toward the end of the book, the authors discuss one of the overlooked sacred landmarks in Westminster: the Memorial Gateway to the Westminster playground off of Center Street.

Zepp and Lanham explain that the "gateway was given to the city by H. Peyton Gorsuch in 1937. Its primary purpose was to acknowledge the community's debt to Carroll Countians who had served in the nation's wars."

The book goes on to highlight public places such as Belle Grove Square, various other parks, gardens, memorials and monuments.

Read the entire column here: Westminster's sacred places are shrines of community life

When he is not watching the ducks at the Westminster Community Pond, Kevin Dayhoff can be reached at kdayhoff@carr.org. Please don't feed the ducks ... or the Dayhoff.

20080725 Westminster's sacred places are shrines of community life

Labels and related: People Carroll County Zepp – Dr. Ira Zepp, Religion Dayhoff articles and essays, Art The Library, Art The Library Carroll County, History Westminster, Dayhoff Art writing essays and articles,

Westminster Dept Recreation and Parks Westminster Playground, Westminster Dept Recreation and Parks Dir Ron Schroers, Westminster Mayor 200505 to 2009 Thomas K. Ferguson

Combine free-for-all at 4-H & FFA Fair By Erica Kritt, Times Staff Writer

Combine free-for-all at 4-H & FFA Fair By Erica Kritt, Times Staff

The combine demolition derby at the Carroll County 4-H and FFA Fair was quite a hoot. I took lots of pictures and will look forward to making some time later of putting some of them up on the web site and-or stringing them together in a video.

Carroll County Times Kyle Nosal photographer Kyle Nosal was also there. The Times only posted one of his photographs with an article by Erica Kritt. Many of us would look forward to more of his photos being posted also.

Related: 20080726 Carrie Ann Knauer: Carroll County 4-H FFA Fair watch and 4H Carroll County 4H FFA Fair

Combine free-for-all at 4-H & FFA Fair By Erica Kritt, Times Staff Writer, Sunday, July 27, 2008

[…]

Eleven combines went head-to-head to see which vehicle would remain intact by the end of the night. The first round saw a combine nearly flip over, while the second round saw two large vehicles, one painted to resemble a Holstein cow, have to be pried apart by heavy-duty construction equipment.

[…]

Read Ms. Kritt’s entire article here: Combine free-for-all at 4-H & FFA Fair

20080727 Combine free-for-all at 4-H & FFA Fair By Erica Kritt, Times Staff Writer

Carrie Ann Knauer: Carroll County 4-H FFA Fair watch

Carrie Ann Knauer: Carroll County 4-H FFA Fair watch

For many years, we have enjoyed Carroll County Times writer, Carrie Ann Knauer’s coverage of the Carroll County 4-H and FFA Fair. That’s Ms. Knauer, from a file photo covering the 2006 fair…

Once again, this year, Ms. Knauer has a Fair blog. Check it out here: http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/talk/4h/

Agricultural reporter Carrie Ann Knauer will be at the Carroll County 4-H & FFA Fair every day and will be sharing her insights and stories through this blog. Feel free to share your favorite fair moments as well and let us know what the county fair means to you.

So far, she has posted:

Saturday, July 26: A special kind of 4-H’er

Friday, July 25: Blue Ribbon Experience
Friday, July 25, 2008 2:40 PM EDT

July 23: Ready to Judge
Wednesday, July 23, 2008 4:31 PM EDT

July 21: Getting out the ironing board
Monday, July 21, 2008 3:19 PM EDT

July 9: It's fair time already?
Wednesday, July 9, 2008 5:20 PM EDT

Ms. Knauer’s other articles:

Carrie Ann Knauer: Carroll County 4-H FFA Fair watch

July 27, 2008 Carroll County Times

Labels: Media journalists Knauer - Carrie Ann Knauer, 4H Carroll County 4H FFA Fair

Clubs spend weeks getting ready for 4-H & FFA Fair
The entertainment and enjoyment of the Carroll County 4-H & FFA Fair may be starting for visitors today, but 4-H youths and their families have been working for weeks to get the fair ready. Becky Stem, vice chairwoman of the fair board, said much of ...

Veterinarian to help repair animal shelters in New Orleans
ELDERSBURG Hurricane Katrina may have swept through New Orleans nearly three years ago, but the rebuilding and cleanup process continues. On Friday, an Eldersburg veterinarian will be one of 60 helping to repair animal shelters in New Orleans. The ...

Woman chronicles Carroll's farming past
Coming from a family of farmers that dates back in Carroll County to 1790, Lyndi McNulty considers the farming history of the county as part of her own history. McNulty is asking other farming families of Carroll to share their stories, and more impo...

Doctors struggle to diagnose tick diseases
It began with a tick bite. Then there was the rash that spread across his chest and itched more than poison ivy. After a few weeks, Scott Kirk had enough. He needed to see the doctor. The diagnosis? Rocky Mountain spotted fever, one of a half-dozen t...

Getting their start in 4-H: Fashion
In Jessica Bennett’s closet, woolen smock dresses and skirt sets of her childhood share the limited space with a dramatic plum and pumpkin silk dress and couture pant suits. The closet shows an evolution of Bennett’s

Tractor pull signals start of fair
The 2008 Carroll County 4-H & FFA Fair may not officially begin until Saturday, but a tractor pull tonight will kick off a host of tractor and machinery-related events scheduled during the first weekend of the fair. Tim Albaugh, one of the participan...

Getting their start: 4-H attracted them at young ages and instilled in them passions that became careers. For one, it was sewing, for another, floristry, and for a third, fair management.
In Jessica Bennett's closet, woolen smock dresses and skirt sets of her childhood share the limited space with a dramatic plum and pumpkin silk dress and couture pant suits. The closet shows an evolution of Bennett's sewing skills, from her first pat...

Getting their start: 4-H attracted them at young ages and instilled in them passions that became careers. For one, it was sewing, for another, floristry, and for a third, fair management.
Rene Bonde laughs when she thinks back to the presentation she gave to judges from the National Junior Horticulture Association in Memphis while wearing a candy striper costume. But it may have been the detail of her floral arranging presentation tha...

Getting their start
Whether it was raising livestock, growing vegetables, giving speeches or a number of other indoor activities, Andy Cashman grew up loving 4-H and the fair. "When I was a little boy, I told my sister I wanted to own the state fair," the 47-year-old Ne...

Getting their start in 4-H: Fair management
Whether it was raising livestock, growing vegetables, giving speeches or a number of other indoor activities, Andy Cashman grew up loving 4-H and the fair. “When I was a little boy, I told my sister I wanted to own the state fair,” the 47...

Getting their start in 4-H: Floristry
Rene Bonde laughs when she thinks back to the presentation she gave to judges from the National Junior Horticulture Association in Memphis while wearing a candy striper costume. But it may have been the detail of her floral arranging presentation tha...

Tick trouble
A half-dozen veterans of the Central Maryland Lyme Disease Education and Support Group sit around a rectangular table in cold metal chairs in the social hall at Zion United Methodist Church. Someone asks about a girl they remembered seeing months ago...

4-H & FFA Fair events to check out
Opening day Saturday is the opening day of the Carroll County 4-H & FFA Fair, filled with family events for children whether they are in 4-H or not. Indoor exhibits are entered and judged and animals are brought into the Agriculture Center, so watch ...

http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/shared-content/search/index.php?search=go&o=0&l=&s=&r=&d1=07%2F13%2F08&d2=07%2F27%2F08&q=Knauer

20080726 Carrie Ann Knauer: Carroll County 4-H FFA Fair watch

The Washing of Feet by Duccio di Buoninsegna ca 1308-1311

The Washing of Feet by Duccio di Buoninsegna ca 1308-1311

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Art and the Bible: http://www.artbible.info/art/
Duccio di Buoninsegna ca. 1255 – 1319
The Washing of the Feet
tempera on panel (50 × 53 cm) — 1308-11Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena
Duccio di Buoninsegna biography
This work is linked to John 13:5

Religion, Religion Art and the Bible

20080727 The Washing of Feet by Duccio di Buoninsegna ca 1308-1311

Dear Parents: Please Relax, It’s Just Camp July 26, 2008 By TINA KELLEY for the New York Times

Whether or not you are involved in the customer service business – working for the public in the private or public sector, you will understand this piece all too well: Dear Parents: Please Relax, It’s Just Camp July 26, 2008 By TINA KELLEY for the New York Times.

July 26, 2008 By TINA KELLEY

HONESDALE, Pa. — A dozen 9-year-old girls in jelly-bean-colored bathing suits were learning the crawl at Lake Bryn Mawr Camp one recent morning as older girls in yellow and green camp uniforms practiced soccer, fused glass in the art studio or tried out the climbing wall.

Their parents, meanwhile, were bombarding the camp with calls: one wanted help arranging private guitar lessons for her daughter, another did not like the sound of her child’s voice during a recent conversation, and a third needed to know — preferably today — which of her daughter’s four varieties of vitamins had run out. All before lunch.

Answering these and other urgent queries was Karin Miller, 43, a stay-at-home mother during the school year with a doctorate in psychology, who is redefining the role of camp counselor. She counsels parents, spending her days from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. printing out reams of e-mail messages to deliver to Bryn Mawr’s 372 female campers and leaving voice mail messages for their parents that always begin, “Nothing’s wrong, I’m just returning your call.”

Jill Tipograph, a camp consultant, said most high-end sleep-away camps in the Northeast now employ full-time parent liaisons like Ms. Miller, who earns $6,000 plus a waiver of the camp’s $10,000 tuition for each of her two daughters. Ms. Tipograph describes the job as “almost like a hotel concierge listening to a client’s needs.”

The liaisons are emblematic of what sleep-away camp experts say is an increasing emphasis on catering to increasingly high-maintenance parents, including those who make unsolicited bunk placement requests, flagrantly flout a camp’s ban on cellphones and junk food, and consider summer an ideal time to give their offspring a secret vacation from Ritalin.

One camp psychologist said she used to spend half her time on parental issues; now it’s 80 percent. Dan Kagan, co-director of Bryn Mawr, has started visiting every new family’s home in the spring and calling those parents on the first or second day of camp to reassure them.

[…]

Read the rest here: Dear Parents: Please Relax, It’s Just Camp

Westminster Eagle: Water, sewage rates will be subject of upcoming Westminster city meeting

Westminster Eagle: Water, sewage rates will be subject of upcoming Westminster city meeting

Labels and related: Water and Sewer Westminster, Water and Sewer Westminster Rates and Fees, Westminster Dept Public Works Water and Sewer

Wednesday, December 12, 2007: 20071126 Municipal and Financial Services Group Westminster Water and Wastewater Rate and Fee Study presentation

20080728 Westminster Mayor and Common Council Agenda for July 28 2008

Water, sewage rates will be subject of city meeting

Officials say new structure is needed for more accurate billing

Posted on the Westminster Eagle web site 7/23/08

A new structure for water and sewer rates for the City of Westminster will be unveiled and discussed at the Monday, July 28, meeting of the mayor and Common Council.

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at the John Street Quarters of the Westminster Fire Department. Council meetings are usually held in city hall, but are often moved to the John Street building to accommodate larger crowds.

Since the fall of last year, the city has been conducting a study to revise its water and sewer rates.

During the budget review process, city officials warned that a new structure is needed to accurately bill for water usage and update the city's water service rates.

At the July 28 meeting, officials are expected to unveil a study on the matter, and also accept comments on the proposed rates. For more information call 410-848-9000.

http://www.explorecarroll.com/news/343/water-rates-will-be-subject-city-meeting/

20080723 Westminster Eagle: Water, sewage rates will be subject of upcoming Westminster city meeting

Westminster Mayor and Common Council Agenda for July 28 2008

Westminster Mayor and Common Council Agenda for July 28 2008

City Council; City Council Members Minutes of City Council Meetings

CITY OF WESTMINSTER, MARYLAND

Mayor and Common Council Meeting of July 28, 2008

AGENDA

1. CALL TO ORDER – 7:00 P.M.

Mayor’s Proclamation - National Night Out 2008

2. SPECIAL PRESENTATION:

Water and Sewer Rate Structure Study – Municipal and Financial Services Group

3. MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF JULY 14, 2008

4. CONSENT CALENDAR:
June Departmental Operating Reports
Intergovernmental Agreement – Comcast Cable – Dr. Wack

5. REPORTS FROM THE MAYOR

6. REPORTS FROM STANDING COMMITTEES

7. UNFINISHED BUSINESS:
a. None as of July 24, 2008

8. NEW BUSINESS:
a. Walking Trail at King Park – Thomas Beyard

9. DEPARTMENT REPORTS

10. CITIZEN COMMENTS

11. ADJOURN

PLEASE NOTE: BOTH THE JULY 28, 2008 AND AUGUST 11 MEETINGS OF THE MAYOR AND COMMON COUNCIL WILL BE HELD AT THE JOHN STREET QUARTERS OF THE WESTMINSTER FIRE COMPANY. FREE PARKING IS AVAILABLE. THE WATER AND SEWER RATE STRUCTURE STUDY WILL BE DISCUSSED AT THE JULY 28 MEETING.

20080728 Westminster Mayor and Common Council Agenda for July 28 2008

Peggy Johnson elected bishop in The United Methodist Church

Peggy Johnson elected Bishop

http://bwcumc.org/content/peggy-johnson-elected-bishop

July 17, 2008, By Melissa Lauber

The Rev. Peggy Johnson, pastor of Christ United Methodist Church of the Deaf in Baltimore, was elected July 17 to be a bishop in The United Methodist Church.

Johnson was elected, from a pool of 13 candidates, on the 10th ballot by the 249 delegates to Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference.

She was presented to the conference by Bishop John Schol of the Washington Area, who explained to the audience that in American Sign Language one says bishop by mimicking a pointy hat, or miter, on one's head. In Kenyan sign language, one slaps oneself in two quick motions on the forehead and back of head - in a spirit of bemused wonderment.

"It's true," said Johnson, who promises to bring "a sense of wonder, creativity, compassion and grace" to her ministry as bishop.

Bishops bring the totality of who they are with them into the episcopal leadership, Johnson said. The pastors, congregations and communities she will lead can expect her to be humble, to listen, learn and be a servant leader. She intends to be relational and bring a spirit-centeredness to her first year. "You can't do anything unless you have the heart of Christ deeply embedded in your heart," she said.

Johnson's heart has been shaped over the years by her ministry to people in the margins. Her work in the Deaf community draws people from every socio-economic group, including the very poor, who bring with them a vast array of social, human and spiritual needs.

The church, she said, is at its best when it opens it doors to those who society looks down upon. "I am a strong believer in the love that draws people into our world," Johnson said. "We have to be out there doing love."

The bishop celebrated Johnson's election, saying "her gracious heart and proven leadership will enable her to serve the church as we move together, as a body connected in Christ, to make disciples and transform the world."

A child of the church, Johnson traces her family's roots back to some of the first members of Old Otterbein UMC in Baltimore, the mother church the Evangelical United Brethren.

She was baptized and confirmed at Lansdowne UMC, where her husband, the Rev. Michael Johnson, now serves as pastor.

A graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky, she was ordained in 1980, following a career as a vocal music teacher.

While teaching music her voice failed. She was discouraged, but her hope was renewed when she attended a concert by a Deaf choir that performed the "Hallelujah Chorus."

This visible music touched something in her soul and she began learning American Sign Language, she said.

Following ordination, she served a four-point charge in Frederick before working as a chaplain at Gallaudet University, a college for the deaf in Washington, D.C., and then becoming pastor of Christ United Methodist Church of the Deaf.

Her ministry there has taken her around the world, where she helped to start or enhance Deaf ministries in Zimbabwe, Cuba, and a myriad of other places in the United States and abroad.

Johnson received her doctorate from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington and is the author of the book "A Joyful Silence."

She acknowledges that she does not come to the episcopacy through the traditional paths. "I'm not your typical profile," she said.

Instead, Johnson hopes her gifts, along with her desire to work in partnership with others, and being faithful to God, will enable her "see with the heart," where God is calling her, and the church, to go.

Johnson will begin her term as a bishop in September.

20080717 Peggy Johnson elected bishop in The United Methodist Church

Peter Steinfels: Uncertainties about the role of doubt in Religion

Peter Steinfels: Uncertainties about the role of doubt in Religion

Labels and related: Religion, Media journalists Steinfels - Peter Steinfels

Uncertainties About the Role of Doubt in Religion

Beliefs July 19, 2008 By PETER STEINFELS

“Belief in God isn’t quite the same thing in 1500 and today,” writes Charles Taylor in “A Secular Age” (Harvard University Press, 2007), his formidable exploration of how the conditions of religious belief — and of unbelief, too — have changed for modern Westerners.

Religious faith was once the air everyone, even the doubter, breathed. Today, religious faith, in its many forms, stands as but one possibility alongside a range of nonreligious outlooks that the honest believer cannot simply dismiss as deluded or depraved.

Far more than in the past, Mr. Taylor writes, believers must live their faith “in a condition of doubt and uncertainty.”

Religious thinkers, of course, have long argued that uncertainty and faith are not the polar opposites often supposed; that indifference, and not doubt, for example, is the greater adversary of faith; that absolute certitude about God often reflects a dangerous arrogance.

But the idea that contemporary faith, at least in the economically developed West, is shadowed by uncertainty on a new and different scale begs for some empirical investigation. Is such a doubt-haunted belief merely the intermediate stage in that slow retreat of the “Sea of Faith” that Matthew Arnold lamented in “Dover Beach,” and that has left much of Western Europe with little more than a veneer of cultural or nostalgic religiosity? Call this the familiar transition hypothesis.

[…]

At first glance, the latest findings from the United States Religious Landscape Study, conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, promise a way of examining those alternatives. This survey of more than 35,000 Americans asked people not only whether they believed in “God or a universal spirit” (92 percent did), but also whether the believers were “absolutely certain, fairly certain, not too certain, or not at all certain.” While 71 percent replied “absolutely certain,” a sizable portion (17 percent) fell into the “fairly certain” category.

Read the entire article here: Uncertainties About the Role of Doubt in Religion

20080718 Peter Steinfels: Uncertainties about the role of doubt in Religion

Carrie Ann Knauer watch for July 27, 2008

20080726 Carrie Ann Knauer watch for July 27, 2008

Carrie Ann Knauer watch

July 27, 2008 Carroll County Times

Labels: Media journalists Knauer - Carrie Ann Knauer, 4H Carroll County 4H FFA Fair

Loved ones will appreciate home-cooked meals
Have you ever noticed how cooking (if you like to cook) or eating a good meal (if you're not a cook) can have restorative powers? If you go on the Times Web site, you may have noticed my Home/Life Remodel video blog about how my husband and I are rem...

Clubs spend weeks getting ready for 4-H & FFA Fair
The entertainment and enjoyment of the Carroll County 4-H & FFA Fair may be starting for visitors today, but 4-H youths and their families have been working for weeks to get the fair ready. Becky Stem, vice chairwoman of the fair board, said much of ...

Union Bridge zoning map proposal up for discussion
Union Bridge residents will have a chance to give their opinions on the town’s proposed new zoning map at a public hearing Monday night. The new map was developed in conjunction with the Union Bridge and Environs Community Comprehensive Plan, w...

Governor sets 'Buy Local Challenge'
In order to support Maryland farmers at a time when local produce is ready for picking, Gov. Martin O’Malley has announced a “Buy Local Challenge” starting today and running through July 27. The idea is to encourage everyone to incl...

County launching fiber-optic network
A new fiber-optic network getting its ceremonial kickoff this morning won’t mean faster Internet for Carroll County residents, but it should mean improved communications among public agencies and cost savings for the county government. Local of...

Veterinarian to help repair animal shelters in New Orleans
ELDERSBURG Hurricane Katrina may have swept through New Orleans nearly three years ago, but the rebuilding and cleanup process continues. On Friday, an Eldersburg veterinarian will be one of 60 helping to repair animal shelters in New Orleans. The ...

Collision course
Bumper cars a hit at Reese fire company carnival Video Blue and yellow sparks illuminated the ceiling over the bumper car pen at the Reese & Community volunteer fire company carnival Monday night. Every 20 seconds or so the lights would dim as the g...

Woman chronicles Carroll's farming past
Coming from a family of farmers that dates back in Carroll County to 1790, Lyndi McNulty considers the farming history of the county as part of her own history. McNulty is asking other farming families of Carroll to share their stories, and more impo...

Doctors struggle to diagnose tick diseases
It began with a tick bite. Then there was the rash that spread across his chest and itched more than poison ivy. After a few weeks, Scott Kirk had enough. He needed to see the doctor. The diagnosis? Rocky Mountain spotted fever, one of a half-dozen t...

Getting their start in 4-H: Fashion
In Jessica Bennett’s closet, woolen smock dresses and skirt sets of her childhood share the limited space with a dramatic plum and pumpkin silk dress and couture pant suits. The closet shows an evolution of Bennett’s

Residents voice concern over quarry options
LINWOOD New Windsor and Linwood area residents expressed concerns about the lack of specifics on Lehigh Cement Co.’s plans for a conveyor belt system to move rock quarried in New Windsor to the Union Bridge plant at Thursday night’s NEW...

Tractor pull signals start of fair
The 2008 Carroll County 4-H & FFA Fair may not officially begin until Saturday, but a tractor pull tonight will kick off a host of tractor and machinery-related events scheduled during the first weekend of the fair. Tim Albaugh, one of the participan...

Getting their start: 4-H attracted them at young ages and instilled in them passions that became careers. For one, it was sewing, for another, floristry, and for a third, fair management.
In Jessica Bennett's closet, woolen smock dresses and skirt sets of her childhood share the limited space with a dramatic plum and pumpkin silk dress and couture pant suits. The closet shows an evolution of Bennett's sewing skills, from her first pat...

Getting their start: 4-H attracted them at young ages and instilled in them passions that became careers. For one, it was sewing, for another, floristry, and for a third, fair management.
Rene Bonde laughs when she thinks back to the presentation she gave to judges from the National Junior Horticulture Association in Memphis while wearing a candy striper costume. But it may have been the detail of her floral arranging presentation tha...

Getting their start
Whether it was raising livestock, growing vegetables, giving speeches or a number of other indoor activities, Andy Cashman grew up loving 4-H and the fair. "When I was a little boy, I told my sister I wanted to own the state fair," the 47-year-old Ne...

Getting their start in 4-H: Fair management
Whether it was raising livestock, growing vegetables, giving speeches or a number of other indoor activities, Andy Cashman grew up loving 4-H and the fair. “When I was a little boy, I told my sister I wanted to own the state fair,” the 47...

Getting their start in 4-H: Floristry
Rene Bonde laughs when she thinks back to the presentation she gave to judges from the National Junior Horticulture Association in Memphis while wearing a candy striper costume. But it may have been the detail of her floral arranging presentation tha...

Tick trouble
A half-dozen veterans of the Central Maryland Lyme Disease Education and Support Group sit around a rectangular table in cold metal chairs in the social hall at Zion United Methodist Church. Someone asks about a girl they remembered seeing months ago...

4-H & FFA Fair events to check out
Opening day Saturday is the opening day of the Carroll County 4-H & FFA Fair, filled with family events for children whether they are in 4-H or not. Indoor exhibits are entered and judged and animals are brought into the Agriculture Center, so watch ...

Surf & Turf catches wave to Carroll
While the Carroll County Farm Museum has become known throughout the Mid-Atlantic for hosting the Maryland Wine Festival in September, the museum is starting to gain a reputation for a new food-based festival marking its third year this Saturday…

Hearing to address rock transport plan
The New Windsor Community Action Project, or NEWCAP, is hosting a public forum at 7:30 tonight for people to learn more about Lehigh Cement Co.’s plans to transport rock from the New Windsor quarry to the Union Bridge plant. The meeting will be...

Carroll News Briefs
18-year-old held in rape investigation An 18-year-old Mount Airy man faces rape charges after allegedly having sex with a teenage girl. Vinson Lee Battle is charged with two counts of second-degree rape. He is being held in the Carroll County Detenti...

Carroll Kitchens: Recipes, freezing make most out of blueberries
So I've heard a lot of feedback from other blueberry aficionados out there and I no longer feel alone! In fact, when I went to pick up my 40 pounds of blueberries, the gentleman in front of me bought 200 pounds. We blueberry fans should get rubber br...

July 18: Home/Life Remodel Video Blog
Carrie Knauer shares the progress made during week 7 of her home remodeling project. Diasasters are repaired in the basement and the plumber and electrician brighten the couple's spirits with their speedy progress....

July 25: Home/Life Remodel Video Blog
Carrie Knauer shares the progress made during week 8 of her home remodeling project. Work speeds up and the house gets its first plumbing inspection, though plumbing work isn't quite done yet....

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20080726 Carrie Ann Knauer watch for July 27, 2008

20080725 Pro National Infrastructure Platforms urged: Rendell, Bloomberg, Schwarzenegger Urge Parties to Adopt Pro-Infrastructure Platforms

20080725 Pro National Infrastructure Platforms urged: Rendell, Bloomberg, Schwarzenegger Urge Parties to Adopt Pro-Infrastructure Platforms

Rendell, Bloomberg, Schwarzenegger Urge Parties to Adopt Pro-Infrastructure Platforms

PRNewswire

Fri Jul 25, 4:48 PM ET

To: TRANSPORTATION EDITORS

Contact: Chuck Ardo of the Pennsylvania Office of the Governor, +1-717-783-1116

Mayors of Minneapolis, Saint Paul Join Coalition on Second of Two-Day Infrastructure Tour

SAINT PAUL, Minn., July 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ - Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell, New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, co-chairs of the Building Americas Future coalition, today urged the Republican and Democratic national committees to adopt pro-infrastructure planks in their party platforms when the national party conventions convene in Denver and Minneapolis-Saint Paul.

Americas highways, bridges, tunnels, and mass transit have fallen behind. The same is true for our levees, schools, ports, courthouses and water delivery systems. Our economy and environment are suffering because we cannot move goods and people efficiently - we need a strong federal commitment to tackle this problem, said Governor Schwarzenegger. We have always come together as a nation to solve our biggest problems and I am confident that if both parties make infrastructure a top priority we will rebuild America with the pride and ambition that reflects the unlimited potential of our people.

The principles we are advocating will help our nation be more competitive in the global economy, ensure our environmental sustainability, enhance our citizens quality of life and improve public safety, said Mayor Bloomberg. They are good public policy and make sound business sense. We need to invest more in our infrastructure and those investment decisions need to be based on merit, not politics.

The Association of Civil Engineers estimated the nations total infrastructure shortfall at a staggering $1.6 trillion, Governor Rendell said. If we dont act quickly, that deficit will continue to grow and we will see our infrastructure fall further into disrepair, threatening the lives of our citizens and our ability to move goods to market. With the federal government contributing only 25 percent of infrastructure funding and the rest coming from financially strapped state and local governments, Washington needs to step up its commitment of resources. The time to act is now.

The co-chairs recommended that both parties adopt the coalitions five guiding principles (http://www.investininfrastructure.org/newsroom/BAF%20Statement%20of%20Principles%20-%20Final.pdf) in their platforms. Yesterday in New Orleans, the co-chairs proposed, given the importance of the issue and the growing level of support for federal leadership, a town hall meeting on infrastructure and invited both major parties presidential nominees to participate.

Joining the co-chairs at the press conference today were Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and Saint Paul Mayor Chris Coleman. The mayors are some of the first state and local elected officials to join Building Americas Future.

As mayors, we know how important basic public infrastructure is to our communities, Mayor Rybak said. Whether it is our streets and highways, mass transit, wastewater, or airport, our ability to make our region competitive for business and a great place to live for our residents depends on the quality of our basic infrastructure our common ground.

We also recognize that only the federal government has the resources to partner with state and local governments to fully fund our regional and national infrastructure priorities, Mayor Coleman said.

Todays event in Minneapolis-Saint Paul caps a two-day infrastructure tour that took Rendell and Bloomberg to New Orleans on Thursday. In an address to the National Conference of State Legislatures, or NCSL, Rendell and Bloomberg unveiled Building Americas Futures statement of principles (http://www.investininfrastructure.org/newsroom/BAF%20Statement%20of%20Principles%20-%20Final.pdf), which will guide policy makers as they chart a new course for national infrastructure policy. The co-chairs also held a press conference announcing that 20 more state legislators from across the country joined the coalition.

In recent weeks, the coalitions leaders addressed the National Governors Association summer meeting in Philadelphia, the U.S. Conference of Mayors annual meeting in Miami, and the National Association of Counties summer meeting in Kansas City as it continues recruiting state and local elected officials to join its ranks.

State and local elected officials who wish to join Building Americas Future can register at http://www.InvestInInfrastructure.org.

The Rendell administration is committed to creating a first-rate public education system, protecting our most vulnerable citizens and continuing economic investment to support our communities and businesses. To find out more about Governor Rendell's initiatives and to sign up for his weekly newsletter, visit: http://www.governor.state.pa.us.

EDITORS NOTE: The Building Americas Future statement of principles is available at http://www.InvestInInfrastructure.org.

CONTACT:
Chuck Ardo
717-783-1116
SOURCE Pennsylvania Office of the Governor

-0-

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20080725/pl_usnw/rendell__bloomberg__schwarzenegger_urge_parties_to_adopt_pro_infrastructure_platforms;_ylt=ApzoU4.PDT0aI_CU.wMGyn4EKekE

US transportation and infrastructure, Politics National, President 2008 election, President 2008 election Republican Natl Convention Sept 1 2008

Parents Can Help Ease the Burden By Mara Lee Special to The Washington Post Saturday

Parents Can Help Ease the Burden By Mara Lee Special to The Washington Post Saturday

See also: 20080719 Mom's House, Your Responsibility by Mara Lee, Special to The Washington Post

http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2008/07/moms-house-your-responsibility-by-mara.html

Related: Business and Economics, Business and Economics Wills and Estates, Children Parenting and Intergenerational studies, Real Estate, Real Estate property management

By Mara Lee Special to The Washington Post Saturday, July 19, 2008; F02

There are things parents can do to make it easier for their children to handle their affairs after they die or if they should become unable to manage them.

Most important: Tell them where everything is. Where's your will? Where do you have bank accounts, stock holdings or safety deposit boxes? Where are those statements? Where are your tax records? Your utility bills?

Read the rest here: Parents Can Help Ease the Burden

Mom's House, Your Responsibility by Mara Lee, Special to The Washington Post

Mom's House, Your Responsibility by Mara Lee, Special to The Washington Post
Special to The Washington Post, Saturday, July 19, 2008
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/18/AR2008071801413.html

Labels:
Business and Economics
Business and Economics Wills and Estates
Real Estate
Real Estate property management
Children Parenting and Intergenerational studies

With the experience of 25 years in the property maintenance business, I thought the article that follows – and the companion piece, “Parents Can Help Ease the Burden,” by Mara Lee, was an excellent introduction to a difficult subject…

Managing the home after a parent dies can be fraught with difficulties. Here's a guide to bringing about a successful sale.

By Mara Lee, Special to The Washington Post, Saturday, July 19, 2008; F01

Carylin Waterval's mother had no will -- and no time to prepare one.

At 63, she was diagnosed with lung cancer and died within three weeks, leaving behind a small business and a four-bedroom house in Ashburn. Waterval, who lives in Alexandria and whose brother lives in Texas, found herself in charge of all the financial paperwork -- bank accounts, stock holdings, tax records and unpaid bills. Even though Waterval, 42, is an accountant, she found the volume overwhelming.

Selling a house after a parent's death can be a lengthy and daunting undertaking. Household bills still have to be paid. Then there's the matter of deciding who wants what, how to ship it to them and how to dispose of the rest. There's finding a real estate agent, deciding how to present the house and arriving at a price. And all this work may have to be done from out of town.

Until you sell the house, you have to manage it.

Read the rest here: Mom's House, Your Responsibility

20080719 Mom's House, Your Responsibility by Mara Lee, Special to The Washington Post

http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2008/07/moms-house-your-responsibility-by-mara.html

Related: Business and Economics, Business and Economics Wills and Estates, Children Parenting and Intergenerational studies, Real Estate, Real Estate property management

Text of Senator Barack Obama’s Berlin speech

Text of Senator Barack Obama’s Berlin speech

July 24, 2008

Barack Obama in Berlin
http://youtube.com/watch?v=OAhb06Z8N1c

Thank you to the citizens of Berlin and to the people of Germany. Let me thank Chancellor Merkel and Foreign Minister Steinmeier for welcoming me earlier today. Thank you Mayor Wowereit, the Berlin Senate, the police, and most of all thank you for this welcome.

I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before. Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen - a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.

I know that I don't look like the Americans who've previously spoken in this great city. The journey that led me here is improbable. My mother was born in the heartland of America, but my father grew up herding goats in Kenya. His father - my grandfather - was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.

At the height of the Cold War, my father decided, like so many others in the forgotten corners of the world, that his yearning - his dream - required the freedom and opportunity promised by the West. And so he wrote letter after letter to universities all across America until somebody, somewhere answered his prayer for a better life.

That is why I'm here. And you are here because you too know that yearning. This city, of all cities, knows the dream of freedom. And you know that the only reason we stand here tonight is because men and women from both of our nations came together to work, and struggle, and sacrifice for that better life.

Ours is a partnership that truly began sixty years ago this summer, on the day when the first American plane touched down at Templehof.

On that day, much of this continent still lay in ruin. The rubble of this city had yet to be built into a wall. The Soviet shadow had swept across Eastern Europe, while in the West, America, Britain, and France took stock of their losses, and pondered how the world might be remade.

This is where the two sides met. And on the twenty-fourth of June, 1948, the Communists chose to blockade the western part of the city. They cut off food and supplies to more than two million Germans in an effort to extinguish the last flame of freedom in Berlin.

The size of our forces was no match for the much larger Soviet Army. And yet retreat would have allowed Communism to march across Europe. Where the last war had ended, another World War could have easily begun. All that stood in the way was Berlin.

And that's when the airlift began - when the largest and most unlikely rescue in history brought food and hope to the people of this city.

The odds were stacked against success. In the winter, a heavy fog filled the sky above, and many planes were forced to turn back without dropping off the needed supplies. The streets where we stand were filled with hungry families who had no comfort from the cold.

But in the darkest hours, the people of Berlin kept the flame of hope burning. The people of Berlin refused to give up. And on one fall day, hundreds of thousands of Berliners came here, to the Tiergarten, and heard the city's mayor implore the world not to give up on freedom. "There is only one possibility," he said. "For us to stand together united until this battle is won...The people of Berlin have spoken. We have done our duty, and we will keep on doing our duty. People of the world: now do your duty...People of the world, look at Berlin!"

People of the world - look at Berlin!

Look at Berlin, where Germans and Americans learned to work together and trust each other less than three years after facing each other on the field of battle.

Look at Berlin, where the determination of a people met the generosity of the Marshall Plan and created a German miracle; where a victory over tyranny gave rise to NATO, the greatest alliance ever formed to defend our common security.

Look at Berlin, where the bullet holes in the buildings and the somber stones and pillars near the Brandenburg Gate insist that we never forget our common humanity.

People of the world - look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one.

Sixty years after the airlift, we are called upon again. History has led us to a new crossroad, with new promise and new peril. When you, the German people, tore down that wall - a wall that divided East and West; freedom and tyranny; fear and hope - walls came tumbling down around the world. From Kiev to Cape Town, prison camps were closed, and the doors of democracy were opened. Markets opened too, and the spread of information and technology reduced barriers to opportunity and prosperity. While the 20th century taught us that we share a common destiny, the 21st has revealed a world more intertwined than at any time in human history.

The fall of the Berlin Wall brought new hope. But that very closeness has given rise to new dangers - dangers that cannot be contained within the borders of a country or by the distance of an ocean.

The terrorists of September 11th plotted in Hamburg and trained in Kandahar and Karachi before killing thousands from all over the globe on American soil.

As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya.

Poorly secured nuclear material in the former Soviet Union, or secrets from a scientist in Pakistan could help build a bomb that detonates in Paris. The poppies in Afghanistan become the heroin in Berlin. The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terror of tomorrow. The genocide in Darfur shames the conscience of us all.

In this new world, such dangerous currents have swept along faster than our efforts to contain them. That is why we cannot afford to be divided. No one nation, no matter how large or powerful, can defeat such challenges alone. None of us can deny these threats, or escape responsibility in meeting them. Yet, in the absence of Soviet tanks and a terrible wall, it has become easy to forget this truth. And if we're honest with each other, we know that sometimes, on both sides of the Atlantic, we have drifted apart, and forgotten our shared destiny.

In Europe, the view that America is part of what has gone wrong in our world, rather than a force to help make it right, has become all too common. In America, there are voices that deride and deny the importance of Europe's role in our security and our future. Both views miss the truth - that Europeans today are bearing new burdens and taking more responsibility in critical parts of the world; and that just as American bases built in the last century still help to defend the security of this continent, so does our country still sacrifice greatly for freedom around the globe.

Yes, there have been differences between America and Europe. No doubt, there will be differences in the future. But the burdens of global citizenship continue to bind us together. A change of leadership in Washington will not lift this burden. In this new century, Americans and Europeans alike will be required to do more - not less. Partnership and cooperation among nations is not a choice; it is the one way, the only way, to protect our common security and advance our common humanity.

That is why the greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another.

The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.

We know they have fallen before. After centuries of strife, the people of Europe have formed a Union of promise and prosperity. Here, at the base of a column built to mark victory in war, we meet in the center of a Europe at peace. Not only have walls come down in Berlin, but they have come down in Belfast, where Protestant and Catholic found a way to live together; in the Balkans, where our Atlantic alliance ended wars and brought savage war criminals to justice; and in South Africa, where the struggle of a courageous people defeated apartheid.

So history reminds us that walls can be torn down. But the task is never easy. True partnership and true progress requires constant work and sustained sacrifice. They require sharing the burdens of development and diplomacy; of progress and peace. They require allies who will listen to each other, learn from each other and, most of all, trust each other.

That is why America cannot turn inward. That is why Europe cannot turn inward. America has no better partner than Europe. Now is the time to build new bridges across the globe as strong as the one that bound us across the Atlantic. Now is the time to join together, through constant cooperation, strong institutions, shared sacrifice, and a global commitment to progress, to meet the challenges of the 21st century. It was this spirit that led airlift planes to appear in the sky above our heads, and people to assemble where we stand today. And this is the moment when our nations - and all nations - must summon that spirit anew.

This is the moment when we must defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it. This threat is real and we cannot shrink from our responsibility to combat it. If we could create NATO to face down the Soviet Union, we can join in a new and global partnership to dismantle the networks that have struck in Madrid and Amman; in London and Bali; in Washington and New York. If we could win a battle of ideas against the communists, we can stand with the vast majority of Muslims who reject the extremism that leads to hate instead of hope.

This is the moment when we must renew our resolve to rout the terrorists who threaten our security in Afghanistan, and the traffickers who sell drugs on your streets. No one welcomes war. I recognize the enormous difficulties in Afghanistan. But my country and yours have a stake in seeing that NATO's first mission beyond Europe's borders is a success. For the people of Afghanistan, and for our shared security, the work must be done. America cannot do this alone. The Afghan people need our troops and your troops; our support and your support to defeat the Taliban and al Qaeda, to develop their economy, and to help them rebuild their nation. We have too much at stake to turn back now.

This is the moment when we must renew the goal of a world without nuclear weapons. The two superpowers that faced each other across the wall of this city came too close too often to destroying all we have built and all that we love. With that wall gone, we need not stand idly by and watch the further spread of the deadly atom. It is time to secure all loose nuclear materials; to stop the spread of nuclear weapons; and to reduce the arsenals from another era. This is the moment to begin the work of seeking the peace of a world without nuclear weapons.

This is the moment when every nation in Europe must have the chance to choose its own tomorrow free from the shadows of yesterday. In this century, we need a strong European Union that deepens the security and prosperity of this continent, while extending a hand abroad. In this century - in this city of all cities - we must reject the Cold War mind-set of the past, and resolve to work with Russia when we can, to stand up for our values when we must, and to seek a partnership that extends across this entire continent.

This is the moment when we must build on the wealth that open markets have created, and share its benefits more equitably. Trade has been a cornerstone of our growth and global development. But we will not be able to sustain this growth if it favors the few, and not the many. Together, we must forge trade that truly rewards the work that creates wealth, with meaningful protections for our people and our planet. This is the moment for trade that is free and fair for all.

This is the moment we must help answer the call for a new dawn in the Middle East. My country must stand with yours and with Europe in sending a direct message to Iran that it must abandon its nuclear ambitions. We must support the Lebanese who have marched and bled for democracy, and the Israelis and Palestinians who seek a secure and lasting peace. And despite past differences, this is the moment when the world should support the millions of Iraqis who seek to rebuild their lives, even as we pass responsibility to the Iraqi government and finally bring this war to a close.

This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands. Let us resolve that all nations - including my own - will act with the same seriousness of purpose as has your nation, and reduce the carbon we send into our atmosphere. This is the moment to give our children back their future. This is the moment to stand as one.

And this is the moment when we must give hope to those left behind in a globalized world. We must remember that the Cold War born in this city was not a battle for land or treasure. Sixty years ago, the planes that flew over Berlin did not drop bombs; instead they delivered food, and coal, and candy to grateful children. And in that show of solidarity, those pilots won more than a military victory. They won hearts and minds; love and loyalty and trust - not just from the people in this city, but from all those who heard the story of what they did here.

Now the world will watch and remember what we do here - what we do with this moment. Will we extend our hand to the people in the forgotten corners of this world who yearn for lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security and justice? Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from poverty, shelter the refugee in Chad, and banish the scourge of AIDS in our time?

Will we stand for the human rights of the dissident in Burma, the blogger in Iran, or the voter in Zimbabwe? Will we give meaning to the words "never again" in Darfur?

Will we acknowledge that there is no more powerful example than the one each of our nations projects to the world? Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law? Will we welcome immigrants from different lands, and shun discrimination against those who don't look like us or worship like we do, and keep the promise of equality and opportunity for all of our people?

People of Berlin - people of the world - this is our moment. This is our time.

I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we've struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We've made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.

But I also know how much I love America. I know that for more than two centuries, we have strived - at great cost and great sacrifice - to form a more perfect union; to seek, with other nations, a more hopeful world. Our allegiance has never been to any particular tribe or kingdom - indeed, every language is spoken in our country; every culture has left its imprint on ours; every point of view is expressed in our public squares. What has always united us - what has always driven our people; what drew my father to America's shores - is a set of ideals that speak to aspirations shared by all people: that we can live free from fear and free from want; that we can speak our minds and assemble with whomever we choose and worship as we please.

These are the aspirations that joined the fates of all nations in this city. These aspirations are bigger than anything that drives us apart. It is because of these aspirations that the airlift began. It is because of these aspirations that all free people - everywhere - became citizens of Berlin. It is in pursuit of these aspirations that a new generation - our generation - must make our mark on the world.

People of Berlin - and people of the world - the scale of our challenge is great. The road ahead will be long. But I come before you to say that we are heirs to a struggle for freedom. We are a people of improbable hope. With an eye toward the future, with resolve in our hearts, let us remember this history, and answer our destiny, and remake the world once again.

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20080724 Text of Senator Barack Obama Berlin speech