A day late and...

El Cabrero has been running around so much lately that I feel like a road kill in waiting. And the running isn't over yet. A lot of this week was spent on programs celebrating the African American contribution to West Virginia history. Ironically, I didn't make it to the state's official 150th birthday celebration yesterday. Or, to put it another way, I celebrated it by talking with around 200 WV kids about how we could make WV a better place. I guess that would count.

In that vein, here's a reflection on WV history by my editor at the Gazette, Dawn Miller, a great advocate as well as a great journalist and here's an article on one of my favorite WV historians, John Alexander Williams.

ONE FOR THE ROAD. Finally, here's a look at who would benefit by an increase in the minimum wage.

Now, it's once more unto the breach...

What he said

 From a recent address by Pope Francis to newly appointed ambassadors to the Vatican:

The worship of the golden calf of old (cf. Ex 32:15-34) has found a new and heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is faceless and lacking any truly humane goal.

...human beings themselves are nowadays considered as consumer goods which can be used and thrown away. We have started a throw-away culture. This tendency is seen on the level of individuals and whole societies; and it is being promoted! In circumstances like these, solidarity, which is the treasure of the poor, is often considered counterproductive, opposed to the logic of finance and the economy. While the income of a minority is increasing exponentially, that of the majority is crumbling. This imbalance results from ideologies which uphold the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation, and thus deny the right of control to States, which are themselves charged with providing for the common good. A new, invisible and at times virtual, tyranny is established, one which unilaterally and irremediably imposes its own laws and rules. Moreover, indebtedness and credit distance countries from their real economy and citizens from their real buying power. Added to this, as if it were needed, is widespread corruption and selfish fiscal evasion which have taken on worldwide dimensions. The will to power and of possession has become limitless.

Read the rest here.

WHAT A SURPRISE. Locking kids up in juvenile prisons doesn't do a whole lot of good.

BE THERE IF YOU CAN. Here are op-eds by the Rev. Ron English and the Rev. David Fryson about the upcoming celebrations of the African American contribution to WV's first 150 years that will take place June 16-19. Details are in the links. If you know WV's history it's hard to deny this basic statement: no black folks, no West Virginia.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

A birthday approaches

June 20th marks the 150th anniversary of the founding of El Cabrero's beloved state of West Virginia.  Lots of people are taking stabs at writing birthday salutes, but this one by retiring Senator Jay Rockefeller is worth a look in case you missed it.

TWO DEFICITS. We've been listening to the the hysterical yowlings of deficit hyenas for the last few years. It turns out the federal deficit is going down pretty quickly and is at its lowest point since 2008, not that the yowlers will let up or anything. The jobs deficit, however, is more serious and they don't yowl about that. Read more here.

HAVE YOU THANKED A COMET TODAY? Some scientists think that comets that landed on the early earth may have brought the elements of life.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED