Last week was the fifth anniversary of my dad's passing.

I had the honor to stand up and speak, once while he was struggling and once after his passing on September 15, 2015.

Here is the text of those 

ARE YOU A SUPERHERO?

This is a sermon that I preached on August 23, 2015 at St. John's Episcopal Church in Royal Oak, Michigan.

I had to recreate some of this from the hard copy I saved and stayed true to most of it, save to clarify the language. The only changes are references to The Message; I previously used the translation in the New Standard Revised Version. All other additions are highlighted in red italics.

A lot of things changed shortly after I preached this, but I tried stay true to the original.

Year B Proper 16 (21): Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

1 Kings 8:(1,6,10-11), 22-30, 41-43|Psalm 84|Ephesians 6:10-20|John 6:56-69

Happy are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed. (Psalm 84:4,9 NRSV)

“Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.”

Amen.

Good morning.

Are you ready to do battle?

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians in today’s Epistle, the battle described as a real battle.

Paul urges us to, “Put on the whole armor of God.” (Ephesians 6:11 NRSV) or So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. (Ephesians 6:11 The Message)

(I like both translations!)

But, he goes on to say, “our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12 NRSV) or This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. (Ephesians 6:12 The Message).

So….

Are we ready?

Like a superhero, ready to leap into the fray with a cape on your back as soon as you are summoned by a signal of danger?

A phone call, an email, a text message, a shout, or a strange noise in the night. Or even a dream?

And then suddenly, we are hyper-aware?

Ready to act?

Girding ourselves in the whole armor of God?

And able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way?

Maybe.

Kind of like a superhero.

And who doesn’t like a superhero?

When I was growing up, we would sit around the TV and watch reruns of The Adventures of Superman, and we couldn’t wait for the Wednesday and Thursday night episodes of Batman.

Batman was and is considered a superhero, yet he never had any superpowers. Unlike Superman, Batman wasn’t some strange visitor from another planet, he didn’t have powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men, he couldn’t change the course of mighty rivers, or bend steel in his bare hands, or have a dramatic reading of these abilities read dramatically by Detroit’s own Bill Kennedy at the start of every show, but he did have a secret identity, and he did fight a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way.

He donned a special armor, and helmet (or cowl as the comic books described it). He didn’t use lethal weapons, but instead trained hard to make the best of his physical abilities, researched methods of self-defense, technology, and developed himself, mentally and physically into a formidable force for justice, albeit one that had dark origins of revenge.

As a kid, you could never be Superman, but you could aspire to be the Batman-if you we committed to the cause.

And be really rich.

Just as true superheroes have to be highly committed, we have to commit. To say it out loud.

In today’s gospel, many of Jesus’ disciples complained, "This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?" (John 6:60)

You can almost feel the whining when you read it.

It’s too hard!

Like a math problem or a tedious chore.

After being admonished for their whining most of the crowd left.

But when Jesus asked Peter, Peter had the right answer (which didn’t happen often); "Lord, to whom can we go?  You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." (John 6:68-69 NRSV)

Or when Solomon, in the midst of a cloud-filled house of the Lord, “When the priests left the Holy Place, a cloud filled The Temple of God. The priests couldn’t carry out their priestly duties because of the cloud—the glory of God filled The Temple of God! (1Kings 8:10 The Message)

We are probably not going to be called upon to make a life or death commitment, like Peter, or have the clouds rolling down the aisles of this church as Solomon did in our Hebrew lesson.

But we all have challenges that will test us (if we only knew five years ago...).

How we respond will define us.

Think about how we judge our leaders.

Look back on the local, national, and global crises of our lifetimes.

Think about the way they were handled.

Not just by the people in charge, but by the ordinary people like us that stepped up and made things right.

Or not.

I’m reminded of Mr. Rogers who said, ““When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

 

Very recently, I encountered a crisis when my dad fell ill during a visit from Florida.

He spent 14 days in Beaumont Hospital (Royal Oak), 12 of those in the ICU unit for several issues none of which have been completely resolved. The morning after the first night, when I spent the night with him, the nurse could not wake him up.

She pressed a button that quickly summoned a small army of doctors, nurses and techs who threw me out of the room. I saw the team revive him with a breathing tube shoved down his throat.

 I observed this from the hallway. As it was the ICU unit, everything was visible. My mind was racing with a bunch of calculations. Everything from how I communicate this turn of events with my three siblings to how do I prepare myself if this is the last time that I would see my superhero alive.

I’d like to think that I responded well, all indications point to that being the case, but who knows?

Dad’s out of the hospital in a rehabilitation facility, so we have a ways to go. Please don’t stop the prayers.

I was pretty excited about today’s reading, especially the reading from Ephesians. I thought about all of the things that I could talk about but drew a blank for the longest time. Not many people have attempted to tackle this reading, I found, except for those that took it literally as instructions to a real battle with Satan, complete with swords and shields!

But just as Paul (or more likely Tychicus, one of his associates), urges us to take up the battle, to put on the whole armor of God, the helmet, shield, loins, feet, sword, and breastplate.

Best of all, we don’t have to go out and buy all this stuff!

We use the shield of faith when tempted by doubt.

We don the helmet of salvation to surround us with the grace gained by Christ’s sacrifice.

We gird ourselves with the breastplate of righteousness-not to flaunt what we consider our special truth, but to demonstrate our commitment to justice and fairness. They will know we are Christians by our love, not our self-righteousness.

We wield the sword of the spirit-demonstrating what the word and the spirit mean to us-and by showing, through example, how the spirit moves around us.

We prepare our shoes with the gospel of peace so we can appreciate How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation. (Isaiah 52:7 NRSV)

And lastly:

We pray constantly, intensely, and unselfishly.

So that we may overcome the next crisis.

Like a superhero.

Like the superhero we can be.

And whenever we can:

Be Batman.

Budget Time

Whew! It was quite a wild budget process the past few weeks. I thank all of you who took the time to call or write their Legislators. The good news is that the voices of parents were heard on this issue through Michigan PTA. The bad news is that although we were able to mitigate what could have been a $218 per student cut, we still will be cut $168 per student. In addition, if the sales tax revenues continue to come in at the lower rate than the budget originally estimated, we could be faced with additional cuts later in the year. (There is no reason to believe that sales tax revenues will improve-they have come in at least $40 million under budget every month this year!)

How does this affect your district? Click here for the total amount of cuts. Click here for a detailed analysis of the categories that were changed in the budget.

As to how it will affect your district directly-well your boards of education will soon be making decisions that will reconcile the current cuts with the cuts that they projected. If they projected a $200 cut, they have more money to spend as it currently stands (remember, this could change-and probably will as we move through the year). If they projected less than the current cut, they will have to make it up somehow.

Fifteen years ago (March 15, 1994 to be exact, my birthday, but I can’t say which), the citizens off Michigan made a radical decision to fund schools statewide through an increase in sales tax and other methods and reduced property taxes. This measure passed by a vote of 1,684,541 to 750,952 (69% to 31%, or slightly better than 2 to 1). Yes, the people had spoken, but what really did this mean? What it meant was that the state-and by that I mean the people of the state, with the elected officials working on their behalf, made a commitment to fund education. In the good years that immediately followed, to arise the money needed for schools was not an issue, money could be easily generated by big-ticket items in a good economy. But by the time we reached the early part of this decade, several factors worked against us, most notably the decline in auto sales.

However, the commitment remains.

We, the people, and our elected officials acting as our agents, must live up to that commitment to the children of this state! A $168 per student cut is outrageous! How can we possibly move forward with the people of this state failing to live up to their commitment? Keep asking this question. Keep your voices loud, and keep working on the relationships that you are developing with elected officials and let them know that this cut and further cuts are unacceptable.

But it’s only three percent!

Or so says Howell Public Schools Trustee Wendy Day. But what does three percent actually mean to you, your schools, and most importantly, your kids?

Schools are required to have kids in school 1,098 hours per school year. (With a 180-day school year, that’s about 6 hours and 6 minutes.) Let’s cut 3% of that. That’s 5 days of school, or a week of school. What kind of impact does that have on our students?

Special education did not escape budget cuts. The budget impasse prevented the state from dispersing federal funds to districts. Some very interesting information on how disproportional representation of racial and ethnic groups can be found here.

This past Monday I had the opportunity to address two PTA groups. First was the Detroit PTA Council (the representatives of the local PTA units in Detroit) and the Oakridge Elementary PTA in Royal Oak. The hot topic was of course the budget and the cuts to education, but while all of the first group and most of the second group understood the gravity of the situation, there was a group of parents that wanted to know if we would expand All-day Kindergarten to their school. When I explained that this was a very costly program (it literally doubles the cost and space requirements) and that the board would do what it could to maintain the existing program at the two schools where it is programmed, in my humble opinion, there was no way that the board (that would not include me after 12/31/09) could afford it, as they would be struggling to maintain the existing programs. (In addition, there is not enough space in their building.) The disconnect between these two items-budget cuts and expanded programs, disturbed me. How is it possible that so much misunderstanding can exist? Gerd Gigerenzer, in his book Calculated Risks and John Allen Paulos in his 1989 book, Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences, posits that there exists such a large incidence of innumeracy in the US today, that the impact on public policy is sufficient enough to cause poor decision to be made, risks are assessed poorly and the decision made by the electorate are led by poor conceptual knowledge of complex issues. Or these parents were just angry or apathetic-or both.

The lesson here, for me and other advocacy leaders, is that our work is nowhere near done. We need to get out there and make sure that our friends, neighbors, family members, and co-workers are aware of what is happening, how it impact them, and that they need to care about it!

One person at this meeting told me that she really didn’t care about how we got here, just what the school board was going to do about it. Sad. Really sad.

So let’s get to work.

To help you advocate, I will be updating the Legislative Page (http://capwiz.com/npta2/mi/home/ )on a regular basis-please go there and check out the action alerts under the Issues and Legislation tab.

You can also follow me on facebook and twitter-these pages are updated often.

Kevin McLogan

https://twitter.com/bigkkm

http://www.facebook.com/kmclogan

(An abbreviated version of this article appears in Michigan PTA’s October Bulletin)

McLogan Endorses Beerer and Makarewicz for Royal Oak School Board

Recently, I announced that I would not be seeking a fourth term to the Royal Oak School Board. I have been proud to represent my hometown for the last twelve years, but for many reasons, this was a good time to move on. The boards I served with accomplished much, and now two new board trustees will have to confront the challenges of the future. It won’t be easy, so we need board members that have the experience and community connections to make a significant difference in the lives of our children and positively impact the Royal Oak community. I think that it is important that we elect people that have demonstrated a proven commitment to the community.
This is why I am proud to endorse Carrie Beerer and Arthur Makarewicz for Royal Oak School Board.
Carrie and Art both have worked hard to make their community a better place for many years. Carrie has worked with youth football and cheer teams, served on school committees, and held leadership positions in PTAs at Oakridge Elementary and Royal Oak Middle School. Art has served on several city committees, Oakland County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, and worked with youth as a Score 4 Kids Board Trustee.
Serving on a school board is one of the most important ways that one can serve their community. School Board Trustees manage a much larger budget than their better-paid counterparts on the city commission, ($20 per meeting compared to $0 per meeting), and have the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of children.
The school board is no place to get started in one’s community service.
Their opponent seems like a very nice man, but he has not yet demonstrated a commitment to do the volunteer work that needs to be done that leads to being an elected official. I hope that he does. We need good people like him to lend their expertise to city committees, School committees, service clubs, youth sports, church groups, and other youth activities.
People from all over Michigan respect Royal Oak because the School Board has done what needs to be done for the future – to consolidating schools with a plan to improve them. The future is not with me and the 50+ crowd – it with our young families whose friends are now considering Royal Oak because of the improvements that we have made in our buildings. We need people with a proven commitment to our community like Carrie Beerer and Arthur Makarewicz and I hope you will join me in voting for them on November 3rd.

Kevin McLogan

Bad Behavior

These days you can’t pick up a newspaper, listen to the radio, watch television, surf the internet or update your facebook page without seeing people engaged in outrageous behavior in public, particularly in town hall meetings.

Now, I can understand that passions run deep, especially with the issues of the day, but really, is disrupting meetings, being loud and obnoxious, preventing others from speaking and invoking comparisons to long-dead dictators an effective way to get your message across?

I would argue strongly, NO! It makes you, your message, and the poor chump standing next to you look stupid. It makes you and your noise the message, not your position on the issue.

As advocates for this nation’s most important resource, our children, we need to be above reproach in the methods in which we conduct ourselves. As passionate as we can be, we must maintain an emotional impartiality when we speak and act in the advocacy for the issues.

Let me give you two quick pieces of advice to remember always:

1. When in doubt of how you are behaving, ask yourself; what would my mother say if she saw me acting like this?

2. Don’t make extreme comparisons. You aren’t as good as Rosa Parks and your opponents aren’t as bad as Hitler. Not even close. DON’T DO IT!

This article also appeared in the MI PTA Bulletin Legislative Article-August 2009

Breaking News from Royal Oak Schools

McLogan won't seek fourth term on School Board

Kevin McLogan announced today that he will not seek a fourth term on the Royal Oak Board of Education.

“Although I won't be serving on the Board, my work in education will not end,” said McLogan.

“The next generation of Michigan's leaders is being educated now. Making sure these students are ready to lead the state on a new path is everyone's responsibility.” McLogan said that public schools in Michigan will face a number of serious challenges over the next several years.

"I will be exploring options on a regional and state level to use my skills, passion, and knowledge to help lead an education revolution in the State of Michigan.”

McLogan began serving on the Board of Education in 1997. He worked with five Superintendents and fourteen board members. He earned certification through the Michigan Association of School Boards (MASB) and, over the years, represented Royal Oak Schools on the Michigan Association of School Boards, the Michigan PTSA and Oakland County School Boards Association where he currently serves as President. In addition, he has been an active member of other education-based organizations such as the Michigan Foundation for Public Education, the Council About Parochiaid, and All Kids in School.

McLogan took his advocacy to Lansing and to Washington DC, making frequent trips to speak to federal and state policy makers about a variety of important issues. McLogan said, "I believe that advocating for Royal Oak Schools and public education at every level is the job of School board members and I hope someone on the Board takes up that mantle.” McLogan trains advocates on PTAs and school boards across the state and has been a mentor to board members as one of the inaugural members of MASB’s Members Assisting Peers program.

McLogan served on the Royal Oak School Board during a critical time in the district's history. Faced with declining enrollment, aging infrastructure, Columbine, No Child Left Behind, state and federal mandates, uncertain funding and a student population that needs to be prepared the 21st century, the boards on which McLogan served did not shy away from the challenges. "Working with a talented staff, excellent board members and a dedicated community, the board made the difficult decision to consolidate the district to assure quality education for generations to come".

"The Boards I served on were fiscally conservative", said McLogan. "We cut 25 administrative positions since 1998; found $2 million in operating efficiencies every year, balanced our budgets, and was able to see a decline in the operating milage every year since Proposal A. Yet we never sacrifice academic excellence to save money. Royal Oak has always put academic excellence above all else.”

State Representative Marie Donigan, married to McLogan since 2003 says, "I've watched Kevin help the School District get to a place where academic excellence takes priority having put the district on a fiscally and physically stable path. I brag about Royal Oak schools in Lansing often and use our district up as an example of what good leadership can do when faced with difficult times.

Tom Moline, Superintendent of Royal Oak schools said, "I have enjoyed working with Kevin very much. His dedication to public education makes my job easier both in Royal Oak and on a statewide level. We share a passion for educating kids; Kevin's 12 year service is testament to that".

Chris Hartwig who began serving with Kevin in 1997 said she'll miss working with Kevin on the board. Hartwig, who will also not run for a fourth term on the board said, “Kevin is a stickler for detail and good policy. He kept us moving forward when we were being pulled in many different directions. I hope Kevin's skills can be put to work elsewhere for the betterment of Michigan's public schools."

(Kevin McLogan is the author of this blog)

my contribution to the confusion around us

my contribution to the confusion around us

Public policy concerns as they relate to the new Detroit Media Partnership plan

Surviving two days now without a real newspaper at my door.

Better than I thought.

I wrote this to a friend of mine at The Partnership (in a slightly different form) and I figure I better publish it on my own before it makes the rounds there (I may be too late).

What does publishing a newspaper for home delivery only three days a week and reducing the size of the other days in dealers and racks mean for public policy and the watch dog function of the press?

My position is that it suffers with the resultant reduction in resources to keep government in check.

Two concerns that are intertwined:

1. There really hasn’t been a model that shows a way for online publications of any kind to achieve the kind of revenue stream that is anywhere close to the revenue of print publications.
2. The staff reductions that would have to eventually be made because of the lack of revenue (and the resulting ROI reductions, or more accurately the inability for the Partnership to meet ROI expectations, even if there is an increase) would eventually reach beyond production and circulation and impact news-gathering and reporting personnel.

What is the principle of limitation of public information in a well-ordered society today? The principle is simply the people's need to know. And the need to know of a free people, in a free and open society, is in principle unlimited. Indeed, this is why, of course, a political censorship is regarded, as I have said, as imprudent and also unrightful, a violation of right. (http://woodstock.georgetown.edu/library/Murray/1964A.htm)

"Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate to prefer the latter."- Thomas Jefferson

I would argue the following:

1. If this plan were in place by the end of 2007, Kwame Kilpatrick would still be Mayor of Detroit
2. Other media (Television, radio and internet) do not have the resources, influence, or reputation of the traditional newspapers. Their influence on public policy, even though they may be more widely consumed, is incomplete and limited. This is due, in part, because these media rely heavily on newspapers for their news without apology!
3. The best outcome of the DNLP plan would be for there to be some miracle to occur and the newspapers would find a way to capture revenue on the internet that would be comparable to print. Barring that, (And this one might really piss you off, sorry) for the sake of public policy in this country, the best outcome would be for the plan to fail and fail miserably. Were this plan to succeed, many more newspapers would follow and the press issues that I have cited would multiply exponentially.