Milt Reynolds: Thinking Out Loud

This nonprofit United Way agency relies on volunteers to help run its 24-hour hotline , helping with issues of sexual assault, abuse and other crimes. The center provides crisis services and prevention education for community members of Benton and Franklin counties . Sexual assault Sexual abuse Child abuse Elder abuse Assault Homicide Robbery Identity theft Fraud Volunteer on-call Crisis Line Advocates need only a cell or home phone number. They provide crisis intervention, support and advocacy. Read more...

This is from a presentation made by my wife, Robin, in honor of Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, January 24, 2010. Special thanks to Lindsy Morton for allowing us to place her recording of "Amazing Grace" in the background. Thank you, Lindsy!

The Frazer Wambeke Trio Great local jazz/blues/rock group! Frazer Wambeke (Piano/Guitar/Vocals) Juan Hernandez (Electric and Upright Bass) Derek Munson (Drums and Percussion) I've heard their jazz and blues, gospel and worship, and I've enjoyed it all. Innovative, high-level technique, tremendous emotion, fun riffs, great sound . Here's a brief bio from their website: "This group plays original songs, improvises, and also takes jazz standards and turns them upside-down, frequently using odd meters, alternate chord structures, and funky grooves (among other things). "We are well-versed in the styles of swing, latin, fusion, funk, R&B, blues, rock, and more. We incorporate our diverse backgrounds into each piece, helping to make everything we play original and distinct with our our personal signatures. It is this combination of our individual tastes compiled into one cohesive group that makes us stand apart." They've just re

This is from a presentation made by my wife, Robin, at our church this morning. All my days are planned out by God. From the time I first drew breath until the time I draw my last, God continually brings things into my life that open my eyes to Him and show me my need for Him. God brings words, circumstances and people into my life that are for my good and for His glory . When I was molested, when I was into drugs and alcohol, when I had three abortions, when I was beaten and almost killed by my first husband, when I almost died giving birth to my daughter.....God used all of these things to bring me to Himself. He died in my place and was with me through everything. I was not alone. Jesus redeemed me and gave me new life. He filled up the emptiness I was desperately trying to fill myself . I want to talk specifically about abortion. 43% Women in USA who have an abortion by the age of 40 (Source: www.usnews.com) 1,500,000 Number of abortions in USA yearly 54,000,

I Have a Dream by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've co

John Wambeke's Cabin Fever Concert 2010 An evening of homegrown, Hermiston music and humor. John Wambeke and Pat Ward entertained the crowd with guitar and a tweaked-up one-man band contraption. In between shticks were commercial skits advertising major sponsors of the concert, and great performances by local musicians : State champion fiddlers Eric Jepsen and Alex Carlson Hermiston High School band Jessica and Amanda St. Hilaire Retired bronc rider Harry Noble Frazer Wambeke Jazz Trio Harpist Rebecca Jepsen Thelma and Eunice (played by John and Pat) If you've not yet attended this annual vaudeville/variety show, you really need to put it on your calendar for next year. The show has just the right blend of down-home informality and polished professionalism . A great set constructed on the stage shows a snow-covered log cabin and outhouse, complete with bear traps and furs hanging on the wall. The troupe has fun using the outhouse as a grand entry point for dif

Loving Away Domestic Violence February 14, 2010 Dinner, 6:00 PM Raffle, 7:30 PM Location: ARC 215 W. Orchard Hermiston Dinner tickets: $18 per person Contact: 541-567-0424 Proceeds benefit victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Read more...

A Beautiful Mind I've watched this movie only twice . Both times I've cried, stricken by the conflict and emotions portrayed by the actors playing John Nash and his wife, Alicia. I'm writing this article less as a review or recommendation and more as a personal, cathartic exercise . What about this film hurts me? Why do I cry? Why does it affect me so? John F. Nash, Jr. was a mathematician, brilliant even during high school. His genius, however, came at a cost to his relationships with friends, family and colleagues, ultimately climaxing with a spiraling fall into mental illness . Only one person was willing, and able, to support, protect, and eventually, bring him back to reality: his wife, Alicia Larde. During and after the cycles of schizophrenia, hospitalization, treatment and recovery, Nash contributed many original discoveries in the field of mathematics, culminating with the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economic Science. ( http://www-history.mcs ) The movie is extre

Jake Sully is a marine, wounded and confined to a wheelchair, who joins a research group as an "avatar driver", on the planet "Pandora". The group is attempting to befriend the hostile native people , the "Na'vi", in order to gain mining rights to "unobtanium", a rare and valuable mineral. An avatar is a body cloned from DNA derived from a human and an alien . The human becomes a "driver", remotely controlling the avatar's body through sophisticated computer-to-brain connections. Sully begins the project fully intending to gain the natives' trust, learning their secrets, in order to persuade them to relinguish the mining rights, or to break their defenses and overwhelm them militarily . But a strong emotional attachment to one of the Na'vi begins to change his desire from one of conquest to that of love and respect for their culture. The climax of the story comes as the military machine of the humans collides