BagOfNothing.com

From www.atu2.com

With a speech that would’ve made Martin Luther King Jr., smile with pride, Bono accepted the Chairman’s Award at the 38th annual NAACP Image Awards tonight in Los Angeles.

Bono eventually took the stage, telling the crowd about growing up in Dublin and the religious strife there, and how he was “parched for the vision that poured out of the pulpits of black America, the vision of a black reverend from Atlanta. A man who refused to hate because he knew love would do a better job.” The spirit of MLK was in the house as Bono’s speech climaxed with a King-style litany of declarations, each one beginning with “God is…” and Bono shouting louder with each one. It was breathtaking to see the crowd rise to its feet, almost row by row, as Bono spoke.

It’s the last minute of the speech that will have most folks talking.

When I woke up this morning I learned that at least 6 people this morning died when a bus carrying a college team went over an overpass.

Only two news websites actually included the name of the school in the story headline.  I checked CNN, MSNBC, ESPN, FOXNews, ABC, and CBS (images below).  Only ABC and FOXNews did the right thing by including the school’s name in the headline.  And yes, you just read that correctly, I gave FOXNews a compliment, and in this case it is well derserved.

I can’t imagine being a parent of an college baseball student athlete playing for any college in Ohio, reading the headline, and being left wondering if my child was involved.  The news owes adding the college name in those headlines to the parents, not to metnion all the loved-ones involved. 

This reminds me of a local news station reporting during a commercial break that a popular radio DJ has just died in a car crash.  Their exact words, “A popular radio personality has died in a freakish car accident,  tune in at 5 for compete coverage.”  I can’t tell you how many people were left freaking out wondering if a part of their daily life has tragically died.

A kangaroo that didn’t make it across the road.

See the pic here.

I actually caught some kind of virus the week before my trip to Vietnam, so I’m going to obey doctor’s orders and get a lot of R&R, take my meds, drink lots of liquids, up the vitamin C, and so on.  So in short, not much blogging is going to happen this Friday, but I thought I would leave you with a pretty groovy U2 clip.

This clip comes from a DVD a loyal reader and good friend sent to me in which Bill Hybels interviews Bono about his faith and Africa.  So who’s Bill Hybels?  In short, he’s the founding pastor of Willow Creek Community Church which is one of the most attended churches in America and was named one of Time Magazine’s 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America.  It’s also worth noting that he leads a network of 10,500 churches and trains more than 100,000 pastors each year.

Regarding this clip from that DVD, it has which I think is my favorite U2 concert moment.  It’s from the Elevation tour and has scripture references on the screen for “40” and “Where The Streets Have No Name”, and there is a small clip of Bono speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast.  I’ve often wondered how many people in the crowd really knew they were singing something straight from the scriptures.

Some of you  pastor folk will be getting a copy of the DVD in the mail from me, but for those of you who are not getting one from me, you can order a DVD free of charge here (one per church).

Also, if you are wondering about Bono’s faith, I would suggest checking out this link and reading the section “Bono confesses his faith”.