Full Circle Stuff

The year has come around full circle and once again we are presented with a Saturday of "free beer" (only costing $30 up front) and a local church with an apparent continuing "mission from God" to offend.

Tomorrow afternoon I need to avoid the Magnolia Parke shopping center where I am now sitting sipping coffee as their ridiculous annual "free" beer-tasting festival will be held in the currently-empty field at which I am currently gazing. The parking lots around here will be packed and there will be a long line of people prepared to shell out dough to sample different types of beer. Whoopee. And I suppose we'll get another stupid article about it in my often worthless Gainesville Sun newspaper. Probably once again quoting some fool extolling the "free beer".

Down the road a ways and a couple of turns later, the Dove World Outreach Center has put its tax-exempt status in jeopardy. Not only has it been running a for-profit furniture store on its property, but now it has posted on its property a sign stating "No Homo for Mayor", referring to the fact that candidate and current city commissioner Craig Lowe happens to be gay. Since our law makes tax-exemption for churches subject to them staying out of electoral politics, this is a blatant infringement that should cause them to have to pay their fair share for city services. It's not a First Amendment issue, either: as a private citizen I can speak my mind as well, and I have my share of taxes!

And also, once again the Climb-for-Cancer 5K, 10K, and 15K runs are to be held, taking place tomorrow morning. Last year I preregistered, paying in advance and even picking up my race packet complete with tee shirt, timing chip, and assorted coupons. And then skipped out on the actual race due to the facts that (1) I didn't feel good and (2) I had doubts about being able to cover the distance I had registered for (15K, about 9.3 miles). Covering that distance now is a "yawner" for me. This year, I didn't preregister, instead opting to appear at 7 AM tomorrow and signing up then. Climb-for-Cancer's registration website has a feature that I find objectionable. In order to sign up for the race, besides paying the up-front fee, one had to commit to a fundraising goal of at least $100 in order for the registration to go through. I had never seen this degree of arm-twisting with online registration, in spite of the fact that virtually all of the races I have participated in during the past two years were in essence fundraisers for charitable causes. So I'm wondering whether they will try something similar when I try to register in person. Not that raising $100 is inherently bad, you see. But I just dislike the manipulative nature of what they're doing. I even e-mailed their director and tactfully explained my objections without ever receiving any reply. Also not good. So I'm going into this race with low expectations from this organization. Still, if I can just run the race and get my finishing time, it should be a fun experience. I would have preferred to be heading to Knoxville to participate in their marathon on March 28, but I was neither physically prepared yet for a marathon nor logistically prepared with the travel and limited time.