What are humans worth?  Are some worth more than others?  Is the drug trade really any different than any other industry?  Does the American Dream exist anymore? Does capitalism work?  And if it works, for whom does it work?  These are just some of the questions that David Simon's ambitious show, The Wire begs its viewers in interact with.

The show comes to us, not touting lofty ideologies or an agenda - it comes to us simply as a story in its purest form.   It comes into our living rooms and doesn't tell us what to think, but begs us to please think about the world in which we have created, and participate in.  It's an elaborate story of a decaying city, with an ever-widening gap between the classes that contain many intricate layers which Simon & Company give you the opportunity to unpack.  It is a story both about the people we have thoughtlessly left behind in order to keep the industries of our communities going, and about the people who are left to put the pieces together.  How do we deal with the poor and the oppressed?  Do we ignore them, or do we fight for them (or with them)?  Interestingly enough, The Wire is asking some of the same questions as Jesus was asking people about the poor, and the disenfranchised.  The response doesn't seem to be that much different in 21^st century Baltimore than it was in 1^st century Palestine.  The fact remains however, you cannot simply watch this show passively.

This past Sunday, I arrived home from a weekend trip to discover my oldest daughter (7) had been out and about picking up trash in the neighborhood. I turned to my wife perplexed with a "what the?" facial expression. She informed me that it was "Earth Day". "Ohhh..." I said - as if this was the only justification for my daughter's civil gesture. (By the way, funny and appropriate Earth Day "spot" below. Be sure and watch.)

Today I caught the end of a documentary on the Exxon Valdez oil spill that took place 18 years ago last month. (Valdez is a city in Alaska and the location of the oil spill - the largest "man-made" environmental disaster in our nation's history for those of you who might be too young to remember).