I'm getting ready for the Denver IDEA Cafe this afternoon (Fri, June 8, 2 p.m.) where I'm going to try a new way for us to share startup experience. If you can join us it would be great! More information about the meeting and optional RSVP at http://meetup.com/Denver-IDEA-Cafe  PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH ANY OF YOUR FRIENDS WHO MIGHT FIND THE MEETING HELPFUL. THANKS!

I found out yesterday that all the yearbooks for Cornell College are now available on line. I posted the pages with the group pictures of our football and wrestling team on my Facebook wall, you can see me in my former glory at http://Facebook.com/John.S.Wren. If we aren’t already Facebook friends, send me an invitation, OK?

Last gasp? Have you noticed how many ads there are in magazines and newspapers for wrist watches? Breitling had a full page ad in today’s Wall Street Journal. Seems to me I’m not the only one who has given up wearing one, who needs to when the precise time is on my cell phone which is always with me.

It’s rumored that the USPatent Office (click here)  may open a branch in Denver. It would bring about 1000 jobs and a $440 million local budget. Look for an announcement just before elections since Colorado is a swing state.

Want to be famous? Hyperlocal newspapers are hot. Denver Post’s YourHub zone edition is holding meetings around town. Meet with Ryan Parker at Panera Bread, 640 S. Colorado Blvd. one Tuesday soon at his weekly meeting. Or contact him with your Denver story idea at rparker@denverpost.com, (303)954-2409, or Twitter.com/yhRyan.  For an inside look at hyperlocal publishing see www.StreetFightMag.com whose cofounder Laura Rich was with us not long ago at our Denver IDEA Café Startup Workshop.

If you care about mass transit in metro-Denver, attend one of the RTD public hearings. I’m going to attend Wednesday, June 13 in the RTD Administrative Offices, 1600 Blake Street. For details and other meeting locations see rtd-denver.com. Can attend? Email your comments to servicechanges@rtd-denver.com

Want something different for lunch on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday? Food trucks are back in CivicCenter (click here.)

Big ad for the BoulderJewish Festival (click here)  in the Denver Post today. Houston has a Palestinian Festival (click here), is anything like that being planned in Colorado?

Claire Martin writes in the Denver Post this morning about the passing of Bonnie Brae Tavern’s Hank Dire (click here) and the restaurant his parents established when he was 5 years old and that he worked in all his life. I was 2 years old when my dad started his business. We tried working together, and our unsuccessful effort makes me appreciate people like Hank Dire and his father. Might have something to do with their Catholic faith.

 Go into any Catholic church in the world today and for the next three days at daily mass, and you’ll hear these and the rest of the words (click here) that St. Paul wrote in his 2^nd  letter to Timothy. Some think these are the last word written by St. Paul, his “last will and testament”  and his final instructions to his disciple Timothy and to each of us.   

“I remind you to stir into flame

the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands.

For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice

but rather of power and love and self-control.

So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord.”

Some priests may be suggesting that hearing and pondering these words of St. Paul is good preparation for  the Fortnight for Freedom (click here) that Catholics across the country are being called to observe in preparation for the upcoming elections. Here in Denver speakers will share on “Christian Faith and American Democracy: A Growing Gap?”, “Catholic Politicians: Revisiting JFK’s 1960 Speech on the Absolute Separation of Church and State.”, and “Accommodation Abomination: the HHS Mandate and American Law.” 

It might surprise some that President Franklin D. Roosevelt believed prayer was important to our country. This is a prayer he broadcast over the radio on this date, June 6, in 1944 at a perilous point in World War II:

Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.

They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest-until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war.

For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good will among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.

Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

And for us at home - fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas - whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them - help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.

Give us strength, too - strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.

And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.

And, O Lord, give us Faith. Give us Faith in Thee; Faith in our sons; Faith in each other; Faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.

With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.

Thy will be done, Almighty God.

Amen.

Read more at the American Presidency Project: 

 http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=16515#ixzz1x1hVsrPx

I think St. Paul would like this prayer, and he'd like President Roosevelt for not being ashamed to say it. Our pennies say "In God We Trust," and many of our problems as individuals and as a country are being caused by a loss of this trust.  

How about you, do you trust God? If not, stop in a Catholic church today. Or just read 2nd Timothy, it's a short letter. As you read or hear Paul's words open yourself to that trust. What are you being called to do? What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail? God bless you.+

Congratulations to my niece Katie Wren  and her long-time friend Will Petock  who got married Sunday, May 27. They were both actors in “Colorado Quickies” five years ago, and I’ve been told it was love at first sight, but the long courtship was anything but quick. I'm so proud of them both. It was the most beautiful wedding at the Dunafon Castle just west of Morrison, which I’d never seen before.

My friend Barry Moltz just published solid advice on how to be mentally tough: focus on solutions, accept what you can’t change, keep a log, practice. Very much worth taking a couple of minutes to read the entirearticle (click here.)

Writer Ed Qullen passed on Sunday, reportedly sitting in his favorite chair reading history. Wouldn’t you love to know what historical event triggered the massive heart attack? Maybe he was reading about the history of the Denver Symphony, something he didn’t think should be supportedwith tax dollars (click here.)  Looking at what’s happened to it since the SCFD tax was passed, looks like he was right. Now they’ve even dropped DSO, now CSO—the name change really helped, didn’t it--nominal support for the Denver Debutante Ball.

Scott Appel who lost his wife and house in the Lower North Fork fire has a column in the Denver Post today arguing that tax dollars should be used to make things right in the mountains for people who build in the forest and get hurt by fire. I don’t think Ed would like that idea either. 

Front page story in the Denver Post today about the light rail to Longmont, promised in the FastTracs vote in 2004, is getting delayed, may never be built, and the need for another tax increase. Where are the liars who told us the light rail system would be built on time and within budget? Head of RTD at the time is long gone, but then Mayor J-Hic is now is in the Governor’s office, where it looks like we may soon have a Wells Fargo logo as naming rights to our Capitol are sold to bail out the stalled reconstruction.

Political party affiliation is sharply off, according to a new poll conducted by Pew Research Center.  For the last two years I’ve been registered Unaffiliated, and I went to both of my precinct caucuses and district assemblies.

Another big story in the Denver Post today is the crackdown in Denver on overnight campers in Civic Center Park and the 16^th street mall. There is also a special on metro-Denver area parks, should make today’s issue a big seller with the homeless.

Since 2009 Harvard and an education magazine have been tracking the opinions of teachers compared to those of the general public. The split is growing wider: “a majority of teachers often takes positions contrary to those of a plurality of both the public and the affluent on key issues such as teachers unions, the rights and prerogatives of teachers, and school vouchers. Plainly, the battles over school reform are far from over.” For the complete report (click here.)

Dr. Steven Greer, a surgeon who is also CEO of The HealthCare Channel  gives an insidelook at the way money was doled out through one of the Affordable Care Act’s new bureaucracies. It’s not a pretty picture.  

The South Metro  IDEA Cafe meets this afternoon (Monday, May 14) at Koelbel Library, and the Denver IDEA Cafe meets again this Friday at Charlie Brown's in the Colburn. Speakers on startup and brainstorming. Free. New sessions are being organized around metro-Denver, for more information and optional RSVP see http://meetup.com/SBCC-Startup-Workshops