So, WordPress has had another major security problem. While I realize that no system is ever fully secure, it seems that WordPress has been having more than its fair share of issues. There was the “highly exploitable code” in May 2007. Then there was the December 2007 update to version 2.3.2, “an urgent security release that fixes a bug that can be used to expose your draft posts. 2.3.2 also suppresses some error messages that can give away information about your database table structure and limits and stops some information leaks in the XML-RPC and APP implementations. Get 2.3.2 now to protect your blog from these disclosures.” Then in February of 2008, there was the urgent update to version 2.3.3 to fix a bug that “would allow a user to edit posts of other users on that blog.” These, of course, were just the major issues. There were some other run-of-the-mill security updates along the way, the kind you expect with any online software.

I’m updating another WordPress blog that I run while writing this post. I had literally just written the following: “So far, I have been fortunate enough to avoid any real problems as a res,” when I found some spam files in my wp-content folder.

It’s disappointing that there are so many gaps in the pre-release security testing. On the one hand, it is free software, so perhaps I shouldn’t complain too much. On the other hand, it is free software owned by Automattic, which has parlayed the free labor it receives to help it build this software into a company worth $150-200 million, not to mention that there are a number of competitors with similar offerings.

To be honest, I probably won’t change any current blogs I’ve got on WordPress, but it makes me VERY hesitant to recommend it to any clients, and my next blog venture (whatever that may be), just might use MTOS.

Hat tip to David Russell for being the first one to mention the security issue to me. Unfortunately, his problems resulting from the latest WordPress bug are much more severe. On an only tangentially related note, it’s cool to go to a church where some of my pastors know more about web development and video editing than I do. If you think that would be cool too, you should really check out NCC.

I was assaulted tonight on my way home from a friend’s house. It was kinda strange. I was walking down the street and it seemed like two people were following me. I heard them talking, and I could have sworn one of them said, “Why are we running away from him?” As they got closer I was alert and aware, but I didn’t realize exactly what they were doing until after they hit me.

One of them punched me in the back of the jaw and then they both ran the other way. I had gotten a pretty good look at one of them. He was around 15 or 16 years old and probably 145 pounds. I was a bit shaken but turned around to find them a decent ways away from me. I must say that my response probably wasn’t the greatest for a lot of reasons. I told them in some some not so nice terms to come back and get what was coming to them.

The one who was still around and who I had gotten a good look at yelled something at me. I don’t remember exactly what.

So many things about this situation amazed me. I was surprised that they attacked me at all. They didn’t try to take my wallet or anything else. There were people on their stoop across the street. It was a fairly well lit area, and judging by the size of the one guy (and I think the other guy as well), they ran a serious risk of getting greviously injured should I have fought back. That said, I’m somewhat surprised I wasn’t hurt worse. If they had some sort of weapon, they chose not to use it.

I’m not exactly sure how I feel about how I handled the situation. I probably shouldn’t have yelled back, both because it wasn’t the right thing to do and because you never know what will happen when you provoke someone. I called 911 and reported what had happened, and I chatted with the people on the stoop while the police came and took a statement. I gave them a description of the one guy I saw clearly.

Part of me wishes I had turned around and confronted them before I got hit. I’m pretty sure that would have ended in either no one getting hurt at all or two guys who would think twice before attacking someone again. A large part of me wants to beat the snot out of them. What just occurred to me was that I need to pray for them, so I’m going to stop writing for a minute and do that. Although, I’ll be honest; I don’t really want to.

—

I prayed for them, and I prayed for myself. I prayed honestly that I really didn’t feel very much love for them, but that I know God cares for them too. As I began to pray my heart began to soften, and I prayed that God would work in their lives, that He would help them to forgive themselves once they knew what they had done. I also prayed that God would help me to forgive them.

The whole thing was very strange. I ran the gamut of emotions from wanting to leave the city to wanting to rain down wrath upon their heads. Part of what’s odd is that I’ve always felt relatively safe in the city. I’ve always tried to watch myself, and I’ve only had one other incident, but that was even stranger, a long story, and not something where I was actually attacked, just a bit of an out of the ordinary confrontation with someone who I’m pretty sure was a drug addict.

One of the thoughts that ran through my mind as I finished walking home in the torrential downpour that started right after I finished with the police was how minor this was in comparison to what so many people deal with. Someone hit me, and it was someone who couldn’t have really done much more damage (barring having a gun or knife or something). People live in neighborhoods where they hear gunshots on a regular basis. There are communities that regularly mourn violent death, and that is just here in America. It doesn’t even begin to address the tragedies that occur in places such as Iraq, Darfur, and China.

In all I’m fairly lucky. If that’s the worst thing that’s happened to both my wife and I in the nearly three years that we’ve lived in DC, I’ve gotten off pretty easy.

I’m not sure what exactly comes of this. I don’t know how this will change the way I act and think. Right now I feel kinda like I did when I spun my father-in-law’s truck across four lanes of LA traffic. I didn’t really want to get back in the driver’s seat. Right now, I don’t really want to go walking around the city. On the other hand, that’s no way to live your life, especially considering that I don’t have a car, so I walk everywhere.

I know this wasn’t the most well written post. It was mostly stream of consciousness to help me think things through.

I think I’m done writing now. I’m definitely not done processing. I know I need to keep praying, both for myself and for those boys, not to mention for this city. I’ve resisted calling them kids throughout this. I think because I’m somewhat angry (although less so now than when I started writing). I want them to be held responsible, but really, they’re just kids. They’re kids that need to be taught and loved. They’re kids who probably don’t have the greatest home lives. They’re the children about whom Jesus said, “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.“

So, if you get the chance, say a prayer for me that I will finish processing this and will forgive, but more importantly, say a prayer for them that they will come to know Christ and His love for them. And God, if there’s some way I can be a part of that, then use me in that way.

If you follow tech news at all you know that Microsoft has been attempting to purchase Yahoo over the objections of Yahoo’s management/board. Yahoo has been resistant and recently implemented a short term deal with Google to display Google ads on Yahoo’s web properties, a move that many saw as an attempt to pressure Microsoft to up its bid (currently $31/share). The Wall Street Journal recently broke the news that Yahoo and AOL are discussing a merger as well, and apparently Microsoft and Time-Warner are discussing a deal that would join MSN, Yahoo, and MySpace. The final outcome of this extremely high stakes game of technological chess remains to be seen, but it seems likely that two or more of the Internet’s biggest properties will soon be combining forces. The question remains, “Which two?”

Me After My Run

So I’ve recently started running again. I’ve gone about 4 or 5 times in the past few weeks. This is after over a year break from the gym and a several year break from running regularly. Today I was out and decided to just keep going. I went 7.4 miles in 67 minutes, meaning 9 minute miles. I was pretty happy with my distance, but my speed could have been better. Ah well, what can you expect when you haven’t run in years?

I’m not going to lie, part of my motivation was a tweet from @joetrippi (Joe Trippi, the political consultant). He recently started running again as well, and frankly, I was a bit embarrassed that a guy who is twice my age and is, by his own admission, not in the greatest shape was running farther than I was (about 4 miles).

I can tell already that I’m going to be hurting tomorrow, but I think it will be worth it. No pain, no gain.

My Route:

I stumbled upon (as in came across, not actually Stumbled Upon) a blog post about Tweet Clouds, a service that provides a tag cloud of your tweets. This is pretty interesting for personal use, but what are the other ramifications? Eric Gonzalez asks these questions:

Will Twittercloud analysis become as common an HR proceedure as a background check for hiring? Will nerds like me run social media metrics prior to doing business with someone? Is this an effective (or ethical) way to get inside a prospect’s head for salespeople? What are the shortcomings and caveats here?

How would you use cloud statistics in business, or in your personal life?

I must say, I find these to be incredibly intriguing questions. I will say that on first blush, I don’t have any ethical problems with using a Tweet Cloud to better understand a prospective client. When people openly publish information on the Internet, I think they have to expect that information to be used to market to them, but I am curious what you all think about that. Is there something I’m missing?

Unfortunately, Tweet Clouds is down right now, so I can’t actually produce a cloud for you all to see. Perhaps I’ll update this later. It’s not my night for web services.

Update: It helps when you title your posts

A quick tutorial for the uninitiated. Twitter is a micro-blogging service that asks you the question, “What are you doing now?” (Or “What were you doing?” if you believe @davidrussell.) It’s widely used by people interested in technology and serves as a combination IM/forum for the discussion of the latest trends and tips in technology… and whatever your dog happens to be doing at the moment. Seriously, you don’t have to be all that into technology to get a lot out of Twitter.

If you’re like me, Twitter is how you keep up with what’s going on. I follow some of the big names in the tech and political worlds (not to mention the politech world), plus three of my pastors, some co-workers and friends, and a couple of Congressmen (don’t know of any Congresswomen on Twitter). It’s also where I make semi-poignant observations about things going on around the web. So, for instance, if a widely used web service goes down, I mention it on Twitter. That leads to the question, “What do I do when Twitter goes down?” as it often does. I suppose I could always write a blog post about it, but that seems like a pretty heavy tool to make such a minor observation. Funny how quickly a web service can become integrated in every aspect of my life. Yes, even this blog post will end up on Twitter via Twitterfeed.

If you’re not following me on Twitter, give me a shout at http://twitter.com/willfjohnston, and if you’re not on Twitter, by all means sign up. But you’ll have to wait a while to do either of those; Twitter is down right now.

Update: Must have been a short one, Twitter is back up now (9:38 P.M. EST)

Dr. King was an amazing man, but I think that we often trivialize his message and flatten his character. We remember one line from one speech: “I have a dream.” Do we even remember what his dream was? We know it was something about equality, but do we remember what he actually said? I know I didn’t. I had to go look it up.

The first part of his dream was just that, equality. He said, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’” Pretty simple, we’re all equal; we all get an equal shot of making it, but what he called for next was something much more profound.

“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood….

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character….

“I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification – one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

“This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with…. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.”

You see, he called us to much more than a simple legal equality. He called for more than forced integration and legal protections for workers. He didn’t even stop at calling for an end to racism. He took it one step further. He called for brotherhood. He called for unity. He called us to embrace each other as brothers and sisters. He called for us to be one people.

I think that as a nation we also tend to forget his title of Reverend. You can watch a news report and see a certain level of spirituality in his life and message, but we put the fact that he was a man of God in some sort of secondary role. He graduated from Crozer Theological Seminary as class valedictorian with a Bachelor of Divinity degree, and it was in a lecture at Crozer that he was first introduced to the idea of pacifism. Had King not been in seminary, it is highly unlikely he would have ever been the leader of a nonviolent resistance movement that forever changed America. Moreover, when we reference him as “Dr. King,” we do so because he earned a Ph.D. from Boston University, in systematic theology. Dr. King was who he was in large part because of his time spent as a theological scholar.

Going back to words from that famous speech that are often left out of newscasts and of our memories:

“I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

“This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with…. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

“This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning “My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my father’s died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!

“Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring – when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children – black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics – will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!” (emphasis mine)

Finally, we forget that the great Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. cared about more than civil rights and racial reconciliation. He cared about social justice. He cared for the poor. Towards the end of his life he began to expand the scope of his work. In late 1967 he started the Poor People’s Campaign. While King obviously saw poverty as an epidemic within the black community, he also recognized that there were systemic problems of poverty in communties from all races. This work that he began was perhaps his most controversial. It caused some of his supporters to turn against him, but he believed that all people deserved the ability to earn enough money to live.

I think we need to move beyond the simple feel good aspects of Dr. King’s life that we like to remember. I think we need to explore the depth of his character if we are to truly honor his legacy. He has a great deal to teach if we are willing to learn. I’ve only highlighted three issues. The more I read about Dr. King, the more I realize what a complex and controversial figure he was. I liken him to King David from the Bible, a man after God’s own heart but still a fallen sinner, a great man who did great things but who also had great flaws.

If you’re interested in learning more about Dr. King, Stanford has an excellent biography that I used to help write this article. The biography itself is short, but it is littered with links that allow you to explore different parts of his life more in depth. I should also mention that I did reference the Martin Luther King Wikipedia article. Most importantly, I need to tell you that my wife was the inspiration for this post. She was the one who initially pointed out to me that we so often gloss over Dr. King’s life and limit our impression of him to one sliver of one speech he delivered.

I’ve put a couple of videos below. The first is his “I Have a Dream” speech (the whole thing), which you can also read here. The second two are the address he gave at Mason Temple Church of God in Christ on the night before his assassination.

Note: It’s late, but I really want to get this up tonight, so I’m reserving the right to edit it tomorrow.

—

It’s been a while since my last post, and I had been posting so regularly too. Ah well, such is life, and a lot has happened in the interim.

Two months ago I mentioned in my first post that I studied theology in college and was actually ordained as a pastor in my home denomination (or non-denomination as the case may be). I also wrote that I regularly question my decision not to enter the ministry, but I didn’t realize quite how prophetic that was when I wrote it.

Perhaps I should begin at the beginning.

I grew up in the Church, but like many, once I reached my teenage years I wasn’t exactly focused on God. My parents weren’t going to church at the time, and I began to live my life in whatever way I chose. A funny thing happened shortly before I turned sixteen. I realized that I would no longer have an excuse to avoid church. Of course, if I’m honest, I had no excuse before that, considering that I lived virtually across the street from a church.

Anyway, I attended for a few months, keeping up a Christian facade, something not that hard to do when you know all of the “right answers.” Somehow (i.e. through the providence of God, a couple of loving youth workers, and some quality peers), I was convinced to attend a week-long youth conference after a few months. There I reconnected with Jesus in a meaningful way.

Later that summer the church intern that I was dating questioned my quest for money (read: future Harvard Law grad). She was going into the ministry and asked me something to the effect of “What could be better than saving souls?” (It always comes back to a girl, doesn’t it?) At that moment the Holy Spirit broke something inside of me. I began to weep, and I realized that my desire to become wealthy wasn’t important, that bringing people to a saving knowledge of Jesus meant far more. This is, perhaps, the most embarrassing part of the story for me. Who wants to admit that one’s entire future was shaped by an ex-girlfriend? It’s also funny to look back on the decidedly crude language. Jesus will be doing the saving. Anything I do is only through His power and grace.

Rather than applying to a bunch of Ivy League institutions, I decided to go to a local school (not something that I wanted to do) because it was a quality Christian college (also not something that I wanted). Do you notice the trend of God doing things because He has plans for me in spite of what I want or where I may be headed? Take note of that, it doesn’t stop here.

When I graduated from college, I was done with school. That only sounds tautological; it’s not really. On a very personal level, I was done. I would have neither enjoyed nor flourished at seminary. I simply couldn’t handle any more classes or tests or papers. I needed a break from that. Consequently, I began to look for some kind of job in ministry. That was, after all, what I had been called to do, but the more I looked, the more it seemed that it seemed that doors weren’t opening. Those that were open weren’t where I wanted to be or where I felt God was calling me.

I must admit that this wasn’t exactly a shining moment in my walk with Christ. I suppose every relationship ebbs and flows, but I was seriously ebbing. I was preoccupied with my fiancee and graduation, and I simply wasn’t focusing on my relationship with God, in spite of the fact that I was trying to enter the ministry. In the midst of all of this I suddenly panicked and felt the need to be ordained. Shoot, I was going to be a pastor (or at least work in a para-church organization), I needed to be official. Who wants to hire a youth pastor who hasn’t been ordained. This is, of course, another one of those exceedingly embarrassing occurrences. Instead of recognizing the gravity and seriousness of ordination, instead of praying about it and seeking God’s will, I just jumped in head first. I wonder what God thought about that one.

Right around the time of graduation my fiancee was offered a job at the National Security Council. I hadn’t had any luck with my job search, so we decided she should take it. We got married in July and moved to DC the following January. (Those pesky security clearances take far longer than The Man tells you they will.) Through a combination of my friends I had at school, classes I took, an internship I had, and once again God’s guiding hand, I developed a passion for social justice. Out of this grew an interest in politics, and considering my inability to find a job in ministry and my relocation to Washington DC, I decided to pursue a career in politics.

Things were off to a pretty good start once I got here. Within two weeks I had gotten an entry-level job in a Senator’s office, and a year later I began a foreign policy program at National Defense University’s School for National Security Executive Education. My plan was to work in foreign affairs and effect change in American foreign policy on issues such as aid and peacekeeping.

Fourteen months after I started in Senator Bill Nelson’s office I was offered a position as a legislative correspondent, a fairly low-level position but a legislative job nonetheless and a stepping stone to a more significant policy position. This was shortly after the Democrats won control of Congress in 2006, and literally half of Senator Nelson’s legislative staff was leaving. There were seemingly limitless job opportunities for Democrats. The legislative director had the daunting task of trying to fill 10 legislative slots in a job market that wasn’t friendly to employers. I was sitting in his office, and he had just offered me the job. I accepted it. I told him I wanted it. I swear I did. I guess my memory could be playing tricks on me, but I swear I had already accepted the job when he asked if I wanted a night to think it over. I’m thinking to myself, “No, I don’t want a night to think it over. I want to get out of this data entry job.” Instead, I said, “I guess so, I interviewed for a position in the House and never heard back.” I e-mailed the person I had interviewed with there, and she said not to do anything without calling her first. I called her around 2:00 PM and told her that I had just been offered a position. She got me in to see the staff director and deputy staff director later that afternoon, and by 5:00 PM they had offered me the job. I didn’t know what to do. It seemed so evident that I should take the position in my current office, but I was praying about it and knew God was telling me to take the House job. It didn’t make any sense. The House job was doing web stuff. I had done that before. I didn’t want to do it again. I had no interest in producing websites for a living. Not to mention that it didn’t fit in with my career goals at all. Being a leg staffer and working on new media have nothing in common. Transitioning that gap would be like moving from being an an artist at Hallmark to being their accountant. Other than the fact that you work at the same place, they really aren’t related. I had no idea what my next step would be if I took the job in the House.

I took it anyway. I decided to trust God and see what would happen. I’ve since realized how good it is to do that.

I’ve found that I really enjoy technology, that design and coding get me fired up. Plus, I make more money and work shorter hours than I would have in the legislative position. In fact, I realized that I didn’t want to do policy work at all. I had found a new passion. I loved web design and development. I began to pursue that career path. I made connections with the right people. I learned PHP (a computer language commonly used online). I produced one of the most popular videos to ever come out of Congress. I began volunteering on the Barack Obama campaign and hoped to eventually get a position in the White House new media operation.

That all came to a screeching halt two weeks ago. I was sitting in service on Good Friday when I felt the call again. It wasn’t exactly a voice; it was just something I knew in my spirit. God was calling me back to ministry. He is bringing me full circle.

I spent the better part of the past three years confused. I questioned why God had called me to ministry in the first place. After a while I sort-of just “forgot” that it had happened. I obviously knew that it had occurred, but it just sort of merged in to this general idea of “Do good. Make a difference with your life.” rather than a distinct call to ministry. I figured that working for social justice politically was what I was going to do. Of course, after a while, this began to slip away too. It remained, but there was an ever growing temptation to just find a job I enjoyed (or start a business) that paid well, rather than really working for something I believed in.

I don’t know exactly what the three year detour was about, but He has taught me a great deal during this time, much of it about trust and integrity. And I imagine that these lessons were at least part of His reason.

I don’t know exactly what’s next. I don’t know what God’s plans are. I don’t know if his time frame is one month or six. I do know that this call was real. He has reaffirmed it time and time again for the past two weeks through conversations with friends and co-workers, not just by encouragement they have given me but advice that is timely and questions that are pointed and could only have come from God. I’m still working in the House, but I’ve told my bosses that I’m planning to enter the ministry and won’t be there long term. I’m working to find a ministry position, but I’m also trusting that God will put me where He wants me when He wants me there and that He’ll tell me where that is when He decides it’s time. It’s not for me to worry about.

I’m excited for this new stage of my journey, and I look forward to writing more as things develop.