It had to be a misprint in our Diversions column.

The blurb noted Lake Burien Presbyterian Church was screening the controversial-to-some movie An Inconvenient Truth with Al Gore sounding the alarm about global warming.

This is the same Lake Burien Presbyterian of my youth where after-services activities were pretty much limited to potlucks with Presbyterian Spaghetti (made with short macaroni noodles so the kids didn't get so messy) and Christmas pageants (I "killed" as Shepherd #3 in the 1958 production).

Thankfully, mainstream churches are now making their voices heard on Jesus-taught values such as compassion, justice, and responsibility for the least among us.

Though those values were not discussed in contemporary political terms during my Sunday school classes, I picked them up and later made the connection to the secular world.

If I categorized the early influences on this Burien boy that shaped my liberal values, I would cite faith, education and family.

While matriculating through Highline schools, I learned enough America history to know that this nation has survived tough times including wars, economic depressions, race divisions and a cold war.

We didn't succumb to fear. We kept our democratic ideals, didn't turn over our hard-won rights to an imperial president, and we remained a shining example for democracy-loving people throughout the world.

I also learned my progressive values through my family--specifically my parents. They weren't exactly the Brie-on-a-cracker stereotypes that conservatives promulgate.

I would describe them more as frugal-spending, milk-drinking, meat-eating, Chevy-driving, Lawrence Welk-loving, personally-responsible, self-reliant folks.

But despite their self-reliance, they were compassionate enough to know that sometimes a person needs a hand up and not arrogant enough to think they had made it all on their own.

Despite undertaking several faith-based initiatives at Lake Burien and tirelessly volunteering in community organizations, my mother realized that government with its vast resources is sometimes needed.

So with these values, what can I do to help my country during these dark times?

As Gore warns, we've got to get busy combating global warming.

We've also got to implement rational and fair strategies to confront our other problems. Competency counts.

The most immediate event where we can affect change is the upcoming Congressional elections.

Our attention should shift to the Eighth District where Democrats can pick up Dave Reichert's seat.

Reichert says he's not convinced that humans help cause global warming. No word yet on whether he's been persuaded the world is not flat.

He's not a bad guy. But if Reichert returns to Congress, his most important vote will be his first. That would be to re-elect as speaker Dennis Hastert or his designated successor if Hastert can't survive the Foley folly.

If that happens, Reichert can cast as many independent votes as he wants and nothing will change.

Nov. 7 is still a couple of weeks away and Republicans are very, very good at last minute campaigning. Democrats have been lousy at it.

So going into the home stretch, everyone who has had enough must ask themselves daily, "What have I done today to bring about the needed change?"

On an entirely different note, savvy football coaches admonish their players not to celebrate excessively in the end zone when they score a touchdown.

"Act like you've been there before," they counsel.

Well, since I have never scored a touchdown, journalistically speaking, I hope you will allow me a short end-zone dance following notification that I won first-place for humor columns in a recent competition.

I have immodestly posted the three columns on www.highlinetimes.com.

The Washington Newspaper Publishers Association sponsors the Better Newspaper Contest every year for community newspapers.

WNPA--You like me, you really like me.

Eric Mathison can be reached at hteditor@robinsonnews.com or 206-388-1855.