User:PaulSank

In August 2015, I got a little job editing Wikidelphia, because Wikidelphia needs someone to pay attention to the whole project in a sustained, overseeing way. One experience that qualifies me to do this job is that I started and have been gradually expanding another reference source. It's called Study Love, and it's about what I consider, and what many Near Death Experiencers call, the most important force in the universe: spiritual love.

Since 2011, I have volunteered at many events throughout the Phila-NJ area. Some of the ones I do regularly--and I hope you'll attend or support these--are:

• Macy's Family Fun Days at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, a monthly event on some Saturdays where I set up and run a "toy zone", a table full of toys from my own large collection. Apparently, so I've been told by many professionals and parents, I have a very special knack for playing with kids almost as if I were one of them. Note: I'm a white guy and feel warmly welcomed always at the AAMP.
• Philadelphia Reading Olympics, a multi-day, multi-venue annual event where I act like a game show host, asking schoolchildren questions about books they've read. The organizers suggest that volunteers think in terms of Jeopardy, but I make it zany, complete with sound effects and as many laughs as I can extract.
• West Park Arts Fest, where I act like a concierge in the Children's Pavilion, making sure visitors, performers, and exhibitors have whatever they need throughout the day.
• Brides Against Breast Cancer bridal shows, where I've done various tasks from registration to truck loading.
• Mount Laurel Harvest Fest, where I set up and run my "toy zone".
• Maple Shade Holiday Festival, where I've usually overseen the sales of feed for the petting zoo.

Something else I do on my personal time, since 2009, is to provide daily Twitter news-and-views services, including:

• @FruitNJ "I tweet about the fruit of the Spirit, hoping we can all get more of a taste. Eg, Gal 5:22-3, 1 Cor 13:4-7, 2 Pet 1:5-7, Col 3:12."
• @LingFan1 For linguistics, the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be so complicated, I actually heard a professor say it gives most people a headache, so it always surprises me that this is by far my most popular Twitter timeline.
• @NetMan3 Against malaria. "Wild about the idea of covering entire countries with nets!"
• @LifeNetNews Against poverty. "Continuing the mission of Life-Net News: Covering Poverty Widely In A Net Of Many Voices Since 1997."

Life-Net News was a newsletter, sometimes monthly, sometimes weekly, sometimes printed. I selected stories from the press and elsewhere about poverty, without regard to political angle, because if we always attack poverty from the same political vantage point--left, right, or whatever--we'll never win. I compressed the stories down much smaller than the original, eliminating all wasted words, sort of like Reader's Digest. It ran for 14 annual volumes.

With Life-Net News, from 1998 to 2010, I made a radio show, Life-Net Radio, a densely packed, fully layered, professional-sounding production. Again, the idea was to find guests from as many vantage points as possible in order to gain real understanding that transcends any political, religious, or philosophical angle. I started the show with the belief that I had received a call from God, and I did the show "in the name of Jesus" on radio station WTMR-AM "Gospel 800" in Camden. Guests included atheists, Lutherans, Jews, Muslims, charity CEOs, activists, Communists, Greens, Socialists, etc. I'm not sure I ever found a Republican, and the gay community didn't seem interested, either, even though I would have been happy to host them. I produced over 540 new episodes.

In 2008, I received the President's Call To Service Award, which recognized my many thousands of hours of volunteer service.

From 2007 to 2014, I had a job doing clerical work, website maintenance, and various other tasks at Nonprofit Technology Resources.

I've been married to Vicky since 1988. She's my first and only wife. My advice for marital longevity is to say to yourselves and mean it with every fiber of your being, "Divorce is not an option!" If you stick with that, you'll force yourself to find other ways to resolve problems that arise. I can say this with authority because we had a long, rocky period where we separated many times. But when it came to divorce, neither of us would actually go through with it. We found ways, and now we're growing old together and helping each other through the inevitable health problems et cetera.

We have a beautiful Eskimo-Chihuahua dog, Pixie. We have lots of squirrel and bird friends because we feed them premium seed, suet, and peanuts.

My religious affiliation is Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), a Bible-believing denomination very much opposed to what we consider the apostate, false "church" called Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA).

Some of my favorite sayings are:

• "There's always something to do." There's never a good reason to be bored. You always have something to do, even if you're in the hospital. So if you think you have nothing to do, keep thinking! You'll find something.
• "Where there's God's will, there's a way." I relied on this saying many times during my Life-Net Radio period. I believed Life-Net Radio was God's will for me, so whenever a situation seemed impossible, I said this to myself persistently, and, sure enough, I was always able to find a way forward.
• "The righteous man knows and cares about the cause of the poor; the wicked has no such concern." This from Proverbs 29:7 was the key to my Life-Net News & Radio efforts. I sought to raise awareness, knowledge, concern, and action. Show me a person who doesn't care about the poor, and I'll show you a person I want to have nothing to do with.

In my teenage years, I hitchhiked through all 48 states. I started by hitching to Texas with my girl friend. When I got back, I colored a blank map and discovered that the round trip had taken me through 19 states. That discovery inspired me to set a goal to cover all 48 states by thumb. Over the next few years I actually did it. Contrary to popular belief, I never suffered any violence, though I did suffer about half a dozen seduction attempts by homosexuals. One of my final experiences was standing at the bottom of Mount Washington in New Hampshire, sticking out my thumb, and getting a ride from a couple of partying dudes up the mountain--literally a peak experience!

I graduated from Haddonfield Memorial High School and then spent a couple of years at Ohio Wesleyan University studying linguistics and music. Later I received a certificate in programming from Computer Learning Center.

Note: Throughout this bio, I have studiously avoided saying "I am" anything. Long ago, from a wonderful book called Compassion and Self-Hate, I learned to avoid that. Whatever you think you "are", you really are more than that. To say, "I am a plumber", or "I am gay", or "I am [fill in the blank]", is very limiting. Don't let anybody box you in like that! As Popeye said, "I am what I am and that's all that I am." I'll go so far as to say something very broad, like, "I am a person", or "I'm a man", or "I'm a child of God", but that's as far as I'll go.

Paul, thanks for writing up your personal experience at the Franklin Institute!  Stan 17:31, 7 March 2011 (EST)