equa yona

Perspective

2010-01-13T11:59:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite ever children's books, which I have probably referred to before, is a story from the shtetle, the poor Jewish villages of Eastern Europe before WWII. In the story a villager comes to the rabbi to say that he is suffocating in his tiny hut with his wife, children, cats and mother-in-law all crammed together. To make a short story shorter, the rabbi has him bring in first his chickens, then his geese, his goat and then his cow. Finally when the man is tearing his hair out, the rabbi tells him to move all the livestock back outside. the man comes to the rabbi blessing the peace and spaciousness of his dwelling.

As I have been stunned by the horror and devastation in Haiti I realize once again, that my problems(and I have very few at the moment) while annoying and even painful, must be seen in perspective. This and other photos and news of the nightmare of Port Au Prince, where even the presidential palace has collapsed, helps me to see again, it could always be worse.
May I suggest Doctors Without Borders if you choose to donate to help.

And so this is Christmas

2009-12-18T21:06:00.001-06:00

This is a picture of "Homeless Mary", a well known,"person of little means" in Chicago.
When I lived in Chicago(from age zero to thirty) I knew many "colorful characters". In my neighborhood there was "Chee Chee Anny" She mostly said "chee chee". There was the old "Prostitutes in the park" lady. She would lash about with her umbrella, railing about the "prostitutes in the park". Harry Gomala lived in an abandoned semi trailer by the tracks a block from my house. What i remember most vividly about Harry was the first time we went to roust him to buy wine for us. He was not well, he was never well, but his partner was nervous about all us kids there, so he encouraged Harry to come out. "C'mon Harry, a hammuger anna cuppa caffee would do ya good". Harry came to the edge of the trailer, swept his arm over the garbage dump that was where his traier was abandoned and said, " Behold, my vista, boys." I have never forgotten that moment.
Harry got down from the semi-trailer and we headed toward 39th street. At the curb, he stumbled and fell. I grabbed his arm and said to my friend, 'Norb, grab his arm" and my best friend, Norbie Ruczinski, said "I ain't touchin' that nasty old fucker". I helped Harry up and he got us our wine. We gave him half a buck because that's what a pint of port or muscatel cost then. For half a buck you could get a hamburger, french fries and a cup of coffee and still have a dime left over. I suspect Harry bought wine.
I suppose we went back to roust winos to make runs for us other times, but I don't remember. I only remember Harry that first time. As clear as Christmas.

A Jesus bodhisattva

2009-12-09T12:32:00.006-06:00

This was the type of Christaian I aspired to be when I was a Christian. It takes more cojones than I ever had. I don't believe in proselytising, but if you believe you have found the means of eternal joy this would be the way to share them.And to start with here is a quote from Brandt's blog, Adopt-A-Jesus
"We cant help people hoping to change them. We love people, and love brings the change, and if no change occurs (in our eyes), we love anyways."

From The Huntington Post by Tony Rutherford

Huntington, WV (HNN) – Brandt Russo, a college graduate, quit his job, sold his stuff, and began ministering to the poor and homeless from a bus run on grease. “I don’t feed the homeless,” said following a screening of “Adopt a Jesus” in Marshall University’s Smith Hall Auditorium, “I eat with them.”

Actually, Russo does more. He once prevented the killing of a homeless man by “five kids who thought it fun.” The man suffered broken bones, but survived. “I feel safer in God’s will in a ghetto with a gun point at me than in a church building,” the non-conventional minister told an audience of 75 to 100 viewers.

He carefully retorted a strictly evangelical approach to winning the homeless to Christ. Russo believes you must first show them love, meet their immediate needs, then, you have the potential for leading a soul to Jesus.

Russo, along with local filmmaker Bob Wilkinson (a WVSU alumni) and producer Charessa Wilkinson (a 2001 MU alumni) followed Russo through the south in a bus than ran on used cooking oil, often salvaged from dumpsters behind fast food restaurants. They pick up hitchhikers, listen to their stories, share food and fellowship, and in the words of Christ, love their neighbor [a stranger] as yourself.

The easy-going Russo lists Mother Teresa, St. Francis of Assisi, Gandhi , Martin Luther King Jr., and Jesus among those who have inspired him the most. “Deny yourself, take up thy cross and follow me,” the 20something man has done.

Prior to the screening his toes showed through a pair of tattered slip on sneakers. To him, they symbolized the necessity to become one of the homeless in order to minister to them.

The film resonates with a special one-of-a-kind spirit. Somehow with cameras rolling, you know that Russo’s not embellishing the portrait for viewer’s benefit or empathy.

Warned that they found most of their food for the trip in dumpsters, my stomach turned as he invaded the first unit. A sigh of relief followed when he brought out a hose to siphon grease for the bus. He did not ask permission to shuffle through the trash. He knew what the earthly answer would be. Instead, he stated, my permission comes from Jesus.

Perhaps, the most alarming and poignant scenes occur when he encounters church members. During his trip through the south, he would try parking overnight on the large lots of churches. But, in spite of his Heavenly ordained mission, his long, unkempt hair, tattoos, rings in his nose, and second-hand clothes brought shame not to him, but to so-called fine, outstanding Christians.

You see, they did not want him or his bus on their plush parking lots. Often he would be asked to leave. Some called police. He spent a night in jail. Followers from across the country arrived, however, to make his bail.

He related his experience at a large church with 40,000 members. When he entered with a backpack for the Sunday service, he was escorted out of the sanctuary by security. He was sitting too close to the front. He was within view of the television cameras. After enduring a search, he was escorted to a seat in the rear. Russo, like Jesus, wept.

Ushers understood and tried to comfort, but the experience was an indictment beyond Brandt Russo. He learned that the church removed five or six homeless looking people a week. He knew that some of them would later take their own lives. One church told him that’s why he couldn’t park on their landscaped lot; a man had taken his own life there earlier.

As Russo’s ministry spread, some of the larger churches tried to make amends. One lengthy scene has him setting up a table just on the edge of church property. He has pictures of homeless people in Houston. As the congregation files in, he asks for them to take a picture --- adopt a Jesus --- “he’s hungry and homeless wearing wet, mildewed clothes, does anyone want to feed him, give him a place to sleep?”

Tens of thousands of church members pass.. Seven stop to take a picture of one of the 3,000 on Houston’s streets. Russo views his days ministry as successful.

“Adopt a Jesus” tramples on additional sacred cows. It speaks of --- through the voices of homeless --- of how the Bible can be a beloved Holy Book or a weapon. “Don’t beat me and scare me s---less with the Bible,” an older man states. He recalls “young kids” committing suicide. “So many were beat to hell with a Bible.”

Whether moving down an interstate or a small, dusty road, Russo’s bus opens its doors to everyone. He has a network of community gardens and food kitchens on which he can count, but , the dumpsters of grocery stores often provide morsels. He wonders why boxes of unopened food were tossed due to cosmetic damage to the box?

Speaking of growing food as “part of the creation process,” Russo remarked that rescuing it from the garbage is “part of the resurrection process.”

Smiling throughout the film (and the Q and A that followed) , on film he explains to viewers preparation for a day of ministry --- handing out burritos to the hungry in Texas, goofing off, and getting to know people. The third part --- listening and befriending --- allows him to hand out a blessing, as he does not judge remarking that rich or poor everyone suffers spiritual and emotional pain.

How did “Adapt a Jesus” become a flick? Charessa Wilkinson, producer, told the audience she met Brandt on MySpace. From there on, everything that happened in her words, “it was a God thing” with the film coming together on less than a shoe string budget.

The film emphasizes that spirituality and faith does not need a glorious, massive church building for the worship of God. Be it a camp ground, a rehabilitated crack house, or space under a bridge, all these locations become “churches” to some. God speaks through those who have the courage to reach out and listen.

A photographer, Russo continues on a cross-country tour showing the film FREE where requested. The list has grown far beyond expectations. At the showing, DVD’s are for sale ($15), money from which will go towards a sequel but Russo will not return to his “feed the homeless” bus. He’s selling it to someone who wants to follow in his footsteps.

Despite humiliation, Brandt remains Christ-centered. He pondered dealing with injustices. He conjectured if someone stole his wallet, he might give them his jacket too. But what came next has a rubric of faith: Suppose someone broke into your house, he said, adding, they obviously are not ready to go to Heaven (as a Christian). But, inside, a believer exercising his gun owner rights, shoots and kills the intruder, who happened to be just a kid. And, at the thief’s home, there is a child, maybe two or three years old who now has no father.

And, like the Biblical story of a rich man asking Jesus how he can enter Heaven, Russo calmly deflects the traditional Romans road Salvation plan as the essential portion of his meeting with a stranger. He has to show love and get to know them before he can talk about Jesus.

Once, he was asked by a college student, what could she have in her car for someone homeless, poor, or hitchhiking. “What practical things can I give them?” Naturally, Brandt Russo’s response instills a bit of fear, he answered her question with a three letter word: YOU.

You see, Brandt believes that following the steps of Christ no one can hurt you. Even if they kill you, you go home to your Savior’s Heaven.

To purchase a copy of “Adopt a Jesus,” or learn more about the production: http://www.adoptajesus.com/blog.html.

At Midnight By Moonshine

2009-11-22T13:17:00.001-06:00

At Midnight By Moonshine
Originally uploaded by Dobka

I want to be a wolf
Running, hunting, free
With my pack in some great pine forest
Far, far from human predators
Far from human lights
To see the moon, the stars, the vapor of breath as we run
With farseeing, dark piercing wolf eyes
In love with the night, exulting in our song
Alive in our strength and skill
No cruelty but the cruelty of hunger.

Love

2009-09-30T00:34:00.002-05:00

I have been listening to different versions of Sarah McLaughlin's song "Arms of The Angel" a hauntingly beautiful tribute to a musician friend who died of a heroin overdose.

Spend all your time waiting for that second chance
For the break that will make it ok
There's always some reason to feel �not good enough�
And it's hard at the end of the day
I need some distraction, oh beautiful release
Memories seep from my veins
They may be empty and weightless, and maybe
I'll find some peace tonight

In the arms of the Angels, fly away from here
From this dark, cold hotel room, and the endlessness that you fear
You are pulled from the wreckage of your silent reverie
You're in the arms of an Angel; may you find some comfort here

So tired of the straight line, and everywhere you turn
There's vultures and thieves at your back
The storm keeps on twisting, you keep on building the lies
That you make up for all that you lack
It don't make no difference, escaping one last time
It's easier to believe
In this sweet madness, oh this glorious sadness
That brings me to my knees

In the arms of the Angels, far away from here
From this dark, cold hotel room, and the endlessness that you fear
You are pulled from the wreckage of your silent reverie
In the arms of an Angel; may you find some comfort here.

This is one of those songs I have learned to love so much that I NEVER get tired of it.

My best friend, David, died of a heroin overdose when he was 24 years old. His addiction had gotten so bad that i didn't even answer phone calls from him anymore. These came, more often than not, at two or three in the morning after he had scored and was looking for someplace to use as a shooting gallery. The last time i saw my pal Dave, the person I loved more than anybody I've ever loved outside of my family, he went into my bathroom, shot up and passed out. I went in to find him after twenty minutes or so and found him on the floor with a bloody outfit in the sink. I told his girlfriend that she had to get him up and out, because if he died there I would throw him off the back porch and leave him for the garbagemen to find. I meant it. He died a couple of months later. I talked to him once on the phone a month or so before he died and he talked about how sorry he was that he had never seen mountains. He broke my fucking heart. I told him that i would take him to the Rockies anytime he was ready to go without a needle. Of course, that couldn't work. If he had asked at that moment to trade existences, I believe I would have done so.
When Dave died, I wept. i didn't shed a few subtle, manly, tears. The floodgates of grief opened and I wept rolling on the floor. Since that day I have lost my mother, my brother, my father, but I have never grieved with the passion and ferocity that I had when David died. How to explain? It is not really possible.
I wrote a poem for David in the days following his death. I don't remember it all, but the first line was
"David died today, he bounced down the front porch steps..."
Compare this to Sarah McLaughlin's beautiful poem.
I am wondering, was i just too close to the stink of addiction, or was I just that much less loving?

Island Life

2009-09-20T21:36:00.005-05:00

Mount Piao, 'Rainmaker' in Pago Pago Harbor, American Samoa

A cyber pal asked about my time in Samoa so I started to tell her about it. It was so much fun reminiscing that I thought I would post it here.

I went to American Samoa, which is a US territory, in 1978. We lived on Tutuilla, the largest of the US islands, which isn't saying much. It is 14 miles long and four miles wide at the widest part, or about 54 square miles. By way of comparison, the largest Samoan island is Savai'i, part of the independent nation of Samoa. Savai'i is 659 sq. miles.

We went to AS as contract educators. My title was curriculum specialist and my wife was a Special Ed teacher trainer. Because of our jobs we got to visit all the three high schools on Tutuilla, Samoana, Faga'itua and Leone. I also worked closely with the Caholic girls HS organizing a big speech festival. I visited the HS on Ta'u(pronounced Tah'oo with a glottal stop)which was great as it was much less developed than Tutuilla. When you walked through the village of Ta'u, the only one on the island, the little kids would gather to stare, point and yell, "papalagi, papalagi(pah lahngi) which means white person or off-islander. It literally means ‘white cloud’ and originally referred to the first European sails Samoans saw. Since the sailors were white, they called them palagi also.

My wife and my one year old daughter, Nelly, lived in a 'compound' for contract workers, mostly non-polynesian but some Samoans and islanders who were married to contract workers. There were also two live-in Samoan 'house girls' or nannies. I despise the term 'house girl' but it was the common parlance. Our first HG was Tongan(Tonga,by the way, is still a kingdom) and our second was Tokelauan. They were combo child care and housekeepers. Mafa(martha) our second woman treated me as a matai or clan chief. She would send us umu on Sundays sometimes. That is food cooked in an earth oven or 'umu'. They burn wood down to hot coals, put green banana leaves on the coals and put the food on the leaves. It cooks while they go to church. She would send taro root, the staple starch food, palusami which is coconut cream in young taro leaves, just delicious, and whatever meat she had fixed, usually 'pisupo' or corned beef bought in big plastic kegs. A little girl would knock on our door, hand us a basket woven of green palm fronds and say, "This is from Mafa" and leave. What a treat!
To be continued.

Sioux Falls

2009-09-10T21:49:00.003-05:00

Sioux Falls
Originally uploaded by ifmuth

Claire and I went to the big city! We take in recycling only once a month, because we have to drive two hours to do so. We dropped off the recycling, donated clothes and shoes to Salvation Army, and then ate lunch at our favorite Chinese restaurant. The food was fantastic! The closest Chinese place to us is 75 miles away and it is pretty mediocre. But mmmm, veggies in hot garlic sauce! Spicy sour soup! I don't remember when I have enjoyed a meal in a restaurant so much. I wouldn't drive 130 miles just for sushi or spicy garlic veggies, but it sure is nice that they are available when we go there.
Alas, the Yoga place was closed so I couldn't try out meditation cushions, but that's ok. Something to look forward to next time. We went across the street to the used book store-what a place. I love used book stores, and this is one of the better ones. We even remebered to take books in for trade-in credits. Then we went to our favorite weird general store, Zond Bros.,where I found a Christmas present for my son Nick, a great set of glow-in-the-dark zombies! Yeah, he's 28, but I know he'll love them.
So it was a beautiful drive, green and sunny. We had a terrific lunch, went to our favorite shops, got to ogle the sculptures on Phillips Street(hence the panda here) and got to do some good karma stuff. All in all, it was a good trip.
One of the things being so far away from a city has given us is the gift of deferred pleasure. We can't visit Sioux Falls every week. Well, I suppose we could, but we wouldn't burn that much fossil fuel and spew that much carbon just for a diversion. It is satisfying to have to wait to eat at a Chinese or Japanese restaurant, to go to a bookstore that stocks something besides romance and westerns. Its fun to take in all the recycling and have to make an effort to do so. For us, a trip to town has become one of life's simple pleasures.

You Ain't Just Whistlin' Dixie

2009-09-10T19:57:00.006-05:00

You Ain't Just Whistlin' Dixie
Originally uploaded by *M-C1*

http://www.ourcampaigns.com/CandidateDetail.html?CandidateID=2083As Buddhists, we are admonished to expunge aversion, be averse to aversion, if you will. And of course judgements are a no-no, according to some Buddhists. Jesus taught against judging as well. But when you come across rude, loudmouthed racists, I feel we ought to call a spade a spade(play on cliche intended). Ah, that proud son of the South Joe Wilson just couldn't stop himself from screaming at the n--, oops I mean president. He apologized for calling our legally elected president a liar, but no apologies for being a racist loudmouth. According to Our Campaigns.Com ,Joe has been a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, ....

"This is an organization that, as the Southern Poverty Law Center has detailed assiduously, has been taken over in the past decade by radical neo-Confederates who favor secession and defend slavery as a benign institution. Leading the takeover is a radical racist named Kirk Lyons, who's been an important legal figure on the far right for some years."(from Crooks And Liars)
Did you know Ol' Joe was less than forthcoming on his tax disclosure- he has a mountain of debt apparently that he was to embarrassed to admit to, so he, wait for it, LIED!
A few more from Joe

"That's offensive to me that they would take my heritage and make it into a Holocaust era type description." - South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson, back in November 1999, when he was still a state senator, regarding African Americans being upset that the Confederate flag was being flown over the statehouse.

"With the death of Strom Thurmond, South Carolina has lost its greatest statesman of the 20th Century." - Wilson on June 27, 2003.

(quotes thanks to Rude Pundit)

Finally, the fact check services have determined that President Obama was telling the truth. So Joe was not only rude and offensive, but he was wrong.

Tis A Gift To Be Spitting

2009-09-09T18:17:00.005-05:00

Watermelon Seed-Spitting Day
Originally uploaded by batskeets

I Love Watermelon-with a capital L & a capital W(and I guess that was a capital 'I' as well, but it doesn't count for this cliche'). What is there NOT to love? The watermelon is a beautiful, green, juicy fruit. The interior is a delicious pink(not my favorite color by any means, but watermelon never reminds me of Pepto-Bismo). It smells wonderful and tastes even better! It is fun to cut up, and you can play John Belushi, Samurai warrior, on the shell when you make smaller pieces for the compost heap. Oh, the seeds? You don't love the seeds? For years I would have agreed with that. Actually, I started buying seedless watermelons when my children were tiny choke machines, or at least I was afraid they were. I thought seedy watermelons should have a warning label like toys; "Warning! Small parts, not for three years and under." So when I found seedless watermelons, I knew the plant breeding goddesses had smiled upon us.
Last week i went to the farmer's market at American Creek, a stand alone simple pleasure. I went to the Hutterite ladies
http://equayonabigbear.blogspot.com/2008/07/whatterites.html
and had a pleasant time chatting as my dogs sang sonorously in the car-completely within eyesight! Quite a concert!. Anyway, the Hutterite ladies had wonderful looking watermelons and I bought one. These were not the battleship sized monsters commercial growers produce but lovely round grey-green fruit with dark green stripes, sized for two or maybe three people. When I cut it open at home, it snapped! The dogs and I savored(yes, the dogs love WM too!) the pink, just-right-sweetness of the melon. But it had seeds! I had a few in my mouth, I leaned over the sink, and HOLY CRAP! I started poppin' those pips and it felt so good. I had completely forgotten what a joy spitting watrmelon seeds can be! Not any contest or competition, that's actually seperate fun, but just the slppery, slidey seed spitting was delightful! Maybe back when eating watermelon automatically meant seeds it was harder to appreciate this little bit of fun. OK seeds could be a pain in the ass, like fish bones, almost. But now that I have a choice? And I can go to the park by the creek and chat with the ladies and get very good home grown watermelon and CHOOSE to spit seeds? AH, it is an ephemeral summer time pleasure.

Snakes!(and dharma)

2009-09-05T17:33:00.005-05:00

Prairie Rattlesnake
Originally uploaded by Sarah Hamilton

Every morning I take the dogs out to the trail that leads up to Roam Free Park a couple miles out of town. It is a steep walk, good for the aerobic conditioning and the dogs can run free. We often leave the trail and climb up through the buffalo grass and little blue stem, the prickly pear and the golden rod, the liatris and the sunflowers, well, you get the idea. It is beautiful. Much of the way there is a fantastic view of the Missouri River/ lake, the old bridges, the town. The view to the north is a vast expanse of river, hills, prairie and sky. It is one incredibly beautiful park. Yesterday after we scrabbled through the grasses and wildflowers and got over the ridge to the level part of the park where there are a few benches and some mowed area and a picnic shelter, you know, "park proper" so to speak, I encountered a newcomer to the area with his two dogs. As we chatted, he told me how the day before he was up there and a tourist was taking pictures of his two children. Suddenly they heard the rattlesnake a couple of feet behind the kids, near a bench. The man called his two children and Jim warned him that the snake was very poisonous and that he should put his kids in their vanhe took the fellow to be from another country. The snake began to head for his hole when Jim grabbed it by the tail, pulled it out and tossed it. he had meant to fling it over the ridge into the acres of wildness that makes up most of the park, but alas, aiming an angry rattlesnake isn't as easy as one might imagine! The snake landed several yards in the opposite direction. Jim, fearful of leaving a venomous serpent where folks spend a lot of time, picked up a rock and killed the poor beastie. As he told me the story he expressed genuine regret because he doesn't like killing anything.

I have to say, I like snakes. I find them fascinating and beautiful. I hate killing any animal so much that I am a vegetarian, and I love me some burgers and pork chops! In spite of this I had to say that 1) he has a lot more in the way of cojones than I do! and 2) He probably did the right thing. Remember, I HATE killing critters. But if that snake had been sunning that morning after shedding, it might very well have struck those children, or someone else, maybe me, maybe you! Ideally, Jim would have caught it and moved it, but THAT is a dangerous proposition. Of course, so is yanking deadly vipers out of a hole. He shouldn't have grabbed it in the first place, but once he did, he didn't have much choice but to dispatch it.

At first I thought, what a contrast! Such beauty and such danger! But as I walked back down(yes, through the grasses and flowers-but watchfully) I observed all the grasshopers and the leaves they chomped. I noticed the birds above that prey upon the grasshoppers. Then I watched the turkey vultures that clean up after the predators soaring on the updrafts and I realized, it is all just as it is. I regretted the death of the snake, but it is all part of the whole and it is just as it is,

Vandals

2009-09-04T18:52:00.000-05:00

I take my dogs on a steep uphill trail every morning. I can let them free from leashes, and they mostly run and sniff. I only walk and pant. By the time my panting turns to gasping, we reach a bench set in a little spot that the town keeps mowed. This park is all hills and prairie grass, Black Hills spruce and wildflowers. The bench has a view of the Missouri River,which is also a lake here, and the bench is surrounded by small wild sunflowers. It makes a beautiful place to sit until my heart and lungs stop imitating a speed freak's speech. This morning, all the sunflowers were gone! Not the stems, just the flowers. They were still in full bloom, and I was hoping someone had simply picked flowers to take home. When I sat down I looked to my left and there, strewn in the grass, ,were all the flowerheads, discarded like garbage. You may find this foolish, but I was really bothered by this pointless act of vandalism. My equanimity quickly kicked in, but it made me sad to see that someone is so thoughtless of living things, so indifferent or hostile to beauty that they would perpetrate such wanton destruction. There are jillions of wild sunflowers this year as well as skillions of other, gorgeous wildflowers thanks to our unusual rainfall throughout the summer, (mostly at night, with day after day of fantastic sunshine) so it isn't as if they are rare. But this was like a little natural garden. In the scale of mean things, this was pretty tiny, but the flowers never had a chance to go to seed and do what they are here for, to feed the birds and to plant other flowers.As you can tell, I love wildflowers, but I also love animals and children and people of all ages and the planet. This tiny destructive act seemed a microcosm for all the pointless violence, all the malicious cruelty perpetrated by people against people and animals and the whole natural world. It just made me sad for , for all of us.

We See Your True Colors Shining Through

2009-08-27T10:47:00.002-05:00

unc-great-white-hope.jpg
Originally uploaded by harumphharumph

All Republicans aren't racist, but if you're a racist, you're probably Republican"
Bill Mahr

The Topeka Capitol-Journal reports that freshman Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) told a town hall meeting a week ago that the GOP still had to find a "great white hope."

"Republicans are struggling right now to find the great white hope," said Jenkins. "I suggest to any of you who are concerned about that, who are Republican, there are some great young Republican minds in Washington." As examples, Jenkins mentioned Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI).

Oh yeah, her spokesperson said she just meant, fresh leadership, nothing racist about Republican Representative Jenkins, perish the thought!

There will come a time, one hopes, that the Michael Steeles of the world will open their eyes to the truth about their party of choice and get the fuck out! Not that this would displease the vast majority of Repugs, but it would be refreshing to see Michael and others stop jigging(as Field Negro would say).

PLUS Its Good For The Environment

2009-08-18T17:54:00.003-05:00

I stole this "Whole hog" from PETA. I love pork and would eat it frequently, BUT:see below. Oh and they don't even mention that going veg does more for the environment than swithching from a gas 'hog' to a hybrid.

Top 10 Reasons Not to Eat Pigs
Attention, shoppers: Stop picking up dead “Babes” and “Wilburs” at the grocery store! Here are our top 10 reasons to keep pork off your fork and put delicious Babe-free alternatives on your shopping list instead.

‘Meet Your Meat’: Pigs

Porking You Up
It’s a fact—ham, sausage, and bacon strips will go right to your hips. Eating pork products, which are loaded with artery-clogging cholesterol and saturated fat, is a good way to increase your waistline and increase your chances of developing deadly diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s, asthma, and impotence. Research has shown that vegetarians are 50 percent less likely to develop heart disease, and they have 40 percent of the cancer rate of meat-eaters. Plus, meat-eaters are nine times more likely to be obese than pure vegetarians are. Every time you eat animal products, you’re also ingesting bacteria, antibiotics, dioxins, hormones, and a host of other toxins that can accumulate in your body and remain there for years. Learn more about animal products and your health.
Pigs Have Feelings Too
Ninety-seven percent of pigs in the United States today are raised in factory farms, where they will never run across sprawling pastures, bask in the sun, breathe fresh air, or do anything else that comes naturally to them. Crowded into warehouses with nothing to do and nowhere to go, they are kept on a steady diet of drugs to keep them alive and make them grow faster, but the drugs cause many of the animals to become crippled under their own bulk. Learn more about cruelty to pigs. Check out these videos from pig farms in Oklahoma, North Carolina, Nebraska, and South Dakota.
Pigs and Playstations
Think that you can outplay a pig on your Playstation? You may be surprised. According to research, pigs are much smarter than dogs, and they even do better at video games than some primates. In fact, pigs are extremely clever animals who form complex social networks and have excellent memories. Eating a pig is like eating your dog! As actor Cameron Diaz put it after hearing that pigs have the mental capacities of a 3-year-old human: "[Eating bacon is] like eating my niece!" Learn more about pigs.
Pigs Prefer Mud, Not Crud
Pigs are actually very clean animals. If they are given sufficient space, pigs are careful not to soil the areas where they sleep or eat. And forget the silly saying “sweating like a pig”—pigs can’t even sweat! That’s why they bathe in water or mud to cool off. But in factory farms, they’re forced to live in their own feces and vomit and even amid the corpses of other pigs. Conditions are so filthy that at any given time, more than one-quarter of pigs suffer from mange—think of your worst case of poison ivy, and imagine having to suffer from it for the rest of your life. Learn more about what happens to pigs in factory farms. Check out the mange-ridden pigs on these South Dakota and Nebraska pig farms.
Farming Family Values
Factory farms are pure hell for pigs and their babies. Mother pigs spend most of their lives in tiny “gestation” crates, which are so small that the animals are unable to turn around or even lie down comfortably. They are repeatedly impregnated until they are slaughtered. Piglets, who are taken away from their distraught mothers after just a few weeks, have their tails chopped off, their teeth are clipped off with pliers, and the males are castrated—all without painkillers. Learn more about cruelty to pigs.
The Manure Is Blowing in the Wind …
A pig farm with 5,000 animals produces as much fecal waste as a city of 50,000 people. In 1995, 25 million gallons of putrid hog urine and feces spilled into a North Carolina river, immediately killing between 10 and 14 million fish. To get around water pollution limits, factory farms will frequently take the tons of urine and feces that are stored in cesspools and turn them into liquid waste that they spray into the air. This manure-filled mist is carried away by the wind and inhaled by the people who live nearby. Learn more about how factory farming damages the environment.
Bacteria-Laden Bacon and Harmful Ham
Extremely crowded conditions, poor ventilation, and filth in factory farms cause such rampant disease in pigs that 70 percent of them have pneumonia by the time they’re sent to the slaughterhouse. In order to keep pigs alive in conditions that would otherwise kill them and to promote unnaturally fast growth, the industry keeps pigs on a steady diet of the antibiotics that we depend on to treat human illnesses. This overuse of antibiotics has led to the development of “superbacteria,” or antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains. The ham, bacon, and sausage that you’re eating may make the drugs that your doctor prescribes the next time you get sick completely ineffective. Learn more about the effect of eating meat from sick, diseased, and drugged animals.
Hell on Wheels
More than 170,000 pigs die in transport each year, and more than 420,000 are crippled by the time they arrive at the slaughterhouse. Transport trucks, which carry pigs hundreds of miles through all weather extremes with no food or water, regularly flip over, throwing injured and dying animals onto the road. These terrified and injured animals are rarely offered veterinary care, and most languish in pain for hours; some even bleed to death on the side of the road. After an accident in April 2005, Smithfield spokesperson Jerry Hostetter told one reporter, “I hate to admit it, but it happens all the time.” Learn more about cruelty to pigs during transport.
Killing Them Without Kindness
A typical slaughterhouse kills up to 1,100 pigs every hour, which makes it impossible for them to be given humane, painless deaths. The U.S. Department of Agriculture documented 14 humane slaughter violations at one processing plant, where inspectors found hogs who “were walking and squealing after being stunned [with a stun gun] as many as four times.” Because of improper stunning methods and extremely fast line speeds, many pigs are still alive when they are dumped into scalding-hot hair-removal tanks—they literally drown in scalding-hot water. Learn more about what happens to pigs at slaughter.
Ditch the Bacon and Get Fakin’
Save pigs from hell and yourself from bad health by feasting on faux pork products instead. Stuff a sandwich full of Yves brand veggie ham slices, or throw some Lightlife Smart Bacon into a sizzling skillet—the freezer and “health food” sections of your local grocery or health food stores are packed full of these and other tasty substitutes. Check out VegCooking.com for hundreds of recipes, product recommendations, vegan meal plans, and a shopping guide.
Think before you eat another sausage link—order a free vegetarian starter kit full of delicious recipes and celebrity features today!

The Supreme Irony

2009-08-01T15:04:00.003-05:00

Put the Cash in the Bag NOW!
Originally uploaded by Epic Status

The National Rifle Association, as most people know, is the radical gun rights organization which protested the outlawing of kevlar piercing Teflon bullets, which are good only for killing people wearing bullet-proof vests,such as cops. They have also famously opposed any ban on automatic wepons and assault rifles, because we all know how sacred a right we have to be able to slaughter anything that moves. The NRA is considered by many to be a conservative organization, and most politicians approved by them are fiscal and social so-called conservatives.
The NRA has come out in opposition to the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. They have threatened to punish legislators who vote in favor of this highly qualified judge.
Why has the N(utcase)R(rightwing)A(sshats) objected to Sotomayor?
"As a federal appeals court judge, Sotomayor was part of a panel that ruled this year that the Second Amendment doesn't limit state controls on guns — only federal ones. That was in keeping with a 19th Century Supreme Court precedent and subsequent appellate court rulings"
She stood up in this ruling, for state's rights based on precedent from at least a hundred years ago! How much more conservative a decision could this be? The basis of the freaking conservative movement is the limitation of strong central government, i.e. state's rights over the federal government's control.
It doesn't get more ironic than this, although for the mouth breathers who make up the bulk of the NRA membership, it is far too subtle for them to see.

Time out

2009-07-18T11:11:00.003-05:00

adrift
Originally uploaded by MY PINK SOAPBOX - BY ANAHI DECANIO

I listened to part of the questioning of Judge Stomayor and just saw a post by a misguided soul who blogs as David Drake. It was a hideous photoshop of the president's beautiful children making them appear as if they were pregnant. He claims his point is to show people on the left how it feels when we say mean things about Sarah Palin. "Misguided soul" was not what I was really thinking, but I am trying to work on being compassionate toward all sentient beings. One wonders whether some people deserve the label, "sentient". but there goes my effort.
Right now what I need is to take a break and stiil the mind, breathe deeply and focus on impermanence and loving kindness. I am fond of this picture by Anahi Becanio because it takes me to a place far from the Pat Buchanans and Jeff Sessions and Sarah Palins of the world. It isn't exactly escape (except escape from anger), it is seeing what is important, what is real.

All of this has no more permanence than a fallen leaf on blue water.

Why Didn't You Just Leave?"

2009-07-16T15:52:00.002-05:00

verbal-abuse-3_thumbnail
Originally uploaded by desertfox540

I worked in a domestic and sexual violence shelter in Michigan for several years. One of the things I learned is how horrifyingly obssesive abusers can be. We sheltered women who had fled from brutal, sadistic men inTexas, Georgia, Mexico, California, Mississippi and many other states. Most of the women(and children) we sheltered were local people so one of the things we spent a lot of time doing was trying to prevent their assailants from finding them. We fielded calls from assailants claiming to be police, sherrif's deputies, lawyers. We fielded calls from women working with the abusive men who claimed to be family, friends, probation officres.
The most common question asked of abused women is, "Why didn't you just leave"? Most women try. They often have no place to go, shelters are mostly severely time limited stays. They are frequently kept unemployed or totally broke by their controllers. Altogether too often they are hunted down by incredibly tenacious control freaks who believe that if the can't "have" them, no one else will. During my few years at the shelter we worked with one woman who was murdered, one who was tracked from out of state and kidnapped, raped and beaten,and many, many women who could not escape.

The New York Times reports http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/16/us/16asylum.html?th&emc=th that the Obama administration has proposed new rules that may provide asylum for women from other countries who have a serious history of domestic abuse. The Bush administration refused to allow that these women are"not part of any persecuted group under American law. " While this is indeed good news, and people who have worked for justice for abused women for years feel this is a real breakthrough, ' “This really opens the door to the protection of women who have suffered these kinds of violations,” said Karen Musalo, a professor who is director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. Professor Musalo has represented other abused women seeking asylum...'
the women still bear an onerous burden of proof. What I saw were many women who fled their homes with just the clothes on their backs. If they were lucky, they were able to bring some documents and identification. The government wants women fleeing abusive men to be able to prove "In addition to meeting other strict conditions for asylum,--- that they are treated by their abuser as subordinates and little better than property, according to an immigration court filing by the administration, and that domestic abuse is widely tolerated in their country. They must show that they could not find protection from institutions at home or by moving to another place within their own country. "
As anyone who knows anything about domestic violence, this is nearly impossible without either carting a satchel of documents with them or obtaining first rate legal assistance in the U.S.

While this is better than it was, this is far from a compassionate policy and offers only the bare bones possibility of help for women.
It seems to me that victims of brutal and cruel domestic partners more than fit the category of the desperate souls described on the Statue of Liberty.

If you are interested Amnesty International is working for the women of the world suffering domestic violence.http://www.amnestyusa.org/violence-against-women/page.do?id=1011012

Dew

2009-07-15T18:37:00.003-05:00

Dew soaked spiders web
Originally uploaded by MimaD

Tsu yu no yo wa
tsu yu no nagara
sari nagara

This world of dew
is a world of dew,
and yet, and yet.

Issa

Segregation

2009-07-08T17:01:00.002-05:00

Segregation
Originally uploaded by TechnoMeister

Thought it was a relic from the 50's, eh? Guess again my friend. Here is a repulsively current example from Alternet:Rights and Liberties.

Here's a charming summer story out of Philadelphia: A private swim club kicked out some 60 summer camp kids out of their pool on the grounds that they were Black.

NBC reports: "The Creative Steps Day Camp paid more than $1900 to The Valley Swim Club. The Valley Swim Club is a private club that advertises open membership. But the campers' first visit to the pool suggested otherwise."

"When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool," Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email. "The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately."

One camper named Dymire Baylor told NBC: "I heard this lady, she was like, 'Uh, what are all these black kids doing here?' She's like, 'I'm scared they might do something to my child.'"

The most incredible part? The Valley Swim Club's defense: "There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club," John Duesler, President of The Valley Swim Club said in a statement.

As if it needs saying, it is dumbfounding that in the Obama era such blatant bigotry continues to persist in this country. Sobering, outrageous, and sad.

Thanks for reading,

Liliana Segura,

Editor, Rights & Liberties Special Coverage

Palin's Intimidation

2009-07-06T14:09:00.002-05:00

Patience
Originally uploaded by federico.bebber

The soon to be former governor of Alask is blowing hot. She is really pissed that, in light of garbled resignation address and tissue thin reasons for abandoning her post half way through the first term, people have the audacity to speculate that there are darker motives than simply that people are picking on her. Her lawyer has issued a statement threatening lawsuits agains a blogger and the NY Times and The Washington post for even suggesting that there are rumors! This is a person who claims to stand for the Constitution. This is a person who called a candidte for president, 'someone who pals around with terrorists'. This is a pathetic and deluded creature who can dish but not take and who believes in the right to bear arms, but not freedom of speech.
Someone needs to remind Sarah that she isn't REALLY a barracuda.

God Grinds Her Teeth Every Fourth of July

2009-07-01T11:56:00.003-05:00

Fantasy Fest 2007 Patriot
Originally uploaded by HotMoviesTheBlog

Saturday, we celebrate Independence Day, the 4th of July. We do this with parades, picnics, shooting off millions of dollars worth of fireworks and fly lots of flags(or maybe paint them on). In thousands of churches across our fair land, sermons will be preached extolling the foundation of a Christian nation, the nobility of the "Founding Fathers" and their commitment to freedom and Christian beliefs. The more fundamental the church, the more prominent the flag in front and the louder the bleating about freedom, 'Christian nation' etc.
Don't get me wrong. Living in the USA is lots better than living in North Korea, The Congo and many other places, as near as I can tell.
But I do object to the sermons. Even the more moderate sermons that extol the revolution are full of shit for one important reason, and here it is:

Obey the king's command, I say, because you took an oath before God. 3 Do not be in a hurry to leave the king's presence. Do not stand up for a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases. 4 Since a king's word is supreme, who can say to him, "What are you doing?" Ecclesiastes 8

And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's Mark 12

Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, Titus:3

And the coup de grace, the word of Paul, which fundamentalists pay far more attention to then the reputed words of Jesus.

3For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. 4For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience.Romans 13

There you have it boys and girls, moms and dads, ladies and gents, the very WORD OF GOD, according to the fundies, "God-Breathed" and in -freakin' -fallible! But do they acknowledge these passages on the 4th of July? You can bet your leather bound, words- of -Jesus- in- red, King James study Bible that they do not. And why not? Because it contradicts all their blather about Christian nation, founded on the Bible, horse muck.

Notice, please, these are not some ambiguous proof texts taken from one book of the Hebrew Bible such as they dredge up to condemn abortion. These are references from both the titular head of the church, Jesus, and the fundamentalist's true source of instruction(when it suits them) , the Apostle Paul. Plus, I cited a tiny selection representative of a huge number of teachings saying this same thing throughout the Hebrew and Christian writings, namely, be obedient to the king, the rulers, the magistrates, the authorities, etc.
Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, et al, flat out went against the so-called word of god at the cost of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of lives, causing death and destruction to those who were obedient to the "word of god" , those who remained loyal to the king.
If these hypocritical, blowhard bible-thumpers were really "Bible believing" they would preach the truly relevant texts on the 4th of July and either condemn the rebellion as sinful, or call for a return to obedience to Britain and the Crown. After all, they have no problem calling for overturning laws giving women reproductive rights and LGBT folk the rights to equality in marriage. They are proud to call themselves conservative and claim obedience to the teachings of the Book. Why not in this matter?

Stealing People's Futures

2009-06-30T12:32:00.002-05:00

Greed
Originally uploaded by eggstudio

At first I was very pleased to hear that Bernie Madoff received a 150 year sentence. For the crimes he committed, essentially stealing the future of thousands of people, this is most appropriate for him to serve the rest of his life in prison contemplating greed and what he has done. Then I thought, hell, he doesn't have to worry about having a roof over his head or where his next meal is coming from. Basically he is getting three hots and a cot for the rest of his life in a minimum security prison. I have spent time visiting and counseling in a minimum security federal prison and it was NOT a country club, but it sure wasn't like hard time. It won't be a lotta fun, he'll be bored and the lifestyle will be a touch more austere than his accustomed opulence, but he has security! And that is exactly what he stole from worthwhile non-profits, elderly retirees and so many others. I was thinking, a better lesson for him might be to toss him out and let him live out his life broke and homeless. He should know what its like to have to stand in line for a bed or a meal at a homeless shelter,or to have to worry that winter is coming and he has to figure out how to put on enough socks and coats to sleep on the street without freezing to death. Ah, but he would be free, and he is slick. He has favors to call in from somewhere, he has family. There is no way for him to really feel what he has actually stolen from so many. May his future be one of reflection and remorse.

Guns, God, Grub and Grog

2009-06-26T14:48:00.002-05:00

NeoNazi_02
Originally uploaded by Chad Johnson

I am not anti-guns. People have the right to own them, hunt with them, protect their homes with them(even though, statistically that doesn't work out so well) collect, target shoot and masturbate with them. Whatever. But I am pro-common sense, something the morons who run Tennessee seem to be damn short on. The legislature in Tennessee managed to come together in the noble cause of overriding the governor's veto and made it legal to carry guns, concealed I presume, in restaurants AND saloons in the Volunteer state. They just "volunteered" the opportunity for people, such as the charming Nazi pictured in the photo, to carry their weapon into a bar, get sloshed and take deadly action against any slight, real or imagined.
Recently, the president signed legislation allowing guns in National Parks! Have you ever been out in the country during deer season? If not, don't go. If you must, wear LOTS of orange. Boys and their toys outdoors are a fucking menace to unwary bystanders. Now, to avoid slighting the responsible hunters out there, most deer are ambushed while the hunter hides up in a tree-pretty sporting, eh? But at least those people are shooting down, and even if they miss they won't plug some poor slob half a mile away working in his garden. But some fool with a semi-automatic assault rifle who decides to target practice in Yellowstone? Bad plan. Or, Joe Nazi featured above and his pals can now go to our national parks for some military maneuvers. What a comfort. Pity the poor park rangers.
Then there is good ol' boy, Pastor Ken Pagano of Louisville, Kaintuck.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/us/26guns.html?th&emc=th
He is in the news for promoting a carry your gun to church day, comin' right up this Saturday night to, “celebrate our rights as Americans!” as a promotional flier for the “open carry celebration” puts it. This celebration will include a raffle for a gun and a picnic. Guns, God and grub-does it get any better?-HOOO-DOAGIES! These are Assembly of God folk, Pentecostals who believe they speak in unknown tongues bringing messages straight from JEEE-hovah while they wriggle about in religious ecstacy. Who knows what smiting the Lord might require of those worthies? I think I'll skip that celebration and avoid the bars and liquor serving restaurants in Tennesee, thank you very much.

Got Any Spare Change?

2009-06-16T10:09:00.004-05:00

Any one who walks in big cities has been asked this question by grizzled alcoholics, homeless wanderers, would-be hippies and other urban shnorrers. In the parable of the widow's mite from Mark 12 and Luke 20 Jesus compares what the rich folks give to the Temple offering to what we would call,"spare change". They didn't need it to live on, to buy food or pay rent or buy a pack of smokes. The widow is praised for giving two small copper coins, one to fulfill her obligation and one out of love or devotion to her faith. He says she gave everything.

When Barrack Obama promised us, "Change we can believe in", it didn't sound as if he was talking about 'spare change'. He wasn't promising change that would be easy or politically profitable-at least that was what it sounded like to me and millions of others. Oh, I know he's a politician, and inflated rhetoric is their stock and trade, and he is only human so you expect some pragmatism as well. But when the man goes back on a specific promise to work to rectify injustice to an oppressed group, he is offering them spare change, change that won't cost him any political capital.

In his campaign, Obama promised to work to overturn the odious Defense of Marriage Act that allows states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed in states where they are legal. This legal bigotry also denies federal benefits such as survivor's Social Security benefits to same-sex partners. In spite of his promise, the DOJ filed a brief in a California lawsuit challenging this unjust law supporting the Defense of Marriage Act as reasonable.
At this point witth Obama fighting for HealthCare reform and struggling against a vicious Right-wing campaign, it may be politically expedient to take this route rather than further alienate social conservatives. But than he is offering only spare change to the millions of LGBT folks who campaigned for him, voted for him, and believed in his promis of change. Not even spare change- he has given them chump change.

See http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/opinion/16tue1.html?th&emc=th

Economics of Fear

2009-05-18T10:17:00.001-05:00

Forest Butoh crawl
Originally uploaded by image-MILL

The NRA had a little gathering of some 50,000 members. They also had three acres of gun stuff, from videos and books to bullets and semi automatic weapons. The thrust of the piece I listened to on NPR was that in a time of economic hardship, guns are a boom industry. One speaker gave credit to President Obama for the increase in gun and ammo sales. Why? Why all of the gun sales, why credit Obama? In a word, fear.
Many gun owners are hunters and whatever one may feel about hunting, a person who goes out and kills for food and pleasure is using a gun for one of its legitimate, practical purposes. Lots of gun owners enjoy shooting at targets and developing the skill required to hit increasingly challenging points with a bullet. This seems to me to be a legitimate use, it is even an olympic sport-add skis and you have a wiggy winter olympic sport.
Still other people feel the need to have the deadly force of firearms to protect themselves, their homes and families. I can't quibble with that. Many parts of the U.S. are as dangerous as any place on earth.
And lots of folks just love the look and feel and power of guns so they collect them and admire them. You may not, but I think it is as reasonable as collecting rocks or thimbles or ancient steam engines. But what do most of these people have in common besides gun ownership? Paranoia about government taking the guns away. This is no great revelation, of course. It just struck me as so very sad as I listened to the story, that all these macho men and women(can you be a macho woman?) who think of themselves as tough, independent, stalwart, live in a neurotic cloud of fear so potent that it can fuel an industry. It must be a hell of a way to live.

The Deportaion of Jan Demjanjuk

2009-05-13T14:50:00.007-05:00

Barack H. Obama, April 16, 2009 --“In releasing these memos, it is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution.”

"Superior Orders is, in essence, the plea that a soldier not be held guilty for crimes committed during the course of war due to the orders of a superior officer. One of the most noted uses of this defense was by the accused in the Nuremberg Trials, such that it is also called the Nuremberg Defense. It was during these trials that the defense was no longer considered enough to escape punishment; merely enough to lessen punishment.[4]"

Nuremberg Principles

Principle I
Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefore and liable to punishment.

Principle III
The fact that a person who committed an act which constitutes a crime under international law acted as Head of State or responsible government official does not relieve him from responsibility under international law.

Principle IV
The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him. "I was following orders", is not an excuse.

Principle VI

b) War Crimes:
Violations of the laws or customs of war which include, but are not limited to, .... murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war ...

Demjanjuk is accused of being a guard, a military underling, at Sobibor prison. Those thugs conducting torture in OUR NAME were highly paid agents of the CIA. They were not under military orders. They did not face imprisonment or execution for refusing to torture, they merely had to quit theur lucrative jobs. They tortured for MONEY! The legal minds who justified torture faced no legal penalties for refusing to write the opinions, they only stood to lose their posh political careers. They justified torture for MONEY and CAREER advancement.

The ONLY people prosecuted for torture have been low-level military personnel. Like Demjanjuk.

Demjanjuk faced a firing squad for refusing to carry out orders, but we deported him. Demjanjuk and the rest of the guards and torturers and murderers who were cogs in the wheels of the shoa were following orders in good faith, no? Again, its a matter of scale. Our minions only tortured and killed a few hundred, but they ALL deserve to be tried-top to bottom.

A Matter of Scale

2009-05-12T15:34:00.004-05:00

Cocaine_was_a_good_friend
Originally uploaded by federico.bebber

Jan Demjanjuk has been deported to Germany to stand trial for war crimes, crimes against humanity. Specifically,he is being charged as an accessory to the murder of 29,000 people; Jews, Slavs, Romany, people with retardation and so on. The ones who didn't fit in the plan of the master race. Maybe he's guilty, maybe he's not. The fact is, the US government allowed a sick, feeble 89 year old man to be shipped to Germany to stand trial for alleged war crimes as a guard at Sobibor. Note that, a guard! He didn't write policy, he didn't give orders, he was about 22 years old. If he had refused to follow orders, at the very least, he would have been imprisoned, at worst, executed. Is he innocent because of these factors? No. Should he stand trial? Yes. Is he guilty? The trial will determine that.
The incredible hypocrisy of the United States of America has rarely been more evident than in this case. Demjanjuk is denying his role as a guard at Sobibor, where at the very worst, he was a low-level scum bag. Dick Cheney has been traveling the country BOASTING about the torture and war crimes he and his vile crew committed in OUR FUCKING NAME! And he, Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice, et al, have been assured by Obama and company that, yea though they wallowed in the valley of evil, they need fear no repercussion. What a country. Vote for change, vote for America the phony.

The Grease Virgin

2009-05-06T12:20:00.003-05:00

I was reading about a supposed likeness in a grease stain of the Virgin of Guadalupe icon over at http://www.adultchristianity.blogspot.com/ which "appeared" on a griddle in CA. The piece includes a great photo of two Mexican wrestlers in masks and costumes studying the griddle. A couple of other bloggers have written about it with many scathing comments being proferred by readers. I was pretty amused, but I really try to with hold judgement on such matters. Then I read some commentary on hate crimes over at The Field Negro http://www.field-negro.blogspot.com/ and Field included extensive quotes in opposition to hatecrimes legislation from, yep, you guessed it, so-called Christian writers. Finally, I came across a poll http://religions.pewforum.org/reports that finds that young Americans who claim Christianity as their faith has declined substantially in the past twenty years.

People who find icons in cheese sandwiches are an easy target for mockery, bigots spewing in the name of religion make it easy to villify faith of that sort, and of course the history of religious wars, persecutions and the viciousness of theocracies makes it imperative that reasonable people remain wary of fanaticism. But in an era of wild-eyed fundamentalists, murderous jihadists, and all stripe of immoderate, reason-mangling, hate mongering, harbingers of apocalyptic hate, isn't it time for charity, kindness and even sympathy (if you can't work up a little empathy) for those poor folk who desperately seek hope, even if grease stain madonnas are not to our spirtual taste?

Speakin' of Death and Fairness

2009-04-28T10:03:00.005-05:00

What with the growing concern over oinker influenza, I was thinking last night about something my dad said as he was succumbing to his mortal illness. Dad was 87 when he was diagnosed with lymphoma in November 2007. His sister, who was 90 at the time, had been dealing with lymphoma for a couple of years and was holding her own, so dad figured he likely had a couple of years yet. As it turned out, he had a lymphoma which attacked his central nervous system, according to the oncologist. This is a fairly rare form and it is aggressive as hell, deadly and debilitating. Dad had been strong independent and pretty healthy all his life. He was still working part time and had an active social life up until he got sick. He lived on his own and enjoyed several hobbies, including gardening, which he was looking forward to doing on a more limited basis the following spring.

I loved and admired my father. He had survived the Depression, active combat in WW II, over fifty years of marriage to my mother( the war paled in comparison) and a ne'er do well brood of screw ups that would have sent a weaker man to an early grave. He was relatively stoic man, so I was taken aback by his comment and actually disappointed when he said to me, "This isn't fair".
Jeez, I thought, babies dying of AIDS isn't fair, Tibetan nuns rotting in prison isn't fair, young Mexican adults dying of swine flu isn't fair. Getting sick and dying after a long and healthy life, that's the way it works if you're lucky! I could undestand saying "this sucks", "I feel shitty" , "dying of this stuff blows". All of that was true. But lamenting that it wasn't fair?
Of course I didn't say that, and I quickly regained compassion. He was suffering with a miserable, terminal ilness after all, and he felt like crap almost all the time. I guess a person's entitled to express a dab of self pity. And even if he had pissed and moaned all the way to bardo, I still loved him. But he didn't, and that was the only really self-pitying thing he said during the two months we cared for him as he died. I was reflecting on all this last night and reflecting on my own preparedness for death(one never knows how prepared one is until the knock comes at the door, nicht wahr?). And then this was in my e-mail this morning, and it was good.
Tricycle's Daily Dharma
Healing and Curing
Healing does not mean curing, although the two words are often used interchangeably. While it may not be possible for us to cure ourselves or to find someone who can, it is always possible for us to heal ourselves. Healing implies the possibility for us to relate differently to illness, disability, even death, as we learn to see with eyes of wholeness. Healing is coming to terms with things as they are.
–Jon Kabat-Zinn, from Letting Everything Become Your Teacher (Delta Trade Paperbacks)

I pray that we may all be healed.

This Is Brilliant

2009-04-27T09:34:00.005-05:00

Kudos to Driftglass! www.driftglass.blogspot.com/

Being Wrong Is Ok Sometimes

2009-04-24T11:48:00.002-05:00

Last night we talked to the girls and learned that pretty much all of the girls we work with will have an Ishna Ta Awi Cha Lowan( Becoming A Woman) ceremony in the Lakota way. So much for all my pissing and moaning in the last post! Maybe I should stick to things I know instead of things I'm ignorant about.

The Search

2009-04-22T11:02:00.002-05:00

Don't Tell Me The Sky Is The Limit, There Are Footprints On The Moon!
Originally uploaded by Peter from Wellington

Last Sunday we watched a group of Lakota children receive baptism, confirmation and first communion thereby becoming full members or "communicants" in the Roman Catholic Church. I was raised Catholic and I have studied a fair bit of theology, so I understood a lot of the symbols and beliefs of these religious acts the RC.s call 'sacraments'. I know from experience the emotional power these rituals can have, and I know from experience how utterly empty they can feel. Theoogically speaking, the feelings are unimportant, but we are what we are and feelings always matter. One of the recipients of all three sacraments was a high school student I work with and with whom I have a reasonably honest relationship. When I first met her she was adamant in declaring her faith as 'Native religion'. When I talked to her about her decision to be baptized Catholic, she told me frankly that she was only doing it for her grandmother. For a 14 year old, that is not the worst reason in the world to do this; it is an act of love and respect. But it is not what she would have chosen for herself at this time in her life. She is a bright and reflective person and I can't help but wonder if she will pursue any spiritual path when she is able to choose for herself. I hope she will find a way to pursue her people's faith and practices in the Lakota traditions but I have no way to help her with this, and I find that frustrating. I know her family loves her deeply, and I know they respect the old ways, so perhaps she will find the path, the "good red road".

Still, how much more meaningful would it be for her, and for the other children, to be nurtured in the ancient faith of their people, the Lakota; to be given her rite of passage as a Lakota girl into womanhood, the Ishna TA Awi Cha Lowan. How much more worthwhile as a part of the people would the the boys feel if they were able to do the Hanblecheyapi, the crying for a vision?
In all fairness, the mass included an honor song performed in Lakota by a drum group from the school. The drum is sacred and the incorporation of this into the Catholic service was a mark of respect which the priest shows in all the ways he can. He incorporates Lakota into the mass by saying the ancient Christian prayer, "Lord Have Mercy, Christ Have Mercy" in Lakota. His vestments were adorned with the Morning Star on the back and the medicine circle complete with the sacred colors on the front of his chasuble. And he is a man who seems to genuinely love and respect the Lakota children he serves. Certainly the children show love and respect for him. It is about as good a situation of this sort as one could hope for, short of a priest who was Indian, fluent in the language and raised in the native culture on the rez. But that aint likely. And that is the crux of my quandary, if this is actually important to the People, where are the Lakota nuns, priests and bishops? You can find Lakota holy men and women around. A couple of the girls claim to have grandpas and uncles who are Lakota 'medicine men'(the term they use). But the people of the First Nations do not seek religious orders. Of course this is the plight of the Catholic Church in America. They are unable to fill the needs for priests and other religious leaders, so perhaps this is not a question of the faith failing to be meaningful so much as it is failing to make the celibate religious life, divorced from family and community meaningful.
I believe that a person's spritual path is one of, if not the most important aspect of human life. I wish I could see these children have the chance to be led in ways that truly belong to them, and in which they would find true belonging.

Indra's net of jewels

2009-04-14T09:03:00.002-05:00

Indra's net of jewels
Originally uploaded by Onkel Ulle

I am reprinting a small portion of a wonderful article found in the Spring 2009 issue of Tricycle Magazine. The piece is entitled 'Son of A Gun' and it has to do with a young man's crisis of conscience and a turning point as a result of that crisis. The author is writing under a nom de plume, Shozan Jack Haubner. If you are not familiar with Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, you can explore it online at www. tricycle.com

"I thought of Indra’s net, the metaphor Buddhism uses to explain our oneness. The universe is a web of interconnectedness, everything in it a diamond, each reflecting and reflected in all the others. Instead of gems, I imagined bombs, one going off, setting off the rest.

In the Buddhist view, I depend on you for my existence. All things depend on each other, equally. Welcome to the doctrine of dependent origination. It’s teeter-totter metaphysics—I arise, you arise; you arise, I arise. Forget about our presumed Maker, the divine machinist in the sky. Take a look at this moment right now. You are you because you are not something else; therefore, what you are not—the chair beneath you, the air in your lungs, these words—births you through an infinity of opposites. It’s like the ultimate Dr. Seuss riddle: Without all the things that are not you, who would you be you to? There’s no Higher Power in this system to grab onto for support; we are all already supporting each other. Pull a person or people the wrong way, and you immediately redefine yourself in light of what you’ve done to your neighbor."

Treaties, self sufficiency and hemp

2009-04-10T10:14:00.003-05:00

See these guys? They are drug war enforcers, government bullies who break into people's homes and destroy things like medical marijuana and cart people off to jail for such heinous offenses as relieving pain and nausea from chemotherapy. In this particular picture they are trespasing on Lakota land on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, specifically a farm belonging to Alex White Plume. Are they after such horrifying stuff as medical marijuana? NO. In this instance the thugs are there to rip up a crop of industrial hemp, stuff that has so little THC(the stuff that gets you buzzed) you couldn't ingest enough to get high! Why, you might ask, was White Plume foolish enough to even try such a thing as planting a wonderfully useful crop that poses no danger to anyone(not that fully active marijuana is dangerous, but it does get you high and according to the puritans running the government, that job is best left to addictive, organ destroying alcohol)?
Well Alex White Plume was acting in response to an initiative passed by the Oglala Lakota tribal government . The Oglala Sioux Tribe passed a hemp legalization ordinance in 1998 to encourage agricultural economic development on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The White Plume family planted its first hemp crop in 2000 hoping to establish a business that also would help the environment. The DEA destroyed the crops on Oglala land as part of its "war on drugs." Yhis land was designated "... set apart for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation of the Indians..." by this exact wording of the Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1868. They went in with machine guns and air support. Our tax dollars at work.

For many practical benefits of industrial hemp, see http://alliesanswers.com

A Dance of Deception
(Original article here: http://www.motherjones.com/reality_check/pineridge_contradiction.html

A leading Native American scholar and educator says the federal raid on Alex White Plume's hemp crop is yet another manifestation of the US government's two-faced policy toward Indians. by Don Trent Jacobs Feb. 20, 2001

"Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere." -- George Washington, 1794

The US government's raid on Alex White Plume's industrial hemp crop on the PineRidge Oglala Lakota Sioux Reservation is merely the latest chapter in a long legacy of genocide that has been practiced on the American continent 500 years.Alex White Plume and his tiyospaye (extended family) planted their hemp inaccordance with tribal ordinances. It was the beginning of hope and a way to emerge from poverty. On Aug. 24, 2000, federal agents robbed them of that hope.If White Plume or any of the other Lakota individuals had resisted, they might have been shot or imprisoned, and who knows for how long. Consider White Plume'snephew who is serving his third year in jail for having broken out the windows ofa car. Then there is Leonard Peltier, another Lakota from Pine Ridge, now listedby Amnesty International as one of the top 10 political prisoners in the world.Alex's wife, Debra, a strong, beautiful woman, has fought relentlessly andarticulately to implement traditional Lakota values for many years. A month afterthe raid, she appeared more ready than ever to continue the good fight. "In theold days," she said, "they could not tell the difference between good Indians andbad ones so they killed us all. Now they do not know the difference between hempand marijuana so they kill all of it."The worldview of Lakota people demands economic projects on the reservation thatare friendly to the earth and beneficial to all. Hemp is one of the few productsthat fulfills this vision. It is a very earth-compatible, pesticide-free crop.Just ask Ralph Nader, who made hemp production a campaign issue and who probablyknows that major chemical, paper, and timber industries have much more to do withmaking hemp illegal in the US than any concern about drugs.The contradictions surrounding this issue are just part of the endless dance of deception the US government does with American Indians. For example, the PineRidge Indian Reservation was designated a federal empowerment zone in 1998 inorder to "help individuals and communities achieve self actualization and fullcitizenship." This goal aligns well with official federal Indian policy aimed atself-determination and viable economic independence.One cannot imagine an industry more appropriate to the empowerment zone goal than hemp production. The White Plumes currently make $450 dollars a year by renting their 160 acres to a white cattle rancher for grazing -- which can do untold damage to the fragile ecology. The seized hemp from the acre and a half they planted was estimated to have been worth between $12,000 and $20,000.After two years, however, the $20 million empowerment-zone allocation has been no more fulfilling than other half-hearted and bureaucratically stifled gestures. As has been the case for the past 100 years, they are just enough to keep the reservations dependent upon and at the mercy of the feds.Consider that the US government sanctions environmentally disastrous pig farmsand the extraction of minerals on tribal lands while denying a right to tribal nations that it gives to many other nations. Recent trade agreements such as GATTand NAFTA have allowed countries such as Canada to grow and export hemp products grown on their sovereign land to the US. The sovereign rights of the Lakota nation as spelled out in the Ft. Laramie Treaty of 1868 and numerous Supreme Court cases should give the Lakota nation similar trading rights.But Indian sovereignty has never been a goal of the US government. Consider theIndian Reorganization Act of 1934, a statute that robbed what was left of traditional indigenous sovereignty by setting up highly corruptible tribal councils whose main function was to sign off on federal development programs on the reservations. Reservation resources, had they not been co-opted by the US government with the help of these corrupt tribal councils, might have made PineRidge one of the the wealthiest regions in the country, rather than the poorest. The US government's treatment of American Indian sovereignty is, for all of us,of great significance. If American Indian sovereignty is under siege, so is American sovereignty. If US wealth is dependent upon impoverishment of its Indian peoples, we are all impoverished.In their 1998 book "Sovereignty under Siege: A Study of Federal Seizure of Indian Jurisdiction," Robert L. Pirtle and M. Frances Ayer say the Supreme Court has, in past decisions regarding American Indians, rewritten the Constitution like so:"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men except Indians are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator except in the case of Indians with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit ofhappiness except in the case of Indians ... to secure these rights, governments are institued among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed unless they are Indians."This Anglo folly has finally caught up with us in our polluted environments. At least Indians, refusing to blend into the dominant culture, continue to live insocieties that are more personal and more humane. They continue to fight for ecological sustainable products like hemp houses and clothes. They continue to honor the universal values of courage, humility, honesty, fortitude, and patience.This is not just about giving American Indian people back their dignity by allowing them to prosper economically through ecologically sound, spiritually based farming of hemp. It is more than an issue of justice, sovereignty or constitutional revision and interpretation. Nor is it merely about an out-of-control Drug Enforcement Administration or the negative influences of multinational corporations. Ultimately, this issue is about saving a world viewthat recognizes that we are all shaped and formed by our relationship to the earth. Mitakuye Oyasin. We are all related.

Don Jacobs, Ph.D., Ed.D., is chair of education at Oglala Lakota College on thePine Ridge Indian Reservation.

You Are Where You Need To Be

2009-04-06T13:28:00.003-05:00

Keeping An Eye On Time
Originally uploaded by badboy69

“‘Time passes by!’ we say. Time does not exist; only we move.” Talmud

While reading Lasting Echoes by Joseph Bruchac , I came across the very choicest word for clocks I have ever seen, papeezokwazik. Not only is it a beautiful word, but it means "that thing which makes much noise and does nothing useful" in the Abenaki language.
Bruchac goes on to quote an Arapahoe gent named Carl Sweezy, "White people...thought we were all lazy. That was because we took a different attitude toward time than theirs. We enjoyed time, they measured it."

Of course, due to the way we live and work, I use clocks to get to work, meetings, appointments, movies, "on time". I loathe being late and find myself growing anxious if the clock is ordering me to be someplace and I can't respond for whatever reason. This is particularly true when I am trying to herd our girls off somewhere such as church and I feel that their tardiness will reflect badly upon us as houseparents, tsk tsk. But I do see being late when others are waiting as disrespectful, and so, I use clocks, and I do find them necessary and useful. But oh, how we do obssess.

I lived in Samoa for a couple of years and I was regularly frustrated to nearly frenzy level by the islander's indifference to time. " Ye gods and little fishes!" I would scream in my head as I stood in line at the bank or post office or wherever in Tafuna or Pago Pago, "don't these people have ANY bloody sense of time!??" And they certainly did, but it was quite different from our need for speed and precision. They would bring mats and food and relax in the shade of the post office waiting for mail to come in. They napped and chatted and never seemed to be concerned about time. I appreciated that but I had so succumbed to our western culture, that I had difficulty experiencing it then.
Years earlier, when I was in college, I carried a pocket watch so I wouldn't have the shackle of time on my wrist. As soon as school was out for any break, I left the watch in a drawer in my apartment. I symbolically cast off enslavement to time.
After a lot of years, I no longer wear a watch. There are clocks everywhere and I have few appointments to keep. I watch the clocks so I can get the kids I work with to school and other places on time, but I am detaching from time as the years go by. I love having no place to be at any given time, and the experience of that can almost be tasted. It is sweet and warm. I have no desire to measure time, I want to enjoy it.

"Many of us think that happiness is not possible in the present moment. Most of us believe that there are a few more conditions that need to be met before we can be happy. This is why we are sucked into the future and are not capable of being present in the here and now. This is why we step over many of the wonders of life."

–Thich Nhat Hanh, from Be Where You Are

International Landmine Day

2009-04-04T16:32:00.003-05:00

http://http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/41375

Blind and Legless Landmine Victim
Originally uploaded by pictim

From AfterDowningStreet.org

4 April: International Day for Landmine Awareness and Assistance
Submitted by danielifearn on Sat, 2009-04-04 08:47. IFPJ

Adopt-A-Minefield

Actiongroupe Landmine-Germany

Albanian Mine Action Executive

Aotearoa New Zealand Cluster Munition Coalition

Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action

Bosnia and Herzegovinia Mine Action Centre

Cambodian Mine Action Centre

Canandian International Demining Corps

Chilean National Demining Commission

Clear Path International

Cluster Munitions Coalition

Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise-Laos

Croatia Without Mines Foundation

Croatian Mine Action Centre

Danish Demining Group

E-MINE Electronic Mine Information Network

European Union in Humanitarian Demining

Geneva International Centre for  Humanitarian Demining

Golden West Humanitarian Foundation

Humanitarian Demining R&D Program

Humanitarian Demining Training Center

International Campaign to Ban Landmines

Internationa Mine Standards

International Test and Evaluation Program for Humanitarian Demining

International Trust Fund For Demining and Mine Victims Assistance

Iraq Mine Action

Islamic Republic Of Iran Mine Action Center

Japanese Mine Action Service

Jordan National Committee for Demining and Rehabilitation

Landmine Action

Landmine Monitor-International Campaign to Ban Landmines

Lao National Unexploded Ordnance Programme

Mines Action Canada

Mine Action Coordination Centre in DRC

Mine Action Coordination Centre South Lebanon

Mine Action Information Center

Mine Advisery Group International

Mine Detection Dog Centre-South East Europe

MINE-EX Humanitarian aid by Rotary

Mozambique National Demining Institute

No More Landmines

Nordic Demining Research Forum

Office of Humanitarian Mine Action

Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement

Program of Assistance for Demining in Central America

Regional Center for Divers Training in Underwater EOD-Montenegro

Rotarians for Mine Action

South-Eastern Europe Mine Action Coordination Council

Stop Mines-Republic of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Survey Action Center

Survivor Corps

Swedish EOD and Demining Centre

The Halo Trust

Thailand Mine Action Center

Justice? Truth? Not If The U.S. Can Help It.

2009-03-29T19:29:00.003-05:00

The New York Times reported today http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/world/europe/29spain.html?_r=1&th&emc=th that Spanish Justice may fill the void left by a morally bankrupt United States. The case has been forwarded to the office of the prosecutor for review by Baltazar Garzon, the judge who ordered the arrest of the notorious Chilean villain, Augusto Pinochet. Alberto Gonzales, the former attorney general appointed by Bush who went down in flames as a result of political scandal is named in the investigation, as are 5 other high ranking Bush appointees. It appears that arrest warrants may follow in time. But as stated in the Times article:
"The United States, however, would be expected to ignore an extradition request for former officials, although other investigations within the United States have been proposed. Calls for the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation have so far been resisted by the Obama administration, but for more than four years, the Justice Department ethics office has been conducting its own investigation into the work of Mr. Yoo and some of his colleagues."

Unfortunately, even though Dick Cheney and G. W. Bush have openly admitted to knowledge and authorization of waterboarding of prisoners, the investigation does not name them. Well, one can always hope.

The Border Trilogy

2009-03-27T00:21:00.006-05:00

I just finished Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy. The three books are: The Crossing, All The Pretty Horses and Cities of The Plains. McCarthy is an astonshing writer, poetic, complex and a hell of a story teller. The stories are set in New Mexico, Texas and Mexico between the years 1939(or so) and 1950. The first two involve adolescent boys taking off for parts unknown in Mexico. They involve horses, wolves, cattle and all manner of humans. The boys travel, work, undertake quests, endure grueling hardships and do their best to live up to the standards they have they have chosen. The third book involves two of the boys after they return to the States and work together on a small ranch in Texas. Billy and John Grady have become close friends although they differ in age by some eight years. In fact Billy is now 28 years old. We find out what they have learned, or failed to learn from their earlier oddysies.

McCarthy is known for his grim and graphic violence, and there is violence in these books, to be sure. He does, however, use violence quite judiciously compared to the horrifying Blood Meridian, another novel set in Texas but in the 1840's.
McCarthy uses embedded stories to pursue philisophical speculations and he does a masterful job with these. In The Crossing he has an elderly Mexican give the most intriguing description of blindness I have ever read as he is telling young Billy Parham his story. It is the only thing I have ever read that actually helped me to have some grasp of the experience of blindness. The epilogue in Cities of The Plain is an embedded story told as an extended and fantastically exotic dream.
If you enjoy good stories beautifully told that also stimulate your mind , you would do well to read these books. Start with The Crossing and you will be hard pressed to stop until you have read all three.

The True Gospel

2009-03-24T22:32:00.000-05:00

Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, died 29 years ago on March 24, 1980. He was shot in the chest as he raised the host for communion during mass at a hospital chapel in El Salvador. Seconds before he was shot he offered this prayer in consecration of the bread which Catholics believe becomes the body and blood of Jesus,

"May this Body immolated and this Blood sacrificed for Mankind nourish us also, that we may give our body and our blood over to suffering and pain, like Christ -- not for Self, but to give harvests of peace and justice to our People."

Romero is remembered as a hero and martyr and rightly so. I remember him as someone who preached the true gospel of Jesus of Nazareth, someone who lived the true gospel.

"Even when they call us mad, when they call us subversives and communists and all the epithets they put on us, we know we only preach the subversive witness of the Beatitudes, which have turned everything upside down."

"Live simply and justly in solidarity with the poor and marginalized and be a good neighbor. Make no war on them, rather, be one with them in spirit, truth, and love...Hear the truth when it is spoken to you ...and speak truth to power..."

"The church would betray its own love for God and its fidelity to the gospel if it stopped being . . . a defender of the rights of the poor . . . a humanizer of every legitimate struggle to achieve a more just society . . . that prepares the way for the true reign of God in history."

On March 23, 1980, the day before his death, Archbishop Romero appealed directly to the members of the military, calling on them to refuse illegal orders:

"We are your people. The peasants you kill are your own brothers and sisters. When you hear the voice of the man commanding you to kill, remember instead the voice of God. Thou Shall Not Kill….In the name of God, in the name of our tormented people whose cries rise up to heaven, I beseech you, I beg you, I command you, stop the repression."

And his last words:

"May God have mercy on the assassins."

Way to Go, El Salvador!

2009-03-22T16:13:00.007-05:00

El Salvador elected Mauricio Funes of the FMLN party as president last week.
In his acceptance speech, Funes dedicated his presidency to martyred Archbishop Oscar Romero vowing to have, as Romero put it, "A preferential option for the poor".
The Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front or FMLN, was founded as a revolutionary guerilla organization which fought to overthrow the right-wing government resonsible for the assasination of people who worked to relieve the oppression of the poor, including Archbishop Romero.

The FMLN was named for Farabundo Marti, who ,in 1932, led a worker and peasant uprising against the brutal general Maximiliano Hernandez. With naval support from the US, Hernandez crushed the revolt and slaughtered 30,000 indigenous people and political opponents. It became a legal political party in 1992 after peace agreements were signed.
Funes and the FMLN defeated ARENA, the right wing party which has been in power in El Salvador since 1989 and has been in bed with the United States since its inception in 1981. ARENA was founded by Roberto D'Auboisson who was named in a United Nations report of 1993 to have ordered the assination of Archbishop Romero. ARENA fielded the infamous death squads during the civil war in El Salvador with the aid of the United States, and they were especially championed by Ronald Reagan.
All this has changed. FMLN and Funes have come to power because the people have grown tired of the hollow promises of ARENA. Under the loving care of the right wing, gangs have become so pervasive and powerful that the murder rate in El Salvador is nine times that of the United States, roughly 3,650 deaths a year in a country of seven million. Over 30% of the people live below the poverty level with 20% living on $1.00 a day. Those are numbers from 2006, when times were relatively good world wide.
Funes, a former journalist, is a bright guy who faces huge challenges(sound like anybody we know?). But the Salvadorans are moving left and moving away from the US which has sponsored oppression in Latin America for well over one hundred years. Way to go, El Salvador!

Way to Go Vermont!

2009-03-20T11:23:00.006-05:00

It isn't law yet, but on Friday the Vermont state senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to approve a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage. The full senate will likely debate and vote on it next week. This seems an appropriate action for a state that has as its motto, "Freedom and Unity"

I remember discussing my position on interracial dating and marriage with my art teacher when I attended Crown Point High School in Indiana in 1963. Indiana was once the home of the largest KKK organization in the country and to this day has a lively Klan. Fortunately my teacher was a moderate man who listened respectfully to his students and enjoyed discussing issues with them. He said he disagreed with interracial dating and relationships but told me I had a crusading spirit. My positive support for interracial dating and marriage didn't win me a lot of popularity points with the Hoosier classmates, but I didn't fit in anyway so I didn't much care. I have wondered from time to time what the reaction would have been if I had spoken in support of gay marriage back then. Of course it was an unthought of concept back in that era, or at least I had never heard of it and had never thought about it. I know the idea would have been met with a great deal more resistance and revulsion than interracial marriage. I believe this is because in the mind of your average racial bigot the idea of interracial sex is actually quite titillating. It isn't the sex part, especially since they can imagine a white man with a black woman. It is the marriage part and the black man with the white woman that freaks out racists. After all, one only need consider the amount of rape that was perpetrated by white men against black women throughout the years of slavery to realize that white men shtooping black women has never been a problem for the aforementioned palefaced racists. But same gender sex!! Oy vey! The very act is horrifying to your average manly man homophobe although ninety percent of these same stout buckos will blissfully wank off to a sex scene featuring two comely lasses in a porn flick (statistic is my own fictitious creation). To hear some of the kids I have worked with express themselves, and kids tend to not hold back, there is very little that they find more repulsive than two people of the same gender in an intimate relationship. Men are driven to horrifying acts of violence by their fear of homosexuals. Or their latent attraction. or their fear that they might be attracted and therefore 'queer' themselves. I believe with all my heart that this fear and revulsion of the gay sex act and not some obscure verses sprinkled around in an ancient religious text is the basis for all of this. Once again religious beliefs are the cover, the excuse for hatred. As the Bible was once used(and still is so used) to justify racism, it is used as a bulwark to hide homophobia. Tsk, tsk. WWJD?

Way to Go New Mexico!

2009-03-16T13:33:00.004-05:00

On Friday March 13th, the senate of New Mexico voted to abolish the death penalty in that state. The house had voted to banish it previously. If the governor signs the legislation, New Mexico will become the fifteenth state to do away with this barbaric practice.

When I was 18 years old, I asked my priest in our religious ed class about capital punishment. I had read the story of the woman taken in adultery(I had also noticed that they didn't drag out the blighter she was with). I knew that Jesus said forgive seventy times seven, and forgive them for they know not what they do, love your enemies, and it seemed to me that the business about "let the one who is without sin cast the first stone" pretty much put the cork in the state sanctioned killing bottle. Our supposedly Christ-following priest told us that it is too expensive for the state to feed and house convicted murderers for the rest of their lives. I was stunned! I expected him to point out some scriptural argument if he was going to support the death penalty, something from canon law perhaps, but to put human life into terms of dollars and sense?

As it turns out, not only was he a cheap jerk lacking in compassion, but he was wrong. While comparisons are fairly complex, all studies agree that the cost of prosecuting a crime which may result in the death penalty is many times more expensive than non-capital offenses. The cost of housing people on death row is also far more costly than a standard maximum security lock up. One example is Texas where it was found that it costs three times as much to impose the death penalty as it does to imprison a person in a single cell for forty years.

Of course this doesn't address my original question to Father Merciful; how can we support the death penalty in light of the teachings of Jesus? Virtually all Christian theological arguments in favor of the death penalty go back to the Torah or Hebrew Testament, 'eye for an eye' lex talionis and all that. They don't usually mention that the first person executed under Mosaic law was stoned to death for picking up firewood(quite the offense then, it would seem) that you are supposed to have your kids put to death for dissin' you. True believers then zip over to Paul who says, "For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. the state has the power of the sword." Romans 13:3-4 Uh, yeah, the Roman authorities cut Paul's head off with the sword. Sort of waters down this passage as a strong argument for the death penalty, I should think. The people I have debated this with, at least the Bible believing bunch, tend to neglect the gospels when it comes to this issue, the very source of Jesus' teaching, nec'st pas?

It would be wrong to neglect the other truths about the death penalty, it is racist, only poor people go to death row, and it is utterly ineffective as a deterrent, but my time and space here are limited, so see http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/FactSheet.pdf for some telling facts and graphs.

So the point of state sponsored killing is?? Revenge, pure and simple. Somehow, I don't think Jesus would approve.

A Pioneer By Any Other Name

2009-03-15T14:36:00.004-05:00

Here you have it, the classic picture most people would conjure if you say the word,"pioneer". Conestoga wagon, strong, independent folk, colorful guide replete with buckskin and feather. Rugged individualists forging a new future for America.

It certainly took courage, naievete or flat out desparation to strike out for parts relatively unknown. At least unknown to white folks. of course the places they headed for weren't unknown to the people who already lived there, the people we called 'Indians'. The people who typically referred to themselves, 'the people' in their various languages.

I was listening to NPR the other morning and heard an announcement for the South Dakota State Historical Society 2009 History Conference entitled, "Immigration:A New Beginning". The subject is white folks moving onto the plains of what would eventually become South Dakota beginning around 1855. What most Americans would call 'pioneers'. I got to thinking about that term, 'immigration'. An immigrant is defined as " A person who comes to a country where they were not born in order to settle there." While this an apt term for the folks who went into this part of the country before it was even a territory, the concept doesn't address the legality of this action. I suspect the conference won't either. In 1855 there were no treaties ceding any land to the US in what we now call South Dakota. There was the so-called Louisiana Purchase wherein the United States gave France a chunk of dough to buy land that France neither owned nor controlled militarily. In other words, it wasn't France's land to sell. There were tens of thousands of people living in the area 'sold' by France, including the Mandan, Arikira and Oceti Sakowin(Seven Council Fires, commonly called 'Sioux'). The first treaty signed by any of the Oceti Sakowin was in 1855 and it was a Yankton action, one of the Seven Council Fires, not the consensus of leaders of all seven of the Oceti Sakowin, much less that of other nations living there. Actually, it was the action of one leader, Strike-the Ree. And this man's decision was not binding on any of the other people of the Yankton nation. The people were not bound by any one else's decisions except in limited circumstances such as a hunt or war.

Smutty Bear who opposed it; Charles Picotte who was the interpreter and profited from it; and Strike-the-Ree, Yankton chief who was resigned to white settlement saying that, "The white men are coming like maggots. It is useless to resist them....Many of our brave warriors would be killed, our women and children left in sorrow, and still we would not stop them".(SD State Historical Society)

The U.S. understanding was that this one man had the right to give away close to 38,000 square miles of land, even though the leader of similar or equal rank sitting next to him said no. Of course the U.S knew this was not valid, but it served the purpose of providing a legal-seeming pretext. So what it boils down to is that the US bought the area from a country that didn't own it and then got a treaty signed by one leader from one group of the people who lived there who had no authority to give any land.

My point in all of this is that historical accuracy might dictate a somewhat different term than 'immigrants' or 'pioneers'. While I wouldn't suggest the South Dakota State Historical Society use the term apparently preferred by Strike-The-Ree, "maggots", to refer to the white incursion, 'colonizers' would be more appropriate. 'invaders' would work even better, but most accurate of all would be 'thieves' and unfortunately, all of us whose ancestors came from elsewhere(excluding descendants of slaves) are the benefactors of those thefts. I wonder if the SDSHS will address this in the confeence.

Native American Awareness Week is April 13-19

Another Use for Beer Bottles

2009-03-11T19:40:00.004-05:00

Yes, the wonderful Buddhist temple in the top picture is made entirely from brown and green recycled beer bottles!
It is the Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew temple, built with more than a million glass bottles, in Thailand's Sisaket province. The Thai Buddhist temple has found an environmentally friendly way to utilize discarded bottles and clean up the environment- using them to build everything in its premises, from a crematorium to shelters and toilets. You can see a gallery of photos of this amzing structure at http://greenupgrader.com/4262/one-million-beer-bottles-later-and-its-a-buddhist-temple/

It is an inspiring(yes, I know) use of discarded materials. If only I could borrow their talent, creativity and energy!

Another Beautiful Use for Cordwood

2009-03-11T11:31:00.012-05:00

I remember reading about cordwood construction in Mother Earth news about a hundred years ago. If you had a ready source of cordwood this would be a reasonably cheap way to build. As with cob(mud and straw) building,(see post of 3/6/09) it would be quite labor intensive,especially since for aesthetics, I should think you would have to cut all the pieces the same length. You would have to cut down a lot more trees than for a cob building. Think how much simpler life would be without a mortgage. How delightful to live in a house you built yourself.

The Color Is From Bottles Set In The Mortar

See a slideshow of the construction at Scot Degraf on Flickr

Haiku; A Tree Restored to Beauty

2009-03-09T21:23:00.007-05:00

"People love chopping wood. In this activity, one sees immediate results" Albert Einstein

Felled tree cut to size
Lying in cord of firewood
beauty tree emerges

Scuplture by Alistair Hesseltine

Giveaway

2009-03-09T10:36:00.001-05:00

Allie is giving away a very cool recycled rug, check it outhttp://alliesanswers.com

Contemplative Gardening

2009-03-08T21:29:00.004-05:00

I love this picture. It is from a series on Flickr by NativeDesign.

So I was looking through the meditation archive on the site I referred to in yesterday's post http://www.interluderetreat.com/ and I came across the perfect piece about what Allie suggested, contemplative gardening(and no, this isn't Allie either).

The Zen of Gardening

“Most cherished in this mundane world is a place without traffic; truly in the midst of a city there can be mountain and forest.”Wen Zhengming (1470-1559)
Springtime is an opportunity to feel more alive by getting our hands in the dirt and being part of the growing that is happening outdoors. Garden work can be just a chore we do grudgingly, or it can be a fulfilling opportunity for satisfaction and even spiritual practice.If you visit a formal Japanese or Chinese garden, you find that it draws you into a more contemplative mental state. You see, not so much individual plants, but pleasing arrangement. Like a song puts together notes to form a composition, the gardener puts together plant and earth to create balance and flow, movement in stillness, a natural harmony within the context of confined space. As you move through these gardens, your mind tends to settle down. The garden asks to be seen with fresh eyes. It invites the busy mind we brought through the gate to calm itself. What must it take to create such harmonious natural beauty? What state of mind must one attain to foster such a peaceful environment? The oriental garden may be less a showplace than a place for the gardener’s spiritual practice.We don’t need acres of land to bring gardening into our spiritual practice. We can tend a single plant in a pot with mindfulness and compassion. But if we have a piece of land, why not use it to create something beautiful, to bring another dimension to our mindfulness practice. Working with plants and digging in the dirt can be stress relieving. It brings us back into contact with the natural world. We become aware of being part of the whole process of growth, death, decay and rebirth. Gardening is a lesson in the truth of impermanence. It invites engagement with the cycles of nature. As you tend your garden, practice mindfulness. Create the intention of paying attention. Instead of daydreaming or running your thoughts, focus your mind on the task at hand. If you are digging in the soil, just dig. Feel your body, the shovel, the movement, and the feel of the soil. Not so much thinking. Just doing with awareness.Take time to see. Look at the garden as a whole. Observe the land and the plants. Observe the sky and how your garden interacts with it. Feel the garden. Get a sense of it as a unique place. Feel the energy. If it flowed like water, how would it flow? Where would it go? Look at your individual plants and how they fit into the whole. Look at the space where there are no plants. How can emptiness create form?As you prune plants and pull weeds observe your emotions. To the extent that you take away life, do it mindfully and with clear intention. Don’t just work in your garden. Spend some quiet time there. Enjoy the beauty. Appreciate the life there. Open to the wonder.

Touching the Earth

2009-03-07T15:46:00.005-06:00

The Earth Handling You

You handling the earth .

As I wrote earlier, meditating on stones, or soil is a way I can feel the basic contact with simplicity.
Allie of http://www.alliesgreenanswers.com/ wrote that she has too frenetic a thought process to sit in meditation. She must be gardening(no, this is NOT Allie nor anyone else I know) or performing some other simple task to be able to still her mind and become fully aware. There is much wisdom in this way of 'living awareness. I can't think of a better activity in which to pactice full awareness and still the mind than gardening. I actually find gardening sans coulotte to be a bit buggy, but it does make for a different level of contact and awareness. But Allie is onto the path of awareness, fer shur.

Chop Wood, Carry Water(from, www.interluderetreat.com )
"Put your heart, mind, intellect and soul even to your smallest acts. This is the secret of success." Swami Sivananda
Work. What does the word mean to you? Is it something to be avoided? Is it a means to an end? Is it the only appropriate focus of your attention and energy? Is it a way to avoid the rest of your life? Is it a joy? Is it a part of your spiritual practice?
There is a Zen saying, "Before Enlightenment chop wood carry water, after Enlightenment, chop wood carry water." What’s the difference? The tasks are the same. The need is the same. What about the frame of mind? Who is chopping? Who is carrying water?
When you labor, stay awake. Notice the frame of mind you bring to your work. Do you approach your work as if it were a nuisance? Do you remove your consciousness from work so that you are filled with resentment or worry? What would you need to do to be more fully present in your work?
Practice mindfulness in work. It does little good to attain clarity of mind on your meditation cushion if you lose it as soon as you become active. Start with simple activities like brushing your teeth, ironing clothes, or washing dishes. Be fully alert as you move. Notice the position of your body in space. Notice the feelings in your body as you move. Pay attention to the thoughts that enter your mind when you do the task. See if you can let them go and just focus on the work itself.
If you are cleaning a countertop, feel the sponge in your hand. Feel the wetness. Feel the texture. Observe how the sponge moves in your hand from the sink to the counter. Sense your movements as you scrub. What do your eyes see? What do you hear as you work? Clean that countertop as if it were the most important thing you could do. Move with fluid motions. Waste no energy. Allow yourself the grace of economy of motion. Be grateful for the countertop, the sponge, the water, the soap. Be grateful for the hand, the arm, the whole body that can move a sponge. Be thankful for the floor you stand on and the roof that protects you. Without letting your mind wander too far, be grateful for all the circumstances that put you where you are at that moment with that sponge and that water and that countertop.
We travel to the ocean or to mountains, rivers and canyons, in part to escape the mundane world of work, but also to experience the awe that arises more spontaneously in nature’s magnificence. We give ourselves an incredible gift when we can experience some of the same awe in the mundane world of our daily lives. The weed that grows in the crack of a sidewalk is a phenomenon as miraculous as the redwood tree that towers into the sky. The raindrops that streak the window are no less an occasion for awe than the spray that dampens our face at the waterfall. The fingers that tap a keyboard are as worthy of praise as the feet of a ballet dancer.
When we open awareness to the tasks in our lives they become lighter. When we are able to be in the moment, we no longer feel compelled to watch the clock. Whatever your work might be, bring all of yourself to it. When you are fully present, you may find that your labor is no longer a burden. Wood is chopped. Water is carried. Life happens.

But Why An Earthen Home?

2009-03-06T09:35:00.008-06:00

This is a lovely cob house(hand made mud and straw 'cobs' or oblong bricks)). The small picture does not do it justice so I suggest you look at it on Flickr in the large size. And if you want to see how a cob house is built go to www.small-scale.net/yearofmud/

Ok, so you don't HAVE to fondle dirt to simplify your life. That was a meditation suggestion, jeez-don't take everything so seriously!
But I really like the stone meditation and hope you try it. I find it puts me into a place of, not eternity exactly, but a sense of change over eons. One of the things I have always loved is to come across very old marble steps that have been deeply worn by scajillions of footsteps.
But the reasons for a wonderful little cob house like the one in the picture are that it is so very natural, mud and straw; it would be all hand made; I would have touched and squished almost all the mud in my walls; it would be cheap; I could scupt things on the walls; I could make a house that isn't square or rectangular; I could reach out and touch my walls and be touching the earth.
So much for mud hut fantasies.
I believe that the best way to move toward simplifying attitudes is to make time for 'awareness' meditation. Awareness of the breath is a great technique and allows you to examine your thoughts non-judgementally, it is utterly simple and there is no way to do it incorrectly.

Basic Breath Awareness (From: openmindopenbody.com by Kelly McGonigal )
The most basic breathing practice is simple breath awareness. Come into a comfortable seated position - cross-legged, kneeling, or in a chair. It's important to have the spine straight, so that the lungs and torso have room to expand in all directions as you breathe. To lengthen the spine, consider sitting with a folded blanket just under the hips (cross-legged) or between the hips and heels (kneeling).
Close your eyes and bring your awareness to your breath. Begin by simply noticing each breath as it happens. As you inhale, notice that you are inhaling. As you exhale, notice that your are exhaling. Continue this noticing until you feel your awareness settling comfortably and reliably on the breath. You can then refine your awareness, by noticing more subtle aspects of the breath. Consider shifting your awareness to the following aspects of the breath:
· Notice the breath entering and exiting the body at the tip of your nose.
· Notice the breath move through the airway, from the nose to the mouth to the throat as you inhale, and from the throat to the mouth to the nose as you exhale.
· Notice the quality of your breath: Does it feel jagged or smooth? Does it feel rushed or slow? Does it feel shallow or deep?
· Notice the sound of your breath: Can you hear it? What does it sound like?
· Notice the length of each inhalation and exhalation. Are they even? Is the breath slowing down or speeding up?
· Notice the belly moving with the breath. Place your hands on your belly and feel the belly expand and contract.
· Notice the rib cage moving with the breath. Place your hands on your rib cage and feel the ribs expand and contract.
· Notice the chest and upper back moving with the breath. Wrap your arms around your upper chest and shoulders, and feel the chest and upper back move with the breath. (see the hug breath for a more detailed version of this observation).
· Notice the full dimensionality of your breath: radiate out, in all directions, with each breath.
Continue to notice whatever you notice - go deeper with this awareness practice and notice the subtleties of your own breath. With this practice, you are not trying to consciously control the breath. However, as you become more aware of the breath, you may find that the quality of your breath changes. Allow this to happen naturally, without strain or effort.
Suggested Practice Time: 5 minutes or longer. Practice several times a day, if possible. This is a practice that can stand on its own, whenever you have the chance to practice it.

If you have trouble focusing on breath alone without the mind racing at great speed, try counting ten breaths, and then ten more, until you feel somewhat calmer. See http://www.openmindbody.com/basicmeditation.htm for really excellent instruction on awareness meditation.
Some peolpe say, "nothing doing" to doing nothing, but how simple is it to be busy every second of every day? take some time from diversion, from entertainment, and get to know yourself.

So, how to simplify?

2009-03-05T19:03:00.005-06:00

"Progress means simplifying, not complcating." Bruno Munari(1907-1998)

As you can see, I am smitten with balanced stone sculpture. This particular photo with the stones against the blue sky and water with a solo kayaker epitomizes the idea of balanced simplicity for me.

I think that a stone house would be excellent. An earthen house, say cob or adobe with a stone fence and walkway would be ideal.
For the Anishinaabe, rocks are 'ancestors'. For the Lakota as for many, if not all, of the First People, Earth was sacred. For these people mining, tearing holes in Maka ina(mother earth) in order to rip out the resources was horrifying. It was done with no respect for the Maka and her gifts. Look at mountaintop destruction to extract coal in Appalachia and we see it has only gotten worse.
In asking how to simplify we could make lists of things to do or not do, of things to save or to discard. You can find many excellent lists and suggestions at www.zenhabits.net and these are practical and helpful. Eventually this may be a thing to do, especially if your life is extremely cluttered and complicated. I believe that before you actually add another 'thing to do' to an already frenetic environment, you take time to, as Alan Watts put it in the title of his excellent book, "Still The Mind". If your mind and heart are not simple, all the rest will only be busy work getting rid of a few items, dumping a few obligations. But without a prevailing attitude of simplicity, you will only accrue more things, take on more busyness."But I haven't the time" is the typical complaint. We all have the same amount of time, its a matter of how we spend it.

I started with talk about stones, earth and sky and water. In order to cultivate a simple heart, these are basic necessities. Find a stone. It can be lovely or plain. You probably have one you've picked up as a souvenier on a trip. Hold the stone and think of it as an ancestor. Think of its age and how long it took to form. If you have collected it, think of its environment, the hills, the lakeshore and sand from which it came. Consider your own needs and obligations in relation to the stone and its earth home. How long will these needs and obligations matter? Think in terms of all the things you own. Do they please you and fulfill you. Or do they bind you to a life you can't be easy in? When can you do this? Take time from diversions, from television, from music, from the desperate craving for entertainment and take time to be, not do. Be like the stone for a time and connect with the earth.
When weather permits, gather a handful of earth. Hold it, consider its makeup of finely ground minerals, organic matter, perhaps small stones. If possible, sit outside and hold the earth, allowing it to slowly sift through your fingers, consider its potential for providing you with food. Consider that it is very much alive and without this we cannot survive.
This may all sound airy fairy to you. It certainly isn't getting your closets organized or getting rid of clutter in the basement. But, if you cannot take time to connect with that from which we draw life and that to which our bodies will return, if you cannot take time to still the mind, do you really hope for simplicity?

Balance Requires Simplicity

2009-03-05T09:29:00.002-06:00

Rockbalance July 13
Originally uploaded by hickoree

It seems to me, as it has to a host of others, Buddhist, Dine, Lakota, and on the list goes, that for one to be content or joyous, life must be in balance. To find balance one must seek simplicity. And although many go it alone, it also seems to me that a prerequisite of a balanced life is community. This may be one's church or sangha or, well, it is like simplicity-it may mean many things. We can all find some sense of community I suppose, but for it to lead to balanced existence and joyous living I would think it has to be more than a weekly gathering where nothing is shared but time and perhaps theological opinions. During the time I spent in rehab I had a vivid sense of community, temporary though I knew it must be. We shared living space(four to a room for most of the men), we shared meals in the common dining room, and most of all we shared our stories and our pain and our dreams of wholeness and healing. We can't all pack up and move to a commune or make other major life changes, but how simple life can be when we have people who really know us, who are there when we need them and who want what is best for us. For most of us, if we are fortunate enough to have a close and loving family, that may suffice. I believe, however, that there must be more. A family that is not related by blood, but by common purpose.

Simplicity

2009-03-03T10:51:00.003-06:00

....I love round stones....
Originally uploaded by rebranca46

The concept,simplicity,is an interesting one in that it is so open to interpretation, it becomes complex. I have been interested in simplifying my life for some decades now, ever since I started studying Mennonites, Quakers, essential Christianity and communal living. At one point I sold and gave away all I owned except for what I could fit in three suitcases and one small box, which was mostly photos. I can hear some saying, "Sure, when I was 22 I fit all my worldly goods in a backpack" and so on. I was 56 at the time. The only reason I needed three suitcases was because I am 6'3" and my clothes and shoes are so damn big. Now, I will grant that you have to have more stuff than that to live, you have to cook and you have to sleep on something, but how much do we need? www.Treehugger.com posed the question the other day; "if you had to leave your home forever, what ten things would you take?"
I found this a challenging and difficult question. It would require more info to be able to make appropriate decisions. Are you fleeing as a refugee concerned for survival? Or are you a middle-class, employed, fully insured person? Obviously you would make different choices based on the situation.
The December issue of Yes! magazine had a great article about Dee Williams who built an 84 square foot house on wheels. She spent ten thousand dollars, but much of that was for her solar panel set-up. The wee house has a sleeping loft and a hobbit sized porch. She pays five dollars a month in utility bills and keeps her possessions down to three hundred things(or less).
I might be able to live in 84 sq feet with 300 things, but not without land to garden and a workshop and food storage of some sort. Dee lives alone in her friend's back yard and, one assumes, has access to said friend's bathroom. There is a video of Dee and her house at Youtube which for some reason I can't embed here.
Let's consider. If we lived in a commune, where we had a common kitchen and dining room, a separate bathroom and some work and play areas, how much room would we need? How many personal possessions would we need? Smaller than 10' x 10'? Fewer than 300 things?
Maybe this is trying too hard to quantify a complex concept. Simplicity also resides somewhere in our heart or head. Are we content with a few things, simple food and simple pleasures? And then what does that all mean for you? I once read an article about monks who had taken a vow of poverty and one of them said, when you own almost nothing, you may become fiercely possessive of your pen or personal coffee mug. Is that a simple attitude?
Simple living has implications for the environment, the economy but most of all, it seems to me, it has profound implications for our emotional and spiritual well-being.

Smoke & Ink

2009-02-28T10:59:00.003-06:00

I don't think I've ever seen a greater percentage of tatooed smokers anywhere than in A Forever Recovery (AFR) drug and alcohol rehab. By the time I left we had three non-smoking clients out of about sixty. Even all the nurses smoked! And I saw some of the nicest ink work I've seen anywhere. I did not check to see who all had tats. Most people had them quite visibly dispalyed, some had them in less obvious places that one caught a glimpse of occasionally. Since we were all together all the time in one building, we saw each other in jammies and tank tops and shorts, covered up in sheets(for massage) and towels( for sauna). Eventually we all saw most of the tats.

The first impression upon entering the lobby of AFR is 'nice retreat center', spacious lobby, huge windows overlooking a lake; the first impression upon seeing the clients in the smoking room is 'co-ed, minimum security prison'. This could be pretty disconcerting, I suppose, for someone from a more sheltered, upper middle-class background. But that impression is quickly dispelled by the friendliness and openness of the people who are there for the same reason you are, to heal and transform their lives.

I wish I could tell you more about some of the people and some of the wonderful changes I saw even in the short time I was there, but those are not stories for me to tell. We all come with an expectation of privacy and rightly so. We all shared deeply private things about our lives trusting that we would respect the trust we placed in each other, and so I shall. What I can tell you in this final piece on my rehab experience is that I met a lot of sincere, wonderful people, staff and residents. I really found myself caring a lot about them and their stories and struggles. If I never see any of them again, I will never forget them, and I will always consider them more than friends. We were life sharers and life savers for one another.

Medicine Wheels and White Buffalos

2009-02-27T10:20:00.010-06:00

The medicine wheel or sacred hoop, is an important symbol among many First Nations and although they may have some different appearances, colors, markings, etc., they represent the seven directions. These include 'up', 'down' and 'center', which is where we as a part of everything belong if we are in balance.The hoop or circle itself is the boundaries of the world, the cycle of life and death, the seasons, and for many people of the Plains, the Sundance circle. The Lakota and other people use colors symbolizing the directions and the powers of the directions: White, north;yellow, east; black, west; red,south.For an excellent article on the wheel go to, http://www.aktalakota.org/ and search for medicine wheel.

Don Coyhis uses the medicine wheel as a basis for his teaching in the White Bison work. His wheel doesn't look like this ancient petroglyph from Tres Rios, NM. In fact, his wheel reminds me of a colorfully decorated baseball. http://www.whitebison.org/about/images/photo_medwheel.gif

But that doesn't matter. What matters is the teaching about balance; the powers of the sacred hoop bring us into balance if we honor them within ourselves. Without the balance,(mental,north; emotional, south; physical, east; spiritual, west) we have no real health, certainly no sobriety, even if we are abstaining for the moment.

The name of the program, "White Bison", refers to a sacred symbol in the form of the actual animal. In the Lakota traditions, the sacred pipe or 'chanupa' and the teachings about the cermonies for peace and healing associated with the pipe were brought by White Buffalo Calf Woman(Pte Sa Win).

These are vital symbols not only for the Indigenous People of North America, but they are powerful teachings to help restore all of us to health and sanity, if only we would attend to the power found in them. I am not speaking of appropriating the culture or religion of a people from whom virtually everything has been taken. I am not advocating dressg up in beads and feathers to perform 'wannabe'ceremonies. These are insulting and foolish actions taken by many whites who feel a spiritual void within themselves. What I advocate is to learn the teachings, learn from the wisdom and use these teachings to combat the imbalances in our lives. This does not require us to 'play Indian', only to respect and learn from The People as we should learn from the wisdom of all people. Truly we are all one.

White Bison

2009-02-26T15:41:00.004-06:00

The track I participated in most regularly was the Indigenous track, led by my friend Tom Brown of the Lenape (Delaware) Nation. Tom went back to college at age 49, got his BSW and is now working on his MSW. He hopes to open a rehab facility for American Indians and Indian veterans(or maybe all vets). Tom's basic material is called 'White Bison'. This is a 12 step program adapted and developed by Don Coyhis, Mohican Nation. The mission of White Bison, a non-profit organization, is "to assist in bringing 100 Native American communities into healing by 2010." Tom uses a teaching DVD series Don Coyhis made in a couple of correctional institutions in the '90's. Don is a natural teacher and a humorous guy,and the video series is covered by an "Indian Copyright" as he calls it; the series should be shared, given, used to spread healing. I got some good stuff out of his detailed and lucid presentations. I learned about mind-mapping, which we did on the negative effects of drinking. You could also do one on the positive aspects of sobriety(or pretty much anything else-Google 'mind mapping' for examples). I was helped to see that my mind and body work together to keep me conformed to the image or mind picture I have of myself. I realized that even during my long periods of non-drinking(or smoking weed or taking speed or acid etc), I was actually only abstinent, not truly sober. I always maintained a picture of myself as drinker, stoner, partier and I knew that someday I would be getting high again. Now I am working to change that picture and embrace sobriety.
In addition to the video series we were given a book, "The Red Road to Wellbriety" and workbook materials. "Wellbriety means to be sober and well." The Wellbriety movement places an emphasis on community as well as individual and family healing. This is a critical need especially on the rez, but it would have been great in the Polish American neighborhood in which I grew up. I suspect the percentage of alcoholism in the Back of The Yards in Chicago rivalled most resevations, but we had jobs and hope to keep us more functional.
We had movies,(Skins, Smoke Signals, Lakota Woman) on Wednesdays and usually on Fridays we had 'talking circle'. Tom would smudge us with cedar, sage and sweetgrass, waving the smoke over us with an eagle feather. We would receive the blessing by reaching for the smoke and pulling it over our heads and bodies. This ceremony is to free us from negativity and purify our hearts and minds. We then passed the eagle feather, and the one who held it spoke without interruption or comment from the rest of the group. We spoke of whatever was on our minds and for as long as we chose. After each had a chance to speak, we then spoke freely as a group. These were deeply meaningful times for me and the others who participated.
AFR is planning to build a seperate building for the indigenous track so they can practice drumming and singing(Tom has a drum ordered from a Pueblo nation) and inipe or sweat lodge ceremonies without disturbing the other people in the main building. This is a wonderful program open to people of all ethnicities. If you would like to learn more about White Bison check out http://www.whitebison.org

A Much Better High

2009-02-25T19:57:00.006-06:00

Yoga above the clouds
Originally uploaded by carl kalabaw

Junkies, and especially 'needle freaks'(addicts who will inject anything ) have needle scars and collapsed veins or 'tracks'. At AFR there are plenty of those type of tracks so I found it curious that the assorted elective evening programs are called 'tracks'.
The Holistic track is run by an earnest young ex-acid freak who has studied yoga and meditation. I tried one yoga session on a saturday afternoon and kept up with the youngsters pretty well; the next oldest person was 23, only 39 years younger than moi! Alas, I woke up in the middle of the night with the damndest head and back aches. Oh well, so much for the parsva dandasana posture. Fortunately, I healed quickly. Most evenings, Matt leads the group in different types of meditations and I went to those when the Indigenous group watched movies that I had already seen, but on Tuesdays, Buddhist Bob came in to answer questions about Buddhism and to teach us mindfulness meditation. I went to those religiously (little play on words there, he he). Actually, that was one of the first things Bob, a Buddhist priest in his late 60's, addressed with us. Many of the people were surprised that Buddhism is non-theistic and so not a religion in the traditional sense. Bob was so lucid and down to earth that I got as much from his visits as I had from all the books and articles I have read about Buddhism over the years, perhaps more, a living experience. Bob, who also runs meditation groups in a prison in Michigan, embodied the spirit of the bodhisattva for me and I have come home determined to undertake a disciplined meditaion and study practice, not as a 'tool' in my aftercare plan, but because it is the right thing for me to do. Thanks, Bob. If you are interested in learning more about Bob and his work check out http://www.sokukoji.org

Found: Weapons of Mass Destruction - Alcohol ( Artist: Tim Burke )

2009-02-24T21:42:00.003-06:00

Found: Weapons of Mass Destruction - Alcohol ( Artist: Tim Burke )
Originally uploaded by Derek Farr ( DetroitDerek )

So much for the adventure that is bus travel in the good ol' U.S.of A. Now for the wonderful world of alcohol and drug rehabilitation, affectionately known as 'rehab'. I mentioned going to AFR yesterday which is the acronym for A Forever Recovery inpatient rehab center in Battle Creek, Michigan. Most rehabs use AA 12 step exclusively. Many people, myself included are not crazy about AA and don't feel that one size fits all. AFR offers a program called MRT or Moral Reconation Therapy plus five specialized elective tracks: Faith Based, Cognitive Behavioral therapy, Holistic, Indigenous and 12 step Narcotics Anonymous.
MRT was originally used in a correctional facility; it has been studied extensively and has proven very effective at reducing recidivism and relapse. To quote the MRT website," MRT is a process that seeks to raise the moral decision- making strategy of individuals." If you are interested you can check out, www.moral-reconation-therapy.com (and find out what the weird word in the middle means).
Our program started with a 268 question self evaluation inventory. Actually with all the sub questions(a, b, c, etc) it was actually about 1500 questions! They added a dimension to the AA concept, fearless, searching and exhausting. I wrote about 60 pages. It was an invaluable exercise which one I will reread from time to time. We had 16 chapters in the MRT book with written exercises and when we completed those we had to write responses to the 16 steps on the 'freedom ladder'. We then stood in the front of the room and presented those steps aloud to the entire group of about 50. We got questions and challenges from the other clients and the facilitators. We then left the room while the group decided if the step was sincere and complete. If not it had to be rewritten. A few people got REALLY pissed off when their step didn't pass muster. It was intimidating,at least the first time, and usually very humbling. Mostly what I felt was a sincere concern from everyone to help. I felt love and acceptance from this group in a way I almost never had in all my church experiences(which was a lot-another story for other postings perhaps). There were many really moving moments as we poured out our pain and shame, hopes and goals. Tears were shed and wounds were exposed to the healing air. I will never forget this time spent with good, kind, caring people who understood from experience what a hellish prison the obssesion of addiction is for those locked in its grip.

Home again, home again, jiggity jog

2009-02-23T20:05:00.001-06:00

Greyhound Bus Advertisment 1954
Originally uploaded by jackie121467

I am back home after a month in rehab and two days and two nights on the bus. First the bus. A meditative experience at times, but definitely not the conveyance if you want to get a decent night's sleep!
I live in South Dakota, middle of the state and I went to a facility in Michigan and I rode the bus, 24 hours there, but, ah, the return trip was somewhat more eventful. Before you ask, I will tell you. To fly from Sioux Falls, SD to Detroit or Kalamazoo costs a thousand bucks-bus costs 300. 'Nuff said
So I am all happy to have finished the program and I get on the bus and I travel all the live long night. In a bizarre rerun in reverse, the Chicago stop was supposed to be an hour layover but was an hour late, just as when I was going to AFR. We finally got to Minneapolis and the driver told us the bus to Sioux Falls was cancelled! The Greyhound supervisor got the word that the busline we were supposed to transfer to (Jefferson Lines, may their name be accursed!) had not only cancelled the ride but refused to provide lodging, food or even taxi fare to get to lodging! Basically they said, sure you paid, but fuck you guys! Several of us who were stranded got together and checked into a rental car; 278 bucks. One of the guys spent a lot of time on the road for his job and had traveler's points for rooms at LaQuinta Inn so he booked rooms and we got a taxi and five of us spent the night in Minneapolis. Steve, the guy I shared a room with, room is really a great guy from Georgia on his way to Rapid City, SD to visit his son and grandkids. He is an iron construction worker and probably on seasonal lay-off. Turns out he had a hell of an addiction to pills, we like the same kind of movies and had quite a lot in common. We watched stand-up comedy and funny movies all evening, ate pizza and actually had a pretty good time. Art, the guy who got us the rooms puts up cell phone towers for a living and climbs towers hundreds of feet high, and he's 46! He was just laid off but anticipates returning to work in a couple of weeks. I sure hope that happens for him. Fernando, a young black dude, was on his way to Mankato MN to stay in a homeless shelter until he finds a job. Dude had 3 bucks left! Cory, another of the guys is a laid off electrician and a hell of a decent guy. Chris, the sole woman is unemployedand returning to Wyoming from Georgia where she went for a funeral. She had seven dollars left. So three older white guys, two younger black guys and a middle aged woman with no front teeth shared, laughed, survived and became friends. How excellent is that?! We got our bus, talked to each other most of the way and exchanged contact info. And here I am.home, sober and feeling peachy.
More about rehab later.

Time to Take Care of Bidnezz

2009-01-24T08:34:00.002-06:00

I have not posted regularly for a long time so for anyone who has checked in, sorry. I will be going off to rehab for a month and that's a strange and somewhat frightening adventure. Since I started drinking in mt early teens, it has taken a while to get to this point and it is disappointing to think I can't unhook myself from this without help, but there you have it. I will try to write about this in the future. meantime best wishes and keep warm.

Twins, Brindled Gnu 3

2009-01-01T12:36:00.001-06:00

Twins, Brindled Gnu 3
Originally uploaded by Bhubezi-Jake

Happy Gnu Year! Wishing you a productive 2009.

How Much More Trouble Could A Second Dog Be?

2008-12-04T12:05:00.007-06:00

The original Theda bara-not a dog at all

Allie wrote a nifty post about her new doggie and so I decided that, like a proud parent, I will also share my story about Doug and Theda. Theda Bara Dog is the black lab lying on the couch and Douglas Fairbanks Dog(all dogs must be named after old movie stars)is the shaggy guy sitting on the floor.

And here is Douglas Fairbanks Sr. Not Doug's dad.

As I was saying. Or was I...? Theda came to live with us when we had three acres in the country in Michigan and expected to live there forever, so a great big lab would be just super!! Hmmm.
When we moved to SD, we had to buy a house because no one here would rent to us with a dog and two cats. When we realized how much time Theda would be alone when we work on weekends, and her with pretty extreme separation anxiety and all, we decided she needed a doggy companion. We had a back yard and spent a bundle getting it fenced in, and after all, how much trouble could a second dog be?
We went to the closest animal shelter, Sioux Falls, 150 miles away, and tried out a few pooches. Too many beautiful doggies for an easy choice, but there always are too many sweet critters in shelters. Anyway, we kept going back to Doug, who was living under the nom de guerre, 'Albert'. He was cute, soft, fuzzy, friendly and he didn't pull on the leash-a big plus since Theda pulls like a plow horse. We took the friendly guy home and he promptly terrified Theda, chasing her around the yard, nipping at her legs and working to establish himself as cock o' the walk, so to speak. Alpha male really. That lasted for maybe 24 hours when Theda realized that she was a good 25 pounds heavier(no fat) and had bone crushing jaw strength compared to Doug's marshmallow crushing jaws. Our incredibly friendly and gentle Theda has been flipping him over and kicking his 50 pound ass ever since. Doug has become her favorite chew toy and for a while we had trouble keeping his collar on as she apparently enjoyed ripping it off his neck. She also gnawed his rabies shot tag to bits. And it was metal.
While there is considerable rivalry for affection at times, with noses thrust roughly in between petting hands and petted heads, they seem to have grown quite attached, even when Theda is not clamped onto Doug's throat.

Oh, how much trouble could a second dog be? Anyone with two large dogs was smirking at me from the beginning. I will just say, Doug has learned to pull on the leash, I picked up at least 15 pounds of crap in the yard Monday, being with Doug has not cured Theda's separation anxiety as made evident by her habit of chewing the siding off our garage. Oh, and Doug, unlike Theda, runs away if we let him off the leash. Cest la vi, its all for love, nec'st pas?

"We HATES dem both" Artemis le Chat

Huh, tagged am I?

2008-12-02T17:42:00.010-06:00

As it turns out, Aliie of Allie's Answers has tagged me with a tell seven things meme. Never having done one and since Allie is two of my favorite blogs(she also writes Incidents and Accidents) I shall do this thing.

Here are the rules for ’social-networking’ tag:

Link to the person who tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Share seven things about yourself - some random, some weird.
Tag seven people at the end of your post and link to them.
Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog and/or Twitter.
Let the tagger know when your entry is posted.

Seven Super Secrets Regarding Me:

1. When I was a kid we used to get fruit from a horse drawn wagon in Chicago.
2. I,too, was a lousy student in high school. I graduated in the bottom 1/4 of my class, but I graduated cum laude from university.
3. I moved from South Dakota to live on a tropical island for two years. Then I moved to Minnesota. Call me a masochist.
4 I have lived in seven different states(but moved back to two of them once more so all told moved to nine states), a US territory and one foreign country. I have never been in the military and I lived in the same state until I was thirty.
5. Since graduating from college I have been a teacher, an ordained minister, a social worker(case manager for folks with developmental disabilities), a counseling supervisor in a domestic violence shelter and I am currently a house parent at a boarding school for Native Americans.
6. My goal for my future is to live on a commune(check out the website of the Federation of Egalitarian Communities, www.thefec.org and guess which one I am going to do a membership visit to in July).
7. I was profoundly affected by the Jefferson Airplane's song 'Crown of Creation'; especially the line "Life is change, how it differs from the rocks.."

I am tagging
Young Girl Old Life
Sorghumco
Musings Of A Minor Mennonite
Chicken Blog
Chile Chews
Arduous Blog
Fr.Peters Environmental Notes

Single Wide Thanksgiving

2008-12-01T11:20:00.001-06:00

TRAILER PARK CHRISTMAS
Originally uploaded by louisbickett

We are "internal expatriates", though there technically is no such thing. We moved from our home state to South Dakota, which is dramatically different in its geography is not exactly a foreign country. In fact, we are still in the "Midwest" since we live on the east side of the Missouri River. Whoever made these rules deemed that THE WEST, starts west of the river.
Anyway, we are pretty far from family and friends and so are quite a few of the people we work with. A fairly large number of us come from Michigan. One such couple recently moved from their apartment to a single wide trailer with their three year old son. They decided to host all the 'foreigners' for Thanksgiving dinner. About 25 of us all told. In a single wide mobile home(plus their two new puppies and their pet sugar glider from Australia). It was not feasible to drive back to Michigan on our three day break, and we really like the people we work with, so we were delighted to be invited. I made a big pot of curry, to spice up the traditional fare. We had more food than 25 of us could possibly consume, and it was delicious. We were crowded but cozy. Clair and I were regaled with stories from one of our colleagues who has been an anthropological forensics person and doesn't seem to have a serious bone in his head. It was really wonderful fun and one of the best Thanksgivings I have had in years. There are way too many people in America ready to look down their noses at people who live in "trailer parks'. But here we were, having a wonderful time with gracious, generous, intelligent and amusing people. It is always amazing how much joy you can create with a tiny space, some folding tables, food and genuine hospitality. I give thanks for the generosity and kindness of Aaron and Melissa.

Tang you, tang you(Lawrence Welk)

2008-11-27T19:17:00.004-06:00

OKAY< I haven't been here for quite some time. If anyone is still checking in, I will try to be more consistent with some postings. It has been a struggle these past few weeks because, well, just because. We, my beloved partner and I, have taken on the task of being surrogate parents to a group of nine Native American adolescents. They are really sweet girls, for the most part. BUT--- living with 14 year old girls is challenging at best. When you add some of the issues that most Native American kids have, the messed up influence of American consumerist mentality, the pressure of doing well in a fairly alien high school environment, we have issues. But I am doing much better. The girls? Its a mixed bag as they used to say. Some are becoming quite successful at functioning in mainstream America. And isn't that all we ever wanted for our primitive, brown skinned brethren? Seriously, it is a painful thing to think that the only way for these kids to thrive is to accept the really screwed up values that have made our society the mess it is today.
My ambivalent attitude is what has given me trouble in my mind and in writing.
Articulating the struggle may be of value to me and of interest to you. I'll be back with more soon.

HOORAY!

2008-11-05T11:11:00.001-06:00

Barack Obama Hope Sticker
Originally uploaded by PEEL

It has been a hell of a long time since I have felt this positive about my country and the future of America. I know that no politician can solve all the problems and things may get worse, probably will before they improve. But this is a great day in the US!

Trapped inside mY own [[SELF]]

2008-10-15T12:30:00.002-05:00

Trapped inside mY own [[SELF]]
Originally uploaded by Tђβℓ-ωŕdэϊ [[F.e.m.a.l.e]]=P

This is how I have felt. Not only trapped inside but trapped BY my own self.

WWJD? WWBCWD?

2008-09-19T14:27:00.003-05:00

Although a lot of people laugh at the old, What Would Jesus Do? thing, it is really not a bad way to examine an option. I would also ask, What would SakyaMuni Do?. Add your own favorite wise and or holy guy or girl. What would White Buffalo Calf Woman do? How about St Claire?
Anyway, many winters ago, when I was in seminary, studying the Gospels to beat the band, I got re-radicalized. I read about how the lillies of the field and the birds of the air were in better shape than us and how we shouldn't worry about what we eat or wear. Of course, JC was an apocalyptic preacher saying that the Kingdom of God was about to be ushered in before their very eyes. At least that's what it says in some parts of the Gospels. In another place however, he admonished everyone to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned. Short term actions or way to pattern a righteous life? And how about that lay not up gold and silver stuff. Man, did Christians ever toss that one out the window faster than a 16 year old boy can shtoop! So, if we aren't going to save up and we aren't going to worry about eats and threads, how we gonna survive? In the Book of Acts(Gospel of Luke part 2) the early Jewish followers "had nothing they called their own, but shared all things". In other words, they lived communally. The pattern didn't take, and of course Jesus didn't specifically say, 'form communes', but throughout the Christian writings are the calls to love one another and care for one another. And when Jesus described the life actions that got the sheep into the Kingdom, he didn't say,'pray for the sick and the hungry', he said, visit, feed, clothe. Pretty practical stuff. How best to care for one another? Through capitalistic consumerism and trickle down wealth right? I rather think not. I believe those early followers had it correct. You throw in your lot together, you actually share livelihoods and living spaces and clothing and food. And what you have left over, you give to them what aint got enough!
Is that going to get you into heaven? Who knows, if by heaven one means some ethereal after-life in the presence of the Great Mystery. Who cares? Wouldn't it be heavenly if we didn't have babies starving and people gouging out each other's throats for some crappy McMansion on a hill? A life of peace, sharing and enough for all- that sounds like the Kingdom to me. SO-how we gonna do this? More to come.

the evill 3 C's

2008-09-18T17:02:00.006-05:00

I have been reading Annie Proulx lately. If you have not read Shipping News, do so. It is one of the best works of fiction I have ever read. No wonder it won the Pulitzer. The language, the characters, the story-all amazingly transporting. Ultimately it is an uplifting story. One can not say the same for her short story collections, from which came the inspiration for the movie, Brokeback Mountain. Her Wyoming stories are unremittingly bleak. They are filled with amazing writing, word pictures, characters, stories but damned bleak!

One lesson I learn from great writers, over and over again, is how remarkably difficult it is to craft even a paragraph of excellent writing.

On to the trickster. What I have been learning in my few months as houseparent at a boarding school for Lakota children is that I am dismally unhappy working to prepare kids for a society I find repugnant. Our society, our culture, is devoted to consumerism, competition and conformity. The evil 3 C's. Actually, they aren't evil in the sense of conciously seeking to actively harm anyone. They are simply real life in the society in which we live. I have NEVER felt that this was my culture. Games should be for fun, not crushing the other team. How much more would we prosper if businesses worked to actually provide for the needs of all? Naieve, yes, and proudly so! Alien is exactly how I have always felt and in spite of my adaptability, life in this culture, capatalist, consumerist, competitive, has been weird(note my "C" theme?) I want out! I want to live with people who see that this mainstream culture is fucked up. I don't think that I can change the world on my own, but I hope I can find a way to live in a counter, let me say again, COUNTER cultural way and make my own little mark against the dehumanizing and grotesque distortion that is what we see in virtually every nook and cranny of our United States life. More on how I plan to do this later.

The Trickster Stirring

2008-09-02T21:57:00.002-05:00

In all of the American Indian truth stories that I know of there is a sometimes wise,
sometimes foolish and sometimes destructive 'trickster'. This figure is raven to some, coyote to many, Iktomi the spider to Lakota, but always wild and unpredictable. The trickster teaches in ways we often do not welcome. The trickster is at work in my heart and mind. I may not write for a while. I'll wait for trickster to finish.

YEEHAW, a day off!

2008-08-23T13:36:00.006-05:00

Our first week as full time house parents was, first of all, looong. The girls started arriving last Sunday and we picked up the ninth resident last night on the way to a concert. The tenth and final girl comes Sunday. Ten beds, ten girls, full house. We had four volleyball athletes to drive to practice every morning (6:30 AM skills test wednesday- we were up at 5:30). We had kids home all day so our six days on were 16 hour days. Whew. Of course a lot of times the girls are out and about and doing what they like, they are ninth graders, but it isn't like relaxing at home. There is a lot to do and to plan for, phones to answer, paperwork to complete, groceries to buy and meals to prepareetc, and so on. We are in charge of organising the house routines(wake up time, homework and cleaning time, and so on) and instilling and enforcing the rules(curfews, bedtimes, computer use, chores, and so on). We all know how much adolescents love rules! But they have been doing pretty well. School starts Monday and with that comes an hour and a half of reading and homework five nights a week. AAGGGHHH! "I don't haaaave any homework". Oh well, an hour and a half of reading time - a fate worse than death! We have a few girls who really enjoy reading so it may be easier than I am thinking. But this is where the real impact is to be. Can the girls maintain the academic standard they had when they were in grade school now that they are going to the high school in town? It isn't unusual for even good students to drop a full grade point when they do the switch. Our job is to do everything possible to help them succeed. It can't be done without a calm disciplined study environment at home, and that is a big chunk of our job. Another chunk is to help the students learn life skills, cooking, cleaning functioning responsibly within reasonable perameters. Sort of what every parent wants to help their kid develop. If we succeed in helping the girls in our care to get decent grades and mature as caring young adults it will be worth the hard work. If you are interested in learning more about the school we work for and the students we serve you can check out http://www.stjo.org/
It is a really cool website with lots of color and pictures, Lakota vocabulary and cultural information.

Our first wacipi in South Dakota

2008-08-17T08:34:00.004-05:00

Better known as 'pow wow'. We went to the Crow Creek wacipi('dance' in Lakota), the first we have been to since moving to South Dakota. We had indian tacos(of course). which were pretty good. We got to talk to two of the students from St Joseph's and learned that one of the girls isn't coming back-bummer. We startled the other student but it was fun to see her. Another girl from St Joseph's danced in the jingle dress special and took second for teens. ""
We haven't met her yet but know her from the poster for St Joe's wacipi in September, the school's 32nd! She is fancy shawl dancing in the poster pic. I will see if I can get that on the blog. The picture is not from Crow Creek Wacipi because Claire hasn't put them online yet and I don't know how to do it, but this gives you a little idea of what the jingle dress regalia looks like. The jingles are metal cones sewn onto the dress. Some of the dresses are real works of art.

We also watched Miss Crow Creek of 2007 and two other girls hoop dance. Miss CC was spectacular!
"
This, as you can see is a painting of male hoop dancers. Claire and I had never seen female hoop dancers before and they were excellent. If you have never seen hoop dancing, it is really ammazing with the dancers working their small, flexible hoops into fascinating forms while dancing. If you ever get a chance to go to a powwow, take it. Everyone is welcome and although their is prayer at the beginning it is a social event, not a religious ceremony. For more info you can go to the Gathering of Nations website and find some brief instruction on courtesy at a pow wow.

Did You Know

2008-08-10T10:13:00.009-05:00

Did you know that there were more Congressional Medals of Honor given out for the Massacre at Wounded Knee Creek than for any other single engagement in US history? Twenty medals were awarded for that action. Spotted Elk and his followers were running for their lives in frigid winter temperatures trying to reach Red Cloud at Pine Ridge following the murder of Sitting Bull. They were captured by the Seventh Cavalry and forced to camp suerrounded by Hotchkiss guns and troopers. The army decided they wanted to disarm the band of the few weapons they might still have. A shot was fired, no one knows with certainty by whom, and the gallant forces of the Seventh Cavalry began firing. Since they surrounded the people, most of the 25soldiers killed and 45 wounded were struck by their own shrapnel and bullets. These bold fellows slaughtered at least 200 hundred and possibly closer to four hundred mostly elderly men, women and children. You can go to this site for a lot more informatin and to sign a petition to rescind those medals.
http://www.dickshovel.com/RescindMedals.html

This is actually the gate to the mass grave. When it came time to deal with the bodies of the people that the army had slaughtered in the sub-zero weather of Dec 29, 1890 it seemed expedient to them to dig a trench and dispose of them like so much rubbish.

I feel that the continued honor of this brutal murder of freezing, sick, starving people is a national disgrace.

Yes, I have my shoes now. [1]

2008-08-08T07:44:00.001-05:00

Yes, I have my shoes now. [1]
Originally uploaded by Ana K A

But no thanks to every eco-friendly, fair trade,hemp and recyclable material using shoe outfit that I could find on the internet. Oh there are plenty of them out there. And they even have some shoes that don't cost like they have platinum insoles. What they DONT have are any in my size. Every stinkin' tree hugger in the bunch only carries shoes up to size 13. Now, I really need 13 and a half, but only europeans seem to consider that people with feet bigger than size 11 may need half sizes. Bui I can go to any shoe store on the web or in the country and find an assortment of shoes in 14. What? Green folk never have big feet?? If we bigfoots are common enough to make it worthwhile for The Cheapshit shoe company to make them, why not Simple Shoes?
I finally found a pair of canvas and rubber slip-ons like we used to wear when we were kids for $34.00, but I said, "Super size it!". And they fit.

Back To School

2008-08-02T12:10:00.002-05:00

We aren't going back to school, of course, but the kids we work with will be. August 17th the houses open and the kids return. YAY! We start Monday with a week of new employee orientation and then a week of ALL employee orientation. We will be certifying for CPR, first aid, defensive driving, we will receive training on working with the kids, organizing our house and all sorts of stuff. 80 hours worth of stuff, aaaaggggghhhhh! Actually, we are looking forward to a lot of it, but the first aid, cpr and driving we have done so many times and it is usually SOOOOO boring. I sound like one of the high school kids now.
Best of all, we are only working one house! We are what is known as 6 day houseparents; we work six days then we are off three and our alternates cover for us. Since we don't have to do the alternate year, we get to set up the house rules and routines the way we feel is best. Of course we have to follow the rules and guidelines set out for houseparents and students, but within those parameters we have some leeway. And we don't have to listen to, "But THEY let us do it!" HA, we get to be the THEY.

The Namesakes

2008-07-27T18:13:00.003-05:00

Douglas Fairbanks as Sinbad

Theda Bara vamping as Cleopatra

One More

2008-07-27T17:07:00.004-05:00

We have a black lab pal named Theda Bara we rescued from a shelter in Michigan last year. We almost didn't find her(like lots of stories in life). I trapped a feral cat that was killing birds at our feeder and took it to the Alleghan County Humane Society. Since we were there I said, famous last words, 'Let's just look at the dogs.' We saw two dogs we liked and since it was a holiday weekend we decided to talk it over for a couple of days. We decided on Grover, a great looking, friendly black lab. Alas when I called on Monday, he was spoken for, BUT, the lady said they had a younger female lab and I could come see her if I liked. I asked her to hold the pooch and headed right over. Man, was it ever love at first sight! So we have a great friend.
Then the quandary. Our new jobs require that we be at work from two in the afternoon until about 9 AM the next morning. On weekends, we have to be there 24 hours a day. Now, we sleep, eat, read, watch tv, visit with the kids and all so we are happy about it, but what about the poor pooch? We had the back yard fenced so she has plenty of room, but what loneliness would the poor beastie suffer? Well, after agonizing over the decision since May, we went to the shelter and brought Douglas Fairbanks(aka Doug the Dawg)home. Doug is a border collie, black lab mix and he's friendly, affectionate, walks really well on a leash and is busily asserting his dominance in the doggie relationship, damned chauvinist pig, er, dog!
They seem to be doing well and I have faith that these two will enjoy each other's company through the long, cold, lonely, SD winter(and late summer, fall, etc).
Oh, and we have one more week before returning to work. So two one mores.

Akta Lakota?

2008-07-21T20:48:00.005-05:00

"Just like us!" Hotchkiss leaned over and slammed the butt of his rifle against Cuthbert's head. "Not hardly."
"You are right," said Asiginak in Ojibwe. "You are a madness on this earth."

The Plague of Doves Louise Erdrich

Akta Lakota means 'honor the people' and the question for me is, does the 'Crazy Horse' monument do that?
Claire and I did pony up the twenty bucks for admission to the Crazy Horse monument site, although this thing is so huge you can see it almost as well on the highway leading into the town of Custer for free. We toured the Native American Heritage Center at the monument site and it was well done with many beautiful artifacts and Native American artists/craftspeople on site. We watched the film about the history of the project and ooed and aahhed at the night explosions from the 60th anniversary celebration. I was very impressed at the hard work and sacrifice of Korczak Ziolkowski, the sculptor. This project was initiated by Lakota elders; Henry Standing Bear and several other elders approached Ziolkowski in 1948 to undertake a mountain sculpture that would honor the Native Peoples to whom these Hills rightly belong, according to treaty and federal court decision. An interesting thing about the film is that its as much about Ziolkowski and his family as it is about the project. So is the rest of the place, featuring his work, his home etc. Not that they aren't interesting and all, but this almost seems like the Korczak Ziolkowski monument.
I know that lots of Native Americans feel great pride in this monument and that's a good thing. But if justice had been done from the beginning, they wouldn't need a disfigured mountain, spectacular though it may be. They would have the mountain and all the land surrounding this for hundreds of miles in its natural beauty.
Many Indians do not believe in this project. No surprise, most big projects have their supporters and their detractors. Here is an excerpt from an article which appeared in the newspaper, Indian Country Today

Crazy Horse Memorial: a bitter legacy for Lakota
by Tim Ogia
The traditional and spiritual people of the Lakota look upon the carving of the Crazy Horse Memorial as a desecration of their sacred lands. To them, it is like defiling Mecca, the Holy Land, or the Vatican. Such was not the case in 1948 when Henry Standing Bear believed all was lost. A new generation had yet to rise.

Crazy Horse, the magnificent warrior of the Lakota, was an Oglala like me. He never put his name on a treaty. He never sold out. He, it was said, never allowed his picture to be taken. He would never have allowed his face to be carved upon the side of a mountain in the beautiful hills he held sacred.

Charlotte Black Elk, the great-great-granddaughter of Black Elk (of the Black Elk Speaks fame) is bitterly against the carving. Oliver Red Cloud, the great-great-grandson of Chief Red Cloud, has spoken out strongly against the carving. He has said he truly believes it will not be completed because Wakan Tanka (the Great Spirit) will never allow it to happen.

Lakota anthropologist Beatrice Medicine of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the tribe of Sitting Bull, is also vehemently opposed to the statue. She believes the mountain is more of a tribute to the sculptor than to the Indian. She calls the carving "a sacrilege that mars the beauty of the sacred Black Hills."

Avis Little Eagle, editor of Indian Country Today, denounced the carving as a "monument of exploitation." She wrote, "Many promises were made to the Lakota when Korczak began carving in 1948, but few of them have been kept."

The national media and even some publications that profess to be published for the benefit of the American Indian have climbed on the bandwagon to praise Ziolkowski's widow for her determined effort to continue the pursuit of her husband's dream. But nearly all of the traditional Lakota believe the promises made to them for a great Indian university and medical center will never be fulfilled. To Ziolkowski they were a dream, and to many Lakota they will always be just that, a dream.

We Lakota have heard white men make promises for 200 years, and we have also seen those promises turn into huge money-making projects. The white man made the money, and the Lakota were left with the promises. Such is the legacy of the Crazy Horse Memorial.

The Monument;or Mutilating Mountains

2008-07-19T23:04:00.007-05:00

"Everything we see belongs to us."

'Dear John Wayne'

Louise Erdrich

Everybody in the USA has seen a picture of the presidents carved into Six Grandfathers ,as it was known to the Lakota, or Mt Rushmore, in the Black Hills of South Dakota. There is no denying that these are impressive sculptures on a truly grand scale. And seeing these statues is bound to evoke powerful feelings, akin to a religious experience for many "true Americans". What was the motivation for this monumental sculpture? Patriotism? A desire to rub the Indian's face in our power?

Nah.

"--it would put South Dakota on the map."
" Many South Dakotans believed that a colossal sculpture would attract thousands of visitors with heavy wallets."
"Historian Doane Robinson conceived the idea for Mount Rushmore in 1923 to promote tourism in South Dakota." Wikipedia
That's right, friends, this "Monument to Liberty" was conceived as a tourist attraction. And like most 'patriot' tourist traps in this country hungry for connection to a mythical heroic past, hungry for 'feel good' emotions, it has been incredibly successful. People weep here. Right wingers have orgasms.
You may have noticed that the picture we took of the monument is only GW in profile. There was no way I would pay 20 or 30 bucks to hear all about what it took to deface Mt Eyesore.
Seriously, when you see the sculptures as you are driving, they are quite the work.
My problem is the same one the conservationists had in 1925 when the project was debated in congress, pretty much the same as the Lakota; why deface Maka Inca like this?
Remember, this was Lakota land, declared in a treaty(Laramie Treaty 1868) and found to have been wrongfully taken by a federal court. So we carve white guys in it? The Lakota had a particular horror of digging into Maka Inca, Mother Earth, so for a tourist attraction we bend the Lakota, Cheyenne and all other indigenous peoples who hold these hills sacred over a barrel and stick it up their wazoo?
It could have been worse. They could have carved Custer, Chivington, and Sheridan up there. But how about the faces they did put on the "Monument to Liberty" GW, TJ and AL are shoe-ins,right? Consider, GW and TJ were slave owners and we KNOW Jefferson raped at least one of his slaves. But Abe was the Great Emancipator, no?
Here is what Abe had to say about that:
"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume V, "Letter to Horace Greeley" (August 22, 1862), p. 388

Abe also said:
"I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races - that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume III, "Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois" (September 18, 1858), pp. 145-146.
Probably in tune with his times, but his purpose was to maintain the empire, not to preserve liberty.
TR, as the first conservationist, would likely be apalled at seeing the mountain defaced.
I recommend you read "Skins" by Adrian C. Louis
tomorrow- Crazy Horse monument

Black Hills II(Typical Travelogue)

2008-07-18T11:11:00.014-05:00

We had a little chat with some wild donkeys while we were visiting Custer State Park. We were obedient little visitors and didn't feed them, but these two decided to check us out anyway.
This is a gorgeous park with breathtaking mountain views,

spectaular rock formations called 'needles'(yes, that's a climber)

and wonderfully perfumed air from the spruce forests. The Lakota called these Paha Sapa, Black Hills, because they are so thickly covered in the dark blanket of the Black Hills Spruce that from a distance the slopes appear black. And besides,'Dark Green Hills' just doesn't have the same poetic ring to it. A seven year drought ended this spring with great gobs of rain, and the Hills are as green as spring with the soft, lush, sparkly look one sees in May. There are a couple of lakes in the park

as well and miles of old logging roads where you can enjoy beautiful views and forget that you are in a fairly crowded park.

We got to see a big horn sheep way up in the rocks, a small herd of bison, a couple of pronghorn antelope, and many deer. Although deer are common where we come from, we saw at least forty in one day, several with good size racks. And they seemed very calm, as if they know they are in a protected area.
We didn't camp, but having seen some of the camp sites we are going to get a tent and some equipment. We are also going to get some suggestions from people we work with on good spots to camp on the plains closer to home.
As I mentioned yesterday, the Paha Sapa are sacred to the Lakota. It is glib and cliched to go on about how one feels "closer to god" in nature settings, blah blah. But we went up to Cathedral Spires at dusk, the moon had just risen and I really felt the power of this beautiful place in a way that is hard to write about.

Paha Sapa:Not your typical travelogue

2008-07-17T16:44:00.006-05:00

Paha Sapa, the Black Hills are so very beautiful! One can understand why the Lakota are still struggling to get at least part of them back.
In case you didn't know, the US government promised not to ever, ever steal the Black Hills in the Laramie treaty of 1868. OOPS, we lied. When Custer's expedition of 1874 brought back news that gold was to be found at the "grassroots level" well, no stopping those rascally miners, ya know. So we HAD to steal Paha Sapa in order to protect those miners, outfitters, gamblers, prostitutes, etc from the savages. In 1877 a small percentage of "Sioux" were coerced into signing paper ceding the Black Hills to the US. A federal judge later commented that "A more ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealing will never, in all probability, be found in our history." In 1980 the Supreme Court found for the Lakota and awarded $106 million (the equivalent of 17.5 million in 1877 dollars)for "A taking of tribal property". Of course the court did not take into account the billions of dollars in gold, tin and other natural resources taken from the Hills so that what they were offering was a pittance compared to what white people have realized from Paha Sapa. Remarkably, some of the poorest people in the US refused the dough! They said they would rather have the federally held land in the Paha Sapa, please. According to many, the issue is spiritual. Paha Sapa was never for sale, it is a sacred place and so they would prefer that the land that was theirs to begin with be returned as much as possible. The government said not on yer freakin' lives! So it goes. The settlement is currently worth about half a billion dollars and there are lawyers calling meetings with very poor Lakota to encourage them to claim the settlement money. Of corse they aren't working pro bono in this, and so it goes. White folks never get tired of screwing Native Peoples. More later and I promise, less bitter.

A Trip!

2008-07-14T09:21:00.003-05:00

We are off to see Paha Sapa(Black Hills). Have to go through Custer(cursed be his name)National Park and hope to send evil vibes to the Mt Rushmore desecration. Looking forward to seeing the fabled sacred hills and offering prayer there. Pictures upon return. YAY road trip!

To Promise With

2008-07-11T17:35:00.006-05:00

That's what the Latin etymological meaning of compromise is, "to promise with". Of course we know that it means agreeing to give up or 'flex' on something you value to get something else you value in the bargain. Politicians trading off on aspects of a piece of legislation is probably one of the more common examples. Arduous http://arduousblog.blogspot.com/ wrote an excellent post about compromising some of her green values for the sake of good relationships.
I have been in a discussion with Shawn on his Tribe site http://www.lofitribe.com/ about voting. Here's the jist of it. He has decided in a very Anabaptist-traditional way, to not vote in the presidential(and I assume any other) election, because none of the candidates will govern according to "Kingdom principles". When pressed as to who decided what those principles are and how they would be applied, he stated that they are clearly presented in "Matthew 5ff" in a manner that does not allow for compromise. His reference to the Sermon On The Mount includes the injunction to "pluck out your eye if it offends thee", that is if you look lustfully at another person. Is that mere Hebraic hyperbole, or was Jesus giving a serious command? Who decides? Shawn hasn't addressed that yet, I don't think he will. My question was and is, if you can't find perfection is it appropriate to withdraw from responsibilities?
For example, if Arduous went to her mother's house and her mom purchased all non-local food to prepare dinner, is it appropriate for Arduous to refuse to eat, thereby abnegating her responsibility to honor her mother? If I can't find organically grown veggies at market, do I quit eating veggies, tossing aside my personal responsibilty to strive for healthy eating habits?
I remember reading about, and even speaking to, people who didn't like Bush, but they also didn't like Kerry-so they didn't vote at all. See where THAT got us!
Of course these are not examples of choices that compromise perceived religious principle, but when religious principle and civic responsibility seem to be at odds, what does one do? Note I am not simply saying obedience to law; the Anabaptists were right to violate the prohibitions against adult baptism and preaching beliefs that differed from the state church. These were strictly religious matters and subject to 'higher authority' as the saying goes.
But do Jehovah's Witnesses have the right to withhold potentially lifesaving blood transfusions from their children because of religious beliefs? Do we have a responsibility as citizens to vote, even if it seems to clash with some religious vision of the way things oughta be?
How much compromise is acceptable? Where would you draw the line in the dirt?
If you are interested in a stark but beautiful portrayal of this question lived out, read Silence by Shusako Endo.

What to Do With These

2008-07-09T14:11:00.001-05:00

Parallel Dreams
Originally uploaded by Meloses (Ladida)

Normally, I don't remember my dreams. When I do remember anything they don't make a lot of sense, like most people's dreams. The last three nights I have had these dreams:
Sunday night I dreamt I was African American. I have NEVER dreamt such a thing before and it was neither good nor bad-that's all I remember.

Monday night I dreamt that I was watching a couple of guys load a truck with beadworked leather garments and dozens of feathered "war" bonnets aas well as other beautiful items that would have been and still are precious to Native Nations of the plains. They were handling these things very roughly. I asked a man who was Lakota who was also watching if it bothered him to see items that were always precious if not sacred to the people handled with so little respect. The dream ended.

Last night I dreamed that I was talking to the pastor of a very large African-American church who had invited me to bring my tiny congregation(a church 'mission')
to his church and then preach a sermon for his congregation. In the dream I was both a new church pastor and a fraud, pretending to have a small church start. The rest of the dream was about planning the sermon. I was struck by an image of a church in a cave or at the foot of a live volcanoe, I was going to build that image into how I felt about living with God, the explosive, powerful, and unknown God.
This was an amazingly detailed,and stimulating dream.

Now, if I haven't totally bored you to tears, let me say that these may well be images from my thoughts recently. I have been thinking a lot about racism(note the July 4th post). I always think a lot about Native Americans, but even more so recently since we are visiting Paha Sapa(Black Hills) next week-more on that later.
I have been reading about religious or spiritual development the last few weeks. Also, I was a new church pastor a long time ago, with a congregation of twenty when I started and 60 some when I left 2 years later.

In the Biblical and American Indian cultures dreams were given serious attention. I feel as if I should be paying attention now, and I guess writing this is a way to do that. Any thoughts at all on this?

A Little Hutterite History

2008-07-05T14:46:00.004-05:00

My 4th of July post would infuriate many US citizens. At least white US citizens. So I thought a post about some white folks might be in order. Since I have been writing about Hutterites for a few days, I wanted to share this from The Plough http://www.plough.com/index.html.
Excerpted from "Hell, Healing, and Resistance"

Daniel Hallock

Of all the accounts of resistance during the First World War, there are few more harrowing than the story of the four Hutterites who were imprisoned in Fort Leavenworth in 1918.

Howard Moore (who met the four men while imprisoned in Fort Leavenworth) writes:

What could be more natural than that their leaders should look to America, the land of the free, a land that had been founded on the principle of individual liberty of conscience, a land settled by men who had fled from the four corners of the earth to escape religious persecution and, having settled, still welcomed all who wished to come to this continent to practice, free from persecution, their religious faith?

By 1874, most of the Hutterites had moved to South Dakota and begun new communities, or “colonies.” For forty-five years they lived in relative peace. But that peace was shattered by Wilson’s Conscription Act, and by the summer of 1918, four Hutterites living in South Dakota had been drafted into the Army against their will. Joseph, Michael, and David Hofer were blood-brothers. Together with a brother-in-law, Jacob Wipf, they were ordered to report to Camp Lewis, Washington, on May 25. Because they objected to military service on grounds of conscience, however, they refused to cooperate with even the basic induction procedures, and were thus considered to be military prisoners subject to military discipline. Persecution began immediately. Already on the train ride to the camp, another group of young men on their way to induction had grabbed the four Hutterites and tried to cut off their hair and their beards.

Upon arrival, they refused to promise obedience to military commands, to stand in formation, or to put on the uniforms given to them. For this, they were thrown into a “guardhouse,” where they were kept for two months before being court-martialed and sentenced to thirty-seven years in military prison. Following their court-martial they were transferred, with hands and feet shackled, to Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay. There they were forcibly stripped and commanded to dress in military uniforms. When they refused, they were taken to a dungeon where water trickled down the slimy walls and out over the bare rock floor. The darkness, cold, and stench were overpowering. Their uniforms were thrown down next to them, and they were told: “If you don’t give in, you’ll stay here till you die, like the four we dragged out of here yesterday!”

Shivering in their underwear, the prisoners were forced to sleep on the cold, damp floor without blankets. During the first four-and-a-half days, they were given nothing to eat and received only a half glass of water every twenty-four hours. Then, for the next two days, their hands were chained to iron rods above their heads so that their feet barely touched the floor. They were beaten with sticks, and Michael passed out. All the same, they were separated from one another so as to prevent communication; David later heard Jacob crying out: “Oh, have mercy, almighty God!”

When the men were brought up from the dungeon into a yard containing other prisoners, they had severe eczema and scurvy and had been badly bitten by insects; their arms were so swollen that they were unable to put on their coats. Altogether, they had not eaten for six days. They were finally fed but then were returned to their cells and locked in for twenty-four hours a day, apart from a single hour on Sundays when they were allowed to stand in the courtyard under heavy guard. They endured this treatment for four months until they were chained once again for the four-day journey east to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. They arrived in Kansas at eleven o’clock at night and were driven through the streets like pigs, prodded by shouting guards with open bayonets; they fumbled to retain the Bible, bag, and pair of shoes each had been given to hold in his manacled hands.

After being forced to run uphill to the prison gates, they were made to undress in the raw winter air and kept waiting, soaked in sweat, for their prison garb to be brought out. For two hours they shivered naked in the wind; by the time their clothes arrived, around 1:30 a.m., they were chilled to the bone. At 5:00 a.m. they were brought outside again and forced to stand in the cold wind. Joseph and Michael collapsed in pain and were taken to the infirmary. Jacob and David stood fast but refused to join a work detail and so were put in solitary confinement. Their hands were stretched through iron bars and chained together, and they were forced to stand in this position for nine hours each day, with only bread and water for nourishment. After two weeks, they began to receive occasional meals.

Jacob Wipf managed to send a telegram to their wives, and they traveled immediately to Leavenworth. They started out from their homes at night, leaving their small children behind them. But a railroad agent mistakenly gave them tickets to the wrong station, causing a delay of an entire day, so that when the women finally arrived at Leavenworth around 11:00 p.m., they found their husbands close to death and barely able to speak. By the following morning, Joseph Hofer was dead.

His wife Maria was told his body had already been placed in the coffin and could no longer be viewed, but she was persistent and pushed past the guards to the commanding officer, pleading for permission to see her husband once more. Her request was granted, but she was not prepared for what she found: through her tears, she suddenly realized that the lifeless body of her beloved husband had been dressed in military uniform. Joseph had been faithful to the last, and now he was mocked in death.

Michael Hofer died only days later; at the insistence of his father he was allowed to lie in his own clothes. Immediately following Michael’s death, David Hofer was brought back to his cell and chained to the bars, unable to wipe away the tears that streamed down his face for the whole day. The next morning, with the help of a willing guard, David relayed a message to the commanding officer, requesting that he might be placed in a cell closer to Jacob Wipf. The guard returned an hour later and told David to pack up his things for immediate release.

David was at first incredulous, but left a brief message for Jacob and prepared to go. It is not clear what prompted this unexpected and sudden release, but it is probable that rumors of his brothers’ deaths were beginning to leak out, and the prison was worried that they would become martyrs in the public eye. Soon after, on December 6, 1918, the Secretary of War issued an order prohibiting handcuffing, chaining, and the otherwise brutal punishment of military prisoners – a token political gesture to counteract the case’s growing negative publicity. In reality, Jacob’s battle continued.

When two Hutterites visited him at Leavenworth five days later, they found him in solitary confinement, his hands still chained to the iron bars for nine hours a day. He was still receiving a diet of bread and water and sleeping on a concrete floor, although he had been given several blankets. In a message sent home to his family, he wrote:

Sometimes I envy the three who have already been delivered from their pain. Then I think: why is the hand of the Lord so heavy upon me? I have always tried to be faithful and hardworking and hardly ever made any trouble for the brotherhood. Why must only I continue to suffer? But then there is joy, too, so that I could weep for joy when I think that the Lord considers me worthy to suffer a little for his sake. And I have to confess that, compared with our previous experiences, the life here is like in a palace.

Considering that the Armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, it is hard to believe that the chaining of military prisoners was only stopped on December 12. The prisoners were given planks on which to sleep, and conditions gradually improved as the War Department continued to receive petitions on the men’s behalf. Jacob Wipf remained behind bars for four more months and was finally released on April 13, 1919, after being hospitalized for a brief illness.

But the deaths of the two Hofer brothers could not be so easily forgotten, and by the end of the year, the great majority of Hutterite colonies had emigrated to Canada to escape further persecution – including vandalism by their neighbors because of their refusal to buy war bonds. So ended one of the most shameful episodes in American military history.

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Independence Daydreaming

2008-07-04T15:45:00.004-05:00

When I was a kid we were convinced that the USA was the greatest country in the world, not only that- in the HISTORY of the world! Then I started reading history. Not the schoolbook propaganda we were force fed as good little assembly line cogs and future cannon fodder, but stuff that included a wealth of facts and alternative viewpoints conveniently left out of our little textbooks. I read a couple of books about American Indians when I was 13 or 14 that included the perspective of the conquered ones. Whoa! Our European forebears hadn't just "tamed the wilderness", they actually slaughtered the original inhabitants and sytematically destroyed every Native culture they had in their power. Thomas Jefferson and the rest of the founders didn't really mean "..all men are created equal" but that all white males who owned property were equal-some more equal than others,depending on how much you owned. I learned that they didn't really care about taxation without representation; George Washington declared martial law and personally led an army to suppress a tax rebellion by Pennsylvalia farmers. Well, the list goes on. For a little perspective, read Vine Deloria Jr. or Howard Zinn or Bell Hooks. And then dream about what we actually might have become if our country had rejected genocide and slavery at the outset rather than embracing such evils for profit. Racism and violence are woven into the fabric of the US society and we will die of it if we don't rip out those threads and reweave.

Hutterites continued

2008-07-03T10:35:00.004-05:00

I like this photo for a few reasons; it makes me happy to look at it, it shows a group of Hutterites having a lot of fun, and it works as a powerful symbol for me. Thanks to Kelly Hofer at Flickr for sharing.
When Hutterites are out and about, they may be shy, as they speak a German dialect at home, so English is a second language for them. They may be shy because they live in a very different society from the rest of us and may not be comfortable relating casually with strangers. It is easy to get the impression that they are a dour people. I like the picture because it shows that they can be fun loving folks, and helps to dispel misconceptions or stereotypes. The picture works for me as a symbol of the Hutterites pulling against the culture, and joyful in the struggle. Remember, these are people who do not earn private incomes, aside from household items and a few personal possesions, don't own anything privately. They dress differently, eat their meals together and have to put in a purchase requisition, so to speak, when they want to buy anything. They work hard, sing a lot and don't have modern electronic entertainment. And yet, from what little I know, they are pretty happy! There are about 500 hutterite communities in North America, about 70 in South Dakota. Not a huge number compared to say, Southern Baptists, and I don't want to idealise or romaticize a people I really know next to nothing about, but it seems that they have something going for them. They have found a way to incorporate what is useful from the modern world and yet live in such a way as to preserve their values of peace, sharing and simplicity. And they really know what community means. Impressive accomplishment in my opinion.

Whatterites?

2008-07-01T11:34:00.004-05:00

Most people in the US have heard of the Amish(oh yeah, beards, bonnets, horse and buggies!)but few have heard of the Hutterites, the folks I mentioned in yesterday's post. They spring from similar theological roots and have a few important things in common and several big differences.
The first time I ever saw a Hutterite man, he was drivimg a tractor down main street in Flandreau, SD when I first lived in this state. That's when I learned one of the big differences; Hutterites are willing to use technology for work. Oh, and the guy was wearing a plaid shirt, so different ideas about decoration as well.
These folks were founded by Jacob Hutter (b 1530 d 1536)who was tortured and burned alive for such radical ideas as thinking that baptism should be an adult decision, the Bible should be available to common folk, in their language, and the Pope in Rome isn't the arbiter of faith chosen by God. These people were part of the "radical reformation" and became known as 'Anabaptists' or 're-baptizers'. They also believed that Christians should definitely NOT serve in the military, they shouldn't take oaths and they should own all things in common. HOLY CRAPOLA they are COMMIES! Well, no. They are communitarians, if you must have a label. Communists and socialists hold to a centralized government. Communitarians tend to believe in small, localized groups who own everything in common. There were and are lots of 'anabaptists' around. Amish, Mennonites, and Brethren; all stem from Anabaptist roots and all hold to belief in pacifism(some more than others), believer's baptism(some younger than others),and simple living(some simpler than others). Only the Hutterites hold to a communitarian lifesyle. In my opinion, this is what makes the the Hutterites unique. (To be continued)

Hutterite Veggies!

2008-06-30T11:35:00.005-05:00

We found that there is a little farmer's market here on the banks of the Missouri River in beautiful SD! A group of hutterite women were selling the most massive cabbages and cauliflowers I think I have ever seen! They also had eggs, wonderful radishes(LOVE radishes), beets rhubarb, and turkey sausage. The food was washed VERY clean and trimmed! The cauliflower and radishes are delicious. I am cooking up the beets today and plan to get one of their bowling ball size cabbages next time they are here. Hutterites are interesting folks and I will write about them as I have been thinking and reading about religion lately. Hooray for the Hutterite gardeners!!

The Greenest Church?

2008-06-28T21:43:00.004-05:00

Not that its a competition, but I think that the UU's have a good shot at the title. They certainly have the "Most Open Minded" title sewed up.
I have attended Unitarian Universalist Churches for about six years now and I have been a member of one for about half that time. Now that we live in South Dakota, the closest UU church is about 150 miles away. Probably won't get there every Sunday. Our minister from Michigan, Jill McAllister, took the time to visit us today while on her way to a retreat in Oregon, and it made me realise how much I miss them. I was perusing the UUA site looking for the online UU congregation which Jill recommended and sure enough at http://clf.uua.org/# I found the Church of The Larger Fellowship. Yes, it has a minister you can call(toll free) or e-mail, a religious ed person, materials for study and home services and what all. Pretty cool idea. Not sure about joining because the great thing about church for me is going to be with others of similar mind set. But I am going to spend some time with the website and consider joining. If you aren't familiar with the UU, they are from Christian roots, but you can't nail them down to any theology. Lots of my UU pals are secular humanists, some are Buddhists, some pagans, you just never know. I like the guiding principles a whole bunch.

There are seven principles which Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm and promote:

The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

I especially like the wording on the last principle which avoids the term "creation" which avoids offending the atheists in the crowd. I think I'll copy these and keep them handy for to see how I'm doing measuring up.

I have been thinking and reading a fair amount about religion, faith, whatever you like to call it and while I have no interest in converting or convincing, I am interested in writing about it some and exploring the religious connection to living an ecologically responsible life. So I will.

So, Wachya readin'?

2008-06-26T22:19:00.003-05:00

I haven't felt much like talking lately, or writing, but I have been reading. I ALWAYS read. That's why I was an English major. Anyway, I finished Skins, by Adrian C. Louis and Indian Killer by Sherman Alexie last week. Skins is the story of two brothers who grow up on Pine Ridge reservation, play football rogether, go to Viet Nam at the same time and choose very different paths. It is a moving story about love and addiction. It was made into an excellent movie starring Graham Greene and Eric Schweig and I can't recall ever having seen a closer movie rendition of a book. Except for the sex. Left that right out. Oh well.
Indian Killer is a very different murder mystery and it is a real page turner too. Set in Seattle, it is very urban and violent. Plenty to satisfy fans of the genre. But Sherman Alexie is a poet too, so the writing itself is mysterious, beautiful in a stark and disturbing way.
In addition to being great reads, each of these books deal with real-life issues of modern American Indians in an engaging, entertaining fashion. Both are written by Indians, both have lots of dry, sarcastic humor, and both books are absolutely seething with anger. The anger American Indians(and African Americans) live with is something very few white people are even aware of, much less understand. But we really need to learn about it and it is much better to listen to a story than a sermon,ennit?.
I would suggest that, at some time, you also read Killing Rage by Bell Hooks. Hooks is African American and she will provide insights into the anger people of color in the US feel that will astonish the average white person.
If you are looking for some damn good reading, you would do well to check out one or both of thse titles.
And check out the movie, Skins, too.

Adios, George

2008-06-23T16:59:00.000-05:00

If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little.
George Carlin

Holy Geological Phenomena, Batman!

2008-06-10T13:38:00.004-05:00

We visited Badlands National Park yesterday and we were, shall I say, frickin' AWED!
I have been a lot of places and seen some splendid sights, natural and human produced, but this place is just plain extraordinary. I learned that it is also home to about 200 Black-Footed ferret, the most endangered mammal in the USA. Hooray for black-footed ferrets! I'm not really all that cranked about ferrets in general, just felt like giving a ferret cheer. Anyway, all through the park and for most of the drive there and back the words "vast" and "scenic" kept running through my head. I've gotta improve my adjective storehouse I guess. All the way there I think I saw one cigarette pack on the side of the road-its so CLEAN! And the sky is huge! One really odd thing is that we saw dozens of turtles, live and (alas)squished on Interstate 90. A seven year drought has ended this spring and we figured the turtles are, what? coming out of hibernation? Migrating? We were picturing vast herds of turtles crawling across the plains to get to the now overflowing creeks, visiting with turle relatives they haven't seen in years. Curious.
On the way to maka sica(lakota for 'bad lands') we visited a homestead museum which was poorly maintained and over priced but which had a sod house built in 1909. Since I am currently reading "Giants In The Earth" by O.E. Rollvaag about South Dakota homesteaders living in sod houses, it was very cool to be able to visit and actually go inside the sod house. What a great place for energy conservation! Built into a rise in the land, it would have been so easy to heat in the winter and cool in the summer. But I would have had to finish the walls with some earth plaster or adobe, the plain old dirt with grass roots in it was just a tad too primitive.
Well, we are burning up some gas visiting places, but you have to explore when you go someplace new. And the Badlands was really worth it! We are going back there to camp in July so we can see the place at dawn and at twilight. YAY fo South Dakota!

Thanks Mr.G

2008-06-08T22:10:00.003-05:00

We survived our week with the girls. We also made it through our first day and a half without experienced staff to lean on. Actually it was pretty easy except for a bit of confusion about a disciplinary measure instituted before we came on. But no big thing and all went well. One kid was really funny; Thursday evening, when she learned we were there with them on our own she asked,"Aren't you afraid?". I said 'of what?' knowing full well what she meant. She said,"Of us". Claire and I found this pretty amusing considering the kids we have worked with in our careers. By Saturday night, this same girl was telling us about her life and her family. She and two other girls were very open about some of the really distressing details of their infancy and growing up. Maybe they're used to talking this openly with the adults with whom they spend a little time. I hope it indicates that we are easy to talk to and the kids feel safe telling us things that are painful and could be construed as embarrassing. I am really hopeful that we will be able to build trust relationships with some of these (sometimes,usually)sweet kids.
My decision to go to college and work in education was shaped in large measure by my art teacher in my freshman year in high school. He was a first year teacher and a great guy. The best thing he did was to listen to me and treat me and my interests and opinions with respect. Interestingly enough he was going to kick me out of the class. At that time Chicago schools required freshman to take art and sophomores to take music, and the baby-boom classes often had 35 to 40 students in them. What a melee! I guess I was really a jerk though, because he didn't boot Frank Guerrero who wore his Latin Kings sweater to class and called Mr.G 'Geronimo'. Hell, I thought there were at least 20 guys in the class who were way rowdier than I was. Anyway,during the meeting with Mr.Griffin and the principal, my dad expressed surprise saying that I had always loved art and even expressed an interest in commercial art. Mr G offered me the chance to switch to an elective class which was much smaller so he could actually teach me some things. And he did teach me, about art and about how a concerned adult can really make a difference in a kid's life. Thanks Mr Griffin.

A new day and a new house

2008-06-02T12:29:00.002-05:00

Not our house; today we started working in a new student house on campus. Last week we worked with high school boys, this week we are in one of the girl's homes. We also have a new partner to train us and he is a vegetarian! Yay! We can get a perspective on how to get by here without being a hunter. We may learn more about green living here as well since he seems to be a pretty earth conscious person. He also seems to have a more positive attitude toward the students. The person we worked with last week was very rule oriented and sort of into catching the kids being bad (read:being kids). Of course we want to know the rules and how to keep the kids and ourselves safe and in line with policy. But we are hoping for a relationship beyond guardian of the gates. High standards of cleanliness and good behavior are important but developing a trusting bond is even more important. I am not naieve, I have taught high school in inner city Chicago and on reservations, so of course kids will test you, push the boundaries and get into trouble. That's what kids do. It is actually their job to break with adult/parental authority, establish independence and learn how to survive semi-intact while doing this. Without good boundaries and guidelines we all struggle with our attitudes and behaviors. I am hoping to be able to, at least in part, be a person the students can count on and turn to if they are struggling. I am looking forward to the challenge.

What we haven't found

2008-06-01T09:09:00.002-05:00

I sorta knew this, but to paraphrase Kermit, its not easy being green-in South Dakota. So far the nearest recycling center is 65 miles away. The school we work at is starting to ship paper for recycling back with a supplier's empty trucks. I will try to get in on that. There is no place that carries bulk anything except candy so we can't reuse containers. No organic or fair trade food in town of any sort. There are some locally grown tomatoes at the market, but no farmers market here and we are the biggest town for 65 miles in one direction and 100 or so in another. There is no community garden and my lot has about enough sunshine to grow a few pots of basil and tomatoes-already planted. There are a lot of pluses to being here,but so far, the pursuit of greenness isn't one of them. I feel that I have a chance to make a difference in the community if I can find some like minded people and get some positive stuff going. I will keep you posted.

Big sky!

2008-05-27T12:41:00.002-05:00

We made it to South Dakota all in one piece, with dog and cats intact. We got to town, closed on the house Wednesday morning and we are all moved in and ready to go.
If you have never been out west it is truly amazing. We took a short ride to 'west river' as the part of South Dakota over the Missouri is called (we of course are 'East river', by about a quarter mile). What a spectacular landscape! The vast expanse of rolling green hills and enrormous sky were actually breathtaking. And coming up on the Missouri is wonderful. I know that a few miles either side of the river the plains are, well, plains flat and after a while boring to look at, but so far we are thirilled to be here. The air and land are so clean here it is amazing. Having just moved from an inner city neighborhood, this is really refreshing. We started work today and so far so good. We spend the night tonight at the HS boy's huse so looking forward to meeting the kids and more of our co-workers. Did you ever have those moments in life when you thought, 'How did I get so lucky?'? That's where I am and its a nice place to be.

Leaving the 'Zoo

2008-05-18T10:07:00.003-05:00

Kalamazoo that is. We are packing up and moving out TODAY! HOORAY!!. Leaving for South Dakota and a new life or at least a new place to live and work. Before I go for a while I wanted to make a book recommendation.

1491 by Charles Mann This is an amazing study of the Americas just before the invasion by Europeans. Mann presents most of the newer theories and studies in a balanced fashion and draws his conclusions, It is engaging, fascinating and I learned a ton(scholarly term there). See ya later.

This is the limit!

2008-05-16T19:25:00.003-05:00

Mike Huckabee addressing the NRA joked today about someone pointing a gun at Barrack Obama. You can see his comment at Yahoo News. Talk about tasteless, rude eointless evil comments! To make a joke like this is tantamount to wishful thinking. I didn't think Huckabee was this big an asswipe, but never underestimate the scabrous wiickedness of a right-wing religious jerk. Actually I don't think its the limit, I think the would-be fascists are just warming up.

To Blazes With It

2008-05-13T12:03:00.002-05:00

Its no joke for folks in Central Florida today, wild fires involving thousands of acres are destroying homes and forcing evacuations. This morning I read about people trying to save their homes with garden hoses and I could only imagine how powerless that feels. Well, I could imagine it fairly well as I remembered the first time my son and I burned off the winter dead stuff from an acre and a half rise behind our house back when we lived in the country in Indiana. The wild growth stood about six feet tall, mighty good top soil there, and it hadn't been cut or buned in years. I knew nothing about burning except that we had a good buffer of green grass between the hill and the house, a road on the other side and a creek to the west. And a garden hose. Man talk about a hellacious blaze! I lost confidence in our buffer lawn and it was scary as hell. We had had plenty of rain so the fire burned the dead stuff and nothing more. Oh, and it sort of scorched the power line pole pretty good. We got that put out thanks to Nick's vigilance. But to see the world around your house going up in flames like those must be truly horrifying.
This new story about wildfires came to mind as I read Crunchy Chicken's really thoughtful post this morning about security and what life should be about http://crunchychicken.blogspot.com/ .
It made me grateful that we are going off to do some really meaningful work and have the wherewithal to make this sort of change without hardship, only minor aggravations. I hope I can maintain this sense of gratitude, for my life, my loving partner, the interesting challenges I have face and remember that security is as fleeting and illusory as misfortune.

The Keystone Cops move across country

2008-05-12T10:57:00.003-05:00

At the very best, moving is a pain in the butt. As one who has moved 8,472 times I know whereof I speak. When you add in underwriter's heebie-jeebies(does anyone know the etymology of that term?) you get ulcer city. Here's the back story. Our new employer would have provided an apartment for us through an arrangement they have with a rental place in town. Apartment building doesn't allow pets. We called around-NObody allows pets. So, carbon footprint be hanged,we drove all the way back out to SD to buy a house so we could take our animals when we leave. This may seem foolish to some, like my brother for instance, but we ARE responsible for the little pests and besides, we love them. The trip went well, we saw a nice house within bicycling distance to work(trying to make up for the extra trip y'know) made an offer, got pre-approved with a bank and headed back to big M. Good news for us,the assessment came in nearly two grand less than we offered and the seller accepted the lower price. We get a closing date and make arrangements for our house in the Zoo, rent a truck,etc. Bad news for us, the underwriters won't release the dough until we get the roof(old but serviceable) replaced and the foundation checked by a licensed contractor. Good news for us, the bid on the roof came in at about half what I expected; bad news for us, they can't possibly replace the roof in two weeks. Good news for us, the banker can do an in-house mortgage until the roof is done and then switch to the fixed rate at no extra cost to us, she only needs the contractor's inspection report. Bad news for us, the contractor goes out of town for a week! This morning, with seven days until we load the truck I am calling SD folks to see if anything is shakin'. As it turns out, the contractor has already looked, said the foundation is fine and we can close on time. So if all goes as planned(HA!) we will be ready to start work on the 27th. By the goddess, this is the last move I make unless we pack a knapsack and move to the commune! Got any moving stories to share?