Something I stumbled upon from A Pale Blue Dot. One technique I've heard for reducing the irritants found in our daily lives is to ask, if in the grand scheme of things, what's got you in a bother will ultimately matter. Here's a more eloquent version of that technique, given in a speech by the late astronomer Carl Sagan:

"We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

Well, hmm

You scored as Hermione Granger, You're one intelligent witch, but you have a hard time believing it and require constant reassurance. You are a very supportive friend who would do anything and everything to help her friends out. Hermione Granger 65% Ron Weasley 60% Remus Lupin 55% Albus Dumbledore 50% Sirius Black 45% Draco Malfoy 35% Severus Snape 35% Harry Potter 35% Ginny Weasley 25% Lord Voldemort 20% Your Harry Potter Alter Ego Is...? created with QuizFarm.com

When the Music's Over

One of the more interesting book anthologies I've come across recently is When the Music's Over, edited by Lewis Shiner. I just received it in the mail today. Put together in 1991, Shiner asked his contributers to write stories where violence was not the solution to solving a problem in a story. In other words the writers were deliberately constrained by the need to write in a non-violent manner.

I'll write a brief review after I finish it.

Miserliness vs. Charity

Over on the Freakanomics blog, there's a post of a Q & A with Steven Landsburg, author of More Sex Is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics.

One of the most interesting pieces was this Q & A:

"Q: You argue that miserliness is equitable to charitable contributions in the net use of resources, while giving more to one single charity is better than giving less to different charities. What is your personal approach to charitable contributions ( i.e., how much do you give, and to whom)?"

Landsburg responds by writing (snippet only. See blog for full response):

"Miserliness is equivalent to charity in the sense that both the miser and the philanthropist forego consumption, which makes more goods available to others. If you give your money away, someone else gets to eat better. If, instead, you squirrel your money under your mattress, it’s still true that someone else gets to eat better, because whatever you’re not eating is available to someone else."

"So if you want to be charitable, all you have to do is hoard your money, or for that matter burn it. But that’s not the best way to be charitable, because you can’t control who gets the benefits. Miserliness is like a random act of kindness; effective philanthropy is about directed acts of kindness."

Not sure what I think about this except to say that it's intriguing. Wondering how it fits with the book of James in the Christian New Testament? James 1:5 says to ask God for wisdom if anyone is lacking, because God "gives to all, generously and ungrudgingly. The implication here is that God gives to all because there is enough (unlike our current economic system that implies scarcity).

Later in 1:17 the writer says: "Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights..." (NRSV translation).

This seems to be saying that we're to model our giving after God, who gives generously. So, this falls on the giving side, and not on the miserliness side). Landsburg's books sounds like an interesting one, for that matter Freakonomics was also interesting.

Earth Day 2007

We celebrated Earth Day today. Yes, it's earlier in the year, but we wait until the weather is nicer and we can be outside. The picture is part of the Jeff St. String Band, who did all of the music today.

Here's a reading from Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek that I read as part of the service:

"It's still the first week of January, and I've got great plans. I've been thinking about seeing. There are lots of things to see, unwrapped gifts and free surprises. The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand. But--and this is the point--who gets excited by a mere penny?

If you follow one arrow, if you crouch motionless on a ban to watch a tremulous ripple thrill on the water and are rewarded by the sight of a muskrat kit paddling from its den, will you count that sight a chip of copper only, and go your rueful way?

It is dire poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigued that he won't stoop to pick up a penny. But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. It's that simple. What you see is what you get."

Reading Stack May 07

Reading Stack May 07
Originally uploaded by Kurwin.

Great new time waster on Flickr of photos of people's reading stacks. Here's mine as of last night (May 7).

Visioning

We interrupt the ongoing environmental posts for me to share one of my all-time favorite quotations, by Frederick Buechner (Wikipedia):

"Listen to your life, see it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom & pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness; touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and the hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace." (from Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons)

Perfect thoughts for our current visioning process, eh?

Here's another one for good measure:

"A vision is like a lighthouse, which illuminates rather than limits, giving direction rather than destination." James J. Mapes, Foresight First

Strategic Consumption: How to Change the World with What You Buy

Worldchanging strategy #2:

2) Lengthening our time horizons: A great number of costlier green products are smart investments when viewed from the perspective of long-term cost. This is true of everything from more efficient home appliances (which can pay for themselves through energy savings) to low-flow shower heads. These are big-ticket items, requiring substantial industrial investment to manufacture. Buying them represents a wise investment and speeds up the process of higher standards being more widely adopted, but it also requires spending more up front -- sometimes a lot more. (It'd be easier if we all adopted the Japanese approach of requiring today's best performance levels to be the minimum allowable a few years hence.) This kind of sustainable consumption makes good sense.

Further thoughts:

I've noticed that oftentimes those things that are convenient often create environmental hazards: the throwaway rubbermaid containers get into the landfill, leafblowers create noise pollution and air pollution. Right now it's also mostly the case that more environmentally-friendly products usually cost more.

Incentives for going Green?

From Tree Hugger:

Toronto calls itself a green city, and its wholly owned power distribution subsidiary Toronto Hydro has been handing out the CFL's and advertising conservation like mad. It has been so successful that the electricity loads in the city fell by 178.5 million kilowatt hours — enough to power 178,000 homes for a month — between spring 2005 and the end of 2006. Oops, that means a $10.4 million drop in revenue, leading to a 6.3% increase in hydro rates to cover it, eating up almost every penny of the savings. This is such an incentive to turn out the lights, telling everyone to spend money to conserve and then penalizing them for doing it. Only in Green Toronto. ::CBC No, wait, there is the green province of Ontario, encouraging people to invest in green technology. Max Woschnigg did, building a big 80Kw turbine and saving $ 3,600 a year in power, while selling excess back to the grid. He just had his property reassessed for tax purposes and guess what, it is worth more with the turbine and his taxes just went up about $ 3,600. Another great incentive from the Green Government of Ontario. ::Tyler Hamilton in the Star And we wonder why people aren't being serious about conservation.

Defaulting to Green

Yesterday I started a series of posts related to creating our sustainable future. It's the folks at World Changing doing the writing and thinking.

Here is strategy number 1:

"1) Defaulting to green: When relatively equal alternatives exist, routinely choose the greener one, even if its impact is only minimally better (for instance, choose recycled toilet paper whenever possible). This may not produce massive change, but it helps solidify the gains of greener products. We ought to be working to put obviously dumb products -- like bleached, pulped-forest toilet paper or toxic chemical household cleaning solutions -- out of business. That'd be a pretty clear market signal."

My additional thoughts:
In the past, major environmental change occurred when major corporations were convinced to move from Styrofoam to paper, to turn off their PCs on the weekend, mainly because of their large size and footprint. Now, we need individual consumers to begin making their own lifestyle changes, as well as providing the politicians with the political cover they need to create new laws, tax incentives and breaks. Low hanging fruit can taste as good as the fruit at the top of the tree.

Buy our way to a better future?

The folks over at WorldChanging are blogging about how to create the sustainable future we must have. Over the next several days, I thought I'd paste in some of their ideas for further thought. Here's the starter. If you'd like to see the whole article at once, you can find it here.

You cannot buy a better future, at least not the sort of bright green future we talk about here at Worldchanging. That sort of future -- a sustainable one, a future that itself has a future -- is not available for purchase: It doesn't yet exist. You can't find it on shelves, and you can't even order it up custom, no matter how much money you're willing to spend.

You can be heroic in your efforts, but at the moment it's essentially impossible to live a North American consumer lifestyle and do no harm. You can buy only organic food, recycled products, and natural fibers and you won't get there. You can even trade your car for a hybrid, harvest your rainwater and only run your CFLs off your backyard wind turbine, and you still won't get there, both because the waste associated with consumerism is so massive and because the systems outside your direct control upon which you depend -- from your local roads to your nation's army to the design of the assembly lines used to build your car, rain barrel and windmill -- are still profoundly unsustainable.

Tom Swift

Growing up, one of my favorite series of books to read was about Tom Swift, and his friends. Tom always invented cool gadgets that would get him out of scrapes, was always chasing Communist-sounding bad guys, was hyper patriotic, didn't see much need for girls ("Bye Tom, oh please be careful," they were known to murmur), while they stayed at home.

Nevertheless, they were great fun, and launched me on my science fiction reading interest. I love the internet, for I recently came across a great essay on Tom Swift. Enjoy.

Micro Lending

Micro Lending is high up in the news rotations these days, especially after the Grameen Bank founder, Muhammad Yunus, received the Nobel Peace Prize this past year.

So what if we want to learn more about micro credit or lend money to people in developing countries, or people in the United States, who are starting their own businesses?

Here's an article on Slate that details one person's investigation of micro lending companies.

One thing I found interesting was the article's assertion that the best way to give is to give consistently to a few organizations, it creates a larger "bang for the buck."

What's this got to do with poverty? While government has an important role to create level playing fields so that the many have an equal chance to make it, citizens also have a role. What if we could divert some of the billions that we Americans spend on coffee, makeup or other "essentials" into anti-poverty programs that work; such as micro credit? What would that do to reduce poverty?

Unemployment and Homeownership

In the spirit of Freakeconomics research, (i.e. research that leads to some interesting thinking), here's a study about the relationship between home ownership and structural unemployment. The more mobile you are (no mortgage), the more willing you are to move to new places, and take new jobs, you are less likely to be unemployed.

From the article:

English economist Andrew Oswald has shown that across European countries, and across U.S. states, high levels of home ownership are correlated with high levels of unemployment. More conventional factors such as generous welfare benefits or high levels of unionization don't explain unemployment nearly as well as the tendency to own houses. Renting your home and staying flexible do wonders for your chances of always finding an interesting job to do.

The complete article is here:

Falwell Knew Of Gingrich Affair

9:37 PM (38 minutes ago)
Falwell Knew Of Gingrich Affair Before Clinton Impeachment
from Huffington Post by The Huffington Post

In an interview with Focus on the Family founder James Dobson that aired Friday, Gingrich admitted to the affair in 1998. In 2000, he divorced his second wife, Marianne, after his attorneys acknowledged his relationship with Callista Bisek, a former congressional aide now his wife.

"He has admitted his moral shortcomings to me, as well, in private conversations," Falwell wrote in a weekly newsletter sent Friday to members of the Moral Majority Coalition and The Liberty Alliance. "And he has also told me that he has, in recent years, come to grips with his personal failures and sought God's forgiveness."


How much longer will we have to wait before the hypocrisy of some on the religious right is seen for what it truly is: not piety but a power grab. Funny how God and the right easily forgive Republicans: Newt, Rush, etc., but Democrats are bound for hell...

I saw the "it depends on what is is" parsing going on today: it was okay for a Speaker of the House (2nd in line to the Presidency) to have an affair, it's not okay for the President. Oh, what's that? Newt was a Republican?

Gingrich tells Christian group of affair - Yahoo! News

Gingrich tells Christian group of affair - Yahoo! News

Sigh. What more needs to be said? Perhaps something about planks and specks?

A good listen

Need something to listen to? Check out the 12 Byzantine Rulers podcast.

History Lecturer Lars Brownworth gives 13 short (15 min or less) lectures on 12 key emperors of the Byzantine empire. Dull you say? Not at all!

Mr. Brownworth is very engaging, and provides key information as well as anecdotes that bring these ancient figures to life. (Loved the anecdote about the emperor Diocletian retiring to grow cabbages). Highly recommended.

Poverty work

In my classes, we often ask "Why are people poor?" "Why does poverty exist?" The issue is fairly complex, and one of the most interesting groups talking the problem in developing countries is the Millenium Promise Project. Their goal is to "eliminate extreme poverty by 2025."

From their website: "Our flagship initiative, the Millennium Villages, now operating in 78 villages across 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, takes a comprehensive approach to addressing extreme poverty. By combining the best scientific and local knowledge, Millennium Villages address all the major problems simultaneously -- hunger, disease, inadequate education, lack of safe drinking water, and absence of essential infrastructure -- to assist communities on their way to self-sustainable development."

Here's an excerpt from a hopeful email I recently received:

"Koraro, Ethiopia has seen dramatic and hope-inspiring changes since the community began working with Millennium Villages in February 2005. More than 150 new homes dot a landscape that was once barren. Crops like maize and sorghum now grow where only splintered rocks and dusty earth once stood. And parents are now deciding that it makes more sense to send their kids to school than to keep them home to work.

One of the first efforts of the project was to give farmers improved seeds and fertilizer. This together with new farming techniques and the hard work of the villagers has produced crop yields four times as large as when the project began. During the last planting season, in July 2006, many villagers decided to diversify their fields to include oranges, bananas, coffee, coriander and ginger—crops that will improve nutrition in the village and command a higher price at local markets."

For more information on this project, and how to end poverty, see Jeffrey Sach's book: The End of Poverty

Monty Python's Dead Parrot Sketch performed in a unique way!



For complete information on this, read the 419 Eater Blog for all the information on this scamming of Nigerian scammers.

Iraqi Blogs

Seems like I found this collection of Iraqi blogs in an airplane magazine back in January. One way to connect the dots is to seek out different experiences and viewpoints. I offer these blogs, without endorsing any particular viewpoint:

Iraq the Model

Neurotic Iraqi Wife

A Family in Baghdad

A Star from Mosul

Here's a blog on introducing Islam:

Introducing Islam

More words for thought

So how do we feed and nourish our spirit, and the spirit of others?

First find a path, and a little light to see by. Then push up your sleeves and start helping. Every single spiritual tradition says that you must take care of the poor, or you are so doomed that not even Jesus or Buddha can help you.

...There are people in this country who are poor in spirit, worried, depressed, dancing as fast as they can; their kids are sick, or their retirement savings are gone. There is great loneliness among us, life-threatening loneliness. People have given up on peace, on equality.

From "Let Us Commence," by Anne Lamott. Found in her book Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith

Words to live by

"How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because some day in life you will have been all of these."

George Washington Carver

(from a colleagues email signature line)

New for 2007

I've done a major update on the sidebar info, and promise that I will be refreshing the blog more often in 2007. Of course, now that I'm ready to post, I've dried up with things to say....

Al Gore and John Woolman

There's a nice little brouhaha over the following oped piece published in USATODAY yesterday, which I paste in here (my comments after the story):

Gore isn't quite as green as he's led the world to believe
Updated 8/10/2006 10:44 AM ET
By Peter Schweizer
Al Gore has spoken: The world must embrace a "carbon-neutral lifestyle." To do otherwise, he says, will result in a cataclysmic catastrophe. "Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb," warns the website for his film, An Inconvenient Truth. "We have just 10 years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tailspin."

Graciously, Gore tells consumers how to change their lives to curb their carbon-gobbling ways: Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs, use a clothesline, drive a hybrid, use renewable energy, dramatically cut back on consumption. Better still, responsible global citizens can follow Gore's example, because, as he readily points out in his speeches, he lives a "carbon-neutral lifestyle." But if Al Gore is the world's role model for ecology, the planet is doomed.

For someone who says the sky is falling, he does very little. He says he recycles and drives a hybrid. And he claims he uses renewable energy credits to offset the pollution he produces when using a private jet to promote his film. (In reality, Paramount Classics, the film's distributor, pays this.)

Public records reveal that as Gore lectures Americans on excessive consumption, he and his wife Tipper live in two properties: a 10,000-square-foot, 20-room, eight-bathroom home in Nashville, and a 4,000-square-foot home in Arlington, Va. (He also has a third home in Carthage, Tenn.) For someone rallying the planet to pursue a path of extreme personal sacrifice, Gore requires little from himself.

Then there is the troubling matter of his energy use. In the Washington, D.C., area, utility companies offer wind energy as an alternative to traditional energy. In Nashville, similar programs exist. Utility customers must simply pay a few extra pennies per kilowatt hour, and they can continue living their carbon-neutral lifestyles knowing that they are supporting wind energy. Plenty of businesses and institutions have signed up. Even the Bush administration is using green energy for some federal office buildings, as are thousands of area residents.

But according to public records, there is no evidence that Gore has signed up to use green energy in either of his large residences. When contacted Wednesday, Gore's office confirmed as much but said the Gores were looking into making the switch at both homes. Talk about inconvenient truths.

Gore is not alone. Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has said, "Global warming is happening, and it threatens our very existence." The DNC website applauds the fact that Gore has "tried to move people to act." Yet, astoundingly, Gore's persuasive powers have failed to convince his own party: The DNC has not signed up to pay an additional two pennies a kilowatt hour to go green. For that matter, neither has the Republican National Committee.

Maybe our very existence isn't threatened.

Gore has held these apocalyptic views about the environment for some time. So why, then, didn't Gore dump his family's large stock holdings in Occidental (Oxy) Petroleum? As executor of his family's trust, over the years Gore has controlled hundreds of thousands of dollars in Oxy stock. Oxy has been mired in controversy over oil drilling in ecologically sensitive areas.

Living carbon-neutral apparently doesn't mean living oil-stock free. Nor does it necessarily mean giving up a mining royalty either.

Humanity might be "sitting on a ticking time bomb," but Gore's home in Carthage is sitting on a zinc mine. Gore receives $20,000 a year in royalties from Pasminco Zinc, which operates a zinc concession on his property. Tennessee has cited the company for adding large quantities of barium, iron and zinc to the nearby Caney Fork River.

The issue here is not simply Gore's hypocrisy; it's a question of credibility. If he genuinely believes the apocalyptic vision he has put forth and calls for radical changes in the way other people live, why hasn't he made any radical change in his life? Giving up the zinc mine or one of his homes is not asking much, given that he wants the rest of us to radically change our lives.

Peter Schweizer is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and author of Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy.

First, I note that Schweizer is a fellow at the Hoover Institute: a conservative think tank. Second, I'm sympathetic to Gore's argument and message, so I'm more inclined to give him the doubt.

I think what Schweizer has pointed out illustrates the difficulty there is in living an American lifestyle that doesn't contribute to pollution and global warming. Because I am sympathetic to Gore, I don't shoot the messanger just becuase not all of his words are backed by actions.

I contrast Al Gore with the Quaker John Woolman, mostly known for his Journal. Woolman was instrumental in convincing the Quakers to give up their slaves. One way he did this was by altering his own lifestyle: he owned no slaves, quit his tailor business (he was afraid he was going to make too much $$), and he wore no dyed clothes; for dye often came from the West Indies; a place which used African slaves to create the dyes. Once Woolman figured out where he was part of the problem he was trying to tackle, he took action. I like Woolman a lot. He is an inspiration to me to remember that one person, acting from conviction, can make a difference.

Here's one of his most relevant quotations:

"May we look upon our treasures, the furniture of our houses, and our garments, and try whether the seeds of war have nourishment in these our posessions."

Which Wolf do you Feed?

From graduation musings by Rabbi Marc Gellman:

An elder Cherokee chief took his grandchildren into the forest and sat them down and said to them, “A fight is going on inside me. This is a terrible fight and it is a fight between two wolves. One wolf is the wolf of fear, anger, arrogance and greed. The other wolf is the wolf of courage, kindness, humility and love.”

The children were very quiet and listening to their grandfather with both their ears. He then said to them, “This same fight between the two wolves that is going on inside of me is going on inside of you, and inside every person.”

They thought about it for a minute and then one child asked the chief, “Grandfather, which wolf will win the fight?” He said quietly, “The one you feed.”

The new Masculinity?

Looking at his empty plate after consuming a pizza, Mr. Singer [director of the upcoming Superman movie] had a further thought about the nature of masculinity, super or otherwise. "If there's any virtue in it, it has a vulnerable side," he said. "Because without vulnerability one can tend to lack compassion. And without compassion one can tend to lack humanity. And these are some things a man should strive to have."

Leaves of Grass

from the preface to Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass:

This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches,
give alms to everyone who asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy,
devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not
concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people and your
very flesh shall be a great poem.


Happy belated Earth Day, Jeff St.

Lemonade anyone?

Lemon-Scented Trillium

Trillium
Originally uploaded by Kurwin.

My maternal grandmother

Hattie Daugherty, 85, Falmouth

Hattie M. Daugherty, 85, of Falmouth, Ky., passed away on Tuesday, February 28, at River Valley Nursing Home in Butler, Ky. She was a long-time member of Turner Ridge Baptist Church and more recently Falmouth Baptist Church. Born on April 15, 1920, she was the daughter of the late James O. and Belva (Lovelace) Sorrell. Her husband, Charles C. Daugherty, passed away in 1999. She was preceded in death by her sister, Mabel Easton, and six brothers, Calvin, Duane, Larry, Winston, Floyd, and Lloyd Sorrell. She worked many years for Hyde Park Clothing in Newport, Ky., and Dr. Scholl's Shoes, in Falmouth, Ky. Hattie and her husband Charles were long-time farmers in Pendleton County. Hattie was a great people person who was highly regarded throughout the community. She was very devoted to her family, friends, and church. She loved God's creation and enjoyed working in her yard.

She is survived by two daughters, Linda (Merwyn) Borders, Seymour, Tn., and Ada (J. W.) Wright, Falmouth, Ky., four grandchildren, Kevin Borders, Angie Wright, Paula Jacoby, and Brooke Cervantes, four great grandchildren, Tiffany Tipton, Ahnna Jacoby, Abigail Jacoby, and Ellie Borders, two grandsons-in-law, Jamie Cervantes and Randy Jacoby, one granddaughter-in-law, Susan Borders, and one sister, Ada Moore, Falmouth, Ky.

A service of celebration was held on Saturday, March 4, 2006, at Peoples Funeral Home in Falmouth, with pastor Don Mays and Merwyn Borders officiating. Pallbearers were Terry Sowder, Barry Sorrell, Kent Sorrell, Larry Bishop, Jamie Cervantes, Randy Jacoby, and Kevin Borders.

Interment took place in the Riverside Cemetery, Falmouth.

Memorials can be sent to Falmouth Baptist Church's Missions Fund.

What has happened to America's Jesus?

Opinion: What has happened to America's Jesus? from USA Today.com

By Rob Borsellino Mon Feb 13, 7:12 AM ET

I remember when Jesus Christ was about religion. That goes back to when he was caring and compassionate all the time, not just during the political campaign season.

He used to bring people together and give them hope. He wouldn't have his people get in your face and tell you to fight gay rights or you'll burn in hell. That's not what he was about. That's not the Jesus who made folks such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson rich and famous. He was a different guy from the 21st-century American Jesus Christ.

When I recently visited Sicily, Italy, the old Jesus was all over the place. His statue was on the counter at the restaurant and the coffee house. His image was on the wall at the clothing store and in the hotel lobby. And there was a huge painting of him on the side of an apartment building.

Sometimes he was with his mom and dad, and sometimes he was sitting with his pals - the apostles. Mostly he was hanging from the cross. Whatever he was up to, it was all about religion.

It was interesting because I didn't go to Sicily looking for a religious experience. I went looking for what's left of my family. My grandfather and his brother came to the United States in 1904 and left behind their parents and two sisters. The sisters had kids, grandkids, great grandkids.

I never met any of those people, and I knew nothing about Sicily except the obvious - pizza and the Mafia. My wife thought it was time to connect. She made some calls and let the family know we were coming.

We landed in Palermo, got our bags and were met by my cousin Peppino Rizzuti, who was holding a handwritten sign with my name on it.

He was there with three other cousins. They hooked us up with more family and spent the next seven days driving us all over the island and stuffing us with mozzarella, prosciutto, olives and about 50 kinds of pasta.

My cousin Maria made the sign of the cross before she ate. My cousin Antonio's car had a figurine of a saint on the dashboard. My cousin Gian Marco had a beautiful cross hanging from his neck.

But nobody was going on about God, Jesus and religion. It didn't come up. I saw all that and was reminded that you can be a decent person - a good son, husband and father - and still oppose the war in
Iraq. You can be a caring, thoughtful member of your community and still question whether Justice
Samuel Alito should have been confirmed. Jesus won't get mad at you.

Several times during the week, I thought about telling my family what's happened to Jesus in the United States - how he's been kidnapped by politicians and preachers who decide what he does and doesn't think. They speak for him, and it doesn't always make sense.

They say Jesus is "pro life," but he doesn't seem to have a problem with the death penalty. And he thinks stem cell research - something that would save lives - is no different from murdering babies. They say he's the embodiment of kindness, love, decency and compassion. But he hates gays, lesbians and Muslims. And he's not too crazy about Buddhists, Hindus and the rest. Jews? He can put up with them if he has to.

The Rev. Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka claims to speak for Jesus and goes around the country talking about how "
AIDS cures fags." Pat Robertson says it would be a good idea if the United States killed the president of Venezuela. It would be a lot cheaper than starting another war.

All week I went over that stuff in my head and decided not to mention any of it to the family.

It would make America look ridiculous.

Rob Borsellino is a columnist for The Des Moines Register and author of So I'm talkin' to this guy ...

Our Deepest Fear?

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequte,
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us.
We ask ourselves,
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people
won't feel insecure around you.
We were born to manifest the glory that is within us.
It is not in some of us; it is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we consciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear;
our presence automatically liberates others.

(NOTE: I've just learned that this has been incorrectly attributed to
Mandela's inagural address).
This is really from Marianne Williamson's A Return to Love: Reflections on the Princples of a Course in Miracles

Many thanks to Jennifer for the correction!

It's Meme time!

Four jobs I’ve had:

1. Florist
2. Dishwasher
3. Graduate Research Assistant
4. Assistant Social Work Research Professor

Four movies I can watch over and over:

1. Star Trek: The Wrath of Kahn
2. Much Ado About Nothing
3. Truly, Madly, Deeply
4. Roxanne

Four places I have lived:

1. Bethel, Vermont
2. Yuma, Arizona
3. Montreal, Canada
4. Louisville, KY

Four places I’ve vacationed:

1. Falmouth, KY
2. Jeckyll Island, GA
3. Edinburgh, Scotland
4. Dublin, Ireland

Four of my favorite dishes:

1. Chicken and Rice
2. Scallop Chowder
3. The Big Kahuna Pizza (Canadian bacon, pineapple, madarin oranges)
4. Eggs sunny-side up and sausage

Four sites I visit daily:

1. Boing Boing
2. Daily Kos
3. Ain't it Cool News
4. Dooce

Four places I would rather be right now:

1. In bed with a good book
2. Jeckyll Island, GA
3. On the treadmill
4. With friends camping in the woods

JFK's The Purpose of Poetry

I read something interesting in the current edition (Jan/Feb, 2006) of the Atlantic Magazine written in 1964 by President Kennedy about the purpose of poetry. Excerpts:

The men who create power make an indispensible contribution to the nation's greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensible, especially when that questioning is disinterested, for they determine whether we use power or power uses us...

When power corrupts, poetry cleanses, for art establishes the basic human truths which must serve as the touchstones of our judgement.

In free society art is not a weapon, and it does not belong to the sphere of polemics and ideology.

I look forward to a great future for America--a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral strength, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose.

And I look forward to an America which commands respect throughout the world, not only for its strength, but for its civilization as well.

And I look forward to a world which will be safe, not only for democracy and diversity, but also for personal distinction.

So, all that poetry you had to read in high school has a purpose after all!

Slow reading start to New Year

January is nearly over, and I have yet finish a book of fiction. I am far behind past years already. I am working my through a thought-provoking baloney sandwhich, though. What is a baloney sandwhich, in the context of books, you may ask?

Well, I'm glad you did ask. It's a phrase coined by my father-in-law to describe books that you just read for distraction, or for fun. I've also hear them called "mind candy," and "books without any socially redeeming qualities."

I'm currently reading Alternate Generals, a book of alternate history where different generals appear in different time periods. The short stories in this edited collection are, for the most part, well written, and thought provoking.

One of my favs is "Billy Mitchel's Overt Act," where the U.S. bombs a Japanese carrier force on the way to attack Pearl Harbor. Because the US struck first, and because there was no major loss of US life (sunk battleships, etc.), the US reluctantly declares war on Japan, (the public is never fully behind the war) and the war ends 2 years later when the US and Japan sign a peace treaty. The good news is that no nuclear bomb is dropped on Japan by the US, but the implication is that the US and Japan will fight again.

I've thought a lot about this, because I think a key reason we went fully into WWII was because of the tragedy of Pearl Harbor, and our national outrage and sense of loss.

Tom Delay a la Dr. Seuss

From The Witlist:

Tom DeLay Denies All Charges (As Told by Dr. Suess)

That Abramoff!
That Abramoff!
I do not like that Abramoff!

"Would you like to play some golf?"

I do not want to play some golf.
I do not want to, Abramoff.

"We could fly you there for free.
Off to Scotland, by the sea."

I do not want to fly for free.
I don't like Scotland by the sea.
I do not want to play some golf.
I do not want to, Abramoff.

"Would you, could you, take this bribe?
Could you, would you, for the tribe?"

I would not, could not, take this bribe.
I could not, would not, for the tribe.

"If we strong armed corporations
Into giving you donations?
They'd be funnelled to your PAC.
Would you then cut us some slack?"

I would not, could not, cut you slack.
I do not care about my PAC.
I do not want to play some golf.
I do not want to, Abramoff.

"A plane! A plane! A plane! A plane!
Would you, could you, for a plane?"

I could not, would not, for a plane.
Not for a bribe, not for the tribe.
Not for donations from corporations.
Not for my PAC, not for some slack.
Not from any schmoe named Jack.

"Would you help us buy some ships
Perfect for quick gambling trips?
Talk to people in the know
For a little quid pro quo?
Oh come now, don't be a snob.
Let us give your wife a job."

I will not help you buy some ships.
I do not wish for gambling trips.
My wife does not need a job
Even if she is a snob.
We do not like bribes, can't you see?
Why won't you just let me be?

"You do not like bribes, so you say.
Try them, try them, and you may.
Try them and you may, I say."

Jack. If you will let me be
I will try them, then you'll see.

Say.... I do like playing golf!
I like it, I do, Abramoff!
I do like Scotland by the sea.
It's such a thrilling place to be!
And I will take this bribe.
And I will help the tribe.
And I will take donations
From big corporations.
And I will help you buy some ships.
And I will take quick gambling trips.
Say, I'll give anyone the shaft
As long as it involves some graft!

I do so like playing golf!
Thank you! Thank you,
Abramoff!

Green is the new red, white and blue.

The New Red, White and Blue
01/10/2006
New York Times


By Thomas L. Friedman

As we enter 2006, we find ourselves in trouble, at home and abroad. We are in trouble because we are led by defeatists - wimps, actually.

What's so disturbing about President Bush and Dick Cheney is that they talk tough about the necessity of invading Iraq, torturing terror suspects and engaging in domestic spying - all to defend our way of life and promote democracy around the globe.

But when it comes to what is actually the most important issue in U.S. foreign and domestic policy today - making ourselves energy efficient and independent, and environmentally green - they ridicule it as something only liberals, tree-huggers and sissies believe is possible or necessary.

Sorry, but being green, focusing the nation on greater energy efficiency and conservation, is not some girlie-man issue. It is actually the most tough-minded, geostrategic, pro-growth and patriotic thing we can do. Living green is not for sissies. Sticking with oil, and basically saying that a country that can double the speed of microchips every 18 months is somehow incapable of innovating its way to energy independence - that is for sissies, defeatists and people who are ready to see American values eroded at home and abroad.

Living green is not just a "personal virtue," as Mr. Cheney says. It's a national security imperative.

The biggest threat to America and its values today is not communism, authoritarianism or Islamism. It's petrolism. Petrolism is my term for the corrupting, antidemocratic governing practices - in oil states from Russia to Nigeria and Iran - that result from a long run of $60-a-barrel oil. Petrolism is the politics of using oil income to buy off one's citizens with subsidies and government jobs, using oil and gas exports to intimidate or buy off one's enemies, and using oil profits to build up one's internal security forces and army to keep oneself ensconced in power, without any transparency or checks and balances.

When a nation's leaders can practice petrolism, they never have to tap their people's energy and creativity; they simply have to tap an oil well. And therefore politics in a petrolist state is not about building a society or an educational system that maximizes its people's ability to innovate, export and compete. It is simply about who controls the oil tap.

In petrolist states like Russia, Iran, Venezuela and Sudan, people get rich by being in government and sucking the treasury dry - so they never want to cede power. In non-petrolist states, like Taiwan, Singapore and Korea, people get rich by staying outside government and building real businesses.

Our energy gluttony fosters and strengthens various kinds of petrolist regimes. It emboldens authoritarian petrolism in Russia, Venezuela, Nigeria, Sudan and Central Asia. It empowers Islamist petrolism in Sudan, Iran and Saudi Arabia. It even helps sustain communism in Castro's Cuba, which survives today in part thanks to cheap oil from Venezuela. Most of these petrolist regimes would have collapsed long ago, having proved utterly incapable of delivering a modern future for their people, but they have been saved by our energy excesses.

No matter what happens in Iraq, we cannot dry up the swamps of authoritarianism and violent Islamism in the Middle East without also drying up our consumption of oil - thereby bringing down the price of crude. A democratization policy in the Middle East without a different energy policy at home is a waste of time, money and, most important, the lives of our young people.

That's because there is a huge difference in what these bad regimes can do with $20-a-barrel oil compared with the current $60-a-barrel oil. It is no accident that the reform era in Russia under Boris Yeltsin, and in Iran under Mohammad Khatami, coincided with low oil prices. When prices soared again, petrolist authoritarians in both societies reasserted themselves.

We need a president and a Congress with the guts not just to invade Iraq, but to also impose a gasoline tax and inspire conservation at home. That takes a real energy policy with long-term incentives for renewable energy - wind, solar, biofuels - rather than the welfare-for-oil-companies-and-special-interests that masqueraded last year as an energy bill.

Enough of this Bush-Cheney nonsense that conservation, energy efficiency and environmentalism are some hobby we can't afford. I can't think of anything more cowardly or un-American. Real patriots, real advocates of spreading democracy around the world, live green.

Green is the new red, white and blue.

Tony Campolo: Is Christianity a Casualty of War?

More thoughts to ponder for the new year:

The Blog | Tony Campolo: Is Christianity a Casualty of War? | The Huffington Post

The Blog | Steve Martin: Leap Second Lovers Are Traitors Says Bill O'Reilly | The Huffington Post

Something to start off the new year:
The Blog | Steve Martin: Leap Second Lovers Are Traitors Says Bill O'Reilly | The Huffington Post

Oil Dots

I've had a lot of fun reading Esquire magazine's December 2005 Best and Brightest issue. The one person I'll focus on now is Amy Myers Jaffee who is the director of the Energy Forum at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. Here are her Seven Ways to Fix the Oil Crisis:

1. Build a safety net: just in time delivery when it is oil is catastrophic when there is a natural disaster

2. Double (auto) fuel efficiency.

3. Tax gas--by dollars not cents: this has allowed the Europeans to become more efficient, and kept demand stable.

4. Work with China: instead of competing with them for energy, work together to lower costs, create new technologies.

5. Drill more. Regulate more. Drill in more areas (costal), give the EPA more authority to adequately regulate oil companies.

6. Open foreign energy markets: no more state energy monopolies.

7. Commit to solar energy: virtually no waste stream, carbon or radioactive. Solar needs to be at the 3 cents/killowat hour to become competitive; it's currently 20 to 30 cents.

Crafting Manifesto

As we rush into the holiday season, focusing on buying instead of family, the birth of a tiny babe, Ulla-Maaria Mutanen has been thinking about why we like to make things, and has written up a "Craft Manifesto." I really like this and am thinking of ways I can become more "crafty:"

1. People get satisfaction for being able to create/craft things because they can see themselves in the objects they make. This is not possible in purchased products.

2. The things that people have made themselves have magic powers. They have hidden meanings that other people can’t see.

3. The things people make they usually want to keep and update. Crafting is not against consumption. It is against throwing things away.

4. People seek recognition for the things they have made. Primarily it comes from their friends and family. This manifests as an economy of gifts.

5. People who believe they are producing genuinely cool things seek broader exposure for their products. This creates opportunities for alternative publishing channels.

6. Work inspires work. Seeing what other people have made generates new ideas and designs.

7. Essential for crafting are tools, which are accessible, portable, and easy to learn.

8. Materials become important. Knowledge of what they are made of and where to get them becomes essential.

9. Recipes become important. The ability to create and distribute interesting recipes becomes valuable.

10. Learning techniques brings people together. This creates online and offline communities of practice.

11. Craft-oriented people seek opportunities to discover interesting things and meet their makers. This creates marketplaces.

12. At the bottom, crafting is a form of play.

I first read this manifesto in the 4th issue of Make Magazine.

Still too much time on my hands?

So, I took another one of those "tests..."

The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to Purgatory!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Extreme
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Moderate
Level 2 (Lustful)	Low
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Moderate
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Moderate
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Low
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Test

So, I took yet another of those "personality" tests, and here's my results:

Possessing a rare combination of wisdom and humility, while serenely dominating your environment you selflessly use your powers to care for others.

Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.

Galadriel is a character in the Middle-Earth universe. You can read more about her at the Galadriel Worshippers Army.

Looks like I took this test on a good day... (I swear I didn't write this...)

You too can take the test here.

Needs vs wants

The C-J last Sunday had an article titled Gotta have it? They asked: "High heating costs have people vowing they may have to cut back to the necessities this winter. But what, exactly, constitutes a "necessity" these days?"

What a great question, so I was surprised to find out that "...many of us feel we need the Internet to stay informed, need cell phones to stay in touch with loved ones and need e-mail and faxes to transfer information. People talked about how eating out, getting their nails done were all necessities, and not luxuries.

But then, on reflection, I wasn't that surprised, for I realized that the reporter was interviewing mainly middle class people, and not the working poor, and/or those who have to choose between toilet paper and cereal (take a look at Barbara Einrich's Nickel and Dimed).

I read this statement next: "The basic aspect of economics is that we have to make choices," said Jack Morgan, recently retired director of the Center for Economic Education, which is affiliated with the Kentucky and national Councils on Economic Education. "The reason we have to make choices is because we can't have everything we want."

I first ran across statements like this while in one of my many years of graduate school, and I was puzzled by it then, and am still so now. I had thought, and still do, that economics helps producers and marketers sell goods and services. Most of us know very little about economics, and think of it as a very complex science, filled with arcane words and concepts.

I wish that economics truly were a scientific tool that would help us make good choices, (in the same way that the New Testament of Christian Scripture can help us make choices based on moral principles). This would mean that we would be better able to make clearer choices between that latte and retirement, or that weekly magazine and giving money to hurricane relief or programs that help lift the poor out of poverty.

Just some thoughts. Happy Halloween. Any ideas on how to choose the optimal candy?

Literary Musings

I've been listening to NPR's Book podcast, and heard Louise Erdrich read this from her latest novel The Painted Drum. I've been pondering the meaning, and hope it is meaningful to you as well.

Near the end of the novel, Faye Travers says:

“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that.

And living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with it’s yearning.

You have to love.

You have to feel.

It is the reason you are here on earth.

You are here to risk your heart.”

Borg Nation

from an email I found dated 8/16/1994, back when Star Trek the Next Generation was on and the Borg were the nastiest villians around:

Assimilate me... tender... Elvis of Borg
Borger King. Have it our way. Your way is irrelevant.
Bush Sr. of Borg: The economy is irrelevant.
Pythagoras of Borg: Distance is irrelevant.
Drunk Borg: Rsilience in floor tile. Wan'be similated?
Geraldo of Borg: Next, brothers who assimilate sisters.

I am Bugs Bunny of Borg: What's up Collective?
I am Dangerfield of Borg: Respect is irrelevant.
I am Fudd of Borg: Wesistance is usewess!
I am Homer of Borg! Prepare to be...OOoooooo! Donuts!
I am Spock of Borg: Fascinating.
I am Ginsu of Borg. You will be assimilated: but WAIT! There's MORE!
I am Yoda of Borg: Irrelevant the Force is.
I am Zsa Zsa of Borg: Prepare to be assimilated dahling.
I yam Popeye of Borg: Prepare to be askimilated.

My other computer is a Borg.
P-Porky P-Pig of B-Borg: You will be assim-assim...absorbed.
Bjorn Borg: Tennis is irrelevant.
The Borg assimilated me and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt!
We have engaged the Borg. The wedding will be Friday.
Welcome to Borg Burger. No pickles. Pickles are irrelevant.
Whose laser thru yonder saucer section cuts? "Tis the Borg!

Alternative Giving Ideas for NOLA Giving

Here's a couple of great organizations that can use financial assistance now due to Katrina's devastation:

The People's Institute

From their website: "The People’s Institute believes that effective community and institutional change happens when those who would make change understand how race and racism function as a barrier to community self determination and self sufficiency."

"The People’s Institute was created to develop more analytical, culturally-rooted and effective community organizers."

Their New Orleans' offices were destroyed.

The Acorn Institute

From their website: "ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is the nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, working together for social justice and stronger communities."

ACORN's Headquarters, in New Orleans, LA, and the homes and neighborhoods of many of its members there, have been devastated by hurricane Katrina.

Velvet Yoda Elvis

From: Hecho en Mexico: Tacky Velvet Art




"Left the building, have I"

Five Days with Katrina

UPDATE 9/26/05 PHOTOS have been taken off the site :(

Check out this slideshow of photos of Katrina, taken by Alvaro before, during and after the storm. Absolutely amazing!!!

From inside the Austin Convention Center

Katrina: Jasmina Tesanovic's account, Austin Convention center

Writer, filmmaker, and Serbian native Jasmina Tesanovic is best known for her work documenting war in the former Yugoslavia. She visited the Austin Convention Center, where many storm victims are being sheltered, and has this to say about the people she encountered.

I am entering the Convention Center in Austin. Unlike the refugees an police, I have no ID, no tag on my wrist, just my ragged handbag and my lap top.

Nobody asks me anything, though I notice, all the people inside the camp are tagged with different colors, and there are security men and women all over the place.

In this huge no man's land, there are so many nobody people that a woman like me can pretty much become one of them. After few moments of my wandering I am offered a cheese sandwich, information on where to queue for food stamps, and a wif-fi hotspot for my computer.

"Do you have a number Ma’am?:

No, I say, I am from Serbia...

"Do you need some clothes?"

Well, I could do with some clothes...

Piles of clothes, in all sizes, in all colors...

Here people are mostly black, of all ages, of all sizes, of all shades of color, but there are some like me too... Middle-aged white women from nowhere, feeling at home almost everywhere, when it comes to disasters...

This center for refugees is well-organized, compared to my ex Yugoslav experience. It has air conditioning, abundant cooked food, extremely clean bathrooms and well-behaved people. Nobody is crying, nobody looks depressed yet, nobody is even fighting...

Information center desk, youth center desk, school information desk, jobs information desk, family elder members desk, computer desk, deaf assistance desk, farmer’s desk, unemployment insurance desk, alcoholic anonymous desk, church desk

Warnetta and Johnnetta are approaching me. Warnetta is simply dressed with long black braids, and Johnetta is all dressed up in red, fancy red make up, literally red long hair, jewels, she is gorgeous.

Johnetta says to me: I need somebody to take over my group tomorrow after school; I will not have time to handle them...

Oh, I say, tomorrow I will not be here.

Johnetta looks at me in disbelief. But you can tell me who can help me, you are the woman in green.

No, I am here just to see you and write about you. Can I take a picture of you?



Image: Warnetta and Johnnetta, shot by Jasmina.

They gently embrace and smile: Johnnetta says, we love it here, tomorrow I am starting to work, nine dollars per hour, everybody is so kind to us here, we have no home but I don’t mind, I have my five kids, four are taken care of in the kindergarten and this is Warnetta my oldest, but she makes me look old, I am thirty three and I don’t want to tell she is my daughter, she is 14... They will never fix my home town properly and we will never go back... because they all knew it was coming and it will come again... but they never do anything to build us good homes, to give people money to build them...

Barbara Bush, the wicked grandma, gave an interview only yesterday, chuckling how poor people will abuse the hospitality in Texas and never go back home. Is THIS what she meant? Her cynical remark was not meant to be cynical; it was a threat, for Johnetta and Warnetta who want to rent a place and stay in Austin until somebody fixes their town PROPERLY.

Both sides know pretty well what they are talking about; Barbara and Johnnetta are quarreling.

"Ma’am, how are you doing?" I am patted on my shoulder by a perfumed elderly volunteer. "I see you managed to rescue your computer."

I'd better play the refugee after all, it is the safest place in this messy country I guess: not that I am far from that condition. I've been a refugee in my own country. This time I am refugee in somebody else’s country. I can tell the difference now.

Is there any? Fay looks just like me. Fay sits next to me, presuming I was just like her: somebody who only a few days ago had a great life and didn’t know it, who took life for granted. Well, how else, I say, one cannot always be a refugee? Or maybe yes, she says, maybe from now on she will always be a refugee: she is a journalist and now she will become a writer she says; exactly like me.

She will become the main character of her own stories. And it will feel good, I promise her. Here I am still feeling good about it and writing.

At a corner of the huge circular building, black male teens have a basket and are playing basketball; tall handsome swift and deft. Some will join the NBA some day. Around them are children perfectly healthy playing games in wheelchairs; there are also some people in the wheelchairs paying no attention to the bored kids. In the corner watching them a pretty girl is sulking. The basketball player comes up to her and cuddles her: she is angry with him... he is neglecting her... a new romance, for the black Romeo and Juliet in a refugee center. At least they are alive and will stay so; away from their parents it seems, I wonder if the parents are alive...

"My husband had to leave too; he stayed until the very end but then it became dangerous, looting and shooting and the diseases... the smell, oh the smell... dead bodies, the heat...." The old black woman's nose is quivering: she is very well dressed and well-kept, everybody is fussing around her, but she seems to be alone and wants to stay alone.

Where is your husband, I ask?

She is silent, her eyes are blank... In my country too, old people preferred to stay at their homes, whatever may happen. Is there such a thing as homeland after all, I wonder? Or is it lack of courage and energy... why did she make it here and he didn’t?

Who is this old respectable thin woman staring out of the window in silence?

The other old woman is all dolled up; she is sitting in the terrace, chain-smoking, chain-talking. The chair next to her is empty. People come and go and listen to her, but she never stops talking. She has thin legs and a big belly, a pretty old face and fancy sexy clothes: everybody seems to know her. They are offering her stuff and want to help, to carry her, amuse her, bring her music. But she talks and talks only. She reminds me of a raped woman who compulsively talked after she escaped the war zone; she talked sweetly and mildly of everything, even of her rapist... This woman is telling us all how happy she is with life as such, happy to be alive, happy to be here.... I wonder when she will break down, from that chair, from that cigarette to which she is clinging to as if it were a pillar.

I guess she needs a drink, but nobody drinks here.

A desk with pretty young white girls has several posters: child and women abuse. I approach them, they give me their material, they have shelters, therapies for all situations. They are local feminist groups present in the center.

I hear live music, it is melodic and rhythmical as in films I saw from New Orleans, a black old man is singing with his guitar, joined by another younger one who has some kind of flute, the on lookers are stamping their feet and clapping their hands... some are joining in.... not many, but I hear they are planning a party... I wish I could be there...

But then, they start playing the American national anthem, people stand straight and a big applause ends it. Is that their patriotism? Is this America?

What about the global warming that made all this happen, what about Iraq?

A young man from New Orleans was telling this morning how he plans to go back even though his house is destroyed, and to MAKE sure that the city is rebuild in a proper way: that the politicians don’t steal and waste the money; that right guys get in charge and start anew, make a new go of it, this time on proper roots.... Everybody could tell this disaster was going to happen, why didn’t anybody do something about it?

Corruption, racism, classism.... Bush is a spoiled rich kid and behaves as such....

No, I say, he is a war criminal: all the money the world is giving now to US, money from the poorest countries in the world, may as well be used for the wars against the same countries that are giving the money. What a thought? You should secede... from Bush.

Somebody in a county of Louisiana already proclaimed secession, that to draw the attention of the press and the administration, as a trick of course...

What a thought! I really meant it...

The barber’s shop; finally I see how black hair is neatly and patiently done in braids, dreads, colors.... I myself may give it a try. Many years ago, when my white friend from Serbia was attacked by some black people because she was presumably white and rich, she said to them a historical phrase we all white refugees quote here in black US: I come from a country which is in civil war, even if we look exactly the same.

Some military guys appear behind a neatly set desk. Next to them is a desk with a sign; We Support Our Troops, veterans. Well, good thing that troops are supporting those people here, if indeed they are.

And the wifi Internet access I am using while writing this is called Tsunami, it is excellent and free. Kids are gathering around me to play with my computer. Boredom is the biggest killer in places like this. Even if you have your needs met, the definition of being a refugee is being left without your day; be it in a palace, be it in the gutters. Women cope better than men usually speaking, children best on the long run.... They may even realize Mrs. Bush’ s fears and stay in their new homes as if their own, making the old settlers run after their survivor's energy and skills.

I am looking at a beautiful baby toddler, a girl, she is playing with my bag, smiling and chirping. I pat her, tickle her; her father is huge and angry, he takes her by her belt and picks her up like a mother cat. She is screaming her head off, she wants her doll back, that’s me, I want my girlfriend back, that’s her... but we will never meet again. I am taking a picture of her, one of those faces I will never forget.... Her mom is missing.

A pang; I miss my grown up daughter in Serbia: she used to be small and dark and a refugee too... About 4,000 people here, an Austin volunteer tells me, giving me his email so I can send him my text. More people are coming in but some are already leaving, to other places, relatives, new jobs, new homes... They are not called refugees, they are called "evacuees."

Elderly well dressed couples from Austin show up in the afternoon, strolling among the evacuees smiling broadly and kindly at all of us. When they asked me, with the air of Princess Diana, "How are you doing? We see you managed to get your computer out," I didn’t have the heart to tell them that I was from Serbia, and that I am doing fine.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 09:51:18 PM BoingBoing Website

From Reuters 9/17/05

"The challenges ahead are huge. State officials said 140,000 to 160,000 homes were flooded and will not be recovered, and it would take years to restore water service to all of the city.

More than a million people may have been driven from their homes -- many perhaps permanently -- with hundreds of thousands taking refuge across the United States."

Initial response from some gov't officials? Stay the course, keep the tax cuts in place.....

Gulf Coast Numbers

from the AP:

Two in 10 households in the disaster area had no car, compared with 1 in 10 nationwide.

Nearly 25 percent of those living in hardest-hit areas were below the poverty line, about double the national average. About 4.5% in the disaster area received public assistance; nationwide the number was about 3.5%.

About 60% of the 700,000 people in the three dozen neighborhoods were minorities. Nationwide, about 1 in 3 Americans is a racial minority.

One in 200 American households doesn't have adequate plumbing. One in 100 households in the most affected areas didn't have decent plumbing, which according to the Census, includes running hot and cold water, a shower or bath and an indoor toilet.

Nationwide, about 7% of households with children are headed by a single mother. In the three dozen neighborhoods, 12% were single-mother households.

NOLA thoughts from Jim Wallis

Prayer and action for hurricane victims
by Jim Wallis

During hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters, those who have the least to lose are often those who lose the most. Why?

First, the dwellings in which poor people live are not as sturdy, stable, or safe as others. "Shotgun" shacks, mobile homes, and poorly constructed apartment buildings don't do well in hurricane-force winds and tidal surges.

Second, the places where poor people live are also the most vulnerable. The rich often live at the tops of hills, the poor in the valleys and plains that are the first to flood. The living conditions in these neighborhoods are also usually the most dense and overcrowded.

Third, it is much harder for the poor to evacuate. They don't own cars, can't afford to rent them, and often can't even afford a tank of gas - especially at today's prices. They can't afford an airplane, train, or even bus ticket. And, as one low-income person told a New Orleans reporter, they have no place to go. People in poverty can't afford motel or hotel rooms, and often don't have friends or family in other places with space to spare. In New Orleans, there were many people who desperately wanted to leave but couldn't.

Fourth, low-income people are the least likely to have insurance on their homes and belongings, and the least likely to have health insurance. If jobs are lost because of natural disasters, theirs are the first to go. Poverty makes long-term recovery after a disaster more difficult - the communities that are the weakest to begin with usually recover the slowest. The lack of a living family income for most people in those communities leaves no reserve for emergencies.

New Orleans has a poverty rate of 28% - more than twice the national rate. Life is always hard for poor people - living on the edge is insecure and full of risk. Natural disasters make it worse. Yet even in normal times, poverty is hidden and not reported by the media. In times of disaster, there continues to be little coverage of the excessive impact on the poor. Devastated luxury homes and hotels, drifting yachts and battered casinos make far more compelling photographs.

The final irony of New Orleans is that the people who normally fill the Louisiana Superdome are those who can afford the high cost of tickets, parking, and concessions. Now its inhabitants are the poor, especially children, the elderly and the sick - those with nowhere else to go. Those with money are nowhere to be seen.

As the Gulf Coast now faces the long and difficult task of recovery, what can we do?

What are you reading?

Apparently there's a chain "what are you reading" thingy going around the blogsphere, and in the spirit of getting back into the habit of posting, I'll play along, but not send it along.

1. Number of books you have owned:

Using Delicious Library cataloging software, I'm up to 1,200 or so, with a 1,000 probably not catalogued, so I've probably owned close to 3,000 books over my lifetime....

2. Last book I bought:

How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas

3. Last book I completed:

The Thin Man

4a. Five books that mean a lot to me:

1. Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver

2. Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time by Marcus Borg

3. The Journal of John Woolman

4. The Moon by Whale Light by Diane Ackerman

5. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen R. Covey

4b. What are you currently reading?

Pattern Recognition by William Gibson

Close to Home by Peter Robinson

Death by Meeting by Patrick Lencioni

Soul of the Republican Party at Stake

From a Knight Ridder August 3, 2005 story:

"Three senior Republican senators wrote a small amendment into the Defense Appropriations bill this summer that outlaws cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of all detainees in American custody.

No one can call Sens. John Warner, R-Va., Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., soft on anything, much less terrorism...

On the floor of the Senate, before everyone left on vacation, Sen. Jeff Sessions (news, bio, voting record), R-Ala., sounded the administration line: There is no need for this legislation because we are not dealing with prisoners of war but "terrorists."

John McCain stood up and responded that the debate was not "about who they are. It's about who we are." We are Americans, the senator said, and we hold ourselves to a higher standard than those who slaughter the innocent in Iraq or Afghanistan, or in London or on 9/11 here at home.

This debate has a special resonance as investigation after investigation into the outrages against prisoners at
Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and others into the mistreatment of detainees held in American custody at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, continue to focus all blame at the lowest possible level. This in spite of new testimony that strongly suggests that the blame, like cream, settles much nearer the top.

Please repeat after the good senator who knows about prisons and the torture of helpless human beings:

This is not about who they are. This is about who we are. We are Americans and we hold ourselves to a higher standard of conduct. And, no, the end does not justify the means. Not now. Not ever, when the means include torturing prisoners."

And so say we all.

Harry Potter Wisdom for today

"Voldemort himself created his worst enemy, just as tyrants everywhere do! Have you any idea how much tyrants fear the people they oppress? All of them realize that, one day, amongst their many victims, there is sure to be one who rises against them and strikes back."

Dumbledore to Harry Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

What's wrong with SBC education

Ran across this story from a blog new to me: MainstreamBaptist in which a Southern Seminary prof talks about raising violent sons:

"Why I'm Raising Violent 4 Year-Olds June 1, 2005 (by Russell D. Moore) (excerpts by me)

...this is the second movie my children have ever seen in their lives. One was a tender, touching Christmas movie about a little boy who discovers that Christmas is all about believing in the miracles within. The second was a cartoonishly violent movie in which men go face-to-face with evil aliens; often chopping off limbs in the heat of battle. As I think about my film choices for my children, I will admit that I repent....of taking them to the Christmas film.

This is because of my overall philosophy of childrearing. I am aiming to raise up violent sons.

I am not seeking to raise sons who are violent in the amoral, pagan sense of contemporary teenagers playing "Grand Theft Auto" video games or carjacking motorists. I want them to be more violent than that.

I want them to understand that the Christian life is not a Hallmark Channel version of baptized sentimentality. Instead, it is a cosmic battle between an evil dragon and the child of the woman, an ancient warfare that now includes all who belong to the Child of the Promise (Rev 12). I want them to forgive their enemies, not because they are good boys, but because they understand that vengeance against the Serpent comes not from their hand, but from that of the anointed Warrior-King (Rev 19), whose blood-soaked garments don't often transfer to the imagery of a Precious Moments wall-hanging. And I want them to exercise self-control of their passions, not because it is polite, but because they are called to struggle against the Evil One, even to the point of cutting off their own limbs rather than succumb to devices.

(Link)

This is so far beyond the Prince of Peace, blessed are the peacemakers, and the writings of peacemaking scholar Glenn Stassen. Yikes

Subtle Hegemony

Today's word is hegemony, which means "The predominant influence, as of a state, region, or group, over another or others." It's use has been extended to include cultures as well. Here's a case and point:

Recently Howard Dean, DNC, made a couple of statements to the effect that the GOP is "not very friendly to different kinds of people," and that Republicans are "pretty much a White, Christian party." The Republican response from the VEEP was: "I think Howard Dean's over the top. I've never been able to understand his appeal. Maybe his mother loved him, but I've never met anybody who does," Cheney told Fox News Channel. Additional negative comments were made by a myriad of other conservative pundits.

Recently, Karl Rove, White House Deputy Chief of Staff said that the "most important difference between conservatives and liberals can be found in the area of national security."

"Conservatives," he continued, "saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers."

"In the wake of the terrorist attacks," he said, "conservatives believed it was time to unleash the might and power of the United States against the Taliban" while liberals supported a MoveOn.org petition "imploring the powers that be to use moderation and restraint in responding to the terrorist attacks against the United States." White House spokesman Scott McClellan responded by saying that Bush sees "no reason" for an apology.

There have been other similar situations where several Republican leaders have practiced the double standard: William J. Bennet writing on moral values (Book of Virtues), and then getting caught with a major gambling problem, Rush Limbaugh's drug addiction, and his supporters' defense (an addiction to drugs because of pain is different than those who are just addicted to drugs (those drug users are moral failures, Rush is not), Newt Gingrich's divorce of his first ill wife, while he was promoting "family values."

What's this have to do with hegemony? The conservative movement in America has taken over language, the church, education, the airwaves, so that it's beliefs are considered to be "normal," while progressives who protest, who see the world differently, are weird, devient. It is the hegemony of one group's value system over another. Selah.

Poverty reduction

Here's some somber facts to think about as the G8 gather in Edinburgh, Scotland. Taken from Altercation:

[The US contributes]... just 0.16 percent of GDP to global development—that’s one-sixth of one cent for every dollar we earn. What hope can a country have when its ruling ideologists tell the world to shut up about development because we are spending so much on guns and killing people?

America’s relatively niggardly welfare system, even its most generous incarnation—since significantly reduced--raised poor incomes only moderately, reduced the proportion of adults in poverty from 26.7 to 19.1 percent. In Germany, France, and Italy, meanwhile, employing the same benchmark, the number hovers around just seven percent.

As for the elderly, where the U.S. social security system is its most generous, it manages to reduce the level of elderly people living in poverty from nearly sixty percent before transfer payments to just below twenty percent afterward. Yet the Europeans improve on this performance as well. Germany, France, and Italy all spend roughly twice as much of their national income as does the United States. What’s more, with our inferior system of public health, and family-friendly employment laws, the U.S. and South Africa are the only two developed countries in the world that do not provide health care for all of their citizens.

Source for all of the above:: OECD, Health Data 1999: A Comparative Analysis of 29 Countries (OECD, 2001).

The Lord God Bird

Heard a simply amazing story on NPR's All Things Considered this afternoon, about the town of Brinkley, Arkansas and the economic hopes the community has for revitalization after a recent viewing of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker.

The bird was thought to be extinct, and was "rediscovered" after 60+ years. Local artists talk about making art in the birds' image, a local restaurant has an ivory-billed woodpecker burger, and a hunting lodge gears up for birders who want to take a guided trip to see the bird. The town is in the bayou.

The bird is called the Lord God Bird, because when people saw how big it was; they supposedly said "Lord God!"

The radio story is an incredible compilation of community voices, no narrator. Plus, there's an amazing original song (The Lord God Bird) written and performed by Singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens.

The link to the story, and a free download of the song (current as of today) is here.

Clouds

Clouds
Originally uploaded by Kurwin.

I see London, I see France... what do you see? Heard a great sermon today on Hagar naming God; "the God who sees."

Loving the brief lazy days of summer.