thinning veil

home

2009-07-01T20:23:00.004-06:00

My first glimpse of the Valley was exhilarating. I half-slept through the flight from Houston. The delightful George Bush Airport provided me with an overpriced but delicious bloody mary, a cup of mediocre starbucks coffee and a Texas-style welcome,

any inappropriate jokes or comments about airport security may result in your arrest

On the first day back, we went out in the revised 4-runner only to have the radiator blow in front of the bike store. We purchased Z's new tubes and had lunch, then walked across Gallivan Plaza as a huge wind blew over tables and chairs. We waited in the wind for the train, then took the bus from Ballpark.

Last night, another of the new tubes blew when Z and I took a ride in the evening. New tires needed.

It's been a week since London. I still don't know what to say.

i was dreaming...

2009-06-29T19:40:00.003-06:00

It strikes me that I know so little...

Nothing makes much sense after you lose or gain eight hours...I am solid and fluid...don't know what makes sense when I remove all the markers that designate "I am"...

Konec

2009-06-22T17:13:00.015-06:00

Faded fresco

Pavlína, Zipy, and Aleš

Tomáš and me

House on Pod Svatobar
The PAP factory
Andělíček door
Andělíček
Sušice

Last night I walked home to the Halek apartment along a street I hadn't walked before. I passed the PAP factory and had the eerie but somehow comforting feeling of having passed that way in a dream. Sometimes I am struck by how familiar I find Sušice and this region of Czech Republic I have known for only a short time.

Perhaps this feeling would pass if I stayed longer, but some days it feels like I know this place, like I might belong here.

Today I walked past the factory in the light and took these pictures. There are a few beautiful, ancient houses on the corner where a trail to Svatabor begins. I have admired them several times on my way up the mountain so I paused to take some photos.

The owner of one stepped outside to see what I was doing and looked at me angrily. I realized it was intrusive of me. But I could not resist recording the walk.

Instead of turning from Pod Svatobor down toward Kapličky, I walked a ways further, beyond the Svatobor path. There I encountered a lady feeding four sorry looking cats on the roof of a beat up car.

Her house also was ancient. A faded fresco adorned one wall. A pigeon was roosting above it.

I spent my last day finally hiking to Andělíček, the church on the hill above Sušice. It is a short, uphill hike that Leigha had not taken. Afterward we met Tomáš for garlic soup at Fialka. He and I were supposed to drive to Prague today, but he is feeling ill. Velka škoda. I hope he will feel better in the morning.

I took the walk home just before the rain started. It has not stopped.

Tomáš drove me to Pavlína's house and I said good-bye to her family and to Aleš. It is very difficult to say good-bye to her. Afterward, Aleš drove Leigha and me back to Fialka for a farewell with some other Czech friends: Marie, Dominik, Klarka, Tatiane, Marketa, Helena and Roman (with the wee Marketa and Matiaš), and Tereza, who will be traveling to Salt Lake in October. We had intended to meet at Santos, but the rain precluded that. It was very nice to see all of these good people before I leave.

Now it's very late and the rain is wild outside, like a winter storm. I have the heat on. I'm drinking coffee. I don't know why. Perhaps I want to sustain the last hours here.

Moje Kamarádka

2009-06-15T05:45:00.004-06:00

Up the Hill

2009-06-03T10:32:00.010-06:00

On Monday I finally got up to Svatabor with Leigha. These are photos of my walk from home through Sušice.

We started climbing on the other side of town.

It had rained in the morning but the sun was coming up.

I had a drink and then we climbed up the tower, from which you can see all as far as Prague on a clear day.

We walked right down the road from Svatabor and ended up 5 km from Sušice in this beautiful little village called Odolenov. Tomáš came to pick us up, happily.

When we got back to Sušice, Tomáš, Jana and I went to dinner, and were joined by Steve and Allie.

The First of June

2009-06-01T11:30:00.004-06:00

I am feeling ill. Škoda! The sun is out and I want to go meet folks in the square, but I think sanity will prevail and take me to bed. At least I have some good Czech movies to watch. In the morning early I will go to the dentist. Tomáš has kindly offered to escort me.

Yesterday I went to Pisek with Steve. Another lovely adventure. Today Leigha and I hiked to Svatobor and accidentally walked down the mountain to another town. Tomáš picked us up, saving us from a very long trek home.

Pictures tomorrow.

Volšovy

2009-05-30T07:19:00.018-06:00

On Wednesday, when we visited Kadov, the sun was shining. The day before and every day since, it has been raining in Sušice and apparently, all over the Czech Republic. Vladka sent me an email saying that the sun came out for my visit.

Do you recognize, when you meet someone for the fist time, something in the eyes that is deeper than color or kindness? Like God, I suppose, for those who call the spirit God.

Last night, I met Marie Hrečínová Prodanová, an incredible woman who is the Castelanka at the castle in Volšovy, about 2 km from Sušice. She welcomed us to a gathering organized by one of our hosts, Roman Makerlík. Steve had visited Volševy with Roman on Tuesday night, while I was teaching Helena, Roman's wife, and several other Czechs in my first-ever ELL writing class.

Our lovely potluck gathering included six of our students and many of our Czech hosts. I made a fruit salad and Steve made a green salad with tuna. Marie provided several varieties of čaj (tea) and coffee. Families brought home-made dishes that can best be described as Czech pizza (which Pavlína made) and spanikopita (which Helena made) and the BEST little kolačichs, prepared by Radka. These are wee pastries made with plum preserves and cottage cheese and soaked in buttered rum, rolled in sugar. You cannot imagine how good they tasted and how much I suffered through the night for my indulgence.

From our arrival, the students were involved with our Czech friends, translating stories, playing chess, taking photos, and playing with the children. I am so impressed with this group of Americans, proof that we are not all hamburgers and guns.

Marie and her family have been renovating the state-owned Volšovy castle, which dates back to the 12^th century, since 2001. In the mid 19th century, the castle was occupied by a count and countess who eventually bequeathed it to the Catholic Church, and became a nunnery.

From what I understand, the castle housed an orphanage until the onset of communism, under which it became an army barracks. The soldiers sacked the place. It was abandoned until Maria and her family began the restoration.

The castle and its gardens now serve as a community center. The organization hosts art and theater workshops and offers the sleeping quarters to anyone who wants to stay. One wing is a nightly homeless shelter (Sušice has approximately 10 homeless people).

I spent last night in one of the castle’s beautifully renovated dorm rooms with Jay, David, and Emily, three of our American students, and my sweet Czech friends, Pavlína and Aleš. (It seems to be an adventure that Czechs enjoy, visiting a new place and spending the night.)

I met Pavlína last year and was adopted by her family. She calls me her “Mom”, which is odd because I’m Z’s mom, but I’ve begun to accept that designation—I represent for her something good about America, which in all its irony, gives me a bittersweet gladness. Aleš has been part of Project “New Eyes” since the first year in 2007.

Aleš and Pavlína met a week ago during Dne Sušice through Brian and Sindra and are now one of the cutest couples ever. Steve teased them about spending their honeymoon in Salt Lake City.

After suffering an hour with a painful tooth, I slept well and hard.

David planned to catch a 6:00 am bus back to Chanovice and I heard him leave the room around 5:30. Then he came back in and told me that we were locked in the castle. By 8:00, we were all ready to leave, but there was no way out. Finally, I knocked on the door of Maria’s apartment. A big dog started barking and she came out to unlock the door for us, still groggy from sleep.

We called Steve to pick us up, but when he found us on the road, I decided to just walk back with Aleš and Pavlína.

They turned off the river path to go to Pavlína’s house and I kept walking into town. A drop-in Czech writing class was scheduled for 9 am in the radnice, but no one showed. I called Tomaš and he and Jana met Steve and me for breakfast at Fialka. Another delightful morning of language discussion ensued and then I came back to Tomaše’s apartment where I have been writing and laundering and pondering God.

In all of these beautiful Czech eyes—Vladka, Pavlína, Maria, Tomaše, Radka, Helena, Roman, Aleš—I see God, spirit, love.

Steve was giving Tomaš a hard time for not providing me with a working dvd player and meals every day. “What are you giving her?” he asked.

“We love her,” Tomaš said, that mischievous smile working as he echoed Steve’s words back to him, “I thought it was all about the relationships.”

Day Trip

2009-05-27T16:53:00.005-06:00

Steve, Lucy, Vladka and the Foal
The yearling and the pony who wanted to eat my purse
Katka with the Shaggy Arabian mare

Prachatice
Vimperk

Today Steve and I took an auto tour of some nearby towns. We stopped briefly in Vimperk and then ate lunch in Prachatice. We had stumbled upon this beautiful town last year. Like Sušice, Prachatice calls itself the "Gateway to the Šumava". Both Vimperk and Prachatice had primarily German populations before WWII, which is reflected in their architecture.

We had coffee in Volyně, a smaller town with what I would call a round, rather than a square.

Finally, we landed in Kadov, where I rejoiced in reuniting with Vladka and her family. Vladka was wearing the necklace I gave her last year and told me she never takes it off. After a pivo and čaj (beer and tea) and tasty treats prepared by Vladka's daughter, Katka, we walked with both of them to Lucy's place to see her horses. She has Shetland ponies and "Shaggy Arabians", both of whom had yearlings and foals.

As we walked through the field, they came galloping over a little rise toward us. The sun was low in the afternoon sky. Here words are not adequate to represent the beauty of that moment. They greeted us, dipping their faces toward ours. The shetlands leaned up against me, searching out any possible apples I may've been hiding. I wished I had some to offer, but all the horses were content with scratches and petting. The foal nipped my thigh.

I will be headed back to Kadov after the program ends and I look forward to a few days of village life with the good people there.

Czech Word

2009-05-26T04:36:00.004-06:00

The most common word in the Czech language is "tak", which means so or well.

first day of PNE '09

2009-05-17T02:18:00.008-06:00

Yesterday kicked off the Project with the opening "party" at the Socalovna. It had rained through the night and continued through the morning. When we emerged, the sun had, too, in a blue sky that complemented the orange-ish tone of Sušice.

My camera died on Easter, so it will be awhile before I can post any new pictures, but here is one from last year (for the flavor).

on sestinas, angelica, and then what?

2009-05-13T01:12:00.004-06:00

Something got me thinking about sestinas which led me back to thinking about Craig Arnold.

Apparently, he fell down the incline and is presumed dead. Now his last day's web writings keep recurring to me. His discussion of ashitaba, or angelica as we know it, explains that the plant he'd previously found floating in his soup is from the same family as anise, cilantro, and Queen Anne's Lace. And hemlock.

Earlier in the day, he alludes to the danger of the volcano itself, later of being drawn to this danger. The larger context of the quote I posted last week has him saving the life of a "mongoose or weasel", but not his "own".

I noticed that Craig was bound home On April 26, when he updated his facebook status. This was really the first time I'd paid attention to what he was doing in Japan. What I've tried to say about reading his blog can't describe the impression it has made. I am humbled to be reintroduced to the poet in this moment.

May you never be sad again, Craig Arnold.

I remember Craig's fascination with and skill for writing in form, which rather anti-climatically brings me back to the sestina. I believe that in the late 90's there was a general reviving embrace of meter and rhyme, while simultaneously, poets of the language school persuasion continued to articulate an altogether unstructured relationship to words.

Time passes. I am stuck in my own days' patterns. I have retrained my brain to look for evidence, for the persuasive buildup to that oh-so-unsatisfying conclusion.

Words are everything and nothing. Ashes. Dust. But then, umbellifer!

Elizabeth Bishop's famous "Sestina" still gets to me. Today I found another by Albert Goldbarth. This seemed a fitting poem to discover the day of my departure, which will be an unraveling and a suture. Good night.

Sestina: As There Are Support Groups, There Are Support Words

The name of his native country pronounced on a distant shore
could not please the ears of a traveller more than hearing
the words “nitrogen,” “oxidation of iron” and “hygrometer.”
—Alexander von Humboldt, nineteenth-century scientist-explorer

by Albert Goldbarth

When visiting a distant (and imponderable) shire,
one longs to hear the cry “Hygrometer!
Fresh hygrometer for sale!” Yes, and when the fair
sex sidles close and coyly murmurs “nitrogen”
into a burly masculine ear, I guarantee you: the translation
is very easy. The allurements of a local siren,

whispering the kind of patois a traveler like Lord Byron
favors, never fail to comfort, and to reassure,
evoking pleasant memories of one’s own beloved hygrometer
at home, kept fresh in Cosmoline and camphor
and awaiting one’s rearrival back in his native xenon and nitrogen.
Without these occasional reminiscences, any translation

from nation to nation, tongue to tongue, becomes a translation
difficult to sustain. I think of my grandmother: “We're not hirin’
today” “Go away” “Dumb Jew”—her share
of the language that greeted her here in the land of alien hygrometer
and freedom, where she was only one more funny-skirted for-
eigner yearning to hear a lulling Hungarian nitrogen

hum her to sleep. Eventually, of course, the American nitrogen
sufficed. Her daughter could speak, in free translation,
both uranium and argon; and her granddaughter gigs with Fire ’n
Ice, a skinhead punk-grunge group that performs in sheer
black nighties and clown wigs—she plays mean electric hygrometer
in the first set and then, for a twofer,

(very American, that) plays paper-and-comb. Far
out. She’s so fluent in various World Wide Webbery that nitrogen
in a thousand different inflections is her birthright, and almost any translation,
mind to mind, gender to gender, is second nature. “I earn
my keep, I party, I sleep” is her motto. Though she’s for-
tunate in having a lover who’s CEO at Hygrometer,

Potassium, Klein & Wong: it helps to pay the “hygrometer
man” when he knocks at the door. I won’t say that they fear
this guy exactly, but he’s a major badass nitrogen-
sucking cyberwired ninja-kicking shitheel (or, translation:
call him Sir). It makes one pine for a land where the birds all choir in
sweetly trilling melodies on a flower-scented shore,

and a translation sings all night. Row gen-
tly toward it. The tender forests sigh, and the soft whirr
of the hygrometer promises oxidation of iron.

Albert Goldbarth, “Sestina: As There Are Support Groups, There Are Support Words” from Saving Lives. Copyright © 2001 by Albert Goldbarth. Reprinted with the permission of The Ohio State University Press, www.ohiostatepress.org.

Source: Saving Lives (Ohio University Press, 2001)

one week minus one day

2009-05-07T18:42:00.003-06:00

Heading back to the Czech Republic in less than a week and I am mighty nervous tonight. In fact the last few days have been unusually anxiety-ridden. I suppose several factors contribute to this state of mind. Since grading was one, I will breathe out as I am finished (save one portfolio) with that task.

The one portfolio and its author are additional factors, but I am responsible for neither.

Another, and much more subtle factor is the disappearance of Craig Arnold. Days before his scheduled return from Japan, he went hiking on a small volcanic island called Kuchino-erabu-shima. He has been missing since April 26.

Craig and I were in graduate school at the same time and recently have been facebook friends, though other than noticing his updates, I have not communicated directly with him.

His disappearance is eerie. Awful for so many who are close to him. There has been a huge outpouring of support to continue the search after Japanese officials had called it off. Apparently, today there was reason for "cautious optimism".

This from the facebook page, Find Craig Arnold

5/7 3:51pm EST: Officials on Kuchino-erabu report that the search team from 1SRG spent all day yesterday following Craig's trail. They believe they have identified where Craig's tracks end at a steep incline. The team believes that Craig went down that incline but they do not believe it would necessarily be a fatal fall. Thanks to the Fund to Find Craig Arnold and the support of both U.S. and Japanese authorities, the family has been able to re-engage some of the original search team and at least one of the Fulbright volunteers on the island and they will rejoin the search today, coordinating with 1SRG, to try to determine if Craig is somewhere near that incline, and/or where his trail leads from there. We are cautiously but determinedly optimistic, and we are overwhelmed with gratitude to the search team, the local Japanese authorities, the Fulbright volunteers, and all those who have been contributing so generously to this effort as it continues.

Breathe out again.

Kinda.

So, I'm going to take a long bike ride this weekend. And I'm going to a bon voyage party tomorrow night with many of my favorite people.

I will keep thinking about Craig's last posts on Volacano Pilgrim

Danger has a way of cutting through melancholy, the real fear blinding you to the fear dimly imagined. If you could only always just escape death, you would never be sad again.

2009-05-06T11:23:00.009-06:00

“The aim is to listen and learn about the struggles, the resistance and rebel movements, support them and bind them together to build a national anti-capitalist, leftist program.”

~Subcomandante Marcos

Beehive Tradition

2008-11-28T10:42:00.003-07:00

Kindness, Grace and I went to the Beehive Tearoom via TRAX last Saturday. When they were very young (I believe Grace was three or four and Ki a few years older), we began this tradition. Grace and Ki are both Open Classroom kids and Lisa, the owner of the Beehive was (is?) an OC mom.

I loved indulging their sweeteeth and listening to the world as they know it.

source

2008-11-28T10:31:00.001-07:00

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.

~J. Krishnamurti

who knows?

2008-09-10T09:12:00.003-06:00

Apparently, Palin's alleged effort to ban books was merely an inquiry, according to factcheck.org and Newsweek. But Palin's own words demonstrate that she lied when she claimed that her response to Washington was "thanks but no thanks" for the so-called "road to nowhere". Video of the vp nominee calling the bridge "progress"..when she originally endorsed it (and apparently, kept the federal money).

Surprises

2008-09-08T10:30:00.010-06:00

The right turned the 2008 rhetoric upside down again with Sarah Palin's nomination, once again distracting us from some seriously scary stuff.

Amy Goodman and two other Democracy Now! folks were arrested last week during the RNC, along with hundreds of other activists and passers-by. The police raided homes where people were organizing under the title, RNC Welcoming Committee. Another group, I-Witness, was there to record police behavior during the convention. Of those arrested, eight were charged with conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism. They face up to eight years in prison.

It's not democracy if we can't dissent.

Today a neighbor sent out a list of the books that then-mayor Sarah Palin requested the local Wassila library to ban. The list included James and the Giant Peach and the 9th edition of Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. According to TIME, who interviewed Palin's friend and former opponent,

"The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor.

This is the woman who is going to rein in Washington? Get the government out of regular people's lives?

I don't know what they're doing, but some say Palin is "bringing back the base" and may secure a win for McCain. A recent poll even showed McCain ahead of Obama. It's kinda fun, isn't it? Liking watching a rigged horse race, maybe. You know it's all a sham, but you can appreciate the moves.

In other news, Gustav did not impact New Orleans like Katrina, but now Ike threatens. The hurricane battered Cuba with 5-story tsunami high waves. If it hits the coast it will be the sixth consecutively named hurricane to make contact this season.

I dreamed about New Orleans last night. Why are so many who evacuated having such trouble getting home?

And here in Zion, I did something I never thought I'd do--I accompanied Z on a youth chukar hunt sponsored by the Division of Wildlife. It was a good time, surprisingly enough. We went with one of the Division guys and his dogs, Jack and Doll. He was very helpful and a safe hunter. The dogs were amazing, running with their tongues lolling out of their mouths and then suddenly stopping, completely alert and pointing at a scruff of bush. A mom and dad and a 10-year old girl also walked with us. She was a novice but both of her parents are avid outdoors folks--he hunts deer with black-powder muzzleloaders but she prefers her rifle. I was so relieved to be with pleasant people who knew what they were doing. My son is one of them. He's an excellent shot and a safe hunter. He got two birds that are now freezing downstairs.

When we first got to the site, outside Tooele, I was really nervous. Then the "educator", Gene, hearing that I was not a shooter, insisted that I shoot some clays with his shotgun. I shattered the second clay.

I probably won't become a hunter (unless necessity requires it someday), but it meant a lot to Z that I went with him. And to me.

then, again...

2008-09-01T14:53:00.002-06:00

...the Nader Team has this to say:

Obama, Carter, Israel -- Ralph Nader for President in 2008

Posted using ShareThis

"Storm of the Century"

2008-08-31T10:02:00.006-06:00

Hurricane Gustav heads for Louisiana after slamming Cuba. The mainstream media's primary interest in the storm seems to be how it will affect the Republican National Convention. The Bush/Cheney twin-headed monster will not attend the RNC.

Meanwhile, Mayor Ray Nagin has issued evacuation warnings and some forecasters suggest that Gustav will be more powerful than Katrina. Nagin reports that the National Weather Service warns we've never seen a storm with this hurricane's intensity. Gustav hit Cuba as a Category 4, and is predicted to pick up speed.

The talking heads also are claiming that McCain's announcement of his choice for VP, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, trumped Obama's speech. If we're playing gender/race tit-for-tat, I have to disagree, on many levels. However, I don't have the energy to talk about that right now.

I'm a little more interested in Gustav. I've read only one article about the storm's impact on Cuba. Luckily, the death toll was low. Sadly not so for Gustav's impact on Haiti and Jamaica. From what I understand, Cuba's coffee crop was devastated.

In the Gulf Coast, the oil and natural gas industries shut down 3/4 of their operations on Saturday. Analysts predict that Gustav will create a catastrophe in energy production in the region.

The other day I watched a piece about the people who had rebuilt their homes in Chantilly. I can't imagine living through the past three years, slowly rebuilding under the mismanagement of FEMA and the predatory behavior of contractors, then having to leave everything behind to another, possibly fiercer storm. At least Louisiana seems better prepared for Gustav, as far as getting people out. If Gustav hits with the ferocity expected, however, there is little hope for New Orleans.

The Rhetoric of Hope

2008-08-29T10:04:00.012-06:00

Just about every three election cycles, hope nudges cynicism aside. Though I joined the chant, "Insane Anglo Warlord" along Ronald Wilson Reagan's parade route through Salt Lake City, four years later I found Candidate Reagan much more inspiring than his Democratic rival, the bland Walter Mondale. I wanted to believe Reagan's grandfatherly promises. His old-Hollywood charm, though not convincing, was seductive.

In 1984, after one term of Granddad Ronnie, I cast my first vote for Mondale, the obvious loser. I had deliberated in the ballot booth over my decision, tempted to vote for Angela Davis. At the time, I was assured by older friends that I'd done the right thing in voting for the blander of evils, rather than wasting my vote on a complete impossibility.

Four years later, though Dukakis' campaign included Geraldine Ferraro as his historical lady VP, the democrats lost again and Bushco came to power. I will never forget the incomprehensible cowardice Dukakis displayed when, accused of being a "card-carrying liberal", he did not defend the accusation with pride, and helped the term "liberal" diminish in rhetorical status, exactly the project of the right's attack.

When Candidate Clinton came along, a new-style dem with his powerhouse wife and notorious ladykiller charm, presidential rhetoric shifted again. In 1992, Clinton defeated Bush Sr. by adopting more and more of the right's agenda while carefully packaging himself as the president for change, just as Reagan had packaged himself as a return to family values (and thus, a change from Carter's liberal presidency) three election cycles earlier.

While unconvinced that Candidate Clinton would deliver on his campaign promises, I once again wanted to believe them. He promised he would transform healthcare and that a national conversation about gay rights might finally emerge--he promised to open the military to gays. Of course, I voted for "Slick Willy," a nickname he capably inhabited over his two presidential terms. He introduced the ridiculous "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in response to his promises about gays in the military and quickly set in motion the disastrous ideas that initiated the healthcare crisis with which we continue to struggle today. And Clinton continued to help multinational corporations transform global economic structures, eradicating the rights and subsistence of peoples around the globe.

At the end of Clinton's disappointing reign, and on the heels of a radically evolving global progressive movement, the 2000 election cycle loomed as a pivotal race. A new, independent media was emerging in coalition with the global progressive movement. Internationally, resistance to the policies of organizations like the World Bank and the World Trade Organization was rising with a force that alarmed those profiting from these policies.

We were seeing increasingly brutal attempts to shut down resistance while the new media subverted corporate control of access to information, independently publishing news of progressive resistance across the world.

Four years before the 2000 cycle, the billionaire candidate Ross Perot challenged the two-party system with surprising success. Ralph Nader, also a candidate in 1996, had a solid reputation as a citizen activist and clear thinker, established over decades. When the Greens announced the Nader/LaDuke ticket, the time seemed ripe for truly progressive independent candidates, especially candidates as well-versed in Citizenship as Nader and Winona LaDuke.

The Ralph Nader/Winona LaDuke ticket reinvigorated hope once again. I no longer bought the lesser of evils argument for casting a vote for the democrat. By then I knew my Utah vote had minimal impact, and Nader/LaDuke had a shot, at best, to pull in 5% of the popular vote. I was just tired of evils. This old white guy's in bed with everything bad for the people, but that old white guy's paying for it, so choose the first guy and we'll just hope the savior runs next time.

Nader/LaDuke offered a genuine alternative by openly addressing the real crises in the U.S. at the century's end. Like the 1996 campaigns, the Nader/LaDuke ticket exposed the two-party myth of choice. They called on citizens to take up active citizenship. In a campaign dwarfed by the major parties' monies, Nader/LaDuke took a minute, but significant percentage of the popular vote.

Of course, Nader has been the scapegoat of the democrats ever since, blamed for Al Gore's loss of the presidency to George W. Bush. I take the perspective that the Bushites bought that election fair and square, as the Supreme Court ruled. And then John Kerry helped them steal the 2004 election.

Nader is scapegoated for Bush's reign because he insisted on talking about (and continues to talk about) the corporate underpinnings of today's two-party government. Since 2000, the Bushites have effectively cemented the control of that system by establishing unfettered federal and executive powers. Consider the "change" we've seen since the 2006 election that shifted power to the democrats. What is Nancy Pelosi's first move? Taking impeachment off the table!

But simultaneously, Nader is scapegoated because we'd rather have a fallguy and long for a savior than take responsibility for our own country. Which brings us to 2008.

I voted for Kucinich in the primaries because he is one of the few democrats who doesn't pose as a progressive, he behaves progressively, as his voting record demonstrates. (I know he is too short and too honest to be the president of the United States, but I hope he stays in the senate.) Kucinich used the bulk of his time in the DNC spotlight to exhort us, the citizens of the United States of America, to wake up and understand that our failing economy, our rising prices, dilapidated infrastructure, and disappearing liberties--are the result of the corrupt corporate system we continue to support.

Kucinich's speech ended with an endorsement (if somewhat oblique) of Candidate Obama. I have not entertained voting for Ralph Nader this year, a choice that doesn't reflect any disdain for his campaign. I have considered voting for the Green candidate, Cynthia McKinney. But I've decided that my 2008 vote goes to Barack Obama.

As I've mentioned in the past, I don't think Obama is a savior. But that's exactly why I'm voting for him. His campaign offers the hope, at least rhetorically, that we might stop waiting for the next savior and start taking back our country.

I'm voting for Obama because (unlike "The Decider"), his rhetoric suggests that he sees the presidency as a trust from the American people. Rather than wishing for a dictatorship, Obama is willing to, and capable of taking on the complicated task of leadership. While I'm not sure what Obama's leadership will look like, I know McCain is happy to monger war all over the globe. Today we learn that his leadership might end up in the hands of a self-pronounced "hockey mom" who wants to drill in ANWR.

At the least, Obama's presidency will sound better than a McCain presidency. As a speaker, Obama sounds musical compared to Bush and to most other public figures today. His carefully choreographed campaign presents a highly rational thinker, another quality that suggests at least an intellectual shift from the last eight years. While his courage is yet to be fully tested, so far Obama smears democratic predecessors like Michael Dukakis, and "heroes" like his opponent. He responds to the slams and slurs directly. He calmly refuses to let his family be insulted, or his integrity challenged.

The most persuasive aspect of his campaign is the diverse following of dedicated, educated, and progressive supporters. As Amy Goodman suggests, the hope of Obama's campaign is not that he will save us from corporate politics--clearly he won't--but that the strength of conviction his campaign has inspired in the populace will lead America to demand that, as president, Obama listens and acts in the interest of the people. As citizens, we are responsible for making that happen.

Perhaps I'm choosing the lesser evil, once again, but this time, something else has shifted. The greater evil's threat is so obvious it's almost absurd. While I hear Obama's rhetoric about Afghanistan--need we say Zbignew?--his stance against the war in Iraq is emphatic while McCain has assured us that he's happy with 100 more years of the occupation.

McCain's bad reputation even among his friends, not to mention his ridiculous gaffes and snafoos, confirm my suspicion that the republicans intend to lose (especially given the weird VP choice) and that Bushco won't wander far from the power they've established, regardless of who lives in the White House.

I also was sadly disappointed to hear Obama's DNC acceptance speech "promises" about "alternative" energy sources, which confirms Ralph Nader's indictment of the two-party system as inherently corrupted by corporate interests. I agree with Dennis Kucinich that we need to WAKE UP to that control. But Kucinich's endorsement further challenges me to see Obama's campaign through a hopeful lens.

I can believe that Obama represents the possibility of a different national rhetoric, an opportunity for a new national conversation. I can hope that the supporters he inspired will hold him to his promises throughout his presidency and take responsibility as citizens to be the change they want to see. I can foresee that without doubt, McCain, the ludicrous but sole alternative to Obama, will grind us into dust.

the race

2008-08-29T01:29:00.007-06:00

As President, I will tap our natural gas preserves, invest in clean coal technology, and ways to safely harness nuclear power.

~Barack Obama, DNC, Aug. 28, 2008

Home

2008-06-28T16:36:00.003-06:00

In Czech Republic, I would find myself singing, "Home--is where I want to be, but I guess I'm already there," and I continue to sing it here in Salt Lake City.

The freakish reality of living in America confounds me.

Yet, I am glad to be here in the vast west. I know this landscape, here in the desert basin of the former salt lake. I love the heat and the dry air and the people who occupy my heart.

3

2008-06-27T11:36:00.005-06:00

I recently visited my sister's blog, Chaos on the Head, which I have not seen for a while--my loss.

Courtney's most recent post is her response to this blog-challenge:

Need to list: 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random, surprising facts about yourself. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names. Let them know they are being tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So she tagged me. I started this response yesterday, but it's hard to think about these things--well, fears & goals and surprising bits, mainly. Joys were easy.

3 Joys

1) Toast with almond butter and honey

2) A cool house on a hot day

3) Camping in the high Uintas with G & Z

3 Fears

1) That I'll never figure out what I'm supposed to be doing.

2) The North Pole, in all likelihood, will be ice-free this summer. (ICE FREE!!! THE NORTH POLE!!!)

3) That it's all over now, and all for oil.

3 Goals

1) To pay attention

2) To write a good book

3) To let my "love be more influential"

3 Current Obsessions/Collections

1) Photographs

2) I am obsessed by most things Czech

3) My obsession with Czech-ness led me on an internet exploration that turned ugly. Last year, a gruesome and complicated crime took place in a town outside Brno, one of the CR's largest cities. I won't describe it here, but for several ungodly hours, this case became an obsession. If you want to foul your mind, or if you have no wish to foul your mind but are curious beyond caution, explore this depravity on your own.

3 Random/Surprising Bits about Me

1) At one point when I was very young, I danced every day during the summer for several hours. I danced jazz, modern and ballet. That summer I danced in point shoes, and my toes would regularly bleed through the pink satin.

2) One branch of my family can trace its lineage back to Rollo the Viking.

3) I believe I have a memory of consciousness prior to acquiring language.

Okay, the end. Tag: Jen, Hildur, Danna, Jennifer, and Liz.

Back in the U.S.A.

2008-06-23T11:16:00.007-06:00

One week and one day. I am still readjusting. Zane transformed while I was away. Beautifully.

Saturday night, under one of those amazing Utah skies, I waited with Jen for Ani to come on stage. Then she did (after a guy from Wales whose name I am at present too lazy to look up); she was lovely and inspiring, as expected. We waited for an hour in the sun, but with Jen, all is enjoyable.

Z & G went fishing that day and we had trout for breakfast Sunday.

This morning I am sitting in the Coffee Garden. I had a brief conversation with Mr. Brill, whom I only see on the occasion that I find myself in this place. He is, as ever, very entertaining. He reminded me of my 16-year-old self, the one he knew way back when in the 80's. According to Brill, I was hyper-aggressive and amusing.

Here I like the the classical music and the free wi-fi. And the people watching, kinda. I miss hearing Czech in the background and the ease with which it allows me to tune out conversations I have no business overhearing.

Good-bye Czech Republic!

2008-06-14T16:27:00.010-06:00

Kadov

2008-06-12T03:54:00.003-06:00

I have been in Kadov with the family Tomanova since Monday evening. Vladka, my host, is the mayor of this village and the head of a coalition of 32 villages in this area. She lives here with her husband, Karel called Mike, and their two children, Karel and Katka. Mike is a wood-worker, a fisher, and a welder, which of course, makes me think of Porge.

The family lives in a 4-plex that was built during communism to house farmworkers. (Apparently, since the Czech Republic joined the EU, things have gone downhill for farmers as big corporations dominate the production of food, especially livestock products like milk.) The family (rodina) Tomanova has a fairly spacious, comfortable flat that they have improved by enlarging the bathroom and living area and adding lovely wood paneling. They live in the garden, though, according to Vladka, where they grow everything from lettuce to nectarines. Mike built a garden house where they like to eat. He also made a grill-smoker that I think George would envy.

Tuesday I rode the bus with Katka to school in Chanovice. There I helped a young woman in the info center translate the castle tour and the skanzen tour into English, which felt like contributing something! Yesterday, I slept for the entire day, which I must have needed. I was feeling so run down and rather ill.

Vladka took very good care of me. I feel at home here. She is a very interesting, hardworking woman, about my age. I hope I can do something to contribute to her English learning. Mike said if we come back next year that George, Zane, and I are welcome to stay in Kadov.

I hope we all will be here next year. George and Zane went to Strawberry last weekend and apparently, it snowed Saturday morning. But Zane caught two rainbow trout and one 17-inch brown! Woo-hoo!! I can´t wait to see my boys.

Last week, I wrote in my journal that something was pulling me to Kadov, but I had no idea what it was. On Monday, Vladka said, Life brings us the people we need to meet. I think I was meant to meet her and to spend my last week in the Czech Republic in this little village.

Photos: Cěsky Krumlov and Prachatice

2008-06-09T06:58:00.003-06:00

Projektu Noví Ochí Končí

2008-06-08T11:25:00.007-06:00

Not sure I got that title right, but the translation should be Project New Eyes Finishes...

Last night we had our closing party, and it was a fabulous close to this strange adventure. Sadie designed a beautiful display of the photos Dave took in January of the kids in the Dětský Domov in Kašperský Hory. She, Luboš, and some other helpers had asked the kids to talk about their photos. The Czech quotes and English translations were displayed beneath each photo.

Michael Kaly's project also was displayed. In Chanovice, he had kids write essays about themselves in English.

I gave a little speech in broken Czech. Steve also presented his closing in Czech,

much less haltingly.

We had music from Mara, Maya, Martina, and Erin, then Illegal Beagle took the stage. They rock. It was great to see them for the first time so far from home. A Czech metal band called Thin Ice closed the evening. They had their own muse, a woman dancing in leather studded pants. Hmmm....

I did not take photographs last night, which was kinda nice. Dave, Alice, and Lucia went back to the Dětský Domov to take more pictures yesterday and then came to the party last night. With his permission, I'll post some of his images later.

I stayed in Sušice, after all, and will travel to Kadov tomorrow. My last week in the Czech Republic will be spent getting to know another Czech family. I am looking forward to living in the country and learning about life in Kadov.

Today I said a very tearful farewell to Pavlina and her mother. I do not understand why I had an impact on them. Her mother treated me like a daughter and Pavlina told me that I was a second mother to her.

My mom & dad are on their way to Ghost Ranch. They suggested that I should post more photos of myself, but I don't have many, really. Here's one of Sadie, me and Pavlina in the tower of the Mětsky Urad (CityHall) here in Sušice.

More Photos

2008-06-04T01:03:00.006-06:00

From top to bottom: James and Símona; Tomaš and James; Maya, Jane, and Erin; Steve and his golden locks; fly-fishing on the Otava; Henry and others at the Socalovna welcoming on Sunday, June 1; Martina; Mouřenec, a 13th century church above Annin--pictured here is the ossuary; Maya, Sam, and Mirka dancing during a language lesson workshop; one of the windows of the Mountain Synagogue in Hartmanice.

last week of PNE

2008-06-03T10:59:00.013-06:00

Well, the young'ns arrived on Sunday with Mike Polacek. Seeing Henry and Keenan made me miss Zane immensely. I understand from him that the chickens are thriving, he and G are casting and blasting, and that life in the commons is unsurprisingly weed-focused.

Here in Sušice, I'm learning more about day-to-day life for Czechs. I've met a wonderful young woman named Pavlína, whom I hope will be able to return with me to Salt Lake City next

year. Her mother has welcomed me with home-cooked meals and big motherly hugs.

Our page in the newspaper came out in the paper last week, but the image of me was Pinhead Heather, as you can see. It matters not. We have another deadline tomorrow for the issue that will be released the weekend I

leave to come home.

Home is sounding sweet these days--real mountains, loved ones, good red wine. I feel some ambivalence about leaving, of course, and before I leave, more adventures await.

Tomorrow, I will visit České Krumlov, which has a reputation as a jewel of a town here in CZ. On Thursday, I will move to Kadov, about five kilometers from Chanovice. There I will be living with the Mayor of the village, a woman named Vladomíra Tomanová.

You may notice that all Czech women's names end in ová. For example, I stayed with the family Trnkovi in Lazny. Vaček Trnkov is the name of the father and Melina Trnková is the mother's name. My Czech is laughable, but I'm determined to learn.

Happy Birthday, Jon!

2008-05-30T02:16:00.003-06:00

Now Jon is 41, too! Yay! I know there will be a big party at the Glenn house tonight--tomorrow morning for me--and I will be thinking of those beautiful friends of mine back in the City of Salt. Next May I hope we are celebrating 42 in Czech Republic together!!!

The Shelley House

2008-05-29T13:12:00.012-06:00

After our rather harrowing day in Hartmanice, we took a crazy road trip with Mark Shelley to the beautiful country home where he lives with his wife, Janete, and their kids, Meagan & Abe. They were exquisite hosts. Their place is like a fairy tale cottage in the woods, surrounded by Janete's magical garden.

They're building a new addition to the house of antique brick. The plan includes an antfarm in the the wall, a bird's nest in Meagan's room, and of course, amazing views of the forest.

Hartmanice

2008-05-29T06:52:00.005-06:00

PNE visited Hartmanice on Monday and we held our class in the Synagogue. Here are a few images of the day, including the PNE '08 group, the Bloch house, and the farm (top two & bottom) where 12 women died on the Death March from Auschwitz.

2008-05-28T06:27:00.003-06:00

How could we forget those ancient myths that stand at the beginning of all races--the myths about dragons that at the last moment are tranformed into princesses. Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are only princeses waiting for us to act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.

So you must not be frightened if a sadness rises before you larger than any you've ever seen, if an anxiety like light and cloud shadows moves over your hands and everything you do. You must realize that something has happened to you; that life has not forgotten you; it holds you in its hands and will not let you fall. Why do you want to shut out of your life any uneasiness, any miseries, or any depressions? For after all, you do not know what work these conditions are doing inside you.

~Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Scenes from Sušice

2008-05-25T13:45:00.005-06:00

One Night in Chanovice

2008-05-22T05:33:00.010-06:00

We went back to Chanovice last Saturday for a traditional woodcrafts fair at the Skanzen. With us were Sara and Tomaš (blue shirt), who had never been to the village. We met the town mayor, Petr Klasek (with long hair and a beard), who introduced us to Josef (in the red shirt), an excellent speaker of English who has been volunteering at the Skanzen for many years. A while later, Michael (short hair & beard) and Meredith (in the hat), arrived with Eva Smolikova, the headmistress of the schools, and wife of the Skanzen director. They had just come from Prague to Chanovice, where they are staying in the Dětský Domov, or Home for Children.

The mayor and his wife, Jarka, fed us tasty grilled fish and Josef later took us on a tour of the Skanzen. That night, we joined most of the people we'd met at the fair in one of the town pubs (in this town of 400, there are three). The mayor passed out rounds of some strange cherry liquor with eggnog shot, and we bought rounds for him, Josef and his parents, and the Skanzen director.

Josef invited us to spend the night in the Skanzen building that houses the project's volunteers. Steve, Sara, Tomaš, and I each had our own bunk and Josef let me use his pillow.

My available language today will not adequately describe the Chanovice adventure, but some of the photos might give you an impression.

2008-05-21T10:36:00.006-06:00

Life is daily full here but today I spent in the office writing and editing for our page in the local bi-weekly paper, the Sušicke Noviny. The paper will come out on May 30.

Erin, one of our students created caricatures of each of the PNE '08 participants and here's me.

Lazny photos

2008-05-19T07:02:00.008-06:00

My computer is not going to recover, and I've lost many photos. However, the good Steve is letting me use his to store what I've been shooting. So, here are two images of some of my "family" and fishing in Lazny.

Mountain Synagogue Hartmanice

2008-05-15T08:40:00.008-06:00

Today Steve and I drove to Hartmanice, a mountain town about 20 miles from Sušice. The area is close to the German border and in the winter, the snow can be as high as 2 meters. After World War II, all of the Germans in the town and the surrounding areas were expelled. Czechs were moved in to occupy the villages, but they were unprepared for the brutal winters, and most left. The villages were then used by the Czech government, as far as I understand, for target practice.

The restored Mountain Synagogue is now as a museum of the Czech, German, and Jewish history of the area. On the first floor, the walls show images of the surrounding villages in the thirties and forties. Beneath each image is another photo taken within the last few years. The barren landscapes show the complete disappearance of these thousand-year-old villages.

On the second floor, that thousand-year history is depicted with images and text in Czech and German. Czech history is drenched in sadness and today some of it came home to me today. When World War II was ending, the Nazis took about 700 women from Auschwitz and marched them 700 kilometers through Germany and into Hartmanice. "The Death March" was their way of "hiding" the concentration camp survivors. As they marched, without shoes through the winter landscape, women died and were buried in the forests, conveniently disposed. That way, the Nazis didn't have to hide 700 bodies. They stopped at various camps and more women joined the March. In Hartmanice, they spent a night on a farm, and 12 women died there who are now buried in the Jewish cemetary outside the village.

In the museum, a few videos are available. One plays the story of a woman, Eva Ehrben, now living in Israel, who managed to survive the March. I cannot describe the impact of her words. Tomorrow, I will try to post more about this amazing museum.

Sweetness

2008-05-12T06:52:00.004-06:00

I'm back in the Internet Cafe. When I came in, two students, Maya and Erin, were here. Steve's first class will start in about 30 minutes.

The macbook I've been using still lacks an operating system, so tonight, Brian will try to get one emailed. Then I can post photos. Yay! I have so many of the beautiful Stasin/Lazny area that I want to share with you green-deprived loved ones back in the states.

As I flew into CZ, I noticed fields of yellow dotting the green. Upon investigation and after asking many questions, I discovered that one source of the yellow is cultivated for a kind of kitchen oil and also used for a biofuel they mix with petroleum. The other source of lovely yellow is surprising to one who hails from a weed-obsessed community: dandelions. As far as I can tell (and I may be way off), dandelions are not considered to be pernicious pests like they are in the well-groomed lawn mentality of American landscapers.

Yesterday, I bid a tearful good-bye to my "family" in Lazny. I was surprised how much they seemed to like me after knowing me only 6 days. Melina, the mother, Veronika and Mikola all cried. They printed and framed a photo of all of us taken just hours before I left. Along with two souvenir cups of Stašin (which celebrated its 750 year anniversary in 2004), they presented me with the photo before I left.

This morning I was thinking about the impact they had on me, and that I seemed to have on them. Of course, we were all on our best behaviour, I'm sure, but how sweet to treat strangers with consideration, kindness, and a real desire to understand and to be understood. Melina had no English, and I no Czech, and yet somehow we communicated with each other. Somehow, we bonded.

What if, on a daily basis, we treated those with whom we share tradition and language--our own families--with that kind of attention?

Happy Birthday to Diana Lee

2008-05-09T04:32:00.003-06:00

Steve and I are in Susice today. Compared to Lazna (alternately Lazny and Lazna), Susice is the big city (population 11,000). On Monday, I will be moving here to an apartment near the town square.

The family hosting me in Lazny is wonderful. Yesterday they took me on a bit of a hike to see the father's home town in the Sumova forest. I was going to post photos today but my computer seems to have died. I'm typing now on Steve's. More soon.

Happy Birthday to my mother...you made it!

Photos of Praha

2008-05-07T07:57:00.004-06:00

Ahoj!

2008-05-07T07:21:00.006-06:00

In this internet cafe where I am typing, teenagers smoke cigarettes and drink Pilsner Urquel. Lou Reed, techno weirdness, and Johnny Cash play on the radio, punctuated by the monotone Czech dj. Steve and I drove to Chanovice (CH[as in chutzpa]AN-o-vi-sa) today, which is an absolutely beautiful small town of about 400 people. We met with the headmistress of the school, Eva. The school is in a castle that dates back to 1450. It was photo day at the school and one of the older classes was wearing black jeans and black t-shirts with the students' names written in red on the back of the shirts like concert dates.

Eva took us on a tour of her husband's dream project, the relocation of historic buildings to a site just outside of town. It's called a Skansen, which is an open-air museum. Each summer, high school and college students spend a month dismantling the buildings and bringing them to the Skansen, where they rebuild them.

The family with whom I am staying in Lanzy are very kind and speak little English. I communicate primarily through the two youngest daughters, Misca, 17, and Zuza, 13. What amazes me is how much we actually can communicate. Yesterday, the girls took me on a walk to their chapel with their friends, Karolina and Nikole. The chapel is called Kostel Pani Maria (the chapel of Mary). The Czech Republic is predominantly non-religious, and the chapel is more historical than religious. Near the chapel is a firehouse, where the kids practice for the fire brigade. I watched Zuza and Karolina run drills with fire hoses.

I've had little time to reflect because the days are full, but my mind has slowed considerably, which feels like peace.

first days

2008-05-03T16:49:00.023-06:00

Okay, readers (all three of you), here's the update on my travels thus far. Customs in SLC was happily smooth going. SLC to Chicago was fine. Then 9 hours to Munich. That flight was very comfortable--no one next to me and plenty of time to write and read, although I didn't sleep at all. In Munich, I raced from one side of the airport to the other, but was waylaid in Customs. I had to transfer my toiletries to a different plastic bag and throw away my empty water bottle. I'm sure the flight was much safer with my shampoo in that 50 cent baggie.

The flight to Prague was quick. You cannot imagine how many bald men came through the airport, but none were Steve. I waited three hours. Several times, I tried to call Alice, with whom we are staying, but the phone ate my coins. The lovely girl in the information booth practically yelled at me when I asked about changing more money. Luckily, I'd been warned about Czech service (though I must interject at this point that my experience since then has been very pleasant). So I took a shuttle (about $40) to the house of Alice and Dave.

It was such a relief when Dave opened the door and walked me into their lovely apartment. They immediately made me feel welcome. Steve had just called them--weather had delayed his flight in Denver and he'd missed his plane to Frankfurt. About an hour later, he showed up and we went to dinner at a favorite restaurant of A & D. Since I hadn't eaten anything for about 12 hours, except a very sweet German cookie on the flight from Munich, I was famished and devoured the beer, chicken, and boiled buttered potatoes.

Alice and Dave set me up in their study, a poster in which is pictured here. I had a gorgeous night's sleep. Alice and Dave let us sleep in while they went to the gym. Steve was still asleep when they returned and I walked with Alice to the market. She bought me a traditional Czech sandwich--a slice of bread with potato salad, gherkins, ham and cheese. Delicious.

Later, Alice and Dave took me to the Prague Castle on the tram. Amazing. There were many, many tourists and we didn't want to stand in line to look inside, but it was awesome just to walk through the castle grounds. Then we met Steve for lunch at Ebel pub where we had a traditional Czech meal--Pilsner, sausage with mustard and horseradish, and potato salad. Very tasty. We spent the rest of the day wandering through the city--Old Town Square and the Jewish Quarter (although the cemetary was closed Saturday, of course).

Seeing Prague with Alice, who is Czech, was wonderful because she told me so much about the history of the places we visited. All that information is swimming in my head that I've yet to sort into language I can share. But I will try in future posts.

We saw a crazy sculpture outside the Kafka Museum: two guys made out of layered tiles with swiveling hips, peeing into a pool. Dave recently realized that the pool is shaped like the Czech Republic. What does that mean? We had a big discussion about whether you would see something like this in the United States. Certainly, never in Utah.

Praha

2008-05-02T17:21:00.002-06:00

Well, I made it to this beautiful city. Steve's flight from Frankfurt was delayed so I spent hours in the airport waiting for him. Luckily I had the address of the folks with whom we're staying so I took a shuttle to their house. All of that is an interesting story but I haven't slept since yesterday at noon and here it's well past midnight.

Departure

2008-05-01T08:16:00.002-06:00

It's a dreary, cold first of May. Only hours until I'm in the air--Chicago, Munich, Prague.

I'll miss G, Z, Bugs, Is, and of course, the chickens. I'll miss my parents, my siblings and their spouses. I'll miss J & hers. I'll miss my neighbors and Wasatch Commons.

I will not miss the drone of the neverending primaries. I will not miss the dirty air. I will not miss recent dramas, personal and political.

But forward and with new eyes I'm looking across the ocean and into the woods.

May Day

2008-05-01T00:26:00.007-06:00

It is officially the first of May and outside is snow falling on tulips.

Happy May Day to all you workers out there. To your right is Pavel Bobak, 94, celebrating last year in Kiev, Ukraine (BBC photo).

May Day is an official holiday in Czech Republic--perhaps an auspicious day to travel.

I am completely packed and ready to go, all I need is sleep.

tomorrow I cross the ocean

2008-04-30T11:05:00.003-06:00

Now the chickens live outside. When I came home from the first PNE workshop, a few Sundays ago, G & Z had finished the coop and the chickens had moved in.

I let them out each morning for an hour or so. It's a nice way to start the day. A little chicken meditation. They hear us coming and fly the coop as soon as the door opens. There's one Barred Rock that usually leaves last, cautiously strutting down the ramp. She's the first to return, too. They all fly a bit, and do a mid-air chest butt. The younger Araucana is the most aggressive. She looks like a little eagle. I think she's a rooster.

My parents had a sweet good-bye barbecue for me last Sunday with the whole fam-damily. It was good to be together. Today I realize how much I will miss being home. So I look forward to returning and am SO EXCITED about this adventure. Yikes!

I leave for Czech Republic tomorrow. So why am I still in my pajamas typing?

on chickens and dogs

2008-04-24T12:34:00.004-06:00

The chickens change every day. Their fuzz dissipates like dandelions gone to seed as the rigid spines of their feathers emerge. The Golden Sex-link (whom we call, surprisingly, “Goldie”) is no longer gold. Her feathers are a rich reddish brown, white at her wingtips. “Cana Cana”, or “Big Kuna” as my son calls her, is the sleekest. She is the largest, too, an Aracauna who recognizes my voice and pecks frantically at the chickararium’s plexiglass when I greet them. She is my favorite. I cluck my tongue and coo enough that Bugs, the dog, whines with jealousy.

It is difficult to anthropomorphize chickens. To me, they are obviously the descendants of dinosaurs, a species altogether un-mammalian. They do not smile. Yet they communicate clearly in their chicken ways with which I am increasingly fascinated.

On the other hand, dogs sometimes may as well be human. They surpass humans in human ways and simultaneously they are purely dog—eager to abandon any training-imposed protocol to rub their bodies in shit (perhaps eat it) and indulge other dogly compulsions.

Our dog loves to dig. When we first moved to Wasatch Commons, our cohousing neighborhood, the new development that surrounds our 4.5 acres had not been built. To the north was a huge field overrun with weeds and tall grasses. Bugsy dug a serpentine trench about three inches deep and that would have covered 30 yards if stretched into a straight line. He had exposed some gopher’s home with his nose and his whole body shook with the pursuit. Naturally, he ignored all commands to stop.

I read once that dogs have the equivalent intelligence of a two-year-old child, which seems apt to describe the Bugsy’s emotional consciousness. When I let the Cana perch on my shoulder, her pale gray eye level with mine, he cocks his head and whimpers.

Project "New Eyes"

2008-03-31T00:01:00.003-06:00

I just came from a Steve-style dinner with the PNE 2008 group. Although the evening lasted past my bedtime, it was lovely to meet the students and hear their stories. And to hear Steve's, which I understand more and more.

Chickens

2008-03-30T23:44:00.005-06:00

We've had our six baby chicks at home for a week and a day. This picture was taken on Easter Sunday. They seem to grow by the hour. Already this little Araucana is twice as big with full wing feathers. Eggs in the fall!

Winter Soldier

2008-03-19T10:03:00.001-06:00

The fifth anniversary of this misbegotten occupation is marked by too many tragic numbers.

Soldiers are speaking out about their experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq. Last past weekend IVAW hosted a series of independent hearings called "Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan". Watch these testimonies.

Destination Sušice!!!

2008-03-16T11:18:00.003-06:00

My reservation is booked with window seats. We are on our way to Sušice for Project "New Eyes" 2008!

I will fly to Prague on May 1, where I will meet up with Steve. From Prague, we will drive to Sušice. The students will arrive one week later.

Now that the project is a reality, I feel like I'm swimming through it. I have begun the online Phase I of the course, the first time I have taught online. It is a different animal, I realize already. Every day seems suddenly filled with preparation, with reading and writing, while maintaining regular life, Salt Flats stuff, and my other classes. But everything is falling into place.

The students seem enthusiastic and interesting, from what I can read of them, and I certainly am thrilled to be teaching creative writing again in a project like this.

What I know of our destination is very little, as is evident in this paragraph. Sušice is a small city in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the edge of the Bohemian Forest (Šumava in Czech), Sušice has a population of approximately 11,600. The Otava River runs through the city.

Project "New Eyes" 2007 was the first incarnation of this cross-cultural adventure, which was conceived by Dr. Steven Sternfeld. The project was implemented by Steve and Mike Polacek, a Salt Lake resident who was born in Czech Republic. Additionally, several graduate students participated as co-teachers of sorts. Two were filmmakers who chronicled the experience in this video.

The Thinning Veil will chronicle my journey to, through, and from Sušice over the next few months. We will be writing and writing.

February Blues

2008-02-22T07:20:00.001-07:00

"Those who make peaceful evolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable."
~John F. Kennedy

2008-02-07T23:08:00.000-07:00

I had not seen this before my last two posts, but here's Ann Coulter doing what she does best with the idiot Hannity. Scroll down to see the ghoul girl explain why Hillary is more conservative than McCain.

Meanwhile, in the real world today, the DoD has confirmed the deaths of 3,952 members of the U.S. military since the Iraq invasion in March 2003, according to Iraq Coalition Casualties.

The Real McCain

2008-02-04T09:48:00.000-07:00

Perhaps the reason for McCain's surprising lurch forward in the primaries is his weakness as an actual candidate. If he's given the Republican nomination, Clinton is bound for the White House, which as I postulated Saturday, seems to be the Republican agenda for 2008.

Campaign Rant: Pre-Tuesday

2008-02-02T14:05:00.000-07:00

Well, the pack has been winnowed. We've seen the surprising resurrection of Warmonger the Senior, John McCain, as the likely Republican candidate. The Democrats are slobbering over the junior and more junior warmongers, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and it appears that More Junior is winning the popular imagination.

I suspect John Edwards will end up on the victor's ticket and I predict the popular vote would make Mr. Obama the victor. But how can we expect that our voting machines will account with any accuracy this time around?

I think the current crew of murderers want Mrs. Clinton to take the helm. I think they want her more than they want Daddy Warmonger. They want Hillary to be the face that takes us into the next four years: the downward spiral of the U.S. economy, the ongoing establishment of corporate empire in the middle east, the continuing exploitation of the working class. As the well-laid plans of Dick & George come to fruition, Hillary will be pilloried for the meltdowns throughout the Union and abroad. As Junior Warmonger and Master Opportunist, meanwhile, Hillary will profit tremendously (as she has all along) from her participation in the further dismantling of democracy in the U.S. A., even as she is blamed for it by her virulent critics.

No neutrality on my part. And while I am not deluded that Mr. Obama will offer much alternative, I am inspired by his campaign. Mostly by the amazing young people who have come of age during Bushco's dirty reign. They still believe democracy is about what WE, THE PEOPLE want. What offers me hope is that so many people are willing to believe that into being.

Close Guantánamo!

2008-01-09T12:36:00.000-07:00

On the sixth anniversary of the arrival of prisoners to Guantánamo Bay, the ACLU is sponsoring a protest against the U.S. use of torture.

Wear orange on Friday, January 11 and join the ACLU of Utah for a candlelight vigil from 5 to 6 pm at the Federal Building in downtown Salt Lake City. We all need to raise our voices to end the shame of Guantánamo. Details below from the ACLU.

"We do not condone torture. I have never ordered torture. I will never order torture."
— George W. Bush

January 11, 2008, marks the six-year anniversary of the first arrival of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. It is deplorable that this illegal detention center persists as a stain on our international reputation and an open assault on basic human rights.

On Friday, January 11, the ACLU of Utah is hosting a special “Close Guantánamo” Candlelight Vigil at the Federal Building (125 S. State St. in downtown Salt Lake City) from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

We are asking Utahns of conscience to display their outrage and sorrow over the torture and indefinite detention being carried out in our names by attending this vigil. We will be giving out "Close Guantánamo" T-shirts and armbands, providing candles, and distributing printed fact sheets you can share with your family, friends and colleagues.

If you are not able to attend, please participate in this critical action by wearing orange on January 11 to show your solidarity with the cause of "Closing Guantánamo!"

The ACLU of Utah, in recognition of this unfortunate anniversary, also will be hosting a screening of the ACLU-produced Freedom Files' "Freedom from Abuse of Power: Torture and Unlawful Imprisonment" on Wednesday, January 30, from 6:30 to 8:00 (location TBA). Dr. Tim Chambless, University of Utah professor of political science, will introduce and lead a discussion about the 30-minute film. Learn more about the ACLU's Freedom Files at www.aclu.tv/

For more information about the Candlelight Vigil, Film Screening and other ACLU of Utah events, please contact Anna Brower at abrower@acluutah.org.
www.aclu.org/closegitmo

Two Mikes

2008-01-06T12:50:00.000-07:00

It is almost 1:00 pm and I am still in jammies. A lazy morning of watching snow fall and reading the weird news of the Salt Lake Tribune.

The most striking weirdness was the cover story in Parade Magazine. The cover features assassinated Pakistani leader, Benazir Bhutto, with an accompanying quote, "I Am What the Terrorists Most Fear." The interview from Pakistan by Gail Sheehy poses the question, "Is Benazir Bhutto America's best hope against al-Quaeda?"

The article, dated January 6, 2008, makes no mention of Bhutto's assassination more than a week ago.
Parade acknowledges that the issue went to press before Bhutto's death, but you'd think they'd print some kind of disclaimer. The photo on the left features Bhutto speaking to a crowd of supporters on Dec. 27, 2007. She was shot as she left the rally and immediately thereafter, a suicide bomber detonated a bomb that killed at least 20 others.

Other weird news includes the disclosure that Mikey-boy Leavitt, of the whirling-disease Leavitts beloved throughout Utah, held "Early Morning Seminary" meetings with his advisers during his tenure as governor. Now serving as the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Leavitt had hoped to bar the transcripts of said meetings from public access. Happily, the Utah State Archi v es ruled that the transcripts will remain public.

What a counter-story to Mitt's Kennedy impersonation.

And finally, in a discussion close to my heart, the slimy maneuverings of another Utah son, Rep. Mike Morley, R-Spanish Fork, are affecting all kinds of people in Utah, including kids at the charter school, Dual Immersion Academy here in Glendale. For the past few months, students have been eating in a tent set up on the school's playground. Why? Because Slimy Mike's company, U.S. Charter Development, won't fix the academy's mold-making leaky roof. The company builds charter schools and is owned by Morley and two former State legislators, Jim Ferrin and Glenn Way.

Paul Rolly's article focuses on Slimy Mike's current bid (as owner of 5 construction companies) to revoke workers' comp benefits to people who are in this country illegally. This from a guy who employs mainly immigrant workers. What a perfect set-up for exploitation. Welcome to the Right-to-Work State.

Well, that's the news of two Mikes.

The sun seems to be coming through a grey sky, but more snow was promised. We're going to watch a scary movie and a western. Then tomorrow--back to school. Yikes.

The Fifth of January

2008-01-05T11:23:00.000-07:00

"Ofrenda" by Karen Winters.

Campaign Rant

2008-01-04T10:50:00.000-07:00

Hillary did NOT win Iowa! I have no love for Mrs. Clinton, but there's some twinge of regret I feel for her big loss. Her whole life she's worked for this race. Just a twinge, mind you. As a person (or at least, the persona he projects), I like Obama, but what's the difference, really, between Barack and Hillary? Yeah yeah--race. gender. experience. But what real alternatives to the status quo do either offer?

Yesterday's Democracy Now confirms my suspicions about both of them, as well as the frontrunning Republicans. Amy interviewed Allan Nairn, an independent journalist ("News & Comment" http://newsc.blogspot.com), and Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, a freelance journalist whose article, "War Whisperers" appeared in the American Conservative, in a discussion about the leading candidates' advisers and their participation in atrocities around the world.

If you continue to think, 13+ months after November, 2006, that the Democrats offer ANY hope of change, here's further evidence to the contrary. Barack Obama's top advisor? Zbigniew Brzezinski. Remember him? Among many other accomplishments, Brzezinski created, proudly, the Afghan jihadi movement, which created Osama Bin Laden. According to Nairn, Brzeznski was asked by an interviewer,

“Well, don’t you think this might have had some bad consequences?” And Brzezinski replied, “Absolutely not. It was definitely worth it, because we were going after the Soviets. We were getting the Soviets.” Another top Obama person—
AMY GOODMAN: I think his comment actually was, “What’s a few riled-up Muslims?” And this, that whole idea of blowback, the idea of arming, financing, training the Mujahideen in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets, including Osama bin Laden, and then when they’re done with the Soviets, they set their sights, well, on the United States.
ALLAN NAIRN: Right. And later, during Bill Clinton’s administration, during the Bosnia killing, the US actually flew some of the Afghan Mujahideen, the early al-Qaeda people—the US actually arranged for them to be flown from there to Bosnia to fight on the Muslim/NATO side.

Obama's other key advisers include Anthony Lake, General Merrill McPeak, Dennis Ross, and Sarah Sewall. Anthony Lake orchestrated the US invasion of Haiti during the Clinton administration. Nairn says that

...they brought back Aristide essentially in political chains, pledged to support a World Bank/IMF overhaul of the economy, which resulted in an increase in malnutrition deaths among Haitians and set the stage for the current ongoing political disaster in Haiti.

General McPeak was behind the massacre in Dili, East Timor in 1991 (which Nairn and Amy Goodman survived). Obama adviser Dennis Ross served both Bushes and Clinton as an adviser on Israel and Palestine. Ross advocated the subordination of the Palestinians' internationally-recognized legal rights to the "needs of the Israeli government." According to Nairn, Ross led the attack on Carter's endorsement of Bishop Desmond Tutu's comparison of Israel's position in the occupied territories to aparthied. Finally, Sarah Sewall is the author of the General Petraeus’s Marine Corps/Army counterinsurgency handbook, which Nairn claims is "now being used worldwide by US troops in various killing operations."

So much for Obama. Of course, you know Clinton is being advised by Madeleine Albright and Wesley Clark, among other "throwbacks" (Vlahos).

Even Edwards, whom I was glad to see come in second in Iowa, apparently has some sketchy affiliations with defense lobbyists.

Why do we keep pinning our hopes on presidential elections? Why do we keep thinking those with power will cede any of it to justice? I never thought I'd look back on the 2000 elections with nostalgia, but wouldn't it be nice to hear some dissenting voices once in a while? Sure, Dennis Kucinich keeps talking, and I truly appreciate his heart, but where are the gadflies? Where's Ralph? I'm not interested in Ralph running again, but I sure would like to hear him talk more often. You know, about corporate power and civic duty. Democracy.

I'd like to hear the so-called analysts talk about something other than how much money the candidates raise. The other night on Jim Lehrer, an interviewer asked a talking head about whether the candidates were addressing issues, "issues in the classical sense" (emphasis mine). The head responded that issues provided "the lay of the land" but had not been "central" to most campaigns. What the hell does that mean?

One more day into 2008, blue sky in Salt Lake City and a storm on the way.

Enjoy.

Sweeney Todd Ramble

2008-01-03T13:05:00.000-07:00

Speaking of blood (as I was yesterday describing my mother's wedding outfit), we saw "Sweeney Todd" last Sunday. J & J told me about a review that described the opening scene as raining blood on London. Well...splattering maybe. Thick, viscous, bright red splatters that looked like paint. And just a few splatters. All the blood in the movie (and yes, there was plenty of it) looked cartoonish (as did Sacha Baron Cohen's tube-sock bulge and side curls).

Okay, I didn't watch all slicings of throats. The "arterial spray", as my sister told me it was described on NPR, was hideous even in its exaggeration. I am not a fan of gore. But again, it was cartoonish gore in a musical about a demon barber, after all. The movie was a beautifully acted and surprisingly tragic interpretation of Sondheim's over-the-top, Tony-award winning 1979 production (which I loved, at least on vinyl & video). The only thing missing was the title song.

Helena Bonham Carter was especially touching as the devious, kind Mrs. Lovett. Her portrayal is more heartwrenching than Angela Lansbury's blowsy 1979 Mrs. Lovett (whom I adored). Bonham Carter's Mrs. Lovett, who resembles the Corpse Bride she played in Burton's 2005 animated film, is certainly blowsy, but she is tender in a way that also recalls her corpse bride. Her adoration of "Mr. T" reminded me of her Ophelia. Neither she nor Johnny Depp can sing like Angela Lansbury or Len Cariou, but they both made the roles their own.

What can anyone say about Mr. Depp? The man is a pleasure to watch, unquestionably. But what impresses me is that despite his rockgod image, he is not Johnny Depp as "Sweeney Todd" or "Jack Sparrow" or "Edward Scissorhands". It's like he channels each character. He articulates Jack Sparrow with a psychological complexity that creates Jack Sparrow (a fairly two-dimensional role) as a cinematic figure, a narrative icon. Can you imagine the "Pirates" series being as successful without Depp's Sparrow?

Luckily, in "Sweeney Todd", Mr. Depp's co-actors are equally brilliant. Alan Rickman, as ever, seethes with evil as the vain Judge Turpin. My introduction to Mr. Rickman was in the 1990 film, "Truly, Madly, Deeply" where his character was anything but evil. As Snape, he manages, through the character's apparent evil, to project a wounded morality. Not so Judge Turpin, who is disgusting from his first appearance. However, as the judge encounters Sweeney Todd for the last time, Rickman somehow elicits sympathy, singing to his death. My favorite interpretation was Timothy Spall's oddly foppish Beadle Bamford.

Several of the supporting roles were played by young unknowns who were pretty fine singers. Sprite-faced Jayne Wisener played Johanna. Jamie Campbell Bower played Anthony Hope, which was a bit weird because his sailor was prettier than Johanna. Most impressive was Toby, played by the large-voiced and tiny-bodied Ed Sanders.

Part of Mrs. Lovett's charm is her affection for Toby, who like the Beggar Woman, is one of the story's moral compasses. Yet her real affection is for Mr. T, which is perhaps the reason for her particular (and troubling) demise. When Sweeney Todd discovers Mrs. Lovett's crimes, her consequences were the most disturbing of Mr. Todd's retributions. I secretly wished she could achieve her "By the Sea" fantasy with Mr. T and Toby. Clearly, that wasn't going to happen, and it is to Mr. Burton's credit that his "Sweeney Todd" rejects all sentimentality. None of the characters in this production are redeemed, not even Johanna and Anthony. He disrupts any possibility of a happy ending.

Mrs. Lovett's and Sacha Baron Cohen's Perrelli's are the two longest death scenes in the film. Interestingly, Baron Cohen's Perrelli, despite the impressive bulge*, is a very feminized character. Just saying, on our little and big screens, the iconic image these days is the feminized corpse and/or the slow transformation of femme into corpse. I would like to think that Tim Burton, in Sweeney Todd (as in the Corpse Bride), manipulates and somehow subverts that image. But I'm not sure. Anyway, it is the best movie I've seen in the theater since "No Country for Old Men" (the only two movies I've seen in the past three months).

Now that I think of it, both films left a similar residue. Kinda viscous and red.

*Because of? I understand that Baron Cohen chose the look and that no pictures of his character were released before the film.

44 Years

2008-01-02T15:02:00.000-07:00

Today is my parents' 44th wedding anniversary. They were married in Salt Lake's City & County Building, pictured here. My mother wore a blood-red skirt suit and matching pillbox hat. Happiest of Anniversaries to you, my dear Mom & Dad.

Personal Best News of 2007

2008-01-01T11:56:00.000-07:00

6. Steve invited me to teach a nonfiction class this summer in Sušice, Czech Republic, and the Writing Program approved it.
5. Ralph Becker is Salt Lake City's new mayor.
4. We have two incomes again.
3. My son enjoys science labs and writing papers for his geography class.
2. My brother and Summer got married.
1. My mother's neck healed.

Good-bye, 2007!

2007-12-31T13:27:00.000-07:00

What a year. A recovered neck, a new career, a new marriage, a new band, a new practice, a new major, a new grandson/nephew/cousin, a baby grand-nephew, and high school--all in the family. We have a lot to be grateful for.

In an hour or so, I will accompany the amazing Grace and her mother to a celebration of the new year at the home of some friends I haven't seen in a while.

I'm looking forward to an old fart's New Year's Eve, replete with banging pots and fireworks in the parking lot. I'll be in the common house, playing games. Our lovely hostess, L, surely will provide noisemakers and poppers and hats and lots of confetti. Plus champagne and chocolate.

Happy New Year!

2007-12-29T11:31:00.000-07:00

Foment builds around the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. And now the Pakistan government's official story about her death has shifted.

I found this interview with Bhutto on Alternet. David Frost spoke with her shortly after her caravan was attacked in Karachi last November. She explicitly addresses questions about that attack and its intent, as well as her relationship with Musharaff.

Some are calling her assassination the end of hope in the region. Meanwhile, politicos in the U.S. are using Bhutto's death (Rudolph W. Giuliani) or "clueless" (that Huckabee guy).

Again, I think we need to be paying close attention to what this situation will justify in the world arena. Of course, Bush and the rest of the world have denounced her assassination. Consider how the whole thing has played out as projected, perhaps even as Bhutto herself projected. Still her death is a shock. From what her supporters say, her global reputation seemed to lend her protected status. She is the face of democracy in Pakistan. She even represented a reconciliation with India.

Yet the attack in Karachi upon her return from exile happened in a neighborhood populated by wealthy, politically influential residents, which suggests that political weight was not protecting anyone, including Bhutto.

Instead of a messy democratic Pakistan, Bhutto's assassination sacrifices democracy to martyrdom, which is much easier to manipulate. Musharaff likely will remain in charge. The chaos engendered by Bhutto's death paves the way for another crackdown, or at least, a postponement of elections in the name of fighting terrorism.

A real democracy in Pakistan might not sustain U.S. plans for the region. Now Bhutto's calls for democratic reform pose no threat to the expanding empire. Instead, the assassination fits right into the U.S. characterization of the "terrorists' war on us." As Rudy argues,

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is a tragic event for Pakistan and for democracy in Pakistan. Her murderers must be brought to justice and Pakistan must continue the path back to democracy and the rule of law. Her death is a reminder that terrorism anywhere -- whether in New York, London, Tel-Aviv or Rawalpindi -- is an enemy of freedom. We must redouble our efforts to win the Terrorists' War on Us.

By this logic, Bhutto's martyrdom and the ensuing chaos, once dubbed "acts of terror", further justify our war. The only possible response to her death is expanding war. Without doubt, the attack on Bhutto's rally, like the attack on her caravan, was an act of terror. But responding to terror with terror breeds terror, as we witness in the news of Iraq and Afghanistan every day. If another crackdown is the type of redoubling effort Giuliani advocates, that move is also without doubt, a course of action that Bhutto would not have approved.

While I quote Giuliani, by no means expert in foreign relations (or justice or democracy or reason), it seems obvious that his rhetoric reflects the underlying logic of our warmongering lifestyles. That's what it all comes down to, this current propagation of "democracy" across the planet.

As the American Dream supersizes itself, we keep buying it. The gap between the uber-rich and the rest of us widens, and we keep insisting that the virtue of uber-wealth sanctifies its means. We keep insisting on lifestyles that require the exploitation of others. We eat Burger King and shop Walmart and pay taxes to fund Haliburton, all delivered through exploitation in Florida, in China, in Iraq. We justify the complete destruction of a sovereign country's infrastructure, the decimation of its internal systems, including the family, because we believe our "way of life" is worth more than their lives. I think it's really that simple.

We call our way of life "democracy" and claim "they hate our freedom" but we'll sacrifice our own freedoms for great sale prices. We know the war on terror is a war for oil, and really, what's wrong with that, as long as we can drive our cars and watch tv.

The sad residue of manifest destiny.

Dramatic, sure, but let's wake up. How much longer will we consume the war on terror's doublespeak? How much longer do we watch our rights erode? Our values? How much more terror will we ignore in the world? How many more soldiers will we sacrifice? How many more mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters?

2007-12-28T11:00:00.000-07:00

Bhutto's death is ringing around the world.

Here the day was gray and quite cold. G and I went to dinner with our friends, C & T, in town from New York. First we went to the Red Iguana, but the line in was a forty-minute wait, and that was in from outside! None of us wanted to endure 18 degree cold. So we went to La Hacienda. Yum! It was great to see those two.

End of December

2007-12-27T08:54:00.000-07:00

Belated Happy Birthday to my brother, who as of yesterday, has been alive for 38 years. He cooked the Christmas turkey and we all greatly enjoyed eating it. My sister made her famous pumpkin streusel pie, and my sister-in-law made a new favorite for my son--orange chiffon pie. Mmmmm. Mom made the traditional Christmas fish (jello--we are Utahns, after all). All I had to make was cranberry sauce, which I plan to eat on a turkey sandwich shortly.

My brother's wife's brother (my brother-in-law?) joined us for the eve feasting and for Dad's famous Christmas Day pancakes. He is recently graduated from boot camp, for which I congratulate him. He returns to his military induction on the first of the year. We wish him a long time in California and no time in war zones, though that doesn't seem likely today.

Benazir Bhutt o was assassinated last night. A suicide bomber apparently attacked a rally where her supporters were gathered. Here are images of the attack, which resulted in the deaths of at least 20 other people.

Pakistan's bizarre political saga includes corruption in Bhutto's family history, as well as the accusation of corruption during her two terms as the country's prime minister. Some saw her Washington-backed return to Pakistan as a "power-share" with Musharaff. She returned to Pakistan to challenge his rule, despite his warning that her security could not be guaranteed. Upon her arrival two months ago, Bhutto's caravan was attacked by two suicide bombers in Karachi. Over 100 people died and more than 600 wounded in the attack.

Bhutto denounced Musharaff's declaration of military law "crackdown" last month. Her assassination, which comes ten days after Musharaff lifted "emergency" law, will prove to be another turning point, both for Pakistan and for global relations in the region.

It should be noted that our presence in Pakistan is scheduled to expand considerably in the new year. And again, what is our relationship to Pakistan? According to Amy Goodman on today's Democracy Now, Bhutto's assassination preempted the headline story about

US Special Forces expecting to vastly expand their presence in Pakistan beginning in 2008, the US troops reportedly taking part in an effort to train and support Pakistani counterinsurgency forces and clandestine counterterrorism units. We also brought you news that while the US expands its presence in Pakistan, questions have been raised over how Pakistan spent $5 billion in US aid since September 11th, the money supposed to have been sent to fight al-Qaeda and Taliban, instead US officials admitting funds were diverted to help finance weapons systems to counter India, another US ally.

Hmm. Seems like a lot of money for our war on terror gets diverted to other purposes. Good thing we've got those Democrats in Congress to get us out of Iraq, eh? Love those bold moves to protect the public well-being, home and abroad.

At least they listened to the testimony of Jamie Leigh Jones. This story deserves a post of its own. It's just too much to comprehend that Haliburton/KBR, one of the recipients of those aforementioned funds, promotes rape culture among its employees. And whose money is it, anyway?

Apparently, Mr. Bush thinks it all belongs to him and his pals. He thinks his authority to nix funds for SCHIP supersedes states' rights. His rejection of Ohio's bipartisan expansion plan exemplifies the appalling reality of our national priorities. While the Bushites slash public health and education funds (in collusion with the fearless democratic leadership), the Bush administration is the biggest-spending presidential outfit since LBJ. Yet another similarity between GWB & LBJ...

Don't think about it. Just go shopping.

And let's hear it for the FCC. Commissioner Michael Copps was one of two who voted against lifting the thirty-year ban on media consolidation. He says,

We claim to be giving the news industry a shot in the arm, but the real effect is going to be to reduce total newsgathering. We shed big crocodile tears for the financial plight of newspapers, yet the truth is that newspaper profits are about double the S&P 500 average. We pat ourselves on the back for holding six field hearings across the United States, yet today’s decision cites not a single word from the thousands of Americans who waited in long lines for an open mike to testify before us. We say we have closed loopholes, yet we are introducing new ones. We say we’re guided by public comment, yet the majority’s decision is overwhelmingly opposed by the public, as demonstrated in our record and in public opinion surveys. We claim the mantle of scientific research, even as the experts say we’ve asked the wrong questions, used the wrong data, and reached the wrong conclusions.

Copps urges the American public to pay attention to who the FCC is serving with this decision.

It’s time for the American people to understand the game that is being played here. Big media doesn’t want to tell the full story, of course, but I have heard first-hand from editorial page editors who have told me they can cover any story, save one—media consolidation—and that they have been instructed to stay away from that one. That’s a story for another day, perhaps.
Today’s story is a decision by the majority unconnected to good policy and not even incidentally concerned with encouraging media to make our democracy stronger. We’re not concerned with gathering valid data, conducting good research or following the facts where they lead us.
Our motivations are less Olympian and our methodology far simpler: We generously ask big media to sit on Santa’s knee, tell us what it wants for Christmas, and then push through whatever of those wishes are politically and practically feasible. No test to see if anyone’s been naughty or nice. Just another big shiny present for the favored few who already own an FCC license—and a lump of coal for the rest of us. Happy holidays!

Well, at least congress has responded to the FCC's maneuverings with bipartisan opposition.

To end today's rant on a light note, Regis Philbin is spreading some good news: Listen to Amy. He sat next to Amy Goodman at the Christmas bash of Phil Donahue and Marlo Thomas. After talking to her, he listened to her broadcast for the first time and plugged Democracy Now on ABC.

The Fifth of December

2007-12-05T12:20:00.000-07:00

Today marks one month since I started this little project. A few friends of mine did NaNoWriMo last month. Inspired, but realistic, I decided to try some other way to write every day.

Well, every day, no. But 8 out of 30...anyway, writing is writing.

Little did I know, there is now a NaBloPoMo, which challenges bloggers to post 30 times in 30 days. My sister, Courtney, rose to the challenge with 30 entertaining posts in as many days. I congratulate her, the dough boy congratulates her. (I really don't understand the dough boy's relationship to the whole project, but there he is.)

2007-11-30T10:27:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Last Saturday, Courtney, Chris and I climbed Angel's Landing in Zion. We were on top of that stone mountain behind us. We ascended 1,500 feet over 2.5 miles.

It was amazingly gorgeous. On the way up, we watched condors and crows soaring at eye-level. On the way down, we saw two condors perched on a tree just above a stretch of trail.

It also was scary as hell. I still shiver to think of the "trail", which became footholds etched into the stone in some places. Thank god for the chains. Courtney kept wondering who could have come up with the idea to carve a trail into that cliffside?

Up was scariest because I worried about going down. But down went fast and was punctuated by the condors.

The chipmunks on top were great distraction from the fact that we were hanging on a 1,500 ft. peak. Chris truly is afraid of heights. He was very brave. Of course, Courtney is fearless.

She and Chris took these photos.

2007-11-21T10:39:00.000-07:00

Today's Hero:
Sheila Jackson Lee

Thanks

2007-11-19T09:28:00.000-07:00

It's another balmy November day in the City of Salt. At 9:05 am, it is 61 degrees outside.

I don't recall weather this warm this time of year. Maybe in Zion, where we travel this week to give thanks, particularly for Flanigan's and no roasting turkeys in our own ovens.

I am so looking forward to be fleeing the city and delighted to be spending time with mi familia.

2007-11-14T15:10:00.000-07:00

Today's Heroes:
Benazir Bhutto
Jessica Valenti

Today in History:
1840: Claude Monet is born.
1889: Journalist Nellie Bly launches her attempt to travel around the world in less than 80 days, which she accomplishes in 72.
1906: Actress, dancer and movie historian, Louise Brooks is born.
1918: Czechoslovakia becomes a republic.
1922: The BBC begins radio broadcasting in the United Kingdom.
1954: Condoleeza Rice and Yanni are born.
1967: In Colombia, the 150th anniversary of La Pola's death is declared "Day of the Colombian Woman".
1979: In response to the hostage crisis, President Jimmy Carter issues an order that freezes Iranian assets in the U.S.

Today is World Diabetes Day...

witness

2007-11-12T08:53:00.000-07:00

IMAGINE: “An Exhibition of Peace”
Utah Arts Festival Gallery
230 S. 500 West, No. 120
Artist reception: tonight, Monday, November 12
6:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Cat Palmer, local artist and activist, has designed an exhibit that includes photographs and line drawings by Ty Norager, a soldier from Clinton, Utah. Mr. Norager's emotionally riveting images witness his experience serving in Iraq. The exhibit, which features work by Ms. Palmer and Mr. Norager, is on display at the Utah Arts Festival gallery. Mr. Norager, on leave to attend a fellow soldier's funeral, will be present tonight for the reception.

Yesterday was Veterans Day, which once was called Armistice Day to commemorate the cease-fire that went into effect on November 11, 1918. At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month, the Germans and the Allies officially stopped fighting World War I.
Armistice Day became Veterans Day in 1954. The name change was intended as a gesture to honor all U.S. veterans, since the "War to End All Wars" certainly was not.

53 years later, November 11 records a total death toll for soldiers in Iraq at 3,860. 3,721 of those deaths have occurred since Mr. Bush, in his outfit, declared "mission accomplished." Estimates of wounded vary from 23,000 to 100,000 with an official total at 28,451.
Still, while 2007 is on record as the deadliest year in Iraq since 2003, today's headlines hail a sharpdecline in November of rocket and mortar fire.

This week, as we honor U.S. soldiers, let's listen to what many of them are saying about the reality of the situation in Iraq. Let's work to keep them from homelessness and out of Iran.

Other headlines today announce that 26 Iraqis died today and five were wounded in various incidents around Iraq.

Add those 26 to this number: 1,109,283.

As of November 10, 2007, that's the total death toll for Iraqis: 1, 109, 283.

Some days I am haunted. Images and stories from the war zone produced for mainstream consumption often do not represent its absurd horror. Similarly, even as we have begun to listen to accounts of Iraq from U.S. soldiers, the U.S. impact on Iraqis' lives is rarely described in our public discourse. Photographer Farah Nosh has created a stark slideshow, Iraq, Brutally Wounded, which portrays life for war-injured Iraqis.

It is difficult to comprehend the way life has shattered for Iraqis in the past four and a half years. Many of those who have survived the invasion have been displaced. Indeed, the invasion has created one of the biggest refugee crises in history. The disrupted lives of Iraqis are chronicled by Lori Grinker in this photo-essay, Life Interrupted.

I don't understand how sacrifice is supposed to work in this context. It seems that during this war, more than a million people have been asked to sacrifice for the interests of a very few. All I know to do is to honor the fallen, the displaced, the wounded and the disaffected, and to keep paying attention.

The Agnostics

2007-11-09T15:25:00.000-07:00

"Who knows if there's a God? There's us, now, and caterpillars and other insects and mulch."

My friend, Wen, wrote a novel and you can read it. The Agnostics won the 2007 Michigan Literary Fiction award. Wendy Rawlings is the author of Come Back Irish and the director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. She's also one great pal.

Buy her book for yourself and your family & friends. Those winter holidays are upon us, after all.

Today my son and I took the beasty Bugs up City Creek. We went up the Bonneville Trail hook-up and initially, I didn't want to get so far away from the water. But it felt as if we climbed above the haze. That crappy air is crappier today.

It was gorgeous to be above the city, walking through chaparral. Outside feels strange, the low November angle of the sun, the haze, the draining color and bare trees. Everything looks like winter, but it was 64 degrees today and the sky was so blue.

It's dark out now. Daylight has been saved, or restored, I can't remember how it works exactly. Only that we fell back and now it's dark at 5 pm. A beautiful day.

FAREWELL, ROCKY! HELLO, RALPH!

2007-11-07T09:23:00.000-07:00

Today's Heroes:
Jeremy Scahill
Keith Olbermann
Daniel Levin

Today's Mayor:
Ralph Becker!!! Woo-hoo!
So I'm hopeful about Mayor Becker, even though it was a bit painful to watch his initial acceptance speech last night. He seemed stunned. Clearly, he'll be polishing his speaking skills in the years to come.
Of course, Rocky's had years to polish his now iconic public persona. In that regard, Ralph's apparent discomfort in the spotlight is refreshing. For all the great good Rocky has accomplished, and that good is substantial, his mayorship has been more about Rocky than about Salt Lake City.
Ralph plans to accomplish great good, as well, and while Mr. Buhler mocked his "Blueprint for the City", the fact that Ralph offers detailed responses to specific problems (like the crappy air we breathe) turned the vote in his favor. When he and the other primary candidates spoke at our place (Mr. Buhler did not attend), the candidates were asked what kind of transportation they employed. Ralph was the only respondent whose individual transportation choices reflected the values he espouses. He recognizes that the crappy air is connected to transportation and growth and a host of other problems our city faces.
And most of these concerns are concerns for the state, as well. We know Ralph will work with state leadership. He has for 11 years.
Ralph is theoretically and practically committed to the city, the state, and the people who live here with him. He won by such a landslide because he was on the ground, talking to those people. And listening. Throughout his campaign, he maintained a civil, even tone and focused on the realities of Salt Lake's needs. He did not stoop to contrived antagonisms, like the unfortunate "Doer". (Kudos, by the way, to Dave Buhler for his gracious concession.) I hope Ralph Becker will conduct his term as mayor like he, his fabulous staff, and all the volunteers conducted his campaign.
And finally, farewell to one of the best damn mayors Salt Lake City ever had!!! Whatever you think of Rocky's ego, you gotta love those orange flags. Seriously.
Rocky's legacy is as impressive as he thinks it is. He has greened our city, actively endorsed immigration reform, pursued sane wage laws, and championed human rights.
Rocky was a champion of justice long before he was famous. That he now uses his fame to illuminate the connections between a corrupt media and endless war; between a lying federal administration, a disabled constitution, and rising fascism; that he condemned the abominable war when to do so was far from popular makes Rocky Anderson a true patriot.
The concerns of Salt Lake City are not divorced from the state, or the nation, or the planet. Rocky's mayorship demonstrated our city's need to care about the place where we live. Earth.

The Fifth of November

2007-11-05T08:33:00.000-07:00

Eugene V. Debs and Tilda Swinton share November 5th birthdays. So do Vivien Leigh and Ike Turner. What meaning you can glean from that trivia is yours to treasure.
Two years ago today, the movie, "V for Vendetta" premiered on England's Guy Fawkes Day, or the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot. In 1605, Guy Fawkes and fellow Roman Catholics conspired to blow up King James I and the Protestant-dominated Houses of Parliament. The plot failed, but November 5 remembers Guy Fawkes, who was discovered with the explosives on November 4, arrested, tortured, and eventually executed. In 1983, Alan Moore and David Lloyd published the graphic novel, V for Vendetta, upon which the 2005 movie was based.
Today begins the 2007 Writers' Guild strike. (Coincidental, entirely, to my initiation of this blog, which has no particular larger purpose beyond public rambling. Sometimes ranting and railing.)
So, good luck to the Writers' Guild. These writers aren't demanding "perks," but payment in the form of residuals from the sale of their work through new media, like this here internet. Producers and studios receive residuals, but claim they can't afford to pay the writers. For art, and for the rare moments of real entertainment writers inject between reels of propaganda, consumers of Hollywood products should support their demands.
Thankfully, we don't have to worry about missing an injection of the Daily Show. Stand-up guy Jon Stewart is willing to pay the show's writers out of his own pockets.
In grimmer news, as we continue to spread freedom across the globe, millions of Iraqis have been displaced from their homes, but cannot escape Iraq. U.N. estimates of 4.4 million displaced Iraqis are considered to be conservative. Read more from outstanding reporter Dahr Jamail.
In 2002, President George W. Bush named Iraq one of three countries constituting an "Axis of Evil". Five years later, while North Korea has receded from public discussion, it's game-on for the Bush administration in its relentless campaign against Iran.
28 years ago today, Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini pronounced the U.S. the "Great Satan". I was 13. I remember Khomeini described as an ideologue, a fanatic, a religious zealot. But since 9/11, the leaders of the so-called free world have employed similar fanatical rhetoric to justify their disastrous wars. Bush claimed recently that disabling Iran's (allegedly developing) nuclear program (presumably by dropping bombs on the country) will prevent World War III.
Never mind that for so many parts of the world, we are well past number three. Never mind that our troops are trapped in what seems to be war without end.
Never mind that our ally in the endless war on a concept, President Pervez Mushareff, has declared "Emergency Rule" in Pakistan, although Benazir Bhutto names the declaration "Martial Law". Never mind that "pro-Western" Mushareff has control of a fully operating nuclear program.
As of today, Pakistan's constitution has been suspended and more than 1,500 people, including Mushareff's political enemies, have been arrested. Lawyers protesting the constitution's suspension were beaten by police.
We should be paying close attention to what's happening in Pakistan, just as we should wonder why our media aren't paying closer attention to what's happening in Burma.
Consider how the Burmese government so effectively shut out the world by shutting down the media. The images stopped, and the world seems to have stopped paying attention to those brave, brave monks and the Burmese people.
Ignoring the brutality in Burma won't make it stop. It is our responsibility as beings to witness, at the very least, and condemn these brutal injustices as another generation is inducted into the cycle of oppression.
At best, we can emulate the Burmese people. They have not stopped. They won't stop because, as one young activist stated, "we are living for democracy and human rights, not for ourselves."
What are we living for?