A Life Writ Large

Molly Ivins died today. Another icon gone.
Go here to read her obituary, and then dedicate your life to raising hell (or, in the words of Bayard Rustin, being an "angelic troublemaker.") Not sure how to begin your hellraising career? Molly has some suggestions in her last column.

Holding Molly in the Light, part 2

Lovely tribute:

Published on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 by CommonDreams.org We Love You Molly by Harvey Wasserman Our beloved sister Molly Ivins is fighting for her life against cancer, and all we can do is try to send her even a fraction of the brillliance, joy and love she has given us for so many incomparable years. This genuis daughter of Texas turmoil has stood alone for so long as a voice of clarity, wit, common sense and plain-spoken conscience that it’s hard to know even where to start. Perhaps most important to remember is that she has not been just a writer. From her modest but gracious home in the heart of Austin, she has done anything but sit back and snipe with that unique penetrating wit of hers. She could have done it. She could have just gone to that keyboard every day, blown them all away, and built her national reputation from the sheer genius of an insulated ivory tower. But Molly has always been a firm believer in hands-on non-violent combat, which in hands like hers is the ultimate weapon. She puts her heart and soul where her convictions are. She’s fought tooth and nail for The Texas Observer and whatever other worthwhile publications there are that can muster an audience in the Lone Star State. She’s worked with the great Jim Hightower in his climb to elected office. She supports candidates. She goes out of her way. She works hard. She makes her presence felt wherever she thinks it’ll do some good, no matter what the personal cost. All the while being our very premier writer/humorist. If Mark Twain has a female counterpart on today’s political and journalistic scene, it is Molly Ivins. She has that miraculous ability to slice and dice an entire raft of political horse-dung with a single simple sentence, laced with wry, seeded with sweetness, and so often utterly cleansing and clarifying. We can all be thankful that our lucky stars have placed her—where else but—in Austin. Throughout the entire horrific nightmare of George W. Bush, whom she has somehow known personally for decades, it has been Molly and only Molly who’s been on the spot to say exactly what needs to be said in exactly the right Texas tone with precisely the right down home balance of horror, outrage and utterly human wit. Nobody else could be doing it as she does, from the inside out, from the high ground lifting up the low. Could we ever INVENT anyone better suited, with a sharper wit and better sense of the jugular? Except with Molly, it’s the spiritual center that’s the bullseye. With that wry, beautiful smile of hers and that insanely musical Texas twang, she never fails to aim for higher ground. When her eyes roll at the latest unbelievable insanity from this ghastly crew, she still manages to twinkle with that huge, heavenly light that’s only Molly’s. In her personal life Molly has always been every bit as gracious as you can tell she is from her writing. Last time she carted me around Austin, it was in her obligatory pickup. The thing seemed a bit naked without a gun rack. But Molly behind the wheel was armed aplenty, always willing to drive the few extra blocks, even if you are willing to walk. Her southern grace just won’t think of it, no matter how many better things she has to do. And we know there are plenty. To hear her speak is to be dazzled by the music of a true national treasure. To see her heart is to be warmed by a truly magnificent woman who embodies all this country can and should be. That she has been on the job for so long, with such persistence and valor, is something for which we can all be joyously thankful. Molly, we are with you, and we need you, and we love you, as we have needed you and loved you now for so many years now. Get well soon! In Molly’s honor, some of us are sending contributions to the Molly Ivins Fund for Investigative Reporting at the Texas Observer; 307 West Seventh Street; Austin, TX 78701

Holding Molly in the Light

This news leaves me feeling so sad. Molly Ivins is very ill. She is in my thoughts. And I hope that each one of us will take to heart what Molly has written in her last couple of columns (and I hope that they are not the last of the last) about doing something every single day to bring about an end to this immoral, illegal war. And let's get this president impeached while we're at it.

Weary

I haven't posted in nearly a week. I am feeling like that box turtle in the photo, wishing I could just pull myself inside of my shell and shut out the world for a while. The assaults on the things I hold dear are so many, from the global (climate change, war) to the national (war, healthcare, education, reproductive choice) to the very local: a small group of people in my town have noticed that after 13 years of budget cuts the arts have been slashed, and they're upset because their incoming kindergartners will be getting a much reduced arts program in our school district. Their solution? To put together a small charter school (44 students) that will integrate the arts into academics (Pardon me while I get sarcastic: What a Novel and Innovative Concept!) And they have "shopped around" (literally in disguise, like secret shoppers) and decided that they want to house their little boutique school in my neighborhood school (where my child goes and I work) and share my principal. They have framed the debate with themselves as both the innovators and the saviors of our under-enrolled central city neighborhood school, while the district administration and board of education -- understandably hesitant because they've had to cut 7-10 million dollars from the budget every year since 1993 -- are obstructionist. And the people in the school community? They haven't even approached us, yet last week articles appeared in each of 3 newspapers claiming that it was an initiative coming from within our school.

I've been a teacher for 20 years. I have always integrated the arts into my teaching. For more than a decade I have watched with my heart in my mouth, as funding was cut and the standards movement which spawned No Child Left Behind moved into place. In the early grades I have seen play time, discovery, and creativity be superceded by the need to get kids reading at a certain level because they will be tested in third grade and they'd better be reading. My kindergartners are all supposed to be reading by June! And I still teach by integrating the arts into my curriculum.

So imagine how I feel that this group of people -- basically nameless and faceless to me -- stands on the outside and points their finger and says accusingly, "You're not giving children enough of the arts!" Imagine how I feel when they intone, "You know, some children learn academics better through the arts." It is personally offensive.

Even more offensive is the energy they are putting into getting something special and wonderful for their children, and leaving the thousands of other children in this school district -- many of them low income -- behind. 44 children will be served by this school. If they get their way, it will be dropped into a school that already struggles for resources, in a potentially very divisive scenario. If they are so concerned, why not send their children to a neighborhood school and get politically active, volunteer, write grants for artists in residence?

As far as I am concerned, charter schools are another form of privatization. In fairness, the concept has been used innovatively, for example a few years ago when our district was able to build a new middle school in a very low income neighborhood, so that the kids living there would no longer need to be bused hither and thither. But in this case and most cases it is driven by a small group of families who want a private school education balanced on the backs of everybody else.

I know public education is far from perfect, but I will be the best teacher I can be, and advocate for it with my last breath.

I am angry, but I am so weary of the battles.

Why I am Pro-Choice ...

Today is the 34th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, and I am participating in a day of blogging for Choice. I was 13 years old when it was signed into law. At the time I had little understanding of what it meant. I do however remember that sometime in the early seventies my mom gave money to a pregnant young woman -- a friend of my older brother -- to go to Toronto for an abortion. That's what women did in the days before Roe. (Years later, out of the blue, my mother received a check in the mail from that woman to repay her for the expense. My mom was very touched by that gesture.)

I am fervently pro-choice, largely because I believe that every child born on this earth deserves to be wanted. I am also well aware that contraceptives fail despite anyone's best intentions, and yes, sometimes people fail to think about the consequences of their actions. However I do not believe that a woman should be forced to carry an unplanned and/or unwanted pregnancy to term under any circumstances when we have the means to safely terminate a pregnancy in its earliest stages.

Beyond being "pro-choice" I want to say that I support reproductive freedom. By that, I mean that I also fully support a woman's right to carry her pregnancy to term in any circumstance. I was acquainted with a woman who knew early in the pregnancy that her child did not have a brain and wouldn't survive outside the womb, yet chose to carry him to term, without a lot of support from the medical establishment. I don't think I could have done that, but it was clearly the right choice for her.

What we do with our bodies is an intensely personal choice, and must remain the choice of each individual woman.

My own personal childbearing story spans a wide spectrum: I've been pregnant 6 times. I joyfully birthed 3 beautiful daughters. My middle daughter had a congenital heart defect and died in infancy. I lost one pregnancy in the first trimester. And then I had another healthy baby.

And I've had 2 abortions. That was the biggest surprise of all. I was baby crazy in my teens and twenties. I couldn't wait to be a mom. I had a child, lost another child, went through a period of anxiously trying to become pregnant before I had a subsequent child. And then when she was still very young ... my birth control failed, and I felt AWFUL. I could not see how bringing another child into our family was going to be good for any of us, and I chose to have an abortion. A year and a half later it happened again, and I still could not see my way clear to having another child. I had another abortion.

I do believe that biologically, life begins at conception, but a baby lives in your heart and mind. Would I have loved those babies had I chosen to carry them to term? Of course! But deciding that I could not do it was also an act of love for all of us. I think about them sometimes, as well as the pregnancy that I miscarried; I wonder who they were/are. And I am completely at peace with my decisions.

Sometimes people will state, "I'm pro-choice and I think abortion should be safe, legal, and rare" or they'll say, "I believe in abortion, but some women use it as a form of birth control."
Well I'm here to say that having an abortion is no picnic in the park, and at $500 each time it is mighty expensive birth control. Abortion should be safe, legal, and as common as it needs to be. Period.

He won't apologize, but I will.

This was posted on Common Dreams today:

President Bush on Sunday shared his lamentations on "60 Minutes," the modern equivalent of the storm-swept heath. Assuming the time-honored role of Fool, CBS' Scott Pelley asked the president, "Do you think you owe the Iraqi people an apology for not doing a better job?"

Bush retorted: "That we didn't do a better job, or they didn't do a better job?…. We liberated that country from a tyrant. I think the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude…. We've endured great sacrifice to help them…. [Americans] wonder whether or not there is a gratitude level that's significant enough in Iraq." More here.

Words fail me.

Wait ... here they come. I am sorry. I am sorry that the "leader" of the United States behaves badly, acts in such a peevish manner, and shows so little compassion. I am sorry that his bad behavior has had such catastrophic consequences in Iraq and beyond. I hope that somehow, someday the people of Iraq (Afghanistan, Palestine, Lebanon, etc. etc.) will find it in their hearts to forgive the people of the United States. But I don't think we can expect it.

Steve Earle - Christmas in Washington

This song kind of says it all, doesn't it?

The Best Movie Ever ...

... or at least one of them, in my opinion. King of Hearts is listed among my favorites, but I thought I'd highlight it here, just in case you're looking for a good movie to watch this weekend. If you like to have the full play by play run-down of a plot before you see a movie, you can find it here. Otherwise I'll just say it's got everything I look for in a movie: intelligent humor, a little romance, Genevieve Bujold, carrier pigeons, and a life-affirming message. Wonderful!

Fair & Balanced

The Fairness Doctine is back on the table and Dennis Kucinich is my hero of the day. What is the Fairness Doctrine? Briefly,

The policy of the United States Federal Communications Commission that became known as the "Fairness Doctrine" is an attempt to ensure that all coverage of controversial issues by a broadcast station be balanced and fair. The FCC took the view, in 1949, that station licensees were "public trustees," and as such had an obligation to afford reasonable opportunity for discussion of contrasting points of view on controversial issues of public importance. The Commission later held that stations were also obligated to actively seek out issues of importance to their community and air programming that addressed those issues. With the deregulation sweep of the Reagan Administration during the 1980s, the Commission dissolved the fairness doctrine.

This doctrine grew out of concern that because of the large number of applications for radio station being submitted and the limited number of frequencies available, broadcasters should make sure they did not use their stations simply as advocates with a singular perspective. Rather, they must allow all points of view. That requirement was to be enforced by FCC mandate.

Done away with during the Reagan Administration. Imagine how different the last 6 years might have been with such a law on the books. We wouldn't have been subjected to that biased liberal media 24/7, if you know what I mean. Read more about it here.

And then, write to your representatives in Congress supporting fairness in media -- real fairness, not "fairness" ala Faux News.

We Shall Overcome

I played this for my kindergartners today. It was always a favorite choice for singing with last year's first graders. Great song.

Where are the leaders?

Yesterday -- the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. -- Quaker Dave at the Quaker Agitator had a very compelling post with a collection of photographs of iconic leaders that many of us are familiar with -- all, sadly, dead. He wondered who is stepping up now to fill those shoes. This is something I think about a lot. Like many people, I am hungry for someone who can pull us together and lead us out of this dark time in which we are living. I can't believe there isn't someone out there to take up the mantle of Dr. King.

It's a little bit like waiting for the Second Coming (John Lennon, of course, is who I mean.) I'm not sure it's going to happen in the way I'd like it to, which is a thought that can make me feel quite sad.

In the sixties, people came together around the big ticket movements, civil rights and ending the war in Viet Nam. One would think that the war in Iraq and the rising fascism here in the U.S. would pull people together in the same way, and perhaps that is still to come. Right now it seems like there are many people putting energy toward good causes, but the focus seems very fragmented between many different things.

So I was walking to the post office this afternoon and thinking about this, and thinking about people who do good in the world, and wondering whether small actions will add up to the big changes that I want to see happen. It occurred to me that, while it appears fragmented, all of these small actions are the fruit of the movements from the sixties. That is, that the activism of the sixties instilled in many people a desire to make a difference in the world, and to seek out ways in which to do that. That idealism is precisely what led me to public school teaching.

And that sense of giving back has continued, so that you get people like my friends: 20 year old Laina who just returned from helping someone rebuild their house in New Orleans, or Madeline who retired and joined the Peace Corps this year at age 60, or Mike Boehm, a local Viet Nam veteran who shepherds an ongoing project between my Monthly Meeting and the people of My Lai.

Is this enough to save us? I don't know. But while I wait for the big movement to grow, it helps me to remember that there are many small seeds sprouting in many places. Here's what one of my favorite optimists, Pete Seeger, had to say in last winter's issue of Sing Out!:

"I confess I'm more optimistic than ever. Why? In spite of the horrendous things coming out of Washington, our country is full of hundreds of thousands of good little things going on. The powers that be have so much money that they can kill any big thing they want to. Attack it from the outside, corrupt it from the inside. But what can they do about ten million little things? Wipe out one and two more like it spring up."

We can hope.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have a difficult time with the King holiday. I teach young children, and this is the time of year when many teachers "do" (in teacher parlance) Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. While I am very glad that there is a national holiday honoring King's life and his work, it feels to me as if the powers that be want to squeeze all of the life and meaning out of this holiday. In schools -- especially with the youngest kids -- it gets distilled down to "I have a dream that ...".

I struggle with how to present this profoundly important man and what he stood for to 5 and 6 year olds. Some of the story is violent and scary, much of it is way beyond their comprehension developmentally, and personally I cannot separate King's civil rights teachings from his anti-war stance. Here's a rhetorical question, and I'm trying to work out an answer, but -- is it bad not to "do" MLK for a week or two in January if, through my actions and the culture of my classroom, I am trying to embody the teachings of Dr. King throughout the entire school year?

I know there are excellent picture books about Martin Luther King, Jr.; I have them and I use them. I love the materials from Teaching Tolerance. This is just a perennial struggle for me. It would be easier if I taught older students.

About a fourth of the children in my class are African-American. But a third of my students are Mexican, and outside of maybe cinco de mayo or dias de los muertos, nobody "does" things specifically related to them. There is little recognition of Latino History Month or the birthday of Cesar Chavez, for example. This is another issue for me.

I also struggle with this: No great teachers have developed their beliefs in a vacuum, and this is as true for King as for anybody else. So when I talk about King and civil rights, I want to talk about Gandhi, Bayard Rustin, Rosa Parks, Cesar Chavez, Pauli Murray ... and so many more.

I would welcome other people's thoughts about this.

The Meme

Name a book that you want to share so much that you keep giving away copies: The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. An amazing book that documents not so much a culture clash between Hmong refugees and American doctors, but shows two enormous cultural ships that totally pass each other in the night with disastrous consequences for one little girl and her family. This book is profoundly beautiful and moving. Fadiman is an excellent writer.

Name a piece of music that changed the way you listen to music: This is a hard one. I love music, but -- changing the way I listen to music? That's awfully intellectual and heady. Um, let's see, what has given me goosebumps? Maybe that's how to approach it. Peter Gabriel's Solsbury Hill and Here Comes the Flood. Johnny Clegg & Savuka's album Shadowman. The Pachelbel Canon (though the effect was somewhat spoiled by my time working in a fern and croissant restaurant in the eighties where it was WAY overplayed -- the very first time I heard it, it blew me away.) Marta Sebestien's voice. Bulgarian women's ensembles. The early days of the Irish folk music revival (the band Planxty, in particular) Phil Ochs' I Ain't A-Marching Anymore

Name a film you can watch again and again without fatigue: The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night, Truly Madly Deeply, Babe, Little Women, Dr. Zhivago (the Omar Shariff one, of course), Errol Flynn in Robin Hood, Harvey, The War at Home (a documentary about the Vietnam War protests in Madison, Wisconsin)

Name a performer for whom you suspend all disbelief: Ugh. All I can think of is modern ones, and we are so steeped in every aspect of their lives by things like Peephole Magazine, that it is hard to suspend disbelief for any of them even if they are good actors. How about, Meryl Streep (I know, I know -- what a cliché.)

Name a work of art you'd like to live with: My tastes are simple: The Trevi Fountain in Rome, Van Gogh's Starry Night, a rose window from any one of those medieval cathedrals in Europe, Persian miniatures, mosaics from Pompeii

Name a work of fiction which has penetrated your real life: For a long time it was Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Aleksandrovich, Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver. Really recently, Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry. Always, To Kill A Mockingbird.

Name a punch line that always makes you laugh: "Got any grapes?" (As told repeatedly by my 4 year old daughter a few years ago.)

Tagging: PoodleDoc, Ed, Potato Prints, Ginnie, Suzi-k or any of my siblings because I know you're all reading this religiously ... You can answer in the comments section or on your own blog.

Gravity: It's Just a Theory

I read this on Huffington Post this morning. Excuse me while I bang my head on something.

This week in Federal Way schools, it got a lot more inconvenient to show one of the top-grossing documentaries in U.S. history, the global-warming alert "An Inconvenient Truth."

After a parent who supports the teaching of creationism and opposes sex education complained about the film, the Federal Way School Board on Tuesday placed what it labeled a moratorium on showing the film. The movie consists largely of a computer presentation by former Vice President Al Gore recounting scientists' findings.

"Condoms don't belong in school, and neither does Al Gore.
He's not a schoolteacher," said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who also said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old. "The information that's being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is. ... The Bible says that in the end times
everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD."

Okay, so he believes the movie got it wrong. It's kind of like me getting irritated when Orlando Bloom snowboards on the oliphant in Lord of the Rings. It's not how Tolkien created the character Legolas. But come on, this is science. What a majority of scientists -- not just Al Gore -- believe is fact. Surely the school board won't act stupidly on this
matter ...

School Board members adopted a three-point policy that says teachers who want to show the movie must ensure that a "credible, legitimate opposing view will be presented," that they must get the OK of the principal and the superintendent, and that any teachers who have shown the film must now present an "opposing view."

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The requirement to represent another side follows district policy to represent both sides of a controversial issue, board President Ed Barney said.

"What is purported in this movie is, 'This is what is happening. Period. That is fact,'" Barney said.

Um, Mr. Barney? Have you stepped outside at all this winter?

But, I think I see his point. You know how drivers' ed classes purport that driving really fast late at night after having a six pack is dangerous? They present that as fact, but wouldn't you say that's really just the opinion of a bunch of fuddy duddy old people? I think they need to start presenting an opposing view, or at least let students know an opposing view is out there! Students should hear the views of safe driving skeptics and make up their own minds. Why, if my school district still could afford to offer drivers' ed, I'd be down there at the school board meeting this coming Monday evening, waving my copy of Rebel Without a Cause.

While the question of climate change has provoked intense argument in political circles in recent years, among scientists its basic tenets have become the subject of an increasingly stronger consensus.

"In the light of new evidence and taking into account the remaining uncertainties, most of the observed warming over the last 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations," states a 2001 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which advises policymakers.

The basics of that position are backed by the American Meteorological Society, the American Geophysical Union, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Sciences.

Yeah, they just want us to quit driving our cars so much. Don't they know that's what makes America great?

Laurie David, a co-producer of the movie, said that this is the first incident of its kind relating to the film.

"I am shocked that a school district would come to this decision," David said in a prepared statement. "There is no opposing view to science, which is fact, and the facts are clear that global warming is here, now."

And she's just another one of those Hollywood liberals, trying to recruit kids and make a buck on the side. I'll bet she's also gay.

Larson, the School Board member, said a pre-existing policy should have alerted teachers and principals that the movie must be counterbalanced.

The policy, titled "Controversial Issues, Teaching of," says in part, "It is the teacher's responsibility to present controversial issues that are free from prejudice and encourage students to form, hold and express their own opinions without personal prejudice or discrimination."

"The principal reason for that is to make sure that the public schools are not used for indoctrination," [school board member] Larson said.

And Mr. Larson, what is your opinion on having military recruiters in the high schools?

You can read the whole article here, minus the tres amusing commentary. I hate the way people in power, especially those who are caving in to extremists, use the argument of "counterbalance." It's not really about balance or equality. Look at the mainstream media!

This family has a right to religious freedom, a right to interpret the Bible as literally as they want to. They also have a right to exempt their children from seeing the movie. What they don't have a right to do is impose their religious beliefs on everybody else. It also pisses me off that the tone of the original article lends credibility to these people's demand. Yet you know if it was someone who -- gasp -- believed that 9/11 was an inside job, for example, the report would have been delivered with a knowing little smirk ( "Conspiracy theory!")

The mom's comment at the end about "Bad, bad America" gives me an idea though. Those climate change extremists (and you know I'm not one of them. I love to see forsythia blooming in January in Wisconsin, it brightens up the dreary landscape, especially since there is NO SNOW) need to start getting people on their side by promoting it as Good, Good America! YOU, and only you can save the earth! On second thought, that sounds a lot like imperialism. Scrap that.

Oy vay.

I just noticed something: The parent who brought the original complaint to the school board is named "Frosty". Oh, the irony.

Play the "The Terrorists Hate Our Freedom" Game

It's fun and easy. How do you play? Look around for examples of obscene excess or wastefulness. When you find one, nudge your companion and say loudly, "The terrorists hate our freedom."

Here are some examples to get you started:

• Hummers
• Stretch Hummers
• Massive refigerators with a DVD player built into the door
• Remote-control operated bidets ...

I'm sure you will find many more.

Crates of Hippos

I want to bang my head against something in frustration when I read things like this:

Kingston: Americans Should ‘Marry and Work Longer Hours’ To Escape Poverty »

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) made headlines last month after complaining about Congress’ new schedule that requires members to work five days a week:

“Keeping us up here eats away at families,” said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who typically flies home on Thursdays and returns to Washington on Tuesdays. “Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families — that’s what this says.”

Yet, last night, Kingston offered this advice to Americans living in poverty: work longer hours. During House debate over the minimum wage, Kingston said raising the minimum wage would do nothing for poor Americans. Instead, if people marry and work longer hours, “they would be out of poverty,” he said. “It’s an economic fact.” (taken from Think Progress)

And if you really want to get out of poverty, find some rich friends and become a politician.

I Want My Country Back

In the name of self preservation, I am neither watching nor listening to Bunnypants when he addresses the nation tonight. I cannot tolerate his smirking mug and his petulant whiny voice. I will be playing my guitar, or maybe playing pick-up sticks with my daughter. Besides, I already know what lies will spew forth. Not funny joke: How do you know when Dubya is lying? His lips are moving.

Up until Nov. 2, 2004 I found it amusing to seek out the quotes where he totally mangled the language, contradicted himself, or made pronouncements that were beyond absurd. After that election was stolen (and yes, I believe with all my heart that it was stolen -- not from John Kerry, but from us, you know -- we the people? The ones on the cover of Time magazine?) I could no longer stomach it. This man is the figurehead of the government that has stolen and desecrated our future: my children's future, your children's future. Christ, there are too many children who have no future because you can't have a future when you're, you know, dead.

But he's bringing Iraq the best democracy money can buy!

To any reader who feels inclined to leave a comment telling me that he is president and deserving of my respect, I say that he is NOT MY PRESIDENT. I want my country back.

Bread, Not Bombs

What possessed me, that I thought it was a good idea to start baking bread at 8:00 this evening? I'm not talking wussie bread machine bread here; this is the genuine article, made from scratch. I just had a hankering for that yeastie taste all day today. (Should have just had a beer.) But now it's 11:42, there's still another 90 minutes to go, and I have to get up and go to work in the morning. Damn you, Martha Stewart, damn you!

I could sweet talk Ed into taking over ... but then I won't get that first slice, hot from the oven. with butter melting into it. Mmmmmm.

It's a die-lemma. What's a Norwegian housewife wannabe to do?

Walking Cheerfully ... in Bunny Slippers

I just finished these knitted/felted bunny slippers for my daughter. How cheerful can you get? They are modified from a Fiber Trends clog pattern (in case you're curious.) She wanted them to look real, and I have to say they wiggle their noses very nicely when she's wiggling her toeses.

Wool IS the miracle fiber.

Free Hugs

Love will always be on the cutting edge ...

Walking Cheerfully

My writing has taken a decidedly gloomy and cynical turn, and I need to find a place of hope. George Fox famously said,

"I saw ... that there was an ocean of darkness and death, but an infinite ocean of light and love which flowed over the ocean of darkness."

I am easily overwhelmed by the very bleak news which, somewhat perversely, I seek out every day. I am trying to tap into some hope, in the midst of a strangely warm winter, the pending escalation of the war in Iraq, petty micro-managing being done by the mucky-mucks in my school district ... it's happening at all levels; you name it, I feel some despair over it.

I tell myself that there must have been times when my parents -- passionate liberals -- saw a similar ocean of darkness. They saw McCarthyism, the sickness of the Jim Crow south, the threat of nuclear war, VietNam, &tc. and managed to raise 6 kids who all do something to make the world a better place. They "carried on crisply" as my dad would say.

Early Quakers suffered through horrendous religious persecution, and yet retained an essentially optimistic outlook. On Sunday I checked out a little book of essays from my Meeting library: Walk Cheerfully, Friends by birthright Friend Seth Bennet Hinshaw. I'm trying out optimism. You'll know how it's going when you read my next few posts.

No Excuse

ABC News decided to survey the views of the senators who served in 2002, most of whom remain in the Senate. The survey indicates that those senators say that if they knew then what they know now, President Bush would never have been given the authority to use force in Iraq.

read more ...

Why do I have a problem with "if they knew then what they know now"? Because they had access to the same sources of information and more than the many people who objected to this war from before we invaded Iraq, and yet they chose to go along with it. Some members of Congress have apologized. Many have not. The Bush administration flat out lied about the threat posed by Iraq, something which has been substantiated in numerous documents. But every single member of Congress who now regrets giving Bush the authority to attack Iraq could have done basic research and objected then. It was all there -- no WMD, no plan, no nothing except perpetual war. And those same senators and representatives continued to give Bush more war funding, even as it became clear that the war was based on a series of lies.

No, there are no excuses. And no way to bring back the lives lost or to undo the destruction of both Iraq's and our economy, the pillaging of Iraq's national library, the unleashing of deeper anti-U.S. sentiments throughout the world ... and on and on and on.

But the new Congress could start by apologizing and making some substantial moves to show their remorse.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrel 2

How despicable can BushCo get? The thing I would dispute is whether they really think they've screwed it up. I believe their intent from the start was to slash, burn, and make out like bandits in the process. That is certainly what they've done and will continue to do as long as they can prolong this war.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said yesterday that he believes top officials in the Bush administration have privately concluded they have lost Iraq and are simply trying to postpone disaster so the next president will "be the guy landing helicopters inside the Green Zone, taking people off the roof," in a chaotic withdrawal reminiscent of Vietnam.

"I have reached the tentative conclusion that a significant portion of this administration, maybe even including the vice president, believes Iraq is lost," Biden said. "They have no answer to deal with how badly they have screwed it up. I am not being facetious now. Therefore, the best thing to do is keep it from totally collapsing on your watch and hand it off to the next guy -- literally, not figuratively."

read the article ...

NOW can we impeach him?

Dirty Rotten Scoundrel

By now you've probably seen this wonderful little bit of news:

President Bush has quietly claimed sweeping new powers to open Americans' mail without a judge's warrant, the Daily News has learned.

The President asserted his new authority when he signed a postal reform bill into law on Dec. 20. Bush then issued a "signing statement" that declared his right to open people's mail under emergency conditions.

That claim is contrary to existing law and contradicted the bill he had just signed, say experts who have reviewed it.

read more ...

NOW can we impeach him?

In the last 6 years we have lost so much of what we take for granted as basic rights -- and there is so much that we've lost that we don't even know about. The signing statement referred to in this article was done quietly, during the Congressional recess, not that the Rubber Stamp Congress would have made a peep. I'm not holding my breath for the Dems either. However, if you think Commander Bunnypants ought to -- you know, operate within the laws of our nation -- it wouldn't hurt to contact your representatives in Congress and demand some accountability. Get rid of illegal signing statements for starters.

And make a lot of noise about impeachment. There are two more years in which this administration can do a lot more damage.

Happy Happy Feet

Well, I went to see the movie Happy Feet and I was going to write a long treatise about why I didn't like it at all, including the fact that the two female penguins had cleavage, for God's sake, and they made little orgasmic noises when they sang, plus it was presented as an environmental tale, but ended by giving the impression that it's all OK now because the humans have seen the error of their ways all because of the dancing blue-eyed Elijah Wood penguin who seems to have gotten stuck in adolescence but is still able to father children (and what's THAT a metaphor for?), and predatory animals like sea leopards and orcas were made to look mean and bad, and if I see one more animated feature with celebrities doing the voices I'm going to barf ... anyway I was going to write all of that, but I'll just say I didn't care for it much and leave you to formulate your own opinions about it.

Reptile Palace Orchestra Live - Kite Cam

Shameless promotion of a family member --Hi, Ed!
Video by Craig Wilson.

War: What is it good for?

This paragraph nicely encapsulates what initially brought me to The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). It highlights a unique process for coming to decisions, as well as Quaker peace testimony. From the book Friends For 350 Years by Howard Brinton:

If nonviolent methods, based on goodwill and an appeal to the inner sense of rightness in every man, are frequently successful in dealing with abnormal persons, they are more frequently successful in dealing with normal persons. No pacifist claims that his method is always successful. Every method fails sometimes, including the method based on violence. If two persons or two nations resort to fighting, one is bound to lose, so the method of fighting cannot at the most be more than 50 per cent successful. The nonviolent method may, however, operate in such a way that both sides win. Together they may arrive at a decision which is better than that which either one of the parties desired in the first place.

Many thinking, liberal people tend to dismiss pacifism out of hand as some wild-eyed, pie-in- the-sky notion. Some will condemn the current war (whatever war it happens to be) but insist that war in general is a necessary evil or part of the human condition.

I have to ask, when has war ever worked? WWI -- the war to end all wars? Nope. WWII, sometimes referred to as "the GOOD war"? Debatable. We were mucking about in Korea just a few years later. Vietnam? Oh, I forgot -- that wasn't a war, but it sure didn't do anybody any good. Has violence led to any kind of peace between a divided Korea, Israel and Palestine? Fast forward to the present, set Iraq aside for a moment, and let's just take a look at Afghanistan -- an intervention that many thinking, liberal people defended shortly after 9/11/01. Did it solve any problems? And Iraq? More American people are speaking out against it, but is that because they've had an awakening about the futility of war, or they believe "we" are "losing" this one? Is anybody better off because of war?

Well a small few, perhaps -- the members of the Carlisle Group, executives at Halliburton, Bechtel, Blackwater -- those who profit from the business of war. And that is what going to war is ultimately all about -- profiteering.

But why is it so difficult to convince the common people -- those who suffer, rather than profit from war -- that there is nothing unrealistic about finding nonviolent solutions. No more unrealistic than to think that fighting will lead to peace. (In the words of a 3-year old I know, "How silly is that?")

And one cannot simultaneously look for nonviolent solutions and continue to escalate the fight. (In other words, NO SURGE.)

Peaceful solutions aren't quick or easy. The official diplomatic solution, arrived at in a summit with heads of state may not produce a solution. Sometimes it has to be individuals like me or you who take the first steps toward peace, and we may not see the fruits for a long time. The alternative is a perpetual state of war, and we the people, our children, the planet ... cannot sustain or afford that anymore (as if we ever could.)

My Dad

He'll have been gone 11 years, tomorrow.

• He had a very conservative, small town (Baptist?) upbringing, yet somehow came away with the conviction that he could not fight in any wars; he was a conscienteous objector and did alternative service during WWII.
  
• He had a deliciously wicked sense of humor, yet was one of the gentlest souls I have ever known.
• He whistled operas. Mozart was his favorite.
• He clicked his teeth when he ate cheese. (How did he do that?)
• He had a penchant for cheap chocolates, the cheaper the better.
• He loved buying and working on odd, old cars. At different points in my life he had a Sunbeam, a Singer, an MG, a Morris, and several Peugots. This love also extended to a sailboat, an old C scow, which he fondly called "The Slithery Dee."
• He rarely wore socks. His ankles were frequently blue with cold.
• He loved cats, all cats. When he entered a house where there were cats, he would remove his shoes and tickle the cats with his bare feet.
• He loved the binterong at the zoo. What is a binterong?
  
• He never failed to light his pipe under the smoke detector, thus setting off a horrible noise many times a day. (I think it was unintentional each time, but I will say that the morning after he died MY smoke detector went off for about a minute for no reason that we could discover. Really.)
• He played the bass recorder. After having a serious stroke a few years before he died, he re-taught himself to play, and his long-time recorder group (always referred to as "the toodlers") adjusted their repertoire to include many easier pieces for him.
• He died exactly a month before my youngest daughter was born. I regret that they didn't get to know each other.
  

I miss him.

Community

When we moved to our present house with our 3-year old nearly 15 years ago, we came to a neighborhood in transition. There were a number of young families like us on our block, but there were also a handful of older residents. Erna, Marge, and MaryAnn were all widows who had raised their children on this block. Erna had been here the longest -- 58 years!

Well, Erna and Marge have both passed and their houses sold. (MaryAnn is still going strong.) Our 3-year old is getting ready to graduate from high school. A lot of our neighbors have stayed put and I've watched their children grow up. Others moved away in search of houses with 2 bathrooms (the scary toilet in the basement doesn't count.) At some point in the last year I began thinking about those of us who put down our roots and stayed, and how we are the old-timers even now. We'll be the Marges, Ernas and MaryAnns in not too long. Yikes.

But before I sink deeper into middle-aged melancholia, what I want to celebrate is this little community in which I live. 3 years ago I transferred to a teaching position at the neighborhood school, one of the best decisions I could have made. My workplace is 5 blocks from my home, and most days I walk or bike to work. From an environmental standpoint, of course it makes good sense, but there is more to it than that. I love seeing my students and their families outside of school. On Halloween when I answered the door for one of my kindergartners, and his jaw just about hit the ground, or when I bike past a group of kids and hear, "Hi, Ms. G!" -- it warms my heart.

Neighbors wave to each other. The kids play "kick the can" on summer nights. We dog and cat-sit each others pets, have backyard campfires, share ladders and lawnmowers, provide meals when they're needed. No one freaks out about a less than neat yard (we've had a broken down piano in our driveway for the last 6 months) or backyard chickens. And it's very inclusive -- old timers, new families, renters, the guy riding past on his bike. Not to sound too smug or self-congratulatory, but my sense is that this kind of community is rather unique in this day and age. Is it?

At any rate, to me it seems like the only sustainable way to live, the pathway to the future. My community is my emergency preparedness system.