Category Archives: Politics

Faith and Spirituality, Great Wheel, Great Work, Politics

Star Filled and Wonder Saturated

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-4  bar steady 30.28   0mph SW  windchill -4   Samhain

Waning Gibbous Moon of Long Nights

I have a run of almost 3 weeks with no outside obligations.  This is a time of the year, even when I worked for the Presbytery, that I would stay home, take up a research project or a book I’d wanted to really absorb.  This habit probably started during the Presbytery time because no congregational folk wanted to talk to judicatory people during the Christmas holidays and immediately afterward.  Which was fine with me.

Right now it’s quiet.  It has been dark since about 4:30 PM.  The long nights have begun to swell and take over the rhythm of the day.  This means more silence, more time to enjoy the darkness of mid-winter.  This is a time of year and a natural cycle that draws us all inward.  This inward pull pushes some of us to string up lights, go to multiple parties, perhaps drink to excess, spend money beyond our means.   We’ll wake up sometime in the new year, ought 9 in this case, with a hangover wondering how the season got so out of hand.

The season can be filled with holy nights, silent nights.  Starred filled and wonder saturated nights.  It matters how we come to the season.

Instead of driving in to the Sierra Club meeting tonight I chose to participate by phone, as did all but two of the other legislative committee members.  By the time I got done with my workout and shower, a lassitude crept over me, borne of the tensions and aches of the last couple of days.  If I had driven in, as it turned out, my trip would have taken twice the time of the meeting.  Not very efficient.

My original reason for driving in, to match peoples faces with names, would have been thwarted, too.

As it was, I was on the phone for 45 minutes, took notes, then hung up and went upstairs to read the Story of Edgar Sawtelle.  Without the long drive it felt like I’d cheated.

Cooking, Politics, Writing

Research, Writing, Meditation and Beef Broth

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6  bar steady 30.24  0mph  SW  windchill 6   Samhain

Waning Gibbous Moon of Long Nights

I made a beef broth today.  Took four hours to cook.  Now it’s ready but I have not tasted it yet.  I’ll probably use it as a base for soups.161_beef_stock_p928.jpg

Blew the snow from last night around 1pm after the city plows had gone by.

Did some research on the issues central to the Sierra Clubs work at the legislature this year.  Home work assigned by me since I still don’t know the terrain very well.

Got back to working out today after two days of feeling crummy after two hours on my feet at the Russian Museum and a couple of hours sitting beside the freeway.  Felt good.

Tomorrow I can begin research, writing and meditation.  About time.  I hope I can keep it up right along.

Aging, Politics, Weather +Climate
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8  bar rises 30.11  0mph WNW  windchill 4   Samhain

Full Moon of Long Nights    Day  8hr  47m

I hear you saying often that you’re not turned on to politics. Well let me bring to bear the lessons of history. If you’re not turned on to politics the lesson of history is that politics will turn on you.—Ralph Nader, Countdown

Yes, Nader is right, but I wish he’d take his own lesson to heart.  Quixotic campaigns that drain the vote of the left and left independents have had their day.  Until or if the left can mount a credible candidate we should support the Democrats.

In this and many other ways I can tell I have reached old fogey status.  Twice in the last couple of weeks I’ve sent notes to the Sierra Club’s legislative committee that reveal, to me later, and probably to each member at the time, my more conservative approach.  With a $5+ billion budget deficit I think we should pitch our stuff in light of savings to the state budget.  Instead my colleagues queue up to decide which expletives are more appropriate for sulfide mining.

Used to be me.

We’ve had a cold December so far, considerably below normal.  This is the weather most of us here yearn for and miss as the winter’s have grown warmer.  The snow stays on the ground; the air is crisp.   Sleeping becomes a treat, a warm bear-in-the-den snuggle.

I have finally caught up, again, with my various chores including all the outside ones.  That feels great, but it does mean I have to reorient my daily activities and I’m still in the in-between place about that.  Soon.

Faith and Spirituality, Family, Politics, Weather +Climate

A Magical Effect

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26  bar steep fall 29.56  0mph NE  windchill 26   Samhain

First Quarter Moon of Long Nights       Day  8hr 53m

At last snow has begun to fall.  Already we must have gotten an inch or so and it may well snow through the night.  I have the patio light on so I can watch it fall.  The reindeer, lit with white l.e.d. lights, turns its head back and forth, its wire frame body now sketched in fluffy snow.  The lit holly and berries on the patio table also have snow cover, the lights blinking up through small mounds of white.  We only have lights in the back and few at that.   They do a touch of whimsy to the long winter nights.

A gentle snow has a magical effect on the heart as well as the landscape.  It is one of mother nature’s outright expressions of joy.

Tomorrow I have agreed to go to a workshop on dismantling racism as I wrote earlier.   When I was in seminary, I participated in anti-racism training seminars run by James and Mary Tillman.  I even traveled to Atlanta and went a weekend long seminar with students from Morehouse University, one of the south’s premier black colleges.  With Wilson Yates, a professor of sociology at United Theological Seminary, we created an anti-racism training kit complete with videos for rural congregations.  At one point I worked with a professional program evaluation company, Rainbow, and evaluated the work of the James and Mary Tillman programs in various institutions.

Institutional racism and the unearned advantage of being white and male have been part of my political analysis ever since.  That first round of work was now over thirty years in the past.  It is a testimony to the intransigence and institutional nature of racism that now another generation has taken up the fight.

Part of me does not look forward to a long day on a difficult and unpleasant subject while another part of me is eager to get back to practical, political work on the issue.  We’ll see how it goes.

Kate’s neck bothers her today.  She has improved a lot in the last three weeks, but she has quite a ways to go before she can go back to her full time work schedule.

Great Work, permaculture, Politics

Home As A Political Statement

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15  bar steep rise 30.05  5mph NNW windchill 11  Samhain

Waxing Crescent Moon of Long Nights   Day  8hr  56m

Below are photographs of recent work underway along the wood’s edge here.  Almost done for this year.

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The fruit trees as winter takes hold.

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Marsh hay before use.  AKA hay without seeds or straw without seeds.

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View along the wood’s edge facing due north.  The straw in the foreground and mid-ground covers the black plastic.  The area covered is approximately 15 feet wide, that is, 15 feet between the truck path and the beginning of the forest proper and extends perhaps 150-200 feet from end to end.  This whole area will have shrubs and small trees planted in the spring.

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This gives you a better picture of what’s going on here.  I ran out of hay on Sunday and had to get the new load visible in the first shot.

Do you remember how you felt when you first realized you loved someone?  I have that feeling over and over with the land here.

Politics

Gratitude

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One sunny day in January, 2009 an old man approached the White House from across Pennsylvania Avenue, where he’d been sitting on a park bench. He spoke to the U.S. Marine standing guard and said, “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.”

The Marine looked at the man and said, “Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.” The old man said, “Okay” and walked away.

The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.” The Marine again told the man, “Sir, as I said yesterday, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.” The man thanked him and, again, just walked away.

The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to the
very same U.S. Marine, saying “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.” The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man and said, “Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mr. Bush. I’ve told you already that Mr. Bush is no longer the president and no longer resides here. Don’t you understand?”

The old man looked at the Marine and said, “Oh, I understand. I just love hearing it.”

The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, “See you tomorrow, Sir.”

thanks to Paul Strickland

Art and Culture, Politics, Woolly Mammoths

Acquisitions, Legislation and Conflict

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17  bar rises 30.56  0mph NNW windchill 17  Samhain

Last Quarter of the Dark Moon

Whew.  Docent book club at 12:30.  Sierra Club legislative committee at 6:30.  Woollies at 7:30.  Home at 10:30.

The Docent Book Club (the name of which no longer seems apt to me) met at Common Roots.  Tom Byfield invited associate curator of paintings and sculptor Sue Canterbury.  She spoke about the acquisitions process and answered questions about the job of curating.

Wish I had more energy, but I don’t right now.  The dialogue with her fascinated us all.

The Sierra Club Legislative Committee meeting, my first, went longer than I had planned.  Also fascinating, for very different reasons.  More later.

The Woollies had as the meeting topic, conflict.  Stefan made salad, stew and had ice cream with chocolate sauce for desert.  Hit the spot when I got there.

The talk about conflict had, as the guys like to say, a lot of juice.  I asked that we eliminate that word during our next meeting, so I heard nothing but juice as I got ready to leave.  Serves me right.

A very full day.  A good day.

Politics

Live Electoral Coverage 2008

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November 4th   Live Election Coverage

6:00 PM  CST

MSNBC has called Vermont and Kentucky.  Obama   McCain

Chris Matthews says Indiana too close to call…bodes well for Obama.  As a Hoosier, I remember when Indiana went Democrat with regularity.  It was a labor state and labor voted Democrat.  Then, Governor Wallace.  He took a third or so of the vote.

Several strong African American commentators like Bishop of Potter’s House Ministry and Eugene Robinson from the Washington Post.  Feels good to me to have a strong Africa-American presence.

I know it may be my projection but it seems Chinese Americans carry themselves in a different way since China has risen in world prominence.  More confident, more sure of themselves in their difference.  It also seems to be happening to African-Americans.  Validation comes in different ways,but it is beautiful to see.

7:00 PM

Pennsylvania projected for Obama.  MSNBC. 

McCain has begun to underperform Bush 2004.   This looks good for the whole race. 

Howard Dean has begun to talk about healing from the last 8 years.  I agree.  The whole country felt different today as I drove home from Hopkins after doorknocking for Get Out The Vote. 

Interesting shots from Grant Park.  Filled with black faces.  Just 40 years ago, in 1968, Chicago had streets filled with vietnam war protesters.  Now African-Americans will celebrate the distance between then and now, between 1964 and now, between 1864 and now.

At this point Obama has 78-111 electoral votes.

7:45 pm  As of now my home county in Indiana, Madison, has voted Obama by 52% with 71% of precincts reporting.

Given the western states of California, Washington, Oregon and Hawaii and the Upper Midwest states of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan combined with Pennsylvania I predict Obama the victor.

Politics

I Made a Mistake. Alan.

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One of the ancient trails that got us into this mess:  greed.

Sometime a while ago, I listened to Alan Greenspan’s account of his years at the Fed.  Three things struck me about it.  First, he was a personal friend and long time follower of Ayn Rand.  Second, he was a libertarian.  Third, perhaps because of one and two, he trusted in what he called peer review instead of regulation.  That is, he believed financiers entering into contracts would do their due diligence, vet the loan applicant and act in their own and their shareholders self-interest.  Talk about idealism and objectivism.  When I heard that back then, I thought, OMG, this guy is naive.  Yep, he was and in the passage below from a NYT article, he admits it.

“…in a tense exchange with Representative Henry A. Waxman, the California Democrat who is chairman of the (House Committee of Government Oversight and Reform) committee, Mr. Greenspan conceded a more serious flaw in his own philosophy that unfettered free markets sit at the root of a superior economy.

“I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such as that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms,” Mr. Greenspan said.”

NYT, 10/23/08