tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238769152024-03-05T06:53:35.509-08:00Widely ReadLietta Rugerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03013387655042340435noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23876915.post-8855255079428834502009-09-02T10:47:00.001-07:002009-09-02T11:19:31.994-07:00Congressman Brian Baird's Successfully Civil Town Hall Meeting – Health Care Reform<p>Kudos to the Congressman and his staff for hosting a successfully civil discourse Town Hall meeting last night in Ilwaco, in Pacific County, WA. And of course, the primary range of questions had to do with Health Care/Insurance Reform. Death threats to the Congressman aside, he still managed to conduct his usual in-person Town Hall meetings in <a href="http://www.baird.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=102&Itemid=111">several Southwest Washington counties.</a></p><p>What was the process? </p><p>I can't speak to the in person Town Hall meetings he held in other counties except for what I've read in media (some of which has been reported at <a href="http://www.washblog.com/">Washblog</a>). I can speak to the TH we attended in Ilwaco last night. Also Baird has added telephone Town Hall meetings as well to his usual array of in-person TH meetings in the SW counties. </p><p>The Ilwaco TH meeting was orderly and permitted the many to hear both the questions and Baird's responses without interruption or interference. Which is precisely what I wanted - information and not the drama of interference that has been the hallmark of many other TH meetings across the nation.</p><p>We arrived at the high school, and yes, there was a tiny contingent of less than impressive 'protesters' with their home-made cardboard signs. They kept their behavior under control and did not molest the people as they were coming into the auditorium. We signed in, and we were asked if we wanted to ask a question of the Congressman; if so, we were given a number (kind of like at an auction). </p><p>We were seated and it was explained by the moderator that corresponding numbers were in a twirl cage (bingo comes to mind), and numbers would be picked at random. Those persons who held those numbers would come forward to be seated in the first row of seats. Each would then get 3 minutes of time at the microphone to state their concerns, ask their questions and the Congressman would have 3 minutes of time to respond.</p><p>Questions came from both parties. I think people are sophisticated enough to filter out what is rhetoric and focus in on the actual question, when there is a question and not just a 3 minute pulpit for speech making. The Congressman's opportunity to respond, or better said, give the facts as he knows them, provided a format that helped enormously to dispel some of the rhetorical myths, giving the auditorium of people an opportunity to listen to and hear the information.</p><p>In Congressman Baird's Town Halls that we have attended in the past, even when my own emotions have been highly charged, (ie, his vote in 2007 for the Surge in Iraq where our son-in-law was deployed), he has been respectful to all, including us, in responding to concerns and questions. Last night's Town Hall was no exception. He was respectful, courteous, and responsive to every question, even the few who formulated their questions in what seemed designed to bait him. He actually was skillful in handling those baiting type questions, both responding and further elaborating on concerns and situations that led to the current Health Care Reform issue.</p><p>It was a 2 hour TH meeting, so obviously, there was not time for everyone who might have wanted to ask a question to have a turn at the microphone. But with the quality of the kinds of questions asked, and Baird's informative responses, I think probably most of the concerns people had in their minds received air time in a very Civil dialogue.</p><p>Earlier in August, I was also on one of Baird's telephone TH meetings (Pacific County), and got to ask my question of him; specifically what concerns about the Health Care Reform Bill did he have as he has said he is unsure how he will vote when it comes up for vote in Congress. Frankly, I would like to see him vote for the Bill with all of it's warts and flaws rather than to vote against it. I sense that voting for the Bill starts the ball rolling, probably with a lot of tweaks needed in years to come. Whereas to vote against it because of it's imperfections does little to alter or change the current deeply flawed Health Care 'system'. </p><p>As Baird explained he has heard from doctors, it is not really a system so much as an evolution that has evolved into a complex hodge podge of health care that some get and some don't.</p><p>On a personal note, I do have to be a bit amused at one of the questions last night. The Chair of the Republican Party in our 3rd Congressional District was among one of those whose number was called, giving her time at the microphone. She has had time at earlier Town Hall meeting in another county to state her concerns to the Congressman and she did make an offer of her home as a venue for the Congressman to hold an in- person Town Hall, guaranteeing him an assurance of safety she would personally provide. He did thank her for and it did seem he accepted the offer; I'm not sure he intended to hold a Town Hall in her home, nor would that be logical. He did hold the in person Town Hall in Ilwaco, at the high school - a more appropriate venue and approximately 2 miles from her home. She has not been deprived of opportunity of access to the Congressman, nor of opportunity to state her concerns or questions. </p><p>She has had a beef with what she terms his rejection of her offer, labeling it as evidence of an unwillingness on the part of Congressman Baird to hold in-person Town Hall meetings. She has both blogged it and arranged for a newspaper article in <a href="http://columbian.com/article/20090901/NEWS02/709019968/Baird+cancels++living+room+meeting++with+GOP+chairwoman">The Columbian</a>, of her account of his rejection of her offer. In my opinion, it goes to show the 'slant' of her perspective in presenting the situation as a rejection, as an unwillingness on Baird's part to conduct in person Town Hall meetings. And it is a perspective she is pleased to broadcast in the media and telegraph to her party. It was, in fact, Baird offering a more appropriate venue with a wider opportunity, for the larger populace in the area to participate in an in person Town Hall. Probably safer for everyone also, with the County Sheriff there, and the presence of uniformed officers stationed along the side corridors. </p><p>Her concern as she stated it in the question last night to Congressman Baird were some remarks he had made in earlier years; favoring universal health care and duration terms of office. Baird corrected the perception she had of his earlier remarks on terms of office. She spoke again indicating she was in favor of all people having access to health care, and when Baird asked if she was in favor of universal health care, she said no, she was not, and promptly sat down. There was a bit of a buzz talk after that exchange amongst the people in the auditorium. </p><p>Highlighting this more to illustrate, in my opinion, a tactic of intent on the part of the Republican party in trying to direct attention away from the Health Care Reform issue, while offering little of substantive value as an alternative method to adjust the disparities in health care as we know it today. Congressman Baird is not the issue, nor is the next election. Health Care Reform is the issue on many people's mind and they seem to want information, not politicking.</p><p>My thanks to Brian Baird for the opportunity to learn what I felt I wanted and needed to learn about Health Care Reform - less the noise of disruptive interference. Good job in putting together the Ilwaco Town Hall meeting. </p>Lietta Rugerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03013387655042340435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23876915.post-57127624808806403742009-08-29T22:18:00.001-07:002009-08-29T22:39:07.551-07:00Bill Moyers interviewed on Bill Maher - videos<p>Did you watch Bill Moyers on Bill Maher this past Friday? It is worth watching. Bill Moyers is well … Bill Moyers and he says it best. If you missed it you can see 3 part video posted below; also at LiveLeak - links <a href="http://ow.ly/nfFI" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://ow.ly/nfGI" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://ow.ly/nfGD" target="_blank">here.</a> </p> <p> </p> <p>Part 1 of 3</p> <p> </p> <div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:b16abc13-9128-4df1-ac03-d6b694c96518" style="padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; float: none; padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0px"><div><object width="398" height="328"><param name="movie" value="http://www.liveleak.com/e/3f8_1251526869"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.liveleak.com/e/3f8_1251526869" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="398" height="328"></embed></object></div></div> <p></p> <p> </p> <p>Part 2 of 3</p> <p> </p><div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:65757ffa-a18c-400a-9bc0-871468691bb1" style="padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; float: none; padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0px"><div><object width="450" height="370"><param name="movie" value="http://www.liveleak.com/e/0f1_1251529385"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.liveleak.com/e/0f1_1251529385" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="450" height="370"></embed></object></div></div> <p></p> <p> </p> <p>Part 3 of 3</p> <div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:712dd102-55ae-42e5-af93-b91494f2b3e8" style="padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; float: none; padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0px"><div><object width="350" height="370"><param name="movie" value="http://www.liveleak.com/e/b1b_1251531378"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.liveleak.com/e/b1b_1251531378" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="350" height="370"></embed></object></div></div>Lietta Rugerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03013387655042340435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23876915.post-3540103058876464432009-07-29T09:24:00.001-07:002009-07-29T09:24:16.996-07:00Coyote Moon – Native American – Chant - Meditation<div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:f09717de-dbd3-4b8d-9d93-b3e607e4b501" style="padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; float: none; padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0px"><div id="1714b1ec-c75b-4794-958c-5e132cb27689" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLqpe04up3s&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" target="_new"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHmOe4ODURUI8fnHz1xUBEHm0G-R5j5HNeJTvo8j5XKxo_EXi_w3zlcgSfjQUthGv6GRJDBu5EkRxmww0ADA13ccXckts5SC5FvS0t1gZTSO1xaKxz3CVAuw8hKIW7sMiaVj0dMw/?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('1714b1ec-c75b-4794-958c-5e132cb27689'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = "<div><object width=\"425\" height=\"355\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/RLqpe04up3s&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_embedded&fs=1&hl=en\"><\/param><embed src=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/RLqpe04up3s&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_embedded&fs=1&hl=en\" type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"425\" height=\"355\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>";" alt=""></a></div></div></div> Lietta Rugerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03013387655042340435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23876915.post-88072760894022595652009-07-13T11:59:00.001-07:002009-07-13T11:59:07.752-07:00Our weekend out of town; The Story.<p>Our weekend;   The Story.  I have a peridontist appointment about every three months, in a town about 2 + hours from where we live.  So we have turned it into a weekend getaway, and a visit with my mother who lives in a nearby town to the town where my peridontist is located. </p> <p>Had my peridontist appt Friday and the report was <b>good</b> - some small improvement actually.  Not much improvement, but far better than deterioration.    Then we went to my mother's home, spent the weekend. and then came home to our animals.   Our cat and dog remain at home, and so our time away is limited to a safe duration for the cat and dog to fend for themselves.  Now that my cat bite is healing and the cat is healing, life is returning to normal.   <em>(A couple weeks earlier the cat was bitten by an animal, and in not knowing she was bitten, I picked her up, more rather tugged her out of her hiding place and she bit me…not at all her usual behavior, she is a very loving cat.   We didn’t see her wound at the time, but knew something was wrong with her.  Arthur spotted her wound, and we took her to the vet, who gave her a vaccine, and told me was more concerned that I get myself to hospital to treat the cat bite.  I did, was vaccinated and given antibiotics, the incident reported to County Health, the cat quarantined at our home for 10 days and we are both mending without incident, the primary concern being exposure to rabies).</em>   When we returned home, our dog Jake resumed eating again.  He misses us when we are gone and gets sad - depressed.  Dogs have feelings.  Oh, and our cat too, she has feelings, misses us and glad when we return home.  </p> <p>After my peridontist visit on Friday afternoon we drove to my mother’s home, picked her up and went out to eat.  We live in a rural town, and there aren’t a lot of restaurants or places to eat, so we enjoy the opportunity of eating out at different restaurants on the days of  my peridontist appointments.  It’s an eating out together date we look relish.  Choosing a restaurant in the town where my mother lives proved not to be as obvious as it might seem.  We kind of scoured what we knew to be restaurants in her neighborhood, opted to go further away, settled on Black Angus, since I was hankering for a nice steak lunch.  We got there and it no longer has lunch, open for dinner only.  Must be the economy.  The hour was growing late into the afternoon, I was hungry now, and we had not eaten breakfast that day,  or at all, so we wound up at (oh yuck!) Old Country Buffet.   Arthur likes the many choices of buffet restaurants, and sometimes so do I, but Old Country Buffet is not one of my favorites.  We both really enjoy the buffet variety of primarily healthy choices at  Sweet Tomatoes restaurant, but there were none the town where my Mom lives.     </p> <p>Saturday Arthur spent the day home, defrosted Mom’s freezer for her because it had become so full of ice that the ice on all the shelves were touching each other, no room for food.   He took care of some other taskings for her, then spent the rest of the day fooling around with installing stuff in  his old fashioned computer.  Not the laptop kind, the big bulky kind.  Some guy he knows had given him some Linus software to download or told him about it.  Anyway, it was a dead computer (not working) and when Arthur finished the download it sprung back to life, installed Windows XP and is sort of functional again.  He was delighted.  Still needs an audio driver and something else that would permit it to link to internet.  He was just intrigued that it started working again...kind of like a guy tinkering in his garage with his power tools, only Arthur likes to tinker with puter.</p> <p>Saturday I took Mom to <b>Farmers Market in Proctor area of Tacoma.</b>  That is a district that more resembles Portland or some Seattle districts; organic, green living, conscientious choices - that sort of thing, and an amazingly cool, fun grocery store with very upscale item choices.  For a mere $309.00 you can purchase a wheel of gourmet cheese!  An experience in itself.  (<em>I’m being a bit snarky – it would be very unlikely we would ever spend that kind of  money on cheese.)</em>  We visited a new consignment shop in her immediate neighborhood – delightful items, colorful, fun, upbeat, cheerful.  I liked it.   But I didn’t buy anything, because in truth, neither of us need another thing! </p> <p>And more for the hunt of treasure than because either of us need anything more in our homes, we went to a few garage sales. What was being offered wasn’t<em> </em>the kind of garage sales we were looking for - more like junk sales.  We had fun anyway because we toured many of the University Place neighborhoods, the million + $$ homes with breathtaking views of the Narrows water, Narrows Bridge, the outlying island.  And alongside the million + $$ homes, are more modest ranch style homes.  You can be on a ‘house of dreams’ street and turn to go down the the next street which could well be a quiet and modest street of different ranch style homes.    University Place neighborhoods are in interesting mix of income levels.   After our tour of neighborhoods,  I took her to visit Charlie at cemetary where his ashes are placed.  It is a beautiful, peaceful cemetary, a place of quiet serenity amidst the hubbub of getting from here to there.  Nice place to quietly reflect on life.  I know, it may sound like a strange juxtaposition to reflect on life when at a cemetary where the dead are buried…..but that is how it works for me. </p> <p>We went back to Proctor district that evening to have dinner at a <b><i>niche</i></b> Mexican restaurant (not a restaurant chain) because Mom said she heard good things about the food and atmosphere there.  Lively atmosphere with mix of old and young people dining.    I had a Taste Assault dish called Chicken Mole, although it would be better named <b>Chicken in Mole (prounounced molay)  Sauce, </b>because the sauce was Outrageous -  6 ingredients, and I can remember plums, almonds, mole (an unsweetened chocolate), and some other ingredients.  It wakes up your taste buds like wowza!   Not hot or even spicy, flavorful would be the word I would use to describe it.  Flavorful with each bite.  Arthur took a menu and will experiment at home with making the mole sauce because I liked it so well.  </p> <p>Sunday we took Mom to her church (<i>St Andrews Episcopal Church</i>).   A bit of history here; my mom lost half her sightedness recently and is vision impaired now.  Mom had been saying she felt she needed something inspirational amidst all the doctor appointments and bad news.  Along the way, I decided to call the Priest at St Andrews to talk to him about Mom.  When she was a child, she attended Episcopal church in Spokane.  I explained to him her childhood church exposure, and her current medical condition with being sight impaired, being told by her doctors not to drive anymore. He agreed to visit Mom immediately and arranged for someone to pick her up and take her to church on Sundays.   </p> <p>She has been to St Andrews now, a few times, and wanted us to visit her church.  We wanted to visit it also, as I enjoyed the upbeat conversation with the Priest - he was energetically young, even though he isn't young.    That Sunday they had special guests, a singing group who livened up the entire worship service with renditions of the hymns done to foot tapping music.  Guitars, tambourines, horns, and one of the gals playing guitar was barefoot!   Felt like we were at a campfire gathering!  Geesh!  But the worship service having a combination of traditional liturgy, the laying on of hands for healing, the Eucharist, and the lively music with a welcome invitation to all does reflect ‘The Emerging Church’. </p> <p>We loved the church, it had accommodations our little church building isn’t equipped to have, and if we lived in that area, we would likely attend that church.   Afterwards we ate at a restaurant in her immediate neighborhood that she is fond of - an old fashioned restaurant left over from approximately the 1950’s era.     So lots of eating this weekend, way too many calories, and Mom had a nice weekend.  So did we.   </p> <p>Oh and at the Farmer's Market I bought some snow peas that were priced below what is usually charged for snow peas, so I bought enough to freeze.  Bought a couple of tomato plants already bearing tomatoes, and a basil plant.   I didn’t plant a vegetable garden this year, and haven’t spent much time outside with the herb and flower gardens, so keeping it light this year.   Weather hasn’t been too cooperative where we live – cold, rainy, then unseasonably blistering hot, then cold again.   At the market, I found a growing salad bowl planter that I wanted and Mom bought it for me for my birthday gift.  The planter has growing  lettuce, tomatoes, cilantro plants  - salad ingredients, and that is the extent of my vegetable garden this year.   Except all the herbs I have been growing for a few years now.  </p> <p>And I was delighted to learn about a lovely tasty sauce called <b>Chimichurri?</b>  Oh, I tasted some at the market, and just had to buy one - lime Chimichurri.  Great to use as braising sauce for grilled vegetables, on meats, or just straight on healthy chips or fresh veggies.   Taste delight!</p> <p>It was a rather sweet weekend.  Last year around this time, we had visited Mom and she and I went to Lavender Festival on Vashon Island, ferry ride over and back, a beautiful, clear, sunny day, making the waters deep blue and picturesque. There was a Farmer’s Market there too, and we visited that Farmer’s Market</p> Lietta Rugerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03013387655042340435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23876915.post-26966208129542085582009-03-31T10:13:00.001-07:002009-03-31T10:22:12.807-07:00It’s American Migration History<p>I am not sure why I found myself agitated after reading the book, and in talking to my husband who has written and published his own book <a href="http://coastalrain.tripod.com/aswd/"><span style="color:#000099;">‘And Should We Die’</span> </a>on the same subject, I came to realize some of the reasons for the agitation. My husband, is a descendant of one of the ancestors of the Martin handcart company; <a href="http://www.over-land.com/diarysessions.html"><span style="color:#000099;">Mary Crossley</span></a><span style="color:#000099;">.</span> He did not know that when he wrote his book, and the sensitive and tender manner in which he handled the characters and subject is one of his many attributes which attracted me to him. </p><p></p><p>In appreciating, respecting, and admiring that he has such a proud ancestral heritage and lineage, I began to feel like I needed to learn more about my own lineage. And I set about to do so, learning of a strong maternal Norwegian emigrant lineage and an equally strong paternal German emigrant lineage. But that is as far as it got for me – people’s names but not so much their stories. I have to admit I envied my husband who had actual accounts and stories of his emigrant English lineage in the Mormon migration under Brigham Young . Having learned of and read my husband’s book, I had a great empathy for the hardships the people of the handcart companies endured in their pilgrimages, with the Willie and Martin handcart companies enduring the unendurable. </p><p>Reading the later book by David Roberts, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Devils-Gate-Brigham-Handcart-Tragedy/dp/1416539883"><span style="color:#000099;">‘Devil’s Gate, Brigham Young and the Great Mormon Handcart Tragedy’</span></a><span style="color:#000099;"> </span>I found myself in an uneasy place in recognizing this historical migration does not belong strictly to Mormon history but more appropriately belongs to American history. The unease for me, I think, comes in the efforts by the LDS Church to minimize the extent of the cruelties and hardships endured by the emigrant migrants in making their way from native countries to the great Zion of Salt Lake Utah by a means prescribed by one man – Brigham Young and adhered to by his ardent followers – the early Mormons. </p><p></p><p>Essentially I am struck by how it was conceivable in his mind (Brigham Young) that women, children, men should travel in approaching winter months across the Rocky Mountains with so little in the way of clothing and food; much less the tortuous manner of travel in the energy required to be exerted in pulling handcarts minus anything resembling conditions facilitating the necessary amount of sustenance required to do so day after day.</p><p></p><p>With an inaccurate record of the recorded deaths along the treks of both the Willie and Martin handcart companies, it is nonetheless considered by history to be one of the greater tragedies of the American migration westward, with an exceedingly high number of (un-necessary) deaths. The number of deaths from the combined Willie and Martin handcart companies could be put at approximately 200, exceeding the number of deaths on the historically famously known Donner Party pilgrimage. </p><p></p><p>In what appears to be a long term historical effort by the LDS Church to turn human travesty and needless suffering into a story of faith and testimony elevating the LDS Church and beliefs, at the expense of the real faith of those who suffered, I find that I have come to resent the presentation of this history that has been so guarded by the Church in a false belief that it belongs to Mormon history. As long as it is permitted to belong to Mormon history, the narrative of the story is colored by the agenda of the LDS Church. That I do not resent, but rather understand and permit that the Church like any other institution wishing to present itself in a more favorable light will write the narrative to it’s own agreeable satisfaction. </p><p></p><p>However, the history of the Willie and Martin handcart company does not belong strictly to Mormon history, nor does the LDS church have ownership of the narrative. It is a history that better belongs to the whole of American history, and not in the glorious form of hardy, valiant and persevering souls as is presented in Mormon history but to be added to the numerous tragedies that abound in the American history of westward migration. </p><p></p><p>I recommend the book and even taking into consideration that the author wished to compile the content in a way as to point to accountability and culpability of Brigham Young and his adherents in this fatalistic crossing, one cannot help but come away from the book disturbed with the mechanisms that fostered the horrific conditions suffered by the people of these two handcart companies who undertook the journey. Their Personal Faith is a testament to Faith with a capital F. I am not sure it is a testament or testimony to the belief set of the LDS Church or Mormon beliefs, but I absolutely know it is a testament of Faith. </p><p></p><p>How dare the LDS Church take credit unto itself for the strength and determination of the personal faith of those pioneering souls!They came and they persevered with an internal and personal faith beyond the comprehension of the LDS Church. I claim their courage as a testimony to human capacity of internal faith that fosters extraordinary human endurance in the face of great odds. I believe such faith rarely belongs exclusively to any Church but is unto itself the depth of which faith can help humans to persevere in the face of much adversity. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p>Lietta Rugerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03013387655042340435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23876915.post-90016686461360318842008-12-26T09:43:00.001-08:002008-12-26T09:43:39.336-08:00Craftivism, what is it? Where did it come from? Who thought that one up?<p>Well, whewww, someone put it together – activism + craft = craftivism.  That works for me!  </p> <p> </p> <p>Because it is possible to go beyond banners, email petitions and chants as ways of fighting for a cause you believe in. You could have a knit-in, papier-mache puppets, teach a crafty class for kids- all ways of turning that energy into a more positive, more useful, force. Atrocities are happening in our front yards and on our televisions and we need to find ways to react against what is happening without either giving up or exploding. </p> <p> <br />This is less about mass action or more about realizing what you can do to makes things around you better.</p> <p>Read more - link <a href="http://craftivism.com/what.html" target="_blank">here</a>   -  Craftivism.com, created by Betsy Greer, who advanced ‘craftivism’ as a Masters thesis.    Now she’s talking, no, excuse me, now she’s crafting --- with a message!    </p> <p>Gives me that elusive concept that I have been struggling with for over a year now.  How can I go from 5 years of intense and passionate activism to end the Iraq war to dabbling in exploration of hobby crafts – how are those two things congruent at all?   Looks like maybe there is a common thread, after all.   </p> Lietta Rugerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03013387655042340435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23876915.post-85670427425914469482008-12-13T11:44:00.001-08:002008-12-13T11:44:18.509-08:00Holiday Gatherings are Gaily Wrapped Gifts<p>Lovely holiday luncheon yesterday.  Dear Lady put on a sit-down holiday luncheon for about 20 women in our community.  If  it had been 1950, the luncheon might have looked like women wearing shirt-dresses with petticoats to make them flounce, hats and gloves, and a fashionable purse.   But it isn’t 1950, and that is not what the women looked like at our luncheon yesterday.  Although, our dear hostess, bless her heart, had a gift for each of us at the close of the luncheon --- individual hand-sewn aprons that she had been making since the previous summer.  She made them specifically to gift to each of us at her holiday luncheon.</p> <p> </p> <p>I would share photos, but I haven’t obtained permissions from the women, so in respect for their privacy, if I have photos that don’t reveal faces, I’ll post those later.  </p> <p> </p> <p>I’m just tickled with the holiday festivities this year right here within our small little village.  Open house party, holiday luncheon, church potluck, Women’s Club potluck coming up next week, annual Christmas play put on by the children, Open house party on New Year’s Eve, chili dinner – bring breads later in January.  Perhaps these gatherings have been the norm here for several years, but I’m just entering into all the festive fun this year, so it’s all new to me.  And as such, it’s like opening a lot of gaily wrapped presents, different in form and shape.</p> Lietta Rugerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03013387655042340435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23876915.post-33249290165531779462008-11-27T11:10:00.001-08:002008-11-27T11:10:16.397-08:00The End of American Thanksgivings; A Cause for Universal Rejoicing<p><img src="http://www.blackcommentator.com/301/301_images/66_cover_up.gif" border="0" /></p> <p> <br /><img src="http://www.blackcommentator.com/301/301_images/66_cover_1.gif" border="0" /></p> <p> <br />Nobody celebrates Thanksgiving quite like Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. It is reserved by history and the intent of “the founders” as the supremely white American holiday, the most ghoulish event on the national calendar. No Halloween of the imagination can rival the exterminationist reality that was the genesis, and remains the legacy, of the American Thanksgiving. It is the most loathsome, humanity-insulting day of the year – a pure glorification of racist barbarity.</p> <p> <br />We at BC are thankful that the day grows nearer when the almost four centuries-old abomination will be deprived of its reason for being: white supremacy. Then we may all eat and drink in peace and gratitude for the blessings of humanity’s deliverance from the rule of evil men.</p> <p> <br />Thanksgiving is much more than a lie – if it were that simple, an historical correction of the record of events in 1600s Massachusetts would suffice to purge the “flaw” in the national mythology. But Thanksgiving is not just a twisted fable, and the mythology it nurtures is itself inherently evil. The real-life events – subsequently revised – were perfectly understood at the time as the first, definitive triumphs of the genocidal European project in New England. The near-erasure of Native Americans in Massachusetts and, soon thereafter, from most of the remainder of the northern English colonial seaboard was the true mission of the Pilgrim enterprise – Act One of the American Dream. African Slavery commenced contemporaneously – an overlapping and ultimately inseparable </p> <p>Act Two. <br />The last Act in the American drama must be the “root and branch” eradication of all vestiges of Act One and Two – America’s seminal crimes and formative projects. Thanksgiving as presently celebrated – that is, as a national political event – is an affront to civilization.</p> <p> <br /><b>Celebrating the unspeakable</b> <br />White America embraced Thanksgiving because a majority of that population glories in the fruits, if not the unpleasant details, of genocide and slavery and feels, on the whole, good about their heritage: a cornucopia of privilege and national power. Children are taught to identify with the good fortune of the Pilgrims. It does not much matter that the Native American and African holocausts that flowed from the feast at Plymouth are hidden from the children’s version of the story – kids learn soon enough that Indians were made scarce and Africans became enslaved. But they will also never forget the core message of the holiday: that the Pilgrims were good people, who could not have purposely set such evil in motion. Just as the first Thanksgivings marked the consolidation of the English toehold in what became the United States, the core ideological content of the holiday serves to validate all that has since occurred on these shores – a national consecration of the unspeakable, a balm and benediction for the victors, a blessing of the fruits of murder and kidnapping, and an implicit obligation to continue the seamless historical project in the present day.</p> <p> <br />The Thanksgiving story is an absolution of the Pilgrims, whose brutal quest for absolute power in the New World is made to seem both religiously motivated and eminently human. Most importantly, the Pilgrims are depicted as victims – of harsh weather and their own naïve yet wholesome visions of a new beginning. In light of this carefully nurtured fable, whatever happened to the Indians, from Plymouth to California and beyond, in the aftermath of the 1621 dinner must be considered a mistake, the result of misunderstandings – at worst, a series of lamentable tragedies. The story provides the essential first frame of the American saga. It is unalloyed racist propaganda, a tale that endures because it served the purposes of a succession of the Pilgrims’ political heirs, in much the same way that Nazi-enhanced mythology of a glorious Aryan/German past advanced another murderous, expansionist mission. <br />Thanksgiving is quite dangerous – as were the Pilgrims.</p> <p> <br /><b>Rejoicing in a cemetery</b></p> <p><strong></strong> <br />The English settlers, their ostensibly religious venture backed by a trading company, were glad to discover that they had landed in a virtual cemetery in 1620. Corn still sprouted in the abandoned fields of the Wampanoags, but only a remnant of the local population remained around the fabled Rock. In a letter to England, Massachusetts Bay colony founder John Winthrop wrote, "But for the natives in these parts, God hath so pursued them, as for 300 miles space the greatest part of them are swept away by smallpox which still continues among them. So as God hath thereby cleared our title to this place, those who remain in these parts, being in all not 50, have put themselves under our protection."</p> <p> <br />Ever diligent to claim their own advantages as God’s will, the Pilgrims thanked their deity for having “pursued” the Indians to mass death. However, it was not divine intervention that wiped out most of the natives around the village of Patuxet but, most likely, smallpox-embedded blankets planted during an English visit or slave raid. Six years before the Pilgrim landing, a ship sailed into Patuxet’s harbor, captained by none other than the famous seaman and mercenary soldier John Smith, former leader of the first successful English colony in the New World, at Jamestown, Virginia. Epidemic and slavery followed in his wake, as Debra Glidden described in IMDiversity.com:</p> <blockquote> <p> <br />In 1614 the Plymouth Company of England, a joint stock company, hired Captain John Smith to explore land in its behalf. Along what is now the coast of Massachusetts in the territory of the Wampanoag, Smith visited the town of Patuxet according to "The Colonial Horizon," a 1969 book edited by William Goetzinan. Smith renamed the town Plymouth in honor of his employers, but the Wampanoag who inhabited the town continued to call it Patuxet.</p> </blockquote> <blockquote> <p> <br /><img src="http://www.blackcommentator.com/301/301_images/66_cover_2.gif" border="0" /></p> <p> <br />The following year Captain Hunt, an English slave trader, arrived at Patuxet. It was common practice for explorers to capture Indians, take them to Europe and sell them into slavery for 220 shillings apiece. That practice was described in a 1622 account of happenings entitled "A Declaration of the State of the Colony and Affairs in Virginia," written by Edward Waterhouse. True to the explorer tradition, Hunt kidnapped a number of Wampanoags to sell into slavery.</p> <p> <br />Another common practice among European explorers was to give "smallpox blankets" to the Indians. Since smallpox was unknown on this continent prior to the arrival of the Europeans, Native Americans did not have any natural immunity to the disease so smallpox would effectively wipe out entire villages with very little effort required by the Europeans. William Fenton describes how Europeans decimated Native American villages in his 1957 work "American Indian and White relations to 1830." From 1615 to 1619 smallpox ran rampant among the Wampanoags and their neighbors to the north. The Wampanoag lost 70 percent of their population to the epidemic and the Massachusetts lost 90 percent.</p> <p> <br />Most of the Wampanoag had died from the smallpox epidemic so when the Pilgrims arrived they found well-cleared fields which they claimed for their own. A Puritan colonist, quoted by Harvard University's Perry Miller, praised the plague that had wiped out the Indians for it was "the wonderful preparation of the Lord Jesus Christ, by his providence for his people's abode in the Western world."</p> </blockquote> <p> <br />Historians have since speculated endlessly on why the woods in the region resembled a park to the disembarking Pilgrims in 1620. The reason should have been obvious: hundreds, if not thousands, of people had lived there just five years before.</p> <p> <br />In less than three generations the settlers would turn all of New England into a charnel house for Native Americans, and fire the economic engines of slavery throughout English-speaking America. Plymouth Rock is the place where the nightmare truly began.</p> <p> <br /><b>The uninvited?</b></p> <p><strong></strong> <br />It is not at all clear what happened at the first – and only – “integrated” Thanksgiving feast. Only two written accounts of the three-day event exist, and one of them, by Governor William Bradford, was written 20 years after the fact. Was Chief Massasoit invited to bring 90 Indians with him to dine with 52 colonists, most of them women and children? This seems unlikely. A good harvest had provided the settlers with plenty of food, according to their accounts, so the whites didn’t really need the Wampanoag’s offering of five deer. What we do know is that there had been lots of tension between the two groups that fall. John Two-Hawks, who runs the Native Circle web site, gives a sketch of the facts:</p> <blockquote> <p> <br />“Thanksgiving' did not begin as a great loving relationship between the pilgrims and the Wampanoag, Pequot and Narragansett people. In fact, in October of 1621 when the pilgrim survivors of their first winter in Turtle Island sat down to share the first unofficial 'Thanksgiving' meal, the Indians who were there were not even invited! There was no turkey, squash, cranberry sauce or pumpkin pie. A few days before this alleged feast took place, a company of 'pilgrims' led by Miles Standish actively sought the head of a local Indian chief, and an 11 foot high wall was erected around the entire Plymouth settlement for the very purpose of keeping Indians out!”</p> </blockquote> <p> <br />It is much more likely that Chief Massasoit either crashed the party, or brought enough men to ensure that he was not kidnapped or harmed by the Pilgrims. Dr. Tingba Apidta, in his “Black Folks’ Guide to Understanding Thanksgiving,” surmises that the settlers “brandished their weaponry” early and got drunk soon thereafter. He notes that “each Pilgrim drank at least a half gallon of beer a day, which they preferred even to water. This daily inebriation led their governor, William Bradford, to comment on his people's ‘notorious sin,’ which included their ‘drunkenness and uncleanliness’ and rampant ‘sodomy.’”</p> <p> <br /><img src="http://www.blackcommentator.com/301/301_images/66_cover_3.gif" border="0" /></p> <p> <br />Soon after the feast the brutish Miles Standish “got his bloody prize,” Dr. Apidta writes:</p> <blockquote> <p> <br />“He went to the Indians, pretended to be a trader, then beheaded an Indian man named Wituwamat. He brought the head to Plymouth, where it was displayed on a wooden spike for many years, according to Gary B. Nash, ‘as a symbol of white power.’ Standish had the Indian man's young brother hanged from the rafters for good measure. From that time on, the whites were known to the Indians of Massachusetts by the name ‘Wotowquenange,’ which in their tongue meant cutthroats and stabbers.”</p> </blockquote> <p> <br />What is certain is that the first feast was not called a “Thanksgiving” at the time; no further integrated dining occasions were scheduled; and the first, official all-Pilgrim “Thanksgiving” had to wait until 1637, when the whites of New England celebrated the massacre of the Wampanoag’s southern neighbors, the Pequots.</p> <p> <br /><b>The real Thanksgiving Day Massacre</b></p> <strong></strong> <p> <br />The Pequots today own the Foxwood Casino and Hotel, in Ledyard, Connecticut, with gross gaming revenues of over $9 billion in 2000. This is truly a (very belated) miracle, since the real first Pilgrim Thanksgiving was intended as the Pequot’s epitaph. Sixteen years after the problematical Plymouth feast, the English tried mightily to erase the Pequots from the face of the Earth, and thanked God for the blessing.</p> <p> <br />Having subdued, intimidated or made mercenaries of most of the tribes of Massachusetts, the English turned their growing force southward, toward the rich Connecticut valley, the Pequot’s sphere of influence. At the point where the Mystic River meets the sea, the combined force of English and allied Indians bypassed the Pequot fort to attack and set ablaze a town full of women, children and old people.</p> <p> <br />William Bradford, the former Governor of Plymouth and one of the chroniclers of the 1621 feast, was also on hand for the great massacre of 1637:</p> <blockquote> <p> <br />"Those that escaped the fire were slain with the sword; some hewed to pieces, others run through with their rapiers, so that they were quickly dispatched and very few escaped. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire...horrible was the stink and scent thereof, but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to enclose their enemies in their hands, and give them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting an enemy."</p> </blockquote> <p> <br />The rest of the white folks thought so, too. “This day forth shall be a day of celebration and thanksgiving for subduing the Pequots," read Governor John Winthrop’s proclamation. The authentic Thanksgiving Day was born.</p> <p> <br /><img src="http://www.blackcommentator.com/301/301_images/66_cover_4.gif" border="0" /></p> <p> <br />Most historians believe about 700 Pequots were slaughtered at Mystic. Many prisoners were executed, and surviving women and children sold into slavery in the West Indies. Pequot prisoners that escaped execution were parceled out to Indian tribes allied with the English. The Pequot were thought to have been extinguished as a people. According to IndyMedia, “The Pequot tribe numbered 8,000 when the Pilgrims arrived, but disease had brought their numbers down to 1,500 by 1637. The Pequot ‘War’ killed all but a handful of remaining members of the tribe.”</p> <p> <br />But there were still too many Indians around to suit the whites of New England, who bided their time while their own numbers increased to critical, murderous mass.</p> <p> <br /><b>Guest’s head on a pole</b></p> <strong></strong> <p> <br />By the 1670s the colonists, with 8,000 men under arms, felt strong enough to demand that the Pilgrims’ former dinner guests the Wampanoags disarm and submit to the authority of the Crown. After a series of settler provocations in 1675, the Wampanoag struck back, under the leadership of Chief Metacomet, son of Massasoit, called King Philip by the English. Metacomet/Philip, whose wife and son were captured and sold into West Indian slavery, wiped out 13 settlements and killed 600 adult white men before the tide of battle turned. A 1996 issue of the Revolutionary Worker provides an excellent narrative.</p> <blockquote> <p> <br />In their victory, the settlers launched an all-out genocide against the remaining Native people. The Massachusetts government offered 20 shillings bounty for every Indian scalp, and 40 shillings for every prisoner who could be sold into slavery. Soldiers were allowed to enslave any Indian woman or child under 14 they could capture. The "Praying Indians" who had converted to Christianity and fought on the side of the European troops were accused of shooting into the treetops during battles with "hostiles." They were enslaved or killed. Other "peaceful" Indians of Dartmouth and Dover were invited to negotiate or seek refuge at trading posts – and were sold onto slave ships.</p> <p> <br />It is not known how many Indians were sold into slavery, but in this campaign, 500 enslaved Indians were shipped from Plymouth alone. Of the 12,000 Indians in the surrounding tribes, probably about half died from battle, massacre and starvation.</p> <p> <br />After King Philip's War, there were almost no Indians left free in the northern British colonies. A colonist wrote from Manhattan's New York colony: "There is now but few Indians upon the island and those few no ways hurtful. It is to be admired how strangely they have decreased by the hand of God, since the English first settled in these parts." In Massachusetts, the colonists declared a "day of public thanksgiving" in 1676, saying, "there now scarce remains a name or family of them but are either slain, captivated or fled."</p> <p> <br />Fifty-five years after the original Thanksgiving Day, the Puritans had destroyed the generous Wampanoag and all other neighboring tribes. The Wampanoag chief King Philip was beheaded. His head was stuck on a pole in Plymouth, where the skull still hung on display 24 years later.</p> </blockquote> <p> <br />This is not thought to be a fit Thanksgiving tale for the children of today, but it’s the real story, well-known to the settler children of New England at the time – the white kids who saw the Wampanoag head on the pole year after year and knew for certain that God loved them best of all, and that every atrocity they might ever commit against a heathen, non-white was blessed.</p> <p> <br />There’s a good term for the process thus set in motion: nation-building.</p> <p> <br /><b>Roots of the slave trade</b></p> <strong></strong> <p> <br />The British North American colonists’ practice of enslaving Indians for labor or direct sale to the West Indies preceded the appearance of the first chained Africans at the dock in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. The Jamestown colonists’ human transaction with the Dutch vessel was an unscheduled occurrence. However, once the African slave trade became commercially established, the fates of Indians and Africans in the colonies became inextricably entwined. New England, born of up-close-and-personal, burn-them-in-the-fires-of-hell genocide, led the political and commercial development of the English colonies. The region also led the nascent nation’s descent into a slavery-based society and economy.</p> <p> <br /><img src="http://www.blackcommentator.com/301/301_images/66_cover_5.gif" border="0" /></p> <p> <br />Ironically, an apologist for Virginian slavery made one of the best, early cases for the indictment of New England as the engine of the American slave trade. Unreconstructed secessionist Lewis Dabney’s 1867 book “A Defense of Virginia” traced the slave trade’s origins all the way back to Plymouth Rock:</p> <blockquote> <p> <br />The planting of the commercial States of North America began with the colony of Puritan Independents at Plymouth, in 1620, which was subsequently enlarged into the State of Massachusetts. The other trading colonies, Rhode Island and Connecticut, as well as New Hampshire (which never had an extensive shipping interest), were offshoots of Massachusetts. They partook of the same characteristics and pursuits; and hence, the example of the parent colony is taken here as a fair representation of them.</p> <p> <br />The first ship from America, which embarked in the African slave trade, was the Desire, Captain Pierce, of Salem; and this was among the first vessels ever built in the colony. The promptitude with which the "Puritan Fathers" embarked in this business may be comprehended, when it is stated that the Desire sailed upon her voyage in June, 1637. The first feeble and dubious foothold was gained by the white man at Plymouth less than seventeen years before; and as is well known, many years were expended by the struggle of the handful of settlers for existence. So that it may be correctly said, that the commerce of New England was born of the slave trade; as its subsequent prosperity was largely founded upon it. The Desire, proceeding to the Bahamas, with a cargo of "dry fish and strong liquors, the only commodities for those parts," obtained the negroes from two British men-of-war, which had captured them from a Spanish slaver.</p> <p> <br />Thus, the trade of which the good ship Desire, of Salem, was the harbinger, grew into grand proportions; and for nearly two centuries poured a flood of wealth into New England, as well as no inconsiderable number of slaves. Meanwhile, the other maritime colonies of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and Connecticut, followed the example of their elder sister emulously; and their commercial history is but a repetition of that of Massachusetts. The towns of Providence, Newport, and New Haven became famous slave trading ports. The magnificent harbor of the second, especially, was the favorite starting-place of the slave ships; and its commerce rivaled, or even exceeded, that of the present commercial metropolis, New York. All the four original States, of course, became slaveholding.</p> </blockquote> <p> <br />The Revolution that exploded in 1770s New England was undertaken by men thoroughly imbued with the worldview of the Indian-killer and slave-holder. How could they not be? The “country” they claimed as their own was fathered by genocide and mothered by slavery – its true distinction among the commercial nations of the world. And these men were not ashamed, but proud, with vast ambition to spread their exceptional characteristics West and South and wherever their so-far successful project in nation-building might take them – and by the same bloody, savage methods that had served them so well in the past.</p> <p> <br /><img src="http://www.blackcommentator.com/301/301_images/66_cover_6.gif" border="0" /></p> <p> <br />At the moment of deepest national crisis following the battle of Gettysburg in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln invoked the national fable that is far more central to the white American personality than Lincoln’s battlefield “Address.” Lincoln seized upon the 1621 feast as the historic “Thanksgiving” – bypassing the official and authentic 1637 precedent – and assigned the dateless, murky event the fourth Thursday in November.</p> <p> <br />Lincoln surveyed a broken nation, and attempted nation-rebuilding, based on the purest white myth. The same year that he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, he renewed the national commitment to a white manifest destiny that began at Plymouth Rock. Lincoln sought to rekindle a shared national mission that former Confederates and Unionists and white immigrants from Europe could collectively embrace. It was and remains a barbaric and racist national unifier, by definition. Only the most fantastic lies can sanitize the history of the Plymouth Colony of Massachusetts.</p> <p> <br /><b>”Like a rock”</b></p> <strong></strong> <p> <br />The Thanksgiving holiday fable is at once a window on the way that many, if not most, white Americans view the world and their place in it, and a pollutant that leaches barbarism into the modern era. The fable attempts to glorify the indefensible, to enshrine an era and mission that represent the nation’s lowest moral denominators. Thanksgiving as framed in the mythology is, consequently, a drag on that which is potentially civilizing in the national character, a crippling, atavistic deformity. Defenders of the holiday will claim that the politically-corrected children’s version promotes brotherhood, but that is an impossibility – a bald excuse to prolong the worship of colonial “forefathers” and to erase the crimes they committed. Those bastards burned the Pequot women and children, and ushered in the multinational business of slavery. These are facts. The myth is an insidious diversion – and worse.</p> <p> <br />Humanity cannot tolerate a 21st Century superpower, much of whose population perceives the world through the eyes of 17th Century land and flesh bandits. Yet that is the trick that fate has played on the globe. We described the roots of the planetary dilemma in our March 13, 2003 commentary, “Racism & War, Perfect Together.”</p> <blockquote> <p> <br />The English arrived with criminal intent - and brought wives and children to form new societies predicated on successful plunder. To justify the murderous enterprise, Indians who had initially cooperated with the squatters were transmogrified into "savages" deserving displacement and death. The relentlessly refreshed lie of Indian savagery became a truth in the minds of white Americans, a fact to be acted upon by every succeeding generation of whites. The settlers became a singular people confronting the great "frontier" - a euphemism for centuries of genocidal campaigns against a darker, "savage" people marked for extinction.</p> <p> <br />The necessity of genocide was the operative, working assumption of the expanding American nation. "Manifest Destiny" was born at Plymouth Rock and Jamestown, later to fall (to paraphrase Malcolm) like a rock on Mexico, the Philippines, Haiti, Nicaragua, etc. Little children were taught that the American project was inherently good, Godly, and that those who got in the way were "evil-doers" or just plain subhuman, to be gloriously eliminated. The lie is central to white American identity, embraced by waves of European settlers who never saw a red person.</p> </blockquote> <p> <br />Only a century ago, American soldiers caused the deaths of possibly a million Filipinos whom they had been sent to “liberate” from Spanish rule. They didn’t even know who they were killing, and so rationalized their behavior by substituting the usual American victims. Colonel Funston, of the Twentieth Kansas Volunteers, explained what got him motivated in the Philippines:</p> <blockquote> <p> <br />"Our fighting blood was up and we all wanted to kill 'niggers.' This shooting human beings is a 'hot game,' and beats rabbit hunting all to pieces." Another wrote that "the boys go for the enemy as if they were chasing jack-rabbits .... I, for one, hope that Uncle Sam will apply the chastening rod, good, hard, and plenty, and lay it on until they come into the reservation and promise to be good 'Injuns.'"</p> </blockquote> <p> <br />Our military leaders in Iraq continue to personify the unfitness of Americans to play a major role in the world, much less rule it.</p> <p> <br /><img src="http://www.blackcommentator.com/301/301_images/66_cover_7.gif" border="0" /></p> <p> <br />What does this have to do with the Mayflower? Everything. Although possibly against their wishes, the Pilgrims hosted the Wampanoag for three no doubt anxious days. The same men killed and enslaved Wampanoags immediately before and after the feast. They, their newly arrived English comrades and their children roasted hundreds of neighboring Indians alive just 16 years later, and two generations afterwards cleared nearly the whole of New England of its indigenous “savages,” while enthusiastically enriching themselves through the invention of transoceanic, sophisticated means of enslaving millions. The Mayflower’s cultural heirs are programmed to find glory in their own depravity and savagery in their most helpless victims, who can only redeem themselves by accepting the inherent goodness of white Americans.</p> <p> <br />Thanksgiving encourages these cognitive cripples in their madness, just as it is designed to do.</p> <p> <br /><strong>Things are looking up</strong></p> <strong></strong> <p> <br />We began this essay by saying that “the day grows nearer when the almost four centuries-old abomination will be deprived of its reason for being: white supremacy.” We firmly believe this. The wired world works against the Bushites insane leap to global hegemony, while creating the material basis for (dare we say the words) brother- and sisterhood among humankind. It becomes clear that the fruits of millennia of human genius cannot be captured and packaged for the enrichment of a few for much longer – and certainly not by a cabal that cannot see beyond the bubble of its own, warped history. The dim outlines of a new and more democratic world order can be seen in the often tentative, but sometimes dramatic actions of movements and nations determined to construct a fairer way to live. As the world witnesses the brutality, stupidity and sheer incompetence of the Pirates currently at the helm of the United States, the urgency of a common, alternative human project becomes apparent to all. The “end of history” that the Bushites triumphantly announce is really the end of them, through a process they have accelerated with every deranged action and delusional strategy they have undertaken since 2001.</p> <p> <br />They are like men in quicksand. White racism as a global scourge will sink with them, and eventually whither to a mere prejudice rather than a world-threatening menace.</p> <p>We at <strong>BC</strong> are thankful to be alive in the knowledge that a new world is just over the horizon, close enough to sense, even if we never see it.</p> <p>We are optimistic about our struggle in the United States – if not, we would never encourage anybody to fight and struggle for anything.</p> <p>We are thankful for our hope that Barack Obama is the real thing and a genuine social democrat who will with our support and criticism push the envelope in civilized directions.</p> <p>We are thankful we can renew our confidence in African Americans, citizens of the African World and all other people of good will who will continue to be part of the movement for economic justice, social justice and peace.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p> <br /> <br />Any BlackCommentator.com article may be re-printed as long as it is re-printed in its entirety and full credit given to the author and <a href="http://www.BlackCommentator.com">www.BlackCommentator.com</a> . If the re-print is on the Internet we additionally request a <a href="http://www.blackcommentator.com/301/301_cover_end_of_american_thanksgivings.html" target="_blank">link back to the original piece</a> on our Website.</p></blockquote> Lietta Rugerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03013387655042340435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23876915.post-63718552473814580742008-11-23T18:42:00.001-08:002008-11-23T18:42:48.654-08:00View Driving Home<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjupcEY3uZtI0YYZdD3iBVoZuwV40l7b1C6oVSH-t50nI14rzc1_1ryCY8Iwp4b-xUM_sqnWgosiBvsEkJRb9n-J2l1dOFax25DcFBelxciFN-haSoI5b4ydZLHoLov_0K8raYuGg/s1600-h/264%5B7%5D.jpg"><img title="264" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="381" alt="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsL2lwBfCc0PdG9w27gC-AlwCKQnFpAdt5EqbRY-y3BJ5Oglhx8i_z-ObGpmMfiayudUNTKXW5hH8Y75QJtnYsmt6rfmbNUgX7jKZ-22ZObTfyFzJArelZA4-DMvJVHADx669kCA/?imgmax=800" width="493" border="0" /></a> </p> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgix1OZCcRfHfBSPYLWtjL63Bk5AJJrjaU1ljVdw14c1LAhNp9fvKQBYkBZdFe1h0Al5cszIDigfJZgQjAZjFOQAGQ5Pd7Vvs8LFD7uscviXlsDNDBGz3NA37VDItDNP8Y77RVM7Q/s1600-h/263%5B17%5D.jpg"><img title="263" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="415" alt="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSStA0ew5x_Xr_A9H6XeXmFsU-sYam491_5uvp4lSQBgK3NHyKXz3jPzdwBqfEwtsvoRk05Ko4awfDTzqibNlYZQrWtY85oDMEK5z55n_Aai4AN7vkjebCZ_UB0jqSgFgm0gb2tg/?imgmax=800" width="491" border="0" /></a> </p> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjchA29lR4zAM7lUOlGZlN96nZdtw6GGtT_GTHhM7qw6LhuFuwZAhg_5niOrI4MAVJWZDxQq1sMFd_0k9q2bP2vPiVF9nQeF4z9u6Mhdt6rigWuoukIcjWxTHW62xQttUnx6BFkzg/s1600-h/261%5B13%5D.jpg"><img title="261" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="414" alt="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuR07Qct8jWB2M0m8YGnCGkM3plybKZByS6Qg1XJu4PWi6___G0PPiqy61pk2ZSwFizu64lVlUGXVsBYuBbBoa6opWOhoS-3MayzFjn3hpxJb5gRLARMn4UBA5hB2Nb-WPWkboig/?imgmax=800" width="492" border="0" /></a> </p> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrDxNHfUOBsR308Hp7JMFfTD6HQttocvmKzgXq6RcnEFeRDGMtuGoISf-oLW9coVOzuCLbqEnu4748sVFLf8oigzKLpUeuCd5gJovxOSXS2tnIqT2k6OIdoF9govUxqwss74FIhA/s1600-h/255%5B14%5D.jpg"><img title="255" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="395" alt="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpdYcLXZo0p_QHvOxpx4O8TkXhSnLf4AjELp1pJNGcsllrvEH4cVrk_JNZkvMYPcEJ3y4RKQSiMVREoidq-zenwqhJ65F8ZUfX3PHvdblRdHGnoBLz76A3fbZjRszYesUR0H1oHw/?imgmax=800" width="488" border="0" /></a> </p> <p>I was capturing some of the scenery on our drive home. We were driving home as the sun was starting to set.  I was able to get a nice set before we lost the light.   Not bad considering these were taken as a passenger in a moving vehicle. </p> <p>photos taken by Lietta Ruger</p> Lietta Rugerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03013387655042340435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23876915.post-21746972575426366152008-11-21T21:34:00.001-08:002008-11-21T21:34:45.339-08:00Wind Power Plans Coming to Pacific County? Will the communities accept new eco-industry?<p><i>article at <a href="http://www.dailyastorian.info/main.asp?SectionID=23&SubSectionID=392&ArticleID=56099&TM=30298.14" target="_blank">Daily Astorian</a> </i></p> <p><i>If a project isn’t sold to the community it will struggle to gain public acceptance</i></p> <p>There are suddenly plans for a lot of wind-based power generation blowing into Washington's Pacific County, possibly a hint at what may occur in many of the coastal counties of Oregon and Washington in the years ahead.</p> <p> <br />A "joint operating agency" of Washington state electricity providers is planning an 82-megawatt wind turbine farm in the Naselle area, with completion of up to 45 wind turbines eyed in 2011. A smaller, very interesting four-turbine project is getting started in northern Pacific County and southern Grays Harbor County. In total, all this may be enough to power some 40,000 average-sized homes.</p> <p> <br />The Pacific Northwest and the nation need more of the relatively clean energy that wind farms provide. Pacific County can use the construction and operation jobs that Radar Ridge would generate along with electricity. A similar-sized plant in Calgary cost about $140 million Canadian in 2006, perhaps not far different than what the local project will cost in U.S. dollars a year or two from now. That's a mighty big and mostly welcome investment.</p> <p> <br />At the same time, it's important to note that phalanxes of giant wind turbines have not met with universal acclaim everywhere they've been constructed. Residents often complain about the impacts they have on landscape, bird migration, traffic, hunting access and other rural values.</p> <p> <br />Quoting Canada's National Post, "Activists now decry windmills with a fervour once reserved for nuclear plants. To some, it seems strange to waste time railing against a power source that does not generate greenhouse gases, is relatively quick to construct and can serve as a powerful symbol of a community's environmental convictions. They say critics are only displaying a modern strain of 'Not In My Backyard' syndrome.</p> <p> <br />"Opponents, however, say they are driven by concerns about windmills' effects on everything from bird migration to health to property values to earthworms.</p> Lietta Rugerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03013387655042340435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23876915.post-86944270884442953202008-11-12T10:01:00.001-08:002008-11-12T10:01:45.088-08:00First Lady (to be) Michelle Obama phoned me at my home!!<p>She really did.  She phoned on Veterans Day. I was sitting at my desk in my home in my lounge around the house clothes, working on my laptop.  The dawning of the fullness of the recognition that I was listening to Michelle Obama, who will very soon be the First Lady hit me like a ton of bricks and blew me away.  Wow, I'm on a phone call with the First Lady -- how cool is that!</p> <p>Actually, it was a conference call, listen only, that Michelle Obama made on Veterans Day to <a href="http://www.bsf4o.com/">Blue Star Families 4 Obama</a>, to thank them for their pro-active help in the campaign, to thank them for their sacrifices as military families.  We are a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_flag">Blue Star family </a>and I had joined the BSF4O group during the campaign at my <a href="http://www.barackobama.com/index.php">mybarackobama</a> campaign site. </p> <p>So no, it was not a personal call specifically to me, and I was having a little fun with the first part of this post.  Still, I was surprised at my own reaction and recognition -- this really is Michelle Obama, she really will be the First Lady, she is talking to us on a phone conference call, talking about her daughters, getting them into schools, getting ready for the inauguration. It had a surreal feeling to it for me.  I am not used to being on a phone call from the First Lady and well, the Vice President -- an earlier conference call I got to participate in (listen only) with Joe Biden.   </p> <p>If I were to be on a phone conference call with President Elect, Barack Obama, based on my reaction to Michelle Obama's phone conference call, I'm sure my reaction will cause my heart to beat faster.   </p> <p>Towards the end of the campaign, I was on a listen only conference call from Joe Biden that he set up via his email listserv.  He had just concluded his speech in Tacoma, WA, thanked us  and was encouraging the many of us on the conference call to get out there and keep working, and not to take anything for granted. </p> <p>The audacity of hope..boy, am I feeling it! </p> Lietta Rugerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03013387655042340435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23876915.post-86508104565157367732008-11-12T09:12:00.001-08:002008-11-12T09:12:28.198-08:00One photo embraces Veteran’s Day<p>Returning wounded Iraq veteran, and now Director of the Illinois Dept of Veteran’s Affairs, Tammy Duckworth who lost both legs in combat in Iraq war with President Elect, Barack Obama on Veteran’s Day 2008;  ceremony of placing the wreath on Bronze Soldiers Memorial.</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIWtDuK3Nw2L8Ux8F4SVhk6SJkrKVEcyqSQXKUI0OxlEAbAIn_rehyphenhyphensh0sXe_P8s7GJts4xnlsITEdIzm8znd5b0xhumVVqSDhI4xYZ3FX56a6ah4u_wGQ2DPxST8CRIex59wm/s1600-h/Obama%20Tammy%20Duckworth%20Veterans%20Day%202008%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Obama Tammy Duckworth Veterans Day 2008" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="313" alt="Obama Tammy Duckworth Veterans Day 2008" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiROh7afnZd1xYBZIDUfWIoPO9aKsQo3TfkKaSyD7UXwGmXyQLYOImAg1h7u5R_PoYf9XFKQe9zleHvadjDtZaKNDGqiU5sU_Is6-p0fUf8eC7EA7vR_fe8gvh-F0GKTBvFGqJ/?imgmax=800" width="254" border="0" /></a> </p> <p><a href="http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5isOFwdbq0tsqatW6vJpkDRTI1gMgD94CV02O0" target="_blank">link -</a> more photos and article</p> <p>On a more personal note, Arthur, along with the rest of the veterans living here in our community were honored yesterday in a Veteran’s Day ceremony at our county park.  A flag flown over the White House had been purchased, and that flag was raised in ceremony by one of the veterans at our county park official flag pole.</p> <p>A thank you applause to the veterans, photos and a brief speech.  Arthur is a Vietnam era veteran.  He rarely points to his own service, while humbly pointing to and honoring other veterans. </p> Lietta Rugerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03013387655042340435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23876915.post-70030452428398213452008-11-08T12:13:00.000-08:002008-11-10T12:16:46.875-08:00‘Crawford’ – dvd feature film, when George W. Bush came to town<p>Released in 2008, the film <a href="http://crawfordmovie.com/home" target="_blank">‘Crawford’</a> produced/directed by David Modigliani is a documentary/biography of the small town of Crawford, Texas before George W. Bush arrived at their doorstep, during the time of his Presidency. (And now after as new President-Elect, Barack Obama, is preparing to assume the office of President of the United States).  The <a href="http://crawfordmovie.com/" target="_blank">film,’Crawford’</a>  is put together in a way that shows  the residents of the town, their lives, and the impact of what happens to the town and their lives when George Bush moves to their town to set up his ranch in his campaign for President.  </p> <p>The video is embedded below, obtaining it from and assuming that Hulu has necessary permissions to share it online. If the video does not work at my blog, you can view it where I did, online at his <a href="http://www.hulu.com/watch/37906/crawford" target="_blank">link – Hulu.</a> </p> <p>I jump ahead of the film, to my own personal experience of Crawford, Texas. Of course, part of the Crawford experience is that month of August 2005, when Cindy Sheehan parked herself in Crawford outside the President’s  ranch during his vacation. For perspective as to why Cindy decided to make her stand at that time, remember that President Bush took vacation shortly after one of his press conferences in which he identifies the deaths of troops in Iraq as having given their lives for a noble cause. </p> <p>Remember that at that time, 23 marines from the Lima Company alone had been killed in Iraq in 2005, 20 were killed over 2 days in August 2005 – six on Aug 1, and fourteen on Aug 3.   Cindy, mother of Casey Sheehan, soldier, who was killed in Iraq April 4, 2004, deliberately went to Crawford almost immediately after the noble cause statement to ask George Bush personally  ‘What Noble Cause?’ .  While the film does not elevate this period of the George Bush ranch in Crawford experience,the film attempts to show the impact on local residents. </p> <p>I was part of that story, part of that August 2005 experience of Crawford.  Since I was not or did not consider myself to be a ‘peace activist’ prior to the Iraq war but chose to present as a military family trying to speak out to a new young generation of military families, the perspectives I have of my own experiences among the peace/activism communities has it’s own unique flavor.  My experience of Crawford, Texas, Camp Casey, August 2005 is colored by my experiences growing up as what is affectionately callled a ‘military brat’ on military bases in between the Korean Conflict (war)  and the Vietnam war, my experiences as a military wife of a young husband, drafted and deployed to Vietnam, my experiences living in the ‘military culture’, my professional career employment in the social services field during my adult years as a civilian employed in state level public sector, and my <em><strong>inexperience</strong></em> with the culture of peace/activism communities.</p> <p>The film does justice to one of the many considerations I had when I was at Crawford.  How does this tiny town cope with having such high profile people make their mark at Crawford?  How does the town deal with and cope with the polarized, political battle of opinions here at home  on the Iraq war which I believe came to head at Crawford during Camp Casey in August 2005.  Now that I actually do live in a small town, and it is a new part of my life experiences,  I wondered how the people in the town where I live would react should something similar happen in their town and lives.</p> <p>Whatever came after the August 2005, Crawford, Texas, Camp Casey experience, I will always credit Cindy with bringing to head the public discourse which at that time had been embroiled in political limitations to the language of what constitutes patriotism, the flag, and support for the troops.  The public political discourse needed to happen and the shift in the political discourse because of that month of August 2005 in Crawford that gave voice to the many-faceted feelings and opinions of the war in Iraq needed to happen.  </p> <p>It opened doors within the public Iraq war political discourse that had been previously deliberately slammed shut. And I would offer those doors were slammed shut with deliberate forethought and premeditation so as to confine, undermine, and squelch any opportunity of public dialogue or public dissent.  For myself, an ordinary person living an ordinary life, my experience of August 2005 in Crawford, Texas was extraordinary and has marked me indelibly.  </p> <p>But August 2005 is not the point of this film, it is a part of the film, as it is a part of the Crawford experience.  The film is presented in a way that does not favor opinions about the Iraq war, about George W. Bush, but brings to bear the experience of both along with other experiences that often times typifies small town America.  The ending of the film shook me up – was something I did not know and was very unsettling.  </p> <p>I hope you’ll watch the film.  It is not a trailer, but the full length film, 1 hour and 15 minutes, so recommend watching it when you have some time to watch it.  </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><object width="512" height="296"><param name="movie" value="http://www.hulu.com/embed/Tpp-yBQ36dgoXnfD7k155A"></param><embed src="http://www.hulu.com/embed/Tpp-yBQ36dgoXnfD7k155A" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="512" height="296"></embed></object></p> <p> </p> <p>Excerpt of one review of the film ‘Crawford’ by Joe Leydon at <a href="http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&id=2850&reviewid=VE1117936479" target="_blank">Variety</a></p> <p>By <a href="http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=bio&peopleID=1253">JOE LEYDON</a> <br />David Modiglinai's <a href="http://www.variety.com/profiles/Film/main/194707/Crawford.html?dataSet=1">"Crawford"</a> offers an evenhanded and occasionally poignant account of the impact on the citizenry of the small Texas town chosen by President George W. Bush to be the site of his so-called "Western White House." Filmed over several years, docu plays like a rise-and-fall drama populated with colorful, contrasting characters who have profoundly mixed feelings about being used as props in Bush's political stagecraft. After a spin on the fest circuit, pic might get limited theatrical play before pubcast and/or niche-cable airdates.</p> Lietta Rugerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03013387655042340435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23876915.post-28949279765389216252008-10-19T10:12:00.000-07:002008-10-19T10:15:03.792-07:00Photo of mother at gravesite referenced by Colin Powell endorsement of Barack Obama<a target="_blank" href="http://s257.photobucket.com/albums/hh213/roseskybrat/?action=view&current=ColinPowellreferencedthisphoto-1.jpg"><img alt="Photobucket" src="http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh213/roseskybrat/ColinPowellreferencedthisphoto-1.jpg" border></a><p><br /><b>The photo Colin Powell referenced in his endorsement of Barack Obama.</b> The photo of mother at her son's gravesite, a young man, 20 years old, killed in Iraq, awarded Bronze Star and Purple Heart. Emblem on his gravesite is not the Christian cross, the Jewish Star of David, but the Muslim Crescent and Star. Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, Cpl., U.S. Army, Operation Iraqi Freedom, was an American who was 14 at the time of 911. He waited until he was of age to enlist in military to serve his country (United States of America) and he gave his life for his country...the United States of America. <br /><br />excerpt from the <i><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27266223/page/2/">transcript</a></i> of Colin Powell endorsement speech on Meet The Press today <p><br /><blockquote>I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards--Purple Heart, Bronze Star--showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn't have a Christian cross, it didn't have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life. Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourself in this way. And John McCain is as nondiscriminatory as anyone I know. But I'm troubled about the fact that, within the party, we have these kinds of expressions.</blockquote><p><br />Video of Colin Powell's endorsement speech of Barack Obama at Meet the Press today.<p><br /><iframe width="425" frameborder src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/27265490#27265490" height="339"></iframe><p><br />There is much to be mined from Colin Powell's speech that might resonate more strongly with others. Colin Powell, with this reference, eloquenty elevated a truth and reality of the constancy of our country's relationship to the Iraq war. I wanted to take a moment to share in elegance that truth, that reality, amidst all the background noise of the Presidential campaign. <p><br />It is not useful for me to editorialize or restate using my lesser words that which Colin Powell has brought into perspective with his own words. I hope, readers, you will take time to listen to Colin Powell and hear the words for yourselves.Lietta Rugerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03013387655042340435noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23876915.post-6681415615669099812008-07-14T09:34:00.001-07:002008-07-14T09:34:21.392-07:00Who killed the electric car? - video<embed id="VideoPlayback" style="width:400px;height:326px" allowFullScreen="true" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-7202740060236675590&hl=en&fs=true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"> </embed>Lietta Rugerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03013387655042340435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23876915.post-62438269957647278552007-11-11T08:51:00.000-08:002007-11-11T08:52:23.099-08:00Doing Something Positive - The Urban Pioneers are doing it, so can we!Excellent video encapsulating wide array of concepts in Sustainable Living. These Urban Pioneers got a jumpstart back when it was called self-sufficiency- meaningful living, abundant living, simplistic living, getting off the grid. And they go even further back ... see the video below. Big hat tip to<a style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);" href="http://www.pathtofreedom.com/journal/"> Path To Freedom Journal</a> blog.<br /><br /><object height="255" width="325"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/mCPEBM5ol0Q&rel=1&border=0"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/mCPEBM5ol0Q&rel=1&border=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="255" width="325"></embed></object><br /><br />from the Path to Freedom Journal blog 'about us'<br />On 1/5th of an acre, this family has over 350 varieties of edible and useful plants. The homestead's productive 1/10 acre organic garden now grows over 6,000 pounds (3 tons) of organic produce annually,providing fresh vegetables and fruit for the family’s vegetarian diet along with a viable income.<br /><br /><br />In addition they have chickens, ducks, goats, brew their own biodiesel (made from waste (free!) vegetable oil) to fuel their car, compost with worms, solar panels provide their electricity needs, a sun and earthen oven is used to cook food in.Lietta Rugerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03013387655042340435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23876915.post-42941005397106600722007-02-21T14:10:00.000-08:002007-02-21T14:32:35.957-08:00Adding 'balance' to our lifestyle - after four years of activism on Iraq occupationI've been wanting to get back to this blog to figure out how I want to use it. Originally, I had thought I would use it to reflect my thoughts on my 'serious side', but I've been 'serious' now for so many years in the intense level of activism I have put into trying to end Iraq occupation, get our troops out of there. I am imposing upon myself some time out and away from activism and with that in mind have been playing around with my more creative and fun side. I've been working on couple other blogs - <a href="http://oldayz.blogspot.com/">Everything Old is New Again</a> and <a href="http://bundelz.blogspot.com/">Bundelz.</a> <br /><br />We are tackling some lifestyle changes for ourselves and I tend to want to 'research' a thing before I actually start 'doing' a thing. We both have quit smoking - he after 13 years, me after (I'm embarrassed to say) 40 years. Okay that is done. I'm giving attention to our food lifestyle, and shifting it to vegetarian. That is not new for me and I'm using the <a href="http://bundelz.blogspot.com/">Bundelz blog</a> to give that area of our life attention. We are both giving attention to some 'exercise' so to speak, just gentle stuff, nothing too heavy duty, so walking, gardening, that sort of thing. <br /><br /> For me, I find it's true that what I've lost in breathing capacity from smoking all these years has done harm. I don't have the capacity for much enthusiastic movement and need to build up what I do have via re-introduction to exercise regimen. It' hard to believe I used to teach aerobics and was a trained dancer. If I were to gauge my capacity to dance, move, do aerobic exercises now....well, let's just say smoking has taken it's toll over the years. And it is far more noticeable to me now post menopause than it was during and before. Something about post-menopause has really thrown me out of whack. I should write to that someday.<br /><br />Now that sustainable living is gaining popularity, I'm feeling enthusiasm about returning to the idea of 'frugal', 'meaningful living', 'off the grid', self-sustaining kind of homesteading type lifestyle. Oh, no, we aren't anywhere close to self sustaining, homesteading or otherwise, but I am fascinated with thinking we can head in that direction and have made many lifestyle changes since I began that project for us back in 2003. My attention and activism to the military invasion and occupation of Iraq has consumed huge quantities of my time over the past 4 years. I am so disappointed that four years later we are still in Iraq - that is not something I anticipated and was most willing to give everything those first three years to do what I could to help bring it to a quick end. But four years later, and I recognize I will have to give balance to my life to sustain over the long haul as it seems our military will be in Iraq for years, if not decades to come -- according to the very words of this President and Commander-in-Chief. <br /><br />I think, then, this blog will be sprinkled with thoughts from our every day life, sometimes serious, sometimes political, sometimes light, sometimes simple, sometimes just the thoughts of a silly old woman.Lietta Rugerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03013387655042340435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23876915.post-45650179846330341372007-01-28T11:28:00.000-08:002007-01-28T11:31:00.771-08:00You Must Be a Military Brat if....<blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px;"><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >.... when you see vapor trails in the sky, you ASSUME they're from military aircraft.</span></b></p><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >... when you hear sonic booms, you snap to attention.</span></b></p><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >...you notice increased military air-traffic prior to or during the escalation of international crisis.</span></b></p><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >...you feel irritated at civilians who can smile and laugh at everyday events on the day we declare war. </span></b></p><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >...everyone asks where you're from because they just can't quite peg your accent</span></b></p><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >...you obsessively return to the dozen places you lived when you were a kid to "see what's changed".</span></b></p><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >...your wish you could discuss politics in greater detail with your father (or mother), but he/she refuses to tell you what he/she *really* thinks about his/her boss-- the Commander in Chief.</span></b></p><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >...you are taught being naked is bad but its perfectly alright that the women in naples walked around topless and their children played naked in the gutters</span></b></p><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >...you hate living in the same place for more than two years, hate packing and cleaning, have your personal effects reduced each year instead of added to because of the moves</span></b></p><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >...tabula rasa means scrubbing white walls clean</span></b></p><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >...when you go on vacation you dont have to pay for lodging because you have friends everywhere in the world <!-- D(["mb","</span></b></p><p><b><span>...its perfectly acceptable not to write to your friends and still be considered a good friend</span></b></p><p><b><span>...you can adopt any accent, cause you lived everywhere</span></b></p><p><b><span>...kids that were in your 2nd grade class in Ft. Monroe, VA were in your 9th grade class in Heidelberg, Germany</span></b></p><p><b><span>...your significant other is a brat, and you compare posts</span></b></p><p><b><span>...you move or change jobs every two years </span></b></p><p><b><span>...you left your mother in Germany </span></b></p><p><b><span>...your father is still working on the same artillery project for 12 years</span></b></p><p><b><span>...you used to bag groceries at the commissary</span></b></p><p><b><span>...you miss not having an ID card</span></b></p><p><b><span>...if the smell of Brasso makes you homesick.</span></b></p><p><b><span>...when asked how short are you know the correct answer is "short enough to sit on the edge of a dime an dangle your feet," and not that that you're 6ft tall.</span></b></p><p><b><span>...when a movie starts you get ready to stand up waiting for the national anthem to play as well as that little musical ditti that leads into the upcoming features</span></b></p><p><b><span>.... if "duck and cover" reminds you of those worthless 1960's era bomb drills held in base elementary schools, instead of tornado alerts like the civies remember!</span></b></p><p><b>",1] ); //--></span></b></p><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >...its perfectly acceptable not to write to your friends and still be considered a good friend</span></b></p><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >...you can adopt any accent, cause you lived everywhere</span></b></p><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >...kids that were in your 2nd grade class in Ft. Monroe, VA were in your 9th grade class in Heidelberg, Germany</span></b></p><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >...your significant other is a brat, and you compare posts</span></b></p><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >...you move or change jobs every two years </span></b></p><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >...you left your mother in Germany </span></b></p><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >...your father is still working on the same artillery project for 12 years</span></b></p><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >...you used to bag groceries at the commissary</span></b></p><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >...you miss not having an ID card</span></b></p><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >...if the smell of Brasso makes you homesick.</span></b></p><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >...when asked how short are you know the correct answer is "short enough to sit on the edge of a dime an dangle your feet," and not that that you're 6ft tall.</span></b></p><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >...when a movie starts you get ready to stand up waiting for the national anthem to play as well as that little musical ditti that leads into the upcoming features</span></b></p><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >.... if "duck and cover" reminds you of those worthless 1960's era bomb drills held in base elementary schools, instead of tornado alerts like the civies remember!</span></b></p><p><b><!-- D(["mb","<span>... if you still refer to your underwear as "skivies".</span></b></p><p><b><span>....you used left over k-rations when you played pioneer/cowgirl </span></b></p><p><b><span>... you know how to fold a flag, even though you were never in Scouts</span></b></p><p><b><span>... your friends expect you to know the songs for all the branches of the military - and you do</span></b></p></blockquote>\n \n \n \n \n <br /><br />\n <a>4 messages in this topic</a>\n | \n <a>post via the web</a>\n | \n <a>start a topic via the web</a>\n <br />\n \n </div>\n</td>\n</tr> \n</table>\n <br /><br />\n<table>\n<tr><td> Thread Subject: <b>Good morning (II)</b></td></tr>\n<tr><td>\n<a>reply to this thread</a> \n</td>\n</tr>\n</table>\n \n \n<table>\n<tr>\n \n <td>\n <div>\n <a><img></a>",1] ); //--><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >... if you still refer to your underwear as "skivies".</span></b></p><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >....you used left over k-rations when you played pioneer/cowgirl </span></b></p><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >... you know how to fold a flag, even though you were never in Scouts</span></b></p><p><b><span style=";font-family:times new roman,times,serif;font-size:130%;" >... your friends expect you to know the songs for all the branches of the military - and you do</span></b></p></blockquote>Lietta Rugerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03013387655042340435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23876915.post-1161985654934151922006-10-27T14:39:00.000-07:002006-10-27T14:47:34.950-07:00More promptings from stories of Military Brats OnlineI seemto do a wandering among the links at Military Brats Registry and get myself tangled up as the links take me offsite to other links that take me offsite. Anyway, so that I can return promptly to <a href="http://www.militarybrats.com/brat.shtml">Military Brats Online</a>, where there is a list of Brat stories, I'm blogging a quick entry. I will revisit Military Brats Online and the Brats stories posted there will prompt me with my own memories.<br /><br />Already I was prompted by something suggested - and yes, we were a family who traveled the old Route 66 highway - back in the day. Now those are some photos I really wish we had - many of those old places are gone, torn down, don't exist any more. Another thing that doesn't quite exist any more is the way in which we traveled when we returned stateside.....before Interstate highways - back when travel meant 2 lane highways, some sort of tourist interest stop in practically every town and whistle stop along the way. <br /><br />I really must try to write about the month long travel trip we took when we returned stateside - arriving in San Francisco, going north to World's Fair in Seattle and seeing the Space Needle, driving across Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Dakotas and then south criss crossing until we arrived at our new base assignment - Keesler AFB in Biloxi, Mississippi. It seemed we stopped at every natural vista and man made tourist attractions along the way. I might ask my two sisters and brother to 'remember when' to help me round out the details of this memorable trip.Lietta Rugerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03013387655042340435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23876915.post-1161983400298073652006-10-27T14:06:00.000-07:002006-10-27T14:10:00.300-07:00Promptings from Podcasts at Military Brats Registry -I plan to listen to the series of podcasts placed at Military Brats Registry, and then write some thoughts about them. <br />Leaving an entry here more to quickly link to the page list of podcasts; <a href="http://www.militarybrat.com/ebhas.cfm">Military Brats Registry Podcasts </a><br /><br /><blockquote>It's here! The Military Brats Registry "Every Brat Has a Story" podcast is now available. The program can be downloaded to your computer or mp3 device such as the Apple iPod. And if you're using iTunes or iPodder you can subscribe to automatically download to your device. Click on "podcasts" in iTunes and enter "Military Brats" in the search box, then subscribe (free!). Each episode will be automatically downloaded into iTunes and to your iPod.</blockquote>Lietta Rugerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03013387655042340435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23876915.post-1161981943684772192006-10-27T13:27:00.000-07:002006-10-27T14:56:24.976-07:00Exploring my history being raised as a Military Brat - 1950s and 1960s<span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:arial;"> Back in earlier days of internet, a website called </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.militarybrat.com/">Military Brats Registry</a><span style="font-family:arial;"> came into being. I found my way there somehow and I truly don't remember and registered. Remember this was the 'early days' of internet, so formatting websites, forms, signing up and security looked a little different then. Later I heard media reporting on Military Brats Registry and how it was gaining in popularity. It was good to hear, cause it meant many 'military brats' were interested and glad for this new found home on the internet.<br /><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> Along the years, I learned of dvd production in the works and waited and waited and waited. Finally dvd '</span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.bratsourjourneyhome.com/index.htm">Brats, Our Journey Home'</a><span style="font-family:arial;"> was released and I promptly bought a copy. Or I should say my dear husband promptly bought a copy as gift for me. We watched it together as soon as it arrived in the mail. And it resonated with me so strongly in so many ways. I took notes (that's my nature when I'm really interested in both capturing and remembering) and spent some time today revisiting some of those older military brat sites I remember from late 1990s.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> I wanted to chronicle the links, websites, books, resources and I really didn't want to start a whole new blog to do it. So I looked around at all my blogs, and decided this one was the most logical place to spend some time chronicling my military brat history and building link connections. I'll be adding some link banners to the sidebar, and blogging new entries in what will seem my own homecoming exploration.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> This is a bittersweet project for me to undertake for a multitude of reasons, yet it will also be strengthening to make the connections, all the 'aha' moments that tell me more about who I am to me. My parents divorced when I was about 14 which abruptly ended our connection to military life. Unfortunately, it was an ugly divorce that my father worked to obstruct. He could get quite mean in his effort to control or manipulate the circumstances. He kept and/or destroyed all the mementos, photographs, slides, keepsakes, etc that were our history over those years. As a consequence, my mother doesn't have much she can share visually, and neither do I except what I can recover from my spotty memory. It helps that other military brats are sharing their memories as it serves as 'triggers' for me in remembering and in what I hope to chronicle here at this blog.</span><br /></span>Lietta Rugerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03013387655042340435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23876915.post-1159127464634655942006-09-24T12:48:00.000-07:002006-09-24T12:51:04.643-07:0040 Years Smoking and I did it - Quit - cold turkey40 year smoker at a pack a day. My husband, smoker for 12 years cared enough to quit first and lead the way for me. I know better than to become the 'reformed smoker' who nags other smokers to quit. All I can do is share what helped me get to the place of being able to mentally embrace the concept of quitting smoking. I'm only 9 days 'clean and free of nicotine' so I'm still vulnerable and susceptible to a relapse - but I don't think that is going to happen. I don't sense or feel a relapse in the cards for me. And the why of that is another blog entry.<br /><br />I have read all the 'ills' of smoking over the decades, but rarely come across reading that tells me what is good about smoking. Yes, that's right, I said what's 'good' about smoking. I don't see myself as a bad person and need to know that beyond addiction what is that cigarettes do for me that makes it so hard to quit.<br /><br />Might then I recommend some reading that helped me because it actually indicates what is good about smoking; not why one should continue but what the brain/body rewards one gets out of smoking. The reading also helps break down what one can expect in quitting hour by hour! Going in better prepared, I am able to outlast my brain signals of cravings as those cravings go from the discomfort of intensely fierce to nagging reminder to those longer periods of time of what is actual comfort. <br /><br />So let me recommend;<br /><br /><a href="http://whyquit.com/whyquit/A_Symptoms.html">Nicotine Withdrawal and Recovery Symptoms</a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The Effects of Nicotine Cessation</span><br />by John R Polito<br /> (a former smoker - takes one to know one, eh?)<br />link http://whyquit.com/whyquit/A_Symptoms.htmlLietta Rugerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03013387655042340435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23876915.post-1144258438430078052006-04-05T10:33:00.000-07:002006-04-05T10:33:58.436-07:00<a href='http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/17/1375/640/IM001109.jpg'><img border='0' style='border:1px solid #000000; margin:2px' src='http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/17/1375/320/IM001109.jpg'></a><br />Lance, our family cat passed away. I miss his company as he was a constant companion as I went about my daily routines. <a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' border='0' style='border:0px;padding:0px;background:transparent;' align='absmiddle'></a>Lietta Rugerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03013387655042340435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23876915.post-1144258135552298352006-04-05T10:28:00.000-07:002006-04-05T10:28:55.570-07:00Lance, our family cat passed awayApril 3, 2006<br /><br /> We have sad news this week. Lance, the cat, died last night, in my arms. We don't know the cause; our guess is old age, something wrong inside like a tumor or cancer or he got around something outside that wasn't good for him. There was little warning that something was wrong, except the night before he was moving slowly. I had just this past week put his cat box back on the porch as we had him inside all winter, and it was warm enough for him to be on the porch again. Yesterday morning, when Arthur left for work, Jake was there as usual, but Lance wasn't and I called for him. He came (very slowly) from across the street but wouldn't come inside. I called him all through the morning, as he was walking (so slowly) back and forth across the side yard. I went out to round him up and bring him in, and he was nowhere I could find him. Finally, he was just sitting at the bottom of the stairs, and I don't think he had the energy to come up the stairs.<br /><br />I went and got him, brought him upstairs, bundled him up to dry him off, and put him on the couch. He came in the kitchen where his food and water are and tried to drink his water, but was too weak to manage it. I took away his water bowl and put a flat saucer of water down for him, he took a few sips and his head rather lolled in the saucer dish. It was too late in the day to take him to the Vet, and I called Arthur to tell him that I think Lance is dying. I took Lance, all bundled up and just sat on the couch with him till Arthur got home. Arthur took him, still bundled, upstairs and held him to say his good-byes. I took him back and kept him on couch with me, stroking him, petting him, but he could no longer purr. He tried but it was more a vibration than a purr, and then he gave a couple of small gasp sounds, and there was no more vibration. We had been checking his breathing and when he gave those last gasps, there was no more movemet. He had died in my arms.<br /><br />Today, I'm so sad because I feel like I lost a friend - really. Lance took to me and went everywhere with me, upstairs, downstairs, outside, kitchen, basement. Every morning Arthur and I turn on our computers in upstairs room, and Lance is right there ready to jump up in my lap. It was part of our morning routine. I used to say 'not yet Lance, it's too early' but he'd jump up anyway. He'd sit and stretch out across my shoulder and purr like crazy. If I went downstairs for another cup of coffee, I'd give him to Arthur and he'd stretch out across Arthur's comfortable sitting spot on his belly and stretch out across his shoulder. When I came back, Lance would come back over to me and do some more sitting, stretching out, purring, sleeping. Whenever I sat down to watch tv, Lance would always come and jump on me, do that kneading motion on whatever blanket I was using to keep warm, then curl up when he got comfortable and stay with me till we went to bed. <br /><br />I can't believe how much a friend a cat can be, and I never wanted a cat, took in Lance, and he took me in is more like it and became good companions. I will miss him much, every single day. We will bury him by the Harry Lauder tree, so he can always be with me in the yard when I am doing gardening and yard work.<br /><br />Lance lived for about 7 yrs with Bree's family, and when her family moved to Germany, after Woody returned from Iraq, Lance was fostered out to us. We fostered him to Lica's family where he was intimidated by her family cats, so back to us. We have had Lance for almost 2 yrs, and he became part of our family in strong way.Lietta Rugerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03013387655042340435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23876915.post-1143400906620367232006-03-26T11:20:00.000-08:002006-03-26T11:21:46.640-08:00but I didn't speak out against the war because I didn't want anyone to be mad at me."<span style="font-family: georgia;">excerpt from opinion article in News-Leader.com, opinion section; Ozark Opinions</span><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;"> by Pastor Roger Ray of National Avenue Christian Church </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: georgia;"> title and link; </span><a style="font-style: italic; font-family: georgia;" href="http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060326/OPINIONS/603260311/1091">Invasion of Iraq was without Justification </a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: georgia;"> excerpt: <span style="font-weight: bold;">And, sadly, we must recognize that in this chapter of world history the church, because of its ascent to war or its relative silence, was a partner to the murder of more than 100,000 innocent people.</span></span><p style="font-style: italic; font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">In the months leading up to the war many pastors told one another that they were personally adamantly against the war but they said nothing publicly for fear of offending members of their church.</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> I just wish that now they could tell the families who have lost fathers, sons, infant children, mothers and sisters, "I was against the war, but I didn't speak out against it because I didn't want anyone to be mad at me."</span></p><p style="font-style: italic; font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Or, in this season of Lent, to walk up to the foot of the cross and look up into the bloodied face of the crucified Christ and confess, "I knew the war was wrong, but I was afraid to say anything because my church wants me to always be a moderate on political issues......I hope you understand."</span> end excerpt</p><br /><p style="font-family: georgia;"> I point to the above excerpt as it has been my own question when the community of churches and faith-base look back on their own positions regarding the Iraq war.<br /></p><p style="font-family: georgia;"> My own dismay with my local Episcopal church was the reticence and reluctance among our congregants to discuss the Iraq war. I began preparing my sermons to challenge the concept of war in Iraq in a faith-based context. While they tolerated my sermons as a lay-preacher (in training) in which I challenged the President's decision, the policies and politics that initiated a war and a faith-based response required our voices to speak out, they did not embrace such talk in church on Sundays. A catalyst moment came when Newshour with Jim Lehrer did a segment on military families speaking out. It was newsworthy at that time (Aug 2004) because the long-held tradition of military families is not one of speaking out publicily in what could be interpreted as disrespect; what could be construed as speaking against the Commander-in-Chief/President<br /></p><p style="font-family: georgia;"> I am both a lay-preacher and a military family. We live in a rural and somewhat remote area, off the grid towns and cities of I-5 in Western Washington. It's not a convenient drive for local newscasters and Newshour crew drove out here to film me giving such a sermon one Sunday in August 2004. The <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/july-dec04/battle_10-04.html">segment aired October 2004 </a>and is still online at the PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer website. Giving credit to our small, elderly congregants with traditional values that span generations of acculturation for them, I'd say they handled this highly unusual intrusion fairly well. However, for me, still in the training phase towards becoming a licensed Episcopal preacher (relevant in the Episcopal faith heirarchy to make this distinction) I was still in a 'discernment' process and seeking out my own 'calling'; my own 'ministry'. My struggle was with the reality of wearing two hats simultaneously; a military family with 2 loved ones deployed in war in Iraq and my training in faith ministry as a lay preacher.<br /></p><span style="font-family: georgia;">My own faith and belief set calls out to speak in love for humanity while grappling with complex human realities of our time; not unlike Jesus did in his human-walk if one reads scripture as symbolic and interpretative rather than factually literal. I was very disturbed at the time that it seemed no Christian churches were weighing in with a public voice on war in Iraq/Afghanistan. I also saw for myself as a result of the PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer segment there was a ministry calling me in a different direction speaking out to a wider listening audience as a faith-based military family than the small congregation of my church. I chose to follow that calling and that ministry, temporarily interrupting the traditional track for my training as an Episcopal lay preacher.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">'Temporary interruption' because I believed at that time lending what influence I could lend to the public discussion of war in Iraq would help influence an early end to the war. 2004 - 2006 I have learned how to become an 'activist', and I'm still learning.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">Not until mid to late 2005 did I begin to see some of the churches question their position of silence on war in Iraq. It is regrettable it took the faith community so long to recognize the incongruous position of silence in the face of war-time as inconsistent with Christian teachings; or at least inconsistent with what I have come to have as a personal faith in appreciating Jesus as an example and role model, along with Ghandi, along with Martin Luther King Jr. </span>Lietta Rugerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03013387655042340435noreply@blogger.com0