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November 29 End of the semesterThe end of the semester is as hectic for professors as it is for students. Generally both professors and students look forward to it being over, grades in, Christmas vacation at hand. And it all begins almost immediately after Thanksgiving vacation. This year my family is in Hawai'i until after the New Year, so I didn't go up north to visit them. I turned down three invitations to have Thanksgiving dinner with others and instead opted for a nice quiet Thanksgiving dinner with Monster. Mostly I slept and graded over the weekend. I actually graded for two days of the four. The last test were given the week before in most of my classes and projects were also turned in, so I actually had two full days of grading to do. Came to about 16 hours of grading. Mostly I slept, ate, petted Monster, and graded for the holiday.
It was a very relaxing weekend...a time of kindness to myself before the madness of end-of-the-semester crunch! November 18 Shar's AshesLast weekend, on November 10, 11 and 12, I took some of Shar's ashes down the trail Shar and I both loved, down at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. I hiked down the South Kaibab Trail and two days later up the Bright Angel Trail. Shar and I had run those trails many times, always this weekend in November. Over two year's ago Shar and I had made reservations to stay at Phantom Ranch. I brought her with me last weekend to keep those reservations. At first I thought I would scatter her ashes in the Colorado River, but on the way down to the river I changed my mind and felt I wanted a suitable "headstone" for her. I think you can see from the pictures that I found one on the North Kaibab Trail, about a mile and a half north of Phantom Ranch and just after you cross over the first bridge crossing of the Bright Angel River on the North Kaibab, heading towards the North Rim. I buried her ashes directly under the platte you see in the pictures, in a crevice in a huge rock. Just below the large square platte, on the trail, there's a huge rock that practically overhangs the trail. I climbed up on the rock and discovered a crevice in the rock. Since the huge rock is next to the river and just below the tall platte I thought it was a perfect spot. I dumped Shar's ashes in the crevice, then I covered the crevice up with rocks, as you can see in the picture. How many times had we enjoyed the Canyon? How many times had we run Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim in one day, only to come very slowly out of the Canyon as we made our way back up to the South Rim? The last time we did it Shar bonked on the way back. It took us hours to come out of the Canyon. Last weekend, on the way back up the Bright Angel Trail to the South Rim, it took me hours. I kept stopping and turning around. For most of the trail Shar's headstone is visible if you know where to look. Rest in Peace, Shar... November 07 Veteran's AdGo to "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QH5pintqes" to see a very powerful ad put out by veterans! Election DaySo, it's time to vote your conscience! Now's the time to take seriously the fact that we live in a democracy. Over 2800 young men have died trying to put a democracy in Iraq. Can we honor their deaths by taking democracy seriously here at home? Get out there today and vote, especially if you're a Democrat or have decided enough is enough. Enough bartering away our civil liberties. Enough making the rich richer while workers have the buying power they had in 1955. Enough lies and corruption. Enough is enough. Show them you're angry and want a new direction!
November 05 TortureToday was a hard day with the Caravan from the School of the America's Watch. Carlos Mauricio spoke to the gathering this afternoon at the Unitarian Church in Los Angeles. It was very hard hearing him talk about his own experience with torture. Several times I wanted to get up and walk out, but forced myself to sit and listen. It was not an easy thing to do. Then Hector Aristizabal gave a small performance of the torture of he and his brother, and of his brother's eventual death by assassins trained at the School of the America's. It is so hard to hear about, so difficult to sit through, so devastating to know our country has taught and sanctioned such evil. How many terrorists is our country now creating through its actions. Hector ended his performance by saying that for months after his brother was killed all he could think of was annihilating the people responsible, until he realized he needed to stop the terrorists that had taken over his heart. Can this country stop the terrorists that have taken over it since Bush was elected? November 04 School of the America'sI helped play host tonight for the Caravan of the School of the America's Watch from San Francisco by making a hardy soup dinner and joining with others at the downtown LA AFSC office. Los Angeles is their first stop on the way to Fort Benning, Georgia, home of the School of the America's. It was such a privilege to meet and get to know these folks. Tomorrow we will gather together at a church in Los Angeles. Tonight they appointed me as the best person to ask for money. I suppose they picked up the fact that I'm shameless.
For those of you unfamiliar with the place, the School of the America's is America's way to export torture and death squads, a place where right wing military death squads from Central America are trained in "interrogation" (read torture) and "counter insurgency" (read death squads). Over ten years ago demonstrations began outside the base on the anniversay of the death of some Jesuit priests, killed by American trained death squads. Four people were at that demonstration. Last year 25,000 folks showed up. This year we are hoping for even more folks who are willing to "step over the line" and be sentenced to jail, usually by the local hanging judge who hates the demonstrators and routinely sentences them to jail for terms of 6 months for tresspassing on government property! Last year three of my friends went to jail. Such is the nature of tolerance for protest in this country these days. This President and this Congress has made a mess of our constitutional rights.
Some of those at dinner tonight were tortured by American trained troops. They talked about hoping to escape torture by coming to this country, only to find that we have joined the ranks of those who torture. In fact, given the recent law, torture is legal in this country now if you're not a citizen. It's just a short step to torturing our own citizens. I swear that Americ needs to wake up next week and throw the bums out! We need to reject the President's attempts yet again this weekend to use fear and intimidation to sway folks away from asserting their constitutional rights. Many folks are gathering together to do poll watching, especially in the close races. We can not allow the votes to be stolen yet another time!
Anyway, it was wonderful being with these folks tonight. We ate, laughed, listen to folks play guitar music and generally got to know each other. Since this was the first caravan stop, it was really nice to give them such a warm and human reception. You could tell they were pleased. My heart goes with them and I will hold them in the Light as they go to jail in my name. |
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