George W. Bush Library --Please Give Generously

The George W. Bush Library

Dear Fellow Constituent:

The George W. Bush Presidential Library is now in the planning stages and accepting donations.

The Library will include:

The Hurricane Katrina Room, which is still under construction.

The Alberto Gonzales Room, where you won’t be able to remember anything.

The Texas Air National Guard Room, where you don’t even have to show up.

The Walter Reed Hospital Room, where they don’t let you in.

The Guantanamo Bay Room, where they don’t let you out.

The Weapons of Mass Destruction Room, which no one has been able to find.

The National Debt Room, which is huge and has no ceiling.

The Tax Cut Room, with entry only to the wealthy.

The Economy Room, which is in the toilet.

The Iraq War Room. After you complete your first visit, they make you to go back for a second, third, fourth, and sometimes fifth visit.

The Dick Cheney Room, in the famous undisclosed location, complete with shotgun gallery.

The Environmental Conservation Room, still empty.

The Men’s Room, where you can meet some of your favorite Republican senators.

The Decision Room, complete with dart board, magic 8-ball, Ouija board, dice, coins, and straws.

And don’t miss the Gift Shop, where you can buy an election.

The library will feature an electron microscope to help you locate and view the President’s accomplishments.

The library will also include many famous quotes by George W. Bush:

‘The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country.’

‘If we don’t succeed, we run the risk of failure.’

‘Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child.’

‘No senior citizen should ever have to choose between prescription drugs and medicine.’

‘I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy - but that could change.’

‘One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is ‘to be prepared’.’

‘Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things.’

‘I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future.’

‘The future will be better tomorrow.’

‘We have the best educated American people in the world.’

‘One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures.’ (during an education photo-op)

‘Illegitimacy is something we should talk about in terms of not having it.’

‘We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur.’

‘It isn’t pollution that’s harming the environment. It’s the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.’

‘I stand by all the misstatements that I’ve made.’

PLEASE GIVE GENEROUSLY!

Sincerely,
G.W. Bush Library Board of Directors

From Congressman Patrick Kennedy

Here it is:

Thank you for your email message. Hearing from Rhode Islanders and citizens across the country is important to me and I appreciate your taking the time to contact me with your thoughts and concerns.

For first district residents, I will reply to your correspondence as soon as possible via email or postal mail. Due to the high volume of correspondence and limited resources, I am regrettably unable to respond to out-of-state inquiries.

Finally, I hope you will make use of my House office website, www.house.gov/patrickkennedy, which may be helpful in addressing your concerns.

Once again, thank you for contacting me.

Sincerely,

Patrick J. Kennedy
Member of Congress

I am a Rhode Islander from the Other District. We have two. The understanding in RI is generally, you never know when you (or the Rep) will move from one district to the other + there is always a possibility of redistricting...therefore he (it's rarely she) may represent me tomorrow...

Here is the letter I sent him:

Dear Congressman Kennedy and Colleagues,

Please sign this letter

Please update me as to your position on this matter.

I am aware of your presence at the prayer service in Providence recently and have read your comments.

This is a very urgent matter.

I am a Jew, but I am a human first, and lastly I live and vote in Rhode Island .

Thank you for your attention.

Nomi Hurwitz

Oy Vey. I found the statement thanks to the Jewish Voice and Herald.

Statement from Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy:
In the wake of the recent attacks by Hamas, Israel has no choice but to defend its people from
violence and extremism.
With daily rocket attacks against towns in Southern Israel, Hamas falsely believes it can use
terrorism and intimidation as a bargaining tool. Israel has every right to defend the safety and
security of its citizens from terrorist organizations like Hamas

.


That's all the document says. I almost wonder if someone was interrupted while writing it and forgot to finish it. If you have never visited this blog before, please visit Tikun Olam and
Brit Zedek v'Shalom and google Grace Paley and Middle East and those will give you some ideas of my sympathies.

Support RI's Family Life Center: Buy Coffee...

Yesterday I received this email:
Support the Family Life Center--

Buy your coffee at Blue State Coffee!

Great news! The FLC has been selected as one of Blue State Coffee's causes of the quarter. This means that for the next three months, a percentage of every purchase at Blue State Coffee will be donated to the Family Life Center.

To support our ongoing services and policy work, visit Blue State Coffee at 300 Thayer Street in Providence, and "vote" for the FLC. Every little bit helps.

To make an online donation to support the Family Life Center, please click here.

About the FLC:
The Family Life Center helps ex-offenders and their families re-integrate into the community by providing long-term holistic case management services starting prior to release from prison and extending after release. In addition to supporting individual families and ex-offenders, the FLC advocates on behalf of communities affected by crime and incarceration.

For more information about the FLC and our services, please visit our website at www.riflc.org.


Cheers!

Annelise Grimm
Communications Specialist
RI Family Life Center
agrimm@riflc.org

It is my understanding that the RI Family Life Center is one of the local entities which has suffered due to the Madoff scandal.

I have not been employed by the FLC, but I know several of its staff and had one brief but cheerful conversation with its executive director. I'm glad that it exists. If Rhode Island's movements for Civil Rights are successful, then we won't need this kind of advocacy/service organization.

Why Didn't Reps. Kennedy and Langevin Sign This?

61 Members of Congress joined Congressman John W. Olver in calling on the Administration to address overwhelming humanitarian needs of the people of Gaza.

Where are the names of Patrick Kennedy and James Langevin?

If there is a stronger, clearer letter they are shepherding around the hill, well I haven't heard or seen anything about it.

January 30th Update: There are now 63 signers to the letter. I have sent a short email to Congressmen Langevin and Kennedy asking them to sign it and/or to send me their current positions on this Crisis. I had read online their statements from the recent Event at Temple Emanuel. If I receive any interesting emails, I will share them here...

Helen reviews Ann C's book

Helen = Helen Philpot
Ann C = Ann Coulter

Helen and Margaret are two friends who have a blog. They are older than some bloggers; they are wise; they are uproariously amusing. They are deservedly popular, but I know some have not yet discovered them, so I aim to sing their praises, in a bloggerly way.

This review is only of the first chapter. Here's an excerpt:

Basically this first chapter is Ann’s attempt to make the case that racism really doesn’t exist and victims really aren’t victims. According to Ann you should never help a victim because they are either lying about being victimized or they deserved it. Seriously. But then she does an immediate about-face and says the only real victims in the world are (were) ”George Bush, the duke Lacrosse players, Joe McCarthy, Jesse Helms, Tom Delay, the Swift Boat Veterans, and Sarah Palin.”

If you have time or need cheering up, I recommend reading some of Margaret's and Helen's earlier posts and the comments they elicited...

Thank You, Providence Journal Editorial Writer(s)!

This editorial which I learned about thanks to Karen McAninch (hope I spelled that correctly) and facebook, is remarkably positive.

It's title is "A Library Lifeline?" and below is its first paragraph.

An intriguing idea has arisen that would put the Providence Public Library’s nine branches into the hands of a newly created nonprofit, leaving the PPL (also a nonprofit) in charge of the central branch — its heart and soul — on Empire Street.

By my lights the Providence Public Library is an atypical nonprofit by virtue of its endowment, its opacity and its history of unresponsiveness to the communities it serves.

The editorial is not the one I would have written, but it is part of the dialogue and presents questions.

Thank You, editorial writer or writers! Thank you also for publishing this on a weekday and not a Saturday...

Rhode Island Is Losing 9 (Nine) Meals On Wheels Sites

The Fox Point Branch of the Providence Public (???) Library is in the same building where the Fox Point Boys and Girls Club is and also the Fox Point Senior Center.

I was chatting with the library staff, when Lori from the Senior Center came over. We're losing our Meals on Wheels, she said. Also eight other sites have lost their funding.

Lori said they will take money from their own budget to maintain the meals for a time.

If I were Governor, I'd take the money out of my salary to make sure that the elders of Rhode Island were provided this program.

Rites And Reason Theatre Seeks Musicians and Save These Dates!

CONTACT: Clarice_Thompson@brown.edu

MUSICIANS WANTED FOR

Strings
Guitars
Keyboards
Wind instruments
Percussions

RITES & REASON THEATRE

Gever/Shabab
Shadows of Israel-Palestine

by Noam Dorr, ‘09, RUE
Director, Elmo Terry-Morgan
Music Director, Clarice LaVerne Thompson, PhD.
Choreographer: Meida McNeal
Associate Director: Connie Crawford

Performance Dates:
February 19-22
February 26-March 1, 2009
Thursday, Friday, Saturday performances at 7 PM
Sunday performances at 3 PM with Folkthought

Yes, I am going to be in this play and Ethan is working Tech...
as we get closer to the dates above, I expect to be less available for blogging...

Let's Recall Rhode Island's Governor ! -- Productive Monday Here We Come!

Pat Crowley has written about this on RI Future, and there is a facebook group," Recall Don Carcieri" which now has 450 members. I just learned about the facebook group this morning. Hmm...
Here's a small quote from that page.

Rhode Island Governor Don Carcieri has had 5 years to prove he can lead Rhode Island, he hasn't done it. During his re-election, he painted a rosy budget picture. It wasn't true. He has scapegoated working people, poor people, and everyone who doesn't agree with his way.

There is another facebook group, "Let's Cut Don Carcieri's Salary and Benefits in Half". I say why not offer this idea to Non-Rhode Island States?

We know you harbor secret Ocean State Envies!

Pete Seeger Deserves A Nobel Peace Prize

There is a movement, or perhaps more than one, to recognize the Work towards Peace done by Pete Seeger. I doubt that he is pushing it, because he is usually promoting others and is one of the most unassuming men I've ever met.

Pete Seeger is 89 years old. He has a daughter in Rhode Island, so we are graced with his visits more than some.

Below is an excerpt of an email I received recently:

Dear Friends,

We DO have NEWS! Barbara Lee, Congressional Representative from the 9th District, California, has agreed to carry the nomination of Pete Seeger for the Nobel Peace Prize.

They want us to supply specific examples of how Pete participated in work for Peace, social justice, and environmental movements. Send any data you have even if it seems small in consideration to what most of us know of Pete’s long and committed work.

The deadline for the letter of nomination is Feb 1st, so they need data within the next few day, indeed the next few hours. Send to:

Pete Seeger Nomination

Rep. Barbara Lee (CA-09)

1301 Clay St., Ste. 1000-N

Oakland, CA 94612

510-763-0370 ext. 16

510-763-6538 (fax)

Wayne dointern23.ca09@mail.house.gov

A few years ago, Pete and some friends came to Providence to sing and raise funds for Joyce Katzberg ( Happy Birthday, belatedly, Joyce). The concert was held in a big Baptist Church near Brown and RISD. Ethan was in kindergarten or first or second grade. I said to him; this may be the only time I force you to be in a church(he sat on the floor most of the time-- that was no problem). Bill Harley, Valerie Tutson, Paul Geremiah and many other local Lights were there. Pete and Tao Rodriguez Seeger performed near the end. I cried my eyes out the whole time. Pete Seeger's music has been part of my entire life; I was so grateful to be able to share it with Ethan.

A woman commented, as we were slowly leaving, that Tao reminded her enourmously of Pete in his younger days...

Please visit Dave von Eber for the video of Pete, Tao and oh yes, Bruce S. and a Young Choir singing on January 18, 2009.

The Transatlantic Short Story: The Grace Paley Celebration

Here is news of an event which I will miss, but am thrilled to learn about...

Where in Rhode Island?...

...can I find a copy of The Massachusetts Review? (See last post for link?)?

It's not in the Brown Bookstore, which is experiencing major renovation. The good thing is that people are employed: painting and sawing, drywalling, nailing, et cetera.

Matthew Zapruder: Poem (For Grace Paley) an Excerpt

Below is an excerpt from a poem

I placed thousands of
sweet tarts into my mouth. Five years
later someone said they saw Diane P.
kissing a girl in a car, and they punched
the window on the passenger side
in and I laughed, and it’s all been as
people say downhill from there, meaning
until this moment I have been coasting,
but from this one forward Grace I vow
I shall coast no more.

The Winter 2008 issue of The Massachusetts Review is devoted to writings by and about Grace Paley. I am going to look for it today!

How Do You Feel The Morning After?

Years ago, a sultry singer by the name of Millie Jackson sang a song called "How Do You Feel The Morning After?" It was a song about waiting for her man to come over, but he doesn't show up. Unfortunately, Millie Jackson's morning after wasn't so great. However, President Obama has had some great morning afters. President Obama must have had pretty good morning after on January 21, 2009 after his swearing in on January 20, 2009. He also must have had a great morning after on November 5, 2008, after he had been elected President on November 4, 2008. Come to think about it, I've had some good morning afters too. Thanks Mr. President for the thrills that you have given us on November 4, 2008 and January 20, 2009 so that we know the thrill of having some wonderful morning afters.

"A bus of hopeful travelers..." [to Inauguration and back]

That was Ethan and me and about 53 others. We didn't make it back to Providence until 3:35 A.M.

I will be writing some thoughts down, but am not quite ready. Here is a link to the blog of Ted Mann from The Day of New London, Connecticut...

"To Be A Part of History" is the Slide Show created by Peter Huoppi. I have not been able to see it on the computer successfully...

OK, Rick Warren didn't come Out. Everyone's timetable is distinct. I wished his prayer had been edited down to 1/3 of its actual offering. Many people probably think the same of my spiritual offerings.

I knew this blog was in the capable hands of a team. Thank you, Tom and Democommie.

Barack and me

Back in the 2004 election cycle, it didn't take me long to decide to support Howard Dean. By the summer of 2003, Dean's strong stand against the Iraq War and his phenomenal online fundraising and recruiting had won me over. By August of that year I was already attending meetups and tabling at Perrotti Park. And even though Dean lost the Democratic primary to Kerry, and Kerry lost the presidential election to Bush, I continued to be politically active. I started blogging at the now-departed Newport 9 blog, and I was involved in the 2006 Senate race.

The 2008 election cycle was different. None of the candidates inspired me the way Dean had. I was deeply unsatisfied with Hillary Clinton's AUMF vote, and the fact that she still seemed to think invading Iraq had been a good idea. I approved of Obama's organizing and Edwards' populist rhetoric, but I wasn't ready to commit to either one. What finally tipped me over the edge was Senator Chris Dodd's courageous stand against the FISA Amendments Act. I became a Dodd supporter, but my efforts to participate in his campaign were hampered by the fact that he didn't seem to have any campaign organization in Rhode Island.

When Dodd dropped out of the race after coming in 7th in the Iowa caucuses, I switched my support to Edwards. However, his distant 3rd place finish in the New Hampshire primary made it clear that he wouldn't be able to win the nomination, and I wound up becoming an Obama supporter. I signed onto mybarackobama and began looking for ways to join the campaign.

It didn't take me long to decide that the thing to do was start campaigning in the upcoming Massachusetts primary. I took part in a visibility event and meeting in Attleboro on February 1st, holding up signs in drizzling rain and later watching a video of Obama's speech at Ebenezer Baptist Church. The next day, I showed up at the Obama field office in New Bedford, where I helped make signs and phone banked. It was located in the offices of a small legal firm situated on Centre Street, which is the New Bedford counterpart to Newport's Thames Street (right down to the quaintly cobblestoned streets). The offices were fairly small, and with twenty or so people crowded in space was at a premium. But it was well organized, and the buzz of being among so many dedicated people (about half of them fellow Rhode Islanders, including several students from St. George's in Middletown) was invigorating.

A couple hours after I started work there, word came that some Clinton supporters were doing a visibility event (basically holding up signs and waving them at passersby) at a busy intersection a couple blocks from the field office, and that a local TV station was sending a news crew to tape the event. Quickly, two dozen Obama supporters (including me), were hurried out of the office with signs in hand, and we set up on the other side of the same busy intersection, waving for the passing cars and the TV crew, and chanting "Fired up! Ready to go!" The story on the local news ended up being about both groups.

I returned to New Bedford every day up to primary day itself on February 5, manning the phone bank and going out to do visibility events. Primary day ended with a caravan from the field office traveling to a polling place in Dartmouth half an hour before the end of polling to wave signs at the last few people going in to cast votes. As it turned out, Obama only got 41% of the vote and 38 of the 93 delegates in Massachusetts, but that was okay, because he won 13 out of 23 states that day and 847 delegates compared to Clinton's 834.

The Obama campaign opened a local field office in Newport on Fair Street a week before the Rhode Island primary. The people running the office were happy to let me bring my dogs with me, so I went in every day and spent several hours phone banking. My dogs made the acquaintance of Buddy, a Jack Russell terrier owned by another Obama supporter named Hilary Stookey. The phone banking and door knocking that the other volunteers and I did helped Obama win Newport by 2165 votes to 1777 for Clinton, though she wound up winning Rhode Island 58% to 40%.

After the Rhode Island primary, I basically stood on the sidelines and watched as Obama won the Democratic nomination, gave his acceptance speech in Denver, and went on to battle with John McCain in the general election contest. But as the weekend before the election arrived, I set a long anticipated plan into operation. Four years earlier, I had traveled to my home state of Delaware to visit my family, and while I was there I drove up to Pennsylvania every day to take part in the presidential campaign. Back then, I was due back at work in Rhode Island Wednesday morning so I had to leave right away. This time, though, I took a week off of work, driving down to Delaware on Sunday. The thought of being able to campaign in Pennsylvania was particularly sweet this time because the McCain campaign insisted that it was going to make its last throw of the dice there.

A quick perusal of mybarackobama.com found an Obama field office in nearby Chester, Pa., at Bethany Baptist Church. I set out there on Monday morning, and by a quarter past nine I was in the parking lot, greeting two women named Molly and Sara who were with the local campaign team. I spent the next eight hours in Chester, knocking on doors and leaving campaign literature. Most of the people in Chester are black, and somewhere between half and two thirds of the houses there had Obama-Biden lawn signs sitting out front. As is usually the case with door-knocking, most of the time there was nobody home, but on the rare occasions when there was, the people answering the door were usually happy to see me and assured me that they would be voting for Obama. I met several people who had attended a rally with Obama himself the week before.

Election day found me back at Bethany Baptist, and once more I was out knocking on doors, this time to sort out those who had already voted from who hadn't. The church basement where the Obama field office was located was a hive of activity, as volunteers arrived in a steady stream and were as quickly given orientation and canvassing packets and sent out again. There were boxes of campaign literature and door hangers sitting on trestle tables, and at one end of the room was a widescreen TV tuned to CNN.

Canvassing is pretty lonely work. There's just you and a list of addresses to visit, and the day is spent going from one house to the next, and there's usually nobody home. When you finish canvassing an area and return to the field office, the constrast is startling. Suddenly, instead of being alone in a strange neighborhood, you're in a large room full of enthusiastic fellow campaigners, loud and bustling. All you want to do is sit down and soak in the energy, and it takes a conscious effort of will to get up, grab another canvassing packet, and head on out to another strange neighborhood to do some more lonely door knocking.

Twelve hours of canvassing finally ended at eight o'clock in the evening, when the polls closed in Pennsylvania. After that, those of us who remained in the field office sat around eating donated food and watching the returns come in on CNN. There was a big cheer when CNN called Pennsylvania for Obama (thereby driving the last nail in the McCain campaign's coffin), and we all started cleaning up. I left for Delaware around 9:30 PM, then spent the next few hours watching the election returns in my parents' living room, grinning like an idiot when the polls closed on the west coast and the election was called for Obama. I stayed up long enough to see Obama's victory speech, then dragged myself off to bed.

The final act in the drama played out today. The staff at the Jane Pickens Theater in Newport splashed CNN's coverage of the inauguration ceremony across the big screen in high definition, and I just had to be there. Inside the theater I ran into an old friend named Lily Barnes, an immigrant from Croatia. Lily and I had been co-workers ten years before, and we met each other from time to time at Newport's no-leash dog park. Lily was there with her two daughters, and we spent the first few minutes enthusing about the prospect of finally seeing Obama become president. About half an hour before the inauguration, Lily got a text message on her phone from a friend in Croatia. It said HELLO AMERICA, ENJOY THIS DAY.

Everybody in the theater cheered when the camera showed former presidents Carter and Clinton and former vice-presidents Mondale and Gore walking through the halls of the Capitol Building on their way to the rostrum. There were a few cheers and a lot of boos when Chimpy appeared onscreen. When I saw Cheney rolling along in his wheelchair, I told Lily, "Welcome to Pottersville." The place went wild when Obama finally appeared, and again during the John Williams number when CNN noted that under the Constitution Obama had automatically become president at noon, even without the swearing-in ceremony. There was more applause at several points during Obama's inaugural address, a big cheer when the helicopter took Bush away, and a final round of applause when the Obamas joined the Bidens on the Capitol steps to watch the helicopter fly off.

Lily and I said our goodbyes and wishes for a better world in the lobby of the theater, and then I stepped outside. The early morning clouds had lifted, and the sun was shining out of a clear blue sky. Barack Obama was President of the United States of America.

Delousing the White House

There has been a fair amount of rather dispiriting news over he last several weeks. Among other items, the nearly three week rampage by the zionists in Gaza, leaving destruction, death and hundreds or thousands of newly minted jihadists for Hamas and Al Queada to use as willing tools. There has also been a disturbing trend on the part of the democratic leadership in congress to say that now is not the time to investigate Bushco's eight year abuse of the powers of the presidency or to seek out and punish those guilty of crimes in that regard.

Despite these and other items I remain hopeful that today's inauguration of President Barack Obama will signal the beginning of a return to something like sane foreign and domestic policy in this nation.

One can only hope.

Happy Birthday, Tess, Ethan, Nichole and Hope!

Yesterday my cousin, Vanessa the biologist (microbiologist?somethingelsebiologist) gave birth to:

Tess Mohan Ruta

!

Eleven years ago (Monday, January 19, 1998)I was still expecting my son Ethan. He arrived on January 20 in the afternoon...

"Every four years a big party" said someone whose child also has a January 20th birthday. What I remember oddly was afterwards at Women and Infants Hospital, when Ethan (and maybe Eric) slept, I looked up at a tv, and saw President Clinton denying knowing the Infamous Intern. Or maybe that was the day, when he said so clearly, "I did not have sex with that woman"...The story might have broken on the 18th or 19th, but I was busy eating Chinese food and trying other tricks to induce labor...

Tonight Ethan and I will board a bus in New London, CT and travel to the Inaugural festivities and I am more grateful than one sentence (or paragraph) can convey to my Family, in all of its extensions and constellations for helping us reach this Celebration.

Tomorrow Hope and Nichole (in Warwick?) will be 15! I met them as competitive 7 yr olds at the remarkable dojo of New Wave Self Defense in Warwick, RI...

Johnny Pez: "The Donut Conspiracy"

We take our donuts very seriously in Rhode Island. The fact that the Krispy Kreme in Cranston (accidental alliteration) did not survive was not the fault of us Quahoggers.

Johnny Pez brings an important issue to our attention.

This is one of my rare attempts at Hyperlinking.

While Nomi's away!!

Friday, January 16, 2009
MLK, Freedom, democracy and FGF.

Next monday is MLK Day and the inauguration is in the same week? I'm surprised that the WH didn't try to move one or the other.

I'm gonna try embedding these videos, if not at least the links.

I guess it's gonna be the links.

U2's "Pride"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56mjwycKuXA&feature=related

Leonard Cohen's, "Democracy"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OETwbVBPI1U

and "Everybody Knows"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h27HRNm_r4U

Well, maybe it ain't FGF for you, but it will sure as hell feel good when Bush has been consigned to the dustbin of history. Fuck Bush.

Thank the Spirits! RI Has a Chapter of Brit Zedek v'Shalom (Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace)

I was recently reading a copy of the Jewish Voice and Herald, which I had picked up at the Cranston Library (the Sockanosset Branch) and found a reference to the Rhode Island chapter of Brit Zedek v'Shalom. It was not the article below, but that is sadly worth reading. It contains links to statements from RI's delegation in Washington, as well as Gov.Carcieri and Mayor Cicilline...

http://jvhri.org/stories/952.htm

Here's a link to the Rhode Island chapter of this national Jewish organization.
http://btvshalom.org//chapters/rhodeisland/

I missed a meeting last week.
They have an excellent list of links...

R. I.'s 12th: Mother Supports School Bus Monitors Remembering Her Daughter...

Rhode Island's Twelfth: Mother Supports School Bus Monitors

Exercise the "Escape Clause": Build a Community Library in Providence, Rhode Island

Marcus Mitchell: No need to close any library branches

Providence Journal
01:00 AM EST on Thursday, January 15, 2009

MARCUS MITCHELL

FOR THE LAST TWO decades, the citizens of Providence have endured a series of threats by the Providence Public Library to close one or more of its nine neighborhood libraries. Last year the PPL announced that the library system was no longer financially sustainable. Its board set up a “Sustainability Committee” mandated to find a creative solution to the library’s persistent deficit problems — to develop a plan to provide meaningful, substantive library services for patrons throughout the city in a different, more economical form.

Unfortunately, the plan that was approved by the PPL Board on Dec. 18 is neither creative nor economical. After all the time and energy that the trustees have expended on resolving the PPL’s long-term problems, the library has ended up with its usual answer to solving its money woes: Close branches. The PPL is planning to “sustain” its library system by closing five branches, leaving the people of Providence with only the central branch and four neighborhood branches, starting this July. (See “New library plan would close 5 branches,” news, Dec. 19.) The library’s solution is neither necessary nor acceptable.

We urge the city to refuse to provide the present level of library funding to the PPL to support greatly reduced library services after June 30.

Concerned that as early as next summer the PPL might not provide Providence residents throughout the city with full access to library services, the Library Reform Group established by concerned citizens incorporated a new nonprofit organization, the Providence Community Library, which is prepared to raise funds for and operate a nine-branch library system that will continue to provide Providence neighborhood patrons with at least the level of library services and programs they now receive. We call upon the city to dissolve its failed alliance with the PPL and enter into partnership with the Providence Community Library.

How can we claim to be able to run all nine branches when the PPL says it can’t be done? Our budget is based on the real costs of running the nine branches, not a budget based upon inflated costs, as has long characterized PPL projected budgets. Our branch system would hire fewer administrators rather than maintain the current top-heavy PPL administration. We would hire capable administrators and pay them salaries comparable with those of public library directors around America, rather than continue the PPL’s practice of paying exorbitant wages to an ineffectual administration that has lost the confidence of the public. Our branch system would engage in robust fundraising. Not being burdened with the PPL’s troubled history that has alienated both the donor community and library users, we expect, even in these troubled financial times, that we could successfully engage in fundraising that would allow us to expand neighborhood library services beyond the current level within the next two or three years.

Most important, the Providence Community Library would be governed by a board that puts the patrons first. Our board would include representatives of all nine library branches, some publicly appointed members, and some members elected by the board itself. No longer would policy for our city libraries be determined by people living in Barrington and South County!

We call upon the city to exercise the “escape clause” in the Library Agreement and end its relationship with PPL. It is time for a branch library system that will be truly a Providence Community Library! The people of Providence deserve a better library service and they can have it if the city breaks with its tradition of supporting the PPL and supports a community library organization instead.

Marcus Mitchell is president of Providence Community Library.

Israeli Soldiers Refuse...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cMs0nai4JQ

David McReynolds sent me this. Possibly Richard Walton did too...

Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose

Hi, Nomi:

I'm cross-posting this from my blog.

Stay warm.

__________________________________

Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose.

It's fixin' to get cold here in Oswego. The cold weather that's been freezing the mid-west is due to arrive here late today or early tomorrow. I'm doing what I can to keep my incoming water supply from freezing (I'm building a 5 x 10 room in that corner of the cellar) and stuffing more skwerls into any gaps I can still see daylight through. I had dinner with friends last evening who offered me a place to sleep if things got too frigid here. I'll be okay.

I was listening to NPR a bit ago and there was a piece on "Tell Me More" about the jailing and deportation of undocumented immigrants. It focused on Central Falls, R.I. It becomes apparent, listening to the reporter speaking, that the major issue in jailing and deporting these folks is that it provides federal monies to the state of R.I. which in turn gives the monies to the folks who run the facilities. It's disgusting that this is happening. We have a big ICE presence here in Oswego, but they don't seem to do a hell of a lot.

All of this stuff got me to thinking about the homeless. I've spent several years of my life living in some pretty strange situations, but I've never been on the street. I CAN imagine not having someplace to call "home", but I've never experienced that situation where there is, literally, no place to lay down that is at least out of the weather.

Surely we can do better than this.

Glad for Jim Rice and Rickey Henderson But What About A. Oliver and A. Belle?

I am happy for Jim and Rickey. I don't think Jim's stats are that great, but for him the 15th time around turned out to be a charm. Rickey deserved to be in the Hall of Fame hands down. I am wondering when Al Oliver is going to get into the Hall. His stats are unbelievable, but he is not in the Hall - 2700 + hits, 529 doubles, .303 lifetime batting average, less than 800 strike outs over an 18 year career. Check out his stats, and when you look at them, you too will wonder why this guy isn't in the Hall of Fame.

Then there is Albert Belle. If you look at what he has done in his 11 seasons in the majors, this guy should be in the Hall. But he will probably never get in. He fell of the ballot last time because he only got 3.5% of the vote from the baseball writers. I hope the Veteran Committee puts this guy in the Hall of Fame. I don't think things like the Hall of Fame should be a popularity contest. But in many ways it is. It should simple be, "Can you play ball, and did you produce?" It shouldn't be I don't like you, so I am not going to vote for you. I think they should find a way to take the vote away from the writers. There is a conflict of interest in having them vote for who should be elected to the Hall of Fame. They get ticked if a player does not kiss up to them, and then they refuse to vote for the player. Many writers have a personal vendetta against Belle. It has cost Albert Belle who has some of the best statistics of any ball player in the last 20 years.

i Jim Rice In Hall Of Fame, Por Fin !

http://web.baseballhalloffame.org/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090112&content_id=10858&vkey=hof_news

This is good news. Non-Rhode Islanders may not realize that Jim Rice played with the Pawtucket (RI) Red Sox, before reaching the Majors. Once some one has played for Pawtucket, we claim them forever more.

Thank You, Connie Grosch And Providence Journal

http://www.projo.com/news/content/love_story_pam_essjay_01-12-09_57CNFFN_v19.3909fb6.html
I am as critical as the next person of Rhode Island's lone daily newspaper. Sometimes they publish seriously excellent essays, articles, opinion pieces, et al.

This "Love Story" brought me great joy. I think I've met Pam Brightman or spoken to her in some professional capacity (I've been in RI since 1982, after all)...but no matter...

In a world with so much killing, torture, unkindness, we cannot read too many love stories. It is embarrassing that RI does not allow all its citizens to marry or to divorce. We're working on this!

Thank You, Patricia Raub and the P.C.L. Movement

A few days late, but here's more about the Providence Community Library and the press conference on Monday, January 5...

Dear library advocates,

The press conference on Monday went very well. People from over two dozen community organizations were on hand to listen and speak, and NINE City Councilors participated. Here is a slide show on the press conference: http://media.umb.edu/pclpressconf/

The ProJo covered the conference in Tuesday's paper (see below), and the story was picked up by the Los Angles Times book blog, Jacket Copy: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2009/01/providence-libr.html (Thanks to Matthew Lawrence for bringing this to our attention.)

Here is the text of the article in the Providence Journal:

Group says it can cut costs at Providence library branches and maintain quality
01:00 AM EST on Tuesday, January 6, 2009
By Philip MarceloJournal Staff Writer



PROVIDENCE -- A new nonprofit organization that is proposing to take over the city's nine neighborhood library branches says that it can save more than $2 million and still offer the same services and the same number of union jobs as under the current leadership.

Providence Community Library treasurer Ellen Schwartz said at a news conference in City Hall yesterday that the organization is proposing a $4.8-million operating budget for fiscal 2010.

"Our budget cuts administrative costs and waste out of the library budget," said Schwartz. "It also calls for dramatic, aggressive fundraising."

The nine branches currently represent $7.5 million of a total $9.7-million operating budget, according to Robert Taylor, vice president of the board of trustees of the Providence Public Library, the private nonprofit organization that runs the city libraries.

The PPL, last month, proposed closing the Fox Point, Smith Hill, Olneyville, Wanskuck and Washington Park branches, but keeping open the downtown central library and the Mount Pleasant, South Providence, Rochambeau and Knight Memorial branches.

The Providence Community Library, which does not seek to take over the central library on Empire Street, will submit its alternative budget and organizational plan to Mayor David N. Cicilline on Friday.

Cicilline, who has already said he opposes closing any library branch, says the city will look at "all possible options" for the future management of the branches, and that his administration was still scheduled to meet with PPL board members at the end of the month about their proposal.
"For 100 years, the city and the PPL have had a very strong partnership," he said yesterday. "Before even considering dissolving that partnership, we would have to be really certain that we examine how we may be able to strengthen and preserve it."

He declined to say whether he considered the PCL a viable alternative: "It's premature. There is a lot more work that needs to go into this."

Under an agreement reached in November, the city has the option of accepting the PPL's plan; seek to take over the branch libraries itself; assign their stewardship to another entity; or choose to maintain the current library system intact for one year and cover any deficits incurred.

Any decision would be effective July 1, the start of the next fiscal year, but the city needs to notify the PPL by March 1 if it intends to fund the library system as is for another year, according to the agreement.

Ultimately, said Cicilline, that decision rests with the City Council, which appears to be largely in favor of a branch system under the new nonprofit PCL.

"There are nine [councilors] here" in attendance and in support of the plan, Councilman Nicholas Narducci observed at yesterday's news conference. "We already have the majority we need to do what we have to do."

Council President Peter S. Mancini, who was not in attendance yesterday, said he was "very encouraged" by the PCL's proposal.
"Historically, I've felt that the PPL did not want to deal with the branch libraries, that they have not done much fundraising for the past four or five years, and are not willing to spend their endowment on the branches," he said.

The PCL proposes a board of trustees of up to 25 members, with representatives from all nine branches, the United Service and Allied Workers of Rhode Island (the union for library employees), neighborhood groups and delegates from the mayor's office and the City Council.

The board members would be limited to six consecutive years of service. Marcus Mitchell, a local entrepreneur who runs a business strategy consulting firm and is a member of the Friends of the Rochambeau Branch Library, a nonprofit entity, will serve as the first board chairman.

Next year's budget calls for $3.5 million from the city, which currently allocates $3.4 million to the PPL, $750,000 from the state, and $500,000 to be raised in donations and grants, according to Schwartz, the organization's treasurer.

The proposed budget would keep the same 50 union workers employed at the branches at their contractual salaries, as well as eight nonunion, administrative staff. Meanwhile, the PPL is proceeding with the next steps in enacting its proposal, which involves greater detail on how the PPL might turn over the five branch libraries to the city for use as community learning centers, according to Taylor, of the board of trustees.

PPL spokeswoman Tonia Mason declined yesterday to comment on the specifics of the PCL's alternate proposal, which she said had not been made available to the PPL.

"We don't know that the new organization has the infrastructure capable of administering the branch system, including business, human resources, building management and professional librarians," Mason said in an e-mail. "As with any new organization, we would be concerned that it has the financial ability to steward the library for future generations."

pmarcelo@projo.com

I have not looked at the slide show, but if you see any woman in a bright red coat clapping emphatically, well that's me. I was impressed with the presence of Bill Simons, President of the Board of Trustees of the infamous PPL. He stood quietly and listened to many speakers berate the Board... Miguel Luna thanked him publicly for his support. He has not been President of the Board (or I think even on the Board) for that long, perhaps if he'd been on hand sooner, this Tension would not have Escalated to the point of Schism...

RIers And Friends, Vote for Pam and PZ! (Weblog Awards, Cont'd)

Despite or because of (grin) my recent pissing match (if you'll pardon the expression, I'm in an alliterative mood), regarding Providence vs Portland, Oregon and Our Gay Mayors,
I am promoting Pam's House Blend,
http://www.pamshouseblend.com/
in the LGBT Blog Category
http://2008.weblogawards.org/polls/best-lgbt-blog/
Although there is apparently friendship between many of the bloggers in that category...and I suspect if I had more time, I would be quite enamored with many (perhaps all) of those blogs as well.

For alphabetical reasons, "I Dreamed I Saw Grace P. Last Night" is listed on some one's blog roll right next to JoeMyGod,
http://joemygod.blogspot.com/
and that is an honor. Seriously. This blog aspires to reach the aesthetics and currency of many of the nominated blogs...

Pharyngula. Apparently going through some technical(today) changes today -- which means the link may not work...It's wonderful. It's currently an underdog...
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/
PZ Myers,is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris, and writes with depth, wit and dare I say, Love...
There must be a connection between PZ and Providence or Rhode Island, but it has not yet been spelled out for me. He is one of my facebook friends (I confess so are: Pam Spaulding, JC Christian, and Carl)and I am grateful for that.

There are so many categories and I have not visited each nominee's site that surely I omit other Blogs with Rhode Island Import. Please inform me, and I will probably Promote them! If not via the comment section, then via email or facebook or whathaveyou...but the Voting Ends January 12th!

Marsha Z. West Smiles Somewhere (Black Rep News)

The last play I saw Marsha in was at The Providence Black Repertory Theatre. It was a production of "The Colored Museum" (George Wolfe) and it was one of the most amazing theatrical experiences of my life (I've been blessed with quite a few...)Only appendicitis in the family, prevented me from going to see it a second time, this time with my son...(Our reservations were for the final performance).

From Don King this week, I received some wonderful news (and few of my emails have been cheerful this week)...

Greetings!


Two months ago, I wrote to you, our members, subscribers, and friends, to describe the difficult decisions that Black Rep has had to make in light of the tumultuous economic climate; one of these decisions was to suspend our two remaining theater productions. During the last 60 days, Black Rep's Staff and Board of Directors has worked around the clock to raise money and develop creative strategies to reinstate our theater season. We have been inspired by the support of so many of you who continue to believe in our vision and encourage us through these challenging times. THANK YOU! We couldn't have done it without you!

At this time, I am thrilled to report that both theater productions have been reinstated. Some adjustments have been made---for example, Gem of the Ocean will have a shortened run---but the important news is that the show must, and will, go on! While Black Rep is excited and proud of this announcement, we are not out of the woods yet. We are still working hard to procure the necessary funding to support our theater season, other programming, and general operating expenses. To learn how you can make a contribution, please visit blackrep.org.

Black Rep is one of the reasons I love living in Providence, RI!

" Israel Isn't David . . . It's Goliath" --- Irena Klepfisz

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1295/is_7_65/ai_76157765?tag=artBody;col1

This article by Matthew Rothschild, originally published in the July 2001 issue of "The Progressive", is relevant and powerful.

I ask her about the common canard, "self-hating Jew," that many of us get hit with when we criticize Israeli policy.

"Well, people have a hard time calling me a self-hating Jew," she says. "I'm a child survivor. I lead a very Jewish life. I'm committed to Jewish survival. I don't want the Jews in Israel to die. I want them to be safe. I think they're on the wrong road to safety."

She says that such labels are a blackmail against criticism. If Jews can't criticize Israel for fear of being called "self-hating," and if non-Jews can't criticize Israel for fear of being called "anti-Semitic," then Israel gets off scot-free.

7 Disciplined Following Jason (Hiu Lui) Ng's Death

7 disciplined in probe of Wyatt detainee’s death

Below is the text from an article in today's Providence Journal.

01:00 AM EST on Thursday, January 8, 2009
By KAREN LEE ZINER and W. ZACHARY MALINOWSKI
Journal Staff Writers
Journal Staff Writers CENTRAL FALLS — Seven employees of the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility are facing punishment ranging from reprimands to firing in connection with the death of Hiu Lui Ng last August while he was in Wyatt custody.
Ng, 34, a computer engineer from New York, died as a result of complications from advanced cancer; he also had a fractured spine. Ng’s lawyers allege that he was denied access to medical care and legal counsel, and that Wyatt guards accused him of faking his illness.
The disciplinary actions result from a just-completed internal investigation that exonerates Wyatt, a privately run detention center, with regard to Ng’s medical care.
The seven unnamed staff members are being punished for “specific failures to comply with facility policies and procedures during Mr. Ng’s 25-day detention at the Facility,” according to a statement issued yesterday by the Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation, which operates the prison.
“The CFDFC stands by its initial statement that Mr. Ng was provided appropriate and timely medical attention to diagnose the late-stage cancer which ultimately caused his death, both in-house and through the use of outside hospitals,” the statement said.
According to the statement, neither the center, nor its staff learned that Ng was suffering from late-stage cancer “until after Mr. Ng was diagnosed at Rhode Island Hospital on or about Aug. 1, 2008. Mr. Ng remained in hospital care from the time of his cancer diagnosis until his passing on Aug. 6, 2008.”
“The CFDFC reiterates that the actions of the Facility’s staff, including the actions of those staff members that have been disciplined, did not contribute to the cause of Mr. Ng’s death.”
The statement noted that the state medical examiner’s office determined that Ng. died of natural causes associated with metastatic liver cancer.
Wyatt spokesman Dante Bellini Jr. said the internal investigation began shortly after Ng’s death, and examined Ng’s care while housed at Wyatt between July 3 and Aug. 1. Bellini declined further comment citing “pending investigations,” including an investigation by the Office of Professional Responsibility of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Washington.
Bellini said he believes the ICE investigation has just been completed. An ICE spokesman would not confirm that yesterday.
The New York Times last year chronicled Ng’s odyssey, from his arrest in 2007 on a deportation order that court records state he never received; to his being shuttled among jails and other facilities around New England where ICE detainees are held; to his last weeks at Wyatt as his medical condition allegedly went untreated and undiagnosed.
Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union — which represents Ng’s family — said the investigation results “are an important first step, but the public still deserves a lot of answers. If the facility itself acknowledges that seven staff members need severe punishment, that should raise red flags that there’s something very serious going on at this facility.”
Brown added, “What were the violations of policy that occurred? How could they have occurred to such a great extent and affecting so many employees if it’s not a systemic problem at the facility? Their belief that there was no problem with medical care remains very troubling, since the records we’ve seen so far make it clear it was only in his very last days that Mr. Ng was diagnosed with terminal disease.”
On Dec. 8, ICE abruptly removed all 153 immigrant detainees from Wyatt and transferred them to five other states, as a team of investigators from its Washington headquarters and elsewhere arrived to investigate Ng’s death. The mass transfer marked at least the third time since 2007 that ICE has moved all detainees out of a facility following a highly publicized in-custody death.
Meanwhile, Wyatt has begun “across-the-board cuts” that include layoffs, the elimination of prisoner programs and a freeze on new hires in the months ahead unless the prison gets an influx of new detainees. The loss of immigrant detainees is costing the prison about $100,000 a week and officials have been forced to reduce expenses. That has led to this week’s layoffs and cuts in services.
Bellini, the Wyatt spokesman, refused to say how many of the prison’s staff of 204 administrators, guards and support staff have lost their jobs, what programs have been cut or how much the facility hopes to save each week.
The Journal has learned that two top officials, including an associate warden, were let go this week. Their combined annual salaries totaled more than $100,000.
Others may be gone by week’s end.
“We have put into place the contingency plan,” Bellini said. “We still don’t know what the final look of this is going to be.”
The action could have a crippling impact on Wyatt, which is reimbursed about $100 a day for each prisoner housed there.
Yesterday, there were 512 prisoners in Wyatt, about 150 to 200 fewer than its normal population in recent years. Bellini said that the prison also has shut down two of its 12 pods, each of which houses up to 100 inmates.
The cuts are also bad news for the financially strapped City of Central Falls, which Wyatt paid $504,656 in the fiscal year that ended last June 30.
kziner@projo.com

I agree with the questions raised by Steven Brown.
“What were the violations of policy that occurred? How could they have occurred to such a great extent and affecting so many employees if it’s not a systemic problem at the facility?"

There is now a facebook group open to anyone which calls for answers...
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21859198024#/group.php?gid=42210608682&ref=ts

The name of the group is: Make the Wyatt Detention Facility accountable
and it has 63 members as 12:16 (this moment)...

Vote for Blogs! ( alas, RI blogs are forgotten again)

The voting began on Monday or Tuesday past and continues until January 12. Several of my blog friends/mentors/elders are nominees.

http://2008.weblogawards.org/polls/

In the Up and Coming Blog Category, for example, one nominee is "Simply Left Behind"
http://simplyleftbehind.blogspot.com/

This is an excellent blog, authored or edited by Carl aka Actor 212 which possibly is the first blog to have a link to this one!

My General, General JC Christian's immortal blog is nominated in "Best Very Large Blog".
http://patriotboy.blogspot.com/

This site is getting deserved traffic, but if you have patience it's not too difficult to vote...

Tomorrow I will name two other Friends of this Blog who are nominated...

Thank You, Jewish Canadian Women! or Grace Paley Presente!

David McReynolds just sent this news:

Arrests underway in Toronto Israeli Consulate Sit-in Toronto:
Wednesday January 8, 2009 Time: 11:20 am Police have moved in to
arrest a group of Jewish Canadian women who are currently occupying the
Israeli consulate at 180 Bloor Street West in Toronto. The women took
their action in protest against the on-going Israeli assault on the
people of Gaza.

The group is carrying out this occupation in solidarity with the 1.5million people of Gaza and to ensure that Jewish voices against the
massacre in Gaza are being heard. They are demanding that Israel end
its military assault and lift the 18-month siege on the Gaza Strip to
allow humanitarian aid into the territory. Israel has been carrying
out a full-scale military assault on the Gaza Strip since December 27,
2008. At least 660 people have been killed and 3000 injured in the air
strikes and in the ground invasion that began on January 3, 2009.
Israel has ignored international calls for a ceasefire and is refusing
to allow food, adequate medical supplies and other necessities of life
into the Gaza Strip. Protesters are outraged at Israel's latest
assault on the Palestinian people and by the Canadian government's
refusal to condemn these massacres. They are deeply concerned that
Canadians are hearing the views of pro-Israel groups who are being
represented as the only voice of Jewish Canadians. The protesters have
occupied the consulate to send a clear statement that many
Jewish-Canadians do not support Israel's violence and apartheid
policies. They are joining with people of conscience all across the
world who are demanding an end to Israeli aggression and justice for
the Palestinian people.

The group includes: Judy Rebick, professor; Judith Deutsch,
psychoanalyst and president of Science for Peace; B.H. Yael, filmmaker;
Smadar Carmon, an Canadian Israeli peace activist and others.
Spokespersons for the group will be outside the Israeli consulate: Dr.
Miriam Garfinkle: 416-731-6605 mgarfinkle@sympatico.ca Cathy Gulkin:
416-697-0768 cgulkin@rogers.com Release is online at
http://www.sources.com/Releases/NR135.htm

"A sample of a work-in-progress documentary film portrait of Grace Paley by Lilly Rivlin.

www.programs.cjh.org

www.jewishheritageproject.org

What Queer (Providence) Sponsored Funeral is Friday not Saturday

March in Solidarity with Greece, Gaza, and Against All State Violence
Solidarity

Event Host: What Queer?!

Time and Place Date: Friday, January 9, 2009

Time: 12:00pm - 3:00pm

Location: Burnside Park

City/Town: Providence, RI

Show your solidarity with the uprisings in Athens, and the people of Gaza.
We are planning a funeral procession in solidarity with all victims of war
and state violence on Friday, January 9th, through the streets of
Providence. We will speak at various sites of state violence throughout
the city.

RI ACLU Presents "The Visitor" -- 1/14/09

The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation
of Rhode Island is pleased to present a screening of:


The Visitor

Starring Trinity Repertory Theater alum, Richard Jenkins,The Visitor, tells the story of an American college professor and a young immigrant couple grappling with the treatment of immigrants and the legal process post-9/11.



When: January 14, 2009 7:00 PM
Where: The Cable Car Cinema @ 204 South Main Street, Providence
Free and open to the public
The film will be followed by a short question and answer period
with local civil liberties experts.


Presented in partnership with the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence,
International Institute of Rhode Island, Participant Media and Active Voice
For directions, contact the Cable Car Cinema: (401)272-3970


1 9 5 9 - 2 0 0 9
Protecting Civil Liberties in
Rhode Island for 50 years
401-831-7171 www.riaclu.org

A Library Is Announced: http://ProvidenceCommunityLibrary.org/index.html

The press conference at City Hall was splendid. I am just too sleepy-headed to contrive anything other than cliches and misspellings. And this blog has seen a lot of posts the last few days...

( thank you, democommie, Dex and Tom Kalinowski!!! )

Here's the link:
http://providencecommunitylibrary.org/index.html

Monday, January 05, 2009

Good Morning:

Something a little less nasty than usual (from my place).

__________________________________________________________

Monday, January 05, 2009

I think this will be short.

I am still somewhat incapacitated from a fall on New Year's Eve (not attributable to alcohol--damn the luck!) and have been spending the last few days trying to make some sort of order out of the 200G or so of photo files that I had on 4 separate hard drives. I was able to pick up a 250G Seagate Free Agent (my bro works in HD development there and he said I made a good score at $52.50). I've been moving files from the other hard drives and deleting the extraneous document copies, etc.,.

I just wonder how much of the stuff that I keep on my "box" is attributable to a desire to save records and how much is attributable to the familial "packrat" gene. My dear mother used to keep a daily journal of what she did, where she went, how much she spent and so forth. She kept it longhand (beautiful cursive script) in steno notebooks.

I have no idea how many of the things she went through but I do know that, for her, to throw anything away was next to impossible.

I gave her a set of salt and pepper shakers in 1970 (I got them while stationed in Germany) and when I was eating dinner at her house one day, several years later, asked if she still had them. "Oh, yes," she said, "I treasure them." I asked where they were. She told me that she kept them with her fine china (she had a set of Spode and another of Limoges, IIRC) which she also, NEVER USED! She thought they were far too valuable to ever be entrusted to the grubby mitts of her brood.

The summer before she passed, while I was home on a visit she told me that she had been putting things aside and told me the salt & pepper set was in a box with my name on it. I told her that I appreciated the gesture but that I woud prefer she give them to one of my siblings as I would simply lose them. She was okay with that. She also had a package for me, in a large manila envelope. It included photos of her and my dad on her wedding day, photos of my dad in India--and his unit patch, done on leather--from his days in the USAAF during WWII, my natal photo (from St. Joe's hospital), various photos of me and my older and younger siblings, my class photos from every year I'd had one taken, my AF photos and every single birthday card, letter and postcard I had ever sent her. It was not anything like the sort of pile that several of my siblings had, but I was astonished that she had kept everything for so many years. I still pull out that envelope from time to time and I feel her presence in those moments.

Several years ago I wrote a song, "Kodak Moment" about the experience of viewing those photos and the memories that they awakened. I will share it one of these days when I have the time, energy and requisite knowledge to record it and put it up on this blog or elsewhere.

Well, I guess it was not as short a post as I was thinking it would be.

A Report from a Sunday Vigil, Providence, RI

In addition to the indoor Prayer Service at Temple Emanuel, there was a presence outside as well.

The following is a description from Susanne Hoder of the Interfaith Peace Initiative:
Dear friends,

Tonight's vigil was a wonderful success. We had about 50 people standing on two sides of the street up and considerably away from the Temple entrance, but still within view. We were mostly silent, except for the occasional singing of Truth Shall Overcome (to the tune of "We shall overcome"), and Peace, Shalom, Salaam. This was mostly as people were coming and leaving. None of this could have been heard in the service.

The signs were not confrontational or accusing, but were reminders that peace requires justice for all. AFSC members provided many of them. Some others said "End All Occupations," Support the UN Call for Cease-fire, etc. Four large cardboard signs with letters in foil that said GAZA caught the light of passing cars and TV cameras. Thanks to the Almonds and Eileen Sheehan, there were plenty of candles.

There were almost as many police at the temple as there were demonstrators across the way, and they were very cordial and helpful. The turnout for the service seemed smaller than expected.

People of many faiths stood with us tonight. I think we showed that there is nothing anti-Semitic or anti-Israel about opposing the Israeli offensive in Gaza and the occupation. One man came out of the Temple service and walked over to shake our hands. Again, silently, with no dialogue, but with mutual respect.

In interviews with ABC 6 News, Martha Yager and others made the point that this was about what was happening to the people of Gaza, and said groups at the vigil were concerned with a just peace for all the people of the region. At the end of its report at 11, ABC's reporter said it was clear both groups shared the goal of peace.

Without our presence there, the TV cameras would have only showed Rhode Islanders expressing solidarity with Israel. This way, they showed that there were also Rhode Islanders standing for a just peace, opposing Israel's actions and mourning the tremendous loss of life in Gaza as well as those killed in Israel.

Thanks to all who made this possible.

Susanne Hoder

Thoughts on Rick Warren Inauguration Prayer

I am fascinated that some people are in an uproar over Rick Warren offering the prayer at President-elect Obama's inauguration. This says a lot about the thinking of Mr. Obama. The fact that he can bring divergent ideas and people to participate in his swearing in ceremony as our 44th President shows me the bigness of his thinking. Mr. Obama is demonstrating that he wants to be the President for all of the people of the United States. I know Mr. Obama has offended some liberals in the gay and lesbian community. But on the other hand, he has offended some in the conservative Christian community who are unhappy with Pastor Joseph Lowery being a part of Mr. Obama's inauguration because he supports civil rights for gays and lesbians. People have been screaming for a new kind of America, and now that they are getting it, people are still unhappy. I think we all need to learn to tolerate each other just a little bit more in 2009. I believe it could be good for America and the world if we could all learn that lesson.

"En este mundo hay más religiones que niños felices"....Ricardo Arjona

"En este mundo hay más religiones que niños felices."
Ricardo Arjona (Cantante guatamalteco.)

"There are more religions in this world, than there are happy children."
Ricardo Arjona, Guatemalan singer
(translation by Nomi, open to improvements)

I receive Spanish quotes (often translated from other languages) from this group:
http://groups.google.com/group/citadeldia?hl=es

oops! Here's another link:
http://www.citasyrefranes.com/

Astounding Science-Fiction: January 1940

In 1937 the Powers-That-Be at the pulp magazine publishing firm of Street and Smith decided it was time to promote F. Orlin Tremaine, editor of their science fiction magazine Astounding Stories. The position of Editorial Director had opened up, and Tremaine was chosen to fill it. This meant that someone had to be put in charge of the day-to-day business of editing Astounding, and the choice was made to bring in John W. Campbell, Jr., one of the top writers in the field. Campbell took over his editing duties, under Tremaine, in the fall of 1937.

Campbell had been a fan of the new genre since he spotted the first issue of Amazing Stories on a newsstand in the spring of 1926, and he had earned growing fame as a writer since 1930, both under his own name and under the pen name Don A. Stuart. Campbell had big plans for Astounding Stories, intending to remake it into his notion of the perfect science fiction magazine. He introduced a new feature called the Analytical Laboratory, in which he tabulated readers' choices of the best stories in each issue. More significantly, he changed the magazine's name to Astounding Science-Fiction, taking advantage of the new genre's growing popularity.

In the spring of 1938, the Powers-That-Be decided that they didn't need an Editorial Director after all, and Tremaine was let go. After that, Campbell had a free hand at Astounding.

Tremaine had had a very workmanlike method for choosing stories. He would let the incoming manuscripts accumulate for a month, then a few days before the month's issue was due, he would start at the top of the pile, reading each story and either rejecting it or accepting it. When he had enough acceptable stories to fill the magazine, he would stop. The authors of the rejects would get their stories back with a preprinted rejection slip, the authors of the accepted stories would get a letter of acceptance and a check, and the unread stories would be flipped over, and sit on Tremaine's desk until it was time to assemble the next month's issue.

Campbell's working methods were very different. He would read each story as it came in. If he rejected it, he would immediately send it back to the author along with a letter (often a long one) explaining what was wrong with the story. If he accepted it, he would simply send the author a check, feeling this was explanation enough. It was in this way that Campbell began to create a stable of writers who knew how to write the kinds of stories he wanted. The best description of the process comes from Isaac Asimov's 1972 collection The Early Asimov. Here Asimov collects his first stories, along with a detailed account of how he came to write them, and how Campbell influenced his writing style and subject matter.

A look through the January 1940 issue of Astounding shows just how far Campbell had brought the magazine compared to the January 1937 issue. The magazine's new name appears in a new font arranged in a new style. In the 1937 issue "Astounding" appeared in a serif font in yellow with red trim, decreasing in size across the top of the cover (an echo of the original design of Amazing Stories), and "Stories" in smaller white letters below it. In the 1940 issue, "Astounding" appears in pastel pink sans serif letters of equal size across the very top of the cover, with "Science-Fiction" below and to the left in much smaller letters. The cover, illustrating Harl Vincent's novelette "Neutral Vessel", shows two men working behind a shield as twin beams of ruby light strike a red metal bar, creating a shower of sparks. Who are the men, and what are they doing? To find out, you have to pay 20 cents to the guy running the newsstand and read the magazine.

Open the front cover and you see two pages of advertising, for Listerine on the left and Coyne Electrical School, a Chicago-based correspondence course, on the right. Turn past the ads and you come to the magazine's table of contents. There are two novelettes, the cover story and Lester del Rey's "The Smallest God". Next are three short stories, "Moon of Delirium" by D.L. James, "Requiem" by Robert A. Heinlein, and "In the Day of the Cold" by Sam Weston. Next is a science article, "Transmutation: 1939" by Jack Hatcher, followed by the fourth and final installment of a serialized novel, Gray Lensman by E.E. Smith, PhD. This is followed by the Readers' Departments: an editorial by Campbell, a preview of the following month's issue called "In Times to Come", a book review, and the letters column, "Brass Tacks and Science Discussions".

Opposite the table of contents is Campbell's two-page editorial, "Inconsequential Detail", in which he points out that it can be hard to tell the difference between a revolutionary new idea and a minor improvement to an old idea, and that this is just as true for story ideas as it is for inventions. Putting the editorial right after the table of contents was another of Campbell's innovations.

After the editorial are two more pages of ads, the first for the National Radio Institute (another correspondence course, this one for prospective radio technicians) and the second for Athlete magazine, a Street and Smith pulp specializing in sports stories.

Next comes the cover story, Harl Vincent's "Neutral Vessel". Harl Vincent was the pen name of Harold Vincent Schoepflin, a mechanical engineer who wrote science fiction as a hobby. His first story appeared in the June 1928 issue of Amazing Stories, and he appeared regularly in the SF pulps throughout the 1930s. His last appearance in Astounding would be in the June 1940 issue. He ceased writing science fiction shortly thereafter, and would not resume it until the mid-1960s, shortly before his death. "Neutral Vessel" tells of a future interplanetary war between Mars and Venus. Although Earth is neutral, Martian agents sabotage an interplanetary cruise liner from Earth so that it will crash at top speed into Venus, devastating the planet. The cover of Astounding shows two of the liner's officers trying to cut through a power line to one of the engines.

"Neutral Vessel" is followed by "In Times to Come", in which Campbell talks about two upcoming serials, " 'If This Goes On--' " by Robert A. Heinlein, and "Blackout" by L. Ron Hubbard (yes, that L. Ron Hubbard). This is followed by "Moon of Delirium" by D.L. James. James had been publishing occasional stories since 1936. "Moon of Delirium" would be one of his last. The story concerns a ship from Earth that lands on the Saturnian moon Dione in search of small telepathic amplifiers called thought-nuggets.

Next is "The Smallest God" by Lester del Rey. Del Rey had first appeared in the April 1938 Astounding with the first story he ever wrote, "The Faithful". "The Smallest God" was his sixth appearance in Astounding. Del Rey would go on to have a long, distinguished career as a writer and editor, founding the Del Rey Books imprint along with his fourth wife, Judy-Lynn del Rey. In "The Smallest God", a chemist uses the goo resulting from an unsuccessful experiment to weigh down a hollow rubber doll of the Greek god Hermes. The goo becomes self-aware, and uses the rubber doll as a body.

"The Smallest God" is followed by "Transmutation: 1939", a science article by Jack Hatcher describing the latest developments in the burgeoning field of nuclear physics. The article ends by noting the recently-discovered fact that uranium atoms can be split. Next comes the book review, in which L. Sprague de Camp reviews Ralph Buchsbaum's Animals Without Backbones (1938), a survey of invertebrates. De Camp was a patent attorney who began publishing science fiction stories in 1937, starting with "The Isolinguals" in the September 1937 issue of Astounding. De Camp also wrote the occasional nonfiction piece, such as his famous "Language for time Travelers", as well as book reviews. Like del Rey, de Camp rose to prominence in Campbell's Astounding, and is best known for a series of rationally-thought-out planetary romances set on the fictional planet Krishna.

De Camp's book review is followed by "Requiem" by Robert A. Heinlein. Heinlein made his first appearance in the August 1939 Astounding with his story "Life-Line", which was his first published story and the first component of his famous Future History series. Heinlein quickly became Campbell's most popular writer, and during his lifetime he was considered the most important writer in science fiction. "Requiem" was Heinlein's third published story. Like the previous two, "Life-Line" and "Misfit", it was part of the Future History series. "Requiem" tells of the wealthy industrialist D.D. Harriman, who has dreamed his whole life of going to the Moon, and who made space flight a commercial reality so that he could do so. However, his business responsibilites have prevented him from ever making the trip. Heinlein would eventually write a prequel to "Requiem" called "The Man Who Sold the Moon" describing Harriman's machinations in launching the first flight to the Moon.

"Requiem" is followed by Sam Weston's "In the Day of the Cold", a brutal story set in a future ice age. Then comes the conclusion of E.E. Smith's four-part serial Gray Lensman. Smith was the Grand Old Man of science fiction, having published his novel The Skylark of Space in Amazing Stories in 1928, thereby introducing the super-science epic to the field. Gray Lensman is a sequel to two previously unrelated Smith novels, 1934's Triplanetary and 1937's Galactic Patrol. The hero of Gray Lensman is Kimball Kinneson of Galactic Patrol, but the villains turn out to be the Boskonians of Triplanetary.

The January 1940 issue concludes with eight letters from the Brass Tacks letter column, three from the Science Discussion letter column, a full page ad for a traveling salesman kit, and an ad on the back cover for Chesterfield cigarettes. (In the March 1940 issue's Analytical Laboratory, Gray Lensman was by far the most popular story. The next most popular stories were "The Smallest God", "Neutral Vessel", "Requiem", and "Moon of Delirium", which were all about equally popular.)

After only two years under Campbell's direction, Astounding was a markedly better magazine. The stories were better written and more realistic, and the science was more accurate. (Ironically, Lester del Rey's "The Smallest God" was the most old-fashioned story, with its wildly implausible science and its classic opening where two scientists provide expository dialogue.) Tremaine had already made Astounding the field's leading magazine, but under Campbell it continued to improve until, as Asimov put it, "to read Astounding was to know the field entire". Campbell continued to mold important new writers such as Arthur C. Clarke, Fritz Leiber, and Poul Anderson. When Astounding finally found itself facing serious competition again in the 1950s, it was because the rest of the science fiction field had finally caught up with Campbell.

??? Providence "Peace Service" = "Unity with Israel" ???

http://www.projo.com/ri/providence/content/middle_east_peace_vigil_01-03-09_CFCR3RA_v9.3ac8569.html

Below is the text of the article.

PROVIDENCE — Temple Emanu-El will host a special community service tomorrow at 7 p.m. to show support for peace in the Middle East, with prayers for an end to the terrorism that has been directed at the people of Israel but which has caused innocent Palestinians to suffer as well.

“Our purpose is to show unity with Israel,” said Marty Cooper, community relations director of the Jewish Federation of Rhode Island. “With all the bombing going on, we wish for peace and pray for peace. Nobody wants what is going on right now. The only people who do are the terrorists whose only mission is the destruction of Israel.”

Nadav Tamir, Israel’s consul general for New England, will be one of the speakers at the event, along with Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline; Rabbi Peter Stein, of Temple Sinai in Cranston, president of the Rhode Island Board of Rabbis; the Rev. Donald A. Anderson, executive minister of the Rhode Island State Council of Churches; and Temple Emanu-El’s Rabbi Wayne Franklin.

The service is open to the public.

— Richard C. Dujardin

My prayers are for everyone in the Middle East.
Was no one from the Palestinian community invited to speak? No one from any other faith community?

Not all Israelis are pleased with their government's attacks.

What Queer?! Plans Providence (RI) March for January 10th...

Show your solidarity with the uprisings in Athens, and the people of Gaza.

We are planning a funeral procession in solidarity with all victims of war
and state violence on Saturday, January 10th, through the streets of
Providence. We will speak at various sites of state violence throughout
the city.

Anyone interested in planning or speaking please come to a
planning meeting Monday January 5th at 6pm.

Email whatqueer@gmail.com for
info, even if you can't make it on the 5th.

Called for by What Queer?!, a radical queer collective in Providence.
Please forward widely!

Rhode Island's Twelfth: Former Senator Claiborne Pell Dies

Rhode Island's Twelfth: Former Senator Claiborne Pell Dies

I believe Senator Pell was the ONLY U.S Senator who did NOT support the U.S. attacking Iraq the first time. He was customarily patrician about it, deferring to International Law. I will always be grateful to him for that position and for many of his humanitarian stances.

Rick Warren To Come Out 01/20/09? Or What's An Inauguration For?

Shana Tova, everyone! Feliz An~o Nuevo! Happy New Year! I had no internet for 3 days. Oy.

At a recent Chanuka party, Rick Warren was the topic briefly. Someone, I cannot recall which person, stated that the reason he will be giving the Invocation is that he will be Coming Out for the Occasion. (attempting to spell occasion is a challenge for me).

Rick Warren Proudly Sharing His True Identity With Millions? Isn't that a wonderful thought? Not that it would erase his history of oppression, unkindness, insensitivitity and judgement...but it would be a step in the (hemm, hemm) right direction.

My plan, in all seriousness, is to be in D.C. with Ethan on that day. Despite the lack of invitations to Balls, et cetera, I want to be there among the cheerful masses.