E-NOTES: WHEN THE NEWS IS NOT ENOUGH. THE BLOG OF E. ETHELBERT MILLER
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
A PELICAN BRIEF:
About 50,000 sea turtle eggs from beaches in the Florida Panhandle and Alabama will be dug up and moved to Florida's Atlantic Coast in hopes of keeping the hatchlings alive in the face of the oil spill.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Monday that it had expanded the area closed to fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. The total closed area now covers 80,228 square miles, or about 33.2 percent of federal waters in the gulf.
The New York Times, June 29, 2010.
About 50,000 sea turtle eggs from beaches in the Florida Panhandle and Alabama will be dug up and moved to Florida's Atlantic Coast in hopes of keeping the hatchlings alive in the face of the oil spill.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Monday that it had expanded the area closed to fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. The total closed area now covers 80,228 square miles, or about 33.2 percent of federal waters in the gulf.
The New York Times, June 29, 2010.
THE E MAG
Treve de blues
- Leon Damas
Compassion is my art
- Grace A. Ali
God makes stars. It's up to producers to find them
- Samuel Goldwyn
MY GUEST TODAY IS ALYSSA McLENDON. MS. McLENDON IS A HOWARD UNIVERSITY STUDENT LIVING IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC THIS SUMMER.
McLENDON:
Treve de blues
- Leon Damas
Compassion is my art
- Grace A. Ali
God makes stars. It's up to producers to find them
- Samuel Goldwyn
MY GUEST TODAY IS ALYSSA McLENDON. MS. McLENDON IS A HOWARD UNIVERSITY STUDENT LIVING IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC THIS SUMMER.
McLENDON:
I was afraid his bones were going to bust through his skin. His dark body looked like an X-ray sheet, with skin so thin that all his bones were visible. He lay on the ground naked. Bare and barren he stared up into the sky as if asking “why” with full, opened eyes pleading in perplexed agony for an answer to his one question as if he was in a conversation with his creator above. I’ve never seen anyone so skinny.
I was out with my reporter that I shadow at my internship, Julio Caraballo, when we saw this homeless man without clothes starving on the street. Our original story was intended to be at the hospital but we stopped when we saw this man. Julio approached the man cautiously as a crowd began to form and stare at this homeless man in all his nudity. A white sheet lay to his right side and he weakly pulled it over him to cover himself. He looked embarrassed and ashamed to have all these strangers staring, but he was too frail and weak to lift himself.
“What’s your name? Where are you from?” Julio asked the man gently. The man didn’t respond.Now that we were closer I saw a plate of food to his left side probably given to him by someone out of kindness. Flies buzzed over the food and over his body but he was too weak or maybe he just didn’t care enough to swat them away, maybe he knew they would eventually return again. Looking at this man I was in awe. How did he get like this? What happened to him? Was he going to be okay? I wanted to help but what could I do? I reached in my purse to give the man some pesos but the camera man, Christian, told me to put my money away. It was pointless to give him money because he didn’t have clothes or shoes. No one would allow him to enter their store in order to buy things. Laying money next to him, someone walking by would probably just take it.
“Do you have any family?” Julio asked, still trying to get this man’s story. The man turned his head away from the mic as my heart turned in my chest. He seemed disarrayed couldn’t help but think, yes we are trying to cover his story, but how are we helping him? We have a camera filming him and everyone is staring but what are we actually doing for him to possibly save his life? The man still wouldn’t speak. His dark wide vacant eyes just continued to look up, and then we left.
That same day we left the city and traveled to the outskirts of Santo Domingo to cover a story about this community police force in the community. We passed children walking home from school on the dirt roads and passed shacks that were their houses. Men sat outside playing Dominoes and sitting on their porches in conversations as more children ran by. The unemployment rate in the Dominican Republic is 15.1% (2009 estimate) and driving round in the streets you see a lot of people doing nothing. The houses aren’t air conditioned so it’s cooler to be outside during the day, so they just appear to be sitting around.Looking at their community from the window in the truck I was riding in, I wondered if they were happy. For some reason, America, in all its vast idealization of materialism as idols of self-worth, has brainwashed us into believing that the items we own determine our happiness. But Americans have more wealth and materials than a “third world country” (I hate that term) like the Dominican Republic, and we still have people with all the items in the world that are depressed and unhappy.
According to the World Health Organization from 2008, the United States had 11.1 suicides per 100,000 people compared to the Dominican Republic which had 1.6 suicides per 100,000 people.In fact, Central and South Latin America had the lowest suicide rates overall in the world and these are the countries that most of the world powers countries look down upon because their lack of “modern developments”. Is it really THAT big of a deal that people are living in places without hot water or air conditioning? If you never knew of something “better” that existed, you would be perfectly content because that is the only thing you knew. Henry David Thoreau says it best,
As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor will weakness be weakness.
I wonder who’s really better off. Them or us?
Our affluent society contains those of talent and insight who are driven to prefer poverty, to choose it, rather than submit to the desolation of an empty abundance. ~Michael Harrington
Dear Poets,
Below are the guidelines for submitting to read in the Library of Congress Poetry at Noon Program for the coming year. The deadline is July 15. Submissions should be made by mail.
Fall 2010 - Spring 2011
Several Poetry at Noon readings, sponsored by the Poetry and Literature Center, Office of Scholarly Programs, will be held in 2010-2011. To apply to read in the series, choose a theme from the list at the bottom of the guidelines.
Submission Guidelines
One submission for one theme consists of:
1. A cover sheet with the following information:
- the theme as the title of your submission
- your name, address, phone number, and email address.
- the name of the other theme for which you are submitting, if you are.
2. Three of your poems and two by other poets (a total of 5 poems) on the theme.
- each poem should have the name of its author on it.
3. A one-paragraph bio with each submission. (The bio can be the same for each submission.)
Please staple all pages of one submission together.
Up to 2 submissions may be mailed in one envelope.
Please Note: Regrettably, honoraria and travel funds are NOT available.
Send manuscripts to:
Patricia Gray
Library of Congress
Poetry and Literature Center
101 Independence Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20540-4861
Library of Congress
Poetry and Literature Center
101 Independence Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20540-4861
Deadline Postmark: July 15, 2010 (Manuscripts will not be returned.)
You may apply to read in one or two of the themed programs listed below.
Themes for 2010-2011 Poetry at Noon
Fall 2010
October -- "Rhode Island Sampler" (No submissions. Just come and enjoy the program that also features the national winner of the Poetry Out Loud competition.)
November -- "Insider/Outsider Experiences"
December -- "Decade One" (Life in the first decade of the 21st century.)
Spring 2010 Themes
February -- "Love Poems"
March -- "Reversals of Fortune" (whether good or bad)
April -- Shakespeare's Birthday Reading (No submissions; just come and enjoy performances by professional actors.)
May--"Away from Home" (away from familiar people and familiar places)
A Poetry at Noon outreach spotlighting poets laureate from each state continues in the fall 2010.
Library of Congress
Poetry and Literature Center
101 Independence Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20540
Phone: 202-707-1308
FAX: 202-707-9946
Tricycle Daily Dharma
Being alone means you are established firmly in the here and the now and you become aware of what is happening in the present moment. You use your mindfulness to become aware of every feeling, every perception you have. You’re aware of what’s happening around you in the sangha, but you’re always with yourself, you don’t lose yourself. That’s the Buddha’s definition of the ideal practice of solitude: not to be caught in the past or carried away by the future, but always to be here, body and mind united, aware of what is happening in the present moment. That is real solitude.
Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Matter (Winter 2009)
How To Find True Solitude
Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Matter (Winter 2009)
MAYBE THE TOM TOM BEATS FOR YOU.In Clarence Thomas's gun rights opinion, race plays a major role By Courtland Milloy
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/articles/courtland+milloy/ Wednesday, June 30, 2010
He hardly ever speaks during oral arguments, often appearing asleep on the bench. But in his written opinion Monday supporting the right to bear arms, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas roared to life. Referring to the disarming of blacks during the post-Reconstruction era, Thomas wrote: "It was the 'duty' of white citizen 'patrols to search negro houses and other suspected places for firearms.' If they found any firearms, the patrols were to take the offending slave or free black 'to the nearest justice of the peace' whereupon he would be 'severely punished.' " Never again, Thomas says. In a scorcher of an opinion that reads like a mix of black history lesson and Black Panther Party manifesto, he goes on to say, "Militias such as the Ku Klux Klan, the Knights of the White Camellia, the White Brotherhood, the Pale Faces and the '76 Association spread terror among blacks. . . . The use of firearms for self-defense was often the only way black citizens could protect themselves from mob violence."
This was no muttering from an Uncle Tom, as many black people have accused him of being. His advocacy for black self-defense is straight from the heart of Malcolm X. He even cites the slave revolts led by Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner -- implying that white America has long wanted to take guns away from black people out of fear that they would seek revenge for centuries of racial oppression.
Of course, Thomas's references to historic threats posed by white militias might have been dismissed if not for a resurgence of such groups in the year after Barack Obama's election as the nation's first black president. And if their behavior turns as violent as their racist rhetoric often threatens, then Thomas will almost certainly go down in history as the nation's foremost black radical legal scholar.
Thomas, the only black justice, sided with the court's conservative majority in a 5 to 4 vote to give Otis McDonald, a 76-year-old black man from Chicago, the right to buy a handgun. In his lawsuit to repeal Chicago's restrictive handgun law, McDonald said he needed a gun to protect himself -- not from a white mob but from young black "gangbangers" who were terrorizing his suburban Chicago neighborhood.
Thomas agreed with McDonald, concluding that owning a gun is a fundamental part of a package of hard-won rights guaranteed to black people under the 14th Amendment. And just because some hooligans in Chicago or D.C. misuse firearms is no reason to give it up.
"In my view, the record makes plain that the Framers of the Privileges or Immunities Clause and the ratifying-era public understood -- just as the Framers of the Second Amendment did -- that the right to keep and bear arms was essential to the preservation of liberty," Thomas wrote. "The record makes equally plain that they deemed this right necessary to include in the minimum baseline of federal rights that the Privileges or Immunities Clause established in the wake of the War over slavery."
Thomas made no mention of the black loss of life and liberty from handguns being wielded by other blacks. But he has made clear on other occasions that the problem is not that there are too many guns in the black community; the problem is too many criminals.He dismissed the cogent gun-control arguments of his retiring colleague, John Paul Stevens, conjuring up the abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens instead: "When it was first proposed to free the slaves and arm the blacks, did not half the nation tremble?" Let 'em quake, Thomas appears to be saying.
From Frederick Douglass, Thomas writes: " 'The black man has never had the right either to keep or bear arms,' and that, until he does, 'the work of the Abolitionists was not finished.' " Because of his conservative take on affirmative action and prisoners' rights, he has been cast as an uncouth African American who didn't understand black history, a dupe for arch conservative Justice Antonin Scalia and a man who couldn't think for himself.
What Thomas has created, however, is a legal defense of the Second Amendment so thoroughly original and starkly race-based that none of the white justices would even acknowledge it, as if it were some blank sheet crafted by an invisible man. That ought to be a clue enough for black people that this document is at least worth a look. You may not agree with his conclusion, but there'll be no mistake about where he's coming from.
The thing that most nourishes my soul is tending our beautiful grounds. Whether I am raking leaves, weeding, pruning or planting I feel most close to God when I am outdoors listening to the birds, breathing in the fresh air, and getting covered with dirt.
- Mary Fleig, Carmelite News, Vol.17, No.2 (July-Sept 2010)
www.baltimorecarmel.org
- Mary Fleig, Carmelite News, Vol.17, No.2 (July-Sept 2010)
www.baltimorecarmel.org
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
A PELICAN BRIEF
So, I keep seeing these full page ads bp keeps running in the newspapers. This publicity money could have been given directly to some of the Gulf fishermen. It seems like such a waste. The latest ads features Keith Seilhan. Yes, this guy is from Louisiana - where else? It reminds me of how under apartheid, the South African government would look for some black people to make them seem legit.
Hey - bp says if you see oil on the beach call this number: 1-866-448-5816. They will send a team to clean it up. How much oil must you see? Bp says they will maintain beach cleanup operations until the last of the oil has been "skimmed from the sea, the beaches and estuaries have been cleaned up, and the region has been pronounced oil-free."
Is oil-free like drug free? After all the skimming can bp promise that fish and plant life will return? No- they can't and this is where one should become angry. Too many dead turtles and pelicans without cell phones to call 1-866-448-5816.
So, I keep seeing these full page ads bp keeps running in the newspapers. This publicity money could have been given directly to some of the Gulf fishermen. It seems like such a waste. The latest ads features Keith Seilhan. Yes, this guy is from Louisiana - where else? It reminds me of how under apartheid, the South African government would look for some black people to make them seem legit.
Hey - bp says if you see oil on the beach call this number: 1-866-448-5816. They will send a team to clean it up. How much oil must you see? Bp says they will maintain beach cleanup operations until the last of the oil has been "skimmed from the sea, the beaches and estuaries have been cleaned up, and the region has been pronounced oil-free."
Is oil-free like drug free? After all the skimming can bp promise that fish and plant life will return? No- they can't and this is where one should become angry. Too many dead turtles and pelicans without cell phones to call 1-866-448-5816.
Nadia Hijab is an independent analyst and a senior fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies. These columns were syndicated on 18 and 21 June 2010 by Agence Global. The opinions in these pieces are her own. The columns may be circulated on listservs but may not be republished without permission from Agence Global. For contact information regarding rights and permissions see below.A Better Blockade?
After locking itself up for hours on end, Israel's security cabinet finally emerged to announce an easing of its blockade on Gaza, a move immediately welcomed by the United States. Israel and the U.S. hope to defuse world outrage over the collective punishment of the 1.5 million Palestinians who live there and to prevent future flotillas from trying to break the siege.
Will they succeed? It is tempting to think that the flagrant illegality of attacking unarmed humanitarians on the open seas is bound to lead to an end to the blockade. However, Palestinian analyst Mouin Rabbani has warned against over-optimism. He notes that after the horror of Israel's 2008-9 attacks on Gaza the blockade was not only kept in place; it was tightened.
Yet America and Israel are fighting a losing battle in their efforts to devise a kinder, gentler blockade for the simple reason that there is no such thing. Activists, the United Nations, and the human rights community are saying more loudly than ever that the blockade is against the law -- international law.
Activists appear to have the upper hand at the moment, as more ships head to Gaza to try to break Israel's naval blockade. And they are being organized not only by groups in Iran, Lebanon and Turkey; European Jews for a Just Peace are also organizing a flotilla.
EJJP, an umbrella group of Jewish groups from 10 European countries, plans to deliver humanitarian aid but its purpose is primarily political. The activists want to focus attention on the "immoral" blockade. And, German organizer Edith Lutz told The Huffington Post, "We are frightened that Israeli policies will help anti-Semitism. We also want to show that these actions are not Jewish.
Meanwhile, UN organizations have lined up in the past few weeks to counter Israeli claims that there is no "humanitarian crisis." The World Health Organization has warned that the health system is on the verge of collapse. The UN's Humanitarian Coordinator in the occupied Palestinian territory has said that Gaza's agricultural sector is suffocating, noting that the "absurdity" of a situation in which Gaza's coastal population is forced to import fish through tunnels. And the UN Secretary General repeatedly says that the blockade must be completely lifted.
The most damning report in recent weeks has perhaps been that of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The ICRC rarely speaks out, but it has clearly stated that the closure constitutes collective punishment in clear violation of Israel's obligations under international humanitarian law. And, should anyone need affirmation that there is no such thing as a better blockade, the ICRC says the hardship facing Gaza's Palestinians cannot be addressed by providing more humanitarian aid: "The only sustainable solution is to lift the closure."
The way Israel plans to ease the blockade gets nowhere near lifting the closure. For example, all food will be allowed in -- but not materials that will enable Palestinians to grow their own food. And Israel's "security envelope" will remain in place, including the naval blockade.
Why is Israel so eager to maintain its siege when even Israeli strategists are saying that its purpose -- to dislodge or weaken Hamas and its resistance -- has not and cannot be achieved?
There are persistent reports that a major Israeli reason could be access to and control of Gaza's gas fields, valued at some $4 billion. Such reports might sound hard to believe -- until one considers that Israel has been tapping the West Bank's water for decades and that the illegal Wall it is building in the West Bank conveniently encircles the Palestinians' strategic aquifers. Writing about the Gaza gas deals in the Guardian in 2007, Arthur Neslen notes that Hamas has persistently called for the renegotiation of the contract negotiated with BG Group.
Meanwhile, human rights activists are turning to the courts -- a move that may at last grab Israel's attention. The Free Gaza Movement, organizers of the flotilla Israel attacked on May 31, is currently working with attorneys in a number of countries to pursue legal action on behalf of those killed or badly injured.
Here's a question: Since the blockade is illegal under international law, could the Palestinians of Gaza organize some kind of class action suit against Israel and seek compensation for the agonies they have suffered since 2006? For all those dead due to lack of access to care? The children stunted due to malnourishment? The school years lost, the crops and land and infrastructure destroyed. The list is long, but it is long past time to total up and claim the costs of Israel's occupation.
AND I THINK IT'S GOING TO RAIN TODAY...
Tuesday. I leave my house and start walking to the bus stop. I stop and talk to a neighbor who is going through a divorce. His wife wants the house. It's ugly and I try to change the subject and talk about his upcoming hernia operation. I walk another block and the woman from Cuba I always say hello to is outside watering her plants. She's upset that everything is dying. I look at her and see her beauty fading. I tell her it's hot and notice her grass is already brown. I turn off Underwood Street, and start walking on Georgia Avenue. A woman stops me and wants to use my cell phone. She has a court date and is late. I never let strangers use my phone. Somewhere in the back of my head is a Jack Bauer incident and this woman could be a terrorist or a spy from Russia. No, she's a black woman who looks like she has a drug problem. If this was the Third World and I was a soldier, she would offer me sex for a call. Sprint must have a better idea. The bus is late but who cares. Many of us were on it yesterday, we're heading back to work for seconds. A guy sitting in the back of the bus says he saw my picture in the latest issue of Ebony. I smile and hide my face behind the Washington Post Sports section. The Nationals lost again. I'm having problems scoring runs too. I get off at the Howard stop and cross the street to the The Capstone or what people started calling The Mecca. I enter the back of the Administration building and suddenly have the urge to pee. I stop on the ground floor where the men's restroom is. Once again the paper towel dispenser isn't working. I emerge from the ground floor like a character out of an Ellison novel. As I start to walk across the main campus, I see a whole bunch of young people. It must be one of those summer programs where lunch is the only thing kids learn. Is this the Mayor's program or some youth group with an African name? I walk pass the first kid - and he asks me if I have fifty cents. It's obvious these kids haven't been paid for doing nothing yet. I walk into Founders Library and nod at the guard. The air inside the building is nice and cool, suddenly I have the urge to be a book no one will checkout. I think about the elevator that isn't working again. I'm out of prayers and it's only 9AM.
Someone tell me which way is East.
Tuesday. I leave my house and start walking to the bus stop. I stop and talk to a neighbor who is going through a divorce. His wife wants the house. It's ugly and I try to change the subject and talk about his upcoming hernia operation. I walk another block and the woman from Cuba I always say hello to is outside watering her plants. She's upset that everything is dying. I look at her and see her beauty fading. I tell her it's hot and notice her grass is already brown. I turn off Underwood Street, and start walking on Georgia Avenue. A woman stops me and wants to use my cell phone. She has a court date and is late. I never let strangers use my phone. Somewhere in the back of my head is a Jack Bauer incident and this woman could be a terrorist or a spy from Russia. No, she's a black woman who looks like she has a drug problem. If this was the Third World and I was a soldier, she would offer me sex for a call. Sprint must have a better idea. The bus is late but who cares. Many of us were on it yesterday, we're heading back to work for seconds. A guy sitting in the back of the bus says he saw my picture in the latest issue of Ebony. I smile and hide my face behind the Washington Post Sports section. The Nationals lost again. I'm having problems scoring runs too. I get off at the Howard stop and cross the street to the The Capstone or what people started calling The Mecca. I enter the back of the Administration building and suddenly have the urge to pee. I stop on the ground floor where the men's restroom is. Once again the paper towel dispenser isn't working. I emerge from the ground floor like a character out of an Ellison novel. As I start to walk across the main campus, I see a whole bunch of young people. It must be one of those summer programs where lunch is the only thing kids learn. Is this the Mayor's program or some youth group with an African name? I walk pass the first kid - and he asks me if I have fifty cents. It's obvious these kids haven't been paid for doing nothing yet. I walk into Founders Library and nod at the guard. The air inside the building is nice and cool, suddenly I have the urge to be a book no one will checkout. I think about the elevator that isn't working again. I'm out of prayers and it's only 9AM.
Someone tell me which way is East.
Monday, June 28, 2010
THE E MAG
Treve de blues
-Leon Damas
Compassion is my art
- Grace A. Ali
God makes stars. It's up to producers to find them
- Samuel Goldwyn
My guest is Alyssa McLendon. Ms. McLendon is a Howard University student spending the summer in the Dominican Republic.
McLendon:
Treve de blues
-Leon Damas
Compassion is my art
- Grace A. Ali
God makes stars. It's up to producers to find them
- Samuel Goldwyn
My guest is Alyssa McLendon. Ms. McLendon is a Howard University student spending the summer in the Dominican Republic.
McLendon:
When we arrived at the island, butterflies greeted us. They swarmed around us like snow in a winter blizzard, o vast in numbers that they looked more like fallen leaves then butterflies. But the only trees around us were palm trees and we were far away from any winter storm. When I tell you that we went to paradise, I am not exaggerating.
My day started at 5:00 that Saturday morning as I woke up and began my day with my newly acquired routine Bible study. Every morning I have been waking up earlier to begin my day with prayer, and then I open my Bible and read and ask God to help me take away the message that He wants me to understand. That day I was reading the book of 1 John (which is one of my favorites because it is all about how God is love) and the verse 1 John 3:18 really stood out to me:
“… let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”
I immediately began to think of my friend, James*. He recently told me that he discovered his parents are separated and are considering a divorce. James is a student in the DR program with me, and he feels lost. He never would have imagined in a million years that his parents would divorce and here he is in the DR, helpless to do anything about the situation. “All I want to do is go home,” he told me with a voice that sounded like a sigh full of a heavy longing for comfort as his eyes slid past mine, drifting away into his own thoughts.
With this memory in my mind, I flipped the page in my notebook, picked up my pen, and began to write James a letter. Today we were all going on an excursion to Isla Saona and I wanted him to enjoy himself and not worry about situations that were out of his control. So I did the one thing that I do best. I wrote.
I arrived to campus around 7 am and quickly claimed my seat on the bus for the 2 hour ride to the island. I slipped James the letter that I wrote which included Bible verses about the love God has for him, how things will all work out for the best, and how if he ever needed to talk I was here for him. A couple minutes later I was captured into his warm embrace and he thanked me sincerely saying how at the exact moment I gave him the letter, he was beginning to feel sad and was thinking about his parents. God is good.
Two hours later, we were taking a motor boat out to the island. With our bright orange life jackets on, we screamed and laughed in excitement while riding over the clearest ocean water I have ever seen. It was light blue and turquoise, sparkling under the sun like a sea of gems. We couldn’t have picked a more beautiful day. The clouds in the sky were white, fluffy and shapely, placed specifically to decorate the sky like jewelry adorns the body.
The motor boat stopped halfway to the island where the water was shallow and we were told to jump out of the boat and take a moment to swim. So we did. We took off our life jackets, striped down to our bathing suits, and jumped into the Caribbean Sea. It was amazing! The water was as clear as a sanitized swimming pool and was only about 4 and a half feet high, so it stopped at my chest. The salt in the ocean burned our eyes, but we were so ecstatic that we didn’t mind. I felt like I was in a dream, the beauty of this place was surreal. And just to add the Dominican feel to this moment, I have to mention that one of the boat drivers brought out a bottle of Rum and was pouring plastic glasses full so half of the students on my trip were sipping rum in the middle of the Caribbean at 11 am. Like I said, surreal.
We got back on the motor boat and about 15 minutes later we arrived to Isla Saona (Saona Island) which is a tiny, remote island off the Dominican Republic’s coast and that is sometimes used to film movies that need a “deserted island” setting. It looked like an advertisement for heaven. Soft, white sand, crystal clear water, palm trees surrounded by butterflies; I felt like I was in a postcard. The beauty of Isla Saona was unbelievable.
The only thing on the island that we saw other than its own nature were beach chairs, a volleyball net, and two picnic covering areas. Under one covering people were dancing salsa, bachata, and merrengue, and under the other was food. There weren’t any hotels, no roads, no pollution, just pure beauty. There weren’t even that many tourists. There were about 100 people that we saw on the island in total but we had our own strip of the beach to ourselves including an open bar with as much rum and beer as you want. I spent the day in the water soaking up a golden tan while delighting in God’s majesty.
I could have stayed there forever, just me, the sun, the beach, and the butterflies.
While my friend, Arcena, and I were playing in the water, a man joined us. He had brown hair with blue swimming trunks and shades on his face and started a conversation with us in Spanish. We found out he was an Argentinean on vacation. We then proceeded to have a full conversation in Spanish! The conversation flowed so naturally that I forgot I was speaking Spanish. A couple other tourists from Brazil joined our conversation except they spoke Portuguese. I spoke to them in Spanish since it is similar and they were amazed when I later told them that I was actually an American and my primary language is English. So here I was, in the Caribbean ocean off the coast of the Dominican Republic having a conversation in Spanish with a man from Argentina and a Brazilian who spoke Portuguese. I still can’t believe it.
As the day progressed, the other students in my program quickly became drunker and drunker from the free rum and soon became very entertaining to watch. A couple of them were sprawled out on the shore, passed out from too many shots of the cheap rum. One girl was crying on her beach chair and speaking nonstop slurred Spanish while proclaiming how beautiful the island was, it was quite sad and yet hilarious at the same time.
I didn’t want to leave, but soon it was time to get on the boat to go back to our foreign homes. So I waved goodbye to my isla de paraiso from the sail boat we were taking back to the bus. I discovered on this sail boat (my first time ever on a sail boat) that I am susceptible to seasickness and that I prefer to swim in water rather than ride on top of it for too long.
The excursion to Isla Saona made me happy to be doing this program again. My homesickness was an inevitable phase, but now I’m ready and excited to continue my studies and finish off my program strongly. That one day made everything I’ve experienced thus far worth it. I’m learning to do everything that I wanted; to love others, to grow closer to God, and to speak Spanish. Isla Saona helped show me that I am maturing into the person I’m supposed to be. It was a little piece of heaven that God left here on earth, and there, on that beautiful, glorious Saturday, the butterflies carried a glimpse of the blessings that await me on their wings.
-The Girl with the Monkey Mind
SUMMER 2010 SCHEDULE
WRITERS ON WRITING ON WNYE, 91.5 FM
SUNDAYS, 7:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Hosted by Dr. Brenda M. Greene, Executive Director
Center for Black Literature
As I move towards being 60 in November (20th), I will post more E-Notes on retirement and health. Here is an important link:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/The-Number-One-Obstacle-to-usnews-741976544.html?x=0
birthday.
May we all continue to walk in the light and embrace all that is YES in the world.
May the boats be ready to take us across when we are ready to meet Lucille again.
May the living know the secret to the blessing, is understanding the words spoken by the lips of the heart.
Tricycle Daily Dharma
I think one has to be careful not to think that meditation is about getting rid of thoughts. On the contrary, I would say that meditation helps us to creatively engage with our thoughts and not fixate on them. When people say they cannot concentrate I say “No no no, you are concentrating—too much on single thoughts!”
I think it is interesting in meditation is to start to notice all the different places that our thoughts lead us—what distracts us and what occupies our minds. It is important to notice these things in meditation because these will be the same things that occupy our minds in daily life. As we become more familiar with our thoughts in meditation, we will see how repetitive they are. We often think very similar things over and over again and it is actually rare to have what I would call a creative original thought.
Martine Batchelor, from the 3rd talk of her ongoing Tricycle Online Retreat
Creatively Engage Your Thoughts
I think it is interesting in meditation is to start to notice all the different places that our thoughts lead us—what distracts us and what occupies our minds. It is important to notice these things in meditation because these will be the same things that occupy our minds in daily life. As we become more familiar with our thoughts in meditation, we will see how repetitive they are. We often think very similar things over and over again and it is actually rare to have what I would call a creative original thought.
Martine Batchelor, from the 3rd talk of her ongoing Tricycle Online Retreat
Sunday, June 27, 2010
WHAT WOULD DuBOIS DO?
There I was yesterday watching the soccer game and having strong feelings for the US and Ghana. You want your own nation to advance, but then you listen to the folks describing the game from the sports booth. Once again black people are talked about like we just shouldn't be on the same field with others. Are we "smart" enough to play smart? So my blackness begins to takeover and I realize that Ghana is not just playing for an entire continent but also some of the blood that's inside me. Black people still struggle to win and even when we win too many wish we had lost. My soul is often too weary to even kick a ball.
There I was yesterday watching the soccer game and having strong feelings for the US and Ghana. You want your own nation to advance, but then you listen to the folks describing the game from the sports booth. Once again black people are talked about like we just shouldn't be on the same field with others. Are we "smart" enough to play smart? So my blackness begins to takeover and I realize that Ghana is not just playing for an entire continent but also some of the blood that's inside me. Black people still struggle to win and even when we win too many wish we had lost. My soul is often too weary to even kick a ball.
Morning Music:
Listening to Freddie Hubbard (Red Clay) and Muhal Richard Abrams (Young At Heart/Wise In Time).
I came home with a couple of films from the Takoma Park Library yesterday:
Music and Lyrics
Doomsday
Amreeka
The Lives of Others
Also two novels:
Exit Ghost by Philip Roth
Terrorist by John Updike
The Updike novel is proving to be an interesting read so far...
Listening to Freddie Hubbard (Red Clay) and Muhal Richard Abrams (Young At Heart/Wise In Time).
I came home with a couple of films from the Takoma Park Library yesterday:
Music and Lyrics
Doomsday
Amreeka
The Lives of Others
Also two novels:
Exit Ghost by Philip Roth
Terrorist by John Updike
The Updike novel is proving to be an interesting read so far...
 | |
| |
|
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Quote of the Day:
I believe today, under the circumstances that we're facing, that the majority of the illegal trespassers that are coming into the state of Arizona are under the direction and control of organized drug cartels and they are bringing drugs in.
- Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R)
With statements like the one above, it's obvious this woman is going to be considered for a slot on the national Republican ticket in 2012.
I believe today, under the circumstances that we're facing, that the majority of the illegal trespassers that are coming into the state of Arizona are under the direction and control of organized drug cartels and they are bringing drugs in.
- Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R)
With statements like the one above, it's obvious this woman is going to be considered for a slot on the national Republican ticket in 2012.
Quote of the Day:
And while, yes, a vast majority of all writers, regardless of skin color, are struggling to stay afloat, and there are more African American writers being published today than at any other time in history, one must still take note of exactly what is being published.
Mainstream publishing houses contort themselves to acquire books that glorify wanton sex, drugs and crime. This fiction, known as street-lit or hip hop fiction, most often reinforces the stereotypical trademarks African Americans have fought hard to overcome.
- Bernice L. McFadden, The Washington Post, June 26, 2010
And while, yes, a vast majority of all writers, regardless of skin color, are struggling to stay afloat, and there are more African American writers being published today than at any other time in history, one must still take note of exactly what is being published.
Mainstream publishing houses contort themselves to acquire books that glorify wanton sex, drugs and crime. This fiction, known as street-lit or hip hop fiction, most often reinforces the stereotypical trademarks African Americans have fought hard to overcome.
- Bernice L. McFadden, The Washington Post, June 26, 2010
OLD TIMES:
Late yesterday afternoon I met my friend Gregory Orfalea at Sala Thai on U Street. It was fun sitting down and talking about our lives, our children, our work. Greg is the author of a number of books, among them are THE ARAB AMERICANS: A HISTORY and a collection of personal essays, ANGELENO DAYS. Back in the 1980s we traveled together to Iraq, a memorable trip for both of us.
After food and conversation I gave Greg a copy of my memoir, THE 5TH INNING. He gave me two books. One was OBAMA'S FIRST 150 DAYS: PERSPECTIVES FROM AN ARAB AMERICAN WRITER. This is a publication of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University.
I read it last night and found it filled with insightful information regarding Israel and Palestine. Greg also includes an excellent analysis of Obama's 2009 Cairo speech. A must read.
The other book Greg gave me was a new collection of short stories, THE MAN WHO GUARDED THE BOMB. This is a Syracuse University Press book that is part of their Arab American Writing series.
After food and conversation I gave Greg a copy of my memoir, THE 5TH INNING. He gave me two books. One was OBAMA'S FIRST 150 DAYS: PERSPECTIVES FROM AN ARAB AMERICAN WRITER. This is a publication of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University.
I read it last night and found it filled with insightful information regarding Israel and Palestine. Greg also includes an excellent analysis of Obama's 2009 Cairo speech. A must read.
The other book Greg gave me was a new collection of short stories, THE MAN WHO GUARDED THE BOMB. This is a Syracuse University Press book that is part of their Arab American Writing series.
Friday, June 25, 2010
A POETRY ESSAY FROM GREGG MOSSON:
http://thepotomacjournal.com/issue10/ArticlesReviews/Gregg_Mosson.html
Idols of Crowds
The Gathering Storm.
Jean-François Revel was not referring to the United States when he wrote those words, nor to his own France, but to human beings in general. He was certainly not referring to Barack Obama, whom he probably never heard of, since Revel died last year.
To find anything comparable to crowds’ euphoric reactions to Obama, you would have to go back to old newsreels of German crowds in the 1930s, with their adulation of their fuehrer, Adolf Hitler. With hindsight, we can look back on those people with pity, knowing now how many of them would be led to their deaths by the man they idolized.
The exultation of the moment can exact a brutal price after that moment has passed. Nowhere is that truer than when it comes to picking the leader of a nation, which means entrusting that leader with the fate of millions today and of generations yet unborn.
A leader does not have to be evil to lead a country into a catastrophe. Inexperience and incompetence can create very similar results, perhaps even faster in a nuclear age, when even “a small country” — as Senator Obama called Iran — can wreak havoc anywhere in the world, when they are led by suicidal fanatics and supply nuclear weapons to terrorists who are likewise suicidal fanatics.
Barack Obama is truly a phenomenon of our time — a presidential candidate who cannot cite a single serious accomplishment in his entire career, besides advancing his own career with rhetoric.
He has a rhetorical answer for everything. Those of us who talk about the threat of Iran are just engaging in “the politics of fear” according to Obama, something to distract us from “the real issues,” such as raising taxes and handing out largesse with the proceeds.
Those who have studied the years leading up to World War II have been astonished by how many people and how many countries failed to see what Adolf Hitler was getting ready to do.
Even though Hitler telegraphed his punches, few people seemed to get the message. Books about that period have had such titles as “The Gathering Storm” and “Why England Slept.”
Will future generations wonder why we slept? Why we could not see the gathering storm in Iran, where one of the world’s leading oil producers is building nuclear facilities — ostensibly to generate electricity, but whose obvious purpose is to produce nuclear bombs.
This is a country whose president has already threatened to wipe a neighboring country off the map. Does anyone need to draw pictures?
When terrorists get nuclear weapons, there will be no way to deter suicide bombers. We and our children will be permanently at the mercy of the merciless.
Yet what are we talking about? Taxing and spending policies, socking it to the oil companies and rescuing people who gambled on risky mortgages and lost.
Are we serious? Are we incapable of adult foresight and adult responsibility?
Barack Obama of course has his usual answer: talk. Rhetoric seems to be his answer to everything. Obama calls for “aggressive” diplomacy and “tough” negotiations with Iran.
These colorful adjectives may impress gullible voters but they are unlikely to impress fanatics who are willing to destroy themselves if they can destroy us in the process.
Just what is Senator Obama going to say to Iran that has not been said already? That we don’t want them to develop nuclear weapons? That has already been said, every way that it can possibly be said. If talk was going to do the job, it would already have done it by now.
Go to the United Nations? What will they do, except issue warnings — and when these are ignored, issue more warnings?
But what does Obama have besides talk — and adoring crowds?
— Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.
© 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
I ran into Roy Lewis this afternoon on the Howard campus. He gave me information about his upcoming photo exhibit (see below). I asked him about where his photographic work was going to be housed after we have all departed. This is a serious topic that we all need to be discussing. Some of the existing black cultural institutions lack budget and staff to maintain collections. Then there is the issue of access, control and ownership.Everyday, as a literary activist I'm making decisions that might help a scholar in the future. Roy has been looking at the black community through a lens for many years. He's 73 today. One thing Roy keeps telling people is that artists have to be paid. Folks will smile for you but then they want the picture for free. Go figure - rent is due.
Everywhere with Roy Lewis
July 9th Opening (5PM-8PM) - September 30, 2010
Prince George's African American Museum & Cultural Center
3901 Rhode Island Ave
Brentwood, MD. 20722
Thursday, June 24, 2010
WILL COTTON BE NEXT?
| ||
Of Shrines, Talking Drums & Religious Chants: SanterÃa in D.C.  José Sueiro, Eloy Hernández, James Early, Michael Mason, Elaine Peña, René López and Oscar Rousseaux share memories, insights and performances recalling stories of the small Afro-Cuban community who transplanted this religious tradition to Washington, D.C. Saturday, June 26 from 3:00 - 5 p.m. FREE! GALA Theatre 3333 14th St. NW This program is part of the Latino DC History Project, an initiative of the Smithsonian Latino Center and is made possible by a grant from the Humanities Council of Washington, DC. |
