the evil festers

the movie

I just watched the movie by Robert Greenwald Uncovered: The War on Iraq. It was a shock to again see the “leaders” of the country – somehow I’d blocked them from my mind visually. This movie is an important reminder of how immoral, yes, how evil these people were, and are. I have thought all along, but am reminded again, that we must not move on from this horror until we have come to terms with it. If we leave it in the past, it is a wound that will continue to fester, until it erupts again and causes more incalculable harm to our country and to the world. They all lied to us, on purpose. It is so easy to see in their faces that they were lying, and so hard to accept that anyone then or now believes them. Let me say it clearly: George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condolezza Rice, and Colin Powell are criminals. They lied to the American people in order to accomplish other objectives of power and wealth. They must be brought to justice. Their intricate deceptions must be exposed. If we do not do that, it will all be repeated again, by another set of people in another time. And we will again wonder how we let it happen.

This is not about politics, and there was certainly enough blame on the Democrats for going along with it, even becoming cheerleaders. This is about morality and law. These people were, and are, immoral. No religion that is honest with its values could see what happened as anything other than an absolute betrayal of those values. These people were and are criminals. They broke the laws of the United States, again and again and again, and the laws of the world. And they are traitors. They betrayed our country, they betrayed our soldiers, and they betrayed the world.

The last few months I have been wondering why the Republicans and the right wing fringe have been lying so profusely about global climate change and about health care. Now I see the light. They got away with it before, in Iraq, and there were no real consequences. They are using what works. And it works because we, all of us, have let them get away with it. We must not “move forward.” We must go back, identify and clean out the infection, discard the diseased material into a biohazard container (jail), and let the wound start to heal. It will take time, as it is a deep wound. But if we do not clean it, if we ignore it and hope that it will go away, the infection will spread, and it will kill us.

Danceable Feast contra dance weekend

 

 

Wild Asparagus, in concert

I just had a wonderful time at the Danceable Feast contra dance weekend near Eugene, Oregon, November 13 to 15, 2009. This was the tenth year of the weekend, though the first year I’ve been, and I think the first year I was even aware of it. It is sponsored by the Eugene dance community.

 

Wild Asparagus was the band, with their driving dance music that is impossible to stand still to. Wild Asparagus was the band at Dance Awakening in 1997, the first contra dance band that absolutely gripped me. Listening to David Cantieni’s bombard this weekend, I came up with the thought that bombards can resurrect dead people, get them up and dancing, and maybe there was a bombard player at Jesus’s grave. George Marshall was the caller, and he is also part of the band. I bought their brand new “Live at the Guiding Star Grange” double CD (not yet available except in person), and listened to it on the southbound train last night. Back in the feeling so easily!

 

the blur is due to lack of flash on my iPhone, but it does capture the feeling

The other part of the dance weekend was The S Curves and swing dancing. The food, prepared by Annie and her crew was great. I chuckle when seeing vegan – vegetarian – gluten free – dairy – no dairy permutations of the dishes, when in Nevada I still usually get “vegetarian? what’s that?”

 

Most of the attendees were northwest people, but there was a strong California contingent as well. No other Nevadans, though. I especially enjoyed dancing with Jacque and Denise, but all the dancers were competent to spectacular.

 

Ethiopian food

I love Ethiopian food, the tastes, the things it is made out of, the tradition of eating with injera rather than utensils. Recent I managed to eat two Ethiopian restaurants: Queen Sheba, in Sacramento at 1704 Broadway, and Merkato Ethiopian Cafe, in Las Vegas at 855 E Twain. Both were great. There is an Ethiopian restaurant in Reno, but I haven’t gotten there yet. Ironic that I’ve been to more distant ones before the close one.

Weekend in Las Vegas

Lily

I spent last weekend in Las Vegas, visited with friends Mike Pearson, Marc Pitchford, and Donna McKay, and spent time with my family (mom Ruth, sister Jane, John, Allison, Vincent and Lily). All are doing well. Of course the most enjoyable time is with my grand niece Lily. It is strange to go from Carson City where it is late fall to Las Vegas where it is still late summer, with 20 degrees Fahrenheit higher temperatures. I visit Las Vegas about every six to eight weeks. It is always a culture shock, I will never get used to Las Vegas even though I grew up there, but at the same time it is always great to see family and friends.

Granite Chief backpack

Lady Fern with fall color

I had a great three day backpack trip in the Granite Chief Wilderness, enjoying fall colors and doing some exploring of abandoned trails.

Check out my trip report on Granite Chief blog at http://granitechief.wordpress.com/2009/09/27/powderhorn-2009-09-23/

Fall Equinox

Today is fall (autumnal) equinox, the day on which night and day are of equal lengths, one of the quarter-days of the year. Of course the seasons trail the official days as the earth heats up and cools down more slowly, and so the beginning of fall is often celebrated by the cross-quarter day Samhain in the celtic/gaelic calendar, which evolved into Halloween in our current calendar, October 31. I notice that days are still summer-like, but mornings are fall-like. Though my tomatoes are still producing, the vines are looking a little wilted. Last Wednesday when I headed up to Incline Village, some of the aspen trees were turning and there was a yellowish cast to all the vegetation. It is a good day to stop and reflect on the year, as are all the seasonal dates of the year.

Dance Awakening

Dan & Teralyn Dancing

Dance Awakening at Harbin Hot Springs is one of the greatest contra dance camps around. The story of the dance is: dance, soak, eat, hike, and repeat as needed. The place is wonderful, the staff (musicians and callers) are wonderful, the dance organizers (Kelli and Shane Butler) are wonderful, and the dancers are just a whole lot of fun. The dance staff this year was caller Rick Mohr and The Figments, Anna Patton, Will Patton, Ethan Hazzard-Watkins, and Owen Morrison. The catered food is great. The hot springs are in a canyon in the coast range, between Clear Lake and Napa Valley, with a system of trails up to and along the ridges.

Education Ideas

As a substitute teacher, I get a chance to see more classrooms than regular teachers do, and in most cases more than administrators do. I see what works, and what doesn’t, and I have strong feelings about schools and teaching. I believe that John Dewey laid out much of what we need to know about education over 100 years ago, but our schools systems have largely gone off the path he illuminated. He believed that a major purpose of schools was to produce good citizens, and that students developed citizenship skills by experiencing and practicing those skills rather than ingesting pre-determined knowledge.

Safe Routes to School Coordinator

And for yet another hat to wear, I’m the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Coordinator for Carson City School District for the 2008-2009 school year. I’m actually contracting with Sierra Nevada Journeys for the work. Three schools received grants for engineering, education, encouragment, enforcement and evaluation (the 5Es) – Seeliger ES, Fremont ES, and Bordewich Bray ES, so those are the schools that I’ll be primarily working with, but to a lesser degree the other three elementary schools and the two middle schools. SRTS is a program that encourages kids to walk and bike to school, and to identify concerns of parents that prevent kids from walking and biking to school and to solve those concerns. I’ve created a website to keep track of the program at http://srts.raincloudpub.com/.

A summer of backpacking

the gorge on Five Lakes Creek

I’ve spent most of this summer backpacking, and that mostly in the Granite Chief Wilderness. It is my current favorite place in the world. As the fall comes, I’m broke and happy. As a result of spending so much time in the Granite Chief, I decide to start a website and blog on the wilderness, at http://granitechief.org/ and http://granitechief.wordpress.com/, respectively. I noticed as I tried to find out more about the wilderness that there isn’t nearly as much information as for many wilderness areas. There is no official wilderness map, no official guidebook, and no extensive sources on the Internet. This is the first summer since I was a wilderness ranger in the Gila (1983-84) that I’ve had so many nights out.

I’ve also been working on some environmental education projects, helping to plan the Tahoe Watershed Tours that occurred in August and now working on the Tahoe Environmental Literacy Summit that will occur October 11.

With the school year started again, I’m substitute teaching a little, but that starts off slow as teachers are reluctant to miss days early in the year.

This last week, after a three day backpack trip in the Granite Chief that finished off my exploration of all the trails, I attended the Echo Summit Dance Weekend at Camp Sacramento. Two days of contra dancing, incredible music and strong calling, wonderful people from all over California and beyond. Ahh!