MONDAY BOOK

This Cold Heaven

After a brief hiatus having truckloads of fun reading Dylan’s “Chronicles: Volume I”, I’ve returned to following the trail of the amazing writer, Gretel Ehrlich, as she travels from Qaanaaq to Siorapaluk, northernmost settlement in the world, back in 1997.

Here are a few paragraphs from that journey:

Jens described a hunter’s year: “In spring we hunt walrus and the seals that are lying out on the ice. In summer we hunt mostly narwhal and bearded seal between ice floes using kayaks. In autumn we start to catch seals again and when the new ice comes, that is the best time for hunting walrus. In winter, the dark time, we catch seals under the ice using nets. Before there were shops, we followed the animals. Now it’s started to be modern so with my children and grandchildren, I try to get them to travel around with me so they know the life. Before, there was hunting together with your wife. Now, my wife has to work in town to pay the bills. We both hate that. Farther south in Danish Greenland, hunters are beginning to move into being fishermen. I think it’s going to start up here too, which will be bad for the animals and the people too. It means they are dependent on the Danish-owned fish factories to buy their fish. That’s how life gets its burdens and becomes broken. Can you see that? Then, pretty soon, no one remembers how to live the other way. Everyone is trying to survive. When the traditional guys found out that the fishermen were making lots more money, they stopped talking to each other. The old people say that before outboard engines there were many more animals. But we don’t fish here in the summer. There are a few boats but if you see a whale – they breed and calve here – then you have to turn the engine off. It’s only here in the northern part of Greenland that we are living with the old style, hunting narwhal and walrus with harpoons. If you look at Canada, you can see how fast the old ways can disappear. They shoot whales and walrus and use a hook. And they don’t use dogs anymore. They go everywhere by snowmobile. So you see, everything is lost for them.”

This was 8 years ago. Wonder how much more of the old life is gone by now. Read a little more about Qaanaaq here and see more photos here.

Deep Thought: “In the first castles, I bet a common mistake was putting the torture room next to the master bedroom. Boy, you’re just not going to get the good sleep that way.”
Today I am grateful for: Shampoo
Guess the Movie: “There are some who feel like that if they attack us that we may decide to leave prematurely. They don’t understand what they are talking about if that’s the case. Let me finish. There are some who feel like that the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is bring them on.” Answer: Fahrenheit 9/11. Winner: soonaquitter.
A ‘Stop-Dean’ Effort Arises at DNC Forum
Stakes High as Party Seeks New Chairman
by Nina Easton
NEW YORK — A replay of the 2004 Iowa caucuses unfolded in New York this weekend at a meeting to preview candidates to lead the Democratic Party; six men appealed to voters in an attempt to bend or to bypass the seemingly unstoppable juggernaut of support behind a Green Mountain doctor named Howard Dean.
Dean, the former Vermont governor and presidential primary candidate, seems to lead the pack in a fierce race to chair the Democratic National Committee. The job’s top responsibility: to lead the party out of its postelection doldrums. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 7:45 pm
+ = Made headway on plan for my granddaughter’s birthday this Saturday.
- = More tired than usual.

PEOPLE WHO KNOCK ME OUT
(See sidebar for others)

Quakers

Consider the case of private first class Jeremy Hinzman. Only one of a growing number of conscientious objectors to the ruthless war in Iraq, he had already served in Afghanistan when he began to attend Quaker meetings and felt that he could not go with his unit to Iraq when it was deployed there. Today he is fighting his case in Canada.

Years ago, my first awareness of the Quaker religion was the movie Friendly Persuasion. My family was not religious and I knew no Quakers in my personal life. Still don’t. A few years ago I went to what I thought would be a Quaker service, but I think it was actually more of a business meeting that I wandered into and I heard a little too much of what sounded like traditional Christianity to go back. Nevertheless, I decided this morning to read up and pass on a brief overview of this group.

Actually, the official name is The Religious Society of Friends. Consider another young man: George Fox. The name Quaker originated when he, as the society’s founder, told a judge he was facing in court to “tremble at the word of the Lord,” whereupon the judge called him a “quaker” and the name stuck. Fox (1624-1691) left home at 19 in England on a four-year search for answers to his own spiritual questions. He came to believe in an “inner voice” and that the spirit of God is within each person’s soul. Therefore, no priests or churches are necessary, all persons are of equal worth, and there is no need for elaborate religious ceremony. He taught his followers to worship in silence and to speak only if moved by this spirit at their meetings. He promoted simple living and prohibition of alcohol. They referred to themselves as “friends of truth” and so became known as Friends. They were, of course, widely persecuted in England in the 17th century.

They were also persecuted when they came to America but found a sanctuary in Rhode Island colony, where William Penn, a Quaker, played a major role in founding the colonies of West Jersey and Pennsylvania. They were the first to protest slavery in this country. During the Revolutionary War they were again persecuted for refusing to fight or pay military taxes. After the war, they played a major role in the “Underground Railroad.” Over the years, their beliefs began to split into different groups until in the 20th century they became four different groups: Hicksites, Gurneyites, Wilburites, and Orthodox. World War II was a crisis for them because there was such a nationalistic fervor. Many joined the Friends Ambulance Unit. All four branches of the church joined to form the American Friends Service Organization at this time, which allowed Quakers to help alleviate suffering while avoiding the draft. In 1947, they received the Nobel Peace Prize for their work. Today there are 125,000 members in North America. And today the American Friends Service Committee is still providing advice, support and counsel to those who wish to be classified conscientious objectors. They have called for immediate withdrawal of the troops. Visit them here.

Today the unreliable rightwing TV news is saying that all looks peachy-keen in Iraq for the elections. I’m not a Quaker nor will I likely become one, but I now know of one place to turn should the draft come for my son or my grandson. And for that, I am grateful.

Deep Thought: “If you ever crawl inside an old hollow log and go to sleep, and while you’re in there some guys some and seal up both ends and then put it on a truck and take it to another city, boy, I don’t know what to tell you.”
Today I am grateful for: Quiet neighbors
Guess the Movie: “What have I got to be worked up about? I’ve only got a stole horse; everybody except the Coast Guard is after me; I’ve got nothin’ but miles of open country to cross; and now I’m carrying a crazy woman around wearin’ shoes from Bloomingbirds who thinks she’s seen a rattlesnake round up.” Answer: The Electric Horseman.
Kucinich: Iraq Elections Will Be A Farce; Closest International Election Monitors Will Get Will Be Amman, Jordan
In Letter To Secretary of State Rice and Ambassador Negroponte; Kucinich Cites Lack Of International Monitors. (Rest of article here
End of Day: 8:37 pm
+ = Watching Metallica, Some Kind of Monster, and loving it.
- = The Iraq election news is so one-sided it’s making me sick.

SATURDAY POEM I ADMIRE
(See sidebar for others)

Mother Doesn’t Want a Dog

Mother doesn’t want a dog.
Mother says they smell,
And never sit when you say sit,
Or even when you yell.
And when you come home late at night
And there is ice and snow,
You have to go back out because
The dumb dog has to go.

Mother doesn’t want a dog.
Mother says they shed,
And always let the strangers in
And bark at friends instead,
And do disgraceful things on rugs,
And track mud on the floor,
And flop upon your bed at night
And snore their doggy snore.

Mother doesn’t want a dog.
She’s making a mistake.
Because, more than a dog, I think
She will not want this snake.

Judith Viorst is the author of eight collections of poetry and five books of prose, including the bestseller Necessary Losses.A graduate of the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute, she is the recipient of various awards for her journalism and psychological writings. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, political writer Milton Viorst. They have three sons.

Deep Thought: “I bet the sparrow looks at the parrot and thinks, yes, you can talk, but listen to yourself!”
Today I am grateful for: Finally finding a 5-cup coffeemaker
Guess the Movie: “ If you’ve ever seen the look on somebody’s face the day they finally get a job, I’ve had some experience with this, they look like they could fly. And its not about the paycheck, it’s about respect, it’s about looking in the mirror and knowing that you’ve done something valuable with your day. And if one person could start to feel this way, and then another person, and then another person, soon all these other problems may not seem so impossible. You don’t really know how much you can do until you stand up and decide to try.” Answer: Dave, 1993. Winner: thenarrator.
Resolution Urging Withdrawal of U.S. Troops from Iraq Set to Be Introduced in House of Representatives Today
WASHINGTON — January 26 — Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) plans to introduce a congressional resolution today in the U.S. House of Representatives calling on President Bush to begin the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 8:29 pm
+ = Finally some actual formal movement toward troop withdrawal.
- = Tired, tired, tired.

FRIDAY FIVE

1. Have you ever considered running away?
I did run away when I was about 7 or 8. I ran to the other end of my 100-acre farm in a fit of anger at my parents (or fear of being punished, I can’t remember which). I laid down on the grass there somewhere and stared at the sky for a long time. And then eventually I picked myself up and went home. I think about running away sometimes now because of accumulation of general tiny crappy details of life and/or the hideous state of affairs in the world. But then I think I would miss my family too much and really my little nest in the world is pretty comfortable most of the time – for now anyway.
2. If you ran away, where would you go?
Damn good question considering the violent climate of the planet. War/greed/power is like a plague that spreads out and infects everything it comes into contact with. And when the Big Bomb goes off – and they’re trying to make sure that it does, no place is going to be safe.
3. Who would miss you?
I don’t even want to speculate about that.
4. Do you speak a foreign language?
Haven’t had a chance to practice in years, but have studied Russian (4 years), German (2 years), Swedish (1 year), French (4 years), Spanish (1 year), and Hebrew (1 year). Just love words, I guess.
5. Do you have a passport?
Did. Don’t expect to ever have a current one again unless I win a lottery (which isn’t likely to happen because I never enter one).

Deep Thought: “If I could be any kind of dog, I think I’d be one of those little yappy dogs, because while you’re sitting there on the couch trying to sound real smart, I’m just yapping away. Just yappin’ and yappin’, and there’s nothing you can do about it, because I live here.”
Today I am grateful for: Barbara Boxer – only woman in the Senate who voted against both the war and the Rice confirmation
Guess the Movie: “”Which makes it ironic my favourite flower isn’t even indigenous to the British Isles, let alone Yorkshire. I don’t think there’s anything on this planet that more trumpets life than the sunflower. For me that’s because of the reason behind its name. Not because it looks like the sun but because it follows the sun. During the course of the day, the head tracks the journey of the sun across the sky. A satellite dish for sunshine. Wherever light is, no matter how weak, these flowers will find it. And that’s such an admirable thing. And such a lesson in life.” Answer: Calendar Girls, 2003.
Kennedy Calls for U.S. Withdrawal from Iraq
by Vicki Allen
WASHINGTON – The United States should start to withdraw militarily and politically from Iraq and aim to pull out all troops as early as possible next year, Sen. Edward Kennedy said on Thursday. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 9:03 pm
+ = Had an unexpected nice connect with an old friend today.
- = Ongoing insanity in Iraq.

Of those below, here are the ones who ALSO voted against the war in Iraq. In order from left to right: Akaka, Boxer, Byrd, Dayton, Durbin, Kennedy, Levin, Reed, Jeffords. Nine giants. Bow down.

THURSDAY WHATEVER

Just thought you might want to know exactly who voted against the confirmation of Rice:

Jack Reed, Rhode Island
Carl Levin, Michigan
Frank Lautenberg, New Jersey
Tom Harkin, Iowa
Richard Durbin, Illinois
Robert Byrd, West Virginia
Daniel Akaka, Hawaii
Evan Bayh, Indiana
Barbara Boxer, California
Mark Dayton, Minnesota
Ted Kennedy, Massachusetts
John Kerry, Massachusetts
Jim Jeffords, Vermont (Independent)

These are my heroes today and reason for us all to have hope. If they came from your state, hold your head up high.

Deep Thought: “The face of a child can say it all, especially the mouth part of the face.”
Today I am grateful for: Dissent
Guess the Movie: “Oh, do forgive me for scratching you, dear. I got a bit carried away. It’s a cat thing.” Answer: Babe, 1995. Winner: ydurp.
Rice Confirmed Despite Dems’ Criticisms
by Anne Gearan
WASHINGTON – Condoleezza Rice won confirmation as secretary of state Wednesday despite blistering criticism from Senate Democrats who accused her of misleading statements and said she must share the blame for mistakes and war deaths in Iraq. (Rest of article here
End of Day: 8:17 pm
+ = Went to an interesting lunch/talk/photography exhibit about the Black Panthers today at Reed College.
- = Felt like I was probably the only person in the room who was actually there in 1968 when all that was going down in the Bay Area.

Today is the last page of this chapter. Thanks for listening and making it safe. Roger over and out until the next one.
Chapter 8 – Flower Children (cont.)

By December we had moved into a small apartment on the third floor of an old building on the other side of the panhandle. It was during this winter that I decided to make a great effort to move out of the city. Over the next several months I ran an ad looking for someone to help me move to Marin County across the Golden Gate Bridge where I felt life would be safer. I found a young woman with a two-year-old boy and in April we moved to a big house in San Anselmo. For $225/month it had a converted garage which I chose as my space because of sliding glass doors that looked out on a small back yard. There was a large main floor with three bedrooms, living room, and kitchen, and a fourth large bedroom up a few stairs from the main floor. Before much time had passed we rented out the other bedrooms to members of a local rock band. They were a couple who had two young children and an interracial couple who were expecting a baby. And it was in the living room of this house that we all gathered on July 20, 1969, four days before I turned 30, to watch Neil Armstrong, having floated through the deep blue sky for a quarter of a million miles, step delicately onto the fine-grained soil of the moon.
Thirding my life, two births to the wind, the jib rolled in to keep the sails from flogging, the horizon still looks far enough away to put off landfall.

Deep Thought: “When I heard that trees grow a new “ring” for each year they live, I thought, we humans are kind of like that: we grow a new layer of skin each year, and after many years we are thick and unwieldy from all our skin layers. “
Today I am grateful for: Half-and-half
Guess the Movie: “I find the key is to think of a day as units of time, each unit consisting of no more than thirty minutes. Full hours can be a little bit intimidating and most activities take about half an hour. Taking a bath: one unit, watching countdown: one unit, web-based research: two units, exercising: three units, having my hair carefully disheveled: four units. It’s amazing how the day fills up, and I often wonder, to be absolutely honest, if I’d ever have time for a job; how do people cram them in?” Answer: About A Boy, 2002. Winner: here_at_home.
Things to Celebrate
by Joseph Miller
We need things to celebrate. A President and administration have been returned to office that are incredibly skillful in using spin, diversion, secrecy, intimidation, and dirty tricks to get what they want. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 8:37 pm
+ = So glad to be done with Chapter 8.
- = It turned out to be 10 pages instead of the standard 5!

Chapter 8 – Flower Children (cont.)
(See sidebar for previous chapter)

On May 9, 1968, Joshua weighed in at 10 pounds, 2 ounces after a short six-hour labor at Mt. Zion Hospital, and I brought him home to Downey Street. A month later, a woman friend and her little girl moved with me into a flat back in North Beach. I had called my parents in Oregon and told them they now had a grandson and that summer they flew down to meet him. They took it all really well but were understandably concerned. In August I had to move again with my two babies. I stayed briefly with an old friend and then in a flat near the Golden Gate Park panhandle with three other women who needed a roommate. The highlights of the two months spent there were attending an encounter group (all the rage that year) and having the stick shift stolen from my car. I came out to my VW bug one night, jumped in, reached for the shift and discovered there was just a hole in the floor. In the six months since Josh’s birth, Robert Kennedy had been assassinated, the Democratic National Convention saw violent clashes between protestors and the Chicago police, and Richard Nixon squeaked into the presidency. The Black Panther movement was in full swing and in Oakland Huey Newton was on trial as I turned 29 years old. The Vietnam War was just past dead center in its history and most of the young men I knew were desperately trying to find ways to avoid the draft, including Josh’s father. Through it all, I was so engrossed with motherhood that I floated at the rim of the hubbub like a tree at the edge of a wild bright forest.(to be continued tomorrow)

Deep Thought: “Maybe in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself. Mankind. Basically, it’s made up of two separate works-”mank” and “ind.” What do these words mean? It’s a mystery, and that’s why so is mankind.”
Today I am grateful for: All the years we had Johnny Carson
Guess the Movie: “How much do you actually know about your friend?” “I served under him. He was a good man.” “That’s what the neighbors always say about serial killers.” Answer: The Manchurian Candidate.
Iraq: Election Divides a Nation
by Dahr Jamail
BAGHDAD – The elections due Jan. 30 appear to have brought more chaos and division amongst Iraqis than unity and hope. And they have brought greater security fears.
U.S.-appointed prime minister Iyad Allawi acknowledged last week that full security will be impossible. This despite the rather draconian measures his interim government will have in place. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 8:34 pm
+ = Chapter 8 will be done tomorrow.
- = It was hard.

On request of thenarrator here is a little more detail about the meeting at the counter)
You see, that day “back at the ranch” on Downey Street some kid had arrived in some way I don’t even remember who was so stoned that those of us who were permanent inhabitants found it more of a nuisance than we could deal with and, after some seriously comical detective work, we discovered that he had a cohort who worked behind the counter at a little greasy spoon in the neighborhood. I was elected to make my way there and demand that this person come relieve us of our babysitting duties. It wasn’t anything like today, where you wouldn’t hang out in a diner in a big city alone without carrying mace (or at least a loud whistle) in your pocket just in case – or maybe I wasn’t anything like today. Well, that’s a given. At any rate, when my son’s future father sat down and chatted me up, I sized him up for safe, interesting, unattached, and a touch of spiritual and we traded whereabouts information. It was a good intuition, one of my best. Although at the time he was far too young to take on fatherhood and marriage, he grew into his promise. One of those people I have always envied for their passion for a specific area of creativity and the discipline to follow it all the way through their lives, he developed over the years a track record for deep friendships with other musicians, solid professional dependability in his specialty, and though he never had any other children but our son, a talent for growing into fatherhood (and grandfatherhood) that could make up for gaps in space and time by quality connection when he could be present. Still deeply spiritual, he recently created a production called “A Context for Peace”.

Chapter 8 – Flower Children (cont.)
(See sidebar for previous chapters)

When we returned to Downey Street the Summer of Love was transforming into a dark Fall, and one day as I waited in a tiny restaurant for someone to finish their shift, a young man sat down on the seat next to me at the counter and struck up a conversation. He was polite, rather shy, a musician I soon discovered, and at 20 about eight years younger than I. Over the next month we began to see each other. He played saxophone with one of the many local rock bands, and I liked to go and listen to them. He became the father of my second and last child and today is a well-known jazz and rock musician who tours with a famous band, teaches music, and is part of many smaller musical circles. This time the doctors I saw pushed adoption, not only because I was still unwed but because this was a mixed race relationship (the stigma of which hasn’t changed all that much today). And this time I was afraid to tell my parents at all until after the birth even though they had raised me to despise racism. While I was dealing with this development, the counterculture was beginning to shut down in the Haight. Early in 1968, the Grateful Dead pulled out and moved to Marin County across the Golden Gate Bridge in the same month as the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. LBJ pulled out of the presidential race so he wouldn’t have to run against Robert Kennedy. Tensions were high between the races in America that spring. In April, a month before my son was born, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated and thousands of people gathered at Civic Center in his memory. There were uprisings in 126 cities across the country.
(to be continued tomorrow)

Deep Thought: “Whenever I start thinking that I am not living up to my potential, I remind myself of the old farmer and his fight to the death with the insane pig. It’s an exciting story, and it takes my mind off all this “potential” business.”
Today I am grateful for: Myntz
Guess the Movie: ““What if I can’t find her?” “It’s easy. She’s standing right next to you.” Answer: The Bourne Supremacy. Winner: tikhead.
Iraqi Insurgency Growing Larger, More Effective
by Tom Lasseter and Jonathan S. Landay
BAGHDAD, Iraq – The United States is steadily losing ground to the Iraqi insurgency, according to every key military yardstick.
A Knight Ridder analysis of U.S. government statistics shows that through all the major turning points that raised hopes of peace in Iraq, including the arrest of Saddam Hussein and the handover of sovereignty at the end of June, the insurgency, led mainly by Sunni Muslims, has become deadlier and more effective. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 8:44 pm
+ = Started work with the Reed College oral history project today.
- = Johnny Carson exits stage next.