Flooding can hopen us up into a new future if we let it.

Past, present and future-- sometimes they all intersect. This has been one of those times for me. Many memories can flood up in me sometimes related to old injuries; but more recently I have gained more fondness for the pleasant times in my life, counting up adventures and friendships like blessings in my personal history. 

At the same time, I know things from experience and that gives me a different perspective from younger people who are just starting up with their adult lives and fortunes. I used to say as a young woman beginning to find myself that what I value the most are experience and friendship. That had something to do with my writing in some way; how can you enjoy writing without some substance? 

Over time I learned how to sit with the moment through meditating, healing practices, and poetry. Those disciplines have not all been readily maintained in my daily life because I tend to be a scatterbrained slob. But they help me to understand what is valuable. Generally it isn't the big wins but the singular moments.

 Here we are now, living in middle America, with another flood upon us and thinking back to 1993, when we were stunned with a hundred year flood. Huh. Somewhere either I or my daughter has a book that the Post-Dispatch  published afterwards, filled with the photographs of the drama that emerged out of the clouds. Now we're back there again in Missouri and places further south, while my brain is hung up on current needs, past scenarios in a grattitudinal analysis of where i have been since kidhood. Seems that I had some premonition about this flood of memories over all sorts of history-- when I heard the weather forecast before the disasters hit us with tornadoes, floods and horror.
  
Yesterday, May 2, 2011,  the Army Corps of Engineers began their intervention on the flood wall front to protect the little town of Cairo, Illinois, leaving some people in southern Missouri bewildered over it all. Think back to the flood of 1927 for a moment. I lived in Paducah, Kentucky for a couple of years, a solitary confinement of a memory for me in some ways. It was not the happiest time of my life, finishing up with my high school education under duress. But I remember those stories from people about how one might find underneath the wall paper on many an old house interior the flood line still visible. Pianos floated in that water, among other dearly loved possessions. Can you imagine that? There were elders in the community who remembered those incidentals and chuckled about it by then, mid 60s.

Later I traversed an assortment of highways on an occasional visit back to the Paducah area, and some of those towns are familiar sights in my mind yet-- Metropolis, Cairo, Cape Girardeau. They have changed, no doubt; but I crossed over into Kentucky over more than one bridge. People who aren't familiar with the confluence of the Ohio and the Mississippi don't really recognize that the Ohio is a much larger river, and it is a stunning place on the planet where the two rivers meet.  That's why I started to follow the story so closely. I can visualize some of those areas as they usually have been, and the photos of the flooding, along with the flood levels at Metropolis have stirred me with concern and with reverence for what we are looking forward to on this planet in terms of climate change.
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/il/nwis/uv/?site_no=03611500&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060

We need each other on this Earth to use our collective inquiry into ourselves and the powers that be in order to change the future. Imagine that. Determining our future instead of denying it a chance as a hopening, a quiet interior place where hope happens by our opening up to the stirring of our collective spirit.
http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2011/05/03/historic-flooding-possible/

http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2011/05/03/historic-flooding-possible/

http://www.wpsdlocal6.com/news/local/Area-river-level-information-from-National-Weather-Service-120579274.html 

Tallest snowman

Day before yesterday in the morning I noticed out my window that the snowman had disappeared entirely. It took three full grown young people and a few other helpers three days to build him right after that snow that fell last of January, first of February. The ground there is probably more soaked than anywhere else in the park. They started out using plastic square milk crates packed with the snow, emptying them like bricks into the inner wall. Then they showed up with a ladder and wheel barrows full of snow, and when the bottom ball had taken shape it was time to start the trunk of the body. The snow was so solidly packed that they climbed up onto it to begin again with the snow bricks before arriving at the sculpting of the outer round layer.

Finally the head was placed, and other decorations for eyes, buttons, arms and hat. By then kids from all over the neighborhood wanted to see it, help carry snow and have their pictures taken with him, the tallest snowman in the world.
http://iwitness.stltoday.com/mycapture/photos/JXImage.aspx?ImageID=467053&CategoryID=21355&EventID=202597&CollectionID=384
Will the violets bloom more thickly on that spot than anywhere else?

Free Gaza Movement Actions

Could you do me a favor and pass this Fox 2 News interview of Hedy Epstein around to your Jewish friends please? Pertzborn asks how the Jewish community reacts to her, and I believe more of our local Jewish people would support her views than she realizes.

Contact info & other stuff about her can be found on her website.
http://www.hedyepstein.com/

Fox 2 News video.
http://www.myfoxstl.com/myfox/pages/InsideFox/Detail?contentId=8172270&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=5.2.1
Some of the articles I have read from the UK & other places suggest that this current conflict was initiated by Israel, not the other way around. There are also vigils being held around town by IOW.

Here also is a petition offered by Ramsey Clark. And thank you to all who can help.

Urgent Appeal for Israel to Immediately Cease Its Murderous Bombing, Siege and Threatened Invasion of Palestinian Gaza!

To: President George W. Bush, President-Elect Barack Obama, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, Secretary of State Designate Hillary Clinton, Vice President Richard Cheney, Vice President-elect Joe Biden, Congressional leaders, U.N. Secretary General Ban, U.N. General Assembly President d'Escoto-Brockmann, members of the U.N. Security Council, U.N. member states, the President, Prime Minister, Cabinet and Opposition leader of Israel, and Major media representatives:

For 60 years, Israel has persecuted the Palestinian people with impunity in defiance of United Nations General Assembly and United Nations Security Council Resolutions, orders of the International Court of Justice, International Law and fundamental human rights.

Throughout the years, Israel has proclaimed itself the victim as it grew richer, more powerful and more violent, while

URGENT! The International Action Center is mobilizing for demonstrations across the U.S. to stop the attack on Gaza, and we are networking with activists across the globe who are taking to the streets against U.S./Israeli war crimes. To view a roundup of the growing number of international actions, see: http://www.iacenter.org/palestine/gazademos123108. Please consider making an emergency donation at http://www.iacenter.org/donate to help with the costs of organizing and mobilizing. NYC: Gaza Massacre: Emergency Demonstration - Sat. Jan. 3, 1 pm, Times Square Emergency Demo in Boston, Sat, Jan 3: Stop the US/Israeli Attack on Gaza! Solidarity with heroic Gaza: Statement from the International Action Center - Dec. 27, 2008 / also en Español

Palestinians were abused, impoverished, divided and demeaned.

A consistent tactic of Israel through all the years has been to divide Palestinians against their most effective organizations. Through most of the recent years Israel has attacked Fatah. Now it is Hamas that Israel attacks. But there is only one Palestinian people and there can be only one Palestinian State. This has been the guiding principle of the PLO. Israel's policy has always been to destroy the possibility of a Palestinian State. Its criminal assault on Hamas is in truth Israel's continuing assault on the possibility of a Palestinian State: divide and conquer.

Now in the waning days of the disastrous Bush Administration, the government of Israel with its Prime Minister under criminal indictment, is testing whether world opinion will permit it to escalate its isolation and impoverishment of Palestine and selective and systematic assassination of Palestinian leadership in Gaza to a genocidal, indiscriminate assault and invasion of Palestinian Gaza, knowing full well its acts will inflame passions throughout the Middle East and Arab and Muslim worlds risking conflict of disastrous magnitude in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, even between India and Pakistan.

Beyond crushing Gaza's capacity to resist and imposing its final solution on Palestinians, Israel is seeking confrontation that will lead to war with the U.S., the European Union, and NATO fighting for Israel against Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan and Afghanistan to impair their ability to prevent expansion of Israel's domination of the region while the "only one President at a time" the U.S. has, George W. Bush, will support Israel, finding all fault with Gaza.

In these dangerous and difficult days and hours the undersigned call upon the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, NATO members, and European countries independently, the governments of Asia, foremost China, India, Indonesia and Pakistan, the nations of Africa, and the Americas to demand an immediate ceasefire throughout Israel and Palestine and the assurance of peace. All borders to Gaza, Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, must be opened for humanitarian relief and a complete arms and trade embargo on Israel until it fully complies with all the requirements of permanent peace.

We call upon all the people, the ultimate power in every nation when organized and energized, to take to the streets where they live and demand that their governments do all in their power to cause Israel to stop its war of aggression against Palestine and for all parties to pursue peace and for Israel, the U.S. and other nations who have provided material support for Israel's aggression to be held accountable for the deaths, injuries and damage Israel has inflicted.

We call upon governments and humanitarian agencies to provide all needed emergency relief to Palestine - medical care, food, humanitarian supplies, shelter; and on all the media that truly seeks peace, justice and respect for the equal dignity of every child, woman and man on earth to headline the demand that Israel stop its aggression immediately. All parties must engage in continuous negotiation with all Palestinians until a one state solution is agreed or the state of Palestine as mandated not later than October 1948 in UN General Assembly Resolution 181 (1947) is created, fully implemented, and Palestine thrives.

Sincerely,

Initiated and signed by
Ramsey Clark, winner, 2008 U.N.Human Rights Award and Founder, International Action Center

Add your signature to this letter now - go to http://www.iacenter.org/gazapetition

IAC | About the IAC | IAC Books and Resources | Contact Us | Donate

"The Price of Silence" video celebration and call to action

http://us.oneworld.net/article/359165-the-price-silence-music-video

Ghosts Walk the Walls of Just Us

In the late nineties a news story here in Missouri came out of a Texas videotape. The videotape had emerged in a suit against our state. In a Texas private prison some of the incarcerated men were being abused by the use of violent restraint techniques and dogs. A Missouri felon had been transferred to that prison because of overcrowding in our own correctional institutions, and he won his case.

Missourians were dismayed by this and soon afterward Missouri prisoners being held in Texas were returned to our state, the contract with the private facility ended. That particular company running prisons was thought by some to be adequately punished by its loss of our business. However the prison industry is still flourishing today. In fact it would seem that one of the chief industries of Texas may have become incarceration, with Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), a federal agency, as its chief customer. What a way to replace the corporate cattle ranches that moved south of the border after NAFTA.

Just now, we are learning of a murder of a prisoner in Texas which occurred in 2001, in a different private prison owned by the GEO Group whose stock is offered by Vanguard Group. This crime finally resulted in a civil judgement costing GEO $47.5 million. Another separate charge of murder in Val Verde County, Texas, has been tried more recently against a GEO guard. This is just the beginning of this story, which has been connected by the District Attorney of Willacy County, Juan Guerra, to Dick Cheney and Alberto Gonzales, who have now been indicted. One might wonder if this is the beginning of the truth telling that will follow the end of the Bush White House. And could some of those recently revealed illnesses of Bush's current Attorney General Michael Mukasey have any relationship to these revelations? It is enough to make one sick. Yet the story has not been widely reported, no surprise to bloggers.

The latest episode of this unfolding political thriller is a request for removal of the presiding judge who has been playing South Texas games with the local D.A. Guerra, who claims this judge caused him to lose reelection by filing a suit against him which was later dismissed. The judge also has a relationship to one of the local potential defendants, a Texas legislator. With a hearing set for today. Raymondville, the town where the prison is located, could get a little economic boost from the journalists likely to show up if the most famous of the stock holders in the Geo Group, which provides prison beds for federal and state offenders, actually show up. Wouldn't it be ironic if Cheney and Gonzales are indeed standing before a court in a town that dubs itself "Prisonville?'

The Lone Star State is one I have visited several times over the years. It's pretty much a straight shot over Highway 44. The billboards telling drivers things like "You are now in Big Country" always made me laugh. Parts of the state are vast expanses of grass-- other parts are desert. The tourist attractions tend to be along the Gulf Coast or in the larger cities.

Some western Texas towns where cattle are still being shipped north on trains to meat packing plants can have an oppressive odor of animal excrement hanging in the air. St. Louisans may also remember the odor of rotting blood around packing plants from back in the day when we had at least two in the metro area. It's enough to make anyone a vegetarian overnight But sometimes shipping and killing animals just plain stinks. Humans are humans though. I would never want to confuse species.

If you look at where Raymondville sits on a map you notice that it is a short way north of Brownsville, a place where the building of the Border Wall this side of the Rio Grande has been more vocally disputed that anywhere else. Brownsville has been described by some ecologists as an open biome, where people and species of all sorts go back and forth between the two countries, and have for an estimated thirty centuries. Many of the people living on either side are indigenous and have dual citizenships. No one in the vicinity is happy about the building of what has been called by Homeland Security "a fence." Yeah, eight foot tall steel tubes welded together are surely no obstruction to vision. Just ask Boeing, the company whose California branch has the contract to build it. If it's a fence it has Homeland Security specifications. Questions about it linger.

You may have seen this rising monstrosity covered on Now or on Bill Moyers' Journal on PBS. If not I recommend watching those episodes online. This is a federal project that involves four states, California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. A Working Group at the University of Texas has cited human rights violations affecting in particular the long standing tribal indigenous peoples who were here before any European immigrants arrived. Their videotaped testimony {link opens your video-player} to the Inter­American Commission on Human Rights is also an hour long education. Who, under such circumstances has the first word about this land and how it is used or abused? Most Americans have begun to understand that we owe some form of reparations to the people our previous generations have used as though they are lesser beings. Take some time to inform yourself on this issue, and invite others to do so as well. Then begin to speak out to Congress, often and loudly.

That is what my blog is about, your Write to Be Heard!! Put your thoughts into your own words and tell your Senators and Representatives that reprehensible policies based on false fears do not make us more secure. They instead only incite anger, fear and divisive politics, not to mention injustice. And the use of private prisons by any government ought to be outlawed. Instead of being cost effective they raise costs not only by the per bed rate charged but by the lobbyists who continually seek longer sentences. No public official should ever have financial holdings in a government supported prison industry.

The Rio Grande makes a nice border between ourselves and our neighbors to the south. Do we really want to be capturing people who cross it and charging them with crimes while we ignore the real crimes of our own "leadership?" What is this fear, that terrorists are coming into the U.S., if not a bogus front for profiting from human flesh? Our own legislators and former Presidents accelerated this movement of people with so-called "free trade." It is free only to the corporate entities, which are made up of stockholders, some of whom are severely ethically challenged.

Our southern boundary has a rich history of disputes. Since those earlier times of conflict I would like to believe Americans have grown up as a people. Wouldn't it be so much lovelier to work together, celebrating our distinct cultures, and extending friendship to peoples and nations who have oftentimes served as humble examples of heroism to us? Or should we continue to capture immigrants to our land as prison meat?

As I have written before in this blog, we have nothing to lose but walls. Whether prison walls or border walls, both serve some purpose some of the time. A retaining wall can protect a garden or lawn from erosion. But neither can be used to an extreme against persons without causing injury. Most people relate to each other in a friendly manner, as "just us folks." When people in the upper ranks of the social or political hierarchy forget that they themselves are only human like the rest of us they make wrong decisions, and it is up to us to correct them. In some instances that may require a correctional institution.

For their sake hope the indicted do not end up in private prisons in Texas.

More Sources and suggested sites for information:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21292.htm

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Texas_DA_reveals_evidence_against_Cheney_1127.html

http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Organizations/Companies/Banking,+Financial,+Insurance,+Law/Vanguard+Group

http://www.afscme.org/workers/6845.cfm

http://www.texasobserver.org/border_coverage.php

Who broke the case to the news media?

http://www.valleycentral.com/

Twelve Points in favor of Impeachment

1. My support is fully behind pursuing impeachment of current members of the administration, George W.Bush and Richard (Dick) Cheney. I deign not to designate them by their presumed titles, President and Vice President.
2. Holding the current administration accountable is required to safeguard the United States Constitution.
3. The press has publicly recognized the fears of some members of Congress related to their inside knowledge of administrative policies that skirted legality. Not only was a sovereign nation illegally invaded and war illegally waged, but also illegal torture was used against persons who had not been given Rights which are sacrosanct to Americans as well as to civil society in the World. Lies were used to produce more lies and violence was initiated without warrant or due process
4. Congress now must act, since the truth has emerged, in order to effect a remedy. This will require courage. Courage is a quality admired by the populace.
5. Failure to pursue all legal means necessary to reign in the powers of the Presidency will result in damage beyond knowing to our nation. The failing economy is only the beginning of the decline that could ensue.
6. The outcome of pursuing every legal remedy, including impeachment proceedings against both persons known as the President and the Vice President, preferably simultaneously, will be to relieve our nation of its now damaged reputation in the eyes of the world and to restore confidence of its citizens in the government.
7. Assuming a political stance of looking forward rather than back as a way of protecting individual Congress members is not a choice. It smacks of cowardice. It is an inside-the-Beltway idea that has no relevance to the people who cast votes in a nation no longer recognizing the sovereignty of The People.
8. Our nation has ventured into the beginning of a reign of fascism, a too close alliance between government and corporate powers. The so-called "Bail-out" is symptomatic of this.
9. The Republican and Democratic Parties have become way too intertwined and mutually corrupt. Their members are deluded by material gain and illusory power rather than serving as our true representatives. Other Parties must be allowed equal access to office.
10. Currently reigning political corruption is most damaging to us in foreign policy. We often label other nations as intolerant and in violation of civil rights. In fact we are a nation of great resources and wealth with an obligation to share with those who are not so blessed. Yet we fail to provide some of our own citizens with "the pursuit of happiness" as could be provided by health care.
11. Money forfeited to the now defunct regime of evil, to be replaced by President-elect Barrack Obama and Vice President Joseph Biden, has been wasted on violence, personal accrual of assets, false and nefarious propaganda and directives such as the imperial rule of the Department of Justice, blasphemous violations of the Constitution by political operatives for political gain, abuse of the role of Commander in Chief, and establishment of illegal empire in foreign states. These are indeed high crimes and misdemeanors.
12. As a citizen of the United States of America, I demand that the Congress of these United States proceed with impeachment against George W. Bush and Richard (Dick) Cheney.

Colin Powell endorse the New Era and the New Generation

"Trouble the Water"

This film, which is currently running at the Tivoli in University City, is a must see for anyone who recognizes Hurricane Katrina as a major turning point in American history. The initial video is a bit rough, but hold on as it gets better and tells the story of a transformation of the key characters, who recognize how they have been victimized and are empowered by their own faith and character to rise above their circumstances.

It is something that will stay with me for a long time. One of my friends who saw it with me was relating the story to one of the families the Quakers sponsored here in St. Louis, as she recognized parts of the Ninth Ward from photographs she had seen. She also updated me on how they are doing now.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/entertainment/movietimes.nsf/Movies/851676EE9E004850862574CE005CD861?opendocument

And the sad truth is that we will have more of this occurring as climate change continues and people continue to cling to their homes in dangerous places. What choices will people have left now that the economic landscape is so ravaged?