Wednesday, October 13, 2004
BELLE LETTRe
A Belle the Cat Production * Fall 2004 * Volume One * Issue Three
“S T R I V E” – A word from the editor
It’s back to school time; time to dig out the sweaters, to watch the leaves change, time to reflect, but also time to apply oneself to the duties at hand. Time to strive ahead, reap the harvest of the summertime, time to realized the changes happening all around and change with them. Time to change your clocks. The year continues on in no different way than it did all summer, but the air is cooling quickly and naps taken are less to enjoy the warm glow of laziness and more to conserve energy. Shorter daylight hours equal a tighter schedule, and a greater sense of urgency.
Of course, the presidential election is coming up soon. Though many people are sick to death of campaign promises, rhetoric, mudslinging and the like, it is still important to be aware (and wary) of what is going on around us. However much you feel the choices you make effect the world ends up being a matter of personal preference. And although one vote has never made the difference some claim (from Hitler being elected to President Jackson being impeached), it is still the system we the citizens in the United States have for making ourselves heard. And until some person or group of people decide to make a change, the two party system, the Electoral College, the butterfly ballots and touchscreen voting machines, are the reality we have to work with. The way we approach change - with militia–like force or stubborn pacifism, is again up to free people of our county.
Special thanks to the following for their submission:
WGB, Patricia Ann, HP, DMV and Laura
Editorial:
Schoolhouse Stock -
The Factory Farm System of
United States Public Schools
If we were to look at the United States public school system as a bedroom, there would be a huge beautiful canopy bed in the center. Four posters all intricately carved, with ancient draping from the Victorian Era, beautifully preserved feather comforter, and an assortment of pillows so interesting and varied, everyone who decided to rest their head would feel
comfortable.
This bed would be the grand institutions of higher learning in this county. Granted, colleges and universities have to make do with what they have, no matter how old, and perhaps a few pillows get tossed out each year, but all in all it is a very cushy arrangement.On this bed is a small teddy bear. It is soft and worn. Every year it looses a little more of its stuffing. Perhaps you remember times you cried yourself to sleep with this bear. But mostly there are good memories. This bear is the elementary school. It is a token, a small image of innocence and fun, of childhood. The bear is loosing its stuffing, getting smaller and smaller (some elementary schools are now only kindergarden-4.)
Perhaps soon the bear will fall into the ceramic pot that is kept under the bed. There is not much use going into detail about the pot. It is a chipped and stained chamber pot you piss in when you are too lazy to go to the bathroom. The pot is the secondary schools - the middle, junior and high schools. It is a place to put things and forget about them until the morning when you rise sleepily and stumble over to dump the pot out the window. What is there to look forward to? What is there to gain? Nothing, except the eventual emptying of its contents. In fact, most of the time, people try to see how long they can go without emptying the pot - how much piss can fit in there?
The Supreme Court has declared that the first amendment does not apply to high school newspapers*. History is only taught by way of memorizing dates because no one can agree on what type of history to teach. In fact, history is on its way out - some schools are choosing not to teach it at all. Schools are not teaching art or music. Physical education and extracurricular sports are being cut. McDonalds, Coke and Pizza Hut are serving lunch. School buildings are falling apart, leaking asbestos into the air system (why do you think that almost every hospital is building a new cancer wing? More people than ever are getting cancer.) Kids are bringing guns to school, shooting each other, shooting themselves. Teachers are not encouraged, and usually not allowed, to be creative, to teach in a new way. If a young teacher does find her way into the system, she is usually swallowed up by it or her job is cut.
Kids are not cogs. They are not cheep suits or plastic bangles or lamps or stuffed toys or light bulbs or bed sheets or filters or fasteners or any number of manufactured goods whose value is determined by how fast and inexpensively that they can be manufactured. Kids should not be cows, fattened quickly with cheep food and expensive drugs, left to wallow in their filth with just enough room to turn around, eating garbage until they are led away and cut up into steak.
Kids should not be forced into a piss pot and shoved under the bed for 4-8 years. There is so much energy in kids, so much potential that is left to piddle down the drain. Kids can volunteer. Kids are creative. Kids are hopeful. Kids can learn so quickly. All kids learn in different ways, all kids are interested in different things; all kids come from different backgrounds. The school system ignores this. It is easier to sit them down in study hall for six hours than it is to find a way to teach them how to sing or act or play the violin or the flute or how to speak French or who fought in World War One or where Uganda is on a map or what is happening in North Korea or Venezuela or what they should think about doing with their life.
Otherwise, like teddy bears and pillows and pots, why don’t we just outsource to China and have our kids educated there?
*Parade Magazine, December 15, 2002. “Fresh Voices - Why We Can’t Print That Here.”
The storm’s black backdrop
Contrasts the sun-struck meadow
With it’s round golden bales
And bright green grass.
-WGB
Who cares about the President?
And local issues on the ballot.
Yes, yes, of course you care about who becomes the next president of the United States. Okay, so maybe you don’t. Maybe you don’t have an opinion when it comes to jobs and the economy, education, or the following topics*:
Democrat – John Kerry
National Security (separate from Homeland Security on web):
Transform the military to better address the modern threats of terrorism
Deploy all the forces in America's arsenal - our diplomacy, our intelligence system, our economic power, and the appeal of our values and ideas
Free America from its dangerous dependence on Mideast oil
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual (LGBT):
“The LGBT community contributes to our nation in so many ways, in every corner of this country. Gay and lesbian Americans only ask for equal treatment. Together, we can provide this simple justice.”
Environment:
Create Cleaner, Greener Communities
Enact A Conservation Covenant With America to ensure balanced protection for our public lands and adequate resources to enhance our national parks
Reverse the Bush rollbacks to our Clean Air Act
Restore America's Waters
Republican – George W. Bush
National Security:
Fifty million people have been liberated in Afghanistan and Iraq
The terrorist camps in Afghanistan have been destroyed.
The brutal regime of Saddam Hussein is gone. An interim government is leading the Iraqi people to freedom.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual (LGBT):
No section found on website
Environment (found on Energy section of website):
Clear Skies Initiative to reduce power plant emissions
Clean Air Interstate Rule
Cut mercury emissions from power plants
$40 billion over a decade to restore millions of acres of wetlands, protect habitats, conserve water, and improve streams and rivers near working farms and ranches
Initiate Environmentally Safe Exploration in just one percent of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
More points found on website regarding Energy…
Maybe you do have an opinion but you don’t think that it matters what the candidates say now – they’ll do whatever the people around them tell them to once they get elected. Okay – that’s still not a reason not to vote in the coming election.
Items on the ballot include state, county and local issues ranging from weather or not the government of a city should be able to take people’s homes for redevelopment if that redevelopment is for the greater good of the community (eminent domain) to whether a library, park system, school etc. should be allowed to renew or increase the income they draw from property taxes.
The best place to find information about local issues is the local newspaper. Another source is the League of Women Voters, a national organization : http://www.lwv.org/voter/voter_information.cfm
* Answers pulled directly from the candidates’ respective websites.
Maudlin Wednesday
The air was heavy with the quiet scent of roasted turkey, and home.
When we climbed the mountain, every breath we took we took together.
One sip and it’s gone
One sip an act of god
Ditch pickin'
My exercise of choice is walking. Really walking. Outside. Along the road. My feet hit the pavement. Passing gravel trucks blow dust in my eyes. I walk nearly onto the centerline to avoid the occasional manure spill from my farm neighbors. I don’t wear headphones. I listen to the birds. I do some of my best thinking when I walk.
The other day, while plodding along one of my three repetitious routes, it occurred to me how lovely roadside flowers are. Nature has no discernable color sense, and yet it always works. Where else can you see orange daylilies with mauvey-purple red clover and find the combination beautiful? I think it’s because Mother Nature uses so much white. White looks good with anything, before or after Labor Day. White sweet clover, the airy, four-foot tall kind, accented the slope of pink and orange. Think how baby’s breath improves any flower arrangement and you will know what I mean. Sweet clover comes in yellow too, which is also rather ubiquitous to the palette, but goes with other colors nearly as well as white.
The arrays are ever changing with the movement of the seasons. In spring, I’m just happy to see anything green; anything to cover up the brownish-gray, matted growth of last fall that’s been mashed flat by four-plus months of winter. Green to cheer the color-starved soul of the nature lover.
No sooner do the grassy greens appear then the eternal and universal dandelions show their sunshine faces, surprisingly welcome. Thus starts the tide of yellow that hardly pauses till the first snowfall of the next winter. Dandelions, yellow vetch, various sunflower relatives, prickly lettuce blooms, sow thistles, tall sweet clover, great mulleins and evening primrose. True, clear yellow all.
Bright pink clover, pale lavender pink bouncing bet (a.k.a. wild phlox or soapwort), rosy pink joe pye weed (who was he and why is there a pink flower named after him?), tender pink wild roses all add to the mix.
Then the white waves start rolling in. Along with the sweet clover is the diminutive, daisy-like chamomile, so brave and tough that it grows right on the edge of the road where gravel meets the pavement. And the Queen Anne’s lace, called wild carrot by those with no poetry in their hearts.
This was a particularly good year for it. It grew in such density and quantity that it hardly left any room for the other flowers. It flowed along the shallow ditch like a misty river with greenish ferny shadows. A floral Milky Way fallen from the summer night sky.
But now in September comes the real stunner. Golden rod with lush, rich panicles of chenille that only come in one color and it’s all in the name. Pair it with stands of glorious purple New England asters (maybe you know them by their old-fashioned name, “farewell summer.” Poetry again) and add huge, clusters of nameless, white, star- shaped flowers and the combination is more than lovely. And all free. Free for the gaping, free for the marveling, free for the appreciating as long as it lasts.
And free for the taking. I don’t just wander the roads in search of cardiovascular health. I help myself to the beauty around me, the beauty I pass. Yes, I’m a confirmed ditch-picker. I’ve done it since that first limp bouquet clutched in baby hands and given to my mother. I did it when I lived in dreary rentals and had no flower gardens or extra money for hothouse blooms. I revel in the glut of choices and amount of stalks. I can create huge bouquets without a twinge of guilt. They cost me nothing. I’m not decreasing the population because as beautiful as they are, they are weeds and, like all weeds, there is seldom a dearth of them. I can stuff the large vases that seem to multiply in my basement. I put the resulting arrangements everywhere. On the old porch, on the new porch, on the new old porch. I put them in the house on any horizontal surface I can clear off. Many of them don’t last that long. They’re called daylilies for a reason, after all. But while they are there, I love the rich, extravagant feeling of being surrounded by flowers.
After I’ve consigned the latest, fading bouquet to the compost heap, I’ll put on my New Balance walkers and clap a cap on my head and head out. Maybe I’ll pick more. Or maybe I’ll just leave them in situ and enjoy them on my walk away and again on my walk back. Actually, nature does the best job of display. Been doing it a lot longer and with more panache than me. I’ll leave it at that.
ADVENTURES
Where? Ise-shi, Mie-ken, Japan
When: September 2004
Who: Laura
Laura hopes to transcribe the longhand journals she has been keeping into a weblog soon:
http://lauras-adventures.blogspot.com/
Meanwhile, here is her first missive back to The States.
> > Hello everyone! First off I hope all of you are doing well. Things are going really great right now. The first two weeks were pretty rocky, but after the initial shock of coming here wore off, things settled. The flight over here lasted 14 hours and took a whole day of my life. But I was so wired that I only slept about three hours on the plane. At least I had plenty to do, reading my books and studying Japanese. The trip took way too much energy, and I thank god that I met really great people who helped me through the airport with my giant bags. I'm still not sure how I managed to get all of my crap from place to place.> > Tokyo was beautiful and amazingly big. I got to see the famous Shibuya Station crossing - I actually wasn't that impressed. Maybe it would have been more amazing if I had seen it during the day and not late at night. My hotel was really amazing though. The toilet in my hotel room had a seat that would heat up and play what sounded like a babbling brook when you sat on it. Really cool. Though, when it is blazing hot outside, a hot toilet seat is the last thing you want. I wish my apartment toilet had that feature though, because it would be really nice in the dead of winter. Also, when I took a shower there was a section of the mirror above the sink that would automatically defog itself. The first time I realized it, I took a picture to prove I wasn't nuts.
>> I have to ride my bike everywhere I go. Don't think about nice bikes like home. Think about an old granny bike with a really cool basket (that is bent of course), it can't change gears and has bad brakes. Really it is quite fun though. But riding in the rain and wind of a typhoon is not. Yesterday I got caught out in the typhoon on my way home from school. I could hardly ride due to the wind, it kept knocking me over and my hood wouldn't stay up so I got completely soaked.
> > The weather has been intense. When I first got here it was beyond hot. It was sticky and gross. To top off the high heat there are typhoons, earthquakes and tsunami. You have to wear rain gear everywhere you go in the rainy season, and you sweat like crazy in your gear but have to wear it or you get drenched. Not a good combination since you seem to get drenched either way.
> > I have also experienced my first earthquake. There have been about 10 earthquakes over the past four days. Most of them have just been little tremors. The first two were really intense though and happened four hours apart, which is really rare. The first was a 6.8 and the second a 7.2. I was so scared, I mean really terrified. My bookshelf almost fell over and I thought that my building might collapse. But thank god for Japanesearchitecture. They know how to build earthquake resistant buildings. The cool thing was that my power didn't even go out! Needless to say I didn't get much sleep that night because there was also a tsunami and they were evacuating nearby cities, about a half hour from me. I guess that living on the coast isn't always pleasant.
> > My apartment is great. It's nice and big. My bathroom kind of sucks though. I have to turn on the gas and crank a knob every time I want to take a hot shower, which hasn't been that often due to the heat, but I don't want to take a freezing cold shower. My toilet has a sink attached to the top of it so when you flush water comes out and you can wash your hands. Pretty neat really.
> > My city is beautiful. I have been to the beach a couple of times. The first time I swam though I got stung a bunch of times by jellyfish, baby ones I think because the sting wasn't that bad. I still have a little scar from one of them though, three weeks later. I didn't swim the next time I went to the beach.
> > I have gone to the famous temple in my city, it is really beautiful. There is also a river near the temple that we like to go swimming in. The water is cool and the clearest I have ever seen.> > School is really fun so far. I have only been to one of my schools though; I have to go to three different ones. It takes me a half hour to ride to Kida, my school now. I really like my students. They are so much fun to talk to even if we can't always understand each other. I ate lunch for the first time with my students today.
> >One of my other schools is Kitahama. I cannot get there by bike though because it would take me an hour. So instead I have to catch the bus, which isn't really convenient. This school is right on the coast though, so it is really pretty
> >My other school is Kosei, which is about 15 min away from me. It is the biggest of my schools. So far I really like teaching English. The only problem is that I am starting to think slower because I am constantly speaking slow and thinking of easy ways to say things. So my mind is starting to turn to mush from always being slowed down.
> > That is about it for now. I miss all of you bunches and am thinking of you often. Take care and I will talk to you all soon.
> > > Love- Laura
Prom Night
I’ll admit it – I dreamt of a “Pretty In Pink” prom:
soaring ceilings, crystal chandeliers, a live band, everyone drinking spiked punch from real glass punch cups. I wanted to see the king and queen crowned, forgetting for a few precious moments that it was all just a popularity contest. The last thing I imagined was the low lunchroom ceiling of the local technical college and a grand march under bright fluorescent lights in front of the flashbulbs of fifty or so parents as Prince’s “Purple Rain” played on to infinity – and no king or queen since that “might make someone feel bad”.
This was my Prom experience.
Being a total tomboy did not make me immune to the want of suspending reality long enough to dress up in a frilly gown and prance about like a princess for one night during my high school years. So I found myself a date, went dress shopping with girlfriends, got all giggly about jewelry and makeup and high-healed shoes. It was all in fun, all an adolescent formal form of dress-up.
The dance, as you may have gathered, was held at the local community college. I expected there to be a ballroom or something, but no, the festivities were set up in the lunchroom where they hadn’t even had the courtesy to remove the fliers pinned to the bullion board stating that “Shop Class will be held in classroom 185 – NOT the garage.” The atmosphere was claustrophobic and dark. My date and I had our pictures taken in front of a huge fake palm tree and strolled the “Night in the Jungle” décor, which consist of a life-sized (but not life-like) stuffed gorilla holding a banana and the fake palm trees.
We made our way to the punch table, plastic Dixie cups of which were handed out one per person by the school principal. I think the punch was actually Hi-C since there was a case of it sitting on the table next to the punchbowl. “‘Cmon people,” I thought, “can ‘t we at least try to pretend?”
We found a group of friends and sat down at one of the plasti-covered tables, hoping at least for some hors’d’overs, party mints, nuts, etc. We stared in disbelief at the tiny paper plate in the center of the table.
“Are those what I think they are?”
“Yes - Runts™ candy. Mostly bananas.”
This is my prom?? I thought. No finger sandwiches, no chandelier? Even the music sucked – Billy Ray Cyrus caused a rush of line dancers to the floor. The class had chosen the anachronistic “Purple Rain” as its prom song., which played every half hour until the grand march.
The grand march was of course the Coup de Gras – some administrator had the bright idea of inviting all the parents in (to my PROM!) at 10 p.m. to photograph their kids sashaying down the raised ramp, past the giant stuffed gorilla to “Purple Rain” played on a continuous loop as couple after couple shuffled along. Since the moms and dads couldn’t be expected to take photos in the dark, the fluorescent cafeteria lights were flipped on.
I sat at my table with my head in my hands and vowed never to get excited about anything my school ever did ever again. Ever.
BELLE LETTRE CALENDAR
OCTOBER
10/8-Simchat Torah (Rejoicing of the Law) This joyous holiday falls on the eighth day of Sukkot. It marks the end of the year's reading of the Torah (Five Books of Moses) in the synagogue every Saturday and the beginning of the new cycle of reading.
10/11 Columbus Day (Observed) August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, with three ships, The Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. On October 12, 1492, Columbus sighted by moonlight what he thought was an island off the Indies near Japan or China. The island, which Columbus called San Salvadore, was actually a tiny part of an unknown world.
10/15 First Day of Ramadan This day marks the beginning of a month-long fast that all Muslims must keep during the daylight hours. It commemorates the first revelation of the Qur'an. Following the last day of Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr is celebrated on Sun., Nov. 14.
10/24 United Nations Day devoted to making known to the people of the world the aims and achievements of the United Nations, and to gaining their support for the work of the United Nations.10/31 Daylight Saving Time ends Set clocks back one hour."Halloween" comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year.
NOVEMBER
11/1 All Saints' Day A Roman Catholic and Anglican holiday celebrating all saints, known and unknown.
11/2 All Soul’s Day Set aside for prayers for the souls of those in purgatory.
Election Day is a day on which states hold elections. The elections may be for referendums, local, state, or national office. While elections may occur on other days, it is tradition to hold at least national elections on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
11/5 Guy Fawkes' Day (Bonfire Night) - In 1605, a person named Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the British Parliament with 36 barrels of gunpowder.Nowadays, the British mark Guy Fawkes' Day with bonfires and fireworks.(NOVEMBER CONT,) 11/11 Veterans' Day - the day set aside to thank and honor ALL those who served honorably in the military - in wartime or peacetime - largely intended to thank LIVING veterans for their service, to acknowledge that their contributions to our national security are appreciated, and to underscore the fact that all those who served - not only those who died - have sacrificed and done their duty.11/25 Thanksgiving - A federal holiday observed the fourth Thursday in November by act of Congress (1941), it was the first such national proclamation issued by President Lincoln in 1863, on the urging of Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, editor of Godey's Lady's Book. Most Americans believe that the holiday dates back to the day of thanks ordered by Governor Bradford of Plymouth Colony in New England in 1621, but scholars point out that days of thanks stem from ancient times.11/28 Advent until Christmas Eve - The word Advent is a derivative of the Latin word adventus meaning "coming". In the context of this holiday it refers to the coming of Christ or birth of Christ. Holding the holiday four weeks before Christmas is symbolic of the four millennium between the Fall of Adam and the Birth of Christ. Historically is was a time of fasting, repentance, and preparation.
DECEMBER
12/8 Immaculate Conception - declared that Mary, the mother of Jesus was the only person born free from original sin and with no inclination to sin.12/8 First Day of Hanukkah (Festival of Lights) - This festival was instituted by Judas Maccabaeus in 165 B.C. to celebrate the purification of the Temple of Jerusalem, which had been desecrated three years earlier by Antiochus Epiphanes, who set up a pagan altar and offered sacrifices to Zeus Olympius. In Jewish homes, a light is lighted on each night of the eight-day festival.12/15 Bill of Rights Day - Bill of Rights was important in the founding of the United States because of the depravity experienced by many of the immigrants. 12/ 18 – WINTER ISSUE OF BELLE LETTRE!
Belle Lettre
Belle the Cat
1508 Lincoln Avenue
Lakewood, OH 44107
A Belle the Cat Production * Fall 2004 * Volume One * Issue Three
“S T R I V E” – A word from the editor
It’s back to school time; time to dig out the sweaters, to watch the leaves change, time to reflect, but also time to apply oneself to the duties at hand. Time to strive ahead, reap the harvest of the summertime, time to realized the changes happening all around and change with them. Time to change your clocks. The year continues on in no different way than it did all summer, but the air is cooling quickly and naps taken are less to enjoy the warm glow of laziness and more to conserve energy. Shorter daylight hours equal a tighter schedule, and a greater sense of urgency.
Of course, the presidential election is coming up soon. Though many people are sick to death of campaign promises, rhetoric, mudslinging and the like, it is still important to be aware (and wary) of what is going on around us. However much you feel the choices you make effect the world ends up being a matter of personal preference. And although one vote has never made the difference some claim (from Hitler being elected to President Jackson being impeached), it is still the system we the citizens in the United States have for making ourselves heard. And until some person or group of people decide to make a change, the two party system, the Electoral College, the butterfly ballots and touchscreen voting machines, are the reality we have to work with. The way we approach change - with militia–like force or stubborn pacifism, is again up to free people of our county.
Special thanks to the following for their submission:
WGB, Patricia Ann, HP, DMV and Laura
Editorial:
Schoolhouse Stock -
The Factory Farm System of
United States Public Schools
If we were to look at the United States public school system as a bedroom, there would be a huge beautiful canopy bed in the center. Four posters all intricately carved, with ancient draping from the Victorian Era, beautifully preserved feather comforter, and an assortment of pillows so interesting and varied, everyone who decided to rest their head would feel
comfortable.
This bed would be the grand institutions of higher learning in this county. Granted, colleges and universities have to make do with what they have, no matter how old, and perhaps a few pillows get tossed out each year, but all in all it is a very cushy arrangement.On this bed is a small teddy bear. It is soft and worn. Every year it looses a little more of its stuffing. Perhaps you remember times you cried yourself to sleep with this bear. But mostly there are good memories. This bear is the elementary school. It is a token, a small image of innocence and fun, of childhood. The bear is loosing its stuffing, getting smaller and smaller (some elementary schools are now only kindergarden-4.)
Perhaps soon the bear will fall into the ceramic pot that is kept under the bed. There is not much use going into detail about the pot. It is a chipped and stained chamber pot you piss in when you are too lazy to go to the bathroom. The pot is the secondary schools - the middle, junior and high schools. It is a place to put things and forget about them until the morning when you rise sleepily and stumble over to dump the pot out the window. What is there to look forward to? What is there to gain? Nothing, except the eventual emptying of its contents. In fact, most of the time, people try to see how long they can go without emptying the pot - how much piss can fit in there?
The Supreme Court has declared that the first amendment does not apply to high school newspapers*. History is only taught by way of memorizing dates because no one can agree on what type of history to teach. In fact, history is on its way out - some schools are choosing not to teach it at all. Schools are not teaching art or music. Physical education and extracurricular sports are being cut. McDonalds, Coke and Pizza Hut are serving lunch. School buildings are falling apart, leaking asbestos into the air system (why do you think that almost every hospital is building a new cancer wing? More people than ever are getting cancer.) Kids are bringing guns to school, shooting each other, shooting themselves. Teachers are not encouraged, and usually not allowed, to be creative, to teach in a new way. If a young teacher does find her way into the system, she is usually swallowed up by it or her job is cut.
Kids are not cogs. They are not cheep suits or plastic bangles or lamps or stuffed toys or light bulbs or bed sheets or filters or fasteners or any number of manufactured goods whose value is determined by how fast and inexpensively that they can be manufactured. Kids should not be cows, fattened quickly with cheep food and expensive drugs, left to wallow in their filth with just enough room to turn around, eating garbage until they are led away and cut up into steak.
Kids should not be forced into a piss pot and shoved under the bed for 4-8 years. There is so much energy in kids, so much potential that is left to piddle down the drain. Kids can volunteer. Kids are creative. Kids are hopeful. Kids can learn so quickly. All kids learn in different ways, all kids are interested in different things; all kids come from different backgrounds. The school system ignores this. It is easier to sit them down in study hall for six hours than it is to find a way to teach them how to sing or act or play the violin or the flute or how to speak French or who fought in World War One or where Uganda is on a map or what is happening in North Korea or Venezuela or what they should think about doing with their life.
Otherwise, like teddy bears and pillows and pots, why don’t we just outsource to China and have our kids educated there?
*Parade Magazine, December 15, 2002. “Fresh Voices - Why We Can’t Print That Here.”
The storm’s black backdrop
Contrasts the sun-struck meadow
With it’s round golden bales
And bright green grass.
-WGB
Who cares about the President?
And local issues on the ballot.
Yes, yes, of course you care about who becomes the next president of the United States. Okay, so maybe you don’t. Maybe you don’t have an opinion when it comes to jobs and the economy, education, or the following topics*:
Democrat – John Kerry
National Security (separate from Homeland Security on web):
Transform the military to better address the modern threats of terrorism
Deploy all the forces in America's arsenal - our diplomacy, our intelligence system, our economic power, and the appeal of our values and ideas
Free America from its dangerous dependence on Mideast oil
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual (LGBT):
“The LGBT community contributes to our nation in so many ways, in every corner of this country. Gay and lesbian Americans only ask for equal treatment. Together, we can provide this simple justice.”
Environment:
Create Cleaner, Greener Communities
Enact A Conservation Covenant With America to ensure balanced protection for our public lands and adequate resources to enhance our national parks
Reverse the Bush rollbacks to our Clean Air Act
Restore America's Waters
Republican – George W. Bush
National Security:
Fifty million people have been liberated in Afghanistan and Iraq
The terrorist camps in Afghanistan have been destroyed.
The brutal regime of Saddam Hussein is gone. An interim government is leading the Iraqi people to freedom.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual (LGBT):
No section found on website
Environment (found on Energy section of website):
Clear Skies Initiative to reduce power plant emissions
Clean Air Interstate Rule
Cut mercury emissions from power plants
$40 billion over a decade to restore millions of acres of wetlands, protect habitats, conserve water, and improve streams and rivers near working farms and ranches
Initiate Environmentally Safe Exploration in just one percent of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
More points found on website regarding Energy…
Maybe you do have an opinion but you don’t think that it matters what the candidates say now – they’ll do whatever the people around them tell them to once they get elected. Okay – that’s still not a reason not to vote in the coming election.
Items on the ballot include state, county and local issues ranging from weather or not the government of a city should be able to take people’s homes for redevelopment if that redevelopment is for the greater good of the community (eminent domain) to whether a library, park system, school etc. should be allowed to renew or increase the income they draw from property taxes.
The best place to find information about local issues is the local newspaper. Another source is the League of Women Voters, a national organization : http://www.lwv.org/voter/voter_information.cfm
* Answers pulled directly from the candidates’ respective websites.
Maudlin Wednesday
The air was heavy with the quiet scent of roasted turkey, and home.
When we climbed the mountain, every breath we took we took together.
One sip and it’s gone
One sip an act of god
Ditch pickin'
My exercise of choice is walking. Really walking. Outside. Along the road. My feet hit the pavement. Passing gravel trucks blow dust in my eyes. I walk nearly onto the centerline to avoid the occasional manure spill from my farm neighbors. I don’t wear headphones. I listen to the birds. I do some of my best thinking when I walk.
The other day, while plodding along one of my three repetitious routes, it occurred to me how lovely roadside flowers are. Nature has no discernable color sense, and yet it always works. Where else can you see orange daylilies with mauvey-purple red clover and find the combination beautiful? I think it’s because Mother Nature uses so much white. White looks good with anything, before or after Labor Day. White sweet clover, the airy, four-foot tall kind, accented the slope of pink and orange. Think how baby’s breath improves any flower arrangement and you will know what I mean. Sweet clover comes in yellow too, which is also rather ubiquitous to the palette, but goes with other colors nearly as well as white.
The arrays are ever changing with the movement of the seasons. In spring, I’m just happy to see anything green; anything to cover up the brownish-gray, matted growth of last fall that’s been mashed flat by four-plus months of winter. Green to cheer the color-starved soul of the nature lover.
No sooner do the grassy greens appear then the eternal and universal dandelions show their sunshine faces, surprisingly welcome. Thus starts the tide of yellow that hardly pauses till the first snowfall of the next winter. Dandelions, yellow vetch, various sunflower relatives, prickly lettuce blooms, sow thistles, tall sweet clover, great mulleins and evening primrose. True, clear yellow all.
Bright pink clover, pale lavender pink bouncing bet (a.k.a. wild phlox or soapwort), rosy pink joe pye weed (who was he and why is there a pink flower named after him?), tender pink wild roses all add to the mix.
Then the white waves start rolling in. Along with the sweet clover is the diminutive, daisy-like chamomile, so brave and tough that it grows right on the edge of the road where gravel meets the pavement. And the Queen Anne’s lace, called wild carrot by those with no poetry in their hearts.
This was a particularly good year for it. It grew in such density and quantity that it hardly left any room for the other flowers. It flowed along the shallow ditch like a misty river with greenish ferny shadows. A floral Milky Way fallen from the summer night sky.
But now in September comes the real stunner. Golden rod with lush, rich panicles of chenille that only come in one color and it’s all in the name. Pair it with stands of glorious purple New England asters (maybe you know them by their old-fashioned name, “farewell summer.” Poetry again) and add huge, clusters of nameless, white, star- shaped flowers and the combination is more than lovely. And all free. Free for the gaping, free for the marveling, free for the appreciating as long as it lasts.
And free for the taking. I don’t just wander the roads in search of cardiovascular health. I help myself to the beauty around me, the beauty I pass. Yes, I’m a confirmed ditch-picker. I’ve done it since that first limp bouquet clutched in baby hands and given to my mother. I did it when I lived in dreary rentals and had no flower gardens or extra money for hothouse blooms. I revel in the glut of choices and amount of stalks. I can create huge bouquets without a twinge of guilt. They cost me nothing. I’m not decreasing the population because as beautiful as they are, they are weeds and, like all weeds, there is seldom a dearth of them. I can stuff the large vases that seem to multiply in my basement. I put the resulting arrangements everywhere. On the old porch, on the new porch, on the new old porch. I put them in the house on any horizontal surface I can clear off. Many of them don’t last that long. They’re called daylilies for a reason, after all. But while they are there, I love the rich, extravagant feeling of being surrounded by flowers.
After I’ve consigned the latest, fading bouquet to the compost heap, I’ll put on my New Balance walkers and clap a cap on my head and head out. Maybe I’ll pick more. Or maybe I’ll just leave them in situ and enjoy them on my walk away and again on my walk back. Actually, nature does the best job of display. Been doing it a lot longer and with more panache than me. I’ll leave it at that.
ADVENTURES
Where? Ise-shi, Mie-ken, Japan
When: September 2004
Who: Laura
Laura hopes to transcribe the longhand journals she has been keeping into a weblog soon:
http://lauras-adventures.blogspot.com/
Meanwhile, here is her first missive back to The States.
> > Hello everyone! First off I hope all of you are doing well. Things are going really great right now. The first two weeks were pretty rocky, but after the initial shock of coming here wore off, things settled. The flight over here lasted 14 hours and took a whole day of my life. But I was so wired that I only slept about three hours on the plane. At least I had plenty to do, reading my books and studying Japanese. The trip took way too much energy, and I thank god that I met really great people who helped me through the airport with my giant bags. I'm still not sure how I managed to get all of my crap from place to place.> > Tokyo was beautiful and amazingly big. I got to see the famous Shibuya Station crossing - I actually wasn't that impressed. Maybe it would have been more amazing if I had seen it during the day and not late at night. My hotel was really amazing though. The toilet in my hotel room had a seat that would heat up and play what sounded like a babbling brook when you sat on it. Really cool. Though, when it is blazing hot outside, a hot toilet seat is the last thing you want. I wish my apartment toilet had that feature though, because it would be really nice in the dead of winter. Also, when I took a shower there was a section of the mirror above the sink that would automatically defog itself. The first time I realized it, I took a picture to prove I wasn't nuts.
>> I have to ride my bike everywhere I go. Don't think about nice bikes like home. Think about an old granny bike with a really cool basket (that is bent of course), it can't change gears and has bad brakes. Really it is quite fun though. But riding in the rain and wind of a typhoon is not. Yesterday I got caught out in the typhoon on my way home from school. I could hardly ride due to the wind, it kept knocking me over and my hood wouldn't stay up so I got completely soaked.
> > The weather has been intense. When I first got here it was beyond hot. It was sticky and gross. To top off the high heat there are typhoons, earthquakes and tsunami. You have to wear rain gear everywhere you go in the rainy season, and you sweat like crazy in your gear but have to wear it or you get drenched. Not a good combination since you seem to get drenched either way.
> > I have also experienced my first earthquake. There have been about 10 earthquakes over the past four days. Most of them have just been little tremors. The first two were really intense though and happened four hours apart, which is really rare. The first was a 6.8 and the second a 7.2. I was so scared, I mean really terrified. My bookshelf almost fell over and I thought that my building might collapse. But thank god for Japanesearchitecture. They know how to build earthquake resistant buildings. The cool thing was that my power didn't even go out! Needless to say I didn't get much sleep that night because there was also a tsunami and they were evacuating nearby cities, about a half hour from me. I guess that living on the coast isn't always pleasant.
> > My apartment is great. It's nice and big. My bathroom kind of sucks though. I have to turn on the gas and crank a knob every time I want to take a hot shower, which hasn't been that often due to the heat, but I don't want to take a freezing cold shower. My toilet has a sink attached to the top of it so when you flush water comes out and you can wash your hands. Pretty neat really.
> > My city is beautiful. I have been to the beach a couple of times. The first time I swam though I got stung a bunch of times by jellyfish, baby ones I think because the sting wasn't that bad. I still have a little scar from one of them though, three weeks later. I didn't swim the next time I went to the beach.
> > I have gone to the famous temple in my city, it is really beautiful. There is also a river near the temple that we like to go swimming in. The water is cool and the clearest I have ever seen.> > School is really fun so far. I have only been to one of my schools though; I have to go to three different ones. It takes me a half hour to ride to Kida, my school now. I really like my students. They are so much fun to talk to even if we can't always understand each other. I ate lunch for the first time with my students today.
> >One of my other schools is Kitahama. I cannot get there by bike though because it would take me an hour. So instead I have to catch the bus, which isn't really convenient. This school is right on the coast though, so it is really pretty
> >My other school is Kosei, which is about 15 min away from me. It is the biggest of my schools. So far I really like teaching English. The only problem is that I am starting to think slower because I am constantly speaking slow and thinking of easy ways to say things. So my mind is starting to turn to mush from always being slowed down.
> > That is about it for now. I miss all of you bunches and am thinking of you often. Take care and I will talk to you all soon.
> > > Love- Laura
Prom Night
I’ll admit it – I dreamt of a “Pretty In Pink” prom:
soaring ceilings, crystal chandeliers, a live band, everyone drinking spiked punch from real glass punch cups. I wanted to see the king and queen crowned, forgetting for a few precious moments that it was all just a popularity contest. The last thing I imagined was the low lunchroom ceiling of the local technical college and a grand march under bright fluorescent lights in front of the flashbulbs of fifty or so parents as Prince’s “Purple Rain” played on to infinity – and no king or queen since that “might make someone feel bad”.
This was my Prom experience.
Being a total tomboy did not make me immune to the want of suspending reality long enough to dress up in a frilly gown and prance about like a princess for one night during my high school years. So I found myself a date, went dress shopping with girlfriends, got all giggly about jewelry and makeup and high-healed shoes. It was all in fun, all an adolescent formal form of dress-up.
The dance, as you may have gathered, was held at the local community college. I expected there to be a ballroom or something, but no, the festivities were set up in the lunchroom where they hadn’t even had the courtesy to remove the fliers pinned to the bullion board stating that “Shop Class will be held in classroom 185 – NOT the garage.” The atmosphere was claustrophobic and dark. My date and I had our pictures taken in front of a huge fake palm tree and strolled the “Night in the Jungle” décor, which consist of a life-sized (but not life-like) stuffed gorilla holding a banana and the fake palm trees.
We made our way to the punch table, plastic Dixie cups of which were handed out one per person by the school principal. I think the punch was actually Hi-C since there was a case of it sitting on the table next to the punchbowl. “‘Cmon people,” I thought, “can ‘t we at least try to pretend?”
We found a group of friends and sat down at one of the plasti-covered tables, hoping at least for some hors’d’overs, party mints, nuts, etc. We stared in disbelief at the tiny paper plate in the center of the table.
“Are those what I think they are?”
“Yes - Runts™ candy. Mostly bananas.”
This is my prom?? I thought. No finger sandwiches, no chandelier? Even the music sucked – Billy Ray Cyrus caused a rush of line dancers to the floor. The class had chosen the anachronistic “Purple Rain” as its prom song., which played every half hour until the grand march.
The grand march was of course the Coup de Gras – some administrator had the bright idea of inviting all the parents in (to my PROM!) at 10 p.m. to photograph their kids sashaying down the raised ramp, past the giant stuffed gorilla to “Purple Rain” played on a continuous loop as couple after couple shuffled along. Since the moms and dads couldn’t be expected to take photos in the dark, the fluorescent cafeteria lights were flipped on.
I sat at my table with my head in my hands and vowed never to get excited about anything my school ever did ever again. Ever.
BELLE LETTRE CALENDAR
OCTOBER
10/8-Simchat Torah (Rejoicing of the Law) This joyous holiday falls on the eighth day of Sukkot. It marks the end of the year's reading of the Torah (Five Books of Moses) in the synagogue every Saturday and the beginning of the new cycle of reading.
10/11 Columbus Day (Observed) August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, with three ships, The Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. On October 12, 1492, Columbus sighted by moonlight what he thought was an island off the Indies near Japan or China. The island, which Columbus called San Salvadore, was actually a tiny part of an unknown world.
10/15 First Day of Ramadan This day marks the beginning of a month-long fast that all Muslims must keep during the daylight hours. It commemorates the first revelation of the Qur'an. Following the last day of Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr is celebrated on Sun., Nov. 14.
10/24 United Nations Day devoted to making known to the people of the world the aims and achievements of the United Nations, and to gaining their support for the work of the United Nations.10/31 Daylight Saving Time ends Set clocks back one hour."Halloween" comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year.
NOVEMBER
11/1 All Saints' Day A Roman Catholic and Anglican holiday celebrating all saints, known and unknown.
11/2 All Soul’s Day Set aside for prayers for the souls of those in purgatory.
Election Day is a day on which states hold elections. The elections may be for referendums, local, state, or national office. While elections may occur on other days, it is tradition to hold at least national elections on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
11/5 Guy Fawkes' Day (Bonfire Night) - In 1605, a person named Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the British Parliament with 36 barrels of gunpowder.Nowadays, the British mark Guy Fawkes' Day with bonfires and fireworks.(NOVEMBER CONT,) 11/11 Veterans' Day - the day set aside to thank and honor ALL those who served honorably in the military - in wartime or peacetime - largely intended to thank LIVING veterans for their service, to acknowledge that their contributions to our national security are appreciated, and to underscore the fact that all those who served - not only those who died - have sacrificed and done their duty.11/25 Thanksgiving - A federal holiday observed the fourth Thursday in November by act of Congress (1941), it was the first such national proclamation issued by President Lincoln in 1863, on the urging of Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, editor of Godey's Lady's Book. Most Americans believe that the holiday dates back to the day of thanks ordered by Governor Bradford of Plymouth Colony in New England in 1621, but scholars point out that days of thanks stem from ancient times.11/28 Advent until Christmas Eve - The word Advent is a derivative of the Latin word adventus meaning "coming". In the context of this holiday it refers to the coming of Christ or birth of Christ. Holding the holiday four weeks before Christmas is symbolic of the four millennium between the Fall of Adam and the Birth of Christ. Historically is was a time of fasting, repentance, and preparation.
DECEMBER
12/8 Immaculate Conception - declared that Mary, the mother of Jesus was the only person born free from original sin and with no inclination to sin.12/8 First Day of Hanukkah (Festival of Lights) - This festival was instituted by Judas Maccabaeus in 165 B.C. to celebrate the purification of the Temple of Jerusalem, which had been desecrated three years earlier by Antiochus Epiphanes, who set up a pagan altar and offered sacrifices to Zeus Olympius. In Jewish homes, a light is lighted on each night of the eight-day festival.12/15 Bill of Rights Day - Bill of Rights was important in the founding of the United States because of the depravity experienced by many of the immigrants. 12/ 18 – WINTER ISSUE OF BELLE LETTRE!
Belle Lettre
Belle the Cat
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