"We're in a bubble here."

Standing outside Dexter Avenue King Memorial church in Montgomery, Alabama, March 13, 2015, closing day of the 50^th anniversary re-enactment of the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery march, the tallest of the Buffalo Soldiers looks me in the eye and cooly remarks, "We're in a bubble here."

Another Buffalo Soldier has been taking pictures of the men on the rooftops above us. I hadn't thought to look up, but there they were indeed, training binoculars and cameras down at us from just about every rooftop. I assume they are police of some sort, and although I don't see weapons I think they must also be armed. The Soldier I had been talking to refuses to look up. He says, “I’m home sick today.”

I didn't ask the Soldier to explain his remark about a bubble, but I'm sure what he had in mind was that that day's police protection was an artificial and temporary thing in contrast to the current widespread and regularly reported police killings of unarmed Black people. And he clearly felt personally threatened by the police cameras. He had called in sick to be able to take the day off from his job to be in Montgomery with the marchers.

There were at least twenty uniformed Buffalo Soldiers who had come on their “iron horse” motorcycles, and were determinedly heading up the church steps to attend the speechmaking following the end of the march up at the Capitol steps. They didn't all get in, which is how I got the chance to talk with a few of them. I had only a vague recollection of the history of the all-Black U.S. Cavalry regiments formed at the end of the Civil War, so I just said, "I've heard about the original buffalo soldiers but I don't know much about them and I just want to ask what the story is, what you guys are about." Their answers were polite, brief and determined: "We are the Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle Club. We keep alive the memory of the original U.S. Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers and keep true to their tradition of service to our country and our community."

I reflected on how the Buffalo Soldiers, clearly representing Black Pride and at least suggesting Black Power (they did not seem to be armed), were a kind of re-enactment within a re-enactment that day. I also reflected on how different the atmosphere of this 50th anniversary Selma to Montgomery march was from the 1965 event. I hadn't been there myself, but I told the Soldiers about looking into that history and finding an account saying that Klan elements in 1965 in collusion with local authorities had been talking about putting snipers on the Dexter Avenue rooftops to pick off the march leaders – but had been persuaded, in large part by Red Blount, the rich white founder of the modern Republican Party in Alabama, not to try any such thing, that "it would be bad for business."

However, although the 1965 march was allowed, it was not well protected and was indeed bloody all the way from Bloody Sunday in Selma to Montgomery and back (remember Viola Liuzzo). 

In contrast, during this 50th anniversary re-enactment Montgomery authorities were very friendly and helpful. That morning at St. Jude's church on the western outskirts of Montgomery where we marchers began the last five-mile segment leading to Dexter Avenue and the Capitol, Judy had asked the police unit commander there for help getting Jim Scott's guitar to the Capitol, where we hoped he would be performing as part of the culminating ceremonies of the march, so he wouldn't have to carry it the whole five miles. "Sure, that's no problem, I'll put it in this squad car and you can get it out at the Capitol."

But indeed there are bubbles within bubbles. While the 50th anniversary Selma to Montgomery march was primarily organized by the entity first headed by King, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, it was also organized "in collusion with local authorities," just with a difference. A search on the internet for "Selma to Montgomery 2015" turned up not SCLC at the top of the results list but dreammarcheson.com, "Commemorating the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March . . . we invite you to celebrate the many dreams that started here by visiting Selma, Lowndes County and Montgomery." With an official “The Dream Marches On” logo, unauthorized use or duplication of which without express and written permission from the City of Montgomery is strictly prohibited, email or call toll-free Meg Lewis at the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce for more information, and WE THANK OUR SPONSORS, showing the logos of 26 corporate sponsors, including Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, BBVA Compass Bank, Honda, Hyundai, AT&T, the Montgomery Advertiser, AARP, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Alabama etc etc.

That is, whatever SCLC or the marchers thought the event was about, it was to be “good for business,” well worth the massive police protection.

Another difference between this re-enactment and the original march was that SCLC was not insisting that focus be kept on voting rights, but allowing signs, chants, and speaking on many issues/dreams. Judy, who never needed assertiveness training, got close enough to where march leaders were about to present their petition to Governor Bentley on the steps of the Capitol, and was able, since she knew many of those leaders, to get them to raise a chant of Medicaid Now! Medicaid Now! as the Governor came down the steps. There, a few of the up-front march leaders turn their backs to him, but he shakes hands with the others, says he will do what is right for all Alabamians, takes and puts in his coat pocket what he is handed, and turns to go back up the steps to his office. One of the pocketed pieces of paper is a letter Judy has written urging him to "execute justice, not people."

The speech-making that followed inside Dexter King Memorial church of course was led off and closed with serious SCLC preaching and teaching; and included teenagers speaking up for LGBT rights.

Judy and I had brought New England folksinger Jim Scott with us. Jim was touring his "Pete Seeger Songfest" program, had done a concert in Fredonia the Saturday before, and Judy thought she could arrange for him to lead the crowd at the church in "If I Had a Hammer," or "We Shall Overcome." I was skeptical about that prospect, and at first it looked as though we wouldn't even be able to get into the church.  It is less than a block away and in sight of the Capitol, but there were about a thousand people in the street, most of them between us and the front steps of the church. But Judy led Jim Scott through and around the crowd to a side entrance and got him into the church up near the altar and introduced to people in charge of the program.

I hung back, deferring to all those other sincere pilgrims, including those Buffalo Soldiers, which is how I got the chance to talk with them. But then Judy stuck her head out of the church doors and yelled to me, "Jim, come on in, Roger and Roberta are saving a seat for you."So I got into the church, sat through a lot of familiar sermonizing and at the end was moved by the crowd, led by Jim Scott, standing and enthusiastically singing and clapping out "If I Had a Hammer," and joining hands with arms crossed to sing a convincing "We Shall Overcome."

Afterward, Jim Scott remarked that he was strongly impressed by seeing how immediately urgent Black issues were to the people he walked with and talked to that day, matters of life and death; in contrast to so many people he knew in New England and the rest of the country, who even though in sympathy could not feel directly or immediately affected and for whom the issues remained primarily abstract matters of morality and politics.

I told Jim I felt the same way. Although I had been a somewhat reluctant marcher and attended only that last day's into-Montgomery segment, I was at the end of the day very glad that I had come to be with people who were not just participating in a re-enactment but in their own lives addressing serious issues – voter inequality, income inequality, inadequate or no health care, sexism, racism, police violence, militarism..

Yet I have to say I fear "Business As Usual Shall Overcome." It's good that the 2015 re-enactment march was not, like the 1965 march, bloody there and back. But the "collusion" with authorities is scary.  March leaders repeatedly reminded the crowd they were not there just to celebrate or commemorate a past victory but again wake the nation to make needed change. But I note that the “official” Dream Marches On message of the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce, supposedly giving whole-hearted support for the march, focuses only on commemoration and celebration, and that of no particular dream but “many dreams.” As though to say, “just pick the dream of your choice and dream on . . .” Let’s have the Governor say a few meaningless words, pocket any demands for change and return to his office. Let’s not have anything happen that would be bad for business or wake a nation.

The Slowdown Dirty Truth take on all this: Indeed there are bubbles within bubbles. Business As Usual is itself, including not just the usual corporate suspects but the usual organizational, institutional and personal making-a-living "busy-ness,” is a fantasy dream, another kind of bubble. In the not very long run, even resolving any one or even all of our yes, pressing issues, will not matter if our climate- and habitat-destroying growth-at-all-costs economy – that has, yes, created the living-as-usual comforts so many of us enjoy – is not stopped.

Indeed, most of our most pressing immediate problems are not even solvable in a business-as-usual context. To proceed without that realization is to live and act in a bubble.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Soldier
http://www.nabstmc.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Soldiers_MC
http://dreammarcheson.com/#Home
http://warisacrime.org/node/14885
http://www.jimscottguitar.com

Sixty million years, and then there is this . . .

Springtime, and I’m back in the saddle again

riding, riding, riding . . . my beloved mower.

But that not everlasting oil must be changed

so now just getting it done

having to improvise, catching

the old oil, almost two warm quarts

through the found tubing but it slips

my left hand thrusts itself in to stop the spill

saving most but not all.

And it hurts.

Holding the damned tubing to catch

All I can, but watching the rest

flowing over that left hand

watching warm trickling blood and oil

bright red and shining black

puddling on the cold carport concrete

knowing this is the way the world ends.

Sixty million years

Sixty million years of evolution since the last Extinction, and it also (see previous post), I'm happy to say, comes to this:

Bebe & Me, by Sophie McDow (2009) – A book for all (the) ages

In this slim book, a seven-year-old child tells us in her own words and through her own full-color artwork about the special relationship she has with her grandmother. Author Sophie McDow has a distinct advantage in tackling this subject in that her grandmother’s own story is interesting in itself. Grandma Bebe (Becky Guinn) is a talented artist and art teacher who lost both hands and both feet to an adverse reaction to medications during a hospital stay, as Sophie puts it, “to get her heart fixed.” However, Bebe’s heart apparently didn’t need all that much fixing, because she had the heart not only to survive the ordeal but with the aid of prosthetics to resume her artwork and teaching. Sophie tells us, “Bebe can do everything she used to and now even more! Her hooks are really strong and her chair is really fast!”

The story of “Bebe and me” is well-told from the child’s point of view in simple, direct and well-chosen details and appealing and colorful drawings. There is no mistaking that this is a child’s book, and a children’s book that will captivate beginning readers and delight grown-ups who read (and show) it to children. But Bebe & Me surpasses such categories. It’s a little book for all ages and for all the ages. In presenting the story of her grandmother’s life and of their special relationship, the child has been able to see and render for us what makes any relationship truly “special.” Just one example: “Bebe is smart and helps people learn and makes everyone feel great about themselves.”

Recommended for all audiences. Book is available at bebeandme.org.

War on coal? No, war on our life-support system

Sixty million years of evolution since the last Extinction, and it comes to this:

Members of the Alabama Public Service Commission have been getting a lot of publicity about their resistance to what they call the “war on coal” supposedly being waged by the Obama administration and the EPA. PSC head Twinkle Cavanaugh even extends the metaphor, saying EPA's proposed rules, aimed at reducing CO2 emissions, are an attack on “our way of life in Alabama.” Incoming PSC member Chip Beeker has been quoted as saying Alabama coal is God’s gift to us and that the EPA’s “war against coal” goes against “God’s plan” for it to be used without interference.

One of the people who represented coal interests at a recent news conference held by PSC members, Republican National Committeeman Paul Reynolds, was reported to have given his version of Cavanaugh’s “our way of life in Alabama” that is supposedly threatened by the EPA: “It is the goal of the ordinary working man to go to work so he can come home to an air conditioned house, have a nice TV to watch, and have a comfortable life.”

If this is the highest goal a person or a people can aspire to, a way of life so materialistically self-centered and uncaring of the consequences, a life focused on worshipping in air-conditioned comfort at the altar of the "nice TV," it seems to me not worth defending. That’s not to say it isn’t an accurate depiction not just of Alabama but of the dominant American way of life. A life of unlimited, unfettered consumption of Earth’s “resources.”

That is, a way of life at war with our life-support system, aka “the environment,” which we systematically destroy so we can for a while enjoy “a comfortable life.” For how long? Not long, I’m afraid. 

Those proposed EPA rules, btw, do not dictate that Alabama has to change anything about the way it uses coal. The rules only say the state needs to find ways of its own – efficiency standards and improvements, solar, wind, even nuclear – to reduce CO2 emissions by 30% from 2005 levels. In other words, not even half-measures compared to the changes actually needed. The bridge is out ahead, but the party in the club car of the Doomsday Express goes on. 

The best overall presentation on the situation I know of is Nate Hagens' "Humans and Earth: Transitioning from Teenagers to Adults as a Species." That title sounds optimistic, I know. Nate's take-home, bottom-line, what is to be done: "I'm trying to be a better person."

Hagens, if you haven't seen his stuff, is a former MBA and millionaire Wall St broker, vice-president of Salomon Brothers, who quit the money business in disgust and got a PhD in natural resources from the University of Vermont; and for 8-9 years was a principal editor of The Oil Drum website. Now has a farm in Wisconsin.  He sees the Big Picture. 

I also recommend Guy McPherson's "Only Love Remains." 

Fourth of July, 2014

I'm almost a month late getting this up. Since I started this blog with a Fourth of July essay, seems I should observe the Fourth this year. So. Here's the Fourth of July editorial I published in the Free Fredonia Times #27 (with a little editorial touch-up for the occasion).  I want to add just one point, a point I dared not make in the Times. If you want to look for a "message" in the film I'm recommending, The Lone Ranger, listen to Tonto: "Comes a time good man must wear mask."Thinking about this point got me looking back at my first Fourth of July post; still and again relevant.

Editorial – Reflections on the 4th of July

Happy? Birthday USA

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.– That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. –Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence.

Happiness a right? No, we have only the right to pursue happiness. But there is a catch here, if you care at all about “original intent.” For Jefferson, “true happiness” lay not in the mere satisfaction of personal desires or in simply enjoying a pleasurable life. The pursuit of happiness was the exercise of an innate “moral sense” recognizing that personal safety and well-being depend on just and equitable social and civic relationships. In a late letter listing his philosophic principles, Jefferson wrote: Happiness the aim of life.Virtue the foundation of happiness.

Some scoff at such high-minded rhetoric coming from someone (and the rest of the Signers) who owned slaves and who chose to count only white property-owning male persons as being equally deserving of such rights. I say at least let’s give them credit for establishing an ideal our country has been in the process of fully realizing for yea these many years. However, it seems to me proper on the Fourth to consider how much or how far our country has actually progressed in achieving the ideals of the Declaration. Is our country, as a whole or as a population of individuals, pursuing “true happi-ness?” Does it count for or against, for example, that we have now reached the point where we consider not just all human persons as deserving rights, but corporations as well?

I confess that while I would like to whole-heartedly wish Happy Birthday! USA, my country seems to me to be less and less pursuing true happiness. But I do always try to look on the bright side. So just let me recommend the The Lone Ranger, the 2013 film starring Johnny Depp. Jefferson likely got the phrase “pursuit of happiness” from one of his chief intellectual heroes, John Locke (in the Essay on Human Understanding, 1690). So seeing the to-be Lone Ranger at the beginning of this film carrying as his "scripture" instead of a Bible John Locke’s Treatise on Civil Government tips you off to the seriousness of this funny fable, based on a true history of the making of America.

Letter to editor: US policy in Ukraine risks nuclear war

(published in the Valley Times-News, May 1, 2014)

In 1962 Russia began placing nuclear missiles in Cuba, only 90 miles from the US homeland. That led to a military confrontation, the US Navy blockading Cuba, with destroyers dropping depth charges on Russian submarines sent there to protect Russian shipping. Russia’s Nikita Khruschev declared the blockade was an act of war and threatened global nuclear war if the US would not back off. At one point a Russian submarine commander ordered launch of a nuclear-tipped torpedo against a US destroyer, which would almost certainly have triggered a nuclear World War III. He was stopped only because the political officer on the sub had authority to countermand the order. The US and Russia were “eyeball to eyeball” and the world within an eye-blink of annihilation. Thankfully, on the 13^th day of the stand-off the Russians backed away, agreeing to withdraw their missiles from Cuba.

I remember vividly how frightening the Cuban missile crisis was, perhaps especially because I was at the time living with my wife and children in Miami; but also because I was only recently discharged from service in the US Navy and had in the Pacific off California watched American destroyers playing tag with Russian submarines. It was “only” Cold War gaming, each side testing out the other side’s tactics. But we all knew the slightest mistake on either side had the potential to start the nuclear Hot War that would kill us all.

The Cold War supposedly ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union and our collective fears of nuclear war have abated. But today the US (and NATO, dominated by the US) is making the same mistake the Russians made in 1962 by threateningly moving massive nuclear-capable military forces close to the Russian homeland, along the western border of Ukraine and in the Baltic and Black Sea areas. The Russians are lining up their forces on the other side of Ukraine. Should civil war break out in Ukraine, which now seems likely, Russia is likely to send its forces into Ukraine to protect its legitimate economic interests in the area. What will US/NATO forces do? It’s important to realize that Russian military doctrine dictates use of tactical nuclear weapons any time they are out-gunned in conventional combat. Such a conflict could not be limited and would almost certainly lead to the nuclear wildfire.

The United States has no legitimate national security interests in Ukraine, and trying to bring Ukraine into the European Union (or NATO), and massing forces along the border, can only be seen by Russia as threats to its security, as attempts to isolate and weaken it. The former Soviet Union might have been seeking world domination, but post-Soviet Russia has become integrated into the global economy and is not that kind of threat.  It’s time for the US to see the wisdom of backing off from an unjustified and unwinnable conflict, just as the Russians did in 1962.

Most of the time when I see just about everyone in Congress and in the mainstream media going along with a stupidly foolish and/or dangerously aggressive Administration policy, I shrug and say “What’s the use?” This time I’m at least sending this letter to President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry, along with Rep. Mike Rogers and Senators Shelby and Sessions.

-- Jim Allen, Fredonia

Note –  I saw after I had sent this letter a Wall St Journal interview with John Kerry: 

[Kerry's] greatest fear now? "I think it could deteriorate into hot confrontation," even without Russian troops crossing into Ukraine, Mr. Kerry said. "And there are provocateurs who are perfectly capable, who are trying to instigate that kind of flare-up. The fact it hasn't happened so far, he said, is a tribute to the discipline and restraint of the fledgling Ukrainian government. "But obviously," he added, "you could have a flash point here."

Signs and portents be damned

I'll just mention one sign – wandering around a few of the big box stores, looking for rabbit fencing and stuff of that sort, I am struck by huge piles of various flavors of Roundup. And no or very few rain gauges.

But I'm not going on about that or any other Bad News. For now just want to show you some photos taken in the last week or so. Most of the pink stuff is redbud blossoms. They have very delicately sweet nectar. They are very small, so take your time. The blueberries and apples are for later. We planted eight blueberry plants – two each of Woodard, Becki Blue, Climax, and Premier. You need different varieties to get adequate pollination. The apple tree in the photo is a Golden Delicious. You probably wonder why GD, eh? The two other apples we planted are a Fuji and a Gala. Getting apple pollination right is apparently something of a puzzle, and the authorities offer differing recommendations. No local nurseries offer semi-dwarf trees, and we did not want to plant full-size 30+ foot trees. And did not want to buy from a Big Box store. So we're limited to what we can find on the net. Stark Bros says their Gala will pollinate Fuji, but maybe not vice versa. Crabapples supposedly will pollinate all apple varieties; but Golden Delicious comes in second as a universal pollinator. We hope. Maybe it will make good applesauce too.