Tucson's Concert for the Ages: Coming Together For Love

Two months ago the city of Tucson made international news for the horrific shootings at a local supermarket on Jan. 8, but on the night of March 10 a remarkable concert was held to raise money for the "Fund for Civility, Respect, and Understanding"--a community response to the disaster which will help victims and also support programs like anti-bullying initiatives in schools. Here are some snapshots from the evening:

I got there a little late just in time for the final song by Joel Rafael, who is known as an interpreter of Woody Guthrie's words and music.  His back-up singers: Graham Nash and David Crosby.

Every act played a set of three songs. A great "house band" of studio musicians backed up most performers. I would be content to hear a solo concert by these guys anytime.

With the exception of Alice Cooper and Jackson Browne, I had never seen any of the other performers--they were all incredible: Sam Moore---who Rolling Stone magazine called one of the 100 greatest singers of the rock era; blues singer Keb' Mo'; Nils Lofgren--lead guitarist for the E Street Band;  Dar Williams-- awesome folk rock ; Jerry Riopelle-- my kind of hard rocker ("The Thrill Is Gone").  Jackson Browne and Crosby, Nash backed up some of these artists.

Jennifer Warnes, who had the big hit "The Time of My Life" from the film Dirty Dancing, sang Amazing Grace acapella. You could hear a pin drop in the Tucson Convention Center arena.

The Tucson-based band, Calexico, played a high energy set backed up by Tucson's Salvador Duran and an entire mariachi group. They were followed by the also amazing group Ozomatli, who belted out one of the greatest hip-hop songs I've ever heard. Both bands had fabulous horn sections. Ozomatli ended their boycott of Arizona (over the state's harsh anti-immigrant laws) to come play at this event.

Everyone had come on short notice to play for free. Local folks and businesses were thanked for all the free services and support they provided the concert.

Many people spoke between acts including: Emily Nottingham, mother of shooting victim Gabe Zimmerman, and Ron Barber, who was severely wounded and came up with the idea for the Fund and concert while he was recovering in the hospital.

Video clip appearances included Joan Baez and Pete Seeger, who also played a little on his banjo.

Promoter Danny Zelisko served at times as the MC, along with Alice Cooper and Jackson Browne, thanking many. Zelisko recognized Tucson folksinger Ted Warmbrand, "who was instrumental in making this happen.  He put in the call to Jackson."

The concert started at 6 p.m.--around 9:30 p.m. the final headlining acts began with Graham Nash and David Crosby. They started with Graham Nash's song "In Your Name,"--"Lord are you listening to a prayer from a simple man? Can you stop all the sadness. Can you stop all of this madness? Can you stop all of this killing in your name?" Their next number was the hauntingly beautiful "Guinnevere" which was dedicated to the Green family who lost  nine-year-old Cristina on Jan. 8. Then David Crosby slung an electric guitar over his shoulder, "Sometimes I get possessed, and have to rock!"----"Long Time Gone" brought down the house.

Jackson Browne followed, leading off with "Doctor My Eyes." His second song was the wonderful "I am a Patriot"("and the river opens for the righteous") during which his back-up singers, two young African-Americans Alithia Mills and Yvonne Stewart, were show stoppers with their stunning vocal solo. I last saw Browne play in El Paso in the mid-90s, a benefit concert for anti-nuclear groups.

The final act was Arizona's own Alice Cooper. No make-up or gimmicks. He requested everyone sing along with his songs--"If you don't know the words, you didn't go to high school!" He led off with "Eighteen," followed by "Telephone Is Ringing," then "School's Out." It was mentioned that Cooper last played Tucson in 1973 to open his "Billion Dollar Babies" tour. That was the year I saw him play in N.C.---38 years ago and he's still going strong. Cooper said it would be good to do this concert yearly--to keep spreading civility.

Everyone, including Ron Barber's family and other community folks, came on stage for one final number, "Teach Your Children," with many holding song sheets with the words.  Then Graham Nash said, "We'll see you next year. We wish you peace," and we began filing out into the night, as the arena's sound system played the Woody Guthrie song, "This Land Is Your Land."

Tucson Rising: Music After The Madness; Remembering Salvador Cardenal

A Musical Bond--Salvador and Katia Cardenal, Jackson Browne,  and Ted Warmbrand; A Remarkable Gathering of Musicians For a Good Cause On March 10

As a teenager in the early 1970s I attended two Alice Cooper concerts which included a guillotine and the gallows. My personal “shock” activities included blowing up plastic model cars I built with firecrackers. As an adult I’ve gone to four Salvador Cardenal concerts featuring his poetic compositions about love in all its forms. I still haven’t written a love song, but at least I don’t blow up stuff anymore.

Salvador Cardenal, who died at the age of 50 on March 8, 2010, was one of Nicaragua’s most beloved and influential songwriters.  He and sister Katia, with her stunning vocals, performed as Duo Guardabarranco.  Singer-songwriter Jackson Browne met the duo in Nicaragua on a solidarity visit in the 1980s. Browne was won over by their amazing songs, and later sponsored tours for them in the U.S.

In the late 1990s I met folk musician Ted Warmbrand shortly after moving to Tucson, and we've occasionally got together to play our banjos. For decades Ted has sung for justice at picket lines, marches, vigils and rallies while organizing concerts featuring movement musicians like Pete Seeger and Sweet Honey in The Rock. Ted met Salvador and Katia on their first U.S. tour, which led to a close professional and personal relationship. He has organized eight Duo Guardabarranco concerts in Tucson alone in addition to several U.S. tours. Ted has also spent time with the duo in Nicaragua, including one extended visit to help archive their music. 

Raising Support For The "Fund For Civility, Respect, and Understanding."

Through Salvador Ted got to know Jackson Browne, who Ted called recently to ask to come play at a benefit concert in Tucson on March 10, that will support the victims’ families and community at large in the aftermath of the January 8 massacre in Tucson, where six people were killed and many more wounded including Congressional Representative Gabby Giffords. Browne, who has a long history of supporting social justice and environmental causes, heard the call and agreed to come. Ron Barber, Gifford’s district Director, who was also injured in the shootings, had the idea for the concert which will poignantly happen just two days after the anniversary of Salvador Cardenal’s death.

Salvador and Katia Cardenal with Ted Warmbrand, during a U.S. tour in the mid-1990s

I first heard Duo Guardabarranco play when I lived in Nicaragua in the 1980s. The country had a revolution underway that the U.S. government sought to destroy. While Salvador and Katia developed as musicians within the context of the Nicaraguan Revolution,  their gentle, uplifting music transcended revolution, offering a spiritual respite from the terrible toll wrought by decades of violence.

Salvador described his music this way, “My sources of inspiration were always beauty and injustice. To make beautiful things with words, sounds and colors..to protest pain, terror and the unjust. To defend what's beautiful and just with music, poetry and paint. To join the arts together as brothers in order to have an impact on the inertia of humans, and spread seeds of conscience and inconformity with a world in ruins because of human causes.”

Before reading further I encourage you to listen to one of Guardabarranco’s great songs, “Dale una luz,”  which paints a vivid portrait of their native country. The lyrics are posted over images of Nicaragua--if you don't understand Spanish the music is equally compelling:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty9XNsShnl8&feature=related

I’ve been fortunate to catch several of Guardabarranco’s performances in the Tucson area, but my most unforgettable experience with Salvador Cardenal was the last time I saw him in 2005. I had returned to Nicaragua for a brief visit and Ted had given me some materials to deliver to Salvador. I was staying at a house in Managua with friends Paul Dix and Pam Fitzpatrick, who were working on a book about the victims of Nicaragua’s Contra war.

Salvador agreed to come pick up the materials, so I looked forward to meeting him and having a brief chat. Instead he blew in like a cultural hurricane bringing food and about ten of his recent paintings to show us. And Salvador brought along his guitar, which led to a performance just for the three of us, playing his new songs about nature-- he had deep concerns over the rampant ecological destruction in Nicaragua. I gave him the materials, but Salvador had delivered a more extraordinary and wonderful package, unwrapping all he had to offer, nothing held back. I learned this was no exception—he was always like this.

So it might be said that Jackson Browne is staying true to their common mission, by bringing his own musical magic to Tucson next week, thanks in large part to his friendship with Salvador Cardenal. Browne will be joined by many others including Alice Cooper, who lives in Phoenix, Graham Nash, David Crosby, Dar Williams, Keb’ Mo’, Ozomatli, Jennifer Warnes, Joel Rafael, Calexico, and many more.  I’ve already got my ticket. (see link below for more info). 

The Road Ahead and Evolving Paths

The concert will be a big step forward after the horrific events of January, but it is still a long road ahead. Arizona continues to live in its own vitriolic context manifested through the nation’s most draconian anti-immigrant laws championed by a radically conservative state legislature and law enforcement officials like Sheriff Joe Arpaio.  Mexico has even issued travel advisories to its citizens visiting Arizona. 

New gun control legislation stands no chance in Arizona which already has some of the most lax gun laws in the country. The legislature is pushing for a new law allowing concealed handguns on college campuses. The lack of historical memory is troubling. In 2002 a disgruntled student gunned down three professors on the University of Arizona campus in Tucson.

photo at right--A positive face of Arizona: No More Deaths volunteers Steve Johnston and Maryada Vallet  bandaging the feet of an injured migrant (nomoredeaths.org)

Governor Jan Brewer and Joe Arpaio may represent the arrogant storm clouds of intolerance in Arizona, but many others are leading the way towards a brighter horizon; people like twenty-year old Daniel Hernandez, Gabby Giffords volunteer intern, who rushed to his stricken boss to treat her wounds and provide comfort, and has helped console everyone with powerful words of wisdom spoken from the heart. Hernandez will be among the speakers at the concert on March 10. 

While Alice Cooper used mock violence in his earlier concerts, the effects were were quite harmless, similar to watching a Dracula movie. His song, "School's Out," an anthem of youthful rebellion,  is still very popular among youth. But Cooper has evolved from those days. In 2001 he was asked by the British Sunday Times newspaper about how his current religious beliefs contrast with his days as a shock-rocker, and responded "Drinking beer is easy. Trashing your hotel room is easy. But being a Christian, that's a tough call. That's real rebellion!"

Melvin and Me

While I had my fling with rock music, I eventually gravitated back towards the traditional music of the area where I grew up. When we were kids my father used to take us every year to a big fiddlers convention in Union Grove, N.C. to hear songs that had been played for generations, in stark contrast to contemporary pop music’s half-life of a few months. 

As the festival grew bigger it also metamorphosed into a combination of Mayberry and Woodstock. One year I remember us kids staring at a long-haired young man resembling Jesus as he waved his arms skyward while mumbling incoherently.  I think that was the last time our father took us to the festival.            

Melvin Slaydon at "Mayberry Days" in Mt. Airy, NC, fall 1999

I made my first banjo in high school from a kit to get credit for an independent study course. Then I heard about the Friday night jam session at Joe Guyer’s gas station in Popular Springs, N.C., a few miles from my hometown of Elkin. The first time there I met a fiddle player named Melvin Slaydon who also could play some banjo. We would make music together for the next twenty-five years.

Melvin’s existence evolved around playing the fiddle. His only formal employment had been priming tobacco in his younger days, which left him bent over and arthritic. He and his wife Mallie were so poor people let them stay in old houses for free. They drew enough from Melvin’s disability check to eat out once a day, and then would sit in their car for hours in parking lots talking with folks—a lifestyle they thoroughly enjoyed.

I played with Melvin at festivals, nursing centers, and in people’s homes. Once we both won first place at a fiddlers convention (there was only one other person beside myself competing in the clawhammer banjo division and I had been playing longer).  

____________________________________________________________________
Link For March 10 Benefit Concert in Tucson
 http://www.jacksonbrowne.com/news/2011/02/15/all-star-line-comes-together 
_____________________________________________________________________
Link For Documentary "Salvador Cardenal Barquero, Vida y Obra" (in Spanish) 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXXa4pqTofs&feature=related 

To go directly to the part of the documentary where Ted Warmbrand is interviewed, and Salvador talks about Jackson Browne, click here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpJLGZ3UOWU&feature=related

_______________________________________________________________________

Link for Song, "Dias De Amar" by Guardabarranco, performed in Nicaragua at a Latin American Music Festival, 1989
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAYOHZSE0CU 

Website for Duo Guardabarranco:
http://www.duoguardabarranco.com/
________________________________________________________________________
Link for Book "Nicaragua: Surviving The Legacy of U.S. Policy" by Paul Dix and Pam Fitzpatrick; Comes out in May; can be ordered now.
http://nicaraguaphototestimony.org/ 

Finding Treasure in Mexico's Sierra Madre; Remembering Germany's White Rose; The Winter of Revolt: Tunisia to Wisconsin

The Welcome Mat On The Not-So-Great Wall’s Southern End

Basket-maker Manuel Valdez in Magdalena, Sonora

Crossing through Uncle Sam’s border wall into Mexico is a study in contrasts. In Mexico no one looks at your papers. Now there is even a line to leave the U.S. with agents lined up to inspect vehicles. Feels a little like breaking out of prison, fortress U.S.A-- United States of Alcatraz. 

I’ve never had a problem with Mexican law enforcement authorities, but in the U.S. everyone is part of an ongoing movie—on a good day it’s the Keystone Cops, on a bad one it’s Rambo. Once two Border Patrol vehicles with lights flashing converged on my truck. They yelled for me to stick my hands out the window before they would approach. I was hauling dangerous cargo-- a load of utility tables.

Another time I got pulled over as I was about to cross into Mexico—wouldn’t they be glad if you were smuggling people back to Mexico? But my best role was when an agent threatened to arrest me for illegal entry into the U.S.—I was taking photos along an unfenced section of border and he claimed I had stepped across the invisible line.

Another refreshing difference in Mexico is the change in collective mentality. For example most Mexicans are quite politically astute, and don’t expect much from government. Our friend Stetson Kennedy, Florida’s great folk historian, once commented that the U.S. population is the only oppressed people in the world who think they are free.

Mexicans still continue the legacy of resistance from the Revolution of 1910 that claimed a million lives. The Zapatista indigenous rebellion of 1994 remains alive. Popular uprisings have occurred over the past decade in places like Oaxaca in 2006, where a broad front tried to oust a corrupt governor, and Atenco, near Mexico City, whose residents rose up in 2002 and 2006 to block construction of an international airport.

Hot Springs in Aconchi, Sonora

However political reeducation is not the reason to spend time in Mexico---it’s the rich and beautiful culture found throughout the country. History is alive. There are many places where it seems like the clock turns back decades, even centuries. But it’s not a museum or some gentrified historic district common to the U.S; it’s the real deal.

Aconchi, Sonora

There are gems waiting to be discovered in every part of the country. I just returned from a couple of days spent in an area I’ve frequented over the years —La Ruta del Rio Sonora, the Sonora River Valley Route, which is promoted as a tourist destination (fortunately few tourists go there to spoil it). It’s only a few hours drive south of the Arizona border, and well worth it.

The area enjoys spectacular mountain scenery as part of the Western Sierra Madre. The jaguar roams here in the former lands of the Opata indigenous culture. The valley road winds through several beautiful little towns with ancient mission churches: Arizpe, Sinoquipe, Banamichi, Huepac, and Aconchi.

Some have migrated out of the area to find work, but many still cling to life here struggling to make ends meet, but struggle is part of life in Mexico. For those with fears of Mexico's potential for violence, here's my personal travel advisory for the area: In ten years of visits I can’t remember hearing someone even raise their voice towards a fellow human being (not counting my behavior with my own kids).

Banamichi, Sonora

My favorite destination are the wonderful hot springs in Aconchi, where camping is allowed. But avoid coming here on major holidays if you seek peace and quiet, because camping for Mexicans usually means an outdoor party. That’s when my cultural adaptation skills fail me: strike one-I don’t drink; strike two—I can’t sleep with loud music; strike three—I especially don’t care for the type of music one lies awake listening to--- ranchera.

Friends For Life Thanks To A Sack Of Chicken Feed

After a nice soak in the hot springs I headed home and stopped to pick up a couple hitchhiking, Jorge and Pancha, who were hauling a sack of corn they had bought for their chickens. As is common in Mexico, an instant friendship blossomed.

Jorge, Pancha, and their dog Pinto

Jorge spoke good English he learned while living in the American Northwest for ten years: Washington, Oregon, and Montana. His main jobs were tree planting and timber harvesting. He also worked two seasons in Alaska at a salmon cannery.

After the short ride they invited me in for coffee and sweet rolls. The house had one main room with a bed, kitchen table and stove, along with a TV and CD player. They had nearly finished a one-room addition to the house, which was built “paying for one block at a time.”

El Picacho, near Sinoquipe, Sonora

Jorge was missing a number of his front teeth which led to a story explaining their demise: “At the cannery I worked with people from all over the world—Chinese, Eskimo, the U.S. and other countries. We all got along great. The only trouble I got into was with some guys from the Philippines. When I was drunk I got in a fight with them and got beaten to a pulp.”  He added that getting kicked in the face by a horse made matters worse.

Jorge, who occasionally philosophizes with biblical references, has left those adventurous days behind to raise a family with Pancha. He works as a diesel mechanic in Hermosillo, four hours trip by bus. By working eleven days straight, he gets four days off to return home every two weeks. Jorge and Pancha seemed very content with their life—never heard a single complaint.

Remembering Germany’s White Rose 

“...why do you allow these men who are in power to rob you step by step, openly and in secret, of one domain of your rights after another, until one day nothing, nothing at all will be left but a mechanized state system presided over by criminals and drunks? Is your spirit already so crushed by abuse that you forget it is your right - or rather, your moral duty - to eliminate this system?”

From the White Rose’s Third Leaflet

Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, Cristoph Probst

Feb. 22 will mark 68 years since three young German university students were executed in 1943 by the Nazi regime. Siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl, and Christoph Probst, father of three young children, were members of the White Rose group that published leaflets condemning the Nazis and calling for people to rise up against Hitler. They also occasionally painted anti-Nazi slogans and “Freedom” on walls. The three were the first of their group to go to the guillotine.

As adolescents Hans and Sophie had briefly belonged to the Hitler Youth, caught up in the fervor of the moment. Their father, who opposed Hitler, refrained from discouraging them—he believed that experience was the best teacher—both became disillusioned and quit.

The members of the White Rose led lives of comfort as university students enjoying concerts and outdoor activities, but their underground work couldn’t have been more risky—if caught they would face certain death.

From June 1942 to Feb. 1943 the White Rose anonymously mailed and distributed five leaflets, as their group slowly expanded to include even some high school students. The White Rose was on the verge of working with the national anti-Nazi resistance movement, but the Nazis caught them the day Sophie Scholl threw a stack of their sixth leaflet from an upper level at the University of Munich. The Gestapo tried to break them to turn in their friends, but they couldn’t be broken.

Top (l to r) Hans and Sophie Scholl, Kurt Huber: Bottom (l to r) Christoph Probst, Alexander Schmorrell, Willi Graf

 Sophie Scholl’s last words were "How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause. Such a fine, sunny day, and I have to go, but what does my death matter, if through us thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?"

One professor, Kurt Huber, had joined the students writing a leaflet. Before committing he had been at a meeting where the discussion had turned political and he spontaneously exclaimed, “Something has to be done, and it has to be done now!” He had crossed the line.

Awaiting execution,  Kurt Huber tried to finish a book he was writing, but he ran out of time. He wrote his wife Clara and his children a final letter thanking them for making his life rich and beautiful. “In front of me in the cell are the Alpine roses you sent...I go in two hours into that true mountain freedom for which I’ve fought all my life. May the Almighty God bless you and keep you. Your loving father.”

Huber was executed along with students Willi Graf and Alexander Schmorrell. The excellent book “Sophie Scholl and the White Rose” recounts a final visit by Alexander’s lawyer as he awaited execution: “Alex was calm and reassuring; he said he not only accepted death but welcomed it. ‘I’m convinced,’ he told the distraught attorney, ‘that my life has to end now, early as it seems, because I have fulfilled my life’s mission. I wouldn’t know what else I would have to do on this earth.”

Playwright Lillian Garrett-Groag was quoted in Newsday on February 22, 1993, that "It is possibly the most spectacular moment of resistance that I can think of in the 20th century... The fact that five little kids, in the mouth of the wolf, where it really counted, had the tremendous courage to do what they did, is spectacular to me. I know that the world is better for them having been there, but I do not know why."

  

There is a stunning  Academy-nominated German movie about the White Rose, “Sophie Scholl, The Final Days.” Here’s the link to view the trailer:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM5A4ETW_Io

The Winds of Revolt in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain……..and Wisconsin

People power has been contagious of late in the Arab World. This blog avoids recycling news you get elsewhere, but here’s a good audio/visual piece "Spreading Revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt"  from the New York Times (not a recommended media outlet).
 http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/world/middleeast/2011-spreading-revolutions.html#intro 

Also this interesting piece about the U.S. from New York Time's columnist Bob Herbert, "When Democracy Weakens":

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/opinion/12herbert.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

Then there's the tens of thousands of teachers, students, and their allies in Wisconsin who are entering their fourth day of mass protest at the state capitol against a radical attempt by the legislature to end collective bargaining by public unions.  Democratic lawmakers fled the state to prevent a vote. Here's an inspiring thirty seconds of direct action from cold and snowy Madison:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edt3rjqghg4&feature=player_embedded 

Finally here's the crowd as they disrupted business as usual inside the state capitol. Hundreds of students have been sleeping there. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCsG4g0dzJo&feature=related

Photos: A Stand For Peace in Elkin, N.C.; Tarheel Amish; Snow Bliss

Peace Vigil in Elkin, N.C. (pop. 4,000) on a cold December day. For three years a group of folks have been standing on a downtown corner every Thursday.

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Horse and Buggy Used By The Amish in Yadkin County, N.C.

Amish School in Yadkin County, N.C.

Demolition of Bridge Built in 1931 Over the Yadkin River connecting the towns of Elkin and Jonesville. Many hoped the bridge would be saved and used as a pedestrian park.

Dec. 25 snowstorm in Elkin, N.C.

Kitchen Table On a Snowy Day at the Old Homeplace, Elkin, N.C.

Cold Coconuts, Prison Pals, Dr. King's Call For Revolution

December 25 Snowstorm in N.C.

           Cold Coconuts And A Warm Dirt Floor

In Sonora, Mexico. My old friends Marcelino and Susana are doing well, still selling cold coconuts, honey, and acorn nuts at their roadside stand. After you drink the coconut's water they chop it up and cover with hot sauce and lemon juice. A week ago they moved to a house they built among the saguaros on the edge of town. The temporary structure, with no plumbing or electricity, is made entirely of used metal roofing. At night Marcelino brings in his truck battery to power a light bulb and a portable TV. After renting for years, Susana proudly told me, “It’s not much, but it's ours.”

I went to see their new abode and they welcomed me in for a cup of coffee while Susana prepared fresh tortillas. From the outside their “shack” hardly appears habitable, but the inside has all the touches of home sweet home: kitchen cabinets, neat rows of jars with sugar and spices, and pictures on the walls, The love that was put into the details trumps the finest castle.

Most Mexicans are used to living in a permanent financial crisis—if you don’t have spending money you do without. Lifestyles don’t evolve around the high wire act of financing—so no home foreclosure crisis or credit-driven bankruptcies. Putting food on the table is a big enough concern to deal with.

Being around people like Marcelino and Susana sure helps me get grounded after just having traveled more in the past month than they ever will in their lifetime. Social interaction in Mexico rarely involves inquiries about one’s work and travels. Instead offering hospitality and camaraderie are the priorities. Also no advance notice is necessary to drop in on friends—spontaneous visits are the norm.

Snow Dreams

We visited my hometown of Elkin, N.C. (pop. 4,000) for the holidays. Snow was predicted for Christmas Day. I have many fond memories from the sixties of sledding and snowball fights, but after a decade of winter visits with no snow, my own kids thought I was blowing hot air. As Christmas Day approached the predictions of several inches diminished to calls for only a dusting of snow—another winter wonderland bust loomed.

Still we set out to make the best of things. My mother supplied the artificial Christmas tree and a friend gave us a load of firewood. On Christmas Eve we made a stop at one of Elkin’s two Mexican stores to pick up a few items. The friendly folks there were giving out hot chocolate and tamales to all who dropped by. The two plastic sleds we purchased at Kennedy Auto Supply hardware store, in Elkin’s downtown for 57 years—a dinosaur from the pre Wal-Mart era, sat at the ready.

We woke up on Christmas Day to overcast skies but no snow, but about 9 a.m. the first snowflakes fluttered down, and they didn’t stop coming down until late into the evening. Over the next couple of days we nearly wore out the plastic sleds.

Before the snowstorm we visited the nearby Amish community, a beacon of self-reliance and spirituality, and to purchase their delicious baked goods sold at the Shiloh General Store. One of their many cottage industries are outdoor sheds. One of the sheds is sold as a playhouse for children, which would make great starter homes in many parts of the world.

Finding Community Behind Bars; Reflections On Violence

For the past thirteen years a big part of my community of people has included prison inmates I’ve met through the Alternatives to Violence Project—the first ten years in a state prison in Tucson, and the past three years in a state prison in Mexico. One common denominator I’ve found is that inmates will always make you feel welcome and appreciated—in fact you can get rather spoiled with the attention.

At one of our AVP gatherings this month we reflected on the horrible violence that took place in Tucson on Jan. 8 (I was camped on a mountain overlooking Tucson that Saturday). We discussed how understanding the context of violence in the world today is important, and we talked about ways to counter violence. Decriminalizing drugs often comes up when the discussion focuses on the disastrous consequences of the war on drugs in Mexico.

I shared some insights from the film “Bowling for Columbine.” Like Littleton, CO. where the Columbine tragedy occurred, Tucson is also a major defense contractor city with Raytheon Missile Systems, southern Arizona’a largest employer. This month marks the fiftieth anniversary of President Dwight Eisenhower’s final speech warning about “the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, of the military-industrial complex.” During Columbine the U.S. was bombing Kosovo, while the U.S. is currently bombing three other countries.

It’s been encouraging to hear the debate about the vitriolic political discourse in this country, but it barely seems to scratch the surface. The political center of gravity has shifted so far to the right in this country that the recent health care bill, which saved the private health insurance industry from extinction after single-payer and even a "public option" were rejected, is often called "socialism."

Then there’s the renewed debate about gun control and banning the 33 bullet magazine used in the Tucson massacre, and the need to return to the 2004 legal limit of 10 bullets. How about Deputy Barney Fife’s one bullet? (“The Andy Griffith Show”) or following Sheriff Andy’s example of not carrying a gun. Chris Rock has said guns aren’t the problem, it's the bullets. They should cost $5,000 apiece; then people would be more reluctant to ever use them.

Dr. King’s Words from 44 Years Ago--More Relevant Than Ever

Perhaps the greatest national holiday in this nation is the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday on Jan. 15, though Dr. King’s slaying on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis might be the more significant date to recognize. According to a jury verdict in the wrongful death civil trail brought by the King family, “governmental agencies” were parties to the assassination plot.

On April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his death, Dr. King gave perhaps the most important speech of his life. So much of what he said that day at Riverside Church in New York City (at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned) resonates loud and clear today. Here are some excerpts from his speech entitled “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.”:
“As I have walked among the desperate, rejected, and angry young men [in northern ghettos in the U.S.] I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they asked—and rightly so—what about Vietnam? They asked if our own nation wasn’t using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the change it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today—my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.”

“Before long they [the U.S. troops] they must know that their government has sent them into a struggle among Vietnamese, and the more sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the wealthy and the secure while we create hell for the poor.”

“They [the Vietnamese] watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. They wander into the hospitals, with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one “Vietcong”-inflicted injury. So far we may have killed a million of them—mostly children. “

“What do the [Vietnamese] peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as we refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform? What do they think as we test our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe?”

“The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality we will find ourselves organizing clergy-and laymen-concerned committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy. Such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God.”

“In 1957 a sensitive American official overseas said that it seemed to him that our nation was on the wrong side of a world revolution. During the past ten years we have seen emerge a pattern of world suppression which now has justified the presence of U.S. military “advisors” in Venezuela. This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counter-revolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. It tells why American helicopters are being used against guerillas in Colombia and why American napalm and green beret forces have already been active against rebels in Peru. It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.“

“Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken—the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investment.”

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

“These are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression and out of the wombs of a frail world new systems of justice and equality are being born. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. ‘The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.’ We in the West must support these revolutions. It is a sad fact that, because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, and our proneness to adjust to injustice, the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch anti-revolutionaries. This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has the revolutionary spirit. Therefore, communism is a judgment against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions we initiated. Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism.”

Respite for The Weary Teacher, and Guerilla Fighter?

Respite for the Weary Teacher, and Guerilla Fighter?

November is a good month to be a school teacher in Panama. Nov. 2 is the traditional Day of the Dead celebration so no school that day. Nov. 3 celebrates Panama’s separation from Colombia, followed by Flag Day on Nov. 4. Then came Friday, Nov. 5 which isn’t a holiday, but school was cancelled anyway. Nov. 10 celebrates some uprising, followed by Panama’s version of July 4^th on Nov. 28. No problem if teachers and students still feel run down after all the festivities—summer vacation starts in mid- December.

Jaque is a peaceful little town but gets lots of unfavorable publicity due to its proximity to the Colombian border. An older version of the popular “Lonely Planet” travel guide had this to say about the village, “Unless you’re here to surf out front of town or explore the Rio Jaque, there’s really no good reason to come here.” The latest version has no mention of Jaque.

A 2004 article in “Outside” magazine about Panama’s Darien Gap mentioned the author’s visit to “Jaque, a village of a few thousand where the guerrillas buy groceries and get their cavities filled.” (he forgot to mention them taking surfing lessons). Then there’s that billboard sponsored by the Colombian government a block from our house calling on the guerillas to turn themselves in for an amnesty program (see attached photo). With an image like this no wonder tourists never visit Jaque, which suits me just fine.