May those who can, hang on.
May those who cannot, know all mercy.

________
CODA
In symbolism, the pine tree remains rooted and green with life, even under duress of cold and raw weather. Cranes make many migrations back and forth between heaven and earth, standing for a certain kind of longevity, that of the soul.

For those whose good mothers have died

…for those who were lucky enough to have had what I call, “a beautiful, imperfectly-perfect mother,” but one who too early passed from this world, especially hard when she has been the ground note for her sons and daughters.

Some of us did not have a mother we can remember without fear, but even that doesn’t keep us from recognizing that special bond between many mothers and their children wherever we see it– and blessing that such bounty came to pass for them.

This is just meant to place a hand on the shoulders of those who might miss their mothers, just to take a moment to say, even though your mom is gone or leave-taking in some way, there was and is presence of her still. As long as you are here, she is here.

In some good way, she is here.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Mistaken Zygote Syndrome
by C.P. Estés

I tell my patients this story I made up, with both levity and gravity, to try to explain one of the great mysteries of this Earth: why some parents and offspring sometimes look at one another and ask themselves, “Who the heck are you? and what planet did you really come from??”

Here’s what I have to say on the matter in my consulting room:

We are born the way we are, and into the odd families we came
through:

1) Just because… (almost no one will believe this).

2) The Self has a plan, and our pea-brains are too tiny to parse it (many
find this a hopeful idea) or

3) Because of the Mistaken Zygote Syndrome
(well…yes, maybe…but what is that?).

Your family thinks you’re an alien.
You have feathers,
they have scales.
Your idea of a good time is the forest,
the wilds,
the inner life,
the outer majesty.
Their idea of a good time is folding towels.

If this is so for you in your family,
then you are a victim of The Mistaken Zygote Syndrome.
Read the rest of this entry »

Mother’s Day, as we know it today, is a more or less genteel day of hopefully kind words and sweet sentiments depending on whether one’s family more resembles the Simpsons, the Partridges or a holy family of schmoos.

But long ago, Mother’s Day in the US burst forth drenched in blood, and buried in bones and graves. It was anything but genteel.

This fiercely special day was set aside in 1870 to make a cry heard round the world from mothers who were demanding that war never be born again.

This special day was called by women who had lost their sons in a war wherein battle fields were like lakes of red from all the fallen. The women had lost their children, and sometimes, for a time, their minds as well– but not their great hearts.

Sometimes people say the title “mother” can only be applied to a woman who has given physical birth. I’d say ‘a blessed mother’ is any woman who reveres life in her own special ways, who cars for life, and who strives to give birth to new life each day in heart and mind and voice.

Here is the gutsy, Mother’s Day Proclamation of 1870. It was written by Julia Ward Howe. Would that her voice were still on earth today. Would that her call would still come to life.
Read the rest of this entry »

The Heart of the Unknown Mother
by C.P. Estés

Whether children landed on earth, but had to leave too soon,
whether they were detoured before they could be born,
whether they were wrenched away, or lost for unexplained reasons,
whether they were here for just a few moments,
or a few days… they all are blessed children.
Full children.

When people ask, “Are you a mother?’
you are entitled to say ‘Yes,
I am a mother.’
‘Oh, how many?’ they’ll ask.
Tell them.
You are entitled to say
the full number of children,
including the ones
who were on their way
and never made it
for whichever reasons.

When people ask, ‘Where are your children?’
Say, ‘Right here, in my heart.’

______
CODA
Back Story: I realize that not all people may agree with my Mother’s Day philosophy, but long ago I wrote this to try to talk about we who have lost our children, been separated from our children, have not been able to complete the body for a child soul, have decided other things. For myself as a young unmarried woman forced to relinquish her first born child, Mother’s Day was the saddest day, if any one day could be said after that ripping away, to be sadder than any other grief-stricken day.

When throughout the years people would ask me how many children I had… beaten down and walking wounded, I never felt worthy to say the full number of souls I’d struggled to carry with infinite love and safely to this earth.

Until one day. It seemed like such a huge break with convention– but as the years gathered, I came to know ever more dear women and men who had lost children in one way or another…and they felt pressed into silence for many reasons…

I honestly don’t know the exact moment I stood up against the forces pressing me to remain silent. But I gradually felt more and more sure that we who had lost our children in whichever way, all had a right to count our children as all other souls counted their children. In full. That we are full mothers. Despite all agonies, despite being warned to silence, despite impossible twists of fate, unconscionable situations, despite never having told our stories, despite not wanting to cause anyone else sorrow, despite being too filled with hurt to speak. Still, and even so… we carry that lit room of the heart for our children forever; we are mothers of all our children.

In full.

The United Nations said it would suspend flights into Myanmar after the military government seized the food and equipment it had sent into the country.

But then, some small portion of detente began to be worked out between the UN with the US, UK, and Burma. We shall see.

Various and sundry claims by relief agencies are flying over the internet today, adding to the garble instead of keeping the facts straight, in part, because no one can get a large enough overview of the facts. By all reports, General Than Shwe, the dictator of Burma has declined to get into a helicopter and survey the damage at close range.

The bottom line for Burma regarding aid at the moment is that those aid workers, such as a small contingent of Doctors to The World, that was already in Burma doing malaria intervention and education, et al,– before the tsunami/cyclone hit– and some Red Cross workers and some church group workers who were already there also before the disaster hit, say they’d been distributing supplies from their cupboards, and those are now exhausted.

Otherwise, if, and it’s a big if, there are other aid workers landed in Burma, it is most likely they are tending to Than Shwe and his friends’ families, or the city where Than Shwe can watch over them. It is highly unlikely, on this, the sixth day after the disaster, that workers and supplies have been given effective and rapid access to those who truly suffer in the interior — which is more than 200 miles from where Than Shwe is enthroned with his junta.

When A Nation’s Leader Chooses Hubris over Humanity, and Why It’s Important To Allow Experienced Relief and Rescue Workers In To A Disaster Site
As a post-trauma specialist working two earthquake disasters in various ways, Armenia and Mexico City, I can attest to the fact that one can load all the aid workers onto transport planes, fill the hold with all the cargo it can carry, fly more than halfway across the world, stopping to refuel at least once, and finally land at the target tarmac….

and then sit on the tarmac in the destination country for days, even weeks, raring to go, fully inoculated for every creeping grunge disease under the sun, full of heart and especially filled with modern skills, and having all the best supplies in the world… and nothing happens, no aid expert is allowed to go to the dying, the ill, or the dead, because the leader of the leader of the country literally bars the way.

More so, in so-called rogue countries, in countries run by juntas, really in any country where the leader is naive or ignorant about catastrophic relief and rescue operations…. often the supplies so lovingly and quickly assembled and shipped are confiscated by the ruling class, and often given to their own first, or sold for profit, or in many cases as with perishable food goods, just stacked in shelters, left to rot.*

This is why it is so very important for a government in a devastated country that might have lots of soldiers, as Than Shwe has by conscription, but has little infrastructure, and perhaps plenty of experience in ignoring or assailing people, but no experience in helping/healing them… to allow experienced aid organizers and service givers to bring in and execute a known and time tested recovery and rescue plan.

For the leader, this means a relinquishment of a certain amount of control. One can see that in a leader who has more experience in personal hubris than in public humanity, this can be quite a leap; but it oughtnt take 6 days to pat Than Shwe’s ego.

It oughtn’t take a pile after pile of newly dead children’s bodies to convince anyone to allow medicine, food and water to those most afflicted in Burma. Those piles of children’s bodies that have come about because of Than Shwe’s lag time may be the very thing he wishes to hide most.

The international community is calling out to Than Shwe to stop perseverating on his own image, or his trying to cover up his own mistakes, and instead to turn to the works of mercy needed now.

If Than Shwe did so, even today, the world would suddenly believe Than Shwe has a heart.

This good article from Asia Pacific reporter Seth Mydans, New York Times, an hour ago:
Read the rest of this entry »

According to my contact in Yangon, what pitiful supplies are on the ground, have no distribution whatsoever to any of the thousands of villages and tributaries in Burma hit into utter devastation by the tsunami/ cyclone. The Burmese, most poorer than poor before the tsunami, are going on their 6th sunrise without clean water, food, or shelter or medicines.

Meanwhile, it is certain, while the military government gets down their fiddles, the infants and newborns and toddlers grow dehydrated. Without adequate water and food, their mothers’ breasts will have run out of milk, and the children will die from dehydration, an entire generation of young will be gone within a week.

Than Shwe: You cannot keep others from knowing about the mayhem of your country. Burma is on satellite. The floods and the people and the animals can be seen dead and floating and bloated. The living can be seen by satellite also, picking through ruins, entire villages wiped out with no survivors.

Than Shwe, delaying allowing aid workers in, makes you only look more and more unleaderly.

Than Shwe, animals survive by adapting. Animals who can learn new behavior, survive the unforeseen.

Than Shwe, animals who do as they have always done, die.

Than Shwe, open your heart, if not your mind. Be known as a ruler who took care of his people in every way possible, rather than going down in history as the leader who stood by paralyzed and allowed holy people and helpless people, his own kith and kin, to die in misery.

CODA
I hear from my contact in Yangon, that the people on the ground in Burma are begging that international aeroplanes please fly over and drop supplies.

Than Shwe, if they fly, let them fly unmolested. Add no more horror to horror. It’s within your power. Choose honorific over horrific.

Than Shwe, the new respect you would receive then, would be remarkable.

This is our deepest prayer for you Than Shwe, and for the people of Burma… the Central Buddhist Precept:

Deprive no living thing of its life.

Various news reports say there are over 200,000 dead in the cyclone and tsunami that hit Burma… now five days ago.

Other reports say over 500,000 will be dead if the thousands of bodies floating in water and lying in mud are not burnt or buried, and the injured given help, and the vulnerable given clean water.

This is after the government originally said there might be a total of 10,000 dead. Maybe not even that many, they said.

This from The Sun, U.K., by Nick Parker, Chief Foreign Correspondent at Mae Sot on the Burmese border
and James Clench

The UK has so far pledged more aid than anyone, announcing a £5million package to be channelled through the UN.

Charities Save the Children, Oxfam and the British Red Cross have also swung into action.

But most of the aid is yet to be distributed because of the secretive Burmese junta, led by ruthless General Than Shwe.

His isolationist regime is paranoid an influx of foreigners might have a political impact on a national referendum due tomorrow, set to strengthen the army’s grip still further.

Three days ago, the dictatorship’s Health Minister went on TV, in what was called a rare appearance, and he said aid was on its way to the Burmese people. Right away.

It’s not. Aid is not on its way. Five days later, world aid is not present in Burma.

General Than Shwe, dictator of Burma, has 400,000 soldiers at his behest.

And as I wrote at TMV earlier, hopefully Than Shwe would stand out of the way and allow the experienced international teams of aid workers to bring equipment and supplies, and the means to both unload it and distribute it.

It didn’t happen.

Ships from many nations are still fully loaded all over the world waiting orders to turn the wheel and steam toward Burma. Cargo planes are loaded and waiting. They are filled with medical supplies At various airports outside Burma, aid workers are sitting on their packed duffels and backpacks ready to go: parameds, post trauma specialists, doctors, engineers, health care workers, and heavy equipment, such as back hoes, trailers. All waiting.

And waiting

And waiting

Than Shwe, hugely well fed dictator of the ancient Burmese people, he who has suffered no personal loss from this disaster for he is ensconced more than 200 miles away from where the tsunami/ cyclone hit… and it is Than Shwe, who wanted to be king of everything and who wanted to control everything, it is he who has publicly failed the world soul, failed the world heart that cries out for a humane response…

Than Shwe has failed publicly and utterly by keeping aid workers out of Burma, by putting no real teeth behind his health minister’s claim that help was coming, big help was coming, right away, huge help was coming.

Than Shwe is merely keeping all aid workers on strings… without cutting the red tape.

The dictatorship’s excuse? Than Shwe and his merelings continues to parrot that they “cannot let aid workers into the country out of concern for the workers own safety.”

Than Shwe, NEWS ALERT: to aid workers, a disaster site wouldn’t be a disaster site if it weren’t unsafe.

Than Shwe’s huge lie will not hold water, not even a drop left behind by the tsunami.

nota bene: this pix was sent to me by a sister blogger. I believe it was taken by Ann Althouse in New York

Photo I.D.’s were required in order to vote in Indiana in the primary yesterday. A strict new law.

But what if you can’t easily get a photo I.D.?

What if you are a citizen, have lived an exemplary life, have stood up for the lives of others, have agreed not to be paid for your work lifelong, have agreed to wear funny clothes and interfere in society’s gears when justice to the soul is concerned…

and you can’t get a photo I.D. to assert your right to vote?

What if it’s because you’re 98 years old and your comrades, sister nuns who also were not allowed to vote in Indiana yesterday because they too didn’t have photo I.D.s…. don’t drive. Like many nuns. They don’t drive because they live where they work, and their work is unending. There’s no 9-5 amongst nuns. They don’t have a lot of time to find someone to drive them to wherever they might get some sort of photo I.D., they’d be leif to ask anyone to take time from their own work to do so,

and nuns, even the most elderly ones, haven’t the same courtesy of ’step to the head of the line’ that we accord dignitaries.

12 nuns from St. Mary’s convent at South Bend (Sisters of the Holy Cross) were turned away from the polls, for not having the picture that said they were who they said they were.

Ironically, they were turned away by a sister nun who knew them, but regardless, and properly so, had no choice, as said sister was acting as a volunteer at the voting precinct.

The sisters turned away were in their 80s and 90s. Some brought their passports with requisite photo, but the passports were long expired. I don’t know about anyone else, but I just went through intense rigmarole to get my own passport reissued and I could have practically graduated with a degree in engineering for as long as it took the government to issue it.

Sister On Special Assignment as Voting Precinct Volunteer said the nuns “weren’t given provisional ballots because it would be impossible to get them to a motor vehicle branch and back in the 10-day time frame allotted by the law.” “You have to remember,” Sister McGuire said, “that some of these ladies don’t walk well. They’re in wheelchairs or on walkers or electric carts.”

I only have this to say: These nuns and others like them who are elderly and in many ways are naive about the world yet very sharp about the ‘other world,’ and yet have dedicated a lifetime to serving day in and day out, who have sacrificed so much, deserve to be treated far more decently than this. Far more.

And as for the photo I.D. law, I see the reasons behind it. But also,

there has to be reasoned application of such a law, so that when one casts huge nets meant to catch the common fish, they do not also catch dolphins… dolphins are mammals, not fish. Dolphins are disabled when stuck in nets underwater, not allowed to surface.

It makes no sense to deny the innocent their hard-won freedoms whilst trying to entrap the others.

Indiana, for your penance, that’ll be ten Our Fathers, twenty Hail Marys, and a passel of rosaries. And an apology to the sisters from the Governor would be nice, since Mitch Daniels (R) is the one who signed the law to begin with.

But then, nuns being nuns, they’d likely say, no apology needed. They’d rather just have the prayers… And the right to vote not made labyrinthine… et– in nomine Domine, hosanna, in excelsis, and in the name of God, with high praise.

———
CODA
from AP:

“Indiana’s photo ID law is the strictest in the country. The Republican-led effort was designed to combat ballot fraud, said supporters, who also have acknowledged that no case involving someone impersonating a voter at the polls has ever been prosecuted in Indiana.

“The state’s American Civil Liberties Union sued, calling the law a poll tax that disproportionately affected minorities and elderly voters, those most likely to lack such identification. On April 28, the Supreme Court ruled 6 to 3 that the law did not violate the Constitution.”

A Hoosier’s rights under the new law, include being able to cast a provisional ballot and obtain a proper ID within 10 days so that ballot would be counted later. But, in Indiana, as in many other states, the MVD takes far longer than 10 days to mail out the required key to the kingdom. So, no dice.

**Disclosure: The Sisters and Brothers of the Holy Cross, the group noted in this article, were traveler-teachers to a tiny school that gathered farmer-immigrant-merchant class kids from the boonies long ago. This order of priests, brothers and nuns taught me there, and at other proximate locations, for the better part of 12 years. Like many consecrated who live in other convents and seminaries across the world, they are some of the dearest, funniest, uncanny people you’ll ever meet.

With an estimated 40,000 lives lost in the cyclone three days ago, the Burmese dictatorship has said they will today allow humanitarian aid to come into Burma, along with aid workers.

There may be tremendous good come from this horrible disaster
– that the Burmese receive sypathetic and kind touches from others for once.
– that stories come out of Burma via the aid givers; true stories instead of those filtered through the regime.

Hopefully Senior General Than Shwe wont require all aid workers to leave their cell phones and laptops behind, putting aid workers out of touch with each other– communication about supplies and injuries is critical triage– as well as out of touch of their own families far away.

Several someones in the government of Burma have hearts and souls. The minister of health went on television to say aid would be coming. Not like last time there was a huge disaster and those governing Burma (now called Myanmar) hunkered down and allowed no aid to come in, allowing their people to die.

Hopefully the government will allow those from other nations who have real experience at post-trauma sites, to organize food, water and shelter distribution… So that transport planes do not sit on the tarmac for weeks on end without being unloaded, and medical equipment going only to the members of the regime and their families, instead of to the people who suffer so.

Hopefully, the government will not stand in the way again, but let aid flow to the people effectively this time.

CODA
There are conflicting reports thus far about Than Shwe’s government possibly suspending their ‘referendum’ this coming week that would have altered the Constitution of Myanmar giving the military junta perpetual dominion.

What do you have when you have two intelligent people who are married to one another and are suddenly in the White House and it’s 2008 not 1778?

I think you have some amalgamation of at least a president and a half, if not a dual presidency.

Can one reasonably expect in this day and age for high profile spouses to suddenly become just gravy for the biscuits? Rather than one of the Entrees?

Bill Clinton will be as much President as Hillary Clinton, in terms of advice, policy development, insight, contacts, savvy, strategy, support, and one of his greatest gifts… humor. Though there’s been some criticism of him overshadowing his wife with his own intelligence on this campaign, I think it must be difficult for a sharp player to show up in some diminished version of himself. Though that’s been the tack of most First Ladies of the past, I doubt whether we’ll see that “Oh just ignore little ol’ me’” again in any President’s spouse, regardless of gender.

Michelle Obama will definitely be as much President in her own way as Barack Obama. I think if we note how spouses are conducting themselves on the campaign trail right now, those are the indicators of how the spouses will be and even more so, once in the White House.

Regarding Co-President Mrs. Michelle Obama, we’d likely see what we see now;
Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve seen our last First Lady of a certain kind. Genteel, always attempting to be background instead of foreground or middle ground. Laura Bush will likely be the last of a long line of smart women who stayed behind the scenes for the most part, or else led lives ‘out there’, like Eleanor Roosevelt who most of the time seemed as though she wasn’t married to the President, but rather to ideas.

We have seen the signs of the remarkable transition from genteel little lady with little to say, and certainly never anything controversial, to efforts to act as a fuller human being… for instance, First Lady Hillary Clinton. She had an idea and thought to bring it to the fore. But, she was bashed for carrying the notion that she should/could/ would dare to be involved in policy; health care. “You’re not a player, you’re just a figurehead; go put your hoop skirt back on and act right.’

Nancy Reagan was smarmed for ‘advising’ her husband; many thought she had ‘too much power’ over him and should just go back to pouring tea for be-medaled dignitaries. Mrs. Reagan’s bold interruption of Raisa Gorbachev who appeared to be hogging the camera during an interview of the Russian and US First Ladies, prompted Mrs. Reagan to intervene clearly and loudly. “I want to talk now,” said Mrs. Reagan. This breach of ‘ladylike’ protocol was hailed by many as a high-fiver for Nancy.

It used to be, and was vehemently expected by many in the electorate, that First Ladies, whether wives of Presidents or Governors, were supposed to remain like the curtains; be backdrop, to concern themselves only with ’safe, feminine’ interests (feminine as defined by softness and sweetness… forgetting that many women are also inventors, innovators and often, warriors ).

The short list below is not to trivialize, for First Ladies’ attendance on under-served populations and ideals that might never have more than a hoot and holler amongst male politicians, has been critical.
Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE: Latest reports say 15,000- Burmese dead from cyclone. Given that dictator Than Shwe said only three monks died during the peaceful demonstrations by Buddhist holy people last September, when in fact the numbers maimed and murdered were in the thousands…

and given that after the September 2007 peaceful demonstrations, Than Shwe confiscated all cell phones and computers amongst the citizenry, jailing anyone or ‘disappearing’ anyone who had one…. thus Than Shwe managed to leave outlying regions in such a crisis as this cyclone aftermath unable to communicate their losses and their needs.

Such cavalier undervaluation of others’ lives is the hallmark of Than Shwe’s cruel dictatorship. While he endlessly gluts himself in fine drink and fine food and the best of everything, including his ill gotten gains from the cocaine trade exports of Burma, the people of Burma have nothing, no shelter, no water, no food.

The cyclone hit the productive rice fields. The price of eggs and rice have rocketed overnight. Thus far Senior General Than Shwe has left the babies sucking air, the old people without food, the injured without help, the dead without recovery or burial.

China is Than Shwe’s consort. With an nth of all Chinese manpower, they could have been boots on the ground and helping within hours. It is now nearing two days. According to my contact there, very little to nothing is being allowed into Burma or carried to those in need.

I feel certain that Than Shwe’s dragging his knees– again– is a tactic meant to murder the populations, instead of just slowly killing them, breaking their hearts and starving them as he was before.

Than Shwe’s past tactics are to dress some of his military up in monks robes and for them to pretend to be happy; to make sure to take pictures of such. The pictures are phony. It would not be beyond Than Shwe to mock up some ‘doctors’ and even display a red cross– and take pictures of these– to prove to the world he is letting aid into Burma that goes directly past his overstuffed coffers and to the poor people

There’s one thing Than Shwe hasnt counted on, however, and that is that the world is far smarter than he thinks and he is the one who is provincial and uneducated. People across the world see through him. The sight is not pretty.

—————-
Previous article by Dr. E, posted earlier today:

Cyclone in Burma (the junta calls the country Myanmar)
120 mph winds and rain.
Concentrated near Rangoon, (now called Yangon)

more than 10,000 Burmese men, women, children, old people are dead.

Dead, dead, dead.

military junta and soldiers slow slow slow to respond to the hundreds of thousands of Burmese who need shelter and clear drinking water…
… let alone helping to bury the dead
…let alone tend to the injured

not anywhere near as fast as the bloated self-appointed dictator Than Shwe moved his military in to murder peaceful Buddhist monks and nuns who protested the regime’s doubling the cost of essentials like cooking oil, overnight last September… cooking oil… an essential nourishment to Burma’s tribal groups and vast shanty towns of poor.

While Than Shwe sports lots of shiny military medals on his shirt over his prosperous girth, Read the rest of this entry »

PETA is demanding changes after Eight Belles’ death.

From Game On page:

Because of the Kentucky Derby collapse and death of filly Eight Belles, the horse racing world is about to find out what PETA’s spurs feel like.

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has called for the suspension and investigation of Eight Belles jockey Gabriel Saez, and also has started an online petition to change the rules of thoroughbred racing.

Flatly ignoring PETA’s suggestions could be risky for a sport where interest has steadily waned, and which is under siege after a succession of high-profile horses dying on the track.

PETA flexed considerable muscle in the sports world last year, raising the outrage about the Michael Vick dogfighting charges that sent the Atlanta Falcons quarterback to prison.

PETA’s four demands are:

1) No racing or training for a thoroughbred until it turns 3 years old. The organization contends the animals’ legs aren’t fully developed until then.

2) No more racing on dirt tracks. The group says the synthetic surfaces now used at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., and at California tracks are far safer and result in fewer equine breakdowns and fatalities.

3) Cap the number of times a horse races each year.

4) Ban whipping. PETA says that when jockeys flail horses with a riding crop the animals can be forced beyond their physical limits.

_______
see also A Lost Story About Why Horses Came to Earth, by Dr. E, here. Also see Shaun Mullen’s piece at Kiko’s House, “Why It’s Long Past Time To Clean Up U.S. Thoroughbred Racing” here

I’ve written a sometimes column at The Moderate Voice, called “Our Hometown,” mostly real news from my hometown and the outlying villages and towns around it. Like the young guy in the wheelchair whose handle grips got caught in the grill of an 18 wheeler and the trucker drove five miles on the interstate with the guy in the wheelchair like a cow catcher on the front of his rig before the police stopped him. Normal things like that.

I grew up in Indiana, in a small town population 600. This is what I can tell you about one of the most/least known places on earth.

1. The Ku Klux Klan began in Indiana, just a few miles from where I grew up. The Klan spread mostly South, East and West from there. If people think that influence is over and gone; they’d be wrong. It has only morphed. It helps to understand a lot about the undercurrents in Indiana if one can imagine that Indiana– for as far North as it is, practically on Canada if Michigan would just move out of the way– for all Indiana’s Northern latitude, it is definitely, in many parts, below the Mason Dixon line. Old Manners. Old Ideas. Sometimes, Old Confederacy. Sometimes Old James, The Crow.

2. The North, but also the middle and the South of Indiana is filled with naturalized citizens and their now grown offspring who have names with nearly no vowels in them: Schmrzky, Rzlyf, Kazmrski, and these are the Poles. There are also thousands of families of Horvats, Nagys, and other Hungarian names. There are hundreds of thousands in the aggregate of Lithuanians, Bulgarians, Slovakians, Serbians, Croats, Estonians, Czechs, Romanians, Transylvanians, Austrians… you name a country in E. Eu or Russia, or Italy or Greece or Germany–or the Netherlands… and they all came to Indiana in the 1800 and 1900s. They are conservatives, often Catholics, sometimes Lutherans or other Protestant groups, and they dont truck with liberal ideas across the board, but also, plenty truck plenty with unions and hard work. And sometimes with big business. They are salt of the earth people…

3. The Irish dug a tunnel under the ocean and it came out in Indiana. There are Manions and O’Bannons and Ryans and Mc’Everybodys all over the place. And Notre Dame, for all its Frenchie name, meaning Our Lady, after the Blessed Mother of Jesus the Christ, is Irish to the core; in values, in loyalties and in sports. If you read the South Bend Tribune yesterday, as I did, you’d see under “Most Read Stories,” only one about Hillary and one about Obama visiting the Hoosiers. All the rest of the list of ‘most read’ are devoted in the main to anything having to do with The Fighting Irish. There are honorable mentions of two cars that hit each other on the highway, and at least one story about the fact that such and such politician is a crook. In Indiana, neither Bloomington IU nor Purdue can top the Irish. The Irish themselves tend to be military conservatives and fiscally somewhat liberal, and social justice liberal depending on how high in corporate they are… but are also Catholic to the bone most often. They bring tons of good will—and sometimes shenanigans, just like any other group, but in their particular ‘brotherhood’ style — often to anywhere they roost.

4. In the 19th and 20th century, also came Blacks from the South in at least two migrations; one via fleeing, and a second one when they came up as free people in droves for the jobs in factory and on farm. They and their offspring tend to be liberal in social justice issues, touchingly willing to go to war, and ultra conservative about gays and traditional marriage. They tend to be for the worker. And unions were built of the bones and blood of blacks and the eastern European. German, Italian and Irish immigrants. Obituaries in Indiana from the old blacks still sometimes read: “She was born from the blessed union of John and Treeva, and Miss Della has gone on now to see her Holy King.” Indiana would be nothing musically without the slide guitar and the R&B and Delta blues and Ledbelly-like folk music the Blacks brought to Indiana with them.

5. Also in the 18th, 19th and 20th century came the Appalachians to Indiana, the hill and holler people. They also came for the jobs. Their way of speaking came into all our language there, and that’s why many of us still have some remnants of a lyric Elizabethan-like English, with betwixt and amongst and whilst. The hill people from the south merged with many of the Appalachians, and many worked the fields and factories. They are often pro-job, and a very loyal people who haven’t always been given a fair shake. They too brought a haunting music, hill songs of the people’s travails, crimes, triumphs and loves.

6. There are also the Amish and the remnants of the Dunkards, Quakers, and several other German groups that are often religiously conservative, but social justice liberal, and self-sufficient. Some do not vote. Some will not serve in war and receive ‘conscientious objector’ status without quarrel. They are some of the most

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It’s hard to see how it will be avoided.

See YouTube. Keywords: “John Hagee” or “Hagee Catholic Hitler.”

As Mr. Frank Rich over at the NYT so descriptively put it:

[on Youtube, you will see]

Rev. John Hagee, lecturing in front of an enormous diorama. Wielding a pointer, he pokes at the image of a woman with Pamela Anderson-sized breasts, her hand raising a golden chalice. The woman is “the Great Whore,” Mr. Hagee explains, and she is drinking “the blood of the Jewish people.” That’s because the Great Whore represents “the Roman Church,” which, in his view, has thirsted for Jewish blood throughout history, from the Crusades to the Holocaust.

Mr. Rich continues:

Mr. Hagee is not a fringe kook but the pastor of a Texas megachurch. On Feb. 27, he stood with John McCain and endorsed him over the religious conservatives’ favorite, Mike Huckabee, who was then still in the race.

Are we really to believe that neither Mr. McCain nor his camp knew anything then about Mr. Hagee’s views? This particular YouTube video — far from the only one — was posted on Jan. 1, nearly two months before the Hagee-McCain press conference. Mr. Hagee appears on multiple religious networks, including twice daily on the largest, Trinity Broadcasting, which reaches 75 million homes. Any 12-year-old with a laptop could have vetted this preacher in 30 seconds, tops.

Since then, Mr. McCain has been shocked to learn that his clerical ally has made many other outrageous statements. Mr. Hagee, it’s true, did not blame the American government for concocting AIDS. But he did say that God created Hurricane Katrina to punish New Orleans for its sins, particularly a scheduled “homosexual parade there on the Monday that Katrina came.”

That might be a new one on God: punishing people BEFORE they commit a deed, rather than after.

But I wonder when I hear such sweeping condemnations by so-called ‘holy people,’ which God are such persons listening to? the one made small enough to merely fit inside their skulls? or the one of such magnitude, the human mind is too pea-brained to parse it all?

Some observers might say that’s a moot point anyway, as they form no idea of God. Yet, I know this seems a somewhat absurdist question, but isn’t a Christian whose God on Earth is called The Prince of Peace… supposed to kind of strive to act that way?

I dont know the final answers to how candidates can draw sharp boundaries around the “me-me’s” who bum-rush the candidates… and attempt to colonize the candidate… whilst seemingly wanting to stage show after show of themselves as the center point.

I do know that the moment one becomes ‘famous,’ the Devil shows up, saying “I will give you all of this… if you will just relinquish your soul to me.”

But, you shouldn’t have to sell your soul to run for President.

You ought to be able to say “No, not for sale”… whether a presidential nominee or a pastor.

China, meaning those men and women at the top of all things, has sent out a country-wide alert to try to get Chinese citizens to wash their hands more often and to spray disinfectant

– all in order to deal with a disease called Entero-virus 71, described as a hand, mouth and foot virus. (not the same as hoof and mouth disease in cattle)

In one city alone, Entero-virus 71 has killed 22 children in the last week. Tens of thousands are said to be hospitalized across China, and in one city , over 3000 cases are reported. The disease is passed by effluvia: spittle, feces, blister fluids, nasal and throat discharges.

The Chinese nationwide order about this epidemic remarks:

–EV-17 shows signs of spreading further.

–”Health bureaus at all levels must recognize the importance and urgency of preventing the spread of infectious diseases.”

–Preventing the spread of infectious diseases was necessary “to guarantee the smooth staging of the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics and to practically preserve social stability.”

–The order said any person or agency who tried to cover-up or delay disclosure of outbreaks, would be punished.
(During a SARS pneumonia outbreak in 2003, the government at Beijing tried to cover it up, delaying intervention, causing the deaths of many more people, and finally under pressure from world voices, took severe measures.)

–In the same order, China acknowledged that they have many more cases this year of EV-71, and that also the people need to take steps to prevent epidemics of hepatitis A, measles and other infectious diseases commonly spread in warm weather.

–And peak for infectious disease transmission would come in June and July, the government said.

Barbaro. Now Eight Belles.

My father comes from a place where the old men and old women still consider horses to be gods who came to earth.

In Hungary, every tiny village had a council of elders: the old men in their szurs, long wooly white shepherd’s capes, the old women in their red boots with the black heels, the fine leather pleated and stitched with red thread all the way up to the knees… the old men who smoke pipes with drawing bows 18 inches long… the old women who if need be, could still swing up into the saddle of a stamping stallion…

These one of a kind people, these last-of-their-kind people in our family, say this about horses: “Never force a horse to run relentlessly, for a horse is made of Love and Courage on four legs …

…and the horse will literally love you so hard, it will run its heart out for you until it is dead.”

This is not just a saying. The old ones are serious. Descendents of the Huns and Swabians, the horse tribes of mountains and plains, they have their own ancient forms of knowing.

The old people have another saying, jokingly said…but not really:

–“You want to know the secret of the determination of the Hungarians? They are in all their dreams, fully human, and fully horse.”

–”You want to know the secret of the determination of the horse? They are in all their dreams, fully horse and fully god.”

In the United States this weekend, at the Kentucky Derby, a horse race of long standing… Eight Belles, a filly, was running against the boys.

Coming out of the race, she suddenly dropped her heavy body to the ground. Two broken ankles. She was ‘euthanized’ where she lay.

From a piece by Beth Harris: Louisville, Kentucky.

“Winning jockey Kent Desormeaux and Big Brown galloped by Eight Belles in her waning moments.

“This horse showed you his heart[Big Brown], and Eight Belles showed you her life for our enjoyment today,” he said. “I’m deeply sympathetic to that team for their loss.”

Big Brown, the favored horse, had won the race.

But so much was not won. So much that is not about horse races and horse owners, but about Equus, the god of the horses…

Those as ancient as the Greeks, but unrecorded by stylus, are said to have held that the god-horse, the king of the horses of heaven, arrived on earth when time was still only fog… that the godly horse arrived on earth with the silver reins made of nebula on him, and with the bit made of stars in his mouth.

He who is known by many ancient names, came in order to teach humans the beauty of the world beyond their small and squalid ways of life.

Thus, the oldest Hungarian horse people say the horse god came to earth out of

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