Buffalo's disastrous storm

Painting autumnal trees was the theme of artist Jinni Kelley’s watercolor class at Stella Niagara, in Lewiston, on October 12. While at this class, I learned how to use paintbrushes and sponges to give the effect of red, yellow, and orange leaves. Although the class was not painting an actual outdoor scene, our paintings reflected the reality of the world outside, at that moment.

After class, Jinni took me to my friend Ellen’s house in north Buffalo, where I was to housesit for the weekend. As we traveled south, the reality of the world outside underwent a drastic alteration. The sky abruptly darkened and large snowflakes started falling.

After Jinni returned to Niagara County, I took out the garbage, prepared dinner, and went to choir practice at Blessed Sacrament Church on Delaware Avenue. The group at rehearsal numbered just thirteen, including choir director Frank Scinta. He commented on the “Blessed Sacrament Chamber Choir,” but he cut rehearsal short. When we left the church, we could see that the snow was coming faster than ever and that the weight of the wet, heavy snow dragged tree limbs down. Frank drove me back to Ellen’s house. We traveled down Delaware Avenue, past Delaware Park and Forest Lawn Cemetery. Driving was slow and arduous. When we were ready to turn onto Ellen’s street, we saw that it had become a terrifying sight. Broken tree branches lay everywhere, even in the middle of the street. I got out the car and could hear tree branches snap and crash to the ground. I ran to indoor safety.

In the morning, the telephone jarred me awake.

“Do you have electricity?” a neighbor asked.

I clicked on the lamp, which did not light. “No.”

Once I awakened, I went outside to photograph the street scene. Tree limbs were strewn everywhere. I went into the dining room and saw a tree limb leaning toward the back window. I didn’t recall that there had ever been a tree in the backyard. I looked again and noticed that this tree was actually the top of the neighbor’s tree, which had bent into Ellen’s yard. “There is a tree on the power lines,” I told a National Grid employee over the phone. She made out a work order.

I fed the fish, ate sandwiches, drew pictures, and cleaned the bird cages. Outside, the wind screamed. At night, I tried to write in my journal, but my fingers were cold and the flashlight didn’t help much. I crawled under the comforter and slept.

On Saturday morning, the house temperature was 54 degrees. Outside, the snow was melting, leaving puddles amidst the piles of branches and debris. I fed the birds and fish. I tried playing the piano while wearing gloves. The birds liked singing with a piano accompaniment. I wondered what was going on in the world. It had been two days since I had heard the news or read a newspaper. Fortunately, I still had telephone service. Ellen called shortly before dark and said that she and her children would soon pick up the birds. She didn’t want me to develop hypothermia. Go home, she said. Tomorrow, I said. After I feed the birds.

Those two birds were amazing. They still sang, despite the chill and darkness. My sister Vivian, who called a few times to give me tips on avoiding hypothermia, said that she would pick me up early on Sunday afternoon.

Darkness came early. I covered the bird cages with towels, and I went to bed.

In the morning, I tried pulling a tree branch from the driveway with no success. I rolled the empty garbage bin away from the street. Inside the house, it was 50 degrees. Vivian arrived and brought me back to Grand Island. She told my parents that Ellen’s street looked like “an atom bomb hit it.” I felt very lucky to be able to go to a warm house, where I could eat hot food and read at night.

In my art bag, I carried with me paintings of trees that looked peaceful and whole, with colorful and bright leaves. I wondered if the broken trees of north Buffalo would ever again resemble those paintings.

Dracula (the ballet)

During my last evening with the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, I was offered a ticket to a production of Dracula at Viterbo University. I was very eager and enthusiastic about attending this performance. I had wondered how the Dracula story might be performed as a ballet. I was especially interested in finding out how someone could bite necks and dance at the same time. That is certainly a more difficult undertaking than walking and chewing gum at the same time, yet many people can't do that (including me, on occasion).
The ballet, presented by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet of Canada, lived up to my hopes and then some. The choreography by Mark Golden and music by Gustav Mahler combined to tell Bram Stoker's story in a different and creative way. It was truly a multimedia production, with words projected on a screen, a backstage story teller, pantomime, dancing, and theatrical fog. The stark sets and the barely illuminated stage created an image of foreboding that made the tale of the vampire come to life.
The performers did the rest to re-create Bram Stoker's tale. Like F.W. Murnau's 1922 silent film Nosferatu (starring Max Schreck in the title role), the ballet tried to be faithful to the original story. The first half of the production was a ballet version of the entire story and the second half featured pantomimed variations on the theme of Dracula. The performances, especially by Dracula (Johnny Wright) and Lucy (Vanessa Lawson), were sensual and compelling. The relationship between Dracula and Lucy seemed strangely symbiotic and surreal. The pair inhabited a world that existed somewhere between wakefulness and sleep, where nothing felt quite real.
Bram Stoker's Dracula. of course, bears almost no relationship to the actual historical figure of Dracula. Vlad Dracula lived in the 15th century inTransylvania. He became the prince of Wallachia, and his rule was considered to be extremely bloody. Because of the gory method in which his enemies were killed, Dracula became known as "Vlad the Impaler."
There is no evidence that he ever bit anyone's neck or was transformed into a vampire. The story of Vlad Dracula can be found at http://members.aol.com/johnfranc/drac05.htm
The story is completely fictitious. Nevertheless, it was highly entertaining and worth seeing, should you get the chance.

women in black

Early in the afternoon on September 20, I went to downtown LaCrosse to stand with the Women in Black. Five of us stood on a street corner for half an hour. We silently held up signs with messages that asked for an end to the war in Iraq. The response that we received from passing cars was more positive than negative. I found that to be very encouraging.
When the vigil was over, I went to lunch with June Kjome, who had done quite a bit to plan my trip to LaCrosse, Wisconsin. I got her to tell me something about herself. She said that she had spent nineteen years in South Africa as a nurse-midwife. She went there in 1945 with a Lutheran service organization. The apartheid situation was very difficult for her. She said that, if she had spoken out against it, she would have been called a "persona non grata" and deported. If she didn't speak out, she would appear to be giving apartheid tacit approval. In the 1960s, however, June had to return home to help care for her elderly parents. She got a job in a hospital and helped her parents until they passed away. After June retired from nursing, she became a full-time activist, which she continues to do to this day. She's had knee replacement surgery and is losing her eyesight to glaucoma, but she persists in her work for peace and justice.
After June and I parted, I took a walk along the Mississippi River. It was a beautiful day. I saw a river boat (the Mississippi Delta), which was docked at the park. I also saw people dressed in nineteenth century costumes. I also spent some time in a peace park, which boasted a Chinese garden. After that, it was time for dinner, so I went back to the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.

Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration

The archives at the LaCrosse, Wisconsin, motherhouse of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration are full of stories of the sisters' lives from the order's founding in the mid-19th century to the present.
In 1849, a group of third order Franciscans, both men and women, came to Wisconsin from Ettenbeuren, Bavaria, to found a religious community. The women who came to this country went to work in a seminary, where they were used as domestic servants. They had to work so hard that they were exhausted and they left the seminary, discouraged and frustrated.
Eventually, the sisters made their way to LaCrosse, where they were able to realize their goals of becoming a teaching order and of establishing perpetual adoration. They opened a schools in a variety of places in Wisconsin and elsewhere. One of these schools, located in Odanah, Wisconsin, was opened to educate the Chippewa children. Another school was opened in Canton, Mississippi, to educate African-American children. In addition to the primary and secondary schools, the sisters founded a university, now call Viterbo University. Later, they became missionaries in China and in El Salvador. The sisters also established health care centers, including a hospital and homes for the aged.
The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration has held a prayer vigil (perpetual adoration) without cease since August 1, 1878.
In the archives, one can find a variety of records, many handwritten in a beautiful calligraphy, in large books. In these books is listed the names of all of the women who became FSPA sisters. It tells where they were born, when they entered the order, and (when applicable) when they passed away or left the order.
I was guided through the archives by the archivist, Sster Mary Ann Gschwind.
In addition to the written records, there are display cases with artifacts and objects that vividly show the history of the order. I saw memorabilia from Laos, Russia, the Czech Republic, El Salvador, Cameroon, and many other places. There were stories and pictures of the missionaries who went to China, as well as some souvenirs from days gone by. The missionaries were in China from the early 1920s until the late 1940s, when they were all pulled out, due to an unfriendly political climate in that country. I saw beads and a handmade book, produced by students at the Indian school in Odanah, Wisconsin. I also saw a large portion of a room that was devoted to Sister Thea Bowman, an African-American FSPA from Canton, Mississippi. Her father was a physician and her mother was a teacher. Sister Thea became an English teacher and an advocate for African-American culture. She was a storyteller, a poet, and a dancer. She was well educated, and she also was given many honorary degrees. Eventually, she suffered with cancer and passed away.
I also saw pictures and objects that depicted the convent fire of 1923.
Other interesting exhibits in the archives area included displays of crafts. The most interesting to me were the pictures that were made of beads that had been cross-stitched onto fabric and the hairpin lace. The most bizarre craft were the objects that were made from human hair.
Another fascinating exhibit was the stamp collection. There are books with two separate displays of stams. One is of pictures of the madonna, and the other is of flowers. Each set of books is organized alphabetically, by country.
The archives are fascinating and worth visiting, if you should be in LaCrosse, Wisconsin.
For more information about the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, check their website at http://www.fspa.org/default2.asp

experiencing LaCrosse, Wisconsin

Sister Arlene and a few other Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration were my breakfast companion on the morning of September 19. After the other sisters had finished their breakfast and had left, I asked Sister Arlene what motivated her to enter the religious life.
Sister Arlene told me that she went to Catholic schools when she was growing up. The nuns at the school told the children that they ought to follow their vocations, if they had one. Sister Arlene said, as a young person, that she was not aware that she had a vocation to the religious life. She was dating boys and was having a good time.
One day, one of Sister Arlene's friends suggested to her that she had a vocation to the religious life. So, Arlene decided to explore that possibility. She came to the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration to find out if her friend could be right. She was exploring the idea that she should stay with these sisters. Not much later, she had a talk with the mother superior, who said, "OK, you can stay."
That was nearly fifty years ago. Sister Arlene said that she has never regretted the life path tht she had chosen. She was twenty years old when she came to the the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. Since joining the order, Sister Arlene has worked in food service and as a certified nurse's aide. Later, she was trained to be a pastoral associate. After the training, she worked as a chaplain in a small hospital and in an adjoining 70-bed nursing home.
As a chaplain, Sister Arlene worked with many patients and with their families. She counseled them and prayed with them and brought communion to the patients. She helped family members when their loved ones died. She figured that, in the several years that she was at the hospital and the nursing home, three hundred patients passed away.
Sister Arlene told me that she has lived and worked in small communities near LaCrosse for most of her career. At one point, however, she lived in Georgia, near Savannah. She said that the people there were very friendly and were mostly "Southern Baptists and very few Catholics."
Sister Arelen had to return to the motherhouse when she was diagnosed with glaucoma and could no longer see well enough to drive.
Sister Arlene dresses in bright colors and looks very cheerful and at peace with her life as it is now.
After breakfast, I spent the rest of the morning quietly... reading, crocheting, going to the daily mass at the chapel, and having lunch.
Once lunch was over, I went outside to catch a bus that would take me to the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse. The bus system in LaCrosse is easy to use and inexpensive. Rides cost one dollar, and transfers are free. Also, for bike riders, the buses are helpful because all buses are equipped with a bike rack. Mary got on the bus at a later stop, and the two of us caught a connecting bus when the first bus arrived downtown. Amazingly enough, the connecting bus was waiting for us as soon as we got off the first bus. The bus driver on the first bus had asked all of the passengers to call out the connecting buses that they planned to take. Then he must have called ahead to the other buses, which waited for us to get on so that they could start their routes. That made the entire trip quick and efficient.
At the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse, I went to the office of the Wisconsin Public Radio. There, I was interviewed by Sandra, an excellent interviewer, who made me feel very comfortable. That was great because I had started off by feeling a little bit of stage fright. Sandra asked me many questions about the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. I gave her a history of the school, which now spans sixty years. I also told her about the most recent legislation to suspend operations of the school and to investigate instruction at that school. Sandra also asked me about my own experiences. I told her how I had become interested in Latin American-U.S. relations and in Latin American cultures and issues. I talked about the work that I had done for Alt Press in Buffalo, including my interviews with School of the Americas Watch founder Father Roy Bourgeois, MM. I discussed my first visit to Fort Benning and the discernment process that I went through before deciding to cross the fence and risk arrest. She also asked me about life in federal prison, so I told her about that, too. All in all, it was a good interview. Actually, my standards are still fairly low so I am happy when I don't stutter and sputter! But the results of this interview far exceeded those low expectations. Sandra said that she felt the the interview went really well and that she would like to use portions of it as a series. That was very good news for me.
After the interview, Mary and I caught the bus and went downtown. Mary gave me a little tour of downtown LaCrosse. The highlights of the tour were:

• an art museum called "By James," which featured drawings by Marc Chagall, a beautiful painting of the Mississippi River, a semi-abstract painting of a cat titled "Slacking Alice," and much more.
• a new age store with crystals and new-agey kind of music and nice smelling stuff and witch costumes.
• a bookstore with a pirate manual in the display window. The book featured a real, functional compass embedded in the cover.
• a "private" park with the Ten Commandments prominently featured. This park was very tiny and was surrounded by a wrought iron fence.

In the evening, I gave a talk at the Franciscan Spirituality Center on WHINSEC/SOA. Before speaking, I showed an eighteen -minute video, titled "The New Patriots." It is about people who had served in the U.S. military, including Ellen Barfield, Laura Slattery, and Father Roy Bourgeois. The former military personnel talk about the reasons that they joined the service. They also talk about their post-military lives, especially about working for peace and justice and against war and violence. It is a very powerful video, as it manages to intertwine the personal stories of former military personnel with the stories of violence perpetrated by School of the Americas graduates. After the video, I presented the history of the school and talked about how the actions of some of the graduates has caused turmoil in their own countries. One interesting thing to note about all of the military aid and training that the United States has given to Latin American countries... these countries have not fought wars with one another in many decades. So, what is the point of all of this military aid? In the talk, I also discussed the fact that WHINSEC is not the only military training school that has foreign troops as its student body. There are many more schools, in which troops from abroad are trained in the United States. Two others that train Latin American troops are the the Inter-American Air Forces Academy in Lackland Air Force Base, Texas (with 36,238 graduates, as of 2003) and the Spanish Helicopter School Battalion in Fort Rucker, Alabama. This school was part of the School of the Americas until that school changed its name to WHINSEC in 2001. Since then, it has been an independent school that trains foreign militaries, mainly from Mexico and Colombia, on the use of the Blackhawk and Huey helicopters. It does all of its training in Spanish. Originally, that school was started in 1984 to train Salvadoran helicopter pilots. Today, its goal is to train Colombian pilots in conjunction with provisions of Plan Colombia.
After my talk, it was time for a question and answer session. People asked many questions, about WHINSEC, about the other schools, and about my experiences in federal prison. The questions were good, and it was a positive experience.
I also talked to the group about crossing the fence at Fort Benning. I asked them to consider discerning whether they might want to take such an action, but I pointed out that the actual decision was theirs alone to make.
And, for anyone reading this blog, I'd like to ask you to consider discerning a fence crossing at Fort Benning. I would love to see 20,000 people cross that fence this year, in a spirit of peace, to give a message to the government about human rights and accountability.
Please think about it.