Friday, October 15, 2010

Niagara River reflections

I love to walk by the Niagara River. Yesterday, as I was headed to the Holiday Inn to go swimming, I looked intently at the water, which reflected the vast blueness of the sky. It was a delight to watch the ducks paddling around in the water. It's fun to watch them dive headfirst into the water, with their little backsides wobbling in the air, as if they were straight out of the comics. I saw the geese parading along the shoreline. I saw people, too, riding on their bicycles, walking their dogs, mowing their laws, checking their mail. It's a real gift, these sunny October days. We know that the air is just going to get colder and that only the stubborn walkers, such as I, will be left to walk along the shores of the river and wonder what's beneath all of that ice.
So. The Niagara River. It is beautiful, powerful, and the stuff of legend. When I walk in Buckhorn Island State Park, there is a spot from which I can see the mist that rises from Niagara Falls. It is an amazing thing to see
this gigantic mist rising from across the river. Niagara Falls, of course, is even more awe-inspiring up close. Niagara Falls has its share of stories and legends. There have been many stories of people climbing into barrels and going over the falls. I suppose that would be an exciting way to spend an afternoon although just the thought of it is enough to inspire feelings of motion sickness in me!
One of these legends about Niagara Falls concerns a young maid of the Neuter tribe, Lelawalo. She was the chief's daughter, and she was sacrificed by being placed in a canoe filled with food, which was then sent over the falls.To keep her from smashing into the rocks, one of the sons of a god caught her in his arms. In her new world beneath the falls, the maiden was told by one of the sons of a god that a malevolent snake lived in this watery world and that he was going to poison all of the drinking water. The people would keel over and die! Eventually, men killed the snake with spears. The snake died in the shape of a horseshoe. Apparently, that is the story behind the Horseshoe Falls being in that particular shape.
You're probably wondering why I mentioned this legend.
Well, I'm mentioning it because of the story about a malevolent snake, that became poisonous and threatened to poison all of the drinking water. Many years later, that poisonous snake must have appeared in human form or in the form of industry. Until fairly recently, the river was full of toxic substances, dumped, not by snakes, but by chemical companies and other industries. The dangerous compounds in the river included PCBs, mercury, dioxin, arsenic, lead, and pesticides. It was a pretty toxic soup. The Niagara River connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, so toxins travel through those bodies of water, eventually to the Atlantic Ocean. Lake Erie, for sure, has had its own environmental problems as well. At one point, it is alleged that Lake Erie caught on fire. There is some dispute about that. Some people say that the lake caught on fire, while other people say, no, it was just some junk in the lake that caught on fire. Still. Stuff doesn't usually catch on fire when it's floating in water so there must have been something flammable (or inflammable??? why do they mean the same thing???) in the water that shouldn't have been in there.
I've been reading about efforts to clean up the Niagara River. Back in 1987, the United States and Canada worked together on a cooperative transboundary management plan to reduce the emissions of toxic waste into the Niagara River. And, indeed, the amount of contaminants in the river has been lessening to the point that there is fish in the river once again. These efforts at cleaning the river continue to this day. When I walk through Buckhorn Island State Park, I pass people with fishing rods, hoping to catch something in the river. Sometimes, I walk close enough to the water to see schools of tiny fish swimming in the river. I'm not sure that I would eat the fish that came out of the Niagara River but you never know. Perhaps it is edible. I'd like to think that is so. I'd like to think that we have come a long ways since the days when owners of chemical companies located along Buffalo Avenue in Niagara Falls felt that it was OK to build pipelines and dump untreated waste directly into the river. I'd like to think that the latter-day malevolent snake of the river has been tamed and that it is no longer poisoning the water because water is supposed to maintain life, not to bring about death.
Soon it will be winter. There will be ice in the river and ice chunks going over the falls. It will be beautiful. And, I hope that it will be, if not this year, then at some point in the future, safe and not contaminated with that malevolent snake's poisons.
Note: This post is part of Church World Service's blog action day. Check it out at: Blog Action Day
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Saturday, October 2, 2010

Coming soon: water!!! see my blog post on this topic on October 15th!

CROP walk

On Sunday, September 26th, I participated in the annual CROP walk. The length of the walk was just six miles, and the goal of the walk was to raise money to provide help for people who don't have enough to eat. I truly love food and I don't think that it's right that anyone should have to go without. I believe that there is enough for everyone! Anyway, I am pleased to report that, in two weeks, I was able to collect $217 in pledges from 24 wonderful people!
I participate in the CROP walk regularly, and I always enjoy the experience. It's really nice to have companions on a walk. Frequently, I walk by myself. I enjoy the opportunity to get to know other people. During this CROP walk, I had the chance to get to know Cathy Rieley-Goddard. She is the co-pastor of Riverside-Salem United Church of Christ. Her church is very much focused on improving the environment. In fact, her church isn't even called a "church"; it's called an "environmental chapel. The most recent thing that they have done is to build a straw bale structure behind the environmental chapel. I spent much of the summer weeding the labyrinth next to the chapel so I got to watch the construction of that structure. It was very interesting. It is a small structure but well packed with straw so I am guessing that it is well insulated for cold weather, which, alas, is coming. I say "alas" because I really don't like being cold.


The Golden Sneaker was the prize for the church group that brought the most pledge money to the walk. The sneaker formerly was seen on the feet of Father Earle King.

Father Earle King of Saint Martin in the Fields Episcopal Church gets ready to bless the walk. Since he no longer wears The Golden Sneaker, he has obtained another pair of shoes.

Town Board member Dick Crawford reads the town's proclamation honoring this year's CROP walk.
On your mark! Get set! Go! The CROP walk begins!

These two ladies provide smiles, apples, and water halfway through the CROP walk.
But I digress. The CROP walk. I always wondered what CROP stood for. My mother asked me and, for sure, I was clueless. So I thought that I would "google" CROP. This is what I found out: "When CROP began in 1947 (under the wing of Church World Service, which was founded in 1946), CROP was an acronym for the Christian Rural Overseas Program.  Its primary mission was to help Midwest farm families to share their grain with hungry neighbors in post-World War II Europe and Asia.  Today, rather than thinking of CROP primarily as an acronym, we retain it as the historic name of the program. CROP Hunger Walks are interfaith hunger education and fundraising events sponsored by Church World Service and organized by CWS/CROP regional offices across the United States." (Church World Service website)
Of the funds that were raised in the CROP walk, twenty five percent are being used in the local community, and the rest go to the Church World Service for its programs.
(note: As of this date, I do not know the total amount that was collected for the Grand Island CROP walk. As soon as I learn the total, I will amend this blog.)

Friday, October 1, 2010

Labor Day weekend visit to Cleveland



When I went to language school in Antigua Guatemala for eight weeks back in 1987, I stayed with a Guatemalan family. That was part of the program. You live with a family that does not speak English, which offers you two options: 1) speak Spanish or 2) don't talk. Anyone who knows me knows that 2) don't talk isn't a very realistic option for me. So. I spoke in Spanish. There were times when I felt as if I were talking about as well as a two-year-old child, but it was Spanish.
Three other language school students stayed with the same family. One of them was a Sister of Mercy who was preparing to be a missionary in El Salvador. Her name was Sister Peggy. She was very enthusiastic and very funny. Her favorite word in Spanish was "increible!" She said this with great gusto, virtually all of the time. The other two language school students were a young married couple. They were planning on working with Witness for Peace for a year and, after that, going to Brazil and becoming missionaries there for three years. For that, of course, they had to attend another language school, to learn Portuguese. Their names were Maria and Charlie, although he was always called "Carlos." Maria was an attorney and Carlos was a Presbyterian pastor.
After my eight weeks in language school expired, I returned home. I was able to stay in touch with Sister Peggy for a short time but, eventually, lost touch. Before we lost touch, I did find out that Maria and Carlos had become parents to a son when they were in Brazil.
So... fast forward to 2007. I was in prison for the third time for crossing the fence at Fort Benning to protest the School of the Americas/Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. One day, as I was perched on my upper bunk, reading letters and plotting mischief (I wasn't very good at following pointless rules that were invented because someone with a little bit too much power for his own good got bored and started inventing pointless rules), I saw a letter from someone in Cleveland named Maria. I opened it and started reading, Dear Alice, Do you remember me? We went to language school together...
Oh yes, I remembered you, Maria! You kept singing, "Quiero pensar en espanol. Quiero pensar en espanol" over and over, like a mantra.
It was great to reconnect with friends. I truly never expected to see them again. Since I was turned loose from the federal prison camp at Danbury, Connecticut, I have visited Maria and Charlie several times. I saw them in 2008, before I started the "Witness Against War" walk and after I finished it. A year later, I saw them before the very soggy "Walk for Peace." That was a three-day walk from Camp Douglas to Fort McCoy, Wisconsin. It rained nonstop. We camped out at a state park in monsoon conditions. That adventure ended with the military tossing four of us Fort McCoy protesters in jail in Madison. That was a weird experience.. defense department police drove us something like 75 miles to the Dane County Jail. Bonnie, Joy, Brian, and I were held there overnight on a "federal hold." Fortunately, we were released the next day. We were never charged with anything after that experience. Oh well. At least the jail was dry.
Anyway, I digress.
Charlie Hurst and Maria Smith on the shores of Lake Erie

Maria and Alice on the southern shore of Lake Erie
So I went to Cleveland for the Labor Day weekend. Maria is one of the organizers of the "Peace Show," which is held on Labor Day. She had invited me to come to experience it. It is purposely held at the same time as the "air show," which features all sorts of airplanes flying through the air with the greatest of ease (stolen from the man on the flying trapeze). The Peace Show is a protest against the militarization of the Air Show. The criticism of the Air Show is that  those beautiful military planes that are flown in such an exquisite way are used to cause fear and panic and death in far-off countries. OK. I do understand the criticism. Actually, I agree with it. But darn. The Blue Angels are beautiful. They are blue. They fly in formation, like geese, and they make big circles in the sky.
Oh. sigh. I've always loved flight. Airplanes are beautiful. I don't like that they are being used to deliver bombs and death to far-off countries. Still. It's hard for me to stop watching the amazing flying machines.
Kids riding in "the world"
The world in downtown Cleveland
Julia Shearson, executive director of CAIR (Council on Arabic Islamic Relations) shares a fun craft activity with kids and adults alike
The Peace Show, however, was fun. It featured music and face painting and crafty activities and even the flying of paper airplanes.
Singing and playing drums near the air show

more scenes from the Catholic Worker witness

Works of mercy vs. works of war

Peace through song
Another fun activity during the weekend was the Catholic Worker witness outside of the entrance of the Air Show. Maria and I joined that group. We got to sing all sorts of satirical songs about the government and the military. The songs were funny. We had a great time. We used the songbook from the Raging Grannies. And, even better, no one threw tomatoes at us. So I guess we weren't bad singers either!!!