Memorial Day

--pmPilgrim Photo
(Cross posting with pmPilgrim photoBlog.)

At sunset along the Susquehanna River at Lock Haven, PA, the flag at half staff reminds us of the sacrifice of countless men and women who fought and died for our country. They answered the call of our nation.

Thank you.

Unavoidable Questions

Bill Kinnon at Achievable Ends has now given us a "Missional Guru Test." He is now ready to ask that group of missional experts some questions. They are, in reality, the questions to ask anyone who purports to have some answers.

I confess that I'm really not interested in hearing theories anymore. I want to know how the missonal profundities emanating from the particular guru are applied in their own lives - right now. Not last year, last century or last millenium. But. Right now.

"Where are you plugged into a local expression of a missional community? How does that impact what you are sharing with us?"

Jesus lived what he taught the disciples. We should have no less expectation of those who want to disciple us.

I have to admit that this does cut close to home. I am a believer in the missional approach to the church. I also know that the church will take a long time to get back to that. Even my Moravian Church, built on that missional theology and with it firmly in our roots, has trouble finding a 21st Century incarnation of that theology.

I don't know what to do. Perhaps I am just an old, tired, modern pastor living in a post-modern world with ideas and dreams and visions that don't seem to get anywhere anymore. Maybe we are living in one of those incredibly difficult transition eras where we are percolating many different visions and views and over the next century they will be sifted and sorted into a vision and expression of church that we today could not even begin to imagine.

But the questions Bill asked are on target. Where can one find a "missional community" in the midst of a surplus of "seeker-sensitive" churches, contemporary - vs- traditional worship, fundamentalist, right-wing, left-wing, evangelical, liberal and on and on. How will one know a missional community when one sees it? How does one who is interested go about building such a community from outside the church hierarchy or when one is part of a community that could care less about missional anything?

The questions go on and on. Thanks, Bill, for starting the thoughts going. I wish I knew where to find some answers.

So Go To the Manual

So I finish writing the above "lead" post and turn to look at what today's Gospel is and I find the Sermon on the Mount, specifically Matthew 6:

"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, ... do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

I had two thoughts, after I stopped shaking my head.

• 1. Too often, because of natural concerns and buildings and maintenance, etc. the organized traditional church often finds itself serving money. I know that this is one of those customary and standard criticisms of the church. Sadly it is not that far from the truth. Many pastors spend a great deal of time studying budgets and financial statements- or at least the results of them. Yes, the church needs money to survive. But it is difficult to continue to serve God when money becomes the center of attention. If we are to have an organized church, this will always, always be a problem.
  

So then I came to the other thought.

• 2. Stop worrying. It is not for me to figure out. It is God's work and direction however it's being done; wherever it's happening. Maybe if I stop worrying so much and looking at the lack I will begin to find the presence of such places and people and communities. Maybe I will even find The Presence alive and well just as I expect Him to be.

Re-Create What?

From NPR, a report that a group wants to "Re-Create '68" at this year's Democratic National Convention in Denver. What struck me about the report was the feeling that this is seen as less a movement than an event. For example you can, I heard, adopt a Port-A-Potty and decorate it any way you want.

But a couple of the iconic individuals from 1968 were interviewed. One was former Black Panther Bobby Seale. He won't march, he said. He has had a heart attack and has a defibrillator. But the reported pointed out that Seale has a personal interest in the Iraq war issue. His son is army reservist who will be heading to Iraq

Then there's SDS charter member Tom Hayden. He says we shouldn't try to make comparisons between now and 1968. This is not the pressure cooker that it was 40 years ago. He did have one moment of caution. He said that if there is a theft of nomination, there will be protests that he says will be non-violent and massive.

As it is the organizers have no idea whether the turn out will be a few dozen or thousands. It is interesting that the organizers are trying to work with the local police to keep it peaceful as the story tells it. The "protest area" is to be about 15 blocks from the convention site.

Well, as one who is an intrepid survivor of at least the events of 1968 though not at the convention itself, I headed over to the website for R-68 and found first the not un-expected logo of a raised, clenched fist and this:

Welcome to the "Re-create 68" website, your virtual activists' Convergence Center for the Denver Democratic National Convention of 2008. This website was created for all the grassroots people who are tired of being sold out by the Democratic Party.

R-68 agrees with the proposition, POTESTAS IN POPULO, "all power comes from the people." What stands between the people and power are the party machines. The parties were devised as a means to represent the people. Today they represent nobody, not even party members, but only party bureaucracy. The people have been left without appropriate institutions for their representation. We intend to create those institutions!

Join us in the streets of Denver as we resist a two-party system that allows imperialism and racism to continue unrestrained.

Wow! Does that sound like 1968 or what?

Well, I for one do not want to relive 1968's Democratic Convention. I remember the anger and fear I felt while watching it on TV. (More on that in August.) And I remember the aftermath- Richard Nixon winning the election. Another convention and election like that would be a disaster.

So spare me. Do the work in your local communities. Build up the alternatives from the local on up. Protests are expressions of anger. And I fear anger never gets anything but anger in return. And this is coming from one who wanted to protest 40 years ago. Today, even more than then, it is a media circus. The media will swarm all over the protests and find, sadly, the weird, and the extreme, and make it a circus of the freaks and the ones who will draw the ratings.

The other week I happened to drive the local Planned Parenthood office. Since I am new in town I had no idea where it was. Until I saw the lone protester outside. A single individual walking back and forth with a sign saying something anti-abortion. No, such protests don't do much. Yes, I know I noticed but it only made me feel sad for the person who was carrying the sign. It gave the impression of a lost crusade with the survivor standing around.

Only massive numbers with a cause may get some positive attention. It sure doesn't sound like that's what R-68 has in mind. It might be fun naming Port-A-Pottys, but stopping war and ending racism and poverty take a lot more than that. Like perhaps the money that will be spent on these things that might be better utilized some way else.

That's my thought, anyway.

A Remarkably Great Photographer

From the NYT, the lead of the article about the death of a truly great photographer, Cornell Capa:

Cornell Capa, who founded the International Center of Photography in New York after a long and distinguished career as a photojournalist, first on the staff of Life magazine and then as a member of Magnum Photos, died Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 90.

This is one of his pictures, JFK's hands at a campaign stop in 1960. For a slide show of 9 more of Capa's pictures, follow this link to the NYT.

International Center of Photography page on Cornell Capa.

Just 4 Fun

Ads from foreign countries are always a joy to watch. Thanks to Jeffrey at 52 Projects for the link to a site called Illegal Advertising. This one tickled me. It is a video for Video for a new product from a Dutch brand called Bolletje.



Yes, friends, they labeled it "Cereal Killer."

Now for Some News

Let's get the serious news first. This one deserves no funny remarks or snide insights. This one represents one of those left-over 60s paranoid fears of the government and secret plans. I hope it is just idle political gossip. Please, let it be just idle political gossip.

WASHINGTON - The White House on Tuesday denied a published report in Israel that said President Bush intends to attack Iran before the end of his term in January. A story in the Jerusalem Post quoted a "senior official" there as saying that Bush plans to attack Iran in the coming months. The story says the unidentified official claimed that a "senior member" of Bush's traveling entourage made the statement about attacking Iran in a closed meeting. Bush was in Israel last week.

The article also says the unnamed Bush official said that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney "were of the opinion that military action were called for."

Now that we have sufficiently worried ourselves and given a reason for all those sleepless nights until 01-20-09, on to the normal levels of news that attract my attention.

Someone will call this activist judges at work. Others will shake their heads in dismay. Not being (physically) blind I don't know about the feeling of those who are. So I will let the merits of the case determine the outcome. (Wow. Is it hard not to make bad puns about vision and insight. But fortunately, I am restraining myself.)

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court says paper money discriminates against blind people. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has upheld a ruling that could force the U.S. to redesign its money so blind people can distinguish between values. Such changes could include making bills different sizes, including raised markings or printing oversized numbers for people who see poorly.

The next one brings back memories of some trips as a chaperone for my daughter's high school band. The band director, my best friend, always played favorites in his assignment of chaperones to groups of students. (it was a 250+ member band.) Since I am a drug counselor, he gave me the students that might be considered the most likely candidates for my services at some time in the future. I don't know if he figured I would know their secrets and catch them at it or what.

In any case the temptation to find a way to "lock" the students in their rooms is quite strong. But, and here's the problem with the concern of the students, most hotel/motel room doors open inward which means it would be quite difficult to actually duct tape their door closed. That would be a LOT of tape. But, since I wasn't there, I will defer judgment.

MILLBURY, Ohio - Parents have complained to a northwest Ohio school board that a chaperone sealed students in their hotel rooms with duct tape during a high school choir field trip.

At a heated meeting Monday, Michelle Mata told the Lake Local school board in Millbury that the tactic panicked her son during a recent weekend trip to Chicago.
Sylvia Keeler said she may file charges. Her son, Mark Hummel, said he worried he could be trapped during a fire. School board president Timothy Krugh told parents the tape was meant to keep students safe. Schools Superintendent Jim Witt said the tape would show if students violated curfew but wouldn't have kept them from escaping in an emergency.

And the BIG news of the week. American Airlines is NOT, repeat NOT raising fares. The BIGGER news of the week is that you have to pay for the unnecessary convenience of bringing luggage along and having them store it for you in the belly of the plane. What chutzpah for passengers to think they should have the right to bring along changes of clothes. Imagine that.

NEW YORK- Under a plan announced Wednesday by American Airlines, passengers already forced to pay extra for amenities like earphones, meals and even snacks will have to pay $15 to check a basic piece of baggage.

Maybe they should charge people for getting off the plane. Or as the Star-Trib headlined it:

What next? Pay Toilets?

Don't worry. I don't think American Airlines reads this blog so these ideas are safe just among us.

A Chilling Thought

I have been a fan of sci-fi author Orson Scott Card since he snuck up behind me as I was reading his classic Ender's Game and pulled one of the biggest out-of-the-blue endings that I still am stunned by over 20 years later. I have read all but one of the Ender and Ender's Shadow series of novels as well as many other that Card has written.

One I missed a year or so ago when it came out was Empire. While I can't call it one of Card's best novels, it certainly fits into his overall work. It is set in a near-time future when a civil war is attempted in the United States. There are some stereotypical characterizations of liberals and conservatives and the extremes of both. On the surface it appears to be taking the liberals to task more so than the conservatives. The ending was not as big a surprise as Ender's but it was an interesting one. (No spoiler here.)

Then I realize that Card has done a quite decent job of portraying what happens when a society and culture like ours gets so deeply divided along those political lines. The insanity of extremes is seen on both sides and those in the more rational middle are often caught there in situations beyond their control. It then becomes their job to bring things to a hopeful conclusion. Whether they are able to do that is the unanswered- and perhaps unanswerable- question.

Card then adds an afterword in which he explains some of his fears and concerns about the United States in these divided and divisive times. He is arguing strongly for those in the more moderate middle of both sides to wake up before it is too late and the extremes on both sides succeed at a perhaps even unhealable divide.

That's where this is a chilling book. He makes it all sound so possible even as we argue with its possibilities. But we have lived with this deepening divide in the United States for many years now. The current campaign, especially the Democratic side but to a lesser extent on the Republican, shows how divided we can become and how we can play with and feed those divides. McCain has trouble with the "true believers" on the Right. Clinton and Obama are fighting over issues of race and gender though neither are often mentioned that bluntly.

We have too many divides; too many litmus tests for correct thinking; too many disparate groups wanting their way to be The Way. It is into such a place that we walk with great fear for we may turn to one who seeks to unite us when the truth he that one may only be seeking self-aggrandizement. So far no one like that has shown up and no new civil war seems at hand.

But if we remain this deeply divided, it may not take much.

And Now the Vegan Menace

A reader of the blog by Boing!Boing! found an interesting article in the Twin Cities alternative newspaper, City Pages. Remember that the Republican National Convention will be held there at the end of summer. And they are naturally expecting trouble from those liberal protesters. So, here's the story as posted by Mark Frauenfelder:

[University of Minnesota sophomore Paul] Carroll, who requested that his real name not be used, showed up early and waited anxiously for [U of M Police Sgt. Erik] Swanson’s arrival. Ten minutes later, he says, a casually dressed Swanson showed up, flanked by a woman whom he introduced as FBI Special Agent Maureen E. Mazzola. For the next 20 minutes, Mazzola would do most of the talking.

“She told me that I had the perfect ‘look,’” recalls Carroll. “And that I had the perfect personality—they kept saying I was friendly and personable—for what they were looking for.”

What they were looking for, Carroll says, was an informant—someone to show up at “vegan potlucks” throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between multiple federal agencies and state and local law enforcement. The effort’s primary mission, according to the Minneapolis division’s website, is to “investigate terrorist acts carried out by groups or organizations which fall within the definition of terrorist groups as set forth in the current United States Attorney General Guidelines.”

Carroll would be compensated for his efforts, but only if his involvement yielded an arrest. No exact dollar figure was offered.

“I’ll pass,” said Carroll.

Link to complete story.

I think I'll pass, too. I actually have nothing to add.

Graduation Cliches

I have nothing against graduations and the people who graduate. They have become cherished parts of our traditions. Whether High School or college graduations, they are important rites of passage that mark endings and beginnings.

This past weekend I attended the graduation from college of my best friend's son. It was neat to see him walk across the stage and get his diploma. My wife and I are fortunate (and blessed) to know him and his family since he was born. There's a joy in watching these events, even as I become aware of the movement of time.

You see how easy it is, though, to fall into the graduation clinches, those words, phrases, or sentiments that you can't get through a graduation without hearing. I almost hate to say them here lest I, too, fall into the cliche trap.

• The future is in your hands.
• You have an unprecedented opportunity.
• You can do whatever you want.
• Our generation has messed things up; you can make this a better world.
• Etc.
• Etc.

Of course, cliches become cliches because there is a truth in them. They also become so when they are used over and over. So here I sit: 42 years after high school graduation; 38 after college; 33 and 15 after my master's and doctorate. Time has shown me that while these cliches are true, they are also just words. We say them because we are expected to say them and if we didn't hear them we would feel cheated.

The truth of the matter is most of us won't even know how or even if we have made a difference in the world. Is the world a better place in 2008 than it was in 1970? I don't know. Is it better or worse because I have been here? I hope so. That is where the truth comes to bear. I have been fortunate to know a lot of people who I have had the privilege and joy to make a difference with.

Some of them have told me. Others have shown me. And many I can only guess. Then the phone rings and it is my daughter. She calls to talk to one or both of us almost every day. She keeps in contact. She suggests that we go to the Twins-Yankees game or take a road trip to Milwaukee since we have never been to Miller Park.

Then I know. The cliches are true. But they are true for most of us one person at a time. Those are some of the thoughts that have gone through my mind as I watched one of those people walk across the stage and graduate.

I can only describe it as

• humbling, and
• neat!

A Morning After "What If...."

All the exit polls from Kentucky (and previously West Virginia) tend to show what I feel is a very disturbing trend. It is of course the racial divide that gets overwhelming votes to Senator Clinton over Senator Obama. Even some interviews shown on The Daily Show from other sources in West Virginia showed that people voted against Obama because he was Muslim (False!) and that his middle name was Hussein and "I'm tired of this whole Hussein thing."

Andrew Sullivan at The Daily Dish quoted from the Associated Press:

[T]he exit poll shows that one in five voters openly declared that race was a factor - and 81 percent of them voted for the Clintons. So one fifth proudly said they voted against a black man.

And of course many of those will either not vote in November, they say, or will vote for McCain.

What deeply, deeply saddens me is that a candidate will allow this to be used for her benefit and as part of the strategy to get the nomination. She will point out that she is getting a lot of votes without pointing out where they are coming from. She will say this shows that she has broader appeal than Obama. Probably because there are more white voters than black voters?

So what if tomorrow or next week or on June 3 Clinton has the courage and earns her true street cred by standing up and saying:

I am pulling out of this race and supporting Senator Obama because I cannot take the nomination that I won by racial division. I want this to be a united nation where race (like gender) doesn't matter. I want this to be a country where a black man is as likely to get elected as anyone else.

Yes, what if....

As Bobby Kennedy would regularly quote:

Some men see things as they are and say, "Why?"

I dream of things that never were and say, "Why not?"

Ted Kennedy- An American Icon

It came as a shock and stroke to the solar plexus when I saw the headline this afternoon that Ted Kennedy has a malignant brain tumor. He has been a central part of the American scene and the Democratic Party for 46 years since his first election in 1962.

1962? That was the year of the Cuban missile Crisis; before the Beatles were known; the first Wal-Mart store opened; the first James Bond film opened; Marilyn Monroe died; Nelson Mandela was arrested; and John Glenn orbited the earth. (Yes, Greg, I remember all those things.)

That's how long Ted Kennedy has been in the Senate. He certainly has had some bad years and aborted efforts to run for president. But he has become one of the great historic senators working both sides of the aisle quite well while remaining a standard bearer for the liberal traditions.

An icon is one who stands out in his profession and becomes almost a paradigmatic emblem of what he does. Ted Kennedy has become one of those outstanding persons. Many have disagreed with him, but he has been a steady presence.

Forever in Blue Jeans

They are my favorite pants. Blue Jeans. When I first met my future wife she thought I only owned one pair of pants. I actually owned 3 or 4- all of them Levi's Blue Jeans.

Well, according to Slate.com today marks the 135th anniversary of the granting of a patent to Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis for work pants reinforced with metal rivets. At Slate.com the photo group Magnum has a slide show of 17 pictures celebrating jeans. (Note that at least one of the pictures may be considered x-rated.)

Happy birthday blue jeans.

Early Memories of Pine Creek

pmPilgrim photo, 1982

The above picture is a scan from a photo from 1982 or '83. The trains were still running and the rails were still there. But this picture gives the rails a ghostly quality. Within a few years they would be silenced and removed making way for the Pine Creek Rail to Trail where I will be riding in a little over 2 1/2 months.

As I try to remember my earliest memories of Pine Creek it is extremely difficult. How do you pick out the earliest memory of something that was always there. Pine Creek, or often just "The Creek" (pronounced "crick"), was as much a part of life as the Susquehanna River and Bald Eagle Mountain. It never wasn't there. But as I rummage around in the recesses of memory several memories came up that stand out.

Perhaps the earliest was a train derailment up the creek at Slate Run if I remember it correctly although it could also have been Cedar Run. It was in the mid-1950s and I remember the family piling in the old Packard and heading up to see it. Somewhere in my batches of slides from that era are a couple pictures of the derailment. They are washed out now and I wish I could put my hands on them easily.

What I remember most about the derailment was that there was a box car filled with watermelons. Or at least that's how I remember it. I don't think we went down and got a close-up view but I do remember wishing we could get some of that watermelon.

Perhaps the most lasting image of the creek for me has always been the sharp sides along the road that follows the creek. In many places there isn't a lot of space between the side of the hills and the railroad or the creek itself. In spring th road signs warning of "Falling Rock" were heeded because there were big rocks, boulders, along the side of the road. As the snows melted and the water came off the steep sides toward the creek at the bottom of the valley, it would often bring rocks and boulders down on the road.

Just as interesting was the ice that formed along the rocky sides. It was often still there into April or even later depending on the year. In the shadier sections it always reminded us of the long cold winters of those years. It also reminded those of us who lived in town why many of our classmates didn't get to school when we were able to. We didn't think of it as wilderness then. But we knew that life was harder the further up the creek you went.

Now a whole lot has changed in the years since. The road isn't much wider (if at all). There has been very little development although some think the Rails to Trails will add some needed dollars in tourism which may change some of the dynamics. But the creek is still the centerpiece. And it is not always a friendly, benign neighbor.

But that is for another time.

Not a Big Surprise

It's an important way of looking at the brain- right-brain or left-brain. I have known by my style and approach to life which I tend to be. This test only shows it:

Brain Lateralization Test Results

Right Brain (64%) The right hemisphere is the visual, figurative, artistic, and intuitive side of the brain. Left Brain (42%) The left hemisphere is the logical, articulate, assertive, and practical side of the brain

Are You Right or Left Brained?
personality tests by similarminds.com

What I find interesting is that I think I am more both-brained than I have ever been As I have gotten older- and have had to do more things that need both sides of the brain to work together my left-brain what had to be pulled into play. For example, I am more upset by clutter and minimal organization than I used to be. But I tend to utilize "right-brain" skills to keep organized such as color-coding to catch the visual.

Of course we all use bother sides of the brain but these show our preferences and ways we may organize the world as well as interact with the world. On top of that you can mix in extraverts and introverts and things get really mixed up.

Trinity Sunday

I don't want to talk about theology. Theology is much too head-level thinking. It is twice removed from experiences of God. It is often a way of explaining something that we really don't know. Take the theologies of Holy Communion. We could talk forever about what the correct theology is. We could further split Christianity into more smaller groups just by doing so. Remember, personal experience is first; telling someone else about your experience is second; explaining the experience is third.

As far as I'm concerned getting back to the original experience of the Trinity is probably much easier than with some theological doctrines. Yes, the Trinity is a doctrine. It is only peripherally biblical. It is an explanation of something that we can't explain. We can only experience it.

God the Father,
God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit.

Any way you try to describe what that means will make you a heretic to someone.

In short, to me, it is simply the three ways that God had been experienced by God's people. There was no problem with any of this until Jesus came along. He really threw things into a theological uproar. How could he be God when God was God. Then this Holy Spirit. Wait, God is God, Jesus is God, the Holy Spirit is God? I can't wrap my human mind around that.

Which is good because we can look at the many ways we have gotten into trouble when we have tried to wrap our human minds around something with human logic and reason. Human logic and reason don't work. We're talking about God here. We're not talking about something we could understand. John Chrysostom (345-407) said it well in a quote I read recently.

A comprehended God is no God.

So I'm not comfortable talking about theology in times like this. God is Father- Creator, yes, but more than that. Father is a relationship word. As is Son- God the Son. These aren't cold theological constructs. These are words we understand if only poorly in some families and better in others. In the end for me faith is always about relationships more than it is about correct theology. None of us will ever have a truly correct theology. So we might as well work at the relationships.

Global Warming is Not a Local Thing

Dr. Jeff Masters at his weather blog from Weather Underground had a couple of interesting bits on Friday. First:

April 2008 was the 13th warmest April for the the globe on record, according to statistics released by the National Climatic Data Center. The January-April year-to-date period ranked twelfth warmest.

That in spite of a La Nina event that brings cooling. But to show that when we talk about global warming it is important to remember that we can't look at any one place for the statistics. A good example that Masters gives in the next item:

For the contiguous U.S., April was the coolest April in 11 years for the lower 48 United States, and fell into the lowest twenty-five percent of all Aprils based on records going back to 1895, making it the 29th coolest April on record.

I can attest to that here in the great northern state of Minnesota. My guess is that at least in this neck of the woods May is going to be cool, too, unless things warm up a lot in the next few days. (Example of our coolness is that this was the first fishing opener in 13 years where there was any ice on northern lakes.)

All those who poo-poo global warming use the coolness here to "prove" that global warming is a hoax. We must remember that we are dealing with more than a local area, even the size of the lower 48 United States. On a global scale things are getting warmer, even with a La Nina event. Yes, it was cool in the lower 48 United States. Imagine how much warmer the rest of the world was.

A 40-Year Memory - The Catonsville Nine

--The Catonsville Nine File

May 17, 1968 - The Catonsville Nine enter the Selective Service offices in Catonsville, Maryland, take dozens of selective service draft records, and burn them with homemade napalm as a protest against the Vietnam War.

They were: Father Daniel Berrigan, a Jesuit priest; his brother Father Philip Berrigan, a former Josephite priest; Bro. David Darst; John Hogan; Tom Lewis, an artist; Marjorie Bradford Melville; her husband, Thomas Melville, a former Maryknoll priest; George Mische; and Mary Moylan, a former nun.

Fr. Philip Berrigan and Tom Lewis had previously poured blood on draft records as part of the "Baltimore Four", and were out on bail when they burned the records at Catonsville.

The Catonsville Nine were tried in federal court October 5-9, 1968. The lead defense attorney was William Kunstler.

They were found guilty of destruction of U.S. property, destruction of Selective Service files, and interference with the Selective Service Act of 1967.
--Wikipedia

The Berrigan Brothers, Phil and Dan, were the poster children for the religious anti-war movement. They became almost like icons for those who, with deep religious convictions, opposed the war in Vietnam. Dan, who is now 87, is still a Jesuit priest, lives in New York and teaches at Fordham where he is poet in residence. His younger brother Phil, who died in 2003 at age 79, left the priesthood and was married.

Uncalled for Violence

This was in yesterday's New York Times

Zimbabwe’s Rulers Unleash Police on Anglicans
By CELIA W. DUGGER
Published in NYT: May 16, 2008

The parishioners were lined up for Holy Communion on Sunday when the riot police stormed the stately St. Francis Anglican Church in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital. Helmeted, black-booted officers banged on the pews with their batons as terrified members of the congregation stampeded for the doors, witnesses said.

Nothing short of scary. According to the article the ruling party has targeted groups that they have not been able to control. This includes "the Anglican diocese of Harare, as well as charitable and civic organizations, trade unions, teachers, independent election monitors and the political opposition."

It seems that there is a renegade Anglican bishop who is an ally of the President, Robert Mugabe. Somehow or another Mugabe's ruling party says that only followers of that Bishop are allowed to worship. The Times says,

Over the past three Sundays, the police have interrogated Anglican priests and lay leaders, arrested and beaten parishioners and locked thousands of worshipers out of dozens of churches.

Many American Christians (usually of the right-wing persuasion, feel that Christians in the United States are being persecuted. This story is about persecution. I am grateful that here in America we don't face those things. I pray we will never have to.

But that forces me to pray even more fervently for those who are persecuted for their religious beliefs. I don't care what the religion is, freedom of worship should be a basic human right. There is persecution of many different religions in many different places. It is not, I believe, God's will. No, don't quote the Old Testament to justify it or to counter the thought that freedom of religion is essential. It is not for us to say who can and can't worship. If one is forbidden, any can be forbidden.

Pray that such can be stopped and avoided. I can only believe that this would be God's will.

Please Mr. Bush, Don't Get Involved

Standing in Israel whose existence can be traced, at least in part, to the aftermath of the Nazi's horrific "Final Solution" we now call the Holocaust, Mr. Bush appeared to liken Obama's willingness to talk with Iran to the appeasement policies of Great Britain prior to World War II. It is easy to paste a really negative label on someone in historic terms. Just say they would have been easy on the Nazis.

There is a fine line, of course, between appeasement, which is a giving in to an enemy and expecting them to behave, and talking to your enemies. Bush's statement would have precluded all the behind-the-scenes talks, for example, between Nixon's people and what we then called Red China. They were the big enemy. But then, without warning, Nixon announces a change. We were talking and about to enter into trade with them.

How about detente, the attempt from the late 60s to the early 80s to relax tensions with the Soviet Union? That, too, would be wrong.

Obama has gotten into trouble, not for saying he would talk with Iran, but for getting in the way of continuing to have An Enemy that is bigger than all the rest. We have forgotten Osama bin Laden as he probably roams the caves of Afghanistan. Al Qaeda is still real. Are they being sponsored by Iran? Who knows. But the only way to learn what your enemy wants is to talk to him.

Will that prevent a war? Perhaps. Perhaps not. History is not very positive about the possibilities. That is not appeasement. It is good international relations. Is Iran as bad as the Nazis? Who knows. We kept talking to Stalin even as he was as horrific a leader as Hitler. We even had him on our side for a while.

No politics and foreign policy are not as simple as Mr. Bush tries to make them. I congratulate him on going to the Knesset and celebrating Israel's 60th birthday. But it was not a place for such politically charged rhetoric.

The Way to Go

From Yahoo! News, an item that challenges all of us in this time of high gas prices:

Wis. man won't buy gas for 31 days, maybe longer

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. - Brian LaFave couldn't care less how high gasoline prices climb these days — he's parked his pickup truck and is refusing to buy gas for a month, possibly longer.

"The goal is to not use one drop of gas for 31 days," LaFave said, calling it his personal stand against the oil companies.

Now LaFave, 31, is riding his bicycle or walking everywhere he goes. He won't even let friends pick him up unless they already planned on being in the neighborhood.

I do plan on buying a bike to go to and from work. I already don't drive my car very much since my apartment has a shuttle to my work. I am down to an average of less that 400 miles a month, which is also good since my car is at 108,000+ miles.

Anyway, Mr. LaFave, thanks for the challenge.

Iron Man: Serious Fun

I just went to the movie for a good time and popcorn. I got that and more with the first big blockbuster of the summer, Iron Man. It gives Robert Downey, Jr., Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard,and Gwyneth Paltrow afun story, geek-friendly CGI, action, and even a message. Downey is back in top form which is great to see and Jeff Bridges makes a great villain. Paltrow underplays her role just right as the female assistant to Downey's Tony Stark.

But the message makes this movie darker and more serious than I expected. Tony Stark becomes Iron Man as the result of a terrorist attack on his trip to Afghanistan to sell a new, powerful weapon of destruction. But it raises the question of companies making such powerful weapons and becoming either heroes or "merchants of death." The international arms trade and black market is raised up for concern as well.

But under it all, as always in any comic book/graphic novel super hero, it is the story of good and evil in black and white with good winning, but only for the moment. The divide of good and evil is found within humans and you never know which ones. Which may be the only gray area in these stories.

My wife really liked this movie. She thought it was fun and a good way to spend a movie afternoon. I really liked the movie. It was fun and yet it raised questions to pnder. Obviously many others agree with this (it is 93% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer and it was a big #1 for two weeks.) But don't let the serious part scare you off from a fun movie. Enjoy.

And oh, yes. They had a trailer for Indiana Jones the next fun movie of the summer. Well, I'm reserving judgment on Prince Caspian. Although I'm looking forward to it, it is, by definition a more serious movie.

Looking to the Future

People are really working hard on ways around the fuel costs (other than the "official" idea of digging more wells and building more refineries). Here are two videos of inventors with some good-looking prototypes who will still use gas but one of the most abundant around- air. (A Hat Tip to Dwight.)

Overheard

It's been a long time since I have posted anything from Overheard in New York. It has actually been because they got into a rut of a lot of off-color stuff that didn't particularly interest me.

[Note: When I just tried to go to the site from here at my favorite Caribou, it wouldn't let me go there. I guess it may have gotten too off-color for the server.]

Anyway, here are some from today and a couple from the past months that made me chuckle:

Teen boy, with a sigh: Sometimes the world just isn't as shiny as you want it to be.
--42nd St

Eight-year-old to uncle: Please don't move to Connecticut... It's too hard to spell!
--38th & 2nd Ave


Girl on cell: You live in Staten Island, that's too close to the wilderness, near the border. I am not emotionally ready to meet you in Staten Island.
--LIRR


Teen girl: Of course there were credit cards in the '50s. How else would they have gotten their money from the ATMs?
--Starbucks


Conductor: To the person who lost a roll of cash held together with a rubber band, come see me. I found the rubber band.
--A train, 59th St

Two Naps in One Day

Yes, what a joy. I have taken three vacation days this week. I woke up late (8:30 or so) then went back and took a nap at 11:30. I got up at 1:45 because I should have been answering the phone from my wife and a form we had to sign on the sale of our house. After reading for a while I kind of fell into an "unplanned" nap about 4:15 which lasted until 5:15.

Aaaah.

I know, I know- "You won't sleep tonight." But I don't have to get up at 5:45 tomorrow, either, so I can watch The Daily Show an some of Steven Colbert and Letterman and then read some more.

Aaaah.


What's so significant about this? Absolutely nothing. I'm just trying to make all of you who had to work today jealous.

A Symbolic Win

So tonight Hillary had a big win in a state that she was expected to have a big win in and in which Obama never really contested her. They are calling it a "symbolic victory" whatever that is. It was a win. Period. Irrelevant? Probably. Useless? Could be. But symbolic? No.

Or perhaps it was symbolic of something-

• an inability to say "It's over."
• an attempt to gain some "bargaining power" at the convention.
• a campaign to undermine Obama's chances to win in November.
• give a voice to (I hate to say it) racism by pointing out the still divided American racial scene.

I don't know. I just don't know. Why do the voters want the race to continue to the end? What is beneath it all? The pundits have been trying to answer these question over and over. I don't know either.

Hillary has to know that she can't win. The people voting for her have to know this, too. Only time will tell what the results will be. Only come November will the final figures be tallied and someone new will be president. Who it is may be as much a reflection of these last weeks of the Democratic as on the final two candidates. I am tired of the ups and downs and questions and never-ending answers.

At this point all I know is that we have three weeks to go in this now interminable primary season. It was exciting and interesting for a while. It has become an odd and even dark-tinged race.

Lightning and Ash

Reuters

After looking at this picture of the volcanic eruption in Chile, I'm going to stop whining about our weather! Now they say the cloud has partially collapsed with fears of smothering the land and the villages.

Who says nature is always benevolent? The past few weeks have undermined that from the tornadoes in the US to the Cyclone in Myanmar and the earthquake in China. Never underestimate the power of the natural world. Never!

Twelve Weeks To Go

This is what the bridge shown in my masthead above looks like when heading downstream on the Pine Creek Rail to Trail. When I was a kid and we would drive up The Creek for some reason or another this bridge (and one closer to town) always intrigued me. There was alsways something about them that made me want to get out in the middle of the bridge and just look up and down The Creek.

I was always too much of a wimpy, scaredy-cat to walk out on the rails that were there then. I know others probably did. I don't think many people ever jumped off the bridges- the water level is not all that deep and a permanent spinal cord injury was sure to follow. But I never did that myself. I would just look longingly.

Actually, in those years me and wilderness would not have been two things that easily came together. It wasn't necessarily because I liked the comfort of a nice bed with a roof over my head. It was fear. Fear of bears and animals in general. Fear of snakes, especially the dreaded rattlesnakes that were - and are - prevelant in the area. One of the white missionaries from the 1700s even commented on that in one of his reports in his diary. In some ways I am surprised Tiadaghton (the Indian name for the creek) didn't mean Rattlesnake Waters.

The other thing was that when you grow up in a place like the Pine Creek/Susquehanna Valley you don't know what you have. The mountains, the waters, the trees are all psrt of the expected scenery. It is only when you leave that you realize what you had. Which is what has happened to me over the years. I think it also made me more open and aware of the need for wilderness of some kind in my life.

I use the word wilderness quite broadly to actually mean nature in general. Nature and "tame" wilderness can be found in parks in the middle of cities as well as in one's backyard where a stream comes up out of the ground. It can be in the trees and life from a park that your backyard abuts to. Such contact with the "nature" world was so in-bred into me as I was growing up that I didn't even notice it.

But then I found myself looking for the parks and quiet places. I became aware of being a "river rat" who looked for water to connect with. I began to sense those "Thin Places" as the Celts called them where the separation between heaven and earth was for some reason "thinner" than others. As I looked backward then I realized that Pine Creek and the Susquehanna River were two important places in making me who I am and turning my spirituality into reality for me.

So in August we will be back there. Twelve weeks from today is my 60th birthday and I will complete the last few miles of the 60 Miles for 60 Years bike trip. We plan on staying in the valley near the Creek for the whole week, though, and just letting the wildnerness surround and carry us.

I hope to post something each week on the journey and its roots. It is all part of the Rolling Toward (and Through) Sixty for me. I will try my best to bring you along.

Israel is 60, Too

May 14, 1948 - Israel was born. They have been celebrating over there for this past week which is because of the date on the Jewish Calendar. It was the 5th day of Iyar on that calendar. That would have been last Saturday (May 10) so the official celebration was moved up two days to Thursday May 9.

I have been to Israel twice in my life. First my wife and I spent a month there in 1973, barely leaving two months before the Yom Kippur War. It was quite an experience. In 1980 I hosted a 10-day tour that was powerful and moving as two of the personal highlights were leaving a prayer for then unborn "baby Lehman" between the stones of the Western Wall and planting a tree in her honor.

A year later the seemingly endless procession of uprisings and terrorism and war started up. I have not been back since. I am sure I would not recognize many places for better and worse.

I get deeply conflicted by the situation in Israel and the Middle East. But this is not the post to do that in. I wish Israel a Happy 60th. It has not been an easy life due both to things they have done as well as things beyond their control.

As the Psalms remind me, though, I do pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Doves and Wind and Tongues of Fire

Mexican Pentecost Icon

Come Holy Spirit, and fill the hearts of your faithful,
and kindle in us the fire of Your Divine Love.
Send forth Your Spirit and we shall be created,
and You shall renew the face of the earth.
Oh God, Who by the light of the Holy Spirit instructed the hearts of the faithful,
Grant, that by the same Spirit we may be truly wise
and ever rejoice in His consolation.
We ask this through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

But Not In My Backyard

We pray for a Spirit to empower us;
But if such a Spirit truly did
What was done that first Pentecost
Would we run the other way?
Would we argue that this
Is not the way we have always done it?

Would we cling to our pews as
The Wind, the Holy Pneuma
The Sacred Ruach
Tried to fly us away to new heights
Of life with God?

Yes, I probably would while
Holding on for dear life.

So Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief
My fears
My control
And let me be carried away
In true living.

Don'ty Try This at Home

I wouldn't do this in person, but it is an interesting video. Climb the Camino del Rey. Oh, if you are afraid of heights, even on a computer screen, ignore this.



A HT to Andrew Sullivan at the Daily Dish. As Andrew said-- stunning!

National Train Day

On May 10, 1869, in Promontory Summit, Utah, the “golden spike” was driven into the final tie that joined 1,776 miles of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railways, ceremonially creating the nation’s first transcontinental railroad. And America was transformed.
--National Train Day website

Yes, in many ways it is a shameless promotion from Amtrak. But if it works to get more people on trains, I'm all for it!

So thank a train today. Even if it's old and just used for a bunch of tourists.

pmPilgrim photo

Triage Decisions

The word "triage" entered more common usage thanks to the TV show M*A*S*H of course. It is the difficult decision making process of deciding in a medical setting who to treat first. In that decision making can be a whole range of problems and issues. It may not be generally known that the medical and other communities are in the process of making all kinds of plans for what could happen should we have a MAJOR flu pandemic. Earlier this last week was an article on Yahoo! News that brought the issue to a painful awareness:

CHICAGO - Doctors know some patients needing lifesaving care won't get it in a flu pandemic or other disaster. The gut-wrenching dilemma will be deciding who to let die.

Now, an influential group of physicians has drafted a grimly specific list of recommendations for which patients wouldn't be treated. They include the very elderly, seriously hurt trauma victims, severely burned patients and those with severe dementia.

These groups making these plans include Homeland Security, the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Health and Human Services. They hope that the guidelines they develop will be a blueprint for hospitals so that they can all be on the same page if or more likely when some major health disaster hits.

The idea is to try to make sure that scarce resources — including ventilators, medicine and doctors and nurses — are used in a uniform, objective way, task force members said.

Their recommendations appear in a report appearing Monday in the May edition of Chest, the medical journal of the American College of Chest Physicians.

"If a mass casualty critical care event were to occur tomorrow, many people with clinical conditions that are survivable under usual health care system conditions may have to forgo life-sustaining interventions owing to deficiencies in supply or staffing," the report states.

Local hospitals are sto set up a triage team that will have almost godlike powers to decide who may or may not be given care that could save their life. Of course those least likely to get care are those who have a much higher risk of death or a slim-chance of long term survival.

But the recommendations get much more specific, and include:

_People older than 85.

_Those with severe trauma, which could include critical injuries from car crashes and shootings.

_Severely burned patients older than 60.

_Those with severe mental impairment, which could include advanced Alzheimer's disease.

_Those with a severe chronic disease, such as advanced heart failure, lung disease or poorly controlled diabetes.

Yes, you are right. This could turn into a nightmarish situation, which it will be regardless of these guidelines. But these add to the situation some serious legal not to mention ethical concerns.

Public health law expert Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University called the report an important initiative but also "a political minefield and a legal minefield."

The recommendations would probably violate federal laws against age discrimination and disability discrimination, said Gostin, who was not on the task force.

If followed to a tee, such rules could exclude care for the poorest, most disadvantaged citizens who suffer disproportionately from chronic disease and disability, he said. While health care rationing will be necessary in a mass disaster, "there are some real ethical concerns here."

Well, it is not surprising to see this, as disturbing as it may be. Is it a doomsday scenario? Is it another Y2K-type of apocalyptic view? Who knows? Your guess is as good as mine. We have often found out that the disaster we plan for is not the one that happens. Such is the nature of chance. Only the survivors will like the decisions being made. I hope that I am not in the position to make those kind of decisions or to help make them.

Here is the abstract for an article about this, part of a series in a professional magazine.

In the twentieth century, rarely have mass casualty events yielded hundreds or thousands of critically ill patients requiring definitive critical care. However, future catastrophic natural disasters, epidemics or pandemics, nuclear device detonations, or large chemical exposures may change usual disaster epidemiology and require a large critical care response. This article reviews the existing state of emergency preparedness for mass critical illness and presents an analysis of limitations to support the suggestions of the Task Force on Mass Casualty Critical Care, which are presented in subsequent articles. Baseline shortages of specialized resources such as critical care staff, medical supplies, and treatment spaces are likely to limit the number of critically ill victims who can receive life-sustaining interventions. The deficiency in critical care surge capacity is exacerbated by lack of a sufficient framework to integrate critical care within the overall institutional response and coordination of critical care across local institutions and broader geographic areas.

(CHEST 2008; 133:8S–17S) Definitive Care for the Critically Ill During A Disaster.

Technological Miracles

An amazing headline today:

Data from Columbia disk drives survived the shuttle accident

The headline is only partly true. In reality the drive was sent to a company called Kroll Ontrack in the western Minneapolis suburbs. The engineer there, Jon Edwards, managed to work his miracle on some of the data. Much of the data on other drives was lost due to the incredible heat that not only melted parts but also demagnetized them.

This news doesn't entirely surprise me, especially with Kroll Ontrack. Last fall I put my CD of pictures from our 2002 trip to Spain in the drive- and got an error message. Something somewhere on the CD was messed up and all those great and wonderful once-in-a-lifetime pictures seemed lost forever.

Then I found a business card on a bulletin board at a local coffee shop. It was for a sales person for Kroll Ontrack. To make the story short I called, took the CD in, paid a pretty good fee and Voila! there were my pictures again. All of them. It isn't cheap. These kind of guys get paid well for their magic. But I'm not sure how important the data from Columbia is, but my pictures were, to me, priceless.

In the News - or Not

What else happens in the world while primaries continue? Here is a small sample I found earlier this week. It makes for a good contrast.

First, a sad bit of news. Times change, even when those times represent almost 150 years ago.

GETTYSBURG, Pa. - For decades, visitors willing to shell out a few extra dollars at Gettysburg National Military Park could be entertained — or bored — by an electric light display showing troop movements in that pivotal Civil War battle.

With the opening of a new museum and visitor center that offers a bigger "wow" factor for the park's nearly 2 million visitors each year, the National Park Service has decided that its 1960s-era electric battlefield map is obsolete.

I remember that battlefield map from when we went there when I was a kid. I don't know how old I was but it was intriguing to watch. Remember this was in the Dark Ages.

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Now for something even older- and far more mysterious. It isn't as obvious an answer if you are asked who's buried in Schiller's Tomb?

BERLIN - Who is buried in Friedrich Schiller's tomb? Several people, apparently, but none of them the famous poet and playwright, according to new research.

After two years of painstaking DNA research, experts have determined that none of the remains billed as those of Schiller belong to the German writer, who died in Weimar in 1805, Germany's MDR television reported.

My question (without taking the time to look it up) is who wondered in the first place that Schiller wasn't there and why did they even care?

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Still over there in Germany, something that sounds like an old camp idea from our sr high camp.

BERLIN (Reuters) - The head of Germany's Social Democrats, who has ambitions to be his country's next leader, is thinking about donating his beard to charity, but is not quite sure.

Kurt Beck, who as party leader has a strong claim to lead the SPD into next year's national election, said in a panel discussion in Mainz that he might shave off his beard to raise 1 million euros ($1.5 million) for charity, the newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported.
"It must be serious and not turn into a spectacle," he told the paper. "The event would have to help the really needy."

This, to me, is neither new or news. I did this exactly 10 years ago at our Sr. High Camp. If the camp raised over $3,000 for that year's mission project I would shave my beard. They did it. I did. Then when I got home I find out that my wife never liked it. I had only had it for 18 years!

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Road rage, in reverse.

COPIAGUE, N.Y. (AP) A Long Island man who flipped his finger at a police cruiser and then popped a wheelie on his motorcycle is recovering from injuries after crashing. When the motorcycle turned into a parking lot it crashed into a police car that had joined the chase.

Let's hope it knocked some sense into the cyclist's head.

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This isn't really news, but it shows that what we think is new and different news is just a recycling of the past. Found this quoted in The Daily Dish:

American flag lapel pins had been distributed to members before the president spoke to Congress on April 2, 1917, requesting a declaration of war. It took a certain obdurate courage to refuse to wear the colors; Senator La Follette was among the refusers, as was the Mississippi senator Vardaman.

Good old fighting Bob La Follette. Ninety years later we still fight the same battles.

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And finally, speaking of Wisconsin (Bob La Follette was from there) where only the truly crazy of us go to root for the one and only team in the NFL:

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) -- David Witthoft finally shunned his Brett Favre jersey for a red shirt for the first time in 1,581 days. The 12-year-old Ridgefield, Conn. boy wore the No. 4 jersey every day since receiving it as a gift for Christmas in 2003.

Actually the story isn't from Wisconsin, only the team is. There are true Green and Gold fans everywhere. Don't tell us there's any other team that's America's Team. We were there first.

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Which reminds me of a joke I heard this week. It's a variation on an oldie but goodie.

Brett Favre has decided that in his retirement he wanted to be far away from professional football.

So he moved to Minneapolis.

By the way that is so old I remember it being told about the Green Bay Packers back in the 80s.

House- Love This Part

One of the great moments of a great TV show was the air piano of Hugh Laurie as House, M.D. Well, surfing around rock and roll (after yesterday's post on the Hard Rock Theme Park) I found, on You Tube of course, a wonderful Fanvid of House using The Who's Baba O'Reilly. No profound statement. No deep insight. Just a great song with scenes from a great show.

Still at Square One - or Not?

Another Wednesday. Now what?

It looks like it ain't over till it's over. Obama's big win in North Carolina came as expected. Clinton's bare bones win in Indiana says she's not going to have an easy road in spite of her optimism. Obama was the clear winner yesterday even though Clinton will probably not agree. (Interesting note- Obama congratulated Clinton for an Indiana win even before anyone but CBS News had projected a winner. After that her lead dropped to the bare bones win it became.)

Yes it was close. With 84% reporting only 38,000 votes (4%) separated the two in Indiana. No one was calling it at that point (except CBS, I believe.) That says a great deal about how close it really was. They didn't know much. At that point Obama had to win 57% in Lake Co. Indiana to move the results. Mathematically it was still possible since he had already won 62% in Indianapolis. It was still undecided when our editions of the Twin Cities papers went to bed last night. Quite a race.

So where then are we? One projection I saw said that when all is said and done in June Obama will be about 100 delegates shy of the nomination, 150 ahead of Clinton.

Which means that after last night, barring something big and magnanimous from Clinton the decision will head to the back rooms and board rooms of the Democratic National Committee. Can enough Super Delegates be convinced by Obama to assure him the nomination? Will Clinton manage to convince enough of those same Super Delegates that she has proven that Obama can't win in the fall because, look, he can't even beat Hillary? My guess is that there will be a few more Super delegates move to him this week. His major movement in Indiana will go a long way. But will it be enough to give DNC chair Howard Dean the leverage he needs to move this race away from that Square One it seems to be on?

Confusion reigns although perhaps less than on Monday.

But then again remember, it is the Democratic Party.

A Rockin' New Theme Park

A new tourist trap theme park has opened:

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C (AP). - The Led Zeppelin classic "Whole Lotta Love" throbs from the 1,200-watt sound system as the slick silver and white roller coaster nears the top of its serpentine track.

Lead singer Robert Plant shrieks, "Woman. You need. Loooooooove..." And as he does, riders scream as the car falls from a height of 155 feet, reaching speeds of 65 mph.

Welcome to Hard Rock Park, America's newest theme park and the first one built in the nation in a decade. Here the theme is not movies or fairy tales or water shows. It's that American invention, rock 'n' roll.

But can I ride "The Stairway to Heaven?" Or fly the "Free Bird?" Maybe they should be cautious, because we all know it's hard to get "Satisfaction." At least near the ocean so the workers can live in a "Yellow Submarine" and set up rides "Under the Boardwalk."

According to the article you can eat at "Alice's Restaurant" (exceptin' Alice) and take the "Nights in White Satin Trip." But be careful on the roads going there because many of the patrons "Can't Drive 55." But you can drive your Chevy to the levee but it will be dry, then take a walk across the "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" and finally just relax while "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay."

Okay- I'll stop. (But Imagine the limitless potential for Respect.)