PLEASE PASS THE PROZAC, LOTS OF IT

Yesterday evening G and I went to the Sussex County Democratic Jamboree at Cape Henlopen State Park.  As usual, it was a nearly lily-white event, with a couple of African American attendees, no Hispanics at all, one Asian family.  This in no way reflects the actual make-up of Sussex County, let alone the Democratic party in Sussex County. The Jamboree is a gathering of the good ol' white folks who are running the policitical districts, running for office, holding office, etc, in this county and this state.  Yes, it was a high, and yes, I now feel like part of this establishment to whatever small degree - for the first time I knew many, if not most, of the people there, got lots of handshakes, hugs, smiles, friendly hellos - but I don't feel good about the exclusivity and in-crowdness going on here. 

In this morning's Wilmington News Journal were two very important articles.  One has already made the forwarding rounds of all the Democrats (I've already gotten it three times from three different sources).  It's about how the Republicans want to win Delaware back this year, both nationally and locally.  We listened to Joe Biden and Tom Carper tell us that DE is safely in the Dems' column for Kerry last night - then woke up to read how the Republicans have no intention of letting it stay that way and are spending millions of advertising dollars to change it.  It's only the undecided and unregistered potential voters who will keep DE a blue state.  And most of those voters are, who?  African Americans and Hispanics, new citizens, people who need us to reach out and include them, make them feel there's a home for them in the Democratic party.  T

Two years ago (the last major election) the Republicans held a big picnic  (the Jamboree is essentially a picnic) here in my town  (which is over 50% Hispanic) in a public park - no entry fee, no charge for food, bands from Guatemala and Mexico providing the music, free yard signs - and blanketed the town with notices about the event in both English and Spanish.  Yesterday's Jamboree was held in a state park (entrance fee), there was a $10.00 charge for admittance to the event itself, the band was young white boys, there was no publicity about it AT ALL (it's kind of a word of mouth thing, you know somebody who knows somebody who's selling tickets, etc.).  Why would I be surprised at the paucity of minority groups attending?

The other article was about the advisories against eating fish caught in any bodies of water in this state.  Although this is also true for most of the bodies of water in most other states in this union.  I'm going to try to copy the article into this entry, but it may turn out to be too long.  If so, I'll just give the link.  The accompanying chart will make your blood run cold.  The article mentions the fact that many people are not heeding the "catch and throw back" warnings about fish - and I know who those people are.  They are African Americans, Haitians, Hispanics, Asians.  They are my students - we have talked about this.  They regard the fish they catch every weekend as a major source of food.  Free food.  Food that will give them and their families cancer down the line, sure as the day is long.  This chart, by the way, doesn't even include the streams, rivers, ponds, and lakes of my county.  Not because they're all clean - the most fished river here is the Indian River, which features a coal-fired power plant on its banks.  The waters here are just as polluted as those of the northern counties.  It's just not as important to the Wilmington News Journal, somehow.

Throw back fish caught in state waters
Pollution causes restrictions on consumption

By JAMES MERRIWEATHER
The News Journal
08/29/2004

Making his first fishing trip to Dover's Silver Lake, Grady Harrell of Dover was spin-casting a pink plastic lure from the walkway over the dam, the point where the lake gives way to the St. Jones River.

He wasn't having any luck, and, abiding by warnings from previous visits, he was in strict catch-and-release mode.

"I heard a couple of people saying all you can do is come out here and have fun because you can't eat the fish," said Harrell, 21, who was accompanied by his 4-year-old daughter, LaDjeaha.

"I saw this one guy out here, and he said he eats them anyway. Me? I'm going to throw mine back."

That's probably the right choice.

State regulators say the fish pulled from Silver Lake - and the St. Jones River - are not fit to eat. The 167-acre lake, which drains about 20,000 acres of urban and rural land, is one of 21 bodies of Delaware water covered by fish consumption advisories.

Nationwide, the Environmental Protection Agency reported last week, some 3,094 lakes, rivers and streams in 48 states carry similar advisories - up about 10 percent from the 2,814 reported two years earlier, with the increase attributed largely to stepped-up monitoring.

Because of polychlorinated biphenyls, known as PCBs, dioxin and mercury contamination, the recommendation from the state Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control is that fishermen eat no more than two eight-ounce servings of Silver Lake fish over a year's time.

Other advisories are even more stringent. For instance, "no consumption" recommendations are in place for the Delaware River from the Pennsylvania state line to the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal, and for the Brandywine River from Baynard Boulevard in Wilmington to the Pennsylvania border.

But state officials said they think not everyone is as cautious as Grady Harrell.

The evidence is mostly anecdotal, but officials suspect that big helpings of fish pulled from the tainted waters end up in frying pans all around the state. Over the long term, that may expose the diners to cancer or other maladies from the chemicals that nestle into the fatty tissue of all forms of finfish.

"I strongly suspect there are lots of people that just ignore the advisories, but we're making a study of it so we have better info," said Roy Miller, state fisheries administrator.

"That will give us guidance as to whether we're getting the message out and whether people are heeding the message. If we find that most people have not heard about them, we have to do a better job of getting the word out."

Guides on fish provided

Craig Shirey, fisheries program manager, said the advisories, which date back to at least 1986, are listed in DNREC fishing guides, which are issued annually. Notices of new or revised advisories are published in newspapers, he said. Some local fishermen said they are aware of the warnings.

Thomas B. Taylor of New Castle said he makes the 40-minute trip to Dover's Silver Lake because "there's a lot of big fish in here." He said he was aware of the consumption advisories and, like Harrell, had no designs on keeping anything that he might have caught.

"I don't eat it," he said, loading his eight-foot boat onto his GMC pickup for the ride home. "I just throw it back."

Sean Foley, manager of Captain Bones Bait, Tackle and Hunting in Odessa, said that, as far as he knows, nobody eats bass, shad or any other fish that comes from fresh water.

"They're eating saltwater fish," he said. "I don't know of anybody who eats freshwater fish. My customers are sport fisherman who catch them and release them."

The warnings result from years of pollution of rivers industry and sewage plants. Rural lakes and rivers often are tainted runoff. The EPA reported that all states but Alaska and Wyoming have fish advisories in place for one or more bodies of water.

Mercury is the leading culprit nationwide, but PCBs are far the leading pollutants in Delaware waters. Production of the synthetic organic chemicals, once treasured as fire-resistant insulating compounds, was banned in 1977 after studies turned up evidence that they cause cancer.

Plan to clean up water

A mitigation plan has been adopted Delaware and federal regulators, and Delaware's environmental control chief, John A. Hughes, said the goal is to clean up the state's waters to the point that fish consumption advisories will not be necessary. The advisories cover 17 bodies of water in New Castle County, four in Kent and none in Sussex.

Jed Brown is project leader for the Delaware River Coordinator, a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service office that works with Delaware, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania to clean up the Delaware River. He said much of the pollution that once all but choked out striped bass, shad and Atlantic sturgeon has been cleaned up over the last 30 years or so.

Miller, the state fisheries administrator, said the advisories reflect 1-in-1,000 to 1-in-100,000 chances that cancer would result solely from consumption of tainted fish. In all cases, he said, it's recommended that pregnant women, women of child-bearing age and young children eat no fish from any water carrying an advisory.

"It depends on risk tolerance," he said. "We're saying that if you eat fish the rest of your life, these are the odds of developing some kind of health impairment. It depends on how you view the risk."

Each year, the National Marine Fisheries Service, a federal agency, conducts a survey of marine recreational fisheries, which is intended to measure the economic and biological impact of 15 to 17 million recreational fishermen in Delaware and other coastal states. This year, Miller said, Delaware threw in more money to include questions intended to show whether its advisories are sufficiently visible and how many fishermen might be eating their catches from tainted waters.

"No results yet, but the questions are being asked," he said. "We suspect that there are people who are ignoring them, and in no cases do we have any information that a few meals are going to hurt anyone. It's the lifetime consumption rate, the longer-term exposure, that we're concerned about."

Contact James Merriweather at 678-4273 or jmerriweather@delawareonline.com.

DELAWARE FISH CONSUMPTION ADVISORIES

The pollutant listed first is of greatest concern

BECKS POND

All finfish

Entire pond

PCBs, mercury

One 8-ounce meal per year

DELAWARE RIVER

All finfish

Del State Line to C&D Canal

PCBs, Dioxin, other

No consumption

SHELLPOT CREEK

All finfish

Philadelphia Pike to Del. River

PCBs

No consumption

RED LION CREEK

All finfish

U.S. 13 to Del. River

PCBs, Dioxin

Three 8-ounce meals per year

LOWER DEL. RIVER & DEL. BAY

Finfish*

C&D Canal to Del. Bay mouth

PCBs, mercury, Dieldrin

One 8-ounce meal per year.**

TIDAL BRANDYWINE RIVER

All finfish

River mouth to Baynard Blvd.

PCBs

No consumption

NONTIDAL BRANDYWINE

All finfish

Baynard Blvd. to Pa. line

PCBs, Dioxin

Two 8-ounce meals per year

TIDAL CHRISTINA RIVER

All finfish

River mouth to Smalley's Dam

PCBs, Dieldrin

No consumption

NONTIDAL CHRISTINA RIVER

All finfish

Smalley's Dam to I-95

PCBs

Six 8-ounce meals per year

LITTLE MILL CREEK

All finfish

Mouth to Kirkwood Highway

PCBs

No consumption

TIDAL WHITE CLAY CREEK

All finfish

River mouth to Del. 4

PCBs

No consumption

NONTIDAL WHITE CLAY CREEK

All finfish

Del. 4 to Paper Mill Road

PCBs

One 8-ounce meal per month

RED CLAY CREEK

All finfish

State line to Stanton

PCBs, Dioxin, pesticides

Two 8-ounce meals per year

C&D CANAL

All finfish

Entire canal in Delaware

PCBs

No consumption

APPOQUINIMINK RIVER

All finfish

Tidal portions

PCBs, Dioxin

One 8-ounce meal per year

DRAWYERS CREEK

All finfish

Tidal portions

PCBs, DDT

One 8-ounce meal per year

SILVER LAKE, MIDDLETOWN

All finfish

Entire lake

PCBs, Dieldrin, DDT, other

One 8-ounce meal per year

ST. JONES RIVER

All finfish

Mouth to Silver Lake dam

PCBs, Dioxin, mercury

Two 8-ounce meals per year

MOORES LAKE

All finfish

Entire pond

PCBs, DDT

Two 8-ounce meals per year

SILVER LAKE, DOVER

All finfish

Entire pond

PCBs, Dioxin, mercury

Two 8-ounce meals per year

WYOMING MILL POND

All finfish

Entire pond

PCBs, Dioxin, DDT

Two 8-ounce meals per year

* Striped bass, channel catfish, white catfish, American eel, white perch, bluefish

** Do not eat bluefish larger than 24 inches

 

SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER

Yep, summer's over. One down, fifteen more to go.  Weeks in the semester, that is.  Do you remember me?  Do I remember me?  No one will love me anymore; I'm the disappearing journal writer, not to mention reader.  There just hasn't been time to visit anyone's journal, including this one. 

The county wide Hispanic Festival was last Sunday and I had been in charge of getting Kerry/Dem party materials and flyers ready for this event.  I'd spent weeks combing the internet for stuff, putting bits and pieces together to come up with a flyer detailing Kerry's intentions for the Hispanic community.  Towards the end of last week the Kerry site itself put some good stuff up that I was able to use, and I have to say the flyer came out quite well.  I drove into D.C. to pick up materials from the Dem Store, buttons and stickers in Spanish, as well.  I had a couple of good volunteers who worked the crowd, passing out materials and talking to people, sticking "Unidos con Kerry" lapel stickers on everyone's backs and/or fronts.

.This is Eduardo showing off how cute he is.  He was fantastic - working that crowd like an absolute pro.  He's from Chile, works at the Hilton in Ocean City, helps out with the EvenStart program and wants to teach ESL himself.

My table was between the Union table and the county Democrats table; we were a strong group (the Socialist Workers were just behind us!  with lots of great sounding books in Spanish.).  The Dems' table had mostly local candidates' materials and there were a good number of candidates working the crowd.  Here's Richard registering voters: Although many in the Hispanic community here are undocumented, we managed to register quite a few citizens, all of whom chose "Democratic" as their party choice. 

Determined Democrats

This is always a great event, good food, music and dancing from many Latin-American countries.  Balloons, children, noise and laughter.  It managed to stop raining for the day; we even had to use a lot of sunscreen.

Then - Monday morning dawned, bright and early. The first day of class, and a continuing day of voter registration drive at Del Tech.  I spent the day trying to sort out my class members and their schedules, keeping my volunteers coming and working, and drinking more coffee.  I worked from 8 a.m. til 8 p.m., and got up and did it all again the next two days.  On Weds afternoon I was doing voter reg myself after my classes, when I hit a long Republican streak (a long streak of quite vocally "Christian" Republicans, compelled to tell me everything they knew) and decided to call it a day and go home about four.  I think I'll keep the registration going one day a week on campus, as long as we keep finding students who aren't registered.  

The week of classes went well, despite the confusion (Our E.S.L. students tend to register late, so we never know if we really will have a class or not - in my 8:30 class I had new students every single day and just found out I'll have more next Monday.) I managed to do some teaching.  I'm teaching grammar, reading and writing.  Writing is four hours on Friday morning, a difficult performance to pull off.  Only by changing pace often can I keep their eyes from glazing over, their heads from slumping to the desk.  I have to admit, however, that this is my favorite class.  Here is where I really teach grammar, as "grammar" in isolation seems meaningless to me.  Filling in blanks on exercise sheets is like running in place.  It's when they start writing that they understand what grammar is, does, means.  Part of writing class is keeping journals, and I'm thinking of getting them online for journaling - after a while.  Right now it's notebooks, I brought them in a pile of spanking new lovely notebooks (I'm queer for this kind of thing, I have to admit - I love writing materials, paper, notebooks, pens, sharp pencils, etc.) this morning.

Last night was the August meetup of our Kerry group, which grows bigger and bigger every time we have a meeting.  The issue was Civil Liberties and Foreign Policy.  Great presentations, even better discussions.  My presentation was on voter registration - after the bitching and the whining, get to work, folks - everyone there was given the homework of registering five voters (we're using the do-it-yourself federal forms, but we mail them in for them - this way we can register people from all over the country.  This is tourist territory, people summer here from all over.) during the next week. Here's our issues committee, looking as goofy as we actually are.  A panel of geeks, but really smart and nice ones.
That's me on the far left, of course, and Richard, Dick, Joanne and Mike.  Why does my head look twice as big as everyone else's?

Many more things happening this weekend, but I think the only one in which I will participate is the Democratic Jamboree at Cape Henlopen State Park.  It's essentially a big picnic - fried chicken, potato salad, cole slaw, brownies, democratic food - with all the state and local candidates present, lots of speechifying, seeing people you haven't seen since last year  (except this year I see tham constantly).  A chance to pick up yard signs, bumper stickers, and even a door prize or two, since there's always fund raising going on thru the sale of tickets for prizes and raffles.  We've been going to this ever since we moved here, but this is the first year that I really feel like a part of things.  Remember when I said I wonder if I can find a group of Democrats who'll have me?  Hah.  Foolish last words.

What I HAVE to spend some time on this weekend is the yard.  I've thought it was a jungle at other times, but right now you could lose a herd of elephants out there.  Here's a wildness I quite love, the wild rudbeckia madness at the edge of the yard, a hysterical maze of bright yellow - cheers me up every time I see it:

All right then, I think that about catches me up.  That's my story, I'm going to go check out some of yours!

BUILD A BETTER BUSH!

And, for some real fun, if you are bored and cross and have nothing really wonderful to do on a Friday evening - go here and see what you can do! Create your own monster, using the real one as model!

THE FUN WE'RE MISSING BY NOT BEING REPUBLICANS, HUH?

Totally zonked, after a week of voter reg drive at the college (very incredibly successful one it was, too), faculty meeting til I puked, and last night my printer died.  So I've spent today shopping for a new one that will be compatible with my crappy old computer. Which will be the next thing to go.  Now, I've got to figure out how to install it.  Keep your fingers crossed.  Anyone out there in J-land have an Epson Stylus Color 440?  I'll send you some brandnew ink cartridges if you'll email me and give me your address.

Later P.S.:  NO! I won't be sending anyone ink cartridges.  Before I gave up on this old printer I decided to do something none of the computer people I talked to had suggested:  uninstall the printer and its status monitor from my computer, and then reinstall them. So, now I can take the new one and its ink cartridges back to Staples and take the charge off my VISA.  It WORKED!  Old printer is working just fine.

And now, I'm taking the easy way out and giving you this essay for your reading pleasure. 

 

Nick Coleman: Gospel, crosses and boos on cue

Nick Coleman,  Star Tribune August 20, 2004 NICK0820

   
A guy in combat gear and Kevlar helmet, machine gun at the ready, stopped me outside the Xcel Energy Center.

"Hey," he said. "How you doing?"

It was just one of my buddies on the St. Paul Police Department, dressed for combat and carrying a 9-millimeter MP5. It was a beautiful day in St. Paul, the president of the United States was on his way to town, the SWAT team and the protesters were out, and I was on my way in.

My daughter put me down for a ticket to attend Wednesday's rally for President Bush, probably because she's always wondered what her old man would look like spread-eagled against a wall. But I was glad to join her. Lots of people don't feel welcome at political rallies these days, so this was a chance to see what's going on.

After three hours of speeches and nothing to eat or drink, I can say this: If you aren't dying to get into a political rally, you will be to get out of one.

We passed through the metal detectors and by the tables where folks were told to leave their contraband -- umbrellas, water bottles and other items not allowed inside, including books. Here'san impromptu look at a Republican reading list: "The Ultimate Bible Fun Book" was one of the inspirational titles left behind, along with "Shrines to Our Lady Around the World."

Religious conviction was a big part of the program, from the invocation in which the minister thanked God for touching the heart of George W. Bush ("a man we believe You've established") to the Pledge of Allegiance, during which people shouted out the words "under God" in order to vocalize their faith.

And all of that came after we were informed by the emcee, conservative talk-radio host and author Laura Ingraham, that if the ACLU had its way, we wouldn't even be allowed to pray. When the crowd didn't respond, Ingraham stepped back to the microphone to chide us: "You're supposed to BOO when I say the ACLU!" After that, boos came at all the proper cues.

Then we were treated to an off-key "Star-Spangled Banner" sung by the Minnesota Teen Challenge Choir -- the 230 residents of a Christ-based drug-treatment program in Minneapolis that includes many adults as well as teens.

Minnesota Teen Challenge enjoys the support of many Republicans, including Gov. Tim Pawlenty and his wife, Mary (she is on the board), and the group also was bused to Duluth last month to sing for a Bush rally there.

"Teen Challenge is one of President Bush's favorite charities," said Kimberly Lende, a Teen Challenge official.

With the remainder of their three hours in St. Paul, many of the recovering addicts made crosses by taping together inflatable Bush 2004 "thunder sticks." Later, during the president's speech, they lifted the improvised crosses toward the podium, holding them out in a reverential manner.

"Bush stands for One Nation Under God," said one teen when I asked why he was raising a cross for the president. "He wants to keep God in the nation."

The crosses worried two visitors sitting next to me, foreign students seeing their first American political rally.

Gabriella Gyorgy from Romania works part time in a senior center in St. Paul. She happened to pick up the phone when a Republican organizer called to ask if any old folks would like to see the president. She said no, but ended up taking tickets for herself and her friend, Balint Vanek of Hungary.

She hoped that seeing a campaign rally might help her understand America. Mission not accomplished.

"Please tell the meaning of the crosses," Gabriella said. "We are bothered by that. Do they mean evil is coming?"

No, I said. Why do you think that?

"Because many bad Hollywood films show crosses when evil comes."

Since she was Romanian, I was afraid it might be rude to discuss my favorite Dracula movies. She and Vanek were having enough trouble with the Europe-bashing they were hearing.

"I do not understand the mentality," Gabriella said, looking pained when one speaker's mere mention of the word "Europe" drew boos. "Every person must have friends who they talk to and helps them. If they have no friends, then everything is 'Me, me, me.'

"It is the same with countries."

She wrinkled her nose when U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman capped the Euro-bashing with a Top 10 list of reasons to re-elect Bush. No. 3 was "We're at war!" No. 2 was "He's a good man!" But Norm's No. 1 reason to reelect Bush was:

"He cares more about what Americans think than what Europeans think or what the U. N. thinks!"

Ingraham, the willowy talk-show host, gave Coleman a giant hug like the ones Lance Armstrong gets from the flower girls when he wins the Tour de (name of European country deleted for your protection). "What an inspiration," Ingraham gushed after Coleman had set the table for the president.

Musician Ricky Skaggs then took the stage with his bluegrass band to fire up the crowd. Skaggs is part of the Presidential Prayer Team and finished his set with a gospel song called "The Weapon of Prayer."

"We must never lay our [prayer] weapons down," he sang. "The weapon of love" will still be needed after "the planes and tanks and guns have done all that they can do, and the mighty bombs have rained and failed."

While Skaggs sang, American tanks were near the second holiest shrine in Islam. Gospel music is always timely.

Two hours, and still no Bush.

Finally, just before 6 p.m., two shiny Bush-Cheney campaign buses wheeled into the arena in a flashy entrance worthy of Willie Nelson.

The traveling press corps tramped in -- exhausted reporters who plugged in their laptops and zoned out, some of them reading online newspapers (I had binoculars), others leaning back with their hands on their laps.

Bush would speak for 45 minutes, but the news lamp was out: he would say nothing new or newsworthy in St. Paul. Even the president seemed to lose interest in his speech at times. And when sound problems lowered the volume to an almost inaudible decibel level, the crowd looked as blank as hockey fans during the last numbing minutes of a meaningless late-season blowout.

When it was over, we staggered into the lovely evening to find Bush and Kerry supporters yelling at each other.

"Bush was partying while John Kerry was in Vietnam," one Democrat yelled.

"Not my president," snapped a woman pushing a baby in a stroller "My president has a God who will not let you have what you want, which is to destroy the world."

I didn't know what God wanted, but I wanted a beer.

Seventy-four more days to go.

Nick Coleman is at ncoleman@startribune.com.

LOTS OF COFFEE TODAY

Totally blitzed after a day spent registering voters at the college, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.   More talking than I do in a month normally.  But it was a great day.  Most of those I registered were young students, many of them African American,  all of whom seemed quite politically aware. It's student registration this week at the college, and we're set up right outside the Bookstore, where everyone has to come load up on their textbooks for the semester.  It's interesting to me, but entirely understandable, that many of the young voters register as Independents - they don't want to commit themselves to a party.  Again, the African American kids are an exception to this - they have all registered as Democrats.  Universally.  Tim, if you're reading this - have you found this to be the case where you're doing registration?  Of course, you're not at a college - so it may be entirely different.  I'll be continuing this for the next two days of class registration.  More volunteers to help out tomorrow and Thursday, no more eleven hour shifts for me.  I can't believe how exhausted I am.  So, then, off to recuperate by falling into dreamland.  

Did you know that if you don't vote in national elections in Peru you are charged a rather hefty fine?  Interesting, huh?

Peace, love and power to the people! 

SOME GOOD NEWS, FOR A CHANGE

I have been focussing on the environment and its depradations by the Bush administration not just because it's a huge political issue, but because I love this beautiful blue/green planet ferociously.  Having abandoned the religion in which I was brought up (Catholicism), not having found any other organized actual religion to take its place, the only spirituality I find is in Nature.  And there I find so much that feeds my spirit, so much that IS spirit, IS soul.  Bobby Kennedy Jr., who is still a Catholic, talked in a taped speech I saw at our Sussex Cty for Kerry meeting on The Environment, spoke of environmental and ecolological issues in such a passionate manner, and he too brought up the spiritual dimension of these issues.  His book is supposed to be out this month, Crimes Against Nature, I remind myself to look for it.

So, when this administration passes legislation (for some examples, in case you've been off the planet for the past three years, check out the Sierra Club's W Watch.) without input from voters, without consulting environmental scientists, without putting it before Congress, legislation that results in the destruction of: air, water, land, mountains, forests, plants, animals, birds, fish, insects - my own soul feels ravaged.  All our souls, and those of generations to come, are ravaged by this action.  Our lives, our futures, are diminished and torn.  We will become less than human  - or, as some science fiction dreamers predict, MORE than human, something other than human, anyway - without this nexus into which we were born as humans.

Reading and writing so much about these crimes against nature has deeply saddened and exhausted me.  I've been avoiding entries having to do with my previous subjects, as you may have realized.  I have instead been immersing myself in nature - while I still can:  the rivers and hills in the Texas Hill Country, The Wildflower Center in Austin, walking the beaches here in Delaware, kayaking ponds and rivers.  In my own yard a family, or group, of wrens has come to stay a while - yesterday while I was in my sadly neglected garden picking basil and tomatoes one of the little brown darlings was singing its heart out from the top of a bush.  My heart rose with its song.

It is with great joy then, that I am able today to pass on a bit of GoodNews from nature, a bird that has been thought to be extinct for the past ten years has been sighted.  How wonderful is THAT?

"Extinct" Bird Rediscovered in Mexico
Scientists Thrilled By First Confirmed Sighting in Almost A Decade

July 9, 2004 (Washington, DC) – The Cozumel Thrasher (Toxostoma guttatum), a bird not seen or recorded by scientists for close to a decade and thought by some to have gone extinct, was sighted last month by a team of field biologists, American Bird Conservancy and Conservation International announced today. Its rediscovery immediately makes it the single most threatened bird in Mexico.

The Cozumel Thrasher, an endemic bird found only on the island of Cozumel off the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, appears to have experienced a precipitous decline in 1988 after Hurricane Gilbert tore through the island. It immediately became rare, but small numbers of the bird were known to exist until it was last sighted in 1995. That same year, Hurricane Roxanne ripped through Cozumel and may have also contributed to the species’ decline. Scientists estimate that as many as 10,000 once thrived on the island.

Previous recent expeditions to find the Cozumel Thrasher proved futile. Last month, a team of field biologists working in conjunction with Villanova University and the Mexican counterpart of the Island Endemics Institute, spotted a single individual, confirming that the species was not yet extinct. The field biologists were on a rediscovery mission sponsored by American Bird Conservancy and Conservation International.

"This is terrific news for the species," said Dr. George Wallace, vice president for

International Programs at American Bird Conservancy. "It opens a door to a range of possibilities that we hope will lead to the establishment of a protected area if more birds are found."

The Cozumel Thrasher is a medium-sized (23 cm. long) bird, similar to a mockingbird. It is brown and white with a long, curved bill. Its upper parts are a rich chestnut-brown with two white wing-bars. It has a gray face, black bill and legs, and white underparts heavily streaked black. Its song is described as a complex scratchy warbling.

"The rediscovery of the Cozumel Thrasher is a reminder of two key things: the importance of tropical islands for biodiversity conservation, and the importance of never giving up on a species - no matter how rare,” said Dr. Russell Mittermeier, president of Conservation International.

Although the hurricanes are believed to have had a major negative impact on the birds, scientists believe that other factors must have contributed to the decline, because the Cozumel Thrasher likely survived hurricanes for millennia. Introduced species, especially predatory boa constrictors introduced to the island in 1971 and now abundant, may also have had a disastrous effect.

Fortunately, large tracts of deciduous and semi-deciduous forest, thought to be the species' preferred habitat, still remain, and the birds are not hunted or trapped for the pet trade. Formal protection and management of Cozumel’s habitat could benefit other species on the island, including two other endemic bird species, fifteen endemic bird subspecies, and at least three endemic and threatened mammal species.

The team will next try to determine the size and range of the population represented by this single bird, and then return next January, when the birds are known to sing more frequently, to attempt further surveys. To protect this and potentially other birds from disturbance, the exact location of the discovery is not being disclosed to the public.

###

American Bird Conservancy is a not-for-profit organization concerned with the conservation of wild birds and their habitats throughout the Americas.ABC is the only U.S.-based group dedicated solely to overcoming the greatest threats facing birds in the Western Hemisphere. For more information visit www.abcbirds.org.

Conservation International (CI) applies innovations in science, economics, policy and community participation to protect the Earth's richest regions of plant and animal diversity in the hotspots, major tropical wilderness areas and key marine ecosystems. With headquarters in Washington, D.C., CI works in more than 40 countries on four continents. For more information about CI, visit http://www.conservation.org

 

MORE INFORMATION: Contact abc@abcbirds.org or visit http://oikos.villanova.edu/cozumel

PHOTOS AND INTERVIEWS: Available to journalists by request.

YEAH, I'M BACK....

.....kinda, sorta back, anyway.  I couldn't resist Scalzi's weekend assignment, and it kicked me back into wanting to connect.  This coming week I'm heading a drive to get incoming Del Tech students registered to vote, while they're registering for classes and buying their books.  I'll also have three faculty meetings on Thursday - from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.   Certainly wish I was a knitter or crocheter.  I'll have to sit way in the back and bring a good book, or write letters for the Big One, from 6 to 8.   By the third hour my brain will be fried anyway.  And then, next Sunday is the Hispanic Festival, where I am in charge of Kerry volunteers and information.

But, life moves on.  I'm mourning the passing of Julia Child, who taught several generations of Americans that food is more than meatloaf and mashed potatoes.  Well, they don't know that here in Sussex Cty, DE yet, where chicken n' dumplins is still haute cuisine - but a lot of Americans, anyway.  I gave her cookbooks to my mother, and wonder now which of my sisters ended up with them when Mama died.  Julia was a pioneer in so many ways, and her shows were so wonderful.  I loved Dan Ackroyd's parodies, only because they were so close to the real thing.  I used to do a pretty mean Julia Child myself, on occasion.

Thanks to all of you who left such caring comments on my "overwhelmed" entry, or emailed or IM'd.  It's so comforting to know how many wonderful friends are out there.  Kind of like angels, or fairies, or.....no, not ghosts.  When I was a kid the idea of my Guardian Angel was the most comforting of the many Catholic notions I tried to take in and understand.  The G.A. I could easily grasp - I had a holy card showing a kid in some dangerous situation, a bridge over a ravine I think, and the big radiant lovely angel right behind him/her (?), arms outstretched, taking ultimate care.  So, I loved my angel, and always imagined him  (and yes, the angel was male, I hadn't yet gone through feminism 101)  right there with me, watching over me and taking care of me.  In my grade school for a while there was a fad of "saving a place" for your G.A. beside you...in the lunchroom, on benches in the playground, etc.   Wait, how did I get here?  Oh yes,angels.  So, now I have virtual G.A.'s out there in cyberspace, watching over me and sending me caring words. 

And we're waiting for the much-diminished Charley to blow through Delaware this evening or tonight.  I need to get out in the yard and take down bird feeders and so on.  50 mph winds are forecast.  Which is nothing compared to what my friends who live in Port Charlotte itself have suffered.  I'm waiting to hear how their house fared - since it's right on the water, they are expecting the worst.

Can't end this ramble without some political text, can I?  And I won't.  This is Arianna Huffington's take on Jim McGreevey's situation - the governor of my neighboring state of New Jersey, stepping down because he is gay, and will be involved in some legal and political messes for perhaps quite some time.  I didn't know that Arianna's ex-husband came out as gay - I need to find out more about this.  This column is so right on, so very to the point.  I have actually thought many times in my adult life of running for a local office - I should have begun when we lived in Massachusetts.  Here in Delaware it would be hopeless to run as an openly lesbian candidate.  We plan to move to New Mexico in the very near future.  I don't know what the chances there would be of running - and winning.  Any thoughts from those of you who are there?   Arianna's column:

JIM MCGREEVEY: "I AM A GAY AMERICAN"

By Arianna Huffington

On Thursday, my day started at eight in the morning speaking together with New Jersey Senator John Corzine at a breakfast sponsored by ANGLE -- an organization consisting of the gay and lesbian leadership of Southern
California and a magnet for political candidates running for office and raising funds.  A couple of hours after I had left the breakfast, where I had been surrounded by successful gay men and women -- businesspeople,
politicians, accountants, even a priest -- my phone started ringing off the hook.  New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey had just resigned and announced that he is gay, and it seemed as if the bookers from every
television talk show in America -- from CNN’s “American Morning” to ABC’s “Nightline” -- had simultaneously had the exact same thought:  “Let's get Arianna Huffington."  I was the proverbial two birds being killed with one
stone -- a political commentator whose ex-husband had come out as gay.

As the day progressed, it became clear that this was a story unfolding on so many levels only a Shakespearean drama or a Verdi opera could do justice to it. There was the personal, the political, possibly the legal,and who knows what else to be revealed by the time we get to Act Five.

But we are still in Act One. And in Act One the spotlight is on the nexus of the personal and the political.  McGreevey’s resignation announcement was undoubtedly the best political speech he’s ever made. It was powerful, compelling, emotional, and in sharp contrast to the pre-packaged speechifying we are so accustomed to hearing from politicians. At this
profound crisis point in his political and personal lives he sounded almost liberated. It's hard to resist playing armchair psychoanalyst and wondering: Did McGreevey unconsciously make certain choices -- like putting his lover on the government payroll in a high-profile position he was not qualified for -- in order to force upon himself Thursday's public announcement: "I am a gay American"?

We can't, of course, know what was going on in McGreevey's psyche, but hiring his lover, Golan Cipel -- an Israeli foreign national unable to obtain a federal security clearance to be the homeland security czar of
New Jersey (and at a salary of $110,000 a year, no less) -- is the height of recklessness, and only makes sense as a taxpayer-funded cry for help. Clearly no good could come of such an appointment -- unless the governor
was unconsciously hoping that the appointment would eventually force his hand.  Otherwise, he would not have flaunted his closeness to Cipel, leading him to self-destructive acts such as accompanying Cipel and a
realtor on a walkthrough of a townhouse the newly arrived Israeli was about to rent a short distance from McGreevey's house. It's textbook human behavior: the harder you try to suppress the truth, the more inevitable it is that it will find a way to come out.

“Thinking that I was doing the right thing,” he said, “I forced what I thought was an acceptable reality onto myself, a reality which is layered and layered with all the, quote, 'good things,' and all the, quote, 'right
things' of typical adolescent and adult behavior." It’s worth noting that McGreevey made this statement on the same day that the California Supreme
Court annulled the state's 4000 same-sex marriages, raising the question: What if the world were a more welcoming place where gay people could have
in their lives all the "good things" and the "right things" without having to pretend they're straight? After all, does anyone doubt that it's exponentially harder to attain elective office if you're openly gay? How
else do you explain that we have no gay senators, only three gay members of Congress, and an openly gay governor of New Jersey only until Nov. 15?

But even if Jim McGreevey did not want to hold public office, if he just wanted a marriage and children -- natural urges, perhaps as powerful as the sexual one -- the easiest (and indeed the only legal way) to do so
remains opting for a heterosexual relationship. So the human costs we only got a glimpse of on Thursday -- a shattered marriage, the anguish inflicted on his parents, his wife, his daughters -- are not just the result of his personal choices but of the roadblocks society continues to place in the path of the complete acceptance of gay men and women.

By the time the curtain comes up on this drama’s Act Five we could be in the middle of a serious political scandal that may force McGreevey to step down even before Nov. 15. Or we may be in the middle of his political resurrection, looking not at a tortured politician with a secret draining away precious energy but a free man fully -- and finally -- accepting himself. Either way, he had to practically drive the car right off the cliff in order to put himself on the road to Thursday’s declaration. And that's an indictment of our society and our political culture wars.

So until the final curtain falls, let’s seize the moment to reaffirm, loudly and without reservation, that to be gay is to be normal -- whether you’re a governor or a gardener, a public figure or a very private one.

J-LAND JOURNEYS, ENTRIES I CHERISH

Señor Scalzi's challenge for this weekend [Weekend Assignment #19: Tell us about an entry in someone else's AOL Journal or blog that really left an impression on you in the last year. Why does it stand out for you? Include a link to it within your entry (come back here and link to your entry in the comments)] is only a challenge because there are so many wonderful entries out there in J-land.  I doubt that I can limit myself to one.  But I will start with this one: Bateaux Parisiens, from Paul's journal Trickle of Semi-consciousness.  If you don't know this journal, check it out at once.  This guy is an English teacher, who writes elegantly and literately about all manner of things:  family,  travels, music, boats, fishing, life.  I'll be back with a few more journal entries from journals I love.

A little later:  another Boston buddy's journal, Ocean Simplicity, is always worth reading.  But these three entries, about the illness and death of her cat, Spike, deeply touched my heart.  They start here, and continue here and here.  And in the next two entries you'll find pictures of Spike himself.  I love these entries because I love my cats so much, still grieve over cats I've lost, and know my darling Molly is aging.  We love our animals with a fierce devoted love, as the Weekend Assignment of several weeks ago showed quite plainly.

The next journal is Cynthia's, Sorting the Pieces.  There is no way I could choose one entry from this one.  Almost everything she writes makes me think, ponder, ruminate, consider.  She is deeply spiritual, Christian yes, but in a wide-open truly loving way - what I consider to be the true path of Christianity.  She is already well-known in J-Land, but if you don't know her yet, go get acquainted.

This one is a photo journal, and an already-famous one, From Every Angle - but a place that I go for spiritual nourishment.  Kat sees the world with such a loving eye - nature is her constant subject, but she photographs everything, even abandoned quarry machinery, with such an eye to the beauty lurking there, that I absolutely cannot choose one entry.  I haven't had much time for visiting journals lately, and I need to go sooth my soul by a long dip in this one.

So, okay, this is ridiculous.  I could go on and on.  There are so many great journals on AOL, so many terrific blogs on the Internet.  John, this is like the Triathlon of weekend assignments.  I'm going to leave it at this, knowing that others will be listing the ones I haven't.  What an embarrassment of riches!

ON AN EVER-SPINNING REEL

Dear Journal, dear journal readers, dear whoever may be out there in space, reading, not reading, caring, not caring.  I'm here on the edge of the cliff again.  It seems to be impossible to keep a sane mind in a healthy body.  Well, the major part of that right now is that I come from a prize-winningly dysfunctional family, and lots of them were just here for the week.  They're all gone at the moment, but a niece and nephew will be back tomorrow for I'm not sure how long.  I love them enormously, but their lives are so full of problems.  I have been taking care of my family since I was four years old.  I'm really tired.  And I had a mini-crackup yesterday, another one of those "crying and I can't stop" episodes.  I thought I was doing so well.  Evidently not.

But in addition to ontological exhaustion, I'm just really physically exhausted.  After everyone left I took a long nap, and my darling G brought us take-out supper, and now I'm trying to get the stuff I'm supposed to be doing for the Kerry group straightened out.  A lot of cooks started stirring the broth I'm cooking while I was on leave this week, and things are in a state of grave confusion.  Also I'm starting on a big project of getting Hispanic citizens here in this community registered to vote.  It's going to take a lot of time and work, but I think will bring more Democratic voters to the polls.

I hope everyone in J-land is doing swimmingly, at some point I'll come visit and see what everyone is up to.  I am actually considering ending this journal, if it gets to be one more thing I feel I HAVE to do I will say goodbye.  It has been a great source of friendship and goodness to me, but right now I'm feeling overwhelmed by everything.  Faculty meetings are coming up, and school is starting in two weeks.  I need to make that my priority, of course.  I'll play it as it lays, this is just a current thought.

TO THE EDITORS - AND THE IRSD

In an earlier post I mentioned a new project, which at the moment consists only (for me, anyway) of writing a letter to local papers voicing what is, here in Sussex County evidently, a minority opinion.  A Jewish family is actually, with the help of the ACLU, bringing suit against the school district.  Unless the district wises up pretty fast.  What I'm gonna do is just paste in my letter to the editors of the local papers, I hope it's self-explanatory.  And I am going for one more grocery run, then off to BWI to pick up some travelers.  This really may be my last post for the rest of the week.  But.  You never know.

To The Editor:

Last Tuesday, July 27, I attended the Indian River School District School Board Meeting. This is not something I normally do, though perhaps it should be; my reason for attendance was the discussion to be held on the subject of Christian prayer at school events. To my surprise, the meeting itself began with a prayer, which included the name of Jesus. The particular event in question was the Sussex Central graduation earlier this year, at which a minister gave an invocation also including reference to Jesus.

The meeting allowed many speakers to passionately speak their hearts and minds, and I listened carefully to all of them. Some were speaking for keeping specifically Christian prayer in school events, some were speaking of the fact that it is not only divisive but illegal to do so. All were speaking sincerely, from the depths of their convictions.

Those who favor retaining Christian prayer at public, government-funded, events seem to feel that removing such prayer would be abrogating some kind of inherent right they have to do this. They seem further to feel that the framers of the Constitution, the Founders of our government, would be on their side in this controversy. They seem, in fact, to see this as a "Christian nation." When nothing could be further from the truth. A few framers of the Constitution were in favor of proclaiming the new nation to be a Christian one, but men like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison prevailed and after much deliberation and hammering out of language, the Establishment Clause became part of the First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." Jefferson, Madison, and others had seen the results of combining religion and government in the monarchies of England and Spain. We can see the effects of state religion today in the theocracies of Iran under the Ayatollahs, Afghanistan under the Taliban. As a result of the Establishment Clause, what we have in this country is "the free right to exercise" whatever religion we choose to follow.

This is the right we all share equally: to follow Jesus Christ, Allah, Yahweh, Buddha, Wicca, to witness for Jehovah, to dance with Pan in the moonlight, or to follow the bent of our own reason and be atheists or agnostics. This incredible freedom is what our Constitutions, both of the USA and of our state of Delaware, allow us. If Christianity is your belief, you may worship at your church daily if you wish to; you may pray constantly in your own home; you may instruct your children in whatever way you need to. Your right to your beliefs is not infringed upon in any way. But we have no national religion, and at public and government events, none of us may impose our religious beliefs upon a diverse group of citizens. This is not something, as many of the speakers Tuesday night seemed to think, that a majority can vote or agree upon. This is something that is legally part and parcel of our life as Americans. Please don’t take the IRSD through an expensive and ugly lawsuit to, in the end, decide again something that was first wisely decided well over two hundred years ago.

Sincerely,

(my name and address)