Wild Geese

I have a new series of shots reflecting on the poetry of Autumnal woods -- in my Zenfolio

gallery. Check it out if you have a chance. I'm still not up to speed in uploading images to the Zenfolio site. Way too many images, little time, and still working on many other images. Nevertheless, I recently took these and decided to upload them to the site and to various other photo forums. They have been incredibly well received, surprising me since I end up just enjoying the process and making my photography be a practice of mindfulness.

In any case, the series also marks a deepening of an artistic vision and a post-processing approach to images of WoodMoors, Forests, Trees, and so forth. Let me know what you think, if you get a chance to see them.

This image here is an image I salvaged and decided to process as if it were an old Chinese print at the Sackler and Freer gallery of art (Smithsonian). I also posted an explanation of sorts in my Exposure Latitude(s) blog regarding the post-processing used for these images.

Letter to the Vatican from Rev. Roy Bourgeois

I don't know if you've ever heard Father Roy Bourgeois speak, but I have a lot of respect for somebody who has put his life on the line to reminds us of the better angels of our nature. He has been a staunch opponent of the School of the Americas, and has spent a great deal of his life standing up against the terrorism this country was exporting through SOA. He has also spoken out for the ordination of women in the Catholic church. As a result, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (remember the Inquisition?) has asked him to recant or else. Here's a copy of the letter Fr. Bourgeois sent to the Vatican on Nov. 7. regarding their request that he recant his position on the ordination of women or be excommunicated (H/T: The Washington Post). It is a great letter. Check it out:

Rev. Roy Bourgeois, M.M.
PO Box 3330,
Columbus, GA 31903
November 7, 2008

TO THE CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH, THE VATICAN

I was very saddened by your letter dated October 21, 2008, giving me 30 days to recant my belief and public statements that support the ordination of women in our Church, or I will be excommunicated.

I have been a Catholic priest for 36 years and have a deep love for my Church and ministry.

When I was a young man in the military, I felt God was calling me to the priesthood. I entered Maryknoll and was ordained in 1972.

Which of your civil rights should my religion decide you should lose?

TerranceDC over at Pam's House Blend (our friend from Republic of T) has a neat post with a collection of good slogans for those opposed to Prop 8 or any other measure/attempt to ban same sex marriage. Actually, they are prompts for critical reflection on the implications of the passage of Prop. 8. What was done in California and other states was a straightforward attack on civil rights. Plain and simple. In contravention of jurisprudence on Church & State, and the 14th amendment (equal protection under the law), these efforts to ban same sex marriage were justified by recourse to religious arguments, and affirmed de jure discrimination to be enshrined in the constitutions of the various states that passed similar amendments.

Here are the statesments listed at Pam's, I think they are great (the list includes the one we posted here at WoodMoor Village a while ago):

• You may not be gay, but you may be next.
• Which of your civil rights do you want put to a majority vote?
• Which of your civil rights do we get to vote on?
• Who gets to vote on your civil rights?
• Can I vote on your marriage (the one posted here a while back).

We can probably come up with more. How about:

• My religion trumps your religion.
• Which of your civil rights should my religion decide you should lose?
• Can my religion amend the constitution to band your religious meddling?

Gay Fascism?

I know this should not surprise me, coming as it is from Newt Gringrich, but... Really? These folks continue their attack on common sense and reality with an abandon I would expect of folks who just don't care anymore and want to "go out in style." He really did say this:

"I think there is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us, is prepared to use violence, to use harassment. I think it is prepared to use the government if it can get control of it. I think that it is a very dangerous threat to anybody who believes in traditional religion," - Newt Gingrich, Discussing actions by individual protesters of Proposition 8...

Pull your mouth closed, hold it with duct tape if you must. This is the equivalent of "No, you are." You know that childhood sillyness no? You say, "you know that drawing looks pretty funny," and your friend replies, "No, you look funny." Well, it seems to me that some in the "Republican Establishment" have been doing pretty much the same thing. It is a sad game of turn, counter-turn, spin, and reversal of common sense and reason. Is it really too much to ask for good sense, critical reflection, thinking, reason, logic...? Fear is truly a poison.

Miriam Makeba: RIP

Sad news, Miriam Makeba passed away just a few days ago. I've been wanting to write a post about it, but what can I say? Great musician, social commentator, activist, cultural ambassador. She brought joy to my life, and she will be missed (much like Celia Cruz). Here is a song that, although not originally hers, she rendered beautifully (and which has been much in my mind lately!). I first heard her version, and then heard others. Her version has always remained in my heart and mind:

A Piece of Ground

When the white man first came here from over the sea
he looked and he said this is God's own country
he was mighty well pleased with this land that he'd found
and he said I will make here my own piece of ground

Now the land was inhabited so I've heard say
by little men who painted on the rock face by day
they stuck to their land so he hunted them down
and left them to rot on their own piece of ground.

God Bless the Planet?

From Watching America's translation of French reporting on Obama's victory (from La Provence.com):

"The real revolution in the United States will come not on the day a black president is elected but on the day a president of any color says, ‘God bless the planet,’ instead of, ‘God bless America’!

True, a planetary ethics that recognizes that we won't and can't survive all alone, and that we can't continue to imagine that some god prefers us as special agents, would be better. In my estimation, one that did not make any overt references to gods of any kind.

An Alternative Read on the Win

The Onion hits us with a nice dose of perspective by incongruity:

"After emerging victorious from one of the most pivotal elections in history, president-elect Barack Obama will assume the role of commander in chief on Jan. 20, shattering a racial barrier the United States is, at long last, shitty enough to overcome.

Although polls going into the final weeks of October showed Sen. Obama in the lead, it remained unclear whether the failing economy, dilapidated housing market, crumbling national infrastructure, health care crisis, energy crisis, and five-year-long disastrous war in Iraq had made the nation crappy enough to rise above 300 years of racial prejudice and make lasting change."