H2O Man
H2O Man's Journal"We Dissent!"
"It is not enough to allow dissent. We must demand it. For there is much to dissent from.
"We dissent from the fact that millions are trapped in poverty while the nation grows rich.
"We dissent from the conditions and hatreds which deny a full life to our fellow citizens because of the color of their skin.
"We dissent from the monstorous absurdity of a world where nations stand poised to destroy one another, and men must kill their fellow men.
"We dissent from the sight of most of mankind living in poverty, stricken by disease, threatened by hunger and doomed to an early death after a life of unremitting labor.
"We dissent from cities which blunt our senses and turn ordinary acts of daily life into a painful struggle.
"We dissent from the willful,heedless destruction of natural pleasure and beauty.
"We dissent from all these structures -- of technology and of society itself -- which strip from the individual the dignity and warmth of sharing in the common tasks of his community and his ountry."
-- Senator Robert F. Kennedy; Berkley; October 22, 1966.
While preparing for the grass roots pro-environment, anti-hydrofracking community's meeting with Robert Kennedy, Jr., next Monday, I came across my copy of RFK's promo-magazine from his 1968 run for the presidency. This powerful speech is included in its pages. (There is also a three page interview with Robert, Jr., then 14.)
It ranks among the best political speeches in our nation's history, in my opinion. It also serves as a stark reminder of what the leaders of the Democratic Party once stood for.
A Day at The Pond
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Years ago, a Clan Mother told me that at times when the world is spinning faster and faster, it is good to find a quiet, still place. And so it is with my pond. I like to go out early in the morning, around the time the sun is coming up: I fill the bird-feeders, and toss some food onto the surface of the pond for the fish. Then I sit with a cup of coffee and watch a small section of the world move at a natural pace. The older I get, the more I appreciate each morning.
Soon, one of our "house cats" comes to the pond's edge. Although I prefer dogs, one or two of the herd of cats that inhabits our home and property are never far from my feet. This one likes to come to the pond with me daily. He watches the fish snatching food from the water's surface with an intensity tinged with frustration.
My older daughter comes out, with coffee and a book. She has been dealing with the pressures of youth: she graduates high school in two months, and had decided what university to attend two days ago. She had the option of graduating a few years early, but opted to stay with her own class. This allowed her to take two years of college-credited courses, and to work part-time for county agencies including Social Services, the District Attorney, and Family Court. She is beginning an outline for her speech as valedictorian; I will be, as a school board member, handing her the diploma she has earned.
The school board business takes up a lot of time. Although our school is the best in a four-county region, it faces the harshest budget cuts from the state. So much for rewarding success. Governor Andrew Cuomo inherited an educational system that spends 17 times more per student in the NYC-Long Island region than in the upstate; still, for reasons that I suspect have more to do with his planned 2016 presidential run than with students' futures, he is intent upon slashing our funding.
Chloe suggests that we take the row boat out to the middle of the pond. As we go out, I tell her about the local "tea-partiers" who attended Tuesday's board meeting to complain about the increasing costs of public education. Although we actually made substantial reductions, they are still angry ....anger and hostility are the requirement for tea party membership, I suppose. Although I am still in my first year on the board, they have identified me as the "enemy." They know that the teachers' union endorsed me -- the first time they publicly backed any candidate -- and that I beat one of the tea party leaders. If I said that the sky is blue, they would be furious; if I said it isn't blue, they would be outraged.
At the Thursday meeting, a state assemblyman attended the second board meeting. Though he is a conservative republican, we are friends. He assisted Onondaga Chief Paul Waterman and I years ago, in saving an ancient burial ground from being mined for gravel. I contacted him a couple of months ago to discuss the state cuts in education, and he is making a sincere effort to help level the playing field.
After the long boat tour of our small pond, my daughter brings the boat to shore. While there is no track practice on Easter Sunday, she wants to go to the track to get a few miles in. She asks if I'm okay alone? A week before, a bee flew into my eye, and stung me as I attempted to wipe it out; my vision has been hampered since then, to the point I may seek medical attention. More, after speaking in Albany on Wednesday, I took a hard fall down the stairs to the stage. (Yikes!) Yes, I am okay.
In the early afternoon, I went to the house to prepare a meal. Both of my sons will be coming over: one lives a couple towns away, working as a fork-lift driver; the other works construction on Long Island. It's the first time all six of us will be sitting down together for some time. After our meal, my older son walks out to the pond with me, to see this season's new koi fish; we count about 25 new ones, with interesting variations of the coloring of the mature ones.
By late afternoon, both sons have headed back into their own futures, and my daughters are taking their mother's car to visit friends. My wife had been seriously ill earlier this year -- with more doctors' and ER visits, and time in the hospital -- than I can keep track of ..... a very rough three months. She is returning to work full-time this week, and is going to read and rest. I will go back to the pond.
Chloe had bought me two books when she visited the university on Friday. One was about Irish literature; I suspect her oldest brother borrowed it. I take the other one ("We are the People our Parents Warned Us Against: The Classic Account of the 1960s Counter-Culture in San Francisco"; Nicholas von Hoffman; Elephant Paperback; 1968) and one of my dogs back out to the pond.
Kelly is a boxer-mix, white with blue spots. He is also a tumbling clown, habitually in a happy mood. He seems torn between demanding constant affection, and seeking to follow every scent through the fields and woods. Though both of his parents love to swim, Kelly only walks about 16 inches into the water, repeatedly, to get drinks. Then he comes back and gets me soaked. He makes it impossible to read, and so I build a small fire and try to dry out. I remember my late friend Jay's saying: "White people build big fires, and have to stay so far away that their backs are cold; Indians build small fires they can sit close to, and stay warm."
On Monday, April 16, I will be bringing a group of pro-environment, anti-hydrofracking grass roots activists to Pace University's Law Clinic, to meet with Robert Kennedy, Jr. We will be discussing the struggle to protect our region from the energy corporations that seek to drill for gas, making this a "national sacrifice area." Any time I am preparing for a public meeting where I have to do a presentation, I like to sit out at my pond and make a mental outline. It's that calm place, where I can get ready to venture out into the rapidly spinning world.
There is a scene in an old movie, "The Emerald Forest," where an old chief calls the area where "progress" is destroying natural resources "the Dead World." That "Dead World" is spinning faster and faster, destroying more and more of the Natural World. As I sit near my pond, I am surrounded by life: the pond itself teems with life; the birds are at the feeders for sun flowers; Kelly has chased the cat --his good friend inside the house-- up a tree. I've hoped that whoever lives here after I pass .... maybe one of my children, perhaps followed by a grandchild's family ..... will be able to sit here, and enjoy the same miracles of life that I am enjoying now. But hydrofracking threatens to destroy that possibility.
A few minutes after the sun goes down, some dark clouds move in. A rain shower puts the fire out. Kelly and I head back to our house, where I continue to read my new book.
Albany, NY Rally
I attended a rally at the UU Church in Albany yesterday. It featured an interesting range of grass roots activists' perspective on the issues involved in the fight against hydrofracking, from a human rights perspective. Taking place on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "A Time to Break Silence (Beyond Vietnam)" speech added to the atmosphere.
Ray Lewis, a retired Philadelphia Police Captain, opened the show. Ray has been a high-profile participant in the Occupy Movement. He spoke about the threats that energy corporations pose to democracy in this country.
Scientist and inventor Clark Rhodes provided an intense description of why hydrofracking is never "safe" in the context of the geology of the northeast. Rhodes has an uncanny talent for presenting information in a manner that the lay-person can easily understand.
Elliot Adams, past president of National Veterans for Peace and former mayor of Sharon Springs, spoke about how King's most prophetic speech influenced his life. Adams is a serious man: in one recent anti-war rally in Washington, he chained himself -- with a bike chain tightly around his neck -- to the fence at the White House.
Harry Davis, a veteran of civil disobedience actions with GreenPeace and with the Berringan Brothers, spoke about the growing need for people to confront the monstor that is our common foe. Davis formed the anti-hydrofracking group that hosted this rally.
Dr. Lisa Barr spoke about journalism and the grass roots movement in the time of "Top Secret America." She had recently sued a town board in Pennsylvania that had attempter to prevent any non-corporate media from covering their meetings on hydrofracking-related issues.
I closed the show with a talk about Onondage Chief Paul Waterman's efforts to form a grass roots confederacy of traditional Native Americans, environmentalists, and other people with social consciences.
For the past few weeks, a mutant space cat had been invested in disrupting the plans for the rally. Because of the nature of this threat, the leaders of the rally determined that friend Cindy Sheehan should not join us (this despite the cooperation of the Albany police to insure things went relatively smoothly).
After the rally, Harry Davis and I were invited to the "press wing" of the State Capital Building, tobe interviewed by newspapers, television, and radio journalists. It was a bit of a giggle when we encountered one of the gas industry's top attorneys at the radio station; initially, he was not friendly, but I was able to start a "friendly" discussion with him.
Unpure Speculation
There are few things more painful than listening to a Willard "Mitt" Romney speech. The man makes plastic seem authentic. Still, watching Paul Ryan was, at least tonight, even worse.
In and of itself, that is perhaps of minor significance. Yet, tonight, it seems potentially important. There are plenty of rumors and speculation that Ryan will be Romney's choice for vice president. One doesn't need to be a huge fan of Obama-Biden, to find the thought of Romney-Ryan repulsive.
I have suspected the republican elders have told Romney that he will pick Ryan. Probably, although he views Ryan as a helpful option, Romney holds the tea party posterchild in contempt.
Hearing Romney say,"....but he won't take Ann's place" after being introduced by Ryan appears to confirm this suspicion, for Mitt is nothing if not passive-aggressive.
Re: Trayvon Martin
I have never experienced being a young black male in the United States of America. But I do have an understanding of some of the issues involved in that reality. Part of that understanding comes from reading: Dr. Rubin "Hurricane" Carter published his second book in 2011, which contained numerous and overwhelming statistics about the percentage of young black men involved -- in a negative way -- with the nation's legal system. More, my 40+ year friendship with Rube provided an eye-opening experience in the context of John Artis and Carter's journey through hell on earth, as young black men in America.
The murder of Trayvon Martin, and the failure of the legal system to provide justice, hits me in a way that a book cannot. A significant portion of my extended famil is black- or brown-skinned. Others are red, yellow, or white, providing a wide range of experiences. And I am not trying to say that the majority of life experiences are "bad." But some have come to mind as I watch the coverage of this murder case.
At times, things are just stupid. A cashier in a "Quick-Mart" telling "nigger jokes" when a nephew is at the counter. (She was quickly fired.) Other incidents are even stranger. A report goes out that a young black man robbed a store in a community 42 miles away; ten minutes after the first report, a town cop handcuffs another nephew as a "suspect." This nephew grew up in the town, and was a well-known high school scholar-athlete. But they all look alike.
Sometimes it's deadly. I had known Marvin since I was three. On May 15, 1979, he was with his brother and two friends at a local bar. Marv's brother ALWAYS cheated at cards, and he attempted to "win" a drink in a cardgame with one of the other guys. But he got caught, and his friend freaked. He drove to his girlfriend's house, and grabbed his shotgun. He found Marvin and the other fellow smoking a joint in the parking lot. When he raised the shotgun, Marvin said to him, "Hey! I've got no problem with you!" After killing Marvin, then the friend, he went into the bar and killed Marvin's brother.
I remember going towards the funeral home a few days later. A town cop was across the street, standing next to his car, with a large shotgun in his hand. I knew him, as he is "half" Native American, and seemed okay about half of the time. So it was surreal when, as I was walking by him, he said, "Pat, what'll you all think if I'm aiming this at you when you leave the funeral home?"
The triple murder was treated a bit less harsh than it might have been, because Marvin and his brother were black. The judge hearing the case would hear another in the same month; he sentenced a college student, with no previous record, to longer for having a quarter-gram of cocaine, than he did to a triple-murderer.
I've spoken before on DU about my nephew being viciously attacked by 17 members of a racial hate group. They resented that a brown-skinned high school senior was getting a lot of press, for taking his team to win a state title. The judge hearing the case, after being told the attackers called my nephew a "dumb nigger," that he did not believe this "proved" racial animosity. What else could "dumb nigger" possibly suggest?
The leader of the gange, who admitted punching and kicking my nephew as he lay unconscious, would be sentenced for a $50 fine -- for having an open beer at the time. That was it. Leaving a brutalized teenager for dead in a dark field didn't warrent a penalty.
A few years later, a group of teens approached me to request help. Their friend, then 18, had been given a life sentence for having sex with a minor, they claimed. I told them that I had my doubts that I was hearing the whole case. But the next day, they brought me documentation for the arrest, the trial, and sentence.
Had the girl who admitted approaching this young man been two weeks older, the oral sex she performed on him would have been legal. But because he was black, and she was white, it was prosecuted as a felony. And he was indeed given a life sentence -- although his only previous legal record was for being at a party where teens had beer and pot, and which was busted by police.
I called Rubin's attorney; he had me contact the original lawyer, to see if he had made an honest effort to defend this young man. The guy was honest: he really hadn't, because he had been able to resolve a number of cases with the DA in one big deal.
This young man was not born in the USA, and English was not his first language. He had not been referred for a psychological evaluation, to determine things such as "risk factor," possible treatment, or if he even understood English well enough to allow him to assist in his own defense.
Long story short: we got him out. But only after he had spent a year in Attica. I still have the letters he sent me during the year of incarceration. And I'm happy to say he has not had a single brush with the law in the decade since being released.
I could go on and on .... even more than I have here. And I realize that many other people have many other stories that are much the same. These are the things that I think about as I watch the Zimmerman folks adding layer upon layer of lies to try to justify the murder of a black teenager who was simply minding his own business in America.
April 4 Rally in Albany
Earlier today, I was asked to open at a rally in Albany, NY on April 4. I will have more details later.
There are going to be an interesting range of speakers; they include a representative of Veterans Against War and Cindy Sheehan.
Save the Susquehanna!
Save the Susquehanna!
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“My role is to bring a message to non-Indian people along the Susquehanna and the rivers that are connected, like the Unadilla and Chenango. And my message is to work together to clean and protect these rivers. ….My goal is to teach people that the Susquehanna was my people's first highway. It is the actual bloodline of Mother Earth. My message is that the Susquehanna is sacred, and deserves our greatest respect.”
Onondaga Chief Paul Waterman; AHSKWA; 1997
In December, 2011, the Susquehanna River Basin Commission approved twenty new permit applications, allowing gas industries to withdraw massive amounts of the river's water for hydrofracking in Pennsylvania.
On Thursday, March 15, the SRBC will meet again, to consider passing sixty new permits. If passed, this would allow gas companies to withdraw 50 million gallons of water from the river daily.
Each water-transporting truck carries 4,000 gallons. Thus, this would mean over 12,000 new trucks carrying water from the Susquehanna, in addition to those permitted in December.
An average of one million gallons of water is required for every individual hydrofracking well. Each well also requires over 75,000 gallons of toxic chemicals, which are mixed into the water used to hydrofrack. As a result, one of the most significant evironmental dangers caused by hydrofracking for gas is millions of gallons of poisoned water: some will migrate to other water supplies under the ground, while more will be “disposed” of by discharging it into municipal waste treatment plants that are not equiped to deal with toxic industrial wastes. Thus, ground water supplies, as well as rivers, creeks, lakes, and ponds will be poisoned.
We need all concerned citizens to make four phone calls on Wednesday and Thursday. We are hoping to convince four politicians to tell their commissioners to vote “NO!” on all new water-withdrawal permits for hydrofracking in the Susquehanna River Basin – at least until a cumulative impact study is made.
The four politicians are:
1- New York Governor Andrew Cuomo: 518-474-8390.
2- Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett: 717-787-2500.
3- Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley: 410-974-3901.
4- President Barack Obama: 202-456-1111.
The fact that no cumulative impact study has been done suggests that the SRBC is serving the needs of the energy corporations, rather than protecting the Susquehanna River and the plant, animal, and human populations living in the river basin.
Please call all four of these politicians both days. Also, spread the word to other family members, friends, neighbors, or groups/individuals interested in protecting the integrity of our planet.
Thank you,
Patrick R. McElligott
My latest LTTE
Editor:
In an article published in The Daily Star on Jan. 17 regarding hydrofracking, Richard Downey of the Unatego Landowners Association made a couple of comments about me that I have hoped to have an opportunity to respond to.
The first was: "This fellow sounds like he is way out on the bell-shaped curve." This is likely true. I believe that it is possible, if enough citizens participate, that we could re-establish the constitutional democracy in America.
Hence, in January, I was exercising my First Amendment rights. My goal has been to talk to three people: State Sen. Thomas Libous; N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo; and environmental attorney Robert Kennedy Jr., the governor's ex-brother-in-law, who sits on Cuomo's hydrofracking advisory board.
On Jan. 26, at a large rally at the NYS Capitol that featured a couple members of the NYS Assembly and Senate, I delivered a key-note speech. The focus of my presentation was the First Amendment. This led directly to my meeting with Sen. Libous, and then with two of his top aides.
This past week, I have set up a meeting between pro-environment grass roots citizens from Broome, Chenango, Delaware and Otsego counties, with Robert Kennedy Jr., and others advising Cuomo. This important meeting will take place in March. My focus is, by no coincidence, the First Amendment.
Mr. Downey also said that I have "become a sideshow in a sideshow." My fondest dream has been to become an asterisk to a footnote to a sideshow to a sideshow. This may seem like a lofty goal … but with patience, even the smallest of turtles can climb the highest of mountains.
Patrick McElligott
Mount Upton
http://thedailystar.com/letters/x1112179925/Letters-to-the-Editor-March-7-2012
Satyagraha & the Unspeakable
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When I announced my hunger strike on Martin Luther King Day in January, I based my speech on some of the writings of Thomas Merton. Although it was a bitter cold day, the group assembled outside of the State Office Building in Binghamton, NY, seemed to find my presentation interesting. When I finished, a gentleman came up and introduced himself to me: he was a Vietnam combat veteran, and had found Merton's teachings valuable in helping him to reintegrate into society. I found myself impressed at the fact that he had become a greater type of “warrior,” doing battle with the dark forces that Merton called “the Unspeakable.”
This week, during the course of driving my wife and I to a total of five lengthy medical appointments, I stopped at a bookstore for some new reading material. I picked up two good books. The first, by Bruce Miroff, a professor of political science at SUNY-Albany, is “The Liberals' Moment: The McGovern Insurgency and the Identity Crisis of the Democratic Party” (2007). Older forum members will recall the 1972 presidential election as disheartening. Ugly divisions within the Democratic Party, added to the post-60s fatigue and republican dirty tricks, resulted in the re-election of Richard Nixon. At that time, Nixon appeared to be the lowest life form that could possibly occupy the White House; both Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush suggested there was a level beneath Nixon.
Younger forum members may recognize that there tends to be focus on that election than any other in recent history. Yet the cast of Democratic characters who played a role included both Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, along with numerous others who played significant roles in national politics in every election since '72. Miroff produces a powerful argument about how the older established party leaders were more willing to force the nation to endure another Nixon term, than to join forces with the younger generation of insurgents who made McGovern's improbable nomination possible.
It's not a puff piece, though: Miroff shines a bright light on the errors of McGover, an honorable leader in a poisoned political atmosphere, and his campaign staff. It's fascinating reading for old activists. More, it is essential reading for all democratic/liberal/progressive grass roots activists today. (The McGovern campaign was the first that used the “new” technology of computers in the primary season!) It's said that wise people learn from others' mistakes; most people have to learn from their own mistakes; and that fools just never learn. We can all learn from this book.
The second book I got – which was recommended by a Good Friend who posts on this forum – is James Douglass's 2012 release, “Gandhi and the Unspeakable: His Final Experiment With Truth.” Douglass previously wrote “JFK and the Unspeakable”; he is currently working on books on the murders of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
Douglass, who had a friendship with Thomas Merton, is an important author. I believe that both his JFK and Gandhi books are extremely important reads for those who are engaged in the struggle for social justice. By no coincidence, I also urge people to read books by and about Merton, Malcolm, Martin, and RFK.
As noted in previous essays here, I am currently involved in the grass roots effort to protect the environment – including all life forms therein – from the destructive forces of hydrofracking. Those forces include both the “energy industry” pushing hydrofracking, and the extremely damaging process itself. But it goes beyond that. As every person who has been or presently is involved in grass roots activism knows, there are frequent stumbling blocks presented by the inevitable differences in opinion among the grass roots group/groups. That is human nature: it took place in the Civil Rights and the Anti-War movements, and in virtually every social justice movement since.
Gandhi called for a New Awakening in the human potential for growth. Most of the distractions that groups face internally are the result of “personality” conflicts. People get their feelings hurt. People have fears and anxieties. People want recognition. Even more, there is rarely only one “correct” view of any given situation: for we are all individuals, who see things from our own unique frame of reference.
What Gandhi promoted was the casting of personality quirks aside, much as a seed discards its outer shell while germinating. As individuals, we need to allow our true essence to sprout and grow. Not because of what our opposition thinks of us, nor for our allies' alone. We are confronted with a form of societal decay so powerful – the Unspeakable – that can only be overcome by our very best efforts.
In New York, that Unspeakable has sought to take root by way of hydrofracking. There are, obviously, numerous other very important issues at stake in the struggle for social justice. Other states and other communities have their own Unspeakable struggles. What they have in common is the calling upon us – you and I – to bring forth the best potential within us. For, as Gandhi said, love is the only thing that even atom bombs cannot destroy.
Peace,
H2O Man
Two New Friends
“The original instructions direct that we who walk about the earth are to express a great respect and affection and a gratitude toward all the spirits that create and support life. We give a greeting and thanksgiving to the many supporters of our own lives – the plants, the animals, the water, the air, and the sun. When people cease to respect and express gratitude for these many things, then all life will be destroyed, and human life on this planet will come to anend.”
John Mohawk, Ha-de-no-sau-nee.
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On Friday, I was bringing my best friend & wonderful wife home, after she spent a rough week in the hospital. As we approached our driveway, the vehicle in front of us began to slow down, and I noticed its blinker indicating it was also turning into our driveway. It had an out-of-state plate, which I did not recognize.
My driveway, which is a section of an old turnpike from the late 1700s, is long. When we reached the top, I got out to see who our visitors were, and what they wanted. It was two women, both retired university professors, who were looking for me. One, who taught English and literature, lived in central New York. In the early 1980s, I had been acquainted with her; we used to be an undefeated team in a once-popular board game known as Trivial Pursuit. The other, from the southwest, I recognized as one of the top archaeologists in North America.
They had sought me out because they had read an article that Will Pitt had posted on TruthOut, regarding my recent hunger strike. They had then followed the event on the internet site, Facebook. This pair of former-1960s politica;/social activists-turned university professors had come to offer any assistance that I might need in the struggle to protect the environment from the horrors of hydrofracking.
We talked for about 90 minutes, before I had to leave to a board meeting in Broome County, to plan future actions in the struggle. I opened the meeting with a traditional “greeting” that Onondaga Chief Paul Waterman had taught me. And then, I spoke about something that Gandhi taught: that when you are doing the right thing, for the right reasons, the right people will enter your life at exactly the right time.
And so it is.
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