Fenway Park

I have been to Fenway Park http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/bos/ballpark/index.jsp.  We were fortunate, when we were children, that we were able to get to Fenway Park once or twice a year.  We enjoyed the trip, which also usually included some other Boston experience: visiting the Sears store, the Boston Science Museum, or who knows.  And, it almost always involved stopping at a Howard Johnson's restaurant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Johnson's, (which do not seem to have survived so much as the motels have) at least for ice cream, if not for a meal.

Well, Fenway Park celebrates its centennial anniversary on April 20, 2012, the same day the Titanic sank.  So, there will be a celebration: there have been lots of updates and improvements made to Fenway Park recently, very much anticipating the centennial.

Go Fenway!

Deadly Medicine

I have talked about going to the Texas Tech Museum to see the traveling exhibit "Deadly Medicine" http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/traveling/details/index.php?content=deadly_medicine&type=current from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.  I went today to hear a guided tour.  The tour was okay, and then I went through part of the exhibit. I did not complete it due to time constraints, and am hoping to return, maybe even tomorrow, to complete it. There is a LOT of information in this fairly small exhibit. It is in Lubbock until August 7, 2011, so there is time. And, it travels elsewhere around the country, including Boston.

The sadness of this exhibit is that we do not learn:  since World War II, there have been so many incidents of genocide in Europe, Asia and Africa.  The United States was slow to desegregate the Afro-Americans, and even slower to elevate the Native Americans to a respected group.  We still have racism, and we still have prejudice, lessons we have not learned from our own history and the history of the world.  We are trying. I can not say how much better we are doing. Many of the women in one of my book discussion clubs thinks we are treating Muslims much the same.  In many ways, I agree. 

I think we have some personal and political hysteria that every Muslim is bad, and we are vulnerable to attack from them.  Lubbock has a mosque, and on multiple occasions, it has been vandalized. http://lubbockonline.com/stories/102606/loc_102606030.shtml The community as a whole despairs at these attacks, but obviously, they have happened.  Many of the larger Christian churches in the community, after 9-11-2001, spent Sunday School time studying Islam.  That is such an enlightened response to that attack, it made me proud. 

I have learned some about Islam as many prisoners are Islamic. And, I am just interested in being more aware and open minded, if I can be, and education helps.

So, I am grateful to be able to view the "Deadly Medicine" display. I am grateful to learn about more about the horrors I of which I already knew, so maybe I can be more mindful if dignity, respect, civil and human rights as I deal with disenfranchised people in the course of my life.  I am grateful to keep alive the message we must work to stop people from going there again. 

Changing Plans

I had an plan to attend a mystery reading book last night.  I even read the book.  But I also had the opportunity to attend a lecture about the Roma,  "The Genocide of the Roma in the Holocaust," lecture by Ian Hancock, at the Museum of Texas Tech University http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people.   Do you know who the Roma are?  I have heard about gypsies before, and occasionally in writings, I have heard characters described as of Romany decent. But I never really understood what that was referring to.  I knew they were dark, and often described as swarthy.  But beyond that, I did not understand.  I also knew that Hitler and the Nazi regime wanted to eliminate them along with the Jews.  I had no idea how widespread they were. I went to the lecture. It opened a new part of the world to me, something I had little, peripheral information about.  Wow!  That was really exciting.

The lecturer last night explained how the people were from the Indian subcontinent, and how they eventually settled in Europe.  He talked about how they are very clannish, and do not encourage education. He also talked about how they do not usually identify themselves in public. He made a distinction between the Roma, and the Irish gypsies who are Irish and travel in wagons, hence the name gypsy.  He said the Roma were called Gypsies, because people thought they originally came from Egypt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roma_people;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people. These articles explain about the Roma. They are consistent with what the speaker said last night. He is a college professor, and he is a Roma.

Deadly Medicine and Corollary Activity

The Texas Tech University Museum has a presentation on the medical procedures of the German Third Reich, aptly named   Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race, in the Diamond M Gallery  http://www.depts.ttu.edu/museumttu/exhsch11.html.  I have not seen the exhibit yet, but plan to do so, soon.

Tonight, some friends joined me at a panel presentation about the Holocaust: 

Panel Presentation by Speakers from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, .



Marc Masurovsky - “Landscapes of Experience: The January 1945 Evacuations of the Auschwitz Camp Complex”


Martin Dean - “Spearate Jewish Residential Districts - Documenting the Universe of Nazi Ghettos”

Fabulous! Very interesting, and very sad, about the atrocities during World War II, and the perpetrators, survivors, victims, and witnesses.  Hmmm.

And, another learning piece from history, but have we learned?

One of the speakers talked about how the survivors said the slightest, smallest act of help provided hope. 

I see this sometimes at the prison.  Just paying attention to someone gives them hope.  Especially the patients with life sentences, or with no family contact.

Emily Dickinson said it so well:

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

How the States Got Their Shapes

I am watching the History Channel's How the State's Got Their Shape? http://www.history.com/shows/how-the-states-got-their-shapes.  I have seen this show before, and it is a fun way to hear about history stories.

Watching the part about Vermont awakened some nostalgia in me:  Seeing the very New England villages and houses.  Knowing how fun and nice it was to be able to cross over to Canada with little deterrence.  We did not do that often, but it was nice when we could. 

We used Canadian money interchangeably with US money, although the exchange was not exactly equal.  The only thing, the Canadian coinage did not work in vending machines.

So, those are some nice moments evoked by this show.

150 Years Ago

One hundred and fifty years ago the War Between the States started at Fort Sumter, South Carolina. It was one of the bloodiest wars ever fought. It was fought to protect a way of life: but the way of life was Northern and industrial, or Southern and agricultural, and based on slave labor to bolster the economy.

When I met Lisenby, I was a Catholic and a Northerner. Granny Merriman still talked about the War of Northern Aggression as if it had happened last year.

I had no idea how emotional people in the South were about the war.  The pain and anguish lived on.  I had not seen anything like it in the North.

This is a sad part of our history.  But it did not end there. And it did not start there.  Slavery was part of this country at its founding, and was a blight on our country then.  Racism was a blight on our country for another 100 plus years and is still a blight, subtly, on this country.

But, we did the right thing. The cost, the time, the pain to accomplish what is right is untold.  I am sorry my country was founded on such inhumanity, and not just to the Negro Slave, but to the First Americans, and repeatedly, at times to others who are different: Japanese, Germans, Muslims.

150 years ago, this country engaged in a war to affirm the rights of all humanity.  It was the right thing to do.  It is unconscionable that so many died.  War is hell.

Sink the Bismark

The other day, I heard the Johnny Horton song Sink the Bismark http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KecIdlEAKhU and realized that I had not seen the movie in some time. I like World War II movies, and thought that it might be a good movie to see in the near future.

Today, I was browsing Netflix, and the movie Sink the Bismark http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054310/ was available for instant play. Well, how could I ignore that coincidence. I could not. So, today, I watched the movie.

The Way We Treat Americans

I went to a book discussion group 4/21/11, and we talked about the book: "The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. http://www.jamieford.com/novels/.  It is a very good story about the Chinese Americans and Japanese Americans in America during World War II, when, if you remember, the Japanese were interred due to their heritage.

We talked about this a lot: Most of us were not exposed to this part of American history as we were growing up. We seemed to be aware that there was a period in history when children of immigrants were encouraged to learn the new language (American English) but we did not know about the overzealous atrocities of the government to confine the people of Japanese heritage, during the war.

Our government has treated other peoples, as a whole, unwholesomely.  Certainly, the Native Americans fit into this category.  So too, the African-Americans. Jewish Americans.  The Germans, especially during World War I.

Most of the book group echoed the same sentiment: we are now doing the same to the Muslims. This is sad. We do not need to treat people of different heritage as the enemy, just because they are different.

We need to learn from our past, that our differences do not make us enemies, and although we have differences, our similarities are more prevalent.

You Can't Judge a Book By it Cover

This spring, I signed up for a class at the Lubbock Lake Landmark http://www.depts.ttu.edu/museumttu/lll/.  The second session was about preserving your keepsakes. I almost did not attend. I am not a scrapbook person, and I do not keep a lot of stuff from when I travel.

And, I am now a board member for a local non-profit charitable organization.   The monthly board meeting conflicted with the class I paid for. I was torn. I was assured it would be acceptable to miss a board meeting.

I went to the class. It was very interesting.  The discussion included the elements that destroy or deteriorate keepsakes and mementos, and how to preserve these things. It included what kinds of things are available to preserve keepsakes. 

I am not a keepsake preserver. But the information in this class was really interesting. 

A Day Off

Today was Martin Luther King Day, and in Lubbock there were a number of activities over the weekend that commemorated the day.  Sadly, I chose not to participate, although, as I have the last several years, I watched some historical shows on television about Martin Luther King Jr and his life and works.

I did have some chores, activities and tasks to which I had planned to attend, and which I accomplished.  They were spread out throughout the day and into the evening.  But, that also afforded me some down time during the day.

Pearl Harbor Day

This is Pearl Harbor Day... Interestingly, on the Weather Channel tonight, they are airing a piece about the impact of weather on the atomic bombing of Japan in 1945.  It started with the impact of the weather on the development and testing of the bomb in New Mexico, and then the actual bombing of Japan.

On the Hyatt and Williams Show http://www.thewilliamsandhyattshow.com/ which I listen to on my way home form work, they talked about Pearl Harbor Day, and the awareness of young people about its significance.  The general comment was that do young people really understand the significance of this day?  And, in 60 years, will young people really understand the significance of 9/11/2001? 

Historical Novels vs. Non-Fiction

I read very little non-fiction.  Generally, I find it dry, boring, difficult to concentrate on, and generally not very interesting. 

That is not always the case, but often so...

I do enjoy historical novels, however.  These contain a certain amount of historical facts blended with fictional characters and information. So, when I read these, I am disturbed because I find it difficult to distinguish between the fictional characters and the historical facts.  And, I question how accurate are the historical facts. 

But I like the genre nevertheless.

I guess if I really wanted to know, I could do my own research....

Nike

Did you know that Nike was a Greek goddess  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nike_(mythology).  I am always amazed at how much new is based in old culture. Whether it is Greek, Roman, Norse, and some other civilization, sometimes new things are not as new as we think they are...

Gozaic

I was watching PBS tonight, and they talked about the website Gozaic http://gozaic.com/Connect/.  It is supposed to be a website that can connect you with information about various cultural and historic events.  I have spent a few minutes on the site... It seems a little busy, and too overloaded to be much help, but maybe I will get better at refining my searches.

The Day the World Came to Town

I have written about Gander, Newfoundland before, when I watched the documentary about the international airline flights diverted there immediately after 9/11/2001.  Read about Tom Brokaw working on the story: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2009/09/17/brokaw-newfoundland.html



Read about it at the Gander Airport website http://www.ganderairport.com/911.htm


Well, I finally read the book: which Jim DeFede wrote: "The Day The World Came to Town."
http://www.harpercollins.com/book/index.aspx?isbn=9780060559717.  I will say that the book was everything I had hoped it would be:  It recounted the history of the attacks, gave a brief history of the Gander Airport, and then told the story of the town and the "plane people."  Not all was goodness and light.  It was a real story, with some less than positive moments, but what would we expect under such dire circumstances.  Overall, however, it was a most feel good, inspiring story of people reaching out and taking care of people...Just amazing!


I would highly recommend it, if you have not read it...

Taos Serendipity

Taos is not one of the areas of New Mexico I had previously visited.  I am not sure why, but part of it was because my impression of Taos was that it was a high tone artists colony, an environment in which I would be very uncomfortable.  That may be true.  It was there today, and there are some very posh art galleries.  There are also lots of typical tourist trap artsy-fartsy places that hope some of the posh rubs off on them by association.

On my trip to Capulin Volcano, I did not even consider going from Raton, where I was staying, to Taos, at first.  But, then I Iearned that the Annual Fiber Festival was being held.  I thought that might be an interesting activity to attend...So, my second day of the trip was the ride through Cimmaron Canyon over to Taos.

The trip was breath-takingly spectacular:  High mountains, wide canyon valleys, hills, lakes, aspens turning gold. Part of the trip through the canyon was on narrow, twisting roads with steep ledges.  Not unlike parts of the Berkshires where I used to ride and drive when in Massachusetts.  I loved it...

As I drove west, I saw pronghorned antelope, a mule deer, black-billed magpies, crows, red tailed hawks, Swainson's hawks, another unidentified hawk, and vultures, and a ground squirrel. Returning home, I saw antelope, a Golden eagle, black-billed magpies, crows and a ground squirrel... Good sightings.

As I drove through Taos, I did not stop at the Fiber Festival...I drove straight on to the Taos Pueblo, which is still inhabited by some, and has various shops... There had just been ceremonies the later part of September.  The wares were good, many reasonably price, but nothing I found I wanted to buy...I wish I had found something. I took the self guided tour, enjoyed the babbling brook and shady perch of a bench for a while, and then returned to Taos.  On the way back to town, I bought gasoline at Indian Reservation prices...

I went to the Fiber Festival.  There were some interesting animals, a few demonstrations, lots of stalls of yarn, and some very good music.  I ate a lamb pattie in a tortilla with fixings.  I watched a knitting demonstration for a few minutes... I knit...If you knit, I think watching a knitting demonstration of typical normal stitches with no narration is more boring than watching grass grow. Frankly, I like to sit in the back yard and listen to the grass grow while I read, knit, computer or what have you. But watch the grass grow? No.

So, I wondered throughout much of the rest of commercial Taos...I have already written my impression of Taos...But, as I said the return trip was just as spectacular, made even more so by the contrast in lighting by some black as night storm clouds to my left, and the setting sun behind clouds, as I looked in the rear view mirror... Truly a good vacation day.

Revisionist History

I know someone who has a habit of revising history.  When he tells the story of an event, he frequently tells it in a way to may everyone involved in the story come out looking as good as possible, and to make the outcome be as good as possible...

This person is trying to be a very kind man, but sometimes his revisionist history masquerades the truth about events and can be harmful.  I understand that he does this because he does not want any one's feelings to be hurt.  But sometimes his revisionist history allows people to not take responsibility for their inappropriate behavior.  And, allows them not to face consequences, and not to feel pressure to change.  When you are the recipient of this revisionist history, sometimes it is nice to be "let off the hook."

I recently read a book of poetry Delights and Shadows by Ted Kooser http://www.tedkooser.net/. It contains a poem called "Tectonics." This my favorite poem in the book, for several reasons.

I am fascinated by the geological theory of plate techtonics http://www.platetectonics.com/, which explains continental drift, how continents were built,  how the earth renews itself.

The poem "Tectonics" explains how our memories of life change over time and perspective.  More gradually than someone doing revisionist history, but still along the same principles. This is a normal phenomena, and is not bad. And as our memories and perspectives change, so do we and our world.

Remember the Titans

I am watching the 2000 movie Remember the Titans, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0210945/  and was interested in how close to truth the movie is.  I found an interesting comparison http://espn.go.com/page2/s/closer/020808.html on an ESPN sight.  There were some interesting comments. 

I think one of the things the sight says is that the prejudice and integration problems were not that bad.  I remember 1970, and by then much of the rioting was over, but I was in the North.  I have to believe the tension in the South was still pretty bad, because when I came to Texas in 1977, the tension was still pretty bad. 

Another comment in the ESPN comparison indicated that there is an awareness now that people would not want to admit to the prejudice that existed in 1971. I think that is probably true.  And makes sense.  We do not want to admit how bad it was, but in a sense we have to remember, so we do not ever go back to how bad it was. 

Antiquing

I was honored to be invited to participate in an antiquing trip today... We went to Dougherty, Texas http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/DD/hld34.html and visited with acquaintances of people I know who have an antique shop.   After that, we went to their home, where we saw more of their collectibles.  After that, we went to lunch in the small town near by, Roaring Springs http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/RR/hlr26.html.  It was an interesting, fun down home experience.

Does England Have a Fourth of July

We have all heard the old joke "Does England have a Fourth of July/"  Well, of she does, and France, and Spain, and Italy.  They just do not celebrate Independence Day on the fourth of July.

Last night, as I was casting around looking for a television celebration (very late, after the really good one were done) I heard an announcer say she wants to call it Independence Day Celebration, not Fourth of July.  And, of course, she is right, that truly is what we are celebrating.

I did not do so good this year: many of the local activities were rained out, so I stayed home with a book, and did not think to look for any of the television celebrations.  I understand the Macy's display was excellent, and timed well to the music http://social.macys.com/fireworks/?cm_mmc=VanityUrl-_-fireworks-_-n-_-n .  There is also the Boston Pops Concert and Fireworks http://www.july4th.org/2010_Program/Event_Schedule/.  And, there were others.

This year, I did attend a Memorial Day Service and a DDay Celebration.  I do not think that makes up for not celebrating Independence Day.... Well, the weather is good right now, so the least I can do is fly  the flag!

But, I really do want to be more observant of my country.  I vote regularly.  I just need to celebrate more.!