Like MAGIC the morning glory blossom appeared this morning. I hope she has many brothers and sisters as I have been checking every morning for a month to see if they would flower.

Another weekend full of sunshine, marital conflict, and music.
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is a weekend festival for which you will want to arrive early. We showed up at noon when the event was in full swing and could not find a seat anywhere near the (star)stage in which Los Lobos was playing. We sat next to a couple of New Englanders, one a montessori teacher and behind a couple with lots of friends/family with young kids. The music was excellent; John Prine, Keller Williams, Bela Fleck and my favorite Los Lobos. Lots of cowboy hats and characters including a blue fairy. There was even a dog that looked like my Ima.

I am feeling a little misty right now having finished the 6th HPotter so if anyone wants to call and console me I am here.

We received our (hopefully) last fingerprinting appointment with California's immigration department for our orphan petition (I-600A) next week. After we are fingerprinted and approved we will be taken off hold and ready to roll.

This weekend is the FREE Hardly, Strictly Bluegrass concert in San Francisco.
Click on the schedule to see evidence of the awesome lineup. The picture here is of Buddy Miller, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings from another year at this same festival.

We have figs.
In our yard.
And they are strange.
They don't taste like the figs you buy at the store.
They are sweet.
Too sweet?
The birds don't think so.
I picked some
and stuffed them with blue/cream cheese.
And topped them with pecans.
Sounds good huh?
Fresh from the great out of doors,
straight to our table
and directly to the garbage bin.

ew.

Well, I have been obsessing again. This time about an outfit (shown left)I have been sewing. Sewing yes. I am not really an abstract-minded person so sewing tends to be a real challenge. I can't really "see" things spacially so these projects are good for me as they make me feel like I am a true idiot. The pattern for the pants was extremely simple. However that may be I still needed to rip out every step of the pattern and redo. The dress was more complicated and the collar was a complete disaster. Using unused fabric I fashioned a cover up collar to hide the construction site. I also had to redesign the sleeves because they made me look like I was sprouting little wings. I may be a complete git but damn I can make do with utter cr*p. This must be my mechanical side. I imagine myself as an astronaut in space with duct tape having the time of my life.

Also had to read HPotter book 4 and 5. This took a few days.

Because you need to know I haven't lost my sense of humor I give you this story brought to me by my favorite wise-acre mom Mimi Smartypants.

Ok so now I have got the you tube thing down I can post some short films. A lot of debate has come out of the Jena 6 story and the bloggers that most speak my mine are What About our Daughters and Sandra Rose, both of whom have been given grief and harassed by some of their male African American colleagues (bloggers).

Here is another good one for the sisters.

Dunbar Village
Please watch. And tune into whataboutourdaughters.blogspot.com
for the latest on what the media and our leaders don't want to discuss.

I have been reading a lot of news and editorials regarding what is happening between our brothers and sisters in the name of racial inequities and I have been alerted to my own lack of awareness on many of the issues, (Jena 6, Genarlow Wilson, Dunbar Village). Help these boys lord please!

Some people are saying it is a matter of educating the African American youth and helping to fund higher security for housing projects.

Some are saying that it is a case of African American Man against African American Woman or AAWoman against AAMan, (Gina McCauley writes about this extensively in her blog : whataboutourdaughters.blogspot.com)

Some say that we as a nation are still enslaving people, (see the US judicial system and the media ON THAT ONE).

I say it is an ecomomic i.e. material war that is underlying ALL the battles in our country. The mainstream focus in our country has been on the value of material wealth and the system that continues the oppression of those that do not have economic wealth. Our acceptance of the capitalistic one-party system has led us down this road to a no party system, where you vote for those that take bribes from corporations or your candidate loses.

Materialistic thinking has spread to the (supposed) spiritual communities as well. When a minister needs millions of dollars to guide his devotees we need to ask questions. But how could we as human beings be aware of God's plan? and further What is the effectiveness in supporting the notion of "A chosen People"?

As Sri Sri Ravi Shankar of Art of Living has stated, the solution lies with this:

Socialize business (Companies empowering communities)
Spiritualize government (Leaders with an ethical foundation in humanity)
and
Secularize Religion (No Religion dominates over any other)

"When attention is given to the spiritual aspect of one's life it
brings
responsibility, a sense of belonging, and compassion and caring for the
whole of humanity. Spirit upholds and sustains life. It makes you
strong
and solid. It breaks down the narrow boundaries of cast, creed,
religion,
and nationality, and gives you an awareness of life present everywhere.
It
is only through this awareness, this uplifting of consciousness, that
wars
can be eliminated and human rights restored in the world today."
- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

They Cut Down the Tree on the Jena High School Campus

An estimated 20,000 people will head to Jena, Louisiana, this week to protest for the
JENA 6. Below is one report from The Nation.

The rally in Jena, Louisiana is planned for September 20, the date on which Mychal Bell had been scheduled to be sentenced for attempted second-degree battery. The 17-year-old high school football star, who a year ago was being eyed as a top prospect for Division I scholarships, has been in jail since December for answering a classmate's racial taunts with a punch in the face. But on Friday, pre-empting a public outcry against the impending sentence of up to fifteen years, the Louisiana Third Circuit Court of Appeals responded to an emergency writ filed by Bell's counsel and vacated his conviction.

The rally is going ahead as planned, but it's not immediately clear how its message has changed to reflect the court's ruling. Although the occasion will now be a sort of victory rally, the case is far from resolved. Bell remains in jail, and the prosecutor, District Attorney Reed Walters, has stated his intention to press on with an endgame of appeals. Plus, the other five black students who were involved in the fight--Robert Bailey Jr., Theo Shaw, Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis and Jesse Beard--are still awaiting trial on similar charges. None of their cases will be directly affected by Friday's ruling, which addressed the jurisdictional problem of trying Bell, a juvenile at the time of the fight, as an adult. (Beard is being prosecuted as a juvenile; the other four of the so-called Jena Six were 17, the age of majority in Louisiana.)

"This is a moment to show that people are in it for the long haul," says James Rucker, executive director of Color of Change. One of the first activists to enter the fray, Rucker is coordinating bus trips to Jena--a rural town of 3,000 mostly white residents--and encouraging members who can't make it to organize locally. His web-savvy organization has collected more than $130,000 for the Jena Six Defense Fund and more than 212,000 signatures for a petition demanding that Walters drop all charges and asking Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco to intervene. "If this kind of pressure weren't there," he says, "the process would be going much slower, and it would be more of a crapshoot as far as the results are concerned."

Louisiana NAACP president Ernest Johnson, who is helping to organize Thursday's march in conjunction with a coalition of civil rights groups--including Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH, Al Sharpton's National Action Network and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference--says he has received more calls since Friday's ruling than in the days leading up to it. As news about the case spreads, he explains, the scope of the campaign is broadening. "I think people are coming to show strength and unity against these types of injustices," he says. "They're coming to send a message to other Jenas throughout the country. To the Jena in New York
, the Jena in Washington, in California--there are a lot of Jenas out there."

Rich with symbolism and iconic images, the case of the Jena Six certainly makes for a compelling parable of racial injustice in America. And as more and more people identify with the story, its meaning becomes more and more personal. Given the number of Americans who feel they have a stake in this case, it's no wonder that presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have issued statements expressing their concern.

The story, rehearsed by now in newspapers around the globe, begins at an assembly last fall, when a black freshman asked if he was allowed to sit under a large tree on school grounds that he had heard was "whites-only." He was given permission, but the next day three nooses were found swinging from its branches. The principal tracked down the offenders, three boys from the rodeo team, and recommended expulsion. But superintendent Roy Breithaupt opted for a three-day in-school suspension. "Adolescents play pranks," he told the Chicago Tribune. "I don't think it was a threat against anybody."

Racial tensions continued to escalate throughout the fall. A group of black students organized a sit-in under the tree to protest the white students' light punishment. Fights broke out in school and at parties; a white man waved his gun in a confrontation with black students at a convenience store; and on November 30 one of the school buildings was suspiciously set ablaze. Then, on December 4, Bell slugged Justin Barker, a white student who had been taunting him with racial slurs and defending the noose-hangers, and the other members of the Jena Six joined in. During the skirmish, Barker smacked his head on the pavement and suffered a concussion. He was treated at the local hospital and released a few hours later, and was in good enough shape to head out and socialize that evening.

District Attorney Walters, who had earlier that fall threatened black students at school that he could "take away your lives with a stroke of my pen," pushed for maximum charges. The Jena Six were expelled, arrested and charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy--their shoes were described as potentially lethal weapons. Bell, the first to face trial, saw his murder charges reduced to aggravated second-degree battery. No attempt was made by his public defender to contest the racial makeup of the jury pool, nor did he call any witnesses during the trial. Bell was convicted by an all-white jury in June.

"There are several issues in this case," says Bob Noel, one of five attorneys who signed on as Bell's new counsel after the trial. "One of the biggest is disproportionate treatment. People may think of a similarly situated kid, maybe middle-class, maybe white, and they think, Oh, let's give him another chance. When he's poor and black, it's not necessarily the case. Another is funding for indigent defense: If there's no money to adequately pay lawyers, to have support staff for them and resources they can use, they're always at a major disadvantage. And the other is the issue of race in America."

Throughout the summer, as the media glare intensified and a muscular team of attorneys assembled on the side of the defendants, Judge J.P. Mauffray and Walters dug in their heels. James Rucker, who sat in on some of Bell's motion hearings during the appeal, was shocked to see the LaSalle Parish brand of justice at work. "You'd watch this judge grill the defense attorney. It felt like he was trying to trick him," Rucker says. "And then he would set up the DA, so that all he had to do was say yes to a question. It was like they were a team."

In the first two weeks of September, however, Mauffray began to show some signs of concession; he threw out the conspiracy charge against Bell and reduced the charges against Shaw, Jones and Bailey to attempted second-degree battery. But he held firm on Bell's conviction until last Friday, when the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against him. How Mauffray and Walters will adjudicate the remaining cases in light of last week's decision, and the intense scrutiny that this week's protests will bring, remains to be seen. Many voices, most prominently Al Sharpton, are calling for an investigation of prosecutorial misconduct.

Yesterday was a lazy blogsurfing day. I discovered some amazing sites. One was an extremely thought-provoking satiric site that just made me happy due to the dialogue, (a lot of it angry)to which it was opened. Everyone seems to react to it differently and that is the magic of it!

BLACK PEOPLE LOVE US

Hi folks! Ready for another review? Well this one really took something out of me because this book was pretty intense for someone about to adopt transracially, or is it triracially? I am getting so confused. I used to read these kinds of books in my twenties and got a lot of fire from their heat. I am older now and have a more mellow perspective on the world.

I like that this book “Outsiders Within” is available and has received some good press. But I think that there are some moments when the book doesn't really serve those for whom it speaks. It is ok that bell hooks (quoted in Chapter 10 Shopping for Children in the International Marketplace ) tells us “white people” that we are adopting internationally because we are looking to spice up our bland sterile lives. She has every right to her opinion but what she does when she makes this kind of statement is judge in the same way that people who are marginalized are judged, that is, without a thought to them as multi-layered human beings doing the best they can.

I can't imagine anyone being foolish enough to go through the agony of international adoption and the demands of multiculturalism because they had a craving for something “exotic”.Perhaps there are people like this who want “trophy” children but I have never met them. As a woman of European American heritage married to a Gujurati Indian, I have a lot of “flavor” in my life already. Our reasons for adopting from Ethiopia are very personal and complex. We are and will always be happy to share our feelings about it with family and friends when they ask. But some of the statements made by the authors in this book indict parents when it is faulty governmental policies and a lack of research that needs to be held accountable.

Why is it so hard to adopt?
Why is reproductive therapy so anti-woman?
Who is making money from the sorrows of the impoverished mother and the woman who cannot be a mother?
Why do some still cling to the idea that all "white" (I really hate this term) people want to harm people of color?
How can someone born into priviledge help to change the system without joining with those that are born into poverty?

This book doesn't answer these questions exactly but it does something more important. Over and over again it states something obvious and crucial. Children who are transracially adopted need to be “seen” in ways that biologically born children do not. In the book “Black baby white hands- A view from the Crib” Jaiya John tells us how he and his brother, the first African American children adopted into a “white” family in New Mexico, were not SEEN. The colorblindness of their (loving but ill informed)family and friends made the subject of their race taboo and created a crisis within them as to their identity.

This is something that was not made clear to those adopting internationally/transracially by the agencies representing them in the years the authors of these books were raised. Things have improved, that is, thanks to books like these, research and the lessons learned by adopting families. Their tales are stones that lead us out of the woods and help us to "See" our children and our children to see themselves in others.

I have a response to bell hooks for her statements regarding my ilk.

When did we start shopping for a child?
I guess this was after we decided against cloning ourselves at the Reproductive laboratory.

Why did we decide to adopt transracially?
Well, it all began when the Hindu male proposed to me and I thought to myself, “How exotic! What a great opportunity to experience domestic servitude like in India here in my own home!”
I accepted of course, and then after the test tube baby debacle we decided it would be best to adopt domestically. But I began to have strange visions of our white son saying something to my husband like, “Listen Darky, shine my cricket shoes or else!” in a British accent no less.

Why Ethiopia?
We've always watched the Boston Marathon. Religiously! And frankly, we want a winner.

That boy sure knows how to stroll!

Last Sunday we walked to the Solano Stroll, a street fair in Albany that has been ongoing for many years. It kicked Oakland's street fair, Art and Soul, into last weeks scrambled eggs and was FREE. The crowd was more diverse, and well everything was more diverse. Yes, there were more rich people there but money makes the world go around and as long as everyone comes we should be glad.

I was glad to be there with Mr. D and he got his falafel and baklavah so he was happy too. Every few blocks there were bands like the one in the video.

I am told East bay Californians like to schedule their fairs for early fall because the weather is warm and sunny. Last Sunday was certainly that.

HAPPY YEAR 2000 ETHIOPIA!

Today September 11, 2007 marks the Ethiopian Millenium or Year 2000. I discovered an amazing site for photos of Ethiopians in their homeland and in America. The photos are protected so I cannot paste them here but for a peek click on Ethiopia pictures.

Millennium torch lighting ceremony held in Bahir Dar
Monday, 10 September 2007


Bahir Dar, September 9, 2007 (Bahir Dar) - Amhara State Chief on Sunday handed over a torch, a symbol of new hope and a vision Ethiopia has in the new millennium, to youth in Bahir Dar town. The torch lighting ceremony was accompanied by mass walk, a brass band tuning music.


Members of the state cabinet, patriots, artists, as well as members of the defense forces and state police forces attended the two-hour mass walk. Ethiopian air force helicopters added color to the event by distributing millennium greeting cards from the air.



Bahir Dar university community accorded a warm welcome to the crowd that accompanied the millennium torch.



Students of the Bahir Dar University received the torch from the hands of the state chief and his cabinet members on behalf of the new generation.



In a speech they delivered to the public, State Chief Ayalew Gobeze, Deputy Chief Demeke Mekonnen and Speaker of the State Council, Dr. Misrak Mekonnen said the new generation is entrusted with the historic national responsibility of making poverty a history and creating a prosperous Ethiopia.

Ethiopian Millennium Day in Toronto, Y2K Celebration, Christie Pits Park, Toronto Canada, Saturday, September 8, 2007

Our social worker came today and gave us some good news. She will prioritize our homestudy in order to get it processed as soon as possible and we are to call the office at the end of next week to see if it has been submitted to CIS (Center of Immigration Services) as part of our orphan petition.

I also checked Wide Horizon's referral waiting list to see where we are on the list. Our application was accepted September 22, 2006. This is our official "start date". As of the 3rd of September the families who had a start date of July 28 will be receiving their referrals next.

When we began this process in March of 2006 the wait time for referral was 0-3 months. Now it is up to 13 months. We would like to blame it on the famous mega-media star mommas. Or the bureaucrats that make money off of us childless folks. But the truth is our baby isn't quite ready for us yet. The baby that is our one, that is.

More later...

Labor Day Weekend '07 Oakland and San Francisco

We decided to check out Oakland's Art and Soul festival on Saturday and enjoyed the company of two new friends but weren't impressed at all with the festival itself. The Zydeco Flames were delightful but were scheduled to play for only 30 minutes and this was how most of the bands were slotted. The food was poor and mostly junk food i.e. meat. This was no "Taste of Oakland" and to top it off the charge for entrance to the venue was 10 clams. This was our first visit into the famed Oakland, heartland of east bay's most violent crime. The downtown area looked similar to San Francisco's downtown and did not cause us alarm. Attendees were mostly families (lots of kids ) and community members.

On Monday we took our bikes into San Francisco on the BART and rode to the Golden Gate Park. Mr. D almost gave up on the hills but prevailed in the end. We had tea at the Tea Garden and rode through the park to the beach, (which seemed a little sketchy to me). We had a late lunch at The Cliff House and walked to the "Sea Cave" next door. Cycling back to the station was all downhill, riding the brakes with not a few prayers.

San Juan island rocks,
Gloucester driftwood,
Okinawa seashell,
New Hampshire shelf mushroom,
California ivy,
three bamboo plants for each year and Happy Anniversary flowers fountain


and with a lunar eclipse no less!

Five Stones
(To Amy and Hamish)


Five Stones
stacked one on the other
make a lady
and five stones mean something.
So he stacks them like love letters
around the garden.

Six dogs, all girls,
talk into the night and delight
in him, the stick thrower, the fire maker, the gardener and chef.

Three cats, one girl who wants to love you all day
and two boys, one who is being coaxed messily by you back into life
and the other who is cat-god handsome.

Salmon and fresh garden vegetables for dinner.
Blackberries and huckleberries for dessert.

Mirror colored balls float around the pond as the bullfrog and goldfish evade our view.
Reflections of the Western Red Cedars.

Jack in the beanstock Kiwi in the back climbing 30 feet and counting.
Giant fallen Hemlock behind, its roots exposed and ancient. As big as a Volkswagen.

The prickers got me and we called out for him to machete us out as I was only wearing sandals.
I would like a machete and five stones.
Hack me out of this limbo and make a woman of stone who doesn't mind the rain at all.

Mamacita helps me find Hamish

Habituated foxes like this one, will walk up to your car for food. They are beautiful to look at but sad because they trust people and are (obviously) much more vulnerable than wild foxes.

SEARCHING FOR ORCAS
For the next 24 hours our lives revolved around sighting Orcas from land. I say this because the whale watching industry has interfered with the general well-being of the Orca and watching these creatures from land is the only guilt-free way to experience them, unless you work for Soundwatch in which case you would be out on a boat seeing the orcas while chastising boats that are too close to the whales.
We did indeed see the whales on the west side of the island in case you were wondering but did not get any pictures. In addition to whales we saw a sea otter, two foxes and some gorgeous island birds.

This photo is being entered into I *Heart* Faces, the Face Photo Website where this week their are doing not just kids and adults but pets! Check it out!!!



There have been so many changes here! A new pond and I went crazy with the camera and used up my battery.

Amy and I ferried out on Thursday to Friday Harbor on San Juan island. We took an early morning ferry to the mainland and drove out to Anacortes to take the ferry to San Juan. We arrived at noon and drove out to the Lime Kiln lighthouse to eat our picnic and wait for the Orcas to swim past us. While waiting for the whales that did not arrive we watched the harbor seals. Later in the afternoon we realized we needed to find lodging. We sat in my car with my laptop and after an hour we discovered a farmhouse called States Inn and Ranch that still had a vacancy and drove out on West Valley to secure our room, fed alpacas, collected eggs for breakfast and headed out again in search of ORCAS!

There are a lot of creatures to love here on Amy and Hamish's Vashon home; the handsome cat, Monk as well as two other cats, momma kitty( passionately affectionate) and Dexter,(very sick at the moment and hanging in there).

This morning started out very quiet. My friend Amy had gone off to work and Hamish and I had breakfast and a dog walk by noon. Dogs (Rooti, Lulu, Isabel, Mamacita, Sandy, and Chica) snoozed. I read the New Yorker. Hamish drove into town to buy mulch and worked in the garden. Mr. D and I instant messaged each other occasionally. This is August. Everything moves slowly. I got a tour of all the new fruit trees and flowers around the property which has changed a great deal since I was here 7 years ago.

I have returned to Vashon Island, my home away from home. Maybe it is islands in general or maybe it is this island in particular but taking that ferry ride and driving up the driveway to my friends' (Amy and Hamish) house gave me a delicious contented feeling. Or again it could be that I am missing friends and these last few days have been so satisfying seeing such people. The dogs, (Rootin'toot tooti, Isabel, Lulu, Mamacita, Chica, and Sandy) welcomed me in like good lovin' doggies. Even the cats are sociable and affectionate with me, all unknown to them.

Hello from Seattle!
I am staying with friend Mary, (see photo left, taken in Fair Oaks, CA) and her cats, Delia and Gracie. Today we went to Green Lake Park and then on to Half Price Books to find some books on tape:

(Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell, some Garrison Keillor, and Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson) for the drive back home.

I was also able to visit with my Auntie Gail before I took the ferry over to the island.

On Friday I arrived in Portland at about 7pm after a very LONG drive up 101 and east to route 5. My cousin and his wife entertained me until my departure on Sunday morning. Most exceptional was the visit to the Japanese tea house in Portland and the lovely company. It has been a lonely two months and having family and friends to visit has been wonderful. Seattle and Portland seem very different to me. Portland seems more provincial and Seattle more funky like Berkely. As my friend Mary says, "Portland got planned, 'Seattle just happened."

Portland! with cousin and his wife. A wonderful time.

WANT SOME FUN?
TRY ROUTE 101

I packed the car this morning prepared to be away for 11 days. I brought food for the road trip to the Redwoods and then on to Portland, Oregon tomorrow. The Redwood forest is incredible.

This land is your land
This land is my land
From the Redwood forest
To the New York islands...

My first song, (my mother taught me) when I was 3 and living in California was, This Land is Your Land. I love that song and hummed it to myself as I hiked in the park today trying not to hug every single old growth tree I saw.


Tonite I am staying in Brookings, Oregon at the South Coast Inn
and just had a lovely meal at Cafe Kitanishi. The sushi chef and I chatted while he made my hand rolls. Now I am going to choose some pictures from todays adventure to post here. I think the banana slug must be included! These guys can be as big as bananas!

The Roosevelt Elk is alive and well at the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. On two separate occasions I was surprised by them as they are not afraid of walking very close. There are signs warning people not to approach them but maybe there should also be signs for the elk "Don't startle humans"

For more information go to www.nps.gov/redw

Our new homestudy caseworker has postponed our last homestudy visit another two weeks. This is after an already extended gap between the first homestudy. It feels as though our adoption is stretching out longer and longer as time moves on.

When we do finish the homestudy, (September first week) we will be able to complete the application for our new I-600 in California. In about 2-4 weeks the powers that be will give us another fingerprinting appointment, (we have already been fingerprinted for Dep. of FBI and Child Services). After we are fingerprinted they will process our orphan petition (I-600) and ideally within 2 months grant us an approval and we will be ready for our referral.

Now that we are on hold, we don't know what our wait time is (where we are on the list). Until we come off hold we won't be told. So, this means we could be off hold between October end and November end. If we receive our referral in November we will be flying to Ethiopia in December, just in time for Christmas. Maybe before or after.

We have family flying out for Christmas. They have already booked flights. I don't know what it means in regard to flying to Ethiopia. I am trying not to calculate or think too much about it but if you know me you know I plan plan plan and then see it all fall apart.

Our case worker looks like a dark haired Uma Thurman librarian. She is very "nice" but I sort of laid it on heavy when she rescheduled.

Africa America We Belong To You

Today I made a realization that I hadn't made before and that is about the judgment that will occur not only on behalf of my European American and my Asian American brothers and sisters but also my African American brothers and sisters. Because our family is different. Because we don't belong to one nation.

But one thing we do belong to is the family of humanity. Art of Living teaches us that we are a one world family and are home everywhere. This is true whether we believe it or not.

I am saddened by the groups of people who are bound only by their perception of their own oppression. When we go to peace rallies we cannot enter into violence, be it violence of mind or body. When our brothers or sisters are tortured and killed, is torturing and killing of the murderers then justified? The joining of the Iroquois Nation was a profound lesson in forgiveness and required that many deaths go unavenged. But it forged an enlightened unity among warring tribes and is a lesson to us now and into the future.

The Oneida, are one of the original five members of the Iroquois League, being situated in what today is upper New York State. The traditional lands of the Oneida were the second most easterly of the Iroquois, situated between the easternmost Mohawk and the Onondaga. Their name means either, the "People of the Boulder" or "People of the Standing Stone". This refers to a significant rock formation found within the lands of the Oneida.

Even in the glory days of the Iroquois League, long before there was ever United States, the symbol of the Oneida people was a great tree. This continues right up to today. The tree is a white pine; this tree was selected by Deganawada, the Peacemaker because its needles stay green forever. The Peacemaker had a vision of the tribes coming together in peace under a "great tree". It is Deganawada and Hiawatha who are credited with uniting the Iroquois nations in the 16th century. The Peacemaker, according to legend, instructed the nations of the Iroquois to "bury their weapons of war under the sacred roots, and never unearth them again to use on each other".

We are becoming a world without nations. Our children do not want to stick solely with their own ethnic group, gender orientation or culture but to belong to many. Our children want to be responsible for the earth and All who inhabit it.

I hope that our “Clubs” disintegrate and our “Non-resident” status becomes invalid and that people will act not out of loyalty to their skin but out of integrity and conviction for doing what is right. Human beings are NOT animals. To be human does not mean to be naturally violent in word or deed but rather to carry within a compassion and an ability to choose beyond personal desire. Some believe poverty takes away this choice but I have seen otherwise.

My investment is with the children. They are the ones that will show us our folly. They already know this world better than we do and have chosen to reach out to their brothers and sisters regardless of our personal constraints. Please ask them. Don't shut them off from people who are different. We belong to you.

September Carnival: The Mis-Education of the Negro in the 21st Century

August 7, 2007 at 21:7 p

Posted by Asabagna

In an effort to have more focused discussions over at Afrospear, we are starting a monthly carnival with rotating topics. As I understand it, the way a carnival works is that those who wish to participate, post an essay on the topic on your blog page and forward the link to us at Afrospear@hotmail.com. We will post all the links and then have a discussion on the essays which have been submitted.

I am re-reading “The Mis-Education of the Negro” by Carter Woodson. The first edition was printed in 1933. I am stunned by how many of the issues he discussed then, appear to be relevant today…. in 2007.

It has inspired me to submit for the first topic of our monthly carnival, the issue of education with the Black/African community. Some questions to consider: Are we currently suffering from mis-education? What is your opinion and/or perspective on how our young are being educated? Are they being mis-educated and if so, what are the dynamics and results of this process of mis-education that you see? Does education have the power to change our lives and if so, do we, as a people, truly value and take advantage of that opportunity? What solutions and/or strategies do you propose to the education dilemma which is facing our community(ies)? It would be beneficial and enlightening to hear from different regions of the Diaspora and from the Motherland itself.

***********************************************************************************

Let Me Be Diverse
For the monthly carnival
by EJDoshi

I am going to jump on the diversity wagon because I think it is the ONLY way we can overcome the issues we all face in this country. And when I speak of diversity I am speaking of economic, ethnic, cultural, and gender diversity. How can we overcome the alienation and ignorance that allows us to continue to feed the illusion that we are all different unless we can come together to solve problems? I am in favor of opening our ears to the sounds of grief AND joy, chaos and true silence. But I say this with a caution. It is the hardest thing we will ever do. The reason for this is that we will make mistakes and be misunderstood and find conflict just as soon as we learn something profound. Until we look at the pain we cannot heal. Please lets not have African American Education for African Americans and by African Americans. This limits the healing and does not allow others to learn. Just as America as a country needs to learn how to be a leader and rise above its privilege and nationhood, African American Educators need to lead by rising above the pain of being marginalized and tap the absolute power of the soul of love of humanity and gratitude for the earth and bring to light strategies that reveal the potential of humanity.

The Children of today need to love their teachers and this happens when their teachers understand them. The teachers need to develop curriculum that is appropriate for the age of the child, NOT what is hip and cool in the media. Children need powerful archetypal stories that speak of the evolution of the human being not as represented by one ethnicity but by ethnicities throughout the unfolding of humanity. Children need to play and pretend and create when they are young. Teachers need to be artists, craftspeople and storytellers- HEALERS. For these children are being poisoned by the media and by the violence that materialism incites. Young children need to be surrounded by beauty and truth. They need to develop the skills that their hearts inform their hands so that when the age of reason unfolds in them they receive their lessons with a strong sense of compassion.

Young adults/adolescents need their teachers to be someone in the world and to be, above all, people of integrity. If their teachers are going home at night to watch television and do not have a rich life of their own outside the school it is a lost cause. The young people of today can see us very clearly and what we are up to no matter how hard we try to hide it. Let us speak to them of revolutions and of remarkable people. Let us give them opportunities to discover the wonders of science and mathematics first hand, (not by rote). Let them learn the speeches of very great and wicked people so that they can take measure of the world. Let us do all this so that the adolescents can be inspired to make something of themselves and be proud to do good work for the benefit of all humanity.

Part of the joy of living in this place, (remember I am counting my blessings) is the abundance of old cars. Why do I love them so?

Old cars (30+ years old) represent to me a time when cars were made to last and were easy to fix by any mechanically-minded person. Their colors were flat and classic like japanese origame. The era they speak of is one devoid of cynicism and filled with harmony. Pop groups sang about how we can "get together" and not how well we can blow someone off, except for that Paul Simon song, or blow someone away.

In the early 90s there was a car made by GM called the EV1 that actually could have made me love cars again but they killed that car because it wouldn't make them, (or their businessmen cronies) any $. If you want to see a cool trailer for the movie just click on Who killed the Electric Car?

DEDICATED TO MUM, MARCY AND JONATHAN:

How does one get through the summer blues and homesickness?

Get off your posterior and get on your two wheeler! At least that is what I did today. Instead of driving to the doctor's office I biked, almost solely on streets with bicycle priority. The Ohlone Greenway is urban AND rural ,as well as flat as a pancake.

Along the way I watched east bay life drift by. I saw what appeared to me to be homeless men sleeping on benches next to their grocery carts filled with recycling under the BART tracks which droned by every ten minutes.

I saw, (and smelled) beautiful flora.

Check out this mountain of Morning Glories, (my favorite flower)!

I rode through El Cerrito, Albany and Berkeley and crossing the occasional street I saw a myriad of old VWs, cars that remind me of when we were young. Mum and Larry had identical VW Fastbacks. I liked the handles in the front seat and the rumble of the engine.

There are some inviting benches and seats along the greenway and a huge mural depicting native life designed by artists.

Another way to forget about how profoundly lonely I feel is to cook. All this fresh produce has made a real food snob of me. And it helps to feel as though there is something to living out west. For lunch I chopped farmer's market summer squash, broccoli, onions, and carrots and sauteed them with black beans in a cilantro, tamari, nectarine, salsa sauce. I served it on a fresh corn taco with farm stand tomatoes,baby greens, sheep feta and uncooked corn kernals. I love the corn out here. It is best uncooked!

What would I be doing right now if I wasn't living out west? Well, I probably wouldn't be asking "What if?" which is never a good activity. But because I need to get it out- I would be out east with my family.

One sister is travelling to our east coast home with her children from the midwest and one MOM is also there now from the deep south taking a breather from the thick southern weather.

There are cook outs planned and daytrips to quaint coastal towns to buy "stuff". Certainly there will be arguing and differences of opinion. That is the way with big mouthed people from large families. Gosh I miss it.

C'MON BEBE!

This little bun, (I made yesterday) is coming with us to Ethiopia to meet the new one, whenever that may be, and pick up the scents of Ethiopia. We are looking forward to finishing up this homestudy update and being shipped off to the AFRICAN continent to bring home our future love.

I just had another TB test and doctor's approval. Mr. D will go next week but cannot have a TB test, (he always comes up positive) but will have to have a chest x-ray.

My friend from high school just received her referral for her little baby from China, Vivian. She will travel in 2 months.

TWO WHEELS RULE THE ROAD

Berkeley town has redesigned several of their streets to be "bicycle priority" streets. To see a short film showing this wonderful benefit to us bikers,

Click on Bicycle Boulevard.

Today we rode our bikes along the Ohlone Greenway, (bikes and peds only) underneath the BART to Berkeley and along the bicycle boulevards Virginia and Milvia. We went to Missing Link Bicycle on Shattuck ave. to have our bike tires switched because when the movers reassembled our bikes they mistakenly switched our tires.We went to a movie and ate dinner at remarkable vegan restaurant on Shattuck called Cafe Gratitude. This is what the Chicago Diner wants to be. I had the Sushi Bowl which is rice and an assortment fresh organic veggies, nori and Kim Chee. I barely let Mr. D have a bite.

ON GURU PURNIMA DAY

Someone gave Sri Sri a pink fuzzy hat and shades and he did the usual, pose like a young school girl with a flamboyant fay hand to the face. Unfortunately, I have a hard time "capturing" a photo of guruji in focus.

MY CURRENT PRACTICE is derived from the tools I have learned from Art of Living courses
I have attended over the last two years. Here they are:

Padma Sadna is a succession of yoga poses designed to allign area around spine and clear chakras.

Nari Shodana is alternate nostril breathing. I lost count of the times Sri Sri used the word nostril. (When I was young this word made me giggle. I think I have always been squeamish of other people's nostrils.)

Pranayama (breathing) in vedrasen position.

Bastrikas (more physically active breathing excersises )


Sudarshin Creeya is the landmark of the art of living part one course and the foundation of art of living meditation practice.


This past week was Guru Purnima. Celebration of the Master (Knowledge). Mr. D and I traveled to Pomona to celebrate with the Guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who is the founder of Art of Living. It was held at California Polytechnical College. Pomona is east of L.A. and quite warm this time of year.



There were over 2000 people registered for courses during the week and over 3000 came for the Guru Purnima Puja and Satsang (ceremony and singing). The gym was just big enough for all of us.
During this week we attended our second Advanced Course and reviewed some mudras (hand positions) and a breathing lock (technique in holding the prana, breath, in the body for an extended period of time).



We also remained silent for three of the five days during the course. This was an amazing experience that allowed me to see how unimportant most of what I say is. And how high my tolerance level is. I have been selling myself and others short. When you can't complain whining becomes unnecessary.



Sri Sri (shown here with his incredibly contageous smile) was interviewed during the week by CNN:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-Sstlp1u7Y



When we arrived at LAX airport for our return trip home we were in for a shock. Why was everyone so stressed out and unfriendly? Some of the airport staff were downright hostile.

We thought to ourselves, "The world really needs Art of Living everywhere."

Sounds like I am brainwashed doesn't it? But the organization isn't really about the brain at all. One of the teachers, Rakshri, said, "Art of Living is the sanitation department. It cleans you out." Sri Sri said, "Become a no mind and you can communicate with all minds."
I agree.

THE DESPERATE LIFE OF MRS. DOSHI

"Honey, do you see the face?"

"Uh, no."

"You don't see it? The triangle nose?"

"Uhmmm. Oh yeah, if I turn it upside down I see it. That little gap in the pancake is the mouth right?"

Ants, ants, ants in my pants

Ants in my pants and they're makin' me dance.

Look!

Ants, ants, ants on the wall.

Ants on the wall form a line down the hall.

Ants, ants, ants up my sleave.

Ants in my wares.! Yes, its hard to believe.

Last week I took my bike on the train into San Francisco and rode around the city. It was a gorgeous and blustery day as are all the summer days out here it seems. Dry, breezy and hot. I climbed up the hills (on the easiest gear) toward the Golden Gate Park, an amazing and superior park to most. GGP has a flower conservertory, a botanical garden, a museum, a viewing tower, a tea garden, golf, tennis, beach, windmill and a panhandle (scenic park-like bike and ped. route)heading back into the city's downtown. The park spans half the width of the city and ends at the Pacific Ocean. And although I was disoriented and disorientated, (yes, these two words have different meanings), when I disembarked from the BART Civic Center station, every San Franciscan I spoke to for directions to the park knew which way I needed to go. No, "Ya cawn't get thaya from heeya."

Married, friendless, childless, and dogless. Is there a lonelier life?

Here is to all the dogs I love and have loved:

Oh Rooty! You little!

And to think you were almost mine.

But Lil Rocker got smart and kept your sweet behind.

If you have ever moved away from a place you have called home for more than say 10 years, when you dream in your new home you dream of things long passed. It happened to me when I moved away from Chicago and it is happening now. And a question, “Will I always be leaving friends behind?”
After the passing of Amy, with whom I lost touch but admired deeply, I begin to think of all the people who were good friends to me who I don't know anymore. I decide to make a list of I miss yous. Here it is.

I MISS YOU:
Gene D.
Deb
Joan
and Mylen from the Diner

I MISS YOU:
Eric M.
Deanne
Chris
John S.
Tanara
Kate EL'I from Avanti and Northside days

I MISS YOU
Paul
Michael
Jessica and Breckon
Gina Irene
Juan and Judy
Dede and Maya
Dandara and BJ from Logan Square days

I MISS YOU:
Russel
Arthur
Katie and yes Terry
Michael C.
David K.
Chris W.
Bliss from Sheffield and Leona days

I MISS YOU:
John H.
Jason
Georgia
Spencer
Eileen
Heather M.
Brigit M.
Walt S.
Delia M.
Peter S.
Joe H.
Andy L.
I ALSO MISS YOU CHICAGO
AND DON'T WANT TO FORGET.

Cheat You Fair
by Sam, a sock vendor
On Maxwell Street

They cheat you fair.
It's a game.
You had a chance.
Elsewhere,
they cheat you unfair.
No chance:
Pograms,
Cossacks,
The Czar,
Jim Crow,
KKK,
Sharecropping,
The company store.
On Maxwell Street
You understood:
A pitch,
A shpiel,
A rap,
A line.
It was joyous.
Blues humming.
Face-to-face.
You knew
People cared.
It was bazaar.
Don't let it die.

I worked with Amy 20 years ago at a popular italian restaurant in Chicago. She was also a friend during those years before she married and I left the city.

She had a wonderful economy with words and in her life. She made everything she designed feminine but very practical and comfortable.

The last time I saw Amy was when her daughter was about 3 at Navy Pier. Both of them were wearing dresses Amy had designed and looked gorgeous. That was about 11 years ago.

A good musician friend of mine told me about Amy this morning and he himself only found out because he was looking for information about her clothing designs. Amy's husband Jack introduced this friend and I at a Halloween party we had in Roscoe village. I remember her husband calling me to tell me he had fallen in love with a friend of mine and when he told me it was Amy I was surprised and pleased at once.

Amy Rigg was a peach. xoxoxoxox on your journey

Please don't be offended good quilters but I am afraid I have in my possession the most beautiful quilt ever made. It would be a mistake for you to think you would one day make such a quilt but I am here to say it has already been done by Alewife McKey.

That baby has already developed a trait to share with Mr. D and that is tardiness. This superb quilt and I have been waiting for to embrace the young Doshi!

THAT GLEAM

She dreamed to one day be a mother and part of a family.
Like many people she dreamed only not realizing.
Dreaming of taking baby in the stroller
to a place where other babies were playing, some happy, some sad
and some angry.
If an angry baby hit her baby, she would not chide the other baby but console only.

She dreamed like other people dream of becoming a doctor or musician.
She dreamed like others who want to travel.
Somewhere in their hearts they must go.
She dreamed to be alive like one sick who longs to be well again.

To be alive.
Is a fair request.
To eat and taste.
To kiss and feel.
To laugh and not worry.
She dreamed of the gleam of recognition from a waking baby.
Pure joy.
“Mama!”

You know why cartoons are so effective? Because they are NOT high tech. This cartoon is NOT high tech. It probably isn't even a cartoon. It is a diagram that shows a basic communication flaw in the human "me" species. I felt qualified to draw this diagram because I carry traits of the human "me"species and wanted to share.

There is a much funnier non-tech diagram in a website for a book promotion I also wanted to share. It is for Miranda July's book NO ONE BELONGS HERE MORE THAN YOU, which I have not read. But I did see her movie, You Me and Everyone We Know and if the book is as clever as the website it is sure to be a winner.

http://noonebelongsheremorethanyou.com/

Last week end was a percussive one. On Friday we spontaneously drove to Ashkenaz http://ashkenaz.com/index.htm to hear a Beat Box performance called The Vowel Movement. The venue is real down home and made me feel like I was back in Chicago at a performance space on Grand avenue. The cover charge was reasonable and the performance was very full, that is they offered a lot of bang for buck. We left before the show ended as we are middle aged and have sensitive ears we would like to keep for a while.

On Sunday we drove to Oakland to the world renown Yoshi's http://www.yoshis.com/jazzclub to see Poncho Sanchez, the latin percussionist. I loved the show. Really. It was too short was all. I wanted to dig the band and goove all night with that Cuban sound!

However, Yoshi's has a strange way of making its devotees work for their seats. Mr. D's colleague, a Yoshi fan, came to our house with his family at 4pm and promptly left with Mr. D to "reserve seats". Tickets had already been purchased days before. The doors at the club open at 5 so they waited in line for an hour to rush into the club and reserve seven seats at one of the front tables. They returned to our house to eat and then we all made for the club. Some people actually eat at Yoshi's restaurant which from what I am told has improved but is a little pricey. If you don't get in line early to save your seats you may not find enough seats together for your party and you definitely won't be up front or in one of the treasured booths. The club is intimate though and we couldn't have had a better time. Well, I couldn't have, but I didn't wait in line for an hour.

"PONCHO SANCHEZ celebrates his 20th year as a bandleader with his 20th release, Soul Of The Conga (CCD-4894). The veteran conguero's 18th recording for the Concord Picante label features the very popular performer in several different settings and the result is a fast-moving but logical set of 14 highly enjoyable and rhythmically infectious numbers.

Poncho Sanchez has long qualified as one of the hardest-working men in Latin jazz. Born in Laredo, Texas as the youngest of 11 children, he grew up in Norwalk, California (where he still lives) and remembers hearing Afro-Cuban music while growing up. "As a kid in third or fourth grade, I would hear my sisters dancing while listening to Machito, Tito Puente, Cal Tjader and various bands from Cuba while my brothers listened to doo-wop music and early rhythm and blues." While in sixth grade, Sanchez bought a fifty- cent guitar in hopes of joining an r&b band that rehearsed across the street from his home. Although he practiced quite a bit, when he showed up for an audition, he knew immediately that he did not stand a chance. "But it turned out that they needed a singer and, although I had never sung, I gave it a try and became the lead vocalist in that band for five years. Then when I was in high school, the first chance I had to get behind a set of conga drums, I hit them and it felt quite natural." Soon Sanchez had saved up money from his singing jobs and was practicing congas as much as possible in his garage, playing to Machito, Tito Puente and Cal Tjader records.

Sanchez's big break occurred in 1975 when, after a period of struggle, he had an opportunity to play with his idol, vibraphonist Cal Tjader. "I found out later that Cal's conga player was planning on leaving soon and he was letting a lot of people sit in with him. I played one number with Cal, he asked if I could play the rest of the set with him and a week later he asked if I could join him for a week, starting New Year's Eve at the Coconut Grove opposite Carmen McRae!" Sanchez would be a major part of Tjader's band for the next seven years, an association that lasted until the vibraphonist's death." http://www.drummerworld.com/drummers/Poncho_Sanchez.html

The El Cerrito Theater! An authentic old theater not some mock up from the golden days of prohibition!And it may become an historic, (I can't stand writing “an” instead of “a”, and still don't understand the rule! Silent h my hand!!) landmark in El Cerrito. Any way it is a nice theater that has lounge style seating like in India and you can order food or beverages to be delivered pendant le film. Check it out! And we don't know how they will stay in business as there were only 9 people sitting with us watching the most excellent THE NAMESAKE on a sunny Sunday afternoon. On Tuesdays they have what is called the “baby brigade”. You are invited to the theater with your under one year old child to watch a movie. If your child cries, join the party. I am not sure how much fun it is but maybe someday soon I will find out.