Solidarity with Ukraine

 

An American general said, “War is Hell”. On the teevee programme M*A*S*H, the character Hawkeye, the point was made that war is much worse than Hell. Those in Hell deserve to be there. “There are no innocent bystanders in hell. But war is chock full of them...little kids, cripples, old ladies. Except for a few of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander” .

When there is an aggressor, to be neutral is to side with the aggressor. Yes, solidarity, unity is needed with the victims. As John Donne wrote, “No man is an island” . It is good that some of the Polish, and American faithful stand with Ukraine. Those who stand with, or praise, or equivocate in defense of the aggressor have the blood of the innocents dripping on their souls. When Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February,  Ukraine's U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya spoke directly to the Russian Ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, “There is no purgatory for war criminals. They go straight to hell, Ambassador” .

Our Holy Father Francis has repeatedly called for peace, real peace. When an aggressor calls for peace, he does not want peace, he wants an end to resistance. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. Christians should want peace. In this war, the Patriarch of Moscow is fully behind the cause of war, and the man who orders, and guides that war. This war is war without mercy. There have always been religious hypocrites, and some with high clerical office and their obedient followers, who are against the Way of Jesus. Many Christians, and many supposedly Christian nations supposedly love Mary, the Mother of God. She is our Protectress. As Francis has pointed out Mariupol Ukraine is Mary's city, how could someone who acknowledges Mary attack her city? There is talk that Francis may visit Kyiv, the symbolic message of solidarity and support would be remarkable.

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor” – Desmond Tutu

Currently on the campus of St. Casimir the Prince Cleveland, there are signs where some of our faithful stand.

“What the world expects of Christians is that Christians should speak out, loud and clear, and that they should voice their condemnation in such a way that never a doubt, never the slightest doubt, could rise in the heart of the simplest man. That they should get away from the abstraction and confront the blood-stained face history has taken on today.” – Albert Camus

As a protest of the war, Russians outside of Russia (jail is no fun) identify themselves in protest with a white, blue, white flag. They have removed the red (blood). The original designer is Kai Katonina, who lives in Berlin. In Russia people with fully blank signs have been arrested, police recognise anti-authoritarian actions everywhere.

One of the canvasses on the St. Casimir fence

In this journal, many essays showed placards, and other items attached to the fence in front of St. Casimir church. There are again several, showing solidarity with Ukraine, and prayers on behalf of Ukraine.

Caption this

Gang of Putin

I believe we are dealing with several inter-related matters, all part of Evil. Psychopaths want power. With that power they want to aggrandise themselves. They either do not care, or enjoy the suffering they impart, certainly they delight in the havoc.

Putin and Trump are both evil, and insane. Putin is intelligent, Trump is stupid. Putin achieved his power by working through the system. Trump is an incompetent, that was born to an evil rich man. Both lie to accomplish their desires. Putin is aggressive, but strategic in his lies. Trump will lie about anything, small or great. Trump is a conman, a grifter.

The Republican Party is greedy, and relentless, and without decency. They are fascists. They want to be a privileged class, and they want to oppress people. They have a sprawling network of misinformaton, besides the official party propaganda, and the whisper campaign, they have the entire so called "right wing media" [which includes Rupert Murdoch's empire, shitty outlets financed by sociopathic millionaires, and billionaires. mouthfoamers on the radio who gull people in pursuit of filthy lucre, and to achieve self importance].

Near the end of Solzhenitsyn's Nobel speech: Let us not forget that violence does not and cannot flourish by itself; it is inevitably intertwined with LYING. ...Whoever has once announced violence as his METHOD must inexorably choose lying as his PRINCIPLE. ...usually it demands of its victims only allegiance to the lie, only complicity in the lie.

Armistice Day

 "The War to end all Wars" ended one hundred years ago to-day, Armistice Day. It is not being much remembered here. One outstanding exception is at the Church of the Covenant (Presbyterian), Euclid Avenue. They will have a bell tolling one hundred times at 11 o'clock, and concerts. This is a big deal in France. Leaders from some sixty countries came to commemorate. From the United States a grand insult came, and shew forth. Even in France, it is not always a sunny day.

 

 Yesterday in Ottawa, Canadian Premier Justin Trudeau spoke:
"As we sit here in the rain, thinking how uncomfortable we must be these minutes as our suits get wet and our hair gets wet and our shoes get wet, I think it's all the more fitting that we remember on that day, in Dieppe, the rain wasn't rain, it was bullets,".

the answer to war is NO!

                                                                   [borrowed images]
I would like to write a long considered essay, but i have been behind in current reading. But a few points, i would like to convey. President Obama is scheduled to address the nation on the, presumed, decision to bomb Syria, on Tuesday. Is this the man that received the Nobel Prize for Peace?? Is his Secretary of State, John Kerry, a decorated Viet Nam war veteran, who when returned spoke against that war. Is this not the John Kerry, who ran against the bushcheney war machine? Does the military and economic royalists so control the government that they absorb whomever becomes titular heads of governance, even those whom were feared, vilified, or expected to put up resistance against them?

 from the Japanese Constitution

ARTICLE 9. Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. (2) To accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.

Currently, the greater majority of the American public who have conveyed their desires to their elected representatives in government have been against the United States being a belligerent in Syria. They remember being LIED to about Iraq. Now, if i foolishly presume, those whom were against bombing and engaging war under cheneybushjr are not enthusiastic concerning the next war adventure. So, since we have supposed democrats in power, now war weary non-democrats can feel free to be dovish.

Quiet Weekend

1929 Cleveland Air Races poster

It is Labor Day weekend now, and the quietest one in nearly fifty years. No low flying tandem jet planes at full roar flying over the neighborhoods spread along the lake from downtown Cleveland. Now, it will take a thunder storm to spook a dog.

The National Air Races were held from 1920 to 1939 and from 1946 to 1949. The first eleven years it was held in eleven cities. After 1930, it was held twice in Los Angeles, and the rest of the years in Cleveland's Municipal Aeroport (then the largest aeroport in the world, now renamed Hopkins). These interwar events were covered by national papers and newsreels. Civilian aviator barnstorming heroes such as Wiley Post, Amelia Earhart, Jimmy Doolittle, and Lindbergh performed. Roscoe Turner won the Pulitzer Trophy three times. These shows varied in length of days, but during that time Cleveland was the center of the aviation world.

The after war years saw surplus warcraft jalopied up to compete, and much military participation. In 1949 Bill Odom's plane hit a Berea house killing two residents, as in car races it was not uncommon for the racer to die, but that was the first time someone else did. That and a decrease in military spending for such activities ended the races.

The new air shows began in 1964 at Burke aeroport, and have been heavily militarised since 1965. One positive outcome, from the Republican congressmen's hissy fits and pissing match over the budget, is the military does not have the money to throw at this. Without military participation there is little to show, and private business cannot and will not pony up for a show, therefore the show was quickly cancelled. The military, the War Department renamed the Defense Dept. in 1949, uses such events as recruiting opportunities; and the cause and glory of war making ability is the highlight. In the last couple of generations patriotism has been defined (in the US) as militarism.

In 2006 five people, Catholic Workers, were arrested for protesting inside aeroport grounds.They had a banner, "War is not an entertainment These planes kill". One was a Jesuit priest. I became acquainted, in various degrees, with three of these protestors some time later. I can easily say, they have deep sincerity, and they engaged in peaceful but committed opposition.

Concurrently, for a number of years beginning in 2001, a Peace Show was held at nearby Willard Park, by the Free Stamp sculpture, next to City Hall. The War Show attracts thirty to forty times the audience. Well, the resident pipsqueak fascist on the Cleveland Plain Dealer's editorial board, Kevin O'Brien, wrote a snotty mouth-foaming gwbjr propaganda piece sounding as if it was read on Republican radio or Faux about both the peace show, and the five.

Once, after 2006, i spent one day outside the airshow with two of those arrested in 2006. It was not a fun day. Some people were furious, a lot of single fingers. Some people wanted to politely debate. The most curious, was at least one individual who wanted to be thanked.  He believed that the military, or service therein, creates the right to free speech.* Yes, that is the propaganda of the military industrial complex (and the political military industrial complex) that Eisenhower warned the country about in his last hours of the presidency, and that of the Republican party in particular with Nixon and all those after him.

Friday, i received in the post, a copy of an illustrated thirty-two page booklet of letters sent to the Plain Dealer upset with said fascist, and defending the five. A new friend was one of the compilers of the booklet. At the time, i knew none of the letter writers. To-day, almost half of them i have met. The metropolitan area of Cleveland is greater than two million.

Roscoe Turner's racing aeroplane in Western Reserve Historical Museum. Cleveland, O.

____________________________________________ 

* No, thoughts are free. God has given man the ability to think, and speak. Man has free will. Whether society, or the powers that be allow one to speak without incident is another matter. In many countries, this one included, if one speaks in favor of military power, the authorities do not object; if one speaks against, well the police do have implements of suppression. No, the military does not grant rights. Constitutionally we have a Bill of Rights, and organisations and individuals such as the A.C.L.U. and Martin King Jr. have promoted, and allowed us to exercise free speech.

Benedict's message for Peace

Homily delivered by Pope Benedict XVI on 1 January 2013 in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City (Rome).  English translation of Italian.

 
Dear Brothers and Sisters, “May God bless us and make his face to shine upon us.” We proclaimed these words from Psalm 66 after hearing in the first reading the ancient priestly blessing upon the people of the covenant. It is especially significant that at the start of every new year God sheds upon us, his people, the light of his Holy Name, the Name pronounced three times in the solemn form of biblical blessing. Nor is it less significant that to the Word of God – who “became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14) as “the true light that enlightens every man” (1:9) – is given, as today’s Gospel tells us, the Name of Jesus eight days after his birth (cf. Lk 2:21).

It is in this Name that we are gathered here today. I cordially greet all present, beginning with the Ambassadors of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See. I greet with affection Cardinal Bertone, my Secretary of State, and Cardinal Turkson, with all the officials of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace; I am particularly grateful to them for their effort to spread the Message for the World Day of Peace, which this year has as its theme “Blessed are the Peacemakers”. Although the world is sadly marked by “hotbeds of tension and conflict caused by growing instances of inequality between rich and poor, by the prevalence of a selfish and individualistic mindset which also finds expression in an unregulated financial capitalism,” as well as by various forms of terrorism and crime, I am convinced that the many different efforts at peacemaking which abound in our world testify to mankind’s innate vocation to peace. In every person the desire for peace is an essential aspiration which coincides in a certain way with the desire for a full, happy and successful human life. In other words, the desire for peace corresponds to a fundamental moral principle, namely, the duty and right to an integral social and communitarian development, which is part of God’s plan for mankind. Man is made for the peace which is God’s gift. All of this led me to draw inspiration for this Message from the words of Jesus Christ: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God’ (Mt 5:9)” (Message, 1). This beatitude “tells us that peace is both a messianic gift and the fruit of human effort … It is peace with God through a life lived according to his will. It is interior peace with oneself, and exterior peace with our neighbours and all creation” (ibid., 2, 3). Indeed, peace is the supreme good to ask as a gift from God and, at the same time, that which is to be built with our every effort.

We may ask ourselves: what is the basis, the origin, the root of peace? How can we experience that peace within ourselves, in spite of problems, darkness and anxieties? The reply is given to us by the readings of today’s liturgy. The biblical texts, especially the one just read from the Gospel of Luke, ask us to contemplate the interior peace of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. During the days in which “she gave birth to her first-born son” (Lk 2:7), many unexpected things occurred: not only the birth of the Son but, even before, the tiring journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, not finding room at the inn, the search for a chance place to stay for the night; then the song of the angels and the unexpected visit of the shepherds. In all this, however, Mary remains even tempered, she does not get agitated, she is not overcome by events greater than herself; in silence she considers what happens, keeping it in her mind and heart, and pondering it calmly and serenely. This is the interior peace which we ought to have amid the sometimes tumultuous and confusing events of history, events whose meaning we often do not grasp and which disconcert us. The Gospel passage finishes with a mention of the circumcision of Jesus. According to the Law of Moses, eight days after birth, baby boys were to be circumcised and then given their name. Through his messenger, God himself had said to Mary – as well as to Joseph – that the Name to be given to the child was “Jesus” (cf. Mt 1:21; Lk 1:31); and so it came to be. The Name which God had already chosen, even before the child had been conceived, is now officially conferred upon him at the moment of circumcision. This also changes Mary’s identity once and for all: she becomes “the mother of Jesus”, that is the mother of the Saviour, of Christ, of the Lord. Jesus is not a man like any other, but the Word of God, one of the Divine Persons, the Son of God: therefore the Church has given Mary the title Theotokos or Mother of God.

The first reading reminds us that peace is a gift from God and is linked to the splendour of the face of God, according to the text from the Book of Numbers, which hands down the blessing used by the priests of the People of Israel in their liturgical assemblies. This blessing repeats three times the Holy Name of God, a Name not to be spoken, and each time it is linked to two words indicating an action in favour of man: “The Lord bless you and keep you: the Lord make his face to shine upon you: the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace” (6:24-26). So peace is the summit of these six actions of God in our favour, in which he turns towards us the splendour of his face. For sacred Scripture, contemplating the face of God is the greatest happiness: “You gladden him with the joy of your face” (Ps 21:7). From the contemplation of the face of God are born joy, security and peace. But what does it mean concretely to contemplate the face of the Lord, as understood in the New Testament? It means knowing him directly, in so far as is possible in this life, through Jesus Christ in whom he is revealed. To rejoice in the splendour of God’s face means penetrating the mystery of his Name made known to us in Jesus, understanding something of his interior life and of his will, so that we can live according to his plan of love for humanity. In the second reading, taken from the Letter to the Galatians (4:4-7), Saint Paul says as much as he describes the Spirit who, in our inmost hearts, cries: “Abba! Father!” It is the cry that rises from the contemplation of the true face of God, from the revelation of the mystery of his Name. Jesus declares, “I have manifested thy name to men” (Jn 17:6). God’s Son made man has let us know the Father, he has let us know the hidden face of the Father through his visible human face; by the gift of the Holy Spirit poured into our hearts, he has led us to understand that, in him, we too are children of God, as Saint Paul says in the passage we have just heard: “The proof that you are sons is that God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts: the Spirit that cries, ‘Abba, Father’” (Gal 4:6).

Here, dear brothers and sisters, is the foundation of our peace: the certainty of contemplating in Jesus Christ the splendour of the face of God the Father, of being sons in the Son, and thus of having, on life’s journey, the same security that a child feels in the arms of a loving and all-powerful Father. The splendour of the face of God, shining upon us and granting us peace, is the manifestation of his fatherhood: the Lord turns his face to us, he reveals himself as our Father and grants us peace. Here is the principle of that profound peace – “peace with God” – which is firmly linked to faith and grace, as Saint Paul tells the Christians of Rome (cf. Rom 5:2). Nothing can take this peace from believers, not even the difficulties and sufferings of life. Indeed, sufferings, trials and darkness do not undermine but build up our hope, a hope which does not deceive because “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us” (5:5). May the Virgin Mary, whom today we venerate with the title of Mother of God, help us to contemplate the face of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. May she sustain us and accompany us in this New Year: and may she obtain for us and for the whole world the gift of peace. Amen!

11/11/11

On the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month of 1918, the Armistice (cessation of the use of arms and ordinance) on the Western Front took effect. Men did die in action that day. An estimate of 11,000 casualties, that day, is given by the historian Joseph Persico. French military records recorded French deaths that day as happening on the tenth. Who wants to be told their son died on the last day of the war?

That day was also St. Martin's, the Roman soldier who declared before Worms, "I am a soldier of Christ. I cannot fight." Many of the French thought he intervened.

Erich Maria Remarque wrote the novel, Im Westen nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front). The hero, Paul Bäumer, dies in October 1918. Many people are now introduced to that war, by that book. The book has been occasionally banned. There are no combat veterans of that war left alive.

pro patria mori

To be born in one land, and to die in another. On a gravestone, it is not a novel inscribed; but in a few characters a story is limned. An historian, an antiquarian, or some sort of researcher may be able to uncover more details. One could search for relatives to interview. Often, after the passage of a certain number of years, no one knows more than the marks inscribed. Yet, those marks have some instructive value. St. John's Cemetery, Cleveland. Sargeant James Kelly. Company B, 8th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Wounded at Gettysburg. July 3, 1863. Born in Ireland March 3, 1836. Died July 7, 1863. May his soul rest in peace.
Kelly was an immigrant to America [when did he arrive?]. He died four days after being wounded in the most famous of that war's many, many battles — Gettysburg. The name is Irish. The stone has the clover, the Irish will have you know, is the shamrock. The stone also has a cross, and sits in a Catholic cemetery. It was very important, and very promoted for Catholics to be buried only in hallowed grounds, which usually meant Catholic cemeteries.

Woodland Cemetery, Cleveland. 7th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry. War for the Union 1861-1865.

Woodland Cemetery was the City of Cleveland's most important public cemetery in the XIXth century. It opened in 1853, and was conveniently available for the war dead. Near the main entrance there are two large monuments for two regiments [23rd, 7th] of infantry. The one for the 23rd was dedicated on August 1, 1865, just a few months after the end of combat. The names of the war dead are written on all four sides, of the lower portion, of the monument. The number is almost evenly divided by those who died in action, and those that died by disease. Remember, the four horseman are war, famine, death, and pestilence.

The other [1872] is harder to read, for the engraving in the color of stone. Raised lettering is easy to read. It has four freshly restored, union painted, rifled cannons [West Point Foundry] defending it. The regiment was infantry.

That war had many names, but in Cleveland, at that time, it was called 'War for the Union'. The Republicans were successful politically. There were no Republicans in the South. To-day, things have changed. The South is full of Republicans, and no Republicans would use the term—'War for the Union'.

Woodland Cemetery, Cleveland. Alfred J. Straka. Born July 5, 1895. Died May 26, 1914 at Vera Cruz Mexico in the service of United States Navy.

I heard Woodrow Wilson's guns
I heard Maria calling
Saying, "Veracruz is dying
And Cuernavaca's falling"
—Veracruz. Warren Zevon and Jorge Calderon

That Battle of Vera Cruz took place 21-24 April 1914. The Mexicans were having a civil war. The US occupied Vera Cruz to 23 November. Twenty two American servicemen were listed as dead. This fellow, presumably, was one.
Lake View Cemetery. John S. Allen 1893-1918. Private, Company M 18th Infantry American Expeditionary Force. Died from wounds received in action Argonne France.
The Battle for the Argonne Forest was the last offensive of the War to end all wars. It began 26 September 1918. It was the largest American engagement in the war. It was the only engagement for most Americans. It was the deadliest battle that Americans ever engaged in. America does not remember this one. This was the big one. The American Expeditionary Force (an honest name), fought along side the 4th and 5th French Armies, against the German Fifth. The Allied Forces were more than twice the size of the Germans, and suffered more casualties. The Americans were of a larger population than the Germans, and this was the first of their troops. The Germans agreed to an Armistice.

The only surviving veteran of World War I is an English waitress, that signed up in 1918. She is 110 years old, Florence Beatrice Green (née Patterson, born 19 February 1901).

The last hero from a forgotten war

To-day, across the world in Australia there died the last veteran of the Great War, Claude Stanley Choules, *1901. He joined the British Navy at 14. He transferred to the Australian Navy and served in the Second World War. He did not attend commemorations of the wars, for commemorations tend to glorify.

Eric Bogle is a Scot whom emigrated to Australia. He wrote two well known sad songs of WWI. One was of Aussies and New Zealanders who fought at Gallipoli.

...And I watch the parade pass before me
And I watch my old comrades, how proudly they march
Reliving old dreams of past glory
And the old men march slowly, all bent, stiff and sore
The forgotten heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask, "What are they marching for?"
And I ask myself the same question
And the band plays Waltzing Matilda
And the old men answer to the call
But year after year their numbers get fewer
Some day no one will march there at all ...

That day has come.

Feast of the Slaughtered Innocents

No picture with this one. Sometimes, i have found a photo of a masterpiece to illustrate or begin an essay; sometimes i have found something nearby to photograph and present here; not to-day. The paintings by Rubens and the rest, do not do justice.

Then Herod perceiving that he was deluded by the wise men, was exceeding angry; and sending killed all the men children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.
Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremias the prophet, saying:
A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning; Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. — Matthew ii. 16-18.

To-day is Herod's big day. Shakespeare refers to Herod, some eight times. Now, people remember Hamlet's acting advice, and his summation of the bad overacting: It out-Herods Herod. Shakespeare grew up in an England where catholicism was not extinguished. He had seen the Coventry and other mystery plays. This was a scene that played to people in town squares, where there was no stage. Men would mount wagons and carts. The role of Herod was as extravagant as could be mustered. Chaucer two centuries before mentions such an Herod. The Coventry Carol as a lullabye refers to it.

Herod, the king,
In his raging,
Chargéd he hath this day
His men of might
In his own sight
All young children to slay

Herod was a child killer. Everyone knew his wickedness, and children would be scared of him, and fully knew the dread of the tale.

Shakespeare, in Henry V, brings up a more accurate reference to Herod:

...If not, why, in a moment look to see
The blind and bloody soldier with foul hand
Desire the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters,
Your fathers taken by the silver beards
And their most reverend heads dashed to the walls,
Your naked infants spitted upon pikes
Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confused
Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry
At Herod’s bloody-hunting slaughtermen.
What say you? Will you yield and this avoid
Or, guilty in defense, be thus destroyed? — Henry V, III. iii.

Henry V advises the town of Harfleur to surrender without a fight, without a siege. I can control my soldiers now, but not when they have been deployed, and when they are, only murder and rape will follow.

Now, for years Jonah House in Washington, D.C. has held retreats and demonstrations about the death wars and militarism bring about. Peaceniks that stand against violence, not far from the Pentagon will meet at St. Stephen and the Incarnation in D.C. Catholic Workers in Cleveland, to-day at 4 p.m., will have a small demonstration at Public Square, and then will march to the Cathedral of John the Evangelist.

Yes Rachel weeps for her children. This is an image that is used by some ministries to the unborn and the aborted. Taking of life is killing and murder, and great sadness follows. But in the scriptural text, it is the government that is killing the children. Whether it is the male children of Bethlehem, in order to include Jesus, or the mediæval knights of Herod in the plays, or the military and police of to-day, it is governmental action that causes the deaths.

Those children, two millenia ago in Palestine, were the first anonymous christian martyrs. Martyring of children has not stopped. Rachel still cries, and if she is in Iraq or Afghanistan or some other foreign land, which American hears her?

The beekeeper and St. Martin

supra: painted bee panel at St. Mary (Collinwood), Cle., O.
To-day is St. Martin of Tours. Martin*316, †397, was raised to be a roman soldier. He became a christian, a pacifist christian, and then bishop of the gallican-roman town of Tours. He became a very popular saint.

Anton Janša *1734, †1773, was a successful peasant's son, who first became a painter, and then the austrian imperial beekeeper. Honey had been gathered from logs for centuries, logs became carpentered into hives. Janša stacked removable hives into houses, sort of an apartment building. These are still found in the slovene countryside.

About this time, apiarist farmers began to paint the front panels. People knew that bees were attracted to colors. The painted bee panels (panjske končnice) would help the bees find their homes. Janša being both a painter, and the bee guy; a brother became a professor of painting in Vienna, the capital. Vienna was the center of a polyglot, multi-national empire, it collected the talents of many lands.

The apiary panels are a slovene folk art. Its height was the two generations after the fall of Napoleon. At first the motifs were religious, they eventually became more diverse. The first one was a Marian one. Some stayed purely religious, others picked up folk tales, and some were secularly decorative. Now, these were painted by peasant men, and some of them had accepted the lore of the annoying, and shrewish woman. From Eve being tempted in the Garden, to women being allied to the Devil do show up in scenes, such as a devil sharpening a wife's tongue on a stone grinding wheel.

At the social hall of St. Mary's (Collinwood) there are nine. St. Florian and St. George are great favorites amongst the slovenes, and have a panel. The central panel of the nine is St. Martin.

Martin was first the great saint of traditional France. He suffered greatly under the protestant rebellion (his bodily remains were trashed). The revolutionary republicans destroyed his basilica. Centuries before the vikings destroyed the monastery, in which carolingian minuscule was developed. When world war one* ended on St. Martin's Day, the french saw his intervention.

The most famous story of Martin is that of sharing his cloak with a cold beggar. Later in the day the sun came out and melted the frost away. That what is called "indian summer" in the US, was called St. Martin's summer in the old countries.

At one time, the advent fast began the day after St. Martin's. St. Martin's was a great feast day, a precurssor to american Thanksgiving.

In the panel there is a barrel, and a bottle of wine. The first wine of the harvest was blessed, bottled and drank on St. Martin's. The geese are there for two reasons. Martin did not want to be bishop. He hid amidst geese, and the geese being geese--were noisy. He was found bishop. The big feast was with roast goose.
__________________
*To-day there is but one combat veteran (Claude Stanley Choules*1901) alive of that war and he is living in Australia, and has no part in military celebrations.

Message of the Peace Prize

“All men desire peace, but very few desire those things that make for peace.”— Thomas à Kempis *1380, †1471.

Alfred Nobel * 1833, †1896, was an inventive chemist with hundreds of patents, and an industrialist of great wealth. He invented dynamite, a smokeless gunpowder and other explosives. At the end of his life he owned Bofors, the iron and steel company founded in 1656. By 1894 it was becoming an arms factory, specialising in cannon.

Whether conscience or altruism, Nobel left a fortune for prizes to reward the benefactors of society. In his will, he wrote:

The whole of my remaining realizable estate... shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts... one part to the person...within the field of physics...chemical discovery or improvement... physiology or medicine...and one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses. The prizes...for champions of peace by a committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Storting. It is my express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration whatever shall be given to the nationality of the candidates, but that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be a Scandinavian or not.

Now, some awardees were those already world renowned for the greatness of their soul: 1952 Albert Schweitzer, 1979 Mother Teresa; others to political figures that led to peace treaties or peaceful transitions: 1919 Woodrow Wilson, 1990 Mikhail Sergejevič Gorbachev; some to organisations: 1917, 1944 & 1963 Red Cross, 1999 Médecins Sans Frontières. Recently, some recipients, though accomplished, sometimes highly so, have been living indictments against oppression. In 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. advanced civil rights in an often combatively unwilling US society. In 1983, Lech Walesa, founder of the Solidarity trade union and peace movement, was a challenge to communist tyranny; likewise, in 1975, Andrei Dmitrijevič Sakharov. In 1984, the South African government was not to pleased that Anglican Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu was recognised. In 1989, the Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso) of Chinese occupied Tibet received the award. The Chinese government has been, and still is, in a campaign of slander and vituperation against him.

It can be conjectured that gwbjr has had three prizes awarded against him: 2002 Jimmy Carter in arguing Aquinas' just war theory against the upcoming 2nd US-Iraqui War ordered by gwbjr; 2007, Albert Gore shared the prize for helping to illustrate world climatological problems, something the then US government and the Republican party did not admit to, also, the world recognised, that, he would have been president if the votes were counted, and this suggested the illegitimacy of the incumbent; and finally, 2009,Barack Obama, who succeeded gwbjr in a clean vote count, and was a hope for a better US on the world stage.

Little Norway exercises a voice of conscience on the world. The most recent awardee is Liu Xiaobo. China crushed, in 1989, the attempt to advance liberty. Communism fell in much of eastern europe that year. It began in Poland, through the agency of Walesa's Solidarity, encouraged by John Paul II, and allowed by Gorbachev. China warned Norway not to award Liu. China is on course to be the next unrivalled world power, to replace the United States. The chinese government takes no criticism, and admits no fault. In China the communists and the capitalists are one, and democracy is a theory. Liu Xiaobo was in prison (the fourth time) when he 'won'. He was there for "inciting subversion of state power". Other prison detentions were for "counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement", and "disturbing public order". All these are orwellian language for speaking one's mind out loud in public. The government arrested his wife after the Nobel announcement. Before the arrest, she saw her husband and told him of his Nobel. He said to her,“This is for the Tiananmen martyrs.”

Liu is a democrat in a dictatorial society. He writes, speaks and teaches. He is, therefore, a threat. The outside world may applaud him. The powers he lives under punish him.

For hatred is corrosive of a person’s wisdom and conscience; the mentality of enmity can poison a nation’s spirit, instigate brutal life and death struggles, destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity, and block a nation’s progress to freedom and democracy. I hope therefore to be able to transcend my personal vicissitudes in understanding the development of the state and changes in society, to counter the hostility of the regime with the best of intentions, and defuse hate with love.— Liu Xiaobo, 2009 before being imprisoned.

8-19 Ending of a War

To-day a war ended. There is no great jubilation as V-E Day or V-J Day in 1945. The government, and military public relation flim flam called it "Operation Iraqui Freedom", formerly "Operation Iraqui Liberation [OIL]". The world's history books call it the Second American-Iraqui War (or Gulf War), or George Bush Junior's War.

Over four thousand americans were killed, some by their own hand, some by their fellow troops in error. They killed many, many more. Civilians were uncounted, one hundred thousand is the lowest of approximations, and may be several times that. Allied troops and journalists were killed. War is killing.

Many of those returning will suffer for years, and so will their families. There are gold star families that have buried their children. There are wives and children that will be divorced from these soldiers. Readjusting to stateside, to America, will be traumatic for at least some. For some it will be disastrous -- suicide, homelessness, insanity. These servicemen served their country. It was not just time they gave. Their souls were often scarred. One can see the physical wounds, one can see some of the wounded actions. These men will need support.

The war was crafted on lies. Those in the mendacious cabal skated. Much of the public has forgotten the actions that created the cataclysm. The attention of the country is now on the great recession, which in part was caused by the war. Unintended consequences of cause and effect are not appreciated.

Escalation in Afghanistan is a doomed strategy

Last Friday, Bill Moyers did a service to the nation. He broadcast tapes of President Lyndon Johnson discussing what to do about Viet Nam. Currently, a similar situation involves President Barack Obama and another asian war, this time in Afghanistan.

In both scenarios the military wants guns, money and men to fight a native insurgency. Johnson worried about Nixon, Goldwater and the war enthusiasm of the Republican party. Obama also has war enthusiastic Republicans. The Republicans, in both scenarios, want this issue to help defeat the incumbent president in the next election.

The Republicans wanted virtually all of Johnson's domestic policy stymied. The Republicans want the complete failure of Obama's domestic policy. Why would a Democratic president co-operate in his own destruction, and allow the country to suffer so?

There are Viet Nam revisionists that claim the war was lost not on foreign soil but by traitors at home. The germans said similar things after 1918. Some germans blamed in on the 'jews'. In the United States it was blamed on the 'hippie anti-war protesters'. No, Viet Nam was lost, because it was unwinnable. The people who were against the war were sane patriots. The people who were for the war, both then and now, confused military success for national glory, or were, simply, worshipers of Mars.

Senators Richard Russell and Michael Mansfield advised Johnson correctly, that Viet Nam would be a long, bloody, expensive disaster that would devour the nation's well-being. Both South Viet Nam and Afghanistan had and has corrupt and incompetent governments. Those who advised the reluctant president away from war were right. Johnson knew Viet Nam was going to siphon America, and yet, he was pulled in. He had no desire for it, but still he fell into the swamp. The arguments for increased involvement were insipid. Ten years earlier Graham Greene had written The Quiet American. No dominoes were not falling, war delusion was growing.

It has been reported that Joseph Biden and Karl Eikenberry have advised President Obama against escalation and the military wants more war. The Constitution has the commander-in-chief to be a civilian, unfortunately a civilian can be overly influenced by military men, specially when he lacks the conviction to say, "NO!".

Afghanistan was a disaster for the British and Soviet empires. Viet Nam was not held well by the chinese, japanese and the french. By what fictive alchemy will this asian war be won? Tuesday President Obama is expected to ask for over 30,000 additional men to be sent to Afghanistan.

I have heard friends, of over fifty years in age, say unconsciously "Viet Nam", when describing the destination of relatives and acquaintances in the military over the last few years. They meant to say, "Johnny is going to Irak", or "Johnny will be shipped to Afghanistan". Their deep thoughts slipped involuntarily through their lips.

I have a pacifist friend, an extreme christian pacifist friend, who said to me, "You don't have to be a pacifist to be against these wars". Yes, it is that obviously simple.

Taxing men

A local Republican party official [Steven M. Backiel] wrote this on his blog:

There are many diverse opinions within this County Party membership and you should all feel welcome to share those opinions in a courteous manner on this site. Just please remember that not everyone is a pro-life, social conservative who favors governmental de-regulation, tax reduction, limited spending and a massively strong national defense (although I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t be)…

Besides the contention that there is not a diversity of opinion in that party, there are the rife contradictions in the statement, "governmental de-regulation, tax reduction, limited spending and a massively strong national defense". This could be made accurate, and honest, by saying, "complete ascendancy of corporate moneyed interests and militarism".

The contradictions are that de-regulation refers to no legal constraints on moneyed interests, added regulations to deny civil and political rights are not much of concern and to create a stronger police state is favored, albeit gun proliferation is promoted, so a greater militarisation of society will be achieved by these measures. The part that reads, "tax reduction, limited spending and a massively strong national defense" is thorough bullshit. Most income taxes are spent on the military. If one was truly interested in "tax reduction, limited spending" they would cut "massively strong national defense". What he, and they, may mean is that no tax money will be denied for military spending. But, there is still another tax they approve of. This "massively strong national defense" requires another tax, that of men, some whom return in caskets to Dover Air Force Base. There may be an increase in this tax by draft. This may meet with some opposition, for those, and they are by far—Republicans, who advocate more military and more war, quite often make damn sure, that, they are never in position themselves; please refer to five deferments Cheney, and gwbjr somewhere a.w.o.l. in Alabama.

War to end all war

Sixty five million men were veterans in what was once called, in this country, the european war. Millions did not survive that war. In the wars since, civilians are the primary casualties. To-day, you do not need all the fingers of a hand to count the surviving veterans of the war that ended on St. Martin's Day 1918. Martin was born into a military family, and bore the name of a false god, the god of war. He became a christian and would not fight. He became a patron of France. France was the western front, in that war, and their were several others. France alone, had a million and four hundred thousand dead combatants in that spectacle.

President Woodrow Wilson called it the war to end all wars, he was wrong. To-day, President Obama allows this country to participate in at least two wars. One in Irak and one in Afghanistan. If one were to read T.E. Lawrence and Rudyard Kipling, one would know the folly. The last one to be successful in those two theatres was the macedonian, Alexander. The british english, who, defeated the french in america and india, were enfeebled in Afghanistan. The soviet russians, who, defeated the nazi germans, were enfeebled in Afghanistan.

There are yeomen historians, who write serviceable and accurate narratives. Not enough people read and comprehend.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.—George Santayana

November 11 was first Saint Martin's Day, Martin of Tours. I quote from Butler's Lives of the Saints, Martin addressing the apostate emperor Julian:

'Hitherto', he said to Julian, 'I have served you as a soldier; let me now serve Christ. Give the bounty to these others who are going to fight, but I am a soldier of Christ and it is not lawful for me to fight.' Julian stormed and accused Martin of cowardice, who retorted that he was prepared to stand in the battle-line unarmed the next day and to advance alone against the enemy in the name of Christ. He was thrust into prison, but the conclusion of an armistice stopped further developments and Martin was soon after discharged. He went to Poitiers, where St Hilary was bishop, and this doctor of the Church gladly received the young 'conscientious objector' among his disciples.

—may people worship Jesus and not Mars

the striving for, and the accolades of, Peace

Jim Lehrer, early on Friday evening, told me Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This surprised everyone. The norwegians, as representatives of the world, have been issuing a continuing and clarion call condemning the evil policies of bushjr/cheney's Amerika. This is the third stanza: Jimmy Carter, who has been the most formidable former president of the United States, was awarded the prize for his many endeavors, and for his point for point aquinian just war rebuke of bushjr/cheney's war upon Irak; Albert Gore, the man whose presidency was usurped by bushjr/cheney, was awarded the prize; and now the man who decisively secured the election and office of the presidency after bushjr/cheney. Yes, the norwegians have continuously roared against the bushevik régime, and now they are applauding and encouraging the successor to be as contraire to that failed régime as possible.

But, on the day the announcement came, the United States bombed the moon. The United States still has a military occupation in Irak, and is thirsting for an escalation of war in Afghanistan. Obama has made overtures to end nuclear armaments; it must be remembered that only the United States has used those weapons. Obama has talked peace in Palestine; the Israelis are intransigent.

In Gaza, which is a caged ghetto, the Marah Land Zoo has painted two burros with hair dye, so that children could have 'zebras'. Such an act calls to memory a scene from the Little Rascals films of the 30s. The former authentic asses died of starvation during the war. Israel will not allow the importation of such beasts. To smuggle them in would be very extravagantly, and prohibitively dear.

The two cities, which the United states atomically vaporised, Hiroshima and Nagasaki want to host the 2020 Olympics. The mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki want to use the sporting events as a springboard for world peace.

Obama has promised the closing of Guantánamo prison; it is still opened. He has called for an end to the torture policies of the former régime; yet he has not prosecuted the criminals. The Department of War is that of the former régime's. Last week, Saturday Night Live made the point, that, Obama has done little to change that of the policies of the former régime. The Wall Street gang still runs the Treasury Department. The orwellian Patriot Act still lives, and so forth...

There are those on the right who are angry. They think that I'm turning this great country into something that resembles the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany, but that's just not the case. But when you look at my record it's very clear what I've done so far and that is nothing. Nada. Almost one year and nothing to show for it. — Fred Armisen as the President on Saturday Night Live

So it is incongruous, that the supporters of that former régime, are calling him such an extremist. And now:

This prize bestowed by the Nobel committee in Norway is given annually to individuals who have made significant contributions to world peace. Jimmy Carter won it for decades of trying to find solutions to international conflicts. Al Gore won it for his years of educating the US about climate change. And us? Well, I won it for not being George Bush. — Fred Armisen as the President on Saturday Night Live

Only the jesters and fools speak the truth, and they have hawk vision. But, some of the rabid supporters of the former régime and opponents to the president are still spiteful. A spokesman for the State Department parried their vitriol, and the world's collective opinion of Obama's predecessor, with this comparison:

Certainly from our standpoint, this gives us a sense of momentum when the United States has accolades tossed its way, rather than shoes. — PJ Crowley

The world wants a better America. It wants a repudiation of bushevism. The world wants Obama to integrate the United States peacefully with the world, and not to be a bellicose, and dangerous, and aggressive empire. It wishes to encourage him, and to tell him that the civilised, and responsible, and sane world is on his side.