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I am going to post something everyday that I am grateful for. Will you join me?

A short while ago I checked out from the library and watched Missing, a movie starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek. It’s an intense political thriller by director Costa-Gavras. I did not know anything of Costa-Gavras, so I decided to do a little research on him. Costa-Gavras is one of the most respected directors today, the creator of political thrillers that expose government corruption and deceit.

Here is some information on Costa-Gavras from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa_Gavras). Constantinos Gavras was born on February 13, 1933 to a poor family in the village of Loutra Iraias, Greece. His father had been a member of the left-wing branch of the Greek Resistance during World War II, and was imprisoned after the war as a suspected communist. Costa-Gavras went to France to study of law in 1951, and in 1956 he studied film. In his early years he worked with the famed French directors Yves Allegret, Jean Giono and Rene Clair. He directed his first film in 1965.

Costa-Gavras is reknowned as a master of the political thriller. Michael Wood, a teacher of English and comparative literature in Princeton, wrote in the booklet accompanying the DVD of Missing:

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I give thanks to God for all of the persons in my life who have loved me into being who God wanted me to be - for that great cloud of witness, I am truly grateful.

Who want to see the ISS (International Space Station), it is going to be particularly visible tonight -- for 4 minutes, from 6:13 EST to 6:17 EST, traveling across the sky to an elevation of 85 degrees from 34 degress above SW to 12 degrees above NE.

Gregg DesElms from California contacted Crossleft and asked that this be published on the site. It is interesting and thoughtful. Jim

At the Nationwide Protest Against Proposition 8
On the steps of City Hall in Napa, California
Saturday, November 15, 2008 at 10:30 AM PST

Peace and Blessings to you all. My name is Gregg DesElms. Though I live in Napa, I am a sworn Deputy Commissioner of Civil Ceremonies for Santa Clara County, down in San Jose. And let me just get this out of the way up front: It’s a character flaw, I realize, but I am proudly heterosexual. So, for the next few minutes, if it’s okay with all of you, I’d like to talk about how being party to the same-sex marriage experience in the way that I have has affected this particular heterosexual.

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Monty Python Channel on YouTube!!

Basics of Playing the Theremin -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

I give thanks to God for my weaknesses because they turn me to God and make me trust in God, and in God only.

Calling it "an outrageous and horrifying crime," Janet Murguía, President and CEO of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, condemned the fatal beating of a Long Island man on Saturday night. Marcello Lucero, a 37-year-old man from Patchogue, Long Island, was the apparent victim of a hate crime by seven teenagers who were arraigned today for his murder. According to Newsday, Suffolk County police say that the defendants "simply wanted to beat up someone who looked Hispanic."

"While we are grateful that the authorities have taken swift action," Murguía said, "it is important for all Americans to understand that this is part of an alarming trend taking place nationwide." FBI hate crime statistics show that attacks against Latinos have been on the rise over the past four years. Similarly, the Southern Poverty Law Center has reported that the number of hate groups targeting Latinos and immigrants has also increased over the same period.

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On November 8, 2008, Marcello Lucero was brutally stabbed to death by a group of teenagers because they thought he was Mexican. In response to the murder of Lucero, local authorities have encouraged others who have been victims of similar crimes in Long Island to come forward. Last night, WCBS-TV reported that a second Long Island resident, Carlos Orellana, alleged a similar gang attack. Orellana asserts that his assailants' attacks were coupled with racial slurs.

These race-related crimes are not anomalies in Long Island. The AP reports that "tensions" over immigration have been acute in Suffolk County for years now. A brief review of recent history reveals that:

Eight short years ago, two Mexican men were beaten in Farmingville by people who had offered them work. Farmingville is ten miles from where the stabbing of Lucero occurred.
On the Fourth of July in 2003, teens set fire to the Farmingville house of a Mexican family who barely escaped with their lives.
In 2005, four teens attacked two Mexican immigrants fishing in Long Island. Shouting racial slurs, the teens beat and stole both of the victims' money.

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Bloggers,

This Thursday (11/20) at 11am EST (8am PST), the Long Island Immigrant Alliance, the Workplace Project, the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) and the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) will be holding a call for bloggers on last week's Suffolk county hate killing. A man was killed last week because a couple of teenagers were looking to do some damage to a "Mexican". The action of these teens, all under 18, however, is only the latest expression of hate happening in Long Island and the nation as a whole. The tragic death of this man must be seen as an urgent warning and call to action. We will be holding a call to talk about this horrible crime in Long Island, as well as the broader national implications this Thursday, at 11am EST. To date, there has been some media coverage of this incident but there needs to be more. We are hoping to bring more attention to this issue through this call. What happened last week is an outrage and we need to have elected officials and local communities taking note and ensuring that another death is prevented before it's too late.

Please RSVP for this important event to kesquivel@nclr.org. Send any questions you have in anticipation of this call to kesquivel@nclr.org.

What: Blogger Call on Suffolk Hate Killing
When: Thursday, 11am EST
Where: Call in #: 712-432-1620; Access code: 540585 #

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Buy Nothing Day is an informal day of protest against consumerism observed by social activists. Typically celebrated the Friday after Thanksgiving in North America and the next day internationally, in 2008 the dates will be November 28 and 29 respectively. It was founded by Vancouver artist Ted Dave and subsequently promoted by the Canadian Adbusters magazine.

The first Buy Nothing Day was organized in Vancouver in September of 1992 "as a day for society to examine the issue of over-consumption." In 1997, it was moved to the Friday after American Thanksgiving, which is one of the top 10 busiest shopping days in the United States. Outside of North America, Buy Nothing Day is celebrated on the following Saturday. Despite controversies, Adbusters managed to advertise Buy Nothing Day on CNN, but many other major television networks declined to air their ads. Soon, campaigns started appearing in United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, Germany, New Zealand, Japan, the Netherlands, and Norway. Participation now includes more than 65 nations.

While critics of the day charge that Buy Nothing Day simply causes participants to buy the next day,[4] Adbusters states that it "isn't just about changing your habits for one day" but "about starting a lasting lifestyle commitment to consuming less and producing less waste."

Source: Wikipedia


Suddenly, we ran out of money and, to avoid collapse, we quickly pumped liquidity back into the system. But behind our financial crisis a much more ominous crisis looms: we are running out of nature fish, forests, fresh water, minerals, soil. What are we going to do when supplies of these vital resources run low?

Theres only one way to avoid the collapse of this human experiment of ours on Planet Earth: we have to consume less.

It will take a massive mindshift. You can start the ball rolling by buying nothing on November 28th. Then celebrate Christmas differently this year, and make a New Years resolution to change your lifestyle in 2009.

Its now or never!

Source: http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd

I am grateful for my dentist. No, I am not kidding! I may not have perfect teeth (far from it!) but I am grateful that I have had good dental care for the majority of my life.

Originally posted at Talk to Action.

The Catholic Right, Part Seventy-two

In the wake of the passage of California's Proposition 8, I was left wondering how such a forward-thinking state could simultaneously help propel an African-American to the White House while denying gay people the dignity of marriage equality. I was also left wondering about the misplaced priorities of a vocal and increasingly belligerent faction of the hierarchy, and how that faction and its allies are adversely affecting both American Catholicism and the greater society.

The hierarchy along with the prominent assistance of the Knights of Columbus did more than its share to roll back marriage equality in California. But among the reform minded Catholics that spoke out against Prop. 8, was the independent Catholic lay group Call to Action.

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• I saw the ISS tonight before my Bible Study.
• I didn't hit a deer, but I saw two by the side of the road.
• It was COLD tonight -- 26 degrees F.
• I saw gas for $1.76 a gallon. That would be $1.66 with my Kroger card. Wow!
• But gas is the only thing this week that I have noticed that the price has gone down.
• On the way home, I saw a bunch of meteors. The Leonids were on the 17th, so what's up with that?

Recently I watched Amen, a Costa-Gavras film about an SS officer and a Jesuit priest trying to get the Vatican to denounce the Holocaust. It was very critical of the Pope for his feeble response to the atrocities being committed against millions of Jewish lives. How fair is that criticism? I decided to research the actions of the two popes during the 1930s and 1940s and see how they reacted to Adolph Hitler and his policy against the Jews. Pope Pius XI, the pope during most of the 1930s, was increasingly confrontational of Hitler and the Nazis as their actions began to affect more people. Pope Pius XII, the wartime pope, privately approved of sheltering Jewish refugees in church property, but he never publicly condemned the shipping of Jews in concentration camps and the killing of Jewish lives. The two different reactions of the two popes offers a microcosm of the way religion has dealt with authoritarian governments and atrocities against its citizens.

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Friends.

Galveston is having a hard time. We heard a lot about Katrina and New Orleans -- not so much about Ike and Galveston. We have family in that area; between the hurricane and the economic tsunami, Galveston is being hit hard.

The latest news confirms that between 2800 and 3800 people are going to be laid off from the University of Texas Medical Branch. That is going to be 3800 families who will not have a good Christmas this year -- 3800 people going onto unemployment, perhaps forcing them to move, as Galveston is not rebuilding very rapidly (if at all).

But additionally, this is bad news for the thousands and thousands of indigent people who depend on UTMB for medical care. UTMB lost $710 million from treating people after Ike and additionaly did not have sufficient flood insurance to cover the damage from the hurricane. UTMB is the largest employer on the island. This will mean tremendous loss of revenue for Galveston with the result that they may never recover fully from Ike.

There is a part of me that feels that this is a message to us to not build so close to the coast. What hubris that is! There is a part of me that believes that yes, they need to cut their losses and move inland.

But I get lost into the individual stories -- the indigent person who will not have care; the family of that nurse that will be laid off. How do we balance what we know is making the "best" of a bad situation and these individual stories?

I wonder if part of separating the sheep from the goats happens within our own selves as we try to discern the best thing to do.

I can hear it now -- "Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?" Then he will answer them, "Truly I tell you, just as you took away the employment to one of the least of these, just as you denied decent healthcare to one of the least of these, just as you shutdown 350 hospital beds to one of the least of these, you did do it to me."

I am going to go look for the ISS around 6:52 -- it will appear in the sky in the southwest and move across the sky. It will be very bright -- about a magnitude -2.5. I have gone and watched for it before; it is indeed quite visible to the naked eye but tonight will be different. Tonight it contains a person who I have known for 25 years. He and I did not attend the same school, but we had the same peer group at the Science Center and he was an Independent Study Student my first year teaching. I met him at a cookout we had that Fall. He went to HS with my boyfriend at the time.

So I will watch tonight and think of those days, of that time. How amazing life is and how varied. I will send up a prayer for traveling mercies, as well, maybe even singing a verse or two of "Eternal Father Strong to Save."

Godspeed, Eric.

Little Bit (or Critter) is the Purrfect Laptop.

• Little Bit is settling in quite nicely. The big kitties are getting used to the idea of the micro-cat. She loves to perch on my shoulder -- like a parrot. It's kind of sweet but it's also kind of annoying. She's still very little -- about a pound and a half, but she's growing. Her eyes have lost all signs of blue and I think she's going to have gold eyes. I am totally in love with her.
• And yes, she gets to go to West Virginia with us. The house-sitter doesn't want the responsibility of a kitten and the vet won't board one this young. She doesn't seem to mind the car so we will put a covered litter box in the back along with her food and water, put her bed in the back seat and carry her around in the cat-carrier. I suppose we will have free range cat while we are in motion on the freeway. Should be an adventure.
• We are getting ready for the marathon to Christmas. Advent is week after next -- I want all my ducks in a row before Thanksgiving so that I don't have to stop and deal with, well, stuff.
• I want to do some baking/cooking this Christmas and I would love to have an after Christmas party. Cleaning the house is the first step, so I'm cleaning house -- literally and figuratively.
  
• Odd thing yesterday -- I saw your typical Suburban Gansta' -- lowriding Honda with low profile tires, sagging pants with lots of chains, a "grill" and ballcap turned sideways, listening to booming music. EXCEPT the music was Nickel Creek Newgrass. My brain almost exploded.