The Agony Aunt Letter

Dear Friends,

It was quite a pleasure to hang out with some of you when Michael and I came up for the KBOO meeting on January 26^th.

I am at a crossroads in my life or perhaps we are at a crossroads. As many of you know the original plan had been to move to Greece once the kids were out of high school and the house. Well one kid, Zeke, took a couple extra years to move and due to my lay off at HP in 2001 (two weeks before 9/11) I didn't have the luxury of taking a sabbatical to test out the Mediterranean waters and then I worked for OPW which was a huge loss of $$ and almost crippled me due to the drive between Corvallis and Salem. And then Michael's condition deteriorated due to his hip (he will most likely need surgery). And I realise that at least the outside of the Π (Pi) in the Sky Ranch is very much what one would call a landfill (or a hippy dump) and neither of us are up to clearing it together or separately (at least at this point).

It was also, very much a pleasure to be hosted by Michael's son Nic and his wife Jess as well as his daughter Katie over the X'mas holiday week in Santa Rosa and SF. There is a wonderful group of people there who more or less support each other although sometimes with some attitude that is inimical to folks who have been together a long time on a communal project much as Star Mountain or KBOO for that matter are. And Santa Rosa is just an hour away from Berkeley and SF and not much further to Sactotoon where I have many relatives who I don't get to see very often.

Hence I am trying to figure out what to do next. We are not so in debt that selling the house and buying another gracefully is totally out of the picture (the financial deities willing). But there is of course a cash flow issue as I am now again unemployed and feeling like a professional job seeker (I mean I can write mocking cover letters as jokes to friends) and I have been living off credit card checks for the last little bit.

I have talked with Ani a bit about this and I know she would love to have me/us up in Portland Town and I think that would be better for my health (public transit, walking, not driving to concerts, just hanging out with friends face to face, mano a mano―it was so wonderful to be around you Conch you bring laughter and lightness). But would Santa Rosa be much different? I love those kids, they are fun, have good food and they let me be me even when I'm a bit tipsy. They are so awesome! You see the landscape in the Santa Rosa area especially between Santa Rosa and Sebastopol is so much like the landscape around my native Bishop, CA only greener and the hills remind me of going to Summit from Corvallis only with cactus. It's very perfect. But so is Portland Town in its way. I mean it reminds me a lot of Berkeley when I left only my friendships are deeper there than in Berkeley I mean I have folks who I consider soul mates, yet there could be many wonderful soul mates in Santa Rosa. Plus I could go take sax lessons at the Church of St. John Coltrane every week. Anyway. . .

And just a few minutes ago another of the trees fell (an oak that had rotted away) at least it fell on another tree! So I say it s a sign that the land is telling us to leave, it is looking for someone else (most likely younger who can maintain it better). When I moved her nearly 15 or more years ago (The Π in the Sky Ranch that is not Corvallis which was 25 years ago this summer―damn nearly half my life in a place that has never embraced me and that I have not really found soul mates) anyway as I was saying when I moved to the Π I was very much needing a house to hold my three kids as they all left their dad when he moved to Buffalo. And I never thought I'd be at this house that long, I mean I guess it was a choice-whatever real choices life gives us.

But it is time to move on from the Π and I say this with the background of how painful the move from Berkeley to Corvallis was; how poor we (Russ and I) were; how we lived in crappy places with splintery floors at times, dirt basements, cardboard walls. It was the hippy dream (nightmare) and what more was I to expect? The Π was at least safe for the kids. And I haven't been malnourished except for the first year here in Cornvalley. But I just can't do that type of a move again. So what am I supposed to do, can I have a real job please, and a nice house and will you come to potlucks/hang out, etc.? I know some of you may be thinking that I'm being quite the high maintenance valley girl here--but I've had enough funk (not funky music mind you--although) it almost broke my heart to see Liberty Hall when I've seen what folks can do to make a community place. (I know it's what's available and folks have put lots of effort into it yet take a look at Damanhur and you'll see what I mean.)

So my dear Portland friends what say you about me moving up to Stumptown? I can admin and coordinate as you all know. Do you think that a busload of you might come down on Cool (providing it's available and Joe is willing) and help us with the yard? Or something like that. Will anyone step forward to be a point person to organize that up there? Or is this something better left to say JunkBeGone (I've written them but they've yet to reply―I know there's one also in Salem―but maybe they don't service here?).

Tommy Hollywood's 12 String Stolen and Van Breakin Oustide KBOO 2/8

From Tommy:

"Hi Yaney, I'm still reeling from what happened. There was broken glass all over the chocolate frosting on my birthday cake. I'm brokenhearted about my Guild. The electronics are just electronics, but that was a 17 year relationship with an instrument. I'm very bummed. The good news is people are keeping an eye out for it. Its not the most common guitar. The guitar is a Guild JF30 12 string. It is a beautiful jumbo flamed maple instrument. It has a few cracks in the finish from temperature fluctuations. One crack is right at the headstock. The crack is in the finish only. Here are a couple of pix. The Guild is sitting behind the Fender amp in these shots. I was parked half a block from KBOO's door....just waiting 15 minutes for Kathy Fours to move her car as she left at 2AM. I could have easily caught the bastards in the act. That might not have been such a good thing. The larger issue is the security of late night KBOO programmers."

And on his birthday!!!!

As many of you know KBOO was born in Tommy's dad's (Ern Hood's) house.

[hq2600] From Cynthia McKinney: "Something for Which to Vote

"We cannot be satisfied so long as the Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and the Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. August 28, 1963

Dear Friend,

Are you:
* Incredulous at the fact that two Presidential elections were stolen and no one was held accountable?
* Disappointed that, as a result, our country is at war, involved in torture, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against the peace?
* Concerned, especially in light of New Hampshire, that your vote might not be counted in November and that the will of the voters will be thwarted yet again with election fraud or outright theft?
* Disquieted that the use of electronic voting machines, coupled with laws that restrict public access to election data "owned" by voting machine companies, might thwart your ability to verify election results if they are in question?

As acknowledged in the documentary American Blackout, I worked with investigative journalist Greg Palast and conducted my own Congressional investigation into election theft in Florida and across our country in the Presidential election of 2000. Those proceedings documented the role of Data Base Technologies, now a part of ChoicePoint, and election officials in Florida, in illegally "scrubbing" the voter rolls.

In 2001, with Al Gore presiding, I objected to the seating of the Florida electors. Not one Senator objected and so there was no discussion and no debate in the Congress about what happened in Florida and across our country in the 2000 Presidential election during the seating of the Electoral College. The same pattern of fraud and theft was planned and executed in the 2004 Presidential election. But this time, not relying on any political party, the people themselves demanded and funded an investigation into what happened in Ohio. More and more information comes to us about how the will of voters in Ohio was deliberately suppressed to produce a desired outcome. This effort at discovering the truth of Ohio was led by independents, Libertarians, and the Green Party because the Democrats had already conceded the election.

In my own 2006 Congressional election, Georgia courts have ruled that the electronic election data cannot be made public because they belong to Diebold. The matter is going to be appealed all the way to the Georgia Supreme Court, but isn't that a shame? In my election night speech I declared electronic voting machines a clear and present danger to our Republic.

I want to keep election protection and a radical common sense approach to issues on the table. As the candidates with populist appeal, but without their party's support, are being pushed to the margins, I want to make sure that the election results are truly a reflection of the will of the voters. That will only happen if there is another voice raising critical issues.

Are you also:
* Waiting to hear the leading Presidential contenders say that it's past time to repeal the Patriot Acts, the Secret Evidence Act, the Bush tax cuts, the Military Tribunals Act, bring our troops home now, and institute a livable wage?
* Infuriated that 48 million of our neighbors have no access to health care while those of us with insurance have our claims too often denied?
* Ready to have the Parties' solutions to the shrinking dollar and the ballooning national debt explained, especially in light of rising food prices and unemployment?
*Tired of the belligerent talk being directed at Iran and Pakistan and ready for our country to become a leader in pursuit of peace? And finally, are you also
*Afraid that the issues you really care about won't get addressed in this election season and therefore the likelihood of them being addressed by the incumbent is almost nil?

I have traveled across our country to almost half its states. I have met too many people disillusioned by their fears that their issues won't be addressed in this campaign season. I've met many people who want to participate, but who long ago figured out that the system was rigged against the interests of working families and so, dropped out, but who want to have hope that our country can be delivered from its current morass.

Too many are feeling that they have nothing for which to vote, that their votes won't count, even worse, they might not even be counted. To them, I suggest looking another way. As I have done. On March 17th of 2007, I declared my independence from national leadership that deepens the slough in which our country finds itself today. That leadership has enabled our country to throw away traditional American values of justice, and peace, and freedom.

I have now become a member of the Green Party and am seeking its Presidential nomination.

I'm encouraging the people I've met to join me and do some things we've never done before in order to have some things we've never had before. I hope you will lend your support so we can press for election integrity and put real solutions to the problems faced by real people on the table in real talk that we all can understand.

This election in November is critical. The future of our country and the content of the current debate can be influenced by us. Please help me create the political space for real issues to stay on the table. I know you support the truth. I know you want to help the American people know the truth.

Please visit www.allthingscynthiamckinney.com to review my record. Please visit www.runcynthiarun.org to donate to this effort.

Please take the time to view two youtube offerings: http://youtube.com/watch?v=03cOM9r51Nw and http://youtube.com/watch?v=ozQ_iPuqCxg

After viewing these films, I hope you will agree that our work deserves your support. The time is too precarious, the issues too important, our futures too much at risk for us to lose any more critical voices on important issues.

Thank you again for your support of truth. I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Cynthia McKinney

P.S. You can mail your donation by U.S. Postal Service to:

Power to the People Committee
Cynthia McKinney for President
P.O. Box 311759
Atlanta, GA 31131-1759

Please complete and include in your mail our contribution form to help us comply with federal election reporting requirements:

http://www.runcynthiarun.org/pdf/contributor_form.pdf

Please note: Campaign Contributions are not tax-deductible. Corporate contributions are not permitted. Only U.S. residents and citizens aged 17 or older may make contributions to federal elections.

--
"It is the absolute responsibility of everybody in uniform to disobey an order that is either illegal or immoral." General Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, National Press Club, February 17, 2006

"My brother need not be idealized . . . beyond what he was in life. To be remembered simply as a good and decent man who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. Eulogy of Bobby Kennedy by Teddy Kennedy, June 18, 1968

"Certain material weaknesses in financial reporting and other limitations on the scope of our work resulted in conditions that, for the 10th consecutive year, prevented us from expressing an opinion on the federal government's consolidated financial statements." David Walker, Comptroller General of the United States, December 15, 2006
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Adventures in Translator Land a Report from 100.7 K264AA

Well hi all from the SweetHeart of the Valley at the Pi in the Sky Ranch. As some of you Corvallans might know we have changed our translator antennae site from the commercial one we’ve been paying for through the nose all these years to the OPB/KOAC tower just a wee bit away from the former site. Hence we’ve been playing with the signal abit via KBOO engineer, John Mackey and a few other folks two Roberts (one of them dear Pue Rogers of Mt. St. Helens fame--Echoes of Fury: The 1980 Eruption of Mount St. Helens and the Lives It Changed Forever by Frank Parchman) and a recent KBOO volunteer Brian who came up with Mr. Mackey just this last Friday.

Well what a day to come up to work on a tower! Wind gusts to 40 miles an hour, trees dancing tangos on Vineyard Mountain where the tower is located. And then we get up to just feet from the tower and the buildings and what should our wondering eyes see—but of course a downed tree in the road. Of course John asks if we have brought our chain saw, well myself, the SweetHeart of the Valley (being a bit of princess will not let a chain saw in her new—to her—’97 Plymouth Voyager with two sliders).And we gave the chain saw away as it was possessed and followed me around the laundry room. But thankfully Mr. Mackey has a four wheel drive rig and we pushed the top part of the tree out of the way so he could take Michael, Brian, and himself up to the tower (I as the princess I am stayed in the warm car). So the work got done and we headed back down the hill with John leading the way for me to back up down the road in the dark.

All this being said, should any of you in 100.7 land want to help out in tweaking the signal do let us know, we would like to map where it is better and worse since last Friday’s adventures. I promise you will not have to carry a chain saw—but we recommend that KBOO have one for this particular site issued in the engineering room as one might a portable recording device. And many thanks to the engineering team at KBOO for making the signal better here in Corvalley and its environs.

Love always,

The SweetHeart of the Valley--Ever your Reality Chick
Pi in the Sky Ranch
http://piintheskyranch.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/sweetheartofthevalley

A Theory of Everything

Hey all check this dude out!! Garrett Lisi not only can the guy surf, he's working on the Theory of Everything, see this article in the UK Independent: Surfer Dude Stuns Physicists with Theory of Everything. Heck I can't even roller skate without breaking my left arm, done it twice. Thanks to my friend Melodie for passing this along to me.

Reminds me of Moon Man--now that's a story I should tell from my UC Berkeley days. I have a moon acre that I bought for a mere dollar. Well he's gone on to write a book about it and new moon acres are now five dollars. Heck I made money in lunar real estate. And when I ordered his book (two copies, one for me, one for a friend along with a moon acre for the latter) he sent along a brand new acre for me, wow a stock split too. Anyway here's his site I Sold the Moon and since we're on the topic I might add to Barry's injunction of "Think Cosmically, Act Globally" to Eat Locally.

Of course why have the two best books I've read recently been by Virgos? 'Splain' it to me Lucy!

--42--

More of the Healing Heart

Well it seems that yours truly my dear reader, cannot stay away on sabbatical forever. What does this week find your Reality Chick doing but attending three, count them three, political events and one, yikes this is where it gets scary, one meeting. It is time in these U$tates to meet candidates, candidates wives, contribute to as many ends as you can with whatever means available. But this time I promise I will breathe, keep my back open at the wings and not hunched over a steering wheel or even this input device.

The events were:

• Elizabeth Kucinich this weekend
• Cynthia McKinney today and tomorrow
• And a Greens meeting this past evening where there were two candidates running one for Senate and one for the House (as in of Reps in DC)

And but wait there will be more.

However due to some Snafu in PDX land Ms. McKinney didn't make it to Corvallis, except by speaker phone--however myself and Tina being the "unwaged" lasses that we are decided we would drive down to Eugene to see her there. It was a fairly good crowd for Eugene, we in Corvallis, of course had more folks. We also had Tofu America pancakes and soysage for breakfast in Corvallis. And Eugene had a wonderful luncheon repast. So I joked with Tina that we should just follow Cynthia to Ashland (her next stop) and eat at Geppetto's, maybe we'd get the delightfully rude waiter. Yum. But we did return home.

Of course the drive to Eugene and back was quite wonderful, this fall day. And as Danu drove us in comfort we two Virgo lasses caught up on the last few years, since our WTO times and I talked of recent heartbreaks, weaving the story amongst others along the backroads between Corvallis and Eugene. The story has condensed, become part of the mythology, the way I describe my life. It along with the other stories I have not had time to tell myself or read about myself until now braided their way along the backroads. And I realise that part of the hard part about this particular heartbreak is that it happened in June--you see everyone is gone for the summer (especially here in Oregon as they go to the Country Fair, etc.) July is particularly vacant for those of us who stay home. And so the telling of this story amongst friends (too long lost) remained unsaid until nearly the end of September. It has now been honed, edited, the essential elements left for the telling and for the understanding.

Of course each heartbreak is a chance for renewal, for getting deep to the core of who you/we/I am. And as there are personal heartbreaks there are political ones. This may be the time for us all to fully realise our heartbreaks there too. To understand how great a love we come from when we act together to create a better world. To forgive ourselves its/our imperfections in the creation of this relationship with our greater selves, as we do with our individual selves. This is the time to care, to breathe, to know that you are working "in love". We have all had a terrible heartbreak from 9/11, Katrina, Iraq, ad infinitum (no thank you W). Our narratives are still being told as much as we tell our personal narratives about individual heartbreaks. We are still honing, understanding, and this is taking time--but in as much as the personal heartbreaks must take us through the grieving process which includes anger, so must our larger heartbreak that we share. And I think we have been in that anger, or we should relish it for a moment, accept it, feel it, love it for its cleansing. Take it in our silence or with wailing saxes, pounding drums, electric guitars on full feedback. Then can we begin to open the joy we once had and come back together again. But let us not be afraid anymore.

We can do it, we are the ones we have been waiting for---------------breathe, release, breathe, release--ACT, but with thought, with love this time. We may well be afraid, but we are facing our greatest fear now. And we still love.

So what did You do with your Extra Hour?

Well dear readers, I went out to dinner, took in two concerts, brought the plants in for the cold season, and laid a carpet in the music room. Of course that took more than the extra hour and I had to sleep in Monday to recover.

Want to post a new pic of me with my new do and glasses.

Weekend Serenade for a Broken Heart and Celebration of Such

Dear Blogospherians,

What a week, what a time, what a life. As some of you know yours truly has been dealing with a particularly pesky broken heart. Well it seems that the mending is taking place. You know sometimes you meet someone who treats you with such sweetness, caring, and respect and if they do say those three words well you are gone. Has this happened to you dear blogospherian? But their “I love you” is not the same as your “I love you”. Of course, fear of rejection keeps you from asking, “Hey, what you mean you love me?” So if any of you in the dear blogosphere have an answer for what is the best, most polite, and less rejectable way of asking that let me know. For me when thrice said, if I like you, I’m gone. It’s almost like a spell. I mean don’t most folks run screaming from the room when you ask for clarification on that.

And the other lesson I’ve learned as we are speaking about the dreaded L word is that perhaps it is best to let the person know when you are “in love” with them. But don’t they run screaming from the room. Well dear blogospherian—you are worth loving. And if they do run screaming from the room, at least you know, it’s easier to deal with it in the beginning than many months or years later. Plus, it gives them real time information that they might want to use. And perhaps to your advantage?!

Anyway for me it’s been like having the water heater drained and a broken bone reset. Not quite as fun as a tooth cleaning but close; all very necessary maintenance activities (should you have the broken bone of course).

And I just did a Google on blogospherian and it is already on The Google. So I didn’t invent it but it is being used. Can we have Mr. Gates please add it to the MSWord dictionary. Well I can do that myself and so can you dear blogospherian. It’s just a right click away. Rejectable is also on The Google so you can right click that one too.

So here’s a toast to those that come along and reset our broken hearts by breaking them in all the right places and helping us put them back together. May their hearts be healed as well.

Thanks for the memories, attention, and caring. Now let’s move on to our next journey and calling.

With deep caring and Irini,

Y

The Gift

You have been given a gift.
Do you marvel at it?
Strange and precious as it is

Did you not ask for it?
Was it not ordered?

Were you not thrilled when it arrived; you opened it with such anticipation, tearing the packaging, maybe reading the card first, or then again later? Maybe you saved it for that special day to open.

And in the receipt or use thereof you find that it was not quite the item you expected from the catalogue.

Perhaps it was more, perhaps it was less, and perhaps it had different features than described or presumed.

Maybe your system requirements were not sufficient or the gift was for an older version.

But you have been given a gift.
And the gift you.

©11 October 2007—Yaney LA MacIver

Dear John—Happy Birthday

The wheel has turned again, the great grapefruit SOHO wheel, and we come to the annual birthday celebrations of John Coltrane and John Lennon—Libras and happy birthday too to Linda the muse, who has called us all here, well some of us. And then Happy Birthday my dear Mr. Beel Dodge you will be 50 when KBOO is forty next year—what plans can we make for the party. Yes Daniel, I’ll go with you on 24 hours of St. John WillIAm Coltrane.

Hence two weekends in a row, of sleep or not to music, screaming Saxes, screaming Yoko, screaming Beatles, screaming flies, screaming electric unladylandlike guitars. Screaming, screaming—primal screaming. How after eight years of Lennon night I begin to notice a wave, a rhythm of the night—Because is always around 2 AM, and Good Morning too early in the morning before we country folks would ever hear a rooster crow, no wonder we are awake all night even in our own bed, and then the soft last two or three songs of the night before the country show starts. We walk softly out of the station; our trash put away, the dishes washed, softly to the bright October morning light.

And I think of/remember last year’s Lennon weekend and the first time I really went to the Greek Fest. And now dear Daniel tells me about the room in the Greek church that has the pix of the churches’ history including pix of his family and him with a crew cut, I imagine someone looking like Eddie Munster—I will have to see this room and the young Daniel to see this Adam’s family portrait.

How, last year/Lennon Weekend, the dream of the Laundromat in Greece was still alive, and the life that had been planned for next to ever was still taking shape, breakfast with Melodie, sitting in mamayiayiapapaFlessas’ living room discussing how that plan might take place and what it might look like. Oh my dear Laundretiki you are no longer a dream, a desire, and I’m not sure what else to put there, or where the dream is leading.

How last year, this weekend, I was so different than I am this year, this weekend. Perhaps I listened too loud to the music, maybe I was supposed to turn down the volume but it kept speaking to me and it did not seem to want to be on mute. I am as changed as if I had studied sax under John Zorn. My whole body has become an instrument, and I have learned how to whisper in the tenor—you should have heard me last Thursday. So soft on that G, so soft, listen loud, play soft. I have been played and I have played, been one, and been alone more than ever. Lost walls between me and the universe, lost boundaries, opened to all, open to one, with the door once open and the light of the sun shinning through it bright with arms open. Then as it opened the door closed, closed, closed; a glimpse as in the dreams, but only a glimpse, evaporation a mirage on the desert highway. Oh yes I could have written the Song of Songs, that is why I don’t need to read it more than the once. I have known it forever. Where is my love? He is always lost in the Song. Where is my love?

Oh and how listening to Lennon, finding the song of Donovan wafting through, even in Rocky Raccoon, and then hearing the Lennon in the other’s music. I don’t think I ever knew how much I’ve listened and internalised the music. But I do know now. And yet how Daniel also is the musician and how he and the good doctor Geoff play the instrument: Lennon.

And then there is Daniel, pitching, “join us" as in it's time to become a KBOO member, telling us all about Yoko and the Peace Tower that will light from the Earth on Tuesday. We parents of children dream/want to bring into being a world that will last for our kids. We will not go lightly into the night of destruction. Imagine. Through your music, Daniel, John and John, Timothy, Donovan, Frank, and Derek we dream/sing the new world that will come. If we continue singing/dreaming/loving.

Yes, "we are all one and it is all about love", haven't we consented on that in the meeting between us. But that love in the ether is just that ether, air/wind. And I call you to remember the very real/substantial earthlings that need love’s kinesis. Although:

Because God Is An Air Sign

Because God is an air sign
around us all the time.
Because God is an air sign
around us all the time.

Not an Earth Sign, God,
Or he’d be standing next to you in the grocery line.

Because God is an air sign
around us all the time.
Because God is an air sign
around us all the time.

Not a fire sign – oh no
Gusts extinguish each flame.

Because God is an air sign
around us all the time.
Because God is an air sign
around us all the time.

Not a water sign
Water obeys wind, creates walls/paths.

Because God is an air sign
around us all the time.

©6 October 2007—Yaney LA MacIver

Irini—Y—10/7/2007

An Extra Special Delivery on My Birthday

Hi all,

As many of you know my birthday was yesterday, September 11. Well now I share it with a grandson--so introducing Kylin Casey.

Mama's Got A Brand New Ride

Pablo and Malcom welcome you to the brand new ride, Danu is his name. And ain't he sweet!

This is Corvallis/This is Me Any Questions

So here we are last night at the Hilltop Big Band concert in Central Park in Corvallis, Oregon that is. See the line where all the people are watching the show? Yeah way back there almost to the trees and Monroe Street! See the chair (just to the right of the speaker), see the gazeebo where the band is playing? Now folks where would you be?

And the band wasn't that loud. Drummer, keyboard, bass, guitar, three or four trombones, same for trumpets, two to three alto saxes, occasional soprano sax, two tenor saxes, and one baritone sax; and only miked for the solos.

I guess I'm always out, apart, but after 25 years in this town, you'd think there'd be a few more like me. Oh well as my sax teacher says, "Yaney, you must have tipped the usher."

Happy B'day Jazmyn

And here is the birthday gal herself--with a brand new pink guitar. Rock on Jazmyn.

What a Spree

Well this seems a bit blurry--but so was Mr. DeLaughter after a wonderful Polyphonic Spree Concert at the Aladdin in Portland last month.

Hi from Lammas

No I haven't forgot about any of you. Just busy summer and not much to say. Job is ticking away to its end sometime in September. Then what? Supposed to have been in Greece by now with the sweetie--but that's perhaps an impossibility. Yet there is a certain sweet property in Arta, Mallorca that we could purchase if the Pi sells. Donovan's Townhouse but what a dream a fantasy, yet however if the universe is closing Corvallis down to me, then what is it opening. This town can certainly be a tar pit that one can get stuck in and I've been here since 1983.

Well the plans I know about--grandbaby Jazmyn's b'day party this Saturday, August 4; Bert Jansch at Lola's Room on August 28th, my b'day 9/11, new grandbaby birth 9/17?, then Sonny Rollins on 9/21; folks visiting sometime October and then what?????????????????

And happy b'day to me sweet son Max, it's today!!

More on Peace

Hi all,

Here is a link to the John Hagelin Permanent Peace Site. I am very intrigued with this, especially in light of Cindy's withdrawl yesterday and my very real fears for my friend, Michelle Darr, and her family as she is traveling the country with:

"The Catalysts of H.O.P.E.(Healing Our People and Earth) began riding our bicycles across the United States for Peace and Sustainability on 17-Mar-07 in Portland, OR. All the way down the west coast and beginningto travel across the south, we and our message have been supported by Americans from all walks of life. We've had as many as 15 riders at one time, but our core has consisted of two adults, an 11-yr-old, and 20-mo-old twins."

I am very worried about them and their safety as I am worried about her partner, Ben, left at home with their young son Phoenix. It is a hard time on Ben and similar themes to Cindy's struggle predominate in that family as well.

It is very upsetting to me to see that Michelle has to feel her need to ride clear across country to end this war that the Congress will not. There is more bravery in young Tala (the 11 year old) than in Congress combined.

Anyway more on Michelle's tour de peace can be found at The Catalyst of Peace Site.

More hugs,

Y

It was 40 Years Ago Today and Assorted Ramblings

And other random thoughts about wallpaper, etc.

Happy Sgt. Pepper's B'day to all. To all you Lucy's out there may you have plenty of diamonds in your skies.

Now what you say is this about wallpaper? Well, I inadvertently started the wallpaper project in the bedroom last weekend. Cleaned everything out (five boxes of books to sell this weekend), washed the wicker--why dust when you can really clean.

Me sweetie has painted the ceiling and may, as we speak, be hanging some paper. Then on to the roof--but do I still have to sleep on the floor "like dog"? Stayed tuned for the next round of domestic concensus.

Now to me dear friends on the Whidbey side of things--here's some news. Hope this doesn't delay any of your commutes.

Mulkiteo Ferry Slams into Pilings

Well, what more can be said. Oh yes, Cindy Sheehan. Gosh my dear, I do understand. The movement eats us up and uses us. And what the heck are the D's thinking. I mean heck, you have Hillary, it takes a country to raze a village, Clinton she voted and still votes for the war.

Any way here's something that if the Congress, etc. took it up--we really might end war:

TM Anyone? More of the Don and David show.

Well it's a grandbaby weekend--have a pleasant one.

hugs,

Y

Memories of Andy

Dear All,

Here is the obituary from the local paper about Andy.



Wallace Andrew ‘Andy’ Bortz


Aug. 15, 1946 — Feb. 19, 2007

Wallace Andrew “Andy” Bortz, died of undiagnosed heart disease Feb. 19 at age 60 while working in the Portland area. Andy was born in Springfield to Mary Orla Remus Bortz and Wallace Alonso Bortz, both deceased. Andy is survived by siblings Carma Sue and husband Steve Henry of Seattle, Wash., Ben and wife Pat Bortz of Marcola, David Bortz of Corvallis, and cousin Daryl and wife Yuxi Osden of Texas.

Andy’s tour in the Air Force included Greece, South Dakota and Arizona. He then spent two formative years in San Francisco. Corvallis became his home in 1969. Andy loved education and learning; his college and later schooling included electrical engineering, botany and art at Oregon State University. A posthumous Limited Renewable Energy License has been awarded, as Andy was very close to becoming a licensed solar electrician at Linn-Benton Community College.

Andy was a gentle, kind man with many friends, and he was also a man of commitment and convictions. Andy’s passion for sustainable energy began in the early 1970s, leading to the formation of his business, Solar Design and Construction. He served as treasurer and longtime member of Oregon Solar Energy Industries Association. In his middle years, Andy was arrested several times for participating in non-violent protests against wars or for environmental preservation, particularly old-growth forest preservation and anti-nuclear action. Andy was instrumental in the creation of the Middle Santiam Wilderness Area. Last year, he acted as the general contractor for a solar, energy efficient home in Brookings, and he was very proud of this accomplishment. He had most recently been employed by Mr. Sun of Portland as a lead solar installer.

Andy’s wonderful tenor voice was appreciated by friends in Corvallis, Brookings, Eugene, Portland and especially through his participation in the Corvallis Peace Choir. Cross country skiing, science fiction, camping, visiting with friends, and hiking were some of his hobbies. Andy’s beloved dog Snow preceded him in death by just a few weeks. Snow and Andy were inseparable, and perhaps they are together again. We will miss the warm spirit, gentle nature, singing voice and commitment to world change found within our friend and brother, “Solarman.”

A memorial service for Andy will be at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 11, at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship on 2945 N.W. Circle Blvd., in Corvallis, followed by a reception at 3 p.m. Donations in honor of Andy can be made to SafeHaven Humane Society, P.O. Box 2018, Albany OR 97322.
Andy

A Short Month Gone By

Sad news this day. I learned on Sunday that my friend, Andy Bortz had passed away a week earlier. Not sure if many of you know him. Details on his memorial service are and a piece written by a fella activist about Andy are below.

To Friends of Andy Bortz;

For those of you who haven't heard, Andy died on Monday February 19th of a heart attack.

There will be a memorial service for Andy on Sunday March 11th at 2pm. It will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Corvallis and there will be a reception following.

Many of you know Andy through your own circles, be it through his activism on behalf of the environment, his anti-war activity, his voice in the Corvallis Peace Choir, his communities in Corvallis, Summit, Portland and Brookings, his solar work as the "Solarman", or just by meeting him while walking his dog in the park. He was a great friend to us all, gentle in spirit doing what he believed in till the end.

Hopefully, many of you can make it to the service in support of his family and friends. There will be an opportunity for you to share what Andy meant to you in your life. For those of you who can't make it, or are a little shy about such things. Please reply by email to us your thoughts about Andy. Please make it a short statement or maybe just one word that describes the meaning of your relationship with Andy. We will make your thoughts known during Andy's service.

If you would like to contribute food for the reception, please me know by reply to this post, I'll pass the info along to the organizers so that they can plan. Please forward this email or spread the word about Andy and his memorial service to anyone who would like to know. Andy had many friends in many circles....

Thanks! -Marvin and Margaret

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EWllen O'Shea writes:

I just got the news. Andy Bortz died last week. Andy was a peace warrior. He was our community Solar guy. I am still in shock from learning that he died. I sat down and wrote this about Andy's life. I posted it to Portland Indymedia because I think it
is important to educate those coming behind us about the history of resistance. Andy was all about persistence. He loved peace. He wanted community.

Here is what I wrote:
Ode to Andy Bortz Forest Activist extraordinaire
The Solar Guy passes on
1947 - 2007

"Way back in the 1970s, a few nature-oriented philosophers came up with a visionary framework for viewing the world. They called it deep ecology, or biocentrism. The premise is pretty simple: Humans are not the end all, be all of evolution, but merely a strand in the web of life, with no inherent right to wreck everything and spoil the grand evolutionary pageant for everyone else. Deep ecology says that all living beings and life-giving systems are equal and have an intrinsic value, beyond what value humans may ascribe. In other words, all life and life-giving systems have
inherent worth and a right to exist for their own sake, regardless of what kind of money people think they can make off them." - John Johnson, EF! Journal, Samhain/Yule 2005 (25th Anniversary Edition) p. 43 - Do We Know Where Our Deep Ecology Is?

Andy was a friend of mine and he died suddenly in Corvallis about a week ago. Andy was a friend to many, and especially Andy Bortz was a friend to the Earth. In Corvallis, he was known as the Solar Guy. Andy was into solar when the technology was just in its infancy. He loved the old solar panels and the "Copper Cricket" one of the first solar water heaters. He knew the top of many mid-Willamette valley roofs. Installing, solar tubes, solar water heaters, solar panels. He helped to start several organizations that supported solar and alternative energy. His back yard is a museum to the evolution of solar technology in the last 35 years.

Andy believed in the "Commons" and loved to participate in community events like the Corvallis Peace Choir and Earth Day celebrations. He taught us all to believe and persist even when progress seemed forever blocked. Andy was a patient teacher. He loved to see the light go on when someone finally understood why we needed to protect and defend the earth.

Andy was also an amazing pioneer in forest activism. Andrew Bortz was one of the founding members of the Cathedral Forest Action Group (CFAG). They were the first forest activist groups to plan organized tree sits in the Middle Santiam. Due to these actions to stop massive clearcutting, we have a few good stands of old growth left. We have water, we have some air and we have wildlife left because of people like Andy Bortz.

In the early 1980s, the Corvallis, Oregon-based Cathedral Forest Action Group (CFAG) began to apply nonviolent, civil-disobedience tactics to protect the Willamette National Forest~Rs ancient Douglas-fir stands from the devastating clear cuttery of the Reagan Administration.

The group's tactics included debates, public forums, logging-road
blockades and setting up a "witness camp," whose visitors were taken to observe ancient forest ecosystems and freshly killed tree remains. CFAG~Rs blockades attempted to halt further road building into the Santiam forest in western Oregon, as well as to stop loggers from entering the Santiam via the already-existing spaghetti of taxpayer-funded roads. Most of CFAG's actions were well-orchestrated, peaceful sit-ins across logging roads, carried out in the hope of bringing the destruction of those forests into public view. One memorable blockade featured CFAG organizer Brian Heath holding a solitary sit-in atop a crate of explosives that was about to be used to blast a roadway through a ridge! But getting busted and banned from the forest for a year after spending no more than an hour "defending" it was not very cost-effective.

Were it not for the treespiking occurring with random precision, courtesy of the Bonnie Abbzug Feminist Garden Club, the pace of clearcutting within the Santiam region would have scarcely been slowed at all. This spawned an activists' brainstorming session around a campfire one smoky night. It was here that the treesit was born, a tactic that now occupies an important place in the toolbox of Earth activism. http://www.earthfirstjournal.org/articles.php?a=870

Here is a large portion of the Cathedral Forest Wilderness Declaration: (The Cathedral Forest Action Group was formed in 1984 to take a stand in protecting 80,000 acres of forest wilderness in central Oregon's Cascade mountains...) "We believe that all things are connected, that whatever we do to the Earth, we do to ourselves. If we destroy our remaining wild places, we will ultimately destroy our identity with the Earth: wilderness has values for humankind which no scientist can synthesize, no economist can price, and no technological distraction can replace.

"We believe that we should protect in perpetuity these wild places, not only for our own sake, but for the sake of the plants and animals for the good of the sustaining Earth. The forests, like us, are living things: wilderness should exist intact solely for its own sake; no human justification, rationale, or excuse is needed.

"We perceive the Earth is dying. We pledge ourselves to turning this process around, to stopping the destruction, so that the Earth can become alive, clean, and healthy once again." (from page 196 of Deep Ecology) Andy's pledge was lived out each day of his life. He was the teacher of several generations of forest activists. Arrested several times, he was sued by the wealthy and almost lost his livelyhood. He was part of a land mark suit to allow peaceful non-violent activism to continue to occur in our beautiful forest.

May the forest bless you and cover you with boughs..
may the mountain winds heave you up to the heavens

You lived a good life
a life worth living
dream deep my brother
it is not over