Planting a Peace Pole

No it is not a phallic symbol. Could be, sub-consciously, but no one wants it to be so. It's not a rocket or an arrow. It is not a “Festivus” pole. That would be aluminum and is about feats of strength and declarations of disappoint-ments.  This is wood and is a marker saying “Here is a place of peace.”

We dedicated this one at the UUA congregation in Queensbury NY Sunday. We even had a rabbi to bless it. The peace committee that tackled and completed the project admitted that they argued about many things before they settled on a design and location. Ironic and fitting.

These peace poles are all over the place. Several churches I have served had them. Now I learn that it is a movement that came out of Japan as a response to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is the work of the World Peace Prayer Society. Read about it here. There are more than 200,000 of them planted all over the world.

The prayer is simple and non-sectarian: “May peace prevail on earth.” We learned the word for peace in 19 languages, printed on the pole. The local native Abenaki word is “kamignokawogan.” A turtle, which is the Abenaki symbol for the earth is on the pole. So is a whale, a lamb, and another creature I forget.

Maybe you saw the Oneida nation float in the Macy’s parade. It is a turtle, with a pine tree, topped by an eagle, the essential religious symbols of the Algonquin confederacy. We have a large metal turtle above our fireplace.


Hey, I can use the mast from my small sailboat as a Festivus pole!

I’ll Be Bach – I Catch Up on My Childhood through Music Theory

One of the big reasons for this blog is for me to keep active in my retirement. I think it is natural to seek meaning in one’s life when approaching the end of it. My retirement project is quite extensive. I want to be expressive of my thoughts and opinions. I want to fix up my Alfa (or find some kind of convertible that doesn’t need fixin’ up).  And the thing I have been telling people for years: “When I retire I want to go back to school and major in music.”

My band director at Sioux City Central High School was Robert Brooks (no photo available). I played alto sax in band and oboe in orchestra.  He approached me about majoring in music after the senior winter orchestra concert, in which I played really well the oboe solo on Bali Hai from South Pacific. But I wanted to be an economist (before I understood that it involved math). And there was a ninth grade girl who played oboe better than I. I didn’t believe that I had the talent for music. And I didn’t like to practice, and still don’t.

So I look back to when I was 10 or 11 years old and took 2 or 3 years of piano lessons. I didn’t like my teacher. She was a perfectionist and wouldn’t tolerate wrong notes. This made me so anxious I could not play. Even though I loved music and wanted to play, I quit.

I still have the music book I was studying when I quit: A Little Treasury of Classics, Vol. IV. I can play several of the pieces by Purcell, Chopin, and Bach, with frustrating hesitation. One piece, a Bouree by JS Bach really intrigued me. What were the chords? What made the chord progressions so interesting? How did it get from here to there? What made it sound the way it did? What made it work?

So now with three semesters of music theory under my belt (no, they are not there, but somewhere!) I took an entire day of Thanksgiving weekend to find answers to my questions. Here is my analysis, which pleased my professor, but me even more.

I discovered a modulation from e minor to G major and back again. I found lots of overlapping ii-V7-I progressions, which I am used to in popular songs. I found a number of unusual chords, called secondary dominants. It is very satisfying to me, to have some understanding of music.

Now on to transcribing Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky from orchestra to symphonic band....

Oxymoron - “The Civil War”

David Goldfield, in his wonderful book, America Aflame, makes numerous pointed observations about US history, and several claims. First, the observation that this country was, and perhaps always has been, marked by a high degree of conflict and violence, having to do mostly with national origin, religion, and political interests and ideology.

He begins his analysis in 1834, in Boston, when a Congregationalist preacher, Lyman Beecher, fired the flames of anti-Catholic hatred against an Ursaline Convent (in what is now Somerville). A young Episcopalian woman who had attended school there (Only 6 of 47 students were Catholic) had written an attack on the nuns. It is hard to believe now that there was no Diocese of Boston til 1820, but Catholics were new to New England, and a threat to the Protestant establishment. Rumors arose about nuns being kept in the Convent against their will (by the priests, for sexual purposes!), and in two nights of riots, the convent was burned to the ground. The Diocese petitioned the state many times until 1855 for restitution. The legislature repeatedly denied it. To get a grip on this religious, nationality, and cultural conflict think the film, Gangs of New York portraying a situation in 1857.


1834 seems to be a good place to begin a 550 page book on the Civil War. When did it begin? Perhaps in 1834. Ah, those evangelical Protestants. In 1833 The American Anti-Slavery Society was established. They convinced many people in the following 30 years that slavery was sinful. This leads to Goldfield’s claims: That northern Evangelicals (we might call them “liberals”) were a major cause of the war by insisting on an end to slavery, slavery could have been ended without a war, therefore the war could have been avoided.

It is difficult for anyone now to believe that slavery was anything but sinful. But Goldfield comes close to blaming the anti-slavery religious folk for causing the war. As he lays out the complicated and polarized history of the 19th century, I cannot see how the war could have been avoided or that slavery could have been ended without the war.

But let’s give him a break. England ended slavery throughout “her” (an interesting locution) colonies officially in 1833, taking effect in August, 1834, the time of the Ursaline Convent violence. However, a judicial ruling in 1772(!) (Somersett’s Case) had already eliminated slavery in England, but not the profitable slave trade. I had to learn of this and the details of the anti-slavery act of 1833 elsewhere. Here is how England ended slavery:

(1) Immediate and effective measures shall be taken for the abolition of slavery throughout the British colonies. (2) All children born under the passing of the Act, or under the age of six shall be free. (3) All slaves over the age of six years would have to serve an apprenticeship of six years in the case of field slaves, and four years in the case of others. (4) Apprentices should work for not more than 45 hours per week without pay, and any additional hours for pay. (5) Apprentices should be provided with food and clothing by the plantation owner. (6) Funds should be provided for an efficient stipendiary magistracy, and for the moral and religious education of the ex-slaves. (7) Compensation in the form of a free gift of 20 million English pounds should be paid to the slave owners for the loss of their slaves.

Basically, these provisions worked, but the U.S. did not try to emulate them. (I think there was no money to pay off slaveholders and no desire to do so.) In the U.S.the fight was over extending slavery or not into the new territories of the west, the subject of another blog post. Meanwhile, violence continued. The New Yorker reported last summer that Charles Dickens visited America in 1842 and wrote this about it:

“Look at the exhausted treasury; the paralyzed government; the unworthy representatives of a free people; the desperate contests between the North and the South; the iron curb and brazen muzzle fastened up on every man who speaks his mind, even in that great Republican Hall, to which Republican men are sent by a Republican people to speak Republican Truths – the stabbings, and shootings, and coarse and brutal threatenings exchanged between Senators under the very Senate’s roof – the intrusion of the most pitiful, mean, malicious, creeping, crawling, sneaking party spirit into all transactions of life.”

(Congressman Thomas Arnold of Tennessee was threatened and beaten in 1832 on the steps of the Capitol and in 1842, in the chambers. Reporters did not write of these and other similar events because their lives were threatened. This changed with the introduction of the telegraph, evidence perhaps that technology makes us more human.)

Let’s all go watch 30 minutes of Fox News and celebrate being Americans.

Why I Don’t Work for the CIA

One detail of my experience of the sit-in (what we called “occupy” in the ‘60's) in Iowa City in ‘67 came to me yesterday as I was running my giant snowblower, trying to move 6" of wet, gloppy, heavy snow from my 400' driveway. (&$@^%!)

The day of the sit-in, the morning after the SDS planning meeting, I had a job interview with the CIA. The interview took place on the second or third floor, on the northwest corner of Jessup Hall, which is the northwest building of the four original campus buildings surrounding Old Capitol. (Upper right of Old Capitol in photo. Union is far upper right.)

The interviewer told me what they were looking for: History majors like me, with a few years of Russian and French, like me, who could build files on leaders and upcoming individuals in foreign countries. Sounded very interesting. During the interview I was looking out the window, down Jefferson Street to the Student Union. People were gathering for the protest against Dow Chemical.

For a year and a half I had been coming under the influence of Christianity. My Brother-in-law had died in an auto accident in May, 1966, so I had thought through some life and death issues. I had joined First Presbyterian Church in Iowa City, where Jack Zerwas had given me the Phillips translation of the New Testament (more correctly called the Christian scriptures). I had read it and was moved by the teachings of Jesus. And he introduced me to Bonhoeffer and Tillich.

And what is not widely known, one big reason for the campus protests of the ‘60's was that a steady stream of older, Quaker men, were traveling the campus circuit, explaining their anti-war stance. I heard several such lectures, and I heard James Bevel, from King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, tell about the connection between the struggle for civil rights and the disaster that was the Viet Nam war.

So I left the CIA interview and joined the protest against Dow, and later refused induction into the US Army. And I never worked for either of these “companies.” Life is funny, how it works out, how I ended up in the church. The frontespiece of Carl Jung’s Memories, Dreams, and Reflections explains it for me: “We must not only live the time of our lives, but also the life of our times.” Yup.

Local (All) Politics and Bug Spray

I have learned a bit more about local politics in our small town. I have been asking about who is who and why. Turns out the biggest vote getter this past election is a big supporter of the biggest organization in town, probably larger than any of the churches -- The Snowmobile Association. Imagine all the relatives and friends and neighbors of these folk, all wanting to vote to keep this activity protected in our area. (The snowmobile trails are extensive and cross highways and corners of private property.) So all I can do is keep on talking with people who care about issues more than or as much as snowmobiling.

Political news elsewhere is filled with discussions about pepper spray being used on students sitting across a walkway at UC Davis. This is an "occupy" event. Police have driven out occupiers from the park in NYC, in Oakland, and some other places. It is amazing that in a country begun in revolution against the powerful British of the time, that any semblance of protest is discouraged. Laws limiting protest have multiplied everywhere in the past 40 years. It is against the law to gather  in certain places. Bullhorns are illegal. Standing on a sidewalk or in the street violates local laws. Just about anything you do is potentially illegal if you are doing it as a protest.

Just watched a 28 min documentary on a demonstration I was in at the U of Iowa Dec. 1967. Several hundred of us blocked the Union entrance where Dow Chem was interviewing. Two busloads of State Police were brought in with white Storm Trooper riot helmets with face shields and carrying 3', 2" thick "batons." Very scary looking. After an hour of speeches the police said we could leave or be removed and arrested. I left, feeling we had made our point. 107 were arrested and several were taken to the hospital. Guess I wasn't very brave. Some might say I was smart.

I was surprised the entire U didn't explode about the state police being brought in, but it was Iowa and 1967. Public opinion was that it was a state school and that trumped any claims of academic freedom or constitutional rights.  A right wing group counter protested. The admin didn't seem to understand that there were other options (There were other entrances, or they could have taken the Dow people off campus and let people interview them elsewhere.) Quote from Dow people: "Our government wouldn't use napalm against civilians. Napalm is an insignificant part of our business."

The protest was planned in the student union basement the day before. It was a Students for a Democratic Society meeting. I was there. It was a lot like a church meeting or a county political meeting. Lots of arguments. Always reasons for why anything suggested was wrong. It turned out according to the documentary that we were infiltrated by one or more police informants. The U knew exactly what we were going to do. That's why the bus loads of state police were brought in.

I took film of a demonstration in Chicago a year later. On my film is a cop filming me. Imagine how much more complete such surveillance is today, both of occupy and tea party events. Maybe the tea party is right. If you want revolution, you need to pack heat. Or maybe first we should do a better job of training in non-violent protest techniques.

A sociological study called “The War at Home” (by Doug McAdam and Yang Su) concluded that to effect real change, protests must change public opinion that in turn must create responsiveness by Congress and the Senate. “The antiwar movement never mobilized the general public support and sympathy that the early civil rights struggle achieved. There was a perceived lack of commitment to democratic practices and the general politics of persuasion.... To be maximally effective, movements must be disruptive/threatening, while nonetheless appearing to conform to a democratic politics of persuasion.” I hope the occupy folks read that. They have done a good job on the first task of educating a majority to agree with their analysis. The students at UC Davis did right by sitting still while being sprayed. May a thousand flowers bloom from non-violence.

We the public should force the president of UC Davis, Linda Katehi, to resign. She is incompetent and responsible for what the cops did. This would send a message to other institutions about values. And UC Davis wasn't even defending its ties to the corporate/military/financial complex. In the photo here she looks frightened. Of what? Perhaps of events out of her control.

In the documentary from '67 a cop called a demonstrator an "animal." Watching the UC Davis incident, I thought that the demonstrators must be bugs, cause the pepper spray seemed like bugspray or maybe even agent orange.

Shame on the U of Iowa for placing their relationship with Dow over education and the nation's involvement in an illegal, unjust war. Would the administration today do differently?

Base Politics

I worked at the polls Tuesday from 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. It was almost as bad as a church meeting. I do it as my civic duty and as a representative of the Warren County New York Democratic Committee. I have done this for two years and am now the Democratic Town Chairperson. This happened to me once before, in 1972 in Minnesota. As the only one from my town who showed up at the county meeting, I became town chair. I make a few bucks working the polls.

There is a side benefit I had not expected. My anger is subsiding. While I still disagree with 98% of what conservatives believe and want, I realize that I can replace the anger with learning – who the actors are in town and in the county, how they see the world, and what their vision for our country is and how they came to see things that way.

This is akin to the antidote to low self-esteem; one needs to accomplish something to feel good about oneself. I am suggesting that the antidote to political anger is getting even more involved, even with opponents.  The old sayings have some truth: “Don’t get mad; get even.” “The best revenge is served cold.”

And of course: “All politics is local.” Unfortunately, local politics seems to be a lot about running for office to promote your business. In a very small town like this it is a lot about who has the most friends or at least who can call on the most people who owe you something cause you did something for them. This is generally good and positive, so that party labels and ideology don’t mean much locally. It’s both business and personal.

But at the county level, now we’re talking who gets big construction and trash pick up contracts, and who can give jobs to friends and relatives.  There are probably lots of perks I haven’t thought of. I’m pretty naive. “To the victors belong the spoils.” Now all county offices are held by Republicans. Lots of opportunities for mischief. Especially when the newspapers support them. Think I’ll read some Machiavelli, and talk to some locals about who is who and why and what they’re up to. That’s base.

Next Wednesday is our county Democratic Committee meeting. There will be lots of wailing about lost offices. Let’s see, how do we organize ourselves to get out of this box? (Sort of like a phone booth, but we don’t have those anymore.) Worst of all, we can’t pick a candidate for Congress until next June! Re-districting in New York won’t be complete til then. We don’t know what district we will be in. Maybe both parties will have to find candidates. One thing I know after 50 years of following such things: Everything that seems to be the case now will have changed in six months. That’s basic.

Sunday, Nov. 6, is Sax day!

Celebrate the birthday of Adolphe Saxe, the Belgian innovator who not only invented the sax but many other instruments in his attempt to make a full range of many instruments.  He also made up the herald trumpet for Aida (and many mid 20th century Biblical movies).

For 18 years I played a Selmer Mark VI.  It was a good one, but I tired of the sound that I got with it and who wants more than five grand in their sax? Then in 2008 Steve Goodson, the Saxgourmet and New Orleans doctor strange of saxes (partly cause he recommends dipping them in liquid nitrogen) designed a new sax, called the Orpheo.  He said “You don’t want to drive a 50 year old car every day. A new sax, better designed and well-made is just a better horn.”

When I became interested he fell out with his partners on the deal, I was able to pick up a new tenor cheap. Dennis Bamber of MusicFactoryDirect, bought them out.  I liked the tenor so much that the next year I made a low offer and won the last alto in stock. So I have a matched pair of rare instruments, in “swirl” finish. I especially love the tenor now with my new Otto Link New York 9 metal mouthpiece. The alto plays well with a Vandoren and with an old jazz Bamber.

The rumor was that these Orpheo saxes were made in a “secret” factory in Viet Nam. I had noticed that the end plug had a sticker reading “Viet Nam,” so I looked into it. Arguments online led to a Taiwan manufacturer, Tenon, maker of Chateau. (And I suspect that they make Vespro, Vento, and L.A. Saxes, too.) I found their wholesale website, and sure enough, they had factories on mainland China and in Viet Nam. So here is the factory, inside and out, about 20 miles northwest of Hanoi.


By the way, I always pictured men making saxes, but notice the women in that factory.  And notice the women at the Buescher factory in Elkhart IN in the '30's.

Celebrate Sax Day by listening to a great sax player.  I suggest Paul Desmond and/or Gerry Mulligan.









I used to listen a lot to Stan Getz but am listening a lot now to Coleman Hawkins (and Lester Young and Harry Allen and Scott Hamilton). 




Sonny Rollins gives us all hope as we age. Ain't he cool? I still like Nino Tempo.

We sax players are all clowns. Note the caption.