Back at my usual stop on another morning at 5 am. There's a guy asleep on the ground, under the bus shelter on a rainy morning. This morning there is another guy again in dress pants and dress shoes. This guy has two earrings in each ear. He's pacing up and down as he waits for the bus. An second guy is doing the same thing. Neither are regulars. A third guy I haven't seen before, a kid, gets off the bus when it comes. He looks like a blonde high school student from the 1950s. His expression reveals that he realizes this is not his neighborhood. The following morning, same time, I am at the deathburger. Mr. U.S. Polo Association is in the house, with his contents on his usual table. This morning, included in his cache, is a nail clippers and an empty bottle of red nail polish. He seems to know a couple of other guys seated at another table. All three must go to the same clothing store to get their denim jackets. One of the other two guys appears to be copying notes from a pad into a spiral notebook. He has a hardback book titled Mayflower, and what looks like his mail.
The Yugoslav Foriegn Minister...in June 1954 Edward Kardelj...said..."to use honest people, even if they are religious, in the system of social reconstruction of the country." He stated that religion should be taken out of politics and should be removed from the influence of the clergy...outside of...socialist activity. - Hutten
True fair trade also supports systematic change in government and international trade policies, to alleviate...capitalism bent on exploiting farmers and workers... ...small producers...are the backbone of the global food supply, the guardians of biodiversity and key players in advancing democratic communities. ...fiar trade must impact not only the individuals that produce raw materials, but also the communities where they are sourced. ...the diversified revenue stream provided by ecologically-managed lumber...stabilized soils...anchoring culture and traditional knowledge for generations to come. "The roots of development must start from the village and move upwards, rather than the trickle-down approach,"... Our prepayments and fair contract pricing have enabled...growers to stay profitable every year, and in turn have allowed us to offer stable, affordable prices. "Fair Trade" was originally conceived as a way to address disparities between conditions of small farmers in developing countries ("the Global South") and those of subsidized farms in industrialized countries (the "North")... The goal was to help farmers...not be forced to give up their land and become farmworkers or plantations. ...almost half of the global population is peasants... The majority of people in the world still depend upon food produced by peasants. ...the commercialization and monetization of all natural resources has been renamed "environmental services" within the new framework of "green capitalism." - For a Better World, Issue 6, Spring 2013
In October, 1955, a German reporter suggested to a Romanian government ministry chief that "the Orthodox Church helps to keep the faithful loyal to the party line. The priests admonish the people to do the seeding and harvesting at the right times and t follow the planned economy. ...the clergy are paid like officers of the state..." The Bulgarian Orthodox Church had a monopoly for the manufacture of wax candles and made a tremendous profit. ...the state was protecting this candle-making monopoly... In a trial in 1959, the prosecutor demanded long prison terms, and even the death penalty, for employees of the church who had obtained candles illegally and had sold them privately.
...the leader of the Congressional churches, Vassil Ziapkoff in Bulgaria hinted: "Behind the American Protestants stands capitalism, which is the greatest enemy of humanity. The leaders of the World Council of Churches are the agents of that capitalism." Accused of high treason...foreign money manipulations...and relation to...representatives of international reaction... Ziapkoff was arrested. It was a show trial... The accused were anxious to outdo each other with confessions... The verdict was life imprisonment... That was in 1949. Nine years later, he was released. - Hutten
"Not even death excused you from going to Mass." ...people "understood that the Catholics would support Catholic business and the Protestants would likewise stick to their own...interaction with the opposing religion could be seen as a threat to local morale or even to the safety of local lives. ...every child in Northern Ireland knew exactly where he (or she) could be safely..." Readers continually meet with contrasts: exceedingly strict and orderly schools, religions, social mores, and customs yield to off-the-chart rates of alcohol abuse and drug addiction, domestic violence, school violence, and widespread fear. - the Celtic Connection, April 2013
Some Roman Catholic higher-ups say you shouldn't receive communion
...a theologian and legal advisor to the Vatican, said that priests should withhold communion from pro-marriage equality parishioners, while the Denver Archbishop Allen Vigeron called it "a double-dealing that is not unlike perjury" for equality supporters to present themselves for sacraments. ...it is rare for...Catholic figures to say those...who live by Catholic teachings but disagree on political issues as a matter of conscience...should repent before taking communion... - Outfront Colorado, 04.17.13 - 05.01.13
It's an early Spring Saturday at 5 am. The guy with his homework is at the deathburger. When I come out, I see a black figure lumbering through a parking lot across the street. He keeps going back and forth between the two lots facing each other across the street, returning to the same spot on the ground to pick up who knows what. At my usual bus stop, someone asks me for a smoke. A minute later, he's waving work gloves in his hand. "Need some nice work gloves man?" he has already asked someone on the bench. What is this guy's story? Traffic is stopped at a red light, and he is standing off of the curb looking for the bus. When it comes, he shows the driver a couple of sheets of paper instead of a fare. He says something about Medicaid and loosing something, and that he just got out of the hospital. Sure. He's like everyone else who comes out of a hospital. He's out looking for a smoke with a hot pair of work gloves, trying to get on a bus with some kind of documents. When we get to the train station, he's already found a cigarette.
The beginning of the following week is 12 degrees F at 5 am. At the deathburger is Mr. US Polo Association in a longsleeved shirt and sleeveless sweater vest. He appears as some kind of wandering former high school teacher. He shivers as he stands in line. On the way home, I get on a bus at the train station. The passengers are all in conversation with each other as if, together, their lives constitute a common socio-economic struggle. As if as 'invisible hand' of 'the man' is bringin' 'em all down, and they just gotta 'hang tough.' They have disembarked by the time a trio of young guys get on, who begin talking about the friends and family which they know who are currently incarcerated or recently released. From jail or prison. One of them asks one or both of the others about obtaining "a case" (of beer). He then asks his pal, "You're 21, right?" At a stop, the front door opens. A drunk collapses through it and drops to the floor. His head is propped against the front, and he lays on the floor as he blankly stares at the passengers. As they begin to show concern about the bus being delayed, the driver stares at him and tells him to get off the bus. He speaks with a pure kind of incoherence. A girl mentions that the police had been called five minutes previously. He continues to stare at the passengers, through them, and into an infinity of inebriation. He is an eye, disconnected from consciousness, in a storm of activity. Two of the relatives of convicts get up and carry the drunk, who has fallen asleep, off the bus before we are on our way.
When I get home, I watch a bit of local news. There was a fatal stabbing on one bus route which I regularly ride on Sundays, and a fight on another bus route which I sometimes ride to work. The report mentions that the driver of the bus where the stabbing happened "never stopped the bus, nor ever made an 'incident report,'" and that violence aboard the local transit system is rare...
...the small squids and crustaceans known collectively as krill... It would be hard to imagine any other food mass having such enormous economic and ecological importance . Its abundance probably exceeds that of any other living matter. More than half the earth's manufacturing by plants occurs in the sea... Nobody knows precisely where the line between damage and destruction in any species lies...that point where the natural rhythm of the species has been shaken and fecundity impaired... - Mostert
It's my day off, and I am at a train station on my way to a grocery store. Seated on a bench next to where I am standing is a woman with a high pitched and gravelly voice. She tells me, all of the sudden, "I turned 58 yesterday." When I come back on the bus to the same station, I realize that she is seated behind me. She has a single garment from the cleaners with her on a hangar. At the station, the bus has a short layover, where she asks the driver how long we will be here. She steps outside with her garment, where she takes a seat on a bench. She has a cigarette, which she appears to have difficulty lifting up to her lips. She asks a kid next to her if he has "any spare change?" In the afternoon, I get on a bus to go up the street. When I walk on, a kid jumps up to give me his street. He is animatedly talking to another kid, who it appears he has just met. When they say goodbye, the first kid tells the other his name, "but they call me 'Little Nubs"." He exhorts that he needs a new cell phone case, that he must get back to his neighborhood, does anyone want a transfer he just found? On the bus back, I run into a neighbor. He asks a friend of his what his plans are for the rest of the day. His friend replies, "I'm a white guy living on Federal (Boulevard), I gotta be careful."
...our lives often bring us from one city to the next, we tend to hop into city bars, clubs and coffee shops to hang out... ...pollution, sprawl, spiking fuel prices, and war or recessions... ...we would-like-to-but-don't-always-remember to put our computer screens on the "energy saver" setting... - Out Front Colorado, 4/17/13
I've said this a million times. Don't hate the player, hate the game. ...whether our legislative system works and represents people versus private interest...this is the current system... It's a lot different educating the public when there's going to be a ballot initiative at some point... A legislator recently...said that he wished for one year he would not have to hear from marijuana legislation advocates. So I was like...we will not lobby...on marijuana for a full year if you can prove that marijuana is more harmful than alcohol. ...it needed to be conveyed to the rest of the world in a manner that gave it a good face. - Westword, April 18-24, 2013
The City Beautiful movement was...based on the belief that a quality public and civic realm was key to the public health of the citizenry and the financial stability and well-being of the community. ...still revealing the possibility of social beauty, utility and harmony.
Mayor Hancock has a genuine commitment. He urged me to be bold. "Denver needs to lead because we need a lot of other cities to come with us. The perfect can be the enemy of the good," said...chief of Denver's newly created Office of Sustainability.
...broader changes...dictate a more modern "packaging" of...ideologies. ...Pastor Tom Draayer...merged with an independent Chinese church. Many of the members, raised in atheist China, have no religious background. - Washington Park Profile, 4/2013
...in 1946 the Communist leader, Georgi Dimitroff...stated that at the time when the nobility and other important people became traitors to the people "our Bulgarian national church in her monasteries supported the national self-consciousness...and preserved...identity as a nation." In a special law the church was recognized as a legal person. ...the government was forced to write a law in February 24, 1949, for the protection of the canonical purity of the Bulgarian Church. ...defined in an article in the Chinese magazine Philosophical Research... Only when followers of a religion obey the social and political system...can their faith be tolerated." - Hutten
It's two days after tax day, 5 am. My usual bus stop is next to a stone wall along the sidewalk. At two spots one the wall, someone sprayed silly string. The silly string is not covering up any graffiti. I've never seen silly string together with snow. Silly String and snow, it should be a country song. On the Monday of the following week, my alarm goes off at 2 am. I had called for a cab for a short ride to the light rail station the afternoon before. I check the voicemail for messages. A dispatcher called and left a message, apologizing for not finding a cab. I call the dispatcher back to cancel the cab, when I reach someone who tells me that they found one. It will be here soon. When I step out into the parking lot, I see who I think is the driver next to his cab. As I get up to the cab, I can see that, instead, it is a guy urinating in the lot. I get inside, where the driver lets me know that the guy is his friend, who gets into the front seat before we depart. Driver: "You couldn't find your dick with both hands." Friend: "What? You want to suck my dick?"
Earlier this month, I found a brochure on the sidewalk in my neighborhood. It's in Spanish. "gran mision Arquidiocesis Catolica Romana de Denver. Ano de la Fe" There is a great mission coming to the street, more specifically to the corner on which I live. At least there are five appearances scheduled on Sundays, from 4 pm to 6 pm. This church group comes into a big parking lot with a couple trucks of folding chairs, a stage, a gold cross on a pole, and a six-foot high Renaissance illustration of the face of the face of the one and only Jesus in red and white. I asks around at the local businesses, no one knows anything about it. After a sermon in Spanish from one of the priests, the audience gets up from their seats. Several have acoustic guitars. At least one of them is on stage with the priest, who is singing into a mic hooked up to a PA system, and everyone dances back and forth and then in a slow circle as they join the priest in singing "hal-le-lu-ja." There is a conga drum one Sunday, on another there is a flute. It's all very, very 1970s, and the vibe is seductively communal. The event makes me wonder if my neighborhood, mi plaza, has been chosen as a mission field. Only the missionaries are speaking Spanish, and am a native English speaker. If only Ralph Reed could be here for this. I watch the dancing and singing from one of two remaining upright bus benches, at a bus stop in front of these proceedings. The seat of the other bench remains on the ground, where it has been, next to an old pay phone which is missing the entire phone, but still has the line hooked up to the pole. The Latter Day Saints used to drop by this very stop, among others up and down this "plaza", on a regular basis. Several would pull up in a vehicle, and one would get out with an assortment of Watchtower and Awake! magazines. Powerful mojo, as the late Dr. Thompson used to write.
?Que es la inglesia? ?Cual es tu expriencia de la inglesia? ?Quieres ser ayudado por una comunidad cristiana? - brochure for the Arquidiocesis Catolica Romana de Denver
As early as March 1949..."An Open Letter to the Clergy of Peking"...accused the church of having used the methods of feudalist facism. ...it was claimed that the church and Communism were following the same goals... ...committees of so-called Parish Soviets were organized. ...to lead the parishes democratically and to become cells to reform the church. In the Chinese Communist press, the Pope was depicted as the slave of American imperialism. The government even toyed with the idea of appointing a Chinese pope. On January 18, 1952, Pius XII sent an apostolic letter to the Chinese Catholics. The church was not interested in worldly power, but was working...to strengthen the basis of human society... "When they kill us, they increase us. The blood of Christians is the seed of the church." - Hutten
He must summon atrophied instincts, and shake off the sloth of all his preceding days...a man in whom the weariness and cynicism of a lifetime have suddenly become accumulative... - Mostert
I am headed for a bus home after work, just south of downtown, next to a cell phone shop. I hear a guy speaking loudly from across a two-lane boulevard, to someone in a car parked in front of a gas station. I can't make out what he is saying. He sounds slow and determined, yet incoherent. When I look, I see that he has a big sign for the cell phone shop next door. He backs up from the brown sedan and spins his sign a few times before knocking on the open door of the gas station. He wanders back to the cell phone shop.
Until recently, our sea commerce...took its time because costs were relatively low, economic pressures less, and...crew not expensive... ...the maritime nations...employed thousands of ships... But inflation has put up the costs...and prosperity in the affluent societies has made it difficult...to get men to go to sea. ...ship-owning families...North European dynasties...from their stolid family seats... Many of their fortunes grew from...the decades following the Napoleonic wars and the collapse of the East India Company monopolies, when the industrial base of Britain and the rest of Europe was rapidly expanding... ...you could usually tell nationality...by rake, colors, or just by...a strange assortment of...family traditions, and national tastes... - Mostert
Last year's 4/20 Smokeout, as our city's recent local downtown communal annual marijuana happening is referred to, I don't remember as huge. Then again, last year I was downtown during the Sunday part of the weekend's festivities. Stragglers wandered through downtown, vaguely extolling belief in the virtue of marijuana. In Civic Center park, a gangsta crowd with a mean vibe listened to someone on a microphone who spoke as a cult leader, about how marijuana cures everything from cancer to anxiety. Cures cancer. Yes, sir, you have successfully gotten high. I was downtown this year for Saturday's get together of what turned out to be ten thousand folks. I went downtown after work, to get next month's bus pass. I didn't inhale. I never saw so many people on the pedestrian mall. This mall, from which have been chased by new city ordinance the night's slumbering homeless, numbering a hundred times fewer that this crowd who appear all to be dressed in black. It was as if I was trying to elbow my way through some kind of enormous wake. Could this be what the governor, who is the former mayor, and current mayor mean when the extol their urban mantra of a "world class city"? The line for the lightrail is significantly longer when ten thousand are waiting for it. Thanks to my intimate knowledge of the transit system, I got on a bus one stop before the waiting thousands, across the street from a now closed billiard hall where I once saw someone who appeared to be a male farmer with makeup on his face. At the next bus stop, a middle-aged woman with a tattoo on her neck came on, pleading with the driver to let her and her two kids on without fare "because their was a shooting" in the park. When I got home, I saw some news footage. At the sound of shots fired, I see a mass of people running in the direction of an expanding circle. I remember listening to a TV interview with a veteran of the Korean War. He described the Chinese troops crossing the border with the appearance of "wind through a field of wheat". Ten thousand people; the kind of numbers which the gran mison can only dream about. It's hard to comprehend why so many people would come out of the house for...marijuana. Where do they hide their black germants during the rest of the summer's full calendar of endless outdoor festivals?
The following Sunday's gathering was canceled. A full week after the 'marijuana shooting' (if only I controlled the introduction of labels for mass usage), I am at a bus stop across the street from where I live at 5 am. A young guy in an orange construction vest is drinking a Rock Star as he recounts his Smokeout adventures to another guy.
Personal Styles
The following day, I am on my way to work later in the morning. On the bus up the street is a guy who appears to be dressed for the Australian outback. He is on his phone, telling someone that he "designs things". (Did he design his outfit?) In the usual deathburger, a regular drunk from section 8 housing is sporting a bright tie-dye T-shirt. At the usual bus stop, a guy on a bike goes by. On his pack is a marijuana leaf design. A middle-aged guy on the bus with an unlit cigarette stub in his hand has on a square dancing T-shirt. A young, skinny kid with waist-length hair gets on at a stop. He's in a marijuana T-shirt. On a connecting bus is a woman in a T-shirt which reads "tax refund joy".
On this same bus, a woman, a Mongolian native, begins asking the driver for directions. I help her out, and she tells me about her life. She came here to Denver with her young son and husband. Her husband passed away, and her son is now studying economics at a mid-western university. I have no idea, she tells me, how difficult it is to come to another nation and learn a new language.
What we felt about ships was...a curious combination of our then sense of distance, the time it took to cross the seas, of the balance of the world, the way it connected and held together...slow changing. - Mostert
