Be Thou Discontent

"It distresses me not that the congregations of great
churches have become small, but that people continue
to use the Church as a refuge from the world's problems.
So much of the emphasis today is on escape from stress.
Some American ministers achieve a great hearing by
using self-help slogans to lull people into a dangerous
tranquility. There's too much talk about 'burn-out'.

"I'd rather see a healthy discontent...the American public
needs a lot of disturbing."

-- Maggie Kuhn, founder of the Gray Panthers,
quoted in No Stone Unturned: The Life and Times of Maggie
Kuhn, by Maggie Kuhn with Christina Long and Laura Quinn
New York 1991 Ballantine Books

Ms Kuhn was a life-long Presbyterian. It was after she was
forced to retire from her executive position with the national
headquarters of the Presbyterian Church at the age of 65,
that she founded the Gray Panthers- "Youth and Age in
Action"- and continued to be active with the group
through her 80's, agitating over such issues as housing,
medical care, social security, equal opportunity for women
and for minorities, and demanding that the old be treated
with dignity, and not, as was- and still is- so often the
practice, be patronized as if they were simply old children.

Unfortunately, the Gray Panthers are organized in only a
few states; There is no chapter in Georgia.

Once Upon a Halloween

One Halloween at the Guild Bookstore in Chicago, we
suddenly realized what day it was and that we had no
treats for the goblins and ghosts who would soon be
coming by.

This was the late 1960's when the bookstore was on
Halsted Street in the Lincoln Park area. The
neighborhood just to the north of us was mostly
hispanic, many families with children.

We sent a member out to buy treats, but he had not
returned when they began coming to our door, the
witches and pirates and cartoon characters,
holding out their bags to be filled.

Although we primarily sold new books, we kept a
couple of shelves of used books to fill up space
until we could completely stock the store. Some
kindly soul had donated some Reader's Digest
Condensed Books, and these had been stacked
on the floor until someone could decide what to
do with them. They don't sell very well. Most
people prefer to read the whole book, and not
what is left after being chopped apart and
reassembled.

I passed by these stacks on my way to the door,
and in desperation I grabbed up an armload of
the Reader's Digest books.

To our great surprise, the children were delighted
with the books. Some asked for two. Some of the
adults herding the children about also held out their
hands. And there were children who came back for
a second book, or to bring a friend who hadn't
received one. And there were those who refused the
candies when they finally arrived, No, they said, they
wanted a book. The word had gotten around.

After all the Reader's Digests were gone, we gave out
books from the ten-cent box that usually sat in a chair
outside the door.

The candies that were left when the rush was over, we
put on our round table where members and customers
sat some evenings drinking pop and coffee and holding
heating discussions.

I sit at that same table now and drink my morning coffee,
and I was thinking about that Halloween 40 years or so ago.

The Last Blast

Every year I look forward to the barefoot days of summer,
to ripe blackberries, and the odor of tomato vines when I
eat tomatoes beside the garden bed, and to swimming in
Little River and wading in Cane Creek.

And every year as August wanes I grow weary of the
heat, of cutting grass again and again, and of carrying
water to plants that wither and die despite my efforts.

It was especially so this August with days in a row with
temperatures of 100 or more. Records were broken in
Atlanta. The creek dried to isolated puddles, just as it
did last year, but earlier this time. By June the creek bed
was so void of water that the local newspaper reported
that it looked like a runway for four wheelers. The
Beavers abandoned it last year, and apparently so did the
watersnakes.I've seen only three different watersnakes
this year, and only one of the largest ones, and none of the
other kinds that live under and around the house.

A rain about mid-July filled the creek with water, but most
of the water was gone within a couple of weeks, and still
there are only scattered small puddles as October winds
down. A great blue heron is here every morning feasting
on the few small fish remaining in one of the puddles. I
think it is like the proverbial shooting fish in a barrel,
although they can dart to safety under the metal barrier
my sons erected to keep the creek from lapping at the
house foundation. I filled the space between the barrier
and the house with rocks, hauled them there on a
wheelbarrow, so there are places for the fish to hide
where the rocks are uneven.

I watched one puddle near the bridge as it shrank daily. It
was filled with tadpoles that did not have time to mature
before the water was all gone. Many creatures depend on a
supply of frogs for food. I kept thinking of the story by Ray
Bradbury which ended with a drastic change in government
because a man who went back in time had stepped on a
butterfly. The shortage of beavers, fish, and frogs in one
creek will surely not cause such an upheaval, but there will
be an effect.

All outside watering is banned in North Georgia. Atlanta
has three months of water storage. The docks of expensive
homes on the shores of Lake Lanier, source of Atlanta's
water supply are high and dry. The forecast is for a warm,
dry winter.Ordinarily, that would sound good, to be in the
wintertime warm and dry. But I fear that this prolonged
drought will be followed by floods and ice. Political
cartoonists for some of the conservative newspapers
continue to prod Al Gore with inane drawings.They
seem to be among those most inconvenienced by the
truth of global warming.

Marching Again

The week-long encampment in Washington, September 22-
29, to stop the war at home and abroad, culminated in the
September 29th rally and march in which many community
organizations participated. Signs demanded justice for the
Jena Six and an end to foreclosures and evictions. There
was a FEMA trailer, signifying the continuing plight of the
Katrina refugees, and the Vietnam Veterans Against the
Iraqui War bus.See full coverage of the events here.
along with information about the upcoming October 27th
regional actions to demand an end to the U.S. occupation
of Iraq.

I marched on September 29th, traveled on a bus
chartered by Atlanta IAC (International Answer Center).
The photos above show some of my fellow passengers
waiting for the bus to pick us up for the trip back to
Atlanta.

"It's all about oil," Alan Greenspan said.
He should have said, "It's all about money"
The billions spent on the war are needed here
for adequate health care and low-interest
mortgages so people wouldn't have to lose their
homes, for funding libraries and building bridges
that won't collapse, and on and on and on.