Salon Weekly
~ In 4 Color-Coded Sections:
- Table Notes
- Activism & Cultural or Healing Events
- Articles, Letters
- Books, Reviews, Films, Magazines
A Weekly Email Publication of The Lloyd House: Circulation: c. 600. Growing out
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................................................... Section One: Table Notes ............................................................................ (Note: these notes were taken at the table and have NOT been approved or corrected by the speakers. Reader
beware of inevitable misunderstandings and misrepresentations. E.B.)
At the Table on Wednesday 4/4/07
Debra Martin, Gina Chiao, Shari Able, Mary Biehn, Himavat Ishaya, Elaine Urbina, Marvin Kraus, Gerry Kraus, Judy Cirillo, Amy San, Dallas Fish, Amy San, Suellin Shupe, Janet Kalven, Ellen Bierhorst, Mira Rodwan, Chad Benjamin Potter. (welcome Suellin, Gina and Amy!)
Shari: last Thursday we had another Conversation Café at Sitwells. We had 8 people, including Bill M. , and Mira R, Judy C., and some high school students who were bright and charming. Everybody was charming. We discussed, “What have you learned over your lifetime?” Lisa Storey made us hors d’oeuvres. Will have again this Thurs at 6.
Ellen: Rev. Victor Brown untimely death… funeral Sat at noon. Metropolitan CME Church, opposite Melrose Ymca on Melrose Ave. off Taft just W of Gilbert. Rev. Victor Brown was the son of Bp. E. Lynn Brown, pres. Of MLK Coalition.
Mira: Northside Community Bridge committee met with Peter Block … I mentioned the salon. He reads about it.
SPECIAL GUEST PRESENTATION: Debra Martin on her years as student at the ashram of Swami Chetanananda in Portland, OR
Background: born Seattle, grew up Cincinnati from age of 5. Youngest of 4 girls. Raised Catholic. High school Colerain. I have lived many places since; coming back here 3 yrs ago. I felt like a stranger.
Life before ashram: I never considered myself like other people. I was married early 20’s. Afraid I wouldn’t be like everybody else. Extremely conservative family, husband. Raised for the traditional woman’s role. … In my 20’s I got sober and that was precipitated by a spiritual crisis . No longer Catholic, which didn’t work for me any more. I had tried meditation; yoga since early 20’s. Began to meditate and pray for guidance. Bunch of info. “came to me” about alternative spiritual practices. One night I meditated; felt impulse to go looking thru my father’s boxes of books. Some alternative spirituality books in the boxes. Edgar Cayce was one. Opened up a new world for me. … You create your life through your mind and through prayer. Hypnosis .. I began to read and read. For five years in early sobriety, I read a lot.
Age 28 – 34 this period.
Twenty years ago in Cinti. there wasn’t much support for alternative ways of life. There wasn’t a group that believed as I did. I began to pray for a teacher; wanted to be part of a community. A therapist introduced me to Siddha Yoga (Guru Mai). But something didn’t quite click with me. Heard about Swami Chetanananda who was in a lineage similar to Guru Mai. (Swami Muktananda) … Retreat in Boston and met Swamiji and was blown away. Decided to go study with him. By the time I got my life wrapped up they were moving from Boston to Portland, OR. Had some family in Portland. So I moved there.
Payment(?): everybody paid room and board. Most people had outside jobs. Morning and night meditation. Had house jobs, like one day a week wash dishes. Twice a month work projects. e .g. landscaping, painting, etc. 75 people lived in house. They provided breakfast and dinner. Also there were some other kitchen facilities.
A huge old house, a nursing home at one time. We were not crowded.
Swami Muktananda made him a swami. (?) they had to pass some tests.
Swamiji means “beloved swami”.
First impression: Swamiji wasn’t there yet, they were rehabbing the house. I spent several months helping rehab the house. Then Swamiji came. I had an outside job: directed operations for a fine furniture manufacturer.
(Philosophy?) like Siddha yoga. The swami transmits Shakti or shaktipot through eyes or touch, sacred energy, grace. We did a trika yoga, kundalini yoga. Breath exercise. Meditate open eye, he would transmit shaktipot. The guru was a sacred friend; the teacher has an energy field; if the student is willing to connect with the energy field then h can shift his energy to transform himself. I chose to use that to transform. The first time I looked into his eyes; blue; you’d get lost in his eyes. During darshan, gave him a flower, and h touches your forehead, gives you a chocolate. My life began to change; internal fire, like a hot flash. During meditation.
Typical day. Get up 5:30 am. Gym, work out. Meditation for 45 min. No teacher; just students. Then breakfast together until 7:30. Then to our jobs. After work maybe go running, then med. 7 – 8 pm. Chanted 15 min. Then swami would sit with us, then sometimes give a half hour talk, then dinner together. Then 9 pm, ready to go to bed. Twice a month work projects. Sun. no meditation. Most people went hiking.
It was hard to develop a relationship outside the ashram because you didn’t have time. You had to be there at night. Busy, full life. Disciplined. I thought I had a deep spiritual life here, but this was different, consuming. Others were Drs., lawyers, naturopaths, really smart people. 1992 – 1996.
Kria: when the energy moves through your body. Your body may move you or jerk.
Meditation room v. beautiful; gold carpet. Overlooking gardens. Several statues, nice art. Swami would sit in a thrown on a platform. We were on cushions.
Chants: drummers, Sanskrit. (what like when his eyes met yours?) Incredible. When I first met him, looked in his eyes, I felt “Oh this is how it was meant to be. Very alive, peaceful, like your entire being woke up.” Felt it is a birthright to have this state and we have just forgotten it. It was life changing. … In AA you are taught to surrender your will and life to God but I didn’t have a core, didn’t have a life. Like many women alcoholics. This gave me help to develop an inner core. I finally came to peace with myself. Felt that energy in my body. The idea is to use that to experience God inside yourself. Some people see the guru as God, but…
Trika yoga is a breathing technique, breathe in thru forehead, bring it down to the heart, let out a little, bring rest to solar plexus, then push it up your spine. It moves your kundalini. I still do it in meditation.
(Meditate now?) pretty much every day, not quite. Usually at least 30 min.
At the ashram it was 45 min in the am and an hour at night.
(Up to each person how to use?) Yes. I used it to heal myself. I had a lot of trauma. Used it to help me find a center. Began to look at the world as an opportunity. Open heart. Swami talked about living with an open heart.
His eyes. Incredible energy, like a furnace. When he walked in the room you could feel that aliveness, that fire. I think the idea was very good. Service to others. It was normalizing for me. I realized everybody has problems, we are no different from others. Helped me join the human race.
Impressed me least? The temptation of the guru is it is easy to make them God. That can become a narcissistic position for the guru to be in. I stayed out of the inner circle around him … I had no desire to partake in that. I trained with a woman doing body centered therapy… I became a therapist.
So the seduction would be of least value, though I didn’t participate.
Learning process, first arrived: I plunged in. We had jobs. I used the discipline to change.
What made you leave? I was just done. I don’t believe that another person can give you enlightenment.
After about a year at the house I found it constricting. Moved off campus. Needed more space. There seemed to be power issues with the people in charge.
(did people get along?) They pretty much did.
(money?) There were many very wealthy students. There were ashram businesses. He sold art as a fine art dealer. About $600 for room and board.
Food was excellent. Guest cooks. Three cooks. Vegetarian for the most part, occasionally fish. No expectation of vegetarian. Morning: grains, eggs, dahl. Juice, tea. Excellent soups. At night sometimes vegetarian…
(family?) I don’t have much of a fam… my parents died when I was v. young. I saw my fam. There a little. I never felt it was a cult. (husband?) I was divorced. Some couples lived together there.
(?) I have had therapy off and on through the years. The ashram experience gave me a core I could access. The discipline was life changing. No doubt in my mind it was beneficial.
Ongoing association: no. I have friends who are associated with him. When I was done I moved to Santa Fe and began grad. School, a new phase of life. At the ashram I mostly kept to myself, had a handful of friends.
(yourself as a therapist) I don’t use what I learned there for therapy. But my intuition grew tremendously, I could feel energy in the hands, body. Will now read the energy of people I work with now. … I think partly I drank to numb out those perceptions which I imagine I felt all along.
(Now?) I am a psychotherapist, body centered therapy. Hakomi is one kind of body centered therapy. I had had 5 yrs. Talk therapy. But this woman, Suzie Wolfer showed me how the energy is held in the field and body and how to get it out. Our bodies can be shaped by trauma. Like poor posture of various types. I can see where they are held in their bodies; thru breath, imagery etc. I help them access that. Most people don’t weep… some do. It is like just a feel of relief. You don’t even have to know what the trauma is to be able to release. (?) I don’t incorporated Reike.
(Fanchon Shur?) No.
(who comes to you?) Anybody can use it. Many have had some kind of therapy before. Not necessary. My approach is a little different. Some people can’t feel their bodies, and so it is a slower process. I have an office here at the Lloyd House. (age?) teens or older. $65 generally, but sliding scale, 1 hr. I do groups sometimes. Azurite_5@msn.com
513 477 6536.
Right now I have about 10 clients.
(Maybe have a healing fair at the Lloyd House to show off different things… foods, yoga, therapy.)
(tell us about a case with great success?)
I have seen people with long standing chronic illness heal themselves … some clients become independent for the first time … start their own business … one started own radio show … get great relationship going … ability to cope. I really emphasize helping people create the world they want to create, whether physical health, success in relationships or careers. People tend to come to therapy saying, What is wrong with me? Central flaw. I work with that in a different way.
For the past year I have been a volunteer chaplain at New Thought Unity church in Walnut Hills, just amazing for me. (?) Has some Christian Science principles; based on consciousness as creative. Jesus as an elder brother, teacher. For a long time I have wanted to work in death and dying. I went through a yearlong process with Unity to become a chaplain. It is a great honor to pray with people. Very healing for me also. Is a support for my spiritual life.
Unity: a national religious denomination, started c. 200 years ago. Do not use the bible.
We all carry that Christ energy.
A Course on Miracles … this church does not teach from that, though some churches do. I am not too into that.
I do not call myself Christian. I meditate with the Buddhists too. … praying to Jesus feels blasphemous to me. That’s just me.
(Do you think this whole thing you experienced at the ashram should be introduced in the public schools? Teenagers? ) Certainly value to finding a spiritual solution to life … discipline is good, going inward is good.
(Shari: Muktananda had a lot of teenagers around him. I made a film about him. … Even children pre teen, children of disciples. 16 minutes.)
Elaine So many adolescents might benefit . That I have worked with. High blood pressure, problems with overweight, dizziness, fainting. I think stress related; don’t need medicine, but need connection with core.
Debra I love working with people with physical illness.
Himavat Would you say it was the effect … main factor was the meditation that helped you to heal.
Debra yes, and also being of service practically, and also learning the body centered therapy. Certainly though, the meditation was key.
Suellyn: living with an open heart.
Shari: vulnerable.
Amy you have been practicing since ’96 as a therapist?
Debra: since ’91, counseling psychology degree, Santa Fe.
Yes, I still meditate.
Gerry What is your meditation practice today?
Debra: I sit on a cushion. I check in with my body, eyes closed. Typical cross legged position. Then begin to work with my breath. Clear out anything I find … if I notice tension in my body I will move it out of my energy field through intention, and perhaps create a symbol outside my field and have that block move into that … Then return to my breath. Try not to sit and think.
Dallas I like how you said when you first met the swami “this is the way we were meant to be” and I hope you give that to people you work with.
Debra I certainly hope so. That would be the ideal. Thank you.
?) Yes, detach from the outcome.
I feel I have just talked everybody’s ears off. When Ellen asked me I wondered why.
(thank you.)
~ End of Table Notes~
Hugs to everyone,
Ellen
Section Two: Activism, Cultural, & Healing Opportunities
Dear Lloyd House Salonistas,
Soon we will be having a blow out Lloyd House spring party. I want to invite you. Come to the Wednesday night salon for your personal invitation, and to learn time and date. It will be a pot luck with live entertainment provided by the guests. Or... You can send me an email and ask about the party. As you can imagine, I wouldn’t want to publicize it on the Weekly which goes to nearly 600 people plus a blog.
don’t miss t his party!
Love,
Ellen, Neil Anderson, Carolyn Aufderhaar, Debra Martin, Kati Krome
( the Lloyd Housemates).
Gaiananda and Mohenjo Daro in concert at World Center for ...
(check out their website...it’s here in St. Bernard on Vine St.)
From Bill Messer:
SATURDAY, APRIL 14TH
@ THE CENTER FOR WORLD RHYTHMS & MOVEMENT
(513) 312-9628
Doors open at 7:00, Show starts at 8:00pm with Mohenjo Daro
Tickets - $15.00
http://www.gaiananda.net/
Bill
4719 Vine Street (St. Bernard)
Cincinnati, Ohio 45217
(513) 312-9628
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=4719+Vine+Street+45217&spn=0.022158,0.040525&hl=en
HELP HEAL COMMUNITY-POLICE RELATIONS IN CINTI.
I wanted to make sure that you received an invitation to the 2nd Annual CPOP Summit . This event takes place on Saturday, April 21st from 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM at Crossroads Community Church, located at 3500 Madison Road (at the corner of Madison and Ridge in Oakley). This event is FREE and open to everyone, and we are asking participants to RSVP by Tuesday, April 13th by contacting Tracey Wilson at the Community Police Partnering Center by calling 513-559-5450 or emailing twilson@gcul.org.
Attending the CPOP Summit will be Cincinnati Police Department Chief Thomas H. Streicher, Jr., Mayor Mark Mallory, City Manager Milton Dohoney, Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune and other local public officials. The Summit also features special guests who will highlight national models for crime reduction, including gun violence reduction. These individuals include:
- Dr. David Kennedy of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice - who will present on “targeted deterrence” to reduce gun violence, which is the strategy that provides the basis for the Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV), which was recently introduced in Cincinnati.
- Norman Livingston Kerr, Director of CeaseFire Chicago – this strategic community-based effort to stop shootings and killings through street-level outreach, public education, faith based leadership, and community mobilization provided the model for CeaseFire Cincinnati, which is currently being applied in the Cincinnati neighborhoods of Avondale and North Avondale.
Dr. Calvin Trent of the Detroit Health Department - who will describe Detroit’s efforts to reduce crime associated with convenience stores, including the sale of drug paraphernalia, cigarettes and alcohol to minors.
Ellen Bierhorst, Ph.D. Is a holistic psychotherapist with over 35 years experience. Specialty area: Optimizing Mental Health ~ “Better than well”. Also: healing trauma, strengthening families and relationships, alcohol and other addictions including food, and weight management, EMDR, GLBT, chronic pain and physical illness. Clifton. 513 221 1289 www.lloydhouse.com
Many of us at the Conversation Café salon last Wednesday 3/28 were concerned about Global Warming and wanted to discuss what we could do about it. Here’s part of the answer: (ellen)...
Climate Rescue in Boston
Last Saturday, over 800 people marched into downtown Boston to demand a national solution to global warming: at least 80% cuts in carbon by 2050. Afterwards, a student summit of hundreds was held discussing Step It Up actions all over the northeast, amongst many new ideas that will push the momentum of the 14th forward.
http://stepitup2007.org
Friends,
This email is specifically for you! Our big day on April 14th is fast approaching, and we want you to attend a great event and make your voices heard. This email will help you do that as effectively as possible.
RSVPower
One of the strongest parts of Step It Up is the local network of concerned citizens that it is building. RSVP to the action you plan to attend so that those networks are built on the web as well as face to face. Visit events.stepitup2007.org to find your action and RSVP. That way, event organizers can keep you up to date on any new information about the Step It Up action.
There is a lot of good work still to be done for each action - publicity, media, party supplies… If you are interested, RSVPing can get you tapped into what has already happened and what you might be able to help with.
Personal Invitations
Another important part of this event that we can't do without you is personal invitations. Step It Up has had amazing success at getting our message out far and wide over blogs, articles, and major national organizations. But most people act because their friends or family are doing it; someone has asked them, personally, to get involved.
Email and call your friends, family, and others. Invite them to hang out for the day at your local action, pick them up on your way, grab a bite to eat afterwards. Click here to tell a friend about Step It Up 2007 using our website.
Thanks for working to make this event everything that it is, and everything that it will become on April 14th and beyond. It's an inspiration for us, and on April 14th, it'll be an inspiration for the nation.
The Step It Up Organizing Team - Bill, Jamie, Jeremy, Jon, May, Phil, and Will
Tell A Friend About Step It Up
Next A Small Group Monthly Meeting-
Due to Easter, the next monthly meeting will be on Friday, April 13 from 4:30-6:00PM at Peaslee Neighborhood.
Ø The Perfect Evening with Barbara McAfee
Join us this Final Friday, March 30 at 8pm at InkTank
for a lively performance of storytelling through song,
in the voice of visiting artist
Barbara McAfee (http://www.barbaramcafee.com)
Tickets are $5, or FREE for InkTank members.
Refreshments provided compliments of Kaldi's Coffeehouse.
InkTank is located at 1311 Main Street in Over the Rhine.
For over 15 years, Barbara has taught and performed in such diverse settings as leadership retreats, community celebrations, places of worship, national conferences, jazz clubs and hospital rooms. She has a gift for reflecting the essence of an event through music, poetry, group activity and storytelling. As a self-producing artist, Barbara has released three compact discs: Great Big Love, Come from the Heart, and Britches, as well as four volumes of poetry.
The 6th Annual Rawson Woods Clean-up
Join your neighbors to pull invasive garlic mustard
and garbage pick up
Saturday, April 14, 2007
10.a.m. – 1 p.m.
Wear gloves, long pants and sleeves and bring water bottle
Call 221-8285 for more information
Sponsored by the Cincinnati Parks
Advertisement:
Beautiful and Charming, spacious first floor office space at the Lloyd House, fully furnished including bodywork table, chairs, love seat, rugs, armchairs, wood burning (gas ignited ) fireplace. Rookwood even. Available by the hour. Share waiting room. Powder room. Outside entry. Terms: contribute 20% of gross to the house. Call Ellen 221 1290
Sprite Whisperer does Landscaping, Yard Care
A la Findhorn
Ellen has invited me to introduce myself to you, thinking that some of you might love to hire my services. I am a landscaper/yard maintenance guy with a “Findhorn” slant. I do all the usual design, planting, pruning, cleaning, and mulching activities but with a spiritual and organic orientation. I dialog with the Nature Spirits of the place and the Deva Spirits of the trees and plants to learn directly what brings the greatest balance and health to the plant, the garden, the yard, and the Earth. The result of this approach is radiant and enchanted beauty.
This is my passion, my bliss work, and my special talent. My mission is to leave more beauty than I find and also to teach others how to work co-creatively with nature. So if you need spring clean-up for your yard, or if the Nature Spirits in your yard are getting a wee bit cranky with you, or if you would like an artful and harmonious landscaping plan, or if you need regular weekly or monthly maintenance, I can be your Green Man and nature ambassador. Call me, “Bill the Green Man”, at Green Man Landscaping 513-207-4492.
Qualifications:
· Four years in the landscaping industry with Wimberg Landscaping as a Maintenance Crew Leader for 30 accounts.
· Awarded maintenance employee-of-the-year 2005.
· Left and started my own landscaping business 2005.
· Certified Landscaping Technician (Ohio Nursery and Landscaping Association)
· Tantra Kriya Yoga practitioner since 1999, initiate at levels 1, 2, and 3 of Cosmic Cobra Breath (attending Level 4 initiation this April).
· Initiate in Tibetan Vajayana Buddhism and Medicine Buddha empowerment.
· Shamanic practitioner in Don Miguel Ruiz Toltec tradition with eclectic additions.
· Alchemical Hypnotist with orientation in archetypal energies work, past life regressions, and Spirit and Totem animal journeys.
· Ordained nondenominational, interfaith Minister (United Brotherhood Movement)
· Eighteen years in corporate America marketing and computer services (Dun & Bradstreet,
Mobil Chemical, Boeing Corporation, and a German software company)
· St. Edwards High School, Lakewood Ohio, 1965
· Ohio University, BBA, Marketing, 1972
· Army Officer during Viet Nam conflict, 1966 – 1969
Ellen, my story is “a bit more interesting” than even what I have shared above if you need more details. I had my big spiritual wake-up call at the beginning of 1991, lost all I had, and subsequently spent fifteen years wondering and adventuring to find myself and my path. If you look in the DSM IV under Spiritual Emergence, you may see my picture. But, what happened to and with me and why that all occurred is of little significance beyond teaching me a fundamental lesson: I am here to serve and that service is reconnecting people with Nature and organic beauty. No joke! Bill Bulloch
Tri-State Treasures
Tri-State Treasures is a compilation of unique local people, places, and events that may enrich your lives. These treasures have been submitted by you and others who value supporting quality community offerings. Please consider supporting these treasures, and distributing the information for others to enjoy. And please continue to forward your Tri-State Treasures ideas to jkesner@nuvox.net.
Information about Tri-State Treasures and how to submit Tri-State Treasures is at the bottom of this email. Please help me by providing all basic information and formatting your submissions as described below.
Sincerely, Jim
~~~~~
Essex Studios Art Walk [Friday-Saturday April 6-7 @ 6-11 PM]: Awarded "best art walk in the city" by Cincinnati Magazine. Celebrate Spring & find art treasures for your home or office. 100+ studios will be open. Valet parking Friday night, plus ample free parking on both sides of the building. Essex Studios, Essex Place & East McMillan, Cincinnati, OH. More info @ www.essexstudios.com.
Children’s Theatre Activity [Saturday 7 April @ 1-2 PM]: Learn about poet Langston Hughes through activities with Deondra Means & Starr Pillow from the Cincinnati Children’s Theatre. In the Hall of Everyday Freedom Heroes, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, 50 East Freedom Way, Cincinnati, OH 45202. More info @ 513.333.7500, ETurner@nurfc.org, & www.freedomcenter.org.
Meet the Author [Saturday 7 April @ 3 PM]: Raymond Arsenault discusses & signs his book "Freedom Riders: 1961 & the Struggle for Racial Justice." In the Harriet Tubman Theater, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, 50 East Freedom Way, Cincinnati, OH 45202. More info @ 513.333.7500, ETurner@nurfc.org, & www.freedomcenter.org.
Meet the Author [Monday 9 April @ 6:30 PM]: Dr. Joy Degruy Leary, author & researcher, discusses & signs "Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury & Healing." Free. In the Harriet Tubman Theater, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, 50 East Freedom Way, Cincinnati, OH 45202. More info @ 513.333.7500, ETurner@nurfc.org, & www.freedomcenter.org.
Community Conversation & Courageous Listening [Tuesday 10 April @ 5:30 to register, light snacks, network; 6-7:30 PM for conversations]: Youth, Community & Peace Making. How can we come together to help youth build productive & peaceful lives? Join to talk with others who share your passion for our youth, be inspired by stories of work in progress, learn some tools to start a project, continue to work together to make a difference for youth. Adults & youth welcome. At Carl H. Lindner Family YMCA, 1425 Linn Street south of Liberty, West End, Cincinnati, OH. Free parking beside & behind yellow brick school building.
5 Music Videos [Thursday 12 April @ 7:30 PM]: produced by a collaborative group of regional artists 'The Dozens' (Denise Burge, Jennifer Ustick, Elaine Lynch, Tracy Featherstone, Lisa Siders-Kinney, & Letitia Quesenberry). Free admission. At the Manifest Gallery, 2727 Woodburn Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45206. More info @ 513.861.3638, jason@manifestgallery.org, & www.manifestgallery.org.
The Personal Treasures of Bernard and Shirley Kinsey: African American Art & Artifacts [opens Friday 13 April]: Original artwork created by African American artists plus an amazing collection of artifacts collected & shared by Bernard & Shirley Kinsey. Thru June 3. 3rd Floor, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, 50 East Freedom Way, Cincinnati, OH 45202. More info @ 513.333.7500, ETurner@nurfc.org, & www.freedomcenter.org.
Lunafest Film Festival [Tuesday-Wednesday 17-18 April @ 7 PM]: Nine award-winning short films by women filmmakers ranging from humorous live-action & animation to touching documentaries. With locations including India, Ireland, China, UK & USA, these thought-provoking films address contemporary issues & situations faced by women around the world. Presented by Cincinnati World Cinema in cooperation with the UC Women's Center & the UC Department of Women's Studies. Discussion after the films. Tickets are $6 & $8. At Fath Auditorium, Cincinnati Art Museum, 953 Eden Park Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45202. More info @ 859.781.8151, worldcinema@fuse.net, & www.cincyworldcinema.org.
Ongoing Tri-State Treasures
Italian American Film Festival [Wednesdays thru 25 April @ 7:30 PM]: Sante Matteo, Prof. & Coordinator of Italian Studies in the Department of French & Italian @ Miami University presents his Annual Spring Semester Italian American Film Festival. Free & open to the public. Apr. 4: Scarface (1932), Howard Hawks; Apr. 11: The Godfather (1972), Francis Ford Coppola; Apr. 18: Mafia! (1998), Jim Abrahams; The Sopranos, 1st TV series episode; Apr. 25: The Sopranos, episodes from the TV series. In Room 46 Culler Hall, Miami University, Oxford OH 45056. More info @ 513.529.5932, matteos@muohio.edu.
Collecting a Legacy: The Bernard Kinsey Collection [March 31- June 3]: This exhibition offers a roadmap to the cultural journey & transformation experienced by African American art collectors as they embrace & acquire art & artifacts. Within the context of their own history & the past that speaks to them, we discover how the Kinseys are changed & nurtured by what they chose to collect. Ranging from painful-to-see slave owner’s documents, to brilliantly fiery expressions in sculpture, to private glimpses into thoughts of the ancestors, the Kinsey Collection reflects a rich cultural heritage which they have been driven to capture, inspire & sustain for future generations. National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, 50 East Freedom Way, Cincinnati OH 45202. More info @ 513.333.7500, ETurner@nurfc.org, & www.freedomcenter.org.
Section Three: Articles
Contents:
- International conversation week a big success
- Poem by Salonista (Mr.) Ginger Lee Frank
- the Nasty Story of the proposal for Piketon nuclear waste dump, sent by lurker Jeanette Raichyk of AEA
Dear Conversation Week Hosts Far and Wide,
You did it! We did it! Thank you. Congratulations. Bravo. You are magnificent. We designed this First Global Conversation Week to simply engage and support hosts in bringing powerful conversations into their communities - and you made it happen.
In all, 130 people from nearly every continent signed up to host. We know that some of you got sick or had timing conflicts and couldn't do it, but we celebrate everyone for every level of participation.
We've heard some stories about events from small living room gatherings to a whole school donning Orange Bands and engaging everyone in the conversation. Thirty Three hosts so far have filled out the survey at http://freeonlinesurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=ilb41oe4c0qd2mt281195. And 24 of their guests. If you haven't done the survey, it's fairly quick and will be an essential snap shot of the experience we just shared. Remind your guests as well to tell us what they learned. We'll sift it all and tell you what WE learn from what you say.
Please blog as well at http://www.conversationweek.org/category/questions to let the world see, right now, what you learned.
If you missed this tight time frame for a conversation, or if you liked it so much you want to continue, let the conversations continue! Ongoing support is available at www.conversationcafe.org. Use the ten questions. Blog about them when you are done. Or just have Conversation Cafes whatever ways you choose - at home, at conferences, in cafes, in workshops and more.
Again, congratulations! You are the best!
The Conversation Week Team
Kai, Heather, Susan and Vicki
Just us for the Earth (Ginger Lee Frank, 2007)
Who will win the human race?
It began with a bang,
and then a great whimper;
but how will it finish?
In triumph or disgrace?
In our feverish haste,
unable to decide
to help or to hamper,
we refuse to diminish
the damage and waste
we leave on the way,
picking up only the pace.
We poison the air and cut down the trees
to grow food to feed animals we bring to their knees.
Their flesh we make shiver, their blood fills our rivers.
We’re takers not givers.
We do as we please.
Yet who else can there be
except us to accept us
for who we have been and can be (just us),
to respect and defend the world that surrounds us,
to cherish the miracle of life that astounds us,
to protect and preserve what we once threw away,
to care for the earth (just us),
to attend her rebirth (just us).
Our future’s decided today.
On the Piketon Nuclear Waste Dump proposal:
(sent in by Jeanette Raichyk, AEA)
The 'AWEFUL' Truth
by Geoffrey Sea
Here I will summarize the history and current status of plans to send spent nuclear fuel to Piketon for indefinite above-ground storage. The story is a complicated one, but I can't help that. Many of the complications arise from the intentional deceits meant to confuse Congress and the public.
More than two years ago, in 2004, the Department of Energy and some of its key contractors (USEC, Battelle, AREVA, WGI) began pursuing a plan to centralize the storage of commercial spent fuel in Piketon. The federal government had already assumed responsibility for this waste, but had failed to secure licensing of the Yucca Mountain repository after some twenty years. A number of nearly simultaneous developments in 2004 and early 2005 led the key actors to train their sights on Piketon:
1) The Yucca Mountain project ran into serious impediments including revelations of data falsification by DOE scientists,
2) Yucca-opponent Harry Reid of Nevada ascended to a leadership position in the Senate;
3) Nuclear utility companies started getting big awards in court stemming from the federal government's failure to assume responsibility for their spent fuel,
4) The uranium enrichment company LES found a site in New Mexico that assured them of rapid licensing, meaning they would beat USEC's Piketon project into production at a lower-cost centrifuge plant;
5) Cost estimates for D&D and general cleanup at the Piketon gaseous diffusion plant, which had shut down in 2001, began to skyrocket and now sit at between $4.5 billion and $6 billion
Officials at both DOE and USEC realized that these overlapping problems could be converted into opportunity. D&D at the diffusion plant could be delayed indefinitely by emptying those buildings of process equipment and filling them with spent fuel, eliminating the massive jobs of decontamination and teardown.
That process would take more than a decade to implement, however, so an interim-interim plan was needed. That plan was to move the spent fuel immediately into the empty USEC centrifuge buildings, already built at the Piketon site. The spent fuel would then be on site, ready for transfer to the GDP process buildings in ten years or so. The ten year delay would also give USEC time to develop its unproven centrifuge technology, and time to develop a market so that it could compete with LES.
To implement that plan, a number of things happened:
1) In 2004, USEC took some of its fast-disappearing cash and purchased another company, NAC International -- a company that specializes in the transport and storage of spent fuel.
2) Dan Moore, who earlier had resigned from the USEC board, started a venture called ePIFNI, which stands for Piketon Initiative for Nuclear Independence. ePIFNI's sole mission is to construct a centralized spent fuel repository at Piketon. Moore hired Jim Morgan as second-in-command. Morgan had been USEC's chief of uranium enrichment operations at Piketon.
3) DOE went to the local officials in Pike County and explained the facts of life: There would be no D&D and no centrifuge plant, and cleanup operations at the site would cease unless the county agreed to the spent fuel storage plan. If the threat were carried out, the county would be bankrupted and left with a massive toxic dump on its hands. DOE acknowledged the outlines of this situation at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon in 2006. The President of the Pike County Chamber of Commerce works for USEC.
4) David Hobson (former chair of the House Energy Appropriations Subcommittee), Rob Portman (replaced in Congress by Jean Schmidt in 2005), Bob Taft (disgraced ex-governor of Ohio) and Bob Ney (ex-Congressman from the neighboring district, now in jail) agreed to package the plan in a way to get it through Congress, failing to anticipate the change in control. Their plan was this: Keep everything under wraps until USEC gets its centrifuge licence from NRC (now scheduled to happen before April 13). Then have USEC announce the "availability" of the centrifuge buildings for spent fuel storage instead. Since Congress has not set NRC licensing as a prerequisite for spent fuel storage at a federal site, the argument would be made that the buildings had already been licensed (albeit for a different use) and therefore need not be subject to any new licensing procedure.
It was a nifty plan, and DOE packaged it together with wacko reprocessing schemes and the rest of the bundle into GNEP. The GNEP lingo of "recycling" and "reuse" made the whole thing palatable, at least within the circles of the Taft-Ney-Schmidt gang. When Bush announced the "Advanced Energy Initiative" in his 2006 State of the Union message, Hobson and Schmidt were together with a reporter from the Dayton Daily News, offering up Piketon as the "perfect" sacrificial location.
You may ask how I know all this. I'm a writer, finishing a book for a major publisher about Piketon and its history. In the 1980s, I worked for the local union at the Piketon site, so many workers and former workers know me and talk to me. In 2004, I bought the Barnes Home, a historic house on the southwest fence-line of the DOE reservation. At that time, before I knew of the spent fuel scheme, I thought it would be a good investment since analysts all agreed that USEC's centrifuge project would fail. (My property is also an ancient earthwork site of major archaeological significance and I wanted to see the property preserved.)
In researching my book in 2005 and 2006, I heard more and more rumors about spent fuel. In early 2006, the site of a major earthwork was re-discovered here and it happens to lie at the main highway entrance to the DOE reservation. We then discovered that ODOT, working with funds from the Federal Highway Administration, was about to rebuild the ramp and bridge that abut the earthwork. This was part of a massive reconfiguration of the roadways on the Piketon site, a reconfiguration that made no sense for USEC since it diverted employee traffic away from the USEC buildings, and dedicated the nearest access road to the exclusive use of cargo trucks.
The reconfiguration makes total sense, however, if you plan to pack those buildings with spent fuel. Off the record, an ODOT employee confirmed for me that this was indeed the purpose of the road project -- he said every regulatory agency in Columbus knew that the site was being prepared for spent fuel.
I then had a conversation with Paul Hackett, who had challenged Jean Schmidt in 2005 and briefly entered the 2006 Senate race. He told me that when he toured the Piketon site, DOE and USEC officials explicitly lobbied him to support the storage of spent fuel at Piketon. Hackett thought that everyone in the local community knew about this and supported it (as he was told by USEC and DOE).
In August of 2006, I interviewed our congresswoman, Jean Schmidt, who had recently been quoted in the local paper as saying she was "against waste dumping" at Piketon. I asked her if that meant she was against storing spent fuel at Piketon and her eyes nearly rolled to the back of her head. No it didn't include that, she made clear, and she quickly terminated the interview.
I published the interview in the Pike County News Watchman and that set off a firestorm in the local press. ePIFNI was forced to issue a press release four days later, admitting that they were preparing to submit a proposal under GNEP to store and process spent fuel at Piketon. The plans became the central issue in the 2nd district congressional race, which Schmidt nearly lost. (Pike and Scioto counties voted 62% for Schmidt's opponent, largely because of the spent fuel dumping issue.)
After the matter became sort of public, local residents banded together and formed SONG: Southern Ohio Neighbors Group, in which I am an active member. SONG published numerous letters and commentaries in local newspapers throughout the fall of 2006, and we collected some 1500 signatures on a petition opposing any importation or processing of high-level nuclear waste at Piketon. We have retained legal counsel, and we have expressed our intention to sue the local GNEP consortium for fraud in claiming to have local community support when they have none. At the GNEP scoping hearing in Piketon on March 8, about 300 angry residents from southern Ohio turned out. With the exception of the added hearing in Oregon on the Hanford site, this was the only one of 12 GNEP scoping hearings around the country where opponents swamped proponents. Yet the consortium still maintains they have "local support."
An immediate demand of SONG was for SONIC (the consortium formed by ePIFNI) to release its GNEP application, since it was allegedly a request by a "public" partnership for federal funds. SONIC refused. DOE has not even responded to a SONG FOIA request for the document.
In October I received a call from a whistleblower informing me that crucial information is contained in the application and advising me on how to obtain it. (Details of that call have been reported to proper investigative authorities.) In December, a different whistleblower provided me with a copy of a draft of the application.
I cannot release physical copies of the draft because those copies might be used to identify the source. Copies have been provided to legal authorities. I can release selected quotations from the document, I can also make the document available for inspection.
In two places, the draft makes clear that SONIC submitted a prior proposal to DOE (date unspecified), limited to spent fuel storage at Piketon. (That is, without the false promise that a reprocessing plant would also be sited here, bringing a large number of jobs.) A whole section of the draft is titled "Interim Spent Fuel Storage." On page 1 of the draft it states: "Separate from this proposal, though integral to it, SONIC has proposed a spent nuclear fuel (SNF) storage facility at Portsmouth."
In other words, the 11-site "competition" that DOE is running between GNEP "candidate" sites is far from a level playing field, because the Piketon consortium had already submitted a complete proposal for spent fuel storage, and the Savannah River consortium had a complex prior arrangement with DOE for siting reprocessing there, where a demonstration-scale MOX reprocessing plant already operates (No knowledgeable person imagines that DOE will put a reprocessing plant at Piketon.)
The draft SONIC application was prepared in late August of 2006, before the community was even told about GNEP or any spent fuel plan, but it asserts that community support had already been obtained. The draft application states: "In early 2006, SODI organized a meeting...to explore what was needed to position the community for continued investment in advanced nuclear technology." SODI is the "public" side of the SONIC consortium. The referenced meeting was an invitation-only affair, largely organized by the Chamber of Commerce, which again, is headed by a USEC employee. A USEC representative also sits on the SODI board. The mayor of Piketon's full-time job is at USEC and he typically wears a USEC t-shirt at the town hall.
The draft SONIC application states: "In addition to the GNEP facilities, SONIC also proposes and has secured state and local community support to host interim storage of SNF at the Portsmouth site." (Portsmouth is the cold war name for the Piketon site.) This statement was made to DOE at a time when the gubernatorial candidates of both major parties in Ohio were taking public positions AGAINST any spent fuel storage OR reprocessing at Piketon.
Representatives of SONIC have now issued denials that any separate proposals for SNF storage at Piketon exist. On March 21, they announced that their GNEP application would be posted to their website (not yet), however, when asked if the application would be complete, they deferred and said that "proprietary information" would be withheld. No doubt the "proprietary information" includes all reference to spent fuel storage.
At the Piketon site, there is no doubt about DOE's intentions. The general order is to "get the waste in here" before any regulators or watchdog politicians or public interest groups get wind of what is actually happening. Employees have been threatened with bodily harm if they reveal what is transpiring. Officials working for DOE and/or contractors have given completely contradictory versions of the situation on and off the record. Publicly, the community was told that it would have "veto power" over any spent fuel plans. Privately, many people in the community have been warned not to raise any objections, because "DOE is going to move the waste in no matter what."
Some have expressed skepticism about SNF plans at Piketon based on a misunderstanding of the current law. Interim SNF storage was discussed during deliberations on the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. Many are under the impression that interim storage is now banned until Congress establishes a legal framework to allow it.
DOE knows that this is not the case. NWPA as amended contains two restrictions on spent fuel storage, as follows: 1) It can't happen in Nevada (Reid got that provision), and 2) Private SNF storage facilities must go through rigorous NRC licensing. SNF storage at a DOE facility outside of Nevada is a big whopping loophole in the law, and that is why DOE is set on doing it at Piketon. No other DOE site is an eligible candidate with big empty buildings ready to go. No more 20-year Yucca Mountain fiascos.
That DOE has actively shielded Congress from knowing about the Piketon plan is no surprise -- DOE did not want Congress to close the loophole. Thus, in February, Secretary Bodman was questioned before the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee in the House about interim storage, and he adamantly asserted that DOE "has no plan" despite it being one of DOE's biggest problems.
Moreover, while DOE pursues this secret plan, the agency can use GNEP as a rubric for its implementation. DOE intended to award SONIC a $5 million award in October, which SONIC would have used to conduct a study that is described in the draft application as "determining the best configuration" of the Piketon site for accommodating spent fuel. The actual meaning of that description is clear -- SONIC and its subcontractor AREVA (which gets 52% of the award) are doing engineering studies to determine how long the fuel will have to sit in the centrifuge buildings before the GDP process buildings can be made ready.
DOE had to alter its plans when SONG threatened the whole project with a lawsuit, backed up by substantial media coverage in Ohio. DOE delayed its award decision by a month, and then distributed $11 million among eleven sites. However, DOE retained $9 million "in reserve" for "later allocation" -- intended to go to Piketon and Savannah River after the first-round studies show those sites to meet the pre-established criteria. SONIC received only about $660,000 -- they eagerly await the other $4.3 million they were promised.
However, GNEP is now in serious trouble in Congress. Dennis Spurgeon of DOE was grilled by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water two days ago, on March 28. He had to confess that no GNEP "recycling center" would be in operation before about 2025 at the earliest, and no construction would start before 2015. Asked whether GNEP would yield anything material before those dates, Spurgeon had to cough up the one tangible item he can put his finger on: interim spent fuel storage.
In saying that to salvage the GNEP ship, Spurgeon was directly contradicting Secretary of Energy Bodman, who only one month earlier had said that DOE "had no plan" for interim storage, speaking to the same subcommittee. How can it be that the only near-term material component of DOE's centerpiece GNEP project addresses a problem for which the agency "has no plan"? The answer, in a word, is Piketon -- it's the secret word, like on the old game show "You Bet Your Life." Say it and a duck pops down in your face.
Right now it's in the face of the boys at SONIC. They were not counting on DOE to tell Congress on March 28 that the only real element in GNEP is interim spent fuel storage. It was supposed to be a secret. Hence at March 8 GNEP scoping hearing in Piketon and at the SONIC public disinformation meeting held in Piketon on March 21, they swore up and down that their project has nothing to do with spent fuel storage.
In fact, on March 21, they issues a "Statement of Principles" governing their GNEP project, and among those are these: "No SNF [spent nuclear fuel] shall be transported to PORTS until construction of the Advanced Recycling Center component of GNEP is sufficiently complete to require SNF for process staging" and "PORTS shall not serve as a disposal facility and residual process material generated by GNEP shall not be stored at PORTS."
Sounds good, huh? Too bad they do not explain why they submitted TWO proposals to DOE that both offer up the site as a host for interim storage of SNF, regardless of GNEP. To parse their public "principles," those principles apply only to the transportation and storage of SNF UNDER GNEP. In other words, SONIC has said nothing about its principles if the GNEP program collapses, as is now widely expected to happen. SONIC also fails to disclose that the GNEP contract it signed specifically reserves all siting decisions to DOE. DOE could not care less what "principles" SONIC has announced in an effort to appear to be responsive to community concerns.
As if to drive home how meaningless those principles are, seven days later, David Hobson, in trying to salvage his pet Piketon project, pleaded with Dennis Spurgeon of DOE at the hearings to accord more benefits on his home-state contractors -- you know, the ones who offered to host interim spent fuel storage.
In a series of questions, Hobson asked how many GNEP applicants had offered to host interim storage. Spurgeon said he didn't know the number. (The number is one -- SONIC at Piketon -- but, to be kind, maybe Spurgeon has trouble counting that high.) Angling toward the additional $4.3 million, Hobson then asked if more study money or greater favor might be given to applicants in that special category of willing host.
Back in Ohio, this colloquy presents SONIC with a dilemma. SONIC just told the invited public that it has "principles" against storing spent fuel, and that the community needs GNEP for all the promised jobs from reprocessing. Then Spurgeon says that no jobs will materialize until after 2025, if ever, and Congressman Hobson begs Spurgeon for more money on SONIC's behalf, because SONIC is willing to store spent fuel in the meantime.
Meanwhile, SONIC has promised to make its GNEP application public -- an application that explicitly offers to store spent fuel at the Piketon site. As of this writing, no application is posted to the SONIC website, http://safesonic.net/, 48 hours after they promised to do it.
Trivial contradictions aside, here is the timeline that DOE, USEC and SONIC are working on:
1) NRC will issue a license to USEC to build a uranium enrichment plant at Piketon in the two big empty buildings. This is set to happen before April 13.
2) USEC will promptly announce that the company has no money or technology to build an enrichment plant, but since the license gives them 30 years, they will offer to make the buildings available for SNF storage while they acquire the financing and technology to proceed with an enrichment plant.
3) On May 1, SONIC will submit its "study" of the Piketon site to DOE, which will say that the gaseous diffusion process buildings are perfect storage hangars for SNF, thus eliminating the multi-billion cost of decommissioning those buildings. The problem is that cleaning out those buildings will take a minimum of ten or fifteen years. But hey, USEC has just offered its big empty buildings! So, SONIC will propose that SNF be moved immediately into the USEC buildings pending longer-term preparation of the diffusion buildings.
4) Congress and/or DOE may eliminate GNEP as a program, so the entire PEIS and public process will be tossed out the window. DOE is then free to implement the recommendations of the SONIC "study" without any of the extraneous considerations or limitations of GNEP or its PEIS.
5) When presenting this plan as a fait accompli to Congress, DOE will argue that since those same buildings just went through an NRC licensing process, it would be a waste of taxpayer money to duplicate the process. So they will ask for an exemption from NRC licensing, which is not currently required for a DOE site anyway. Many Democratic members of Congress will support this because it takes the pressure off of Yucca Mountain.
Inside the beltway, it is acknowledged that GNEP, like the "Mission to Mars," might disappear tomorrow, under its current label, especially if the Piketon spent fuel plans are publicly disclosed. But that will have no effect on the Piketon plans, because interim spent fuel storage was never sold as an integral part of GNEP. A new acronym will be invented, and new scoping hearings will be held, at a more remote location, at a more inconvenient time. Perhaps they'll call it the American Whizbang Excellent Fuel Location or AWEFUL for short. They've already learned not to include any reference to Piketon, Ohio.
And now that "interim spent fuel storage" is becoming a dirty word, that phrase will go the way of "reprocessing." No, Piketon will not be an "interim storage site." Rather, Piketon will be a "transit hub" -- you heard it here first. The contractors and subcontractors working on GNEP "study" grants are already preparing maps that show how much sense it makes for all the spent fuel from Washington and Illinois and Michigan and New York State and New England to "transit" through Piketon on its way to Savannah River.
No doubt, SONIC will release a sanitized version of its GNEP application soon -- too late for people to comment upon it in scoping comments to DOE. When that happens, journalists and citizens should barrage SONIC with these questions: Did you or did you not submit a separate proposal to DOE for an interim spent fuel storage facility at Piketon? And if you did, why is that proprietary?
And to Dennis Spurgeon and David Hobson, the question will be this: Remember that unknown number of GNEP applicants who offered to host interim spent fuel storage and might therefore be deserving of special considerations -- was the number greater than zero and exactly which applicants did you mean?
All readers are encouraged incorporate this information in comments for the DOE GNEP scoping process. The deadline is April 4. Multiple comments are allowed. The address is:
Timothy A. Frazier, GNEP PEIS Document Manager
Office of Nuclear Energy, U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC 20585-0119
Comments can also be faxed to 866-645-7807 or e-mailed to GNEP-PEIS@nuclear.energy.gov . Please mark envelopes, faxes, and e-mail: "GNEP PEIS Comments -- Piketon."
Section Four: Books/Magazines/Reviews
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Come on... send me names of books and stuff you are enjoying. ellen
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Several salonistas made the scene at the U.C. Women’s Studies film festival today, Saturday 3/31, including me, Ellen, and: Mike Murphy, Birdie Fetterhoff, & Bill Messer. We watched “Shinjuku Boys”, a 1996 film about women night club workers in Tokyo who pose as men, working like male geishas to entertain heterosexual female customers. Wild! Some of them seemed convincingly male, others did not. Part of their job is after-hours “dating” of customers of the club, including sexual relations. Typically the “boy” does not disrobe while having sex with the customer. Prof. Sharon Dean, an out lesbian mother and member of a committed relationship of many years, led the discussion following the film. The oppressed role of women in Japan is depressing for me, and this aberrant Japanese phenomenon seemed sad.
After Shinjuku Boys we saw “The Shape of Water”, a 70 minute documentary about women activists in various parts of the world: rubber tree workers in Brazillian rainforests organizing to combat the felling of the forest for ranching; Women in Black in Israel protesting the occupation by Israel of territories filled with Israeli Arabs (Palestinians); Indian women organizing for the right to have cottage industry; Senegalese women in west Africa combating the genital mutilation of girls. In 2000 I visited the Maasai people in Kenya, East Africa, and got to interview them about “female circumcision”, their term for genital mutilation. They were still doing it, and all of the women I spoke with had been “cut”. For them, it makes them a decent, marriagable adult, a respectable woman. Among the Maasai the cutting occurrs at the onset of puberty, soon after the first menses, about the same age as when the boys are taken in groups for circumscision rites, after which they are trained as warriors. Both boys and girls consider it a demonstration of courage and maturity. Oddly, these women, all deprived of clitoris and hence, presumably incapable of orgasm, were not cowed, submissive, or broken. Rather, I found them powerful, dignified, and full of zest. I asked them if they had orgasms ... We were talking through an interpreter. They said they didn’t know, they wouldn’t know what sex would be like for them if they had not been “cut”. I asked them this question: “If I heard that a group of young men had been castrated, deprived of their penises, I would expect those men to be timid and to have low morale. And yet, I see you, a group of women deprived of your similar organ, and you are not meek at all. How do you explain that?” Again, very unsatisfyingly, their response was, “We know of no other way.” Gave me nightmares, the whole practice. In this movie, “The Shape of Water” today, one Senegalese activist working against the mutilation practice said she thought it was in origin motivated by the desire in men to “colonize” women. Right on, sister! Ellen
Hi Bill, Mike and Birdie,
FROM BILLI would love to print in the Weekly your reactions or comments short or long to the “Shinjuku Boys” and “the Shape of Water”. Sorry I had to leave. I was parked in the library garage and was afraid to go there after it got dark ... Pretty deserted.Ellen
Below, what I wrote about the films.
I left after the film started a second pass through all the movements. Did I miss anything really amazing?
Love
Ellen, this is not my response to your request; it is only a quick reaction to something you wrote about your experience in Kenya. Male castration is not the removal of the penis but of the testicles, the organs which produce nearly all the male body's testosterone, which is why their removal so often radically affects behavior, particularly with respect to aggression and what you call timidity. The clitoris does not play this role in a woman's body. Morale, however, could be a different matter. The problem with assessing clitoral removal's effect is revealed in your own text: the women don't know what sex would be like having a clitoris, so its absence is difficult for them to calibrate (the question was almost clitorical). Also, the relative invisibility of the clitoris (the out of sight out of mind effect) probably plays a role, especially compared with your considered equivalent example of phallusectomy, removing the most visible, familiar and potent symbol of manhood (not too mention, the only way to urinate). A penis is a man's first toy, his oldest friend (often named), his most reliable indicator of feelings in certain instances, an almost anthropomorphic representative of himself. Many men, I suspect (particularly younger men), would not even wish to live without it (and would prefer to lose an apparently more useful arm, or leg, or even an eye, instead). I was encouraged by the school girls' refusal to buy into the argument that having clitorises would stimulate them into to having sex all the time and their insistence that to have sex or not was their own decisions and not their clitorises' (probably men assume this because their own behavior seems so directly connected to their genitalia, and, from the testosteronal point of view, actually is). Exactement comme une fille a dit, "female circumcision" is primarily an instrument of male control over women's sexuality. Too bad Mohammed didn't speak up when he had the opportunity. BILL
FROM ELLEN:
Bill,
may I print this in the Weekly? Pretty tasty.E.
FROM BILL:
Well, it wasn't my intention, but if you wish... The last sentence referred to something mentioned in the film (don't know whether you still were there or not), recounting how when it was mentioned to Mohammed that female circumcision was being practiced, he said nothing, which proves to many interpreters of the tale that even though it was not done to his wife and daughter, he approved of the practice and would have said otherwise had he disapproved.
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The Lloyd House Salon (usually about 12 people) Meets on WEDNESDAYS at 5:45,
EVERY Wednesday, 52 WEEKS/YEAR come hell or high water, as my mother used to say.
We of the Lloyd House Salon gather in a spirit of
respect, sympathy and compassion for one another
in order to exchange ideas for our mutual pleasure and enlightenment.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Our Salon blog is a promising interactive site: http:lloydhouse.blogspot.com
Also, we have an Interactive Yahoo Salon group, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LloydHouseSalon
For Pot Luck procedures including food suggestions, mission and history visit
http://home.fuse.net/ellenbierhorst/Potluck.html .
You are invited also to visit the Lloyd House website: http://www.lloydhouse.com
> To unsubscribe from the Lloyd House Potluck Salon list, send a REPLY message
> to me and in the SUBJECT line type in "unsub potluck #". In the place of #
> type in the numeral that follows the subject line of my Weekly email. It
> will be 1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7. This tells me which sub-list your name is on so I can
> delete it. Thanks! ellen bierhorst
1 comment:
Is Global Warming a Fact or Swindle?
Would you still be convinced that Al Gore is a pioneering friend of the environment if you found out that his film was manufactured and distributed by a corporate front, bankrolled by Anglo-Dutch oil BP-Shell and their European multinational confederates?
How would you react if you found out that Co2 regulation was a means of enacting carbon trading, an already billion dollar plus market, spearheaded and promoted by the same companies?
Green is Green, and Left is Right., learn more at a video introduction to the PSYOP Global Warming Swindle Money Scam, here at Google video,
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1425249672931646464&q=%22global+warming+money+scam%22&hl=en
with supporting documentation and research at GEOKARRAS.ORG.
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