Just realized I had not posted for awhile. Maybe I was waiting to post some good news, but lately there has seemed to be nothing but endings.

Mike's Beer Barn has closed down, and it was a shock to learn that after being there for 300 years, he did not own the property. The Barn is no longer a priority in life since I no longer live in that neighbourhood, but in the KAOS era, it was our main supplier. In time, I was even able to lift a full keg by myself. My roommate worked there for awhile, so that was my only glimpse at the inner workings of Mike's empire; sitting up there in the overlook with a shotgun, departing his racism and disgust with the homeless to his employees. Deprived of Mike's, the residents of the Shelter have discovered that the Circle K that opened in the old Bill's Bookstore is the nearest source of beer. The sorority girls will be in for shock.

It appears that the crooked county officials won after all. Posey's is closed as well. They had intended to rebuild after the hurricane, but were denied key permits. The land is now going to be sold too-- big shock-- condo developers. The closing of Posey's also led to Blue Moon being disbanded, as it was their only regular paying gig. Danny and Kelly had a baby recently, plus Danny is more concerned about his other band, Stillwood. So practice started dropping off, as they did not want to rehearse unless there was a show coming up. They will do their final show at the Moon on April 20th, and hopefully, in few years, there will be a Blue Moon reunion tour. Now that they are splitting up, my mother's long shot efforts to get them noticed by Texas musicians will probably pay off.

Closer to home, the Progressive Center is in danger of losing their building. The landlords have been very supportive and patient, but there are two other elderly owners who are eager to sell and a serious offer has been made. After all this time, we were happy to be just meeting building expenses, but no one took initiative on finding the necessary serious investors. Most of the blame belongs to the disunity of the left wing. Two or three of the bigger non-profits could have insured that we could meet rent and plan for acquiring ownership. However, there is so much rivalry amongst the non-profits, no one would even consider sharing resources, and I'm pretty sure some of them were rooting against us as well.

Cassini

I have noticed some people are protesting the launch of the probe to Pluto because it contains plutonium. This is always a conflict for me because I am a great supporter of space exploration, but not comfortable with putting nuclear material on a potentially explosive rocket. Back in '97 we went down to protest the Cassini launch for the same reasons. I think there are more worthwhile things to protest, but hey, any chance to get out of town. Hell, I'll protest just about anything. Anyway, the most revealing thing about the whole event is I got to see firsthand how the press deals with demonstrations like this. It was one of the largest protests I had ever seen. There were at least a thousand people attending, yet newspapers consistently said "hundreds." Not one of the news channels took any wide view pictures to show the size of the crowd. Photographs were restricted to small groups of people, like the Grandmothers for Peace, or the kooks who show up dressed like Uncle Sam on stilts. CNN just showed stock footage of the satellite, but I know I saw their truck there.

Another thing that struck me was how ritualized protests have become. We were allowed to march to the gates and line up outside, while the police lined up inside. A ladder was allowed to be placed on the gate, a blanket was provided to get over the barb wire, and anyone who chose to be arrested could safely climb over. Once they were inside, a policeman escorted them off, then another policeman would take his place and await the next protestor. No fuss, no muss.

Once I got back, I friend of mine said "Well, think about it. Is plutonium over Orlando a bad thing?"

Windthorst Grotto

Mom called last night and referred me to a good story in the Dallas Morning News about Windthorst.

By KRISTEN KECKLER FLORY / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

WINDTHORST, Texas – There may be as many Virgin Marys here as people, but no one's counted. Some, weather-beaten and pale, sit among daisies and clover. Others don bright blue robes and glowing red hearts on porches and patios. But the most famous is Italian, five feet tall, and weighs 1,600 pounds. She resides on a pedestal inside a grotto at the quaint, red brick St. Mary's Catholic Church. Along Route 25 bordering the grotto, black and white cows nuzzle the parched land. Small rocky mesas rise, like altars, in places. An old pump jack dips to the ground like a bird tilting forward, beak digging for a worm. A windmill churns against a sharp blue sky while a fiberglass dairy cow hovers next to the town's one blinking light.
People travel from around the world to visit the grotto, townsfolk say, but on the four occasions I stop by, I am alone. The grotto is a 10-foot-tall manmade cave that looks like a hollowed cantaloupe. Along the top, stone suns hold bits of glass and shiny rocks. Inside, the Virgin cradles her infant Jesus; green stalactites hang above them. Rows of candle flames sway slowly in the Texas summer heat.
I ponder a framed needlepoint of stars: 56 blue and eight silver, the number of World War II soldiers from the town of a few hundred German Catholic dairy farmers. The community held prayer vigils, or novenas, during the war every Tuesday evening. The soldiers sent part of their military pay home to erect the grotto.

In the eyes of the congregation, a spiritual contract was drawn with the Virgin Mother, and she made good on her promise. Each soldier returned safely. And in 1950, the grotto was dedicated.

The voices of the grotto's visitors tell a story as well. They write notes in the fabric-covered journal next to the candles. Throughout July 2005, people have hailed from Denver, Colo., to Smackower, Ark., as well as from locations all over Texas. One visitor, from Fort Worth, writes: "Please pray for me as well as my two friends; we recently became homeless. I am 19, Tracy is 21, and Monica is 25 so you know we could use all the help we can get."

Another reads: "Pray for loving care of Jesus, for my mom, and my grandparents' souls. Pray more for my husband."

Windthorst, population 474, is still a thriving dairy town – I spot a silver cylindrical truck, proclaiming "MILK," as it turns onto Route 25. In the 1940s, residents recall, the town was nearly 100 percent Catholic, and today, residents estimate the number has dipped, to around 90 percent.

At a Sunday Mass, the church brims with generations of locals in their Sunday best who stand on the church steps chatting long after the service is over. As they walk to the parking lot, though, none stops at the grotto. Though I'm told that as many out-of-town visitors frequent the grotto today as in years past, the people who built it fear that the memory of its history fading.

My grandfather and two of my uncles were some of the servicemen for whom the Grotto was dedicated, and it makes for a nice local legend. I already mentioned Tony's service, which I would like to research more. According to his letters, they were mostly concerned with making sure they gave hell to some guy named Willie. I'm sure there was more to it than that. My other Uncle, Eddie Zihlman, served in the engine room of a converted freighter. His ship, the Cassiopeia, was notorious for "losing" Adm. Halsey's crate of whiskey, and then devising an ingenious method of using divers to retrieve a few bottles at a time. He was later transferred to Philadelphia where he spent the rest of the war apparently making heavy water for atomic testing. My grandfather's story is less interesting, as he told me he and a friend faked high blood pressure to get discharged. I never attached any sense of shame or lack of patriotism to this story, I can easily see that Ben Schneider had other priorities in his life. He married my grandmother the next year, and his regiment would have been one of the participants in the D-Day invasion, so I may be biased in thinking things turned out for the best. He did not know about the Grotto, however. Should he have stayed in?
Finally, a tip of the hat to the women in WWII. My aunt Anne, Ben's sister and Tony's wife, left Windthorst to work in the production factories at Ft. Worth. After a worthy effort to be another Rosie the Riveter (a tiny, hundred pound woman makes a lousy riveter) she was transferred to the dispatching office. Despite the fact that no one could tell her what her job was, she learned to keep the shipments going out.

Uncle Tony

I've been in Texas since Saturday and am having a good time. Finally got bored enough to attempt an update. This trip has gone pretty well so far, and once I get back home I'll try to post better description, hopefully with pictures once I have a camera. I'll have more to write about this weekend, since I'm meeting "Mad" Adam Kelly and Burris in New Orleans for the New Year's celebration. May not be a good idea, but I don't see why that would stop us.

Christmas has not only been green, but also very warm and dry. We have had brush fire alerts for two days and I see that Arlington and a number of other places have already burst into flame.

I've been reading some of Uncle Tony's letters from his shipmates in WWII. Aunt Anne was never very interested in history and could not the name of his ship, so it was never clear to me how Tony served during the War. After deciphering some of the letters, it is easy to understand why she could not recall the name of the ship, as it never had a name. It was a infantry landing craft equipped with mortars, and was officially referred to as the USS LCI(M)-633. The 633 served in the Pacific and participated in a couple of landings during the last year of the War. The LCI were small craft, usually having a crew of only 50 men and commanded by a Lt.(junior grade). They were not designed to cross oceans (but they did anyway), and being flat bottomed, only those with iron stomachs could hope to function. The letters reveal a crew that bonded very well, dealt fairly with each other, and had an egalitarian streak that is unique to America's armed forces. One of the 633's troublemakers, after serving out his punishment for drunk and disorderly, marched straight into the Captain's quarters and offered the Captain a drink, which was accepted. Another had painted half the ship before receiving orders that a new camouflage design was required, and had no problem giving the Executive Officer a piece of his mind.

The letter's were all dated after Tony had left the ship in September of 1945. Our cousin, Leon, has more letters, and I'm hoping they are Tony's letters to Anne while he was serving on board. I have already scanned some the postcards he sent to her while he was training in the States, which cover the period from his enlistment to his departure to bring the ship from New Jersey to the Pacific. Tony's experiences during active service would be the last piece of the puzzle. Once I get home, I'll see if I can locate some of his old shipmates.

Sancho v. Diebold

Leon County has made the front page of DailyKos. Our elections supervisor, Ion Sancho, has been fighting with our various Secretaries of State for some time over Diebold voting machines. He will soon be making an announcement that Diebold will no longer be allowed in our county. We have been fortunate in having Sancho; during the 2000 election fiasco his competence was a model for the rest of the state. Republicans have seen otherwise, though, and accused him of gross negligence when he allowed Diebold machines to be tested by outsiders. The fact that he discovered manipulation was possible did nothing to make them reassess their views on touch screen voting. One Republican, a friend from FSU Senate, filed to run against him, saying Sancho was not taking advantage of the technological opportunities available to him. He dropped out well before the election, but I have to wonder why there is such an insistence on using technology to solve a problem that isn't really a problem. Sancho summed it up earlier this year, "People in Leon County would rather vote on paper than on vapor."

Christmas shopping is done and travel plans have been made. No Amtrak this year, thanks to Katrina, so I have to make due with Greyhound again. I have a feeling the bus stations are going to be a lot more crowded this year, so I predict a very annoying trip.

Coming back will be more interesting. Adam wants to take a look at New Orleans so we are planning on doing New Year's there, like we did last year. Geoff may join us to check on an apartment his boss owns in the French Quarter. We stayed there for our '02 trip, which ended with Geoff wanting to hang Adam by his feet off the balcony. Good times . . .

Religion

Stumbled across this website, which offers a quiz to place your religious affiliation. My Belief-O-Matic results are:

1. Neo-Pagan (100%)
2. Unitarian Universalism (94%)
3. Mahayana Buddhism (93%)
4. New Age (90%)
5. Liberal Quakers (86%)
6. Jainism (85%)
7. Sikhism (80%)
8. Hinduism (75%)
9. Theravada Buddhism (75%)
10. Reform Judaism (73%)
11. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (66%)
12. New Thought (64%)
13. Scientology (62%)
14. Taoism (62%)
15. Secular Humanism (60%)
16. Baha'i Faith (56%)
17. Orthodox Judaism (54%)
18. Islam (42%)
19. Orthodox Quaker (42%)
20. Nontheist (38%)
21. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (37%)
22. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (20%)
23. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons)(19%)
24. Eastern Orthodox (17%)
25. Roman Catholic (17%)
26. Seventh Day Adventist (17%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (9%)

Somewhat surprising, I had always considered myself basically Christian with Buddhist tendencies. The only religion I've had any real contact with is the big RC, which only comes in at 17%. Scientology at 62%? Any higher I might have a chance with Katie Holmes. But seriously, I have to say I am absolutely through with Katie.

They have links which explain more about your results, which clears up some things. Neo-pagan is an umbrella term, capturing most of the religious nonconformists who have worked things out for themselves, but can still support a religion of choice or heritage. Put in those terms, my results make more sense, as I have just as much contempt for some pagans as I do for fundamentalist Christians. It just might be that I am so insistently nonconformist that I could not join a group of like-minded nonconformists. This has pretty much been my experience with liberal politics as well.

My parents were mostly non-religious, so I can't really claim any heritage. My mother's side of the family was German-Catholic, with a few Lutherans further back. As I mentioned above, this appears to have had little impact on my current beliefs. My father's side is even more vague. His Air Force dog-tags read Presbyterian, but he always used to joke that he could not go into a church for fear the roof would cave in, a joke that I myself have come to adopt. It was recently discovered that his father's people were French-Catholic, but my grandfather's disappearance ensured that would have no bearing. My grandmother, who later became a Jehovah's Witness, was descended from pioneers of Plymouth, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, and included the whole spectrum of New England religions. Mostly Congregationalist, but more than a few Quakers, the group I would be more likely to identify with. There was one rebellion in West Newbury, in which the parish decided to become Church of England, and there were even a few Baptists back in the 1680's. Rev. Stephen Batchelder was deposed from his parish, supposedly for being too liberal for the Massachusetts establishment. There were many nuances to Puritanism at that time, so it is not known what his supposed failings were.

A few like John Roberts and Hatevil Nutter were responsible for whipping the Quakers out of Dover. Most, I am glad to say were more likely to harbor Quakers if not joining themselves. Two ancestors were convicted in the Salem witch trials. One was executed and the other was broken out of her jail cell. For those who agree with the Fundamentalist Republicans who say we need more Church in Government, I would like to remind of them of what happened under the Massachusetts Theocracy.