Paul Cultrera

Yesterday I had the great good fortune of spending the whole of a long,
sunny Sunday afternoon with Paul Cultrera, the subject of the
documentary film "The Hand of God". The film has been shown on
Frontline on PBS and in more than 300 venues since its release.
Directed by his brother Joe, the film is a meticulous documentation of
an era, of generations of Sicilians in America, their church, and the
predations upon them by that church.

It tells the story of a family and the Church of Rome, a story of
sexual abuse, psychological abuse, legal abuse, spiritual abuse, and
survival. It's also the story of familial shame, rage, and enduring
love. It's a portrait of profoundly decent people who were betrayed
repeatedly, one could almost say continually, by their religion.

Paul's calm and purposeful demeanor is beautifully delineated in the
film, and there are marvelous scenes from his childhood- home movies,
and bits of film shot by his brother as a budding film auteur. It's a
portrait of a warm extended Sicilian family in Salem, Massachusetts,
who's alter boy son was molested by a serial molester, who's criminal
career was guided, protected, and managed by the
Catholic Church for many years and in many locations.

Paul mentioned that the film may still be being streamed on line by
PBS. It's a film that is enraging and inspiring by turns. The
enduring miracle is the strength of character and clarity of purpose
which Paul has somehow distilled from his traumatic early life. You'll
laugh, you'll cry, you'll cheer. Really.

Bravo! Evviva!!!

Impeachment, Greenlake, and more

Back from my lap around Greenlake, carrying my "Impeach Bush" sign.
Big day at the lake, with the sun out, bright, and a big turnout of
walkers, joggers, skaters, peramulators, and most vociferously, the
rowing teams, who let loose with a mighty cheer from the lanes in the
lake where they were positioning themselves for a race. Now THAT'S
what I'M talking about!

Tremendous positive response from the passers-by. Needless to say, I'm
hard to ignore, a smiling silver bearded gentleman, so the eastern
European fishermen, the Asian fishermen, and the Hispanic fishermen
were all utterly polite and responsive. And every single one of them
gave a positive response. Well, they understand.

The first person who began walking with us was a charming Polish woman,
erudite, and furious about the "secret" prisons established in Poland,
"again", as she put it. She is furious as well that her cousin's son
from Poland is serving in Iraq. The fascists have a historic
relationship with the Poles. The last HOLOCAUSE having taken place in
Poland. The Germans hired them at bargain prices to run the trains,
empty the trains, process the victims, operate the "showers", the
cremation ovens, and dispose of the ash and clothing and such. Gold
teeth, that sort of thing. The facts so brilliantly exposed in
"Shoah".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoah_(film)

Happy Impeachment Summer!

It's 5:49AM in Seattle. Early walk and later to Magnusen Park. I'll
have more anon.

Greenlake

I'm just back from my tour of Greenlake. The longer evening hours of
light make such a timing ravishing. The late afternoon light,
following a day of gray overcast, blossoms at twilight, as the sun
lowers itself under the low clouds, and gives the city a brilliant
bath, just before it sets for the night.
In this golden light I saw a dog tasting the air as it was being
stroked and praised by its human friend. I have noticed this behavior,
that when dogs are in a state of loving grace, they seem to lap at the
air, savoring, I suppose, with their acute sense of smell, the flavor
of love and happiness.

It seems to be one of those great gifts that dogs are so prodigal with,
showing us what happiness is, and letting us taste of it what we can.

Kucinich vs Pelosi/Cheney/Bush et al.

By introducing articles of impeachment of Dick Cheney, Dennis Kucinich
has created a very clear line in the sand. On one side, himself and
other parties far and wide who oppose the Bush/Cheney Regime, on the
other side, Cheney, Bush, Rove, Gonzales, the entire Republican elite,
and Nancy Pelosi.

Politics does indeed make strange bedfellows, but being in bed with
Cheney and Bush just gives away the entire game. Ms. Pelosi has
memorably said, as quoted by Raw Story: ""We will do more work to make
for our own reelection, and maintain a Democratic Congress, and have a
Democratic President," she said. "And frankly, for impeachment, George
W. Bush is just not worth it. We have great work to do for the American
people."

A curious response to the impeachment of Dick Cheney, but still more
bizarre words will be issuing from the office of the Speaker of the
House of Representatives of the United States of America before the
entire Regime is dragged from the White House.

Et tu, Nancy?

Greenlake

There is a glacier-carved lake in Seattle, 2.9 miles around, which is
vibrating in the most spectacular way today. Greenlake is girded in
willows, reeds, and other such water-loving plant life, and today the
yellow-green new foliage is in synchronicity with the yellow-green buds
and blossoms. Everything is bursting out after our exceedingly wet and
cold winter. The air itself seems to vibrate, and the ducks and
red-winged blackbirds are hungry and flirtatious, their hunger pushing
them to rare levels of appreciation of humanity and humanity's
occasional hand-outs. The air remains cold here, but we are having
bursts of brilliant sunshine in the mornings, and the bright light,
amplified by the surface of the lake, is a powerful dose of what we so
desperately need, natural light.

Affinities and Identities

While trying to come up with something to say in my profile for this
blog, I began thinking about identity. A profile is one thing, a
portrait is another, and the whole person of course transcends them
all.

This internet we're on serves as much as anything as a screen, a
distancer, and creates the illusion of anonymity. True anonymity is a
precious right, and therefore a right which is under attack. And of
course anonymity is not available on the internet.

Some affinities I'd like to persue on this blog and elsewhere, on the
way to a "profile"L
cocktails
goldfinches
permaculture
Slow Food
domestic food production
tropical foods, especially chocolate
primates, including Nina, matriarch of the gorilla clan in Woodland
Park Zoo
herbalism
Ayurveda

RainWaterCafe

Hello to all of my Ablog friends and others...
I'd like to welcome you to RainWaterCafe, my blog. As you can see, the
blog was started a few years ago, and has sputtered and stalled since.

Now I will be dedicating the majority of my time to my own blog, where
I will be free to discuss anything I wish, and have an open exchange
with my commenters.

The news cycle is hot just now with Imus finally sinking away and the
White House email problem looming ever more menacing to the Bush
Regime. I see on some of the other blogs that, as usual, bloggers are
seeing daylight and ways to proceed aggressively to bring down the
Regime. We will see what Congressional leaders make of this
opportunity. Will these criminally erased emails join the long list of
other high crimes and misdemeanors which have been swallowed and passed
over until now, or will the Congress at long last act as the
Constitution requires them to act?

I have been using the term "kerfluffle" for a while now to describe the
process by which major crimes and the resultant scandals morph from
large and simple to smaller and complicated, and then to some shameful
accommodation and dismissal, first from the news cycle and then from
the government and the agencies which should be protecting our
Constitution and our laws.

The Iraq Holocaust is a massive case in point. Democrats were elected
to end the occupation, but instead have rushed, not only to fully fund
the future the future of this atrocity, but fully fund with
supplemental pork. Bush asked for 106 billion, Pelosi/Reid rushed him
a bad check for 122 billion. Enter the kerfluffle: magical and
apparently disappearing strings. The outline of the fundamental
betrayal has been obscured by a kerfluffle over timelines, benchmarks,
and strings. Democratic voters are coached yet again to become
impassioned over these invented details, while the War Machine gets the
avalanche of cash on schedule. If Bush caves or fights, all is well,
the booboisie are entertained and the appearance of opposition is
maintained... unless, of course, you are living in Iraq, or have skin
in the game, but none of the bloggers and none of the poo-bahs actually
do. And the checks keep getting cut and sent.

Will we see the same technique used in the email confrontation? Will
these clear and undoubted crimes be finessed and kerfluffled into
procedural skirmishes, won or lost to no particular effect, and then ON
TO THE NEXT?

Time will tell.