Reza Baluchi in Manhattan at last


Reza in Shawnee, Oklahoma, earlier this year
Reza will finally be running down Broadway from the George Washington Bridge this morning, September 11. He will end up in Battery Park, instead of the World Trade Center, the destination he had been planning for exactly two years. The city said he couldn’t be part of the festivities, so instead Reza and his dog Rocky will be in the park chatting with passers-by and greeting wellwishers.
Wednesday’s NYTimes included a feature story on his run and his adventures since he left Iran six years ago.

Some people are born with a patriotic fervor for America. Others come to love the country despite its faults.
Reza K. Baluchi, for example, fell in love with America after spending the last four months jogging its open highways in the name of global peace. Along the way, he was locked up in an Arizona jail cell, attacked by a bear in California and forced to dive into a drainage ditch in Newark to avoid a speeding car.
“This is the greatest country in the entire world,” said Mr. Baluchi, a 30-year-old Iranian whose passion for the United States remains undimmed.

Reza will be hanging out today between 11:30 am to 12:30 pm in the “Giovanni da Verrazzano” section of the park, located between Castle Clinton and the East Coast War Memorial. You probably won’t miss them, as they’re likely to be a very happy group. Reza’s sweetness was darn infectious even without a dog.
[image from the Shawnee, Oklahoma News-Star]

Ashcroft: no time for questions


The United States Bill of Rights
While assembling his coffee this morning after spotting the day’s headlines, the Barry asked, “So which is it?” Are they saying we’re safe against terrorists under the firm and mighty hand of Bushie, or are we still in great danger, perhaps greater than ever?
Some information about John Ashcroft’s secret meeting yesterday in New York with the law biggies is now leaking through the dirty or bloody hands of his suited and uniformed guests and it sounds like attorney Mr. general, for one, just doesn’t know the answer.
The delicious sarcasm of the NYTimes article begins with the headline, “Terror Lesson Fading for Some, Ashcroft Says in Manhattan.” It seems we need to be made more frightened than we already are, so he’s on it.

The attorney general made clear that he believes the Justice Department’s antiterrorism initiatives are fully in sync with the moral imperatives of God and country — and that those who disagree may have failed to absorb the lessons of Sept. 11.
“Just two years have passed,” Mr. Ashcroft said, “but already it has become difficult for some Americans to recall the shock, anger, grief and anguish of that day.”
Referring to expanded abilities of antiterrorism investigators to conduct wiretaps, delay notification of a search warrant and share intelligence among agencies, he said that rolling back the use of such tools “will increase the risk that more Americans will die.”

[Today in Washington Bush has already begun to perform his own part in the charade intended ultimately to greatly expand the current “Patriot” Act. Speaking at the FBI Accademy in Virginia, he called for several changes to federal law in order to “untie the hands of law enforcement officials so they can fight and win terror.”]
Newsday‘s acount of Ashcroft’s has its own charms. Their reporter makes it clear that the administration’s chief justice officer believes that we must restrict our liberties in order to preserve our liberties.

“It is critical for Americans to understand that the Patriot Act is vital to our success in the war against terrorism,” said Ashcroft, speaking at Federal Hall on Wall Street. “The painful lesson of Sept. 11 remains the touchstone – reminding us of the government’s response to protect the lives and preserve the liberty of the American people.”

But by all accounts, including its own, this government protects neither lives nor liberty.
Now read a comment or two about the “style” of yesterday’s event in that hallowed hall. Newsday:

Addressing an audience that included uniformed federal, state and local law enforcement officials, U.S. Attorneys and local district attorneys, Ashcroft thanked the officials for their anti-terror efforts, inviting the audience to join him in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem as the event began. He is on a 16-city tour to champion the act.
. . . .
Ashcroft has been known to infuse his speeches with religious imagery, and yesterday was no exception as he summed up his mandate to secure citizens from terror:
“We accept this trust in the belief that liberty is the greatest gift of our creator, in the belief that the liberty must be protected. And in the belief that as long as there is a United States of America – liberty and freedom must not, shall not perish from this earth.”
He was greeted with a standing ovation.

And from the Times:

Mr. Ashcroft’s impassioned appeals reflect concerns in the Justice Department about a growing bipartisan wariness in Congress about aspects of the law that some believe infringe on civil liberties. Yet the attorney general has made little effort to engage skeptics directly, sticking instead to a circuit of invitation-only speeches to law enforcement personnel.
Yesterday was no exception.
Under heavy security, Mr. Ashcroft addressed a muted audience of dark-suited prosecutors and other officials occupying a semicircle of folding chairs in the rotunda, while behind him on a stage sat about two dozen uniformed police officers. A large blue backdrop lined with American flags was erected against the towering columns, temporarily masking a display illustrating the history of the site [where The Bill of Rights was both written and adopted].
Spectators were banned from the rotunda balcony, whose ornate iron railing features about 50 figures of a topless woman gazing down on the proceedings below (Mr. Ashcroft famously had a half-naked statue of the Spirit of Justice covered up in his building, but the Greek Revival maidens in Federal Hall appear to have escaped notice.)
Mr. Ashcroft took no questions . . . .

No point. Tin ears.

coincidentally vegan

Two nights ago we enjoyed a vegan meal – at home. Of course there was wine, a Nebbiolo D’Alba.
I know, it doesn’t sound like our table, but I assure friends that it was a coincidence, if not an accident. While we were still enjoying the wonderful fruits of an early trip to the Union Square Greenmarket, for some reason it occurred to me that what we were eating was totally consistent with vegan principle. As it happens, this sort of meal was not an exception for us, since most of the time we find ourselves dining simply on some southern Italian arrangement of vegetables and pasta, and only occasionally do we include smallish amounts of fish or meat. Cheese however is a more regular visitor.
I’ve been omnivorous all of my life, while always respecting, even contmplating alternative approaches. I have to say however that among my most memorable negative experiences with food are the meals in the 60’s I shared with friends who virtually lived on brown rice and overcooked vegetables. The memory still gets in the way. But at least they were fond of the grape.
For us wine may be the ultimate argument against vegetarianism. Without traditional European foods, the wines developed in these meat, cheese and fish-eating cultures are usually just fermented grape juice. We like wine, and wine likes food.
The menu Monday evening:

Heirloom tomatoes, nestled close to a spray of purslane, both drizzled with olive oil and lightly sprinkled with fleur de sel
Crusty Puglian bread
___
Woodland Chanterelles sautéed in olive oil and garlic, on flat Italian noodles, and sprinkled with wild thyme.
Mixed peppery greens a with light Balsamic vinaigrette
___
Italian green grapes

Cheney’s horse and my wishes

I would like to believe that wishing makes it so, but Dick Cheney’s dis-invitation to the ceremonies marking the second anniversary of the World Trade Center disaster, as reported on NPR this morning, wasn’t my doing. The official excuse was the disruption which his security army would create for the event, but in reality the authorities in New York must have finally realized he was going to be booed – by the 9/11 families and probably most anyone else in the vicinity. That supposedly would have been a bad thing.
Instead of taking part in the main event, the appointed vice president is now scheduled to be meeting with a much smaller group of Port Authority, police and fire department people some time later in the afternoon at another location. They are obviously expected to be a friendlier audience, but were I in Cheney’s place, I wouldn’t count on it. Ashcroft didn’t take any chances when he spoke in New York yesterday. He picked commanding officers and lofty appointees for his own audience of civil servants.
So much for wishes and horses. Another dichotomy: Why is it that the officers of this administration don’t meet and talk to the people? Is it disdain or is it fear? Is it both? Barry remarked that the distance they maintain is unprecedented among modern vice presidents and cabinet secretaries. I think they don’t believe that there really are any “people.” I would add that the incredible character both of the origins of the administration and of its likely early demise should have suggested the pattern from the start. We are currently under a junta established by a coup, but we just might still have the ability to dump them all.
____________________

If wishes were horses,
Beggars would ride.
If turnips were watches,
I would wear one by my side.
And if ‘ifs’ and ‘ands,’
Were pots and pans,
There’d be no work for tinkers!
[traditional nursury rhyme, via Mom]

Bronx cheers for Ashcroft


New York patriot: and nobody’s stooge
Go here for a gallery of images from today’s demonstration at Federal Hall.
Years ago most of us would not have thought we’d ever find ourselves in a police barricade pen next to the Stock Exchange on Broad and Wall Streets demonstrating against U.S. fascism. But there we were this afternoon, and the real terror is that I don’t think this stuff surprises us now.
For two hours of a gorgeous late summer day in New York, a serious community of between two and three thousand people yelled, chanted and listened closely to dozens of speakers addressing them and, in absentia, the scary man who was lunching across the street.
John Ashcroft, the appointee of an appointed president, was addressing a closed-door meeting of invited high-level New York-area law enforcement officials as part of a national “tour” for his police state apparatus. The trips were designed to sell the administration’s extraordinary Justice Department agenda as it’s described in the original “Patriot” Act, in the terms of its expansive but still only proposed sequel, dubbed “Patriot” II, or in something called the “Victory” Act.
Ashcroft was speaking just a few blocks from the site of the World Trade Center, and the New York speech, delivered two days prior to the anniversary of its destruction, is supposedly the last in the series.
Not the least disturbing part of this affront to all republican and democratic decency and true patriotism was the fact that it took place in Federal Hall, the site of George Washington’s inauguration. It was on this plot that the United States Congress first met, and where it wrote and passed the Bill of Rights.
Like most everything done by this administration, everything about Ashcroft’s sales-trip visits, including the time, the location and the guest lists, are supposed to be kept secret from the American people. And yet, with only two days notice secured through irregular means, some 60 organizations were able to bring a very large and enthusiastic crowd of outraged New Yorkers to confront on their own turf this arrogant rogue government and its continuing and unprecedented attacks on civil liberties.
The reason for it was sobering enough for today’s oddly cheerful assembly, but the most chilling evidence of that necessity was the insult of so many machine-guns and attack-dogs held by so many of the armored special in our immediate vicinity, on the streets and sidewalks, on subway entrances, next to the heroic bronze of George Washinton on the steps of his place, and especially the stairs and the roof of the Memorial itself. The real terrorist was inside Federal Hall this afternoon.
Another country.
The unelected vice president, Dick Cheney, arrives here on Thursday to help us celebrate his party’s great day, and less than one year from now the big monkey himself will be accepting that gang’s nomination for a second appointment to misrule – in poor old, wounded, grieving but oh so grateful New York.
Well, serving them is not our agenda, and the Republicrats have to know that.
September 11 is nothing more than a political tool for these people, as is all of New York City itself, a place more removed from their world than any other part of the country.
We have to do something by which they will remember us elsewise – and if not fondly, well. “Well” will do very nicely.

Harvey Milk HS II: Milkies, you go!




For more images, from this morning, go here.
We returned to Astor Place just before 3 this afternoon, to help the kids as they left school – should they need it.
They didn’t, and it was both because the nuts mostly stayed away and because, as all who were there today learned, they can take care of themselves, especially if they have their community. These kids have seen a lot already, and maybe they don’t have to take it anymore.
Fred Phelps and his family have almost certainly left New York, to resume their ghoulish specialty thing of screaming at funerals of gay men all across the country. At 3 o’clock there were only three bible-thumpers in the Christianist’s police pen [one of them the hottie I described earlier].
For a while, slipping out of the police barricade, the younger two posted themselves across the street, on the sidewalk closer to the school doors. They continued their harangues there, just next to the press area. Four of us spotted them and took it upon ourselves to move there and insert ourselves and our signs in front of them and their bibles. As the kids left the building and some passed by us, our numbers eventually having swelled to 10 or so, we managed to out-shout even the ugly big one with our major cheering.
The police eventually persuaded the two to return to their original pigpen, where all three soon found themselves confronted by the kids themselves. Some were shouting from the south side, but many had crossed the street to investigate their antagonists and to confront them in arguments. Whether they learned anything or not, I think the cult guys were shocked. The shaved-head guy left early with his friend, but nothing seemed to discourage the last one, least of all his own stupidity.
I was stunned by the students’ style and, well, their surprisingly gentle humor and good will. The short photo series above is pretty decent witness.
Yes, the kids will be alright.
For more about this afternoon on Astor Place see Bloggy.

Reza across the Hudson


Reza in North Carolina, in the rain
Reza is in Newark today, and will be crossing the George Washington Bridge Thursday morning before running down the island to the World Trade Center site – where he has been told he is not welcome. I suspect that, like all decent people, he wouldn’t want to be around Dick Cheney anyway. Still, it seems a real shame.
This is from the email I received from Dave Hyslop, who is travelling with Reza:

On Thursday, Sep. 11th we will begin on the Jersey side of the bridge at 8:00 am. Anyone wishing to join Reza (the more the merrier) need only show up.
We’d like to cross the bridge and head down Broadway all the way to Ground Zero. Some have suggested the mix-use trail that runs along the Hudson River (I’d be open to anyone’s comments on that plan).
Access permitting Reza would like to get as close to the Ground Zero site as possible. We had requested from Mayor Bloomberg’s office that Reza be allowed to run into the ceremony, present a bouquet of flowers, pay his respects and then run out but were told that while Reza’s efforts were certainly commendable, surely we could see that this wouldn’t be appropriate at a ceremony like this.).
How many Middle Eastern people died that day?
Reza will have a private momemnt at Ground Zero and then run to Battery Park where there will be a reception at 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM (one hour) in the “Verrazzano Basque” section of the park. I’m told this is located between the “Castle Clinton Monument” and “East Coast Memorial.”

Reza has been accompanied by an orphaned, affectionate black dog since Arkansas. “Rocky” will be running with him. For more, see this website.