Victoria

“Utah Phillips Has Left the Stage”
By Amy Goodman

“Utah” Phillips died this week at the age of 73. He was a musician, labor organizer, peace activist and co-founder of his local homeless shelter. He also was an archivist, a historian and a traveler, playing guitar and singing almost forgotten songs of the dispossessed and the downtrodden, and keeping alive the memory of labor heroes like Emma Goldman, Joe Hill and the Industrial Workers of the World, “the Wobblies,” in a society that too soon forgets.

Born Bruce Duncan Phillips on May 15, 1935, in Cleveland, by his midteens he was riding the rails. He told me of those days in an interview in 2004. By then, he was slowed down by congestive heart failure. His long, white beard flowed over his bow tie, plaid shirt and vest. We sat in a cramped attic of a pirate radio station that was frequently raided by federal authorities. In the early days, he met old-timers, “old, old alcoholics who could only shovel gravel. But they knew songs.”

In 1956, he joined the Army and got sent to postwar Korea. What he saw there changed him forever: “Life amid the ruins. Children crying—that’s the memory of Korea. Devastation. I saw an elegant and ancient culture in a small Asian country devastated by the impact of cultural and economic imperialism. Well, that’s when I cracked. I said: ‘I can’t do this anymore. You know, this is all wrong. It all has to change. And the change has to begin with me.’”

After three years in the Army, he went back to the state that earned him his nickname, Utah. There he met Ammon Hennacy, a radical pacifist, who had started the Joe Hill House in Salt Lake City, inspired by the Catholic Worker movement. Hennacy guided Utah Phillips toward pacifism. Utah recalled: “Ammon came to me one day and said, ‘You’ve got to be a pacifist.’ And I said, ‘How’s that?’ He said, ‘Well, you act out a lot. You use a lot of violent behavior.’ And I was. You know, I was very angry. ‘You’re not just going to lay down guns and fists and knives and hard angry words. You’re going to have to lay down the weapons of privilege and go into the world completely disarmed.’ If there’s one struggle that animates my life, it’s probably that one.”

Utah’s pacifism drove him to run for the U.S. Senate in 1968 on the Peace and Freedom ticket, taking a leave of absence from his civil-service job: “I was a state archivist—and ran a full campaign, 27 counties. We took 6,000 votes in Utah. But when it was over, my job would vanish, and I couldn’t get work anymore in Utah.”

Thus began his 40 years in “the trade,” a traveling, working musician: “The trade is a fine, elegant, beautiful, very fruitful trade. In that trade, I can make a living and not a killing.” He eschewed the commercial music industry, once telling Johnny Cash, who wanted to record a number of Utah’s songs: “I don’t want to contribute anything to that industry. I can’t fault you for what you’re doing. I admire what you do. But I can’t feed that dragon … think about dollars as bullets.” He eventually partnered with one of the most successful independent musicians in the U.S., Ani DiFranco, who created her own label, Righteous Babe Records. Their collaborative work was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Utah Phillips was a living bridge, keeping the rich history of labor struggles alive. He told me: “The long memory is the most radical idea in America. That long memory has been taken away from us. You haven’t gotten it in your schools. You’re not getting it on your television. You’re being leapfrogged from one crisis to the next. Mass media contributed to that by taking the great movements that we’ve been through and trivializing important events. No, our people’s history is like one long river. It flows down from way over there. And everything that those people did and everything they lived flows down to me, and I can reach down and take out what I need, if I have the courage to go out and ask questions.” On his radio show “Loafer’s Glory,” he once said, work on this planet has been to remember.”

A week before he died, Utah Phillips wrote in a public letter to his family and friends: “The future? I don’t know. Through all of it, up and down, it’s the song. It’s always been the song.”

Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on 650 stations in North America. Her third book, “Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times,” was published in April 2008.

Filed under Weekly Column

I always thought I'd get along with the arty type of people...Why is it though that there are so many pretenious arty people in their early 20s. The ones that think they are so much better then everyone, so "different" yet if you don't fit THEIR mold, then they don't want anything to do with you?

I need help with my cats.

Back story:

I had miss Gwyn and adopted her when she was one to two years old. After about a year I thought she needed a friend and company so I wanted to get a kitten.

So I did.
The kitten is now one years old and they both still hate eachother. Plus the kitten now scratches up my carpet (in my apartment which I'll probably have to pay for), wakes me up at night and jumps on my other cat pissing her off.

Now she is extremely friendly, almost too much. I have tried stern talking, spraying with water bottles, nothing. She doesn't care. Repeats, repeats, repeats. It's stressing me out and driving me crazy.

I don't know what to do. When I looked on line I saw that they stated two options: get rid of the kitten, or get another kitten so they can play with eachother. Option two is not an option at the moment.

So I was going to have my friend watch the little one and see how they interact without eachother.

Is there anything else to try though? I mean it's a constant struggle and the young cat does not respond to anything you do. It's like you disaplining her doesn't go through her head. And, I WILL NOT declaw. not an option. I'd actually rather give her to someone else then declaw.

Grown Up Survey
Monday, July 23, 2007, 10:37 AM CST [General]

Here are 50 questions for the people who are a little more "mature"...
1. What bill do you hate paying the most?
phone
2. Where was the last place you had a romantic dinner?
--mexican restaurant
3. Do you regret losing your virginity to who you lost it to?
no
4. If you could go back and change one thing what would it be?
-nothing in particular, I try not to have regrets
5. Name of your first grade teacher?
Mrs Goodrow
6. What do you really want to be doing right now?
going to the beach
7. What did you want to be when you were growing up?
An artist
8. How many colleges did you attend?
two, now will be three as I go back
9. Why did you choose the shirt that you have on right now?
it was the warmest and on the top
10. GAS PRICES?
--ridiculous, we need more public transportation
11. If you could move anywhere and take someone with you, where would it be, and who would you take?
--Europe and Pierre
12. First thought when the alarm went off this morning?
I’m still tired because my cat always wakes me up early
13. Last thought before going to sleep last night?
Tomorrow I have to go to work…
14. Favorite style of underwear?
bikini
16. What errand/chore do you despise?
dusting
17. If you didn't have to work, would you volunteer?
Yes
18. Get up early or sleep in?
early, I like being productive in the morning
19. What is your favorite cartoon character?
--not sure
20. Favorite thing to do at night with a girl/guy?
--cuddle
21. Have you found real love yet?
--yes
22. When did you first start feeling old?
--When people who aren’t that much younger then me, go you’re THAT old (I’m only in my early 20s)
23. Favorite 80's movie?
Back to the Future, Willow
24. Your favorite lunch meat?
vegetarian
25. What do you get every time you go into Sam's Club?
---gum
26. Beach or lake?
--lake
27. Do you think marriage is an outdated ritual?
--many times, although it’s ever changing and needs to change for everyone’s lifestyle
29. Favorite guilty pleasure?
--ice cream
30. Favorite movie you wouldn't want anyone to find out about?
---2gether
31. What's your drink?
water, if alcohol then long island’s
32. Cowboy's or Indian's?
--indians
33. Cops or Robbers?
---robbers
34. Who from high school would you like to run into?
--steve
35. What radio station is your car radio tuned to right now?
---92.1
37. The Cosby Show or The Simpson—the simpsons
38. Worst relationship mistake that you wish you could take back?
--letting someone get the best of me
39. Do you like the person who sits directly across from you at work?
--no one does
40. What famous person would you like to have dinner with?--Starhawk
43. Have you ever had to use a fire extinguisher for its intended purpose?
--nope
44. Last book you read for real?
The Thirteenth Tale
45. Do you have a teddy bear?
no, I have stuffed dogies
46. Strangest place you have ever brushed your teeth?
--outside, or in the bedroom
47. Somewhere in California you've never been and would like to go?
--San Francisco
49. At this point in your life would you rather start a new career or a new relationship?
--new career

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/us/16wiccan.html?_r=1&oref=slogin


Wiccans Keep the Faith With a Religion Under Wraps
DUMFRIES, Va. — Above the woman’s fireplace hangs her wedding picture, taken in a Lutheran church years ago. Below it, on the mantelpiece, is a small Wiccan altar: two candles, a tiny cauldron, four stones to represent the elements of nature and a small amethyst representing her spirit.

Enlarge This Image

Stephanie Kuykendal for The New York Times
A pagan family’s altar. Wicca, a form of paganism, celebrates the divine in nature. But its symbols and practices elicit suspicion from outsiders.
The wedding portrait is always there. But whenever someone comes to visit, the woman sweeps the altar away. Raised Southern Baptist in Virginia and now a stay-at-home mother of two in this Washington suburb, she has told almost no one — not her relatives, her friends or the other mothers in her children’s playgroups — that she is Wiccan.

Among the most popular religions to have flowered since the 1960s, Wicca — a form of paganism — still faces a struggle for acceptance, experts on the religion and Wiccans themselves said. In April, Wiccans won an important victory when the Department of Veterans Affairs settled a lawsuit and agreed to add the Wiccan pentacle to a list of approved religious symbols that it will engrave on veterans’ headstones.

But Wicca in the civilian world is largely a religion in hiding. Wiccans fear losing their friends and jobs if people find out about their faith.

“I would love to be able to say ‘Accept us for who we are,’ but I can’t, mainly because of my kids,” said the suburban mother, who agreed to talk only on the condition of anonymity. “Children can be cruel, and their parents can be even more cruel, and I don’t want my kids picked on for the choice their mommy made.”

She worries that because most people know little about Wicca, they will assume she worships Satan. She fears that her family and friends will abandon her and that the community will ostracize her.

David Steinmetz, professor of the history of Christianity at Duke Divinity School, said, “Wiccans have so many things stacked against them, from what the Bible says about the practice of magic to the history in this country of witch trials, that the image of them adds up to something so contrary to the consensus about genuine religion that still shapes American society.”

Wiccans worship the divine in nature. Some practice it privately in their homes, and others worship with large congregations. Most people do not grow up Wiccan but come to it from another religion.

“It’s a very open religion,” said Helen A. Berger, a sociology professor at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. “Each person can do what they want, and they don’t have to belong to a group. They take things from a number of different sources, like Eastern religions, Celtic practices. You are the ultimate authority of your own experience.”

But its symbols and practices elicit suspicion from outsiders, Wiccans and religion scholars say.

Many Wiccans practice some form of magic or witchcraft, which they say is a way of affecting one’s destiny, but which many outsiders see as evil. The Wiccan pentacle, a five-pointed star inside a circle, is often confused with symbols of Satanism. (The five points of the star represent the elements of nature — earth, air, fire and water — and the spirit, within the eternal circle of life.)

It is unclear how many Wiccans and other pagans there are. The 2001 American Religious Identification Survey by the City University of New York found that Wicca was the country’s fastest-growing religion, with 134,000 adherents, compared with 8,000 in 1990. The actual number may be greater, Ms. Berger said. Some people may have been unwilling to identify themselves as pagan or Wiccan for the survey. Others combine paganism with other religions.

Wiccans face less backlash now than in the past. The Internet provides information about Wicca, and the popularity of the Harry Potter novels has made magic seem a force for good, scholars and Wiccans say.

David and Jeanet Ewing, coordinators of two pagan groups in the Washington area, estimate that at least 1,000 Wiccans and other pagans live in Northern Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. At least half actively hide their faith from their relatives, Ms. Ewing said. Many also hide their faith from their employers, Mr. Ewing said.

One such person is a 58-year-old former Roman Catholic who has been an auditor for 30 years in what he calls “one of the most buttoned-down departments in one of the most sacrosanct agencies” of the federal government.

“I put on this Joe Taxpayer suit, and it’s like living two lives,” he said. “A minority would have a problem with me, but it would be a big problem. They would assume we are doing weird things, illegal, immoral things, at all hours. They wouldn’t want to really know what we do, but they would go with their presuppositions instead.”

The auditor said that by “coming out of the broom closet,” he risked ostracism at work and perhaps being pushed into early retirement, which would affect his pension. “I don’t even want to contemplate it,” he said.

A New York marketing executive finds the city so secular that being passionate about religion is often met with a smirk, and it would be worse if people knew he was Wiccan, he said. “In my personal and private life, I like to be taken seriously,” he said. “Pagans are associated with the ’70s and hippies and counterculture. New York is a Type A city, and it’s all about getting ahead, and the kooky ones don’t get ahead.”

Members of other religions, including Jews and Catholics, have sometimes been forced to mask their faith in the past because of religious bias, Professor Steinmetz said. But it is rare, he added, for people to keep their religion from parents and grandparents, as many Wiccans do.

The Virginia mother has not told her mother or grandmother that she is a Wiccan. “I have a deep-seated fear that they will say, ‘I can’t be a part of this, you’re raising your kids as evil,’ ” she said.

She attends classes about Wicca on Friday nights, and she has yet to caution her older child, a preschooler, not to tell anyone about them.

“My son says, ‘Yeah, Mommy’s going to witch school,’ ” she said. “I’m just waiting for the day he says that in front of a teacher.”

You scored as III - The Empress. The Empress is a maternal symbol. She is the mother figure who loves, nurtures and protects. She will protect you, she will always be there when you are in trouble. When you fall over and graze your knee, the Empress will kiss it better. Yet she is not a weak figure. Her compassion is strength. If her children are threatened she will stop at nothing to protect them. If well aspected in a Tarot spread, the Empress can symbolise security, protection and unconditional love. If badly aspected it can represent over-protectiveness, fear of risk taking and refusal to face the real world. </td> III - The Empress 75% XIII: Death 75% XV: The Devil 69% IV - The Emperor 69% I - Magician 63% XI: Justice 63% X - Wheel of Fortune 56% II - The High Priestess 50% 0 - The Fool 50% VIII - Strength 50% XVI: The Tower 44% VI: The Lovers 31% XIX: The Sun 31% Which Major Arcana Tarot Card Are You? created with QuizFarm.com

Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better.

--Sydney J.

i've been so out of it this week but for some reason it's making things seem ever so slightly better...

I have been completely consumed with school and work.

I have not slept for more than 4 hours for the past three weeks and I'm going crazy.

The one decent thing is that I'm going to see Regina Spector tonight; bad thing is I have to leave work early when I already have no money and drive over an hour away to see here. that means I'll get home late and again get no sleep.

Hopefully it's fun thought I've never been to this concert place and setting is when you get there.

I hung up the phone and screamed. I really can not believe the things people do sometimes.


To offshoot my serverly pissed off self, I've been listening to a lot of Marvin Gaye.

I can't help it, but I'm totally not feeling Christmas this year.

Maybe because I don't follow the Christian faith, but more of the facts that it's like 40 degrees and warm out, people only care about how much money they spend on eachother, and the lack of Christmas music I've been hearing.

Do you ever feel like everyone is slipping away from you and you are just sitting back, watching it all happen?

I know Walmart is massive and taking over everything but this statistics freaked me out:

"TERRY MCNALLY: You supplied the statistic -- if it were a country, Wal-Mart would rank as the 20th largest economy. Any idea what countries rank below it?

JOHN DICKER: It's bigger than Ireland, Sweden and Israel."

Your Linguistic Profile:

45% Yankee

40% General American English

10% Upper Midwestern

5% Dixie

0% Midwestern

THE ULTIMATE SILENCE
October 12, 1998



Six years ago today, Matthew Shepard was murdered for being homosexual.

What will you do to end the silence?

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