Friday, April 22, 2016
To one who was a true Prince by breaking convention in image and music. Most talented artist of our time. We all gently weep - and wail. It snowed in the early morning of April 21, 2016 when you died here in Minneapolis. Creation reclaimed its gift - lent to us for 57 short years. We all most grateful. Let Creation now resound with your music, now fully released.
Thursday, October 1, 2015
My detailed response to "The Pope and Kim Davis: Seven Points to Keep in Mind" in "America" Magazine
The Pope and Kim Davis: Seven Points to Keep in Mind by James Martian, S.J. in "America" Magazine: Click Here
A response to some of the points:
1. In none of the mentioned private meetings did the Pope reportedly sanctify discrimination;
2. Who cares how the meeting was arranged? This is a non-issue. The issue is that he publicly spoke about hospitality to LGBT people, while in private he reportedly sanctify discrimination against these same people;
3. Did the Pope not know much about the other people and groups he met with privately? If not, then these meetings are pointless and meaningless theater. An article by the editors in today’s online issue of “America” again defends the Pope by claiming he is not informed about the people he meets: “How much information they gave the pope is another question.” This article specifically states the following about the meeting with Ms. Davis: “And so I think one has to read these private meetings cautiously….the Vatican has said we are not going to deny the meeting took place, but they are…playing it down quite considerably, because this kind of event tends to get blown up by one side or another for their own political purposes. And the pope, we saw very strongly in his speech to the Congress, he wants to overcome the polarization.” (Ellipses not mine.) (See article here, October 1, 2015)
Decrying the reported sanctification of discrimination by the Pope is NOT serving a political purpose. It is serving the Gospel that condemns discrimination. And if the Pope wants to overcome polarization, then he had better take a long, deep look at himself (and “his” Church) and ask for forgiveness for the polarization they perpetuate around women and LGBT people;
4. Again, this is not about a liberal or conservative "political" agenda. It's about an article of faith called radical hospitality. Defending the Pope by citing that "the only source for what happened during the meeting is Ms. Davis" without telling us what the Pope ACTUALLY said is denying responsibility and hiding behind Ms. Davis' "skirt." Here is a video of Ms. Davis' lawyer detailing what was said in the meeting.
5. The Pope and others call Ms. Davis' situation a case of "conscientious objection," although the Pope did admit that “I can’t have in mind all cases that can exist about conscientious objection.” Perhaps he was not thinking about Ms. Davis in his comments about of conscientious objection. Yet, when asked by ABC News journalist, Terry Moran, “Would that include government officials as well?”, the Pope responded, "[Conscientious objection] is a human right and if a government official is a human person, he has that right. It is a human right.”
The Pope does not seem to understand the difference between being a conscientious objector to same-sex marriage and (in the US) STILL serving as a governmental official where that conscientious objection is illegal in her role (because it constitutes discrimination). The point has never been about Ms. Davis' objection; the point has always been that legally she cannot act on her conscientious objection based on her personal or religious beliefs when serving as a governmental official. The Pope, Ms. Davis, and the Jesuit author of the article do not understand this aspect of Section 1 of the 14th Amendment, as is evident in their statements;
6. This is not an issue about scoring political points! It's about illegal discrimination. Period.
7. The Pope did not have a private meeting with Mark Wahlberg, so that comparison is specious. The point that meeting with the Pope does not "validate everything" or "does not betoken a blanket blessing on 'everything' one does" contradicts point 5 where the Pope sanctified conscientious objection by a governmental official. See that transcript here.
Furthermore, of course "America," a magazine for the Catholic Church provided by the Society of Jesus, i.e., the Jesuits, has to defend the Pope wholeheartedly. To me at least, the reasoning in their defense of the Pope is thin and perfunctory, and it seems like an attempt to do an about-face on an event they are wish had never taken place.
Stop Defending the Pope and Call Out Those Who Put Him in an Untenable Situation
Full transcript of Pope Francis' inflight interview from Philadelphia to Rome at Catholic News Agency
Regarding the Pope and his visit with Kim Davis:
From the transcript:
Terry Moran, ABC News: "And, Holy Father, do you also support those individuals, including government officials, who say they cannot in good conscience, their own personal conscience, abide by some laws or discharge their duties as government officials, for example in issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples? Do you support those kinds of claims of religious liberty?"
Pope Francis: ”I can’t have in mind all cases that can exist about conscientious objection. But, yes, I can say conscientious objection is a right that is a part of every human right. It is a right. And if a person does not allow others to be a conscientious objector, he denies a right. Conscientious objection must enter into every juridical structure because it is a right, a human right...”
Terry Moran, ABC News: "Would that include government officials as well?"
Pope Francis: "It is a human right and if a government official is a human person, he has that right. It is a human right."
My Response:
Furthermore, if people wonder what occurred during the Pope's meeting with Ms. Davis, here is a link to a video by Ms. Davis' lawyer who details what was said during the meeting.
Regarding the Pope and his visit with Kim Davis:
From the transcript:
Terry Moran, ABC News: "And, Holy Father, do you also support those individuals, including government officials, who say they cannot in good conscience, their own personal conscience, abide by some laws or discharge their duties as government officials, for example in issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples? Do you support those kinds of claims of religious liberty?"
Pope Francis: ”I can’t have in mind all cases that can exist about conscientious objection. But, yes, I can say conscientious objection is a right that is a part of every human right. It is a right. And if a person does not allow others to be a conscientious objector, he denies a right. Conscientious objection must enter into every juridical structure because it is a right, a human right...”
Terry Moran, ABC News: "Would that include government officials as well?"
Pope Francis: "It is a human right and if a government official is a human person, he has that right. It is a human right."
My Response:
This dialogue makes clear that the Pope does NOT understand that in the United States, a government official CANNOT act upon their "conscientious objections" while discharging their duties, because, as in the case of Ms. Davis, it is an act of discrimination - an act that is against Section 1 of the 14th Amendment. Stop defending him and call him out on his ignorance or the ignorance of the people who put him in this untenable situation.
Furthermore, if people wonder what occurred during the Pope's meeting with Ms. Davis, here is a link to a video by Ms. Davis' lawyer who details what was said during the meeting.
Monday, November 24, 2014
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Monday, October 6, 2014
"Justice for Mike Brown is Justice for Us All: Which Side are You On?"
Note: I wish the protestors had stayed for the entire Requiem.
Published on Oct 4, 2014
Video and story by Rebecca Rivas
Reporter/video editor
St. Louis American newspaper
Twitter - @rebeccarivas
"Just after intermission, about 50 people disrupted the St. Louis Symphony’s performance of Brahms Requiem on Saturday night, singing 'Justice for Mike Brown'.As symphony conductor Markus Stenz stepped to the podium to begin the second act of German Requiem, one middle-aged African-American man stood up in the middle of the theater and sang, 'What side are you on friend, what side are you on?' In an operatic voice, another woman located a few rows away stood up and joined him singing, 'Justice for Mike Brown is justice for us all'. Several more audience members sprinkled throughout the theater and in the balcony rose up and joined in the singing.
Those in the balcony lowered white banners about 15 feet long with black spray-painted letters that said, 'Requiem for Mike Brown 1996-2014' and 'Racism lives here', with an arrow pointed to a picture of the St. Louis Arch. Another banner said, 'Rise up and join the movement.'Stenz stood stoically and listened to the demonstrators’ performance. Some onlookers were outraged and start spewing expletives. Others stood up and started clapping. Most seemed stunned and simply watched.
The singing only went on for about two minutes before the demonstrators started chanting, 'Black lives matter’. They pulled up their banners and dropped red paper hearts over the edge of the balcony onto the main floor orchestra seats, which stated ‘Requiem for Mike Brown’. Then they all voluntarily marched out together and left the theater. While they marched out, they received a round of applause from many of the audience members – as well as the musicians on stage.
Outside, symphony administrators huddled together discussing the demonstration, expressing dismay. When asked if they wanted to comment, they said no. The demonstrators had purchased tickets to the concert.
The St. Louis American tracked down and interviewed the organizer of the event – Sarah Griesbach, 42, a white woman who lives in the Central West End. She said that the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed teen who was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, has opened her eyes to the inequalities that exist in St. Louis. She has been protesting since Brown was shot on Aug. 9, [2014].
'It is my duty and desire to try to reach out and raise that awareness peacefully but also to disrupt the blind [sic] state of white St. Louis, particularly among the people who are secure in their blindness [sic],' Griesbach said.
She and her fellow protester Elizabeth Vega decided to try ... at the symphony, which received a much warmer response. She believes that is because the audience was fairly diverse in ethnicity and age.
'There is an inclusivity that comes with that intellectual culture,' she said.
The group of demonstrators was also a mix of African Americans, Latino and white residents – from college kids to college professors, she said. There were 'representatives' from Clayton, Webster Groves, South St. Louis, Central West End, and Ferguson. Although she lives in the Central West End, her children attend school in Clayton. As a mother, she has been deeply affected by Brown’s death.
'This cannot be just a Ferguson issue’, she said.
The St. Louis American got in touch with Erika Ebsworth-Goold, publicist for the St. Louis Symphony, on Sunday afternoon. She said the musical piece that the demonstrators chose was appropriate because it is meant to 'lift up the people who were left in time of tragedy'.
She did not feel the group interrupted the performance but ‘delayed’ it, she said.
'The people audience had respect for what we were do at the symphony, and we are appreciative of that', she said.
Organizer Elizabeth Vega said the group prefers to call it a ‘disruption’, rather than a delay.
'Many of us are artists ourselves, so we were very cognizant to not interrupt the performance after it had already began,’ Vega said. ‘But we still wanted it to be a disruption that left people with a seed of thought.'”
Reporter/video editor
St. Louis American newspaper
Twitter - @rebeccarivas
"Just after intermission, about 50 people disrupted the St. Louis Symphony’s performance of Brahms Requiem on Saturday night, singing 'Justice for Mike Brown'.As symphony conductor Markus Stenz stepped to the podium to begin the second act of German Requiem, one middle-aged African-American man stood up in the middle of the theater and sang, 'What side are you on friend, what side are you on?' In an operatic voice, another woman located a few rows away stood up and joined him singing, 'Justice for Mike Brown is justice for us all'. Several more audience members sprinkled throughout the theater and in the balcony rose up and joined in the singing.
Those in the balcony lowered white banners about 15 feet long with black spray-painted letters that said, 'Requiem for Mike Brown 1996-2014' and 'Racism lives here', with an arrow pointed to a picture of the St. Louis Arch. Another banner said, 'Rise up and join the movement.'Stenz stood stoically and listened to the demonstrators’ performance. Some onlookers were outraged and start spewing expletives. Others stood up and started clapping. Most seemed stunned and simply watched.
The singing only went on for about two minutes before the demonstrators started chanting, 'Black lives matter’. They pulled up their banners and dropped red paper hearts over the edge of the balcony onto the main floor orchestra seats, which stated ‘Requiem for Mike Brown’. Then they all voluntarily marched out together and left the theater. While they marched out, they received a round of applause from many of the audience members – as well as the musicians on stage.
Outside, symphony administrators huddled together discussing the demonstration, expressing dismay. When asked if they wanted to comment, they said no. The demonstrators had purchased tickets to the concert.
The St. Louis American tracked down and interviewed the organizer of the event – Sarah Griesbach, 42, a white woman who lives in the Central West End. She said that the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed teen who was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, has opened her eyes to the inequalities that exist in St. Louis. She has been protesting since Brown was shot on Aug. 9, [2014].
'It is my duty and desire to try to reach out and raise that awareness peacefully but also to disrupt the blind [sic] state of white St. Louis, particularly among the people who are secure in their blindness [sic],' Griesbach said.
She and her fellow protester Elizabeth Vega decided to try ... at the symphony, which received a much warmer response. She believes that is because the audience was fairly diverse in ethnicity and age.
'There is an inclusivity that comes with that intellectual culture,' she said.
The group of demonstrators was also a mix of African Americans, Latino and white residents – from college kids to college professors, she said. There were 'representatives' from Clayton, Webster Groves, South St. Louis, Central West End, and Ferguson. Although she lives in the Central West End, her children attend school in Clayton. As a mother, she has been deeply affected by Brown’s death.
'This cannot be just a Ferguson issue’, she said.
The St. Louis American got in touch with Erika Ebsworth-Goold, publicist for the St. Louis Symphony, on Sunday afternoon. She said the musical piece that the demonstrators chose was appropriate because it is meant to 'lift up the people who were left in time of tragedy'.
She did not feel the group interrupted the performance but ‘delayed’ it, she said.
'The people audience had respect for what we were do at the symphony, and we are appreciative of that', she said.
Organizer Elizabeth Vega said the group prefers to call it a ‘disruption’, rather than a delay.
'Many of us are artists ourselves, so we were very cognizant to not interrupt the performance after it had already began,’ Vega said. ‘But we still wanted it to be a disruption that left people with a seed of thought.'”
Saturday, August 23, 2014
Technology is Driving me Batty - Updated August 23, 2014
I use to love
technology. Now, it is the bane of my existence. For example, I have a
twenty-two (yes, that is 22!) page password-protected document of all my
user names and passwords. This document keeps growing in length for I
have to update this document since websites are always asking me to
change my password... Or the old password suddenly no longer works and I
have to generate a new password... Or I am trying to log into
Yahoo/Flickr and I have to change my password every single time. I do
use LastPass as my password manager, which worked seamlessly with
Firefox - until Firefox became unusable (see below). Even though I have
downloaded the LastPass version for Safari, Safari refuses to load it,
giving me an error notice that LastPass is not compatible with Safari.
Oh, give me a break!
I
am waiting for the iPhone 6s to come out. My iPhone 4s, although dated
and slow, still serves me well. My iPhone 4s is only two years old. That
makes it a toddler, not a senior citizen - except in the tech world
where two years is ancient. I resent the money we have to pour into our
tech gadgets because their expiration date is two short years.
Just
this week, I opened a new LaCie Porsche 2 TB external HD I ordered from
Apple. It worked great the next day at Apple's Genius bar, where I
learned how to setup TimeMachine (I know, shame on me for not doing this
eons before). I went home, took the HD out of my laptop case, plugged
it in, and it was dead. I tried eight different sockets. Yes, it was
dead dead dead. Of course, I now have to return it - not to Apple! - but
to the original manufacturer at my expense.
I
also resent all the updates to apps, operating systems, and browsers. I
use to be hooked on Firefox, scorning Safari on my MAC. Then Mozilla
decided to upgrade Firefox almost weekly, and now it loads pages like
molasses. It removed the option to have the tabs on the bottom of the
header, so I now have an add-in that restores Firefox to the classic
view. Now, that's ridiculous... Furthermore, the latest update removed
my favorites bar and all the favicons. Now, Firefox is useless. I now
run Safari, which is less secure but smooth - even though I have to go
into preferences every time before I exit Safari and delete all the web
pages stored in the browser AND also run NetShredX after Safari has
closed, which cleans up the tons of trash Safari leaves on my MAC. For
years, Firefox was an excellent browser, yet, yes, they had to "update"
it and make it useless.
Honestly,
I am frightened by the upcoming release of iOS 8 for
iPhone/iPad/iTouch. I disliked the upgrade to iOS 7 - it lacked
aesthetic dimension, plus it was buggy. My totally operational iTouch,
which works perfectly fine, yet cannot (according to Apple) update to
iOS 7. When I tried to update my apps on my iTouch, many become
inoperable because the "upgraded" apps were for iOS 7 - so I have
stopped updating all my iTouch apps - and I am perfectly happy to have
them run in a so-called antiquated iOS. I know that when iOS 8 is
released, I will wait to upgrade my iPhone/iPad until the bugs have been
exterminated, and I know that iOS 8 will be compatible with my apps.
I use to love technology. Now it is more a bane than a blessing.
Monday, April 7, 2014
Saturday, November 17, 2012
The Experience of Time by Myron & Hester
Myron & Hester on Vimeo
Myron & Hester from Martin Stirling on Vimeo.
Based on Radio Lab episode on Time, 2010.
Myron & Hester from Martin Stirling on Vimeo.
Based on Radio Lab episode on Time, 2010.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Saturday, October 20, 2012
UnAmerican Activities
In this political season of over-the-top hyper-rhetoric, discerning any "truthfulness" seems a waste of time. Yet, I'd rather take this atmosphere than any form of censorship - except for exclusive and hateful religious statements - such as the Ten Commandments in a courtroom.
This photo was take a few years ago in Duluth, Minnesota at the Electric Fetus music and "purveyor of unique gifts" store.
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