REFLECTIONS ON LIFE – SEPT 2019

ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED

(See end of Reflections for Liz’ current episode on Howard Community College’s podcast, Dragon Radio)

REFLECTIONS ON HOME IN COLUMBIA

With the advent of autumn come many changes in the daily views and habits of the flora and fauna visible from the windows and decks of our beloved home.

At daybreak I now usually see large deer, accompanied by some of their fawns, walking along the tall grass around the edge of the pond below the small deck off of our bedroom. They eat rapidly, as if they know the days are numbered before our HOA will execute the annual fall trimming around the two ponds.

After living in our home for more than 25 years, Lloyd and I have added a small table with two chairs on the ground floor deck in the rear of our townhouse.  We frequently sit there before dinner having a glass of wine.  It is amazing how deeply this view differs from the one off the main floor deck where for years we have shared that pre-dinner glass.  It is as if we are participants in the coming of evening, rather than simply observers.  We notice the fading daylight as early as 5pm. Very near us, as we sit at our new small table, birds dart quietly about from garden to tree branch, to the adjacent fountain as if they have suddenly realized the sun is going down.  Butterflies flutter silently very nearby.  Squirrels jump and spring acrobatically from pine branch to tree limbs, some trees already bare of leaves.  A lone tall grey heron stalks along the far side of the pond. The smooth black water of that pond catches the bright yellow reflection of the leaves on the tall adjacent poplar.  Bullfrogs commence their deep nighttime groaning.

I recall my Mom’s words when I visited her for lunch one day when she was in her late 80’s.  Speaking about her observation of nightfall on a recent evening she said:  “Elizabeth, I felt like I almost knew something”.  Yes, Mom.  I now know what you meant.

It has now been five years since I left public life, having held elected office for roughly 35 years.  One of the luxuries I have enjoyed during those five years is meeting up with a friend or two in one of the lovely coffee shops within a few minutes drive from our home.  On most days I share my first cup of coffee (on some days I have a second) with Lloyd.  Without fail, he always wants to go to the same coffee shop – Dunkin Donuts in the Harper’s Choice Village Center very close to our home.  In the early months of retirement, this was a concession on my part.  I preferred independent coffee shops, but this seemed like a good place for me to compromise a little and build up some chits to get “my way” on a choice of restaurant for an occasional dinner, for example.

Five years having passed, I cannot even begin to imagine our having morning coffee anywhere else.  Whenever it is available – and it usually is – we sit at the small tall table with high stools furthest from the door where the ordering line commences.  Every customer passes by that table on the way to place their order at the counter.  Five years ago, on most days we recognized a few of the customers as they walked by.  Then as time passed, we recognized more and more in gradually increasing numbers.  Now, virtually all the customers who pass say “hi”, many calling us by name, Liz and Lloyd. There several dozen “regulars” like us, and then there are many who show up from time to time.  Frequently, someone passing by “our” table will ask me a question about government or public policy.  I usually reply with a very brief comment.  No one has ever tried to monopolize my time.  

All of the above plus the warm and friendly staff give “our” coffee shop a feel somewhat of a mini United Nations as Lloyd and I read and discuss The Washington Post there each morning. 

REFLECTIONS ON ZACH

Zach’s dad, John, and his sister, Julia, returned home from their six-day hike in California in the mountains above Yosemite.  As Julia relates the adventure, it sounds much more like mountain climbing than hiking to Lloyd and me, and very serious mountain climbing at that.  She described miles and miles of narrow paths along the huge granite mountain in the Sierra Madre chain.  They hiked, each carrying 40 lbs. of equipment, with little but a shear drop thousands of feet to the majestic valley below.  They slept together in a small tent, as did Zach’s friend and his dad who accompanied them. I’m sure that Zach’s indomitable spirit was with them all the way.

I am in awe of Julia’s courage.  I also realize, as always, that she had the model of the amazing courage her brother exuded while facing the end of his young life on this earth.  I intentionally conjured up images of their hiking many times each day.  They were unable to communicate home unless there was an emergency for which their guide carried a satellite phone. Fortunately, it was not needed.  Julia and her Dad are back home where she works for the Zaching Against Cancer Foundation based here in Columbia.  That foundation is now doing great work in concert with numerous hospitals in Maryland and beyond, helping families of kids living with cancer. You may find it inspiring to check out their website.

REFLECTIONS ON BALTIMORE, MY HOME TOWN

Following a strong and lengthy disagreement between the management of the acclaimed Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and its very talented, dedicated musicians, a wage settlement has finally been reached.  

Their first concert of the season will be held today at the Meyerhof! Hallelujah!

Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”

REFLECTIONS ON PUBLIC POLICY

HOWARD COUNTY

As Howard moves forward on proposed changes in the geographic boundary lines for our county’s public school districts. I believe it would be wise for all of us to keep in mind the following quote of James Rouse, legendary founder of our new town of Columbia, Maryland:  “I want to build a town where the CEO and the janitor live in the same community.”  He did, and Columbia thrived.

STATE OF MARYLAND

The Baltimore Sun                                                              September 26, 2019

“Juul to stop advertising e-cigarettes in US

Company replaces CEO amid backlash over illnesses, deaths.”

By Matthew Perrone and Michele Chapman   AP

About ten years ago I was the lead sponsor on the first bill introduced in the Maryland Legislature to ban the sale of E-cigarettes in our state.  Not surprisingly, the bill did not pass into law.  It did get a long, deep, strong effort underway to ban this clearly dangerous product.

            

U.S.A.

The Washington Post                                                              September 20, 2019

“Helping our disappearing birds”                                            by Michael Parr

This Op Ed by the president of the American Bird Conservancy loudly and clearly sounds the alarm by describing the massive and unsustainable declines in our bird populations.  Parr says, “We can choose to act on “ the data or not. This is a genuine crisis, yet there is still time to turn it around.”

REFLECTIONS ON OUR PLANET BEYOND THE UNITED STATES

The Baltimore Sun                                                                September 6, 2019

“Unknown John Locke work discovered at college library

Philosopher’s manuscript found in Annapolis archives” By Naomi Harris

Although St. John’s College is located in Annapolis, Maryland, the birth of this manuscript took place in England, where Locke was born during the early 17^th century.   “It’s … an unusual find in one of the nation’s oldest colleges in a state with deep Catholic roots.”  Locke is “credited with the concept of separating church and state”.

St. John’s is located very near Maryland’s State Capitol and adjacent to the Legislative Services Building.  During my 20 years representing legislative district 12B comprised mainly of West Columbia, on more than a few occasions I attended lectures or art exhibits or legislative programs in the college.  My uncle, Lawrence Monnett, my mom’s brother, had attended and graduated from St. John’s, and I had been very impressed by his book collection and scholarly ways.  Looking back, I believe that was one of the influences that led me to major in literature.

In checking out some of Locke’s best known quotes, I came upon the following which I believe can be helpful to us citizens of the U.S.A. during these very troubling times. “What worries you, masters you.”

HAITI

Columbia now has a productive Sister City relationship in Haiti with Tema, a beautiful town on the northern coast of the island.  I write below of another part of Haiti, which I have visited.

When she entered her eighties, my mom befriended a young Catholic priest who came to serve in her parish church, Father Richard Frechette. They shared a deep interest in good literature and spiritual philosophy.  After a few years, Father Richard sought and obtained an assignment in Haiti.  He returned to participate in my Mom’s funeral.  Years later he came to Zach’s home to pray with Zach’s family shortly before our grandson’s death.  These visits meant so much to us.

After a few years, Fr. Richard believed he had to do more in Haiti than minister to the people.  He returned to New York and became a doctor.

One need not read deeply into today’s news to know that Haiti continues to go through very difficult times filled with hostility, hatred, and harm to many, particularly that island’s many people living in abject poverty.  I visited Haiti with a group of Unitarians five years ago.  Father Richard and I had planned to get together, but he was called to an emergency with a child who had lost a leg in a fishing boat accident.  Father Richard is in great demand in Port au Prince where he operates two hospitals and several schools.  His schools are one of Lloyd and my major financial donation recipients each year.

Not much more than a month ago, Father Richard visited the St. Joseph’s Monastery parish in west Baltimore.  This is where he and my mom met years ago.  Having received word of his visit from a mutual friend, Lloyd and went in to hear him say mass, replete with a sermon about life in Haiti.  A few times each year Father Richard sends out a message about his life and work in Haiti.  I am including below a message I received from him last week.  I deliberated on whether to do so because the events and conditions he describes are almost too horrid to read and believe. Ultimately I decided to share it because I believe it’s important for the world to know what this man is doing with his life.  Perhaps it will inspire me, and per chance some of you, to do more.

Dear friends,

For the last year and a half especially (not to mention the last 400 years), the Haitian people have been suffering deep political and social upheavals, often violent, caused by the decreased value of the local currency by half, and increased cost of living by a quarter.

Do the death math.

With whatever meager income you have (for the vast majority of the people here, this is still less than $800 per year), you can now afford 25% of what you used to be able to buy.

People cannot live like this.

In addition, the severe shortages of fuel, the scandal over the funds that subsidized fuel, and the frequent and violent blocking of the roads, bring dramatic challenges to every single person in Haiti without exception.

Imagine some of these challenges for a hospital, a religious mission, or a benevolent organization.

For a hospital, a first issue is what to do with your trash, when the professional company that is licensed to safely dispose of infectious and dangerous waste, is weeks delinquent in their trash collection, because of the scarcity of fuel, and the

violence. I won’t press your imagination, but I will say I have never seen so many maggots in my life.

A more urgent problem for us for the past 10 days has been, what do we do with our decaying dead (mostly children, by far) when we have surpassed both the limits of space in refrigeration, and the outer time limit that refrigeration works for the non-embalmed.

The maggots are far worse in these situations.

The problem of the dead being especially urgent for us two days ago (September 24), since roads to our usual burial land in Titanyin was for the 10 days impassible because of the violence, I engaged our second and less frequent option, burial at Drouillard Cemetery near the airport of Port au Prince.

I went through burning barricades Tuesday morning with my small Polaris, which could dodge the fires well, to secure graves for 55 children and 6 deceased mothers who did not survive childbirth. I was given permission for the burials, and paid the usual and required fee. I was given an 11am clearance.

We prepared and loaded the bodies on our truck, and passing the same burning barricades a second time with cumbersome vehicles, we arrived at Drouillard after 11am, with 11 staff aboard to help with the burials.

Except for a crowd of curious people at the gate of the cemetery, there was no incident. 

Our St Luke Foundation logo, work and reputation are well known among the people.

This is also true of the respected and known work founded by Fr Bill Wasson, NPH Haiti (Nos Petits Freres et Soeurs)

Suddenly, as we were finishing the burials, the crowd became unruly and aggressive.

After the bodies were unloaded, I had already wandered a short distance to offer a rosary for the people we just buried and all the dead at Drouillard.

So, I had no idea of the cause of the growing fury.

What happened was, our funeral ritual became a political football.

Our simple, very humble burial for these children, who found no peace in this life, and whose deplorable poverty made their lives painful, sorrowful and short, was now being manipulated for political purposes.

A popular radio station, with scouts out on the streets full of burning barricades, sounded this message over the radio waves as we buried the dead:

"We have information that St Luke Hospital is burying the bodies of the people killed for participating in manifestations."

This was meant to inflame hatred toward the President, among all the people demonstrating against him on the streets.

We were immediately seen as agents of the government, covering up the evidence of their attacks on demonstrators, by dumping their victims in anonymous graves.

All hell broke loose, and we could not calm the people with any words or efforts. 

The 11 of us were separated into two groups by the circumstances, each having to fend for ourselves and no knowing where or how the others were. We were pelted by rocks and shot at, we escaped barely with our lives, my truck was burned to oblivion.

It was not the people at the gate who attacked us, it was a three wheeled motorcycle used for merchandise transport, which had been hijacked to carry 8 armed men in the wagon, and these were followed by any number of others on motorcycles, all armed, who were responding to the message heard on the radio.

I credit the rosary for the fact that I was able to get 6 of us about a quarter mile away to relative safety, and we and the Polaris were unbelievably (especially since we were pursued by rock throwers and bullets) unscathed.

I left the 5 in safety. and tried to return for the other 5, but it was not possible.

A motorcycle bandit from another gang was passing by, and I paid him to go the quarter mile to Drouillard and bring back news.

In a few minutes he was back.

“See that smoke?”

Yes.

“That’s your truck burning.”

Then, we both heard rounds and rounds of gunfire.

I got sick to my stomach as I imagine Raphael, Cesar, Andre, Paschal and Renald full of bullets.

A funeral is not supposed to produce a funeral.

I felt again in my pocket for the rosary.

In a minute, Andre called on the phone. He, Paschal and Renald had jumped a wall at the industrial park and were hiding, and needed me to come for them, which I did at once.

Now there were only two of us missing, Raphael and Cesar.

Andre told me that the gang next door (Cite Soleil Boston section) heard we were in trouble and came by the hundreds, shooting all the way, to help us.

When the perpetrators ran off on foot to jump walls, the gang leader called ti hougan (little voodoo priest) from Soleil Boston, blew a hole through the gas tanks of the 20 or so motorcycles, and threw a match on each as the precious and rare gasoline became the fuel for the destructive fire.

Within minutes, Raphael and Cesar appeared at “Trois Mains” where we were, on motorcycle.

Raphael repeated Andre’s story, of how “ti hougan” saved the day.

While I appreciate the help ti hougan gave us, the rosary in my hand made it clear who it was that saved us, and there is nothing “little,” at all, about Him and Her.

During all the commotion, the same radio station publicly reported that they had confirmed with cemetery authorities that we have a twenty year history of burying the destitute dead at Drouillard and Titanyin, and that we were authorized to bury the bodies from the hospital on September 24. 

They retracted the political interpretation.

But it was too late.

Irresponsible journalism, such as radio emissions that contain false news (released without any verification), cause incredible harm to the fragile democracy in Haiti, and easily result in the loss of life and property. 

Fake news is also a devastating weakening of strong democracies, like in the USA.

The privilege of being able to reach hundreds of thousands, or millions of people via the airways, has to be balanced by the highest obligations to responsible reporting. These obligations are summarized simply by the fact that what is reported must be true.

It is that simple, and that hard.

It is simple because truth is truth. It is hard because, no matter what, not all true things should be spoken. There is so much to weigh in terms of justice, before speaking.

What is true to say and what is just to say, need to be molded by what is wise to say.

Individuals and organizations, churches and businesses, can suddenly be dangerously and irreversibly affected by false reporting, even in spite of years of respected humanitarian reputation.

As an American Citizen, a Catholic missionary priest, and a founding member of two large organizations serving in Haiti for 32 years, I attest to the fact that under the present  circumstances, it is daily more difficult and dangerous for us all to do our work, and if our work, and that of many other missions and NGO's, becomes impossible, the consequences for those who count on us for employment, education, healthcare, spiritual evolution and human solidarity, will be nothing short of catastrophic.

I don’t write this to look for funds. I write this to try to save our humanity, sealed in God’s image.

Each of us needs to pledge in our lives to only speak what is truthful, non-partisan, non-manipulative. Truthful words, just words, wisely chosen, intended only to build up, correct, strengthen and affirm the human family.

We must hold media outlets accountable to do the same.

We all must hold ourselves to another very high standard:

that we respond to the very worst of what we see and live through, with the very best of what is within us. 

Only this stops the deadly spread of hatred and revenge.

We all need to do this, before it is too late.

I have always appreciated hearing the life experiences and lessons learned of other people, and I do my best to share mine.

With prayers for peace and good will in our troubled world,

and confident in a future that God’s guidance can make real for us, 

I wish you God’s blessings and all good things.

Fr Richard Frechette CP DO
Port au Prince HAITI

September 26, 2019

REFLECTIONS ON OUR UNIVERSE

On the 23rd of September we crossed over from spring into autumn. The first day of this season is known as the “equinox” meaning “equal night” in Latin. On this day the sun is directly over the earth’s equator.

 (One of the major contributions to my reasonably good vocabulary was the requirement to study Latin in the Catholic elementary and high schools that I attended in Baltimore, which incidentally was/is known as the “center of Catholicity” in the U.S.) 

Across the Universe

 “Pools of sorrow, waves of joy

Are drifting through my open mind

Possessing and caressing me

Across the Universe

~Lennon and McCartney

Be well and love life.

~ Liz

PS - My monthly Reflections episodes, the Dragon radio show I record at HCC, and be found at http://dragondigitalradio.podbean.com/category/reflections-on-life/.