Things I've done in the last few weeks:
I'll get you all caught up, at least with #1, #2, and #3. We'll go from there.
Every lesson learned is a mystery lost. This used to bother me, until I realized that there are limitless mysteries. Closing one door behind you opens one--or sometimes many--doors ahead.
"We do on stage things that are supposed to happen off. Which is a kind of integrity, if you look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else."
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, by Tom Stoppard
I find this comforting.
Sometimes the strange and mystical machinations of local government confound and confuse me. About eight months ago, I received a ticket for (I guess) failing to yield to a pedestrian when I made a right turn at a red light. Apparently the Redmond police can be very picky if they feel like it about that peculiar rule where you have to wait for someone to finish crossing the street before you can make your turn. (I didn't feel like it was appropriate to explain to the officer about "Cleveland rules" driving, where pedestrians are generally held in contempt and are lucky not to get a foot run over crossing when someone wants to turn right on red.)
At any rate, I accepted the ticket politely, sent in my payment for the fine, and that was the end of it. Or so I thought.
Today I received a letter from the King County District Court. This is not an organization that I get mail from often, and as a general principle I treat any mail from a court or other justice-related origin with deep suspicion (usually because I am deeply suspicious that I am going to be called for jury duty, or worse, that the alleged Spaghetti Incident has caught up with me and a bench warrant has been issued for my capture and arrest).
Fortunately, this was neither a jury summons nor a warrant. It was, much to my shock and surprise, a check. I examined the check for a while to convince myself that it was genuine, and not some Publishers' Clearing House joke check or one of those loans-by-mail check scams. It's the real deal, as far as I can tell. There was no note or letter or any manner of explanation included, just the check--for the exact dollar amount of my traffic violation from eight months previous.
The best part of the whole thing is that the check bears the cryptic memo "Bail Refund." Now, a better man would follow up such a mysterious windfall with an inquiry to the local court to figure out if this is a mistake or some sort of ruse to capture all the at-large illegal-right-on-red-turning bastards running around. But I am not a better man; hell no. After all, it's not every day that the court system pays you to commit a traffic violation. I'm taking the money and running, although I'll be sure to yield to any pedestrians on the way.
"...I think God’s sense of economy is very different from our own - so different it’s scary. To him the plight of one vagrant is more important than all the money in the world. And He’ll plunder our treasure to save him."
This is definitely worth reading.
Cryptome has some new Katrina images up:
The last few links went dead pretty quickly, so I've also mirrored the images here.
Most of the articles about the hurricane Katrina disaster and it's aftermath have been relegated to the Disaster category on Crooked Links. But not this one.
I'm willing to concede that there were failures and missteps at every level of government during the run-up to and the rescue and recovery efforts after the hurricane, but this article, from the Salt Lake Tribune, made me furious:
Frustrated: Fire crews to hand out fliers for FEMA [via Josh Marshall]
Here's the gist of the piece (emphasis mine):
As New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin pleaded on national television for firefighters - his own are exhausted after working around the clock for a week - a battalion of highly trained men and women sat idle Sunday in a muggy Sheraton Hotel conference room in Atlanta.
Many of the firefighters, assembled from Utah and throughout the United States by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, thought they were going to be deployed as emergency workers.
Instead, they have learned they are going to be community-relations officers for FEMA, shuffled throughout the Gulf Coast region to disseminate fliers...
I simply cannot believe the gall and incompetence of an organization that wants to use firefighters as public relations mouthpieces during the recovery from a grave national disaster. This is beyond inexcusable; this is reprehensible. And it gets worse (again, emphasis mine):
On Monday, some firefighters stuck in the staging area at the Sheraton peeled off their FEMA-issued shirts and stuffed them in backpacks, saying they refuse to represent the federal agency.
Federal officials are unapologetic.
"I would go back and ask the firefighter to revisit his commitment to FEMA, to firefighting and to the citizens of this country," said FEMA spokeswoman Mary Hudak.
Not only is FEMA depriving the rescue and recovery operations of trained, able, and willing rescuers, but they are depriving also the cities and towns that must do without those firefighters while they are handing out fliers. How can anyone suggest that the men and women who traveled to Atlanta to help need to "revisit [their] commitment to...the citizens of this country"? And even more:
But as specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew's first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas.
This reveals a government that has nothing but seething contempt for the lives of those affected by this tragedy. There are members of this administration who have blood and suffering from Katrina on their hands, and they should be held accountable.
[Update:] More details from NBC. "Firefighters: We Were Misused In Katrina Rescue Efforts" [via]
The photo links from Cryptome are all dead now; I'm guessing the bandwidth demand forced them offline.
Here's another few batches of pictures, from The Interdictor:
I'll post more as I can find them.
From Jef:
"If the people stranded in New Orleans had been rich and white, it would not have taken our government so long to get relief to them. As it is, however, it took five days, and I wonder how many people died because our government dragged its feet."
From Mom:
"One of the best things our governments, local, state and federal, can do is get rid of all the power-hungry, narrow-minded, self-centered egotistical pompous asses who dictatorially wield their power in their own little disaster relief fiefdoms and who continually resist attempts to combine forces and share information, personnel, and materials to develop an all-encompassing relief plan that works."
I've been posting a lot of Katrina-related links as well, and I think they're worth checking out.
[Update:] Fixed incorrect link.
"...I'm back in Baton Rouge, this time with all of my team. Sadly, we've had to pull out of New Orleans for now because things have gotten too dangerous...Swinging an axe and breaking into an attic to see if there's anyone there to save and finding a dead family of four instead will bring tears to even the most stoic of people." [via BoingBoing]
Hurricane Katrina has been devastating. Slate has a thorough overview of the disaster, with news summaries and other commentary.
If you haven't already, please consider giving to the Red Cross. You can donate online, or by calling 1-800-HELP-NOW (1-800-435-7669).
I was visiting my sister in Washington, D.C., this weekend for her college graduation. (Congratulations, Rach!) After a minor travel snafu delayed my return to Seattle by a day, I managed to get on a flight that returned me home earlier this evening.
The view from the plane was magnificent--beautiful, white, billowy clouds stretched out to the horizon. How lucky I am to be alive in this century! This view, this voyage above the clouds, was unknown and unthinkable barely more than a century before. How lucky I am to be alive now, in this most recent and fleeting time; for if I had been born into any other period of history, I would not be able to marvel at a view even the birds would envy.
We have flown for barely a century. It has been less than half that time since we sent men to walk on the moon. And less than a quarter of a century since we sent machines--designed, built, launched, and monitored by us--away from our own planet and into the vast cosmos, beyond even our own solar system.
And in all of this I am incredulous that people might think that science somehow diminishes their faith, or that technology somehow cheapens their spirituality. How is it anything less than poetic, anything less than beautiful, to know that we can soar above the clouds? That we can touch another planet? That we might reach beyond our corner of the universe? It has been less than a century since we discovered Pluto and barely a decade since we first discovered planets orbiting a star other than our own.
How can any endeavor which reveals such grand and intricate beauty in our universe do anything other than amplify our sense of wonder? The questions we answer through science only ever lead us to more questions. Why should any designer, any creator, wish to impede such illuminating exploration? Why should any faith hold in contempt any meager truths that we learn, when those truths only deepen our sense of awe, our sense of wonder, at the intricate nature of our universe? The sense of wonder that comes from faith and the sense of wonder that comes from science are the same wonder for the same universe.
Anyhow, the clouds were really beautiful today.
Roger Ebert doesn't just review movies, he dispenses wisdom. Even if the movie sucks.
You have long years to get through, and must guard against the possibility of becoming a bore to yourself.
There is a Japanese saying that I like:
「男心と秋の空。」
As it was explained to me by a friend who actually knows Japanese, it means roughly, "The mind of a man is like the autumn sky." Usually this is taken to mean that men are always changing their minds; they are indecisive. I prefer a more positive interpretation, however, namely that people are free to make different choices.
This appeals to my Zen-like sensibilities. One of the fundamental tenets of Zen Buddhism is the realization that everything -- life, curcumstances, luck -- is always changing, that nothing is permanent. If you realize that nothing is permanent, you know that you can always change your mind. Make a different decision. Choose another path.
What could be more comforting than that?
(To any women reading this who feels some smug need to affirm the more traditional translation, it is only fair that I point out a similar saying: 「女心と秋の空。」 Or, "A woman's heart is like the autumn sky." So there.)
may my heart always be open
may my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know
and if men should not hear them men are old
may my mind stroll about hungry
and fearless and thirsty and supple
and even if it's sunday may i be wrong
for whenever men are right they are not young
and may myself do nothing usefully
and love yourself so more than truly
there's never been quite such a fool who could fail
pulling all the sky over him with one smile
e. e. cummings
Chin’s Thirty Three Happy Moments.
13. It has been raining for a whole month and I lie in bed in the morning like one drunk or ill, refusing to get up. Suddenly I hear a chorus of birds announcing a clear day. Quickly I pull aside the curtain, push open a window and see the beautiful sun shining and glistening and the forest looks like having a bath. Ah, is this not happiness?
After many evenings of reading and quiet contemplation, I reach the end of the book. I put it back on the shelf, pick up another, and begin reading. Ah, is this not happiness?
From Seneca's essay, "On Tranquility of Mind:"
But nothing delights the mind so much as fond and loyal friendship. What a blessing it is to have hearts that are ready and willing to receive all your secrets in safety, with whom you are less afraid to share knowledge of something than keep it to yourself, whose conversation soothes your distresses, whose advice helps you make up your mind, whose cheerfulness dissolves your sorrow, whose very appearance cheers you up!
(Update: I found a similar, but not equivalent, translation of "On Tranquility of Mind." It's worth reading.)