Fish for Friday

Edited by Morris Dean

[Anonymous selections from recent correspondence]

What if today's papers and news stories read:

In Chiapas and Palestine armed soldiers threw down their arms, ripped off their uniforms and returned to their homes convinced they were wasting their time serving someone else's interests. Finding themselves unprotected para-military groups and assailants did the same in an unexpected act of self-esteem and love for humanity. There was confusion and bliss among many, the Zapatista and Palestinian people continued their daily work of reconstruction. Around the world belligerent armies follow the example, perplexed as to why they had waited so long when their heart was telling them all along what was the right thing to do.
    We can propose a vision, yes? –Francisco Javier Herrera Brambila

Joseph Campbell again:

How do you find the divine power in yourself? The word enthusiasm means "filled with a god," so what makes you enthusiastic? Follow it. That's been my advice to young people who ask me, 'What shall I do?' I taught once in a boys' prep school. That's the moment for young boys – or it used to be; I don't know what's going on now – when they had to decide their life courses. You know, where are they going? And they're caught with excitement. This one wants to study art, this one poetry, this one anthropology. But dad says study law; that's where the money is. OK, that's the decision. And you know what my answer would be – where your enthusiasm is. So I have a little word: follow your bliss. The bliss is the message of God to yourself. That's where your life is. –Joseph Campbell, interviewed by Jeffrey Mishlove ("Thinking Allowed: Understanding Mythology")

Do you believe this shit?

More Ferguson craziness: "Police raid Ferguson church for third time. Platoon of cops claim people illegally sleeping there." Excerpt:

For the third time since the police slaying of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, St. Louis County police raided the Greater St. Mark Church property Wednesday (August 20). Church leaders have allowed community activists to use the gymnasium of an abandoned private school on church property as a first aid station for treatment of people injured by tear gas in protests against the shooting of Brown. People could also get food and water there, and community activists used it to plan protest strategy.
    But all that apparently made it a special target for the cops whom one would think have enough on their plates in Ferguson not to be harassing a humanitarian operation.

"Arctic ice isn't melting." "Global warming is a hoax." "Climate science is a huge conspiracy."
    If global warming deniers prevail, whether they're pundits or politicians, there will only be one outcome: allowing big industry to keep on polluting.
   And as we speak, another misleading claim is making its way into the news or a textbook. We've got to fight back, now.

Before I knew about the Amish and their puppy mills, I would often stop in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (largely inhabited by the Amish) on our way to visit his family. I would make my way through one Amish store after the next as I admired their handiwork, in particular quilting and woodworking. I felt like a kid in a candy store – there was so many quilts, some to be used as bedspreads, others were wall hanging, table cloths, placemats, and any other items that could be quilted.
    I purchased a beautiful quilt for my bed that I still have. I also purchased a child’s quilt for a son’s bed, two wall hangings, place mats, and a table runner.
    What amazed me is that these Amish communities are so quaint and backward, by our standards, but when it came to pricing their quilts and wares they were very progressive – no bargains, top dollar for all their crafts. What I’m trying to say is that I loved and admired the Amish for all the beautiful work they produced by hand (no sewing machines, except for the few that were actually run by hand and no electricity). But since I have learned about their puppy mills and how the dogs are mistreated, I have never gone back since then. If I want a quilt I will go to a store where quilts made in China using sewing machines can be found at a reasonable price in abundance.

Louis E. Pratt, master ivory cutter for Pratt, Read & Co.,
shows off eight ivory tusks, April 1, 1955

Consider, friend, as you pass by: As you are now, so once was I. As I am now, you too shall be. Prepare, therefore, to follow me.
    The quote is a Scottish tombstone epitaph, but it might well describe America and its growing pains compared to China today - especially in regard to America's horrific past with elephant ivory and China's present excesses: "Elephant Slaughter, African Slavery And America's Pianos." Excerpt:

The illegal trade in ivory from African elephants has tripled in the past 15 years, to the extent that biologists fear for the creatures' future existence.
    Most of the ivory is sold in China and Vietnam, and these days the U.S. government and international conservation groups urge those countries to arrest the traffickers. But for the better part of a century, from 1840 to around 1940, the U.S. was the world's biggest buyer of ivory. Hunters killed hundreds of thousands of elephants, and uncounted numbers of Africans were enslaved to carry the tusks to ships bound for America.
   Most of that ivory went to a tiny town in Connecticut — a town that's now grappling with this dark part of its past.

Speak out against the U.S. ivory trade. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is preparing to issue regulations to crack down on the skyrocketing trade in elephant ivory, which led to the deaths of more than 30,000 elephants in 2012. But special interest groups like the NRA are fighting to weaken or delay those rules. Urge President Obama and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to stand strong and propose tough protections right now that will rein in the U.S. ivory market — the second largest in the world — and save elephants from extinction.

Pristine Habitat for Brown Bears at Risk. We are so very close to stopping the hulking, toxic mine proposed for Bristol Bay, Alaska — a project that could wipe out brown bear and wild salmon habitat in this untouched watershed forever.
    We must pour on the pressure in the next few weeks for the Environmental Protection agency to make its decision in favor of protecting wildlife.
    With your support today, we’ll rally an undeniable push from tens of thousands of wildlife activists and amplify voices in the media against Pebble Mine.

American and Japanese conservation groups represented by Earthjustice are suing to halt the construction of a U.S. military airstrip in Japan that would destroy some of the last remaining habitat for endangered Okinawa dugongs. Related to manatees, these gentle marine mammals are ancient cultural icons for the Okinawan people. "Lawsuit Seeks to Halt Construction of U.S. Military Airstrip in Japan That Would Destroy Habitat of Endangered Okinawa Dugongs."

The following items were posted on an Australian tourism website, and the answers are the actual responses by the website officials, who obviously have a great sense of humor (not to mention a low tolerance threshold for cretins!)

Q: Can I bring cutlery into Australia? (UK)
    A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do.

Q: Can you send me the Vienna Boys' Choir schedule? (USA)
    A: Aus-tri-a is that quaint little country bordering Ger-man-y, which is....
    Oh, forget it. Sure, the Vienna Boys Choir plays every Tuesday night in Kings Cross, straight after the hippo races. Come naked.

Q: Can I wear high heels in Australia? (UK)
    A: You are a British politician, right?

Limerick of the week:

Here is the young Sapphic divinity
Number one of the Overland Trinity
    Who uses the muses,
    Pretty much as she chooses,
This dark-eyed poetic divinity.

[From Bret Harte to Ina Coolbrith, in response to her verse to him. Harte was the editor of the Overland Monthly, and he and Coolbrith wrote for it reguarly. – From Ben Tarnoff's 2014 book, The Bohemians: Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers Who Reinvented American Literature, p. 171]

Copyright © 2014 by Morris Dean