Open Season

This past Easter Sunday a series of three churches and three hotels were bombed in Sri Lanka.  Planned and executed by a little known Sri Lankan Islamic group, with assistance, the seven suicide bombers detonated during mass or at the hotel brunch lines.  The devastation was so bad that authorities had trouble aligning body parts so at one point the death toll was well over 350.  it was later reduced by 100 when they realized they may have double counted body parts.   It is undeniable that some Sunni Islamic groups continue to bomb and persecute Shiite Muslims, and Christians (and others).  Large terror events, such as this are reported, but there are many cases of attacks against Christians which go unreported in the Western Media.  It is as if there is open season on certain religious groups.  Yesterday, one person was killed in the United States at a Synagogue.

Sri Lankan authorities have said that the attack by well healed, wealthy and well educated Sri Lankan Muslims was retribution for the killing of about 50 Muslims in New Zealand.  I think most news outlets have trouble believing this, as even CNN placed the term retribution in quotation marks.  The Islamic radicals usually have no problem instituting attacks:  think of the attacks that killed over twenty at a Catholic Church in the Philippines in January, executed once again by a group of Muslims.  On Easter Sunday, before attribution had occurred, most experts noted the difficulty of planning such a large scale, multi-site attack at the same time takes months of planning and coordination, so they believe the planning began long before the New Zealand killings.

Over one third of the deaths in Sri Lanka were at St Sebastian Catholic Church.  Unfortunately, the situation is still adverse, and this past weekend Sri Lankan Catholics were asked not attend mass.  The ban is apparently indefinite until more perpetrators are caught.  In its disruption of daily life, the terrorists win yet again.  The Sri Lankan authorities believe more murder is to come, and are still in the process of hunting down those they believe responsible.  This is the same government that had received warnings from intelligence sources in both the United States and India, the earliest being on April 4 but did nothing.  Neglect by the government, or perhaps worse, never led to heightened security and now over 250 souls, including 38 foreigners and four Americans have lost their lives due to yet another Islamic terrorist attack. On April 26 a former Army serviceman, and convert to Islam, planned attacks on "Jews, churches and police" in retaliation for the attack in New Zealand.

The sad part is that no one should be surprised by an Easter Sunday attack by Islamic groups.  Bombings of Catholic religious sites have become a rather common occurrence for both regular and special masses.  Prior attacks have occurred on Palm Sunday, and Christmas.  And as shown in January, it need not be a special holy day.  Open Doors USA notes that every month, on average, 245 Christians are killed for faith-related reasons; 105 Churches are burned or attacked, and 219 Christians are detained without trail, arrested, sentenced and imprisoned for their faith.  Those are not annual figures, but monthly figures.  A Sri Lankan peace activist wondered why the terrorists chose Christian Churches for this brutality when they are a minority religion in a Buddhist dominated country.  And, also, he noted, that they are subject to frequent harassment because of their faith (maybe that is why).  Muslims are also a minority religion in Sri Lanka, but attacks on Christian Churches shows part of their overall strategy.  Obviously, the Islamic extremists view Christianity, and Catholicism in particular, as a threat.  After the New Zealand Mosque shooting, in a nice gesture, many non-Muslim's gathered in Madison for a vigil in support of the victims of that terrible event that killed over 50.  There was no similar vigil for the Christians who died in either the Philippines or Sri Lanka at the hands of Islamic groups.

The Daily Beast, an online news and opinion website, asked after the Sri Lanka bombings if some Islamic groups wish to start another holy war.  I suspect ISIS would think it is already in place.  There is open season on religions that these particular fundamental Islamic groups do not like.  

It took a Fire

We seldom properly appreciate that which is near our home until something happens.  Last Monday in France April 15, 2019 will go down as the day the Cathedral of Notre Dame burned.  Construction began on the Cathedral in the 12th century and it took two centuries to complete.  But, like most things in life, it under went change over the past 849 years.  For centuries there has been a tension between church and state in France.  By French law, the state owns Notre Dame Cathedral.  Yet, this great Gothic Cathedral of Notre Dame seems to not fully have been appreciated until the fire this past Monday.

Notre Dame provided a glimpse into the past times of French history.  The Cathedral began as a way to express thanks to God for blessings.  Think of the generations of artists and masons, and laborers who spent their lives working on a structure highly regarded as a remarkable example of man's capabilities and achievements which is a testament to civilization.  While Notre Dame survived the French Revolution it was not left un-scarred.  Showing that destruction of precious artwork did not begin with ISIS and its swath of destruction through part of the Middle East, the pre-ISIS radicals (hoodlums) of the French Revolution beheaded many statues of old testament beings in the Cathedral wrongly thinking they were of French kings.  In the Middle Ages art work was used to provide learning to a populace generally unable to read and write.  Apparently the vandals of the French Revolution did not well understand the Cathedral and the story being told by its artwork.  As France began its move to secularization with its revolution, the building fell into disrepair.  Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, would kindle the French imagination and lead to some restoration.

The cause of the fire, while still under investigation, is thought to be related to restoration work on the 19th century spire and other areas.  Architects and art historians have been saying for decades that pollution, time, and neglect had taken a toll on the structure.  Limestone is not immune to the effects of pollution, and the forces of wind and rain which erode the stone.  Gargoyles and statutes were falling apart, hunks of limestone fell to the ground, and other items of neglect have caused worry that the structure would not last.  The Notre Dame Foundation has been attempting to raise funds for the restoration work for decades, and due to little interest in secular France, and no help from the government, they turned to large American donors to help fund the project.  Now that it has burned, the French are all of a sudden worried about this part of French identity.  Why were large French donors on the sidelines for decades, yes decades, while funds were attempting to be raised for restorative work?  These donors are now more than willing to help fund a reconstruction after a terrible event. It seems that in secular France the religious symbol was best out of mind, until disaster strikes. 

Is the Cathedral worth now saving?  French President Macron, an agnostic, said of Notre Dame, after the fire:"Notre Dame of Paris is our history, our literature, our imagination.  The place where we survived epidemics, wars, liberation.  It has been the epicenter of our lives."  In this statement Macron identifies place.  The good secularist that he is, he did not mention Notre Dame as a place of worship.  Place is created when space is endowed with value.  For the builders of this remarkable place it was not just imagination and literature, it was for the greater honor and glory of God.  Notre Dame is but one example of the great cathedrals constructed in the middle ages.  The flying buttresses were an innovation that allowed thinner walls in order to provide more light to the inside. It took 1,300 old growth trees, harvested in the 1170's, to build Notre Dame, and no where in Europe are such sized trees present today. The many cynics would wonder the purpose of rebuilding such an inapposite structure.  For it is a structure which sees more selfies than prayers.  Many of those anti-Catholic cynics believe such works of architecture and the art they contain serve no real purpose, and should be sold.  In this they lack the full appreciation of the story they tell, or the incalculable worth they have to to civilization.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  Each and everyone of us have a different idea of beauty, but collectively we can come together and create something extraordinary. Buildings such as the Cathedral of Notre Dame tell us about ourselves and our civilization more so than they tell us about God, Jesus, or the Virgin Mary.  Humankind always strives for something greater, and the men and women of 12th to 14th century France this is what they came together to create.  Geographer Yi-Fu Tuan once wrote that "if something is of sufficient importance to us we usually find the means to give it visibility."  The Cathedral of Notre Dame is the result of an expression of mainly peasants, laborers, masons, artists and shopkeepers who came together to fund and build such a remarkable structure.  Echoing their choice of endeavor, author  Robert Louis Stevenson, years later, would note: "Mankind was never so happily inspired as when it made a cathedral."

A young Frenchwoman, Katie Berger, who was quoted in a 4/17/19 "New York Times" echoed this, but went further:  "Notre Dame de Paris is Paris.  It's a reference.  It's kilometer zero.  It's how we measure distance all lover France.  It's our roots, our history, our civilization."  France is centered around Notre Dame, perhaps both literally and figuratively.  In the same news article, Francois Heisbourg noted the different levels on which Notre Dame is viewed.  He noted that even more than St. Peter's in Rome, due to its age, it is a symbol of western civilization.  Yet, it is also embedded in popular culture.  Heisbourg further explained: "It's universal, Western, religious, literary and cultural, and that is what makes it different from any other object. It's the whole spectrum from the trivial to transcendent, the sacred to the profane."

The idea that Parisians, and the French, did not appreciate what they had in their midst was a comment by Claude Mbowou, a Muslim who said in the NY Times: "I'm a Muslim but I'm still deeply moved when I see this place.  It represents something deep, it transcends us.  It's a loss not only for France but for the entire world.  It's as if the pyramids of Egypt were destroyed.  Parisians didn't realize what they had.  They walked on by it was foreigners who came."  Notre Dame was the most visited attraction in France.  It is said to have been one of the top three locations in the world that Chinese tourists visit.  

Cathedrals and Christianity go hand in hand, and together they developed western civilization, and have allowed it to endure.  There is some irony in Notre Dame Cathedral, whose main purpose was religious is now held to be the standard bearer for what is France; a country where many in the population, like so many elsewhere today, are running from religion.  Civilization is hard to define.  This was recognized by the eminent art historian Kenneth Clark in his masterpiece television series "Civilization."  Standing before Notre Dame he asked:  "What is civilization?  I don't know.  I can't define it in abstract terms--yet.  But I think I can recognize it when I see it" and at that he turns around to look at Cathedral de Notre Dame.  That is part of the power and majesty of Notre Dame.    One current commentator noted that "A cathedral was the one architectural monument to which the poor had the same access as the powerful." No admission fee need be paid.   To think, today we build sport stadiums, and thirty years later tear that down and build a new one.

While western civilization is under attack today, the reason it can be attacked is because of  what it produced and allows.  Western countries do not limit access to the internet as in China.  French president Macron has vowed to reconstruct the Cathedral, that piece of tourism for the world.   But does reconstructing the Cathedral in a secular town in a secular nation make sense ? It may only see the same fate a couple hundred years from now fall to the same fate of needing restoration, but no one wanting to pay.  Who knows, perhaps it will become a Mosque.  Maybe  it would be best left as is, and become a monument to a changing Western society in which Christianity is more and more viewed at best as an anachronism, but more realistically with disdain.  Notre Dame is part of a fleeting history that may be little understood a hundred years in the future.    It took a fire for the French to appreciate what they had, but history has shown us that that feeling will be fleeting.

Images from Google

Chemical Cultural Legacy

An earlier post regarded my travels to and from the National Alliance of Clean Water Agencies Water policy fly-in to Washington D.C. on April 3 and 4.  In that post, which you can find here, I noted that the issues we presented tell us a great deal about our culture and civilization.  In a sense, modern material  science and chemistry has allowed us benefits in our clothing, our packaging, and other articles of daily use.  These advances may allow for improvements, but the cost on the other end is not well known. The effects, of some materials, are now becoming known.  I attended three congressional meetings as part of the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District Commission in which we generally noted two main items:  polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) and funding.  Let me first deal with funding, but the bulk of this post will be on PFAS.

US Capitol

The clean water bills of the 1960's to 1970's allowed interceptors and state of the art treatment processes to be created in communities nationwide.  That initiative helped clean our national waters.  Those systems are now in need of major repairs and for many communities such repair costs may be prohibitive.  The EPA, according to David Ross, Assistant Administrator in charge of water desires to place planning above strict limits, and allow for collaboration to solve water problems.  MMSD has collaborated with over 46 other agencies in a phosphorus prevention program known as Yahara WINS.  Low interest loans and grants built the systems decades ago, and the government is making some interest loans, via the American Clean Water Infrastructure Act available today. With low interest loans, the federal government is essentially the bank.

US Capitol

Now on  to PFAS.  Most of us would have trouble pronouncing this word which describes a group of chemical components, polyfluoroalkyl.  PFAS have become well known over the course of the past year.  What are PFAS, and why are they now so important?  First, we now know that this family of chemical substances are noted to be ubiquitous in our environment.  The substances were/ are found in a variety of products we use, including by not limited to certain food packaging, stain resistant fabrics and materials, certain highly engineered clothing items such as Gore-Tex, non-stick cookware, and foam for certain fire fighting applications.  While common in the environment due to their wide-spread presence via use, there exists today two known hot spots in Wisconsin:  Truax Field in Madison due to fire fighting, and Marinette where some of the PFAS substances are manufactured.

Security line to get into Hart Senate Office Building

The April 10 issue of the "Wisconsin State Journal" (WSJ) noted the presence of PFAS in six of the 14 City of Madison municipal water wells tested.  Madison has a total of 23 municipal water wells.  Well 15, near Truax Field, has already been shut down in part due to PFAS.  The presence of parts of this chemical family in well #15 can probably be attributed to Truax Field, but the presence in wells on the west side of Madison have no known source.  However, it should be pointed out that the chemical is in very small amounts, in fact testing has advanced in just the past few years to detect levels not before detectable.  Then their is the case that no one really knows what is a safe level for this chemical family.  The WSJ news article notes the results are troubling because PFAS have made it 100's of feet below the surface of the earth from where the well water is drawn.  The daily use and manufacture of these chemicals were under the radar for a long time simply because analytical monitoring techniques were insufficient for detection. Much less how do you know to even test for this chemical family?  Today as advances in material science allow for the manufacture and use of the compound, so to is there now ways to detect this compound.  We are talking detection not in parts per million, or even parts per billion, but rather parts per trillion.  As an example something in one part  per trillion is equal to  one grain of sand in an Olympic sized swimming pool if it were filled with sand.

Library of Congress, Jefferson Building

Current thinking is that PFAS can "affect growth, learning and behavior of infants and older children."  (WSJ, 10 April 2019)  The article goes on to explain that it is also thought that exposure may lower a women's fertility, block important natural hormones, increase cholesterol, weaken the immune system and increase risk of cancer, and other diseases, to liver, pancreas, and kidneys.  But, it takes years for science to create what is an acceptable amount of exposure, and quite frankly no one really knows what, if any, entails an acceptable amount for PFAS.  The US EPA uses 70 ppt (parts per trillion or 70 grains of sand in a Olympic sized swimming pool filled with sand) for certain PFAS in drinking water, but there is no science to determine what level is suitable for bio-solids or treated waste water effluent, or other exposures.  As one environmental attorney said, there are plenty of items that are not a problem when measured in ppt.  He also noted that there may well be more PFAS in the dust in one's home than in our drinking water, bio-solids or waste water effluent.  After all, they do not naturally occur in water or waste water.  They are a cultural advent.

Caldwell Sculpture, Atrium of Hart Senate Office Building

The EPA health advisory for water is not enforceable.  Nine states are looking to set their own standards some as low as 10 parts per trillion.  PFAS become a concern for sewage treatment plants.  The treatment plant does not manufacture or combine materials to make PFAS.  PFAS make their way throught eh treatment plant process and end up in bio-solids and effluent.  Clearly, if Madison water is withdrawn with water that contains PFAS for daily needs most of that used water ends up at MMSD for treatement.  As MMSD literature says "While wastewater treatment plants are not sources of PFAS, traces of these chemicals may be found in the incoming waster water and outgoing effluent because the water reflects the chemistry of our daily lives."  (MMSD talking points to members of Congress, NACWA Water Policy fly-in April 3 and 4, 2019; italics added for emphasis)   What we use, what we eat and what we wear (clothes washing) ends in our waste water stream.  Think the medicines taken, the detergents used.  It is not only PFAS, but also siloxanes (common in personal care products) and other items of our daily lives.  Some more dangerous than others.  (Siloxanes do not appear to be dangerous to human health, from what is known at this point, but wreak havoc in the treatment process.)  Due to health concerns, PFAS are gradually being replaced, but will the replacement chemicals also pose a risk?

Our enjoyment of these products may well enhance life experiences but the elements and compounds from which many of these items are constructed get through the waste stream, and quite frankly they would be very, very expensive to remove, if they can be removed.  They do not break down or disintegrate, as far as I know.   If removable, the question in what state is the substance when removed?  Would it need to be disposed of in a highly regulated landfill? MMSD also treats the leach-ate from the Dane County landfill.  Because PFAS get through the treatment plant process, they will be found in the effluent and in the bio-solids.  Currently most MMSD bio-solids are land spread, so if  PFAS are in bio-solids they will be found in farm fields.  MMSD bio-solids are not spread on fields which grow crops eaten directly by humans, but rather fields used to for feed of mainly livestock.

Cherry Tree Blossoms

To control the use of this family of compounds would best require regulation at the source--i.e. stop its use in high-end articles of clothing, in non-stick cookware and in our food packaging.  Today it is PFAS, but in a later time frame it be substances found in the increasingly common anti-microbial clothing, or other trendy items.  So, yes, those seemingly environmentally conscious Subaru and Prius driving Yuppies may have clothing that is polluting the environment.  Perhaps it is now time to begin to question whether the advances in material sciences and chemistry have gone too far too quick.  Should we not be able to make sure that new compounds that will end up in our environment  are safe and can be treated by the waste water treatment process?  Treatment plants processes in almost all national treatment plants were not designed to remove the chemicals which we now find in our waste water.

Washington Monument

I noted to our congressional representatives that local, state and federal government priorities are expressed in their budgets;  MMSD does the same with its budget.  Much has been done, such as the 2018 American Water Infrastructure Act, but still more needs to be accomplished.  Clean water should be our priority as it drives our health, our lives and our economy.  When your making you next clothing or cookware purchase it may be worth some research as to what substances the product contains.  The question I pose is whether advances in  material sciences and chemistry in our society outstrip our ability to manage and control, and hence leave a legacy of pollution that we have yet to fully comprehend?  Will our descendants inherit a chemical cultural legacy?

Images by Author on visit to Washington D.C. on April 3 & 4, 2019

Sources:  USEPA, WI State Journal of 4/10/2019, MMSD

DC

Last week I made a quick trip to Washington D. C. as part of the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District contingent to the  National Alliance of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA)  water week policy fly-in.  This post will be a musing about a few odds and ends encountered on the two day trip.  A future post will be about the issues on which we presented to the Congressman Mark Pocan, and aids of Senator Johnson and Senator Baldwin.  Those issues, in my mind tell us a great deal about our culture and civilization. But, for now, a more fun post.

US Capitol

I arrived at the Dane County Regional Airport at 4:30 am to catch a 6:00 am flight to LaGuardia and then to Reagan in DC. Thanks to my spouse for also getting up early to drive me to the airport.  While waiting to board, a gate announcement for a flight south was interrupted  by a TSA agent who announced that they had an I-pad that someone did not claim and where they could retrieve it.  The daily routine was on-going when a second gate announcement, not allowing peanuts on another flight, was again interrupted by TSA announcing that someone left a headband behind. Really, a headband?  I wonder if they would have done the same for a pair of wayward underwear that mistakenly popped out if a bag ?   A person I was flying with turned to me and said, you can tell you are in a small airport when they make that type of an announcement. The Delta person even chuckled as they began their peanut announcement once again.

US Capitol

Flight times leave a great deal of extra time in the flight to cover for late departures.  I noticed this when our flight to LaGuardia was delayed near the gate and on the taxi way.  The pilot announced, after we waited about 20 minutes that he was not given a time, but the plane ahead of us was told it would be about a 20 minute delay from that point.  Planes were lined ahead and behind and they took off one after the other.  Looking at my watch we lifted off 40 minutes after expected departure.  They allotted 1 hr and 33 minutes for the flight, but another passenger on board, who seemed upset when we landed four minutes late, that it is a 38 minute flight.  (By comparison, Madison to LaGuardia is a 1 hr and 35 minute flight, but they allocated 2 hrs and 21 minutes for the flight.)  I did not think four minutes was bad, but she said "this flight goes down as late."  The four minute late arrival did not affect us as it still left time for us to use the Metro line and our feet to get to the hotel, have lunch and attend the first session at 2 pm.

Planes in line on LaGuardia Taxiway

When we arrived at the hotel one thing I noticed was four large televisions ganged together with one playing CNN, one Fox News, one sports, and the other events at the hotel.  The televisions were readily visible from the hotel restaurant which was divided from the lobby by bar height barrier.  The restaurant placement looked like and afterthought, but it worked.  What struck me was that the price of the food for a big city hotel actually seemed reasonable. 

Security line to enter Hart Senate Office Building

What is unreasonable is the layout of the Detroit airport. We flew from Reagan to Detroit and then to Madison.  First, off it took us about twenty minutes to taxi from landing to the gate, where we had to wait for the ground crew to get their act together, which I suppose at the late hour there are few ground crew members around.    The terminal is linear, and we arrived at gate 11, and we departed from gate 74.  There is a total of 78 gates in this terminal.  Another member of our team jinxed us by saying every time he has flown into Detroit the connecting flight was at the other end from where the flight landed.  Well, we had to hustle since our plane was late and they were supposed to have started boarding.  But, here again the extra time built in saved us.  It was a long hike, which I estimated at about 4,800 feet (using Google maps).  They normally have a tram that can be used, but that was out of order.  The plane began boarding late for the fifty minute flight to Madison. We arrived in Madison just before 11 pm.  As the plane was unloading all of a sudden all of the power went out.  I guess it was better on the ground than in the air.  There was just enough light to unload.  Perhaps the crew, who were from Atlanta and would spend the night in Madison, turned the lights off to get people to move faster. 

Tulips alongside Hart Office Building

Why they load planes from the front makes no sense.  There was a person, on the flight from Detroit to Madison, who tried two overhead bins in  teh vicinity of his seat in which to fit his large carry-on bag, and finally went to the far back of the plane to load it in to an empty bin above the still empty seats, therefore taking space from a person who, like us, would board in the back of the plane.  I had a small bag I put under the seat ahead of me.  Then there was a woman who had a large carry-on and a large backpack taking up space in two different overhead bins.  Another issue is the amount of time it took for the people to load and unload their bags.  If you loaded from the back first you would not have to wait for people ahead of you.   Even the stewardess noted the issue of lack of space in the overhead bins and said the airline really needed to talk to Airbus.  She also told the man how best to load the luggage, with wheels to the aisle, but he kept ignoring her advice. (Teh advice made sense since the wheel portion would not fit up against the curve of the plane as the front end of a more soft sided luggage would do.)  I thought, why not try a Boeing jet, albeit not a 737 Max at this point in time. 

US Supreme Court

Washington DC is a nice urban and walkable city, at least in the area around the National Mall.  It is even more pleasant this time of year as the cherry trees are in bloom.  After our last congressional office visit on Thursday we headed to the hotel to pick up luggage and then made our way to the tidal basin, hitching a ride with a member of our contingent who had rented a car and was going to visit relatives in Maryland for the weekend.  We then walked from the south end of the tidal basin, by the Jefferson Memorial, up to the Smithsonian to catch our Metro line to Reagan.  It was a crowded walk, with many out doors on a beautiful day to sight see and see the cherry trees.  Early April is a peak time to visit Washington DC.  What surprised me were the number of foreign visitors, particularly Asians.  While we did not see a selfie accident, one woman almost fell in the tidal basin when getting a selfie with the Washington Monument behind her.  A man walking by grabbed her to prevent the fall.  I guess that is the benefit of a crowd.  One of my colleagues prevented a woman from falling after she tripped. 

Washington Monument

When we arrived at the hotel the news coverage was about the House of Representatives voting for full release the Mueller report.  What we often see and hear on the news is that nothing gets done in Washington DC.  However, last December President Trump signed the bipartisan American Water Infrastructure Act.  The Deputy EPA Administrator, David Ross (who lives in Middleton) touched on the act and what the department is doing in regards to implementation.  Persons who are involved with the National Alliance of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) appreciate the efforts of Mr. Ross who leads the water section.  Ross is a Trump appointee.  I was introduced to him during lunch Wednesday afternoon.  Mr. Ross also talked about reuse of water.  I have long said that water is the next oil, and it is good to hear that water reuse is also important to the EPA.  Water is plentiful in the Midwest, but that does not mean it should be wasted.

View across Tidal Basin from Jefferson Memorial

As things grind along in Washington some things are getting accomplished, but more needs to be done.  Clean water is important to our health, our lives and it drives our economy.  Economic success should not come at the expense of a clean and healthy environment.   A future post will focus on policy and the issues of our complex society. 

Close up of Cherry Blossoms

 

View of Tidal Basin and Washington Monument

Images by author April 3 and 4, 2019