Of Men and Martyrdom

This past Friday Islamic extremists showered bullets into cafés and nightclubs, and let off suicide bombs. The attacks occurred in six different locations in Paris. Friday the 13th is recognized by some as being a day of the devil and/or horror; think of the horror movie of the same name. Horror and the work of the devil were certainly at play in Paris that Friday evening. If the suicide bombers obtained martyrdom, hopefully it is not in the place they desired to reach. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), or its amended name, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have been destroying people of long-standing history in the region simply because they are not Muslim. One can think of the Aramaic Christians that have been killed, raped, forced to convert, or from which gold, yes it has to be gold, has been extorted. There is also the Yazidi’s and the Kurds. The day before the attacks in Paris, suicide bombers struck Beirut, Lebanon killing of over 40 persons, and over 200 injured. On October 31 a Russian airliner dropped from the sky—chard piece by chard piece -- due a bomb planted by ISIS. From January to June of this year there were eleven different attacks, each on a different day in which at least 100 persons were killed in each attack. From 2013 to 2014 deaths from terrorism increased by over 80% (18,111 to 32658). Over 51% of the deaths are attributable to ISIS and its recent affiliate in Nigeria—Boko Harem. Few probably recall the kidnapping of a couple hundred Nigerian Christian school girls at the hands of Boko Harem. Islamic terrorists are not an advent of the 21st century, but 21st century technology and communications allow a global reach. Eleven Americans, since January, have been arrested on charges of attempting aid and abet ISIS.

Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris

The acts in Paris were caused by Muslims from France, Belgium and at least one recent immigrant. The Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP) believes that 25,000 to 35,000 foreign fighters from over 100 countries have been involved in ISIS brutality in Syria. This includes some of those who undertook the Paris attacks. Some were on nationwide watch lists, but technology allowed their chatter to go undetected. Iraq was said to have issued a warning to governments of both France and the United States. The IEP notes that “the significant increase in terrorist activity has meant that its ramifications are being felt more widely throughout the world.” Westerners may not have liked what occurred at Charlie Hebdo, but there was a certain logic of retaliation for an “observed” wrong. The recent attacks to “soft” targets show that ISIS not only wants retaliation, but to spread havoc and murder. If they thought the attacks would lead to appeasement and the pull out of French involvement in Syria, they were wrong. The day following the Paris bombings the US government noted that such attacks were not likely to occur on US soil due to the fewer numbers of US citizens or residents who have been involved with ISIS. This is the same government where the President on the day of the Paris attacks had said that ISIS was contained. Some writers have argued that he meant geographically contained, but bombs and bullets in Paris show extension beyond Syria and Iraq—not exactly geographic containment. Time will tell if ISIS makes good on its pledge to attack the United States.

Paris attacks

This post could go on to quote a myriad of statistics about the increase in terrorism, related deaths and its costs. But, that would be to little avail. A conflict by regional groups to unseat the dictator Assad in Syria led to a power vacuum eagerly seized by ISIS. Regionally affiliated moderates desiring to defeat Assad have been overshadowed or joined with ISIS. US supplies to assist the Assad insurgents are now assisting ISIS.  The Islamic extremists are waging jihad on a variety of fronts. Of interest are comments by Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im, a Muslim and a Sharia law scholar. He wrote, on Nov. 16, that “the historical truth is that ISIS leaders and supporters can and do draw on a wealth of scriptural and historical sources to justify their actions.” He goes on to say that “traditional interpretations of Sharia, or Islamic law, approved aggressive jihad to propagate Islam. They permitted the killing of captive enemy men. They allowed jihadis to enslave women and children, as ISIS did with the Yazidi women in Syria.” According to An-Na’im Islam not only has a historical basis, it also has no one leading authority to alter or amend Sharia doctrine. While this grants a certain level of local and individual control to the religion, the downside, as he notes is that “any Muslim can make any claim about Sharia if he or she can persuade a critical mass of Muslims to accept it.” Therefore, Islam is ripe for radical interpretation of Sharia law. A new interpretation of Sharia principles may be necessary, as well as those who look to the more peaceful aspects of Islam to make their voices known. This local nature also allows the horrors to be perpetrated to a greater extent as ISIS continues to add to past precedents by providing a level of brutality once thought to have been issued to the dustbin of history hundreds of years ago. Or course, ISIS has taken brutality to a whole new level.  What is right to one group or person is not necessarily right for another group or person. In his comments on the Paris attacks, Pope Francis called such actions taken in the name of God blasphemy. Blasphemy--a word that would at one time struck fear into a person’s heart, but in our secular world is rather disregarded. The Pope also referred to earlier attacks in the name of God as sacrilege.

 

The Monastery

There are, unfortunately, times of when doing of good were silenced due to the actions of terrorists. One particular example is extremely telling. In 1948 the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance, otherwise known as Trappists, established a monastery in the hills outside Tibhirine, Algeria. For years these monks tended to the needs of the Muslim population. They prayed with them, they traded with them, they tended to their medical needs and their material welfare as best they could. They were an integral part of the community. As one commentator has noted—“the monks do not have a mission to evangelize, only that of offering a witness of love and prayer.” As one would expect, they lived a simple life with manual labor to grow food and trade for other essentials, study, and of course pray. However, in the 1990’s Algeria was in the midst of conflict, not unlike the internal civil in the Mideast today. In 1996 nine monks were present at the Monastery of Notre Dame of Atlas in Tibhirine, Algeria.  All of French nationality. In the early morning hours of March 27 over 20 militants stormed the monastery and captured all but two monks.  Terrorists, going by the name the Armed Islamic Group, took responsibility for the capture of the monks. The monks knew they should probably not stay.  After all, they knew of actions perpetrated against other Christians in the region. In fact, Christians were asked to leave the country. Yet, the relationship, and service, they had with the village outweighed their own safety. In the end, the seven were murdered, likely in a most horrifying manner. In staying the seven found martyrdom. On May 31, 1996 their heads were found. The other portions of their human remains are known but to the perpetrators and God. No other body parts have ever been located. Their story is told in the highly regarded movie “Of Gods and Men,” and in the book, The Monks of Tibhirine.

 

The Monks of Notre Dame of Atlas Monastery in Tibhirine, Algeria

The monks lived in harmony, and friendship, with the Muslim villagers of the small village of Tibhirine. There was an appreciation of the faith the other observed. The attacks in Paris once again show the dark side of humanity. While the seven monks at the Monastery of Notre Dame of Atlasa became martyrs, their love and service to others was the most telling aspect of their desire to stay in a country in turmoil. In 2010 Cardinal Angelo Scola wrote of the authentic witness he saw in the Tibhirine monks who provided more than a good example.  Scola wrote that he saw a “primary value standing above any other form of knowledge and communication.“ Martyrdom, he writes is a “grace that God concedes to the helpless and that no one can demand, it is an insuperable act of unity and mercy.   It is the defeat of any eclipse of God, it is His return in fullness through His children’s offer of their lives. This self-surrender defeats evil, even the so-called “unjustifiable” evil, because it restores unity even with its perpetrator."  Forgiveness and mercy due to the grace of God

Grave marker of the prior at the monastery
Dom Christian de Chergé

The terrorists who carried out such horrific acts in France may think of themselves as having achieved martyrdom, but if the definition of martyrdom is that as noted by Cardinal Scola, the terrorists were not martyrs but plain and simple evil beings who committed murder. The memories of the seven monks are a tribute to what good can do in the world.  The souls of the seven serve as a tribute to service, work. love and prayer.  Yet, the demise of the seven is a reminder of evil perpetrated in the world. The activities of a few in Paris are also a reminder to us. The challenge in our world today is to allow the good to blossom and thrive, and evil to subside. To be open to the former, hearts have to change.  

 

Pipe or Tank

Last year in August my spouse and I took a trip along the Mississippi River from La Crosse north to Prescott, WI. As we stopped or passed through the varied small Wisconsin river towns we became indirectly acquainted with the fracking movement in North Dakota, and the tar sands production of petroleum in western Canada. Our acquaintance was through the number of trains, with multiple engines pulling long lines of tanker cars. Movement by rail is one option for moving the crude oil of the north to the refineries in other locations. The other alternate is the use of pipelines. The proposed Keystone XL pipeline, proposed by TransCanada Corp., which recently was denied approval by President Obama, was planned to haul Canadian crude of the tar sands south into the United States to Nebraska and points south. Pipeline companies have faced issues with faults in their lines, leading to environmental damage, but transport of petroleum products by rail also poses significant risk. The former was a concern of the Dane County Board of Adjustment in desiring insurance to cover costs for a proposed Enbridge pipeline through northeast Dane County, while the latter was shown in two separate derailment incidents in the span of two days in Wisconsin.

Engine of a tanker train, north of Alma, WI
Aug 2014 photo by author

We all use energy, and for the developed world, the top source is fossil fuels.  Oil, coal and natural gas heat our homes, fuel our cars, and produces our electricity.  The price of gas at the pump is relatively low compared to the past several years.  There are different explanations as to why there is a seemingly surplus of oil on the market that has caused the reduction in prices.  One reason for the increase in supply is due to oil production in both the United States and Canada.  While much of the U.S. was in the economic doldrums, North Dakota was booming, mainly due to fracking and directional boring which has the capability of retrieving oil from deep widely dispersed deposits. North Dakota is home to the Bakken formation, which stretches into Canada.  National Geographic, in 2013, reported that "when the frenzy ends, perhaps 20 years from now, as many as 14 billion barrels of high-quality crude may have been removed." To the north, Canada also benefits from the Bakken formation, but the province of Alberta also contains tar sands--from which petroleum products are derived.  Crude from the Bakken formation is dangerous--it contains a higher level of gas than usual and as a result has a lower flash point.  It is an explosion waiting to happen.  Another problem is that only recently has the federal government started to require an upgrade to rail tankers which have thin walls as many were built for the purpose of not hauling crude, but hauling corn syrup.

Keystone XL Pipeline phases

To transport large amounts of oil, from both Bakken formation and the tar sands, a large Canadian company had proposed a 36" pipe which would haul 860,000 barrels of crude a day from Alberta to Montana, into South Dakota and then to Steele City, NE.  The Keystone route would be a second pipeline running diagonally from Hardisty, Alberta to Steele City.  A current pipeline runs east from Hardisty then turns south near Winnepeg and then along the eastern parts of the Dakotas and into Nebraska to Steele City.  Ultimately, the pipeline ends in eastern Texas, home of many a refinery.  President Obama's denial of federal approval for the Keystone pipeline was, at least in sound bytes, based on climate change and that the route would simply continue reliance on fossil fuels.  While, I too am concerned about the use of fossil fuels and climate change, it is rather naive to think that denial of one pipeline will put an end to our fossil fuel based economy.  In fact, other alternatives have been in progress and are being planned to the controversial Keystone route.

Alma, WI derailment, November 2015

While the Keystone route has been in the permitting stage since Obama took office, other methods exist or are being planned in lieu of the Keystone pipeline.  Are railways used to haul petro products from the tar sands?  Representative Frank Hornstein of Minneapolis has said of this possibility "that has been a talking point for pipeline advocates.  It is not based on reality."  Contrary to what Representative Hornstein has said, the facts show otherwise.  A report from Canada says that Canadian Pacific (CP) and other railways in North America "have seen a sharp rise in demand for crude oil shipments amid an increase in oil production and persistent lack of pipeline capacity."  The news report goes on to say that hauling of oil rose 29% in 2014--$500 million--or 7% of total sales.  CP expected to haul 140,000 tank cars of crude in 2014.  CP is a common carrier and has to carry what it asked to carry.  In 2014 the CP Board of Directors questioned the hauling of hazardous products.  A derailment of crude is certainly bad publicity for the rail line.  Yet, with lack of pipeline capacity it is hauling crude oil.

Crude Oil Tankers

Just this weekend, within a two day span there were two train derailments in Wisconsin, one of ethanol a couple miles north of the small Wisconsin river town Alma in which 32 cars tipped over some spilling into the Mississippi River; the other, of 13 cars which occurred in Watertown, WI, carried Bakken crude oil.  It ultimately spilled some 1,000 gallons of heavy crude. At least it did not blow up.  The same trains pass through Minneapolis and St. Paul--a potential catastrophe. So, yes, railways are used to haul crude oil. Trains are getting longer too.  The Wisconsin Railroad Commissioner has noted that it used to be that a one mile train was long, today a two mile train is considered long.  Could you keep your patience while waiting for a two mile long train to pass? Some argue that it is more cost effective for crude to be transported through pipeline, but energy economist, Julie Carey, has noted that rail has some upsides that bring it closer to pipeline transportation costs.  Rail is quicker to market, has more end points in the distribution system, it does not need to be diluted, and railways haul two ways--one can haul dilution material north, and haul the crude product back south.

Watertown, WI  Crude Oil Train Derailment
November 2015

Beyond the railway options there are other pipelines looking to take up the slack of the Keystone route.  Let me touch on two.  The first is a route that currently contains four pipelines and runs from Superior south to Delavan, and further south into Illinois.  The crude will get to Superior from a pipeline in northern Minnesota.  One of these lines hauls a diluting agent north to the tar sand area from Chicago (the dilution agent is added to thin the tar sand crude so it can travel in the pipeline).  One handles a heavy crude, a third a lighter crude, and a fourth carries a heavy tar sand crude.  This last route is being upgraded with larger pumps to increase its pumping capacity, and will carry 1.2 million barrels a day.  The Keystone XL line disapproved by the President, would carry 860,000 barrels a day.  The owner of this route is currently doing survey work in a desire to construct a fifth heavy tar sand line that will handle 800,000 barrels a day.

Keystone Alternatives
The green route goes through the Great Bear Rain forest

Canada's desire for converting the tar sands to a heavy crude is shared by both conservative and liberal parties.  Newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau expressed disappointment with President Obama's decision.  Canada's desire leads to the second tar sand route under discussion, and partly approved.  This route, known as the Northern Gateway, runs through the Great Bear Rain Forest, a highly ecologically sensitive area which runs near the Canadian west coast.  The route being planned through this location would take the tar sand crude though the mountains, through the Great Bear Rain Forest to a port in British Columbia where it would then be able to be shipped to China.  As in the US, China too has an oil fix.  The route through the Great Bear Rain Forest has been termed a "Pipeline through Paradise" by National Geographic.  Canada's tar sands are second only to Saudi Arabia in known oil reserves.  Canada knows it has black gold--and it is doing what it can to get it to the major economies that are oil hogs. Not only is the area ecologically sensitive, but it is home to many native tribes, First Nation's.  Some have opposed the pipeline, some have signed on. Yet showing the power of oil, some tribes have suggested funding their own pipeline route to benefit the tribe.  Perhaps better than a casino cash, but is it not selling their soul?

Detail of the route through the Great Bear Rain Forest

It is rather naive to think that one of the largest deposits of oil on earth will go unused. Yes, tar sand oil is so dense it sinks in water.  Yes, it is more costly to extract.  However, even as the price of crude on the market has dropped, tar sand crude oil has increased shipments!  The companies involved in the Bakken and tar sands are playing a game with Arab conglomerates of the Mid-East to see who can underwrite what to keep their oil flowing.  Good for the consumer, bad for the earth.  For some reason people think that they have a right to use all of the earths natural resources, and future generations be damned.  Technology has saved us before, the thinking goes, it will save us again.  We transport the crude by rail, which threatens our cities, and waterways.  There have been three derailments this year in the Mississippi flyway which is a significant tundra and trumpeter swan migration route.  The most recent, an ethanol derailment, occurred during the peak fall migration season.  What is interesting about ethanol is that it cannot be piped below grade as it would suck the water out of the soil.  As a people we need to make choices.  But they need to be made in terms of facts and the good of the globe.  Keystone may have been a good decision, but it only puts further pressure on railway use, alternative pipeline routes (as Enbridge, another Canadian company, is exploring in Minnesota and Wisconsin), and the establishment of the route through paradise.  In any event, our thirst for oil has consequences. We want our oil, but complain when a pipeline bursts, or a tanker derails. Apparently we find the risks acceptable--at least until a major event occurs.

Tar Sand Location Relative Keystone and Northern Gateway Routes

It will take more than a lost pipeline to affect a national appetite for fossil fuels.  A reduction in our crude oil dependence  will require a change in our methods of approach, the form of our built environment, ways of travel, some of the commonly accepted measures of success, and our national values.  Individual choices, however, can make a dent in overall consumption.  This is best shown in that miles traveled by auto have tended to hold steady, or perhaps slightly increase, since the recession started several years ago.  However, I am sure when my spouse and I take our next trip along the Mississippi the long runs of trains tugging tanker cars of oil will once again be a common sight.  I just would not want to have to wait at a crossing for a two mile train.

Samhain, Saints and Souls

This weekend, and into Monday, we have a triad of days, the last two of which in the past were highly celebrated.  In current culture, the first of the three dominates, which is of course Halloween, The other two are All Saints Day and All Souls Day.  In today's popular culture Halloween is second only in expenditure to Christmas.  That means it beats out Easter.  While both Halloween and Easter have candy associated with current tradition, Halloween has other things--like costumes.  Yet, all three are intertwined.

Halloween is celebrated on the last day of October.  Yet, it derives its name from its association with All Saints Day, which is the first day of November.  Halloween essentially describes All Hallows Eve, or the evening before celebration of the Hallows.  One definition of hallow is a saint or holy person.  However, what is celebrated goes back to pre-Christian times.  Some say it goes back to the founding of Rome (Romulus and Remus) and what is termed the festival of Lemuria.  However, this festival was celebrated on three different days in the middle of May--May 9, 11 and 13.  Interesting how they are not only all odd numbered days, but that it concluded on the 13th. Perhaps this helped set the superstition associated with the number 13. This Roman festival was celebration of those who had passed this earth of which they recognized there were some good and some bad.  Today Halloween is generally associated with what people term bad "spirits."  After all, the persons who are in need of exorcism are not in the hands of a good spirits.

Celtic Tribes 

However, Rome was not the only culture to recognize their dead and what was often thought to be their associated spirits.  So too did the Celts.  Today, we often think of the Celts as only coming from Ireland, and perhaps parts of Scotland.  However, Celtic settlements had been more widespread.  Let me quote from a 2010 I wrote:

The name Bohemia derives from a Celtic tribe known as Boii.  The Celtic name originates from the ancient Greeks who referred to the people of central Europe as Keltoi.  The Celts were not an empire ruled by one government but were a broad cultural linguistic group.  The boundaries of where they lived were ever changing.  This is likely due to the fact that they did not form communities and settlements as defined today, but rather formed tribes that moved their settlements to adjust to the wide variety of factors that effect a population—warfare, famine, disease, and inter-tribal rivalry.  The term Celtic is today more often related to the people of Ireland, and while they too were of origin from the Celtic tribes of early history, the name Celt was adopted by Irish and Scots to distinguish themselves from the invading and conquering British.   Some scholars have identified twelve, others seven and some as few as two main tribes.  [Thomas] Cahill (78-79) notes that there were two main groups one making its way to Gaul and the island to be known as England, and the other settling on the Iberian Peninsula.  The Iberian group would be the primary group to migrate to the island we know today as Ireland.  

The Celts were present in Europe at the time of Julius Caesar as he referred to persons on the north side of the Alps as Celts.  Celts divided the year by use of four major holidays.  One of which would correspond to our November 1--the feast of Samhain (pronounced as Sah-ween).  This was the first day of their year and it would mark the beginning of winter.  This was a time when crops were harvested and animals if not housed inside were brought to pastures closer to the home.  As one writer notes:  "The Celts believed that, at the time of Samhain, more so than any other time of the year, the ghosts of the dead were able to mingle with the living."  This was the time, they thought, that the souls of the dead would pass into the great beyond.  Hence living residents would gather and sacrifice varied foods and light bonfires to honor and assist the dead on their journey to the world beyond.  

Pumpkin carving another Halloween tradtion

The world beyond would be given a name with the advance of Christianity--heaven.  Christian missionaries at first would attempted to change the practices of the cultures in which they came in contact, but later, Pope Gregory I suggested that the missionaries use native customs and beliefs to help spread Christianity.  This proved successful for the advancement of Christianity.  Some pagan holidays were transformed into the holy days of the Christian era. Transformation in some ways was abrupt and in others gradual.  Christians would refer to the pagan supernatural deities as evil, or demonic and spirits setting forth references not uncommon to the current celebration of Halloween. However, it would take time for the population to begin to divest themselves of ancient custom and practice.  In fact, with Halloween, we find that this ancient practice is still with us, at least in some sense.  The celebration of Halloween was not common in the United States until the mid 19th century when customs of Souling and Guising were brought to the U.S. by immigrants from Ireland and Scotland.  The common kid-friendly custom we know today costumes and trick or treating, as reported in History.com is in fact not that old, and started in the 1950's.  Baby boomers were probably bugging their parents for candy, so the custom advanced to that we know today.  One trend on the rise is the number of adults who celebrate Halloween--likely adding to its high dollar value.

Medieval painting of All Saints Day

While All Hallows Day, more commonly known as All Saints Day, was first promulgated in the eighth century by Pope Gregory III, it is actually thought to have its origins in the action of Pope Boniface IV when he consecrated the Pantheon on Rome on May 13 (notice the connection to the Roman pagan festival of Lemuria) to the Virgin Mary and all martyrs.  Rome was an epicenter for the production of martyrs. With Pope Gregory's action, the feast of All Saints has now become primary to that of May 13.  Of course, some medieval historians say the tradition of All Saints day goes back to the conversion of Constantine and was celebrated jointly with Pentecost. All Hallows day, however, still did not put an end to customary practice associated with Samhain.  The church then turned to create All Souls day on November 2.  On this day the living pray for the dead.  What is interesting is that in the area of medieval Britain, including Scotland and Ireland, the practice of Souling developed.  Soul cakes were provided to the poor and in exchange the poor would pray for the souls of the deceased who showed kindness. But, also on All Souls day, children dressed in costume and went what is referred to as guising.  They would visit homes, and in exchange for food, candy or beverage, the child (or children) would sing a song, recite a poem or perhaps tell a tale.  Guising would appear to be the best precursor to the trick-or-treating practice of today.  These traditions were brought to the U.S. by Scot and Irish immigrants and adoption of those practices by other cultural groups would pave the way for the custom of today.

Remembering the dead on All Souls Day

This triad of fall days recognizes the impact of one culture on another.  It occurs at a time of the year, in the northern hemisphere, when days are markedly shorter than a few weeks earlier.  We are near the half way point between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice.  Yet, the travels of the dead recognized by Samhain are parts of varied cultures world wide.  Even us Christians talk of a journey to heaven. The journey of the dead is is a belief common to, and separately created by, a variety of cultures--showing the pull that remembrance of our deceased relatives had to past cultures, and continues to have in present time.  Some of the old Celtic deities have been termed fairies or leprechauns (moving from witches and demons) in a lexicon we tend to recognize today.  While we may be a modern world, we have a pull to ancient customs that have been ingrained by our ancestors over thousands of years, through varied but related practices.  This may even date to before Romulus and Reamus. While Halloween seems to take center stage to the All Hallows Day and All Souls Day, the other two are no less important.  Like Halloween, even All Saints Day has changed from recognition of martyrs, to people of good will who have allowed grace to enter their lives.  many cultures remember their dead.  Remembrance instills a level of hope in our own lives.  Pope Francis has said that "hope is like a bit of leaven that enlarges your soul."  Remembrance is the pull our friends and families have on us.  That is the pull that remembering our dead has for us.  That is the pull that drew the Celts to create Samhain, and the church to create All Saints Day, and All Souls Day.

 Note:  Images found on Google

Silver and Grace

Silver, it is a word that conjures up some different meanings.  It is both a color and a precious metal (#47 in the periodic table, with the symbol AG).  But, it also is used to refer to the elderly.  One web site denotes certain positive and negative words associated with the word silver.  Positive words, among those noted in that web site, are: illumination, wisdom, high-tech, and modern.  Some of the negative terms associated with the word silver in the same web site are: melancholy, lonely, lifeless, and deceptive.  A deceptive illumination is an apparent contradiction in terms.   The millennial generation likely thinks that silver-haired persons are not likely to be very high tech.  After all, we count on that generation to help us with our tech issues.  In relation to precious metals, silver is bought and sold daily on commodity exchanges, but plays second fiddle to gold.  Silver is also the color to represent a 25th wedding anniversary, perhaps appropriate since my mustache has turned silver from brown. On the other hand, grace is less well-defined and determinable.  It is more a state bestowed, or reached, than something you simply purchase.

Three roses, one for the two of us and one each for our two sons

While silver is used in manufacturing and other processes, it is also used a great deal in jewelry, it is mainly purchased in jewelry.  Jewelry is one method of self expression, and can be used as a sign of social status.  When a person declares their love for another, a piece of jewelry is often given to the lady, in our culture a diamond ring.  Diamonds, as the sales pitch goes, are a girl's best friend.  Diamonds and silver have demand driven in large part by culture.  It is cultural demand that drives jewelry.  Grace does not require silver, but it probably requires love.  Love does not need silver, nor does it need a diamond.  Love comes from your heart and just as importantly your soul.  Grace is bestowed by a loving and merciful God.    

A nasturtium amid the detritus of fall

As my spouse and I celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary today, the color silver will enter my mind, but only as the mark for such an event. My thoughts for part of the day will of course focus on our past twenty five years together, and what our future holds. Then my thinking will get to the real important stuff—like the upcoming Packer game against the Denver Broncos. Will the Packer offense get back on track against a tough Denver defense? Will their porous pass defense be ripped apart by an aging Peyton Manning? The thing is, my wife would not be surprised if my thinking moved to that direction.

Silver--better than jewelry?

We set a course for our lives only to see life has a way of altering our intended direction. This happened to me when I met a petite red-headed young women. When I asked her out, it was  really to get her friend, who I had met during the meeting of a local civic organization, off my back. A week or two after her friend gave me her number the friend called me wondering why I had not yet called the young lady.  I called the number because I figured it was only evening.  The course of my life changed after meeting that red head. Varied events have occurred that have affected our life as a married couple over the past 25 years. There have been illuminating moments and moments of wisdom. There have been times of melancholy and loneliness. There have been adjustments to the changing world. In a way our silver anniversary is somewhat tied to the descriptive words that web site laid out for the color silver. We have had ups and downs.  Although I hope are trajectory is mostly up. High points include the birth of our two sons.  You see and relish their accomplishments, more than you do your own. As parents you also feel their sorrows, more than you do your own. The past 25 years has seen losses, and just two examples: each of us lost our father, each lost a brother at an age too young. We have seen joys and challenges perhaps not uncommon to those faced by other couples, but there were others more unique to our set of circumstances. As I suggested in an earlier post, you know joy from experiencing sorrow.  Perhaps that is one nature of grace.  What is unique is the way our individual and collective nature has been formed by the joys and challenges that have been presented to us during the course of the past 25 years.  Marriage, like life, is a compilation of what Pope Francis terms that wonderfully complicated experience.

Canned tomato sauce

Life is complicated, We are separate individuals, each with our own DNA, each with our own views, each with our own idiosyncrasies, and each with our own mannerisms. There may be little things that annoy the other, but also little things that form pleasant memories. I am the recipient of her scowls, but also her cute little Mom-bear smile. Together we form the T-team. We make a good pair doing yard work, and freezing or canning produce. We make less of a good pair during Packer games. For some reason she does not think Mike McCarthy can hear me when I, in a firm voice, talk to the TV. She takes more than her share of the household duties. I appreciate her panoply of meals that she makes and realize that her Pinteresting benefits my taste buds at the same time it plays havoc on my waistline. When the boys were young she was the one to see them off to school. She was the one that had to put with the fire-drills. but, she was also there for some treasured moments.  It is some of the trying times that we look back with some laughter, and if not laughter than a sense of wisdom gained. Times of testing teach you more than times of bliss.

Our Wedding! October 27, 1990

Those words describing silver are a metaphor for marriage. From our perseverance we gain strength. We are together. Each marriage is unique; it is formed by the two involved; it joins individual and shared experiences each had prior to and within the marriage. Our gold wedding bands, another cultural trait, symbolize the commitment of one to the other. We study history because our past informs our present and our future  Similarly, a marriage is informed the past and present of the two involved.  Marriage is more than love, it is also about service. It is about putting the needs of another before your own.  Every now and then you come across words in a book, or movie that speak to you. This was the case last Thursday as my wife and I watched the movie “The Painted Veil.” In the movie the mother superior from a French religious order tells a young woman who has been assisting at the orphanage and convent, and where her husband had tended to a cholera epidemic before he succumb to that disease, the following: “But when love and duty are one, then grace is in you.” For 25 years that red-headed lady and I have grown together.  I see the workings of grace in some of her actions and in her smile.  On our silver anniversary, love is important, service is important, but it is those grace-filled moments we find together that is the real strength and blessing.  And so our journey continues as we pass by our silver anniversary and head to the next.

Clean and Dirty

Imagine that you are sitting in Camp Randall stadium, home of the Wisconsin Badger football team, when all of a sudden a gray-colored, smelly water-type substance, with brown hunks floating around starts to be pumped into the stadium. You find yourself running up the stairs to get above the rising level. Somewhere above the halfway point, the pumping ends, and you look below. What you see is the consequence of human action in the wastewater stream. The Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) treats, on average, 40 million gallons of wastewater a day at its Nine Springs Treatment Plant. That amount would fill over one-half of Camp Randall Stadium. Forty million gallons seems like an awful lot of waste water, but this comparison also shows the massive size of Camp Randall. MMSD serves over 340,000 persons and its territory covers about 180 square miles. It runs from Morrisonville near the north boundary of Dane County with Columbia County, south to Verona. We all depend on water and much of the developed world depends on sewage treatment plants to treat wastewater. Clean water is crucial to ourselves, and our way of life. But, as everyone knows from grade school science, all the water on the earth is already here. It recycles itself through the miracle of nature.

MMSD Service Territory
Source:  MMSD

Where ever you are in Dane County, you receive your water from the ground. Groundwater moves slowly. One example illustrates this point. The municipal wells in Fitchburg, WI go deep into what is known as the Mount Simon formation. This thick limestone layer sits right below a shale layer known as the Eau Claire acquitard. Above the Eau Claire layer is the upper aquifer, mainly a sandstone formation. While the shale layer is thought to allow some water penetration, testing of a municipal well shows that the groundwater withdrawn is older than 1950. We know this because the water, at that sampling location anyway, lacks tritium which is a radioactive isotope that is found in the shallow groundwater layer. Tritium resulted due to nuclear testing of the 1950’s and shows that the shallow groundwater is recharged by post 1950 rainwater. One hopes that the Mount Simon has good recharge, but that post-1950 groundwater has yet to reach that municipal well.

Cross-section of Dane County geology
Source:  M Gotkowitz, WI Geologic & Natural History Survey

We tend to treat water as a never ending commodity. One would think that the drought in California and some other western states would end that conception. Even in the Midwest, with our abundant Great Lakes, we take water for granted. What we need to realize is that of all the water on the earth, only about 1% is thought to be available for human use. And of course, wastewater is the back-end of human use and consumption. It results as part of the natural biological process of the human body. Everybody poops, even the Queen of England.  In many societies early treatment of wastewater was, well, limited. Prior to indoor plumbing it was not uncommon to see waste dumped directly into the street. Disease would run rampant through populations. It was one of the first great challenges of the construction of a modern society—the handling of wastewater. Let’s take one example. In 1887 Madison, WI was home to 18 sanitary districts supporting a total population of about 12,000 persons. The districts collected wastewater and piped it—to the lakes! Concern over the use of the lakes as a sanitary settling pond and for recreation raised concerns and the first treatment plant was constructed, using a chemical process. This, process, however, would be abandoned in just a few years and a septic tank with trickling filters would be put in place at what was known as the Burke plant. This would be the first use of a trickling filter in the United States. Growth in the city of Madison would prompt the construction of the Nine Springs Treatment Plant, which opened in 1928. In 1930, MMSD was formed in order to best address wastewater treatment on more of a regional basis. We trust that our water is clean when we use it, but after it is used, it is dirty.

Nine Springs Treatment Plant Construction, late 1920's
Source:  MMSD

People tend to dump whole sorts of objects down the sanitary sewer, and they cause problems. Some of these objects cause problems with the districts 18 pumps stations where they clog the pumps. On average, every week sees a pump needing be lifted out for cleaning and removal of objects that affect the pump. Most pump stations have at least two pumps, and some more than four. First, there is no such thing as flushable wipes. Just because toilet paper can be handled at a treatment plant does not mean baby wipes or other paper objects can be handled in that same manner. Second, floss also gets trapped and causes problems. A shelf in the operations room is full of quaint objects that made there way to the treatment plant—mainly toys. Yes, those objects have been properly cleaned. But, sewage treatment is challenged by other modern day occurrences.

Madison water use
Source:  M Gotkowitz

Our modern way of life affects our water quality. For example, salt use in softeners and as deicing agents have led to high levels of salt, primarily in the streams and lakes. Politicians like to put solutions on to point-source pollution control agencies, like a sewage treatment plant, because it is easier and you are not dealing with a host of private individuals. Chlorides in water is just one example. MMSD receives flow not only from homes, but also through inflow and infiltration. Storm water can make its way into the system and with it, particularly in springs rains so do chlorides. MMSD may treat about 40 mgd on a typical day, but it large rain events it has to be capable of handling over twice that amount. Phosphorus is also an issue. While most phosphorus is a result of agricultural practices (P has been banned in detergents for quite some time), treatment plants have to remove ever increasing amounts in an attempt to make up for poor agricultural practices. The easy methods have already been accomplished to remove about 95% of P, but a coming requirement to remove another 3 to 3.5% will place high costs on the rate payers, particularly if a treatment option has to be chosen. There are also other aspects. Anti-microbial clothing, for example, releases mall specks of sliver when laundered. There is also the use of pharmaceuticals which, when passed through the body, still contain hormones and other parts of drugs that end up in our waterways. For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction, and just because it goes down the drain does not mean there are not consequences involved in having to handle the mess.

MMSD Treatment Plant
Source:  MMSD

Today, the Nine Springs Treatment Plant at MMSD is one of the most advanced in the world. It would cost over one billion dollars to replace. Its leadership and staff are required to look out at least fifty years in an era where most thinking is based on a few months. The treatment plant is one of a handful of plants in the nation to take most of its phosphorous and turn it into pellets for use in agricultural fertilizers. It was the first in the nation to use UV rays to disinfect the effluent. It is looking at partnerships with farmers to reduce more phosphorus, not unlike past work with dentists to separate mercury from the wastewater at the clinic. It is also looking to partner with high chloride users to reduce chloride loading. It realizes that not all solutions can be brick and mortar, but rather individual action can make a difference. Even today it still continues to study new ways of advancing treatment plant technology, often in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin.

MMSD connection to Gulf of Mexico
Source:  MMSD

As you brush your teeth, wash the dishes, or even sit in Camp Randall, think of the other end of the pipes, and the amount of water used, and how perhaps our individual actions can make a difference. Of course, your visit to Camp Randall may never be the same. Through its work with dentists, and its upcoming work with rural landowners, MMSD knows that individual choices can make a difference. It is up to the individual to take action to conserve our water and other valued resources. Progress has been made in regard to water conservation, but it is more than water conservation, it is having a calibrated water softener, it is being judicious with your use of chlorides on your driveway or sidewalk in the winter. As the MMSD executive director has noted, it takes 40 days for water to go from a tap in Dane County to the Gulf of Mexico. Our individual implications have global consequences.  Clean water is vital to our health, let's just try to keep as much as we can clean.

Playing Peoria

Playing Peoria is a phase often used, perhaps now in the past, about taking the temperature on a product or idea.  I guess Peoria is (was) considered to be a microcosm of the nation's middle class.  On this date, in 1854, playing Peoria meant something completely different than the colloquialism of  today (or recent past).  One hundred and sixty-one years ago Abraham Lincoln made a speech denouncing slavery and the Kansas-Nebraska Act which had been approved by congress about five months earlier.  As one writer has noted, Lincoln was an "obscure lawyer and congressional hopeful."  However, Lincoln actually won election to the Illinois House of Representatives on Nov. 7, 1854.  Three days later he would declare his candidacy for the US Senate seat from Illinois.  He would lose the senate election to Lyman Trumbell, but his Peoria speech would enunciate his principle of opposition to slavery.   This speech would be the foundation for of later speeches, including some of those in the Lincoln Douglas debates of 1858.

Stephen Douglas introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act in which he argued for popular sovereignty.  That is, he wished to allow the settlers for each territory to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery.  The act would overturn the Missouri Compromise which had previously set forth a latitude as the dividing line between free and slave-holding states.  He also commented on a little recognized issue that much of the Northwest Territories were, at one time, under the control of a slave holding state, that being Virginia.  However, he would note, at the time of creation the Northwest territories were legislated as being free.  In this ground-breaking speech Lincoln would presage the the several years of violence that would follow the adoption of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.  Lincoln said: "And in this aspect, it could not but produce agitation. Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature---opposition to it, is [in?] his love of justice. These principles are an eternal antagonism; and when brought into collision so fiercely, as slavery extension brings them, shocks, and throes, and convulsions must ceaselessly follow."   The violence resulting from the Kansas-Nebraska act was sufficiently gruesome and ugly for historians to tag the line from a newspaper to forever memorialize and etch this inhumanity--Bleeding Kansas. But yet, this speech did more than simply set forth Lincoln's opposition to slavery.  It also set forth the basic principles upon which he would rely throughout his career.  In this same Peoria speech Lincoln, going back to the Declaration of Independence, would say:

What I do say is, that no man is good enough to govern another man, without that other's consent. I say this is the leading principle---the sheet anchor of American republicanism. Our Declaration of Independence says: "We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, DERIVING THEIR JUST POWERS FROM THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED."

This quote is a longer version of what he had to say in what is now likely regarded as his most famous speech--"The Gettysburg Address." In that famous speech he said: "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."  Lincoln would depend upon a document claiming that all men were created equal that was written by a Virginian who himself was a slave holder.  Lincoln would alter, overtime, his views to a certain degree.  For example, even though against slavery, at one time he supported the creation of a separate colony, or transport of the African-American population of the time to a resettlement area.  It is often difficult for us in the twenty-first century to recognize the era in history of which events occurred and the different view of the world in play at that time.  

What we need to recognize is that events today, in our enlightened world, challenge the ideals of of the era in which we live.  Just two days ago, for example, it was reported that a major sex-trafficking raid across the nation rescued 149 children.  Interesting is that Wisconsin had the third highest number of children rescued, which was nine.  As bad as that is, keep in mind that 57  adults in Wisconsin were rescued.  Eleven traffickers were arrested.  There is also the horror of what the Islamic State and other religious fundamentalists are doing through out the Mid-East. Maybe we should not be so smug in our views of prior generations.

As I complete this blog post, I think back two years and four months.  It was on June 16, 2013 when I made my first "blog" post, recounting, on the 150th anniversary of Gettysburg the importance of a regiment from Minnesota played during that crucial battle.   That post was actually accomplished as a Facebook status.  My musings on Facebook turned into a regular event, so son suggested that using a blog format would be better than Facebook, so, in November 2013, I began the formal blog. The events of Peoria and Gettysburg were nine years and a bloody civil war apart.  The blood of Bleeding Kansas would be mild compared to the blood of the Civil War.  The Civil War would become one of the defining events of the nation.  Yet, the events leading to war were formed well before, and would affect the nation long after.  Lincoln's speech in Peoria is seemingly lost to history on an American public more interested in a tweet than our collective history. While this speech set forth and would form the foundation of Lincoln's views on slavery,  it is well down the line in speeches recognized as important.  We recognize the Gettysburg Address; we recognize his House Divided speech; Some may even recall his Cooper Union speech.  Yet, in plain Peoria Lincoln would give the speech that was critical in setting forth his basic principles and would provide the basis for much of what he would say later in life.  To this we owe a debt of gratitude, and a need to acknowledge the importance of Lincoln's playing in Peoria.  While his Peoria speech is, comparatively, lost to history, what really matters is the ideals expressed on that fall day.  It is to Lincoln's continued expression of those ideals, perhaps, to which the most gratitude is owed.    

Images from Google Images

Beets Me

This past Sunday I decided to make a beet chocolate cake.  My spouse had come across the recipe, but never had the opportunity to bake this particular cake.  We had beets available from our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share. With my spouse's assistance we cooked and then pureed three beets to get at least the one and one-half cups required for the recipe.  While our CSA provided us with red beets, I did grow a few golden beets in our garden.  My garden beets were rather small, about the size of a golf ball, and were considerably smaller than the red beets provided by the CSA.

Beet Chocolate Cake, made Oct. 4 (photo by author)

Some people, like one of my older siblings, likes to eat beets.  But me?  Not so much. They are good for you as they contain a great deal of fiber and vitamin C.  To the weight conscious, they are also fat free and low in calories.  So, you can get your fiber with few calories and no fat.  What a way to keep the plumbing in your body in good shape.  Beet tops can also be eaten,and they too contain good amounts of fiber and C, but also contain vitamin A.  Table beets also contain more sugar than any other vegetable, and that includes sweet corn and carrots.  Growing up my parents would eat beets; in particular I recall my Dad eating them.  Back then they were mostly boiled, or perhaps steamed.  You can, however, eat them raw or cooked.  Today you see beet top greens with their red stems turning up in pre-made salad mixes.  Of course, pre-made or pre-mixed salads are an invention of the late 20th century. Another convenience for the modern consumer too busy to take time to make a salad.  Since you can eat the beet raw, you could consider shredding some on your salad with the beet tops, arugula, lettuce, spinach and what ever other greens one chooses to eat.

One interesting fact, that I read on a California agricultural web site is that nationwide only about 10,000 acres of beets are grown in the United States.  In California, beets are mainly grown for their greens--used in those pre-made salads.  Beet greens last more than a week, which is necessary for the pre-made salads.  But, here is the kicker, that article also stated that about half of all table beets are grown in one state, which is Wisconsin.  I never would have guessed that Wisconsin would produce so much of this one crop.  Beets, both table and sugar, do well in our climate.  Sugar beets are, obviously, related to table beets, but get large, like a foot long and can weigh up to five pounds. Perhaps it is more than climate that made Wisconsin a grower of beets, but also ethnic heritage.

Sugar Beets

A common crop grown in Bohemia and the Czech Republic in the 19th century were beets.  They were not grown simply to be eaten, but for the production of sugar. Wisconsin's climate and geography reminded Czech immigrants to the United States of their native land and so Wisconsin became home to a good number of Czech immigrants.  It was not that long ago that transportation was not only time consuming, but was also expensive. The most cost effective method of transportation for many goods is by ship, and inland countries like Bohemia would probably find it more cost effective to grow beets and produce their own sugar.  The first factory to produce sugar from beets was established in 1801 in a region sometimes regarded as part of Bohemia--Lower Silesia. Beets are thought to have been part of "push" factor for Bohemian immigrants to the United States.  Small farms were being gobbled by larger operations to grow beets for sugar. Like much of the this part of Europe, this area was subjected to various rulers over time--including Poland, Germany and Hapsburg Austria.

Former Sugar Factory as seen today

An old, once elegant building in Madison behind Olbrich Gardens was first used to produce sugar from beets. Today we know the building as the old Garver Feed Mill, but it was first owned and operated by the US Sugar Company.  Sugar--a dentist full employment act.  Today, sugar beets produce about one-third of the world's supply of sugar.  This makes sense, as most every culture uses sugar, and not all are sufficiently fortunate to import sugar made from sugar cane.

Beet to Sugar Factory in Madison, was known as the "Sugar Castle"

Table beets generally are a deep red, and in fact this natural color is sometimes used to make lemonade pink, and is even used to add a fuller red color to tomato sauces. I should probably become a bigger fan of beets. But for now, I will continue to enjoy my beet cake.  I found that I can make the cake even better by slathering one of my favorite foods on top of a piece of that cake--peanut butter,  Now, I ask, what other writer would tie in beets, Bohemian immigration, a historic building in Madison, WI and a cake in one blog post?

Unless otherwise noted, all images from Google images