Lebanon Once More
Posted by CecilieScott on 07/25/06, 3:31:59 PM

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Between June and September of 1982, American and Canadian poets responded to the televised images of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Their poems were gathered into a book that should be only a collectors item by now, a historical footnote: And Not Surrender: American Poets on Lebanon. The book is out of print, the poems still rendingly timely.

Here are the concluding stanzas from Canadian poet Dennis Lee's "After Sabra, After Shatila."

(. . . I think of where death entered--
     in the soft of the stomach for some;
  for some at the hairline, very close to the temple . . .)

  If we mean to continue,
     continue existing on earth,
  we need not love one another.
But we must draw together, and know our enemies
     for there are things that are no longer
  acceptable,
     if the planet is not to go down.

  Our enemies are those who do not recognize
     our painful, shared community.
We must know them well,
     after Sabra . . .
  after Shatila . . .

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Umbrella Against Iraq War
Posted by CecilieScott on 02/21/03, 1:00:06 PM

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What to do when the threat of war has you hyperventilating each morning? My friend Alysoun headed out to the art supply store, bought oil crayons, and got her umbrella ready for a rainy day. This photo was taken at the Seattle demonstration opposing War against Iraq, Saturday, February 15th. People from all around Puget Sound came together to join voices and signs in the biggest march I've ever seen, bigger than any of the demonstrations against the war in Vietnam. Makes it easier to get out of bed each morning.

See the Seattle Independent Media Center for more demonstration coverage.

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Super Highway to War with Iraq
Posted by CecilieScott on 09/21/02, 9:48:18 AM

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Ever have that dream, where you're in a car and suddenly realize you have no brakes? Then you find the steering wheel doesn't respond. Problem is, it's not a dream.

Stephen King horror pales before Bush & Company's race towards war with Iraq. We are being taken for a ride, and so far Congress shows no inclination to seize control. During the last presidential election Nader and the Green Party told us the Dems were no different from the Republicans. If Congress fails to stop the war against Iraq before it starts, the TweedleDum/TweedleDee claim will be all the more compelling.

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The Return of Madame X
Posted by CecilieScott on 08/16/02, 10:06:23 AM

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Being Madame X is back on TurtleDreams.

I'd taken it off in order to work on a print version for submittal. Mistake! It just plain didn't work without graphics and links. I hated the result.

So I've revised it, adding more graphics, more links, and making better use of quotes that illustrate how this Sargent portrait, particularly its subject, has been pushing buttons ever since 1884.

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Bombing Afghanistan - Whose History?
Posted by CecilieScott on 10/21/01, 9:46:48 AM

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Histories have been traded and quoted in the last month - first in response to the attack on the WTC and Pentagon, then as we struggle to answer questions about reprisal, justice, and defense. Histories filled the editorial and letters columns of the online and offline press. 20th Century histories were reduced to sound bites on TV and talk radio and to slogans used by politicians - both aimed at replacing thought with instant certainties.

Histories, yes. Clearly there is no single history. There are official histories, family histories, personal histories.

Consider, for example, the differing histories taught to and experienced by a Palestinian refugee living in a camp in Gaza and a Jewish refugee from New York living in a settlement on the West Bank.

I grew up on Leon Uris, on Kirk Douglas or Jeff Chandler playing the role of heroic fighter for a homeland for the Jews in Israel. My earliest memories of news photos are of those in Life magazine in 1945 - concentration camp survivors and mushroom clouds. Auschwitz and Hiroshima are forever and inextricably linked in my imagination.

So my task has been to learn other histories. Here are a few Links that have helped me in this task. And Common Dreams is a good site for reading today's news from multiple perspectives - histories in the making.

I'm still learning ... to live is to learn.

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Book List
Posted by CecilieScott on 08/18/01, 2:49:07 PM

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By Lora Lyn
[A group of writers from Helena Maria Viramontes fiction class at last year's Flight of the Mind gathered for a week of writing at Summer Lake, Oregon this year.]

During our last dinner at Summer Lake, I put out the question "What book are you?" These are not necessarily favorite books, though some may be favorites as well. They are more books that "we fell into" or that captivated us in such a way that they have become an inseparable part of us.

Cathy:	The Long Winter, Laura Ingalls Wilder Shipping News, Annie Proulx
Cecilie:	Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll Momo, Michael Ende Always Coming Home, Ursula K. LeGuin To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
Donna:	The Tales of Hans Christian Anderson* Twent Years at Hull-House, Jane Addams Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury* The Day the Universe Changed, James Burke
Lindsay:	Tales of Burning Love, Louise Erdrich The Mistress of Spices, Chitra Divakaruni
Lora:	Fugitive Pieces, Anne Michaels The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte The Awakening, Kate Chopin
Mariana:	1961 Gordon Parks article on Rio de Janeiro The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver The Terrorists of Iruston, Louise Marley Daughters of Copper Woman, Anne Cameron Four Quartets, T.S. Eliot
Nancy:	The Black Stallion, Walter Farley Stephen Hero, James Joyce

* Regarding the Fairy Tales of HCA, Donna said, there's so much Nordic culture in them. "Life is pain, get used to it. You can get ice chunks in your heart, but love can melt them." About "Fahrenheit 451," she said that when she read this book "I had to become a librarian. It was the only hope. The whole world was on a path to hell."

Nancy also mentioned the impact it made on her reading when she discovered a young friend reading Les Miserables. The young girl told her, "The only trick to books like this is that it takes longer to read." When she heard this Nancy said, "It gave me license to read real books."

Thank goodness! What would we do without 'real' books?

If anyone wants to add to this list, please do. It's been a great way for all of us to get ideas about what we might like to read next.

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Re: About TurtleDreams
Posted by CecilieScott on 07/25/01, 8:35:59 PM

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Just posted an About page. To see it, click on About in the row of navigation links beneath the TurtleDreams logo.

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