A closer look at Forrest King's "Remember, Heal & Hope" sculpture

HM earlier featured some photos of Forrest King's sculpture for the International Day of Peace ceremony Sept. 21. We thought a close-up and a description was also in order. This artwork could be variously described as a sculpture, an assemblage, or an installation. After making its debut at Peace Day in the Herschler Building, it will tour local churches and any other locale that would like to view the piece and hear the story behind it.

The materials in the sculpture came from representatives of local churches. They donated the items at the Sept. 11 commemoration held 9/11/11 in front of the Wyoming State Capitol.

Forrest organized his piece around the symbols of three religious traditions: the Christian cross, a Jewish tallit or shawl and a set of Muslim prayer beads. A firefighter's helmet tops the sculpture and it's propped up with an EMT's ready box. To illustrate the international storm caused by 9/11, the shawl and prayer beads have a wind-whipped look and are forever frozen in place that way. Not sure of Forrest's techniques, but the sculpture has the look of a traditional bronze monument.

Arrayed below that are three panels that say "Remember," "Heal" and "Hope." A prayer candle sits above an old hymnal opened to "My Country 'Tis of Thee" and "America the Beautiful."

It takes time and contemplation and talent to come up with a work of art in 11 days. We would all do well to take some time to contemplate what the artist has wrought. If you're interested in bringing it and the artist to a church or synagogue or mosque or school near you, go to Forrest King's Facebook page.

Cheyenne artist Forrest King takes a little of this and a little of that for artwork celebrating peace and healing

Forrest King and daughter at table filled with donated items for International Day of Peace artwork

Local artist and community activist Forrest King has his work cut out for him.

During the next ten days, Forrest will craft a work of art from a firefiighter's gear, an empty wine bottle, a string of Islamic prayer beads, shards of a shattered stained glass window and a broken bone.

The items were donated to the cause at today's 9/11 commemoration at the Wyoming State Capitol. It was the first in a series of 11 days of peace that will culminate in the International Day of Peace ceremony Sept. 21 at the Capitol Rotunda.

The ceremony started with a performance by Hands in Harmony and a community chorale made up of the LCCC chorus and members of local church choirs. Speakers came from local Christian churches, Mt. Sinai Synagogue, the Southeast Wyoming Islamic Center and the UU Church. The most touching aspect of the day featured mosque members translating the original Hebrew text and Synagogue members translating work recited in the original language by mosque members. It was all scripted but really illustrated the "healing" theme of the event.

People representing at least a dozen local congregations donated items for Forrest's commemorative work of art.

From the V.A. Medical Center -- a broken bone representing wounded warriors of our many wars.
From Mt. Sinai Synagogue -- Jason Bloomberg, who spent 20 years as an emergency responder, brought an EMT's jump kit found at Ground Zero and a firefighter's helmet.
Community of Christ -- a peace candle
St. Paul's Lutheran -- pieces of a stained glass window.
SE Wyoming Islamic Center -- a broken string of prayer beads

Community choir assembled on the WY State Capitol for 9/11 commemoration

We were piped out of the ceremony by a lone piper performing "Amazing Grace."

We eagerly await Forrest's finished artwork. Its theme is the journey from brokenness to hope.

Shalom

September 2011 a time to celebrate the creators over the destructors

The arts can bring us together and, sometimes drive us apart.

After 9/11, the arts were a strong healing force in America. Ten years after, I still remember that beautiful "America" A Tribute to Heroes" telethon that featured performances Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Wycleaf Jean, The Dixie Chicks, Celine Dion and so many others. Music was this Sept. 21 show's centerpiece. Unlike most televised music events -- MTV Awards, Grammies, etc. -- the egos were left at the door and they just played.

On that night, when you and your Republican neighbors were watching the same show and thinking some of the same thoughts, who would have thought that we would be such a miserable and contentious and downtrodden nation as we are now? Who would have thought we would still be waging war in Afghanistan and one in Iraq? Who would have predicted how mean-spirited our politics would become? It disgusts me and I hope it disgusts you.

Me -- I'm part of the problem. I regularly attack the other side for what I see as knuckleheaded politics. They, in turn, attack me. That's O.K. a healthy give-and-take of ideas is a good thing. That makes our country stronger. It shows us that the terrorists really didn't win on that sunny day ten Septembers ago. But when we spend all of our time in name-calling mode, I'm not so sure. When politics becomes another excuse to tear our neighbor down, I'm not so sure. After 9/11, we were talking. Our leaders were operating on the same page. Healing and recovery became our goal.

That didn't last long.

Does that mean that I'm going to leave my Cassandra ways behind and become all Pollyanna?

No. I will keep fighting the Know Nothings. But, during September, I'm going to write about constructive things that may make our lives just a bit better. The arts, just to name one topic. The arts are a constructive force. To create is to see toward the future.

And I leave you now with a healing song from from the 2002 CD by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, "The Rising." Great CD. The title song could have been in that long-ago healing concert. It's a performance of "The Rising" at a 2003 concert in Barcelona. Barcelona residents know a bit about rising from the ashes. It was a city in ruins after the Spanish Civil War which divided Spain for generations (and Spaniards are still dealing with it). Is there another civil war in America's future? Let's hope not. Here's the concert link: http://youtu.be/eNnB4dkVRJI. Some of the lyrics:

Can't see nothin' in front of me
Can't see nothin' coming up behind
I make my way through this darkness
I can't feel nothing but this chain that binds me
Lost track of how far I've gone
How far I've gone, how high I've climbed
On my back's a sixty pound stone
On my shoulder a half mile line

Come on up for the rising
Com on up, lay your hands in mine
Come on up for the rising
Come on up for the rising tonight

Left the house this morning
Bells ringing filled the air
Wearin' the cross of my calling
On wheels of fire I come rollin' down here

Come on up for the rising
Come on up, lay your hands in mine
Come on up for the rising
Come on up for the rising tonight

Cheyenne Interfaith Council marks 9/11 anniversary with readings, art and music

The Cheyenne Interfaith Council invites you to a ceremony at the Wyoming State Capitol Building on Sunday, Sept. 11, 3-4 p.m., marking the 10th Anniversary of the attacks of 9/11. The theme is "Remembrance, Healing and Hope." This will be a contemplative ceremony with Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Unitarian readings, Hands in Harmony and an interfaith community choir. Cheyenne artist Forrest King will be there to create a special piece of art symbolizing the movement from brokeness to healing. The public is encouraged to attend. 

Heart Mountain Interpretive Learning Center opens Aug. 20

The Heart Mountain Interpretive Learning Center opens the weekend of Aug. 19-21 at the Park County site of the former World War II Internment Camp. I was at the site most recently in June 2010. The center's building was finished but the interior was still bare. While built of modern materials, the structure duplicates the look of the tar-paper barracks than once housed more than 10,000 Japanese-Americans, most of them U.S. citizens. Reporter Don Amend wrote about his tour of the almost-complete center in the Aug. 9 Powell Tribune.

The center will open officially with a dedication ceremony at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 20, and the foundation is preparing for nearly 1,000 former internees, their families, friends and supporters of the center.

Longtime U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), a decorated World War II, veteran, will present the keynote address. Inouye will be introduced by former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson and former Congressman Norman Mineta, who became lifelong friends as Boy Scouts while Mineta’s family was interned at the camp.

Others who will participate in the grand opening are Tom Brokaw, former news anchor and current special correspondent for NBC; Los Angeles County Superior Judge Judge Lance Ito; Irene Hirano Inouye, president of the US-Japan Council; and Dr. Melba Vasquez, president of the American Psychological Association.

Brokaw, whose book “The Greatest Generation” describes the experiences of those who fought World War II, will speak at a Pilgrimage Dinner at 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 19.

Mineta, Ito, Hirano Inouye and Vasquez will participate in a panel discussion on various perspectives of the Japanese-American experience and its lessons for civil rights issues today during a grand opening banquet at 6 p.m. Saturday.

Go to http://www.powelltribune.com/news/item/8608-heart-mountain-relocation-center-final-preparations

Obama Recognizing Military Suicides w/ Condolence Letters, Reversing a Longstanding Policy

This is the right thing to do.

Over the past 5 years, over 1,000 service members have taken their lives, and in the Army, over 20% of those occurred in combat zones. This new policy will cover those who tragically take their own lives while actively serving in such zones, particularly Iraq and Afghanistan.

From Daily Kos: Obama Recognizing Military Suicides w/ Condolence Letters, Reversing a Longstanding Policy

Happy 75th anniversary, "Gone with the Wind"

Poster issued for the 1936 release of the book (Hutton Archive/Getty Images)

Happy 75th anniversary to the publication of Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind."

I have no great love for the book. I read it only once. But my Grandfather Shay made an effort to read it every year. It's the only book that I remember seeing him read. Unlike Pat Conroy, who wrote a nice "fellow Southern writer" tribute on NPR Online for the novel's anniversary, Grandpa had no roots in the South. And he was no writer. He did like Civil War history -- I inherited his 1885 edition of "Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant." He also had a fondness for Scarlett O'Hara's pluckiness. He married a plucky woman, my grandmother, who did have some South of the Mason-Dixon roots from Maryland and Virginia. Family stories link us to Robert E. Lee via my great-grandmother, a Lee from Virginia. Nobody in my family has been able to establish a link. We may eventually have to do some DNA testing. There undoubtedly is a cottage industry in the South devoted to proving Lee lineage.

My grandfather went to war with the Iowa National Guard, first to the Mexican border against those pesky Pancho Villa insurgents and later to France with the American Expeditionary Force. He was born a few decades after the Civil War ended and would have known some veterans of that war growing up in rural Iowa. Grandpa was a young lad when more Iowans went off to fight the Spanish-American War in 1898. His turn came a few years later.

"Gone with the Wind" was the only book written by Margaret Mitchell. She wrote it at a tiny desk in a tiny apartment in Atlanta. She was bit embarrassed by all the attention generated by the book's success and the blockbuster 1939 film. She was hit by a car and died at the young age of 48.

Shortly thereafter, her secretary and custodian of the apartment building, burned the book's manuscript, apparently on orders from Mitchell. Only a few pages survive. 

NN11: Make Clean Energy Not War (through art)

Artwork by Susan Slavick

Minneapolis Convention Center protest by the group 10 Years and Counting, as artists try to put a face to 10 years of war. Protesters hold up a 13-figure number that represents the bill for a decade of wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and various other locales.

Sept 11 - Oct 7, 2011 will mark the ten year anniversary of our nation continuously at war. 10 Years + Counting invites artists and others to take this historic moment as inspiration and use the power of creativity to illustrate the costs of war and image a more peaceful world. 

Paint it, dance it, sculpt it, write it, sing it! Imagine peace and create connections. Concerts, public art projects, garden parties, bake-offs, gallery exhibitions, street art, flash mobs, walks and runs: the possibilities are endless. 

Turn the weeks of this anniversary of devastation into an unstoppable, irrepressible explosion of imagining the possible, a new beginning.

Add your creation, gathering or event to the 10 YEARS + COUNTING calendar by going to www.10yearsandcounting.org

"To End All Wars" -- not by a long shot

Almost a century after it started, World War I continues to fascinate. I read the favorable New York Times review by Christopher Hitchens and the author's introduction to "To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918,” by Adam Hochschild (illustrated. 448 pp. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. $28).  Hitchens has many good things to say about, although he notes that "no single narrative can do justice to an inferno whose victims still remain uncounted." 

Indeed. When I was born in 1950, the end of The Great War was only 32 years in the past. In contrast, the end of World War II, which we now acknowledge as a continuation of the first, was a scant five years in the past. The U.S. was already engaged in another one in Korea, and my generation of boys was busy being hatched for Vietnam. My country has spent the 21st century at war in Afghanistan and Iraq, with scores of "little wars" raging all over the globe. 

"The war to end all wars" was Pres. Wilson's phrase. Many in Wilson's Democratic Party felt betrayed when Wilson, who campaigned in 1916 on the motto "He kept us out of war," plunged the U.S. into the inferno. He instituted a military draft and came down hard on anti-war groups. Still, he was part of the Progressive Movement and instituted many progressive programs during his first term. He was also an internationalist, an egghead with a Ph.D. One of the best and the brightest. When have we heard that term before? I remember. It referred to Kennedy's architects of Vietnam, as described in David Halberstam's book.

Pres. Obama, a Democrat, didn't get us started down the path to endless war. A Republican, George W. Bush, ordered the attack on Afghanistan, considered by many (me included) to me justified. He also launched the pointless war in Iraq, which I staunchly opposed. It seems that the U.S. has inherited endless war along with its claim as Lone World Super Power.

Super Powers can be brought low, too. In the first chapter, Hochschild describes the incredible pomp and circumstance of Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee celebration in 1897. What a party it was. England ruled the waves and almost one-quarter of the earth's land. Troopers in full dress uniform from India, Burma, Canada, Australia, Trinidad, South Africa, and others marched in the parade. Scores of congratulatory notes were sent, many from the U.S. They all praised Britain's supremacy in the world. Here's an amazing and silly one:

...across the Atlantic, the New York Times virtually claimed membership in the empire: "We are a part, and a great part, of the Greater Britain which seems so plainly destined to dominate this planet." 

World War I spelled the beginning of the end of England's supremacy.

Now that I've been teased by the opening chapters, I'm off to get a copy of the book. Read the review and excerpt here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/books/review/book-review-to-end-all-wars-by-adam-hochschild.html?nl=books&emc=booksupdateema2

Mission accomplished... for reals!

From Daily Kos

Mission actually accomplished. Obama bags Osama

In reference to my previous blog about the non-accomplishment of an earlier mission...

Daily Kos: Mission actually accomplished. Obama bags Osama

"Mission Accomplished" -- eight years later

I wish I could say that I look on this photo with nostalgia. But it's more like horror.

Tea Party Slim is not so civil about The Civil War

Tea Party Slim and I were on the back porch discussing the American Civil War. We would have been on the front porch but the Wyoming west wind was blowing too damn hard. Under shelter, we sipped iced tea festooned with sprigs of mint.

“You mean The War Between the States, don’t you?” said Slim.

“The Civil War is what I’m talking about,” I replied. “It was 1861-1865. It started with the South seceding from the Union and firing on a military fort in Charleston Harbor.”

“That’s the one I’m talking about – The War of Northern Aggression. The South just wanted to live in peace…”

“…with their slaves.”

Slim held up his hand. “Not all Southerners had slaves. In fact, 85 percent of them did not.”

“But 15 percent did. And they were the merchants and land barons and politicians that forced the issue. People like Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, Scarlett O’Hara’s pa, Mary Custis, etc.”

“You mean Mary Custis, granddaughter of Gen. George Washington, slaveholder?”

“One and the same.”

“Or Thomas Jefferson, slave owner and well, you know… He liked his female slaves.” Slim was trying to be delicate.

“Sally Hemmings – we all know the story,” I said. “And I’m sure there are hundreds like it all across the South. The Massa had all the power and when he came calling, well, how could a girl turn him down?”

“O.K., O.K., enough of that,” said Slim. “People make mistakes.”

“Rape is merely a mistake?”

“Let’s get back to the politics. This stuff makes me sick.”

“Rape is politics.” I had to get in one more jab. “But we were talking about The Civil War. Ken Burns called it that on PBS.”

“Don’t get me started on PBS.”

I dearly wanted to get him started on PBS, one of the Tea Party’s favorite targets, but held my tongue. “Shelby Foote is interviewed on the show. He’s a Southerner and he calls it The Civil War.”

“He has to do that on TV.”

I disappeared inside and brought back Shelby Foote’s massive three-volume The Civil War: A Narrative. “Shelby Foote called it The Civil War.”

“His publisher made him do it,” said Slim. “The War of Northern Aggression: A Narrative wouldn’t be welcomed in those New York literary circles.”

“Foote was from Mississippi, land of great writers” I added. “You can borrow the books if you want.”

“No thanks,” he said. “I’ve read all I need to about The Civ… I mean, The War Between the States.”

I held the books in my lap. They weighed a ton. I wondered if I should tell Slim that I’d only read half of the first volume.

“That’s the problem – the victor gets to tell the story,” said Slim. “The North won. The North tells their side of the story.”

“I told you that Foote is a Mississippian,” I said. “Did you watch him on the PBS series? He spoke very kindly about the South and Southerners and said some harsh words about the North. The Union generals stunk, for one thing.”

Slim smiled. “They did, didn’t they? McClellan was the worst.”

“It’s hard to say who the worst was,” I replied. “So much competition. But they did find a leader in Grant. And Sherman is credited with creating the “total war” concept with his march through the South.”

“Talk about rape and pillaging.”

“And burning crops and houses and generally laying waste to the countryside.”

“The War of Northern Aggression – like I said.”

“The Civil War – like me and Shelby Foote and Ken Burns and millions of others said. You can look it up.”

We sat in silence. I could tell we had reached an impasse. Slim was looking a bit glum. I decided that the day needed some new energy. “I’m surprised, slim, that you didn’t once mention the magic words.”

He looked at me. “Magic words?”

“States’ rights,” I said.

His eyes bulged. Steam poured out of his ears. The glass shattered in his hand. “States’ rights,” he bellowed. “That’s what it was all about. No matter what you call the war, it was about the rights of a state or group of states over the rights of a federal government. Why just look at what’s happened since. We got the feds telling us what to do, from what crops we grow to the kind of cars we drive. Half of Wyoming is owned by the feds and we should take it back, we should….”

As Slim went on and on, I sat back in my chair and sipped my mint tea. The history of The Civil War weighed heavily on my lap and in my mind.

Photo: Tea Party uber-patriot. Photo by Don Jenkins, The Daily News

Marine with PTSD who helped others commits suicide

Soldier Loses Battle with PTSD: MyFoxHOUSTON.com

This is the saddest thing I've seen in a long time (try to ignore the annoying lead-in ad). PTSD is real, people.

Who is Bradley Manning?

Nancy Sindelar of Laramie's Veterans for Peace was at the action in D.C. and Quantico this weekend and asked me to post some of her photos of protests against the treatment of military whistle-blower Bradley Manning:

Bradley Manning protest photos

Who is Bradley Manning?

Go to http://www.bradleymanning.org. I was reading some of the posts from yesterday's protests. Here's a sample:

Things have taken a nasty turn at Quantico. As protesters silently moved to march to the Iwo Jima Memorial to lay a wreath to remember the dead, Marine MPs refused to allow all but press and six veterans to proceed on to the Memorial. Prince William County police on the site joined the Marines in attempting to delay the protesters from proceeding, according to live tweeting by Jane Hamsher. In response, protesters laid and sat down on the ground, refusing to move. Police then began arresting protesters one by one and are loading them on to two nearby police buses for booking. Daniel Ellsberg is among those being arrested.

One of the protesters there, Helen Gerhardt, tweets that protesters are being peaceful in response to police pulling them up by both arms and putting them behind the line.

Rootwork updates that some protesters have stuck “Free Bradley Manning” stickers on police riot shields.

Read more: http://www.bradleymanning.org/16510/march-20th-events-update/#ixzz1HEpeOuo9

Cheyenne marks the 25th anniversary of King holiday

Today we celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. Many speeches will be delivered, many of the man's quotes will be requoted. The holiday this year comes on the heels of the violence in Tucson. Violence, of course, is "as American as apple pie," said sixties Black Power activist H. Rap Brown. His original quote mentioned cherry pie. Apparently, that didn't seem American enough. But you get the picture. The U.S. has a history of violence that can't be denied, no matter how many whitewashed texts are written by ultra-conservative revisionists (Lynne Cheney, Glenn Beck, Texas, etc.).

But Americans haven't yet cornered the market on violence. Protesters in Tunisia were gunned down this week. Coalition soldiers continue to be blown up with IEDs planted by Afghanis angry that their relatives were blown up in a U.S. drone attack. Knifings and shootings and beatings and torture are a fact of life worldwide.

Martin Luther King, Jr., was a proponent of nonviolence. He died by the gun, but he didn't promote the gun. Just the opposite. Some black activists did take up guns, although their numbers were wildly exaggerated at the time. But not MLK.

Dr. King gave thousands of speeches that promoted peace and nonviolence. Her actively campaigned against the war against black people in the South. He also opposed the Vietnam War and the Cold War. As he said often, notably in "Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community:"

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars... Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

Chaos or community? Have to wonder if those are the only choices we have. We're not exactly at the chaos point, but closing in on it. Community was much in evidence in Tucson last week, as we all came together for a brief time to honor the dead.

Author and Rice University professor Douglas Brinkley makes a great point in AP story about Dr. King. If we don't create a nation that's serious about nonviolence, Dr. King's legacy may fade away. In 50 years, all that we may be left with is a day off to go buy more trinkets at Wal-Mart.

"The holiday brought the freedom struggle into the main narrative," Brinkley said. "The day is meant to be a moment of reflection against racism, poverty and war. It's not just an African-American holiday. The idea of that day is to try to understand the experience of people who had to overcome racism but in the end are part and parcel of the American quilt."

Two years ago this week, I walked in Tucson's King march. I walked with my son Kevin from the University of Arizona campus to a city park. Nice January Arizona day. The marchers were white and black and Hispanic and Asian, a representative mix of Tucson's population. Many, such as my son, were younger than King was when he was gunned down in 1968. They are aware of his struggle but might not know the full weight of his commitment to nonviolence.

Two years later, some of these same people will march again. They also were out last week at vigils and memorials and funerals for Arizona's dead. Yesterday, hundreds of Tucsonans staged a march from McCormick Park to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords office. Today, many will be volunteering during a "Day of Service" for the King holiday.

Returning from my 2009 trip to Tucson, I watched most of Pres. Obama's inauguration from the Phoenix airport. I thought to myself: "A new America begins today." I jumped the gun a bit was a bit premature with my forecast. Change has begun, but so has a violent reaction to it. We can make progress as long as we don't succumb to fear and hate. We'd do well to keep Dr. King's words of nonviolence in our minds and in our hearts.

Today's Cheyenne march for Dr. King begins at noon at the Depot Plaza downtown. It concludes at the Capitol Building. Following the event, Love & Charity Inc. will serve chicken noodle soup at Allen Chapel, 917 W. 21st. Weather forecast: This morning's weird torrential rains have given way to sunshine. Wind still blowing, but what else is new?