Happy Birthday

Today is the two-hundred and thirty-third birthday of the United States Navy.  Much has changed since the 13th of October in 1775 and much has remained the same. The Continental Congress authorized the outfitting of two naval vessels to search our shores and protect us from British warships supplying their troops.  In the two centuries plus that have followed thousands of young men and women have chosen to serve this country as members of the United States Navy.   Just yesterday at brunch while at Mt. Irenaeus I spoke with a physician who had served as a U.S. Navy Medical Officer for ten years. He was at the Mountain with his young family. He was a graduate of Siena College who spent time as a Franciscan Volunteer before going to medical school and after that the U.S. Navy.  He left the Navy for private practice in Greencastle, PA.  My own family has a record of naval service that spans three generations now.

There is within me a longing for the sea and the surf that has been in me all my life. Perhaps I’ll never know where it came from but it is there nonetheless. Whatever its source I salute the United States Navy today on its birthday.

Drilling out

Friday night as I sat waiting for dinner at Kabob Kafe in nearby Ellicottville, New York with my wife and daughter my Blackberry buzzed. I picked it up and looked and I had been “poked” on Facebook by my nephew, Tom Watkins. Tom was letting me know that he just “drilled out” of the U.S. Navy’s Ceremonial Guard. He graduated from Boot Camp in August and went right to Anacostia Annex in the District of Columbia. I don’t know too much about the U.S. Navy Ceremonial Guard other than it is a highly trained outfit. I kept a picture of Tom on my phone so that every time I opened it to use it I would remember to pray for him in this new assignment. He won’t graduate officially for another eleven days but he’s made the grade and we’re all very proud of him. I hope to speak with him soon.

Today is special for me too and each year I remember that I too graduated from Boot Camp at Great Lakes, IL on the 13th of October at 1300 hours from the 13th Battalion. I led graduation carrying the American flag in the color guard. Just last week I thought of my shipmates and how much I wished I had one more day with them to catch up. I miss them a great deal and the older I get the more I wish that we hadn’t lost contact.

Veterans for Massa

I was happy to see in tonight’s Olean Times Herald that Eric Massa is pulling 5 percentage points ahead of the incumbent, Congressman Randy Kuhl of Hammondsport. I am a signer of Eric Massa’s Veterans Pledge.  Just yesterday a gentleman called me to see if I’d be willing to have my name published in the newspapers in the 29th Congressional District. I told this gentleman who happened to be a veteran also that I was proud to support the Commander and that he had my permission to put my name in letters 2 inches high if necessary. He chuckled and thanked me very much. Tonight I checked Eric Massa’s official website and there was my name along with 388 other veterans who are supporting Eric Massa. I get a little choked up when I think of veterans and particular those veterans who’ve had enough of politicians who never served in our armed forces putting other young men and women in harms way. Follow this link to see the name of those of us who are supporting Eric. We are a band of brothers.

When doctrine trumps the Gospel

One of the readers of this blog maintains that one cannot be pro-choice and a good Catholic or even a good Franciscan and that Francis would be appalled. Francis lived in a time much like our own when the church sanctioned murder in the name of Christ. It was called the Crusades. Francis went to the Holy Land and visited with Malik-al-Kamil at the time of the Fifth Crusade. Francis, who opposed all killing no matter what the cause, sought the blessing of the Cardinal who was chaplain to the Crusader forces to go and preach the Gospel to the sultan. The cardinal told him that the Muslims understood only weapons and that the one useful thing a Christian could do was to kill them.

It seems then as now the church can be very wrong. The Pope signed a Concordat with Hitler which guaranteed the life of the Catholic Church in Germany but in so doing he stood not for Christ, but for the political entity of the Catholic Church. We have Christian chaplains in our armed forces who routinely bless members of our armed forces who will kill or be killed in battle. That’s not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s not love your enemies. That is political expediency.

Senator Obama is pro-choice. Pro-choice is not pro-abortion,  it is pro-choice. Senator McCain is not pro-choice and he’s going to get a pass from some narrow minded Catholics who can turn their back on their brothers and sisters whose blood cries out from the killing grounds of Iraq and Afghanistan. Demonizing the poor and marginalized is okay as long as you’re not pro-choice. You can defecate on the Constitution of the United States of America as long as you’re not pro-choice. You can turn your back on the Gospel of Jesus Christ as long as you’re not pro-choice. You can race bait and slander as long as you’re not pro-choice. If that’s what it means to be Catholic then I don’t want to be one.

I’m reminded of another brown man more my brother than some of my own race who said,

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
–Mahatma Gandhi

Loving their own noise

Loving their own noise. Tonight’s presidential debate seemed like a lot of noise to me. I listened to perhaps thirty-five minutes and then I turned it off. Debates usually lack substance and this one seemed more devoid than others. It was like Senator Obama was debating a five year old. Same rhetoric of the last thirty years. Drill-drill-drill is how we solve global warming. Bomb-bomb-bomb is how we solve global terrorism. Deregulate-deregulate-deregulate is how we provide health care. It’s just noise. It’s meaningless. Wall Street dropped another five hundred points today and that’s just illusion. Only silence is real. Only stillness is real. The rest is just noise.

Those who love their own noise are impatient of everything else. They constantly defile the silence of the forests and the mountains and the sea. They bore through silent nature in every direction with their machines, for fear that the calm world might accuse them of their own emptiness. The urgency of their swift movement seems to ignore the tranquility of nature by pretending to have a purpose. The loud plane seems for a moment to deny the reality of the clouds and of the sky, by its direction, its noise, and its pretended strength. The silence of the sky remains when the plane has gone. The tranquility of the clouds will remain when the plane has fallen apart. It is the silence of the world that is real. Our noise, our business, our purposes, and all our fatuous statements about our purposes, our business, and our noise: these are the illusion.

–Thomas Merton, Seeds (Shambhala, 2002), 65

Then we win

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

–Mahatma Gandhi

Barack Obama’s quest for the presidency reminds me of this quote. Conventional wisdom had anybody Obama being in the spot he’s in versus John McCain. All the pundits wanted Hillary. Hillary wanted Hillary. But, it was the voice of the people that first spoke in the Iowa winter that changed all that. We are one nation and one people and our time has come. We are not Red America and Blue America, we are the United States of America.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNZaq-YKCnE]

A heart of flesh

This quote came in SoJo Mail today. I like it and it’s what animates my life. I cannot be still when I hear the forces of injustice railing against us. The us in U.S. is what I’m speaking of.

A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

Ezekiel 36:26

No vision

The stock market plunged 800 points today. News yesterday that the 700 billion dollar bailout may do nothing to improve the economy unless the value of real estate begins to rise. Iraq is teetering. Afghanistan is going backward and all Senator McCain can talk about is smears. The Republican smear machine is in high gear and let’s not kid ourselves its not about race, not the presidential race, but the race of Barack Obama. The Republican dirty tricks machine bending over backward with push polling and guilt by association. McCain comes from a party of redneck, homophobic, christianist, racists. This is not the party of Lincoln or the party of Barry Goldwater. Just under the surface of most of these Republicans is homophobia, sexism, racism, and really anti-Americanism and mindless fanaticism. Many of them talk of supporting our military but few if any have ever served and when you really press them on the issue they get a little testy.

Barack Obama is about as American as you can get. He is the melting pot. Let’s talk about issues Senator McCain. Let’s talk about Iraq and Afghanistan and why according to reliable sources 60% of the active duty military are pulling for Obama. They don’t want anymore of your sellout crowd who put American forces in an un-winnable situation without adequate equipment. Let’s talk about a man who had to get shamed into voting for a new GI Bill of Rights. Let’s talk about no-bid contracts for war profiteers and no health care for millions of Americans. Let’s talk about your plan to de-regulate health care. Let’s talk about a guy who has had government health care his entire life wants others to do without the same. Let’s talk about the failed economic policies which your own adviser Phil Gramm crafted. Let’s talk about what de-regulation has accomplished and why we have to bail out Wall Street because you slept while the store was being robbed.

You like to invoke the maverick image, but you aren’t one sir. Barack Obama is a maverick. He voted against this insane authorization for war that you favored and he did it at a time when few in his own party had the courage to. Mr. Obama has had the courage to do without public financing for his campaign. He’s financed primarily by small donors. He’s mobilized millions of Americans who have a positive image of the future of our country. He’s a man with a vision. You are a man without one and long ago in Proverbs 29:18 it is written, “Where there is no vision the people perish,” and that is what is happening right now sir. People are perishing because you and your friends have no vision.

Letchworth Gorge

Vistas like this is why I continue to be fascinated by powered flight. Just 25 nautical miles north of my home field at Olean Airport is the Genesee River gorge that makes up New York State’s Letchworth Park. Today after I got the plane started I taxied to Runway 4 and began my takeoff roll. I had my ailerons deflected slightly into the direct cross-wind that was indicated by the windsock. The Skyhawk sprang into the crisp fall air and I quickly climbed to 3500 feet. I had planned a higher cruising altitude, but  a broken layer of clouds at 4000 feet changed those plans. I leveled off and began my north eastward flight toward the Genesee River Valley. As my little craft moved along at 105 knots the terrain moved fairly quickly by. I brought my GPS along to help me find my way home, but familiarity with the route helped me to find my way quickly toward the river valley.  First the Rawson Road, then Rushford, Rushford Lake, Hume, Fillmore and follow the river to Portageville, New York. The gorge begins at Portageville and snakes its way north for eighteen miles.  My aircraft would cover the distance in much less than ten minutes, but an automobile usually takes almost five times that long.  As I turned toward home I spied another pilot, perhaps 300 feet above me moving from right to left. Although I keep my head on a swivel in scenic vistas like this there are usually others trying to enjoy the view too. Usually at Letchworth I encounter hot air balloons, but today it was a fixed wing sightseer like me. The trip back was a bit smoother, and a little slower as I was facing a ten knot headwind and I got to see Houghton College from the back side. I flew nearly over the top of their equestrian center.  When I returned the airport was busier as there was a Piper Cub ready to takeoff and a Cessna 150 taxing toward the runway. In all I’d been aloft a little less than an hour. I’m grateful for the gift of flying.

Anniversary Picture


Joe and Betty Carrier flanked by their children and grandchildren on the occasion of their 55th wedding anniversary. We enjoyed a lovely dinner at Sprague’s Maple Farms in nearby Portville. It was a lovely October afternoon.  The only one missing was our son Devin who was off playing in a benefit golf tournament. I’ve been a member of this family for just a little over 25 years and I regard Mom and Dad as though they were my own parents. I’m very happy for both of them. I cannot imagine our lives without them. Dinner at Spragues is always a treat and today was no different. If you’re ever in southwestern New York State you owe it to yourself to visit Spragues. It’s a lovely restaraunt that showcases area maple syrup production.  My father-in-law is one of those area producers who each spring bring us tasty maple syrup. I’ve been blessed to have had a grandfather and father-in-law who are maple producers. I’ve almost never been without real maple syrup.