Friday night at 1 a.m. (yes, I know, it’s really Saturday- relax, it’s only radio) will be the usual night of lunacy on KBOO 90.7 FM (or streamed at KBOO.FM).

Mental Health consumer-talk-radio

Friday night,

1 a.m. to 2 a.m.-

Archived shows are available at

http://rickpdx.wordpress.com/mad-liberation-by-moonlight-archives/

Remember: Call in at 503-231-8187 to be on the radio

(or show up at the studio).

These are all big- click for full size.

My daughter Erin  in the last year of her life.

Appetizer

Playing with Hugh

Or, rather, hue (and contrast, and saturation etc.). All these taken in the past week or two. Click for real size, which is big, btw.

I call this one “very close to fall”.

Looking Up

More woods in rain

Bird, tower, moon- composit of several pictures

The J Complex (what's left of it) as envisioned by Prince

“General Pictures, Sir!”

35 year old picture of me

From:

MindFreedom Oregon News Alert – Please Forward
http://www.mindfreedom.org/oregon

MindFreedom International News – 22 October 2009
Ray Alert #22 – Unite for Real Mental Health Advocacy
http://www.mindfreedom.org/ray – please forward

You can read the history of Ray’s successful campaign at:
http://www.mindfreedom.org/ray

Utne Reader magazine periodically names “50 Visionaries Who Are
Changing Your World.”

Said David Oaks, “Utne is one of the few media leaders to acknowledge
the ‘mad movement’ to deeply change the mental health system. Utne’s
recognition is really of our whole movement’s vision. This shows we
are still connected to all the other movements for social and
environmental justice, just as when our movement first started. Can we
have a nonviolent revolution now?”

Another Suspicious Death Inside Oregon State Hospital

According to the below MindFreedom Oregon Exclusive Report, another
psychiatric patient died inside Oregon State Hospital in Salem, Oregon
under suspicious circumstances on Saturday, 17 October 2009.

The man — known here as “Patient M” — had apparently been
complaining repeatedly for a month about chest pain, which staff had
allegedly dismissed because of his psychiatric diagnosis. Instead of
medical care, staff reportedly just gave him more psychiatric drugs.

After the patient died, the report says he was left undiscovered all
day by staff who were supposed to be checking on him regularly.

The below is based on several anonymous reports from patients on ward
50F with access to telephones, who took great risk to speak out.
Because of a long pattern of abuse and neglect in Oregon State
Hospital (OSH), this information is offered immediately in the public
interest, but has not yet been investigated by authorities. Each
allegation needs to be investigated before confirmation.

At the bottom are ways you can speak out to demand an investigation,
and also demand support for a state-wide voice for Oregon’s mental
health consumers and psychiatric survivors.

Patients supplying this news did not ask to be anonymous but patients
at OSH have reported retaliation for getting information out in
public. For example, this past week a minimum security patient was
allegedly moved, in shackles, to a more restricted area after he spoke
with Salem reporters about his lawsuit against Oregon State Hospital.

MindFreedom calls on the Governor, the US Dept. of Justice and the
media to immediately investigate the below allegations, especially the
RED FLAGS marked in this report.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

EXCLUSIVE REPORT to MindFreedom Oregon

“The medicine is not working.”

The Passing of “Patient M” on Ward 50F in Oregon State Hospital
(OSH)

Over one month ago, “Patient M” had a fellow patient — “R” — help
him write a special letter to the ward medical officer.

In the letter Patient M complained of his chest pain, stomach pain and
trouble breathing.

Instead of medical treatment for the chest pain, because of his
psychiatric diagnosis Patient M was given more psychiatric drugs as
staff felt he needed them, known in medicine as “PRN.” These
psychiatric drugs were often minor tranquilizers, usually Ativan
(lorazepam) or Klonopin (clonazepam). The psychiatric drugs were
administered whenever he complained of pain.

Two weeks ago, Patient M spoke directly to the Ward Medical Officer
and said that, “The medicine is not working.” He continued to complain
of chest and stomach pain with difficulty breathing. [RED FLAG] He
continued to be given “PRNs.” He was not given a pain reliever, heart
medication or any cardiac testing.

This past week, Patient M has told everyone on the ward who would
listen that he was in serious pain. Other patients were already very
worried about his health. He continued to receive tranquilizers when
he complained.

Last Thursday and Friday — 15th and 16th of October — were
particularly bad. [RED FLAG]

Patients say it’s important to know that it is policy that all
patients be checked for “location and condition every hour.” For
example, in a widely-publicized escape a month ago, staff had not been
checking on the patient.

Saturday morning, 17 October 2009, Patient M got up for breakfast, and
he was known as a man who never misses a meal. Some said eating seemed
to be his greatest enjoyment, and he was always the first person to
get his food. Because he is sloppy, he got his food delivered to him
outside the kitchen.

At 8:30 am he was given his morning meds. He told the nurse that his
chest hurt “really bad” and he had trouble breathing. He was given his
usual psychiatric drug PRN.

Patient M went to lay down.

A nurse checked at 9:30 am and saw he was lying down. He seemed okay.

Patient M resided in a very over-crowded room typical of the “50
building” at OSH. A short time later one of his roommates said his
eyes were rolled back. “But sometimes he sleeps like that” because of
the PRNs, said one roommate.

No staff checked his condition for the rest of the morning. [RED FLAG]

Lunch on 50F is served between 11 am and 11:30 am. Staff brought his
tray down to his room. They called his name and there was no response,
even though it is well known that he always eats. [RED FLAG] Staff
left, and took his lunch back to the kitchen.

Mid-afternoon a roommate shook his foot to see if he’d wake up. There
was no response. No staff looked in on him to check his condition all
afternoon. [RED FLAG]

Dinner time, 4:30 pm, staff called into his room to announce the meal.
No response. Patient M did not get up for food. Staff did not bother
to bring a tray down for him. No staff checked him.

His roommates complained of the stench of “shit” in the room. This
odor was probably from the natural course of a person who is lying
dead for hours as their bowels evacuate. Staff still stayed out. [RED
FLAG]

Finally, at 7:45 pm OSH medication staff went to his room to give him
his evening pills. This time he was checked. He was so dead cold, no
attempt was made at resuscitation. Some patients believe he was in or
past rigor mortis at this point.

Between 7:45 and 8 pm, patient eye-witnesses allege several things
happened. The room was sealed. Staff were called into what one person
called a “bubble” to speak privately.

Based on patient reports: “It was quiet for a few minutes. Then the
staff became very active. We could see through the nurses’ station
windows that they were handling documents, making photocopies. We
heard one staff say, ‘We’ll need six more of those.’ Then we could see
staff shredding originals of documents they had just photocopied. By 8
pm things had returned to normal. The body was carried out later.”

Over the weekend Patient M’s soiled bed and personal area were left as
is in the crowded room. “The smell was unbelievable,” said one witness.

On Monday morning, 19 October 2009, two days after the death, at the
ward meeting, patients complained about the unsanitary conditions in
this room. Staff took out the bed, bedding and sanitized the area. As
of that evening there was no counseling about the death, and no extra
help provided to other patients on that ward.

No memorial was suggested until patients brought it up at the ward
meeting.

Patients were questioned at the meeting about “What do you know?” and
“What will you report?” One patient referred to the meeting as an
“inquisition.”

Patients around the hospital heard about the death only by word of
mouth.

Many are reportedly saddened.

Because of the request by patients, a memorial is planned.

- end -

~~~~~~~~~~

ACTIONS * ACTIONS * ACTIONS

Please forward this alert to others who support human rights in mental
health.

The Governor has not responded to e-mails. Please telephone.

PHONE GOVERNOR TED KULONGOSKI AT (503) 378-3111

In a civil but strong way, in your own words:

1) Ask the Governor to personally investigate suspicious deaths at
Oregon State Hospital.

2) Ask the Governor to support the state-wide voice of mental health
consumers and psychiatric survivors.

~~~~~~~~~~

BACKGROUND on OSH & MORTALITY:

Oregon State Hospital has a long history of suspicious deaths.

OSH is nationally famous when its secret discolored copper canisters
were revealed that contain the ashes of some 5,121 patients who died
between 1913 and 1971. The identification of many of the patients is
lost.

See the Time Magazine article on Jan. 2009 about OSH ash cans here:

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1869177,00.html

For more photos of the canisters go to this web site from July 2009:

http://thephotobook.wordpress.com/2009/07/06/david-maisel-library-of-dust/

or use this link:

http://bit.ly/osh-ashes

Mortality and people in the mental health system continues to be a
national controversy today in the USA.

A major study by the National Association of State Mental Health
Program Directors showed that people who use the US public mental
health system die about 25 years earlier than the general public:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/kb/psychiatric-drugs/death

One possible reason provided in the study is the over-use of
psychiatric drugs, including multiple prescriptions, but this factor
is often omitted or downplayed by those in the mental health system
discussing these deaths.

Instead, the mental health system today is promoting “integration” of
physical and mental health as the answer to this mortality rate.
“Integration” is now a major buzz word in mental health.

Sound good?

Unfortunately, there’s no definition of this “integration.” Is this
the “integration” of psychiatric institutions into the community, as
mandated by the Olmstead Supreme Court decision? A draft of Oregon’s
plan to implement Olmstead does not emphasize the importance of
supporting the voice of mental health consumers and psychiatric
survivors.

In some places this “integration” buzz word has simply meant increased
prescription rates of psychiatric drugs in clinics that had previously
focused on physical health. Sad about your heart condition? There may
be a psychiatric drug prescription waiting for you, too.

People with psychiatric labels continue to be among the most
disempowered Oregonians.

How can this “power imbalance” change without a voice?

Since the exact month Governor Ted Kulongoski took office, Oregon
became one of the few USA states to provide zero — 0 — funding for
the state-wide voice of mental health consumers and psychiatric
survivors.  For more than seven years, there has been zero state
funding for any of those activities — a newsletter, conference,
office of mental health consumer affairs.

Nothing.

During tough times, people with psychiatric labels are supposedly hit
hardest. That’s when we should be supporting the voice of mental
health consumers and psychiatric survivors the most.

However, apparently based on advice from his closest staff, Governor
Kulongoski continues to recommend zero for this state-wide voice each
budget.

You can read about the Governor’s legacy of “zero” for mental health
consumers and psychiatric survivors here:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/zero

~~~~~~~~~~

TWO ACTIONS:

1) PLEASE forward this covered-up news to all interested people.

2) PHONE GOVERNOR TED KULONGOSKI AT (503) 378-3111

Be civil and strong, ask for investigation of deaths at OSH, and for
his support of a state-wide voice for mental health consumers and
psychiatric survivors.

~~~~~~~~~~

ADDITIONAL ACTIONS:

US Department of Justice (DOJ) is supposed to be investigating Oregon
State Hospital.

In your own words, ask that all appropriate results of investigations
by DOJ of OSH be made public, and also be provided to you.

You can e-mail DOJ here:

AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

Or for more DOJ contact info, go here:

http://www.usdoj.gov/contact-us.html

You can also e-mail or postal mail Governor Kulongoski, contact info
is here:

http://governor.oregon.gov/Gov/contact_us.shtml

Please also bring this to the attention of any interested media.

If you did not receive this alert directly from mindfreedom-oregon
news service, you can get on this free, public alert system here:

http://www.intenex.net/lists/listinfo/mindfreedom-oregon-news

For more info about MindFreedom Oregon go here:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/oregon

Update:

Autopsy was supposed to be done Friday- I have heard nothing. Key information would be stomach contents, since the hospital claimed he had all his meals that day (whereas eyewitnesses say he was left dead in his room all day).

From Librivox- free audio books

(click to play)

A Century of Recorded Poetry, Vol 1, 01, Walt Whitman – America

A Century of Recorded Poetry, Vol 1, 02, William Butler Yeats – The Lake Isle Of Innisfree

A Century of Recorded Poetry, Vol 1, 03, William Butler Yeats – The Song Of The Old Mother

A Century of Recorded Poetry, Vol 1, 04, Robert Frost – The Road Not Taken

A Century of Recorded Poetry, Vol 1, 05, Robert Frost – Birches

A Century of Recorded Poetry, Vol 1, 06, Robert Frost – The Gift Outright

A Century of Recorded Poetry, Vol 1, 07, Gertrude Stein – If I Had Told Him A Completed Portrait of Picasso

A Century of Recorded Poetry, Vol 1, 09, William Carlos Williams – The Red Wheelbarrow

A Century of Recorded Poetry, Vol 1, 19, Langston Hughes – The Negro Speaks Of Rivers

Have fun, be safe, eat as much candy as you want.

Oregon State Hospital has been in trouble for some time.

This from 2004, Oregon Bar Association-

State Hospital Needs Our Help
By Bob Joondeph

There is trouble at Oregon State Hospital. So what else is new? The Oregonian’s reports of sex-abuse and hush money in the 1990s may seem like old news, but the hospital’s problems are not: deteriorating buildings, some of which are over 100 years old; chronic over-crowding with patients sleeping in closets and seven to a room; chronic under-staffing with nursing, psychiatric and therapist positions remaining vacant for months and years. And don’t forget the 70-plus patients who have been found clinically ready to leave the hospital but can’t because of the lack of step-down community living arrangements. Despite recent efforts to bring relief, things are getting worse.

Why? One cause may be state budget cuts that have left thousands of Oregonians without community mental health and chemical dependency treatment. Another contributor may be Oregon’s methamphetamine epidemic that has created a new cadre of psychotic and neurologically damaged individuals. Some observe that Measure 11 has changed the calculus used by defendants who are deciding whether to assert an insanity defense. Traditionally, a successful insanity defense resulted in more time in custody. Now, due to longer sentences and the sanctions of prison discipline related to behavior problems, a defendant cannot count on a shorter ride in the custody of the Department of Corrections.

One tool that the hospital used for years to control its population was taken away by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Oregon Advocacy Center v. Mink, 322 F.3d 1101, (2003). ORS 161.370 requires defendants who have been found mentally incapable of facing criminal charges to be committed to a state hospital or released. It was the practice of OSH to refuse transfer of such inmates from jail for weeks or months in order to control the hospital census. The Ninth Circuit upheld Judge Panner’s determination that this practice violated the substantive and procedural due process rights of the inmates and his injunction requiring OSH to admit mentally incapacitated criminal defendants within seven days of a judicial finding of incapacitation. In is interesting to note that OSH still employs a similar tactic for inmates who are awaiting a determination of their fitness to proceed under ORS 161.365.

Whatever the cause, we do know that Oregon’s jails and prisons have recently been flooded with mentally ill inmates and that state hospital admissions of “criminally insane” patients have grown three times faster than planned. Despite the efforts of state and county officials to create new community placements with the money at hand, they are being overwhelmed by the numbers of new customers and hamstrung by the need to use scarce resources to maintain the crumbling infrastructure of Oregon State Hospital. (And no, the problem is not that Dammasch Hospital closed. We would have even fewer services available if Dammasch were still around.)

The solution? This is not a case of not knowing what to do. Nor is it a case of competing interests: staff working conditions, patient treatment and the public purse would all benefit from the changes suggested by the just-released report of the Governor’s Mental Health Task Force. Among key task force recommendations are the following:

• The Legislature should appropriate sufficient funds to permit the orderly restructuring of Oregon State Hospital and the construction and operation of community facilities to support populations of individuals who will no longer be hospitalized.
• Local mental health authorities with support from the state will continue to accept increasing responsibility for assisting individuals to leave state hospitals.
• State and local mental health authorities will create a rolling three-year plan for the construction and operation of community facilities.

The good news is that the governor and the legislature have gotten the message. In November, the legislature’s Emergency Board permitted the shifting of funds within the Department of Human Services to support the creation of 75 new community placements for OSH patients and to go forward with a planning process for addressing the hospital crisis. The question remains whether the 2005 legislature will maintain its resolve to tackle the OSH problem in light of the massive budgetary shortfalls. Not doing so, to paraphrase hospital-speak, would constitute self-harming behavior.

The task force recommendations will take strong leadership to achieve. They will require a short-term influx of money to construct a smaller and/or refocused modern hospital and community facilities needed to accept the present residents of Oregon State Hospital. They will require collaboration among state agencies including the Department of Corrections and the Oregon Youth Authority to assure that acute psychiatric services are available for their inmates.

It is worth the investment. Transforming OSH and accompanying changes in how we use state hospitals will free our mental health system of a gigantic financial weight and allow the dedicated OSH staff to work in safer, more efficient environments. Patients will be safer and receive better treatment. The 25 percent of the state mental health budget that is dedicated to state hospitals will be more available to leverage federal matching funds. Compassionate care and community safety will be best realized by implementing a more modern, cost-effective approach to mental health treatment. The governor and legislature deserve our support to get this job done.

© 2004 Bob Joondeph

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The author is the executive director of Oregon Advocacy Center.

Right about the same time as the article above, State Senator Gordly requested a Federal Investigation of the Hospital.

Another article made it to the blog  Alas, A Blog:

Rape and Abuse at Oregon State Hospital

Posted by Ampersand | October 15th, 2004

Some useful links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_State_Hospital

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKEeavx3GfI

http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ohq/109.2/brown.html

http://www.kirkbridebuildings.com/blog/oregon-state-hospital-the-library-of-dust

http://www.flickr.com/photos/photoinference/2994136725/

http://blog.oregonlive.com/politics/2008/01/feds_oregon_state_hospital_con.html

http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/07/federal_investigators_return_t.html

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20090920/NEWS/909200355/1001

Special Master’s Report from last February

The Governor appointed someone to oversee the process of improving conditions at OSH- this is an excerpt, followed by a pdf  file of the full report:

Culture

Every organization develops its own culture; how it sees and responds to its world. The hospital is no different. Successfully changing the culture of this organization is the single most important factor in achieving the goal of establishing the Oregon State Hospital as a first rate hospital for the mentally ill.

For many decades the hospital has been under-funded, under-staffed, over-populated, under-managed, and housed in inadequate facilities. It is no wonder that over time it has become a highly calcified organization lacking in incentive to change and burdened by learned helplessness. It has been clear from working with a variety of people in the hospital that many problems have been well known and have existed for years with little or no attempt to solve them. There appears to never have been a culture in the organization that was supportive of people taking responsibility to do problem solving at the level where the problem is occurring.

Another aspect of the hospital culture that deserves mentioning is what I might call the “ward ” view as opposed to a “hospital” view. Largely, I believe, because of the original design of the hospital, staff and patients alike have tended to see each ward as a separate hospital and have tended to operate from that perspective. This has made the management of the hospital as an integrated whole a very difficult task. The centralized model for delivering treatment in the new facility should eliminate the “ ward” view and help facilitate the shift to a “hospital” view. This shift should enable the hospital as an organization to become much better managed and operated. This will be an extremely important transition and one that will be quite difficult for many in the hospital to make.

It also appears that the rather pervasive view of the hospital by staff has been to see it as a long term care facility instead of viewing it as an intensive treatment facility. These two different views produce two very different approaches to dealing with patients. The current view seems to be characterized by a general belief that most patients are going to be hospitalized for a long time and that there is no great urgency about moving them through treatment as rapidly as possible. The culture of the hospital needs to be one of viewing itself as an intensive treatment facility that is part of a treatment continuum. There needs to be an attitude by all management and staff and instilled in patients, that the hospital’s role is to complete their portion of the treatment of the patient as quickly as possible, consistent with best medical practice, so that the patient can move on to the next stage of recovery and return to the community as rapidly as possible.

These and many more hospital culture issues need to be identified, explored and new cultural norms created as needed to see that the whole atmosphere of the hospital promotes

the best possible treatment of patients in the least time necessary. The hospital needs to develop and implement a comprehensive, long term change plan to accomplish this cultural change. This issue of culture is one that will be a large component in a Request for Proposal (RFP) that is currently being drafted to bring professional consulting services to the hospital transformation project.

Download the full report: specialmastersreport

I often wish that someone would make a serious effort to record the history of this place- from the patients’ perspective. I hear stories every day that would blow your mind. I heard about the story below from a patient who has been there for decades. He was not an eyewitness but he was around while some of the victims were still alive.

467 Poisoned at Oregon State Hospital

November 18, 1942

One of the most tragic incidents in Salem’s history was the poisoning of nearly 500 patients and staff at the Oregon State Hospital, on the evening of November 18, 1942. Many who ate the scrambled eggs served for dinner that evening would later claim that they had tasted funny, some saying they’d been salty, others saying they tasted soapy. Within five minutes of consuming them, the diners began to sicken, experiencing violent stomach cramps, vomiting, leg cramps, and respiratory paralysis. Witnesses described patients crawling on the floor, unable to sit or stand. The lips of the stricken turned blue, and some vomited blood. The first death came within an hour; by midnight, there were 32; by 4 a.m., 40. Local doctors rushed to the hospital to help out staff doctors. The hospital morgue, outfitted for two to three bodies, was overwhelmed.

Eventually 47 people would die; in all, 467 were sickened. Though five wards had been served the suspect eggs, all the deaths occurred in four; in the fifth, an attendant had tried the eggs, found them odd tasting, and ordered her charges not to eat them.

Officials were baffled, and immediately focused on the frozen egg yolks which all the victims had been served, and which had come from federal surplus commodities. It was thought that the eggs might have spoiled due to improper storage, or even that they might have been deliberately poisoned by a patient who could have gotten a hold of a poison while on furlough. The biggest fear, however, was the fear of sabotage: with the country engaged in World War II, this possibility loomed large. Oregon Governor Charles Sprague ordered all state institutions to stop using the eggs. The federal government issued a similar order, and the Agriculture Department ordered an investigation into the handling of its frozen eggs.

But the eggs were part of a 36,000-pound shipment which had been divided between schools, NYA projects and state institutions in Oregon and Washington, 30,000 pounds of which had already been consumed with no ill effects. State officials confirmed that the eggs had been properly stored, and the president of National Egg Products Inc. pointed out that eggs bad enough to kill would be so obviously spoiled that no one would eat them.

The day after the poisoning, with dozens still ill, pathologists determined that the sickness and death had been caused by sodium flouride, an ingredient in cockroach poison; pathology reports showed large amounts of the compound in the stomachs of the dead victims. Five grams–the size of an aspirin–would have been fatal; some of the dead had eaten more sodium flouride than eggs. Cockroach poison was known to be available at the hospital, kept in a locked cellar room to which only regular kitchen employees had keys. State Police launched an investigation, and began interviewing staff and patients at the hospital.

Finally, several days after the poisonings, two cooks at the hospital, A.B. McKillop and Mary O’Hare, admitted that they knew what had happened, that they had realized soon after the symptoms had struck, but had not come forward for fear of being charged. McKillop took responsibility, saying he had been the one to send a patient trusty, George Nosen, to the cellar to get dry milk powder for the scrambled eggs he was preparing. He had given Nosen his keys to the cellar, and Nosen returned with a tin half-full of powder, an estimated six pounds of which were mixed into the scrambled eggs at McKillop’s direction. When people had begun getting ill, he had questioned Nosen about where he’d found the powder, and discovered he had brought roach poison.

Despite McKillop’s insistence that O’Hare bore no responsibility for the poisoning, and over the objections of the State Police, who had determined that the poisoning was accidental, District Attorney M.B. Hayden ordered both cooks arrested. A grand jury declined to indict them; the patient George Nosen was never charged. Considered by many of his fellow patients to be a mass murderer, he became something of a pariah at the hospital where he spent the rest of his life. Two brief attempts at life outside the institution failed, and he died at the State Hospital 41 years later, after suffering a heart attack during a fight with another patient.

Compiled and written by Kathleen Carlson Clements

Bibliography:

Capital Journal, November 19-December 1, 1942

Pictures, photographs, that is. Starting with family items, degenerating into random finds, ani-gifs. The family pictures are big big big, click for full size.

Erin and Me

Erin is no longer with us- as in she died 2 & 1/2 years after this picture was taken. After we bought the flute, I tried to encourage her to practice. Detail follows with clear view of the glare she was giving me in this sweet father-daughter moment:

The last good family Halloween- also 1991. Top picture includes our babysitter and her boyfriend with Erin on the left side, middle is outside with a guest, me and Matt as a toddler, bottom is trick or treat-

One of our cats, Blizzard, a few years back (pre- foreclosure on the house the kids grew up in, pre- rented house burning down last year); Eyes on Fire-

Matt getting a sword for his birthday last year (he collects swords, doesn’t use them- he’s a Quaker kid, after all)-

Random, mostly from an un-named (un-nameable, unknowable etc.) source:

Dr. Brewers Guide to Science- 1880

More Dr. Brewer

#D Hilbert Curve, generated with a custom MEL script in Maya

Cat 'n melon

Bye for now-

-r

Oh, my- did you see the full moon last night at about dark- beautiful, full harvest moon. Clear sky (here in PDX), yellow and big (horizon illusion), gorgeous. It’s a shame we have no radio show this month. Looked something like this:

Some photos taken on the way to work in the morning- sunrise (as per usual, click for full size or if picture doesn’t show, most of these are huge):

Holgate Street, pre-dawn

Rhone Street

On a different note- this illustratin of Mercury’s magnetic field, distorted by it’s proximity to the solar wind:

Following in the “space” category, a May 22nd, 2009 view of the Space Staion from the space shuttle, earth back:

Beautiful Bangalore shrine, oddly found while looking for pictures of Swami Sarvaganada (because I wanted an illustration of his Guru Puja/ Akanda Mandala Karam audio, instead found this excellent Ramakrishna altar:

Then this:

Gynandromorphic Butterfly

This:

Woody G at McSorely's

All that remains is Fluff and Cuteness:

Announcement: The Mad Liberation by Moonlight radio program for this month is cancelled- pre-empted actually. Our radio station, KBOO (90.7 FM in Portland, OR, or at kboo.fm on your internet dial). The annual John Lennon Birthday Marathon is happening on Friday, 10/9/09; coinciding with John’s birthday. KBOO will be playing (and streaming) Lennon music from 9 pm Friday evening to 8 am Saturday morning, thereby taking our slot for October.

Sadly, this is the Harvest Moon, here in the US and it’s a doozy. Ah, but I don’t care. John L. deserves our respect if for no other reason than John Lennon – Working Class Hero. Or even this: John Lennon – Beatles Breakup Interview 1970.

We will be back on the air next month on the Friday night following the full-moon. Consult your looner calendar for showtimes (looks sorta like the dark night of November 6th at 1 am, or really the morning of 11/7 if you want to be picky; you don’t want to be picky do you??)

Truth

Lots of things are true. Maybe everything, depending on perspective. These are some sources of perspective I would like to share.

First from my own personal spiritual tradition- the Society of Friends. Following are excerpts from a pamphlet by Thomas S. Brown, what we would call a “weighty Friend”. After the short excerpt is a complete download of the publication, free to share. I had to convert from PDF because, well, WordPress doesn’t seem to like PDF and the formatting becomes a bit jerky. Thomas Brown:

To know the Truth is not to accept it by an act of the

intellect, as a man may know the Greek alphabet, or as a

man may know his neighbor across the street. To know

the Truth is, rather, like the way in which man and wife

know each other, a life of wholly shared commitment, of

utter trust, of freedom from fear. Indeed, there is no

knowledge of the Truth where there is no commitment

which results in significant action, for the living root

produces living fruit after its own kind. We know the

presence of love, not by sighs and simpers, nor even by

desire, but by its power to lift men and women outside

themselves and to live beyond themselves. Honor is known

by honorable actions. Beauty is known by its creation among

us. Truth is not a group of intellectual concepts to be

manipulated at will like the symbols in mathematics or

the notes in music: Truth is living and life-giving, and those

who have welcomed the Truth have life.

This is crucial: it is not that we discover the Truth

and make it our own for our own purposes as men might

harness a mountain stream to light their houses or run

their machines. We are, rather, discovered by the Truth,

and are given power by the Truth to light our souls. We are

besieged by the Truth, who stands knocking at the door,

the Hound of Heaven, our Imperious Lover and Tyrannical

Servant, who would give us our hearts’ desire if we would

only throw our selfish desires away, and who longs to release

us from the folly of the “freedom of choice” we seem to think

so important even on matters of life and death.

Download: ThePersonalRelevanceOfTruth

Not exactly on the same page but an interesting find: Words of Truth by HH Dalai Lama. This is more of a prayer for Tibet and all others who suffer.  Excerpt follows:

               O Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and disciples

                  of the past, present, and future:

                     Having remarkable qualities

                   immeasurably vast as the ocean,

               Who regard all helpless sentient beings

                         as your only child;

          Please consider the truth of my anguished pleas.

         Buddha's full teachings dispel the pain of worldly

                 existence and self-oriented peace;

   May they flourish, spreading prosperity and happiness through-

                      out this spacious world.

                  O holders of the Dharma: scholars

                     and realized practitioners;

            May your ten fold virtuous practice prevail.

                  Humble sentient beings, tormented

                    by sufferings without cease,

             Completely suppressed by seemingly endless

                and terribly intense, negative deeds,

          May all their fears from unbearable war, famine,

                      and disease be pacified,

       To freely breathe an ocean of happiness and well-being.

                  And particularly the pious people

          of the Land of Snows who, through various means,

            Are mercilessly destroyed by barbaric hordes

                      on the side of darkness,

           Kindly let the power of your compassion arise,

            To quickly stem the flow of blood and tears.

Download (with legal rights to share included): WORDS OF TRUTH

I apologize for the tiny font. Dagnabbit! 

I can't get the post editor to make 'em bigger. Get out your spectacles.

Rumi chimes in here:

Christian, Jew, Muslim, shaman, Zoroastrian, stone, ground, mountain, river, each has a secret way of being with the mystery, unique and not to be judged.


Everyone is so afraid of death, but the real sufis just laugh: 

nothing tyrannizes their hearts. What strikes the oyster shell 

does not damage the pearl.

If in thirst you drink water from a cup, you see God in it. 

Those who are not in love with God will see only their own faces in it.

He is a letter to everyone. You open it. It says, 'Live!'

In truth everything and everyone
Is a shadow of the Beloved,
And our seeking is His seeking
And our words are His words...
We search for Him here and there,
while looking right at Him.
Sitting by His side, we ask:
'O Beloved, where is the Beloved?'

God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches you 

by means of opposites, so that you will have two wings to fly - not one.

Remember, the entrance door to the sanctuary is inside you.

For more Rumi, go here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/18791792/THE-MATHNAWI-Book-1-2-RUMI or look around my blog.

Miscellaneous Truth:

Peace and Nonviolence 01

text of above: peace

God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose.  Take which you please - you can never have both.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad.  ~Aldous Huxley

Truth, like milk, arrives in the dark
But even so, wise dogs don't bark.
Only mongrels make it hard
For the milkman to come up the yard.
~Christopher Morley, Dogs Don't Bark at the Milkman

It is error alone which needs the support of government.  Truth can stand by itself.  ~Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia

I never dreamed of being Shakespeare or Goethe, and I never expected to hold the great mirror of truth up before the world; I dreamed only of being a little pocket mirror, the sort that a woman can carry in her purse; one that reflects small blemishes, and some great beauties, when held close enough to the heart.  ~Peter Altenberg

The greatest enemy of any one of our truths may be the rest of our truths.  ~William James

Men ardently pursue truth, assuming it will be angels' bread when found.  ~W. MacNeile Dixon

There is no god higher than truth.  ~Mahatma Gandhi

Just for the heck of it:

A Century of Recorded Poetry, Vol 4, 32, Li-Young Lee - My Father, in Heaven, Is Reading Out Loud

As promised, from the national archive. Many in the archive are in .tif format and required some work. There are literally thousands in the archive. Just a few more here. Oh, yeah, and don’t forget that mostly these are high resolution, click ‘em for full size.

Telling stories

Apache Chief: Ndee-Chang--O-Conch

In a Piegan Lodge

Apache: De-Ga-ZZa

Washoe woman

Spokane man

Crow warrior

Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce

I Will Fight No More Forever

Surrender Speech by Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce

I am tired of fighting.  Our chiefs are killed.  Looking Glass is dead.  Toohulhulsote is dead.  The old men are all dead.  It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led the young men is dead.
It is cold and we have no blankets.  The little children are freezing to death.  My people, some of them, have run away to the hills and have no blankets, no food.  No one knows where they are–perhaps freezing to death.  I want to have time to look for my children and see how many I can find.  Maybe I shall find them among the dead.
Hear me, my chiefs.  I am tired.  My heart is sick and sad.  From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.

Arikara medecine fraternity

Two Strike

Hopi

Chief Seattle

“CHIEF SEATTLE’S 1854 ORATION” – ver . 1

AUTHENTIC TEXT OF CHIEF SEATTLE’S TREATY ORATION 1854

Yonder sky that has wept tears of compassion upon my people for centuries untold, and which to us appears changeless and eternal, may change. Today is fair. Tomorrow it may be overcast with clouds. My words are like the stars that never change. Whatever Seattle says, the great chief at Washington can rely upon with as much certainty as he can upon the return of the sun or the seasons. The white chief says that Big Chief at Washington sends us greetings of friendship and goodwill. This is kind of him for we know he has little need of our friendship in return. His people are many. They are like the grass that covers vast prairies. My people are few. They resemble the scattering trees of a storm-swept plain. The great, and I presume — good, White Chief sends us word that he wishes to buy our land but is willing to allow us enough to live comfortably. This indeed appears just, even generous, for the Red Man no longer has rights that he need respect, and the offer may be wise, also, as we are no longer in need of an extensive country.

There was a time when our people covered the land as the waves of a wind-ruffled sea cover its shell-paved floor, but that time long since passed away with the greatness of tribes that are now but a mournful memory. I will not dwell on, nor mourn over, our untimely decay, nor reproach my paleface brothers with hastening it, as we too may have been somewhat to blame.

Youth is impulsive. When our young men grow angry at some real or imaginary wrong, and disfigure their faces with black paint, it denotes that their hearts are black, and that they are often cruel and relentless, and our old men and old women are unable to restrain them. Thus it has ever been. Thus it was when the white man began to push our forefathers ever westward. But let us hope that the hostilities between us may never return. We would have everything to lose and nothing to gain. Revenge by young men is considered gain, even at the cost of their own lives, but old men who stay at home in times of war, and mothers who have sons to lose, know better.

Our good father in Washington–for I presume he is now our father as well as yours, since King George has moved his boundaries further north–our great and good father, I say, sends us word that if we do as he desires he will protect us. His brave warriors will be to us a bristling wall of strength, and his wonderful ships of war will fill our harbors, so that our ancient enemies far to the northward — the Haidas and Tsimshians — will cease to frighten our women, children, and old men. Then in reality he will be our father and we his children. But can that ever be? Your God is not our God! Your God loves your people and hates mine! He folds his strong protecting arms lovingly about the paleface and leads him by the hand as a father leads an infant son. But, He has forsaken His Red children, if they really are His. Our God, the Great Spirit, seems also to have forsaken us. Your God makes your people wax stronger every day. Soon they will fill all the land. Our people are ebbing away like a rapidly receding tide that will never return. The white man’s God cannot love our people or He would protect them. They seem to be orphans who can look nowhere for help. How then can we be brothers? How can your God become our God and renew our prosperity and awaken in us dreams of returning greatness? If we have a common Heavenly Father He must be partial, for He came to His paleface children. We never saw Him. He gave you laws but had no word for His red children whose teeming multitudes once filled this vast continent as stars fill the firmament. No; we are two distinct races with separate origins and separate destinies. There is little in common between us.

To us the ashes of our ancestors are sacred and their resting place is hallowed ground. You wander far from the graves of your ancestors and seemingly without regret. Your religion was written upon tablets of stone by the iron finger of your God so that you could not forget. The Red Man could never comprehend or remember it. Our religion is the traditions of our ancestors — the dreams of our old men, given them in solemn hours of the night by the Great Spirit; and the visions of our sachems, and is written in the hearts of our people.

Your dead cease to love you and the land of their nativity as soon as they pass the portals of the tomb and wander away beyond the stars. They are soon forgotten and never return. Our dead never forget this beautiful world that gave them being. They still love its verdant valleys, its murmuring rivers, its magnificent mountains, sequestered vales and verdant lined lakes and bays, and ever yearn in tender fond affection over the lonely hearted living, and often return from the happy hunting ground to visit, guide, console, and comfort them.

Day and night cannot dwell together. The Red Man has ever fled the approach of the White Man, as the morning mist flees before the morning sun. However, your proposition seems fair and I think that my people will accept it and will retire to the reservation you offer them. Then we will dwell apart in peace, for the words of the Great White Chief seem to be the words of nature speaking to my people out of dense darkness.

It matters little where we pass the remnant of our days. They will not be many. The Indian’s night promises to be dark. Not a single star of hope hovers above his horizon. Sad-voiced winds moan in the distance. Grim fate seems to be on the Red Man’s trail, and wherever he will hear the approaching footsteps of his fell destroyer and prepare stolidly to meet his doom, as does the wounded doe that hears the approaching footsteps of the hunter.

A few more moons, a few more winters, and not one of the descendants of the mighty hosts that once moved over this broad land or lived in happy homes, protected by the Great Spirit, will remain to mourn over the graves of a people once more powerful and hopeful than yours. But why should I mourn at the untimely fate of my people? Tribe follows tribe, and nation follows nation, like the waves of the sea. It is the order of nature, and regret is useless. Your time of decay may be distant, but it will surely come, for even the White Man whose God walked and talked with him as friend to friend, cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers after all. We will see.

We will ponder your proposition and when we decide we will let you know. But should we accept it, I here and now make this condition that we will not be denied the privilege without molestation of visiting at any time the tombs of our ancestors, friends, and children. Every part of this soil is sacred in the estimation of my people. Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove, has been hallowed by some sad or happy event in days long vanished. Even the rocks, which seem to be dumb and dead as the swelter in the sun along the silent shore, thrill with memories of stirring events connected with the lives of my people, and the very dust upon which you now stand responds more lovingly to their footsteps than yours, because it is rich with the blood of our ancestors, and our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch. Our departed braves, fond mothers, glad, happy hearted maidens, and even the little children who lived here and rejoiced here for a brief season, will love these somber solitudes and at eventide they greet shadowy returning spirits. And when the last Red Man shall have perished, and the memory of my tribe shall have become a myth among the White Men, these shores will swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe, and when your children’s children think themselves alone in the field, the store, the shop, upon the highway, or in the silence of the pathless woods, they will not be alone. In all the earth there is no place dedicated to solitude. At night when the streets of your cities and villages are silent and you think them deserted, they will throng with the returning hosts that once filled them and still love this beautiful land. The White Man will never be alone.

Let him be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not powerless. Dead, did I say? There is no death, only a change of worlds.

Edward Curtis, produced many thousands of photographs during his epic chronicling of the faces, culture and homes of Native Americans of the Western United States. You can find the wikipedia article about his life here. This is what he looked like (as always, click the pic for larger size):

Much of his photography is available online- at least several thousand full resolution pictures, through the library of congress, here.

Cheyenne Crazy Dancers

Cheyenne Peyote Leader

Camp on Little Big Horn

Apsarok- Crow Holy Man

Red Cloud

Planning a raid

"Stinking Bear"

Blackfoot soldier: Fat Horse

Old woman in mourning

Snake Chief: Tevgui

O-Yi-Tsa

Maricopa: Hoo-Man-Hai

War Gods of the Yebichai

Giving medecine

Navaho: Zahadolzha

Navaho mirror

Ruin at Canyondelmuerto

Jicarilla man

Ye-Nin-Guy

Dance to restore the moon- lunar eclipse

That’s all I have time for right no0w. More later. Be happy