Israeli Women Resisters: Maya Wind and Netta Mishly - Human Rights Heroes at Home 2009 - Peace

Israeli Women Resisters: Maya Wind and Netta Mishly - Human Rights Heroes at Home 2009 - Peace

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There are many worthy candidates for this prize, including Malalai Joya, the youngest member of the Afghan parliament who represents Farah province, who has been called "the most courageous woman in Afghanistan." Also Bruce Gagnon, Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, who appears here in ABQ periodically, and Amy Goodman of Democracy Now. Scroll through all the nominees. Only 5 hours and 54 minutes left to vote.

Help Bat Nha Monastery

Help Bat Nha Monastery
From Thich Nhat Hanh
Today at 5:54pm
Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Thich Nhat Hanh’s Vietnam-based Bat Nha monastery is under severe economic, violent, and governmental pressure to abandon its premises by September 2. The cause: A statement supporting the Dalai Lama, and a letter of ten suggestions Thich Nhat Hanh provided to Vietnam President Nguyen Minh Triet, which included a call for religious freedom.

For that, their safety is threatened. They have had their electricity and water cut off for more than two months, their property vandalized, and have suffered innumerable verbal abuses and other forms of harassment. Since Thich Nhat Hanh’s return trip to Vietnam after nearly 40 years in exile in 2005, these 400 monks and nuns have been allowed to practice at Bat Nha.

The monastery has serves as a training and practice center in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh’s home monastery, Plum Village in France. Unfortunately, the government has withdrawn its permission for them to continue practicing for varying reasons. The monks and nuns just want a safe place to practice.

Here’s how you can make a difference…

1) Write your Senators, and ask them to take action now on behalf of the young monks and nuns of Bat Nha.
2) If you have a blog, please write about Bat Nha Monastery.
3) Share Thich Nhat Hanh’s Facebook fan page, and write on the wall about Bat Nha Monastery, asking people to write their Senators.
4) Tweet, ‘Please stop the violence against Thich Nhat Hanh’s Bat Nha monastery in Vietnam.” http://helpbatnha.org #batnha

Reproductive Decisions, Revisited

(published in the August 14 issue of The New Mexico Breeze.)

From the front page article of the July 24 issue of The NM Breeze:
The U.S. federal government funds a significant proportion of Planned Parenthood's budget, much of which is used to reach and educate young girls and women … in this country regarding the abortion option. It is also used to fund abortions.

According to the 2008 Annual Report, forty percent of Planned Parenthood's budget is funded by contributions, patient fees, and commercial insurance for health related services. In addition, many fundraising events occur through the year across the country. While it's true Planned Parenthood offers abortion services and referrals, many other services are provided. Among them (listed on the website www.plannedparenthood.org) are birth control services, emergency contraception services, general health care, HIV testing services, hepatitis vaccines and HPV vaccine services, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) services, men's health services, patient education, pregnancy testing and pregnancy services, sexually transmitted disease (STD) testing and treatment, and women's health services.

It seems to me the real issue here isn't about how our tax dollars are used. It's about whether those who oppose abortion, often for religious reasons, can impose their beliefs on all women, in our country which values the separation of church and state and includes that separation in the Constitution.

One of the slogans of the pro-choice movement is "Don't like abortion? Don't have one." It seems very much to the point of not dictating your beliefs to others.

It is our duty as citizens to pay for government services which are for the common good. I don't object to paying taxes for schools, even though I don't have children. I vote yes on bond issues that support public schools, as well as the police department, the fire department, and other public agencies. There was an opposition by conservatives against Social Security when it was first founded in 1935. Now Social Security has been so accepted that the concern is to save it when the funding is precarious. Tom Tomorrow, political cartoonist, put it this way: "If the Right doesn't want their tax dollars going to fund abortion because they disagree with it, does that mean the portion of my own taxes that has gone, or will go, to pay for the war in Iraq will be refunded? "

If every action taken with tax payer money required a vote of every citizen the government would never accomplish anything. At some point we need to relinquish our own sense of specialness enough to cooperate with an organized government that makes decisions and to stop ruminating over our wish to control each of these decisions.
Our government-funded public health services, which include the Veterans' Administration (VA) Medicare, Medicaid, and Indian Health Service (IHS) are aimed at insuring that even the elderly, the poor, and the disabled, as well as those who have served our country in the military, have some access to health care. These services should be available without discrimination as to race and sex. Nevertheless, such discrimination exists. Medicaid and federal employees' health insurance covers some of men's reproductive needs such as prescriptions for Viagra. The Hyde Amendment, however, that for decades has been attached to Congressional appropriations bills, prohibits payment when women need an abortion.

Native American women seem particularly singled out. A recent article by Michelle Chen in In These Times magazine stated,

When it comes to their health, American Indian women face extraordinary barriers—from high disease risks to increased incidents of sexual violence. They now face another obstacle, rooted in the political battleground of abortion.

The obstacle refers to a provision slipped into the Indian Health Care Improvement Act which restricts abortions under IHS programs. Vitter's initiative tightens the restrictions of the Hyde Amendment that already applied to the Act. It is seen by some as a race-based amendment, reducing Native American women's right to abortion more than any other race of women in this country. By treaty and law, the federal government is required to fund health services for Native Americans.

The reasons women give for having an abortion underscore their understanding of the responsibilities of parenthood and family life. Three-fourths of women cite concern for or responsibility to other individuals, e.g. other children or elderly parents; three-fourths say they cannot afford a child; three-fourths say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or the ability to care for dependents; and half say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner.

Nearly half of pregnancies among American women are unintended, and four in 10 of these are terminated by abortion. Fifty percent of U.S. women obtaining abortions are younger than 25, and 17% are teenagers. http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html"
Research shows that unwanted, unplanned children have more health problems and lower birth weights. They perform at a lower level in school. They are more likely to suffer depression and anxiety at an early age, and more likely to have recurring episodes over time. They are more like to use substances to manage the negative emotions that characterize their lives. They are more likely to need unemployment funds and they are more likely to end up in our prison system. In short, unwanted children are more of a burden on society than children who are wanted and who enjoy good nurturing at home.

My own experience with Planned Parenthood was many years ago, before abortion was legalized in the U.S. It was 1962. The birth control pill was a new contraceptive method. I was about to be married, and my mother sent me to Planned Parenthood to get a prescription for the pill. Since I was about to graduate from college, and my fiance and I planned to go on to graduate school after the wedding, it wasn't the right time for me to get pregnant, even though my mother wanted grandchildren.
For all women, regardless of race or ethnicity, reproductive justice for women cannot be separated from women's economic and social well-being. There are not two kinds of women - those who have abortions and those who have babies. Sixty percent of those having abortions are already mothers. Such women are making decisions in order for them to be able to work to support the children they already have.

The July 24 article states that the health care reform legislation promoted by the Obama administration "provides federal mandates for abortion in nearly all health plans…."

This is not true. Nothing in any of the current health care reform bills mandates abortion coverage -- or any other type of health care service -- in the Exchange. With a Public Option in health care reform, taxpayer money would not be used to pay for abortion. The public plan is a not government-funded health plan like Medicaid or Medicare. The public health insurance plan in the Exchange would operate like any private insurance plan would.

In a recent (August 3) article in The Huffington Post, Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood, revealed that the Family Research Council doesn't want health care reform of any kind, and in order to misinform people in key Senate states, is now using the idea of expanding access to reproductive health care as their latest target. Raising the question of paying taxes to fund abortion in the so-called Public Option is one of the ways of perpetuating several myths to generate opposition to this much needed feature of reform. According to Richards, "The simple fact is that most women with private insurance in America already have access to full reproductive health care, and the vast majority of employment-based health plans treat abortion coverage like the rest of health care -- as a covered benefit… women shouldn't be worse off as a result of health care reform."

All this is simply a distraction. Why do so many political leaders, elected or otherwise, make such objections to availability of abortion, but do so little to support pregnant women, parents and families? I don't see them allocating tax money for these kinds of social and economic programs. America is one of only two industrialized nations in the world that does not require any paid maternity or parental leave. The United States is also one of the few industrialized nations that does not provide child or family allowances -- cash benefits given to families with children.

The July 24 article summarizes a scenario proposed by John Holdren in his book entitled Ecoscience, Population, Resources and the Environment (W.H. Freeman, 1977), in which the government dictates means of population limitation, including coercive, involuntary fertility control. The Peoples Republic of China attempted some of these measures in its one-child policy, because maintaining the rate of population growth was undesirable. It should be noted that until the present time, most countries including the United States, have adopted pro-natalist policies, i.e. economic and public health policies that encourage women to have babies. It's obvious, however, the ideas summarized in the article are intended to horrify the reader.

At the other end of the spectrum is the equally-horrifying novel by Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale (McClelland and Steward, 1985). Written shortly after the elections of Ronald Reagan in the United States and Margaret Thatcher in Great Britain, this book is one of the most powerful portrayals of the late 20th century of a totalitarian society. It is one of the few dystopian novels to examine in detail the intersection of politics, sexuality, and reproduction. In the novel’s nightmare world of Gilead, a group of conservative religious extremists has taken power and turned the sexual revolution on its head. Gilead is a society founded on a “return to traditional values” and gender roles, and on the subjugation of women by men. Widespread access to contraception and the legalization of abortion have been reversed, in a world undone by pollution and infertility. Fertile women are considered breeders and they become sex slaves incorporated into the traditional families of rich and powerful men.

Atwood's book proposes another kind of society in which there is no democratic rule of the majority. It is written from a feminist point of view and contrasts with the editor's position, which supposes that there are government mandates to private companies regarding the performance of abortions. Before you make up your mind about health care reform, do be sure you understand the real issues and the myths. The items discussed here are but a small part of it.

How to Survive a Kitchen Remodel

This was published in the New Mexico Breeze, June 5,2009

HOW TO SURVIVE A KITCHEN REMODEL
By
Joan Saks Berman

This is a project that always takes a lot of planning. Of course, this depends on how extensive your remodel will be. Expect that you'll be without your kitchen for at least two months. This may also vary, depending on the nature and disposition of your contractor as well as how much work needs to be done. You may want to replace all the cabinets, counters, and appliances as well as the floor covering, or you may want only to replace the counter tops and the floor covering, and have the cabinets and walls painted. You should also decide well in advance whether the utility room will be done over at the same time. The cost, of course, will vary with how much will be done and the specific items chosen for replacement. The contractor may provide all the new materials and new equipment, or he may prefer that you go with him to his suppliers and pay for the counters and cabinets, for example, at the time of purchase. If some time has gone by since the cost estimate, be prepared for increased costs on materials.
It is important to get a written estimate of when the project will be finished. Some contractors are infamous for disappearing for various periods of time, in the middle of an unfinished job, when they take on additional jobs. (However, some particularly eccentric contractors are not willing to be pinned down.) It is also a good idea to get the labor costs in writing as well. Otherwise the contractor may say that he underestimated some costs, and needs several hundred more dollars, or that he needs to hire more helpers and must have more money to pay them. You will be vulnerable to contractor manipulations when your kitchen is torn apart and your house is in chaos. You'll want to do whatever it takes to get the job done and return your life to normal.
Set up an area in another room, for example the dining room, that will hold basic kitchen necessities. Use your buffet or a card table, but not the table you will use for eating. Your refrigerator will be moved into your dining room or family room and you will have to do without your automatic icemaker unless you have running water available. On the card table and/or buffet will go your toaster and/or toaster oven, microwave, electric coffeemaker, electric can-opener, coffee grinder, and whatever other electric appliances are indispensable for you . These may also include a hot plate, electric frying pan, and a crockpot or slow-cooker.
You'll also need some laundry detergent for trips to the laundromat if your washing machine will be disconnected and moved. When someone helps you pack up the kitchen, label each box so that you will know which box contains what when you have to put it away again. Before the workers arrive, you can prepare a box or drawer so you'll have what you need to use during your temporary displacement in a convenient place. Some items to consider are a few plates, cups, bowls, forks, knives, and spoons. In fact, if you can think of this as "camping" out and have camping equipment, you might want to use that. If you plan to use a hotplate or a camping stove, you'll need a saucepan and a skillet, a lid and a spatula, and maybe a teakettle. Of course, you'll need potholders
On the other hand, you may want to consider getting a supply of paper plates, cups, bowls, and disposable knives, forks and spoons. If that offends your environmental or gastronomic sensibilities, be prepared to wash what you use in the bathtub or bathroom sink, and put some dishwashing liquid there. Lots of paper towels, napkins, coffee filters and aluminum foil will be helpful. Some Ziploc bags will be useful, as all your Rubbermaid, Tupperware or Gladware will be packed up. (This is a good time, by the way, to recycle the empty bottles, jars, and bags that may have accumulated, if you're the kind of person who can't throw out anything which might be used again. Ground coffee or coffee beans and tea containers should be accessible. Keep some batteries handy in several sizes, because you might need them. And don't forget the garbage bags and recycle bags. If you are using disposables, you'll need them even more.
Your companion animals need to be considered, too, so don't forget to put their bowls in a convenient place, along with supplies of their food, treats, and toys. If you usually keep their leashes in the kitchen find a new place for them.
Depending on the layout of your house, you may want to protect your carpet from the dusty footprints of the workmen, and your own (if you'll be passing through the work area). Scraps and remnants of old carpeting or runners can be used, and be sure to keep your vacuum cleaner handy as well as a feather duster or a few dust cloths.
You might want to keep a bottle of wine handy to help smooth out the wrinkles of frustration and anxiety, so keep a corkscrew among your utensils. In any case, you'll need some bottled drinking water and/or soda.
Even with all this preparation, you'll probably want to eat out more than usual, so include this in your budget. You may also want to bring home prepared food from your favorite restaurant, fast food drive-thru, or supermarket. Think of the new salads available at Wendy's or Costco. Certainly this is a good time use microwavable frozen foods.
If you store boxes of dishes and other kitchen cabinet contents on the porch or patio, cover them with tarps as protection from wind and rain. And don't forget to tell neighbors if workmen will be going in and out when you're not home.
Now that you've read my simple suggestions, you may want to reconsider the whole project. A friend of mine was so traumatized after going through a kitchen remodel that she said she would rather move than do it again. Other people I know have avoided doing anything else to improve their homes after the nightmare of the kitchen remodel experience.

Cathryn McGill

This was published in the New Mexico Breeze June 19, 2009

Cathryn McGill

If you attended the Women's Voices concerts presented by the New Mexico Jazz Workshop (NMJW) at the Albuquerque Museum on June 12 and 13, you would have seen and heard Cathryn McGill, with her braided hair, belting out her songs. She was the producer of those concerts and the Women's Voices concerts for the past five years, and has decided that now is the time to pass on the job to someone else. Every year the concert had a different concept, but it was always about creating a chemistry between the musical participants. This year it was especially about creating community. Both the audience and the musicians felt it. This has become a signature event for the NMJW, and attendance exceeded the break-even point, financially.

If you didn't see her at Women's Voices, you might have encountered Cathryn when she was an Albuquerque city government employee. She graduated in 1983 from the University of Southern California with a major in Public Administration, and came to Albuquerque the next year. She worked for the city in the Risk Management Department and Parks and Recreation. At the Convention Center she was in charge of entertainment events.

Later, Cathryn was Development Director (fundraising) at the Albuquerque Rape Crisis Center. She produced another New Mexico Diva concert, the SaVi Fair (Sisters Against Violence Initiative) as a benefit in 2004. A compilation CD featuring the Divas was sold at the concert.

During this time Cathryn was always acting and singing. She was president of the Vortex Theater. Then "actress who sang" became a vocalist—she hasn't done live theater in a while. Recently, she made a decision to quit her "day job," and make music primary in her life.

Cathryn released two CDs this year, performing a multi-media concert on April 10 to celebrate. The CDs, "From the Inside" and "I'm On My Way," were many years in the making, but her mother's death was the impetus for finally getting them out to the public. She wanted to honor her mother's legacy as well as her own art.

Cathryn grew up in Muskogee, Oklahoma, the fourth of five children. After her father left the family, her mother returned to school and became a teacher, so she would be able to raise her children as a single mother. During the time that mom was in school, the grandparents stepped in to take care of the kids.

The two influences that inspired Cathryn as she was growing up were the importance of education and spirituality. Her CD, "I'm On My Way," draws on this in order to be inspirational and express her philosophy of life. It's composed of songs that she sings in her appearances around the country at non-denominational New Thought churches, that is, churches that teach that if you change your thinking, you can change your life. She had been raised a Baptist, but found that she couldn't conform to the norms dealing with scripture because her performing often took her to bars and nightclubs. She feels that now she is a better Christian. In the Albuquerque Center for Spiritual Living she an completely be who she is. She traces every good experience back to being part of this church, which is a social group as well as a spiritual center.

"From The Inside" is a collection of songs she wrote about her life experiences, songs about relationships, both good and bad. One specifically honors her mother.

Cathryn has been working closely with guitarist Larry Mitchell, who won a Grammy in 2007 for his producing talents. But still she didn't finish her CDs. Then she met John Rangel, jazz pianist. They understood each other musically. John encouraged her do she could finish her CD. He posed the question about what would she want to do about music? Does she want to be the kind of musician she envisioned? John and Larry co-produced her second CD.

The CD was part of Cathryn's long range plan is to start traveling again with church appearances for her music ministry. She had booked dates for Seattle and Portland, so she needed a new product to go with her performances. That gave her a sense of urgency and a deadline. She goal is to combine music and motivational messages about a sense of personal responsibility. As she explains her philosophy, she readily quotes from John Milton, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Bible. She hopes to be able to counter the message that we get from mainstream media that everything is horrible with the message that we still have everything we need, and incorporated that thought into a song she wrote with Stu McAskie, pianist.

Before concluding the interview, I asked Cathryn if there was anything special in her home that she'd like to show me. She walked over to the piano and took up a worn LP record album by Harry Belafonte, proudly showing me the inscription and autograph he wrote for her. She had spent an afternoon with him a few years ago, interviewing him for the Perspective. She thinks of him as her ideal man, describing him as sexy, a social activist, spiritual, intelligent, talented, drop-dead gorgeous even in his golden years, and rich, using his money to help others.

I knew that Cathryn has pages on Facebook and MySpace, so I asked her what her thoughts were about these forms of social media. She's very much in favor of them because of the immediacy of communication, speaking of viral marketing and guerilla marketing, that is, a free form of marketing useful for when you don't have a lot of money. It's based on who you know. She uses Facebook to let people know where she's performing. Again quoting the Bible, "Wherever two or three are gathered, I will be in their midst," she said that Facebook is a place where there are six degrees of separation between people.

Cathryn can be seen performing with some of the New Mexico musicians at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-lFMZNWCHc. Another video is at www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhLzAExxCu8. The same videos, plus some song tracks, can be found on her MySpace page, http://www.myspace.com/cathrynmcgill.

Cathryn's New Mexico appearances this summer include Taos Plaza July 2, NMJW's Jazz Under the Stars at the Albuquerque Museum on July 18 (with Larry Mitchell on guitar), the New Mexico Jazz Festival in Old Town on July 24, and Santa Fe Stages on August 3. In September, she'll be singing at the Aid and Comfort Gala to benefit AIDS services. She'll also be performing at private parties. Appearances in Seattle and Los Angeles are also planned this summer.

Joan is a freelance writer as well as a prize-winning photographer, and has a degree in
psychology, with a private psychotherapy practice. Her writing includes professional
publications, memoir, and essays. She has an idea for a novel, that she is just starting. She volunteers with the New Mexico Jazz Workshop, which allows her to see concerts for free.

A Visit with Patty Stephens

This was published in the New Mexico Breeze on June 12, 2009.

A Visit with Patty Stephens

By Joan Saks Berman

On Friday, June 12 and Saturday, June 13, the New Mexico Jazz Workshop will present the annual Women's Voices concerts. Women's Voices, a festival which began in 1993, continues as an annual tribute to the outstanding women vocalists in New Mexico. The concerts are at the Albuquerque Museum Amphitheater. One of the performers on both days is Patty Stephens. She's been part of the festival for 6 or 7 years.

I interviewed Patty Stephens in her home in the North Valley, near Los Duranes School. She had just returned from the High Desert Center for Spiritual Living (formerly High Desert Church of Religious Science), church on the West Side where she is music director and sings with the gospel choir on Sundays. She's been a member there for 27 years. She said that she likes the church because it honors diversity and works to make the world a place worth living in. In her role there, she tries to unite and develop the community.

As we sat at the kitchen table sipping iced tea, I looked around admiring the eclectic décor and her collection of interesting odds and ends filling the built-in hutch on one wall. Outside the back door was a garden of corn and four kinds of squash, and a hammock strung between two old cottonwoods.

Patty Stephens was born into singing. Her mother was a musician and a dancer. It was a large family, eight girls and three boys, and there was always singing into the home. Patty never took lessons; she must have inherited her beautiful voice. Some families talk about having enough members to form a baseball team. Patty said that in her family, there were always enough to create a play, and they put on a series based on Greek tragedies.

The family lived as a lay family at the Holy Cross Abbey in Cañon City, Colorado. She recalled that her first stage performance was around three years old and it revolved around Catholic ritual.

In high school, Patty sang in the choir and joined a rock and roll band. Later, she toured with the Abbey Glee Club. She had a group named Double Entendre with her sister Teresa, singing jazz, blues and country music as they toured around Colorado. In her late teens and early 20's she worked as a farm worker, and learned mariachi music from her Mexican co-workers. In the early '70's she lived in Cuernavaca, Mexico, teaching theater and learning Spanish.

In 1985, Patty moved to Albuquerque with her husband and her son Gabriel, determined to devote her time to nothing but music and theater. Only one of her sisters, Wendy Fabian, an artist, lives here. Patty broke into the local scene by singing in jams at El Madrid when that bar was a center of local music. Then she found the First Church of Religious Science (now called the
Albuquerque Center for Spiritual Living, located on Louisiana). She started singing at services every Sunday, and began to meet other musicians and make connections for getting jobs, such as singing in the lounge at the Hyatt Hotel. She has sung in such places as Café Miche and at the Mykonos Restaurant.

Admiring her voice, aspiring singers started asking Patty to give them singing lessons. She had to figure out how to teach, since she had never taken lessons herself. Now, teaching is her greatest passion. It's fulfilling on a deeper level than performing. The singing lessons she gives become a means of personal empowerment for her students. Working with the breath often leads to an unexpected release of trauma.

Patty teaches private lessons and also through the education program of the New Mexico Jazz Workshop. She is especially enthusiastic about her work with Music Together®, a research-based international program for families, designed to enhance children's acquisition of basic musical competence, based on the belief that all children are musical. It's not about performing but about integrating movement and music into family activity, and is aimed at children from birth to six years old. The FamJam events bring the community in.

Patty's current work includes the Brazil Project, with pianist Bert Dalton, percussionist Frank Leto, drummer John Bartlit, and Milo Jaramillo on bass. She feels more rapport with this group than she has with other bands. She's learning Portuguese for the songs. Upcoming performances for the group include Zinc on June 20. They will be at the New Mexico Jazz Festival at 6:40pm on July 18, in an auxiliary tent near Civic Plaza. Later that evening, at 8p.m. they will be at Seasons upstairs deck.

In her "free" time, Patty loves to garden and cook. Her friends are fellow singers, who often gather to sing mariachi songs together in her backyard.

Patty's website is under construction, but you can find out more about Music Together® at www.famjam.net.

Macbeth, it's not

I went to see the latest (earliest) Star Trek movie tonight. Briefly, it has way too much testosterone, as manifested in noise and things crashing and falling apart, way too little logic, and no social message, as in the Gene Roddenberry tradition. As Shakespeare said, "It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

A Christmastime memory

Once upon a time, a long time ago, long before VCR's were invented, even before television sets were found in every home (it may have been invented, but wasn't commercially available), my father devised his own family entertainment. He owned both eight and 16 millimeter movie projectors. From time to time he would rent a newsreel and a bunch of cartoons, and set up a theater in our basement. He set the silvered screen in the front, and pulled it up like a windowshade, hooking it at the top of the extended pole for that purpose. The folding chairs were set in rows, and corn was popped in the kitchen upstairs, in a pot with a rotating lever in the cover that stirred the corn to keep it from burning. The neighbors, especially the kids, poured in and took their places, the lights were extinguished, and the whirring of the projector began.

At Christmastime, the featured movie was a black and white enactment, before computerized animation (for that matter before most of us had ever heard of computers) of " 'Twas the night before Christmas." We delighted in the poetry, and in seeing the sugar plums dancing in their heads, and the jolly old Santa with his reindeer on the roof. The movie was played over and over, and every year, and before long I could recite the poem from memory, like a chorus with the narrator of the movie.

So, even though this Jewish family didn't officially celebrate Christmas, we soaked in the holiday atmosphere. Maybe it didn't start as early as the day after Halloween, but Christmas was everywhere in the stores and on the air waves. A favorite of the season was the serial story, "The Cinnamon Bear," broadcast for 15 minutes every day, around 5p.m. And Santa didn't pass over our house. We didn't have a fireplace, so my sister and I hung our stockings (the longest ones we could find) from the doors of the "entertainment center," a Stromberg-Carlson console with an am-fm radio and a phonograph inside. We would hang the stocking over the dark wood door and then close it, so that it fit snuggly but was still open waiting for the treats. We would wake up on Christmas morning with oranges and various kinds of candy bulging in the fabric, and toys piled on the floor. I never wondered how Santa got in, even without a chimney to slide down.

Our extended family had our own tradition for celebrating Chanukah. All the aunts, uncles, and cousins would gather at one of our houses, rotating each year, along with Grandpa Jacob and Grandma Sarah. At the appropriate time, all the cousins would gather eagerly in a large space in front of Grandpa and he would throw a handful of coins, nickels, dimes and quarters, into the air. Then all of us cousins would scramble for them as they fell to the ground and rolled to the corners. Grandpa repeated this several times, until his rolls of coins were gone. Because my sister and I were the two smallest, and easily pushed out of the way by our eager older cousins, he would slip us a little extra to make up for our losses. Then we would all adjourn to the dining room for potato latkes, topped with applesauce or sugar.

This Week at Bookworks

This past week I went to three events at Bookworks, one of Albuquerque's remaining independent bookstores. The first was at 11:00 a.m. last Sunday--I don't usually go there on Sunday morning. It was Valerie Raleigh Yow speaking. She's the author of a biography of Betty Smith, who herself was the author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I remember reading the book when I was a teenager, maybe younger, and loving it, as well as the movie in black and white. I still have some of those images in my mind. The film came out in 1945, when I was four years old, so I must have seen it later on television. It was the first directorial effort of Elia Kazan, and starred Dorothy McGuire, Joan Blondell, Peggy Ann Garner as the young protagonist, and James Dunn. As for Betty Smith, I never knew she wrote anything by A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, but she wrote three other novels, none as successful, and many plays. She's one of those women who was creative and prolific and well-known in her time, but has been moved to the backrooms of obscurity, so no one knows her name when some sexist asks, why have there never been any great women writers, or playwrights?

The next event at Bookworks was on Tuesday evening, a celebration of Tony Hillerman. About a half dozen writers who had been close friends of Hillerman's told anecdotes about their friendship with him. Included were Jim Belshaw, columnist at the Albuquerque Journal, Max Evans, Judith Van Giesen, a local mystery novelist, and Luther Wilson, director of the UNM Press. Several of them were weekly poker buddies of Hillerman. The event was videotaped (is that still the word to use when it's actually digital?) and will be put on the Bookworks website eventually, but it's not there yet.

Then, skipping over Wednesday because I wasn't interested in that event, and besides I had a party to go to at Pingo Studio and Gallery, on Thursday it was Luci Tapahonso reading her poetry. I always love to hear her, because she reads with such humor, and I recorded the talk on my little digital recorder. However, afterward I bought her latest book, A Radiant Curve (University of Arizona Press, $35 hardback, $17.95 paperback) and discovered that she has included, at the back of the book, a CD of her reading a selection of her poems, not just from the new book. So, that will be a delight to listen to. I have a recording of an earlier talk, about two-and-a-half years ago, she gave at the University of New Mexico, when I bought some other of her recent books. Sad to say, although I greatly enjoyed hearing her read them, I haven't read through all the books yet myself. I did give one as a gift when I went to France that year.