Perspective

Amnesty International has issued a travel warning to those world travelers heading to the United States.

This is not the first I've heard from others wary of traveling to the United States because of gun violence.  On Jamie's trip to central Europe last year, people in the area were talking about being afraid to travel to the United States because of gun violence.

Just a reminder when we think about how dangerous traveling to other countries might be...

Mississippi Burning

What should be a couple of wake up calls over the next two days...

The first, a Facebook post that I saw shared via Twitter. Because it's important to recognize when others say it better than I ever could. Emphasis added in the text is mine. With a few closing thoughts at the end.

"If you’re reading this and you’re thinking that the ICE raid in Mississippi was justified because the 680 men and women apprehended are undocumented, and therefore in your eyes they are here “illegally” and we “have the right to enforce our laws,” you should know the following:

The owner of the business in Mississippi who hired all of these undocumented persons uses a social security number verification system and he is the one who supplied his own workers with the fake numbers and fake documentation they needed.

The employer is guilty of perpetrating fraud and identity theft but he is not being charged with these crimes. Further, the owner of the business was facing charges of sexual harassment and assault by several brave immigrant women who came forward to share their stories.

The federal government knows this but they are not bringing charges against the owner of the business for this reason either. Last, the employer was found responsible of wage theft in the amount of 3.8 million dollars.

Again, brave workers came forward to talk about unpaid hours of work and illegally docked paychecks. And they proved their case. But as you might have guessed the federal government is not charging owner of the business with any wrongdoing here either.

The White House is not directing the Department of Homeland Security to make an example of this business owner by fining him and/or charging him because he is a major donor to the Trump presidential campaign. If you thought the swamp was being drained you are sorely mistaken.

But wait it gets worse. The White House flew in the national director of ICE ahead of the raid in Mississippi and imported 600 ICE agents not stationed in that area. All of this constitutes an unprecedented expense of our taxpayer dollars.

And based on all available evidence the reason the White House and Department of Homeland Security justified this expense was they knew that they would receive viral media coverage by choosing to execute a raid of this scale in the wake of the El Paso shooting.

The Trump re-election campaign has already spent $17.2 million on digital ads. 2,200+ of these mention an “invasion of illegal immigrants.” And by rounding up 680 workers in the most public and publicized way possible the White House has, as it did with the 4th of parade, made the conscious decision to buttress and complement its campaign expenditures on our dime as taxpayers.

ICE didn't select this site randomly. This site had been on their radar for a year. They knew with a great deal of anticipation that this raid would happen at this time.

And that’s how they were able to get 600 agents shipped in and that’s why the national director was on the ground. And yet they did not notify any child welfare agencies ahead of time.

They knew they were rounding up workers with kids who punch a time card. They knew they were not getting gang members or people who travel from place to place and are difficult to track. They knew they were going to take moms and dads away from their children...(many if not most of whom are US citizens) right before the first day of school.

They knew they were going to leave children orphaned by conducting this raid but they never did anything at all to try and help those children.

And if all of that doesn’t make you sick to your stomach then consider the fact that there is no immigration court in the state of Mississippi. Immigrants in detention are not entitled to lawyers. They don’t get phone calls.

If they lived in any other state their family members trying to find them would know which courts to call. Anyone rounded up in Mississippi will likely end up in court in Louisiana or Tennessee. But there’s no way of knowing for sure.

So again, you are taken at work. But your boss goes home and nothing happens to him. You can’t speak to or see your kids unless someone along the way possesses enough humanity to help you do so. Otherwise you have no lawyer assigned to help you, and you're not entitled to a phone even to make a collect call. Since you’re not entitled to the same rights in the immigration court system as you are in any other court system, and your family doesn’t know where you are, or when your hearing is, chances are you’ll be deported.

If you don’t have family in the area to fight to keep your kids, they will become wards of the state. They will end up in foster care. And they’ll be scarred for life. All because Donald Trump chose to steal your tax dollars and mine, and use them for his re-election campaign.

And if you still don’t care because you’re so wretched and broken that you think your ignorance of immigration law justifies your belief that people need to “get in line” despite the fact that there are 185 visa types and each one has multiple “lines” and wait times.

If you don’t know or care that a Mexican with a PhD cant win a Green Card in a lottery and will wait 23 yrs to be reunited with his family, while a Belgian high school dropout with a juvenile criminal record can win a Green Card in lottery and reunite with his family in 3 years.

And that these are the broken immigration laws you want to enforce when you chant “build that wall” and “send them back,” then please by all means enjoy that Make America Great Again hat made in China."

Facebook post by Unai Montes-Irueste, Director of Communications at United Ways of California

We often talk about the distinction between the spirit of the law and the letter of the law.

At what point does enforcing the letter of the law turn our stomach?

Seriously.

Watch the video of the 11-year old pleading for her father and mother to be returned.

“Government, please put your heart — let my parents be free with everybody else, please.”

“I need my dad…mommy. My dad didn’t do nothing. He’s not a criminal."

Is this who we are???

I guess, more importantly, is this who we want to be?

The Travelers' Report 13 - Cozumel Cruise

In the continuing travels of the Keeler Crew - Jamie and I got to slip away for short weekend cruise from Galveston to Cozumel to celebrate our 10th Anniversary.  And it was a great way to spend it.  The day of departure, a day at sea, a day in Cozumel, a day at sea back, and then disembarkation.  

We were able to get a great deal booking early in the year and had upgraded to have a balcony, which made for a wonderful trip.  With the trip already booked and paid for, it was not something we really had to worry about even with the circumstances in the summer.  

This was Jamie's second cruise and my first.  Also my first time into Mexico.  It will not be our last.  

This trip was so relaxing - we were basically lazy bums.  We did a few fun activities on board like a 90s One Hit Wonder trivia, karaoke, and Explain a Movie Plot Badly (which we won and earned our Golden Ship on a Stick).  We did also watch Independence Day on the outdoor screen on July 4.  All that was missing was fireworks.

But for the most part, we lounged around and watched TCM.  Watched the water go by.  There's something magical about being out on the deck on a starless night.  Where the boat seems to be just floating, disappearing into the black void.

Our ship was the Carnival Dream, seen below docked at Galveston.  We were on Deck 7, so we had a lot of stairs involved in getting to the food and activities.

Of course, one of the fun things about being on the cruise is the towel animals that housekeeping creates.  Below their fun creations for this short voyage.

Our one port stop was in Cozumel.  We didn't pre book any adventures here and were headed to the real downtown district to try some local food and chocolate, when we got tempted by a really good package for the day.  It just involved a timeshare presentation.  In another reality, we might have jumped at that package for Vidanta, because they really know how to do all inclusive.  But we made it through without a purchase and got our island tour, tequila tour, and beach access.  Plus a free bottle of tequila.  The ruins below are from the tour.  The Puerta Maya sign from the entrance to the shopping center that has sprung up around the Carnival port.

The food was very good, especially the lunches.  We were surprised by that and expected the dinners to blow us away, but the fun options they created for lunch made for really good meals.  Our photograph below is from our Fancy Dress dining night, which did have a very good three course dinner.

All in all, it was a very memorable way to celebrate the 10th anniversary, July 4, and Jamie's birthday.  As stated above, we will definitely be cruising again.  There's too much of the world to see and this is definitely a fun way.  We were already talking about how much Avalyn and Jude would love it.  Just have to wait a little bit for the right age.

Next in the series, a few entries on our big road trip.

Abbey Road

'

50 years old.  

One of the most iconic album covers of all time turns 50 years old.  This photograph was taken August 8, 1969.  A design from an idea that McCartney sketched, it’s such a simple shot outside the EMI Studios. The cover features neither the artist name nor the album title on the front cover, the only original UK Beatles album to do so. As John Kosh, Apple Records creative designer, put it “we didn’t need to write the band’s name on the cover … They were the most famous band in the world.”

The group crossing that zebra stripe crossing has become one of the most imitated images around.  I know Brooke tried her hand at it on our trip to London in 2000.  There’s even a webcam that has monitored it since 2011.

It has sparked fringe theories like the “Paul is dead” theory.  That since, McCartney is the only one barefoot and out of step, he’s deceased.  The line is then a funeral procession, led by Lennon in white as the religious figure.  Followed by Starr in black as the undertaker, with Harrison in denim as the gravedigger.

How many other album covers can say that?

And though the recoding process was contentious, and though it represented an end for the Beatles (though Let It Be would be technically the last worked on and released), man what an album.

• Come Together
• Something
• Oh! Darling
• Here Comes The Sun
• Because
• Medley with Golden Slumbers, Carry the Weight, and The End

Talk about going out on a high note.  Those are songs where most groups would hope to have just one on an album.

We’re never going to have another group like the Beatles.  There’s so much content, it’s so fractured, that I don’t believe anything will ever hit like that.

And without a group like that, an album cover or cd cover, or associated image with a track is never going to pop like this one.

In remembrance, let’s heed the words of the final collective Beatles song -

“And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make…”

Be good to each other.  And if you have Abbey Road photos, share them here.

Maybe They Deserve to Die?

The title is harsh, but do we ever really stop to consider it.  Or are we just overcome with nostalgia that we can't see past it.

I mean, how many articles have we seen over the past several years that millennials are killing everything.  Mayonnaise, fabric softener, American cheese, the golf industry, paper napkins, Buffalo Wild Wings, McDonalds, Home Depot, Applebees.  The list goes on.

Now we have them to blame for the death of the brick and mortar store apparently.   And it seems no store is immune.  No business that can be treated as safe.  Even Pizza Hut is closing as many as 500 dine in restaurants to focus on delivery and take out.

And in all of the uproar, all I can think is that isn't this what we expect to happen, especially in free market capitalism?  Isn't that the point?  Tastes change and businesses change with them.

Why are we lamenting the deaths of big box, national chain retailers?  Of mediocre chain restaurants?  Is it just nostalgia?

I'm going to miss eating inside a Pizza Hut, no doubt.  That was the go to post show dining.  Once a production had wrapped the cast went to Pizza Hut, to play music on the jukebox, sing annoyingly loud, and eat tons of pizza.

But there will still be lots of places to get pizza.  And there is no question that the best pizzas do not come from any of the chains.  The best stuff is from places like 3Ds in Canton.  Austins' Pizza in Austin.  Johns in New York City.  Lou Malnatis Chicago.  Even the little whole in the wall by the slice place in New York that was the only place open in Snowpocalypse.

To me it seems we mourn the wrong things.  Why do we mourn an Applebees closing its doors more than a mom and pop diner that has local business owners closing?  Why is it sadder that JCPenney's might close than it is that your local grocery has been replaced by a chain?

Why are we more attached to impersonal brands and faceless corporations than we are to the independent business owners who make up our communities?

Especially when many of these chains have brought their slow deaths on themselves.

For the greatest example, it boggles the mind that Sears, the first great disruptor in retail could not have envisioned the way to stay relevant in the age of Amazon.  You're telling me the pioneer of the catalog, the first great purveyor of interstate sales and shipping, could not have seen how their catalog could become a web store now connecting the globe?  Why should we want to prop up a company when others have committed to how they should have changed?  Sears viewed their stores as an asset, which they could have been.  With their network of stores, they could have easily led the way in next day delivery, same day pickup (or drive up and have employee put in your car pickup), and potentially even same day delivery, years before Amazon could have gotten there.  Their stores are now an unfortunate liability that has them overextended.

Look, I do not want to diminish the impact of the lost jobs on the community or the loss of revenue for those employed in such chains.  But I do wonder why we feel these national chains are supposed to be immortal.

What's so special about an Applebees that we need an article for its obituary due to millennial tastes?

Maybe it's just me, but count me out of the list of mourners.  For me, I'll mourn the local bookstores, the local hardware stores.  The family restaurant.  The family business.

Those are getting harder and harder to run, to compete, and to stay afloat.

That impact is personal.

Shop Small.

Mitchuation Update - Itinerant Living

Changes in the Mitchuation...

We're done with all of our traveling for now.  The road trips are done.  We've been to a birthday party and visited family.  We were ready now to rest and just be for a while.

But I now have work.  It's a temporary position.  About a month in length, in downtown Dallas.  It will be hopefully a good bridge opportunity to carryover into whatever the permanent position becomes.

It came from a former co-worker who thought of me and reached out today.  She called while we were in Waco, I emailed a resume and spoke to the primary contact while we were in West.  And then I met the primary contact in Dallas to fill out paperwork and sign this afternoon.  It came together quick.

Since it is in downtown Dallas, I will be staying with friends in Wills Point closer to the opportunity.  An hour drive beats the two hour one from Winnsboro.  Plus it will be good to spend time with friends.

On the permanent front, I have leads in Dallas and Nashville.  For the Dallas location, I have a co-worker on the inside putting in a good word.  And the Nashville opportunity is exciting and promising.  I also have interviews for Austin and Washington, D.C. this week.

Through it all, it's been very interesting to see the Lord's hand in it all.  This temp job has come up to start literally the day after all our travels have completed.  This break has gotten me through a couple of planned trips and a move.  Opportunities I might not have had otherwise.  Jehovah jireh.

That's not to say that it always works out this well.  I completely know that this is amazing how it has come together.  And there is definitely the possibility that after this bridge, we're still waiting.  Waiting for further direction, for insight, for opportunity.

But I'm thankful for the way it is coming together.  I'm thankful for have the kind of a work relationship where co-workers would recommend me for other opportunities.  I'm thankful for upcoming possibilities.

With this opportunity, we'll be around the Winnsboro/Dallas area for the work week definitely.  And will get to head Buna way next weekend hopefully.

Not the way we would have planned it necessarily, but that seems to be the general current state.

To trust that His plan is better.  And to look forward to what He has in store.

We'll keep you posted.

One More

Another shooter.  20 dead.  26 wounded and counting.  A manifesto, a grudge against Hispanics - "the Hispanic invasion."  Traveled from North Texas to El Paso to commit the atrocity.  Lamented in his manifesto that his choice of gun would only shoot 300 rounds before getting too hot to handle.  300 rounds...

This was a person who wanted to inflect as much pain and death as humanly possible.  Who viewed fellow human beings as an infestation.  And who had legal means provided to be able to inflect that destruction.

And because we know what would actually work and refuse to do anything about it, I'm repeating an article that I've had to post twice now in the near-year-and-a-half that the blog has been running.

-------------------- 

Because there have been 15 school shootings so far in 2019...
Because our most recent mass shooting in Highlands Ranch, Colorado took one life and injured eight others...
Because active shooter drills are now common place in elementary schools...
Because we're teaching kids to run at shooters and then praise them as heroes, but are forgetting to mourn that necessity...
Because we have a generation of kids who view school shootings as just the way things have always been...
Because we still haven't done anything of substance to stop them...
Because chances are, we will still do nothing about this one...
Because I'm tired...

It bears repeating - From a post almost a year ago:

--------------------

I'm tired.  I'm tired of this topic continuing to come up.  I'm tired of us continuing to have the same response - thoughts and prayers, then talking at each other, then a whole lot of nothing, and it's forgotten until we move on to the next one.

When I started this blog, my second post was a repost of a Facebook message on the Second Amendment in response to the Parkland, Florida school shooting.  There have only been 54 days in between these posts.  And here we are again, with a school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas.  And I haven't even touched on all of the school shootings that have occurred.  There have been 5 other school shootings in the interim, just not to the same scope.

We have an addiction to guns in this country that causes us to look at anything else except gun control as a possible solution.  It's far past time we put everything on the table.  We should be looking at mental health care.  We should be looking at bullying.  We should be looking at the family structure.  We should be looking at socio-economic status and mobility.  AND we should be looking at sensible gun control.  We're a big country and pretty good at multi-tasking.  We're more than capable of looking at it all.

But I'm too tired to write anymore on this.  Who knows what good it does at this point.  In lieu of further debate, I'm just going to post facts and let them speak for themselves.

• On an average day, 96 Americans are killed with guns.
• On average, there are nearly 13,000 gun homicides a year in the United States.
• For every one person killed with guns, two more are injured.
• 62% of firearm deaths in the United States are suicides.
• Seven children and teens are killed with guns in the United States on an average day.
• In an average month, 50 women are shot to death by an intimate partner in the United States.
• America's gun homicide rate is more than 25 times the average of other high-income countries.
• The United States accounts for 46% of the population, but 82% of the gun deaths.
• Background checks have blocked over 3 million gun sales to prohibited people.
• Black men are 13 times more likely than white men to be shot and killed with guns.
• The presence of a gun in a domestic violence situation increases the risk of the woman being killed by five times.

https://everytownresearch.org/gun-violence-by-the-numbers/

--------------------

Until it's heard...
Until we stop pretending like it will go away...
Until we do something, anything...
Until we care more about people than things...
Until we listen more to constituents than to special interest groups...

Until the next time...hopefully with a much longer gap in between

--------------------

This marked the 250th mass shooting in America in the 215 days so far in this year.  

Common place now, I guess.

Yes, Robert Jeffress, Democrats Can Be Christians Too

“When they talk about God, they are not talking about the real God - the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who revealed Himself in the Bible.  These liberal Democrats are talking about an imaginary God they have created in their own minds: a god who loves abortion and hates Israel.”

Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Dallas and an evangelical adviser to the president, June 29, 2012

Contrary to popular belief, the Republican party does not have the corner on Christianity.  There is no one party that has got it right.  No one party that can claim to be Christian over the other or that one party is doing it right or wrong.

Parties do not have religious affiliations.  Their members do.  And this may come as a shock to many, but 62% of those who claim to be staunchly Democrat or lean Democrat would claim some form of Christianity.  

Yet here we have a pastor who chooses to write them all off.

I've already had issues with Jeffress.  He has made many statements that indicate that he has traded in Christianity for political power.  Here are just a few of his gems.

"I believe any Christian who would sit at home and not vote for the Republican nominee...that person is being motivated by pride rather than principle...”. 

“You know, I was debating an evangelical professor on NPR, and this professor said, ‘Pastor, don’t you want a candidate who embodies the teaching of Jesus and would govern this country according to the principles found in the Sermon on the Mount?’  I said, ‘Heck no.’ I would run from that candidate as far as possible, because the Sermon on the Mount was not given as a governing principle for this nation.”

“Government is to be a strongman to protect its citizens against evildoers. When I’m looking for somebody who’s going to deal with ISIS and exterminate ISIS, I don’t care about that candidate’s tone or vocabulary, I want the meanest, toughest, son of a you-know-what I can find - and I believe that’s biblical.”

“Evangelicals still believe in the commandment: Thou shalt not have sex with a porn star.  However, whether this president violated that commandment or not is totally irrelevant to our support of him.”

“Let me say this as charitably as I can. These ‘Never Trump’ evangelicals are morons.  They are absolutely spineless morons and they cannot admit that they were wrong.”

Or how about the time he had the First Baptist Choir sing a Make America Great Again hymn.

This is clearly a person who has thoroughly entwined himself with one particular political party.  A bit different from his ideals proclaimed in his book Twilight’s Last Gleaming, that Christian leaders are preferable to non-Christians because their “core beliefs” would keep them from “immortality” and “corruption.”

What has Jeffress gained from this change?  A spot on Trump’s evangelical advisory board.  National prominence.  Publicity for him and First Baptist Dallas.  A regular spot on Fox News.

I tend to side with Messiah College history professor John Fea, who argued, “Historically, whenever…ministers get involved in politics it ends up being bad for the church.  If you mix ice cream and horse manure, it doesn’t do much to the horse manure, but it sure does ruin the ice cream.  [Ministers] must always be in the business of speaking the truth to power.  And there is a LOT of truth that needs to be spot to Donald Trump.”

Maybe it's time to start treating Jeffress as a political figure, and not a pastor.  To view his proclamations as having little to do with the Word of God, and more to do with his political affiliations.

If this is where he wants to plant his flag, let's treat him as such.

* And for those asking, what about abortion, how can a Christian support abortion - please note that there are pro-life Democrats.  Democrats for Life America was created in 1999 for the purpose of electing pro-life Democrats.  A 2014 Gallup poll found that 28% of Democrats were pro-life.  This should be unsurprising given the Catholic position on abortion and the number of Catholics that vote Democratic.  There are others that may not label themselves pro-life but struggle with separating their personal feelings from what they believe the government should do.  Further, the Democratic party platform includes many social programs that actually reduce the number of abortions performed.  We have to stop looking at these as either-or-issues, or nothing will ever change.

Theater's Prince

“The two things that characterize him most are energy and impatience.  He trained as a stage manager and he learned the business from the ground up, so he knows how to order a pair of shoes, which many producers don’t.  A visual imagination is, if not his greatest strength, then one of them.  He sees things visually first, and he knows what a show looks like in his head before he takes it on.  In a certain sense, if Hal had his druthers, he’d direct operas only.  His heroes are directors like Max Reinhardt, the ones who pulled out all the stops.”

Stephen Sondheim, on Hal Prince

The lights on Broadway are a lot dimmer tonight.

Hal Prince, Broadway legend and prodigious Tony winner, died Wednesday, July 31, 2019, in Reykjavik, Iceland at the age of 91.  He had been traveling from Switzerland to his home in Manhattan, when he died in Iceland after a brief illness.

Mr. Prince began his work on Broadway in the late 1940s as an office assistant.  By 1949, Mr. Prince was an assistant stage manager on the musical “Touch and Go.”  He would go on to become a successful producer for such shows as “The Pajama Game,” “Damn Yankees,” “New Girl in Town,” “Fiorello!,” “Fiddler on the Roof," and “West Side Story."

“I was grateful, but I still wanted to be a director, not just a fellow with a lot of bumbling enthusiasm who said, ‘Yeah’ and ‘Swell’ or ‘Great’ a lot.  I was not creative, not an artist. I was doing interviews about box-office grosses.  I didn’t want to be a business man.  I am a good one, but only by default.  I didn’t get into business to keep books.”  Prince in a 1968 New York Times interview.

It was "West Side Story" that would prove very influential in getting Mr. Prince his directing opportunity.   Though he had met Sondheim years before, “West Side Story” would be their first professional collaboration.  Prince produced with his partner, while Sondheim would provide lyrics.  Prince would then go on to produce “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” With the shows following, Prince would also serve as director: “Company,” “Follies,” “A Little Night Music,” and “Sweeney Todd.”

During this time, Prince would also produce and direct, “It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane..It’s Superman,” “Cabaret,” and “Candide.” He would also form a successful partnership with an unknown at the time British creator, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.  This partnership had Prince direct “Evita,” and “The Phantom of the Opera.”  “Phantom” remains the longest running show on Broadway.

He worked with an embarrassment of riches in creative talent, including Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins, Susan Stroman, Leonard Bernstein, John Kander, and the aforementioned Stephen Sondheim, and Andrew Lloyd Webber.  He has been awarded 21 Tony’s, far surpassing anyone else in multiple categories.  His awards stretch from 1955 with “Pajama Game” and reach 2006 with his lifetime achievement.  He received his last competitive award in 1995 for his direction of an extravagant revival of “Show Boat.”

To say he is a legend is an understatement.

Mr Prince redefined Broadway several times in his career.  With “West Side Story” and Sondheim.  With “Cabaret” and the concept musical.  With “Phantom” and the epic musical.

When prominent theater professionals pass away, it is the tradition of the Broadway community for the lights of all Broadway marquees to simultaneously dim.  They are dimmed at curtain time, usually 8:00 pm and are dimmed for a full minute.  No announcement is made, aside from a press released issued by the Broadway league prior to the event.  Then the lights go up and the show goes on.

It’s a minute of silence, a minute of reflection.  A minute recognizing how dim the theater community is now with the passing of such a contributor.

For Prince, all lights were dimmed for one minute on Wednesday, July 31, 2019, at exactly 7:45 pm.  

“To be both a genius and a gentlemen is rare and extraordinary.  Hal Prince’s genius was matched by his generosity of spirit, particularly with those building a career.  Sitting on the T Edward Hambleton Fellowship panel of Mentors alongside Hal was both a lesson in producing and a lesson in humanity.  He was a giant.”

Thomas Schumacher, Chairman of the Broadway League

Rest in Peace, dear Prince

A Bigger Table

When you have more than you need, build a bigger table - not a higher fence.

This is a maxim that I want to live by.  I've known several people whom I admire that live by this principle.  That always have room for more.  That welcome others in.  That understand that life was meant to be shared.

Don't get me wrong, they know how to retreat to solitude or small groups to recharge.  But generally, they recognize that much has been given to them, so they have much responsibility to share.

In that regard, I'd like to tell you a story of two artists that I recently learned.

Anish Kapoor and Stuart Semple

Sir Anish Kapoor is an Indian-born, British sculptor, whose work has received great recognition and honor.  Perhaps his most recognized works are the Cloud Gate (or the Bean) at Chicago's Millennium Park and ArcelorMittal Orbit in London, a work created for the 2012 Olympics.

In the art world, he's more known for the controversies surrounding him.  Like purchasing an exclusive license to Vantablack, thought to be the least reflective (or blackest black) material on Earth.  Formed by vertically aligned carbon nanotube arrays, it is a very difficult form to work with, but produces the deepest color black imaginable.  And Kapoor has blocked off access to other artists.

Enter Stuart Semple.

Semple, a contemporary British artist and curator, known for his large scale canvases incorporating text and found imagery.  Semple tries to promote positivity in his artwork and believes in art being more accessible to patrons and creators.

Semple decided to fight Kapoor with PINK, the world’s pinkest paint.  Semple released the paint at a very affordable price to everyone except Kapoor.  Anyone can buy a 50g jar for $5.99.  Anyone who can sign an acknowledgement that they are no Anish Kapoor, in no way affiliated with Anish Kapoor, are not purchasing for Anish Kapoor, and that to the best of their knowledge, information, and belief, this paint will not make its way to Anish Kapoor.  With the hashtag, #sharetheblack.

Semple described Kapoor as the “kids at school who wouldn’t share their coloring pencils, but then they ended up on their own with no friends.  It’s cool, Anish can have his black.  But the rest of us will be playing with the rainbow!”

It gets better.

Kapoor somehow managed to get ahold of PINK and took a picture of his middle finger dipped in PINK, with the caption “Up yours #pink,” posted on his Instagram.  Semple could not let that stand, so he created Diamond Dust which contains glass shards and came with a warning not to get glass shards on your fingers or hands.  He has also created Black 2.0 (and Black 3.0), a functional equivalent of Vantablack, that is less toxic for use and comes in an acrylic.  All products come with a prohibition against Kapoor.

I know this fight about colors and paint seems petty.  And it seems unconnected with the idea of a bigger table.  But Kapoor is the definition of a higher fence person.  He acquired the exclusive license to a material with a color he did not create, so he could be the only one to experiment with it.  He’s tried to expand his studio in Farmers Road, which would block the light and view from the back of his neighbors’ properties.  (The neighbors contacted Semple for help with this one, and he created Phase and Shift, two color changing pigments - still prohibited for Kapoor).  Kapoor even notoriously hated the nickname "The Bean" for his Cloud Gate sculpture, though he has claimed to come around to it.

Semple, on the other hand, started his response as a performance piece.  It was a stunt designed to draw attention to such anti-collaborative moves.  To provide an alternative available to all artists.  To drive home this point, with his new pigment LIT, the world's glowiest glow pigment, Semple includes language about providing "all artists*" with the asterisk pointing to language that states “Especially Anish Kapoor.  If you are Anish Kapoor, can prove you are associated with Anish Kapoor or to the best of your knowledge information and belief this substance is going to make it’s way into the hands of Anish Kapoor, your order will be free!  We want you to know how lovely it feels to #shareTheLight."  

Maybe it's just a generational thing.  Kapoor is 65 and Semple is 38.  A difference in the idea of building up for ones self and building up for their community.  

But, haven't we seen enough of where higher fences get us.  The last thing we need are businesses with more wealth, CEO's with higher salaries, a 1% that's even more exclusive.  

Perhaps, just perhaps, it's time we all start building bigger tables.

In big ways and in small ways.  To each do our part to take care of the people that are put in our circle.  To take whatever surplus we may have been given and spread it around.  Whether its money, or paint, or food.  

After all, no one likes to eat alone, or to approach a table filled with people, only to be told that despite the open chairs there is isn’t room for you.  

Let’s instead tell everyone to pull up a chair.

The mores the merrier.

Statute of Limitations

Anyone who claims that nothing was revealed in the Mueller testimony was not paying attention.  Or had an agenda in their coverage.  Mueller was clearly a very reluctant witness, unwilling to cooperate in the proceeding (or perhaps, more correctly stated, ordered to be uncooperative).  He did, though, show glimmers of truth throughout the entire proceeding.  Like a law professor turning the Socratic method around on his students.  Waiting for them to ask the right questions in the right sequence, with the exact right wording.

The most revealing questions centered around what happens after Trump leaves office and the statue of limitations.

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler asked Mueller, “Under Department of Justice policy, the president could be prosecuted for obstruction of justice crimes after he leaves office - is this correct?”

Mueller answered, “True."

Representative Ken Buck, Republican from Colorado, had to confirm. “Could you charge the president with a crime after he left office?”

Mueller responded, “Yes.”

Reiterated, “You could charge the President of the United States with obstruction of justice after he left office?” 

Mueller agin, “Yes.”

Democratic Representative Mike Quigley of Illinois brought up the potential wrinkle.  “What if a president serves beyond the statute of limitations?…Would it not indicate, if the statute of limitations on crimes such as this are five years, that a president who serves a second term is therefore, under the policy, above the law?”

Mueller demurred.

The statute of limitations is a policy that we expect certain charges, certain cases within a particular period of time.  It is an enacted statute prescribing exactly how long of a period for the bringing of certain kinds of suits.  When the statute of limitations expires, the court no longer has jurisdiction over the case - the matter is dead.  

The intent is to make sure that disputes are resolved within reasonable lengths of time to ensure a fair trial.  To make sure witnesses are still available, to make sure evidence still exists, to give people finality, etc.  For this reason, lighter crimes or cases have shorter periods for limitation, more serious crimes and cases, like murder, have no statute of limitations.

The statute of limitations for federal obstruction of justice is five years from the incident where the cause of action arose.  So, as in the example, if the obstruction of justice is for the Mueller investigation, the last events described as potential obstruction are from 2018.  The statute of limitations would expire in 2023, the last year of President Trump’s potential second term.  Charges on these actions would not be available to be brought.  

This occurs because of an Office of Legal Counsel opinion (an internal Justice Department policy) saying that a sitting president cannot be indicted.  The policy dates back to the Nixon administration, when another president was under investigation for obstruction of justice, and is binding on all Justice Department employees, including the special prosecutor Mueller and his team. 

This opinion provided the entire framework for Mueller’s opinion.  Mueller framed his entire investigation around the notion that he could not bring any charges against Trump, even if he found ironclad evidence against him, because of this opinion.  Meaning, even if Mueller found evidence that proved 100% that Trump is guilty, he could not bring charges against him.

This explains why the report is a series of facts gathered with no conclusion.  Mueller is laying out the case for Congress and waiting for them to act.  Because under the OLC opinion, that leaves Congress as the only parties able to hold a sitting president accountable.  Through impeachment.  To impeach the president in the House and convict him in the Senate.

“Then OLC opinion says that the prosecutor cannot bring a charge against a sitting president, nonetheless he can continue the investigation to see if there are any other persons who are drawn into the conspiracy,” outlined Mueller.

Representative Ted Lieu, Democrat from California, asked, “The reason, again, that you did not indict Donald Trump is because of the OLC opinion stating that you cannot indict a sitting president, correct?”

Mueller answered, “That is correct.”

There is another way Trump can be held accountable - at the ballot box.  To make sure the statute of limitations does not expire.  And to let the prosecutors and courts do their work.  To make sure there is a full and fair testing of these claims.

We can only hope.

The Traveler's Report 12 - Costa Rica

Pura Vida!  Pure life!

This is the motto of Costa Rica.  A dedication to a simpler life.  A life that is more connected to the Earth and it's protection.

And it's a motto that Jamie and her students picked up in their travels this year.

Jamie and her crew enjoyed the Costa Rica: A Touch of the Tropics tour with Education First (EF) Tours, spending ten days traveling the beautiful country. I’ve included their itinerary below, interspersed with Jamie’s commentary and pictures.

Day 1: Fly to Costa Rica

Meet your Tour Director at the airport

We finally made it to Costa Rica after two delayed flights. We’re ready to take in the scenery. Tomorrow we start the day with a tour of a coffee plantation(yum), then a nature hike to visit a volcano and onward to La Fortuna.

Day 2: San Jose - Arenal region

Bella La Paz Waterfall. Quick photo stop. Such a cool spot.

Our tour guide has given us a Scavenger Hunt. We’re on a mission to be the first group to complete it.

Take a tour of a coffee plantation

Our tour of Doka, the top rated coffee plantation 3 years in a row. Doka is famous for providing the highest quality coffee in the world. There is a Starbucks University just down the road. Needless to say we LOVED this tour!!!

Travel to the Arenal region

Visit Arenal Volcano National Park

Hiking up Arsenal Volcano National Park

Day 3: Arenal region

Enjoy a kayaking trip on Lake Arenal

Visit La Fortuna Waterfall

Participate in a cultural exchange with locals

Visit the Arenal hot springs

Our Chocolate Tour in La Fortuna was such an amazing experience for obvious reasons since a majority of us are addicted to the lovely taste of chocolate but this tour provided so much more. Our wonderful guide Chapo not only entertained us with his fun and inviting personality but he made us think. Although the cacao beans were originally produced in South America, it was Central America that began to produce chocolate as we know it from the plant. Even though there are more plantations in Central and South America it is Africa that has over 70% of all chocolate production. It doesn’t take very long to find out why. Labor is cheap because it is child labor. There is a documentary on YouTube you can check out and see what companies are purchasing from these labor camps. Hint: Hershey’s is one.

Day 4: Arenal region - Monteverde

Travel to Monteverde

Explore on your own

Day 5: Monteverde

Participate in a canopy adventure - Zip-lining

Our stay in Monteverde was such a great escape. We’re higher in elevation so it feels a good 10 degrees cooler which is a nice change from the weather back home. Our zipping tour was more intense than any of us expected with 10 zip lines and a hike to get them but, oh, man was it amazing!!!

Visit the Santa Elena Cloud Forest

Day two in Monteverde and our stop along the way. We went on a nature walk through the Cloud Forrest Reserve both in the day and night. Let me tell you we experienced a lot more creatures in the night tour and since the first one was a pit viper I was very alert for the rest of the night tour.

The view driving away was absolutely breath taking. One of the great things our tour director came up with us to do in order to interact with the locals was doing a scavenger hunt. One of the bonus activities was pay it forward and how we did that was by purchasing items for a family in need whose little girl, Pamela, has special needs and will be undergoing her 5th surgery soon. Though the view from their house is a million dollar view they are living in less than comfortable place. Yet this family of six lives with joy, faith and each other. It doesn’t take long to realize the things we can take for granted.

Day 6: Monteverde - Central Pacific Coast

Travel to the Central Pacific Coast

Visit the Rainforest Adventure Park, where you can ride an aerial tram above the canopies, explore a nature trail, and visit a butterfly sanctuary

Enjoy a crocodile jungle safari boat cruise

Crocodile just chillin on the side of the road. This was the only shot of a crocodile before we went on our crocodile cruise as my phone died as we boarded the boat but we got to see several crocs of all sizes while on board.

Day 7: Central Pacific Coast

Visit Manuel Antonio National Park

This was our view while staying in Jaco. We got to see magical storms out on the ocean at night. It looked like something out of a movie.

Manuel Antonio National Park was the highlight of this stop with the howler monkeys trying to take your lunch and the beautiful beach. We liked to play in the ocean and let the waves crash on top of us. We ventured off onto a little island and watched an iguana try and catch its lunch and lots of little crabs scurried across the rocks.

Day 8: Central Pacific Coast - Sarchi - San Jose

Travel via Sarchi to San Jose

Explore on your own

Day 9: San Jose

Enjoy a whitewater rafting excursion

11:23pm tonight I awoke to what sounded like a stampede of teenagers going down the hall in our hotel. As I flung back the covers to the bed I quickly realized we were experiencing an earthquake. Shortly after I have all three of my girls knocking at my door while the guys chilled in their room. We laughed afterwards but in the moment it was slightly terrifying. Everyone is ok, no damage or power outages just a good dose of adrenaline pumping through our veins.

Day 10: Depart for home

Next up in this series, our anniversary cruise.