Home About us Daily Reflections Special Issues Publications Ecospirituality Through The Seasons Donate Environmental Resource Assessment Service   The Latch String Is Out by Al Fritsch, S.J.

Sharing My Personal Experiences with Others

   
    How do we fully share our public interest knowledge and experience
with others?  This successful sharing is the major puzzle confronting all
of us who seek to be of service to the general public.  What is the best
way, the one which will most easily turn people on?  Or is this the proper
question?  I had been puzzling over how to best reach the general public
during my first fifteen years of public interest work.  Would it be more
profitable to seek different methods of proceeding, do dramatic things, or
find a yet undiscovered attention-getter?  I wondered whether this puzzle
of effective sharing would ever be solved, or if some of us were even cut
out to attempt the task?   Or is the goal more in being than in doing?

    Questions related to proper methods are not new, but seem to be at the
heart of all forms of public service.  In the past, I tried to bring the
message through various devices from simple lifestyle calendars to
assessments of organizations.  However, our results have always been
incomplete.  Where do we focus our limited resources?  Thus was launched a
refined search for different and, hopefully, better public interest ways of
proceeding:  organizing conferences and workshops;  using the spoken word
on television and through other talks; engaging in direct confrontation on
regional, national or international issues; promoting a meaningful
spirituality; demonstrating through gardening; discovering the treasures we
have in Appalachia; and developing a healing ministry involving several
simultaneous methods.  Finally, we ought to ask whether success or fidelity
is the goal of our continued public interest work in the twenty-first century.


53  (1985)    Solving only Real Puzzles

     House of Israel, can I not do to you what this potter does? -- it is
Yahweh who speaks.  Yes, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so you are in
mine, House of Israel.   (Jeremiah 18:6)

     Real puzzles are far more entertaining than artificial ones.   They
are part of real stories, and history is always more exciting than what one
invents in dreams and novels.  We have played an ocean of Scrabble and
Euchre among family and friends, and these games have proved to be high
moments of social interchange.  However, the most entertaining game was
taking two sets of letters and filling the Scrabble board with words and
the least number of blanks.  This demanded cooperative, not competitive,
teamwork involving a large number of participants and all having fun.  

    Early Puzzles.  In my youth I had hoped to obtain most of the stamps
of the world, at a time when it still seemed possible.  I collected over
15,000 stamps and then sold them in 1956 for $25 just before entering the
Society of Jesus.  I wanted to rid myself of cherished possessions and I
needed some extra money to go to the National Invitational Tournament in
New York, where Xavier University was playing basketball.  The purchaser or
someone knowing of the low priced bargain sale slipped me an extra $25, but
I suspect the collection would now be worth thousands of dollars.  Such is
life!  No more major collecting for me.  Instead, I resolved that real
recreation is conquering arenas never before trod -- real puzzles.

    Lifestyle Index.  The first real-life puzzle I encountered emerged in
the early 1970s when it seemed important to know the non-renewable energy
"content" in all of lifestyle's consumer items and services used by the
average American.  By knowing the amount of energy it takes at the given
time period (since it changes with industrial innovation and consumer
practice) one could calculate potential and actual energy savings which
would be beneficial to the environment.  From 1973 to 1976, evenings were
devoted to collecting statistics on consumer items, industrial processing
and resources used for different services.  We, at the Center for Science
in the Public Interest, published a report on this data in 99 Ways to a
Simple Lifestyle.  This was before personal computers and all the
calculations were done by long hand and on a calculator.  Even with
mathematical agility, it was still a complex exercise.  We had to calculate
average quantities of fertilizers and tractor fuel for cultivating various
crops, losses in shipping, store refrigeration expenditures, and home
cooking energy.  While this was a challenging puzzle it was subject to
rapid changes during that period in energy expenditures.  These resulted
from dramatic industrial savings in machinery efficiencies triggered by
rising oil prices.  The consumer sector did not witness such profound
savings.

   The Next Wave -- Ethnicity Data.  The first puzzle regarding non-
renewable energy expenditures was environmentally triggered and related.
The second puzzle occurred upon my returning to Appalachia.  It appeared to
me that we needed to calculate the ethnic composition of the broad-based
Appalachian population?  There was some talk about old English being the
language of the people and yet there are German names in the northern
Appalachian tier and many Irish and Scotch-Irish names as well, along with
music and crafts in the central and southern parts of the Appalachian
range.  And there is the Native American connection, as well as the Eastern
and Southern European immigrant element in the coal-mining areas.

   More Complex with Time.  The Appalachian ethnic puzzle is part of that
of the entire country.  Thus this led us to consider the ethnic composition
of the United States in 1980, when the puzzle work started -- a sort of
snapshot of the nation, as well as Appalachia.  The challenge was to obtain
the ethnic composition of wider regions using responses to the ethnic
question in the United States Census Data from 1980.  We were sure that
accuracy would improve due to the vast numbers of responding people, while
aware that inaccuracies appear with hastily given census responses.  Ethnic
overemphasis and omissions would assume to be compensated by the vast
numbers of reporting people -- though people of multiple ancestry would
name their own more preferred group at a given time.  Solving this puzzle
involved going occasionally to the University of Kentucky Library at
Lexington and to the Special Governmental collections and photocopying
county-by-county all of the information of about twenty or more ethnic
groups in the 1980 census.  The majority group(s) of each county and the
census districts of the 25 largest cities were determined.  The Census
Bureau later gave us microfiche which was for all the smaller groups, and
this had interest among medium sized groups such as for Belgians in the
Door Peninsula in Wisconsin and the Czechs in central counties of Nebraska.
One really got to know America in fine detail solving this ethnic puzzle.

    Facts on Files became interested through our literary agent, and they
gave me an advance which allowed me to hire a part-time hobby associate and
to meet expenses.  Mark Spencer helped at times on this project after he
joined our Appalachian group in 1986.  When the publisher realized the
complexity of the coloring of the maps (Chicago had about 30 colors due to
significant ethnic groups in that metropolitan area), they asked me to code
every county differently, which confused the picture.  Rather, we had
assigned standard colors to specific ethnic groups, e.g., Germans -- light
blue, Irish  -- emerald green, Italians -- purple, English -- brown, Native
Americans -- yellow, Hispanics -- red and African-Americans -- orange.  The
colors were somewhat arbitrary though we feared that some people might
question the color selection.  When a county or portion of the city had two
major groups we created a cross bar which allowed for the diversity to be
observed at a glance.  Our ethnic map of 1980 was one of a kind.  By
completing ethnic maps for 1990 and 2000 we could create a moving map of
ethnic change.  The final picture has been encouraged by Professor Karl
Raitz, the Chair of the Geography Department at the University of Kentucky.

   However, the 1990 census furnished us a double puzzle, namely, an
enormous drop in those reporting English.  Though Census Bureau personnel
suggested that it may have been due to positioning of the question to the
respondent, the picture is still not clear.  Note:  As of this writing we
are now receiving the results of the 2000 census and, granting the time to
do the analysis, we may find that the 1990 analysis was the start of a
trend.  Unfortunately, the ethnic questions were not perfectly the same and
so some sophisticated adjustments will most like have to be made.  

   The Third Wave:  Simple Language.  Experts tell us languages tend to
simplify as they become more universal.  Excellent, but couldn't this be
accelerated by insisting that all English speakers use a Basic English when
communicating with those who learn English as a second language.  Why
should others be forced to learn a broad range of the 100,000 modern
English words?   Shouldn't it be expected that English speakers communicate
with foreigners through a limited number of words or combinations rather
than a vast number of similar words?  For technical works, a listing of
added words would be defined by that Basic English vocabulary.  What a
terrible price developing countries pay to learn English in all its
richness and complexity.  Basic English surpasses invented languages such
as Esperanto, because it is living and being used today.  While forms of
Basic English is found in 19th century dictionaries, it is all the more
needed, since about 86% of Internet language and Web sites are in English.
More work is needed.
   
   The Fourth Wave:  Language Conservation --Appalachian Vocabulary.  The
rules for the Jesuits says that one should strive to speak the language of
the place where one resides.  Upon returning to Appalachia it was evident
that newcomers made no effort to learn Appalachian and would use prayers
with numerous Latin and Greek terms.  Can't the Appalachian language be
sacred and worthy of use in prayer to God?  Granted the Appalachian
vocabulary is limited in words and has many sub-regional variations -- but
it is worth learning.  It became apparent that Mountain people avoid Latin-
based words -- inherited dual-language Saxon tradition as opposed to Norman
invaders of a millennia ago. Instead of very, an Anglo-Saxon term bad is
used, i.e., "This is bad good."  Discovering such variations makes this
real puzzle more academic as witnessed by university professors asking me
to publish this Appalachian Vocabulary.  My response is "after you, my good
friend."  Word order changes nullify copyrights very easily. I have about
2,000 words and quaint expressions which need to be made public, in time.
Television and other influences are blotting out the Appalachian dialects.
These will go the way of half the world's languages which will (by UN
estimates) be extinct by the year 2100.  

   Reflection:  Delving in real puzzles sharpens the mind, allows for
productive answers which are entertaining to obtain, crowds out  wasteful
habits, ultimately helps other people, permits a social interchange without
competition, and give us future work to do.

    Prayer for Using time Well
How do I kill time?  Let me count the ways. By worrying about things over
which I have no control, like the past, like the future.  
By harboring resentment and anger and hurts real or imagined.  
By disdaining the ordinary or, rather, what I so mindlessly call ordinary.
By concern over what's in it for me, rather than what's in me for it.  By
failing to appreciate what is because of might-have-beens, should-have-
been, could-have-beens.  These are some of the ways I kill time.  Jesus
didn't kill time.  He gave life to it.  His own.
        Leo Rock, SJ in Hearts on First: Praying with Jesuits.
        The Institute of Jesuit Sources, St. Louis,
                     Ed. by Michael Harter, SJ  1993


54  (1986)    Striving for an Ecumenism of Earthlings  

    There is a variety of gifts but always the same Spirit;  there are all
sorts of service to be done, but always the same Lord;  working in all
sorts of different ways in different people, it is the same God who is
working in all of them.  (I Corinthians 12: 4-6)

    History.  In 1985 some of us churchgoing environmentalists thought
that churches would rise quickly to confront the environmental crisis which
affected God's precious creation and enlist their adherents in a crusade to
heal the wounded Earth.  The plan was grandiose and the hopes never
considered human factors.  I presented some of my own thoughts about the
environmental crusade at a lecture during the summer of 1985 in Maryland,
chaired by scientist and friend, Professor Rustum Roy of Penn State.  Dr.
Roy is a materials science researcher and has been an advocate of dialogue
between science and religion.  Environmental artist John Freda, who was
deeply concerned about social and environmental questions, was at that talk
and offered his talents to this emerging crusade.  Later that year Fred
Krueger of "The Eleventh Commandment" group and David Haenke, from a
community farm in Arkansas, who had attended our 1982 World Fair
Conference, made contacts and we corresponded about the possibility of
forming what was to become the North American Conference on Christianity
and Ecology.  The conference organizers also included the late Jim Berry of
North Carolina, with whom I had been acquainted for a number of years from
Appalachian environmental meetings.

    National Cathedral.  In 1986 I was offered a position of scholar-in-
residence and spent the late winter and spring at the National Cathedral in
Washington, DC.  There I had time to consider this environmental crusade in
further detail and to write Renew the Face of the Earth, which was
published by Loyola University Press in 1987.  It was an expansion on the
Theology of the Earth, an extended essay I wrote in 1972 (CLB Publishers,
Washington, DC).  During this time period (February to the first part of
June) Bob Fairchild took care of the business at ASPI.  My time at the
Cathedral was spent well for, besides book writing, it also involved
attending church meetings and giving talks and homilies as well as doing
some ecumenical work.  Things were upbeat because that was the spirit of
optimism at the Cathedral and its staff.  This added inspiration because
the environment was suffering during that dark Reagan era.
 
   High Hopes.  Could a small group inspire the churches to enter the
environmental crusade?  We contacted key people and held an organizing
meeting in early May, 1986, at a retreat center near Syria, Virginia.  Our
group of movers and shakers included Robert Rodale of Rodale Press (shortly
before his fatal auto accident in Russia).  Some, however, were puzzled by
a more evangelistic flavor of some of the attendees -- and left early
because they did not want to deal with the broad spectrum of religious
folks present.  The remaining attendees formed a loose association which
would eventually become the North American Conference on Christianity and
Ecology (NACCE) and would prepare for a national conference the following
year.  At the Virginia gathering we had no official Church leaders;
however, Walt Grazer was present from the U.S. Catholic Conference.
Rather, it was an informal group of individual Christian environmentalists.

   The Hectic Planning.  It became a challenge to develop a plan for the
Conference, because of the diversity views of people involved.  Marie
Jaoudi, who teaches religious studies at the California State University at
Sacramento, was elected first chairperson but resigned after a short while.
I was elected to replace her and we held conference planning meetings
including one at Mancelona, Michigan and another on the grounds of the
North Webster Conference Center in northern Indiana where we intended to
hold the 1987 national meeting.  There were questions about Fred Krueger
being made executive director.  While in San Francisco I tried to discover
more about his small religious group who ran well-managed Brother Juniper's
restaurants and housing for the homeless.  We were satisfied that Fred's
enthusiasm could be controlled and we restricted the number of his people
at the Conference and a promise for him to resign at the end of the
Conference -- if the NACCE were to continue.  Fred had a very intense
manner which did not agree with all the people present.  Also there were
questions about his previous work with the federal government and the Nixon
election campaign.

   August, 1967.  My sister Patsi called me at the Conference to say her
husband Bill had succumbed to AIDS from a contaminated blood transfusion.
They preferred that I come to a later memorial and not at that moment of
death.  The actual gathering went quite smoothly with about five hundred in
attendance.  We invited Wendell Berry, a Kentucky poet-farmer, to give a
keynote address, along with a host of other speakers.  A few people
literally pushed their way onto the agenda.  Our environmental artist on
the planning committee, John Freda, along with ASPI's Mark Spencer
collected the largest display of environmental art ever assembled, and thus
helped transform this conference into more than a speakers' gathering.
There were numerous other activities, seminars and workshops as well.  The
participants enjoyed the gathering and the opportunity to meet other like-
minded folks and exchange materials and ideas.

    Mounting Friction.  Behind the scenes friction developed.   Fred
Krueger and David Haenke were quite concerned about retaining control of
the structure of the NACCE after the Conference.  Fred was determined to
stay as executive director and denied he made the promise to resign so as
to open the Conference into a more broad-based group.  In order to save
time and money we held a board meeting at the end of these grueling three
days.  I was simply exhausted and showed the stress of a family death and
the controversy and confusion in the NACCE.  Further meetings were held at
Madison, Wisconsin that winter and Fred's faction was able to unite and
begin to isolate me from the executive committee, except for faithful
friends Joe Spaeder, John Freda and Jim Hinkley from North Carolina.  The
Krueger group perfected their coup d'etat by the following May at a meeting
in North Carolina and ousted me as chair.  I missed a November, 1988
meeting while in India but by then sides were solidified and one by one
people left.  John Freda, who had somewhat bankrolled much of the NACCE
with his own time and money while serving as its secretary, sued to regain
money and I supported his claims.  The other side counter-sued in Traverse
City, Michigan court and tried to subpoena all my records.  Being in Toledo
I went to Michigan for a deposition and slipped out quickly afterwards,
thus ending my NACCE saga -- and any formal ecumenical environmentalism.  

   Note on Ecumenism.  Eco-spirituality comes in too many flavors to
render it worthy of true ecumenism, since it is hardly possible to act in
an ecumenical manner with those who think all "spirit" is good.  When
people make no distinctions then it is an open door for all sorts of
people.  Religious cooperation is not the same as gatherings of all forms
of spirituality.  Different wings of Christians clashed.  Some who were
closer to modern "New Age" spiritualities came to the NACCE and  offended
right wing Christian "Fundamentalists."  And Tom Berry's star was on the
ascendancy in part from NACCE publicity and in part by good promotion by
brother Jim.  Each of the flavors of eco-spirituality have adherents,
missionaries, proponents and opponents.  In later years we would try to
make distinctions, but during the organizing of the NACCE the differences
were just emerging.

   Reflections.  All in all, the ecumenical tent was not big enough for
all parties.   One of the great problems with our dreams of the 1970s was
that there were not easy solutions to the ecological crisis.  We simply
transposed them in the 1980s to the churches and hoped for a miracle, and
that was asking too much.  We are imperfect human beings, and environmental
struggles are not over rationality but over will power and personal
influence.  Affluent people do not have the sensitivity to understand the
need for a totally new economic and social order, without which the crisis
will not be addressed.  And individuals do not always see global social
needs but only their own agendas.  As a postscript, in 1999 I happened upon
the new head of the still existing NACCE, who knew nothing about its
history.  Our memory of past struggles is somewhat limited by different
perspectives.  While they remain vivid to those of us who fought them,
others see little need to profit from our individual and collective
experiences.  Ecumenism does not come easily and can be far better served
by working on practical issues and not through quickly organized
conferences and gatherings of very diverse groups.

   Prayer for an Ecumenical Spirit.  Oh God, teach us to keep our cool in
the face of adversity, even that within the broader Christian community.
Do not let it dampen our enthusiasm.  Make us wiser in choosing what
battles to wage and friends to associate.  We are fooled into thinking that
our efforts are what are important, when it is actually your inspiration
that is above and beyond all.  Thank You for giving us opportunities to
make new friends and forgive us for those who may think we are enemies --
when we strive mightily to forgive them.  And never let us enter strife
where angels fear to tread.


55    Coping with Rockcastle Disasters

    Say to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, "The Lord
Yahweh says this: ... I raise my hand and swear that the nations around you
shall have their own insults to bear."  (Ezekiel 36: 6-7)
 
    From 1987 to mid-1988 we had a series of troubles that plagued our
movement: the dissension in NACCE; the murder of our land trust manager,
Tommy; the malicious destruction of our demonstration garden immediately
before River Day;  and a mysterious fire that destroyed the Harvey  and
Aleda Bond House being built on our community land trust property.  One
lesson learned in a review of these events is that one must hold one's cool
no matter how hot the kitchen stove gets.  We need the spiritual fortitude
to endure such events, not denying them, not running from the scene, and
not excusing ourselves from engaging in the battle.  

   Tommy's death was hard enough.  He was pleasant enough and his
ancestors had lived in the Rockcastle River Valley with the ancient river
ford bearing his family name.  Tommy had his problems, but was a very good
builder and was doing construction work on the trailer at our Land Trust
the week he was killed.  He was kind-hearted to people in need, but he was
apparently hard on his wife, Marsha, and so she admitted that she shot him
with his own gun while she held their infant girl in her arms.  A friend
was in the room at the time of the murder, who was an ex-Special Forces
serviceman.  The sheriff came and took Marsha away to the Laurel County
jail.  While Tommy was at the funeral home we discovered that he and others
had planned to strip mine the Land Trust property and enhance it with
marijuana plants which he was cultivating in his own home.  The veritable
greenhouse for "grass" appeared to be of greater interest to the law
enforcement officers than the murder.  We had to quickly hold a special
meeting of the Land Trust and cope with the potential strip mining
activity.

    The Funeral.  At Tommy's funeral, my Protestant co-officiator took
offense at my listing all the good deeds Tommy had done for the poor of
Owsley County the previous Christmas.  I had called Tommy an unfinished
jewel, partly polished and still with some rough edges.  The relatives and
friends seem to like the homily.  However, the other Reverend waxed on how
he was present when Tommy was saved by faith (not by works as I had
somewhat inferred).  Were the forces against me in this virtually total
Protestant surroundings.  Something struck the other preacher to glance at
his watch, a no, no in any Mountain service.  The relatives said they would
have carried out and ejected the Preacher, except that it would be
embarrassing to me.  Chastened and edgy we went out to the grave with the
beginnings of a March blizzard and I plucked a rose from the burial wreath.
After the brief graveside ceremony, I went off to the Laurel County Jail
and gave the red rose to his widow, Marsha.  She was grateful and asked
whether they put a tie on Tommy.  Though normally not observant at such
matters, I recalled an open shirt collar, and that pleased her immensely.
Marsha was released from jail to serve on her good behavior and she worked
at ASPI during the released time period.  

   Many individuals have, like uncut diamonds, shining qualities beneath
a rough exterior.  Juvenal  

  The spring the garden died.   At ASPI, nestled in the Rockcastle River
Valley, we have always been proud of our early gardens.  We had planned and
prepared about twenty raised beds near the pavilion far ahead of the rest
of the country because it is where we had always celebrated Rockcastle
River Day on the first Saturday of June.  That particular spring of 1988,
I had just  returned from a speaking engagement and Martha, the office
manager, said,  "Oh Al! have you seen the Garden?"  From the tone I knew
something was awry, so I hastened down the pike to the garden stretch.  

    The sight was ghastly.  The entire patch had been torn apart and
virtually every plant was uprooted.  Onions were strewn about;
tomato vines lay dying, for it had been a few hot days and the greens were
no longer green.  It was pure devastation and for no known reason -- even
to this day we do not know why or who did this malicious deed.  Most likely
culprits were some disgruntled folks who did not want us to succeed.  I
have since had an strong suspicion who it was, but the suspect left the
state soon after, and it never happened again. I come from a family of
green thumbs and can just about hear my gardens speak.  In this case, the
surviving plants were crying and the whole land seemed to be in lament, as
the Good Books says.  

    That year I told folks at the River Day celebration that the
destruction of the garden hurt me more than any deed had ever done.  We
don't make a living on this garden though we relish the produce and give
the surplus to others, and, most of all, we use it for demonstration of the
amount that can be grown on a small plot of land.  However, it even hurt
far more than when our family farm in Mason County, Kentucky was devastated
by the hail of 1943.  Then, there was a terrible silence within the house
by the flickering light of the blessed candle, as the stones hit our
galvanized roof home with such a deafening clatter.  And then the next day
we went out and saw the corn and tobacco plants beaten to the ground and
wondered whether we could make it through that mid-war year. We pulled
together and continued with a diminished crop.  No, the uprooting of the
garden was worse because the deed was dark.

   The staff wondered what to do now with the garden, for the annual
public event was so close.  We decided that it was best to simply gather up
and compost the dead and dying plants, and start all over again to resow
and replant the living.  It was the beginning of June and so a number of
items could still mature.  Of course the beauty of being ahead of the crowd
was gone, and we were testifying to being behind.  The fact we did not
despair and would start again had a sense of worth about it anyway.  For
how many more people are out there with other legitimate reasons for not
getting their garden out on time?  And we judged them so.

    As I reconsidered the events of that late spring it occurred that this
is the way God feels about the Earth.  Look what they have done to such a
beautiful place that took millions and billions of years to bring to such
beauty!  And they did it all out of malice and greed and lack of love.
Suddenly, the ruined garden took on new meaning and it produced more than
greens and tomatoes that year.  It told a story of destruction and
resurrection.

  House Burning.   Homes burn readily in Rockcastle and surrounding
Appalachian counties.  Some go up in flames by accident, some fires are
started by the resident wanting to collect insurance, and some are started
by others being mean and like seeing places burn.  The smell or sound of
fire in the dry tender forest always brings an uneasy feeling on the part
of all forest-dwellers.  One night, we got the urgent call that a new house
being built on our Land Trust for the Harvey and Aleta Bond family (who
were already burn-out victims) was on fire.  We had no insurance on the
house due to the very high cost of coverage in an area with no municipal
water supply.  I made an appeal the next week on my annual mission appeal
trip which was in the Philadelphia area, and some generous donors helped
replace the value of materials lost in the fire.  Since we were
participating in an American Indian Training Program involving our workers,
there was no labor cost.  The fire was most likely arson, but we could
never prove it.  The Bonds lost their dream house but we did move them into
a Livingston home of far lower quality -- which they paid off over time.

   Reflection:  Disasters can become opportunities to teach us how we are
to depend on God for guidance and grace.  Such mishaps also teach us to see
events as they are, confront issues head-on and not to leave matters to
others.  The normal tendency is to deny the event, or to escape into our
worlds of make believe, or excuse ourselves into thinking that others can
confront the situation better than we can.   Good spirituality calls us to
affirm the reality of the situation, be willing to plunge into responding
and be willing further to take responsibility for helping come to a
solution.   A Down-to-Earth Spirituality was beginning to take emerge
during times of hard knocks: know your cross, bear it and don't pass it to
others.

   Prayer for Equanimity in Times of disaster.  Oh God, allow us to face
the things which happen in life, the good as well as the bad.  Help us not
to make quick judgments but to take the knocks as they come with an open
mind, a touch of humor, and a submission to your holy will.  Grant us the
grace to know what is asked of us, to realize that we need to be
responsible enough to confront these challenges, and to ask help from
others but not expect them to bear a greater load than we have to take.
Help us to redefine success as fidelity, not accomplishments.  Keep us from
being judgmental. In all times keep us safe from the forces of evil and
devolution, which are eating away at the culture around us and include the
dark side of people and events.  Give us the light in these moments when
dark clouds hide the sun from our sight and help us to carry this light to
others who are in need.  


56  (1988)    Fighting Fires and ATVs

   There is always hope for a tree: when felled, it can start its life
again:  its shoots continue to sprout.  Its roots may be decayed in the
earth, its stump withering in the soil, but let it scent the water, and it
buds, and puts out branches like a plant new set.
                                (Job 14, 7-9)

   In the autumn of 1987,  the haze hung heavy over the Appalachians as
thousands of acres burned.  The woods caught on fire across the river from
our Center.  We gathered a crew of ASPIers with rakes and shovels and went
over to assist the outmanned U.S. Forest Service who were spread thin by
simultaneous fires in many places.  In the course  of the battle, young
Eddie Howard, one of our workers, became too energetic and was nearly
surrounded and cut off by burning forest.  Again, a few years later, one of
our workers had to go to the hospital due to an injury fighting a local
fire.  It is something I have thought of the half dozen or more time when
I have been engaged in defending our forestlands from fire.  Anyone can
easily be hurt or killed in this dangerous activity.  Again, about 1990
during a forest fire one of the ASPI staff slipped and fell and had to go
to the hospital for emergency treatment.  In 1999 two fire fighters were
killed battling mostly arson-initiated forest fires in Appalachia,
precipitating the need for more forest fire training.  Do people really
want the lands to burn?  Do some want it cleared of undergrowth and
brambles for the major crop of the region, marijuana.  

   Woodlands all Around.  The ASPI property is surrounded by the Daniel
Boone National Forest.  Private parties own land in patch-quilt fashion
within the general protected national forest boundaries.  The eastern
national forest does not involve contiguous tracts of federally-owned land.
Rather, the patchwork quilt of public and private lands results in many
thousand of miles of Forest Service boundary, making it quite difficult to
thoroughly police the properties with a relatively small forest service
police force.  Those who wish to camp, cut fuel wood, poach ginseng, or
raise hell with ATVs (all terrain vehicles) could do so with impunity.  And
they have done so after we point to the gradual degradation of forest due
to the increasing number of off-road vehicles.  Today motor boats race
across our lakes, snowmobiles run over the North American snow fields, and
ATVs (dune buggies, motorcycles, three and four wheel recreational motored
devices) are everywhere.  When few in number, noise and exhaust fumes were
tolerable, but that is not the case when off-road recreational vehicle
congestion increases from two and a half million vehicles at a rate of a
half million increase per year and no effort is made to tone them down.
Humans and wildlife are threatened by noise and pollution.  In Yellowstone
National Park alone, 60,000 snowmobiles expel 13.8 million pounds of
hydrocarbons compared to only two percent of that amount from visitor's
cars.  Those devices are now banned nationwide from most national parks and
national recreation areas.    

   Recreation Pleasure.  However, the motorized recreation industry and
family groups argue that off-road vehicle operating solidifies families by
all participating in the exercise together.  We argue that there are safer
and ecologically considerate ways to practice togetherness.  The ATV
devices are not supposed to be used on public lands or roads without a
valid license -- but a sizeable number of recent drivers are underaged.
Young people gravitate to such vehicles in the age before they get to drive
automobiles.  A growing number of deaths are reported each year.
Elementary safety devices such as roll bars or restraining devices are
lacking.  Excitement consists in traversing along some very rough terrain.
Since rugged land is generally fragile, off-road vehicles bring ecological
disaster to the arid deserts in the West, northern snowfields, and in our
Appalachian forests.

   Raising a Voice of Opposition.  In 1990, ASPI was the first in
Appalachia to raise the problem of the recreation vehicles in forested
areas, especially since some people within the region had hoped such
recreation would be a money-making entertainment.  I was totally turned off
by the type of riders and the immense damage done in our part of the
Commonwealth of Kentucky.  I had watched as residents became intimidated by
off-road vehicle operators, and most were fearful of protesting in public
the trespassing on their property.  The old road site near our ASPI Center
called the 909 Site has encouraged off-road vehicles since the mid-1970s --
one of the oldest such sites in America.  The site is a ill-defined mixture
of private and state and federal land which lacks boundary fencing.
Through this impacted area runs the Sheltowee Trace, a 250-mile U.S. Forest
Service maintained hiking trail that ran from near the Ohio River in a
southwesterly direction to the Tennessee border.

    Radical Response.  Our concern mixed with a sense of utter frustration
caused some of us to be tempted to take a more radical stance.   Earth
First! (EF!) surfaced as a radical opposition to poor forest practices
whether they be clearcutting or other destructive ways of destroying the
rapidly vanishing forest lands.  John Davis, who had worked for us from
1980 to 1983, became the editor of their magazine later in the decade. EF!
did not have set agendas or a rigid organization, but allowed each chapter
to be autonomous in its governance and activities.  This led to a multitude
of actions of various degrees of radicalism.  In The Contrasumers, Praeger,
(1974) I laid out the position that increasingly more radical action may be
taken when traditional steps prove fruitless.  Really it was a variation of
this position that active EF! people took when they found that symbolic
drama and even lying down in front of bulldozers may be dramatic and risky
but not always effective after the media departed.  

    Spiking of trees (driving in long nails so that the trees were not fit
for timbering for fear of sawmill machinery destruction), roadways, and
loading areas to counter loggers and ATV users was emerging as actions
regarded as far less violent than clearcutting and other current
unsustainable methods of timber harvesting.  Some forget that to cut all
the trees and destroy the rich understory is a violent action to the
ecosystem.  

   In 1986 our local area became a hub of controversy about Earth First!
(EF!) practices, and National Public Radio's "All Things Considered"
reporter Frank Browning interviewed local associates.  NPR received many
opposing comments to these EF! actions.  I was forced to distance myself
from such actions as were others in the movement and for this reason this
narrative does not sound as personal as it really was.

  Applications.  Over the years we developed three reports on ATVs and
these were distributed through our ASPI Publications List.  Paul Kalisz at
the University of Kentucky's Forestry School (who gave generous help in
developing our sustainable forest center) performed research at the ATV
site on erosion rates and forest disturbance.  This was published in Wild
Earth Journal.  ASPI has developed videotapes on ATV use as well as
conducted tours and written comments including a document on closing the
government land to off-road vehicles -- this is now partly implemented by
the Daniel Boone National Forest.  The commercial interests within the
billion dollar motorized recreation industry are not dummies; they know
that local opposition would drive their vehicles out of public and private
lands which have been trespassed for decades and owners intimidated by the
packs of drivers and the roar of the vehicles.  So ATV interests began a
practice in the mid-1990s of selling used vehicles to local kids at very
low prices so that they as ATV owners would champion recreational vehicles
in communities -- and this has broken the back of our local opposition to
ATVs.    

   Forest Commons.  ASPI developed a program and held a conference at
Richmond, Kentucky on March 31-April 1, 1995 on the issue of the forest as
a common possession of all the people.   It was attended by 250 people and
gained media attention.  ASPI has distributed the information from that
conference and made videotapes available to our supporters and the public.
Shortly after that event Mary Davis started an Eastern Old-Growth
Clearinghouse, of which ASPI is a co-sponsor.  This group monitors the old-
growth forest -- a common heritage of all the people -- and discusses the
impact that may threaten this valuable forest treasure.  Also following the
spirit of the conference several of the ASPI staff (the late Jerry Waddle,
Dan Bond and Joshua Bills have taken the forest commons message to
thousands of Eastern Kentucky school children through talks and slide
shows.  They have demonstrated how our Appalachian forests are uniquely
valuable and how often the benefits are overlooked benefits: immense
variety and beauty; fruit, nut, fuel and timber forest products; shade,
wind barriers and climate modification; soil retention, and water
percolation into the ground;  and, finally, forests lock up the excess
carbon dioxide and reduce global warming.

      Reflection:   I have always had a special love of trees.  Those of
us who live in forested areas or within proximity to other major natural
resources may suffer from familiarity breeding contempt.  We are often slow
at expressing our feelings, especially since tree hugging is such a
pejorative activity.  But with some inspiration and encouragement these
residents can be motivated into becoming public defenders of the priceless
treasures in their midst and thus champions of forests.  I have come to see
that it is a grace-laden task to help save our national forests and to
protect them through personal action and through mobilizing public support
for their well-being.  In no area have I become so emotionally involved as
in saving the forest.  Not every step taken by those of us who love the
threatened forest is accepted by others -- and some of us have gotten into
much trouble over our actions.  We have been targeted by those fearful of
terrorists and yet never willing to define the ones perpetrating forest
destruction as such.  

    Prayer to the God of all Treasures.  Oh Creator of green forests, we
express sorrow for damage done to these precious and necessary resources.
While we have tried to control the use of these devices we see we are
fighting a libertarian philosophy that says if people find pleasure in a
action, no one is to stop them.   Help us show the limits to pleasure
seeking, especially when it hurts others.  Help us to defend the forest
commons, both those near us and at a distance.


57   (1989)    Remaining a Christian Radical

   My friend had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.  He dug the soil,
cleared it of stones, and planted choice vines in it. (Isaiah 5: 1b-2)

   In late 1988 I had the privilege to go to India as the only American
Jesuit (considering Appalachia as part of the Developing World) at a
meeting of Asians, Africans and Latin Americans on Appropriate Technology.
While capitalistic lands prospered and the Berlin Wall was crumbling,
poverty in the rest of the world continued to intensify.  The global
climate was changing, forests were disappearing, and the gap between the
wealthy and the poor was widening.  The time was right to address
appropriate technology at Baroda.  The trip also included a side-visit to
Gandhi's Ashram in Ahmadabad, and then a trip by overnight train to New
Delhi. The travel within the city environs made me aware of what population
congestion means.  The experience invited one to look deeply into the
radical underpinnings of public interest philosophy.

   Demonstration is Radical Education.  One area of challenge at the
appropriate technology meeting was the report from a group of Jesuits
working among the American Indians in southern Mexico.  The spokesperson
told of their vast successes and it distressed me thinking how little we
have accomplished in our part of America.  However, upon reflection, it
appeared that it is far better to teach others to do things themselves than
to do things for people.  The number of houses built for others is not near
as important as a small number of dwellings built by the individuals.
Radical education involves inspiring a few people to do things for
themselves.  To do things for others is charity, but it is not education
and might even require reeducation.  The two -- justice and charity --
often get confused.  Running to a region to "teach" others what they can do
for themselves may belittle the residents and bedevil the runners into
thinking they do things when they omit addressing real social issues.

   Service Organizations.  In times of emergencies and critical need such
as floods and famines we welcome the Red Cross, religious relief agencies,
and such groups as Oxfam, World Vision, Lutheran and Catholic Relief
Services.  We expect the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be
immediately present when there is that unexpected devastating tornado.  The
extensive institutional structures conducted by religious groups have
value, but these do not surpass the inspiration of individuals acting one
on one.  We are surrounded by highly successful organizations like Habitat
for Humanity and locally the $75 million a year budgeted Christian
Appalachian Project.  The challenge is to resist the temptation to imitate
these success stories, for they may use the services of volunteers who seek
to help others -- but they are not primarily concerned about establishing
justice in the land.

   Women in Church Ministry must be Recognized and Respected.  I have come to deeply respect the ministry of women in healing, and especially in
healing the Earth.  The particular ministry of the women religious
communities is worth the recognition and respect of the rest of the nation
and world, and especially the male religious communities.  I was one of the
charter members of Priests for Equality and championed the equality of men
and women; however, with time my radicalism shifted from sexless equality
in what is done to an equality of respect for what each does in their own
activities.   Sexist language must be purged from our Scriptures and our
Liturgical texts and personal discussions -- but even with good intentions
this takes time.  Also opportunities for service in the Church and all
institutions should be on an equal basis.  Representation at meetings and
decision-making functions should involve a relatively equal number of men
and women.

    Separation of Ministries.  The service to others through various
ministries could be separated with initiation of the process with one or
other sex holding the inspirational role as a spiritual catalyst.  That is
primarily because we are all called to be yeast to the world.  The
particular Christian's initial role is of utter importance.  Jesus took as
much time in the healing ministry as preparing his disciples for church
service ministries.  If that be the case, the respect for and deference to
the healing ministry should go to women who have a deeper initial sense of
nurturing -- something Jesus learned from his Mother.  I say "initial"
because we all can do it with time and practice.  In healing, we males must
learn from women.  If that be the case, then women represent the healing
Jesus, and men's initial role in administrating of the sacraments, the
priestly Jesus, and so it may be co-equal roles rather than identical
initial ministries.  

   The Poor must Take What is Rightly Theirs.  I prefer to identify with
the poor even with learning and travel opportunities and connections not
afforded to many poor folks.  We must stand on the side of the poor and not
the affluent of the world.  In Renew the Face of the Earth (Loyola Press,
1987) I have addressed the over-affluence that is sinful when uncritically
accepted, because it fosters a process of desensitization to the needs of
the poor.  St. Luke and other writers say it is a difficult for the
uncritical affluent to enter heaven, and this biblical truth must
highlighted today, for our own salvation involves sharing with others the
gifts we have received.  To hoard these gifts when others do not have
basics is totally unchristian and damning.  We can't remain silent through
peer acceptance, money, position, or honor's sake.  We must speak.

   Invitation.  It threatens the affluent to take what is needed for the
basics of life, and yet it only shows ultimately that people regard those
holding property as having a prior right over obtaining the basics of life.
The Cardinal Frings Principle (named after the German post-war Archbishop
of Cologne who encouraged taking basics such as fuel when needed) is still
operative in the 21st century.  The radical invitation is for the affluent
to give up freely and generously what is surplus so that others may have
the basics of life.  An act of freely giving is at the heart of redemption.
While that freedom is to be open to all, a second but equally valid act is
to encourage the destitute to take what is rightly needed for survival.
This threatens the ones who have more than they need.  

   The Environmental Crisis must Address the Economic Order.  The
environmental crisis has a number of components -- the power to detect harm
done (analytical and epidemiological aspects), the ability to give
solutions (technical and engineering aspects), and converting people to
non-polluting ways so that environment damage does not occur.  The first
and second are more easily addressed within governmental and other
environmental agencies.  The third (converting people) is considerably
harder to address.  Various environmental and spiritual groups have made
attempts.  Can we continue to cling to the current economic order which
allows vast accumulation of wealth and power by a few, while a vast
assembly of people are not represented by decision making?  If we answer
"no" that only begins the discussion.  The uttering of this "no" opens the
way for exploring processes to bring about a solution, a course of justice.

   Poor versus Affluent People.  The trouble with the Zero Population
Growth people is that they regard a single gimmick (curbing the poor in
numbers) as being enough to halt environmental problems.  Though sheer
numbers of consumers do add to the magnitude of the current global
problems, it is not near as influential as the devastation caused by the
demands of the affluent consumers.  The affluent require much larger
portions of the world's resources for vacations, gas guzzling vehicles and
ever outdated luxury items that require discarding for new ones.
Television and radio make the aspirations of the poor become the
accomplishments and higher economic status of the affluent.  Many of the
poor observe how the rich live and lust for the good life.  The poor folk
often gamble meager income on quick rich schemes in order to become
instantly rich through a lottery jackpot.  But only a tiny fraction could
ever realize such aspirations.  Discomfort grows.

    Reflection   The challenge is to incorporate all parties in a
basically democratic decision-making process whether they be the ones who
others seek to serve, women in the Church, the poor, and the have-nots of
this world.  Jesus became powerless so that through obedience he might
manifest God's power.  Within the depth of our own powerlessness emerges a
spiritual power to overcome the devolution around us and to rise above the
fray.  Resurrection extends beyond the grave to transform our powerlessness
into something new and powerful.

    Prayers to the God of the Anawim:  Oh God of the little people, give
us the foresight to be disturbed about world conditions, the strength to
speak up in a prophetic manner, the power to resist the temptation to be
silenced, and the ability to continue the fight when we have been
marginalized.  Make the margins where we dwell miraculous centers of your
spiritual power in ways that confront the world.
 

 58   (1990)     Conducting Solar Cooker Projects

   I lift my eyes to the mountains; where is help to come from?  Help
comes to me from Yahweh, who made heaven and earth.  (Psalm 121: 1-2)

    At various times ASPI has sponsored people to travel to Third World
countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa to exchange appropriate
technology expertise.  As far back as February, 1983 Paul Gallimore, Don
Martin, and I went with fellow Jesuit, Dick Murphy (a translator) to Peru
to see whether a solar cooker project could be initiated.  In October, 1988
I went to a Jesuit conference on appropriate technology at Baroda, India
and learned how far along the methods were on that sub-continent.  In
March, 1990 Paul Gallimore and I conducted the first solar cooker talks and
demonstrations in both the Dominican Republic and Haiti.  And we launched
solar cooker projects in 1994 and 1997 in Peru, in 1995 and 1996 in
Honduras, and in 1998 and in 2000 in Malawi.  Mark Schimmoeller led these
solar projects and at various times others (Andy McDonald, his sister,
Trina Schimmoeller, Joshua Bills and Mark's wife, Jennifer) have gone
overseas with him.  Mark regarded the six trips as both a teaching and a
learning process because appropriate technology is somewhat site specific
and there is always so much more to discover all while helping others who
need fuel sources.

    The Rationale.  For the last three decades we have become aware that
forests, especially in the Third World countries of Asia, Africa and Latin
America, were under heavy stress due to the exploitation by timber and
other commercial wood harvesters, and the gathering of fuel wood by the
native populations who have only limited access to expensive non-renewable
energy sources (kerosene, fuel oil or gas) or to renewable solar or wind
energy.  Due to inaccessible alternative sources, the populations invade
the surviving forests, cut down trees, break branches, and remove dead wood
for their cooking and heating purposes.  Low-cost, easily built, and easily
managed solar cookers are the best method known to save the forests,
provided they are accessible to the cooking population and can be used
satisfactorily  to cook traditional meals.

    A Visit to Haiti & Dominican Republic (1990).  Paul Gallimore and I
were able to hold two solar cooker demonstrations in the Dominican Republic
and to see the forest situation in Haiti during the late winter of 1990.
In the Dominican Republic, we went to a station in the mountains and found
the people eager to make a solar cooker and then cooking potatoes using the
energy from the sun.  We also lectured in Santo Domingo sponsored by our
host, Professor Sophie Jakowska, who taught at the National University.
She arranged for all the activities and travels during our stay in this
very pleasant country.  The land is ripe for solar applications, as is
neighboring but much more heavily denuded Haiti, where upon flying over one
can trace the irregular border by the brown clay of Haiti and the lush
green forested Dominican Republic side of the border.  Formerly, lush rich
Haiti was the crown jewel in the 17th and 18th century French Empire.
Today, the northern part of the country is simply barren, a condition which
increases surface heat and has reduced the once abundant rainfall.  Through
our host, fellow Jesuit sociologist and native Haitian, Claude Souffrant,
who teaches at the Centre de Formation Continue des Enseignants Inc, we
helped in developing some forest conservation practice and restoration
measures.  We encouraged learning where the need was greatest, planting
trees through cooperative projects such as the Canadian government's
program, and ensuring that goats do not damage the planted trees -- a major
problem in Haiti.  

   The Mapu Trees.  In the southern part of Haiti we observed a few
specimens of the Mapu tree, which are some of the largest I have ever
observed -- in a land almost devoid of trees.  We tried to get a youth to
pose in the branches to photograph the size of the trees in perspective.
Claude said the people would regard this as a bad omen and would not let us
touch or climb the tree -- perhaps a reason for its survival.  Hopefully,
forest protection programs in the southern portions of the country could be
extended to the central and northern parts, provided they were coupled with
solar cookers for immediate supply of cooking energy for the meals of the
poor.  Measures involved farmers protecting their saplings by intercropping
(planting annual crops among the trees) and keeping the all-present goats
out.  Haiti needs a combination of reforestation (to bring back trees) and
solar cookers (to use for cooking in place of firewood), but that will take
resources and organization.

   The Conditions for Overseas Appropriate Technology.  Over time it is
becoming evident that several conditions are needed for a successful
mission to a Third World Country by people championing appropriate
technology.  These include:  
    1)  Be Invited by People from the Host Country -- We were always aware
of this first condition, for we have more invitations than we can fulfill;
    2)  Practice What You Teach -- In my 1988 trip to India it became
evident that I do not use solar energy to the degree that was necessary not
to be a hypocrite as far as delivery to another country goes.  We do use
solar energy at our Center, but not to the extensive degree that involves
regular cooking.  However, Mark Schimmoeller and others do use solar
cookers on a regular basis.  When I told this to a person who was sending
volunteers to Central America from California he was incredulous for he
didn't know any North Americans who actually used solar cookers;
   3)  Knowledge of the Language and Culture -- It became evident in our
trips that language is important.  Paul had majored in French and studied
in French-speaking lands, and he had no difficulty; in other trips we had
Spanish translators, who accompanied us on all the trips.  A successful
mission can only be achieved by knowing the language -- which was verified
in subsequent Spanish-speaking tours.  
    4) Willingness to Use Local Expertise, Materials and Technologies  --
Mark was forced by the inability to transport materials from the United
States to use local materials in all places.  The need for adaptation
increased the enthusiasm of the people.  In Honduras, he used soot for
black paint, and this made a local housewife happy who never knew it had
any value.  He made the stoves first from available metal and then from the
tile that was used in the making of roofs.  In both trips to Peru the teams
found that it was best to adapt to foods that were traditionally cooked in
the areas, and they did.
   5) Willingness to Learn --   Mark Schimmoeller has been versed in going
into foreign lands and is quite willing to listen, learn, and adapt to the
place.  When he worked in Honduras the first year, he found that it was a
rainy season and so he began to work on a wood efficient stove that he had
been tinkering with for years.  He soon learned he needed to put a chimney
on the stove at the insistence of the local people, and thus it became a
Honduran "home-grown" stove.

    Business Being Carried On.  Our greatest success was from the first of
the series of workshop tours.  A woman's cooperative has been making a
large number of solar cookers in Arequipa, Peru under the leadership and
sponsorship of the Medical Mission Sisters (Sister Patricia Gootee), who
had invited our team down in the first place.  In Honduras, the local
community was able to adapt methods and build a number of wood-efficient
stoves.  In Malawi, the national park system has sponsored the workshops
and permitted the training of a number of workers in solar cooker building
demonstrations.  

    Developing World Work.  While there has been some headway in sharing
our appropriate technology applications with less fortunate countries, the
best use of resources is to transfer this work to groups that are geared to
handling them as full-time projects.  This is not strictly Appalachian
work.  We like the budding group, Empowering Others, which is based in
Michigan, and is focusing on Latin America.  The organization assists
institutions with personnel, donations and resources such as computers.
ASPI has had a policy of transferring projects when they become self-
sustaining, and this is now happening with the Solar Cooker Overseas
Project.  Highly specialized and successful projects can continue on their
own indefinitely.
     
   Reflections:  A movement is gaining ground to oppose globalization by
large corporations.  We try to secure resources and promote appropriate
technology in developing lands, to refrain from creating others into our
image, and to spread the good news that others have cultures worth
preserving and enhancing.  But we are not totally satisfied.  While we do
such grassroots activities we are fully aware that corporations are
ruthlessly exploiting weak environmental laws and low wage scales to make
products which are sold at high prices.  These abuses cry to heaven and
make us reflect on the work still to be done.
       
    Prayer to the  God of all Wisdom.  O Merciful One, You fill the
Universe;  teach us to be open to learning when teaching others, to see
that what we have is only partly perfected, and that we grow in experience
and ultimately in wisdom by those from other parts of our globe.  Teach us
to work together, to try to solve the pressing problems of our world
through grassroots contacts, fully mindful that when starting humbly we
undoubtedly will move on to broader vistas.


59   (1991)    Empowering Others by the Spoken Word

  Deposit generosity in your storerooms and it will release you from every
misfortune.     (Ecclesiasticus 29:15)

   In the spring of 1991 I spent slightly over a month in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin holding the Gamaliel Chair, a program for peace and justice
sponsored by the Lutheran Campus Ministry Center at the University of
Wisconsin in Milwaukee.  The following year on the tenth anniversary of the
chair the various holders returned and conducted joint talks and
discussions.  This chair, named for Gamaliel, the first century A.D.
respected Jewish teacher, is an effective program, which keeps the holders
from dozing by filling schedules at a rate of about three to four talks a
day at various churches, schools and other Wisconsin institutions.  In
fact, over one hundred talks and discussion events were scheduled and kept
-- and this proved to be like a taxing campaigning circuit.  Drivers
thought I would preview the talk during my trip to the event, but I had to
conserve my voice.

    A Career of Talks.  In an average year I give some 180 talks, homilies
or participating dialogues in seminars.  I have found the number has held
steady throughout much of my career. As of this writing I have given over
five thousand talks all over North America, as well as some in Peru,
Mexico, Switzerland, Germany and India.  However, looking back, the variety
of talks were greater in the early days.  Retreat talks are pretty much
boiler plate, homilies are repeated when having two, three or four Masses
on a weekend and follow a basic set of pre-selected themes.

    Speech Limitations.  The greatest fear is not the audience or
unexpected questions, but the fear of catching a cold or losing my voice,
which I nearly did on a cold December evening when taking Ralph Nader's
place at Helena, Montana's  Carroll College.  Fortunately I have been able
to complete every talk, even though I am limited by the inability to
project my voice for more than about four or five hours a day.  I hate to
be anti-social and admit needing to conserve my voice -- but that is my
human limitation.  I am skilled at speaking without notes, being
charismatic (which does not necessarily mean spiritually inspired), and
being a better storyteller than writer.  I demand the audience's attention
and have walked out when some do not give attention, and to deliberately
wake folks up if any perchance nod off.  My talks are often short, for I
have mercy on the audience, and prefer the give-and-take discussion to
formal presentation.

   The Values of Talks.  Talks can be effective, if efforts are made to
organize subject matter and bring in an interested audience.  The better
organized, the better the message is retained.  Say what is intended, say
it with examples, and tell the audience what you have said.  The Gamaliel
Chair organizers certainly publicized the talks and were able to deliver
respectable audiences at every event who were receptive and responsive.  In
a one month period, I talked to seven different graduate school departments
(sociology, journalism, chemistry, geology, ethics, theology, engineering,
and biology) at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, at Madison or at
Marquette University.  This demanded extra resourcefulness to address all
groups within their own disciplines.   But graduate school challenges were
nothing compared to the class I had to give to first graders at one of the
local elementary schools -- the longest time spent psychologically in any
talk ever given.  There were also several high school classes and
undergraduate college classes as well as about six general college
lectures, and church groups.

   Unforgettable Characters.  The Gamaliel Chair was always rocking.  The
most memorable was the motor tour with Frank Zeidler, the former socialist
mayor of Milwaukee, when he talked non-stop about every district we passed
through and the ethnic history of each area.  He is undoubtedly the most
alert older gentlemen that I have ever met, and a voracious reader and
self-made person.  He stayed in his once German neighborhood even after the
area changed and became heavily African-American, and he and his wife
remained true neighbors.  Today the Milwaukee Public Library has a room
named after him.  The ultimate compliment was that one religious community
of women would call him before local elections and they would post his
opinions and recommendations on the board for all to view and consider.

     Competing Talks.  Lecture-goers may receive an insight that is
attributed to the talk, or at least later the words or thoughts of the
speaker.  But all in all, talks received can only go so far.  If the
speaker is not a celebrity, they must strive harder.  We are competing with
television, radio, lectures, and a host of other opportunities to hear
entertaining, knowledgeable, and interesting speakers.  Often budding
lecturers realize the need to have a gimmick or novelty in order to be
invited to make the circuit.  Today's handicaps include the shortening
attention spans of restless modern audiences, who habitually surf the
Internet and television channels.  During the nineteenth century it was
known that audiences after a two hour discourse would call out for more.
It is hard to imagine this happening today.

   Reflections.  Lectures may be ways for retired people to keep from
being bored, bureaucrats to consume work time, those corralled but regard
life's clock as running, or those who accompanies some of the above.  We
impatient listeners prefer to read rather than listen.  Lectures can be
misinterpreted, challenging to some but boring to others, and soon
forgotten.  A lecturer has little time to address all types and to do so
successfully -- and that is not always possible.  If we value and affirm
the hearers' transformative powers, then they will more likely rise to the
occasion.  The conviction is growing that Americans are culturally addicted
and the focus is on exposing addictions and pray for the addicted.  The
will, not the intellect, must be moved -- and this challenges speakers to
sow seeds and expect others to do the rest.  We are part of a total social
fabric, and we do only a part of the vast work to be done.  Others do their
part and God overseas the entire weaving process.  In the course of
Gamaliel Chair talks the mere partial contribution of each talk on one's
life struck me.  To  inspire others to look into themselves and find the
source of power is a noble goal -- even when they may have forgotten who
inspired them.

   PRAYER OF ARCHBISHOP ROMERO

   It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view.
   The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
        it is even beyond our vision.
   We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of
        the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
   Nothing we do is complete,
        which is another way of saying that
        the Kingdom always lies beyond us.

   No statement says all that should be said.
   No prayer fully expresses our faith.
   No confession brings perfection.
   No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
   No program accomplishes the church's mission.
   No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

   This is what we are about.
   We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
   We water seeds already planted,
        knowing that they hold future promise.
   We lay foundations that will need further development.
   We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our
        capabilities.

   We cannot do everything,
        and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
   This enables us to do something,
        and to do it very well.
   It may be incomplete,
        but it is a beginning,
        a step along the way,
        an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter
        and do the rest.

   We may never see the end results,
        but that is the difference
        between the master builder and the worker.
   We are workers, not master builders,
        ministers, not messiahs.
   We are prophets of a future that is not our own.  Amen.


60   (1992)    Expanding Holy Land to Holy Earth

   I will bring them back to the very soil I gave their ancestors.
                                 (Jeremiah 16:15)
   
    The last time I travelled abroad was 1992.  In the spring I
participated in the second Gamaliel event and the flew to Puerto Rico for
a talk on waste minimization, and then later that month I went to Israel.
Dr. Sydney Blair, a professor at the Loyola Medical School in Chicago,
invited me to give a talk on indoor pollution and he asked me to substitute
for him on a trip to Israel.  He harbored great hope that the Middle East
environment can be better appreciated by all inhabitants, and so was a
strong supporter of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel
(SPNI) -- an organization of about 50,000 members.  It is the only
environmental organization with representation from the Jewish, Christian
and Moslem communities.  This is essentially an educational tour that looks
at a series of about two dozen youth camps/nature centers from one end of
the Holy Land to the other.  

   Busy Schedule.  The program encouraged a week of acting as general
(religious and history) tourist prior to the two-week SPNI program -- but
I didn't have the time or money for such a luxury.  The SPNI program was
well organized and packed with activities from the Lebanese border in the
north to the Egyptian border in the South.  This meant that there was
little religious visiting (except at Bethlehem) though I begged the bus to
stop -- not detour -- at the Mount of the Beatitudes but they would not.
John Freda  had promised that he would add a hundred dollars to paying my
expenses if I would visit that Mount -- to him the most exquisite site in
the Holy Land.  I could only see it from a distance.  We did come near and
stayed outside Jerusalem one evening.  I asked a Cypriot, who was my
roommate during this part of my trip, if we could rise early and go see the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  He readily agreed, saying he knew Arabic as
well as Greek.  We were like the holy women on Easter morning hurrying to
the tomb as the sun rose in the east.  At the tomb, a Mass by several
American priests was being concelebrated.  I felt impelled to climb the
flight of stairs to Calvary even though time was running out. Midway up the
stairs I felt utterly unworthy and sweaty.  No pilgrim had ever been so
ill-prepared, and yet it was a chance of a lifetime to touch the rock on
which Jesus' blood fell -- where redemption reached its climax and the
holiest spot on this tortured planet.

   Touching the Calvary Rock.   Through the gaping hole in the wall
countless pilgrims have put their hand through to touch the rock.  I did
not know what to expect.  Then the thought as clear as crystal came -- Look
what they have done to my Earth.  It is a lamentation, a cry of one so
close to the Earth as to be filled with sorrow at what is dearly loved, not
vindictive, not threatening.  It is a moment that has  infinite depths of
meaning that would and has taken a long time to comprehend.  This process
is still incomplete.  Touching Calvary has the effect as the light that
knocked Paul from the horse, or the power in the words of Nathan telling
David "you are the one."  The thought stayed with me vividly throughout the
remainder of the program and to see differently the damage being done at
the present moment to the Holy Land itself -- my and our Holy Land.

    Damage in a New Light.  When our program took us up through unmelted
snow up nine thousand feet to the heights of Mount Hermon, we observed over
two hundred-year-old miniature cherry trees endangered and even uprooted by
military bunkers.  When we went to the fragile Negev Desert we saw tank
tracks all over the sandy soil.  When we visited the only stretch of
remaining beach near Ashdod, we were given a tour by lawyers and folks from
the Ministry of Environment who were proud that they had saved the beach
from development;  yet while there some young soldiers decided to show off
with their jeeps, and drove them, not once, but twice, up and down on the
fragile dunes.  When I asked why this is allowed, they said the military is
part of the family and one is slow to criticize those who are providing
needed security.  While somewhat dismayed by such policy, I could find no
dislike for one or other of the factions in the Holy Land.  There seemed to
be a sense that we all do wrong things, and God's mercy extends to all.  

    The Place is HERE.  I felt a strong sense of unity of place in the
midst of hostility during our stay overnight at an old British army camp
still used by the Israeli military overlooking the city of Bethlehem.
Early morning meditation included peering through the eight-foot high
rusted barbed wire and seeing the "City of Peace" from a strange
perspective that cannot be forgotten.  City of Peace and relics of war.
Are our lives about distant visions of a peaceful setting and yet
immediately surrounded by the remnants of conflict?  How many times were
guns and swords used on that very height in order to conquer, save, or
retake the City of David?  Did not the young shepherd David herd his flock
on that very land?

   The Community is a Global WE.  This is my land as well, not the land of
Arabs or Jews alone.  We all have a legitimate foothold here for it is part
of our religious heritage. I expressed indignation when we were taken
deliberately on a tour of a very rugged cove that came down to a place
where the unprocessed sewer system from Jerusalem moved on its way to the
Sea.  This lack of secondary treatment should not be allowed, because it is
disrespectful of our land.  Jeremiah would roll over in his grave at the
sight of this sewage.  Pollution of any sort has global significance, for
all the Earth is a commons of concern.  The planet belongs to all of us in
a manner of responsible stewardship -- not in some possessive sense.  It is
God's gift for us to care for, and this caring responsibility is not overly
restrictive to our birthplace and residence.   When this land/gift is hurt
by whatever manner and by whoever, it affects us all and saddens us all.

    Action is Needed NOW.  The Society for the Protection of Israel
Program gave several insights:  The Holy Land is truly holy for many
religious traditions, and its environment is well worth protecting by
current inhabitants, by those who call this place part of their religious
heritage, and by the entire world.  The challenge in such a small and
densely populated land is to keep it demilitarized and within an atmosphere
of peace.

    Youth education is utterly important in creating awareness of the
fragile Earth and the need to take care of it.  The SPNI record is
excellent and worth repeating in other parts of the world.  It is justly
something to be proud of by all people.  It is of particular pride to the
Israeli people and this adds luster to the program.

    God blesses, supports, and is one with all who strive to heal the
Earth and their work enters into a Calvary event that extends through space
and time to the present moment.  He asks St. Paul "why do you persecute
me?" some years after Easter.  Jesus identifies with the suffering of the
inhabitants and creatures of the Earth itself.

    Our Earth is one and we all must see the planet Earth itself as a Holy
Land of which we have responsibility for all parts though we may be focused
on a particular section at a given time.  From this Holy Land emerges the
Holy Earth.  We must consider all who harm the environment as wayward but
loveable brothers and sisters, part of the global family who are to be
treated with patience but firmness.

    Reflections:  Those working in Appalachia may become restricted in
their areas of work.  The entire Earth becomes my or our land stretching
far beyond the horizon.  The trip to the Middle East is a life's
pilgrimage, for it includes the aspect of a beginning, a goal and the
aftermath for future reflection.  The Bible stories become flesh and blood;
the beauty of the countryside unfolds; the steps that David and Jesus took
are heard and seen.  Gradually the elements of an eco- spirituality begin
to coalesce -- a sense of focus on the here, now and we (current down-to-
Earth immediate concerns), rather than the then, there and they (distant
cosmological stance by experts); a connection of social justice (equity for
all people) and preserving the land;  the insight that the renewal and
healing of the Earth must be initiated by the overlooked and forsaken; and
that eco-justice may only occur when we address the disparity of the
world's people.  These became thoughts found in Down to Earth Spirituality
that was deepened during the subsequent summer months. The book of mine was published the next year (1983) by Sheed & Ward with photos by Warren
Brunner.

   Prayer to the Holy Spirit.  Spirit that moved across the waters, show
us how we are to reflect on our pilgrimage in life, find the deeper
meanings of our work, and inspire others to join us in healing this wounded
Earth.  Give us breath in space, immediacy in time, and catholicity in
community.  Show us where we are, the urgency of the times, and how we are
to join forces with others in this common cause?  You are able to break
through the paralysis that inflicts us and to speak a clear message to
those of us who are deaf.  Speak, Holy Spirit, speak.

The Latch String is Out -- Copyright © 2002 by Al Fritsch