September 2005

We have been home for better than two weeks, Claudia arrived at home in Swiss Frankonia safely.

For a person writing a report or anything else for that matter it is not unusual to write in their head long before it is transferred on to paper. In my head I have written the newsletter several times, except it never seemed appropriate, so today is the day when I will try to convey a small portion of what is contained in my "letter in the head."
The trip was a total success. The travel log is still listed to your right on the middle of the page. A friend, Katherine Grandfield posted the highlights for you. I will attempt to convey the overall impressions of the journey.

Claudia arrived from Europe and brought with her, her thoughts, questions and excitement in learning more about the US continent, aside from Washington State which she has come to know like the back of her hand over a 10 year period. Just the realization that each of the 8 states covered, looked, smelled and felt different from one another was a revelation I was able to share with her. We filmed in excess of 22 hours for our program, mostly country-sites, scenery and points of interest, which I was unable to capture on camera during the previous trips for a multitude of reasons.

We met many people and asked them about their daily life, likes and dislikes and inquired about their opinion as to world affairs. After reviewing our footage at the end of each day we talk about incidences and individuals we had encountered between the many miles of the back roads of the country. 99,9% of the people were .... lets say..... NOT happy with the war and how we were conducting ourselves within the community of mankind in general.

We encountered many farmers in different stages of their harvest, soldiers on their way from or to somewhere which they were unable to find valid reasons for.
We encountered many foreigners from France and Italy that were interested in life on the Navajo Reservation and had therefore undertaken a rather difficult task to visit there.
We stopped at small towns which were transformed into Ghost Towns since last year because the economy had disabled their function.

We stopped at the Krishna Temple on the outskirts of Provo and towered above a crop circle from the year before. An unlikely sight, we thought, in the middle of Utah. We looked at the list of contributors and were pleased to see that Albertson`s was a major supporter.

The flags from some previous years had all but disappeared, the new fad is War Memorials that have appeared all over the country site. Too many to film. We asked how that had came about, mostly the reason given was that it was the right thing to do under the circumstances and people had no idea just how to be supportive without the feeling of betrayal to the soldiers under present circumstances. Almost everyone was concerned about the economy and the gas prices. Truckers, farmers, school bus drivers, straight across the board.
Weather was on everyone's mind, since it has been such a strange time for weather. We directed them to the predictions for 2005 still listed on the web site, solar flares and earthquake links.

We were reminded how unreasonable the treatment of anyone trying to visit an Inmate in the Federal System is, not that anyone expected any of that to change..... To vacuum a person for residue of drugs, while said person is staying at a hotel and travel by public means in order to deny entry, IS unreasonable to me. Light poles had wires sticking straight up on top of the lights..... a funny site.... guess it prevented the birds from landing without the proper identification and signing in, in order to spend any time visiting the facilities.
We experienced time shifts and time distortions, which became apparent after the fact. In one instance a 9 hour drive across three 10000-foot passes turned out was accomplished in a little over 3 hours and unknown to us we filmed a time warp in the foothills of Mt. St.Helens. Somehow a 26 day trip was accomplished in 19 days.
Renting a car from BUDGET was stress-free and we were totally impressed with that experience especially since the cost of the rental was more than 50% less of all of the others.

If people seemed resigned to their present conditions was an indication of "the way of the world," my battle with T-Mobile over a bill proved almost frivolous when Katrina arrived.
Again we made reference to the predictions 2005. As a survivor of the 6.8 Nisqually quake in 2001 I realize that my dilemma of loosing everything was but a "MICRO" problem compared to what the people are experiencing at the moment and for a long time to come. For those of you that have not read my earthquake story it is still in the archives. Again I fell like the scout by being able to explain what it feels like to have an encounter of such a magnitude. Wither man-made or natural, I would hope that this will make us think, take a good look at ourselves and rearrange our priorities.

If threats of strikes at Boeing and some of the local schools are any indication that some of us still don't understand the logistics of human suffering, making ourselves feel better by building war memorials and now, perhaps, Hurricane memorials is not going to solve our problems, they may numb feelings and compassion toward our fellow man. It is my opinion that this is a time to reflect on our own relationship to life. Gas prices should not be the deciding factor as to how life in our land, the United States of America, is being played out.
I would hope we take a look at the whole picture and take to heart what it is we are being taught or shown. Most of us are a loving peaceful people, compassionate and caring. It does not always show by our actions, simply because we don't think sometimes just because there is no time left for thought. Disinformation is rampart, if it is not on TV it is non-exsisting.
One voice, one heart and other inappropriate thoughts are what I am hoping for, imagine if that should happen ..... how inappropriate that might appear to the outside world!

Thank you to the friends that contributed to our task of making the trip, I promise to have the new book Remembering your future available soon.

Love and Light
Lilian