Tell Your Truth...

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to remain silent" 

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of conscience to remain silent."

Edmund Burke

A Stalwart Beacon

http://www.lianneschneiderart.com/DigitalPainting/Enchanted-Seas/i-7959cMB/A

I've tried not to be too political in this blog - though as a very politically minded person, that has been very hard to do. I've tried to focus on art, poetry, philosophy, self-awareness and avoid antagonizing my readers or polarizing people any more than they already are. But we've entered into another political election cycle and I just cannot be silent. Too much is at stake. 

"Money talks" and as the Supreme Court has ruled, corporate money is a form of political speech that cannot be limited. So these days money talks loudly - louder than the little guys on the other side of the political spectrum who can't buy television time or governors or congressmen with their $100 contributions. But the Koch Brothers and others of their ilk can buy just about anything - their money has bought and paid for Tea Party candidates, the governors and legislatures of too many states, Congressmen and women of both parties who will vote for corporate tax breaks, XL pipelines, fracking, the auctioning off of public parks and recreation areas, cutting food stamps and an end to Medicare and Social Security among other things. 

Last week, John McCain and Lindsay Graham appeared on virtually every weekend talk show and, of course, were all over Fox News, expounding the ridiculous notion that President Obama should have stayed in Iraq and now should go back in with troops (not advisors) to finish what he failed to do. Hardly a single journalist called McCain on his statements - no one mentioned directly to him that it was George W. Bush who had negotiated the timeline for our withdrawal from Iraq and that the Iraqi government not so politely insisted that we go. No one reminded John McCain that he was among the first to vote for a war based on lies to begin with and he supported Bush's withdrawal timeline. 

And yet, the propaganda drumbeat gets louder and louder that it is the poor who are to blame for the nation's ills, the immigrant children, or a president who has been prevented at virtually every turn from accomplishing anything he set out to do. Daily Rupert Murdoch's "news" crew beats the anti-Obama drum - against medical care, over Benghazi, for fracking, blaming the president for wildfires, the civil war in Iraq - you name it. But there was an almost deafening silence when the House Intelligence Committee (chaired by a Republican and dominated by that party) reported no administrative wrong-doing in Benghazi. This same propaganda machine forgot to mention as they hyped the lawsuit John Boehner brought against the President that they were suing Obama for not doing what they fought 57 times to prevent him from doing - implementing every aspect of the Affordable Care Act. You heard right - they are suing him for NOT implementing a bill they tried 57 times to overturn. 

So how is it that these lies, distortions, obstructions and outright unconstitutional behaviors have become the "truth" that a majority of Americans hear on the airwaves every night whether they watch Fox News or not? I have a theory - and that is that the more wrong, the more deceptive, the more distorted the political harangue is, the louder it gets and the more often it is repeated. Lies are quickly perceived as truth if they are repeated often enough and by people who are recognizable as so-called experts in the field. Note how often a certain phrase will be repeated by every single commentator on certain networks - it's as if the editorial board hands out flash cards at the morning meeting with instructions to get that phrase into every broadcast as often as possible. Yesterday, the catch phrase was "cigar store robber" in reference to the young man shot to death in Ferguson, MO. While it may well be that Michael Brown had robbed a convenience store of some cigars a few minutes before his death, the officer who stopped him and ultimately shot him did not do so in relation to the robbery. Even the chief of police admits that - the officer stopped him for walking in the street. How often will you see that "truth" on Fox News? Whether Mr. Brown robbed the store or not, all you will see from this point on is a carefully orchestrated character assassination to justify a completely unjustified shooting. Last I heard, stealing cigars was not a death penalty offense. 

But that can't be the only reason that lies, distortions and propaganda have taken over our political dialogue or our newscasts. Actually, it's our own fault. We have become lazy and apathetic. Critical thinking is no longer required in school or in life. Opinions are treated as fact and seldom double-checked unless it's to refute an opposing view on Facebook. Most importantly, we think there is little we can do to offset the power of big money or to set the record straight about their agenda. And so we choose silence - and we rationalize that as avoiding the negatives or confrontations in our lives. I did it myself - purposely refrained from using my voice to support the truth as I find it, to oppose the lies and distortions, to fight against the many injustices and environmental disasters conservative big money is willing to perpetrate against us all for the sake of greed. 

Listen to this brilliant young teacher explain what he teaches about the value of truth in his classroom. Please be patient while this loads - I promise that it's worth the wait. 

Clint Smith - poet/teacher

04:22 minutes · Filmed Jul 2014 · Posted Aug 2014 · TED@NYC

I cannot remain silent any longer. I've noticed in the past 9 months that more and more people are becoming animal rights advocates, posting daily about the horrors perpetrated against animals and speaking out daily on their behalf. I applaud that - but...I would like to see even one quarter of that passion directed toward the political injustices both around the world and here at home that we close our eyes and ears to because it's too controversial, confrontational or adversarial...or because we just don't think we can be heard over the loud cacophony, the drumbeat of propaganda that rationalizes or justifies those actions in the name of greed and a political ideology that supports it. We can be heard - but only if every good person is willing to speak up, speak out, act in concert with others. Only if the objective is truth - not more propaganda. Only if we are willing to do the work to find the truth and not simply accept what some loudmouth tells us is true. I don't have all the answers - and my truth may not be yours in some cases. But ultimately there is such a thing as TRUTH and we can find it if we want it badly enough.  

If we truly love this nation, then we should know its history (warts and all), we should know the meaning of the words we throw around so casually as indictments of the other side, we should understand the intent and the context in which our founding documents were written. We should know who paid for the law review articles redefining the first and second amendments to reflect a particular political agenda. There are more of "us" than there are of "them" - and together we can create a cacophony of our own.  I cannot stand silently by and watch the triumph of evil because I was too cowardly or too willing to appease in order not to rock the boat or offend anyone.

Chasing joy...

I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive....

Joseph Campbell

Joy Collector

http://www.lianneschneiderart.com/Art/Digital-PaintingPhotoArt/i-Bt57d5w/A

The great American mythologist, Joseph Campbell, in one of his interviews with Bill Moyers for the PBS series, "The Power of Myth," responded to one of Moyers' questions about human search for meaning this way:

         "People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think that what we're seeking is an experience of life...so that we can actually feel the rapture of being alive." 

The "rapture of being alive"...how many of us have been blessed enough to truly experience that? And how do you go about finding that? Surely we can't all spend our time sitting around "navel gazing" as some have mockingly described the meditative practices that blossomed in the late '60s and early '70s when Transcendental Meditation was all the rage and everyone was looking for a guru to teach them how to reach that state of pure detachment that is "ecstasy" or joy. 

And in truth, we actually can't find it by "dropping out" or complete detachment as some envision it. We find it by the simple act of being truly present to our own lives, to the moments of our lives, being completely aware and mindful of those moments and most of all by being grateful for each one of them. Elizabeth Lesser (Broken Open, 2004) describes it as, "It is a willing engagement with the whole messy miracle of life." By that she means that one cannot find rapture or joy by avoiding the pain or the brokenness in our lives. Quite the opposite - one cannot find rapture without embracing that, looking into the face of our fears and anguish and being grateful for it. It is there, where we would least expect to find it, that we realize and appreciate the joy of living. One cannot appreciate light without darkness, become blissful about spring if there were no winter or dormant period, know love without its lack. 

Here's the lesson in a metaphor - a poem I wrote some time ago called, "The Joy Collector." 

The Joy Collector

Like a lepidopterist, I set out to capture joy in my net,

searching in all the usual, obvious places,

in the garden of blooms I’d planted to be

an enticement for the rare and fragile, wingéd creatures.

And once captured what would I do

with each uniquely beautiful specimen?

Wait for it to finish out its brief life in a jar filled with leaves,

holes in the top and then, when it was living no more…

pin it to the corkboard, fix it under glass,

this now lifeless collection on display,

catalogued and labeled for me to show off my skills

as a butterfly hunter, satisfied, self-congratulatory? 

But true joy can’t be caught like that,

remaining as elusive as a Palos Verdes Blue;

rather it catches you utterly by surprise,

comes from places and events you least expect

and seldom where you are looking for it! 

Don’t chase after it…a butterfly hunter with a net -

and when you are very still, within and without,

perhaps even looking wonderingly another way

at something beautiful that catches your eye

and fills your awakening soul with delight,

she will settle gently on your shoulder, 

flutter in your heart...and live.

  

© Lianne Schneider May 2011

Be grateful for the darkness, for the pain, even for the grief - when you can stand still in the midst of that, then you will find your rapture, your joy. In truth, one of my favorite poets, Khalil Gibran said it best nearly 1000 years ago:

The Observer Effect - a principle and a poem

It is often stated that of all the theories proposed in this century, the silliest is quantum theory. 

In fact, some say the only thing quantum theory has going for it

is that it is unquestionably correct.

Michio Kaku

Observer Effect 

http://www.lianneschneiderart.com/Art/Digital-PaintingPhotoArt/i-JNwHRGb/A

The other day, I mentioned that study and research are often part of the way I write a poem. That probably seems odd to most people who, these days at least, consider most poetry to be spontaneous "stream of consciousness" writing. But for me, that is almost never the case. I study, explore an idea, maybe even a very complex idea such as the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle or the Observer Effect. Often the two are conflated - thought to be virtually the same thing. They aren't really at all and I must confess that the mathematical calculations involved in explaining or demonstrating the Uncertainty Principle are WAY over my head. I did, however, manage to distinguish between the two ideas enough to write a poem that involves both principles to some degree.

In the simplest of terms, Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle involved measuring sub-atomic particles - shooting a photon of light through a hole in order to strike (and therefore locate) an electron at some distance. "The uncertainty principle in its standard form actually describes how precisely we may measure the position and momentum of a particle at the same time — if we increase the precision in measuring one quantity, we are forced to lose precision in measuring the other" (Heisenberg,1930). Wikipedia (thank heavens for Wiki) gives this example - "If pitchers threw electrons instead of baseballs, and an overhead camera and side-facing camera were placed somewhere between the pitcher's mound and home plate so that the exact position of the electron could be determined in mid flight, then without the cameras being turned on, the pitcher would throw straight balls, and with the cameras turned on his pitches would start out straight but gyrate wildly after their pictures were taken. The more clearly we know where the ball was halfway toward home place, the more trouble the batter will have in getting ready to hit it with his bat" (Wikipedia, Uncertainty Principle). Don't ask me to explain that more clearly than that - lol - I can't do it.

The Observer Effect, on the other hand, is an attempt to explain that uncertainty by saying the very act of measurement alters the course of the photon and changes the outcome. For an electron to become detectable, a photon must first interact with it, and this interaction will change the path of that electron. Think of the way a billiard ball hits another ball to change the angle of movement in order to get it into the pocket. It is also possible for other, less direct means of measurement to affect the electron. This principle is much easier to understand in psychology than it is in physics! In a psychology study, for example, the very act of observing a subject is most likely to change the subject's behavior in a number of ways. If the subject knows he/she is being observed, he/she will alter behavior in accordance with expectations or to meet the expectations of the observer. Countless psychological studies have demonstrated this Observer Effect and often with very negative outcomes. There are two studies you have probably heard of...the first is the Stanford Prison Study where students were assigned roles as guards or prisoners in a section of the campus set up to look and feel like a prison. The second is the Milgrim study on obedience to authority where people were directed to give electrical shocks to a stranger behind a wall if they answered a question incorrectly. (I'll let you look those up if you are interested in knowing more about them but you can start here).

From all of that study and pages of notes, eventually I arrived at my own example of the Observer Effect and hopefully, you won't see any direct connection to either quantum physics or psychology but will be able to sense the underlying research that triggered the idea!

OBSERVER EFFECT

Before I was the me you see
I was nothing and I was everything,
pure potentiality in a field of grace,
the sum of all my probabilities.
And who is it who observed me into being,
compressed me from energy into matter?
Why you did…and you…and me and God
who wished to see his face in mine
to know herself as love through me.

But every moment unobserved
remains my potentiality unrealized.
I know who I am – but I cannot experience
the fullness of that knowing without you.
Alone I have only the isolation of “knowing”
but through you, in your observation of me,
in my reflective observation of myself,
that knowing becomes substance, reality.
If I know myself as love but have no one
to whom to give or to share that self
I never have the awakened experience
or what love really is or of who I truly am.

Yet if I were alone in the Universe
with none to speak to of these things
I would still not ever really be alone
for I could look into the face of God
and see myself – divine - as all I am
and all that I can be…if I but love.

  

© Lianne Schneider August 2011

 Heisenberg, W. (1930). Physikalische Prinzipien der Quantentheorie, Leipzig: Hirzel English translation The Physical Principles of Quantum Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1930.

Epiphany - have you had one?

Sometimes the dreams that come true are dreams you never even realized you had.

Alice Sebold - The Lovely Bones

Epiphany

http://www.lianneschneiderart.com/Art/Digital-PaintingPhotoArt/i-KV84mZv/A

Someone asked me at one point which of my poems or artworks most conveys what my vision and my spiritual and personal life journey is like at this late stage of my life. My answer is always the same. Although most of my poetry, particularly that designed or created especially to accompany an image or vice versa, reflects who I am or where I've been, this image and poem really say it best. “Epiphany” is a very emotionally charged statement of what still drives me every day and underlines my hope and the image is a composite of those things that were part of my "awakening" if you will.

In this case, the image of course was created to go with the poem, specifically to try to say visually what I expressed in the poem and to do that in a way that would be representative of who I saw myself to be as a writer and artist at that time. The central element in the image is a symbol that is important to me from my experience with meditation – it’s a variation of and an extension of something called a Tau Cross – note that it is the intersection of what I see as my connection to the earth (the roots) and to the universal mind – the explosion of light/thought/energy from the center and all arching to form a heart – representing the LOVE I feel for all life, for that which is beautiful and inspiring. 

I do have moments when I’m alone in my “cave,” when I’m standing beside the sea or walking up a creek, or just watching a glorious sunset when I am simply overcome with emotion. I never realized until I allowed myself to open up and express it, just how deeply emotional I am. I never cried – and even when my beloved grandmother died, my father died and my husband died, I cried very little. I was the “rock” upon whom everyone leaned. Now tears come easily – as often from joy or wonder as from sadness or grief. But I’m still an impatient person in many ways – I want to KNOW everything. I want to know how to do everything so I can create more effectively.

...my kind of town...

"It's not necessary to go far and wide. I mean, you can find  

exciting and inspiring things within your hometown."

Daryl Hannah

Buffalo South Entrance Light

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/buffalo-south-entrance-light-lianne-schneider.html

I've noticed a trend in recent blogs - at least among friends whose blogs I follow - to focus on images and stories relating to their home town or to nearby areas - a way of celebrating the beauty close to home, an opportunity to brag about local history or attractions in the area or maybe just a way to promote and boost interest in a city or town that's fallen on hard times. While I don't live right in Buffalo, NY, I still call it home as it's the nearest metro area to me and there's a lot to be said about a place called "the Queen city" for a reason. So while I won't be doing one post a day for 100 days on Buffalo and surrounding areas, there is a lot that is beautiful, historic and inspiring within a 50 mile radius of my true home town (a tiny village actually that if, as the saying goes, you blink you'd miss it) which is about 20 minutes from downtown Buffalo, NY. Certainly the area has inspired some of my most creative works of both poetry and art and I'm willing to bet that you can find plenty right near home to do that for you too!

Information for this blog post is from Lighthouse Friends - http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=295

Buffalo South Entrance South Side
Buffalo's emergence as a bustling port continued well after the 1825 opening of the Erie Canal. The city quickly outgrew its first lighthouse erected in 1818, and the 1833 stone tower still standing today was superseded by a breakwater station in the 1870s. Still, the volume of ship traffic necessitated another expansion of the harbor, and a lengthy breakwater was built south of the main harbor. According to the 1900 Annual Report of the Light House Board, on June 6, 1900, $45,000 was appropriated for establishing suitable light and fog-signal stations to mark the main southern entrance of the new breakwater at Buffalo, N.Y. Plans for the light towers and fog-signal house, including foundation and pile protection work were completed, and plans for the keeper's dwelling are being prepared. Soon after the plans were finished, the breakwater where the light towers were to be erected was badly damaged by two severe storms, forcing the plans to be modified to provide greater strength to meet extreme conditions of wind and wave action. It was ultimately determined to place both a fog signal and beacon light on the south side of the southern harbor entrance, and an accompanying, smaller light on the north side.

The new south entrance beacons were especially important to turn of the century Buffalo, as the city became the world's leading lumber port and grain-milling and storage center. The southern entrance was also located near the recently completed Lackawanna Steel plant, which would be acquired by Bethlehem Steel in 1992 and become the world's largest steel mill during the frantic production accompanying World War II.

The Buffalo South Entrance South Side Lighthouse is a unique tower with a brown cylindrical base, a white, conical midsection, and a black lantern graced with glass panes in a diamond configuration. The tower's interior is furnished with fine wood wainscoting, and its lantern was originally equipped with a fourth-order Fresnel lens that produced the repeated sequence of two white flashes and a red flash, each spaced by ten seconds. The arch-roofed fog signal house adjoining the tower was painted brown. The station's original fog siren was replaced in 1934 by an air diaphone, which produced a two-tone air blast of three seconds, followed by a silent period of twenty-seven seconds.

A radiobeacon was established adjacent to the South Side Light on April 4, 1939. The tower transmitted a dash followed by three dots, Morse Code for "B."

Automated in 1962, the Buffalo South Side Lighthouse is currently inactive, having been replaced by a simple, modern post light that is very convenient to maintain. The old beacon's fourth-order Fresnel lens was removed in 1967, and after having been on display at the Coast Guard's Buffalo Station, in 1987 it was mounted in Buffalo's cherished and more centrally located 1833 tower, where it is decoratively lit at night. A 300-millimeter optic was mounted on the gallery outside the lantern room upon the removal of the Fresnel lens. This optic was active until 1993, when the current navigational was established on a nearby pole.

The closure of most of the Lackawanna steel plant has had a large economic impact on the Buffalo area and greatly decreased the amount of freighters calling at the port. A large portion of Buffalo's grain-milling and storage facilities have also shut down, but there was still an active General Mills plant in the harbor as of 2007. (During our boat ride through Buffalo Harbor, we were treated to the aroma of Cocoa Puffs.) Today, Buffalo Harbor is kept busy with fishermen and recreational boaters, and the city is planning on further development on the waterfront near the present Coast Guard station.

In July of 2008, the Buffalo Harbor South Entrance Lighthouse was offered to qualified groups through the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act, passed in 2000. Two groups, the Buffalo Lighthouse Association and the Maritime Activity Interyouth Network, submitted a letter of interest by the September 23, 2008 deadline and followed up with a formal application. The deed to the lighthouse has been transferred to the Lighthouse Association, and an $850,000 restoration is planned. Fundraising for the first phase of the project, a $185,000 stabilization and safety phase, began in 2012.
Head Keepers: Delos Hayden (1903), Edward Van Natta (1903 - 1904), John Burns (1904), George Codding (1904 - 1913).

It's just my personal opinion, of course, but the Buffalo Harbor is beautiful and plans to develop the Erie Basin, Canalfront and the Outer Harbor into a state park with a public beach promise a renewal for this city once dubbed "the most beautifully laid out city in North America." The city boasts some of the most beautiful architecture and some amazing parks specifically designed for the city by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux between 1868 and 1896. This coordinated system of recreational spaces is the oldest such system in the United States. Don't sell Buffalo short!! We're making a comeback!!

This digital work is hand painted from a reference photo of my own.