voice-for-change

Robin Lane Fox designs a subversively modern vegetable garden that could work in all terrains

2011-03-02T01:44:00.003-08:00

I ought to explain my choice of supermarket imagery. In between the big pots you should put some smaller pots of good compost, which you can sow with seed of genuine spinach - not the type of beet, or beta vulgaris, that panders to modern supermarket customers' penchant for unseasonable shopping. True spinach is a summer vegetable, which tends to flop if taken too far from home. It tastes of iron and dark green goodness. The beet impostor tastes of nondescript leaves and does not deserve the marketers' ploy of calling it "French". If you want proper spinach you have to grow your own, out of the reach of predators at ground level. I grow the strong Scenic F1 Hybrid, whose seed is available from Thompson & Morgan of Ipswich.

My other supermarket supplements are dill and chervil. They are two excellent herbs, which seldom turn up in the shops in those pots of hopeless peat. You have to sow them yourself, but they are extremely easy to grow. Dill makes rather thin-stemmed plants with finely cut little leaves, but it is the most excellent companion for ordinary farmed fish. The chopped leaves will even enliven sea bass that has never seen salt water. Its full name is Anethum gravolens and it is seldom as much as a foot high. Chervil, by contrast, is much too strongly flavoured for fish. It comes into its own when a few leaves are shredded and mixed into scrambled eggs. Few shops actually sell it, but it is extraordinarily easy to grow in a pot, even on a windowsill. Its botanical name is Anthriscus.

The centrepiece of my answer to the allotment has to be the bitter-leaved radicchio. It can be hard to find in supermarkets but this year Thompson & Morgan are offering seeds of an excellent early variety from Treviso in northern Italy. I value it because it is excellent in a particular recipe. Cut bits of radicchio into thin strips and cut a few slices of Parma ham into similar widths. Melt some unsalted butter and add a clove of squashed garlic and two tablespoons of chopped leaves from a rosemary bush. Put in half of the radicchio and half the Parma ham. Cook them very briefly and put to one side. Then, boil up some tagliatelle in salted water, drain it and add a bit more butter and some Parmesan cheese. Put in the cooked radicchio and ham and then add the rest and stir it around frantically. It is much better with your own fresh radicchio. The recipe is not mine, I owe it to the River Cafe cookbook Easy but I have eaten it six times in the past six months.

The crucial point is to realise that vegetables make the most excellent pot plants if you choose varieties carefully. The hazards at ground level are simply too great for most of us. Flies proliferate, rain is rare and the dreaded wildlife will eat whatever it can. Turn the old advice on its head and put flowers in your allotment and vegetables on a weed-free terrace beside the house.

My answer to the allotment GARDENING

2011-03-02T01:44:00.001-08:00

Behind every garden there is said to lie a vision. It may be a hazy memory from childhood, a photograph in a pretty book or a memory enhanced by love on holiday in the south of France.

Sometimes I meet male corporate bulldozers who pat me on the back for continuing to write this column and tell me how much they enjoy gardening. They then settle down in their offices to savage anything that moves slowly. I cannot help wondering about the vision behind their gardens - a secretary, perhaps, on a meaningful picnic for two in very long grass in July?

Vegetable gardens rest on visions too, visions of rich greenery and carrots which grow straight. These visions are a fantasy if you live on a clay soil, in the centre of cities or anywhere within a three-mile radius of my own garden's replica of the shingle on Dungeness Beach. If you do, my advice is quite different. Forget the soil at ground level. Put vegetables out of reach of it and think Tarmac. On it, arrange vegetables in pots, where you can control everything that happens to them. The aim here is to be extremely modern, subverting and deconstructing green gardeners' rules of the game. You can never complain again that I write only for people with big country gardens, whose clocks have stopped in 1962. Here is how to design a vegetable garden on a new wave of modern realism.

First, concrete over the patch you wish to consecrate to vegetables. Then, draw four symbolic figures, one for each corner of your patch of fertility. In the upper right-hand corner, paint a pair of black-gloved hands seizing a supermarket basket in which the FT is showing the share price ofJ. Sainsbury plc. In the lower left, draw a badger, snarling, as one of them snarled at me on Good Friday when I brought it a saucer of inorganic milk. In the lower right, draw some distressed butterflies and a slug weeping with slime as it deconstructs. In the upper left, draw a frustrated rabbit, one with its paws and jaw tied in a bed of young lettuces.

The beauty of this design is that you can use it anywhere, even in small urban gardens, and you can vary the images to include your own worst enemies. When you have laid your concrete zone, place four very large cheap clay pots on its outer edges and fill them with the most exquisite ready-made, fertile compost. Coat their lower rims with Vaseline, which is an excellent defence against climbing slugs; you might consider a line of razor blades against any squirrels with ambition. Into each of the tubs, plant a very special variety of potato, and sow seeds of the excellent medal-winning Sytan variety of carrots, which has won merited awards from the Royal Horticultural Society. It has an excellent taste and is reasonably resistant to the dreaded carrot fly.

My latest volume of hot air on the subject is Organic Gardening by John Fedor, who gardens in northeast America. He claims that "mixing parsley and carrots deters carrot flies because of the masking aroma of the parsley". Dream on, old boy. The flies still eat my carrots and Peter Rabbit polishes off the parsley, just as Beatrix Potter predicted.

GRAND DESIGNS ; Rich patrons always turn to the same posse of aristo lady designers. No wonder their gardens look so dull, says Christopher Stocks

2011-03-02T01:43:00.002-08:00

Prince Charles is a prime example. When he bought his home Highgrove in 1980, updating the garden was one of his first priorities. Unfortunately, as he admits, at the time, "I knew nothing about the practical aspects of gar- dening." So did he get Alan Titchmarsh in? Well, no. For the initial designs and practical advice he went straight to the Marchioness of Salisbury, whose own Gold-standard gardens, first at Cranborne Manor and later at Hatfield House, are all trim topiary and tumbling roses. She, in turn, introduced him to Dame Miriam Rothschild, the white wellington- boot-wearing world authority on fleas, whose overgrown garden at Ashton Wold became a test-bed for the wild-flower-meadow mania sweeping the back gardens of Britain today. Last but not least he called in the late Rosemary Verey, perhaps the grandest Gold of them all, whose potagers drove impressionable gardeners potty and won her the patronage of Elton John.

The grandness of the Golds is, of course, part of their appeal, but it can also be a handicap: a few years ago I met one of their leading lights on a garden visit and asked her the name of an unusual tree in her collection. She was so posh she couldn't open her mouth, and her answer went something like "Eeeuwww eyyuhm ethnk mmeuw ehmmeuwll mmmnnah," which left us pretty much back where we'd started.

Ah yes, you might say, but it's only to be expected that toffs and multimillionaires should want to deal with one of their own: what's your problem with the grandes dames of gardening? Nothing per se: they're all fine designers who deserve their success. I just think their influence hasn't always been a creative one. British gardening was once at the forefront of international innovation, but our obsession with the past, with historically correct recreations of 17th-century parterres and with cod-cottage gardens, has meant that we've drifted off into a nostalgic backwater, hobbled by snobbery and resting on laurels earned by the likes of Gertrude Jekyll and Vita Sackville-West (the Golds of their day). Most of the groundbreaking ideas and designs of the past 20 years have come from abroad - from the US, France, Germany and the Netherlands - and the most imaginative gardens to be created in this country in recent years have largely been designed by foreigners: Alnwick Gardens, for example, by Jacques Wirtz (Belgian), Thames Barrier Park by Alain Provost (French), or the Princess Diana Memorial Garden by Kathryn Gustafson (American).

So does this mean that the Golds are all washed up? Is the future of British gardening less posh and less, well, British? Well, perhaps that wouldn't be such a bad thing. After all, at least with a foreign designer you know you'll be able to understand what they're saying.

GARDENING SPECIAL

2011-03-02T01:43:00.000-08:00

Like they say, it takes one to know one. When the Duchess of Northumberland was looking for someone to design her controversial new garden at Alnwick Castle, she ended up asking a Belgian because she felt Britain's "grand old lady designers" were more interested in creating gardens for the aristocracy than for the general public. Considering the scale, and the pounds 42m projected cost of the Duchess's own extravaganza, it might appear that the lady protests too much, but actually I think she has a point.

Is British gardening too posh? Well, if the majority of gardening programmes on television were anything to go by, you'd be forgiven for thinking it's not posh enough, but I'm not talking about when to plant your brassicas or whether you should paint your decking pink. I'm talking proper, grown- up gardening now: not the flim-flam that's done just for the cameras, or the nuts-and-bolts advice that's about as exciting as poking around beneath the bonnet of your car. Real gardening is an art-form just like architecture or poetry: it takes skill, and space, and time - and money. And in Britain it seems to take a grand lady - or at least someone who aspires to their aesthetic.

Why this is I'm not entirely sure, but with the refreshing exception of Jane Northumberland, just about anyone with the will and the wallet to commission a notable garden in the past 30 years has turned to one of the "Golds", the Grand Old Lady Designers whose haughtycultural style has long dominated large-scale British gardening.

Gardening - Setting designs in stone

2011-03-02T01:42:00.001-08:00

ferns and woodland flowers.

Freely draining soil is essential so if you have a clay garden you may need to put in extra drainage. The site will also need to be cleared of perennial weeds.

Don't just position your stone randomly, think hard about the design of your rock garden.

Boldness works well so make it as large as possible and do not position it near formal areas such as rose gardens and bedding displays.

If you use limestone or sandstone they will have clearly defined strata lines so position the rocks with these lines lying horizontally, as you'd see them in their natural environment.

Once you have the rocks in place don't rush to plant. Leave the garden for a couple of weeks, giving the soil time to settle.

When considering which plants to use remember that the rock garden offers a range of habitats for different specimens.

Vertical crevices are perfect for rosetted plants such as saxifrages and lewisias which dislike water sitting around their necks, while level areas suit bulbs and upright perennials like aquilegias and primulas.

Mat-formers like thyme also favour flat surfaces and are particularly effective tumbling over the rocks.

You can also use spot plants like dwarf shrubs and conifers but it is best to limit the number as they can overwhelm a scheme.

Do not overcrowd plants and remember that mat-formers will spread vigorously. For the crevices use small, young plants that will easily fit the tiny spaces.

Make sure there is sufficient soil in the crevice, then gently squeeze in the plant at a tilted angle with the roots pointing downward.

When planting is completed mulch the surface with 2cm of horticultural grit.

The Life Mag

2011-03-02T01:41:00.001-08:00

GARDENERS seem to love them or hate them. I'm talking about rock gardens and as someone who rather likes them I was surprised to see gardening personality Chris Beardshaw say on a recent television programme that he really disliked them.

I have an ally, however, in top horticulturist Kathryn Bradley- Hole whose splendid book 'Stone, Rock and Gravel' contains detailed instructions for building and planting a rock garden.

'Wherever stone is abundant it can be put to good use in the garden,' she writes. 'When used well it enhances our connection with the natural world and the garden's sense of place in its surroundings.'

Once you have identified a suitable site for your garden you need to choose your rocks.

Try to blend them in with the local landscape, selecting stone from the immediate environment.

Local quarries may have piles of stones rejected by the building industry but suitable for gardens. Reclamation yards can also be profitable hunting grounds.

Once you have ordered your rocks ensure your site is prepared so you can get them in place as soon as they are delivered.

Your site should be as open, bright and sunny as possible. A sloping site is ideal as this gives better drainage and looks more natural.

Don't despair if you only have a shady area, just select plants that prefer that particular environment, such as ferns and woodland flowers.

Home Garden Design Workshop

2011-03-02T01:40:00.001-08:00

Spring arrived three days ago - on the calendar, at least. That may be a tease to garden buffs itching to do more than thumb through plant catalogs.

That's why the first hands-on gardening workshops of the new season are so appealing. One of them, offered at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society's Elm Bank Education Center in Wellesley, will create transition between garden daydreaming and realistic planning for the growing season ahead.

Garden designers Mary Dewart and Maria von Brincken will try to inspire gardeners in a "Connecting with Nature: Creating Gardens of Meaning and Beauty Intensive Home Garden Design Workshop." The two- day workshop, offered April 4 and 12, incorporates exercises on the Elm Bank property and in the classroom there, too.

"To be a good designer, you have to have everything from the big picture to the smallest petal or blade of grass in mind," Dewart said. "We plan to introduce people to several ways to get in touch with the big picture."

Von Brincken said the workshops would begin with opening exercises designed to "free up the imagination." Weather permitting, participants might go out into the landscape and discover the elements - from the shade cast by trees to hardscape under their feet - that grab each gardener's attention.

Dewart said the group will also learn to observe archetypal aspects of the landscape and discover which ones appeal to each gardener. For instance, some people might feel drawn to semi- enclosed places that represent safe harbors. This might be achieved in the garden by installing a terrace surrounded by perennials. Others might respond more to garden areas that serve, in a broad sense, as promontories. Examples of promontory spaces include an overlook and a plot that juts into a larger garden area. Still, other green thumbs might point to the cave as an appealing archetype. A garden outgrowth of this might be a pergola surrounded on three sides by shrubs.

After discovering the kind of spaces that make them comfortable and the archetypes that they respond to, workshop participants can return to the classroom and make simple constructions, using cardboard, of overall garden forms. They will then move to two- dimensional drawings.

Using color wheels and other materials, Dewart and von Brincken will help participants create garden designs that please the eye and engage the other senses, too. Even if the home landscapes at their command are sited around a house and driveway instead of the rich landscape of Elm Bank, the goal is for gardeners to learn a process that they can apply to creating meaningful garden designs.

Just a quick note

2006-03-09T01:52:00.001-08:00

I had expected to have a few days to get this a little more organized...but based on the Little Girl Lost diary...all I can say is wow!

The love and encouragement for speaking out is awesome. So...I'll work on this all weekend and pull more info into this space.

Any readers with stories to share...this is a safe place to post. I will post your stories with your blogger ID or as anonymous...your choice.

Thanks for all the support...

Little Girl Lost

2006-03-09T01:52:00.000-08:00

This is written with love for those that have lived this story and those that love the ones that have lived this story. I always recommend reading this with a box of Kleenex handy...but that's just because I always need them. This is a response to a dear friend with love in my heart.

Choices were made by a little girl - decisions well beyond her years. The choice was to escape violence and sexual abuse. The choice was to not live with incest as her sister had. This is a little girl's story...and a woman's.

- - -

Then

Many years ago a little girl was growing up in what seemed to be an average family. Her parents worked and provided a place to live and food to eat. She had siblings to play with, toys and books of her own, and a dog in the yard that gave big sloppy kisses when she came home from school. She had pretty dresses and other clean clothes to wear. The family went to church and Sunday dinners with relatives. The little girl went to school and studied hard and got straight A's for years. These were well behaved children - always please and thank you, never speaking out of turn, and always quiet around adults.

This little girl's life was full of hidden pain and fears.

At home, where no one could see, was so much more. Where no one could hear were threats and fears. There was psychological and physical abuse - including sexual abuse. There were beatings for doing things wrong - a slap, a fist, a belt. Verbal threats were constant including threats of death if the little girl ever told anyone. There was sufficient violence that death, on occasion, was what the little girl wanted most. Her mother knew of the violence but not the sexual abuse. The sexual abuse / molesting started at about age 6. There is no reason to go into details. It was an adult with a child.

Her mother was also a victim of the violence if she interfered. During this time - ages of about 5-13 - some of the beatings were for showing and responding to the pain and hurt. When the tears would flow the beatings would escalate. This little girl was told that tears were a sign of weakness. So, in self defense, the tears stopped except when she cried herself to sleep.

After a violent incident that left permanent physical scars, the tears stopped altogether. The heart stopped feeling. The soul of a child had been broken. Walls of self-protection had finally been built high and thick around what was left of the little girl's being.

This self protection was by aloofness, by silence, and by apparent acceptance of the status quo. To all who met this little girl she appeared composed and well adjusted. She was none of the above. She was beyond hurt and had moved to anger and defiance beneath the surface. Her mind sought ways to avoid home, she looked for someone to tell, for someone to trust with her story - even if it meant her own death.

One fateful day the little girl turned openly defiant at home. She confronted her abuser with her hate and defiance. The beating was bloody - but she did not cry.

That day she told someone and they told the police. They were all appalled at the marks of the violence on this small child. She did not cry when she told the police. She did not talk about the sexual abuse. It was never talked about. That same day her father committed suicide rather than face the police. There was the funeral with all the family present. They bought a new dark dress for the little girl to wear - dark brown with ruffles. Then she sat dry eyed and defiant in the front pew with the rest of the family. Defiant as the relatives whispered behind her about her causing her father's death.

For the next 4 or 5 years, the young girl grew into a smart and confident young woman. Confident in her ability to survive the ostracism from her family and church. Stronger every time the accusations and whispers returned about her responsibility for her father's death. Strong enough to survive without any of them. She had decided it was better to be alone or lonely than to be hurt. Sometimes there was anger and rage and defiance against those that accused her. No tears were ever shed.

At age 18 this young woman left home. It was the only way she felt was available to her for change. She joined the Army and the women she met changed her life forever.

Living with dozens of other women 24 hours a day touched her as never before. She met others and they talked late into the night on many occasions. Lots of these women had been through the same things she had and sometimes more. Most of the women did not cry. Each had developed a sense of survival that was stronger than any could possibly realize. Over the next few years more women entered her life. Women that shared their stories and gained strength from the knowledge that they weren't alone. These were women that gave unconditional love and support knowing that their shared experiences gave them strength.

With all this love and support came an acceptance of the past. It cannot be changed but we can change ourselves. We can accept our defiance and use it to our advantage to fight for others. We can accept our strong and confident selves and pass that confidence on to others. We can love ourselves and learn to give love to others. These women changed the young woman.

One day - the tears returned. These were tears and great wracking sobs that almost tore this young woman apart. The tears returned among these women she called friends. These friends held her as the walls of protection came tumbling down. Friends that stayed but stepped back when she needed time to re-group because they knew the process. Tears make you vulnerable and they are scary. The tears intermixed with anger and rage and defiance. Yet the friends never wavered. And so the healing began for the little girl trapped in a woman's body. The young woman ultimately sought help from professionals and more tears flowed. Many other things have happened during the intervening years cause the woman pain. Yet the tears have flowed freely as an acknowledgement of the cleansing and healing process.

Today the woman is strong and confident in her ability to stand alone. She is just as confident in her ability to stand with others and give love freely. There is still defiance and rage against those that would hurt others. She is defiant and strident in her defense of victims - against whatever is the source of their pain. Tears flow freely now - for any that hurt or are in pain and, on occasion, for the little girl lost.

Now

- - -

This story is not written in the first person intentionally. Someone else, Diane101 I think, put forth the idea that "if you don't like your past then re-write it". This is the story of the little girl I was but not the woman I am.

This is the story of little girls that I met when they were grown women but not the women they became. Each of us chose to take a path of healing including permanently walking away from people and places that caused our pain. Each of us chose to walk the path to a place beyond being a victim to a place of strength. There are lessons we learned, strengths we gained, and most of all, love that we learned to share. Most of us now speak openly and publicly to help others that walk similar paths. We are here to reach out to help and love others. All those little girls lived in another place and time but each has been brought forward, protected and cared for, by the women that we became.

I give this story to my friend and to friends yet to be made. Let the tears flow freely for all of us as a symbol of strength and healing.

Rant Every time you think about the South Dakota law...look at the picture of that little girl.

Remember that she survived sexual abuse from the time she was 5 or 6 years old until she was almost 14.

Remember that she could have lived with incest and could have been pregnant AND had to carry the baby.

Remember not just that she survived BUT someone died because of this abuse. It was self-inflicted but someone died.

So each day I rage and fight and will continue for each and every little girl.

Blessed Be

This has been cross posted at Daily Kos and Booman Tribune. Originally posted at Village Blue with a different title and with some edits added here.

So. Dakota - where victims are punished

2006-03-06T01:51:00.000-08:00

The legislature in the state of South Dakota passed legislation that prohibits all abortions except for cases that may cost the life of the mother. Today the Governor of South Dakota signed that atrocious piece of legislation. The impact of this legislation is that in addition to being assaulted during rape, by being brutalized by incest, and all the wounds and scars - women will be subjected to carrying babies to term. 9 months of additional trauma to the victims....but the State of South Dakota doesn't care. They are willing to abuse women and girls even further. There are no words for how appalled I am at this legislation - and it's assault on women and children.

Where I Stand:
Abortions are a medical procedure between a woman and her doctor.
What is truly appalling is that this legislation even made it this far. See what the mainstream media has to say here.

From the Planned Parenthood site:

2006-03-06T01:50:00.000-08:00

Yes the law will be stopped immediately because of legal action by Planned Parenthood of South Dakota. All eyes have been on South Dakota since February 22, when the state Senate approved a bill to ban nearly all abortions. Governor Mike Rounds (R) has indicated that he will likely sign the bill into law.

Planned Parenthood plans to file a lawsuit soon after the bill becomes law to keep it from going into effect. The ban clearly violates Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 decision that found it unconstitutional for states to ban abortion. The ban's supporters are hoping the case will ultimately reach a newly formed Supreme Court, potentially prompting a majority of justices to overturn Roe.

Anti-choice forces in South Dakota are on a mission to make the state the most hostile to reproductive rights in the country. And sadly, as a recent state task force on abortion revealed, they are not too far from reaching that goal.

The story below (linked), which originally ran in Choice! Magazine on December 22, 2005, provides an eerily prophetic look at how South Dakota became the first state since 1992 (Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey) to adopt a direct challenge to Roe.

Part of the Story: Why I Speak for the Victims

2005-04-21T01:49:00.000-07:00

This diary is personal...and extremely inflammatory. I would ask that you read this all the way through before you flame the topic or the comments that people make.

If you have a deep and strong conviction about organized religion and about church congregations be warned I have absolutely no respect organized religion. I do not hate people in general, regardless of their political or religious beliefs. I am deeply spiritual and have nothing but an abiding faith in the goodness of mankind as a whole. For me there is a deep belief in a supreme being, even if that being is within ones self, that guides us.

People have vociferously defended and derided religion and religious beliefs in the diaries. There have also been a lot of us that do not support organized religion and churches. General terms have been used such as corruption of the leaders among other reasons for the vocal diatribes. Tonight I am going to tell my story - be patient - I'll try not to be wordy here but this is very emotional for me. I grew up in deeply religious Mormon family. My parents were married in the temple and all of the children were baptized when the time was appropriate. We went to church every Sunday as a family, the kids went to after school church programs, and my parents taught Sunday School.

We were an ideal church going family but Domestic Violence was a way of life in our house.

Break a dish and get a beating, iron a shirt wrong and get slapped, talk back and get a belt, try to protect the kids and my Mom got a couple of broken ribs. Victims of domestic violence know what I am talking about...some of you may have seen it on TV...the stories are all true. By the way - I hate the term domestic violence - it is violent assault and abuse - there is no other way to say it. Just so we don't blame this on the Utah culture, a significant portion of my childhood was spent in other states, and a substantial time near Seattle while I was in my early teens. But let me get to organized religion - which is what this story is about.

I believed my Sunday School teachers - if you ever have a problem you can talk to the church leaders. About the age of 12 I did just that - told a church leader about the abuse. Holy Shit! Big counseling sessions followed - with the church leaders and my parents. Kids not allowed. Prayer was the answer and spending quality time as a family. Right - not even close. Since I was the troublemaker my share of the beatings got worse. My mother sent me to live with my grandmother when I threatened to runaway from home. A couple more broken ribs for my mom on that one.

Time jump - 8 or so months later I am now 13 and my family moves back to Utah. I have no choice but to move back with my family. So off to church we go as a good church going family - but nothing has changed. My oldest sister graduated from high school and immediately moves out. By winter I try again...this time I talked to a school counselor showing the latest welts from a whipping with a belt and then to the Sheriff's Department. The cops go to talk to my dad. He commits suicide when they knock on the door - 2 days before my 14th birthday.

-----Okay - if you've made it this far - I recommend taking deep breaths. -----

Now we talk about more of the help that didn't happen. About the ostracism that came from the church leaders - because we didn't keep our problems in The Church. Because we talked to legal authorities not the church...and then there were the counselors recommended by the church leaders. About what a misbehaved and ill-brought up child I was for talking about family problems. And through it all we went to Sunday School and pretended that the world was loving and good - hypocrites in the name of religion.

Teenagers can game any system - and psychologists don't stand a chance. So I gamed the system...I wanted someone to listen to me and hear my pain but they didn't. The counselors gave me pat lines about trusting in God and church. I attempted suicide the same year and spent time in the hospital because of it...and still they didn't listen. And still we went to church. A church that rejected my friends because they were black. A church that told me to listen to the man of the house and trust his ways. A church that condoned by no follow-up and non-action child abuse and domestic violence.

From 14 until almost 40 I went to other churches looking for an honest and open leadership: UCC, Episcopal, Methodist, Lutheran, even Catholic. Looking for a place to call home where victims were welcome and nurtured. They all taught the same thing...patriarchy and church first. I probably own dozen or more books on comparative religion. What the churches said and what the theology said were rarely the same.

In my 40's someone introduced me to Paganism. Paganism - where all Gods are one God and all Goddesses are one Goddess. Where the love you give is the love that comes back to you threefold. Where what you send out - good or evil comes back threefold.

Whatever your religion, I have no argument or conflict of the basic theology.

* Do I trust a leader of any church because they are the leader of the church? Absolutely not
* Do I trust a person, who happens to be a religious leader such as a pastor or priest? If I feel that I know that person - Absolutely

Before the condemnation flies to those not believing in organized religion - pause to find out why. Mine is a painful story that I only tell rarely - and usually to abused children conference seminars. This week's diaries made me feel the need to tell this story - because of the overwhelming focus on organized religion. Before you flame or condemn or even criticize I would ask that you think twice about the lack of tolerance - or walk in my shoes for a few miles.

My sanity and ability to love I owe not to any religion that I trusted. I owe it to a wonderful uncle that saw and listened and cared. A caring, spiritual man, that never went to church.

Welcome to Voice for Change

2005-04-21T01:46:00.000-07:00

This is a new endeavor for me - a political voice that will be an advocate for victims of violence.

The focus will be predominantly women and children and domestic violence.

This focus will also address how oppression of women and children leads to human rights abuses within my own country and around the world.

I am not out to change the world - just to inform even a few people of the violence and oppression that exists...physically, emotionally and psychologically.