BELLY DANCING DIPLOMACY

National Public Radio (NPR) recently did a story on the conservative reaction of women in the American Arab Community in Detroit to belly dancing. Many women interviewed had daughters or other relatives learning or actively belly dancing in and around the Detroit area. I wasn’t surprised that most of these women were adamantly dead set against the American or European version of this dance and thought the amount of strategic exposed skin and the seductive movements highly improper and inappropriate behavior. Many of their daughters, nieces, etc had been discouraged from the dance and some even censured for it. I thought to delve further into what has become a major phenomenon in the United States and most western countries.

First of all, “belly dancing” is a western term and mostly fostered and romanticized in the 18th and 19th centuries and introduced to America at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. The dance caught on, became more risqué and a staple on the vaudevillian circuit. Then along came Hollywood and film and the rest is history. As sexual and suggestive as many appreciative Americans think belly dancing - it is nothing more than a middle eastern/north African Family inspired activity that appears to have been originally intended only for the eyes of the women of the clan.

There are a lot of theories about the dance that attribute its origins to just plain entertainment or the remnants of an ancient eastern folk dance. Perhaps it is the result of all the above though we are well assured that this form of dance has been thoroughly romanticized, reinvented for Europeans and Americans and even reintroduced back into the Middle East where its movements and presence are not wholly welcome. The dance is still performed there but generally with more clothing than we Americans would accept or expect… So, while we apparently can’t be certain about the origins of the dance, this writer personally believes the Family inspired theory that it is a dance performed by women for women.

In the United States we now see belly dancing performed as entertainment in many Middle Eastern restaurants, clubs and hookah bars. Sometimes the “men folk” of these restaurants seemingly chose those establishments as nothing more than an indulgence and opportunity to appreciate the female form undulating to supposed ancient rhythms and movements. Many dancers learned their skills at dance studios or even exercise clubs where the benefits of the dance are obvious.

Belly dancers Kaya and Sadie from Denver, Colorado made the finals of the 2010 version of America’s Got Talent and with their stunning performance drew rave reviews from Judges Piers Morgan and Howie Mandel (who wanted more) not to mention thousands of admiring male and female fans on the Internet. Sadly Kaya and Sadie were eliminated from the competition though Howie understandably wanted to take both Kaya and Sadie home with him…

We need note also the presence of the famed American professional dance troupe – the Bellydance Superstars - who were formed in 2002 by famed producer and manager Miles Copeland of BTM, I.R.S. Records and Sting fame. The troupe has toured the world to rave reviews for six years including Europe, Asia and Africa including Morocco where they played in Marrakesh, Casablanca and Rabat. Word is still out on whether they will play Middle Eastern hot spots in Egypt and Syria (how about Iran?) where Copeland hopes to sow the seeds of American goodwill. We do earnestly hope that his admirable efforts will bear fruit.

Now, I am a big fan of Middle Eastern cuisine (right hand only – please) and am well beyond the basics of pita bread, hummus, and baba ghanoush. While in the southeastern US I frequented several Middle Eastern and Mediterranean restaurants owned and operated by Middle Eastern businessman and restaurateurs. I was pleasantly surprised with the attendant belly dancing. The dancers were all friendly and would even talk with restaurant patrons after their performances.

All the girls appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent. Of course, I had to ask where they learned to dance. Much to my delight and perhaps the harbinger of an additional breakthrough diplomatic strategy that could end the thousands of years conflict in the Middle East was their collective answer. They had all learned to dance at the local Jewish Community Center. Hmmm.

Aye,

Ned Buxton

DANIEL SCHORR – LAST OF THE LAST

I have long been a fan of National Public Radio (NPR) and one of the reasons was the almost delicious and independent presence since 1985 of Senior News Analyst and famed commentator Daniel Schorr. Prior to NPR Schorr had a distinguished 23 year career with CBS (the last active member of smokin’ Edward R Murrow's Boys) where he impressively earned the enmity of Richard Nixon in 1971 (Watergate). Ted Turner tapped Schorr as his first employee in 1979 and he called CNN home for several years. Schorr gave CNN instant credibility and a place in the market.

The always feisty and outspoken (I say courageous) Schorr followed an almost no holds barred approach that startled and cajoled the subjects of his attention. He validated his effectiveness by earning a place on Nixon’s infamous “Enemies List” and was denounced in Pravda as a "provocateur" and denied return to the Soviet Union in 1957 after refusing to cooperate with Soviet censors and antagonizing Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in a Face the Nation interview. Schorr was then head of CBS’s Moscow Bureau, but boy did he make a point...

While he was mostly recognized as an award winning radio and TV journalist, he was one of the mainstays of The Christian Science Monitor where he very impressively plied his trade in newspapers from 1948 to 2009.

I liked the idea that he served in WWII in Army Intelligence but never thought the CIA and FBI beyond his purview. No sacred cows there – the truth will out. CBS and the NY Times who had nurtured hard wired relationships with these entities didn’t appreciate Schorr’s candor. Schorr’s handling of a suppressed House of Representatives Intelligence Committee report (The Pike Report) on illegal activities in the CIA and FBI and all the attendant posturing turned out to be a good lesson but nothing more than a temporary speed breaker for Schorr.

Working to the end, Schorr last appeared on NPR with that distinctive voice of his just a couple of weeks ago. In his remarkable six decade career he reported and ultimately interpreted and opined the news for NPR setting the standard for modern investigative journalism. Given that role Schorr proclaimed that NPR was his own, Promised Land because, "Nobody ever told me what not to do."

With a brilliant candlepower Schorr sometimes had little patience for those mere mortals who couldn’t or wouldn’t walk the walk but they nevertheless remained part of his constituency. Schorr embraced a mostly liberal perspective but that didn’t stop him from tenaciously defending to his core the opportunity for anybody to communicate and espouse their causes and perspectives. Schorr bemoaned the “Slippery, Sliding Scale of Civility” in our society which has turned out to be a harbinger of even greater demonstrations of disrespect in the 21st century. Schorr believed that we all win when we engage a respectful exchange of ideas and perspectives whether it be personal, business or political – however diametrically opposed we are.

Daniel Schorr was 93 and lived a full and productive life leaving what may be an unapproachable legacy for journalism – especially when you consider his pedigree and witness to world history. He made a difference and always guaranteed that we would have all the information and perspectives – sometimes at personal expense. Daniel Schorr made sure that we didn’t forget the lessons of history. As Bill Moyers wrote immediately following news of Schorr’s passing, "With razor-sharp wit, personal courage and love of our craft, he distinguished himself and journalism."

Daniel Schorr because of his personal conviction and character was the archetype for that almost extinct journalistic model that embraces the truth whatever the cost and really didn’t have any other options save to pursue that path. I ask who is capable of picking up the gauntlet and giving us that kind of balance in the future?

I now have an even greater sense of my mortality, especially as I move through my 60’s. When Friends and those that occupy sacred and highly respected status in our lives move on - it signals the beginning of the end of our upright status on this planet and I wonder whether how many of us would in the final reckoning have made such a courageous difference. Well done and sleep well, Daniel.

Aye,

Ned Buxton

THE HORSE & THE COWBOY

So what came first – the chicken or the egg or the horse or the cowboy? A Friend recently pondered the latter question so this post is dedicated to simplistically answering that complicated query and even defining who the first cowboys were. Most folks out here in Texas don’t appear motivated or compelled to look much beyond our current borders to ponder that inquiry. If we were just talking about Texas Cowboys then we could wax eloquent about some real heroes whose presence and work ethic was critical to expanding and defending our borders and perpetuating our way of life in what we now know as the American Southwest. Our question is much more macro and predictably takes us well beyond the shores of North America and surprisingly to some ancient shores.

It would follow that those who were the first to domesticate the horse for the purpose of droving - and not just as beasts of burden and a source of food - may have been the first cowboys? Well, that remains a somewhat controversial question that is still being debated. Up to a millennium appears to have transpired from the domestication, breeding and the ultimate use of the horse to drive stock. Bottom line: the horse came first.

We need note that the horse originated on what is now the North American continent some 55 million years ago. They evolved and migrated across the Bering land bridge into what is now Siberia and spread across Asia and then into Europe, south to the Middle East and into Africa. During a time line from those 55 million years to roughly two million years ago and the Pleistocene Epoch (The Ice Age) when Hyracotherium transformed into what we now know as Equus – the modern horse (browsers to grazers).

The advent of Humans in recent times (roughly 10,000 years ago) resulted in the demise and extinction of Equus in North America who - as current theories appear to correctly postulate – was hunted for food. Boy did they miss the boat and validates once again that cultures evolved at substantially different rates based on their environment, natural resources and motivation.

The images of horses appear in Paleolithic cave art as represented in the caves of Lascaux (a series of caves in southwestern France near Montignac as represented in the painting above my mantle) as early as 30,000 BCE. Now these animals were truly wild horses which as we have noted were more than likely hunted as food by Cro-Magnon (Early Modern Humans) and Neanderthal before they were ever used as a work animal. The occupants of what is now North America had to wait for the Spanish to reintroduce the horse (our first nations called them big dogs) to our continent in the sixteenth century in their ultra successful attempt to create a new world order (colonization) – a la Francisco Vásquez de Coronado y Luján and Hernando de Soto.

At any rate, while the horse was extinct in North America, horses were fast becoming a mainstay of many ancient civilizations including the Sredny Stog culture, the Botai people of Kazakhstan, Greeks, Romans, Persians, Scythians, Parthians, Mongols and others. The horse properly established their significant place in history and, hence, our inquiry today. We are certain that the first horses were domesticated as well as used for food and then transportation of both humans and cargo somewhere around 4,000 to 3,500 B.C.E.

There is no doubt that cultures which used the horse for a variety of tasks, including agriculture, war, hunting, transport, recreation and, yes, food would have out of necessity had to develop a way to control what had to be herds of horses and livestock and someone to direct this resource – someone on horseback. Aha! We know now that the wheel was also part of this equation.

The solid two or four wheeled Mesopotamian (Sumerian) chariots pulled by as many as four Onagers or asses before the introduction of the horse were first used around 3,500 to 3,200 BCE for transportation and war though some archeologists speculate that the wheel may have been invented far earlier in Asia. In a great irony, we need note that the wheel already had some manufacturing applications i.e. the potter’s wheel before it was remotely thought to aid in transportation.

The Egyptians invented the spoked wheel around 2,000 BCE and took the chariot and the role of the horse to the next level in Africa. By around 1435 BCE the Egyptians were mass producing the chariot. But there had long been a horse culture in Iberia which suggested by acclaimed Portuguese historian, zoologist, anatomist, horse breeder and paleontologist Dr. Ruy D’Andrade dates from the Neolithic period (5000 – 4000 BCE) when native tribes of what is now Portugal and Spain may have even used horses in war.

Though their origins are unclear it would appear that the less than homogeneous Iberians were soon influenced by the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Carthaginians and yes, ladies and gentlemen - the Celts (among others) who apparently in several successive waves were a major factor in the development of their culture. From these roots sprang the great horse culture of Spain and one of the primary sources of the modern Cowboy.

Though the origin of the early name of Spain, “Iberia" continues to be debated, some scholars attribute the name to the Greeks while some even allow for a Celtic influence. While the real origins of the name will probably remain unknown relative to our post we do have substantial evidence of Celtic weaponry, horseshoes, bridle bits and even spurs evidenced around 500 B.C in Iberia. We also see riders in saddles portrayed in Iberian stone carvings, bronze castings and paintings.

While the Celtic influence is undeniably substantial and while this writer would love to attribute one of the fundamental origins of the cowboy as Celtic, alas that conclusion will never come. It is apparent that the cultural input was from many disparate sources and out of this rich mélange evolved the Vaquero/Caballero/Cowboy of the Americas.

If we are objective (my reward for this effort) we have to give due credit to the Scots for their prodigious influence especially in the American West for the evolution of the modern cowboy. You see, the cattle industry had long been a staple of the Scottish culture and even to the degree of elevating reiving (rustling) as an honourable rite of passage akin to counting coup by our own First Nations.

When Neolithic and Bronze Age peoples arrived in Scotland some five thousand years ago they brought the Celtic Shorthorn with them which bred with the native wild cattle and voila – you have an industry where cattle were routinely driven and pastured in alternate mountain and lowland locations and then eventually with the development of the cattle industry driven to market by drovers – both on foot and on horseback. This became an established profession from the 16th century in Scotland, a skill that migrants to the Americas (US and Canada) took with them – along with their culture. All this activity was concurrent with the initial Spanish activity in the Americas. The Scots émigrés became a substantial component of what we now know as Cowboys of the American West.

The archeological record has not revealed whether wild horses spread into Scotland after the end of the last ice age around 10,000 years ago or if horses came with those first settlers. We are certain that horses have been in Scotland since at least the 8th century BC and were ultimately used later to great advantage by both the Picts and the Scots.

Ron Gibson, Scottish Member of Parliament (SNP) and historian in his, In Plaids and Bandanas: from Highland Drover to Wild West Cowboy establishes clear and coherent links between the Highland cattle drovers of 16th century Scotland and the North American West.

The Scottish connection and legacy is well documented in the record and seems highlighted by the seventy year ownership (1882-1952) of the iconic Matador Land and Cattle Company by a Dundee, Scotland group. Matador, located on the high plains at the caprock of the Texas Panhandle was once one of the largest ranches in the world reinforcing Scotland’s transatlantic relationship with Texas.

Matador and Texas history resounds with the names of folks like Alexander Mackay of Dundee and Murdo Mackenzie who was characterized by then US president Theodore Roosevelt as "the most influential of American cattlemen."

In the end there is no doubt that the Modern Cowboy is the composite of the great horse cultures of Europe, Asia and Africa embellished with our own American brand. The very existence of the Cowboy validates once again that we are everyman and the product of a back and forth cross cultural pollination. The world was getting smaller even then…

When all is said and done it took the Spanish to facilitate all this by contributing/importing their culture and the horse back to the Americas/New World ultimately to New Mexico and Texas where an increasingly homogenized though equally disparate group out of necessity prompted the creation and evolution of our modern cowboy decades before my forefathers landed at (or somewhat near) Plymouth Rock.

Aye,

Ned Buxton

One of the inspirations for this post and an excellent source of information on this topic is the book, Origins of the First American Cowboys by Donald A. Chávez y Gilbert. Donald is an educator, historian and writer from Belen, New Mexico where he teaches in the Los Lunas Public Schools and also operates the Terra Patre Farm. You can gain some of the interesting details of this great adventure by reading his revealing book in its entirety, online at: www.nmhcpl.org/COWBOY.html. This gentleman has his act together and we strongly recommend this undoubted future member of the Buckaroo Hall of Fame for his objective and well written works.

Might of Right also recommends Highland Cowboys: From the Hills of Scotland to the American Wild West and Plaids and Bandanas: From Highland Drover to Wild West Cowboy both by historian and Scottish MP Rob Gibson who recounts the connection between the cattle cultures of Scotland and those of the iconic Texas cattle industry. Boots and kilts, aye.

NB

FOURTH OF JULY 2010

For many years my personal heroes have been Charles Kuralt (RIP), Bill Geist, Andy Rooney, Ben Stein and others of that ilk because of their ability to communicate, enlighten, make us all think and sometimes laugh (Thank God for CBS). They are mostly right though some have been labeled as curmudgeons, save the polite Kuralt. These folks have walked the walk and sometimes (OK mostly) pushed the envelope to make their points.

For most of my life I have been compelled to share my ideas and thoughts to the chagrin and delight of some – on both sides of that coin. I always envisioned that someday I might occupy that lofty perch as demonstrated and earned by the above icons. Importantly, I have also learned that when some folks get it right, then there’s no reason or excuse to try and improve on it. Today on CBS’s Sunday Morning Ben Stein nailed his 2010 Fourth of July homage and I offer it to you intact. Enjoy.

“Two hundred and thirty four years ago, a group of very brave Americans came out with the rough draft of the best idea for human organization in the history of the world: a nation in which the government would run not by a monarch, but by the consent of the governed.

As I said, that was a rough draft, that Declaration of Independence. For generations, Americans lacked the ability to govern themselves because of their race, and then for a while after that because of their sex, and even for longer, because they didn't have enough money.

But in a miraculous process, through wars and protests and lawsuits and demonstrations, this American nation now truly is run by the consent of all of the governed, of all races, creeds, sexes, and economic stations.

This truly is a miracle in human history. Its glory can be demonstrated by a simple test, as former Prime Minister Tony Blair once said, "How many want in and how many want out." Very few people leave this country voluntarily, and a heck of a lot risk their lives to get in and stay in.

Now, we are under attack by a creed that hates the freedom and human dignity this country stands for. Those people have serious power to hurt us, as we have learned. And some people say we cannot beat them because you cannot fight an idea.

But that is exactly why we are going to win: because the idea that the founders came up with in 1776 is the one that is closest to the deepest aspirations of the human heart: freedom and individual dignity. The men and women who risk their lives to vote in Iraq and Afghanistan, our brave men and women who offer up their lives for this ideal, the millions who want to come here prove that the Founders had hit a home run. Or, put it this way, how many taxi drivers do you suppose there are in Pakistan who left New York City to move there?

We and the other free societies are where the human soul wants to be, and on this Independence Day, We are not red America or blue America, to coin a phrase. We are a very blessed America and the future belongs to the free.”

Well done, Ben, and along with the rest of you out there - enjoy a happy and safe Fourth of July. That’s your right…

Aye,

Ned Buxton

PELICANS IN THEIR PIETY

In November 2009 the Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis carolinensis) was taken off the federal endangered list after first being so placed in 1970 because of the effects of the pesticide DDT. The 2010 BP oil spill is occurring at the height of their annual nesting season in Louisiana and Alabama and has created yet another severe threat for the noble pelican, one they may not survive. The lives of three generations of Brown Pelicans including parents, juveniles and as yet unhatched eggs hang – precariously - in the balance.

The Brown Pelican is the smallest of all the great Pelicans and has many unique characteristics to include its coastal habitats and spectacular headfirst feeding dives. Its survival is critical to the environmental integrity of the Gulf Coast. The BP Oil Spill has overtaken two major Brown Pelican rookeries in Louisiana including the rookeries in Barataria Bay (Queen Bess Island) and Four Bayou Pass. Others are in imminent danger.

In a cruel irony some of the contractors that BP sent to the rookeries to clean up the oil ended up trampling many chicks and eggs as reported by Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana President Billy Nungesser who lamented, “They (the pelicans) already have the oil affecting their population during their reproduction time, now we have the so called clean up crews stomping eggs. The lack of urgency and general disregard for Louisiana’s wetlands and wildlife is enough to make you sick.” Seems that the “cure” may be almost as bad as the illness…

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries officials wanted to immediately start building sand berms to hold off the oil and protect the pelicans and the delicate Louisiana ecosystem but experienced delays from the US Army Corps of Engineers and Coast Guard who publicly and inexplicability stated they were concerned about the environmental impact of emergency barriers. Huh?

We surely understand that there could be long term ramifications of these sand berms and they have to be factored and monitored, but the immediate greater obvious good surely would indicate that some action, any action, is preferable over inactivity as we watch the Louisiana coast go down the tubes. Well, finally, and apparently with some White House prodding the plan was implemented starting this last weekend with the tab going to (tad da!) - British Petroleum. Sand berms deserve a shot at helping this situation. Let’s pray that they work…

We Buxtons have a strong association with the Pelican which has been the crest of the Buxton Family Association since its founding by great grandfather Dr. G. Edward Buxton. Myriad Buxtons have matriculated their personal coat of arms with the Pelican In Her Piety sharing honors with the noble Stag (i.e. Thomas Fowell Buxton).

For many of us the Pelican is an awkward animal with a comedic bent, witness Tennessean Dixon Lanier Merrith’s 1910 limerick "The Pelican":

A wonderful bird is the pelican.
His bill will hold more that his belican.
He can take in his beak
Food enough for a week,
But I'm damned if I can see how the helican.

For the Buxton Family and many more the Pelican remains a constant symbol of charity, fidelity and self sacrifice. In medieval times (believed to predate the 12th century) the belief existed that, if a pelican was unable to find enough food to feed her young, she would peck at her own breast (vulning) and feed the drops of blood to her young – hence the pelican in her piety. The pelican has since become the symbol of the Passion of Jesus and of the Eucharist and can be seen incorporated in many churches and cathedrals and, yes, coats of arms across the Christian world.

The reality is that the magnificent Pelican has been around for over 40 million years and we surely hope and pray that the efforts to preserve and recover the Brown Pelican will be successful. As more and more information about the oil spill is grudgingly incorporated into our knowledge base, it is apparent that significant work will need to continue for many years to restore the wetlands and fisheries that these birds and many other species depend on. Organizations such as the International Bird Rescue Research Center of California and the Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research of Delaware are currently at the epicenter of the bird rescue efforts in the Gulf of Mexico. God Speed…our future may depend on their success.

We pray that the Brown Pelican (and the rest of us) will be around for many more millions of years occupying their critical niche in our ecosystem. We now realize that, “The air we breathe, the water we drink, cook, and wash with, and the many chemical cycles—including the nitrogen cycle and the carbon cycle, so vital to sustain life—depend on the continued health of ecosystems and the species within them.” We Humans in our arrogance think mostly nothing of the other species that occupy this planet and their critical and strategic role in the pantheon of life. Should we not heed the message we will ultimately be standing in front of a mirror looking for companionship and a raison d’être realizing too late that we are alone and with no hope of recovery.

Who/What will rise to take our place?

Aye,

Ned Buxton

APOCALYPSE IN THE GULF – THE STONEWALL

The recent tragic events in the Gulf of Mexico (61 days and counting as of this post) aka the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill have unleashed an environmental maelstrom and disaster that is not only the worst ever in the Americas but obviously the whole world. It has been characterized by many as “history's greatest environmental disaster.” Yes, ladies and gentlemen – that means – never has this happened before in Human History. That Herculean estimation has not even considered the consequences of the huge release of methane (which caused the explosion and death of the Deepwater Horizon) whose consequences may be as bad as the oil.

I watched on MSNBC as Dr. Samantha Joye a professor in the Department of Marine Sciences in the University of Georgia's Franklin College of Arts and Sciences commented that one plume of oil (whose existence is denied by BP) has a concentration of methane between 100 and 10,000 times that normally seen in the Gulf of Mexico — enough to completely deplete the oxygen. Where oil and methane go – death surely follows.

Much of the fishery in Louisiana and in other adjoining states has been closed down with the prospects that the closures will continue to expand as millions of gallons of crude (1.47 million to 2.5 million U.S. gallons) pour into the Gulf - daily. The closure is now approaching one third of Federal Gulf waters. The residents in and around once beautiful Barataria Bay in southeast Louisiana in Jefferson and Plaquemines Parishes now refer to that once rich body of water as the, “Black Sea.” Ironically one of the key figures in the American victory over the British at the Battle of New Orleans, Pirate Jean Lafitte made his home in these same once pristine waters.

BP CEO (I want my life back) Tony Hayward given some of his most recent outrageous statements continues to make BP look as bad as they probably are (swims like a duck, flies like a duck). Not to be outdone by the gaffe producing Hayward, BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg commented this week in a fit of mind numbing arrogance, “We care about the small people.” That characterization predictability angered many Gulf Coast Residents (me too) who see this as a continuing effort by BP to diminish the scope and magnitude of this disaster. One angry resident conjured up memories of the aforementioned Battle of New Orleans and invited the Brits to replay that end battle of the War of 1812 assuring that the result would be the same… All hail Andy Jackson.

The heavy handed (and probably illegal) tactics by some BP employees and contractors as reported by NPR, CNN, AP, CBS, WDSU-TV, the New Orleans Times Picayune and other news media to limit access to damaged areas is alarming and needs the attention of local, state and federal law enforcement. That said, some are now reporting that local, state and Federal law enforcement now appear to be in cahoots with BP. The one criterion that seems to get their attention isn’t the issue of safety, but rather whether any inquiring group (whether on foot, truck, boat or plane) includes a member of the press? That alone appears to be the sole criteria for BP, the Coast Guard and even the FAA to enforce their blockade. There are substantiated reports that BP is not allowing flyovers of the Gulf of Mexico below 3,000 feet.

Might of Right has seen a video clip on YouTube where a crew from New Orleans WDSU-TV was barred access to a public beach on Grand Isle by private security guards who also denied access to clean up workers despite statements to the contrary by BP Chief Operating Officer of BP Exploration and Production Doug Suttles. After Jefferson Parish law enforcement showed up on the scene access was granted though the security guards literally told the workers they did not have to speak to the media and then told them what to say. The obviously intimidated workers then parroted that suggestion. It certainly would appear that already compromised workers afraid to lose their jobs and their only source of livelihood have gone over to the dark side. They have all apparently signed contracts that explicitly state they are not allowed to comment or offer any details about their jobs.

As reported by Jason Linkins of the Huffington Post, Yahoo News contacted BP for comment on these incidents whereupon they were told by BP spokesman Mark Proegler that, "There have been restrictions placed on photography in the wildlife area because we've been told that it could do harm to the animals.” Proegler continued with comments about the Grand Isle incident stating that "We can't force our contractors to work with media if they choose not to." This absolutely ludicrous response with no basis in law or reality and contrary to BP’s public policy points to the ridiculous spin BP has engaged. As far as we can see the real harm will ultimately come to BP should the real scope of this tragedy be known.

So, we ask, under which legal authority BP (a private corporation) or their representatives are being allowed to enforce a blockade and blackout of what are mostly public lands in a sovereign state aka The United States of America? Inquiring minds want to know…

We hear chatter on the Internet that BP is closely monitoring Blogs and Chat Forums that are engaging and debating this affair. Some sources have suggested that BP is flooding these same outlets with their own perspectives to the diminishment of all other opinions. They are controlling the free flow of ideas for fear that the truth will out. I might add that the Might of Right certainly welcomes their scrutiny and participation in any public debate they may choose to participate. Hmmm, wonder if BP owns any Yahoo/Google stock?

Many have interpreted BP’s actions as a less than transparent attempt to cover up the negligence that initially prompted the disaster and their stonewalling actions as the suggestion of their utter disdain for the ecological/environmental ramifications of this disaster. It’s all about the bottom line and how happy are those pensioners who are not getting a dividend this year – or next? Some question whether BP will even survive.

On the other side of the coin we salute BP’s ever continuing efforts to shut down the offending out of control well head though we surely question the tactics of folks representing themselves as BP employees or representatives that would limit access to public and private lands in those United States along the Gulf Coast.

Hopefully BP will not be successful in their attempt to forever buy the hearts and minds of those on the Gulf Coast with their promises of payment of damages and even jobs. That accomplished our ain folk will be hoisted by their own petard even as the oil has pushed at least twelve miles into Louisiana’s marshes and estuaries.

And what do the greater majority of us do? We sit complacently watching our TVs or listening to the radio in the comfort of our big plush chairs and sumptuous homes, remote in hand, while this drama plays out like some distant, surreal and cockeyed environmental soap opera/horror show. It is real, however, to those who have been irreparably harmed on the Gulf coast, especially in Louisiana. Indeed, we have all been harmed (if not anesthetized) and well beyond our ability to get a Louisiana oyster. All you have to do is go to New Orleans and then head due southeast. Just follow your nose. I may be in Dallas but sometimes think I can smell the oil…

Aye,

Ned Buxton

THE 23RD PSALM

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
Thou anointest my head with oil;
My cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Several weeks ago Good Shepherd Sunday was celebrated at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Dallas. During the service the congregation enthusiastically recited this, the King James version of the 23rd Psalm aka The Shepherd's Psalm, bringing back many pleasant and, aye, emotional memories for me. It was my favorite psalm as a child and for me represents the different facets of Jesus as ultimate caregiver and protector for all Christians, yea, for all Mankind (Believers or not). The psalm is easily taught and understood by young and old and ultimately allows the committed reader to embrace and make a statement of absolute confidence and assurance in that promise.

Not only has this most beloved psalm been inspiring verse and basis for much of my early church life, it has inevitable cross cultural ties that even evoke my more contemporary Scots experiences (and not just for funerals). Witness that the Psalms have achieved an especial status amongst the Scots and in all those cultures that have embraced Calvin/Knox Presbyterianism.

In Scotland and in the rest of Europe prior to the Reformation of 1560 church services were conducted in Latin (well, mostly as we shall see). The Bible was also written in Latin and any attempt to translate into English, Scots, Gaelic, French, German or any other language was considered treasonous and would have been (and was) treated as heresy (witness Tyndale). Since few ordinary folks in the civilized (?) world could read or write, let alone unintelligible Latin, it really didn’t matter. But, then along came education of the masses and folks like John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, Miles Coverdale, John Rogers, Martin Luther, John Calvin and John Knox, among others, and the barn door flew open.

While the official Church translation of the Bible was far from the original Greek and Hebrew, the Latin Bible allowed the Church to exert further power over their illiterate masses. An alarmed English Church (and Rome) scared that the English translation would result in a breakdown in their moral and legal authority responded predictably. As absurd as it sounds today the Church continued to forbid “God’s laws in their own language” The reality is, of course, that any translation of the Bible would ultimately break their monopoly on Salvation not to mention their livelihood. Then, as we have noted, along came The Reformation and the printing press and everything changed.

Fittingly, there is strong evidence that the Scots translated the Latin into the Scots dialect early on. Even after the English translations were readily available they were paraphrasing the English and preaching in Scots as this was the only language understood by their congregations. Even after the Union of the Crowns and attempts to discourage the use of Scots, evidence that Scottish ministers would routinely “speake in plaine Scots words” abounds. This same phenomenon existed for those Scottish congregations in Gaelic communities (mostly in the Highlands and Islands – but also elsewhere in Britain) where that eventually extended into Canada (Cape Breton) and the United States. We can easily surmise that in the early history of The Church that St. Ninian nor St. Columba (Calum Cille) preached to the Picts in Latin. More than likely they used interpreters and preached in Gaelic.

The translation of the 23rd Psalm reflects some of the changes taking place in the church to include the following version by outstanding Scottish (Protestant with Catholic allegiance) poet/writer Alexander Montgomerie (1545 -1610) who was well known for his sonnets and lyrics and, aye, psalm translations. Montgomerie was poet laureate to King James VI of Scotland and author of the following translation mostly borrowed from A Scots Garland – an Anthology of Scottish Vernacular Verse by Thomas Henderson, Edinburgh, 1931.

The Lord maist hie I know will be and herd to me;
I cannot lang have stress, nor stand in neid,

He makes my lair In fields maist fair, quhair I bot care,

Reposing at my pleasure, safely feid.

He sweetly me convoys to pleasant springs

Quhair naething me annoys but pleasure brings.

He brings my mynd fit to sic kind,

That fors, or fears of foe cannot me grieve,

He does me leid In perfect freid,

And for his name he never will me lieve.

Thoch I wald stray, Ilk day by day, in deadly way,

Yet I will not dispair; I fear none ill,

For quhy? thy grace In every place does me embrace,

Thy rod and shepherd’s crook conforts me still.

In spite of foes my tabil grows

Thou balmes my head with joy; my cup owerflows.

Kyndness and grace, mercy and piece,

Sall follow me for all my wretched days,

And me convoy to endless joy,

In heaven quhair I sall be with thee always.

Without getting into a rather complicated and ever evolving debate about Scots (English-Scots or Scots-English) it’s interesting to note the contributions of those in and out of the Church, Protestant and Catholic alike, during that period even to this day.

At the annual Kirking of the Tartans service at the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games probably ten years ago a visiting Church of Scotland minister offered up the 23rd Psalm in Scots. It went a little like the version that was read and interpreted by the accomplished Scottish stage and radio actor James L. Dow who also happened to be a minister of the Church of Scotland.

It seems that in 1960 the Scottish Home Service of the BBC, recognizing the Reverend Dow's especial qualifications for the job (including his facility in The Lowland Dialect), commissioned Dow to write and read a series of short Biblical texts in Scots. They were broadcast in a radio magazine program that proved extremely popular. Not surprisingly, those texts included the Psalms of David and among them the beloved 23rd Psalm. Our sincere thanks to Mark Thompson, former Chairman of the Ulster-Scots Agency for recovering and publishing a growing collection of old Scots language hymns and gospel songs on his blog, Sacred Scotch Solos.

It takes us home and back to our roots where the Bible wasn’t chained in some church sanctuary, rather made readily available and palpable to the masses prompting history to take a different turn.

Aye,

Ned Buxton