Sunday, April 24, 2005
Our Lady of the Kennedy Underpass, ChicagoI went to see the underpass virgin this morning before heading off to New Orleans. I've been intrigued with la virgen
for years now, in particular Mexico's reverence of her. As Chicago is
now 25% Mexican, it makes sense that this vision was first spotted by a
Mexican-American woman and that most of the visitors, at least today,
were Mexican. In fact, you can see from this photo that there is a
large Mexican flag with la virgen de guadalupe
in the center where the eagle/serpent/cactus image is usually found,
just to the left of the virgin. Notice the flowers, candles, and cakes
on the ground around her: 10:24:36 PM |  I went to see her solely because of my long-time interest in spontaneous virgin sightings, but I was surprised by what I found when I got there. I was actually moved to tears. So many people approached the image, gently touched her, brushed their hands down her image, then knelt down to give thanks or ask for favors, or perhaps just tell her a story or two. To two women standing next to me, there was nothing more than a water stain on the side of a concrete wall. Others posed for pictures, like this mother and son. Surrounding her were pictures of the recently dead (including John Paul II, his name in Polish) and a poster of a $5000 reward for information about a missing woman. I don't know if it was the fact that I haven't talked to S in days (he's out on missions every night, finding weapons caches, other things), our unfulfilled desire to have kids, the wonderful play I saw last night ("Living Out," from Teatro Vista) about a Salvadoran nanny and the loss of her sons, or a combination of all of these mixed together with the pain and sorrow around me. Whatever it was, tears came while I stood in the crowd under the freeway. There were a number of women wearing shawls. They could have come straight from the market in Tlacolula, Oaxaca. I felt like I knew them. I've met some of their sisters, women who have had to abandon their families and risk their lives for money, who have had to leave everything that is dear to them in order to feed their children (whether they were lucky enough to take their children with them or not). In Baja, I've seen women dressed head to toe in clothing, even in the hot midday sun, to protect themselves from pesticides. In Oaxaca, I've met women who could line their walls with posters of all their missing relatives who went north and never came back. One of our friends crossed the border four times before finally returning for good. Of her four children, only one still lives in Oaxaca. Here is a long view of the shrine. The area was somewhat protected by blue police barricades. One officer sat in her squad car parallel to the shrine. Leaning on her car's bumper was a worn-out bike:  The makeshift shrine was scattered among "Emergency Parking Only" signs and whitewashed graffiti markings. A highway grotto:  Here is one of the shawled women who could be from Oaxaca (or perhaps Chiapas, Yucatan, Guerrero...there are so many women who could be her), coming to touch la virgen:  A small selection of the flowers and candles left for her:  The children seemed nervous. They ran up and touched her, then ran quickly back to their parents, skipping over the candles and cakes:  I love Mexico's reverence of The Mother. It's really separate from the church, it seems, and much more steeped in indigenous traditions. The worship of this overpass virgin is spontaneous and, in its own way, rebellious. While the catholic traditionalists were in church praising the new pope, these people were in the grunge of an overpass, leaving gifts for a watermark. Down the way from Our Lady, across the street from Los Recuerdos Night Club, was this woman selling flowers. I didn't ask her how much. She was eating a doughnut and smoking a cigarette when I passed her.  
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A few outrages from the road...live from MississippiI have so many things to share today that I'm going to break them up into separate posts. 9:20:43 PM | First, one of the day's outrages. Marine Company E has come out to tell us how ill-equipped they were in Iraq and how many lives were lost because of it: [...]
...the armor was mostly just scrap and thin, and they needed more for the unarmored Humvees they inherited from the Florida National Guard.
"It was pitiful," said Capt. Chae J. Han, a member of a Pentagon team
that surveyed the Marine camps in Iraq last year to document their
condition. "Everything was just slapped on armor, just homemade, not
armor that was given to us through the normal logistical system." [...] Even some maps they were given to plan raids were several years old, showing farmland where in fact there were homes... [...] Now and then a Humvee would speed through equipped with an electronic device intended to block detonation of makeshift bombs. The battalion, which had five companies in its fold, had only a handful of the devices, Colonel Kennedy said.
Company E had none, even though sweeping roads for bombs was one of its
main duties. So many of the marines, like Corporal Wiscowiche, had to
rely on their eyes. On duty on March 30, 2004, the 20-year-old lance
corporal did not spot the telltale three-inch wires sticking out of the
dust until he was a few feet away, the company's leaders say. He died
when the bomb was set off. [...] Colonel Kennedy said Company E's area was less dense, but the pressure it put on the marines came to a boil on April 6, 2004, when the company had to empty its camp - leaving the cooks to guard the gates - to deal with three firefights. Ten of its troops were killed that day, including eight who died when the Humvee they were riding in was ambushed en route to assist other marines under fire. That Humvee lacked even the improvised steel on the back where most of the marines sat, Company E leaders say. "All I saw was sandbags, blood and dead bodies," Sergeant Valerio said. "There was no protection in the back." [...] Lt. Sean J. Schickel remembers Captain Royer asking a high-ranking Marine Corps visitor whether the company would be getting more factory-armored Humvees. The official said they had not been requested and that there were production constraints, Lieutenant Schickel said. Recalls Captain Royer: "I'm thinking we have our most precious resource engaged in combat, and certainly the wealth of our nation can provide young, selfless men with what they need to accomplish their mission. That's an erudite way of putting it. I have a much more guttural response that I won't give you." Captain Royer was later relieved of command.
[...] Today, Captain Royer is at Camp Pendleton contesting his fitness report, which could force him to retire. Company E is awaiting deployment to Okinawa, Japan. Some members have moved to other units, or are leaving the Marines altogether. "I'm checking out," Corporal Winn said. "When I started, I wanted to make it my career. I've had enough.
This is why the military is having such a problem recruiting and keeping forces. Not to mention this: Defense Department officials acknowledged that Company E lacked enough equipment and men, but said that those were problems experienced by many troops when the insurgency intensified last year, and that vigorous efforts had been made to improve their circumstances. Apparently because it has happened throughout the armed forces and during the entire war, that makes it okay. How many lives have been lost because of lack of equipment and troops? It's another statistic the Bush administration doesn't keep. I just can't believe these jokers got reelected. It's tragic. Here's an outrage from yesterday. I was too busy preparing for my drive down to New Orleans (I'm in Horn Lake, Mississippi right now) to post it: Evangelical Christian leaders, who have been working closely with
senior Republican lawmakers to place conservative judges in the federal
courts, have also been exploring ways to punish sitting jurists and
even entire courts viewed as hostile to their cause.
They have come up with the brilliant idea to disenfranchise courts (or entire circuits) they disagree with by having the legislature cut funding to them, in essence bankrupting the courts and forcing them to close. Notice that Bill Frist and Tom DeLay were at this conference. I can't believe we're at the point in this country where fundamentalists are prescribing "fixes" when government isn't exactly to their liking. It's nuts. How is this any different from the Taliban? Hopefully we won't be called to sports stadiums to see the executions of jurists and others "against" the regime. Of course, since money rules here in the states, bankrupting courts is sort of like executing them. It is a bloodless way to destroy democracy. If the wacko fundamentalists get complete control, our children will be forced to go to Christian madrassahs ("Public schools of the future!"). We'll have to host bake sales every weekend to start and maintain secular schools. And on a much better note, a story that pulled my heart strings. A mother of a 9/11 victim has raised enough money to open up a school in Afghanistan. The story is here. She says her son, who was interested in other cultures, would have wanted to learn more about Afghanistan if he'd lived, and that this was a way to honor him. There are so many true warriors, aren't there? I can't think of anything more noble than working to create justice and peace.
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Last update: 8/24/05; 8:16:14 PM .
