Ahmaud Arbery Murder Trial – the Verdict Charles M. Blow wrote: “ I, like many Black people and many people of all races and ethnicities who value justice and equity, needed to be reminded that the lives of Black people are valued in this country — at least on occasion.” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/24/opinion/guilty-verdict-ahmaud-arbery.html What sadness, too. On my garage doors, in the Memorial Mural, we had painted last year: Ahmaud Marquez Arbery May 8, 1995 – Feb 23, 2020 25 year old Electrician, Glynn County, Georgia rest in peace – rest in power
Posts
Here is another story about delight that could be interpreted as a story of limited resources – but that would not be the whole truth. Growing up, we rarely had bananas or oranges, those exotic fruits were way too expensive for our family. Only the affluent could afford such luxury items back in the 50’s in Europe. Come the coldest month of winter, my mother will perform twice a week a morning ritual for us children. Carefully she squeezes two small halved blood oranges to the last drop, and then distributes the deep red liquid into three tiny glasses, filling them about half an inch high. Papa gets a bigger glass and it is filled higher than ours. I enjoy playing with the thin left-over orange peels whose heavenly fragrance fills our kitchen. On these early winter mornings, it is cold in our small flat. The coal stove is used for heating and cooking. I don’t know about my siblings, but taking tiny sips of this precious juice is like drinking a magic potion and entering a differe
In my Live Oak World now Lives a Dwarf She’s become my friend, despite belonging to the squirrel family :) hard to believe. From the beginning I thought she was special, a cute new baby, but several weeks later she is still the same size – surprise – sailing along elegantly…. Her stunning agility makes her stand out even in squirrel world. I call her Silvana, woman of the woods. This morning as I am pruning the Elder, she came by for a chat, eyeing me flirtatiously as always, and then she went on to nibble at the neighbor's figs. Silvana’s curious gaze and her delicate physique remind me of the German grey squirrels I grew up with. Everyone thought they are cute. But here in California we are used to the huge monster squirrels, fattened up by endless food supply, ravaging our plums, apples and more. Every morning – through my bedroom cottage’s skylights – I see Silvana high in the oaks, going way out on limbs harvesting the last acorns, bouncing precariously at the very end of
Visitors taking photos of the Memorial Mural with me – almost 18 months have passed since the beginning – notice how the scaffold changed sides (several times) for us to reach higher parts of the garage doors. The slow process of researching, writing, sketching, penciling, painting 3 layers with brush, vandl guard protection layer... people will often ask about the time involved. I believe though the hundreds of hours are palpable and make passersby stop in their tracks. By now the mural has survived heat, sun, fog, rainstorms, and is still in progress. May 2021 November 2020 August 2020
One of my long time American heroes is Bryan Stevenson Archbishop Desmond Tutu described this African-American lawyer fighting for racial justice as “America’s young Nelson Mandela.” I have followed his work since 1992 when I started studying the criminal justice system, prison system and law enforcement in America. With all my film projects I extensively research and study the history, and I had just begun to work on my film Voices from Inside (blog entry Sept 4). Back then, people and the media did not talk much about “prison” – amazing how taboo it was, criminals were supposedly just criminals. I kept reading up on Bryan Stevenson as much as I could. In 1989 he founded The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama, and I was so moved by his work on saving African American innocent men from death row. After World War Two, the death penalty has been considered in Western Europe a barbaric relic of totalitarianism. As of 2019, the EJI organization has prevented more than
On the weekend it was time to speak with my sister in Germany. For about 40 years, she has been living in Göttingen (Lower Saxony), the old and progressive “city of the sciences,” with a famous university, much illustrious history, as well as an utterly charming old medieval center. Wikipedia Göttingen Dinah has been working for the City as a scientist and expert for environmental and climate protection for the past 35 years. As the head of various departments, and mostly in close collaboration with the mayor. Everyone knows her when I visit :) For 40 years she has been warning what is happening now world wide with the climate emergencies. On Sunday she told me about the recent discoveries of many bombs from the Second World War, wherever there is building going on in G ö ttingen. And just a couple of weeks ago, about 10,000 inhabitants had to be evacuated again. A huge undertaking, with lots of challenges. For a day or two no traffic, trains, busses, no businesses or schools open. Ju