Freyne Land

It's not the Louve in Paris, France. In fact, it's the alley outside a giant commercial storage locker on an anonymous industrial strip in Santa Fe, New Mexico a few hours before the snow started pouring down. But Maureen Freyne, the older sister I have not seen in 18 years, has certainly left her mathematics/computer/IBM/Xerox background of the 1960s, 70s and 80s far, far behind.

You'd think an artist in Santa Fe would be a great success, right?

Not Maureen. I left with a realization that while she loves to paint, success is not necessarily on her to-do list. She lives in two rooms on a tiny fixed income. "Struggling" artist is the kind of artist she wishes to be. I'm reminded of Ol' Vincent of starry, starry night fame. I recall he never sold a single painting while alive.

Nonetheless, Ms. Freyne's work is beautiful, special and unique. She's traveled the Land of Enchantment in the last 15-plus years painting New Mexico's adobe churches...her way! And painting much, much more, too. But it's all sitting unseen in a couple of strip-mall storage lockers.

Ah, life!

I know there are folks who will be struck by some of this work. If interested, her email is: [email protected]

T’was a lovely, warm spring day, eh?

Not connected in any, way, shape or form with “global warming”  - which everyone knows is nothing but a leftist/Democratic Party public relations scam, right? 

And everybody knows, the Union of Concerned Scientists doesn’t know shit from Shinola when it comes to climate change. Amazing the propaganda the UCS puts out, eh? 

Tell it to the ski instructors and snow plowers and snowmobile-owners.

Anyway, I’ve been in just about all day, catching up and “recovering” from the New Mexico adventure. There in the Land of Enchantment were reminders of global warming happening faster than I’d imagined, as well as reminders of my Eugene O’Neill-style Irish family roots. And yes, I will, in response to requests, post a couple of sister Maureen’s paintings - her fixation with New Mexico’s churches is unique.

BUT, I just did a run to Price Chopper on Shelburne Road. Very quiet tonight after 7 pm. So I hear this young woman’s voice in the vegetable section. She has a shopping cart and is standing in front  of the peppers, peppers of all colors, types and sizes. And she’s talking to them. Having a conversation with them!

Hey, each to his own.

But the curious journalist within could not resist. Besides, the Price Chopper, normally a bustling madhouse, was practically empty.

I approached and introduced myself.

Jaime Elliott of Burlington was actually doing one of those hands-free cell phone thingies. I know. I admit it. I’m 57 and I have never owned a cell phone. Don’t want to. Life has been just fine without one.

Jamie, 28, is a counselor at the Baird Center. Very nice person. She does the shopping in the household, she told us. Has for the last couple years.

Boyfriend Chad, at home, is the cook. She’d been on the second call to Chad the Cook since she’d arrived at the store. Might be another one before she was done.

Teamwork, eh?

So what’s a political columnist/blogger doing writing about vegetables?

I think it’s because he’s worried. Worried about an out-of-control human “community.”  A community racked by war, hate, greed and the profit motive. A community where "communication" is high-tech.   

But it's become a community in which the voices of peace and justice are too few and too far between. Where communication among world leaders is pathetic.

Yes, in my lifetime we’ve built a society where one can shop with one’s spouse or boyfriend - even if one party stays home. Hooray for technology.

But we have lost a great deal of ground in building a society where the peace motive is stronger than the profit motive. A society where the stockholders’ interest isn’t the only interest.

Because Jamie and Chad's kids will be facing an even more bloody and much warmer world if you and I don't do something about it right now.

Know what I mean?

Got in late last night at Burlington International via Denver and Chicago - airports, that is. Four days late. All the ice and snow we're supposed to have is in New Mexico and Colorado. New Mexico was unprepared. That's outside my sister's door at right. Did not see a single snow-blower.

Did I tell you I haven't flown in 15 years?

At least not in an airplane.

In fact, I haven't been past the homestretch at Saratoga since Madeleine Kunin was governor in the 1980s.

Why leave Vermont?

That little lesson, I admit, is one this extended, unpredictable excursion to snowbound, frozen New Mexico and the Big America out there has taught me...big time. 

Not ready to go into all of the details - saving it for the novel. But on Thursday's cross-country three-legged trip home across the USA, I touched souls with one very special person. One unique soul in the enormnous, plastic Denver Airport, where I had a three-hour layover yesterday. An airport with fast-food restaurants that containedno hint whatsoever it was in Denver, Colorado.

Courtenay was on her way to spenda week with her 23-year-old boyfriend.  Met on the internet. "Instant-messaging"is their thing, she said with a smile.

He's in Colorado somewhere and she lives in a small town I never heard of that's 50 miles from Talledega, Alabama (famous for its raceway). He's finishing up to get his degree tobe an elementary school teacher. She works at a steakhouse jointwhere white Bible-Belters go to drink, talk like racists and tip lightly.

She was waiting another 3 hours after me for her flight. Came and satclose by and looked at me like a lost soul who wanted to talk to a real person. Courtenay was feelingas alienated and bummed out as me in that humanless, enormous Denver airport where no one makes eye contact. She was gentle and real and also scared, lonely and lost living out there in the big wide land of Wal-Mart and traffic jams, a land where the crooks and liars are in charge and all the clothing and plastic consumer-goods we wear and fill our lives with come from the Third World.

And she's not alone in feeling that way, is she?

Good to be home, gang.

Whew!

It may take a couple days to adjust.

Bear with me. That's the Denver area below.

Just not my cup of tea.

Was supposed to fly home to Vermont on Sunday, but if you haven't heard, there's been a bit of a blizzard down here in New Mexico and I haven't been able to get out. At present, I'm booked on a Thursday morning United flight through Denver and Chicago - fingers crossed, eh?

But, I've been stuck since Saturday at the El Rey Inn (www.elreyinnsantafe.com), here in Santa Fe (fortunately with a friend). However, my BUDGET rent-a-car remains stuck in over two-feet of the white stuff back on the private dirt road by my sister's place south of town. Got to drive it for all of three days on a seven-day lease. The Express Tow Truck driver who works for Budget just called to say he can't get it out since the road's unplowed. Even if he had 4-wheel-drive, Ol' Chris says he couldn't get it out.

New Mexico's an official disaster area around and the temperatures remain frigid - like Vermont ought to be.

Anyway, we're about to find out just how much BUDGET believes in customer service. After being closed for the weekend, the local Santa Fe BUDGET manager is due in at noon. "Darcy," the BUDGET ROADSIDE SERVICE rep in Denver, says the BUDGET policy is to not issue a replacement vehicle until the old one has been returned. But, as we mentioned, the old one's buried in the blizzard and the tow-driver says he can't get it out until the road's been plowed. The reality is there aren't many snow plows in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Great.

Of course, we did check BUDGET's policy online here in the El Rey lobby:

"We provide consistent and dependable service that exceeds expectations and creates loyal customers."

Guess we'll see if that's actually for real or just a bunch of advertising propaganda when "Kristin" the local BUDGET manager arrives at work at noon today.

Stay tuned, folks.

Starting to miss Vermont awful bad!

P.S. The current weather conditions down here on the Mexican border - deep snow and single-digit temps - compared to the weather conditions up north, have a lot of folks around here uttering the phrase "global warming."

Bunch of left-wing hooey, eh?

Yours truly spent Christmas in Santa Fe, New Mexico - the Land of Enchantment. Visited with our older sister Maureen Freyne, the stuggling artist. Haven't seen her since 1988. Time flies.

It's been a tough struggle for Maureen. Unfortunately, her talent with a brush is not matched by her commercial/marketing skills. On Wednesday, Annie the Artist's Rep, who we recently met at the Langdon Street Cafe in Montpeculiar, arrived in Santa Fe from Arizona where she had been spending the holidays with friends. Curious Annie wanted to see Maureen's paintings for herself. And what she saw blew her away!

Took her out to the storage lockers on Thursday where Maureen keeps a rather voluminous body of work. Her specialty is painting the old churches of New Mexico in a way no one else paints them. In fact, you'll be seeing a few of them back in Vermont in the not too distant future. Cool.

Then on Thursday afternoon a little of the white stuff started falling. This is not known as snow country, but it hasn't stopped since. We're positively, absolutely snowed in. Buried in the stuff, and New Mexico is not a state with a whole lot of snow plows. Meanwhile, Vermont remains on the warm and brown side.

Interesting.

Yes, and a merry Christmas to you as well. Made the two flights. The first to Chicago (that's a picture of the ol' Chicago skyline early Christmas morning - a skyline this old Chicago cabbie hasn't even laid eyes on in 20 years), and the second to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Both flights were early and full.

On the Chicago flight, I sat next to a woman from the Czech Republic en route to Frisco. Didn't quite get the whole story - a little language barrier. That's the Lake Michigan shoreline down there and the giant skyscrapers of the world's most overlooked major city.

The Albuquerque flight had me parked next to Rory, an accountant from Denver working in China for a sporting equipment company. Very high on China was he. Rory was still trying to get home to snow-pounded Denver for Xmas (and he smelled like it, too). To see New Mexico, the state that calls itself the "Land of Enchantment" after a 30 year-absence was special. Sure doesn't look like Vermont, eh?

Albuquerque was quiet. Very quiet. I was the only person on the rental car bus at the airport. Hey, did you know they've got a 75 m.p.h. speed limit on the interstate here?

Good decision to come here to Santa Fe this Christmas. Sister Maureen's paintings are knockouts. All this takented struggling artist needs is a good agent.

And yours truly needs to get his traveling shoes out more often.

Hey, I thought Vermont got snow?

Took this Christmas Eve shot earlier this afternoon along Burlington’s sun-splashed, springlike Lake Champlain waterfront. I remember non-white Christmases like this back when I first lived here in 1979 and on through the 1980s. Not good for the ski industry, eh?

But winter appeared to roar back and last year I had to get studded tires for the bicycle for the first time ever...before Christmas!

And this year, for the first time in decades, this blogger is going to spend Christmas outside Vermont. Heading out on Christmas Day for Santa Fe, New Mexico. That's where sister Maureen the painter lives.

Haven’t been there in thirty years.

Heck, haven’t even flown in 15!

Just been kind of hiding out in Vermont.

Nothing wrong with that, eh?

Interesting.

Former Vermont Senator Robert Stafford dies at 93

By ROSS SNEYD

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- Former U.S. Sen. Robert Stafford, a staunch environmentalist and champion of education whose name is familiar to countless college students through a loan program named for him, died Saturday. He was 93.

Stafford was surrounded by family at a Rutland nursing home when he died at 9:30 a.m., said Neal Houston, his former chief of staff.

A Republican, Stafford served two years as governor, 11 years in the House and 17 in the Senate before retiring in 1988.

Gov. Jim Douglas ordered flags lowered to half staff Saturday as he saluted Stafford. "Gov. Stafford was a tremendous public servant, a man of the deepest personal integrity and someone whom I admired greatly," Douglas said in a statement. "From the higher education finance program that now bears his name or his advocacy for clean air and water, Americans will continue to benefit greatly from his legacy of success."

More....

Also, from U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy:

Bob Stafford was a gentle giant.

He was a patriot, in the finest tradition of the Greatest Generation.  Hetouched the lives of millions of ordinary Americans through his leadership oneducation and environmental policy, in the finest tradition of public service. And he gave the nation a lifelong lesson in civility and decency, in the finesttradition of his beloved Vermont.

Bob Stafford’s vision and skill earned our respect and admiration,but his personality and character won our love.  Bob was a mentor, a colleagueand a dear friend.  He took me under his wing during those early years and wasenormously helpful to me, his younger, far less experienced junior colleague.  Boband Helen’s kindness extended far beyond the confines of the Senateoffice buildings.  Helen offered to baby sit our children when Marcelleand I were so new in town that we had nowhere to turn for child care.  Our friendshipcontinued throughout the years and we have many fond memories of visiting theirhome on Sugar Hill Road.

Marcelle and I join all Vermonters, the Senate, and the nation inoffering our condolences and our abiding respect to his wife Helen, theirdaughters, and their daughters’ families.

 AND...

Last March, Senator Bob was recognized with "White Rocks":

MONTPELIER — A 22,758-acre tract of recreation land in Rutland and Bennington
counties will be named to honor former U.S. Sen. Robert Stafford, R-Vt.

The recreation area will be known as "The Robert T. Stafford White Rocks National
Recreation Area." The land was designated a national recreation area in the 1984
Wilderness Act, which Stafford helped to write.

"Bob Stafford's legacy is enduring, and this is an enduring and meaningful way to
commemorate his work and his love of Vermont," said Sen. Patrick Leahy. "White Rocks is
among his most beloved natural areas in our state, and we know that he and Helen could
actually see the towering white cliff face of White Rocks Mountain from their home. This
will remind generations of future Vermonters of Bob Stafford's towering achievements, and
of the humanity of his spirit."

U.S. Sen. James Jeffords, who holds Stafford's seat, said "no monument or park renaming
can do justice to the unparalleled contributions that Senator Stafford made to both Vermont
and this nation.

"That said, naming the White Rocks area after Senator Stafford is as fitting a tribute as I can
imagine for a man who did so much to protect Vermont's natural resources and beauty,"
said Jeffords, who is retiring at the end of this year.

U.S. Rep. Bernie Sanders called Stafford "a national leader on so many issues, including
education, the environment, and human rights."

Leahy, in a statement on the Senate floor, called Stafford "an absolute giant in Vermont
politics."
.

White Christmas?

Oh, well. Last week Gov. Jim Douglas' said the important thing would be having snow this week for the Christmas holiday. Wonder what his comeback would be today:

"As long as we have a white Washington's Birthday?"

Nice piece on Vermont's senior senator Patrick J. Leahy in the Toronto Star. Here's a little taste:

He was the target of an anthrax attack through the mail and got under Dick Cheney's skin to the point that the vice-president loudly and publicly suggested on the floor of the Senate that Leahy perform an unnatural sexual act on himself.

The next time the two men met, Cheney was administering him the oath of office for his sixth term.

"I told Cheney, it is far greater to be sworn in than sworn at,'' he said.

His wife, Marcelle, is a Quebecer, one generation removed, who speaks French. Her father grew up in Quebec's Beauce region, her mother was born in Quebec City. Her great-uncle was a Quebec judge and relatives of hers were active in Quebec politics. The Pomerleaus, Marcelle's parents, moved to Newport, Vt., where she was born, Leahy says, "literally a few hundred yards from the Canadian border.''

The Vermont senator, himself, traces his heritage back through Montreal to Ireland.

Read the whole story here.

The Douglas administration's top telecommunications official - Public Service Commissioner David O’Brien  of Stowe Village - met with House Speaker Gaye Symington Thursday and the topic was broadband, or rather the lack of broadband internet service and cell phone service in many parts of Vermont.

Afterward, Dave the Commissioner told yours truly the meeting went well. He said Speaker Gaye understands the issue. Access to broadband and reliable cell phone coverage, O'Brien acknowledged, remains a problem in many parts of Vermont - even in parts of populous Chittenden County. Said the Commissioner:

"In Orange County, 40 percent of the people have access to broadband. That's just unacceptable. What's tricky is if you go to a place where they have 80 or 90 percent, that doesn't tell the whole story and the Speaker well understands that.

"There's a population center like Burlington, and then you get outside of Burlington, as long as Burlington's covered, the numbers come up high. But as soon as you go outside that core, people aren't being served."

Speaker Symington, a Jericho resident who does get broadband at her home, told "Freyne Land" if we want to build a vibrant state for the next generation, having access to broadband and cell phone coverage is critical:

"Most of my constituents do not have access to broadband. Just last week, I had a call from a constituent saying he had two tenants who turned down the apartment because there is no access to broadband. It's a constant issue.  It was the issue I heard the most about going around my district....

"It’s clear now, that waiting for the private sector to focus on Vermont and hook us all up to broadband is simply not a viable option."

The Speaker said the state should look at what the City of Burlington is currently doing  - steadily proceeding to lay fiber to every door in the city (Burlington Telecom) providing broadband, telephone and cable TV service:

"We're dealing with something that's on the scale of rural electrification. There's going to have to be some creative thinking here that goes beyond just tax incentives and waiting around for the private sector."

Symington said she is "curious" to see what the Douglas administration puts forward in terms of a plan when the legislature gets down to business in January.