Liberatr Media Network

What what what ….. Wendell Berry is in Florida?

Yes my friends it is true.  Wendell Berry one of my favorite authors is speaking at Stetson University in a free lecture series Monday night the 1st of February.  I’m heading up to attend the lecture and I can’t even express how excited I am.  Berry’s non-fiction writing has played a pivotal role in developing many of my beliefs.  Through his writing I’ve come to appreciate the importance of nurturing of our local community, that the good life is more than consuming and that working with the earth, even in the middle of a modern city, is vitally important to the health and well-being of my family.

The lecture is sponsored by the university’s Values Council. His talk, “Simple Solutions and Package Deals,” is based on the council’s theme for the year, “How Shall We Live?”.  Berry will be discussing the impact of economic globalization on the way we live and it’s sure to be lecture chock-full of thought provoking ideas.

According to Berry, the good life includes sustainable agriculture, appropriate technologies, healthy rural communities, connection to place, the pleasures of good food, husbandry, good work, local economics, the miracle of life, fidelity, frugality, reverence, and the interconnectedness of life (via wiki).

Here are the details of the lecture: Stetson University at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 1, in the Lee Chapel of Elizabeth Hall, 421 N. Woodland Blvd.  The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Hope to see you there.

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We finally heard from our friends at the St. Isidore parish in Haiti. As many of you know I have been very involved with Saint Margaret Mary’s mission to Haiti this past year. I was there in August shooting video for a documentary about our work with these incredible people. Anyhow we had a team heading down Wednesday morning that were diverted due to the earthquake.

For the last few days we have been unable to get any calls through to Pere Elicio, St. Isidore’s the head priest, or Baba, the young man that runs the livestock and Peace Program. Well today, finally, Baba was able to get a short call into us and below are Ken’s notes on the call. I’ve also provided Beth’s photo-stream so you can see the faces of the wonderful people we work with down there and who we are so fervently praying for.

Click here to read the account from Haiti

I received a call from Baba at 10:45 this morning. He and Elmicia, his wife. and Cecilia, his baby, are fine.

Baba reported that at 4 pm Tuesday he was at Saint Benoit in the meeting room across from the old church working with Peace Program members. They were putting final touches on a presentation they were going to make to our group. All of a sudden they felt the building shaking. They ran outside. As with reports from so many others, Baba said that the shaking seemed to go on forever though it was just a matter of seconds. None of the buildings suffered damage. He immediately walked back to Saint Isidore. There he found Pere Elico, the principal of the school and other parish staff. The rectory, clinic and school buildings were okay; no damage. Baba said, “we all got together and began praying to the Lord. We prayed for a long time to thank Jesus that we were alive”. Tuesday night we slept outside because we were afraid to stay inside any building.

Early Wednesday morning Baba and a driver set off for the airport in Port-au-Prince. At that time I do not believe they had any sense of the damage. They did not want us to be at the airport alone. As they drove down the main highway they began to see more and more devastation. Here Baba mentioned the towns through which we pass. Each town was more and more devastated as they neared Port-au-Prince. “We saw more and more broken houses dead bodies along the road”, Baba commented. When we got to Port-au-Prince “I could not believe what I see; many building broken and bodies everywhere”. When we got to the airport we could see that there were not planes.

Baba continued, “on the way back I got off at the Texaco.(the way they describe the place where the road to Jacmel meets the highway) I took a motorcycle taxi take because the road was all broken. There were places where me and the driver had to carry the motorcycle”. I remember that the highway to Jacmel was the best in Haiti. Baba arrived in Jacmel at 4 pm. “When I got to Jacmel I found the situation terrible like Port-au-Prince”. The building were “broken” and “there were many many dead people on the streets”. “I was so worry. I kept praying Jesus my family okay.” He crossed the river and went up to his home in Basin Bleu. He found his wife and baby were okay. His house suffered no damage. “All of neighbors met and we prayed God’s blessing”.

Baba has not been able to contact Pere Elicio. I asked him to keep trying. Here is some general information Baba reported. He said that he will attempt to call tomorrow about this time. I tried to call him back immediately as a test but could not get through to him.

*The big problem for everybody is food. Food is expensive.
*”Big trucks on road can’t go”.
*He said that money coming in for all projects will “push things going”.
*He said a few times that we can get to Saint Isidore and “no problem”. I got the feeling that they would like to see the group that had planned to go this week. Maybe it is a morale issue; they may not feel alone.
*The trip from Saint Isidore by car is five hours. While the highway is bad, you can get through. Indecently, that is about the amount of time it took to travel that distance about 10 years ago.
*Baba said there is no trouble for them to get us at the airport. The roads around Saint Isidore are about the same as usual.
I will send you an update when or if I get another call from Baba or talk to Pere Elico.

You can stay in touch with the updates coming from our committee on the Saint Margaret Mary website here.

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Having been born and raised in Florida and being married to a 5th generation Floridian I’ve always been fascinated with Cracker Culture.  I’m not talking about the pejorative term Cracker, but the nickname given to the pioneering families that settled Central Florida.  On Sunday the Sentinel published a story titled ”Central Florida’s Towns that Time Forgot” full of images and short narratives about Central Florida’s unique history.

The stories and images reminded me of the growing up years I spent on the Deseret Ranch hunting and fishing along the Econlockhatchee river in east Orange Country with my Father.  Walking through the pastures and wetlands of this area I often saw the remnants and traces of the bygone Cracker era.   Dilapidated turpentine stills and Cypress mills with their rusted artifacts proved an imagination stirring site for me.

With these haunting memories still a stir I had the good fortune of discovering the Florida Historical Society’s website and their weekly radio magazine Florida Frontiers. A visit to their show’s website offered an archive of truly fascinating Florida history.  The show airs on our local public radio station 90.7 WMFE on Thursday’s at 6:30 and you can subscribe to their podcast as well.

I’m seriously excited about exploring their archive and catching the show each week.  I hope it continues to stoke my desire to explore Central Florida’s unique history.  I’m sure you’ll be seeing other posts about Cracker Culture here in the future.  I never thought about A Local Folkus might also showcase the folks of Florida’s past but heck they’re pretty interesting too!

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