As the bloodlands roil, we hang blue and yellow ribbons

March 11, 2022 I hang blue and yellow ribbons on my lamp post, fake sunflowers in a potted plant.  The bloodlands once more are roiling  and a Jew leads  often warring combatants   into valiant  joint  defense of their historic homeland.   I equivocate about which charity is most deserving of my modest largesse.  My  neighbor cries at  sad tales  and  turns her attention to  her real estate.. Likewise ladies who lunch know me not at all and would consign me to the dead dreams of life  in The Villages without the furry treasures of my heart. I try to accommodate my formidable  friend  who, now like dylan thomas,  has cause to rage against the coming of the night but she cannot be consoled..     I too may be overly judgmental of  the disparate economic divides among us, the  undeserving  rich -  two millionaires , one who thinks I should be interested in his fishing trips with a billionaire and  the other who claims homelessness now that she's sold her mountaintop. Ah, but am I succumbing to the evil which cleverly disguises itself in solicitous innuendo, the recipients apparently not understanding that similar tales are told of them. Our president unites Europe and elicits a glimmer of country over party save when it comes to personal  sacrifice  at the gas pump and reduced choices in the grocery aisles.   The religious continue to build their empires and even the pope now disappoints. Like Einstein I now "  live in solitude which  is painful in youth, but delicious during the years of maturity."    But have I grown into sagacity or merely entered the serenity of the bardo awaiting further adventures?  More likely I am merely Chauncey Gardner occasionally spouting unknowing pithiness while awaiting the Godfather's collapse among the grapevines. But first a hero has arisen and we must live to salute his courage and that of the people everywhere whom he inspires. Or do we just wait to see if his wings melt if he flies too close to the sun?

On the fith anniversary of Ray's death

5373 SW 109 Place Road Ocala, Florida 34476 June 15, 2009 Mr. H. Rex Etheredge President and CEO Ocala Regional Medical Center and West Marion Community Hospital 1431 SW First Avenue Ocala, FL 34478 Dear Mr. Etheredge: On May 18, 2009 I drove my husband, Dr. Raymond B. Herbert, to the Emergency Room at West Marion Hospital at the behest of his long time internist Dr. Jose Roman who saw jaundice in Ray’s face when we went to his office that morning for a follow up blood test ordered when Ray last was examined on April 29th. We arrived at the ER at 10 a.m. and were ushered into a cubicle at 10:15 a.m. Ray’s physical problems were of long standing, all emanating ultimately from a very serious automobile accident in 1979 in which he was the right seat passenger. The ER staff began the torturous procedures which mark modern medicine, seeking constantly for places to which to affix needles. Within a few hours we were visited by Dr. Izu Nbakobe, a nephrologist, who indicated that Ray needed to be transferred to Ocala Regional as dialysis was not available at West Marion. TWELVE HOURS LATER there still was no room at the ICU at Ocala Regional. I went home around 10 p.m. and confirmed that Ray was finally transferred downtown around midnight. Tuesday, as Ray rapidly declined, there was talk of draining his abdomen Wednesday morning, with dialysis becoming a mute point. I was later persuaded that the situation had in fact become hopeless and that if the abdominal procedure was performed the likelihood was that he would wind up on a respirator, with the Terry Schiavo ramifications of such a resolution only implied. As I took care of my Mother, my brother and my Father before their deaths, I would certainly have taken care of my husband, a kind, gentle and generous man, at home had his mental capacity not gone into rapid decline, accelerated according to my observation when Ataban and Diluade were first administered. Ray’s death may have been inevitable by this time but the circumstances of this loving man’s end were excruciating. I do not believe sufficient pain medication was administered as his breathing was heartbreakingly labored. What on earth was he being saved from at this point? Moreover, our room was separated only by a heavy curtain from a continuing loud and vulgar soap opera in the cubicle next to us. The only consolation was provided by nurses Wendy, Bonnie and Gloria once I pointed out that Ray was not just an old wreck who drank too much. Regrettably, they sent me home Thursday evening as I had become almost catatonic from lack of sleep. I was called early on the 22nd but Ray had already died. In death this man was beautiful once again, the pain of years of both the best and the worst of modern medicine having been drained from his body. Several hours later someone called claiming to represent a tissue donation group affiliated with your hospital. I spent a very long time on the phone going over Ray’s medical history with this individual. To date I have not had the courtesy of a letter acknowledging my husband’s final generosity so that others could see and students and researchers could expand their still paltry knowledge. The donation was not meant just to further enrich HCA. . I enclose my husband’s obituary along with a front page article from yesterday’s St. Petersburg Times by Kris Hundley – “When dialysis waits, doctor loses patience.” I have no doubt that if the human race still exists a hundred years from now, contemporary medicine will be considered barbarous. I note that you are running a commercial on CNN –“When every minute counts, you can count on us.” We did count on you and you betrayed our trust. “Whatsoever a man soweth, so also shall he reap.” Sincerely, Delphine Blachowicz Herbert

Nov. 22,1963 in Buenos Aires

Fol published in the 11/22/13 South Marion Citizen: John F. Kennedy electrified Latin America when in his inaugural address he said: "To our sister republics south of our border, we offer a special pledge – to convert our good words into good deeds—in a new alliance for progress – to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty." The world loved our charismatic president and our country which then represented peace and justice and hope for one and all. I was among the first half dozen people in Argentina to learn of the President's assassination. After my usual solitary lunch of bife de lomo or steak and kidney pie at the nearby London Grill in downtown Buenos Aires, I had been reading the English-language Herald in the American Embassy's file room before resuming my duties as communications supervisor when my “agency” counterpart came to the half door in shock. “The president's been shot!” Off I went to the code room to check for confirmation. Ambassador Robert McClintock, meanwhile, tried to call Washington on his hot line but it didn't work, forcing him to walk down several flights to use the phone in the military attaches' offices, a great indignity for the man who in 1958 called the Marines into Lebanon and the entire Sixth Fleet to the eastern Mediterranean on standby against anticipated turmoil in the Near East. Turned out his standard poodle had disconnected the phone. Grief exploded both within and without the embassy. Women wailed and men trembled as the light of hope for a better future was dimmed. Multitudes gathered in the streets to share their shock and sorrow. And for a full month thousands and thousands of people came to the embassy to sign condolence books while in the window of every boutique and restaurant and business was a photograph of the young president shrouded in black crepe or encircled with flowers and flags. The Embassy was then located in a 10-story building on Sarmiento within walking distance of the Casa Rosado on the Plaza de Mayo, where years later the mothers of those who “disappeared” would stand courageously in protest against the abductions and killings of their sons and daughters during the “dirty war” of military dictatorship which afflicted this rich and sophisticated nation of still unassimilated European immigrants from 1976-1983. Speaking at American University six months before his death, President Kennedy called for “a world in which the kind of peace which makes life on earth worth living – and the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and build a better life for their children – not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women – not merely in our time but peace in all time.” Some say that his call for world-wide nuclear disarmament in that speech sealed his fate. The world came together before its television sets to witness the end of the “one brief shining moment” known as Camelot . Unfortunately too many of us join with the Argentines and peoples everywhere in continuing to search for “a man on a white horse” to singlehandedly right all our wrongs and lead us into the promised land without the commitment and effort necessary from an educated and involved citizenry. If we are to realize the dreams of our forebears, we must, as Alice Walker wrote, understand that “ We are the ones we have been waiting for.” The John F. Kennedys ......and the Barack Obamas of the world can only light the way for us.

Culture of Violence: Newtown requires new thinking about our violent society By Delphine Blachowicz Herbert Special to the Star-Banner Published: Sunday, January 27, 2013 at 6:30 a.m. Last Modified: Friday, January 25, 2013 at 7:32 p.m. As a longtime advocate for peace and justice, I ask our elected officials to join with other civic and faith leaders, both in our local community and in Tallahassee, to begin to turn the tide against the culture of violence, which was the occasion for Florida leading the nation in calling for and implementing “stand your ground” legislation. But “stand your ground” is not merely a legal term. It is a moral imperative, which compels individuals of conscience to stand up for what they believe. I, thus, ask our lawmakers in Tallahassee to stand your ground, not by turning us all into sharpshooters but by committing themselves to work toward nonviolence as the ultimate measure of a civilized people and as an expression of the love toward one another, which all religions and moral philosophies espouse. Jesus, after all, said that those who live by the sword are condemned to die by it. Yet, it is human nature to want to protect ourselves. We must be realists and begin with legislative action both in Washington and in Tallahassee to contain the manufacture and accessibility of assault weapons. But a greater reality demands that we address the reasons we have become among the most violent societies on Earth with 2 million of us in prison, a number larger than that of China with four times our population. We cannot remain an open society by fostering a bunker mentality in which we seek to shut out the outside world, sheltering ourselves in gated communities, pistol in hand behind locked doors in subdivisions where we scarcely know our neighbors. Fear is the mind-killer which cripples us into cowardice and rejection of the unknown. We can begin by reaching out to those who seem most unlike ourselves — the “others” living in neighborhoods into which we do not customarily go and by confronting situations which we usually avoid. We can't remain sequestered in the narrow comfort of the like-minded, be they in our churches or other interest groups. Yes, there are myriad proposals for the containment of sales of assault weapons and ammunition. In Florida, we have at least five companies that manufacture the AR-15s and at least 50 that produce the bullets for them. Earlier this month, 8,000 people stood in line at a gun show in Orlando, and last month, concealed-weapon permits in Florida surpassed the 1 million mark. So who uses them? Yes, hunters, street criminals, often disposable young people unable to get jobs, who are condemned to become fodder for our “justice” system. Sometimes distraught individuals such as the young mother who saw no way out of her difficulties except to leave this vale of tears with a beautiful 6-month-old child. My heart breaks for the children in Newtown and for the idle young people who succumbed to group pressure and amused themselves by torturing to death a 15-year-old in Summerfield. I grieve for the young soldier who was laid to rest in Reddick a couple Saturdays ago upon his body's return from Afghanistan. And I grieve for veterans — often wounded in mind if not in body — who return to civilian life unable to find a place for themselves Yes, I want our children protected. I want all of us protected. I understand the wish to station police in every school, but what kind of people will we become? There is no way in a free society we can protect ourselves against every possible security risk. Pessimists say it is too late to do anything because 300 million guns already exist in this country. But as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in his last book, “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?”: “Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.” Delphine Blachowicz Herbert is president of the local chapter of The Interfaith Alliance, a national group of 185,000 members devoted to separation of church and state and fighting discrimination in any form. Error on line 28 position 9: 'split(...).1' is null or not an object All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.

August 12, 2012

I should have gone to Oakbrook but explanations are useless.  My choices of a Sunday usually are the UUS out in Summefield, the UCCs on 200 or sometimes even the church of my patrimony downtown.
My adventure on the east side last week to welcome the new rabbi was not productive.  I really should have tried Jame M. Young Jr'.s  interfaith Abundant Life but I settled on a visit to the NAACP meeting where Jesus truly is present in the lives of those present.  Thank you Loretta.

My church is in my garden and the adoration of my animals............and in the heavens above when I retrieve my papers in the pre-dawn.

August 11, 2012 "Disturb us, Lord......."

Daddy used to say that I threw away opportunities that others would kill for.  Little did he know the full extent of my impetuousness .........not only with jobs but with my various admirers whom I would frequently dismiss in a great rage.  . ...I didn't know about PMS in those days.

When I quit the Iranian Embassy for the fifth and final time in 1976, a wise woman observed that I had allowed myself to be defeated by pygmies.  Strange that when I was a client of Dr. Tamarkin he elicited a dream in which a giant ocean liner was tangled in rope held by Lilliputians.

Today I almost threw away the company of some of the finest people in Ocala, members of a board on which I serve because of an obstinate and controlling  old woman.  Ann Sperring, before she died, warned me that I was consorting with the wrong people. ..........and not doing what I did best.   She was right. 

I know I only put some old stuff on this blog today.  I have been afraid of returning to this site because I don't think I'll ever again write with the poetry in "Maria Tatiana" which I soon plan to put online.

Meanwhile I share this beautiful poem.

Sir Francis Drake's Prayer (1577). "Disturb, us, Lord..."


Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when
with the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wilder seas
Where storms will show Your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

We ask you to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push back the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love."

Interfaith Alliance observed tenth anniversary of 9/11 in Ocala

When the Twin  Towers fell peoples of the world  from Times Square to Tehran came together as one as they repudiated the evil of a few until that evil  was met with shock and awe upon the birthplace of  Abraham and some say of civilization itself.

Upon the tenth anniversary of that horror hundreds of residents of Marion County -.

Hindus, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Baha’i ,  humanists and others across   the spectrum of  faith and non faith traditions - came together once again   to recreate the oneness of all at a  9/11  service of remembrance, hope and healing at the First Congregational United Church of Christ. 

In an event sponsored by The Interfaith Alliance of Marion County  laity , youth and  religious leaders read from the tenets of their faiths while singers offered the balm of music  in a  liturgy of candles directed by Dr. Harold W. McSwain, pastor of the host congregation.

Homilist Dr. Scott Olsen, professor of religion and philosophy at CF, called upon us to consider  both the golden and the silver rules  - universal  variants of “ do unto others as   you would have them do to you”   found in all ethical traditions.

Those attending left the sanctuary singing euphorically “let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me” as they moved to the fellowship hall where they lingered for some time in an  expanding circle of  hope and  friendship.

The Interfaith Alliance is grateful  to all who participated in an exhilarating evening of enlightenment, tolerance and good will reflecting the basic goodness of most human beings.  This includes the Ocala Star Banner for its very generous publicity expressed through its community liaison Mary Baggs and the artist who transformed my sketch into an ad of somber  beauty and quiet  drama

Please join with us as we  continue to work locally  to  build common ground thus helping to  transform our  small part of a  torn and broken world with love, justice and respect for the inherent dignity and worth of each and every human being.

Delphine Blachowicz Herbert

The Interfaith Alliance of Marion County

TIAofMarionCountyFL@gmail.com