Heading to DC

• I am sitting in the Boston South Station waiting for a train to Washington DC.  I am going there to attend and speak at a peace conference being held at American University over the weekend.  The conference will connect the US's endless war program and the Pentagon's #1 (of any institution on the planet) carbon boot print.  See more on the conference here

I'll be talking about conversion of the war machine to sustainable production that helps us even a bit deal with the reality of climate change.  I'll speak about our efforts in Bath, Maine to bring the conversion message to our community. I can assure you that people in our community are talking about our campaign - some obviously not pleased with our steady efforts to keep the conversion message in front of the local citizens.  The October 13-21 Maine Peace Walk will increase the visibility of this important conversion message even more.

• While in DC I will be staying as usual at the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House.  Then on Sunday I'll make my way to the Baltimore area and spend the night with my cousin.  On Monday another cousin will take us to the place where my father had a chicken and turkey farm before I was born.  At that time he was a back-to-nature kind of guy on his farm (didn't even have electricity) and then he met and married my mom.  He put in electricity and fixed up the place but she was a city slicker and didn't like the farm life.  She got him to sell his beloved farm and they moved to Florida.  After that he was broken hearted and listless.  When I was two years old he came home one day and said he wanted to go to Georgia and pick peaches so mom threw him out.  That was the end of my relationship with my father - everyone that knew him said he was a quiet and good man, including my mom's own sister.

I grew up not knowing anything about my dad's side of the family so my connection to my cousins on the Gagnon side have been developing only in recent years.  I am very excited to see the old farm. The circle of healing continues......