an emotional argument

i posted the above status report this morning. the referenced piece by scott simon is here.

i don't intend this to be a post on the ground zero mosque (formerly known as the ground zero burlington coat factory i think). for me there is no debate - the building type is "as of right", americans have the second amendment right to the freedom of religion and for what it's worth - the mayor backs it. also the u.s. president. scott simon makes a better presentation of the same point of view i have anyway. the bottom line is, and as my favorite republican buddy, vin, would say, "it's a free country dude."

i want to say a word to the part of simon's piece that tears me up. it's the part that remains nine years later as distilled memory for anyone who was in town during 9/11 and it's aftermath. posters asking if anyone knew the whereabouts of their loved ones (a hope that they hadn't perished in the attack and the knowledge that even a big city like nyc would come together and help if it could). the barricaded line of latitude that was canal street from the day of to many months on. no unauthorized personnel allowed below it and many gathered there to support aid workers coming to work and those leaving a long shift.

the A train subway station at that same point that i reluctantly entered around 11am the morning of just to try to get home to lori in brooklyn. who were those heroes driving the trains and buses trying to get us home to our families instead of getting themselves home to theirs? that train literally runs under ground zero. the throngs of people already on the train that literally pulled me on and made room.

smells of burning building that carried for miles. whether at my home in brooklyn or my work a mile uptown from ground zero you knew which way the wind was blowing if you could smell that smell. the fire burned for weeks.

paper and ash fluttering through the brooklyn neighborhood of carroll gardens where i was eventually able to rendez vous with lori. a couple of miles away and across the river.

seeing tower 1 on fire, rushing to my office, watching the news, learning it was a plane, thinking it was a horrible accident, seeing tower 2 hit by the second plane, watching tower 1 fall. seeing all this like millions around the world saw on their tvs. but then walking out into 5th avenue and 26th street with a direct view of the burning tower 2 still standing. we knew what was going to happen and then we saw it drop. grown men including my boss fell to the pavement weeping.

so many firefighters were rushing down there and so many would die. i think it must have been months of funerals held - each fallen hero deserving their own ceremony. towards the end i remember they were looking for ny-ers to attend them because the families and fire department brethren were too tired and spread too thin to attend anymore.

i remember never really crying like so many did.

i remember going via plane to a wedding in north carolina a couple of weeks later and realizing how much sympathy other parts of the country had for new york.

they say it takes 10 years before you are a new yorker so i'm not there until 2011. i had only moved to town a few months prior to 9/11. given that fact, i'm not sure if i have the right to take the recent mosque controversy so personally. but i do.

the decision to build a constitutionally encouraged, legally filed mosque hardly warrants a emotional argument. but if i could offer one it would be that this a local issue - our issue. a place of worship (how many mosques must there be in nyc 50? 100?) for a religious denomination that hosts nearly 2 billion members (yes they have a few crazies included but don't we all?) to be built a rather healthy new york distance of 2 blocks away from ground zero isn't really too big of a deal. and i'm not alone when i think that. around the city this news story isn't even much of a news story.

this is why i take such great offense at the national right wing media frenzy (likely used to excite a sleeping mid term electorate more than anything else) focused on a local new york city issue.

i may not be a real new yorker until next year but this is our issue not the nation's. we've done a lot of healing in nine years but the memories persist. memories of a city coming together and healing ourselves ever since the tragedy occurred. we've been helping one another out since 9/12 and seeing this mosque built is just another step along the way.



additional listening:

- john stewart's daily show "extremist makeover homeland edition" from his 8/19 show. around 7 minutes in he uses a charlton heston speech (made famous in bowling for columbine) to illustrate , by association, how it is an american religious group's second amendment right to build a community center wherever law permits no matter how sensitive the area.

Coupla Good Recipes

veggie chili:

4 cans of beans (kidney bean, black beans, etc.)
1 medium onion
1 yellow bell pepper
2 stalks of celery
3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
1-2 tblsp chili powder
3 bay leaves
1 pinch of red pepper flakes
1 tsp cumin (clutch)
2 cans tomatoes crushed

1-2 cups of cashews
1 cup raisins
grated sharp cheddar

heat a stew pot or dutch oven on medium - low - keep it there throughout. cover bottom in oil. saute finely chopped onion, pepper, celery, and minced garlic. sweat for about 10 mins.

add spices and stir.

add tomatoes, bay leaves, and beans. simmer for at least 30 mins. covered.

remove bay leaves

serve and top with cashews, raisins and cheese.

extras - a loaf of crusty bread. and if you want to meat it up for the non veggies serve over meatballs or fried italian sausage chunks.



***


stonyfield strawberry (or mangoes or blueberry) yogurt muffins:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup Stonyfield Farm yogurt
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped strawberries, fresh or frozen. Or mangoes as it were.

Preheat over to 375F. In a bowl, mix together flour, sugar, and baking soda. In another bowl, mix eggs, yogurt, butter and vanilla. Toss strawberries into the flour mixture. Then pour yogurt mixture into flour mixture and stir. Spoon batter into greased muffin tin. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Yields 12 muffins.

Gpop Eulogy

Welcome all.

My condolences to Lois for losing her partner and to Aunt Nancy, Uncle Buddy and my Mom for losing their much loved father.

I am in good spirits, all things considered, and am happy I can be here today with you all. It’s not often

that our whole family comes together like this. Thank you all for being here.

Lori and I welcomed our son Nico into the world this fall. New arrivals are a time for reflection so I have been wondering what my influence on Nico will be, what his influences on the wor

ld will be, etc. I also have been reflecting on who has influenced me.

I am an architect and my career, together with the love and good times my family provides me, leave me extremely fulfilled. Grandpop, too had once aspired to be an architect. I can’t recall the exact reason why Grandpop didn’t head to architecture school, but I think I can safely speculate that as a high school grad in the economically depressed 1930s and son the of an immigrant farmer several years away at school would not have been possible. Looking out across this audience it is hard to believe how high Grandpop and his Jensen/Petersen clan have lifted us in two generations’ time.

Grandpop was a huge influence on me becoming an architect, not just through his support but also through his gift to me via mom to think technically. A common gift to a young architect is often a Frank Lloyd Wright picture book or a magazine with a popular interview with a star architect like Frank Gehry. But Grandpop for years has been feeding me architecture detail articles from Popular Mechanics and local real estate offering plans complete with floor plans and asking prices. In turn, when I’d wrap a Christmas present for him in a recycled blueprint from my office, he would actually read it before he moved on to the present. As if the drawing were the important part of the gift.

When we’d happen by a new house under construction Grandpop wouldn’t admir

e it from the street. He’d walk right up to and into the place. We’d investigate the concrete basement amongst discarded nails, and bare walls walls. Imagine the rules we were breaking by doing that? But a sharp dressed man in a cap, necktie, and dress shoes (galoshes if it was raining) with a firm handshake and confident “how do you do” is granted a certain license in these situations. He was the definition of a proud man.

While Grandpop may have been a good technical thinker he was a great visitor. And these visits to construction sites are just one example. I’m sure many a person in this room experienced a visit from Grandpop. If you were a friend, family member, or grocery store owner in the greater Hartford area, you were on his circuit. His midsized American sedan would pull and in he would come. At our house and when the restaurant was still open he’d come bearing the gift of ice cream. Later at my first job for a firm in Hartford a visit would include handshakes all around. His hat, when indoors, was always in hand. When he’d leave the office our receptionist would say, “what a handsome man.” Granted he was a much younger then…79.

My first recollection of a funeral is the one we held for Grandpop’s wife, my Grandma Osa Jensen. In 1981, she died too young. Grandpop’s passing was sadly sudden but not altogether unexpected. We should all be so lucky to live and be loved for nearly 90 years and to meet our great grandchildren.

At the risk of undryin

g my eyes I’d like to say to Grandpop. “Rest in peace. It gives m

e great comfort and warmth to know that you are, as we gather here, visiting with those who have passed before you. Hugs to grandma. We will miss you.”

project poop play

me to my daughter, "what did you do today?" alexandra was home from daycare sick so she spent the day with her brother and his nanny nicole. of nicole's many great habits is the pic or two a day she sends to us sent via her blackberry. so when i said to alexandra, "did you slide down the curly slide?" "yes." "did you play with boys on the ice?" "yes." and "did you swing in the swing?" she answered "yesssss."

but then the tables turned. "daddy what you do at work today?" "did you make projects?" (i'm an architect). "did you make poo poo?"

correct on both counts. i guess it's all in a day's work be it playschool, preschool, or the office. and tomorrow i'm checking my desk for a spy cam...how did she know?"

6:41

whooh...cough. cough. just got back from my first visit to the newly opened park slope armory ymca. i put down a 6:41 mile on their track not bad for my first timed mile in years. anyway the place is beautiful and vast...its opening well timed with my tiredness developed for the prospect park y across the street from us.

now if i can only reduce the extra jiggle on my waist. a true belly developed on me for the first time this winter. yikes.

for those of you local to the area, join the armory y - it's only $15 more a month on top of the prospect park y monthly. and you can check it out as a guest 6 times with any existing ymca membership.

too long to tweet

feeding my video game vice of deer hunting i shot at digital deer on the subway ride home with a laser guided scope. then following a strange new years resolution to run home from the subway up 9th street i took off up the hill. past the large anonymous apt building and that's when the laser beam started following me. some kids playing a trick with a cat toy - probably. me running zig zag pattern like a deer to avoid getting shot - definitely!