Catch Up Post

We've had almost three weeks of sunshine and warmth. Hard to stay in and post. So here are some pictures from the last week or so.

Police car finds a way through the traffic on New Seward by
driving up on the bike trail and then across Benson. Fortunately I'd chosen to take the BP bike path instead of the path on New Seward.

We had dinner with Frank Gold and his wife. We originally met Frank in Bangkok two years ago, where he spends part of the year. But he's a Fairbanks oldtimer.

Our cottonwoods are shedding their sticky, but sweetly fragrant leaf covers. I've been sweeping the deck every morning, but they still manage to slip into the kitchen by sticking to the bottom of my feet. At least it smells great.

A view of Mt. Spur and Fire Island from friends' house on the hillside where we had dinner last night. Redoubt wasn't visible and this picture was late in the evening after things had cleared up somewhat.

And our great weather has brought out lots of bikes,
but there were more than bikes out.

We went to a birthday party Saturday that included a pinata.

Ripples abstract the the birch reflections at Goose Lake.

The Man in the Attic - Out North - Acting a Different Culture

In the first post on this world-premiere of Timothy Daly's play, The Man in the Attic, presented at Out North Theater in Anchorage, I said there were parts I liked and one I didn't. In the first post I discussed the part of "Speaker" which I liked a lot.

In this post I want to talk about the issue of producing a play where the language and culture of the actors and audience are different those from the those of the characters in the play. In this case the play, by an Australian playwright, was put on in English in the United States. The play was about Germans at the end of World War II.

The first time I can remember thinking about this issue was long ago watching American movies dubbed in Thai. Imagine John Wayne or Steve McQueen speaking Thai. It was a joke, which destroyed the mood of the movies. I also recognize that Thais didn't react as I did.

But many people don't want to read subtitles in a movie. I suppose there are people who simply can't read that fast. I know trying to read Thai subtitles was totally out of the question for me. I just couldn't read that fast. It is often difficult to impossible to read the subtitles through the gaps between the heads in front of you. Opera has found a way to scroll the words being sung in 'surtitles' above the stage.

But switching languages can change everything. Language is more than content. Language is a major conveyor of culture. Even if you don't understand the words, you learn something about the other culture, experientially, by hearing it. Language also affects how people's tongues and lips move and how their whole body moves. Language affects who you are and what you do.

When I asked Thai teachers, long ago, to write in English on topics like "The Most Important Day of My Life" they wrote very personal, often tragic stories they would absolutely never have told me out loud in Thai. I always hypothesized that something about writing in English freed them to say things they normally would never discuss. As though English wasn't quite real. Certainly, when you learn profanity in another language, it doesn't have the same emotional impact as the equivalents in your mother language.

When I talked about this with friends, a married couple - he's from Romania and she's from France - they started exploring this idea. She immediately said that she is a very different person in French than in English; she's much more sarcastic in French. He said he was glad they met in English. He recounted an incident in Paris recently where he was dropping off the family in the middle of traffic and they were taking their time getting out of the car and he was feeling pressure from the other drivers. He finally shouted "Get Out" in English. He said he would never have said anything like that to his parents in Romanian. (In another cultural insight, his wife said Paris drivers don't worry about the horns of other drivers at all.) I'm convinced that language is important to who we are and how we behave.

If anyone is still with me, I'm ready to get back to the play.

When you are putting on a play in which the characters speak a language (here German) different from the audience (in this case English,) you don't have a lot of choices. Putting on this play in German wasn't an option. The play itself was written in English. The audience would miss too much if it were all in German. You can't use subtitles, and opera's LED surtitles were certainly too expensive for this little theater. I did find one post on surtitles for traveling productions of plays. Of course subtitles and surtitles distract the audiences from watching the actors closely. One solution - at times with dreadful results - is to have the actors use German accents. Or you can just go with English (in this case). So, with all this background, I can explain the problem I had with this play.

The actor who played the Nazi husband had a strong American twang in his voice. It just did not work for me at all. The only time I thought he was right was the 30 seconds or so when he played the role of an American military officer - then he fit perfectly. It wasn't just the voice. Americans talk and walk and move with a freedom that is very different from how Germans - especially at the end of WW II hiding a Jew in their attic - talk, walk, and move. (My parents were refugees from Germany and I spent the school year of 1964-65 in Germany.)

The other actors also spoke English, but with much more neutral accents. And their body language was much more subdued so I could believe their parts - particularly the wife who looked hungry and timid. The man in the attic looked a little too well fed for his part, but otherwise carried his part off well as did the neighbor.

I do thank Out North for making plays like this available in Anchorage, for taking risks, and for challenging our local actors to higher levels. I'm sure the director, Dick Reichman, had a lot to do with this.

The Temple by ...

One of the unintended consequences of having a blog is that occasionally I get a flurry of google searches for a topic that alerts me that something is going on. Generally it's not anything particularly important, but some group of people somewhere are suddenly interested in a topic and the search words they are using get some of them to my blog. It happened in mid-March when the Oregon farmer Steve Keudell was electrocuted. The search terms "Steve" and "blog" got them here. In that case I actually posted about it to try to redirect traffic to a site where they might actually get the information they wanted. And people sent me his site url. And, I'm pleased to report that he seems to be recovering well. Friday, the following was posted on his blog:

Steve is continuing his recovery at Emanuel Hospital at the Burn Center in Portland. He will be there possibly through Monday before he gets moved to the Rehab. Institute of Oregon (RIO) at Good Samaritan Hopsital. One of the reasons for the delay in the move is the nursing/medical side of his condition. For now, Steve still needs medical attention to his arm wound. Family visitors are keeping Steve company and he is still having physical therapies every day.

Yesterday, Steve composed the following message:

"I thank all of you who have been following my progress on the blog. Your concern and prayers have overwhelmed me. My recovery would not have been possible without all of your love and support. I am anxious to get on with my physical therapy and continuing recovery. I'm looking forward to giving all of you a handshake and a hug after I get home."

When I suddenly got a lot of people searching for Mary Beth Kepner I knew that something new must have happened in the Ted Stevens case.

And recently I began getting people searching for Elizabeth Gloria Pounds. I'd mentioned her in a post about the memorial for her mother Toni. When I asked a friend why, I learned that, sadly, Elizabeth had died too.

So last night, and again this morning, I started getting people searching for things like

• find birthtown of poet, author of the temple, born in 1909
• poet born 1909 the temple

What was this all about? Looking at the result of one of the google searches that got them to my post on Famous People Born in 1909, I found this link to the Times:

Win a week’s holiday for two on Rhodes,
as the guest of On the Beach.

Read the article below and answer the questions at the end of the text. Clues to the answers can be found within the text:

Letter to Puzzle-loving Friend: "Guess where I am: the land of a favourite television programme, where many outdoor scenes were filmed. Indeed, if you read this note carefully, you will find the first letters of a certain number of consecutive words. When joined (without rearranging), they make a catch phrase for which it is known. The centre for outdoor filming was this town, once capital of an ancient kingdom.

It was also the birthplace, in 1737, of an author; writings include Common Sense...

Included, further down, is this clue which got people to What Do I Know?

My search for televisual nostalgia has already taken me further afield — 40 miles north-northeast to a village station. It’s just west of a second town, where a poet (born 1909; works include The Temple) spent part of his childhood.

The answers the contest is looking for are to these questions:

1 Name the programme and catch phrase

2 What is the name of the second town?

Well, it turns out that there are a few poems called "The Temple." The first poet that comes up in google is George Herbert, but that turns out to be a book of poems called "The Temple" and he was born in 1593 anyway.

Next I found

The Temple by Amy Lowell

Between us leapt a gold and scarlet flame.
Into the hollow of the cupped, arched blue
Of Heaven it rose. Its flickering tongues up-drew
And vanished in the sunshine. How it came
We guessed not, nor what thing could be its name.
From each to each had sprung those sparks which flew
Together into fire. But we knew
The winds would slap and quench it in their game.
And so we graved and fashioned marble blocks
To treasure it, and placed them round about.
With pillared porticos we wreathed the whole,
And roofed it with bright bronze. Behind carved
locks
Flowered the tall and sheltered flame. Without,
The baffled winds thrust at a column's bole.

But she's a women and the clue refers to the poet as 'he.' And she was born in 1874.

Next came:

Kenneth Patchen - The Temple

To leave the earth was my wish, and no will stayed my rising.
Early, before sun had filled the roads with carts
Conveying folk to weddings and to murders;
Before men left their selves of sleep, to wander
In the dark of the world like whipped beasts.

I took no pack. I had no horse, no staff, no gun.
I got up a little way and something called me,
Saying,
'Put your hand in mine. We will seek God together.'
And I answered, 'It is your father who is lost, not mine.'
Then the sky filled with tears of blood, and snakes sang.

But he was born in 1911.


Next:

THE TEMPLE

WHAT of Louvain and of Rheims
Made for God by man? What then?
Here be temples more than man's
Wrought by God for His own men.

Scattered in the rain and frost,
Marred of beauty, there they be,
Temples of the Holy Ghost,
Broken, ruined piteously.

Bodies all so finely wrought,
Cunning deftness shaped them well;
These, God's ultimate, loving thought
For His Spirit's citadel.

Beautiful from head to foot,
Young, dear darlings all unflawed
For their mother's kiss. What brute
Dares deface the image of God?

Oh, the Temple's down! all marred
Gay and golden boys must lie:
Bitter-sweet as spikenard
Is the old name we called them by.

Hush! God's Temple in its fall
Breaks to set the spirit free
From the golden cage and thrall.
Into heaven-winged liberty.

From the cage the bird is flown,
Sings so high above our sphere.
Hush,--be never a sigh or moan:
The fledged bird flies without fear.

All our loves are gathered in,
Every gay and golden lad;
On new raiment, white and clean,
They behold God and are glad.

But the name attached is Tynan, Katharine. Another woman. Nothing against women, but they were looking for a male poet here. And just so I don't leap to conclusions about the gender based on the name, I checked.

Katharine Tynan (23 January 1861 – 2 April 1931) was an Irish-born writer, known mainly for her novels and poetry.

The date doesn't work either.


There's another book:

God on the Hill: Temple Poems from Tirupati
by Velcheru Narayana Rao , David Shulman

This clue isn't going anywhere. It's easier to start with the birthplace of the author of Common Sense, which I had to read in school. So where was Tom Paine born? Wikipedia says he was born in January 29, 1737 Thetford, NorfolkGreat Britain.

Using google maps we can easily find what's 40 miles northeast of Thetford (A on the map):








Norwich seems too big to be a village station. (According to Wikipedia it was the second largest city - after London - in the 11th Century. So I googled "the M&GNR, heritage railway. Norwich" which got me to this list of historic railways in Norfolk (Norwich is in Norfolk):

Norfolk is home to several Heritage railways and preserved stations.

North Norfolk Railway

The North Norfolk Railway operates a five mile route between Holt and Sheringham on the Norfolk coast. It was preserved in 1964, and the extension to Holt opened in 1987.^[1]

Mid-Norfolk Railway

The Mid-Norfolk Railway operates an eleven and a half mile route between Dereham and Wymondham Abbey. A further six mile extension to County School railway station is planned. It is also proposed to connect the line to the National Rail main line at Wymondham railway station.^[2]

Bure Valley Railway

The Bure Valley Railway is a 15 inch gauge railway that runs for nine miles between Aylsham and Wroxham.^[3]

Wells and Walsingham Light Railway

The Wells and Walsingham is a 4 ft 8½ in gauge railway which runs for four miles from Wells-next-the-Sea to Walsingham.

Checking each of these was tedious and not giving the information I was looking for - a station built in 1901. But as I was doing all this the name of Stephen Spender popped up.

Well, back on my list of people born in 1909 is a British poet - Stephen Spender. But when I checked on him earlier I saw that he was born in London, so I was looking for a different poet. But as I double-checked the contest clues, it doesn't say that he was born in this village, but spent time there. It pays to read carefully the first time. So I quickly looked up Stephen Spender and Wikipedia says

Spender was born Kensington, London, to journalist, Edward Harold Spender and Violet Hilda Schuster, a painter and poet.^[2] He went to Gresham's School, Holt and later Charlecote School in Worthing, but was unhappy there.

Worthing is in West Sussex, so that leaves Holt. Holt is on the list of historic railways. Back to google maps.


Holt is five miles west of Sherringham which is also on that list. So, Holt seems to be the answer they want for question 2.

[Update 4pm - Something's not right here. The village station that's "now part of a heritage railroad" is "just west of a second town, where a poet..." But Holt (where the Spender spent part of his childhood) is west of Sherringham. "Just east" would work fine since Sherringham is five miles east of Holt. But after a bit more checking, there are two towns on the Mid-Norfolk Heritage Railway line that look to be under 10 miles west of Holt - Fakenham and Wells-next-the-Sea. So Holt can still be the answer to question 2.]

So, why couldn't I find the poem "The Temple" by Stephen Spender. Googling "Stephen Spender The Temple" gives us the answer. Those puzzle makers are very sneaky. Yes, Spender was a poet. But his work "The Temple" was a novel. From Wikipedia:

The Temple is a novel written by Stephen Spender.

This novel was written after Spender spent his summer vacation in Germany in 1929 and recounts his experiences there. It was not completed, however, until the early 1930's (after Spender had failed his finals at Oxford University in 1930 and moved to Hamburg). Its frank depictions of homosexuality made it impossible to publish in the UK though, stopping it from being published in the UK until 1988.

It would have really been embarrassing if I had done all this sleuthing and it turned out that The Temple was mentioned in my short bio on Spender in the Famous People Born in 1909 post. Fortunately, that wasn't the case. There I listed his novel "World within World."

So, if anyone reading this wins the trip to Rhodes, the least you can do is send me a postcard.

The Man in the Attic - Out North - Role of the Speaker

Anchorage's Out North Theater was the setting for the world premiere of Australian playwright Timothy Daly's play, The Man in the Attic. I think it’s neat when we get to see world premieres (of non-Alaskan) plays here.

This is not a review of the play. I haven’t had enough time to process it, nor, having seen it just once, am I sure I can make any serious pronouncements without going back to see if my recollections are accurate..

The premise is an interesting twist on an old familiar theme - the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany. What is it about Nazi Germany that fascinates writers so much more than other human persecution and suffering around the world? (I write this aware from the program that Black Cockerel [link added later] of Africa - another world premiere - is up next at Out North.) Is it because both the persecutors and persecuted are white? Is it because the context is already so familiar that the audience already understands who the good guys and bad guys are?

I realize that when I say I haven’t processed the play yet, I’m really stalling. Overall the play kept my attention. There were a few things I really liked, one I didn’t, and that while there were moments - like the man in the attic’s debate with God - of above average interest, for the most part the script was ordinary. The language conveyed the content, but the words didn’t dazzle me, say, the way they do in a Tom Stoppard play.

But let’s also remember that the cast was local Alaskans with acting experience, but not world class actors. I’m reminded of this because Bernie Blaine, the actor who played “Speaker,” did manage to elevate all her lines into riveting speech.

But I’d like to explore two ideas that came from the experience of the play. The first is about acting in a play that is set in a different culture and language. The second is about the device of “Speaker” the part that combined the roles of Greek chorus, narrator, alter ego, and a few more. Bernie herself, after the play, described her part as "the literary device."

I’ll do Speaker first and language in a second post.

The basic set was a small house and attic that were open to the audience. To the right were two chairs where one or two actors sat when they were not in the scene and where action in the neighbor’s house took place. On the left was “Speaker” sitting at a table with electronic equipment. She confused me at first. She began, if I remember correctly, as a narrator giving the audience asides. “This is a story” I remember her saying. But she also said things that the actors echoed. And this was done so well it seemed totally natural. Later in the play she actually got up and gave one of the characters a prop. At other times she would prod a particular actor into examining something more closely. And all the while she was controlling the music and other sound effects. This latter role I think was the director’s idea, not the playwright’s.

This part grew on me as the play went on. I think in part it was because of the actor’s great voice and persona. She was a bit like the lion tamer at the circus - keeping the actors performing, prompting them now and then, seemingly in charge (controlling the music added to this sense) but trying to keep out of the spotlight as much as possible.

Why was this role in the play? Was it merely to make sure the audience understood the story line? Did it have some greater metaphorical meaning, perhaps intended to mimic the way the Germans controlled the stories the man in the attic heard? Or the way the Nazi’s controlled the stories the Germans heard? I don’t see direct parallels.

In any case, it was nicely done and added greatly to my playwatching experience.

Part II is here.

Biking Good and Bads

First the bad. Dimond Blvd. between Old Seward and King Street. The shared trail along the street was thick with dust, sand, gravel and whatever else they used on the snow this winter. This makes riding - particularly if you have to make a sharp swerve or sudden stop - hazardous.





But there was an exception on this strip - all along where the Red Robin was. Someone from the Red Robin came out as I was taking the picture so I thanked him and confirmed that they did clean the sidewalk/trail. He said yes they did. Then added that he rides a bike. A little reminder that we see what we know and that people who bike see the parts of the world differently than people who don't. Again, thanks Red Robin for cleaning the path.


And now the good. I rode over to the Alaska Mac Store near the Dimond Mall (it moved from Old Seward and Tudor) for a Garage Band class via Lake Otis because I was cutting the time a little close. It took about 25 minutes from right near UAA. The trail along Lake Otis was nicely cleared of grit and sand, though on Lore Street and other streets much of the sand/gravel has just been pushed into what ought to be the bike lane. Also, to be clear, there are four Apple stores I know of in Anchorage. There's also the Mac Haus across the street from REI on Northern Lights, the Tech Zone upstairs at the UAA bookstore (their website is particularly lame), and the Apple Shop at Best Buy (their website is marginally better than UAA's, but it's not local) on Dimond.

After the class, I took the Campbell Creek trail home. I got on the trail from King Street at Taku Lake.




The feasibility of biking places is really in people's heads. If you're like most people, you just assume it's not possible. If you have two kids and a dog and need to stop at Costco it probably isn't, but if you're by yourself and need to go five miles or less each way and don't need to carry more than you can fit in a backpack (or bike basket) it is feasible. OK, if you haven't ridden a bike in ten years, maybe you should take a weekend leisurely ride to get your body accustomed first. But in Chiang Mai, we didn't have a car and it was bike or walk for most things. We even got good riding in Chiang Mai traffic. There are almost no bike paths and the sidewalks are hard enough to walk on let alone ride on. And back in Anchorage we've moved into assuming we're going by bike unless we have a good reason why that won't work.

In Anchorage, if your trip is in the right direction, you can do part of your ride in the woods. Mentally, riding along Campbell Creek, listening to the birds and the water, is much better than driving on any street in town. It's like a hidden wonderland, no cars allowed.

And for these short distances - even on the way back with lots of stopping to take pictures it was only about 35 minutes - it's not that much slower than driving. And definitely faster than waiting for the bus.

1 is near the Red Robin on Dimond.
2 is where I got on the trail at Taku Lake
3 is the Seward Highway. Here you get on a dirt trail and have to walk - even carry - the bike to get under the four bridges (a frontage road on each side and one bridge for north and one for southbound traffic) (This is scheduled for a real trail, but I don't know when.)
4 is Lake Otis where I left the trail and headed home. (The map is a creek map, not a bike trail map. 3-4 you don't go along the creek, but at 4 you get back to the creek.)

It then goes on a loops around over Tutor at Bragaw and connects to the Chester Creek trail and downtown. I'm hoping to post a guide for how to find the trail at the missing parts to do the whole loop including the Coastal Trail.

Bob Poe and Other Guests on CC 4pm Today KWMD

I never thought I'd be putting up advertising here. Well, this is an announcement for a non-commercial community radio talk show.

Cutting Edge with CC today from 4 - 7 pm on KWMD

104.5 FM and 87.7 FM in Anchorage,
90.7 Kenai.
92.5 Eagle River
107.9 Wasilla

Guests include Cary Carrigan, Patti Higgins, Bob Poe and The Demo Memo with Sen. Johnny Ellis!

Phone in at 771-0205.

They'll have an 800 number to give out at 4:00 pm.

Dennis Zaki is Getting His Brother Married in Georgia

Dennis Zaki of the Alaska Report is in High Falls, Georgia for his brother's wedding. He says he's totally out of internet contact and his time is fully booked getting ready for the big day anyway. So I'm posting this for people wondering why his site hasn't been updated or people trying to get hold of him. He'll be back next week.

The photo is from atlantacorvetteclubs.com.

A Stop at the Bookstore

We managed to slip into Barnes and Noble Tuesday night after dinner with a friend. There are bookstores in Chiang Mai, but most didn't excite me and we didn't get around to them often. But I remembered at B&N why dropping into a bookstore for an hour now and then is healthy. Bookstores remind me of how much I don't know. And, usually, in an hour, I can pick up a few ideas that are either totally new or that renew something my brain's flirted with briefly and forgotten about.

This book title - Throw Out Fifty Things. What kind of society do we live in that people have to buy a book to help them get rid of things? Clear evidence of society where at least some people have too much.






Would this book have caught my eye if I hadn't been to hear David Chalmers recently? I don't know. Looking at this quickly, it does seem to extend Chalmers notion that the mind is more than just inside our heads.











And I hadn't noticed before that you could buy a book and get to also read it online AND get an audio version. In this case, I don't even know what the book was about at all. I was just interested by how it was delivered.






This is just one tiny section of the bookshop. So much to know! There really is something different about unplugging from the distraction of a computer connected to the internet and finding a nice chair, a spot on a beach, or even a seat on a bus or an airplane, and getting deep into a book. One book. On one topic. Focused so that you actually learn something about the topic, rather than skipping around to get tidbits of lots of things, but nothing in depth. You really can become relatively expert on some subjects by reading a few books on it. Though some blogs - like Maddy's Ramblings and Empty Wheel which I've listed in the "Links Worth a Look" on the right - do go into great detail and give a more than basic level of expertise. (I've updated Empty Wheel from the old The Next Hurrah on the right of the page.)


And then yesterday, in an article called "Ear Plugs to Lasers: The Science of Concentration" John Tierney reinforced that theme:

“People don’t understand that attention is a finite resource, like money,” she said. “Do you want to invest your cognitive cash on endless Twittering or Net surfing or couch potatoing? You’re constantly making choices, and your choices determine your experience, just as William James said.”

And while non-fiction often seems more solid than fiction, I've found that good fiction has as important and potentially life-changing content as non-fiction. Good fiction deals with those ineffable issues such as interpersonal relationships that science has so much trouble 'proving.' And it's often much more readable.

Oh, and yesterday, when Jim emailed and asked if I'd subscribed to Sun yet, I followed the links and subscribed. I have to be really impressed to subscribe to anything more coming into our house, but having read several copies of Sun, thanks to Jim, I think it is worth my time. And I have a few more books on my list to pick up at the library after my trip to the bookstore.

Getting books at the library not only saves money and prevents more clutter in our house, but it also gives me a deadline to finish the book. Because of that, I tend to be much better about reading books from the library than ones I buy. But before I borrow or buy, I've got several books I'm still working on.

CC Back on air Friday - 4pm KWMD

There was enough positive response to Monday's broadcast on KWMD (picture includes CC, Jeremy of KWMD, and Cary Carrigan at Monday's broadcast)that CC will be back on the air tomorrow (Friday) at 4pm, with a special guest(s). Not sure where they will be broadcasting from this time, but you can hear it on:

Anchorage: 104.5 and 87.7 FM
Wasilla: 107.9 FM when it works
Kasilof: 90.7 FM

And this time the Eagle River translator should be working too:

Eagle River 92.5

4pm Friday, May 8

Call in at 771 0205.

This could become regular if enough people listen and call in. There's even been interest in linking in from a radio station outside of the general Anchorage/Matsu/Kenai area. And they are working on the streaming too, but probably it won't be up for tomorrow.

In some ways this is something of a breakthrough for Anchorage audio media. Bloggers have broken the dependence on a publisher. CC mentioned Monday how dependent a radio person is on a station to give her airtime. KWMD is still radio, but it's a non-commercial community station that should be doing this sort of thing. But it also used internet technology plus it had a group of blogs publicizing the fact that CC would be on so that interested listeners could catch it.

People have been doing video-blogs and podcasting for a while now, but we haven't had (to my knowledge) any regular video-bloggers covering key issues in Alaska. (OK, I'm sure they are out there, so let me know. I do know about the video guys in Juneau - can't find them right now but they make funny videos - but that's slightly different from what I'm talking about.) Let's see how this evolves. Meanwhile, in a post Monday, I mistakenly posted a photo of a piece of equipment and said it did the phone calls. (I thought it was lighting up whenever a call came in. So it isn't just in other languages that I can get into trouble by making assumptions.) Jeremy has done a long comment on that post explaining in technical detail how the phone calls were handled. I told him at least two people would be interested.

Would Anyone Be Troubled if They Had to Vote in a Mosque?

We had a mayoral runoff election in Anchorage yesterday. My polling place is in a church. As I walked in to the building, the door was open into the sanctuary with all the religious trappings appropriate for a church.

But is it appropriate to have to enter a religious house of worship to vote in a government election in a country where people are supposed to be free to worship or not as they choose? Since most Americans are Christians, perhaps they don't understand how a non-Christian feels having to pass all those religious symbols in order to vote.

So how many Christians would be completely comfortable walking into a mosque with all its religious symbols on full display as you pass by to vote? And then I had to be reminded again as I put my ballot into the ballot box.

I don't have a problem going into a church to attend a wedding or even as a guest at a service. But I'd like my civic obligations in more secular settings. Like the fire station across the street where we voted for years and years. Now that they've torn down the old station and built a new one, perhaps we can move back there.

At least I have the options of absentee or early voting.