‘Raise Your Voice’ Archives
The Aerobics Beyond the “Y”
By Peter Molenaar Visits to the Lake Street YWCA have become familiar to me, in the aftermath of thirty-five years hard labor at Smith Foundry. However, when worn ankles dictate, treadmills and elipticals won”'t do. It is from the vantage of a stationary bike that I am allowed to discreetly observe. As for aerobics, evidently there are many women who have surpassed what I once was. One wonders why a world-wide movement of women has not been mobilized to fight ISIS. Sending our young men to war tends to make matters worse. Recently, en route to burning 100 calories at 95rpm, the caption line on the big screen flashed BREAKING NEWS: NORTH KOREA THREATENS GUAM WITH MISSILE ATTACK. Amazingly, the elipticals and treadmills kept churning. I happen to garden with the Koreans who founded the Community Peace Garden, at the junction of Highway 94 and Cedar Avenue. From them I received a copy of the spring issue of the Korean Quarterly with the front [...]
Cultivating Heavy Soil
By Peter Molenaar Transforming the USA along socialist lines is like propagating a garden in heavy soil. Dense soils tend to impede germination and root development. Yet, when properly conditioned, a “clay soil” is the most fertile and will produce glorious results. Marxism teaches that external factors are the conditions of change, while internal contradictions are the basis. If things are not right, the seed will not deliver us the flower. Might hard work and perseverance render our desire? As it happened”¦ An elder Korean woman from the community garden kindly gifted me several seed packets from her homeland. The English label read “Blue Bell Root.” In addition to its lovely flowers, this plant produces roots which will cure most diseases and extend our life spans. So, the work was cut out for me. Available to me were several raised beds which, since an early harvest of kimchi radishes, had been fallow beneath grass [...]
Pondering the “Potato Bugs”
By Peter Molenaar Neighborhood gardeners have begun again to taste the harvest of their labor. The season has imposed unusual difficulties, but certainly the best is yet to come. As for my potatoes, two, fifteen-foot-long mounds are joined at one end via a semi-circle. In the semi-circle, the remnants of last year”'s red fingerlings were planted. Big potatoes occupy the main rows and will supply calories for a year. But what? Potato bugs remain among us. These “enemies of the people” are quite happy to exploit our labor while contributing nothing in return. But the savvy gardener will plant reds, knowing the eggs will preferentially be deposited there. It is then squish, squish, squish with maximum efficiency. Trust me, the karma is good. On the other hand, by way of comparison, Marxists have always condemned individual acts of terror. The recent assassination attempt, perpetrated by a lost brother, is a case in point. Whatever goodness was in the man”'s [...]
