Listen to Me

Historians Against the War has just published a 24-page pamphlet entitled Join Us? Testimonies of Iraq War Veterans and Their Families, edited by Carl Mirra of SUNY College at Old Westbury. The complete pamphlet, a project of HAW’s Oral History Working Group, includes testimony from six veterans of the Iraq war, from the mother of a National Guard soldier who died in Iraq and from Army veteran Ann Wright, who resigned from the State Department to protest the Iraq invasion.

I disagree with Mr. Jackson in his article, “Greed” (Artvoice v5n24), because the Native Americans do have a right to that land because of the treaties that our government made with them. But I don’t like the fact that dust and rubble are getting into the air. Kids play around the H-O Grain building all the time and if they get sick their families could sue. I think the Seneca Gaming Corporation should choose wisely when they demolish the H-O Oats building.

by Rob Brezsny

CANCER (June 21-July 22): In 1982 I moved into a new home in Santa Cruz. It was just a funky old cottage that had once been a barn, but I was ecstatic to have it. As I opened the front door to begin my first day there, a violet-crowned hummingbird bolted inside in front of me, stayed for a few minutes, then departed. I regarded its visit as a phenomenally good omen, and it turned out to be just that. During my years in that house, I wrote my first book, recorded my first music album, fell in love with the woman I married and conceived my daughter. Almost exactly 24 years later, I’m meditating on your horoscope as I sit in my current abode. “Send me a sign,” I just said to the gods. “What’s in the works for Cancerians?” Now a violet-crowned hummingbird is dancing exuberantly in front of my window, peering in, lingering a long time. I take it to mean you’re at the beginning of a great opening.

Where Did Everyone Go?

by Michael A. Colucci

To get an idea of Buffalo’s declining population, all you have to do is open your eyes. Most area residents have seen at least a few close friends relocate to places like Maryland, North Carolina and Florida, among others. In 1950 Buffalo was the 15th most populated city in the US. By 1990 Buffalo had dropped to 50th on the same list. This has been going on for years and, according to Census Bureau estimates released last week, the region’s population has declined more in the last five years than it did during the entire decade of the 1990s. Niagara and Erie Counties have lost 22,400 people in the last five years, compared to 19,000 between 1990 and 2000. The City of Buffalo has taken the largest hit, with a decline of more than 13,000 people, dropping the city’s estimated population to 279,745. What is causing the loss of population and what can be done about it? We headed to the streets to find out what Buffalonians had to say.

by Chuck Shepherd

■ Britain’s Prince Philip has for at least 30 years accommodated a tribe of 400 “cargo cult” people on the South Sea island of Tanna, who revere him as the human face of an ancestral spirit, according to June revelations by London’s Daily Mail. Both sides have been discreet, but the prince has acquiesced by sending the tribe signed photographs, including one in which he is holding the traditional war club (even though a totally authentic pose would require that the prince hold it while naked). Cargo cults are so named because, lore has it, an ancient god forecast that one day, wealth would fall from the sky, and then, during World War II, it did, in the form of parachuted-in supplies for American troops who used the islands as staging areas.

Not Quite Jihad

by Michael I. Niman

I just finished reading reports of Israeli tanks massing on the Gaza border in preparation for a possible assault on Gaza in retaliation for a Hamas attack on a military base on the Israeli side of the border. Tank battalions rolling over an international border, guns blazing—that’s an image of a ground war, even if no one shoots back. Likewise, Rommel’s forces thundering across North Africa in World War II, Americans slaughtering each other at Gettysburg during the Civil War, the British burning Buffalo in 1812, Hitler’s forces overrunning Poland in 1939, Roman chariots tearing across Europe—these are ground wars.

Combining Passions

by Cynnie Gaasch

Walking through the Albright-Knox Art Gallery today, in 2006, we don’t often think about the unusual circumstance that brought this amazing collection together—the collection that makes the gallery the world-class institution that it is. Seymour Knox, Jr. was an avid art collector with an eye that brought us many modern masterpieces before they were proclaimed such. He purchased works of art before their heyday, sometimes directly from the artist, on travels to France, Italy, New York and South America.

Jadwiga's Crossing: A Story of the Great Migration by Aloysius A. Lutz and Richard J. Lutz

by Bill Parks

If ever there was a compelling story for an epic film, the newly published novel Jadwiga’s Crossing, by Dunkirk, New York natives Aloysius A. Lutz and his son Richard J. Lutz, fits the bill perfectly. The novel is the story of the “great migration” of a married couple, Paul Adamik and Jadwiga Wdowiak Adamik, from Poland to America in the late 19th century. With other Poles and Germans, they travel under extreme duress in steerage class aboard an old wind-powered passenger ship at the time of the transition from sail to steam. Theirs is a roller coaster ride across the Atlantic, beset by severe storms, underfed and having to provide for the birth of children among the animals accompanying them. Dr. Deborah Silverman, Buffalo State College professor and author of Polish-American Folklore, tells us, “Readers of Jadwiga’s Crossing are introduced to…folklore from several regions of then-partitioned Poland, as well as the tensions that existed between Poles and the three nations that occupied Poland in the nineteenth century: Prussia, Russia and Austria.” These immigrants had great personal confidence in their own ability to survive and thrive in America in a political and commercial environment unlike anything the world had previously seen. Paul and Jadwiga show this confidence as they arrive and find work in Dunkirk. Well worth reading, particularly by those who live in this region and have an interest in their own 19th-century ancestors.

Alec Baldwin in Buffalo

by Anthony Chase

Alec Baldwin will make his Buffalo theater debut on July 12 in a staged reading of Yasmina Reza’s play, Art, as a benefit for Road Less Traveled Productions. His participation in the event is highly characteristic of Baldwin, a major movie star who, despite fame, has always maintained a strong connection to live theater, to social and political causes and to helping out the little guy.

Jason Grimsley's Chemistry Project

by Andrew Kulyk & Peter Farrell

One thing’s for sure—Jason Grimsley, a lifetime journeyman pitcher in the major and minor leagues, has never been a stranger to controversy and colorful stories.

by M. Faust

Johnny Cash: American V: A Hundred Highways

by Buck Quigley

Marionette

Anything else you would like our readers to know about the band…We play rock-and-roll music, fast. Our songs have political undertones that will probably make you feel uncomfortable if you've dutifully voted for either party since 1976. But most of it's subtle and not too in your face. We are into rebellion not profit. This attitude carries over into the live version of Marionette as well. Thanks for reading.