New American Dream: 01/01/2009

Friday

The New American
Dream Interview

Fr. DARRELL RUPIPER, 72, lives in Chicago.

He is a Catholic priest, a member of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

He was born in Carroll, Iowa.

He served as a missionary with the poor of Brazil for four years. While there he was arrested, imprisoned, and finally expelled from the country by the military government.

He also served several federal prison terms for civil disobedience at Offutt Air Force Base, home of the Strategic Air Command, near Omaha.

Darrell went to Iran twice to attempt to free the U.S. hostages.

First with a group of 50 U.S. citizens under the leadership of Norm Forer, a professor in Lawrence, Kansas. The second time at the invitation of the students holding the U.S. hostages. Along with two other ministers he went to offer Easter services to the hostages at the request of Ayatollah Khomeini.

For the past six years he has been traveling the country preaching about the perils of global warming.

"My time in Brazil was a life-changer. Nothing could have prepared this Iowa farm boy for the shock of the human misery I encountered."

When he returned to the United States he was passionate about working to overturn injustices in the world.

More about Fr. Darrell Rupiper:

___________________

The New American Dream Trivia Question:

To win a round button that says, "Bush Is Lying About What He Knew," be the first one to correctly answer the following.

Darrell Rupiper would rather be ....

a. Spreading manure across a frozen field somewhere near Carroll, Iowa b. An Episcopalian c. Pope Darrell For A Day d. Anywhere but Omaha e. Flying to Guantanamo, attempting to secure the imprisonment of George W. Bush f. Priesthood, prison, poverty, Iran, global warming ... how about just one effing day in Las Vegas!

___________________

NAD: Darrell, hello, thank you for taking the time for this. Why the priesthood? Did you leave for seminary right out of high school? Why the Oblates?

DARRELL RUPIPER:

Howdy Mike,

First a couple of corrections ... not real important but here they are:

It wasn't with William Sloan Coffin that I went to Tehran. I went twice.

First with a group of 50 U.S. citizens under the leadership of Norm Forer, a professor in Lawrence, Kansas ... the second time at the invitation of the students holding the U.S. hostages, two other ministers and myself went to offer Easter services to the hostages at the request of Ayatollah Komeini.

I am in my sixth year cruising the country urging "wake-up" to the dangers of global warming primarily in Catholic Churches and other venues such as universities.

I am in my sixth year cruising the country urging "wake-up" to the dangers of global warming primarily in Catholic Churches and other venues such as universities.

My bed is in Chicago five blocks from Obama's bed and I just got back last night after being gone for more than a month.

Here goes the interview.

Why the priesthood?

I think my unconscious motivation to go to the seminary went something like this.

My home situation was terrible. My dad was an abusive alcoholic .... I, together with my seven siblings had to work hard on the farm (in retrospect it was good for us) ... and along came this effusive, energetic Oblate missionary priest who broke all liturgical rules and put on a church performance that was never experienced by this Iowa kid.

He spoke about the seminary.

It had three baseball diamonds, a lake to fish and swim in, two tennis courts, basketball courts etc ...

My response? Here I come ... and so I did.

I guess I was something of a heller in the seminary and there was a priest who believed in me and saved by behind ... meaning he saved me from being kicked out of the seminary.

... he saved me from being kicked out of the seminary.

When it came time for ordination I made my decision something like this.

"God, you got me into this. You saved me from getting out of this. If you don't get me out of it I will take it as a "Go Ahead!" to be ordained.

Da da! ... and here I am and a couple of days ago I passed my 45th anniversary of ordination.

NAD: You were in prison in Brazil. Can you describe that experience in six lines or less? Twelve?

DARRELL RUPIPER:

You ask for six lines or less to describe my experience in the Brazilian prison?

I and my associate were arrested after a Sunday evening Mass.

During the Mass while preaching I felt super strange ... so strange that I stopped to ask myself what is going on?

Yep, I heard a voice which said: "This is the last time you will be talking to my people Darrell!"

I knew it was for real, I sobbed for a while ... pulled myself together and managed to finish the homily.

I knew it was for real, I sobbed for a while ... pulled myself together and managed to finish the homily.

... the church was surrounded by fifty soldiers.

Two of my buddies approached after Mass asking what was going on?

I told them ... after a half hour they left the church, came right back in saying the church was surrounded by fifty soldiers.

We were taken away and the first night I was questioned by the chief of police for about five hours.

Inspite of the screams of people being tortured I felt strong cuz I knew I was not alone because of what I had heard during my homily.

Inspite of the screams of people being tortured
I felt strong cuz I knew I was not alone because of what
I had heard during my homily.

Crazy? Yep! So it is ... so it was!

One of the guys doing the torturing bragged to us that he got his training in torture methods at the International Police Academy in D.C.

That was not news to me nor to the Brazilian people!

Our people in the U.S. found it impossible to believe .... perhaps finally ... with Guantanamo!

Mike, I could go on and on about the Brazilian experience.

I am going to suggest that if people are interested they can purchase or lend a book that you co-authored which is entitled: "Prophets Without Honor: A Requiem for Moral Patriotism."

Why the Oblates?

Mike, it has been one hell'uva ride .... the priesthood I mean.

Nothing short of exciting!

I remember being assigned to help establish a parish on what was the garbage dump of the city of Recife, Pernambuco Brazil, [pop. 1,200,000].

I remember being assigned to help establish a parish on what was the garbage dump of the city of Recife.

This Iowa farm boy, newly ordained, was totally unprepared for what I saw and experienced.

It wasn't the poverty but the misery of the people.

I remember stopping a woman who came running past me with a baby in her arms ... both were crying.

I asked what's wrong ...

Her curt answer: "The rats got to my baby!" Lots of blood.

I remember going into the our house, I took a glass and threw it, smashing it against the wall at a crucifix.

I screamed: "Don't you see what is going on here? Don't you care?"

I took a glass and threw it,
smashing it against
the wall at a crucifix.

I screamed: "Don't you see what is going on here?

Don't you care?"

A light went on! Like a strike of lightning!

He did see ... he did care ... and that's why he was hanging where he was hanging ... meaning the cross.

Mike, that's when I decided I had to get my hands dirty ... clean actually ... by giving my life for those 'little ones'.

Forget the traditional role of priest as I understood it.

Forget the traditional role of priest as I understood it ... the sacramental priest only.

I am being terribly presumptuous in saying from that time on Jesus and I have partnered ... but I do know that Jesus is the answer ... I hesitate to say that because there are so many people on the far-right who say it so glibly and mean something totally different.

You can ask me more questions on that later if you wish.

NAD: Would you say that you then traced the path of the poverty back up here to the United States?

DARRELL RUPIPER:

Mike, everyone realizes that this is 'a dog eat dog world!

"No one gets to the top of the heap and stays on the top of the heap acting like a poodle!"

The government and corporations are like the proverbial 'mean, mean junk yard dog.'

The government and corporations
are like the proverbial 'mean, mean junk yard dog.'

That is how we, who have five percent of the world's population manage to get our hands on more than 30 percent of the Earth's resources.

NAD: Why the environment? What made you want to do that? And what have you been doing? Is it a three-year mission? What then, for you?

DARRELL RUPIPER:

Why the environment? Cuz there is nothing more important!

Why the environment?
Cuz there is nothing more important!

We are in a heap of trouble!

I was meeting with a Father Thomas Berry, a leading guru in the new universe story, in the whole environmental movement who apparently knew of my protests, imprisonment etc.

He said: "Darrell, I admire your courage your convictions etc ... but you are missing the boat.

Yes, we must rid the world of nuclear bombs ... but the whole thing is going ... meaning of course that we are destroying the very Earth from which we came and which sustains us!"

Again a light went on ... lightning!

Again a light went on ... lightning!

I got permission from my bosses to take some time off to study, took a few classes in an effort to tool myself for the work ahead.

I do believe I was given permission because inspite of my many arrests I had been director of seminarians at three different levels of formation which means they, bosses, maintained some respect and faith in me.

My environmental ministry has gone on now for six years and I just received word that I can continue it for an additional three years.

What is the ministry?

My response would be interesting but too lengthy for this interview. Mike, you or the readers can go to our Oblate website on Justice and Peace and the Integrity of Creation (excellent info). www.omiusajpic.org ... Go to the link on Ecology ... then to What is an ECO-MISSION?

The picture of the guy with birds eating out of my hand and on my shoulder ... that's me!

NAD: Would you like to choose one of these to answer, elaborate on?

I don't ask this to make fun. I ask because I really seek the answers.

- Are UFOs real?

- Did we land on the moon in 1968?

- Did Bush knock down the towers?

- Was Paul Wellstone's death an accident?

- The Oklahoma City bombing? Wasn't that just another U.S. government terrorist exercise? Or not.

- Waco. We burned kids, right? You can see flames shooting out of the tanks. Or not.

- Is Bigfoot real?

- Is there a God?

... What makes you think that?

DARRELL RUPIPER:

You say you really want to know:

Yes, I have a hunch that UFOs are for real!

Yes, I do believe we landed on the moon.

I do not KNOW that he did but my experiences (esp. after my Iran expereinces with our government) indicate that our government is entirely capable of having brought down the towers on 9/11.

I would answer the two questions on Paul Wellstone's death and the Oklahoma City bombing in the same way.

Bigfoot? I have no idea brother.

Is there a God? My answer would depend on what day you ask me that question. Most of the time YES YES!

NAD: Please tell us more about yourself, the things you have done, what you would like to do, what you did today. What do you eat, what do you drive, what do you drink.

What color is your toothbrush? [Without going to look.] Automatic or manual?

Pajamas or sweatpants?

Does your favorite coffee cup have words on it? What are they?

What did you absolutely have to get done by noon today?

How about by Christmas 2009?

DARRELL RUPIPER:

About meself!

What do I drink? Most everything ... I do like every kind of liquor!

Can't stand pajamas and I don't have a pair of sweatpants.

I've got three toothbrushes and don't know nor care the color.

Love my coffee.

Love my coffee. I sip on the same cup of it throughout the day.

Are you grossed out by that?

What did I have to do today before noon. This interview, Michael.

NAD: You were in prison in Chicago. Metropolitan Correctional Center. How many times? For how long? What was it like?

DARRELL RUPIPER:

Three times.

Once for six months ... once for three ... once for one month ... in the opposite order.

What was it like?

My seminary training and life as priest prepared me for it.

I didn't have much trouble with it.

It was a rest period ... retreat-like experience for me.

I did make some lasting acquaintances ... some were mafia ... some were not.

Seems like mafia related guys get a bit clingy. I have lots of interesting stories but ... that's enough!

Bye!

Postscript:

Hi Mike ... about the photo ... check the Internet.

About other things: I just learned yesterday that I am a seriously ill fella.

Doc says I may have 2 or 3 months to live ... cancer ... bone marrow ... SHIT!

What a shock!

I am in San Diego ... will preach six Masses tomorrow and then fly to Chicago and then decide where I will get a bone marrow test and subserquent treatment.

My family would like to have me around home ... we'll see.

Darrell
drupiper2000@hotmail.com

"The old Lakota was wise. He knew that man's heart away from nature becomes hard; he knew that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans too."
— Chief Luther Standing Bear

Update:

Dear Friends of the Omaha Catholic Worker:

Short Notice: Fr. Darrel Rupiper OMI, who many years ago lived
here in Omaha, is in need of PRAYER.

He presently is in Des Moines, Iowa seeking a second opinion on
bone cancer treatment.
He was given a diagnosis of bone cancer in Chicago, his home town.
He was given a time of surviving for only 6 months.

He drove to Des Moines, Iowa his family home to seek a 2nd opinion.
He will be undergoing Chemotherapy starting today January 29, 2009
for 1 week, and then admitted to Iowa Methodist Hospital for 3 weeks.

For many of you who have known Fr. Darrell Rupiper OMI. please
spread the word. I apologize to some of you that do not know him,
and have not known him.

He has been a peace activist and a hard worker with the Al Gore
Environmental Crusade doing parish education about Global Warming.

He was part of the Oblate School of Theology here in Omaha many
years back.

Please add him to your prayer list.

Please contact me by email if you are interested in updates on his
situation. I will only send out email to those that want to receive
them.

He has been in phone contact with close friends daily and I hear
from them daily.

Thanks so much,

Jerry Ebner

Omaha Catholic Worker
Jerry Ebner, Bro. Jason McGuire OSF
1104 N. 24th St. Omaha, Nebraska USA 68102
www.no-nukes.org/cwomaha
Email: cwomaha@gmail.com
402- 502- 5887

Tuesday

The New American
Dream Interview

JOHN CRAWFORD is the publisher of West End Press in Albuquerque.

West End operates on a budget of about $35,000 a year, and puts out an average of four books each year. Crawford says they survive by sales of a few name authors, including Meridel Le Sueur, Cherrie Moraga, and several Native American poets.

The press is politically oriented.

Crawford says, "We can't possibly publish as much as we'd like to among progressive writers. We're booked two years ahead on average. I've been at this for thirty-five years and we have around one hundred thirty books out."

NAD: John, hello, welcome.

Do you ever tire of spelling Albuquerque?

JOHN CRAWFORD:
Actually, the Spanish did. The original name, from a city in Spain, was Alburquerque.

Some monkish copyist at the ABQ Chamber of Commerce around 1800 must have shortened it.
When the guy from the sister city in Spain shows up for the annual celebration, there’s always some polite confusion — or is that confursion — about the spelling of the name.

Aren’t you sorry you asked?

NAD: Your photo on your website, from 1976 shows that you were going bald three decades ago.

How's that working out for you, and does it have anything at all to do with trying to write and publish political fiction in the United States?

JOHN CRAWFORD:
I looked at that picture again. I look like a vampire. Maybe we’ll change it.

Now I’ve got two front teeth missing, so at least no one will think I’m out for blood.

NAD: Where did you grow up, go to school?

Did you always want to be a writer? Then why are you a publisher?

JOHN CRAWFORD:
I was born in Pasadena, California. What a start. I went to Pomona College and Columbia. I wanted to be a poet, but when I started a magazine I began rejecting my own work.

NAD: How did you ever last this long? Are your dreams intact? What do you still want to accomplish?

JOHN CRAWFORD:
I don’t know. I’ve got a brittle bone disease, took boxing in college, got a nose broken by a barstool, rolled a car six times, almost died of a gall bladder infection — my dreams?

I guess it’s actually a matter of practicality.

There are too many suffering bastards out there and it’s time we did something about it. I like sticking up for people.

There are too many suffering bastards out there
and it’s time we did something about it.

I like sticking up for people.

NAD: Do you get lots of queries, submissions? Do you end up turning down some good manuscripts? What makes you different from the New York publishers?

JOHN CRAWFORD:
Weirdly enough, we don’t get that many manuscripts.

I have an assistant who rejects all the bad ones.

Yes, we do turn down some fairly good ones — most likely those conforming to the writer’s best idea of what we’re looking for.

I think submitting a manuscript is like anything else in creative work: don’t try to play it safe.

I don’t like most literary agents. But then the ones I’ve dealt with are either nasty business types, liars and cheats,
or born-agains from Miami.

I don’t like most literary agents. But then the ones I’ve dealt with are either nasty business types, liars and cheats, or born-agains from Miami.

Where do they get these people?

Poets shouldn’t use agents. Fiction writers and memoirists might feel they need them for self-protection, but that already says something about how degenerate the field is.

NAD: Do you think the larger publishers self-censor? Are there political novels being published by the large publishers?

If so, where are they?

JOHN CRAWFORD:
I don’t think the problem is self-censorship so much as lack of political awareness, lack of education, too much hustle out there, stupidity and venality.

Look, Harcourt (Houghton-Mifflin) just published Gunter Grass’s “Peeling the Onion” last year.

It’s fascinating to read that he fought for the Nazis as a kid.

It’s honest, it tells you something you didn’t know, and it puts his other work in a new perspective.

So what happens? H-M just decided to suspend publication of literary works due to the economy.

It has nothing to do with self-censorship; it has to do with stupidity and venality.

NAD: How have the books you have published addressed our recent times, the war, 911, torture?

Do you ever self-censor? Are you forced to publish with one eye on the customer on your front sidewalk?

JOHN CRAWFORD:
This is a good question. You know, we’re not all that topical. We have a lot to do with the kind of personal settings — attitudes, experience, trauma, coming to awareness — that the author is able to disclose.

A recent book we did by Michael Henson, “Crow Call,” addresses the murder of a housing activist over a decade ago in Cincinnati. That’s the kind of topical we do.

The only self-censoring I’m aware of is trying to stay away from real downers that NOBODY will buy.

Sometimes it has to do with the title. Try to avoid accepting things like “My Life Is Very Disgusting.” (I’m paraphrasing from a real title, which is better yet.)

NAD: What else would you like to add? What else should I have asked?

JOHN CRAWFORD:
Let me put you on the spot a little. Why do you go in for paranoid story lines, especially conspiracies, so much? It does limit your audience, and I challenge you on how “political” it is.

We published a book that raised eyebrows in 1980: Pablo Neruda’s “Incitation al Nixonicidio,” which we titled “A Call for the Destruction of Nixon.” And Neruda described himself in the introduction as a poetic terrorist.

... it was about how beautiful Chile was and Nixon’s real plot to destroy it. It was written in the spring of 1973, months before the US-sponsored fascist overthrow of the
Allende government, which hastened Neruda’s own death.

But the book wasn’t just about that: it was about how beautiful Chile was and Nixon’s real plot to destroy it. It was written in the spring of 1973, months before the US-sponsored fascist overthrow of the Allende government, which hastened Neruda’s own death.

My point is that you don’t have to make up conspiracies, they’re already out there.

If you concentrate on them too much, you’re on a death trip. Thinking that way “doesn’t further.”

The point is what people turn around and do about them. Despair has to be put in a context of possibility. There have to be survivors.

NAD: Please insert a link here to something you would like linked to, with a brief tag re: where that link goes:

JOHN CRAWFORD:
I’m working with a friend, Mandy Gardner, who runs the Albuquerque Almanac.

She gets ordinary people to write things down — oh yeah, and prisoners, the homeless, even a meth head. And she prints it in a book.

The web site is www.albuquerquealmanac.net. There’s no money in it to speak of, but it’s an honest way to spend your time.

Monday

from the Patterson-Gimlin film, Oct. 20,1967, Bluff Creek, California

The New American
Dream Interview

STEVE MOON, 55, lives in Iowa.

Steve is a native of southeast Iowa. He is a fine artist, and has long been a cave explorer and general outdoor adventurer. He is currently working as a professional research librarian.

Steve is an investigator for the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO).

____________________

The New American Dream Trivia Question:

To win a copy of one of Palecek's books, or leftover Christmas candy, be the first one to correctly answer the following.

Steve Moon would rather be ...

a. The star of "The Librarian," it should have been me b. Sitting by himself, in the woods, at midnight, in Oregon, wearing his new Christmas Bionic ears, enjoying a cool Diet Dr. Pepper c. Spelunking with Elvis d. Putting his boot up the butt of the hoaxers in Georgia e. President Obama's Secretary of Forest Creatures f. Telling his "A Bigfoot, a priest and a rabbi walk into this bar," joke one more time in Julie's Cafe in Fayette.

____________________

NAD: Steve, hello, thank you for taking the time for this. You went to the University of Iowa in the 1970s. In six lines or less, could you tell us about your days of protest back then, against the Vietnam War? Those were very hardcore protests, from what I have heard, very serious, do I have that correct?

STEVE MOON:
The 1970s protests were hardcore because of the sharply defined barriers between the right and the left, but otherwise the period was what I would call very soft core because folks were real mellow when they weren’t talking politics.

The Kent State murders infuriated a lot of people, and when we protested the war we didn’t stand down because we were doing it for those four as well as for the draftees who were getting killed overseas.

By the early '70s the conflict in Vietnam was unpopular and seen as unsuccessful by most, and Lyndon Johnson finally realized that when Walter Cronkite said it was “unwinnable."

The media used to have power like that.

NAD: And so ... how does that progress into looking for bigfoot? In four lines or less. Six.

[When, how did you get interested in bigfoot research?]

STEVE MOON:
The movie “The Legend of Boggy Creek” really got me fired up when I saw it in 1972.

Then a few years ago I read Jeff Meldrum’s superb book Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science, and I got fired up about bigfoot all over again.

I read about the BFRO in that book, looked them up on the Internet, and finally went on one of their expeditions.

Now I’m totally hooked. I think that for most of my life I’ve been looking for something because it might be there, whether it’s a cave, bigfoot or the perfect truck.

Now I’m totally hooked. I think that for most of my life I’ve been looking for something because it might be there, whether it’s a cave, bigfoot or the perfect truck.

NAD: Do your co-workers know about this hobby of yours? Is your family supportive?

STEVE MOON:
A few of my co-workers know about it, but even with the best of friends I still get these “oh boy, here we go again,” with the slightest mention of it.

I’ve actually been warned by my supervisor at work not to discuss it!

My wife is very supportive, and has an interest in the bigfoot phenomenon.

She blends a skeptical, devil’s advocate approach with a belief that it just might be real.

I’ve always taken off once a month to go caving somewhere, and now I go out looking for bigfoot instead.

NAD: C'mo-oon ... bigfoot? What do you hope to accomplish?

STEVE MOON:
If you go out in search of something that might be there, you want to prove that it does exist.

I’ve always had a strong motivation to serve the scientific community in some way, and I’ve tried to do that over the years with my caving whenever possible.

I’ve always had a strong motivation to serve the scientific community in some way.

I constantly record sound when I’m out searching, and I’m always ready to capture a photograph in panic mode. I document, study and try to interpret bigfoot sign.

NAD: Would you like to choose one of these to answer, elaborate on?

I don't ask this to make fun. I ask because I really seek the answers.

- Are UFOs real?
- Did we land on the moon in 1968?
- Did Bush knock down the towers?
- Was Paul Wellstone's death an accident?
- The Oklahoma City bombing? Wasn't that just another U.S. government terrorist exercise? Or not.
- Waco. We burned kids, right? You can see flames shooting out of the tanks. Or not.
- Is Bigfoot real?
- Is there a God?

- Is Bigfoot real?

STEVE MOON:
Yes.

... What makes you think that?

STEVE MOON:
I’ve spent my entire life going out into the woods and looking around, taking it all in, becoming as in-tune with nature as possible.

It’s been a major, major part of my life for forty-five of fifty years.

And in the last year I’ve seen things that, in light of the knowledge that I’ve gained about bigfoot from a variety of sources, can’t be interpreted as anything other than bigfoot sign.

And in the last year I’ve seen things that, in light of the knowledge that I’ve gained about bigfoot from a variety of sources, can’t be interpreted as anything
other than bigfoot sign.

NAD: Have you ever seen Bigfoot?

STEVE MOON:
I’ve seen them at night.

NAD: Why southeast Iowa? Is there a Dutch branch of Bigfoot that settled here at one time?

STEVE MOON:
They’ve migrated, just like we have.

NAD: Aren't they only in Oregon and Washington?

STEVE MOON:
They are much more prevalent than most people can imagine. They seem to be in all of the lower forty-eight states and Alaska. I’m sure they are in other places in North America as well.

They are much more prevalent than
most people can imagine.

They seem to be in all of the
lower forty-eight states and Alaska.

NAD: If there is a Bigfoot, and if some day that becomes common knowledge, what then?

Won't people just purchase non-resident Bigfoot licenses at Casey's, and won't that be the end of that?

STEVE MOON:
The goal is to recognize them as unique and protect them as such.

NAD: Does your favorite coffee cup have words on it? What are they?

STEVE MOON:
The Farnsworth House – Mies van der Rohe

NAD: What did you absolutely have to get done by noon today?
How about by Christmas 2009?

STEVE MOON:
Nothing.

I don’t absolutely have to do anything.

I choose to do things that I think will benefit me by the end of the day. Christmas 2009 is too far away for me to think about.

NAD: What else would you like to add?
What else should I have asked?

STEVE MOON:
Back in about '69 or '70 I traveled around the midwest a bit with my family and collected underground newspapers.

They were beautiful publications with wonderful illustrations.

I made the mistake of taking them to school one day. I was either a junior or a senior in high school.

The social studies teacher took them down to the principle who confiscated or destroyed them, same thing.

I was hurt, outraged, and determined from that day on to rage against the machine.

I'm still raging.

It's a very personal rage, but to participate is to disturb the particles ...

mOoner

_______________________

The following is one of Steve Moon's recent reports as listed on the BFRO website:

Report # 22147 (Class A)
Submitted by witness on Monday, December 10, 2007.

Artifact hunter describes an unusual daylight encounter in a public hunting area near Van Wert

YEAR: 1991

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: September

STATE: Iowa

COUNTY: Decatur County

LOCATION DETAILS: this is a public hunting area located north of hwy 29. not well maintained. roads rutted with some steap banks. is an old abandoned limestone quarry located inside a huge indian campground aprox 2000yr-5000yr in age.

NEAREST TOWN: van wert, ia

NEAREST ROAD: hwy 29

OBSERVED: i was an avid indian artifact hunter. surface finds, only. i got out of college classes early that day and decided to give it a go in a creek i hadnt been over for some time. as i drove down into the area i noticed a pickup parked with 2 gentlemen sitting on the tailgate in the shade from the hot sun. the truck was a ford, 2 tone in color. white over brown. i asked them if they were practicing and as to where so i could stay out of thier road. they said there was a special deer season open and they were tracking one? i walked to a different place than i had planned to hunt and told them where i would be. i walked over to the creek and started in.

i guess i was into the area maybe 50 yds and the truck didnt waiste anytime spinning up the hill. they came north and ond one guy jumped out and the other drove on north and got out. i found this a little disturbing and decided they might be hunting me? i climbed out of the creek in short order and was about to walk back to my truck and leave. as i came over the bank there was this [creature sitting on the ground leaning against a tree. It could have been 12 feet tall if it was standing up.] i was only 20ft from this thing. it was an oaf-looking creature sitting on its butt with its back against a large oak tree. it was sleeping with its hands and fingers locked together stretched out across its knees. there were massive amounts of leaves in its very long brownish hair which covered it head to toe including the face. and it didnt seem to matter what color or shade they were. the hair seemed to blend in perfectly. im wondering if its hair is hollow like a deers hair?

i honestly was completely shocked and all the hair on my body rose to attention. i recognized this thing from pics in mags and such. i felt nauseous and confused. as i hopped back into the creek out of sight from it it rose and bolted east right in the direction of those guys. i heard it cut across the gravel on the road and that was it. i never went back to that creek.

ALSO NOTICED: i have not been back to that exact location. as other witnesses have not since the sightings. i dont believe i own a firearm large enuff to protect myself.

OTHER WITNESSES: 2. i believe they were hunting it with compound bows and braodheaded arrows. i didnt know this until after the sighting.

OTHER STORIES: yes, strung out over the yrs. fishermen and hunters have seen this, but i believe there are at least 2 different creatures?

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 2pm clear sunny day. temp arnd 80 - 85 degrees. light breeze from south.

ENVIRONMENT: 2nd growth timber located directly above a large limestone mining pit on top a natural spring.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Steve Moon:

[Investigated by Steve Moon. Comments edited by Matt Moneymaker]

I interviewed this witness by phone. He was not able to see the face of the animal. The hair was an auburn color, and matted. Witness did not see the animal walk away, but heard it leave. Witness had jumped back into the creek bed he had climbed out of when he walked up on the animal, and heard it get up and move away quickly. When it did so it made a sort of growl or snort, sounding like heavy breathing more than anything else, and seemed to move as though not in a hurry.

Witness states that in about 1983 a buddy was deer hunting in the NW corner of the Dekalb hunting area when he drove up to a sasquatch standing behind a corner post. As he backed his truck away from the creature it walked away. The creature was about his own height, or about 6 feet tall.

Witness has been hunting this area for about thirty years and is very in tune with the environment there. After speaking with the witness about this incident, I concluded that he is a credible observer.

The Dekalb Wildlife Management Area is 21,070 acres, about three quarters of which is timber. There are two streams that bisect the area, numerous inactive rock quarries, and at least one large spring.

About BFRO Investigator Steve Moon:

A native of southeast Iowa, Steve has long been a cave explorer, and general outdoor adventurer. He is currently working as a professional research librarian.

Steve attended the 2008 Michigan Upper Peninsula Expedition, and will be attending the 2009 Michigan Upper Peninsula Expedition and the 2009 Manitoba Expedition

Sunday

painting by russell brutsche, to facilitate our dreaming

The NEW AMERICAN
DREAM INTERVIEW

CAROL BROUILLET, 51, lives in Palo Alto, California.

Raised in California, she sailed around the world in her youth.

She has been a busy activist since the early 1990s. She recently ran for Congress as a Green Party candidate.

She is active in the 9/11 Truth Movement, helping to start the Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance, often speaking, organizing events, she has published and distributed over 7,000,000 Deception Dollars and organized the first San Francisco International Inquiry into 9/11.

Carol 's main website questions the dominant monetary system and prmotes community currencies.

She tries to balance her activism with being a mom.

___________________________________

The New American Dream Trivia Question:

To win a copy of Mike Palecek's book "Iowa Terror," or maybe "Guests of the Nation," be the first one to correctly answer the following.

You might not know that Carol Brouillet ...

a. Likes to deep-sea dive b. Loves to surf c. Was a high-school standout sprinter d.Cannot speak French e. Studied theology in college f. Has never been to Las Vegas g. Once taught windsurfing h. Once drove bus in Colorado

_____________________________________

NAD: Carol, hello, welcome. How did you and Jean-Luc meet?

CAROL BROUILLET: In a dance class in Palo Alto.

NAD: So, what's life like in Palo Alto?

CAROL BROUILLET:
It's the belly-button of the beast.

We have a lot of Defense Industry, black budget entities here, plus Stanford University; it's Silicon Valley, home of the personal computer and the Grateful Dead, Earth Day.

The most toxic county in the U.S., but most people don't realize how "dirty" the high tech industry is.

For the longest time, I have been working on changing the monetary system and the conditions here make that almost impossible — people have too much money and not enough time.

NAD: Where is Palo Alto? What does Palo Alto mean, anyway?

CAROL BROUILLET:
Just south of San Francisco. The town is named after a tree. It means Tall Tree.

NAD: Where are you from? Where did you go to school? Where have you worked? How did you get involved in activism? Is 911 Truth your passion these days?

CAROL BROUILLET:
I was born and raised in California.

I attended Hawaii Loa College, Reed College, and the University of Grenoble.

I have been lucky to have been able to find positions as crew and cook on various yachts, sailing vessels, and even a luxury cruise ship, sailing around the world.

I taught windsurfing in Hawaii.

I was a counselor at a summer camp for kids in Switzerland, for a couple of winters I worked in a ski resort in Colorado as a bus driver and waitress.

I also have done research for movie projects which took me to South America and England, where I also worked on an archaeological dig.

I also organized several art exhibitions and discovered a talent for publicity. I was working at an art gallery in Los Altos, when I met my husband, and finally "settled down" to raise kids, after never living for more than eleven months in any one location since leaving high school.

In 1992, I saw the film, “JFK’ and began researching the CIA. I was horrified to learn what they were up to, and felt it my duty as a citizen to raise awareness about facts that were not in newspapers, on radio or television, or common knowledge. I became a media activist.

In 1992, I saw the film, “JFK’ and began researching the CIA. I was horrified to learn what they were up to, and felt it my duty as a citizen to raise awareness about facts that were not in newspapers, on radio or television, or common knowledge.
I became a media activist.

NAD: Would you like to choose one of these to answer, elaborate on? I don't ask this to make fun. I ask because I really seek the answers.

— Did Bush knock down the towers?

CAROL BROUILLET:
I don't actually know if Bush was in on the plot; he would have played his part better, had he not known about it.

I suspect that Cheney did have an active role in 9/11 and was issuing orders from the Presidential Emergency Operating Center that morning.

Certainly the three World Trade Center buildings could not have been felled by two planes.

There is strong physical evidence, and eyewitness testimony that they were brought down with explosives.

One of the 9/11 Truth Movements strongest speakers now is the founder of the group Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, Richard Gage, AIA.

Certainly the three World Trade Center buildings could not have been felled by two planes.

There is strong physical evidence, and eyewitness testimony that they were brought down with explosives.

Bush certainly has lied about many things and should go to jail for his crimes, but he was also manipulated, a puppet, to some very strong forces, including Dick Cheney.

Cheney had worked on Continuity of Government plans with Rumsfeld for decades before 9/11 and we went into Continuity of Government on that morning.

We still don't know what "rules" we are operating under — even Congress doesn't know; they won't reveal all their plans.

We do know what the Project for a New American Century was advocating, and how they said that "without a catastrophic and catalyzing event like a New Pearl Harbour" the process of [military] transformation was likely to be a long one.

They have rushed through a military reorganization of the country, the construction of Homeland Security, the expansion of the National Security State to a global police state.

NAD: How did the run for Congress go?

CAROL BROUILLET:
After I agreed to run again, I discovered that I had tumors in my pancreas.

I didn't get the results of the biopsy until July.

Fortunately, they were benign, but it is hard to do serious campaigning when you don't know if you'll live through the election.

... but it is hard to do serious campaigning
when you don't know if you'll live through the election.

Actually the whole family had serious health challenges this year, and our home was under construction for six months, so I really didn't do that much until the last month before the election.

With limited time and resources we just produced a very strong 30-second television ad which was shown locally over 200 times prior to the election.

The gist of it was:

"On 9/11, three skyscrapers were felled by two planes, World Trade
Center 7, the Patriot Act, the Financial Crash, The Bailout, all
share characteristics of controlled demolitions, Criminal Fraud, and
treason. We the people, need courage to seek and speak the truth. We
need to Investigate the big lies. We need to Arrest, Impeach the
Terrorists. We need to defend our Constitution, our rights, our
lives.

NAD: Do you think you might try again?

CAROL BROUILLET:
It is a possibility.

Mark Twain once said that Congress was the only distinctly American criminal class (or something to that effect).

I still think we need to rein our government in, hold it accountable, reverse its policies, replace the rule of fear with the rule of law- and just laws that treat rich and poor alike.

Right now, the country is being looted; the financial crisis is global in scope and a financial crime unprecedented in history.

I can't believe that the folks responsible aren't in jail, but are still in positions of power with Congress aiding and abetting them.

NAD: Please tell us more about yourself, the things you have done, what you would like to do, what you did today.

CAROL BROUILLET:
I have had an extraordinary, almost magical life; I have also been through a lot, many people close to me have died.

I overcame my fear of death (to a conscious degree) when I was twenty-two and a friend, who had just saved my life was threatening to commit suicide.

I think I learned one of life's most important lessons — how to forgive, to accept and to love — myself, my friend,
my family, the world.

I think I learned one of life's most important lessons — how to forgive, to accept and to love — myself, my friend, my family, the world. I guess what I hate is "FEAR," so, in general, I do not allow fear to stop me from doing what I think I should do.

So, I end up taking on impossible tasks and challenges — like changing the world monetary system, abolishing war, questioning the official story of 9/11, exposing 9/11 as a special-op, a false flag operation.

I doubt if I will be able to accomplish 2% of what I would really like to do in my lifetime; I usually am lucky to get 5% of what I plan to do in the course of a normal day done.

Life often seems to be this wonderful interruption from your original plan. Things happen; I find myself responding to people, the moment, new opportunities.

Life often seems to be this wonderful interruption from your original plan. Things happen; I find myself responding to people, the moment, new opportunities.

My mentors include Bill Moyer, author of Doing Democracy: The MAP Model for Organizing Social Movements, and Robert Swann, President of the E.F. Schumacher Society, a pioneer of land and monetary reform.

They both were delightful, peace activists, always open to new ideas, learning and growing, but they also were wonderful teachers and shared their wisdom and experience, helping those, like me, who shared the universal dream of a peaceful, healthy world.

Today, I slept in; it is the day after Thanksgiving.

I checked the weather, started the laundry, bicycled to one of my favorite three mile hikes above the hills adjacent to Stanford University.

I have a tendency to work too much on the computer, and I need to make a more concerted effort to get fresh air and exercise.

I love to hike, bike, walk and talk, although I often hike or walk alone.

My kids and husband love to play, and they have friends over now, and are playing a game called "Magic."

I was thinking of holding a retreat/strategy meeting at our home this weekend, in light of all that has happened in the last month, I think the 9/11 Truth Movement, and our group, in particular, need to assess where we are and where are efforts might do the most good.

NAD: What did you absolutely have to get done by noon today?

CAROL BROUILLET:
My walk and returning late DVDs to the local video store.

NAD: How about by Christmas 2010?

CAROL BROUILLET:
Organizing my contact lists, phone book, address book, so that I can actually keep up with my mail and find phone numbers, email addresses, and regular addresses when I need them. I think I have accomplished quite a bit as an activist, but I think I could do much more, if I was personally better organized.

NAD: How is your health? How long do you think you can go full-blast like this?

CAROL BROUILLET:
I must admit that I have a tendency to run on spirit and neglect my body, which sometimes refuses to work to remind me to take better care of it.

Last year, I ended up in the hospital with kidney stones. I have to make a concerted effort to drink more water and balance my life, so that I can continue doing this work for my entire lifetime.

My weekly radio show, Questioning War — Organizing Resistance was cancelled (the station ceased operations) on October 6, 2008.

So, since the election, I haven't been as overwhelmed with the demands of my normal schedule.

I have been able to take a bit of a break, although I did participate and speak at the End the Fed Rally last weekend in San Francisco.

My work on changing the monetary system was eclipsed by 9/11, and now because of the financial crisis people are more willing to look at the systemic problems that we are facing- particularly at the monetary system.

So I don't know precisely where to place my time and energies, but I do also feel the need to catch up on my own life, after being in "triage mode" for so many years.

NAD: How will your activism change when Bush is no longer in office?

CAROL BROUILLET:
I think we'll face even bigger challenges.

NAD: What else would you like to add? What else should I have asked?

CAROL BROUILLET:
I made a DVD entitled Behind Every Terrorist — There is a Bush which includes my five-minute personal biography, but it was also an actual show we produced to overcome psychological barriers to 9/11 through art, music and comedy.

I do keep a blog of my activism since 9/11 at my website, and there are links there to many of my articles, speeches ... I actually wanted to be a writer since I was a child, but since I became an activist, I find that I really only have time to write press releases, speeches, articles, and I can't even keep up my three websites.

With the emerging technologies, I need to learn how to communicate better, words aren't enough anymore to say all that needs to be conveyed to people of increasingly varied backgrounds.

I did hold a weekly Listening Project for six years in Palo Alto, now I hold it once a month on the 11th, in solidarity with 9/11 Truth activists worldwide, but I try to ask people three questions, before I try to dialogue with them.

It's important to have some idea of what others know before throwing too much unusual information their way.

NAD: Please insert a link here to something you would like linked to, with a brief tag re: where that link goes:

CAROL BROUILLET:
Most recently I spoke in San Francisco at an End the Fed (Federal Reserve) rally. I posted a description of the event, photos, and my speech here.

NAD: Thank you.

CAROL BROUILLET:
Thank-you Mike. I hope this is what you wanted and will be able to use!

All the best!
Carol

Friday

painting by russell brutsche, to facilitate our dreaming

The NEW AMERICAN
DREAM INTERVIEW

___________________________________

_____________________________________

Certainly the three World Trade Center buildings could not have been felled by two planes.

There is strong physical evidence, and eyewitness testimony that they were brought down with explosives.

... but it is hard to do serious campaigning
when you don't know if you'll live through the election.

I think I learned one of life's most important lessons — how to forgive, to accept and to love — myself, my friend,
my family, the world.

Life often seems to be this wonderful interruption from your original plan. Things happen; I find myself responding to people, the moment, new opportunities.

Thursday

The New American
Dream Interview

Russell Brutsche is an artist living in Santa Cruz, California.

NAD: Rus, hello, welcome.

When you began college back in 1964, what did you have in mind as a life's work?

RUSSELL BRUTSCHE: I couldn’t have written out a twenty or even a five-year plan at that time, but I sensed my work would be in art and in music, despite my high school career counselor’s warnings.

NAD: How did the war years affect that plan?

RUSSELL BRUTSCHE:
Well, I was opposed to the Vietnam War, and expressed it through protest songs and posters.

Career-wise, it’s hard for a college-age kid to make a living in fine art, but with music, one can work bars and parties, and I may have done more of that had there been no war, but I took advantage of my college deferment by staying in school to complete my BA in art.

The war was still on when I graduated, so I applied for conscientious objector status, and when that was turned down I fasted and was able to fail the physical by being underweight.

"... so I applied for conscientious objector status, and when that was turned down I fasted and was able to fail the physical by being underweight."

NAD: How have your "plans" changed over the decades in between?

RUSSELL BRUTSCHE:
Not a whole lot!

I picked up a credential to teach high school art, but didn’t fit into the 8-to-5 world that well.

Played music in a few bands, but found life on the road to be unhealthy for me, and turned back to art.

NAD: Are you able to make a living as an artist? Where do you sell your work?

RUSSELL BRUTSCHE:
I could see early on that one burden my life-as-artist didn’t need was an everlasting monthly rent payment, so I hustled up enough money to make a down payment on a small house, which one could do without too much grief back in the early seventies.

Then I worked very hard making commercially appealing art (home décor, really) and selling it at art fairs and galleries.

But once my house was paid off, I adopted a very modest lifestyle, moved into the garage, rented out the house and began to do art that questions the status quo — which many people are actually hungry for, but as you can imagine, does not interest most art galleries.

"... which many people are actually hungry for, but as you can imagine, does not interest most art galleries."

Gallery art may appear bold, adventurous or “far out”, but if you really look deeply, you see that most of it is about style — it’s the consumer product people invest in once they have the house, the fridge, the carpet and drapes.

NAD: Who are your art heroes?

RUSSELL BRUTSCHE: Edward Hopper, Maynard Dixon, Ernest Blumenshein, Nicholas Roerich, Irving Norman—and currently Sandow Birk…

NAD: You have a unique style. Is there a name for it? What format, mode, method do you prefer?

RUSSELL BRUTSCHE:
That’s actually a quite common question, and I guess my quick-quip response is that if there were a general name out there for it, then it wouldn’t be unique … it could be lumped into “contemporary realism” or some such vague category … the best way to explain how I work is to say I start with a concept … pretty soon I’ve got a big mess going and I spend the remainder of time using all the tricks I’ve learned over the years to make the painting work… usually I can pull it together… doesn’t sound very professional, but it’s the truth.

NAD: What is your goal as an artist?

RUSSELL BRUTSCHE:
Got a one-liner for that: I try to touch people the way I have been touched by the art I’ve seen.

NAD: Are you trying to change the world?

Or perhaps you just don't want to let the world change you?

... okay, here we go, here we go ...

Let's say you here about some atrocity in the world, perhaps the United States bombing some little country — and then say you go to your studio to paint something about that. Is that satisfying?

RUSSELL BRUTSCHE:
“Satisfying” would be a big claim, because I know that though I’ve made my statement, the atrocity goes on—“fulfilling” might come closer because by painting it I’m engaged, not just mentally and emotionally but physically and, importantly, socially, as the piece is displayed —

I’m a “visual activist” so to speak ...

NAD: How did you make it through the Bush years?

RUSSELL BRUTSCHE:
I had been fairly inactive for a while, but when the build-up to the Iraq invasion started, I joined a local group at our Resource Center for Nonviolence — we called ourselves “the Peacemakers," and we brought people like Medea Benjamin to town and organized vigils and rallies, and did some CD at the local recruit center.

We focused on process more than victory, to help avoid burn-out, but it was very discouraging at times.

NAD: Do you look forward to the Obama years?

RUSSELL BRUTSCHE:
I do — as someone said, it’s primarily a victory over racism, not war, but I think he may listen.

We’re all curious at this point I think.

NAD: What are you working on now?

What are you looking forward to, in addition to Obama?

RUSSELL BRUTSCHE:
I continue with the theme in my art of “inviting people to a life of voluntary simplicity."

I’ve done paintings witnessing the destruction of our social fiber and ultimately of our biosphere, but you know after a while you’re just complaining.

One of my issues is consumerism, what that word means on all levels — and so, as I portray its effects, I try to also offer, to viewers and myself as well, what seems to me a healthy antidote — a simpler life.

See Russell Brutsche's work.

www.mikepalecek.com
[covers for Iowa Terror and Guests of the Nation]

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