Haiti Part II

The village road committee takes a breather under an acacia tree. I'm on the right in the safari gear.


September 25, 2005

I worked on my Haiti story while in Nashville and Chapel Hill, North Carolina this week.

Drove through the smoky mountains and had lunch in the funky arts town of Ashville. David Wilcox, one of my favorite songwriters hails from this part of the world –Asheville Hardware is a great CD, the titled track is about super-sized corporate retailers like Lowes, putting the local guy out of business. I didn’t find the hardware store, probably not enough people heeded David’s advice to shop local. Ashville had gentrified.

I was mostly writing this week, hanging out in Chapel Hill. I did catch up with friends who teach at UNC: Randall Kenan, an amazing fiction writer, and Alan Shapiro, an incredibly talented poet. Randall and Alan also teach at Bread Loaf and Sewanee. That’s where we met. Check out their work – its thought provoking and entertaining.

I also hooked up with Steve Gilbert, a buddy who I’d met at Sewanee. He's a Desert Storm vet and lots of folks were seeking his view on this war at the conference. Steve is about to quit his job to write full-time. It takes courage to make such a leap and I applaud his commitment. Unless you’re independently wealthy, no sane person would quit their job to do this. It’s nearly impossible to make a living. Most writers are attached to a university to provide a base salary and benefits. But Steve’s wife supports the move, he’s got some savings. I’m rooting for him. He’s talented, focused, and a hard worker.

On a political note:

This Sunday a report came out stating that the Iraq war had created a new generation of terrorists. Contrary to what the administration claims, this conflict hasn’t made us safer. I don’t know how anyone could have thought otherwise. The republican response was clever: if it wasn’t the Iraq war, it would be something else that would generate more terrorists (John McCain said it). He’s right -- you can never totally eliminate terror. However, this war has increased the breadth and speed of the breeding ground by a margin too large to calculate. That’s something McCain failed to say.

How about Bill Clinton on Fox News Sunday morning?