Documentary of the Day: Sister Corita Kent
Sister Corita Kent: The Artist-slash-nun who made colorful protest art in the 1960s
Yesterday I was showing my friend the voice-activated animations ai had been working on and she said it reminded her of Sister Corina Kent. I remember hearing about her in art school but I didn’t remember much else. So I looked it up. And I not only LOVED all the images and posters she made, but loved this 23-minute documentary too.
Corita Kent (1918–1986) was an artist, educator, and advocate for social justice. At age 18 she entered the religious order Immaculate Heart of Mary, eventually teaching in and then heading up the art department at Immaculate Heart College. Her work evolved from figurative and religious to incorporating advertising images and slogans, popular song lyrics, biblical verses, and literature. Throughout the ‘60s, her work became increasingly political, urging viewers to consider poverty, racism, and injustice. In 1968 she left the order and moved to Boston. After 1970, her work evolved into a sparser, introspective style, influenced by living in a new environment, a secular life, and her battles with cancer. She remained active in social causes until her death in 1986. At the time of her death, she had created almost 800 serigraph editions, thousands of watercolors, and innumerable public and private commissions.
Recommended Documentaries: British and American Spies who got caught helping the USSR
Last night I posted a reading on YouTube focused on the situation in the UK with the upcoming elections and the report on the Russian influence in Brexit.
It raised the possibility that some in the current UK government might be, unwittingly or otherwise, helping Russians out. Which reminded me that this would not be the first time. Kim Philby came to mind. So for those of you who might not be familiar with these stories, I found the links to fascinating documentaries and series I had previously watched. Cambridge Five, Kim Philby, Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen.
The Cambridge Five
The Secrets of War EP. 11: The Cambridge Five. This documentary gives a comprehensive overview of this group:
From Wikipedia: The Cambridge Spy Ring was a ring of spies in the United Kingdom, which passed information to the Soviet Union during World War II and was active from the 1930s until at least into the early 1950s.
Kim Philby: The Spy Who Went Into The Cold
Kim Philby was the most famous among the Cambridge Five Spy ring, who defected to the USSR and died there as a hero.
The Assets (mini-series about catching CIA agent Aldrich Ames)
This is a 9-episode series that dramatizes what happened until Aldrich Ames he got caught. The very last episode is a documentary and interviews the women who finally caught him. The full series is great but I wasn’t able to find all the episodes online for free, you might have to rent them on Amazon which is what I did.
CIA Betrayal, Aldrich Ames
This is a podcast/audio interview with Dell Spry, an agent involved in catching and interrogating Aldrich Ames.
Robert Hanssen - Hanssen and the KGB
Hanssen was an FBI agent who sold secrets to the then USSR for more than 10 years until he got caught, arrested and is serving time at ADX Florence.
Political Documentaries That Tell Us How We Got Here.
Boogie Man: The Lee Altwater Story (2008)
This is a prescient and illuminating documentary where actors connected to our present era made their first marks. Roger Stone, the Bush family, Manafort.
Lee Atwater was a precocious political operative who played a large role in winning campaigns for Republican candidates in the 80s and 90s, who died young, at the age of 40, from a brain tumor. Before his death, he expressed regret for his work of conning, tricking and lying to political opponents and voters alike. Confined to a wheelchair and unrecognizable, he wrote redemption letters to his opponents.
I first watched it after finding it randomly on a cable channel not knowing who Altwater was. The story of redemption at the end stayed with me all these years. His name came up recently in discussions connected to this administration.
Recently, I watched it again, and was shocked to see how both his tactics and former associates still dominate right-wing politics
The “Guardian Council”: what a vision taught me about the the role of religious clerics in the Iranian Government
Iran has only been featured in a couple of readings I've done. The last reading I did about Trump's claim that Iran was behind the attack on the Japanese Tanker. I saw on that reading that not only was Iran not responsible for that but that it was an operation likely undertaken between Israel, Saudi Arabia, with knowledge from the Trump administration.
The section about Iran starts at 1:05:35
Just click on the video above and it will start playing at the section about Iran.
When I looked into Iran and how they would react to Trump’s unproven claims, I saw that they were thinking long term and that they wanted to avoid war at all costs, because they knew it was all about getting to their natural resources. They also said in the vision "we survived Iraq" and we don't want something similar to happen again, which I later realized it must have been a reference to the Iran/Iraq war of 1980-1988.
When I thought of Iran otherwise - not that I knew anything about Iran beyond headlines - peace was definitely not a word that would come into my mind.
What stuck with me about this Iran vision was seeing a group of elders coming together to make important governmental decisions, gathering in a simple government office cluttered with greenish file folders, yellowing papers and a long communal table. This vision showed me the Iranian government has a group of elders debating and thinking deeply about government decisions. It’s as if they are part of the government but don't have an administrative function, as if they are cloistered otherwise but tasked with reviewing decisions, reflecting on them and counseling administrators on what decisions to make.
Even though we are construed by historical paradigms to be “enemies”, I sensed a nobility of purpose that felt sincere, truthful, and sharpened, over time, through study and life experience.
They think long-term and deeply about what their recommendations and decisions must be … and the strangest thing ... Even though I obviously have NOTHING in common with them outwardly speaking, I saw that they can have visions too. They do what I do.
They too, can close their eyes and see something beyond what is immediately visible. When I saw and sensed this, I felt a strange kinship, a sense of understanding. They too, can see the layer that exists beyond what is visible.
When they are making their recommendations to politicians, there is a mystical element that is infused into analytical decision making. It’s as if they had three modes of thinking they engage in: philosophy and dialectics and mystical thinking which then triangulates into the analytical application of these two systems. They apply philosophy, and mystical/religious concepts into specific concrete problems they are tasked with solving.
It was so interesting because before this, I’d only seen them as “dangerous” "religious fanatics". What I saw on my vision was very different.
They have a degree of vision and intellectual sophistication that is very different from what we think of when we think of Iran and Muslim clerics in general. When I think of any religious government I think of rigidity and hypocrisy, but from this perspective, it was almost as if they were monks. They seemed to live a simple life of quiet, intellectual and spiritual practice.
I am not advocating for Iran or the Iranian government nor am I erasing the facts about their human rights abuses, strict laws about female attire, harsh punishments for seemingly minor infractions, the imprisoning and killing of critics, nor am I saying that I would do well in their world. I just felt instantly that there is something admirable and lasting beyond what we know of them. Their human and intellectual side. I can respect them and admire their way of living, even if that is very different from my own.
Understanding and empathizing with them as people felt so much better than fearing them in willful ignorance. In spite of wars and division, there is a human element that connects all of us.
The day after this vision, I looked up information on how the Iranian government is structured and there a group that fits the vision I saw. They are called the “Guardian Council”:
THE GUARDIAN COUNCIL
This is the most influential body in Iran and is currently controlled by conservatives. It consists of six theologians appointed by the Supreme Leader and six jurists nominated by the judiciary and approved by parliament.
Members are elected for six years on a phased basis, so that half the membership changes every three years.
The council has to approve all bills passed by parliament and has the power to veto them if it considers them inconsistent with the constitution and Islamic law. The council can also bar candidates from standing in elections to parliament, the presidency and the Assembly of Experts.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/middle_east/03/iran_power/html/guardian_council.stm
On the video below, I discuss why I wrote this text, and why I recommend the “Bitter Rivals: Iran and Saudi Arabia” documentary.
After this vision I became curious and started doing some more research and came across this documentary from PBS called ""Bitter Rivals, Saudi Arabia and Iran" which I HIGHLY recommend.
I had seen in another vision the long history between the GOP and the Saudis and through this documentary I was able to understand why the Saudis have been allies of the USA historically and why Iran has been a long-term enemy of the USA.
It’s shocking to realize how little I understood about the Middle East.
As my visions started to show that the Middle East and Saudi Arabia especially plays a much greater role in the Trump Administration than we currently know, understanding the complexities of the Middle East, with its delicate boundaries, wars and factions became important.
The animosity between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and the Trump Administration's reliance on Saudi money may tell us why Trump has demonized Iran from the very beginning. I just hope once truth comes out that it will not increase volatility in the middle east and the USA.
We are yet to see how this chapter will end but it's increasingly clear to me that we are so much more intertwined with the Middle East than we know and that what happens in America will greatly impact the future of the Middle East, and what happens in the Middle East impacts us as well.
I pray for peace. We are all connected and it's foolish and short-term-ist to believe otherwise. Without fail, sooner or later, consequences of wars come knocking.
