Author: capriburchett
“The Other Jerry”: A tale of integrity vs. winning at any cost
The Alhambra
The Alhambra
Under a cloudless cerulean sky, the Alhambra crouches, starkly beautiful, menacing yet beguiling. The Sierra Nevada dusted white with snow, loom behind, impenetrable and timeless. The dense green mantle of the lower hills enfolds the mysterious palace fortress, warning those who venture to Granada that the earth’s embrace itself defends the Alhambra. In the gentle but insistent breezes, the eternal sighs of Boabdil whisper his despair.
The Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain, a UNESCO World Heritage site, endures as one of the most interesting and magnificent cultural treasures in the world. The Alhambra, or Qal’at al Hamra, described by the Moors who constructed and expanded it over some seven hundred years, as a “pearl set in emeralds” and “paradise on earth,” amazes visitors with its rich history, art, architecture and fantastic stories of intrigue, forbidden love, vengeance, and magic that rival A Thousand and One Nights.
The red fortress, originally constructed in 889 on the strategic high ground overlooking Granada, was built atop ancient strongholds stretching back beyond the Romans to control the vantage point above Spain’s Darro River. Muslims conquered Granada in 711 and controlled the region in southern Andalucia until Boabdil’s defeat in 1492. The Sultans of the Nasrid Dynasty added elaborate palaces and gardens, sheltered in the bosom of the Sabikah Hill behind the original Alhambra fortress, starting in 1238. The personal and private retreat of the Sultans and their families, the palaces and gardens of the Generalife, or “gardens of lofty paradise,” deriving from Yannat al Arif, were largely created in the 14th century, at the height of the powerful Nasrid dynasty.
In addition to the beautiful examples of Moorish architecture, lovely arabesques, calligraphy and muquarnas wrought in various woods, stone and tile, Christian sovereigns also contributed to the Alhambra’s remarkable assortment of architecture, revealing centuries and cultures long vanished. The Palace of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, was begun in 1527 and designed in the “Roman” style with an immense colonnaded circle at its center. St. Mary’s Church, begun in 1581 and completed nearly forty years later, was constructed in the Renaissance style on the site of the Alhambra’s Grand Mosque and renowned for its Baroque altar.
Roses grow everywhere at the Alhambra, gardens burst with an excess of color, top heavy rose trees line walkways, and heavy arches of roses adorn doorways. Cedar, cypress, orange, myrtle, English elms and neatly trimmed hedges weave throughout the complex. Wandering through the intricate labyrinths of gardens, reflecting pools, fountains, massive doorways, open air courtyards, even a water stairway, visitors come to understand Boabdil’s desolation when he ceded the Alhambra to the Catholic monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, and ended the Moorish rule in Spain.
Visitors helplessly surrender to the Alhambra’s delights, and for a few hours, eagerly disappear into another world. All who enter seek the enchanted soldier said to perpetually roam among the Alhambra’s thirteen towers. The dark legend of murder and betrayal will ever haunt the Hall of the Abencerrages. Visitors easily imagine Christopher Columbus in the soaring Hall of the Ambassadors, petitioning King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to fund his voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Tales of secret lovers and their trysts charm all who stroll through the romantic Sutana’s garden in the Generalife.
The legend of Boabdil’s tears is forever rekindled in all who gaze back at the Alhambra as they reluctantly disentangle themselves from its spell. Abu Abdullah, Mohammad XII, the 22nd and last Nasrid Sultan to rule in Granada, known as Boabdil, wept as he rode away into exile from Granada and was reproached by his mother, “crying like a woman is why you cannot defend yourself like a man.” And so Boabdil, in despondency and anguish, looked back at his beloved Alhambra, and sighed.
http://www.alhambra-patronato.es/index.php/Bienvenido/1+M5d637b1e38d/0/
http://www.donquijote.org/culture/spain/history/legendsgranada.asp
Women and Children…..First?
I don’t know if I have much to add to the noise, but here goes…..
During the federal government shut-down, North Carolina, under the “leadership” of Governor Pat McCrory, achieved the disgraceful honor of becoming the only state in these United States to cut off Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) and Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Supplemental Assistance benefits. Let me repeat, North Carolina and only North Carolina made the decision to stop supporting the most vulnerable among its own citizens.
I don’t believe that I am alone in my dismay at the policies of my state in response to the debacle that was the federal government shut-down. How did North Carolina move so far away from its reputation as a “progressive” southern state? In my experience, North Carolinians pride themselves on their sense of community, compassion, and human decency. None of these values was in evidence when the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services announced it would not continue to support TANF and WIC through the period of the government shutdown. Why is North Carolina making such staggeringly poor cost/benefit choices that measurably increase human misery throughout our state?
According to an October 8, 2013 press release by the NC Department of Health and Human Services, the WIC program in North Carolina serves 264,000 women, infants and young children, and the annual budget of $205 million is 100 percent federally funded. Every month, “North Carolinians using WIC make $16.6 million in food purchases at more than 2000 food vendors around the state.” http://www.ncdhhs.gov/pressrel/2013/2013-10-08_DHHS_announces_WIC_shut_down.htm
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, WIC is intended to help low income and the nutritionally at-risk: pregnant women through pregnancy and up to six weeks after birth; breast-feeding women up to the infant’s first birthday; non-breastfeeding post-partum women; infants up to their first birthday; and children up to age five.
Who in our state can be considered more vulnerable than pregnant women and mothers with children younger than five years old? What are the health costs over a month for a young mother struggling to feed an infant or young child? What are the health costs over a lifetime for an undernourished child? How do we, as a society, as a city, as a town, as a community, allow our own children, our own neighbors to go hungry?
North Carolina chose to stop issuing vouchers on October 8th, despite the federal government commitment to reimburse all such expenditures once it reopened. North Carolina completely reversed its decision two days later, when the NC Department of Health and Human Services found “lapsing funds from the previous fiscal year, additional contingency funds from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and product rebates from WIC formula manufacturer, Nestle Foods. http://www.ncdhhs.gov/pressrel/2013/2013-10-11_DHHS_funding_continue_WIC.htm
Thus far, Governor Pat McCrory has not responded to an open letter from U.S. Representatives David Price, G.K. Butterfield, and Mel Watt requesting an explanation for the draconian decision to cut off TANF and WIC benefits. My guess is Governor McCrory will not attempt to defend an indefensible policy. What justification could he possibly give? Governor Pat McCrory found North Carolina completely alone in its decision to cut off resources for poor women and children as a fiscal policy response to the crisis of suspended federal funds, and his rush to target the poorest and least influential of his constituents demonstrates a discouraging lack of leadership and common sense. http://price.house.gov/press-releases/reps-push-mccrory-to-explain-why-nc-is-only-state-to-stop-tanf/
What is at stake? Why does it matter? It matters to me because I want to live in a community which values and protects its weakest and most vulnerable members. The nature of our society is a reflection of us, each and every one of us, and when we care for our most helpless, defenseless and weak, we demonstrate the humanity that shapes our world and makes it better, for ourselves, for our children, for everyone. Supporting the most vulnerable in our society is a moral imperative.
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tossed, to me:
I life my lamp beside the golden door.”
This quote from the Statue of Liberty reflects our collective history, our collective heritage, our collective obligation to those who struggle in our own communities, and our collective obligation to future generations of Americans.
The Scribbling Hound 