This blog has been temporarily sequestered once again....

... by its "webmistress"!

To wish my dearest Marc Newhouse and Rafael Fernández-Toledo a Happy Anniversary!!!

Hear me out, Marc's "dear Readers," for a moment or two….

Marc and Raf have been together for more than 25 years, which is a record when it comes to many couples of their generation (gay or not.)  And five years ago today they were LEGALLY married in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by the same wonderful lady who officiated the first same-sex marriage in the state, one Margaret Drury.... (and I hope she reads this and knows how I will never forget her name...nor will those wonderful guys!)

Marc's beautiful mom, Frances Newhouse (greatly responsible for the occasion,) is—I know —celebrating, big time, from her landscape in the stars....

Marc and Raf are two of my most important and essential (exemplary!) people in the world, and I just want to let it be known that it's their anniversary!!

So here it is.

I love you guys!!!! And forgive me for not remembering it was today, thinking it was tomorrow!! I'm that clumsy when it comes to dates!

H A P P Y   A N N I V E R S A R Y,

R A F  A N D  M A R C !!!!

 

El Nuevo Día Reviews the 30,000 Lives Project

Following is an excerpt, in English, of a review of my 30,000 Lives Project, by journalist Antonio Quiñones Calderón, published on Thursday, March 21 (yesterday) by the Puerto Rican daily newspaper El Nuevo Día. 

(For the full, original article in Spanish, please go here.)

(...) It is in such citizen-participatory spirit that the “30,000 Lives Project” is centered. The project was conceived and is being sponsored and performed personally by Marc Newhouse, a cellist, teacher of the English language and writer who has resided in Puerto Rico for many years; Newhouse, originally a Wisconsin native, has become another good Puerto Rican.

Marc was highly disturbed by a fact he had recently encountered: 30,000 people, on average, are killed every year in the US and its territories—including Puerto Rico—as a direct consequence of gun shots. He was specifically disturbed by the fact that approximately one in every 30 murders by gun shot—within the whole US jurisdiction—occurs in Puerto Rico alone, even when our island's population amounts to a mere 1.19 percent of the total national population. When his brain fully grasped this troubling fact, Marc was instantly convinced that nothing will be instrumental in halting such tragedies until, as he explained, “all of us who favor a strong gun control policy are vigorous and passionate enough as gun advocates are.”

A quote by the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin came to his mind then; Stalin said—cynically and cruelly: “One death is a tragedy; one million deaths is a statistic.” This encouraged Marc to produce his project, hoping that those 30,000 deaths by gun shots in 2011 in the US would not end up becoming just one more statistic.

So he decided to compile a randomly-generated list of 30,000 names symbolizing those lost lives. For this, he used an 8 1/2” x 11” sheet format for a single-spaced list, one name per line, written with normal font at 12 points. He ended up with 474 pages [sic.]. “Everyone who sees the printed document—tells us Marc Newhouse—has the same reaction: ‘Wow! Those are a lot of lives....”

The list will be read out loud on Saturday afternoons in public squares in the metro area of San Juan until next December. Marc, his friends, and citizens who find out about the project and recognize its merit meet each Saturday to read 100 names out loud and publicly. They then engage in a dialog to tackle the importance of finding ways to confront the violence that has taken large control of our society. This initiative, akin to that on Agenda Ciudadana, is, without a doubt, a valuable example of individual contribution to society. (For more information, please visit: http://lifedeathandiguanas.blogspot.com/) 

UPDATE: Please note this weekend's reading has been postponed for Sunday, March 24 at 1:00 PM (instead of the usual Saturdays) at Plaza de Armas, Old San Juan. Looking forward to seeing you there!

This blog has been temporarily hijacked! :-)

Being that Mr. Newhouse is still on holiday, and hopefully with no Internet connection in sight (or mind,) today's post comes to you courtesy of his blog's Webmaster. Or, in this case...errr.., Webmadam?

There won't really be many more words involved, except to say… 

Today is Marc's Birthday!

So here this goes, in his honor, to celebrate his day, in his own blog, and—even better!—without his permission! ;-)

With all the love and admiration, and in gratitude for being such a huge and so very special part of my life…and so many others' lives!

HAVE A GRAND ONE MARC, WHEREVER YOU ARE, OUT THERE ON THE HIGH SEAS!!!!!
(and keep on with the good writing!)