Katahdin

Beth and I returned to Baxter State Park last weekend with the goal of climbing Mt. Katahdin. Arriving Saturday afternoon at Daicey Pond we were greeted with an outstanding view of the mountain. Too bad we didn't climb that day!

The occasion was significant for me in that my first climb of Katahdin was in August of 1961. Our family had been to Baxter in 1956 and my father and older brothers spent a day on the mountain, but I was too young at the time. My mother, younger brother Phil and I stayed at the campsite at Katahdin Stream Campground and according to my mother a distinguished gentleman came around with a photographer in tow, and we had our photo taken with him--Governor Baxter in the flesh.

In the years that followed, I bugged my father for the opportunity to climb the mountain myself. He insisted on a number of shorter training hikes each summer before a major climb and this year was no different. We always started with Cathead Mountain in the spring and would climb a variety of lesser peaks in the southern Adirondacks that had fire towers at the top. Hadley, Spruce, Crane, Prospect, Wakley. We climbed most of them. By August, during our summer vacation to Wells Beach, Maine, we were ready for Katahdin.

I don't remember much about the climb and other than talking about the Hunt Trail and asking dad how far we had to go, I'm guessing we talked a lot about the Yankees and the incredible home run competition between Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. By August 11th, the Yanks were on a 9-game win streak in which Mantle had 44 and Maris 42. Overshadowed was Whitey Ford's 20-2 record, quite amazing in itself. Mantle was my favorite. Maris had come from Kansas City the year before and would always be the outsider who didn't come up through the Yankees farm system. (It was only after his death many years later that I and many others appreciated Maris for his record-breaking 61 homers that year, breaking the Babe's long-standing record-with an asterisk). The Yanks would win 109 games that season and go on to win the World Series over the Cincinnati Reds.

The weather was great and the view to the South Basin and Chimney Pond was awe-inspiring. I'll never forget that.

After our climb, we bought a postcard to send to my mother--the view of the mountain from Katahdin Stream Campground.

The weather for my return hike on Sunday didn't quite match my first experience on the mountain but I was pretty happy to be able to make the return trip after fifty years. It's a tough climb, no matter which trail you take and how old you are.

Maybe the Yankees will make a return to the World Series, too. At least Mark Teixeira (32) and Curtis Granderson (31) are hitting homers at a high rate and CC Sabathia (16-6) is leading the league in wins, although the RedSox seem to be dominant when it counts this year. You never know with the Yankees and RedSox.

DJ 3K

Back in 2009, when Derek Jeter was going for his club record 2,722nd hit to pass Lou Gehrig as the all-time leader for the Yankees, I came up with a couple dramatic scenarios that seemed to fit in well with the broad brush of his career. It turned out less so--just an opposite field hit over the first base bag. Leading up to today, the anticipation for hit #3,000 has built month by month, week by week, day by day (as well as the pressure, Derek admitted after the fact) with the added suspense of a 15-day injury break. Today's drama couldn't have been better if it was written for a movie script. Five hits in five at-bats, the second of the five a long homerun to right field for #3,000, and the last (#3,003) a game-winning single up the middle. Congatulations, Derek.

For sure, the #1 Yankee fan, up in heaven, is pleased.

Political Courage: Lessons from Latvia

The sub-text to the headline of Frank Rich's recent article in New York Magazine reflects the political reality for President Obama: "The president's failure to demand a reckoning from the moneyed interests who brought the economy down has cursed his first term, and could prevent a second." Confronting Wall Street over the crash of 2008 and bringing the responsible parties to justice has apparently not been on the President's agenda and many Americans wonder why.

Overseas, an interesting political situation has developed this spring in Latvia, the tiny Baltic country in Eastern Europe which has suffered through the same economic downturn. President Valdis Zatlers' (pictured above with President Obama) first four year term ends today and he was not elected for a second. Instead, he took quite a different route when it came to dealing with his country's oligarchs.

Despite putting his second term in jeopardy, he used the powers of the office of the presidency to dissolve parliament for its failure to waive the immunity of two of its members and a mayor of one of Latvia's largest cities, in an anti-corruption probe. The single-chamber Saeima responded along party lines in electing Zatlers' rival, Andris Berzins, in last month's presidential election. Tomorrow, Berzins will occupy Riga Castle and be Latvia's new President.

Zatlers' political future has been the source of a great deal of speculation, as he has remained silent on his plans until he is out of office. The future for Latvia includes a referendum vote on July 23rd to ratify Zatlers' dissolution and trigger parliamentary elections in September. Most Latvians I spoke with during our recent visit feel the referendum will pass by a large margin. They are less sure of any major change in September, but its evident that they feel at least the parliament will have heard their voice. Zatlers may take a greater role in the coming weeks.

With the current economic situation in America and consistent high unemployment, the controversy over the federal budget and deficit is coming to a head with an impending vote to raise the debt ceiling. Massive funding cuts to safety-net programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are threatened, with the continuation of tax cuts and loopholes benefitting the millionaires and billionaires and corporations who park their assets overseas rather than invest in America. These American oligarchs and their puppets in Washington must be confronted and the time is now.

I can't help but think that what is needed from the White House right now was demonstrated in Riga Castle by the President of a small Eastern European country who put his the integrity of his government above his own political needs and risked his second term with an audacious act of political courage. Hopefully, President Obama will take a cue from President Zatlers and act based on the needs of the majority of Americans.

Jāņi and Other Reasons to Celebrate Latvia

Beth and I recently enjoyed a two week vacation in Latvia, Estonia and Finland last month, featuring some entirely new experiences for both of us including celebration of Jani deina, the Latvian midsummer festival. Learning the traditions of my ancestors was fascinating and fun.

Our trip was highlighted by a number of occasions to spend time with my Latvian relatives, many whom I had never met. While Estonia and Finland were great fun and worthy of return visits, the Latvian stage of our trip was transformational.

This was my 5th trip to Latvia over a six year period (Beth's second) and continued my research of our ancestors, Oscar Wilhelm Maddaus and Augusta Dorothea Rathminder Maddaus, who emigrated from Riga in 1883 and settled in Brooklyn, NY. The research has uncovered some of the extensive portfolio of art produced by Oscar Wilhelm's father, Johann Karl Ludwig Maddaus--11 works are extant that I have been able to document. His paintings and lithographs are held in 4 art museums, three in Latvia and one in Estonia, and serve as alter-pieces in 4 Lutheran churches. While not considered an important 18th-century artist, even by Latvian standards, his work is well-represented.

More complex, and no less extensive, have been the results of the research on Augusta's family. Born to a Latvian father and German mother, Augusta's family name is Rathminder in German, Ratminders in Latvian. Her father, Janis Ratminders, grew up in Zeikari, a hamlet overlooking Alauksts Lake in Vecpiebalga, in the Vidzeme highlands. For some unknown reason, Augusta mis-identified her father as Andzs Ratminders (Janis' brother) and only within the past three years have I been able to discover his true identity. But then, as they say, the fun began, as layer upon layer of Ratminders history and ancestry unfolded. Not only was Janis an interesting figure in his own right--teacher, poet, translator, journalist--his family included some fascinating individuals.

Andzs, his brother, was headmaster for 63 years at the school in Vecpiebalga and taught or hired a number of significant Latvians over the term of his duty.

Lize, his neice, had many suitors, including Andrejs Pumpers, the author of the epic Latvian poem, Lacplesis (The Bearslayer). Eventually, in her 40s, she married Matiss Kaudzites, co-author of the first Latvian language novel, Mernieku Laiki (Time of the Land Surveyors), still a classic. Matiss and his brother Reinis, fashioned characters from those in their community, most notably the heroine, Liene, based on Lize.

Other members of the Ratminders family left another legacy, the resilience to survive the World Wars and foreign occupations in the 20th century which ravaged Latvia until it's 2nd and current period of independence, beginning in 1991. Notably, it is the progeny of Jekabs Ratminders who survive today. The Ratminders name is history--the descendants are Ozola, Avens, Zarina, Snips and Neimane--and over the past year I've been introduced to many of these 4th and 5th cousins through the serendipitious acquaintance with a Latvian school teacher named Mirdza Zommere.

Not only has Mirdza introduced me to her school in Vecpiebalga, but she introduced me to her long-time friend, Anda, a descendant of Jekabs Ratminders and my 4th cousin, and since the first introduction many more. The history of my ancestry and the knowledge of Latvian traditions have enriched my life, but learning of the existence of and getting to know Ratminders relatives has been an unexpected, and treasured experience.

Tragedy in Tuscon

Saturday’s shooting of 19 innocent people at a strip mall in Tuscon, Arizona is disturbing and troubling, and to quote journalist Luke Russert, is an “ugly stain” on the political landscape of America. The incident, at a community outreach event organized by the office of Representative Gabrielle Gifford’s of Arizona’s 8^th Congressional District, left the Congresswoman critically wounded and 6 people dead, including a member of her staff, long-time Federal Judge John Roll, and 4 others, among them a 9-year old girl.

Most troubling, was the inclusion of Representative Gifford’s name on a list of 20 in the cross-hairs of a prominent conservative political action group during the recent elections. While no evidence connects the PAC and the shooter, the rise of inflammatory political rhetoric in our country over the past few years certainly is a contributing factor.

The time has come when, as Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik stated, that we, as a country, do some “soul searching” and set aside the “vitriolic rhetoric’ that leads unbalanced people to claim the innocent lives of citizens of this nation.

It’s time to end the ad hominem attacks on politicians, whether it’s President Obama and other leaders in Washington, DC or Governor Lepage and his new administration in Augusta. Justification by way of the first amendment does not excuse abhorrent behavior. Civil discourse benefits both the viability of the State of Maine and security of the United States of America.

The time has come, as well, for those vocal advocates of the 2^nd Amendment right to bear arms to take a leadership role in establishing conditions that will limit the future events in which a semi-automatic weapon is in the hands of a mentally unbalanced individual. The memories of Columbine and Virginia Tech, and so many other senseless massacres, are now joined by Tuscon.

Those gun-rights advocates, who know the infinitely more than the rest of our citizens about the power of their weapons, have the inherent responsibility to see that they don’t harm the rest of the population. It’s time for them to act, for the benefit of our country.

The victims of the Tuscon shooting are in our thoughts and prayers.