Watchin the river flow

Wendell Berry Pulling his Personal Papers from the University of Kentucky

Wendell Berry, perhaps Kentucky’s best-known writer, is pulling many of his personal papers from the University of Kentucky’s archives to protest the naming of Wildcat Coal Lodge.

Berry excoriated his alma matter in a Dec. 20, 2009, letter, saying the decision to name a new dorm for UK basketball players the Wildcat Coal Lodge “puts an end” to his association with the university.

“The University’s president and board have solemnized an alliance with the coal industry, in return for a large monetary ‘gift,’ granting to the benefactors, in effect, a co-sponsorship of the University’s basketball team,” Berry wrote in the typewritten letter. “That — added to the ‘Top 20′ project and the president’s exclusive ‘focus’ on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — puts an end to my willingness to be associated in any way officially with the University.”

I like the statement made by Ernie Yanarell, an outgoing faculty trustee who was opposed to the name Wildcat Coal Lodge

Yanarella said UK violated its own regulations in naming the building. Coal is not a purpose or function of the lodge, Yanarella said, and hence is included in the name for no reason “other than promotional considerations for the Kentucky coal industry.”

From the New Southerner, an interview with Karen Spears Zacharias, author of Will Jesus Buy Me a Double-Wide: (‘Cause I Need More Room for My Plasma TV):

I didn’t write this book because I was offended by somebody. I wrote it because as a 14-year-old girl I had an encounter with the resurrected Christ. In that sacred moment there was no mention of money, no promise of riches, no assurances that my life would get better or that I would move on up to the big trailer soon.

There was just that moment of simple faith when I understood that no matter what, God would never leave nor forsake me. Best life now or worst life ever, He’s never going to abandon me. What concerns me about Golden Calf theology—this notion that God’s promise to us is to “prosper us”—is the exploitation of all things sacred. Corruption and greed have infiltrated the church. Indeed, there are plenty who would very articulately argue that it has always been a big problem for the church.

There was a time in America when the prosperity gospel was considered a fringe movement. Now the teachings are so mainstream they are taught from the pulpit of the largest church in America. That troubles me deeply.

David Cole on The Roberts Court’s Free Speech Problem:

In the Roberts Court’s world, corporations’ freedom to spend unlimited sums of money apparently deserves substantially greater protection than human rights advocates’ freedom to speak.

Via Marie Gauthier, University of Pittsburgh Press is having a half-price sale on their poetry list until August 1.

Also a mid-summer sale at Phoenicia Publishing.

And Salmon Publishing is offering free shipping on their catalogue. Salmon publilshes local poet Ron Houchen.

You never know how good a Dylan performance is until you hear some one else butcher his work. I was reminded of this the other day when I was looking for an acceptable YouTube version of “Watching the River Flow.” I didn’t find one, but I was fortunate enough to run across this. Man, it is clean, clean, clean.