This one written from sister Ann's condo near LAX airport.

Got in yesterday afternoon fearing the record 100º temperatures I'd been reading about, but missed it obviously. It's been fine. Even this morning at the Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills cemetery for Dad's 1-year memorial, it was cool and cloudy.

It must seem a bit risky, I realize, flying back to LA for a weekend in the middle of the final PhD push, but family business outweighs such risks. I flew back last August for Mom's 1-year memorial and would do the same for Dad. They're buried next to each other in the same cemetery here in LA near all the TV and media offices in Burbank. It's in a back corner in the hills, however, so you can barely see a single sign of the city in 360º, just mountains and green cemetery lawns.

Ann and I, Dad's cousin Lois and her husband Walt, and Pastor Bill Antablin and wife Florence met at the cemetery gate around 10:00 this morning and drove in together to the site. The best surprise of the day was to find that the Veterans Administration had managed to get Dad's tablet made and installed in time for the one-year remembrance. A bit of a long story, but we had ordered it back in October knowing that it usually took 6 months. When we checked with the cemetery this February, however, we were crushed to learn that they had sat on all the paperwork because of some missing form - but hadn't bothered to contact us. That meant the earliest the VA could get it now was in August! But by some divine intervention, the order was placed and acted on twice as fast as usual, and there it was for us today:

Ernest Arthur Sundberg
Capt. US Army
WW II
Apr 13 1922 - Apr 29 2003
Faithful father and husband

Yellow roses are the family funeral tradition by now, but we couldn't find any in decent shape yesterday at the supermarket, so Ann got a nice purple and gold bouquet - close to the UCLA colors. Bill started by reading out of the Presbyterian service book. Lois read Psalm 103 "As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on all who fear him, for he knows how we were made, he knows full well that we are dust ..." Each then spoke some word of remembrance - an anecdote, word of appreciation. They we ended singing just the chorus of "How Great Thou Art" - an old Swedish hymn that Dad had requested for his funeral: "Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee: how great thou art ..."

Ann and I had debated between "faithful father" and "beloved father" on his tablet and settled on "faithful" as the greater compliment, because most dear departed are "beloved" by those they leave behind; that is almost assumed. But "faithful" is a descriptor that has to be earned over a lifetime. He was true to his commitment both to Mom and us kids his whole life, an increasingly rare commodity these days. And his last 10 years, he prepared carefully to leave us well-cared for after he was gone. "Great is Thy Faithfulness" was also Mom's favorite hymn, quoted on her tablet. So the word "faithful" ties the two together.

I'll be here through Monday, when I fly back to Illinois and get crackin' on the dissertation once again. Saturday, I drive up (alone) to Santa Barbara to see some close friends who saw us through the hard days when he was weak and weakening last April. Then, my self-imposed year of mourning will be over.

I'm glad I came.

THOSE D*** UNINSURED DRIVERS

We all hate those "uninsured drivers" that we have to get extra auto coverage for, right? Well, for about four months this year, I've been one of them!

(A disclaimer here about my "criminal" tendencies: I've had a license since 1979 and been a dependable payer of my premiums all those years, so it wasn't an ingrained habit.)

When I inherited Dad's 1998 Infiniti I-30 last summer, I had to get coverage for two cars all of a sudden. But AAA Auto Insurance, it turned out, had a great rate for both, so it didn't cost an arm and a leg - just an arm. I paid for the first half-year of my new policy that July. Then this January I was to pay the second half, only I never got the bill. So I thought.

We all hate those stacks of junk mail we get from groups like the AAA, right? Well, unfortunately, their BILLS look just the same. In fact, they come in unmarked white AAA envelopes that I, busy dissertation-writing PhD student that I am, put on the "junk mail" stack. (It will need its own ROOM one day soon). This March (!) I was belatedly sorting through one pile and opened the AAA bill and found a dire warning that my payment was overdue and my policy would be revoked if I didn't pay up. Well, it was past due by a month or so, but, belatedly I sent in a check anyway.

The policy had already been canceled, however, and they ended up returning my check - about 3 weeks later (with no prior warning that I was driving illegally and should fix it SOON). I finally called my AAA agent early this week to find out if the check had been received and I was in the clear. No siree, Bob. AAA had let me continue driving illegally for four months with no communication! (Great service - highly recommended.)

Today, you'll be happy to hear, I have once more joined the ranks of "upstanding citizens" and have both cars safely covered again! All you uninsured drivers out there better watch out ...

MICHIGAN MOSQUES

A tiny, underreported news item you might be interested in (just copy and paste it in the URL line of your web browser to read it):

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2004-04-19-hamtramck-islamic_x.htm

To summarize, a Muslim group in a formerly Polish inner suburb of Detroit, Hamtramck, has asked the city council for permission to broadcast their call to prayer ('azaan in Arabic) by LOUDSPEAKER over city airspace five times daily, as is the Islamic custom. No community in the US presently has allowed this; in fact, most Western non-Muslim nations don't allow it - mainly for "noise pollution" reasons. Muslims in the UK, France and Germany have prayed perfectly well five times daily as required for many decades without the benefit of this ancient custom.

What is the "call to prayer"? Well it is much more than a short summons. It is the equivalent of reciting the Apostle's Creed over the airwaves. Here is part of it translated from Arabic:

"Come to prayer. Come to spiritual refreshment. I confess that there is no god but Allah. I confess that Muhammad is his messenger. Allah/God is great."

This is the central statement of Islamic belief, not merely a "call". Originally, it was given by one man from the top of a minaret (to help spread the sound) without amplification, calling the village, all of whom were Muslims, to their daily religious duty. In modern Muslim cities, however, it is prerecorded and broadcast simultaneously at great volume from huge loudspeakers from minarets and would wake the dead (if they had ears). I used to joke when I lived in Saudi Arabia in 1995 that the government had assured that all its citizens (and guest workers) would live within earshot of at least two competing mosques! (And each mosque manages to start at a different time so that it goes on, in staggered fashion, for 10-15 minutes each time with overlapping messages.)

How it affects the rest of us: Muslim groups worldwide are watching this with rapt attention even if the majority of Americans aren't, and if the city council gives final approval next week (April 26-30) as seems certain, every city in the US with one or more Muslims will be petitioned for the same "right". I predict it will become a major irritant countrywide, kicking up lawsuit upon lawsuit, and end up costing millions in legal fees before it ends up at the Supreme Court, which is why I'm surprised the US media has so far given it so little attention.

Please understand: I am not objecting to the 'azaan as such; in fact, some historians say that church bells originated from St. Francis of Assissi's trip to the Muslim-controlled Holy Land, where he was impressed by the call to prayer and instituted a similar system to notify European believers of church services. The fact is, however, that the 'azaan is not a human rights issue or an issue of religious liberty, as the Muslims of Hamtramck argue. It is not even a requirement of the Muslim faith. Praying 5 times daily is; broadcasting a summons via loudspeaker is not. No Muslim in the US has been prevented from obeying the rules of their faith up till now.

I AM objecting to the Muslim community's attempt to get official permission for special privileges that no other religious group has asked for or would be allowed to have: the privilege of blanket broadcasts of their statements of faith via loudspeaker into religiously-mixed neighborhoods. Would the Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, be given civic permission to blare their messages over public airspace? Would you sit idly by and let them?

Church bells, the usual religious analogy, have no verbal message and are just neutral signals, like tornado sirens and factory whistles. The call to prayer, on the other hand, is really a broadcast of a narrow one-religion message and therefore allowing it would show unconstitutional bias in favor of one religion.

In case any reader wishes to email the city council and make his/her feelings known, here are the council members' email addresses (Council president is Karen Majewski):

kmajewski@hamtramckcity.com
rcedar@hamtramckcity.com
ccirgenski@hamtramckcity.com
sahmed@hamtramckcity.com
sklein@hamtramckcity.com

Enjoy your quiet spring evenings while you can ...