It stopped raining for the symphony last night. What a refreshing breather that was. Now? Raining again. Emma was up all night, feeling terrible. This morning, she’s doing a bit better, though I’m sure she’d be feeling better if she wasn’t cooped up in this dark, damp house all day long, praying for sun.
The music last night was great. Jackson is young and spastic at the cello, but her sound is strong in a complicated piece. The bats are still here, hundreds came out of the roof vent just as predicted and flew off into the night sky on the hunt.
Today is by far the busiest day of the week for me. This morning, John Barrett took the stage for the morning lecture at the amphitheater. This is the same fellow who spoke after “Judgement at Nuremburg” on Sunday, the world’s leading specialist on Justice Robert H. Jackson, the presiding judge in Nuremburg during the trials. Apparently, Jackson is from this area, has spoken several times at Chautauqua (sharing the stage with FDR), and writing some of the most powerful legal opinion in the history of the bench. The talk itself was fascinating, particularly in how Barrett addresses Jackson’s democratic, civil rights-based legal work with incidences of more hardlined authoritarian practices during his work as Attorney General. Jackson was part and patial to the alien registration act, among other acts which revoke the civil liberties of citizens. How is he so different from General Rumsfeld today? He’s a constitionalist first, policeman second. Today, we’ve got it backward.
I attended a session at noon today with the honorable ambassador John Dolibois, Ambassador to Luxembourg, retired. He’s written a book on his work as chief inquisitor of the 119 Nazi military leaders, judges, and politicians post WWII. He worked for Justice Jackson with a team of five other investigators determining who should go to trial and who could wait. He’s the last of the five alive today, and it was quite an honor to hear him speak.
This afternoon, I walked out of a lecture by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf entitled “What’s right with Islam?” I have to admit, I was really looking forward to this one. But, seriously, after a morning on civil liberties, a mid-day of Nazi war crimes, there had to be something pretty damned engaging to keep me awake. This guys voice, well, it might as well have been Barry White singing lullabies to us. Had I not left, I would have been asleep long before the end. That, and by half way through the session, we still had no idea what, exactly, was right with Islam. I know there are some things that are right with it, but I think this guy would have needed more time to lay it all out than I could give.
Tonight: Goldfinger. Another in the Chautauqua film series. There’s a lecture by David Zinman before, screening, then Q&A after. I’m really looking forward to seeing this on the big screen with a full house audience. “No, Mr. Bond. I want you to DIE!”