Veterans Day at Churchill Downs

Wednesday November 11 2009

Spending part of a beautifully balmy Veterans Day at Churchill Downs was spectacular.  Although I'm not a big fan of horse racing, I felt as if I were on hallowed ground walking the corridors and ramps at Louisville's racetrack.  Even if you're completely uninterested in the race and know nothing of what's running (or why), watching a horse race is exciting.  All of a sudden you hear yourself rooting for the winner and then feeling silly--but having had a good time.

A one0hour 6" rain storm in early August all but destroyed the Derby museum, and it won't reopen until next spring or summer.  Drat.

The most interesting part of the day was spending time with Stephen Bartlett, the coordinator of Sustainable Agriculture of Louisville.  I hooked up with him via a chance meeting with an organizer on behalf of migrant workers at a b&b I stayed at in Columbus (Melody Gonzalez--love that name!).

I'm a collector of anecdotal evidence that there are 5000 people in the world and we know all of them.  My meeting with Stephen this morning confirmed it.  He sits on  the national board of La Via Campesina, an international farmers' movement fighting for food sovereignty around the world, with none other than Williamstown CSA Caretaker Farm's founder Sam Smith!  He's met with Sam and Elizabeth at many meetings in various far-away lands.  Yes, yes, it's a small world and all that.

Stephen and his Dominican Republican-born wife own a 10-acre farm in the Dominican Republic, and visit there frequently.  He runs a community garden on church property a short walk away from his home.  This year was the seveth summer he oversaw four one-week gardening camps for 20 local kids who learn to garden and process the food they grow.  They end their days with a swim at a local pool. 

The garden is small and very low-tech, with a cold frame fashioned from a discarded glass door, and a shed built from scrap wood.  Yet today he picked some green peppers and two habaneros and insisted I take them.  Not knowing what to do with them in my hotel room, I gave them to the doorman who said he'd use them in his chili.

Stephen's grass-roots group is part of a large world-wide ecumenical organization. I found it reassuring to meet someone who's out there doing his best to level the playing field in agriculture.  I plan to spend the rest of tonight browsing through the various websites he pointed me to, and reminding myself why we can never let up fighting the bad guys.

Last thoughts from Louisville.  There are three Big Names in Louisville's history.  Louis D. Brandeis, Col. Sanders, and Muhammed Ali.  They kind of sum up this interesting city.