All Soulstide at Cambridge ...

Christ's College Chapel held its Said Requiem Eucharist this morning at Cambridge with all the solemnity and soulfulness befitting such a Service for the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed or All Souls' Day. The Collect of All Souls' Day gave Anglican assurance of life eternal ... "We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient but the things that are unseen are eternal." The chapel dates back to the very early 16th century. Both the college and chapel, states its Michaelmas Term notes, has "nurtured the faith of no less than five Archbishops of Canterbury, including Father Rowan Williams, the current Archbishop, who is an Honorary Felow of Christ's."

So here I am at Cambridge that is so different to my visit of last month to Oxford. Such has been my first visit to both university seats. But I must confess I like Cambridge better than Oxford for reasons of the wide open spaces of green habitat at every turn. It's seems less cramped and crowded than Oxford, too. However, I think the folkz at Oxford are alot more friendly than the ones I've met so far at Cambridge. Certainly The Big Issue vendors seemed to be alot more crabby and standoffish than the ones I met at Oxford. But I am here not to spend time worrying about The Big Issue, but rather to enjoy my visits to the other colleges and churches here at Cambridge along with being invited today to the lecture and luncheon of "Is Jesus The Jewish Messiah?" at The Round Church of St. Andrew the Great. That I did and then I visited Emmanuel College. I even noticed a poster walking down St. Andrew St., that invited the public to a "meditative eucharist" at the local Baptist Church. That was an odd term to describe the eucharist to me. Surely the eucharist has always been meditative, hasn't it? At least it should be ...

I see some folkz at Cambridge's Mill Road are up in arms against Tesco that wants to muscle in by opening yet another store at the
old Wilco site. Tesco in England is just like dominant Wal-Mart in the states. They take over and crushes all in their wake. The bottom line is that the regular consumer doesn't care as long as
he or she pays lower prices for whatever they buy in our all consumer-based society of today. Like Wal-Mart, Tesco can and should be stopped at every turn simply because of its never-ending economic encroachment and anti-community tactics. Wal-Mart and Tesco are clones of each other when you look closely at them.
But it requires time and expense by local residents to actively campaign against such economic monsters and commercial powerhouses.
Check out http://www.nomillroadtesco.org/ for the latest fight against Tesco. Or rather the latest war against them ...

Then there is the more serious question of "war-war" that Stop the War Coalition at Cambridge seeks to engage all those who oppose war
in our present and future time. "An Evening with Tony Benn" is set for Monday, 12th November, 7:00pm, at the Emmanuel United Reformed
Church, Trumpington St., Cambridge. Call Denise at 07921 256766 or
Jannie at 01223 352243 for futher details.

While here, I also visited the wonderful antiques shop of Jess Applin's 17th and 18th century artifacts and furniture. Little there was under $2,000- or £1,000- each for whatever I saw at Jess' shop ... I so enjoyed talking with him about his English and French rarities and being able to share his fondness and expertise for such beautiful treasures from centuries ago. There are only about ten antiques shops in the city. As a trade, the antiques business is dying in England with the rise of new furniture reproductions and so called "collectiables" that are usually of non-antique
status. But antiques are now generally way too expensive to buy in Europe compared to North America. In fact, top European antiques dealers go to America and Canada to buy such items that are now decidedly cheaper to buy there. Years ago, it was the other way around where top American dealers flocked to Europe to buy antiques but not any more ... The English prices, like everything else in England, are a rip-off to say the least ... and such deters inter-
national antiques dealers from coming here to be ripped-off ...


And much to my amazement, I also went to one of a dozen or so charity shops to find at one of them a box of old coins that had
almost 900 European and Latin-American coins in the old tin box for
a mere 5 quid!! I almost dropped thru the floor since the old 1920's tin box is worth a good fiver at least. When I get back to my hole-in-the-wall, I'll go thru the collection and see what I really have. There are dozens upon dozens of silver coins dating
from the early 1800's among the lot I got here at Cambridge ... And, the boxful of such coins weighs like a tonne ...

The news headlines couldn't be avoided no matter what while at Cambridge with the guilty verdict against the Metropolitan Police armed cops that slaughtered -- not just killed -- innocent Jean Charles de Menezes at age 27. Whenever you give anybody in a uniform a loaded gun to use in such a tense and confrontational situation as what occurred at Stockwell Station, then the innocent citizen doesn't stand a chance especially when the cop rationalizes that somehow he or she is a "robocop" there to "protect" the public from whoever is viewed as "Public Enemy No. 1." Clearly, those armed cops treated Senor de Menezes as a public enemy, no more and no less. They then blow his brains out as they patted each other on the back in fraternal love for killing the man ... Everything that happened at Stockwell Station that day had all the hallmarks of how the American cops behave in their so-called SWAT teams -- kill first, ask questions later. That's what the Met cops did no matter what they say. To add insult to public injury, Metropolitan Police
Commissioner Sir Ian Blair (yes, yet another Blair who will not go until he's forced out by time and circumstance like his name sake Anthony Blair) will not resign or bow out in a apt manner like he should. It's the arrogance and self-importance of the top cop that is almost identical to that of Anthony Blair, too. Both Blairs are a disgrace to this country and how we got stuck with them is yet another dreadful story of how modern Britain has lost its way. No wonder we're a broken society when we have such hideous creatures like them holding questionable standing and authority over the
duped people ... Like pro-war Anthony Blair on Iraq, pro-police Ian Blair should be put on criminal trial for the police actions carried out in his name that resulted in the utter slaughter of an innocent humanbeing that Senor Menezes surely was. The savagery against him is unpardonable in a so-called free society to which England espouses but rarely lives upto thesedays if we see what is going on in criminalising almost every aspect of what the people can or cannot do.

The UK police murder of Jean Charles de Menezes is only the beginning of what is to come once you have violent enforcers clothed in lawful and immuned positions to kill any citizen at their own whim and will ... At best the day they gunned down the innocent man was like the unlawful actions of a bunch of
Klu Klux Klan vigilantes on the loose and at worst what they did to Senor de Menezes was tantamount to a British public execution of the Brazilian man. And so, Sir Ian Blair is now not even worthy of the title he holds either as police commisssioner or as a knight of the realm. That says what I mean about the whole sordid event ...

Other than that, I came to Cambridge with an open mind and I will leave it with even a more open mind than when I first came on this
grave All Soulstide. Bravo for now, Monty. +All Souls' Day, 2oo7.