Jo-Ann Iannotti, OP, reads her poem composed for 9/11 Observance at Wisdom House.

Jo-Ann Iannotti, OP, reciting September 11th remembrance poem

REMEMBERING

In the city Walt Whitman called,

 “City of hurried and sparkling waters!

      City of spires and masts!

City nestled in bays! My city!”

        They were born twins,

  And unexpectedly died together.

      Untimely many would say.

On that land, one of the first original 13,

     called  “Keystone” even until this day,

A field made to be ploughed

    Had the unfulfilled hopes

                 of 58 souls

           Planted in its soil.

Then, there was the place

    Defined and designed by geometry;

A place whose angles held

     Secrets supposedly

            secure.

Secure was that day

    In September,

Sun-filled, mild-mannered

        In its dawning.

Before mid-morning

     Day became nightmare,

Chaos reigned supreme

   And dust was a veil

That hung over the face of the City.

That day, more than names

    were listed as lost.

That day, futures were frozen in time.

    Nothing could move forward.

That day belief was a sign,

   Hung around our necks

With the simple message –

      “For Sale.”

Bent steel bent lives

   Into new shapes.

We were placed into a furnace

   Of transformation.

We were too surprised to make

    a rational decision.

We were never given the chance to choose.

Ten years on, though,

       we can choose.

We cannot change the past,

     But we must change

                          the present.

We can choose not to be among

   The living dead.

We can choose not to run away

   From pain.

We can choose to sit down with it

            For afternoon tea

   To share the stories that make us who we are.

  True stories change lives

   When they are given away.

Friends, let us walk through

    The remainder of the

              Days given to us,

Not side-stepping pain or

    Underestimating the

             The presence of joy.

What we know, can’t be taken from us –

  We now know more deeply than ever,

            That

All the world – all of life

              Is kindling for revelation.

Friends, stack it high,

   Build it well,

And let us start a new fire

   For clarity, for gratitude,

      For life!

                                                Jo-Ann Iannotti, OP

                                                     September 11, 2011

Thomasina Levy and Joan Spear 9/11/11 commemoration at Wisdom House

Composers and musicians, Thomasina Levy (dulcimer) and Joan Spear (keyboard), performed original compositions and the special song dedicated to 9-11, "Out of Many We Are One," at the 9-11 Commemoration at Wisdom House.

Listen to the song "Out of Many, We Are One" on www.Thomasina.net and visit www.JoanSpear.com.

Love!

The commandment for all of us is quite simply, "Love!" Once we know it is not a feeling but a grace empowered decision, we can all do it. And each time it is a growth in freedom...

Richard Rohr, OFM

Maryknoll Sisters International Bazaar

Ray Furse discusses solar panels and invertor



Ray Furse, partner with James LaPorta
of Litchfield Hills Solar

Good afternoon everyone, thank you for coming, and thanks to the Sisters of Wisdom for inviting us to the commissioning of this 15.2 kilowatt solar electric system. Thanks especially to Sister Rosemarie Greco, who has been the driving force behind the project, and to the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund (now called the Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority) for supporting it.

Thanks also to the people who actually installed it: James LaPorta, my partner and project engineer, Ronnie Lizana, lead installer, and Mark Lenz, Chris Harrington and others from Lenz Electric, David Hampel in sales, and especially Patrick Grahan of the Wisdom House staff, who did much of the prep work, fortifying the barn structure and trenching. But mostly, thanks to all of you, the utility rate-payers of our state, for the .00444 cents per kilowatt hour you have paid to help sponsor it.


I’m sure most of you know this, but I’ll explain the system briefly: The panels are made up of wafers of silicon crystals, assembled in sheets, and mounted in frames. Photons from the sun, which are electrons in the form of light, bombard the panels, where they cause other electrons in the silicon to move, so current begins to flow. This is direct current, like from a battery, which is taken to inverters, located in the ground floor of the barn, that change it into the alternating current that the facility can use. That current travels via an underground conduit back to the utility room in the main building, where it joins with utility power to be used in all the buildings.

I have to confess that a “switch-throwing celebration” is not all that exciting an affair. In fact, we turned on the inverters when I started talking, but it actually takes five minutes or so for the system to test itself before it begins to produce electricity. When it does there won’t be any lights or bells or whistles. There are no moving parts and no skilled operator required; the system will simply wake up in the morning and put itself to sleep at night, quietly transforming energy from the sun into clean renewable electricity for the next three to four decades. It will produce well nearly $300,000 dollars worth of electricity over its warranted lifetime of 30 years.

To return to your .00444 cents per kilowatt-hour contribution: This is what we, Connecticut ratepayers, contribute in what is called a “Public Benefit Charge” on our electric bills, and is the ultimate funding source for the Clean Energy Fund and projects like this.

www.litchfieldhillssolar.com

In these politically charged times, there is a big debate about what government can do and what private enterprise can do best. I would suggest that the generally strong state support of renewable energy in Connecticut has meshed well with private and entrepreneurial interests and is having a huge payoff.

The CCEF can provide you exact figures, but I can tell you from an installer’s point of view, interest in solar is strong, inquiries and installations have increased steadily over the past five years, and most of all, awareness of conservation and renewable energy possibilities have increased exponentially.

This has produced remarkable and measurable results. Installation cost has come down, from around $9 per watt five years ago to about $6 per watt today. When we started there were a handful of qualified solar installers in Connecticut; today there are over 60. And responding to the more attractive US market, foreign makers of solar panel manufacturers have moved in. MAGE, the German manufacturer of these modules, has now opened a plant in Dublin, GA, that employs 350 people. Next time, we hope Connecticut.

Finally a new Energy Bill, signed into law by Governor Dannel Malloy July 1 of this year, promises sustained, long-term support of energy conservation and renewable energy programs in our state, with a view toward cleaning up our air, reducing our collective carbon footprint, weaning us from foreign energy sources, and reducing energy costs for rate-payers. So again, thank you all, or perhaps let’s all thank each other, for ensuring a bright future for solar in Connecticut.