Begaye pushes for completion of veterans' park

Local priest crossed paths with director

Area in brief

Local Baptist head 'grieved' by Texas vote

Woman hit by car, dragged

Group to rock Gallup

GOP leaders debate pros, cons of vouchers

By Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Navajo Nation President Kelsey Begaye has challenged the Navajo Department of Veterans Affairs to raise $500,000 by Nov. 11, 2000, to finish the Veterans Memorial Park here.

Begaye's talk was brief he arrived a half-hour late Thursday on his way to several Veterans Day appearances.

"Navajo warriors," he said, "always have been the first to answer the call to arms of the great country we live in always been there to protect the four sacred mountains" between which the Din live.

"Veterans Day should be every day, a day that means freedom and sacrifice," concluded Begaye, a Vietnam veteran.

Begaye said the states of New Mexico, Utah and Arizona would like to see the veterans' park in the heart of Window Rock completed. He also suggested the U.S. Air Force, which has helped build houses for Navajos in New Mexico, might be able to help finish the park.

Veterans Memorial Park is a circle marked with east, south, west and north cardinal points in the traditional Navajo way. Large glass-fronted billboards, reminiscent of the Vietnam Memorial's black granite wall in Washington, D.C., need to be completed to list all Din war veterans in the United States. There are 160 dead and two missing in action.

Brig. Gen. Kathy E. Thomas, U.S. Air Force Reserve, presented Miss Navajo Nation, Victoria Yazzie, with one of her brigadier general's stars. Thomas is the only woman general at the Air Force's Space Command in Colorado Springs, and one of only 16 women in that service who are generals.

Kirtland Air Force Base's Col. Bruce Bortner, who will soon retire, also pinned one of his silver oak leaf clusters on Miss Navajo's sash. Bortner, a former keynote speaker for Veterans Day on the reservation, was presented with a beige and rainbow Navajo Nation flag.

This year's keynote speaker, Col. (Select) John Hill, also from Kirtland, added his "full bird" pin to Yazzie's collection.

Yazzie's sash is becoming a billboard of pins as she crosses and recrosses the reservation.

Hill noted that this country's armed forces is composed of men and women of different backgrounds who "share a common bond, a legacy of service and devotion to duty, passed on to them by generations of Americans who wore the uniform and followed the flag."

Hill pointed out that 52 Navajo warriors are among the 292,000 men and women who died in battle in World War II. Ten Din died during the Korean War, and two remain missing in action. Another 98 Navajos died in the Vietnam War, the largest number to give their lives for the United States.

"For these honorable and great Navajos, these great Americans, we are all humbled by their supreme sacrifice," he said.

"I believe ... these core values have always been a part of veterans from the Navajo Nation," he said. "It takes a very special kind of person to leave their home, their friends, the comfort of their community and bear the burden of protecting our country. These people could lead easier lives ... but many chose instead to enter the arena of action and live for more important things than individual wealth, comfort and fame."

Hill pointed out that World War I, the "War To End All Wars," ceased on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918.

As part of the ceremony, four F-16 Fighting Falcon single-seat air superiority fighters from the New Mexico Air National Guard's 150th Fighter Wing flew overhead, east to west, arriving less than 180 seconds after signaling a parade in Gallup.

Several hundred people only a few youths were present attended the annual ceremony.

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By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The paths of the Rev. Fred Stadtmueller, a Catholic priest, and one of the world's greatest film directors, Stanley Kubrick, crossed once.

That was in 1951 when Stadtmueller, who is now living in retirement in the Bluewater area, was gaining regional and possibly national fame as "The Flying Padre," and Kubrick was a brash, young filmmaker who had yet to make his first feature film.

Kubrick, fresh from making his first documentary on a prize fighter in Nevada, decided that his second subject would be a priest in New Mexico whose parish was so big that he had to use a plane to go from church to church.

The 15-minute documentary called "The Flying Padre," of course will be shown publicly for the first time in decades this Saturday at the University of New Mexico Southwest Film Center as part of a film tour sponsored by the U.S. Library of Congress.

"After (Kubrick) practiced on me, he began making films," Stadtmueller said.

And many of the films made by Kubrick, who died earlier this year, have gone down in cinema history as some of the best of this past century "Spartacus," "Dr. Strangelove," "2001," "Clockwork Orange" and the one that came out just after his death, "Eyes Wide Shut."

Stadtmueller was serving as a priest in the 4,000-square-mile Mosquero parish in Harding County, within the Santa Fe Archdiocese, at the time he was approached by Kubrick to be the subject of his documentary.

"I had 12 churches that I served and miserable roads," Stadtmueller recalled. So when he heard of an opportunity to learn how to fly from a man who was teaching ex-GIs, he jumped at the chance. Later, he acquired a Piper Cub that had a maximum air speed of 70 mph.

He used it for the next 10 years and gained a lot of publicity, some of which Kubrick must have read.

"It was a 15-minute short documentary shot in black and white," said Stadtmueller, who pointed out that in the early 1950s, these kind of films were shown in theaters between regular movies. "Nowadays these kinds of shorts are out of style."

"I had a friend of mine who was living in the Aleutian Islands who said he saw it up there," said Stadtmueller.

The New York company that produced the documentary later sent him a 16 mm copy, but the documentary has probably not been shown publicly anywhere else for more than 40 years.

"I was supposed to get 10 percent of whatever the documentary made, but I never saw a cent," Stadtmueller said, adding that it was likely the film, which Kubrick shot over 10 days while staying at the rectory, never made any money.

If this were a Kubrick movie, the padre and the filmmaker would have become lifelong friends, but in real life, they were never to meet or speak to each other again after the documentary was released.

Stadtmueller said the only one of Kubrick's later movies that he remembers seeing was "Spartacus," which he thought was a good movie.

As for Kubrick, the less said about his personality the better. Known in his later life as a meticulous filmmaker who would have actors do one scene 100 times if necessary to get what he wanted, Kubrick probably had a not-very-different reputation as a documentary maker.

"I tried my very best to do what he asked of me, and that's all I can say about the experience," Stadtmueller said.

For much of the past two decades, Stadtmueller has lived in retirement but has managed to keep active both in the Gallup Diocese and the Santa Fe Archdiocese, helping other priests in 23 separate Gallup parishes over the years.

The Library of Congress chose the documentary as one of about 30 films from the 300,000 in its film registry to be part of the current tour, which is being put on, in part, to show people the importance of preserving films for future generations. It will be shown at 2:30 p.m. Saturday with "Dr. Strangelove" and then again at 6 p.m. Tuesday with "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Stadtmueller said he will attend the Saturday performance.

Tickets cost $4, with seniors and students getting in for $3.

Other films that will be shown between Saturday and Nov. 18, either at the film center or at the Guild or Lobo in Albuquerque, include "Nashville," "Easy Rider," "Raging Bull," "Gigi," "Chinatown," "Duck Soup," "On the Waterfront," "The Great Train Robbery," "Shane," "My Darling Clementine" and "Treasure of the Sierra Madre."

For times and locations, call the Guild, Lobo or UNM Southwest Film Center.

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Area in brief

By Recognition night

GRANTS — The Girl Scout Gold Award Program , a Grants recognition night, will be held at 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 21, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 1010 Bondad. Local Girl Scouts members will receive a silver or gold award from the Girls Scouts of Chaparral Council, Inc.

Water meeting

SHIPROCK — The Shiprock Soil and Water Conservation District representatives will meet at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 23, at the Shiprock SWCD building. Information: (505) 368-5723/5716.

Mercury spotting

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — A rare astronomical event will take place Monday, and the public is invited to catch it at Northern Arizona University's Atmospheric Research Observatory. Mercury will pass directly between the earth and the sun, starting at 2 p.m.

On average, there are only 13 transits of Mercury each century. An open house will be 1:30-3:30 p.m. Monday at the Campus Observatory.

All six telescopes, including the Celestron 8 with H-alpha filter, will be set up with a variety of solar filters to view the transit. A Coelostat projection of the event will also be on display. Information: Barry L. Lutz, in the department physics and astronomy at (520) 523-9117 or e-mail Barry.Lutz@nau.edu.

Legal advice

ALBUQUERQUE — New Mexico residents can receive free legal information from 9 a.m. to noon and 1-4 p.m. Saturday through the "Ask a Lawyer" call-in program sponsored by the Young Lawyers Division of the State Bar of New Mexico.

Lawyers, including Spanish-speaking attorneys, will give free legal information from four locations across the state. Dial (800) 876-6227.

Lawyers will be available to answer questions on most areas of law, such as employment law, civil rights, domestic relations, bankruptcy, criminal law, general civil litigation and insurance law.

The event will take place only on Saturday and only during the specified times.

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By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The head of the First Baptist Church here says he is "disappointed" in a decision by Southern Baptists in Texas to repudiate the denomination's call for women to "submit graciously" to their husbands.

"It grieves me personally," said the Rev. Jay McCollum, a transplanted Texan who has led the congregation in Gallup for the past five years...

Woman hit by car, dragged

By Sekai K. Mutunhu
Staff Writer

GALLUP — A woman was arrested after she hit her cousin with her car and allegedly dragged her 10 feet after an argument erupted at a local hotel.

Mentmore resident Wanda Smith, 25, was charged with aggravated battery, reckless driving, limitations on backing, and driving on a suspended license, police said...

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Group to rock Gallup

By S.J. Ludescher
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The In Betweens just released their second CD, "Rhythm of Change," and will perform at 8:30 tonight at El Rancho Hotel as part of a promotional tour.

The energetic rock band was formed in 1993 in New York, but now calls Flagstaff home. The group has changed a little from its New York days with the addition of Arizona-based guitarist Scott Shellings and drummer Andrew Lauher...

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GOP leaders debate pros, cons of vouchers

By Tom Purdom
Staff Writer

GRANTS — School vouchers will either be education's savior in New Mexico or could ruin public education as it is known today.

Both sides were aired Thursday by two Republican leaders at a GOP-sponsored debate about Gov. Gary Johnson's volatile school voucher proposal...

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