Charles A. Oriez
Family
and friends of Charlie Oriez, welcome to this sanctuary and to this time where
we will reflect on the meaning of life and death, remember our friend, and
celebrate his busy and purposeful life.
The poet Thomas Nault wrote:
Now that these laughing eyes are closed in that long
sleep
Which is the soundest and the last of all
Shroud not my limbs with funeral pall
Nor mock my rest with vainest prayers, nor weep,
But take the husk of me to where the sunshine plays.
In dewy meadows splashed with gold and white
And there, when the stars peer from the black pools
of night,
Bury the part of me which is no more.
And on those days you wander by those meadow pools
again
Think of me as then shall be, a part
Of earth
-- naught else, and if you see
the red of Western skies,
Or feel the clean soft rain or hear the music that we
loved, then let you heart Beat fast for me, and I shall not be dead.
We
have come together in sorrow, in longing, and in gratitude. We come in sorrow that we must say good-bye
to our friend Charlie. We have come in
longing for all those things that might have been left unspoken, for the
healing and connection that we need in this time. We come together in gratitude, having faith that amid changes
that are beyond our understanding or control, there is some larger purpose into
which all of us are born, some grand tapestry into which all of us will one day
be finally woven.
Charlie, wherever you might be at this moment, your
family and friends, this community of that has loved you and known the subtle,
and sometimes not so subtle quality of your words and deeds is gathered here to
remember you and to say good-bye.
Wherever you are, we want you to know that you have made a difference on
this earth, among these people, and upon the future. We want you to know that we miss your voice and your energy, your
laughter and enthusiasm, your presence and your company. Know that we wish you well.
Gloria to speak
Susan Thornton to play bagpipes
Reading (Do Not Go Gently… Richard
Oriez)
Charlie’s Chronology
Charles
Oriez was born in New Orleans on Oct. 3rd, 1952 to Kathy and Bob
Oriez. Charlie was the oldest of six
children, followed by Mary Lou, Suzanne, Richard, John and James. Charlie’s father was in the Merchant
Marines, and his mother was a civil rights activist and journalist. The family moved to Highland Illinois, where
He spent much of his adolescence and high school years. With the exception of his junior year that
he spent with his Aunt Ruth on Long Island in New York these were years that
Charlie was not particularly fond of.
He finished high school at the Wawazee boarding school, and graduated in
the politically turbulent year of 1970.
It
was the beginning of the end of the Viet Nam, Richard Nixon was president, and
like many young people, Charlie was hearing the call to public service. Even at this point, Charlie wanted to work
for the environment, and in the way of youth thought that being a forest ranger
was the way to go. Needing money for
college he spent six months at the Control Data Institute to learn some
employable skills, moved to New York, and spent 11 years there, starting as a
computer operator and ending up as a systems engineer.
He became
involved with the Rachel Carson Democrats in New York, an environmental wing of
the Democratic Party in New York, and was recruited by the Sierra Club to run
the campaign to dump James Watt as secretary of the interior. This would be the beginning of a twenty year
relationship with the Sierra Club.
Later he was appointed a delegate from New York to the National
Membership Committee of the Sierra Club, and played a part in getting the
membership information and other operations of the Sierra Club into the
computer age.
Charlie
met Gloria at a Sierra Club conference in San Francisco where she was rooming
with Sue Merro, a mutual friend who would later be the Sierra Club national
president.
They
courted long distance for about a year, but Gloria was in Texas where Charlie
didn’t want to move, and Charlie was still in New York where Gloria didn’t want
to move.
In
1985, Gloria took a job in Denver and the problem was solved. Both of them moved here and they were
married by Rev. Jim Hobart, a minister of First Unitarian Denver on August 23rd,
1986.
In 1987, Charlie created and ran the campaign to ban
smoking in the city of Littleton, an accomplishment that he was very proud of,
and later got the chancellor of Arapahoe Community College arrested for consistently
violating the ordinance.
In 1991 he received his
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix
in Denver, and in 1992 he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political
Science from the State University of New York.
It was a busy time, as 1992 was also the year he ran for congress
against Joel Hefley in the 5th congressional district, the same year
in which Amendment 2 was passed by the voters of Colorado.
Charlie was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2001.
He was so proud of how his friends rallied around him,
and all the wonderful things they did, all the opportunities they opened up for
him. Being unable to work didn’t stop
Charlie. He took on more volunteer
work, graduated from the University of Denver with a Masters of Science in
Computers and Information Systems, completed the MS 150 mile bicycle race while
undergoing chemotherapy, helped create a 501c3 to recycle and refurbish used
computers from corporations, and worked against the Two Forks Dam project that
would have flooded the town of Deckers.
Charlie was a fighter.
He lasted four years after his first diagnosis gave him six months to
live. He and Gloria traveled widely,
and Charlie made sure that he said good-bye to everyone who was important to him. As is the way with cancer, his last days
were less than comfortable, and he was deeply grateful that he could stay at
home almost right to the very end, and that Gloria and his beloved Aunt Ruth
were both there to comfort and care for him.
Charlie passed last Wednesday evening, September 7th, 2005.
Eulogy
Charlie had a very specific request of me in composing
his eulogy. We wanted me to pitch
volunteerism. Not monetary
contributions, but real involvement in the things we care about. He wrote, and I quote, “Volunteer for a
Sierra Club project, get a smoking ordinance initiated and passed in Littleton,
help a non profit develop a web presence, whatever matches the skill set.” He hoped that if his memory was to count for
something, we would take that memory and go out and do something, and I believe
this express desire says more about Charlie than almost anything any of us
could say. So I am happy to oblige his
request. I’ll try to do it in a way
that he would have approved of.
Several years ago, Abram L. Sachar spoke out against the
good people in every community who are indifferent, slothful, oversensitive,
cynical, or just plain tired liberals; refugees from the work of the world who
have in one way or another abdicated their social responsibility. He categorized them as follows:
Genus
Cynicum: cynics who simply despair of changing the world
Genus
Tranquillo Rectum: those who focus their energies on attaining their own
enlightenment or peace of mind, thinking that this somehow counts in the fight
against oppression or creates a better world for someone else.
Genus
Dejectum: idealists who begin the work of social change and then quit in
disgust when they get their hands dirty.
Genus
Vituperosum: those who moan and groan about social injustice but are really
just armchair critics of others, offering neither the real pressure of their
efforts, nor anything else that is actually constructive.
Charlie was none of these, and wouldn’t wish us to be
either.
Once there was a man who realized that things in his
relatively open society were going astray.
He worked and organized, wrote and spoke out publicly. He formed organizations to counter the more
oppressive direction his country had taken, and for a time, many were riveted
by this single-minded, open-hearted person for whom all of life seemed to be
focused on these great concerns. But
time went on and the tide of tyranny rose ever stronger. Eventually all of the organizations this man
had founded were closed down, some of them having been made illegal, and a vast
apathy settled over the land.
Eventually this man was reduced to standing on street corners shouting
“Greed, Lies, Corruption!” “Greed,
Lies, Corruption!” but no one paid any attention to him anymore, and most
people thought he was stark raving mad.
One day, a child who had often seen the man walking the
streets and shouting his refrain walked up to him an asked, “Excuse me, but
don’t you realize that no one is listening to you?” “Of course I do,” he said.
“Then why do you keep shouting?” the child insisted. “If nothing is changing, your effort is
useless.”
“My
dear child,” said the man, “years ago I used to shout in order to change
people, now I shout so that they cannot change me.”
Here are some suggestions for directing your shouting,
and I believe Charlie would approve.
First, never underestimate the power of your ability or
your personal authority. When you speak
to power, speak from your heart, speak of your faith in a better world, speak
of your concern for the spiritual, social, and environment health of your
community, your nation and the world.
Second, whatever your cause might be, do not neglect your
homework. Blessed and effective are the
informed. Know the facts, and know that
the facts make you powerful. Remember
this when acting on the first suggestion.
All the knowledge and facts it the world are useless if you seek no
opportunities to test them, share them, and make those in power accountable to
them.
Third,
remember that many are called, but most are frozen. Beware of becoming like Voltaire’s Candide, who saw the evils of
the world and decided he would simply cultivate his garden. Activists have nothing against gardens you
understand, just people who spend all of their free time in isolation there.
Fourth, if you are already a tireless activist, please
resist burn-out, not by steeling yourself for yet more sacrifice, but by
investing yourself for the long haul, taking care to nurture your reserves and
finding a sustainable balance between hard work and self-care. Remember that thirty years of inspired
steady pressure and commitment will be better for the world, and better for
your soul than three or four months of turmoil, frustration, and burn-out.
Fifth, remember that you can change the world, but only
one step at a time. The journey of a
thousand miles begins with a single step, and it is entirely possible that you
will not live to see your goals achieved in your lifetime. The corollary to this is that this knowledge
does not let you off the hook.
Sixth and last, think globally, act locally. If you aren’t sure what to do, I assure you
that someone does. Ask someone, ask me,
ask Gloria, or Rose, or Susan Thornton, or anyone else you can think of. There is no shortage of opportunities to
work for a better world, and I assure you that the world can accommodate any
level of involvement, commitment, or support.
Charlie as passed out of this world, but in doing so he
has passed us the buck.
Sing Spirit Of Life
Sharing by family and friends
Summation
It is not possible to give a summation to Charlie, or
Charlie’s life, or to what we have heard and shared this past hour.
I feel that I got to know Charlie very well in the months
before his death. We would visit
together about every other week for the past four months and talk about life
and death, about the past and the future, and about all manner of things that
would cross his wide-ranging mind.
At the end, Charlie hadn’t come to any grand conclusions
about the purpose of life, had no certainty that there would be an afterlife,
and saw no reason to fret about it since he figured he would know for sure very
shortly.
The truth is that Charlie struggled with his last few
months. He did not want to go. He was not ready for it to be over. He was a man who was full of life and felt
that too much was unfinished.
Coming to acceptance was his last fight, and fight it he
did, right up to the moment when he simply couldn’t fight it any longer. This is a part of his legacy to us, to fight
up to the very, very last moment that we are capable of. Thanks Charlie, for all that you were, all
that you are, for all that you’ve done, and for all that you taught us.
Singing by Josie
Benediction
Because
everything that is born has to die,
We are all bound together.
Because
we all laugh for joy and cry out in pain,
We are all bound together.
Because
under our skins of different colors there flows the same blood,
We are all bound together.
Because
we all need human dignity and freedom as we need food and shelter,
We are all bound together.
We
are all bound together…
Our
friend, to whom we are forever bound, has left us.
Let us go out from this space and eat and drink and
work and laugh. We could pay our friend
no greater tribute.
Amen