COAST IS CLEAR - MESSAGES CONFUSED - TBT PAUL NEWMAN "EXCLUSIVE"

THE COAST IS CLEAR

POLITICAL ROUGH STUFF

     The primary motive of the flap over Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's e-mails is to create more flack to shadow a presidential campaign. But the spat raises critical issues, for all of us.

      How private should or can our communications be, whether we are a public official or a corporate employee? I wrestled with the latter issue as the senior news executive in a large and publicly traded broadcast company. In this age it is difficult to separate personal and professional communications, via phone or Internet. 

      Clinton had to live through the fall out of Julian Assange's Wikileaks revelation of thousands of supposedly private State Department cables and communications. They were the notes, observations and working messages of diplomatic personnel, were often sensitive and were never intended for public dissemination. Their release outraged foreign leaders, damaged relationships and put American assets and other intelligence officers at risk. So in that environment one understands a desire to have some protective wall.

      And aren't we all entitled to privacy of thought and deliberation? Our attitudes and positions can and do change on people and politics, but in the interim we should be free to say and think "aloud" or in emails, what we wish, understanding that a particular communication is not meant to be definitive.  But when something is brought up and focused on, with no context, it is unfair and misleading.  All the more reason to know what are the ground rules and boundaries.

     I won't predict the Clinton E-mail fight will achieve clarity on this issue, but it's something that faces all of us.

TBT 1968 PAUL NEWMAN & BROTHER JOHN

    Paul Newman campaigned for Eugene McCarthy at Ball State University in the spring of 1968.  His primary body guard was my younger brother John, the bearded lad to whom Newman is speaking.  

    I was a reporter, covering the critical Indiana primary and the coming and going of the politicians, but John had the best access to Newman.

   Newman flew in where John picked him up, along with a couple of others. Newman's first request was to stop at a liquor store where he purchased a six pack of beer.

   John, now deceased, was bit of a brawler and before he was injured was a tough football player. He went on to be a charismatic therapist and counselor and directed the public hospital's crisis intervention unit. In this picture he was evidence of the "Get Clean with Gene" movement. Before his Newman assignment, his hair and beard were much longer. John rarely wore a tie. 

   There were no problems for Newman during his Indiana sojourn. John could be a formidable force.

   See you down the trail

NO PLACE LIKE IT & A HARD MEMORY

OFF THE HIGHWAY

     Big Sur owned my heart from the first time I saw it

in 1969.  By the time Brian Wilson's California Suite was 

written in 1973, the area had become mythical as a place where nature, at its most beautiful, turned on hearts, spirits, creativity and imagination.

       On a recent trip I collected a few images that bespeak

the kind of ethos and attitude that remain.

     

It continues to be a place where originality
dwells in the majestic Redwoods.

     Sitting in this room, a gentle breeze on my face, smelling the freshness of the forest and being tranquilized by the blue of the pacific and the sweet sounds of the wind chimes is 
mesmerizing. It nourishes, deeply.

    Dabbles of warm sun rain through the pines and redwoods.

Mike Love and Brian Wilson immortalize the beauty in this video. CALIFORNIA SAGA/BIG SUR BRIAN WILSON from CALIFORNIA SUITE Do do do do do do do do do Cashmere hills filled with evergreens Flowin' from the clouds down to meet the sea With the granite cliff (big sur mount) As a referee Crimson sunsets and golden dawns A mother deer with their newborn fawns All under big sur skies (big sur mount) That's where I belong. Big sur I've got plans for you Me and mine are going to Add ourselves to your lengthy list of lovers (big sur mount) And live in canyons covered in springtime green Wild birds and flowers to be heard and seen And with my old guitar I'll make up songs to sing. Where bubbling springs from the mountainside Join the big sur river to the oceanside Where the kids can look for sea shells at low tide Big sur my astrology it says that I am made to be Where the rugged mountain meets the water And so while stars shine brightly from up above The fog rolls in through a redwood grove And to my dying fire I think I'll add a log. From time to time I must go away The thoughts of big sur won't let me stay Away from big sur Oh big sur   Link to this post from last year's Jade Fest to get a sense of the timeless Big Sur Congregation. A TRAGIC CALIFORNIA MEMORY     We are voting today but the California primary  evokes that horrible night in June 1968 when Robert Kennedy was gunned down.         I spent time with Kennedy and his campaign in April when he campaigned in the Indiana primary.  As a young reporter, it was my first presidential election and Kennedy's star power and charisma was impressive and memorable. His death, like Martin Luther King Jr.'s fueled the maelstrom and upending of the social fabric in that searingly unique year.       There is rancor and division today, but by comparison to 1968 we are living in a halcyon Penny Lane.       See you down the trail.