"...we thought we'd bring peace to the world..."

off-shore Cambria, CA

        It was buried in an Associated Press report from Colleville-Sur-Mer, France, an account of several dozen veterans in their 90's observing D-Day. About 4 paragraphs down it jumped off the page, one of those universal truths we recognize with a flash.

    The speaker is a 98 year old Penobscot Native American from Indian Island Maine who was participating in a sage-burning ceremony near the beach. Charles Shay was a 19 year old US Army Medic at Omaha Beach.

    "In 1944 I landed on these beaches and we thought we'd bring peace to the world. But it's not possible."

    It is not possible! Peace?

    Sage burning is a native ritual of cleansing and release and on this day in honor of fallen comrades. 

    "I have never forgotten them and know their spirits are here."

    The AP reports "He said he is especially sad to see war in Europe again. 

    'Ukraine is sad. I feel sorry for the people there and I don't know why this war had to come, but I think human beings like to, I think they like to fight, I don't know...'"

    98, a survivor of an historically bloody invasion tending to the fallen as a healer, a spiritual man who has seen the ways of the world for almost a century, and he cannot understand human beings. 

    It is no wonder then that I cannot. 

    Peace, the diadem of human faith, the elusive goal of religions and diplomacy, the thing that humankind values above all, even trying to find it in places, things, and states of mind. Peace, a state of no conflict, of no hostility, of no more war. It is not possible.

    Not possible. You can't get peace out violence. 

    Quickly I attempted to deconstruct the truth that Charles Shay spoke 78 years after he was part of massive effort to "bring peace." My mind ran to my father and his generation who fought in that war, to "win the peace." And then to my friends who "did their patriotic duty" in Viet Nam and then to all of the other conflicts, all over the globe. Why is it that we ask so much for a peace that is impossible. 

    It was ever such.

    The only good thing to be said of a war is when it ends. Though, does it ever? It only changes shape and decades. Peace, an idealistic aspiration is shredded by a read of history. 

    We stumble through life grazing for something that will resonate deeply as significant, a clarifying knowledge, an insight. We search, even as we're never sure what it is we're after. Until it smacks us. 

    Peace is impossible, because?

    As Mr. Shay said, "human beings like to, I think they like to fight."

    Despite the wisdom of this special man, and even in these later years of my life, I'm not giving up on peace, either as a diplomatic and geo political quest, and certainly not as a spiritual reality. 

    As a global status it may not be possible, no indeed, but the absence of trying for it is even more disturbing. 

    Some humans choose to live in peace, engaging our better likes. 

    Lana creates beauty. Here is evidence, a corner of our deck, benefiting from her affirmation of life by means of a green thumb.

    Even through the millennia of human history, from clubs and stones to assault weapons, killer drones and nuclear missiles, the force of life resurrects itself, nature shows us the path. For as long as we have told our histories particular humans have lifted our vision to what can be. Like Mr. Shay humans have knelt over the injured and dying and have comforted parents, friends and the grieving. Humans have told us there is a better way. It need not be our destiny "... to like to fight. 

    I think it is that which enables our survival.

    Peace.

    See you down the trail.

    

    

 

EVIDENCE OF VOTE FRAUD--A THEFT OF OUR RIGHTS

it is that time of year

    Dear reader, please know there is more seasonal pleasantness ahead, but first

it is that time of year

     Election Season. I love my daughter's tribute to and statement about campaign yard signs and the pending election.

they are stealing votes

     Two blatant examples expose what is a strategy to deny minority votes. Over the last few political seasons the Republican party has employed tactics similar to the white racists in Dixie to deny citizens their right to vote. 

      Consider Brian Kemp, the Georgia Secretary of State who is running as the Republican candidate for Governor against Stacey Abrams the African American woman who is the Democrat candidate.

       Kemp has purged between 340-500 thousand current residents from voting. Kemp is known as "The Wizard of Voter Suppression" for good cause because of his bag of Republican tricks.

       An AP (associated press) analysis shows 73% of voters dropped by what he calls "the exact match" system were black. 

       The Center for Investigative Reporting program Reveal and American Public Media report more than a half million voters have been purged and many them may not be aware.

       Kemp has employed a "use it or lose it" technique, sending out post cards that look like junk mail, even to voters who are already registered and primarily only to black or minority neighborhoods. 

      He has used "the exact match" trick. If a name is not exactly as it was written by a voting registrar, though incorrect, even if a person can produce an ID with their name and address they are not allowed to vote. Here's the big problem with that, and in more places than Georgia, voting registrars may intentionally misspell a name, or they may not fully understand a pronunciation or spelling of an ethnic name. It is what the registrar writes that counts and if that registrar is working for Kemp or Republicans in other states, they have incentive to suppress votes in areas strong in Democrats.

      In Florida and in Arizona there are similar complaints by Hispanics because the white registrars do not understand or cannot spell names correctly or misspell them intentionally. 

      You may have heard the news this week where Kemp was caught on tape, for the second time, worrying about black voters and how to counter that.

       Consider the case of Dodge City Kansas, the historic and iconic old west town. The Republican clerk moved a majority Hispanic voting site to place outside of the city limits and one mile from the nearest bus stop. It gets worse. That precinct is supposed to handle 13 thousand voters, imagine the waiting time. Those 13 thousand voters in that one precinct compare to an average of 1,200 voters in other Dodge precincts. 

       The population of Dodge is 60% Hispanic, mostly all legal citizens, but because of efforts to suppress in the past 3 elections only 17% of the vote is Hispanic, though registration is closer to the town's percentage of Hispanic. In the meantime the anglo vote is 61% though the white population is only 40% of the community. Suppression works.

       There are at least nine states practicing voter suppression and they are all red states, carried by Trump.

       Trumps own voting fraud commission was disbanded in shame when they found no evidence of voting fraud. Despite that, and there is only one way to say this, Trump himself still lies about that. 

     A member of the Commission, an elected official from Maine said the commission came to a rapid end when others began to suspect the commission was  trying to frame a report that was not true.  

       "I think the reason why they disbanded it was because they really didn't want anybody to know what they were talking about and working on behind the scenes, which was this report that was being framed up without any of our knowledge. We hadn't even done any substantive discussion about what a report would look like and they were writing it. So I think that speaks to what the goal was, which was to validate the president's claims-not to do any type of investigation our explication of what those claims would look like or produce."  Matthew Dunlap commission member in interview with Don Gonyea.

        Other investigations, less partisan than the Presidents also find there has been almost no voter fraud, the types of which Republicans are trying to prevent. The truth is, Republicans are the perpetrators of the fraud by trying to prevent votes for Democrats.

       Trumps own repeated lies seems to have dulled the nation's sensitivity to the importance of truth. There are countless excuses invoked by those who support him, "That's just how he is. That's just how he does business. What difference does it make? Who cares the economy is on a roll."

      Voter suppression is wrong. To permit it, or to allow it without loud and rancorous challenge is dangerous. It is one more warning sign, a replication of what we have seen in history. 

      The markers are adding up. Russian interference, a divide and conquer style and a terribly divided nation, a minority president overturning years of majority policy, playing to a racist base, trying to discredit media, the arrest and indictment of most of his closest advisors, siding with dictators, an inability to tell the truth and an overt attempt to restrict voting rights is as Anti American as Putin, or the Imams of Iran. It is no wonder those who work with him closely call him a moron. What does that say about those who still support him?

      Thanks for reading through this. It needs to be said in as many places as it can be. As Bob Woodward said, "be worried."

and now something nice

     Harvest season on the California Central Coast. The colors of the season as the grape leaves change.

    See you down the trail.

A SECRET ABOUT THE MEDIA & THE TRUMPET DEBUT

1969 WIBC Radio Wire Room & Temple of Coffee

     Into the Wayback Machine boys and girls to a time before Redbull or 5 hour energy drinks, laptops or news by flavor.

     Teletype machines, telephone feed lines, balance and coffee were the order of the day.

     Those machines ran 24 hours a day, clacking and clanging the events of the world in a never ending unrolling river of paper. When I hired on to this news shop we had AP, UPI, a weather wire, our own weather gear and the most important item, the coffee maker. 

      Pictured is the "new" coffee maker and it was a sore spot in the newsroom. Someone had cleaned the previous maker, probably for the first time in 15 years and what ever they used "left a taste," no doubt the lack of whatever inhabited the sludge encrusted walls in the old brewer. 
      This nod to modernity came with emphatic instruction to NEVER clean it and to NEVER let it go empty. We had ground beans, favored by some and instant crystals favored by others and it all went together to create the curious, hair on your tongue taste. By the time I left for another job we had evolved a "vintage brew"  that included vestiges of a previous decade. That is how it was, and why it tasted liked it did. Coffee was our lifeblood in a 24 hour operation and our hearts beat to the constant rattle of the news wire.

       We had nails on a wooden header where we "hung" the wire copy, sorting it by topics. It never stopped, and we read it all.

       You can't see it, but in that wire room were the guts of an electronic sign we updated hourly.  You've seen those news tickers that wrap around buildings, giving the latest headlines. It was part of our job when we were on the news desk to write them on a special keyboard and then flip the switches so that news would appear on a major building downtown. Improper grammar or mis-spelling was embarrassment writ large, followed by a lecture from the boss in non broadcast language. 

       Before the digital era and lattes news rooms smelled of coffee and cigarette smoke. They were clamorous with police and fire scanners, reporter and network "feeds" coming in, audio tape being logged and edited, wire machines bells and constant keystroking, typewriters, telephones and usually at least one person yelling. It was a helluva way to earn a living.  A couple of "vintage photos follow below, but first---

introducing a news source

a companion in a post-truth world

the trumpet

you da best, boss !  

     In an outstanding, just outstandingly heroic effort, the President demonstrated how tough a Great America is when he verbally bludgeoned those damned Aussies and cut off the telephone conference.

     "Tough, time to get tough. Don't worry about it!" the fearless leader told us.

     In this age of lone wolf terrorism, radicalized by Isis and Putin's adventurism it's good to know the President is on target. Just think how troublesome those Australians have been! The underpinning of our many woes. 

     Kick their Ass, Donnie, kick their ass. Best ever conversation with an ally!  Outstanding!

#################################################################################

     The President's success in "reality" television gave him a little juice in announcing his nominee to the supremes. For years we've seen the nominee stand along side the chief executive. Donnie does it differently- a little suspense, no shared spot light until.... up pops the judge. The showman in chief couldn't contain his glee "That was good surprise wasn't it."  Keep asking Donnie-you had the best ever, everyone knows that. Largest audience ever for a nominee announcement. The best!

but oh those enemies in the crooked press

      Republicans and Democrats have reacted to reports the Trump White House told the congressional staffers it called on to help with the controversial immigration order they had to sign non-disclosure agreements. Members of both parties say that is a serious breach of separation of powers. Some reports said it is a troubling sign of paranoia in the new administration. 

         Careful there press, do you think you have freedom to question Der fuhrer entertainer in chief? He is the "only person" on earth who can fix our ills! He told us that. Can't you remember anything? Pitiful. Crooked press!

Trump Apologizes to Reporter

          (Special to The Trumpet via The 710 Brother's Network)

          Today Donald Trump invited the physically challenged reporter he mocked during the election cycle to Trump Tower. After a humble apology by the President the two enjoyed lunch and polite conversation. Trump then handed the reporter an envelop that contained a check for $50,000 made out to the charity of his choice. The two shook hands and promised to keep in touch!

the Trumpet riddle

       How will the Democrats respond to the Gorsuch nomination?
       A) Will they be big boys and girls and give the nominee a fair hearing?
       B)  Will they be like Republicans and create a political obstruction?
       C)   Will Charles Schumer act like Mitch McConnell and declare no nominee hearing?
       Our Bonus Question-How does McConnell speak when his head remains so deeply implanted in his lower descending colon? 

       Tune in again some time for another edition of THE TRUMPET.

we called it reporting

   on assignment -Anderson Indiana-reporting for a documentary on the effects of a recession--with furloughed auto workers

       It's clear that Trump was about the only person who "noticed" the pain of millions of under or unemployed workers and they ended up being the edge in a few states

       The Clinton campaign ignored them, so did everybody else-media and pollsters included. Much is to be written and said as historians review the 2016 campaign, but it's been a long time coming. 

       Media has become more about audience size and entertainment than journalism. There are exceptions but are too few and far between. You may recall when David Broder of the Washington Post or David Brinkley of NBC would travel off into the country to listen, "mood of the electorate" pieces they were called. They set the standard and most serious news organizations did something similar. In fact it was the backbone of old fashioned reporting. Get out of the newsroom or studio, get away from the government bubble and go listen to people, citizens. That was what we used to do and how we knew what people thought and felt. 

        Someplace along the line, probably a non journalist decided the world needed a fancy set, with pretty anchors and yakking, squawking, ego's-call them analysts-telling us what they thought. Modern political campaigns are also frequently hapless. (Think how much the 19 Republicans and Hillary Clinton threw down the drain.) 

        Well, we have lots of famous and wealthy fools these days don't we?

they were called typewriters

        Found this in the Wayback machine, a contact sheet for an ad campaign when Karen Dillon and I were "working" news anchors at NewsCenter 13. By the way, we did write and report and leave our not so fancy set to go listen to people.
      Then we came back and used an antique called a typewriter. I trust most of you remember those?

 another of those "great haircut" shots to amuse the grand daughter

    They were great for leaning on as we used that other appliance, the one with a tail, a telephone.  Amazing what you can learn by listening. 

    Indeed it was a great way to make a living. 

     See you down the trail.

BEFORE ELF ON THE SHELF AND THE GLOW ON THE HILL

A VERY SPECIAL NIGHT

   Remember the old Coke commercial, "I'd like to teach the world to sing...?" Well, I'd like to invite the world to see what we have come to know as an extraordinarily wonderful evening, the Strings in the Chapel concert on the hill over looking Cambria's east village.

   I've posted here the last two years: Local Magic, 2011

and As Good As It Gets, 2012.  This year it was even more so.   

    There is a special joy to climbing the steep hill to the 140 year old Santa Rosa Chapel, festooned in lights and candles. In a sense it is as though moving from modernity to a wrinkle in the cosmic continuum where all Christmas moments meld.

    Jude Johnstone gathers extraordinary string players who weave a garland of sound and sentiment that fills the little wooden chapel with the exquisite richness of the season. Augmented by the vocals of Jude and daughter Ra Duncan hearts are lifted and spirits are thrilled. In the glow of the candles it is easy to forget whether it is the 19th, 20th or 21st Century.  

     Bruce Black's stories of his Grandmother and his emotional telling of the 'Twas The Night Before Christmas evoke memories that trigger time machines in the listener's hearts.
     The highlight for Lana and me is the beautiful poignancy of Judith Larmore's meditation decorated with her vivid remembrance of moments from Christmas season's past. Her words are emotional poetry as she transported us to snowy Indiana winters and drew from those days a story about kindness. Her Indiana roots, the fact her small town was my Mother's home and her lovely way of painting word pictures again found the way to moisten my eyes and lift my heart with a true Advent moment.
     Jude prepared a medley of Sting arrangements and tunes interpreted by the master string players, harpist and vocals of mom and daughter. A muted trumpet played on this set and I wish I could hear it all again!
     I'd like the world to hear, and see and feel this Christmas magic that happens beneath Pines, tucked between the Santa Lucia Mountains and the Pacific.  Our Christmas gift has come early, again.

BEFORE THE ELF ON THE SHELF

     I read Leanne Italie's Associated Press report with a chuckle.  She recounts how some young parents wrestle with keeping the Elf on the Shelf phenomenon working in their homes.  A few years ago an enterprising woman self published the Elf on the Shelf guide complete with an elf that "moves around the house" keeping an eye on little junior or sissy, helping them to be good little boys and girls. It seems remembering the elf on the shelf practices can add stress to the season.  Well,...

     Way back now.  Long before this product came on the market, our daughters Kristin and Katherine had their own elf experience.  It seems that each Christmas season a new  Santa figure would mysteriously show up, some place near their rooms.  Furthermore, a little closer to Christmas Eve they would find elfin tinsel or an elf figure in their respective rooms.  And then on Christmas morning they would discover that the "right jolly old elf" himself had somehow lost a piece of his fur trimming someplace around the tree or fireplace. There was a year as well, when old Santa left a jingle bell for each of them.  As there is an 11 year different between them, this ritual played for good number of years.  Never any stress though.  But you know, since the girls have grown, the elves have not been around with a new Santa, nor has he lost any fur.  I guess, given the number of Santas we collected, that is just fine.  Storage space issues in a retired boomers home you know! 

    See you down the trail.  

WHAT DO YOU CALL COURAGE?

A LOSS OF HEROES

Photo courtesy of AP/The Arizona Republic-Photographer David Kadlubowski

   With heavy hearts, our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the 19 firefighters who died this weekend in Arizona.  It is the most tragic loss of life in battling wild fires in 80 years.

    I have a couple of friends in Cambria who were firefighters.  It takes something special to do that work. 19 brave souls leave behind grieving family, friends and those they sought to protect. More about them in a moment.

REEL THOUGHTS

KON TIKI

    A lot of guys of my generation had their imaginations stirred by the extraordinary adventure of Thor Heyerdahl on the raft Kon Tiki.  In 1947 he led an expedition 5,000 miles across the Pacific on a raft.  I read the book, watched his academy award winning film and have never forgotten the thrills I sensed.  Now the story is told again, on the big screen and is a superb adventure in a well made film.

     Heyerdahl, like Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay who conquered Mt Everest first, were driven to prove something about the capability of individuals and the power of a vision that challenges conventional wisdom.  To paraphrase something, giant strides for men, even larger possibilities for humankind. 

    There was a time when we celebrated men and women of courage, made them media celebrities and role models. As an increasingly older old boy, I think we should start lifting up medical researchers, test pilots, philanthropists, missionaries and those who challenge the boundaries of knowledge. We can and should divert the spot light away from idols, pop stars, reality exhibitionists, modern celebrities and millionaire athletes.  

    No one paid Heyerdahl, or Hillary or Chuck Yeager, or Jonas Salk millions to put it all on the line.

    And those 19 fire fighters? They were there to protect, save and to do true heroism. I think we are a better society when we recognize our debt to real heroes and when we celebrate true courage.

    See you down the trail.  

OLD WAYS WERE BETTER & OBAMA IN TROUBLE AND SO ARE WE

ON THE ROPES

     The snarks, pundits and even credible analysts say Washington has turned on President Obama. The IRS targeting of political groups and the Justice Department intrusion on journalism has motivated not only the obstructionist Republican conservatives, but what is left of the traditional GOP, Democrats and the press corp. That's most of the players in DC.

      I have noted here previously the Obama administration record on Freedom of Information matters is troubling. Now the move on the AP's phone records puts him in a league with George W. Bush and adds truth to the cartoon characterizations of him being the new Tricky Dick Nixon.

     Frequent readers know I am a staunch supporter of the First Amendment.  The continual intrusions into our freedoms, born by the Patriot Act and the so called war on terror are part of what is truly a criminalizing of dissent. This administration now aids and abets this assault on freedom.

     As an investigative journalist I know how difficult it is to get people to talk, especially about government and most specifically about government wrong doing.  The Obama Justice Department's sweep of AP phone records will add to the chill.  Which is exactly what they want and which is absolutely dangerous for this democratic republic.

THE OLD WAYS MAY HAVE BEEN BETTER

    I was lucky to hear Dr. Kat Anderson, UC Davis and author of Tending the Wild thanks to a presentation sponsored by Green Space The Cambria Land Trust.

      A premise she advocates is that we are hunter/gatherers in our DNA.  She's spent years studying native California tribes and devouring anthropological research, notes and data. Dr. Anderson says that when Europeans entered the west they saw what they thought was wilderness, but was, in fact, land that had been tended and managed. In this area of the Central Coast of California the maintenance was done by Salinan Indians. 

      Dr Anderson suggests we'd be better off if we practiced what she calls ISM-Indiginous Stewardship Methods.
      -natural recycling
      -lowering  plant competition
      -reducing insects
      -reducing diseases
      -eliminating detrius 
      -keeping bush down
      -better water management
 Most of you probably never associate those practices with your image of Indians. But in fact the coastal Salinans practiced those and more to enhance food production. Knocking and pruning trees increased nut production, burning grass lands, beating grasses to gain seeds and tilling wisely were standard practices that improved yield and kept nature in better shape.
      Dr. Anderson would like to see areas set aside to practice the old methods, to mange the wild, to make it healthier.  The natives knew a lot more about caring for their home, than the arriving European based culture. It is never too late to learn.
     

SHORE FLORA

   See you down the trail.

HOW MUCH? FOR WHAT? & HANGING WITH HARD HEADS

IS THIS NAIVE?

   $350 million is serious money, even by government standards.  The AP reports at least that much has been dumped into political ads on California ballot propositions alone. 

     A couple of examples- AP says Molly Munger has spent $44.1 million in support of a prop to fund education and early childhood programs.  The California Teachers Association has dropped $31.4 supporting or opposing two props.

     $350 million to create ads that get junked, or that fly by on screens already jammed with political spots! 

     Instead couldn't that money be applied to programs, initiatives, foundations and the like that actually work to achieve the objectives of the propositions?  Munger's $44 million could go a long way to establishing early childhood programs.

    Simplistic? Common sense? Perhaps. But why not try it?

JUST IN CASE YOU MISSED THIS

     A volunteer for P E T A, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has asked Irvine California to put up this sign where about 16 hundred pounds of saltwater bass spilled from a truck as they were being hauled to market. 

     I'm an animal lover and supporter of wild life conservation, but...

     I wonder if anyone has explained to volunteer Dina Kourda the fish were on their way to market, not to dance as extras in a movie, but to find their way to dinner plates after a nap on ice.

      She argues the sign would remind drivers that fish value their lives and feel pain. An Irvine spokesman says there will be no fish memorial. 

      Is this an entertaining Republic or not?

HANGING WITH HARD HEADS

Shadow Bath
(from Lana's Feathered Head series)

King of Schnozola
(a garden sculpture by Lana)
See you down the trail.