TRUTH IS? NEWS AND REALITY ARE?

 EPHEMERAL

     It's hard work trying to surface truth, facts and reality. It's tougher when spin, malice and political motivation are part of the landscape. The years I spent as an investigative reporter were brutal. There was never a way to turn it off.
     Now a couple of new films reprise two of the most celebrated and controversial investigations of recent. I plan to see both, but I'm familiar with the reality behind the cinema.
     Spotlight, which details the ordeal of the Boston Globe in breaking the Priest sexual abuse and cover up and Truth, the troubled CBS News investigation of George W. Bush's special treatment as a slacker and no show in his air national guard duty, will give viewers a glimpse into the imperfect world of ferreting truth, or at least getting enough information to make the truth self evident.
     When media seems as devoted to Face book, Twitter and popular culture as it is to hard news, significant stories or investigations, it may be helpful these films open the door on what real journalism involves.
     Dan Rather wrote this weekend he's not happy that a low point in his career is the subject of a film, played by no less than Robert Redford. Though the report was flawed by fraudulent documents, the Truth remained the same. It took a toll on Rather. The members of the Boston Globe team also endured emotional trauma, for simply trying to tell the truth.
     Truth and honest facts can be dangerous. We live in an age when billions are spent to avert our gaze from the truth. Those who seek the facts and try to root out truth, remain my heroes.

MORE TRUTH

     Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican Presidential Candidate is in the pantheon of American Conservatives. There was a time when it was inconceivable you could get more far right than Goldwater. Those who knew or covered Goldwater may have questioned his policies, but everyone respected him for saying it like it was.
     The following graphic is making its way around Twitter.

    Well, on the other hand there have been countless Christians, even church leaders, who have been open minded and facile. Reinhold Niebuhr, Andrew Young, William Hudnut, John Danforth, Benjamin Hooks, Robert Drinan, (President) James Garfield, John Bull, John Witherspoon, Dean Johnson, Walter Mueller were all Christrian pastors or leaders and were capable of compromise and negotiation. Goldwater was right about the Christian Evangelical right.  It is worrisome to traditional, moderate, centrist or even "old fashioned conservative" Republicans. Does the word zealot fit?

LIBERTY AND JUSTICE

  There is a variation in the personality of this character amidst all of the Scarecrows on display this month all over Cambria.
    This may scare in a different way.

      Lana created a take on the Statue of Liberty and if you were able to look closely you would see it is made from pages of a Bible. For the record, it was an old Bible, from childhood and the binding was ruined. Here it is recycled as a statement that some Christian quarters are more open minded and loving than those Mr. Goldwater worried about.

      In the eye of the beholder, eh?

 PREENING

 Hemingway being fastidious.

Count the toes.  

Six on each paw

    See you down the trail  

SAYING IT-IMPRINTING IT AND A BETTER WAY

NIGGERS, FLAGS AND RACISTS

    The words are still shocking, even more so from an 11 year old.

    "They ought to kill all the niggers or send them back to the slave houses. The stupid old niggers are the problem."

     The petulant girl was the daughter of the kleagle of a particularly active and virulent cell of the ku klux klan. Her words were pivotal in a documentary demonstrating how racism is passed through generations. 

      I covered the klan and extremist groups in the mid 60's and years later wrote and produced KLAN to portray how and why racism and racial hatred is so deeply woven into the American fabric. David Brinkley, one of the national Emmy judges, along with Senator Barry Goldwater, called KLAN "One of the most important hours in television." A national Emmy is an honor but little good that program or many other fine journalistic efforts have done to sear the disease of racism from society.

       A friend and Presbyterian pastor was active in the struggle that got the confederate flag removed from atop the Dome at the Statehouse in Columbia South Carolina. That it still flies anywhere is symptomatic of the disease. 

      Despite comments about heritage, legacy, history or any honey tongued justification, the flag is all about racism, white supremacy and slavery. Ta-Nehisi Coates in this Atlantic piece presents the very words of the confederacy and their political leaders. They are convicted by their own uttering. 

     The racist front continues in the existent celebration and heritage of the confederacy in the south; streets, highways, schools bearing the name of confederate leaders along with statues, monuments and cultural icons. We can not afford to forget facts and must seek to understand the pathology of the culture, but we should not elevate the symbols and names of those who sought to keep humans enslaved, denied of their rights, liberties and dignity and made war to do so. 

    The flag belongs in an historical museum, as a nazi swastika or heraldry is kept. It is an object of study. It is a token of a shamed and hateful ideology. The flag itself will not spur a supremacist to violence but its very flying near a seat of government is a nod and wink that condones a perpetuation of the hatred. 

    Whether on license plates, belt buckles, t-shirts, bumper stickers, in media or even tattoos, anything that celebrates slavery should be seen for what it is, evil and a discredited idea banished to the ash bin of history.

    Words carry emotional history. We debated and anguished over inclusion of the girl's words. I debated with myself in telling the story in this post. Such is testament to the sensitivity and respect that is due, but "to each his own," unless it inflicts pain, as does the confederate flag.

    A post script: Hoagland Jr. High School in Ft. Wayne was a mix of Black, Hispanic and Caucasians-almost an equal split with fewer Caucasians. Our basketball team was predominately Black with a few Latinos and a couple of us white guys.  In the final moment of a city tourney game our center, Roosevelt (Rosie) Dodds made an incredible hook shot giving us a win. As we triumphantly moved to the locker room several of my team mates deliriously gave Rosie high fives, cheering "way to go Nigguh."  I lined up behind a black mate and when I got to Rosie's locker I gave him a high five and said "way to go Nigguh."  Rosie smiled, picked up his tennis shoe and whacked me on the face. Still smiling, extending his hand to pick me up he said "but you ain't no Nigguh!" Rosie taught me a lesson, vivid today as it was years ago.

     BTW we aired a 10th Anniversary reprise of KLAN.

The sassy and hateful little girl had grown up. She was still at home but had been banished to a trailer on the families property. She apologized to our viewers saying she had changed her mind and learned real history. She was working with "African Americans" and considered one a good friend. 

A FATHER OF PEACE

      The man on the left is Elias Chacour, thrice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. I recalled the week I spent with Father Chacour as I read of recent Druze violence in the middle east.

       Chacour has done what no one else has. He's brought Druze, Muslim, Orthodox, Arab, Palestinian, Jew and Christian together.

  I shot this assemblage of every middle eastern faction imaginable-Israeli government, Palestinian, Druze, Muslim, Arab, Christian, Melkite Catholic, Orthodox. Chacour had convened them to dedicate a new building at his remarkable Peace school in Ibillin in the hills of Galilee.    

  Struggling against unimaginable odds, it seems no one wanted him to succeed, Chacour created a school where Jew, Muslim, Druze, Palestinian and Christian children studied together. I was there as a journalist and was overwhelmed his achievement. I was indelibly impressed by 

by the courage and extraordinary quality of the man. We had hours of conversation driving across Israel, in his garden, at dinners and in his home. We watched him work his efforts at reconciliation. Chacour was born in Galilee and considers himself a Palestinian-Arab-Christian citizen of Israel. He is truly a peace maker, perhaps the hardest job on the planet.

      Role models are important, as are images and symbols.
To what do we owe our attention?

SOMETHING NICE IN PARTING

  With appreciation to my daughter Katherine!

   See you down the trail.

     

BUT THE MEMORIES SURVIVE AND A REQUIEM FOR OLD TREES

THEY CAN'T TEAR DOWN THE MEMORIES

Photo courtesy and copyright Rob Goebel-The Indianapolis Star

   It was jarring to see what is left of the administration building of the old Weir Cook, later Indianapolis International Airport, a place I spent a lot of time as a reporter. 

    It was there I met Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek,  had my first meeting with Fred Friendly of CBS News/Ed Murrow fame, caught my first glimpse of Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and many other luminaries.

    The conference room was an easy spot for news crews to assemble and catch the famous he or she before they headed off. It was also the place I watched as directors began the process of dreaming the new ultra modern airport that doomed that very building.  

     The old giving way to the new, it is a cadence of life. 

        

REQUIEM

    Wilderness areas of the central California Coast are rich with ancient trees.

      Some are massive. As they come to the end of their sentry era, they sill afford visual power.

   As our pines reach the end, they go out with a last hurrah, creating a bonanza of cones.

    And in life or demise some of these giants play to the imagination.

  I wonder; as the old ad building held memories, do these old giants hold memories of the Salinan, Chinese or ancient explorers of this coast? 

  See you down the trail.

THE GREAT ONES

REMEMBERING GREATNESS

     Reading of the election difficulties of two long time US Senators, Richard Lugar of Indiana and Oren Hatch of Utah renewed a nagging thought.  From where are the new "Lions" coming?  Generally, and this is a purely subjective take, the quality of upper chamber, the US Senate, has been in steep decline over the last decade.

       There was a time when men and women of conviction and deep political differences could legislate. There was a time when our Federal legislature was not mired in a morass of gridlock, petty interests, cheap hustles, and political gamesmanship above all else.  

        If you doubt that, then regard those times in our history when we recovered from war, helped Japan and Europe rebuild and re-tool, led the way in manufacturing, education, medical research, science, when the economy grew, and there was a sense of prosperity and hope.  It took an obliging, motivating, visionary Senate and even House.

       Here's a way to spend a few educational moments.

Link to this historical list of members of Senate. 

       Some of the names will recall history lessons. Others will remind you of people of skill. Here's just a few names, from our era, to say nothing of the historic Henry Clays or William Jennings Bryans, etc.

       Everett Dirksen, John Foster Dulles, Margret Chase Smith, Lyndon Johnson, Estes Kefauver, Barry Goldwater,

Mike Mansfield, Stu Symington, Alben Barkley, Clifford Case, Jacob Javits, William Promire, John Tower, Edward Kennedy, Abe Ribicoff, George McGovern, Birch Bayh, Edward Brooke,

Mark Hatfield, Harold Hughes, Robert Dole, Richard Schwieker, Robert Taft, Lowell Weicker, Hubert Humphrey, Sam Nunn, et al.

      These people were not saints, nor necessarily towering luminaries, but they were legislators, capable of working, achieving compromise and serving the interest of the Republic and the Senate.  Do you think some of the newly elected, or those circling to get in are of this calibre?  Perhaps some are unless they come in as "true believers" in an ideology over the common good of all. 

REMEMBERING A JAZZ GREAT

A CAMBRIA LOCAL

FOR JAZZ FANS

   Our unique village said good bye to one of our unique 

citizens, Red Holloway a jazz and blues legend.  Here is a 

five minute video with just a few of the highlights from

what was an extraordinary jazz and blues tribute Sunday

afternoon.  

       I shot this with a IPhone, so you are not going to see

a master production, but it will give you a taste.

      I suggest you click the youtube icon and watch it in a larger format

LOCAL COLOR

     And here in less than 30 seconds is a glimpse of 

the famed Morro Rock-one of the Great Icons of the 

central coast.

See you down the trail.