SHE SAYS-HE SAYS and A Few Diversions

   In this post, we'll open and close here-something good, something very good and nice. We need diversions, don't we?

  The other stories in the Kavanaugh confirmation coming up, but first a good bye------

one tough old bird

     Our little village tucked between the Santa Lucia Mountains and the Pacific lost a big force this weekend, Reggie Perkins at 92. Some of us lost a buddy.

    Here's an sketch of how tough Reg was. A few years ago he had a heart attack on Christmas Eve. He was back on the tennis court New Year's Day.  

     A WWII vet, he had been a battalion chief on the LA Fire Department. He helped build the Cambria Fire Department and served on the community governing board, the CCSD.

      He and his late wife founded a volunteer group that assists people in need or needing medical equipment, or trips to the doctor. They started the annual Easter Egg hunt. He was active in the American Legion and had been a long time treasure of the Odd Fellows benevolence lodge.

     On the tennis court Reg, who played up to only a few months ago despite knees that hurt him every minute, had one of the toughest drop shots in tennis. He chuckled many times as I ran like a banshee to get to the ball, only to watch his patented spin make me look like a fool. I was not alone.

     Reg was one of the founders of the "prayer meeting" that I was invited into about 12 years ago. A group of old boys meeting on someone's porch or deck at precisely 4:00 to have coffee and a cigar, if you were so inclined. Way back the group met on Wednesdays and Sundays. In the last few years the gatherings were on Sunday and wine had been added as well. As a new retiree in the village the tips, insights and history I heard from Reg, John Angel and the late Phil Allen, plus the jokes, made a newbie feel right at home. 
      Reg listened more than he talked, but when he said something, it stuck. These were truly old boys still full of life. 

     It was only a couple of weeks ago Reg was on my deck reminding me I needed to add cushions to my hard wood furniture. We all thought Reg would go on forever. He filled his 92 years and left us all with a target to shoot for. He will be missed.

     What you see in the frame above is the largest lemon I've seen. It was grown locally.  How big is it?

an appropriate pause

     In a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, the new accusations have to be taken seriously enough to be investigated and either tossed aside or validated. 

      What's the rush? Mitch McConnell considered a year a valid wait. The Kentucky wheeler dealer denied America's first African American President a chance to get even a hearing on his nominee. So, what's the rush now? Does someone sense American voters are fed up with Republican rule and acquiescence to the malignant narcissist and Russian stooge?

      More important than Republicans protecting their advantage is the fact the American public deserves resolution as do Judge Kavanaugh and Professor Ford. And the same goes for the more recent accusers and the Judge. 

       But there is an ugly strain in all of this. Some, on both sides of the political aisle, wonder if accusations this old have any bearing on the decision. The default position for many is, what really matters is if the judge is telling the truth. Well of course that matters. 

      But I am one who thinks the behavior all those years ago matter as well, though it is complicated. It is possible that people can change. I think it is entirely possible that youthful and foolish behavior can be left behind. And we know  drinking can contribute to poor judgement and horrendous behavior--but....wrong is wrong, and violence is violence. Also, a patriarchal mind set is wrong and too often has been enabling. 

       The idea that "boys will be boys" is wrong headed and dangerous. That attitude permeates American culture and it was certainly in play at the time that Judge Kavanaugh was a beer drinking, hell raising, privileged preppie and Yalie. It was wrong and if we are ever to get fair and healthy in relationships between men and women we need to recognize it. It shouldn't have been condoned then. It cannot be condoned now. Should it bar him from the court? If it was something he did repeatedly, but now lies about, then yes.

       If Kavanaugh did not in fact act like a boorish, privileged drunk punk then it goes beyond what and how he described himself at the time. Still I'm sure boys who behaved badly have grown to be responsible adults and that may in fact be the case for the judge, unless he is lying now, embarrassed about his previous alleged behavior or too drunk to remember.
       He is where few people go, nominated to the Supreme Court and we have a right to know. Our right to know supersedes his privacy, her privacy, since she had made the accusation and certainly supersedes any thing Mitch McConnell wants.

      The last thing on this is fairness-fairness in this case and the historic issue of fairness in how women have been second class, abused and treated. I read this contemporary culture as being invested by women and men who say

time's up. We want to play by new rules.  We want to play by fair rules.

      I think there is enough accrued injustice and resultant anger that the old white men on the Judiciary Committee better realize what year it is and what fair now means. If Republicans behave as they did in 1991, they belong on the ash bin.

and now to the diversions

there are some things you just can't explain

no matter where you look

relax

at this age, and in this time, diversions are healthy

cheers!

      See you down the trail.   

CHANGE, SHIFT AND PORTENT-A NATIVE DRAMA and THROWBACK CORRESPONDENT

TRANSFORMATIONS

   Change can be proscribed even expected or not! Sometimes nothing is ever the same.

DROUGHT

    A telling face of the California drought is Lake Isabella in the southern Sierra Nevada. The 11 thousand acre lake sits where the north and south forks of the 

 Kern River meet in Kern County outside Bakersfield.  The reservoir can hold 586 thousand acre feet of water. It is a fraction of that.

   The recreational activity has been devastated. 

  However fishermen find an advantage in their search, as do the

   campers who have the diminished lake to themselves. Those small white spots are RV's

   From the high Sierra, through the central valley and to the coast, Californians need rain and live with the consequence.

DUST UP IN PARADISE

  The amount of water is a concern, but something this seaside mountain village suffers no shortage is opinion.

   We're electing Community Service District board members. The Cambria Community Service District (CCSD) is "government" in this unincorporated village. Roads, public space, water and sewage are under CCSD care. Nominally the board oversees the function of the professional staff who in turn manage utilities and crews.

    Three years of drought now fuel the latest chapter in a decades long battle over water sources, village size and the protection of nature including the rare Monterey Pine forest. The election has prompted a water paranoia but that is not without some value. California's Governor Brown asked everyone to reduce water use by 20%. Cambrians are as ingenious and caring as they are opinionated. The village has reduced use by as much as 30-40%. 

     This new "water sensitivity" reveals how gallons can be saved or recycled. But while they do it, Cambrians grumble. Catching sink or bathwater and carrying buckets to irrigate landscaping or flush toilets is not what people want to do. Nor has this village of gardeners been anything but distressed by the toll of drought and restriction on their hobbies and passion.  

     Enter the "blue shirts" who have upped the ante in the old fight. They remind the village of the 1990's twist in the tale. Cambrians for Water (C4 H20) rally to support two incumbent members of the board by remembering  how a previous board had hooked up funding and the permitting for a desalination operation until a recall election tossed the board members and reversed the desal plans. This new group, an amalgam of residents, lot owners and business people have taken to wearing blue shirts bearing C4 H20. They've begun speaking at CSD meetings, writing letters to the editor, campaigning for the incumbents and working to marginalize and even vilify the opposition. The blue shirts say the challengers are only a vocal minority of "no growthers" or environmentalists who are, in part at least, responsible for the lack of water.

    The challengers and their supporters are an amalgam of another sort. They are activists who have challenged rate hikes, residents upset by the manner in which the CCSD board has functioned, people who believe the advent of a desalination plant would be a green light to development, environmentalists who seek to protect the forest and/or natural habitat, and citizens who put a greater value on the needs of residents than the needs of tourists and the businesses that do the commerce with them.

     The lines are not always clearly drawn and there are those with even conflicting values. No one doubts the need for water and most admit to being worried about it. Saying you are "for" water implies others are not, which is a bit disingenuous. It appears to me the difference is over the means by which to get and/or protect the resource and the length and cost to which to go to do so. But it is a season when people are not inclined to search for agreements, so they've divided and have aligned with candidates who share their view or something close to it. It is the practice of electoral politics, though in a village. And it is a village where everyone is rather convinced of the rightness of their own view.

     People here are, or have been, decision makers, leaders,   successful in careers. Cambrians are literate, studied, individualists, achievers, committed, active, eccentric and thus produce a rich field of opinions. The official population is around 6,000, but fewer year round residents. It is very much like a big high school.

     The incumbents have approved the building and financing of an emergency water system (EWS) utilizing a desalination of brackish water and treated waste water that has been pumped back into the ground and reprocessed. The blue shirts like this and want to return the two to the board of five. Cost of the EWS is estimated between $9-$13 million.

     The challengers question the escalating estimated costs and the delays in the operation date. They criticize the inconsistency of CCSD actions. (The board began by saying they wanted to allow more water hook ups so there could  be more home building, then observed a water emergency and imposed restrictions on use while they allowed a 24/7 pumping from a community well for use on gardens, some of that water was even commercialized, then it declared emergency levels in the wells and stopped the give-away and warned the community could run out of water.) One of the challengers questions the, wisdom, business practices and transparency of decisions. Another says current residents should come first, he opposes much growth and wants to see the approved forest management plan funded and put into effect.

     In a broader context it is also a battle between those who favor growth and building and those who oppose changes that will require more water or impact on the forest and nature. There are some who want to maintain the village pretty much as it is. Others want to sell or develop lots and build up the population. The state has said growth will be limited until a new water source is in place. Is the emergency treatment plant just for droughts and crisis or will it morph into a permanent operation? At what cost? That too is a dividing line. Is the water for residents, or tourists or how do you achieve a balance that is fair and equitable? That is another demarcation. Should the board use emergency water system funds to pay for a hired mouth piece? There's a lot of choosing sides in a village where interaction cuts across social groups, clubs, tennis, lawn-bowling and pickle ball courts, service organizations, coffee shops, supermarket, farmers market, the board walk, hiking trails, dog park, beach and the drug store.

      And there are all of those opinions and expertise. It's been a little loud. It's been a little touchy and we are finally near the home stretch for the November election, ironically a couple of days after the new brackish water desal emergency system is supposed to start delivering water.

     My bias is toward sustainability and affordability.  Several years ago my daughter Katherine launched my conversion to belief in sustainability. It is the only practical way forward. This village needs to determine what sustainability means in this area given to historic droughts. I advocate for a better system of rainwater diversion and capture, implementation of home gray-water conversion systems, long term large scale storage. We should explore systems of fog harvesting as we are blessed with an abundance of marine fog. Those would help, but they alone are not solutions. Figuring it out will take the hard work of determining what vision of Cambria we pursue. How large is big enough, how much water will that require, what will it cost, how do we pay to manage the forest, how important is the forest, what makes Cambria unique, how do we achieve a balance between all of the opinions? And I wonder, is anybody listening in such a process or are we be too busy opining?
      Ebola, ISIL, mid-term elections, the world series, and all of the other news of the day are being trumped here. I guess we have chosen to prioritize that which is closest to us, opinion first and foremost.

THROWBACK

NICARAGUA

   Earlier I posted on Gary Webb's reports on the CIA involvement in importing crack cocaine to fund the Contra War as depicted in the current film, Kill the Messenger. 

   December 1987, Leon Nicaragua the largest anti government rally and demonstration since the Sandinistas took control. This was during the height of the Contra war.
That is not an ammo belt over my shoulder, rather a battery belt that fed a camera and recorder.

    Getting home for Christmas.  Arrival at Andrews Air Force Base after flying with a US Congressional Delegation that had been in Nicaragua trying to get peace talks on track.

      See you down the trail.

     

SERVING TRUTH-TOPPING MORRO ROCK-EATING IN A BARN

WISDOM FROM A YOUNG MAN

   "The highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist is to remain true to himself…In serving his vision of the truth, the artist best serves his nation."

                     John Kennedy October 25, 1963

MORRO BAY TOPPING

    Morro Rock is perpetually fascinating in an infinite variety of light or cloud.

     It is one of "seven sisters-" tectonic/volcanic mounts that ridge the central coast from Morro Bay to south of San Luis Obispo.

   On our first trip to this area in 1969 we stopped to pick up fish and oysters on the docks of the fishing port next to what we called "the big rock."

   The cars and people in the foreground give you a perspective to its size.

BLUE DUTY

BARN DINNER

     In coaxing brother John and I into the world of good manners Mom would offer "Mind your table manners. You're not eating in a barn" a variation of "Close the door, you weren't born in a barn" which made sense as she was a farm girl in her youth.

     Mom would get a delight in this. I relied on those manners, including which fork and knife for what course, recently in a barn!

   Hope you can read the menu, because the Halter Ranch Wine Club Ancestor Dinner was first class.

   The lemon-pine nut pot de creme' desert, that I failed to photograph, was served with vin de paille.  The frame below is vin de paille in the making. Vin de paille, or straw wine, is similar to ice wine.  The grapes are permitted to dry for an extended time, building up the sugar content.  

    Another Paso Robles wine maker uses a syrah grape, dried in the vineyard.  La Vigne's Amerone is a superb wine too. The Paso appellation is rich with creativity and great wine.

   Lest those of you in other climes come to think that Epicurean delights are all Cambrians pursue, here's an update.

    Sunday morning a group presented a personal account of a recent back packing adventure across an 11 thousand foot passage on the John Muir trail in the high Sierra.

     The trek was not without incident, some got lost which raised the very real thoughts of life's fragility. It all ended well and each of the team presented personal insights, observations and reflections. It was a meaningful and enlightening time.

                              HOME TOWN POLITICS

                                           

   A standing room only crowd filled the Unitarian Universalist Community meeting room to see the six candidates for the Community Service District board of directors election. Two of the incumbents are up reelection and face 4 challengers.

  The CCSD board serves as the government in this village where everyone has an at least one opinion and where everyone is correct and knows the absolute right way things should be. Just ask anyone!

   Water is a big issue in year three of a drought. So too is growth in this village, the last population of significance on the Pacific Coast Highway between here and Carmel. It's good of these neighbors-everyone is a neighbor in a village of this size-to put themselves out there.

    Stay tuned. In the meantime my favorite Cambria heroes are the artists in this enclave of originality.

   See you down the trail.

GOD, RAPE & POLITICS

WAY OVER HIS HEAD

     Mitt Romney's campaign is trying to put distance between them and Republican Senate Candidate Richard Mourdock.  The Indiana right-winger, who sadly beat Senator Richard Lugar in the May primary has created a firestorm by something he said in a debate last night.

     The issue was abortion.  Mourdock said 

“Life is that gift from God. I think that even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something God intended to happen"

    Think and say what you wish about abortion, as inappropriate as that discussion may be, however when one begins to assume to know the mind of, or speak of Divine intention, you are way out of line. As eminent theologian Walter Brueggemann said

"When you begin to think you know the mind of God, you are on a slippery slope."

       Mourdock, like fellow right wing Republican Todd Aiken of Missouri who spoke of "legitimate rape," represent a frightening trend of right wing ideologues who frankly are not very intelligent. In their mind they may be moralists and they may even believe they are being religiously faithful with their views, but they remind me of zealots from history who would trample liberty, freedom and our constitutional way by their self righteous ignorance.  There is nothing about rape that is ever right.

      That "slippery slope" Brueggemann spoke of leads, by extension, to things like sharia law, fascism and totaltarian regimes.

      One would hope there is enough common sense to see these right wing "true believers" for the fringe extremists they are.  Our democratic republic demands debate and the full expression of all view points, even if noisy and rancorous, but it also demands respect for constitutional liberties.  

      American politics is full of a history of buffoons, blow hards, crooks and zealots, but also the leveling influence of common sense, decency, philosophy and a sense of history. There is a tipping point though.  The more Mourdocks or Aikens who think God is on their side, the more we could trample our way to our own version of sharia law. Americans need to pay attention.

       The Mourdock incident is even more tragic when seen in the light that this clown got more votes than a truly rational and intelligent public servant, Richard Lugar.  By the way, the post A Lion Goes Down is one of this blogs most read with a readership around the world. I hope voters will understand that yes their vote is sacred and they may cast it as they wish, but understand one must apply a sense of totality and thoughtfulness. Your individual vote is part of a path toward a workable and better future. Otherwise you might just as well throw rocks.

HOMETOWN DEMOCRACY

    Our little village, tucked between the Pacific and the Santa Lucia mountains is caught up in election fervor.  Most of the candidates turned out at a local brew house last night to mix and mingle.  It was a snap shot of local democracy at work as the rooms buzzed with earnest conversation and questions and answers.  In lieu of a town board or mayor we have the CCSD-Cambria Community Services District, so our issues really are local.

     Not as an endorsement, but simply from an aesthic point of view, Amanda's yard signs win.

     Over the years I've made hundreds of speeches or presentation about journalism and reporting.  One of the truest things I said was a line from Will Rogers

      I don't make jokes.  I just watch the government and report the facts."

     Can I get an Amen?!

     See you down the trail.