FORWARD WITH CHALLENGE-BACKWARD WITH WONDER

AT THE EDGE

    One of the great signs in our locker room was the bromide WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, THE TOUGH GET GOING. 

     It's one of those things you never forget and it's advice many seek to follow, especially western citizens living through historic drought. Published reports indicate sections of the central valley, America's key agricultural zone, are sinking two inches a month because water is being pumped from aquifers in such volume. 

     We study maps, satellite images and thermographic interpretations, like reading tea leaves hoping to find something that assures us El Nino will bring rain to parched earth and concerned taxpayers. 

        The Santa Lucia range coastal slopes are hazy. The usually pristine and cobalt blue sky, thickened by wild fires including one in our county. Thousands of firefighters and national guard troops  are at war with burning nature. It's that way in Washington, Oregon and around the globe. 

      The misery is indeed global. Possibly the greatest refugee migration in history continues, while Muslims war with each other. Tom Friedman recently put it in plain terms that I paraphrase-while they fight about to whom did God give the holy land, mother nature is at work.  She doesn't do politics, only physics, biology and chemistry.  Friedman noted it isn't Sunnism, Shiaism, Whabism or fundamentalism that counts. The only ism that matters is environmentalism. Muslim fighting is destroying nature as well as humanity and political regimes are being turned on their ear as people demand electricity and air conditioning. Hot areas are getting hotter.

       China's recent explosion underscores how that giant, and lesser nations are doing their worst to despoil the planet, ruin water and foul the air. 

      Tough going on this blue marble. Business as normal ain't working. Even meddlesome good intentions fall short. Serious science now addresses prospects of an extinction. Don't you think it's time to think as planetary citizens, doing our best to overcome those old and artificial boundaries of nation, sect, tribe and race. Your problem is my problem. Solutions are to be shared. Even the most wealthy and powerful cannot live without clean air, water, food that be can trust and inhabitable space. It is as Fuller said, spaceship earth.  It's the only one we've got.

 THROWING IT BACK-OUT WEST.

   Your blogger and the intrepid Catalyst blogger in 1985 somewhere on a ledge.  30 years ago we'd go the edge in moccasins and sandals and nearly bare legs. 

    And on that Arizona adventure we had more tranquil moments. Left to right, SWMBO, young Kristin, Lana and Bruce, AKA Catalyst.  Long time ago with long time friends.

   Mid 80's first visit to California for Katherine. Something must have clicked. She's now a California RN and still loves the Pacific.

   See you down the trail.

POST BOSTON

POST BOSTON SKETCHES AND THOUGHTS

  --The issue of Miranda Rights is important.  It is one of those lines in the sand.  The ruling must be abided by, even in special circumstances.  Violation of rights for one can be a dangerous slope endangering all of us.
  --The eldest of the bombers grew up in Chechnya and Kyrgyzstan, where violence and bombings were a daily reality. Some of us believe that social reality at specific times in a youth's life are formative and foundational.  Case in point.  Emigres, relatively isolated and estranged and with grudges are "high profile" prone to such acting out.
  --It is worrisome to consider how many Arab youth grow up in similar environments that have a destructive impact on attitude and value formation.
  --In 5 decades of journalism and analysis you develop a "gut" or sense of trend.  It is not hard to see a coming regional battle in the middle east between Sunni and Shia Muslims.  Syria, and the resolution there, could be a huge factor in what could  become a kind of regional conflict between the two.
     Enough of that.  Now a celebration of beauty on this day dedicated to our blue marble world.

 IMAGINATION

IN LIGHT AND DARK

NIGHT LIGHTS

AN EVENING CROWN

     Happy Earth Day.  Now there is a concept huh, a happy earth?

     See you down the trail.

TEAPOT TEMPESTS AND MORE

PROPORTIONALITY

     The best information to date is the Innocence of Muslims  was a badly made and cheap film that attracted only a handful of viewers at a screening in LA.  It could have died there and never been heard of again. But social media changes all the old rules.

      Clips of the film circulated on YouTube and fanned Muslim anger.  Strains of fundamental Islam take little to work them into a frenzy.  Those who hew to a rigid line of never thinking critically about their own faith, or even thinking in an open minded and rational way are quick to foam and be seized by manic anger.  What apparently is a piece of trash with mysterious origin has now become a pivot point of anger, foment and a genuine foreign policy issue.  For all that is good about a wired world and communication power, an incident like this points to its dark side.

       Ignorance is just that, whether in a film, or in a response to it. Ignorance is rampant in the world, and it wears Muslim, Christian and Jewish garb.  A decentralized, non aggregated, free-for-all communication web can simply add fuel to a fire.  It obviously can also set sparks. When so much ignorance plays in the tinderbox, the world is more dangerous.

       This is the kind of world where the US foreign policy and national security apparatus must operate.  It reminds me of muddy and muck filled rivers populated by crocodiles and snakes.  I was glad to have a veteran at the helm.  Hysterics in this climate can be lethal, but they abound.

ROMNEY'S DANGEROUS MISTAKE

     Now before my Republican, conservative or Romney backing readers have apoplexy, this is not about politics.

Indeed even right leaning or right wing commentators as well as old fashioned mainstream Republicans have criticized the Republican candidate for his opportunistic and political attack on the administration.  He was accused of speaking too early, or looking weak among other non presidential qualities.  The Democrats were more pointed, but since this is not about politics, we leave the comment to his own kind.

     From a center court seat and with an historic perspective, his desperation to score political points reflected a lack of judgement, seasoning, sense of depth and class.  At a time of international crisis, the US speaks with one voice. And Romney's sense of timing was bad, at the very least.  

     When Americans and diplomatic personnel are under attack, politics has no place. When those personnel die, any attempt to score political points is not only repugnant and offensive, it is a stupid miscalculation in a grave moment.  It was a cheap, stupid and tactless thing to do.  Romney and his advisers should be ashamed and are rightly being criticized.

     So there you have it.  Stupid X's 3.  Stupid film, stupid fundamental reaction, stupid politics.  What should have been a tempest in a teapot reveals fatal flaws and fault-lines in a dangerous world.

AND NOW SOMETHING DIFFERENT

A Kitten's First Climb

See you down the trail.