POWER AGAINST THE CURRENT

   San Simeon Cove, CA

   Sometimes we move against great force. It must be part of our nature. Cause, purpose, even folly motivate or drive us.

      Lampton Cliff Cambria CA

   Some have reached a kind of TED talk time of life, a point where you actually know something and have something to offer but the expiration date on who cares is speeding and the audience is onto something new. It seems wisdom and reflection count for less.

the tech addiction

    The intuitive part of the human machine hums a need to integrate, calibrate, make sense instead of a dash, made madly into the next disruption. But that very phone you may be reading this on is rewiring your brain.
     CBS's 60 Minutes explored phone addiction and reports the phone is a "drug of choice" for many. Tristan Harris a former product manager at Google laid out the premise in a report the tech industry found fascinating but, like the tobacco industry with medical reports, has done nothing correctively.
      A fellow who studied neuroscience, Ramsay Brown, a co founder of Dopamine Labs explained how they write code for apps and programs that manipulate your brain to respond in specific ways. More than just a tool, our screens are programming our behavior. 

disruption politics

      The president's short attention span and his penchant for changing the subject is a disturbing though accurate symbol/poster of what can happen, indeed what is happening to the American mind.

      Absorption into celebrity, low information, high emotion, no knowledge or appreciation of history, the inability to reason with complexity combine with quick, mindless responses. That not only nails the lout who sits in the White House but the direction we seem headed as we move more deeply into our technological metamorphosis. 

      Unless it is big, flashy, is "trending" or has an alarm tone or buzz, we are missing things.

china?

     Are you among the surprised and curious about the China Summit. It all seemed to disappear when the order to launch a missile strike against Syria came from firebase Maralago. Breaking news and distraction over substance and detail.

      The administration has no consistent foreign policy and is preciously short on expertise. That's why experienced hands were surprised by a summit so early in what has been a chaotic administration. Another evidence of the change the subject/short attention span syndrome of the orange throne. 

      The Bottom Line? The Chinese President Xi Jinping was offended by the break in protocol when the Syrian missile launch intruded on the summit. The Chinese are big on a protocol, but it's possible no one on the Trump team knew that. (There was no imperative on the time of the missile response, just an impulsive act.)

      In another failure there was no deal on North Korea. But the biggest news is that talk tough trumpster got no where on the trade issue or the currency manipulation. In fact insiders say he will break his oft stated campaign promise to label China a currency manipulator. Real art of the deal success eh? More show and no substance. More lies.

paying attention

       As our intrepid big surf swimmers were watching the wall of water they missed the gull who buzzed them. While we get exorcised about a Jenner in a Pepsi commercial, or missiles to Syria-that achieved nothing btw-we are missing more important questions. 

       The lout on the orange throne who sadly has the title president called David Farenthold a nasty guy. Farenthold is the Washington Post reporter who investigated the fraud of the Trump philanthropy learning that the "millions" trump said he gave to veterans organization was yet another lie. As he dug deeper into the trump-dumpster he also uncovered proof of the lout's sexual predatory behavior. Farenthold won the 2017 Pulitzer for his investigation of Trump's financial lies.

      against the current

     So we've come to a time when those who care need to understand the social currents that are slowly cheapening our values and institutions. AND we need to be mindful of the wonderful technology that can also be abused and even abuse us. Talking, writing, posting in ways to inform. Doing what we can to keep the focus on the aberrant and disgusting nature of the current regime. We do our selves and our children a favor by resisting and not permitting this regime to adopt a place of normalcy. He is a minority president and a man of terrible character and he does not represent the majority nor our better American values.While it may be tedious to say and read this repeatedly, failure to do  so contributes to a "normalizing" and eventually an acceptance of style, substance and technique. We can't go there.

    See you down the trail.

WE CAN'T CHANGE THE PAST---STILL CONTROVERSIAL

GETTING PERSPECTIVE

Courtesy of Indiana Historical Society and Indiana University

     To quote Ed Murrow "this just might do nobody any good." To paraphrase his 1958 speech to the Radio TV News Directors Association (RTNDA), at the end of this a few people may misunderstand what I'm saying, but here I go.

      We need to find a balance point where those who wish to address and treat sins of the past do not also destroy history or use deconstructionism without restraint and/or the balance of intellectual buffers.

      A case in point-The Thomas Hart Benton mural.

Controversial when it was created in the 1930's it is said to make people uncomfortable now. Why?  The depiction of the KKK. An honest appraisal of Indiana history cannot ignore the Klan. 
       If you are disturbed by the Klan portrayal consider proportion and perspective. The hooded terrorists are counter weighted by a white nurse attending to an African American child. More visual counter punch is the left anchor of the Benton panel composed of the press, an editor/writer and reporter that challenged and broke the Klan's extraordinary control of Indiana politics and the 1920's Republican party.  

      The media's battle with the Klan is iconic. Pulitzer awards have been given. I was awarded a National Emmy for my investigative documentary of the modern Klan in America. I've been an enemy of discrimination and prejudice, including racism, sexism, ageism and other manifestations of bias. My body of work is deep in reporting on these issues.

      We should find a way to be aware of sensitivities without trying to edit the past. The mural is not, as some have said, a glorification of the Klan, rather it is a depiction of fact. Reality, regardless of pain or absurdity cannot or should not be retrospectively edited or worse, deleted. Knowledge dictates that we recognize historic truths.

     History appreciates with understanding and by sifting nuance and seeing things in context through an honest assessment.  Later we may come to advanced understandings, gain insight, change our minds, learn, discover information and evolve, but the ground from which we and knowledge derive is historic fact. What we see and call history must be understood not only in the context of our time-but in the framework of what people knew and did in their own time. 

     As a high school kid I spent time in the city room of the Indianapolis Times. A giant replica of the front page announcing the Times winning a Pulitzer for their investigation of the Klan adorned a wall. It made a huge impression. When I took the stage in New York to accept the national Emmy for my own investigation I stepped into a slip stream of iconic history. The Benton art tells part of that story. 
    Though you may think the behavior is offensive, the painting itself of klansmen and the burning cross should not be regarded as offensive in intent  but rather as part of that stream of history. In the painting the Klan is seen as small, yet the nurse doing good service and the press loom more significant and impressive.  And if you look carefully you will see the klansmen are dominated and overridden by circus performers. There was a time when most circus acts wintered in Indiana. I think Benton was expressing a bit of poetic contempt and mockery by that juxtaposition.  

     No the Benton mural is not offensive, and those who think it is are simply wrong. It is history and should be taught and respected as such. And as I study it again I am reminded there must always have been those who like to ignore or even forget as well as those who may be rightfully upset with our past, who would like to expunge it. We can not help but analyze by virtue of what we know, but we must keep in mind that we are only as effective as we are fully and historically informed. 
       We cannot change the past.

PROJECTS
a time of season

   A bath modernization is underway and so….

  the master bedroom is a staging area-complete with new appointments

  while the deck is a work and storage area.

  For a curious guy, watching the craftsmen has been a fascination.

  Lana's recent kitchen project-a less enduring output.

  While I'm going to war with gophers.  Is it ok to call them bastards?!

  Despite the noise of tile saws or hammering, or my grumbling about gophers, Hemingway's project is to emulate Garfield.

   I think he's got it all figured out.

   See you down the trail.