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
