Going Non Viral-Notes and Post Cards From Exile

   Note to the world. I donned latex gloves, a mask, the kind I use when using the weed cutter, a ball cap, Raybans and drove down the coast to Giovanni's fish market, doing my duty but hoping I wouldn't be mistaken as a robber and shot, thus taxing the very medical system we are trying to flatten the curve for. 

   Note to the source of all creation: Maybe viruses should be more like epiphytes. Spanish Moss won't kill its host, it just sort of borrows space, water, air and light. I mean, what's the point of killing that giving you a free ride?

      Note to self: The walks and hikes have taken on additional amperage. Yes, they are healthy and good for the immune system, but without my coffee deck pals my thoughts are focused, pensive. These moments help me know each day is indeed a gift.

   Note to the inner investigative reporter: are these guys practicing safe social distancing? 

     Note to grand daughter Addie and grand son Henry-this is an example of pretty good social distancing. And kids, as for this time of Covid-19, I wish I could say it is abnormal, but in your young lives, you know no differently, this is your normal. But I hope for only a short while.

   Note to daughters: I know you are worried, about the kids and about your mom and dad, about what this means and the future. 

    Remember this, your grandparents were kids during the Spanish Influenza pandemic. They lived through the Depression and WWII. Your mom and dad lived through the polio epidemic, the Kennedy assassination, the civil rights struggle and the Viet Nam war era, 1968, and we all made it through the post 9/11 shell shock and the recession/depression of 2008. We can be resilient. 

    Note to the news networks: The stooge in the White House is using you, as well as abusing you. He can longer preen and pucker in front of his adoring, so now this orange moth drawn to the bright light, is using the daily coronavirus briefing to suck in the attention he exists for. Stop covering the dunderhead live. 

    He lies, he exaggerates, he is mistaken, he is nasty, bellicose, is giving the market the heebie jeebies, making it tough on the experts, and is ludicrous, ugly and sounds like winey 14 year old girl. But most importantly he is dangerous.

     Record the briefing, wait for his own experts to debunk, then report the fact checked info first, then you can deconstruct what the imbecile said and did. 

     

   Note to the medical community: You are our heroes and these flowers are for you, and those who simply need a lift.
   My daughter is a nurse and she is a true hero to the new mothers and their babies who are being birthed in this age of the virus. She is a hero to her dad, who knows she would rather shelter at home with her husband and their two year old, but she goes to work, which she says these days is like going to war. 

   Note to Congress: People first. There have been all too few times in American history when the people have been helped first after economic distress. 
   Forget the Cruise lines-they are foreign registered to avoid paying US taxes. Airlines and banks and overpaid CEO's and corporate bonuses, can figure it out on their own. The banks have been notorious cheaters.  

      Note to voters: Exercise your franchise. It is time to sanitize, swab and heal the federal government. The White House needs to be pressure cleaned. The House and the Senate need to rid themselves of the fascists, thieves, and enablers who have allowed an unfit, unqualified would be dictator to do his best to bring this nation to ruin. Senate: He was impeached, you could have convicted, you cowards.     
    This virus would have come anyway, but his incompetence has endangered us all. He ignored warnings. He fired experts who could have mounted an early defense. 
     His behavior has killed people.
    If you could even contemplate a vote for Trump and the likes of Moscow Mitch, insider traders Burr, Loeffler, and the trump nazi Republicans now, you are one distrubed or ignorant person.

    Note to those of you who are ill, including some regular correspondents of Light/Breezes: We are sorry, we hope and pray for the best outcome, for healing and renewed health.
     To all who share our concerns: do what you can to help, to stay healthy. Try to be an agent of calm, of service. Check in with people. 

   DEDICATED TO THE FOOL IN CHIEF 

this is an arum lily, a black lily and sometimes mistakenly called a voodoo lily
if ever anyone needed social distance, it is the fathead schlemiel to him this is dedicated!

    Let's get through this and then get rid of the Trump virus.

    See you down the trail. 

MATTERS OF CONTROL

     Lana's knee replacement surgery meant I spent a few days at the hospital, a rich tableau for an old reporter and watcher of people.
     One thing I am sure of is that nurses run things. Doctors matter of course and so do the administrators, but the nurses are the heart and soul and a good portion of the brains. It's similar to the army, where Sergeants run things. Nurses and sergeants know things based on practical experience on top of their considerable training. If you want to know something, ask a nurse. If nurses offer advice, take it.
     I'm biased because my youngest daughter Katherine is a nurse and so are several of our good friends.
     Maybe this nation would be a lot better off, if nurses were running the show.

there's a cure for that

        branding and castration in Templeton California

        I take it as my patriotic duty to rail about a couple of items and offer up a solution as pictured above.

         A military parade? Just one more warning sign on the growing checklist this guy is separated from reality,  normalcy, decency and intelligence and that he's acting so like a banana republic dictator he represents a danger to our democratic republic. He's got no politics or policy that we could fight about it, it's just his ego insanity, arrogance and lack of knowledge.

         Scores of experienced men and women warned us in the campaign, he's unfit, unqualified and lacks the intelligence to do the job. He won't even read the daily presidential briefs, he spends hours doing his "hair," comes to work late, leaves early and cannot be trusted.

         Yea, I know I'm sick and tired of it too. But we cannot for moment let this tyrant go unchecked or unchallenged so some times we have beat a dead horse. 

        There is the vexing matter of those who continue to support him, and the republicans who refuse to rebuff him. I submit they will be remembered by history as fools and a cancer on the great American experiment. 

         Wouldn't you love to see this bloated over the hill playboy and scammer meet justice-Batman or Avengers style? Or from a cowboy like those pictured above.

an example of the decline

          It was an item many would have missed. The Sinclair Broadcast group, the nation's largest owner of TV stations, is fighting for deregulation so they can amass more stations. That alone is a topic for discussion, but the point today is Sinclair asked executives, including news executives and local news directors to contribute to the legal fund.

         They are nuts! They are turning their back on 50 years of journalistic cannons. All major news organizations, ABC, NBC, CBS, FoxNews, and CNN forbid journalists from contributing to candidates, parties or political organizations. Frankly, as a journalist, you wouldn't want to. It helps eliminate conflict of interest or the perception of a bias.

        "I've never seen anything like this," says Professor Lewis Friedland of the University of Wisconsin and a former TV producer, "it's blatantly unethical."

        Sinclair's senior vice president of strategy and policy said there was nothing wrong with the request since it did not go to reporters, anchors or other newsroom employees. Rebecca Hanson said the news directors "were solicited as a result of being part of our managerial level, not because of their role in editorial." Ms Hanson, you cannot have it both ways.

        I was a news director at the flagship station of a TV chain and a member of the management, but also responsible for day to day news operations and content on three stations. Journalists and news people always put priority on content. Hanson's comment and lack of understanding of the ethical violation is so typical of profit driven corporate management where the only thing that matters is the bottom line. And it is not unlike the logic of those who can support donald trump. Oh, by the way, Sinclair mandated that local stations run pro trump commentaries, right wing harangues and pro trump news stories. Mandated that! They are further right than Fox News and they plan to challenge Fox by purchasing new stations, but first they must challenge the Federal Government. 

        I would not, nor could I have, worked for Sinclair. They are a bane on real journalism, but this is the age of trump, where someones opinion carries as much weight as facts, science and truth. It's an age where money and lies persuade.

       There are days when I wonder if traditional American values or principles of fairness, honesty, experience and the value of intelligence and history can survive an age of Facebook, social media, news by flavor, right wing news bias, low information citizens, big money and swindlers like trump and Putin. Maybe not, but not without a fight and a full defense of the constitution and bill of rights. 

        The staff person who was tasked with explaining to the president what the 10 amendments that are bill of rights were says he got to the fourth, trump rolled his eyes, used his finger to blubber his lips and that was it. It is a good bet donald trump has never read the constitution, doesn't know what the separation of powers or checks and balances are -but he's pretty sure his button is the largest.  

        

        See you down the trail.

        

PRECIOUS AND COURAGEOUS

THE PRECIOUS

   Whenever in high country, as here in the Sierra Nevada,
I am forever like a kid on Christmas morning when I spot water.

   A pristine alpine lake or meadow is magical.

   Streams or babbling brooks evoke an undeniable joy.

   I tried not to intrude on the exquisite solitude of this fly fisherman working his line above 10 thousand feet on the Morgan Pass in the Muir Wilderness. But I wondered what was it about this particular spot?

   Why not in that pool to the north?  Up here you read nature in your own way.

    In a season of drought the gentle flow of a stream is a lift for the heart.

   Even the smallest trickle or eddy is a giggle and a wonder.

    These next three frames, taken on the Tioga Pass in Yosemite, display a victorious spirit of life. Notice the dome in the lower left-center just above the distant lake.

   In this zoom you can see trees, growing out of granite.

   As I continued the zoom I grew increasingly amazed at how determined and persistent life can be. Roots that penetrate rock, on a mountain dome, at high altitude in  an inhospitable environment. 

PERSISTENT COURAGE

   Our younger daughter Katherine, a second year nursing student tells us the medical community is trying to raise consciousness about precautions and care in the wake of the Ebola outbreak. Doctors, nurses, staff are better aware and more prepared since news of its jump to the US. There are posters and information packets on hazardous attire, protocol, what to look for, questions to ask and procedures. All of this in the last few weeks.

     Doesn't it seem we are always caught unprepared, for almost any eventuality?  The US was without a Navy, Army and Air Force capable of waging WWII, but responded in short order as American industry and awareness focused on the need and waged a transformation that should still be a matter of pride. Life is messier, more complicated, too political and cranky now, but some have jumped into the breach in this medical crisis and legions more now realize that on any given day, they too could be thrust into a medical outbreak with frightening potential.

     As a father I am of course hopeful my daughter is spared such a reality, though she trains for a profession that is long on courage, mercy and selflessness. We should have the utmost admiration for those doctors, nurses, technicians and logicians who are on the front line.  And a dose of encouragement and/or prayer for lab scientists and researchers who seek medicines and treatments.

     Like that tree up on the dome in the Sierra, persistence, determination and a striving for life can be powerful.

     See you down the trail.