MAY DAY

REMEMBERING THE MAY POLE

     Our old elementary school sat at the edge of a large and heavily wooded city park, thick with wild flowers.  It was a custom to make a small construction paper basket, take it into the park to fill with wild flowers to take home.  My mother always expressed joy at the crudely made basket and wilting bouquet. I may never have really noticed the flowers, were it not for these annual May Day drills, which also included watching the girls dance around a May Pole while we boys were just waiting to be released to the baseball diamond for our game against the teachers. I was usually more focused on the diamond, or the basketball court than the flowers.  

      My buddy Griff has observed there are too many flower shots on my posts.  Well, I'm making up for all of those kid years of not taking the time to smell the......

      By High School, the old format of 30 days in May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway began on May Day. Since the statute of limitation has run, I can confess there were some May days when we'd show up at home room for the roll call, skip out to the Speedway, and get back in time for journalism class or track team practice, and were hardly missed. 

      Happy May Day and pleasant childhood memories to you.

READY FOR YOUR CLOSE UP?

   See you down the trail.

JUST CAUSE

STANDING UP TO HATRED

    It was a coincidence of human rights and history and it hit me with an emotional wallop.  
    We saw 42, the Jackie Robinson story and the next day saw a well staged production of the classic, Fiddler On The Roof.

    I don't need to dwell on Fiddler as it has passed into the realm of theatre icons.  It's crossing lines of change, challenge, and a running argument with the Divine on matters of fairness and justice, coming less than 24 hours after being pummeled by the brilliant 42, delivered a kind of knock out punch.

    Perhaps I'm just an overly sensitive boomer made a little more so by 4 decades of journalism. I've seen too much human misery delivered by injustice, prejudice, hatred, bigotry, narrow-mindedness, ignorance and mean spiritedness. 42 moves you from rage to tears to heart pumping pride. History has validated that courageous passage of breaking the color barrier in major league baseball, but the hatred and ignorance of those depicted there are alive elsewhere.

     The battle for full human rights is as current as the latest headline. Slavery, integration and women's rights were not only predecessor fights, they are still battles on this planet as now we also fight intolerance against people for how they were born or who they love. The same poisoned evil that would discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, spiritual or faith practice, gender or birthright continues as a tireless enemy of evolution of the human race. It is a hard evil to change and vigilance is important.  
      Seeing two remarkable creative efforts simply reminded me how fortunate we are to have courageous writers, film makers, photographers, artists and activists. 

HEMINGWAY AND THE BROOM
easily amused in California
Oh, that feels good-

and finally, the big yawn and stretch.

    See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER-THE BEST AND THE WAY WE WERE

AS FRESH AS IT GETS

     The spring growing season has been good up here on the Pine ridge.  Our upper raised bed, on the back hill,  has yielded an abundance of great lettuce. 

      We call this upper raised bed "Indiana," because it is flat, tillable and produces well. I know the same can be said for the central valley, but we are paying tribute to some of our great gardens in years past.

FLYING ULTRA FIRST CLASS

   The Weekender Video was spotted by Beverly.  You've got to see this to believe it.

REEL NOTES

    THE COMPANY YOU KEEP

    If you were politically active, motivated or interested during the turbulent 70's, Robert Redford's THE COMPANY YOU KEEP, will register with you and may even ring a few bells.

    A former Weather Underground activist goes off the grid as a reporter pursues a story, the dimension of which he does not understand.  It is a superb reprise of the dilemma, how far do you go to stop a government that is doing wrong? That question ripped the peace movement, mobilized to stop the war in Viet Nam, when more radical elements amped up the fight to include bombings and violence.

    Susan Sarandon's monologue, shortly after she is arrested for an old crime, is a brilliant restatement of just that. You may wonder if much has changed at all?

    A thrilling intrigue, the film is smart, some of the dialogue plays back like history and is star laden. Robert Redford acts and directs. Great performance from Shia LaBeouf and superb smaller role performances from Chris Cooper, Terrence Howard, Stanley Tucci, Richard Jenkins, Sam Elliot, Julie Christie, Nick Nolte, Brendan Gleeson and Sarandon. 

    I took a personal interest in the side bar story of the role of the reporter. Back in the day I was assigned to cover the anti war movement which included New Mobe, Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee, SDS, Draft Resistance, the Black Panthers and more. Some of the questions and emotions Redford surfaces are flashbacks for some of us, and just old history to younger viewers.
    It came as an odd reminder that bombings in that era were done by Americans angry at the Viet Nam war. Deadly, disruptive and dangerous though they were, they seemed less sinister than those by modern terrorists. But America in the 60's and 70's was a vastly different place than America today. Redford draws that in a stoic way. It's a film that will make you think.

    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.

THE WEEKENDER-IT FEELS BETTER

OK TO RELAX

   You're not alone if the events of the week left you wanting to curl up like this.

   Many questions to be answered, and lots of healing to be done, but this nation breaths easier now. Boston especially can relax.

So this weekend, this just feels right.

Even if you've seen an earlier version, The Weekender
prescribes this tonic, this weekend, for sure.

RELAX

See you down the trail.

THE WAY TO FIGHT BACK

THE COUNTER PUNCH

     Bostonians, as New Yorkers before them, will no doubt evince the right American response to the cowardly act of terror, denying victory to those who would seek gain.

     As the courageous Brits demonstrated during the blitz of World War II when nightly bombs killed thousands, life must go on as normal. Refusing to cede liberty or freedom is the democratic response of defiance.

      A premeditated violence against civilians by clandestine means is the tool of those we loosely call terrorists, either foreign or domestic.  I have written and argued these acts are a continuum of guerrilla warfare.  Though Mao and Che are the best known practitioners of our age, guerrilla warfare's great proponent was Sun Tzu, in the Art of War.

     An objective of the tactics of guerrilla war, and I include terrorist bombing, is to create a crisis in the population. What the warrior or terrorist hopes for is a forced over- reaction, a compromising of the feeling of security, a lack of trust in the capability of the government. In short a paranoia and fear.

     As nightly bombs fell on London, the English went on with their lives, even conducting theatre, dinners and social life, albeit with blackouts and air raid shelters.  New Yorkers responded to both World Trade Center bombings with getting on with life, even while mourning.  The Bostonians I know are tough and I trust their getting even includes not budging an inch on life as normal.

     There will be a natural call by some to fight back with measures that further erode individual liberties by surveillance, control, intrusion and other "security measures."  We need to be extraordinarily careful to examine any such idea with a cool eye and diligent scrutiny.    I am one who believes the Patriot Act response to 9/11 went too far.  I understand that it has given intelligence, security and law enforcement a greater tool set.  I have friends and contacts in that community and I know the challenge of the work they face and their need to gather and analyze, but it is still a delicate balance.  Each time we cede a bit of freedom, as an aftermath to an attack, we give ground, a small victory, to those who attacked us.

      I trust that Boston's famed "in your face and up yours" toughness will lead and guide how we counter punch.

      By the way, I have given away many copies of the Art of War. I always had a copy on my desk. It was surprising and even amusing the conversations that would ensue.

      Link here for an interactive map of the London Blitz

THE PRIZE AND THE PURSUIT

    Our raised bed lettuce crop has been especially bountiful this spring.

    So, naturally, the ridge line marauders have been lustful.

   The fence has kept them out and assigned to working the 

  ample  open acreage.  Still they edge near the tomato 

  shelter and a lower raised bed out side the defended perimeter.

   Despite the rain deficit, the slopes remain green with plenty of "deer food."  On the higher slopes directly opposite, cattle are being well grazed.

   See you down the trail. 

KNIGHTHOOD FOR A LION-EVEN ON THIS DAY OF THE MARATHON BOMBING

A GOOD MAN IN A TOUGH WORLD

   It was great to read here that Senator Richard Lugar is to be knighted by the Queen, the high honor that Britain can bestow on an American.
     As a member of the Senate, Lugar distinguished himself as one of best in the chamber's history.  A post, written last year, on Lugar's departure from the Senate, remains one of this blogger's most read and forwarded entries. 
      It appears fate may have captured Lugar in a sad irony.  The day we read of the honor is the day that will be remembered for the bombing of the Boston Marathon. Lugar's announcement as a Presidential Candidate on April 19, 1995 was the day of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed.  The launch of his campaign for the 1996 nomination was in essence stunted by the overshadowing event.  
      Lugar could have been a great President. A brilliant and scholarly man and a former Naval Intelligence officer, Lugar represents the kind of tough intellect that could have exercised the power of the Oval Office in an historic way. Wise in the ways of the Senate, respected in the world as a strategic and even visionary thinker, he had the verve of a pragmatic mind that could have paid huge dividends to the Republic as its Chief Executive.
     Though only British subjects are referred to as "Sir," the knighthood of Richard Lugar will, I hope, permit an occasional, if even lighthearted reference, to Sir Richard. 
Last year I called him a Lion of the Senate. Now we know him as a Knight.  
      Still there is that irony, which were it not for the obvious tragedy of the coincidence would make it a perfect kind of Kurt Vonnegut fiction device-Vonnegut being a graduate of the same high school and Indianapolis neighborhood. Both men reached summits of achievement.  

THE CALM OF THE SHORE

Even more precious on a day like this

    See you down the trail.