BUT THE MEMORIES SURVIVE AND A REQUIEM FOR OLD TREES

THEY CAN'T TEAR DOWN THE MEMORIES

Photo courtesy and copyright Rob Goebel-The Indianapolis Star

   It was jarring to see what is left of the administration building of the old Weir Cook, later Indianapolis International Airport, a place I spent a lot of time as a reporter. 

    It was there I met Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek,  had my first meeting with Fred Friendly of CBS News/Ed Murrow fame, caught my first glimpse of Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and many other luminaries.

    The conference room was an easy spot for news crews to assemble and catch the famous he or she before they headed off. It was also the place I watched as directors began the process of dreaming the new ultra modern airport that doomed that very building.  

     The old giving way to the new, it is a cadence of life. 

        

REQUIEM

    Wilderness areas of the central California Coast are rich with ancient trees.

      Some are massive. As they come to the end of their sentry era, they sill afford visual power.

   As our pines reach the end, they go out with a last hurrah, creating a bonanza of cones.

    And in life or demise some of these giants play to the imagination.

  I wonder; as the old ad building held memories, do these old giants hold memories of the Salinan, Chinese or ancient explorers of this coast? 

  See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER-FAR OUT-FREAK OUT & OCEAN PEAKS

THE PLANET'S BEST TRAVELER
or
A COSMIC ROLL ON

    This is a snap shot of our first child to leave home, really leave home.  Voyager 1, launched 36 years ago and powered by plutonium has traveled 11 billion miles and has now entered interstellar space.  

    Voyager has traveled further into the cosmos than any object from our little blue planet.  Voyager carries with it a gold plated 1970's era phonograph record with Chuck Berry, Beethoven, Bach, Mozart and Louis Armstrong. That is an invitation for some kind of galactic jam session.  Incredible as it may be, Voyager continues to send radio data back to mother earth, over a 17 hour delay. Happy trails.

SHADES OF ALAN FUNT

your weekender video

What would you have done?
OCEAN PEAKS

  Enjoy your weekend.  See you down the trail.

9/11-A GOOD RESPONSE

NATIONAL DAY OF SERVICE

     30 Million Americans are expected to provide some form of service this week, many of them today, as we observe another anniversary of 9/11.

     In our coastal village on the Pacific, far away from New York City, it is a blood drive.  Volunteering to do something good, helpful and constructive has, since 2009, been the official way to recall that September in 2001.

     I was in both New York, near the Trade Center and Washington, near the Pentagon on September 10th.  Because of a missed meeting we had debated staying over until the 11th.  I am forever grateful we decided to return to Indianapolis.  

WHERE WERE YOU?

See you down the trail.

THE SYRIAN SOLUTION AND THE HALL

HANDLING THE SYRIAN MATTER

     There is a time tested way to respond to Syria's unforgivable and barbaric use of sarin gas that avoids the pitfalls and absurdity of American political theater.

     Assad, his high command and his field officers who planned, approved, executed and evaluated the use of the gas should be indicted and charged as international war criminals. This would signify to the world  they acted outside the bounds of the civilized world and international law.

     There is an International Criminal Court and there is certainly a history of pursuing, trying and convicting war criminals.  The Nuremberg Trial and the successful prosecution of Nazis at the end of World War II is the most notable but there have been similar prosecutions since.

    It would require time to arrest and try those responsible but in the interim they will be known and vilified and will live with both ignominy and the lurking fear of when the hand of justice will reach them.  In that sense they will be pariahs in the civilized world and marked with their alleged crimes, not forgotten and pursued until prosecuted.
    Nations do not commit war crimes, people do. A lesson of  the Nuremberg prosecutions is that ultimately individuals are held accountable for their actions, even if they are ordered to do so under a military command. This places the responsibility squarely where it belongs, the conscience and judgement of individual human beings.

     To pursue Assad and his minions through a court of law allows the world to revile them and expresses contempt while bringing justice. And importantly it frees the US, or any nation, the need to unilaterally engage in questionable, risky and even philosophically controversial actions. 

     Two quick points here; the US likes the sovereignty of being able to act unilaterally, though we do not favor such an option to any other nation. Maybe you can understand that bias, but it is a flawed philosophical/moral concept. The other point-you cannot engage in a limited action, bombing or other wise, without changing the dynamic of the conflict. Any tinkering in the complexity of a civil war threatens to draw us in more deeply. Look at history, it shouts loudly about this.  

      Furthermore I do not trust the wisdom of this President nor his advisers, nor do I have faith in the judgement and requisite reasoning of our current legislative branch of government. The senior chamber possesses a modicum of wisdom. The House however might be the assemblage of the least qualified, least intelligent and most dysfunctional buffoons, idiots, grafters, poltroons and clowns in the history of Congress!
      Finally following this course of action is the use of diplomacy and reason above the use of lethal force and power. That should always be our first and best option.  

THE HALL

See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER-PRETTY AS....

WHAT IS NOT TO LIKE?

   The Italian street painters are back in San Luis Obispo. Pros, amateurs, hobbyists and students fill the Mission Plaza with energy and art under the brilliant, if not hot, California sun. This year we take a peek at works in progress.

    We arrived in San Luis Obispo late one Sunday evening, flying back from a trip, but made a midnight swing through the Plaza to behold the art that disappears rapidly.  

YOUR TICKET TO THE SOUTH OF FRANCE

   During a particular six year period I went to Cannes France twice a year to attend the Television and Documentary Market and festival.  As you might expect I loved the time in Provence and this little video prompted memories.  It's a unique look at Cannes.  Enjoy.

See you down the trail.

STRANGE ECHOES, FLASH BACKS AND COASTAL SCENES

STRANGE ECHOES

   I wonder if you were struck by the time shifted irony of John Kerry appearing before the Senate Foreign relations committee, again.  

    A generation ago Viet Nam veteran Kerry appeared to speak against military action.  Now in a kind of through the looking glass coincidence Secretary of State Kerry appears to rally for a military action.

     The circumstances are not at all the same, but here we go watching as Hawks and Doves carve out their positions on a military strike against Syria.

     Noted here previously is my criticism of President Obama's handling of the terrible situation by "drawing a line," and thus forcing his hand and limiting his options. It was a bad move.  That is not to say the world should not be outraged by Assad's use of gas on his own citizens.  And it is the world that should be outraged.

     Sadly the UN can not and is incapable of responding as the civilized world's rebuke of that barbarism. So now Americans will once again watch the flurry of position taking and speechifying as our pitiful excuse for a legislative branch stumbles to approve or reject the President's call for a military action.  Maybe the old saw is right---everything is a repeat of what's gone before, but with new people doing it.

COASTAL SCENES

   See you down the trail.

SEEKING MEANING AND PURPOSE

IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER

THE BUTLER-AS HISTORY

    As we walked to our car, our eyes still moist and emotions thoroughly wrung out, Lana said "That is the way history should be taught.  Everyone should see it."

    The "it" is THE BUTLER, the Lee Daniels film that should win Forest Whitaker another Oscar nomination, if not an award. But this is so much more important than a masterful job of acting, script writing, directing and production.  The film is a searing course in American civil rights history. It's the truth and therefore the record is not good, but is one we need to own, address and learn from.  

    I was a young reporter in the time of the "civil rights movement" and came on the scene only a year after the seminal events of '63.  I remember seeing NAACP protesters being beaten as they were forcibly removed from a restaurant bar where their crime was to enter and wait to be served. It was of my first big stories. I covered marches, protests and other demonstrations that focused attention on discrimination and other manifestations of racism. 
    I worry that my daughters and their generation did not see or experience that time of American life and thus cannot fully embrace the precarious nature of our freedoms. THE BUTLER can emblazon the struggle, courage and history of that time in the heart and mind of those who see it.

     We must not forget the fire hoses, dogs, marches, beatings, bombings and those who stood up to them and who endured. Nor must we forget how long it was before the government finally did what it should have long before.  THE BUTLER is an extraordinary treatment of that arc of American history and is told with a moving personal view by an extraordinary cast.

WHEN IT WAS CELEBRATED

     You felt lucky if your picnic was in one of the shelter houses, those open sided rooms on cement pads under a roof.  The parks were full.  All of the picnic tables taken early, leaving late comers to find patches of green, preferably under a tree where they could encamp with blankets, lawn chairs and card tables.  That was back in the day, back when Labor Day was the day everyone went to a reunion, family picnic or party to celebrate a day off, the benefit of gainful employment. 

      In the industrial mid west those tables full of fried chicken, pies, potato salad kept in bowls or trays of ice, water melon, several kinds of baked beans or bean salad, chips and cheese puffs, cakes and more pies and cookies and jello creations and more were usually faced after people had been to a Labor Day parade.  

    Some of the really big bashes were staged by unions, at parks with pools, or beaches and featured family games-egg tosses, three legged races, water balloon catch, soft ball. The parents sat around munching, drinking lemonade, ice tea, soda pop or beer fished from ice water. The kids snacked and ran and played and drank more soda and ate more sweets than was probably good for us.  

     It was the end of summer, but the vibe was good.  Dad and in some homes dad and mom had jobs, we had cars that we kept clean, television sets, maybe a couple of phones in the house, and some of the people even had lake cottages.  Milk men delivered product to little metal boxes on the front or side stoop. You could even stop a bread truck in your neighborhood and buy a loaf from the driver. Policemen were your friends and near the school or boys club there was a blue uniformed policeman made from aluminum or tin with a big smile, a hand out warning to you to watch for kids- and he was somehow attached to either a sign or huge bottle of Coke. Innocent days. Good days. Days of full employment.

      The auto industry drove the mid-west cities and towns. If the factories didn't make the cars, they made the parts that made the cars.  Men who had come home from the war were making lives for their families.  You watched your pennies, kids had to do "chores" to earn an allowance, coupons were still important but there was a sense of hope.The century was moving toward progress. Labor Day counted for something. The middle class thrived. People counted on a future for themselves and their kids. A job meant steady pay and benefits.

      But that was then.  Wonder how many of those old parks were used today, how many have been kept up, or how many of them are safe?  Wonder how many folks celebrate their job, or how many companies celebrate their workers? Wonder how many people count on the future?

THEY HAD BETTER DAYS    

   See you down the trail.