SHADES OF THE OLD WEST

ZEBRA SHOOTING SPURS ANGER

CBS Photo-Zebras on Hearst Ranch

   The shooting of three stray Hearst Ranch Zebras by a neighboring rancher has provoked a cloud of bitterness that has settled over the cattle country of the Santa Lucia range.

     I've been fascinated by the story, first that it even happened.  Now the reaction stirs images of an old cowboy movie where contesting ranchers square off in a saloon. Today most of the jawboning is done by blog posts.  Here's a sampling from the Pelican Network.

"

"...after shooting the animals, he took them to a 

taxidermist to have their hides tanned..."

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"If an elephant showed up, they'd kill it

and hang the head over their mantle."

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"Unless it has a $ branded on it, it is worthless in

their microscopic view.  These fools won't be satisfied until

every animal that can't be eaten, skinned and laid on their

floors as rugs or their heads cut off and hung on their walls

is destroyed.  Little, little men in every sense of the word."

------------------------------------------------- I grew up on a ranch in Eastern Washington.  No excuses for this behavior.  His livestock being at risk is just an excuse to shoot rare, valuable animals.  His livestock were never in any serious danger.  

--------------------------------------------------Isn't there anything we or the owner of the zebras can do other than rant privately in this forum about the shooter? I'd like to see him at least publicly embarrassed or chastised for what he did.

Publicly.
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The story has also drawn the interest of the LA Times.

Southern California views the Zebra killing controversy

     The ranchers I've met tend to be direct and plain spoken. Those are admirable qualities and they have been in evidence on this matter.  Stay tuned. The sun has not set on this feud.

NOTES FROM THE WILD WEST

     An odd and sad story exclusive to this area of the west.

Wild Zebras threaten a ranch and are shot. Click here.

TAKING NOTICE & TAKING CARE

NO ECONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE?

     I've been a fan of Wendell Berry since reading Jayber Crow.  He writes with a special appreciation for the land and nature and the power it exerts on human life.  A passage from his The News from the Land article in the current THE PROGRESSIVE is stunning.  Berry is writing from his "obligation as an elder" and making note of things that have disappeared in his Kentucky; grasses, birds, willow trees, black rattle snakes, elms, even some worms and the list grows.

     He's made it a point to examine why things have disappeared and the affect it has, subtle and profound.  He writes of another important disappearance, the dung beetle or "tumblebug."

       "Why did they disappear?  Though I had a sort of theory, I wanted scientific authority, and so I presented my question to an entomologist in the College of Agriculture at the University of Kentucky.  I have been pondering his answer for the last thirty or so years:

        "I don't know anything about them.  But I can tell you this-they have no economic significance."

        Berry warns how "submissive science can be to economic significance."

     Being aware is a first process of responding.  In journalism we used to talk of "arming the public with knowledge."  In knowing we can begin to take care, if we choose to.

IS BIG MEDIA FADING AND ARE WE GETTING OUR INFORMATION FROM LESSER LIGHTS?

WELL, IT DEPENDS...

     Smaller news organizations, personal journalism, like that of Wendell Berry can and does have an impact.  But big or small, all media is transforming.  Some great insight came  via the Internet, from a dear friend, a Wesleyan graduate, who shared this information.

Click here for Alberto Ibarguen on Journalism and New Media

HAVE YOU HAD YOUR NAP YET?

     The late Dick Yoakum, an NBC newsman and later an IU professor told his retirement party that he had read taking naps was good for you.  He said being a skeptical journalist he thought that idea should be tested.  So he told his friends and colleagues not to call him between 1:00 and 3:00 PM, because he would be "in the laboratory, doing research."

AND IT LOOKS LIKE SOMEONE MAY BE READY FOR THEIR NAP

 Naps have their own piece of this riddle of economic significance.  In fact a recent piece published by AARP reports that naps increase efficiency and productivity.

So take a nap, you don't want to end up like the Kentucky dung beetle.

AFTERMATH AND A DIVERSION

HARD QUESTIONS, THEN WE GET SUBLIME

SEEKING ORDER

TRYING TO FIND BALANCE

     The aftermath of the violence in Arizona forces us to ask difficult questions, where the lines of right and wrong are not easily drawn.  There is no clean edge, though the issues are sharp.

      FOR EXAMPLE:

      People question why a young man with a history of his sort is permitted to buy a gun. One would reason that a person in the grips of mental illness should not have a weapon.  But what of stigmatizing those who suffer, or who have suffered, a mental disease?  If  a patient, past or present, is automatically denied the right, does that not establish a second class status?  Is that not anathema to our sense of liberty and freedom?  How will those who are adamant about the right to bear arms respond to limiting such freedom?

Does a person who has been treated for depression, or bi-polar disorder or schizophrenia deserve a lesser sense of citizenship?  Should they be considered in a class with criminals?

     Hard questions, and exceedingly sensitive now.

     More important than the posing of these questions is how will we respond?

There are easy victims of our anger- those to whom we might ascribe a debt of guilt.  Easy to get gun laws, the hyperbolic gas merchants, those who inflame emotion for pay or political gain, those who ignore what is happening to a nation where polarization, short attention spans, an even shorter sense of history are rampant, political mechanics who would rather use a crisis than to honestly feel a sense of pain or suffering or try to plumb the depths of despair. Add to that list all who have taken the gift of a democratic republic for granted.

     Making our form of self governance work requires that we pay attention, be aware of the fault lines that can shake stability and be willing to work for the greater common good.  This last elements forces us into an act of civility, being willing to listen to even those with whom we disagree and being willing to win only while also letting the other side win.  Leaving something on the table is not a bad thing.

      A winner take all attitude works in in sport, but in living in modern America, that mindset will undermine our bedrock values.  Everyone has a seat at the table, everyone has a voice, everyone deserves respect as long as they act respectfully. 

     It is a hard trail, it requires vigilance, it forces us to surmount obstacles, it demands intelligence in larger quantity, and may ask of us to leave emotion behind.  Facing hard questions is for the brave, but it can keep us free.

NOW HERE IS HAPPY, MAYBE EVEN BLISS

    The happy man is Michael T. John Griffin-veteran broadcaster, personality and racing team player.  Grif defines mellow. He is a world class "super person."  He is also a great friend, as the Monarch butterfly on his shoulder will attest.

     Most of the 17 to 50 thousand Monarchs who populate the famed Pismo Beach Grove each year are content to stay in the trees and draw the attention of long lenses and telescopes.

     But of all of the thousands of beautiful winged creatures, one independent thinker chose to leave the trees and instead of fluttering like his or her cousins in the California sunshine, he or she decided to land on the shoulder of one of the crowd in the grove.

Left to his or her own design, it chose probably the nicest guy in the grove, and made a friend and created an event that became a mini paparazzi drama.  Let's hear it for independence and good choice.  And maybe you saw this one coming BUTTERFLIES ARE FREE!

      

    ONE MORE DROP OF NICENESS BEFORE WE PART....

    Thanks to our music director Moto Groove, here is something sweet and light--

click here for a departure to something nice-

COLTS BLUE

OUTSIDE LOOKING IN

     Several times today, I caught myself playing "what if" about the Colts loss to the Jets.

Plays, calls, that late time out and etc.  I've buoyed my disappointment, and that of a few other fans as we commiserated, by invoking the old adage, "this was not the year."  No indeed.  

     Early and frequent injuries to key players, too much talent dispatched to IR, probably sealed our fate, long before some of us recognized the painful eventuality that waited down the road.  But that is being a fan isn't it?  Hoping, sometimes beyond reason.  And there is Peyton, perhaps the most brilliant offensive tactician ever.  We always counted on him to make it all right before the the clock ran out. To my thinking, this may have been one of his greatest years.  The statistics may not read that way, but that he was able to guide an injured, hobbled team, take as many hits as he took and work with new talent, to the point of making us think, maybe, is an incredible effort.
     I was in Indianapolis when the Colts brought professional football to a city without an NFL history, and when many in the league snickered and said it would never work. Winning a Super Bowl, just getting there to the big game, amassing an impressive record came after years of building support, so that even in a year when it seemed obvious that greatness was beyond the grasp, we still hoped. 
     It is not a great issue of the day, but the invocation of hope is never bad, even when it comes from a game and even when we resort to another cliche--"there is always next year."   

TRAGEDY IN ARIZONA

     Early impressions lead you to think the young man responsible for the violence is unbalanced.  Sick or angry, what he did was evil.  It violated life, liberty and the sanctity of social discourse.
     But there are others who would slay ideologies, beliefs and attitudes counter to their own.  They have filled the air and public space with so much poison it produces anger, fear and hatred which then leads to evil intent.
     This is a time of unreason.  There is so little study and deliberation.  Instead people propound and condemn.  Minds are closed.  We are weakening our precious human capacity to reason.
      There are forces at work that charge the atmosphere and others that fuel the anger. Politicians, bankers, investment hustlers-those of the Bonus Class and special privilege.  Politics is a cheap sensational game of attack and advantage put before the republic's interest.  The media aids and abets by loving to writhe about in controversy, and by covering politics like it was a horse race.  Campaign strategies, polls, advertising, and ephemera dominate.  I don't think Teddy White intended for all campaign coverage to become running drafts of his Making of the President style.  We need more accountants and money trackers.  Politics and government ,sadly, is in the last analysis about money.
     It is hard to tell anymore where news and journalism begin and end and where opinion, attitude and political favoritism take up.  That we even consider networks to be either conservative or liberal is stupid.  But we seem to be in love with stupid.
     When manipulative windbags use their radio or TV time or print or blog space to spread untruths,  and innuendo or when they feed fear, or distort, they tease themselves and their followers into a frenzy that wants to act out and seek a vestment of revenge. 
    Failure to confront the ugly shrill that has become a political mantra could pose grave risks to this nation, now in decline.  The last century evokes specter warnings.  Hate, propaganda and political might, in alliance, conjured modernity's greatest evil.
     
     

CALIFORNIA HERE WE COME

CELEBRATING 4 YEARS

     Four years ago we crossed the Santa Lucia Range on the Green Valley Road and caught a glimpse of the wide Pacific expanding on the horizon line, opening the west to our new life.  We had taken Greeley's advice and come west, far west.  Our home is on highest ridge between the Pacific Coast Highway and the ocean.  Its called Top of the World.  The mountains, the sea, Monterey Pine forest, our village and its denizens have conspired to make this  home.

     

FROM WHENCE....

     I Left being a News Director.  My former chair is at the end of the table.  Twice a day I'd meet with my staff.  In the morning some of the cadre stood along the walls as well as on the floor.  Overall some 100 people including artists, directors, engineers and technical staff, reporters, producers, photographers, assignment staff, managers, meteorologists and sports reporters worked to air 6 hours of regularly scheduled news.  Breaking news, special coverage, live programs and the Internet added more to the load.  

     The people were very good and did very well. There were rating victories, awards and accolades.  

      The office on the left up on the second deck was where I managed.  6 windows over looking the heart of the operation, and 6 on Meridian Street, the primary north south spoke in a L'Enfant city plan, gave the office bookends of energy and motion. 

     News battles are spirited and the process is a bit like roller skating on marbles.  Things are always moving, changing and you have deadlines to hit.  It seems now what I did most was make decisions.  I told Lana I would give it two years and then we'd head west.  It was three years before we made that trip over the mountains.

SMILES AND NOT LOOKING BACK

     We came to a village where we were unknown, missing friends to be sure, but we smiled as we crossed the summit and started toward our ridge.  This was the sunset that awaited. All of them have been wonderful, even those in fog or marine bank.

     Four years ago today, two boomers began a long delayed adventure of living in California.  It remains a new and wonderful path.  Years before, back when people talked about the color of their parachute, a man some of you know as the Catalyst launched his own journey west.  We never forgot.

      As she pondered that evening, on the launch of the new journey, Lana could not begin to anticipate the creative exuberance she was to know.  

      As we begin our fifth year, our toast is one of gratitude.