THE MAJORITY SPEAKS

     The American majority speaks. Tens of millions of Americans braved all manner of weather to let the world know what it thinks of the change of American government.  Millions more around the world joined voices with the Women's Marches.

   This is not just a story of big cities. Beautiful San Luis Obispo is a city under 50 thousand.

There were many cities drawing more than that SLO's total population, but every voice counts. 7,500 registered for the San Luis Obispo March, crowd estimates put the number at 10,000 people-huge for a city of 46,000.

read the signs

the vocal majority is being heard

    We marched for our daughters and our grand daughter on her first birthday.

   

   On this day the American Majority drowned out the Trump fringe and minority. But the messages heard from LA to Washington, Seattle to Miami were echoed around the world.

Photo from the New York Times

          This kind of "greeting" of a change of American government is without precedent. One presumes those reading these signs include Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. 

       Those old lyrics come to mind-

     Come gather around people

     wherever you roam

     and admit that the waters

     around you have grown

     accept it that soon

     You'll be drenched to the bone

     And if your breath to you is worth saving

     then you better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone

    For the times they are a-changing.

    It appears the majority of Americans will insist on it.

ALL THREE RINGS

ladies and gentlemen

boys and girls of all ages....

Presenting the "golden shovel" at a Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus
Your blogger is in the red hat-details below

     

    The sun was not up yet when my mother woke my brother and me and told us to get dressed because they had a surprise for us. Groggily we obliged and got into the car. After a short drive, dad pulled into a field near a rail road track where a line of train cars had stopped. From a block or two away we could hear and see commotion in the dawning gray light.

     Elephants were being led down a ramp from one of the cars as dozens of people scurried about. In the next hour we watched as poles were set, tents were erected, cages, equipment, rigging, and other paraphernalia were put in place. The circus had come to town. It was in fact the Greatest Show on Earth, as signage on the train, tents and outbuilding indicated.

     It was the early 50's and the beginning of my love affair with the Circus. As lad I saw the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey extravaganza a few times. One year I got to talk with the World's Tallest Man, another time I got spritzed by a clown. I held by breath as the men and women on the flying trapeze flew somersaults above our heads. I worried about the man with the chair in the Lion cage, thought the women on horses or elephants were the essence of beauty, laughed at the antics of the clowns as my head spun trying to take in all three rings full of color, dazzle and spectacle. We did not get our first television for a few years yet. It was a different world.

     Fast forward, decades. As a correspondent for a syndicated television magazine we found ourselves on the train with a Ringling Brothers traveling show. They put us up close to the clown cars. Despite the antics, gags and laughs we still had time to see behind the grease paint and glitz. Circus life was hard, constantly on the go, living either on a train or in a recreational vehicle, caring for the gear, animals, making repairs, putting up or taking down, trapped in a kind of traveling tube, day after day. It was a job, unique, but still work.

member of the Flying Farfans acrobatic team

photo courtesy of Costumdesignplans.com

    Later the Big Top began to give way to arenas and stadiums and week long stays. One year, as I anchored at an NBC affiliate, I made arrangements to take my eldest daughter "back stage" to Clown Alley to be made up in costume so she could march in the Clown Parade.  It was not until we there and ready to be costumed that she told me she was terrified of clowns. She'd never let on, until we were in a chair, ready for the paint. As I recall it was one of the Flying Farfans who offered to sit with Kristin as I joined the parade. I quickly learned my job was to walk behind the elephants and keep the path clean. You might be surprised how active the lower digestive track of an elephant can be in the short circuit around three rings. 

     The picture at the top finds me in the red hat being presented my keepsake Golden Shovel, for services rendered. I still have that shovel and have used it for years. Strong, durable and for the long haul. I am sorry The Greatest Show on Earth itself could not have been more durable, but for almost 150 years it not only offered the adolescent dream of running off with the circus, it presented spectacular, live entertainment without peer. Hollywood, Cirque du Soleil, virtual reality, television, games and big time sports have changed the world, rendering the Greatest Show on Earth a bit of an anachronism, but there is nothing like a 3 Ring Circus.

sunset on dignity

    Without comment on policy or politics, the departure of President Obama comes with a loss of dignity and class.  The Obama family has graced our national stage with a sophistication that we will miss. The administration is the first in modern history without a hint of scandal. They have conducted themselves in an exemplary manner. They did so in the face of rude and racist commentary and a bitter political environment. Remember how tough it was when it began with the pledge by a jack ass that the republican's primary job was to guarantee a failure of the administration? Despite what one may think of his politics, Obama served  as a man of character and gravitas. Get ready for a change.

     Speaking of a circus! It remains hard to believe that a man who began his political rise by accusing President Obama of not being born in the US and who himself is a sexual predator, serial liar, tax cheat and a narcissist could get anyone to vote for him. How people could suspend the truth about the vulgarian to think he is capable of leading this nation is frightening. Well, stand back, the swamp is coming to the White House.  

     See you down the trail.

Finding Focus

     Something is going on, changing deep in the inner universe that is consciousness, mine and perhaps yours too.

      Maybe it is age, or the jarring reality of recent social change. I'm at a bridge where personal interests are being over taken by a concern for those who will live when I no longer do. 

      No, this not that sort of post or motivation. Certainly am not rushing wanting to depart. I'm fortunate to enjoy life and living but some measurements are beginning to change, lengthening and even broadening.

      Climate, resource protection and reclamation, changes in nature, pressure points in the human food chain, ethical treatment of human suffering and misery, political order, anticipating the impact of artificial intelligence, burgeoning medical technology, the wonders of regenerative medicine, evolution of our specie, preserving life in an interdependent eco system, genetic manipulation and more that present us with profound issues and questions. First, are we even mature enough to deal with the consequence. 

       There is a positive charge in engaging in something that will go beyond our own shadows. Strategizing, trying to establish and enable dynamics, systems and adaptations for a future. I am no scientist as my chemistry lab partner Janice Anderson discovered many years ago and as I have been reminded many times when I struggle to read science tracts and research. I am awed by those who advance knowledge and understanding. I appreciate their touching the arc of history and from time to time I have interpreted their efforts for a reading or viewing audience. I am not a man of science, but a man of words.

        Words matter too. They are the glue that gives our purposes structure. Getting older, reflecting on a life in journalism, study of philosophy, spirituality, religion, creeds, social compacts and decades of politics I think I have emerged as a kind of postulant ethicist. No one appointed me. There are few professional ethicists, but it is the "ethics of living" that have begun to calibrate and reboot in my inner mind, making me an unwitting accomplice in this concern about the future. As the latest iteration of human bipeds perhaps we all should consider the ethics of human existence on this verge of something.

         Living in the orbit of Silicon Valley, I am perpetually fascinated at advancements in artificial intelligence, mixed reality, virtual reality, bio medicine, big data and the like. But I have begun to also note that we make jumps and leaps without giving prior thought to what it will mean; i.e. how will this likely change things, or how could this go wrong, could it be weaponized, that sort of thought.

       We make giant leaps at a time when more people think only as deeply as 140 characters, or their Facebook news, when we see increasing evidence of a decline in critical reasoning skills, when history is barely known, when classics are replaced by Marvel, as we seek happiness in what we buy or own.

      Have you given any thought to what it means to be a human being? What makes us human? A brain, a heart, emotion, love, what?  Now consider how many implants or  replacements, or memory chips in the brain, or bio mechanical organs, prosthetics or synthetic blood do we need before human life, as we know it, ceases and something new emerges? 
       These wonderful but profoundly changing circumstances will have more impact on our children and grand children than us.

      Probably few people have given it much thought and that in itself is an ethical issue. We cannot nor should we impede science and research or healing systems and technologies. In just one simple query-how well equipped are societies for extended life spans?
       Isn't now the appropriate time that humanity deliberates, before epochal changes? Sci-fi writers and directors have long toyed with these themes but would we be content to see life imitate art?

     For the record we've had 8.7 inches of rain on the California central coast since January 1. That is more than we had for the full year 2013-2014. Total for the season is 20.93 making it the most since 2010-2011. Yes, there have been mud and rock slides. Historic Santa Rosa Creek road caved and it will be some time before repairs are made. Scenic Highway 1, the Pacific Coast Highway, has also taken some abuse, but after 4-5 years of drought, we are happy we've been blessed with the rain.

The bluff trail north of Cambria

standing together

    A lot of people are pushing the White House Correspondents Association and other Washington based media groups to push back against early signs the new administration intends to play rough and dirty with some media outlets.

    Tough questions are simply part of the process. An adversarial relationship is the nature of the game and everyone, the White House, the media and the electorate are served when the media plays a watch dog role.  

     Divide and conquer is a technique of this administration. Combine that with the too common "careerist" motivation of some of the press corp and we could be on a slippery slope. Reminding the outlets that if one is targeted or banned, all could be has been the effort of many around the country. This is no time to forget the important role of the 4th estate.

     One thing they need to do a better job of is pressing this administration for details. We still haven't seen the health care plan that is supposed to replace the Affordable Care Act. Nor does the president elect ever give much detail. At some point we hope he realizes he's got to be presidential. He seems stuck in the mode of being the hustler on the campaign trail.  He's done nothing to convince me he's not an narcissistic idiot incapable of a complex sentence, let along thought. But maybe I'm wrong.

     See you down the trail.