My soapbox

Yeah, I sometimes feel like a broken record.

I've got TV while I'm here in TX and have been watching CNN for the first time in my life. This is the Real News? I've seen 15 minute stories on the new pre-teen vampire flick, in depth reports on OJ Simpson's trial and whole shows about Brad Pitt/Anjelena Jolie. In the meantime? In the meantime... Last week Venezuela had a voter turnout of more than 60% (in a non-presidential election year!) utilizing sane and reliable electronic voting booths. Nigeria held elections which were followed by riots that killed over 400 people. The U.S. again refused to sign a cluster bomb treaty, endangering the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians (cluster bombs victims are 98% civilian, most often children).

How did I get this news? From the Christian Science Monitor, the BBC and Al Jazeera. How does the American public get this news? Mostly, they don't. How can we expect citizens to be involved in their world and their community when they don't even know what's going on?

December, Texas

It was cold this morning, when I went out for a run. Not just Texas cold, but actually cold- 33 degrees at 7 am. It was hard to go out in that, especially since I didn't pack for near-freezing runs and had to wear shorts and a long sleeved t-shirt. It made me wonder why I keep doing this. After 20 years of running, I'm still slow but have logged a lot of miles. I've run in all seasons, in all weather); I've spooked moose and seen Northern Lights, I've run with a succession of dogs and with various friends. It's who I am now and I don't know what I'd do if I had to give it up. So, I put on my shorts and went out this morning, just like I always do.

It warmed up by the afternoon, and I went to see an outdoor show. The Ft Sam ceremonial horse drill team was there. I didn't get any good pictures of them performing (I was too far for the camera to get a good shot) but I watched them practice. I got cool video, but can't post it.






Some old cars. Yes, it's December and it's almost 70 at this point.

Logistics

I've been listening to history lessons on my iPod while I run in the mornings (yes, I'm a bit of a dork, but you should all know that by now). They started in Ancient Greece and we're up to the 1800's. I heard a good one on Washington the other day and I've been thinking a lot about him since. His ragtag group of paid militia were getting ready to head home on the 31st. He had one week. It was dark and snowing and he had to ferry 2,400 troops across the river, which took about 12 hours- until 3am. How do you keep 2400 people in place for 12 hours on a cold, dark Christmas eve? Especially ones who were low on morale (1,700 of their comrades were sick or injured and they'd suffered a series of defeats) and wanting to go home to their families?

For some reason, Washington has fallen out of vogue these days as Lincoln's star is (deservedly) rising. Still, Washington was a great man with a strong moral compass. He had little formal schooling, but had a wisdom and intellect that made up for time in a classroom. The little story about the cherry tree may or may not be true, but it illustrates his lifelong integrity well. He did not want to lead the war against the British (he had been a soldier in the British army himself), and later on he did not want to be president. All he wanted was to live in Mt Vernon with his beloved wife and farm his land. However, he recognized his duty and simply did it.

Washington's public farewell address warned against foreign influence in domestic affairs and American meddling in foreign affairs. He counseled friendship and commerce with all nations, but warned against involvement in foreign wars and entering into long-term "entangling" alliances. We could do worse than to revisit his ideals of freedom, personal integrity and diplomacy.

But, mainly, this post is just an excuse to put up that picture. It made me chuckle.

A long time coming

Wow. I don't know who wrote this speech, but it actually made tears come to my eyes.

The Alamo

They've got a rifle and a leather vest that belonged to Davey Crockett. Not much else.



Beautiful San Antonio Riverwalk.




A duck with no head!

San Antonio, week 2

Today, My roommate and I went to the San Antonio Botanical gardens, which made everything better.





A Japanese Garden





Squirrels

Jeff Bickart

Jeff taught geology, ecology, ornitholigy, botany, fiber arts, organic crop production and traditional outdoor living skills. He taught us how to make fire with two sticks (harder than you think), to make rope with reeds, and to tan hides. Jeff's intense curiosity and his wide and deep knowledge, as well as his sense of humor, made the subjects he taught come alive to his students. An avid reader, he was also a published poet and essayist. He made clothing from local plant and animal materials, spinning and dyeing his own yarns and weaving, knitting and felting fabrics, as well as tanning hides. He built his own wood and canvas canoe, as well as paddles, snow-shoes, bows, arrows and atlatls (he tried to teach me to throw the atlatl, but it was not meant to be). With his family, he created a homestead farm, with extensive vegetable gardens and a large orchard. He had a particularly strong interest in the preservaton of heirloom varieties of vegetables and fruits and was for 10 years an active member of Seed Savers Exchange. A competitive long distance runner in high school, college, and later, Jeff continued to enjoy running until his illness prevented it. Jeff left behind his sweet and beautiful wife of 14 years, Jenn (Brown); and their two beloved children, Alex-ander (age 9) and Laura (age 7).

Weekend, FT Sam Houston

My first week in TX. It's been warm, in the mid-70's to upper-80's during the days. But, the area is greener than I'd expected, with lots of live oak and blooming flowers. People are nice here, and class is laid back, boring even. It's a big post- I decided to walk to dinner the other night instead of hitching a ride with my roommate and ended up getting lost. Both ways.

We went (as a class) to the museum here at Ft Sam. This is the training center for all Army medics and they've got a very nice medical museum. I couldn't take pictures of most of the exhibits because they were behind glass, but they had some cool old medical tools- bloodletting knives and old apothacary herbs. Lots of old ambulance equipment and some medivac helicopters.
xxx




Here I am by a Korea-era Sioux.



A Vietnam-era Iroquois (Huey).




Some cool art- I like the medic in this picture with a cigarette in his mouth.




Saturday evening, we went to downtown San Antonio to the River Walk, a 2 mile long network of bridges and shops located a story below the street. We got there in the late afternoon, walked a bit and ate some mexican food (I ordered a veggie quesadilla with no cheese and the waiter thought I was a crazy gringo).




We turned down the mariachi band, but the table right next to us got a song, so I stole some pictures. I'd never seen a real live mariachi band before.



By then it was getting dark and we took a river cruise and learned about the history and architecture of the area. Unfortunately, the pictures I took at night didn't turn out well, but it was very beautiful, with the cyprus trees lit up with colored lights and egrets fishing in the shallow water.

Late morning, autumn sunshine

Truly, my dog is unbearably cute.

Bailout bill

Have you seen this thing? Probably not. There's 303 sections on the bailout itself. Not easy reading. Still, it's what the bill is about and, like it or not, we're stuck with it now.

The other disturbing part is that they've stuck all kinds of legislation on the bottom of the bill- knowing that it was sure to pass. Let's look at some of the pork on this bill:

A huge, multipart section on improving our energy sources. Now, I'm totally in favor of spending money on researching renewable energy, but this thing is embarrassing. " Energy credit for small wind property". "Energy credit for electricity produced from marine renewables". "Energy credit for geothermal heat pump systems". "Credit for steel industry fuel"!?! Or, how 'bout these two: "Temporary increase in coal excise tax; funding of Black Lung Disability Trust fund". Followed immediately by "Special rules for refund of the coal excise tax". It goes on and on. " Exclusion from heavy truck tax for idling reduction". How is that energy improvement?. My favorite is, of course, "Transportation fringe benefit to bicycle commuters".

After the energy enhancement section, they just shoveled in whatever they could think of: "Seven-year cost recovery period for motorsports racing track facility". "Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children". "Provisions related to film and television productions". "Extension of economic development credit for American Samoa".

What a boondoggle. It's shameful. America has spent the last 50 years spending money like it grows on trees. Both private citizens and the government have lost any idea of living within our means. I think we're going to pay the price for it now. I don't think we're going to pass a $850 Billion dollar bailout bill and have everything magically return to the way it was. We have to re-set our standards. Scary, but probably not a bad thing in the long run.

A curse and a myth

We're living in interesting times. Economic upheaval. Ongoing wars in the middle east. Elections that embarrass and insult the public's intelligence. Global warming, torture, breed specific legislation.

Now, a little fable from Ambrose Bierce called "Philosophers Three:"





A Bear, a Fox, and an Opossum were attacked by an inundation.
“Death loves a coward,” said the Bear, and went forward to fight the flood.
“What a fool!” said the Fox. “I know a trick worth two of that.” And he slipped into a hollow stump.
“There are malevolent forces,” said the Opossum, ”which the wise will neither confront nor avoid. The thing is to know the nature of your antagonist.”
So saying the Opossum lay down and pretended to be dead.

It doesn't matter what we do. We'll be swept away in the flood regardless.

Cool Hand

83 is a good long life, and he led a full one.

Bread

If only I could post the smell. Mom baked bread every week and I remember walking in the door after school and smelling the fresh bread. After school snacks of bread and butter and jam.

Of course, it's cool now, and at the time I enjoyed sitting at the table, slathering warm bread with butter. If I'm going to be honest, though, I recall being embarrassed of my home-made bread and peanut butter sandwiches at school lunch. I remember hiding them and gazing wistfully (no- lustfully) at the Wonder Bread bologne sandwiches of my classmates. I remember begging for bread at the grocery store, "PLEASE, PLEASE, could we have bread this week", we would cry. What must people have thought?

Beaver Lake

OK, I've got to get something else up here. My last two posts in a row are about dead friends. That is such a downer.

Yesterday, we did my favorite hike in Sitka- Beaver Lake. It's not a particularly difficult hike, but it's so gorgeous. Yesterday wasn't perfect- it was rather overcast- but not rainy and not too cold. Plus, the hike started out with this:



Someone's been hitting the berries pretty hard. I always feel concerned when they take a crap right in the middle of the trail. Pretty clear message, I'd think. We probably should've turned around (especially since Dennis and Lucy have had a Close Encounter with a bear on this hike), but stuck with it and were rewarded with this:





Big tree:

Chuck

Fuck. I'm tired of writing these kind of blogs. Chuck, my friend, I miss you already.

Buh-bye Alaska

I'm back home, in Sitka, for a few weeks while I study up for my board exams. Probably the last time I'll spend here, perhaps the last time I'll be in Alaska at all. There are things I truly hate about this place. I hate the Alaskan (well, to be fair- it's the American) mentality that everything is here for us to exploit. That Alaska is full of resources for us to use, and damn the consequences. We want to dam, drill, fish, log, dredge and mine every last ounce of natural resources that we can get our grubby little hands on. Then, when we've extracted all the assets from the land, we'll go ahead and build 5,000 square foot McMansions and sell them off as vacation properties to wealthy businessmen who come here for the rapidly disappearing halibut fishing.

I hate that we ship everything (everything we eat, everything we wear, everything we use to clean our carpets or fix our vehicle) a thousand miles or more. I hate that after we've used it, we ship it back a thousand miles to a landfill in Washington.

But then. I lay in bed, where there are no sounds of traffic and I listen to the lap of the waves on the beach. I walk the dog along the river and watch the eagles pick their supper out of the salmon-clogged, shade-dappled pools. I won't find this anywhere else. Yeah, the weather is shitty and Alaskans are annoying. Still, I'm proud to have been here. To have seen as much of Alaska as I have (from Barrow to Nome to Bethel to Metlakatla). I had my Alaska adventure, seen caribou and moose and polar bears and grizzly bears. I've been lowered out of helicopters to mountainsides and sinking ships. I've attended potlatches and Native dances. I've been out with subsistence hunters and fishermen, camping in the mountains and lost the ocean. But, now it's time to move on. Thanks, Alaska.