Readers Write - Marj-at-Large: News &Views

Windy Blackout Days

1/24/2021

By Dick Eiden

Dick is a writer, attorney, and political activist living in Vista, California. He is the author of Paying the Rent, an autobiograpical account of anti -war and civil rights activism in the 1960’s and beyond. The book is available on Amazon.

Windy Blackout Days

I was driving slowly when it blew into the intersection
like a tumbleweed, a white plastic shopping bag filled with air
blowing through traffic like a running back dodging Teslas
and trucks, tumbling headlong toward some end zone
down the street where the howling was headed.

Such a thing could cause chaos & conflict among us, afraid,
late, and mad at dead traffic lights flashing red, four-way stops
revealing drivers who wait their turn and some who don’t
- so easy, they are, to anger and incite.

Do-gooders & Keystone Cops bumble to the scene
blowing whistles and directing traffic as maskless drivers
power past, screaming where to go and what to do with it.

Rocks & dead branches were turned up this year, the fertile
mulch of murder in Minneapolis, Louisville, Kenosha, the smell
of lies - It doesn’t take much to piss people off these days.

They say scoundrels thrive in chaos and relish opportunity in
flames of arson, iron grills pried from walls and broken windows,
while they sell death and hoard money in foreign accounts, get tests,
vaccines and Doctor Bone Spurs letters when they need them and
have lunch at the club with business politician friends from college,
not the rowdy thugs they use to storm the statehouse.

December 3, 2020

Adieu ...

11/8/2020

By Jerry Franklin

Jerry is a retired high-school Government teacher residing in San Diego County, California. A major goal of his teaching was "to install in students a special inner ear capable of detecting either nonsense or unsubstantiated claims."

Adieu ...

In the immediate aftermath of most presidential elections we generally see either disappointment or satisfaction. Today we see relief and joy! Watching the TV coverage reminds me of nothing so much as the end of World War II. There is a gigantic collective WHEW !

Trump is headed for the dust-bin of history and will join James Buchannan, Franklin Pierce, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson and Warren Harding in the basement apartments of ex-presidents. With the exception of Johnson, most of those who live in that neighborhood were simply feckless. Trump, like Johnson, did actual harm to the government he was elected to lead. Besides being crude and boorish, his decisions (and his non-decisions), policies, lies and meddling misuse served to weaken the structure of most of the governmental agencies and international “understandings” he was nominally charged to support. His ignorance of both government and history buttressed his indifference to any coherent foreign policy.

He did not read. According to many who worked in the White House, he had the attention span of a four-year old. He treated most of the agencies and departments of government with either scorn or indifference, allowing them to flounder without leadership or replacements in the face of departures. Chiefly, his decisions began and ended with one question: what will this do for me? If the matter did not affect him personally, he ignored it.

Biden’s first task will be to aggressively focus on the pandemic currently holding the nation in its grip. Beyond that, his job will consist largely in the restitution of good order to the agency of government. It is reassuring to know the country will once again have a leader who accepts the judgment and the integrity of science as a guiding source in the establishment of policy.

Further, we may also look forward in the coming year to a restoration of close relationships with our traditional friends and allies in the world. We will quickly rejoin the Paris Climate Accords, and I would not be surprised if we also rejoined the treaty established with Iran with such difficulty.

Hopefully, with our allies, we will be able to overlook as a temporary aberration the last four years. It is likely this will be the case as it is in everyone’s best interest to do so. Donald Trump was a source of intemperate curiosity to the world just as he was to Americans. The demise of Trump will be of regret only to those countries in the grasp of undemocratic authoritarian regimes, those Americans whose politics begin and end with the words “profit” and “loss” and other Americans whose cultural sympathies are complemented most readily by those of the Silver Shirts of the 1930’s and the Know-Nothing Party of the 1800’s.

Landing Patterns

10/1/2020

By Dick Eiden

Dick is a writer, attorney, and political activist living in Vista, California. He is the author of Paying the Rent, an autobiograpical account of anti -war and civil rights activism in the 1960’s and beyond. The book is available on Amazon.

Landing Patterns

We watch them descend toward
a small airport grown from hobbyists
hotshots and crop dusters for the

groves that lined the valleys like
green carpet spotted with orange
after World War II. The groves

are long gone and small jets now
bring executives from Japan
and Silicone Valley to business parks

in gleaming hi-tech buildings
soon to be left behind
in the onward rush of cause and effect.

The first hotshots and barnstormers
had been pilots in WWI and flew
loop-de-loops for picnicking families

in fields out of town on Sundays,
stood in soup lines and marched
to D.C. for food in ‘32. No work

for warriors after the war, they
camped on the National Mall
as generations have, looking for
someplace to land in America.

September 15, 2020

My Two Cents

8/17/2020

By Valena Dismukes

Valena is a retired educator and photographer and an active intentional traveler. Her photos and musings can be seen on her website, Valena Broussard Dismukes Photography. Here, she reflects on life in Los Angeles during a pandemic in a message she sent out to her friends. (Printed here with permission.)

My Two Cents

The other evening I went to dinner with friends downtown. It was the first time in months that I drove more than 3 miles and wore a pair of pants that didn't have an elastic waistband. Wow! What a treat!

Good things are happening:

People are exercising more
I get preferential treatment at Target and other stores
My Spanish vocabulary has increased
My ukulele ability is getting better
I'm exercising daily
A move toward justice is ocurring
I have painted virtually every horizontal surface in sight

Not so good things happening:

BLM--its methodology, mission, and concommitment violence
My clothes are gathering layers of dust
People are less friendly behind masks
Economic depression for way too many people
I eat everything in sight
Social media is beyond my comprehension

I really miss:

Yard sales
My friends
Getting and giving hugs
Traveling internationally
Photographing people without masks

And I won't give two cents for Kamala Harris--I don't like her record on criminal justice. Brace yourself for civil (or uncivil) unrest regardless of which candidate wins.

Val

“You might be the Prince of Peace returning”*

7/25/2020

By Dick Eiden

Dick is a writer, attorney, and political activist living in Vista, California. He is the author of Paying the Rent, an autobiograpical account of anti -war and civil rights activism in the 1960’s and beyond. The book is available on Amazon.

The title of the poem is taken from the title of a song by Leon Russell.

“You might be the Prince of Peace Returning”

You might be an angel who cries
when seasons change and leaves
float in air with complex molecules
in droplets and dew on bushes near

the last man standing in the burning
ring of fire that forged the westward
expansion of the promised land to the
doughnut shop on Coast Highway

where the homeless guy sleeps on the roof
in a bag that saved his life from the cold-
hearted people on the sidewalk not
wearing masks, not smiling at him.

You might think there was nothing
of value for you here, people sick
and struggling without money for
medicine or food on the table or

the fridge where you stare into
emptiness and wonder if it’s time
to go somewhere people care
for each other, and you will.

June 20, 2020

People Aren't Getting Stupider; It Only Seems That Way

6/30/2020

By James Newton

James is CEO and founder of Open Source Motor Drivers and a core team member at the San Diego Makers Guild. He describes himself as "just some clueless guy who doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut. Luckily, very few people ever listen to what I ramble on about. That's the beauty of the internet; it's big enough that almost anyone can be ignored." As you can see in the piece below, he's also discovering there's a flip side too that.

People Aren't Getting Stupider; It Only Seems That Way

Recently, someone referred to the "rationality of the populace," and that sparked this thought: Doesn't it seem that people are getting stupider?

Well, I did some research, and IQ tests are not showing a drop. If anything, it's the opposite. So I cast about for what it is that's causing so many foolish ideas to spring up, and eventually came back to the question: "What has changed?"

I think the answer is this:

Most people are easily manipulated and always have been.

In the past, however, people didn't subscribe to too many stupid ideas, because the only source of them was themselves and their friends. The news was more or less accurate. Libraries filtered out patently false books. (Yes, they did; I couldn't even get Jack Kerouac). Book publishers wouldn't take a chance on a book that the library system probably wouldn't buy. Fiction was well understood to be fiction, and suggesting otherwise would get you laughed at. I hadn't realized it before, but our society used to have a pretty serious "bullshit" filter.

All that changed when the internet gave Russian, Chinese or other trolls direct access to our least enlightened citizens. That, in turn, forges connections between those who support each others' inane beliefs. There's safety in numbers, it seems.

That last point is obvious. What I wasn't getting was that in reality, some among us have always been this gullible; they had been protected, however, by an invisible filter that I didn't realize existed.

Could it be that this idiocy has always been among us, but the problem was hidden by forces unseen?

The Bathtub: The State of the State

3/19/2020

By Jerry Franklin

Jerry is a retired high-school Government teacher residing in San Diego County, California.

The Bathtub: State of the State

It was the GOP’s Robespierre*, Grover Norquist, who said in May of 2001 on NPR’s Morning Edition, “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”  After three years plus of the current administration’s efforts to weaken the institutional structure of our government—largely through our chief executive’s whimsical indifference—we must begin to appreciate the possibilities inherent in Grover’s cockamamie wish.

Our current struggle with the burgeoning covid19 pandemic serves to illustrate the vital significance of our “deep state” infrastructure. Notwithstanding Trump’s gutting of Obama’s team of pandemic planning experts, our national health organizations have responded with vigor. It has been our state and local leaders who have stepped up and accepted the responsibility of making tough political decisions designed to contain, mitigate and thwart this deadly new virus.

Trump’s failure to fill hundreds of vacant positions within our governmental agencies has served not to destroy them, but instead to simply enervate their capacities. It is not exactly up to Norquistian standards, but sure enough to give clear indication of what might be the consequence of the retrenchment of our government. The ultimate consequence of such an effort—whether by design or inattention—will not be a slim, trim and efficient government, but rather a feckless one.

We still have the most skilled and dedicated institutional assembly of Federal civil servants readily to be seen in the world. Large size brings with it both inevitable losses as well as gains. The private sector has long been cognizant of this fact. But there are also great “economies of size” that are gained.

It is not the lack of ability or awareness that has hindered our national response; rather, it has been the lack of will.  If it is still not clear, let it be argued that whoever eats his, or her, breakfast at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue needs not only a rumpus bag full of new legislative ideas, but that person needs a readily discernible, and rechargeable, capacity for sound judgment and decision making. That person needs to bring a working blend of ideas and experience to what is likely the most challenging executive job in the world!

As for Grover, let us hope that he is healthy and safe.  For that, he may thank his government.

*A French lawyer and statesman who played an active role in the French Revolution

March 1933 - The Enabling Act

3/9/2020

By Bruce Thompson

Bruce Thompson is an adjunct instructor of philosophy at Palomar College. His Ph.D. is from the University of Colorado. His major emphasis in philosophy is critical thinking, formal logic, and American pragmatism. He is also a poet, violinist, and raiser of back yard chickens.

Brace yourself. The following is a grim warning.

March 1933 - The Enabling Act

BEGIN
March 1933 - The Enabling Act, granting Hitler unrestrained power.

February 2020 - Senate Acquittal, granting Trump unrestrained power.

Thereafter, modern history will unwind as follows:

In 2021, following his re-election, Trump will begin a bloody purge of people he considers to be disloyal to him. John Roberts will be assassinated, and Brett Kavanaugh will be named Chief Justice. Mitt Romney will be imprisoned on charges of bigamy, but will commit suicide in his cell by repeatedly stabbing himself in the back with a blunt shiv. All of this will be in preparation for Trump to suspend the Constitution and seize power in 2024.

By 2027 we will be at war with China as Trump attempts to achieve world domination. People suspected of having even traces of African (and Latino) ancestry will be rounded up, kept in concentration camps, and eventually exterminated. However, the cost of the war and the imprisonment of "undesirables" will tank the economy. In 2028 Trump will attempt an ill-advised invasion of Canada (during the winter). The brave Canadians will make a near-suicidal stand at Calgary, thus preventing Trump from taking Edmonton (which will become the capital of Canada in 2023). The defeat of the U.S. military in Canada will be a significant factor in the inevitable defeat of the U.S. a few years later.

In 2031 an invasion of the U.S. by China, Cuba, and Venezuela* will be staged from Cuba. Beachheads will be established at Fort Lauderdale, Daytona Beach, and Jacksonville. After the successful amphibious landings in Florida the defeat of the U.S. will drag on for another year, but with little doubt of the eventual outcome. Trump will commit suicide while holed up in Trump Tower with his latest mistress, a blonde 19-year old with huge...

Of course, you and I won’t see how all this turns out, since we will have been exterminated in the concentration camps long before. But do not give up hope. I don’t know what there is to be hopeful about, but giving up could only be counterproductive. We must see this through, no matter how it ends.

*Question – Why Venezuela? Answer – Okay. Iceland?
END

Apolitical Aphorisms

1/22/2020

Contributed by Rob Sanders

Rob is a retired ceramics teacher, currently practicing his craft in Taos, NM.

Apolitical Aphorisms

Herewith a light-hearted look at at politicians and politics, salted
with more than a couple of grains of truth
-------------------------

If God wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates. (Jay Leno, American entertainer)

The problem with political jokes is they get elected. (Henry Cate, VII, freelance writer)

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. (Aesop, story teller in ancient Greece)

Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river. (Nikita Krushchev, Soviet leader in the mid-20th century)

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I'm beginning to believe it. (Clarence Darrow, American lawyer who handled many high-profile cases in the late 1800's and early 1900's)

Why pay money to have your family tree traced; go into politics and your opponents will do it for you. (Author unknown)

Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other. (Oscar Ameringer, German-American author, editor, and organizer in the early 1900's)

I offer my opponents a bargain: If they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them. (Adlai Stevenson, mid-1900's American political who ran for president on the Democratic ticket)

I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians. (Charles de Gaulle, French political leader who was a major figure in the French resistance of Nazi Germany during World War II)

Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks. (Doug Larson, syndicated columnist based in Wisconsin in the late 20th century)

Under the Long Grass

1/13/2020

By Dick Eiden

Dick is a writer, attorney, and political activist living in Vista, California. He is the author of Paying the Rent, an autobiographical account of anti-war and civil rights activism in the 1960's and beyond.

The following poem is a reflection on the painting, "Your Attention Please" by William Gullette.

Under the Long Grass

*********************

*********************

You can see the story in the shape of the mountain
knuckles of rock scraped bare over centuries

washed onto high-country plains, good for corn
when snows were gone and game was plentiful.

The people camped between the knuckles in winter,
and at their back when enemies attacked, the bodies

burned on pyres above the tree line, spread light
across the valley like a beacon toward heaven,

ashes falling on everything open to the sky,
ashes of villages on top of one another, cold

dead campfires, bones, grinding stones where
women worked and children played beside the river

still there, under the long grass.

10/15/19