Thoughts about Critical Race Theory

Critical Race Theory poses that every law and every facet of American culture is permeated with anti-black racism from the founding of the nation until now.  The more I learn about history, the more I agree. 

 

Critical Race Theory is currently a hot button issue that people are either violently for or against.  I’m not really sure, but I am starting to understand what it means. It is very much….

 

I’ll give you so many examples:

 

1.     The Black Panther Party had a 10-Point Program, all of which points were fundamentally essential for Justice.  The Ten Point Program comprised two sections: "What We Want Now!" and "What We Believe."

a.     1.  We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black and oppressed communities.

b.     2.  We want full employment for our people.

c.     3.  We want an end to the robbery by the capitalist of our Black and oppressed communities and reparations for what has been robbed from us

d.     4.  We want decent housing, fit for the shelter of human beings.

e.     5.  We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present-day society.

f.      6.  We want completely free health care for all Black and oppressed people.

g.     7.  We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of Black people, other people of color, all oppressed people inside the United States.

h.     8.  We want an immediate end to all wars of aggression.

i.      9.  We want freedom for all Black and poor oppressed people now held in U.S. federal, state, county, city and military prisons and jails. We want trials by a jury of peers for all persons charged with so-called crimes under the laws of this country.

j.      10.  We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, peace and people’s community control of modern technology.

 

I personally agree with every one of these points; totally positive, just and non-violent.  They also believed in their 2^nd Amendment Rights to bear arms in a well-regulated militia.  At this time, 2^nd Amendment armed militias are organizing and training all over the United States, yet our FBI doesn’t feel compelled to assassinate them as they did the leaders of the Black Panthers.  Why did they arrest, imprison, or assassinate members of the Black Panther Party, who were defending their constitutional Rights? Because they were Black. 

 

My Grandma Rose was a “Gray Panther.” She also worked very hard to advance social justice.  She was one of the original authors of the Medicare bill.  Yet, the FBI didn’t want to assassinate her even though she was a card carrying Socialist.  Because she was White. 

 

Critical Race Theory points out the historical discrepancies in which Whites and Blacks were treated for the same actions.  It is about White Privilege and how Whites are driven to disempower Blacks any way they can. 

 

2.     During World War II, Whites and Blacks fought side by side. Yet, when they lined up to get their paychecks, the service always ran out of money when the Black servicemen came to get paid.  I heard this time and again from WWII veterans when I lived in Vallejo. 

 

3.     I am a Registered Nurse having spent many years in the Mother/Baby Department.  I noticed early on that White women got very different treatment than our Black patients.  I saw an obstetrician literally tear open a cesarean section on a black patient, yanking it apart like it was an old rag.  He said it heals faster when you tear it rather than cut it with a scalpel. I never saw him do that on any other patient.  At change of shift, the derisive tones of some nurses when giving report on their patients of color.  They seemed to lack empathy or respect for the women of color. 

 

I saw White women get top notch healthcare and the Black women were abused. That’s what initially instigated me on this 3-decade journey of trying to resolve the inequities of our healthcare system with universal, single-payer healthcare in California and the USA.  Now I realize that the reason we don’t have universal, single-payer healthcare in the USA, unlike nearly all industrialized economies, is because the Elites, presumably White, believe that they deserve better quality than the Poor and the Blacks, who deserve nothing. Such arrogant hubris.  Pointing out the inequity is Critical Race Theory. 

 

4.     Redlining was a blatantly illegal banking policy that excluded Blacks from White neighborhoods and relegated them to ghettos.  Black people were clearly unjustly excluded from buying homes in certain neighborhoods. 

 

5.     The sub-prime mortgage and foreclosure debacle of 2008 to 2012 is another example.  Normally, banks offer higher interest loans to People of Color.  Mortgage companies went wild in the years preceding 2008, selling high interest mortgages to mostly Blacks and Hispanics.  Then the greedy investment bankers put together portfolios of mortgage notes and sold them on the securities exchange as ABD’s (asset backed derivatives).  This caused the worldwide economic collapse in 2008, and the beginning of conveyor belt foreclosures, causing a massive shifting of assets away from People of Color upward to the Elites as family after Black family were evicted from their own homes.  Critical Race Theory suggests that the bankers have been preying on the hopes of upward bound Black families, only to cut them down and take all they have earned, time and again.  I believe, this is part of the banking industry business model.  

 

6.     Next example is discrimination against Blacks in voting. 

 

a.     Slaves could not vote, although they were counted by 2/3 in the census to determine the number of Representatives in the House. 

b.     Once slavery was outlawed, the elite Whites who controlled the voting booths came up with the system of Jim Crow to continue to disenfranchise American citizens of color from their Right to Vote. 

c.     Jim Crow ended with the Voting Rights Act of 1964. Which was followed by the War on Drugs. 

d.     The War on Drugs convicted People of Color far more often for the same crimes as Whites, who were either never charged with a crime, fined, or acquitted.  In many States, felons can never regain their Right to Vote.  Currently, about 2/3 of all Black men have served time in jail for one thing or another. 

e.     Look what happened in Florida.  A citizen’s Initiative on the ballot passed by a landslide, and felons who had finished their parole could regain the Right to Vote.  Since poll taxes were made illegal by the Voting Rights Act, the Florida Legislature immediately passed a law saying that they had to pay back all their financial obligations to the state first before they could apply to vote.  That eliminated about half of the 1.5M new Florida citizens with the Right to Vote. 

f.      These are my thoughts about paying back what these former felons owe to the State.  The 13^th Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery except as a punishment for crime.  So the War on Drugs put Black People back into slavery in prison.  While in prison, everyone has a job.  The prisoners are paid pennies a day for their labor.  Their virtual slave labor saves the prison in maintenance costs, and even earns for the prison in renting out their slave laborers to farms, factories, and customer service jobs.  When they have completed serving their time, all their slave labor is valued at nothing, and instead, they are discharged from prison with debts to the Courts.  Critical Race Theory points out that even today, we find ways to put Black People back into slavery aka prison. 

g.     The racial bias built into the culture that punishes Blacks for the same behavior condoned in Whites is endemic among police and the courts.  There is no Justice in the Justice System, especially not for Blacks.  These inequities are what Critical Race Theory points out.  Why is it so important to disenfranchise People of Color from the vote? 

h.     Every 10 years, the Constitution requires a census in order to adjust voting districts to achieve even representation in the House and the Assembly.  Time and again, the districts are gerrymandered to spread out communities of color into fringe minorities in peripheral districts thereby disempowering the Black vote and maintaining White control.  This results in Rule by the Minority.  White Capitalists want to make sure their Property Rights supersede all other Rights.  Critical Race Theory teaches us that the need to overturn Democracy into Rule by the Minority is all about White Supremacy. 

i.      The Elite Capitalists talk about freedom and liberty.  They mean the freedom to make as much money as possible no matter who they hurt or what law is broken.  That leads to the issue of State’s Rights.  State’s Rights is another way of saying the right to segregate and disenfranchise voters of color.  Liberty and State’s Rights are words we often hear from White Supremacists.  We know what you really mean. 

 

7.     Critical Race Theory states that racial bias has been interwoven in our entire US history, since the 2/3 Rule at the Constitutional Convention to the January 6^th insurrection in DC.

 

8.     The Declaration of Independence talks about unalienable Rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.  By the time they ratified the Constitution 11 years later, the unalienable rights had become Life, Liberty and Property.  Property is another euphemism for slaves, and wives.  Slaves gained their legal freedom before wives did.  Black men got the Right to Vote before women. 

 

9.     The unbelievable cruelty of the police and White Supremacists who kill Black citizens provoked by nothing more than skin color and their own assumptions about Black People.  Rate of police fatal shootings of Black People from 2015 – 2021 was 37 per million of the population.  Add the Hispanics, and the total become 67 per million compared to 15 per million for Whites.  The rate of police shootings for Blacks is more than double for Whites.  And this doesn’t include killings by chokehold, tasering, beating, breaking their neck, or by suffocation.  And also doesn’t include Blacks killed by hate crimes.  57.6% of Hate Crimes in 2019 were motivated by racial bias.  The fact that most of these crimes are either covered up or the White perpetrators are acquitted is something that is illustrated by Critical Race Theory.  Critical Race Theory says this is not unique but rather has been endemic since the beginning of the nation. 

Speech for the Women’s March 2020

I long for Peace with all my heart.  Peace is a word bandied about on Christmas Day when everyone pays lip service to it saying, “Peace on Earth and Good Will to Men.”  But what about the other 364 days a year?  Do Americans really want Peace?

There are 2 ways to achieve Peace.  One is for a repressive dictator to brutally kill all the dissidents.  We wouldn’t like to see that here. The other is for there to be Justice.  That’s the one I want.  There can be no Peace without Justice.  I had to reach university level education to even learn what Justice means.  It isn’t just retaliation for harm against you.  There are many kinds of justice: social justice, racial justice, economic justice, environmental justice, and more. 

Yet, in today’s world, there is no Justice in the Justice System.  We see multitiered justice different for Whites, Browns and Blacks; different for males and females; different for rich and poor.  How did it get this way?

There’s no Justice in a system that cuts school funding, cuts public assistance to the poor, cuts funding for women’s health, cuts funding for contraception, then provides no other career avenue for the resulting youths other than being cannon fodder for unending wars.  How did it get this way? 

There’s no justice in a system that allows giant corporations to exploit our natural resources desecrating the Earth and polluting the water, air and soil on which all life depends.  Meanwhile, we see our children’s health become damaged, sacred burial sites unearthed, and our property values destroyed.  How did it get this way? 

Don’t believe a word if someone says, “There’s nothing we can do about it.”  BULLSHIT! 

We still live in a Democracy; a Democratic Republic.  That means the PEOPLE RULE within the limits of the Constitution.  The President is not a king and the United States of America is not for profit!  The government derives their just powers from the consent of the governed!  Our public servants exist at our pleasure to serve us, the People.  And especially the least of us, the children, the poor and the disabled.  And to justly manage our public lands for us, the People. 

Incidentally, did you hear?  Talk about gender justice!  Virginia just became the 38^th State to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Finally!  After 97 years! Women might become equal to men in the eyes of the law.  Believe it or not, it’s still not a sure thing! How about that? 

So, what can we do to achieve Justice and Peace?  A lot! We can march in the streets.  We can join groups of like-minded people and together we can storm the offices of our elected representatives.  We can demonstrate on the steps of the capitol.  We can write letters.  We can run for office.  We can pass local ordinances to protect our cities and county.  We can make sure everyone gets out to vote.  Or we can join a phone bank and call people, like we did for Virginia a few months ago, to turn the Virginia House of Delegates blue so they could ratify the ERA.  We are the People.  Let’s grab the bull by the horns and Rule!  Now is the time to take action!

The End Times give some Christians hope!

I love interfaith Bible study.  My hired worker and I have been talking Bible lately. He's a devout Christian. 

He knows I am a practicing Jew. I mentioned to him that I have 2 issues with Christians: 1) they have been slaughtering Jews for 2000 years; 2) they don't follow the teachings of Jesus and sow hate and division.

My worker responded that he agrees. There are too many people full of hate that call themselves Christians.  He said that he and his wife found hateful agendas from the pastors at church and so they stopped going to church. They do private Bible studies and worship in their living room with a group of friends.

We both enthusiastically agreed that "God loves all His children; it is not for me to judge."
I mentioned that through the ages, one group of Christians who never persecuted Jews was the Mormons.

That set my worker off on how the Mormons and Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses and 7th Day Adventists aren't really Christians.

So what is a Christian? We both agreed that if you take Christ as your personal savior and believe that he died for your sins, then you are a Christian.

I said that Mormons and Catholics both take Christ as their savior and believe he died for their sins. My worker disagreed. He went on and on about minute differences in their beliefs which disqualifies the others from being Christians.  He said Catholics don't even worship Christ; they worship Mary and a dozen other idols.  And both Mormons and Catholics don't believe that Christ died on the cross and rose up in 3 days. 

I replied that Mormons and Catholics believe they are Christians and call themselves Christians.
My worker declared that it is a FACT that they are not Christians!  I asked if they believe they are Christians, and he believes they are not Christians, can both facts be correct at the same time?

Without answering, the discussion took a pause at that point. Then I asked if he isn't being a tad judgemental? He replied that there is no judgement in a fact.  Facts are facts.

I thought the whole exchange was fascinating. I love Bible talk!


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At another time, we were talking about our children. I mentioned that one of my sons is of the "non-binary" generation.  He asked what non-binary means. I explained. He retorted that the Bible only gives 2 choices, male and female. He said he can't understand why non-binary is so popular now.

I thought about it for a week and told him my conclusion.

When things are normal and there is hope in the world, then males and females want to mate and procreate a generation for the future. But when the people in power do nothing to stop conditions leading to the extinction of all life on Earth, then hope is sucked out of the world and no one wants to procreate. If there is no future, why make babies??? So everyone becomes a non-sexual blend of amorphous androgyny.

My worker responded that his religion gives him hope. These are the End Times just as predicted in the Bible and being forgiven in Christ, he can look forward to sitting at Christ's side at the End. 
I love Bible talk!

Needless to say, I was not only fascinated to learn his viewpoint on things, but was shocked that my worker is one of the people who does nothing or even accelerates climate caused mass extinction.  And this gives him HOPE!!!!! 

You read about people saying things like this. And you hear about it on the late night comedy shows. But to hear it in earnest right from the horse's mouth is a phenomenon extraordinaire. 
Fortunately, we both agree that President Trump is NOT a Christian.

I could have added a third issue that I have with Christians, the absence of brotherly love.  My worker and I wholeheartedly agreed that we must love our neighbor as we love ourselves.  But I find Christians to be a backbiting crowd.  The Protestants all agree that the Catholics are idol worshipers and not Christians.  Most agree that LDS aka Mormons are a cult, and not Christians.  The Baptists laugh at the Lutherans. The Adventists disqualify from Christianity all sects that have Sunday instead of Saturday as the Day of Rest.  I could go on and on, but I haven't heard them all yet.  In my experience, the Book of Mormon and the Pearl of Great Price are as much a bundle of myths, tales, and beliefs no more crazy than the New or Old Testaments of the Bible.  Or the cultural beliefs that accompany them.

To me, if someone considers themselves a Christian, they should follow the teachings of Jesus.  I hear the Gospel words come out of their mouths, and in the next breath are judging their fellow Christians of not being authentic.  It is not the first time that a Christian has assured me that his beliefs are FACTS.

I want to love all beings.  It is not for me to judge anything about anyone else.  And I am totally fascinated to learn the viewpoints of other people.  I find that Christians who consider their beliefs to be facts are living in a house of cards floating on a sea of hope.  Collapse is inevitable. A very different reality than mine yet we share the same world. 

A Mother's Day Funeral

Today, Mother's Day, I attended the funeral of my friend.  Having known her for over a decade, I can't recall how and where we first met.  But from the very start, it felt like we had been old friends forever.

Esther was the child of Holocaust survivors.  As such, she embraced that unique set of neuroses associated with Holocaust survivors and their children.  Her voice tone was a gravelly whine that would have been enough to drive anyone crazy, which resounded with immeasurable grief.  Yet, she was warmly courteous and respectful, and took interest in my life, as well as sharing hers.  She never failed to phone me for every Jewish holiday to convey her good wishes.

She emitted a lifetime of grief, and the light of her life was her 2nd husband Barney.  I never met Barney, and they often lived apart.  Secretly, I said to myself that it would be difficult to live with Esther's grating voice 24/7, and distance makes the heart grow fonder.

Barney fell ill and had collapsed at their home in SoCal.  Esther called me to share the news that he was in the hospital.  She hadn't been feeling well but wanted to drive down to see him.  I agreed to go with her, and be her alternate driver.  Come the day we were to leave, Esther called me to cancel.  Two weeks later, Barney had died.  When she finally got there, she found his corpse guarded by the dogs in the garden several days after his demise.  She had his body shipped for burial in St. Helena, and the headstone was finally ready 5 years later.  Esther phoned me last week and 3 weeks ago to invite me to the unveiling of Barney's stone.

Many times, she told me about her cruel brother who wouldn't release her portion of the inheritance, and how he cheated her out of the apartments she used to manage.  Eventually, she had to hire a lawyer and sue her brother to get her share released.  He was not present when I joined Esther at the memorial of their mother's death.  But he was there today, beside her pine box, bearing a masculine version of Esther's face but much taller.  He was first to eulogize his sister.  He spoke annoyingly long about how he neglected her as a child and, as a result, she got run over and injured.  He professed that ever since then, he vowed to protect his little sister.  The length of his eulogy was almost as if the more he talked, the more his guilt could be assuaged.

Esther often shared with me the grief of her divorce and how her X-husband has somehow turned her daughters against her.  She had never even seen or met her grandchildren, and another one was soon on its way.  Her daughters wouldn't talk to her.  I convinced her how it was their problem and she need bear no guilt for having done anything wrong.  I urged her to reach out to her daughters even though they might rebuff her advances.  I encouraged her to keep trying, and finally she got through to one daughter, who invited her to Los Angeles to see her grandchildren.  Seeing her grandchildren was one of Esther's greatest joys.  And after a couple of years, she was on good terms with one daughter and in communication with the other.  A great improvement!

Esther's oldest daughter got up to speak after Esther's brother.  She spoke about what a treasure it has been these last 5 years to be sharing her life with her mother.  Even her young son and daughter got up and spoke eloquent, heartfelt words about their grandmother.  This daughter so resembled my best friend Alice, and she was warm and charming.  She didn't look anything like Esther.  Elder daughter was tall, with olive skin, brown eyes, thin lips, and an aquiline nose.  Esther and her brother had northern European complexions with round noses, full lips and gray eyes.  Elder daughter said she looked like her mother.  I didn't see the resemblance.  She warmly thanked me for my kind words when I bid her farewell.

Esther's 2nd daughter spoke about how their relationship had been "up and down" and how, now that she herself was a mother and wife, she understands how difficult it can be.  She recalled how they would all fly here the last few years as Esther was on her death bed, and then she would recover, and not die.  I realized that her main relationship was being at her mother's bedside at the time of death to claim her inheritance.  This daughter was unable to look anyone in the eye, and kept turning her back to me after lunch when I was trying to bid them all goodbye.

Then there was Faith, who left the message on my phone about Esther's demise and the funeral.  Esther and I both had issues with hoarding resulting in clutter.  I had decided, years ago, that I would clean the clutter out of one "zone" of my house per year for Passover.  Over the years, the clutter had dissipated and there were many wide open empty spaces to be seen in my domain between the remaining eyesores of clutter.  But I was shocked at the level of clutter at Esther's house.  Over time, we discussed it, and she decided to take it on.  So, together, we worked on a corner of her kitchen.  It didn't look like much when we were done, but a 10,000 mile journey begins with the first step.  Esther realized how important it was to have someone else to help sort through the clutter, that she hired a helper, which led to Faith.

Faith is the daughter of a locksmith who had worked with Esther for years ever since she was managing the apartments in San Francisco.  The locksmith also gave Esther a eulogy at the funeral.  Faith lived with Esther the last few years helping like a nurse's aid and companion.  She stated at the graveside that living with Esther was not always easy but was the best education a young person could have.  Esther was so knowledgeable in law, as well as such a good and kind friend, Faith considered living with Esther to be a privilege.

Altogether, what this funeral meant to me was to demonstrate that it is our family and friends who give us the most fulfillment in our lives.  And how it is a damn shame if you wait until after death to say the things you want to say to your mother.  There's no time to waste in petty grievances, and it is urgent to shower the people we love with love.

A Moment of Joy

In my creative writing class with Ellen Weed, in the 4th week, we were assigned to write a piece about our most joyous experience.  It posed a problem because which of several joyous experiences should I choose, and what exactly does she mean by "joy?"  Most people feel joy when they look at their newborn baby or the day they get married.  Those didn't jump out at me as one of the most joyous experiences of my life.  Every time I speak to my centenarian mother on the phone and she tells me she loves me, I feel joy, but only a small joy.  What were the most joyous experiences I can remember?

There was that time my slave Master kicked me out and told me I was now free in the middle of India.  But too many of my stories took place in India over 4 decades ago; aren't there any more recent?  One divine afternoon of sexual union in the shower was certainly one of the memorable and more recent joyous experience, but X rated was not appropriate for this class.  So I thought about the several times that I have been touched by Grace, and decided to work up a piece on the joy of being filled with God's Grace. 

Here it is:

A Moment of Joy

As a Jew, the holiday of Yom Kippur has had great meaning for me.  It is the one day each year that Jews come face to face with our Creator to be forgiven.  Elul is not only the name of the month before Yom Kippur in which Jews practice many forms of ritual forgiveness and charity, but also the name of the process of purification.  We recall all our unskillful words and deeds of the last year and spend a month and then a week forgiving ourselves and letting them all go in preparation for the big day.  We beg forgiveness of others, and forgive them for trespassing against us.  On the day of Yom Kippur, we fast as we spend the day with our congregation turning and returning to the One. 

After a month, and then a week, and then a day of sacred fasting, we prepare ourselves to be face to face with HaShem.  As the day of purifying rituals moves along, we reach the culmination.  We bow down to YHVH in full prostration. During the first prostration, we culminate the period of purification by begging forgiveness for ourselves, and then we forgive ourselves of our sins.  On the second full prostration, we forgive our neighbors, relatives, community for the unskillful words and actions they have done toward myself and toward others.  Included in the 2^nd prostration is begging God’s forgiveness for the State of Israel and what they are doing to the Palestinians, and for fomenting war profiteering around the world.

On the third prostration, we have to forgive every murderer and despot in history.  I recall working hard to forgive Hitler, Bush, Cheney, Idi Amin, the instigators of China’s Cultural Revolution, David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan, Queen Isabella, and every other genocidal maniac that we recall from history.  Hardest, of course, is forgiving the man who killed my daughter. 

Part of the process is to make oneself empty and receptive to God’s Grace.  As my face presses on the floor in full prostration, if I have been effective in the forgiveness exercises, I will be taken over with such a passion that I wail and sob while tears stream out of my eyes.  These are not tears of anguish or despair.  These tears are for the release of hate, resentment, blame and injustice.  These are the tears that flow when I am touched by the finger of the Creator and filled with her Grace. 

A few years ago, Yom Kippur fell on the same day as the Mendocino Environmental Center big street fair fundraiser.  I was able to get there in time to hear Clan Dyken, the last band of the lineup.  I arrived directly from the break fast terminating Yom Kippur.  I had culminated a month, a week, and a day of purification, and had just finished forgiving every murderer in history.  I felt spent.  I didn’t feel like dancing.  I sat on a hay bale wrapped in my meditation shawl and listened to the band sing “Imagine” by John Lennon.  I began to imagine all the people living life in peace, and then it happened. 

I was using my skills at sending lovingkindness around the world, but instead I was sending Peace all around the world.  My inner being emptied out and was filled with a rush of rainbow light.  There was a pillar of rainbow light coming down from heaven on the whole scene and exchanging energy and going back up again.  With each breath, I amped it up and focused that rainbow light and spread it enveloping the entire planet.  The sense of thrill and joy as I focused the rainbow light passing through my empty conduit up and down and all around the Earth was overwhelming.  Once again, touched by Grace, I sobbed uncontrollably with tears of utter joy. 

A Very Harrowing Day

Today was quite the harrowing day for me.  I attended a Move to Amend workshop on the Corporate Rights and Powers Timeline in Willits given by David Cobb.  Afterwards, Al Rosen of Willits Public Access TV asked if I was willing to appear on TV to talk about the Grange/Guild conflict.  I agreed.  He wants either 3 people from the Guild side, or a panel of 3 from both (or more) sides.  Anyway, I said I would get back to him with a date.  

Meanwhile, someone overheard Al and I talking and notified Lanny Cotler, who then called me to invite me to talk.  I accepted.  Lanny also asked me if I knew about the Facebook page imitating the RV Grange FB page saying their 100-yr celebration was cancelled?  I assured him that we agreed at our meeting Thursday night not to do anything to hurt or damage anyone.  He felt assured that was consistent with my nature.  After squeezing a used swamp cooler into my Subaru and then searching all over the back roads of Willits to visit a friend who lives beyond Third Gate, I finally got to Lanny’s house.  We hugged at the door but I could see a lot of tension in his face and I could feel he had an agenda.  

We sat down and reviewed our ties.  We are not only friends, and community members, but being Jews, that makes us mispuscha, “kin."  We agreed right away that we can still love the people we disagree with.  

First Lanny started by telling me that everything I have heard from Bob McFarland is a lie.  I wasn’t too surprised since both sides are accusing the other side of lying.  After all, this is the age of Trumpian "Alternate Facts."  Lanny then began a history from 2005, including the 2009 annual CA Grange convention, and the plan to make the Grange more progressive.  Although there was a note of derision in his voice, he described the kind of political organizing plan we are currently working on to make Mendocino County elected officials more progressive.  I interrupted Lanny to mention the similar plan by local progressives, and he readily agreed it is a good plan.  So why was Lanny deriding Bob for his well-organized plan?  

Lanny went on to talk about Bob McFarland’s personal shortcomings.  He praised Ed Komsky as a “straight-shooter” but Bob as charismatic but wily.  My thoughts at that point were the pan calling the kettle black.  Also, my personal email experience with Komsky demonstrated a few personal flaws on that side also.  So one of Lanny’s major points was the personal character flaws of Bob McFarland.  

Lanny’s next point is that fraternal law presides over corporate law, and therefore, although the local chapter may hold title to the property, the bylaws of the fraternal order say that the local chapter doesn’t own the building but rather stewards it, as proven by the Vista Grange case.  Therefore, Bob is a "tragic hero" since he will fight this to the “death.”  There is no chance of winning in civil court since the court doesn’t care about the Grange.  I didn’t fully understand this point.  But he added that the Guild side is doomed because the Grange side has more money.  Of course, with the deep pockets of Monsanto behind the Grange, the fight is David against Goliath.  I have never read the CA State Grange bylaws from before the change so I don’t know.  And this is a question that the courts are still adjudicating. 

Lanny’s next point was to say that Bob McFarland only cares about taking properties, whereas the Grange only wants to support and promote local chapters.  That’s exactly what I hear Bob say about Ed Komsky and the newly formed State Grange.  Once again, both sides are accusing the other side of the same thing!  Lying and stealing!  

Lanny may have been trying to badmouth Bob to convince me to turn to the Grange side, but the more details he told me about Bob, the more admiration I gained for him.  Lanny told me that he separated from Bob in 2013 when Bob declined to support or publish Lanny’s newsletter, the Independent Grange Communications Network.  He gave me a copy dated 11/5/2013 and emailed me several more issues.  I have yet to read them.  Lanny told me his aspirations for the future of the Grange, and his words were nearly identical to what Bob says he wants for the future of the Guild.  I was astonished that both Bob and Lanny verbalized the exact same goals!  I can see how they were once partners. 

Lanny stated to me that he and I agree on about 99% of all issues, and this is the one issue upon which we differ.  I have heard the history from many others, and was astonished that hearing the tale from Lanny’s viewpoint that it was the SAME history I heard from people on the Guild side!  So what was the rub, I wondered?  

Lanny finally got to it.  The Guild is damaging the venerated reputation of the Grange. Lanny and I both agreed that the historical roots of the Grange are now topsy turvy to the current National Grange and CA State Grange, which policies have been corrupted.  But Lanny and the folks at Little Lake Grange are planning to change it from within!  Except that Lanny says he's tired and isn’t involved anymore.  I responded that Bob tried to change it from within and look what happened to him!  I added that the Grange doesn’t need the Guild to damage its reputation; it is damaging its own reputation.  

Lanny finally asked me where I stand.  I told him that as long as the National Grange had a policy in favor of industrial farming and states on their website that GMO agriculture is "necessary to feed the world,” that I would NEVER ally myself with an organization that defends Monsanto in court.  Lanny invited me to help change it from within.  I laughed. We hugged at the doorway and I assured him that we don’t have to hate each other because we disagree.  We mustn’t be enemies.  He hesitantly agreed, his eyes full of regret.

By this time, I was starving. I hadn’t eaten since 7:30am and could only think of food.  As I headed home, I came upon the exit to Redwood Valley and realized that I had been invited to the 100-year celebration.  I could probably buy food there with a check.  The first person I met was Peter Mayland, the psychologist who attempted to mediate 2 months in a row, but both times left early in frustration before I even arrived from my conflicting Red Cross meeting in Willits.  Peter asked me if Hal was hosting a synonymous celebration in the nearby park.  I told him I knew nothing about it.  That was the 2nd malicious rumor going around about the Guild side.  Peter also blamed Hal.  I agreed that Hal was not the wisest leader, but declined to mention that Hal had resigned the other day.  I cut off the discussion with this red-faced licensed psychotherapist who perpetuated false rumors, used blame as a tool, and left mediation sessions early in frustration, by saying that I was too hungry to chit chat right now.  He gave me a wide smile realizing he had been cut short. 

Unfortunately, the only thing they had at the celebration to which I wasn’t allergic was pie.  So I wrote a check for 2 pieces of pie, but remained starving.  The sight of those 2 slices of raspberry pie made my stomach growl.  I hugged a few more friends going out, and passed Jini Reynolds on the porch.  We hugged and she rushed away.  

Suddenly, as I was leaving, someone I never saw before was calling my name.  I turned around and saw a suntanned handsome man with ice blue eyes looking trim and fit calling me.  I saw his nametag said Ed Komsky.  The shade of his tan was reminiscent of the latest fad in DC, bronze.  Every time I see a TV commentator or expert appear with bronze skin, I know they are allies of Trump.  The bronze skin, fit stature, and ice blue eyes brought me back to the Nazi occupied Warsaw Ghetto of Poland and gave me shivers up and down my spine.  I smiled cordially and we shook hands.  He said, “You want to talk to me?”  I responded amazed, “I want to talk to you?”   So he smiled and said, “You want to ask me questions?”  I had no idea from where he got these notions.  I had just sat through 45 minutes of Lanny Cotler, my hands were full of pie and my stomach was hollow and grinding.  Also my son had a choral performance with the Ukiah Symphony at 8, which gave me less than an hour to eat and get there.  I assured him that I didn’t want to ask him questions, and left.  

This demonstrates the insidious creep of Monsanto's invasion into the back door of the first county in the Western Hemisphere to ban GMO agriculture back in 2004.  It’s the malicious rumor mill, and the manipulation that wins well meaning organic farmers to the Grange side.  Like Republicans, the Grange can only win with manipulation and lies.  Lanny described Bob as personally charismatic, and Bob described Ed as like a Svengali.  When I saw Ed’s charming smile, handsome physique, and the alluring blue of his eyes contrasted against his bronze skin, I knew what Bob was talking about.  It is through charismatic leaders that lies are generated and perpetuated.  Monsanto has entered Mendocino County through a back door in the name of the venerated Grange, and is charming organic farmers into supporting with their paid dues what is contrary to their own interests. 

A Portrait of Neo-Con Operatives

A portrait of neo-con operatives


Is it the haircut that seems so similar?



Or is it the face of a zealot who will do anything to fulfill his aims?



This is the portrait of men who kill for Christ.

Thoughts about being Average

I have never claimed to be average. I have no ambition to be average or normal. To me, if you ran the statistics on domestic violence, drug abuse, cigarette smoking, alcoholism, cardiovascular disease, and the use of chemical herbicides, and insecticides, all would be average and normal. The family which practices Non-Violent Communication, eats healthy home-cooked food, avoids plastics, walks or rides a bike instead of burning fossil fuel, and pulls their weeds is not at all average.

I do everything I can to try to slow climate change. I admit, I drive a gasoline-powered car, but can't afford a hybrid or electric car. I get around town on my bike for most errands and only use my car when I have to haul freight or travel in the rain or dark of night.  I dream of a biodiesel SUV, but current regulations prohibit such vehicles into the USA.  I waited 2 decades for a front loading washing machine to be permitted into the USA; I am already a decade into waiting for my biodiesel SUV.

In addition, I am slowly phasing plastic out of my life. Plastic is difficult since nearly all tools and appliances are made with plastic nowadays, and single-use plastic bags have been banned in the State for a year already. Garbage bags are one of those things that are hard to shift away from plastic. I commonly reuse single-use plastic bags to line my garbage cans. As such, I brought about 150 single-use grocery bags from my sister's home in another state. That number of bags should have been sufficient for 5-10 years of garbage pail liners.

Part of the regime includes recycling. All food waste goes into the compost, which we use to fertilize our crops.  Meat bones go into the curbside yard waste bins. Our town recycles everything except plastic bags and Styrofoam, which have to go into the landfill waste. The waste management company not only pastes a large label to the recycle bin explaining what can be recycled and how, but also sends similar announcements in the mail. One such notice is attached to our refrigerator to remind everyone. Even our waste management company suggests we rinse the food waste off of the recycle items in this devastating drought using gray water.  So we have a gray water catch basin in one side of the double sink with a hand-held ladle for use in rinsing recyclables and dishes destined for the dishwasher in the other sink.

At election time, I collect all the voting literature in a big pile on the kitchen table. I collect the opinions of the various newspapers and political action groups and add them to the pile. Then I schedule a few days with my sons to sit around the kitchen table studying the pros and cons of every candidate and initiative, until we all fill out our ballots together.  I have come to understand that traveling short distances by bicycle, avoiding plastic, reusing plastic bags, recycling, composting, use of gray water, and studying the ballot before voting are not average but rather exceptional.  

The purpose of this lengthy prologue is to introduce our new housemate. He is part Native American, but doesn't know what tribe. He feels a kinship with green-growing things and talks in sacred terms about "ceremony." Yet, he lives on an egg farm a buys his eggs from the grocery store.  He uses a roll of toilet paper a day but declines to purchase toilet paper made from recycled material.  When our new housemate saw my sons and I studying the voting literature, he remarked that "nobody does that." I assumed he meant that he has never seen anyone do that. He meant that he has never himself done that. He said that the "average person" doesn't study up on the issues before voting. I think he is right. It makes me wonder why the government and all the newspapers even give us all this reading material if no one bothers to read it. I am perplexed.

After several months of gently orienting the new housemate to recycling and the use of gray water, I find him doing a laundry every day with just a few rags and not a full load. I find soiled cans in the trash and plastic bags in the recycle bin, and the gray water will be polluted with grease and food waste requiring even more water just to clean the gray water basin. He takes at least one shower per day and flushes the toilet more than 10 times/day. He has already depleted my imported bag supply and had to buy a box of plastic bags from the store to replenish the supply. He takes the garbage out daily needing daily replacements of plastic garbage bags. All the food he buys is wrapped in individual plastic packages, and throws his CRV (return deposit) beverage containers in the trash. It is beyond his comprehension why we should conserve on plastic bags, let alone recycle according to the city requirements. Every day I pick food and cans out of the garbage, plastic bags out of the recycling. My new housemate smiles and lies to me saying he will try to get it right next time. After all, it is written in his lease that he must recycle according to the city's requirements.

The housemate contends that the "average" person doesn't do any of this. He states he is a "team player," and if the majority don't bother recycling, composting, conserving water or reducing the use of plastic, then it wastes his time to do otherwise. I was astounded at his use of wasting time as the reason not to recycle since he wastes a lot of my time talking about himself to me. I have known this man casually for many years and am well aware that most of what he says is rhetoric. In essence, he will sit for an hour watching me pick his soiled cans out of the garbage and rinse them with gray water while he goes on and on about himself, his family, his extended family, the farm in which he feels a kinship, the construction jobs he is so proud of, and his health issues. I have heard it all before. But he doesn't have time to rinse the cans out himself because he is a "team player," his team being the unknown "average" people whom he assumes never comply with the policies, laws or rules. 

In a certain sense, he is right. The average person doesn't connect their car trip to the corner store, their garbage full of plastic wrappers, single portion wrapped food items, disposable plastic eating ware, daily showers or toilet flushes with the melting ice caps, the continent of plastic in the middle of the Pacific Ocean or the fact that their citrus trees and bougainvilleas froze to death last winter or that the shoreline parking lots are now flooded.

Here is a word about ignorance. Ignorance is the condition of ignoring. To ignore is to know the facts and choose to not take heed of them. It is one thing to be a baby never having been exposed to the information. One would refer to such baby as being ignorant but in fact they are uninformed. They can't ignore what they have never known. It is entirely another case when every package of cigarettes has a lethal warning on the side and a person smokes them anyway. It is another thing when a diabetic eats a doughnut, or someone with lactose intolerance has a root beer float, or if a woman votes for a candidate who proudly admits to sexual abuse.

So, I have to conclude that my new housemate is right. The average person ignores the facts.
It is the topic for another essay what drives the average person if not facts and regard for their own welfare and the welfare of their community. And if it is isolated to the USA or if this kind of ignorance is worldwide. And if it is unique to this time in history, or if the use by people in power to convince the average person to ignore the facts has always been used throughout recorded time. And why people prefer ignorance when given a choice. All topics too extensive for today's exploration of what is average.

About feeling blue

The gift of life is very precious. We are not given life for no reason. We, the living, need to find out what that special purpose is, and then carry it out. The purpose is usually about healing the world, tikkun olam.  And like the flapping of the wings of a butterfly, everything we do affects everything and everyone else in the world just a little.

I imagine humans were created in order to help the omnipotent eternal Being develop wisdom. Limitless power and unending compassion doesn't mean that S/he is wise. It is a commandment in Judaism for all Jews to work on fixing the world. That's probably why so many world leaders have been Jewish.

Feeling down depends on a lot of reasons. Sure! Lots in life sucks! But we can't have pleasure without pain. We can't have happy without sad. Yeah. Take a pill and be neutral all the time. Ugh! Feelings and emotions are part of the mind-body complex that we have been given this time around. Without the precious gift of life, there would be no feelings. So the choice is nothing or everything. I observe my feelings with interest and seek to find the true message the emotion is trying to tell me. What lesson is there for me to learn from this emotion to make me wiser?

If the emotion is unpleasant, I observe with interest what unpleasant feelings do to my body, to my throat, my gut, the hair on my back, my heart, etc. I also observe that I feel repelled by the unpleasant emotion. I observe this all with interest. I am timeless, and currently embodied in this corporeal temple for a few years, to help the eternal One heal the world.  

In addition, a junk food diet will make anyone feel blue.  Proper nutrition including fruits and vegetables are essential for good mental health.  B-vitamin deficiency is known to cause or exacerbate mental health issues.  We take a daily vitamin over here of B-50.  It helps to keep us sane.  

Aerobic exercise gives off natural endorphins that act like anti-anxiety medication.  A sedentary lifestyle eating junk food texting to your friends on your smart phone is bound to cause metabolic changes that will make you feel depressed.  

Volunteer your time to those less fortunate than you. Their horrific stories make our woes seem so minor.  Start counting your blessings instead of focusing on the empty half of the glass.  I'm alive!  I can still walk and talk and think and feel.  I have a safe, warm, comfortable place to sleep and people who love me.  I have enough money for my needs.  I have another precious day of life for tikkun olam, to heal the world. 

The election of 1912 was very similar to today a century later

I finally finished reading "The Bully Pulpit" by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It has been an amazing read since conditions a century ago were very similar to now. Only the political parties seemed more honest.  

   2013 NYT Book review

It was mainly focused around the election of 1912, in which all 4 candidates agreed that corporate abuses were the #1 issue. All 4 candidates were in the Progressive spectrum.

Republican William Howard Taft was formerly Roosevelt's sidekick in the Progressive Republican agenda to regulate corporations, break up the Trusts, promote labor rights, and conserve land from the greedy hands of mining corporations and preserve them for the People. They favored a post office bank, child labor laws, 8-hr workdays, Workman's Comp insurance, European style social insurance, direct election of Senators, prohibition of corporate campaign donations, and a progressive income tax. Taft wanted to break up all the trusts. During his first term beginning 1908, he made a lot of compromises. By 1912, he was considered the "Conservative" of all the Progressives running.

Not being chosen by the Republican convention, former President Teddy Roosevelt felt Taft had abandoned the Progressive agenda by compromising with the corporations on some things, so he started a new party called the Progressive Party. But since everyone associated it with Roosevelt, people liked to call it the Bull Moose Party. They were also advocating women's suffrage, and the rights of referendum on 5-4 split SCOTUS decisions. His platform was that all power belongs to the People and money is to serve the People, not be master.  People are more important than property. 

On the way to Roosevelt's first speech as the Progressive candidate for President, an assassin shot Roosevelt at point blank range. The bullet was slowed by the 50-page speech he had written and folded in half to fit into his breast pocket. The bullet lodged in his rib, and he went on to give the entire speech anyway before spending the remainder of his campaign convalescing. He still beat Taft 27% to 24%. He never regained his robust health and died 6 years later of a cardiac embolus.

Calvinist intellectual Woodrow Wilson, governor of New Jersey, was the Progressive Democrat. He was chosen at the Democratic Convention on the 48th vote. Can you imagine if there were 48 votes at the upcoming Democratic Convention in Philadelphia? If so, I'm sure Bernie would be the winner! Wilson had almost the same agenda as Roosevelt and Taft. Only, Wilson was a southerner, and so firmly believed in segregation. He institutionalized segregation in many government services. He also initiated the Federal Reserve in order to control the money supply. But as a candidate, he was an anti-corporate Progressive. He won with less than 42% of the vote.

And Eugene Debbs ran as the Socialist candidate for the 4th time. No, the campaign was not conducted from prison this time; that would be 1920, when he was convicted for Sedition for speaking against the war. He was not just anti-corporate; he believed that the whole Capitalist system was wrong and was impossible to regulate. He promoted common ownership of the means of production, co-op prisons, a national bureau of health, abolition of both the Senate and the presidential veto. 

All of these Progressives envisioned an expanded role for the government beyond just national defense.  They all felt to one degree or another that the role of the government was the welfare of the People.   Unlike today, when only the Green Party expresses values like the Progressives of 1912.  Both our current Democrat and Republican Parties kowtow to Wall Street and corporate interests, just like the corrupt legislatures that the 1912 Progressive candidates were striving to fight. 

The things I liked most about this book are these:

1. Every time they described the boundless energy of Teddy Roosevelt, I thought of Aric Cordell.

2. It really put into perspective the current 2016 election when we are facing mostly the exact same issues.

3. The incredible Muckraking journalists, Ida Tarbell, Jay Baker, Lincoln Phillips, Sam McClure, etc., thought that when they exposed the corruption to the American People, that justice would prevail. They all became disillusioned understanding that the general public doesn't care a whit.

4. It contrasted the campaign styles of Roosevelt and Taft. Taft was straightforward, trustworthy, logical and linear, and wanted to be loved. Roosevelt wanted to win. He rode the public sentiment like a surfer, and learned how to manipulate the legislature in order to get what he wanted. It teaches me how much of getting political justice has to do with manipulation.