The World

Breathing

Bob Reid — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 10:16:00 GMT

There is this place

in my house

where . . .

if I breathe

deeply enough

I can smell

rosemary

and strawberries

cinnamon

and chocolate

It lingers . . .

The smells are so light . . .

but so tangible . .

I feel as though I could reach out

with my tongue

and taste them . .

mingled there

together

in the air

No longer

separate

Forever

intertwined

George Levenson . . . a period at the end of his sentence, or a comma?

Bob Reid — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 08:51:00 GMT

I went to a memorial service for George on Sunday. I have been meaning to write about it, but in some ways it seems so monumental. There was so much to think about! The way he lived his life, how people thought about him, how he thought about himself, how he chose to die . . . I thought about how we had always talked about doing a project together and as I sat there I realized that we had! One of the songs sung at his memorial was a song he had asked me to record with my kids. "In Your Own Backyard". I felt part of the fold.

George was a political science professor, who became disillusioned with the world of academia. He and his wife, left Toronto, for the mystical land of Santa Cruz and grew pumpkin roots. He lived life on his terms, or at least,more on his terms than most people I encounter. It was inspiring to hear his friends and family tell their George stories.

I did not know the circumstances of his death. It became evident that his death had been lived as the rest of his life, on his terms. That's how I chose to see it. He was diagnosed with Bone Cancer and rather than giving his body to the medical profession, he accepted whatever the experience had to give him. I was awestruck by his ability to remain constant.

I remember how, after making some possibly profound statement, he would say, "But, Hey! I'm just a guy!" It was a good reminder to me of how entranced we become in the aura of others.

At least, this year, I will plant some pumpkins for George!

These Times!

Bob Reid — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 05:42:00 GMT

An editorial in the New York Times today said,

"Not since the Roaring Twenties have the rich been so much richer than everyone else. In 2005, the latest year for which figures are available, the top 1 percent of Americans — whose average income was $1.1 million a year — received 21.8 percent of the nation’s income, their largest share since 1929.
Over all, the top 10 percent of Americans — those making more than about $100,000 a year — collected 48.5 percent, also a share last seen before the Great Depression.
Those findings are no fluke. They follow a disturbing rise in income concentration in 2003, and a sharp increase in 2004. And the trend almost certainly continues, spurred now as then by the largess of top-tier compensation, and investment gains that also flow mainly to the top. For the bottom 90 percent of Americans who are left with half the pie, average income actually dipped in 2005. The group’s wages picked up in 2006, but not enough to make up for the lean years of this decade."

And this from Ben Muse

"Now Rosenbloom and Stutes have pushed back a little further - to 1870 - using data on property ownership from the 1870 Census. They find evidence that overall wealth inequality in 1870 was similar to, and maybe somewhat higher than, the post-World War II distribution.
Rosenbloom and Stutes conclude:
Compared to estimates for the early twentieth century, the distribution of wealth at the national level... was relatively equal. In 1870 the top 1 percent of wealth holders owned 27.9 percent of all property, about one-third less than was the case in 1916. Thus, wealth inequality increased substantially during the period of rapid American industrialization in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The rise in inequality associated with increasing industrialization was prefigured in the pattern of cross-sectional variation in inequality in 1870. Inequality varied considerably across states, and much of this variation reflected differences in urbanization and manufacturing employment across states. For the most part more rural and agricultural states enjoyed a higher level of equality. The exception to this rule was, of course, the South, which remained in 1870 highly rural and agricultural. This exception is explained, however, by the legacy of slavery, which apparently permitted the emergence during the antebellum period of a much more unequal distribution of property than occurred in the North. This inequality managed to survive after the Civil War despite the strong negative effect of emancipation on overall levels of wealth holding in the South."

(Joshua L. Rosenbloom and Gregory W. Stutes, "Reexamining the Distribution of Wealth in 1870"; NBER Working Paper 11482, June 2005)

Ignorance

Bob Reid — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 08:34:00 GMT

I have been captivated by this word for the last couple of days. I have been tempted to look it up in a dictionary, but first, I wanted to play with it a little and see what I might reveal to myself.

I have equated this word with "lacking knowledge', but it jumps out at me that there is an obvious connection with the reason for the "lacking of knowledge".

To "ignore" would seem to be a willful act of resisting information. Ignorance would, therefore, be the state one would be in as a result of the act of "ignoring".

I used to use ignorance as an excuse for people, who I felt were not responding to the world around them, including myself. Now I have to look at that and realize that if I am not responding out of my ignorance, I deserve much less of a break than I was giving myself.

A willful act of ignoring information seems much more dangerous to me . . . and less forgivable.

Remembering David . . .

Bob Reid — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 08:09:00 GMT

Yesterday was a powerful day!

I filled out the forms and picked up the key to the Clubhouse for our Family Sing on Sunday, zipped up to San Lorenzo Elementary School in Felton, to drop off a couple of fliers about it and then hustled out to Watsonville (no relation), to check out the situation for David Watson's service at the church.

I hadn't heard back about my offer to sing at the service, except a phone message from Hiroko, David's widow, saying that she would love to have me sing. I was supposed to hear from his sister, who was organizing things, but no word had come. I thought I would show up early and be flexible. If I sang, I sang. I understand how difficult it is to organize something like this under duress.

I got to the church and did my homework and waited. There were a few people there, one I knew, they had come early to make sure they got good seats. As time passed the church began filling and I saw many people I knew from my experiences at the Charter school that David and I had been parents at. There were also many faces that I recognized from the retreat for the High School faculty and administration.

The presence of David's identical twin, Peter, was unnerving to more than a few people. I liked to see it as David getting to se his own funeral and hear what people had to say about him.

I saw the husband of one of my former housemates, from long ago, and he came over to talk and in the process mentioned that I ws on the priest's list of people to speak. I thanked him for telling me (I hope!), and went to introduce myself to the priest and find out when in the service I would be. He was very warm and helpful and I felt much at home, waling around the altar looking for places to plug in to the sound system. In the end, I decided to rely on the acoustics of the church, which worked beautifully. I was inspired by the women who sang before me. Their harmonies were so rich and lovely without the artificial sound of amplification.

I sang "Mr. Ryan", David Roth's song about a teacher and student exchanging gratitude. There were many tears and I made it through the song without falling apart myself, thought there was a moment when I was singing, "Thank you for the music, Mr. Ryan" when I looked at the casket, and felt David's body inside, and almost melted.

I was concerned that the song might be received as too light, or inappropriate, but it was what I felt needed to be sung, thought there were other songs I knew would work well. "Where Am I Going?" would have been perhaps another choice, but in this environment, everyone seemed pretty sure where that final destination would be. That might have made some people uncomfortable in their own home. I didn't want to do that. Afterwards, I received much validation of my choice, which was helpful.

At the memorial at the high school, a more informal, more casual affair, there was food and a microphone set up for people to share remembrances of David. I was deeply moved by the presence of Roxy Brown, a girl I have known for many years, who led the memorial at the school. I had the honor of coaching her on a softball team, many years ago. Before that, she used to see me coming and drop whatever she was doing and run to me. She made me a bit uncomfortable with her adulation of me. We got over that when I was her coach, though there has always been a fondness and connection.

She and her mother acquired a couple of mustang horses and I came out and helped them with them and hopefully, steered them in the right direction. I wound up living on the ranch they boarded their horses at. I had gone to the ranch because they had recommended it as a boarding facility. I moved my own horses there and liked it enough to get myself there, too.

I hadn't spent much time around them since they left the ranch. I watched Roxy play softball a couple of times, for the Watsonville team. She played with and against girls I had also coached, or knew from coaching.

Roxy Brown is one of my heroes! It is absolutely amazing to me that she and David's daughter, Mary, are friends. They are two of the best people I have met in my life. Knowing one of them, is reason for hope! Knowing both, is reason to dream!

A CEO Speaks Out on Terrorism!!

Bob Reid — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 12:00:00 GMT

There is an excellent report written by Richard Vague on the many facets of Terrorism, our involvement in Iraq and our relationship with the Middle East.

A good way to navigate it is at The Washington Note

I haven't read it all yet, but what I have read is refreshing and rings true!

David Watson

Bob Reid — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 11:24:00 GMT

I had the opportunity to sing for the faculty and administration of Watsonville High School a week, or so ago. That happened because David, who teaches Freshman English, knew me, suggested to someone else on the faculty that it would be nice to have me at the retreat.We had an intimate gathering in the chapel that night. David was the one responsible for getting me to stick around to sing, as I was on my way out of the door.

It was a pleasure for me to sing the songs I wanted to sing and have a willing audience. David was beaming the whole time. I didn't know him all that well. he had been a parent at the charter school that I co-chaired the management team of. He was very supportive of me during that time.

I coached his daughter, Mary, in soccer. She is a truly wonderful person. She would be the first person picked if we were choosing sides. It is a tribute to him that she is his daughter.

I learned that he had suffered a heart attack on Friday and died. I am still a bit dazed by it. For some reason this proximity to death has stood me up straight. I know . . . that we never know . . . It has given me pause.

World Economic Forum News!

Bob Reid — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 08:13:00 GMT

The BBC reports

"Professor Tyson pointed to what she saw as potentially the biggest long-term threat, the growing inequalities in the world.

More and more workers were losing out on the gains of globalisation, especially in the middle classes, who had seen their wages "compressed".

She quoted research suggesting that the average American had not benefited from globalisation. The gains of the $1 trillion in extra income reaching the US appeared to have gone to the top 10% of society.

Given these numbers, politicians would find it increasingly difficult to convince voters that globalisation was a good thing for everybody - even if in the long-term that was indeed the case - Professor Tyson said."

Revealing My Naiveite

Bob Reid — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 07:37:00 GMT

From Jon Carrol's column January 18th - "When I started here, every editor had a list of names. If any of those names should pop up in police reports, divorce suits or on party guest lists, the publisher was to be notified before any story ran. Photographs of certain important members of society were always airbrushed (or, as you might say today, Photoshopped), sometimes quite heavily -- the artists posted a small collection of the most egregious examples on the back wall."

I find this amazing! Not so much that it is true, but that someone inside the paper actually letting us see how things are done.

So, what other perks of power are there?

It helps me to flesh out how Edward Bernays' "men behind the curtain" get to operate in the dark. They, and their confederates, own the media, and there are considerations made to promote their interests.

From the Wikipedia entry on Bernays-

"Bernays defined the profession of "counsel on public relations" as a "practicing social scientist" whose "competence is like that of the industrial engineer, the management engineer, or the investment counselor in their respective fields." To assist clients, PR counselors used "understanding of the behavioral sciences and applying them—sociology, social psychology, anthropology, history, etc." In Propaganda, his most important book, Bernays argued that the scientific manipulation of public opinion was necessary to overcome chaos and conflict in society:

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ... We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. ... In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons ... who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind."

A New Year . . . .

Bob Reid — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 08:23:00 GMT

It is a good way through this first month of this new year and I haven't much taken a look at what I see around me these days.

Yes, I know that this year thing is arbitrary and that time isn't so linear, that the rings in this tree are circular, but they also progress. I have marched through those checkpoints and find myself here at 56, still hoping to find some understanding of this experience.

We just celebrated the life of Martin Luther King, and continued the battle over just "Who was he?" and "What did he stand for?".

I fell down on the job. I had intended to facilitate an opportunity for people to sit together to listen to his speeches, so that he would have a chance to speak for himself without being interpreted by someone with their own agenda. Let the man speak for himself, something he was so good at. I suppose I still could . . .

I am taking on addressing disposable bags this year. I think there is an opportunity to create a conscious moment when we are offered that bag when we shop. I am working with the creator of a little nylon reusable bag that folds into it's own pouch. It is called a ChicoBag. I intend to start a campaign to replace paper and plastic bags in Santa Cruz. I hope that the result will connect people with the idea that they actually can make a difference and that small actions can have large outcomes. I will be approaching the larger businesses to get them to donate funds to purchase bags that can then be given out. Granite Rock Construction has purchased 1000 bags for their employees and are interested in participating in getting some into the schools. it is a promising little project. I am excited to be putting my time and energy into it. I shall keep you posted!