When I moved down here to the Bay Area, and accepted a new “permanent” position as an academic dean at the College of Marin, I vowed to not use my work life as fodder for blog material. I just don’t want or need the kind of scrutiny that that kind of reporting might bring.
Not that my day job isn’t worthy of some commentary. Au contraire. For now, though, I’ll continue to leave it to other folks to describe my current workplace…
When you’re down and out, When you’re on the street, When evening falls so hard I will comfort you. I’ll take your part. When darkness comes And pains is all around, Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down.
You’ll remember that two weeks ago, I was eagerly anticipating The Big Peace March scheduled for March 15 in downtown San Rafael. And, indeed, I was in attendance yesterday as a few interested citizens showed up to protest our continued involvement in Iraq.
Several hundred people attended a march and rally in downtown San Rafael on Saturday to protest the continued presence of U.S. troops in Iraq, just days before the five-year anniversary of the invasion…
In my opinion, this is truly a misrepresentation of the event.
I was there. I estimated the crowd at between 100 and 200 during the noon-time rally…after which I left. Unless there was a massive influx of participants for the actual march itself, immediately following the speeches, I believe our local reporter over-reached in doing his crowd estimate.
I found the turnout yesterday to be tremendously disappointing. As you may recall, I was similarly dismayed last year in downtown San Francisco when we gathered to protest the fourth anniversary of the war’s beginning.
My observations are more-or-less validated by a front-page article today in the San Francisco Chronicle, which states that…
The war in Iraq has gone on for five years now, but there is almost no sign of it in the Bay Area, a region where 7 million people live…
The Bay Area has a reputation for being a hotbed of anti-war sentiment, the legendary “Left Coast” where all the politicians are liberals and all the citizens are activists.
It is also the home of Travis Air Force Base, one of the country’s largest with a direct role in Iraq, and a place where anti-war protesters plan to mark the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war with parades and demonstrations.
But mostly, Bay Area people seem to have put the war in the back of their minds. They are not indifferent about the war. They just don't want to think about it.
I agree. People seem to have, mostly, put this war out of their heads: we seem to be in a kind of massive, nationwide, State Of Denial that the U.S. has so royally fucked up.
I ask: What will it take to shake us up? When are we ever going to get off our duffs and demand that this insanity stop?
Soundtrack Suggestion
Where have all the soldiers gone? Long time passing Where have all the soldiers gone? Long time ago Where have all the soldiers gone? Gone to graveyards every one When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?
This mid-winter season has been a time for a lot of non-holiday news. For example, coming out of the Midwestern and the Eastern U. S. are the results of the recent Iowa caucuses and the debates in New Hampshire. Here in the Bay Area we had a tragedy, on Christmas Day, at the San Francisco Zoo, when a tiger escaped and killed a San Jose teenager. And then police killed the tiger.
As the New Year got started, however, the biggest news here was the weather. Last Thursday, we were visited by the first of a series of impressive storms, and on Friday the most violent one hit us. On that day, there were winds that often approached hurricane force…and lots and lots of rain. Here where I live in the North Bay, we got about 4 inches of precipitation in one day, much in the form of blinding, horizontal rain. It was a little scary, especially when the power went out early on Friday morning at my apartment. And then, there were reports of the San Rafael-Richmond Bridge being closed because the winds were flipping semi trucks over in the middle of the span.
I had no idea when my power might return. There were over half a million of us without power here in the Bay Area, and no estimate for how long we would all have to live this way. Happily, my power was restored by the end of the day Friday. Right now, though, on Sunday morning, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that there are still 50,000 without power in the area.
The photo above is of Corte Madera Creek coursing its way through the College of Marin (Kentfield, CA) campus last Friday. This stream is usually a mere trickle but, on this day, it was a muddy, debris-laden, roaring force of nature.
They say the rains are going to continue, although we’re supposed to be getting things cleaned up and back to normal very soon. This morning, in the parking lot outside Starbuck’s, I talked to two PG&E linemen who asked me for directions! They told me they were here from Bakersfield to help with the devastation.
Here we are, the first day of 2008. And the interesting thing is, for a New Year’s Day, I’m feeing modestly well-rested: at least compared to other January Firsts (or July Fifths, for that matter) in recent memory.
You see, for the past however-many years, I’ve been thoroughly bothered (and kept awake) by my neighbors’ New Year’s Eve antics, especially by their seemingly universal preoccupation with fireworks. During the New Year’s Eves of 1995 through 2006, whether it was Eugene, Portland, or Roseburg; irrespective of my type of residence (house or apartment); and no matter the kind of neighborhood; I was always subjected to the inevitable distraction of fireworks and firecrackers going off outside my bedroom window until well past midnight. (I haven’t stayed up to welcome the New Year in for years.)
But: this year was different! One thing that’s changed is the state where I’m living. So, I started to wonder today if, perhaps, California has some wonderful law that prohibits (unlike Oregon) the widespread sale and distribution of these irritating noisemakers?
And, speaking of California laws, I’m reminded, in today’s San Francisco Chronicle, that we’re getting some new ones here. Effective today, it’s now illegal to smoke in a car with a passenger under the age of 18. And, although we have to wait until July 1 for this next one: it’s going to be illegal on that day, and thereafter, to drive while talking on a cell phone without a hands-free device (and prohibits the behavior entirely for anyone under 18 years old).
There I was, last Tuesday night (October 30). Minding my own business, at home. Vegging out on my sofa, watching TV.
It was a little after 8:00 p.m. (the cable box said exactly 8:05) and The Daily Show’s nightly re-run (of the previous evening’s broadcast) had just begun.
I vaguely remember that I was laughing out loud at something when: HOLY SHIT!
All of sudden it happened. It seemed as if I were, for a moment there, floating above my sofa. As if some immense cosmic force had picked me up with giant invisible hands and was joking around, having its way with me. The whole experience was a little bewildering, a lot frightening, and, weirdly, somewhat exciting.
Unlike the last time (which was actually my first time) I found myself in an earthquake situation, when I didn’t know exactly what was going on…this time there was no mistaking things: this was an earthquake! Holy craperino (I thought…), this is amazing! (And: I just hope I live through this!)
I was picked up and shaken once, then it seemed if as if there were a slight hesitation; subsequently I found myself being shaken again, even more vigorously the second time. The entire experience lasted only a few seconds, I suppose (quite literally, time seemed suspended), but that was enough for my thought processes (i.e, panic) to kick in and wonder if the whole apartment was going to detach from the building and slide down the cliff: with me scratching and clawing the entire way. To my ultimate, very painful, demise.
Then things stopped. Just. Stopped. The Daily Show continued on. The world switched back to normal, at least in my neighborhood. I continued to think and wonder: where was the epicenter? How far away was it? What must it have been like to be right ON TOP? How big was this thing, anyway?
Here’s the deal: news reports of the event listed it as a 5.6 quake, with the epicenter five miles northeast of the Alum Rock neighborhood of San Jose, along the Calaveras Fault. (I’m not exactly sure how far that is from me…but I suspect it’s at least 50 miles.) This temblor just happens to be the largest one to hit the Bay Area since the (6.9-magnitude) Loma Prieta disaster in 1989. (I safely followed news reports of that one from home on October 17…as I was watching, on TV in Corvallis, Oregon, the third game of the World Series.)
Just so you know: I’m keeping score. My arrival in the Bay Area was greeted by a 4.2 quake on July 20…just 18 days after I moved here. (It seems like only yesterday!) And, here I am again…this time experiencing the largest shaker since 1989. How (NOT!) lucky can I get?
One of the reports of Tuesday’s quake indicated that “the fault ruptured at a depth of 5.7 miles and the shaking was felt as far north as Eugene, Oregon.”
Well, good. I really wouldn’t want to have all the fun to myself. So, tell me: did any of my fine friends in the Great State of Oregon feel this thing, too?
Soundtrack Suggestion
I feel the earth move under my feet I feel the sky tumbling down, tumbling down I feel the earth move under my feet I feel the sky tumbling down I just lose control Down to my very soul I get a hot and cold all over I feel the earth move under my feet I feel the sky tumbling down, Tumbling down, tumbling down...
