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…

From the February 22 edition of the Pacific Sun (Marin County’s weekly alternative newspaper), you can read this cover-story article: “COMbustible: This Semester, College of Marin is Offering Courses in Resentment, Accusation and Infighting.”

And from the front page of today’s Marin Independent Journal (Marin County’s daily newspaper), we learn about: “College of Marin in Crisis.”

Soundtrack Suggestion

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.

(“Bridge Over Troubled Water” – Simon and Garfunkel)

Every Thursday, the San Francisco Chronicle publishes a weekend guide to entertainment and the arts that they call 96 Hours. One of the great features of this magazine is that most weeks they include the “Flickr Pickr” – a tiny section near the back of the publication designed to showcase the images of a Bay-Area photographer.

Yesterday, I received an inquiry from a photo editor at the Chronicle asking if I would like to have my Flickr images featured sometime soon.

Well, yeah…

(I’ll keep you posted.)

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.

This morning, the Marin Independent Journal reported…

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?

(“Where Have All The Flowers Gone?” – Pete Seeger)

With the results of the Wyoming caucuses now in, the difference today between Obama and Clinton is reported to be 142 delegates. The best guess is that neither candidate will garner enough in the remaining contests to go into this summer’s convention with the nomination assured.

So Hillary has recently tended to go maniacally negative. And – I hope you agree with me – Barack is looking more and more “presidential” all the time.

You had probably long-ago guessed that my candidate was John Edwards. Yes, I voted for him here in the California primary, even though by that time he had decided to call it quits. Edwards was the one that I was most drawn to: I want someone in the White House whom I can trust.

I’ll vote Democratic in November. That’s a given. And I so dearly want a candidate to vote for.

Obama is now that person. Regardless of where he stands on the issues, I see a person who is intelligent, articulate, level-headed, and honest-to-god leadership material. In Barack, I believe we have someone who has the potential to actually unite this country.

Obama is against the war. He’ll get us out – somehow. I really don’t care about the fine-print differences in the proposed healthcare plans. I trust that he’ll gather other smart people around him and lead us out of this recession.

And that he’ll inspire a sense of pride in being an American, for a change.

Should Hillary win the nomination, come November I’ll hold my nose and vote (not for her, but) against McCain. I submit that Obama’s recently-departed foreign-policy advisor Samantha Power was correct when she labeled Hillary a “monster.” Too bad she (Power) had to lose her job over such an obvious (though “negative”) truth.

It’s Hillary who is not presidential material. She is not a person to trust. It’s Hillary to watch your back for.

I choose Obama.

Soundtrack Suggestion

I’m a young soul in this very strange world hoping I could learn a bit about what is true and fake.
But why all this hate?
Try to communicate.
Finding trust and love is not always easy to make.

(“New Soul” -- Yael Naim)

For the last two years I’ve written about, and posted photographs from, the peace demonstrations I’ve attended. As we are all too-well-aware, “W” first lied to us, then took us to war with Iraq in March of 2003. Every year since then we’ve taken to the streets during this month to mark the tragic anniversary.

In 2006, I participated in the event in Portland, OR…the largest gathering of anti-war folk that I’ve ever been a part of. Last year, I traveled from my temporary residence in Roseburg, OR, to march in San Francisco.

As no mass weekend demonstration is apparently taking place in San Fran this year (mid-week activities are planned), I am going to attend the Big Peace March in downtown San Rafael, CA (the county seat of Marin).

Please join me, if you can, on Saturday, March 15.

Soundtrack Suggestion

Now I’ve been happy lately, thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be, something good has begun
Oh I’ve been smiling lately, dreaming about the world as one 
And I believe it could be, some day it’s going to come
Cause out on the edge of darkness, there rides a peace train 
Oh peace train take this country, come take me home again

(“Peace Train” – Cat Stevens)