Relay For Life and the moral compass

I posted the note below in April 2009, after a successful Relay For Life. We'll be doing the Relay again next month, this time not at the behest of the kids, though some of them will be joining us. This time we adults have some personal drive to Relay, as many people we love have been touched or taken by cancer this year.

When I read the story at LifeNews calling for a boycott of Relay For Life and likening participation to supporting Nazi  experiments at Dachau, I decided to revisit this issue.

We can have a conversation on stem cell research, sure.  I will insist that you understand 1) we are not talking about embryos but about cells that are destined for destruction, and 2)  someone close to me has been benefiting from all that research lately so my opinion is more hardened now.

What I won't do is offer respect to or "tolerance" to the idea that a community coming together to raise precious funds for research, education, and care can be compared in any way to Nazis, or the suggestion that any compassionate God would tell a kid or their parent to stand down when given the opportunity to be of help. 

When I write below about the baggage that comes with the word "religion", this is what I mean. I have come to terms with the fact that a large minority of "Christians" have hijacked the very concept in order to construct a world in their own image. They make me terribly angry, but I can hold the concept of religion apart from them.  I don't wonder why other people, especially young people, can't, however.

Anyway, my note below. It was popular a couple of years ago. I still feel pretty good about it.

 April 27, 2009

So yes, this weekend was all about Relay for Life. And in addition to the tired and the proud and the giggles I brought home with me, I brought some thoughts that keep swirling through my brain.

 First, I should make clear: we relay because some of our kids feel very strongly about this cause. One of them has been relaying every year since he lost his mom to cancer. A couple more wanted to get involved when their grandmother was diagnosed. So we relay as a team because they asked: not because the grown ups thought it was a swell idea.

 But that's not what my note is about. My note is about who my community is, who our kids are, and how sick I am of being told by mainstream so-called moral leaders that religious or political liberalism means the death of a moral society.

 The Relay kicks off with a ceremony. The Boy Scouts raise the flag, followed by the pledge of allegiance and the singing of the national anthem. Then there's a prayer.

 My kids are in a church group, yes. But some of them (most, maybe) have difficulty with identifying themselves as "religious", for many of the same reasons that liberal adults do. "Religion", unfortunately, is a word with baggage. It carries with it notions of dogma and conformity and unreason. It brings visions of group-think and bigotry and mob mentality. It carries an idea of "God" that many are uncomfortable with.

 So we try to talk a lot about what it means to be us- to be a part of a liberal religion, where we are encouraged to figure it all out according to our own conscience, and to support each other on our paths. We talk of religion as a joining together, rather than as a school of thought.

 So a local minister offered a prayer on Saturday morning.

 He began rather beautifully. He asked for God to be with us as we recall the people we've lost, as we celebrate the people who're still fighting, to recognize and be with us in our pain. I'm a Universalist at heart, and so it's reflexive for me to translate certain words so that they work for my own spirituality. I don't have to picture or to speak to that minister's idea of God, and I don't ask for direct intercession while I hear and internalize his words. That's not part of my world.

 And this is the kind of prayer I am comfortable discussing with the kids. How we can take the prayer and make it meaningful to ourselves, appreciate the love that the minister is trying to communicate, respect the fact that he has a very different path than we do.

 Ah, but then he went on.

 He began to speak to his God about the sins of our society, the things we do, the policies we embrace, which are against God and which doom us to things like cancer.

 He went on to decry the removal of prayer from schools, and how we're raising successive generations of Americans without a moral compass.

 At that point, I checked out. Literally. I left the stands and went on a supply run, thinking all the way out, speak for yourself, asshole.

 Because my kids- and especially my son- do not lack a "moral compass". They somehow do not need engraved tablets to tell them how to behave in a civilized society. They somehow have developed empathy and compassion and respect without prayer in school, or, for that matter, in church.

 They have these things because they are each brilliant and deep and they are encouraged to think about what they believe, about what responsible action means, about what they want the world to look like and what their place is in that world. They have these inherent qualities because they are surrounded with family and community who care about them and who model right behavior, and who demand the same from them.

My kids weren't tramping around making noise and talking loudly during the Luminaria ceremony and the reading of the names. My kids weren't stealing food and making disgusting messes that no one cleaned up. My kids weren't yelling "GIMME THAT, YOU QUEER!" at each other in the middle of the night. My kids are silly and passionate, and held forth on neuroscience and male/female differences and ageism and a host of other topics all night, challenging the adults when they didn't agree with us. 

My kids weren't unchaperoned. While the majority of the teen teams were completely without responsible traditional Christian adults all night, my kids had crazy liberal grown ups sitting with them in camp, and they put up with my nagging (and usually reassure me that it's ok when I nag like the middle aged mom that I am).

My kids, in short, rock. And they're the people that I want to create society as they grow. They're the ones who give me hope that the world will not only go on, but will become a better place, in small ways and large, as they take charge.

So stop telling me that liberalism is the scourge of morality.

And no, my son doesn't need your prayer in his school. He'd only question it afterward, anyway, and I doubt the faculties of the local middle and high schools posses the background in theology you'd need to argue with him or answer his questions.

Thanks a lot, asshole

At the gas station this morning, and this story came over my local NPR station.

One person injured during altercation at healthcare rally in T.O.

TPM's already got a link up, so the story isn't staying local. There are, as well, conflicting eye-witness accounts of the incident, who did what, the usual. The basic facts are not disputed, though: an anti-reformer and a pro-reformer mixed it up, and the anti-reformer got his finger bitten off at the first knuckle.

Depressing that a pro-reform demonstrator committed assault? Oh, absolutely. Here we've been asserting all summer that we just want a discussion based on fact, that we're trying to be rational and democratic (please note the small d), while the opposition is intent on pushing crazy paranoid junk and intimidation. And someone here in my little town just lost it and irresponsibly engaged in confrontation, and committed assault.

Dude, whoever you are: that's MY corner you just shit on, and I don't really care who started it.

That's the corner where we demonstrated every weekend from November 2002 through March 2003 against war with Iraq, the corner we've returned to many times since, to rally or to mourn. That's the corner where we stood silently while people yelled obscenities at us, that's the corner where we stood in pouring rain while Catholic schoolgirls engaged in counter-demonstration across the street.

That's the corner where I stood smiling, eyes full of tears, as teenagers gleefully and proudly joined our ranks in support of marriage equality and against discrimination in all its forms.

That's the corner where we have peacefully gathered and sometimes cried and always been respectful, reminding our neighbors that here in Reagan country, there is a liberal population.

And that's the corner where I have personally engaged in some amazing conversations, like the time a young Army recruit came to ask me to explain if we could support the troops and oppose the war. The Catholic schoolgirls I mentioned above, who were really very brave, out there in the rain, and we talked about Catholic beliefs (Pope John Paul, remember, spoke out against the invasion of Iraq), and how they could support the invasion if they understood that civilians would die.

I wasn't there last night. I haven't been there for a demonstration since shortly after prop 8 passed. I don't respond to the MoveOn organizing emails lately, because there are several people here in the Conejo who are well-connected and can be relied upon to answer the call (in fact, often several people put up the same event). They're very good at this, so I'm not much needed, really.

One thing you can generally count on at larger demonstrations is that there will be a group charged with being peacemakers. Often, their jobs will be to just keep the two sides physically apart. At the 2004 March for Women's Lives in DC, attendees were asked to come to peacekeeper training the night before. During the March, peacekeepers often formed human chains, arms linked, keeping the marchers separated from the anti-abortion protesters who staged a "die-in" at the front of the march (they were removed by law enforcement), and stationed in clumps along the way. At Camp Casey in the summer of 2005, a firm no-man's-land was monitored by both the local police (who were wonderful, and friends of the Camp) and designated campers. In both cases, in addition to the peacekeepers, all attendees were admonished at the start to refrain from engaging the other side in anger.

In TO, the corner has always been so small, 35 to 150 people, and always familiar faces. Organized peacekeeping hasn't been necessary. Individuals reminding each other to behave is really all it's ever taken. There has been no hard fast rule about crossing the street, because people who cross the street do so to shake hands and agree that we all have good intentions. 

(Ok, there was the one time I lost it on a neo-Nazi, but I'm only human and anyway once I realized I was screaming I forced myself to walk away.)

So it would seem that the conversation in this country has become so heated that even here, in little TO, the civility of the population cannot be taken for granted anymore. I'm sickened that our corner was disgraced last night. I'm wondering if I feel a responsibility to be there from now on, or if I'm having grandiose notions of just how much help am.

I have no wise conclusions as of this morning. I'm just sad, and angry too.

Incidentally, it's interesting, in a vaguely nauseating way, that the intensity of emotion over health care reform trumps the public concern over the invasion of Iraq.

More on public education

Earlier, I posted,

I really believe that a lot of parents make the choice to keep their kids out of the public school system because they have been told, over and over again, that it won't serve them, and the only solution is home-schooling or vouchers.

Over at Salon today, a conversation with Sandra Tsing Loh caught my eye.

Loh's kids are in a school district about 2 over from mine, LAUSD. LAUSD is a behemoth, and it is legendarily hard to find a good neighborhood school within its confines. As a mom without the resources to fund the recommended $25k per year private schools in her area, she did something unheard of: she went to her neighborhood school to see what they could offer.

When I was at public radio looking at kindergartens for [my older daughter] Madeline, for months I did not meet anybody who had their kids in public school in Los Angeles, which is really shocking. I'm a journalist so my friends are journalists: magazines, newspapers, even public radio. Nobody had their kids in public school. That's why I would never think of just going to the corner school and poking my head in. Because that's like going to the DMV.

[snip]

I started doing these questionnaires. I'd say, "OK, before we get started: On a scale of 1-10, how terrified are you of your local kindergarten?" 11! "Have you ever set foot inside that kindergarten?" No! "Do you know any living soul who has ever set foot inside that school?" No! "How do you know the school is so bad?" Uh, neighbor ...? Nobody had any direct experience of that school, but they were so terrified.

So what happens when you take the chance and look inside?

At our school, they're learning to read like gangbusters, the teachers are great, the solids are definitely there. But they didn't have instrumental music. So I found out that VH1 gives grants of new musical instruments to schools, and I did a lot of fancy footwork to get these instruments to our school. Sometimes with these school grants, it's like the Mafia truck drives up and stereos fall off. And it's like, get the stereos! I don't know where we'll put them, but get them! It was like that with these instruments. We got them, and then I had to find a music teacher and then pay the music teacher. It was a bit of a thing to unravel. Yet for me it was sort of fun.

We needed an after-school program. We didn't have one. And our PTA, we were able to start an after-school program with arts and crafts -- and even piano. Piano lessons, they're $55 for half an hour to teach a 6-year-old. We can't afford that either. And if we don't have affordable piano lessons, no one will play the piano. So we got these affordable lessons. I'm in a pocket of bohemian parents who have a little extra time and can teach an art or craft class. Five dollars a lesson, maybe $6, pretty cheap. We scholarship people for free and we still have money left to pay our violin teacher. It's an economy of scale. We know how to rub quarters together and make something.

The public schools need our personal, community, and political support, not the hand wringing. Not the dropping out, by way of home school or private academies. Tsing Loh makes this point,

And I think that goes back to the public school thing, where on one affluent block, in Los Angeles, every morning about 7 a.m. you see the four Lexuses and Range Rovers bolting out of the driveways and going to four different private schools in four different remote parts of the city. If they each just went to the corner public school and took one year of tuition -- $25,000 a year -- and put it into that school for one year, that would be $100,000. That school could buy a new gym, and everyone would save so much money -- you'd save gas, you'd save the planet -- if people just looked around and started thinking a little more communally rather than competitively.

Where I live, in the land of really decent public schools, the hand-wringing and opting out contribute almost as much to the district's difficulties as the budget shortfalls do. I read comment in the local paper a few weeks ago (paraphrasing):

Both of my kids went to private school, so I don't know very much about the local public schools. But I've seen the results: not pretty.

Really? Because I work with teens, and over the past 8 or 9 years I've watched my public-schooled teens go off to prestigious colleges. I've watched them work really hard through high school, in band, in sports, in internship programs with scientific labs. I've seen the way they work in community, heard them express their ideas, their values, and their bemusement over what on earth the adults are so freaked out about.

I've seen the same things from private and home-schooled kids. And I've seen adolescent angst turn into late teen torpor and worried about how best to guide them back in progress and growth. Whether their schooling has been public, private, or at home, the kids are, essentially, kids.

Unfortunately, the tide in this town seems to be turning toward elite selfishness, with parents demanding special charter schools for their special kids, threatening to drop out of the district if they don't get their way, and a school board election coming up which, I fear, will elect a board weighted with cultural extremists who've told the parents that they should have everything they want, and left out the facts that they will also push for prayer in schools and probably the teaching of ID.

We'll see.

But a word of advice to new parents of 4 year olds here in California: read Tsing Loh's article, and then go down to your local school and get to know it.

Mike Dunn needs to share, too

In comments, bookslinger recommends Dunn's recent letter to the TO Acorn. I had read the letter and wanted to write about it, thanks to bookslinger for prompting me to just do it. As bookslinger notes:

It is telling that not once does he mention the students which he serves, in his letter about "what makes (him) tick."

Indeed. What he does say is this:

Here's what makes me tick:

I grew up in the 1950s eating graham crackers dipped in milk while watching television on a 1956 Packard Bell with wooden knobs. Superman, Roy Rogers, Billy Graham Crusades, Ozzie and Harriet, Mighty Mouse, Disneyland, Lawrence Welk, Lassie and the Untouchables with Elliott Ness were favorites.

The 1950s instilled in me a sense of optimism, faith, justice, morality and patriotism. I still have the 1956 Packard Bell TV, and it works.

Our congressman was a Democrat, James Charles Corman. Corman was born in Galena, Cherokee County, Kansas, on Oct. 20, 1920. He moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1933. Corman served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps with the 3rd Marine Division from 1942 to 1946. He was in the Bougainville, Guam and Iwo Jima actions. He was my congressman from 1961 to 1981.

Congressman Corman did something I never forgot: he conducted polls before he voted. Our family would get a letter about every three months asking our opinion of about three different issues. Corman would tabulate the results and then vote, representing the wishes of voters in his district.

I loved Corman. He was a war hero. He conducted polls. He listened to the people. He was honest, uncorruptable. He represented the people when he voted.

He listened to the people.

When I got elected to the Conejo Valley Unified School District School Board, Corman became my mentor and the example that I've followed as a trustee.

Following Corman's example, I polled teachers asking when they wanted Christmas vacation to start. The result: Union bosses Arliegh Kidd and Susan Falk issued a complaint that I violated the labor code. I polled PTA presidents seeking opinions on school closures. The result: Trustees Dolores Didio and Dorothy Beaubien gave me a "Stalin style" no witness, show trial and censured me. Didio and Beaubien should retire.

James Charles Corman, congressman, war hero, family man, my mentor, my example to follow, died in 2001 at 80 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Corman and Ronald Reagan are my heroes.
Michael Dunn
Newbury Park

Oh god, where to start.

There's this romantic movie called "The 1950s". Fans of this movie become so engrossed in the beautifully written plot that they cannot, will not, netflix something new for a change. It's "The 1950s" or nothing, because this movie is the height of human achievement, the nexus of imagination and moral fortitude.

But all they're really talking about is a movie. And it's not like it's a documentary. It's just a movie.

I grew up in the 1970s, and while fans of "The 1950s" really only see the drug scenes and permissive sex scenes, my movie has its own optimism. I grew up optimistic about the equality of women and racial minorities being, you know, normal. SOP. I also got to watch the moon landing on TV- the culmination of a decade of a governmental and societal drive toward progress and science.

Growing up in Southern California in the 1970s, you could believe that racism was a thing almost of the past, and that sexism soon would be. When my grandmother told me that Martin Luther King was a trouble maker and the KKK were upright citizens, I could chalk that up to the outdated memories of an old southern woman. And when Phylis Schafly and friends put out their hysterical tripe about the ERA and how it would be the ruin of American women, you could hope that their craziness was a soon to be vanished backlash against necessary and just change.

And I never, no never, thought of or heard anything about a war on Christianity, of all things. Saying Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays hadn't yet become a political statement.

So my own personal movie is optimistic and hopeful, but also cautious and not a little bit disappointed in the way a certain sector of society and opinion seems to have taken on the identity of the victim, howling about the low returns they're getting on their goddamn movie, "The 1950s".
(Hey: remember that the top tax rates in the '50s jumped around in the 80% range most of the time? Which meant that a lot of the optimism of that decade was given solid grounding in the building of vital infrastructure and the funding of priorities deemed important by the American people.)

Mr. Dunn: there was nothing "Stalin style" about your censure on the school board (Also note that in future, for stylistic purposes, you may want to use stalinesque).

There are rules in any governing body, you chose not to learn them. You said that taking training would be agreeing to brainwashing. You were given the opportunity to apoligize and stop acting like a spoiled ass, you chose to chew your gum and cross your arms and continue acting like a spoiled ass.

Of course, you weren't censured for being an ass; that would in itself be against the rules. You were censured for breaking the rules.

So, this open society you fear so deeply- the one where there is no right or wrong, only what feels good, the one that you're pretty sure George Soros is forcing us into- is this in evidence when you flout governmental rules and standards of decent behavior in your work on the school board?

Ignoring the rules of the governing body you've been elected to serve on: would that be right, because its in some way respectful of the rules? Or wrong, because you are just doing what feels good to you, based on your love of a fictionalized plot that you developed all on your own?

PS: I don't serve on the board and I haven't asked any of the members, but I'm betting that if you really wanted the teachers' opinions on anything, there's probably a means to legally ask for said opinions. That might mean asking someone who knows the ropes to advise you as to the how.

Local lunacy

In addition to the local coverage I get from the Ventura County Star, the paper has commenting and blogs, and forums (which have declined and become icky and boring over the last couple of years). So I like to get a flavor of what people around here are thinking from the Star's website.

There are different commenters in different sections: people in the forums tend to stay in the forums (thank god). People who follow the local blogs tend to sound more thoughtful. The comments sections in the news and opinion pages often degenerate into flame wars, but it's interesting to check which stories will bring out which people, and which will generate the most ire.

Anyway. It's been a full week, so I figure I'll catch up on a couple of local threads that caught my eye over the past few days.

School Board Trustee Mike Dunn: still an asshole

I serve on a board, and one thing I know for sure: if the board is going to get anything done well, there has to be a certain amount of cohesion and respect for the board itself among members.

This means communicating with other trustees before you try to build a cabal of opposition or support for one of your pet issues, among others things. Mike Dunn will never be able to conduct himself appropriately, and I think he's too dumb to understand it.

Dorothy Beaubien, president of the Conejo Valley Unified School District board, said she received an e-mail from fellow Trustee Mike Dunn calling on her to "retire with dignity" instead of seeking re-election this fall.

In the e-mail, sent July 4, Dunn told Beaubien that she should retire "or be humiliated and lose the next election."

Which was Dunn's response to Beaubien's calling him out:

In the e-mail to Dunn that he said sparked his July 4 response, Beaubien reprimanded him for sending an e-mail to the charter school president "that was intended for the board" and called this action "unconscionable." She did not elaborate on the communication between Dunn and charter proponents.

"You are either very stupid or very vicious and conniving. Again, you have caused the district embarrassment and made it difficult for the board to work as a unit," Beaubien wrote in her e-mail. "What a sad thing that this community must put up with your antics for two more years."

Whatever you think of her words, Dunn was apparently trying- again- to build his cabal without communicating to other board members.

I'm not privy to their internal workings, but from where I'm sitting I'd say that the proper thing for him to do if he wants to share information with people outside the board is simply this: email the other board members first and say, "I really think we should share this with the parent group," or whomever. In fact, send the communication noting that the entire board wanted it forwarded.

That, however, would not feed Dunn's self-promoted persona of being the sole man of the people on the board. The only reason he does this is to build political division. It has nothing to do with the health of the district.

Dunn "often gets a bad rap, but he is trying really hard to keep communication open with the charter to make sure he understands, and I think other board members are trying to control that communication," Hartsuyker said. "He wants to hear what people say, and I respect that."

No, he's using you.

In his e-mail, Dunn wrote that a former Conejo Valley resident has contributed $8,000 to his political action committee and the Ventura County Republican Party to defeat Beaubien and Didio in November. He wrote that Citizens for a Better CVUSD, another political action committee, "is already running ads against you and Dolores. Blue Ribbon schools are being closed. CVUSD students are leaving our schools to attend other neighboring public schools." [snip..] Dunn "is bringing in the Republican Party, which is trying to deal with a nonpartisan election," Contini said. "One needs to ask, Are we talking about running to win or running to serve?' I don't see anything there about serving kids."

This particular bit of Dunn's positioning is all about division and creating a partisan board. Nothing else.

Dear editors

I know: the 'Opinion' page is made up of opinion, not reporting. I know that it's an important journalistic tradition, and that the free press demands a free opinion page.

I'm cool with that.

I do wish, though, that the Star and every other news paper in the country would just ask their columnists- at the very least- not to lie. That would seem to be a pretty minimal standard, asking opinion writers to opine on fact, rather than calculated partisan fiction.

Take, for example, Terry Paulson.

In his column this week (Energy Independence Now), he makes some pretty dubious claims:

While politicians demand more oil from overseas, we sit on oil reserves that are the envy of the world.

Really? The envy of Saudi Arabia? Of Iraq? Of Canada? Venezuela? US oil production reached peak in the '70s, and while we certainly have more reserves, even untapped reserves, there isn't much evidence indicating that tapping them now would lead us to energy independence.

What would lead us there is getting off our addiction to a finite resource. But since people like Terry must support the line of the current administration ("Conservation is a personal virtue" and "So long from the world's biggest polluter"), even when giving alternate energy resources a nod, they must press the delusion that the oil is there, and it is ours for the taking.

All of that is just opinionating, though, so of course it has a place in the editorial pages. What I really have a problem with is this:

When Hurricanes Katrina and Rita roared through the Gulf's 3,000 offshore oil and gas platforms, no major spills were recorded.

Now, if you're going to let someone write something that easily disproved (in fact, the oil spill could be seen from space), maybe just a note from the news bureau at the bottom of the column?

It just tears my hide when lies are published without challenge on the pages of a newspaper.

Oh, and although this isn't a lie, I can't pass up commenting on

France generates 80 percent of its energy needs through nuclear power and safely handles the waste; so can we!

France has a significant regulatory structure. And as this government can't seem to figure out how to keep e coli out of my food, and refuses to address weaknesses is chemical manufacturing and transport, I'd prefer not to complicate their to-do list with enforcement and protection of nuclear power plants.

Things are getting exciting around here...

So Mittens came to Thousand Oaks yesterday, to raise money for Tony Strickland's campaign.

I may have mentioned that I'm not a Strickland fan.

Because he wasn't getting enough attention from the Green Wave Energy BS, I suppose, he decided to accept a bunch of money from big tobacco, further exciting the passions of local liberals, democrats, and at least one republican, according to the local paper.

But tobacco money isn't nearly enough to buy yourself a seat so you can peddle your influence and reap in cash, so Romney came to town to tell the folks that Tony has the solutions to California's budget crisis, among other things.

A couple of years ago, I doubt this would have brought more than a few people out of doors, but yesterday, apparently Audra's chief of staff and some suited young republicans clashed with protesters in front of the Hyatt on Westlake Blvd.

The Star's story is here. Ok story, amusing comments thread. (Note to commenter Dmeeks: When you wrote: "The Strickland supporters had been at their location with no problems and it was the protesters and anti-Strickland crowd who caused the "tussle". How sad." the words "how sad" out you. You're a concern troll, and probably lying.)

Better coverage is at Brian Dennert's blog, here. Great photos, some video, first person witnesses, etc. The police may or may not bring charges against Audra's chief of staff for assault.

I continue to question Tony's conflicts of interest (Green Wave and tobacco money being the most obvious), and I also question whether Audra's staff, paid by our taxes, is properly employed as an anti-first amendment campaign thug. As a commenter there said:

Joel Angeles was stupid for getting caught strongarming people and holding a sign. He's a chief of staff for crying out loud and certainly knows better. His office works for all of Audra's constituents - not just the Republican ones that vote for her or her husband. He should resign before anymore political damage is inflicted.

Another interesting note: the comments thread is great, lots of first person accounting, etc. But note the commenters who write that "Union thugs" were harrassing Strickland supporters. Really? Because I have never once encountered a "Union thug" at any political event in Thousand Oaks.

Kind of like the "How sad" commenting. If you think thugs and paid protesters were there to stir up shit with Strickland supporters, you have taken the jump into dark fantasyland.

Ending the day with more love

I call that mind free which master the senses, and which recognizes it own reality and greatness: Which passes life not in asking what it shall eat or drink, but in hungering, thirsting and seeking after righteousness.

I call that mind free which jealously guards its intellectual rights and powers, which does not content itself to a passive or hereditary faith: Which opens itself to light whencesoever it may come; which receives new truth as an angel from heaven.

I call that mind free which is not passively framed by outward circumstances, and is not the creature of accidental impulse: Which discovers everywhere the radiant signatures of the infinite spirit and in them finds help to its own spiritual enlargement.

I call that mind free which protects itself against the usurpations of society, and which does not cower to human opinion: Which refuses to be the slave or tool of the many or of the few, and guards its empire over itself as nobler than the empire of the world.

I call that mind free which resists the bondage of habit, which does not mechanically copy the past, nor live on in its old virtues: But which listens for new and higher monitions of conscience, and rejoices to pour itself forth in fresh and higher exertions.

I call that mind free which sets no bounds to its love, which, wherever they are seen delights in virtue and sympathizes with suffering: Which recognizes in all human beings the image of God and the rights of God’s children, and offers itself up a willing sacrifice to the cause of humankind.

I call that mind free which has cast off all fear but that of wrongdoing, and which no menace or peril can enthrall: Which is calm in the midst of tumults and possesses itself though all else be lost.

Saw my minister this evening, after she spent the day at Ventura County Courthouse, embracing and celebrating same-sex couples who'd come to make their unions legal. She read the above, from William Ellery Channing, at the start of our meeting.

The three UU ministers from Ventura County were there, and congregants in and out all day. I hear the couples were suprised- there were more UUs there than licensees most of the time- but when they would come out, those gathered would sing "Standing on the Side of Love", and hand them flowers, cupcakes, champagne.

I suppose that while couples throughout the county may be weighing their options or deciding whether the license is really what they want, for us local UUs, the fact that they can decide for themselves is, in and of itself, a reason to party.

I'm really proud of my friends and my church today.

Love

And hope, and fairness, and a step toward more perfect union...

The Star's embed code isn't working, but video from the VC Courthouse is here.

And that's my minister, by the way.

Happy happy happy.......

TO Local: No on B

I hate to find myself in the same corner as the Chamber of Commerce, but I'm voting no on local Measure B.

NOT because I find persuading words like "job-killer" or "anti-competition".

I am opposing B because, having spent time at city council and planning department meetings covering various issues over the past several years, I am pretty damn certain that if a resident- or, preferably, a group of residents- has a real, researched, rational, and perhaps most importantly, LEGAL grounds to oppose any development, the council and the commission are there to listen, and can be persuaded to do the right thing.

Most people don't attend meetings, speak, send cards, or even pay attention until something is a done-deal. I'm not sure that sort of apathy qualifies one for voting on a proposed development.

Among the few who do pay some modicum of attention, perhaps even write a letter or attend a meeting, I would venture that 60-75% of them do not research, have no rational arguments, don't care to try for a legally defensible position. They mostly, in my experience, are whiney NIMBYs, who embarrass themselves when they open their mouths, and then scream that the council or the planners are in colusion with developers if they don't get their way.

The remaining 25-40% do their homework, make reasoned appeals, and offer solid grounding for their opposition. And they very often win.

The people who are so crazy about Measure B should instead make a study of that 25-40%, learn how they do what they do and why it works, and then engage the process.

I really don't fancy the panty-twisted majority voting on every proposed development in this city.

Col Ann Wright in TO on Tuesday!

Wow- here's another reason I never skip my local paper. How else would I have known that Ann Wright would be speaking at CLU this week?

She is one of my big inspiring memories of Camp Casey. If you're in town, you need to go hear her.

Strickland

I think the decision to call himself an "alternative energy executive" is going to haunt Tony.

At least, I hope so.

BTW: Strickland and Gallegly have both worked consistantly against higher fuel standards and alternative fuels research and funding.

Gallegly's on fire over ANWR

Elton writes an OpEd today, and gifts us with, among other things, the following notions:
-Democrats have held the majority in the house for tw years, during which time gas prices have continued to rise, and
-Clearly we can solve our problems by cutting gas taxes, drilling in ANWR, and blaming the democrats.
The comments thread, even at this early hour, is long and indignant over at the VC Star.

Elton, dear:

Gas prices are rising because your friends at Exxon are exploiting the opportunity to make historic profits, because OPEC is not playing by the rules, because your president and your party have neglected any proposal that didn't reward the right companies for 7 long years, because oil, too, is being heavily commoditized (is that a word?), and because, frankly, we're too dependant on all of the players at this late date. Cutting 18 cents a gallon off my fill up isn't going to do much except take money out of infrastructure, either.

Trying to blame the democrats is a bit whiny, too.

On this one, I'm giving you stupid 20/ evil 80. Static 80/ signal 20.

Flunking the budget rally

Story in the local paper here.

My son and I were there for 30 minutes. I must say that it seemed like a good turn-out, and lots and lots of postcards were filled out for delivery to McClintock, Governator, et al. I liked seeing soccer moms hit the street with passion. More actions are planned for the upcoming weeks.

Friday morning

From the comments:

The only person I dislike more than the Stricklands is Gallegly. I have seriously thought about standing on a corner during the next election with a sign that says, "Anybody but Elton."

I'd put Elton's stupid/evil rating at 60/40, and his static/signal at 50/50.

I'd give Tony strickland a higher evil rate, and a higher static rate.

Gallegly is, in my mind, a remnant from Pete Wilson's California, when state GOP strength was built almost entirely on scapegoating and resentment. If you visit his website and check his "issues" page, you'll see three items: illegal immigration, terrorism, and crime. Nothing about health care, education, economy, etc. I think he's probably pretty honestly presenting the items that matter to him. That still has resonance with a sadly sizable chunk of Californians, but I'm not sure Gallegly weilds much power. He's another vote for Bush in the house, but he's not a big effective battering ram.

Strickland is building a network of influence in the state. He and Audra and their supporters have taken over the local GOP, disaffecting moderate republicans and building the strenght of the crazies. They actively support the taking over of school boards and the county board of education by religious anti-teacher wingnuts. They shift power structures. I don't know that Elton Gallegly has been doing much of that.

So the Stricklands freak me out, and they always have.

Ratios

Roy Edroso of Village voice has given us this helpful guide to the right-wing blogosphere. If nothing else, it'll make Sadly, No! a much funnier daily read if you're new to the depradations of wingnuttia.

Edroso also gives us a helpful tool for rating the shit we read every day: the Stupid-to-Evil ratio. For instance, when discussing Tony Strickland's campaign designation, we would show
Stupid: 10/ Evil: 90
"Stupid" representing the part of his lying soul that probably remains convinced he's telling the truth, "Evil" representing his lying soul and his manipulations of meaning.

Tim prefers a Static-to-Signal ratio. In Tony's case, we would see
Static: 90/ Signal: 10
with "signal" representing the facts one can actually pull from his biography, illustrating the true nature of his intentions, and his lying soul.

I like these tools very much. I must remember to use them.

Still more local: Rally on Friday at McClintock's office

The state's budget problems not having been TERMINATED, the governator has threatened extensive budget cuts in the public school system.

Contrary to wing-nut paranoid allegations, California actually isn't a huge spender on administration, according to recent census numbers. Not saying there is absolutely no waste ever, but the problem here is not with "fat-cat school administrators". I know many people who work in local education: teachers, librarians, superintendents, PTA leaders. Not a one of them is looking at next year without a high level of panic.

Friday eve you're invited to gather in front of Tom McClintock's office, 223 East Thousand Oaks Blvd. Flunk The Budget Rally from 4:00 to 5:00 pm.

Make a sign, make a stand. There needs to be a lot of organizing on this issue.

More local: I really don't like Stricklands

Tony Strickland, the no-government-for-poor-people local repub who's never worked outside of government in his life, has decided to let you know that he's really an entrepeneur who's getting rich by protecting the environment.

Former Assemblyman Tony Strickland of Moorpark, who has spent his entire adult life either working in the Legislature or running for political office, has decided to present himself to voters this year wearing the mantle of a newfound vocation: "Alternative Energy Executive."

What earns him this designation? Why,

It refers to his position as vice president and partner in a startup company, founded in June, called GreenWave Energy Solutions. The company has filed applications with the Federal Energy Commission to develop two projects off the California coast.[...] It hopes eventually to produce electricity from a nascent technology that seeks to harness energy from ocean waves. Strickland is one of five partners who each pledged to put up $5,000 to start the company, although Strickland acknowledges he has yet to pay his share.

Cute additional info: Strickland's job with the company will involve "coaching the company on government affairs issues".

Meaning maybe we'll finally be rid of him when he goes to prison for bribery of public officials sometime in the next few years.

Another cute aside:

In addition to the partners, the company has two volunteer employees — Chris Wangsaporn, who is managing Strickland's Senate campaign, and Joel Angeles, chief of staff to Strickland's wife, Assemblywoman Audra Strickland, and a consultant to Tony Strickland's campaign.

Mr and Mrs Club For Growth California are setting up a local version of Haliburton.

I really, really don't like them. Not at all.

Really?

Church Vandalism a Suspected Hate Crime

Ventura County Sheriff's deputies are investigating the recent vandalism of a Moorpark church as a hate crime, authorities said Monday.

I don't want to sound like a wing-nut-glibertarian or anything, but are there organized gangs of satanists trying to scare Prespyterians these days?

Not that the church and its members don't have my sympathies- they do. But hate crime laws aren't really supposed to be used against stupid stoned teenagers with no agenda other than freaking their parents out, are they? Wouldn't your standard property damage/ vandalism laws apply?