The wheelbarrow, work gloves…damn! ...didn't get the shovel in the picture.

…after doing some roadwork to partly earn my keep.

Then for a long walk along Big River on the north side…

Spring has come to the Northwest.

At the mouth of Big River which flows into the sea at Mendocino a beautiful house sits perched elegantly out of reach.  It could easily symbolize the best of everything in America. From the garden of this wonderful house there are steps going down toward the sea, but they stop so far above the water that we are left wondering why they are there at all.  It's not clear how anyone, even with excellent swimming and climbing skills, could reach the bottom rung.

JUST THINKING... on a Sunday Afternoon 

Once each month, I participate in a voter registration exercise at the San Diego Civic Center on a Wednesday when several hundred immigrants renounce first loyalty to the land of their birth and pledge allegiance to the United States of America and are officially declared to be citizens with all the rights and privileges of American citizenship. The ceremony is always impressive. People are happy, and although most of them have been taught that voting is an important responsibility of citizenship, many haven’t given much thought to political party affiliation.  When I am asked by a new citizen who is registering to vote if it is necessary to choose a party affiliation, I always say that it is not necessary; and I don’t press anyone to put a mark in the little square box before the word Democrat.  I usually tell them that if they haven’t given the matter enough thought, they may want to register as independents.

My own party affiliation is obvious because I’m working at a cluster of tables under a blue canopy with Democratic Party signs on all sides and an American flag above one corner.  In another place on the plaza another bunch of citizens are working at a cluster of tables under a red canopy with Republican Party signs on all sides.  A life-size cardboard cut-out of Ronald Reagan stands at one corner of their space.  He is clearly their choice to be the president who best represents the ideals of the Republican Party, the iconic Republican.  At a corner of the Democratic Party space stand life-size cut-outs of Barack and Michelle Obama.  There is always a line of new citizens waiting with family and friends to have a picture taken with President and Mrs. Obama.

When I am not registering voters and am asked specifically why I am a Democrat, my response these days is the same as it was when I was a younger man.  I am committed to government that has public interest rather than private interest as its primary focus.  I understand Democrats to be a national party of citizens whose ideals are rooted in grassroots concerns. I am not a schooled economist, but I am well enough read on that subject and history to be convinced that a trickle down theory which favors the efforts and enterprises of the wealthiest citizens does not produce an economic environment which serves public interest first.  I affiliate with the party that recognizes the critical importance of government.  I steer away from political movements and from candidates whose emphasis is on diminishing the role of government in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, public education and civil rights. The party to which I belong must be committed to government that provides healthcare for all citizens.  I want a party committed to government that guarantees civil liberties and civil rights to all citizens. I want a party that recognizes the danger of deregulation in the marketplace.  My political party affiliations are not determined by religion.  I want nothing to do with a political party that wallows in anti-tax fantasies. I want a party that commits to jobs and fair compensation for work done... but especially I want affiliation with political movements committed to justice for those whose needs and rights are often neglected by the elites in American society.  

I particularly like a statement by Ted Sorenson who said, “Government must give priority to the needs of ordinary citizens, workers, consumers, students, children, the elderly and the ill, the vulnerable and the underdog, and not to the needs of those already sufficiently powerful and affluent to afford their own lobbyists.” 

AMERICA, THE BEAUTIFUL!

A couple of miles south from Mendocino on Highway 01,  a scattering of dilapidated farm building remind me of Andrew Wyeth country. The thirty-five-mile drive from Mendocino to Point Arena is a journey through all the ages of American coastal architecture... from the newest ultramodern designs to a couple of colonial buildings and more than a few victorian houses that are mostly being kept in good shape... some of them being used as bread-and-breakfast inns. Some of the old bridges, like the one across the Albion River,  were very well built and are likely to last for a long time if an earthquake doesn’t come along and shake them down. At Point Arena the old lighthouse and the Point Arena-Stornetta Public Lands have been added to the the California Coastal National Monument.  

I finished my Mendocino walkabout today…

thinking about America… the way it used to be...

HEY!  WHAT HAPPENED?  I’M Feeling a little like Ray Milland after he lost a weekend...

Reuters published the report of the Social Progress Index (SPI) for this year and they say America ain’t number one.  Based on fifty indicators, the Social Progress Index rates 132 countries , putting New Zealand as number one and Chad as number one-hundred-thirty-two.  The United States ranked SIXTEENTH?  Hey!  Hey!  Hey!  What’s with that? Ain’t we number one no more? Don’t we have Justin Bieber... Oh, Canadian, huh?... well, then, how about Kim Kardashian... she’s American as apple pie, ain’t she? She was born in Beverly Hills, and you can’t get more American than that.  Ask John Roberts.  He’s American, ain’t he? 

Following New Zealand in first place, Switzerland is next, then Iceland and after Iceland, The Netherlands is in fourth place. How the hell did Iceland get in there... and in third place?  I can understand Switzerland because I hear that’s where at least one percent of Americans keep a lot of money… and The Netherlands…no surprise there… but It’s cold in Iceland.  It almost never gets cold in Beverly Hills. In Iceland hey’ve got a lot of hot springs and steam for steam baths,  but I know for a fact that there are steam baths in Beverly Hills, and you don’t even have to go outside to do it…take a steam bath, I mean.  

O.K., O.K., Steam baths are not the point.  Why aren’t we NUMBER ONE? The Social Progress Imperative describes what it does and why...  “The SPI ranks countries by social and environmental performance rather than economic output in a drive to make social progress a priority for politicians and businesses.”  What I want to know is this.  Everybody knows the U.S. ranks right up there ahead of the “best of them” in economic strength and military power... so why doesn’t that get translated into social progress. Has somebody told John Roberts and Clarence Thomas about this? Is that what’s bugging them?  Isn’t there something they can do to set this right... some decision they can make?

Oh, what are those words and phrases again?  Social:  Didn’t I already point out the well known Kardashian family from Beverly Hills, and they have their own reality show and all. They’re real, aren’t they? ... and very, very social.  ...and as for progress haven’t we got Silicon Valley?... right up somewhere above L.A. What more could anyone want than Silicon Valley and Beverly Hills?... and they’re both in California and California is in the the U.S. of A.  Everybody in American knows that.  Don’t they? We make drones, don’t we? Haven’t those rating people heard of Facebook and Google?  We’ve got both of those and they’re all about social networking and social interfacing.  

I read the report... well, don’t jump to the conclusion that I really read the whole report. I read the Reuters report of the report, and that’s enough to make my blood boil.  Now, don’t jump to another conclusion that I don’t know that blood doesn’t actually boil when I say something like “makes my blood boil.”  Wasn’t I raised and educated right here in the U.S. of A.  Oh, yeah.  There is that.  According to the ratings report, the U.S. excels, but is not #1, in access to advanced education but ranks 39th in basic education. What the hell is “basic” education?  Didn’t I prove that anybody educated in the U.S. probably knows Silicon Valley is in California... somewhere up there north of Beverly Hills… remember that's where the Kardashians are from anyway.  Now don’t get me going about ending that sentence with a preposition.  Didn’t I put anyway at the end just so the preposition wouldn’t be last...  Get off my back.  Now don’t jump to the conclusion that I think somebody is literally on my back.  I also don’t think putting prepositions at the end of our sentences got us put into 39th place in basic education. Maybe knowing Kim Kardashian was born in Beverly Hills doesn’t help get us a higher place in the ratings... and probably guessing her sister Kourtney was born in Beverly Hills doesn't rack up points; although I didn’t look that up to be sure.

About other United States ratings:  70th in health, 69th in ecosystem sustainability, 34th in access to water and sanitation, and 31st in personal safety.  In access to cellphones and the Internet…  we're in 23rd place because one in five Americans lacks Internet access.   

So here’s what it means:  The Social Progress Index rates countries on indicators like health, sanitation, shelter, personal safety, access to information, sustainability, tolerance and inclusion and access to education.  The SPI investigates whether a country can satisfy its people’s basic needs and whether it has the infrastructure and capacity to allow its citizens to improve the quality of their lives and reach their full potential.  We’re sixteenth.

I completed my walk around the town of Mendocino today with a heavy heart and mind thinking about the decision of the Supreme Court announced yesterday to loosen the reins even more on the I-can-have-it all impulses and sense of entitlement of America's unimaginably wealthy citizens, so they can spend as much of their discretionary wealth as they want to spend on buying political advantage. I tried to lose myself in the beauty of this part of my amazing country. It almost worked… but not enough to keep down the rant that I wrote when I got back to my word processor.

Remember the photographs a couple of days ago of the Cabrillo Light Station.  It's a few miles up the coast from the town of Mendocino.  It's actually in the picture above on that little spit of land jutting out into the Pacific Ocean. The magic of a 300 mm photographic lens brought it close enough to actually see in the picture below.

MONEY TALKS... 

The news that the Supreme Court, with its conservative majority, has moved again to increase the buying power of the Koch Brothers and other super rich Americans by removing existing limits on overall federal campaign donations.  The four liberal Justices were on the losing end of the decision carried by the five conservative justices  who insist that their interpretation of First Amendment rights trumps efforts by government to limit the extent to which wealthy donors or special-interest groups can turn their money into political speech. 

Here’s what Chief Justice Roberts said about the decision: “There is no right more basic in our democracy than the right to participate in electing our political leaders. We have made clear that Congress may not regulate contributions simply to reduce the amount of money in politics, or to restrict the political participation of some in order to enhance the relative influence of others.”  I have no idea if Roberts has ever had much association with poor people, but he is a bright enough individual to understand intuitively that being poor limits and restricts and inhibits participation in the political system?  Teaching in a public high school in the very poorest section of a city might give him perspective that he seems to lack.  Do he and the other justices who joined him in the decision not understand that money buys the attention and support of elected officials for projects favored by the wealthy citizens who stuff money into campaign coffers of people running for public office?  Roberts said leveling the playing field is not an acceptable interest for the government; nor  according to Robert is ‘the possibility that an individual who spends large sums may garner ‘influence over or access to’ elected officials or political parties” an acceptable interest of government.  Money and power and affluence and more money can corrupt and transform even a politician who once knew and felt the power that poverty and deprivation have to demean and paralyze the human spirit. San Diego’s ex-mayor Bob Filner is a clear example of a politician who couldn’t seem to stop before he disgraced himself, his family, his city and the Democratic Party.  Taking away the limits to money and the power of money in politics invites corruption and ultimately disgrace. 

Justice Stephen Breyer read his dissent from the bench to emphasize the disagreement between the five conservative justices and the three others who joined him in the dissent. He said, “If Citizens United opened a door, today’s decision, we fear, will open a floodgate.”  He added that the ruling “overturns key precedent, creates serious loopholes in the law and undermines, perhaps devastates, what remains of campaign finance reform.”  

Justice Clarence Thomas said he and his other conservative justices should have gone even further to strike down all contribution limits imposed by the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act sponsored by Republican Senator John McCain and Democrat then-Senator Russell Feingold.  Polls consistently show that the majority of voters object to weighing the balance of government in favor of the wealthiest Americans.  Someone said to me yesterday that I should be happy with the decision because democrats will be able to tap into the coffers of the wealthy in their party.  Trying not to be condescending as teachers sometimes are, I told her that she was missing the point. I identify with the Democratic party because of ethics and principles consistently expressed in party platform statements, not because of any personal advantage that party membership might give to me.  I am not surprised that Republicans are cheering the ruling on philosophical grounds and Democrats are generally criticizing it. New York Senator Charles Schumer said, “This is not a decision that advantages one party over the other.  It advantages wealthy people over everybody else.”  

 You pays your money and you takes our choice. 

Even more photographic magic, this time with my iPhone, made these panoramic pictures.

The beach at Jug Handle State Reserve just south of Fort Bragg.

First light after the eight minute journey from blazing sun

bathes the pine tree in early morning, and I think how odd

the still-alive-but-dying tree welcomes it, basks in it, and

goes on about it’s business of keeping life alive on earth

even as it dries and hardens, getting ready to fall dead

onto the forest floor spreading the cones with new life

into damp moss and under blooming rhodendron shrubs.

The pine is testimony to the persistence of will to live.

All the younger suppler saplings and graceful adults

put on a few cones... spaced far apart on vibrant limbs;

but the old dying pine in a surge of procreative energy

covers all its upper limbs with clusters of seed cones

investing the very last burst of her energy to ensure life

will sprout from some so she will be alive in them.

Then for more panorama shots… with the iPhone… abound the Mendocino

The day began with my usual walk with Tillie out to Comptche-Ukian Road to get the morning paper.  We saw deer as usual. I finally got a picture of the one that stopped to look back at us before dashing off into the dark forest.

I like lighhouses... and one of my favorites is the Cabrillo Light Station a few miles north of the town of Mendocino on the California Coast.  San Diego has its Cabrillo Light House out on Point Loma, and I like that one, too; but the Cabrillo Light Station up North , built in 1906 after the great earthquake that devastated San Francisco, has strength of character to match its wild, lonely setting.  Because the Pacific off Cape Mendocino was particularly treacherous, the site had been surveyed as early as 1873 for a light station; but until the earthquake leveled most of San Francisco, there wasn’t much demand for anything that had to be brought by ship from the area.  The great redwood forests had what San Francisco needed, a ready supply of wood for rebuilding.