Are you going to eat that?

I just realized how to personally solve the argument about large-farm safety regulations being applied to small farms.

There’s a small farm here whose beef I once looked forward to, when it appeared in our town co-op.  It was clean, the animals were raised in large, open pens, they were content and well-fed.  There were no hormones or additives involved.  They were grass fed.

Then one day, as I was picking up some chicken feed from their small feed-sale shed, the owner told me he’d caught three young wandering cougars on this land, and with the advice of a forest ranger, shot them and buried them.  True?  I don’t know — but he told me so.

Another person from here is making and selling a beer in western Washington state.  But before he took off to do this, he left his cat in our care.  The cat was left out in all weathers, with access to water from the fishpond or the river, but with nothing left for us but a bag of food, that quickly became moldy in the feed area.  The two weeks I was supposed to care for the cat stretched into a month and a half.  It became clear the cat was always treated this way, and this was a former beloved pet, begging for affection.  Even farm cats get treated better, and this had been a member of a family.

So here’s my question:  if the producer of something I might put in my mouth takes shortcuts with other animals — what else might they do — or put in the food products — to maintain or raise profit?  Out of nothing more than care for my own health, if I find out there’s any sort of animal cruelty or laziness about animal welfare involved, including with wildlife, that’s the end of my doing business with the producer.  If they don’t care about their cat or a young wild animal, they don’t care about me.  I’m not here for them to make money off of, regardless of the replacement of the concept of “customer” with “consumer.”  Sorry about the GNP.

And it’s a pity, because that was damn good beef, and I was one of their best customers.

We ended up adopting the cat, by the way, and he us.  He knows who loves him and will care for him, now.

Don’t our taxes cover this?

Our neighbor got a $9000.00 bill for breaking a bridge in an accident.  Our taxes should cover this, right?  What if your kids run into a guardrail and are killed — do they bill you for the broken guardrail?

What “BIA” really means

Found at the — ahem — rummage sale in Clallam Bay.

Other pow-wow shirts: “White Men Can’t Dance” and “My heroes have always killed cowboys.”

(click on images for closeups).

From our friends in Neah Bay, I suspect (disclaimer:  but not an official council t-shirt).   There’s nothing funnier — and more appalling — than the truth.  Comedy starts in trauma.

We better hope all these people don’t start drumming for Holocaust Memorials — that’s a LOT of tribes to be building expensive mea culpa for.  You think they’d let us get away with 40 acres and a mule?

Anybody up for computing how many people we and our ancestors drove off their land, killed, infected, neglected, and otherwise persecuted by government policy?  And multiplying that by monies owed?  In terms of modern currencies?

If Israel can come back, then there’s no statute of limitations on national genocide and land theft.

And you thought the bailout would be expensive.  Pray all they want to do is build a nice, clean, art-supporting casino next door.

Maybe we can get training running the blackjack tables?

(By the way, the shirt flew out the door.)

Take my neighbor’s goat!

A friend sent me a link to one of those men’s-rights films.   So just assume the original points from the film (which I know my readers can):

The film reminded me of the old Russian joke about the peasant who, rather than praying to God to have a goat like his neighbor, prayed to have his neighbor’s goat killed.

The film says war kils 98% of men.  War mostly kills women and kids in a war zone.  Which it did during our civil war and Indian wars.  The 98% war percentage quoted in the film refers to the US, which doesn’t go to war — it sends troops overseas.

The film says only men get drafted – but it’s men do the drafting.  Women didn’t set up the selective service — which originally excluded us as part of the effort to keep us from voting.  I’d be happy to see it change to include everybody — or, even better, to include nobody, and to make the military completely voluntary.  However, the military would have to address the problem of assault and rape on female soldiers, and assault on gay soldiers. Which I don’t understand — can’t these people obey orders?  WE had to.

“Listen up, you slimeballs!  No means no!  Keep your hands off each other unless somebody said YES — or end up burning shit until the end of the police action!  THAT’S AN ORDER!  This is like fucking dealing with fucking high school kids. Dis-fucking-smissed!”

The film says women have a lot of health-care organizations working for them.  There are a lot of off-side women’s health-care systems because within the regular system, women have to fight harder for care.  They’re correcting an original bad system, which, admittedly, can become extreme.  But rather than less health care for women — how about more health care for EVERYBODY?

The film acts as though the face there is domestic assault on men means women still don’t need protection from the majority of assaults.  There IS domestic violence against men — but rather than denying assault on women, shouldn’t we be preventing assault on everybody?  Home assault and rape is the reason so many kids end up on the street — and gays get scapegoated.

Re paternity tests and the claim that 38% of mothers are lying:  lying or testing most likely candidate?  We should health-care all paternity testing, so the real fathers can’t run and leave somebody else with it.  Or better child care (or extended families).  There’s a real soap-opera in that mess someplace.  And probably too much beer or whisky.  I don’t think I want to know ANY of the people in THIS mix.

Abortion and the father’s rights:  should anyone force anyone else to bear a child?  What do we do — institute paid surrogates?  More sex education so kids know how to use a frigging condom?  And why would a woman abort rather than carry his kid?  They must be part of the gang from the last paragraph.  Why is this beginning to sound like a Jerry Springer episode?

The film shows film and advertising of males getting it in the crotch:  of course that’s not funny.  So why do men keep MAKING ads and films like that?  Taking out the other guy’s balls is funny??  It’s not women making these films.

As for political correctness:  can I call you a testicle, and all that entails?  Or white boy?  Do you want me to?

And before somebody brings it up:  just WHO is more likely to follow you or me into the dark and assault or kill either of us?  If you have to guard yourself at night or on an empty street, it’s not against women.  Anybody who acts otherwise – man or woman — is going to be a statistic.

Of course now there are roving gangs of kids of BOTH sexes.  This just keeps getting prettier.

Do rural people hate gays?

I have to admit something I did from ignorance, as a local freelance reporter.

I covered the Assembly of God’s Teacher Appreciation Day, and noted that they were showing a film from James Dobson’s Focus On The Family Organization.

It was a very funny film, about a very good teacher.  Toward the end of the film, the man touched upon his own religious beliefs, but it was not heavily emphasized.  He mentioned the apostle Paul, which made my hackles go up, but I don’t suppose the man was thinking about the things Paul said about women.  At least I hope not.

I’m sure the congregation meant nothing kindness toward our local teachers, who work so very hard, with so few resources.  The congregation runs the local food bank (I helped them write grants for funding).  They are kind, open-hearted, decent people.  I am also sure — or at least I hope — that they don’t know about James Dobson’s horrible attitude toward gay people (That link goes to his own words, or his ghostwriter’s).

All I can say is that I apologize for mentioning the film in the article.  I do not support these attitudes toward gay people, and the horrible things they can lead to.  But as a journalist, I do my best to cover the local scene.  I didn’t cover the meeting to support Dobson.  I covered it because some very kind people wanted to reach out to our teachers and say “thank you.”

Note:
I’m not a professional reporter.  I fill in around here because this community is so far from just about anyplace else, including its neighboring hamlets — there is no other word, except perhaps (literally) bend-in-the-road — of Neah Bay, Joyce, and the ghostly Pysht (no, it’s not pronounced like that).

I refuse to accept thanks from the local folks for, as one reader said, putting them on the map.  The papers pay me to get these photos and articles.  Would a fiction writer voluntarily write mind-numbing articles about block-watches and the process of grant-writing to get a roof on the grocery story — complete with boring stacks of population percentages and funding-dollars numbers — if she wasn’t being paid for it?

I don’t believe the rural people up here hate gays, or would try to hurt them, at least not directly.  It’s not because there are not gay people here, or coming through as tourists.  People are polite, and they’re not mean.

But I’ve heard their kids yell “faggot” at boys, and one father told his girl who wanted art classes that, “Art is for sissies.”

Racism crawls under the surface.  People blame the Indians for everything, and will drag it into any discussion about facing our (you know whom I mean by “our”) shortcomings.  Dealing with flooding locally, I shook my head and said, “What kind of idiot builds below ground in a floodplain in a tidal area?”

A member of the Emergency Operations Center team immediately hinted that the people in New Orleans were at fault for building below sea-level, and earned their own suffering. I think we all know New Orleans was originally positioned by whites for war, who brought in blacks as slaves.

Do rural people hate gay people?  I don’t know about around here.  Everybody up here knows I won’t put up with anybody saying anything bad about gay people.  They soon find out I won’t put up with racism, and stop trying it.

They know it’s wrong — but are they thinking and acting upon it?

Time to beach it!

The Clallam Bay State Park bridge extension was installed for the summer near the mouth of the Clallam River, Wednesday, June 18.  The extension was donated by the port of Port Angeles.  A 1200-lb aluminum extension that had been designed for the river proved too short for this summer’s conditions, and is stored at the Clallam Bay treatment plant.  The bridge extension will stay in place for the summer and be removed after October 1st for the winter.  Bridge crew included Cliff Echternkamp of Port Angeles Maintanance,Morgan Rathjen and back-hoe driver Steve Rathjen.

Cure For The Common Homophobe

Americans too often teach their children to despise those who hold unpopular opinions. We teach them to regard as traitors, and hold in aversion and contempt, such as do not shout with the crowd, and so here in our democracy we are cheering a thing which of all things is most foreign to it and out of place – the delivery of our political conscience into somebody else’s keeping. This is patriotism on the Russian plan. — Mark Twain

The Olympic Peninsula, especially the rural parts of the area, are not unusual in the presence of racial and religious prejudice and homophobia.  The best people will blurt out antiquated prejudices, from comments on Hemingway’s biography to just who is shooting at a whale.

But help may be on the way!

Twilight, a series of vampire genre novels for young adults, is set in the western peninsula town of Forks.  A movie may be filmed there, using local characters.

Now Forks is no worse in the presence of homophobia than any other rural American town.  All across this country, homosexual kids always need to watch their backs; being called “gay” has been proven in American towns and the military to being the preparation for a death sentence.  There is no evidence it is that bad in any way at Forks — in so many ways, it’s Live and Let Live out here.  But it’s in the atmosphere.

If a movie is made in the area, Hollywood will be in town.  That’s an industry that can’t afford to excercise prejudice toward anyone with any artistic ability, because it takes a lot of people to film, act, choreograph, costume, edit, compose, advertise, and just move stuff around.  

Arts and media are a refuge and a livelyhood for many in the gay community, mostly because the GBLT community honors and appreciates education, the humanities and the arts.  Arts and music are never despised, ignored, or lost because the funding for the local high school went to the football program (the community up here that let this happen knows which one it is; we don’t need to go into personalilties).

If the smart, hard-working members of the gay community who work in film show up, working with local people, dining in local restaurants, relaxing in local bars, it’s going to do a lot of good.  These people can be role models for smart, artistic or musical kids who have never had the support they deserve in the area. 

It’s hard to practice homophobia when the local kids find out what good people gay people are.

Check out:  http://www.glaad.org

Dog protects seal

Where’s a video camera when you need one?

Buddha is a handsome, friendly black lab/greyhound cross.  He looks like Anubis with floppy ears.  He prefers to catch thrown rocks (his owner requests he not be indulged).

Last week, while strolling along the surf, intent upon looking for agates, I nearly stepped on a dark, speckled baby harbor seal.  He gazed up at me curiously.  Knowing his mother had either left him while she fished, or he was out on his own, I went around him.

Dan and I went our way.  We kept turning back to watch the seal through our Russian military surplus minocular.  The seal remained on the beach, moving up past the surf, unperturbed by humans walking by, even when the Clallam Bay football team boys came down to run in the gravel.

But then came Buddha.  Oh, no!  Dog and baby seal!  We were too far away to prevent an incident, but we should have known Buddha wasn’t a problem.

He carefully straddled the seal, which stared up at his belly.  Then he barked loudly and angrily at the water, obviously protecting the seal from the surf.  This continued for some time.  Once satisfied he’d done his duty, Buddha went trotting on his way, as the seal continued to watch him.

Buddha may not be the brightest bulb in the socket, but there’s no questioning he has a good heart.

(People have asked so heeeeere’s Buddha!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbU7OXV477Q  )

Gossip + Emergency Notification System = $$$$

That thing up there is what’s left of a commercial flare.  This article was originally written as part of my freelance journalsit/photographer gig on the upper west end of the Olympic Peninsula.  I’ve added myself as part of the story. 

 A bright red commercial flare, shot into the water near Slip Point, in Clallam Bay, combined with Clallam County’s efficient inter-agency notification system and the ability of a small close-knit community to spread information, could end up costing county emergency services thousands of tax-payer dollars.

Clancy Phillips, of Olson’s Resort in Sekiu, saw what appeared to him to be a burning boat near the Clallam River. He and others at the resort saw what they thought were people from the boat walking on the beach.

Jim (Carl) Bryden, who lives on Slip Point, saw the flare smoking in the water in front of his house. He was joined by Clallam Bay residents Ric Palumbo and Juan Aldana.  

“They think the boaters walked to a local store,” said Palumbo, repeating what he had heard about the supposed victims.

Bryden took a photo of the flare, which he later sent to the Peninsula Daily News — when the following was all over.

The Emergency Medical Team, siren flashing, swung into the dead-end street above the beach, and was soon joined by a Border Control vehicle. The teams, receiving information from the witnesses, and assuming the flare had been fired from the boat, dashed off to Clallam Bay in an attempt to locate the boaters.

I was walking back to the house, convinced that Jim — who is quite calm and reliable — knew what he was talking about.  That’s when I got the phone call from my editor at the Peninsula Daily News, who had received information that the Coast Guard was going out to check on the boat..  At the editor’s insistance — although I did repeat the closest witness accounts — I began my travels around Clallam Bay, hunting for more information.

Dave Weiss, at Al’s Mini-Mart, the store closest to the beach, said he’d heard about a burning boat, but no one had showed up at the store.

The EMT team left with a Clallam Bay Fire Department truck to see if the boaters were in Sekiu.

Gary Ryan, of Van Ripper’s Resort in Sekiu said, “I saw the fire. There was a lot of smoke, and orange flame coming off the water. Then I saw three people in the water.”

Troy Berger said, ‘Local kids saw it. They said it was a commercial flare. They said they saw bubbles where the boat went down.”

Cassie Burrow, of Olson’s Resort, used binoculars to sight the fire.

“I saw it out the window, real close to shore,” said Burrow. “You could see a big huge ball of fire and smoke trailing off to the right. I called the Coast Guard.”

Larry Brooks, standing overlooking the Sekiu breakwater, said, “I saw two men with binoculars watching and so was the lady inside. There was no flame but what else could make that amount of smoke?”

Back at Slip Point, a Coast Guard search boat scudded around the bay, searching for any evidence of a sunken vessel.

Bryden asked, “Was it possible the people in Sekiu saw us three?” referring to himself, Palumbo and Aldana. “The flare was in the water about fifteen yards off the beach. We watched it burn.”

EMT team leader Gene Laes, watching his team walk the Slip Point beach, said, “Three or four people said they saw smoke, and then a boat that disappeared.”

Coast Guard BM-1 Brenden Conny said, “At this point, it’s a flare, according to the report from the EMT.”

A Coast Guard Dolphin helicopter arrived and circled the bay several times before leaving the area.

Cassie Burrow later said that, considering the colors and smoke, she and others were beginning to agree that what they had seen was a very large flare.

Two large red flares were shot off by non-professionals on the beach during the Neah Bay fireworks display. Dan Barr, who served in Vietnam, said they looked familiar.

“When I heard them, I flashed back to what we’d used in Vietnam,” said Barr. “They looked like military flares.”

“That covers a lot of different types of flares,” added Barr.

Barr said that he’d been in the back room of his house when he heard a pop, as though from a firework, about 10:30 on Thursday.

“It was pretty loud. I thought it was echoing off Bear Kill ridge behind us,” he said. “Our cat turned and looked at the same moment I did.”

Renee Duncan, who lives on Slip Point, shook her head and said, “This is why people should never use emergency flares except for emergencies. This will cost a lot.”

Several days later, Dan and I found a blown flare body on the beach near the Clallam Bay bridge.  Photo above.

Tourism 101

Folks want to put in a bio-fuel plant up here.  It will run on wood waste from logging.  They say it will attract tourists who will see it as a green-friendly move.

But how will those tourists come up here if they have to drive by the clear-cuts that provide the wood waste?

Anybody who thinks that green dollars will be spent on logging museums has not been doing their homework.  The kind of tourists who come out to see forests do not view them as a monoculture “crop.”  They view them as ecosystems. 

Ecosystems are far too complicated for humans to deal with over long term, at least in monocultural terms.  Cropping sees alders as competative “weeds” and poisons them out.  Ecosystems require the alders as the nitrogen pump that will support the future wood crop.  Ecosystems pump oxygen back into the massive planetary air system — a system far too vast and complicated for us to control or provide for.

Cropping = short term.  Ecosystem = long term.

Or, to put it in generational terms:

“I only care about my own livlihood.” vs. “Where are my grandkids going to live?”

Ecosystem tourism no more wants to visit a museum of frontier logging than they want to see the history of the buffalo hunts — except as a planetary mistake.  If people want those green dollars they’re just going to have to accept that those are histories that will not attract a living. 

Because the people who don’t care about the green are the people who can live with nothing but concrete.

Sequim, anyone?

(While I’m at it, I’ll note that, as the child of a paper-mill town, fermenting wood stinks to high heaven, and the massive chemical influx sends out fumes that peel paint off the walls.  Fermentation-mill towns are not tourism towns.  They stink, they need masses of water — which we’re already short of — and they will knock health costs through the roof.  THINK.  RESEARCH. FIND OUT FIRST.

Oh, and as a artist and publisher:  wood paper is the crappiest paper on the planet.  And not just for the high acid count.  It’s only useful for toilet paper.  That’s right — we’re flushing our oxygen-production system down the crapper, along with our water.)