Saturday, June 13, 2020

Everyday News

For many years I lived in or at the verge of San Francisco's Mission District -- 28 years more or less. There are some wonderful publications that cover the neighborhood; two of which are El Tecolote, which covers Latino issues citywide, and Mission Local, which I still read even though I no longer I've in the area.

The news this week is familiar:

* An energetic women's march in Dolores Park.
* A 48-year-old woman was found dead in a car on Alabama Street.
* A graffiti message: "Queers Never Die."
* Big Mouth Burger is still open for business.

This part of the city is one that seems to transition constantly -- from Italian to Irish to Asian to Laitino to Techies -- and at its best it remains a mixture of all the city's diversity and vibrance. Artists love it if they can afford to stay and for aging residents like me, thank god for rent control.

There are tons of coffee houses and taquerias and bars. It's a flat part of town so easy to walk around, unlike much of San Francisco. Homelessness is endemic.

When the New York Giants abandoned the Polo Grounds in the '50s, they moved here, to the Mission, to play major league baseball in the minor league San Francisco Seals' stadium. The Double Play bar on Bryant and 16th has a replica of the old ballpark's dimensions on its walls.

Neighborhoods like the Mission have been hard-hit by Covid-19 and the economic crisis. Unemployment is high; sirens are commonplace as police, fire trucks, and EMTs race through the streets, often to one of the hospitals nearby -- General Hospital and Sutter Health's Mission-Bernal campus (the old St. Luke's).

I spent plenty of time at the Mission-Bernal facility last year, where I received great care and friendly support. Thank god for our health care providers.

***

Who knows whether our inner city neighborhoods will survive in their current form once this pandemic subsides, assuming that eventually happens. The headlines say work on possible vaccines proceeds at a breakneck pace and why not? Major profits await the drug company that ends up patenting a preventative cure.

Every time I see those global numbers of Covid-19 deaths, I shake my head. Having lived and traveled extensively in Third World countries, I'm sure many cases remain undiagnosed and uncounted.

Even in the U.S., public health officials acknowledge that nobody can be sure of the virus's toll, because most people have not been tested and at least some have perished without a Corona-V diagnosis.

But mere numbers are like sports scores -- irrelevant without context. From what I can see, most of us realize we are under siege and unlikely to completely resume our normal routines until we feel strong assurance that it is safe to do so.

The protests against police violence and racial injustice continue and policy changes are cropping up here and there. The calls of "I can't breath" echo across the land and perhaps, perhaps, real reforms will begin forming George Floyd's positive legacy.

***

I'm reaching Facebook's 5,000 friends limit and will probably hit up against it this weekend. That limit is something I don't understand, but I apologize in advance to anyone who gets rejected as a result of the company's policy. There is also a "follower" option; apparently there are no limits to that category of connection.

My posts are public to anyone who cares to read them can. I try to read all comments and respond when I am able to.

All of us are missing something or someone during this crisis. Many family visits have been postponed or cancelled; cross-country trips have been foregone; flying is a rarity for most; vacations have to be close to home; summer schools are suspended; summer internships have evaporated; night
life has diminished; many gyms and parks remain closed; and on and on.

Is it enough to be grateful to still be healthy and alive? Maybe, in the words of that immortal Jack Nicholson movie, albeit in a different setting, this is "as good as it gets."

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Friday, June 12, 2020

New Art


From my youngest daughter.

Will Freedom Rise?

Life repeats itself.

Yesterday afternoon I watched the fourth Harry Potter movie with my nine-year-old granddaughter. She is reading the books in order before watching the movies, so she had just finished the fourth book in the morning.

That makes three more books and movies to go.

This is the second time for me to go through the cycle of wizardly doings; the first was with my three youngest children, now in their early 20s,

My granddaughter says she likes the books better than the movies but that she likes the movies as well. She didn't just voluntarily offer this evaluation; I prompted her. For years, I have listened to friends debate the book-to-movie question, until I started working in film myself.

Then I realized what probably should have been obvious -- that translating a book to film means adapting the author's words to a visual language that has very different demands than words on paper (or these days, on screen.)

This is the reason that fires take up a disproportionate portion of the time allotted for the nightly news. As the cliche has it, you may use 1,000 words to describe a fire in print, but one image will do the trick.

***

The current national and international uprising demanding racial and social justice in the wake of the George Floyd killing repeats history for most of us as well. There have been periodic bursts of political tumult following similar murders since the early days of the Civil Rights movement; most memorably the Rodney King riots in the early 1990s.

Every single time, those of us hoping for deep reforms have been disappointed that the kind of change that is needed never seems to actually occur. The killings have continued, the demonstrations have erupted, the demands have been issued, the promises have been issued, the proposals have been lodged, the debates have been televised, the deals have been made, the new rules have been implemented,

And the killings have gone on.

That we have a demagogue in the White House who manipulates his followers with racist language and symbols stands in sharp contrast to the times of Presidents like Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton, Southern politicians who cared deeply about civil rights.

Now we have a President from New York, the capital of the North. This irony was always going to be central to whether change will actually happen. The Civil War was fought over the issue of slavery; once the North won, it was time to implement racial justice.

But the closest we got was was the immortal war-time speech by President Abraham Lincoln:


"I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.
And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God."
***
The emancipation of the slaves was never completely realized. One by one new restrictions were imposed on black citizens in lieu of slavery. One by one, those restrictions were opposed by persons of conscience and in most cases struck down by the courts.
In our time, the code language for restricting black people's franchise is to raise the specter of "voter fraud." There is no evidence whatsoever of any systematic effort to cheat at the polls by poor people or minorities.
There is substantial evidence, however, of major attempts by foreign interests to undermine American democracy; most notably the well-documented attempt by Russia to influence the 2016 U.S. election. That effort succeeded, as the Mueller Report proved.
Scholars have not yet seen the unreacted version of that report, but as it becomes fully declassified, any remaining doubts that Russia enacted a propaganda war to elect Trump will be consigned to the dust heap of history.
While we wait for the truth to catch up with the outrage, Covid-19 is on the rise again. Millions of people are tired of sheltering in place, and they are out in their cars, on our streets and at our beaches in droves. As a result, the death toll will rise.
History, one way or another, is having its way with us.

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Thursday, June 11, 2020

Fundamental Truths

The First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the freedom of the press, which has enabled people like me to do what we do; in my case, for 54 years. Working for companies, non-profit organizations, or for ourselves, we go out and attempt to get you the stories of our time, day after week after month after year after decade and on and on.

We've been doing this since the founding of the Republic. Often our work is controversial; being criticized (or worse) by politicians and other people in power is a familiar state for us. Every year around the world journalists are jailed, injured and killed, mainly in places controlled by authoritarian figures.

So when that starts happening here in this country, it is extremely disturbing, because this is supposed to be a democracy.

Over just the past two weeks or so. the US Press Freedom Tracker, administered by the Freedom of the Press Foundation, has recorded over 380 incidents including at least 56 arrests, 78 physical attacks, 49 instances of tear gassing and 89 journalists wounded by rubber bullets and projectiles. Protesters have been responsible for some of the attacks but the overwhelming majority have been the work of police.

Like other journalists, I am aware of additional illegal actions against reporters not included in those totals; the problem is much bigger.

While citizens have been peacefully exercising their rights under the First Amendment (speech and assembly), the journalists out there covering the protests have been exercising theirs. Public officials and law enforcement organizations need to respect what is going on -- indeed support it -- rather than launching attacks, rhetorical and real, against the people of this country.

It's no surprise why the attacks on reporters are happening. When you have an elected leader who relentlessly attacks the press, calling us the "enemy of the people," and who aspires to authoritarian power, this is what results. President Trump has led chants against journalists at his rallies, at times subjecting them to potential physical harm by his revved-up followers.

In 2017 he asked the director of the FBI whether he could arrest and jail journalists who he felt were critical of him.

What we are witnessing is a fundamental assault on the foundation of our society. 

The upcoming election, as I've predicted before, is going to be nasty and dangerous. The ugly aspects will not be confined to the GOP side, as the Democrats will willingly take part in that unfortunate aspect of modern political warfare.

The political attack ads launched by both parties will be appearing on some of the major networks and news sites that are seeking to cover the story. They should collectively refuse to run those ads and reduce the poisonous pollution that will otherwise ruin what should be a peaceful transition of power.

They won't do that, I'm afraid, because major media institutions make lots of money from those ads, and also from the increased audience metrics that inevitably characterize election years. But they should.

***

My six-year-old granddaughter excitedly announced the local news this morning that the covey of domestic quails living in an enclosure out back has produced their first egg! She brought it in -- fresh, tiny, blue-green -- from where she discovered it under a blue sky.

She is learning to read and write in her two native languages and says she wants to be an artist when she grows up.

Out front, the vegetable garden is green and some of the crops are sporting yellow blossoms. A sense of the balance of life surrounds her.

She never watches TV news and of course cannot read other sources of information yet. But she is aware of the protests, because they occur near here, as close as half a block away on occasion. She is color-blind in her friendships and cannot understand any other way of being.

Her innocence stands in stark contrast to the evils afoot in this land. Racism, injustice, and exploitation are the realities she will have to grow up and into. That she is a person of relative privilege will occur to her, because the color of her skin alone guarantees her opportunities that are too often denied to others around her.

The majority of her generation of Americans do not have white skin but present a lovely range of all the colors of the human race. As she sings and dances and draws what she sees of her world, her innocent hopes and dreams seem every bit as fragile as a quail egg.

***

As poets emerge to chronicle this age, they will seek the tranquility of language that comforts and inspires; they also will feel their words erupt like volcanoes at the hate spewed by haters, at the oppression of the poor.

As they establish their voices, the songs of our predecessors will ring in their ears:

"...deep in my heart, I do believe,
The truth shall make us free someday.

...deep in my heart, I do believe,
We shall live in peace someday." -- Charles Albert Tindley (1900)

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Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Escaping History

Yesterday our group fled the shelter-in-place existence for a short drive across the nearest bridge to a beach in Marin.

China Camp is a small state park on the shores of San Pablo Bay, an estuary of San Francisco Bay. It was for centuries a settlement of the Miwok, later a shrimping outpost for Chinese families in the 1800s. The sole survivor of that Chinese community died just two years ago in 2018.

The beach is flat and peaceful, with a few outbuildings still standing, a wooden pier and an old shrimp boat. Small waves lap the shore as the tides sweep the bay waters in and out. This is a sleepy part of the Bay, lacking the busy shipping trade at the global port of Oakland to the south and east.

Watching six of my grandchildren playing in these waters yesterday, I ran over what I know of the history of the place in my mind. There is an ugliness to it; the Miwok were essentially extinguished in the century after the Spanish arrived; the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 forced many residents of San Francisco and other California cities to flee to enclaves like this one.

I wonder whether they teach much of that in our schools.

Our visit also reminded me that the #Black Lives Matter movement focuses on only one of the violent racist histories of our country. The shameful Japanese American interment of World War Two is another, and our Chinese Americans suffered discrimination for a long, long time also.

Even today, with the pandemic that apparently originated in China, Asian American friends report hostile looks and name-calling from people who blame them for the virus, though they of course are as innocent of responsibility as any of the rest of us.

Each time a social movement arises in America is an opportunity for us to revisit and discuss history with our children and grandchildren. That it may reflect poorly on our ancestors is not a reason to avoid it. In fact, avoiding history is among the worst failings we could experience in our lives; it only leads to repetition, cycle after destructive cycle.

One of my children is a historian; he'll have his B.A. soon, and he has been fascinated by all types of history since he was young. At some point, someone advised him that there are no jobs for historians, so why not concentrate on computer coding instead?

He did not follow that advice. In the end, there is no escaping history.

***

This election cycle is going to be ugly, I'm afraid. Polls show the President's approval rating is very low and has been falling during the pandemic and the mass marches for justice. It is relatively rare for an incumbent president to lose re-election, and it is difficult to imagine this particular one handling losing at all well.

We should expect the ugly personal attack ads in this campaign that unfortunately have become routine in American politics. Each party employs opposition research specialists who not only scour the record of opponents but test with focus groups which type of attack may resonate with voters.

In the media and software industries, I have become familiar with focus groups over the years and I'll be blunt: They are bullshit. Individuals are recruited and classified by gender, age, orientation, income, geography, race, education, creed and every other label you can think of.

Thus classified, they then are considered representatives of "their" type and their political preferences are presumed to stand for the herd. I'll say it again: Bullshit.

The people I've met throughout my career are fully capable of making up their own minds regardless of how much propaganda and opposition targeting they are subjected to.

Polls are wrong many times, but we keep taking and publicizing them. That the polls were so drastically wrong in 2016 has apparently not chastised the pollsters much at all; they're back once again.

With them come the horde of advertising and marketing specialists, the opposition research folks, the attack dogs -- all of whom earn more than our historians. My hope is that this time around, my fellow voters screen out all of that noise and vote their conscience based on principle.

And if they are not sure how to vote that they consult a historian.

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Tuesday, June 09, 2020

This Revolution...

...Will Be Televised.

The difference between now and 1970, when Gil-Scott Heron wrote and recorded the song I am riffing off of is that everyone now has a video camera. Every store has security cameras as well, and plenty of other eyes in the sky are watching all of our public spaces.

The amount of surveillance we live with is staggering. Your cellphone tracks your location in real-time; law enforcement agencies can gain access to that data without much trouble.

Massive databases are bought and sold in the private sector by companies that want to entice you to purchase things. Law enforcement and intelligence agencies can easily access all of that information too. There is, effectively, no privacy any longer, although most of us operate as if there still is.

Some of this surveillance has a positive effect. Have you noticed that every major terrorist event in recent times has resulted in a manhunt for the suspected perpetrator that is successful within hours or days?

That is the good news. Surveillance keeps us safe.

On the other side of the coin, police officers who employ violence against protestors cannot escape consequences either. The people being watched by the police are in turn watching the police right back. Surveillance in this age is a two-way street; very few people can live off the grid.

Governments may have sophisticated surveillance workforces but they are vastly outnumbered by...the people.

Normally this doesn't really matter but in a time like the present one, the sheer numbers of people demanding change is virtually certain to achieve at least some notable successes. My best guess is that the police departments in our cities will never be the same -- funding will be redirected into less violent methods of crowd control and discrimination against minorities will be partially eradicated.

The change will not be complete; institutional racism is too deeply embedded in our police culture to disappear overnight. But things will get better.

Some will disagree with me, with plenty of logic and evidence on their side. I admit to being an optimist who sees the hopeful signs amidst the dark clouds of despair. I don't see how so many people can march to no avail.

The demonstrations of the 1960s directly led to the end of the war in Vietnam. What progress that has been achieved in civil rights since then came directly from the non-violent protests led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his colleagues.

Real changes happened; real problems remain. Once again, after a half century has passed, millions of people are pouring out into the streets demanding justice and an end to racist police violence.

This progressive movement is feared and demonized by conspiracy theorists who increasingly have no place to hide. Their social media accounts and cellphones and propaganda are monitored along with everyone else's.

For example, the baseless theory that the 75-year-old man attacked by police in Buffalo was a member of Antifa is extremist propaganda aimed to divert gullible people from seeing the truth. But the cameras wielded by fellow protestors captured what actually happened.

Yes, this revolution is being televised in real-time. It is not 1970 any longer. The perpetrators of hate and lies can run, but they can't hide. They too are visible for all to see.

One way to gauge where all of this is headed will be to track whether voting habits evolve this November. Young people, who are leading the demonstrations for change, historically vote in far lesser numbers than older people.

Since this entire process of social activism has been overwhelmingly peaceful, a hopeful person would conclude that the process will continue at the polls in November.

But that is a long time from now. When we think back five months, most of us were not even aware of Covid-19 yet and there were no protests in the streets.

Sports were still a dominant form of entertainment in our culture; massive crowds attended games all over the country.

People still shopped at stores and malls back then; economic activity was strong. Unemployment was low, the stock market was high.

As the states open back up, some of that activity will return but not all. Many jobs will not come back. Many more people will work remotely. Freeways and public transport systems will not be as crowded.

Accordingly, carbon pollution will be at lower levels than previously was the case. The earth will be able to relax a bit as it struggles to survive the burdens of human despoilment. A window will open for the nations of the world to attack climate change. And yes the stock market will stay high, bless it.

Our children and grandchildren will begin to inherit the institutions of power. Their values and sensitivities will supplant ours. A new rhythm will define public life, just as the pace of the marching in the streets in 2020 is much faster than it was in the '60s.

There is a new urgency now; broad cross-sections of the population understand that our survival as a species is at stake, and that time may be short if we don't act.

The old will be replaced by the new. The climate deniers will be ridiculed by historians; the racists will see their public statues destroyed. One way or another, wealth will be redistributed.

The edge of that future is upon us. And, yes, this time the revolution will be televised.

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Monday, June 08, 2020

When is the Next Time?

It feels like we are at a new stage in the crises that have shook our society for months. Many people are venturing out again, especially to protest racism.

Two plagues, Covid-19 and racism, are now inextricably mixed.

How we react next will determine whether the outcome is transformative or not.

Some voices for reform want to defund police departments. I understand their rationale but it is hard to envision that being a realistic option. Who would we call in a crisis? What about serious crimes, accidents, and the dangerous moments when we call 9-1-1? In order to demolish the police we would have to create an alternative.

A majority of the Minneapolis city council supports defunding their police department in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. That department has a notably egregious record of violence against black people, and it may be relevant that, as reported by Minnesota Public Radio, the police there were trained at times by Israeli law enforcement specialists.

Those would be the same specialists who have repeatedly abused Palestinian citizens, including killing them. Why in the world would any U.S. police department turn to *them* for advice? Reports indicate that it occurred under the pretext of "anti-terrorism" training; which is chilling given what racist extremists have called our peaceful protestors this time around -- terrorists.

This is not terrorism, this is democracy.

More measured police reforms are being proposed by elected officials, primarily Democrats, but do they have the public support and political clout to prevail?

Probably the saddest outcome of all of this uproar would be a return to the status quo, because that would be the easiest option. Inertia remains a potent force when the magnitude of change seems so huge.

Growing up as a white boy in small towns in the Midwest, I don't believe I had any encounters with the police whatsoever. It was only when I went away to college that a combination of getting to know fellow students who were black and the mass demonstrations that were then sweeping college campuses opened my eyes to racism and police violence.

My black friends had all been harassed by police in Detroit, Flint and other cities.

Meanwhile, by working as a student journalist, I met the leaders of black student groups, as well as athletes like the great basketball player Cazzie Russell. Many became my friends and sources; I would know when activists were going to chain themselves to a building long before the police had a clue.

Journalists trying to cover demonstrations often got trapped within the perimeters set by police to contain and disrupt large crowds. They still do.

Over and over, I saw the constitutionally guaranteed freedoms of speech and assembly violated by law enforcement forces, including the National Guard. I saw many arrests and got arrested myself. I was roughed up but never really beaten.

My black friends never got off that easily.

What exactly is racism? And how can you experience even a modicum of its pain when you are white?

I don't think it is actually possible to do so; the closest I ever came to feeling it was when I went to a movie or a demonstration or a football game with friend who happened to be black and happened to be a girl and we felt the disapproving glare of older white people as we passed. That never happened when I was with a white girl.

Of course, at some of those times, I was also called a "n----- lover."

These experiences, as trivial as they are when compared to the actual horrors visited upon my black friends, did cement inside me an anger and determination to oppose racism wherever I encountered it the rest of my life.

Fifty years later, the ugliness remains. Many millions of people oppose racism now. Will it finally matter?

Or will we still be left waiting for what James Baldwin called "the fire next time"?

In case you've not read or have forgotten his book, by fire he was talking about love -- the love between races and the love for one another.

I fervently hope that this is our long overdue fire next time.

-30-

Sunday, June 07, 2020

Emergence

These past two weeks, we've witnessed the emergence of a mass movement in all 50 states and across the world. Millions of people are walking for justice.

Day after day, night after night, thousands of people have been turning out in our cities and towns, regardless of curfews or police tactics. It is a multi-generational outpouring led by Millennials, with many from Generations X and Z, Baby Boomers and children. All ages, races, colors, religions, genders, and political parties are part of this.

There are no "outside agitators" or foreign agents or anyone like that behind these protests. These are our neighbors, our co-workers, our relatives. This is America.

A young girl holds up a sign at a small gathering in California, "Why are you mean to a person because their skin is black?" Her sister's sign reads "Please be nice to my friends."

Both children are white. Their friends, at their side, are black. Together they represent the very best of America.

So, we have reached this point. Many are calling for change, for reform. Small steps here and there are being taken -- to ban choke holds and to stop teargassing peaceful crowds. Much more change is needed.

How do a people rid themselves of a scourge like racism?

The only way I can imagine is by getting to know one another. People may look very different on the surface, but surfaces are deceiving.

What kind of leaders will emerge at this time? Is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a leader? She is the youngest woman ever to serve in the U.S. Congress. She is 30 years old, Puerto Rican, and a Democratic Socialist representing parts of the Bronx and Queens.

Until recently, nothing about that resume would appear to fit the profile of a likely national leader, and maybe like so many predecessors she too will hit a ceiling in her career.  Possibly as soon as later this month.

Police unions and business interests are pouring a lot of money into her opponent's campaign in an effort to stop AOC from gaining the Democratic nomination for re-election this November. The corruption of money in politics is once again at work.

One encouraging characteristic of our time is that young women like AOC are increasingly stepping forward to offer alternative visions for leadership. Some are people of color. We also have had the first openly gay candidate among the leaders for the Democratic nomination for President.

Nevertheless, one of two elderly white men will win in November. At least they represent very different kinds of values and approaches for how to solve our problems.

In this moment, that we have a crisis in leadership cannot be denied. 

Many past and present leaders are speaking out about this now; Colin Powell is the latest. They are pointing to what has become painfully obvious:

There is nobody at the helm.

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