David Fields of St. Vincent De Paul

It’s a clean, well-organized effort that provides an air mattress, hot meal and shower for those wanting to participate.  ‘Guests’ are screened through the Megan’s Law database, asked a few questions and then admitted for the evening.  Men are separated from women and children, lights are turned down at 10pm.  It looks to be a safe harbor for those needing a roof over their head.

It takes $300,000 to operate the facility for four months, which is only 1/3 of the full year.  That works out to be roughly $15 per person, per night, which seems pretty efficient.  The guests who line up in front of the facility before it opens are from many walks of life.  Some have cars but choose not to sleep in them.  Some walk there from wherever they spend their days.  Some look seasoned, others look to be new to the streets.  Most seemed pleasant and said hello as I walked by.

It was my first time inside such a facility and I was struck by the caring nature of the people who work there, some of whom are former guests themselves.  They work to provide a certain dignity to their work and those who come to the shelter.  And I think the guests appreciate it.

If I was in need, I’d be glad to have a place like this to go.

Wikipedia, the world’s best encyclopedia, went dark just an hour ago as part of a 24 hour protest. Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, has taken a stand against two potentially stifling pieces of legislation that could diminish the web’s ability to disseminate information. Here’s their take on the situation:
• The Wikipedia community has blacked out the English version of Wikipedia for 24 hours on January 18th to raise awareness about legislation being proposed by the U.S. Congress — the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate — and to encourage readers to speak out against it. This legislation, if passed, will harm the free and open Internet. If you are in the United States, let your congressional representative know what you think of the proposed legislation by clicking here.
• Although the bills have been amended since their introduction, they are still deeply problematic. Among other serious problems in the current draft of the bills, the requirement exists for US-based sites to actively police links to purported infringing sites. These kinds of self-policing activities are non-sustainable for large, global sites – including ones like Wikipedia. The legislative language is ambiguous and overly broad, even though it touches on protected speech. Congress says it’s trying to protect the rights of copyright owners, but the “cure” that SOPA and PIPA represent is worse than the disease.
Check it out for yourself here: http://wikipedia.org/

PS – Google has apparently joined the effort by placing a black banner over their homepage logo here:  www.google.com

Today I revisit his most famous public address, the “I have a Dream’ speech, given in August of 1063.  At that time, the United States was wrestling with the notion of equality for all.   Many in the land wold not, could not accept such thinking.  Some brave men and women, would not rest until a major change occurred.  A leader in that struggle, Dr. King was a powerful voice, but more than that, he was a man of action, organizing  marches, leading boycotts and experiencing incarceration all following a nonviolent methods borrowed from India’s spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi.

I Have A Dream speech

In this speech, King prepared roughly 2/3 of the text, the last five minutes appear to be freeform rhetoric.  Some of my favorite passages include:

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AFTER EMANCIPATION

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

INSUFFICIENT FUNDS

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

THE URGENCY OF NOW

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

THE HIGH PLANE OF DIGNITY

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

WHEN WILL YOU BE SATISFIED?

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating “For Whites Only”. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

THE CONTENT OF THEIR CHARACTER

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Today we honor this ordinary man who did great things.  All the other days, let’s honor ourselves by living in the spirit of his words and actions, so as to make a better world for everyone.

Thanksgiving is a time for family and friends to come together to celebrate the bounty we are lucky enough to enjoy:  loved ones, good health, freedom and beauty in all its forms.  But after the communal feast, some of us turn from human beings into something akin to a werewolf, howling at the moon of opportunity.  The flames of greed, fanned by corporate retailers hungry for a strong start to their most important four weeks of sales each year, will stop at nothing and appear to allow just about anything in that quest.

Black Friday, a phrase coined by Philadelphia PD in 1966, was to identify a day of concern for police due to ’massive traffic jams and over-crowded sidewalks.’  What occurred then can only be described as milk toast compared to the frenzy that happens now.  On our way back from dinner in Venice  last night, we witnessed a few visuals that were very strange.  Outside of Best Buy in Oxnard, there was a line of 500+ people waiting for the strike of midnight to start their mayhem.  The Walmart parking lot across the street was filled the brim.  And the Target store at the local mall had  a line wrapping the building on down the road.  People were hurriedly parking and double time walking to get their place at the temple of consumption.

Meanwhile, down at the PorterRanch Walmart, a ‘competitive shopper’ used pepper spray to clear the aisle so that he or she could get their hands on an XBOX at X price, presumably for the ex.  http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/la-fiw-wal-mart-chaos-20111126,0,3572272.story

A dozen people were injured.  At least no one was killed, as happened to an employee several years ago at another Walmart. 

Did you really think that YOU would get the one 55 inch TV they were offering that night at $299?  Really?

Only in America…

Kudos to Randy Lubas, whose dream of bringing a comedy festival to Ventura came to fruition this past weekend. With a dozen venues, fifty comics over three days, one could call it a marathon. As a judge for those three days, it was for me.  Listening to over thirty of them, I learned a few things:
Most are a bit nutty. Some are on medication for it (and use it as part of their performance); others should be. But I’ve got to hand it to those who step up to the mic and try to keep the audience entertained for six to twelve minutes. It ain’t easy.
Having seen several of them do their routine more than once, I now understand that these are more scripted soliloquies than I previously thought.  Sometimes, they were exact repeats of the previous night’s monologue.  Sometimes they were able to spin new material in between the script.  The good ones take what the audience gives them and make it into something new – right on the spot. 

What I also learned is that what I think is talent differs from what pros in the business think.  Maybe that’s why I never really got Seinfeld.  I’d walk into the room, watch a few minutes of it and walk out.   Either I didn’t get it or didn’t want to waste the time watching was is described now as “the show about nothing.” 

I hope Randy starts working next week on the second annual Ventura Comedy Festival – because the world needs to laugh a whole lot more…

Today has several action items in downtown Ventura:  The Fifth Annual Walk for Farm Animals occurs to work toward protecting animals who, while eventually going into the food system, need not be abused and treated like prisoners during their short lives.  Whether you eat meat or not, you can appreciate that POV.

Additionally, Occupy Ventura got started at Mission Park in Downtown Ventura with the plan to overnight and stay through Sunday.  Like their Wall Street cousins, OV is concerned for what they say is the 99% of Americans who don’t benefit equally from the New World Order that run this country.  From the OWS site:

“Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants.”

While some may think this is a farce and unsustainable, it appears that the movement is growing, greatly, and even in other countries.  Reports of 100,000 people marching in Rome yesterday were updated today by 50,000 marching in Times Square New York.

Key points made locally were that the Federal Reserve is the root of much evil and that it’s time, after $3 trillion dollars ($3,000,000,000,000 for those who care) spent over the past decade, to end our participation in wars in the middle east. 

To see what’s happening on Wall Street right now, go here:  http://occupywallst.org/

Read it here: http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/oct/01/totten-increased-graduation-rates-mean-less/

The ninth annual Ventura Hillsides Music Festival happened this past  weekend. The weather didn’t cooperate, a continuance of the lousy summer we’ve had (wait for October people!). The music, more eclectic than past shows, was still good. Notables were the Blind Boys of Alabama, who brought much-needed soul and harmony to Ventura and opener David Lindley, a string plucking prodigy.  He played a variety of odd 6,8 & 12 stringed instruments and sang songs that ranged from hardscrabble farm songs to Bruce Springsteen’s Brothers Under A Bridge.

The Fabulous Thunderbirds, the journeymen blues group from Austin, tried their best in the wake of having to follow the fabulous Blind Boys.  Kim Wilson, the Detroit boy who grew up in Goleta, is one of the best harmonica players touring today, but his ten minute solo was enjoyable only if you appreciate the artistry of playing the mouth harp.  The odd number was the headliner, Chris Robinson Brotherhood.  I like Chris and am a fan of the Black Crows, last having seen them at the Doheny Blues Festival in 2009.  But believe his new band CRB took a tactical misturn by not playing any of the songs that made him famous.  As a headliner, you want to have the crowd leave  with a smile on their face, satisfied for having lasted a full five hours into the show.  That was not the case Sunday, as the Brotherhood played solid but unremarkable jam-rock with a good number of attendees heading for the door before the band finished.  Oh well, a good day, a good cause (saving the Hillsides) and a good place to see friends in the park.

We landed into a city that had changed.  The bravado New Yorker’s are famous for was gone.  Now they were thankful to have us as tourists.  We did many of the things we hoped to do, but one day, we went downtown to see what was left of the devastation.  The fires had just been put out, after weeks of smouldering.  The cleanup was well under way, but the awe was still apparent.

St. Paul’s Chapel, within a stone’s throw of ground zero, was still there.  Around it were hundreds of written messages, flowers and photos of those still missing.  It was an outpouring of emotion from people who had felt the pain of loss, the hope of a miracle.  And there we were, touching, reading and trying to understand how this could have happened.  As we walked by, I saw a small screen on back of a television truck with Rudy Giuliani on-screen, speaking from within the Chapel.  Throughout the city, there were memorials everywhere – in offices, storefronts and of course firehouses.

It was ten years ago today and I was hoping that the emotion of that day would have faded.  But today’s coverage was too powerful.  I woke Marshall this morning, as I did then, to watch the events unfold.  But this time, they were reading of names of people who had perished by those who had lost a family member.

Let us hope that the hate that fills the bellies of those who commit such acts disappears, so that civilization can get on with living, loving and caring for one another.   Close your eyes and make it so.

If you didn’t get a chance to read the Labor Day offerings in the LA Times, I urge you to reconsider.  Short stories about humble beginnings – All are good, three are better.

L.A.  Mayor Antonia Villaraigosa started as a scrappy shoeshine boy at age five; Robert Gupta auditioned for first violin in the L.A. Phil at 19 and Father Greg Boyle wants to tell the children of former gangsters what a great man their father is.  The first is a story of hard work and determination, the second of talent and decisions and the third of redemption.  Read them here:  http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-jobs-20110904,0,7097550.story