Gentle Reader:
Happy Spring. I don't know if I invited you to visit my community already, but I did produce a webpage of pictures showing where Im living now, in the Dark Ghetto of Seattle. It's at www.CityofArt.net/ColCity.html There is a link at the bottom of the page to a couple of pix of the back end of my apartment: cozy and homelike. The window sills are now covered with 2 shelves filled with plant starts tomatoes, habaniero peppers, snow peas, and a couple of butternut squash. I have the garden planted already with the cold-weather, early stuff: radishes, spinach, lettuce, herbs, and multiplier onion sets. Also have some broccoli starts, arugula, and radicchio in. The root vegetables and warm-weather plants can wait a bit til things warm up. It was cold and stormy all last week, but Sunday (Easter) was beautiful when the sun was out; I spent most of the afternoon working the soil in my patch, being serenaded by the birds, and with the periodic attention of the large, long-haired black Cat who owns the place: the lord of all he surveys.
Earlier in the afternoon I went to stand with the Greenlake Peace Vigil. Every Sunday from 2-3 p.m. we stand along the roadway on the lawn overlooking the Lake, a well-populated drive of a Sunday, and receive the honks and thumbs-up of sympathizers (and occasionally the thumbs-down or single-finger salutes from those who do not share our pro-peace views). I had a giant foam-rubber model of a gasoline can ("Mammoth Motor Oil--the Champagne of Petroleum Products") and mimed guzzling from the spout and belching with satisfaction for the passing cars. With gas rocketing to $3 a gallon again, the timing for this grim joke seems to be about right.
As we were folding up our flags and signs, a jogger stopped by to chat--an Army medic who was exercising in his red, white, and blue "Support the Troops" jersey. He tried to talk with us. It was clear he didn't know how to counter our arguments that the war was ill-conceived, based on lies, and bound to fail. He did get across that he supported the Iraq mission, having seen mass graves of Saddam's victims; he's going back for a 3rd tour of duty. We could agree that we want the troops to come through their ordeal with the least amount of killing, and that war is hell. As for the necessity of this war--and the likelihood of its getting even further out of hand--we were at loggerheads. There was a lot of explicit courtesy and respect for the other's opinion on both sides (much better than some of the shouting matches I've been engaged in). I had considerable food for thought as I headed off to till my plot.
Tax Day: this year the IRS owes me. Goody, they don't get to use $200-250 of my money to spread war and fascism around the globe! My gross income in CY 2005 was up a bit from 2004 and dramatically from 2003. (Both terrible years for me financially). Who'd have thought I'd earn more than triple the income in my 30s that I get in my 50s? What a country. Worth fighting for. Worth dying for.
As elsewhere in the country, the House immigration bill has sparked B-I-G protest marches here. On April 10th it felt great to be in a demo with 25,000 people all chanting slogans in perfectly accented Spanish! The outrage in the Hispanic and immigrant community is acting as a goad to encourage others to vent their dissatisfaction. Hoping this will build to critical mass as the months go by. The government's bankrupt policies might as well be designed to stir up dissent here -- and abroad as well.
Peru, Venezuela, Argentina: In the home countries of Latin America, the policies of the U.S. have never been in lower repute. The BBC is running a series on "How Bush Lost Latin America." Though it is aimed at people with little background in these countries, there is much of value in this overview even for the hard-core, Spanish-speaking analyst (like yours truly):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4861320.stm
Iran: Apparently U.S. troops and surrogates are already in there on the ground, and well along towards air strikes -- possibly nucular strikes. This reminds me of Samson pulling down the temple on himself and burying his tormentors at the same time. It would be a very, very bad idea to provoke war with Iran. Very bad for Israel. Very destabilizing for the whole region. It would engender a whole new escalation of the cycle of violence and terror. Unfortunately, Bush seems hell-bent on doing it regardless--and you know how he is when his heart is set on doing something. No amount of logic can dissuade a willfully deaf man.
Meantime we have undercut the EC's position on Iran's nucular program through our unilateral nucular deal with India. Way to make friends, George! Talk about having a double standard. Indian proliferation good; Iranian bad. Posada Carriles freedom fighter; Hugo Chavez dirty terrorist. And so on.
Rumsfeld: In an unprecedented breach of normal military decorum, now seven retired generals -- many of them key players in the Iraq campaign -- have called for Rummy's resignation in recent weeks. Since he still has Bush's full confidence, this will likely have no effect. The Bushie camp's wagons have been circled for so long at this point that no criticism has a chance of getting through. It's like trying to penetrate a wall of defensiveness and denial. One thing that might bring Rummy down is an indictment, though. Human Rights Watch has tied Rummy with close oversight of the interrogation and torture of a Guantnamo detainee, a Saudi man named Mohammed al-Kahtani. They claim to have strong documentary evidence of Rummy's interest and direction of the interrogation, and are trying to push an indictment in international court. Details:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/17/143241
Observation: Bush's habits when under fire: George W. exhibits many of the traits of the East Texas Redneck, a species with which I became acquainted while living in Georgia during the late 70s. When facing criticism and rejection, the Redneck hunkers down and adopts a nasty defensive posture. Like a Likud politician faced with the "raghead threat," he becomes angrier and angrier, more and more shut down, less and less likely to listen to reason. We're not likely to see Bush accepting any suggestions about ditching Rummy as long as he can maintain this wall of adamant denial. They just announced that Presidential Press Secretary Scott McClellan is stepping down too -- perhaps the stress of lying for Bush and defending those lies as truth for 3 years was getting to him. At any rate, he was never part of the "Inner Circle" in the Bush White House; not invulnerable like Rummy, Cheney, or Condi.
Nepal: The beautiful Himalayan kingdom remains convulsed with widespread protest against the autocratic King Gyanendra. All parties in the political spectrum except the King and Army are united in demanding a return to democratic process. The Army and police have been shooting down demonstrators in the streets; at least 9 have been killed so far and many more injured, thousands jailed. So why is the King so unbending in insisting on autocratic rights and extreme measures to suppress dissent? The U.S. ambassador has been backing the King to the hilt, that's why; most recently with a $20M emergency aid package largely consisting of rifles and ammo for the Army! Details at: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/14/147237
Comment: This is a measure of the neocons' double standards around democracy. No support for the massive, nationwide mass movement for democratic rights in Nepal: a strengthening of the iron hand of repression instead. Complete withdrawal of support from the democratically elected Hamas government in the Occupied Territories of Palestine. A CIA-managed coup to remove the democratically-elected President of Haiti. Similar shenanigans to topple the democratically-elected government in Venezuela (what next in Bolivia and Peru?) What is Bush going to do about his buddy Berlusconi being voted out in Italy? Re-run the election on rigged Diebold voting machines supplied by the USG? Provide technical assistance so Berlusconi can blow smoke and file a blizzard of litigation until his techies figure out how to jimmy the vote count and make it look like he won?
Here is one area where the Italians are a little bit ahead of us in electoral honesty. Info:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/17/143246
On a cheerier note, the University of Washington where I now work has announced major gains in green policies. 1800 of the campus toilets have been replaced with Ultra-Low-Flow units, saving 5 million gallons of potable water per year, while 40 percent of the campus piping has been calibrated and centrally controlled to maximize efficiency. Energy-conserving measures are now saving enough power to run 5,500 average homes per year. As with all operations in the Northwest, there is a massive recycling project which includes a comprehensive program of recycling old computers, monitors, printers, etc. Though campus population has grown by 22 percent since 1991 (when I arrived on the scene), the number of campus parking permits sold has decreased by 41 percent, thanks to subsidized bus passes and efforts to encourage bicycle commuting. And the U. has adopted U.S. Green Building Council codes for all new construction. Several of the new dorms, the new Genomic Sciences complex, and the Tacoma and Bothell campuses all have LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification. Incidentally, Seattle and King County have both recently passed measures to markedly decrease the emission of greenhouse gases, especially car exhaust and diesel exhaust from freighters and passenger ships, including the Washington State Ferries operating around Puget Sound. The Governor and State legislature have been very proactive on this since the election of Gov. Gregoire in 2004.
The "other Washington" can play footsie with polluters and enable global warming; but we Washingtonians are doing our part to start fixing this serious problem before it's too late. We'll live in our little green bubble while the rest of the world blows itself to bits. Ah, bliss!
I've added several new pages of history to my Battleships website, pertaining to the Russo-Japanese War. http://www.cityofart.net/bship/finalproject.htm The key to this is the Mikasa page, about Admiral Togo's flagship at the Battle of Tsushima. At top of Mikasa page there is a link to the Battle of Tsushima page, while at bottom, the Museum Ships link leads to a page about extant warships from that era (Spanish-Am. War, Russo-Jap. War, 1st Balkan War). On the top of the Tsushima page is a link to a page about the siege of Port Arthur (Lushunkou), one of the biggest battles of modern times and a precursor to the huge campaigns of WWI. I also added several fine photos to the U.S. battleship Oregon page, and to certain of the British vessels featured on my site: Majestic, Renown, Formidable, Devastation.
What solace it is to dig into the rich, black earth and break up the clods, to tickle the root balls on the broccoli plants and gently nudge them into their well-watered holes, in the quiet of the 3-acre garden, surrounded by beautiful flowering trees. They are just leafing out now and the slopes were misted with delicate shades of yellow-green: here the fluffy white boughs of a shapely apple tree, there the stars of a magnolia, over there a smear of crimson marking the crabapples just coming into bloom along the hillside. The yellow-green fan leaves and spiky, creamy blossoms of a young horse chestnut contrast with the cyan/aqua color of a gum spruce in new needles. The tulips blooming round the bronze fertility-goddess statue in the corner -- a splash of red, yellow, and purple dots. The shapely cone of Mt. Rainier, blanketed in white snow, looming on the horizon, seemingly close enough to touch. The birds twitter volubly in the warm, low rays of the sun; and the calming presence of the watchful Cat, swishing his plumelike tail gracefully about him, is appreciated. I may be under the poverty line, but I am rich in other ways, and grateful for what is still good in living here.