tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17384573730400540822024-02-08T10:19:26.505-08:00Only A Beginning ...Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735801272516622162noreply@blogger.comBlogger158125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1738457373040054082.post-40932174740631023002018-11-19T07:00:00.002-08:002018-11-19T07:00:37.086-08:00Pay to not playProviding some shelter and resources for people without stable housing is generally supported here. But that means just as long as those services are not nearby. To date, four proposed sites have been tabled by neighborhood objections.<br /><br />How about neighborhoods paying to NOT have emergency shelter, housing, services, nearby?<br /><br />Neighborhoods could compete - the ones that pay the least get the shelters; the proceeds from others who pay to not have services nearby fund and operate the resources.<br /><br />Inequity at its finest - but gee, it would raise money, locate sites by an agreed-upon method, and objecting neighbors could put up their dollars without nixing much-needed resources. I can hear the cries and objections, but bottom line, it could work.<br /><br />Because, like it or not, money gives one power and influence to help get things done. And choosing a service site needs to get done.Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735801272516622162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1738457373040054082.post-14116673987482482602018-11-19T06:59:00.000-08:002018-11-19T06:59:01.918-08:00Something's Wrong<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
fences and walls and guards and closures<br />
claiming<br />
mine<br />
you can't have<br />
not yours<br /><br />
locks alarms cameras<br />
the more boundaries, the more invasion<br />
hacking<br />
because we can<br />
because we want more</span>Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735801272516622162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1738457373040054082.post-4334394999210117712018-02-12T12:38:00.001-08:002018-02-12T12:38:44.345-08:00Truth is red-taggedIf the first casualty of war is truth, and since truth is red-tagged, even though it's a logically inaccurate conclusion, I'd say we are a war - Donald Trump v [ ]. Even more disturbing is wondering why I am surprised.Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735801272516622162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1738457373040054082.post-12480096814048029242018-02-06T08:18:00.000-08:002018-02-06T08:18:02.520-08:00Obituaries<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
My
college classmates have a project, to draft our own obituaries and
share them with each other now, online, while we are still here. </div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The
obits of others that I read seem of a piece, reflecting lives with a
consistency and focus. And maybe after I'm dead, my life will also
look that way. </div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
But now, from my perspective, the lead keeps changing. </div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
If I had been writing ten years ago, my emphasis would have been my global advocacy. If I were to write tomorrow, I would start with my
involvement in solutions to our local shelter crisis. And if I'd
written six months ago, I would have underscored how I'd reflected
and chosen localism as my best resistance and had decided to
participate actively in (almost only) city politics and projects. </div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
So
I'm stuck.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="__DdeLink__55_939234090"></a>
I've written the middle years part. I've not yet added family. I'm
wanting an organizing thread. Mark me incomplete.</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<br />
<div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735801272516622162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1738457373040054082.post-79628510075812936572017-06-13T08:20:00.003-07:002017-06-13T08:20:56.107-07:00BalanceGlobal warming is self-organizing's response to human over-population.Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735801272516622162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1738457373040054082.post-14022397601998693932017-04-01T08:57:00.000-07:002017-04-01T08:57:02.331-07:00One nation, indivisible ... <div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I sat with my back
to the large window at the rectangular table in the room where my
family took our meals. My father sat at the head, a direct view
outside. “Oh, look, there's a squirrel, “ he would say, and I
would twist around and look out and he would reach over a take a
teaspoonful of my ice cream. And I'd turn back, no squirrel and less
dessert, feeling fooled and shamed and consistently gullible. Now I
do not trust easily, I do not hope, disappointment is too painful.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
But when we, we,
everyone, on January 21, spontaneously gathered in protest, marched
and hugged and gathered and shared, I did think that perhaps we were
ready to update this very sluggish and unresponsive governance
system we endorse. I thought: we are here, we have critical mass,
what an amazing result from this presidential election. I had
expectations.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
And I was wrong.
And my sadness hurts, is becoming despair. A playbook of tools and
techniques that have guided us to this point, this point of system
failure, that playbook like a magnet has captured all the individual
filings, the energy, and focused it on shifting the electeds balance
scale. Mottos and initiatives about defeating the other - swing
left, block, impeach, sue, 50% + 1 … reward action now, and in lock
step, and reflection, well, maybe later, maybe not at all. Here in
Santa Cruz, we have five indivisibles, regressing to the mean. I
know, I know, introverts just feel alienated, and extroverts aren't
pushed to reflect more deeply.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Women's March, a
careful balance of collective values and personal engagement has
been turned into structured choices, channeling the energy into
grooves exhaustively well-worn, for instance subsuming the huddle I
was part of from reflection into already defined activity and here
the local women's march leaders broke away from the national values,
muted the international women's day history, the garment worker women
burned alive in the Triangle Fire, … We lunched.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
One nation
indivisible, indivisible indeed, stuck together in a massive clump of
insistent perpetuating dysfunction. Phoning and signing and posting
and liking … rallying with rules about what to wear, what to say,
how to say it. while leaders order ...</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735801272516622162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1738457373040054082.post-88182219842420962492017-02-28T12:19:00.002-08:002017-02-28T12:19:17.570-08:00Bidding on the wall<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
There's a report on
Facebook that Granite Rock Construction, based in Watsonville, CA, is bidding on the anti-immigration wall that
has been proposed. Please don't. We hope Santa Cruz will have sanctuary cities and
a sanctuary county, in deed even if not in law. Immigrant labor is
essential to agriculture which a bedrock of this community's economy,
as it is to the construction industry, your industry. Granite has a
good reputation; ethics are featured on your home page. Just say no;
don't bid. </div>
Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735801272516622162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1738457373040054082.post-7240060220245761842017-02-28T12:17:00.002-08:002017-02-28T12:17:21.460-08:00Street feeding<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Public spaces are
public places. Displacing those who are less entitled and
restricting access for some to public places enables the haves while
the have-nots stay lonely and go hungry</div>
Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735801272516622162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1738457373040054082.post-12308172462731164682017-02-28T12:15:00.001-08:002017-02-28T12:15:46.835-08:00About enshrining values in law<span style="font-size: small;">Utilitarian cost-benefit analyses bend and stretch ethics until they obscure the values of our community, elide our relationships with each other, and dissolve the social bonds on which concepts of state and governance are built.<br /><br />
Yes, you are responsible for fiscal stability. And you also must set an ethical, honorable dignified example that reflects the deeply held social values of we who have elected you ...honesty, caring, family, service, fairness, ...<br /><br />
Because this is not really about illegality and crime and lack of documents. It is about equity and goodness and doing what in all our hearts we know is right.<br /><br />
I resist fiscal threats used to bully obedience.</span>Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735801272516622162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1738457373040054082.post-86360929825500618782017-02-22T15:14:00.002-08:002017-02-22T15:14:08.832-08:00Equity<span style="font-size: small;"><i>Inequality has been written into the DNA of civilization ever since humans first settled down to farm the land. Throughout history, only massive, violent shocks that upended the established order proved powerful enough to flatten disparities in income and wealth. They appeared in four different guises: mass-mobilization warfare, violent and transformative revolutions, state collapse, and catastrophic epidemics. <br /><br />
</i><a eudora="autourl" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/02/scheidel-great-leveler-inequality-violence/517164/">https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/02/scheidel-great-leveler-inequality-violence/517164/</a><br /><br />
I note that of these four, if warfare becomes nuclear warfare, the rest doesn't matter, and if not, it won't create a global shock; revolutions have been and will be quickly suppressed -- tech monitoring, armored tanks, ... ; medicine is stopping epidemics before they are catastrophic, and maybe we are now experiencing US state collapse. <br /><br />
My bet is on a plague or a global climate event.</span>Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735801272516622162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1738457373040054082.post-36962612034042614882016-10-22T12:20:00.000-07:002016-10-22T12:20:03.329-07:00Hyperbolic space<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Underwater
self-organizing is hyperbolic.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
When water hits air,
ocean wave interval patterns are a Fibonacci series.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Some land
self-organizing follows Fibonacci patterns (sunflower). Some land
self-organizing is fractal.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Might there be a
parallel in physics where the quantum rules differ from the every day
rules. Underwater evolving is hyperbolic; land evolving is fractal
and Fibonaccial.</div>
Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735801272516622162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1738457373040054082.post-17428409222787351152016-08-07T08:28:00.000-07:002016-08-07T08:28:47.827-07:00Call 911<b>Call 911</b><br />
<br />
Be afraid.<br />
So you will turn to me<br />
To PD<br />
Be afraid.<br />
So that you forget your own strength<br />
So that you forget how to create agreements<br />
So that you lose discernment<br />
So that you become helpless without me
PD
Be afraid<br />
So as not to have any other feelings<br />
Be afraid.<br />
So that I replace you.<br />
Be afraid<br />
So that I grow strong, have tanks and armor and become many<br />
Be afraid.<br />
Be weak.<br />
<br />
Call 911Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735801272516622162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1738457373040054082.post-19429056463022443752016-06-25T10:09:00.002-07:002016-06-25T10:09:26.612-07:00On diagnosing mental illnessIt used to be that diagnosing illness was the responsibility of medical professionals.
But now anyone can call public difference illness and delegate quick removal to conformity enforcement services.
Now we have a more bland mix in our melting pot.Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735801272516622162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1738457373040054082.post-3040611741674413062016-01-11T15:32:00.001-08:002016-01-11T15:32:20.169-08:00naive activism... a lobby which has chosen disease as the simple explanation and restraint as the simple intervention for behaviors without a simple cause ... Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735801272516622162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1738457373040054082.post-57840671839537266672015-10-16T17:56:00.003-07:002015-10-16T17:56:27.948-07:00Wearables and moreLet us start to use emerging technologies and approaches which have the potential to shift health, medicine and biopharma from an intermittent and reactive physician-centric mode, to an era of more continuous data and a proactive approach in which the individual is increasingly empowered and integrated into personalized wellness, diagnosis and therapy. Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735801272516622162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1738457373040054082.post-37242031213826733952015-09-30T06:50:00.001-07:002015-09-30T06:50:14.005-07:00Thinking?The more rules and laws, the more people delegate analysis and choice and common sense to compliance The existence of rules and laws lessens selecting the option to use analysis to determine one's own responsibility, to choose for oneself, so that soon the ability to compare has atrophied. Rebels know this, delight in work-arounds. Hackers know this, delight in beating the code. Those hungry for power know this, delight in loopholes. When laws and computer code rule, who will be left who can think?Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735801272516622162noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1738457373040054082.post-25651415303880931362015-07-16T06:21:00.000-07:002015-07-16T06:21:00.844-07:00DebtAbout Greece, and defaulting on debt, ...
I've been thinking about the news about debt, Greece, defaulting, student loans, who can and who can't just wipe away a debt. There's a piece missing! Payment is a return on the use of the lender's asset. And included in the interest rate charged is insurance to the lender against default. Built into how much a lender charges the borrower for a loan – mortgages at 4%, credit cards at 18% - is the expectation of getting the whole loaned amount back, and the risk to the lender of default. So if the lender isn't paid back, that's just part of the expectation, and the cost of not getting paid back is built into the rate. So I don't understand why there is so much noise about defaulting. It seems to me all that means is the interest rate wasn't set high enough, that it's on the lender, not the defaulter!
Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735801272516622162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1738457373040054082.post-39173381034742280622015-07-13T13:15:00.003-07:002015-07-13T13:15:53.634-07:00Race v povertyBoth discrimination based on race and exclusion based on poverty have the same purpose, shoring up one group by diminishing another. Some groups have become white/acceptable (Irish, Catholics, some Latinos, Jews (maybe), … ); some individuals and groups have climbed out of poverty. Lots of people are left to 'other', to stoke up one's own sense of self by assuming one is better than another based on a category (women, blacks, immigrants, … ). Instead of some in, some out, all in.Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735801272516622162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1738457373040054082.post-8177075522078940742015-07-13T09:27:00.004-07:002015-07-13T09:27:34.124-07:00Just Blame The Victim
… so much attention to the abuse of prescription drugs, using heroin as an alternative when opiods are restricted, ... and no attention to the systemic causes of so much pain – poverty, diet, environmental pollution … Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735801272516622162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1738457373040054082.post-84153467968261366522015-06-18T08:50:00.001-07:002015-06-18T08:50:11.315-07:00Can there be autonomy without obligation?To whom does my life belong: God (creator), the State (which invested in me through schooling, protections, … ), my smaller community (family, friends, colleagues who would all miss me and hurt at the loss), or myself (freedom/liberty … ). Can there be autonomy without obligation?
I answer no. However, I still wonder what are my obligations now.
Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735801272516622162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1738457373040054082.post-62247724948786842402015-06-01T09:57:00.000-07:002015-06-01T09:57:19.047-07:00About self-determination and avoiding medical intrusionDon't tell; don't askSylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735801272516622162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1738457373040054082.post-26270998261722516192015-05-31T18:34:00.002-07:002015-05-31T18:34:23.340-07:00About planning and about being presentWhen the teacher is ready, the student appears.Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735801272516622162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1738457373040054082.post-87157658264864748932015-04-19T11:03:00.004-07:002015-04-19T11:03:47.311-07:00About writingA computer, Word Perfect, and Santa Cruz's earthquake in 1989 and learning about reactions to shock (Bessel van der Kolk) in that context are what got me started writing. I've written a lot from the perspective of psychiatric disability, the years from 1986.
http://peoplewho.org/sylvia/om/index.htm
That identity gave me voice and purpose. Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735801272516622162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1738457373040054082.post-53517097986751546862015-03-20T12:12:00.004-07:002015-03-20T12:12:35.999-07:00Militarization in Santa Cruz: The BearCatThree goals:
1. Fix the broken City political process - SCRAM is successful here, smart and strong.
2. Open a dialog about risk, fear, othering, scare tactics, militarization ... I'd like to see a speaker's panel ... how opinion is formed, how police went from blue to black, how we are using the fallen officers, political wars on drugs, terrorism, homeless ...
3. Prevent the purchase. Use the infrastructure - SCRAM can contact GAO, Homeland, ... to suggest irregularities, hint at audit, ask for a hold, use FOIA Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735801272516622162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1738457373040054082.post-70002894387615386792015-02-21T17:05:00.006-08:002015-02-21T17:05:56.995-08:00On expectationsGod is hope, a wish. Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04735801272516622162noreply@blogger.com0