Pay to not play

Providing 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.

How about neighborhoods paying to NOT have emergency shelter, housing, services, nearby?

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.

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.

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.

Something's Wrong

fences and walls and guards and closures
claiming
mine
you can't have
not yours

locks alarms cameras
the more boundaries, the more invasion
hacking
because we can
because we want more

Truth is red-tagged

If 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.

Obituaries

My college classmates have a project, to draft our own obituaries and share them with each other now, online, while we are still here. 

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. 

But now, from my perspective, the lead keeps changing. 

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. 

So I'm stuck.

I've written the middle years part. I've not yet added family. I'm wanting an organizing thread. Mark me incomplete.

Balance

Global warming is self-organizing's response to human over-population.

One nation, indivisible ...

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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 ...

Bidding on the wall

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.