Mendocino County Today: Thursday 3/28/24

Showers | Outside Prosecutor | Feliz Creek | Editor Home | Blood Drive | Ukiah Ceasefire | Historical Sewer | Poppies | Roadways First | Evident Evidence | California Changed | Low-Income Housing | PG&E Contractors | Wild Turkeys | Women Sawyers | Palace Memories | Yesterday's Catch | Insect Infestation | Grape Check | Dive Bars | City Limit | Pablo Sighting | Owl Plan | Something Irritating | Boeing Problems | MSNBC Divorce | Gaza Flyer | Walking Billboard | Russia Muslims | Cowboy Sleeping | Viet Vet

RAINFALL (past 24 hours): Leggett 2.92" - Laytonville 1.64" - Willits 1.45" - Covelo 1.16" - Yorkville 1.00" - Boonville 0.69" - Ukiah 0.65" - Hopland 0.60"

SHOWERS will gradually weaken through the day today. A second round of wind and gusty showers will hit the southern half of the area tomorrow with cool and clearing conditions through the weekend.(NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): It is sprinkling with 47F this Thursday morning on the coast with a fresh 1.05" more rainfall. Just what my septic field needs.... Showers today then more rain Friday but amounts are unclear as the system might stay offshore & head more to the south with it's main impact. We'll see?

DA EYSTER HIRES OUTSIDE PROSECUTOR IN CUBBISON CASE

by Mike Geniella

In a surprise move, Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster has hired an outside prosecutor to oversee a felony case targeting suspended County Auditor-Treasurer Chamise Cubbison and former county Payroll Manager Paula June Kennedy.

Traci Lewis Carrillo, a former Sonoma County deputy district attorney now in private practice, is taking over the case as special prosecutor, according to a brief notice Eyster filed on March 22 with the Mendocino County Superior Court.

At what expense to taxpayers is unknown, as is the duration of Carrillo’s contract.

Eyster did not respond to a written request for comment on his move. The County Counsel’s Office said it is reviewing a request for information on how much and for how long Carrillo will be paid.

In his brief court filing, Eyster offered no reasons for removing himself from the prosecution of a case that rocked Mendocino politics and embroiled Eyster in the most severe political crisis of his 13-year tenure. 

Last Fall, Eyster filed a single felony charge of misappropriation of funds against Cubbison and Kennedy, two longtime county employees he accused of using an obscure pay code so Kennedy could collect about $68,000 in extra pay during the Covid pandemic. Cubbison and Kennedy contend the pay was for work related to sick leave and overtime. Cubbison, who was Assistant Auditor when the alleged misappropriation occurred, contends the extra pay was authorized by now retired Auditor Lloyd Weer. Kennedy claims Cubbison authorized the use of the pay code but never put that in writing.

Cubbison’s attorney, Chris Andrian of Santa Rosa, dismisses any criminal intent, arguing that the DA has presented no evidence that the suspended Auditor-Treasurer personally benefitted from the extra money paid to Kennedy. 

Eyster’s move to hire an outside prosecutor is unexpected because, in January, the DA successfully fought a defense bid to recuse him from the case because of his past conflicts with the Auditor over his asset forfeiture spending practices.

Superior Court Judge Keith Faulder, at the time, denied the defense motion, saying the evidence presented during a recusal hearing was “too thin.” The state Attorney General’s Office, which typically opposes moves to recuse local DAs in disputed cases, backed Eyster.

Eyster’s decision to hire an outside prosecutor is the latest twist in a politically charged case involving two elected county officials, some members of the county Board of Supervisors, and county administrators who tipped the DA off to the payroll discrepancies. Eyster’s decision to prosecute Cubbison triggered an uproar, embroiling the DA in the most severe crisis yet to his 13-year tenure.

Besides fighting the criminal case, Cubbison has filed a civil lawsuit accusing the county Supervisors of denying her due process and damaging her professional reputation after the board abruptly suspended her within days of the DA filing his criminal charges without offering her an opportunity to respond. 

Eyster’s hiring of an outside prosecutor now is raising questions about whether a preliminary hearing scheduled in less than three weeks for Cubbison and Kennedy can proceed.

Cubbison attorney Chris Andrian of Santa Rosa was not available for comment on Tuesday, nor was Mary LeClare, the Mendocino County public defender appointed to represent Kennedy.

Carrillo, however, said Wednesday she is prepared to proceed with the hearing.

“Unless the defense requests more time or wants time to discuss the case with me as I get up to speed, I intend to be ready,” she said. “I look forward to fully reviewing, evaluating, and assessing the case and presenting the evidence in court if it is unable to be resolved prior to the hearing.”

Carrillo was a deputy district attorney in Riverside County before taking a similar position in Sonoma County in 2008. Until leaving the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office in 2015, Carrillo was a senior trial prosecutor managing high-profile and complex trials, including a four-defendant gang murder case.

In 2017 Carrillo left the Sonoma County DA’s Office and opened a private practice before joining the Santa Rosa law firm of Perry, Johnson, Anderson, Miller, and Moskowitz.

EDITOR STATUS UPDATE: The Editor was released from the hospital on Thursday and is at home resting and recuperating. As The Editor put it: “Finally home after a month of high end medical torture.”

THE MENDOCINO FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT will be hosting a Spring blood drive at the firehouse at 44700 Little Lake Road on Tuesday, April 9th, from 1:30 to 4:30 pm. Vitalant is the organization running the drive and they very strongly recommend making an appointment time for your donation to minimize the wait time. You can call them at 877-258-4825 or visit Vitalant.org. We hope to see you on April 9th.

Sandy Schmidt, Administrative Assistant, Mendocino Fire

UKIAH CITY COUNCIL TABLES RESOLUTION CALLING FOR CEASEFIRE IN GAZA

Just before 10:00 on the night of Wednesday, March 20, 2024, the Ukiah City Council voted by a bare majority to table a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The Council received over thirty letters on both sides of the question. Many supporters of the ceasefire resolution stated that they are Jewish, before citing their dismay over the Israeli bombing Gaza. But opponents advised the local governing body not to weigh in on international issues by passing a non-binding resolution. One questioned why the council was delving into foreign affairs when people are hungry and homeless in Ukiah.…

mendofever.com/2024/03/28/ukiah-city-council-tables-resolution-calling-for-ceasefire-in-gaza/

MENDO’S SEWER SYSTEM IS NOT ‘HISTORICAL’

(Introduced, transcribed and annotated by Mark Scaramella)

Long time Coast contractor Ishvi Aum always has interesting things to say when he is talking about construction related subjects on the Mendocino Coast. During the supervisors planning and permitting workshop on Tuesday afternoon Aum told the Board:

“I have been building homes in Mendocino County for more than 25 years. It used to be that the hard part of building a home was actually building the home, buying the rebar, framing, roofing etc. It’s to the point now where the hard part is the permit acquisition. The purpose of County Planning and Building is to interpret the various codes to whatever level of stringency they see fit for their local jurisdiction. I have seen the codes being interpreted much much much more stringently as time has gone on. Certain counties like Sonoma County and Mendocino County are more difficult to build in then Modoc for example, or Nevada or other states. I encourage Planning and Building who say constantly how understaffed and overworked they are to try to focus on the big picture and move projects through more quickly. Particularly when they are being presented with projects from professionals who have a long history in the field. I think everybody is trying to work together. It’s just very cumbersome the sheer amount of codes and rules and regulations. 

Here’s an example of something I’m dealing with now. I am speaking on my own behalf and not on behalf of the Mendocino Community Services District, the sewer district, on whose board I sit. Speaking on my own behalf. I went before the Mendocino Historical Review Board (MHRB) to try to get the sewer district exempted from going through historical review in the town of Mendocino for buildings that are not historical and need work. The sewer district is strapped for funds, has no money or staff time, and has a failing sewer plant. What I met with when I went before the MHRB is, Well we don’t think we can exempt you from that! So I reached out to Julia Krog [County Planning Director] and asked her can we be exempted? She has looked into it and she finally came back and said only the Board of Supervisors could exempt the sewer district from MHRB approval. This is simply to try to avoid fees and staff time delays to fix some garage doors in a sewer plant that is not visible anywhere in town on buildings that are not historical in any way. I bring this to your attention because common sense would dictate that this is all one community, Mendocino, and we don’t want to use County staff time and sewer district time and MHRB time to shuffle paperwork among ourselves rather than fixing the infrastructure that needs to be fixed. I would appreciate it if you could take this subject up and see if you could give the community sewer district some ability to repair itself without going through the MHRB process.”

Nobody on the board responded to Mr. Aum or asked the Planning Department to respond, or suggested a future agenda item, or asked that the Planning Department make note to fix this ridiculous problem.

* * *

‘Not Similar’

Sarah Bodner of Mendocino had another example:

“I am the owner of the Mendocino Tea Company. I bought the business two years ago. It is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. I wanted to continue the legacy of great organic tea on the coast. About a year in, I decided to start looking for a retail shop. I opened up across from Mendosa’s in Mendocino. It is a tiny little building. It is hard to see if you are not looking for it or even if you are. So I set out to hang a sign. If you live in Mendocino you know that hanging a sign is about as complicated as trying to adopt a child. The process is unbelievably confusing, expensive and risky for a business owner. If you apply for a sign, you get denied and then you are no longer allowed to hang a sign. The Historical Review Board set out to try to improve the process. It would be better for them to conserve the amount of agenda time they spend on hearing sign proposals to save staff time and money and facilitate businesses being able to hang their shingle and make it easier to open. Around the time I was looking at a retail space the new policy was in process. It took several months to apply for my sign under the new policy that was intended to streamline and make it more efficient. Then I went through all the hoops. I made sure it was the right size, the right material, the right paperwork. When I got to the planner’s desk he said, ‘Oh! I’m not going to be able to sign this because it’s not similar colors.’ The sign that hung in the same place before me was black and white and green and blue. My sign was black and white. ‘Not similar.’ I’m telling this story not to complain about my sign but to illuminate that we have a total disconnect between what is happening in the County offices and what the real story is of businesses trying to survive and thrive in this county. I think it highlights the need for leadership and vision.”

As with Mr. Aum, the supervisors did not react to Ms. Bodner’s observations at all.

SUPERVISOR MULHEREN, as is her habit, cheerfully posted a Caltrans notice announcing “California Investing Nearly $1 Billion in Bicycle and Pedestrian Infrastructure Over Next Four Years. More than 250 projects throughout the state will incorporate at least one new bicycle or pedestrian infrastructure improvement in their scope of work…” 

A Ukiah commenter calling himself “Concrete Pete Construction” immediately commented: “Can’t they please just fix the horrible condition of our roadways first and then do this other stuff?”

MIKE JAMIESON:

“Mendo’s Supervisors will consider an appeal of a Planning Commission denial of a minor use permit for a large gas station in Redwood Valley next Tuesday.” (Scaramella)

I think the motion they voted for had the May 7th meeting as the date for reconsideration. Staff said they needed more time to identify findings or evidence for the factor of residents’ quality of life impact. They actually don’t need the extra time! The volume of voices testifying against the proposed project is the evidence already evident.

WHEN THEY KNEW HOW TO DESIGN & BUILD

Editor,

You've got to look in awe and wonderment at the picture of the Ukiah Courthouse from the 1860s. The mentality of quality of construction and pride of place is now replaced with CoastLibs who flippantly brush off their constituency on matters of concern. How California has changed. 

Jeff Goll

Willits

THE CIRCUS IS IN TOWN

Dear Editor,

Once again the PG&E contractor circus is in town. They arrive with lots of brand new tree trimming equipment and act like an occupying army of ill equipped and unsupervised goofballs. As I drove up Little Valley Road yesterday there was a crew of three California Tree Solutions employees sitting on the bed of a $200K boom truck playing cards at 2pm. When they actually work, the trimming seems haphazard, cutting the low to the ground brush but leaving the rotten white firs that have been marked for removal for many years which are towering over the 12,000 volt distribution lines and are ready to fall at any moment. Where is PG&E to check up on their contractors? And why does PG&E not do this work in house like they used to?

What is in place, at present, seems to be a system designed for maximum inefficiency and therefore maximum cost for the ratepayers. By the way the name of the latest flavor of PG&E contractor is California Tree Solutions from the San Jose area. It's hard to keep track of the parade of different names over the years, what the heck is going on here and why is the tree work being done during the wettest time of the year? The ground is saturated and the heavy trucks do damage to the local gravel roads in the rural areas. PG&E do you have any answers to these questions?

Incidentally PG&E closed down their office here in Fort Bragg a couple of years ago so there's no one to talk to to get any answers. If you call the phone number they provide for vegetation management, you get a prerecorded message.

There has to be a better way of powering the grid than relying on PG&E because they seem to be a lost cause. CPUC, are you listening? Stop rubber stamping rate increases until things improve.

Sincerely,

Tim McClure
Fort Bragg

BREAKING STEREOTYPES ONE SAW AT A TIME: WOMEN SAWYERS UNLEASH THEIR POWER! 

On a misty morning in March, a group of 16 women gathered around a crackling wood stove, embarking on a journey to conquer their anxieties and embrace the power of chainsaws. They shared their apprehensions and their previous experiences (or lack of experience) with the tool. A collective sigh of relief swept through the group when one instructor recounted her tears after her initial encounters with a saw. It was clear, this wouldn’t be your typical chainsaw workshop.

The participants hailed from various backgrounds - from those seeking professional development, such as Jennifer, who would like to teach the Chainsaw Safety Courses for PG&E employees in Spanish, to newcomers like Lindsay, a landscaper eager to integrate chainsaw techniques into her work. Despite their disparate levels of experience and confidence, all left the workshop feeling empowered by their newfound knowledge and proficiency in safely handling such a formidable instrument.

Guiding them through the day was Cedar Long, a seasoned expert from the California Conservation Corps with years of tree-felling experience. Her expertise and unwavering confidence set a solid foundation for the workshop's activities. The morning was dedicated to classroom sessions, meticulously covering the essentials outlined in the S-212 handbook, including personal protective equipment (PPE), potential hazards, cutting techniques, and more.

After a satisfying lunch, Jessica Roemer, Executive Director at Tan Oak Park in Laytonville, led the group outdoors to an expansive forested property perfect for practical demonstrations. Witnessing Cedar skillfully fell a towering oak tree set the tone for the hands-on sessions that followed. Divided into smaller groups overseen by experienced mentors, participants practiced various chainsaw techniques under careful supervision. 

Reflecting on her first chainsaw experience, Courtney exclaimed, “I can do anything you can do - but pregnant! Learning to wield a chainsaw feels pretty darn empowering.” Another participant, Ruthie, noted the markedly different learning atmosphere compared to that of the male-dominated spaces she had previously encountered, crediting the supportive environment and the guidance of Cedar Long for alleviating her anxieties.

The idea of Women’s Chainsaw Workshops has proved a popular one. With over 80 women on our waitlist, we are already planning future workshops throughout the county. If you are interested in signing up to be notified for future Women’s Chainsaw Workshops, email Eva King at king@firesafemendocino.org.

This transformative workshop was made possible through a collaboration between the California Conservation Corp, the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council, Northern-Mendocino Ecosystem Recovery Alliance, and Tan Oak Park. A huge shout-out to the dedicated instructors, facilitators, caterer, and participants for creating such an unforgettable day. 

TALKING WITH BOB DEMPEL

by Karen Rifkin

Born in Ukiah in 1936, Bob Dempel remembers going to Ukiah regularly with his mother from their ranch north of Hopland when he was about 6 or 7.

“We went to town and she would shop for our weekly groceries. There were three five-and-dime stores and Frega’s Hardware Store. If I was good, she would give me 10 cents to buy something.” 

He was allowed to walk around town and go to the Palace Hotel where she would meet him when she was done shopping. 

“The Palace was a safe zone because Walter Sandelin was always right there in the lobby…impeccably dressed with a suit and a tie.” 

Dempel hung out in those big overstuffed chairs in the lobby and rode the Otis elevator — probably one of the only elevators in town — up and down. If someone was checking in on the first or second floors, the bellboy/clerk would take their luggage, put it in the elevator and take them up. Dempel rode with them. 

Sandelin would always say hello and call him Bobby, one of the few allowed to use that moniker. 

“You could go down the hall to the west and use the men’s restroom. It was the first men’s room I ever saw that required you to pay to use the stalls. The urinals were free but you needed a nickel for more.” 

In 1954, a group of sophomore schoolgirls organized an invitation-only night dance at the Palace Hotel. He and his girlfriend were the happy recipients of those special invitations. 

“It was a swanky affair for Ukiah and the invitation list was kind of like a Who’s Who at that time in high school.” 

After graduating from high school, Dempel, his girlfriend and his parents attended a cast-off party put on by Sandelin on the Lurline, a Matson Lines ship, setting sail from San Francisco to Hawaii with Walter and his wife, Cora, and a large group of mostly elderly women. 

Sandelin would purchase birthday cards regularly and Dempel was one of the lucky people to be on his list of birthday-wish recipients. Every year for at least 40 years he received a card with a short, personalized, handwritten note. 

Somewhere along Dempel’s 50th, the card said ‘Happy Birthday and many more.’ 

“That was Walter’s way of saying this was the last card.” 

And indeed, it was; he died soon after in 1984. 

Dempel’s grandmother, Jessie Crawford, lived on the third floor, on the southwest corner of State and Smith streets from 1965 up until 1970 when she passed away. It was a suite with a little dinette and a bedroom, a front room combination. The family furnished the small apartment from their home. 

“When I visited her, we would go downstairs to the Palace Hotel Coffee Shop and she would treat me to lunch for 85 cents. She would always have a little nip upstairs before we came down.” 

“The connection I had with Walter was through the Masonic Lodge. He was a very active member; I went in when I was 21. 

“We attended their monthly dinners at the Masonic Hall on School and Standley streets on the first Friday of every month. There were about 60 of us who met regularly up on the second floor.” 

Dempel remembers Sandelin’s daughter Irene was quoted as saying the reason she married more than once was because she couldn’t find anybody who was as good as her father. 

After his grandmother died in 1970, they removed the furniture; it was the last time Dempel was in the Palace. 

He remembers the shops and rooms in the hotel in the late 1950s. 

Bob Sandelin’s Ukiah Tour and Travel was on the southeast corner of Smith and School Streets; one store to the east on Smith Street was Mrs. Del Tully’s Beauty Shop; east of that was the 1891 room where Rotary met and east of that was the Black Bart Room, where you could get a highball for 50 cents. The rest of the Smith Street side to State Street was the Palace Hotel Coffee Shop. 

On the School Street side, Mr. Sandkulla’s barbershop was tucked in next to Ukiah Tour and Travel and south of that was Berman’s Men’s Shop that later became Empire Office Supply and after that the Mendocino Book Company. 

On State Street, south of the lobby, Suzie Cox had the Palace Dress Shop. 

“My heart breaks when I look at the Palace Hotel and how it looks today… I think about all of the possibilities that the building and property could have become.” 

This story comes from my visit and interview with Bob Dempel and from an article he wrote for the Anderson Valley Advertiser.

(Ukiah Daily Journal)

CATCH OF THE DAY, Wednesday, March 27, 2024

TIMOTHY BELTRAM, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.

YECSON DELAHERRAN-RIVERA, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

MICHAEL DOMANOWSKI, Ukiah. Disobeying court order.

CORINNA FAHEY, Ukiah. Camping in Ukiah.

NORMAN FAZENBAKER JR., Fort Bragg. Parole violation.

BEAU JAMISON, Ukiah. DUI. 

BRANDON LANGENDERFER, Laytonville. Controlled substance, concealed dirk-dagger, contempt of court.

DEAN MARTIN, Ukiah. DUI, no license.

CHRISTOPHER NIFONG, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery.

JAMES PELLEGRINE, Ukiah. Probation revocation, resisting.

BRIAN WILLIAMS, Ukiah. Parole violation.

DEEP CLEANING

Body Surfing on the Ocean of Impermanence

Warmest spiritual greetings,

Awoke this morning to an infestation of insects, due to my bunkie at Building Bridges Homeless Resource Center not covering open jars in and on top of the locker. A dwindling number of guests actually comprehend that they are at a “homeless resource center”. The rest have decided that a combination of 1.travel hostel 2.campground, and 3.open air drug bazaar is more suitable for their comfort. Fortunately, the last Thursday of the month deep cleaning is tomorrow.

Left the facility and ambled to the Ukiah Co-op for a delicious nosh of an Italian panini sandwich and two scoops of egg salad, plus the Song Bird Guatemalan coffee. Proceeded from there to the Ukiah Public Library, here now on computer #5 @ 3:22 PM PDT.

Read today's New York Times to double check that this world is imploding, and that it is time for the avatars to make their appearance to destroy the demonic. Period! 

I am available for frontline spiritually sourced direct action in response to a world gone insane and a global ecology which is irretrievably compromised. Obviously, I require solidarity and not just messages saying that I am loved and will be on my own upon arrival. I've got one more dental appointment upcoming, and then I am free to go anywhere. 

SEARCHING FOR THE SPIRIT OF SAN FRANCISCO AT 5 DIVE BARS

by Stuart Schuffman

I talk to a lot of bar owners and bartenders and what I keep hearing is that business still isn't back to pre-pandemic numbers. There are a lot of potential reasons for this, but my theory is that the people who go out to bars the most are in their 20s and 30s.

The tech boom of the 2010s made San Francisco unaffordable for people in that age range to live in San Francisco unless they made tech industry salaries or had rent control. Census data shows that the largest group of people to leave SF during the pandemic were also people in their 20s and 30s — the population of 25- to 29-year-olds alone dropped 21% from 2020 to 2022. So, when over 20% of your main customer base disappears, you're gonna feel it. And San Francisco's watering holes certainly have been. 

But not last Saturday night. 

While I don't know whether Saturday's event was actually the first ever dive bar art crawl in the Mission, it didn't really matter. Organized by Laura Callahan, owner of Mission Bar and Molotov's along with artist Brandon Joseph Baker, the crawl featured nine bars within walking distance of each other: Mission Bar, Benders, Lone Palm, Doc's Clock, Pop's Bar, Ruth's at Treat Street, The Homestead, Casements, and Mission Bowling Club. I was sold on the idea immediately. I mean, it had three of my favorite things: art, dive bars and walking! 

But why throw a dive bar art crawl, other than for its sheer awesomeness? Callahan's goal was to “get some more walking action in that mid-Mission area,” she explained. “I have high hopes that all the bars see some good business. The neighborhood is struggling.” 

All I can say was that it was a resounding success … but at first, I was a little worried. 

We started off the night at Mission Bowling Club at 8:20 p.m. It didn't seem busier than usual, so I wondered if people were discouraged because it had been raining on and off all day, or if it was just too early for the art crawl crowd. The bowling lanes were full though, and a smattering of people sat at tables munching on popcorn chicken and mac and cheese bites. I found myself to be one of the few people purposefully checking out the art, and I may have weirded out a group of bowlers as I stood right next to them, staring at the cool paintings of funky Victorians by Alvar Jacomet and the ethereal women painted by Yuting Wang. But the night was young, and I was young-ish, so we finished our drinks and nibbles, and headed off to Bender's. 

It was when we walked into Bender's, a little after 9 p.m., that I could see the dive bar art crawl was doing exactly what Callahan had hoped. Bender's was busier than I've seen it in a while; even the door guy said so. People were genuinely enthused to be there. I met a woman named Annie Hundenski who had come in from Berkeley specifically for the art crawl. When I asked her why, she said, “I love dive bars. I love art. And I was really excited to come to the Mission and support.” That seemed to be the vibe of everywhere we went that night. 

At Bender's, I also talked to photographer Neil Motteram, whose pictures of nude and semi-nude burlesque and circus performers lined the walls. When asked about his involvement in the art crawl he said, “My show at Bender's was planned months in advance, so being in the art crawl was more accidental than planned. That said, quite a success. My regret is that I was stuck at Bender's selling stuff, not getting the opportunity to see the other artists. … I would certainly participate again.” 

At the point in the night, our group consisted of myself, my wife Kayla, and our good friend Meaghan Mitchell of the SF Standard. Meaghan is a San Francisco native who has witnessed many of the city's ups and down over the past few decades. As we were leaving Bender's she said, “When there's tragedy in San Francisco, art is always the first responder.” Which I thought was some pretty profound s—t. 

By the time we arrived at Casements, it was clear that people were out in the Mission and the art crawl had been the impetus for many of them. Before we even made it to the front door, we ran into Nico, who owns the shop Fleetwood in the Inner Richmond, and Leef from Mission Comics. They both commented that it felt like old times with so many familiar faces roaming the streets. Inside the very busy bar — so busy that I could barely see the lovely patterned collage work by msmac…, we ran into a whole contingent of good friends, and by the time we left, we'd added artist Max Ehrman, aka Eon75, and Monica Vesga to our group. 

Our next stop was Doc's Clock, where it was so packed that it was nearly impossible to get a drink. That may have been because Sean was the only person behind the stick that night. It worked out though, since it gave me more time to marvel at the badass tattoo art by Mike Davis. 

From there, the five of us ambled on to Mission Bar, running into people we knew along the way. Mission Bar's large, illuminated sign that just says “Bar” was all the welcome we needed. Inside, people were drinking and kibitzing under the brightly colored photo collage work of Brandon Joseph Baker, who helped organize all the artists for the crawl, as well as moss wall art by Amesia Doles. 

Happening upon all those friendly faces throughout the evening was a perfect reminder of how much of a community San Francisco is. Many of the folks we bumped into are people Kayla and I see on a regular basis. But even more of them are people we truly like but just haven't crossed paths with in a while. San Francisco is like that; it's small enough where you're likely gonna bump into the people you don't want to see, but it's big enough where you won't run into the ones you do. But on Saturday, it was all people we wanted to see, and all them were out because they too love art, and dive bars, and wandering around the Mission. All they needed was a good excuse, and the dive bar art walk gave it to them. I have a feeling we'll be seeing more of them soon.

(SFgate.com)

PABLO SANDOVAL SINGLES IN POSSIBLE LAST AT-BAT WITH GIANTS

Pablo Sandoval has had many a magic moment at Oracle Park, and he said Tuesday night's multi-ovation evening is right on the list with hitting three homers in a World Series game, winning three titles with the San Francisco Giants, and pitching.

Sandoval certainly wasn't going to miss his chance to get a hit against the Oakland A's in the final Bay Bridge Series game. He saw 13 pitches and swung at 11. 

“I wasn't taking pitches,” Sandoval said. “Whatever it takes to get the hit, I'm swinging the bat.” 

In the ninth inning, in what might have been his last time in the box in a Giants uniform, Sandoval hit a broken-bat flare over second base, a single, and the crowd stood and cheered. 

“To see a guy who has had such success in his career here really kind of fighting for that hit — that was as fun as baseball gets,” Giants outfielder Mike Yastrzemski said. 

“I don't know if it was my last at-bat here, but it was great, it was unbelievable,” Sandoval said. “That hit was the most important thing. Not for me, for the fans.” 

Donovan Walton pinch-ran for Sandoval, who came off to still more applause. Joey Bart eventually drove Walton in, and that was the Giants' lone run in a 3-1 loss. 

At 37 and after three years away from the big leagues, Sandoval got a sustained standing ovation when he entered the game in the sixth — he took over for Matt Chapman after the Giants were all in the field, getting his moment in the spotlight and a hug from Chapman, too. 

“We had a couple of scenarios where we're trying to get as many ovations as we possibly could,” manager Bob Melvin said. “I don't know how it could have gotten better than that, to get him out on the field, get a hit, the baseball gods smiled on him and he got another ovation coming off the field. That was pretty neat to see.” 

Sandoval is willing to go to Triple-A Sacramento, he is in shape, and the Giants have few left-handed hitting options at first beyond LaMonte Wade Jr.; It's not crazy to think he could provide some good depth at a spot where there is little beyond Blake Sabol, who is learning to play first. 

“Everyone thinks I'm retiring. I'm not,” said Sandoval, who has yet to talk to the front office about his future. “I want to continue playing. If I've got an opportunity to go to Sacramento, I will. I want to continue to work hard to get back.” 

(Susan Slusser, SF Chronicle)

FEDS PROPOSE KILLING NEARLY 500,000 ‘INVASIVE’ OWLS TO SAVE CALIF. NATIVE OWLS

by Alec Regimbal

A group of 75 animal rights organizations, including several in California, signed a joint letter sent to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on Monday urging her to nix a proposal by the U.S. Department of Fish & Wildlife to shoot nearly half a million “invasive” owls over the next 30 years.

The goal, according to the plan, is to eliminate habitat competition between barred owls and native northern spotted owl and California spotted owl, two endangered subspecies of spotted owls. While still in its early stages, the proposal calls for shooting an estimated 470,900 barred owls — primarily with shotguns — across land in Washington, Oregon and California over the next 30 years.

In their letter, the animal rights groups called the practical elements of the plan “unworkable.”

“This plan will cause severe disruptions to wildlife from the forest floor to its canopies, producing an untold number of mistaken-identity kills of other native owl species (including spotted owls),” the letter said.

The letter was organized by Animal Wellness Action, an animal rights group based in Pennsylvania, and the Center for a Humane Economy, a similar group based in Washington, D.C. It was signed by several state and local organizations, including the Palm Springs Animal Shelter, the Santa Paula Animal Rescue Center and two others in California.

Specifically, the plan calls for the removal of an average of 13,397 barred owls each year during the first decade, an annual average of 16,303 in the second decade and an annual average of 17,390 in the final decade. The proposal says its plan would result in the removal of less than 1% of the global barred owl population.

The U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife’s proposal says barred owls are native to eastern North America, but began to make their way west around the turn of the 20th century and arrived in the Pacific Northwest in the early 1970s. While barred owls and spotted owls are closely related, the proposal said the “slightly larger and more aggressive” barred owls supplanted the native spotted owls.

The agency wrote that its proposal is “necessary to support the survival of the threatened northern spotted owl and avoid substantial impacts to the California spotted owl populations from barred owl competition.”

The northern spotted owl was listed as threatened on the California Endangered Species Act in 2016, but has been listed as threatened on the federal Endangered Species Act since 1990. The California spotted owl was added to the federal Endangered Species Act last year. 

BOEING’S SNOWBALLING PROBLEMS

by Mark Scaramella

That recent incident with the door falling out of a Boeing passenger jet in flight was attributed to “missing bolts.” According to the NTSB the door had been removed to repair some rivets; after the rivet repair whoever installed the door didn’t reinstall the attaching bolts. Standard procedure should be to attach the attaching hardware to the item (with tape or wire) when the item is removed so that when it’s replaced the attaching hardware is part of the item and is handy and used for reinstallation. (Even if the hardware has to be removed to do the repairs, it is to be re-attached after repairs.) This obviously indicates poor parts and handling policies and procedures which need to be reviewed and/or revised. 

THE MUCH BIGGER BOEING ISSUE is what the press is calling “supply chain problems” having to do with subcontractors and ill-considered overuse of outsourcing of major aspects of the asembly. I was stationed for three years at the Air Force Plant Representative Office (AFPRO) at the McDonnell-Douglas plant at Lambert Field in St. Louis in the mid-70s where, among other things, I was the designated officer for signing the acceptance paperwork for some very expensive aircraft support, test, and training equipment. On a number of occasions I had to tell the execs at McDonnell-Douglas that we were not going to accept certain very specialized spare parts and test equipment for one reason or another. This meant that, although McDonnell-Douglas was getting “progress payments” under their contract, a substantial amount of their huge contract prices would be withheld until the equipment was complete, acceptable and on-time. 

In those days McDonnell-Douglas was run by some very tough and experienced manufacturing and production execs, most of whom learned the aircraft production and assembly business during FDR’s accelerated military production ramp up after Pearl Harbor. These guys were not blow-dried, Amani-suit marketing and finance guys. They were hard-charging rumpled-shirt production managers who knew how to make and assemble airworthy aircraft and support equipment to military specifications. They didn’t need an MBA to know that the production line had to move and the resulting aircraft and equipment had to be of top-quality. I could go into a number of incidents which I was personally involved in which demonstrated this old-school management style which, sorry to say, seems to have disappeared from modern manufacturing. And Boeing’s escalating production and support problems demonstrate what happens when that old hard-nosed management style is abandoned in favor of finance and sales as the priority. 

When problems developed on the production line, those earlier era execs knew that you had to spend money to fix them (Boeing has apparently realized some of this after the fact), fix them fast, and keep the line moving and the quality high. I remember one case when McDonnell-Douglas abruptly just up and bought a good sized casting fab plant, installed some of their own managers, re-tooled, and fixed the quality problem with the castings, and then re-sold the plant back to its original owners six weeks later. When I asked the guy who engineered this drastic step (the Director of the “Materials Priorities Group” as it was called) how such a thing could happen, he replied, “The boss wants it done, whatever it takes, and the company we bought has no choice but to go along because of McDonnell Douglas’s strength in the marketplace.” In other words, the suppliers knew that if you got on the wrong side of a company like McDonnell-Douglas your other business would take a dive. When a dispute arose over whether McDonnell Douglas could provide documentation to prove a point they wanted to make, one exec once bragged to me, “Hell, Captain, don’t you realize that we can out-government the government?” And they could.

In the wake of the latest rash of problems, Boeing has announced that a woman named Stephanie Pope has been promoted to be Boeing’s new Chief Operating Officer.

Before her promotion Ms. Pope was chief financial officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. According to on-line bios, Ms. Pope was an Eisenhower Fellow in Brussels and Ireland in 2008 and has a bachelor's degree in accounting from Southwest Missouri State University and a Master of Business Administration from Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri.

With the departure of Boeing’s Board Chair, a Mr. Larry Kellner, a man named Steve Mollenkopf will act as “independent board chair” until a more formal vote at Boeing’s next shareholders meeting. Until 2020 when Boeing hired him, Mr. Mollenkopf was CEO of Qualcomm, a SoCal electronics manufacturing company. He has bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering. 

Before stepping down Mr. Kellner was CEO of Contnental Airlines for a while before taking over at Boeing. Before that Kellner was Chief Financial Officer at American Savings Bank.

These are not the resumes of people who should be running an aircraft manufacturing and assembly company like Boeing. The fact that the company chooses such people for their top jobs indicates that Boeing’s already snowballing problems are likely to accelerate. 

A few background stories: 

There have been numerous other incidents on Boeing aircraft in the past three months, all of which reflect the drive of the company’s executives to maximize profits for stockholders to the detriment of safety on its fleet of commercial airliners. 

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/03/27/vziq-m27.html

This event has brought renewed attention to Boeing's long-standing safety and manufacturing issues, which have been accumulating over the years, including the involvement of Max jets in two tragic crashes.

https://www.businesstoday.in/industry/aviation/story/flying-on-boeing-a-death-wish-says-factory-worker-of-american-jet-maker-exploring-previous-crashes-safety-concerns-undercover-investigation-and-whistleblowers-death-of-boeing-422792-2024-03-26

https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/ntsb-initial-report-4-bolts-missing-alaska-airlines-spirit-aerosystems-boeing-737-9-max-aircraft/707012/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-quality-supply-chain-issues-boeing-737-max-facing-sam-larios-pttac

https://boeing.mediaroom.com/news-releases-statements?item=129201+

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/12/boeings-latest-turbulence-what-you-need-to-know

RONNA MCDANIEL AND MSNBC: ULTIMATE SCHADENFREUDE?

by Matt Taibbi

The following three things were obvious before MSNBC puked on itself in its public divorce with former RNC chief Ronna McDaniel, but aren’t we glad the network didn’t notice? More later, but briefly:

1. Maybe you should hire journalists instead of politicians as on-air personalities.
2. You gush like porn actresses when any of your huge stable of fingernail-pulling ex-spooks like John Brennan comes on air, or Iraq warsales-goons like Nicolle Wallace, but Ronna McDaniel is a bridge too far?
3. You are rolling out “ATTACK ON DEMOCRACY” chyrons in reference to your own hiring decision. Do you know how funny this is?

Potsmokers of America, your try-not-to-laugh-challenges: the Chris Hayes react, the Lawrence O’Donnell react, the Joy Ann Reid react, the Morning Joe react… TV hasn’t been this funny since Ren and Stimpy. NBC, keep being you!

CEASEFIRE NOW!

AVA:

I include the latest edition of my Let Gaza Live flyer. 

Thanks! 

Steve Elliott

Bridgewater, Massachussetts

Attached: 

PERMANENT CEASEFIRE NOW!

STOP THE KILLING AND SUFFERING IN GAZA!

Israel has killed more than 25,000 civilians in Gaza, some 13,000 of them children. Uncounted numbers are buried under rubble.

Gazans suffer hunger, thirst, exposure, disease, and death on an epic scale. Israel has destroyed the infrastructure of Gaza, and left some two million people homeless and without medical care or sanitation.

The U.S. government supports & participates in this slaughter, but not with the approval of most of the people. Israel laughs at Biden’s hypocritical pleas to protect civilians.

Israel has already killed more than 25 times the number of civilians who were killed on October 7. It has destroyed hospitals, schools, universities, mosques, churches, olive trees, even cemeteries.

Resources: 

Code Pink: Against Our Better Judgement, by Alison Weir

If Americns Knew: Assault on the Liberty, by James Ennes

CounterPunch: The Holocaust Industry, by Norman Finkelstein

Chris Hedges Report: Dishonest Broker, by Nasser Aruri

Washing Report on Midesat Affairs: The 100 Years War on Palestine, by Rashid Khalidi

Jewish Voice for Peace: Reel Bad Arabs, by Jack Shaheen

Electronic Intifada: The Israel Lobby, by J. Mearsheimer & S. Walt

www.jonathan-cook.net: Palestine, by Joe Sacco

THE CROCUS CITY HALL ATTACK

by James Meek

The acts of terror in Western countries carried out by ultra-radical Salafi Muslims in what was, by the Hijri calendar, the early 15th century – most notably the attacks on the US on 11 September 2001 – were expressions of failure: the failure by the ultras to topple, or even seriously jeopardize, their most hated enemies, the regimes in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan, whom they consider contemptible apostates.

That their Western targets, in particular the US, were the sponsors of those regimes and of Israel, and that after 9/11 the US and Britain intervened bloodily and recklessly in Muslim countries, gave the jihadis the texts of their justifications, without ever completely obscuring the uncomfortable fact that no Muslim country, whether defined as government or people, has been prepared to merge its course with militant Salafi ideals, in either their al-Qaida or ISIS incarnations. Militant Salafism has had bases galore, some powerful and populous, but, despite its name and boasts, Islamic State has never captured a state.

If, as seems highly likely, the attack on Crocus City Hall in Moscow on Saturday was organized by the Salafi ultras of Islamic State Khurasan Province (ISKP), based in the Pashto-speaking lands on either side of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, it’s another sign of the radical militants’ weakness, given that ISKP’s preferred enemy is Afghanistan’s government, the Taliban. Despite ISKP attacks, despite the rolling catastrophe of the collapse in international aid, despite the startling success of its campaign to stamp out the cultivation of opium (Afghanistan’s most valuable export), the Taliban is still in charge.

Mass murder at a Moscow light entertainment venue, where 140 people were gunned down at point blank range as they gathered to watch the nostalgic rock of the elderly band Picnic, may have promoted the long hand of ISKP to donors and potential recruits, but it changes nothing for the organization where it most wants things to change, at home. In a recent issue of the Voice of Khurasan, an English-language magazine put out in pdf form by an ISKP-adjacent organization, being ‘friendly’ with Russia – and China, and America – figured as just one of a long list of crimes laid against the chief recipient of ISKP hate, the Taliban supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada.

Vladimir Putin spoke publicly about the Crocus City atrocity yesterday, in a video conference with security officials and regional government heads. His tenuously grounded and at times unhinged claims of Ukrainian involvement in the attack – at one point he plunged into a digression about Ukrainian nationalist youth movements of the 1940s – may be taken as instructions to his subordinates to find Kyiv’s fingerprints on the operation, whether they exist or not. But the Russian leader was also obliged to accept, and confront, the fact that Islamists were at least the proximate agents of the killings. Putin professed bafflement as to why ‘radical, even terroristically inclined Islamic organizations would be interested in striking blows against Russia, which is speaking out today for a just resolution of the intensified conflict in the Middle East.’

Silent during the public part of the meeting was Alexander Bortnikov, the head of Russia’s security service, the FSB (Putin’s old job). He could have reminded his boss that five years ago, in Tajikstan – the ex-Soviet country of which the four Crocus City suspects are apparently citizens – he had warned of the rise of ISKP in neighboring Afghanistan. Many citizens of former Soviet countries were in its ranks, he had said, having experienced battle in Syria, and they were using established economic migration routes to set up cells and find recruits in the old Soviet space.

As part of his wider project to align Russia away from Europe and North America and towards the bulk of the world, defined by him as a camp united by its resentment of the hegemony of the old West, Putin has tried to leverage Russia’s Muslim population – perhaps 10 per cent – into an obligation-free political stake in the Ummah as a whole. And yet the political monoculture he has created in Russia, where he is immune to criticism and every step he takes must be a win because he has taken it, risks blinding him to the complexity, contradictions and uncomfortable consequences of his policies.

In 2003 Putin was the first leader from a country where Muslims are a minority to speak at the summit of the Organization of Islamic Co-operation; two years later, Russia became an observer at the OIC. He glad-hands Muhammad bin Salman in Saudi Arabia, speaks up for the Palestinians, shops for weapons in Iran and empowers the Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov.

But Kadyrov, a homophobic, torturing tyrant prone to send his local goons into the rest of Russia to arrest his enemies, is loathed by Russian liberals and nationalists alike. He is in power because Putin put him there after waging a war against Chechnya that resulted in the deaths of around thirty thousand civilians, most of them Muslim. Putin’s intervention in support of Assad in Syria has killed another nine thousand. Just a few days before the Crocus City attack, Russian planes were bombing targets in Syria; in ISKP’s propaganda, America bombs Syria more, but Russia and America are essentially the same – Crusaders, Christians, unbelievers. Putin drew heavily on the poor youth of Dagestan, another predominantly Muslim autonomous Russian region neighboring Chechnya, to man his army in the attack on Ukraine. But the fragility of his control over the area was revealed last October, when an angry crowd tried to drag Jewish passengers off a plane that had arrived from Israel.

Putin’s grand vision of Russia as the keystone of a structure of anti-Atlanticist, anti-liberal, anti-democratic patriarchies spanning Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and, under Trump, the United States itself, suffers from its failure to address the deep sense of beleaguered, exclusionist nationalism within white Christian Russia, haunted by its demographic decline relative to the country’s Muslim population. Putin is striving to be globalist and anti-globalist at the same time, a hard move to pull off. He wants to increase the ethnically Russian population of Russia by an almost alchemical procedure, whereby ordinary Ukrainians come under occupation and, thus freed from Nazi mind control, instantly turn into loyal Russians; but even if it worked like that, the fact that the process involves the deaths of tens of thousands of people on both sides would make it self-defeating.

Immediately before and after the Crocus City atrocity, Russian forces continued their assault on Ukraine, firing missiles, dropping bombs, destroying power stations, killing civilians, killing Ukrainian troops, sacrificing the lives of their own. All told, adding together Chechnya, Syria, Georgia and Ukraine, soldiers and civilians, the number of violent deaths directly attributable to Putin’s wars easily surpasses 100,000.

Perhaps it is naive to point out the contradictions in Putin’s courting of nationalists at home and like-minded strongmen abroad; riding the wave of other people’s confusion for the sake of the survival of your own loyalty group has long been the modus operandi of the president’s homeland-within-a-homeland, the Russian secret police. Every so often, as in 1905, 1917 or 1991, this results in a severe discontinuity, and as horrible as the Crocus City attack was, the most dangerous radical jihadis in Russia, for Russia, may be found closer to home.

One of the motifs of Russian news videography in the Putin era is the Orthodox priest blessing weaponry – the splashing of holy water on a tank or a nuclear missile. In the two decades after the Soviet Union collapsed, according to a survey by the Levada Centre, the number of Russians who considered themselves atheists plunged and the number declaring themselves Orthodox believers rose from fewer than half to three-quarters. Under Putin, militarism, nationalism and religion rose together.

(London Review of Books)

A MESSAGE FROM VIET NAM

by Kent Wallace

(Writer’s note: I was born in 1957. As a result, the closest I came to the Vietnam War was as a child in the 1960s watching the nightly talking heads deliver the daily body count like sportscasters reading the box scores of a baseball game).

I arrived in Vietnam on the Fourth of July, 2018. I had slight feelings of trepidation regarding my welcome. Although it had been nearly 50 years since we pulled out of the war, as an American, I was fearful of lingering animosities. I was quick to find out Vietnamese (of all ages) don’t harbor grudges (at least not openly). On the contrary, Americans are highly regarded, and our mien is greatly admired. In fact, I became a much sought-after English teacher as every child in Viet Nam is learning English, and they all want the American version—because it’s “cool,” (Viet Nam has an abundance of Australian, South African, and British English teachers trapesing about).

I was keenly aware that most of the Vietnamese I met were not alive during the war years (or had been children like me). I had a strong desire to speak with a Vietnamese war veteran, someone with a direct connection to this major piece of the American pathos. And while I had run into a few vets, mostly at Bia Hoi stalls (little places that serve cheap beer on tap), I was never able to engage in any serious conversation due to the language barrier (though I was always warmly welcomed by these old-timers who seemed amused by my country of origin). 

I finally got my chance to sit down with a war veteran one recent June afternoon when my friend Nguyễn Thị An Na (a university student fluent in English) arranged a lunch with her grandfather, Nguyễn Quang Cửu. All I knew of Grandfather Cửu was what An Na had told me. He’d served for many years and had been shot in the hand during battle. An Na’s father drove us the few kilometers from Cua Lo Beach to Nghi Lộc, a small hamlet best described as Vietnamese pastoral. Simple homes scattered among fields of corn and lush vegetation. 

We parked on a narrow lane and walked through a gate towards a house set back beyond a green and white tiled courtyard. There was a small koi pond and a giant Lộc Vừng tree. In a yard beside the house was a garden with rows of vegetables. There were also colorful flowers, banana palms, and trees bearing mango, guava, and pomelo. 

I was greeted by Cửu, a short, stocky man with chiseled features and heavy brows that furrowed the steady gaze of his dark eyes. He greeted me warmly with a smile and a firm handshake and then led us to an outdoor table where his wife, Lê Thị Hồng, poured us tea. 

Cửu’s first question (translated by An Na) was: Where was I from? An Na knew the answer but allowed me to engage in the conversation. “America. Mỹ,” I replied (Mỹ being the Vietnamese word for America). Cửu seemed pleased. He wanted to know if I had been a soldier. When I explained that I had not, his smile seemed to wane a bit. I felt like I’d disappointed him, gone down a notch in the rank of his esteem. I had the distinct impression he would rather be speaking with an American GI. 

So I threw out a hypothetical question. I asked Cửu how he would respond if I had been a GI who had fought against him in the war. His mouth became a giant smile, and he rattled off a response to his granddaughter, turning to me on occasion. “He says he would shake your hand. He harbors no ill-will, anger, or hatred. The war was a long time ago. He says you would both probably share war stories.” I was a bit blown-away, and decided to take the line of questioning a step further. I asked him what he would say to me if I said that I was feeling guilt and suffering pain from the atrocities of the war. This time, his answer wasn’t so quickly provided. He seemed to ponder; his index finger rubbed his head. And then he spoke. And then An Na translated. “He says he would remind you that it was in the past, long ago, and that you must put it behind you. He did say he would tell you that he has also suffered the pain of memories.” I jumped on that. ‘What pain?’ When An Na asked, Cửu simply gave me a weak smile and shook his head. I refused to pry further. 

I did have another question along those same lines, and so I asked him what he would say to me if I were the soldier who had shot him in the hand. This time Cửu laughed; he looked at me and drummed his fists like a wind-up toy before he spoke. An Na laughed and then translated. “He says first you would fight and then shake hands and drink wine.”

Seemingly comfortable in one another’s company, I asked Cửu for the Reader’s Digest version of his years as a soldier. He shared that, as a nineteen-year-old, he’d joined his local regiment (D-70 Sư 324) with twelve of his friends. Only three survived the war. He was shot on three different occasions, hospitalized each time, and then sent back into action. As an afterthought, he added that he was closest to death when the concussion of a landmine stopped his heart. He mentioned Huế and Quảng Trị as two of the arenas he saw action in and that he’d done most of his fighting in the Central Highlands. He also mentioned a girl he’d loved, but the war had circumvented their goal of marriage—he’d written her a long farewell letter and a poem from the front.

I asked Cửu if he’d ever spoken with any Americans before meeting me. He laughed and replied (through An Na), “The last time I met an American, we were shooting at each other.” I sat there in awe of Cửu’s candidness, graciousness, and genuine desire to share his story and break bread. 

I had to know when Cửu’s path to forgiveness began. His reply: “The day after Reunification Day,” (about a year after America pulled out in 1975). His wife added, “We were very hateful of the Americans for a long time!” Cửu shrugged and gave me an ironic smile as if to say, ‘Civilians, what do they know?’ 

I had one more burning question to ask before we sat down for lunch. Two days before I met Cửu, there had been an act of vandalism and desecration of a Vietnam War memorial in Elmhurst, Queens. Through An Na, I explained the situation to Cửu, and for the first time, he became visibly upset. His gestures took on fury rather than playfulness. He shook his head and spoke in a more guttural and feverish tone. I stared at An Na, waiting for the translation. “He thinks it is shameful and disrespectful behavior. He says soldiers should not be blamed for their duty and service but respected. He says the behavior of these people is inhumane.” 

What could I do but shake my head? All I could think about was how I was sitting with a man who’d been shot three times, saw his comrades killed, and himself had killed in battle. If anyone had a gripe, a grudge, or a vendetta to harbor, it was Cửu and others like him. Hell, the entire country has cause for disdain. But the fact of the matter is that the Vietnamese admire and respect America. Theirs is not forgiveness born of some religious dogma or doctrine but by a visceral demand to heal by moving on and to recognize a fellowship of humanity. 

As I took my place on the mat for lunch along with Cửu and three generations of family, the words of Martin Luther King Jr. came to mind (I was 11 years old when he was assassinated—the Vietnam War in full swing—King solidly against it): “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that…”