- AVHC Blues
- Swearing In
- Catch of the Day
- Greezy Grimey
- Killing Cartoonists
- Dull Chainsaw
- General Delivery
- Palestinian Statehood
- Song for Sharon
- MLK Solidarity
- Pinoleville Greenhouse
- PC Cartoon
- Ideological Maniacs
- Free Speech
- Unknown Journalist
- Nirguna Brahman
BOONVILLE HEALTH CENTER BLUES: An Exchange...
From: Eugenia Herr
Subject: AVHC No news is not necessarily good news,
Nor is the bland assumption of the editor of the AVA that the Health Center ship has magically righted itself by a few (welcome) staff changes.
For your consideration:
Claudia Jimenez, owner of Boonville's All That Good Stuff notions store who was the target of a very nasty economic boycott threat in November, has resigned from the AVHC board of directors. I was looking at the web site (supposedly not updated as we wait month after month to get a new site operational, but from which occasionally one may glean actual info) and I noticed that Claudia, appointed three months ago, was no longer listed as a director. She says, in response to my question why...
"I resigned about a week or so ago. My store was affected drastically because of the boycott and I needed to refocus on getting the store out of the problem that it is in right now! I would stay on the board but it wasn't possible. Hopefully the store picks up soon!"
I hope so too. The Health Center lost a good director; young, local, business oriented, and smart. It's maddening to know that a dumb lout, operating with ignorant and erroneous assumptions that Claudia was in any way involved in the temporary firing of doctor Logan McGhan, can assert that kind of pressure.
While we are talking about the Board, the director assigned to Board development and governance is Kathy Cox. It is interesting to note that both Heidi Knott (Secretary) and JR Collins (Treasurer) were serving terms that expired on December 31. There is no word yet on any decision to reappoint either. Next month is the AVHC "Annual Meeting" at which elections of new directors are held and new officers appointed if needed. I asked Heidi whether she was to be on the slate (supposedly selected by all the Directors) and she has no idea.
Directors now listed are: Ric Bonner, term expires 2016, Chair, an office he has held for a year, and for which he will have to be reappointed at the January meeting, or someone else will have to be chosen; Kathy Cox, term expires 2016, Vice Chair who will serve in that office until the expiration of the term of the previous Vice Chair, and I have no idea who that was, since it was never announced anywhere that I know of; Heidi Knott currently expired Secretary and also community contact, but unknown if she will be reappointed (Heidi reports that there is now a book in the AVHC lobby which contains board members names and contact information and terms of office, and also, happily, recent minutes...if we are lucky they will also be on the web soon); JR Collins currently expired Treasurer, also unknown if he will be reappointed... by virtue of his office he is chair of the finance committee but a new Treasurer will have to be appointed if JR is not reappointed, and that person will then be chair of the Finance Committee; Eric Labowitz, term expires 2015, mentioned as director for senior services, and for some sort of contact with other agencies, unexplained; Wally Hopkins who serves as Building and Grounds committee chair; Emilio Torales, unknown what committee assignment; Clay Eubank, unknown when appointed or what committee assignment; Deborah Covey, unknown when appointed or what committee assignment; Maxence Weyrich (student, serves for one year, appointment ends September 2015 but in actual fact, probably June since the school term ends then); Mayte Guerrero (student, serves for one year, appointment ends September 2015 but in actual fact, probably June since the school term ends then). So that is nine members without Heidi and JR. What will the final number be then? Come to the annual meeting to find out who will run your health center next year, and hopefully some of their qualifications and interests. You do not get to vote. You do not get to nominate. But with any luck you will get to ask questions,
The next meeting of the Board of Directors is listed as Tuesday, January 27th, at 5:30 p.m. No word yet on where, maybe at the AVCSD Boonville firehouse community room.
Also hopefully coming soon, information about how the Board has sorted out the reporting of financial data--public posting of end of last fiscal year report, and of 2013 audit, as well as 2014/15 budget and monthly budget to actuals, and status of the debt for the loan on the clinic building. At last word they were still trying to figure out what would be reported, and on what kind of schedule, and how the input of Chief Financial Officer Judith Waterman can be timely integrated into the meeting schedules of the Finance Committee and the Board.
And perhaps some information will be available on what the Concerned Community Committee is doing and wants to do.
Let's hope that it will be a better year than last for the AVHC!
Cheers, Gene Herr, Philo
From: Kathy Borst
Thank you, Gene, for all the time and energy you have put into helping the AVHC right itself after a near calamatous ship wreck. You seem to know a lot of the right questions to ask and you have many ideas about ways that things could be improved. It's too bad that you aren't willing to get on the board yourself and do some of these things.
I also appreciate the board members, both current and retired, for their efforts. Although I disagreed with many of the actions and reactions of the previous board, I think everyone had positive intentions for our health center and the local population. I know that I am not currently willing to give up so much of my own time to do so much work for, not only no pay, but little gratitude and a lot of grief. Whether Claudia needed to get off the board because of her business or not, she may have wanted to leave to avoid being a potential target of criticism and scorn. You use the words "With all due respect" but the tone you continue in sounds disdainful and snide. It's clear you are frustrated, but I'm not sure that contempt is even the best way to get what you want accomplished.
In the wake of all the upheaval, and with a new, interim administrator coming on board, I for one, feel able to cut them all some slack for a bit. It's not my impression that anyone on the board is less interested or involved. I understand and agree with the need for there to be better communication with the community. I think we should continue to push for that. For now, I vote for making that push a little more gentle and perhaps more gracious.
In a world filled with violence and hate, let's try to get our little community to operate from a different paradigm. I respect the fact that it took some heavy handed tactics to undo the damage that was being done. I hope now we are ready for more kindness and civility.
Yeah, I know that may sound like a lot of touch-feely brouhaha; but in the spirit of the season and new year and whatnot, how about a little, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you?"
With much appreciation,
kathy
From: Kathleen Cox
The next meeting is on Wed the 28th as announced at the last Board Meeting. I don't know why it hasn't been changed on the web site.
From: Eugenia Herr
With all due respect, Kathy -- if not you, who? It should be a board priority to get that straightened out soonest. Why is there no functioning web site? What is needed to have it operational? Many non-profits get gratis hosting from freebee sites, or virtually free. The AVCSD has one, the AVFD has another, the Holmes Ranch Association yet another -- free, powered by Weebly, set up by Deborah Leighton, and managed by the directors of the HRA Corporation. You could call CSD director Kathleen McKenna who does the CSD one, hosted by Mendocino Community Network; the Long Valley Health Center's very infomative site is also hosted by Mendocino Community Network; or talk to AF firefighters Paul Soderman and Tina Waters who designed the AV Fire Department one, using Word Press. Maxence seems ready, able and anxious to post whatever is needed. Please find out what's the hang up, and sort it out. It should be a Board function, not farmed out to a staff member.
In August of 2013 Diane Agee wrote me the following in response to my question about lack of timely information from the AVHC to the clients:
"Board members and I agree that we can and should do a better job of informing the community about health center news. We have invested in the development of a new web site and plan to "go-live" next week with this. Unfortunately this took us much longer that we anticipated since we were making efforts to make it possible for us to have a patient portal where lab results, medication refills and appointments could be made on line. We still have quite a lot more work to do before that can happen but are finally ready to open the rest of the site. We intend to post agenda's and minutes and other general data and would appreciate your input on any other areas that you think would be valuable for the community to know."
In the spring of last year a general discussion of the board showed that no one knew who had the action on this item and directors were talking about "forming a committee" to see what was happening. Here we are, a year and a half later and no progress!!
Gene
MENDO’S LATEST LEADERS
The Ceremonial Oath Of Office was administered this morning to eight returning and newly-elected county officials by Carmel Angelo serving as the Clerk of the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors. All had appeared earlier at the Elections Division to be administered the formal oath and to sign necessary paperwork. The oath is a covenant with the voters that these elected individuals swear to perform their duties conscientiously and in good faith.
From left to right are: 5th District Supervisor Dan Hamburg; Third District Supervisor Tom Woodhouse; Auditor-Controller Lloyd Weer; Superintendent of Schools Warren Galletti; District Attorney David Eyster; Sheriff Tom Allman; Treasurer-Tax Collector Shari Schapmire; and Clerk-Assessor-Recorder Susan Ranochak. Congratulations to one and all.
— David Eyster, Mendocino County District Attorney
CATCH OF THE DAY, January 8, 2015
EMILIO CHRISP, Laytonvile. Sale of meth, possession of drug paraphernalia, under influence of controlled substances, commission of offenses while on bail.
ALISSA COLBERG, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.
JESUS CUEVAS-PEREZ, Ukiah. Possession of meth for sale, sale of meth, commission of offenses while on bail.
ASHLEY DOTSON, Ukiah. Unlawful possession/use of food stamps.
BRENT HAAS, Ukiah. Domestic battery, court order violation.
GEORGE IVES, Redwood Valley. DUI-Drugs.
ANDREW MAYNARD, Fort Bragg. Drunk in public. (Frequent flyer.)
SHERRIE PETTY, Willits. Passing bad checks, impersonation of another, conspiracy, probation revocation.
RICKEY PHILLIPS, Willits. Passing bad checks, conspiracy, probation revocation.
TREVOR ROYCROFT, Fort Bragg. Saps & similar weapons.
THOMAS SANDERS, Willits. Drunk in public. (Frequent flyer.)
JESSICA STEPHENS, Willits. Probation revocation.
FIDEL TAPIA-HERNANDEZ, Ukiah. DUI.
THE WOLF IN PINSTRIPES
Editor,
Welcome to California, Mr. Wolf—
The big bad wolf said. I'll huff and puff
Just blowin' smoke, the green stuff.
Old Chicken Little shit, he screamed for help
Three little pigs appear, with tazers on their belt
The pigs' story goes, it was strength we couldn't match
We had to use our billy clubs and taser guns. For 15 minutes flat
Must've been a bad day for the wolf. Cuz he left no marks
’cept baby piggy got scratched, and the video got damaged out the cars.
Paws behind his back, arms pulled out socket
Blazing down the road, gone like a rocket
Where did they take the wolf? Must be the hospital
Bodyslammed to the gurney, a staple gun to his skull
Three days he sat, locked down to a bed
bruised elbow and shoulder. Glowing bright red.
Taser burns on his arms, and a tube up his junk
Pain through his body, that shit ain't no punk.
Jacked up on benzodiazepine, three days straight
Then it's the dog pound of Mendo County jail. A day in booking he'll wait
Dope — sick from the doctors. Detoxin’ without a protocol
Dry-cell sweats and shakes, turnkeys denying him a phone call
Ulsters boil my stomach, it's the food they feed
Seventh-day Adventist he says. He's a vegan, He didn't eat meat
Nine days in custody, no arraignment.
He's the criminal, his words don't mean shit.
Resistance of an officer, not of arrest.
His first deal is three and a half with half time, no less
"Take the max for a deal?" He laughs, "No, take me to trial."
Not guilty with no time waiver. Guess he'll sit for a while.
Sitting on his head, he'll waste some time
Spittin' out some flow, and writing some rhymes.
So that's the wolf's story, straight out his own mouth.
They say "Welcome Mr. Wolf, to Uncle Sammy's California house.
Justa Juggalo, forever nobody, the one and only Greezy Grimey,
Arik Caldwell #52086
Mendocino County Jail
951 Low Gap Road
Ukiah CA 95482.
KILLING CARTOONISTS
OMG Has Declared War on LOL
The Paris massacre is an awesome outrage, even to liberals and conservatives alike, although some dinosaur Republicans might try to blame Obama.
It’s a horrendous violation of semantic principles, such as: “The menu is not the meal” and “The map is not the territory.”
As an atheist, I perceive the irony of those assassins shouting “God is great” to justify their insane act in the name of a deity that I believe doesn’t exist.
And what could happen in America? Security guards protecting the “Onion” offices? Treat “Funny or Die” as Islamic marching orders? Invade the cyberspace of NBC for broadcasting “Saturday Night Live” until it morphs into “Saturday Night Dead” if it’s not already deceased?
Religions continue to rationalize their dogma, from birth to death — and then comes the hereafter for these Muslim murderers where all those virgins supposedly waiting to greet the Muslim murderers in Nirvana are busy reading “Lysistrata.”
OMG has declared war on LOL.
— Paul Krasner, Editor of The Realist. His books include: Pot Stories for the Soul, One Hand Jerking and Murder at the Conspiracy Convention.)
POTTER VALLEY WILDFIRE CAUSED BY POT GROWERS WITH DULL CHAINSAW
http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/news/ci_27270613/cal-fire-black-fire-sparked-by-chain-saw
FULL-COURT PRESS BY ABBAS
Dear Editor:
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon announced effective April 1 the State of Palestine will become a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which means at that date the Palestinians will be able to sue Israel for war crimes. The Secretary-General also approved the applications for the other UN organizations. In addition to these successes President Abbas is continuing his full court press. He announced he intends to go back to the Security Council requesting statehood. With the change in the composition of the Security Council effective January 1st the Palestinians may will have 9 votes which will result in a US veto.
Abbas has also said he will file applications with all the UN organizations which number over 100 in total. Most importantly, the Palestinians have suggested that if Israel illegally withholds the tax monies they collect for the Palestinian Authority (PA) they will dissolve the Authority. The Authority was part of the 1993 Oslo accords which established Areas A and B of the West Bank and the Gaza strip which would be governed by the PA. These areas have a population of about 4,000,000. Without the PA the occupied territories would be totally controlled by Israel. They would provide all the police protection and operate all the services. The ability of Israel to do this with a hostile population is questionable.
Many of the talking heads are wringing their hands over the actions by Abbas. If they are concerned then I would say he is on the right path.
In peace,
Jim Updegraff, Sacramento
SONG FOR SHARON
I went to Staten Island, Sharon
To buy myself a mandolin
And I saw the long white dress of love
On a storefront mannequin
Big boat chuggin' back with a belly full of cars
All for something lacy
Some girl's going to see that dress
And crave that day like crazy
Little Indian kids on a bridge up in Canada
They can balance and they can climb
Like their fathers before them
They'll walk the girders of the Manhattan skyline
Shine your light on me Miss Liberty
Because as soon as this ferry boat docks
I'm headed to the church
To play Bingo
Fleece me with the gamblers' flocks
I can keep my cool at poker
But I'm a fool when love's at stake
Because I can't conceal emotion
What I'm feeling's always written on my face
There's a gypsy down on Bleecker Street
I went in to see her as a kind of joke
And she lit a candle for my love luck
And eighteen bucks went up in smoke
Sharon I left my man
At a North Dakota junction
And I came out to the "Big Apple" here
To face the dream's malfunction
Love's a repetitious danger
You'd think I'd be accustomed to
Well I do accept the changes
At least better than I used to do
A woman I knew just drowned herself
The well was deep and muddy
She was just shaking off futility
Or punishing somebody
My friends were calling up all day yesterday
All emotions and abstractions
It seems we all live so close to that line
and so far from satisfaction
Dora says "Have children"
Mama and Betsy say "Find yourself a charity
Help the needy and the crippled or put some time into Ecology"
Well there's a wide wide world of noble causes
And lovely landscapes to discover
But all I really want to do right now
Is find another lover
When we were kids in Maidstone, Sharon
I went to every wedding in that little town
To see the tears and the kisses
And the pretty lady in the white lace wedding gown
And walking home on the railroad tracks
Or swinging on the playground swing
Love stimulated my illusions
More than anything
And when I went skating after Golden Reggie
You know it was white lace I was chasing
Chasing dreams
Mama's nylons underneath my cowgirl jeans
He showed me first you get the kisses
And then you get the tears
But the ceremony of the bells and lace
Still veils this reckless fool here
Now there are twenty-nine skaters on Wollman Rink
Circling in singles and in pairs
In this vigorous anonymity
A blank face at the window stares and
stares and stares and stares and stares
And the power of reason
And the flowers of deep feeling
Seem to serve me
Only to deceive me
Sharon you've got a husband
And a family and a farm
I've got the apple of temptation
And a diamond snake around my arm
But you still have your music
And I've still got my eyes on the land and the sky
You sing for your friends and your family
I'll walk green pastures by and by
--Joni Mitchell
MLK WAS A WORKING-CLASS HERO
by Dick Meister
"I AM A MAN," the signs proclaimed in large, bold letters. They were held high, proudly and defiantly, by African-American men marching through the streets of Memphis, Tennessee in the spring of 1968.
The marchers were striking union members, sanitation workers demanding that the city of Memphis formally recognize their union and thus grant them a voice in determining their wages, hours and working conditions.
Hundreds of supporters joined their daily marches, most notably Martin Luther King Jr. He had been with the 1,300 strikers from the very beginning of their bitter struggle. He had come to Memphis to support them despite threats that he might be killed if he did.
The struggles of workers for union rights often are considered to be of no great importance. Dr. King knew better. He knew that the right to unionization is one of the most important of civil rights. Virtually his last act was in support of that right, for he was killed by an assassin's bullet on April 4, 1968 as he was preparing to lead strikers in yet another demonstration.
There are, of course, many reasons for honoring him on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. But we shouldn't forget that one of the most important reasons, one that's often overlooked, is Dr. King's championing of the cause of the Memphis strikers and others who sought union recognition.
His assassination brought tremendous public pressure to bear in behalf of the strikers in Memphis. President Lyndon Johnson sent in federal troops to protect them and assigned the Under Secretary of Labor to mediate the dispute. Within two weeks, an agreement was reached that granted strikers the union rights they had demanded.
For the first time, the workers' own representatives could sit across the table from their bosses and negotiate and air their grievances and demands for remedies. They got their first paid holidays and vacations, pensions and health care benefits. They got the right to overtime pay and raises of 38 percent in wages that had been so low - about $1.70 an hour - that 40 percent of the workers had qualified for welfare payments.
They got agreement that promotions would be made strictly on the basis of seniority, without regard to race, assuring the promotion of African Americans to supervisory positions for the first time. The strikers, in fact, got just about everything they had sought during the 65-day walkout.
William Lucy, secretary-treasurer of the strikers' union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, saw Dr. King "bring tears to the eyes of strikers and their families just by walking into a meeting... the surge of confidence he inspired in the movement in Memphis."
The strikers' victory in Memphis led quickly to union recognition victories by black and white public employees throughout the South and elsewhere. They had passed a major test of union endurance against very heavy odds, prompting a great upsurge of union organizing and militancy among government workers.
As Lucy said, it was "a movement for dignity, for equity, and for access to power and responsibility for all Americans."
Anyone doubting that the labor and civil rights movements share those goals need only heed the words of Martin Luther King Jr.:
"Our needs are identical with labor's needs: Decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old-age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children, and respect in the community....
"The coalition that can have the greatest impact in the struggle for human dignity here in America is that of the blacks and forces of labor, because their fortunes are so closely intertwined."
Copyright (c) 2015 Dick Meister, a freelance columnist in San Francisco, has covered labor for four decades as a reporter, editor and commentator.
UKIAH INDIAN RANCHERIA is set to become the site of California’s first tribe-sanctioned marijuana cultivation and distribution operation. (First reported by Hank Sims yesterday on LostCoastOutpost.com and the AVA)
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/3352320-181/ukiah-pomos-to-establish-states
HARRY'S PLACE has a proposal by Rabbi Zvi Solomons about how those who believe in free speech should react to the slaughter of Charlie Hebdo's staff by adherents of the Religion of Peace:
First, subscribe for one year to the paper attacked. Even if you don’t read French, you are supporting an organization which clearly is doing something valuable for free speech, because these [Islamists] are people who want to destroy that particular Western value. You can find Charlie Hebdo’s subscriptions online. Abonnement is the French word.
Second, publish one of their old cartoons — preferably one which will most enrage the Islamists. State very clearly as you publish it that you’re doing this in memory of the cartoonist, perhaps Charb, or one of the other murdered cartoonists. Choose something they want to stop being published. This should not be because you wish to upset Muslims, but let the message go out clearly that one way to ensure the material which they hate becomes more widely dispersed is to attack the object of hate. Put it out by email and social media. You can also spread this article on the internet to show others how to stand up to these ideological bullies. For every such incident let it be so. It is a direct result of such attacks that more such material gets posted, more subscriptions are sold…
FREE SPEECH is a crucial part of who we are. If we give it up because a vocal minority in a different culture disagrees — a minority, incidentally that believes we had things figured better in the seventh century — then we don't deserve free speech at all. And yes, it sucks that we have to risk bloodshed and destruction over a cartoon, but that's what's on the line here, our way of life.
The answer here isn't more self-censorship, but standing on the principle of everyone learning to calm down, get a life, and tolerate the occasional weird idea. This is particularly true when the only places these ideas are "displayed" are on Internet servers, where you have to go looking for them to find them. We’re really going to run even from that? Since when do we give in to bullies so easily?
— Matt Taibbi
COUNTY TOURISM PROMOTION 1891
by Katy Tahja
While this faithful correspondent is not quite “older than dirt,” I am a senior citizen and when we have our elders pass away we know they will live on in our memories. As a journalist I am always pleased when someone tells me they enjoy my writings and I hope my words on paper will last longer than family memories of me. Family memories are good for a few generations while words can hang on for centuries.
I’m entertaining these thoughts as I read a story about Mendocino County written in 1891 with no attribution as to who wrote it. Five pages long with etchings, it was probably a magazine story and the nameless author was out to make Mendocino County the greatest place on earth to live or visit. The author has probably been dead and gone a century but his words live on to delight the historian. I hope my writings delight unknown folks in the future.
Visit Mendocino and other tourism promotion organizations could learn a lesson reading this. There was NOTHING negative about life in our county. Climate is mild (they claimed) and, aside from waiting for the timber to re-grow and the economy to improve, everything was progressing. The religious order of the Sisters of Mercy in Ukiah were performing the “praiseworthy task of educating the little copper-colored youngsters.” The county was “worthy of the closest attention of the traveler on pleasure bent, the capitalist in search of opportunities with a certainty of a royal return and the agriculturist or stock grower.”
Great excitement was directed back then to discovery of coal beds of great extent and thickness on the headwaters of the Eel River. Mendocino County would become the center of coal production for the state and new railroads would distribute the coal statewide. It never happened. The county was many thousands of acres of land too rough for cultivation, but that made it a stockman’s paradise. We were one of the foremost wool producing regions of the state and many a fortune could be made in that industry. Immense crops of cereals, hops, potatoes, apples and plums for prunes were promised.
The population back then for the county was 17,500 with Ukiah projecting a railroad from Sanel to Lakeport. The abundance of church spires in every direction was notable in Ukiah and Indians were being instructed to show skill and enterprise on agricultural lands nearby. Tourists could visit the county by ship, railroad or stagecoach, though the arrival by ship at Mendocino Bay was notable. “To land passengers and cargo the method is both novel and not reassuring to weak nerved people.” A box was lowered on a cable and passengers crowded in, then the box was drawn swiftly into space and suspended between sky and air the box was swung ashore. “While no accidents have occurred yet, one experience of this kind of landing is usually enough for a lifetime” the author wrote.
Fort Bragg was listed as one of the youngest places on the coast but in growth and enterprise it ranked well. Again, the idea was proposed that the rail line being built to the Ten Mile River might continue on to the imagined coalfields near Round Valley. Usal was building a lumber mill expected to be the best-equipped and convenient mill on the Pacific Coast. The travel out of Westport to Cahto (Laytonville) on a “buckboard line” took all day to go 25 miles, and up on the mountain it was piercing cold with frozen mud. The area there had the traveler viewing “primitive wickiups occupied by some ancient morocco textured aboriginals who were too old to take kindly to modern customs.”
Covelo was praised for its roller flouring mill, but even this writer, 134 years ago, noted that a local infamous rancher on the reservation obtained large tracts of the finest land by methods that scarcely bear investigation. On the coast, Cuffey’s Cove was praised for the potatoes grown there, and the mill at Greenwood produced electricity! The writer wondered why the astonishing amount of driftwood on the beaches was not being turned into cordwood and sold as heating wood to folks in cities? And he suggested we should be growing apples of the finest quality on cleared lands that could command the highest prices, along with raisins, table grapes and olives.
“The prospects of Mendocino County are brighter by far than at any time in her history and it requires no stretch of the imagination to prophesy future of unexampled prosperity and progress.”
As I read this story I couldn’t help but wonder if this author wandered California offering writing stories like this about all 52 counties in the state. It would have kept him busy and employed whoever he was. So Thank You, Mr. Unknown Journalist, for extolling the virtues of the county so long ago. He may be gone but his words live on.
DO NOT BE…
Nirguna Brahman
The complexity of phenomena has the collective mind mesmerized. No inkling that it is dream appearance, in spite of the blatant fact that nothing is graspable. It is impossible to hold on to anything, including the idea of life on the earth plane. Nobody can do it. Nobody ever has been able to do it. The meditation master warns: "Do not be attached to anything at all!" Where are the great teachers right now? Where are you? Are you? Who? Nirguna Brahman is defined by ancient Indian rishis as "the Absolute without qualities". You of no caste, take care of your karma, because an angry, mad elephant is waiting. August 21, 2017 is the next full solar eclipse...the moment when deep understanding coincides with clarification of the Avatar's mission. Oh warriors for righteousness, be centered and await the sound of the sacred conch shell.
Craig Louis Stehr, San Francisco
President Abbas is rolling. Go, President Abbas. Go, Palestine. Go, Justice.