Mendocino County Today: Tuesday, May 30, 2017

• Jack Power
• Judy Isbell
• Memorable Traffic
• Singing Trio
• Size Doesn't Matter
• Peace Boat
• Bill Zimmerman
• Albion Bridge
• Glassless Beach
• AV High
• Murder Suspects
• Yesterday's Catch
• Humanity Dwindling
• So-called Resistance
• Tired Eyes
• DAPL Tactics
• Jesus Today
• HR 1644
• Eye Surgery
• Accordion Club
• KZYX Meeting
• Spiritual Mojo

DR. JACK POWER

Jack Bennett Power (July 6, 1943 - May 11, 2017) was born in Savannah, Georgia, where his father was briefly stationed as a soldier during WWII. He grew up in Palo Alto, California with his parents Jack Bennett Power Sr. and Marjorie Stone and his two sisters, Jude and June. A graduate of Stanford University, he felt fortunate to “attend kindergarten through medical school in the same town.” In 1970, he married Vivian Sotomayor from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and embarked on their long journey of adventures together. For over a decade, Jack was a Family Physician in rural communities on the Hopi and Navajo lands, in Central Alaska, and on the west coast of Puerto Rico. Together, the couple explored these beautiful places and engaged in the local practices such as food cultivation, dog mushing, fishing, and musical skill-building. In 1985 they moved to Redwood Valley with their daughters Erin Taína and Jade Yukana, eventually building their dream home nestled into a scenic valley.

Jack's roots in the local medical community go back to his Family Practice residency at Community Hospital of Sonoma County. He later worked as Emergency Department Director at Sutter Warrack Hospital in Santa Rosa, as well as in numerous other Emergency Rooms throughout Sonoma, Mendocino and Lakeport counties. His family medicine practice centered on community health clinics scattered over our valleys, where his fluent Spanish improved services to local underserved populations. The first of such clinics was the Anderson Valley Health Center where he worked for over two decades. During that time, his affection for the greater community led to bonds that went beyond his medical duties. Particularly, he was an avid reader of the Anderson Valley Advertiser, which he bought and read critically every week all the way to the end. The AVA was always at the top of the pile of reading material that marked his place at the kitchen table.

For over three decades, he was beloved and respected by staff and patients for his gentle, down-to-earth and calming presence. His wit and good humor, matched by his characteristic physical vigor, were given in service to his lifelong desire to be helpful. Whether traveling to help in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, with Earthquake relief in Haiti, engaging in deep listening, or simply carrying a bag of groceries, he tried to ease the burdens of those near and far. He was known by the many who interacted with him for being generous, kind, astute, hardworking and blessed with a particularly hearty appetite for life. As a talented pianist and a devoted listener and collector of all genres, music was his life’s passion and source of inspiration.

His wife and daughters, their partners Randy and José, his sisters, and his three grandchildren Xenia, Amaury and Surem will forever love him, celebrate his exceptional life, and hold him as their inspiration. His life will be honored on Sunday, June 25 at 1 pm at the Saturday Afternoon Club in Ukiah.

JUDY ISBELL NEÉ WAGGONER has died in Palm Springs. Born and raised in Boonville, Mrs. Isbell had been in failing health for some time. She had left the Anderson Valley for Palm Springs to be near her brother, Mickey Waggoner. Judy Isbell is perhaps best known locally from her years as the postmistress at Navarro. She grew up the only girl in a house full of athletic boys and became a formidable basketball player herself at Anderson High School. An ebullient woman whose trials were many, Judy always was ready to laugh, even during the terrible, and prolonged illness that immobilized her during her last years. A hardworking person all her days, among her many jobs was with us here at the newspaper where her presence was always a delight. I have a vivid memory of Judy lifting our antiquated addresso-graph by herself, a machine that had taken two of us to position. She and her brothers, and her many cousins in the Summit family just down the street from her childhood home next door to Rossi Hardware, were and are  close to our family. Judy’s loss is felt as keenly among us as it is among them.  A full obituary is being prepared.

THE SOUTHBOUND Memorial Day traffic through Boonville was startling in its steady flow, so heavy it was as if an evacuation was underway. From 11am it took Boonvillians many minutes to get from one side of Highway 128 to the other. It took me a full ten minutes to get to and from ava headquarters to Boont Berry Farm, a distance of about forty yards but bisected by 128. Who are these people, where do they stay? Can there possibly be room for all of them?

THE REAL SARAS trio will perform at the Greenwood Ridge Tasting Room on Friday, June 2 from 7-10pm. $10 cover where local food from Mendocino Heritage Pork Company, washed down the excellent wines of Greenwood Ridge Vineyards, will supplement the can’t beat ‘em entertainment.

FROM AN AP STORY on pot last week, “…In Mendocino County, where pot farming is big business and violent crimes are often tied to the crop, District Attorney C. David Eyster said he fights any case not eligible for a reduction, such as applicants with a major felony in their past, a sex offense or two previous convictions for the same crime. He said he would also fight a reduction if someone is caught cultivating weed while committing an environmental crime, such as stealing or polluting water. Otherwise — in a quirk that has some in law enforcement baffled — someone caught with two plants or 2,000 would both face a misdemeanor. 'This is one of those areas where size doesn’t matter,' Eyster said."

VETS FOR PEACE restored a 1950 Quaker sailing boat that famously challenged nuke testing in the Pacific. She's called The Golden Rule and she's coming to Noyo next month where dinner at The Wharf with the crew on Thursday, June 13 @ 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM is available to one and all.

“Join the Golden Rule crew and shore support for dinner and drinks at 6 pm followed by presentations at 7 pm. We’ll share the history of the Golden Rule Peace Boat and discuss nuclear issues today, including Fukushima and the United Nations Nuclear Weapons Ban negotiations. We are very grateful to Silver’s at The Wharf for their generous contribution of a dock, hotel room and event space in the restaurant. The Golden Rule will be moored right at The Wharf.”

BILL ZIMMERMAN is to me what Mike Sweeney is to the editor of the AVA.

Zimmerman is quoted in an op-ed in today's New York Times by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick plugging their upcoming PBS documentary on the War in Vietnam.

As the antiwar activist Bill Zimmerman told us, “People who supported the war were fond of saying ‘My country, right or wrong,’” but the war’s critics didn’t “want to live in a country that we’re going to support whether it’s right or wrong. So we began an era where two groups of Americans, both thinking that they were acting patriotically, went to war with each other.”

Zimmerman is the Santa Monica p.r. man funded by George Soros and other enlightened billionaires in 1996 to replace Dennis Peron as manager of the Proposition 215 campaign. But Peron became the focus of the campaign when his San Francisco Cannabis Buyers' Club was raided and closed on August 4 by Attorney General Dan Lungren's Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement. A week of Doonesbury strips defended the SFCBC, Lungren held a press conference to attack Peron and Doonesbury, Garry Trudeau weighed in with another week of SFCBC strips in October, and Prop 215 won 55-45 over the opposition of everybody in government except Terence Hallinan.

After 215 passed, legalizing marijuana for medical use, Zimmerman had kind words for Attorney General Lungren's "narrow interpretation" of the new law. You can look it up in the Sacramento Bee, December 4, 1996.

So I read his quote in today's NYT most critically.

I never ever heard anyone say "My country right or wrong." It sounds like a line from a whole 'nother era. But I think he's right that patriotism was a factor for antiwar activists who gained consciousness as World War Two was ending. (I can remember the day FDR died.) In the '50s we assumed that the colonies fighting for independence were righteous and that the US military-industrial complex should not be maintaining or imposing Empire anywhere in the world. We saw the fight of Vietnamese nationalists against the French as an extension of their/our WWII fight against the Japanese. We sensed that the effort to impose Empire would destroy the US economically and as a republic. Our dismay was not unpatriotic.

I've learned a lot from Ken Burns documentaries over the years and the upcoming 10-parter on the Vietnam war by him and Novick is must-see TV. But today's op-ed is misleading, projecting an image of conflict between duty-bound GIs and a civilian peace movement. Here's the context of the Zimmerman quote:

"If we are to begin the process of healing, we must first honor the courage, heroism and sacrifice of those who served and those who died, not just as we do today, on Memorial Day, but every day.

As filmmakers, we have tried to do so by listening to their stories. “It’s almost going to make me cry,” another Army veteran, Vincent Okamoto, told us, remembering the infantry company he led in Vietnam in 1968. “Nineteen-year-old high school dropouts from the lowest socioeconomic rung of American society,” he remembered. “They weren’t going be rewarded for their service in Vietnam. And yet, their infinite patience, their loyalty to each other, their courage under fire, was just phenomenal. And you would ask yourself: How does America produce young men like this?”

While Mr. Okamoto and hundreds of thousands of other soldiers were fighting and dying overseas, hundreds of thousands of other Americans were taking to the streets to protest a war they believed was not only not in our country’s best interest, but immoral and unjust. As the antiwar activist Bill Zimmerman told us, “People who supported the war were fond of saying ‘My country, right or wrong,’” but the war’s critics didn’t “want to live in a country that we’re going to support whether it’s right or wrong. So we began an era where two groups of Americans, both thinking that they were acting patriotically, went to war with each other.”

Sometimes I think there is a Great Playwright in the sky who has a farcical sense of humor. Why else would he name the slickest spinmeister and the bravest truth-teller of our time 'B. Zimmerman' and plunk them both down in Santa Monica?

(— Fred Gardner)

ALBION RIVER BRIDGE up for historic site status.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/7027966-181/albion-river-bridge-headed-toward

GLASS-FREE GLASS BEACH, a reader writes:

The new Mendocino Coast Tourist Guide has, on Page 31, A full-page ad for "world-famous glass beach." What I find interesting is that the photograph shows quite an array of good size pieces of beach glass, when in reality, the remaining glass on the beach is almost pinhead size, and certainly rarely is a piece ever found bigger than a dime. I find this false advertising for the city of Fort Bragg since many people come to this area just to go to glass beach, only to find out there is little glass, and to find out that they are not welcome to take the glass off the beach.

This is a conundrum that I find frustrating even though I have no need for glass from glass beach. I think a wonderful solution would be to collect glass from the recycle, put it into a cement mixer or two, Break it up into reasonable pieces, and dump it back into the ocean. The beach could even be closed for a bit while Mother Nature does her magic. I think this is a much better solution than false advertising.  The glass is already there, replacement glass is readily available, and I just wonder what Fort Bragg is planning to do when the glass is basically all gone.

Is there a solution? Is the city planning anything? Does anyone have any answers or suggestions? Has FB been sued yet for false advertising? You know this is going to happen if it hasn't already!

AV HIGH SCHOOL BAND, 1955-56. 80 strong.

AV HIGH SCHOOL Girls Athletic Association, 1956-57

MENDOCINO COUNTY HOMICIDE SUSPECT’S SON ARRESTED

by Mary Callahan

The 20-year-old son of a Mendocino County woman suspected in last week’s shooting death of another woman on rural land where all three resided has been arrested as a suspect in the May 23 slaying.

Alexander Phillip Coan, whose mother, Kelley Anne Coan, 39, surrendered four days earlier, was apprehended Saturday in the inland community of Comptche and arrested for the suspected murder of Jamie Dawn Shipman, 57, authorities said.

Officials say they have evidence the younger Coan “was an active participant in the homicide” for which his mother also remains a suspect, the Sheriff’s Office said in a written statement.

Though he was questioned and released on the day of Shipman’s death, authorities said they later acquired new, unidentified evidence that allowed them to issue a warrant for the younger Coan’s arrest.

Shipman and the Coans, as well as Shipman’s husband, were all residents of a densely forested property on Caspar Little Lake Road, near the Mendocino Coast, when the victim was gunned down on the morning of May 23, the Sheriff’s Office said.

An area resident actually reported hearing shots fired that morning, around 8:30 a.m., but a deputy who searched the neighborhood was unable to find evidence of a crime, in part because of the property’s pygmy forest, the Sheriff’s Office said.

A little after 11 a.m., Steve Shipman found his wife shot and called for help, but she was dead when paramedics and deputies responded.

Investigators found evidence of a homicide and learned Kelley Coan had been upset with Shipman and her husband over some kind of property dispute.

She was not at the scene, and Jamie Shipman’s van was missing.

Kelley Coan turned up in San Joaquin County the next evening, where she turned herself in to authorities after contacting a lawyer.

Authorities also recovered Shipman’s commercial van.

During the ensuing days, investigators developed evidence tying her son directly to the case and learned he might be staying on Docker Hill Road in the wooded community of Comptche, about 16 miles inland from the town of Mendocino and 20 miles from the 33-acre property where the shooting occurred.

Alexander Coan was located there around 3 p.m. Saturday and arrested, authorities said.

He was being held at the Mendocino County Jail on Monday with bail set at $1 million.

His mother was being held without bail, according to jail records.

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

CATCH OF THE DAY, May 29, 2017

MARTIN BRIGGS, Willits. Probation revocation.

ALEXANDER COAN, Caspar. Murder.

ROBERT FULLER, Fort Bragg. County parole.

JOEL GAMA, Calpella. Domestic abuse.

ZACHARY IRVEN, Fort Bragg. Burglary, vandalism, failure to appear, probation revocation.

JUSTIN JUSTICE, Lakeport/Ukiah. Drunk in public. (Frequent flyer.)

JEREMIAH LUNA, Ukiah. Drunk in public, probation revocation.

JACOB NOZICKA, Ukiah. DUI, suspended license.

ERICK ODONNELL, Ukiah. Entry of dwelling without owner’s consent, loitering, resisting.

LUKE PARISI, Ukiah. DUI, probation revocaiton.

JASON PICKETT, Willits. Paraphernalia, criminal threats, probation revocation.

JASON RAICA, Westport. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

JOSE RAMOS-PALMA, Fort Bragg. DUI, no license.

ALVA REEVES III, Covelo. Resisting, probation revocation.

SHAWN ROGERS, Willits. Meth possession for sale, paraphernalia, false compartment, probation revocation.

CORY SCARIONI, Ukiah. Dirk-dagger, parole violation.

RONALD VALENTINE JR., Fort Bragg. Drunk in public.

JOSEPH WOODEN, Fort Bragg, Domestic battery.

HUMANITY IS DWINDLING at a fast rate. You know all those zombie movies that young people find so entertaining? It's because they themselves are so lifeless. Listen to the way they talk. Everything is huge and amazing and awesome. But the truth is there's nothing remarkable at all about their lives. I was educated by Jesuits — they taught me to be correct in my speech. I'm grumpy and angst-ridden, but please don't take it personally. I just can't bear my existence anymore. Old movies are my only distraction now. I don't even have a dog anymore. My last one was a blond Labrador named Garbo. I find it ironic to have to fight to stay in a neighborhood that I don't even like anymore [neighbors are young tech industry people]. The battle over my house is the last straw. They have the money, so they have the power. Therefore they can be cruel. Being old and poor is a double stigma. They can see I need a cane now — they sense your weakness.

— Ramon Garcia, long time resident of Noe Valley, San Francisco, as quoted by David Talbot, Chronicle columnist

THE SO-CALLED RESISTANCE

by James Kunstler

Entropy never sleeps. It works remorselessly to transform things of value into useless, dissipated waste and heat. Complexity stokes it especially as the law of diminishing returns multiplies the wheels of futility spinning down to zero. Hence, the intellectual decay of American life in which spin is everything, anything goes, and nothing matters.

The latest manifestation of this dynamic is the curious movement that styles itself The Resistance, lately adopted by the grotesque handmaiden of the Deep State that the Democratic Party became in the regency of Hillary Clinton. Its mission is to undo the results of the last national election by claiming that Russia undid it. It pretends to seek the restoration of something — but what? Of dissipated power relations within the Deep State itself?

President Trump is actually taking care of that by turning government management over to his generals and the minions of Goldman Sachs. The generals are reinvesting in the strategic black hole of our military adventures overseas. The Goldman Sachs appointees are making Wall Street safe for the continued asset-stripping of the USA. The last time I checked, Hillary’s gang did not oppose either of these endeavors.

The Resistance employs cadres of useful idiots — Black Lives Matter, “undocumented” visitors, “Antifa,” the LGBTQ “community” — to pretend that it stands for social justice, but these are just straw persons fronting a gang devoted only to regaining the levers of “privilege” — which they also pretend to be against. The Resistance takes its name from the movement in World War Two France that fought the Nazi occupation, thus self-valorizing itself. But the pre-owned styling is just another victory of spin in the public relations nightmare that American political life has become.

It also begs the question: what would a real resistance look like? First, it would oppose the aforementioned asset-stripping that the US economy has become, the transfer of capital in all its forms — monetary, political, cultural, social — from the dis-employed former middle classes to the tiny, select beneficiaries of financial manipulation. Note that the things being manipulated — markets, currencies, securities, and interest rates — are increasingly phantom entities that appear to maintain their value only because the high priests of financial authority say that they do.

The shelf-life of that flim-flam approaches its endgame as it self-evidently immiserates the masses and their sheer faith in its recondite promises dwindles away to nothing. A genuine resistance would begin to deconstruct this clerisy and its institutions, namely Too Big To Fail banks and the Federal Reserve. The best opportunity to accomplish that would have been the early months of Mr. Obama’s turn in the White House, the dark time of the previous financial crash when the damage was fresh and obvious.

But the former president blew that under the influence of high priests Robert Rubin and Larry Summers. And the lower order clerics were allowed run their hoodoo machine flat out in the following eight years. Just look at the long chart of the Standard & Poors index. Tragically, this ever-upward arc is now taken to be the normal state of things, and when it fails the implosion will be orders of magnitude more violent than the last time.

One would think that a genuine resistance would also oppose the growing consolidation of power in the now-colossal spying apparatus of the nation — the often averred to “seventeen intel agencies” that show signs of being actively at war against other parts of the government and against citizens themselves. Hence, the non-stop murmur of allegation about “Russian interference in the election,” going back to the summer of 2016 without either any real evidence, or any clarification of what is actually alleged to have happened.

Another tragic turn is that this fifth column of rogue intel agencies has recruited the major organs of the news to incessantly repeat its allegations until the public accepts the story as established fact rather than just the manufactured story it so far appears to be. Well, the lives of persons and societies founder on versions of the “reality” they fabricate for their own purposes. A genuine resistance would show foremost some fidelity to a reality beyond the spin-factories of self-delusion. And it would lead in the hard work of shedding this over-burden of self-multiplying despotisms.

Maybe this Memorial Day is a good moment to question the claims of the so-called resistance, and perhaps patriotically meditate on what the nature of an authentic resistance would be to the ongoing decay of this nation while it is still possible.

(Support Kunstler’s writing by visiting his Patreon Page: https://www.patreon.com/JamesHowardKunstler)

VISTA CANSADA-1

by Ángel González (translated by Louis S. Bedrock)

Don’t fault your age

For this disinterest, this indifference

—almost distain—

With which you view the world.

Don’t blame your tired eyes.

The fatigue is not

In the eyes that watch:

It’s in the things they see.

LEAKED DOCUMENTS REVEAL COUNTERTERRORISM TACTICS USED AT STANDING ROCK TO ‘DEFEAT PIPELINE INSURGENCIES’

by Will Parrish, Alleen Brown & Alice Speri

https://theintercept.com/2017/05/27/leaked-documents-reveal-security-firms-counterterrorism-tactics-at-standing-rock-to-defeat-pipeline-insurgencies/

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

A Gentle Reminder That Jesus Was A Brown Middle Eastern Refugee Who Would Not Have Voted For Trump

He might have flipped over some tables at Mar-a-Lago, though.

“Jesus was a brown Middle Eastern refugee child of Jews (Islam didn’t exist yet, something I had to point out to a guy who said “well they weren’t Radical Islamists”) who was born in a stable because there was no room at the inn. We’re clear on that, right? That’s the origin story of our nation’s favorite superhero.

And then he grew up to offer free healthcare and protest against a colonial occupying power as well as its manipulative local patsies. We get that, right?

And he died, murdered by conservatives who preached the rule of a police state over compassionate humanity. You understand that’s what you learned in church, right? That’s what that story is about.

Jesus was a lot of things. He was not a conservative.

Many folks rightly point out that the Bible is an assembly of myths and fables and stories that cannot be proven true. It’s been edited over and over and over again by countless folks (read: men, mostly) and it’s been a political tool from the very start. But if you say, “Who cares about the Bible?” my response is, “Most folks in the US of A, actually.” Believers are a vast and diverse group. Many of them are progressive, liberal, or moderate. And when the GOP is run by charlatans who wield the name of Christ as a weapon, the Bible does matter. Very much.

Mind you, I’m not sure if Jesus would’ve voted at all. He probably would’ve been off somewhere with Doctors Without Borders, bringing medicine to the most vulnerable people in the world. (And you can donate to them here.) Or perhaps he would’ve been building homes for Syrian refugee children. Probably would’ve been doing something wonderful for poor children, is what I’m saying. Unlike Donald Trump, to whom the Lord would’ve likely had something to say about a camel going through the eye of a needle.

I am 100% sure he would not have voted for a guy who talks about how impoverished Mexican economic refugees are “rapists.” He wouldn’t have voted for the guy who talks about grabbing “pussy,” sexually assaulting women, sexually harassing women, and so on and so forth.

I’m pretty sure of that. Jesus wasn’t a slut-shamer and he wasn’t a body-shamer. Too busy healing the sick kids with the free healthcare and the such. Plus, he was kind to women, even women folks denigrated or shunned. He treated them like humans. He stood up for scared, vulnerable people. And he never said a word about men who fall in love with men or women who fall in love with women.”

–Sara Benincasa

RUSSIA CALLS HOUSE BILL AN ACT OF WAR. WILL THE SENATE BLOCK H.R. 1644?

http://worldbeyondwar.org/russia-calls-house-bill-act-war-will-senate-block-h-r-1644/

SUITE D ON A FOGGY DAY

by Spec MacQuayde

Friday morning my pregnant girlfriend, Jetta, and I awoke somewhat late. Fog had rolled into the valley, and by the time we'd staggered out to start the truck, wait for it to warm up, the digital clock read 8:47. Down Highway 128, the windshield wipers played around with dust and mist on the glass, smearing it miserably. I tried the fluid squirt button but that only seemed to blur things worse.

"Need new wipers," said Jetta.

"Naw, it ain't gonna rain for four months."

"Still, need new wipers."

We stopped at the Mosswood in Boonville for coffee. I got the medium roast, Jetta the decaf—mostly. The baby kicks enough the way it is.

The place was lively. The dentist from the local clinic said he was taking his Harley hog on a cruise over the weekend. He was passionate about motorcycles, and I almost told him that my 20 year-old son rides a Harley street bike and is looking for riding buddies. I didn't say anything, though, because the last thing a young man needs is his dad finding riding buddies for him.

"We got to get to Ukiah, finish planting sweetcorn," I told the guys at the long picnic table in the Mosswood as we ducked out. "Got half the field done last night."

Mist nearly turned to rain as we bounced the slalom over 253 towards Ukiah, further fouling the windshield. Our garden is past the Parducci winery north of town.

"Might be too cold to plant sweetcorn," said Jetta. "Maybe we should go to Goodwill. I need new flip-flops, or sandals." The previous evening we had irrigated furrows, dropping sweetcorn seed in as the water receded into clay, and she'd abandoned her old flip-flops. They'd not fared well in the sticky muck at the bottom of the field. "Bank thermometer says 55 degrees."

"That's too cold for sweetcorn, but I bet the soil's over sixty. Water we irrigated with yesterday was warm."

"Okay, just saying—"

At the field I was surprised how the clay furrows we'd filled with ciphoned lake water the night before had already developed cracks in the absorbant clay.

"This ain't no Indiana sand," said Jetta as she attempted to balance barefoot on the dry mixture of clods, rocks, and dust on the ridges between the furrows. "Ouch!"

"No kidding." I tried to plant as quickly as possible, thinking damn here you are with an eight months' pregnant woman barefoot slaving away like some farm wife in 1885. The corn kernels were bouncing off the constricting mud, not sticking as they had the previous night.

"The rows ain't gonna be straight."

"Screw it. I'm using a wheel hoe to cultivate, anyway."

"Ouch!"

Once we'd finished all the rows, Jetta returned to the cab of the truck to get out of the breeze and scroll on Facebook. Recently I'd purchased a new hoe at Mendocino Farm Supply, the heavy kind with the broad, six-inch blade. Using that hoe, I went up and down each row in a matter of minutes, spreading the dry crumbles over the furrows, locking in the moisture.

After planting corn, Jetta and I both had appointments with Ukiah doctors. First she went into Suite D off Dora for an ultrasound while I waited out in the truck and had a few beers, trying not to think about the imminent surgery. The previous week I had written about Dr. Hanna and one of the nurses in the AVA. Now they were going to carve out a cyst from inside my eye socket. I decided to wait until after the operation to show them the previous week's episode. Neurotically I read the piece again, wondering if I'd made Dr. Hanna come off as a dick. I hadn't intended to. It hadn't offended me that he'd assumed I grew weed. I sport a wooly beard and no health insurance. I wear a dirty baseball cap. My boots are dusty. This is Mendo.

"Check out these pictures," said Jetta when she returned, slowly, the muddy flip-flops beyond repair. "She's smiling."

All I saw in the ultrasound photos was varioius shades of black, white, and gray. I got dizzy trying to focus. "Cool. I've been thinking up names. How about, 'Mahomi?'"

"No!"

We cruised over to Dr. Hanna's office for the cyst removal. In the parking lot I pounded two more beers.

"Don't worry," Jetta said, rubbing my shoulder.

Pretending that the doctor's office was actually a bar, I smiled at the receptionist, who got my name and told me to sit down, wait. They called another guy to the back, but in less than a minute a different nurse appeared. Her eyebrows were trained into dark arches. "Mr. MacQuayde?"

"Hey!" I followed her down a hall.

"Now we have to take your blood pressure."

"Oh, man, I hate that. That throbbing drives me crazy."

"You'll be fine."

Using a little-known technique for the first time, I transferred the imaginary feeling of a pulsating hard-on from my lower chakra to my right arm and interpreted the whole ordeal in a different light. This time the blood pressure exam flew by like a night hawk. After that I was left alone for a minute, before Dr. Hanna knocked.

"Yeah?"

The door opened. "Are we going to work together today?" he asked, arms folded across his scrubs. He didn't look like he was kidding. "You got to work with me if this is gonna happen."

"I ain't workin’. Not unless you pay me. I'm just gonna lay there and let you do your thing."

"We aren't gonna have any problems?"

"No."

"You're a good guy," he said, patting my back before shutting the door. In the hall I heard him summon all the nurses. "We're gonna need extra help with this one. Special case."

Holy crap, I thought. This whole thing was my first ex's idea, somewhat, but after she'd mentioned it, a bunch of older women in places like Lauren's, drunk on wine, had told me to get that damn thing out of my eye. It had been blinking like a bulbous bladder of cancer every time I'd glanced in the rear-view mirror, for months, apparently bulging more every day. I laid on the table and folded my hands over my belly-button, taking deep breaths.

Dr. Hanna emerged with three nurses—the tall one who'd given me the blood pressure test the week before, the one with the arched eyebrows from just now, and another one I didn't get a good look at because the sawbones taped gauze over my left eye and squirted some preliminary antiseptic next to the tear duct.

"You're a good guy," he said again. "I can tell. What do you think of Donald Trump?"

"I don't really think about him much."

"But the Mexicans should be sent back across the border, don't you think?"

"What?"

"This is going to hurt a little. Tell me if you feel pain."

"Not really."

"So what do you think? Should the Mexicans be sent across the border?"

"I don't know why people blame Donald Trump."

"So you like Donald Trump?"

"No opinion there. Just saying it was Bill Clinton who signed the NAFTA deal. In the '90's we sent boatloads of cheap corn to Mexico, all federally-subsidized, put all their farmers out of business. They had to come north."

"So they came north and took all our jobs? You don't like that?"

In this context the guy operating on me might have lumped me into a demographic that would have otherwise been humorous, were it not that he was carving next to my eye. Now I was paranoid that somehow with the Hoosier accent and the redneck outfit I'd led him to believe I had something against immigrants. His first name was 'Ziad.' He probably got profiled more at airports thanks to Donald Trump, who by all appearances I had voted for. That Clinton remark hadn't helped my case. It could have been misconstrued. Two of the nurses had appeared to be of Latino descent. Maybe my remarks had been too flippant. Maybe it sounded like I blamed the Clintons for Mexicans taking our jobs. At least my flannel was purple. Not too many Trump supporters wear purple flannels. I kept talking. It distracted me. Soon we were done.

"You did great. I knew you were a good guy," said Dr. Hanna.

I still couldn't tell if he was messing with me.

Before heading back to Anderson Valley, totally done for the day, Jetta and I met my 20 year-old son for lunch at Saucy's pub and pizzaria on the courthouse square in Ukiah. They feature fire-roasted pies with locally-sourced meats and veggies. A great place to run into broke writers like courthouse reporter, Bruce McEwen, who sat at the bar in his professional apparel, a brown dress suit. He looked like a journalist from 1885.

My son showed up on his Harley, taking a break from roofing work.

I wore mirrored sunglasses on account of the surgery. We chose a table near the wood-fired oven which actually felt warm on such a cool spring day.

"You fucker," said my son.

"What?"

"Harley Riders of Mendocino County?"

"Wasn't my idea." I knew what he was referring to. The previous Sunday afternoon, my long-time buddy from Indiana, Rusty, had been enjoying some beer in his hide-out, a respite from the wife and kids, and a creative notion had flickered in his noggin. He knew about my son's recent obsession with Harley Davidsons. He'd called him from Indiana.

"What's up?" my son had answered, not glancing at the phone to detect the area code.

"This is Carl Smith from the MHRA, the Mendocino Harley Riders' Association. Have you heard of us?"

"No."

"We got your number from the Harley shop. The reason I'm calling is for Memorial Day weekend we're doing a charity ride, benefitting victims of recent flooding in southern Indiana. One last question, before we book you—are you riding alone? If you have another person on the bike, for insurance purposes—"

"You! You told him to do it!" said my son, as we ordered the "Farmer's Daughter" pizza. "You told him to call me!"

"No. Can't take credit. Wasn't my idea."

"Spec over there writes for the AVA," McEwen informed the owner of Saucy's, who sat next to him at the bar. "He'll do a puff piece, highlight your establishment."

She gave me an intense look, her black hair cropped short.

With the mirrored shades covering my bleeding eye socket, I saddled up to the bar where McEwen patted my back like this was the Old West and gold still lay undiscovered in the surrounding mountains.

"Here's your lunch, McEwen," said the bartender, pushing a bowl of home-fried potato chips towards the professional journalist.

LADY OF SPAIN!

Accordion Club

Any accordionist, aspiring accordionist, or just admirers of accordion music out there.  Trying to see if there is enough interest to get a local Accordion Club together - nothing fancy, just a chance to get together and discuss, learn, play and enjoy. If interested please respond at www.facebook.com/mendoaccordion

REAL POTEMKIN RADIO

by Sheila Dawn Tracy

The annual membership meeting of the KZYX Board of Directors was held on May 1st in Philo. Of the 40 or so people attending nearly half were station programmers. A large percentage of those remaining had some ties to the station whether as former Board members and programmers, Community Advisory Board members (CAB), incoming elected or soon to be appointed Board members.

Directors John Azzaro and Clay Eubank were once again absent, risking the possibility of Board action to declare their seat vacant due to excessive absenteeism — three absences within a twelve month time frame — though this Bylaw has never been invoked.

Minutes from the March meeting were approved.

General Manager's Report

General Manager Jeffrey Parker was eager to begin the long delayed strategic planning process. Among the operational and financial goals cited were strengthening the broadcast infrastructure, improving local news gathering, embracing new technology for attracting new listeners and expansion of both the membership and financial donations. A reworking of the wording in the station's mission statement and the services provided to the community will be inclusive of member and listener input. The results of the Community Advisory Board (CAB) survey on the recent election ballot regarding programming needs that are both met and unmet are being studied.

Membership — The February pledge drive brought in 109 new members, 200 renewals and 112 returning lapsed memberships. Among the three categories, 20% to 35% chose to pay in monthly installments which benefits the station by providing a predictable cash flow. The next pledge drive is scheduled for June 3 -11. Volunteers are being sought to answer phones.

Staff — Bookkeeper Dan McDonnell left in April to take advantage of an opportunity for a full time position. Steve Winkle, a professional accountant, has been recruited to fill the vacuum.

News Director, Sherri Quinn suffered a personal disaster as her home burned to the ground while working at the KZYX studio on a series of stories titled “Hearing from the Homeless.” Despite her misfortune, Quinn will continue to head the news operations going forward with plans for expanded coverage.

Reporter Valerie Kim, currently on maternity leave, is gradually returning to work in the membership department. She volunteered to host a panel discussion at Mendocino College for the new entrepreneurship program, Mendocino Works.

Programming — Extensive reports on Mendocino County's cannabis transition to a regulatory framework have been contributed to the Community News by Jane Futcher, host of The Cannabis Hour. Cal Winslow just completed an eight part series on California perspectives called ‘Where We Are Now?’ Ruthie King is now presenting the Farm and Garden Report and Hannah Bird is contributing reports for The Ecology Hour. Live audio coverage of the views of some of the participants in Fort Bragg's Earth Day March for Science were captured by Sherry Glaser and Tim Bray.

Parker, switching to his former occupation as journalist worked with incoming Board member Ari Minson to cover Earth Day celebrations in Hopland. Additionally, an in depth Earth Day interview in Spanish was conducted by Lorena Calvo-Evans, host of Alma Latina.

Operations — A component of the 91.5 north county transmitter, an exciter, failed on March 27th causing the air waves to go silent in Ukiah, Willits and Lake County for 27 hours. The back up part also failed necessitating an emergency run to Napa County for a loaner replacement until both parts are repaired.

A fiber-optic connection to the Philo studio provided by AT&T has potential to bring greater stability to the network that brings broadcasts from the Willits and Mendocino studios. The change will allow voice-over-internet telephone which is expected to enhance audio quality at lower cost.

Partnerships — Three students from Mendocino College are currently involved in recording and broadcasting operations as well as website development and management. Some episodes of Mendocino Works will air directly from the college using student engineers and, eventually, student producers and hosts. A similar collaboration involving broadcast journalism training is being explored that has the potential to broaden news coverage by developing student's skills in news-gathering, production and broadcasting processes.

Treasurer's Report — Director Stuart Campbell reported that the line of credit had been paid in full in April with money from the second installment of the Corporations for Public Broadcasting (CPB) grant.

The March balance sheet showed revenue of $7.4k while total expenses amounted to $47.3k. Year to date (YTD) revenues totaled $392.6k while YTD expenses were $422k for a deficit of $29.4k, an imbalance that will be corrected with expected funds from the upcoming pledge drive . February's balance sheet, with donations from that month's pledge drive, showed a positive balance of $10.7k.

A public meeting of the Finance Committee will be held in June. Announcements of the date, time and location will be made on air and on the station website, KZYX.org.

CAB Report — Director Jonathan Middlebrook will replace former Director Benj Thomas as the Board liaison to the CAB. Member Ellen Saxe announced that a June 7th public meeting will be held in Fort Bragg when the results of the CAB member survey will be discussed.

She stated that about one third of the ballots (approximately 210) responded to questions regarding met and unmet programming needs. Summarizing the results, she stated that many responded favorably to the existing programming format. A print out of individual comments showed strong support for expanded local news including coverage of local city council and supervisors’ meetings. The desire for more conservative programs was balanced by an equal call for more progressive news programming. A diverse spectrum of musical taste also was evident as some respondents desired more classical music while others said there was too much of that genre and asked for more diversity in the form of live music, urban dance, hip hop, blues, reggae and new folk programs.

Poor reception in various areas of the county was mentioned as was requests to bring back dropped programs and programmers including children's programming.

Saxe stated there was a need for improved communication between the CAB and the public, requesting an on-air call-in CAB program. She hoped that the desire to recruit new members to the CAB would be supported and recognized as necessary to invigorate the current CAB with new ideas and energy.

Matters from the Board— The Bylaws and Policy Committee has plans to meet. The committee currently consists of GM Parker and Directors Campbell and Middlebrook. No mention was made of including community volunteers on the committee, though the meetings are open to the public and input is welcomed. The first undertaking will be redefining the station's mission statement.

Outgoing Director Futcher stated that, together with Director Meg Courtney, their most significant contribution was the successful orchestration of KZYX's 25th Birthday celebration in 2015 which included performances by many talented programmers. She added that the contract with the new GM has not yet been signed. It will be finalized after a '360' evaluation, which includes an assessment from staff, is completed. Parker is responsible for an evaluation of staff performance.

In her final President's report, Courtney acknowledged the contributions of all the programmers, asking each to stand to be recognized by name and by program.

She commented that incumbent candidate, Jeness Hartley won her seat "by a landslide" which was difficult to determine as the vote tallies of the three candidates were never announced either on air or by Middlebrook, the elections coordinator, despite an email request to the Board of Directors for full disclosure of the election results at the membership meeting. Futcher and Courtney were praised for their commitment to the station and were presented with gifts for their endeavors.

Election Results— The vote tallies for the At Large candidates were provided by programmer Gordon Black in the AVA letters section of April 26th. For the record, 707 votes were cast — slightly less than one third of the current membership.

Jenness Hartley—453

John Sakowicz—171

Robert Vaughn —83

The combined total of votes for the losing candidates reflects 36% of the vote.

Induction of New Board Members— Larry Minson, who ran unopposed for the District 3 seat (Willits) and At Large representative, Jenness Hartley were both officially seated for a three year term on the Board.

The Board approved two appointments to fill the vacant Board seats. Heidi Dickerson (not present) was appointed to fill the District 2 (Ukiah) seat while Aspen Logan was appointed to fill the District 4 (Coast) seat. Dickerson has a Master's degree in journalism. Logan  owns, together with her husband, a printing business, The Color Mill, (formerly Beckman's Printing) in Fort Bragg.

The nominations to elect the Officers of the Executive Committee ensued.

All nominations having been previously determined, the pretense of spontaneity took on an appearance of bad theater. The agenda reflected the uselessness of going through the motions of a democratic process, having abandoned the Bylaw term of "election" in favor of the term "designation."

The new Executive Committee members are:

Jenness Hartley — President

John Azzaro — Vice-President

Stuart Campbell — Treasurer

Jonathan Middlebrook — Secretary

Public Comment — I opened my remarks with a request that station program guides be updated on a regular basis and contain a date to reflect the most current edition.  I asked for clarification on the criteria used to select volunteers to serve on various Board committees.

CAB member, Steve Fish, asked if the station had a plan to inform the public of station news (meetings, events, recruitment of volunteers, outages, etc.) at specific times. To do so was the only recommendation of the CAB in three years. Former GM, Dechter, had briefly instituted a five minute morning slot for station news which was discontinued after her departure.

Karen Ottobani commented that she was having difficulty accessing the new website beyond the home page.

Robert Vaughn expressed a desire to be part of the fundraising committee as he had ideas of ways to connect with nonprofits in the area as well as reach the under 45 demographic through plans for more live music events.

DJ Reed asked for modernization of the station's music library through investing in software to create an accessible database.

New programmer, Kathy Rupee, of Friday evening's Get On Up show, asked for more training on engineering specifics. She also felt a need for orientation training to introduce new programmers to staff and volunteers.

Ana Lucas thought there should be a greater station presence through tabling at community events.

The need for new carpeting in the Philo studio was stated. It would mean broadcasting from the production studio for a minimum of a week as all equipment would have to be removed from the main studio to install new carpet.

Several other desirable directions were requested: the need for internships with high school students, the need for a historian to keep a factual account of the occurrences of the past and to keep current Board members aware of the actions of their predecessors, the expansion of the volunteer program by creating the position of Volunteer Coordinator.

GM Parker responded that the Volunteer Coordinator had been retained when money from the CPB grant had been higher. The reality of that situation was that the Volunteer Coordinator had never been a big expense for the station as she had been paid only a monthly stipend of $200.

The next Board meeting will take place in Point Arena on Monday, July 3rd. Location is most likely to be the  community library at 225 Main St.

The meeting adjourned and the atmosphere of the following membership social was congenial where informative one on one conversations with Board members and the General Manager were possible. Tasty appetizers were provided, buffet style, along with good wine and non-alcoholic beverages.

The order of the social, having been before the meeting rather than after, was reversed by then Board President, Elaine Herring, in 2013. To my mind, the effect was to lengthen the time of the meeting with a corresponding curtailment of the more pleasant socializing intent of the gathering with less people inclined to participate in the after party.

I did manage to get a brief Russian history lesson from Jenness Hartley, the teacher, on the meaning of Potemkin as it applied to the title of my last article, Potemkin Public Radio. I explained that the title was not of my own choosing but the editorial prerogative of the AVA management. Hartley laughed good-naturedly at the unflattering analogy informing me that Potemkin was favored by Catherine the Great, a Russian Empress who was actually of German birth. Potemkin was a soldier and later a statesman who would precede Catharine's visits to the countryside to quickly erect housing structures more suitable to her expectations, i.e., false fronts.

While pretense and lack of community engagement has marked the station's more recent past causing disaffection, with every new board, each year a new cycle begins bringing with it fresh energy and new potential.

SUNDAY WITH CRAIG

Continuing to Bring In the Spiritual Mojo

Sunday was initially spent at San Francisco's Kagyu Droden Kunchab Tibetan Buddhist Center, participating in "The Twenty-one Homage to Green Tara (in Tibetan)".  As previously stated, my intention is to bring in the spiritual mojo to radical environmentalism generally, and by extension, to every thought, word, and deed.

For a very long time I have been of the certain view that American environmentalism and the peace & justice movement seriously lack sufficient energy to accomplish much beyond information sharing and prompting minor legislative changes. The materialistic, stupid entities governmentally and businesswise are against environmental and peace & justice ideals and goals. It is not financially profitable for them, does not increase their temporal power, and does not feed the confusion of ego.

Therefore it is critical, in order to realize dramatically greater effectiveness in opposition to the growing disaster, to bring in strong spiritual energy which will overcome the insanity headquartered on the New York City~Washington D.C. "powerstrip". It is of no particular significance in what manner this is accomplished, but it is very important that it is done. Either this is one's basic social platform, or else the individual is automatically a part of the problem or else a complete fool.

Right now, the Earth First! Roadshow is wending its way across the north American continent, coming to northern California to be a part of the annual Round River Rendezvous, which will take place at the end of June, with the traditional "Sagebrush Patriot's Rally" on the fourth of July.  A post RRR group action in support of a bioregional ecological concern is to be expected. Whereas we live in a paranoid, essentially ignorant, materialistic chaotic circus of a society, and to a significant extent, disintegrating global civilization, the exact location of the RRR is not announced until just before the gathering begins, for security reasons.  To be updated, go to http://www.earthfirstjournal.org

I welcome others to contact me if you agree with my fundamental philosophical premises. Creative spiritual working groups are the panacea for the idiotic, aggravating, craziness which defines postmodernism. If you wish to check out where I am at precisely, in terms of intentionally "bringing in the spiritual mojo", try this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHfTmgrxGPU

Nota bene: I will NOT be celebrating Memorial Day by jumping on an airplane and flying to Cancun for a continuous blowout party, as major news media reported yesterday that's what is trending. In light of what I have just stated in this message, I would have to be stark raving mad to do anything like that.

Craig Louis Stehr

615 Post St., Apt. 6
San Francisco, CA 94109-8238

Email: CraigStehr@inbox.com