Day 20 -- Season for Nonviolence--Self-forgiveness

[From The Season for Nonviolence, 64 Ways in 64 Days pamphlet]
"Feb. 18 SELF-FORGIVENESS Knowing that who you are is greater than what you have done or not done, have or don't have, forgive yourself for forgetting the good that is you."

People who know about forgiveness always say that self-forgiveness is the hardest. I have a lot of trouble with it myself. I have historically been harder on myself than on anyone else.

I like a book called Start Where you Are by North American Buddhist nun Pema Chodron. This concise, funny, warm book tells us how to start with the messy, dark, yucky parts of ourselves and to just sort of roll around in them and embrace them. Note to addict readers: this does not mean suddenly go out and drink, eat, er, embrace someone/something. This means to put your head in the lion's mouth and say "eat me, do your worst, I am not afraid of myself and my feelings any longer."

My experience is that only by turning and facing, and loving the dark parts of myself, myself exactly as I am, am I able to turn around and love others. Start where you are.

Day 19 -- Season for Nonviolence--Acceptance

[From The Season for Nonviolence, 64 Ways in 64 Days pamphlet]
"Feb. 17 ACCEPTANCE 'Resentment, fear, criticism and guilt cause more problems than anything else.' (Louise Hay) Choose not to judge yourself. See yourself as unique, loving, capable and bright. Accept yourself as you are."

This has been my experience. I am my own worst critic. This is really true, by the way. Over the years, I have tended to attract people into my life that I perceive to be highly critical of me (some of them may have even raised me). And I have told myself that their criticism has caused me great pain. I have told myself that if only they would accept me, I would feel/be okay, but the truth is that I am the one that is most critical of me, not them.

Everyone around me is a mirror. If I'm in emotional pain because of someone else's criticism of me, the first place I have to look at is myself. How would I possibly feel that pain if I were not critical of myself in that place too?

An example might help. I am, always have been, and may always be insecure about how fast I eat. I inhale my food and I don't like it if people call attention to it or mention it. No matter how good I get at portion control, healthful eating and other food behavior modifications, I eat as if I'm trying to set a land speed record for cereal consumption.

As a result, once in a while someone (usually my mother) will say, "you know, it'd be a lot healthier for you if you would only slow down."

What emotions does this bring up?

Resentment and anger: why the hell don't you mind your own business? who died and made you the queen of what speed you eat at? etc.

Fear of being unlovable: could I possibly be unattractive when eat a full plate in less than 30 seconds? (you think I'm kidding on the time, I'm really not) Could you possibly love me if you're taking the time to criticize me? etc.

The truth is though that if I were comfortable with my speed-eating, nothing you could say about it would bother me. But I'm not comfortable, I hate that I eat so fast. I wish I were different.

If I truly accepted myself, loved myself exactly the way I am, there is no way that your comments could hurt me. I could say something like "you could be right!"

...and I could mean it.

Day 18--Season for Nonviolence--FREEDOM

[From The Season for Nonviolence, 64 Ways in 64 Days pamphlet]
Feb. 16 FREEDOM Take a leadership role today in your own life. Find one way you can be more expressive of who you truly are.

First, let me explain what may be obvious, I left town for 3 days thinking I had access to a computer and I didn't. Alls I had was my non QWERTY cell phone--hence the tweet like posts (but at least I had set it up to be able to do that).

So, on freedom, and being expressive of who I truly am. Just when I was thinking I should be less expressive...well, truly, this whole nonviolence exercise is an exercise in freedom for me. By writing publicly on this subject, I am trying to unite my spiritual and political sides. So far, there have been some good days and some pathetic ones where I simply was fearful of my audience's reaction to this experiment (see "Bring in the Snouts" post below). But how free is that? If I'm going to do it, I can just do it. So for today, damn the torpedoes (oops, violent metaphor, how about embrace the turnips!) here I go!

Integrity. When faced w a choice 2day, lstn 2 ur conscience. U no whats right. Do it

1 oakland 2 bill 3 kids 4 mom 5 god

2/14 gratitude begin day by listing 5 things u r gr8ful 4 & end it by sharing w/ some1 all t good things that happend 2 u 2day

Oakland ca no puter. 3/13 reverence 2day, go 4 a walk & realize the beauty around u. "Everybody needs beauty as well as bread"

Day 14--Season for Nonviolence--Humility

[From The Season for Nonviolence, 64 Ways in 64 Days pamphlet]
"Feb. 12 HUMILITY Making mistakes is part of learning and growing. Freely acknowledge at least one mistake you make today, and reflect for a few minutes on what you have learned."

Okay, I took a bath and thought about this one. Although it was a great day, like any day, I made several mistakes (because I'm human, not because I'm sort of f***-up, although there's that too...lol). Today's doozy was probably trying to control one of my immediate family member's behavior in advance for the weekend.

Upon reflection, I realized that I did this because I was feeling powerless over the pain in my back, and my lack of ability to control another family member. I felt empty and I somehow unconsciously thought that by controlling the more controllable family I would reach equilibrium.

I didn't. It made things worse in my back and in my family (it really affected the whole unit as I tried to pull others into it too). As I saw it, I went in to talk to the person I was trying to control, apologized to him, told him how I was a heel and asked for his forgiveness. I placed my trust in him to do the right thing this weekend. I feel a lot better and I imagine he does too.

Today I am grateful that I'm examining the ways to be more nonviolent.

Day 13 -- Season for Nonviolence--Creativity

[From The Season for Nonviolence, 64 Ways in 64 Days pamphlet]
"Feb. 11 CREATIVITY Identify at least 5 ways in which you express your creativity every day. Today, allow something unpredictable and joyous to express through you."

I like that this is in the present tense. How do I already express my creativity every day--not another flippin' way that I need to change to be more something.

Let's see, 5 ways:
1) I blog
2) I make up weird songs to the kids in the car
3) I make up fun stories with the kids in the car and the dining table
4) I cook
5) I pray (this actually may be the most creative thing I do--when I am praying for someone else, I am often able to get out of the way and let God directly guide me in my words)

Today, I'm tempted to say I was fairly predictable and joyless, except that I picked my daughter and her friends unexpectedly up from school and I think that they loved it and it gave me joy to do it.

Day 12--Season for Nonviolence--Groundedness

[From The Season for Nonviolence, 64 Ways in 64 Days pamphlet]
"Feb. 10 GROUNDEDNESS 'Some little root of the sacred tree still lives. Nourish it...' (Black Elk) Today, place a seed in the earth or nurture a plant."

Okay, I gotta do this earlier in the day. I don't know if I'm going to run outside to plant a seed right now and we don't have any inside.

Did I do anything remotely grounded today? or metaphorically like this? What comes to me is that I bought a lot of containers at Ikea and am reorganizing and decluttering the home thereby nurturing its inhabitants.

Okay, I did nothing.

Day 11 -- Season for Nonviolence--Contemplation

[From The Season for Nonviolence, 64 Ways in 64 Days pamphlet]
"Feb. 9 CONTEMPLATION 'As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is.' (Bible) For at leat 3 minutes, relax, breath, and let your mind be fed by 'whatsoever is good and beautiful.'"

Right now I'm distracted by the fact that there's a giant advertising balloon that says "Search all Inventory under $11,000" stretching out covering part of my post. How do I make it go away? Do I need to search all inventory first? All inventory? This is certainly not my idea of the good and the beautiful.

Okay, I'm going to do the 3 minute thing right now. I'll be back in a moment. Okay I'm back (did you miss me?) I thought about my children, and telling the truth and trusting myself.

I love contemplation. I regularly meditate for about 40 minutes a day now but it has taken me years and years to work up to that level. I can remember when just carving out 5 minutes of sitting was agony. Now I spend 20 minutes connecting with the energy of the earth and sky and clearing out anything that's troubling me, another 10 minutes contemplating a quote for the day and a final 10 minutes sitting completely still and silent.

I do it in that order because this way I can kind of clear out some of the crap and have a fighting chance at just sitting still and being present. I still will wander. We all do. Monks who have been sitting on the cushion 30 years wander. The trick, I find is catching it. that's the real meditation.

Hmmm, this days tool was "contemplation" not meditation. I'll bet they have different word for a reason. I'll contemplate that.

Day 10--SEASON FOR NONVIOLENCE--FAITH

[From The Season for Nonviolence, 64 Ways in 64 Days pamphlet]
"Feb. 8--FAITH Today, say 'I Can' even if you are not aware of how to accomplish your goal. Have faith and say, 'I Can' until you find a way."

Ok, this exercise of blogging on this is either going to heal me or kill me; I'm not sure which (maybe both). I am going to resist correcting the punctuation above (that would be violent, and I've already invoked killing). Here's what I'm not sure that I can do: I'm not sure that I can say something new. I'm not sure that I can say it in a new way. I'm not sure that I can bridge this gap of my political and spiritual readers. Oh, what made me think I could blog on this? where are the snouts?

Where are the Snouts? (sung to the tune of Send in the Clowns)

Ain't it a bitch?*
Ain't it unfair?
Me here I'm blogging at last
And you just don't care
Where are the snouts?

Isn't it trite?
Can you ignore?
I think I'm saying something
You simply snore
Where are the snouts?
Send in the snouts.

Just when I'd come out of retirement
Finally knowing I wanted you to read only me
Writing my posts again with my usual flair,
Sure of my lines,
No one is there.

Don't you love farce?
My fault I fear.
I thought that you'd want what I want.
Sorry, my dear.
But where are the snouts?
Quick, send in the snouts.
Don't bother, they're here.

Isn't it rich?
Isn't it queer,
Losing my timing this late
In my career?
And where are the snouts?
There ought to be snouts.
Well, maybe next year.

*Sac bee website's automatic editing made me change this to "stitch"!

Day 9 -- Season for Nonviolence--DREAMING

[From The Season for Nonviolence, 64 Ways in 64 Days pamphlet]
Feb. 7 -- Dreaming--Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream. What is your dream of peace? Write it down. What is one thing you can do to honor that dream? Do it today.

Is it just me or do my readers hate my season for nonviolence? I think you miss the days at the DMV. Maybe I'm being too sincere. It's hard for me to find my voice here. I'm bridging so many worlds, I have got my leftwing warriors in the political trenches readers (who are maybe ostensibly nonviolent, but constantly "fighting" and may not be at all spiritual about it) and I've got my spiritual warriors, fighting for their recovery, or surrendered to the will of God, which may be their own, expressed only through them.

By the way, here's a question, is surrender a peaceful or a warlike term? On the one hand, you've stopped fighting, but on the, you're still envisioning an enemy to whic to surrender.

So, what is my dream of peace? Sometimes, frankly my dream of peace is just a social welfare state, a government that actually protects its people through good education, quality health care for all, a guarantee of a living wage and a roof over your head. Most if not all of the developed nations in the world provide that, the U.S. does not.

A friend of mine recently moved to Toronto, Ontario. She and her husband were trying to decide what neighborhood in which to buy a house. They asked their new colleagues, where are the best schools? Where do we want to live? Their colleagues literally did not understand the question. And my friend couldn't understand that they didn't understand.

In Toronto, if not all of Canada, the quality of education does not vary by school or economic tax base or who happens to be the PTA of the school. Every school provides the same quality education: it all completely sucks. No. I'm kidding. It's good and it's all the same. The same is true for Canadian health care. It may matter a little which province you live in, but it doesn't matter who you for, whether you're married, how much money you make, your health care is covered and you have a Canadian insurance card and you can take it your doctor and be seen with little or no out of pocket costs.

That's my dream of peace today, that we can finally begin to take care of our own people, that people can relax and breath because we've got their back. No better, that's not a peaceful metaphor because it implies we're under attack. No one has to have your back. You're safe.

What can I do today to honor that dream? How about write about it here?

Day 8 -- Season for Nonviolence--Healing

[From The Season for Nonviolence, 64 Ways in 64 Days pamphlet)
"Feb. 6 HEALING--Today, choose a painful incident in your life and find the "gift" it has given you. Consciously share this gift with others."

Ok-ay, WHY did I commit to writing on this every day? My kids, who read my blog, will probably appreciate it if I do not use a painful incident involving them. As will my other family members; but what else causes us real pain except family?

It's funny, I share about these kinds of things all the time, but not on the web. I'm finding that I can't talk about anything truly painful to me in this format. So I guess I'll just talk about thati: it's actually sometimes painful to me how many life lessons I've learned that I can't really talk about in public. I'm on a path to be a minister. With luck soon I'll be expected to stand up in a pulpit and connect with people. My pastor, Rev. Georgia Prescott, minister of the Center for Spiritual Awareness in West Sacramento does that once a week without fail. She gets up there and she talks about what is real, her struggles, her pain, tangibly, with detail. She tells what she's learned from the experiences, and gives us ideas on how to grow, to change.

I've taken people to listen to Rev. Georgia who are hard-edged cynics and atheists or agnostics. By the end of one of her sermons, they're taking notes, either mentally or on paper, learning how to use spiritual principles to improve their life. And they come back. I don't know if I'll ever be able to do that. Spiritual principles and practice has completely changed my life. My pain and my struggles have completely and utterly led the way for me to emotional freedom. I can and do share that with other people daily, maybe even with you. But not here. Not, amusingly, on this sad little cyber link that can only be found by me. Not today.

Day 7 -- Season for Nonviolence--EDUCATION

"Feb. 6. EDUCATION. Learn about the power of nonviolence by educating yourself. Read an article that relates to nonviolence. Learn about human rights, diversity, ecology, history, forgiveness, spirituality, peace studies, and more."

My first reaction is this: this commitment to nonviolence can't be meant for me. I already know everything I need to know about nonviolence, human rights, diversity, ecology, history, forgiveness, spirituality, peace studies, and more. What do I need to learn?

Ok, maybe I could learn something. I pick up my Ghandi Reader (edited by Homer A. Jack) and flip randomly to a speech that M.K. Gandhi gave on "The Untouchables." The "untouchables" of course are the caste in India that literally aren't to be touched. Gandhi tells how when he was a boy, if he touched an untouchable, he was supposed to do ablutions to remove the stigma. Untouchables, the lowest caste in India as I understand it, were give jobs to do such as cleaning latrines.

Gandhi says "I regard untouchability as the greatest blot on Hinduism." Even as a child he inherently understood that it was wrong to consider an entire group of people, by virtue of birth to be untouchable. He sought to change that, and I believe eventually did although I think I've also read that elements of the caste system persist in India today (though the legal rights have changed and can be enforced).

As I read it, I wondered, who are America's "untouchables?" At first I thought of Republicans, but of course, for a large number of the population that wouldn't be true, and it isn't even true for me. I may not like what Republicans stand for, may not want to associate with them, but I don't pull my children into the house with fear when they pass by. No, what came to my on reflection is prisoners, to a certain extent, and specifically sex offenders. Those are America's true untouchables.

With Megan's Law, and the constant fear and hype that the local and cable news keeps up about sex offenders, we taught not only to fear and loathe these people but to plot where they live on a map so that we can keep a wide berth of them and to restrict their privacy.

Granted, there is a difference between treating someone as untouchable because of what group of people they happened to be born into vs. treating someone as untouchable because of what they've done. Surely we have a right to protect ourselves and our children from sexual predators? Surely the predators can lose some rights?

I have grown up in a safe world where I have experienced no sexual offenses. I am very lucky that way. I understand that that is not true for many people. Yet, from what I can tell, statistics bear out that the vast majority of child sexual abuse takes place within families, not from random people in our neighborhoods and towns. Yet, we do not usually track the repeat offender grandpa or uncle or cousin on a map. We pray for them and keep our distance.

It is also likely that most sex offenders are born into abusive situations themselves, and play that out as adults. Otherwise, where and how would they have learned to be the sad, sick way that they are?

I do not condone anyone harming a child in any way ever. And I certainly intend to do everything in my power to keep my children safe from such harms.

But I also agree with the Bible verse, Luke 9:48 "For he who is least among you all—he is the greatest."

Day 6 -- Season for Nonviolence -- Simplicity

Feb. 4. SIMPLICITY. Think of 3 ways you can simply your life and put at least one into practice today.

Simplicity. Hmmm, mostly I like to find ways to complicate my life like by starting to Twitter yesterday so that whenever I'm sitting still I can really be tweeting (I still can't think that I have anything interesting to say in 40 characters, but we'll give it a try).

OK, simplicity...what does that even mean, really? Dictionary.Com says this:
sim⋅plic⋅i⋅ty
1. the state, quality, or an instance of being simple.
2. freedom from complexity, intricacy, or division into parts: an organism of great simplicity.
3. absence of luxury, pretentiousness, ornament, etc.; plainness: a life of simplicity.
4. freedom from deceit or guile; sincerity; artlessness; naturalness: a simplicity of manner.
5. lack of mental acuteness or shrewdness: Politics is not a field for simplicity about human nature.


Okay, let's look at definition 2 above, freedom from complexity. I make make my life more complex when I place a lot of phone calls to make sure that people are doing what they say they will do. That might be appropriate when I'm a paid organizer, but when I'm just another mom, how about letting people keep their own calendars and either fall short or not?

Definition 3, absence of pretentiousness. Where would I be without pretention? I love being pretentious. Hmmm, how about not trying to take credit for whatever the next thing is that I want to take credit for? I could do that.

Is that 3 yet? No. One more. Definition 4, freedom from deceit or guile, sincerity. I was raised on deceit and guile. Deceit and guile is mother's milk to me. I remember one time my mother-in-law emailed me after a visit to their home across the country. She said, "we had such a lovely time with you and Bill and the kids. You are a wonderful family. We can't wait until you come back." I emailed it to my brothers and they said, "what kind of sick game is she playing?!"

Okay, what's coming to me is less sarcasm. Sarcasm is, at its root, guile and deceit, thus not simple. What's simple is telling the truth. So I resolve to be less sarcastic with my children. They need to grow up knowing what sincerity looks like. I don't know if I can resolve to do it on this blog, isn't simplicity boring?

Oh, and put at least one into action--why not all 3, wouldn't that be more simple? Actually no, okay, sigh, I pick the sarcasm with kids one. Just for today.

64 Days of Nonviolence

Every year this time, my church, the Center for Spiritual Awareness in West Sacramento participates in an international Season for Nonviolence from January 30th through April 4th (the anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assignations). The creators of this event have made a booklet of 64 ways to practice peace in our lives on those 64 days. We're on day 5 so far, but I'm going to give you the daily tool and then write a little bit about it each day.

Feb. 3 BELIEVING "Today, believe that you have all the resources to move your life in the direction of peace. Be aware of simple demonstrations of peaceful responses."

On the surface, my life is pretty peaceful. I hardly ever hit or kill anybody. Ok, never. I am lucky enough to live in a peaceful community, with a loving family in a country that, while at war, the war seldom overtly affects me.

So why do I need to move in the direction of peace? Where can I be more peaceful? Well, a lot of places, frankly, if I'm willing to look at it. Much of the time I am not so peaceful towards myself. For example, I feel like I'm getting a late start this morning, it has taken me forever to get to this keyboard. In my head, the running commentary goes something like this, "Sara, why didn't you get up earlier? Why did you talk on the phone quite so long this morning? Those calls could have been accomplished much more efficiently."

That's a good inner monologue for me because I haven't called myself any awful names but how peaceful is it for me to be so critical of what just is? Can I do anything about the fact that it's already past 10am? Is it useful for me to bash myself? Is it really so bad to have a little bit longer conversation with people I love on the phone rather than be my usual curt self, efficient, on and off?

The answer is to all these questions, no. I could be more peaceful. Do I have all the resources? Well, if I don't, who does? I meditate and pray every day. I'm studying to be a minister. I have a wide range of friends who support me and love to hear from me when I need help being more peaceful. I can be more peaceful.

So a simple demonstration of a peaceful response today would be to laugh at myself for being late, laugh at myself for being critical, laugh at myself for blogging about it and just accept that my day is showing up the way it's showing up. I can change my focus at any time, but I cannot go backwards.

Day 5 at the DMV

All right, I'm not in the DMV any longer. Haven't been there since last Thursday. But I've blogged about it and I've gotten lots of emails back. So I have two things to say: one is a public service announcement and the other, well, the other is a public service announcement too.

Public service announcement #1:
There are other DMVs besides the one on Broadway in Sacramento! Who knew? It crossed my mind at some point, but I try not to leave a 5 mile radius of my home if I can help it and so I immediately pushed it out of my mind. People have written in to recommend the DMV on Mack Road in South Sacramento, the Davis DMV, a special phantom DMV that AAA may operate for AAA customers (but no one knows where it is), and some other DMV in the eastern part of Sacto.

There's one thing everyone can agree on: don't go to the Broadway DMV. To paraphrase Yogi Berra, nobody goes there, it's too crowded.

Public service announcement #2:

Don't just hit reply, comment! People keep emailing me with comments on my blogs but not posting them on the blog itself. Pleast post them on the blog! The main reason is that what you're all saying is really good and interesting and thought provoking and all my readers would benefit from reading it.

The more self-serving reason is my handlers tell me that the only way to build a successful blog readership is comments. Every comment drives the post higher in the ratings and the search engines. No comments = no readers. So, please comment! If I can make it easier for you technologically somehow, let me know.

Day 4 at the DMV

Day 4, January 29, 2010

Tempted to drive by and just get a ticket in the early morning. After all, today's the only Friday of the month they're not furloughed. Maybe it would be just me in the Bs...

Day 3 at the DMV

Day 3, Thursday, January 29, 2010

11:55pm. I pass the DMV on the street, enter the illegal lot and park. (I have got this down!). I waltz in, 3 minute wait for B 210 and Im outa there.

1:30pm. I return, this time, for the first time, remembering to ask my spiritual guides to provide me with help: a legal parking spot, a seat inside, and, dare I ask it? actual calling of my number while I'm there!

I pulll up and out pulls a pick-up providing me with a dream parking spot. So far, so good. Before I take remove my plates, I run inside to check the numbers, B170--OMG, I'm only 40th in line for this particular transaction! I pinch myself. Can this be happening???!!!

I get inside and there's an empty seat. I pull out my ipod and headphones and listen to a good lecture on Platao's Apology--how time flies.

1:50pm. We are already to B208. It's time to pack up and be ready to run to the right window. I compulsively check my form, my plates. It's all there.

2:10pm. I'm getting nervous. I've got to leave at 2:20pm to pick up my daughter from school. We've been on B209 for the longest time--what can be happening? I walk near window 16 and assess the situation. The customer has a Spanish translator who is patiently running a steady back and forth between the DMV intake person and the customer. The DMV intake person is frantically typing and occasionally grunting. The Spanish-speaking customer's children are attempting to peel mandatory notices off the walls. It looks like it may never end.

2:20pm There are no other Bs being served. Window 22, which had been solidly B for 20 minutes, has mysteriously gone A. Window 16 is still going strong. Can it be that I will have to leave the DMV yet again? I feel hysteria rise in my gullet. I am grateful that the only weapon I have access to is a philips driver--I mentally place the flathead's location in my car and wonder whether I can make it to the car and back in time to...

2:22pm "Now serving B210 at window number 16" Window 16! Window 16! I skip with joy and practically hug the employee (who looks like she could use a 6 month vacation from hell). I practice zen patience as slight obstacles in my paperwork arise and are overcome.

2:32pm I emerge from the DMV victorious and attach my old personalized plates (FORES10, if you must know) on our new car. Halleluyah Halleluyah!!!!

2:40pm Arrive at my daughter's school. She's not there.

Day 2 at the DMV

Day 2, Tuesday, January 27, 2010

1:50pm, I cruise through the parking lot and go straight to the illegal lot next door. I run in, and take a ticket, B230. The monotonotron intones, "now serving B150 at window number 16." I go to a meeting with a friend on Power Inn Road.

3:20pm. I'm finished with the meeting with a friend, I head over to pick my son up from school. We swing by the DMV. Miraculously, there's a parking spot opening up in front of the DMV. I can feel that this is it. We're about to achieve license plate switchage.

My son runs in and comes back out quickly with, "they're on B190. You've moved up 40 places in line over the course of 1 hour and 50 minutes. That's a rate of (he takes out his calculator) 1 number every 2 and 1/2 minutes. At this rate, you can expect your number to be called at around 7pm tonight. When does it close?"

"5pm," I grumble and we speed off f-- no point in giving the ticket to anyone. Who would want it?

On Wednesday I'm too busy even to stop by for a ticket, let alone a transaction.

Day 1 at the DMV

(posted first at the Sac Bee NorCal Voices blog which forced me to remove the words "snatch" and "screw" from the piece--see if you can figure out where they might have gone.)

I spent three days at the DMV on Broadway in Sacramento this week attempting to switch a personalized plate from the car we're selling to the car we bought. You may want to read this post before you visit the DMV.

Day 1, Monday, January 26, 1:20pm. I have been to the DMV on Broadway before, of course, and know that without an appointment it's a wait. And it crossed my mind that due to state workers being furloughed on Fridays, it would probably be more backed up than usual, so I packed a snack, homework, and a fully charged cell phone. Still, I was unprepared.

First I spent 20 minutes circling the parking lot looking for a spot. No luck. I cross the street only to be greeted by a large sign that says "no DMV parking." I come back. No parking on the street. Next door is a smaller building with a less menacing but nonetheless unmistakeable-in-intent sign (parking for building employees only), I park there and run to the DMV. After waiting in line at the information booth for only 5 minutes, I have a number, B280. I look at the monitor, and listen to the monotonous voice tone, "now serving B156 at window number 22." I look around, there's not a seat in the place, people are on the floor, crying babies, it's like a refugee camp and my chances of getting called any time soon are next to none.

1:45pm I leave and drive to La Bou on Stockton Blvd. (where I can legally park as a customer). I sip a latte and edit my paper for Classical Philosophy (it's due by email that day).

2:45pm I return to the DMV, spend 5 minutes looking for parking then return to the same illegal lot next door. I run into the DMV to check the monitor. "now serving B196 at window number 4" In an hour, I've moved forward 40 places in line. I develop a hope that many others ahead of me in the B lane have lost the will to live and given up there by moving me up in line at a faster clip than the last 40. I undo my old license plates and take them, prepared to surrender them.

3:10pm After 25 minutes of writing my paper, they are only calling B205, it is hopeless and I must leave to pick my children up from school. I announce to my section of the room that I am leaving and that if anyone wants ticket number B280 they can have it. Only one person grasps that that would be in her interest and eager seized the ticket, throwing money, jewelry and the keys to her car at me in exchange (actually, only a thank you was thrown, but it was sweet).

I leave, put the license plates back on my car and drive off to get kids.

Watching State of the Union with the fam...

Bill came home from work tonight with a story that studies now show that most of the younger voters who engaged in the Obama campaign/win are now completely uninvolved in the political process. To remedy this, the four of us listened on the radio to Obama's State of the Union Address while we ate dinner, then retired to the tv room to watch the rest.

The kids paid close attention, indeed, our 15 year old son shushed me and his sister as we repeatedly made comments about some of the congress people's clothing (I'm trying to teach my daughter to value flash over substance, o-kay?).

As I sought there, watching the speech and thinking back to the campaign, I flashed to that election night where practically our entire cohousing community of some 45 people was crowded into the small living room of one of a one-bedroom apartment to watch the coverage on our neighbor's widescreen tv. The excitement was over-the-top with everyone, including the communists and green party activists who may or may not have voted for Obama.

I resolved to create a wild State of the Union party for the next Obama speech and started planning the snacks, but then remembered that I was watching this speech now and focused. The speech was by and large excellent. The man can talk, and his people can write. He snuck in some good jokes, and some self-effacing, crow-eating moments. He blamed the previous administration copiously, but not in a mean way. He announced some doable and admirable initiatives, mostly to create jobs and boost the economy.

3 things stuck out at me from the speech:

1) Obama bashed the Senate more than I've ever seen one President bash a particular body of the Congress. Consciously praised the House, bashed the Republican minority for forcing a supermajority to get anything done, bashed the cowardice, bashed them for stopping health care, bashed them for stopping financial reform package, bashed bashed bashed. Clearly a decision was reached to make the Senate the scapegoat. Safer then bashing the whole Congress--after all only 1/3 of the Senate is up for relection this year, while the whole darn House is up--too risky to lay the blame on the whole institution. Plus the House has delivered and the Senate hasn't. So bash he does...

2) Obama announced a (probably modest) return of protectionism. I counted 4 instances when he talked about initiatives to save American jobs, export more, enforce more sanctions on international trade, etc. Maybe I'm wrong but this seemed like a different strategy than Clinton, and plays well with labor of course, and probably is popular generally. Maybe this is a way of playing to the public mood for isolation at the same time as he's gotta fight a war. Let's be isolationist on the economy, if not on security.

3) In the last 5-10 minutes of the 70 minute speech, almost in an instant, the whole room changed, both on the screen and at home. The assemblage went from watching a politician give a speech and playing their respective roles of clapping, booing, cheering, or being bored at certain parts, to listening. Speaker Nancy Pelosi over Obama's left shoulder lost her frozen deer-in-the-headlights grin and dropped her jaw. Tears came to her eyes as Obama spoke of the way the nation had pulled together to get through crises before and we could do it again.

For a few minutes, he was the Obama we voted for, the Obama who can change the world, the Obama we trust. And we were all Americans listening to our President.

Gay Marriage Trial Keeps Gay Marriage on Front Page

(published concurrently on the Sac Bee NorCal Voices blog)
I have been fretting a bit over the effort of gay marriage proponents to strike down Prop 8 in the current trial in federal court. Like many, I'm skeptical of the willingness of the predominantly right-wing stacked federal courts to render Proposition 8 unconstitutional.

Yet, it hit me today: since this trial has been going on, every single day there's a front page or front section storie on gay marriage in the Sacramento Bee. So the trial not only keeps the issue front and center, it also adds new dimensions, angles, thought and evidence because the plaintiffs in this case (the anti Prop 8/pro gay marriage side) have put on a lot of great witnesses. And, if the Bee's reporter is to be believed, the other side's witnesses are so far pretty weak like today's Institute for American Values guy who basically just states that gay marriage will drive up the rate of heterosexual divorce and doesn't even bother to present trumped up evidence for his assertion, let alone real evidence.

Yes to Helmets for Snowboarders

I give an emphatic yes to the proposal to require the use of helmets for skiers and snowboarders under 18 by California state Assemblymember Dave Jones and Senator Leland Yee. Many children are permanently disabled or killed from snowboarding injuries and often it may be preventable by wearing the right helmet.

Our experience shows that snowboarding without a helmet can be incredibly dangerous, even in seemingly safe situations. On February 13, 2004, our previously healthy 10-year-old son was knocked unconscious while taking a snowboarding class on a school field trip to Lake Tahoe. As a result of his concussion, for the past five years he suffered long periods of unremitting nausea and other central nervous system disruptions such as being unable to fall asleep until 4 or 5 in the morning. Due to the extremity of his symptoms, he missed weeks of school in 3rd grade, months of school in 4th and 5th grade, the second half of 7th grade, almost all of 8th grade and most of the first half of 9th grade.



It took us a long time to get to the bottom of our son's illness and to get it properly treated. Over the last 6 years we have consulted 3 pediatricians, 2 pediatric gastroenterlogists, 1 pediatric endocrinologist, 1 pediatric neurologist, 1 pediatric ear nose and throatologist, the Stanford Sleep Medicine center, the Mayo Clinic, 2 osteopaths, 1 network chiropractor, a somatic therapist, a cranio-sacral therapist, an Alexander Technique teacher, Maori healers, psychic healers, a shaman and a partridge in a pear tree. The conditions has been called and treated variously as a concussion, leaky gut syndrome and secondary adrenal insufficiency.

What happened on the day of the injury is that the snowboarding instructors apparently ran out of snowboarding helmets, disregarded our written instructions for him to wear a snowboarding helmet, and instead gave him a bike helmet to wear. In this case, wearing a bike helmet may have been more dangerous than no helmet at all. Because most bike injuries fall forward, bike helmets predominantly protect the front of the head. Many snow-related falls however are backward, so, like a motorcycle helmet, snowboarding helmets have to cover the whole back of the head.

What we believe now is that when our son fell he fell backward hard onto packed icy snow such that the edge of the bike helmet torqued into his head not only rendering him unconscious but causing a plate in his head to compress the vagus nerve, causing the nausea and the central nervous system dysfunction.

After these 5 long years, our son is finally well (the chiropractor and physical therapist doing the final trick of decompressing the vagus nerve), back in school and leading a normal life. Our bank account is slowly recovering from its own slow hemorrhaging. And our family unit is finding its equibilibrium without the constant crisis of health. But I'd give anything not to have put our boy and our family through this. One simple law would have done it. There's no way a school field trip would've flauted that law.

I applaud Assemblymember Dave Jones, a strong consistent champion of consumers, for leading the charge in California to protect our kids from the consequences of these inherently dangerous sports. I'd like to know if you also have stories out there that should be shared.

Ibuprofen, the middle-aged drug of choice

Over the winter holidays we spent a week with my college friends. We attended Reed College, Portland, Oregon from 1979 to 1983 and let's just say that there was some experimentation that went on in those years. For example, one of the people in our group once wrote a piece, circa 1981, called "Fear and Loathing in Disneyland" under the moniker Pigbitch S. Thompson. My children read my blog, so I'll just leave it at that.

I left most of that behind me the second I graduated. Between 1983 and 2005, I drank some serious beer in law school, smoked an occasional, er, cigarette, and focused most of my drug-related attention on caffeine.

At some point caffeine ceased to serve me and I phased out "real" coffee, switching entirely to decaf, and green tea. Many people, I hasten to point out, represent drinking decaf coffee as "caffeine free" but this is not quite true--here's a chart from the Center for Science in the Public Interest that shows the relative caffeine content of various popular beverages and decaf definitely has caffeine--caffeine content chart. Also, I go into shakes and headaches if I don't have any decaf or green tea.

After giving up serious caffeine, I pretty much cut out alcohol. It seems to lower my immune system, give me headaches and cause me to make poor choices in food and behavior. You know the old saying, "1 martini, and it's under control , 2 martinis, and it's under your belt , 3 martinis and you're under the table, 4 martinis and you're under the host." Well I'm a lightweight, I'm more like, "1/2 glass of wine and I've eaten a box of cookies, uploaded a video of me dancing on the table wearing only a napkin and fallen asleep."

So my current drug of choice is Ibuprofen (street names: advil, motrin). on the container it says "do not take more than 6 tablets in any 24 hour period" Ha, I'm lucky if I make it to lunch without taking 8.

And I'm not alone. At my 25th college reunion when I pulled out Vitamin I, I was rushed by my classmates.

"Dude, can you hook me up?" they asked me. "If you could just give me 2, or 3, 4 would be better, man" "I was just about to drive around Portland looking to score..."

"Yes," I said, pouring the beautiful little red tablets of the generic Ibu into their hands (I don't spring for the gel caps, it's quantity man, not quality).

"And I have Benadryl and Sudafed too."

Three snouts up for Avatar on Imax

(:)(:)(:) for Avatar on Imax. My expectations for this movie were mixed. On the one hand, I heard a review on public radio that said something like "this isn't a good movie, but it's enough like a good movie that you might think it is" and that gave me the sense that the hype was over-rated. On the other hand, I had heard from several people I trust that this was an amazing spiritual story, about the connections between all of us, so I got my hopes up for that.

On balance I was disappointed by the film, but for an entirely different reason than I expected. There was a lot to love about this picture. For example, everyone is right that the world they've created on Pandora is amazing and special and seeing it on Imax is frequently breath-taking. And what's not to like about the story of a native people living in sacred community with each other and all the creatures and living things in a spectacular rain forest in which it never seems to rain? And a disabled guy getting a second chance at life living inside a new alien native body? c'mon! Moreover, when the destruction of the environment is the crisis, and the bad guys are the army, you can pretty much have me for lunch.

So why, then, was I disappointed? I was disappointed because with a gorgeous environment and a creative premise, the film-makers missed the boat on the resolution. And they missed it in an over-the-top bad Hollywood, multi-million dollar when is this going to freakin' end way.

How could a peace-loving, environmentally harmonious people's salvation from destruction lie in investing a white marine masquerading as one of them with the power to amass an army of bows and arrows, flying creatures and wild dogs and pseudo-rhinos? Meeting with war with war is old news. Meeting massive war machines with primitive native equipment is ridiculous (not withstanding the fact that it's fun to watch the animals rise up against flying tanks).

If we're all one, then how can there be an enemy? If we're all one, then why isn't some way found to "see" the central casting stock redneck Marine colonel as "their brother" instead of tossing a grenade in his face? If we're all one, why can't there be a new solution, a new ending, a new way to stop destruction?

The filmmakers should read the ending of the The 5th Sacred Thing by Starhawk, a book with a similar premise resolved by a radically new, 22nd century solution. It's time to take it to the next level.

Navigating by the Starbucks

(reprinted from the NorCal Voices Blog at SacBee.com)
Yesterday, responding to my blog at Snicholsblog I received questions as to why Starbucks is my "second favorite corporation." I'm afraid the reasons are oftly banal: I love their coffee and their feel and I need them to navigate.

I first became aware of Starbucks back in 1984 when I worked in downtown Portland, Oregon. Starbucks, being a Seattle corporation opened a Portland store early on. It wasn't a giant chain, then, just a little one. It made really really really strong good coffee, unlike anything I had ever tasted. I was totally hooked. And it was okay to be out about my love.

Later, they were everywhere and it was "corporate coffee." They were putting little independent coffee shops (most of which, truth be told were Starbucks copycats, as the kind of strong coffee/espresso shop didn't really emerge until after SBs) out of business. And I was supposed to hate them, so I did. I boycotted them for a long time.

Then I discovered their lattes and started secretly patronizing them. I stayed true to my convictions by refusing to speak Starbucks. I'd say "medium" rather than "grande" and I wouldn't put my request in the right order so that they'd have to bring in a UN translator to turn "decaf medium latte with soy milk" into "Grande decaf soy latte for Sara."

And then I fell in love with the place again, this time I just really became enamored with the corporation. I like their logo. I like their decor. I like their snacks and foods and promotions and games and music. I like their causes. I just like it. And I started to make it my business to know where every Starbucks in town is and to navigate by them.

In Buffalo, New York where I used to live, they navigate by the bars. Say this is a nasal midwestern twang, "if you're coming from the Anchor bar, head straight up towards McNulty's, then hang a left at No Name's and you're there."

In New York City, in the 80's, it was sadly Gap jeans that helped me around. "It's up Broadway about 3 Gaps from here." Okay, no one ever said that, but they could have, there was a Gap every 5 blocks (providing little or no gap in the Gaps).

Me, in Sacramento, I navigate by the Starbucks. To get to stop one on the carpool, I head east towards the SB at 15th and Broadway, then north east towards the Alhambra and N, due north past the one in the Safeway at Alhambra and J. Then I head northeast up business 80 to the Marconi to pass the Starbucks at Fulton and Marconi, drop off my second load of kids nearby. Then its further east to Watt, south to pass by the near empty SB in the recession mall at Watt and El Camino--no lines in the morning rush hour but you have to make a left (why can't they place them all on the right side of the street? poor corporate planning!) If I head all the way to Fair Oaks, I pass a busy SB on the left (again!) at Watt and Fair Oaks. Way too hard to stop.

Now I have some difficulties navigating because its a large SB free zone (meaning at least 2 miles). Usually I turn right on Hurley, take it to Fulton, take a left, stay left as it becomes Munroe and head down to Sacramento Country Day to drop off my son.

Back to Starbucks civilization as I drive north on Munroe to Fair Oaks, head west towards the Pavillion starbucks, then southwest to the University and Howe Starbucks and down Howe to the freeway. On the freeway, I'm sure I pass countless SBs but somehow I stay focussed on getting home where I can get online and blog...about Starbucks.

All You Need is Love, Starbucks and the Beatles

Let's see, "All you need is love" is my favorite pop affirmation. Starbucks is my second favorite gigantic corporation (after Southwest Airlines). And the Beatles are my household's composite favorite rock band (currently being obsessively played by my children on their ipods and on Beatles Rock Band--see future posts). So it was not a stretch for me to adore this marvelous Youtube video Starbucks recently made with people singing "All you need is love" all over the world. I want you to watch it.

Dems need to get serious about governing and government

With the upset victory today of Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts to fill Ted Kennedy's Senate seat comes the clear sense that Thomas Frank's latest book The Wrecking Crew is dead on. Republicans hate government and when they're in power, ala Bush, they do everything they can to wreck government and have it work terribly so that when they're out of government, as in now, they can run and win on blaming the very government they wrecked.

Seen from this perspective, by the way, the Bush presidency was a huge success for the Republican party, with only a slight setback in 2008. Mind you I haven't read Frank's book, just saw him interviewed on Bill Moyer's Journal which I only watched because my husband was watching it and I was waiting for him to leave the room so I could do something else in there. Nonetheless, I love everything about Thomas Frank: his book, What's the Matter with Kansas? (which I did read cover-to-cover), the way he talks and the way he looks like the intellectual boy next door--adorable with his little glasses and sandy hair!

More importantly than how adorable Thomas Frank is, he's right. And he backs up with actual research what I've been ranting about for years, to wit: the Democrats need to get serious about explaining, protecting and defending the benefits of government unabashedly. No more Republican lite. No more running from taxes. No more trying to hide the ball. Time to start telling the truth and treating the American people like grown-ups.

If we need polling to find out how to sell government back to the people who own it, then do the polling. Change the frame, as Berkeley's own George Lakoff has been telling us for some time. Obama is the right president to do it, if he can only find the courage.

Three and a half Snouts up for A Single Man

(:)(:)(:)(: for A Single Man
(published first on the Sacramento Bee NorCal voices blog)

Colin Firth should win best actor for his performance in A Single Man. See it while it lasts at Sacramento's magnificent Crest Theater--though the film will probably be moved downstairs unless the crowd increases this weekend from last.

This first film for former fashion designer Tom Ford is not perfect. The movement from present time to flash back is sometimes awkward. The line between tragic drama and black comedy too blurry and some of the screen shots, while beautiful, scream "fashion designer director" just a little too loudly for my taste.

Yet, this focus on Colin Firth (looking oh-so-1960s Michael Caine with his skinny black tie and large frame glasses), an english professor in L.A. who has just lost his lover of 16 years is a must see. I don't know if I'll ever get out of my mind the scene where Firth hears of his lover's death from his lover's cousin. Firth's lived with the man 16 years and, it being 1960, is told (as no doubt so many were), that he isn't invited to the memorial it being "just family."

Yet, as reviewers and the director have noted, this isn't a "gay film" (although it is a gay story with lots of gorgeous boys trying to pick up Colin on the same day). Despite the serious subject matter, I didn't find it a depressing film. There are lots of parts that are damn funny, particularly the scene with the sleeping bag and the pillows. The marvelous dinner between Firth and his best friend Julianne Moore alternates between hilarity and unforgiveable utterances the way drunken evenings between friends can.

To me, it's a story about the depth of despair that we can feel and how alone we can persist in being even when there are angels all around who love us and want us to survive.

I have a dream that King wrote more than one Speech

(this post was published first in the Sacramento Bee )
The other day my 8th grader, a dedicated and engaged student at Sutter Middle School, came home saying that because of the upcoming Martin Luther King day, they were going to study "the speech" yet again. I asked her, "which speech?" She looked at me blankly, "you know, the speech" and rolled her eyes the way only 8th graders can.

My husband and I said in unison, "he wrote more than one speech." And then we groused, more to each other than to her, again, almost in unison, "couldn't her teacher have them read the Riverside Church speech at least, or, Letter from the Birmingham Jail?"

The truth is that King wrote and spoke thousands of times and much of it is captured somewhere. The King holiday is not a celebration of one march on Washington, but the whole life of this man, his whole body of work. Our public schools do King, our children and our nation a disservice if they try to boil it down to one speech.

Two and a half snouts for Sherlock Holmes

(:)(:)(: for Sherlock Holmes in theaters everywhere. The first hour of this movie made me physically ill. The context is important, I was with a mixed group of adults and kids, some of whom were younger than 13. We were out on a holiday walk in Palm Springs, arrived at a multiplex and made a split second decision that some adults and many kids would see Sherlock Holmes. Bill and I wanted to see Up in the Air which wasn't starting for an hour, so I convinced Bill that we should watch the first hour of Sherlock Holmes and then move over. Big mistake.

Probably if I had seen it just with Bill, or perhaps my almost 15 year old, I would have been fine. But seeing it with children 13, 12, 10 and 8 tormented me on their behalf. I am increasingly appalled by what the PG-13 rating deems appropriate. I swear it's way worse than anything my parents banned me from in an R rating in the 70's (Exorcist, Jaws, French Connection, you name it, I wasn't allowed to see it).

This film opens with a series of incredibly stylized close-up attacks by Watson and Holmes as they move to interrupt macabre occult killing (and implied rape) in a ghastly hall with a young woman chained and writhing on a table. How these images could be appropriate for a 13 year old, let alone an 8 year old is beyond me. Yes, I understand PG-13 is warning parents to use caution about showing it to under 13 year olds, but so many people let their under 13s see these kinds of movies these days that you're almost made to feel prudish if you don't.

Don't get me wrong, the production values are obviously high. I could watch Robert Downey Jr. fold napkins for 2 and half hours and be fascinated (Jude Law, maybe 1/2 hour). The dialogue was snappy and entertaining, and the costume, scenery, and overall dark Victorian world of the film deserve multiple oscar nominations.

It's just that the whole idea of taking a complex detective story and turning it into a highly violent action-adventure buddy film is noxious. And the violence is just gratuitous.

I've decided I've had enough of it and I'm not seeing any more action adventure PG-13 films made today without extreme pre-vetting.

P.S. Comparing notes afterwords, my children say I saw a completely different movie than they did. They weren't traumatized. They didn't find the initial scene disturbing (until I translated it for them, in retrospect with my help they do!), and they just had a blast watching H&W run around London killing people. This past weekend, District 9 was playing in our common house and my son banned me from watching it with him. He accurately observed, "my being there would ruin your experience and your being there would ruin my experience."

Oh God, my blog made the Bee

A few weeks ago, when I clicked the button to publish the post Want a cozy fire? Wait 'til next summer... on my Sacramento Bee "Norcal Voices" blog, a little voice whispered to me "this will end up in the Bee print edition" but I published it anyway.

Sure enough, this past Sunday, January 3rd, 2010, the Bee opinion page ran it. Every month or two, they seem to pick out one of the posts and run it.

Normally, I'm thrilled to have anything in print. I'm very close to the school of thought that the only bad publicity is no publicity (sorry, Tiger Woods). But this time I felt equivocal about what I had written the second I wrote it. The post was, after all, complaining about environmental regulation, something I generally frown upon.

It is significant to have it in print because it ups the readership of the piece from roughly 3 people to thousands. I am not kidding about the 3 people. If I didn't have the page to my blog bookmarked, I could not find it on the Bee website. The other day I literally spent 20 minutes trying to find it and couldn't. And even my friends with the link can't see my post if they don't create a username and login, which most of them are loathe to do.

Reaction to my piece has been mixed. Inside my insular leftwing cohousing community (and my personal dwelling), people are disgusted by anyone who would be selfish enough to put their own personal need for a cozy wood fire over other people's selfish need to breath clean air.

Outside cohousing, even with lefties, the reaction is pretty much, "oh I know! I was so mad that they wouldn't allow wood burning on Christmas Eve! It was a perfect night for a wood fire and they said 'burning prohibited!' Can't they at least have a holiday exception?!"

Meanwhile the sole commenter on the web version of the post seemed to think that I went too far by even being willing to follow the law. Her perspective is that wood burning is a drop in the bucket on air pollution and it's only rich people that have fireplaces or wood anyway, so why bother regulating it, just get everyone out of their cars.

Come to think of it, that's a pretty good idea. We only drive one car and use foot and bike transportation a lot. Can we have an exemption from the ban?

Oops, I did it again. Well, at least this time it's not on the Bee blog so no one will read it at all.

My theory of friendship

I'm not going to write a lot of detail here, just start talking about something I've thought for a long time. There's a mythology out there that the way we get to be friends is by having mutual interests, mutual sense of humor, etc., and there's some truth to that but it's not the whole story.

My experience tells me that the main way I become friends with anyone is by spending time with them. To paraphrase Al Franken on parenting, "forget quality time, try good ol' stinkin' quantity time."

Who are my friends, really? They are: the people I was in plays with in highschool, the people I roomed with in college, the people I drank with in law school, the people I worked next door to in the capitol, the people I live and work with in cohousing, and, more recently, the people in my church and spiritual communities.

Many of my recent friends do not share my political beliefs, my taste in novels, or my deep abiding use of sarcasm. Yet, we are super close.

I am coming to believe that the old adage, "to know someone is to live them" is the truest. I also find it true, however, that "familiarity breeds contempt." The cycle is like this for me:

Phase 1: meet someone, like them or not, form an opinion, a judgment of them;

Phase 2: (must get over an initial negative judgment--only sheer time does this) get to know them a bit and discover that my opinion or judgment was wrong (so, if I thought they were tiresome and boring, I learn that they're not and if I thought they were flawless and brilliant, I learn that they're not).

Phase 3: (must push through disappointment aspect of phase 2 to get to phase 3--only sheer time does this) learn to love them as a 3-dimensional whole person.

I can honestly say that in my intentional community of 25 households, I love each every person here. There isn't anyone here that I wouldn't go to any lengths for. And no, they aren't all my friends, some I love but don't like particularly. Yet, many who are my friends I wouldn't have been friends with had I been trolling for them on the internet. Their personal ad would not have attracted me.

I wonder, could the same be said, at the end of the day, for lovers?

Old City Kites is an Awesome Toy Store

Posted by SaraSNichols at 12/15/2009 10:33 PM PST on The Sacramento Bee
Old City Kites at 1017 Front Street in Old Sacramento is really an awesome toy store and a very fun shopping existence. It frustrates me that they don't advertise themselves better as a toy store because for a small store they are exceptional buyers and truly have some of the best stocking stuffers, the best games, and other imaginative non Toys R Us kinds of toys (but not just kites and wood, really fun toys).

Old Sac is also just a tremendous place to do your christmas shopping period. There's another toy store just down the way that's good. There's a game store. There are good clothing and boutiques. There are antique shops. (assuming they're all still open, which these days gets less and less easy to do.

Five Snouts up for Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth

(:)(:)(:)(:)(:) for Unaccustomed Earth, a collection of stories by Jhumpa Lahiri (A New York Times Book Review "best book of the year").

Obviously if it's winning this prize from the NYT, many people know about this book, but just to give it my plug. I am not much for short stories. If I like a story, I'm usually upset that it's ending and if I don't like a story, I feel that I've wasted my time and why should I read the next one. So I generally avoid the genre. Every so often a collection comes along that makes me break my general rule (Grace Paley's Enormous Changes at the Last Minute comes to mind). This is such a collection.

I loved every story, but I was not upset to have them end. The endings were so organic that I felt complete, nothing contrived about them. It was if she were simply recording real human moments that happened just so. As the jacket trumpets, she moves the reader from Boston to Seattle to London, focusing on the experience of Bengali transplants to America and their progeny. I found every story fascinating and couldn't wait to get to the next one.

Read this book. Or at least, one story.

Want a cozy fire? Wait 'til next summer...

Posted by SaraSNichols at 12/10/2009 8:40 PM PST on The Sacramento Bee
I love wood fires. I love them in winter. I like them in my fireplace. I like to sit and read and nap and knit and talk in front of fires. I look forward to winter every year because of wood fires. I was slightly peeved when the Sacramento Air Quality District or whatever it is voted to ... Read More »

Four Snouts up for Star Trek on DVD

(:)(:)(:)(:) for Star Trek just out on DVD. I didn't get to see this movie on the big screen. My husband did and gave it uniformly positive reviews, something like "the best action adventure movie since Spiderman 2." To me, that meant, well, it's a good movie, and I would probably like it but it didn't get me to rush out and see it.

Well last night I happened to watch it with my son on DVD. I LOVED it! I might even give it 5 snouts up if it weren't for it being about men in funny shirts in outer space and all (I draw the line at calling a space movie one of the best movies of all time, see the key to my snout-based rating system for questions).

Basically, this movie is great because it's very smart and funny. For an action adventure film it's also relatively light on fight or flight sequences. Mainly, you get to learn how Captain Kirk, Spock, Ohuru, Zulu, Chekov, Bones, etc. got their start on the enterprise. This film does a phenomenal job of bridging generations not only of trekkies but of real people. While I'm laughing hysterically and slapping my thy every time the young Dr. McKoy says, "dammit Jim, I'm a doctor not a transvestite" or something, my 14 year old is charmed by the special effects, or simply by the sight of his mother slapping her thy and shrieking.

I made him play the last sequence where the young Kirk takes command of the U.S.S. Enterprise right before the credits over and over. Priceless!

Great gift idea/One Place Business is Booming

My brother in Oakland turned me onto this microloan organization called Kiva. I figured that by sending them a donation I was doing a good deed, funding microloans for the purchase of a chicken, goat, sewing machine or the like in developing nations.

Well, I was wrong, turns out I was picking one of the most solid investments around today. I donated $50 last December and have received a staggering $200 in dividends to date. What the hell kind of usurious rates are they charging? I don't understand. But turns out there was never a boom in the developing nations so there's not a bust. Sometimes I turn around and reinvest, sometimes I give it to someone else to play with. I mean this is where you should put your savings! Plus you literally can see pictures of the people you're helping and choose which loan you fund. It's really fun. Great gift idea, buy boom stock and help people!

Go to www.kiva.org today!

What's in a name?

I am writing a final exam with a question about the basic precepts of Buddhism including the concept of Nirvana and I remembered this story from my life. I wrote it in the exam to amuse the professor, but I thought it might tickle your fancy as well:

I was once camping in upstate New York with my husband and some other couples. One couple, Chuck and Debbie, arrived later having driven a few hours from Buffalo across the state. They told us that on their drive they drove through the town of Minerva. As they did so, Chuck had said to his wife, “well, Debbie, we can now say that we’ve finally reached Minerva.” Debbie said to Chuck, “Chuck, I know what you’re talking about but I don’t think it’s called Minerva, I think it’s called something else.” For the rest of the camping trip (and indeed to this day), we talked about what it would take to finally reach a “state of Minerva.” I’m sure the goddess of wisdom would be most amused, and the Buddha would love it, because, after all, what's in a name?

Gluten Free Store Booming in Midtown

The Gluten Free Specialty Market in midtown on J street opened last year in the middle of the current economic restructuring and has continued to grow and thrive. Every time I go into the store, owner and sole proprietor, Melanie Weir is beaming about a new display case or refrigerator she's added or a new line she's ... Read More »

When we protect do we deprive?

Today I walked with my almost 13-year-old daughter from our Southside Park neighborhood a few blocks to the Downtown Shopping Plaza to buy a birthday present for a friend of hers. Our route retraced the steps she takes several times on the way home from the bus she takes after school. As we walked along, she pointed ... Read More »

Why am I blogging all of a sudden?

The answer: I decided it was time. I used to blog daily. Then for a long time, largely because of my reactions to my son's extended illness, I have only blogged very occasionally. Now, though my son is still recovering and could be for months, I feel it is time to start again.

Soon, I may even twitter.

How viable is K-8 in Sacramento Area Schools?

Posted by SaraSNichols at 11/26/2009 4:25 PM PST on The Sacramento Bee
For a while I've wondered how viable K-8 schools really are, and lately I think I'm getting my answer: they're not, at least for 7th and 8th graders. What makes me say that? Midtown-based Courtyard Private School has elminated its 7th and 8th grades, reverting to the K-6 that it used to be, while ... Read More »

Whither the Wagon?

Recently my husband and I shopped for a new (to us) vehicle. We wanted a recent model car that was reliable and got decent mileage for a family car. Oh, and we wanted a wagon. I looked up reliable new or slightly used vehicles/wagons on Consumer Reports and found that the Mazda 5 "wagon" is a "Best ... Read More »

Sacramento Opera is for the Masses (Only they don't know it yet...)

Two things:

1) yesterday the Sacramento Bee Sunday paper printed the last NorCal blog I wrote on Local food, so check that out if you haven't.

2) This is my post on NorCal voices today:

Yesterday I saw the current Sacramento Opera production of Elixir of Love by Gaetano Donizetti. I can honestly say that it was hands-down the best production of this opera that I have seen. Okay, prior to yesterday I had not heard of Donizetti or this opera, but I think it was a solid production. ...

How Loco for Local is Sacramento?

Read my post on the Sacramento Bee NorCal Voices blog. I'm going to try to get back into routine blogging, I really am! BTW, attention Buffaloons who read my blog, favorable comparisons are made to your city in this post.

How Loco for Local is Sacramento?
Posted by SaraSNichols at 9/28/2009 10:07 AM PDT on The Sacramento Bee
I've been travelling about the country a bit of late noticing how other crazy other areas are for local produce and I began to wonder, are Sacramentans really as focussed on the local food movement as one would expect? My initial (largely uninformed) thought was, no. My expectations, it seems, are very high. ... Read More

The Quest for the Perfect Wing

Dateline: Buffalo, NY The conventional wisdom has it that Frank & Theresa's Anchor Bar in Buffalo not only invented the Buffalo chicken wing but still makes and sells the best product, but is that true? During our annual pilgrimage to my husband's family home, we decided to put it to the test.

Yesterday, after days of discussion, my son and I drove for an hour and 15 minutes on a "Wing Quest" to pick up 30 wings at each of four popular wing locations in Buffalo: Duff's (home of the "suicide" wing, Motto: mild is hot, medium is very hot, hot is very very hot), Central Park Grill (home of the tangy fresh wing, also the bar I frequented while in law school here 1985-1988), Just Pizza (home of the milder hot wing, Motto: our name is a bloody lie) and, of course, Frank & Theresa's Anchor Bar the founder and defending champion (Anchor bar was by far the most expensive too).

While on the quest, my son and I noted that the customer service over the phone and in person was quick at Duff's, friendly at the CPG, skeptical but efficient at Just Pizza ("no pizza?") and ranging from idiotic to mildly annoyed at Anchor Bar. Inevitably, my son compared the Anchor Bar to the Yankees: on top of the world and arrogant.

The stop at the CPG may have involved the dubious mother-son activity of having him park at my old home across the street and re-enact in rush hour traffic a December 1987 incident involving my weaving across Main street from the CPG at 4am several sheets to the wind only to lose a boot in a snow drift and wander around mid-drift looking for the boot "where's my f***ing boot!" only to nearly be killed by passing traffic on the way home.

We got home safely with 130 (including 10 extra "suicide" wings from Duff to try) tepid wings. N. secured the kitchen while I set up 4 tasting stations with numbers and pads. The assembled dozen of us wandered in, instructed by my daughter as to the rules ("2 each, vote for your favorite, optional ranking of all 4 with comments").

It was really difficult to do the tasting. It's hard to hold a previous flavor in your mouth and compare it to a new one especially when you keep being blasted by lots of hot sauce. We had to keep the carrots, celery and blue cheese dressing coming to keep the pallet even vaguely serviceable.

At the end of the day, the results were a disappointing vindication of conventional wisdom: the Anchor Bar wings won hands down. CPG second, Just Pizza third and interestingly Duff's a distant 4th (except for my father-in-law a heat fanatic). We really wanted it not to be Anchor Bar because the week before my husband purchased 150 wings from them, only to be shorted 45 (even after he asked at the restaurant whether those could really be all 150 in those light boxes). And when we later went back for the additional 45? They were mild, not hot!

With the cost and service at Anchor Bar, even with the superior taste (which some are attributing to a possible lucky pick-up right after a grease change), some in my family are pushing for a change to the CPG. How about that, Central Park Grill? Want to be the official wing of the Nichols-Magavern family? Then we could all stagger across the street after gorging ourselves, wiping the sauce from our face, happy that we only travel to Buffalo in the summer, leaving little chance for snow drifts.

3 1/2 Snouts up for Bruno

(:)(:)(:)(;

Last night in a Buffalo cineplex as my daughter went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince for the second time, I saw Bruno next door. I wasn't sure what to expect. I had found parts of Borat hilarious and have a high tolerance for offensive humor, but I was prepared to have to walk out at some point.

I wasn't disappointed. In the Bflo crowd, some of whom must have been unsuspecting patrons, I was in the minority of those who were doubled over with laughter, but doubled over I was more than once. What does it say about me that I find a fake ludicrous Austrian uber-gay idiot hilarious? Not sure. However, the scene in which he "communicates" with a member of Milli Vanilli through a psychic is one of the most over-the-top insanely funny things I have ever seen. It was a darn good thing that I had so little liquid in my bladder at that precise moment.

Another precious moment for a political junkie was his snuff "interview" with Ron Paul. According to the Huffington Post Ron Paul did not consent to be filmed or participate so that part of the film seems to be documentary. Click here for the HP article, "Bruno Foods Ron Paul"

As Buffalo veteran movie critic (and husband's distant cousin) Jeff Simon put it, you won't want to see this movie if homosexual acts or anything vaguely offensive makes you uncomfortable (or borderline baby abuse, but only implied and ludicrous). I deny it the extra snout and half only because of low production values and the sheer tiny demographic to whom it appeals. I love the thought of random homophobic people wandering in.

Why isn't Sacramento Portland, Oregon?

See my rare posting(makes me so much more sought after!) at Street Talk on the Sac bee website:

Posted by SaraSNichols at 7/7/2009 3:43 PM PDT on The Sacramento Bee
I have often noticed that Sacramento, California and Portland, Oregon share many geographic similarities. They are both situated in fertile agricultural valleys about 50 miles from the west coast and about 50 miles from a huge, beautiful mountain range. They are both at the confluence of two ...

How the Heck am I supposed to Vote on these Initiatives

See my post on the Sacramento Street Talk blog.

In time for Mother's Day: I'm America's Worst Mom

See my latest post on the Sacramento Bee's Street Talk (my posts have been run twice in the Bee's Sunday opinion section). I'm the World's Worst Mom.

4 snouts up for Everlasting Moments

(:)(:)(:)(:) snouts up for Everlasting Moments now playing at the Tower Theater in Sacramento.

We really only went to this film tonight because it was the only non Hollywood hell film with decent review playing at a normal time. (10:15pm for the only evening showing of The Class? C'mon Tower!)

It defied my nonexistent expectations. Billed as an "epic Swedish melodrama" one could really be in for it. What a reviewer might say is that this is a truly unique story clearly told from the perspective of the girl growing up in this turn of the (previous) century family with a philandering alcoholic tempermental father and a beautiful long suffering, artistic and industrious mother. The film is as much about the mother's limited choices as a mother of 4, no 5, no 6, no 7 children in that time as it is anything else.

Nonetheless, it held both our attention for the 2 plus hours with its closely observed story, beautiful cinematography and strong performances (beautiful yet credible actors too--very 3 dimensional characters and well-written, although admittedly my Swedish is not strong--the father while drunk and boorish is also charming and handsome and passionate, one can see how the mother might stay with him despite all; the mother while exploring her secret passion for photography and a particular photographer is also sensible and focussed)

See it while it lasts.

Snicholsblog takes to the Street!

It's been a long dry spell for Snicholblog. What with our son still recovering from his long term illness and me entering ministerial school in January, I haven't had a lot of extra time. But the Sacramento Bee's editor and columnist Dan Weintraub has coaxed me out of bloggerial retirement and into a new blog he's created at the Sac Bee called "Street Talk" which is meant to cover the word on the street in Sacramento. For technical reasons, I'm just blogging now on a regular Bee log-in but soon it'll be picked up by Street Talk. I'll keep you posted. Hope the link above works. Here's my first post:

Sutter Middle School at Risk?

As the mother of two students at Sutter Middle School (one in 7th, one in 8th grade), I am concerned at the School Board's proposal to split several hundred students and some teachers off and send them to Kit Carson Middle School.

Republicans in the state legislature have forced local school districts to make these kind of insane proposals because they put their insane taxation pledges and policies ahead of the needs of California's children. So school districts' budgets have been slashed, and everything is up for consideration.

Sutter Middle School is rare oasis of success and creativity in California/Sacramento public education. Several years back, a new principal took over a Sutter Middle School with a dwindling central city population and breathed new life into it by attracting top teachers from all over the city, mandating daily physical education and setting high standards for schoolwork, attendance and discipline.

The model worked. Today Sutter is over-enrolled and is top of the wish list for students all over the area who pray for the lottery to pick them through the "Open Enrollment" process.

Fortunately for us, our children are among the precious few who are actually in district for Sutter, a situation so rare the school registrar actually does a double-take when she sees such addresses.

So why mess with success? Kit Carson Middle School nearby apparently has way fewer students than it needs and might have to close. So Sacramento Unified thinks the obvious solution is to break up this successful school to try to infuse Carson with new students and teachers.

Seems pretty crazy to me. Why not bring in a new principal and a new model and re-do Carson from the ground up? Or, if it's not serving the population, maybe it should be closed.

Evita Palin--Don't Speak for me, Sarah Palin

McCain Can't Type, but YES WE CAN

This YouTube video was made by disabled people who, unlike McCain, can type. It's very moving.

Prop 10 Girl Says No on Prop 10

If you want Sacramento to look like Phoenix, vote for Kevin Johnson

Please vote for Heather Fargo over Kevin Johnson for Mayor of Sacramento, here's why:

Heather Fargo is an experienced, competent mayor (which in our weak mayor city means chair of the city council) who is pro-environment, pro strong
neighborhoods and pro smart growth. She isn't perfect, and isn't the strong leader that I'd want all other things being equal and she's been wrong on some things (such as the arena), but she's from a neighborhood activist background and is accessible and trustworthy.

Kevin Johnson on the other hand says that his model city for Sacramento to follow is Phoenix, Arizona! Can you imagine?! That city is the epitome of random sprawl, air pollution, no thought put into development at all, in other words, he wants to exacerbate all the bad choices the Sacramento region has made (something Fargo has tried hard to avoid). He is close to Bob Thomas and the Tsakopoulos developers and shares their philosophies.

Although he's saying the right things about the environment now, he refused to even let the Sierra Club interview him and refused to fill out their questionnaire, showing contempt for environmental positions.

Another reason not to vote for Johnson: a Planned Parenthood mailer today tells me that Johnson says he's pro life. And then when you add in the questions raised about him as a property owner/landlord and with possibly sexually harrassing teenage girls, I just don't think we can afford to gamble with this guy. I don't think he knows what he's doing.

TOP 5 REASONS OBAMA SUPPORTERS SHOULDN'T REST EASY

Talking points from MoveOn.org:

1. The polls may be wrong. This is an unprecedented election. No one knows how racism may affect what voters tell pollsters—or what they do in the voting booth. And the polls are narrowing anyway. In the last few days, John McCain has gained ground in most national polls, as his campaign has gone even more negative.

2. Dirty tricks. Republicans are already illegally purging voters from the rolls in some states. They're whipping up hysteria over ACORN to justify more challenges to new voters. Misleading flyers about the voting process have started appearing in black neighborhoods. And of course, many counties still use unsecure voting machines.

3. October surprise. In politics, 15 days is a long time. The next McCain smear could dominate the news for a week. There could be a crisis with Iran, or Bin Laden could release another tape, or worse.

4. Those who forget history... In 2000, Al Gore won the popular vote after trailing by seven points in the final days of the race. In 1980, Reagan was eight points down in the polls in late October and came back to win. Races can shift—fast!

5. Landslide. Even with Barack Obama in the White House, passing universal health care and a new clean-energy policy is going to be hard. Insurance, drug and oil companies will fight us every step of the way. We need the kind of landslide that will give Barack a huge mandate.

Islamophobes, Democracy Now, and Me

Democracy Now with Amy Goodman carried a terrifying segment last Friday on how 25 million copies of a DVD called Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West have been distributed in key battleground states in the last couple of months (at a cost of $50 million!). According to Democracy Now, the film features graphic, violent images and makes comparisons of Islam to Nazism.

You can listen to the story for yourself if you like, “Smearcasting: How Islamophobes Spread Fear, Bigotry and Misinformation”. I was struck by the guests mentioning the recent incident when a woman at a McCain rally called Obama "an Arab" only to be corrected by McCain, "no m'am, he's a decent family man and a citizen." The guests and I had noticed that McCain got kudos for proclaiming Obama's decency, but no one questioned the idea that calling someone "an Arab," meant that they were calling someone "indecent, not a family man and not a citizen."

One of the guests, Isabel Macdonald, communications director at FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), and the co-author of FAIR’s new report “Smearcasting: How Islamophobes Spread Fear, Bigotry and Misinformation," talked about how the mainstream media has been relatively diligent and interested in contradicting a widespread "whisper campaign" against Obama claiming that he is "an Arab" and a Muslim. But none of the media have contradicted or covered the underlying assumptions of the campaign, 1) conflating regional origin with religion and 2) that being either an Arab or a member of the Nation of Islam is a bad thing.

McDonald pointed out that in Poland in 1990 back, when there was a whisper campaign that a the incumbent Prime Minister of Poland was "a Jew," the American media covered it as an Anti-Semitic campaign, not solely as a smear campaign against the prime minister.

Not to belabor the point, but it is not just Obama who is being smeared by this campaign, it is all middle-eastern people and followers of Islam. [Side point: isn't there part of you that would just love to watch Obama win the election and elect to be sworn in on the Koran, and then be like, "psych!!!"]

Okay, I also have to admit a love/hate relationship with Democracy Now. I love it because she and her team tell stories that no one else is telling. I hate it because every time I listen to the show, my blood pressure soars and I move an inch further out on my already left coast left fringe existence--and it's scary out here. Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get you!

As a long-time lobbyist and a bit of a Sacramento (if no longer DC) capitol insider, I have been accused by close friends as being on the "quote unquote left" rather than just left. They later recanted, but I think some of my discomfort with Democracy Now actually bolsters their claim. I really like to have it both ways. I like to think of myself as changing the parameters of the possible, but operating somewhat with the boundaries.

Democracy Now is outside the boundaries. Democracy Now isn't afraid to be arrested to cover the Republican convention. Democracy Now isn't afraid to criticize Democrats when they do the wrong thing.

I agree with all that. Yet, I'm so happy listening to my little National Public Radio. Sure, if I actually know anything about a given story, I'm angry that they missed it, but most of the time these days, I'm blissfully out of the loop, thrilled to hear one more story from the Obama/McCain campaign trail.

I think the struggle for me is how to stay aware, engaged and still calm and peaceful. How can I as an active citizen and a spiritual practitioner educate myself on the important issues of the day, be sufficiently aware that I want to do something about them, but not get caught up in anger, fear, resentment, and the sort of moral superiority and outrage that it brings up in me?

Step 1, I just subscribed to a podcast of "Democracy Now" as an experiment.
Step 2, meditate, meditate, meditate.

No answers today, only questions. For snicholsblog, this has been snichols.

Bill Magavern's Recommendations for November California Ballot

Recommendations for November Ballot

These are strictly my personal opinions, for whatever they're worth. Feel free
to forward them or post to web, but please do not add the names of any other
individual or organization by way of identification or affiliation. And get
ready for some change we can believe in. -- Bill

Proposition 1A --Yes
Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act.
If you’re wondering what happened to Prop 1, the Legislature replaced it with
1A, which is still a high-speed rail bond, but with significant improvements in
both fiscal accountability and environmental safeguards. This bond measure calls
for borrowing almost $10 billion, which is no easy sell, but creating a clean
and fast rail line linking most of the state’s population is a goal worth that
kind of investment. We need clean transportation alternatives to freeways and
airplanes, and if we don’t pass 1A it will be a long time before we have another
shot.

Proposition 2 -- Yes
Standards for Confining Farm Animals. Initiative Statute.
The Humane Society has a simple proposal: farm animals should have enough room
to actually turn around. Decreasing the density of confined animals will also
decrease pollution and help family farmers. The additional cost will be less
than one penny per egg.

Proposition 3 -- Yes
Children’s Hospital Bond Act. Grant Program. Initiative Statute.
Public borrowing for private institutions should have to pass a high threshold
of worthiness, and I think children’s hospitals meet that standard.

Proposition 4 -- No
Waiting Period and Parental Notification Before Termination of Minor’s
Pregnancy. Initiative Constitutional Amendment.
Sure, it would be great if minors discussed all important life decisions with
their parents, but having government require it is not going to make it happen.
A more likely result of passing this measure would be an increase in dangerous
amateur abortions.

Proposition 5 -- Yes
Nonviolent Drug Offenses. Sentencing, Parole and Rehabilitation. Initiative Statute.
Treatment and rehab programs for nonviolent offenders are more effective than
the lock-‘em up policy that the state has relied on in recent decades. These
programs will cost money, but will save higher amounts over time.

Proposition 6 -- No
Police and Law Enforcement Funding. Criminal Penalties and Laws. Initiative
Statute.
Does anybody really think that our prison populations are too small, or that
sentences are too short? This measure would throw a lot of money into the
prison-industrial complex without accountability for how the money is spent.
State money that now goes to schools and healthcare would be shifted to building
jails and funding other local responsibilities.

Proposition 7 -- No
Renewable Energy Generation. Initiative Statute.
A billionaire had a good idea – ramp up renewable energy standards. But he got
really bad advice, then his team refused to listen to experts who suggested
changes in the proposal, or to recognize that the Legislature and Governor are
already moving toward the nation’s highest and best clean-power requirement. So the ballot language
would actually obstruct development of the small-scale solar and wind projects
we need. Just about all the state’s newspaper editorial boards and major
environmental groups are opposed.

Proposition 8 -- No
Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry. Initiative Constitutional
Amendment.
Why is it that the proponents of this constitutional amendment are so worried
that their marriages will be threatened if gay people are allowed to keep the
right to marry?
Proposition 9 -- No
Criminal Justice System. Victims’ Rights. Parole. Initiative Constitutional
Amendment and Statute.
This measure’s billionaire sponsor, Henry Nicholas, is under indictment for
fraud, drugs and prostitution, but he poses as a champion of victims’ rights.
Victims already have a bill of rights under the state Constitution, and Prop 9
would duplicate existing laws and cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars
a year.

Proposition 10 -- No
Alternative Fuel Vehicles and Renewable Energy. Bonds. Initiative Statute.
Another billionaire trying to make energy policy through the ballot, but this
one – Swift Boat campaign funder T. Boone Pickens – knows exactly what he’s
doing: trying to enrich his natural gas business. Like Prop 7, Prop 10 also has
drawn opposition from just about all the state’s newspaper editorial boards and
every environmental group that has weighed in, along with taxpayer and consumer
groups. Natural gas vehicles are relatively clean, but shouldn’t be subsidized
by long-term state borrowing and shouldn’t be favored over cleaner alternatives
like battery electric vehicles.

Proposition 11 -- Yes
Redistricting. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute.
CA needs to take redistricting away from the legislators, who have a conflict of
interest, and give it to an independent commission, as this measure would do. I
don’t buy many of the arguments of supporters – redistricting reform will not
make the Legislature more centrist or less partisan, which are over-rated virtues anyway. But it will make legislators
more responsive to their constituents, and will yield districts that are drawn
for their communities of interest and geographical compactness instead of the
self-interest of the politicians. Prop 11 isn’t perfect: it doesn’t cover
Congress, and the system of choosing the commissioners is overly complicated.
But it’s a lot better than the status quo, and is probably our best shot at
reform for a while, which is why the League of Women Voters and Common Cause
support.

Proposition 12 -- Yes
Veterans’ Bond Act of 2008.
This system of financing veterans’ home purchases has worked before, at no
direct cost to taxpayers.