IT'S ABOUT COMMUNITY.Letter To The Editor, THE DAILY TRIPLICATE

What do Laramie, Wyoming; Walla Walla, Washington; Claremont, California; Flagstaff, Arizona; Northampton, Massachusetts; Oxford, Missippi; Ashland, Oregon; Austin, Texas;Logan, Utah; Boulder, Colorado; Fairbanks, Alaska; Hanover, New Hampshire; Grinnell, Iowa; and Bozeman, Montana all have in common? They all have relatively high employment for their respective states and skilled workforces; and, they all have surtaxed themselves to support their local school systems. As a result, a higher proportion of young adults in these communities go on to colleges and universities. These communities invested in their young people, and the investment paid dividends in terms of developing an ongoing Community of educated, skilled, and responsible adults.

Because these also happen to be college and university communities, visitors enjoy coming to them to sample music, dance, theater, other arts, meetings, forums, and sporting events.

And their economies develop as well.

The topic of development and the economy brings us to Del Norte County and the local discussion/debate. The Chamber of Commerce idea to market Del Norte County through their Visitors Bureau in order to attract visitors is a good one. The idea to spend more on marketing is good as well, in my opinion. How much City and County (taxpayers') money should be spent on this marketing effort and what will be the mechanisms for oversight and accountability remain to be seen.

Hopefully, a Community Consensus will develop, and sustainable, economic development will ensue. Tourism, hopefully, will play a big part. Will education, as well?

And, more to the point, what about the "skills set" development of our children, the "life skills" of our young adults and the "spiritual" (in its broader interpretation) and "cultural" development of the Community?

A WORLD BEYOND THE INTERNET

"Well CHUCK... you do remember TWO ROADS DIVERGED IN A NARROW WOOD (by Robert Frost)...well CHUCK, maybe you are at the 'fork in the road'."

"Maybe, just maybe, it is time to revert to your old ways of writing with pen and paper...and give up KEYBOARDING."

-"NO! CHUCK! NO! We will miss your trenchant, probing, courageous, informative essays, poems, and links in THE MYSTERIOUS LAND OF BLOG. For are you not THE WIZARD OF BLOG? And isn't BLOGDOM your PERSONAL TURF, your REALM? Are you not a NATIVE of BLOGWORLD, BLOGLAND, BLOGUNIVERSE, BLOGCOSMOS, BLOGCONTINENT, BLOG 'TERRAFIRMA'?"

"On the other hand, Chuck, maybe give yourself a time-out...maybe, JUST MAYBE,
YOU HAVE OVERBLOGGED FOR AWHILE."

-You mean,

"MAYBE THERE IS A WORLD BEYOND THE INTERNET?"

TOURING THE WORLD IN AN OLD METAL SAILBOAT...Un tour du monde �la voile sur un vieux voilier en acier: Un tour du monde �la voile sur un vieux voilier

All you have to do is click:

Un tour du monde �la voile sur un vieux voilier en acier: Un tour du monde �la voile sur un vieux voilier

...and the COMMENTS are UP TO YOU

YOU NEED NOT BE A 'BLOGGER' TO LEAVE A 'COMMENT'...

AND MY SELF-ESTEEM YOU MAY AUGMENT-

IF YOUR TRAIN OF THOUGHT IS LED

OFF THE TOP OF YOUR HEAD

TO 'FREE ASSOCIATE' A PHRASE OR TWO

THAT WILL MAKE YOU LESS BLUE...

AND MAY MAKE ME GREEN- WITH ENVY-

AND KEEP YOU IN THE PINK- WITH JOY



WHEN I AM WITHOUT A CLUE,

THEN THIS 'BLOG' IS IN THE COMMENTS...

........"to your deepest self be true".........

and the COMMENTS are UP TO YOU






AND THE COMMENTS ARE UP TO YOU...

giving

T
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A
N
K
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LUCKNOW, INDIA- Where ART MEETS RITUAL

"WHERE IT'S AT NOW" WITH THE INTERNATIONAL ART SCENE IS LUCKNOW, INDIA where an international INSTALLATION ART encampment is taking place for the next TEN DAYS...

CHECK IT OUT at

http://indianartnews.blogspot.com


SETTINGS for my WEBLOG have been changed, so that

!!!!!!!!!!!!!ANYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MAY NOW LEAVE A COMMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

15th Anniversary of My Son SETH'S DEATH

"WOULD YOU WANT IT OTHERWISE?"


There is a lingering sadness-
a feeling of choking
on tears shed within:

Time passes;
wounds scar over.

But within,
the many tears unshed

Gather as a
perpetual tugging
at the heart:

Not a black mood-
but an inner stream of sadness and joy

That leaves my vision
a little glazed.

I remember Seth:
crawling to the playground;
wobbling on early sailor's legs;
gobbling up pot stickers;
yelling out of the car after the Super Bowl;
playing electric guitar riffs;
listening to the radio all night;
talking, talking, and talking;
making people laugh-
so talented, so unsure

(a big, shambling puppy of a boy-man).

An old Zen
story
has it that the student keeps

returning for a blessing:

The teacher says,
first grandfather dies;
then father;
then son.

The student questions
if this
is a blessing-

The teacher asks,
"Would you
want it otherwise?



SETH'S POEM (WRITTEN BY SETH DESPRES, 1990):

"CHINATOWN, MY CHINATOWN"

On the 30 stockton
carrying a briefcase
I am the only
bus-rider whose native tongue
is not Cantonese.
Lurching din
Chinese infant
maybe eighteen months,
maybe a boy, grins wide-eyed
over seat-back
showing steel teeth.
Walnut-faced dowager
peers sunglassed out
from beneath black shawl.
She is ancient like clay.
I push my way out at Bush Street.
Jaundiced sun
smiles feebly on
office towers
pigeonshit.
I walk up through Chinatown.
Pullet carcasses hang
beneath red-gold banners,
above black shriveled eels.
Thick air--
I coat my palate
savor the hot stink
cigars,
dead fish,
cabbage,
steamed dumplings.
Cheap tinny violin
squeaks Yangtse rhapsody.
Happy alien voyeur,
I scarf potstickers and chow fun-
I could not wish myself anywhere else.

THE REVOLUTION IS OVER

The REVOLUTION is over.

(I cannot remember if it was televised or not.)

To sum it up: the PEOPLE prevailed, THE "POOR" INHERITED THE EARTH. Global Exploitation and Militarism crumbled. Racists of every ethnicity were marginalized and ridiculed. Only EARTH FRIENDLY productive activities survived. Fundamentalist religious practices, tenets, and sexual mores withered in ALL FAITHS. Addiction to social control philosophies derived from fascism and its statist death fascination eroded and disappeared.

Death fascination made room for LIFE FASCINATION...

In case any of you have not heard: "POWER MOVED TO THE PEOPLE"...

EARTH'S SWEET PULSE

When I call your name from on the Mountain,

You cannot hear my call...

Over a hundred miles- and many vales-

My voice is rendered small...


But when I wail to "listening" Trees

What words will not convey...

My HEART picks up their "pining" Bent

And Earth's Sweet Pulse to you is sent...

UP 'OLD BALD HILL': a poem

TOOK THE ROAD UP OLD BALD HILL

QUITE A VIEW THERE WHEN I STOOD STILL

TALKED TO SOME ELK, ABOUT FIFTY STRONG,

TELLING THEM TO FLEE TO AVOID 'SWANSONG'


OVER JOHNSON BRIDGE TO 'OLD KLAMATH ROAD',

ON TO HOOPA TO REST A SPELL

THEN MEANDERED THE KLAMATH TO HAPPY CAMP

AND OVER PAGE MOUNTAIN WHERE THE SNOW WAS DAMP


AND AS I MEANDERED THE WHOLE DAY THROUGH

I HUMMED A TUNE OF DAYS GONE BY

THAT CONJURES UP 'ZEST' OF DAYS OF YORE

AND SOME 'PITH', TOO, OF WHAT PASSED BEFORE...



THE TUNE- A SQUARE DANCE 'DITTY'- GOES:

"HE MET HER IN THE LANE

AND HE LAY HER ON A BOARD

AND HE PLAYED HER UP A TUNE

CALLED 'SUGAR IN THE GOURD'...

'SUGAR IN THE GOURD'

'HONEY IN THE HORN'

BALANCE TO YOUR PARTNER:

'HONEY IN THE HORN'"

STATUE OF LIBERTY: A SYMBOL OF OUR FREEDOMS

CAN YOU SEE "LADY LIBERTY" IN THIS FRAME?

NO?

IS SHE SHY? I DO NOT THINK SO.

MAYBE YOU CAN'T SEE HER BECAUSE THE DAY IS FOGGY. MAYBE THERE IS A BLIZZARD THAT OBSCURES HER.

IF I CLOSE MY EYES I CAN VISUALIZE HER. IF YOU VISUALIZE HER, YOU MAY SEE HER, TOO...

WARRIORS OF PEACEFUL HEART

I am celebrating FORGOTTEN veterans.

Veterans of SUBSTANCE ABUSE; veterans of HOMELESSNESS; veterans of CONSCIENCE; veterans of the STRUGGLE IN THE 'HOMELAND'; peace-loving veterans of countless wars.

Those who invoke WAR DEAD to justify war and their personal GLORY, I DO NOT CELEBRATE. Their celebration is but a cynical ploy, not a commemoration.

I choose to REMEMBER those who engaged in the creative process of attempting peace and those warriors of PEACEFUL HEART.

CHECK IT OUT

On Thursday, November 10 and Thursday, November 24, at 8 p.m. EDT and PDT on LINK TV, Lewis Black will do a great satire on DISSENT in AMERICA.

Starting November 11, you can see it online at www.aclu.tv.com

CHECK IT OUT

INSTANT MESSENGERS ARE WE

I never know how a blog will develop.

Sometimes this activity seems like a variation on navel-gazing.

I SURFed blogs from BLOGMEXICO to CHINABLOGS, from trenchant political critiques to the positive-thinking philosophy of Norman Vincent Peale; mostly "unflagged" blogs, but some "flagged" (unsafe?) blogs.

At times I leave a comment, if a comment is invited.

This, I guess, is the world of blogdom...where all of us journal writers- and would-be entrepreneurs, I suppose- gather in forum to LINK together a new form of communication which we assume is NOT a new TOWER OF BABEL. Is it a TOWER OF BABEL deconstructed?

WE ARE INSTANT MESSENGERS...messengers for an instant, leaving only digitized hieroglyphic tracks of our presence...only the crumbs from our digitized thought cookies.

Are there real synapses? ARE REAL CONNECTIONS MADE?