Clear Skies Common Sense by Jim Russell
Aging can be Enjoyable with More Rests, Great Partners, and Realistic Goals
For the nine years Karen and I have hiked the Cascades, people have said, “You’ve got to see the Enchantments.” They’re a chain of blue lakes at elevations ranging from 6,800 and 7,800 feet beneath peaks in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Mountain goats roam among them.
My 69th birthday made me fear I’d never see them, because I struggle at elevations around 4,000 feet. Nevertheless, I got a three-day forest service permit. I wanted to casually say, “Oh yes, I’ve seen the Enchantments.”
It wasn’t a casual trip, but I like challenges. I enjoyed it because I rested frequently and had a great partner. But age means lowering my expectations.
Our daughter Pam joined me. She volunteers to help participants climb mountains for Reach the Summit, a fundraiser for the American Lung Association of Oregon. Most climb to honor a friend or relative with lung disease. Pam’s an asthmatic who’s summited Mt. Hood and helped me summit Mt Adams 14 years ago. She also carried the tent and poles.
My frequent rest stops under my 25-pound pack cut short plans to hike to Snow Lakes the first day. As I sucked in air, she snapped photographs of ridges, creeks and wildflowers such as lupine, bluebells, columbine and paintbrush. After six-and-a-half hours and 4,200 feet of elevation, we stopped at Nada Lake. We heard and saw fish jump to nab mosquitoes on that quiet green lake as the sun set on the peaks.
Our early stop meant we faced a 1700-foot elevation gain next day. The Enchantments were covered in mushy snow for which we had no equipment. A mostly melted Lake Viviane was all we’d see. I’d have to say, “Oh yes, I’ve seen an Enchantment.”
I never doubted I’d make it until the first 400 feet of elevation. Cold in camp, I’d put on too much clothing. I stripped down, but quickly put them back on after I fell into lower Snow Lake crossing a narrow dam. When the slopes increased to climbing with our hands, rests increased. I chanted, Head up. Breathe from your abdomen, diaphragm and chest. Your legs are strong.
Finally Pam said, “Can you see the waterfall? That’s it. Can you make that?”
No, but I didn’t tell her. We both knew it was getting too late to return safely. Finally, gasping, dizzy, stumbling, with a pulse rate at 120, I quit. “Pam, you go on.”
“Dad, when did you eat last?”
“At the lake.” Two hours earlier.
“What? You have to eat every 45 minutes. You’re strong. If you’re dizzy, you need food. Eat this.”
I squeezed the quick-energy gel down my throat and thought, I’m a klutz.
“And this fruit bar. It’ll kick in after 15-20 minutes. It’s cherry.”
I didn’t taste cherry. I tasted cardboard boot-box.
She scouted the route. “You can make it.”
“OK, I can do this until 2:00.” And enjoy it, I said as my head cleared.
At 1:39 I took a picture of her by the sign, Lake Enchantments.
I felt no elation. The trip was far harder than I expected. I felt more limited.
Icy blue Viviane Lake with bright snow on a shoreline under granite spires and two mountain goats restored me. It took several days to recover. Pam said it was the hardest hike she’d ever been on, but loved it.
I said, “I couldn’t have made it without you.”
She said, “I’d never have done it without you.”
Aging means picking great partners, setting realistic, but ever diminishing goals, and taking ever increasing rests to enjoy the journey.
Anti-Incumbent Voices Rising Up Despite Meager Amounts of Money
Amidst anti-incumbent moods, five challengers filed with the Secretary of State against Congressman Hastings. They face a serious obstacle: campaign funds. “My campaign manager estimated we needed $500,000,” said Richard Wright, Democratic challenger in 2006. Current Federal Election Commission (FEC) reports indicate anti-incumbents have under funded campaigns compared to Hastings who raised $633,569 from 351 individuals and 277 Political Action Committees.
Jay Clough, Kennewick, Democrat, has raised $25,999. Clough, which rhymes with tough, “Had enough? Vote for Clough,” is a 33-year-old Tri-Cities native. He’s a stocky, former Marine Corporal and CWU graduate. During 2008 and 2009 he blogged about how the federal government should work. “If you don’t like the way the government is running, you need to hold your representatives accountable. One way to do that is get out and run.”
Since June 2009 he’s run. He works 40 hours per week on the Hanford clean-up and campaigns nights and weekends in face-to-face meetings, as he did recently under these clear skies. He out-hustled Democratic candidates to earn virtually every Democratic district endorsement. “He was the overwhelming favorite,” said George Fearing, the 2008 challenger to Hastings and chair of the Democratic Committee for the Congressional 4th District.
My search of FEC reports informed me the other challengers “had taken no action to become a candidate.” Not so.
Rex Brocki, Union Gap, Tea Party, emailed, “I am indeed a candidate, and the reason you don’t see me yet …is the FEC has endless technicalities, …which I’m exploiting … to legally keep [opponents] ignorant.” In his website “Rant and Raves” he said, “I don’t want this job, but we desperately [need] somebody besides Ron Paul in Congress to teach … those hooligans the meaning of ‘Congress shall make no law.’
Mary Ruth Edwards, Prosser, Constitution, detailed FEC technicalities. She filed with the FEC, “but until I reach the $5,000 threshold I will not be considered a candidate according to their definition.” She got them to admit, “I am eligible for election.”
She’s in her late 40s, a former Marine with degrees from CWU and Whitworth who teaches 4th grade. Her political activism led her to the Constitution Party platform. She said, “Wow, these guys think exactly like I do.” She’s now Benton County’s party coordinator and speaks about the history and contents of the U.S. Construction around the Tri-Cities.
Leland Yialelis (pronounced Ya-lay-lease), East Wenatchee, Independent, said on the phone, “I’m campaigning in Othello as we speak.” He’ll soon hit the $5,000 minimum and file reports. He’s an equipment analyst with the State DOT. He’s been general manager of a $3.5 million business with 30 employees, state prison chaplain and clergyman. His website says there are no Republican and Democratic ideas: “There are only good and bad ideas.” His blog details differences with Hastings on a number of issues.
The fourth FEC ‘non-candidate,’ Shane Fast, Kennewick, Republican, did not have a campaign website I could find.
FEC also reports debts owed by the last two Democratic campaigns. Wright’s campaign owes him $120,500. “I don’t regret it. It’s important that all elections be contested and more important for people to stand up for what they believe.”
Fearing deflected questions about his campaign’s $8,500 debt, saying, “It’s been taken care of. “ Instead he supports Clough. “It’s very important Doc Hastings be defeated.”
Anti-Congressional-incumbent voices under these clear skies are muted by meager funds. They fight on with the spirit of citizenship flowing through our country. This is my small voice thanking them for their dedication to the election process at significant sacrifice to them and their families.
Readers Repond About The Tactics of Rupert Murdoch, News Corp and FOX
My column and blog portraying Rupert Murdoch as a bully for his tactics as Chairman and CEO of News Corporation and its FOX network energized readers. Some opposed my biases. Others cheered me on. Representative comments are listed below in the sequence they arrived. I edited for grammar and length. My conclusions follow reader comments.
“Unsubscribe. I disagree with you.”
“Elections this fall will tell the tale. [FOX] news is important media coverage and a balance to the lopsided overload of information expressed by most of the media.”
“This is a good column on a very important topic. The general citizenry seems to be looking the other way rather than facing Murdoch's threat. Thanks for giving people in NCW a reminder!!!”
“In the past I've appreciated your balance in assessing events and ideas, but your perspective of News Corp and its derivatives reeks of unbecoming liberal sour grapes and bias. Much of News Corp's ventures are a direct result of the liberal bias that existed long before FOX et al. were born. You conveniently ignore liberal outlets in the print media such as the NY Times, Washington Post, McClatchy, and LA Times; cable networks such as CNN, NBC, MSNBC, ABC and CBS; other vehicles such as MoveOn.org, ACLU, NAACP and Congressional Black Caucus; and big players such as George Soros, Jessie Jackson, Keith Olbermann, Dan Rather, Chris Mathews, Bill Moyers, on and on!
“Today, at least 75 percent of the media and news makers tend to present a liberal perspective of the news. News Corp has been successful because there is a large percentage of the American population that wants less of the liberal bias in their news.
“No Jim, you let me down with this one. You are bigger than this kind of biased blogging. Hope that, in the future, I will find your blogs to be better balanced.”
“This is an important subject that I hope you will continue to pursue. When news purveyors are cynical liars who claim to be "fair and balanced" but don't even try to be either, our country is very badly served. Free speech, when it is dominated by a bully like Murdoch is very expensive. FOX disseminates misinformation and promotes paranoia.
“News sources have never been perfect, but in prior decades, efforts were made to uphold professional standards. These standards seem to have been all but abandoned.”
“I think the New York Times has held inordinate power of opinion in NYC, and the challenge that the WSJ -NY Edition has produced is a welcome change to me. I have dropped the NYT weekly and only do Friday, Saturday, & Sunday, while getting the WSJ every day, including their new weekend edition.
“You may not like the FOX point of view, but it counters some of the weight of the media who absolutely fell for Obama and all his policies.”
“I wasn’t convinced that Murdoch is a threat. I guess I needed more.“
“Right on!!”
Several threads are important to me. First, readers abhor an unbalanced media perspective. Critics of FOX believe its bias is too unbalanced, while supporters believe FOX balances the liberal bias in the preponderance of the media.
Second, my original intent was to reveal how a concentration of power influences our communities. That point rarely came through.
Finally, I worry that combative media styles obscure too much truth unless people follow both sides. Instead people frequently shut off opposing opinions. I’m committed to politely poke balanced perspectives into people’s perceptions to unite us as we build better communities. I think this article fell short of that commitment.
A Bully Has Arrived in our Neighborhood
Bullying is a problem we oppose up here in these clear skies. Dan Olweus, who created a nationally respected bullying prevention program, says bullying has three components: an imbalance of power, aggressive behavior with unwanted negative actions and a pattern of behavior repeated over time.
A bully’s impact has arrived in this neighborhood and over ninety five percent of neighborhoods in the United States. He’s an Australian who became a US citizen in order to move the corporate headquarters of his Australian company to the United States in 2004. His name is Rupert Murdoch and he’s the founder, chairman and CEO of News Corporation, News Corp for short.
News Corp’s behavior is similar to a bully. Murdoch's aggressive business and political tactics have created a $30 billion media business second only to Walt Disney, a far less politically active company. Murdoch created its imbalance of power through aggressive political and business behavior with negative actions in a pattern of behavior repeated over time. Murdoch’s already profiting handsomely from the success of his apparent presidential candidate for the 2012 election.
News Corp used cash from its businesses to purchase a cable network from Metromedia and create the FOX cable network. It financed the startup of FOX news network with its negative, attacking news personalities such as Bill O’Reilly. FOX broadcasts inspired MSNBC to hire Keith Olbermann, and the sparring between the two networks has driven ratings for both networks higher than CNN's ratings.
News Corp is the world’s largest English language newspaper publisher. It owns the New York Post, the seventh largest newspaper in the US. It purchased Dow Jones and now owns the Wall Street Journal. The WSJ cut advertising rates in its New York metro section to cut income at the New York Times. NYT CEO Janet Robinson confirmed News Corp is “very, very, heavily” discounting rates. News Corp also owns book publishers HarperCollins and Zondervan, the Christian book company with retail stores.
Michael Wolfe, who wrote The Man Who Owns the News, describes Murdoch’s media tactics to strengthen his political and business power. In 1977, he and his New York Post staff chose Ed Koch, a liberal long shot among seven candidates in the primary race for New York mayor. Its early endorsement emphasized his campaign in photographs and headlines that buried critical articles and helped him win. His victory established the Post as a power in New York.
News Corp is underwriting Sarah Palin’s media moves. Her attorney Robert Barnett, said News Corp.’s HarperCollins was “first and fervent” in the bidding to sign Palin. HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray said, “Governor Palin is the most charismatic, inspiring and controversial figure to appear on the national political stage for years. She has a fascinating story to tell and we look forward to publishing what surely will be a captivating book.”
News Corp's various divisions are profiting by promoting Palin’s media campaign. Palin’s book signing for Going Rogue included co-publishing a different Christian version for Zondervan to publish and distribute through its stores. FOX news channel frequently quotes Palin’s support for candidate endorsements and covered her book signing tour. She is scheduled to host a FOX entertainment program. No other Republican potential presidential candidate has comparable media access.
Experts on bullying report that it often goes unnoticed in front of adults. The first step in prevention is to identify bullies and when, where, and how it happens.
Murdoch and News Corp have bullying power in our political process. Do we really want one person to have that much power over our electoral process?
Reminding Each Other that We Know How to Respond Well in Crises
Enjoying and Tolerating Discussions About Disturbing Scientific Discoveries
Rediscovering Why I Married Wisely and Wonderfully
Dr. Riki Ott's Eye Witness Reports on the Human Tragedy of Oil Spill Clean-ups
Dr. Riki Ott, a marine biologist, toxicologist and commercial fisher from Prince William Sound warned families in gulf coast fishing villages about dangers they face. She documented the thousands of lives harmed by faulty clean-up operations after Exxon’s Valdez oil spill. In Leavenworth Washington recently Ott said, “I vowed to make a difference in the BP oil spill.”
Unemployed shrimpers and coastal workers tell Ott BP is insisting they clean up without respirators. Her book Sound Truth and Corporate Myth revealed that Valdez clean-up conditions including dispersant Corexit escalated human suffering because 70 percent of workers didn’t wear respirators. Exxon and its clean-up firm VECO concealed 6,700 worker cases until courts forced them to release data. The companies recorded complaints as respiratory problems and sent workers home on medical leave. On the third day, they weren’t hired back. Using those two procedures, the companies were not obligated to report complaints as occupationally caused.
Ott’s message, “When you work with oil, wear a respirator.”
A worker’s wife told Ott about her husband’s “flu-like symptoms” similar to reports from 11 workers who were treated and released by West Jefferson Medical Center last week. Doctors said eleven workers in one week makes it “incredibly suspicious” that the cause is working on clean-up. The week before seven workers from boats south of New Orleans were hospitalized.
Nevertheless, BP CEO Tony Hayward questioned whether the cause of hospitalized cases “was food poisoning or some other reason.” BP and Coast Guard officials said problems could be caused by “dehydration, heat, food poisoning and other related factors.”
Photographs reveal workers who should be wearing respirators. Why not outfit a worker with a videocam to record working conditions as workers cough up toxicity from their lungs?
Ott recognizes human tragedy. “This spill is a family wrecker.”
When You Gamble with Safety, You Gamble with Life
She led me to counselors, materials and the second of two Town-Hall meetings organized by nine black-shirted youth. The information unnerved me. One-out-of-four eighth-graders in the 2008 Douglas County Healthy Youth Survey had a drink in the last 30 days. The average age of a youth’s first drink is 12.8 years
Whoops, my twin grandsons will be that age in two months. That bothered their motherr also. I wish we’d had more talks with them about drinking. Alcohol marketers are working far more effectively than we are, perhaps illegally as nearly as I can tell, so I’m rallying local volunteers to the cause.
Together! is a non-profit whose staff organizes parent and student groups in Chelan-Douglas Counties to provide youth with drug and alcohol free activities such as dances, after school programs and athletic facilities. Five years ago executive director Renée Hunter invested in certifying Steffanie Bonwell in programs that cut alcohol and drug abuse by youth. She spends three-and-a-half days per week on the front lines. That’s music to my ears like the bluegrass classic, “Stuff That Works.”
One program that works is Life Skills Training which a panel of experts gave its Top Tier rating because youth in the programs show sizable, sustained reductions in drug, tobacco and alcohol use based on randomized controlled trials. LST was taught in Eastmont School District, but dropped because of cutbacks and staff reassignments.
Eastmont youth are working in a program called Power of Youth, advised by counselor Armentia Tenner, and led by juniors Jose Gomez and Raquel Ramos. When I met them at East Wenatchee’s advisory committee meeting, Ramos wore their self-designed battle uniform: a black t-shirt with lime green letters promoting their motto, “When you gamble with safety, you gamble with life.”
Tenner has led Power of Youth teens for five years, and last year these youth created awareness about alcohol marketing programs that target pre-teens. Tenner co-wrote a grant with a committed grant writer, Eveline Roy of East Wenatchee. The grant raised $10,000 for an advertising program about teen drinking that was aired on radio, LINK buses and billboards. Youth displayed one billboard on the highest traffic corner in Douglas County at Grant and Sunset that says, “Think alcohol marketing doesn’t affect your kids? Think again.”
It’s right across the street from enemy advertising, which may be illegally displayed in windows and outside walls at the Union 76 gas station.
The station’s advertising may be illegal because state legislators thought again about alcohol advertising and passed legislation limiting ads that impact pre-adolescent youth. The Washington Liquor Control Board rules effective April 3, 2010 limit to four (4) the number of signs advertising alcohol brand names in windows or outside walls at businesses that sell alcohol. Volunteers talked to the manager at Discount Tobacco and Alcohol on Valley Mall Parkway and its advertising complies. Two drive-by views last week confirmed it.
But the Union 76 station appeared out of compliance on May 17 and May 31st. Posted in every front window at toddler eye-level were a race car driver, soccer player and Wenatchee Wild wolf in eight (8) beer ads. The only non-beer ad was a tobacco poster with a cute, smiling camel.
Parents and youth at the Town Hall meeting spoke about the pervasive pressures on youth to sample substance abuse. Support them. Warn our youth. If we’re silent, we’re gambling with safety, and gambling with life.
