Sunday, June 22, 2008

Yes, we have no agendas

.....CHANNEL ISLANDS. On Friday, I briefly described tiny Santa Barbara Island, among the Channel Islands off of the So. Cal coast. As it turns out (as one reader informed me), this weekend, the LA Times has a lengthy piece on the Channel Islands: The Channel Islands: Southern California's offshore Eden.
.....Here’s what it has to say about Santa Barbara (and San Miguel, pictured at left and below):
.....Caves are also a draw on tiny Santa Barbara Island, and a beautiful beach is a hallmark of San Miguel, but both are so far out that you really have to work to get there, which is why they're the least-visited in the park.
.....Island Packers schedules a few trips to each annually, mainly in the summer. But sea and weather conditions often cause these to be canceled. I finally reached Santa Barbara on a beautiful day in April, when conditions were ideal. Rough weather last winter ripped out part of the pier, so visitors have to land by skiff on a rocky ledge. It would be treacherous in anything other than totally calm sea conditions.
.....The island is only a mile square, so hiking it is a breeze. And the ocean view is spectacular. Rocky coves are filled with barking sea lions and clear blue water that's reminiscent of the sea color in the Caribbean or the South Pacific. A tiny campground sits on an unprotected bluff.
.....Sea conditions were not as ideal in late May, when I joined a group of campers headed for San Miguel, 64 miles west of the mainland. Twelve-foot seas made the four-hour journey uncomfortable for many of those on board, as the Island Packers' 64-foot power catamaran lurched up and down through huge waves. I loved it, but I kept my views to myself and cheered only inwardly, out of respect for my seasick companions.
.....Luckily, the weather was better on San Miguel. It offers good hiking and, of course, lots of solitude.
.....RECALL ELECTION. Meanwhile, this weekend, the OC Register previews this week’s Capistrano Unified recall election. The article mentions The Education Alliance, a group to which I referred recently (some of our SOCCCD trustees have links to EA; EA has associations with Howard Ahmanson, Jr.): CUSD showdown in Tuesday's school board recall election:
.....Anti-recall leaders have focused their message on the Recall Committee's link to the Tustin-based Education Alliance, a political action committee that gave $22,000 to the recall and its candidates during the 2006 election. The self-described "back-to-basics" group opposes health clinics and bilingual education in schools, advocates for school voucher programs, and thinks teacher unions wield too much power.
.....The recall committee and the "reform" trustees say they've welcomed the Education Alliance's donations, but that their views aren't in line with the alliance's.
.....NO AGENDA OUTLINE? Oddly, at the SOCCCD website, no agenda for Tuesday’s board meeting has yet been posted (as of 11:00 a.m.). What’s up with that? Democrats (with the small "d") should be plenty annoyed. How are we supposed to keep track of what our government representatives are up to, if we've gotta go to so much trouble just to see meeting agendas? Tell me that!

UPDATE (Monday, 8:30 p.m.): at noon today, the district still had not posted the "agenda outline" for the Tuesday board meeting. I just looked and the outline is at long last posted: here (it's a pdf file).

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The pictures are real pretty; let's balance them with some Bukowski.

"Dinosauria, we"

born like this
into this
as the chalk faces smile
as Mrs. Death laughs
as the elevators break
as political lansdscapes dissolve
as the supermarket bag boy holds a college degree
as the oily fish spit out their oily prey
as the sun is masked

we are
born like this
into this
into these carefully mad wars
into the sight of broken factory windows of emptiness
into bars where people no longer speak to each other
into fist fights that end as shootings and knifings

born into this
into hospitals which are so expensive that it’s cheaper to die
into lawyers who charge so much it’s cheaper to plead guilty
into a country where the jails are full and the madhouses closed
into a place where the masses elevate fools into rich heroes

born into this
walking and living through this
dying because of this
muted because of this
castrated
debauched
disinherited
because of this
fooled by this
used by this
pissed on by this
made crazy and sick by this
made violent

made inhuman
by this


the heart is blackened
the fingers reach for the throat
the gun
the knife
the bomb
the fingers reach toward an unresponsive god

the fingers reach for the bottle
the pill
the powder

we are born into this sorrowful deadliness
we are born into a government 60 years in debt
that soon will be unable to even pay the interest on that debt
and the banks will burn
money will be useless
there will be open and unpunished murder in the streets
it will be guns and roving mobs
land will be useless
food will become a diminishing return
nuclear power will be taken over by the many
explosions will continually shake the earth
radiated robot men will stalk each other
the rich and chosen will watch from space platforms
Dante’s Inferno will be made to look like a children’s playground

the sun will not be seen and it will always be night
trees will die
all vegetation will die
radiated men will eat the flesh of radiated men
the seas will be poisoned
the lakes and rivers will vanish
rain will be the new gold

the rotting bodies of men and animals will stink in the dark wind

the last few survivors will be overtaken by new and hideous diseases

and the space platforms will be destroyed by attrition
the petering out of supplies
the natural effect of general decay

and there will be the most beautiful silence never heard

born out of that.

the sun still hidden there

awaiting the next chapter.

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...