Lapelgate

The opening scene of Schindler’s List features the main character getting ready to go out in the evening. Combed hair, pressed shirt, tie, handkerchief. The final touch? The Nazi lapel pin. This will function for him as a pass-card; it’s membership in the club of the powerful and terrifying. Industrialist Oskar Schindler is mostly interested in making money, and he makes a fortune thanks to the Nazis and their war. The lapel pin gets him places. Really nasty places, and his story of redemption is the story of a struggle with his conscience, of doing the right thing because it’s the right thing, and because you can: it’s a choice.

I grew up in Franco’s Spain near the northern Madrid Guardia Civil headquarters. We’d see them wandering, always in tricornered pairs, always with tommy guns; but when they drilled at the Quartel, they’d pass under the Spanish flag (in those days it said “Una, Grande, Libre” (one, great, free) unlike the confederate version so in evidence during the recent Eurocopa) and kiss it. Kiss the flag. Take it in their right hands and press their lips to it. The motto of the Guardia Civil was “Todo por la patria” — everything for the motherland. Everything: extreme suppression of dissent, torture, intimidation, wiretapping. Everything. No freedom of speech, no freedom of the press, no freedom to assemble, nada. Behave and we won’t hurt you. Everything. Por la patria.

My country, right or wrong, in other words.

One of the most striking things about the Declaration of Independence — and the U.S. Constitution, which I’ve only recently read for the first time — is how they both assume that citizens not only want to be, but are, in fact, grownups. They reject the model of the powerful parent, either monarch or state, and instead require that the government serve at the pleasure of the people.

Of course this requires that the “people” take their civic responsibilities seriously; that they engage; that they inform themselves; that they vote. It is not a model of blind obedience. It’s hard work, citizenship. It involves wrestling with the angel of democracy, as Susan Griffin says in her new book. Not for kids. Not for fearful adults or stupefied zombie-like drones (see Wall-E for an example of how frightening that could really be). Grownups.

Ever since 9/11 the flag-fetish has become a cudgel. Ever since I’ve been alive I’ve been aware that Americans hang flags more, much more, than Europeans; even in Fascist Spain, it was only the state and associated enforcers who engaged in it. Here, lots of people hang flags. It’s called “patriotism.”

So now they’re going after Obama for not wearing a flag lapel pin. The omission is somehow his entry into the club of world terrorism, a sign that he secretly hates America and wants to blow it up. He’s not “patriotic” enough.

It remains to be seen whether the damage inflicted on the citizenry by these crazed fearmongers will prevail in November.

I really hope not, because what was embodied in the Declaration of Independence — and later in the Constitution — is nothing less than faith in the ability of reasonable people to arrange their lives, reasonably. How civilized. And, on this Fourth of July, what a great gift to the world.

Wilderness Arising

I can’t sincerely call this pessimism, being of the bicycle commuting elitist class, but I believe that the high fuel prices we are seeing now are here to stay and to get even higher. The price increase just seems too structural — there haven’t been any evident major shocks to the market to account for it. Lately, I’ve reading a good bit from The Oil Drum, a joint blog about energy and the future. A couple of linked tidbits:

This article describes how high fuel prices are calamitous for isolated rural towns. These levels of fuel prices are causing a lot of suffering in the short term — people simply cannot change their livelihoods in the near term. Speculating about the long term is fascinating — what will happen in say the twenty-five year span.? My guess is that a lot of these rural communities will simply cease to exist — they are too dependent on people being able to afford to make long-distance supply runs. Swaths of the countryside then revert to wilderness.

On another note, here is an interesting post about peak oil, technical societies, and learning from amateur radio, from somebody who just dived in and passed all three of the FCC amateur radio licensing exams.

Hands Free?

Today the hand-held cellphone while driving ban takes effect in California. The law was poorly worded — text messaging, for instance, which is obviously much more dangerous than merely talking, is not mentioned — but this is a welcome start. (I’m of the opinion that talking on the phone, hands free or not, should be forbidden while driving, because the lapse of concentration is analogous to having had between one and two drinks regardless, but nobody asked me.)

While cycling to work this morning I saw a cyclist pedalling in the other direction, holding her cellphone and talking into it. I guess the ban doesn’t affect bikes, then.

One-Nil

Lots of sports action these past couple of days decided by the score of one to zero. In Oakland last night, the San Francisco Giants beat the Oakland A’s 1-0 behind the stellar pitching of Tim Lincecum who struck out 11, giving up 5 hits. The Giants only produced two hits, but that was enough to win. Lincecum’s record is now 9-1 with an ERA of 2.38.

Also last night, the L.A. Angels lost to the Dodgers 1-0. The Dodgers however never got a hit in the game. The only run came on a fielding error by the Angels’ pitcher. This is only the fifth time since 1900 that a major league team has won a game without getting a hit. The Angels however made up for it this afternoon and beat the Dodgers 1-0. Both teams got hits.

Best of all, Spain beat Germany today 1-0 in the finals of Euro 2008. We watched the match over at Mariachi’s. About 25 others were paying attention to the match in our favorite taqueria, most of them rooting for Spain. The decisive moment of course was striker Fernando Torres getting by defender Phillipe Lahm and getting his foot on the ball just before the arrival of goalie Jens Lehmann. Torres is 24, Lehmann is 38, playing in his last European championship — we thought that the age difference might have been a key factor, Torres having just more speed than the goalie. Pica has been thrilled the whole rest of the day by the result; the Spanish team just achieved something which hasn’t happened since she was growing up in Spain. And the team is young and talented — what’s next?

Big Day

My birding buddies threw a party for me yesterday morning to celebrate my 700th ABA bird. We met at 7 to wander around Lake Solano, enjoying multiple and gorgeous views of pileated woodpeckers (and multiple views of peacock chicks, which was cause for a bit less joy, that place is going to be overrun in no time). A few later risers joined us for a potluck breakfast at 9…. the sketch at left was done by Sue, who was with us on the Sierra Valley trip two weeks ago, which she presented to me. Other Sue brought flowers. Shucks, guys.

This was followed by a wedding in the evening. A former coworker and her sweetie got married out at Phillips Winery (food by the fabulous Magpie Caterers ). The funnest part was running into the flower girl at the hairdresser; she was having multiple curls applied to her head and fell asleep in the process. (I begged a pen and paper from the gals and sketched her; I had to beg another pen from the wedding bus driver, having forgotten mine at home.)

Sunday’s big dayness involves the Spain/Germany final. We’ll be at Mariachi at 11:45 if anyone wants to join us…

Smoke

I just got a copy from the library of Richard Hamblyn’s new The Cloud Book, a well-illustrated cloud identification guide published by the UK Met Office. What we’ve been seeing these past few days isn’t described there. Smoke, persistent smoke, filling the Central Valley and then some. The visibility this afternoon was about 2 miles. According to the CAL FIRE site, as of this evening there were 28 active fire complexes burning throughout Northern California covering 165,000 acres. This set of fire complexes originated when a dry lightning storm moved through the northern half of the state on Saturday. That it has been a very dry spring didn’t help matters.

According to the weather service, some relief from the smoke may happen on Saturday, when the upper-level flow turns southerly with the northward migration of a low off the coast. But with so many fires everywhere, and with the possibility of more mountain thunderstorms, I don’t think it’s going to get very clear for quite some time.

Hardy and Hillary

I’ll admit it, in public, and in fact have on one of those “books you hated but everyone else loved” websites: I can’t stand Thomas Hardy. Labored, ponderous, not quite getting it right with his female heroines, and they such drips. Tess should have clocked a bunch of people around the face before setting to them with a knife.

But he straddled, didn’t he, Victorianism and Modernity. Someone had to do it. Woolf went to visit him, it is said, not too soon before he died in 1928. She straddled that same divide, more on this side than that. He paved her way.

How could he stand it? How could he stand those bloody complacent Edwardians? Well, he couldn’t, so he kept WRITING.

Hillary has straddled a similar divide. Before her, woman-as-president was laughable. She has facilitated, like Hardy, a cultural transition. Not for herself, perhaps, but for all who come after. It still pains me to recall her speech two weeks ago, when she was passionately, and vocally, and authentically Hillary (as opposed to whatever the guys managed out of her). If she had been that in, say, Iowa, Obama would have had no chance.

I’ve been as much of a fan of Hillary’s as I have of Hardy’s. It had a lot to do with how she voted on the war, and how she refused to acknowledge she’d been duped. But she’s made a lot possible for little girls (and big girls) to dream, and I salute her for that.

California Burning

Crews are exhausted. Every municipality has lent firefighters to adjacent, or further, counties. The sky was brown all day — a breeze has kicked up tonight; maybe it will be better tomorrow.

Maybe it will be worse.

They get a blaze out then it rekindles somewhere else.

It’s still, folks, only June…

Baseball Movie All-Stars

What would be the best lineup one could come up out of the fictional players in baseball movies? Here is one view on the topic.

Hmm, one of these years we’re going to have to see Major League.

Green Almonds

For Beth, and M and J.