Who loses....

On Thursday night, I visited this incredible science fair at Parkview Elementary school.  The Bellingham Public School system is known for its dedicated teachers and high quality of education and high parental involvement.  All of this was clearly evident at the Parkview elementary science fair.  There must have been 150 exhibits, all neatly positioned side to side, back to back in a room packed with obviously involved parents who I bet had contributed significantly to their children's projects.  It is amazing for a refugee from Oakland, Ca to see public schools systems with such involved parents, happy involved children EXCELLING IN SCIENCE.

For 34 years my father taught high school in east Oakland while he sent his three sons and one daughter to Catholic schools there.  In our school districts, most parents might have said we had little choice if we wanted  a a relevant education.  At one point the public high school a mile or so down the road from the private high school I attended had a 5 grade 8 month reading level amongst their high school seniors.  My embattled father (always a hero in my eyes for his work as a history teacher and coach) once handed me a study about the junior high feeder school to that high school. The study revealed that 50% of the students lived with NEITHER their biological mother or father.  "That fact," explained my father "is why the high school they matriculate too has a 5 grade 8 month reading level amongst their seniors." "THAT is what I deal with all day long."

It pains me to live in a state where there are no corporate income taxes. In this area (Whatcom and Skagit County) , there are four oil refineries, numerous oil support companies, lots of investment banking money, lots of banks. And yet so few good jobs.  It is a miracle that Bellingham's school system, so dependent as it is on property values and property taxes, has managed to deliver such committed parents and committed teachers.  Will this school system and their families survive the great recession (another $2 million is now proposed to be cut from their budget)?  They certainly would stand a better chance if the high dollar volume carbon industry and their support companies here paid corporate income taxes.  Or if Skagit and Whatcom County worked harder at building high tech positions outside of the carbon industry.  But neither has happened so it is probable that the quality of  public schools will collapse with the continued fall in property,excise, sales, B&O taxes in the Bellingham MSA.

When a community has the wealth of its families destroyed, when it is subject to economic terror, its children suffer. Don't talk me about how lucky we are to have oil wealth in our county. Talk to me about how you are going to save our children from the economic destruction their parents are being subjected to, as evidenced by the most recent BLS LAU chart for the Bellingham, MSA below:

A Period of Liquidation

News in the Wall Street Journal this morning reminds us that our country is in an accelerating period of liquidation:

• U.S. New-Home Sales Drop 11.2%
• Lending Falls at Epic Pace

Through September 2009  approximately 1.4 M bankruptcies filings were received by United States Bankruptcy Courts.  Western Washington accounted for 22,450 of those filings.  Whatcom County continues to show increases in bankruptcy volume. 62 bankruptcies were filed in January 2010 vs. the 53 filed in January 2009.  Monthly bankruptcy filings generally increase toward Summer. (Last July, 79 bankruptcies were filed in WC.)  Many bankruptcies are "household bankruptcies" , which makes even relatively small numbers significant predictors for total sales in retail, housing, etc.  To understand this, you can imagine how a sustained rate of 1000 household bankruptcies per year would effect a county with less than 200,000 occupants (like Whatcom County). The effect of having 10% of your households in recovery from bankruptcy after a five year period would be disastrous. That being said, many experts recommend not waiting to file for bankruptcy if you are in trouble. Help on filing for bankruptcy can be found at:

• U.S. Bankruptcy Court Western District of Washington
• Nolo's Bankruptcy and Foreclosure Blog

Oh Canada!

I'm going to skip all the negative economic and political news I could be reporting about this morning.  Instead, let's talk about something really positive.   If you live in Bellingham or anywhere within driving distance of Vancouver, British Columbia...please...please...please...get yourself there for the last week the 2010 Winter Olympics.  Don't worry about not having a ticket to any events. The show at Robeson Square alone is worth the crowds, the border, the drive. Here's how we did it:

(1) Pack some snacks and a camera and some water bottles in a backpack. Arrive at the border early with your passport or Nexxus pass or enhanced license.
(2) Drive to King George (or Scott) Skytrain station. Buy an all day ($9 CN Adult $7 CN Child) pass with your credit card or Canadian cash. (You have to run your bank card as a CC if you don't bring credit.)
(3) Take the Expo Line to the Waterfront or other downtown exits.
(4) Walk to the  Olympic Cauldron. Take lots of photos.
(5) Walk to Cathedral Square. Hang out. Take lots of photos.
(6) Walk to Robeson Square. Hang out. Eat. Skate. Watch wonderful concerts. Watch gymnastics. Watch comedy performers. For extra credit, zip-line across the square. Take lots of photos.
(7) For extra credit, get back on the Skytrain and take your children to Science World.
(8) For those with extra cash, take the ferry or the bus to Whistler or Squamish, stay the week and bask in the glow of victorious nation.

Canada is America's alter-ego.  It's who we should be when we are depressed, sad, angry or full of paranoia. And nowhere is the 'joie de vivre' of Canada in more prolific display than Vancouver, B.C. with or without the Olympics: multi-racial, multi-ethnic, alert, joyous, worldly, and (of course) polite.  My only concern about going there is that I might just throw my border pass in False Creek one day, so I make sure I never come back!

Olympics 2010.  Don't miss it.

Four month mark

For the last four months Google Analytics reports 1388 Visits from 681 Visitors in 23 Countries from 154 Cities. The top ten by visit are:

1.Bellingham 813
2.Seattle 160
3.Bellingham 53
4.Ferndale 34
5.Portland 33
6.Burlington 30
7.(not set)  28
8.New York    8
9.Tacoma    7
10.Bellevue    6

I will report again at the eigth month mark.

Olympic Hallelujahs

It  is thrilling to watch fervent Canadians on CTV cheer their athletes. My daughter and I watched Canadian Maelle Ricker steal the X Cross snowboarding event. With a smile and grace and patience and joy.  As I watch a mostly northern and first world group of nations compete in these Olympics, I can't help but think about those who are not competing; those who are scared for their lives in Afghanistan. Without the slightest irony, our country launched a major new invasion in Afghanistan nearly to the day of the Olympic start, defying with malice the spirit of national cooperation that was born with the Olympics; a period when a truce in fighting was declared. While  the world mourned the tragic loss of Georgian luger during the opening week of the Olympics perhaps a dozen civilians died in Afghanistan because of an errant American rocket.:
"About a dozen civilians have been killed in three separate incidents in recent days as 15,000 U.S. and Afghan forces are in a heated battle around the Taliban stronghold of Marjah.

Hostage said the objective is to persuade the populace to side with the government and against the insurgent force.
"Civilians die every day at the hand of the Taliban," Hostage said. "We have to protect them from that. ... The people know who the bad guys are." "

And we are losing soldiers left and right as well (1, 2, 3,4) Is there no better way?  Did Afghanistan really and truly need to be invaded? What was the point?  The Cryptome has some great full color plates of  Wartime Architecture in Afghanistan. The only mention of the irony of simultaneous war in South amidst joyous Olympic competition in the North might have been in K.D. Laing's brilliant celebration opening interpretation of the words of Leonard Cohen:

I've seen your flag on the marble arch

Love is not a victory march

It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

OIl in Haiti and "Induced Seismicity"

The big secret is now in the open:  Haiti's earthquake is just one more power play in the U.S. control of Haiti and the Caribbean's resources. Two authors are covering this in detail:

• Marguerite Laurent
• William Engdahl 

The Fateful Geological Prize Called Haiti
Oil Sites in Haiti 
Oil in Haiti, reasons for the US occupation


To understand "induced seismicity" and the probabilities that Western mining companies may have induced the Haitian earthquake through drilling operations, background information can be read at http://scholar.google.com on "induced seismicity".  Ms. Laurent/Ezili Danto describes illegal drilling and mining operations in Haiti since Aristide's "departure" in her blog "Did mining and oil drilling trigger the Haiti earthquake?"  Ms. Laurent talked about these mining operations by Western forces earlier in an interview in May 2009.

Rethinking Afghanistan

An excellent and topical film on war - "Rethink Afghanistan" - is available at Film is Truth in Bellingham, WA.  You can also order it from the website.   The film is a multi-faceted presentation of many different groups opposed to the continued war in Afghanistan. It documents the costs of the war on the Afghan population, our own country, and on the peoples of South Asia. I recommend it.

Republican "Marxist Envy" Che! Part II

This is my second post that tries to explain the incredulous labeling of President Barack Obama as a "Marxist"  by reactionary forces in the United States.  As contrast, I provide a movie review of Che a Steven Soderbergh/Laura Bickford film now available (with extended commentary and historical interviews/film from the Criterion Collection ) at Film is Truth in Bellingham,Washington.  I highly recommend this film, but especially this Criterion Collection three DVD set  for the archival footage and film and also for the supporting historical commentary by Jon Lee Anderson. Mr. Anderson is publishing a second edition of his work Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life.

There are many reasons to reconsider the life and works of Che Guevara today in our country.  Like Batiste's Cuba, America has become a country ruled by  "strong men", its citizenry rotting financially in the compost pile of a corrupt state, ridden with bankruptcy, foreclosure, and unemployment; the official government serving only as a vehicle to hand or tax away the last of our state's riches to those who have plundered our national economy.  Would a Cuban style revolution be possible in these United States?  What would it take to effect such a revolution?

The film makes clear many of the timeless historical markers of revolution:

(1) broad public support including a "soft revolutionary" (ideological) component in urban areas
(2) an armed revolutionary group with outside financial support
(3) visionary guerilla leaders with practical technical and charismatic skillsets
(4) eventually, a unified front of citizens, military, intelligentsia
(5) ruthless strongmen to purge "reactionary' or "counter-revolutionary" forces.

In Cuba, the revolution succeeded, even to the surprise of some Soviet supporters, because the Batiste regime had terrorized its people.   But it also succeeded because bourgeois "Argentine intellectuals" like Che Guevara rallied and committed themselves to the cause of Marxist revolution; in part because their travels through Latin America made clear the devastation caused by American economic imperialism: our henchman, our support of local thugs, our devastation of local economies in the name of American economic affluence.

Jon Lee Anderson'sdisk one commentary strongly asks the question: What is it that made an intellectual, a doctor, a poet and philosopher like Guevara "cross the line"?  What would make a man of gentle intellect and medical training convince himself to murder for the cause of the greater wealth of his people?   Perhaps we should ask what would it take to see such personal conversions here:

• A lack of nationalized health care? 
• An unfettered/polarizing war on the third world in the name of  an endless "War on Terror"?
• The impoverishing effects of  corporatist lobbying  forces in the name of oil, energy, pharma, insurance, banking?
• The widening gap between the rich and the poor?
• The impoverization of our communities and families?

From the ILWU to the Black Panthers , 20th century America has no shortage of well organized and well-armed revolutionary movements among it's working classes. They are usually paralleled with support from intellectual classes. But what events would make us "cross the line"?  What events would make us view the election of Barack Obama as our last failed hope for Democratic reform?  I will wager that these are the questions that are being asked in earnest now in large, bankrupt communities across the nation.  In reality, no one but repressed, paranoid Republican leadership and the denizens of small towns with narrow minds are worrying whether or not Barack Obama is a "Marxist". Whether our President is a "Marxist" or not (and he has does nothing to indicate that he is at this point), our country is rapidly reaching the point of economic degradation where many of us would cheer if he were to declare himself as such.

Republican "Marxist Envy"; Che!

"If you were to listen to the debate...you would think this was some Bolshevik Plot." 
 President Barack Obama speaking to Republicans about their resistance to health care.

Whenever the reactionary elements of American political society need to tar and feather some opponent, they pull out the "Marxist" or "Communist" label.  This is a long term  "straw man" and/or "bogeyman" for the paranoid right wing. The "red scare" is the their primary tactic that they slash against reform or proletarian movements across American 20th century history.  In truth, it used far less often than the label of 'fascist' which is an accurate label for many modern reactionary/conservative movements.

Considering how hawkish and bank-oriented Barack Obama's economic past year of policies have been,  the charges of Barack Obama as a "Marxist" or "Socialist" strike me as lacking credulity. In reality, we cannot realistically compare Obama's imperialist, corporatist, war-time economy to the  policies promulgated by 20th century New World Marxist leaders like Castro, Guevara, Allende, Ortega, or Chavez .  Indeed, I cannot imagine 20th century American Marxists Big Bill Heywood, Norman Thomas, Eugene V. Debs, Harry Bridges, or even Huey Newton or Angela Davis striking as centrist wartime and corporatist economic policies as President Obama.

As a simple example of this: Can any of you imagine any of these Marxists leader supporting anything but either 'single-payer' or (more accurately) true nationalized health care? Would any of these Marxist leaders send such a continued rush of troops to Afghanistan?  Would any of them have tolerated the subversive, reactionary lobbying influences of the lobbyists of pharma, insurance, private health markets to health care proposals?   Would any of them have "bailed out the banking system" with such ferocity instead of nationalizing the banking system? Would any of them have tolerated the widening gap between the rich and the poor in America without very direct 'redistribution efforts'?

I can't imagine such tolerance by Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, or Hugo Chavez. I suspect that even Canada wouldn't tolerate our watered down, luke warm, health proposal as it now stands.  If we receive a health care bill, it will most likely not be the most efficient/economical delivery of health care for our citizens. For most part, it will migrate, with corporatist help, into a profit vehicle for the American private health,pharmaceutical, insurance industries.  Our President is most decidedly not Marxist in his policy suggestions.  He seems to truly believe in "Ho'oponopono" from his native Hawaii, a term that suggests a form of tribal or even familial conflict negotiation.

Indeed, the subconscious of the  Republican party in the United States seems to be driven by some form of "Marxist Envy"; their animus propelled by some deep and powerful search for "Communists" coupled to a paranoia more energized than many of the utopian socialist fantasies of the left wing in America. To get an accurate idea of what one of the most recent Marxist revolutions in this hemisphere actually looked like, Bellinghammers can now check out from "Film is Truth" a 2008 Film by Steven Soderberg and Laura Bickford : Che . I recommend especially the supplemental third disk which contains interviews with still living revolutionaries in Cuba who fought along side Che and Castro and interviews with Cuban historians that describe how deep the support for the revolution in Cuba was, how brutal the Batista regime appeared in their neighborhoods and how the armed forces supported Castro and Che. I recommend the film if only to help come to understanding of what it would take for a true Marxist revolution to effect itself here in North America.

Perhaps he is a genius after all...

Many of us who supported the President's election have had some doubts this year: too conciliatory, too hawkish on Iran, Afghanistan, too supportive of larger financial institutions, maybe even too much golf and not enough hoops...

The President's state of the union may help restore some confidence.  He has some momentum now.  The financial forces of the American elite have overreached: They have been given everything, including most of the multi-trillion dollar bailout and yet they are still claiming record bonuses while millions go unemployed, into bankruptcy, into foreclosure. To get some sense of how much economic destruction is pervading America, try googling "bankruptcy blogs" or "foreclosure blogs".  Leave it to Americans to turn their own wealth destruction into a profitable boutique industry.

Now is the time to hammer home his status as a protector of middle class families and his clean tech, high-tech, export-driven agenda.  The  President senses this. He has his foes positioned as greedy, obstructionist and unreasonable and he carefully said as much.  American families should rally to this effort.  Barack Obama wants no easy solutions: He wants long term stability for the middle class.  Quite frankly, even most of us on the left believe this to be a lofty and naive goal at this point.

In reality, we should appreciate someone who holds such noble goals and cultivates conciliatory approaches to the opposition.  But in fact the greedy and the wealthy have conspired to steal the strength of our country in the last ten years and there are few of us with any sort of generational memories who will let them forget it.  War and economic exploitation destroy families.  Let us make sure the President never forgets this.

"Tell me that the people who are responsible..."

This photograph bothers me a lot.  Understanding the "rich history" of the City of Bellingham and BNSF would take weeks of work.  But whatever that history, a derailment into the middle of Boulevard Park or Harris Street Pier would be an unbelievable disaster. Actually, just having some park goers crushed on a pocket beach by a falling retaining wall would be disastrous as well.  The hydrostatic forces on this area can considerable during a storm surge.

We have already had one tragic rail death last year in this park.  Please tell me that the people who are responsible....

What would Alexander Hamilton do?

Tonight, after listening to the President's roaring new populist tone, I began to think that perhaps asking, "What would Karl Marx do?" or "What would Hugo Chavez do?" or perhaps "What would Che Guevara do?" may not be correct approach to fixing American economic problems.  Perhaps we need to go back to the fundamental notions of our founding fathers to understand what "American economic health and society" is destined to look like.  And so I asked myself: "What would Alexander Hamilton do?"

Asking  what any of the founding fathers would do in contemporary times is always a dangerous question.  First, all these men lived literally within inches or minutes of being hanged for treason. Second, the intelligence and education of many of the founding fathers were abnormally significant. The founding fathers were not "media creations" - they wrote important works, spoke multiple languages, and in the face of crisis, they invented new infrastructure. They invented a new form of government. They invented a new form of insurgency. They invented American diplomacy. Hamilton invented a national bank to pay off our revolutionary war debts.

But before I could finish asking myself "What would Alexander Hamilton do?", I realized I had an advantage over the colonists of early America:  I can simply download the Mobipocket version of the Federalist Papers from the Gutenburg Project, and read what Hamilton wrote some 225  or so years ago on my Blackberry Storm at my leisure.   Reading the Federalist Papers is an instructive act.  They are still a primary source for the interpretation of the constitution both for scholars and the judiciary.  Literally, they are still the guidebook for the law of the land. There is far too much "propaganda" in the world of our media.  The original source and the discussion of the events surrounding the publication of the Federalist Papers is immediately instructive if not to simply remember that we are not the first group of Americans to live in "interesting times". 

Some good news?

Amidst a "econowash" of  news clinging to desperate hopes, there is some good economic (sort of) news...But first, the hard truth, Bankruptcies and Unemployment are up in Whatcom County and the rest of the nation (bankruptcies(1), bankruptcies(2), unemployment).  Tyler Durden at ZeroHedge has a great chart accompanying his blog post illustrating the recent increase in insured unemployment that is not seasonally adjusted.


However, I found some good news.   The organization Pro Publica has done a report that shows that "Two Dozen States’ Unemployment Funds in the Red, Nine More Within Six Months".   Pro Publica's report shows that Washington State currently is the most solvent of any unemployment fund!  To see this, simply sort their excellent graph by "Trust Fund Balance".   Well, there is $2.8 B of government funding that will soon be well spent!

"Funny the way it is..."

I suppose I was going to start to  notice this type of thing more often anyway.  As my wife and I (and other busy Dads and Moms) were hustling their kids to ballet class at the YMCA, doggedly sorting through the dumpster in the parking lot was a member of the homeless; complete with shopping cart, multiple garbage sacks and some systematic technique for sorting through the trash. She was a middle-aged, alert women.  I thought about capturing a photograph as a walked to the steps going downstairs to the YMCA's lobby. But she caught my eyes and hid.


There are multiple organizations dealing with the issue of homelessness in Whatcom County. The best  way to get an overview of  "all things homeless in Whatcom County" is through the minutes of  The Whatcom County Coalition for the Homeless.  Currently, the coalition is busy preparing for the "Point-in-Time Count 2010" on January 28th. There have been numerous press articles on Whatcom County's homeless population of late. The Bellingham Herald has reported that "40 to 80 people come into the drop-in center each day" at 1013 W. Holly Street. The drop-in center is reportedly expanding it's hours in January.  The Seattle PI has posted a dynamic article by the Bellingham Herald's Jared Paben on the conflict between the homeless population of Bellingham and redevelopment.  The article, which quotes Paster Chuch Sargent, Lighthouse Executive director Ron Buchinski, and developers  Fred Bovenkamp and Ken Imus, exposes the conflict between urban development and social services in Old Town. You can view this  touching video on the issue of homelessness in Bellingham from Project Homeless Connect.  PHC Bellingham has a sparsely populated but interesting blog  and a Facebook  page on their project.

Google page on Donations for Haiti : http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/

Google is maintaining a page for donations to Haiti.  You can donate vi Google Checkout.  Google will also donate $1 million to Haiti to relief organizations. Google is maintaining updated Google Earth views of Haiti as well as offering free Google Voice calls to help US Families reach Haiti.
You can also give "micro donations" via your cell phones for certain organizations:
 "The following organizations are accepting SMS donations in the US only:

• SMS text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts
• SMS text “YELE” to 501501 to Donate $5 to Yele Haiti’s Earthquake Relief efforts
• SMS text "GIVE10" to 20222 to donate $10 to Direct Relief"

"525,600 Minutes: How do you measure a year?"

In the profile to  her stunningly beautiful and elegant photo blog, the late  Molly Mackenzie Hightower describes herself as a ... "a 22 year old from Port Orchard, WA, who just graduated from the University of Portland and is avoiding getting a job. I majored in Psychology, Sociology and French, and plan to get my masters in special ed, counseling or education."

For Molly, "avoiding getting a job" apparently meant spending one year of her young life living and working in Haiti with children of special needs.  Molly wrote and photographed beautifully about the children of Haiti she came to know in her blog "525,600 Minutes: How do you measure a year?" She was very much looking forward to the trip back. In the post "Halfway Point" she commented:

"Its very weird to think that my trip is more than half over at this point. Since school started up in September, it really has flown by. I have a ticket back to Seattle on June 8th, so really, I'm only here for 5 more months and some odd days. My frappachino maker is waiting for me."


Godspeed, Ms. Hightower.

The Fountain Bistro

The North End received a boost in the economic arm for this new year with the opening of The Fountain Bistro at the intersection of Broadway and Meridian.  I think I was expecting another slightly dumpy coffee bar.  Instead, the The Fountain Bistro is a bright, happy place with a first rate wine and lunch menu and a burgeoning chic clientele.   We need places just like this in the North End more than almost anything.
It shows some cheek from owner Jill A. Holmes to field a top notch lunch place in the middle of the Great Recession, but even more so to open a restaurant that is well-staffed, organized and reasonable  in cost.  I could find only one lunch menu item above $10. At the wine bar, I munched happily on a delicious chicken ceaser salad.  Two businessmen in suits networked to my right while two well-dressed matrons on my left engaged in happy, bourgeois converse.  The place was full of diners and  a strong winter light raced through the ample glass windows at this newly remodeled location.
Wow!.  That bright, happy feeling doesn't hit me too much during this time of year in Bellingham.  I will definitely have to do that again. Cheers to the The Fountain Bistro .   Check out their Facebook page.

A must read...on Afghanistan

 "Fixing Intel: A Blueprint for Making Intelligence Relevant in Afghanistan "
is a must read on the culture of American intelligence officers and battlefield success and failure in Afghanistan.  The officers who wrote the article are taking heat for publishing in a think tank outside of the military hierarchy.  In reality, they are taking a brave stand by attempting  to communicate to the public and the president how our intelligence community is failing us in Afghanistan.  The officers who published the article "get it".  They understand we are doomed to fight an endless guerrilla war in Afghanistan if we do not use our intelligence efforts to understand the tribal people who have lived there for generations.

“Revolutionary” Travel Sentiments for the New Year

“Wars spring from unseen and generally insignificant causes, the first outbreak being often an explosion of anger.” - attributed to Thucydides

“All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.” - attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville

Among the treasures I received this Christmas, I now count a book given to me by my brother and sister-in-law as dear: “Travel as a Political Act” by a Edmunds, WA based travel writer Rick Steves (paperback Nation Books, New York, NY 2009 ISBN-13:978-1-56858-435-5). Mr. Steves accomplishes something in this work of which past world travelers/commentators (like the ancient Greek general Thucydides or the French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville) would have been proud: He translates the political struggles of people from distant lands into local equations.
 

Mr. Steve's travel experiences have not made him a fan of the “war on terror”: “Every three days, a 747's worth of people die on our highways....imagine we downgraded our “War on Terror.” Fantasize for a moment about...all the good we could do with those resources...” [p. 15] Mr. Steves documents the insights from his travels that helped him come to such conclusions: “With each new president, other nations wonder if there will be unilateralism or multilateralism, respect and collaborations or threats and hypocrisy....because I care about our society, I challenge us to do better. In difficult times, we should be open to considering all the solutions we can.” [p. 79]
 

Indeed. Whether visiting El Salvador on the anniversary of Cardinal Romero's assassination, exploring the communes of Copenhagen or embracing his own personal peace quest (“Mission: Understand Iran”) , Mr. Steves continually encourages the reader to use travel as a form of personal evolution; a type of pedagogic seminar to help Americans understand the best parts of themselves through immersion in the struggles of foreign cultures: “If an American diplomat complained to his European counterpart, “America is doing all the heavy lifting when it comes to military,” the European might respond, “Well, you seem to be enjoying it. We're building roads and bridges instead.” [p. 55] This debate between guns and butter, war or prosperity needs to be had more open and frankly in our society. We have yet to connect the economic and social costs of our “Three Trillion Dollar War” to its devastating consequences on the American middle class.
 

Despite an often nonchalant and informal style, Mr. Steve's comments on the outlook of various foreign peoples can be as noble and powerful as a Thucydides or de Tocqueville might have been in their times.: “I have long held that travel can be a powerful force for peace. Travel promotes understanding at the expense of fear. And understanding bridges conflicts between nations....I left Iran impressed more by what we have in common than by our our differences. Most Iranians, like most Americans, simply want a good life and a safe homeland for their loved ones...Our political leaders sometimes make us forget that all of us on this small planet are equally precious children of God. Having been to Iran and meeting its people face-to-face, I feel this more strongly than ever.” [pp 191 – 193]
 

In his final chapter, Mr. Steves coaches his readers on how to use travel as a political act – how to understand others by seeing the world through their eyes. Even now, I find myself practicing his perspective at my hotel room in a small town in southern Oregon, on my way home to Bellingham.  I heartily recommend reading “Travel as a Political Act” for your new year.

Two months...

This blog has been up now two months. According to data from Google Analytics, my blog has been visited 759 times by 388 visitors from 15 countries in 75 cities. The "top 9" cities by number of visits are:


1. Bellingham 494
2. Seattle 79
3. Burlington 24
4. Ferndale 23
5. (not set) 18
6. Portland 18
7. Washington 5
8. Everett 5
9. Plano 5
10. New York 4


I will admit some lethargy in blogging lately. It is not for lack of material.  It is because I am overwhelmed with economic information and data; so much of it too negative to contemplate. I find the shreds of positive indicators produced lately weak and hard to believe.