A Rebuttal

This column, printed in this morning's edition of my local paper, annoyed me quite a bit so I'm using my blog to tell off the writer, Jay Bookman (columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.) He begins by addressing the recent disclosures by Scott McLellan regarding Bush's flimsy pretext for war against Iraq and the media-enabled manipulation of the American public. Bookman seems interested in getting on the right side of the issue, for the most part aligning himself with the now-conventional wisdom that the Iraq invasion was "poorly thought out and an act of gut instinct" by Bush, who was fixed on having the war way before it began and factored many political calculations into the decision-making process. Bookman also serves him and his professional colleagues a hefty batch of humble pie when he states "at a critical time in the nation's history, the media failed to do it's duty under the First Amendment, and it - we - failed the American people as well."

How nice of him to admit that. The column would have been twice as good if he'd just stopped there.

What bothered me was his conclusion, as indicated in the column's title, "Nation as a Whole Guilty of Self-Deception at War's Outset." Another quote:

But here's the hard part: Much of what is now being said of Bush and his administration can also be said of the nation as a whole. The president was far from alone in preferring to think with his gut, not his brain, in deciding to invade Iraq. If he had not reflected the national mood so well, he could not have led us so easily into such a bad war.

Furthermore, the fact that Bush was re-elected in 2004 suggests that self-deception can be a national as well as personal phenomenon.

It is wrong -- tempting, but wrong -- to try to scapegoat one man for the mistakes of the past seven years, even if that man is as powerful as the president. Our institutions have failed us, and we have failed ourselves. For that failure, we will pay a heavy price for years to come.

To which I heartily respond: Bullshit! How dare he drag "the nation as a whole" into taking responsibility for Bush's crimes and incompetence. There were millions of us who protested the war, saw the shams and the scams behind all the run-up, knew that the course of action had been charted since before 9/11/01 and put into serious overdrive shortly afterward, regardless of how often Bush mouthed cute denials like "there are no plans for invading Iraq on my desk," such a deceitful technicality. There was no "national mood" pushing us to go to war against Iraq - only a degree of manufactured consent that cowed most people who didn't study the issue all that closely to go along with the program. (Though maybe living as Bookman does in Georgia, his perceptions were skewed by all the hardcore wingnuts in his vicinity. I sure get that impression from reading the comments he generates on his website...) If Bush had truly reflected the national mood, rather than pushing as aggressively as he did for the invasion and ridiculing non-militaristic approaches to the problem of Saddam Hussein, his approach would have been sober, patient, and measured, recognizing the complexity of the issues and the strong ambivalence that was present in our society - if the dissenting voices who worked so hard to be heard had been respected, listened to and considered.

Bookman's conceit is that McLellan and other critics of Bush are trying to "scapegoat one man for the mistakes of the past seven years." By broadening the circle of responsibility to "the nation as a whole," he evades the painful (to him) reality that he and the supposed experts who sided with Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell and many others are no longer fit to be trusted when offering their opinions on matters this serious. The true lesson of the tragedy that is the Iraq War is that its early critics and protesters were correct in their appraisals of what was going on and deserve to be taken more seriously in the future than they were at the dawn of this new millennium. Justice would require that Bush and the neocons who led our country into this mess would spend the rest of their lives making some kind of restitution to the hundreds of thousands of families whose lives have been wrecked by their arrogance. Instead, we will see them skimming profits, making deals and as in the case of Scott McLellan, even being lauded as some kind of bold apologists for the truth when they step from behind their spheres of privilege to state what's been so obvious to so many of us for such a long long time.

From Our First... to Last... Day of School!

Pre-school days, back when Alyssa was still taller than her brothers

Alyssa gets us started as a school-going family on her first day of Kindergarten

The twins weren't quite ready to start school but they (and Derek) wanted in the picture anyway

Alyssa will show Brandon (blue straps) and Curt (red) how to behave at Godfrey Elementary

Derek hammed his way into the pic though he was still not ready to join his sibs at school

Finally, all four kids are ready for class - backpacks on and ready to learn

Alyssa was heading into 5th grade - we were looking for a better neighborhood by the next summer

And here we are in our new (still current) home on Clarion Avenue. Alyssa went to Newhall Middle while the boys went to Parkview Elementary

Curt wore red, Brandon wore blue - that was the shortcut for telling them apart at a glance

Alyssa and the twins went to Newhall this year while Derek walked himself to Parkview

Curt's UFO pendant makes its debut - Alyssa entered Wyoming Park HS

Curt wears glasses now so we don't have to bother with the red/blue color scheme

The twins are freshmen and Derek is again going to school by himself at Newhall

Alyssa's senior year begins!

Derek looks every bit like the geeky 8th grader that he was! Sean H. takes Alyssa's spot

Brandon and Curt are big ol' seniors - Derek's now a freshman, playin it cool

I couldn't find our first day pic for 2005 so I took this shot from that summer's band camp

Derek's all by his lonesome for his junior...

...and senior first-days of school. Notice the wardrobe upgrade!

And here it is... the Blakeslee siblings, on Our Last Day of School

...all in all, I think they turned out pretty well!

Graduation Pix!

We had a very nice evening at the Wyoming Park High School graduation ceremony. Derek's speech was excellent - he got the biggest laughs of the night and he spoke words of wisdom befitting the occasion. More details and photos to come, later, but here's what I have to show you now...


Proud Parents - check out that medallion!


Happy Family - The Blakeslees are all done with high school now!

Go Speed Racer! Go!!

When I was in junior high, what they now call 'middle school' here in Michigan anyway, my after school routine consisted of coming home and turning on the TV before my sister got her hands on it. I can't remember if Speed Racer was the first program that I'd tune into, but it fit somewhere in there between reruns of Gilligan's Island and the Brady Bunch. I didn't know it at the time, but I was being introduced to anime, the Japanese art form that took the basic techniques of cartoon animation and adapted it to their own culture and story-telling traditions. I also watched another Japanese series, Kimba the White Lion, which had its moments of coolness - but Speed Racer was without a doubt the most inspiring TV show of its kind at that point in my life. I was pretty big into Marvel comics during those years, and even though Speed Racer wasn't a superhero in that style, his creators definitely brought that dynamic approach to storytelling - strange angles, bold action, plots that extended from one episode to the next - to syndicated TV programming, in an era where we didn't have anything remotely approaching the glut of comic-book adaptations we see around us these days. Speed Racer also had a very cool car, featuring a set of push-button controls that allowed the car to jump, saw through anything in it's path, drive underwater, send out a robotic homing pigeon and put on impervious tires when road conditions got hazardous. Part of the fun in watching each episode was seeing which buttons Speed got to push as he alternated between white-knuckle racing action and all sorts of adventures, challenges and rescues from danger involving his girlfriend Trixie, his little brother Spritle and/or his sidekick pet Chim-Chim.

Of course life goes on and awkward middle school comic geeks grow up into sullen miscreant rockin' rollin' stoner dudes, or at least that's what happened to me anyway, back in the mid-70s. Speed Racer soon began to look like kid stuff, I moved to another city and for all I know the syndication of the program ran its course. In other words, I stopped watching it and found other amusements. In the subsequent years, I'd see the occasional VHS tape and later, DVDs of old Speed Racer programs and maybe I watched one or two episodes at random times in the intervening decades. But I never really made it much of a point to revisit the old programs. Fond recollections were sufficient to me.

But I heard a couple years back that the Wachowski Brothers, creators of the Matrix films and also V For Vendetta, had gotten the rights to make a live action Speed Racer movie - and that prospect excited me! I am a big fan of their work - even though the conventional wisdom on the Matrix sequels (Reloaded and Revolutions) is that they were bloated, confusing and disappointing to many viewers, I found them highly satisfying and worth plenty of repeat viewing. I figured that these guys know what they like, and the craftsmanship and innovation they bring to their films would generate memorable results.

So it turned out that Speed Racer's release came a bit on the early end of the summer blockbuster season - the week after Iron Man, before the new Narnia and Indiana Jones movies. The early buzz that I heard was that Iron Man was excellent and was most likely to be the big hit of this phase of summer releases - but that Speed Racer was probably going to struggle to find its audience, and would have an even harder time making back its huge production budget. I took time to read a few reviews, learning therein that the critics were underwhelmed and even dismissive of the Wachowski's efforts. They noted the bright colors and technical proficiencies that went into the film, but overall did little to encourage the curious to go check out this movie.

Well... those critics only managed to put their own ignorance and cluelessness on display. I've seen Iron Man, and Prince Caspian. Neither of them rated a mention here. Speed Racer, on the other hand... now THAT is a movie that earns my enthusiastic endorsement and fanatical loyalty!
I TOTALLY DUG THE SPEED RACER EXPERIENCE. I WILL SEE IT AGAIN! I WILL OWN THE DVD! :o)

As was the case with the Matrix, which I saw in the theater in 1999, I had the same sense of watching the future of glossy special efx cinema unfolding before my eyes. Speed Racer crosses a threshold that a movie like, say Transformers from last summer approached but didn't quite reach - the ability to create a thoroughly immersive virtual world on screen that operates according to its own rules, physics and visual vocabulary. They've basically taken the conceptual action, characterizations, framing and camera movements of anime and buffed it up to an incredibly high level of gloss and sparkle. So yes, the visuals are a HUGE draw for this movie - if you are not inclined to want to see bold, vibrant, explosive colors of all hues flashing, twinkling, swirling and shimmering in high-definition digital clarity, then maybe this isn't for you. But beyond all that - and believe me, there aren't any "light shows" in the movies that I can think of off hand that rival this production - I think the story and characters and humor of the film are all simply wonderful! If the movie were nothing but computer-generated colorbursts and crazy gravity-defying drift-racing stunts, I might have an easier time seeing the points of those critics who dissed the movie. But in my opinion, they completely misread the intentions of its creators and probably have little or no appreciation of the admittedly low-budget, crank-it-out style of late 60's anime. Speed Racer never set out to tell a story on the grand scale of anime classics like Akira or Ghost in the Shell, nor does it set out to rival the awe-inspiring mythic tales of Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and others.) The story of this version of Speed Racer is faithful to the style of its source, with an updated message declaring deep suspicion of corporate control that is simplified and accessible enough for the pre-teen set that I know will totally dig this film once they cajole their parents into taking them to see it (after they've run through all the other mediocre blockbusters that seem more obligatory and accessible to mainstream audiences.)

I will even go so far as to say that I thought the acting in this film was thoroughly delightful. Emile Hirsch plays Speed Racer and his ability to replicate the facial expressions of the iconic cartoon character is amazing. John Goodman and Susan Sarandon play Speed's parents and they are both quite appealing in their roles. I enjoyed watching Sarandon in particular as she brought a nice touch to the role of Mom Racer, one that I don't have much memory of in the original series. And Christina Ricci has never been cuter than here in her portrayal of Trixie - she even gets to do a little driving and was just so much fun to watch. The rest of the supporting characters, including the villains, were perfectly cast - it was cool to see Richard Roundtree (the original "Shaft") make an appearance as a retired racer turned commentator. Let's face it - the whole cast has probably had to work harder portraying much more complex characters in their respective careers, but they all totally nailed their parts. And the editing was totally amazing! Heads and other objects swiped across the screen, backgrounds of abstracted designs, wild kung fu action sequences, car races across the most fearsome terrain and obstacles both natural and manmade... just all so much, and culminating in as hypnotic, energizing, sensory-overloading a spectacle as I could ever hope for (without risking seizures in an unacceptably high percentage of the audience.)

Speed Racer delivers the goods! I am SUCH A BIG FAN!!! It's so cool.

Derek Blakeslee: Superstar Senior

Here's something I want to pass along to you - my youngest son Derek is an awesome student and human being! It's not just my biased opinion either. He was selected as one of 100 "Superstar Seniors" by staff of the Grand Rapids Press. Today's Sunday paper gave him and 99 of his peers some nice recognition for their academic and other significant achievements. But if you don't mind... I'd like to focus on Derek here! :o)

So here are links to the bits about him. You can watch the video first, then read all about it after that.

Superstar Seniors 2008

Pdf of the newspaper article

Derek's essay

The rest of the story

Derek was the one student chosen of the three nominated by his school, Wyoming Park High. I don't know the other two students, Andrew Groeneveld and Stepahanie LeValley, real well but I know enough about through incidental contacts and stuff I've heard over the years to know that they are also outstanding students who were just as deserving of being chosen as anyone. We are thrilled for Derek that his fine work has paid off so royally. Graduation at WPHS will happen this coming Tuesday - what a time that will be for him, and our family! Of course, you'll read all about it here, after it happens!

Bodies Against The War - Updated (5/28/08)

I've updated the links at bottom of this entry - they're worth checking out if you want to learn more about what went on at Calder Plaza after I left - DB

I have officially begun active personal involvement with the campaign to elect Barack Obama as President of the USA in 2008. I briefly attended an organizing meeting this past Thursday (couldn't stay for the whole thing due to family obligations.) I signed up to volunteer and it looks like the main thing to do at this point is to go register voters. I was contacted on Friday night and instructed to meet at a neighborhood park in Grand Rapids on Saturday morning. So I showed up there and got a clipboard and a stack of voter registration forms.

The organizers offered a variety of places around town I could choose from to seek unregistered voters. One of them was an anti-war demonstration to be held later in the day at Calder Plaza. Well that was a no-brainer for me! I was pretty interested in seeing what would happen there so I volunteered to take a spot there during the morning lead-up to the event that was scheduled to start at noon. As I heard more details about what was expected to go on there, a few dots were connected in my mind and I realized that this was going to be the "Bodies Against The War" protest, organized by Juliea Paige, a 28-year old local woman whom I've known since she was a teenager. Even though I knew that I wouldn't be able to stay for the whole event (we are in graduation open house season and will be busy doing these events, or weddings, for the next four weekends) I was really pleased with the prospect of reconnecting with Juliea and seeing what her organizational efforts would produce.

I showed up at the Plaza a little after 11 a.m. and it was pretty dead. I talked for a few minutes with a painter who had the unique assignment of having to scrape and repaint the famous stabile (a large steel sculpture) created in 1969 by Alexander Calder, for whom the Plaza is named. The artwork is now closely identified with the city of Grand Rapids and I have a fondness for the big red thing. I enjoyed a chance to learn a little bit more about how the large object is maintained and thought about taking home a few chunks of the bright, distinctively red paint chips that had fallen to the ground but decided I really didn't need anything like that laying around my house.

After awhile, protesters began gathering and that gave me an opportunity to get to work. I just started asking people if they were registered to vote and for the most part, everyone had taken care of that already. But I did wind up getting three people on the rolls, all of whom were apparently eager to vote for the Democratic nominee this fall. I put in a few good words for Obama and was just as interested (even moreso, really) in hearing from these young people what had drawn them out to make this public statement against the war. Most everybody there was between the ages of 17 - 29, I figured, with the median probably skewed toward the low 20's. I took a lot of encouragement from that. I knew that Juliea had done most of her publicity through her MySpace and Facebook pages, which took this event outside of the typical orbit of events sponsored by more "experienced" antiwar activists in Grand Rapids.

Eventually Juliea herself showed up and she was happily surprised to see me. We had a few minutes of reconnecting after not having seen each other in probably over a year or so and I congratulated her on not just this event, but her upcoming wedding which will take place next month (which I hope to attend, though it will be out of town.) Then I let her get about her business of spray-painting numbers on t-shirts, managing details and prepping for the speech that she had prepared to deliver.

Sadly, I wasn't able to stick around for the protest itself, since I had other things I had to take care of that morning. Chris, another Obama campaign volunteer, showed up to relieve me and I gave him the completed registration forms. As I pulled away, I saw video cameras being set up, photographers assembling their equipment and a stream of more young people in white t-shirts walking toward Calder Plaza. The weather was great, Memorial Day weekend was in full swing, and I left with a feeling of optimism as our political culture seemed to get a bit younger and fresher that morning.

Reports on the event:

Grand Rapids Press
WZZM-13 Includes video coverage
Media Mouse (this was pre-event coverage - I will add link if they do more)
Media Mouse post-event coverage - emphasizing how this story was squelched by local media.

Obama in GR (Part 2)

In my previous post, I had just entered Van Andel Arena, with surprising ease given what I'd read and expected about long lines and people waiting throughout the day and knowing that caravans of supporters from around the state were coming in to be a part of this exciting, surprising event. But I've walked into the VAA so many times that being there again was no big thing for me, except for who I was about to see and the unusual exception to the rules that going in there usually means one is about to see a sports or musical presentation.

The place was definitely buzzing though! I really enjoyed the energy and enthusiasm I felt from the crowd - a diverse and happy bunch of us to be sure! I guess it's fair to say that the standard Obama "base" had turned out - lots of younger, black and "educated liberal" (my niche, I guess) folks in the crowd - but I saw a number of people who could have been regarded as part of Hillary Clinton's base too (and if one talks about working class whites making a modest income, THAT'S ME!) I'd have to say that this crowd was more demographically representative of the diversity in the Grand Rapids area than most any other events I've seen there (and I've worked at the arena on many occasions, not just been there as a paying customer.)

I made my way to the sections I like to sit in when I have a choice in the matter. The first one I tried turned out to be behind the podium - not directly (backdrop for the cameras - that was a select audience, of course, totally packed and beyond my access, I figured) but off to the speaker's left. Besides the fact that all the seats in that section appeared to be spoken for, I didn't want to sit watching Obama's back most of the time, though in every other respect those were some pretty nice seats - and would provide some good people watching opportunities to watch the fanboys and fangirls go cuckoo in front of Barack. So I left that section and crossed over to the other side of the arena where I could get a close, straight on view of the proceedings.

Well the section I had in mind was also pretty full but I visually scoured the aisles, looking for a singleton seat wherever I could find one. I worked my way down to the front row - lo and behold, it looked to me like there were not one but two seats just sitting there as empty as could be! I scurried down there as quick as I could and found that one was claimed, but not the other. I had found my spot!

One reason that the seat might have gone unclaimed for as long as it did was that the view was slightly obstructed by the platform set up for all the TV cameras. As it turned out, I was able to see the podium and the speakers the whole time. People sitting behind and above me had it worse as the camera operators lined up squarely between them and the folks at the podium. I was pretty content and felt quite fortunate to be in that spot, given that just about everything else in the main part of the arena was filled up and the only obviously available spots were in the upper decks. Since the rally did not feature any closed circuit video (i.e. no enlarged images of Obama or anyone else on the arena's big screen) we had no choice but to watch what was happening on stage.

The standard "good times" music played while we all sat and waited - Motown oldies, mainly, something we could all relate to and enjoy and would offend nobody. Also U2's "City of Blinding Lights" which I guess has become a semi-official theme song ("oh you look so beau-ti-ful tonight.") I took a few test photos to see what kind of image quality I'd get with my battered and unreliable digital camera, and wasn't too encouraged as the batteries were proving unreliable (they're rechargeables that have been used a lot and probably need replacing after years of service.) At one point, a woman came out and asked us all to text the campaign, which I eventually did, and now I'm signed up to get text memos which I hope they don't overdo since I pay for each one... As I sat there fiddling around with my cellphone, a guy came up and asked me about the rumors (which I had read on email just before leaving work) that John Edwards was going to come out and endorse Obama very shortly. He asked me what I thought of that and I answered his question. He pulled out a notepad and started scribbling down my answers. I quickly ascertained that he was a reporter and I was being interviewed, so I did what I could to deliver my thoughts in tasty little soundbites. It turns out that the guy is Mark Hornbeck and he writes for the Detroit News and he found it fitting to include a quote of mine in his story for Thursday's edition of the paper:

Dave Blakeslee, 46, a social worker from Wyoming, was "thrilled" the Edwards endorsement happened in Grand Rapids. "We've been starved for political attention here the last several months, especially since our primary didn't count," he said.

So how ya like me now?!? :o)

That was a very nice moment and I enjoyed the idea that I was contributing in some small way to the larger media narrative that would be spun out of this event.

It wasn't too much longer after that a wounded American soldier came out to lead the Pledge of Allegiance, soon followed by a man who works for a local manufacturer, anticipating that his job will terminate this coming November when the plant relocates to Mexico. I figured he was just the first of several speakers who would say a few words, rolling out other prominent Democratic politicians (though most of our bigwigs in this state are probably still too loyal to Clinton to make public appearances with Obama just yet...) But I was surprised that after he delivered a few soft-spoken words, he announced "the next president of the United States, Barack Obama!"

So what happened? Eruptions of raucous cheering and applause, that's what! It was fantastic! Big noise! Sustained volume! A swell of emotions! Barack was in the house!

He stepped up on stage, and I suppose that this part is easy enough to find on-line somewhere - in fact, I'll embed the video later if I'm able to. Barack apologized for taking this long to come to Michigan, but now that he was here, he wanted to bring us something special - so here comes John Edwards! ... and that was pretty cool too. Double Democratic star power on the VAA stage!

Edwards came out to sustained applause - the whole place was really into it! - and I was just impressed by the ability of these two men, so familiar to us all through their TV appearances, to project presence and personality so clearly. I've seen a lot of people up on that stage and some, even famous ones, come across as small. These guys know how to fill a room and hold attention.

Edwards began with some compliments for Hillary Clinton, which drew a mixed reaction - those of us who knew better were able to extend some polite magnanimous applause, but there were a lot of boos to be heard in the mix too. One memorable moment was when Edwards said "I've known Hillary for a long time, but I've gotten to know her very well over these past few months" - to which a black woman sitting a few seats down from me snapped "well, so have we!" and you could tell that her angle on Ms. Clinton was more than a bit different than that of the former NC senator! But after he got those conciliatory formalities out of the way (which were in turn echoed by Obama when he spoke later - "let the healing process and the unification efforts begin") he launched into what I thought was a powerful and eloquent recitation of the themes that have distinguished his political efforts over the last two election cycles - his clear focus and determined efforts to bring the unacceptably high level of poverty in the US to more peoples attention. To some cynics, I suppose, it was just more of the same from Edwards, but I respect his advocacy and recognize the need to seriously address the problem from a public policy standpoint. Simply leaving poor people on their own to fix their own problems or find their own solutions is neither realistic, feasible nor humane in this economic era where even basic resources are becoming increasingly unaffordable.

Obama's speech, after receiving Edwards' endorsement, built on those themes and to me, was excellently delivered, inspiring and in tune with what the people had come to hear. Let's face it,Barack was among friends, supporters, fans, whatever you want to call them. He could barely do no wrong. But I was so impressed by the content and the connection that he established with 12,000 plus in that cavernous arena. No other political figure in this country could have or would have even dared try to pull off an event on this scale - especially coming right into the heart of Grand Rapids, home of Gerald R. Ford and a bastion of the conservative Republican establishment. Both Bush and Cheney have made multiple visits to this city, on very strategic occasions (Bush on the day after the 2003 State of the Union speech, most notoriously) and have raised LOTS of money in this region. Obama could have filled an arena pretty easily and safely on the east side of the state, but he took it into the GOP's heartland as far as Michigan is concerned. And he nailed it down hard!

It wasn't until later that I realized that the big endorsement occurred just around 6:30 p.m., in time for the network newscasts, and of course just a day after Clinton's WVA primary win. Well, that was yesterday's news alright! Obama had just bagged about the biggest endorsement in question this side of Al Gore (given that Pelosi and Jimmy Carter are already pretty obviously pro-Obama...) A shrewd, powerful and breathtaking political masterstroke, and I was there on hand to see it unfold. I also heard later that the fire marshall had capped off the size of the crowd even though I saw what seemed like plenty of room inside the arena. A crowd of several hundreds or thousands got locked out and had to spend the time on the sidewalk - I felt bad for them. I guess they didn't want to totally pack the place out in the interests of safety and crowd management. Maybe he'll have to do an open-air appearance here later on this summer?

All in all, quite a memorable night - it met and surpassed my expectations. The whole thing was pretty well wrapped up shortly after 7 p.m. I wandered around the arena for awhile looking again for familiar faces, saw a few, chatted briefy, then moved on. Bought myself a $5 t-shirt from a vendor, not official campaign merch at all, but suitable enough for me. "A Bold Change for America 2008" it reads on the back, with a red-white-and-blue graphic of Barack's face on the front. About sums it up!

Obama in GR

I'm just uploading a few photos I happened to salvage with my crappy little dying-batteries camera from last night's event at the Van Andel Arena. The news media will give you much nicer portrayals of what happened there, but this is what I can offer. The words will come later when I get a chance to write a proper summary of what I saw in heard. But it was a great night! My enthusiasm for Obama's campaign has never been higher!

(Added on 5-16-08)

I was working at my desk on Monday afternoon, just doing some writing and stuff, when an email popped up from one of the Michigan-based Obama email lists I subscribe to, announcing, to my astonishment, that Barack was coming to Grand Rapids on Wednesday May 14! This came as an utter surprise to me but of course whatever plans I had for that night were instantly over-ridden (and fortunately no serious cancellations were necessary.) It didn't matter that I was in the process of writing two serious grant applications worth a total of $750,000 due later in the week or leading a training for a class of over 100 people the day after Obama's rally - this was a no-brainer, can't miss event.

Later in the afternoon, I got an official RSVP message from Obama for America and let them know I'd be there.

Tuesday night I saw that Obama had been trounced in West Virginia's primary (there's no better way of describing it) but was satisfied to see how irrelevant that outcome was in most observers' eyes. My focus was more on what was about to happen in my own community, and how cool it was that Barack had chosen Grand Rapids for his first big-time event in the state in Campaign 2008. That night, I had a good Google-chat from with a co-worker and we made tentative plans to meet at my house and travel together. Derek was also interested in joining us, but later had to back out due to some homework assignments - essays he had to write. I applaud his responsibility and seeing high school through to the end and thoroughly fault his teachers for continuing to lay homework on this guy, who's about to graduate with a 4.0+ GPA in less than two weeks!

Wednesday was just a hectic day for me. I was determined to get a lot done and I did, but with a big training on my mind and a lot of deadline pressure to get at least one of the grants over and done with and submitted by the end of the workday, each hour that passed created a greater sense of urgency. I started reading on-line how the queue in front of the Van Andel Arena started building at 8 a.m.! My attention was directed by a list-subber about an article in the GR Press that dropped references to Louis Farrakhan, the Million Man March and an Boston university expert on crowd-size estimation who happened to be named Farouk Al-Baz. Hmmm, what a coincidence that a local beat writer from Grand Rapids would just happen to drop those names into an article written in anticipation of Obama's visit to our fair city.... Then I got a message from my friend saying that his plans had changed and that he and his wife would be traveling to the arena from their home. So I wound up going solo, since the other people I knew would be going there were coming from other destinations... I was content to mill around the place looking for familiar faces once I showed up then.

My goal had been to suck it up and leave by 4 p.m. which was already later than ideal, but I had obligations to tend to and had to be realistic. I knew that traffic downtown would be tight, and I wanted to get some kind of a jump on rush hour (though Grand Rapids' rush hour is pretty wimpy compared to what some of my regular readers who live in larger metropoli occasionally have to deal with.) I knew that doors opened at 5 p.m. but figured that a capacity crowd was likely and didn't want to get stuck in the upper rafters of the arena. So I told Connie, working with me on the grant, that I wanted final revision feedback sent my way by 3 p.m. so I could split by 4:00. Uh-huh, right, that's exactly not how smoothly it went...

I'll spare the details but just figure that a lot of emailing, phone-calling and running back and forth from office to office, building to building, took place as we got all our facts, figures, budgets, attachments, pdfs, salutations, mission statements, talking points, substantiations, case arguments, goals, objectives, evaluations and comparitive studies in proper order until, at 4:20 p.m. or thereabouts I was able to hit that blessed SEND button and hurtle our humble little request for $425K through cyber-space to our would-be beneficiaries.

Then I fairly vaulted to my car, through the drizzle and out into traffic.

Only to realize that I'd forgotten to grab my camera and had to make a crucial choice between going straight to the arena, or home for a minute, then to the rally.

I first decided I would just head downtown due to the lateness of my departure. I knew there would be no shortage of photos available on line from various sources. But as I approached the fateful intersection where I would have to either turn toward home or go straight north, I swiftly decided that I had to get my own camera, just so that I could get more of my own experience down digital. Fortunately I don't live that far away from the arena, otherwise the choice would have been more difficult if I'd actually have had to drive away from my destination.

So I was able to get home, change my clothes, grab my camera, grab a handful of peanuts and raisins for dinner, and dash right off again as my bewildered family wondered what that blur was rushing through their living space.

Being a VAA vet, I know some good free parking spaces in the neighborhood, and though my favorite spots were all taken, I found one a little further out than necessary and efficiently deposited my Taurus there for the next few hours. Hoofed to the big black cube in the heart of the city, past street vendors hawking t-shirts and pins and protesters of abortion and on behalf of Hillary Clinton. Ran into one of my IGE friends who was handing out slips of paper with a link comparing Obama to Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney, which was cool by me. Walked without breaking stride all that much into a line, through the huge glass wall in front of arena, cellphone on, empty pockets, through the metal detectors and then up the stairs into the seating section (since I didn't feel like standing in the pit in front of the podium after a long strenuous day...)

(To be continued!)

Static

After doing that garden and landscaping work all day on Saturday, I was in the mood for something refreshing and mentally invigorating, so after I got home and cleaned up, I headed out shortly thereafter to hear a talk given by Amy Goodman, host of the Democracy Now! newscast that airs on Pacifica Radio, Free Speech TV and a variety of other places. If you're not familiar with the show, you can check out the program on its website. They also have a podcast available on iTunes and presumably elsewhere if you want to just listen (though the video adds a lot to the impact of the stories, since they show you stuff that will never make it onto the networks.)

The occasion that brought her into town was a book tour, promoting her third and latest volume, Standing Up to the Madness. I happen to already own a copy of her second book, Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders and the People Who Fight Back. The cover features the snarling, smug and distorted faces of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, just to give you an idea of where she's coming from. (The books were co-written with her brother, David Goodman, I should add.) She also allowed her appearance to serve as a fundraiser for the Media Mouse alt-media website, a local effort that focuses on West Michigan sources primarily but whose interest ranges quite far and wide. Another group affiliated with Media Mouse, the Bloom Collective, also had a table there that caught my attention and supplied some fascinating anarchist literature published by the CrimethInc. collective. I've been reading and pondering it the past few days and I really appreciate their emphasis on living life authentically and passionately in the moment - increasingly aware of the exploitation and destruction that "civilization" pushes on so many lives, doing what we can to minimize that impact, challenge and change the status quo. I am not at the point where "chucking it all" and hooking up with an anarchist collective is the preferred option - but I will say that there are times when the notion sounds kind of attractive! For now, I content myself to just consider what they are saying and see where those ponderings take me.

I have more thoughts on this that, for now anyway, I think I will keep closer to the vest. Mainly it's late and I need to get onto other things. But I at least wanted to post these links, give readers here a chance to learn about Amy Goodman and her work for themselves if they haven't seen her program yet, and give a little update on the cultural stuff that I'm involved with. I can and will say more about all this in the comment section if anyone nudges me to do so with a question or opinion. On the flip side of the political spectrum, I suppose, I also had a chance to listen in on a talk that State Senator Bill Hardiman gave at my place of employment this morning, speaking about his views on the partnership between state government and private, community-based social service agencies as Michigan weighs its options to deal with the difficulties that many children and families face, economically and developmentally, in a tough economy and under other stressful circumstances. I enjoyed hearing his thoughts on this topic which is quite relevant and important to me on both a professional and cultural level.

Meanwhile, here's a picture of me and Amy Goodman. She looks just like she does on TV!

Gardening Season

It's a sunny Saturday in May so of course nobody has business being indoors. I spent the day in my mom's yard, transplanting this Japanese Maple (I hope it survives the shock) and building big wooden boxes for three raised gardening beds in her back yard. It was our collective gift to her, as she requested.

My sister Debbie and her husband Ed on the left, me Lys and Julie on the right. Tree in middle. Ed says he wants to start a blog so that he can advance his favorite conspiracy theories, so I may help set him up in that department when I'm over at his house tomorrow for our Mother's Day observances.

Derek on the Bari Sax

Not much to say except that Derek looks pretty tuff and righteous blowin' that big horn. Somebody sitting behind me uttered "Awesome!" at the conclusion of his flawless solo! All that was missing was the smoky ambiance of a downtown club at 1 o'clock in the morning... but it's just a high school jazz ensemble, after all.

So What's Dave Been Up To?

I realize that my blogging habits have slacked off considerably lately and here I go committing a terrible blogging sin by leading off a post with a disclaimer. Just goes to show how pathetically rusty I am. It's not like I haven't been writing... just not much original content for this particular site. But that's going to change, now, because I said so.

The biggest news around our household recently continues to revolve around Derek, my youngest son, who will graduate from Wyoming Park HS later this month. He's already earned admission to the University of Michigan, and that's just the beginning. He's also been named valedictorian of his graduating class and will be giving a speech at the ceremony (because, you know, that's what valedictorians do...) He won a scholarship for $500 "do anything" dollars awarded by teachers from his school the other day, already has other significant scholarships in the bag, and is in the running for a couple more yet TBD. He's looking to room with two classmates, one from Africa, the other Vietnamese, so I'm really excited about these friendships he's recently developed (I haven't met the guys yet myself but hope to soon) and the diverse, exciting atmosphere he'll be moving into when he settles into Ann Arbor later this year. Derek's achievements are so gratifying to observe as he's really come into his own this year as a most impressive young man. Of course we are getting open house plans together and look forward to celebrating the grad and also bidding farewell to this phase of our family's life.

My job is going well, and it's keeping me busy and engaged with a variety of creative outlets but I really don't feel like talking about work here so that's about all I'll have to say on that topic. I'm going through another Institute for Healing Racism class which I am glad to be a part of but, for various reasons, is not quite as revolutionary in its impact on my life as it was back in 1999 when I went through the course for the first time (I was, generally speaking, in a state of much greater flux back then, in any case, so I wasn't expecting to be so dramatically affected this time around.)

I have opinions and observations to make on politics and current events, as always, but overall a feeling of bemusement and dismay prevails when I take in the cultural landscape of our nation these days. I still like Barack Obama and I hope he's able to weather the storm and at least get a chance to realize the promise that his campaign seemed ready to deliver on earlier this year, before the knucklehead pundits and slime machine zeroed in on him. But it's wearisome to engage in much debate or discussion about him since the standard critiques and talking points just seem so tedious and overplayed to me. And I really don't even watch much of the talking-heads TV anymore - it just seems so futile to me. The way the news is reported and the things that they choose to emphasize in creating the stories leaves me doubting that our nation is ever going to be ready to come together to collectively address the significant problems we face and if social improvements on a large scale are really even possible. It seems like people would rather fight and remain divided against each other.

My Church Police blog has some news related to my old band that some might find interesting.

OK, I think that's a good unloading step for me to take so that I can now address more personal, substantive and reflective topics from this point forward.

Problem Child Comes Full Circle

I'm going to post this link without comment right now, but if you want to nudge me on it, I probably have more to say on the topic!