Archive for the ‘Civil Rights’ Category
November 6, 2016
It is fall like but not November fall like. In Minnesota my brother went to a football game wearing Bermuda shorts; it was 75 degrees there. In Claverack, it scraped 65 and I was warm in my pullover fleece.
When I left home this morning, I wandered the Farmer’s Market, picking up a few things I craved like the Sea Salt and Onion cashews from Tierra Farms and some of their Free Trade Honduran coffee. Meandering over to the Red Dot, I had the omelet of the day and then went wandering the streets of Hudson, marching up one side of Warren Street and returning on the other side, an adventure that took me three hours.
There are all kinds of changes on Warren Street and while I have been aware of them, I haven’t walked the street the way I used to when I first arrived here. Some antique stores are gone and seem to have been replaced by clothing stores. Several times I thought I could be in SoHo in Manhattan.
A fancy pizzeria has opened and Olde Hudson has expanded beyond belief. Dena, who owns it, is a friend so I had seen that.
Many of us have been joking lately about the number of expensive cars seen on the street. Not so long ago I spotted a Ferrari parked on Warren Street as I was on my way to meet Larry Divney for lunch. We both said it was the beginning of the end.
When I arrived here fifteen years ago there were no expensive cars on the street. My Acura was an anomaly for the time as was Larry’s Infiniti.
Hudson is becoming a destination. For better or worse. Better for my house value but perhaps worse for those who liked the edge Hudson had when I arrived, a little bit of rebelliousness that was a treasure.
The center of it was the Red Dot, owned by Alana Hauptman who is the Texas Guinan of our town. Don’t know Texas Guinan? She ran the hottest speakeasies in New York during Prohibition. After 16 years, the Dot is still here and still a center of life in Hudson. And Alana is our Texas Guinan.
And walking Warren Street today, I was astounded by the changes. To think that I would be thinking it was a bit like SoHo, which is where I was living when we bought the house, is something I would never have thought then. Sometime, long after I am gone, it will be a lot like Provincetown, I suspect. Or Edgartown on The Vineyard. It’s becoming that kind of place.
But will never be exactly that kind of place. That’s what makes Hudson so special.
There were Porsches everywhere on the street today. When I went back to the Dot after my tour of the street I ran into James Ivory, the director of films like “A Room with a View.” He’s become a bit of friend, has been at parties at my home and dinners too, and one Christmas I spent with him at his house. With Alana…
It has been an interesting escapade to have lived here through all this, to witness the transformation of a community from rough and tumble to almost respectable. It was and is an artist’s haven, a place where writers and painters and actors gather.
Across the river in Catskill, there is the Bridge Street Theater and I went last week to a performance of “Frankenstein.” It was brilliant. And I mean brilliant. Steven Patterson, who did every role, was as riveting as Paul Scofield [“A Man For All Seasons”] when I saw him in London on my first trip there. It was a forgettable script but his performance was transcendent. Steven Patterson’s performance was like that.
Transcendent.
John Sowle directed. Equal kudos to him.
Tonight, I am not talking about politics or world events. I can’t tonight. We are at the near end of the most awful political period I have ever experienced. No matter who wins, the contentiousness will not end.
The creek at night.
Tags:Alana Hauptman, Bridge Street Theater, Edgartown, Frankenstein, Hudson, Hudson Farmer's Market, John Sowle, Olde Hudson, Provincetown, Red Dot, Soho, Steven Patterson, Texas Guinan, Tierra Farms, Warren Street
Posted in 2016 Election, Civil Rights, Claverack, Columbia County, Elections, Entertainment, Hollywood, Hudson New York, Life, Literature, Martha's Vineyard, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Political, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
October 28, 2016
The bright sun that launched the day has become hidden behind clouds as I progress south on the train into New York City. The fall colors still show themselves and we are definitely making a walk toward winter.
It snowed yesterday, three inches, quickly gone with the cold seeping deeply into my bones while I layered clothes for the weather.
Today and tomorrow, I am going to be attending “Produced By,” a conference held by the Producers Guild of America, of which I am a member. There are several sessions that should be helpful as I work on producing “First Guru,” a film about Vivekananda, who brought Yoga and Hinduism to the US in 1893. WTTW, the PBS station in Chicago, will be the presenting station. Near the Art Institute of Chicago, where Vivekananda gave his first speech, there is a Vivekananda Way.
There is much talk in the world today of “mindfulness,” pausing a moment to find yourself in the clutter of noise that surrounds us. As I was writing that sentence and attempting to be mindful of myself and the beauty around me, I received an email that put me out of mindfulness into gratitude.
Several weeks ago I was requested to submit a proposal to The University of Virginia’s Miller Center for Presidential Politics and Policies to do a consulting assignment for them and an email arrived while I was on the train that they had accepted my proposal and wanted to start moving.
Which generated a flurry of activity as I reached out to thank my references for graciously supporting me. Followed by other things and setting up a conference call with The Miller Center for Monday afternoon and before I knew it, the train was gliding into Penn Station.
After stopping at Tracks Restaurant in the belly of Penn Station for a bowl of their clam chowder, I am now at the apartment, finishing the letter before going off to the first session of the conference.
As I was driving to the station today, I noticed that there were many Trump/Pence signs and no Clinton/Kaine signs. Pondering that, I wonder if the liberals in Columbia and Greene Counties tend to be “closeted.” Political discord can run deep in the Hudson River Valley. I’ve been told the tale of a Greene County resident who years ago registered himself as a Republican because until he did his County services were, shall we say, spotty…
There is another FBI look into Clinton’s emails. The two big burly men seated next to me at Tracks as I chowdered were none too happy about that.
Anthony Weiner, who fell from Congress because of his sexting problems, apparently had some emails that somehow connected to the Clinton case on the computer the FBI seized after his most recent sexting troubles. His wife, a close confidante and aid to Hillary Clinton, left her husband after it was discovered he was sexting someone while their son slept next to him.
The “Produced By” Conference is being held at Time – Warner Center. Time Warner has just been purchased by AT&T.
The single most catastrophic merger in the history of corporations was the merger of AOL and Time Warner. Now, it is hoped that Time Warner and AT&T will do better. But as a friend of mine, Jeff Cole, Executive Director of USC’s Annenberg School of Communications Center for the Digital Future, has observed that it is a little hard to imagine a phone company meshing well with a Hollywood behemoth.
We will see, if the regulators allow it to happen.
And, in Jerusalem, researchers have opened, for the first time in centuries, what is believed to have been Jesus’ tomb. Since the days of Constantine, the first Christian Roman Emperor, there has been a building there to make the spot. Constantine sent his mother, Helena, to Jerusalem to find it. [Maybe a good way to get a pesky mother off your hands for a few years?]
Marble has encased the slab where is body is said to have rested. Careful archeological work will be done over the next months and years.
Off to the conference…
Tags:Anthony Weiner, Center for the Digital Future, D, Donald Trump, General, Hillary Clinton, Hinduism, Jeff Cole, Jerusalem, Jesus, Jesus' Tomb, life, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Produced By, Producer's Guild of America, technology, Time Warner, Tracks Restaurant, Vivekananda, Yoga
Posted in 2016 Election, AT&T, Civil Rights, Claverack, Columbia County, Greene County New York, Hollywood, Hudson New York, Life, Literature, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commnentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
October 11, 2016
Well, it’s Monday evening and nearly twenty-four hours has passed since the debate. It was as close to X rated as any debate in the history of the Presidential Elections, what with Hillary bringing up Trump’s vile language in his 2005 tape and Trump bringing up Bill Clinton’s well-documented infidelities.
Oh my! Personally, I thought Trump looked terrible. And that sniffling…
The NY Times [and my conservative readers will not like this] said that there was only one adult on the stage and it wasn’t Donald Trump. I agree.
Trump had a little get together before the debate with four women who accuse Bill Clinton of sexual assault. Look, Bill was a philanderer. We all know that now thanks to Monica Lewinsky. We know Hillary was brutal in her defense of her husband.
AND Hillary is running for President. Not Bill. Bill Clinton was JFK without a compliant press.
It was down and dirty, Trump dominating the stage, sniffling all the time, while Hillary [IMHO] was doing her best to both go there and not go there. Trump’s tape was the elephant in the room.
It’s getting near the end of the day, thank God. There’s not much more of this I can stand.
However, there was one bright spot in the debate. His name was Ken Bone and he asked a question, wearing a bright red sweater and looking like the guy next door that we really like.
He asked about what the candidates would do to both protect legacy power and create environmentally safe sources going forward. He was respectful, he was clear, he was concise and because he looked like the neighbor you wanted to live next door to you, the Internet went wild. He was everywhere.
And that red sweater he was wearing? There are now all kind of Internet leads that will help you buy that sweater.
He was sweet and real in a moment that felt neither real nor sweet in any other way.
Bravo, Mr. Bone.
But in the meantime, Paul Ryan has said he will no longer defend Trump and will concentrate on keeping the down ticket seats safe. It is one of the rare things Paul Ryan has done with which I agree.
It is pitch black outside and the control to turn on the floodlights is broken, soon to be repaired.
This is the night I turned on the heat, the temperature will fall near to freezing this evening. Soon, I may light a fire in the Franklin Stove and watch some video.
The new season of Poldark has started on PBS and I am catching up.
In the meantime, medics are asking to be let into Aleppo as there is no longer an infrastructure to help the wounded. When last I wrote, two of the four working hospitals had been destroyed. Who knows if the other two are still functioning.
The pound has fallen against the dollar due to Brexit. It was $1.57 to a pound. Now it is $1.23 to a pound. Mayhap I shall plan a trip to Britain.
Nigel Lafarge who helped organize the successful campaign for Brexit, praised Donald Trump for acting like a silverback gorilla in the debate last night.
Please! Really? Nigel, you lied through it all and once you’d won, you stepped down to avoid the consequences of your actions.
It is Columbus Day. In many places it is becoming Indigenous Peoples Day. We are beginning to make mea culpa over the damage we had done to the people who lived here when we arrived.
We destroyed them, all in the name of progress. It makes me wonder what the world would be like if we had incorporated their beliefs into the way we developed our New World?
Tags:Aleppo, Bill Clinton, Brexit, Columbus Day, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Indigenous Peoples Day, Ken Bone, Monica Lewinsky, Nigel LaFarge, Paul Ryan, Poldark, Pound, Presidential Elections, Trump Sex Video Tape
Posted in 2016 Election, Brexit, Civil Rights, Claverack, Columbia County, Elections, Entertainment, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Syrian Refugee Crisis, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
October 2, 2016
It is twilight outside the windows; classical music plays, a gentle piano sonata. In the trail of grey days that we have left in our time wake, the leaves have begun to change outside. Most are still green but yellow branches now sway with the green in the twilight wind.
It is a quiet, magical moment here in the cottage. Marcel lays sleeping on the couch, tired after taking me on a tour of his domain across the street. I am a bit tired too, for no great reason. Waking at a reasonable hour, I did some early morning work, showered and went off to church.
Going home, I briefly walked Marcel and went off to the gym and from there to the Red Dot for my normal Sunday brunch, visiting with all the folks I know who also frequent there.
While sitting at the Dot, I read the NY Times on the phone and perused my emails.
The world was rocked today that Trump in 1995 claimed a loss of nearly a billion dollars. It shielded him from many taxes for the next eighteen years. It was legal and staggering at the same time. A billion dollars in losses in one year? In 1995?
Badly managed businesses provided that loss, especially the catastrophe of his Atlantic City Casinos. And it seems to me that those catastrophes kept happening over the decades.
The returns were mailed to the NY Times anonymously with a return address of Trump Tower. His campaign called the NY Times an arm of the Clinton campaign.
In another report today, a commentator reminded us that several weeks after the death of Princess Diana, Trump was on Howard Stern’s program declaring he thought he could have “nailed” the Princess. He was apparently between wives and sent Princess Diana mountains of flowers. A few years ago, a woman who had been close to Diana said that she felt creeped out by them and a bit like she was being stalked by the American billionaire.
Barely cold in her grave, he was boasting he could have “nailed” her. How gallant!
How disgusting.
A person very close to me sent me an email, asking me to disseminate it widely. It was in support of Trump. Having known this woman for eons, I wondered how she possible could be thinking I would do anything to support Trump? Perhaps she was just tweaking me, even though she knows I know she will vote for Trump.
Columbia has been at war for over fifty years with the rebellious FARC. A peace deal was negotiated and put to a national referendum. It appears to have been voted down, leaving all of us to wonder if Columbia is to face another fifty years of internal war?
My sister lives in central Florida and has been wondering if Matthew [spelled with two t’s} was going to land upon them but it appears it will weaken once it has scoured Haiti, a country that can’t seem to get a break.
Another young black man was shot in Los Angeles and activists are calling for transparency.
There is no transparency or mercy, it seems, in Aleppo. The Syrian government of Assad, supported by Russia, are pummeling Aleppo into submission, apparently deliberately targeting the resources they have to handle the bombings: hospitals. The healing capacity of the city has been halved.
And where is the boy? Where is the boy?
We, the US, have been warned by Russia to not target the Damascus government.
We are living on this island Earth, not really paying attention to the tectonic shifts in the eco-system while we kill each other all over the place.
It is now totally dark outside but it is not totally dark in my soul. When I witness what is happening in the world, I also remember that for every dire act there is an act of kindness, of balance, of work to make this place, this planet, a better place.
It is why I still go to church.
Tags:Aleppo, Assad, church, Columbia, FARC, Hillary Clinton, Howard Stern, Islam, Lionel White, Los Angeles shooting, Marcel, Media, New York Times, Politics, Princess Diana, Red Dot, technology, this island earth, Trump, Trump tax claim
Posted in 2016 Election, 9/11, Civil Rights, Claverack, Columbia County, Daesh, Education, Elections, Entertainment, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Homelessness, Hudson New York, Income Inequality, IS, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Obama, Political, Political Commentary, Putin, Russia, Social Commentary, Syria, Syrian Refugee Crisis, Trump, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
September 14, 2016
It is a pleasant night in Claverack, after a pleasant day in general. The weather was gorgeous, hot for just a moment, but mostly it hovered in the 70’s. I spent the latter part of the afternoon on the deck, a good book in hand, while also doing a bit of work, making a few phone calls.
This evening I went to the little Mexican restaurant down the road, Coyote Flaco, with my friend Patrick O’Connor, who bumped into some people he had not seen for a long time. We shared a shrimp appetizer and chicken fajitas and left happy.
The lights are on the creek as it flows softly toward the south. The first serious leaves have begun to fall; my drive is strewn with them and it is fine. I do not need to cling to the summer that has passed. It has been lived fully and well. As I hope will be the fall that is unfolding.
As I do most days, I spoke with my brother and he asked me if I had a take on the day’s news regarding Hillary and I had to say no. I had looked in the morning but not since. In the morning, her campaign announced she thought her pneumonia “no big deal” and so held back saying anything about it.
I was infuriated with her. How many times has she felt something was “no big deal,” only to have it turn around and bite her in the ass? How many times does this woman need to have a lesson learned?
Aye, Chihuahua!
Trump is fending off assaults on his Foundation which may – or may not – have given money to various charities. Some who said they didn’t get gifts found that they did and some just didn’t get them.
And then there is the gift of $25,000 to Pam Bondi, Attorney General for Florida, which might have swayed her to not investigate Trump University. Six months after she dropped her investigation, he hosted a $3,000 a plate fundraiser for her at Mar-a-Lago, his great Florida estate, country club.
Aye, Chihuahua!
To my amazement, Barak Obama’s approval rating is the highest it has been for years. It has always been my thought he will be remembered by history with more kindness than by his contemporaries. In my lifetime, I have known no President who has elicited such visceral hatred from so many people. Maybe I missed something along the way but what this man has endured is remarkable. And I give him high marks for trying, very hard, to be the best President he can be.
Matt Bevin, Governor of Kentucky, used violent metaphors to describe a Clinton Presidency, evoking images of blood on the ground.
My fear is that we are returning to the politics of the 19th Century when Andrew Jackson created the “Trails of Tears” as scores of thousands of Native Americans died by his direction. We, as a nation, do not have a good track record of dealing with those who are not “us” as “us” is defined at any exact moment.
I was raised Catholic in Minnesota. My 8th grade teacher, Sister Anne, told us that we would be persecuted because we were Catholics. At that moment in my life, it seemed nonsensical. No one was persecuting me because I was Catholic. I mean, really…
When I was in college, helping my friend Bill paint his garage, he told me that when he was growing up in Arkansas he would not have been allowed to know me because I was Catholic. Looking at him with incredulity from my ladder next to his, I realized there were places in my life that I did not know where my Catholicism was a liability.
Now I understand more as I see Christians slaughtered on the beaches of Libya and Christians in Iraq slaughtered. We live in world of intolerance that I did not expect or accept as a child. When I was in 8th grade and heard Sister Anne, I thought the world had moved beyond that.
It has not. No, not in any way. Shame on us.
Tags:Andrew Jackson, Barak Obama, Bill Epperson, Claverack, Coyote Flaco, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Hudson, IS, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, New York, Obama, Pam Bondi, Patrick O'Connor, Red Dot, Syria, The Donald, Trail of Tears
Posted in 2016 Election, Civil Rights, Claverack, Columbia County, Elections, Entertainment, Greene County New York, Gun Violence, Hillary Clinton, Hudson New York, IS, Life, Literature, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Obama, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
August 16, 2016
It has been a grey and gloomy sort of day here in Claverack; at one point the skies opened and torrents of rain slashed down. Mostly, I have curled into my cottage and put nose to grindstone on some volunteer work I am doing for the local community radio station, WGXC. It serves Columbia and Greene Counties and is, I have discovered, always unique, always surprising. It is the voice of this part of the Hudson Valley and I have gone in some months from not even knowing of it to realizing I can’t fathom not having its voice.
Over a hundred volunteers keep it afloat, programming by “civilians,” which cannot help being eclectic. From health and wellness to Broadway tunes to vinyl cuts with programmers from 13 years old to 83 years old, you have quite a mix.
So I am working to help them out and, like a good Catholic, realizing I wasn’t as good over the summer as I should have been, I am working extra hard now.
For fifteen years, I have always been a member of Amtrak Select Plus, which gives me access to their lounges. I am in serious jeopardy of losing it this year and am plotting how to make the points to keep it. And then I think, I am not traveling as much as I was. Should I even worry about this? I probably will find a way. The Acela Club in Penn Station is my “home away from home.”
So it is a Tuesday night. I have made myself a martini and Beatrice, my rapidly growing banana plant, and I are in the dining room, looking over the creek, a scene of grey mixed with incredible green. Classical music plays in the background, moving from the delightful to dirge like.
All this pitter patter about my life is a way of saying I have retreated from the news a bit. These are the dog days of August; the fall is coming upon us. It has been special here at the cottage this week and I have not wanted to disturb the week, the peace. I have gathered friends for get togethers. We have all avoided politics because we are worn out by the never ending campaign of 2016, which has been going on, it seems, since before I was born.
Rudy Giuliani, who was Mayor of New York, when 9/11 happened, said in a speech today that before Obama there were no attacks by terrorists on US soil. He has claimed it was a mistake; he MEANT to say NOT another until Obama. But it has come out badly for him. Excuse me, he lived through it, with me. I was there, listening to him tell us it was going to be devastating. How do you screw up so much, you, Mr. Giuliani, who lived through it with me?
For several minutes, I liked you. Now I don’t. Especially after today. The kind of speech making mistake today makes me wonder if you are holding the thread together, Rudy.
Trump is touting that if he loses the election, it will be because it is rigged. I fear that if he does lose, which I sincerely hope he does, there will be violence in the streets because that is what he is setting his followers up for. And they are not pleasant people, these Trump supporters. They seem nasty, angry [not without reason, which Hillary should speak to] and prone to violence.
I receive emails from my brother-in-law, who is definitely not a Democrat. They are a stultifying drone on how bad Obama is. He has not been all I hoped he’d be but no President ever is and I do believe a hundred years from now, history will be far kinder to him than my brother-in-law.
He was the first man elected President who was not “white.” And that has elicited furor from those who never thought that could happen. I hope he is a bridge to the future because soon, the US will no longer be “white.” It will be the mélange of immigrants of the 20th Century, the Hmong, the Vietnamese [who were vilified in places because they were so hard working], the Asians of all stripes who outstrip “Americans” who don’t want to work harder.
We are an immigrant nation. Hopefully, we always will be. I am a second generation American. I was lucky in my life, being born here, getting the education I did. I was lucky being born in America, the son of people who had been born here because their parents had come here.
Immigration is the story of the US.
Tags:Amtrak, Claverack, Columbia County, Donald Trump, Greene County, Hillary Clinton, Hudson, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Obama, Putin, Red Dot, Rudy Giuliani, The Donald, WGXC
Posted in 2016 Election, 9/11, Civil Rights, Claverack, Columbia County, Elections, Entertainment, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Obama, Social Commentary, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
August 5, 2016
It is a little after 8 pm and the sun is setting in the Hudson Valley. I have been a “prisoner” of my cottage for the last few hours as I have had my deck re-stained and I was not to go out and touch it until about now.
The trees over the creek are verdant green and the water in the creek is crystal clear. It has been a good day, in all sorts of ways. I woke up happy and I enjoy that kind of moment.
A couple of nights ago I was in distress, my lungs were congested and I was having a bit of trouble breathing. Stumbling through the medicine chest, I found and took a Mucinex and woke up the next morning with the congestion at bay, breathing again.
There is nothing like being able to breathe.
And it is hard to breathe in this current political season.
I have never in my adult life lived through such as season as this.
Anyone who reads me must understand how deeply disturbed I am that Trump is the Republican nominee for President. And the more he prances across the stage, the more concerned I am.
The New York Times did a video piece about the hatred they had witnessed while following Trump’s campaign. It was disturbing. You can view it here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/04/us/politics/donald-trump-supporters.html?emc=eta1&_r=0
I am at my dining room table and the sun has set and night has fallen. I am wrapped in the coziness of the cottage and am so grateful I am here.
Were I someplace else the craziness of our time might well make me mad but I can retreat for moments into the woods and believe, for a second, no harm could possibly come.
Like most of you I cannot believe the season in which we find ourselves.
This is not what I expected out of the 2016 political season. A friend of mine and I waged a friendly bet some months ago. He believed the Republican candidate would be Rubio; I went with Bush.
Both wrong. It’s Trump, who has solidified the anger of disenfranchised white Americans, who have reason to be angry. The world is passing them by…
But really? All this hate? It is a return to the realities of 19th and early 20th Century America where hatred moved from Germans, Italians, Poles, Irish, Jews…
A friend of mine who is Jewish remembers his grandmother in the early 20th Century hiding from mobs running through Lower Manhattan, screaming “Kill the Jews!”
We are on the verge of some of us screaming, “Kill the Muslims!”
Have we learned so little?
Tags:Claverack, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Hudson, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Muslims, Putin, Russia, The Donald
Posted in 2016 Election, Civil Rights, Claverack, Columbia County, Education, Elections, Entertainment, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Income Inequality, IS, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political, Political Commentary, Politics, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
July 18, 2016
The New Jersey countryside is slipping by, not very attractive here, just outside New York City, just before Newark, a maze of train tracks and freeway overpasses, industrial complexes and abandoned buildings. This is the second of the four trains I will be taking today and tomorrow on my way to Minneapolis — actually St. Paul because that’s where the depot is.
Every year I go to Minneapolis to visit family and friends. And this year I thought taking the train would make it more of an adventure and I routed myself through DC so that I might take the Capitol Limited, the train from DC to Chicago, which I have never taken beyond Martinsburg, WV.
Trains as a way of travel are good to give me time to think. And I and we have much to think about. Yesterday’s New York Times Weekend Briefing had a link to an article advising us on how to cope with such a bad news week. One suggestion was to curb your exposure to news and to spend time with family and friends. “Listening is curative.”
And that was posted before I went to Church, where I lit candles for people and causes I care about and who need caring for and as I was lighting candles, one for peace, my pocket vibrated and I saw that three police men were dead in Baton Rouge, killed, we now know, by an ex-Marine who targeted them. In my pew, I lowered my face and felt defeated.
In all the talk we have had, pro and con about police killing people, and now people killing police, we have not taken the time to accept that violence happens with appalling frequency and we need to take responsibility for it, each and every one of us.
The US is not in the top ten most violent countries nor are we one of the ten most peaceful countries. Australia and Canada are in that category though. We feel about as safe walking around in our neighborhoods as an average European does. That’s good… However, CriminalJusticeDegreeHub.com says we are “in a pandemic of homicides,” as other kinds of crime seem to be “stifled.”
And what has gotten us all worked up is this pandemic of homicides, particularly ones that involve the police. For the most part, we seem to respect our police. But murder marches on.
And I want to do something about it. I want to do something more than light candles. And I don’t know what that is.
Many of us do feel anguish and impotence because we don’t know how to move our country into being a more peaceful place than it is. And that is what we want for our country, to be a more peaceful place. Governor Edwards of Louisiana said, “Emotions are raw. There’s a lot of hurting people.”
And there are. I am hurting and I am nowhere near Baton Rouge or Dallas though will not be far from Falcon Heights when I arrive in Minnesota. This last week of violence has hit me hard and has hit everyone I know in some hard way. My friends seem hurt and bewildered, not angry, confused not infuriated.
Mix all of this with the attempted coup in Turkey which failed and has resulted in a harsh crackdown by Erdogan on anyone he suspects, pour in the wounds from Nice, France, sprinkle with Brexit and add a dash of any personal suffering we are enduring, stir with the healthy mix of dismay we are having over our incredible political season and there is no wonder we are confused, bleak and anguished, feeling just a little more fragile than is our wont or want.
Perhaps there is some revelation that will come to me while I traverse half the country, back to Minnesota, where I was born.
Tags:Amtrak, Baten Rouge, Brexit, Clinton, Erdogan, Falcon Heights, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Minneapolis, Obama, St. Paul, trains, Trump, Turkish Coup Attempt
Posted in 2016 Election, Brexit, Civil Rights, Elections, Gun Violence, Hillary Clinton, Life, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Obama, Political, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Trump, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
July 4, 2016
It is a picture perfect 4th of July in picture perfect Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard. Happy 4th, everyone! I hope it is picture perfect wherever you are…
Yesterday, as I was shuttling back and forth from the bookstore, I kept thinking how carefully curated Edgartown is by the town fathers.
Joyce had a half price bookstand on the porch of the bookstore and they cited her for having that; it was too unseemly for the town. It now rests in a corner in the bookstore.
It feels like they all went to the Walt Disney School for Civic Perfection.
Visually stunning, the little town of Edgartown, is a haven for preppies. In town, we are awash in pastel and Lilly Pulitzer. I had forgotten that salmon was the color of choice for WASPS.
Oak Bluffs is much more diverse than Edgartown, and each part of the island has its own feel. Edgartown is prep, all the way. I think that Igor and Mischa, the two baristas at “Behind the Bookstore” are the two edgiest characters in town and loved by everyone. There is no doubt that “BTB” has the BEST coffee on the island.
There will be massive fireworks, I understand, though I am not sure I will be seeing much of them as I am closing the bookstore tonight, a role I frequently play. Last night we closed at ten and I didn’t get back until 11:30 and didn’t unwind enough to sleep until one. Ten percent of the day’s take was done in the last hour as folks wandered in after dinner to have books to read this beautiful 4th.
There is an interesting opinion piece in today’s NY Times about the Declaration of Independence being partly driven by a fear of Indians and slave revolts. You can find it at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/04/opinion/did-a-fear-of-slave-revolts-drive-american-independence.html?_r=0
It is fascinating, interesting, explanatory and gives me cause to think, which is good in an opinion piece, whether at the end you agree or not.
The British, in attempting to quell the rebellion, were agitating both American Indians and slaves.
Yesterday, Jeffrey, Joyce and Joyce’s niece, Julie, and her husband, Mark, along with Joyce’s sister, Elyse, went clamming and came home with 219 of them, near a house record. Before I leave for the store, there will be a feast of them and other things before Mark and Julie fly back to New York and I leave to deal with the madding crowds that will be roving Main Street after dinner.
And as we celebrate, I am also taking a minute to bow my head in memoriam for the 200 plus dead in the bombing of a marketplace in Baghdad as Ramadan nears its end. And for those who were killed in Holey’s Cafe in Dhaka by six armed men, in turn killed by security forces. At least several of the attackers came from elite families, without want and well-educated. Their families are left without explanations and with tremendous guilt at their sons’ actions.
The Paris attacks, 9/11, the Madrid train attack and all other killings on Western soil are terrible and damning and yet I keep being reminded by things like the marketplace bombing in Baghdad that IS is mostly killing other Muslims.
Now, as I sit on the veranda, overlooking Edgartown Harbor, that world of violence is far away. Boats motor or sail by with easy grace on still water, birds chirp, the sun shines, American flags wave in the light breeze. It is a day the town fathers of Edgartown could not have choreographed better. Uncle Walt would be proud…
Tags:4th of July, Baghdad, Dhaka shootings, Edgartown, Edgartown Books, Holey's Cafe, Iraq, IS, July 4th, Martha's Vineyard, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Ramadan, Walt Disney
Posted in 2016 Election, Civil Rights, Daesh, IS, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Syria, Television, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
June 23, 2016
It is peaceful here in Edgartown, sitting watch a sailboat motor past my window. The harbor has been filling up with more boats each week that I have been here. The moorings are filling up with boats of all kinds, small and large. Far away, just outside the harbor sits a huge motor yacht. I think it’s been here every year I have.
Tomorrow, by this time, we should know if Britain has decided to “Brexit” or not and on Friday we will see how the markets respond. It will be, I am told in newspaper reports, a slow unwinding that will take at least two years. On the way home from the bookstore, I heard a report that those in Britain who would support Trump are those who support “Brexit.” They are older, rural, and less educated. The young in Britain support remaining but have a shabby record of voting.
It is too close to call.
Jo Cox, the British MP, murdered by a man shouting “Britain first!” as he killed her while she was campaigning against “Brexit” would have turned 42 today.
Right now, led by Representative John Lewis, Democrats are staging a Congressional “sit in” to push Republicans to do something about gun control after four separate bills on the subject failed to pass, blocked by Republicans. John Lewis is an older African American who cut his chops in the civil rights era and is taking what he learned there to literally the floor of Congress. Representative Joe Kennedy, a scion of that famous clan, is also on the floor with him. As is the New York Congressman just to the south of me, Sean Maloney, an openly gay man who lives with his husband and children in Rhinebeck.
Trump is stumping. He speechified and NPR annotated. Here is the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/23/us/politics/donald-trump-speech-highlights.html?_r=0
Worth reading…
Mr. Trump owns a golf course in Scotland. Locals have raised a Mexican flag in view of the course to articulate their displeasure with the man. He promised 6,000 jobs. He created 150.
Since last writing, Trump has said, “You’re fired!” to Corey Lewandowski who had been his campaign manager. Apparently, Trump’s family pressured him into it.
In Pakistan, the Taliban has claimed responsibility for the assassination of Amjad Sabri, a Sufi Muslim singer, shot while heading to a performance, shortly after leaving home. The Pakistanis are outraged. The Taliban claimed his form of singing mystical Islamic poetry was “blasphemous.” Most thought it beautiful.
There are at least hundreds of thousands in the Federal Prison System. Inmate No. 47991-424 is Dennis Hastert, once Speaker of the House, now imprisoned because he lied about bank transfers that were being paid to cover up he had sexually abused a boy when he was a wrestling coach.
In disturbing news, it appears the Pentagon is not letting people know if Americans are being wounded or killed in Iraq and Syria as it would “not be helpful.” By the time the Mideast fiasco is finished we will have wasted five trillion dollars. Five trillion dollars…
There is a lavender light over the harbor, the water is peaceful. I am writing while watching the news with my friend Jeffrey as I slip into another almost bucolic evening in the Vineyard. Here it is peaceful, far from the madding world.
Tags:Amjad Sabri, Brexit, Britain, Corey Lewandowski, Dennis Hastert, Donald Trump, Edgartown, Hillary Clinton, Iraq, IS, Jo Cox, John Lewis, Martha's Vineyard, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Pakistan, Pentagon, Syria, The Donald
Posted in 2016 Election, Afghanistan, Civil Rights, Education, Elections, Gay, Gay Liberation, Gun Violence, IS, Life, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Mideast, Political, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Syria, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Letter from the Vineyard 
Letter from Claverack 11/05/2016 All about Hudson…
November 6, 2016It is fall like but not November fall like. In Minnesota my brother went to a football game wearing Bermuda shorts; it was 75 degrees there. In Claverack, it scraped 65 and I was warm in my pullover fleece.
When I left home this morning, I wandered the Farmer’s Market, picking up a few things I craved like the Sea Salt and Onion cashews from Tierra Farms and some of their Free Trade Honduran coffee. Meandering over to the Red Dot, I had the omelet of the day and then went wandering the streets of Hudson, marching up one side of Warren Street and returning on the other side, an adventure that took me three hours.
There are all kinds of changes on Warren Street and while I have been aware of them, I haven’t walked the street the way I used to when I first arrived here. Some antique stores are gone and seem to have been replaced by clothing stores. Several times I thought I could be in SoHo in Manhattan.
A fancy pizzeria has opened and Olde Hudson has expanded beyond belief. Dena, who owns it, is a friend so I had seen that.
Many of us have been joking lately about the number of expensive cars seen on the street. Not so long ago I spotted a Ferrari parked on Warren Street as I was on my way to meet Larry Divney for lunch. We both said it was the beginning of the end.
When I arrived here fifteen years ago there were no expensive cars on the street. My Acura was an anomaly for the time as was Larry’s Infiniti.
Hudson is becoming a destination. For better or worse. Better for my house value but perhaps worse for those who liked the edge Hudson had when I arrived, a little bit of rebelliousness that was a treasure.
The center of it was the Red Dot, owned by Alana Hauptman who is the Texas Guinan of our town. Don’t know Texas Guinan? She ran the hottest speakeasies in New York during Prohibition. After 16 years, the Dot is still here and still a center of life in Hudson. And Alana is our Texas Guinan.
And walking Warren Street today, I was astounded by the changes. To think that I would be thinking it was a bit like SoHo, which is where I was living when we bought the house, is something I would never have thought then. Sometime, long after I am gone, it will be a lot like Provincetown, I suspect. Or Edgartown on The Vineyard. It’s becoming that kind of place.
But will never be exactly that kind of place. That’s what makes Hudson so special.
There were Porsches everywhere on the street today. When I went back to the Dot after my tour of the street I ran into James Ivory, the director of films like “A Room with a View.” He’s become a bit of friend, has been at parties at my home and dinners too, and one Christmas I spent with him at his house. With Alana…
It has been an interesting escapade to have lived here through all this, to witness the transformation of a community from rough and tumble to almost respectable. It was and is an artist’s haven, a place where writers and painters and actors gather.
Across the river in Catskill, there is the Bridge Street Theater and I went last week to a performance of “Frankenstein.” It was brilliant. And I mean brilliant. Steven Patterson, who did every role, was as riveting as Paul Scofield [“A Man For All Seasons”] when I saw him in London on my first trip there. It was a forgettable script but his performance was transcendent. Steven Patterson’s performance was like that.
Transcendent.
John Sowle directed. Equal kudos to him.
Tonight, I am not talking about politics or world events. I can’t tonight. We are at the near end of the most awful political period I have ever experienced. No matter who wins, the contentiousness will not end.
The creek at night.
Tags:Alana Hauptman, Bridge Street Theater, Edgartown, Frankenstein, Hudson, Hudson Farmer's Market, John Sowle, Olde Hudson, Provincetown, Red Dot, Soho, Steven Patterson, Texas Guinan, Tierra Farms, Warren Street
Posted in 2016 Election, Civil Rights, Claverack, Columbia County, Elections, Entertainment, Hollywood, Hudson New York, Life, Literature, Martha's Vineyard, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Political, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »