Launching The Moonlit Path

On Amazon (and, soon, Coas) an odd book has become available. Odd because, in our hustling, bustling cyberworld, it purports to be the 1914 journal of a 32-year-old woman, a serious painter and gardener, in Oakland, California. Odd because my name’s on it. Let’s say Katherine Willard wrote it through this old curmudgeon a century later.

There are zillions of books on Amazon; but, naturally, this one amazes me.

Is this how loving mothers feel – simply amazed that such a being could have originated inside them? I read Katherine’s words and they are not mine. Yet I wrote them.

Some scenes in the novel borrow heavily from actual events of the time, but many of Katherine’s thoughts were created by a wind that swept up and fused together memories, thoughts, overheard conversations, scraps of research, and dreams. That might sound mystical, but I can’t describe it more precisely. I don’t understand it well enough. Like some medium, I sat in a chair, waiting, and Katherine spoke through me.

Of course, it’s not that easy. I also spent long hours in the Library of Congress, and read each issue of the Oakland Enquirer from 1914. Writing dialogue set in 2020, we know many of the likely subjects, the appropriate words and slang, and what usually goes with what. (Loving the 2^nd Amendment may not mean you like the 9^th. A 23^rd Century writer might guess 21^st Century citizens praising “the sanctity of life” would oppose capital punishment.) Time has buried much of 1914. And I felt a loony commitment to accuracy.

I’m fond of Katherine. I felt that her voice should be heard, or that she wanted to be heard, by folks living more than a century later. I have no grandiose expectations. The book does not follow the conventional plot arc. The most dramatic events lie undreamed-of until early autumn. Many readers will have no interest. Some will quickly become bored. Others will linger to listen to Katherine’s voice and enjoy the window she provides into a long-gone time. A few will love the book.

It’s not for everyone. What I hope I have done is let a very real person, embedded in a time, a gender, and an art that are not mine, gradually reveal herself to us – and to herself. (A warning: people in the novel use words none of us today would. Their attitudes are what they were.)

I began this story decades ago. I wrote a first draft, and rather liked the writing. I liked Katherine. I felt that the quirky way I’d let her in allowed an especially real and vivid portrait to emerge. But, I put her aside. I didn’t think her story would sell; and I was certain agents and publishers would say, No, thank you!” (Much later, a friend’s agent wrote of the book in glowing terms, but added that she couldn’t see how to sell it in today’s market.)

When my spouse came into my life, she read it and liked it. I picked it up again. Then I joined a productive writing group, and she urged me to show the others Katherine’s journal. Their enthusiasm helped motivate me to press on.

So here, long delayed, is Katherine’s story. Like most parents, I’m keenly aware of how I might have done better. But I’m kind of in awe of Katherine, who, for better or worse, can now speak for herself.

                                                              – 30 --

 

 [The above column appeared Sunday, 30 October 2022, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and KRWG's website. A related radio commentary will air during the week on KRWG (90.7 FM) and on KTAL (101.5 FM / http://www.lccommunityradio.org/) and be available on both station’s websites.]

[The Moonlit Path is available on-line, as well as at Moonbow Book Nook and, soon, at Coas on Main; and I’m scheduled to do a book-signing at Coas on Saturday, 19 November. (If you do read it and like it, please take a moment to post a review on Amazon, if you can.)]

 

An Exclusionary Wind is Blowing - Again!

Just as some stranger’s cancer diagnosis is less devastating than your own, reading how the Hindu right has tightened its censorship noose on Bollywood hurts less than contemplating the current rightwing efforts to limit how much historical truth we admit about our own society.

India seems obvious. Of course the Indian caste system and its persistence have hurt and angered folks relegated to lower castes; and while Gandhi and Nehru sought an India where Moslems, Hindus, Christians, and others flourished, ethnic prejudices and violence between Hindus and Moslems destroyed trust, making their dream a tough sell.

There’s always tension between artists and the State. Artists are committed to what they create, and what they learn from what they create, not to jamming their characters into some Fascist, Socialist, or Christian ideology. Fictional characters may be the writer’s creations, but if s/he is any good, they then live and grow somewhat independently, often surprising their creator. Fictional characters crammed into ideological boxes die quickly, as did the fireflies I placed in Mason jars, despite numerous breathing holes in the metal lids.

Salman Rushdie is an extreme example; but Fyodor Dostoyevsky was nearly executed by the Russian Czar. Pasternak and Solzhenitzn were jailed by the Russian Communists. The U.S. jailed and harassed Howard Fast and the Hollywood Ten.

Many passionate Hindu nationalists, believing India should be for Hindus, push Indian filmmakers and writers to portray military heroics in Hindu India’s history, rather than examining the personal costs and challenges of ethnic hatreds and the caste system. They feel India is under attack. Whether or not they like the caste system, they do not want it held up to the light (or movie screen), washing India’s dirty laundry very publicly.

MAGA Republicans (like McCarthy and the House Unamerican Activities Committee before them) promote their idea of American Exceptionalism. Whatever they believe about the sprawling and appalling institution of slavery, or the pervasive discrimination it engendered, they’d prefer writers and filmmakers choose subjects reflecting the U.S.’s special greatness. Some deny historical racism, or doubt current racism causes problems, and they sure don’t want frank exploration of it.

Bollywood is frightened, as Hollywood was frightened in the 1950s. And may be again.

Teachers are frightened in Florida and Texas. Teaching history accurately (likely never the reality in our elementary schools, which stressed U.S. heroism) could cross some line in new laws. Racism is a reality. It has frequently dominated our history. But, like sex, it’s not to be discussed in public schools. (Doctors and psychologists are also frightened in those states. Outlawing abortion makes treating a pregnant woman’s cancer dicey. Treatment might affect the sacred Fetus. Helping a kid whose inner self and outer physical characteristics don’t match, could land you in jail!)

The U.S. is turning ugly again. When I was born, it was a wonderful place for many; but women and “Negroes” were kept in their respective places. A country that increasingly tolerated, and even valued, diverse ideas, colors, creativity, and genders was a gradual luxury. (For which many of us had fought, when young.) What a shock the current ugly turn must be for someone younger, who assumes fairness, tolerance, and justice matter! (Reminds me of realizing at 18 that our beloved country was fighting a war the world saw was as unjust and foolish as . . . Putin’s.)

Is this another cycle we’ll outgrow, or is it midnight for decency and democracy?

                                             – 30 --

 

 

[The above column appeared Sunday, 23 October 2022, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and KRWG's website. A related radio commentary will air during the week on KRWG (90.7 FM) and on KTAL (101.5 FM / http://www.lccommunityradio.org/) and be available on both station’s websites.]

[I’m not sure I like the column. It’s right about stuff, but a little muddled in its organization. Started trying to use the Indian push for a solely Hindu India with the MAGA push for a solely Christian [only as they define that] U.S. (That latter is perhaps a slight exaggeration; but we’re suddenly somewhat more unwelcoming to anyone who doesn’t fit the mold or doesn’t live by their definitions of Christianity and humanity: draconian abortion laws, draconian laws regarding gender, Don’t Talk about Racism, Don’t Talk about Gay, take a harder line on immigration, etc., much of which (exclusionary ethnic policies, anyway) is a wave tumbling through much of the world.)

Then the column turned toward more of a lament that our country, which was peaceful and prosperous but exclusionary during my youth (I mention women and Blacks kept in their place, but try joining a country club if you were Jewish in 1948. (See the film, Gentleman’s Agreement (1947), for further information.) And you didn’t see a whole lot of Italians in white-collar positions, as I recall. Or a lot of Chinese or Indians. Let alone “Indians.”)

I wanted to do too many things in one column, include reminding folks that the phase of greater tolerance and openness, though it lasted decades, was perhaps a phase, not the march of progress, and certainly an anomaly compared to 1919-20, 1947-1958, and much of our national existence.

But what the hell? I can be muddled now and then. I’m extremely old, and was experiencing a mild case of COVID-19 when I wrote the column. Probably still am.

btw:

on Amazon [the moonlit path by peter goodman , or soon at Coas, there’s an odd novel called The Moonlit Path available.

Odd because it purports to be the journal of a 32-year-old woman living in Oakland, California, in 1914. (It’s not for everyone, but some folks love it.)

Odd too because I seem to have written it. Or Katherine Willard wrote it through me. Or something.

It’s a fairly detailed window into a vanished time in our country.  (A vainished time with some sweetness to it, for some, but even more frankly exclusionary!)  And Katherine’s a pensive, pleasant, perceptive tourguide.

About which, more later, as I think Holden used to say.

 

State Republican Party Seeks a New Low

Does the state Republican Party figure New Mexicans are terminally stupid?

State party mailers used in many legislative races state things like “Joy Garratt – Best friends with pedophiles and sex offenders.” “Nathan Small: putting pedophiles first. Leaving us behind.” Is there a grownup in the county who thinks any local candidate of any party would “put pedophiles first?” The mailer continues, “Nathan Small doesn’t care about you. He only cares about criminals.”

These mailers cite 2021 HB 114, providing that an elderly prisoner who’s terminally ill or debilitated by a stroke “and does not constitute a danger to the person’s own self or to society . . . may seek parole consideration upon written application.” This humane measure passed 37-4 in the Senate. If voting for it constitutes “putting pedophiles first,” then many Republican state senators did just that. (The mailer cites rejection of an amendment excepting people guilty of sex crimes.) This is not intelligent political discourse.

Worse, one mailer doctored a stock image of a barber’s fingers cutting a blonde child’s hair, turning the fingers dark brown, suggesting children being preyed upon. Republicans wanted so evoke menace, and made the fingers brown to scare folks more. Their best defense so far? The brown was grey, meant to evoke the Grim Reaper.

Meanwhile, many Republican candidates refuse to answer newspapers’ basic candidate questionnaires or be interviewed! We read, “[Kimberly] Skaggs did not respond to multiple interview requests from the Sun-News.” Ditto Sandy Hammack (opposing Tara Jaramillo in the redrawn House District 38). Hammack apparently was so scared of being interviewed that once, when she answered her phone to a reporter’s call, she cried out, "Oh shoot!" and hung up.

Hidden behind the nonsense are real issues – some crazy and some on which reasonable people could disagree.

Among the loonier ones? Our political leaders are not a vicious cabal of pederasts. The 2020 election was not decided by a huge conspiracy to defraud the electorate. (Even in a judiciary influenced strongly by Donald Trump, no judge, including Trump-appointed judges, found a hint of real evidence supporting Trump’s fraud allegations.)

As for serious issues: How do we balance the importance of confronting Putin’s aggression against Ukraine with our needs to maintain a reasonable economy, confront global weirdness, and avoid nuclear catastrophe? As always, how do we minimize crime without destroying either our civil liberties or our economy? How can our state improve education? How can we balance oil income with environmental health and minimizing global weirdness? How can we continue to minimize pandemic deaths and illnesses without sacrificing too much economically and educationally? These questions deserve discussion. We get idiotic flyers.

Relying on easily disproved stupidities and ducking newspapers won’t persuade voters the Republicans have the fortitude to help us negotiate dangerous shoals.

I’d bet even a few local Republican candidates are embarrassed by these ads. (I should note an exception to the Republican candidates’ cowardice: County Commissioner Shannon Reynolds and challenger Susie Kimble are running a civil, courteous, and apparently truthful campaign, each claiming to be the better candidate for the county, without insulting or libeling each other. Asked about Trump’s claim he won the 2020 election, Kimble recounted voting for Trump in 2016, based on his conservative rhetoric, then seeing how woefully unsuited he was for the U.S. Presidency.

But mostly we see misleading, even racist ads and mailers, and evasiveness.

In effect, one party hasn’t even shown up for this election.

                                         --  30 -- 

[The above column appeared Sunday, 16 October 2022, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and KRWG's website. A related radio commentary will air during the week on KRWG (90.7 FM) and on KTAL (101.5 FM / http://www.lccommunityradio.org/) and be available on both station’s websites.]

'Nuff said.  I'd urge everyone to use own eyes, not listen to me, as to whether the doctoring of the image below was designed (a) to turn pale fingers dark brown suggesting the hands of a Black person or (b)to turn those fingers grey,

to suggest the grim reaper.  

Las Crucens: Approve 2022 GO Bonds - Improving our City at Little or No Cost

Las Cruces voters will decide in November whether or not to approve $23 million in GO bonds.

I’ll vote “YES.” I recommend others do so. These bond issues benefit our community, at extremely small cost.

Here’s why (a) it isn’t the almost automatic “Yes” of prior years for me and (b) why I strongly recommend approval.

The $23 million includes $10M for a new firehouse, $2M for parks improvements, and $5M for the East Mesa Public Recreation Complex. More controversial is $6M for affordable housing. The new fire station will answer 900 calls a year and help the city maintain its ISO rating, which reflects how prepared a community is for fires. The station covers a rapidly growing district with nearly 4,000 buildings. The East Mesa funding will mostly for lights to facilitate evening games on various fields.

I’ll be honest. I’m an old guy trying to stay in shape, pickleball courts are insanely crowded, and if these GO Bonds would help with that, I’d be happy as a kid with a new Christmas bike. They won’t help. I’m pissed. Pickleball players lobbied hard and got stiffed. Pickleball courts get incredible usage.

But low-income folks who need affordable housing are in much worse shape than I. Further, the money can be re-used. It’ll go into the Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF), a revolving loan fund giving flexible, low-interest loans to qualifying borrowers. These loans only get approved if there are matching funds from the NM Mortgage Authority or other sources. Money we loan to Smith, we likely get back, with some interest, to loan to Jones or build with.

I worried that Mesilla Valley Public Housing Authority might run this. MVPHA failed to hire a manager for Desert Hope Apartments, then stonewalled reporters who asked serious questions. No public agency should be that arrogant.

But MVPHA won’t run this program. The City will, with an Advisory Committee looking over its shoulder, and public votes by City Council required for actions. MVPHA could be a grantee; but cooler heads note that the agency owns several other housing operations around town, apparently without making such blunders there. All projects will be competitively bid.

Affordable housing is an urgent matter. I disagree with folks who say it ain’t our business. It is. No, you or I didn’t create the problem; but the system we support and do okay under helped create the economic conditions that make buying a house so hard. So, sharing in on making things better seems right. And a higher percentage of homeowners improves a city. Affordable housing also creates local construction jobs and enhances community health and public safety.

Further, having neighborhoods with parks benefits us all, in many ways. GO Bonds are investments in Las Cruces. Low-cost investments.

People complain that the GO Bonds could jack up our taxes. They won’t. Rather, foregoing these GO Bonds would lead to a smaller allotment of our property tax going for debt service on the new bonds. While awaiting a straight answer from the City, my best guess is that the owner of a $200,000 home, paying $1500 in property taxes might save $80-$90 bucks annually if we vote “No,” ¼ attributable to the affordable housing.

If my $24 a year will help house someone – or several someones, they’re welcome to it. I’m delighted to help. Plus that fire station might help us save on home insurance – or even save lives!

                                      - 30 -

 

[The above column appeared Sunday, 9 October 2022, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and KRWG's website. A related radio commentary will air during the week on KRWG (90.7 FM) and on KTAL (101.5 FM / http://www.lccommunityradio.org/) and be available on both station’s websites.]

[I think we'll be talking with several city officials about the GO Bonds on Wednesday, October 26, at  on KTAL. 

 

Seeing People through Capitalist Lenses

How do we regard people we meet?

Most of us are paid by someone or something that sees people solely as potential sources of profit. McDonalds, Comcast, Facebook, Bank of America. Since people may provide those profits directly, as customers, or indirectly, by recommending others or looking at paid advertising, some courtesy toward us is prudent; but few for-profit corporations really care about our welfare. Legally, a corporation exists for one reason only: to maximize shareholder profit.

Most of us face temptations to see others mostly as sources for whatever we can get from them: dollars, things, recommendations, sex, food, information, knowledge, power, or higher status. Work trains us to. Elsewhere, people contribute to our charities, sponsor our softball team, listen to our radio station. Custom demands displaying some semblance of concern for others; and some of us actually do care about some of the folks we meet; but the dominant ethic of modern capitalist life is otherwise.

Maybe the village, in some earlier time was different. What food you didn’t grow you got from fellow villagers. You knew everyone. Family gatherings, sports and games, celebrations, feasts, education, worship, and fighting fires and foes together forged a bond in which making a profit was just a small part. Even a greedy SOB knew that if he carelessly made shoes that pinched, someone would demand replacements – or punch him out. If you cheated someone, everyone knew. If your carelessness poisoned someone, you had to attend the funeral and meet the eyes of the bereaved family for decades. That’d tend to make anyone more careful.

The dominant ethic of our present culture, unlike many smaller or more primitive societies, is profit. (Anthropological studies tend to show that smaller, simpler societies are not that way.) Our country’s vast size compounds the problem. If aspirin or a burger poisons me, the maker never knows my name. I’m an anonymous statistic in a ledger recording (if my family is lucky) that compensation was paid.

Meanwhile, more and more of our contact with other humans is “virtual.” Sometimes it’s not even with another human being, but a robot! Ethnic prejudices persist. Mindless party loyalties and the nature of the Internet tend to divide us, as does the media’s taste (based on the public’s taste) for scandal and sensation.

Maybe declining belief in religions contributes. Jesus and other prophets or wise folks had some great ideas; but centuries of infighting and intolerance, even violence, and of using religions to justify wars and the enslaving of others, has made it hard for many to equate religion with love, or even decency.

Perhaps the rapidly increasing speed of everything contributes, although humankind has complained of that for centuries!

I’m no expert. On anything. But I need no expertise to see how poverty and prejudice harm people and exacerbate life’s normal slings and arrows. As with prejudices, capitalism’s influence on us can be powerful, persistent, and unhealthy; and freeing ourselves from it can feel refreshing.

I’m not shouting “abolish capitalism!” or “back to the land!” I’m just saying, let’s look into things more closely, try to see them for what they actually are, and maybe compensate for our fear and greed, and anger and frustration, by dialing in more kindness. As a municipal judge from Roswell instructed other judges, “Empathy is the best tool in your toolbox.”

That’s a tool to which we all have unlimited access.

                                                   - 30 -

 

[The above column appeared Sunday, 2 October 2022, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper’s website (under the slightly odd headline, "Know thy Neighbor and Invest in Human Capital") and KRWG's website. A related radio commentary will air during the week on KRWG (90.7 FM) and on KTAL (101.5 FM / http://www.lccommunityradio.org/) and be available on both station’s websites.]

[An important debate about human nature concerns the relative weight of selfishness and cooperation in furthering human development. I tend to emphasize our ability to cooperate with each other. But human life is a wealth of dualities: able to read Freud or marvel at Shakespeare, or build missiles, and think abstractly, but also inherently animal, as subject to instincts and bodily needs, and death, as any other animal; greeting a stranger of our species, we are both cautious and curious, ready to defend ourselves but interested in some form of exchange. How ready to defend and how open to communication and exchange varies with our backgrounds and the contexts of such encounters.]

[Anyone offended by my suggestion that capitalism is not an entirely healthy mode of organizing human beings may not realize that nearly every government mixes elements of capitalism and elements of socialism in its own way. Whether you’re running China the U.S., Russia or Ukraine, Britain or Borneo, the abstract question of capitalist vs. communist is somewhat silly. You’re combining elements of systems, to improve your country (and/or cement your power) in a somewhat ad hoc manner. Capitalism in some pure form would be a nightmare; and pure communism/socialism (a) so far has proven impossible to sustain and (b) might have its own defects if we could somehow achieve it. Because human nature is a mix (with different mixes in different humans) of selfishness and altruism, we’re not necessarily capable of pure socialism or pure capitalism.]