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Friday, June 29, 2007 - 22:58:48
Waiting for the Bell to ring
At the treatment center where Tracy undergoes her chemotherapy, when an individual has at last finished their weeks or months of chemo, bells are rung, and loud cheers can be heard from staff and some of the other patients. It's hard to be cynical at times like this.
We've had to go more frequently lately; Tracy's blood count was down, and she had to go in for a series of shots.
While we are there, I notice that some people come and go by themselves, with no family or friends to accompany them, or sit with them while they are having chemo. I find myself hoping that they at least have people at home, waiting for them. I wouldn't want to go through something like this by myself.
***
Sometimes Art really Does Reflect Life Department
Tracy and I are working our way through season two of "Babylon 5," and the episode we were watching yesterday is a perfect example of how I feel a lot of the time, committee work being the bane of my existance. One of the alien races on the station is feuding, and their battles are getting out of hand. Basically, one faction wears green scarves and the other faction wears purple scarves, and they battle for domination over each other.
In exasparation, the second in command of B5 removes the green scarf of the leader of one faction, and they all declare her to be their leader. "But I'm human!"
No matter, the aliens explain to her. The rules concerning combat go back generations - long before contact was made with other species.
"Rule changes," one says, in a state of chagrin, "lost in committee."
Yeah, I thought. I know just how you feel.
****
And while we're on the subject of science fiction, it's pretty sad when a person can find better SF movies on Turner Classic movies in any given week than on the Sci Fi Channel.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007 - 15:36:38
Fayetteville residents silent on Wi Fi health concerns
I have been taken to task by a friend of mine who wrote me an email concerning city-wide Wi Fi, and potential health risks concerning same.
Now, this has been front-page news for some time, and we even had TV news coverage at our last Telecomm Board meeting. Though I am very much in favor of city-wide Wi Fi, I want to be able to hear from everyone who may have a concern - especially those who may feel that public health and safety are being put at risk.
Accordingly, I posted some health concerns a friend from California sent me to three list serves, and to over forty individuals.
Two people responded.
I really don't want anyone to feel like they are being railroaded by the city on this. But to only have two people respond is somewhat confusing. I seem to recall a time when Fayetteville folk could be counted on at the drop of a hat to debate such issues.
"Is a puzzlement," as Yul Brynner sang in "The King and I."
Well, I feel like I have done my part on this. We'll be glad to put anyone on the Telecomm agenda, or on the upcoming public forum concerning Wi Fi, if they wish to disuss the matter.
******
Those interested in politics from a Green Party perspective might enjoy a 2005 interview I did with Mark Swaney, which will run on Fayetteville's Community Access Television. Dates and Times:
Monday, July 2 - 7pm
Tuesday, July July 3 - noon
Saturday - July 7 - 6pm
Recently, Swaney was the recipient o a special award from the OMNI Peace and Justice Center, recognizing his work on behalf of the community.
As ever, C.A.T can be found on Channel 18 of the Cox Channel line-up in the Fayetteville viewing area.
Why doesn't your community have public access television?
*****
I enjoyed Mike Masterson's piece in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on eateries closing in our area. Since this is Northwest Arkansas, the obvious solution when something is failing is - BUILD MORE!
Friday, June 22, 2007 - 22:01:28
Twin epidemics in Northwest Arkansas
A few weeks ago I interviewed Rachel Townsend of the Northwest Arkansas Workers' Justice Center - for both my show and a print interview - and she told me about a surprising epidemic that is gaining ground in our area. It's not medical, though it may indicate a disease of the soul. It seems that a number of employers - primarily in the construction business - are engaging in something called "wage theft."
Wage theft, to put it in its simplest terms, is when workers are not paid an honest day's pay for an honest day's work."I don't have the money right now," an employer might say. "My contractor hasn't paid me yet. Keep working for a another week or so, I'll have the money." But the money never comes.
Sometimes the employer has just vanished into the night when the employee goes to pick up his pay.
This doesn't happen in the majority of cases, but it happens enough to cause concern.
By an odd coincidence, most - if not all - of the affected workers are Hispanic.
Isn't it nice that we have new neighbors to enslave and call our very own?
Townsend refers to what is happening as an epidemic, but she is just referring to the act of nonpayment of wages. It seems to me that bigotry has eached epidemic proportions in this country, as well.
Oh - that just sounds ponderous and dull! Of course there is an epidemic of bigotry.
Why am I so surprised? Well, this is why:
In the early 1970s I was an Air Force brat, and my father was stationed at two bases in Germany - part of an American detachment at RAF Bruggen, in northen Germany, and Zweibrucken, in southern Germany. What an exciting time to live overseas. Vietnam, civil rights marches, Richard Nixon in the White House. It was a wonderful opportunity to see one's country from the perspective of others.
Those of us who were military kids, living on military bases, were sort of this great experiment in diversity in action. We were proof that the melting pot worked in America. We knew in our hearts that come the 21st Century - should any of us actually ever live to be that old - that racism would be a thing of the past. Like the Model T, and Spam.
Well, Spam, in all its evil variations, is still with us, and so is racism. Our social experiment came to naught. But still, one holds out hope for the future.
And then you hear a teenager who professes to be Christian sneer at those who are different, and you cringe.
And you pick up the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and read the ramblings of Dana D. Kelley, our very own David Duke on training wheels, and you cringe.
Still, one hopes . . .
******
Here's a question that would be a lot more entertaining to ask candidates - especially those testoterone soaked GOP presidential wannabes- instead of asking them if they believe in evolution, ask 'em how old they think the earth is. Let's watch them pander to their base while still trying to sound half-way educated.
Thursday, June 21, 2007 - 12:20:41
Are Fayetteville developers insane?
Richard S. Drake
Oh, happy day!
Milver Investments is looking to build what is described as a "mixed -usedevelopment" at the end of West Avenue in Fayetteville. Along with 3,700 square feet of restaurant space, and 8,327 feet of office space, there are plans for seventeen condos.
WWhat a grand idea - right when the United States is experiencing a housing downturn, and an overbuilt condo market, it just makes all the sense in the world to build condos in the New York City of the Ozarks.
Maybe if some developers were seen less as visionaries and more as being a few cans short of a six-pack, Fayetteville wouldn't be so overbuilt itself.
*****
A few weeks ago a smiliing anchor on the evening news announced that the "Spam King" in California had been arrested, so we should be seeing a lot less spam in our mailboxes. "What planet are you on?" I wondered.
Sure enough, as if to honor his memory, every other spammer on the planet seems to have tripled their output.
Still, I've tried so-called "spam filters" - they block real email from coming in, along with spam. So for now, I'll grin and bear it. Besides, there is always the chance that I might actually win that European lottery . . .
Saturday, June 16, 2007 - 11:51:05
My life as a bigot
Damn you, gay people! Damn your gay marriages, your gay unions, your Gay and Lesbian Pride days! Don't you realize that you are attacking the sanctity of my marriage?
Whew - glad I got that off my chest! It's been festering for a long time now, let me tell you.
So it was with some relief that I read about the Arkansas Family Council and their efforts to ban gay adoptions in the great state of Arkansas. Jerry Cox, executive director of the Arkansas Family Council, says that the proposal - which will either end up as a constitutional amendment or initiated act - would bar those pesky gay folk from adopting or serving as foster parents even if the children in question are their own blood relations.
There is nothing that strikes a blow for decency like barring relatives from adopting their own kin.
In defending the bill, Cox was quuoted in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette as saying, "We all agree that children need the best health care and other kinds of care possible. This particular proposal does just that."
At last, no more heart-rending of children begging to be taken to the doctor, but gay parents saying, "No! Tough it out!"
Getting back to earth, I think that the problem for most of those involved in this moral crusade is that they they probably don't actually know any gay couples who are raising children, or turn away when they are around them. I have known several gay couples who have had children, and they loved their children very much. And the kids had the usual childhood crap to deal with - well, in at least one case, a child was beaten up because her mother was a lesbian, and was openly living with her partner.
And this happened in Fayetteville, in the 1990s. If anyone cares to read the articles I wrote about the subject, just email me.
We need to counter this bigotry whenever and wherever we can.
The above title refers my life as a bigot.
I was pretty conservative in my younger years. High scool was the big turning point for me. But even though I was liberal, it took a while for me to see the value of Feminism, and much longer to accept gay people. Like other guys, I told gay jokes.
The truth is, my best friend for several years was gay - and he couldn't tell me. I wasn't the sort of person that he could be honest with. I think that may be the biggest reason our friendship fell apart.
He couldn't tell his best friend he was gay - what kind of creep was I? I had to take a hard look at myself, and wasn't pleased by what I saw.
People always have the capacity to change. I did. The moral crusaders at the Arkansas Family Council - even the zealots with eyes bulging, red faces and voices raised - can change. But until then, let's fight their efforts with everything at our disposal.
I see that the intellectual thugs at free republic are all a twitter about this Arkansas effort. If you ever want to feel really, really smart, just check out the ramblings at freerepublic.com. But you'll probably need to take a shower right after visiting the site.
The folks who inhabit the fetid dungeon that is free republic can be likened to the bullies in the bar. The especially stupid and mean bullies in the bar . . .
Tuesday, June 12, 2007 - 23:14:11
Jockstrapology
I was about the change the cat box when I reread Monday's editorial in the Northwest Arkansas Times, expressing some joy over the fact that Fourth Circuit Judge Mark Lindsay had thrown out claims in a lawsuit againt the UA, brought by John David Terry. Comrade Terry - wicked, wicked man! - had sued UA Chancellor John White and UA System President Alan Sugg because he believed they had done a less than adequate job of "investigating" the ugly email sent out by a friend of the Nutt family, castigating former quarterback Mitch Mustain.
I'm sorry - did anyone ever think that John White was actaully going to upset Nouston Nutt and Frank Broyles by playing Columbo? The very notion is enough to outrage some fans, who have gone so far as to post Terry's address and phone number on websites, so that he can be "persuaded" not to attack our beloved coaches. Of course, it must all be the fault of those "haters from the north" - as Nutt's wife put in a letter to fans.
Very Nixonian.
There's not much I can to all of this - the Internet is full of Nutt defenders and Nutt "haters." They've said it all much better - and in some cases in a much more frenzied manner - than I can.
But it is at times like this that I miss my old friend Brian Bolton, a former UA professor who kept a keen eye on the Razorbacks, and noted how academics suffered while sports prospered. Over the years Brian wrote for a variety of publications - Grapevine, Ozark Gazette, the Spectrum, and countless letters to the editor in every newspaper that would print his letters. He self-published several books, including one lovely little book called "Razorbackism," which is a collection of many of his short pieces.
All proceeds from the small book (47 pages) went to the library on the Fayetteville campus, to help pay for books, magazines and other resource materials. I wonder if the UA library even has a copy of this book? Does the Fayetteville library?
There is no copyright date, but looking through it, I think the book came out in the early 1990s. The observations that Brian made about how legislators are cowed by those in charge of the football program, and athletics versus academics are still potent reading, even today. Is our love of the Razorbacks akin to religious fervor? Brian certainly thought so.
Brian coined a word - Jockstrapology - which he claimed that everybody would know in the future. He may be wrong about that, but we all know what he meant.
******
I'm feeling downright spoiled by all these presidential debates. I'm learning so many different ways to evade quations. If I ver run for office again, I'll be all set.
The Republicans want to impress us with how tough they are. I have no doubt they will soon discuss which torture techniques they would personally use on a terrorist. I'm just afraid that if these debates go on, they might demonstrate said technques on stage.
The Democrats, on the other hand, seem to all be reciting the Desiderata - also known as the Valium Prayer. Ms. Clinton claims that the differences between all the Dems running are "minor" - gee, that'll help a lot come Primary Day. Maybe I'll just toss a coin when I get my ballot.
I know that I'm cynical - would you have me any other way? - but I was watching something on CNN along the lines of Faith and Politics, where candidates were asked questions about their faith (they've all got it!) and how they would approach the important problems of the day.
Folks - nice people, by the looks of them - would stand up to ask a question and the audience would erupt with applause. And this was just applause for the question.
The candidate on stage would tell the crowd what they wanted to hear, and there would be even more applause.
I'm really not in the mood to applaud questions or self-serving answers.
I'd really love the opportunity to applaud some results, though. And I'd kind of like to know why I shouldn't just toss a coin on Primary Day.
Sunday, June 10, 2007 - 10:39:13
My wife donated her hair today
Richard S. Drake
Something personal today
My wife donated her hair on Friday. She is determined that something good come from this sudden diagnosis of breast cancer, so she has donated her hair to a charity which makes wigs for children. As the scissors began to snip at her hair, she said softly, "Oh, God."
I turned away, so that she wouldn't see me start to cry. It isn't the first time that either of us has cried since April, when she went in for a routine exam, and they found the cancer.
So much to change in your life! Armed with nutition books, we plot and design meals. We bought a new mattress last weekend, because already the chemo is working in conjunction with her chronic fatigue, and every few days she finds herself exhausted beyond all measure. And we know it is still early days yet.
Tracy isn't used to this sort of forced inactivity; she has an MFA in Modern Dance, and combined her love of dance with a career in occupational therapy. Ten years ago she combined the two interests and founded a dance company called DanScape, qhich featured disabled individuals - people who were blind, and some who were even in wheelchairs - moving alongside professional dancers. Though I had read about the dance troupe, I had no concept of how inspiring it could be, just watching them together in performance.
Later, two car wrecks - and the damage to her back - put paid to Tracy's dancing future. She'd like to be involved in choreography again, though, once this experience in behind us.
We know that breast cancer is not the death sentence it once was. We know that come this time next year, Tracy will, in all probability, be well on n the road to recovery. Still, we'll be glad when this year is behind us.
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