Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Turning the page


While health care holds center stage nationwide, a disturbing, troubling and emotionally devastating drama is being played out in families that I profess to be part of through decades of deep friendships. The media hasn't quite recognized the impact of this medical crisis; it's not the sexy factoid that the baby boomers are clustering around the 'golden years' campfire (come together now) pressing social security into extinction,uh, it's the other little secret that doesn't quite seem to get up enough steam for headlines: aging parents and the management of their health care issues..more frequently than not, accompanied by the insidious, ravaging dementia. If you're lucky, a parent drops unexpectedly. But, if you're like the majority of us, flower power children who, well, never saw this curve ball coming, and didn't know shit about aging before it beaned us...we know something now. Learning on the fly is painful. Judgement becomes clouded. The med that looked good today might belong in the loo tomorrow. Daughters and sons grope their way to first base. Questions of dementia care are fraught with anxiety as parents slip further and further into the abyss. No one has ever said that this was going to be easy. But, the more disturbing issue is that hardly anyone has said anything about this publicly before. If knowledge is power, share the wealth, educate your children. It's time to take the gloves off and lift the shroud because we're almost on deck.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

All Along the Watchtower...




Mario Savio is doing back flips from the grave. The apathy of the 80's and the 90's which hung like a pall over the Berkeley campus is receiving a swift kick in the pants from students, faculty and staff as a statewide walkout on all 10 UC campuses lurches forward today. It's a sobering fact, but unless the powerful Academic Senate is involved, protests usually crawl off into a corner to whimper and die. However, this has been a perfect storm brewing for months; Mark Yudof, the face of UC, the reigning SI Hayakawa of 2009, has taken a flying header with his constituents. Implementation of 11-26 furlough days; 30% increase in student tuition fees, and prohibiting the faculty to take furlough on their instructional days conjured up images of shoulders to the cogs and burning squad cars. It's one thing to screw staff and students, it's another, however to screw the faculty. When there is faculty inclusion, there is validation. It's a rank equation, but it's true. Some one told me that the walkout wouldn't accomplish or change anything. In some countries of the world, a gathering of 2 people on a corner is considered a protest. Gulags are filled with men and women who spoke out about inequality. I'm a child of the 60's. I've seen the impossible become possible...power to the people.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

It is what it is


Tennis is a sport that is steeped in tradition and protocol and reserved boxes for the Royals when it's Grand Slamming in England. One needs money to take tennis lessons. It's not as if you can get 6 guys together and toss the ball around in a vacant lot and begin to learn the game.

So it's news when the woman who was probably 9-5 in Vegas to win it all, went "off" in the semi's of the US Open last week. Serena Williams who, later publicly acknowledged past issues with her temper, slammed her racket to the ground and broke it in the first set over a line call, and then after a disputed foot fault in the final set walked over to the line judge and ripped her a new one. If you haven't seen it you need to 'you tube' that display. It was boorish and embarrassing. Reminiscent of those male whiners: Nastase, Connors and McEnroe. In sports, in the heat of the battle, with s'loads of adrenaline pumping, sometimes athletes just can't help themselves. But, there are written and unwritten 'no-no's. In baseball, you never discuss balls and strikes with an umpire face to face. You never ever touch an ump on the gridiron and you don't come off the bench in basketball altercations. In tennis, though, the crustiest of all sports, there's ample room for a public free fall.

Chris Evert who won 18 Grand Slam titles was nicknamed 'the ice maiden.' She was the epitome of cool on the court, and calculating when serving up a dose of that artic chill. When disputing calls, Evert, stared down the judge with a glacial gaze that was withering. Sometimes, but evidently not lately, that's all you need in your arsenal.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

The Boys of Autumn


This is my favorite time of year. I grew up in a football family. My father, a small man, was on his high school football team. My brother played on the junior varsity until his knee failed him. In our pre-adolescent years while my father went to college and law school he worked for the SF 49ers. It was a good part time job for a man who had to support his family while grunting through torts. The job was really an 'inside' hire. My Godfather, a big cigar chomping Irishman, Dan McGuire was the reigning publicity director of the 49ers. The Morabito brothers Tony and Vic owned the club then. My brother and I went to all the training camps which were held at St. Mary's in Moraga. We amused ourselves in the 100 degree heat while the players expired mentally on their field of dreams. It was the 50's. I couldn't do Math in school but I memorized every number on the team. 39? Hugh McElhenny. 79? Bob St. Clair. For six years we went to every home game. While my father paced the sidelines, my mother watched us from the press box. My brother and I sat on the 30 yard line. My sister was home with the babysitter. But she would soon become a devoted fan of ol' number 14. YA Tittle. That's Yelberton Abraham to you. The 49ers weren't very good in those years. With the seagulls circling over Kezar stadium (you had to see the place to believe it) as the game wound down we would hang our heads and run out onto the field as the teams left for the locker room. Afterwards, as a ritual, the team would go to the Leopard cafe for their steak dinner. We'd go home and pretend the 49ers had won. It would be a long time between drinks; several decades, new ownership, change of venue, before San Francisco started filling their trophy case. Today, I can almost feel the autumn snap in the air. I'll be digging out sometime in late January.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Scatter Shots


1. The State of Hawaii. 50 years annexed to the Union. Not. That is to say, a very muted celebration by the island citizens in respect to Hawaiian Sovereignty and the remembrance of events that transpired in 1893 when Queen Lili'uokalini was overthrown, by (thieving land barons) European/American men who had quasi business interests, and kept prisoner in Iolani Palace. This was the beginning of the end of the monarchy. But it really didn't start here or with Captain Cook who received his comeuppance, or with the whalers who introduced new world disease and pestilence. One of the most poignant photos I remember was of a group of Hawaiian's cloaked in long dresses and suits sweltering in the tropical heat. The missionaries from Boston had arrived.

2. All hail the University of California, Berkeley police, Lisa Campbell and Ally Jacobs, who cracked the Garrido case. A keen eye, experience, and strong women's intuition...well done.

3. Woodstock. Woodstock. Reality check: Monterey Pop happened 2 years before that. Jimi was there, and so were The Who. Ravi Shankar too. Best shot of the night: Cass Elliot's hanging jaw as Janis belted Ball n' Chain.

4. 1964. My high school class picnic. Dallas. The assassination. With the burial of the last brother an old classmate of mine said: 'the 60's are over."

5. Greatest Woodstock commemorative: The song, 'Woodstock' by Joni Mitchell who wasn't even there. She walks on water.