Salem's budget gaps flow from a leadership gap

Pardon me while I rant, but there's a great example of "business as usual" that explains why City of Salem is cutting the services that people want (pools, libraries, parks) so that the city staff can continue doing things the way they've always been done:

The monthly mailed out water/sewer bill, which even gets sent to those of us who have signed up to have our bill paid with a credit card automatically each month.

This waste of paper -- a full sheet, plus envelope, plus 38 cents postage (this entirely superfluous mailing isn't even sent bulk rate -- it comes at the spendy presorted first class rate) must consume an extraordinary sum each year, merrily indicting Salem's city staff as blithely unconcerned with doing the right thing.

Worse, the folks behind this missive, which drives me bonkers when it arrives at LOVESalem HQ every month like clockwork, refuse to allow the people of Salem to turn this sow's ear into at least an imitation silk purse by letting the neighborhood associations ride along in the envelope for free.

In other words, even as Salem gives the neighborhoods a pittance for a communications budget, it refuses to let neighborhoods supply preprinted inserts for the envelope so that they could reach all the residents in their neighborhood association without having to do a separate mailing.

So what's the score?
Wasted energy and materials 1 vs. Common sense 0
Wasted utility money 1 vs. City credibility over budget concerns 0

Bureaucratic routine 1 vs. Better neighborhood communications 0

That looks like we lose this game every month, 3 to zip. I'm sure LOVESalem readers could come up with plenty of better ways to use money being squandered on sending useless water/sewer billing notices to people who have already said that they don't need or want them. But what's just as important to notice is how even the most ludicrous practice continues, mindlessly wasting dollars month after month after month, all because nobody in the City hierarchy demands better.

We have some really hard challenges coming up in the years to come. If we can't even take advantage of the "gimme's" -- fixing the really easy, stupid things -- then woe betide us down the road.

Guest Essay: War is Death

Image by Ilona Meagher via Flickr

From Mary Vorachek, M.D., of Salem:

War is Death

In a country so squeamish about death it is difficult to understand why so many people are able to put our destructive, expensive foreign wars on the back burner. When the life of a person you are responsible for ends, that life continues on in your memory until you die. I am a retired physician and I remember every one of my patients who died while under my care. I cannot imagine how I would feel if I had ever intentionally killed another human being. If my country sent me out to kill other people for their oil, control of their natural resources, revenge or world supremacy, I too might want to live under a bridge or commit suicide. Recent information has suggested that people who, from the safety of their computer stations, direct armed drones to kill people in foreign lands suffer worse post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms than those who kill on the battlefield.

Since Bush has now been swept into the dustbin of history, he will soon be forgotten, but the depravity of his administration will be long remembered by each of the families that suffered deaths and mutilations of their loved ones. The families in this country who lost their sons and daughters to the Iraq War can remember them with pain and pride. My cousin, Donnie, died in the D-day landings when I was only four years old, and through my mother's love for her nephew I will always feel sad for him but very proud of his sacrifice against a reviled aggressor. The families who suffered in our unnecessary war on Iraq from the loss of children, parents and grandparents will never forget the harm we inflicted upon them, their families and their country. Parents and extended families feel responsible for the lives of their loved ones and their memories live on until each member of the extended family dies. Perhaps after many years, the young people of Iraq and Afghanistan who suffered from the deaths of their parents and siblings may put aside ideas of revenge, but in the meantime we will remain at risk for as long as their pain is translated into revenge. Are we now the reviled aggressor?

Citizens must necessarily distance themselves from the abuses of government in order to continue to function in a civilized society. The abuses of power by our national leaders have caused disaffection among many of the citizenry and contributed to an anesthesia of feelings toward our fellow humans. Duplicity and corruption of politicians, corporations and the financial system have taken a terrible toll on soldiers, citizens of principal and the powerless.

More insidiously, the lack of compassion for others is perpetuated by main stream media's lack of coverage of the atrocities committed in our name or with weapons America gives or sells to other countries for the sport of killing their “enemies”. Corruption, profiteering, poor leadership and the lack of remorse for mistakes, have propelled many in our nation to ignore the suffering of others. It is fortunate, therefore, that there are also many people who have been inspired to organize and work for a better world, and I suspect that there is a large and growing undercurrent of discontent among the people of the United States against the status quo of our federal leadership. Now that Americans are experiencing greater fears of joblessness and homelessness, the movement for justice and compassion for others may become even more resonant among the majority of decent American citizens.

During the Bush years America's moral compass appeared to point only toward profit and ideology. Never mind that cluster bombs kill innocent children and that most civilized nations have banned them—they are profitable for America's war machine. Never mind that white phosphorous causes people to experience horrible disfigurement when it does not kill them outright—it is an American weapon that an be sold or given to other “friendly” countries. Never mind that robotic weapons and those who control them cause collateral damage (dead foreign civilians) even when they do not mistake their targets—the American war machine provides jobs. And what depraved minds constructed the name DIME for a weapon that can rip off an arm or leg without leaving any trace of metal fragments? Conversely, who can forget the pictures of jubilation among the JPL scientist when America landed two unmanned space probes on Mars. Do the manufacturers and the workers who make guns, bombs, tanks and robotic weapons celebrate when innocent civilians are killed by their weapons for profit? Weapons of war are designed and produced to efficiently kill other humans living on our planet. In modern warfare, civilian deaths are estimated to make up to 85 to 90% of of the total number of casualties. The number of estimated civilian deaths in World War I was 50% out of approximately sixteen millions total deaths. Are destructive wars America's answer to climate change?

When people we love and care for die, it diminishes us, the people who are left behind, the ones who have known, loved and cared for them. When a patient dies there is the inevitable conversation with yourself of the “what ifs” and “if onlys”. It is not surprising that soldiers commit suicide and live under bridges when they return from wars. It is not surprising that soldiers are so damaged they cannot fight for PTSD treatment and must depend on their families and people of conscience to help them receive treatment necessary to alleviate their pain. How can the soldier who looks into the face of a child before he pulls the trigger or the soldiers who launches a rocket into the midst of a family forget the people they have killed? How does the operator of an armed robot cope with the controversy of innocent civilian deaths—the denial, investigation and final acknowledgment? Must we continue this madness in Afghanistan and Pakistan?

It appears to me that President Obama's stand on the world platform of war is just a step stool and he is stepping in the wrong direction.

Mary A Vorachek, M.D.
Salem, Oregon

Provocative thought experiment

Image by DVIDSHUB via Flickr

In the November 2009 Harpers, a retired army officer asks an excellent question about the Afghaninam folly, which is one of the places draining the money out of places like Salem:

For those who, despite all this, still hanker to have a go at nation building, why start with Afghanistan? Why not first fix, say, Mexico? In terms of its importance to the United States, our southern neighbor—a major supplier of oil and drugs among other commodities deemed vital to the American way of life—outranks Afghanistan by several orders of magnitude.

If one believes that moral considerations rather than self-interest should inform foreign policy, Mexico still qualifies for priority attention. Consider the theft of California. Or consider more recently how the American appetite for illicit drugs and our lax gun laws have corroded Mexican institutions and produced an epidemic of violence afflicting ordinary Mexicans. Yet any politician calling for the commitment of 60,000 U.S. troops to Mexico to secure those interests or acquit those moral obligations would be laughed out of Washington—and rightly so. Any pundit proposing that the United States assume responsibility for eliminating the corruption endemic in Mexican politics while establishing in Mexico City effective mechanisms of governance would have his license to pontificate revoked. Anyone suggesting that the United States possesses the wisdom and the wherewithal to solve the problem of Mexican drug trafficking, to endow Mexico with competent security forces, and to reform the Mexican school system (while protecting the rights of Mexican women) would be dismissed as a lunatic. Meanwhile, those who promote such programs for Afghanistan, ignoring questions of cost and ignoring as well the corruption and ineffectiveness that pervade our own institutions, are treated like sages.

The contrast between Washington’s preoccupation with Afghanistan and its relative indifference to Mexico testifies to the distortion of U.S. national-security priorities adopted by George W. Bush in his post-9/11 prophetic mode—distortions now being endorsed by Bush’s successor. It also testifies to a vast failure of imagination to which our governing classes have succumbed. This failure of imagination makes it impossible for those who possess either authority or influence in Washington to consider the possibility (a) that the solution to America’s problems is to be found not out there—where “there” in this case is Central Asia—but here at home; (b) that the people out there, rather than requiring our ministrations, may well be capable of managing their own affairs, relying on their own methods; and (c) that to disregard (a) and (b) is to open the door to great mischief and in all likelihood to perpetrate no small amount of evil. Needless to say, when mischief or evil does occur—when a stray American bomb kills a few dozen Afghan civilians, for instance—the costs of this failure of imagination are not borne by the people who inhabit the leafy neighborhoods of northwest Washington, who lunch at the Palm or the Metropolitan Club and school their kids at Sidwell Friends. . . .

If you don't subscribe to Harpers, then, well, you should, because you regularly get great stuff like this piece.

WORD: Bageant on fire

Deer Hunting with Jesus mindmap. Image by Austin Kleon via Flickr

Wow.

Capitalism wouldn't be around today, at least not in its current pathogenic form, if it had not caught a couple of lucky breaks. The first of course, was the expansion of bloodsucking colonialism to give it transfusions of unearned wealth, enabling "investors" to profit by artificial means (death, oppression and slavery). But the biggest break was being driven to stratospheric heights by inordinate quantities of available hydrocarbon energy. Inordinate, but never the less finite. Consequently, the 100-year-long oil suckdown that put industrial countries in the tall cotton, now threatens to take back from subsequent beneficiary generation everything it gave. The Hummers, the golf courses, the big box stores, cruising at 35,000 feet over the Atlantic -- everything.

You'd never know that, to look around at Americans or Canadians, who have not the slightest qualms about living in that 3,500 square foot vinyl sided fuck box, if they can manage to make the mortgage nut, or unashamedly buying a quadruple X large Raiders Jersey because, hey, a guy's gotta eat, right? Why don't I deserve a nice ride, a swimming pool and a flat screen? I worked for it (sure you did buddy, your $12,000 Visa/MasterCard tab is proof of that).

The doomers and the peak oilers gag, and they call it American denial. Personally, I think it is somewhat unfair to say that most Americans and Canadians are in denial. They simply don't have fucking clue about what is really happening to them and their world. Everything they have been taught about working, money and "quality of life" constitutes the planet's greatest problem -- overshoot. Understanding this trashes our most basic assumptions, and requires a complete reversal in contemporary thought and practice about how we live in the world. When was the last time you saw any individual, much less an entire nation, do that?

Compounding our ignorance and naiveté are the officials and experts, politicians, media elites, and especially economists, who interpret the world for us and govern the course of things. The go-to guys. They don't know either. But they've got the lingo down.

Somehow or other, it all has to do with the economy, which none of us understands, despite round the clock media jabbering on the subject. Somehow it has to do with this great big spring on Wall Street called "the market" that's gotta be kept wound up, and interest rates at something called The Fed, which have got to be kept smunched down. The industry of crystal gazing and hairball rubbing surrounding these entities is called economics. . . .

Well-Observed: Two big industries that don't have a clue

Image by blogefl via Flickr

Higher Ed and Recorded Music. Well worth a read.

A good Kunstler and an even better reply

James Howard Kunstler has a pretty good piece up this week -- I wasn't going to link to it because of the one weak part, a bit of immigrant bashing (two paragraphs starting with an absurd notion to cut legal immigration, segueing to an attack on, basically, brown people). However, some commenter posted a good reposte; so, with that correction, it's worth reading the whole piece, which is otherwise pretty good.

It's kind of depressing to see that even JHK has bought into the phony "immigrant crisis" that needs to be "solved" by fair means or foul.

The "infux" of Mexicans in recent years has actually become an "outflux."

The proof that the phony crisis has been implanted even in otherwise sane minds is that Lou Dobbs was allowed to stop his nightly rant.

The reason the Mexicans (let's face it -- that's what we're talking about when we say Immigrants) is that the corporatists needed someone to take the fall when the economy and the jobs market went to shit. When Rufus, who formerly made $35 an hour in a no-longer-existent factory finally goes looking for a job swamping toilets or picking vegetables in the hot sun, the corporatists don't want him pointing a finger at Wall Street. They want him clubbing anyone he sees who is or even looks Mexican for "stealing his job."

The Mexicans in the US have been set up as a scapegoat class much the same as the Jews were set up in 1920s Germany to explain the financial failure of the country.

In a healthy economy, you need the immigrants -- with or without papers -- to take the shit jobs no citizen wants because of their upward mobility. The immigrants fill the vacant space at the bottom.

However, once the corporatists have robbed the treasury, sold off the infrastructure, killed the unions, sent jobs to slave labor in China, destroyed our manufacturing base, etc. then we are in a period of extreme downward mobility.

It's not that Mexicans are "stealing" our jobs. It's just that a lot of Americans are, or will be, forced to start seeking out jobs that previously only undocumented immigrants would do.

The "immigrant crisis" is the most successful propaganda disinformation effort in the history of the US.

And, in honor of In(ter)dependence Day! News from Neighborhood Harvest

Salem's coolest new nonprofit, Neighborhood Harvest, just had their first pick of the season: Royal Anne cherries. (We’re recruiting tall ladders as well as volunteers!) About 25 pounds of fruit were donated to the Marion-Polk Food Share, and pickers took home the other half.

For a cherry cobbler recipe go here.

We’re still looking for SITE SCOUTS, NEIGHBORHOOD COORDINATORS and HARVEST LEADERS for upcoming harvests. Training will be provided. Contact Amy at abarr@salemharvest.org.

http://www.salemharvest.org/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Neighborhood-Harvest-of-Salem-Oregon/118369728202886

Oregon Liquor Control Comm'n employees creatively seeking to have agency abolished

Man, oh man, this can only be explained by assuming that the OLCC folks in charge are secretly part of the campaign to see the OLCC abolished, in which case, this is a good step in the effort.

This definitely merits the double facepalm of fail. EPIC fail.

Should North HS open its campus even more?

Image via Wikipedia

LOVESalem HQ is in NEN (Northeast Neighborhood) area, which includes North HS. The school has, at least on paper, a closed campus, meaning kids are theoretically supposed to stay on the grounds during the school hours. It would be difficult for the casual observer to know this, judging from the steady flow of kids off the grounds throughout the day.

Now, there's apparently been a proposal to formally open the campus fully, making the de facto reality the de jure one. This has caused some consternation among neighbors who live near the school and who find kids "hanging" out near their houses, doing what kids do when they've got plenty of time to kill (Devils and idle hands and all that). The NEN neighborhood association is holding a special meeting to consider whether to take a position on the question. If you live or work in NEN and are affected by the students now or by the proposed open campus, you might want to attend, or send your comments to Alan Scott, NEN chair.

To All NEN Neighbors and Businesses:
RE: North Salem High School “Open Campus” Policy

I would like to invite anyone interested to attend a special meeting of the NEN Board on Tuesday, July 6 at 6:30 p.m. to discuss the proposed North Salem High School “Open Campus” policy. The meeting will be held at Willson House at 1625 Center Street NE in the Activity Room.

Representatives from North Salem High School and the School District have also been invited to share their views about this policy at this meeting.

The NEN Board has not taken a position on North’s Open Campus policy. Before doing so we would like to hear from neighbors and businesses that have had experience with the policy in the past.

Please feel free to send your comments to me via email and I will print and take them to the meeting.

We look forward to an open discussion about this issue and we hope to see you on
Tuesday, July 6 at 6:30 p.m. at Willson House.

Alan Scott, Chair
NorthEast Neighbors
Email: scott46englewood@gmail.com
www.SalemNEN.org

Most Excellent: NeighborGoods - sharing stuff instead of buying

Here at LOVESalem HQ we've been mulling over trying to create a neighborhood-based tool exchange using a Googledocs spreadsheet . . . . But the universe was listening and sent this nifty tool our way. Like Freecycling only better, because you can share stuff that you want to keep instead of just giving it away. (Thanks to LOVESalem foreign correspondent Jeff N for the lead.)

Micki "Mickipedia" Krimmel's LA-based startup NeighborGoods.net launches nationwide throughout the USA today (before, the service was only available in Southern California). The big idea: borrow and lend stuff with your neighbors instead of buying things new. From Micki's launch announcement:

NeighborGoods.net offers a unique service by building upon the success of sites like Craiglist and Freecycle. Inspired by their ability to encourage re-use and keep waste out of landfills, NeighborGoods goes one step further to help people get more value out of stuff they actually want to keep. Members can safely borrow a lawnmower, lend a bicycle, or earn some extra money by renting a DVD collection. NeighborGoods is like Craigslist for borrowing. NeighborGoods provides all the tools to share safely and confidently including transparent user ratings and transaction histories, privacy controls, deposits, and automated calendars and reminders to ensure the safe return of loaned items.

Intro video embedded above, and available here on Vimeo.