What is Sacred to You?

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A recent article in the Seattle Times gave me pause. Some survivors and family members of the Minidoka Japanese interment camp in a rural area of Idaho are celebrating the cancellation of a wind power project that would have been visible from the area where the camp had been. It would not have been built on the site, which is a National Historic Landmark. Rather it would have been nine miles away but visible from the site.

I have been to Minidoka. My first attempt to find it resulted in frustration. On a later road trip through southern Idaho, I made more of an effort and finally found the site. The visitor center was closed that day (it is closed most days), but it was possible to wander the area, ponder the history that led to its creation, and think of the lives of the people who had lived there. It is off the beaten path on roads used by local farmers. Little is left of the 640 structures that were hastily built to house the 13,000 Japanese American families who were uprooted and sent there – just one barrack, one mess hall, one root cellar, and a fire station. Today, most of the site is barren land. 

Japanese American opponents of the wind farm, led by the Minidoka Pilgrimage Planning Committee, objected to it because they claim the site is sacred. “Siting wind projects located in the viewshed of sacred land and over the universal objections of our community and local communities is not clean energy.” 

I fixated on the claim that the site is sacred. Mirriam Webster (online) offer these definitions: 2a worthy of religious veneration, and 2b entitled to reverence and respect. I accept that the Minidoka site is entitled to reverence and respect. But I wonder if the term “sacred” need apply to the entire “viewshed.” This project was shut down by Donald Trump via executive order supported by Republican lawmakers who object to all wind power projects, not by people who are concerned about the “viewshed” of a historical landmark considered sacred by some.. 

Am I wrong to worry that concerns about the viewshed of any site that is worthy of reverence and respect could lead to unintended consequences? Are wind farms so offensive to our eyes? I thought so once, but as I’ve traveled across the west, visions of wind farms have failed to diminish my enjoyment of open spaces. And what about the declaration that a part of the earth, our common home, is sacred? Who gets the privilege of making such a claim? Does everyone else have to accept it? This feels like a sticky wicket to me. Am I wrong? 

Absolutely this history is important. I visited the site knowing something about these camps, but it was sobering to see the actual site and read more of the history. I hope many, many people take the time to visit either Minidoka or one of the other sites of these internment camps. 

Yet, I am truly curious to know how this issue strikes the rest of you! Please, take a few minutes to read the Seattle Times article and view the website for Minidoka. Comments, please.

Three Cheers for Two States

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Hoopla abounds regarding declarations from France, England, and Canada about their intents to recognize a Palestinian state “soon.” 

Each country has some qualifications embedded in their statements. Those qualifications differ, but their desire for a two state solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine is clear. I share a desire for a two state solution, but I would not award the status of statehood to Palestinians anytime “soon.” And I doubt that any Palestinian leader would accept the offers that are on the table. Why would they turn down this opportunity? The countries behind the hoopla assume the continued existence of Israel, and that is simply unacceptable to the most vocal Palestinians. 

Palestinian statehood is not being offered in lieu of Israeli statehood. European countries that recognize or plan to recognize a Palestinian state do not have the intent of terminating the Israeli state. Had any past leaders of Palestinians been willing to accept the continued existence of the state of Israel, they could have had a state long ago, imperfect though it might have been in their eyes. 

Israel did not begin with their conception of perfection. From the time of the 1917 Balfour Declaration on, Jews have known that they would not get as much land as they wanted, nor would they get to choose lands most important to them. Rather, they knew that they would get what others offered them. Meanwhile, Palestinians opposed every proposal that included land for a Jewish state.

Over the past 40 years, many people, myself included, have considered the Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be a major obstacle to achieving a two state solution. “Just Say No” to those settlements, and peace will ensue. I’ve read or listened to legal explanations of why the settlements are legal. I’ve offered links to those arguments for those curious enough to wade through history. But I’ve also thought that it doesn’t matter if the settlements are legal, they still might not be wise. Legal and wise are not synonymous.

This year, stories of “settler violence,” I.e. settler attacks on Palestinians, have been in the news. In one story, settlers even attacked IDF soldiers who were returning from dismantling a bomb making factory in a Palestinian town in the West Bank. That was shocking, not just to me, but to many in Israel. Other incidents of settler violence have appeared in western media. But I don’t trust accounts in most western media regarding anything happening in the middle east. 

Then today, I stumbled across a podcast called “Unpacking Israeli History” that focuses specifically on the issue of settlements and recent stories of settler violence. I’ve listened to other episodes of “Unpacking…” but this is an especially good one. I can’t construct an adequate summary of the whole West Bank settler issue, so I’m suggesting that you find time to listen to it yourself. Especially listen to it if you, like me, have long felt that the settlements are an ongoing impediment to a two state solution. 

The protracted war in Gaza is horrible. But releasing Israeli hostages might go a long way to ending the war, and it’s frustrating to hear all of the Hamas slogans – “From the river to the sea,” “Globalize the Intifada” – etc. and not “Free the hostages!” How did this get so one-sided? And how is it that the press that promotes the Hamas version of events can continue to neglect to mention that the goal of Hamas is the extinction of Israel. Is that detail not important? 

I would like to see peace between Israel and the Palestinians before I die. As I am now in my 80s, and nothing resembling peace is on the horizon, I’m not optimistic. Since October 7, 2023, I’ve been paying a lot more attention to this part of the world. One thing I’ve noticed is that Jews, both  Israelis and those in the diaspora, are open about their disagreements about Israel, whereas Palestinians seem only to speak the party line. It makes a difference if you believe that you put your life in danger by disagreeing with that party line. Jews, on the other hand, are raised to argue over everything. This stark cultural difference is a big factor in my support of information about the war that comes from Israeli sources. I’m confident that if it is not accurate, a truer version will be out shortly. It is shocking to me that so many colleges are scenes of students and faculty uncritically spouting Hamas’ propaganda. Is thinking not allowed on campus anymore?

Well, this rhetoric about a Palestinian state is unlikely to bear fruit, IMHO. But life is full of surprises, though I’m not holding my breath. Meanwhile, here’s a link to the podcast and transcript.

Settler Violence: Hard Truths with Haviv Rettig Gur

Here’s the Thing about Money

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Recently, some ultra rich people made a public statement that they didn’t need the tax cut recently signed by Trump. They might be in the minority of the ultra rich, but I’m certain their sentiment is absolutely true. There is a point at which the only point of more money is to one-up someone else. Your needs – and indeed, your wants – have been satisfied.

We are not there yet. In fact, every time I relax a bit and think we are OK, something happens to shake my confidence. Here’s some history of our financial life. We got married when we were still in grad school. I had a $200/mo. stipend from a fellowship. He had a $200/mo. check as a RA. We paid $80/mo. rent and ate at a corner bar & grill more often than we should have. We saved enough to make a down payment on a basic VW bus, modified it into a camper, and took off most weekends for somewhere. 

We also saved some money for a trip to Alaska on a state ferry. (People could sleep on the deck in those days.) But suddenly, the beloved bus needed an expensive repair and that was the end of our dream trip to AK. Next, he suffered a TBI (traumatic brain injury) in a bicycle race. Suddenly, our minimalist two income lifestyle was a zero income lifestyle. He couldn’t work, and I couldn’t leave him alone. Things eased up a bit when his boss let him come back to work long before he could do anything useful. I started work mid-August for my first year teaching, not knowing that I wouldn’t get a paycheck until October 1. When September 1 came around with no check, I panicked, but we scraped together enough to survive the month. Together, we agreed we needed to keep some money untouched, and we would never, ever build a budget based on two incomes. 

In 1975, Seattle voted down a school levy and laid off teachers. I survived that layoff because the district opted not to lay off any special ed teachers, of which I was one. I survived future layoffs based on seniority because I now had one year over the layoff threshold. Unfair, but hey. Spouse was self-employed during these years, always making some money, but the amount varied from year to year. By this time, we were building a savings account so that we could survive a few months in event of a new mishap. We realized that we had enough money to make a down payment on a house, which we did. Mortgage payment, taxes and insurance was equal to the rent we had been paying. (Life was different back then.) 

We continued to live as a one-income couple despite our two incomes. We made basic improvements to the house, but nothing fancy, and sold it twelve years later at a handsome profit, which we applied to a duplex where we lived in half and rented the other half. After which, we moved to a boat and sold the duplex at a profit. We did not sell the boat at a profit, but we didn’t lose a lot. And somewhere along the way line, a great aunt died, willed some money to my mom who divided it in half and gave my sister and me each $10,000. That doesn’t sound like a lot today, but we didn’t need it at the time and put it into savings. Later, my mom died, and we inherited another sum, again a modest amount that we didn’t need at the time. We bought a new car for $10,000, two tax deferred annuities, and a handful of blue chip stocks just as the market was starting on a huge upward trend. 

Meanwhile, spouse took a job with a paycheck in lieu of the unpredictability of being self employed. His employer had a 401K plan, so when his plant eventually closed, he had a little pile of money to invest. No. We did not buy Microsoft when it went public. Most of our initial investments paid off before they tanked as the 80s blue chips gave way to the 90s tech boom which gave way to the dot com bubble. We did eventually buy some Microsoft, but after the initial investors had made many millions of dollars. We bought Apple at it’s peak in the ‘90s and watched its value plummet on rumors of impending bankruptcy. But Bill Gates bailed out Steve Jobs, and we didn’t sell at the bottom, and now it’s worth a lot more than we paid for it despite its uncertain future re: China.. We lost money in the dot com bust, but came out with enough to keep us afloat.

I’ve read lots of advice about saving for retirement, about renting vs owning, about the 4% rule (theoretically, you can use 4% of your total pile of money each year and you’ll never run out of money). But right now the present is chaotic, the future so unpredictable, that who knows if we’ll be OK until we die. We don’t have long term care insurance. Many friends do, but I just don’t trust insurance companies. Yes, some have benefitted, and it’s a bit risky to be self-insured for what could be massive expenses in the future. We will either be OK or we won’t. Spouse’s opinion is that if we run out of money, the whole world will be a shambles, so we’ll have lots of company. Occasionally, he’s right.

In any event, we got a call last Thursday from the real estate agent who has the listing for the house we want to sell. I really like the house, but we might be the only people who do. It’s been on the market a month, some lookers, right price, but people always have some nit-picky issue with it. The reason for her call was that another agent was showing the house and saw that a toilet was leaking. Water damage. If there are any two words you never want to hear about your house, it’s “water damage.” 

We were already on our way there to pull some weeds, so when we arrived, she explained it all to us. Our handyman is on vacation, so we had to call a real plumber. Simple fix, and $275 later the new part had restored the toilet back to normal. Then I had to call a company that deals with water damage. Good news, they were able to start work on Friday afternoon. The first part, ripping out the damaged bits, will take a few days and a few thousand dollars. The last part will take a few more days and a few thousand more dollars. The house will be “temporarily unlisted” for about two weeks (we hope not more), and will forever be tainted as I suspect word will get around about “water damage.” 

Meanwhile, spouse continues to make coffee in the morning. Also sometimes in the evening as he can’t tell 7:30 a.m. from 7:30 p.m., especially at this time of year. He also takes care of our garbage and our recycles and asks me many times a day what day is it. I still love bumming around with him. So that’s good. 

Well, back to the point about money. It’s great to have some, I’m glad we do, I hope it lasts, and I just wish the damn toilet hadn’t leaked. 

Jeffrey Epstein, Jeffrey Epstein, Jeffrey Epstein

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Wait, what? I’m supposed to forget about Jeffrey Epstein and start thinking about locking up Barack Obama? That’s how Trump is going to dodge the news about his close ties to a creepy pedophile? Well, Donald, it’s not working with me.

Whatever you and I might think about Barack Obama’s policies, and there is room for disagreement about some of them, I just don’t think even Donalds’ incompetent batch of legal advisers can find reason to lock up Obama. If I were The Donald, I wouldn’t invite any sort of comparison to Obama. Just my humble opinion.

Near and Far

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I haven’t even tried to write a blog post in quite a while. We have been moving and downsizing, and I intersperse work with playing games on my phone. Five minutes of work, one hour on my phone. I “multitask” by listening to podcasts or videos while playing games. I could multitask by working and listening to the same things, but I don’t. Hence, no new posts in a while. But today is a new day!

The World

While my fingers have been lazy, the world continues to circle the drain with the occasional moment of optimism. Take the bombing of Iranian nuclear sites: Yea! Take the Skrmetti decision from the Supreme Court: Yea! Take the recent decision to sell arms to NATO so that NATO countries can give them to Ukraine: Yea! (So, yes, Trump found a way to make money off of the Ukraine war. At least arms will move to the good guys.)

Am I truly in favor of bombing Iran? Actually, yes. Iranian leaders are not good guys. Am I truly supportive of the Skrmetti decision? Yes, actually. I’d prefer that medical professionals avoid the need for such cases by taking a more cautious approach to youth gender medicine. But if the docs are going to swallow the lie that there is a consensus based on good evidence that puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and surgeries!!!, yes, surgeries, are appropriate for teens who’ve had barely a whiff of counseling, then I support actions of legislators to rein in such practices. And no, that doesn’t mean I deny the right of trans individuals to exist, whatever that even means. 

And while we’re at it, yes, I continue to support the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state (even though I’d prefer that all states be secular). There are plenty of Islamic states, Christian states, Hindu states, Buddhist states, etc. One Jewish state is fine with me. And no, the Islamic Jihadists who chant “from the river to the sea” have nothing positive to offer the residents of Israel or Gaza or the West Bank.

On the Homefront

Meanwhile, here at home, we caught Covid for the second time. No idea where, though the only time we’ve been indoors around lots of people was a trip to IKEA about the right number of days prior to testing positive. But I have to admit that we’ve not worn masks at the grocery store for several months. Frankly, I think lots of people who say they’ve caught a cold actually have Covid, but not many people are testing any more, and God knows, the government doesn’t care to track Covid any longer. We were not very sick, so we put our camping gear in the car and went off for a few days.

And meanwhile, we are getting older. A year ago, I was ready to give up camping completely. We had a tent that was easy to put up, but somehow bought the most difficult to assemble cots that have ever been invented. We finally donated the cots last spring and bought simpler ones. They worked well on this trip, but frankly, the need to get to the toilet in the middle of the night is the final nail in the coffin of our camping life. Also, it was hot, so hot that we couldn’t sleep well, so ugh. We will donate our gear and let some other happy campers enjoy it all.

We felt relieved to return to our air conditioned apartment. But, you know what? I was also thrilled to stand at the edge of the world, i.e. the Pacific coast, and just thrill to the sound of the waves and the sight of the misty islets just offshore. What must it have been like to be on those shores before Europeans or Russians arrived? Traveling by canoe when weather permitted, sufficiently isolated from neighbors to the north and south that native languages diverged into dialects. Salmon were never in such short supply that hunger was an issue. Good news: the 1974 Boldt decision that enabled the tribes to legally fish in traditional waters without harassment by the state has enabled them to gain an economic toehold such that they can rebuild their communities. La Push looks better than it did 50 years ago even though the Quileutes are not well situated for a casino.

We still have work to do to get settled in our new digs, but we are liking Olympia for its walkability, relative calm, and food options. We have a nice restaurant in our building and a new coffee purveyor which sells excellent pastries and quiche. But today we spent $30 on two espresso drinks and two slices of quiche, both excellent, but no, we cannot make that a daily indulgence. 

I’m wondering if anyone besides us has noticed that inflation has yet to be brought to heel. Washington has just added a new gas tax on top of previous gas taxes, so it’s rare to find gas under $4.00/gal, often it’s $5.00 or more. Has anyone noticed that the effort to empty the country of immigrants is resulting in horrific disruptions to agriculture and small businesses, and brought fear to families of immigrants everywhere. Maybe there were not millions of criminal immigrants out there after all? 

What’s weird is that I’m not opposed to everything Trump said he would do, but I truly do not like the way it is all playing out. Why is he so slow to recognize that Putin has no interest in being “reasonable?” What do you all think? Can we piece things back together again or is this ripping apart of government and institutions a permanent thing? I hate it. And I’m too old to do anything about it. Hope the youngsters are up for the challenge. 

Yell at me in the comments if you like. I’m up for it.