President and the pulpit

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Don Miller

Could it be that President Obama may have a problem with black voters this fall? You wouldn’t think so, but the president’s somewhat forced endorsement last week of gay marriage almost immediately got him in trouble with black ministers, some of whom delivered Sunday sermons taking on the Obama’s new stand (others, however, supported the announcement).

According to a story published today in the New York Times, after making his announcement on gay marriage, the president almost immediately got a number of prominent pastors on a conference call to try and explain himself. According to the Times stories, he was not all that successful. As one Baptist minister told the Times, same-sex marriage goes against the Bible, and the president’s decision to come out for allowing homosexual unions was going to cause serious divisions among his erstwhile supporters. Another black pastor took to the pulpit Sunday, according to the Times,  and denounced the president for his stand “in support of sin,” and “in opposition to the biblical model of marriage.”

The president — who back in the 2008 campaign ran into serious political trouble because of his membership in the outspoken and fiery Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s church — has had trouble convincing the faith community he’s with them. The recent controversy over whether religion-based organizations had to offer health insurance covering contraceptives didn’t help. Then this. It might explain why,  when he first made the announcement of his “evolved” stance on same-sex marriage to ABC News, that he made a point of saying that both he and the First Lady are “practicing Christians.”

Obama’s team of advisors have made a point, according to reporters covering the White House, of blaming Vice President Joe Biden for forcing them into an announcement during the president’s re-election campaign. Meanwhile, the administration, while basking in the glow of Hollywood donations flowing in after the announcement, has also been fielding calls from pastors all over the country, black, white and Hispanic.

Some politically minded Christian conservatives think Obama handed them a potent election issue. “I think the president this past week took six or seven states he carried in 2008 and put them in play with this one ill-conceived position that he’s taken,” said Gary Bauer, the former presidential candidate, on a CNN program.  On the same program, Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said, “I’ve gotten calls from pastors across the nation, white and black pastors, who have said, ‘You know what? I’m not sitting on the sidelines anymore.’ ”

Still, as the Sentinel wrote last week in an Editorial, we doubt if most voters are going to be swayed on this issue only. What really will affect most votes is the economy, not how the president sees gay marriage, which so far is a state issue, not a federal one. Further, we noted, no law is forcing churches to marry homosexuals, or to recognize same-sex marriages or to approve of the practice. Government, we said, is in a different position and under the law, has to offer equal rights to all citizens, regardless of sexual orientation.

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Random and senseless: Death in the streets

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Don Miller

The following is the Santa Cruz Sentinel Editorial for May 9, 2012

First, we acknowledge that much still remains unknown about the shocking and random murder of a local business owner Monday in broad daylight on a well-traveled Santa Cruz street.

But what is known is disturbing enough — and has already generated an intense and passionate community debate in Sentinel online forums, to be followed, in all probability, by letters to the editor.

Because the suspect, arrested soon after the stabbing death of Shannon Collins, was a convicted felon who told police he had arrived in Santa Cruz only a week or so ago. And because he also said he did not know Shannon Collins, other than pulling out a knife and savagely stabbing her to death on the 300 block of Broadway — which is near the main tourist gateway to the Boardwalk and Main Beach.

Obviously, and without further details from police, this tragedy has already scared and incensed many Santa Cruz residents, who have long been wary, at the very least, of a criminal or unstable element attracted to a beach city with a reputation for tolerance.
Perhaps this case will have an alternative explanation, but at gut level, this is what many people have already decided.

What we do know from Santa Cruz police is this: Mrs. Collins, 38, the owner with her husband of the Camouflage store on Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz, was on the way to a hairdresser appointment Monday when around 11:50 a.m. she somehow encountered 43-year-old Charles Anthony Edwards III, whose last known address was San Francisco. Edwards, said police, is a convicted felon with an extensive criminal history and, so far, an unknown mental state. He was found a few blocks away with blood on him and trying to hide evidence, police said.

Police say Mrs. Collins was a “completely innocent victim” of a senseless killing.

As terrifying as the thought of a random victim murdered in cold blood on a city street obviously is, rushing to judgment about who to blame won’t be productive.
At the same time, the debate over safety and criminal behavior in the city increased in volume in recent years, with the rise in gang violence and the hard drug trade generating the most public interest.

In addition, state prison reform has meant that non-violent criminals — repeat, nonviolent — are increasingly serving time in county jails rather than state prison, to reduce overcrowding and lower the horrendous costs of incarcerating, say, drug criminals. But local law enforcement is well aware that if, and when, a prisoner serving time here instead of a state lockup commits a serious crime there will be a public outcry.

Homeless advocates also shudder every time a random crime happens in the city, even though the local shelters do a great job of turning away substance abusers or people with obvious criminal tendencies. Most of the people being helped are truly in need.

But none of that changes the perception that even though Monday’s tragic killing was Santa Cruz’s first this year, the streets can feel unsafe because of the behaviors of some of the wanderers who gravitate to a liberal beach city with relatively easy access to drugs and booze.

Again, we don’t know all the details of this crime, nor the intent or mental state of the suspect.

But none of that changes the feeling, perhaps momentary, perhaps not, that if Shannon Collins wasn’t safe on a public street on a sunny Monday morning, then who is?

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Charles Colson’s changed life of repentance

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Don Miller



2008 speech

If he had been reading the Sentinel Sunday, would Charles Colson have been amused by the headline on his obituary?

“Convicted Watergate figure dies at 80.”

Yes, that was true. And the media never forgets, and some people never forgive.

But, as many people who knew, or knew of, the man said upon learning of his passing, he was a profoundly changed man who ended up changing the world for the better.

I’m of the age of Watergate myself — having once reveled in the journalistic expose of the third-rate burglary that would eventually bring down President Richard M. Nixon in 1974.

Colson, of course, had been the most Nixonian of all the president’s men, the so-called “hatchet man” who infamously said he would have walked over his grandmother to ensure his president was re elected in 1972. Thanks to the dirty tricks dreamed up by Colson and so many others who ill served their leader, Nixon won — but the dark forces his administration had unleashed eventually encircled all in the realm who collaborated and covered up.

Colson, with a number of other administration figures, was sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to a crime that actually preceded the Watergate hotel break-in — the use of so-called “plumbers” to stop White House leaks, which led to a break-in at the office of Pentagon Papers whistle blower Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist.

Colson pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice  for his part in the administration’s efforts to smear and discredit Ellsberg, although charges he had masterminded the actual break-in were dropped. He served seven months in prison.

Colson had his conversion experience before he went to jail, a not uncommon experience among criminals hoping to convince a judge or jury they’ve had a change of heart and can be trusted to lead law-obeying lives from that point on.

Editorialists at the time called Colson’s “born again” experience a sham. The term comes from the New Testament, where Jesus tells a religious leader of the time, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Jesus subsequently explains he is talking about spiritual matters, saying, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

Colson would later use the words in the title of his best selling book, “Born Again: What Really Happened to the White House Hatchet Man.”

What really happened is that he emerged from prison with a changed mind, and spirit, about who he was and what he would do with the remainder of his life on earth. In 1976, Colson created the Prison Fellowship ministry to work with prisoners, ex prisoners and their families. The organization spread around the world and today operates in 1,300 correctional facilities with a $40 million budget and works with over 7,000 churches in the United States, many of which provide volunteers who minister to prisoners.

He became, over the years, one of the leading voices in evangelical Christianity — but some of his views were decidedly not in the conservative mainstream. For instance, Colson voiced serious doubt about the fairness of the death penalty. He believed prisoners convicted of nonviolent crimes should work serving their communities, rather than be locked up behind bars. He was an advocate for the kind of prison reform that today is being enacted in California and other parts of the nation.

Even as a leading Christian voice in this country and around the world, with a popular daily radio commentary and numerous books, newspaper columns and magazine articles to his credit, Colson never seemed afraid to go against the grain.

In the 1990s, he met with Roman Catholic leaders and began working toward a new dialogue between evangelicals and Catholics, two camps in the same army who have fought each other, misunderstood each other, for centuries.

Colson also became a key adviser in President George W. Bush’s administration — primarily on faith-based issues such as human rights, prison reform, persecution, AIDS in Africa, the war in Sudan, sex trafficking, and partial birth abortion. Bush, a professed evangelical himself, in turn asked Congress in his 2003 State of the Union address to allocate $300 million for prison reform.

Karl Rove, Bush’s election mastermind and deputy chief of staff, was asked about Colson’s influence. Rove said Colson’s counsel to Bush was: “Here’s what an evangelically-minded president ought to be concerned about in fulfillment of the admonition that ‘To much is given, much is expected.’”

In his final speech, shortly before he died, Colson talked about a familiar refrain, how the church itself, the body of Christ, needed to change, and that could change an increasingly debased culture. But Colson was no Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson. He knew the gospel — and he knew the Washington culture and where the unceasing lust for power led. His presence on the national stage was never about him, or about votes he could deliver, or about demonizing those who disagreed with him. Been there, done that — and … everything had changed.

After his death, spiritual leaders who knew Colson said he was one of the relatively rare public figures who fell from power into grace — and then lived the remainder of his life serving others while obeying the message of the cross.

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Up on Cripple Creek: Levon Helm dies at 71

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Don Miller

Watch Quick Hits: Levon Helm Performs “Ophelia” on PBS. See more from Sound Tracks.

Levon Helm’s voice was among the most memorable in music.

I can still remember the first time I heard Levon Helm, who died today at 71 after battling cancer for many years, about just pulling into Nazareth, on the classic Band song “The Weight,” from the first and epochal album, “Music from Big Pink.”

Helm’s voice evoked an America that was mostly long gone: deep South, hardscrabble and timeless. It went with his humble beginnings, in Turkey Scratch, Ark., and it played out in successive albums, including the triumphal “The Band.” And while The Band owed a lot to Bob Dylan, who had given many their start as a backing band and who collaborated with them on the historic “Basement Tapes,” they created their own legend in the late ’60s, early ’70s music world, including a stadium tour with Dylan in 1974. After that, drugs and booze and infighting brought The Band back to earth, and a couple members died early deaths, while others went their separate ways. Helm battled cancer, started a new but mostly unsuccessful reunion version of The Band, then recreated a new career over the last 15 years or so from the ashes.

The best piece I read today about Levon Helm came from his hometown newspaper (he lived in Woodstock, NY), the (Middletown, NY) Times Record-Herald and writer Steve Israel. It’s worth reading.

And listening.

 

 

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Mercy triumphs judgment

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Don Miller

Sentinel photo/Bill Lovejoy

It’s easy to scapegoat people living on the edges of society’s lower rung — and easier yet to mock the local residents who choose to serve them.

But it’s way more difficult to help the marginalized find at least some hope.

That’s really what the annual Homeless Connect project is about. No judgment about why someone is homeless. No barriers for people with various conditions ranging from mental illness to substance abuse. No flinching at the havoc circumstances and, yes, choices have often wreaked upon people.

Tuesday’s United Way of Santa Cruz County-sponsored event took place inside and outside the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium. It brought together a huge crowd including activists, service providers, a local church serving more than a thousand free meals, public officials, the Sentinel editor — and homeless folks from around the county.

There has been a long-running argument in Santa Cruz, especially, about whether services offered in the downtown area contribute to what many see as a growing number of people living on the streets, underneath bridges or even finding shelter at the Homeless Services Center.

If one adds in the city’s ever-present and myriad drug and alcohol temptations, the combination has often been blamed for behaviors and criminal activity that most people find unacceptable.

If you have a house, a job, a family, a car, decent medical care and you’re not chemically addicted, it can become difficult to find sympathy for the men and women carrying bedrolls on their backs, trudging through parks and open spaces, or even asking for handouts on street corners.

Of course, the problem is hardly that simple, as people who work with the homeless community know all too well. For some homeless, it’s losing a job or missing a rent payment and then finding themselves suddenly out on the street. For others, the onslaught of painful and debilitating psychological illness turns their lives upside down.

For single moms with kids, it might be a nightly battle just to find a safe place to sleep.

Tuesday’s event won’t solve the enduring problem of homelessness, or what attracts people to Santa Cruz, or the question of appropriate services.

But it did bring together hundreds of volunteers and a disparate group of other community members. For instance, Santa Cruz County District Attorney Bob Lee showed up — and stayed for lunch, even though several activists confronted him about his office’s prosecution of individuals for illegal sleeping in public areas and for the  illegal takeover of a former bank building near downtown. Lee listened — and later noted he supports finding a way to clear up many of the minor legal issues involving the local homeless population clogging the court system.

As almost always with homeless issues, Santa Cruz Mayor Don Lane was on site, offering encouragement to those with questions — some homeless were paired up with volunteer advocates to help them figure out how to obtain needed services — and gratitude at the turnout. Homeless Services Center Executive Director Monica Martinez, who has shown a remarkable ability to balance community concerns with the needs of the center’s clients, was rightfully pleased at the volunteer turnout.

For one day, at least, it was not out-of-sight, out-of-mind for many homeless people who were able to get medical services, get their teeth and eyes checked and their bicycles repaired, or to be graced with a free haircut — all from community volunteers. These free services would be everyday, taken-for-granted stuff for most of us, but for hundreds and hundreds of people who got connected, they were a gift.

This post will be the Santa Cruz Sentinel Editorial for April 19, 2012

 

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Election 2012: Sentinel coverage plans

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Don Miller

Maybe it’s just the blurring of time as I get older, but doesn’t it seem like … yesterday … that hope and change and Barack Obama, much less the entrance and exit of Sarah Palin along with the doom-gloom of the collapse of the American economy were driving us all madly toward what we thought was a satisfying ending?

But the year of Barack Obama and the meltdown of big banks seems so, oh I don’t know, 2008.

The thrill ride of that year has morphed into what looks like a fairly mundane presidential election year this time around. Looks, however, are often deceiving, so we’ll just have to see what lies beneath the surface.

In any case, mail-in balloting for the June 5 primary election in California starts May 7, so the Sentinel is ramping up local coverage and election resources in anticipation.

Right now, a lack of hot button issues and contested races seem to be leading to a somewhat apathetic turnout.  The June primary for a brief moment appeared that it could be telling in the Republican presidential primary race as frontrunner Mitt Romney struggled to put enough distance between himself and the rest of the pack.

But now Romney has the nomination in the bag, and no one much cares whether Newt Gingrich or Ron Paul remain in the race.

On a statewide level, however, one thing is really different: the open primary, which states that the top two finishers in any race, regardless of party affiliation, will face off in November.  This measure was pushed by Republican former state Sen. Abel Maldonado during his unsuccessful 2010 run for lieutenant governor. Maldonado’s argument was that the change would tend to move candidates, including incumbents, toward the center and away from extreme partisanship — which has been blamed for the state’s becoming a legislative morass where nothing much meaningful ever happens and where reforms and budget solutions go to die.

Still, most of the excitement will come in November. Not only will Obama and Romney be vying for the presidency — come to think of it that race doesn’t sound all that appealing, does it? — while Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax measure may be joined by another tax raising ballot proposition. Locally, any runoffs for the county board of supervisors, along with a contested Santa Cruz City Council election should drive voter interest.

For June, however, we have three local county supervisors races, three school parcel tax measures and a couple of state measures — one on term limits and the other increasing taxes on tobacco. Most incumbents, Democrats, face what appears to be underfunded token opposition — not surprising because Democrats dominate in terms of party registration, even with the redistricting that came from a citizens’ panel last year. Funny thing — voters consistently say how unhappy with the state Legislature and Congress, but when it comes time to vote, incumbents, who often deliver on local issues and government services and funding, are almost always returned to office by wide margins.

Here’s what the Sentinel election news team plans for the June primary, 2012:

  • In our Opinion section, we’ll give our thoughts and choices on local candidates and any Santa Cruz County or statewide ballot measures. These endorsements will start Sunday and be completed before mail-in balloting begins May 7.
  • We’re also accepting letters to the editor in support of candidates or ballot measures. These letters can be submitted online at santacruzsentinel.com/letters. They should be no longer than 150 words. We’ll publish them during the week with other election-related letters.
  • Our daily news coverage of election issues continues; you can find past news stories and information online at santacruzsentinel.com/elections.
  • We’re also asking candidates to go to the Sentinel site at eVoter.com/santacruzsentinel to register and correspond directly with voters.  The eVoter site gives all those running for office an opportunity to get out their message and other information relevant to voters, unfiltered by the big, bad press. It also sends this information and other Sentinel election coverage to social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter.
  • And, of course, on primary election night, and again Nov. 6, the Sentinel will be providing up to the minute election returns, online at santacruzsentinel.com/electionresults, through social media and mobile apps and the old-fashioned way, in print.

E-mail Sentinel Editor Don Miller at dmiller@santacruzsentinel.com.

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Lightning does strike twice: Thunderstorm, Lockyer and Kinkade

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Don Miller

Photo by Phil McGrew

Wow, was that a Midwestern-style thunderstorm or what early this morning? Don’t get a lot of these, but if you were awake — and I couldn’t help but be — around 1 or 2 a.m., it was quite a show – as the above photo of the San Francisco Bay Bridge, taken from a UK website.

All the electricity coursing through the atmosphere didn’t blot out today’s tabloid headlines, however, in two news stories that told a sad, familiar downward spiral. In one, Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer, wife of California Treasurer Bill Lockyer, was at the center of yet another bizarre sequence of events, including an email she says came from her ex-boyfriend claiming her husband had been supplying her with drugs. The email also contained what appeared to be a suicide threat, causing San Jose Mercury News reporters, who have been in contact with Mrs. Lockyer, to contact law enforcement to check on her welfare. The story is convoluted and strange, with Mrs. Lockyer’s latest claims and outbursts showing someone who comes off as deeply troubled. Considering that she has recently come out of treatment for alcohol and/or drug addiction, should any of this be surprising? The public spectacle of the seamy Lockyer family drama appears to be a reminder, as if one was needed, of the craziness that surrounds addicts and alcoholics. Sadly, even though the humiliation and degradation of the Lockyer scandal would seem to have hit a new low,  it usually takes even more pain and descent before the person at the center of all this attention does whatever it takes to get help and to get clean.

That didn’t happen, it seems, for Thomas Kinkade, the painter and onetime art gallery mogul, who died last Friday at his home in Monte Sereno. Kinkade, according to family members and to people in the Los Gatos area who knew him and saw him around town, was an alcoholic who had been on what appears to have been on a binge before his death. Kinkade, a professed Christian whose art was widely derided as kitsch but who remained popular even as he ran into legal and financial difficulties, had already lost his family. Even though his brother said the painter had tried to get clean in recent months, it’s rarely  that simple or just a matter of will power. That kind of malevolent lightning can keep striking, and it’s a killer.

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Razor cut

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Don Miller

Think the media world is cutthroat? Consider what happened this week to Ralph Barbieri, AKA “The Razor,” the longtime radio evening-slot talk show co-host on KNBR.

According to Barbieri, as told to the San Jose Mercury News, he showed up for work Tuesday evening and was promptly told he was fired and needed to clear out his stuff. Now. Within minutes he was out in the parking lot and his career at the sports station was over.

As Barbieri told the Merc, “The whole process took about 7 minutes. Let’s see: 7 minutes for 28 years at KNBR. That’s four years a minute. I have to admit that’s pretty time efficient — not to mention classy.”

Barbieri could be irritating and occasionally pompous, but he also had a knack for asking questions of local sports figures most fans would want to ask themselves if given the chance. He had dustups with a few coaches, general managers and other commentators, but worked well with longtime co-host Tom Tolbert. According to reports he suffered from Parkinson’s — and had informed the station last year about his condition. But why he was let go, all of a sudden, remains something of a mystery, although one local sports blogger thinks it was because Barbieri chronic tardiness and absences finally got to management. His contract would have been up Nov. 1, and perhaps it was thought, why not just end it now?

Barbieri probably will end up on another station. But, the bigger questions are: Who will shill for Amici’s East Coast pizzeria now, and what does this mean about the future of local radio? KNBR owner Cumulus Media already is hated in the Bay Area for axing most of KGO’s talk shows to save money (the station went to an almost-all-news format) and with Barbieri’s firing, you have to wonder what other changes are in store for the San Francisco Giants’ flagship station.

In one other media note: I was out of town when the baseball season started and noticed a couple of changes. One, the Giants can now hit, but apparently can’t pitch anymore, except for Barry Zito; and two, San Jose Mercury News Giants beat writer Andrew Baggarly has left the paper (why would anyone leave the newspaper business these days?) and became the baseball “insider” for Comcast sports in the greater Bay Area. Baggarly has been the best baseball writer in the region, by far, in recent years, and should be a great pickup for CSN.

 

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Speed trap for new iPad

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Don Miller

Everyone — OK, tech obsessed Apple junkies — by now has heard of how the new (should that be a capital N?) iPad is throwing off thermonuclear heat, probably due to the amount of gee wizardry stuff packed into the relatively small tablet. In fact, we hear some new owners are using the newpads as portable cooking devices! Now that’s multi tasking.

But the other unforeseen consequence of slavishly purchasing the latest iteration of an Apple product involves Verizon and the 4G network. While the new iPad, with its spectacular new screen resolution and superfast connection makes it an amazing video device, all this will come with a cost. Early users are reporting they’re using up their monthly network data-usage plans as quickly as two hours or so. So it’s either pony up for an extra gig or two — or just the new toy wireless only. Ah, technology.

 

 

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Ban the bags, but do it statewide

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Don Miller

Plastic bag and owner on Pacific Avenue/Shmuel Thaler, Sentinel photo

The ban on plastic bags is such a good idea that it should be adopted everywhere.

But that’s not the case — and the result is playing out in Santa Cruz County, as local governments str crafting their own regulations, with the probable result many consumers will end up confused.

We agree banning plastic bags is good stewardship of the oceans. That’s why the movement to ban them gained momentum several years ago in communities along the California coast.

Single-use plastic bags are a hazard to marine life and contribute to ocean pollution, whatever your opinion of the size and scope of the problem. They’re also an omnipresent and irritating form of litter found on our beaches. Plastic bags moreover are a nonessential product that are being replaced without too much cost or effort.

Not surprisingly, plastic bag manufacturers oppose the ban. Their threats to sue local governments are primarily why it took 18 months for the county government to put its ban in place. The regulations that started this week ban plastic bags altogether and also place a 10-cent surcharge on paper bags. That fee goes up to 25 cents a paper bag in a year. The ban covers all stores in the unincorporated areas of the county. Restaurants, however, are exempted, since the bags are deemed necessary for patrons to carry out hot food.

So that takes care of that, right? Not so fast. The county’s four cities would have to put together their own plastic and paper bag laws — or adopt the county’s — to make the bans apply to all Santa Cruz County businesses and residents.

And that’s not all. Santa Cruz, for instance, is considering a plastic bag measure similar to the county ban, but also is looking to expand its prohibitions on polystyrene foam containers. While foam food containers are already banned in the city, and in various degrees in many other cities and counties, the Santa Cruz measure would encompass a much wider range of products in an effort to further reduce litter and marine pollution. These include prepackaged plates, bowls and cups, packing material and toys.

Santa Cruz’s proposed expansion, say backers, would be the most comprehensive in the state. Among the products that also would be banned: foam ice chests and packing peanuts. Here again, there’s a hodgepodge of regulations: The city of Capitola already bans foam ice chests and coolers, and the county bans foam food containers — but it would still be possible for shoppers or shippers to buy or use many of these products somewhere within Santa Cruz County.

And that’s the problem. Since polystyrene foam, plastic and paper bags are an environmental menace, and they are, then they should be banned everywhere, right?
Inland communities might argue, hey, we’re not near the ocean, so what’s the need? The answer is that people carry these products, take them on trips to the beach or mountains near waterways, or just leave them behind as litter, where they enter the cycle of semi-permanent junk.

For now, the bans — adopted so far by about 20 cities and counties in California — will offer a necessary patchwork of regulations with differing levels of stringency.

Here’s a better idea: State Legislators, who’ve discussed the issue at length, should finally pass a unified law that would end the confusion and the scattershot approach.

This post is the Santa Cruz Sentinel Editorial for March 23, 2012

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