[as the] Radar Sweeps

I recently got an email from the organizers of the TED conference, inviting me to “apply” to attend. It stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design but their current tagline reflects a broader goal: Ideas Worth Spreading. I’ve been on the waiting list for a long time and I guess my number came up. Long story short, I will be attending TED/Aspen next February and am very much looking forward to it.

I was unaware at the time I registered but apparently one of the benefits of attending is becoming a member of the TED book club. Cool! So I came home a couple of days ago to find a large package on the porch containing:

“Blue Planet Run” is large coffee-table format photo book describing the global shortage of drinking water and the eponymously named Run to raise awareness about the problem. The first BPR was held in June of this year, with 95 runners literally running around the world [ironically, except, of course, where the water is]. Future Runs will be held every two years. I have just started paging through it and it appears to be both thorough and approachable. The book was created by Rick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt, famous for their “Day in the Life…” books, in which dozens of photogs shoot one place for 24 hours. Very well done. My global concerns have been been mostly about energy; I have been vaguely aware of the drinking water problem. This will help educate me on that issue.

“The Happiness Hypothesis” is from a psychology professor at the University of Virginia. I must first explain that this title is probably very close to #1 on my list of titles I would not purchase at a book store: sounds very “self-helpy” and I would normally turn and run the other way on sighting such a book. But given the source, I picked it up and read the introduction. It turns out to be a fascinating read and not all what I expected. It describes how we evolved to behave the way we do, based on the latest scientific research, and grounds those findings with a survey and analysis of writings from Buddhism, Confucianism, philosophy from the Greeks and Romans. I confess to having heard of philosophy before now but I was never interested in the subject. This presentation has been captivating.

I started reading it on the plane yesterday on the outbound leg of a short business trip. I’m only half way through…but I like this one a lot.

“Acts of Faith” I have not gotten to yet, but will on my return home later this week.

Shortly after Bush was installed as president in 2001 [elected is not correct as far as I’m concerned] I was in Baltimore drinking beer with business acquaintances from Norway. The question was put to me: “How could the American people possibly vote for this idiot?” I back-pedaled quickly: “Hey, don’t look at me; I didn’t vote for him.” The other day I found out that, even now, in New Zealand “Not My President” bumper stickers are commonplace.

Well, Kiwis can get away with it - I can’t. Coming from me it smacks of “plausible deniability” - I must say that I’m not happy about looking in the mirror and seeing similarities to Richard Nixon.

During that campaign to see who would replace Bill Clinton I didn’t work to get anyone elected to that very powerful position. I want to be clear here - I didn’t lift a finger to try to keep Bush out of office, save for casting an opposing vote. As far as I remember I didn’t contribute any $$ to any candidate during the primaries either. I watched the events [sometimes] leading up to the election; I reflexively grumbled under my breath from time to time. But not once did I actively take any steps to insert my will or worldview into the electoral, or political, process. The election in 2004 was a re-run of my complacency. Hey, I was busy.

This is in marked contrast to my behavior a generation ago. During the Vietnam war I attended every anti-war march within a 1,000 mile radius. As a photographer, I was a high priority target of police at every event. I was arrested in Chicago, Champaign, New York, DC, Oakland. I was tear-gassed multiple times; in DC I was tear-gassed while I was in jail. None of this deterred me. My mother was so worried that we developed a protocol to ease her mind: whenever such a protest was happening I promised to call and let her know I was alive and well. It got so routine, her greeting was literally, “So…what jail are you in now?” But lately? Not so much.

The war in Iraq. Global warming. The bungling of Katrina. Oy vey. I’m not sure what it is, perhaps the cumulative effect of all these and more. But this year I have been contributing regularly to the John Edwards campaign. I liked what he was saying in 2004; I hoped he would get the nomination back then. This coming week, Wednesday June 27, Ellen and I are hosting a house party to support the effort.  We would love for you to join us!

I thought it was Abbie Hoffman who said it, but I have seen it attributed to Jerry Rubin, co-founder of the Yippies: “Politics isn’t who you vote for - it’s how you live your life”. Agreed. But silently letting others narrow my choices for the most powerful office is no longer tolerable; it’s not how I want to live my life.

Your thoughts?

We have all been confronted with homeless people on the street. Some of us give; I generally don’t. Back in San Francisco, where panhandlers are a multiple-daily experience, my policy was “If they are selling ‘The Street Sheet’ I buy it”; if not, I move past quickly with a “wave-off”.

Yesterday I was driving through some classic LA, bumper-to-bumper 405 traffic, listening to KPCC. On John Rabe’s Offramp show I heard this story of an experience with a homeless person that took an unexpected turn. I was, once again, reminded of that line from Pirate Jenny in Three Penny Opera - “You never know to whom you’re talking…”.

You can find the show here: Offramp, June 9, 2007

There isn’t a link to this particular story, just the entire show. If you want to skip right to it, once the Real Media file loads just fast-forward to the 37:55 mark.