We gather together to make a health care reform statement to our Senators; dinner with Rex at Bombay

I had to deliver some photos to a client in Anchorage, so I decided to time it so that I could go straight from the drop off to the "Send Congress back to DC" event, held for those who pledge their support for health care reform to urge our Senators to vote for reform. As it happened, I hit a couple of traffic jams coming in and so had to go straight to the event, because they were going to shut the doors shortly after 6:00 PM and then no one would be allowed to enter.

Shortly after the meeting began, the host, Jonathan Teeters of Organizing for America, asked all those who had health insurance to raise their hands, then all those who had lousy insurance to raise their hands and finally, all those who had no insurance at all to do so.

This guy sitting next to me raised his hand when the "uninsured category" came up. It had been my intent to ask him a couple of questions afterward, but he got up and zipped out, just before the event ended.

He did a lot of shouting, though, all on cue, and in favor of health insurance reform.

This is Jonathan Teeters himself, holding a bundle representing the 5000 petitions received so far from Alaskans who want Congress to pass a good health care reform plan. That would include me, as I have previously made known.

The highlight of the event came at 7:00 o'clock when Senator Mark Begich made a planned surprise call from Indiana, where he had stopped with his son on their drive back to Washington, D.C. The surprise call was announced five minutes beforehand to give the crowd a chance to practice the response they would shout out for Begich to hear when asked a couple of different questions.

Before this happened, Begich chatted for awhile, telling folks how, as he and his daughter have been traveling, they stop here and there, to get breakfast or dinner, buy gasoline, wander around a park or something and just chat with people. He said that he does not tell them that he is a US Senator and the only Alaska politician most of them would recognize is Sarah Palin, so they don't even suspect.

Again and again, in these casual conversations, Begich said, the subject of health care comes up and people are frustrated. Some have lost jobs and with them their health care. Some are afraid to move to a new job and lose their health care. Some have health care, but get shafted by their insurance companies when the time comes. Some have no health care at all.

Anyway, when the time came, Sarah pointed to the script, and, minus a tiny sprinkling of silent nay-sayers, the crowd shouted out the very words that she points to here.

Senator Lisa Murkowski did not show, nor did she call in. So Jonathan's father videoed the crowd while they shouted out this message to her.

Here folks are, shouting out their message to Senator Murkowski. Mike is the guy in front and he has health insurance and had not been too politically active until the Bush versus Gore election was settled under suspicious circumstance in Florida.

That angered him, as he believes that Gore was cheated out of the victory that should have been his and America has paid a high price. Now, he wants his voice to be heard.

In some ways, it was kind of a funny moment for me. It is my training as a photojournalist that when you cover such events, you do not shout, cheer, clap, jeer or do any such thing. You shoot pictures, you gather notes and you do not display your own sentiments. You pretend that you have no sentiments.

But I had not come as a journalist. I had come as a regular citizen, frustrated and angered by a health care system that absolutely threatens to destroy him. Still, when the call came to shout out, I tried, but I could not shout. I squeaked. It just didn't feel right to shout. It goes against my grain. I'm not a shouter, anyway.

So there you go, I went to this event to make my voice heard by our Senators and then, when the time came, I didn't even make it heard. And I didn't cover the event as I would have if I had been in photojournalism mode. I just shot these few pictures pretty much from the place where I sat.

Still, I have at least made a tiny record of the event, a statement that it happened.

Afterwards, I delivered the photos to my client and got together with my youngest son, Rex, who I had not seen for awhile and took him to dinner at Bombay. I had hoped that my beautiful and intelligent daugther-in-law, Stephanie, could come, too, but she had to work. The waitress, a young Philipina woman who had been terrified to eat Indian food for the first few months that she worked here, saw me taking this picture and volunteered to take one of both of us together.

She did pretty good, too. So here we are, Rex and I together, in the photo taken by the waitress who finally conquered her fear and found Indian food to be quite delicious.

Rex and I had a good visit. 

And, as always, being in this environment took my mind right back to India, to Sandy, Murthy, Vasanthi and all the rest of the family there, to the Indian highway, the bandit monkeys, the elephants that bless people and those that at night appear suddenly at the side of the road in the headlights of your courageous and skilled taxi driver.

It is so sad. I have so many photo stories from India that no one has ever seen, not even me, save for when I took them, because I have had no time to do anything with them.

One day.

Steve Heimel - radio reporter and program host, keeps people driving after they would have shut their cars down

This is Steve Heimel and he bears a great deal of personal responsibility for the increasing pace of global warming and the next fuel shortage. Steve is a radio reporter and program host for the Alaska Public Radio Network and he keeps people in their cars, driving, long after they would have parked and shut down their engines, were it not for him.

How many times have I myself been driving, headed home, listening to Talk of Alaska on KSKA when Steve has asked a guest a pointed question that I would never have thought of and then sparked and moderated a discussion involving people from every region of this far-flung state that I simply could not pull myself away from, so I have driven on, spewing green house gas, burning gasoline.

And how many Sundays have I been headed home, intent on parking and getting out of the car as fast as I can, listening as Steve hosts Truck Stop on KNBA. All of a sudden, he's got Johnny Cash doing Fulsom Prison Blues and then maybe Hank Williams wailing about the tear in his beer because he's crying for you, dear, followed by Woody Guthrie declaring this land to be my land and his land.

Who can stop their car and turn off the radio in such a situation?

I sure can't. So I drive on, even as millions upon millions of other Alaskans do the same thing.

We are all helpless. We cannot shut our cars down. It's Steve's fault.

This picture is from earlier tonight, when I saw him at the "Send Congress back to DC with a Message" at Romig Middle School in Anchorage. The event was held to give Senators Mark Begich and Lisa Murkowski a pro-health care reform message as they return to Washington DC for the next session of Congress.

Before the event got under way, Steve mused about the unbelievable fact that he is 66 years old. Listen to him on the radio. He sounds like a young man.

It has been a long, busy day and I am exhausted and must go to bed, so I am going to put my pictures from that event into the queue, where they now compete with Kalib at the fair.

Oh, hell! On the very day of the latest Sarah/Levi absurdity, I see two Wasilla dogs in my mirror, a Wasilla black cat peeks over my monitor

Oh, hell! How can I live in Wasilla, publish a blog on Wasilla, and, as much as I want to, utterly ignore the latest absurdities to originate in my town and rock the nation? Rock the world, I guess. For what is more important than Sarah Palin and Levi Johnston? So, reluctantly, I will discuss the matter - but first I will discuss these two dogs.

I was so pressed today that I decided not to take a coffee break, but to just sit here at my computer and work right through it, but, when 4:00 o'clock struck, I could not take it any longer and so I jumped up and headed to the car.

It is a good thing, too, because if I had not, I would not have spotted these two dogs. I suspect that, even with all the work that I did today, my most important accomplishment was to spot these dogs - or rather, to photograph them, which I most certainly would not have done had I not spotted them.

I was going very slow at the time, for I had reached the corner where I planned to do a "U" and then head back to the house, when just ahead of me, I saw these two looking at me, like they were mean or something. My pocket camera was lying on the passenger seat, turned off, and I had not taken a single picture all day.

"I don't think that I will take this one, either," I said to myself. "I've got no time to fool with dog pictures today."

But then, as I started to make the turn, the dogs ran off to the side and behind me a bit, then turned and charged in my direction. Suddenly, I could see that they were about to dash into a point of reflection in my mirror and it looked like it could be interesting.

But the damned pocket camera was lying on the seat, turned off, and as much as I like it, there is nothing fast about that camera. In a panic, I picked it up, turned it on, and tracked the dogs as I waited for the lens to come out. Finally, the lens was out, the dogs were charging toward the field of view of the mirror, I aimed and...

Bam!

Quick draw artist!

Oh, hell. Sarah and Levi. What can I say that hasn't already been said on cable TV and online news outlets and blogs by the thousands... tens of thousands?

I am really getting tired of this show. It is disgusting and pitiful. It is America at its worst. American politics, American media... at its worst. And today, I once again heard my town referred to as a place of hillbillies!

Hillbillies!? I have tried to correct this notion before. I will now try again. Look around this place. What do you see? Hills??? Little tiny hills? The kind of hills that billies come from?

No! Mountains! Grand and beautiful mountains.

We are not hillbillies. We are mountainbillies.

How many times must I correct this misperception?

And me, my name is Bill. It is not William, but Bill. I am a mountainbill.

Oddly enough, as I read the material from Vanity Fair today, I found myself feeling some pity for our former governor. Do not misunderstand me - I have been appalled at her statements and actions since she first stepped onto the national stage and fibbed about her role in the so called "Bridge to Nowhere" fiasco. Her "death panel" lie was just... and worse yet, it struck paranoia, got traction and derailed the debate, making an honest discussion impossible - at least for a time. Nothing has disturbed me more than the way she lathered her children in fat, threw them into the lions den and then screamed, "mean, mean, mean lions - why do you devour my children and not Barack Obama's?"

And the way she has pandered to the extreme, to that element of society that spawns those who carry guns to Presidential gatherings - not to protect themselves, not to hunt, but to frighten and intimidate those who disagree with them. It has, quite simply, been a horrible performance.

But when I read the Vanity Fair article, I felt sorrow for her, pity. She struck me now as a tragic figure, a person thrown into a situation that could only lead her through brief euphoria and then into sorrow and suffering, into pain. Genuine, true, pain. In Levi's words, I could see that she is feeling pain. She may be willfully blind to the cause, but pain is pain and I hate for anybody to feel the kind of pain that I believe she must now suffer.  And she is going to feel more pain, because this fantasy that John McCain threw her into is crumbling and is going to continue to crumble, until there is nothing left of it and then what does she have?

A few birthers shouting, "Sarah Palin, we love you!"?

Her good father, perhaps - and by the observations of my children who have declared him to be the best substitute teacher they ever had I can only conclude that he is a good man - to put his arm around her and say, "I love you, daughter." That, at least. I hope she will have that.

So yes, I felt sorrow for her.

John McCain is the one I blame.

He should have known better. He did know better. I once greatly admired the man, as I once loved Sarah Palin. That has all been destroyed and it is John McCain's fault, even more than it is Sarah Palin's. He thought that he had discovered a very clever way to take the female vote away from Barack Obama and that was all that mattered to him.

The competency, the preparedness, of the person who could so easily become his successor meant nothing to him. He just wanted to win, whatever the potential cost to the nation for which he had sacrificed five-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war.

For those of you whose feelings I may have now hurt, or have caused you to seeth in anger, sorry about that, but this whole show grows ever more ridiculous by the day and I just want it to end.

For awhile, it had some entertainment value, but now it is just old and disgusting.

Anyway, I was working on photos at my computer when my good buddy Jimmy, this wonderful black cat who is as honest as the Arctic summer day is long, peeked over my monitor and looked at me.

That made me feel pretty good.

Update: I think I need to make a little clarification. This statement, "as I once loved Sarah Palin," has caused some confusion. No, I have never cast a single vote for Sarah Palin in my life. I voted for Tony Knowles for Governor. I was too leery as to what her position would be on certain issues of great importance to me, such as Alaska Native sovereignty, self-governance and hunting and fishing rights. So how could I have once loved her? 

That's easy. She came into office on the heels of Governor Frank Murkowski and immediately began to undo many of his bad actions. In those early days, it was Democrats, moreso even than Republicans, who were singing her praises, who were calling her "a breath of fresh air." So if readers who were not in Alaska then have seen only the Sarah Palin that emerged following John McCain's ill-fated decision, try to understand that you are seeing a completely different person than the one who we saw back then.

She was not promoting hate speech, she got along better with Democrats then she did Republicans, but just about everybody liked her - hence those 90 percent favorable ratings that you used to hear about. It was easy, in those first days, to imagine that as she moved around the state and learned more about the people out there that her misguided views on the issues that I have mentioned could evolve and become more enlightened.

This did not happen, as we saw when she nominated Wayne Anthony Ross to be attorney general. That was kind of like if she had been governor of Montana in 1875 and had nominated General George Armstrong Custer to be attorney general.

Nor does the fact that I find it in me to feel pity and sorrow for her mean that in my mind she is absolved for the hatred and distortions that she has promoted. She has encouraged and incited some very dangerous people and, when they have stood before her and shouted out death threats to the man who is now President, she spoke not one word of admonishment. And should any of those who listened to her and were encouraged by what she said ever attempt to take such an action, she will not be innocent. So pity and sorrow is not the same as absolution.

Wealthy philanthropist sought: please provide resume; car breaks down in the rain, man stands in doorway where free people used to stand and pee

Despite Friday's disappointment, we finally did get Kalib to the Alaska State Fair - on Saturday, the same day that he drank a milk shake for breakfast and I took the bike ride described in parts one and two.*

It was beautiful, sunny, day and the fair was crowded and we had to park a long ways away from the entrance. This beautiful young woman took our five dollars and gave us a yellow ticket to put on the dash board. I cannot remember her name, but it started with a "C" and she spoke with a strong southern accent.

She was a very empathetic person and she saw my frustration and knew that I needed to talk. "What's the matter, dear?" she twanged sympathetically.

"Oh, it's this damn blog I said." And then, for the next half hour, as Kalib, Lavina and Jacob grew very impatient with me and the miles-long line of agitated drivers that piled up behind me honked their horns, rolled down their windows, extended select fingers and shouted epithets, she listened as I lamented.

I told her of the great potential of this blog, but how I am always thwarted from reaching it by the need to make a living, how the only blogging that I ever get to do is to take a few pictures when I walk or ride my bike, or drive to a coffee break, take my wife into Anchorage to the hospital - things like that.

"I need a philanthropist," I told her.

"Maybe I can be your philanthropist. I always wanted to be one of those," she smiled, as an angry man came running over. "How much do you need, Hon?"

"Oh, not much," I said. "A million dollars would be nice."

"Oh, my!" she lamented in her pleasant drawl. "I don't have a million! But would this help?"

She then held up the fan of parking fees that you see here.

"Sure!" I said.

Being of a kind and generous heart, she handed the day's parking take to me. Unfortunately, the running man was her supervisor and he had come over to find out what the delay was. When he saw her hand me the money, he fired her on the spot and pointed me out to the State Trooper who had completely failed to unsnarl the traffic behind us. "Arrest that man! And the toddler with him!" the supervisor shouted. " The trooper tried, too, but I gunned it, weaved through the parked cars and the screaming, teeming, fleeing crowd, ditched him and found another lot to park in.

Fortunately, I already had the yellow ticket, so it was all right.**

As for today, I pretty much spent it right here, where I sit right now, in my office at the side of my house, in front of my computer, working on my big 96 page project, plus another one that has interrupted it with an earlier deadline.

No matter what, though, I will always ride my bike, or walk, or ski, or do something to get out of the house and into the air. Today, it was my bike.

As I pedaled through the rain, on the roller coaster park of the Lucille bike trail, I spotted these two guys, both obviously trying to pretend that if they peered under the hood long enough and made the proper wise statements, they could get that car going.

Normally, I do not stop but take my pictures as I pedal, but I had reached the very top of the highest and steepest of the roller-coaster hills, so I stopped, took the picture, and then took off again. I hadn't gone three feet before I inexplicably lost control of the bike. That's when I took the inset picture.

Fortunately, I regained control before I plunged down onto Lucille Street. I pedaled on, wondering what the outcome would have been had I come down on my artificial shoulder, in front of a big truck.

A little further down Lucille, I saw this guy standing in the doorway to this apartment building. I hold nothing against anyone who lives here, but this structure is a great annoyance to me. Not so long ago, the building and the parking lot was woods. And sometimes, when I would be walking down Lucille I would realize that I needed to pee.

So I would just step off the trail and walk into these woods, find a secluded spot and take care of the matter.

And now this apartment building sits there. And this kind of thing has happened all up and down Lucille Street.

Every day, Wasillans lose more and more of the freedoms that we once took for granted.

* I will try to make Kalib's great fair adventure the subject of my next post.

** It's possible that I may have employed a bit of literary license here.

"Bare-breasted young woman" draws bigger cyber crowd than "Sarah Palin" - and there are kites, a crash, crutches, motorcycles and dogs, too

The crash actually came first, but the kite image is both more pleasant and striking, so I begin with it. The lady flying the kites is Garen, and I found her on the Anchorage Park Strip, after I dropped Margie off for her therapy, passed the crash and stopped by the camera repair store only to find out they did not have the screws that I needed.

All three of the kites above her are Garen's and she was flying them by herself - and she was trying to launch two more. "Oh, yeah," she said, "I can fly five kites at once. I do it all the time."

She started flying kites on the park strip about two years ago, after she moved here from Lincoln City on the Oregon Coast, where kite flying is a much bigger thing than it is in Anchorage.

"It's very soothing to fly kites," she told me. "I can do it all day. I fly them in the winter, too. You should come back then."

I was curious as to what she thought of The Kite Runner, but she had not seen the movie or read the book. She had not even heard of either. She flies kites, she doesn't go to movies about flying kites, but I recommended the movie so maybe she will watch it now.

I don't know if she ever got the other two kites up so that five were flying at once, because I had to go back to the Alaska Native Medical Center to pick Margie up from her therapy.

As for the crash, I have no idea how badly the victim was hurt, or if there was more than one victim or if it was a man or woman, a child or teen. I just don't know.

I drove by and that was it. 

The crash is not mentioned in the online edition of the Anchorage Daily News, so one might want to conclude that the injuries were not that bad, because if they had been life-threatening, the accident most likely would have been reported.

But my injury 14 months ago was not life-threatening; it did not merit a write-up in the paper and neither did Margie's two this year.

Yet, the impacts upon our lives have been tremendous. So I feel for whoever it is that is being pulled out of the car and put on the stretcher, because it's a mighty big thing to him or her.

Everything might be different now.

Margie was pleased with her first session of therapy. She was especially pleased that the first thing that her therapist did was to take away her old crutches and get her some new ones, because, as it turns out, those old crutches were a good two inches too short.

This guy was smoking a cigarette when we pulled up next to him at a red light and he let loose with a big puff of smoke and even in the shadows of his car it looked quite dramatic. So I readied my pocket camera and waited for him to blow another one, but he never did.

I suspect these boys are cross-country racers, from one or another of the high schools in Anchorage. 

I was glad to get out of that city and so headed towards home and then along came these guys on their motorcycles.

We stopped at the post office in Wasilla, but before I went in to get the mail, I took a picture of myself with this dog, who was very angry. Margie gave me the cup and told me to throw it in the garbage so I did.

When I came out of the post office, this dog was there. The man said that he was a very good dog and he told me his name, but I have forgotten.

So I just call him, "Pooch," or "Poochie."

Hey, Pooch! Here, Pooch!

Poochie, Poochie, Poochie!

Concerning the salacious title of this post, readers will recall how I earlier conducted a test that confirmed that merely by putting the words, "Sarah Palin" into a blog title, I could cause my readership to soar - even if the post had nothing at all to do with Sarah Palin.

Yesterday's post brought in even more readers then did the "Sarah Palin" experiment. I figure it was because my title included these words, "bare-breasted young woman."

I wonder what will happen today?

To be precise, the numbers were: "bare-breasted": 6,982,490,324 unique hits; "Sarah Palin": 6,783,814,293 unique hits. You can see that it was close.*

*It is possible that I might have under-reported my numbers ever so slightly, so as not to embarrass my competition out there in blog space, but the ratio of "bare-breasted" hits to "Sarah Palin" hits is correct.