Hunter Gray
2014-04-19 19:20:11 UTC
I've been out of the discussional loop for a very few days -- and feel like doing some writing on a variety of things. This is to our discussion lists and a few individuals.
First, and foremost, Eldri suffered a potentially bad fall about 7 am in the early morning darkness of two days ago. This was in her room which, like several of our rooms, has too much stuff therein. I, and then Maria, came immediately. Eldri had missed the hard wall by about an inch or two but her legs were entangled under some things and we couldn't extricate her without causing pain. After more than an hour, we summoned Josie who came forthwith with her three little ones still in pajamas. Cameron was willing to come from work if necessary. The three of us were able to bring her to her feet. I did a quick medical checkover, seeing no signs of broken limbs or stroke. She was able, pluckily, to get into her kitchen chair while I called Thomas, our MD, and he questioned her at length -- determining, as she felt, that it was a simple fall stemming from stumbling into something in her room. She began recovery fast but several surface pains continued. Yesterday, she was able to go with Josie and Babies and Maria on a shopping trip, with her cane. She is much her old self today but still recuperating from obvious shock. Maria and I spent most of the rest of the morning clearing and moving stuff around on the upper level of our house and doing some other safety things.
It's very tough to see one's faithful and beloved partner of almost 53 years -- and seemingly-immune-from-personal-vicissitudes -- in such an awful plight.
I, myself, had one of the worst falls of my life back in January, the day my brother passed away. It seemed even worse than being thrown by a spooky horse. Many of my papers are held here in very large notebooks, about 20 of them, and most of those on the top ledges of various bookcases. I was searching for an old photo of my two brothers and myself, all extremely young, with wooden rifles carved by my father. Lifting a very thick and heavy notebook down from on high, I backed up, then realized I was going to hit the brand-new great big TV given us by our offspring. I tried to sidestep but the slip-on cumbersome shoes were wobbly and I began to fall. I was able to throw the notebook onto a chair but then hit my left side hard against the end of one of the chair's arms. I got up on my own. I am inherently quite tough. For most of the next month, I couldn't sleep on that side -- but eventually things returned to normal. I never did find the photo. (I now wear my Size 16 Lowa Mountain boots consistently, even if they are a little snug.)
As I remarked the other day in a letter to my Penobscot cousin, George, in Maine, some of my liquid preferences taken daily for ages, are ice-cold water, cold and thick buttermilk, and lots of V-8 Juice. In a very real way, they constitute my basic medicine.
The next thing that happened that very day was that our garage door, powered by electricity, refused to close. We called the best garage repair outfit in town, Maria and I cleared stuff from the garage interior, and, when the men came, they did fix it fairly fast. An open garage door is not good in any case but in ours, where most neighbors are OK but some other people in town are not, night-time could bring crises. Our mail is still late in coming, obviously monitored, and when, recently, we tried to change our website password, we found that the normal mechanisms for our doing so on-line had somehow been sabotaged. We called our server's tech, got a very good person, who found our difficulties inexplicable. In the end, he handloaded our new password himself.
We have had no more instances of the attempted night-time break-in of last summer that was carried out by malevolent humans, for either larcenous or harassment purposes.
There have been two very recent discussional RBB threads about which I feel obliged to comment briefly. One poster contended that much of the American left supports Putin and Russia. I don't think that's the case, and I don't think Putin is seen as St. Putin very broadly at all -- but I do think many, including myself, respect his refusal to be pushed around by the Western powers. Actually, Putin has been more maligned by the West and its media than has been the case with anti-West Russian propaganda. For a month prior to the Games, Putin and Russia were constantly ridiculed by of this country's politicos and most media for claiming they could provide full security for all. But they did do just that.
With respect to the upsurge in Eastern Ukraine, I wrote on the matter of outsiders:
"Proof of that allegation, much in US circles and US media, hasn't been definitively produced. There could be outside agitators -- but that doesn't lessen the very basic grassroots spontaneity in the East any more than the same species (but Western), possibly in and around the original Ukrainian revolution, lessens that basic spontaneity."
While the daily parade of Horrors in the media, and occasional vicissitudes here at home, sometimes makes one turn to local news (which has shootings and such with regularity) for relief -- I do remain a perennial optimist.
I came of radical age very early indeed in 1955, right after I finished my full Army hitch. The Red Scare was in full swing in those days. Its origins clearly lay in breaking unions and the FDR reforms. Initially directed against the Communists and then Trotskyists as well, it broadened rapidly and viciously to include all sorts of liberal and left dissidents (though not with the extreme intensity visited upon the Communists and Trotskyists.) Many people were scared into submission and even conformity to the FBI and power structure line -- but many were not. People continued to do good and worthwhile things of leftist and liberal nature. In the midst of this, the contemporary civil rights movement began to develop. At the beginning of the '60s, sit-ins and the Berkeley student protest against HUAC signalled a bright and brave new era. Personally, I've always been proud of this statement from my voluminous FBI files (1957-1979) recovered by FOIA/PA action on my part. This is taken from Ken O'Reilly's excellent and very large book, Racial Matters: The FBI's Secret File on Black America --1960-72 via my website:
"Professor Ken O'Reilly, discussing this beating, quotes from my FBI files: "The FBI described Salter as a"chronic complaintant," a "determined, belligerent, and confused young man...(who) obviously does not like the FBI, having without a doubt been influenced by the writings of LOWENTHAL" -- referring to the only critical book on the FBI written during the depths of the domestic cold war."
Well, I was just one of a great many who felt that way. And who still do.
Early on, in the mid-1950s, I -- pretty much of a libertarian socialist from that point to the present -- saw the importance of working with sensible and honorable people of various left and liberal political faiths, regardless of their labels, in common cause on common issues. That's been a life long policy of mine.
The American left of today strikes me as small in the organizational sense -- but quite large when it comes to independent leftists, many of whom emerged in that genre since the 1999 free trade protests in Seattle. And I think there is a vast number of Americans who could certainly be called potential leftists. In the final analysis, the inherent contradictions of capitalism, coupled with a raft of other problematic factors, will -- as History moves -- activate this great human complex with hard and enduring thrusts toward democratic social justice. I see a rejuvenation of Labor and new unions as well -- and much action on "minority rights." I don't see vanguard elitism as a significant force, but when matters do begin to "erupt", democratic leadership and reasonable structuring will be quite necessary in all of the leftist and related endeavors. In that context, grassroots community organization -- always seen by me as Genesis -- will be a most necessary and significant factor.
Optimism forever! But always fight on -- and on.
Hunter Bear
HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /
St. Francis Abenaki / St. Regis Mohawk
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
Check out our massive social justice website
www.hunterbear.org The site is dedicated to our
one-half Bobcat, Cloudy Gray, and to Sky Gray:
http://hunterbear.org/cloudy_gray.htm
See my piece ON BEING A MILITANT AND RADICAL
ORGANIZER -- AND AN EFFECTIVE ONE (Mississippi et al.):
http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm
See our very full COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
page -- with a great deal of practical material:
http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm
See my new expanded/updated "Organizer's Book,"
JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new 10,000 word
introduction by me. This page lists many reviews.
And this book is also an activist's how-to manual:
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
The Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm:
(Photos)
First, and foremost, Eldri suffered a potentially bad fall about 7 am in the early morning darkness of two days ago. This was in her room which, like several of our rooms, has too much stuff therein. I, and then Maria, came immediately. Eldri had missed the hard wall by about an inch or two but her legs were entangled under some things and we couldn't extricate her without causing pain. After more than an hour, we summoned Josie who came forthwith with her three little ones still in pajamas. Cameron was willing to come from work if necessary. The three of us were able to bring her to her feet. I did a quick medical checkover, seeing no signs of broken limbs or stroke. She was able, pluckily, to get into her kitchen chair while I called Thomas, our MD, and he questioned her at length -- determining, as she felt, that it was a simple fall stemming from stumbling into something in her room. She began recovery fast but several surface pains continued. Yesterday, she was able to go with Josie and Babies and Maria on a shopping trip, with her cane. She is much her old self today but still recuperating from obvious shock. Maria and I spent most of the rest of the morning clearing and moving stuff around on the upper level of our house and doing some other safety things.
It's very tough to see one's faithful and beloved partner of almost 53 years -- and seemingly-immune-from-personal-vicissitudes -- in such an awful plight.
I, myself, had one of the worst falls of my life back in January, the day my brother passed away. It seemed even worse than being thrown by a spooky horse. Many of my papers are held here in very large notebooks, about 20 of them, and most of those on the top ledges of various bookcases. I was searching for an old photo of my two brothers and myself, all extremely young, with wooden rifles carved by my father. Lifting a very thick and heavy notebook down from on high, I backed up, then realized I was going to hit the brand-new great big TV given us by our offspring. I tried to sidestep but the slip-on cumbersome shoes were wobbly and I began to fall. I was able to throw the notebook onto a chair but then hit my left side hard against the end of one of the chair's arms. I got up on my own. I am inherently quite tough. For most of the next month, I couldn't sleep on that side -- but eventually things returned to normal. I never did find the photo. (I now wear my Size 16 Lowa Mountain boots consistently, even if they are a little snug.)
As I remarked the other day in a letter to my Penobscot cousin, George, in Maine, some of my liquid preferences taken daily for ages, are ice-cold water, cold and thick buttermilk, and lots of V-8 Juice. In a very real way, they constitute my basic medicine.
The next thing that happened that very day was that our garage door, powered by electricity, refused to close. We called the best garage repair outfit in town, Maria and I cleared stuff from the garage interior, and, when the men came, they did fix it fairly fast. An open garage door is not good in any case but in ours, where most neighbors are OK but some other people in town are not, night-time could bring crises. Our mail is still late in coming, obviously monitored, and when, recently, we tried to change our website password, we found that the normal mechanisms for our doing so on-line had somehow been sabotaged. We called our server's tech, got a very good person, who found our difficulties inexplicable. In the end, he handloaded our new password himself.
We have had no more instances of the attempted night-time break-in of last summer that was carried out by malevolent humans, for either larcenous or harassment purposes.
There have been two very recent discussional RBB threads about which I feel obliged to comment briefly. One poster contended that much of the American left supports Putin and Russia. I don't think that's the case, and I don't think Putin is seen as St. Putin very broadly at all -- but I do think many, including myself, respect his refusal to be pushed around by the Western powers. Actually, Putin has been more maligned by the West and its media than has been the case with anti-West Russian propaganda. For a month prior to the Games, Putin and Russia were constantly ridiculed by of this country's politicos and most media for claiming they could provide full security for all. But they did do just that.
With respect to the upsurge in Eastern Ukraine, I wrote on the matter of outsiders:
"Proof of that allegation, much in US circles and US media, hasn't been definitively produced. There could be outside agitators -- but that doesn't lessen the very basic grassroots spontaneity in the East any more than the same species (but Western), possibly in and around the original Ukrainian revolution, lessens that basic spontaneity."
While the daily parade of Horrors in the media, and occasional vicissitudes here at home, sometimes makes one turn to local news (which has shootings and such with regularity) for relief -- I do remain a perennial optimist.
I came of radical age very early indeed in 1955, right after I finished my full Army hitch. The Red Scare was in full swing in those days. Its origins clearly lay in breaking unions and the FDR reforms. Initially directed against the Communists and then Trotskyists as well, it broadened rapidly and viciously to include all sorts of liberal and left dissidents (though not with the extreme intensity visited upon the Communists and Trotskyists.) Many people were scared into submission and even conformity to the FBI and power structure line -- but many were not. People continued to do good and worthwhile things of leftist and liberal nature. In the midst of this, the contemporary civil rights movement began to develop. At the beginning of the '60s, sit-ins and the Berkeley student protest against HUAC signalled a bright and brave new era. Personally, I've always been proud of this statement from my voluminous FBI files (1957-1979) recovered by FOIA/PA action on my part. This is taken from Ken O'Reilly's excellent and very large book, Racial Matters: The FBI's Secret File on Black America --1960-72 via my website:
"Professor Ken O'Reilly, discussing this beating, quotes from my FBI files: "The FBI described Salter as a"chronic complaintant," a "determined, belligerent, and confused young man...(who) obviously does not like the FBI, having without a doubt been influenced by the writings of LOWENTHAL" -- referring to the only critical book on the FBI written during the depths of the domestic cold war."
Well, I was just one of a great many who felt that way. And who still do.
Early on, in the mid-1950s, I -- pretty much of a libertarian socialist from that point to the present -- saw the importance of working with sensible and honorable people of various left and liberal political faiths, regardless of their labels, in common cause on common issues. That's been a life long policy of mine.
The American left of today strikes me as small in the organizational sense -- but quite large when it comes to independent leftists, many of whom emerged in that genre since the 1999 free trade protests in Seattle. And I think there is a vast number of Americans who could certainly be called potential leftists. In the final analysis, the inherent contradictions of capitalism, coupled with a raft of other problematic factors, will -- as History moves -- activate this great human complex with hard and enduring thrusts toward democratic social justice. I see a rejuvenation of Labor and new unions as well -- and much action on "minority rights." I don't see vanguard elitism as a significant force, but when matters do begin to "erupt", democratic leadership and reasonable structuring will be quite necessary in all of the leftist and related endeavors. In that context, grassroots community organization -- always seen by me as Genesis -- will be a most necessary and significant factor.
Optimism forever! But always fight on -- and on.
Hunter Bear
HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /
St. Francis Abenaki / St. Regis Mohawk
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
Check out our massive social justice website
www.hunterbear.org The site is dedicated to our
one-half Bobcat, Cloudy Gray, and to Sky Gray:
http://hunterbear.org/cloudy_gray.htm
See my piece ON BEING A MILITANT AND RADICAL
ORGANIZER -- AND AN EFFECTIVE ONE (Mississippi et al.):
http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm
See our very full COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
page -- with a great deal of practical material:
http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm
See my new expanded/updated "Organizer's Book,"
JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new 10,000 word
introduction by me. This page lists many reviews.
And this book is also an activist's how-to manual:
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
The Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm:
(Photos)