Don Robert's Almanack

Shot Gun Approach  --- Pardon me, Dear Reader,  but I am going to continue with a kind of scattered
approach until I can settle down into more organized writing.   Perhaps I am reading too much,  am setting the bar a little high,  and to continue with a bunch of subjects joined in a single Blog entry will appear as backing into the year 2013's entries.  Please have faith in me.   Let me say before i proceed that my personal campaigns for this year will be  p o v e r t y/food deserts  and substandard housing,  namely house trailers.  These are subjects that have nearly no focus in our media outlets,  I hope you will do what you can get gain a focus on these in your communities.

The so-called "bubble" is an insiders term for the space (or spaces) within which the power resides in Washington.  This area is very jealously protected by secrecy,  national security paranoia,  and the confines of the power elite,  military/industrial complex and corporate wealth and influence.  Thus the bubble can include everything from the justification of illegal war (drones),  to the unwillingness to fully engage in new and radical policies in energy production, and the accompanying stubborn attitudes about weather change/global warming.   From the bulletproof limousine, to Air force 1,  to the White House,  the President is presented with options which absolutely run counter to his stated personal ideals.  Torture, illegal detention and other constitutional violations are forgiven within the bubble,  as expedient.  The number of correspondents to take this on is minuscule,  and that may just continue to be.   "Learn,  baby Learn,"   the bubble is a luxury that we cannot afford,  now or later.

The new commemorative stamp issued for Rosa Parks last Monday, on what would have been her 100 birthday,  is a tiny sign of hope ... accompanied by the slogan word  "COURAGE."   Courageous she was,  and I invite you to examine her life and its ideals for action.  Typically Martin Luther King is given the credit for the Montgomery Bus Boycott,  which in great part he deserves;  but Rosa kicked it off and instigated by her example a tough path for nonviolent action.  She was asked at one point who her main hero was.  Her answer was "Malcolm X,"  certainly unexpected in many quarters,  but in complete character for her. 

Another hero,  and then I will put away the shotgun for the night.  Many years ago I took my sons for a week in Northern Minnesota at a former fishing camp;  being changed to a kind of spiritual,  "New Age" center by some folks from Minneapolis.   A main figure in the camp was a musher who in winter time "ran" dogs in a variety of ways (winter survival,  rescue,  racing,  etc.),  and worked around the camp as a kind of handyman,  watchman,  etc.,  who had already spawned some incredible stories before we got there.  Well, he had the dogs up in a meadow quite aways above the camp on a hillside.  We showed interest and he invited us up.   Not long after we arrived and started to get to know the dogs,  my son,  Alexander,  stepped into a full scale wasps nest ... and was in an instant covered with the critters.  Without a pause, Baba grabbed him, threw him over his shoulder and ran down the steep hillside.  Alexander's temperature had climbed to 105 by the time he put him in fish  ice bait tank.  And then a woman who was presumed to be a nurse showed up with a shot kit.  Next after a quick trip to the nearest town and hospital Alexander was stabilized and ready to enjoy the rest of the week.   Years later while visiting a musher on Bear Skin Lake I discovered that Baba was his best friend,  they live in the same town and he would put us in touch with each other.  Ultimately my son Alexander was able to feed Baba and his family at one of his restaurants in the Twin Cities,  and this Winter Baba and I were able to get together in Gran Marais and share stories and keep a precious continuity often missed in these times.   Baba is truly a family hero to us.