Protecting Wolves in Washington State

I went into the hearing last night at Sand Point Way concerning Washington State Dept of Fish and Wildlife's wolf management program with a pretty bad attitude, knowing that an entire pack of six (or seven?) wolves were gunned down last year by state officials at the behest of one cattle rancher.  My attitude wasn’t helped when I discovered the warehouse we were in was very cold, nor did learning that the government officials there (state and fed) weren’t taking comments and were only taking written questions.  I complained out loud about all of that.

Over the course of the three hours we were there, to my surprise, I was encouraged by what I perceived to be the knowledge and commitment of the three government biologists and animal experts.  In fact, by the end I was even not annoyed by the four presenters and came to like and admire them and that wasn’t easy to do, especially when I go in loaded for bear, as they say.  There were lots of slides, which I took pictures of and will share somewhere if you want to read them.

Washington State’s wolf management policies are, surprising to me, relatively new, five or six years old.  Wolves were delisted from the federal Endangered Species Act in April 2011, returning management of wolves to the individual states.  In the 1930s wolves were nearly wiped out in North America.  They were reintroduced to the Northern Rockies in the mid ‘90s, over the objections of ranchers and hunters.  Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Minn among other states, are not as humane or farsighted as Washington in managing their wolf populations.

(Ken Salazar stepping down as Interior secretary is probably a good thing.  He’s not been good for wolves, and the president hasn’t been very good on this issue either.)

That being said, I was moderately encouraged by the willingness of state and fed officials to use a variety of non-lethal measures to corral wolves and the success gotten from those methods (whoever heard of fladry and why does it work!?); also their willingness to engage ranchers on a personal, one-on-one level to gain their trust and cooperation.  I listened carefully to the language they used and I appreciated hearing “protection” and “flourishing,” rather than just “management.”  I didn't care for the "bump in the road" describing the killing of the Wedge Pack.  I was encouraged most of all by a couple of frank, off-the-record comments made by the officials after the hearing.  The federal official said that citizens need to keep after state officials and that that isn’t being done enough.  He believes that makes a difference.  (That’s been a common theme this week in my endeavors!)  The state official said (or I interpreted it this way) that the killing of the Wedge Pack last year was a mistake and was handled badly and they learned from it.  We can only hope.  Those killings were also done with no notice to the public, and I was left with the impression that that was illegal or at least against policy.  I hope that officials will not be pressured by ranchers like they were in that awful case.

Both state and federal officials encouraged us to keep in touch with the commission that makes decisions.  I’ll find out information on the commission and will share it.

From the slides we learned that wolves are extremely smart (as we know) and tenacious and hearty, and those characteristics mean they will survive and thrive if even moderately protected.  The officials also acknowledged that even when wolves are eliminated from an area, others fill in in pretty short order.  Today there are wolves in the area where the Wedge Pack lived and were killed; the message to ranchers being there is no point in killing them because others will take their place.  The officials acknowledged that there’s more ranchers need to be doing proactively to mitigate their losses and that they can’t blame every dead cow on a wolf.  There can be cost sharing for some measures.

The long and short of it is we need to keep up on what’s happening and let our officials know our opinions.

On a personal note, as is my lot in life, I am always, without fail, sitting next to the loudest, most obnoxious person at any given venue and last night was no different.  Behind me was an older, overweight man with a grey and white camouflage cap hissing and grumbling when “wolf protection” or “reintroduction” or information of wolves thriving was mentioned.  Two other women around him became annoyed and glared at him while I did my best to ignore him, but when he shared uttered an enthusiastic “Yeah” at a picture of a hunter with a rifle propped up against a dead wolf, I’d had enough.  I turned around and said, “Do you mind?  I’m trying to hear this.  Have some respect!”  And to my surprise he said nothing in response.

Later on, his cell phone rang and he carried on a few minutes of a loud conversation.  I turned around again and “shhhhhh’d” him very loudly.  He didn’t respond but he did hang up.

Later, when the hearing was over, a woman across the aisle said to me, “I’m glad you said something because I was about to throw something at him,” to which I replied, “I’m always the lucky one seated next to the a-hole, everywhere I go, so I’m used to speaking up.”  “Well, I’m glad you did.”  She and I chatted and hugged.  She shared with me the Facebook page listed below, “Howling For Wolves.”

Later, while talking to the officials, said obnoxious guy said to me “I wouldn’t want to run into you in a dark alley,” smiling, to which I replied, “Nah, I’m harmless,” and, feeling generous mostly because I was encouraged, I shook his hand, and I felt we ended the night on a positive note.

Carter Niemeyer was one of the retired federal officials.  He’s retired but still active, sharing his expertise and commitment.  At the end I shared with Carter and Donald and another gentlemen that I came into the meeting pessimistic and skeptical and then was encouraged in ways I had never expected and thanked them for their involvement and commitment.  Here’s Carter:

http://vimeo.com/53829916

Join up and keep informed:https://www.facebook.com/HowlingForWolves


Photos of presentation slides:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151233069848173.464337.655678172&type=1#!/media/set/?set=a.10151233069848173.464337.655678172&type=3

“Better Off Without ‘Em: A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession”

Chuck Thompson at Town Hall in Seattle, Jan 7, 2012

In an effort to win over the audience Thompson gave out gifts, souvenirs from his travels through the South, for answering questions correctly: t-shirts “The South Was Right, Our School is Wrong” (“they’ve got a real stick up their ass about education”), “Unreconstructed Confederate,” “Secede,” a rebel flag bikini (I won the bottoms*), and bumper stickers, “We’re In It For Life,”  “It Ain’t Over,” “Don’t Re-Nig in 2012” from Lynchburg, TN -- he didn’t give that one away because “that just makes me feel shitty.”

Some of the book, he said, is played for laughs, which some people miss, but there’s also a serious angle.

There’s a chapter on economics.  Something many people don’t know: The Boeing Company, since 1947, has been the single largest exporter in this country and remains so today.  Last June the State of AL handed Airbus $60 million in cash and tax breaks as an incentive to build a plant there.  SC, FL, TN have also been trying to get Boeing’s biggest competitor in their states.  Unlike Washington and most other states, AL (and other Southern states) is allowed by their constitution to give Airbus and other corps public funds, i.e., $60 million.  “Right to work” laws, as we know, mean the right to work for less.  Between 1973 and 2007 private-sector union membership went from 34% to 8%.  In that same period, the disparity between ownership and labor grew by 40%, in ownership’s favor.  SC recently won a Dreamliner assembly plant.  With a cheaper labor force and compliant state and local governments, companies are moving there in large numbers, and more people are moving into the South than moving away from it and its rapidly expanding its population base.

For most of history, the South had a broken economic model, but since WWII that’s changed with industries invested in oil and coal.  Thompson shared that he is unapologetically pro-union. 

Religion is the first chapter in the book because as far as the author is concerned, it’s the foundation of a lot of social thought, policies, and politics, and religion seems to seep into virtually every aspect of Southern life.  It’s what separates Southern states from Northern states.  The obvious argument is there are religious kooks in all 50 states, and there are, but only in the South can people run for office campaigning on explicitly religious grounds with a reasonable expectation of winning.

The Southern Poverty Law Center in AL looks like an impenetrable compound.  There have been twenty-six attempts to bomb it since it was built in the ‘70s.  On that same street is the first white house of the confederacy, along with the state capitol building.  Most SPLC employees are under 24-hour security at work and at their homes.

Thompson interviewed John Howard, a former grand dragon of the KKK, who runs “The Redneck Shop” in SC across the street from the county courthouse.  Thompson has been criticized for including Howard in the book and for being too harsh on Southern culture.  Thompson recounted several recent stories of hate crimes and racist statements by public officials.  A 2011 poll of SC republicans revealed that 46% said interracial marriage should be illegal.  (Thompson wonders why the question was even asked.)  In 2012, in a poll of likely voters, 34% said either it should be illegal or they weren’t sure.  Thompson:  “Fuck it.  I’m not going to be all polite and sit here and ignore this stuff.”

Five storefronts from John Howard is an African American barbershop.  Thompson asked one of the patrons if Howard is an anomaly, or does he represent popular thinking.  The answer is in the book J on p. 112 or thereabouts.  In the South, if you ask a question of a white resident and the same question of a black resident, the answers reveal it’s as though you’re living in a different country.  This experience was replicated over and over for the author.**

Around 2001 there was a controversy about the confederate flag being on top of the SC state capitol.  It was ultimately removed and the compromise included moving to fly in front of the capitol in what looks like a shrine, enjoying a more conspicuous location and lit up at night.

The author showed pictures of statutes and memorials to the confederacy and white supremacy, one of which included a memorial to former SC governor, Ben Tillman, one of the most vehement white supremacists this country has ever produced, who publicly advocated lynching and voter suppression.  “We have scratched our heads to find out how we can eliminate every last one of them.  We stuffed ballot boxes, we shot them.  We are not ashamed of it.”  To be fair, there are Southern memorials to civil rights, just not as many.  The “it ain’t over” and “we were right” mentality is very much alive.

The Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism in Wash, DC and dedicated by President Reagan in 1988, is inscribed: "Here we admit a wrong.  Here we affirm our commitment as a nation to equal justice under the law."  That is how you achieve healing and brotherhood.

The South didn’t always believe all government is evil.  Louisiana Populist Huey Long’s campaign slogan twice was “The Great Share Our Wealth Society.”  Southerners do love their highways and bridges and hospitals and football stadiums, all built with public funds as though they appeared out of nowhere.

Defenders of the necessity of the Civil War insist that it was fought over states’ rights, but Thompson points out that right was the right to own slaves, to protect an economy based on slave labor.  According to “Apostles of Disunion” by Charles Dew, the secession documents of virtually every Southern state mentions slavery in the first line or paragraph of their proclamation.

Thompson took many questions, one from a man from NC whose family has been there since before the revolution and grew up hearing about secession and glories of the war and knowing first-hand what war does to a culture, everyone, not just the slaves but those who fought.  His relatives were confederates.  “I’m not saying it was right, but… war is an awful thing and the effects last for generations and generations.  They came through and burned my hometown to the ground.  They weren’t doing good things there, but this rhetoric that inflames people – and this right here with the joking and everything like that, that we should secede from the Union, that’s really dangerous.”

Thompson responded politely, that the majority in a society should be able to govern their society in a way they see fit.  “I’m sick and tired of people like Mitch McConnell and Eric Cantor and Newt Gingrich having such an impact on ‘my country,’ similar to others being tired of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, but shouldn’t the majority opinion matter?  This country is in gridlock and I’m sick of it.  You know what?  You want to secede?  Fine, do it.  I’m frustrated.  At the same time I know it’s not going to happen.”

One audience member noted that successful secessionist movements are not unprecedented and cited Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, South Sudan, Slovakia, Soviet Union.  Thompson said this book discusses the practicalities of how it might work here, but was mostly interested in showing that the South has become a very different society than the rest of the country. 

Another audience member said it’s not a north-south thing so much as a spiritual bankruptcy in the US that allows and permits peace-loving people to be assassinated while Lindsey Graham and others who are obstructionists can prevent the rest of us from living our lives in the way we would like to live.  “They are the problem and they are spiritually bankrupt.”  (There was much applause.)  The author agreed.  This isn’t an entirely Southern problem, but that is where the stronghold comes from, a Southern ethos hardwired into those states since the 1700s.  Btw, there was a lot of Southern resistance to joining the US early on.

When asked what surprised him the most in his southern travels, Thompson said how impossible it is to study the South as it exists today without including the Civil War, reconstruction, or Jim Crow, as Thompson initially wanted to do.  He quoted William Faulkner: “The past is not dead.  In fact, it’s not even past.”  “You can’t avoid it and I was forced to deal with it.”  The Civil War stays with people, as the gentleman said earlier.  Thompson noted that he and other Northerners had ancestors killed in the war, “but we don’t feel it as personally as Southerners do.”

Thompson isn’t urging people to do any particular thing.  The book is “just a big frustrated bitch about secession.”  He’s not trying to crusade to get people to do anything, except maybe to buy the book.

*I won the bikini bottoms but tried to wave it off because I really dislike that symbol.  I gave it away, and wouldn’t you know, a half hour into the talk I was a little sorry that I had.  When the talk was over, the gentleman I handed it to left it behind on the seat, so maybe he guessed I might want it back.  So I have that ridiculous souvenir.

**It is noteworthy and bitterly ironic that the video making the rounds today (January 10, 2013) comes out of Tennessee, the angry Mr. Yeager ranting about his guns and threatening "another civil war" if they're "taken away."  "Fuck that" he says.  One inch closer and he's ready to kill someone.  (ETA: his permit to carry firearms has today been revoked by the feds. lol) 

Meeting Chuck Thompson

Addendum later that same night:  I started the book this afternoon, am about 20 pages in, and it's quite hilarious.  I've chuckled or laughed at every page.  It's also skillfully written and rigorously researched, and I would not call it mean-spirited.  I call it a frank look at a part of the country which is and has always been, let's just say not our highest selves as a nation-state. Most of all, it's HI-larious.



You'll not be seeing me in this lol

Get out the Vote

Getting out the Vote

I heard a timely story on NPR this afternoon about the effectiveness of canvassing, the last-minute get-out-the-vote effort, and I agree.  Our precinct boss narrowed down our list of voters, which are quite a few on each block, to not only democrats only but dems who may vote or are likely to vote.  There’s no need to remind the regular voters; they’re reliable.  But the irregulars, the people who don’t always vote, studies have shown and Rep. Jim McDermott confirms that good old-fashioned, face-to-face conversations and gentle reminders to vote and vote early make a difference.  Having a list that is so micro-targeted and finely tailored to voters makes it easy to knock on neighbors’ doors and ask the personal question, “Have you voted yet?”  It’s a gratifying experience to meet so many people who have voted and/or who appreciate the reminder to vote and the information and sample ballots we share with them.  Gone are the days when you knock on a door and somebody yells at you. 

I don’t tend to look for signs, but I don’t ignore them either.  Today while walking I came upon a really beautiful maple tree with brilliant-colored leaves and I stopped to take in its beauty and colors, appreciating the tree and my good fortune to be out on my errand, and a solitary leaf floated down and landed right on my clipboard, and I had to laugh out loud at that.  That was a lovely gift and a nice sign.

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=163823777&m=163823770

Jill Stein for President

Really….?

What is the deal with Jill Stein?  I’ll wager that two years ago you hadn’t heard of her.  She’s a physician who has been unsuccessful in her effort to win an election in her home state of Massachusetts, but she promises the moon and she’s everybody’s darling.  Good for her that she cares about the environment (so do I, by the way), but it’s easy to promise the moon when you don’t have to deliver on those promises.  Easy to tell people what they want to hear and maybe even believe it, and she’s done that well. 

Here’s what I know about her:  Not a lot except she's skilled at self-promotion.  She comes from privilege and has had a very nice life.  Good for her.  But if she can’t win an election by those who know her best, what’s the draw?  What does she know about governing or politicking?   I’m sure she’s intelligent and caring, but qualified to be president? 

I think her candidacy is more about you, the voter, than her qualifications or vision.  She's everybody's safe, noncontroversial choice. You don't even have to explain why you support her. Just say “Jill Stein for President,” or “I support the Green Party” and everybody nods approvingly in a self-satisfied way.  She’s your excuse to escape not voting because you’re angry that Obama hasn’t delivered everything you expected.  You can throw your vote away but still say you voted without compromising your principles.  And if Romney were to win, it’s on you and your principles, and god help us.

Noam Chomsky endorses her, and while I respect him as much as I respect anybody alive today, I’m taking issue with him on this one, respectfully.

I will add that if Dr. Stein stays involved in politics after not winning instead of pouting and dropping out ala Ralph Nader, I'll have more respect for her.  And, folks, you don't prepare a third-party candidate six months before an election.  That should start this year on November 7.

ETA:  In the clip below, she could not be any more annoying.  She's a bit whiny and self-serving and quite the attention-grabber.  She would have been a distraction in the debates.  Roseanne Barr would have been a more substantial participant.  This woman isn't it.  I see through her.

                                                  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9NPvFL-u5c

"The Choice" on Frontline

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/choice-2012/ 

I hope everybody watches this ^^ Frontline, if only for the first 30 mins or so on the candidates' early years.  Very interesting and contrasting.  2009 was a tough year, not only for the president (and it was ugly) but for me on personal and financial levels, one of the most difficult in my life, and I’m glad it’s long gone.  Frontline reminds me how crazy and ugly politics was back then which added to my anxiety.  EVERYbody was angry at Obama -- his supporters, who thought they had had fallen in love with him and were realizing who he really was, were disappointed.  They felt jilted.  And his critics and detractors grew harsher and uglier still.  Meanwhile, despite my early negative opinion of him, the more I watched him and got to know him, the more I respected him and saw in him traits that resonated with me; obviously, not that I consider myself nearly as smart or ambitious as he, but I recognize him his tendency toward solitude, his inability to glad hand and backslap, his prickliness, his drive to be authentic.  He is who he is and who he presents himself as and that’s rare in both politics and life.  In hindsight, we were lucky he was so naïve to believe in his ideas and to run for office and to try to make healthcare his legacy, probably lucky he had no idea of the opposition he would face.

Before this Frontline, I was 80% on board with Obama.  After watching it, I'm at about 90%. 

Meanwhile, Mitt Romney is a human wind sock.  A self-entitled shape-shifter who honestly cannot tell you what he believes. He will probably admit, if only to himself, that he sees himself as a knight in shining armor riding in to save the day.  I call that a narcissistic messianic complex, but he'd call it the Great White Hope. 

My letter to the president

June 11, 2012

President Barack Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, D.C.   20500

Dear Mr. President,

As one of your biggest fans, I’m hoping you take my best advice.  I am probably your biggest fan in Seattle, and let me tell you, as a member of Occupy Seattle, being a fan of yours is tough business, even in this town.  Aside from that,

I heard your radio address last weekend courtesy of Randi Rhodes’s show (she is your biggest fan on the radio), and your address was ambitious and righteous, and I loved it, but as too often happens, it was delivered too mildly.  I’m writing to suggest, in the most urgent terms possible, that you get angry, and share it.  You need to take the fight to the righties and insist on what you know is right.  We’re with you.  This congress is about as do-nothing as they come, and reporters have forgotten how to do their jobs: being the essential fourth branch of our government, and they’re corrupted by the same systems that corrupt so much of our society.

If you don’t insist on your positions and your proposals, you will not be respected.  You will be seen as milquetoast.  To my mind, many of your deliveries are FAR TOO MILD, too professorial and calm, even as brilliant and ambitious as they are.  That won’t go over well with this crowd, and by “this crowd,” I mean fickle Americans who might well vote for Mitt (R)money, who epitomizes the worst of what America is.

There is lots to get angry about.  Here are a couple of things that come to my mind:

I’m __  years old [J] and I don’t have health coverage; 

According to UNICEF, the US ranks last or near last in every important measure;

I don’t have a pension;

I believe my mother died of her cancer because she had only Medicare, and they didn’t operate;

My 26-year-old son, who is quite brilliant and talented, cannot afford school, not even community college;

I have no safety net of any kind;

My son, who has asthma, has no health coverage;

I’m a self-employed court reporter and independent contractor and have no benefits;

The USSC has lost its legitimacy, an institution I grew up respecting and trusting;

Shell Oil gets tax breaks while thousands and thousands of teachers are being laid off;

The misery index is rising, and I’m looking for a way to get out of here if you’re not re-elected;

And the treasonous republicans hate you.

All that is plenty enough to get angry about, so don’t hesitate.  TR got angry and so did LBJ.  Find your inner FDR and come out swinging.  You could energize and inspire the whole of the country.  Find your inner Obama, fix your message, stick to it, and take it to them.

Otherwise, I fear we have no chance.  But I believe you have the opportunity to become a great president, as difficult as it may be :)  Sincerely,

If feels like he might have gotten the message...

Meeting Chris Hedges

Friday, June 29, 2012:

I went on a mission tonight (June 29) to Town Hall to listen to and try to meet Chris Hedges so that I could give him a couple of chapters of a manuscript written by a new and dear friend of mine, a man who thinks much like Hedges, one whose writing is brilliant, who writes about the imperative and urgency of reshaping our consciousness, collectively and individually; changing that we’re doing; looking honestly at how we’re harming ourselves and our planet; and moving to fix it NOW, evolving our consciousnesses NOW.  We don’t have any more time to waste. 

( some of John’s work: http://www.earthkeepforum.com/transformation.php )

So I was thrilled to be able to pass on two of his chapters to Hedges.  I hope he has time to read them. Even if nothing comes of that connection, Hedges will know that somebody else get it and is thinking much like himself, and when you’re Chris Hedges, that’s not always easy to say.  My friend will be pleased.  If Chris reads his work, I believe he’ll like it.  My attending Hedges’s book reading was coincidental and propitiously timed. And astutely, John assumed I was attending, and he was right.

Mark Taylor-Canfield, Hedges, Joshua Farris

So tonight after the talk and reading, and after running into Josh Farris as he walked up to the microphone to ask Hedges an interesting question about the dysfunction in most or all of the centers of power and how that may relate to the likelihood that a coup d’etat might result, the real fun began.  (Hedges’s reading and some of the question-and-answer session will be attached shortly.  It was, happily for us, a lengthy session.  His reading was fascinating and moving, and Q&A patient and insightful, and his letter read from a jail cell when he was arrested with OWS was poignant and philosophical, so overall, he shared quite a bit of time with a few hundred of us in the town hall.



Joshlyn and Josh with Hedges



He was generous with his time during the reading and afterwards, signing as many books as he was asked to and chatting patiently, listening carefully, pontificating and challenging.  He graciously took many pictures with many people and accepted a letter, my package, and a jar of homemade jelly, and stayed and chatted until the last person left.   Then he tiredly gathered up his things and walked outside, without a handler or assistant, and it was then that Josh said, “Hey, man,” as he likes to do, “Why don’t you come have a beer with us?”  And he did.  It’s hard not to get excited when Chris Hedges wants to hang out with you and walking down the street that lovely evening and talking his ear off and peppering him with questions was memorable.

So Josh and Joshlyn happened to be there that night, two of my all-time favorite activitsts in the world and colleagues, along with my journalist friend Mark Taylor-Canfield.  As politely pushy as I am – I call it enthusiasm -- not only did we get to chat with Chris during his book signing, and not only did he take pictures with us, when it was all over we happened to run into him out front, and he was happy to accept Josh’s invitation to come have pizza and beer with us. 

So we took him to my all-time favorite place downtown, Hotel Monaco, and had some of the best pizza ever, his generous treat, along with a beer.  It was quite an evening.  I wanted to take more pictures, but I didn’t want to impose, and we were just happy to talk with him, and we wanted him to feel like a regular person, which he is, of course, but one of the more brilliant variety.

So we all got to bend his ear, and we showed him some good old-fashioned Seattle hospitality.  I bent his ear a little bit about the imperative of reelecting the president, and he pretended like it didn’t matter.  smile.   My argument was partly that the fate of the USSC hangs in the balance and that has enormous consequences, and I reiterated that again when he mentioned his recent case before the Court, successfully argued.    

His reading at Town Hall he moved me to tears a couple of times when he talked about the revolutions in East Germany (1989), Former Yugoslavia (’92-’95), and Latin America, and then about our own Occupy. 

He told us stories, shared his views, and shared some of his life, and we talked to him about the activism we’re doing.  He has four children ages (as I recall) 22, 17, 4, and 1. 

Some of what he shared with us and in his discussion that stands out to me is that reality is never an impediment to what you want.  We (Americans) are often juvenile in our thinking, preferring magical thinking to do hard work.  When we are unprepared mentally and emotionally, our response to challenge is often vengeance.  Hedges, as you may know, has witnessed and studied many revolutions over the years, and he referenced “Anatomy of a Revolution,” by Crane Brinton.

Hedges warned that reckless abandonment of our children’s future by forces that don’t think beyond quarterly profits will doom us.  Our prioritizing business rights over people’s rights are the same forces that gave rise to nazi dominance.  Corporate control of the government is fascism. 

I was gratified to hear that he mistrusts and worries about the Christian right whom he believes hates the world as it is.  Their righteousness and anger and the influence they wield are dangerous to our democracy.  To that, I said Amen!

We exchanged cards and emails, undoubtedly thousands of which he receives each year.  He was kind and generous to us all, impressed with Josh’s Iraq War service and subsequent protest of that war after he returned home.  We talked a bit about my work and told me he’d had a five-hour deposition a couple of weeks ago.

I sat next to him at the restaurant, and it was a thrill.  We all wanted to hear his stories and his opinions about our opinions.  It was lively and fascinating (sorry to use that word again, but it was).  He wrote down a couple of documentaries that I recommended (“The Last Mountain” and “The Wild & Wonderful Whytes of West Virginia”), and we eagerly wrote down books he recommended.  Well, Joshlyn did; which I must remember to get from her.

I had the opportunity to tell Chris Hedges that one of the most impactful books I’ve ever read was “The Jungle,” which I read when I was 21, which he was, of course, well familiar with.

He signed my “Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle,” which has got to be the BEST title of a book, ever.  Hedges has four new friends in Seattle.