How do you begin to describe these last two weeks in California?

First off, I’d like to start positive. We had an amazing one week celebration for President Jimmy Carter, paying tribute to his 93rd birthday. On October 1, the proper day of his birthday and also the final day of the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love,  a small group of us watched Antenna Theater fly a plane in the sky writing a big heart. And from our view from Tiburon, the heart was shaped right around the sun, a perfect symbol and salute to the Father of the Solar Age for our 39th President. A huge thank you to College of Marin, Community Media Center of Marin and Marin Artists Network. The week topped off on October 8 with a fundraiser for Puerto Rico and Mexico. Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers and Freddy Clark and Wobbly World got us swinging and dancing to great music and spirit.

The celebrations were in his spirit of honesty, giving, sharing as we also highlighted his visionary energy and conservation efforts. No doubt, Carter is one of our greatest American leaders ever, walking the talk his whole life and resisting the nasty game many political leaders have played these last 35 years in favor of big business and their own political gain.

Our film screening A Road Not Taken was well received at the Showcase Theater and the two Swiss Filmmakers, Christina Hemauer and Roman Keller, had great things to share during the screening. Michael Stocker, Executive Director of Ocean Conservation Research, shared valuable history about a time in recent American politics that MUST to be addressed today, so we can glean what happened when an honest American leader worked so hard to inspire the American people to follow a good path rather than follow their fears. Click here for full panel discussion.

Fake news isn’t new. We’ve been living it for 35 years since the Reagan election, and it’s been a Republican Party agenda pretty much ever since.

“To be independent of energy is the moral equivalent of war.” And, he said “we are beginning to value people for how much they have instead of what they do for others.”

Wasn’t he right?

For myself, I am going to honor Carter by taking a stand for his values. Join me, in creating a movement where a person’s wealth does not bear a reflection on their moral character or intelligence. Time to stop that nonsense. It’s time to value those who often put their own personal interest to the side in order to uplift others. It’s time to build respect for such people while we reset a new culture in this country. The time is now.

The 20 or so fires that ignited just north of us on the eve of the final Carter celebrations certainly gave me an ill feeling, as the fires also followed Governor Brown’s announcement that  California is a sanctuary state. There is incredible grave irony how vast, separate fires erupted so strangely in a key agricultural just north of the Carter celebrations. Coincidence? As I’ve said before, truth is stranger than fiction these days. Time to question everything. And my heart goes out to our northern neighbors, communities in which I once lived too. Some friends have lost their homes and more. We will be there for them, as we rebuild and recreate. That’s our duty now.

Back to immigration issues – Trump’s team plays dirty with people, calling some of the most vulnerable people in our communities criminals and more. Clearly Trump and his Republican Team have forgotten that America’s Reagan, the Hero of the Republican Party, waged war in Central America in the 1980s. In fact, the very Guatemalan President that Reagan supported has been charged and convicted of GENOCIDE. Why is it that our country never talks about this betrayal to the most kind people of Central America? How can we justify not helping our local Guatemalan people when we financed war against the most gentle and deeply spiritual indigenous people of Guatemala? Sadly, that is what happened in the 1980s. Many of these immigrants come to this country to work and feed their families and they do so quietly. It’s time we stand by them. They are not immigrants. They are war refugees who have worked hard in our country, and proved their value and kindness. We could learn from them.

And why is that Americans can go to Guatemala and buy property and live there without question? In fact, Americans have been buying cheap property in Mexico and many other Latin American countries for the last 30 years, taking advantage of their healthcare and dental systems and more. This does not seem right to me.

It’s time our country becomes responsible and respectful toward other countries. I want to be proud of my country.

And I’ll raise my hand before I kneel and say “I am NOT proud of my country right now.” My country has become horrific and my grandfather, who left his family voluntarily and  fought in WW2, because he felt it was the right thing to do, is rolling in his grave right now.

One thing my own good father taught me when he striked against the federal government in 1981, against the Hero of the Republican Party, when we lost almost everything, is ALWAYS stand for what you believe in . . . always.

Your set of values are the ONE thing in this mortal world that truly belongs to you that no one can take away, unless you lose them yourself. Then, tell me what you’re left with?

Be kind, generous and serve one another instead of your own self interest. Such values make you a rebel in America today. If we hold strong, we’ll all be angels.