Gunning for Guns

It’s been awhile: Ann’s retirement road trip, the Chamber Festival, family visits -- all just excuses. My real blockage to blogging has been struggling to speak about Seattle’s spate of violence – the innocent by-stander killings of Nicole Westbrook and Justin Ferrari; Cafe Racer and Town Hall; the woundings at Folk Life Festival, in Kent and Renton and all the gruesome rest. And now comes Aurora.


Can a Seattleite stand silently by while this epidemic of gunfire afflicts our community -- mocking the very concept of community? But what is one to say in view of the 5-4 ruling by Scalia et al? What to say when our spineless legislators are cowed by NRA's threats? What to say about the reality that some 250 million guns are sloshing about in 115 million households? What does one say, much less what can one do?

Saturday, The Seattle Times sanctimoniously said  about the re-opening of Café Racer, in the same issue headlined with the Aurora “Midnight Massacre”, that “This triumph of the human spirit celebrated in espresso, art, music, and fresh paint is deeply reassuring in trying times.” Trying times??? Christ almighty, is this the best we can do!?!

Let’s start with the Second Amendment. The Virginia Declaration of Rights and the Constitution of the Republic of Vermont (which my Waller forebears helped create and defend) are the roots of the Bill of Rights. The Federalist Papers little address them for they were a promised add-on should the states ratify. Congress debated them but briefly – less than two days. The context of these ten rights was concern for individuals, acting alone or in concert with their neighbors. The second right, to bear arms, clearly was focused on local community needs in the eighteenth century just ending – against hostile Indian tribes, against foreign powers like France and Britain, against a hypothetical national government that conceivably could go too far. For two hundred years the Supreme Court’s gun rulings upheld the linkage – clearly intended by our founders – between a “well regulated” militia and private ownership of arms. But Scalia’s majority has severed that linkage. Now there is a right to own a weapon unconnected with communal responsibilities. But any weapon? So far, the Court still allows some local regulation of what and how guns can be owned. We should take advantage of and work on those options. Total banning is unpopular and unconstitutional, but reasonable regulation is still acceptable.

Gun protectors always tell us “guns don’t kill people, people do.” OK, let’s look at the people.

Shooters are invariably young men. David Brooks writes compellingly about how we are failing young men, especially in school where boys’ active and rambunctious natures are unwelcome, setting some on a life path of frustration and alienation. Read “Time to Change the Cookie Cutter Approach to School.”

And then Brooks again, on income inequality’s impact on children: “The Opportunity Gap.” This was more visible in the epidemiological findings reported by Wilkinson and Pickett in The Spirit Level, a book the Occupy Movement should have enshrined as Gospel. It’s all there: the social ills and afflictions that accompany income inequality throughout the developed world. And ours, as you know, is growing to be the worst inequality among the developed economies. And this –- supposedly “the land of opportunity” -- is also becoming the least socially mobile among Western societies.

Frustrated, alienated young men without promise: mix their need to assert manhood, to even things up, with easy access to guns. I am mindful of the Berkowitz and LePage landmark studies demonstrating that the presence of a gun in a stressful situation stimulates thoughts of acting out mayhem and that such thoughts can result in actions. Guns can cause violence; guns shoot people up to shoot people.

What to do? I don’t have answers, but some notions:
About the second amendment: if the Court today accepts the legitimacy of local restrictions and regulations, why not
• A King county ban on assault weapons?
• On high-capacity magazines?
• On fully automatic, short barrel handguns?
• On gun shows?
In Okanagon County, such restraints may be neither needed nor acceptable. Fine; suit your needs. But here, in our increasingly heterogeneous metropolitan society where unfamiliarity constrains empathy, we need restrictions that make access to a gun less easy, less likely.

• How about licensing gun owners? A very committed Libertarian friend told me Thursday that he favored licensing and that such licensing qualification should include a personality test! This from a Libertarian, but one who sees guns as tools which should be only in trained, competent, trustworthy hands.
• How about titleing guns? We title autos and tax them. Autos cannot be sold without transferring title and registering it with the state. Sure, at the beginning thousands of scofflaws would pay no attention but over time, transfer of guns would become increasingly difficult and risky if titleing became the norm and penalties for possessing untitled weapons were stiff.
• Write your Representative
• and State legislators.

What to do re the NRA: this is no longer your kindly grandfather teaching a youngster how to safely plink at tin cans with a 22. That was the NRA of my childhood. Today's NRA is a cabal funded by and run for gun manufacturers and gun dealers. Dealers like those in Phoenix who looked the other way while selling 406 guns in six months (that’s more than two guns per day!), over $300,000 worth, to a guy on food stamps! They didn't know those guns were going out the front door and immediately into the hands of folks who couldn't pass a background check? Give me a break. Isn't abetting a crime a crime? Isn't combining to protect such abetting illegal? Why Shouldn't the NRA be subject to RICO, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act?
• How about writing the Justice Dept. and Attorney General Holder
• and Rob McKenna.
• Write Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell.
• Contribute to candidates who dare to face the NRA.

About Lobbying for Gun Regulation :
Join me in supporting the Bradys. Their rankings of states in terms of gun regulation places Washington State tied for 45th in the country, with 15 points out of 100. California gets 81; Arizona, 0. Even Alaska has tougher regulations than do we.
• Join the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
• Sign the Brady petition to close the gun show loophole.
• Sign the Brady petition to keep guns out of Starbucks. (Yes, Starbucks!)

Regarding Boys and Schools:
• Support charter schools and then lobby for sex-segregated classes in elementary and middle schools.
• In PTA’s and before school boards, encourage hiring male teachers trained to deal with boys, teachers that boys can relate to.

Re income inequality:
• Vote for candidates who seek short term stimulants to get people working again.
• Vote for candidates who recognize the pernicious problem and propose ways to redress inequality.

There’s no silver bullet for this epidemic of violence. But steady and resolute pressure can bring this community, this State, and this nation to its senses about access to weapons and to identification of and intercession with those who would wield them. It’s a long road, but we will never make progress unless each of us takes a first step.

Leave a comment rather than e-mail me. Let me and the few readers I have hear your thoughts. Start a debate and pass this on if you will. And thanks for persisting through this.

Memorial Day May Prove Drier Than Some Would Like

No, not weather, booze. The changeover from State Liquor Stores to commercial retailers appears to be a planning cock-up – at least for us Islanders – that will leave some celebrating without their Here’s-to-Dad Glenmorangie or the Welcome-summer G&T.

Our only liquor outlet closed May 15th. When I wanted to re-supply Ann’s Kettle One, I headed for QFC, doubting that they were yet set up for spirits. Right, not even a tiny tenth will go through check-out lines until June 1.

Factoria, I was told, was open but “you’d better hurry – they received what will be their final shipment last Wednesday.” I found the store and sure enough, they had a couple of Kettles left, but the near-empty shelves screamed “Going out of Business.” And we are still four days from Memorial Day weekend festivities.

Moreover, Mercer Island has a population of 17,000-some adults over 18. If national addiction averages hold, we have some 1,500 needy alcoholics among us; this could be a tough cold-turkey if they don’t pay attention to their stash. And I don’t relish them driving I-90 to Factoria in extremis.

Somebody screwed up the transition – maybe intentionally, resentment at us voters who ended the state’s monopoly?

Anyway, word-to-the-wise: check your stocks and start searching. Don’t wait ‘til Friday.

Revealing Vladimir

Several years ago, the Irish National Theatre company presented Waiting for Godot at the Moore Theatre. Its tall, lanky Vladimir has haunted me ever since. As night falls, Estragon gets cold; Vladimir wraps his suit coat around his chum. Now Vladimir is chilled. He paces back and forth, wrapping his arms about his body, hunched up against the night air, often with his back to the audience.

Finally, after struggling for a couple of years to figure out what has turned into "Chrysalis"

Chrysalis

(I am a slow worker,) I have embarked on sculpting Vladimir Against the Night.

First step: see if Vladimir can be fit into a 4' column of Indiana limestone I bought in 2006. A builder had donated four surplus blocks to Pratt Fine Arts Institute. They offered them at around $1/lb; my block weighs out at just under 300 pounds. A friend took photos of me in a poor simulation of a chilly Vladimir (perhaps it would have been better naked -- on second thought....)

Second: transpose the image to the block. That alone took about three hours.

Now to begin removing rock. I choose to work with hand tools, as in the 15th century, hammers and chisels. It would sound a bit arch to say Michealangelo's tools -- but in truth, they are. The option is power, which is less tiring. Here is a fellow student using an electric saw to cut grids in marble, which he will next hammer out. But power can get away from you -- and it is so damn noisy! When you learn how, you can remove rock just as fast with hammer and chisel, and you have control of where the tool is going.

I am using a 2.2 lb hammer, a pitching tool to knock off big chunks from the corners, a single point to take out large pieces, and a six-toothed claw that carves out small pieces.

Eventually, I will be using small claws, flat chisels, rasps, files, and so on.

So, slowly I hammer away to reveal Vladimir.

This is how far he's come after about 33 hours of work. Such a long way to go. I will probably remove about 40% of the block. Consider: Bernini removed nearly 70% of a 10'x10'x8' cube of marble to reveal Daphne and Apollo and all with hammer and chisel.

I'm not going for a fully detailed Vladimir. He will be rough, still emerging from the rock. The goal, of course, is to invest him with life, with feeling. The trick will be in the nuances of the neck bow, the hunch of the shoulders, the burial of chin in chest, the hands clasping at shoulders, the bend and tension of knees.... Not easy, but with my coach/mentor/friend Sabah al Dhaher looking over my shoulder, I have a fair chance of achieving those.

I'll keep you informed....

Six Months and a Week To Go ...

May – June – July – August – September -- October plus a week into November: OMG, what an effing bore this is going to be. Some 134 million of us will vote (unless the tedium simply drives us underground until it’s all over) but I dare say 132 million of us already know who we’ll vote for. So to sway some 2 million wishy-washies, more politely called swing voters, PACs, wealthy individuals and true-believers will spend a couple of billion dollars. That’s 1,000 bucks a head! What relief it would be if they could simply gave them ten C-notes each and save the rest of us from all the flak. Well if the presidential race bores, what of Congress? For political junkies like I, watching Congress over the next six months will be excruciating – watch grown men and women act like teen-agers doing everything possible to avoid cleaning up their rooms. Congressional and Senatorial races here and there may prove interesting. But again, millions will be dumped into those districts by outside interests trying to tell constituents how to think and vote. Don’t constituents have a right to be insulated from meddlesome outsiders, a right to think in peace and make thoughtful decisions? Wouldn’t it be great if we could limit political contributions to constituents only? But that has as much chance of passing Constitutional muster as getting corporations ruled non-persons. This bastardization of representative government is what we call our “democracy.” There's got to be a better way.

Musical Hat Trick

Those of you who know us know how important music is to me and even more, to Ann. So this personal report of three distinctive treats in the past three days is just that, a personal remembrance of delights.

Thursday, the Seattle Symphony featured Augustin Hadelich playing Dvorak's Violin Concerto. Augustin gave a superb performance, apparantly note-perfect judging by the enthusiastic applause of the orchestra. (Seattle audiences are unreliably enthusiastic....) And he followed with an encore Paganini Caprice 24 -- stunning! What made it so very special for Ann and me is that we have met and dined with Augustin on occasion; he's become a regular at the Seattle Chamber Music Summer Festivals. To know his story makes his artistry all the more awesome. At 15, this promising prodigy, on his family's Austrian farm, was engulfed in flames when the machinery he was maintaining exploded and the barn caught fire. Life-threatening burns covered his torso, face, and bow arm. He was fighting for life; his violin career apparantly over. But two years later, still in recovery treatments, he raised that bow again and the violin became his life. His playing reflects his sweet, gentle and deep appreciation for the beauty of life and music.

Saturday morning: La Traviata, live from the Met at the Pacific Place theatre. I've seen it three times before; Ann several more. But this! Willy Decker's unique interpretation is the ultimate opera -- moving, simple, music made drama, drama made music. Natalie Dessay is no coquettish Violetta, but a despairing courtesan trapped in the expectations of the beautiful party people, unable to cross over into respectability and happiness, unable to fend off time. Each set of society petty, cruel, and self-centered, ready to sacrifice Violetta to their vanities. Dessay, ill leading up to the performance, admitted in an intermission interview that she had missed a note. But acting, feeling, living the role more than compensated for those few (Ann among them) who noticed.

Saturday evening: SRJO's gala at FareStart. If classical music is all about the notes, jazz is all about the transitions, the conversation. A quintet of SRJO musicians created music together and with singer Greta Matassa. Here was the epitome of jazz -- musicians listening to each other, extemporaneously talking to one another, blending thoughts and ideas but each retaining individual identity. To see Thomas Marriott listening, head leaning forward, eyes closed, then raising his horn to add in, soto voce, under Mike or Randy; then signalling he'd like to speak, and taking the lead. Greta scatting and Mike riffing, talking back and forth, taking each other to new places neither had heard before, and all coming back together in sync. Magic. Music composed as it was being played, ethereal, never to be heard that way again. Magic.

A hat-trick of musical delights. Wish you could have been there....

Sharing Joy

Earlier, Ann and I got a call from a dear friend who wanted to share joyful news that a long friendship has burst forth into love, and that a career-shifting job is in the offing. Many of you will try to guess but we will neither confirm nor deny about whom we're talking; that's not the point. This post is not about our friend or about such news, but about how good it feels to receive a call to unguardedly share elation and joy.

Ann and I are grinning still, an hour later. The call confirms the caller's care about and trust in us -- to share elation without reserve. And we know the caller knows how much we care, in turn. The other side of the coin, of course, is a call to openly share sadness and despair. Such calls have come -- and will.

But for now, have joy? Share it...!

Rain, Rain, Go -- For God's Sake, Go ...

… some place you are needed. Seattle got 7.2 inches in March – twice the average March since data collection began in the 19th Century -- and half-again more than March, last year. Even the most sodden Seattleite is fed up. Yes, I know, weather isn’t climate and No, this isn’t another column about polar bears – but wouldn’t it be just plain prudent to act as if human behavior was partly responsible? Dick Tompkins and Bryna Webber, dear photographer friends, have been documenting global water issues – in Iceland, Bhutan, Kenya and Antarctica; that’s a Masai herder boy moving his family’s skin and bones cattle to Tanzania after this three-year drought in Kenya.

The water issue? Distribution – too much here, too little there. And water issues are dangerous issues – while men may fight over alcohol, they kill over water.

A second thing Seattle is famous for is entrepreneurial opportunity. We’ve got a lot of smart guys – smart water guys over at Bill and Melinda’s new place; Bezos is a smart distribution guy. The world’s two largest boring machines – that’s boring machines, not boring machines – just punched though under Capital Hill and the Federal Cut to bring light rail to the UW. There’s an idea thirty years late; we turned down Federal money back then to bring light rail to Seattle. Portland was next in line; now they have real light rail, not those cranberry-colored toys running around Amazon’s new neighborhood. Meanwhile, we are building a huge plant to dump fresh water run-off into the salt water of Puget Sound. Federal dollars are available for boring machines and pipelines and storm-water run-off plants.

Why don’t some smart guys and Federal money start piping rain, if not to Africa, at least to Nevada or Texas? A lot more friendly than piping oil – and just as many jobs.