A Thinking Break

So, does that mean a break from thinking?  Or a break so I can think?  More the latter, but it's the thoughts invading my brain more than my deliberately saying, "Whoa, I need to stop and think a while."

So this post is just a brief (yeah, that's always my intent) overview of the action taking place in my brain, in hopes of not forgetting the many loose ends.  [And it didn't stay brief so I'm adding an overview so you don't get lost in the meanderings.]

• OLÉ classes - Project Innocence and the Fairbanks Four  and a proposal for police to have Devil's Advocates keeping them from straying after the wrong suspects
• OLÉ classes - Homelessness 
• The Struggle for Modern Tibet
• Dan Sullivan and the tension between loyalty and the rule of law and Profiles In Courage

I've bolded these highlights and enlarged them so you can scan on down to the ones you're most interested in.  Or just quit right here.


Thursday I went two OLÉ classes:  The Innocence Project and the Pebble Mine class.
Friday was State and Federal Courts in the morning and Homelessness in the afternoon.

I'm also reading ahead for my December book club meeting - The Struggle for Modern Tibet, by Goldstein, Stebeschuh, and Tsering.  It's Tsering's story and the other two helped him getting written down in English.  He's a Tibetan, from a peasant family, who gets to Indian and works with the Dalai Lama's older brother and then manages to get a scholarship to the US.  He feels the Tibetans in India who follow the Dalai Lama are basically supporting the old Tibetan class system and he feels appreciation for the Chinese who are interrupting that and bringing roads and schools and hospitals to Tibet.  He wants to help with bringing Tibetan culture into the modern world (he was partly influenced by reading medieval Western history in the US and thinking they had the same kind of religiously dominated class system then too, but were able to modernize yet keep their distinct cultures.  Everyone thinks he's crazy to go back, but he does and gets sent by the Chinese to a    that is training Tibetans to be teachers and to go back to Tibet.  It's the beginning of the Cultural Revolution and gets to go on a field trip to march before Mao at Tiananmen Square.  That's as far as I've gotten.  I'm still waiting to see how it ends up.  (Well, I know he got back to the US somehow and with the two co-authors to write the book.)

Tibet was one of about three or four topics that my Chinese students were united and unbudging on:  China saved the Tibetans from a slave culture run by the Dalai Lama and the ruling class.  And Tshering gives support for this interpretation.  So I'm challenging my own Western take on Tibet by even reading this book.

So what else am I thinking?

The Innocence Project - Thursday was the last class.  The executive director and until recently the only employee, Bill Oberly, is the main speaker, sometimes backed up by Board president, Mark Johnson.  Thursday, Bill finished up the reasons people are wrongly convicted and then chronicled the Fairbanks Four trials, the one case the the Alaska Innocence Project has overturned and gotten the wrongly convicted freed.
As he told the saga, he illustrated the reasons for wrongful convictions he'd just finished.  The problems included:

• false confessions
• false eye-witness testimony, 
• misuse of forensic pattern identification (in this case using bootprints to 'prove' a suspect's boot was involved) (I did a blog post on this topic a week or so ago)
• false informant testimony
• police misconduct (intentional and unintentional)

In fact, all of the problems as Oberly tells it (and I don't doubt him, but he's my only source) seemed  to stem from police misconduct - from how they got the confessions, how they pressured a witness to tell their story even though it was different from the witnesses original and then later story, and the coached testimony of a prison inmate who said one of the Fairbanks Four had confessed to him in prison.

This issue is one that's been rummaging through my brain and has come up with the idea that police (and probably many other types of government, and for that matter private companies) need to have some form of Devil's Advocate involved in murder and other felony investigations.  The Devil's Advocate would be there to challenge the lead investigators when they seem to be caught up in confirmation bias (seeing the facts that confirm their suspicions, and not seeing ones that challenge their theory of the case).  The Devil's Advocate's job would be to put pressure on the investigators when their not following proper procedures for interrogating suspects (no lawyers, no parents even for minors, planting false scenarios (in this case on pretty intoxicated suspects who couldn't remember anything from the previous couple of hours), etc.

We have people who do this sort of work after the fact - Ombuds offices, Inspectors General, etc.  But if this work had been done on the front end, innocent people wouldn't end up spending five, ten, fifteen, and more years in prison.  And the actual murderers wouldn't still be loose killing other people.  And overzealous cops and prosecutors would be checked early, and perhaps disciplined or terminated before doing more damage.

Would this cost more?  Cost isn't supposed to be a factor in getting to justice.  But trying innocents suspects costs way more than the cost of a position of Devil's Advocate.  And if the victims are able to sue and win a wrongful conviction case, well, there's money that would have funded a dozen Devil's Advocates.

I've not given details of this case yet and won't today.  So it's hard for readers to feel the injustices done in this case.  But I've recommended several times already that readers here watch the Netflix short series When They See Us about the Central Park Five.  All the reasons for wrongful convictions are clearly illustrated in that case.  It's heartbreaking, but compelling viewing.  And all five have been exonerated and released.

Tied to all this is a notion of written about professionally on corruption.  There's a natural tension in all of us between following our human social value of loyalty and the value of following the rule of law.   We all have genetically built into us a loyalty to our 'group' whether that be family, team, school, profession, work group, whatever.  And that notion of loyalty is reinforced by our society and every other society.  Studies show that loyalty is a more important value for political conservatives in the US than for liberals.  We can see that playing out in Washington now as the Republicans are being held tightly in control by the president, despite their private misgivings.  It's the power that mafia bosses and platoon leaders and sports coaches have.   They are far less likely to vote, as the Democrats did with Senator Al Franken, to give up one of their own because of a violation of principles.

The idea of rule of law is, in part, to counter blind loyalty so that people are treated fairly and equally.  While loyalty can work in concert with the rule of law, it can also thwart the rule of law.  In police and military and corrections organizations unwritten "Codes of Silence" or "The Blue Wall" will keep police and corrections officers from reporting crimes within their ranks.

This loyalty vs rule of law tension also got me to thinking about one of my Senators - Dan Sullivan.  While he has said he did not vote for Trump, he's since been caught up in the loyalty to the Republican Bully in Chief (sorry conservatives, that characterization is pretty accurate - just look up any literature on bullying and the spell they hold on those around them).  He even signed Sen. Graham's letter condemning the House impeachment investigation.  (My other Republican Senator did not.)

So I've been wrestling with how to reach out to him - not to attack him, but to find ways to open his brain to alternative ways of seeing all this.  He's a Marine (still in the reserves) and their values are all for courage.  But they are also indoctrinated into a loyalty to the Marines that means not following orders to run into danger takes less courage than not.  So while he might have tremendous physical courage and be willing to risk his life on the battlefield, the moral courage to break with his loyalty to the president and the Republican Party is much more difficult.

So how can someone talk to him about that?  I've started looking at John Kennedy's book Profiles in Courage (it's available at the link online.)
 Kennedy wrote about six US Senators who stood out by overcoming all the pressures weighing dow US Senators.  Maybe that would help, but I doubt it.

I'm also pondering all the data we've gotten on homelessness.  The Municipality of Anchorage is participating in a data gathering and management plan based on a nation wide data system, Built For Zero. It tracks monthly:

• newly homeless (and where they come from in terms of previous housing)
• current homeless
• exiting homelessness

 The intent is to always have enough beds so that zero people spend the night homeless.  It involves collecting and sharing data on all the homeless, why they're homeless, what level of services they need, etc. so that they can find the right level of help for people in different categories of need.  And always making sure there are enough beds.   The plan they have addresses most of the questions the class raised the first week.   Here are some links - though they don't quite deal with some of the programs and data we've seen in class:

• MOA Housing and Homelessness Page - the basic Muni page on homelessness with links
• Data Dashboard - some numbers on the Anchorage homeless population

That's just a smattering of the activity going on in my skull.  When things get so busy, it's hard to sit and write something that doesn't meander a bit.

Steller Jay, Escape Room, Homeless Camp At Valley Of The Moon

A Steller Jay dropped by yesterday just outside the kitchen window.  These bird are beautiful and brazen and there's some kind of a turf war in our yard now and then between the jays and magpies.







My OLÉ one time class at the Anchorage Escape Room near G and 5th Avenue, was a lot of fun.  There were about ten of us on this hour long adventure to escape.   And it took all of us to figure out the clues to open pad locks that got us more clues to get us to the final room and out the last door.  There were some cool surprises.  I don't want to say more.  Here we are gathering in the downstair office.  The room with the Tree Door is a new escape adventure that isn't completed yet. They want to make it perfect.  We went into the door on the left.

Our group reminded me that everyone has something valuable to contribute if others just give them a chance.  We didn't get out in the allotted hour, but since there was no one else waiting, they let us keep going and we got out in 90 minutes instead of 60.  They said only 30% of the groups make it out in 60 minutes.


I was pleased that the weather was warm enough and dry enough I didn't have to think about ice and could ride downtown for the escape room.

On the way home I passed a large homeless camp in the woods to the east of Valley of the Moon Park.  I'd guess there were 15 to 20 tents.  I didn't see anyone so could do an impromptu extra-credit for my Homelessness class.  Last Friday's was full of the kind of data I was looking for.  Dr. Richard Mandsager was the speaker and he had lots of data about the different causes of homelessness, how many in the different categories in Anchorage, and looked at the larger environmental factors that push people into the streets.  I hope I can get more into that here one of these days.

The sign says, "Camp Here - Occupy to Overcome."  (I'm having trouble with iPhoto.  It's not saving the edits when I crop photos.  And Apple would rather we move 'up' to their newer software, Photo, and hook us into paying monthly fees for iCloud.   No wonder no one has any money.)

What We Need To Know About Homelessness In Anchorage - Working My OLÉ Class Notes

Our Friday Homelessness OLÉ class speaker was late Friday afternoon.  The class monitor, at one point, was going to call the day's class off.  But someone in the class suggested we get to know each other and why we were taking the class.  And as we did that, we learned the speaker was on the way besides.  I had my iPad and took notes.

There were about 30 students.  Everyone's 'older' since OLÉ classes are aimed at retired folks.  A lot more women than men.  I gave the class monitor my notes to go along with hers to give to the speaker - there are seven more sessions.

I went home and sifted through the notes which were chronological by speaker.  I wanted to focus more on the ideas than the speaker.  I grouped similar comments.  Then I tried to see differences in the kinds of comments, the different perspectives they represented, etc.   I was trying to condense this as much as possible without losing content, but also to help make us as conscious as possible of how different kinds of comments reflected different needs and interests.

Then I did that again.  Here are my final two iterations of people's comments.

Here's the second cut:

General Issue	Specifics
Opinions - general	Never seen it so bad System isn’t working Need to do something
Opinions - Specific	Protect public spaces In My neighborhood Tired of being afraid
Solutions  - housing	Build Housing Homeless Housing on Park Strip Use empty buildings - like Sam’s Club Tiny Houses
Need to Know more	Learn from the homeless What are the resources? What are the different types of homeless? How much low income affordable housing is there in Anchorage? What are trends from past until now? Definitions of homelessness.
Things individuals can do to help out Larger societal problems that create homeless people	-

And here's the third cut.

General	More Specific
Perspectives for Looking at Homeless	View of ‘victims’ of the homeless View of the homeless population View of ‘solvers’ of homelessness
Ways to ‘solve’ homelessness	Solve problems caused by homelessness -To community -To homeless Solve problems that cause homelessness
Information we want	Definitions of homeless Categories of homeless (assuming different categories can be handled in different ways) Total # of homeless # in each category of homeless # of those transitioning out of homelessness each year # of new homeless each year # of chronic homeless Definitions/categories of low cost housing Data on available low cost housing in Anchorage Data on successful approaches elsewhere Current costs of homelessness to -MOA -Residents with homes -Homeless residents -Others Resources available -Funds allocated -Positions allocated -Expertise available -Resources still needed Sources of homeless people (why people become homeless)
Solutions	Money -Taxes -Lottery More low cost housing Mental health services Addiction help Employment help Health Costs help

There are a lot of savvy people in the class coming at this from different perspectives.  I hope I've been reasonably faithful in how I've pulled together the comments.  Once I had these frameworks, I did add a few more items in (particularly things we want to know).  I was concerned that we distinguish between short term fixes to help individuals who are homeless and people who are affected negatively by nearby homeless cams on the one hand, and how to 'fix' the societal changes in the US that are causing homelessness, that Anchorage, on its own can't 'fix'.  Changes in wages, job security, student debt, veteran's physical and mental health issues resulting from their service, access to health care, etc.  It's in there, but not that explicitly.

We've got different people coming in to talk to us over the next seven weeks.  Though I don't think that we've got any homeless folks coming in to talk.

A Recovery Day

That's me, like the sun, trying to see through the clouds.  101˚F, chest full of crud.  It wasn't quite that bad yesterday when I went to my OLÉ classes.  But I did try to sit away from others.

I'm staying in today.  I'm not good at being sick  I'm drinking lots of hot water with honey.  But I'll try to get some stuff done.

The sun has broken through a couple of times.  The trees are losing their leaves.  I do want to write a bit about SB 91 - the criminal justice reform bill that was essentially repealed this year because that was the main topic of our state and federal courts class yesterday.  And also about how our class talked about homelessness (the other class) while waiting for the speaker to come.  Actually, it was a good thing we had time to get to know each other better.

Why I Live Here - A Little Nature Break

Had some errands to run, but that also gave me the opportunity to take in some looking nature spots.  So just let yourself slide into the picture for a moment to slow down your heart beat.

University Lake.

The creek that goes by the dorms at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

It makes sense to me why Anchorage homeless would rather be out here than in some institutional storage room for people.  Now if they could police those who trash the place and/or use it as a base for petty theft, everyone would be happy.  Maybe.  I'm taking an OLÉ class starting in October on Homeless Issues, so maybe I'll understand this better.

SF 2: Beaches, Flowers, A Bridge

Part of yesterday's wanderings included the old Sutro Baths where Geary meets the ocean.  This is actually a National Park Service National Recreation Area with an interesting history that I'll let interested parties check out here.

The walk down to the beach area was filled with blooming flowers, birds, and bees.











This seems to be a coastal bush lupine.  The pollinator appears to be a Bombus vosnesenskii or yellow-faced bumblebee.

Part of what remains of the bath, including the two egrets.  

And here's what it looks like in the ocean - which was at high tide when we were there.  

 

Then we wandered some more and got to a point west of the Golden Gate bridge near Baker's Beach.  

From the National Park Service, again:

"Battery Chamberlin holds the last 6-inch "disappearing gun" of its type on the west coast. Built near Baker Beach in 1904, Battery Chamberlin was constructed to accommodate the lighter, stronger, more powerful coastal defense artillery developed in the late nineteenth century."

The trail from the beach to the Golden Gate bridge had lots of stairs.

It was a short, but wonderful time with the grandkids, and in San Francisco.  But it's raining today, time to get back to better weather in Anchorage.  

A note on the state of affairs.  My son, at age four, did not have the word "homeless" in his vocabulary.  But his four year old son uses that word all the time.

John Martin's Coming Home After Sailing To Russia And Getting Temporary Housing

The Anchorage Daily News had a story yesterday about John Martin being deported to the US by the Russian authorities.  Last year he set off to sail to China to find his ex-wife and his son.  He made it to Russia and was first in the hospital and then later sent to a Moscow jail.  But apparently the Russians are giving him back without demanding anything in exchange.

March 2012

I've written about John Martin a few times on this blog.  This link includes a video of him at the Assembly meeting when they passed a ban on sitting on the sidewalks which seemed to be aimed at John.

It has links to other posts I did, including when he was camped in front of city hall after the ordinance was passed.  I asked him why he thought he hadn't been kicked out.  He didn't know, but said that the Mayor went across the street to get some coffee and was bringing one back for him.


Michelle Theriault Boots did a good job in the the story about John's sailing to China - telling a lot more about his rather turbulent life.  That link is definitely worth reading if you want to get a better understanding of John.  It's one of the millions of stories of people for whom life doesn't always work out the way they'd like, but he's found ways to give his life meaning and purpose.

Posts Are Piling Up While I'm Getting Other Things Done

The Amanitas are starting to pop out of the ground.  I've searched my blog here to find a post I did on the more mystical properties of the Amanita.  As I did that I found that four of the five  previous  posts with an Amanita were put up between August 6 and August 19.  One outlier was on July 15, 2016.  [The post with the most information - including the warnings of the dangers and the praises of the flights - is the first one you see in the link.  And there's one more that you need to click on "Next Posts" at the bottom to get to.  There are lots of mushrooms on those pages, plus other surprises.]

Here's one that's a little further along, with a budding one in the background.

These two little white mushrooms were poking up in the woodier area of our yard where I've been experimenting with a hugel.  This link will get you started on "hugelkulture".   I've been trying to solve two gardening issues at once:

• excess soil
• lots of trimmed branches

In hugel gardening (Hugel in German means hill), you take branches of various sizes and pile them up and then put soil on top of them.  You get a hill with lots of organic material and air pockets below.  Go to the link for details.  

The new steps in front exacerbated an old problem that began when I dug out soil along the garage so I could put in some insulation.  Dug up soil is not nearly as dense as soil that's been packed down for years.  Even after spreading some of the extra soil around the yard, I still had a garbage can full of dry sandy soil.  So now I've taken care of about 70% of the pile of branches and twigs and the garbage can full of dirt.  There's more dirt from where they dug to put in the new front steps - which expanded into areas I'd had plants before.  

Another interesting white mushroom.  In the past I would have spent an hour going through my mushroom field guide to tell you what these two mushrooms are called.  But this is a post about not having time to put up other posts.  It was only supposed to be a few picture - like throwing your back pack to the ground when you're being chased by a bear.  To keep you (and the bear) busy while I gain some ground. (Fortunately, despite being in a state full of bears, they aren't really interested in interacting with humans and so we've had relatively few encounters while on foot and usually they run as soon as they see us.)

I went to the Covenant House BBQ Thursday for lunch and to touch base.  I hadn't been to the new facility which is really nice.  I was a mentor for several young men there in the past.  But the last guy I mentored is still in my life and I decided he's enough.  And all this reminds me I want to follow up on the ADN's editorial about homelessness.  

After the BBQ I stopped by the election office to get forms to register voters, and the instruction booklet to remind me how to do it.  I became a registrar about four years ago when I was involved in a political campaign.  

I also voted early in our primary which is August 21.  There's a lot to write about that - particularly the governor's race.  I have posted a little on that with a video of Tom Begich explaining why his brother jumped into the race.  

Outside the election headquarters the flagpole had no flag.  I remember when raising and lowering the flag were like a ceremony every morning and evening.  It would be nice if we could listen to everyone else in the US and be heard by them in return so we could make the US a country we could all be proud of.  Where we'd all be proud of our flag again.  (I say this recognizing that we're in a time when those in power (who were in charge of the flag and what it represented) rode roughshod over much of the population - women, the poor, people of color, lgbtq folks, and everyone else who was other.  But I think many of those 'others' still believed that the United States was moving forward toward equality for all of them eventually.  And thus many of them also took the flag seriously.  (I could be wrong here.  I don't think the mainstream surveys ever asked questions like that - they took the answers for granted.)

Anyway, now that laws have given more people better tools to be treated fairly, those who had the power are feeling victimized.  Equality for them, apparently meant, that they still kept their special status and privilege.  

So here's my stalling post, since I've missed a couple of days already.  I've got Friday's Stand For Salmon post to put up and lots of other themes I want to pursue.  Hope you have a good Sunday.  

Make No Mistake - Another Power Cliche To Shut Down The Opposition

In an editorial by the Anchorage Daily News (ADN) editorial staff today (Sunday), the title, "Setting the bar on homelessness", was followed with a quote that began:

"Make no mistake, the path out of the woods on the issue of homelessness is likely to be a winding one."

There a number of phrases that alert me to pay attention, and not in a good way, but rather in a skeptical way.   

• "To be (perfectly) honest" always suggests to me that up til now the speaker wasn't being honest. 
• "The reality is" implies the speaker has a direct line to "the truth" and is now shutting down all opposition, because, well, 'this is what is real,' and whatever anyone else has to say is, what, unreal?

"Make no mistake" is on that list of terms that quickstart my crap detector.  It too suggests, "what I'm about to tell you is the Truth."   If you believe otherwise, you are making a mistake.  (That was my personal reaction, but I double-checked.) 

The Free Dictionary lists definitions from a number of other sources.  They all are pretty much the same.  Here are a few which include some slight variations

• "What I have said or am about to say is absolutely certain; do not think otherwise."
• "do not be deceived into thinking otherwise"
• "used to emphasize what you are saying, especially when you want to warn somebody about something."

I'm not the only one who has a problem with this (now) cliché.  Slate complained already in 2004.

"The current president [George W. Bush] did not invent the phrase, "make no mistake," but he uses it a lot. The search engine for the White House Web site displays 227 instances, and, even discounting for the fact that some of these MNMs emanated from Bush apparatchiks like former press spokesman Ari Fleischer and Tom Ridge, I feel certain that's a gross undercount.

"It's the ripple effect that interests Chatterbox. For 1994, the Factiva news database finds 3,624 MNMs, with the phrase's usage heavily weighted to manly discussions about business or sports. MNMs climbed steadily through the 1990s, adding about one thousand references each year. Since the base number kept growing, the rate of growth actually declined. Then—bam!—MNMs jumped from 9,174 in 2000 to 12,062 in 2001, the first year of Bush's presidency. Last year yielded 13,141 MNMs, and the first four and a half months of this year have so far given us 5,223. Given that this is an election year, Chatterbox wouldn't be surprised to see MNMs break 15,000."

Make No Mistake is a verbal power play.  Note that the grammatical form of this phrase - Make No Mistake - is a command.  A forceful command - the reader is being told what to do.  It adds no content to support one's argument.  It suggests that the speaker (writer) knows better than everyone else.  If someone tells you otherwise, you shouldn't listen.  Sometimes the speaker does know better.  But I'm guessing, it's often just a verbal bluff.

For some, it might just be a filler, like "You know?" or "Um."   In which case it has no meaning at all other than, "Give me a sec to get my thoughts together."

I probably wouldn't have written this post except that on the same page was another opinion piece by a  doctor arguing for the 80th percentile rule used by insurance companies in Alaska when calculating what they should reimburse patients.

"Make no mistake, these are the forces driving insurers to undermine Alaska's 80th percentile rule — they want to lessen their obligations to pay for patient care, narrow their networks reducing your access and choice, and ultimately keep more of the sky-high premiums and deductibles they are charging." 

I'd note that the editorial misused this powerful phrase for a rather uncontroversial point. There was no important point that followed "Make No Mistake."  It wasn't about "the only way to reduce homelessness," or even their desire to keep the government accountable by identifying exactly how many homeless folks live in Anchorage.  Rather it was about their rather tortured metaphor about how difficult the task will be.  Few would argue it will be simple.  Which suggests to me, it just sounded strong and firm to the person who wrote it and that person really didn't even think about how it was being used.  Which raises questions about the actual points they made, which I do have questions about,  but let's save those for another post.  When I have it up, I'll link it here.

Image source

By the way, Frank Wilczek is an American Nobel Prize winning physicist.

Anchorage Immigration Protest Rally 2

Post 1 with lots of pictures is here.  Keeping track of what I put up yesterday so I didn't duplicate today got a bit hairy.

Hector Ortiz and friends (including grandchildren) played music.  They began with Paul Simon's "Mother and Child Reunion."

This was after a lot of speakers and by this time the crowd had thinned out a bit.








Listening to the music.

I'm guessing Ruth Sheridan, who celebrated her 100th birthday this year was the oldest participant.

And a reminder of another big national issue:  homelessness.  When I rode along the bike trail to the rally, there were two official looking vans on the trail, some stopped cyclists, and a couple of men carrying large black garbage bags out of the woods.

On my way home, at Valley of The Moon park, this truck looked like it was full of stuff that had been cleared from the homeless camps.

Christopher Constant Is Running For Assembly

At PrideFest I came across Chris Constant's campaign table.  I'd heard of Chris and had just read his piece in Anchorage Press on the aftermath of Orlando.

Since I think that there should be as much information about all candidates for office up and available for all to consider, I asked Chris if we could do an interview.



It's pretty much unedited, except the freeze frame at the beginning and ending.

Homeless Follow Up - It Looked Like A Raid

 I mentioned the homeless lined street in Venice last night near Gjusta's.  Today after running various errands, I did a loop to the beach on the way home and passed the street where all the homeless were.  And it looked like a raid.

In Anchorage, the police go through homeless camps along the bike trails and clear everything out.

And here were Hazmat and garbage trucks and people high-pressure- hosing down the sidewalk.

Didn't look good.

But along Rose Avenue all the belongings were piled up on the sidewalk there.  It went way on down the block.

So I pulled over between two parked cars and asked someone what was happening.

They're cleaning the street.  They do it every Friday.

Sometimes things aren't what they seem to be. 

[Feedburner problem, going to repost this to see if it gets through.  Sorry for those who've already seen this.]

AIFF 2014: Tony Sheppard Heading To Anchorage - Things Start Tomorrow With Free AM Discussion of Alaska Film Industry

I just ran into Anchorage International Film Festival Founder Tony Sheppard at SEATAC - headed to the festival to staff the hospitality suite.  He's moved to Bellingham, in part to be near is dad.


I've scheduled my return so I'll be back for the festival too.

Tomorrow (Friday) morning at the Bear Tooth  at 11:30am there is  free discussion  of the state of the Alaska Film Industry.  Here's the list of panelists:

Frank Hall Green, Director of WildLikeD.K. Johnston, Executive Producer/Director of Alaska FilmmakersDeborah Schildt, President of the Alaska Film Group & Production Manager at PiksikDave Worrell, Development Specialist at the Alaska Film Production Promotion ProgramKelly Mazzei, Executive Director of the Alaska Film Office
* Free Event *

 WildLike is the opening film Friday evening.

Like last year there will be some interesting off-the-radar events people should consider.  It's really hard with so many things happening at the same time.

Saturday at Loussac at 3:00 there will be a (FREE)  film called The Homestretch followed by a discussion with local folks who work with the homeless.

The Homestretch follows three homeless teens as they fight to stay in school, graduate, and build a future. Each of these smart, ambitious teenagers - Roque, Kasey and Anthony - will surprise, inspire, and challenge audiences to rethink stereotypes of homelessness as they work to complete their education while facing the trauma of being alone and abandoned at an early age. 

Stay after the free screening at the Loussac Library of "The Homestretch" for a panel discussion of the problem of Youth Homelessness in Anchorage . The panel will consist of Josh Louwerse, Outreach Case Manager at Covenant House Alaska; Benita Stepp, Charlie Elder House Program Director; Amanda Metivier, Facing Foster Care In Alaska

This may sound depressing (go see Rocks In My Pocket if you want to learn about depression) but I have to say the most exciting event I went to last year was an interactive film and discussion on the death penalty.


My advice now is to check the schedule at Festival Genius - click on the grid for each day.  There are some problems on my computer - some of the names of the films are obscured - but it gives you a good overview of what's playing and there are useful popups to see about each film/event.

Go to schedule, then click on grid.  Click here for Saturday's grid.

Chester Creek Flows Red-Orange

Photo credited to [Brendan Babb]  Julia O'Malley's
FB post

[UPDATE July 27:  Julia O'Malley has a follow up in the ADN.  She also credits the picture here to Brendan Babb.]




This morning I got an email with a link to a Facebook post with a picture (credited to Julia O'Malley[UPDATE: she credits it to Brendan Babb in ADN update.]) of Chester Creek at Valley of the Moon Park yesterday morning.




This was a follow up of a call I got yesterday afternoon - did I want to bike down the Chester Creek Trail and check on a report about the Creek being red?  It was supposed to be at Valley of the Moon Park.  East of the park was supposed to be clear.   It was one of the nicest days all summer and I'd been home waiting for the plumber, so I jumped at the chance, leaving the plumber working on the hot water tank. (Another post maybe.)

So, off I went, heading west to Valley of the Moon Park.  Here's the creek near Mulcahy Stadium.

Here's the creek at C Street.  The orange in the background is plastic fencing, not water.

And as I go through Valley of the Moon Park, the creek looks the same.  Although it looks brown, the water itself is clear and you can see the bottom (which is why, I guess, it looks brown.)  There was another bridge over the creek just past (west of) the park and E street.

Looks ok to me.  Whatever it was, was gone.











For folks unfamiliar with Anchorage, this greenbelt goes right through Anchorage between downtown and midtown.  A beautiful strip of natural escape in the middle of the city.


This morning I found a  KTUU report yesterday that said  (in part):

Images taken by Brendan Babb of the creek near Valley of the Moon Park in Midtown at about 11:15 a.m. show brightly hued water flowing beneath a footbridge. Babb says the coloration had passed when he saw the creek again two hours later.
A city biologist investigating the incident believes that someone may have introduced the unidentified contaminant upstream.

[Did O'Malley post Babb's photo?  I don't know.]

What pressures were on the people who got rid of their red-orange gunk into this beautiful creek, not far from where it flows into Westchester Lagoon?  What were they thinking?  Are they totally ignorant of the idea of pollution?  Were they pressured by their boss to get rid of it?  Were they trying to avoid fees or lines at the city's disposal sites?  Will we ever find out?

Who knows?  But the ride did reveal that the city had been busy along the Chester Creek Trail yesterday (or maybe the day before) cleaning out homeless camps.  Here are three collections that were at the edge of the trail waiting, I presume, to be picked up.

By the way, if you saw the previous post and the video was missing, I've fixed that.  Really, go back and check the video.  It will make up for this depressing post.