Tag Archives: Oakland

The Hana Chronicles: Month 9, Day 8

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Posted by on in children, Community, Family, Hiking and Nature, Historical, Personal Values, Social, Striving, Travel

September 29, 2026- Hana has made it a practice to scoop up every bit of food that falls into the catchment on her bib, and woe to anyone who tries to dump those scraps onto the high chair table! Her meals, her rules. Our outspoken little girl is going to make her mark early, I think.

I made a birthday call to my sister, with Hana listening in. She was very happy to hear her grand-aunt’s voice and smiled the whole time. For good measure, I sent a birthday greeting, “from Hana”. In time, these sorts of remembrances will be an integral part of her life.

Aram is “Daddy”, Yunhee is “Mama”. I am, alternately, “Papa” and “Dada”. Our girl is very definite about the main people in her life. She loves us and gets loved right back. As long as someone is there to help her practice walking, all is well with the world.

HANA’S NOTE: I like standing at the window and seeing the funny animals running and jumping. Papa said they are squirrels.

EXPANDING CIRCLES: Northern California- The “upper” half of the Golden State has also figured in my life, since 1972, when I landed at Oakland, on my return from Viet Nam. San Francisco welcomed me for several conferences, over the years and I had the pleasure of seeing the Lunar New Year parade, in Chinatown, in 1995. I toured both cities more extensively in 2012. Santa Cruz, and the nearby Bosch Baha’i School, were the destination of a few family vacations, as well.

The Turf: The Coast Ranges hug the shore more consistently, as one goes north, from San Luis Obispo and Santa Maria. Then the low lying Central Valley occupies a huge swath, and is one of the great “breadbaskets” of North America. Mountains rise again, to the east: Sierra Nevada, followed further north by the southern Cascades. In northeast California, the westernmost segment of the Great Basin is called the Modoc Desert. Northern California is drained by the Smith, Klamath, Trinity, Salmon, Mad, Eel, Russian, Petaluma, Napa, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Feather, American, Yuba, Pit, Tuolumne, Stanislaus, Meced, Mokulumne, Calaveras, Kings, Kern, Kaweah,Salinas, Santa Maria and Truckee Rivers. The San Joaquin forms a delta, which drains into San Francisco Bay.

First Nations- Northern California is the ancestral home of the Hupa, Pomo, Yurok, Washoe, Mono, Yokuts, Karuk and Northern Paiute people. Rancherias and reservations are found across the region, for each of the extant nations and those related to them, linguistically. Native Americans suffered greatly in the Gold Rush and its aftermath, facing discrimination and pressure to “assimilate” that was equal to any similar efforts in other states and territories. The Pomo people were subjected to enslavement and harsh living conditions, by two white settlers with connections to the United States Army. These settlers, Andrew Kelsey and Charles Stone, were killed by rebellious Pomo, who were in turn slaughtered by troops under the command of the settlers’ associate, Captain Nathaniel Lyon (1850). He also orchestrated a forced relocation of Pomo people to Round Valley (1856). (Lyon was subsequently killed in the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, in southwest Missouri, during the Civil War.)

Where I feel most at home: Santa Cruz, Aptos, Truckee, Susanville, Mount Shasta, Weed, Eureka, Orland, Mendocino

Where I feel most at peace: Lassen Volcanic National Park, Standish-Hickey State Recreation Area, Mount Shasta

NEXT: Hawai’i

Ghost Ship

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Posted by on in impediments, Social

December 4, 2016, Prescott- It was terrifying to contemplate:  Dozens of people, in a warehouse-turned-party-place, whose only possible escape from an electrical fire was a makeshift stairway, fabricated from stacked pallets.  33 of them died, and having had a good friend burn to death, forty years ago, I shudder at what must have gone through their minds.

The “Ghost Ship” warehouse, in Oakland, is just the tip of the iceberg, when it comes to dilapidated and unsafe buildings, around the country and around the globe, being used for commercial, social and even residential purposes.  Earthquakes periodically remind us of the need to upgrade our building codes and increase enforcement of them.  Fires- Providence, Philadelphia, New York’s Garment District, Boston’s Coconut Grove and Dhaka come to mind most readily- tend to do so, far more intimately.

Another factor, in building-related injuries and deaths, reckless driving, also came to the fore, on Friday night, in Phoenix.  Nine patrons and four employees of a Persian restaurant were put in harm’s way, when a seemingly impaired, and rather hostile, driver plowed his BMW into the establishment, not stopping his vehicle until almost at the back wall.  He then got out of the car, and calmly took a seat, not even bothering to even look at the people he nearly killed.  Fortunately, he was otherwise unarmed and the police were quick to respond.

Somehow, some way, the notion that all lives matter needs to be taken far more seriously.  Lax fire codes, and devaluing the lives of those one regards as “those others”, will otherwise claim far more human victims.