Epitaph for an Occupation

"These commercials are boring, poor and annoying. Everyone knows they're American -- not Iraqi-made."

Talking Virginia Politics

In years past Virginia gubernatorial elections were the backwater afterthought ( if anyone outside of the Commonwealth paid any attention at all) from the previous year’s presidential elections. Not so these days as the parties take advantage of the Only Game in Town to sharpen their skills for the next round. New Jersey also elects a governor in 2009 but lacks the recent history of political change that makes Virginia a full-scale battleground.

I still pay attention to Virginia politics but don’t really keep up with events there so my information is sketchy. Still Virginia is where I’m from, a place never too far out of mind and covered regularly by the Washington Post, one of my regular news sources. The Post does pay attention to Virginia politics, so I do too, sort of.

I don’t have a favorite candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. I definitely have a least favorite—Terry McAuliffe—whom the Post describes as a 17 year McClean resident with no “natural base in the state”. That’s because McAuliffe’s residence was a matter of convenience for a DC insider, not because of any inherent interest in the state; McAuliffe’s stage was national; he was the Clintons’ main money-man. As chairman of the Democratic National Committee, he shrank the Democratic base to a bare electoral majority that the party could not always command, leaving the nation vulnerable to eight years of CheneyBush and a Republican Congress. His successor did just the opposite and essentially restored the party’s base. For me, McAuliffe is the epitome of the wheeling-dealing mentality that looks too closely at the short-run bottom line and pays no attention to the longer term consequences.

Either of the other two candidates, Creigh Deeds or Brian Moran, is fine by me. Unlike McAuliffe, both have longstanding experience representing Virginians and have dealt with many of the state’s critical issues. Moran is from Northern Virginia, the state’s economic engine and locus of an immense snarl of development and traffic. Deeds is from Bath County, on the West Virginia border, and considered the most conservative of the three. What little I know of him leads me to think he is more of a thoughtful conservative than a rabid one. I know that four years ago he came almost defeated the man who is the presumptive Republican nominee for governor this year. Either Deeds or Moran will do.

The tenor of the campaign sounds ugly at this distance. Too much “my opponent is/did/said (fill in something evil here)”. But that’s the nature of high stakes politics these days, especially when big money is involved. I know the candidates held a series of debates and maybe actually discussed real issues but, as I said, I don’t pay attention to the specifics. I might have missed something along the way.

All I actually know is that Creigh is an unusual name and that after Tuesday, the 2010 election cycle begins.

Houses of War?

Yesterday during the Friday peace vigil, a woman yelled to us from a passing car that "Without war you wouldn't have a place to live", a truly odd statement. Certainly better than the occasional upraised finger but puzzling. I'm thinking that she is referring to defending the "Homeland", the idea that foreign aggressors will attack and force me out of my home. For an American, though, that possibility is pretty remote. But the conflation of war and security is pervasive. As long as people believe that others want to dispossess them, the rationale for war will be strong. And since Americans have everything while many others have little or nothing,we will always be on guard lest "they" take what is "ours". The yelling woman believes that her home is at risk and the only way to defend it is by killing others.

Since I am not a pacifist, I can understand the utility of using force against an attacker. If you physically attack me with harmful intent, I WILL respond with equal and quite possibly greater force in order to stop the attack and preclude further danger. The same is true of nations; I don't gainsay that responsibility. But just as it makes sense for me as an individual to work with others to create an environment where we all are free from threats and the likelihood of attack is nil, so too do nations have the same responsibility to create a secure international environment.

If I could have an extended conversation with the woman, I would point out that war often creates just the opposite result: people without homes. The world has plenty of people displaced by war--Iraq, Darfur, Palestine Pakistan and many others. War seems to have done little for their living conditions. My own experience in war was of not having a place to live. Sure, I had a place to be for about a week out of each month but the rest of the time I was just wherever I was at the moment and still alive. When the war finally ended four years later, it didn't change the fact that I had a place to live.

Of course, looking back on it, the US has been at war in one form or another during my entire lifetime—Korea, Vietnam, Central America, the Middle East not to mention the Cold War and all its clandestine operations and near catastrophes. Maybe that’s what has kept a roof over my head all these years.

Ya think?

Re-Write

The Jakarta Post re-wrote the story about Rose Johnson's death. The story now says Rose died after drinking adulterated alcohol. That's a good turn but all the news sources picked up the "alcohol poisoning" line and I doubt if they will carry a follow up.

The TimesOnline did a much better job of reporting the facts. And a wonderful photo of Rose in her element.

My Friend, Rose

...until I heard the sudden word
that a friend of mine was dead.
--Jackson Browne
"Song for Adam"

Sudden doesn't begin to describe my shock at the news of Rose Johnson's death but it's the word that comes most readily to mind. This weekend I pulled one of her paintings out of a shipping carton and still haven't figured out where it will hang. Last night Maggie calls to tell me that something happened to Rose and she's probably dead or will be when they disconnect life support. Today I learned that she probably drank alcohol mixed with methanol in Bali and became the 23rd victim of overdone mixture. Someone concocted a lethal batch and Rose happened be in its trajectory.

Rose was one of the premier artists in Phoenix during the 90's, just as I was becoming active in Phoenix arts. She was so well established--certainly compared to my largely ignored work--that I thought of her as living in a whole other dimension. As events turned out, I came to know Rose well enough to know that she was not only an exceptional painter but also a fine person and definitely living in the same dimension as the rest of us. Within a few years, I was showing in some juried shows with Rose and she had become a part of the House Studios, where I had a space. Rose never had a studio in the House but her studio was not far away and she certainly spent her share of time there. She was part of the Grand Adventure in Phoenix, Arizona that I posted here a couple years ago.

As a photographer, Rose's work didn't influence me directly, except that she was one of several painters I knew who were very good and whose work expanded my horizons. That quality drew me into her work and I marveled at both the imagination and skill that she brought to it. In 1999 she moved to Bisbee, Arizona, a mining town reborn as a quirky,not-exactly-counterculture-but-close, collection of people and places. She painted four large scale murals in town and continued to show and sell her work. When I saw her there in 2004, she was painting the Jonquil Motel mural. She looked happy and in her element. I saw her one more time at the House, maybe at the final party or not long before. Our paths had diverged but I consider myself much the richer for having known Rose.

Like many of Phoenix artists, Rose lived in an un-air conditioned studio--hers was on East Taylor Street in central Phoenix. She had a swamp cooler, which anyone who has lived through Phoenix "monsoon" season will tell you, isn't much but it's better than nothing at all. Maggie and I were at her place on a sweltering evening just talking. When it got to the subject of the summer heat, Rose observed that the Phoenix summer was the perfect excuse for doing absolutely nothing at all. I guess she decided she needed to something, though, she moved to Bisbee.

I didn't know Rose very well; we were not confidantes. I saw her art which told me a lot. And I enjoyed her company and friendship. Even though I hadn't seen Rose much in the past decade, I find myself feeling a great sense of loss. She was more a part of me than I had imagined.

Godspeed, Rose.