There Is No God — and He Can Prove It

Horacio Hanson Makes that Claim to S.D. Humanist Association

By MARK GABRISH CONLAN

Copyright © 2010 by Mark Gabrish Conlan for Zenger’s Newsmagazine • All rights reserved

There is no God, says 85-year-old author and ex-Roman Catholic Horacio Hanson — and he can prove it. That’s the claim he makes in his self-published book There Is No Creator: Religion Is a Fraud: What Now? — a title he readily admits is a deliberate in-your-face challenge to believers — and repeated when he spoke about it to the San Diego Humanist Association at the San Diego Public Library downtown on March 13. After noting that the worst insult in the Arabic language is, “May God deprive you of your religion,” Hanson launched into an hour-long presentation that made it clear that depriving his listeners — and the rest of humanity — of religion is precisely his intention.

“The purpose of this book is to liberate humanity from all religion,” Hanson said. “The intent is not to insult or injure an individual. I do understand that not everyone is capable of restraining strong emotion when challenged.” Hanson called atheism “the fastest-growing philosophy” and claimed that “there are about 1 billion non-religious people in the world today.” Why, then, isn’t atheism a mass movement? “Because there is no money in atheism,” Hanson said, “no chapels, no cathedrals, no priests, rabbis or mullahs, and no atheists collecting money for ‘salvation IOU’s’.”

According to his biographical note on the back cover, the roots of Hanson’s book came when, as a disillusioned ex-Catholic in his mid-20’s, he decided to read the Bible for himself without a lot of priests explaining away its nastier, more gruesome or more flatly unbelievable contents. For good measure, he read the Quran as well. His “proof” of the non-existence of God relies on taking the statements in the Bible and the Quran absolutely literally and subjecting them to the logical test called reductio ad absurdum — that is, extrapolating from them until they obviously defy both physical reality and common sense.

Most of the text of There Is No Creator is a kind of anti-spiritual nit-picking of the text of the scriptures of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, pointing out not only the passages of the Bible and Quran that unequivocally advocate slavery and genocide but the contradictions between different parts of the scriptures, as well as between the scriptures and observed reality. (One of the most grimly amusing passages is the description of how big Noah’s ark would have to have been to contain everything the Bible says it contained.) But his talk to the Humanist Association mostly avoided details of his critique and focused on the social harm done by religion and the abuses committed by believers in its name.

“Physical and economic crime and social abuses, committed in the name of religion, have been accepted and even justified as ‘freedom of religion’,” Hanson said. “During the past 12 decades, Islamic religious groups have unleashed indiscriminate attacks in many parts of the world, but the commission of crimes is not the principal reason religion must be denounced. Its basic excuse for existing, God or Allah, is false. It is not there. If this can be proven, religion is exposed as a fraud, and believers will face the embarrassment of having been suckered. Some people will resist, but a lot will be glad to be relieved of meaningless rituals and rules.”

Hanson admitted that the response of some religious people to his fly-specking the scriptures and pointing out all the logical absurdities and physical errors will be to assert that the Bible and Quran are just “parables” and are not to be read as literally true. The story he cited was the Exodus and the Hebrews’ years in the desert, during which — according to the Old Testament — they wandered for 40 years, traveled 87,650 miles (3.5 times the circumference of the earth) … and ended up in what is now Israel, only 180 miles from their starting point in Egypt. Citing “the appalling excuses given for God’s prolonging” their agony, Hanson said, “How can the brutal stupidity of Numbers have survived the Age of Reason?”

“Some religious propagandists say, ‘If it weren’t for the Bible, where would we get our morals?’” Hanson said. “Imagine what the world would be like if everyone who worked on the Sabbath were killed, as the Old Testament demands.” Hanson made it clear he doesn’t think much of “Biblical morality,” including “the institution and organization of slavery by God: God dictates that servants and their descendants must serve their masters.” He quoted Exodus 21:7 — “If a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do” — and asked, “These are morals?”

Hanson also cited God’s — or at least his representatives on earth’s — seemingly endless need for money and the vicious punishments prescribed in the Bible for those who don’t fork it over. One would, he argued, expect the Creator of Heaven and Earth not to need continually to soak his creations for contributions — but that’s not what God says in Malachi 3:8-10: “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house.”

According to Hanson, the contradictions that run through the Bible begin at the very beginning — between the statement that “God created Man in his own likeness” and the part a bit later that says, “Male and female created He them.” Then which is God? Male or female? “The writers are stuck with multiple images of God because there are multiple images of man,” Hanson said. “And since 98 percent of chimpanzees’ genes are identical to human genes, God would have to be in the image of chimps as well.”

Arguing that “never have so few failed so many for so long” — a description of religious leaders he admitted paraphrasing from Churchill — Hanson also confronted the problem theologians call “theodicy”: the attempt to reconcile the idea that God is good with the disasters, natural and otherwise, that repeatedly strike humanity. In his book, Hanson ridicules the Exodus story by pointing out that God supposedly intervened to spare the Israelites from being kept in perpetual servitude by the Egyptians — but he didn’t do jack in the 20th century to stop the Jews from being annihilated en masse by the Nazis.

To Hanson, “theodicy” is just one more piece of evidence that there is no such thing as God: things just happen to people, sometimes at the hands of other people, sometimes not, and the sheer randomness of accidents, both good and bad, is one of his proofs that there is no God. Ridiculing some of the typical excuses religious people make for God — that “He works in mysterious ways,” that “everything happens for a reason,” that God is “testing our faith” — he cited some hypothetical stories chilling in their happenstances as proof that there is no design, no conscious intent, ruling the fates of human beings, and therefore there is no God.

“A soldier is badly wounded in battle, but the medics are close by and apply first aid. Then a mine explodes, killing the soldier and one of the two medics carrying him in the stretcher. Or a five-year-old boy goes into a river in the jungle to get his ball, and he starts to drown. His mother jumps in to save him, and then a crocodile comes and eats both of them. Or a group of people are on a camping trip and a bear attacks one of them, a woman. The others run away at the sight of the bear, and then they hear the woman’s cries for help: ‘Oh, God! He’s tearing off my arm! I’m dying!’ No one helps, including the nonexistent ‘God.’ What could she have done to ‘deserve’ being eaten by a bear?”

Hanson argued that there are “two basic elements of every religion: a Creator and a soul. But if the soul is eternal, what’s the purpose of having a body? What’s the point of the extinction of species, including ones that became extinct before there were humans? If you’re thinking pain, anguish, injury and death for humans is ‘punishment’ for ‘original sin,’ you will be disappointed. Why are there miscarriages and stillbirths? Why the institutionalization and eternalization of poverty? Religion does not have the answers to these questions — or the billions of things that happen beyond human control. ‘God is mysterious in His ways’ is an obvious cop-out.”

Perhaps the most interesting part of Hanson’s book is part four, in which he outlines a non-religious system of morality based on German philosopher Immanuel Kant’s “categorical imperative” and argues that, once freed from the yoke of religion, that people will be able to end war and solve many other social and psychological problems, including sexual jealousy. His argument about sex is that, once “free from religion or traditional social rules,” people will no longer believe that their relationships will last “till death do us part” and won’t have unreasonable expectations that the person they love will never have or want sex with anyone else again. This will also solve the abortion issue, Hanson said, since once people cease to believe religious preachments that regard the fetus as a “person” and instead realize that plenty of abortions happen without human intervention — we merely call them “miscarriages” or “stillbirths” — there will no longer be any justification for not allowing women reproductive choice.

Hanson described his book’s section on “War” as “a detailed plan for the antithesis of aggression and the total abolition of war, which in Eisenhower’s words will happen when ‘the demand for it by the hundreds of millions… become[s] so universal and insistent that no man, no government, anywhere can resist it.’ This may seem illusory to most people, but those who think beyond the box should pay attention.” But, Hanson argued, the end of religion is a necessary precondition for the end of war, because religion not only supplies the excuses over which people and nations fight, it also provides the rationale for people to set aside their usual moral scruples against killing other people, and justifies mass murder.

Asked how he could say that religion was the foundation of all war and genocide when the 20th century produced leaders like Lenin, Stalin and Mao — avowed atheists who killed millions of their own people — Hanson described them essentially as amoral psychopaths. “Lenin and Stalin were just murderers,” he said. “They killed, but not for religious beliefs. Stalin was so self-centered he didn’t care about religion. He just wanted to kill people.”

One questioner brought Hanson back to a topic he’d briefly touched on in his lecture and discussed in more detail in his book: how do you create a morality and get people to accept limits on their behavior without invoking God and the spectre of divine retribution. “Morals have been established forever,” Hanson said. “Even primitive people had certain rules. The Code of Hammurabi, the Roman code, the Napoleonic Code and the U.S. Constitution were not based on religion at all. People — except for the handful with busted-up minds — routinely stay away from cruelty. Religion didn’t stop John Gardner [the alleged killer of Chelsea King].”

Hanson cited Kant’s “categorical imperative” as a model for a non-religious code of ethics, though he said he’d come up with a pithier way of stating it than Kant’s (“Act as if the maxim of your action were to become, through your will, a general natural law”): “What if everybody did it?” This, he said, would provide enough of a rationale for any sane person to draw back from social nuisances and crimes, from playing your music too loud for your neighbors to killing people, without having to believe in a God that would punish them if they did things that would benefit themselves but harm others. “Morals don’t require religion,” Hanson said. “You can have morals completely independent of religion.”

Ironically, one questioner compared Hanson’s conversion to atheism in his 20’s with St. Paul’s in the other direction — moving from rejecting to accepting Christianity — and asked if there was a moment of epiphany in his 20’s when he rejected the church he’d grown up in, been educated by and, until then, believed in totally. “It doesn’t depend on epiphany,” Hanson said. “There are trillions of neurons in the brain and they never stop functioning. It was gradual at the beginning, but then I took an extended boat trip for 45 days and I had some doubts. I decided to make up my mind, and ultimately concluded, ‘No way!’”

Above the Law

by MARK GABRISH CONLAN, Editor

Copyright © 2010 by Mark Gabrish Conlan for Zenger’s Newsmagazine • All rights reserved

There is a force in our society that controls trillions of dollars and has such totally unaccountable power it has literally put itself above the law — and no, unlike most people who write that way these days, I don’t mean the federal government. I mean the private business sector, especially the large corporations that dominate the U.S. economy. They fund the political system, paying millions of dollars in campaign contributions to elected officials and candidates, and in return getting legal changes that make them billions in profits. Among the laws they order from their kept politicians — with all the certainty you or I expect from a fast-food order from McDonald’s — are custom-tailored exemptions from the normal expectations of civilized behavior, ranging from paying taxes to not dumping your waste in other people’s backyards. Over and over again, corporate and business leaders tell us that they are the ones who provide the jobs and create all social wealth — and over and over again, we go on believing them and letting them live and operate beyond law, beyond ethics, beyond morality and beyond basic decency.

Just one month’s reading in a major newspaper will offer plenty of articles in support of everything I’ve just said. Los Angeles Times, February 20: “The billionaires’ club of private financiers who took over the remains of IndyMac bank from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. turned a profit of $1.57 billion last year on the failed mortgage lender — more than they invested less than a year ago.” And guess who’s on the hook for the failed bank’s losses? The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which operated the entity for the eight months between the time the previous owners’ mistakes drove it out of business and the time the new owners took over. This fund, which is supposed to make good on money you and I lose from our bank accounts if our banks go out of business, lost up to $11 billion making those financiers $1.57 billion richer.

Los Angeles Times, also February 20: “After months of public input and consultation with experts, the state’s pharmacy board appeared to be poised to adopt strict new requirements for prescription drug labels last month. But that changed when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger placed a drugstore industry executive” — Deborah Veale of CVS, the company that of late has been gobbling already large chains like Sav-On and Long’s — “on the board a day before the vote.” The losers: “consumer advocacy groups and senior citizen and minority organizations.” The winners: the California Retailers Association, who had been fighting the changes — and had also contributed $400,000 to Schwarzenegger’s political campaign.

Los Angeles Times, February 23: David Lazarus’s column in the business section tells the story of 50-year-old Bob Iritano, who has terminal cancer. “It’s not a question of whether he’s going to die,” Lazarus wrote. “The only question is when, and how much longer he’ll be with his family. Iritano, understandably, wants all the time he can get … His health insurer, he believes, has a different time frame in mind. ‘My best guess is they want me dead as soon as possible … They know that the premiums I pay will never cover how much they’ll spend on me.’”

Iritano and his wife contacted Lazarus after his insurer, HealthNet, refused to pay for a procedure — microwave radiation — they’d covered just six months earlier. What’s more, they waited to tell him that until he was already in the hospital, ready to go, surrounded by doctors, nurses and an anaesthesiologist ready to treat him — and a HealthNet rep phoned the O.R. and said they weren’t going to pay for it, and if he went ahead it was going to cost him $20,000 out of pocket. The letter he got from HealthNet later said they thought it would be more cost-effective if he had chemo instead of radiation — even though his doctors were sure he couldn’t handle chemo and trying it would probably kill him.

Los Angeles Times, February 7: “Employing a broad-based lobbying effort, the soft drink industry has smothered a [federal] plan to tax sugared beverages — a plan advocates said would have reduced obesity and helped finance health care reform.” According to reporters Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger, “the White House staff reviewing funding options never embraced the idea even after President Obama expressed interest last summer.” The soft drink industry went after the proposed tax with all barrels blazing, using tactics ranging from ridiculing the scientists who’d done the research linking soft drink consumption with obesity to tapping the goodwill from years of contributions they’d given “minority advocacy groups, including some committed to fighting obesity” and getting them to oppose the tax.

Los Angeles Times, February 21: “Manufacturing businesses, big financial firms and energy companies are eager for new tax breaks in California — but not if it means officials will take a harder look at how they claim the credits.” The story, by Sacramento-based reporter Evan Halper, said that “a coalition of corporations” was fighting a bill that stood to make them money because they didn’t like the 20 percent fee they’d have to pay if they were later found to have taken a tax credit they weren’t entitled to. “The only reason you would oppose this penalty is if you’re cheating on your taxes,” a frustrated state senator Lois Wolk, chair of the senate’s tax committee, told Halper.

And if you think that corporations have any sense of accountability even to their stockholders — the people they’re supposedly in business to benefit by paying them profits as dividends — think again. Los Angeles Times, February 24: “Since Brian Moynihan took over as chief executive at Bank of America Corp. at the turn of the year, he has sought to convey a flexible and cooperative attitude. But the accommodating approach hasn’t been extended to shareholders seeking to put proposals regarding executive pay on the ballot at the company’s April 28 annual meeting. The bank is ‘being aggressive in doing whatever they can do to keep shareholders off the ballot,’ said John Chevedden of Redondo Beach, a retired aerospace worker who has proposed a number of shareholder resolutions at banks.” Not that the executives at Bank of America would be in any real danger of losing such a vote — most corporations head into their annual meetings with so many shares locked up in favor of the existing management that such resolutions are usually swamped in the final vote — but this company doesn’t even want a few dissident shareholders to be able to stage a token protest vote against their swollen pay packages, stock options and bonuses.

Two more items show how the voter initiative — originally approved in California in 1912 as a way the people could bypass the control of the Southern Pacific Railroad and other mega-companies of the time over the legislative process — has instead become a way for corporations to set themselves even further above the law by tricking the people into giving them what they want when they haven’t been able to persuade elected legislators. Los Angeles Times, February 10: Michael Hiltzik’s column is about Proposition 16 on the June 8 state ballot. The measure would require any public entity to win two-thirds voter approval before it could start, expand or finance a publicly owned power service as an alternative to private utilities like Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), the state’s largest private utility — which put up $3.5 million to get the measure on the ballot and had just contributed $3 million more in the face of a letter from nine state legislators, including State Senate President pro tem Darrell Steinberg, questioning whether PG&E’s use of the initiative process violated state law.

“By undermining all competition from public power agencies, [Proposition 16] will benefit no one except PG&E and other private utilities,” Hiltzik wrote. “In official documents, PG&E identifies its campaign finance committee as ‘a coalition of taxpayers, environmentalists, renewable energy, business and labor,’ but at this stage it’s a coalition of one: PG&E. No one else has contributed a dime, according to the most recent campaign finance filings. By the way, PG&E claims it is so strapped for money that it is currently seeking a $1.1-billion rate increase.”

Hiltzik again: Los Angeles Times, February 21. This time his column is about a corporate power grab in the tiny Pacific Coast city of Carpinteria, just south of Santa Barbara, pitting an elected city council against a Denver-based oil company called Venoco. This firm, Hiltzik wrote, “is spending lavishly to pass a ballot initiative specifically exempting itself from the city’s industrial development and environmental rules. That’s because it’s afraid that Carpinteria’s elected officials, left to their own devices, might not greenlight its proposal to operate a 10-story oil derrick round the clock on its property next to a 225-home residential neighborhood and on the edge of the ecologically sensitive coastal bluffs.” When, after four years of negotiation, the city refused to give Venoco the permit they wanted, the company spent its money to put the initiative on the ballot and is counting on stoking public fear and promising voters “royalties” that may never materialize.

All these examples — and they only scratch the surface — indicate an attitude on the part of corporate and business America that the ordinary rules of law, ethics and morals simply do not apply to them. The argument of the corporate leaders and their political, media and intellectual flunkies is that in a capitalist economy, it is the private sector that creates jobs and enables people to survive economically — and therefore they should be allowed to do anything they wanted, free from pesky regulations or social obligations the rest of us take for granted, like paying taxes. And ever since the 1970’s, elected officials — either out of genuine belief in the pro-corporate, anti-society mantras or out of fear the spigots of campaign cash they depend on would be turned off if they did otherwise — have consistently given the corporate desperadoes whatever they wanted: freedom from taxation, from regulation, from controls on so-called “innovations” that — especially in the so-called “FIRE” (finance, investment, real estate) sector that is now the largest part of the U.S. economy — usually just mean creative new ways of screwing ordinary people out of their money.

What’s more, we the people are letting them get away with it big-time. At the turn of the last century, plenty of Americans looked to building up the public sector as a viable way of controlling the abuses of private enterprises. No more: after decades of Right-wing propaganda extolling private enterprise as good, efficient and virtuous, and government as evil and corrupt — and after the failure of the socialist ideal in the face of the dictatorship and misery to which the Soviet Union and other “really existing socialisms” subjected their people — most Americans reflexively regard the business interest as the public interest and reject all organized challenges to it — from labor, environmentalists, people of color or anyone else — as “special interests.”

The ease with which the Right-wing propaganda machine in this country was able to demonize President Obama’s corporate-friendly health insurance reform as “socialism” and a “government takeover” of health care shows just how much most Americans have been brainwashed into the private-good, public-bad idolatry of “the Market.” The Rightists were able to win this stunning propaganda victory even in the face of the most far-reaching collapse of the private sector and the really existing market economy since the Great Depression of the 1930’s. And their successful strategy was to convince the American public that any expansion of government’s role in health care would bring such intolerable evils as long waits, arbitrary denials of treatment and bureaucrats coming between you and your doctor — which are already being done every day, in spades, by the private, for-profit health insurance industry.

Until the American people get over their zombie-like support of and faith in “the Market,” there will be no effective reform either of American politics or of any sector of the U.S. economy. There will only be scofflaw corporations, thumbing their noses at the people while they continue to drive wages down, export jobs to foreign countries, destroy the social safety net, pollute the environment and, through putting the pedal to the metal on global warming, ultimately speed up the extinction of the entire human race. If the people of this country were truly aware of how they’re getting screwed and who’s screwing them, we wouldn’t be seeing misled idiots staging “tea party” rallies trashing the government and calling for lower taxes; instead we’d be seeing a broad-based movement to demand accountability from a runaway private sector.

MATTHEW CIRELLO:

North Park Jeweler, Gallery Owner with a Bright Future

interview by MARK GABRISH CONLAN

Copyright © 2010 by Mark Gabrish Conlan for Zenger’s Newsmagazine • All rights reserved

PHOTOS, top to bottom: two shots of Matthew Cirello (wearing his own jewelry), Matthew’s partner Jasmine with him, and two photos of his work

North Park — specifically the block of Ray Street, a little side street just one block east of 30th, between University Avenue and North Park Way — becomes a real “happening” place the second Saturday of every month from 7 to 10 p.m. That’s when Ray at Night, a community arts event featuring gallery open houses and live music, occurs. One of the current mainstays of Ray at Night is Matthew Cirello, a young San Diego native who took over the gallery at the corner of Ray and North Park Way about a year and a half ago and is using it as a showcase for some of the most stunning — and surprisingly affordable -— jewelry available in San Diego.

Matthew Cirello is a busy young man. We had to reschedule his Zenger’s interview when he got in a big order and had to ship it the day we were first supposed to meet. When we finally did the interview, he squeezed us in for 20 minutes before he had an appointment with another reporter — and while we were talking a passer-by stepped into the gallery (it’s open Wednesday through Sunday), two people called on his cell phone, and his partner Jasmine came by, with perfect timing, just as Matt was talking about her and what an inspiration she’s been to him.

The Cirello gallery is located on 3803 Ray Street and can be reached at (619) 795-4850 or (619) 201-4668 (Matthew’s cell number). His Web site is www.cirellogallery.com. The Cirello logo — a circle with his last name against a field of arcs and triangles — is good advertising for his work. So are the hand-crafted pendants Matthew and Jasmine were wearing while we spoke. See his stuff at Ray at Night, on the upcoming quarterly North Park art walks the third Saturday of every month, in his gallery during regular hours, or online.

Zenger’s: Just tell me a little about yourself, and how you got into art.

Matthew Cirello: My name’s Matthew Cirello, and I’m a San Diego native. I grew up out in El Cajon, went to University of San Diego High School, and was always interested in art. I took my first art class — probably in sixth grade, maybe before that — and my parents were both really artistic, so I went to Humboldt State University in the year 2000 as a studio arts major.

I started taking ceramics, painting, woodworking classes and sculpture, and I really got into sculpture. In the year 2002 I took metalsmithing and jewelry, and have been pretty much committed to it since 2002. I moved back home 3 1/2 years ago, and before I had the gallery I was in Spanish Village Arts Center, which is San Diego’s arts community of working artists, right in Balboa Park. I outgrew it, opened up this space, and do our second Saturday of every month art walk, Ray at Night, featuring a wide range of local artists.

I love the art scene, being creative, and now since the new year I’ve started my relationship/romance with Jasmine. She and I are doing really, really well. She makes art as well. Being a creative person, I’ve always been drawn to creative people, so having a partner who’s creative is very good for me. I love meeting new people. I love talking to people. I’m kind of a people person. I love having the gallery for that reason, because it means people can walk in, say hello, look at my pieces and get into conversations with me.

Zenger’s: You said you were drawn to jewelry. What had you been doing before that?

Cirello: Sculpture. I did large foundry work, like welding, so it was similar to the jewelry but in a large scale. When I took my jewelry class I really liked the fact that I could have a year’s worth of work in one case. I could set up the shop out of my home, which was a lot easier and less expensive than a foundry.

Zenger’s: And also, I would assume, there was a much greater market for this.

Cirello: Yes. Jewelry is less exacting. If you’re going into sculpture, it’s larger than life scale.

Zenger’s: Do you still do any other kind of art?

Cirello: Yes, I’m trying to draw and paint a little bit more. I have my sketchbooks, so I’m always drawing with my pen. I like to do geometric line drawings. It helps me with my jewelry design ideas.

One thing I’ve really got into in the last six months is reclaimed stainless steel. We’re going into San Diego steel shops and taking the scraps. We use surgical stainless steel, so it’s hypoallergenic. It won’t bother your skin. It’s recycled, and then we laser-cut our designs and hand-polish them right here in San Diego. It’s utilizing resources in a great way, conserving and recycling.

Zenger’s: You said your partner also does art. What kind of stuff does she do, and is there anything of hers here?

Cirello: I would say Jasmine is a really creative person all around. She helps with just about everything in the gallery, like curating, hanging things, lining up artists, P.R., sales, and working behind the bench with jewelry, metalsmithing. She’s got a lot of neat jewelry design ideas of her own that she’s working on. She’s a well-rounded artistic individual.

Zenger’s: Who would you say your major influences are as an artist?

Cirello: I would say my parents. My family: my parents and my three older sisters. They really gave me support. I would say number one is Jasmine, and then my parents and then my three sisters.

Zenger’s: Did you have any older artists that influenced you?

Cirello: Kris Patzlaf and David Laplantz. They were my jewelry teachers and they really gave me my foundation for all my metalsmithing techniques, jeweler’s saw, files, sandpaper, all of that.

Zenger’s: What special techniques are involved working in sheet metal, since most of your pieces do seem to use sheet metal?

Cirello: I’m a machine fabricator, so I deal with sheet and a jeweler’s saw. I’m dealing with positive and negative space, so I have to design with that in mind, whereas if someone’s doing casting with wax, you can carve it away and cast that. I guess my limitations are whatever you can fabricate out of a sheet. I do not do any wire work. I’m a sheet metalsmith/fabricator; I guess would be the correct term.

Zenger’s: Is it one of those things where you’re inspired by the limitations of the medium to work around them?

Cirello: Yes. I like to be very hands-on and attack the metal as I am working with it. With wax I felt more separated from it. I like to be connected to it as I’m creating.

Zenger’s: How have you selected the other artists that exhibit here?

Cirello: For the most part, it could be a friend, a friend of a friend referral, or they just come in and show their stuff, and we go from there. There’s a bit of a reviewing process, and I guess it kind of has to fit the vision, if you will. I’m kind of open, but in general from what you see in here, I like to keep it within that theme.

Zenger’s: And how would you describe the theme?

Cirello: I definitely have an abstract feel going on. We have a couple of artists we feature on a permanent basis, and they give us new stuff all the time. We have Will Barton; he does a lot of jazz pieces, which are really nice. We also have Andrea Rushing, an oil painter. He’s been in North Park for the past 20 years, and he owned this gallery before I was here. He does more surrealistic paintings.

I like to have a little bit of everything, as long as they’re not too offensive. If it’s anything like if it’s something that’s very negative or directed towards one group, I might not be O.K. with that. But other than that, it’s pretty open. And as far as the caliber of the art, the marketing, promotions, Web site, business cards and a proper portfolio are prerequisites.

Zenger’s: Would you say that the jewelry you make is just for display purposes, or do you intend it actually to be worn?

Cirello: More to be worn than to be displayed, actually. The handmade pieces that are bigger, the sterling silver, the more expensive ones, the custom pieces I do for people are more ceremonial, maybe for something special, family heirloom. They don’t wear it all the time. But the stainless steel is to be worn like every day. People who buy these love them. It’s like their everyday piece. People who normally don’t like bracelets or forget to wear them are falling asleep with them on.

It’s almost like your favorite piece of jewelry in your house, because it’s great. It never rusts, it always looks the same, and it’s light, and it’s not too expensive as well. The stainless steel line is kind of designed to suit everyone’s needs. We have designs that are a little more masculine, a little more feminine. But even those that are a little more feminine, it seems like the guys are really enjoying those as well. We have earrings, rings and pendants.

Zenger’s [referring to the pendant Cirello was wearing]: Is that one of yours?

Cirello: This is one of the handmade sterling silver ones. We’d want a little more like $800 for this one. Jasmine’s is like $2,500 because there are a lot more rare gemstones in there. And those are unique items, “one of one,” as we say in the art world. These are things that are more like investments. They’ll appreciate over time. The stainless steel is something fun you can wear out at the clubs. The handmade stuff you might not want to wear every day, though Jasmine and I wear ours every day!

I also love to do custom-commissioned work. That’s really my passion. I just love it when two people come in, especially couples. They have a vision and need my help to make something, or they have a family heirloom stone that they want to showcase in a unique setting. It’s so neat to be able to help people through that and help them manifest that vision into a reality. It’s a real treat.

Zenger’s: How are you doing, business-wise?

Cirello: Pretty good. We’ve been here a year and a half. The first year was a little tough. We’re also starting to rent out our place for private parties, so that’s helping out a lot. We do birthday parties, private events, anniversaries, baby showers, whatever you really want, so people can come, bring about 20 to 30 of their friends, have a great time and utilize this space. Since we realized we needed to create our own buzz here and bring people in, it’s been pretty good.

It seems like every day we’re getting more and more busy, setting more things up, so we’re planning on being here long-term and getting established. It’s nice getting our feet in the soil and letting our roots start to grow a little bit. So so far, pretty good. It has not been easy, though, for sure.

Zenger’s: Yes, starting this right when the economy was tanking.

Cirello: That’s why we’re really trying to encourage the private events, because everyone who’s done them has just loved them and had a great time. It’s also great for us, because it helps with the overhead, of course. We do wine tastings as well. Those are really fun. We bring in a wine specialist and charge about $20 to $30 a person to come in, taste the wine and be able to buy the wine. If you wanted to have one of those events privately for you and your friends, we’re open to that as well.

Real Americans in the South

Paraguay Does What the U.S. Can’t: Universal Health Care

by ROCKY NEPTUN

As 2009 drew to a close, U.S. Congressional members, each having one of the best health care policies on Earth for themselves and family, were backing down from the power of health care industry lobbyists, and with a wink of O.K. from Obama, gutted real health care reform in America.

While the wealth pimps in Washington, D.C. managed, over public opposition, to gut any fair, just, equitable public option and, instead, handed the HMO crooks a high-priced Christmas present in mandatory requirement for their extortion policies, the government of tiny Paraguay gave its citizens a gift of all public health fees being eliminated nationwide on Christmas Day.

Life over wealth won out, as President Fernando Lugo, a former bishop who took office in August 2008, instituted another round in his government’s efforts to provide free health care to everyone. “What we are doing is making health care a right, regardless of a person's ability to pay,” Diego Gamarra, director general of health services in the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare (MSPBS), told reporters.

Seven percent of Paraguay's population of 6.1 million currently have private health coverage, 20 percent are covered by the health services of the social security institute, the Instituto de Previsión Social, and the rest depend on the public health system. But an estimated 40 percent of the population were unable to afford health care of any kind.

Unlike the United States and its big lie about health care “reform,” the New Year in Paraguay saw all 1,000 public hospitals and health clinics in Paraguay accessible and free to anyone.

The MSPBS gradually began to make some public health services free in September 2008, when fees for office or outpatient visits and emergency room visits were waived. Later, hospital admission fees were eliminated, along with charges for intensive care, post-op incision care, nebulizer treatments, treatment in an infant incubator, oxygen therapy, surgery and other services. In late 2009, fees were removed for diagnostic tests in all specialties, and for dental and ophthalmological services.

However, Paraguay has the same problem that the United States has — wealthy families and large powerful corporations who do not pay their fair share in taxes and, thus, public money to fund public projects is limited.

In the U.S., where government is owned by the rich, for the rich, with so many tax loopholes and deduction allowances written by lobbyists, lawyers, accountants and others who serve the elite, public projects are financed by deficient spending, borrowing from the those very fat cats the money they are withholding from the public kitty and then, adding insult to injury, paying them a high interest on that stolen money.

In Paraguay, corporations and the rich simply evade taxes. There is no system in place to detect, let alone enforce, these parasites pay their fair share. President Lugo hopes to institute laws which crack down on evasion, however, the Supreme Court — as in the U.S. in Franklin Roosevelt’s day — is made up of wealthy men, all members of the Colorado Party of former dictator Gen. Alfredo Stroessner.

Like the United States, where the conservative lackeys of the rich, Republicans, whore Lieberman and other bought Democrats, the Supreme Court and most of the corporate media, will fight justice in health care tooth and nail, likewise the Colorado Party and the former elite of Paraguay will selfishly cling to their wealth while children and the ill die of neglect.

The deference however, I suspect, will be that while we here in the U.S. snivel and whimper and in delusion try health care reform at the state level, where HMO wealth is even more effective in buying elections, the citizens of Paraguay will take to the streets and physically take control of their mandate of health care for all.

How pitiful — and embarrassing — to be a U.S. citizen today, especially since our southern cousins are showing the world of what it is like to be a “real American” — with justice and equality for all.

Cirque du Soleil Returns to Del Mar Through March 28

story and photos by LEO E. LAURENCE

Copyright © 2010 by Leo E. Laurence • All rights reserved

Part circus and part theatre, a smaller-then-usual version of Cirque du Soleil is appearing at the Del Mar fairgrounds. It’s called Kooza.

The Canadian cirque, founded in 1984 in Montreal, is a blend of circus arts and theatrical per-formance. No animals are used; only sheer human strength and energy.

Cirque came from the street. Mimes, jugglers and stilt-walkers in a Quebec village banded to-gether in 1982 to create Club des Talons Hauts (High Heels Club). The name was chosen because they mostly performed on stilts, and many still do.

Militaristic marches and fanfares of traditional circuses were replaced with sometimes haunting, sometimes ethereal, original musical scores. Cirque is intent on being different.

There is no one Cirque du Soleil, but 19 different companies worldwide. The Elvis Cirque is totally different, but only appears at the Aria in Center City in Las Vegas. The show that appeared a few years ago at Del Mar was bigger and grander than the smaller Kooza, appearing there through March 28.

Indeed, in the first hour of the current show there are only two really stunning acts: female contortionists who bend their bodies in circles … backwards; and an act by several performers bal-ancing on a bicycle on a single high-wire.

The circus also has a formidable security staff of hard-nosed tough guys who will physically evict anyone they deem to violate so-called house rules, which aren’t posted.

Cirque du Soleil now has permanent homes in Vegas (the Elvis show), Biloxi, Mississippi and at the Walt Disney World Resort, according to its Web site. It’s a multi-million dollar operation.

Contact reporter Leo E. Laurence at (619) 757-4909 or leopowerhere@msn.com

Photo captions:

A balancing act at Cirque du Soleil at the Del Mar fairgrounds. Photo by Leo E. Laurence © 2010

A high-wire act at Cirque du Soleil at the Del Mar fairgrounds. Photo by Leo E. Laurence © 2010

LATINO FILM FESTIVAL RUNS MARCH 11 - 21 @ ULTRASTAR MISSION VALLEY CINEMAS

Story and photos by Leo E. Laurence

Copyright © 2010 by Leo E. Laurence • All rights reserved

Expanding for its 17th season, the internationally respected Latino Film Festival will screen 185 films March 11 - 21, plus produce nightly, live music and dance performances with an added exhibit of Latino art. Most films are in Spanish, but with English subtitles.

“The festival started 17 years ago as a student festival at local universities and was called Cine Estudiantes (Student Film),” said festival founder and executive director, Ethan van Thillo, in an interview.

“In 1998 (the festival) changed from student films to screening feature films and inviting actors and directors. That’s when the whole thing kind of blew up and started growing,” van Thillo added.

“We have 185 films (this year), more than ever. 166 were screened last year.

“We also have a whole celebration of women filmmakers, called Cine Mujer (Women in Film), funded by the Motion Picture Academy for Arts & Sciences. The Oscars gave us a grant to cele-brate women filmmakers from Latin America, México and Spain; with more than 40 of their films being screened.

“We will have a wide celebration of Latino music every night at 8:30 p.m. in the UltraStar lobby; and Arte Latino, curated by Gonzales of La Onda Arte Latino,” van Thillo reported.

Several Hollywood celebrities are coming, including Jaime Camile who will attend the U.S. premier of “Regrets.”

Carmen Salinas is coming back this year, and comedian Paul Rodriquez will appear for a funny new Chicano film.

For the fifth year, “Cine Gay” will continue its mission to help correct the often distorted images of the Gay Community on television and in films with a showcase of five major, Gay films about and by Gay Latinos, according to Patrick Stillman.

He is the Innovations and Programming Officer for the Media Arts Center in Golden Hills, which produces the Latino Film Festival each year.

Two Gay counterpoints include “Contracorriente”, about a Peruvian fisherman in a small village dealing with being Gay. It won an award at the Sundance Film Festival this year.

“Contracorriente” is paired with “Andrew” as a counterpoint, the first Gay film from the Basque region of Spain. It tells the story of the rural lifestyle for a Gay senior.

The new film La Mission about an ex-con living in San Francisco’s largely Latino Mission District whose world is changed when he discovers that his son is Gay.

In addition to Hollywood and international films, a short, award-winning production by local filmmakers Antonio de Jesus, 26, of SDSU and Roberto Mora, 30, of Normal Heights called All About Martha will be screened.

The U.S. film stars Peter Bratt, son of well-known Hollywood actor Benjamin Bratt, who will be attending the festival.

Over 180,000 have seen over 4,000 films over the 17 successful years of the Latino Film Festival, now produced at the UltraStar Cinemas in the Hazard Center near I-163 and Friars Road in Mission Valley.

More information is available at www.sdlatinofilm.com or call (619) 230-1938.

Contact writer Leo E. Laurence at (619) 757-4909 or leopowerhere@msn.com.

Photo captions:

Latino Film Festival staffer Patrick Stillman (l-r)is shown with San Diego filmmakers Roberto Mora, 30 and Antonio de Jesus, 26. Photo by Leo E. Laurence © 2010

SDSU filmaker Antonio de Jesus, 26, will appear with his movie All About Martha at the Latino Film Festival March 11-21. Photo by Leo E. Laurence

UCSD Psychiatrist Has Program to Cure Most Insomnia

story and photo by LEO E. LAURENCE

Copyright © 2010 by Leo E. Laurence • All rights reserved

Insomnia at night can wreck your day, but a University of California at San Diego (UCSD) psychiatrist has developed a program that can cure it, assuming no physical problems exist.

Insomnia is the abnormal inability to get adequate sleep at night. Some research shows that it affects about 30 percent of the population, though that figure may actually be quite low.

“About 10 percent have such bad insomnia that it ruins their day,” says Dr. Joshua Kayman, M.D., a high-energy psychiatrist at UCSD Outpatient Services in Hillcrest, commonly known as the Gifford Clinic.

He has developed a workable program that can significantly reduce insomnia for those “who are committed to it and put some energy into it.”

Taking Control of Sleep

The comprehensive program used by Dr. Kayman is actually quite simple, with some firm rules that may change an insomniac’s daily routine in some surprising ways. Productivity increases dramatically.

First, the person keeps a daily log for one week of their sleep habits, including (1) recording their bedtime, (2) their rise time (when you get out of bed, not when you wake up), and to determine their total time from bed to rising.

Next, they estimate (1) the time it took to initially go to sleep, (2) the time awake during the night, and (3) the time lying in bed in the morning before getting up; but after first waking up. That time is deducted from their total time in bed, to determine the total “sleep time.”

The average of a person’s total sleep time for a full week establishes how much sleep that per-son really needs each night. Generally, it is longer for a younger person in their 20’s (8+ hrs.) than for a senior citizen (6+ hrs).

Then the person determines at what hour they want to get up in the morning. If, for example, that’s 7:30 a.m. and the person’s average “sleep time” is 7 1/2 hours, then that person should go to bed at midnight.

The old-fashioned rule of “Early to bed, early to rise … ” is a myth and inconsistent with the current science on the cure for insomnia.

Bed is for Sleeping or Sex, Only

Some people like to read or watch TV or make phone calls from their bed. Wrong! The bed is for sleeping or sex, only !!!

Get out of bed at the very same time, every morning. That will set your “biological clock,” according to this program used by Dr. Kayman. It is based in part on 2007 research from the University of Pittsburgh, and more recently replicated by him at UCSD/

“If you get up (out of bed) at the same time every day, it helps you to sleep better the next night,” Dr. Kayman explained.

Don’t go to bed unless you are sleepy. The longer you are awake, the better you’ll sleep.

Don’t stay in bed if you aren’t sleepy. If you go to bed and toss and turn, but don’t sleep for about 15 minutes, get up until you get really sleepy.

If you lie in bed frustrated that you are not sleeping, the bed = frustration. Stop trying to fall asleep, and it helps you train your brain that bed = sleep.

No Daytime Naps

Taking a “short” nap during the day may make you feel temporarily more refreshed, but they are murder to a good night’s sleep.

Forcing yourself to stay awake during the day helps you to fall asleep when you go to bed at night, according to Dr. Kayman.

Many people like to take “Churchillian naps,” short 10-15 minute naps mid-afternoon. WW-II English Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill reportedly had a bed in his wartime office in London to take short naps. But Churchill was an exception.

Staying awake during the day, even when you want desperately to take a short nap, helps you fall asleep that night, the UCSD psychiatrist reports.

New Sleeping Rules

If you work this program advocated by Dr. Kayman, you will cure your insomnia, unless you have some physical problems like sleep apnea, which is the transient cessation of respiration (breath-ing).

In other words, with sleep apnea a person will literally stop breathing temporarily and wake up — incorrectly thinking they have insomnia.

1. No naps. None, period!

2. The bed is for sleeping ONLY, no watching TV (to supposedly “get sleepy”) in bed. No reading in bed. Your body and mind need to get trained that it sleeps — and only sleeps — when you get into bed.

3. Sex is O.K. in bed, but only if it is enjoyable.

4. Keep the bedroom comfortably cool at night, several degrees lower than the rooms where you live. Very warm or very cold temperatures may disturb sleep.

5. Avoid drinking water after 6 p.m. (1800 hrs.), so you don’t have to get up in the middle of the night to take a leak.

6. Booze disturbs sleep. While we will eventually get sleepy when drinking, when the alcohol wears off, you will wake up and be wide awake, unable to sleep. You will wake up one hour earlier than usual, for every drink before bedtime.

7. Coffee cooks your sleep, especially Starbucks’ high-test stuff.

8. Smoking kills sleep. Nicotine is a stimulant, so no smokes at night before bedtime.

9. Don’t go to bed hungry. Eat a light snack (no meat) about an hour before you turn in.

10. Use the bedroom only for sleep. Especially no exercise equipment! Keep it dark at night and close the door when you turn in.

11. Take off pajamas immediately after getting up in the morning. They are for sleeping only, and not to be worn during breakfast.

12. Exercise (long walk, workout) regularly! But don’t exercise three hours before bedtime.

Resistance

This program works. Commit to it and put some energy into keeping a daily log of your sleeping habits. By following these simple, but firm, rules; you’ll regularly sleep at night after about two weeks on the program.

Some people resist working this program “because there is an easy fix to their insomnia and they just go with the medication (e.g., Ambien),” said UCSD’s Dr. Kayman in an interview.

“If someone has some responsibility on their shoulders, a job to get to and they need a good night’s sleep,” they are more likely “to commit to the program and put some energy into it,” and it works amazingly well.

“But, it’s harder for someone on disability who doesn’t really need to get to work. It’s harder for them to (get the motivation) to do the program,” the UCSD psychiatrist added.

“There are some things that people like (drinking and smoking) and it’s harder for them to give it up.”

Even though it ruins their sleep, they continue to drink and smoke. Ultimately both will disturb their sleep in the wee hours of the morning.

This program to cure insomnia may turn your life (and habits) upside down, but it can be like a ride on a huge, high roller coaster, and that can be exciting!

Contact writer Leo E. Laurence at (619) 757-4909 or leopowerhere@msn.com

Photo caption:

With a hint of a smile, Victor Gersten, 22, sleeps soundly, free of insomnia. Photo by Leo E. Laurence © 2010

Hazards in Exploring Diversity

by LEO E. LAURENCE, J.D.

Copyright © 2010 by Leo E. Laurence, J.D. • All rights reserved

San Diego — “Be careful because you might get slanted eyes,” said a friend of mine in an in-sensitive comment after noticing that I was eating with chopsticks. I countered saying that I though he “cute” comment was really racist.

But, his comment raises some charged issues for anyone who actively adds more diversity into their lives.

It's well established that diversity in any organization or newsroom will make it stronger. But, as we become more diverse we need to be prepared for insensitive reactions from others who limit their lives to only people who look like themselves.

“What are you doing that for,” my mother asked me in the mid-1990’s when I proudly told her that I had become a regular volunteer firefighter … in Tijuana, B.C., Mexico. She had actually led a very limited life in New York.

Yet I found working regularly with Mexicans and totally immersing myself in their lives and culture made me much richer.

I knew little about the Asian cultures until I covered the San Diego Asian Film Festival and became the mentor of a graduating senior at the University of California in San Diego. He's from Taiwan and will be teaching English in China for a year after earning his degree, before returning to attend law school.

I had always been fascinated by those who were skilled at using chopsticks. How do they do it? I wondered.

After my Taiwanese mentee taught me how to use them, I haven’t used a fork in weeks.

Not everybody likes my exploration into the Asian cultures.

One “man,” called me a racist for writing about my new skills with chopsticks, and for doing research into the current jurisprudence of China.

Perhaps that fellow, an alumnus of my university fraternity and a UCSD graduate, was revealing more about himself than me, in describing my adventure in Asian anthropology as “racist.”

Leo E. Laurence, J.D. is a member, of the national committee on diversity of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and a member of the Latino Journalists of California; Editor, San Diego News Service; and Associate Editor, Zenger’s Newsmagazine (leopowerhere@msn.com). This article was first published on the SPJ’s Diversity Web site.

Culture Shock: My Trip to Switzerland

by D. B. MURRIETA

I was inspired by Celia Farber’s “Almost Home” essay on her Web site in NYC, TheTruthBarrier.com. Here is an account of one of my trips, several years ago, while traveling to and from Switzerland on business.

It was 1987 when I spontaneously decided to take the next flight from Los Angeles to Geneva in order to safeguard the delivery of a $600,000 shipment of antiques. The insurance was kind of shaky and a collection of funds for $20,000 had to be certain. I flew British Caledonia to trail the shipment by a couple of days.

The service and cuisine on British Caledonia was outstanding. They obviously knew that they wouldn’t last long against the goliath, British Airways, unless they could provide something better. I arrived in Geneva to find the shipment waving from the rafters, some 20’ off the warehouse floor. I asked that it be moved down carefully. At this point, security was less of a problem than breakage.

The buyer was not due until the end of the week and this was only Tuesday, so I had to spend a few days in Switzerland. In asking around, many recommended a trip to Zermatt, a small village sitting below the Matterhorn, only a few hours by train.

This being April, the snow was still excellent. I had never experienced a world class ski resort and I enjoyed the atmosphere. The only thing that left me with some discomfort was my status as a single. I felt that I was constantly being appraised. Was I available or not? I found this true in Zermatt as well as Geneva.

In fact, my first night in Geneva, I wandered into a local bar and was scrutinized so severely, that I soon afterward left. One of the locals accused me of trying to corrupt their citizenry and possibly spreading “HIV/AIDS.”

When I was seated for dinner in Zermatt at an informal Italian restaurant, I was made to share a table with a straight couple.

Fortunately, at the ski rental shop, I met a young good looking Japanese guy who would introduce me to the slopes. It was all too perfect. We skied a few runs together. However, I soon realized that he was a much better skier than I, and he was growing inpatient with my delays.

On a subsequent run, I sustained a hard fall. It was made worse by a camera which swung freely around my neck. Encased in hard shell of leather, it stabbed me in the back like a blunt instrument.

By the time I regained my composure and brushed myself off, I lost sight of my companion.

I spent the balance of the day on every kind of lift from the tunnel train to the gondolas and chair lifts — miles and miles of runs.

The last lift took me to the uppermost ridge. I was just barely able to make my way down the steep and treacherous slope. The ever-present Matterhorn became somewhat oppressive and even threatening. I thought I better give up the search.

I was nearly exhausted but figured I would sleep comfortably at the quaint bed and breakfast; I managed to obtain on my arrival.

Unfortunately, my accommodation was not guaranteed for the second night. Still, I was surprised to find my suitcase in the lobby when I returned.

I suffered more indignity when because of having to walk to find lodging, my smooth soled summer hiking boots slipped out from under me on an ice patch and I landed in a heap at the side of the road.

After looking at a couple of inns, which had only Spartan accommodations, I chose to go full out and book a 5 star hotel.

Again, a maître d’ seated me to a prearranged table. I simply was not up to socializing but endured it for a quick bite to eat and an early bedtime. I was still recovering from the long day.

The next morning was made new by falling snow as viewed from my room, a picturesque town surrounding a church steeple with the Matterhorn standing majestically above. I quickly checked out and made for the train station. There was a light layer of new snow on the short walkway to the awaiting horse drawn sleigh.

I had only my umbrella in my hand and yet managed to take a colossal fall. My feet were thrown over my head and I landed squarely on my back, finding no cushion on the snow dusted rock path.

I didn’t even have a minute to assess my injury. I knew that if I didn’t catch the train now, I would loose a whole day. I managed to get myself on board without any fanfare but it was soon after, as the train picked up speed in its descent from Zermatt back to Geneva, that the surrounding passengers noticed the pain and discomfort I was in. I briefly explained my fall and a young couple directly across from me opened a bottle of Chianti. I shared it with them and others. Before long, we were all feeling good and I was back on track, recovering.

A phone call to my agent and my business in Geneva was completed. I was finally off for a weekend in London. Because of the late booking and the heavy traffic, the best I could do was to go to Frankfurt via Lufthansa and connect to British Caledonia for London. This gave me only an hour between flights and meant that I had to carry my suitcase with me until it could be checked in with British Caledonia.

So there I was, the walking wounded, a speck among the relentless throng of veteran commuters, crossing the width and length of the concourse in Geneva. Pushing my suitcase atop a small wheel device, there was no other way.

Then, without forethought or warning, we were all funneled into one escalator to be deposited at the departure gates on the floor below. No problem until a foot of my hand truck became stuck in the last step. Abruptly, everything came to a halt. I will never forget the unanimous looks of annoyance and scorn. How could I have done such a thing? There was no one else to blame. It was clearly me. What an idiot!

The plane ride was a relief but not nearly long enough. In Frankfurt, I had time to kill and I couldn’t really relax. So I stopped by a jewelry shop. Not ready to buy anything, but in passing, I asked the German lady behind the counter, “What is the present conversion rate of German Marks to U.S. Dollars?” Her obligatory curt reply caused me to ask casually, “Do I multiply or divide by that number to get the price?” Her response sent shivers through my body; “You would have me be your teacher?!!”

By the time I reached London I was dead on my feet. I was in no hurry to get my suit case and travel to London from Gatwick airport. So I spent at least an hour freshening up in the restroom. I was thinking how great it was not to be traveling with anyone. I had no one to rush me and nowhere to be.

Unfortunately, the baggage department gave up waiting for me. It was closed by the time I got there. I found a British Caledonia representative on duty. I shall never forget her. I did feel a bit sorry for the person she dug up on the other end of the phone. She would not let up on him or her until she got what she wanted. I remember her saying: “We’re not here for your convenience!” Her tenacity and command made we wish she was working for me in my office. On second thought, maybe not, I might be the one on the other end of the phone.

At the conclusion of her help, I was on the last train to London that late evening, held a booking at the Victoria Train Station Hotel in the center of London and assurance that my luggage would be there in the morning as indeed it was, at 8AM, delivered to my room.

The morning was full of promise. My first trip to London and it was to be grand. I would find fashion, art, history, entertainment, food, nightlife, pubs and clubs.

Since the rain did not stop until late morning, I relaxed and watched a BBC cable show featuring British actors. It was fascinating and absorbing. In particular was their coverage of one aged actor in a teleplay who was meticulously tearing a newspaper in vertical strips. I was impressed that such a mundane occupation should be so completely covered. The U.S. media television would never devote the seemingly endless minutes that were taken here. In any case, I had never before thought of the unique advantage British actors have over American actors. They are revered as national treasures and are quite naturally steeped in a long tradition.

I therefore appreciated meeting James Whitmore that evening. I remember him vividly. He was amid a throng of mostly male patrons where the average age was over 65. He entered the swank bar leading a small entourage and headed straight toward me. His eyes cut right into me. Not being I prepared for such a pursuit, I quickly fled the place. Strange, looking back, I can’t remember if we talked. By the way, Google reveals that Whitmore was born in White Plains, New York, died only this year at the age of 87 (twenty years older than me) and was married with two children. Most Americans knew him from his Miracle-Gro commercial.

London nightlife was easy to find, thanks to the aid of my guide whom I met at a pub early afternoon. When we parted company at four a.m. at an anonymous bus stop, he asked that we exchange addresses. I regrettably declined because I didn’t want to commit to any correspondence. His comment was unforgettable: “I guess we will just have to leave it at, two ships passing in the night.”

Queer Democrats Decline to Endorse for School Board Seat B

Back De La Torre for Insurance Commissioner, Mona Rios for National City Council

by MARK GABRISH CONLAN

Copyright © 2010 by Mark Gabrish Conlan for Zenger’s Newsmagazine • All rights reserved

PHOTOS, top to bottom: John DeBeck and Patrick McFarland, Mona Rios, club board members being sworn in by Assemblymember (and State Senate candidate) Mary Salas (right)

The predominantly Queer San Diego Democratic Club refused to endorse either Democrat running for the District B seat on the San Diego Unified School District board of trustees, 20-year incumbent John DeBeck or openly Gay challenger Patrick McFarland, at its regular meeting February 25. Though both DeBeck and McFarland did well on the club’s issues questionnaire — DeBeck scored 97.6 percent and McFarland 98.7 percent — members questioned their stands on labor issues and DeBeck’s long-time opposition to condom distribution to students through school health clinics. At the same time, many members were scared of former San Diego County Taxpayers’ Association president Scott Barnett’s possible candidacy on the Republican side, and said they hoped a stronger Democrat than either DeBeck or McFarland would emerge.

Both DeBeck and McFarland spoke to the club and took questions from members. DeBeck, who has a Gay brother, a Gay son and a Lesbian daughter, stressed his history of leadership on Queer issues while acknowledging members might have a problem with him on the condom issue. He seemed to be saying that if student health clinics did controversial things like dispensing condoms to students, there might be a parental backlash that would result in eliminating the clinics altogether. “I don’t think dispensing [condoms] will get the consensus the clinics need,” he said. DeBeck explained that he’d prefer that students discuss these issues with their counselors, who could refer them to Planned Parenthood or other off-campus groups if they needed birth control or STD prevention.

DeBeck also expressed opposition to so-called Project Labor Agreements (PLA’s), a labor-backed program designed to make sure all the district’s school construction and remodeling programs are done with union workers and contractors. DeBeck said he “worked hard to put a construction tech program in place” for at-risk students that placed its graduates with non-union contractors, and if the district committed to PLA’s on all its construction projects graduates of that program would not be able to work on district projects.

“As a proud Gay man, I’m happy to be here,” McFarland said in his opening statement. He called for “applying term limits to board members [to] bring in new people and help the district evolve,” and said “changing the organization chart and reducing top management positions from 22 to 18 could save $4 million for the classroom.” He said he was against layoffs of teachers “because they hinder the education of our students by increasing class sizes,” and called for schools to have “more autonomy to make curriculum decisions” instead of having what they teach determined by a central district administration. He disagreed with DeBeck on birth control in schools, saying he’d lived in France where “they give out birth control in classrooms, and it helps prevent student pregnancies.”

But McFarland got into hot water with the club — especially the union activists in it — when he said he would support contracting out district services to private companies, something DeBeck said he’s never favored. McFarland also angered San Diego city worker and union activist Michelle Krug when he didn’t know the difference between a defined-benefit and a defined-contribution pension. (A defined-benefit pension means one in which the employer guarantees workers a certain regular payment when they retire, and if their contributions to the system aren’t enough to fund that, the employer has to make up the difference. A defined-contribution pension is one in which the employer puts a certain amount into the pension fund, and if it isn’t enough to cover expected payouts the retirees get less money.)

Both candidates said they had been educated by the public school system, and DeBeck added that he’s served for 37 years as a teacher and 20 years as a school board member. Both said they were against closing the district’s smaller schools, and DeBeck boasted that he had personally helped save two schools by placing special programs with them — a Mandarin Chinese language project at Barnard and Suzuki music education at Crown Point. Both said they are strongly concerned about the welfare and safety of Queer students on campus, and promise to enforce anti-bullying policies aggressively. In their closing statements, McFarland said that as a much younger person he’d be “more reflective of student values,” while DeBeck said “the difference is between imagining ideas for schools and knowing how to make them work.”

Though the club voted overwhelmingly to consider an endorsement in the race, the members’ debate that followed revealed surprisingly little support for either candidate — even though DeBeck has been regularly endorsed by the club before and McFarland is running as an openly Gay man.” I really would like to see John DeBeck replaced, but I can’t vote for this young man at this time,” said Michelle Krug. “I can only go by what he said. Maybe his answer about contracting out didn’t reflect his true feelings, but I still can’t support someone who doesn’t understand the difference between a defined-benefit and a defined-contribution pension.”

“It makes sense for the club to vote for no endorsement,” said youth activist and club member Jonathan Goetz. “It would be nice to vote for a cute, young Gay man but we don’t want a person on the school board who supports contracting out. But it also doesn’t make sense, when there is an openly Gay man in the race, to endorse someone else.”

Allan Acevedo, former president of Stonewall Young Democrats — the club’s affiliated youth organization — took exception to Goetz’s comments, less on their substance than on Goetz’s calling McFarland “a cute, young Gay man.” Acevedo said that Goetz would never have dared refer to a female candidate of McFarland’s age and looks as “cute,” and said he’d support McFarland because “we should look at who has the right values and the right head. I think Patrick has the right values and we can work with him.”

“Some of you may remember that I started running for school board myself eight years ago, and John DeBeck helped me,” said union official and longtime club member Brian Polejes. “He was identified with the teachers then, but something happened and he’s since gone over to the dark side. We’ve worked hard to achieve a progressive majority on the board, and he’s been a consistent opponent to them.”

Eventually the club took a vote, but it was overwhelmingly against endorsing either candidate. Thirty-four members voted for no endorsement, to 11 for DeBeck and three for McFarland. A motion to rate both candidates acceptable — a lower level of support that, according to the club’s endorsement rules, can mean either that more than one candidate is suitable for support or a candidate has some problematic stands on certain issues — was defeated, 11 to 36, amid comments by some members hoping that a stronger candidate would file in the two weeks left before the deadline to get on the ballot.

By contrast, Mona Rios swept to an easy endorsement in her race for the National City City Council. She made a brief statement and didn’t get asked any questions, and the motion to make an endorsement in the race passed by 45 to zero. Rios, a club member, voted to make the endorsement and then, as required by club rules, left the room while her candidacy was considered. She won the endorsement by acclamation on a unanimous voice vote.

Confusion Over Statewide Offices

The club also considered making endorsements in four statewide offices —lieutenant governor, attorney general, insurance commissioner and superintendent of public instruction — but endorsed in only two of them. The club overwhelmingly selected Assemblymember Tom Torklason of Antioch for state superintendent of public instruction over school district superintendent Larry Aceves and State Senator Gloria Romero after former club presidents Jess Durfee (now the chair of the San Diego County Democratic Party) and Craig Roberts gave him ringing support. Durfee praised Torklason for his background as a teacher and his strong support of education in the state legislature, and Roberts said that at the last Democratic state convention Torklason had given a stronger presentation than either of his rivals.

The club also chose Assemblymember Hector de la Torre over fellow Assemblymember Dave Jones for state insurance commissioner. Both candidates had representatives advocate on their behalf; de la Torre’s surrogate was Assemblymember Mary Salas and Jones’ was former club president Gloria Johnson. Jones has been in the news lately because he’s chair of the Assembly committee investigating the recent increases of up to 39 percent in the health insurance premiums Anthem/Blue Cross charges individual policy holders, but de la Torre issued a statement handed out at the meeting stating that for him the fight to control health insurance abuses was personal.

“I’m running for insurance commissioner to make sure what happened to my family won’t happen to yours,” de la Torre wrote. “When a rare infection put my five-month-old daughter on an intensive care respirator, my wife and I had to fight the health insurance company, while my baby fought for her life.” Though both de la Torre and Jones publicly opposed Proposition 8, the voter-approved ballot measure to ban same-sex marriage, de la Torre’s statement said, “I take pride in being one of [the] few Latino legislators who placed aside political calculations to take a public stance in favor of marriage equality.” His packet included copies of an op-ed piece in California’s largest Latino paper, La Opinión, he published on May 26, 2009 urging the California Supreme Court to rule Proposition 8 unconstitutional. De la Torre won with 34 votes to nine for Jones and two for no endorsement.

The club was far more split on the other two statewide offices. The declared Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor are state senator Dean Florez and Los Angeles city councilmember Janice Hahn. But a report that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is considering a run for lieutenant governor now that he’s given up his bid for governor electrified the membership and led at least one person to advise that the club should “wait to see what happens with Newsom and endorse later.”

Former club president Craig Roberts urged an immediate endorsement for Janice Hahn, whom he described as “good on LGBT [Queer] issues” — in sharp contrast to her opponent. “We absolutely cannot led Dean Florez win this race.” Roberts didn’t say why, but Florez has a long string of votes in the legislature against marriage equality for same-sex couples. He was the only Democrat in the state senate to vote against Mark Leno’s marriage equality bill in 2005, though he reversed himself last year — and got criticized by anti-Queer Web sites that had formerly supported him — when he voted to support the constitutional challenge to Proposition 8. The club decided by 30 votes to five against endorsing in the lieutenant governor’s race at this time.

The club also decided not to endorse for attorney general, but there the problem wasn’t too few candidates, but too many — that and the fact that the race came up after the meeting had already been going on nearly 2 1/2 hours. The Democratic primary is being contested between San Francisco district attorney Kamala Harris, Los Angeles city attorney Rocky Delgadillo (who ran for the seat in the last election but lost to Jerry Brown, who’s expected to give up the job to run for governor), private-practice attorney Chris Kelly (currently in charge of privacy policy for Facebook) and three sitting Assemblymembers: Ted Lieu of Torrance, Pedro Nava of Santa Barbara and Alberto Torrico of Fremont.

“It’s a huge field,” said Durfee. “I’ve met them all except Kelly and I can’t figure out who I want to support.” Roberts suggested the club not endorse at all in the primary and instead wait for the general election and support the primary winner against the Republican nominee. Harris came to San Diego to consult with the San Diego City Council in the run-up to the Proposition 8 lawsuit, which the city finally joined; and Nava had come to a previous meeting of the club and introduced himself — but only one club member was willing to consider an endorsement on February 25.

The club also swore in its own officers and passed a resolution by former club board member Ellis Rose calling on Democrats in Congress to pass a strong health insurance reform bill. “The ability to pass and implement national health care reform is perceived by the public as a major test of whether elected Democrats are able to lead and govern when in power,” Rose wrote in his resolution. “The Massachusetts special election to fill the seat of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy demonstrated that voters who otherwise support and want health care reform will vote for a Republican if they feel that Democratic officeholders are unable to effectively govern (even when holding large majorities).”

Rose argued in his resolution that if the Democrats fail to pass a health reform bill at the federal level, it will have “negative impact on incumbents and candidates for offices up and down the ballot.” His draft not only called on senators and Congressmembers from California and elsewhere “to successfully pass health care reform as soon as possible” and to use “every reasonable means possible, including [budget] reconciliation” — a possible procedural way around the 60-vote requirement to close debate in the Senate — to do so, but also to cut off party campaign funding for any Democratic senators or Congressmembers who support the Republican filibusters or otherwise “work to defeat and sabotage health care reform.”

Though Rose’s resolution passed with no negative votes and only four abstentions, he was disappointed that it didn’t spark more of a debate on the floor. He said after the meeting that he intended the resolution as a wake-up call warning club members that their resolutions wouldn’t have much effect if national Democrats fail to make government work on health care, economic recovery and other big issues. Rose was worried that failure in Congress would make the Republican Party more attractive to voters and cancel out grass-roots campaign efforts by local groups like the San Diego Democratic Club. Instead, he complained, club members seemed to treat his resolution like an annoying interruption of the all-important business of endorsing in state and local races.

Second Pride Town-Hall Draws Small Crowd

Constructive Dialogue Questions Pride’s Other Projects, Elimination of Rally

by MARK GABRISH CONLAN

Copyright © 2010 by Mark Gabrish Conlan for Zenger’s Newsmagazine • All rights reserved

PHOTOS, top to bottom: Judy Schaim and Larry Ramey, Ben Orgovan

What a difference a month and a half makes. The last time the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center in Hillcrest hosted a town-hall meeting to discuss the fate of San Diego’s annual Pride celebration and the organization that runs it, on January 10, nearly 300 people came to the Center’s big hall to demand the resignation of the Pride board and question whether they could continue to support the events. The next meeting, held February 22, drew only about 50 people, many of them long-time Pride volunteers, and lasted just 45 minutes. With the former board gone, replaced by a new one consisting mostly of previous Pride board members, the aura of crisis dissipated. Instead, there were a few constructive suggestions, and the only real dispute was over whether Pride should go back to holding a rally before the parade and festival in July.

Larry Ramey and Judy Schaim, co-chairs of the new Pride board, MC’d the meeting and were the only members of the new Pride board who spoke. Others — including Jeri Dilno, Bob Leyh, Suanne Pauley, Chris Shaw and Andrea Villa — were simply introduced from the audience. Ramey began the meeting with a reading of Pride’s mission statement, which says that the group’s purpose is “fostering pride in and respect for all Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender communities, locally and globally” and achieving “ world free of prejudice and bias. Then he and Schaim both talked about their own personal experiences with the Pride events.

“I came out at Pride, let’s just say a few years ago,” Ramey said. “I went to the parade three days after walking into the Center for the first time. At the little dip on Sixth Avenue, just before the parade goes into Balboa Park, I just stopped for a moment and all I could see in front of me was Gay people. I looked back and all I could see behind me was Gay people. I felt that I could be part of this too. I had a great day, and the next day I spent volunteering at the festival. A year later I was a supervisor. The next year I was on the board. The year after that I was the treasurer, and the next year after that I was elected as co-chair. It was a kick-the-door-off-the-closet experience for me, and if people want to know why we stepped forward and agreed to serve, for me it was because Pride has meant so much to me.”

“I knew I was a Lesbian at seven, but I didn’t know what it was called or what to do about it,” said Schaim. “Like a good little Jewish girl, I married and had children. I felt a lot of shame about my sexual orientation and I worried about how I would tell my kids that I’m a Lesbian. It’s because of that that I do this work. I’m also a therapist, and I see so many people who feel they’re alone because they’re Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender.”

Schaim then talked about some of the steps the new Pride board has taken to restore public trust in the organization in the three weeks they’d been in office. “We needed to make sure our house was in order,” she said. “We’re taking a tremendous amount of time sifting through what works and what doesn’t, what was budgeted for and what wasn’t. We’re creating a foundation and hope you have some patience with us.” She pointed out that the Pride budget document is 64 pages long and “we want to be thoughtful and careful” about how they spend the community’s money. Addressing some of the issues raised on January 10, Schaim said that Pride had appointed a new auditor and “will have an audited budget statement on the Pride Web site [www.sdpride.org] as soon as it’s ready.”

According to Schaim, the Pride board is also working on fulfilling the mandate in its bylaws for gender equality and fair representation of people of color — but the former is proving easier to achieve than the latter. “We’re well aware that most of us are over 45 and white,” she joked. “We want to be a diverse board.” She said that the current board is five women and four men, plus a male director emeritus (San Diego Pride founder Doug Moore) and a woman candidate member (Karen Bucey), and they’re interested in recruiting a youth representative. The board has also opened its meetings, which take place every Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Pride headquarters, 3620 30th Street in North Park.

Schaim and Ramey then threw the meeting open to the audience for one-minute comments, and declared only one topic off limits for community discussion: the fate of deHarte and the two other staff members, Ken St. Pierre and Jeff Rolando, who resigned in support of him in early January. “That is being handled by attorneys,” Ramey grimly noted. The first speaker was Howard Menzer of Scouting for All, who noted the drop in attendance from January 10 to February 22 and asked where were all the “mouths” who had filled the room with their complaints last time.

Greg Myrland of the San Diego Humanists’ Association asked why the Pride board had increased ticket prices for the festival in 2009. Ramey said they really hadn’t; they just eliminated the two-day discount for tickets bought in the last week before the event. Alex Sachs of the San Diego Democratic Club asked what the new board was doing about two other issues raised at the earlier meeting, including lowering fees to festival exhibitors and allowing active-duty military personnel to attend the festival free. Ramey said they’re keeping the costs for booths the same but working on a discount for nonprofit organizations, and they will let the military people in free again.

“I’m very interested in the direction Pride is taking concerning the ways the former board branched out,” said former Pride board member Dr. Lois Gail. “Are you going to continue to compete for fundraising with service organizations? I’d like to see you focus on the main Pride event and add an educational component to it.” Schaim said that the current board is “aware we are not a social-service organization” and “we will be joining, not competing” with community groups that do offer services. One issue raised at the January 10 meeting that didn’t get raised this time around is whether Pride will increase its grants to community service groups, which the former board cut back.

Another former board member, Pam Schwartz, criticized the new board’s plan to set up “advisory” committees of community people and former Pride board members. “The people in the community who are interested in working on Pride at that level should be on the board,” he said. “Pride is about making as much money as possible and bringing it back to the community. If community members have comments, there are ways to e-mail the staff or the board, or they can join the board.”

Wendy Sue Biegeleisen, who has served on the Pride board and has volunteered in some capacity in virtually every Pride celebration held in San Diego, thanked the new board for rejuvenating her trust in the organization but criticized the decision to drop the rally in 2009. San Diego’s was one of the last Pride groups to keep the rally, but the one in 2008 — held the night before the parade on the festival grounds in Balboa Park, and featuring British Queer activist Peter Tatchell speaking about Queers in other countries and how they’re routinely arrested, beaten or murdered by homo-hating governments and individuals — drew only a handful of people.

Nonetheless, Biegeleisen made it clear she wants the rally restored. “For me as an activist, the rally is the most important part of Pride, where I can hear activists speak to me and know why we’re fighting,” she said. “I want to see Pride look at the rally as an asset, not a liability.” She said that the Equality Torch Relay, an event Pride started last year that involved carrying a torch through various sections of San Diego county — and which got most of its media attention when then-director deHarte was Queer-bashed in El Cajon — was supposed to have replaced the rally as Pride’s activist component, “but I didn’t get it.”

Another speaker, Ron Bettinger, also expressed support for the rally. “I really enjoyed the rallies, and I miss them,” he said. “I found them deteriorating in quality over the years. We need them to come back with a variety of speakers, representing a multiple of ages, to address the chief core issues of the time.”

“Many of us recognize that the rally is the fire that gets the parade and festival going,” Schaim said. “We haven’t yet decided how, when and where” to stage a rally, she added.

But Ben Orgovan, assistant to the parade coordinator and one of the youngest activists in the room, had a different point of view. “I have nothing against the rally, but I’ve never been to one and it’s not my cup of tea,” he said. “I want to say how much the Equality Torch Relay meant to me. I’ve lived in Chula Vista my whole life and I’m afraid even to have a rainbow flag. Seeing Pride get out to other parts of the city and county is important to me.”

“I’m a Torch Relay fan,” said John Vigil. “I worked El Cajon and La Mesa and it was just a little lonely and scary, but I did it. My first one I drove, and my second one was a walk. There were a small group of straight people on hand to support us.”

Jennifer, the parade coordinator, made it clear that at present the plan isn’t to do a rally on the eve of the parade, but to have one at the end of the Equality Torch Relay a month and a half before the main Pride events. “We want community members to carry torches and banners throughout all of San Diego county,” she said. “At the end of the relay, on Saturday, June 5, we will have people come in from all over the county and meet at the County Administrative Center [1600 Pacific Highway downtown] for speakers and a presentation. That will be your rally aspect. This will be publicized and will let everyone know there are LGBT [Queer] people everywhere in San Diego County. They don’t all just live in Hillcrest.”

But Wendy Sue Biegeleisen said that wasn’t good enough to suit her. “I have nothing against the Torch Relay,” she said. “I didn’t understand what it was about, or that it was replacing the rally. I thought it was just a bunch of people attending a relay.” Biegeleisen said that she thought rally attendance dropped off because it was at an awkward time and location — the night before the parade, when most community members interested in Pride were either getting ready to march in the parade or setting up for the festival — and on the festival grounds in Balboa Park, a difficult and potentially dangerous location to leave after dark.

“I also want to speak for the rally,” said Virgil Bowen of the California Cyclemen’s Motorcycle Association. “If you don’t have an activist portion, there’s less meaning for Pride.” Later in the meeting, however, he called the Torch Relay “a wonderful idea” and seemed O.K. with the concept of making the end of the Torch Relay a rally-like event with speakers.

Other concerns expressed at the meeting included the long gaps in the middle of last year’s parade — which Jennifer pledged to fix — and what one speaker called the “substantial penalty for early withdrawal” assessed against some, but not all, festival exhibitors who closed their booths early. A Pride official replied that the only “penalty” was the loss of a security deposit, but didn’t respond to the allegation that some groups had had to pay while others who closed early got off scot-free. Menzer asked for assurances that, if Pride wants its exhibitors to remain open until the end of the festival, they will keep the power and lights on that long.

A representative of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence criticized last year’s festival because of the number of beer gardens on the grounds and the way some of the festival performers could be seen only in a beer garden. “It’s a concern to me that all Pride events be available to those living sober lives without alcohol,” Ramey said. He and Schaim closed the meeting with a pledge to hold another one in March and to keep lines of communication open between Pride and the community.