Dale Says

On my birthday, I am 68 years old. This year I spent my birthday at Pt. Reyes with Patty, my brother John, and his wife, Eva. It was a wonderful way to spend a “tweener” birthday; hiking, enjoying the beautiful wildflowers, and relaxing. And it was quite different from my birthday a year ago, which I spent in Oregon with my sister Anne, helping her with radiation treatments and worrying about her health.

The past year has been good for me. Patty and I continue to be in love, get along well, and explore the world. We continue to spend time with good friends and family and to try to make the most of this very special portion of our lives.

We were able to enjoy a lot of travel over the past year; including to London, the Cotswolds, and Scotland in May, Seattle for a wedding in June, Nebraska to see family in July, Drakesbad with friends in August, Michigan with friends in October, Argentina and Uruguay in November, and Bhutan in March.

I continue to write, which is satisfying. Publishing my writing hasn’t been successful nor satisfying, however, as I have run into obstacles. Patty and I were able to self-publish a collection of travel articles and photographs (which we called The Places You’ll Go) in March. My San Francisco book ran into problems, however, when the publisher we chose discovered copyright questions over some of the images in it. I spent three months locating photographers, obtaining copyrights, and overseeing the making new images. At the end of that exercise, the publisher found a few other minor issues, and when pressed revealed that he didn’t really like the images we proposed. So we are switching publishers, and have now decided to use a small Bay Area company to help us publish it. The other book (Good People) is finished, but it will sit until we are able to publish the San Francisco book. All of that has been a little depressing for me. At this point, a good deal of my self-worth is pegged to my writing, and struggling to produce a high-quality published book has me down. I find myself less enthusiastic about starting new writing projects, and a little less cheerful about life in general.

Patty and I spent time with local friends throughout the year, and we enjoyed the San Francisco Symphony, Smuin Ballet, SF Playhouse, PEO State Convention in San Jose, Healdsburg with Peter and Carol, a baby shower at our house in June, and lots of house guests throughout the year. We hosted Christmas at our house, and Anne, Buzz, and Ian spent New Years with us, and Anne’s much-improved health was very gratifying.

I continue to dedicate part of my free time to helping people; especially our friends Norman and Michael, and my special friend, Ina. And I continue to volunteer every Friday at Tel-Hi, and to donate to several organizations; including the Smuin Ballet, Pt. Reyes National Seashore, Tel-Hi, and the San Francisco Symphony. It’s good to be able to help those very worthwhile organizations.

While most aspects of my personal life are going well and my health is good, there are troubling trends emerging about overall social and political aspects of life. I have documented some of these in previous birthday writings, so I won’t dwell on the details here. Suffice it to say that the world I live in is increasingly divided, self-centered, and angry, which affects nearly every aspect of our lives.

San Francisco and California continue to hum along, with lots of money and high lifestyles, but few solutions to nagging problems like high living costs, poverty, homelessness, and wildfires. Still, it’s a peaceful and prosperous place to live, if you can overlook those downsides.

The U.S. isn’t faring quite as well. While the overall economy is doing great, there is a huge amount of social unrest and divisiveness, and while it’s calmed somewhat since the presidential election in 2016, there continues to be unrest, anger, resentment, and a growing sense that something needs to change. Ever since Trump was elected president there has been a growing divide between conservative and liberal groups, with no sign that anyone is trying to bridge the differences. Trump purposely plays to his base by insulting allies and opponents, making outrageous claims, lying, and enacting policy that he knows will antagonize others. The media is all over it, but he has done such an effective job of casting doubt on the truthfulness of the media with his base (he repeatedly says they write “fake news” and calls them “the enemy of the people”), that few of his supporters believe any source of news except Fox News or the president himself. And so half of the U.S. believes the leader of the country is a deranged, lying bully and the other half believes he was sent by God to lead them to a faith-based, conservative nirvana. That’s where it now sits, and there seems to be little that will change their minds.

The Mueller Report, which the U.S. anxiously waited two years to see, finally came out last month. It found that Russia did purposely interfere with the U.S. elections in 2016, but that the Trump campaign and administration did not knowingly coordinate in those efforts. However, it documented numerous attempts by Trump and his people to obstruct the investigation into that interference, but declined to press criminal charges. At first, Trump and his cronies praised Mueller, his team, and the report saying that it “fully exonerated” him. But, when the full (except for redacted portions) report was released and studied, it became apparent that Trump had indeed made numerous immoral and possibly illegal moves, and there were many more stopped by his staff. Now, numerous investigations into those activities are starting in the House of Representatives, all of which are being opposed and in some cases stonewalled by Trump.

The Democrats are offering a huge number of candidates to run against Trump in 2020; including mayors, congressmen, senators, businessmen, and a former vice president. It will be entertaining to see which of the two dozen candidates rises to the top.

There are warning bells going off throughout the world on a number of topics – signs that a larger crisis is near. Huge numbers of people are on the move throughout the world, driven from their homes by hunger, unemployment, war, drought, famine, and political unrest. Those millions of people seeking a better life in new lands are causing unrest in the countries where they are trying to settle, and a backlash is underway in more economically-advanced countries; including the U.K., Germany, Hungary, Turkey, South Africa, Australia, and the U.S. Some residents (including people we know and respect) do not want more immigrants in their country, because they fear they will change their culture and lifestyles. In some cases, severe reactions are being taken to prevent more immigration (including Brexit and the Trump anti-immigrant responses). Clearly, building a 30-foot high wall across a country’s entire southern border is a desperate and antiquated response, but that’s what a sizeable portion of the U.S. population (including the current president) support.

So, how to resolve those issues? No one has a solution. Instead, it has become personal, and each side is intent on destroying the reputation and credibility of the other side in order to advance their case. The angry and divisive responses on both sides are now fueling harmful rhetoric and hate crimes, which are on the increase in the U.S. and elsewhere.

The U.S. economy is strong, which further supports the short-term solutions that have been taken to prop it up. Having reduced tax rates to please their voting base and give a short-term stimulus to the economy, the Republican Party now ignores massive resulting increases in federal debt, and is instead touting low employment and a strong stock market as signs that their measures are working.

The election of Trump and a Republican majority in the Senate also mean that many federal regulations that protect clean air, clean water, oceans, and national parks are being cancelled. That will surely have long-term negative effects. Similarly, cancelling international treaties and alliances, imposing tariffs on allies, bullying weaker nations, and insulting friends and foes around the world will most likely cause the U.S. to lose our global leadership and invoke future reactions against us. The damage that the current administration is doing will surely have negative impacts for years.

In other areas, homelessness is becoming a larger problem in many parts of the U.S. Many millions of dollars are being spent to reduce the number of homeless people and to get them back into society, but at this point it does not seem to be making a difference. San Francisco’s new mayor (London Breed) seems to be intelligent and forceful, but does not seem any more capable of resolving this major issue than her predecessors. Gavin Newsom, California’s new governor, couldn’t resolve the issue when he was mayor of San Francisco, and I doubt he can affect it from Sacramento. At least he does have a strong economy to work with, and budget surpluses.

In other areas, in a year without any standout movies the upbeat film Green Book won the Academy Award for best picture; Olivia Colman won best actress for The Favourite and Rami Malek won best actor for Bohemian Rhapsody. The Golden State Warriors won the National Basketball Championship last year, and the New England Patriots won the Superbowl. Our local football and baseball teams (the 49ers and Giants) are mired in or near the bottom of their respective divisions.