Freedom?

There's a lot of talk these days about government restricting our freedoms. Against a backdrop of people without jobs, it's hard to see that government is the problem. But here's a solution.

The military is still looking for a few good people, and it has no unemployment problem. AND THE PENTAGON HAS NEVER BEEN AUDITED - EVER, so it can spend whatever it wants and know that Congress will approve.

So perhaps we should simply expand the military to include all of us. We could then:

1. all have good health care and a pension after 20 years of service;

2. rebuild our aging infrastructure with new roads, bridges, even trains and power lines;

3. keep our young people in line; and

4. continue to arm the world with our own weaponry, thus justifying the continued militarization of the country.

I am only joking a little bit. One of the most discouraging things about this year's election process, was the total lack of discussion about real issues facing all parts of the country. Of course, unemployment and foreclosure are a problem, but they are the direct results of overbuilding and the globalization of manufacturing. Rebalancing globalization with enlightened self-interest makes way more sense than dumping tea into the harbor.

And of course, that makes taxes all the more problematic. If you don't have a job, and can't afford your mortgage, it's tough to figure out how to pay your taxes, too. So the Tea Party had a field day. But so far, they've haven't even begun to deal with real issues. Continued demagogery will simply keep us on the path I've described above - the militarization of the country. But I will know that the Tea Party is serious when they start throwing beer in the harbor, instead of using the antique analogy of Tea, which no one in the Party has probably ever drunk.

In the meantime, when I want to feel free, I go sailing.

leaf peeping?

Back in Marina, California, I participated in developing a landscape plan for a new California State University - Monterey Bay. In initial discussions, we talked of remedies for the very flat landscape of dunes on the former Fort Ord, which was our campus. Since there were a number of giant eucalyptus in a couple of places on campus, I suggested we plant some more. The look of horror on everone else's face told me that I had just stepped in a major mudhole.

California has major issues with plants imported from Australia to stop erosion - ice plant, and to bring some shade - eucalyptus. When I asked what was wrong with eucalyptus - because I still think they smell really good -, I was told that they were "messy" trees.

When I asked what made them "messy," I was told that they dropped they leaves.

I was rendered speechless, while everyone else stared at me. I sputtered, and finally managed to croak that most trees in the East drop their leaves each year, and we love them. What's wrong with that? Nope, there was little comprehension of the magnitude of the gulf that separated us. Later, I came to realize that eucalyptus don't just shed leaves, they also shed bark which is quite beautiful, and drop round, golf ball sized seed pods, which really are a pain as you walk along.

I lost the battle to plant eucalyptus on the new campus. Perhaps time will allow more flexibility in the plan, but for now, the campus has gone - mostly - "native." In the meantime, back East, I find myself in another difference of opinion over trees. The whole world, I think, believes that the only thing that happens in the fall in New England is that the leaves of maples trees and oaks, birches and poplars, turn colors. Well, my favorite thing that happens in the fall in New England occurs when the pine needles drop. It is actually the needles of the white pine that fall in October and carpet the forest floor with orange; leaves fall off and turn brown. But when the needles drop, the world turns orange - a time when walking in the woods is most rewarding.

But it is also hunting season, so often we do not dare to venture out, and that's a shame. Between the politics of the season, and hunting, we are kept inside, holding our ears, unable to see the spectacular orange carpet under the pine trees.

the barn est fini!

Most of this summer, I have spent designing the new barn, watching the old barn come down piece by piece, and the new barn go up. And here it is. I am very pleased; - it is a long term dream realized.

The left hand side is obviously a garage, but big enough for a work bench at the rear, and to hold my canoe, too.

The right hand side is a studio - a place for me to make a mess and not have to clean up, a place that is heated with a very green, propane fired, efficient boiler feeding the plastic tubing underneath the concrete slab floor. It is quite toasty.

Upstairs is completely undeveloped, and everyone but me seems to have grand dreams for it. So far, no one has contributed any money though, so nothing will be done for now.

Some memorable parts of the barn, however, are inside. I could find no one who would say that they could save the old barn, but my contractor Bill Dighton was good enough to take it down piece by piece, saving what he could of posts, beams, and planking. In the end, not many of the posts and beams were worth much, though there is one that was 20 feet tall which we used in the stair well. Others were used at corners, under sinks, and for general support here and there.

The real treasure that we found was in the haymow, where the floor was just rough sawn boards that had been laid down perpendicular to each other, in two layers. These were all mostly 18-23 feet long, and had no nail holes. They had never been nailed down - virginal if you will. We used these to create the ceiling in the studio, and to line the stair well. They are gorgeous and make me very happy.

Another memorable thing are the stair treads. The old barn was in large part supported by a large white birch. Not thinking everything through very well, I had the tree taken down and sawn into boards - beautiful ones, too. But taking the tree down, and then pulling out the stump had the effect of removing one quarter of the sill of the old barn. The tree had grown into, around and through the sills of the barn, and the barn started to tilt. So it had to come down. But I still had the birch boards, and now they have been made into the stair treads of the new barn. They, too, make me quite happy.

But the most memorable part of the barn, really, is the weathervane - the subject of a prior blog. It was my father's, and now resides on my barn. Who knows where it will go next? Or where I will? Mostly though, for now, I am happy to stay right here, working in my barn, and staying warm!

the hole in the sky

Once upon a time, like 6 months ago, there was a steeple on this bell tower - with a codfish weathervane on top. It occupied a big place in the modest skyline of East Boothbay, and it was noticed by all of us here, on land or sea.
But the steeple was struck by lightning this summer, and began to burn. Luckily, the Fire Department - also of modest size - is very near, and they put the fire out before the whole tower was engulfed. But one of the 4 wood struts was completely burned through, and a resident engineer thought we should take the steeple down to fix it.

The insurance adjuster thought otherwise, - at least until Hurricane Earl approached.

At the approach of Earl, the adjuster all of a sudden gave us permission to take the steeple down. But of course, there wasn't time to do that before the hurricane got here, and we got lucky that Earl did not do us any damage.
Now, the steeple has been removed; the insurance company has agreed to pay $42,000 to rebuild and re-install the steeple, but has decided not to pay for lightning rod protection, estimated at $7700. I can't quite imagine the rationale, but it leaves our little Methodist Church with $7700 plus $1000 of the deductible to raise.

If anyone has any ideas about how our small community can raise nearly $10,000, please be in touch with Alan Lewis, 207-633-2510, in East Boothbay, Maine 04544.

taxes and statistics - help!

Right after 9/11, came 9/15, when individuals not affiliated with any institution or corporation, have to pay their income tax. I had a tea party while I wrote my checks. They were not large, unhappily for the state budgets of the world, but they were significant for me, and I wonder if they will be appreciated by the State of Maine and by the United States.

The current public dialogue about taxes drives me crazy. I believe in progressive taxation, to serve the larger needs of the community, and I do not believe we are close to a fair tax policy, either at the State level nor the federal level today. There are three things that governments can raise taxes on:
1. property - which is traditionally a local tax providing local services like education.
2. income - which is traditionally a federal tax, providing for defense and health care.
3. purchases(or sales) - traditionally a state tax for building roads, universities, etc.
Most governments have a mix and match scenario right now, but it helps to think about where we have deviated from traditional patterns when thinking about these things.

The income tax has been the most progressive, beginning with its 90% tax on high incomes in 1914. Today I believe the highest tax rate is 35%, which on an income of, say $500,000 would be around $175,000. I think that's a tad less than it ought to be and think we should not extend the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy, or those with incomes over $250,000.

The sales tax is the least progressive tax by equally taxing those of all different income levels. Often there are exemptions for things like food and medecine. But soda is so much cheaper than milk that the intention of exempting things for health reasons is a bit obscure.

The property tax is somewhere in between the two, with some people choosing to be land rich and income poor, - like farmers, - and others selling land when they need to in order to retire.
California has so skewed the property tax system that it rewards farmers with federal crop and water subsidies, but has refused so far to reform the property tax structure to account for the extraordinary increases in property values. Anyone moving into California now, pays double or more of the taxes that a neighbor who was there before 1978, pays. The farmer pays on the land values of 1978 or before. It is painfully unfair and totally inadequate for paying for the state's very generous pension and health care plans.

If a state like California refuses to provide a fairly progressive tax structure, it borrows and borrows until today happens - when the banks that lend it money, stop lending. We really don't know what happens next. Does the Army take over? acting on behalf of the federal government?
Does the National Guard defend the state? But ooooops. I forgot. Most of our National Guard troops are over in Iraq and Afghanistan, just as they were for Hurricane Katrina and for the BP oil spill.

Congress' refusal to be intelligent and straightforward about the cost of these wars, and the Bush administration's blindness to that cost, strikes me as positively treasonous. And it is what has led directly to the rise in the Tea Party movement. Thinking of the Tea Party as a metaphor for a primal scream for help by the people, I am sympathetic. But they are not very smart about their solutions. Gutting State, local, and federal services - which makes this country habitable and the future livable, does not strike me as smart.

Looking clearly at where we are spending our federal dollars, as well as how we are raising our tax dollars makes more sense. Returning our military toward a more defensive posture, and our dollars to the local services where they are much needed - for infrastructure redevelopment and education, makes more sense, too. Reevaluating and redesigning our tax structures, and returning to a goal of fairness and progressivity, makes the most sense. Let's hope that not only Congress - in whatever shape it occurs, and all our State and local governments, has the intelligence, sense, and yes - courage - to do this, and soon - before the National Guard comes home and has to defend us from the Army!

Here's to water main redevelopment and property tax reform!

nine years later

I had not been paying attention to the date, nor the news, so when the offer came to go out to Damariscove Island to do some shore clean-up, I jumped at the chance. Damariscove is one of those places where people of European and native American descent have been visiting for over 400 years, and you can feel it. It belongs now to the Boothbay Region Land Trust; lobstermen love it that it's mostly public and they can use it as they always have.

Rusty Brewer took the Browns, the Palmers and Al Strauss and me out, and helped us haul over 40 smashed traps off the north shore of the island, off the beach where I went swimming nearly 50 years ago. Later, the traps were piled on the pier to wait for a rubbish barge coming on Tuesday.

And then I realized it was 9/11.

A bonfire had been built to take care of the wood and other burnable trash. Larry Brown and some others had found an old, torn up US flag, and decided we should burn it - the way you should when a flag is old and worn out. So a number of us stood around the bonfire, and shared where we were - nine years ago. Al Johnson and Dick Palmer had gone kayaking out to Damariscove, and hadn't known what happened until they saw their wives waving at them from the shore at Grimes Cove. Others had been glued to the TV, even at their jobs. I was glued, too, while I tried calling and calling my daughter-in-law, a 5th grade teacher at PS 234, the school right next to the Trade Center.

Her husband, Ben, was doing a medical internship in Farmington, NM, and not home in NYC on 9/11. So he'd called right away to me in California when he could not reach his wife, Torrey. We finally got through to her late that day when the computers got going again. Later that year, after many moves with her 5th grade class, she commented that in their writings, the dominant memory these 9 and 10 year olds had, was the sight and sound of the bodies falling from the sky.

Today, these young people are 19 and 20 year olds. I wish that I thought that we as a people could honor their memories in a better way than to fight endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. No amount of rational terror - like a vengeful war - can erase the sight and sounds of those bodies falling from the sky.

Of Finns, hurricanes, and fish at the end of summer

The Finns arrived with friends George and Jane last Friday when Hurricane Earl was supposed to arrive, but did not. Pirkku and Simo, Markku and Raili, are from Helsinki, Finland and love to fish. Markku and Simo fished out of Lynn, Massachusetts, on their first day here. When they arrived in Boothbay, they were to have fished right away, but Earl decided to intimidate us all, and we postponed it until Labor Day. Priscilla came out of the water and then went right back in. So, on Labor Day, MArkku and Simo and George went fishing again, this time with Capt. Dan Wolotsky out of Boothbay Harbor. They caught 10 fish, a mix of stripers and blues; Markku had a battle with a seal over one fish and won the battle but lost the fish; and they brought home 4 stripers.
Later, we went for a brief sail, and then headed up to Castle Island Camps in Belgrade for some fresh water fishing.
Castle Island Camps is an old-style fishing camp - with small cabins and great views, and a dining room with a bull moose head and a big stone fireplace. I took Pirkku and Raili on the Great Pond mailboat while the guys went out on their own to fish. Great Pond is the place that the story and movie, "On Golden Pond," is based , and Capt. Norm of the mailboat was a wonderful storyteller. The guys caught some bass, we had a wonderful picnic and then I came home.

I can't remember when I've had such a wonderful time at the end of summer!