Reflections on a Closed Balcony

“The Balcony is Closed.”
Roger Ebert, 1942 – 2013
Credit: Twitter via Salon.com

I’ve been trying to hold on to some personal thoughts about Roger Ebert, who died a week ago this past Thursday. I first wrote about Mr. Ebert back in 2010, after finding his exhaustive and popular blog, and its prolific original content and visitor commentary.

The reaction to his death has been significant and heartfelt from across a broad landscape of the national consciousness. If at least one online commentator is to be believed, it seems as if history is prepared to remember Mr. Ebert with the same regard that it holds other observers of the American condition, such asMark Twain, H.L. Mencken, and Will Rogers.

For me, I was a teenager growing up in Sewickley when books and the movies provided a gateway to other places and situations that I was only too happy to lose myself in. I really wasn’t aware of Roger Ebert, even though he was busy winning his Pulitzer Prize at about the same time.

Mr. Wheat and his theatre were still a community staple back then, but the nostalgic charm of the drive-in and the bombast of the multiplex sounded the death knell for little places like his – or so we thought. The Ambridge Family Theatre has been a special place for many years, and the prospect of a new theatre in Sewickley holds hope for the continued emergence of the Village as a place that teems with possibilities.

Roger Ebert has a lot to do with that, over and above his signature turn as Gene Siskel‘s partner and foil on PBS for all those years. Ebert championed the creative and artistic richness of such seemingly obscure film types as documentaries, independents, and Japanese animation.

The resulting increase in interest in “smaller”, independently-produced films has helped to sustain those older movie houses that have specialized in showing these and other films.

There are several local examples of this, including the Hollywood Theatre in Dormont, which featured prominently in one of the most engaging films made in this area, and one which Mr. Ebert recommended highly  - The Perks of Being a Wallflower. As for me, I got to see “Rocky Horror” in all its glory at the old Kings Court in Oakland.

Pittsburgh Filmmakers has also established a successful network of venues for these purposes – and appears to be poised to add Sewickley to its list of locations. Let’s hope they don’t get lost in pretentiousness, and decide to have some fun with it as well.

In the age of DVDs and Internet streaming, when people would seemingly be content to retreat to their homes or tablet devices to watch a movie, Ebert put a great deal of personal capital into the potential that social media and online communities offered those with an interest in film, other passions that Ebert expressed in writing, or both. What remains is an impressive collection of commentary by Mr. Ebert and a variety of associates.

I’ve been touched by much of Mr. Ebert’s volumes of writing on several topics, as well as some of the tributes that have appeared in the wake of his death. Here are a few:

An excerpt from his memoir Life Itself, titled “I Do Not Fear Death“:

“Kindness” covers all of my political beliefs. No need to spell them out. I believe that if, at the end, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn’t always know this and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.

His commentary for the DVD of Citizen Kane - full of insights and love for what Ebert admitted was his favorite film.

His now-famous skewering of Rob Schneider, who deserved it…




                                                                                            – Krishna Shenoi


Ebert corresponded and established meaningful relationships with numerous people of all ages and walks of life. One example is reflected in the above drawing, with a link to an accompanying blog post.

Another is a recent column in a public relations trade publication, by a PR executive who began exchanging letters with Mr. Ebert while in junior high school. There are numerous lessons that this professional marketer tries to impart as part of the example Mr. Ebert set, including this most telling one:

Ebert’s illustrious career mirrors society in profound ways – and it’s no accident that with the changing landscape of media and with his own failing health, he adapted into one of the most avid social media practitioners of our time. He was steeped in two-way engagement long before its mainstream popularity, and he fully leveraged the medium to stimulate great ideas and engage in intense conversation. 

Ebert may have been reduced by illness to someone without a speaking voice, but leveraged the virtual world to gain a lasting presence in it. He was very astute about marketing his product – himself. As a result, there is that much more of him that is left to study and enjoy for generations to come, and a legacy of succession is in place to assure that his beneficial impact on his craft will be a lasting and substantial one.

This must have not been an easy thing for someone such as Ebert, who in his writing seemed to espouse being alone as much as he enjoyed connecting with others. He overcame the spectre of alcoholism, fought back against the ravages of cancer, and while not always on the right side of everyone (who can be?), earned the respect that he got.

He was able to adapt to the times and the attitudes…

When I was a child the mailman came once a day. Now the mail arrives every moment. I used to believe it was preposterous that people could fall in love online. Now I see that all relationships are virtual, even those that take place in person. Whether we use our bodies or a keyboard, it all comes down to two minds crying out from their solitude.

He was most fortunate that he found a loving, equal partner, who he loved deeply and who was there for him.

Ebert saw the Internet as a “godsend” for those, like him, who were unable to connect to others by virtue of debilitating diseases. Yet he also saw the inherent value of relationships that resist a connection to everyone, all the time. This excerpt reads to me like bullet points for building a healthy relationship in later life. The emphasis is mine:

Why do people marry with no prospects of children? Babies are not the only thing two people can create together. They can create a safe private world. They can create a reality that affirms their values. They can stand for something. They can find someone to laugh with, and confide in. Someone to hold them when they need to be held. 

He then concludes this same paragraph with an admonition: A danger of the internet would be if we begin to meet those needs without feeling there has to be another person in the room.

Roger Ebert made a considerable life for himself by understanding and leveraging transformative media – motion pictures, television, the Internet – while showing us at the same time how to live an intimate, graceful existence, especially in the face of personal challenges that bordered on the extreme.

He was active, lucid, and relevant to the end - what more can one hope for in life?

It’s ironic that his example should represent for me a re-evaluation of all things online, but it does. It’s time for an adjustment or two.

See you at the movies..

File Under 'Cart Before the Horse'

The Post-Gazette reported Wednesday that State Sen. Lisa Baker (R-Luzerne Co.) got a bill through her Senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness committee (an interesting combination there) that would require energy companies drilling in the Marcellus Shale to:

• Draft and file Emergency Operations Plans with local emergency response authorities
• Post this and other emergency information at drilling sites, so as to be easily referenced by personnel when needed
• Ascertain the Latitude/Longitude (GPS) coordinates of all drilling sites, and assure that wellsite personnel, responders, and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) are aware of them.
  

This is an excellent idea, although I'm wondering out loud how such a set of requirements did not exist previously via existing rulemaking or legislation. It's not as if drilling, mining, or other heavy industrial activities in rural areas haven't occurred here before. Something that Sen. Baker's office put in their press release may explain this a little better than I can:

"It is extremely important for the gas industry to coordinate emergency response plans with first responders and state and local officials," Baker said. "This issue is too important to leave up to voluntary compliance."

Is 'voluntary compliance' with rules and requirements that may change by municipality, the norm or the exception? Let's hope it's the latter, and that the full Senate, House, and Gov. Corbett will show the same enthusiasm for this bill. Something like this should have been in place before a single drill bit breached Pennsylvania soil in search of gas from the Marcellus Shale. It seems long overdue.

In a related matter, the Post-Gazette also committed much ink in this past Sunday's edition to the plight of rural Pennsylvanians without adequate mobile telephone service and broadband Internet connections.

The P-G's story focused on Sullivan County, where many components of public service delivery systems risk being overwhelmed with activity related to drilling, and things that 9-1-1 operators in many areas take for granted, such as GPS coordinates for calls received from mobile phones, are non-existent in the majority of circumstances.

The influx of personnel and capital from energy companies will likely help foment a more rapid deployment of these capabilities; the private sector seems more flexible and responsive to issues and opportunities than the public sector when it comes to these kinds of issues. That is the essence of capitalizing on what the Marcellus has to offer. However, without adequate safeguards and planning contingencies that Sen. Baker's legislation would likely help provide, what is the potential cost to the region's quality of life?

I should probably state here and now that I am not opposed to drilling - that is an unrealistic stance in a country, and a region, largely built on this type of activity. I am opposed to allowing it to proceed without a strong, responsive, efficient, and empowered system of checks, balances, and meaningful enforcement. These efforts too often seem to always be playing catch-up and politics with what is really going on in the field.

Speaking of what's going on in the field, Sewickley Patch reported yesterday that the drivers of at least two large trucks were cited recently for being overweight on municipal roadways. This may be just the beginning of a trend when there's frack water to be hauled to wellsites...

Let's hope that Senator Baker's bill is the first step in a better direction, and that those improvements in access to technology in rural areas that may be a consequence of energy development do not come at the price of the communities themselves.

Also, please remember those that have paid the ultimate price for our freedom while you're enjoying this Memorial Day weekend. I'll be working, but remembering as well, and not just about that.

Until next time...

Things Found While Looking For Other Things 2

"Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness."

In the midst of my travels across country almost a month ago, this phrase came to mind after a long day and night of driving and really not making the kind of progress that I wanted. I should have gotten a good night's sleep after a day of packing and loading and preparing. Instead, I struck out at about 10:00 PM and found myself making frequent rest stops, winding up in Kansas City at 8:00 the following evening, well behind schedule and plainly exhausted.

Leslie was justifiably concerned and upset on the phone. I thought of the above sentence and told her about it. I couldn't remember where it came from, but as I settled in for about 6 hours of sleep at a Motel 6 east of KC I knew I would be looking it up the next morning.

At about 4:00 AM I got my answer. After waking up, I remembered that this line is part of the Desiderata, which is a favorite poem that I haven't mentioned much here. Googling the phrase confirmed this, and also provided a link to information on the poem's author, Max Ehrmann. Included in the Wikipedia entry for the poem is the following:

On August 26, 2010, a bronze statue of Max Ehrmann sitting on a park bench was unveiled in Terre Haute, Indiana, his hometown, with the sculpture done by Bill Wolfe. On a nearby walkway, some lines of the poem are also available to be read by passersby.

Seeing that my planned journey on Interstate 70 would take me right past Terre Haute, I deviated slightly and entered the city on old U.S. 40 in the late morning hours, winding up at the intersection of 7th and Walnut, which is of some note itself to highway buffs as the former intersection of U.S. 40 and U.S. 41.

It is here, situated in the background of this photo, that the small plaza and the bronze likeness of Max Ehrmann has been placed.

Mr. Ehrmann's likeness is sitting on a park bench with pen and pad in hand, attired in clothing appropriate to the turn of the 20th century. I noticed at least one group of people come by and pose for pictures on the bench with the sculpture.

Born in 1872, Mr. Ehrmann studied English, Law and Philosophy at DePauw and Harvard, returning to Terre Haute in 1898 for a brief law career before devoting his time fully to writing. He died in 1945 at the age of 72. Much like Frank Lloyd Wright in Wisconsin, Mr. Ehrmann was born in the Midwest just after the Civil War and lived through the enlightened period of the Industrial Revolution, the dawn of broadcast media, two World Wars, and the Great Depression.

Mr. Ehrmann's chronicles of that age tended toward the spiritual, but he did not achieve widespread notoriety until the Desiderata, which was 'discovered' about 20 years after Ehrmann's death. The poem is featured prominently in the small plaza, with snippets embedded amongst the brickwork.

The short deviation from my planned route of travel proved most worthwhile - I would have liked to travel more on U.S. 40 before it re-joined I-70 further into Indiana, but elected to try to make up some time. I did conclude my journey with an easy 60-mile drive through the hills of eastern Ohio, on U.S. 22 between Cambridge and Steubenville before it crossed the Ohio into West Virginia, turned into four lanes, and led me to a newer expressway spur past the Pittsburgh airport. I arrived at Leslie's work just as she was getting done for the day, and we followed each other home.

If you are not familiar with the Desiderata, by all means Google it and look at its myriad online representations, including the way I first heard it, in a spoken word recording by Les Crane when I was 11 years old. I found something else written by Max Ehrmann that seems appropriate to starting off a new life in familiar surroundings - hopefully you will get something out of it as well:

A Prayer by Max Ehrmann

Let me do my work each day; and if the darkened hours of despair overcome me, may I not forget the strength that comforted me in the desolation of other times.

May I still remember the bright hours that found me walking over the silent hills of my childhood, or dreaming on the margin of a quiet river, when a light glowed within me, and I promised my early God to have courage amid the tempests of the changing years. Spare me from bitterness and from the sharp passions of unguarded moments.

May I not forget that poverty and riches are of the spirit. Though the world knows me not, may my thoughts and actions be such as shall keep me friendly with myself.

Lift up my eyes from the earth, and let me not forget the uses of the stars. Forbid that I should judge others lest I condemn myself. Let me not follow the clamor of the world, but walk calmly in my path.

Give me a few friends who will love me for what I am; and keep ever burning before my vagrant steps the kindly light of hope.

And though age and infirmity overtake me, and I come not within sight of the castle of my dreams, teach me still to be thankful for life, and for time's olden memories that are good and sweet; and may the evening's twilight find me gentle still.

Have a great week ahead.

Initiate Shutdown Sequence

Sounds awfully cold and technical for making a major change in one's life, doesn't it?
I think so too.

Sorting through things, packing, discarding, setting aside for the future - this always brings me face-to-face with the past, what was and what could have been. I spent a good deal of time on the phone with Leslie yesterday, but came away with unresolved feelings of remorse for things forgotten or unsaid. I'm filled with regret for being too divided, too splintered, too preoccupied with the trivialities that spew from our hasty lives and myriad devices to focus on what is truly important.

True, the Internet is a valid tool for many things. I spent time today finalizing our honeymoon. Does it really matter where we go and what we do, if we are both not fully present in those precious moments? This is my problem. How do I resolve it?

For years my bride-to-be has been talking to me and sending me letters and clippings about some of the things we are reading about more and more now; about the perils of technology and its potential ability to strip us of our humanity, even while it "connects" us in ways not imagined a flicker of memory ago.

While packing yesterday I came upon the manila envelope that contains Leslie's letters and clippings, and found a newspaper article - from July 10, 2005 - that is prescient in its assertions and painfully relevant to what is happening to us today.

Patricia Dalton, a clinical psychologist in Washington, DC, wrote then in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Ever since the first electric bulb shed artificial light, we have been detaching ourselves from our natural rhythms. Business travelers cross time zones and go right back to work; adults extend their hours by bringing work home with them; teenagers contact friends anywhere at any time of the day or night.

Until, that is, they end up in therapists' offices, stopped in their tracks by physical or psychological dysfunction. Many blame themselves when things go wrong. They minimize the impact of our supercharged environment on their psychological well-being.

The column goes into greater depth about the impact of technology on so many different parts of our lives. "I don't mean to underestimate the benefits of technology", Dr. Dalton writes. "We can stay in touch with relatives and friends who live at a distance. We can get work done more efficiently. Huge amounts of information are at our fingertips. But the angst and dysfunction I've described are real."

I have worked for many years in professions that seek to either leverage the latest technology for the benefit of moving and evaluating more information, or works hard to keep up with society's leveraging of it for the same purposes. The proliferation of the Internet, and of wireless information delivery, and it's slow, corkscrewing integration into our society, is having some really nasty effects on our abilities to slow down, and enjoy each other in the simplest ways.

This is coming too close to some real issues that I have in my life, and I don't really have enough time to expand upon them here. It's probably a good time to make an exit for a while, so that I can get the things done that are really important, and interface with those people who matter so much. Time to shut down.

Postscript, 3/2/11: Joe and Linda Skinner's column in the February 25 Free Press (not posted online yet), titled "Immortality or Immolation?", makes reference to more recent news stories that reinforce Dr. Dalton's warnings in 2005. Specifically, Time Magazine's recent coverage which reports that children, on average, spend 7 hours a day engaged in various online activities, and ponders the effects on their young, developing brains as a result.

One wonders what the effects could be on an aging brain that is trying to keep up, rather than ignore the revolution.

My friend Linda Skinner, writing in the "He Said/She Said" style that is the hallmark of her and her husband's online dialogue, said it simply and wisely:

"I cannot help but think I would not get the same thrill from a blinky light machine with a faultless memory as I get from talking with you. I don't care how many USB ports you might have, I prefer to be hugged by your warm arms. Although, a cyborg would know how to pile the dishes and load the dishwasher properly."

I'll close with something else that Leslie shared with me. Perhaps it speaks more about what we have left behind than what we have to look forward to. If that's the case, then I think that we, myself included, have left behind a critical part of humanity that may be as unrecoverable as it is possible to turn back the clock.

*******

The Man and the Child
by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

It is the man in us who works;

Who earns his daily bread and anxious scans
The evening skies to know tomorrow's plans;
It is the man who hurries as he walks;
Finds courage in a crowd; shouts as he talks;
Who shuts his eyes and burrows through his task;
Who doubts his neighbor and who wears a mask;
Who moves in armor and who hides his tears.
It is the man in us who fears.

It is the child in us who plays;
Who sees no happiness beyond today's;
Who sings for joy; who wonders, and who weeps;
It is the child in us at night who sleeps.
It is the child who silent turns his face,
Open and maskless, naked of defense,
Simple with trust, distilled of all pretense,
To sudden beauty in another's face -

It is the child in us who loves.

*******

Good-bye for now.

Hiding In Plain Sight

When he's out and about near his Denver home, former Broncos quarterback John Elway has come up with a novel way to travel incognito—he wears his own jersey. "I do that all the time here," the 50-year-old Hall of Famer told me. "I go to the mall that way. They know it's not me because they say there's no way Elway would be wearing his own jersey in the mall. So it actually is the safest thing to do."

- Dan Patrick, Sports Illustrated "SI Vault" Blog, October 11, 2010

My only resolution for the New Year was to finish this post, which has been languishing for several months. I owe it to myself and to others to move on this and other things in my life.

This past September marked four years of writing this blog. In response to that milestone of sorts, and taking into consideration what has happened to me and to our country during that period, I've been trying to engage in a little self-reflection.

I believe this is important for me to do, as the significant changes in my life over these last four years are not over with. I lost a wife, jettisoned a career, and gained a bride-to-be that I love dearly but have difficulty relating to at times. This isn't helped by the reluctance of those around me to embrace my decision, along with my response to that reluctance and how those relationships have been affected as a result.

In trying to think about what the future will look like for myself and my family, I was trying to think of what significant changes have come about over the last four years for our society and culture, and how we've responded to them. While the economy and the job market are clearly issues now, so is the proliferation of social media across all segments of our society. What started with MySpace is now being carried on by Facebook and others, and the number of participants has grown exponentially.

This fact was not lost on me when Michaela passed away in July. A benefit was organized to help Leslie with expenses, and a Facebook page was quickly created. This helped the word get out to numerous people who otherwise would have not been informed. Lots of messages and comments expressing sympathy and support were generated.

I compare this to the throng of people who lined up at the funeral home for visitation, and the conversations Leslie and I had with many of them. As much as the online exposure helped to get the word out, and helped those separated by the miles to express their sorrow, the face-to-face interaction seemed more meaningful and memorable.

So as social media has the power to connect and mobilize us, it paradoxically adds to our collective isolation and separation, especially from those who feel that an email or a tweet can somehow be any kind of replacement for a warm embrace and tender expressions of love, concern, or sympathy.

What I also find intriguing is how much one can structure their online appearance to represent something not at all resembling their real emotional condition, and in fact communicate in a way that their true feelings are only apparent to certain people. The social media researcher Danah Boyd identified some of these trends in an August blog post.

Dubbing this practice "Social Steganography", Ms. Boyd explained how certain groups, in this case teenagers, engage in "communicating to different audiences simultaneously, relying on specific cultural awareness to provide the right interpretive lens". She used the example of the song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from Monty Python's Life of Brian, and how a hypothetical teenager used it to convey a message:

Her mother wrote her a note saying that she seemed happy which made her laugh. But her closest friends knew that this song appears in the movie when the characters are about to be killed. They reached out to her immediately to see how she was really feeling.

We've all got problems - My impression is that most people that have a group of close friends do not want their particular set of circumstances out on the Internet for all to see. One friend of mine had a long-term marriage come to an end this year; a former co-worker uprooted everything and everyone for supposedly greener pastures, only to return within weeks. I haven't spoken with these people in years, yet I know about these things because of Facebook. This helped to bring me to a true realization of the potential power of social networking to connect, as well as to conceal.

The film The Social Network also helped to cement my opinion that reputation is an even larger consideration with many in our younger generations than it is with those who grew up in the 50's or 60's. Have the fictional towns, pristine houses and manicured lawns of John Cheever's writing been reincarnated in a virtual setting, to connect, mold, and at the same time isolate our future generations?

The movie is rather good, by the way.

This leads me back to my current set of circumstances. I've made a mess of my life in a lot of ways, and need to make some changes. Knowing the path is not the same as walking it, however, and I'm frequently reminded of my shortcomings by seemingly well-intentioned silence and avoidance on the part of others.

This is the price of hiding in plain sight - by glossing over, being intentionally vague, and failing to address situations head-on, one becomes ill-prepared to deal with the negative consequences as part of the path toward improvement.

I'm praying for the courage to face the fear of rejection, failure, and enmity, and move in the direction that I feel is the best for myself and my family, both old and new. This will hopefully culminate with a wedding in early spring, and the promise of building a life with Leslie as a pair through strength, not separation. I hope that somehow I can prove to myself and to others that this is much better than being alone, or by engaging in relationships that may have esoteric benefits, but are otherwise hollow and brittle.

In the meantime, my attention to this blog will be less as these events and changes approach. I've taken to posting things on Twitter - yet another social networking tool whose potential I've yet to fully grasp - in order to pass along things of importance in less time than it takes to properly put together a post to this blog. My Twitter feed is available in the sidebar here.

I've also discovered HootSuite, which allows for the posting of information simultaneously across multiple social networking platforms. If you're interested in social media, this is a way to better manage your virtual life in less time.

In these and many, many other areas, I've still got a lot to learn. Thanks to Leslie for her support, admonitions, and patience. Thanks to Evan for being strong, smart, and a good kid.

I hope that we can all be happy together for a long time.

Below are two songs that were going through my head as I was gathering ideas and writing them down. Sometimes I think I should just build a separate Twitter feed just for the music playing in my head at any given time. These are older songs with new relevance for the times we're in:

Notice how the camera zooms in ever so slowly, until at the end of the song we're right in his face. The feeling and the anguish of the lyric is there right in front of us. Is this something that a tweet can substitute for?

This song came out during my senior year of high school. It carries a lot of meaning in retrospect; if we had voted on a "class song" like they do today, it could have been this one.

May the year ahead bring with it abiding love and joy for you and those who are important to you.

Nothing Neutral about Net Neutrality

I've been writing about the subject of Net Neutrality for as long as I've been writing this blog - 4 years and change.

The new FCC Rules adopted last week have been picked apart and panned by groups on both sides of the issue and on the political spectrum. If you believe the sound bites, it's almost as if nobody likes the new rules.

This is one reason that I think they will work out. Nothing really scientific about it, really - just a feeling that if the professional activists on both leading edges of an issue are pissed off about it, then the rules likely have something for everyone in the middle.

What I'm really not thrilled about is how the issue has been portrayed in the media - at least the local print kind. Gary Harmon of the Daily Sentinel, whose news writing since losing his opinion column looks more and more like he's auditioning for a job at Fox News, penned a one-sided (and paywalled) portrayal of the issue.

Gary did what we lovingly expect him to do - he spoke to local Internet Service Providers and national trade organizations representing them in order to provide reporting about the entire issue. Aside from one short paragraph and a sidebar from the Associated Press that explained what exactly the FCC approved, the story was told exclusively from the perspective that net neutrality is bad for business.

Mr. Harmon would have done a better job for his paper's readership had he balanced the local business concerns with the opinion of local user communities about the rights of Internet users to access to content unfettered by corporate preferences, sweetheart deals, or junior high-level spats over competing services that share the same Internet "pipe".

Craig Hall of the Grand Valley Business Times spoke to the concerns of his core audience quite well in a recent issue. I would prefer it if the Sentinel left the business opinion disguised as news reporting to Mr. Hall and his able staff. The type of reporting put forth by Mr. Harmon, which often is just thinly-veiled opinion, is one reason that I will not subscribe to the Sentinel. More about that later.

I think that I'm finished with the subject until the new regulations are fleshed out in the appropriate venue, and the effects of their implementation or challenge are plainly available for all to see.

Have a great weekend and New Year ahead.

Information Trepidation

By now, most of us GJ locals who follow the news are aware of several occurrences over the past week that have raised hackles from the halls of government in the Grand Valley to around the globe. The debate about government information, who should have access to it, and how much it should cost to retrieve it has dominated news cycles from Grand Junction to Geneva.

The editorial pages of Sunday's Sentinel provide reflection and analysis of all of these occurrences, along with opinion about what should be happening in response to the revelations, and attempts at obfuscation, that has resulted in the present information trepidation. Sorry..having too much fun there.

Perhaps the first item on my list should be the manner in which this editorial analysis and other information gets hidden behind the Sentinel's increasingly annoying paywall. To their credit, the Sentinel's stories about the Mesa County information breach have been visible to anyone, but Sunday's editorial about the incident is only available to subscribers. That editorial drew parallels between the county's inadvertent data dump and the deliberate distribution of US Government cables by WikiLeaks. Both have the potential to damage reputations at the least, lives at the worst.

However damaging the revelations may be from the WikiLeaks disclosures, they demonstrate the disrespectful and duplicitous discourse that often hides behind attempts at being diplomatic. Aptly-named conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer echoed many of similar mind in wanting to condemn WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to a lifetime of looking over his shoulder if he cannot be successfully prosecuted or otherwise dealt with in some deliberate and stealthy fashion, perhaps one straight out of a Bourne movie.

I can see the need to maintain secrecy about certain things, but I also believe that our government goes too far in many areas. The spectre of "ugly" Americanism seems to be alive and well in the boorish attitudes that pervade much of the product of "Cablegate". Further contributing to the more surreal aspects of the story are reports that the US Government is warning employees and soldiers not to read classified material, even though it already may be well into the public domain.

These cables have something in common with the e-mails between public officials that have been obtained by our local media in recent weeks. They both illustrate to me that some of our leaders not only misrepresent themselves to other leaders, they also present a questionable example to their subordinates who toil to maintain a standard of behavior and decorum that their customers expect, and that these leaders themselves betray.

I stand guilty as charged for such moments during my career in public service, and there are but a select few of these occurrences that I do not regret. Such is the paradoxical charm of representative government, and the bureaucracy that exists to support and maintain it.

*****

As a volunteer with Mesa County Search and Rescue, the personal information that I provided to the Sheriff's Office as part of the application process may have been part of the information that was put onto an unsecured FTP site in preparation for data conversion and formatting. I expect that I'll be one of many heeding the county's advisory bulletin from last week.

Both County administration and Sheriff Hilkey and his staff deserve credit for quickly bringing the matter to the attention of the citizens they serve. Their commitment to disclosing the issue to the public, cooperating with the media, and being transparent in updating the steps being taken to mitigate the impact of the incident is admirable considering the daunting circumstances.

This doesn't mean that the mistake itself is by any means excusable, but to me it is understandable. The data conversion that necessitated the transfer of information to begin with is part of the procurement of a new Computer Aided Dispatch and Records Management System (CAD/RMS) for the Grand Junction Regional Communication Center and the bulk of the county's local law enforcement. The consolidation of these systems, especially between the GJPD and the Sheriff's Department, has been a long time coming and should be welcomed by those who value the efficiency of information sharing (with appropriate safeguards), the consolidation of similar arms of government, and the leveraging of economies of scale to accomplish both for the benefit of all.

*****

In contrast, the City of Grand Junction has been taken to task for assigning a $1,300 price tag to a citizen's public records request. It should be noted that the request concerns the City's approval of a gravel pit on land annexed into the City that is only accessible through a residential neighborhood that is not in the City. This is yet another consequence of the haphazard annexation and questionable growth that has been the hallmark of the flawed Persigo Agreement between the City and Mesa County since it's adoption in the late 1990's.

Sentinel columnist Denny Herzog made the case that a government committed to transparency in the bulk of its operations would not let such treatment stand. I believe this to be especially true when the citizens requesting this information are essentially powerless to obtain redress at the ballot box or any other reasonable means in a representative democracy, as they do not reside in the City but stand to have their quality of life drastically impacted by a City decision.

Ralph D'Andrea has written several times about these circumstances, as he resides on Orchard Mesa where this latest Persigo travesty has also occurred. A comment to his most recent post on the subject provides information on where to donate in case you would like to help raise the funds necessary for the residents of the 29 3/4 Road area to obtain the information they need, should the City maintain their position on the matter.

Over my years in public service and as a private citizen, I have learned (sometimes the hard way) the value of a civil tongue in written communication whenever possible, in hopes of effectively illustrating the issues at hand and building consensus toward solutions that benefit all stakeholders. I hope that some of the inevitable changes that will take place as a result of these releases and controversies will have at their heart the need to conduct the business of governance with a commitment to openness and respect as a baseline, with discretion and secrecy being utilized with a great deal more judiciousness than in the past.

Time to get ready for work and get the newspaper. Have a good week ahead.

BOHICA - It's COICA

I hope that you and yours had an enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday.

The more that I think about the recent elections, the more I think about how polarized we can be as a nation. One thing that I'm thankful for is seeing people on both sides of this political divide express a deep distrust of the current state of Washington politics, and how the change in control of the House with many new members who thus far have not toed the line of their particular party may prove to pay dividends that we have yet to foresee.

One of those dividends will hopefully be some changes in the manner of conducting business that tends to rear its ugly head when those trying to bring something unsavory to the floor think that we're distracted. This practice is not limited by ideology or political bent; for example, this past week a rather egregious assault on civil liberties in cyberspace made it through a Senate committee.

The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, or COICA, was introduced into the U.S. Senate by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), and passed unanimously through the Senate Judiciary Committee a week ago. The act is intended to stop online copyright infringement and/or the sale of counterfeit goods, and would authorize the Attorney General to effectively shut down any website whose activities it determined were "designed primarily to offer goods or services in violation of federal copyright law".

Numerous online civil liberties groups have raised their voices in protest, spearheaded by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, whose concerns focus on the overly broad language of the bill and its potential effects on those who do not facilitate online piracy, but whose sites may feature discussions or links regarding such activity. Quoting the EFF:

If this bill passes, the list of targets could conceivably include hosting websites such as Dropbox, MediaFire and Rapidshare; MP3 blogs and mashup/remix music sites like SoundCloud, MashupTown and Hype Machine; and sites that discuss and make the controversial political and intellectual case for piracy, like pirate-party.us, p2pnet, InfoAnarchy, Slyck and ZeroPaid. Indeed, had this bill been passed five or ten years ago, YouTube might not exist today. In other words, the collateral damage from this legislation would be enormous.

What concerns me the most about this bill is from where it originates; Some cyber-freedom sites and blogs are citing the contributions made by the entertainment industry, including the RIAA and MPAA, to Sen. Leahy's campaign coffers, and how this overly broad legislation is likely payback for those contributions. Quoting one of these sites:

"COICA is a unconstitutional bailout of our freedoms and Internet civil rights for a specific industry that has troubling implications for everyone. And it's a demonstration of just how dangerous the intersection of corporate lobbyists and politicians can be. Some conservatives believe that supporting capitalism means blindly endorsing any corporate action. It does not. When corporations subvert public representation and harness government force for their own benefit, then they act like a part of the government."

What is particularly troubling is the seeming abandonment of civil liberties principles by those who have previously espoused them, and carry with them the seeming support of that constituency. Of particular concern is the 'yes' vote by Minnesota Senator Al Franken to move COICA out of the Judiciary Committee. Senator Franken must have caught some heat in the form of calls and e-mails (which included one from me), and attempted to clarify his position as a result.

I'm also concerned that among the cacophony of comment from many groups that advocate for online freedom and due process, the ACLU seems to be notably absent from this most recent debate. I've asked the national ACLU office for comment; I'll post whatever I receive back. Hopefully, they won't try to sit this one out like they did with anti-cyberbullying legislation brought by a Democratic congresswoman from California last year.

Closer to the root of this argument, in terms of bad law and/or policy, is ACTA, which I've written about before. Like many others that follow civil liberties issues, I remain very concerned about the potential for the stifling of expression, debate, and innovation through these thinly-disguised attempts to protect the profit margins of a few media and entertainment conglomerates.

Senator Franken stated in his reply that he thought it "unlikely that this bill will come to the floor of the Senate before the end of the year". This delay has been assured thanks to a promise by Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon that he will place a hold on the bill to prevent any attempt to sneak it through the Senate before the end of the year.

Thanks to the due diligence of groups like EFF, this attempt did not go unnoticed, and like the furor over the then-secretive ACTA, the attention drawn to these types of attempts to compromise online expression in the name of protecting commerce will hopefully result in their being kept at bay from passage or consideration for the foreseeable future.

Have a good week ahead.

Roger Ebert - American Man of Letters

A good many of us are familiar with Roger Ebert the film critic through his long-running PBS and syndicated TV show, partnered first with his fellow Chicago-area critic, the late Gene Siskel, and then with Richard Roeper. Others may be more familiar with Mr. Ebert through his recent medical struggles, including numerous cancer surgeries that have left him without a lower jaw and unable to eat, drink, or speak. His efforts to regain a "voice" through the use of a speech synthesizer were well-documented by Esquire Magazine and Oprah earlier this year.

Roger Ebert is much more than just a film critic. He is a highly skilled, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer on all manner of topics, well illustrated not just by his film website, but even more so by his award-winning blog. He has leveraged his understanding of electronic publishing into a sort of critical mass of the blogosphere, replete with his extraordinary writing and some of the most thoughtful reader comments you're likely to find on a single blog site.

It was in Roger Ebert's Journal that I found his latest post, something that spoke to me in ways that I've struggled to express about myself. His topic was loneliness, the desire to be alone, and the desire or need to connect with someone or something:

Lonely people have a natural affinity for the internet. It's always there waiting, patient, flexible, suitable for every mood. But there are times when the net reminds me of the definition of a bore by Meyer the hairy economist, best friend of Travis McGee: "You know what a bore is, Travis. Someone who deprives you of solitude without providing you with companionship."

What do lonely people desire? Companionship. Love. Recognition. Entertainment. Camaraderie. Distraction.Encouragement. Change. Feedback. Someone once said the fundamental reason we get married is because have a universal human need for a witness. All of these are possibilities. But what all lonely people share is a desire not to be -- or at least not to feel -- alone.

This snippet really doesn't do the post justice. You have to read the whole thing. Go to All the Lonely People. I'll just include one more paragraph that speaks about me as much as it does about him:

I've never understood this bittersweet narcissism within myself. I love to wander lonely streets in unknown cities. To find a cafe and order a coffee and think to myself -- here I am, known to no one, drinking my coffee and reading my paper. To sit somewhere just barely out of the rain, and declare that my fortress. I think of myself in the third person: Who is he? What is his mystery? I have explained before how I'm attracted to anonymous formica restaurants where I can read my book and look forward to rice pudding for desert. To leave that warm place and enter the dark city is a strange pleasure. Nostalgia perhaps."

Mr. Ebert's blog, and the online community that flows through it, have gone so far as to cross the boundary from the online to the literary, with the publication of The Pot and How to Use It, a homage to the versatility of the rice cooker. The book originated from a single post, and the comments that came after it formed the foundation for a comprehensive treatise on sustaining oneself with an often underutilized kitchen appliance. I would probably get more use out a rice cooker than the food processor, blender, and slow cooker taking up space in my kitchen at present.

Mr. Ebert will hopefully be around a lot longer to defy the ravages of his cancer, and inform, delight, and enlighten the thousands who watch him on television or appreciate him in print.

Have a great weekend.

The Guggenheim at 51

Today marks the 51st anniversary of the opening of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and opened six months after his death at the age of 91. There is a brief but excellent description of the history of the building in today's Writer's Almanac.

I visited the museum two years ago. As with many other Wright buildings, the Guggenheim is a space that has the ability to transform the senses, and in keeping with that spirit the museum has partnered with YouTube to sponsor and host a biennial festival of the best in creative online video, a medium that has had transforming effects on our society in the last decade. There is an impressive display of some of this video in the clip above. This evening YouTube will live stream the announcement of the best of those videos submitted for consideration.

It's not lost on me that the building is just a little older than I am; the commitment to embracing change, and showcasing the best of that change in celebration of both the medium and the messenger, is one way that the Guggenheim remains relevant to both society and the intentions of its namesake and its architect.

Have a good day.