Adventures in Trunked Radio - Gary Harmon Edition

First things first - this week is National Public Safety Telelcommunicators Week. These professionals are tasked with receiving often fragmented information from hysterical, delusional and often clueless people and turning it into a cohesive informational road map with which to deploy and coordinate the activities of our nation's public safety responders - Police, Fire AND Emergency Medical Services.

They work long, convoluted hours, and with a few noteworthy exceptions are largely taken for granted or marginalized by those whom they serve. Returning to the Pittsburgh area has brought this point home for me rather well. Catching up with the system online, and monitoring local activity, has shown me that there are some areas of the region where everything about the system and its practitioners has changed for the better, and also some pockets of resistance where the dispatch profession is still - still - regarded as something anemically clerical in nature.

If you know a professional Telecommunicator, thank them for their service and commitment this week. Grand Junction's group of professionals will have new digs to ply their trade pretty soon - something largely regarded as a once-in-a career occurrence for most in the profession. Good for them.

A short blurb on the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel website caught my immediate attention this afternoon. Under the headline "GJ awarded money for radios", Sentinel reporter Gary Harmon managed, in four short paragraphs, to put forward at least two inaccuracies, several statements that were unclear, and one old, blatant falsehood that for me made a mockery of a significant event that impacts the future of communications in the rural areas of Mesa County.

The announcement that "Grand Junction" will receive nearly a million dollars to purchase new radios for fire agencies across the county (that is, outside of Grand Junction) was the first head-scratcher for me. What Mr. Harmon probably meant was the Grand Junction Regional Communication Center (GJRCC), operated by the City but serving all county public safety agencies, and which has been coordinating much of the efforts to fund the complete transition of the county's public safety agencies to the Colorado Digital Trunked Radio System (DTRS).

The next whopper was particularly onerous, as it repeats false information reported by the Sentinel as far back as August 2009, which is the last time I wrote about this topic in detail.
Quoting the Sentinel story:

The 800 MHz radios should allow all public-safety agencies to communicate on one frequency with less interruption or loss of service, officials said.

(Note: I can find no press release on the City's website that corresponds with the story quoting these un-named "officials".)

The Federal Communications Commission has mandated all agencies switch to that bandwidth by 2012 and the grant will take care of all the fire-safety agencies in Mesa County as part of an $8.9 million project for public safety across the county.

There is no "mandate" by the FCC or anyone else that public safety agencies abandon their existing radio spectrum for frequencies in the 800 Mhz band. What the FCC did do was to require that all public safety radio users in what is known as the VHF and UHF radio spectrum re-configure both their operating licenses and equipment so that they operate with less space between channels. This known as Narrowbanding, and the deadline for agencies across the country to complete the process is indeed January 1, 2013.

The administration of GJRCC may have decided not to utilize their existing VHF spectrum after the 1/1/13 deadline. If true, this is unfortunate for those very rural fire departments that are benefiting from this latest grant. Many of these departments have their own radio licenses and frequencies that they use for tactical purposes. These agencies may choose to go through with the narrowbanding process for their own frequencies. Their reasons can be summed up in the final misleading statement reported by the Sentinel. To be fair, they are quoting Sen. Mark Udall, although there is no press release on the Senator's website regarding this topic:

“The last thing we want to see is Colorado firefighters losing their calls in an emergency or not being able to communicate with other emergency workers,” Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo. said. “The wildfire season this year has already shaped up to be an aggressive one, making it all the more important that our public-safety officers have the proper equipment to safely do their jobs.”

In most wildland fire scenarios on or near public lands, one of the most important communications links is between local fire responders and the vast, specialized resources of the federal interagency fire system. Responders in this system utilize frequencies and radios in the VHF spectrum that have already been narrowbanded for several years.

There are numerous frequencies, such as common "work" channels, air operations channels, and air-to ground coordination channels, that are standard across the system nationwide. This dovetails with efforts to create a national framework of interoperability channels in several frequency bands for use by any agency that may find itself situated at a major incident - anywhere.

In short, the very radios that Mesa County's rural fire departments are slated to "replace" with these new radios are the very ones they will likely be depending upon to communicate with federal wildland fire resources during a major incident. To be sure, connections will be established so that a VHF and 800 Mhz network can be connected in some way to assist with interoperability efforts on a wide-area basis, but any local engine crew that is supporting a team of federal hotshots in the middle of nowhere is going to need their VHF radio.

Contrary to the ministrations of Gary Harmon and whoever was feeding him this crap, reports of the demise of radio spectrum other than 800 Mhz for public safety have been highly exaggerated. In fact, a significant number of public safety agencies in Colorado that have transitioned to the State DTRS have re-licensed their old VHF or UHF frequencies for narrowband use. I wonder why...

Thanks to all the Dispatchers out there.

Have a good week ahead.

Bookstores - The Phoenix of Old Media

I was in Pittsburgh with Leslie from Sunday afternoon until Wednesday evening. We had several things to do regarding the wedding, which included applying for our marriage license. We did this on Valentine's Day - I took her out to dinner that evening, and then to an Irish Pub (she likes those) in the Regent Square section of Pittsburgh.

We got most of what we needed to get done taken care of, and discovered a couple more things that need to be addressed. We're not having a sumptuous affair by any means, but where we've decided to have it, who is or isn't coming, and what is and isn't happening are complicating things slightly. I'm confident that it will all work out as it should. Add to this the fact that Leslie started a new job on Thursday, and things begin to approach a critical mass of sorts. I move in a little over two weeks. Enough said - onward..

I got back to Grand Junction early Thursday morning to find that the reported bankruptcy of Borders Books had claimed the chain's Grand Junction store as a casualty. This is personal - I love bookstores, and helped to set up and open this place almost seven years ago. I worked there part-time and on weekends for about a year. They encouraged people to "adopt" a section of the store and work on it until it was fully stocked and merchandised properly - Art and Architecture was my section.

Borders' demise was reportedly hastened by the softening of the book market in general as a result of online sellers such as Amazon undercutting full retail prices. The chain also seemed to take a somewhat ham-handed approach to the burgeoning e-reader marketplace. I can't fault them, as I have taken the same approach - I want nothing to do with them.

I can understand and embrace technology with the same deliberate speed as the rest of the world, if necessary. I rarely find it to be so. This is much the same when it comes to books. The tactile satisfaction that comes from the handling of a trade-size paperback is amplified by the wealth of ideas contained within it.

Even though I read fewer books at a quantitative level, I own a lot of them. The ones I enjoy and refer to the most will travel with me. A good portion of them have already been passed along to the next generation, as I expect all of them will someday. "To my children, I bequeath my early 20th century set of Dickens" seems more important and heartfelt than "my Kindle and all of its digital contents". I also seriously doubt the ability of any iPad to effectively duplicate a large photo of a Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece, resplendent on glossy, thick paper and bound in a large volume on a coffee table.

I felt some of that sentimentality in Emily Anderson's (paywalled) reporting on the local closing in the Sentinel. She interviewed several customers who seemed accustomed to browsing with a cup of coffee, enjoying the peacefulness and near solemnity of the place. The Grand Junction Borders, like many of their stores, is a well-designed, functional and comfortable space to be in. It will be missed.

In what seems to be an almost paradoxical turn of events in the Internet age, Ms. Anderson also deftly demonstrated the survival skills of independent and used booksellers in the Grand Valley. From those accounts, things like a focus on a niche subject, providing specialized or more personal customer service, and a quaint or otherwise special atmosphere have helped to cement the independent bookseller as a larger force in the industry than the sum of its' parts.

Many hours of my childhood were spent in the Penguin Bookshop in Sewickley, PA. The business has been in Sewickley since 1929. In 2007, both the business and the building that housed it were purchased, razed, and rebuilt into an impressive venue.

The owners have leveraged and embraced the power of the Internet, as well as tapped into the energy of a network of independent bookstores, to make their location uniquely positioned and collectively relevant. Just by surfing their website for this post, I found that a new volume of previously unpublished short stories by the late Kurt Vonnegut has just been released. I think I will ask Leslie to reserve it for me at the library, for after I get settled there.

In Ray Bradbury's science fiction masterpiece Fahrenheit 451, human beings literally "become" the books that were banned as part of what Wikipedia describes as "a hedonistic anti-intellectual America that has completely abandoned self-control". The book ends with a seemingly paradoxical but appropriate premise, given the occupation of the main character - a society raising itself from the ashes in part from the realization of what it was, and of the past it gave up.

Books are hardly headed for the ash can - I have hope that our society will avoid the temporary pitfalls of the latest, greatest, most hyped-up "next new thing", and embrace what really matters - what in many cases can be found in a book. That includes "The Good Book", regardless of what you may read on the web.

Have a great weekend.

Sports News and Ancient History

Two sports stories stuck out for me yesterday, because they touched upon professional sporting events that I was present at.

I don't get to many pro sports events. Maybe this summer I'll take in a Pirate game from the outfield seats at PNC Park - that's about all I can probably afford. I continue to marvel at the cost of hockey tickets. When I was in high school, $10.00 got you round trip bus fare and a nosebleed seat for the Penguins, with spare change sufficient for a drink or popcorn. Now I doubt that you can park the car for that much.

The effort by the Dallas Cowboys and the NFL to make the Super Bowl a giant telephone booth, and try to stuff as many people into it as they could, turned into an epic fail, thanks in part to the Arlington Fire Department and their no-nonsense policy toward safety.

The NFL and the Cowboys were trying to surpass the record attendance for a Super Bowl, which was set at Super Bowl XIV at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena - the one with the Little Old Lady, not the one that used to have Gilley's. That 1980 game drew 103,985 people - this year's attempt to fill a $1 Billion sardine can in a giant freezer where North Texas should have been fell short by a mere 766.

The fans that paid premium prices for those unusable seats were peeved. Despite attempts by the NFL to mollify their grief with tickets to a future Super Bowl and other compensation, the weepy well-heeled were largely unimpressed, and with the assistance of drooling trial lawyers the lawsuits have started.

Serves the NFL and the Cowboys right. Among those 103,985 fans in Pasadena 31 years ago were myself, my brother, and my father. Some records were just meant to stand. That was the last NFL game I ever saw in person. It was fun jawing with some of the Rams fans that surrounded us, and it was a nice vantage point to see John Stallworth catch a beautifully thrown Bradshaw pass in stride for a 75-yard TD and the lead for good. Still, football is better on TV.

The last NBA game I ever saw in person was on December 9, 1988. I was in Salt Lake City for the inaugural International Conference of Emergency Medical Dispatch (now known as Navigator), and decided to spend one evening watching the Utah Jazz. I was a fan of their curmudgeonly coach, Frank Layden. The news cycle that evening was full of reports that Layden was stepping down to join the front office. His replacement, starting with that night's game, was Jerry Sloan.

Layden came out for a pre-game tribute and received a standing ovation. He remains very popular in the Salt Lake area to this day. The Jazz, whose roster included a rookie named John Stockton and some guy named Karl Malone, lost to the Dallas Mavericks that night.

Jerry Sloan remained the Head Coach of the Jazz until yesterday, completing the longest tenure of any current head coach in professional sports. He led the Jazz, with the familiar call of Stockton-to-Malone, to two NBA finals, and had the team in the playoffs the bulk of his coaching career.

He thanked the Miller family, majority owners of the Jazz, for their support and for their policy of allowing the coaches to manage the team with minimal interference. Sloan's success may not be defined by championships, but will be by the consistent, sustainable quality of his team's play over 23 years. There's something to be said about that philosophy.

Consider the Steelers, who despite Sunday's Super Bowl loss have had quite the run of quality teams over the last 40 years. This includes being a participant in 18% of all the Super Bowls ever played - 8 out of 45. Perhaps a lot of the credit for this belongs with the Rooney family's approach to hiring and supporting management, which sounds similar to the Jazz in that the Steelers, since 1969, have had exactly 3 head coaches - and all of them have won at least one Super Bowl.

Now to get back to my usual sports activities - rooting for the Pens (get well, everybody), and reading Tank McNamara - a hilarious comic strip that pokes fun at some of the hype and ridiculousness of the sports world today.

Have a good weekend.

The Power of Teamwork

A multiple-choice question has been going through my head:

What were factors in the Steelers' loss to the Packers in the Super Bowl?

A. Me putting my Steeler jersey on backwards by accident (I did)
B. Pittsburgh native Christina Aguilera mangling the national anthem
C. Too many mistakes on both sides of the ball
D. Utter confusion during the last 4th quarter drive
E. All of the above.

The answer doesn't really matter. Perhaps the best answer is the simplest one - the best team that showed up was the one that won.

This may be a ham-handed segué to another story about teamwork in Pennsylvania, but it has implications for Coloradans as well, and it's worth the lead-up.

A story in Sunday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette detailed the activities and effectiveness of groups of landowners who have been negotiating collectively with energy "landmen" seeking leases for drilling in the Marcellus Shale formation. Some key points and quotes:

• "We have to stick together. It's the strength-in-numbers strategy," the Loretto (Pa.) group's lead organizer, Lee Wyland, told his members at the beginning of the two-hour-long meeting. "If we don't, they will pick us apart one-by-one -- there's no doubt about it."

• These landowner groups "have become a major force in the industry, educating their members, usually resulting in higher payments and more environmental controls for landowners than they would have gotten as individuals".

• When interest in the Marcellus Shale started to ramp up a few years ago, many landowners confused by the offers they were receiving reached out to the cooperative extension service at Penn State for information and assistance. Numerous community meetings later, these self-described "farm families" have learned the power of effective organizing and negotiation.

• The story quotes the director of a royalty managers' trade group about efforts at organizing for the purpose of negotiating leases in other areas of the country:

"There is a cultural difference particular to Pennsylvania and New York," (Jerry Simmons) said. "In the Rocky Mountain west, in particular, everyone is kind of on their own, an individual attitude."

To be sure, there is lots of grassroots community organizing going on in Colorado and elsewhere. Groups such as Battlement Concerned Citizens and the Western Colorado Congress have worked hard to educate and advocate for more intensive study of drilling and fracking. This includes outright opposition to these activities without additional government scrutiny and regulatory oversight.

It's also true that there are significant differences in the circumstances. I don't think there are that many split estate situations in the Eastern U.S., and there's significantly less public lands.

Still, imagine a group of private landowners, let's say in Garfield County, collectively negotiating a drilling lease for all involved lands. Through cooperative pooling of resources and procurement of expertise, they are able to agree to a fair price. Included in the agreement are certain environmental clauses that whoever drills those leases must adhere to, on pain of withdrawal of permission and possible dissolution of the agreement for all drilling locations. A portion of the agreement proceeds would be set aside to assist with the necessary compliance monitoring processes.

How would something like this look politically? Would it dovetail with Governor Hickenlooper's stated desire for responsible energy development? How would such news be received by those on the GOP and/or Tea Party (are they interchangeable?) forefront, who disdain what they see as government running amuck where it should not?

This sounds like win-win to me:

• Our country needs the energy that sits beneath us, but it must be extracted with respect for the surface and those who live on and/or farm that earth.

• The energy companies and lease landmen are not going away; they see profits from the energy beneath the ground, and have the resources to expend on leases that will likely yield considerable earnings. They would prefer to pay a fair price to a large organized group, saving them time and expense from having to deal with individual landowners.
  

• Given the aforementioned profit potential when faced with an organized, informed group of landowners backed by an effective regulatory structure, respecting the environment becomes just the cost of doing business.

• The community at large benefits from the infusion of lease proceeds and employment into the engine of the local and regional economy. The organized groups find that their collective political and economic strength allows them to advocate and become a partner for positive change in the communities where they reside.
  

• Government intervention is balanced with respect for both private property and human rights, with effective strategies in place to avoid repeating the tragic historical lessons of communism and feudalism, not to mention socialism or the environmental scars of unbridled capitalism.
  

A Utopian pipe dream? Perhaps. I look at it this way - anything that educates and mobilizes the people to help them achieve a greater quality of life together than separately cannot be a bad thing. Greed and other misunderstandings will always be there - but the message will continue to be firmly reinforced in our collective psyche that we are better off together than we are apart.

Our current political climate and economic systems, reinforced by commercial media, seem designed with the express purpose of dividing us into segments of a society, too addled with individual concerns and mistrust to work together. The promise of the Internet and social media to mobilize for change - particularly in places like Egypt - must be balanced with a strong desire to work together and avoid the paradoxical, destructive, collective narcissism that comes along with the world of the electronic screen.

Teamwork - strength in numbers - collectivism - any label you place on what's happening in Pennsylvania and New York with respect to drilling can translate to the potential for improving the American condition. I think this is one big reason that the competitive nature of humanity, combined with the freedoms that Americans have been blessed with and have a responsibility to uphold, is one of the greatest forces for positive change that history has ever seen.

Have a good week ahead.

Lots About Watts

Happy February.

Because I've had an affinity for radio nearly all of my life, I pay attention to those things that keep broadcast radio headed in what I consider the correct direction - connected and responsive to the listener, accountable to the public interest, a beacon for connecting a community together instead of creating divisiveness.

There are a few things happening in the arena of non-commercial radio - mostly the left side of the FM dial - that may stand to enhance the diversity and viability of this resource in Grand Junction and across the country.

Watts Low

The most significant development for the majority of the country's population was the passage of the Local Community Radio Act, signed into law by President Obama last month. The real impact of this law is on the 50 largest media markets, where the expansion of low power FM stations has been hampered by regulations that prevent the use of adjacent frequencies at closer channel spacing.

Spearheaded largely through the efforts of the Prometheus Radio Project and others, this loosening of channel spacing will facilitate the establishment of community radio stations that serve more specific geographical areas and populations.

You'd be surprised with how many FM radio stations are licensed in the Grand Junction area. There are a lot of low power stations here - many are broadcasting Christian programming - but only one station is licensed as a Low Power FM station. This has a lot to do with the mountains that surround us, and the coverage that a station can get with a lower power transmitter placed at a higher altitude.

For example, the aforementioned "Low Power" station, located at the Colorado State Building downtown, has a licensed output of 100 watts, but their transmitter is actually below the average terrain of the area. This station, at 106.7 FM, transmits highway information and local National Weather Service broadcasts.

Contrast this with KAFM Community Radio, licensed at only 16 watts, but with their transmitter located at the radio and TV "antenna farm" on Black Ridge, west of town above the Colorado National Monument and about 2,000 feet above the valley floor. KAFM's signal actually has a much greater coverage footprint than the much more powerful signal coming from the state building. Unfortunately, this signal does not penetrate structures or terrain features well, resulting in "dead spots" caused by both terrain and the density of many buildings in the valley.

Watts Up

As a volunteer at KAFM since it's beginnings, I'm aware of and have been supportive of their ongoing efforts to improve signal strength and in-building coverage. The FCC recently approved a power increase for KAFM from 16 to 300 watts. This will help fill the existing coverage gaps, and allow listeners to tune in without significant issues across the valley, and as far south as Delta.

The Watts Up capital campaign is an effort to put the new FCC authorization to work, with not only a new transmitter and tower, but also improvements to the station's studios and physical plant in Downtown GJ. The challenges of fundraising in the current economic climate have been compounded by a recent change in administration at the station, with some accompanying discontent that has caused departures of both paid and volunteer staff.

Things feel like they're beginning to stabilize a bit, but it's still awfully quiet there some days. Perhaps down the road some of these creative folk may decide that their passion for community-based media trumps the personalities involved. Some that have moved on will stay moved on - like me in about a month.

In any event, KAFM needs community support, in both dollars and sweat equity, to keep the mission and the beauty of community media alive in Grand Junction. Please consider supporting the capital campaign, or during the upcoming Spring Fund Drive in mid-March. Better yet, contribute your time and expertise to the station as a volunteer.

Watts Preserved

A broadcast radio license is a valuable commodity, even in the non-commercial, not-for-profit arena. Back in Pittsburgh, the pending sale of a popular non-commercial radio station operated by Duquesne University prompted concerns from the staff and community media advocates that the frequency might end up in commercial hands.

Luckily, a partnership between community station WYEP and a Boulder-based non-profit has been named the successful bidder for the license of WDUQ. This new partnership is now in the process of polling the community for input about how programming should change..or not.

WDUQ's popular jazz music programming will likely remain one of the benchmarks of the station's presence in the area.

I mention Pittsburgh because of two trends that are applicable to that area that aren't in Grand Junction. One is the impact of the Local Community Radio Act on Pittsburgh as a major media market. It will be interesting to see what grassroots efforts pop up. Another factor is the presence of HD Radio, where many stations, commercial and non-profit, transmit a digital signal with multiple channels of programming. WDUQ, for example, dedicates one digital channel to the BBC World Service, 24 hours a day. Once I get settled there, I hope to be able to get involved with community radio at some level.

There are many HD-equipped stations on the Front Range, along with a few public stations in southwest Colorado, but not a single broadcast outlet in Grand Junction offers HD Radio. Someone who's sticking around ought to ask why.

Watts Crazy

Low Power stations can and should be representative of a local community or segment of a community, and I would hope that those who obtain licenses through the new law will use it to enhance the experience of living in a society where free expression and discourse is respected and embraced.

Such was not the case last month in Greeley. A local school board member who also owns a low power FM station and a daily newspaper in that area came under fire for airing editorials critical of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and was the subject of a restraining order for leaving threats on the voice mail of the manager of a competing radio station.

This kind of discourse and disagreement, aside from the threats, is what makes America a great place. It's not really surprising that stations with a more conservative approach to things will pop up with low-power FM licenses, especially those who wish to emulate what they hear on AM talk radio. Hey, free speech is for extremists, too.

Watts Real and Relevant

Regardless of the types of discourse, entertainment and diversion, the option is ours as a people to listen or watch what we choose, and turn off that which we don't care much for. In this context, I am very thankful for the Internet, which allows me and thousands of others around the U.S. to enjoy the coverage of the uprising in Egypt from Al Jazeera English. Most American cable companies and satellite providers do not carry this English-language channel of the venerable, Qatar-based news service, and according to at least one blog that's more than just a little hypocritical. Quoting a new anchor on the network:

We're not entirely blocked, but we're a "taboo" to some crucial decision-makers in the TV business, that's the problem...Given the poisonous smear against us over the years, are cable providers hesitant to carry us? Yes. That's where we hope that US citizens like yourself can lobby hard to give us the choice. I'm sure amid thousands of channels that include those dedicated to Kim Kardashian, shopping addictions, evangelism, hardcore porn, NFL and local news channels where the top story is always the traffic congestion, that the land of the free can find a spot for us!

For me as a little boy growing up, radio was a comforting voice late at night in the dark. As I grew, I realized the continued power of this now seemingly simple and antiquated medium to inform, enlighten, and entertain. Even in the wee hours, slowly manipulating the tuning dial on a shortwave to try to pull in the weakest vestige of Radio Prague, or today listening to the folksy ruminations of Garrison Keillor, there's fascination, escapism, and life and death before your very ears. Think this stuff isn't important? Ask the folks in Egypt or Tunisia.

Have a great day.

Rocks and Hard Places - The Movie

Evan got back into town on Sunday morning, and that afternoon we headed over to the Regal to take in 127 Hours. We had been waiting, with varying degrees of patience, for this acclaimed independent film to arrive in Grand Junction, which is also where Aron Ralston arrived in May 2003 after amputating his own arm with a dull multi-tool to free himself from a boulder that had trapped him in Blue John Canyon near Moab, Utah. 127 Hours is the dramatization of Mr. Ralston's story, based on his book Between a Rock and a Hard Place.

I remember when this happened. The story started spreading around the GJ public safety community not long after Mr. Ralston was transferred here from Moab. The media picked up on it shortly thereafter, and soon there were satellite trucks in St. Mary's parking lot, and Mr. Ralston and his parents gave numerous interviews from outside the building. There's even a Pittsburgh connection to all of this; Mr. Ralston went to college at Carnegie-Mellon.

The film is excellent. A strong performance from James Franco as Ralston, and a solid script makes what is essentially the story of one man's struggle to free himself interesting and compelling throughout. A friend on Facebook saw something that I did as well; the depiction of Mr. Ralston's descent into near-delirium as dehydration and the other effects of his plight began to take their toll, and how this also represents a deconstruction of Mr. Ralston's character. This is especially evident as Mr. Ralston is depicted going through different stages of regret over becoming estranged from family members, losing a relationship, and most significantly not telling anyone where he was going.

For me, an essential message of the film was the need for and power of interdependence, even in the face of fierce independence and a solitary struggle for survival. I can identify with this because I've enjoyed being alone at times in my life, but always had someone to lean on when I needed to. Reaching out and connecting with others who care about you, even when it's perceptibly easier not to, can be difficult but is no less important to our well-being as individuals. I have yet to read Mr. Ralston's book, but it will probably end up in my pile before long.

The film was featured at this year's Telluride Film Festival, and opened on November 12th at the Mayan Theater in Denver, with Mr. Ralston present for questions and answers after the first showing. It took until the 24th to open in Grand Junction, and will open in Aspen (where Mr. Ralston lived at the time) this coming Friday. The film has yet to open in Moab, the closest populated area to where all this happened.

I guess that the economics of movie distribution don't always take into account the local interest that a film might generate, at least in the case of a smaller independent film like this one.

In any event, it was worth the wait. Hopefully it will stick at the Regal for a while.

Have a good evening.

Football: Fruita's Fruition, and Frustrating Folly

Congratulations to the Fruita Cowboys heavyweight youth football team, which routed Palisade 40-6 in their league championship game last night. This is the team that was coached by the late John Fullmer, who was killed in a car accident in September. The team had dedicated their season to the memory of Coach Fullmer, and it's a fitting tribute to a man who put forward so much of his passion and commitment into the sport. Great job, kids.

James Harrison - from facebook.com

At the same time, there is a controversy afoot in professional football that for many strikes at the core of the game; the ability of a player to do what he has been taught to do since he began to play, perhaps as young as those boys in Fruita.

The furor emanating from players, fans, and media alike over the NFL's stated intent to suspend players who are judged to have tackled or hit another player in an excessive manner has taken a unique turn in recent days, focused primarily on the reaction of Pittsburgh Steeler James Harrison to being fined $75,000 for a hit on a Cleveland Browns player this past Sunday.

Harrison is a very talented, very passionate player who has enjoyed great success. He also wears his heart on his sleeve and demonstrates a commitment to his profession that is an example for anyone who pursues a profession of any kind. As such, it's not that surprising to me that Harrison and his agent publicly acknowledged that he is considering quitting the game in response to what is happening to it.

The reaction to Mr. Harrison's statements have ranged from accusing him of whining to a passionate support of his stance in relation to other attempts by the league to profit from the sport's often violent nature, while leveling punishment when it is needed to save face. ESPN analyst Mark Schlereth called the NFL out for this very thing, and made several valid points.

I can easily dismiss this in comparison to other problems in my world and elsewhere, perhaps even with the cliche' "it's just a game". As we all know, however, it's more than that - it's a billion-dollar business with great numbers of citizens expending considerable financial, mental, and temporal resources as fans.

The NFL expects its players to set examples for those in our country who look up to them as role models and representatives of the league. In that context, I thought about what would happen if players like James Harrison decided that their own self-respect and work ethic trumped the considerable financial rewards that come from their participation, and elected to walk away from the game. What sort of message would that deliver, I wonder?

It will be interesting to watch how this plays out in the coming weeks. The NFL is apparently having problems selling out games of late. I feel that if they continue along this path, combined with the possibility of labor unrest after this season, the attractiveness of the game to those who play it and watch it will continue to diminish.

HAZMAT Alert

                                                         Rob Rogers - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Be real careful what you wade into out there.

Answered Prayers and Accepting Loss

As much as the world appeared transfixed by the rescue of the 33 miners in Chile over the last day or so, I was impressed more with the quiet resolve of the rescue crew as they went about their work, saving the fanfare for the moment when each of the trapped miners made their way to the surface. A friend of mine put it nicely in an e-mail last night:

While we all are thankful for the answered prayers for the 33 miners from Chile safely out of the mine, we need to take a moment and focus on the 5 rescuers who willingly allowed themselves to be put down the mine, not knowing whether the rescue mission would succeed or whether the first attempt would cave in the mine and they all would die?  God Bless Them!  They are the personification of those we take for granted daily:  our police, our fireman our paramedics and EMT's.  How many of us do as great a job of walking in the path of Jesus?

She made a great point; it takes a great deal of individual resolve - call it faith, perhaps - to function as a responder in today's world, without succumbing to cynicism or outright contempt for many of the people that come into contact with responders and rescuers every day. To quote The Matrix, "there's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path". 

Leslie and I spoke briefly about the miners last night. I'm grateful for their rescue, and while I hope that they can someday tell their stories to an undoubtedly curious world, I also agree with Leslie that they should be left alone until they're comfortable in doing so on their own.

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While celebrating the seeming result of the collective prayers of the world, I must also reflect on the recent loss of another child to cancer.

Jake Hubsch, along with his parents Don and Erica and siblings Aesha and Fletcher, were neighbors and friends of Leslie, Gianna, and Michaela. Jake lost his battle with cancer last Saturday at the age of 10. 

I did not know Jake and his family as well as Leslie did, although our paths did cross more than once at Children's Hospital while both he and Michaela were there, and the family came to help remember Michaela after her passing in July.

Jake's life will be celebrated this evening at St. Stephen's Church in Sewickley, PA.

The worldly side of me laments at the number of people I have personally known and loved that have been taken from this world by cancer, especially children. Despite these feelings, I must also resolve myself to quietly accept the outcome, to be a better steward of God's love for all those He created, and be an instrument of His peace for anyone that He places in the path He has set before me.

These are easy words to type, to know...not so easy to walk.

My thoughts and prayers are with Jake's family.

Have a good day.

This Date in Baseball History

I was only seven months old when it happened, but the reverberations of this occurrence certainly impacted my childhood:

 
In later life, I sometimes reflect on this singular moment as something that defined what makes sports what it is to a lot of people. It certainly means a lot to the people of Pittsburgh, where this kind of history is ingrained in the culture. 

The Pittsburgh media have been providing special coverage of the 1960 World Series for several months now, ramping up to today. Today's gathering at what is known as Mazeroski's wall is an annual occurrence, but amplified by the anniversary as you would expect. Luckily, Bill Mazeroski is still around and very able to take part in the festivities. 

It's a great moment, made even greater by the Pirates being a decided underdog, and beating the Yankees.

Have a great day. 

Fracking, Fusion, and Foolishness

Leetsdale, PA - Over the last couple of weeks I've been following a story out of Pennsylvania that has implications across the homeland security and civil liberties fronts, as well as the continuing battle lines being drawn over energy development, particularly gas drilling and the use of hydraulic fracturing ('fracking') technologies.  

The story involves the Pennsylvania Department of Homeland Security (PA DHS), and its use of a private company, the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response (ITRR), to provide it with intelligence information concerning potential threats to likely terrorism targets within that state.  

The outcry surrounding this appears to have resulted in the cancellation of the contract by Governor Ed Rendell, and this past weekend's report of the resignation of the Director of PA DHS, James Powers.  

As it happens, ITRR's classification of individuals and activities as 'threats' included people and organizations involved in lawful protest and dissent, largely directed toward the extraction of energy resources from the Marcellus Shale formation. They also reported on activities surrounding campaigns for gay rights, and even on a non-profit supporting an education bill that also happened to be supported by Gov. Rendell.  

The resulting revelations have been unfortunate to both the causes of providing credible information on potential threats to our nation's critical infrastructure, and the right of our citizens to use their constitutional rights to petition their government, and express themselves freely, without fear of reprisal.

Gov. Rendell and his staff were quick to address the issue publicly, even in the face of questions regarding what the Governor knew and when he knew it. They then ordered PA DHS to publish online every single intel bulletin they received from ITRR.  

While privately operated by American and Israeli (?) concerns, ITRR can be compared in some context with the fusion centers operated by many state governments since after 9/11. The US Office of Justice Programs defines a Fusion Center as:

"..an effective and efficient mechanism to exchange information and intelligence, maximize resources, streamline operations, and improve the ability to fight crime and terrorism by merging data from a variety of sources".

The national ACLU office has been monitoring and attempting to address issues arising from fusion centers for several years now. According to a 2007 report, the ACLU cited the following bullet-point concerns:

• Ambiguous Lines of Authority - Who is really in charge, and what are their policies concerning effective operations that are within legal boundaries?
• Private Sector Participation - See the ITRR above.
• Military Participation - Involves the regular military in domestic law enforcement, a questionable and potentially illegal practice.
• Data Fusion = Data Mining, and associated privacy concerns. 
• Excessive Secrecy - I could tell you why I'm looking for this information, but I'd have to kill you.

Colorado has a state-operated fusion center, the Colorado Information Analysis Center (CIAC). Because I spend a lot of time in both Pennsylvania and Colorado, I was interested in finding out more about the nature of the CIAC's operations, especially in analyzing information concerning energy development and fracking, a commonality between the two jurisdictions.

To that end, on September 24 I sent an e-mail to Evan Dreyer from Governor Bill Ritter's press office, requesting comment on the current situation in Pennsylvania, and what policies are in place or being considered to prevent similar activity at CIAC.

To date I have not received a reply. I sent another request today, and will publish whatever reply I receive.

Have a great week ahead. 

Guardians of Stone

Grand Junction - I returned late this past Tuesday night, and have spent the days since going through mail, catching up on issues around the house, working, and generally trying to shake a quiet melancholy that accompanies every departure from Leslie.

One thing that I grew more familiar with while I was in Pittsburgh was the operations of cemeteries, particularly Sewickley Cemetery, where Michaela is interred. This cemetery has a reputation for meticulous care of their grounds, and for maintaining and encouraging a connection to the history of both the cemetery itself and the community it serves. People started being buried there over 30 years before George Crawford laid eyes on the Grand Valley, and the cemetery celebrated its 150th anniversary this year.

While accompanying Leslie to the cemetery several times before and after Michaela's passing, I was intrigued by the processes, design methods, and meticulous maintenance required to keep such a facility operating in an organized, cohesive fashion. The records of burial sites and maps of burial plots, all maintained by hand or typewritten on cards, set the foundation on which the cemetery is organized and maintained.

Policies regarding certain portions of the cemetery and what can be placed there were also something I was surprised by. In many cemeteries, only grave markers or headstones that are flush to the ground are permitted where there is a hill or incline. This is to allow for maintenance to take place in a more efficient manner, as lawn equipment, tractors, cranes, or excavating machines must be able to freely navigate these areas when necessary. Also, if one wants to erect a grave marker, coordination with the cemetery not only to allow for its placement, but also to have the ground made level and a concrete foundation poured and ready, is essential.

Like many, I never really gave much thought to these intricacies. Cemeteries by and large are out of sight and mind unless you have a loved one there. They offer a connection for the living to those they love who have passed away. They commemorate the sacrifices and loss of too many in times of war. They allow for a place to observe and remember those events in our history.

One memorial located at Sewickley that I made a point of seeing was the USAir Flight 427 memorial. I was working at Life Flight in Pittsburgh on Sept. 8, 1994 when this flight crashed north of the Pittsburgh airport, taking 132 lives. I have a connection to this event that has led me to read many reports and books about it. Yet it was this memorial that helped me to connect to the most important part of the tragedy; the holes left in families, work environments, and the fabric of how our society holds itself together.

A prominent and important feature of cemeteries, especially around Memorial Day, is all those little American flags that adorn the graves of veterans buried there. This struck me as particularly important, as some of the flags at Sewickley Cemetery are placed at the graves of Civil War veterans.

I also thought that this practice was of particular significance, along with the meticulous recordkeeping and maintenance practices, in the wake of the recent news concerning the mismanagement of one of this nation's most hallowed places, Arlington National Cemetery. It's personally hard for me to fathom how those charged with operating the facility with any measure of efficiency could somehow mess up the locations of as many as 6,600 graves.

These errors must have been something that compounded over many years, and the resignation of Arlington's superintendent, hired during the Bush 41 administration, is something that had to happen for the cemetery to move forward. With the help of some technology companies in northern Virginia, Arlington will (finally?) begin the process of digitizing the paper records that it has operated with since Day 1. The staff at Sewickley Cemetery told us that their staff is also beginning the process of entering their records into a digital database, which only makes sense when the contents of numerous file cabinets can be preserved in a virtual state and stored on a small memory card or flash drive.

The digital revolution is also entering the realm of the cemetery in ways that are even more novel and unique. Earlier this year I wrote about the emergence of QR barcodes as a way of linking physical items with limited space, such as printed newspapers and sign-based advertising, with the vast information delivery capabilities of the Internet. Seems that a western Pennsylvania company has taken a page from the Japanese (can't imagine what it must be like to run a cemetery there), and developed a way to link QR barcodes on grave markers to virtual content about the individuals or families buried there that can be accessed via a smartphone.

The owner of this company said in the newspaper story that '"I hate to think that life comes down to this dash' between the birth and death dates on a tombstone." Well, it really does. The poet Linda Ellis has very popularly expanded on this in her poem "The Dash", which Leslie shared with me a couple of years back. It reads, in part:

It matters not how much you own
The cars..the house..the cash
What matters is how you live and love
And how you spend your dash

So in this digital age there emerges a way not only to preserve and catalog those parts of our history represented by those time-weathered stones overlooking, or on the edge of, a town, but to embellish them with a much richer experience of the challenges, the loves, the struggles, and the joys of those who came before us.

I have admittedly been ignorant of the richness of life that one can experience by walking among the dead. Spending more time in a cemetery has reminded me of a great deal that was just filed away as insignificant or too painful, and has given me new appreciation for these places to convey a greater sense of who we were, so that perhaps we can make better sense of who we are.

Thanks to those who are charged with managing these places of repose, all too seemingly forgotten at times, who exercise their duties with the dedication and respect that such a place demands.

While it's on my mind, I'd like to express my condolences to the family and friends of Rebekah King, a co-worker from Cabela's whom I knew, unfortunately, only in passing. Bekah was taken from this world by a drunk driver after only 20 years on this Earth. God's intent in these matters notwithstanding, it's hard to see a promising life snuffed out in such a way.

Bekah's funeral was today. Please remember her, and many others like her, as we continue to struggle with the social paradoxes associated with alcohol and other things that we seem hell-bent on bending our reality with.

Have a good weekend.


Photo Credit: Rebecca Droke, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (barcode on headstone)

Michaela At Rest

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,”

even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for the darkness is as light to you;

For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.

- Psalms 139:11-14
(NRSV)