The Prehistory of Santa Cruz, a parabull

Once upon a time there was a tribe of true believers. They maintained that all people were exactly equal and should always be treated as such, be they young or old, rich or poor, wise or foolish, good or bad. Only people who believed other than this could be judged and thus shunned.

This tribe was also a very insecure group. They all felt lonely and isolated, constantly fearing that no one else shared their views or their feelings. One by one they realized that if they showed their positions and feelings publicly, others would see and gravitate to them, thus reinforcing them and making them feel valued and loved.

So they elected to print their philosophies of life on signs, with no more than ten words, as most were semi literate at best. Then they would pick up their signs and walk around the village square and congregate with others with similar signs. From this a now well known question was born, "What's your sign."

Soon people realized that if they had many signs, each proclaiming a different facet of their belief system, they could interact with everyone in the community and thus be accepted and loved. Soon, carrying signs became the entire purpose of the community.

Sacred /site! Oh really?

If you turn up soil anywhere, except perhaps Antarctica, you'll probably find some human remains. We've been spreading ourselves all over the planet for something in excess of 100,000 years (6,000 if you're a fundamentalist).  In essence, the whole world is living people above, cemetery below. After all, we don't bury folks up in trees.

Some local building project has been interrupted because of some Native American bones, approximately 6,000 year old bones. Some archeologist determined they were Ohlone, and thus contacted the remaining members of that tribe. The spokeswoman said these are her ancestors and can't be disturbed. I think of ancestors as going back perhaps ten generations. Beyond that we find ourselves in the deep end of the gene pool and have no idea who is related, or rather that everyone is related.

Naturally, these modern Ohlone folks had no idea there were ancestors buried there and wouldn't have, had not the builders dug them up. It seems a stretch, but then we've treated the Native Americans so badly that we know bend over backward to be respectful.

At the same time some Native Amcricans in Riverside Country are protesting another project. It seems that's the site of what they believe is where the world was created. Now, perhaps their preliterate ancestors believed that, but I'm sure the folks now protesting don't. I think we're all on the same page regarding cosmic creation (fundamentalists, please excuse me). 

The telling thing is that these folks in Riverside County built a big casino complex near this sacred site, but again, that benefits them, so maybe "sacred site" is a relative term.

While I think that there are at least as many bad developments as there are good, I think this sacred site argument is just shy of silly. However, if the rest of the world doesn't agree with me, there's a spot on Signal Hill in Long Beach that I'm going to designate as a sacred site. It's where I lost my virginity.

BART cuts cell phone service

A group calling themselves Anonymous hacked into the BART computer system because BART blocked cell phone service underground for a time. This ostensibly had to do with free speech. Free speech means you have the right to stand up and say what you want, even print it and hand it out. However, there's another "free" in free speech. The newspapers are not obliged to print your rant, unless you elect to pay for space. The same applies to radio and TV. 

Cell phone service is just that, a service, provided by businesses. If BART provides it in their tunnel system, it's a service, just as a glass of water at a restaurant, or a bench at a bus stop. BART is under no obligation to provide anything other than safe and reliable  transportation from point A to point B. The rest is a perk for riders. They could offer glasses of wine and movies if they choose, perhaps even circus acts, but these would not suddenly become a right.

These anarchist groups seem to want it both ways: no rules and regulations, but all services real or imagined, free of charge.