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April 6, 2006
HOWARD: It was the summer of 1976, and the
Arcata Union's rookie typesetter stared down at all the
blank pages with terror, not knowing where to begin or how she
was going to get through it all. The paper's summer editor --
the guy who filled in when the regular editor took his summer
vacation -- happened by. He diagnosed the problem with a glance,
and he offered an offhand bit of wisdom that has endured 30 years
now. "Start the obits," he said. "That's the first
thing anyone looks at, anyway."
Howard Seemann (pictured above), who died
Monday night at the age of 73, was a hard-boiled newspaperman
of the old school, and he was full of dubious chestnuts like
this. He used to come by the Journal offices occasionally,
handing out hard candies and abysmal jokes, along with the occasional
dusty story born of the days when reporters kept flasks of the
good stuff hidden in their boots. To the younger generation at
the paper, it was both romantic and maddening. You couldn't help
but pine for the days when sitting on your ass for hours at a
time staring at a cathode ray tube wasn't part of the job description.
Invariably, Howard would bust in on us Tuesday afternoons, our
busiest time. Why couldn't he come on a Wednesday, we wondered?
It's strange that we never thought of the obvious answer: He
wanted to hear the keyboards clicking, to see people on deadline
rushing to finish their work.
Humboldt State hired Howard to teach journalism
in 1969, after he had spent over a decade working at newspapers
in Michigan, Wisconsin and Rome, Italy. He was the advisor to
the Lumberjack, the HSU student paper, from 1970 up until
his retirement a few years ago. In 1983, the California Newspaper
Publishers Association named him an Outstanding Journalism Educator.
From 1991 to 2002 he served as the Journal's copy editor,
more for fun than anything else. He had a perverse passion for
copy editing.
He succumbed this week after a long battle with
heart problems, and is survived by his wife, Ann, his sons, Hank
and Luke, his daughters, Danae and Aliki, and literally hundreds
of colleagues and former students who remember the old codger
with affection.
RED BARN ORGY: Oh, poor, dear, innocent
Ferndale. It's like -- as a coworker here exclaimed -- she's
lost her virginity, or something. I mean, it's bad enough that
first some alleged gangbangers wanted to have a hip-hop memorial
for some shot-up brethren at the fairgrounds (Ferndale cops quashed
that one). But now some nice, upbeat-sounding group --
who could say no to "Reasons to Say Yes!"? -- has gone
and held an orgy in the Red Barn.
Sheesh. And the Ferndale Enterprise was
all on top of it -- the story, that is -- giving a blow-by-blow
account in its March 30 issue that began by with the news that
county fair officials were "quickly changing their rental
procedures after they say they were `duped' by a Trinidad woman
and her organization." Now, people wanting to rent a fair
building will need to be more explicit in what they intend to
do there.
Fair officials didn't return our call, nor did
the events' organizers, but apparently here's what happened:
The R2SY organizers rented the barn for a "private party."
As Fair General Manager Stuart Titus told the Enterprise,
"It sounded like an afternoon tea party." But then
on March 17, the day before the event, a woman called Ferndale
Police Chief Lonnie Lawson, fretting over whether the people
at that party were going to practice safe sex.
That alerted the chief to an unusual situation,
he told us in a phone conversation on Monday. The caller had
told him to check out the R2SY's website. "So I did,"
said Lawson. And among the giddy, pro-sex-without-hang-ups pre-event
e-mails were calls for more supplies: mattresses, pillows, cushions.
"And they talked about how it was an ideal location, and
how there was a 35-square-foot room that would be perfect for
a dungeon." The event also was supposed to go till dawn.
And so, after calling the city attorney for a confab,
Chief Lawson did what he had to do: He posted two officers on
duty outside the Red Barn. No, he said, the officers did not
check inside to see if people were using protection, or whatever.
"It's none of my business," said Lawson. "They
can do what they want behind closed doors. It's different from
what my style is, but what people do is their own business."
The cops' job, he said, was to make sure none of
the 25-some cars were vandalized during their long and lonely
stay in the lot, and to be on hand in case there were any incidents
with drugs or alcohol, or any "jealous fights" between
boyfriends and girlfriends -- this was an orgy, after all. The
event organizers agreed to pay an extra $200 to cover the cost
of the police department's overtime.
So, that's that. The fair folks are all ouchy,
and won't let that ever happen again. Meanwhile, R2SY
event organizers are talking about shifting their parties to
some other venue, perhaps closer to Eureka. But the damage is
done. Ferndale is a slut. But look on the bright side: It's still
a cow town, and this just gives a whole new twist to one of the
fair's more endearing mottos: "It's Udder Madness!"
MARIJUANA BUST IN FERNDALE: First sex partiers,
now pot growers. No one can get a break in Cow Town these days.
On the morning of March 31 Jesse Daniel Renner, 27, was arrested
at his Renner Lane home in Ferndale after the Humboldt County
Sheriff's Drug Enforcement Unit searched his residence and found
627 marijuana plants, some as tall as two feet, and also confiscated
12 pounds of dried marijuana. The dry goods alone were estimated
by police to be worth $42,000. Two rifles were also taken from
Renner's home. The case has been forwarded to the Humboldt County
District Attorney's office.
HOLE IN SIX: Sierra Pacific Industries wants
to build a road through the Six Rivers National Forest's Underwood
Roadless Area, which has been proposed for wilderness protection
by Sen. Boxer, in order to get to a square parcel of its timberland
that is surrounded by the forest. SPI has been approved to go
ahead and harvest the old-growth and mature trees in the parcel
-- hence the need for the road.
But conservationists, among them the Environmental
Protection Information Center, are pushing for another plan for
the parcel: Get SPI to sell the land to the forest, thereby "securing
the integrity of the roadless area and proposed wilderness",
said EPIC's Scott Greacen in a recent news alert.
"We are strongly opposed to the proposed road,
and we'll all get a chance to comment on that proposal when the
Six Rivers releases the Draft Environmental Impact Statement
(DEIS) for the road project, expected out any day now,"
Greacen said. "The good news is that the Wilderness Land
Trust and other conservation-minded potential purchasers are
very interested in working with SPI to get the parcel in question
moved into public ownership. To their credit, SPI's managers
have been willing to talk about a buyout, and have agreed to
a meeting in mid-April."
He said he hopes people will "encourage SPI
to do the right thing."
TOP
Silent no more
Local voices debate the immigration issue
by HEIDI WALTERS
As loud music evocative of Charlie Chaplin comedies
bounced off ceiling and walls inside the Arcata Community Center
last Friday, Dell'Arte performer Rudy Galindo pantomimed on stage
with a sidekick. Much ado was made about a couple of bowler hats,
a tall man with a plan and an unwittingly recalcitrant boy. The
unfolding scene seemed to captivate the dozens of people in the
audience, many of them Latino families and students come to join
in the celebration of renowned labor organizer Cesar Chavez's
birthday.
The man plunked his own, deeper-bowled hat onto
the boy's head, which dropped over the boy's eyes, and perched
the boy's shallower hat onto his own noggin. The tinier hat bobbled
as the man silently directed, with ground-crew arm gestures,
for the unseeing boy to walk straight ahead. The boy stood, unmoving,
in place, not receiving the message. The audience laughed, a
little hesitantly, sharing the comedic frustration.
If only the boy could see; if only the man would
acknowledge that the boy couldn't see; if only they would
open their mouths and communicate -- then, all would be clear.
If only it was that simple. Perhaps the wordless
comedy -- and the anticipation of a voice bursting forth it engendered,
without fulfilling -- mirrored the frustration over immigration
policy that led to events during the preceding days outside on
the real stage. Those events, though, did spark vociferous outcries.
In Los Angeles, half a million people, many of them Latino immigrants
or descendents of immigrants, as well as other immigrants and
citizen supporters, marched through the city's streets to protest
proposed House legislation that would make it a felony to be
in the United States without documentation. The bill, H.R. 4437,
also would make it a felony to help an undocumented immigrant.
Thousands more marched in other cities, and across
the nation students walked out of classrooms. The Roman Catholic
Church rallied to the cause, asking Congress to legalize the
estimated 11 to 28 million illegal immigrants already in the
United States. The Senate, in the meantime, presented its version
of the bill, which took out the felony aspect and proposed legalizing
those already in the country, among other things.
Back in the auditorium during Friday's celebration
in Arcata, tables laden with pamphlets, in English and in Spanish,
lined the back wall. "The Job Market," said one. "Navegando
a través del job market." "Migration Education
Program," for children of families who work in the agriculture,
fishing or logging industries and move between school districts
to follow these jobs: "Migrant Education is a federally
funded program, which serves all 50 states and Puerto Rico,"
it read. "California has the largest migrant population
serving over 250,000 children and youth ages 3-21." Another
pamphlet said, "Newcomer Center: Centro de los Recién
Llegados: Quién ayudamos? Who do we help? Ustéd,
su familia, ó alguién nuevo de la
comunidád ... You, your family, or anyone new to
the community ... who needs bilingual assistance or help finding
local services, employment, or general information." The
Humboldt County Breast Health Project also had pamphlets for
breast and gynecological cancer survivors and their support people:
"Somos un recurso de educación, apoyo, y esperanza
en su comunidád -- We are a community resource of education,
support and hope."
These nonprofits, and others, provide help to anyone
in need. Community aid groups acknowledge that a number of their
clients -- many who come to work in the agriculture and fishing
industries here -- are undocumented. And all of these groups
could be targeted if the House version of the bill were to become
law.
"We'd all be in jail," said Siddiq Kilkenny
with a short laugh, "and actually I'd be proud of that."
Kilkenny is director of the North Coast Children's Services'
Head Start and Early Head Start programs. He said about 4 percent
of the parents of children his programs serve "may be illegal,
or there may be an aunt, or an uncle, who's illegal." He
discounts the notion held by some that illegal immigrants drain
the nation's services or take away jobs from citizens.
"You know, we go to Winco, and, well, guess
what? Our food is fresh and it's cheap, and it's because these
people are working out in the fields," he said. "I
do not see people coming up here and taking advantage of our
services. I don't know any people here who want to go work in
the fields. And they're not taking the big, high-paying jobs."
Many undocumented immigrants work full-time, paying taxes and
paying into Social Security, but because they might be using
fake social security numbers they will never reap that work's
associated SSI benefits. Nor are they or their children eligible
for certain programs, he said, such as Medical, which means they
often go without health care.
José Quezada, who helped start the first
Head Start pre-school in Humboldt County and now runs the county's
workforce development department of the Economic Development
Division, said he heard an undocumented worker tell a crowd,
in Spanish, at a conference last year, "Yeah, it's true,
we're working and not even being paid minimum wage, and sometimes
we do work overtime with no extra pay -- and that's OK."
"In other words, 'don't rock the boat,'"
said Quezada. "[Undocumented] Latinos are already working
in fear."
The felony law also would affect employers. "[Immigrants]
are cooking our food, making our beds, working in our lily farms,
packing our fish," he said. "I'm certain it would have
a really chilling effect on our economy. And the whole thing,
it's just so impractical. Where would all these `criminals' go?
Sen. Kennedy said it would cost us $240 billion to deport just
11 million people -- not to mention the disruption to families,
to the workplace."
Sharon Nelson, an RN and director of client services
at the nonprofit Humboldt County Breast Health Project, said
any law making it a felony to help undocumented immigrants could
have lethal results. The project's HOT team -- Hispanic Outreach
Team -- focuses on reaching out to young Latina women. "We
see about 200 new clients a year," she said. "Ten percent
are primarily Spanish-speaking only." In 2005, she said,
the project helped 11 Latina clients, half of whom were likely
undocumented -- although citizenship is generally not something
the project, or any of the other groups interviewed, pry into.
"We help connect people to other programs: the American
Cancer Society, Humboldt Area Foundation, the Angel Fund, the
county medical services program. And so, if we weren't able to
make those connections for people, they would be in a very, very
difficult situation. Everyone deserves health care, and if you're
faced with a life-threatening cancer you deserve help."
Herrmann Spetzler, executive director of the nine
for-profit Open Doors Community Health Centers in Humboldt and
Del Norte counties, which serve clients on a sliding scale, offers
this prognosis for the House bill: "The chances of the House
version of the bill passing hovers around zero." Nonetheless,
he sounds disturbed by the bill's contents.
"We have an obligation to our community to
provide health care, and it's a daily struggle to maintain the
resources to do just that," he said. "We are not the
INS. And unless we got a legal order to provide law enforcement
-- which I would fight tooth and nail -- we wouldn't [start asking
people their status]. And we wouldn't racial profile. We wouldn't
look at the color of your skin, or what kind of accent you have."
To be fair to their patients, he said, they would
interrogate every person who walked through the doors of the
clinic. "And I can tell you that a third to a quarter of
the population of the North Coast comes to us every year,"
he said. "Last year, we saw 36,000 individuals." Since
some of those people came in more than once, the total number
of visits to the clinic was 140,000. "Can you imagine the
sort of time involved in researching their documentation? And
I don't think it would be right, in a country of immigrants,
to only check Hispanics."
But it was Hispanics and Latinos who rallied in
the largest forces last week, and this week, across the country,
in support of the millions of undocumented, often silent, immigrants.
"Immigrants have been filling so many jobs,"
said Quezada. "My personal take is, [the immigration turmoil]
is finally an acknowledgment that there has been this workforce
here that people can see but that they don't count."
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