The Importance of Re-Inventing Ourselves

It was with curiosity and a certain amount of anticipatory excitement that my companions and I headed for Bell Street, Los Alamos, last Saturday evening to experience Los Alamos Third Saturday. Who doesn't enjoy participating in a "first", particularly a first of "thirds"? The event was scheduled from 4 to 8 PM and we arrived California Stylishly late by a bit over an hour. But already, the main drag in Los Alamos was thronged and parked in with cars.

Los Alamos is a quiet town by anyone's standard, even on weekends. To us, this is one of its charms. But for the local retailers quiet can be too quiet, uncrowded can be unprofitable, unsung can mean unvisited. Certainly no one has reason to think of Los Alamos as a night-spot destination.

And so Los Alamos set out to do what it needed to do: re-invent itself.

How do you get folks to come out and hang around town for a few hours on a weekend evening? The answer; a little bit at a time. Start small, with enticements offered on a consistent but infrequent basis; say, one weekend each month. Then stand back and watch it grow.

And so on the third Saturday of every month merchants in Los Alamos will remain open for business until 8 pm. The businesses will join in a central theme which will change each month. Each business will decide how to go about incorporating that theme.

St. Valentines Day had just passed and so the first Third Saturday theme was, naturally enough, "Lovefest". We saw the theme applied in many inventive ways. We stopped at the C Gallery where we could view a special "I Love Los Alamos" display of photographs of local people and places. At Casa Dumetz we were plied with wine and then encouraged to tell stories of our first or lost loves. At the Station we enjoyed a hearty beef stew from Charlie's and a beer.

And then we ran out of time. We were sorry to miss the Bee Happy Honey Tasting at Bedford Winery and the other compelling offerings at other stores.

This is not the first time I have watched a town re-invent itself. Ann and I lived in Newport, Rhode island in the early seventies right after the Navy had pulled out. The entire economy of that town had revolved around the Navy. There were dire predictions. But the citizens of Newport went to work to tap into the tourist trade. The rest, of course, is history and Newport is now one of the greatest tourist destinations in the world. We were lucky to be part of it in a small way.

In a changing world, we will need to know how to re-invent ourselves. It is increasingly likely that our environment could change abruptly and that all the old familiar paradigms could disappear almost overnight. Flexibility, autonomy and courage are the traits we need to move forward. The future of our families, our neighborhoods, and our communities may well depend upon our ability to creatively re-invent ourselves.

This blog article was republished in the Santa Ynez Valley News recently.

Taking My Stand On Gun Control

It seems as if everything that can be said has been said about gun control. Regardless, it is important for all Americans to weigh in on this issue. It requires careful consideration of every view, every need, all beliefs and every fact; all must be put on the table.
And so I write this not to uncover new ground but to express my position and take my stand.  I am opposed to the unobstructed proliferation of guns of all description in the United States. I am a proponent of a common sense approach to the problem unfettered by emotions such as anger or fear or greed.
In all that has been written on the subject I have found but one article with which I entirely agree. It is written with common sense, without emotion, and from a base of knowledge and experience.  It is written by a man who has used many of these weapons, including the AR-15 used frequently in mass shootings, knows them intimately and is trained in their use. The author has served in the U.S. Marine Corp, the Secret Service, as a State Trooper and on a SWAT team. He has been a firearms instructor for the New Jersey State Police. But he has also administrated teacher preparation programs in two universities and has spent substantial time in schools, both urban and suburban, privileged as well as  poor and unsafe. He has a Ph.D. in political science and he knows the constitution.  The man is Scott Fina.
His points have been heard before but seldom heard based in the experience and understanding of an individual so eminently qualified to comment on every important aspect of the issue.

He says the following:
The Second Amendment of the Constitution was written for conditions in 1791, not 2013.
Those advocating the arming of citizens such as teachers misunderstand the realities of gun shootings.
Those suggesting that effective screening of gun purchasers will make ownership of semi-automatic and other firearms safe in our country vastly overstate the administrative capabilities of government.
Those advocating such screening understate the potential actions of normally behaved citizens during conditions of prolonged stress or emotional duress.
That gun proliferation has required law enforcement to escalate its own training and weaponry.
That the presence of a gun always brings a certain degree of danger to every situation.

Every one of these points resonates with me. But I have never experienced any of it. He has.
Finally, he has this to say: "Numerous studies indicate an unquestionable, positive correlation between the prevalence of guns in a society and its death rate. Of course this would be the case; diseases spread when their causes (germs or guns) are present in greater numbers."

Scott Fina's article Say No To Guns appeared in the Santa Maria Sun and can be found here.