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A reminder from Manzanar
The clapboard bunkhouses are hollow and the guardhouses that needle into the air in front of Mt. Williamson are no less ominous for being deserted. At Manzanar everything holds a somber and sacred feel — a reminder of the past, and a warning about our potential future.
I happened upon Manzanar on a trip down the Eastern Sierra this summer. I'd driven by the place many times before, but never stopped long enough to understand the place's history and significance.
The short history goes like this: After a few overreported and sensationalized attempts by the Japanese to attack the West Coast of the United States during World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt gave the OK for the military to round up thousands of Japanese-Americans and hold them in detention camps.
They were pulled away from homes, businesses and friends and deposited on the windswept sage under Mt. Williamson.
For years the internees lived in rickety bunkhouses under armed guard. Some died there. Others survived to be released years later penniless and homeless.
The origins of Manzanar are rooted in an emotion that is once again alive and well in the political sphere — fear.
In fact, you would be hard pressed to come up with a driving political force more powerful than fear. Health Care, immigration, abortion, gay marriage, climate change — every weighty political topic of today is infused by fear. Fear motivates. Fear makes people act irrationally.
Fear foments. Fear unites. And politicians are stoking that fear for their own means. But as Manzanar shows, when fear and political action mix, the result is almost always disastrous.
"Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd," said Bertrand Russell.
Fear draws out the beast in humanity. And that beast is instinctual and easily manipulated.
The afternoon of 9-11, I stood high in the football stands of my college and watched an acrid spear of smoke lance the sky above the Pentagon. The emotions that welled up in me — shared by perhaps every single American on the planet — were a confused mix of fear and sadness, disbelief and horror.
In the days that followed, mosques were vandalized, random people of a certain ethnicity were harangued and attacked, beat and abused.
The beast of fear had been unleashed again.
Today, there seems to be a groundswell of fear bubbling and building. It's unlike the past, when a single event set off the panic.
This is much less organic, more manipulated, like the late night circus janitor has learned how to poke and prod the disgruntled, caged animals inside us.
The janitor, who fools himself into thinking he is in charge of it all, knows the reaction he's going to get.
But when it happens, when the sedate lion roars to angry life, he's no longer in any position of power.
He's just a late night circus janitor, ill-equipped by nature to handle the violent beast clawing the cage apart in front of him.
Manzanar was a reminder for me to never lose my humanity in the face of fear. In today's political climate — where the circus janitors on TV and in the halls of power keep prodding and poking, hoping to elicit a response that they can control for their own gain — that is a challenge. But when Manzanar and other atrocities of its kind are the alternative, it's a challenge I am up for.
First Friday at Brickelltown is back... just in time for fall
9/02/10, 8:18 am, By Alanna Hughes
- 4 p.m. Friday in Brickelltown
- Bring your cruiser bike (cheaper/better peeps than Burning Man)
Ski Porn season kicks off at Squaw Sept. 18 with Standard premiere
8/31/10, 9:22 pm, By S. Cowley
- North Shore-based snowboard heavies preimere 'The Storming' Saturday, Sept. 18
- Monster'll be there too...
Sorry Burning Man - it's all about the Ski Loft Tent Sale
8/30/10, 7:52 pm, Staff Report
- 8 a.m. Friday
- Bring all your pennies... (what's left of 'em)
Fall 09 Ticker
-Basin Bargain Basement - The bargain of bargains
8/29/10, 8:59 pm, By A. Pridgen
- $105k for starter condo in KB
- Yes, we toured a similar unit in '06 for more than $300k ...actually, maybe it WAS this unit
Bomber pre-season ski sales from local manufacturers
8/25/10, 7:50 am, Staff Report
- From Praxis Powderboards to Moment Rubys ...to a surprise entry
- It's time to buy local... buy new
Skiing is no more
8/22/10, 11:47 am, Staff Report
- RIP Skiing Magazine
- ...Are you next, SKI?
Date set for 7th annual Downtown Truckee Wine Walk And Shop
8/22/10, 9:25 am, Switchback PR
- Filling up that fall calendar yet?!
- Well, here's where to start
Fall 09 Ticker
-Squaw to host SATELite Festival in September
8/22/10, 7:28 am, By A. Richmond
- New outdoor(ish) event pronounced 'satellite' ...not 'Sate-lite' like we orig. thought
- ...Not 100 percent sure what it is — but ncludes wine, so we'll be there
Tahoe Mountain Sports gets you warm for Ski Loft tent sale
8/20/10, 6:44 pm, By Lis Korb
- First come tent sales... then ski porn premiers
- Then (gulp) snow... are you ready?!
Legendary Incline bear featured in WSJ
8/18/10, 8:31 pm, Staff Report
- Free BUBBA
- That's right - It's our fault... not the bear's... but is that what the Journal thinks?!
Trail Building Backcountry Camps
8/17/10, 8:49 pm, TRTA
- Get on those trails
- ...and get your build on Saturday and Sunday (and again Labor Day weekend)
Fall 09 Ticker
-Win an iPad from IVGID
8/15/10, 7:03 pm, Staff Report
- Golf, ski, beach, compute
- repeat
Squaw creates new top marketing position... sale rumors spark again
8/10/10, 8:18 pm, Staff Report
- Wait, Squaw CREATED a position...
- Ok, something's definitely going down... (25-year industry vet Scott Clarkson tapped as VP of Marketing and Sales)
Jim's trip ...halfway... round The Rim
8/07/10, 1:16 pm, By. A. Pridgen
- Hammerel raises triple his goal amt. to benefit the TRT
- ...and tears up his knee
Volunteer trail-building workdays with the Tahoe Rim Trail Association
8/05/10, 7:45 am, TRTA
- You heard about Jim Hammerel's mission to speed-traverse the TRT
- Now you can pitch in too
Fall 09 Ticker
-Goodbye Norm
8/03/10, 8:08 pm, By A. Pridgen
- The Godfather of Incline, Norm Rosenberg, passes - he was 92
- Incline's left-leaning champion leaves legacy ...starting with the library
Test drive a Tesla... before it's too late
8/01/10, 9:30 pm, By A. Pridgen
- Tesla, the Palo Alto-based electric car company has gone through more than $300 million VC $
- ...but still hasn't tapped into Uncle Sam's reserves for the Model S - go check it out at the Hyatt
Sugar Bowl dining room and Belt Room Bar open for business
7/30/10, 10:22 am, By John Monson
- Good grub, great views
- And nothing beats Belt Room post PCT
Ultimate Frisbee - ultimate course
7/27/10, 8:56 pm, By A. Richmond
- Squaw opens disc golf course
- Signature hole (no. 4) has 1080' downhill... wow
Fall 09 Ticker
-Squaw's MTB park open for first time since '03
7/23/10, 7:22 pm, By Amelia Richmond
- 2k feet of single-track
- 'K, we're in
Remembering Kenny Guinn
7/22/10, 10:08 pm, Staff Report
- The man who created the Milennium Scholarship and SNPLMA passed away Thursday
- Guinn, who oversaw Nevada during its most prosperous years, was 73
Lokal boy makes good - former PlumpJack star Edge shines in Sonoma
7/20/10, 6:23 pm, By A. Pridgen
- Rick Edge takes saucy edge down to downtown Sonoma
- Lokal is the (new) place to be and PlumpJack alum makes it so
Tahoe skier visits were estimated to be up 17 percent last winter
7/19/10, 8:40 am, Staff Report
- Numbers of skiers on the hill increased - but overall spending stayed modest
- Cheap passes the plan again for 2010-'11
Fall 09 Ticker
-Cushing steps down from Squaw post ...rumors of sale sparked
7/13/10, 6:06 pm, Staff Report
- Former Intrawest exec takes over
- ...Rumor mill turning overtime: is Cushing family getting ready to bounce?
TRPA's Asian clam bake
7/11/10, 9:19 pm, By Jeff Cowen
- $1.4 million effort to eradicate invasive species from the lake...
- And it involves (no joke) laying a rubber mat on the lake's floor... hi-tech
Kids' zip line at Squaw ...Boo ya
7/08/10, 5:12 pm, By A. Richmond
- KT zip line
- What about for the grown-ups?!
Just like that ...red flags are up
7/06/10, 6:22 pm, Staff Report
- Three-year anniversary of Angora looms ever-present
- Thunderstorms Wednesday/Thursday portend danger
Fall 09 Ticker
-Nevada County approves PR firm's contract the same week it OKs budget cuts
6/30/10, 9:19 pm, Staff Report
- Wait a minute - you're saying Tahoe will spend more than a million dollars this year on, sloganeering...
- Meantime, budget cuts include child care, welfare-to-work and MediCal programs ...nice
Truckee's Lautner drops a PCT hiking book
6/28/10, 8:55 pm, Staff Report
- 32 eco-friendly trips on the Sierra stretch of the PCT ...with GPS coordinates
- Two thumbs up - pick it up...
Lake Tahoe Based Russian-American Partnership turns 20
6/24/10, 11:27 am, By TBI
- Tahoe-Baikal Institute celebrates two decades of watershed protection and cultural exchange
- Political and economic ups and downs notwithstanding
Tour de Nez photo gallery
6/22/10, 8:20 pm
- The weekend that was from Reno to Northstar
- And lots of Nash
Fall 09 Ticker
-Rebuild the Rim Trail every summer Saturday
6/11/10, 9:07 pm, TRTA
- Start summer right by giving your most precious gift
- ...Your time
TRPA tries to clarify
6/01/10, 8:30 pm, By Dennis Oliver
- So, what, if anything, does this have to do with Boulder Bay?!
- ...More importantly how 'bout that casino (strip club?) corridor...
Opinion ...TRPA ensures Tahoe times they area a-changin'
5/22/10, 8:35 pm, By Ann Nichols
- Density to increase under proposed TRPA regional plan
- But, will they build it (or will they come?)
TAUs on the table from TRPA
5/14/10, 10:08 pm, Staff Report
- If you don't understand the headline
- ...Go the the May 26 meeting and you'll see puh-lenty
Fall 09 Ticker
-Cal Neva now in TRPA doghouse
5/09/10, 6:49 pm, Staff Report
- TRPA will handle foreclosed property with kid gloves over more than a decade of flunking its eco report card
- Time to blow everything up but the casino floor, Sinatra Showroom, the lakefront cabins and the Indian Room
Celebrate National Trails Day with the Tahoe Rim Trail
5/06/10, 5:33 pm, TRTA
- Build a trail
- ...Get a free lunch
Save Martis Valley - one click at a time
5/04/10, 7:13 pm, By Renee Deinken
- Well, it's not like Martis Valley is in any danger of getting developed by broke-ass East/West
- ...But still good to preserve; Check out the new site
LTVA spends almost a mil. on slogan ending in preposition
5/02/10, 8:21 pm, By A. Pridgen
- That's right, your new slogan to lure Affliction-wearing d-bags to Stateline's new strip club
- ...'Get your vacation on' (ohh noo). Inside: Our five (free) slogan suggestions ...Holla
Fall 09 Ticker
-Cost of doing nothing too high for Tahoe
4/29/10, 8:22 pm, By Joanne Marchetta
- If you can make it through TRPA director's tome...
- We'll have resident feedback for you Friday
No downhill slide for Diamond Peak
4/09/10, 7:00 am, Staff Report
- While others founder
- ...DP in the black and breaking ground on new $4 million admin/ticket/locker/child ski center building
Foreclosed Cal Neva casino goes dark ...for good
3/24/10, 10:32 pm, By A. Pridgen
- One year after 'no-sale' at a foreclosure auction and interim management team shuts down Nevada's most legendary casino
- ...Sad, sad day... Casino doors to shut March 31 - rest of Basin gaming on life support
And yes ...the KB roundabouts were originally scheduled to be complete this summer
1/27/10, 9:35 pm, Staff Report
- Tahoe Regional Planning Agency board votes unanimously (again) to approve three-lane/roundabouts in KB
- ...Yes, you've heard that (here) before
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