Michael Hastings

too sad

The more I learn about Michael Hastings, who died yesterday morning, the more I like him. I never knew who he was, though I, of course, was familiar with the McChrystal piece. I guess he was a bit of a journalistic hit-man. But he was from the Champlain Valley, which means that he was also a flayer of Bull_S_hit and culturally familiar with Socialism and Liberal causes, the politics of true believers who face off against corrupt power. Thus he didn't seem to have a problem telling a lot of powerful people to F-the-hell-off, he has a job to do and if reporting honestly on the careers of hypocrites and scoundrels is part of that, Michael was going to fairly accomplish an accurate description. Truculence taken to the extreme. A combative Vermont attitude, with the skill of a professional journalist, commanding the demons of the political and institutional world to "get out!" It seems that is what Mr. Hastings was trying to do.

And so we are faced with another very sad death at a time of year that ought to not have death. There are so many things living, growing, blooming, right now. Especially up in Burlington. Why anyone would want to be in LA in June is beyond me, it's so hot there! Burlington, VT is much nicer with the local brew and the balmy lake breezes. But, let me say, Route 2 through South Burlington is definitely not a great place to spend a Saturday night. It is understandable why someone would run away from there and go to Baghdad, LA, two places where the battle never seems to end.

I don't know anyone who knew this man. It is possible that he knows people I know, but like so many capable Vermonters, he was out being the best at what he did, trying to face the world with a matter of fact "Let me do my job" point of view. You get your job done and I'll get my job done. and if you do a good job then I will write that you did. But if you are a petty dictator, a tyrant, a person who seems to soul-suck the world to live for free, then I will write that too. Is that the creed that Mr. Hastings had? How the hell do I know? I never met him. But I want to say that it breaks my heart thinking that someone went out there, someone from the fertile Champlain Valley, to resist evil, was able to do something good, to drive the evil ways out of people's habits (talking Shi_t about the Vice Pres in Europe when you are a general is a low-brow thing to do. If you go work for the government as a general you are never in a private situation, and McChrystal should have known this).

I read where some called Mr. Hastings a 'Gonzo' journalist. Is that praise or a pan? A reviewer for Hasting's Kindle release went on about how that Kindle-only release could use another edit. Who has time?

Well, when you do, you do. But when girded for battle against the big hoary evil beast called ambition and power in politics, the type of politics that eats people's faces off of their skulls, and you dare to not do what the redictiphone says . . . do you always have time to correct all your spellings and to polish every piece that you write? Or is it that the reviewer just didn't have a literary sense and didn't get the double entoundres that a good writer will put in with free-flowing word mangles.

A talented writer likes the freedom to expand his horizons, to craft prose that is more like natural speach and thought. Such a talent might like to be free with the running thoughts of his/her mind. Why do writers do this? Because it is real and natural. It allows us to collect a lot of useful material. And for those who demand a second edit: ya, OK. So sometimes writers can. Other times writers just store it in a blog, or somewhere, thinking, maybe, just maybe, someday fix this, mark it up, give it quality. Or maybe not.

Or how about you annotate it? Because the way that great writers write is the way that other people write later. Kerouac, Hemingway, Faulkner, Shakespeare. So if you don't like creativity then stick to the main stream media where the real truth is always given the third edit (deleted) and the brain-wash factory is given full insert power.

So now another ghost can haunt the modern world in vigilance, maybe we can pray for him? We should pray for him, and for his family. He might eventually become a new Saint: Saint Michael Hastings, Patron Saint of Journalistic Integrity and "don't be an azz-hoe" politics. He called them as he saw them. Many did not like him for it. Very many others admired him for his intellectual honesty, his pursuit of humanity within governance, and his quest for accountability of institutional office holders.

How he died

It was a mishap with his automobile. An LA videographer was right there with a video-camera at the aftermath of the accident. The video is easy to find. If you knew this man you might not want to watch this video.

The transmission was ripped from the car and laying some yards down the road. The car, fully engulfed in flames, lay sideways to the road in a grassy middle part of the street. It was one of those wide park places which LA has so very few of. A heroic man in a yarmulke was using a garden hose to hose down the fire. The video was available on a website from LA. Someone was there almost as soon as the accident happened. The videographer, in English, interviews a man who does not have a full capacity for English. This Latino man had seen what had happened.

Rest in peace, Michael Hastings!

This capible man is lost! Woe that we do not recognize the competent until they are dead and gone! May we see the light that shines in them, and in all, while they still walk amoung us!

Michael Hastings bravely accomplished great things while enduring hardship and immense sorrow. Many will morn his passing. May he rest in peace.

June 19, 2013

"got anything? I got nothing."

Valley Thunder
  Far away
 sweeping across the lake
   the healing power of the Great
 rolling thunder?
     no! Sudden Lightening.
   Gathering Together.
 Bless the Congregation.

  Far across the newly storming lake
      it reaches to the shores and piles on
    rough water, white caps
  far out past Appletree Point,
   the Four Brothers lost in mist.

 If you go out too far
    when the lake gets large and mean
 there has to be a way
  to save yourself from the scene
  head to Shelburne Bay?
      Clam Cove?
  Try to stay on the leeside
       of Beer Can Island?

   At the crossing
      the ghosts maybe says "goodbye"
  I never knew you.

    If you ever come to Boston
        But a penny in the cup
 if you want to know why
      say it is for luck.

     Stick a needle in my eye
        take a drink and then fly
    hit the brake and then
         you . . .?

   


The balmy June breezes up at the notch, 
take a long hike out along a ridgeline, 
as the fog burns away, 
the sweeping clouds from 
           Isle Le Motte 
     all the way to Lake George,
 those disstant Adirondacks 
              a glimmer in the breaking day. 
A new ghost for the Long Trail, 
someone to haunt the 
         parking lot 
          at Zacharreys on Wiliston Road, 
another passanger 
 for the Port Kent Ferry, 
   crossing off 
 into the fog. 

Bye Bye.
stuck your finger in their eye.

Billy Eustis

Fifteen Years

It was fifteen years ago today that the very much beloved Billy Eustis passed away in Jamaica. The world has never been the same. He left a very large legacy. Pray that he is remembered.

Best post

not posted

the winner is . . .

It is easy to waste time writing about things that I read from the Internet, like politics. But it is a lot of work to make it so that I don't feel embarrassed by it later. So, I don't post it. I think that is fair for all involved. Later, if it still matters, I can edit it. I'll post it then. Or not.