Published as "In Recovery" in significantly different form Wed. April 30 in Tulare County's Foothills Sun-Gazette
On Saturday, May 3rd, the Lindsay United Methodist Church will be hosting a concert to "Celebrate Lindsay's Recovery Community." The concert will feature Spirit Driven Band, a duo of Jesse McCuin of Lindsay and Dennis Harrison of Tulare. The concert will run from 7:00-8:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
To some, the idea of a "recovery community" will seem odd; to others, improbable that one exists in Lindsay. But from the moment I arrived here two decades ago, I encountered people who were or had been in recovery. Many told me how Lindsay's AA meeting, which has been located in the Methodist Church for more than 40 years, had helped restore them and/or their family members to life. Some became life-long participants, helping others.
What struck me in these people was their quiet honesty about themselves and their commitment to life. And they were people from every level of society. One town leader who often grieved me had earned their respect for the way he cared for his addicted brother. One of my favorite mechanics had reclaimed his life through another AA meeting. What struck me about all of them, however, was they seemed to have real spiritual depth and they actively, purposefully cared for others, including me.
The benefits of recovery programs have been felt throughout the community, most often invisibly: families and friends, employers and organizations, schools and churches all have been helped by those who have participated in recovery programs, even people who've never been afflicted by addictions themselves. The driving spirit in most recovery programs, particularly AA, is the critical need to re-size one's self to our real place in the universe, to re-place one's body and mind run amok under the guidance of heart and soul, reconnecting with whatever "higher power" a person has experienced.
Saturday night's concert will be specifically Christian, however. Most of the songs are rock songs spanning the decades from the 1960's to the mid-1990's, with creatively re-written lyrics. The music of Spirit Driven is Christ's message of redemption to people who suffer from various addictions, and they take this message to Teen Challenges, rescue missions and prisons across the state.
The program for Saturday night includes music from the Beatles and the Rolling Stones to Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Under the Bridge" and Green Day's "When I Come Around." It also includes a few original songs written by the pair, and will open with Kris Kristofferson's "Sunday Morning Comin' Down."
So that's what we'll be celebrating Saturday night, May 3rd. If you've ever been able to thank God for the restoration of a friend or relative - or yourself - we hope you'll join us in this joyous event. The Methodist Church is located on the corner of Honolulu and Gale Hill, due east of City Hall. To find out more about AA meetings, call the Tulare Co. Central office at 592-6999 or visit www.aa-tulareco.org.
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Trudy Wischemann is a writer who loves music. You can send her your recovery stories c/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or leave a comment below.
Monday, April 28, 2014
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Passages
Published April 16, 2014 in Tulare County's Foothills Sun-Gazette
Things change fast in Spring. Last Wednesday, here in Lindsay, Orange Blossom Festival was in full swing. By the time you read this, it will be gone and we will be making that arduous passage between Palm Sunday and the Cross, the empty tomb. Truth is, things change continuously, but in Spring they seem to whiz.
I spent last week mourning the unexpected deaths of three men I barely knew. The news of Bill Bream's passing arrived first. As stories quietly unfolded about the lives he had touched, the relationships he tended, his deep, reliable integrity, it was clear he was one of Lindsay's unsung heroes. I wished I'd known him.
Then came news of Pat Maloy's death, followed one day later by his brother Jim. Pat was the chemist for Pent-A-Vate, the soil amendment business owned and run by Bill and Treva Leigh on Palm. Pat once interviewed me for a job there I should have taken, and chided me years afterward for not coming to work for him. But more importantly, he was the best friend of one of my best friends, Robert Bastady. They were friends all through school and roommates at Fresno State 40+ years ago. They still watched sports together many Sunday afternoons, "yelling at the TV." Robert said quietly "I'd have gone to see him Sunday if I hadn't been at Fiddler on the Roof," knowing by then he was already gone.
I really knew Pat through Robert's stories. After a stroke forced him to retire from Pent-A-Vate in his early fifties, Pat's love of gardening and food preservation turned him into a sustainable homesteader and connoisseur. He sowed and reaped, cleaned and shucked, hulled and canned as if he'd been raised self-sufficient. He mended and repaired, kept his place in order despite his handicaps, accidentally shaming us in our lethargy. The last time I saw him he was repairing a sprinkler head at his folks' place just up the street from mine, while his sister Louise mowed the lawn. For a moment I saw their parents in each of them, Bob and Marion making a brief return visit to Homassel, and remembered this is why I moved to a small town: to know people well enough to be bereaved when they pass.
Then I heard from my friend Bob Puls that one of his best friends, Tom Daly, had passed away suddenly while working calves for a friend. Tom was from a family of Yokohl Valley pioneers who still ranch there. I think I only laid eyes on him once, the afternoon he stopped by to check on Bob at the end of pushing his mother's grove, a long passage Bob had to take after Iris's death. I was photographing the bulldozer's final passes and watched from a distance as the two men shared that moment of loss, then moving on the way men do.
But like Pat, I knew Tom through Bob's stories. Working cows on horseback, living in those hills, was his lifeblood, but he was also a huge part of the county Cattlemen's Association, our Resource Conservation District and getting the county's Fire Safe Council started. He was adamantly against Yokohl Ranch. Tom's passing leaves an enormous hole in the lives of those who are trying to hold on to the rural quality of Tulare County.
Many of us who knew these men will not have the opportunity to join with others in their memorial services. But I hope that as we privately remember and honor their passages here on earth, we'll also honor their concerns while here. Perhaps some of us will even take up their batons.
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Trudy Wischemann is a writer who has "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" going through her head. You can send her your memories of these men and others c/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or leave a comment below.
Things change fast in Spring. Last Wednesday, here in Lindsay, Orange Blossom Festival was in full swing. By the time you read this, it will be gone and we will be making that arduous passage between Palm Sunday and the Cross, the empty tomb. Truth is, things change continuously, but in Spring they seem to whiz.
I spent last week mourning the unexpected deaths of three men I barely knew. The news of Bill Bream's passing arrived first. As stories quietly unfolded about the lives he had touched, the relationships he tended, his deep, reliable integrity, it was clear he was one of Lindsay's unsung heroes. I wished I'd known him.
Then came news of Pat Maloy's death, followed one day later by his brother Jim. Pat was the chemist for Pent-A-Vate, the soil amendment business owned and run by Bill and Treva Leigh on Palm. Pat once interviewed me for a job there I should have taken, and chided me years afterward for not coming to work for him. But more importantly, he was the best friend of one of my best friends, Robert Bastady. They were friends all through school and roommates at Fresno State 40+ years ago. They still watched sports together many Sunday afternoons, "yelling at the TV." Robert said quietly "I'd have gone to see him Sunday if I hadn't been at Fiddler on the Roof," knowing by then he was already gone.
I really knew Pat through Robert's stories. After a stroke forced him to retire from Pent-A-Vate in his early fifties, Pat's love of gardening and food preservation turned him into a sustainable homesteader and connoisseur. He sowed and reaped, cleaned and shucked, hulled and canned as if he'd been raised self-sufficient. He mended and repaired, kept his place in order despite his handicaps, accidentally shaming us in our lethargy. The last time I saw him he was repairing a sprinkler head at his folks' place just up the street from mine, while his sister Louise mowed the lawn. For a moment I saw their parents in each of them, Bob and Marion making a brief return visit to Homassel, and remembered this is why I moved to a small town: to know people well enough to be bereaved when they pass.
Then I heard from my friend Bob Puls that one of his best friends, Tom Daly, had passed away suddenly while working calves for a friend. Tom was from a family of Yokohl Valley pioneers who still ranch there. I think I only laid eyes on him once, the afternoon he stopped by to check on Bob at the end of pushing his mother's grove, a long passage Bob had to take after Iris's death. I was photographing the bulldozer's final passes and watched from a distance as the two men shared that moment of loss, then moving on the way men do.
But like Pat, I knew Tom through Bob's stories. Working cows on horseback, living in those hills, was his lifeblood, but he was also a huge part of the county Cattlemen's Association, our Resource Conservation District and getting the county's Fire Safe Council started. He was adamantly against Yokohl Ranch. Tom's passing leaves an enormous hole in the lives of those who are trying to hold on to the rural quality of Tulare County.
Many of us who knew these men will not have the opportunity to join with others in their memorial services. But I hope that as we privately remember and honor their passages here on earth, we'll also honor their concerns while here. Perhaps some of us will even take up their batons.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trudy Wischemann is a writer who has "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" going through her head. You can send her your memories of these men and others c/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or leave a comment below.
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Judges and Kings
Published in slightly edited form April 9, 2014 in the Foothills Sun-Gazette
In the midst of Orange Blossom Festival Week, as our Queen and her Court are being escorted around town, one Lindsay family is celebrating the end of an ordeal caused by the Lindsay Department of Public Safety.
It's not a pretty story for a pretty time of year. But we can join the forces of Spring in welcoming Councilman Steven Mecum, his wife Delma and their family back to the land of the living.
This ordeal started almost two months ago. On Monday, Feb. 17th, around 9 pm at the end of a three-day weekend, I got a call from Delma, who was on her way to bail Steven out of Visalia Main jail. "I just want you to know what's happening," she started, her voice firmly collected if not calm.
Two days earlier, on the Saturday of the three-day weekend, her brother had come to their house accompanied by Officer Eddie Alcantar hoping to "repossess" their car. Driven by other grievances that arose during their mother's recent death, Delma's brother still had the pink slip from the loan he and his mother co-signed in 2001 for the purchase of the Mecum's car, which Steven and Delma had paid off in 2006. The car's pink slip never got signed over to the Mecums, giving the brother a hammer, he thought, for revenge.
Having the pink slip on a car gives the holder something called "bare legal title" to the vehicle. Long-term possession and making payments on a car also confer ownership, called "equitable" and "possessory" rights. Steven told Officer Alcantar that they paid for the car in full and had documentation to prove it, declining to turn over the keys. Alcantar made a phone call, then spoke briefly with both the brother and Steven, then left.
But Monday night around dinner time three squad cars and half a dozen officers returned with search and arrest warrants signed by Judge Val Saucedo. They commandeered the keys and the car, and took Steven away in handcuffs.
Delma's story was frightening enough, but it got worse. While Steven was being held in a cell at the Lindsay police station, he overheard Chief Wilkinson talking about a press release announcing his arrest for felony embezzlement. The media had that "news" first thing Tuesday morning.
The impact on the public was immediate. Put the three words "Councilman" "arrested" and "embezzlement" in a headline's bold black letters, and many people jumped to the conclusion that the Lindsay City Council is "as corrupt as ever," not wanting to read more of the same old story. "I only read the headlines," confessed several people when I asked what they thought. One friend assumed that Mecum was automatically removed from the city council because of the arrest. Fortunately, Steven's supervisor at the prison where he works as a correctional officer did not jump to the same "guilty" conclusion, or he might have been put on leave or into a lower-grade job. Fortunately he was allowed to continue working in his current position.
But Mecum was not charged with felony embezzlement or anything else. The Mecums had to raise money for the bail of $35,000, which cost them $2,800, plus more money to retain an attorney. He had to borrow a car to drive to work and his family had to suffer this public humiliation, all for a case with no charges. Six weeks later, on March 31, the DA's office informed his attorney that the case would not be pursued.
The arrest was a total fraud. As a friend with family in law enforcement told me, "any policeman worth his salt would have told the disgruntled brother-in-law to take the matter to small claims court" and let a judge settle the question of ownership. Yet the Lindsay PD, with full approval of Chief Wilkinson and the assistance of Judge Saucedo, decided they would be the judge of that question.
But ownership of the car was never really the point of this episode. Using an erroneous definition of "embezzlement," Wilkinson's press release proved he could inflict damage with the flick of a wrist, no matter what the truth actually was or turned out to be in the courts of justice. It was a shot over the bow not only of Councilman Mecum, but any person who might want to serve in that position. When he pushed the "send" button on that fax machine, he was letting it be known who is king of this dung heap.
The Mecums are not the only victims in this fraud. We are, too. Loud and clear the message is being sent to anyone serving on the city council that if you vote "no" enough times, you'll have the PD down your neck. This is not a good message for democracy in our town.
The fact that Wilkinson thinks he can pull this off and get away with it is a strong sign that we were right, those of us who thought his wearing two hats was never a good idea. It is long past time for him to retire at least one of them, if not both.
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Trudy Wischemann is a writer who still believes, despite all the evidence, that it is possible to have democracy and tell the truth in a small town. You can send her your evidence c/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or leave a comment below.
In the midst of Orange Blossom Festival Week, as our Queen and her Court are being escorted around town, one Lindsay family is celebrating the end of an ordeal caused by the Lindsay Department of Public Safety.
It's not a pretty story for a pretty time of year. But we can join the forces of Spring in welcoming Councilman Steven Mecum, his wife Delma and their family back to the land of the living.
This ordeal started almost two months ago. On Monday, Feb. 17th, around 9 pm at the end of a three-day weekend, I got a call from Delma, who was on her way to bail Steven out of Visalia Main jail. "I just want you to know what's happening," she started, her voice firmly collected if not calm.
Two days earlier, on the Saturday of the three-day weekend, her brother had come to their house accompanied by Officer Eddie Alcantar hoping to "repossess" their car. Driven by other grievances that arose during their mother's recent death, Delma's brother still had the pink slip from the loan he and his mother co-signed in 2001 for the purchase of the Mecum's car, which Steven and Delma had paid off in 2006. The car's pink slip never got signed over to the Mecums, giving the brother a hammer, he thought, for revenge.
Having the pink slip on a car gives the holder something called "bare legal title" to the vehicle. Long-term possession and making payments on a car also confer ownership, called "equitable" and "possessory" rights. Steven told Officer Alcantar that they paid for the car in full and had documentation to prove it, declining to turn over the keys. Alcantar made a phone call, then spoke briefly with both the brother and Steven, then left.
But Monday night around dinner time three squad cars and half a dozen officers returned with search and arrest warrants signed by Judge Val Saucedo. They commandeered the keys and the car, and took Steven away in handcuffs.
Delma's story was frightening enough, but it got worse. While Steven was being held in a cell at the Lindsay police station, he overheard Chief Wilkinson talking about a press release announcing his arrest for felony embezzlement. The media had that "news" first thing Tuesday morning.
The impact on the public was immediate. Put the three words "Councilman" "arrested" and "embezzlement" in a headline's bold black letters, and many people jumped to the conclusion that the Lindsay City Council is "as corrupt as ever," not wanting to read more of the same old story. "I only read the headlines," confessed several people when I asked what they thought. One friend assumed that Mecum was automatically removed from the city council because of the arrest. Fortunately, Steven's supervisor at the prison where he works as a correctional officer did not jump to the same "guilty" conclusion, or he might have been put on leave or into a lower-grade job. Fortunately he was allowed to continue working in his current position.
But Mecum was not charged with felony embezzlement or anything else. The Mecums had to raise money for the bail of $35,000, which cost them $2,800, plus more money to retain an attorney. He had to borrow a car to drive to work and his family had to suffer this public humiliation, all for a case with no charges. Six weeks later, on March 31, the DA's office informed his attorney that the case would not be pursued.
The arrest was a total fraud. As a friend with family in law enforcement told me, "any policeman worth his salt would have told the disgruntled brother-in-law to take the matter to small claims court" and let a judge settle the question of ownership. Yet the Lindsay PD, with full approval of Chief Wilkinson and the assistance of Judge Saucedo, decided they would be the judge of that question.
But ownership of the car was never really the point of this episode. Using an erroneous definition of "embezzlement," Wilkinson's press release proved he could inflict damage with the flick of a wrist, no matter what the truth actually was or turned out to be in the courts of justice. It was a shot over the bow not only of Councilman Mecum, but any person who might want to serve in that position. When he pushed the "send" button on that fax machine, he was letting it be known who is king of this dung heap.
The Mecums are not the only victims in this fraud. We are, too. Loud and clear the message is being sent to anyone serving on the city council that if you vote "no" enough times, you'll have the PD down your neck. This is not a good message for democracy in our town.
The fact that Wilkinson thinks he can pull this off and get away with it is a strong sign that we were right, those of us who thought his wearing two hats was never a good idea. It is long past time for him to retire at least one of them, if not both.
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Trudy Wischemann is a writer who still believes, despite all the evidence, that it is possible to have democracy and tell the truth in a small town. You can send her your evidence c/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or leave a comment below.
Friday, April 4, 2014
God's Water
Published in slightly edited form April 2, 2014 in Tulare County's Foothills Sun-Gazette.
"We don't pray for rain," an Amish woman ventured in Amish Grace, the book I described four weeks ago. "We wait for rain, and when it comes, we thank God for it."
When I read that, I thought "You don't live in California," already praying for rain and encouraging others to do so as well. My friend Annette Natoli, a former Lindsayite who now lives in upstate New York, has also been praying for rain for us, wishing the snow pelting her property would blow our direction. But, as those of us know who spend time in the Bible or watching the meteorologists' satellite photos, the wind blows where it will.
Few who attended the water rally in Tulare last week missed the irony that we waded through mud puddles, heads bent against wind and rain, to get inside the giant metal building at the International Ag Center to voice our demands for water. Two government officials, one fed, one state, speaking to sign-waving folks in bleachers ringed by new two-story tractors complete with GPS systems, explained what they were doing to send our way as much of the state's water as possible. But few were there to listen. Most came with a prepared answer. "What do we want?" the rally's organizers prompted. "Water!" we shouted appropriately through the sound of rain on the metal roof.
Actually, praying for rain has always been troublesome for me. If our orange growers need rain in March, will it damage the peach blossoms of my farmer friends near Dinuba? Or ruin their raisins in September? Will it take needed rain away from my enemies, who I'm supposed to love, too? It's taking a lot of responsibility, praying for rain. I think the Amish may have it right.
Perhaps what we should pray for is God's love to shower down on all of us during this time of trial and make us right with each other, learning to adapt to the shortages and share rather than grab what we need and fight off those without. Or perhaps we should pray for good officials to make just decisions and protect us from our needy self-interest, to cast their vote for the common good.
That's what we got last week from Judge Harry N. Papadakis, who ruled in favor of the Lower Tule Irrigation District to stop the pumping of groundwater by Sandridge Partners, LLP, who were exporting the water to their almond groves in Dudley Ridge Water District 25 miles away. Sandridge is one of those "big boys" in the State Water Project (SWP,) where sagebrush and jackrabbits should have been left to live in peace.
According to Lew Griswold's March 26th article in the Fresno Bee, four years ago Sandridge sold several thousand acre-feet of SWP water to the City of Mojave, leaving the Dudley Ridge district abruptly short. The groundwater pumping stopped by Judge Papadakis last week prevented them from doing that to Lower Tule ID, protecting the growers and communities of Woodville and Tipton against the self-interest of one corporation. We all owe him a note of thanks.
The thought of governmental regulation of groundwater sends most growers into real panic, yet the threat to the groundwater supply by operators like Sandridge goes unnoticed. Our laws governing groundwater are in serious need of re-working and the current drought makes that unusually clear.
Our comprehensive system of water rights, however, is based on use, not ownership. It is based in the recognition that water is community property to be shared equitably for the benefit of all, not a few. Beneath that social/legal understanding is a religious/ecological one: that it's God's water, delivered to us according to the Creator's will and atmospheric/ geomorphic realities. We would do well to read the Owner's manual before starting another round of repairs.
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Trudy Wischemann is a student of California water born in western Washington where it rains. You can send her your thoughts on praying, buying or suing for water c/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or leave a message below.
"We don't pray for rain," an Amish woman ventured in Amish Grace, the book I described four weeks ago. "We wait for rain, and when it comes, we thank God for it."
When I read that, I thought "You don't live in California," already praying for rain and encouraging others to do so as well. My friend Annette Natoli, a former Lindsayite who now lives in upstate New York, has also been praying for rain for us, wishing the snow pelting her property would blow our direction. But, as those of us know who spend time in the Bible or watching the meteorologists' satellite photos, the wind blows where it will.
Few who attended the water rally in Tulare last week missed the irony that we waded through mud puddles, heads bent against wind and rain, to get inside the giant metal building at the International Ag Center to voice our demands for water. Two government officials, one fed, one state, speaking to sign-waving folks in bleachers ringed by new two-story tractors complete with GPS systems, explained what they were doing to send our way as much of the state's water as possible. But few were there to listen. Most came with a prepared answer. "What do we want?" the rally's organizers prompted. "Water!" we shouted appropriately through the sound of rain on the metal roof.
Actually, praying for rain has always been troublesome for me. If our orange growers need rain in March, will it damage the peach blossoms of my farmer friends near Dinuba? Or ruin their raisins in September? Will it take needed rain away from my enemies, who I'm supposed to love, too? It's taking a lot of responsibility, praying for rain. I think the Amish may have it right.
Perhaps what we should pray for is God's love to shower down on all of us during this time of trial and make us right with each other, learning to adapt to the shortages and share rather than grab what we need and fight off those without. Or perhaps we should pray for good officials to make just decisions and protect us from our needy self-interest, to cast their vote for the common good.
That's what we got last week from Judge Harry N. Papadakis, who ruled in favor of the Lower Tule Irrigation District to stop the pumping of groundwater by Sandridge Partners, LLP, who were exporting the water to their almond groves in Dudley Ridge Water District 25 miles away. Sandridge is one of those "big boys" in the State Water Project (SWP,) where sagebrush and jackrabbits should have been left to live in peace.
According to Lew Griswold's March 26th article in the Fresno Bee, four years ago Sandridge sold several thousand acre-feet of SWP water to the City of Mojave, leaving the Dudley Ridge district abruptly short. The groundwater pumping stopped by Judge Papadakis last week prevented them from doing that to Lower Tule ID, protecting the growers and communities of Woodville and Tipton against the self-interest of one corporation. We all owe him a note of thanks.
The thought of governmental regulation of groundwater sends most growers into real panic, yet the threat to the groundwater supply by operators like Sandridge goes unnoticed. Our laws governing groundwater are in serious need of re-working and the current drought makes that unusually clear.
Our comprehensive system of water rights, however, is based on use, not ownership. It is based in the recognition that water is community property to be shared equitably for the benefit of all, not a few. Beneath that social/legal understanding is a religious/ecological one: that it's God's water, delivered to us according to the Creator's will and atmospheric/ geomorphic realities. We would do well to read the Owner's manual before starting another round of repairs.
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Trudy Wischemann is a student of California water born in western Washington where it rains. You can send her your thoughts on praying, buying or suing for water c/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or leave a message below.
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