What we are witnessing is the slow-motion “crash and burn” of an apocalyptic cult. It is lurid fascination that makes us pause with bated breath to see what is going to happen, as we did in watching the live prime-time coverage of a Jet Blue Airbus approaching LAX in September 2005 with its nose gear stuck open at the wrong angle.

Will it crash and burn, or will the pilots manage to land the plane safely? What will happen to the passengers, and what must they be feeling right now?

The pilot of this Rapture plane is 89-year-old Bible preacher Brother Harold Camping of Family Radio Inc. His passengers are the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of faithful who collectively have contributed $80 million over the past half decade to his on-air gospel ministry. Many have discovered Camping by accident, as I did when I stumbled across his sonorous voice on the “Open Forum” program a few years ago.

Working as I do at the National Center for Science Education, I was naturally intrigued by his claim that “our modern scientists” falsely assume that the universe is billions of years old and that humans are related to other animals on earth.

Family Radio airs syndicated programs like Mel Molder’s “Beyond Intelligent Design” and Ian Taylor’s “Creation Moments.” But its eclectic programming isn’t limited to creationism. It also includes Christian radio staples such as praise music, Bible reading, personal advice, and tips for rearing Christian children to face the challenges of tomorrow.

However, if Camping is right, there is no tomorrow. He has declared that the Last Judgment of the human race will take place on May 21, at 6 p.m. local time in every time zone. Beginning with a great earthquake that will open the graves in New Zealand, Australia and Southeast Asia, the cataclysm will race around the globe for a whole day, wreaking havoc in every time zone. The dead who are among God’s elect will be raised, and along with the living “true believers” they will be snatched up or “raptured” into heaven.

Camping estimated the number of the elect to be about 200 million. The rest of us, the reprobate ones, will endure a chaotic summer of earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, forest fires, insect infestations, wars, and famines, until on October 21st the entire universe will be consumed by fire, and we will witness for a fraction of a second the very end of time.

Where does Harold Camping come by this insider knowledge about the “second coming” and Judgment Day? After all, Jesus warned his disciples that “about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matthew 24:37).

How is it that God the Father is willing to confide information to Harold Camping that He wasn’t willing to share even with God the Son? Shouldn’t Jesus have had a more intimate knowledge about God’s intentions than a construction company owner in Alameda, California? (It was with the aid of construction company profits that Camping helped to found Family Radio in the 1960s.)

Camping is not the first radio evangelist to peddle his particular brand of Christian theology, preying upon his listeners’ fears of damnation in order to solicit donations, giving them hope that they are among the elect.

If you listen to Camping carefully, however, you get the distinct impression that in fact there is no theological point in joining the Family Radio crusade. God determined before the creation of the universe who would be among the elect and who would be among the damned, so there seems to be little or nothing we can do either to earn or to forfeit our salvation.

What sets Camping apart is that he has the money to command air time, a notoriety that fuels his growing listenership, and an autocratic rule over the content of his message. Any caller to the “Open Forum” show who dares to challenge Camping’s interpretation is brushed off without any indication of humility on Camping’s part. Callers who mention his failed 1994 prediction of the apocalypse are summarily cut off.

Camping’s current message is that we now find ourselves at the very end of time, an argument laid out in his book “Time Has an End (Vantage, 2005),” http://www.amazon.com/Time-Has-End-Biblical-D/dp/0533151694.

When God commanded Noah to enter the ark, saying, “seven days from now I will destroy the earth” (Genesis 7:4), the seven days symbolically represent seven thousand years. (This assumption is based on its own Bible verse: “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day” [2 Peter 3:8].) Camping calculates that the global flood in Noah’s time took place in 4990 B.C., and that there are exactly 7,000 years from 4990 B.C. to A.D. 2011 (subtracting one year since there was no year 0.)

Why hasn’t your local church told you this? According to Camping, Christ abandoned the churches of all denominations in 1988, leaving Satan to rule in their place. Accordingly, Camping has commanded his radio listeners to abandon their churches and cleave to the only source of truth, the Bible − or more specifically, Camping’s interpretation of it.

How does he arrive at the year 1988? Well, Jesus Christ was crucified in A.D. 33, and 5 x 17 x 23 = 1955, and 1955 + 33 = 1988. Why 5, 7, and 23? Camping accepts an idiosyncratic numerological reading of scripture, in which each number is assigned a mystical meaning: the number 5 signifies “salvation,” 17 signifies “heaven,” and 23 means “judgment.” So to put it another way, salvation x heaven x judgment = 1988.

If that isn’t enough, consider that there are 23 years between 1988 — the year in which Christ abandoned the churches — and 2011: no coincidence when we recall that 23 stands for “judgment.” If you don’t accept Camping’s calculation of the significance of May 21, 2011, as the precise date of the Last Judgment, you are clearly under the sway of Satan.

All of this might make for a mildly interesting sociological study, but why get excited or alarmed by it? After all, apocalyptic talk has been around since the earliest days of the Christian Church, and indeed before, in Judaism, especially in the Book of Daniel.

Apocalyptic thinking often takes root in communities suffering intense persecution, or facing challenging economic and political times.

Apocalypticism offers the promise of God’s bringing about the ultimate resolution of conflict, meting out reward to his followers and punishment to evildoers, and bringing the present age to an end.

History has seen outbreaks of apocalyptic thinking around key dates like A.D. 1000, or in times of stress like the years of the Black Death in the 14th century. More recent episodes include the evolution of apocalyptic movements into denominations, such as the Millerites, who after their “Great Disappointment” of 1844 became transmuted into various denominations such as the Advent Christian Church and Seventh-Day Adventism.

What is alarming about Harold Camping’s movement is its potentially serious human consequences. In recent months Family Radio has drafted modest legions of followers to join caravans traveling in motor homes to numerous cities around the United States and much of the world, distributing tracts and warning people of their impending doom.

Reports abound of people who have sacrificed significantly, such as the New York retiree who spent his $140,000 in life savings on subway billboards to spread the word about the end of time. There are stories of people who have quit their jobs, left their homes and families, or have even euthanized their pets in preparation for the Rapture.

This is not the first apocalyptic cult to rocket into the headlines, only to crash and burn with tragic results for many, nor probably will it be the last. The key to diminishing the appeal of such movements is education.

We can only hope that a solid grounding in science, philosophy, and the religious history of our species will decrease the attraction of such cults among the apocalyptically vulnerable.

Peter M. J. Hess, Ph.D. serves as director of Outreach to Religious Communities with the National Center for Science Education in Oakland, California. His position involves working with churches and faith communities to promote understanding at the interface between evolutionary biology and religious belief. With an M.A. from Oxford University and a Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union (Berkeley), his scholarly work focuses on the interactions between science and religion in the modern world (1600-1900) and the response by theologians to discoveries and new paradigms in the developing sciences. He authored “Catholicism and Science” with Paul Allen (Greenwood Press, 2008), teaches at various universities in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is a fellow of the International Society for Science and Religion. An avid rock climber and volcano mountaineer, Peter and his wife Viviane have two sons, Michael and Robert.

As defined by the federal guidelines, the numbers of homeless youth are, not surprisingly, on the rise.

Our youth, like our general population, are experiencing great hardships in these difficult financial times.

For several years now, hundreds of students in Lake County have found themselves without a permanent or adequate home.

They are living with other families in a single family dwelling, moving from couch to couch, or living in travel trailers or even tool sheds.

The most recent phenomenon is that a family is notified that the house that they are renting is going through foreclosure and they are being evicted. They find themselves looking for housing with inadequate funds.

What makes things even worse is that many of the government-supported programs and organizations designed to help those who are hungry and homeless are experiencing severe cutbacks.

The cumulative impact is that students come to school hungry, sleepy and traumatized. They have a rudimentary idea of why their family is having such difficult times; a mom or dad lost a job, the bank took the house, “we have no money.”

How we react as a community and as individuals during this time of crisis will show our true character. We can help a child move from being in crisis to seeing opportunities in life.

One example of this is the resurgence of the Lake Community Pride Foundation. This nonprofit foundation has been restructured to support programs that have been cast adrift due to the financial problems of the Lake County Community Action Agency.

Here, when one organization that was helping many struggling members of our community loses its ability to help, another comes forth to take its place.

The Pride Foundation is supported through contributions from caring members of our community. It has the mission to help youth in Lake County and has just taken over the operation of the Safe House of Lake County and the Clearlake Youth Center, while keeping its original focus on supporting the performing arts in schools.

There are currently four students living in the safe house, with a full-time volunteer counselor. Of these four students, three are seniors; two have recently found jobs.

Members of Pride are working with the senior students to create transition plans with them so that they know what to do, now and in the future, to meet their basic needs and move forward towards their goals.

Without the safe house, they would not be walking across the stage at graduation. Now, they are graduating, working, enrolling in college classes and budgeting for their next residence.

The support of our community has brought them from crisis to opportunity – something that they will never forget. It shows what we can do when we give whatever we can afford to help our neighbors and youth in crisis – we help them get back on their feet and provide hope.

The Pride Foundation is holding a golf tournament, dinner and auction on Saturday, May 21, at Rob Roy Golf Course. This is the main fundraiser for the year for the Safe House.

There are many ways to contribute: sponsoring a golf hole (a sign with your name or business will be placed at the hole); donating an auction item or just joining us at the event (play golf, have dinner and enjoy the always lively auction).

For more information about Pride or the golf tournament you can contact Carol Germenis (928-4280), Aggie Berry (489-6524), or Bill MacDougall (279-8935).

William R. MacDougall, Ed.D. is superintendent of the Konocti Unified School District, based in Lower Lake, Calif.

On Thursday, April 28, at 10 a.m., the Lake County Planning Commission will be considering a draconian medical marijuana dispensary ordinance proposed by the Community Development Department.

The meeting will be on the first floor of the courthouse in Lakeport. I urge interested people to attend this meeting and show support for the dispensaries and medical marijuana patients.

The Lake County Chamber of Commerce recently tried unsuccessfully to get the Board of Supervisors to totally ban medical marijuana dispensaries, which serve thousands of county residents.

Now, the chamber and its allies are back with a regulatory ordinance so restrictive that it would close most of the dispensaries anyway.

Following the 1996 passage of Proposition 215, the legislature passed SB 420 to clarify the legality of medical marijuana collectives and cooperatives, and two court cases have clearly established that storefront dispensaries are legal.

Yet, the proposed ordinance reeks with an unspoken attitude that these dispensaries are quasi-criminal enterprises.

Medical marijuana dispensaries are legal, they are here to stay and we need to deal with them in a rational and practical manner.

One of the worst provisions in the proposed ordinance has already been deleted, the requirement that all dispensary members be county residents. But, there are many other awful provisions in this ordinance that need to be eliminated or changed.

The ordinance forces all the dispensaries to move from their safe, convenient, well-established locations in C-2 and CH shopping areas, to C-3, M-1 and M-2, heavy commercial and industrial areas. This alone may drive most of them out of business. Nine of the 11 dispensaries are in C-2, one is in CH, and one is in C-3.

It defines a dispensary in an incorrect and overbroad way that includes small growing collectives without storefronts. It would not allow for distribution to members of such legal growing collectives on the property where the marijuana is grown, nor by home delivery to the members, so they would essentially be banned.

Compliance would be through the sheriff’s office, rather than through the health department or the planning department. This treats dispensaries as quasi-criminal enterprises rather than as legal businesses offering a legitimate form of alternative medical treatment.

Dispensaries would have to disclose to the sheriff who their growers are and where the cannabis is grown. The growers are required by state law to be patients and members of the dispensing collectives. Requiring disclosure of their names and growing locations is a violation of patient privacy and also violates the grower’s privilege against (federal) self-incrimination and has a very chilling effect on those supplying marijuana to the dispensaries.

And, with federal laws still in conflict with California’s laws, there is nothing to prevent the sheriff or his deputies from sharing this information with the Drug Enforcement Administration, voluntarily or by subpoena.

The proposed ordinance requires a message that it “may cause cancer when smoked.” This is inaccurate and inappropriate. In fact, studies have shown that marijuana does not cause lung cancer and may actually fight cancer.

The proposed ordinance would not allow for the sale of small clones (cuttings), which most dispensaries do. However, it would allow for the sale of flowering marijuana plants, which means it would allow the sale of larger, more advanced plants, but not little clones, which makes no sense and shows that those drafting this have no clue. Indeed, neither dispensary owners nor medical marijuana advocates were directly involved in the drafting process.

There are now 11 dispensaries operating under the county moratorium. This ordinance sets a limit of nine. This would mean that at least two would have to close (probably most if required to relocate out of C-2 zoning), and does not allow for population increase and growth in the industry. It treats dispensaries differently from any other free enterprise business.

The ordinance does not clarify whether sales of edibles are permitted. Edibles are an established part of dispensaries, since many people are unable to smoke cannabis and need to eat it.

There are many other problems with this proposed ordinance, these are merely the most serious.

I urge interested people to attend the meeting on Thursday, April 28, at 10 a.m. at the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.

Ron Green is an attorney. He lives in Lower Lake, Calif.

Just across the street from the seminary it sits: an elegant white building with fancy columns that once belonged to the Hearst family.

For a while I wondered what was going on in there, and when it was time to register for spring classes I decided to find out by enrolling in a course called “Latter-day Saint Scriptures.” I was a little nervous, and wondered if this was how Jesus had felt as he prepared to venture into Samaria.

My first clue that this class would probably not conform to any preconceived notions was that the email address for the professor, Robert Reese, was listed as a “heartmath.org” address. Heartmath … I knew about Heartmath! This was the research organization devoted to the study of how the heart and mind communicate; actually kind of a “woo-woo” outfit as some of my friends might say.

So my professor turned out to be a big-wig at Heartmath and this was a good sign, since anyone closed-minded would probably not be working there! So far, so good.

Besides the likelihood that Bob would be a pretty spiritual guy, I noted from the Google results that he was also a former professor of literature at UCLA. Nice! And, an added bonus, Google also told me that he was the author of tens of LDS articles supporting gays and lesbians. My professor sounded a bit eccentric, so I liked him already.

The first night of class I went through the massive white doors and was welcomed into a big room with large windows, a long curved wooden table and an elegant rug intricately shaped to fit the unique geometry of the floor. A glorious fire burned in the fireplace, and the professor, calling himself Bob, introduced himself to us and then asked the students (about ten of us) to do the same.

There were only three non-Mormons: one from United Church of Christ, a Catholic and, of course me, a Disciple. Some of the Mormon students were from Pacific School of Religion, some were from UC Berkeley. All of them were eloquent and intelligent; one was even a “dark-matter” researcher! They, like me, were there to delve into the scriptures that South Park has made infamous to modern audiences: The Book of Mormon.

Actually, there are other LDS scriptures too, and they are basically “visions” of Joseph Smith containing a lot of doctrine about church life.

The Book of Mormon is the story of how ancient Israelites left Jerusalem before the Babylonian exile, sailing across the seas and settling somewhere in the Americas. After Jesus’ resurrection, he appears to descendants of these people to tell them the Gospel, and then leaves them to gradually kill themselves off – all but those who survive to become the Native Americans that we know today.

It is really a pretty sad and brutal story, and Mormons believe that the only reason we know about it is that the records were kept and buried, only to be found 1,400 years later by Joseph Smith on a hill in New York. A lot of 19th century Americans had a hard time accepting Joseph Smith’s “translations” and as a result Mormons were persecuted and murdered relentlessly for many years.

So, with an open mind I delved into the first reading assignment, only to be sidetracked by a persistent word: heresy, heresy, heresy, it whispered.

Wow, I thought. Me, thinking something is heretical? That’s interesting. Heresy seems like such an old-fashioned, prudish word.

But something just felt so wrong. I mean, the foundational premise was that the Jews had intentionally left crucial information about Jesus out of their scriptures.

If, and it’s a huge IF, I could believe that, next I would have to believe that passages from Isaiah that were written after the exile were somehow available to the Israelites who escaped before that; available for them to carve the words onto brass plates – in a mysterious language called “Reformed Egyptian” that translates into King James English.

And, how would these Israelites know of Greek words like “baptize,” “apostle” and “Christ” if they had left Israel 300 years before Alexander the Great conquered that region? How would they have known about “resurrection” if that concept didn’t enter Israelite consciousness until the captivity? How would Abraham know about the Law if it hadn’t been given yet?

These and many other questions were troubling, and digging into my first semester Old Testament notes was just making it worse. There was just no way that any of this stuff could be true.

Every week in class, the topic of anachronisms would inevitably come up and I’d present my concerns, all of which were afforded the respect they deserved by both Bob and the other students. The discussions were actually exciting and invigorating, and I soon had a reputation for being the troublemaker – all in good fun, of course.

For Mormons, belief boils down to the issue of faith, since certainly all religions have some bizarre aspects that they try to pass off as “truth.”

I was finally willing to let this suffice, because there was no convincing my professor that his scriptures were make-believe, and there was no way I was going to ignore the entirety of my Pacific School of Religion Old Testament education.

How much does it matter, anyway, as long as we agree on the fundamental message of Jesus, which is to love and serve one another? Yahweh himself and through his prophets “said” some pretty wacky things too, and Christians find a way to live with those without doubting the entirety of the Bible.

Gradually, I noticed myself feeling a strange affinity for Joseph Smith, a simple farm boy who tried to find a workable solution to the ugly 19th century denominational battles that were raging in his day.

The most surprising thing I learned from the class is that the LDS scriptures are, in fact, astonishingly compassionate and “liberal” – in the sense that the writers wanted desperately for their brethren and their descendents to forgo wealth in order to care for one another.

It’s a constant refrain:

“Behold, ye do love money and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick, and the afflicted. . . . Why do ye adorn yourselves with that which hath no life, and yet suffer the hungry, and the needy, and the naked, and the sick and the afflicted to pass by you, and notice them not? (Mormon 8:35-39)”

Additionally, after spending three hours in an LDS ward as part of an assignment, I was impressed with the emphasis on being “like Jesus”; serving and loving everyone – with no judging. There was no mention at all of brass plates, Native Americans, racism, homophobia or celestial kingdoms – sorry, South Park!

Men and women I encountered were filled with a spirit of fellowship and love, often evident in emotions and tears that flowed when they spoke of how God was working through their lives, creating strength out of adversity and guiding them to learn how to love their neighbor the way Jesus would. These did not seem like hate-filled people.

Best of all, Professor Bob Rees is a real champion in the faith, working graciously yet tirelessly for important social causes, including full rights for gay and lesbian brothers and sisters. He did not abandon his faith because of its doctrines; he knows that, unlike the Christian canon, the Mormon canon is still open for revision and reinterpretation.

He watches PBS and MSNBC, but also Fox News “to hear what the other side’s arguments are.” He’s often seen as controversial in the wards he attends, but he does not back down from witnessing about the saving power of Jesus’ love to anyone who will listen.

Bob has found the Kingdom within and because of this he both accepts and admires other world religions, even going so far as to encourage Mormons to read the Koran to understand that Muslims also love Jesus! He is, in my opinion, a true apostle: a “sent out” person.

From the deeply spiritual professor, interesting classmates, thought-provoking assignments and discussions, to the warmth and intimacy of the fireplace on dreary winter nights, this course was an experience well-worth having.

I feel so much better equipped to build bridges of peace with Mormons I will encounter throughout my life, even though I may not accept every word of their scriptures.

I thank my seminary and God for making it possible for understanding and respect to grow, even between, as some might believe, the most unlikely neighbors.

Gale Tompkins-Bischel attends United Christian Parish in Lakeport and is in the Masters of Divinity Program at Pacific School of Religion.

The Left wanted to redistribute our hard-earned wealth with socialist programs and entitlements for the poor and lazy; to abandon our Christian Conservative principles and Puritan values of thrift and work; to throw out our social culture to embrace homosexuality, abortion and other aberrant human activities; to encourage a multiculturalism that allowed minorities to speak in non-English languages and practice foreign customs; to re-entrench the labor movement and grow education systems that focused on teaching leftist agendas – in short, the Left was destroying our America.

Democracy wasn’t working for us anymore. The Dream of the Founding Fathers was never supposed to represent the ideas of so many different kinds of Americans, it was made to represent ours, the true Americans.

And so, we, the Christian God-fearing Conservatives who had controlled this country since the early 1800s decided that enough was enough.

First we began our propaganda and disinformation programs, utilizing a fractured media to target our base with short catch phrases and facts, real or imagined, that supported our ideals.

After mobilizing the bigoted and racist elements that couldn’t stand the election of a black president, and by publicly decrying the disintegration of our Anglo-Saxon culture and conservative values, we won a decisive victory in the House of Representatives and the state governorships.

We knew that peoples from our base would respond to our attacks on unions because of our state’s rights positions and our “no taxes, especially for corporations and the wealthy” approach to solving state insolvencies.

By not supporting new sources of revenues, and by protecting our wealthy private and corporate benefactors, we struck a blow at public services government in general – eliminating public sector positions like teachers, policemen, prison guards and city janitors while stripping the budgets of higher education, welfare, childcare, health-care and other social support programs.

We knew that the silent majority would let it happen without realizing the full effects of these changes on the society at large. We counted on these destabilizing changes to polarize the communities and push citizens into opposing camps according to their political beliefs.

We predicted that the economy would shut down again from these drastic cuts to entitlement programs and government safety net systems.

Unemployment, homelessness and hunger increased again – creating more unrest. Public schools began to shut down, tent cities grew, and more and more of the middle and poorer class Americans began facing a crisis of access to basic necessities.

Eventually they began to demonstrate, and as the demonstrations failed to accomplish the reinstatement of their socialist society, the gatherings became violent – with a little help from our paid provocateurs.

Our state governors had already put in place the processes to dissolve local governments, privatize former government services, and institute martial law to insure order.


We had also opened a second front for putting forward our cause, just in case. By cutting the corporate tax rates and controlling the Supreme Court to give our corporations and wealthiest citizens a bigger voice in the elections process, we achieved a much greater control of the government.

By the time our large, poorer conservative base realized that our goals weren’t about their basic prejudices and moral repugnance at Leftist “live and let live” ideals, but about control of the populace and government by our elite aristocracy, it was too late. We had gained control by fomenting citizen unrest and also by increasing our economic control of government decision-making – creating the aristocracy that our most respected founders, Adams and Madison, envisioned.

This was our endgame, to purposely divide the lower strata of society into “us and them,” forcing our democratic republic to become less and less democratic through control of the electoral systems and lobbying.

We decided that for us to hold the control the government and the society, we had to take the reins, even if that meant becoming more totalitarian.

The loss of freedoms the lower class would experience, and particularly the collapse of public education, would allow us to carry our goals well into the future as the coming generations would become less and less capable of mounting educated, intellectually thought-out plans to oppose us.

Our media policy of endless repetition and sound bites would keep them in line, especially if we continued to push entertainment and consumerism to keep them distracted from their loss of freedoms. A general desire for control of public violence supported our use of force.

We have almost achieved our goals. Just one more significant terrorist attack within our borders and we will have the control we want. Our America will be saved. Ends always justify the means.

James BlueWolf lives in Nice, Calif.

Recently I had an appointment to see my personal physician of more than 20 years, Dr. Kirk Andrus, for my last office visit with him.

This would not just be a meeting of doctor and patient, but of two friends who shared medical truths and new jokes.

Andrus has been in the practice of family medicine, but after 25 years as our town “doc,” he’s migrating his talents and love of practicing medicine to the new Veterans Affairs clinic in Clearlake. He began there on Friday, April 1 – April Fool's Day, an appropriate date.

We were fools to think we would have him forever as our always-vigilant attendant to medical and sometimes emotional needs in our little town of Kelseyville.

Admit it, unless you’re a hypochondriac, no one really likes going to the doctor. No matter how nice they are or how cute the receptionist may be, especially for men in their middle to senior years with that first colonoscopy looming in the future.

There is a bond one hopes to cultivate with a primary care doctor. You hope to find connection and support when a medical condition develops and you can both again agree that “getting older really sucks!”

When I first met Dr. Andrus, it was not in an exam room. It was in the high school library at a meeting talking about passing a school bond to improve the facilities of our schools.

All I did that night was meet a guy who became a friend for the next 20 years or so. The school bond failed miserably, but the friendship succeeded way past my expectations.

Have you ever met someone who, after only five minutes, you found was a kindred spirit? This guy has that effect on a lot of people. Not just as doctor, but as a friend, father and husband.

I always wanted to live in a small town with all the advantages and disadvantages of everyone knowing everyone else and having a close-knit feeling among the fabric of the people. It comes from growing up in an area where outside immediate family and few friends, that feeling generally doesn’t exist.

So when I opened my business on Main Street, I couldn’t help but notice that across the street was a family medical practice that would no longer allow me to ignore the need for an annual physical, even if I hadn’t had one in some years.

So that was the start of my medical relationship with Doc Andrus and his staff.

Over the years I’ve needed medical attention at some inconvenient times. If it wasn’t the Friday he was getting ready for a hunting trip, it was the Mother’s Day episode getting “thrown” by my orchard ladder, chainsaw in hand.

On that day, he was forced to cut my wedding ring off my finger so he could reset a couple of disjointed knuckles. He never offered to pay for the ring repair either.

I have seen and heard similar testimonies from others. He went way above and beyond the call of modern medical practice and duty. There are many of you who will read this, I hope, and know exactly what I’m saying.

Doc Andrus is not a specialist in the medical sense of things. But he does specialize in one big thing, the main thing that matters most: He is caring, compassionate and considerate. He also just happens to be a physician.

We have seen this man not only delivering new life in to the world, and keeping it healthy, but also graciously and compassionately easing his patients into the next stage of life.

Talk about the yin and the yang, the alpha and the omega. He’s there in the beginning, the end and the time in between.

What an incredible perspective it takes to be able to shoulder that responsibility.

We have come to expect and take it in stride. Doctors aren’t gods. We want or expect them to be at times. He’s been there on the sidelines and courtside. He could be heard from the announcers' tower at the high school calling out the play-by-play.

As I left his office after that last visit the reality hit me like a freight train: I realized how my life has been touched and affected by his presence.

Recently during a snow storm, he returned a call to me. Over the years we have traded comical voice mails to ease the pressures of the day. Especially his pressures.

He said he was driving home from seeing a patient who couldn’t get in to the office because of the weather – an elderly patient who couldn’t just wait a few days for the weather to get better. He needed to get better.

So Doc hitched up the buggy, put it in four-wheel-drive and went to do his house call. He’s done this quietly and with conviction for many years, for so long.

I thought, “Who is going to do this when he moves on to his new clinic job?”

It dawned on me like the news of a terminal condition: This is the end of an era. Andrus Family Practice on Main Street is done, over. The good ol' days of a local, country doc are vanishing and going the way of so many things in our modern lives.

Managed health care, PPOs, HMOs, health insurance rules and technology are transforming the medical landscape into one big bureaucratic mess.

There are other kind, caring doctors out there, but, damn it, he is my doc and our relationship is changing forever. It's frustrating, because I know it will be better for him, but not for me or any of his other patients in town. I will try desperately not to compare the new guy coming in to take his office space.

In the future I wish one thing for myself and Doc. I hope he outlives me and is at my side with loved ones, helping me out the back door when the time comes – not as my doctor, but as a great friend.

The folks down at the VA Clinic are in for a real treat. He’s not done taking care of people, just those of us left behind in K-town.

Thank you and good luck, Doc. There is truly a doctor in the house.

Gary Olson lives in Kelseyville, Calif.