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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
After a couple of semesters at Willamette University ending in the spring of 1969, I returned to Hayward, Calif., and attended Chabot College for a few quarters. I had a great friend at that time by the name of Walter Pittman.
One day during a Black Student Union program, in strode Walter Pittman with Big George Forman. Mouths dropped open. Your CyberSoulMan thought it was due to some profound utterance he had stated. You see, I was standing at the podium, reciting for the assembled audience some self-composed poetry.
When I realized that my oral musings had been preempted by the presence of the then-recently turned professional, 1968 Olympic Heavyweight Champion, I got a little steamed. I turned up the heat and directed my diatribe toward George.
A little explanation is due here. Judge not thyself, CyberSoulChildren! Perhaps only wizened geezers like me remember the tenor of the times during the 19th Olympiad held in Mexico City.
When American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos were awarded the gold and bronze medals for placing first and third along with second place and silver medal awardee, Australia’s Peter Norman, the demonstration of the African-American athletes at the podium during the playing of the national anthem caused an uproar heard around the earth.
According to a history of the Oct. 16, 1968, event by The Tommie Smith-John Carlos Project, Smith's “raised right black-gloved fist represented black power, the knotted black scarf around his neck represented pride, and the box in his left hand contained an olive tree sapling which stood as an emblem of peace. John Carlos’s raised left black-gloved fist represented unity in black America and the
beads around his neck signified lynchings suffered by blacks. Both men wore black socks but were shoeless during the ceremony to represent black poverty in racist America. Together they formed an arch of unity and power.”
The crowd booed men the men as they left the podium.
*****
George Foreman won the Olympic gold medal for his heavyweight boxing prowess three days later. In celebration of his victory, Foreman danced around the ring with an American flag held high, seemingly disavowing the somber protest of Smith and Carlos.
So, in my youthful exuberance and agreement with the protesters, I kinda scowled at Big George that poetic day in 1969 in an effort to let him know that I was supportive of what Smith and Carlos had done at the Olympics.
When I left the podium, Big George walked up to me and said, “Hey, man. I really dig your poetry.”
BLAM. It was like a straight right to my temple. George Foreman had totally TKO’d me with kind words. We became pretty good friends.
Walter Pittman and I would hang out at George’s apartment. He intimated to us that he hoped Ali and Frazier would both retire before he got to the top. I remember once we were walking down Mission Boulevard just minding our on business. As we walked past the Ford Lincoln car dealership a very excited salesman ran up to us with jingling keys.
“George. George. Check out that Lincoln Towncar. Just check it out. Take your time. No rush. Just check it out.”
We piled in and took a Sunday drive to Oakland. Took our time. Ah, the perks of celebritydom. A Sunday drive in the middle of the week!
I eventually interviewed George for print media twice. The first time was when he was training for Kenny Norton. He was training at the fairgrounds in Pleasanton. It was my first time at a professional boxers training camp. All this machismo strutting and posturing. All these big, buffed dudes. Foreman had a cadre of sparring partners with different boxing styles. Then there was the wannabees. I remember one huge guy, walking around all puffed up, spouting believable nonsense.
“Where’s Foreman at? When I see him, I’m gonna knock his ass out!”
It was amazing theater. This cat looked like he could pull it off.
I remember George sparring with Stanford Harris and George hitting him so hard his protective headgear flew off. Wow.
I was able to be in the locker room with Big George, the great Archie Moore and George’s manager Dick Sadler.
After the training session was over George invited us to dinner. I never will forget that George had a medium rare steak and tossed salad with no dressing. I had brought my cousin Ronnie along to take pictures. When it came time to get a shot of George and I, my cousin wouldn’t take the picture. He was too scared! I ended up taking a picture of George and Ronnie. I was so mad I sold Ronnie a copy.
Some of you may remember the Rumble in the Jungle, Muhammad Ali’s rope-a-dope and George Forman’s loss of his heavyweight title in 1974. When he lost the second fight of his pro career to Jimmy Young in 1974, Foreman has stated he had a near-death experience in the locker room after the fight. George became a born-again Christian. He didn’t box professionally again for 10 years.
I interviewed George again on the comeback trail in 1990 after he TKO’d Gerry Cooney. Two things sticks with me that George said in that interview. The first is how he envisioned that he could win the Heavyweight Title again at age 40-plus.
“I took 10 years off from the ring. I wasn’t being pounded on physically and I treated my body well. No drugs or alcohol. A lot of young guys in the boxing game can’t say that. They train but damage their bodies and minds in and out of the ring. I believe my body is in the shape of someone in their late 20’s.”
Turns out he was right. The second thing that that I remember about the last time I interviewed George was what he said to me as we were saying goodbye, “Man, I still have a picture of you.”
That makes me feel pretty good.
Keep prayin’, keep thinkin’ those kind thoughts!
*****
Upcoming cool events:
Blue Wing Blue Monday Blues. Hansen Raitt Band. Monday, March 9, 6:30 p.m. at the Blue Wing Saloon & Café. 9520 Main St., Upper Lake. 275-2233
The Paramount Theatre at 2025 Broadway in Oakland presents The Whispers, Stephanie Mills Howard Hewitt and Andre Williams on Friday, March 13. 510-465-4600.
Calling For Light: A Spring Concert of Poetry and Music. Carolyn Hawley, piano, plays Chopin and original works. Accompaniment to poetry. T. Watts, accompaniment on trumpet. Lake County Poets Laureate Mary McMillan, Sandra Wade, Carolyn Wing Greenlee, James BlueWolf and Jim Lyle. Sunday, March 15, 3 p.m. Galilee Lutheran Church, 8860 Soda Bay Road, Kelseyville. Tickets cost $10 in advance at Watershed Books, Lakeport, and Wild About Books, Clearlake. $15 at the door. Children free. A benefit for KPFZ 88.1 FM.
T. Watts is a writer, radio host and music critic. Visit his Web site at www.teewatts.biz.
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- Written by: Editor
In addition, there will be a larger number of older adults whose health and other factors will force a
transition from driving to a reliance on other methods of transportation to accomplish daily living activities.
“It is imperative that we prepare Californians now for this growing demographic,” said California Highway Patrol (CHP) Commissioner Joe Farrow.
In an effort to deal with the increase and safely extend the driving years for mature Californians, a year-long grant totaling nearly $205,000 has been awarded to the CHP by the California Office of Traffic
Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Through Sept. 30, funds from the Keeping Everyone Safe (KEYS) grant will be used by the Older Californian Traffic Safety (OCTS) Task Force to establish the senior driver safety/mobility pilot program within three-select CHP field Divisions.
The Divisions chosen, Golden Gate (Bay Area), Southern (Los Angeles Area) and Border (San Diego
Area), have the highest concentration of seniors (age 65 and over).
The program, modeled after the CHP’s highly successful traffic safety corridor approach, uses a multi-disciplinary, community-based task force within each division to identify senior population areas where moderate to high levels of collisions involving seniors occur and develop a plan to address this issue.
The plan includes a public awareness campaign using a variety of available tools to address older adult traffic safety/mobility issues.
“Through education and awareness presentations, we’re hoping to have a positive safety impact on California’s senior driver population. This whole program is about safety,” added Commissioner
Farrow.
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- Written by: Steven West, N.D.
Each week I spend many hours pouring over my health and nutritional journals and exploring Web sites promising new herbal and natural approaches to health problems.
A fair amount of my findings are redundant to earlier research but explained in perhaps a different light. Some “new” herbal remedies are in fact just new to western culture or new to the US.
One product that I am excited about is oil of wild oregano. Mediterranean peoples have used this oil (there are more than 40 varieties world wide) for hundreds of years for everything from allergies and asthma, colds, flu and eczema to gastritis, psoriasis, gum disease and much more. (I must say here that this particular oregano is not your kitchen cupboard variety, which is probably Mexican sage.)
It appears to hold wide spectrum antibiotic properties and phenols like carvacrol and thymol that are natural antiseptics. According to Dr. Cass Ingram (“The Cure is in The Cupboard”) the caustic nature of plant phenols creates a response that is destructive to microbes as well as cancer cells.
Oil of wild oregano also contains terpenes that are potent antiseptic, antiviral and anti-inflammatory agents.
Another exciting and rather “new” supplement is zeolite. Zeolites are minerals that have been commonly used for industrial waste cleanup because of their ability to scavenge sludge and other toxic wastes. And yet native peoples living close to volcanic areas have used these minerals to heal themselves of a variety of disorders.
Zeolites are formed from volcanic lava and are potentized when in contact with sea water. The zeolite molecules are negatively charged and are attracted to the positive charge of waste material and heavy metals within the human body. This makes them wonderful chelators.
Chelators are substances that remove toxins and heavy metals from the body. There are many known chelators but zeoilites seem to be among the most potent.
I am aware of one study that unfortunately was not double blind and placebo-controlled (the gold standard among study protocols). Yet is interesting to note that in that study of 58 stage 4 cancer patients using a zeolite supplement (and taking no other supplement or chemotherapy) 87 percent of the patients went into full remission.
Of course this is unheard of and yet other anecdotal evidence from people around the US seems to corroborate this finding. Good studies need to be forthcoming.
Steven West, ND is a Kelseyville- based naturopath and nutritionist. He graduated form the Institute for Natural Health Studies and has been in practice in California for 18 years.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The Employment Development Department's (EDD) monthly unemployment report showed that the county's unemployment spiked from 13.8 percent in December to 16 percent in January, giving it a rank of 47 – it's tied with Stanislaus – among the state's 58 counties.
Marin County had the state's lowest unemployment rate, with 6.6 percent.
In January of 2008, Lake County's unemployment rate was 10.9 percent, with 2,590 unemployed local workers. But this past January, the number of unemployed rose to 3,990, according to preliminary EDD numbers.
California's current unemployment rate is 10.6 percent, with the nation's rate at 8.5 percent.
The news came as a shock to local officials, including county Chief Administrative Officer Kelly Cox, who said he didn't remember such a high rate before.
Neither did Lakeport Regional Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Officer Melissa Fulton. “In the 20 years I've lived here, I've never seen anything approaching 16 percent.”
Supervisor Jim Comstock said he had been concerned when the state's overall unemployment rate was reported to be just over 10 percent last week.
EDD's historical unemployment data for Lake County shows 16 percent to be the highest unemployment rate going back to 1990, the earliest numbers they have available in their online statistical database. In February of 1993, the county's unemployment was 15.8 percent.
An EDD labor market official couldn't be reached on Thursday to find out many years it's been since 16 percent unemployment was seen locally.
Comstock said he's seeing a lot of businesses shutting down in his south county district, especially in Middletown.
Cox added that those strains on businesses are everywhere throughout the county.
Fulton said December and January are typically slower months for the local economy because of its agricultural and tourism base.
She said she's not aware of many more businesses closing, but she knows many people have been laid off because of the business slowdown. Fulton thinks the local economy's growing unemployment is more a matter of employers scaling back on overhead to stay afloat.
“Everybody is just trimming as close to the bone as they can to keep the doors open,” she said.
From the local government standpoint, Cox has serious concerns of his own.
“The higher the unemployment, the greater the impact on our revenues,” said Cox.
Sales tax and property tax particularly are expected to be impacted, he said. “If people don't have jobs, they're spending less money.”
Cox said it's very frustrating that there are so many forces affecting the economy that local government can't control.
“We're able to handle this better than most counties,” Cox said.
The county also is expected to feel the impact in another way – as more people are out of work, they're likely to use the county's social services, which will cause the county government's costs to rise, he said.
“Those caseloads are going to be up when the revenue is going down,” Cox explained.
Cox said the county is trying to give as much work as possible to local vendors and contractors to keep more of its $201 million budget going into the local economy as possible.
Snapshots of specific industries and the region
Looking at specific sectors within the local economy, the industrial category of natural resources, mining and construction has lost 16.4 percent of its workforce over the last year, followed by goods producing, which lost 11 percent. Other sectors within the top five for declines are durable goods, 9.1 percent; information, 7.1 percent; and state government, 6.3 percent.
Industries showing the biggest employment gains included other services, 10.3 percent; federal government, 7.7 percent, an improvement that may be linked to recruitment for the 2010 Census; nondurable goods, 4.5 percent; local government, 1.1 percent, which accounts for approximately 40 jobs; and the overall government category, 1.0 percent.
Lake's neighboring counties also are seeing impacts.
Colusa County has the state's highest unemployment, at 26.7 percent for January, up from 22.1 percent in December, which gives it the state's highest unemployment rate.
In Yolo County, unemployment is at 11.6 percent, compared to 9.7 percent in December, ranking it No. 26. Mendocino County's unemployment rose from 8.8 percent in December to 10.8 percent in January, giving it a rank of No. 22.
Sonoma and Napa counties seem to be doing better than other counties in the region.
Sonoma has the ninth lowest unemployment statewide, with its January rate at 8.6 percent, up from 7.3 in December. Napa, ranking just ahead of Sonoma at No. 8, has a January unemployment rate of 8.5, up from December's 7.3 percent.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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