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Al Martinez• E-mail
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There is probably no good reason to come to Livermore unless you are a nuclear scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory secretly researching ways to hasten the apocalypse or are attending a family reunion at an Italian restaurant.
Rain creates an illumination
"Light tomorrow with today."
I know a man in Riverside named Harvey who goes ballistic whenever I broach the subject of Proposition 8, which would ban same-sex marriages in California. His eyes narrow, his voice rises and he gets absolutely squeaky with rage over the possibility of Gus and Homer getting married.
It is not enough to worry about the economy, the political impact of Sarah Palin's wink on the voting population of Nebraska, and the planet melting away under our feet. Now I am told that vegetable plants love life, feel pain and scream when they are torn from the ground to be eaten. Oy vey!
When times were hard, my mother used to tell me to whistle something happy and it would make everything better. She was a big fan of Disney's 1940 animated film "Pinocchio," which featured the song "Give a Little Whistle," the source of her somewhat whimsical philosophy. Because life was always hard in our family, I whistled until my cheeks hurt, and although it didn't improve anything, it did pass the time.
In the din of a million voices clamoring for attention, it is occasionally the quiet persistence of a single idea that emerges from the pack.
I lay in bed half asleep the other night visualizing a kid of about 10 hurrying home through the lingering twilight of an Oakland evening wondering if there would be anything to eat in the house.
Aman I once knew introduced me to Tom Lehrer's satirical music sometime in the mid-1960s in his small apartment on the edge of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district.
In the rush of events that keep us pumping through life like chipmunks on a treadmill, one finds it necessary upon occasion to take a moment to acknowledge a person of some importance. It's why I pause today to say goodbye to Alice.